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Often  a topic of discussion: How do you measure the success of your social marketing efforts? The most common idea I have heard over the last year is to wrap all of your efforts up in to one word, “engagement”.  And in this meaning, engagement includes, visits to your site, how many unique visitors, how often they came back, how log each visit session is on average. All of these are pretty basic web traffic measurements. However, if you add to these the measure of the number of people posting, commenting, and re syndicating your content you gain greater insight. At least that is the goal.

Their is a race out there to not only to establish an engagement measuring platform but also to simply define what engagement measurement is.

PostRank.comhas taken a step in that effort. PostRank.com website clearly states that is aims to “measure audience engagement” Interestingly it has begun to dissect what online engagement is and how measure different areas of engagement.

The 5 C’s of Engagement

• Creating
• Critiquing
• Chatting
• Collecting
• Clicking

Who knows if they have it right., but it is interesting to see the evolution of engagement metrics.

Post Rank integrates and measures via the following:

• RSS Feed Analytics similar to feedburner
• Integration with RSS Readers including Newsgator, Google Reader, Trawlr, Daisy Feed, FetchIt! and more
• Simple integration with major blogging platforms, Blogger, WordPress Typepad
• An API and developers section of it’s website.

What is not clear after my limited browsing of the is does this scale? Can this be easily implemented into a network of blogs or a  large scale community that goes beyond blogs and includes, forums, galleries and so on. Either way it will be interesting to follow and see how it evolves. Postrank has a BETA program for “Feed Analytics”. Go here to sign up.

My RSS Aggregator picked up a few items on Cloud Computing today and each item tells a very different story of Cloud Computing. 

1) Rackspace blows away cloud computing myths

2) Omniture’s Outage Woes

3) IBM Sets Its Sights On Cloud Computing With LotusLive

These items are written and posted all day every day. Contradicting each other in some ways, supporting in others, redefining and ever evolving.

This isn’t the first time we have seen Cloud Computing, it’s just the first time we are calling it cloud computing. Many years ago it was ASP ( Application Service Providers), recently it was SaaS and the emerging term now is Cloud Computing. Lets call all of these “Internet applications”

So why do we keep trying to push Internet applications as opposed to desktop software or internally developed and managed software. One reason, cost. Cloud Computing is the non committal IT purchasing mangers dream.  You can buy in and be up and running in minimal time at limited term requirements. Some service run on an pay as you go or  month to month program. Many of the larger companies in Internet Application  space focus on annual contracts to mitigate risks and cover setup fees.  Just because its in the cloud doesn’t mean there isn’t setup.

But it’s not all rainbows and sunshine otherwise we would all be operating on ASP programs and we would have never needed the reincarnation known as SaaS and  Cloud Computing.
Internet Applications failed to reach mainstream and overtake desktop software in the past due to the limitation of the web. That is limitation of the web servers, database servers,  overall speed and accessibility of the Internet and also very much due to the limitations of older browsers. Well Servers are more powerful than ever, the Internet itself is more accessible than ever and there is true competition in browsers that is driving progress and innovation. There is also an ever growing community of web developers with new ideas, talent and overall understanding of web technologies. 

So is Cloud Computing going to stick this time? Not if history has anything to say about. The problem is that the desktop is more powerful to the individual user than the service providing web server. So what happens is the demands of the user outpace the web technology powering Internet applications.

But does it matter if cloud computing survives this time? NO. This isn’t even the right question to ask yourself.

The right question is this.
 Is cloud computing the right option for my business right now? And to this question, in this recession, the overwhelming answer for almost all companies is yes.

This will not always be the case, technology will evolve, business will need more customization or privacy, users will require advanced services. And when these things come to a head it will be the time to invest in the desktop again with internally managed software. This is OK. This is a cycle and right now we are in the Internet Application segment of the cycle.

But can Cloud Computing sustain this time. Well what would it take for Cloud Computing to keep up with increasing demands.  How about the following.

