What is a Google Places Page?

 Formally known as Google Local Business Center, Google Places is like the Yellow Pages of the Internet. Think of it like a Google local web page or an online listing of your business. This local listing can display information about your business in text, image & video format and is tied into Google Maps. According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. And… over the past year, the Search Engine’s local algorithm in Canada has resulted in more visibility for local organic search results on Google.ca.

Google Places and Google Maps appear in a Google SERP in the organic section. It’s important to understand the placement. In a previous blog post, we addressed the layout of a Canadian Google Search Engine Results Page in terms of Organic Search vs. Paid Search as well as where the engine displays Google Maps and Places. It is very prominent. Check it out if you require better understanding.

With Halloween just around the corner, and people searching for pumpkin picking farms in Ottawa, we decided to feature a local Places page.

Here is an example of a Local Ottawa Google Places Listing:

Google Canada Place Profile for a Pumpkin Farm in Ottawa

Business Information Section
This section is ideally provided by the business owner. It includes the name of the business, relevant categories, a short description, address, website and photo number. A web visitor can phone you, visit your website for more information and get directions via Google Maps (Canada).

Photo Section
Business owners and Google users can upload photos. These photos generally include storefront, products sold and people behind the business. They must, of course, follow Google’s guidelines. Videos can also be uploaded.

Review Section
“What people are saying” about your business in a review format falls under this section. Reviewers must have a Google account to post. Owners have the ability to respond to positive as well as negative reviews.

Related Content Section
Related places that appear in this area of your profile are generated by Google. It’s based on the Google Places algorithm. Google displays other related Places pages in your geographic area. If you are positioned properly in Local Search, you will also appear on your competitor page in this section.

Google Maps Section
This section is also generated by the Search Engine based on your Places listing. Google displays a street view with a map icon to indicate your location. Web visitors can click on the map for a large view and get directions by car, bus, walking or by bike (if applicable).

Google Ads Section
Unlike your listing that is free, this section is for paid ads. This is where Google Ads (known as AdWords) are displayed. While you cannot remove these ads, you can certainly place your text ads on Places Pages.

How does this relate to SEO?
From a SEO perspective, your Google Places profile page can give you visibility in the SERPs beyond your website. Think of it as an additional web property. Depending on your industry, and relevancy from a Google perspective, your Places listing can even outrank your website based on a local branded geo-search. You can also rank in Places for generic searches based on related local non-branded keyword queries. And… your business listing can send you qualified web traffic via the inbound link on your page (SEOs’ love this!).

Your business can also appear on other Places pages under related places and/or in the ads section. From our perspective, this means more visibility in local search!

At least 20% of Canadian searches are local. People search Google.ca and Google Maps to find local businesses. Claim it, optimize it, monitor it -and measure it!

Can you get found?

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SEO & The Anatomy of a Google Places: From a Canadian Perspective is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Guest Post by Stephen McGill

First of all by way of full disclosure, when I started my career in marketing and branding there was no world wide web. In fact there was no email, fax machines or mobile phones either. Yes there was electricity. And mass media – plenty of them.

As much as things have changed dramatically since the late 70s when I started out, the tenets of brand building have (in my opinion) remained remarkably similar. Branding has never simply been about beautiful logos, catchy slogans, award-winning television ads, welcoming storefronts, and glossy brochures or (these days) cutting edge websites and Search enhanced Social Media properties.

Instead branding has always been about delivering great products or services all wrapped up in the kind of positive and consistent experience where customers are driven to say – “Why would I go anywhere else?” It’s about making people prefer your offerings to all others available.

What the last twenty or so years have delivered to us as branders is an explosion of ways to create, build and sustain brands within a completely different landscape. I speak of course of the wonderful wide world of the web and the absolute avalanche of technologies and brand delivery options that have come along with it.  These are exciting times indeed for people who work with brands.

In my work as a brand development consultant I always state at the outset of working with clients that a brand should accurately reflect the true culture, personality and attitudes of a company or organization. It must also deliver a positive experience across all the points at which it connects with its customers and potential customers.

For brands of all sizes these days the most important (and sometimes only) point of connection with customers comes on the web. Quite often the web is now a crucial first point of contact. It is where consumers are getting their first brand impressions. Simply put the web is an incredibly powerful tool for connecting with customers, delivering a brand personality, building brand loyalty and enhancing brand experiences.

