Paramore|Redd Blog

Tennessee is Blazin’ New Trails

cbooker@paramoreredd.com (Christa Booker) — 2009-11-04T21:34:55-06:00

Yesterday was a big day in Tennessee Tourism. Governor Phil Bredesen, along with the Commissioner of Tourist Development, Susan Whitaker, announced an initiative that will take Tennessee Tourism to the next level. The Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways is a statewide initiative that will cover all 95 counties in Tennessee with 15 regional self guided driving trails as well as feature five of Tennessee’s National Scenic Byways. During the press conference, the Old Tennessee Trail was announced as the first trail covering Davidson, Williamson and Maury counties.

And, to take it to the next level, Tennessee has confirmed that Rascal Flatts will be the official voices of the Tennessee Trails and Byways marketing campaign, encouraging visitors to “Get Your Backstage Pass” to Tennessee by visiting the trails and byways. And, of course, Rascal Flatts’ famous take on “Life is a Highway” will serve as the official Tennessee Trails and Byways theme song as part of the branding campaign.

The Paramore|Redd media and creative teams are so excited to be a part of this initiative. Look out for some impressive media and great creative reflective of the new branding. Also, be sure to check out the Tennessee Trails and Byways social networking pages:

We had a chance to tweet live from the press conference and upload videos and photos of the big reveal. Jenny and I even got to shake the Governor’s hand!

Also, there have been Facebook group pages set up for each trail. Tennessee needs the social networks to help them build the points of interest for each. They are asking that fans across the country upload pictures, videos and start discussions in order to build each trail. Check out the awesome new website, built by our partner Design Sensory, with information on each trail along with a link to their Facebook group page.

Build Your Destination Brand Online With A New Employee and Twitter

schandler@paramoreredd.com (Steve Chandler) — 2009-10-30T13:41:06-06:00

Perhaps the notion of “living your brand” is easier than ever now that we have social media tools like Twitter. Recently, some tourism organizations have been creating nice exposure for themselves by advertising new job opportunities to work at their destination – all in the name of branding. Apparently, the newest way to tell your destination’s story is to hire someone whose job description embodies the brand. I love it. The most widely talked about success story has been Queensland, Australia, who recently won the coveted Grand Prize at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival with an ad campaign seeking to hire for “The Best Job in the World”. The advertising called for applicants to fill the role as Caretaker of Hamilton Island in Queensland, Australia. They received over 34,000 applications from over 200 countries. I guess that means it worked.

First of all, great idea - I am a wee bit envious that it was not mine.

Secondly, why not transfer this idea into a brand’s social media marketing efforts? For instance, Santa Claus, IN could promote their destination on Twitter by using tweets from the jolly ole guy himself. Who wouldn’t prefer to receive their local tourism updates for Santa Claus, IN from “Santa” as opposed to a marketing intern stuck in the local news station’s mailroom?

Let’s talk it out. What other interesting destinations could hire a person to be the ambassadors and official Tweeters for their brand? Here are a few ideas that would be fun to execute:

Chief Leprechaun – Dublin, OH. Their tourism tagline touts “Where Irish Is An Attitude.” You can’t tell me that daily tweets from a leprechaun wouldn’t make you feel lucky.

Duckmaster – Memphis, TN. The famed Peabody Hotel is world renown for their ducks. Since 1940, there has been a designated Duckmaster on their full-time staff that tends to the famed ducks daily - even marching them from their rooftop perches though the hotel lobby at 11 a.m. on the dot every morning for them to showcase their swimming skills in the hotel fountain. I’d follow that Duckmaster’s quacks.

Purveyor of Flavor - Mesquite, TX. Their local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau uses the tagline - Real. Texas. Flavor. I’d sign up to see what the Purveyor’s Flavor of the Day would be.

Maestro of Music – Nashville, TN. The Maestro now officially uses Music City as its brand theme. This may just be too easy. To start, the Maestro could tweet on all things music in and around Nashville. Um duh.

Storymaster – Jonesboro, TN. Jonesboro is home of the world’s international storytelling festival. If it isn’t obvious, the Storymaster could tweet the moral of a story each day. The end.

