DeGroote MBA lecture Testimonials

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

Last week I was the guest lecturer at DeGroote’s MBA program, Burlington campus. Here is what the students had to say.

DeGroote MBA lecture Testimonials:

————————

Hi Scott,
I wanted to thank you for coming in today and talking to us. It was very interesting and eye opening. It makes you realize how important Google searches really are and how some problems can have fairly simple fixes, just need to be aware and understand.

I work for Coke in the procurement department and even though we have many devices to track shipments and orders it’s still not an easy process, so I can only imagine how difficult it can be for marketers to track their investment in a program. The techniques and strategies you mentioned today were very interesting and exciting because I never knew how marketers tracked their investments/campaigns especially with the variety of mediums used today. I guess in the past many campaigns were never really tracked. I am interested in going into Marketing/Brand so it’s great to see that there are ways of successfully tracking marketing campaigns and producing meaningful data. For our large IMC project I am now very interested in finding out how/if the marketers in the studied company track programs.

Thanks Again

Chris Fielding

————————

It was nice listening to you talk about SEO and SEM. Learned alot and just made my account to use google analytics. I now think its an amazing tool for us marketers who need to know how many people, at what times, etc, are visiting websites today!

I just wanted to let you know about the Facebook tag that i talked about in class, the one that they’re launching that will let the search focus on facebook pages. Its called the ‘Don’t be Evil’ bookmarklet!! I read about it in this article : http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Rival-Social-Nets-Scold-Google-With-Dont-Be-Evil-Bookmarklet-74258.html.

I thought you’d like to read about this!

Cheers on a great job,

Shawez Banuri

————————

Hi Scott,

I just wanted to thank you personally for being a guest speaker in our class tonight. After you were done, I whispered to my class-mate that I have never experienced such an interesting yet useful lecture in the MBA program.

I was hoping you can email me the video recording from today’s lecture? There were many points I found useful but wasn’t able to write down, and a copy of the video would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

Balpreet Ghuman | MBA Candidate, Accelerated
DeGroote School of Business

————————

Scott,
I’m not sure if you’re aware of how drab and boring the topic of SEO can be. I’ve seen webinars on it before and they put me to sleep. The talk you gave today was different though. Your passion for the topic resonates loudly when you speak. Your message of customer accountability resounded through your unique approach to marketing that stresses actually being able to measure internet ROI, something few companies know how to do. Thank you very much for sharing your expertise with us.

Best
Michael Long
MBA Candidate McMaster University
B.Ed Lakehead University
H.BKin McMaster University

————————

Hey Scott,
Thank you for coming to our class and talk about SEOs and SCMs. First of all, I apologize for blasting too many questions. But I understood everything you said and was so willing to know more. It is amazing to see how Technology and Marketing are converging. After tonight I realize that the developments are evolving at a fast pace and certainly tracking ROI in ever changing communication landscape has never been more challenging. This is where people like me, an IT engineer completing my MBA, are ideal for marketing positions.

Regards,
Varun Sirohi
MBA Candidate 2012 | DeGroote School of Business
President | AIS student chapter
President | Focus 2040
McMaster University

————————

Scott,
Just wanted to take a moment to thank-you for your amazing insights into this complex world which is marketing.  I really learned a lot from your short presentation.

It was very topical considering I have just started a consulting group with 3 other of my MBA colleagues.  Focus Business Consulting is a student run consulting group that runs out of the DeGroote School of Business, Jim actually sits on our Board of Advisors.  During the presentation I was wishing that two of my colleagues, Kim and Elissa, were in the room listening.   The information and strategies you were talking about are their areas of focus.  For me being a relative newcomer to that world I was blown away, and I immediately found a few strategies that could help our business internally and when approaching clients.

If you don’t mind I may pass your contact information on to my team members.  We would be very interested learning more about your business and hearing any more strategies or tips.

Thanks again,
Greg

 

Posted in SEO Speaker | Leave a comment

Rankhigher visit “Local Search Expert” Mike Blumenthal

Posted on January 18, 2012 by admin

Showing left to right: Sinéad Archbold, Benjamin Butty, Scott Wilson, Mike Terry, Domenic Rupolo, Curtis Hayes, Mike Blumenthal, Marc Tytus

Rankhigher recently made a road trip to Olean, NY to meet local search expert Mike Blumenthal. This was a great opportunity to delve in the knowledge of the most reputable mind when it comes to anything related to local search.

