Found by whom? Well, people who can spend money with you, silly.

Most of our clients haven’t worked with an SEO copywriter before, and this means we go through an education phase. Today, you get to see what that looks like! I know, you’re excited (pom poms for everyone). I hope you enjoy the tour and that you see what Redhead Writing thinks it takes to deliver a successful SEO copywriting project.

Step One: Gather Up Yo Schiz (translation: bring something to the table)

Wanting to “spruce-up” your website copy isn’t enough of a reason to talk to an SEO copywriter. Here are the things we need when you come to talk to us about your project:

Site Architecture: This is either a flow chart, spreadsheet or bulletpointed list showing the Parent Pages and Subpages in your website. You can also think of this as your navigation.

Why do SEO copywriters need this? Because we need to understand how many pages we’ll be writing copy for, which pages need to be optimized (as not all do) and…uh…because we can’t really wrap our heads around a project unless we see what it’s going to look like.

Keyword Research & Keyword Matrix: Oy vey and pass the Mylanta. No, this isn’t a movie starring Keanu Reeves and unless you’re an SEO specialist, this really isn’t something you want to jack with running and building yourself.

About Keyword Research: Quite simply, the results that you and I can get from Google’s Keyword Tool are okay. But what they don’t give you is a true picture of competition and popularity for each of the keywords you may consider targeting. A little green bar in the keyword tool shows Competition. Per Google, “The Competition column gives you a sense of how many advertisers are bidding for a particular keyword. This data can help you determine how competitive the ad placement is.” If you’re not going an Adwords campaign, I hope you see how useless that information is for web copy. Let a pro give you a report so you can make better decisions. And if you think it’s not worth the couple hundred bucks, see you on page 8 of the search results.

WTF is a Keyword Matrix? It’s a map of your site made with words. (Fancy!) I’ve included a sample below. These can only be created (wait for it) after you’ve done your keyword research!

Why do SEO copywriters need a keyword matrix? Because we need to know which words to target on each page we’re writing and how the pages of your website need to talk to one another (in words). An internal linking strategy is a factor in search engine rankings for your website, so when we write, good SEO copywriters include a solid internal linking strategy for their clients.

Step One Redux: You’ve come to the table with your site architecture, keyword research and keyword matrix. An SEO copywriter can now get a complete picture of your project. For clients who come to us with only a site architecture, Redhead Writing also provides keyword research and matrix-building services. We added this in June of last year as it was more common than not that clients didn’t have this essential piece of the SEO copywriting puzzle.

Step Two: Gettin’ All Up in Yo Bidness (translation: discovery session)

Any SEO copywriter worth their salt will hold a discovery call with a new client. This is your chance to find out if the SEO copywriter you have in your sights has any bloody idea what they’re talking about.

But let’s go back for a minute: it’s my steadfast opinion that if you’re bidding out an SEO copywriting project and the company in question hasn’t asked you for the things in step one, run screaming. I simply can’t fathom how they can produce effective copy without those three things. Redhead Writing will not take SEO copywriting projects without seeing the research a keyword matrix was built on unless it comes from one of our referring SEO firms. Why? Because we don’t write for giggles. We write to produce results for our clients.

What should you expect from a discovery call? This is your opportunity to tell your SEO copywriter about your business. Your clients. Your industry vernacular. The tone you want to convey throughout your website. We’re geeks of just the right sort that, when you find the good ones in our herd, we’ll make your site visitors fall in love and stay on the page, digging deeper into your website and driving them to the desired action.

What should you be able to give your SEO copywriter on this call? Well, here’s what we ask OUR clients: for each page of your website, what are the THREE most desirable actions you’d like a site visitor to take? Those can be things from calling you, filling out a form, downloading something, making a purchase decision or clicking through to another page. But if you don’t know what you want your site visitors to do when they land, an SEO copywriter isn’t going to be able to create copy to produce the desired results.

Step Two Redux: Your discovery call is your chance to have home court advantage. Download on your SEO copywriter everything they need to have a solid grasp on the look, feel and tone of your project and company. Understand where you want site visitors to go on your site…what you want them to do. Finally, ask about time to first draft and the revisions process, what’s included in the project fee, etc.

