Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of maximizing your site’s visibility in search engine results, which is an art and science, according to Rebecca Lieb, analyst of digital advertising and media at the Altimeter Group. “In laymen’s terms, it’s being on the first page of Google results, not on page 372, where people are unlikely to see it,” she says.

When companies are looking to optimize their search, it may be a good idea to hire an SEO consultant. There are, of course, certain tools that will be necessary, but the first and foremost thing companies need is a basic understanding of SEO and how it works. “There’s one fundamental rule that’s critical to bear in mind in SEO, which is that search engines understand text,” says Lieb.

Search engines send out what are called spiders, crawlers, or robots, which read every piece of text on every publicly available website and store what they read in an index. Text on the top of the page is also considered more important to search engines than text found at the bottom. These spiders do not, however, understand or register anything else—images, video, animation, etc. Therefore, every nontext piece on a website needs to be named so that search engines can recognize them and they can be optimized for search. “So if you have an image of an apple, for example, you have to call it not ‘picture3.jpg,’ but ‘apple.jpg’ or ‘granny smith apple from ny.jpg’ to differentiate it from a computer, which could also be an apple,” Lieb says. This is especially vital in a global marketing world that, as Lieb explained, is becoming based more and more on images and video and less and less on text.

Keyword Research Tools

While text is vital, choosing the right text is even more important for SEO. Using words on your site that searchers use is key. This is where keyword research tools come into play, helping you determine what words searchers use most, and therefore, what words should be used on your site. While each search engine offers its own free keyword research tools, there are also other, more advanced packages that come with a fee. Keyword density tools are also available to determine if your site is using enough keywords, or maybe even too many. “With the paid tools you get more detailed data, and multiple search engine data—Google data shows the keyword results for Google only, not Google and Bing and Yahoo, etc.,” says Lieb. “Paid tools also offer more flexible and interactive reports, e.g., visual data, which is easier to understand quickly.”

Link Analysis and Web Analytics Tools

For SEO, companies don’t just need to choose one tool, though, as they all have different functions and work together to optimize results. Link analysis and web analytics are also available at a price or for free through each search engine.

Link analysis is important because the more sites that link to your page, the higher it will be listed in search results. “Google counts links almost like it counts votes. The more pages that link to another page, the more relevant that page probably is,” said Lieb. “But there’s more to it than plain old links.” She explained that links from substantive sources, such as from The New York Times hold more weight than something from an unaccredited blog. The same goes for subject matter. “If your website is about food, a link from a cooking website is more relevant than a link from a site about politics,” she says.

Web analytics tools help you find what keywords people are using to find your site and how long they stayed on the site once they got there so you know what’s working and what isn’t. This is important to take into consideration because, as Lieb explained, SEO is an ongoing process. While it’s more effective to bake it right into the design of your site, rather than trying to make the adjustments afterwards, all elements that go into optimizing search are ever-changing.

“Language changes, your products and services might change. Search Engine algorithms change all the time. So you have to watch where your rankings are,” says Lieb. “It’s like the weather. If it’s good today, it might not be good tomorrow.”

("Broken SEO" image courtesy of Shutterstock.)

SEO Tool Providers

Alexa Internet, Inc.
Bing
CentralOps.net
comScore, Inc.
Copyscape
DMOZ
DomainPeople
Google
goRank
Internet Marketing Ninjas
Iotaweb.org
Linkvendor
MSN
NicheBOT
Raven Internet Marketing Tools
SearchBliss
Self SEO
SEOBook.com
SEO Chat
SEO Co.
SEO Egghead, Inc.
SEObench
SEOmoz
SEOToolSet
Softnik Technologies
Trellian
Webconfs.com
Webmaster Toolkit
Wordtracker, LLP
XML Sitemaps
Yahoo!

Tor/Forge Books, a Macmillan imprint, announced in April that it would remove DRM (digital rights management) from its books. Many readers and authors were ecstatic. They believe that DRM is too restrictive and hinders end users from using/storing/sharing/enjoying ebooks in perfectly legal ways. Naysayers were sure that removing DRM was like handing over the keys to the store to digital pirates and that sales would plummet.

Now, a new snag: this week it was revealed that publisher Hachette sent letters to some Tor authors whose books have had ebook rights' sold to Hachette imprints in foreign territories. Hachette wrote that it was concerned that DRM-free ebooks in the U.S. would infringe on its sales of the same titles in other territories and as such told authors that they must request that Tor Books include DRM on their ebooks in the U.S. Hachette also added that future contracts would have new wording including DRM requirements. Setting aside the rather presumptuous notion that one publisher can impose terms on another publisher's contract or method of doing business, Hachette is making the pretty big assumption that DRM-free books will result in fewer sales for its DRM-encrypted editions, especially when there is no concrete evidence for it.

At a presentation entitled "Taking the Plunge" at BEA in June, Macmillan EVP of digital publishing and technology, Fritz Foy, along with several Tor authors, discussed their decision to go DRM-free, how they arrived at it and what they'd discovered so far. They cited data from titles they released as DRM-free ebooks over the past few years in which they found sales held on as previous or in some cases actually increased. Even DRM-free ebooks that were given away for free at one point did not show a decline in future sales from what had been predicted had there not been a giveaway. Author John Scalzi discussed an improved author/reader relationship since readers would be much less frustrated with ebook format problems.

Roughly a month and a half later, Scalzi wrote on his blog about the results so far for his recently-released DRM-free ebook edition of Red Shirts, his latest novel. In comparison to his previous titles' ebook releases, per week sales have been "substantially higher" and he states that he and Tor are "not seeing any particular increase of instances of the book being shared in violation of copyright." He qualifies his personal findings with the caveat that recent ebook growth overall, his own popularity as well as that of his backlist, plus the marketing and promotion done by Tor have all influenced Red Shirts sales but he was a firm believer in DRM-free ebooks being a good thing for ebook sales, both for authors and readers.