Master Tailor - Augusta, GA. Their tourism organization inspires everyone to “Play Augusta” and make each of their experiences a green jacket moment.

The Candyman - Hersey, PA. It would be cool if the promotion of Hersey was done through a person that only saw the world through candy eyes. Like Willy Wonka…but in a way that wouldn’t scare the children.

Head Witch Hunter - Salem, MA. I would love to follow tweets from someone who thought everyone was a witch. Could be funny. Unless of course you are the hunted.

Dr. Love – Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love). Yes, I’m thinking Barry White in disguise.

The Wizard - Liberal, KS. The Liberal touts being the Land of Oz. They could create an entire Twitter cast that tweets about local happenings and events.

Okay. I think you get the picture. If every community took this approach to branding, not only would it bring their brand to life in a unique voice, but it would also create new career paths and significantly add to the interesting activity already abound on Twitter.

Do you have any ideas for destination jobs and Twitter profiles? Hit me with your best shot.

It’s NOT Fair, Facebook!

jstephenson@paramoreredd.com (Jenny Stephenson) — 2009-10-29T21:32:19-06:00

Have you ever had something done to you and thought “It’s just NOT fair.“ Well, Facebook has recently revoked my publishing rights for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development’s Facebook Fan Page. Yes, I got the warning email stating that I had 3 weeks to authenticate the page by either:
1. adding the Facebook Fan Box Widget
2. adding an email address associated with the brand, which could include a PR email address
3. add an additional email address associated with the brand or
4. if I did not have a way to authenticate the page, then I could fill in a description of the purpose of the Fan Page.

Yes, I immediately filled this form out by adding my work email address (Paramore|Redd is associated with Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and I am doing their Facebook PR). And Yes, all Tennessee Fan Page admins did the same (Including Tennessee staff).

Exactly a week later, Tennessee lost the rights to publish on the Fan Page because Facebook stated that the page was not authenticated. Shouldn’t they have waited till their 3 week deadline was up? Well, a week and a half later, we are still locked out from publishing on the page. It’s really just NOT fair.

Thanks to the lovely peeps at Paramore|Redd and Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and many other folks we have communicated with, I have successfully exhausted all email addresses and phone numbers I have been given and have not received one response back from Facebook. Hence, my blog of Facebook frustration.

Not only has this situation caused frustration, but it has also caused Tennessee to lose communication with the many (20,551 to be exact) fans that we have accumulated and communicated with over the past 10 months. The social strategy for Tennessee Department of Tourist Development involves many different avenues, but Facebook is the largest.

If you happen to know someone at Facebook that will be able to help Tennessee out, you may be my new best friend.

PS - Facebook also removed our unique URL. Please visit the Tennessee Fan Page at this lovely URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nashville-TN/Tennessee/41445466058#/pages/Nashville-TN/Tennessee/41445466058

Content is King

jstephenson@paramoreredd.com (Jenny Stephenson) — 2009-10-21T16:24:45-06:00

This phrase is said time and time again for web development and it can’t be more true. If there is not enough relevant content on a website, it pretty much defeats the purpose of even having a website.

The same rule is applied to your Facebook page, Twitter account and other social networking sites. If content is lacking, then nobody cares.

Social media is the place consumers are turning to for information, advice, and products. Companies and organizations that are successful on the social networks, like the recent T.G.I. Friday’s Fan Woody push, understand that there must be an incentive for people to join the conversation. It may be a free burger, advice, coupons, receiving the “insider scoop” or even something as simple as being associated with that brand.

So, the big question is, how do you keep the people involved in conversation after the big push ends? I mean, you can’t continuously give away free burgers or the “inside scoop”. Well, you could, but that would be a lot of burgers and a lot of secrets.

Use the content from your website to fill in the gaps.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1. The content is already written - no point it writing it again.
2. The content is correct and accurate - at least it should be.
3. The content should be the same branding as the social media strategy.

Here is an example of how I successfully used website content on Facebook.

When creating status updates for Tennessee Department of Tourist Development’s facebook page, I rely on their website for content.

Example status update: “Do you know where, in Tennessee, Moon Pies were first produced? http://bit.ly/V5d8T”

Tennessee had 8 likes, 32 comments, and 51 clicks on the link - which sent people directly to tnvacation.com.

