Paul Fleming - Flemo: Between Sydney, Philadelphia and the World Wide Web

The Web often has a flavor of the month. Some stick around, others fall by the wayside. The latest biggie is visual sharing website Pinterest which has proven to be a geek gals BFF. While female dominated (there are some guys versions, my favorite being gentlemint.com) adoption of the system has been significant and as always, it’s important as Internet Marketers that we explore if there is value to our clients.

Often one of the first things we look at is SEO benefit. We know that back links are a valuable commodity and initially Pinterest offered great value. Recently however, they adjusted their backlinks to be nofollow which means that the links do not give significant SEO benefit (I personally think there is still value to nofollow incoming links) so if we are thinking about using the system solely to build links, we’d be wasting our time.

Next thing we look at is Pinterests own Search visibility. While I’ve personally seen it appear in search results, it doesn’t seem to have the same impact that linkedin or facebook has but for a new player, there is some strong evidence to support its own search visibility.

So according to SEM Rush their Search visibility is off the charts. No surprises of course with some 800K results in the Top 2 pages and significant growth from the end of last year.

Now what sort of results are we seeing? Being the Minnie Mouse fan that I am, I’m in desperate need of some party suggestions. And according to Google’s keyword tool, a lot of other people are as well. “Minnie Mouse Party Ideas” has some 8100 estimated searches per month. Have a look a the #1 spot!

So what do we do with this data?

Given that we know the demographics definitely skew female and that it’s a very visual/artsy community, the site lends itself well to businesses who cover at least one of these elements. For some, Pinterest is already proving to be a solid referral source. For SEO benefits, we’d suggest that this should not be the primary reason for joining and being active. We do encourage exploration of yet another great example of the Internet and the joys it can bring to folks.

While Philadelphia is my base, I’m in Sydney once a year for a stint. Every year, there seems to be something new with my Google search results that piques my interest. This year seems to have been particularly confusing for my Google searches. At times, I haven’t been able to perform searches via google.com. It wouldn’t redirect me to google.com.au like it used to either even though I had physically set my location for Sydney. A technical glitch that may have more to do with my computer than Google.

So this year in addition to these quirks, my search results really struggled with my location. An example of this inner turmoil is represented in the following screenshot. On a search for my mates business Action Stump Removal, such a localized search I imagined would yield strictly local results. However, you will notice that one of the results slipped in is from Minnesota, a place I’ve been twice many, many years ago.

I’m not overly sure how to explain this other than my inner turmoil theory where Google sees my search history as being predominately US-based but knows my current location is Sydney. This stray result has a decent domain keyword match though the website is no shining example with indications that it was last “Revised Wed, 23 May 2007″, a domain authority of 7/100 and a grand total of 2 incoming links according to Majestic SEO. So my hunch here is that Google might be struggling between prioritizing between personalized search and location in trying to deliver most accurate results.

As always, I was driven by curiosity to see what Bing was up to in this situation to see if they were picking up their game there. They offer up the option of restricting my results to Australia only (an extra click, it’s not the default option)

So sure enough, the results are only within Australia but they cover all of Australia. The first result is from Sydney, the second Queensland and the third Victoria. Not overly helpful I’m afraid.

So even with their confusions, Google still gets closer to a better user experience and result. I have a feeling these quirks are more an exception than the rule.

I consider myself an Internet Marketer. I’ve often thought about what makes up a good Internet Marketer and have always found that those best suited to the work have a built-in curiosity and a liking for the hustle. For me, I’ve been an early tech adopter for as long as I can remember especially when it comes to the Internet. Online progress has always been at such a frenetic pace and it feels like that pace gets faster and faster that it’s hard to keep up. There’s some new startup, a new service we have to try out, a beta invite, a must-have app….I have accounts that I didn’t know I have and others that I know I have that remain dormant. There are a few reason for trying to keep pace…some of it just plain curiosity, partially to check something that someone has put their blood, sweat and tears into or had the insight to create something they reckon people might be into. The other side of that caters to my profession in which I look for opportunities for clients. In Internet Marketing, there is this sense that to be successful, one needs to have, or at least pretend to have some form of Attention Deficit, to bounce from system to system, to constantly be on the go and prove value by doing new things and chasing that next big thing. That level of hustle always seems to serve our clients well. Out of that, a process has begun to emerge and we’ve created a more formal structure (sort of). At the very least, we have learned some lessons.

Here are just a couple of tips:

1. Follow other early adopters – there is no shortage of places to find the next shiny thing. A few choice selections on twitter will help but they can be easily missed so I’d suggest focussing on some key blogs. My favorite these days is TheNextWeb which has a very comprehensive coverage, so too Mashable which tends to crank out info by the second. Techmeme is my favorite aggregator.

2. Keep a master login list – the issue here is not that you should be concerned that your data is out there that you are not looking after but because there are times when you will forget about an account that maybe you didn’t “get” initially that upon a revisit recognize its value. This list (which can also remind you of your login info) can help to jog your memory. Evernote can be a useful tool for storing this list.

3. Really test – put it through it’s paces. Use it as if you want to break it and get to know it pretty well before looking around at reviews to see what others have discovered.

4. Use a persona – Mostly I use my own account for the testing but there is the odd occasion when an incorrect setup may impact your account so I have a few dummy accounts that i will use without fear of reprisal. I think a lot of us made the mistake of setting up Google Analytics accounts under our profiles instead of new accounts when it first came out and then losing that data when you had to move it over. We still come across those every once in a while.

While I’ve forced a move to a more manageable and balanced lifestyle (more away-from-the-computer time), I certainly enjoy that side of the business and it may be a big reason why I got into the Internet Marketing game in the first place. I feel like our clients would and should expect that we are doing this so that they don’t have to (until we decide that they need to).

So what’s my latest signup? I just signed up for an invite at www.so.cl, Microsoft’s own foray into social media…maybe. Also just began playing around with Gentlemint which is a guys version of Pinterest. How about you? Any newbies you want to share?

Many of us saw it coming but honestly I didn’t think it would be this early. For mine, it was a no-brainer, a way to get numbers and action on their own social system Google+ and also an way to increase Search personalization which they have been increasingly moving towards for a few years now. Some question whether there is value in doing so and often search results can be a lot worse with personalization but they’re sticking to their guns.

I recently noticed the announcement on my search results explaining the latest updates. 

This takes you to a page that further explains their new service and in typical google fashion includes a video and tells us that “search gets better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends.” Maybe.

So first things first, if you’re looking to be part of this latest Search iteration get yourself a Google+ profile. For businesses, create a page. Set up your circles, start following, engaging, sharing. Start getting comfortable with it, I think it’s only going to continue in its importance.