Think of your email signature as your digital business card. You “hand it out” every time you contact someone. No printing costs. No awkwardness. (“Can I, uh… um, give you my card?”) Send an email and BAM. Digital business card, right in their inbox.

What you should include

What you should include varies based on your business and your goals. You don’t have a blog or a Twitter account? No worries. These are just some suggestions:

• Name
• Title
• Organization Name
• Tag line
• Street Address, City, State, Zip
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Quick line describing what you do, especially if you don’t have a tag line (“Professional coaching for corporations, small businesses and individual leaders”)
• Social Media Links (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Link to your latest blog post
• Link to your items for sale (eBay, Etsy, etc.)
• Logo
• A sample image of your work (great for artists)
• Add a personal touch with a quote that is meaningful to you or your organization
• An announcement of a new program or service
• An invitation to an event
• A note informing people when you will be out of the office (For example, “Please note: I will be out of the office September 10-15.”)

Including all of these in one signature would be WAY too much. I route almost all of my email through my Gmail account (including my work email). As much as I love Gmail, the formatting options for signatures suck. You can only save plain text as a true signature that will pop up automatically.

To get around this, I applied some basic formatting and saved it as a canned response.

It’s still pretty ugly and clunky. Plus, I had to click to insert it into every message. Very annoying.

Then, I heard about WiseStamp, an awesome browser plug-in to beautify your email signature. It works with Firefox, Chrome, Flock, Thunderbird, and support for Safari is in beta. If you’re on a PC and use Internet Explorer, dump it for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox (they’re both free and way better than Explorer.)

This is my new signature, created with WiseStamp:

Whew. Much better.

It has everything from the first signature, PLUS: my logo, a link to my Yelp profile, screen names for Google Chat and Skype, and a link to my most recent blog post (this will automatically update). Plus, by adding my logo, I’m increasing brand recognition with every email I send. I’ve also noticed that my blog traffic has picked up since I added my feed to my signature.

WiseStamp has tons of templates for you to choose from and customize. As soon as you go to compose an email, your signature automatically appears. You can create Personal and Business signatures and easily switch between the two (or select “None”) by clicking a button at the bottom of your browser window. WiseStamp only supports web-based mail clients: Gmail, Yahoo mail, Windows Live and AOL.

As you can see in the examples above, I was able to pump up the marketing value of my email signature, without making it 20 lines long.

Even if you can’t try WiseStamp, experiment with adding different links to your email signature and see if your traffic increases. Non-profits might consider adding a link to a donate or “get involved” page.

To recap:

• Include as much contact and company information as possible, without making it overwhelming
• Brand your signature as much as possible (logo, company colors, etc.). It increases brand recognition and adds a professional feel.
• Experiment with adding social media links and monitor traffic

Make sense? If you’d like to see anything explained in more detail, let me know in the comments.

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Follow me on Twitter here.

Find me on Facebook here.

Have you ever noticed how when you share a story with someone, it becomes their story too?

There is something validating when we can say, “Oh yeah, that happened to…” me, my friend, my brother, my dog, whomever… It’s a concrete way of showing that we can relate to what the other person is saying. And it can be really exciting to be the first person to share a story within your circle.

This idea was highlighted for me tonight. My wallet was stolen this afternoon. That’s a pretty simple statement, but the narrative of the events unfolding and the aftermath of it all is quite complicated. The story isn’t even complete yet. I have shared it with my immediate family, and then (somewhat without thinking) I posted it on Facebook.

As I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep, I realized that I am already tired of the story and regretted the Facebook post. I don’t know that I want to keep hashing it out with every person I know, because it’s tiring to keep reliving the experience. But, I know that the story will spread throughout my network, even though I don’t know that I necessarily want it to.

But, my story has become their story. And they can do whatever they want with it, because it’s theirs now. I’m sure you’ll hear a sightly different version, depending on who you ask.

And, yes, I realize that I’m sharing it with even more people by writing about it here.

Here’s what I’m trying to understand — what makes us want to share and spread some stories and not others?

We hear and read about tons of different things every day. What makes it something that we just can’t wait to tell someone else about?

It’s extreme.
Really good news and really bad news seem to spread quickly.

It’s out-of-the-ordinary.
It’s something that shakes up your community. Something new and different.

These ideas are probably pretty obvious. But — how can you make the stories you want people to talk about spread like wildfire? Like, your new product launch? Or your upcoming seminar?