• Fast and robust Internet connection,
• universal / anywhere access to the Internet
• Powerful Networking
• Powerful Servers
• Powerful Browsers

Each one of these items needs to not only keep up but lead the industry to keep Cloud Computing from losing out the desktop again.

Google knows this. I have to wonder how how long Google has been targeting and working on this strategy or if it just evolved into this. 
For Google Apps to take off and sustain popularity indefinitely it needs to address each of the items above. So lets take a look at what steps they have taken.

• Fast and robust Internet connection,
  • Google Data Centers and purchase Dark Fiber, an Internet within the Internet  http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Google-and-Its-Continuing-Dark-Fiber-Mystery/     

• Universal / Anywhere Access to the Internet
  • Google Lobbies for Wireless Spectrum usage  http://news.cnet.com/Googles-battle-for-wireless-spectrum/2008-1039_3-6199374.html
  • http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/breaking/google-wireless-spectrum-bid-is-on-328429.php
  • Obama Broadband plans http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_03/b4116027365196.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
    
• Powerful Networking
  • Google Builds its own routers http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10137682-92.html  
• Powerful Servers
  • Google designs its own servers to for powerful performance easy maintenance http://gigaom.com/2008/12/29/how-google-is-influencing-server-design/  
• Powerful Browsers
  • Google creates its own browser. Google Chrome  
     
• The only other thing Google needs is regular innovation in application features and design. And for them that’s easy
  • http://code.google.com/
  • http://www.google.com/programming-contest/ 

So will Cloud Computing survive the user demands in innovation and the competition of desktop performance?

I’s more likely now than ever and Google has a the infrastructure to make it happen.

I attended my first search engine strategies conference in 2003 and I really took to it. I enjoyed modifying sites and seeing the results in search engines. You really feel and see a positive impact being made in the company.

The most unfortunate thing that I see in SEO today is the wild goose chases that are discrediting the entire industry. What’s worse is that for the most part the SEO industry is doing this to its self. 

Let me state it load and clear, your super secret ultimate google hack is not real and you have not found the path to SEO GOLD.

Here’s why

• First off it is a hack.
• Second it’s not supported by any search engine
• Third. Search engines make changes constantly without any warning. So even if your trick/hack does work it likely won’t work for long.
• Fourth: Even if you are an avid tester of your techniques it doesn’t matter because your technique could be destroyed with one  algorithm change
• Fifth: Even if your hack does work, by the time you actually get it in place it will no loger work and you are going to look like a fool contradicting your self to a client in a month when your super hack doesn’t actually work
• Sixth: Your making your self look like you don’t know what you are doing.
• Seventh: You are lying. you are selling something that does not exist. Another word for this is fraud.  In three months your client will see through you and you will lose the work. Try this, set realistic expectations, embrace a testing method and include the client in the testing process.
• You are hurting your self and tarnishing the industry
   

I am not saying that you should stop trying to innovate and find a way to get ahead but I am saying you should stop selling it. Many of these theories likely came to be through some sort of observation and good intentions but since we, the mareketers, are at the mercy of the search engines, we can not establish any of these threroies as laws.

REAL SEO experts, enthusiasts etc… know better. For long term strategy success follow the basics and don’t fall for wild goose chase hacks or you will spend all your time cleaning up the mistakes from your 

Here are some great posts covering SEO Goose Chases. I’ll admit that I ave fallen for a few of these myself. Some I still do just out of habit.

•  Top Ten Organic SEO Myths
• Destroying the Myths of SEO and PPC
• Three SEO Myths Debunked

The real question now is how do we reeducate the average business on white hat SEO that establishes a long term strategy and follows the basics supported by the major search engines.

Looking at the new whitehouse.gov I have to say I really like the site.  While clicking through the site I noticed it was architected in a fairly sophisticated manner. Very clean URLs (http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewashington/), no enormous query strings, key-terms and description set up. Very clean code with minimal in line Javascript and css based navigation and more.

