Rachel Gold: books | marketing | play | enlightenment

The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors

Search engine optimization — SEO — may seem like alchemy to the uninitiated. But there is a science to it. Search engines reward pages with the right combination of ranking factors, or “signals.” SEO is about ensuring your content generates the right type of signals. Our chart below summarizes the major factors to focus on for search engine ranking success. The Search Engine Land Guide To SEO explains factors in more depth, with tips and a tutorial on implementing them. Read on!

via searchengineland.com

This is one of the absolutely most helpful guides I've seen about SEO. Not only does it remind me of what I need to pay attention to, but it's also a handy way to explain to clients the complexity of SEO.

I encourage you to click the title above and visit the Search Engine Land website where you can download your own copy. 

Winning with Lederhosen

This morning I got to wake up to a blog post by my publisher about me. For those of you who also work in marketing or publicity, you know it's wild to be written about after spending most of your working time writing about and promoting other people. I love the way they're describing my book, but I'm also tickled about the lederhosen lead, so for those of you who are curious, here's the back story:

In the last year, I've done two high-profile humorous marketing pieces and both won awards. One is a holiday card featuring a patent application for a snowman and the other an ad for an accounting firm in which the managing partner is wearing lederhosen. You can view them both online at the Ingenuity Marketing Group website by choosing a link below:

• I want to see the lederhosen.
• A patent application for a snowman, how cute!

Jokes and humor are such an invigorating part of life. I love it when professions like accounting and law that are traditionally conservative are willing to take a risk and be funny. And I'm so glad my publisher shares my sense of humor. 

If you want to see more about my young adult novel Being Emily that arrives in bookstore on June 19, 2012, check out the Being Emily website. If you have humorous marketing of your own that you'd like to share, feel free to add a comment below. 

 

Google+ Got You Feeling Overwhelmed?

Social media overload? You're not alone. How experts manage - TwinCities.com

I've just started poking around in Google+, have you? Where does it fit into your marketing strategy?

These are my favorite tips from the linked article above:

• Set specific times to use (or to stay away from) social networks. Take a day off and go get some sun.
• Do not respond to every invitation and friend or follow as many people as you can. Your social networks will often be more productive and enjoyable if you focus only on people you know or want to know.
• Don't get stressed out about the content you are missing. You do not have to read every tweet or update. Treat your social-media stream like a river - dip in and get out as your time permits.
• Pick your social networks wisely. Some aren't worth your time. If a social network isn't providing value and relevance, ditch it.

 

Reader Buying Habits

I'm in the process of merging my Novel Marketing Strategies blog into this one now that I've had an epiphany about how to marketing novels. (Yes, soon I'll post a longer article about that epiphany.) Here I'm bringing in some of my favorite reader data from that other blog:

From a 47-page report of stats from Bowker Pubtrack, assembled by Sisters in Crime. (The report focuses on mystery novels, which may be why some of the numberd reasons above are missing for SFF.) 

What influences book sales: Fantasy

• Part of a series: #1 reason
• Know/Like this author: #2
• In-Store Display/On Shelf/Spinning Rack: #3
• Friend/Relative Recommended: #4
• Online – Book Review: #5
• Online – Author’s Website: #6
• Online – Retailer Recommended: #7
• Book Club: #8
• Best Seller List: #12
• Book Review (Not Online): #25

What influences book sales: Science Fiction

• Know/Like this author: #1 reason
• Part of a series: #2
• In-Store Display/On Shelf/Spinning Rack: #3
• Book Club: #4
• Friend/Relative Recommended: #5
• Online – Author’s Website: #6
• Online – Book Review: #7
• Online – Retailer Recommended: #8
• Best Seller List: #11
• Book Review (Not Online): #15

In a study by Verso Advertising about book-buying behavior in 2010 (full study online at: www.versoadvertising.com/beasurvey/), the primary factors in a book purchase decision were:

• Author reputation 52%
• Personal recommendation 49%
• Price 45%
• Book review 37%
• Cover artwork/blurbs 22%
• Advertising (including online) 14%

 

The value of value

Can more expensive services actually perform better? If we have a good product or service and are willing to express its value rather than lead with humility (which is an epidemic up here in Minnesota), recent studies show we may be doing our clients or customers a favor.

You know the placebo effect? It's well-documented that the human body can trigger the healing process, produce endorphins, opiates and other reactions based on our conscious and subconscious beliefs and expectations. In many studies people react positively to sugar pills, sometimes as much or more positively than to the medications the study is trying to test.

Is your marketing copywriter is too heavy on the marketing and too light on the writing?

Good writing makes content easy to read. It must include attention to punctuation, grammar and style. With the amount of web writing and marketing writing that companies need these days, you can find many marketing writers playing fast and loose with the rules of punctuation and grammar. Don't buy it.