Here’s a scenario: You’re redesigning a site – maybe it’s yours or your client’s site – and you’re concerned about how the redesign is going to affect your current SEO state. The redesign is anticipated to launch about 6 months to a year. You decide that, to make things easier for your “redesign,” and for fear of becoming a victim of another Panda update, you hold off on all of your SEO optimization until the redesign is done. Which means no content updates and no on-page or off-page optimization, among other SEO campaigns you’re running on the site. And to make it fair in your mind, you plan on saving or cataloging your content so that you can maintain that “ranking content” when your site goes live. Sounds like a plan, right?

As the words of one of the greatest rappers of all time, LL Cool J, plainly put it: “I don’t think so.” And here are reasons why it’s a bad idea to postpone your SEO:

Content is STILL King

Your content still matters to your audience, and by that measure alone should be reasons why you cannot stop your SEO. You need to be able to continually revise your content to increase your exposure and engage/re-engage your audience into your site. If halting your SEO campaigns for a period of time is your choice of measure, you’re not updating your site with fresh, relevant and usable content for your audience. Think about the long-term snowball effect this has on your content production: stale content over a fixed long-term range can damage your content appeal to your users, which will force users to look elsewhere for what they need to find. When users look elsewhere for the content they need, search engines won’t see your site and your content as relevant and useful to the users looking for it. This will force your content to be perceived as little value by search engines, primarily Google, and thus your page ranks and perceived value will decline.

Metrics? We Don’t Need No Stinking Metrics?

That’s exactly what is going to happen when your SEO is postponed: your metrics will be shot. I can’t say for every site that your traffic, page views, conversions, etc. will fall dramatically, nor do I guarantee that at all. However, I do know that you will experience a drop or dip in some way, shape or form on your site. How dramatic of a drop will depend on how long the redesign will take, how big of a redesign your site will span, and the number of pages will be affected.

It should be noted that your metrics and analytic reports should be part of the equation when planning on redesigning while postponing your SEO. If metrics are not part of the marketing strategy behind this redesign, then I suggest educating your managers, directors, and/or executives on the potential issues that will show up on your reports. Make them aware of what will happen before and after the work stoppage and how much work it will take to get back into the search game.

Bye, Bye, Bye (Rankings)

Google has stated that they take into consideration user interaction and engagement towards your content in its algorithm to determine site rank, weight, and overall value. If your users don’t see your site to be relevant in the time that you do the redesign, search engines will take note of that and use it against you. By not changing and refreshing your content over that period of time, you’re providing your users with more useless, irrelevant information that, in this “give it to me now” day and age, will be seen as “so 10 minutes ago.” Not engaging your users with relevant, up-to-date information, you’re more than likely going to lose your rankings and your search exposure due to stale, unchanging and boring content.

Redesigns And SEO Can Co-Exist, But Only If Your Managers Know How

I know this for a fact that redesigns and SEO can work together and in unison. I have done it as a Senior SEO Specialist for a marketing agency, working with content developers, designers and developers, and IT to create redesigns, newer/fresher content, along with revamped on-page and off-page optimization. It’s not too difficult to do in most respects, but the knowledge and best practices of managing your redesign and SEO should be passed on from the top down. Think about it: If you’re an SEO expert in your company, and you’re told to stop your SEO campaigns/optimization because of a redesign, and the reasons given to you are a load of crap by industry standards, then it looks like the managers, directors, or C-level executives responsible do not know the massive implications of this tactic.

You’re Not Using Technical Assistance That Can Help Your SEO

Are your managers and directors not helping you argue and protect your SEO investments? Your managers are probably afraid that by doing the redesign, they’re going to screw up any optimization (and results from those optimization campaigns) already done throughout the site, such as keyword-rich URLs, title and description tags, landing pages, etc. If that’s the case, let your IT team help out with 301 and 302 redirects during and after the redesign. This will help your site get positioned to visibility while your managing the redesign and the work after that has transpired. Moreover, sitemap submissions conducted on a regular basis will keep spiders up-to-date on what’s hot and what’s not on your site, including relevant temporary or permanent redirects that can push your older contents aside for fresher meat.