So here’s the question: Does whitehouse.gov really need to be optimized for search engine indexing?

More surprising things on the site.

• The design / layout and navigation  is contemporary, sophisticated and well thought out
• Categorized Syndication of headlines
  • RSS feeds for Agenda, Press, News, Blog, Gallery and Video Media RSS!
  • This ties in to my recent post on the importance of relevance (relevant) to the individual. I can follow the RSS how I want to.
• There’s a robots.txt file but it really isn’t blocking anything
• No xml sitemaps? I was betting there would be one given the other seo efforts
• Looking at the source code there is a good use of jquery (my favorite library) and Thickbox! Codey Lindley should be proud.
• And what are they using to measure website traffic? Webtrends. I wish Icould get a look at those reports. Especially today.
• According to W3c the site passes as valid xhtml 1.0  transitional

All In all this is pretty much exactly how I would strive to build a website for the whitehouse.

If I had any recommendation off the top of my head,  it would be to offer the user the option to increase the font size via css/javascript.

And as the bumper sticker clearly states, “If momma ain’t happy… Ain’t nobody happy.”

I have spent the last 7 years  optimizing sites for search engines and content aggregators. Making sure that every piece of content is syndicated and notifying systems to generate non paid traffic. Over this time I have heard, and repeated, over and over that “Content is King”.  This is true, the more content you generate the more content will likely be indexed by search engines and and the more traffic you are likely to get from long-tail keyterms. This simple idea created a a tsunami of content. Write write write and post post post. Have you noticed how everything has a blog now. Every TV show has a blog and every character on the show has a blog (a hint of relevance).  For a brand new site this is not a bad strategy to get traffic moving. But then what. If you keep posting content without purpose  you will begin to see your bounce rates sky rocket. So people are stumbling on to your site through long-tail keyterms only to leave immediately. What a waste.

This is where relevance comes in.
I should really say relevance and timeliness.  Relevance in content goes beyond simply writing good copy that will explain what the majority of visitors are asking. Relevance is purposeful content plus the ability to segment that content into specific categories and extend that content into other systems. Most importantly, relevant content in this meaning is content that can be grouped so that it is relevant to the individual. WordPress and other Web 2.0 platforms have really beaten the path when it comes to making content relevant. By creating categories and automatically tag pages and automatically syndicating through RSS and automatic emailing of particular content and on and on and on. Content is sliced and diced so easily with Web 2.0 systems such as blogs and forums. However, relevance means elbow grease if you are maintaining an enterprise or a corporate website, with content that needs to change and or grow over time. OK that is pretty much common sense. What I am trying to say here is update your content while maintaining the URL and make sure that content aggregates and search engines are aware of the changes you are making.

Now add timeliness.
Timeliness for online marketing means “Today”. It means timely, relevant content for today, and if possible within the last few hours.

Here’s a scenario. You are interested in creating content for a blog or community for your company. You have prepared a few posts and while they are generally interesting they are unlikely to really spike traffic. You need a tie into current events. Some topic that the masses are currently interested in. So as an example I will take a look at Google Trends and I see the top ten items people are searching on today. Perhaps I can tie one of these items into my post. For example item #6 is “safety reliability methods” (just yesterday Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III safely landed flight US Airways Flight 1549 safely in the Hudson) so it is likely that people are searching on safety and reliability information today. So here is a timely reference that can help place a timely spin on your post or even inspire a new post. Your probably thinking OK that is pretty short lived and in this case you are correct. The interest of the masses changes quickly and while this did spike traffic this week, what about next week. Well this technique is better for blogs and next week you will have a new relevant post.

The point here is that content alone will not bring qualified traffic to your site.  Sure content is King but without relevance the King will be a peasant in no time.
Writing timely unique content plus the ability to group, syndicate and notify content aggregators will establish a strong long term strategy.

Joost will be airing the inauguration events live next tuesday. Another first.

This will be the most accessible inauguration in history.