Our CEO, Rick Milenthal, was on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Friday, talking about a new poll that finds American consumers are losing confidence in companies based on the East and West Coasts.  Rick shared the Engauge point of view that consumers are looking for brands and companies that are trying to fit in their lives rather break through and force their attention.

The poll shows that respondents feel that heartland companies understand them more than companies on the coasts.  CNBC dubbed it, “NYC & LA vs. the Heartland.”

If you have additional thoughts on this topic, let’s continue the conversation here…

Using the wrong keywords makes your business website invisible to your potential customers. Choosing the right keywords for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the crucial starting point for any online marketing campaign. Starting your campaign with a large set of attractive keywords will bring added effectiveness to every segment of your SEO campaign and deliver more web traffic to your web site.

I recently completed a Search Engine Optimization campaign that increased the apartment search web site traffic from 1.4 million unique monthly visitors to 2.3 million unique visitors per month. A good portion of this increase was based on choosing keywords that were highly sought by web users. Choosing keywords that met the customers’ need to find apartments in their local neighborhoods led to increased presence in search engines and better conversion and sales.

Google uses up to 200 signals to determine the meaning of each web page and where your web page ranks against all other competing web pages for that same keyword phrase. This starts with the major factors like web page title tags and inbound links, all the way down to less relevant factors such as alt tags in the Google or Yahoo algorithms.

If optimized correctly, some of your keyword-focused web pages will rank at the top of the first page of search results. If your optimized web page ranks first in search results, it could be worth 30 to 40 percent of the web traffic for that keyword. The search results for your chosen keywords that rank at second place through tenth place will split up the remaining 60 to 70 percent of web traffic for each keyword. Your strategy should focus on a large set of relevant keywords, with each keyword having its own web page.

Building the right keyword set starts with understanding what your customers really want. You may be tempted to only use keywords that are narrowly focused on the products or services that your company sells. But this will yield disappointing results. I’ve optimized large corporate web sites that fall into the trap of focusing solely on product or service keywords. The web traffic results are poor.

Here are several steps to consider when you’re building your keyword set.

• The first step is to include products or services that your company sells. Go beyond the product names and product numbers. What do customers call the products when they refer to them in emails or phone calls? Search the web for forums or blogs that discuss your products to gain insight.
• What are some popular product keyword variations that actually sell on your web site? Could you expand the number of these keywords and pages to grow more web traffic for those same products?

• Customers only buy your product or service if it meets a need or solves a problem. Think about the problem your customer is trying to solve. What search query or keyword will customers use to look for that solution?
• If you use a web traffic measurement tool like Google Analytics, you may have months or years of valuable web traffic data.  Examine the top most popular keywords and web pages, to learn more of what your customers are really seeking.
• Use paid web traffic keywords and data to sort keywords that have the highest traffic and the highest conversion rate. Use these proven keywords as a starting point to build larger sets of variations on these seed phrases.
• Monitoring social media discussions about your products or company can identify more keywords used by web users. This goes beyond Facebook and Twitter to include blogs, product review sites, bookmarking sites like Digg or StumbleUpon and even forums.
• Don’t ignore the value of location keywords, especially if you’re seeking customers for a regional service business. Apply the local keyword strategy to each market for your nation-wide business.
• One of the best research sources we have at Engauge is our Behavioral Research department. This team often interviews web users in our lab setting. We can also record users’ actions when they search online. Both these techniques help us gain valuable insights into why customers buy and what keywords they use when searching.

Go beyond the obvious keyword types and you will see substantial improvements in your business web traffic.

Ed Hill is Search Engine Optimization Manager at Engauge, Atlanta.

“Where are all the women?”

Although this question may seem like something you’d hear at an unsuccessful frat party and not the inspiration of  one of the most influential online platforms today, it was this important media meme of the early ‘00s that led three women bloggers to start the now immensely popular BlogHer Conference in 2005. A year later, the conference’s primary success led Elisa Camahort Page, along with co-creators Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, to expand by founding the BlogHer.com publishing network. Now credited with 76,000 registered users and 80 contributing editors, the community receives more than 21 million unique visitors each month and syndicates content across the web, from Yahoo! to BravoTV.com.

On Monday, Co-Creator Page sat down with SocialMediopolis’ hosts Michael Crosson and Chicke Fitzgerald on BlogTalkRadio to discuss some of the factors that make BlogHer so darn successful. Here’s a recap:

Funding:

After bootstrapping the growing community for 18 months, the “three girls with credit cards” decided it was time to seek outside funding. Instead of building the space and then trying to figure out how to pay for it, Page said, the blogging platform began with  a business plan that paid for itself. When securing funding, Page, Des Jardins and Stone were pitching more than just an idea; they had a plan that was working. Ultimately, BlogHer has raised $3.5 million from Venrock, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, the Peacock Fund and Azure Capital Partners, and expects to be profitable for the first time this year.

Advertising:

With more than 21 million unique visitors each month, it is no wonder BlogHer is a hotbed for advertisers. Besides its sheer reach, Page added, BlogHer offers a unique, integrated value proposition to brands. Web 2.0 has changed customer expectations; we no longer passively consumer, but rather actively participate with brands. Through the online community, brands have the opportunity to have more intimate conversations with targeted users, while the live events (BlogHer Conference, BlogHer Food, etc) provide broad exposure that advertisers love so much.