There ya have it. Content also rules social media.

Design, Development, & SEO - Barcamp Nashville-2009

jbriggs@paramoreredd.com (Justin Briggs) — 2009-10-19T20:43:31-06:00

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Barcamp Nashville 2009 at Cadillac Ranch. It was my first time attending BCN and it completely exceeded my expectations. The event ran smoothly, the shirts were amazing, and the food was delicious. A huge thanks to everyone who helped put on Barcamp this year. The planning team did a great job! Also, a huge thanks to all the sponsors (great swag from magazines.com).

My session was on Design, Development & SEO: Building Search-Friendly Websites. It went even better than I could have imagined - the room was jam packed as I talked about SEO web design. It was a great experience sharing my knowledge, answering questions, and meeting great people.

A huge thanks to everyone who left me great comments about my session.

From Twitter:

melaniemoran: Fantastic talk by @seozombie on SEO. Lots of info. clearly presented. Look for slides for details. #bcn09 #bcn09seodesign

chaoskitten82: yeah @firesignDS and @chrisleedottv packed and hot!!! #bcn09seodesign #bcn09 #itsgettinhotinhurrr

thoughtwrong: Very informative session with @seozombie . Glad I chose this one, gonna study this stuff more. #bcn09seodesign

kiddredd: Justin Briggs of @paramoreredd at Barcamp: great stuff, well presented. #bcn09

-See more via hashtag #bcn09seodesign

I did upload my slides, which are now available for anyone interested in the links.

View Through is the New Black

cbooker@paramoreredd.com (Christa Booker) — 2009-10-14T16:15:12-06:00

With each online media vehicle, there is a purpose. Whether it is brand awareness with display, lead generation and customer retention with co-registration and email, audience interaction with social networking or clicks with pay per click, there is always a goal with each media campaign. And, there are always conclusions to be drawn from studying these metrics. In the world of online marketing where everything is measurable, the hardest thing to measure is brand awareness from display advertising. How do we measure what the consumer does when they see an ad? Clicks don’t necessarily foreshadow consumer behavior from a branding standpoint.

Here’s why.

I will ask some personal questions, consumer to consumer (pretend I’m not a media specialist).

How many times do you read an online recipe on SouthernLIving.com and click on a travel ad?
How many times do you listen to your Pandora radio station and click on the deodorant ad on the site skin?

When you are flipping through your MySpace page, the last thing you want to do is click on an ad that takes you away from looking at your colleagues new posted pictures. With branding, that’s not the point.

The marketer wants you to see the ad, recognize the brand, and come back to it when you are in need for it. In a marketers eyes, when the brand resonates in the eye of a consumer, that is beautiful. It leads to thing such as repeat purchases and brand loyalty.

How do we measure that?

My favorite metric is view through rate. This is tracked by placing a pixel on your home page to see how many people see your ad and come back to your site.

For example, the Birmingham brand awareness/display media campaign is running on four sites. Three of the sites fit the demographics of the Birmingham target market, and the fourth site is a travel planning site. When evaluating which site was most effective, I turned to the view throughs of the website. The non travel planning sites sent a significant amount of clicks (.10% click through rate), but an extremely low amount of view throughs with an average of .02%.

The travel planning site sent a significant amount of clicks (.20% click through rate) and sent even more views with a .21% view through rate. So, the campaign on the travel planning site gave Birmingham direct interest with clicks and brand awareness and brand loyalty with a significant amount of view throughs.

This is how I optimize my campaigns to make sure the sites match the target consumer.

Happy optimizing!

Pumping Up YouTube - SMX 2009

jbriggs@paramoreredd.com (Justin Briggs) — 2009-10-07T04:37:10-06:00

This is more of a recap than a live blog post. I’ve had a few technical problems blogging this week, so the posts are coming in a bit late.

Moderator: Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance.com

Speakers:

Matthew Liu, Product Manager, YouTube, Google Inc.
Ciarán Norris, Head of Social Media Marketing, Mindshare Worldwide
Manny Rivas, Associate SEO Account Manager, aimClear

Although I do SEO all day, I was pumped about this session on YouTube. YouTube has become one of the largest search engines on the net, so naturally I couldn’t miss out.