People naturally share stories. They want to share cool, exciting, different stuff with their friends and family. But, if my business is offering the same ho-hum stuff as everyone else…why should I expect people to talk about it?

Going forward with my own business, I plan to spend more time developing my offerings and my brand into something more out-of-the-ordinary. Something easy to talk about and easy to share. Can everyone in my network tell the story of the services I offer as easily as they can tell the story of how my wallet got stolen during a client meeting at Panera?

It’s something to consider as you plan your next marketing campaign. I know that I’m keeping it in mind for mine.

Have you ever heard anyone say something like that about Facebook or Twitter? I know a sizable group of people who cannot understand the “me, me, me” aspect of social media. They don’t want to jump on Twitter or Facebook, because they don’t feel they have anything to say that would matter to their audience of friends and acquaintances.

They recognize that it can be really rude and self-absorbed to do nothing but talk about yourself, when your audience isn’t interested in hearing about your latest snack or TV obsession or how much you drank last night. But, many people make the same sort of mistakes on the homepage of their business website.

“We’ve worked with these great companies! We are awesome! Buy from us!” We, we, we!

You at least know the people on Facebook that you’re bragging to, but on a homepage, you’re bragging to total strangers. Think about what’s important to you when you visit a new site. You are trying to decide (quickly) if this company offers what you’re looking to buy. Do they look trustworthy? Can you quickly find what you’re looking for? If they past the initial sniff test, do you know where you should go next?

What you think is the most important thing to tell your customers on your homepage may not be the same information that they think is most important. Try to imagine your ideal customer, and think about what they want to know. If you can design your web presence around the needs of your ideal customer, you will be far more successful than designing it around your own needs and personal preferences.

Remember, it’s not about you.

Recommended reading:
Rethink Your Web Presence by Chris Brogan

7 ways your homepage is like a first date by Lisa Barone on Outspoken Media

Did you know:

95 million homes have at least one fridge which they open an average of 20 times per day. (That’s 7,300 hits a year.)

My parents have magnets on their fridge that have been there for at least 10 years.

I think that as long as your magnet:

(1) is aesthetically pleasing,

(2) has useful information (like your services + contact info), and

(3) is strong enough to hold a paper or two -

the likelihood of it remaining up there for awhile is pretty high. (I have no science to back this up, it’s just based on my experience.)

I’d recommend considering a refrigerator magnet for your next promotional item giveaway. I personally love the ones with the little clip to hold papers. They’re so sturdy.

Thanks to Lee Silber and his book, Self-Promotion for the Creative Person: Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do for this fun fact.

When in doubt, “Google It”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to write about today. So, I did a quick Google search for “top SEO tips” as a starting point. It felt like cheating, but at the same time, shouldn’t the best advice on Search Engine Optimization be at the top of the search?

The first result was for www.top10seotips.com. I jumped right to downloading the free eBook, which I found to be really useful. (Note: there are a few hoops to jump through in order to get the book, but I think it was worth it)

From the title, SEO in a Day, I was really skeptical. In my experience, articles/books with “___ in a Day” are usually really watered down, empty content. I was pleasantly surprised. I learned about how to optimize this blog (which is powered by WordPress) by installing a few more plugins and tweaking the settings. I also found his explanation of keywords and keyword tracking to be really helpful. I’d say it’s worth it to download and review the 36 pages.

Make it easy

One other gem I found on the site was this idea of making it incredibly easy to link to your work, and with the link text YOU want. Check out Top 10 SEO Tips. At the top of the page, he wrote the HTML code he’d like people to use when linking to his site. Honestly, it made it easier for me to create the link, and he will benefit more from the link because the link text includes keywords that he is targeting. He didn’t leave it up to me, he did the work for me. Consider adding something like this on your own site.

I don’t necessarily agree with his comments that you should fire your Webmaster, developer and SEO expert and strictly DIY. I think it’s important to have basic knowledge of whatever you’re hiring a professional to do (so you can speak intelligently about what you’re looking for and make sure you’re not being taken advantage of) but a professional can almost always do it better and faster than you can.

Still looking for more tips?

Then you should check out, 55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love.

Here’s a roundup of a few things I learned:

• Use keywords in the image ALT attributes.
• If you don’t update your content often, you should have blog and update it at least 3 times per week.
• When optimizing blog posts, you should optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title. Use keyword-rich captions with your images.

Let’s get to work.

When I relaunched my site in December 2009, I thought I had a good handle on the basics of SEO, but after this week of researching and writing on the topic, I have plenty of SEO-related updates and maintenance to do. I hope you found this series helpful.

Feedback, Feedback, Feedback!

Did you like the increased amount of posts this week? Do you like the idea of a weekly topic, or were you bored by the end? Comment on this article or send me an email at danielle [at] daniellebaird [dot] net with your thoughts or with ideas on another series. Thanks for reading!

Many of the factors relating to page rank rely on the talent of your web developer, web designer and/or copy writer. Hiring these professionals requires a budget — but there are things you can do on your own, for free, to help your site’s page rank.

On Tuesday, I shared some tips and resources about how to improve your rank, which included the importance of inbound links. You can ask other sites to link to you, ideally with keyword specific text as the hyperlink, but you really don’t have any control over whether or not that site will actually link to you or how they’ll do it. So, how do you get inbound links?

You can create (some of) them yourself.

1. Create business profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. and fill out the profile information. Include a link to your business.
2. Publish articles anywhere and everywhere you can. A site like Biznik is a great place to get published. Demonstrate your expertise by writing a helpful article, with an extended byline linking back to your website.
3. Create an HTML signature to use in Web-based discussion forums that uses your name (or business name) as a link to your web site. Every message you post becomes a link to your site that search engines can index.

These tips alone aren’t guaranteed to move you to the top of a search — but they are especially great for increasing the page rank for your name or business name.

Other tips to drive traffic

These won’t necessarily help your page rank, but it will help drive visitors to your site, which will hopefully result in conversions (see Monday’s post).

1. Include links in your email signature. Don’t forget your signature from your Blackberry /iPhone/Smartphone. You send out 300 emails a day? That’s 300 opportunities to share a link.
2. Comment on other people’s blogs. People feel like they need to have a blog or “a Twitter” because “everyone has one.” I have a journalism background and I like to write — but I’ll be the first to say that maintaining a blog is challenging and time consuming. Reap some of the same benefits, with less effort. Read blogs that your prospects read and leave comments. Most comment forms ask you to fill in your web address, which becomes a link back to your site when you comment.

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some additional SEO resources. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.

SEO Tools from seomoz.org

A collection of over 20 SEO tools designed to help with a variety of search engine optimization. It groups the tools into different categories, such as Page & Site Analysis Tools, Competitive Analysis Tools, Keyword Research & Discovery Tools, etc.

Free Search Engine Rankings Check from Mike’s Marketing Tools

The site isn’t very pretty, but the tool is pretty awesome. Type in your website, the keywords you are targeting, pick your search engines, and go. A pop-up window appears showing where your site ranks on up to 8 different search engines (if you’re within the top 100 listings, otherwise, it just says “no.”)

I learned that when searching for “danielle baird” my site ranked #1 on all, except for Bing, where it was #3. I was curious, so I did a Bing search, and sure enough, my old, old, OLD portfolio site (which I thought DePaul had taken down and I no longer have admin access to) and someone else’s MySpace account appeared above www.daniellebaird.net. All of the SEO research I’ve done doesn’t mesh with the way Bing is operating…I don’t consider it a credible search engine anyway.

And finally…

The Google Toolbar by Google

Among other things, the Google Toolbar includes the PageRank of the site you are currently browsing. The PageRank isn’t an obvious part of the toolbar – it’s located between the Bookmarks and Translate buttons. If you hover your mouse over the bar, a tool tip appears “PageRank is Google’s view of the importance of this page (X/10)” with X as the numeric value assigned to that page.

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some ideas on how to build up your page rank, without the help of a web designer or developer. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.

Page ranking is complicated. It can vary from search engine to search engine. It can vary from day to day.

Learn the lingo

There is a lot of terminology surrounding SEO and page ranking. You may want to keep these glossaries handy as you explore the page rank resources:

http://www.seoglossary.com/

http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/sem_glossary/

The relationship between page rank and keywords

Page rank is directly related to keywords. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, saying that you want to “show up on Google” means nothing. You want your site to appear in the search results when someone types a query into the search box. The words they type in the search box are keywords or keyword phrases.

When someone types in a keyword phrase, the search engine looks through its database of indexed pages and returns the best matches for those keywords. How do search engines determine the best match? This is where things get a little more complicated.

One thing to keep in mind is that search engines are dumb. For example, I am a freelance graphic designer, but if I don’t ever use the words “freelance graphic designer” on my site, I can’t expect Google to “know” I’m a freelancer based on the contextual information on my site. I have to use those keywords in my text, in the page titles, etc. to say “Hey Google! The search for ‘freelance graphic designer’ and the content on this page are a good match!”