The Rankhigher team was able to take full advantage, gaining quality info and techniques that will no doubt help us vastly improve our SEO skills. Our visit was definitely worth it and has greatly improved our prior knowledge and potential usability of Google Maps and local search. The Rankhigher team would like to thank Mr. Blumenthal for educating us with his knowledge and for his great hospitality. We look forward to talking to him again in the future.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Halloween 2011

Posted on October 31, 2011 by admin

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Showing from Left to Right: Scott Wilson as Ninja Master, Renée James as Cat woman, Mike Terry as an alcoholic, Craig McNicoll as Hercules.

Everyone at RankHigher.ca may not have been dressed up for Halloween, however the spirit was definitely in the workplace and the “Spirit Team” came out gangbusters showing their Halloween character! :D

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Scott Wilson Speaks at McMaster University’s, DeGroote School of Business

Posted on October 3, 2011 by admin

October 2, 2011 at 3:30 pm ET by Scott Wilson

What a fantastic Monday!  Rankhigher connects with one of the most reputable business schools across Canada, and it was an honour greeting the staff, faculty, and future marketing experts.  Today I took the liberty in speaking with Dr. Ruhai’s Wu’s fourth year Marketing class.  I was quite moved by the thoughts and feedback of the student body, and included them with my entry

As a Social Media Speaker, I was capable of grasping the attention of the DeGroote Students as I discussed some critical elements on becoming successful with both Search Engine Optimization and Social Media.  I elaborated on The Three Secrets of Search Engine Optimization, and how to apply them online.

Three secrets of SEO and how to apply them to everything you do online.

Making your company stand out on the Internet can seem like a daunting task. With over three billion searches per day and over a trillion pages to choose from, how is one company’s web page able to come out on top? If you follow these three simple strategies your company will perform better on the internet. This works for the largest ecommerce websites, B-B websites, Blogs, politician websites and even small companies can top the page in their next potential customer’s internet search.

Secret 1- Gain Trust: Google assigns trust on a page by page basis. Until your web page has earned the trust of the search engines, it will not rank highly in search. You earn trust based on the links you receive and the age of the page. Earn trust for your site by receiving links to your site from other related and trusted web sites. Getting a trusted web page to post a link to you is like getting a citation or vote of confidence; the more citations (links) and page age, the more trusted your content will become.

Secret 2 – Get Read by Google: It’s important search engines are able to read your site content. Create content that is easily read by creating your webpage in HTML or other Google favorable formats. Avoid creating sites entirely in flash as search engines like Google have difficulty reading the content and it will not appear in search results.  Google’s goal is to organize the world’s information. Google continues to get better at reading and indexing a wide variety of published content from around the globe. On the flip side of the coin creative and highly technical webmasters continually develop new ways to publish content and they quite often publish content in a way that makes it difficult or impossible for Google to read it. It’s in your company’s best interest to make it easy for Google to read all of your content quickly and easily. Later in this chapter you will find specific examples and instructions to do just that.

Secret 3 – Get Laser Beam  /Focused: Often a single web page will contain information on many different products or services offered. This can pose a problem, if the web page is about ten different things, then the search engine will rank it for all ten. For example, the first product could appear on page 100, product two could be ranked 1000, and so on. This keeps your web page from appearing on the first page of a search result. To avoid this, each page on your web site should be dedicated to a specific product or service as it will attach a specific keyword to your page and result in better search results.

Using these simple strategies every time you update your web pages will ensure your strategies are sound and this will help you get noticed and gain business. “The Internet is filled with fantastic content that no one can find,”  - “I call these web sites, ‘billboards in the jungle’ because no matter how attractive or great your web page content is, it’s not going to help you gain business if it doesn’t show up on a simple Google keyword search, ”.

Let’s look at several scenarios where applying the three strategies not only will help your business but will protect you from devastation.

I was speaking at a travel industry event in Montreal last year when after my seminar a lady who owned a boutique hotel in Montreal came to me to ask why her website redesign cost her all of her search traffic, her bookings and possibly her business. She invested heavily in a re-brand of her website but inadvertently lost her Google trust, her top rankings and her customers. If she would have followed the three secrets her business would be thriving. Here is what happened and how secret #1 if followed would have saved her.  In this case she threw away her Google trust. Secret # 1 is about acquiring Google trust, therefore it naturally follows that we want to keep our Google trust once we have acquired it.

Over the next few weeks, I want to personally share my thoughts and knowledge on building Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Success.  Be sure to stay tuned! ;)

Posted in google, keywords, Link Building, Online Reputation, seo, SEO Speaker, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Power of Link Building

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Bobby Dhillon

September 15, 2011 at 2:05 pm ET by Bobby Dhillon

You may have the perfect website.  You have done all the right things with the overall layout, images, content and keywords supported by many social media plugins.  Even with so much time and effort, that still might not be enough to outrank your competitors in the ever parallel online world.  One of the most important elements and ever forgotten tactic in achieving page ranks is creating links.

Creating Long Term Relationships

It’s important to not become a victim of spam when building links (Google will catch you!).  Many forms of ‘link farms’ and generic mass emails may contain no relevancy with your website, hence can have the adverse effect when obtaining search engine results.  Creating links with webmasters who discuss and promote similar services will be the ideal way when building relationships.  For example, if your website discusses coffee, tea can be a relevant link to obtain when promoting your website.

Online Reputation Management

It might be relevant to go on a search engine and look up your name or business to evaluate the results.  It’s important to make sure that whatever links to your website is a positive statement to build a strong referral.  There are many platforms online that can be referred to your website, and you want to make sure they are speaking highly of you.  A positive referral creates a new citation to a reputable source, which then provides a gateway to your website.  As your positive reputation grows, so will the number of citations.  In result, the positive backlinks will improve your overall search engine result page.

Traffic Generation

Getting effective links are designed so we can obtain traffic, however links can provide traffic on its own.  Directory links can be effective when generating traffic, however it is important to stick to your key topic.  If used properly, a link that is associated with smart, observant, and insightful comments on a blog roll can obtain various followers.  It is important on focusing on quality links, since they bring people directly to your website.  Quality links may take more time to obtain, but the end result will provide you the positive search engine results.

References:

Link Building Benefits Beyond Rankings

http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/link-building-benefits-beyond-rankings

Posted in keywords, Link Building, seo | Leave a comment

White Hat Marketing: The Right Online Solution

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Bobby Dhillon

July 8, 2011 at 10:30am ET by Bobby Dhillon

Building the right website involves quality content, and it is important that no corners should be cut throughout the process.  It’s never worth cheating the SEO system with Black Hat practices, since you would be putting your website at risk for losing trust and overall web credibility.  The correct way to optimize your website and generate a positive online reputation is through the use of White Hat Marketing techniques. White Hat marketing are the ethical practices with SEO following the correct rules and policies with search engines.

There are five major elements when following White Hat techniques

1. Quality Content

Content is a critical factor when optimizing your website. A creative writer can be a great addition to your web team when explaining your products and services by clearly specifying your keywords, and by explaining your products and services in a detailed manner.  For example, quality content for an auto mechanic would contain a 30 plus pages focusing on various types of auto repair, full costs, technical information, and contact information.  This type of information is valuable to an end user, hence your online reputation will increase.

2.  Structural Heading Elements

To give your website a clear and concise meaning, it is important to include your keyword(s), in the heading elements of the website.  Websites want to categorize your website so it fits into the correct web category.  To support the heading elements, quality content should also follow to chain your overall web credibility.

3. Titles and Meta Data

Meta data may be considered less important when achieving web credibility, since it is very easy to misuse them.  In many given cases, meta data can be stuffed with irrelevant content that has no significance to a particular website.  If meta data is used correctly, it can still generate positive rankings for your website.  For example, here is an example of a correct way and an incorrect way of using meta data for an auto mechanic.

Correct Meta Data

<meta name=”Keywords” content=”Auto mechanic, car repairs,  engine repair, oil change, break repairs” />

Incorrect Meta Data

<meta name=”keywords” content=”cars, mufflers, engine, fluid, break fluid, breaks, broken breaks, engine drip, air conditioning, car air conditioning, a/c, car a/c, car seats, car, cars, back seats, wind shield washer, wind shield washer fluid, good wind shield washer fluid, clean car, car cleaning”>

4. Keyword Research

It is important to research all keywords that are associated with your website, and discover what popular forms of keywords an end user would search for your product or service.  When doing effective keyword research, it requires ‘out of the box’ thinking by creating mult-word phrases to capture your target audience.  It is also important to keep it specific to your product or service.

5. Quality Inbound Links

When linking your website to others, it is important to link with sites that have a relevance to your particular website.  It is also important that your partnering site also contains quality content; linking to ‘Black Hat’ related sites can potentially harm the reputation of your own.  When using the auto mechanic example, a relevant website would be linking to an oil change website.

Posted in Online Reputation, seo, White Hat Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Black Hat Marketing: Internet’s Public Enemy

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Bobby Dhillon

July 7, 2011 at 2:09pm ET by Bobby Dhillon

As SEO emerges, many companies become attracted to the first page rank on major search engines. When reaching high lengths on the internet, many ethical practices can happen. It is evident that many services offer attractive campaigns that will deliver fast results, while cashing in on instant gratification. For example, there are providers who advertise by mentioning such inaccurate points:

“Reach the top of Google in 30 days!”
“Get 1000 Twitter Followers in 1 day!”
“Receive a high page ranking in 7 days!”

