14 Tips For Become a More Efficient SEO Professional

If you’re at work, you know there are things that you could be doing right now to improve your website’s SEO. Chances are you probably have a social network open in another browser tab right now as you're reading this, and you've probably checked your email at some point in the last 10 minutes.

How much work have you actually done in the last hour? The last few days? This month?

Would you have expected more from that time if you had been paying someone by the hour to do your job? Just how productive are you?

In today’s tough economy, SEO professionals who constantly try to boost their productivity are going to go far. The "optimization" in SEO implies that there is always something more which can be done to improve organic search visibility, so the faster and smarter you can work, the better results get and happier your stakeholders will be.

Become a More Efficient SEO Professional

However, most SEO professionals live on the web, where distractions are myriad and something new crops up almost every minute. How do you improve productivity in the face of so many things to do? Even more importantly, how do you stop a slow slide into idleness and unproductivity?

In the past I found myself slacking off at work and I had to confront myself with the truth that my productivity level and low attention span was something I couldn't afford to ignore.

The following ideas are all tactics I have tried and tested in the past 12 months to help me boost my output. I’m proud to say that at a recent appraisal I was commended for how I had boosted my productivity in 2012, so some of them must be decent ideas!

Stay Focused With Helpful Software and Browser Extensions

A good place to start is by installing useful software and browser extensions.

1. Stayfocusd

Browser extension Stay focused allows you to create a blacklist of websites you know kill your productivity and sets an amount of time you can spend on them each weekday. It also includes sites you visit from your blacklist (good if you’re a reddit addict) and can suggest sites you might want to add to your blacklist based on behavior.

It's also fiendishly difficult to change Stayfocused's settings once installed, so it’s unlikely you will go back to your old ways!

2. Quick Login for Google Accounts

Do you have multiple logins for personal and professional Google Accounts? I do and the Quick Login for Google Accounts extension is an absolute godsend!

Quickly switch between up to 10 Google accounts and never forget a password again. Working in an agency, I reckon this saves me at least an hour a week.

3. WriteMonkey

WriteMonkey is a word processor with a totally stripped back user experience that can help with longer consultancy documents or blog posts. This boils the writing process down to just me and my words and I can get through the writing stage of producing a document much faster.

4. Pocket

It’s important to stay up to date when you work in search and every SEO should be spending some time each day learning or keeping up with industry news. However, all that reading can be a real killer when it comes to getting work done.

Pocket is a useful tool that allows you to easily store interesting articles, videos, or snippets of text in an accessible place for consumption at a more appropriate time (e.g., during your commute or while you’re sitting on the sofa at home).

5. Timer

Use timers to build your concentration span. Timer is a good example.

If you really struggle to concentrate on a piece of work, start off by trying to focus on it for just 10 minutes of your time then build that time up and up. If this works for you then you should investigate the Pomodoro technique further (see tip 12).

Increase Your Excel and PowerPoint Productivity

Most SEO professionals will spend time in Microsoft Office. If you can get things done faster here, then you can start to outpace your colleagues.

6. Increase Productivity in Excel

• If you’re editing a lot of data you might need to view how changes in one area make a difference somewhere off-screen, perhaps in another worksheet tab. Moving back and forth takes time, so a great feature is a small Watch Window that can show the area of the workbook your changes are affecting. Highlight the cells you want to watch. Then click Formulas > Watch Window > Add Watch. Simply return to the area of your worksheet that you're editing and the Watch Window will hover in the corner as you work.
• I quite often need to format several worksheet exactly the same way. Excel's grouped worksheets feature makes this easy: Ctrl-click the tabs that you want to group together, and the grouped tabs turn white. While sheets are grouped, anything you enter in one sheet also gets entered into the others.
• Hold Alt+I+C to insert column left – this shortcut saves so much time!

7. Increase Productivity in Powerpoint

• Using the clipboard pane saves endless cycling between slides copying and pasting various objects as it can store 24 items – useful for when you are constructing slides that "build" or you are using a range of icons to represent characters in your presentation’s story arc.
• Highlight multiple text items and use shift+f3 to toggle between various capitalization options – loads easier than changing individual letters manually – something I see happening all the time and it drives me nuts!
• Ctrl+D duplicates an object – stop using ctrl+c, ctrl+v.