Community:

Despite the desire to economically empower fellow women bloggers, one of their biggest concerns, said Page, was how to ensure the quality and credibility of the network as a legitimate source of information. BlogHer was created, in part, to foster civil debate among women, and users should feel safe engaging in a conversation about even the most controversial of topics. To achieve this, Page said the community guidelines were established from day one. Controversial subject matter, regardless of which end of the political/social spectrum it should fall, can be discussed freely, without the threat of epithets or hate speech.  Page noted that It is absolutely necessary to apply the community guidelines fairly and consistently to create the safe community space.

Another issue Page touched on was the recent FTC disclosure guidelines, adding that this recent policy change was the first step in recognizing blogging as a legitimate media channel. Reader expectations differ when consuming traditional media channels and blogs; there isn’t that automatic assumption that bloggers may be receiving “material endorsement” (as the literature specifies) for their posts. For this reason, Page said, disclosure is essential to maintain the authentic editorial stream the community expects.

Comscore released the January 2010 rankings for search engines in the U.S. last week (source). In the release comScore indicated that Google lost 0.3% share of core search in the US in January 2010 (see below). This is the first indication that Google may be struggling to pick up additional market share from rivals, but data for the remainder of Q1 2010 is required to determine if Google has truly reached a search saturation point. If it has, we can expect Google revenue to stabilize or potentially drop but so far they continue to grow a healthy pace.

The big news is that Microsoft’s search engine Bing picked up an additional 0.6% share of US core search in January 2010 from rivals Yahoo!, AOL and Ask.com. As can be seen below, Bing has experienced strong growth in the past two quarters, which are mostly attributed to new deals (source).

Based on trending analysis of the comScore data, it seems that Bing will eclipse Yahoo sometime between August 2010 and November 2010 (the latter point based on Bing growing while Yahoo remaining the same). While Yahoo has announced a $100 M global marketing campaign to promote its revamped web portal (source), it may be too late to save the Yahoo brand. After all, we know that:

• Microsoft has given no indication that they’re going to spend money on search, even if it is a losing proposition. In addition to committing $100 M to market the search engine (source), Microsoft made numerous attempts to showcase Bing at the expense of Google. These include a exclusive alliance with News Corporation’s websites, including the Wall Street Journal (source) and deals to become the default search engine on the iPhone (source). Microsoft recently announced the integration of Bing search with Facebook (source), which means that 400 M social users will now see Bing search. For Microsoft to catch up to Google, they must produce a better search solution but they must remind consumers that Bing is a good solution.
• Traffic to Yahoo’s portal has lost significant market share over the past year. Yahoo properties’s share went from 67.7% in December 2008 (source) to 56.8% in December 2009 (source). The loss of eyeballs at both Yahoo and MyYahoo portal is likely the culprit of declining search market share.

While something big can always happen, it seems that Yahoo’s decline is inevitable. RIP Yahoo.

Google made headlines today with their first foray into social activity streaming (source). The new feature is basically like a Twitter tweet or a Facebook wall post embedded into gmail (Google’s email service).

To test it out, I tried it both on my desktop and my mobile device (the iPhone). I posted a quick status update about a meeting that I had in the afternoon and then I used the GPS-enables search capability to search for buzz posts from friends and people that are nearby. And the verdict is?

While Google may have thought that it had a hit on their hands, it feels more like a buzz-kill to me. There are several issues with this new service:

1. It is force social networking in email. Google opted to directly introduce this feature instead of using the Gmail Labs capabilities to introduce this feature as an add-on (the way that Google normally introduces new features). Google also added a special icon to this feature to draw focus to this new feature, ensuring that gmail users pay attention to it.

2. Google didn’t make Buzz super-intuitive. As a Google Wave user, I’ve wanted to tie my Wave, which is collaborative message, to an email as a means of continuing the conversation. While I learned that Google Buzz has this feature, I didn’t pick up on it until I watched the video (source). I also had a co-worker asking me how they can tie Buzz to Twitter, which they didn’t think was very obvious.

3. People don’t seem to know how to to use Buzz. I must be a super early adopter because NO ONE (and I mean none of my technologically or marketing savvy friends) seemed to have used Buzz to post a single buzz. The worst part about this test is that I know that they checked their gmail account at least once today so I would have expected to see one buzz. I think that this is indicative that while Google may have a significant user base, the Google Buzz service in by itself is not enough to entice a user to post to an activity stream nor is it a good replacement of twitter.

For Google, Buzz is a necessary service. It helps Google:

• Generate more traffic/interest in Gmail. Gmail has less users than Hotmail and Yahoo so they need a service to increase subscribers.
• Google Buzz creates a solution to connects your email with Twitter. This feature is incredibly value to marketers who want to understand the consumers that interact with their brands. While DandyID offers a similar capability, Google already has a larger user base so it is game over for DandyID.
• Buzz establishes a new page view/instance to sell an add. Google isn’t doing this because they want to offer something cool/evolutionary — Google needs buzz to goose their ad revenue (even if they don’t roll this feature out immediately).

The one thing that I noted on the first evening of having access to Google Buzz is that interest was fading fast. While Google Buzz was ranked 4th in hot search topics in the USA, it dropped to the 10th spot within 20 minutes (see below).

Let’s hope that tomorrow’s a better day for this shinny new service.