Social Media Won’t Be Enough To Replace Your Search Position

If you think that pure social media alone will help you offset your SEO, think again. Do you really think that tweeting and posting content on your social platforms pointing to your outdated site is going to make your site have a stronger relevancy on your searches? Do you really expect to push old and stale content to your users who are looking to the here and now? Social media needs updated content just as much as SEO does, and the integration of two will create more firepower for your brand online. So why screw your SEO campaigns over?

You’re Screwing The SEO Work Previously Done To Get You Where You Are

By conducting SEO stoppage on your site, you’re basically screwing the work that was previously done to get where you are on a search visibility scale. If you’re the marketing genius who wanted to stop the site from being optimized while you’re redesigning, do you really think that picking it up again later on (whether it’s 6 months, 1 year or worse) will put you back in the map automatically?

If you’re the SEO person, content writer, or SEO team involved (or chosen to NOT be involved) in this predicament, are you already conducting a short-term and long-term strategy to help decrease the time that you’ll be gone from your user’s search? If not, I believe that you and/or your team should have a back-up plan, and plan it well.

You’re Screwing Your SEO Foundation, Then Starting From Scratch

SEO is the grounds that hold the foundation of your online marketing. Halting and restarting your SEO campaign is like taking out the foundation of your existing house, and then re-building the foundation under the weight of the existing house. It’s going to take a lot more effort from an SEO perspective to get back the ranking and relevancy you would lose if you were to continue to halt your campaigns. Imagine the amount of work that your content marketers, SEO specialists and other online marketers will have to do to ramp up back to the relevancy that you probably enjoy now. Now, imagine the time it will take for that work to actually produce fruit for your site.

My Conclusion

If it was up to me, I would not halt any SEO work during a redesign at all. Not now, and not ever. If you’re not too concerned about SEO like some companies I know of, then this is up to you to conduct and likely at your own risk. However, if you are concerned about your overall visibility and you’re conducting the halt anyway, then I suggest  conducting a vast project management and risk assessment before proceeding with your redesign project. Having a solid SEO strategy for your website is great for long-term benefits, but these long-term benefits depend on your short-term work. If your short-term work involves no SEO whatsoever, then your long-term SEO strategies are useless, like microphones given to Milli Vanilli.

As I sift through my plethora of social media feeds and apps, I can’t help but think of Google Reader and its relevancy in today’s marketing and business world. Personally, I use Google Reader to sign up and subscribe to feeds of websites that I want to follow. I also use Feedburner and Guy Kawasaki’s My.Alltop.com (you can find me at http://my.alltop.com/zioneyemedia) as my feed resources, but I tend to check out Alltop moreso than I do my Reader. I love the look, flexibility and ease of use on Alltop, and I can get a lot of sites’ feeds within Alltop off the bat without having to subscribe to individual websites.

So is Google Reader still relevant to feed readers? Maybe I should ask this: is Google Reader even relevant now to those who search for sources of inspiration? Did Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Pages, and the thousands of other social networks taking more of your time?

Let me know your thoughts!

It’s 2011.  There is a new day and age in technology, in how we do business, and in how we interact with others on a macro and micro scale.  Yet, here we are, recycling the same old marketing schemes over and over again.

I’m referring to the phrase “Click Here.”  I wrote a marketing article a couple of years ago emphasizing our need to back away from our usage of that 1999 phrase and be more proactive in our call-to-action messages and methods of cultivating customer relationships. Sadly, that proactive emphasis has gone to deaf ears, as I still continue to see such unattractive and non-engaging verbiage in many sites and many campaigns. Continue Reading »

In 2009, I posted a blog about what types of marketing applications people like me would use to help their business.  I’m recapping that list here (in no particular order), and then I’m going to grade them based on how they worked or didn’t work for me.

