What Ohioans Are Saying About SOPA and PIPA

This post is from John Roscoe, Senior Director at Strategic Public Partners Group.

What Ohioans Are Saying About SOPA and PIPA

On Wednesday, dozens of websites including Wikipedia, Mozilla and Reddit “blacked out” in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which are both under consideration in Congress. The PROTECT IP Act is scheduled for a vote in the Senate on January 24.

Here’s what Ohioans are saying about SOPA and PIPA:

“While I support and respect Intellectual Property rights, SOPA and PIPA are fundamentally flawed bills which I do not support. Both of these bills would restrict Americans’ ability to access sites on the Internet, impose burdensome and costly new regulations on web companies and expand the powers of the federal government to police the Internet.”

–Congressman Mike Turner, (OH-3)

http://www.facebook.com/RepMikeTurner?sk=wall

“Please know I have concerns about the legislation and I do not support SOPA in its current form; it could infringe on first amendment rights.”

–Congressman Steve Stivers, (OH-15)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rep-Steve-Stivers/116058275133542

“Therefore, I do not support SOPA in its current form and I am waiting to see what the final product will be when it comes before the full House for a vote. If I believe it infringes on the 1st Amendment I won’t support it.”

–Congressman Jim Renacci, (OH-16)

http://www.facebook.com/notes/congressman-jim-renacci/where-i-stand-on-online-piracy-updated/364778993536958

“While I agree that online piracy is a growing problem, like many of you, I have serious concerns that SOPA could have serious unintended consequences. Some provisions would allow companies to force internet providers to shut down site without any judicial approval as well as hold third party providers, like universities, responsible for what individuals upload onto sites.”

–Congressman Bob Gibbs, (OH-18)

http://www.facebook.com/RepBobGibbs

“SOPA and PIPA are well-intentioned proposals that attempt to address online piracy concerns; however, in their current form the legislation goes too far. The proposals can present damaging ramifications to free speech, global cybersecurity and Internet functionality. At this time, I do not support SOPA and Protect IP Act in their current form, and I hope further committee hearings will be held to resolve these concerns.”

–Congressman Bob Latta, (OH-5)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bob-Latta/115988005143254?sk=wall

“Basically what this bill does is put too much of a burden on companies like Wikipedia to start really policing the vast majority of info that are on their sites.”

–Congressman Tim Ryan, (OH-17)

http://www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/Anti-Piracy-Legislation-Could-Affect-Local-Firms/RLsHAaFn3E2-N3-kKcWTLw.cspx

“I am against SOPA and PIPA because it would censor the Internet. This legislation would affect innovation of online marketers and how we do business. Overall, I think it’s unlawful to allow an IP owner to shut down a website without even a legal hearing or trial with the alleged copyright infringer.”

– Jonathan Levey, co-chair of SEMPO Cleveland & Online Marketing Specialist with Fathom, Valley View

“These bills will absolutely cost jobs, and search engines, social media sites and bloggers will be greatly affected.  Plus, the people who want to pirate content online will still find ways to do so.  Piracy is a problem, yes. SOPA and PIPA are simply not the solution.”

–Bill Balderaz, President, Webbed Marketing, Columbus

http://www.webbedmarketing.com/blog

“This is a bill which will do almost nothing to actually stop piracy (which is, of course, already illegal), but will further rig the system in favor of those already entrenched at the top. It would give authority to copyright holders to sue internet start-ups and any site found to be hosting links (or links to links) featuring copyrighted material.”

–Eric Chase, Edgewood

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/letters/2012/01/18/voicing-opposition-to-sopa-bill/

“My opinion is that this bill is entirely the wrong approach to solving copyright issues. It makes community sites liable for content posted by users, and the risk runs as high as having their domain eliminated from the internet. In essence, it is remarkably similar to the Chinese approach to controlling internet content: if it is disagreeable to those in power, block it.”

– Brian Guilfoos, Editor, Plunderblund

http://www.plunderbund.com/2012/01/18/sopapipa-what-you-need-to-know/

“The problem with the legislation is that it is written too broadly.  For instance, the bill states that to prevent liability sites and their hosts must take “technically feasible and reasonable measures” to prevent unlawful content from appearing on their site.  Unfortunately, the broadly interpreted definition of “technically feasible and reasonable measures” means that a judge could determine just how stringent a university’s network security measures should be.”
– Rick Cartwright, New Media Dayton

http://www.rickcartwright.com/blog/
“We are threatening our abilities to learn, grow, entertain and conduct business. There has been roughly 43 years of invested knowledge from amazing thinkers, business people, programmers, who had the ingenuity to change the landscape of how we live our lives. In just one signing and passing of a bill, we erase years of dedication. Not to mention, jeopardizing the very ability to blog freely. Take a stand!”

