Top 5 SEO Conferences Every Healthcare Marketer Should Go To

Posted on May 22, 2011 by gabriel

An SEO Conference can be a great place to learn new ideas, network and to share experiences. When marketing healthcare brands we can use some of tactics utilized and taught by the speakers at these events. The marketing strategies that are developed by these conferences can be invaluable to those in healthcare marketing trying to promote their brands; this is why healthcare marketers should go to these SEO Conferences. Search engine utilization is important for all companies in the 21st century to understand and to use effectively, especially those marketing healthcare brands. When you need to find information on a product or service where do you go first? I am going to bet the answer is not the phone book, it is most likely Google and people will only see your brand on these search engines if you know how to utilize them effectively.

Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

The Search Marketing Expo was founded in 2006 by some of the same people who were involved with the 1999 launch of Search Engine Strategies. SMX offers a unique learning, networking and sharing experience through incorporating many viewpoints into their SEO Conference, by making their conferences highly choreographed to be the most effective and to be driven by attendees. Past keynote speakers include; Tony Adam the Director of Online Marketing from MySpace and Alex Bennert the In House SEO from the Wall Street Journal. The state of search marketing, remarketing and creative ways of conjuring SEO gold were some of the main topics addressed. The next Search Marketing Expo will be SMX Advanced London from May 16th to May 17th, 2011 in London, UK.

PubCon Conference

PubCon is a SEO Conference that began in 2000 as an informal gathering of early Web search engine optimizers and webmasters in a local London pub, therefore the name PubCon. Now though as the focus has shifted the name more professionally refers to “Web publishing conference” rather than the location. Some of their past keynote speakers including; Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh on social media marketing and technical expertise, Cirque du Soleil’s director of marketing Shawn Rorick on merging traditional and new media and the growing importance of mobile search marketing strategies. The next PubCon SEO Conference will be held this year in Las Vegas from November 8th – 10th.

Marketing Optimization Summit (eMetrics)

The first eMetrics Summit occurred in 2002, it was co-founded by Jim Sterne author of the book Web Metrics which lead to the conferences founding with great enthusiasm. The focus of this SEO Conference is not what works best, but how to measure what works best, that is the core of eMetrics. Past keynote speakers include; Bob Page of Ebay speaking on delivering the best customer experience and Carol Gohl of Dell Computers speaking on Coordinating Concepts across media. The next North American eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit will be held in New York City, on October 17th- 21st.

The Online Marketing Summit (OMS)

The Online Marketing Summit is a SEO Conference known for putting top priority on providing educational content without the exhibit floor, vendor sales pitches or other distractions that can get in the way at other SEO Conferences. They have been putting on conferences using innovative strategies and workshops such as 1-on-1 interactive labs, peer networking, and online marketing boot camp since 2007. Some of their past keynote speakers include; Tim Ash the author of Landing Page Optimization in 2010, Michael Metz the Senior Director of Web Marketing Strategy from Cisco in 2009, Frederick Vallaeyes the “Product Evangelist” from Google AdWords in 2008 and Dan Siroker the Former Director of Analytics from the successful Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign. They will cover such critical topics as social media, search, email, demand generation, analytics, usability and integrated marketing at their next North American SEO Conference, taking place from June 6th to June 8th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Search Engine Strategies (SES)

Search Engine Strategies has been the leading international conference series for webmasters, digital agencies, online marketers and corporate decision makers since their start in 1999. They focus on trying to select the best speakers possible and delivering the latest market intelligence while giving their attendees clear actionable tips and strategies that they will be able to implement as soon as they return home. Some of their past keynote speakers include; Duncan Watts the principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research directing the Human Social Dynamics group, Jeff Adelson-Yan the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Levelwing a digital advertising agency that provides data-driven marketing solutions, Jonathan Allen the Director of Search Engine Watch and Tim Ash the CEO of Siteturners.com. Topics like 6 Strategies for Superior SEM Results, Bing: More Bang for the Click, Google Ad Innovations and DoubleClick Search V3 Preview were all covered at the last SES in New York, NY March 2011. In addition to these specific topics, more general basics are touched on at every SES (making it great for both the beginners and those who are already established) such as; how to design search engine-friendly web pages, the basics of building links and their importance to rankings, whether to build expertise in house or outsource to an agency, and how to convert more of your visitors into buyers. This SEO Conference will be in Toronto from June 13th to June 15th and will feature journalist Amber Mac and Tracy Smith of the Yellow Pages as key note speakers.