Manny Rivas

Manny from aimClear is the first up to share information about YouTube basics and aimClear’s findings.

YouTube Is Massive

The 2nd largest search engine
The 4th most visited web site
20 hours of video are uploaded every minute
An average viewer in July of this year watched 8.3 hours of video online

(Basically, YouTube is way too big to ignore)

Reasons Businesses are Utilizing YouTube

Externalize resources
Focus group
Expert advice
Advertising
Video contests
Customer service

Ranking Factors for YouTube

Title
Description
Keyword tags
Annotations
Comments
.....

The list is too long to type out in time, but it’s not nearly as complicated as traditional SEO, which has over 200 factors.

(Once the slides go up, I’ll expand this list)

Steps for Taking Advantage of YouTube

Optimize Your Content
Engage the Community
Monitor Performance
Creator’s Corner

Optimize Your Content

Competitive Intelligence

You need to know who you’re up against.

Search your keyword phrase to see how many competing videos
Check the top ranking videos
Look at title, description, tags, views, and upload date
Look at statistics options in a tab below the video
Check referral information
Check demographic information

Keyword Research
Like traditional SEO, keyword research helps you identify what keywords to target in your title, description and text. There are a couple of great places to look for keyword information.

Suggestion Query Box
“Also try”
Wonder Wheel
Youtube Keyword Tool
Google Adwords Tool - for blended search results

Get More Eyeballs

Getting on the list of the most viewed videos will get you more views.

Tip: Use promoted video to increase views

You can also find more places to promote your video by looking at related content and by observing comment fields.

You can use your own network to push the video further. YouTube recently added “Find Your Friends”, which will pull in your contact list from GMail. In addition, you can push your video across your social media network to produce even more views.

Engage the Community

Why Engage the Community

Ranking correlation
Visibility within YouTube
Networking

Monitor Performance

Master YouTube Insight Analytics

To really monitor your video’s performance, you should master YouTube Insight analytics.

Information from YouTube Insight

Mobile phone usage
Comments
Rating
Play time
Rewinding
Exit points

Creator’s Corner

A great resource for creators of YouTube videos. Including advice on how to optimize your videos.

Matthew Liu

Matthew gives us some advice directly from YouTube.

Before using YouTube, it is important to define your objectives.

Views
Engagement
Conversions

Get a full picture.

The Basics of Improving Video Rankings

Title

Create an accurate and descriptive title

Description

Create accurate, unique, and complete descriptions. Use complete sentences.

Tags

Include descriptive tags
Avoid keyword stuffing

Community Options

Share video with members of the community
Experiment with annotations, video responses, and thumbnails
Avoid spamming users and rating your own videos

Embeds

Turn embeds on
Embed videos on websites to make your videos more discoverable and easier to find on the web
Embedding is almost always positive

Viral Videos Through “Free” Marketing

Guerilla Marketing

Use subtle branding and stealth marketing efforts
Seed to news, sites, blogs
Use YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to fan the flames

Examples: Kobe jumps over car & Guys backflip into jeans

Explicit Marketing

Communicate directly with Youtube Community
Use Video responses, subscriptions, comments to engage in dialogue

Example: Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water

Paid Marketing

Use YouTube Promoted Video to seed discovery
Use YouTube home page ads for massive reach
Use other ad platforms to drive traffic to YouTube watch page
Organic traffic oftentimes exceeds paid traffic after initial burst

A paid campaign helps “put gasoline on the fire” when a video launches.

Use Insight analytics to better understand your audience. Use this detailed information to better understand discovery, demographics, and keywords. This data can be used to plan future actions.

Promoted Videos - Paid Discovery for YouTube

It is like Adwords for videos. These ads work on a CPC basis and include thumbnails and promotion text. Many advertisers have seen great results. Some promoters have even seen more success on YouTube than Adwords. For some products, visual ads are better. As a result, some have had lower CPA on YouTube than Google.

Let Users Engage Further

The JCPenny videos are used as an example of engaging users further.