***

These are the two most important steps to your SEO copywriting project’s success. Do your home work and help your copywriter understand your company and we’ll take it from there! We find it simple to quote a per-page rate that includes one rough and two rounds of revisions, with a change fee if the keywords change or a page is requested to be modified with more than 30% new content. And please – if you have questions, ask away. We won’t do your project for free, but we’ll help you ask better questions that will make your project, website and company an even greater online success!

So how do you get in front of potential customers? It’s the internet, you betcha. And guess who’s going to find you first? The everyday Joe and Jane.

Guess who’s going to get you seen by Joe and Jane?

Nerds. Nerds like me.

Today’s post is a simple how-to for business owners on things you should have on your to-do list to get seen and the right nerds to get the job done. Everything here is actionable – so enjoy.

Strategy: Local Search

Type of Nerd: SEO Firm, Business Owner

If you’re in Google or Bing and you enter a search, guess what? Big Brother knows where you’re searching from. It’s magic, freakin’ A. If you’re a business looking to tap into your local market and mine new customers in your own backyard, you need to be optimizing your website for local search. But this is more than filling out a Google Places profile – it’s making sure your ducks are all in a row. Here are three things you can do to pimp your local search results today:

• Matchy-matchy: Did you know that it MATTERS how you write your business address? Yessiree. The address in the footer of your website, your contact page and in all of your online location-based profiles (like Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo!, CitySearch, Bing, Ask.com…) need to match. It’s really as picky as things like Street vs. St. If you’ve built any of these online profiles already, do a once-over and make sure they’re all matchy-matchy. If you haven’t built any of then yet…ummmmm…yeah. You might want to do that.
• Get yourself a local SEO audit: I really can’t emphasize enough that people who do SEO for a living (and do it well) are akin to surgeons in my book. It’s specialized labor and you should be throwing that kind of work at just any schmuck who says they “do” SEO. If you’re serious about tapping into the customer base in your own backyard, hire someone to do a local SEO audit.
• A cool guide to local SEO best practices: SEOmoz is the schiz and here’s a link to their Beginner’s Checklist for Small Business SEO (FREE!).

Interesting story: I was recently on the hunt for a cosmetic dentist in the greater Denver area. As no one I knew had one to refer me to, guess where I went? Google. “Cosmetic Dentist Denver.” I scheduled three appointments in one day and have found a dentist who will earn about $7,000 as a result of smart local search engine optimization. Granted, you have to KEEP the new business when you’re given the opportunity to earn it, but smart local SEO can get nerds like me in the door.

Strategy: New local customer acquisition

Type of Nerd: Email Marketing

Whether you’re a local sports pub, dentist, massage therapist, auto repair shop or just some guy hosting an event, you’re missing out if you’re not tapping into email marketing nerds. Sites like Living Social, Groupon, WeeklyPlus, and Voice make it easy for you as a business owner to get your message in front of THOUSANDS of new people in your own backyard. GAP recently did a Groupon campaign (it was so popular, it blew the site up and took hours to access the deal online…whoops!). I’ve found three new businesses here in Denver that I patronize regularly as a result of both WeeklyPlus and Groupon. My hair salon in Denver even found me on Facebook and told me that they had a deal on Living Social one day and I should hop on it (now THAT’S a business who understands online marketing AND customer service!).

Stop screwing around with buying lists and other crap email marketing techniques. When you’re after NEW customers, this special breed of email marketing nerds are a no brainer.

Strategy: Location-Based Apps

Type of Nerd: A savvy marketing consultant

Heard of Gowalla? FourSquare? Facebook Places? If you haven’t you’re under a rock. If you’re a brick and mortar business that wants to attract more foot traffic, you should do yourself a solid and explore these tools. Anyone with a smart phone (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry and more) can use these apps and here’s the jist: people “check in” when they arrive at your location. They share with their network WHERE they’re at and what they’re doing. And tons of businesses are getting on board with offer incentives to check in.

• Eateries can offer things like free french fries or beverages.
• Bars can offer a 2-for-1 drink special or free appetizers.
• Dry cleaners can offer a free shirt dry cleaning.
• Massage therapy shops can offer $5 off your next service.
• Hair salons can offer a free conditioning treatment.
• Car repair shops can give you a free tire rotation.

Find a mobile app-savvy marketing nerd who can help you explore campaigns, promotions and uses for location-based apps. Wouldn’t it be cool to have new foot traffic because your marketing nerds help you find nerds like me with a smart phone? The best part is: I’m a nerd who shares things I love with other nerds. And heck – I even share with non-nerds occasionally, too. A marketing nerd (like me) can get you in front of nerds (like me). There are tons of savvy marketing nerds just waiting to make you look good.

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Nerd Love – embrace it for your local business. But honestly, you don’t have to listen to me. You can just sit there in your antiquated strip mall shop and hope your customers are sending you referrals. Or, as a dear friend once reminded me: you can hope in one hand and crap in the other…guess which one’s gonna fill up first?

@WebProNews: I can haz fixed UR blog nows

What I’m not a huge fan of is reading a blog title, being enticed to click and then reading an article that gave me jack shit. This happened recently with SitePro News.

I got a snazzy email (which I always open) and saw the OMFG awesome topic: 5 Best Practices of Content Distribution. I clicked on that shit faster than an offer to win an iPad. And I was disappointed. Guest blogger Bradley Haas took 1277 words to give WebPro News readers absolutely ZERO actionable items.

So today, I’m giving one of my favorite blogs a Bitch Slap and finishing their blog post for them as well as dispelling some absolutely crap advice. And hey, WebPro news – I’d be delighted to be a guest blogger sometime. I won’t even drop the f-bomb.

Blogger Connections: Bradley recommends “using services that will connect you with other bloggers. These are great for not only getting your content posted elsewhere but also for getting guest bloggers on your blog.”  What he didn’t share is now to do this. In July, Kikolani published an indispensable list of resources for bloggers, including some useful community-driven tools like Scribnia, Technorati and Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop. I’d also like to add Blog Catalog to that list.

What Bradley also forgot to mention is that becoming an active reader and commenter on your favorite blogs is a great way to build community. If you don’t read, you have no business writing. And if you’re not reading other blogs, why will anyone read yours?

Publishing on Reputable Websites: Next, Bradley shares that there are “numerous well-established article databases and other content-based websites where you can submit your content. “ Alas, no list – but never fear. I’ve made one for you:

Demand Studios: If you’re a beginning writer looking for pocket cash, you can write for Demand Studios on a variety of topics. I’ve personally made thousands with them and while I no longer write for them, they have strict editorial guidelines to ensure your content submitted is top-notch. You can click here to submit your resume – they’re always looking for writers and give every writer a bio (great for bringing traffic back to you). By the way, Demand Studios provides the content for top sites like Overstock.com, Livestrong, eHow and more.

eZineArticles: Admittedly, half the content on this site is total crap, but you can’t ignore their top-notch Google page rank. They do have an editorial review process and WILL reject articles. It’s a great place for you to submit content that’s been previously published on your blog, republish special reports and develop new article marketing pieces that establish your authority on a subject. If you’re a WordPress blogger, there’s an eZineArticles plugin that makes cross-publishing even easier (but I don’t recommend the simultaneous publishing option – always publish to your blog FIRST and then to eZines a week later).

3. Keep Track of Published Content: “When syndicating your blog posts and submitting them for inclusion on several different websites, you will want to make sure that you are keeping track of each place they have been submitted to and published. Part of building your credibility is that the content that you write is applicable to more than just your immediate readers. Make sure that you are keeping track of where your content has been published in order to write more content that appeals to those particular audiences.”

Yes, Bradley. But how do I do that? Well, you can check out applications like Lijit (my favorite) and the Apture toolbar (Shelly Kramer has one installed on her blog and RedheadWriting will have one next week! Just scroll and watch the top of the page). Both of these applications can be fully integrated with self-hosted WordPress installations and email you weekly stats on top content, shares and more. What I love about Lijit? You can see if your fans are searching for something you haven’t written about and voila! – proceed to write about it.

You should also install Google Analytics on your blog along with the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin to track top content. Oh, and bonus: don’t forget to install the XML Sitemap plugin, too. Makes sure that the search engines are notified when you publish new content! (and with that, we’ll move on to #4)

4. Publish Press Releases: “When an article, blog post, or video is being syndicated, it is completely appropriate to submit a press release. This doesn’t need to be an incredibly formal, pricey press release. There are many free press release publication services that will allow you to post as many press releases as you wish. Having your content syndicated is big news, make sure that you are reporting it!”

OMFG – absolutely not. If I catch a single one of you issuing a press release about having published a blog, I’ll kick you in the nuts. “Syndicated” means you established an RSS feed. Christ, any monkey can have an RSS feed. THIS IS NOT NEWS and remains a major issue in the media community. If you issue a press release with absolutely NO NEWS IN IT (“Hi! I just published a new blog! WOO!”), you’re killing your chances to get press when you actually DO have news (“Company XYZ who issued a crap press release three months ago just acquired $12m in venture funding”).

Publish a press release when you have news to share. Don’t be a douchebag and think everything going on over on your blog is newsworthy. Writing is not revolutionary.

Online press release distribution engines have tons of benefits for SEO purposes, however. Here’s a simple primer from WebHostingGeeks.

5. Tweet and Digg About Published Content: Tweets and diggs are like mini, severely informal press releases. If you don’t have the time to sit down and write a press release the moment you find that one of your posts or articles has been published, make sure that you are at least tweeting about it. All of your twitter followers will immediately be aware of your content being published and if they haven’t already had a chance to read it they will be more inclined to do so.

OK, first and foremost, Twitter and Digg are brand names and should always be capitalized. Secondly, no – social media channels are NOT places for “mini press releases.” They’re communities. And again, if you’re writing a press release about having just published a new blog, I will kick you in the nuts. If you’re not going to take the time to build a community, get out of my pool and stop peeing in it.

Using tools like Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages to share links to your content with your community is a killer tactic, but don’t forget about the power of social bookmarking. Sites like StumbleUpon, Mixx, Propeller, Pitch Engine (only for press releases – REAL ONES, dammit!) and Delicious offer multiple opportunities to share published content with audiences looking for the same type of content. They’re also great traffic generation tools (23% of RedheadWriting web traffic comes from StumbleUpon, by the way).

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So, that’s it. I hope you found the resources useful and an improvement over the original blog over on WebPro News. And if you have any tricks up your sleeve you’d like to share, leave a comment. We all get better through sharing (and bitch slapping).

And by the way, if you enjoyed this post, you might also like Screw the Duplicate Content Penalty: Three Easy Ways to Repurpose Content.

Note: NOT The Redhead, though I do fancy the outfit...

The day someone told me I should watch Eddie Izzard (as I’d “get” him – I believe that was the wording), I took the information and filed it away in “Under Advisement.” Given that someone always has something we should watch/see/read/do/hump/anoint, our daily dance cards are pretty full. Thanks for the add – hugs. Mean it.

Then a roommate gave me “Dressed to Kill” – one of Eddie’s standup shows – for Christmas. Jesus, it was like everyone I knew conspired to have me sit down and watch this dude. One bored night back in 2002, I popped the damn disc into the DVD player.

And proceeded to laugh my ass off. Cried. Tears. My abs hurt.

He describes himself as an Executive Transvestite. Smart humor and witty tangents delivered by a man in women’s getup.

I turn to humor quite a bit for my requisite dose of “smart.” George Carlin, Eddie Izzard, Bill Mahr, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Lewis Black – love them or hate them, you can’t argue with the logic behind their humor. Hey – different channels work for different folk. My poison? Humor. And the smarter, the better.

The past week or so, I’ve received a fair share of unsolicited feedback on why my readers keep coming back – from my readers themselves. They come back because of the smart side of the smack-downs. So, sitting here on my sofa-desk, suckling caffeine as life’s only fuel following a time-well-spent late night filed with smart humor, I think that I’d fancy myself a bit of an Executive Dominatrix – all credit to Eddie Izzard, of course.