But here’s the thing I believe – you need to have a strong brand period before you can have a strong brand on the web. It used to be thought (just a few short years ago) that brick and mortar brands and online brands were somehow different. That is no longer the case. They are one and the same in the minds of consumers and – so they should be.

Amazon has become an almost ubiquitous shoppers brand because it consistently delivers what its customers want – great selection, competitive pricing, shopping convenience, copious amounts of product information and always-dependable service. All these things are hallmarks of a strong brand. The fact that Amazon does all that almost entirely over the web is irrelevant to most people. What Amazon has done better than most from early on is both understand the web and what it takes to build a powerful brand. That is a powerful combination.

So, which brands on the web do you think are getting it right like Amazon?

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Branding on the Web – How is it different? Or, is it? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Search

• Google makes 200-300 changes every year – and they kill off 2/3 of their initiatives.
• Google’s efficiency with Search saves us about 350 million hours per year.
• BING stands for “Bing Is Not Google”
• There are more searches made on Twitter each month than Yahoo! And Bing combined
• Google Instant isn’t changing the way people Search, but the way they read the results. With Instant, searchers rarely look past the top 5 results.
• Google Instant decreased time to click by 50%
• SEO is not just about rankings, it’s about conversions
• 3 key success factors for Search: Relevance, Speed and Usefulness
• The average search query on Google today is 4.3 words
• Over 50% of queries are over 3 words in length – and 2/3 of them yield no exact match
• Local Search queries are up 54% year over year.
• YouTube is the 2^nd most popular Search Engine on the planet
• When optimizing videos, follow similar SEO practices – links always matter!
• Multi-lingual SEO is a whole other ball game. Adidas faced many challenges with international campaigns which included SEO for 19 languages and the use of slang terms
• With multi-lingual SEO, you can’t just translate keywords. You need to consider different dialects of languages in different regions
• Your homepage is not a consumer’s first impression of your brand online. It’s what they see on a Search Engine Results Page.
• Go after those who are actively searching for you, stop searching for them.
• Are you optimizing your landing page? Bring users to where they want to be. Stop sending them on a wild goose chase.
• Always add negative keywords into your PPC campaigns.

Social Media

• There are over 1 billion Social Media users worldwide spending 2 billion minutes a month
• 25% of activity on Facebook is from a mobile device
• Facebook is becoming a bigger enemy to Google than Microsoft is.
• Three often overlooked YouTube Ranking factors: 1) Increase of views over time 2) Quantity of inbound links 3) Inclusion of video in playlists
• When it comes to Social Media don’t ask What – ask Why? “What” is a tactic, “Why” is a strategy.
• Foursquare experienced 3400% growth in 2010
• When creating a Facebook Deal consider the “What if’s”. What if 500 people claim a 50% off deal? Can you support your deals?
• The 4 pillars of Location Based Strategy: Context, Location, Social Interaction and Platforms

Mobile

• 101 million smartphones were sold in Q4 of 2010 compared to only 94 million PC’s
• 2011 will be the year of mobile – expect for it to really take off
• A major difficulty faced with mobile advertising is the discrepancy between a user’s location vs. their destination.
• Is your website optimized for mobile? If not, do it.
• All 5 of Google’s strategic initiatives for 2011 revolve around mobile
• 544.6 million text messages were sent in Q2 of 2010

Online Reviews

• 62% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase
• 62% of people trust online ratings and reviews of people they don’t know
• 18% of people who were contacted by a company after they had left a negative review ended up buying more from that company in the future
• 33% of those mentioned above removed their negative review, and 34% went on to write a positive review about their experience.
• A bad review online shouldn’t be seen as a threat. It is a great opportunity to address the problem, satisfy that customer, and show others that you care.

Quotes

• “How do you demand innovation, creativity and radical rethinking if you can’t imagine it?” – Avinash Kaushik
• “My three year old son will look at a keyboard the a same way I look at a rotary phone” – Mitch Joel
• “Plugging your computer into a phone line to get Internet ten years ago was so barbaric. Look how far we’ve come.” – Mitch Joel
• “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is.” – Chris Anderson
• “Never do anything in marketing that doesn’t add economic value to your company.” – Mitch Joel
• “Incorporate your digital marketing efforts into your marketing mix. Think “with” not “instead of”.”
• “Just because someone is on Facebook all day it doesn’t make them a Social Media Marketing expert. I turn the lights on when I walk into a room, am I an electrician? No. “ – Mitch Joel
• “Display will grow into a $200 billion market” – Eric Schmidt
• “Search is the connection between intent and content.” – Bill Barnes

That’s all folks! Two days of intense sessions with lots of great insights and takeaways. Have you considered these strategies when it comes to marketing your business online?

