One of the big “a-ha” moments many of our SEO clients experience occurs when we talk about how websites, serving as virtual stores, differ from their brick and mortar cousins.

The simplest and most basic difference comes from the fact that brick and mortar stores generally have one “official” entrance while websites, through the virtue of search engine indexation, can be “entered” at almost any point.

Say a searcher is looking for, let’s just go out on a limb here, “sour cream”. (Known here in the UK as “soured cream” – a fact I recently discovered.)

In the online world, a searcher would simply type the query into Google for example, and Voila!, millions of web pages (4.08 MM to be exact)  having something to do with “sour cream” would show up.

In the “real world”, however, the pattern is different. A shopper would generally enter through a store’s main entrance and begin the “search”. In my case it was Tesco, here in Swansea last Sunday, when I was shopping for “sour cream” (we were craving chicken fajitas).

With brick and mortar stores, people are familiar with the concept of browsing, knowing that while most stores have a similar organizational pattern (e.g. products requiring refrigeration are generally located together, as are breads, vegetables, wine), it can still take a while to “learn” that organization when one is a new shopper at that store.

For example, my “sour cream” experience at Tesco on Sunday took more than 45 minutes. At first I browsed for the “soured cream” myself, then I asked for help from an employee who took me to the “salad cream” section (salad cream appears to be a mild mayonnaise people put on their salads), then I browsed some more on my own, then I asked another employee who helpfully said it was in the “milk” section. Once there (again), I frantically examined each shelf on the “milk” aisle until I found the sour cream. All this took place whilst also hearing the countdown to the store closing time and fearing our chicken fajitas would not, in fact, include the critical ingredient.

In short, there’s an element of patience and perusal associated with brick and mortar shopping – until, that is, you learn exactly where the sour cream is and can make a beeline for that aisle the next time you need it.

Online shoppers are not that patient.

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View related topics: client-expectations, search-engine-rankings, SEO, seo-success, Web Usability

One of the best parts of any conference is meeting new and interesting people, with the added bonus of discovering synergies along the way.

At SXSW, the number of cool and interesting people is exponentially higher than at virtually any other conference I’ve attended.

But since I can’t mention them all here, I’ll just pick my favorite one from today.

Being a long-term NPR fan, imagine my excitement at meeting Nikki Silva, one of The Kitchen Sisters this morning. She was here at SXSW, promoting their new book Hidden Kitchens Texas and looking for online insight for their website.

And even more interesting is the fact that she and Davia Nelson published this most recent book using Blurb, one of CLM’s clients.

How cool.

Speaking of cool, I’m popping off now to head over and see Lance’s SXSW session: Kick Ass or Suck: Escaping Internet Mediocrity, starting at 5pm in Room 19B. If you’re around, come on over and say hi.

Earlier this month, my esteemed colleague Lance Loveday wrote a compelling piece for Search Engine Land’s Just Behave column, colloquially titled “A Plea to Stop Dissing Your Customers”.

In fact, I’d highly recommend clicking over to that post before continuing with this one.

Seriously, I’ll wait.

…

…

Welcome back.

As you no doubt noticed in that article, Lance highlights key points from the 3rd Annual Online Customer Engagement Survey – research that addresses how organizations are (or aren’t) preparing for long-term success in the online marketplace.

What struck me most about Lance’s post is his point that while customer engagement (obviously the focus of the 2009 Survey) is not a new term or a new concept, it is enjoying what he identifies as a “renaissance of sorts” in the online marketing world.

Upon reading the Survey itself, you’ll see this renaissance translates into approximately 52% of Company respondents (and 43% of Agencies) indicating that customer engagement is considered “essential” to their organizations – figures that are up from last year’s results.

Which is where I need to stop and raise a point.

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View related topics: client-expectations, customer engagement

As SEO consultants, we're asked a variety of questions. Many of them are strategic questions like: "How do you know if a page is optimized for the right terms?" or tactical questions like: "How do we structure our site to be more SEO-friendly?"

But just as often, the questions are fundamental ones: "How do I know if one keyword is searched on more than another?" or "How do you know what type of redirect is being used?"

And whether you're a seasoned SEO expert, or an in-house SEO manager new to your position, having a few SEO tools in your back pocket can help answer some of those fundamental questions.

A Little Background:

The impetus for this post came from a current client who is getting ready to "step into the spotlight" for SEO within her company. She's relatively new to SEO and is feeling the pressure of needing to be The Expert, so I was going to send her a few quick (and free) SEO tools for her to keep in her back pocket as she fully assumes this role.

Then I thought there might be others out there who'd be interested in this info.

And here we are.

So here’s a short collection of free SEO tools and tips I often reference to help answer some of those fundamental questions – or sometimes, just to make the job a little easier.

Enjoy.

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More than a year and a half ago, my CLM colleague Sandra Niehaus and I attended the Second Annual Persuasive Technology conference at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, hosted by BJ Fogg and his team at Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab.

At that time, I had only a rudimentary idea about what Persuasive Technology was and what its applicability to our company and my work might be.

Fortunately, I have a boss (and good friend) who encourages us CLM-ers to explore avenues that may not initially seem to be related to online marketing because of the opportunities such varied experiences and perspectives can offer.

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