I get to whip people into shape. Smartly. Direct, yet with laughter. Hell, if we can’t laugh at ourselves…well, I guess we could laugh at other people. God knows, the human animal is stranger than fiction. And people consistently ask for another. “Yes ma’am!” You ask, I’ll keep up with the whipping, you naughty little monkeys. But laughing at ourselves and using our foibles, blunders and epic fuckups to help others who might be making (or have previously made) the same mistake – smart. It’s the comedic equivalent of reduce/reuse/recycle.

Here are a few shares this week on my smart humor list – I hope you enjoy their content as much as I do:

SEO Bullshit

Justin Kownacki

The Oatmeal

27b/6

Cherry Woodburn

If you have any “smart humor” to add, leave a comment. I’m always looking to expand my reach. Now on your knees and ask for another

Squeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Well, it looks like my readers are going to have to prepare themselves for boudoir pics of me and MY NEW iPAD! Trada announced on Saturday morning that our collective voting efforts worked and that I was the proud owner of a new iPad.

In all seriousness – thank you.

This is what community is about. It’s not about ME winning an iPad – it’s about being ABLE to reach out and garner a response. I’m fortunate that I’ve build a community where people listen when I write. So I owe each and every one of you a HUGE thank you.

For reading, commenting, voting, emailing, tweeting, sharing and coming back post after post. Without you – my readers – I’m just a crazy lady with a keyboard. (Fine – I’m a crazy lady with a keyboard already, but since you listen, it keeps me out of the asylum.)

Now, a bit about Trada – have you ever wondered what it would be like to have HUNDREDS of  PPC experts working on your online marketing campaign (instead of just one or two)? Here are just a few cool tidbits you might like to know about this Boulder-based gem:

• Advertisers reduce their CPA by an average of 10% after joining Trada
• The average campaign has 24 (!!!) PPC experts working on it at one time
• Trada campaigns have an average of 10 times more relevant ads than before joining the market place.

Don’t believe the hype – see how it works. I was turned on to Trada by seOverflow, an incredible Denver-area SEO firm that I’m fortunate enough to work with on a regular basis. I’m looking forward to their full report!

Now – go forth, prosper, do all that Vulcan shit and tell Monday to kiss your ass. And thank you for being part of my community.

Whaaaaaaa?

You heard me. It’s a myth.

After you give that article a read, pop back here and check out 3 handy tools for repurposing content. I briefly covered the subject in my guest post over at Copyblogger last week, but here, I’ll add a bit more detail designed to kick start your Monday in killer content style. Awwyeah.

eZine Articles: If you’re not using eZine Articles to repurpose your existing content, you’re a dink (yeah, I called you a dink). While you may have to slightly reformat your articles to adhere to their self-serving link and keyword density limits, their page rank and command of presence within search engines is, without a doubt, unprecedented in the article distribution market. Handy idea for repurposing content using eZines: take some of your older content and snazz it up. Upload to eZines and adhere to their guidelines. BAM – fresh backlinks to your website or blog.

Tumblr and Posterous: Two powerful tools on the web for content producers and (ahem) anyone paid to get their clients noticed online. These are ideal places for repurposing content. Have a look at each and see how they can enhance your current marketing and promotion strategies. There are subtle nuances in each, yet they are both remarkably easy to use and if you’re always on the run, you can even blog from your phone or via email. N-A-S-T-Y good. Nasty, I say.

Your Blog: Helloooooo…if you’re doing article marketing and you’ve got a corporate website, your blog is ready and waiting as a repurposing tool for your content. But wait – I thought we just used OTHER tools to repurpose BLOG content? Grab a Snickers, kiddo. Look around your world – you product content every day. Brochures, presentations, leave-behinds, white papers, case studies. It’s ALL great fodder for your blog! Take your non-digital content digital and your already digital content to a new level through your blog. I’m not going to share all my nifty tools, but take 10 minutes today and think about what you’ve got and where you can use it. Hear the little voice that calls at you from across the keyboard, “I’m your blog – use me like yesterday’s newspaper.” Wait – you might actually want yesterday’s newspaper. There’s good content in there!