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Search Marketing Expo Toronto Recap is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Here are five good SEO reasons to use Google Analytics:

1. Search Engine Traffic
Google Analytics tracks search engine traffic to your site. This captured data tells you how many of your site visitors arrived via engines as well as the how your search traffic ranks compared to your other traffic sources (direct traffic / referring sites). It also identifies the engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo! Bing) and who sent the most traffic. By default, GA tracks more than 20 different search engines. There is also a breakdown available between paid and non-paid keyword driven traffic.

2. Keywords
In addition to automatically tracking search engine sources, Google Analytics tracks keywords that send search traffic to your site. This data tells you which keywords / keyword phrases were used by your site’s visitors and ranks them according to popularity. You can drill down further to determine more details for each keyword including statistics on organic and paid search.

3. Content Performance
Since optimizing content for search is the basics of search engine optimization, tracking page performance is essential. Google Analytics tracks data on which web pages attract site visitors and displays them in order of which are performing the best (listed by URL). You can also view this data by Page Title. The Content Drilldown report provides a list of top pages based on content sections within your website. Top Landing Pages, sent by search engines traffic can also be identified, as well as data on how well they perform.

4. Campaign Tracking
This is a more advanced feature than the above three, as it needs to be set up. Google Analytics can do campaign tracking. This includes Google AdWords by default. However you can also track any search marketing (as well as offline) campaigns. Campaign tracking is implemented by using link tagging (a unique URL to identify each marketing source).

5. Site Search
Likely the most overlooked – yet a real valuable source of SEO data. This is only for those sites that have a search box and allow web visitors to do an internal search to find information. Google Analytics can track these search terms as well a search term refinements at the site level. This requires set up as well.

Accessing the data, of course, is only the first step in the web analytics process. You need to measure, analyze, test and modify – always working towards your desired outcomes.

If you do not have Google Analytics installed on your website or if you are not monitoring your site outcomes, it is time to get started.

Recent Post: Google Analytics Qualified Professional Helen Faber

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Why use Google Analytics for SEO? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

This time I am joined by WebFuel’s Search Strategist, Helen Faber. We’re both quite excited for the amazing lineup of speakers which included analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, online marketing pioneer Gary Vaynerchuk, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, brand strategist Jeffrey Hayzlett and Columbia University Business professor Dr. Sheena Iyengar. Over 1200 eager marketers file into the magnificent Metro Toronto Convention Centre, creating a great atmosphere. You can feel the anticipation for the day’s first speaker – Avinash Kaushik.

Avinash Kaushik

To begin with, I love Avinash. He is the only man alive that can make such a boring topic (Analytics) something entertaining, interesting and even funny. His energy and enthusiasm on stage was very well received by the morning crowd. Just as he did in Montreal, Kaushik shouts and rants on stage about “Garbage” and “Puke”! He points out the mistakes that many make, while giving you realistic solutions and advice. Avinash explains that the reason that most websites “suck” is do to the HPPO’s (pronounced “Hippos”). That stands for Highest Paid Person’s Opinon. He elaborates by stating that at most large companies, the highest paid person makes decisions about things that they know nothing about – websites – and 95% of the time it is ugly, and awful. One of the most well-received acronyms in Avinash’s arsenal was HITS: How Idiots Track Success. But, the quote that hit home hardest for me was that “you can’t improve something by 1000%. But you can improve 1000 things by 1%.” Brilliant.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Next up was Gary Veynerchuk. A true entrepreneur, Vaynerchuk is enthusiatic, outgoing and…well…quite vulgar! But amidst the swearing and rants was a great, inspirational message. Gary became well known for Wine Library TV, a video blog that he created to help sell wine for his family’s business. Vaynerchuk truly understands the consumer and the social web. He expressed his hatred for companies that don’t talk to, or even about, their customers. They are the lifeblood of your business. in order to get your customers to love you, you must love them first. Building loyalty should be first and foremost, because a loyal customer is there for life. He left the crowd with an outstanding stat followed by a piece of advice. First off, the stat: There is more original content being created every 48 hours today than there was from the beginning of man kind until 2003. Wow. And finally, his advice was simple. If someone starts to gloat about how many followers they have on Twitter, punch them in the face. Thanks Gary. Needless to say, I will absolutely be reading Gary’s newest book, The Thank You Economy.