Create many videos and messages
Use annotations, thought bubbles to cross promote videos
Call to Action Overlay - allows you to drive traffic back to your site

Use Channels for Deeper Engagement

Use a custom background
Have a personality
Turn on comments
Have featured videos
Create a playlist

Ciarán Norris

So, what is “Viral Marketing”?

Ciarán shares the massive quote for Wikipedia ... it’s not very clear

His definition: “Cool s#*t that people like to share”

Content isn’t king, conversation is. Content is something to talk about.

YOU CAN’T MAKE VIRAL

You can have a strategy.

First things first:

People - does social make sense
Objectives - sales or brand
Strategy - strategy for engagement
Technologies - end with technology, only after you know you should be on YouTube

Ciarán shares the Forrester ladder of users, from most engaged to least engaged.

Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactive

Great Viral

Two of greatest viral are YouTube and Hotmail. In both cases, sharing was built into the product.

Two Greatest Viral

YouTube
Hotmail

Sharing was built into the product.

Will It Blend? iPhone

A great social and viral campaign. They used YouTube, a mini-site, and the main site. Traffic spiked during the viral campaign on all sites. The result was a sales uplift of 650%.

Great Unbranded Videos

Guy Catches Glasses with Face
Test Your Awareness: Do the Test - Dancing bear video

Test Your Awareness: Do the Test

Two Actions From Test Your Awareness

Share with friend - to make sure they’re not the only stupid one
People would watch it again, so they doubled their views

Piggyback On Other Ads

You can create great viral videos by piggybacking on other popular viral videos.

Cadburry Gorilla Ad => Wonderbra Girl on Drums (“two cups full of joy”)
Tipping Pot (Guinness Spoof)

Wonderbra spoofed this… You can imagine. It did well.

YouTube Tips

Headline - make them exclusive!
Thumbnail - put it in the middle
Comments - let them roll
Referrers - refer them

Link Building Fundamentals - SMX East 2009

jbriggs@paramoreredd.com (Justin Briggs) — 2009-10-05T20:43:01-06:00

Live blogging from SMX East: Please forgive any typos or grammar mistakes; I will follow up later to correct them. I may expand on this later, but I’m keeping it brief to get the information out.

Speakers:

Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link
Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com

This session is very basic for me, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear both Eric and Debra speak.

Debra Mastaler

In July 2009, 76 billion searches were done on Google. Of those, 25 billion were done in the United States. The biggest ranking factor used by search engines are links.

Link popularity is an off-site factor that measures the quality and quantity of links pointing to a web page.

4 Components of Link Popularity

Quantity - the pure volume
Quality - a measure of the authority, signals like PR
Anchor text - the click-able part of the link, very powerful
Relevance - topical community, relevant links

Goal: large number, quality, keyword rich, and relevant

Which Link Building Tactics Are Working Best?

Content solutions. Content tactics hit all 4 of the components of link popularity.

How to Start?

Start as if you have a business offline: chambers, industry associations, sponsorships, etc.

Tip: Use expert witness directories. Become an authority and issue a press release.

Foundational Links

Niche directories - start out with a good base with directory links
Local directories - lots of good clean links
General directories - only about 15 decent general directories left
Element directories - target directories for specific elements: contests, coupons, videos, articles, newsletter, etc.
Social media profiles - develop a company profile on large and niche social sites

Link Building with Content

Traditional

Q&A
Articles
Tutorials
Reviews

Link Bait

Breaking News
Top 10
Emotional
Digg
Mixx
Bloggers

When adding new content: issue press release, release articles, and share it in your newsletter. Always encourage linking.

Tip: Use blog outreach to ask bloggers to guest blog for them. Bloggers need content.

Tip: Ask bloggers to review you.

If you’re an authority, drop your content on other sites.

Media Links

Backtrack your competitor’s news links
Use Google Alerts to track news about a keyword
CyberJournalist.net
Press Releases - success using niche wire services
Niche social media sites

Tip: Track social articles on Digg to find their source, get listed there.

Authority Links: You Have to Go For Them

Use SEO Book Hubfinder co-citation tool to find authority links. Beg, buy, and borrow to get these links. These are hard to get, but worth it!

