Optimizing Your Title Tag for Search Engines
By · Leave a comment with your thoughtsThe title tag is the most important element of your blog or website. My blogging coach Bea Fields just recorded a tutorial about optimizing the title tag for her Become a Blogging Maniac course. It’s at the bottom of this post.
Your title tag must contain key words that describe your business. A descriptive, keyword-laden title tag is essential for increasing rankings in search engines.
The title tag appears at the very top of a blog or website and is usually overlooked by visitors — but not by Google or other search engines. Search engines will “bold” (or highlight) those terms in the search results when a user searches for those terms.
Here is a screen shot of the title tag of SEOmoz. I don’t need to tell you what they do. Below the screen shot is the video. Take the 5 minutes or so to view it and learn how to write a powerful title tag.
Related articles
- On-Page Search Engine Optimization Information and Facts (seotacticstoday.wordpress.com)
- Search Engine Optimization – Title and Meta Tags (stepup2success.wordpress.com)
Brainstorming Still Works – When You Know How to Use It
By · Leave a comment with your thoughts
Brainstorm ideas
Over the years the term “brainstorming” has fallen out of favor.
An image of people throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it will stick – meaning throwing out ideas to see if they have any merit – is likely to induce fond memories among old-timers who remember when brainstorming was all the rage.
But, done properly, brainstorming still works.
What is Brainstorming?
Brainstorming was the creation of Alex Osborn, a founder of my former agency, BBDO (formerly Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn). He posited that a group could generate more creative ideas for solving a problem than an individual. There’s been a lot of controversy over the years about his methodology, with research both for and against it.
The New York Times last Sunday carried a very long story entitled The Rise of the New Groupthink in which the writer, Susan Cain, debunks the current trend of people working in teams in open space – or possibly cubicles if they’re lucky – as they collaborate on projects. She champions the introvert who needs quiet and privacy to be creative. I think she makes some valid points
When Brainstorming Works
Where Cain and I diverge, though, is when she writes, “Conversely, brainstorming sessions are one of the worst possible ways to stimulate creativity…people in groups tend to sit back and let others do the work; they instinctively mimic other’s opinions and lose sight of their own; and often succumb to peer pressure.”
I beg to differ. I’ve participated in, and facilitated, numerous brainstorming sessions, which I prefer to call group problem solving sessions. They generated many original ideas that were successfully implemented. Read More→
How 9 Small Businesses Are Getting it Right on Social Media
By · Leave a comment with your thoughtsSocial Media Examiner (SME) hosted an online webinar yesterday and described how 9 small businesses are attracting thousands of visitors and, in some cases, millions of dollars in revenue. Most of them have only been at it for two or three years. I have to say I was more than impressed.
Social Marketing Makes Dollars and Sense
In the opening slide, we learned why social media is essential for any business.
My key takeaways from the presentation were: Read More→
How the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Stopped a Concert and Won a Standing Ovation
By · Leave a comment with your thoughtsI’ve been waiting for the day when an idiot would leave his cell phone on during a play or concert I was attending – even after the usual announcement to turn them off — and the phone would start ringing. It happened the other night and how Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, handled the incident was so instructive that I thought I’d share it with you.
Ring, Ring, Ring
Disrupting Mahler's Ninth
The orchestra was playing Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, his last masterpiece. Just prior to his death, the composer had also been music director of the Philharmonic so he holds a special place in the hearts of the orchestra and its fans. Below this post is a video of the famous last movement of the symphony.
If you’re familiar with the symphony, in the final movement there is an exceedingly soft period when the violins are scarcely whispering. Guess when the phone went off?
Finally, Alan Gilbert stopped the orchestra, turned in the direction of the phone and asked that it be turned off. The phone kept ringing. Obviously, the offender didn’t want anyone to know who he was – probably afraid of a lynching.
How to Handle Disruptions
Maestro Gilbert demonstrated what an effective communicator he is. After the phone finally went silent the conductor faced the audience and said, “I apologize. Normally when these things happen we ignore it because stopping is even more disruptive. But in this case I just had to.” He turned to the players and told them where they would begin again.
Then he turned back to the audience and, with a smile, he said, “Well, we’re ready to go!” That brought laughter and a big round of applause. The orchestra went on to finish this brilliant piece of music and deservedly won a standing ovation. Stopping a concert is so unusual that The New York Times wrote a piece about it. Read More→
