3 reasons why this is a BAD Link request

I'm not sure why I'm SO surprised that it has been a while since I've received such a blatant and poorly executed attempt to exchange links. Perhaps I thought that most people were wiser by now. For those who still haven't heard, this is NOT how you exchange links:

Dear Sir or Madam

We would sincerely like to exchange links with your website.

Exchanging links will increase search engine rankings and website popularity, therefore, we will both benefit from exchanging links.

If you are interested, please add our link on your site and let me know.

Our linking details are as follows:

Title: Stourbridge Motor Company

URL: http://www.stourbridgemotorcompany.co.uk

Description: Stourbridge Motor Company deliver quality used cars, vans and mpv’s at realistic prices in West Midlands, Birmingham, Stourbridge, Redditch, Halesowen, Dudley and surrounds.

Please let me know as soon as you have posted our site details onto a link page that is cached by Google.

In exchange, please send your link information to me, which we will upload within 24 hours of receipt, and we will also notify you as soon as the link is posted.

We sincerely forward to your positive response.

Kind regards

[from someone I've never heard of]

Three reasons why this is wrong:

1. My site has nothing to do with their site: They're even on a different continent!

2. Trading links for pure SEO value is a huge NO NO. Even if that's what you're really doing, that's not why you should be doing it. You should exchange links because your site and the site you're exchanging a link with are in the same "Cyber neighborhood." Otherwise, Google won't understand the connection and it does neither of you any good.

3. Unsolicited link exchange requests are still SPAM.

Google Analytics for SEO

I recently had the opportunity to speak on the topic of analytics at SMX Advanced in London. The topic of our panel was Making Sense Of All The Numbers. Since it was the last session on the second day, I was concerned that perhaps it wouldn't have been as well attended as it was. However, as the description indicated, We attempted to advocate various methods that could be implemented in order to maximize the investment of time and money that you have likely made in web analytics.

While I plan to share more details about my presentation, I first wanted to share a few Ah Ha moments that I had during the course of the conference. The first day of the conference was divided between an SEO and a PPC track and I switched back and forth. The first Ah Ha moment was really contained inside the presentation made by Barak Berkowitz from WolframAlpha during which I could hardly contain myself with interest and awe at this new "Calculation engine" or Knowledge Engine as they describe it. It's very cool- check it out. What was apparent however is that it's coolness is NOT immediately apparent. The main reason for that is that it is not a search engine. they need to do a better job of demonstrating it's benefits to new visitors.

The second Ah Ha moment was really more of a reinforcement of some previously less than obvious realities about Google Analytics. GA is not designed for measuring SEO. It is still a website analytics package that falls short in some important areas and this is one of them. It can certainly be "hacked" into shape- but "out of the box" lots of people complain about this in forums like these, but try to be careful never to offend any Googlers lingering about.

If you need help customizing Google for SEO, consider building a separate profile and segment all your traffic to organic. It's pretty easy to do, but you're likely to need to wait a little while more traffic builds in the new profile. I also followed some interesting threads and have experimented with getting "rankings" into the reports. Pretty neat stuff. I know more about what Google's up to, but I've been cautioned not to share any of this yet or I'll get kicked out of the Beta club.

What Agencies Want from Marketers

It occurred to me that I've had some valuable experiences in having presented new marketing concepts and analytics packages to both Ad Agencies and Digital Marketing Agencies. It also occurred to me that perhaps others may value some of my insights when considering a quest to gather agency buy in of a new idea.

As mentioned in other previous posts, agencies can't help being very practical. The days of hugely profitable, hardly measurable percentage based revenue models are nearly gone. In years past, it was common for agencies to "easily" earn 15% of an advertiser's entire media budget in fees. But as advertising becomes more digital and more measurable, more and more advertisers began questioning the logic behind this method. It's now much more common for agencies to negotiate a fee based or "retainer" type of an approach. As a result, agencies have been migrating toward greater efficiency and toward ideas that will generate additional revenue.

Digital agencies (especially larger ones) should care more about what works and what doesn't but also tend to favor "win-win" low or no "cost" programs. Agencies certainly don't mind selling their own wares including analytics solutions, ad serving technology, ad delivery "networks" and of course creative services.

In having spoken with hundreds of agencies about interactive marketing, I have observed the following common ground:

1. Agencies are not as creative as you may expect them to be. They seem to want to crave new ideas, but you'd better put your best foot forward because they don't want to have conversations about concepts.

2. Agencies will pick the lowest hanging fruit. If you make their life easier and you make them money- you're in. If it actually works for their customers, that's an added bonus that we help you stick around beyond an initial trial.

3. Agencies will ask for a trial. They rarely "buy" anything to begin with, but they hardly even buy anything before they've had a chance to test it.

4. Agencies won't actually do a fair trial. They will forget, get too busy, not fully implement (especially not according to your desired specs) They'll say they will, but they won't

5. Ad Agencies will ask for the lowest price possible. Then they'll ask again. then they'll refer you to someone else who will ask for an even lower price.

6. Digital Marketing Agencies will require excellent results and their standards will start off very high. Can you blame them? Many sold their clients media void of any real metrics for years.

7. Analytics Agencies (or an agency with a strong analytics focus) will ask for integrated metrics and conversion analytics.

8. Noone wants to be the first to present an idea to a client, but ironically, they don't want anyone else talking to their client either.

9. They won't introduce you to their clients unless they are fully confident that there is no risk at all that you will have any chance of working with them directly. In other words, they won;t introduce you to their clients.

10. Even if you present case studies, agencies will want a case study from an exact clone of their client. If you have a B2B example, they'll want a B2C example. If you're case study is for a Dentist, they'll complain that it's not for a Chiropractor. It's inevitable.

All this being said, establishing strong relationships with Agencies can be a very important goal. However, be careful that you don't burn bridges by jumping in too soon. You may only get one shot to prove your value proposition.

Have You Tried the "Wonder Wheel"?

Of all the cool features Google offers, the Wonder Wheel is one of the nicest hidden gems. Especially for those who are interested in keyword research. It runs as a flash object inside the Google Results. To find it, click the +show options link on the top left side of the search result page. The "tool belt" (Matt Cutt's term) will show on the left hand side and click on Wonder Wheel. Here are sample results. Notice that you can select any related term and click on it to see the related wheel. This is a great keyword research tool. I still haven't figured out a way to export this info, so you may need to open an excel spreadsheet or bust out a pencil.

While you're exploring, check out other tool belt features. For instance, notice that you can search by time frame. this is great for repuation management. You can search for what's been said about you or your company within the past week or even the past 24 hours.

You can also see search results limited to blog posts only etc.

As always, Google is inventing new ways for users to find good information and along the way, there are beneifts to professional search marketers as well.