Lessons from the Radio
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Dec 16, 2008
It’s no secret that terrestrial radio has been watching its numbers decline for quite a while. The iPod, satellite radio, and a growing array of alternative entertainment consoles have been jamming the radio waves, drawing current and potential fans away from an already depleted pool of users. But as Valerie Block’s recent article in Crain’s New York Business demonstrates, radio stations need not fear an impending crash; on the contrary, perched atop the globe-spanning wings of the Internet, well-managed radio stations can expect to reach more ears than they’ve ever reached before. CBS Radio is a good case in point: while its terrestrial branch continues to wallow, CBS Radio on the Internet reached 2.2 million people in September, and it expects to add an additional 1 million listeners in February when its Internet player is embedded in some of Yahoo’s high-traffic channels.
Strong programming still counts toward success, online or off, as does revenue from radio ads, which at this point does not stack up in Internet radio’s favor — in the first nine months of the year, Internet radio brought in only a fraction of terrestrial’s $12.6 billion. But the world’s changing, and Ms. Block rightly points out that by the time Internet players are inserted into cars, terrestrial radio might not even be around to sulk about it.
Businesses both small and large can learn from the example of radio stations that are gradually moving their operations online. The Internet can offer almost limitless space to grow. Optimizing a personal or business website is an important first step toward harvesting the potential of the web, though how you do your optimizing counts, too.
Don’t Forget the Third Leg of SEO — User Behavior
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Dec 3, 2008
Speak to a typical SEO specialist, one who spends a good portion of his or her day trying to make sense of the topsy-turvy world of search engine ranking algorithms, and you’re bound at one point or another to hear him or her sermonize at great length about two things: the enormous and undeniable importance of links and the enormous and undeniable importance of content. Understanding these two elements is crucial to moving up the search engine rankings; think of them as, if you will, the Fantastic Duo of SEO.
Now, the specialist would be 100% right in emphasizing these two elements. Search engines do consider the number and importance of links between pages, the age of those links, how frequently those links are gained or lost, how many of those links are broken, and where those links are originally found. It’s also true that search engines examine the content that appears on web pages, how a website’s words are formatted through HTML, whether these words are spelled correctly and placed into grammatically correct sentences, and whether these words and the sentences they form are ever changed and updated. No argument there.
But as you can expect, content and links are only part of a much bigger and more complicated picture. In a recent interview with Search Marketing Standard Magazine, Bill Slawski, Director of Internet Marketing for Key Relevance, Inc., and author of the search-related patent blog, seobythesea.com, points out that there’s a third aspect SEO enthusiasts must pay close attention to — user-behavior-based signals. Really, “USB signals” (our own affectionate acronym) is just a slick way of saying user-website interaction, or even less fancily, user experience and use of a website. This covers the bookmarking and tagging of pages, the amount of time users spend on respective pages, how far down they scroll, user rate of subscription to RSS feeds, and of course, assigned rankings and ratings of pages that offer goods and services.
The point here is that SEO goes beyond careful selection of keywords and endless purchasing of links. A truly optimized site does indeed have substantial content and links, but it is also presentable and user-friendly, encouraging repeated and extended use. So when the SEO specialist finally wraps up his or her spiel and urges you to spend all your time and money maximizing content and links, remember that you’ve been told only about 2/3 of the story.
Experiences from the NY Xpo for Business 2008
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Nov 21, 2008
We had a blast at last Wednesday’s New York Xpo for Business. The people! The energy! The free swag! SalemGlobal’s booth kept busy from morning to the late afternoon with people who were eager to learn more about marketing and optimizing their websites. So many business cards, so little time….
Raphi’s seminar was a terrific success. A full house turned out to listen to him speak about how to “Make More Money this Year with Online Marketing.” His seminar was so successful, in fact, that he was bombarded with requests to make his PowerPoint slideshow available online, which he is, of course, happy to do. Just click here to redirect to the SalemGlobal homepage, where you can download the presentation as a pdf. You can also watch the video below and listen to Raphi dish some wisdom on SEO and optimizing your website.
Finally, congratulations are in order as well: they go out to Frank Manus of www.naa.cc; Valerie Mahoney of Live Your Life Travel; Gavin Sloane of Geneva Worldwide; Matthew Kiger of WCBS Radio; Ashraf Ezzeldin of the Egyptian General Consulate; and Valerie Delaportas of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. These are the lucky winners of the numerous raffles SalemGlobal held throughout the day. Enjoy your brand new 512 mb memory sticks — you earned it!
Reshaping Manhattan Retail
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Nov 17, 2008
An interesting account minted from Catherine Isobe at Jonathan Bernstein Associates:
“As the financial services sector implodes, Manhattan retail may soon be facing Bank Branch Blight, according to Jeff Bernstein over at Urban Digs.
“The Chase/WaMu deal and Citigroup’s purchase of Wachovia could lead to 40-60 branch closings in NYC, and will press retail rents downward, unfortunately for landlords. Commercial real estate brokers will do more deals on these newly available storefronts, but how will this shift affect commercial landlords and tenants?
“A resurgence in retail (I mean stores with pedestrian appeal, not mega-chains like CVS), albeit at lower rents per square foot, could drive a recovery in the Manhattan economy, especially as we draw increasing tourist dollars from overseas shoppers. More and varied retail will also help keep New York City office space more desirable than space in the over-homogenized suburbs.
“Did we really need ATMs on every corner of Midtown in the first place?”