Now that we know there’s no duplicate content penalty (and hey – I even learned something from the SiteProNews article…goes to show ya), start thinking multi-purpose instead of single use. Think in breadcrumbs instead of loaves. Go forth and repurpose. Watch your backlinks multiply. And all was good on a Monday morning.

Enjoy!

I met Brian Clark (finally) back at Blog World in 2009. He knew I was a SEO copywriting geek and he pinged me early this year with a question: he had a cool new WordPress SEO copywriting plugin and would I mind giving it a beta test?

Does a monkey fling poo?

Not a moment later, I found a nifty zip file in my inbox. Enter Scribe.

If you’re using a WordPress-powered content management system or blog, it’s essential. If you’re a copywriter producing article marketing content for distribution around the web, it’s like mother’s milk. Here’s why:

• It Thinks Like a Search Engine: It’s all very well and good to think you’re TELLING the search engines what you want them to see through coding meta data like page title, description and keywords, but what do search engines really see? Scribe tells you and helps you pull your head out of your backside before your content goes live.
• It Acts Like a Coach: When you run the Analysis tool, it not only tells you what it sees, but it tells you how to fix it. Hells yeah.
• No Blog Needed: Maybe you’re a copywriter who churns out article marketing content and you have to be careful about keyword density (I’m talkin’ eZines here, folks…). Scribe had a web-based standalone version accessible from anywhere (one you sign up) that catches any boo boos before the big bad submission engines get ahold of you. I lurvs. A lot. (Not alot.)
• It Ain’t Free (and nor should it be): If you want cool free tools, check out HubSpot’s awesome arsenal. The Scribe tool ranges from $27/month to $97/month. Don’t believe it’s worth the cash – try it 30 days for free and see for yourself. I did.

Here’s a screenshot of the analysis tool once it’s run (these are the results for the post you’re reading right now):

Here are a few things you need to know about WHY I’m pimping this plugin:

• I work in the SEO space and have sent referrals for this tool over to SEO firms with whom I work.
• I’m all about anything that’s going to make my job easier.
• Brian’s group is all about feedback and he PERSONALLY responded to a list of improvement/expansion suggestions I sent over.
• They’ll be releasing versions for additional blogging platforms in coming months.
• It takes writers out of the position of thinking like writers and makes you look at your content in a different way – a way that better serves clients.

Will it make you a SEO copywriting pro overnight? Hell no. But it WILL make your path to understanding how search engines read content less bumpy. Read more about the Scribe SEO Copywriting tool and see why I’m jazzed. Have a delightful Monday.

You wanna hug this word jumble?

(As a primer, have a gander at HubSpot’s When Two Worlds Collide: Social Media Marketing & SEO post – great recap of the Search and Twitter news of the past 24 hours and some excellent graphics as well)

Let’s talk search. I’m most always sporting my SEO hat when generating online content. Except on Twitter. I have a feeling that’s going to change in short order as we witness the interwebz becoming the interweb. HubSpot touched on the potential affects the Social Media/Search “Group Hug” will have on how content is handled on a move forward basis. Great post and worth 15 minutes of your time to read in-depth (link is above). For the sake of time and attentions spans, I’m opting for bullet points to lodge my concerns:

• CRAP OVERLOAD: There’s a lot of crap on Twitter as it is: spam, affiliates pumping links. Get your shovels now because the term “crapload” is about to be redefined.
• SPONSORED TWEETS? FUGGHEDABOUDIT: With Google and Bing jumping into the real-time search pool, every Tweet is now “sponsored.” Linkjuice be damned, the Sponsored Tweet pool has been peed in. Will it matter WHO sends the tweet now if it’s all about links and keywords?
• ALGORITHMS: If Google expands its ranking algorithms to include Tweets, holy shit: lock up the women and children. How will they weight Retweets against original posts? Are Retweets the goal? Will gamers set up bogus accounts on an even larger scale to pump up their link juice?
• URL SHORTENING SERVICES: bye-bye unless you redirect. Ow.ly – go ahead fix yer shit or get in the breadline now.
• VANITY URL SHORTENING: get yours today. Better yet, hope you got it yesterday.
• SETweet? Keyword stuffing in 140 characters or less. Colloquial conversation just got a stick shoved up its backside.
• VOLUME: With SEO firms, affiliates, PR peeps and businesses themselves all interested in rankings, will we be inundated with link blasts to drive rankings? How will the algorithms compensate?
• THE BLACK HAT IS BACK: Prepare yourselves. With SEO black hat practices having been re-engineered by affiliate marketers who put up 10 fake blogs to pump links back to a single site, I dare say that we’re on the verge of a whole new “think tank” determining the newest ways to game the system.