1. Twitter
2. LinkedIn
3. StumbleUpon
4. Delicious
5. FriendFeed
6. Magnolia
7. Technorati
8. WordPress
9. Ning
10. Squidoo

Twitter

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we?  Twitter has been an awesome complimentary tool for all areas of marketing for Zion Eye Media, and has been an increasingly greater customer relationship engagement application as well.  In my honest assessment, I feel that Twitter has done a better job handling my marketing needs than most, if not all, of the applications I’ve used within the past several years.  I would consider Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as my top 3 choices so far.  Grade: A

LinkedIn

I would say that LinkedIn is up there in my rankings next to Twitter and Facebook.  Back when I wrote my previous article, LinkedIn was not in any way, shape or form the kind of tool that it is now.  Integration with other web applications and social media were non-existent, or at least very, very limited.  I have seen it grow to the awesomeness that it is currently, and I hope that it continues to grow and blossom (especially with their recent IPO).  Included features like questions and answers, and company profiles are great ways to get free marketing for the business.  Grade: A

StumbleUpon

This is one of my favorite apps for collecting inspiration links for design and marketing.  I know that some of my friends have moved on to other similar apps, but we’ll get to that in a second.  Frankly, if I had to rate StumbleUpon with other apps, I would rate it within the same realm as Evernote.  The browser toolbar can be wonky at times, especially when it doesn’t sync as well as it should.  Nevertheless, it’s still being used on my book, so that’s a good start!  Grade: B

Delicious

I still use this but I wasn’t (and still am not) very fond of their UI.  I understand that it’s the application and the data functionality that is more important (at least from what I understand of them), but if other apps can be as aesthetically pleasing, Delicious can also do a better job on the front end.  Grade: B-

FriendFeed

At the time, I use this application to tap into Facebook so that I can market through Twitter and Facebook at the same time.  Back in 2009, Facebook didn’t have their Pages sorted out yet, and integration with Twitter without using 3rd party party applications were minimal.  Friendfeed was a good choice back then, and is proving to be of somewhat relatively good value presently.  With newer abilities for social integration, I think Friendfeed may be on its way out of the door for me.  Grade: B/C, depending on past/present workings.

Magnolia

Unfortunately, this is an application that went down like MySpace being punched by Facebook’s Iron Mike Tyson.  I was fond of their bookmarking tool for a while, then when they lost my stuff, I was thinking that’s it for me.  2 years or so down the road, I realized that they were doing their own cloud computing work (go figure), which is something that I am pretty much an evangelist for nowadays.  Maybe it’s a safe bet NOT to do your own IT work..?  Grade: F

Technorati

Well, I’m not as versed in Technorati as I have hoped to be, at least in terms of content value and integrity.  I may not have as much credibility here, and while I was hoping to use their value as a way to integrate my knowledge and skill set as an online authority, that has not yet been the case.  I think this is a 50-5o for me.  Grade: C

WordPress

As you can see, my site is built on WordPress, and I’m using it fairly well, I believe.  However, I think when I wrote my previous post, I was merely referring to as a way to create landing pages FOR my marketing, and for that initiative, I have met my purposes.  Needless to say, it’s not really a “marketing” tool, so may have to scrap that as an application for marketing use.  Grade: B-

Ning

I signed up for Ning a while back, and honestly I haven’t really done much with Ning the past two years.  In a perfect world, I would be all over Ning and be more of a power user than a spectator.  But, with all of the things I have been doing, I can’t be doing 200% of everything… at once… 24/7.  I think Ning is a tool that I could use in the definite future.  Grade: C+

Squidoo

Well, Squidoo would have been very useful for me if I could have had more time to use it.  Unfortunately, all I ever did with Squidoo was show other people how to use it, but not really use it myself as a marketing tool.  Grade: C+

Now let’s talk about my top 5 applications for my marketing tools today, and what has worked for me as of late (in no particular order):

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. StumbleUpon
4. TweetDeck
5. LinkedIn

What are your favorite applications?

Authenticjobs.com got a new site makeover, packed with new and awesome features that I am sure will help users and job seekers alike.  For the lowdown, here’s what changed.

HEADER

Gone is the really funky header background that stood out and made the site fresh and really hip.  Instead, a more minimalistic dark gray color is showcased, and rightfully so, as it makes the logo and navigation stand out.  Cleaner and crisper, which is evident, if that was the goal of the change.