Eric Ward

In 1993, nobody cared about link building; in 2009, everybody cares.

Why? Google.

Link Building = PageRank = Search Rank, Right?

Two audiences for links: people & bots.

Quality links based off merit are more important. Just because you can a link from a site, doesn’t mean you should.

Four Things Links Can Accomplish

Direct click traffic - these may not help your search rankings, but can send lots of traffic
Search rank
Both - A rare and beautiful thing
Neither - most content added to web is crap

Effective Link Building

Low hanging fruit - the links anyone can get
Merit based from link “curators” - links only you can get
Online public relations
Non-sensationalist linkbait
Click traffic driven link buying aka advertising
On-site link optimization

The link building approach used for any given web site should be different based on each site’s focus, content, and intended audience

Mobile Search Apps & Opportunities - SMX 2009

jbriggs@paramoreredd.com (Justin Briggs) — 2009-10-05T16:06:48-06:00

Live blogging from SMX East: Please forgive any typos or grammar mistakes; I will follow up later to correct them. I may expand on this later, but I’m keeping it brief to get the information out.

Speakers:

Scott Dunlap, CEO, NearbyNow
Michael Martin, SEO Director, Internet Marketing Inc.
Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Strategy, iCrossing
Matt Siltala, President, Dream Systems Media

Rachel Pasqua

Racel Pasqua talks about building successful branded apps. Today, apps are becoming indispensable to their digital strategy.

Successful Apps

Ebay App - $400 million in sales
Zagat 77th most downloaded app
MLB 400K at $9.99

There is lots of room for visibility and revenue, but most apps have a shelf life of 30 days. So how do we make a successful app?

Rachel used herself as an example of an iPhone user. Of 160 apps she downloaded, she only kept 30 and uses 10 regularly.

Reason to Delete Apps

Lacked functionality
Built to show off iPhone, not the brand
No actionable connection to brand

What Made an App Sticky

Easier access to useful content than even a mobile website
Provides useful, and often location specific, information
Drive customer to their store

Non-Branded Apps Brands Should Look At

iDomain
Colorado Parks
Car Care

Three Simple Tips for Apps

Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses
Put user and strategy before functionality
Learn from yourself, put the user first

Michael Martin

Michael discusses Android instead of the iPhone. He starts by introducing the Android software stack for mobile devices, which includes an operating system, middle ware, and key applications.

Why think about Android? Android is narrowing the gap of new apps month by month. Over 15,000 Apps in The Android Market. Of those, 64% are free.

The Android Market is a user controlled market place, not by Apple, AT&T or Google. It also allows a 24 hour Buy & Try policy.

Scott Dunlap

Scott starts by asking who owns different phones. iPhone is extremely popular, which is why we’re focusing heavily on iPhone applications. The Android is a better programming platform, but from a marketing perspective, it doesn’t make sense to not target the iPhone today.

They’re very focused on measuring conversions.

Scott gives examples of the Seventeen Magazine application: “find it online” has a 0.5% conversion and “find it near me” 5.5% conversion. Next, Scott continues to show the Runner’s World application with videos. He also shows the Lucky Magazine application, which is able to monetize the app with sponsored channels.

Matt Siltala

Matt focuses on the Yelp iPhone application.

In the words of Lisa Barone: “z0mg traffic”

Yelp Statistics

Growing 80% a year
25 million visitors in August

Matt asked Yelpers, how often do you use Yelp for information that is not food or review related?

People answered they use Yelp for all kinds of things including stores, salons, and traveling.

And if you’re interested in Google, Yelp is great for citations and additional SERPS.

Get real reviews, improved local listings, and branding. Business owners can directly respond to negative reviews.

Since customers can review you, it becomes important to monitor their brand and reputation online. When signing up, fill out the profile and optimize your listing.

People love Yelp and use it to find where to eat and what to eat.

Revisiting PageRank Sculpting & Siloing - SMX 2009

jbriggs@paramoreredd.com (Justin Briggs) — 2009-10-05T15:38:25-06:00

Live blogging from SMX East: Please forgive any typos or grammar mistakes; I will follow up later to correct them. I may expand on this later, but I’m keeping it brief to get the information out.