– Travis Childs, Social Media Strategist, Cincinnati

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/queencitywelcome/2012/01/18/take-a-stand-against-internet-censorship/

“President Barack Obama, though stopping short of a veto promise, doused the bills with cold water over the weekend, too. The protesters will make their point in a different way today, and they’ll make it with the public rather than the politicians. It could prove a real attention-getter.”

– Cleveland Plain Dealer, Editorial

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/01/in_protest_of_pipa_and_sopa_a.html

SOPA/PIPA will have “a chilling effect on web entrepreneurship in general.”

–David Howcroft, Ohio for Internet Freedom, Columbus

http://www.thelantern.com/campus/sites-black-out-in-protest-of-sopa-pipa-1.2744651#.Txhpv_kVf-I

“We would have to hire more people to monitor and police that, which would create a lot of overhead…their sole purpose would be to monitor.”

– Stephe Kamykowski, AST2, Youngstown

http://www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/Anti-Piracy-Legislation-Could-Affect-Local-Firms/RLsHAaFn3E2-N3-kKcWTLw.cspx

Tags: internet, pipa, sopa

Setting Up Your AdWords Campaign for Success

Several weeks ago we talked about the impact of your quality score on your AdWords campaigns.  Today we’ll go into more detail about how to set up your AdWords campaigns for success with high quality scores.

First, keep in mind the principles of a good campaign:

1. Target only searchers who are interested in your offer by carefully selecting your keywords.
2. Make your offer clear, compelling, and persuasive in your ad copy.
3. Fulfill the promise of your ad with a positive experience on your webpage.

The best way to achieve this is to set up your campaigns in small ad groups so you can closely match your keywords with highly targeted ad copy and the best landing page.  Start with a small number of keywords in each ad group.  Focus on quality, not quantity.  Avoid ambiguous keywords and only select keywords that a searcher would use when looking for your product or service.  For best results these keywords should almost be synonyms.  Keywords with different meanings should go into a separate ad group.  In the previous post we learned that a big part of your quality score is the historical click-through-rate (CTR).  Having your campaigns set up in tight ad groups will increase your CTR as searchers see a highly relevant ad for their keyword.  This sets up your campaigns for a good historical CTR from the start.

You can expand your keywords later, but you must start small to set your campaigns up for success in the long-run.  After you have achieved a quality score of 7 or better for a few weeks you can start to add keywords, but do this slowly, adding a few more relevant keywords at a time.  If these new keywords don’t achieve high quality scores abandon them quickly so you don’t bring down the quality scores of your other keywords.

While it isn’t necessary to use the keyword in your ad copy, it may be helpful to use it.  When the keyword in your ad matches the search term the keyword in your ad will appear bold on the search engine results page.  This might be the push a searcher needs to notice and click on your ad, improving CTR.  You can also dynamically insert the keyword into your ad so the searcher will see their exact keyword in the ad copy.  Make sure the offer in your ads is clear and enticing and include a call to action so the searcher knows what to do once they get to your website.

When you select the landing page for your ad group make sure it is the most relevant page to go with that keyword and ad copy combination.  Get as specific as possible.  For example, use a product page as a landing page instead of your home page or a category page.  Also, avoid any quality score penalties by making your privacy policy available, making sure your site loads within a reasonable amount of time, and including original content.  If you are selling a product that Google considers to be unsafe or illegal your account can be suspended, but hopefully that isn’t something to worry about!

Overall, you will set your AdWords campaigns up for success when searchers see relevant ads and are taken to websites that meet their needs.  With highly targeted keywords, ads, and landing pages in your campaigns searchers will find exactly what they are looking for.  This makes them happy, so AdWords rewards you, the advertiser, with good quality scores and a lower cost-per-click.

Tags: AdWords, pay-per-click, ppc

Small Business SEO

Affordable Small Business SEO Packages

As a small business owner, you are looking for every edge you can get, and using the endless possibility of the internet is one way to feed your pipeline with sales leads. And while most internet marketing agencies require a retainer to work with you, most small businesses don’t have the budget to pay for their services each month. Webbed Marketing, winner of a shelf full of small business awards, feels your pain.

We offer small business SEO packages with business owners like you in mind. The packages are project based and vary based on the level of involvement that you’d like after the research and analysis phase.