 

8 Social Media Tools of 2011 That Every Healthcare Brand Should Know About

Posted on May 22, 2011 by gabriel

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, Google Buzz, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Digg, Redit — in 2011 over 70% of internet users also use some type of social media. Some platforms are more popular than others, and the landscape expands and changes quickly; what is popular today is passé tomorrow. It is understandable when a healthcare business does not jump on the latest social media trend, but healthcare businesses can’t afford to tune anything out. Simply put, your customers are talking about your company. You need to know what your customers are saying, good or bad, and you must take part in the conversation about your brand. Luckily, there are tools to make this overwhelming task somewhat more manageable. Here’s a quick run-down of what we consider the 8 best social media tools of 2011:

Involver: The Involver social media tool has several levels of membership ranging from Basic to Enterprise, and costs ranging from free to $2749 per month. A basic account will give a user access to a maximum of two applications per Facebook account. Applications available to Basic users include widgets to insert RSS and Twitter feeds and YouTube channels directly onto a Facebook page. Enterprise level users have 24 applications to choose from and can publish not only to Facebook, but to 39 other outlets. Enterprise level applications include Social Quizzes, Flash Embed, Contest, and Music Player.

Monitter: Monitter is a free service that allows a user to watch one or more keywords on Twitter and view the results on the Monitter web page. Searching Twitter is quick and easy; all a user has to do is type a term into the search box, and the Monniter social media tool generates real-time results. If users input more search terms in the dialogue box, Monniter will automatically make a new column on the web page and display more results. Monniter also has a widget that will insert your Twitter search into a web page of your choosing.

TweetDeck : TweetDeck is a free collection of applications for the desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome and web. These applications act as real-time browsers for social media contacts, displaying them on your preferred device in a dashboard configuration. The TweetDeck social media tool works with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and more. This application puts all of your feeds and updates in one place, eliminating the need to visit multiple sites.

CoTweet: The CoTweet social media tool allows users to manage conversations taking place on Twitter and Facebook. CoTweet has two products, Standard (free) and Enterprise (paid). The Standard application allows users to watch and analyze only Twitter conversations, while the Enterprise application works with both Twitter and Facebook. CoTweet Enterprise also allows an organization unlimited users of the application, extensive analytics, third-party integrations, and unlimited conversation history. The cost of CoTweet Enterprise depends on the functionality, quoted on a customer-by-customer basis.

HootSuite:  HootSuite is a social media tool that works across several social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, WordPress, LinkedIn and more. The tool organizes feeds on a dashboard, and the user can monitor conversations, compile reports, and post to multiple social media networks at one time. HootSuite has two levels of membership: Basic (free) and Pro (subscription, $5.99 per month). Pro membership includes advanced features and unlimited social profiles across various social media platforms. Basic membership is ad-supported and supports up to 5 social profiles.

Radian6: Radian6 is another social media tool that provides monitoring of various media platforms. However, Radian6 provides additional information including demographics, location, influence, topic categorization and sentiment. The Radian6 dashboard displays relevant conversations about a company’s brand in real-time and breaks the information down into easy to use graphs and other visuals. Radian6 reports not only the fact that someone is talking, but tells you who it is and the degree to which his or her opinion has influence. Radian6 dashboard pricing starts at $600 per month.

ObjectiveMarketer: ObjectiveMarketer is an application that not only manages social media campaigns, but also includes SMS, email and mobile devices in the campaign. The user defines the strategy on the ObjectiveMarketer online application and identifies the channels, be they Facebook, Twitter, etc. Then the user creates the content he or she wants to distribute and schedules the campaign. After the campaign runs, the application tracks user interactions (tweets, shares, likes, reposts, etc.) and compiles reports. The application also mines the data, identifying trends and patterns, and compiles downloadable reports. Prices for ObjectiveMarketer are unique to the customer and are custom quoted.

Engage121: Engage121 is a social media tool sold as a subscription and quoted directly to the customer. Engage121 not only monitors what customers are saying about a brand, but Engage121 also allows a company to interact with customers in real-time. Customer complaints and resolutions, impromptu focus groups, customer loyalty programs, targeted coupons, polls, games and virtual gifts are just a few of Engage121′s capabilities. Their goal is to integrate social media into all customer interactions.

In 2011, a healthcare business must use various social media to reach its customers. The right social media tool can devise targeted and meaningful campaigns to reach customers effectively. Social media data, when mined effectively, also reveals much about customers’ buying habits and values. When a customer speaks, a smart business listens.

 

Healthcare Keyword Cost Per Click Compare to Non-Healthcare Keywords

Posted on May 20, 2011 by gabriel

It’s no secret that Google allows you to buy traffic from them. The program that allows you to bid on placement is named Google Adwords. Also, it’s common knowledge that this program charges you every time someone clicks on your ad, this concept is called a pay per click program.Every day I come across business owners who are shocked by how much each click costs. My goal with this blog post is to shed some light on common healthcare related keywords and how they compare to other industries.