UK publisher Little, Brown's Ursula Mackenzie responded to the Publishers Weekly article on behalf of Hachette, stating that they have found DRM to work well.  In regards to the suggestion that DRM does not deter pirates, she added, "We are fully aware that DRM does not inhibit determined pirates...The central point is that we are in favour of DRM because it inhibits file-sharing between the mainstream readers who are so valuable to us and our authors."

It's interesting to note that Robert Gottlieb, founder, chairman, and agent par excellence of Trident Media Group, one of New York's biggest literary agencies, commented on the Bookseller article. He states that Trident Media would turn down a request from a publisher in the UK that asked an author to guarantee DRM from a U.S. rights' holder.

Hachette's claims are part of a worst-case scenario prediction that is not based on current facts. Science fiction and fantasy ebooks may not necessarily have the same sales trajectory as other genres but Tor has taken a huge step, acting as a publishing guinea pig, to give us perhaps a truer vision of a DRM-free ebook marketplace.

The Department of Justice's ongoing lawsuit against Apple and a number of book publishers for allegedly conspiring to increase ebook prices is taking another tun. According to The Daily Examiner, Apple has filed to block the settlement the DOJ reached with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette back in May.

Part of the settlement agreement required the three publishers to terminate their contracts with Apple, which Apple feels is unfair and punishes the company without a trial. The company believes this move would not be in the public's best interest. Apple and two publishers, MacMillan and Penguin, are still battling charges levied against them in court.

(www.apple.com) 

Last week the media began to anticipate the first flood of private Facebook shares onto the market as the first lock-up expired. Now, Peter Thiel, an early investor in the social media site, has sold 20.1 million shares, according to USA Today. Through his affiliates, Thiel offloaded the shares on Thursday and Friday, for a total of about $396 million.

That means those 20 million or so shares went for prices between $19.27 and $20.69, according to USA Today. Thiel wasn't the only one shifting his stock portfolio around after the lock-up expired. Other early investors, like Accel Partners distributed stock to its partners.

(www.facebook.com)

The Q1 earnings news was not bad for Barnes & Noble investors, though it wasn't great either. According to paidContent, B&N revenues were up to $1.45 billion, but Nook sales weren't as much help as the bookseller might have hoped: "Nook sales - which include devices, digital content and accessories - were $192 million for the quarter, compared to $191 million last year."

But the companies net losses were diminished - from $57 million last year at this time to $41 for the quarter -- and therefore investors were fairly happy with the news.  

(www.barnesandnoble.com)

Barnes & Noble announced it will be offering its popular e-reader, Nook, to customers in Britain. According to the New York Times, this move will put Nook in direct international competition with Amazon's Kindle, which has been available in Britain for a few years.

When the Nook is released in Britain, users will have more than 2.5 million book, magazine, and newspaper titles to choose from. The company is looking to release black-and-white e-readers upon initial launch in October while holding off on the color tablet.

(www.barnesandnoble.com) 

Digital Technology International announced the launch of its new metered paywall, Digital Paymeter. DTI said that with Digital Paymeter, news media publishers will retain 100% of their paid content revenue without any requirements to share revenue or subscriber data. Digital Paymeter is cloud-based and customizable to a company's needs.

Other features include day passes, premium content packages, metered online access to a defined number of articles, and single log-in for a consistent user experience. Digital Paymeter will work with any CMS or circulation software and is available now.

(www.dtint.com) 

To help K-12 libraries acquire ebooks more strategically, ebrary, a ProQuest business, has added hundreds of ebooks across acquisition models. The database now includes a growing selection of more than 8,500 titles with unlimited, multi-user access and a wealth of information in professional development and training resources. Almost 4,500 titles in the database have relevance to state, national or provincial curriculum standards – with coverage of all common core subjects – including English Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education. Additionally, ebrary has added over 3,000 new titles that can be purchased outright or through its patron driven acquisition program where titles are only purchased if used. Many of these titles are also eligible for short-term loan.

To further align with Common Core Standards and make it easier for librarians to purchase those essential titles, ProQuest’s K-12 editorial experts have created a new off-the-shelf pack in Common Core Math Standards using a proprietary software application that aligns content to curriculum. The perpetual pack includes publishers such as Math Solutions Publications, MIT Press, Nomad Press, SAGE Publications Inc. (US), and World Scientific Publishing Co.

(www.ebrary.com) 

The Random House Group announced it has joined Public Library Online, launching with digital bookshelves from Jacqueline Wilson, Joanna Trollope, Katie Fforde, Lee Child, and PG Wodehouse. These titles will be available on the service from August 21 with further shelves to follow, including James Patterson.

Public Library Online is built on the goal shared by authors, publishers and libraries to support reading and literacy through public libraries. The bestselling authors' digital bookshelves will be available through subscribing library websites for library members.

By making the books available to library members online via the library website rather than by download to a device, Public Library Online  provides a means to give all library members access to a range digital books that can be read on all internet enabled devices with Flash.

(http://publiclibraryonline.wordpress.com/)

The LA Times reported, Monday, on changes to LinkedIn profiles, and LinkedIn later confirmed the changes. LinkedIn told the Times in an email statement:

"We are focused on making it easier for LinkedIn members to get more value out of the services we offer by creating simpler, more relevant, more social experiences...This new look and feel to the profile is the first step of many more exciting changes to come to the LinkedIn profile later this year."

The new profile look puts more emphasis on user information, including the all mighty profile picture. Notably, the LinkedIn makeover doesn't seem to have riled up its user base the way Facebook changes tend to.

(www.linkedin.com)