Jeffrey Hayzlett

Last up before lunch was Jeffrey Hayzlett, former Kodak CMO. Hayzlett is well known for being a crucial player in Kodak’s legendary branding turnaround in the early 2000′s. As he takes the stage, it is quite evident that Hayzlett is a natural leader and marketer. “A brand is not a logo or a picture. A brand is simply a promise to deliver” he explains. “Kodak doesn’t make a camera or film equipment. They make emotional technology.” He goes on to discuss Social Media and the common desire to create something viral. “Viral is flukey” he claims. “Yes, it may happen, but please don’t waste your time and effort trying to create it. If it happens, it happens. Spend your time building relationships. They are much more valuable.” He is enthusiastic and spontaneous. He likes to take and idea and run with it. Hayzlett’s motto throughout his speech was “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. No one is going to die.” He explained by telling a story about a marketing campaign that Kodak had launched that encouraged consumers to text a number via their mobile phones to receive coupons. All of the ads were run in movie theatres before the show. Well, the downfall of the campaign is quite evident. What do you do with your phone when you walk into a movie theatre? Turn it off, right? “Well,” Hayzlett says “It was a mistake. My mistake. But don’t worry, no one is going to die. Let’s move on.” It’s this outlook and attitude that makes Hayzlett an amazing marketer. No one is perfect. People make mistakes. It’s how they react and learn from those mistakes that makes a difference.

Dr. Sheena Iyengar

After a much needed lunch, we returned to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to Dr. Sheena Iyengar, expert on consumer behaviour and the psychology of choice. Iyengar was definitely a change of pace. While the other presenters were jumping around from one side of the stage to the next, yelling and screaming passionately, she spoke softly while standing behind her podium for the full hour. But then again, while the others are radical, outgoing marketers, she is a University Professor. Her topic was also quite different. While the others put quite a heavy focus on the online space, Dr. Iyengar discussed the psychological side behind marketing. She examined the art of choice, and how humans make decisions when faced with a variety of different options. The conclusions drawn from her study were quite interesting. She stated that when people are given more choice, often times they take longer to make a decision, they make a worse decision and are ultimately less satisfied with their choice. They second guess themselves and think “Did I make the wrong decision?” She went on the explain that humans are born with the desire to choose, but without the innate skills to actually make a decision. In closing she provided the crowd with an interesting example. She told us that if you give someone the choice between going to an ice cream shop that only offered vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, or a shop that offered over 60 flavours, most people would choose the latter. But, interestingly enough even though they chose the shop with 60 flavours, most people would continue to buy either chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.

Guy Kawasaki
Last, but certainly not least, Guy Kawasaki took the stage to round out the day. He begins by winning over the crowd by praising hockey, Steam Whistle beer and…Justin Bieber. How Canadian, eh? Kawasaki’s message was all about how to be enchanting. A former Apple employee and author of over 10 best selling books, Kawasaki brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the stage. He stressed that trust is key – and that it is a two way street. Earn it, and maintain it. In order to enchant your employees you must give them MAP – Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose. With that they can, and will, succeed. He expressed the need to build relationships, engage, help others and, most of all, to enchant them. Kawasaki advises the crowd to not delay bad news. If something bad happens, tell people right away – don’t let it be a surprise. And always tell them with a solution in mind. Avoiding the inevitable will only make things worse. After a few more comments about how much Guy loves Canada, we move into the final Q&A session of the day. One audience member asks Kawasaki “Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are all undeniably amazing and successful entrepreneurs. Do you think that they are enchanting?” Guy laughs, takes a sip of water and responds “I hate that question. I’ll say this. You don’t need to be enchanting to be successful.”

The crowd erupts in laughter and applause. Kawasaki gives us one last wave, and the event’s host Ron Tite wraps up The Art of Marketing Toronto – a day filled with excitement, enthusiasm, passion, lessons, ideas and strategies. If you ever get the chance to hear any of these presenters speak, I highly suggest it.

The next big conference that I will be attending will be Search Marketing Expo in Toronto April 28-29th. Will I see you there?

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The Art of Marketing Toronto is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

SEMPO Canada was created by founding members and co-chairs Ken Jurina, President and CEO of Epiar Inc. and Alexandre Brabant, President of eMarketing 101, who are charged with the mission to educate and increase awareness of the benefits of ethical search. “We are very fortunate to have Helen on board,” said Jurina. “Her deep understanding of the industry combined with her experience in building relationships, both online and off, has made her the perfect choice for the role of Ontario Chair for SEMPO Canada.”

Helen Faber will be working closely with other leaders in the Canadian Search Engine Marketing industry to ensure SEMPO Canada’s mission is fulfilled. Not unlike other countries, the fields of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), are well established in Canada. “We have a strong network of Search Engine Marketers who are extremely dedicated to ethical search from across the country. By building on that network, I look forward to continued innovation in the field to ensure business organizations in Ontario and other provinces across Canada are well served,” said Faber.

Join SEMPO Canada on LinkedIn
SEMPO Canada is currently reaching out to other Canadian Search Marketing Agencies and in-house Internet marketers who are looking to align themselves with an organization poised to strengthen the Search Engine Marketing Industry. SEO, PPC and SEM practitioners, managers and/or educators are invited to join the SEMPO Canada LinkedIn Group, which officially launched earlier today. “We welcome all levels of expertise who are interested fostering growth, awareness and understanding of ethical search marketing in Canada”, adds Ken Jurina. The SEMPO Canada LinkedIn Group is open to Search Marketing agencies and in-house Internet Marketers from all provinces across Canada, and in both official languages, looking to share their knowledge. Join the SEMPO Canada LinkedIn Group today to engage in topical discussions on Search Marketing, SEO, PPC and other search-related topics.

About SEMPO Canada
Working on behalf of the country’s Search Engine Marketing and industry professionals, SEMPO Canada is non-profit professional search marketing association dedicated to increasing awareness and promoting the ethics and value of search engine marketing in Canada.

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SEMPO Canada Appoints Ontario Chair to Advance Canadian Search Engine Marketing is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Coupons are one of the most basic, and oldest marketing tools that we have all taken advantage of at some point in our lives. Coca Cola pioneered the idea in 1887 by giving out over 8 million coupons for free bottles of their then unknown beverage to potential consumers. The result? Millions of people tried, and loved their product. And the rest, as they say, is history. The fact is that consumers love getting deals. It makes us feel good. When we have a coupon in our hand, we almost feel obliged to use it. How could you pass up on that deal? Forget the fact that you probably don’t really need whatever is being promoted in the coupon…but what a deal! Consumers are a funny bunch.

Groupon

So let’s fast forward 123 years. Yes, coupons are still very much a part of marketing, and the consumer experience in many industries. But like any marketing strategy it has changed and evolved over the years. Introducing Groupon. Groupon is a deal of day website located in major cities across North America and Europe. Every day, the website offers one single “Groupon” in each of it’s markets, usually at 50-90% off. The Groupons can be for anything from dance lessons, to spa getaways to restaurant deals. Groupon works through collective action – meaning that a certain number of people have to sign up for the deal for it to be available to everyone. If the minimum number of people don’t sign up, then the deal isn’t given out. This reduces some of the risk for the retailers who are giving the deals. In order for the minimum number of buyers to be met, Groupon encourages its users to share the deal with their friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and Email. By using Social Media, Groupon can reach a larger audience, and almost always meets the minimum number of buyers.

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

Below is a typical Groupon deal. This deal is offering $20 worth of Pizza from “Pizza Shark” for $10. As you can see at least 20 people signed up for this deal, which was the minimum set by Pizza Shark – and this coupon expires in May 2011. Once purchased, the buyer gets the coupon sent to their email. Then, the buyer must simply print off the coupon and present it upon purchase at Pizza Shark. This coupon gives new customers a reason to try Pizza Shark – it’s a win-win situation!

Groupon for Businesses

So as you can see, Groupon has great benefits for consumers. But what about businesses? Does it effectively generate sales? Branding? Repeat business? One of the main concerns that many business have with Groupon is that it is “risky”. Some brands are weary of selling on Groupon because they are afraid that selling on a discount website will devalue their brand. Well, Groupon isn’t designed for luxury brands – it is designed for local, somewhat unknown businesses that want to gain some exposure in their local market. The idea is that by offering a deal, small businesses can attract new customers. The Groupon deal, coupled with the “collective action” aspect, decreases the risk for both the consumer and the business – that’s what makes Groupon so special. Groupon brings the consumer and the business together – after that, it’s up to the business to provide the customer with an experience valuable and memorable enough for them to come back.

As a consumer, I love Groupon. I recently moved to downtown Ottawa, and am quite unfamiliar with many of the local small businesses. Groupon has given me the opportunity to try out new things and discover some hidden gems in my area.

Have you either bought or sold something on Groupon?

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What is Groupon? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

The Art of Marketing is a conference that features 6 World renowned best-selling authors – Mitch Joel, Seth Godin, Avinash Kaushik, Max Lenderman, Andy Nulman and Jeffrey Gitomer – who shared a blend of inspirational, forward thinking, real-world marketing stories, tips, ideas and issues. The day on a whole was exhausting – in a good way. Hundreds of eager marketers filled a large conference room at the Palais des Congrès in downtown Montreal. Ron Tite, the host of the day’s event hops up on stage, full of energy and humor. After he welcomes the crowd, he introduces the first of six speakers – Mitch Joel.

Mitch Joel

Author of the best-selling book Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel is a marketing genius and a member of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. Joel addressed several new marketing issues faced by organizations and how digital marketing and Social Media are changing the game. Joel shared numerous mind-blowing stats with the crowd, who “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed”. The one that stood out the most to me was that 20% of searches made daily on Google have never been made before. He went on to discuss the demographics of major Social Networks. Joel says that there are more grandparents than High School students on Facebook, and half of YouTube‘s audience is over 34 years old. He stressed that understanding your audience is key. Know who they are, and target them in the right places. “Stop marketing, start publishing” he preaches. People get hung up on the little things and over-complicate their marketing efforts. He explains how a negative review online more often than not leads to sales. Why? People appreciate transparency and authenticity.  “So, what’s the secret?” Joel asks. “Just word hard and be nice to people.” It’s as simple as that.

Seth Godin

After a short networking break, the day continues with super-marketer Seth Godin. Author of numerous best-sellers including The Dip and Purple Cow, Godin is a truly inspirational marketing genius. Like Joel, Godin has an uncanny ability to make things simple. “Don’t worry about what’s next, worry about what’s now” says Godin. “Go ahead, make mistakes – and learn from them!” Godin goes on to explain that we need to stop shouting our messages at people. Old marketing was all about shout – interrupting people with our message. “Don’t interrupt people who don’t like you, organize people who you’re connected with” he says. And as for these people – your customers – they all just want to fit in. Fitting in is being the most average. Godin uses the iPod as an example. Yes Apple make amazing products – he doesn’t deny that. But the reason that they sell so many iPods is not the technology behind it – it’s the marketing. “Apple doesn’t make an MP3 player. They make jewelery with a function!” People just want to be seen with those white ear buds – to fit in, to be the most average. After a short Q&A with the audience, Godin leaves the crowd satisfied and inspired as we head off to lunch.

Avinash Kaushik

Next up – brand monitoring and web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik. As Avinash takes the stage, the guy beside me sarcastically mutters to himself  “Great, an hour of listening to some guy talk about Web Analytics. This should be fun.” Well, was he ever wrong. Avinash took the stage by storm. His surprising enthusiasm and energy was enjoyed by all. His message was comprised of entertaining quotes, educational information and the occasional yelling of “Suck!” and “Puke!” As crazy as he was, in my opinion Avinash was the best presenter of the day. Referring to his books and his blog Avinash says that “People like to pay for things that are free.” His ability to make analytics the most entertaining topic of the day is beyond me. He explained how most people monitoring their brand are doing it wrong. He presents the crowd with a clever acronym – HITS: How Idiots Track Success. Like Godin, Avinash explains that people make things too hard for themselves by over complicating things. “You can’t improve 1 thing by 1000%” he explains, “But you can improve 1000 things by 1%” Great advice. He finishes by declaring that “revenue is good…but economic value is GOD!” Engaging, educational, and a little bit crazy. I guess that’s the recipe for a great marketer.

Max Lenderman

I think most of us in the crowd felt bad for Max. I mean, how do you follow Avinash? That’s a tough gig. But, all in all, he pulled it off. Casually drinking a Molson Export on stage, Lenderman discussed branding and experiential marketing using a variety of real-life examples from around the globe. He explains that people of the world are very brand atheistic and price conscious. That’s how people continue to sell counterfeit products. But piracy and counterfeiting isn’t all that bad. It keeps the big brands on their toes – makes them compete on “the experience”. This is exactly what Apple has done with the Apple Store. They have created an experience for customers that goes up and above the product itself. In closing, Lenderman reminded the crowd to just “Be Authentic”. Simple and effective. After a short networking break we were back for Andy Nulman.

