Netconcepts

SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make

Stephan Spencer — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:48:59 +0000

From title tags to internal linking, from optional excerpts to rel=nofollow, this session covers the biggest search engine optimization mistakes WordPress bloggers make, and how to fix them.

Web Site Design Spotlight: Live, On-the-spot Critique of Retailers’ Sites

Stephan Spencer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:15:35 +0000

A team of long time e-commerce experts will provide live reviews and makeovers for sites from the audience members. Retailers in the audience will be asked to bring search marketing, user experience, e-commerce strategy and other design questions to this session where experts will view the sites in question and provide answers to fix what ails their web sites. Audience members who volunteer their sites for critique will receive a $25 Starbucks gift card.

Panelists:
Lauren Freedman, President, the e-tailing group
Stephan Spencer, President, Netconcepts
Amy Africa, President, Eight by Eight

When SEO Isn’t Really SEO

Jeff Muendel — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:29:24 +0000

Do you know what the difference is between SEO and online marketing? Confused about the terminology? In this article featured on Practical eCommerce, Jeff Muendel discusses how SEO is a specialty within the online marketing field.

By definition, SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website with the goal of having major search engines (primarily Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live Search) return pages from that website in highly-ranked search engine results. SEO is almost always employed as a form of marketing, but it is a very specific form of marketing that takes place within the search engines.

Lately, some industry blogs have suggested that SEO has grown beyond its primary parameters, suggesting that successful SEO includes expanding into other realms of marketing. I don’t think that makes any sense. By definition, SEO - search engine optimization - does not include any form of marketing that goes outside of search engines. The use of the term SEO in such a way is disingenuous and confuses many webmasters and owners of ecommerce sites.

For more about this controversial topic, visit the full article on Practical eCommerce here.

Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When

Jeff Muendel — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:49:52 +0000

If you’ve even remotely considered adding a blog for your eCommerce site, then this article is for you. In this article originally featured on Practical eCommerce, Jeff Muendel helps eCommerce business owners design a strategy behind blogging.

A focused, well-written blog can get readers hooked on the blog and promote repeat visits to the website or garner subscriptions via RSS feeds and email newsletters. These recurring communications will help to tie potential customers to your site, encourage natural link building and increase repeat visits. Journalists are also more likely to follow a blog or subscribe via RSS than to visit the corporate site repeatedly. So, several avenues of search optimization and online marketing can be addressed with a single blog entity.

From the SEO benefits of business blogging to how it can help your customers, Jeff covers the basics of “who, what and when” of blogging. Read the full article at Practical eCommerce here.

Website Metrics and ROI: Getting the Most out of Your Online Marketing Spend

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:08:58 +0000

In this teleseminar, learn what to measure, including…

Abandonment metrics - for uncovering why visitors are leaving your site prematurely
Conversion metrics - for insight into your acquisition funnel
Retention metrics - for boosting your customer retention
Search engine metrics - for obtaining the best return on your search marketing investment
Email marketing metrics - for achieving the highest response rates from your email campaigns

Is your web site successful? Is your online marketing — including your SEO, paid search ads, email campaigns — all working, and how can you find out? The answer lies in metrics. It’s hard to improve upon something you’re not measuring. You could drop $100,000 on a high-end web analytics package. But if you don’t have a staffer dedicated to making sense of all those reports and taking some sort action as a result, it’s wasted money. Better to spend $10,000 on a lesser web analytics solution and $90,000 for a salary to employ someone highly skilled in web analytics. In fact, you’d be surprised the powerful tools you can get for free (and yes, we’ll go over some of the most exciting ones during the teleseminar). However, right now your first investment should be in signing up for this teleseminar.

Speakers:
Stephan Spencer — Founder and President, Netconcepts
Avinash Kaushik — Author, Speaker and Analytics Evangelist

Driving Engagement Through Widgets and Gadgets

Stephan Spencer — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:49:29 +0000

iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo - social networks are the hottest topic of Web 2.0. Recent developments such as Google’s OpenSocial platform may further accelerate the explosive growth in widget and gadget application users. So what do widgets really mean to your customers and to your bottom line? What monetization strategies should you focus on to ensure widgets are more than just a buzzword to your organization? And how to you prevent your widget from becoming another lost or unused orphan among thousands of other apps? Misty Locke, co-founder and president of Range Online Media, has been working with numerous retailers to determine the most innovative, engaging and measurable approach to web applications. Misty will lead a discussion with other industry experts to answer these questions and to tackle how to succeed with widgets and gadgets today, pitfalls to avoid and emerging opportunities beyond 2008.

Speakers:
Misty Locke, Co-Founder and President, Range Online Media
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, NetConcepts
Pinny Gniwisch, Founder and EVP Marketing, ice.com

Audio Interview with Expedia.com SEO manager Chris Alan

Stephan Spencer — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:35:00 +0000

In this interview, Stephan Spencer, Founder and President of Netconcepts, sits down with Chris Alan, SEO manager for Expedia.com. Chris is a SEO veteran who currently manages all aspects of Expedia’s natural search channel, including keyword campaigns, landing pages, and more. We talk about common pitfalls that companies fall into when managing large, keyword campaigns as well as a number of other useful tips for big and small websites.

If you prefer to read this interview, check out the abridged transcript.

This podcast is now available for you to listen to.

Interview with Matt Cutts, Head of Google’s Anti-Spam Team

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:35:05 +0000

In early December, I spoke at the PubCon conference where I had the chance to sit down with Matt Cutts, head of Google’s anti-spam team.

Matt was kind enough to agree to an interview, where he shared invaluable tips about Flash, syndicating content, the change to their supplemental results, and a lot more. His insight and advice is really helpful; he provides clarity on topics that can be really confusing.

If you prefer a written transcript, you can read the interview transcript with Matt Cutts on my blog. I invite you to listen to the podcast interview, which is available now.

Interactive Marketing: Reaching Customers

Stephan Spencer — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:35:00 +0000

Search engine marketing

Making your site “search engine friendly”
“Pay-per-click” search advertising
Benchmarking, competitive intelligence and ROI analysis
Trends in contextual, behavioral and local advertising

Creating a buzz — viral marketing

Blogs, RSS feeds, forums, wikis and more
Harness “word of mouse” to enhance your brand
Identifying the “sneezers” who will spread your viral message

Web analytics

Speakers:
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts

Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers & Answer Sharing

Stephan Spencer — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:00:46 +0000

Web users rely on community-contributed-content sites such as Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers. These sites enable you to communicate directly with an engaged audience. But contribute to the conversation with care. Too much spin and you’re credibility will be shot-and your brand damaged. You’ll come away from this session knowing how these influential sites work and how to participate constructively.