I am speaking at the VRMA (Vacation Rental Managers Association) Western Seminar in Las Vegas.

This is the 21st year of this annual event. VRMA Western Seminar will take place at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas on Wednesday, April 30 and Thursday, May 1.

This VRMA event will feature educational sessions on Owner Relations, Employee Development and Retention, Marketing and Best Practices. My specific topic will include Search Engine Optimization.

If you plan on attending please drop me a note. I would love to meet up with anyone and everyone.

Universal Search is the blended results Google announced last year. The official announcement was May 16, 2007. The new search results blend listings from news, video, images, maps, and the traditional “blue links”.

Google’s Universal Search has still not exploded on to the travel segment as I expected it would 6 months ago, but that doesn’t mean it is not inevitable. It is similar to living on the banks of a river. You do not know when the flood is coming. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t build your house to sustain the water when it does arrive.

Universal, or blended, search is becoming crucial to the travel industry. Users searching for a vacation will be provided maps, videos, images, and anything else Google can find related to that vacation. It’s becoming extremely important that travel marketers keep content fresh and explore all avenues of the web.

Below are some quick ways to prepare your travel site for Universal Search.

1. Image File Names - Use one or two words, separating with dashes, to describe the image. That is all that is needed. It is important not to abuse these file names with repetitive keywords. Those “black-hat” tactics no longer work, and may even have a negative impact on rankings. Travel Site Tip: Be sure to include your destination in the image description.
2. Alt Tags – Be sure to use the “alt” tags on all images. Similar to the other points, do not abuse this feature. Not only are alt tags important to search engines, they are essential to visitors with disabilities that utilize screen readers. This is another reason why descriptive image alt tags are essential.
3. Use Video Tagging – When posting a video to any host, be sure to take advantage of tags that the service offers. Use tags for keywords that convert to revenue for you. Remember it’s not always the popular keywords you want. You want to focus on the ones that convert.
4. Optimize the content around the media – It is important to never let a video or image stand alone on your site. Surround the media with good content. All pages should be able to stand alone without media.
5. Include your address on your website – This makes it easier for Google’s Local Search to find your address and update its mapping system. This is essential and yet tricky in the travel industry. Your accommodations may not match the address of your office.
6. Submit your site to Google Maps - Getting listed in Google Local/Maps is essential, and yet tricky, in the travel Industry. Often times the address of the office may not match the address of the accommodations. To make sure your address is correct in Google, it’s best to do it yourself. The guide to adding a business listing is here. It’s important to include as much information as possible, including images, video and good content. Travel Site Tip: If you have multiple locations create a listing for each location.

Now is the time to prepare your Universal Search presence.

One day that river will flow over the banks. Is your house ready? Have you done everything you can to prepare for blended search?

I will be speaking at the VRMA Eastern Seminar in Myrtle Beach next week.

The 17th Annual Vacation Rental Management Association Eastern Seminar focuses on providing information to improve the operation of a vacation rental management company.

My session will be a SEO Site Clinic. I am joined by Trent Blizzard, Blizzard Internet Marketing. We will be evaluating sites web sites and making suggestions to enhance search engine optimization.

If you are attending the conference, please stop by and say “hi”.

See you in Myrtle Beach!

In the early stages of Google, the search results were clean and simple. In fact, that is what made it so brilliant. While Yahoo covered your page with ads, images, and personalization, people preferred the simplistic approach to Google.

Google is fading away from what they were so good at: Simplicity.

On March 3rd Google announced “teleporting”, search within a search. The concept allows users to search within a website directly from the Google search engine results page (SERP).

Amazon Example

Ultimately it’s just another dirty beer can on the Google highway. As several have pointed out already, it is flawed and unnecessary.

301 Confusion

Dave Dugdale (of RentVine.com) recently pointed out one flaw with the search-within-a-search.

Although, this is probably not a major flaw, because eventually it should find it’s way to the new site. However, it does bring up a point about deciding what sites to use this tool on and what sites not to use it on.

Unfair to the small player

Part of Google’s popularity has often been their ability to give the smaller player a chance to compete against the big name brands.