Andy Nulman

Another best selling author and marketing pioneer, Andy Nulman, was next. He shared his theories, ideas and stories about strategy and innovation. With over 35 years of experience in the field, that included a 15 year stint as the CEO of the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Andy sure had a lot to say. He opened with a favourite quote of his, by Tom Peters: “Value added in today’s economy is created by the weirdo’s and the freaks.” He encouraged everybody in the room to stop trying to be normal. Normal is blah. You want to be Abnormal! As Nulman continued, he preached to the crowd that the Impossible is possible. It might have been a long day, but the crowd became restless during Nulman’s talk. There was an overall feeling in the area in which I was sitting that he was being more self-promotional, and less educational. I over heard a woman in front of me say to a friend “Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!” referring to Nulman’s constant stories about his own successes. Give him credit he stuck it out to the end, full of energy and enthusiasm.

Jeffrey Gitomer

Last, but surely not least, Jeffrey Gitomer. The 60-something, hard nosed, no nonsense – yet hilarious, Gitomer took the stage. He immediately won the Montreal crowd over by showing a photo of the Stanley Cup on his first slide, and saying “If you’re from Toronto, this is what the Stanley Cup looks like.” Then he hopped off the stage, got down to business. A true salesman, Gitomer exclaims “I put people in front of me that will say yes to me, and then I deliver!” Walking through the crowd as he spoke, Gitomer made a real connection with the audience. “Are you still wasting money on print ads?” he asks with a tone of frustration and anger in his voice. “Good for you. Your full page ad in the Gazette is getting pissed on by some puppy the next day!” He went to explain that “the future is Social. It’s free you idiots!”

He continued by discussing marketing and selling yourself. He told the crowd to reach into their pockets and hand their business card to someone near them who they didn’t know. “If it looks like crap, rip it up and throw it back at them” he yells. The crowd didn’t quite know what to do. Surely some people thought the business cards they were handed were worthy of such destruction, but didn’t want to insult others. “Why does your business card suck? It’s your first impression – make it a good one!” He went on the explain the importance of blogging, and getting youname.com or .ca – and a quick poll of the crowd showed that only about 5% of us had done so. He was disgusted. But Gitomer’s on the edge attitude didn’t come across as cocky, or annoying. It acted as an eye opener to the crowd of seemingly clueless sales people and marketers. “Oh my god,” said one guy beside me “I gotta get my .ca tomorrow!” Gitomer’s message was heard loud and clear. He finished by encourage the crowd to use Twitter – but use it right. Don’t worry about how many followers you have. Worry about being Retweeted. That’s what gets you noticed on Twitter. “Twitter isn’t 140 characters,” he says “It’s 120 characters with space left over for a Retweet.” Excellent.

Joel, Godin, Avinash, Lenderman, Nulman and Gitomer. What a star-studded lineup. I felt very fortunate to have gone to Montreal to watch, and listen to this diverse group of marketing geniuses. I would highly encourage you to take the opportunity to listen to any of of these guys speak, or even pick up one of their books. You won’t be disappointed. Until next year Art of Marketing, au revoir!

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The Art of Marketing: From a WebFuel Perspective is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

Guest Post by Kathryn Szymczyk

Protecting your brand on the web. What every business needs to know before advertising your brand on the Internet.

Your brand, also called a trade-mark, is often the most valuable asset you own. It distinguishes you from your competitors and allows your customers to identify you as the source of the products and / or services you offer. As such, it is important to ensure that your brand is unique to you and that you have exclusive rights to use it before launching your advertising campaign on the Internet.

Step One: Ensure Your Brand is Unique
Before investing time, money and energy into promoting and creating goodwill in your brand on the Internet, it is important to determine whether or not a 3rd party already has rights to the name or mark in Canada in association with the same (or similar) goods / services. In addition to ensuring that your mark is unique in your industry, and thus avoiding confusion among your customers, such a search could also avoid an expensive lawsuit against you.