• Our Basic SEO Package offers the research and analysis of your site, along with some on-page recommendations for your site pages.
• The Advanced SEO Package provides the Basic components along with off-page work to promote your newly optimized pages.
• the Custom SEO Package is designed to implement all of the Basic and Advanced components as well as start a Local Search presence for your business. We’ll need CMS or FTP access to your site if you select the Custom package.

And all of our small business SEO packages include access to our Webbed Marketing University, SEO101 online course.  The material will take you through the basics of on-page optimization and show some of the technical aspects of SEO that can adversely affect your site.

To learn more, contact our team of SEO Experts to learn more about our affordable small business SEO packages.

Tags: search engine marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, small business seo, webbed marketing

The Ins and Outs of Facebook Advertising

Are you looking to boost your online advertising strategy for the new year, but just aren’t sure where to start? Or maybe you’ve seen the power of Facebook as part of your marketing strategy, but want to take it one step further? Facebook advertising may be the key to increase your conversions, as well as build more awareness of your brand online. There are several advantages to advertising on Facebook – audience of more than 800 million people, ability to target a specific market and a lower cost than other online advertising platforms – if you utilize the ads effectively. Join Webbed Marketing President Bill Balderaz and SR. PPC Specialist Karen Schneider to learn the ins and outs of Facebook advertising.

In this webinar we will discuss:

• Why use Facebook ads
• Types of ads
• Ad setup
• Tips and best practices
• Measuring success

Register for free today!

Tags: Facebook ads, Facebook advertising

Is DMOZ Still Worth Submitting To?

DMOZ.org is widely considered one of the most valuable directories on the Web. It gained high value from Google because of the highly selective process it takes for a website to get into the directory.

However, as the Internet evolves, some things can and do change. This is what has happened with DMOZ. While Google used to have a version of DMOZ called the Google Directory, they found that this directory was used very little. Over time, Google started relying on it less and less, and relying more and more on Web search. With that said, there are a couple important things you should know about DMOZ.

First, it’s still sometimes used by Google in their search results to display a snippet of what a site is about. If you block a page with a robots.txt, Google is unable to crawl that page and therefore unable to find anything useful to display as a description in their search result. Google can see the anchor text of the link, but that’s really all of the information they can gather.

This is where DMOZ can come in. Google trusts DMOZ and their team of editors, so if DMOZ says a website is about a certain topic, Google trusts that and can use that as a description snippet in their search engine.

Second, regarding the value of a DMOZ link, there aren’t any special bonus points with Google because it’s from DMOZ; it’s treated as any other link. However, DMOZ pages tend to have a higher PageRank than other websites. In that respect it’s a highly valuable link if you are successful at getting listed.

With that said though, if you get a link from a respected authority site, that link can carry the same (if not more) value to your website than a DMOZ link.

Bottom line: treat DMOZ as a great linking opportunity that you can and should submit your website to. However, it’s not the end of the world if your website isn’t included in DMOZ, as there are plenty of other great linking opportunities on the Web.

Health Care and Social Media: What works, what doesn’t and what you can do about it

Webbed Marketing* recently conducted a study on social media usage by the largest 25 health systems in the nation (defined by number of employees). Join Webbed Marketing’s online research team Amy Marshall and Lindsey Grant to learn how the top 25 health systems stack up, as well as what the key innovators in healthcare marketing are doing from a social media perspective.

In this webinar you will learn:

• What the largest health systems in the U.S. are doing from an online marketing perspective
• What channels and topics have proven most effective for health systems to reach their audience
• The latest innovations in healthcare marketing
• How to make social media work for your organization while adhering to HIPAA and Joint Commission standards
• Ways to measure and benchmark your organization’s progress

*Webbed Marketing is a division of Fathom Online Marketing

Register here, http://www.fathomdelivers.com/forms/healthcare-webbed-webinar.asp

Tags: healthcare, social media, webinar

Columbus-based Internet Marketing Firm Serves as “New Facebook” Expert for Sources

Webbed Marketing, a leading social media and search engine optimization firm, based in Columbus, Ohio, is positioned as an expert on the “new Facebook” for the media and other sources seeking professional advice on the changes and updates that just happened on Facebook.

“If you’re looking for an expert on the new Facebook changes, our social media specialists are the ideal source,” Bill Balderaz, Webbed Marketing’s president, said.  “Webbed Marketing is a pioneer in social media marketing, and the new Facebook changes, and our team is readily available for interviews, questions and even discussions about the ‘new’ Facebook.”

All the hype, positive and negative, around the changes coming from the F8 Facebook conference has left many businesses in confusion.  Not to mention, several media outlets are trying to cover stories on the hot topic, but struggling to understand all the changes and updates the social networking platform is offering.

