Andrew Commander

Articles about Andrew Commander and his adventures in life.

Browsing Posts in SEO

Something that I realized recently was that most businesses are trying anything in this struggling economy, even branching out into services not previously offered.

The thing about so many choices, is that it makes people lazy.

For example, at Del Taco, you can get a hamburger and waffle fries. Who goes to a Mexican fast food joint to order “American” fast food? Oh just, the lazy American who can’t drive across the street to Mcdonalds or Sonic.

When these big brand-names start trying anything to make money, then the little guy selling their one service or product, gets left in the dust.

An example of a big name brand that DOES NOTtry this is Taco Bell. They sell tacos, burritos, and different combinations of the two! Their marketing strategy is the little dog saying “Yo quiero Taco Bell!”

They have stuck to what they do best, fast “Mexican Food”. When I look at the menu there are about four or five different ways you can have your taco smooshed together, but in the end it is all semi-similar.

Sticking to what a company does best is the way to go. Streamlining your approach as a business is the way to get the most quaility customer. When a consumer thinks of your product, you want them to identify with your company first and always.

BlitzLocal steps in to help the “little guy” businesses streamline their marketing approach, and target the demographic that they are in need of.

Blitz does not try to throw tons of choices at a consumer, but preferably the choice that is recommended by the consumers themselves. That is the great thing about Facebook and Twitter allowing the users to interact and give their opinion straight to a company.

The companies that have been successful through Twitter actually listen to the voices and try to make changes based on what they as a customer want, not necessarily what the CEO wants.

The boss is the one who makes the final say on everything, but you might be able to convince him with some positive results from Twitter.

A guest post by Dennis Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal, driving calls for local professional service firms.

Very Stupid

Too bad Yahoo! is closing GeoCities– makes about as much sense as a bum throwing away his last dollar. Yahoo! bought GeoCities for $2.87 billion years back– that’s billion with a B.

Certainly, we can understand that Yahoo! needs to focus, as detailed in the Peanut Butter Manifesto, written by one fed-up Yahoo! exec three years ago– read the Wall Street Journal leak here. But cutting off your toes as part of an extreme weight loss plan is not the right answer. A fat company needs to exercise, not torture itself or cut off body parts.

For those who do SEO for a living, or folks who are old enough to even still have GeoCities accounts, you know that you don’t just kill pages that are well-aged (started in 1994, which is 15 years ago), have great unique content, and have generated a zillion backlinks. Kill those pages and “poof”– all that link juice disappears!

Not to mention all the people you’re going to piss off. But if you’re going to sell to Microsoft, let them hold the bag, and then parachute out with a fat paycheck– it’s a pretty good move. Not for Yahoo!, but for the folks running the show. Much easier to just sell than actually have to turn the company around– which at this point is a foregone conclusion anyway.

I don’t work at Yahoo! anymore, but were it me, I’d salvage some value– to sell that part of the business, just like Yahoo! Personals and the rumored sale of HotJobs and Yahoo! Small Business. But now the vultures are coming in to scavenge– just look at the ads that show when you search for “geocities”, ready to take on these unhappy customers:

screenie

But they’re not customers, you argue– since they’re not paying for hosting. In that case, show some ads– you’ll still make a killing.

Information overload… My brain is still computing the three presentations I listened to this afternoon. One of the main points that was clarified today was PageRank and Trust. The rank is based off of points, which you acquire from getting others to link you into their sites. Something that is still fuzzy is the Alexa ranking. Googles Adwords…something previously foreign are now seeming easier and easier.

There are so many TLA’s and phrases that I have yet to grasp, which is holding me back from understanding fully what I am listening too. This can be stressful when trying to soak up all of this new information.

Overall the Internet marketing is providing to be very complex but intriguing. I plan on reading more of Dennis’s guide to IM and watching/listening to more of the sydneySMX dvds.