Speakers:

Adam Audette, President, AudetteMedia, Inc
Eric Enge, President, Stone Temple Consulting
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz
Brent Payne, Director of Search Engine Optimization, Tribune Company
Leslie Rohde, Founder and CEO, LeftSideSystems, LLC
Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive

A great session about PageRank sculpting and the use of nofollow as a sculpting tactic.

Eric Enge

Eric Enge starts us off with an introduction to the nofollow and how it has been used in the past. In June of 2009, Matt Cutts stated at SMX Advanced that nofollow no longer works this way. Instead, this extra PageRank evaporates. But, is this the truth?

Eric Enge presents a case study on the use of nofollow. A large site decided to apply nofollow to most of the links in the main navigation. As a result, 75% of all links were nofollow. The result was that traffic and indexed pages experienced a drop. Eric recommended removing these nofollows. The result is that the indexed pages increased to the previous amount and the traffic went up to 30% over the previous high.

His conclusion, was that Matt Cutts was right. Nofollow is no longer the way to sculpt PageRank.

Leslie Rohde

Next up is Leslie Rohde. He talks about how we continue to discuss this topic, but the tactics and conversation are always changing.

Leslie talks about three reasons to block link juice. First, to cut off external bleeds to sites you don’t need to be linking to. Second, to prevent from wasting juice on non-money pages. Lastly, to optimize for profit shaping.

Leslie continues to show examples of two case studies where nofollow sculpting increased traffic by 100%. Both of these sites were large sites and Leslie recommends that sites with more than 10,000 pages is a good time to start sculpting.

Brent Payne

Brent Payne talks about sculpting with the Chicago Tribune, which is a very different type of site. This won’t work for all sites. He discusses an automated sculpting method, as well as a module system that removes content sections of the site. A new CMS allows content to be removed from the homepage, which reduces links from 600 to 200. This has a PageRank sculpting impact during breaking news scenarios.

Adam Audette

Adam Audette is up next and says nofollowing sculpting sucks, but tons of sites are still out there doing nofollow sculpting.

Ultimately, the goal is to push more link weight to some URLs and restrict link weight to others.

Ways to Sculpt PageRank

Site architecture
Landing pages
Navigation
Mini directories
Internal linking

Basically, give important URLs prominence.

Lastly, Adam talks about how SEO is a HUGE part of Zappos’ $1 billion in online sales

Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin starts by agreeing with Adam’s and Brent’s advice. Rand discusses how much of SEO is for engines and not users. He continues on with a few images from his blog about the old and new model of nofollow.

Rand believes that sculpting is only really useful for solving one issue: indexing.

Since Google only crawls a limited number of pages per site, and nofollow can help control which pages receive PageRank, it could be detrimental to remove nofollow on large sites with more pages than Google will index.

The number of pages search engines will index is proportional to that site’s importance and popularity. SEOmoz has seen that removing nofollow can have a dramatic negative effect on indexation and search traffic.

Shari Thurow

Shari Thurow has a very different view than most SEOs on nofollow and PageRank sculpting. Her two main points were that nofollow sculpting is a band-aid for bad information architecture and that if a site has poor IA, it should be fixed. Shari continues about her background in web design, SEO and IA. She believes that SEOs and searchers have different mental models.

She shares a case study where she recommended NOT using nofollow. Instead, they fixed the site’s IA. Traffic went up 22% over the previous month and 21% over the previous year.

She believes a site should improve their information architecture instead of solving it with nofollow PR sculpting.

The Q&A

During the Q&A, everyone agrees that you should be careful what you link to from a user and SEO perspective. In addition, all believe you should be careful when responding to news. Don’t immediately react to news, because drastic changes may not be best.

There was a lot of disagreement on the topic of using nofollow as a sculpting tactic They were: depends, there are better tools, depends, use advanced techniques, not on all sites, disappearing links, and use nofollow, but not to structure the architecture.

Danny spent some time talking about how Google does a lot of internal sculpting that we cannot anticipate. Although we can do a lot of sculpting, search engines can completely change how they deal with our sites.

Brent also recommended using anchor text variation when linking internally to a landing page.