Color Scheme

With the gray scale in place, it makes colors stand out much more dramatically without using excessive colors to generate interest.  The white space is clearly evident between various elements on the sidebar, and does a good job on separation of the elements.

SUBMENU/NAVIGATION

To my surprise, a deeper search parameter that features a job-based categorical heirarchy is a greater improvement to the existing job search method.  The functionality looks like it uses a jQuery-esque dropdown that is simple and easy to use, which makes the functionality coincide with usability and thus produces a better user engagement and results for the user.

What was kept from the recent design was the ability for users to check/uncheck for full-time, contract, freelance, or internship positions.  In checking these sub-parameters, they content results are dynamically repopulated based on the user’s request.

Job Search Category

I love that the dropdown actually shows the different categories that a user can pick up on instead of having to filter through the whole site.  I think that’s a new feature that I totally would want to emulate on a different level.

Job Search Location

The Location Map is a sweet addition that adds some much needed location functionality and usability, along with aesthetic appeal to job searches.  What is the best portion of that map is the ability to search telecommute jobs only in any job category you specify, which I think is pretty cool.

Job Search Bar

Nothing has changed dramatically per se with the exception of the color scheme on the bar.  I don’t recall the search bar being THAT big, but I’m sure there is a purpose to it.  Needless to say, it forces the reader to let them know that the bar is THERE for any searches, which is a good thing.

Fonts

I have always loved their fonts, as it is modern and yet classic, and serves the site very well for its purpose.  The only caveat I have is that the paragraphs are too light in color, so harder to read with the white background in place.  Understandably that the lightened paragraph distinguishes the importances and hierarchy of the content, but it doesn’t make it readable.  From a functional perspective, they’ve achieved that distinction but usability is minimal.

OVERALL

I love the site, and I have always used them to check out freelance gigs that pertain to my skill set and expertise.  Despite the small nuances that can be fixed, I think they did an excellent work on the new design.

Yes, I am officially on Forrst.com! For those who don’t know (which I am assuming you all do), Forrst is an online community for designers and developers, somewhat similar to Dribble (though I believe Dribble is just for designers).

Thanks to Kenneth Love for the invite, and I am totally blessed to be a part of this community. I’m still learning the ropes around the site, but I’m hoping to get more involved as the days go by.

Look me up at http://forrst.me/zioneyemedia.

If you’re working for a small business, chances are, you’re wearing “multiple” hats as part of your job description.  And with multiple hats, you may be responsible for being the “go-to” person for any of  the areas you cover in your company.  So, with all of the “hats” that you wear, can you do it all and do it well?

Below you’ll find several key issues (or as some would say, “mild concerns”) that are predominant within the small business community.

Human Resources

I believe that this is the biggest need and possibly the hardest obstacle to address. Small businesses can have minimal amount of people to do the job and do it well.  It is even harder for a one-person or two-person entity to wear the notoriously many hats of a small business, let alone the social face of one.

Technology Resources

This, I think, is a very close second to human resource issues, if not tied to it.  Side by side with human resources issues, technological savviness can be difficult to achieve without the necessary tools to become savvy.  And if you employ an intern with limited technical knowledge or savvy ingenuity, then it gets harder to become relevant.

Financial Resources

A close third deals with the moolah.  The almighty dollar.  The budget (you guys remember what that is?).  Hard to get employees who are rich in knowledge, wisdom, and education when budgets are limited for new hires, let alone for hardware, software, and other small business expenses.

Time Management

Critical time management work is essential for balancing your business needs, especially when there is a lack of human resources. Being a small business owner myself, it takes lots of time and effort to conduct just the everyday “business” of business without having to put on your social media hat.  And honestly, how much time do we even take out to do social marketing when there is a gazillion of other things to do?

Social Relationships

Generating, managing, and maintaining social relationships online is almost as hard as conducting the same in real life, except that “real life” is now involving your online social “friends.”  And what of your potential costumers?  Finding them, engaging with them, and ultimately getting them to do business with you is hard enough in the physical world…

Any Thoughts?

What are other ways that makes it difficult for small business owners to compete in the social marketing realm?  Send me your thoughts!