There are certain techniques which once upon a time could shoot up your rankings very rapidly but which involve tricking Google. They violate Google's rules and will crash your rankings and possibly get your site completely blacklisted by Google.

These are called "black hat SEO" as opposed to "white hat SEO" which works with what Google is trying to do and follows their rules.

One of these tricks is to put a lot of keywords at the bottom of the page, possibly repeated multiple times, in the same color as the background so that they are invisible to the person visiting the website.

That was a very popular technique 4 or 5 years ago. Now it's a quick route to ranking disaster.

Don't do it.

This short video explains why "Internet Marketing" more accurately describes what we do:

The Death or Redefinition of SEO

Many times a good risk reversal" strategy can form the basis of a USP. "Risk reversal" means you take the risk of purchase away from the purchaser and put it on yourself. One of the most famous examples ever was Domino Pizza's promise that they would deliver your pizza in 30 minutes or less, or it would be free.

We do this with our two main services, website design and Internet Marketing. Our website design proposals offer unlimited versions or revisions on the site look, at no extra charge. No one else does that, so it is a big differentiation point. People love it because it takes risk off of them.

Our Internet Marketing programs are month-to-month, no commitment period required, which is unusual in this industry. Again, risk is minimized because if they aren't happy, or they suddenly can't afford it, they can just stop.

With both of these we promote them heavily in talking to proposals, in our letters and proposals.

And in both cases we can afford to do what we are saying.

With websites we have a development process that is almost certain to hit a home run with the client. With Internet Marketing, we have a scope of work and a system designed to get visible results, fast. So that has to be part of it.

Think about how you might apply this principle in your business.

Two points:

1. This shows the power of Facebook.

2. That doesn't mean drop all your efforts with Google and go Facebook 24/7 with your marketing.

People searching on Google are looking for something.

Visitors to Facebook are hooking up with their friends.

Get it?

Generally I hate the ones that give you advice. I want to know I'll meet a tall, dark handsome woman and fall in love on Tuesday the 29th of February.

But in this case, it Speaks Truth:

Not a bad thought, for when contemplating your marketing program.

A website - or any marketing item - will be much more successful if it asks for action and makes it easy for a prospect to do so.

Many people believe it is crass, rude, unethical or ineffective to say "buy now", "call today", or even enclose a return self-addressed envelope or offer incentives for immediate purchase. People make fund of TV direct marketing commercials "but's that's not all" as they offer you even one more extra if you call in the next 10 minutes.

You can have a visceral dislike for this kind of promotion, but the fact is, it works. And it doesn't really get people to buy who didn't want to, it just helps get them past their natural sales resistance.

The effectiveness of a website can be markedly increased by providing multiple calls to action such as information requests, newsletter sign-ups and the like.

Of course it can be overdone. But it's FAR more common to under-do it.

A word to the wise.

Read the whole article.

Internet Archeologists Find Ruins of Friendster Civilization.

Every time we go into a new industry we find everyone imitating what everyone else is doing. All Lawyer's websites look the same. Here in Tampa Bay, the big money is being spent by attorneys on billboards, Yellow Pages ads and TV. Why? Someone started doing it, and kept doing it, so people guess it must be working.

So is this a good idea, because that way you meet people's expectations, or because someone must know what they are doing?

Here's what Jay Abraham (one of the great marketing gurus of recent times) has to say on this point:

"When you limit your business to doing things the same way every other competitor of yours does, you can only produce modest, incremental gains -- at best. At worst, you could easily lose ground." (from "Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got".)

I agree. So it may be "safe", but is that good enough? If you are in trouble, or ambitious, the answer is no.

Be smart about it, but stand out from the crowd.

For successful marketing, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers.

Look at things from where they sit. If you were them, what would you look at, what would you read, what would you believe?

What are your hopes, worries, concerns, dreams, problems?

What would reach you through the daily clutter of 3000 advertising messages, in the midst of already overwhelming demands on your time, in spite of all the past track of being burned on something that looked great?

What would make you stop and despite everything, say, "I'm going to check this out."

Answering that is the key to successful marketing.

Lacking that, even a huge marketing budget is no guarantee of success.

It's rant time.

We didn't win any Addy's this year, not even for our own website.

Now why is that?

Actual people, the clients and prospective clients you know, LOVE our website.

I get comments like "I didn't know there was anyone that good in Tampa Bay." I mean people just gush.

We get calls from people who have already decided, before talking to us, that we are doing their website.

The menu system of the website is unique without being confusing. The branding is impeccable.

Then there's the stats. The conversion ratio of our website - the percentage of visitors who then contact us - is so high I hesitate to say it as unbelievable.

So then, what's wrong with our website as far as the judges are concerned? There's really only one answer. It fails to satisfy some arbitrary, and I might add, FADDISH standard of creativity.

Phooey.

Oh, we'll keep submitting for awards. They give great credibility with a lot of people. But the real award - and the best judge - is the positive effects for our clients, and the testimonials they write about our work and results.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

Green may be the most varied and versatile of colors.

From an ethereal pale translucent green, to nauseating "puke green", to lush Emerald Green - you can say almost anything with green.

It's the color of growth, health, of vegetables and moldy bread.

And it's the color of money. And shallow water.

"Turning green" can mean you're envious, sea sick, becoming environmentally conscious.

And don't forget Green Eggs and Ham.

What can Green do for You?

Over the years other factors have increased in importance - and it was never the all-encompassing factor many thought it to be - to a point where best estimates are it is now about 20% of what goes into search engine rankings.

And here's the latest in confirmation of that, from Peter Norvig, Google's Director of Research.

As described in Web Pro News,

Norvig said at SMX today that PageRank is still one thing that is "overhyped," and that Google never felt that it was such a big factor. They have always looked at all available data, combining every available signal and trying to figure out the best way to combine them.

Got it?

A Life magazine cover by Cole Phillips, from 1910, and, I might add, simply a stunning work of art:

Can you measure the results of marketing? Should you?

One would think this would be settled by now. How can anyone reasonably argue that the use of statistics to measure the effectiveness of marketing is a bad thing?

And yet, people still write and publish articles to that effect.

Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising