As a search marketer, I am often outnumbered at marketing events by young men. Of speakers at search marketing shows only about 22% are women, of the nine people on our SEMpdx Board of Directors I am one of two women (I am so not complaining;) I am also outnumbered by my younger search marketing brethren, average age of search marketers at the shows is around 28-30, I’m 42.

Having been in web marketing for 11 years and search marketing for 7, I am ready to share a revelation. These guys are smart. I don’t just mean intellectually smart, but worldly smart, emotionally smart, business smart.
As I was researching a little about Aaron Wall (author of SEO Book) for moderating his webinar yesterday I was impressed at the maturity of the information he shared on his About page. What a forward-thinking young man. His own biography is enormously unassuming (though his work has been cited in Time, Forbes, Business Week and other prestigious magazines). He is openly honest about his past, good and bad. The piece he choose to close out the page is a wonderful music video by Johnny Cash of the song, “Hurt”. He shares some very mature insights into the business, his family, art and life in general.

I was reading one of Neil Patel’s blogs, Quick Sprout, and it too is filled with the insights of a much older and wiser man, I believe Neil is 23. At SMX Social last year in New York he was talking about social marketing audiences and he framed the conversation in “the very young audience 15-18, the younger audience 19-23, the old audience 24-30 and the really old audience 30-40″. He was kidding and it was all the funnier because he was poking fun at the medium, those of us in the unmentioned bracket who aren’t embracing social marketing and even at himself for being a youngster being paid to school people much older than he is.

When Gab Goldberg introduced himself after a session I spoke at this year, he made no apologies for the makeshift business card he gave me. Refreshing considering sales people in other industries make such a show about what things look like, he’s confident enough in his skills to know that “proof is in the pudding” not in how flashy your business cards are.

Adam Audette, considered to be the first second generation search marketer (his father is Internet marketing pioneer John Audette), recently wrote an article about the history of the word search engine optimization. Though he disagreed with a previous citation, he expressed his opinion succinctly and with a great deal of tact so as not to offend the writer of the original citation. That takes maturity and grace.

I read a great article recently in Fast Company about Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the co-founders of MySpace. These bright young men are mature enough to understand the need for their continued infusion of vision as well as the need for experienced management to strike a balance for business success.

It inspires me that people this young can be such great communicators, writers, speakers, listeners and collaborators.

I think people from other industries look at these young whiz kids and think of them as nerdy guys who sit in front of their computers all day, disconnected from the real world. As I get to know more and more of them, I find the opposite to be true.

As an outsider it may be easy to dismiss these young people and write off their success or impending success as “at the right place at the right time”, but you’d be missing something. Take a closer look. They are interesting, innovative, mature and self-deprecating. They are philanthropic, ready to help others, kind with their time and intention and willing to share their expertise. They approach their work and their lives with an enormous amount of passion and creativity. They are the future, not just of SEM, but of marketing itself.

Considering I am a mother of 17 & 18 year old children, the young men mentioned here will forgive what may otherwise be interpreted as condescending and maternal when I say I am enormously proud of them, as young men and as search professionals and business visionaries.

As the rest of the world begins to understand the importance and place of search marketing, I’m encouraged that these are the people who are crafting the perception and future of our disciple.

Check out Google’s new browser in Beta, Chrome. I had to download it to Parallels since I’m on a Mac (bummer, but Chrome for Mac is coming they tell me).

Simply said-it is super fast. I have a big affinity for Firefox since they have great plug ins for search marketing and they are enormously stable. Speed alone is a good reason to test the browser, as well as elegance with other Google apps. It will be interesting to see if users embrace the browser and if it gains traction (maybe just among the techies?)