Change Begins With You

If procrastination is a problem though, fancy shortcuts and browser extensions aren’t going to make a long-term improvement to your productivity levels. Unfortunately, you're going to have to make a real effort to change yourself and your working habits. I know, because this was where I was 12 months ago.

8. Music

Some people find that setting suitable music to match the task you are working on leads to productivity gains. Some people find it easier to work with classical or jazz music playing. This is known as the Mozart effect, although its effectiveness has been questioned.

9. Create Dead Time

Another great lifestyle tip is to get rid of variables within your life: choices which are redundant and simply create dead time. I love this approach even though it involves acknowledging when dead time occurs in your life (and for me there was a shocking amount).

Stuff like:

• Buying every day essentials at a store is dead time (set up consistent repeat grocery deliveries using online shopping tools).
• Time spent waiting for spreadsheet downloads is dead time (use APIs to bring the data directly into Excel).
• Time spent topping your subway/bus card is dead time (set it up to refill automatically).

When you realize that for all of these problems there is a quicker automated solution and you make the small, one-time effort to implement it, you free up lots of time in the future. An additional benefit is that this technique focuses your creativity on the times where it could really add value.

10. Limit Your Email Time

A huge timesaver for me has been changing to a "surgery hours" model for email; this means only checking and responding to email three times each day. This allows you to dedicate larger blocks of time to concentrating on specific tasks.

Unscheduled interruptions do happen, and some initial frustration will arise with colleagues, but after explaining the system and demonstrating that it allows you to get more done, people shouldn’t mind. An added bonus is that people will come and talk to you directly when something is urgent rather than emailing; in almost all cases this leads to quicker reconciliation.

11. Benefits vs. Time: Prioritizing Tasks

In order to better plan your week more effectively, take your to-do list and plot tasks on a benefit (most impact on success to least impact) vs. time to implementation axis. This allows you to visualize which of your tasks will bring most benefit in the shortest time.

One example could be to prioritize emailing a client a mini-success story about a weekly performance improvement before completing the whole weekly report, a task which will take longer and in which your success story might be buried.

12. The Pomodoro Technique

If you suffer with low productivity or a poor ability to plan your day the Pomodoro technique can make a real difference.. Pomodoro Technique allows you to structure tasks and set aside time to complete them while allowing you the time to have regular breaks in your day.

To get you started here are the five basic steps to implementing Pomodoro technique:

• Decide on the task to be done.
• Set the pomodoro (timer) to 25 minutes.
• Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an x.
• Take a short break (3-5 minutes).
• Every four "pomodori" take a longer break (15–30 minutes).

13. Sleep

One final tip is a little extreme and could probably only work for those of you with flexible working arrangements, but changing your sleep cycle could prove to be beneficial.

A short burst of intense work on priority topics very early in the morning followed by a short power nap before starting “normal” work can help make the working day less stressful and more productive as the most pressing issues are resolved early.

14. Want It Bad Enough

Ultimately, my top tip if you feel you are being unproductive is to take a step back and question your underlying thoughts about your job: through my own attempts to improve my output I realized I could only boost productivity (especially through ending procrastination) if I wanted “it” bad enough. I think the same is true for a great many procrastinators.

“It” could be anything, from marketing success, to great feedback from a client or boss, to a pay raise. However, if you don’t want "it" bad enough, you will continue to struggle with procrastination because there will always be a reason to put off knuckling down and getting on with work.

If this is the case, ignore online zealots who say "life is rubbish, stop whining and get on with it." Acknowledge that your unproductiveness is a big issue you should spend some time (downtime, not work time!) trying to deal with.

To reach your full potential, will you need to change your job or career? Are you genuinely doing something you want to be doing? What are the real mid- to long-term consequences going to be if you walk away from your role?

Answering these questions will help you realize what “it” is; the reward that will act as kryptonite to your procrastination.

read more

How to Avoid Hiring a Bad SEM Vendor

The search engine marketing (SEM) space is hot and growing hotter every day. The massive migration of advertising budgets from traditional channels to online marketing has brought many new players, and hoards of salespeople too.

Buying SEM services can be tricky in the best of circumstances, given how new and complicated the industry is. To make matters worse, guarantees are prohibited (to various degrees) by Google, Facebook, and Twitter. So how does a small business owner know a good SEM proposal from a bad one?

1. Don’t Purchase on Price Alone

Picking the lowest bid for anything is only logical if the deliverables are exactly the same. In SEM, this is rarely the case.

A small business owner may be comparing a standalone SEO proposal with an integrated online presence pitch that includes SEO, PPC, social media, and local map optimization. Even among SEO proposals the targeted keyword space is monumental, as marketing costs vary widely based on levels of competition and potential economic value.

The purchaser needs to have at least some understanding of what they are getting. And unlike many other industries, buyers can’t rely on a money-back guarantee for protection.

2. Make Sure Deliverables are Clearly Articulated

The strong SEM proposal will clearly outline the deliverables and timeline. While this may sound simplistic, many proposals are vague about what work is actually done.

Furthermore, are the work activities appropriate for the small business? Many owners will say they don’t know and rely on their vendor to tell them. This can be dangerous.

Know what is being proposed and buy what the small business really needs. Don’t expect miracles.

3. Pick the Most Informative Proposal

A well-crafted proposal will not only be professional and aesthetically appealing, but will also be informative. Look for a firm that took the time to do some research on your domain name and company.

Don’t respond to emails sent to Dear Sir. A good proposal will articulate a bit about your business and the competitors you are up against. It should include key statistics about your domain, keywords, and social media. This level of research in a proposal is a good indication of the attention to detail that will come post-sales.

4. Select a Team That Manages Expectations Carefully

This is counter-intuitive and many small business owners fall prey to hype. But the strongest team is often the one working very hard to manage expectations down.

Years of business experience highlights that under-promising and over-delivering is usually the key to long-term success. Look for these solid, honest, and reliable teams, avoiding those selling magic SEM pixie dust.

Steer clear from firms making guarantees. Aside from violating Google’s directive on guarantees, these firms usually have fine print or don’t plan to be around long enough for you to enforce the terms.

5. Check References & History

Solid firms don’t have a hard time finding customers who say “they did what they said they were going to do.” And that’s really what a small business buyer should be looking for.

Particularly when shopping for discounted prices, be wary of exaggerated claims of success. Too good to be true usually is.

A small business owner needs a reliable, honest, long-term partner. Make sure the vendor has been in business for at least 3 years.

6. Be Prepared to Learn

Most small business budgets don’t afford the luxury of extensive consulting time. Also, consultant billing rates are usually much higher than marketing services labor.

To get the biggest bang for the buck, be prepared to learn about search engine marketing enough to manage the vendor well and funnel the full budget into the work. While a good vendor will help educate you, you don’t need to become an SEM expert – and really can’t as a part-time initiative. If you aren't prepared to learn enough to speak the same language as your team, then perhaps you aren't ready to purchase SEM services.

Conclusions

Search engine marketing is an evolving industry with few standards and confusing terminology. Small business owners often feel under-qualified to evaluate vendors. To make matters worse, Google, Facebook and Twitter all prohibit guarantees to varying degrees.

To avoid making a costly mistake when hiring an SEM vendor, small business needs to arm themselves with enough knowledge to be competent as a vendor manager, and then select the right proposal and a reliable team.

read more

The New iPad : Everything You Need To Know About

The latest to join the queue of the cool tablets flying on the market shelves is the new iPad that Apple rolled out a few months back. The new iPad, iPad3 or third generation iPad…call it by whichever name you wish to, it is undoubtedly one of the coolest gadgets that has become the choice of millions. This new tablet is an amazing and useful gadget for bloggers & we have already covered some of the best Blogging apps for iPad. Now, here is my hands on review of the New iPad after using it for months. I’m sure it will help you to make a decision on to buy it or not to buy.

Frankly, I love the latest gadgets and when it is from Apple, I just can’t resist and finally end up buying one. The latest entry in my gadget world is the new iPad.  Ask me to describe this new gadget in one word and I would say, ‘fabulous‘. I might sound crazy but frankly most share of my hard-earned money goes in buying the gadgets. Before buying the third generation iPad, I was using iPad2 from last 8 or 9 months. After using both the tablets I actually can easily distinguish between the two and share my viewpoint . Though, the new iPad is almost similar to iPad2 lookwise but it comes fully loaded with new features that make it one of the stylishly desirable tablets.
Here I am sharing the positive and negative aspects which I have figured out while using the new iPad that will surely help you to take a decision if you are planning to buy one.

 Key features of the New iPad


Apple A5X (dual-core with quad-core graphics) processor that make it faster than iPad2 that has A5 processor.
One of the groundbreaking features of the new iPad is Retina Display with  2048 x 1536 pixels.
It has 4G LTE cellular technology that will allow you to browse internet and download files at superfast speed.
Mobile users will be excited to see the inclusion of 4G LTE cellular technology, which offers faster mobile downloads.
Another exciting feature that I like in new iPad is its 5 mega pixels/1080p rear camera which is a huge improvement over the iPad2 camera.
It is available with 16GB, 32GB, 64 storage capacity unlike iPad which is now only available in 16GB.
It is first tablet with Bluetooth 4.0 also known as Bluetooth Smart Ready which will help you in faster data transfer between devices.
10-hour battery life, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity, 1GB RAM,  1080p video recording at 30fps, , four and five-finger swipe gestures are the other notable features that enhance the overall user experience.
Adding feather to the cap Apple has announced the upgraded operating system – iOS6 that will bring cool features like Siri : Apple’s voice-activated personal assistant, FaceTime over cellular networks to the new iPad.

The new iPad Vs iPad 2 ?

How is the new iPad different from iPad2 is one question that you all might be curious about. Frankly, I was keenly interested in knowing how it  is different from iPad2 when its design is almost similar. No doubt, the new iPad is thicker and heavier than iPad2 but its features like amazing features make it stand apart from iPad2.
I was quite amazed when I started using new iPad for the first time because the text was razor sharp, colors were quite rich and everything was perfectly detailed because of retina display. Second thing that really blowed me away was its blazing speed while playing games and doing multitasking ; thanks to A5X chip with quad-core processor.

In addition, iOS6 update which is coming this fall will bring features like Siri and Facetime calling over cellular network promising to enhance the overall experience. These two upcoming features will only be available for the new iPad and iPhone 4S users.
Another feature that you might not be aware of is the amazing dictation feature which helps you to convert your words into text. Simply, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, say what you want to type and it does the typing for you. It was exciting to learn about this cool feature and it was a fun moment to see my new iPad converting my words into text.  Though, if you are an existing iPad2 user and looking to sell it to upgrade your tab to iPad3, I suggest you to wait and stick to iPad2, unless you are complete gadget freak.

Cons of New iPad

It is slightly heavier and thicker than iPad2.
Its reflective screen doesn’t work well in outdoors.
There is no Flash support in the web browser.
The iPad misses out the standard USB port like its predecessors. Same goes for its non replaceable battery and memory card slot.
There is no GPS receiver in the Wi-Fi version
Personally, one thing that bothered me much is that the ‘oh so cool’ tablet becomes uncomfortably hot at times.
If you are interested in basic iOS apps like weather, stocks, clock, calculator, voice memos then you might get bugged up not finding them on your new iPad.
Is it worth buying third generation iPad?
I won’t deny that the new iPad became irresistible to me because I was overtaken by the hype and after using it for sometime I have concluded that it definitely has met my expectations. No matter how strongly we talk about bad side of the coin, fact remains that it is loaded with impressive features. As of now, the biggest USP of the new iPad is its magnificent Retina display but the promising features like Siri and Facetime over cellular networks are sure to make you love the new iPad.

Why should you buy the new iPad?

From my personal experience I am writing down the reason why you should buy it or who should buy it.
If you are the one who is more cautious about image quality between standard-definition and high-definition images then you should go for the new iPad. This is one reason I bought this cool gadget.
It has one of the fast processor with quad-core graphics that will let you enjoy the thrill and excitement of different games.