Remember, Google Adwords is an auction environment. The cost per click is driven by how much advertiser is willing to pay for a visitor. With this in mind, when you read the below numbers don’t think, “Oh, my gosh, the cost per click is so high! I would never pay that!”

Your thought process should think, “The market values one visitor at that rate? How much do I value a visitor? How many patients could I acquire if I had 1,000 visitors to my website, and how much revenue would I make off it?”My last challenge is to think in terms of life time value. If you can’t make the revenue equation work using a click to conversion scenario, but the cost per click is still high, the life time value of a patient might be the driving force behind the cost per click (Laser Tattoo Removal is a good example).

Health Care Keywords

Keyword CPC 30 day search volume
Liposuction $6 300,000
Breast Augmentation $6 680,000
Lasik Surgery $12 110,000
dentist $3 2,700,000
Urgent Care $1.29 823,000
Shoulder Surgery $1 50,000
Hip Replacement $2 165,000

Non Healthcare Keywords
DUI Lawyer $30 110,000
Car Insurance $14 1,220,000
Roofing Contractor $5 110,000
Used Cars $2 3,350,000
International Shipping $4 90,500
Divorce attorney $8 165,000
Personal injury lawyer $20 100,000

The healthcare industry is behind the curve when it comes to cost per click advertising. My suggestion is to take advantage of this wail you can. I have noticed cosmetic procedures that are cash pay have a higher cost per click. However, the cost per click has stayed under $10 in most cases. Other high margin care types like shoulder surgery and hip replacement is still under $5 per click.

If you compare the healthcare cost per click information to other industries like insurance and law, on average, healthcare style keywords cost less.

 

SEO Goes Viral – Must See SEO Viral Videos

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Gabriel Gervelis

 

My personal Favorite - The Poetic Prophet (AKA – The SEO Rapper)

 

 

Who would win if MSN and Google got into a battle rap?
 

 

What about Google vs Yahoo in a battle rap?
 

 
Did you know? This is a classic! If you have not seen it…. well, its time to catch up!
 

 
Mac or PC Rap! Nothing to do with SEO, but it’s a must see.
 

 
Gotta thank Josh Dirks for turning me on to this one…..It’s the future of advertising!
 

 

The importance of 301 redirects

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Gabriel Gervelis

All of the website’s content is kept in a database. When the website query’s the database to grab content for a web page a URL path is created. The URL will show segments with different variables to identify the path to the content. For example, the URL http://www.sallyreps.com/portfolio.php?pid=11&cat=21 has two variables, pid=11 and cat=21. The pid=11 is telling the website to grab content from the Food photo category section, the cat=21 is telling the website to go a level deeper and get content for Rina Jordan.

URL rewriting will change the way the query writes the URL. Instead of displaying pid=11 the URL will display “Food”. Thus, the new URL that is displayed is www.sallyreps.com/portfolio/food/rina-fordan. We will use additional dynamic programing to add a keyword to the category variable, inserting the word “photography” into the URL. Now the new URL will read www.sallyreps.com/portfolio/food-photography/rina-jordan. This new keyword string creates keyword relevancy for multiple keywords including: Food photo rep, food photography rep, food photography, and Rina Jordan photography to name a few.

SEO is Dead?

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Gabriel Gervelis

Thanks for calling me out Josh! But you know that SEO is not dead. SMO (Social Media Optimization) is, and (will continue to be) and extremely powerful tool to promote content. You know as well as I do that you never put all of your marketing eggs into one basket. With this said, it’s increasingly important that your internet marketing strategy includes SEO, SEM, and SMO.

Ben Elowitz has a few points that I would like to comment on.

1) “..to many publishing executives, the right keywords have become far more important than their sites’ actual content or audience” – The moment that you take your users best interest out of the equation is a sad day for any business. It’s a user focused world. Your SEO strategy should not be to stuff keywords into blog posts, but to give users what they want….with a small side dish of keywords!

2) “Huffington Post pufferfish strategy of filling up Google’s database with more posts, more frequency, and more low-cost content” – The name of the game has always been quality of quantity, even in the SEO game…….If you post poor quality content your rankings will fall (or not achieve them), you won’t get the links you need, and your reputation will suffer.

3) “Facebook/Bing partnership to integrate social and search results clearly marks the beginning of the end of SEO” – No way man! It gives the SEO a new strategy to hit page one. It almost sounds like your SMO strategy should be based on the same keywords as your SEO strategy. Wait! If Bing integrates social results at the top of the listings will this drive more business to advertise on the paid listings? I wonder if Bing has a hidden agenda here.

4) “The balance of power is shifting: Already sites at Wetpaint and other publishers are seeing more audience coming from Facebook than from search.” – Not going to fight it, social media is an amazing way to spread the word about content and reach new people. Come on guys, can’t SEO and SMO get along?

5) “That the audience values content, not keywords.” – No, the audience values content that doesn’t have SEO keywords jammed into poor quality posts. Picture this. The toilet in your bathroom in your bathroom is overflowing and won’t stop. You run to your computer. Are you going to go to Facebook and make a status update? Search on Google for “how to stop an overflowing toilet”?

Hey Josh, thanks again for pointing out the post. The internet game is changing and the next few years are going to be extremely interesting. I just wish I knew a great social media company to team up with so SEO and SEM can play nicely!

All SEO is built with 100% organic ingredients.

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Gabriel Gervelis

I use 100% organic ingredients with my SEO. Some stores mark up the prices when only 100% organic ingredients are used with their products, but not here. I pride myself in keeping my prices low and my products fresh.

Often times contaminated SEO ingredients like automated link building and spam search engine submissions find their way into SEO products. Gervelis Search Marketing is on an endless quest to keep these pesticides away from our quality SEO products.

In addition to not using contaminated SEO ingredients I pledge to use that ingredients that are not expired. SEO is much like 2% non-fat milk, the ingredients can expire. Also, just like 2% non-fat milk, when SEO ingredients expire they smell bad and leave clients with upset stomachs.

For your protection stay away from these contaminated and expired SEO ingredients.

Automated search engine submissions – Contaminated

Automated directory submissions - Contaminated

Guaranteed search engine rankings - Expired

Keyword stuffing in meta tags - Expired

Meta keywords tag - Expired

Automated article submissions - Contaminated

Most of these contaminated and expired SEO ingredients are imported from India or China. Please, next time you buy SEO, buy 100% organic SEO.

G Search Marketing!

Its Kinda Like Chess, Not Everyone Can Play Well, But A Lot Of People Try

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Gabriel Gervelis

Today, in conversation with a prospect, I told someone that SEO is like chess, a not every can play well, but a lot of people try. After the conversation I thought to myself, “Yea that makes sense”, so I thought I would flush the thought out in more detail with a blog post.

Have you ever been in this situation?

Bob: “Hey, do you play chess?”

You: “Yea, I play a little”

Bob: “So do I, It’s been a few months since my last game but do you want to play?”

You: “Sure, I would love to play”

In this case, you two could play six back to back games and you might win three of four of them. These two people are not chess professionals, but they enjoy playing the game, and both players have won a game or two.

 

Now how about this situation:

Bob: “Hey, do you play chess?”

You: “Yes, I play a little”

Bob: “So do I, It’s been a few months since my last game but do you want to play?”

You: “Sure, I would love to play”

You: “oh, I see you have three chess boards to choose from, lets play with the one with civil war pieces”

Bob: “Yea, my father used to play chess with me when I was a kid”

You: “oh, and you have a chess clock. I have never played with one of those before, but have always wanted to”

Bob: “Ok, it’s your move”

You: “ok your turn”

Bob: “Your move again”

You “hmmmmm, I will move my Queen. This clock thing is kinda fun”

Bob: Checkmate

In this case you found yourself dealing with a professional. Also, Notice the first four lines of dialog are the same.

 

Now, how are chess and SEO similar? How many times have you heard this?

You: “Hey guys, now that my site is live let’s talk SEO. Do you offer SEO”

Web Company: “Yea we do SEO, wanna see some rankings that we have achieved?”

You: “wow, it looks like you know what you are doing, and the low monthly fee is very affordable, let’s give it a shot”

3 months later

You: Thanks guys, I am see some rankings and a little traffic, but I’m not seeing any sales. What’s going on

Web Company: Well, we optimized your Meta tags. I can do some research and see what else we can do”

In this situation, the web company ranked some websites just like the first conversation where you and Bob won some chess games.

One more situation for you:

You: “Hey guys, now that my site is live let’s talk SEO. Do you offer SEO”

Web Company: “Yea we do SEO, wanna see some rankings that we have achieved?”

You: “wow, I had no idea what type of work went into an SEO/SEM campaign. Your approach on link building is so unique to my business, I can see how the pieces of the puzzle come together. The price is more expensive then the last guy I used, but I can clearly see where the extra money goes.”

3 Months Later

You: Amazing, these analytics reports show how many leads are coming from the search engines. I can actually measure the ROI of the campaign; looks good! Hey, I have heard a lot about twitter and social media, is that something you do too?

Web Company: *Smile*

SEO is like a game of chess. Some chess players get lucky and win a few games here and there. Some SEO companies get lucky and get some rankings from time to time. However, the true chess player approaches each game with several different plans of attack. Also, doing the chess game if something goes wrong, they adjust their strategy and defeat their opponent.

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