The bigger question is, what is Google doing with all the data? How does this affect the user experience and, more importantly, how does Google ad network affect what I’m seeing? Search has always been a target for paid views of any search query and Google has been the factor that has kept our natural search queries to date organic. Will Chrome change this? Only time will tell. Please leave a comment if you have used Chrome and want to share your experience…

The wind is cranking for our local Hood River wind sports, BBQ’s are bountiful and camping trips are still eminent for the summer, but before we know it, it will be holiday season and great planning for online retail sales starts now.

One of the biggest truths in online sales for the holiday is that visitors decide at a glance whether or not to explore. If someone is looking for a holiday gift to inspire and they don’t see anything relative to the holidays, they’ll leave. Period. Update your product catalog to include your holiday products and specials. Add holiday ideas and creative to your home page storefornt.

Simplicity counts. Your guests have a lot to do during the holidays. Make their shopping experience simple and straight forward.

Be concise about timing. Under promise and over deliver, if it will take 4 days to ship, tell your customers it will take 5 and they’ll be pleased when they see it in 4. Your customers just want the straight scoop.

Understand Lifetime Value of a Customer (LVC). Getting a new customer in the door with a special with a low profit margin works for some businesses. Understand your LVC. If your visitors don’t repeat, know that you have to make margin on the first and only sale. But if your customers repeat, know that your great product, customer service and follow up business have impact to your bottom line and take that into account when you’re defining ROI for an online campaign.

Analyze site metrics. What do your customers do online? If you know that a particular landing page drives traffic, leads and sales, use that landing page to help drive sales during the holidays. Know how your visitors use your site and drive traffic there through natural and paid search.

Reward your customers. What better time than the hollday to thank your customers for being customers? Include a special sample pack or added value item for your repeat customers during the holidays. This simple gesture will gain you favor and loyalty.

And finally, plan now. Don’t wait until the beginning of November to make your holiday plans, then it’s too late. Decide now how you’ll communicate with your visitors during the holiday. Do it now while the sun shines and the thoughts of snow and Christmas cookies are a distant inevitability. You never know how inspired the summer can make you until you try.

View our YouTube for Oregon Winery-Cathedral Ridge Winery and find the answer to getting a free glass of award winning wine at this perfect spot for your next Hood River Oregon Wine Tour.

We have a client who came to us in March to help procure a Reconsideration Request from Google. De-indexing and reconsideration at Google is not a simple feat. Google reconsideration and religion have a lot in common. Many faiths (as with many search engines) have the same premise, be good and you will be rewarded.

It’s not always clear what the rules are or where you stand. Just as in religion there is no real criteria to assess (in real time and with a tracking system) if you’re on the right track. “I’ve been a good person, but I kicked a dog once, lied to my mom and told the neighbor girl I liked her new haircut when I didn’t. Am I still going to Heaven?” “I’ve cleaned up my irrelevant links, removed the offending page and created some great content. Am I going to get back into Google?” It’s hard to know sometimes when good is good enough, in religion and in Google’s index.

So here you are, abiding fairly closely to what you know the Google rules to be then one day BAM, you wake up to find that your site can’t be found on Google…anywhere, not even for your own business name. What have you done to fall from grace?

In my clients’ case they had an SEO (whom they thought to be legitimate) do some linking that turned out to be enormously questionable. The links were no or low PageRank links from irrelevant sites and useless directories unrelated to their industry. In addition, they had a links page where people could submit reciprocal links for consideration. While our client denied all unrelated or spammy links, the people requesting the links often put up a low quality link in advance of the request. This resulted in more low quality links pointing at their site. The links page was removed as soon as the client understood the problem.

So what do they do? They haven’t been de-indexed, they can still be found for their name, but they’ve been at the very least sandboxed. They have been practically invisible on Google for three years despite good rankings in all other search engines. We understand they’re in trouble with Google, we’ve completed a Reconsideration Request following Google Guidelines months ago and nothing has happened. They’re in purgatory, but for how long?

So as a test of the Google Reconsideration Request process (and as a test of faith) here is our Twelve Step Plan That Should Help You Get a Reconsideration (or Out of the Sandbox) from Google.