There is obviously a connection here between the popularity of the site. All sites do not have this new feature. The extra search box gives an advantage to the big time brand names. So what is the magic number to give a site it’s own search box? How many visitors a month does it take?

• Why ChicagoTribune.com and NOT AJC.com?
• Why FoodNetwork and not ESPN.com?

Clearly, there is a rhyme and reason to this… I hope. Is there a certain criteria that some sites have that the others do not?

Non-brand search terms

Searching for a dot com is one thing, but how about just keywords. Below is an example of a search for keywords instead of a brand.

Clearly this site now has a huge advantage over the competition, because Google chose to give them their own search box.

Google is constantly tweaking perfection. Although the new “features” sound like enhancements for the user’s sake, it’s not at all. It leads to more confusion and more pollution.

I am starting to miss the standard 10 Blue Links of Google.

I am often asked, usually in a whispered voice, “Do you have any good tricks?”

“Yes, look at your site”, I say.

Good content solves most SEO problems. That same idea applies to on-site link building. There is no doubt that link building is a huge factor in gaining search rankings. However, many web marketers forget to practice quality link building tactics on their own site.

We have all seen sites that force links into the site in order to boost search rankings. These are very transparent, even to the average user. However, with quality content the internal link building is natural. Great content naturally lends itself toward great quality inbound links.

Below are some general guidelines for internal link building.

Write Content First
It is important not to force content on to a page, in order to fulfill link building guidelines. Every site should have something to say. If you do not have anything to say on your site, then you do not deserve the good rankings you are after.

“How can my site be ranked higher?” I am asked.

My answer is always “Why should you be ranked higher?”

That usually makes web editors step back and take a second look. “Just because”, is not a good answer. And before they begin telling me the reasons they are better then the next site, they are stopped with … “Don’t tell me. I don’t care. Tell your customers”.

In other words, write good content on your site. Content is subjective, but ProBlogger.net has some great ideas on Writing Good Content.

Hyperlink keywords
After creating great content, the links will naturally flow. From this point you should be able to go back and hyperlink to internal pages.

It is okay at this stage to change text to emphasize specific keywords. However, do not change the text to where it jeopardizes the user experience.

You will find if the copy is well written that the links naturally pop out of the content.

Not only are these inbound links good for search engines, but it makes much better user experience. It gives the user a direction to go and helps them work through the site easier.

Do not “Click Here”
When adding the links, be sure not to commit the ultimate SEO sin. “Click here” provides no value to users or search engines. Those types of links immediately indicate an unprofessional site and insult the customer. Users know what a link is, they know where to click. There is no need to instruct them where to click.

Instead of telling those consumers to “click here” describe the link. Let customers and search engines know what the link is. Describe the page it’s going to with a link title.

A well internal link structure is the backbone of any quality website. It’s important to make sure internal link building is more than a site map. It can be difficult to get partners to create quality links. However, internal link building is easily controlled and should be treated as a high priority by anyone who wants to improve search rankings.

I enjoyed my time at BarCamp Nashville so much, that I ask for more punishment.

I hope to bring my knowledge of search engine marketing to the media discussion at PodCamp Nashville.

We will have lots of creative people at the un-conference, so hopefully I can help with getting that creativity noticed by Google.

PodCamp Nashville is Saturday, February 9.

Stop by, say “hi”, and meet some great people. Join us at PodCamp Nashville at The Cannery Ballroom.

See you there!

Well, I was not chosen as a finalist for the Semmys, but its okay. As they say, “it is an honor to be nominated”. There were some great articles this past year. I definitely can not say my writings were better than the finalists.

Local Search
Anatomy & Optimization of A Local Business Profile - By Chris “Silver” Smith

Analytics
Web Analytics Demystified - By Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor

Google
Google 2.0: Google Universal Search - By Danny Sullivan

SEO
SEO Linking Gotchas Even the Pros Make - By Andy Beard

Online Marketing / General
How A Pretty Face Can Push Visitors Away - By Bryan Eisenberg

PPC
Five Common Paid Search Mistakes That Can Sink Your Campaign - By Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide
* This one mentions some of the same points that I mentioned in 7 Habits of Highly Effective PPC Advertisers. However, Jennifer does a much better job of explaining in many of the points. Plus, she has some other great points that I left off. I strive to write as good as her.

Small Business
When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss: What You Don’t Know About Your Web Site Can Hurt You - By Christine Churchill

LOL Funny!
Web 3.0 Sites - By Philipp Lenssen, Google Blogoscoped

Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing is NOT the Same as Word of Mouth - By Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide

1. Sell and Educate

Prepare to spend 50% of your time selling and educating the company on SEO. This is not snake oil. Search engine marketing can make or break a business. Unfortunately, in-house staff will often have to spend a large portion of time convincing the “older” generation.
Setup meetings, trainings, presentations, webinars, whatever it takes. Keep in the company informed and stay ahead of the questions. Everyone things they are an expert, but you are the only one getting paid to be the expert. A lack of continuing education will result in unwanted “experts” advising and taking SEO matters in their own hands.

2. Strong Analytics

It is hard to argue with numbers. Before taking any in-house SEM job, it’s important to make sure you have, or able to purchase, the right analytics packages. Once in place, showing results in revenue directly related to search engine marketing will bring anyone to attention.

3. Ego Rankings

Any expert in search engine marketing will tell you that certain keywords bring in high traffic and some may bring in high revenue. Often those keywords are not the same. Obviously, you want high revenue keywords.
However, there are often many keywords that management and executives want rankings with. These are Ego keywords, not money words. However, appeasing management with rankings on their personal keywords can go a long way. Plus, there may be legitimate reasons beyond immediate revenue that may pay off down the road on these keywords.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking at SMX Travel @ PhoCusWright in Orlando.

My session, “How ya doing?” Critiques, Appraisals and Kudos from Travel SEM Experts,” went very well.

I was joined by Elisabeth Osmeloski, Director of Online Media at Zonder.com and Christine Churchill, President at KeyRelevance. I was honored to share the stage and I managed to get some microphone time in as well, which is always nice.

This was an informal session that included reviewing sites for best practices on search engine optimization. Some of the common issues I noticed are below.

Page Title – For me, it’s still the most important step to take for search engine rankings. Developing a site title with a few targeted keywords makes a huge difference in search rankings. Surprisingly, as simple as this is, it’s still one of the most common mistakes.

Missing keyword-rich content – Many sites we reviewed at SMX Travel were missing quality content. In this session and throughout the conference, this is usually the first thing that site owners realize on their own after a few quick questions.

• Why should you be ranked higher in search rankings?
• What is the purpose of your site?

Now, express that answer on your website. Tell your consumers and tell the search engines who you are.

Targeting the wrong keywords – By reviewing analytics, pay-per-click campaigns and various other tools marketers can discover which keywords convert better. There are also many tools available that will discover missing opportunities. Many keywords may convert well, but the competition is to strong and not worth competing in. Marketers need to find their niche.

Site Maps – Search Engines love links, especially internal links. A site map is useful for indexing spiders to find all content of a site. The text you use to link to a page should be keyword rich and related to the URL that it’s pointing to.

Although I review all of our sites on a daily basis, it’s nice to get a fresh look at new sites. Some of the things that I can consider common knowledge are not always that common. This was a very enjoyable session for me because I enjoy helping people, plus it’s good to learn from Elisabeth Osmeloski and Christine Churchill.

I will spend the first part of next week speaking at SMX Travel @ PhoCusWright in Orlando. This will be my first SMX conference and I am looking forward to it.

If you are coming to the conference or in the Orlando area, post a note here. I would love to meet anyone and everyone. Catch me early, because I will only be in Orlando Monday and Tuesday.

I will am participating in: “How ya doing?” Critiques, Appraisals and Kudos from Travel SEM Experts. This session will by Monday, November 12 at 1pm.

Below are links for more details:
www.phocuswright.com/the_phocuswright_conference_2007_information

searchmarketingexpo.com/travel/2007/full_agenda.shtml

See you in Orlando.