Some thoughts for the folks over at Google and Bing from a lippy blogger who wears her SEO hat with a rakish tilt:

• New Algorithm Bling: I know your coders are already pissing their pants when it comes to adding social to search. Think long and hard about how initial postings of Tweets will be weighted against Retweets, please. Each will have its ramifications.
• The Double-Edged Sword that is Volume: Twitter users with large communities enjoy the viral spread of good posts through their network. The power of the Retweet. Will your algorithms penalize, reward or find the delicate balance in popular posts being shared in high volume VERSUS gamers who artificially generate high sharing volumes?
• Keyword Emphasis: How will you weight Tweets that are keyword optimized? A core component of search, will the new algorithms encourage keyword loading in social posts or find a way to value the colloquial texture of social media as we currently know it?

Answers will emerge in time, but Google and Bing aren’t in the social game. They just acquired access to it. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on other considerations for the Big Boys of Search to take into account as they grab real-time search by the balls and tell it what’s what. Leave me a comment below.

WordPress Plugins Come in All Shapes and Sizes

In this final installment of Your Website Sucks, we’re rapping about WordPress plugins. By now, you’ve read about Three Reasons Your Website Sucks (and one simple fix), some awesome premium WordPress themes and the power that CSS brings to a WordPress-powered website (thanks to Jason Nelson of Visual Adventures Web Design, WordPress-powered site specialists).

A WordPress plugin is simply an add-on for any self-hosted WordPress installation. Like plugins for Firefox. They are the Legos of WordPress, adding virtually limitless functionality to a simple WordPress-powered website or blog. Today’s post will list the ones that I find critical for my own installations and I’d love it if my readers added their own must-haves in the Comments section below.

SEO Nova

If you’re not running the THESIS theme, you’re going to need a kickass SEO plugin. I was turned on to SEO Nova by @Trypnotik, who had previously turned me on to the Headspace plugin to meet my SEO needs. SEO Nova goes beyond both Headspace and the popular All-in-One SEO Pack plugin by leaps and bounds. You can code the page title, description and meta keywords, but you can also specifically code each post and page of your site to varied index/follow settings. Oh. My. Gawd. It has a savvy master control panel to set some universal settings site-wide as well. Visit the SEO Nova site and grab a look-see. This site and RedheadedFury.com both run SEO Nova.

SocioFluid

Every blog or website should have a social bookmarking application. My choice is SocioFluid. Simply stated, I like the rollover/grow-shrink effect that catches a reader’s eye. You can custom select which social bookmarking sites show up in the bookmarking bar as well as set the size of the icons and designate whether they appear at the top of a post or bottom.

Social Homes

Wanna encourage visitors to connect with you on your other social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook? I use SocialHomes. Pick your sites, enter your site-specific information, drop it in a widgetized sidebar and you’re good to go.

Akismet Spam Control

Spam blog comments suck serious nuts and Akismet controls them (albeit, sometimes too well) with ease. Akismet is already installed on every self-hosted WordPress blog – you just need to activate it with a WordPress API key.

Google Analytics for WordPress

If you’re not running Google Analytics as a component of your site’s metrics, for the love of God, why not? It’s the Google Monster, granted, but it’s pretty damn savvy for tracking your traffic, sources and helping you determine ways to generate revenue from your site through AdWords and AdSense. Google Analytics for WordPress is a simple plugin that requires the cutting and pasting of a tracking code and BAM! You’re off and running.