1) Admit you have a problem: During our initial site review and assessment we knew what the problem was, they have a lot of irrelevant links (initially over 1000 and we now have it down to 644).

I love Rand Fishkin’s link popularity platform question, “If this link didn’t help you gain search ranking would you still pursue it?” That’s a great question to ask yourself. Don’t pursue links that don’t make sense. Know that Google likes for you to have links which are relevant to your business and industry and that add value for your customers. If a link doesn’t fall into this category, don’t pursue it. We needed to admit to Google that, yes, they had pursued hundreds of links that weren’t relevant. Be honest, tell Google what you did. My clients’ intention wasn’t to be fraudulent, it was to grow his business. He was led down the wrong path by a questionable vendor. Maybe he should have known better (if it’s too good to be true it probably is) but he went down this path and now he’s asking to be led down the path of righteousness with only good, relevant, authority links.

2) Get educated: Read reputable online magazines, blogs, forums and guides. Attend search marketing conferences such as SMX, SES and our local SearchFest or SEMPDX Events.

3) Change what you can: We asked for removal of about 1/3 of the links, we removed the offending link page, and stepped up our efforts to obtain relevant links.

4) Create more content: We added a blog, requested customer product reviews and posted relevant and very helpful how to guides.

5) Change your domain: We’re not pursuing this path as the client has a prospering business on the other engines and doesn’t want to lose all search placement. But this has been cited as a viable option.

6) Review metrics: Do what you can to be a good site that people want to visit and transact. Google doesn’t really include this element in their guidelines, but it can’t hurt. This client has a better than average bounce rate, good converting landing pages, a 2% conversion rate, a high approval rating from their customers and repeat visits. Though this may not gain them reconsideration, they can sleep well knowing they are being good and fair business owners.

7) Pursue high authority links: Remember that all links are not created equal. Pursue a link like you’d pursue a friendship or a life partner. I’m going to be stuck with this link, am I sure I want to be associated with this link, everyone will know I’m associated with this link. You’re known for the company you keep, in life and in linking.
Learn from your mistakes: As we right our wrongs, recognize why what you did was wrong. Don’t make the same mistake again as you will be less likely to be forgiven.

9) Get recommendations from industry leaders: Search Marketing is still in the process of having real standardization. It’s still refining itself as a discipline and it’s important to reach out to industry leaders for advice. Attend conferences and get advice from the best and the brightest. Hire a reputable firm or at least pay for some consulting time with a reputable firm (don’t just ask your cousin Harry’s best friend Tim who works with a girl who does some SEO on the side). Don’t leave something as precious as your online reputation in the hands of someone who hasn’t proven themselves in the discipline.

10) Be patient: This can be the hardest part. My client has been “in the sandbox” for three years. He has created a viable business, but doesn’t have access to over 60% of the market. My client has chosen to be patient as he waits for word (which may or may not come as Google does not tell you whether or not you are sand-boxed, or communicate the status of your reconsideration request).

11. Accept the things you cannot change: Pursue as much search traffic as you can on other engines and be in acceptance that all you can do is try to be good enough and be patient. To Google’s benefit, one of the reasons they provide such exceptional results and have such market share is that they don’t tolerate spamming or paid linking just for inclusion. Accept that you’ve done all you can and hope that they’ll eventually respond positively and you’ll get back in their good graces.

12. Don’t give up–Persistence pays: Google isn’t interested in your quick fix. When they return a search result to their visitors they are saying that they trust the site and it is worthy enough to share with their customers. Respect that they are just doing their job and don’t give up. Just as in religion, if you’re a good person and there isn’t a heaven (or removal from the sandbox) you won’t be sorry for the efforts you’ve made to be a good person or good website owner. The payback either way is too big, don’t give up. We’re not sure when good is good enough, but we’ll share our results with you.

Thank you to Rand Fishkin and members of the SEMPDX board for their help and contribution towards our efforts.