Handy-dandy resources

Here are two resources that help you make sense of how different factors, including keywords, impact page rank:

Google’s PageRank Explained and How to Make the Most of It
This article explains, in detail, the algorithm behind Google’s patented PageRank and the various factors that impact it. Some takeaways: More internal linking (links within your site) and increasing the number of pages of your site helps your rank. However, don’t create duplicate “cookie cutter” pages just for the sake of a higher rank – it’ll actually count against you. Inbound links (links from other websites to yours) increase your ranking, because another site is essentially “voting” for your site. Outbound links add credit to your site’s existence, but too many outbound links actually drains your PageRank.

Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009

seomoz.org has compiled a phenomenal amount of information from world renown SEO experts. Their top-five ranking factors: Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links, External Link Popularity, Diversity of Link Sources, Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag, and Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains. Some of the Ranking Factors can get really overwhelming and jargon-heavy, but scroll down to the comments section to read what some of the experts have to say (in plain English).

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some tools on how to discover what your PageRank is and how to know where your site appears in different search engines based on your keywords. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.

SEO: defined

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid search results. (Source: Wikipedia)

Four basic benefits of SEO

The following outlines the basic benefits of SEO: indexed pages, rankings, visitors and (ultimately) conversions. The goal of the entire SEO process is to get people to do something.

1) Indexed pages

Robots or crawlers from search engines move through all the content on the web and index it, which allows it to appear in a search. It is important to make sure that search engines can find your pages and decipher them – this is something that needs to be done by a web designer or developer. See the extra credit reading at the bottom for more information on constructing an optimized web page.

2) Rankings

Someone searches for “lawn and garden center Chicago” on Google. There are 529,000 results. If a business is the third one listed on this search, they are “ranked” third. This is what many clients talk about specifically, when discussing SEO – “I want to show up on Google.” (A better request would be: “I want my site to appear on a Google when someone searches for _______” This specific information helps your developer optimize your site.) However, being ranked #1 on ___ search engine technically doesn’t mean anything. A high ranking doesn’t necessarily convert into increased sales – it is simply a way in to your site. (Ranking will be covered in more depth in tomorrow’s post.)

3) Visitors

So, at this point, search engine robots have indexed your pages, and your site appeared when someone searched for something. Now, a real human clicks and views your site. We’re getting there! Unless you receive payment on a cost per impression basis (like via ads) this still doesn’t mean much.

4) Conversions

This is the ultimate goal of SEO. Those real, live people visiting your site do something. A conversion can be anything you want – a purchase, a download, a comment, a phone call, an email, a follow on Twitter, a subscription to an RSS feed, etc. It’s important to know what you want your conversions to be so you can set your optimization goals accordingly.

These are the bare-bone basics of what SEO is: Create a well-structured web page with great content and keywords so that the search engines can index it. Your site ranks well for keywords that you’ve chosen. Real people visit your site. Those people do something based on the information they find on your site.

Extra credit reading:

The construction of an optimized web page

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll talk more about what determines search ranking. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.

photo by stefan/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Photo by: http://mudstencils.com/share-street/

/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I’ve always thought there is something really beautiful about graffiti and street art, but I can’t condone the defacing of public property. (Chicago’s taxes are already way too high.)

This morning, I learned about mud stencils (from Kirk Roberts via the Kernspiracy mailing list) which could be a very unique, eco-friendly way to spread your marketing message. The darkness of the mud feels like black spray paint, and offers more opportunities for high-contrast, eye-catching messaging than sidewalk chalk. Chalk messages were really big on my college campus … I’m curious to see if mud stencils catch on.

Once Chicago thaws out in the spring, I’m really curious to try out this new technique. It’s pretty straightforward: all you need is a stencil cut out of mylar (the same material used for overhead transparency sheets), a sponge or roller, some tape, a bucket, dirt, and water. Draw your design (or print it out) and place a piece of mylar over it. Using an X-acto knife, cut out your stencil. Mix up your batch of mud until it has the consistency of peanut butter (if it is too runny, your design will bleed).  Tape your stencil to a sidewalk or wall and apply the mud using a sponge or roller. Remove the stencil… bam. Marketing with mud.

More inspiration here:

• Mud Stencils
• other Mud Stencils
• Mud Stencils in Chicago
• InHabitat

Would you consider commissioning mud stencils for your next project?