Webbed Marketing’s extensive specialization in social media has positioned the company as a go-to source for your Facebook questions and tips.

For more information about Webbed Marketing’s social media experience, or to contact them about the Facebook changes today, visit www.webbedmarketing.com or contact Courtney Cooper at ccooper@webbedmarketing.com.

Tags: Facebook changes, Facebook updates

Making the Most of Video Marketing

Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011

2-3 p.m.

Register today! https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/492474842

Video is one of the most effective ways to reach your company’s audience online. Through video, you can engage and interact with customers, increase traffic to your website and add more personality to your social media networks. Join Yvonne Rayburn, director of online communications at Webbed Marketing, and Steve Kozak, director of video production for Fathom Online Marketing, to learn how to best utilize video and social media to build brand awareness, expand your audience and connect with your customers.

In this webinar we’ll discuss:

• Tips for video marketing
• Utilizing video to increase traffic to your website
• Amping up your social media presence with videos or video contests
• Ways to make video more fun
• How to measure the effectiveness of your video marketing efforts

Tags: video, video marketing

We’re hiring an SEO Specialist

Search Engine Optimization Specialist Job Description

The SEO Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day SEO activities of Webbed Marketing clients.  The Specialist implements the various tactical items associated with an SEO program as set by the SEO strategist and account manager.  The SEO specialist will execute SEO tasks based on client strategy and in some cases implement SEO related changes on websites.  The following bullets describe some of the core activities that an SEO Specialist will perform:

• Perform baseline site audit for new sites
• Keyword Research
• Site setup activities: Google Analytics, XML sitemaps, Webmaster setup etc.
• Onpage activities: Optimization of meta content, content body, headers, images, etc.
• Offpage activities:  Link building, Local Search,
• Implementation of approved deliverables
• Support of SEO Strategy lead
• Technical review and troubleshooting
• Managing website updates
• Reviewing code for search engine friendliness
• Implementing redirects
• Support Account Managers with client calls as needed

Desired Experience and Skills:

1-3 years of web operations experience

Understanding of SEO principals and optimization variables

Basic Knowledge of: HTML, CSS, and other common web programming languages

CMS experience

Working knowledge of Google Analytics

Solid knowledge of keyword research tools and best practices

Able to solve complex web related site problems through various tools

Fast learner – self motivated and able to multi task on multiple projects simultaneously

Deadline driven

This position is located in Columbus, Ohio and requires minimal travel.  This role will report to the Director of Search and Advertising.

We are not your typical agency. Even though we are recognized as leaders in our field, we are an aggressive and fast-growing company where good ideas, hard work and job performance are more important than job titles and hierarchy. We have world class clients, excellent benefits, competitive salary and flexible work schedules. We boast 90% client retention.

Compensation based on experience and ability. Please send cover letter, resume, references and salary range to Bill Balderaz at bbalderaz@webbedmarketing.com. We will only consider Ohio-based applicants, or applicants willing to relocate to Ohio for this position.  All qualified candidates must pass a phone assessment gauging their technical and SEO skills to be considered for an in-person interview.

Tags: hiring, search engine optimization, SEO

Why SEO Matters for Writers and PR Pros

You might think search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations are entirely different avenues for online marketing. In fact, the world of SEO might be entirely foreign and uninteresting to you. My education in public relations and journalism never touched upon SEO. However, to be an effective writer and communicator today, it is essential to have a basic understanding of SEO and how it affects your writing.

As communications and public relations professionals, we are constantly writing – press releases, executive bios, newsletters, white papers, case studies, award submissions, social media updates, etc. All of your writing should be optimized for SEO purposes. Think about it – even if its original purpose is a hard copy, most of the content you write these days will end up online in some form.

Consider your goals for whatever content you are writing. It may be to increase awareness, create buzz around an event or topic, or inform your audience of news. These goals should coincide with another very important goal for your business: to be found online. When people are looking for information on a topic, event or company, they are likely browsing online (and chances are good it’s from their mobile device).

Therefore, in order to be found online, all the content you write should be optimized for SEO purposes. Make sure those keywords that people are searching to find your organization are in your headline. Use keywords throughout your social media updates. Beef up that first paragraph in your white paper with some keywords about your topic. In order for communicators and public relations professionals to have our work found and read online, we have to make it SEO-friendly.

If this is something you are struggling with, or you want to know more about SEO, you should check out our Webbed Marketing University series. The first session is an intro to SEO, and will highlight some of the basics to help you meet your business goals… even as a public relations or communications professional.