Before moving forward with a new name or mark, we highly recommend that you conduct a trade-mark search to ensure that it is available for use and registration in Canada. The search that is completed when you incorporate or register your business name is not sufficient. A full availability / registrability search includes a search of the Canadian trade-mark registry, of domain name registries, of telephone directories and the Internet, in addition to corporate registries, and as such is the most reliable method for identifying any potential obstacles to your use and registration of a trade-mark in Canada.

Step Two: Register Your Rights
Although rights to a brand can arise through simple use, such rights can be very limited, especially geographically. A Canadian trade-mark registration gives you the exclusive right across Canada to use your brand in association with your goods and services.

Advertising and sales on the Internet has made it possible to offer your goods and services to customers in other jurisdictions. If your goods and services will be available in other countries through your website we highly recommend that you take steps to register your rights in those jurisdictions as well.

Step Three: Use Your Brand
In order to ensure that your brand remains a unique indication of source, it is important that you use it properly on your website and elsewhere. Otherwise, you risk it becoming generic and available for use by anyone in your industry. The following are some helpful tips with respect to use of your brand:

• Although not required in Canada, it is highly recommended to place a ™ symbol beside unregistered trade-marks and an ® symbol beside those trade-marks that have been registered. These symbols warn the public that the owner has or claims to have a proprietary interest in the mark;
• Use trade-marks as proper nouns and use the descriptive term for the product or service beside the mark (e.g. KLEENEX tissues);
• Do not pluralize singular marks (e.g. OREO cookies, not OREOS);
• Do not use trade-marks in the possessive form;
• Do not use marks as verbs or nouns (e.g. You are not Xeroxing, but photocopying on a XEROX copier).

Step Four: Enforce Your Brand
Encourage your staff, distributors and others to be vigilant and report the use of identical or similar brands by competitors in the jurisdictions in which you operate. Should such use be allowed to continue with no intervention, your mark could lose its distinctiveness and no longer act as a unique indicator of source. This may not only result in the loss of customers but also the loss of your exclusive rights to the mark.

Are you choosing, registering and enforcing your brand correctly?

Kathryn Szymczyk, Lawyer and Trade-mark Agent with the national law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, has been practicing trade-mark law for the last 13 years both in Canada and in Europe.  She has a special interest in the effect that the internet has had on the use and protection of trade-marks and copyright.

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Protecting Your Brand on the Web: From a Legal Perspective is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel

For those of you just getting started, here is a list of the seven most critical things to manage.

1. Track your inbound links
This is where you must start. Using a Word document, or Excel spreadsheet, record all your incoming links. Additional data should include the name of the site, Google PageRank, linking URL, link type (organic or non-organic), anchored text, link status (i.e. active), date reviewed and comments.

2. Recheck your backlinks
Tracking the links to your site is just the beginning. Not all links are permanent (for a wide variety of reasons). Periodically, you should check your list to ensure that your incoming links still exist. If not, you should determine if they were simply moved to another page (during site redesign) – or were removed all together. And… if it is a paid link, it should be at the top of your to be addressed list!

3. Test search results
You should also think past just getting a link. Ideally it should be crawled and indexed by the search engines – and show up in an organic search engine results page (SERP). This is when you get the real value. Test and record the results in the comments section of your Link Building Report.

4. Identify the web page(s)
We often find when reviewing the external links for our clients, that they generally all point to the home page. Is there another web page that would be better suited? Remember we want to improve ranking of more than just this one page. Spread the Google juice!

5. Analyze anchor text
Along the same lines, in analyzing the data, you may also discover that all (or most) of the anchored text is your “business name”. In addition, you may also find a number of meaningless terms such as “website” or “click here”. Or even worse, there may be no text just your company’s URL embedded into the link (Google is all about words). The company name, of course is good for building brand – but take this one step further and think “keywords”. You will need to request this modification from the linking site.

6. Use link value (as a gauge)
Yes, believe it or not, there are situations when managing a link is not worth the trouble. If the link value is low (PageRank 0 – 3), you may decide to pass it up. Keep it in your report for review at a later date.

7. Review your web analytics
Last but not least, you should be tracking and analyzing your traffic sources including both referring sites as well as the search engines. This will also help you determine – which aspects of your Link Building Campaign is working as well as what is not.

This, of course, is not a complete list. But these are some of the major and common oversights that we see when we audit or consult on in-house link building efforts. Before you embark on link submissions and link development, we recommend improving the links that you have already acquired. It holds true regardless of whether they are paid or natural links.

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Are you managing your inbounds links? is a post from: SEO Ottawa | Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Agency | WebFuel