If speed matters to you a lot then this new tablet from Apple is an ideal choice. The new iPad is 4G enabled device that will offer browsing at amazing speed. Go for the one which works on either AT&T’s 4G network or Verizon’s 4G network for fast connection anywhere.
It is good for those who love to keep their music and video data stored. Unlike iPad2 that has 16GB storage capacity, the new Apple iPad is available in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB capacity. However, I preferred 16GB for the reason that I don’t have too much of music and video data.

read more

FIVE SIMPLE STEPS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO FIND NEW CLIENTS

FIVE SIMPLE STEPS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO FIND NEW CLIENTS

Have you met any business people lately who weren’t interested in finding new clients?
I certainly haven’t.
But I have met more than a few people who don’t actually get how social media can help them with this challenge.
And often enough, even among those who do have a sense of the potential of social media for lead generation, there is lack of understanding about just how to go about tapping into this opportunity.
These five simple steps provide a framework for using social media to find potential new clients via the social web and then begin engaging with them:
Get clarity about your ideal client
Survey existing clients
Check in where the clients are
Listen for concerns, interests and needs
Share your knowledge

1. GET CLARITY ABOUT YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

Social media provides new opportunities to identify our ideal clients and provides also some new learning and experimentation, especially for those not already comfortable with using social media for business.
Having a clear picture of our ideal client is essential if we are going to:
use our marketing time and budget productively
not be always settling for whoever comes along
This is basic foundational work for any kind of marketing, but taking time out to do it thoroughly is essential.
Our existing clients can help.

2. SURVEY YOUR EXISTING CLIENTS

It seems to me that, one way or another, every book on social media and every social media consultant or coach tells us to find our prospects on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites, so that we can engage with them there.
Fair enough.
But how do we find them?
One strategy I recommend is to ask our existing clients what they do, what platforms they use, what networks, and how much, on the basis that there is a good chance others like them will have similar social networking patterns of behavior.
I work on the assumption that my clients will be happy to help, within reason, as they will want my business to do well.
Using a tool like Survey Monkey (free or premium) can help in collating and analysing the results of our enquiries (I believe in keeping such surveys simple and brief so that it’s not a burden or nuisance).

3. CHECK IN WHERE THE EXISTING CLIENTS ARE

Once we know where our existing clients spend their time and engage on the social web, we need to make sure we are there too.
We may be already signed up to the platforms and groups they are on. If not, we need to register, for the main ones at least. For most executives or other professionals, we should be able to cover a reasonable amount of the field from the platforms listed in my post from last April, Six Key Social Platforms for Busy Professionals: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Blog and YouTube (and note the recommendation there to not try and become proficient in all of them at once!).
With some ongoing experimentation, we should be able to get a picture of which platforms or networks are likely to be most helpful to our cause.

4. LISTEN FOR CONCERNS, INTERESTS AND NEEDS

Social networks provide priceless information to help us connect with clients and prospects. Once we have a sense of the places and spaces where our clients and prospects are likely to be we can begin to learn more about them by hanging out there ourselves.
The first thing to do is listen. Listen for what the conversations are and for what they reveal about the interests, concerns and needs of the people with whom you want to connect.
The second thing to do is listen some more.
Above all, we have to resist the temptation to immediately use these new channels of communication to broadcast about our products and services.

5. SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Once we have done some listening and developed a sense of the way people are communicating on a particular platform, say on a LinkedIn Group or with Twitter or other social platforms, we can start to share our knowledge and experience.
That does not mean diving in and declaring (however much and however justifiably we believe it) that we have just the product or service to solve their problem. If we do feel we have the answer they need, or at least an answer, and we have a sense that this will be all right to mention, then it is absolutely essential, for our ongoing credibility with the particular group, that we be transparent about the fact that this is our product or service, or – say – that we are affiliates (and thus stand to gain a commission).
What we can be sure of is that if, and as soon as, we start to look like we are just using the group to trawl for clients and not making any positive and reasonably disinterested contribution, people will tune out.
More positively, as we connect with the real concerns and issues of people in the group and offer help and suggestions where we can, people will become more receptive to learning about what we have to offer in terms of products and services.

SOMETIMES A MINDSHIFT IS NEEDED

I fully realize that, for many business people, this way of doing things will not come naturally.
But I believe it’s increasingly the way savvy professionals are going to be finding new clients.
And at the same time keeping “top of mind” for existing clients.
It’s all part of social selling.
Have you tried this approach, or something like it? Please feel free to share your experience.

read more