Like anything in everyday, reaching high levels in anything takes hard work and dedication. This is called Black Hat Marketing, which is cheating or manipulating ways by reaching at the top of search engines. Even though, one may achieve some form of success with Black Hat Marketing, one way or another the search engine will investigate and strip significant page ranks and credibility from a website. For example, if a website who is found on page 3 of a search and decided to use Black Hat Marketing to reach page 1, the search engine provider will reduce the ranks and the site can be moved to page 12 after the investigation. In result, the website will now have to work harder to re-earn their trust with the search engine to obtain a higher rank.

Here are the forms of Black Hat Marketing to avoid:

1. Webpage Flooding
Webpage Flooding is done when black hat marketers use a script that could generate over a thousand pages that are flooded with keywords for search engines to track. In reality, the more keywords a website has the better chance it will get when ranking high on search engines. This technique has a small life span, and major search engines will police it by either penalizing your website, or prevent it from being listed at all.

2. Invisible Text
This technique is used when keywords are written with white text, and placed on a white background. Only a white page will be seen from a visual standpoint, however search engines have the technology to track it, and to penalize the web master.

3. Cloaking
Cloaking is a technique where a so called ‘legitimate’ page is shown to the search engine spider, and another to the end user. The purpose behind this technique is to show an end user a page that ‘sells’ for false profits, and the search engine spider an ‘optimized’ page.

4. Keyword Stuffing
This technique is an unnatural way to generate page ranks, since keywords are stuffed all over the webpage. Major search engines will track an unnatural page with continuous repetition of keywords.

Posted in google, seo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Effective Images that Can Benefit Your Facebook Ads!

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Bobby Dhillon

June 14, 2011 at 10:09 ET by Bobby Dhillon

Many online advertisers contemplate what the most effective PPC tools are; is it Google or Facebook?  Online advertising with either source is comparing apples to oranges, since they can be equally as effective depending on the type of product or service a business has to offer.  Facebook advertising uses the benefits of images, however one needs to be careful since it could make or break an online advertising campaign.  Mona Elesseily of Search Engine Land explains some effective image types which benefit your conversion rate for Facebook advertising

Happy Women

An effective way to increase your conversion rates is to use images of joyful and happy women.  Another gesture that can be effective is women demonstrating a sense of joy and excitement, an example would be women who joyfully have their arms in the air.  It is important to give your customers a sense of freedom and enlightenment when demonstrating the benefits of your products and services.  Example products and services are health and nutrition when implementing health goals, and financial institutions for financial goals and freedom.

Colourful Logos

After many test Facebook ad campaigns, it has been determined that colourful logos convert more effectively than product images.  Showing a colourful logo is a powerful method when generating potential leads as that it draws an engaging exposure for visitors to view your website.  Colourful logos can also help create a brand image which can be easily demonstrated in a growing online community.

Such methods of creating an effective logo would be creating images with texts on them. This is a strong call to action which makes conversions more likely.  An example would be creating a sense of urgency of a limited time offer for your business to influence faster conversion.

Headshots

Providing head shots of well-known presenters or the head of a well know company can work well with your advertising campaign.  Such effective ways of demonstrating this technique is providing images of the public figure looking directly at the camera while show expression with their speech.  People who view these pictures become curious and want to know what message is being delivered.

For this campaign, it is best to stay away from close up pictures since it does not show much expression from the public figure.  This type of campaign can be utilized when advertising workshops with a featured public speaker conveying valuable expertise.

This complete article can be viewed at Search Engine Land

Posted in Facebook, Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Part 2 of RankHigher’s CEO Scott Wilson in Globe and Mail

Posted on May 24, 2011 by admin

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

3D Videos & the Internet

Posted on May 18, 2011 by admin

Craig McNicoll, Emotion Picture Studio’s Final Cut Apple Pro Certified Videographer extraordinaire gives his thoughts on 3D viral video and its impact on the future of marketing.

What makes 3D viral video so appealing?

To watch a regular 3D film, you have to go to the movie theatre, but with accessible 3D viral videos you don’t have to leave your home!

What is the current outlook on the 3D viral video market?

Right now, YouTube is the prime resource for 3D videos online.  YouTube is really user-friendly and makes the uploading process straight forward and easy.  When the process is simple to use, it encourages more and more companies to venture into the 3D world.

What does 3D viral video mean for internet marketers?

Videos always try to emphasize part of the picture: coloring, focus etc.  With 3D marketing videos you can literally have the product, service, logo or slogan pop out to your desired audience. There is more “in your face” product branding and ultimately product recognition with 3D video.  Regular viral videos rely on narrative and mise-en-scene to draw the audience’s attention, 3D videos are appealing in just being 3D.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment