Hey Everyone!
Due to the overwhelming response we’ve received since launching ExpertBase, we’ve decided to move into private beta mode.
Sounds top secret, right? Not really.
Private beta just means you need to send us your name and email address and we’ll send you more information about ExpertBase and notify you when the full product offering is available.
If you’d like to learn more about ExpertBase? Fill out this form and let us know!
Thanks,
The ExpertBase Team
How familiar does the following scenario sound to you? You encounter a problem, a problem so new and foreign that you immediately pour massive amounts of time and effort into finding the right solution, only to find out that the answer is right in front of you. If you are being honest with yourself, you, like most, will have to admit that this is hardly uncommon. After all of that seemingly wasted time, what you were looking for all along required little to none of that investment.
In a company’s quest to increase market share, such stories are all too common. Multimillion dollar marketing campaigns are launched only to yield minimal returns. Developers introduce “innovative” new products and services, only to meet disappointment and significant financial loss when consumers find these new offerings unappealing or too expensive. Regardless of industry, target market, and even staff expertise, every company has its share of bad marketing experiences. No one is immune.
Because of this, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that every business is looking for that foolproof formula—that risk-free investment guaranteed to increase market share. Naturally, the question that follows is, “What is that failsafe method?” And, consistent with the story above, the answer is right in front of you, purchasing your products and services.
In a recent Smart Company article, writer Greg Miller asks, “How often do we let days and weeks go by without spending time listening to our customers?…I mean real chat – getting answers to the important questions.” In other words, how common is it for a company to spend unspeakable amounts of time and money in market research, campaigns, and product releases, only to meet failure by neglecting to ask the common sense question that Miller does above? What better way to build market share than to ask the customers that already love what you do? What better way to increase loyalty than to consult those loyal to your company what keeps them coming back for more? That’s where ExpertBase comes into play.
Creating an online community within your existing website, ExpertBase cultivates an environment of organic conversation among current and potential customers, allowing you to build market share by giving you a direct line to your target market. You can find out exactly what it is that makes existing customers loyal to your company and what changes, if any, those same customers want to see in your company’s offerings. What kinds of problems make them need your services? ExpertBase is your gateway to the answer. It’s your alternative to all of that wasted time, effort, and money that all too often returns void in that daunting quest to build market share. In other words, ExpertBase unveils the answer that’s been right in front of you all along.
By now, it should be pretty clear that here at ExpertBase, we love to talk about search engine optimization. Not only is best-in-class SEO built in to every ExpertBase platform, but we think our SEO team is one of the best in the world; and after listening to Jonathan Hoekman’s two-part webinar series, SEO Demystified, we’re confident that you will too.
In Part One, Jonathan discussed how creating quality content that targets relevant keywords are two of the most important things you can do to boost your search engine rankings. In Part Two, Jonathan covered tips, tricks and best practices for your on-site and off-site search engine optimization efforts. Recordings for both webinars are available on our sister site, Experts Exchange’s YouTube Page.
Attendees at both webinars asked great questions, and Jonathan took some time to personally answer them. We’ve posted a portion of the Q&A below. Take a look and learn!
When it comes to blogging as an SEO tactic, which is more valuable: having the content of the blog on your domain or hosting the blog on another domain and linking to your site from the blog?
Jonathan’s Answer- It really depends on your objectives. If your objective is to improve your site’s overall authority and drive traffic to your domain, then it’s definitely better to have host it on your domain, preferably as a subfolder off your domain. If you do it this way, all links pointing at your blog will help your top level domain gain links, which will help it become more authoritative. Plus, unless your blog becomes a huge authority in your niche, it’s links to your domain aren’t going to be worth much if it is on a separate domain.
Now, if your objective is to get yet another result in the top 10 of your branded search terms as a reputation management strategy, then it can be better to host your blog on a separate domain. That being said, Google has started allowing more than 2 results from each site to show up in the top 10, if the search term is relevant enough to your brand, so that kind of defeats the purpose of hosting your blog on a separate domain for brand/reputation management. So, consider what your objective is and make the decision that best works for you.
Would you recommend dealing with content that expires as “no index” (such as company job postings) or is it valuable to keep this content indexed?
Jonathan’s Answer: I’d have to say no, you shouldn’t deal with expired content as “no index.” Here’s why: In your example with Job Postings, I would imagine that it’s important to get as many qualified applicants for the job positions that you have open as possible. Ideally, using some sort of job engine like Monster or The Ladders is definitely going to be the best option for generating resumes, but I would still argue that these pages are valuable to include in the index.
Now, when they expire, you should add them to your robots.txt file. In addition, I would use the noindex tag. Ideally, because this page is now a dead page and completely worthless, I would consider redirecting traffic coming from that page to another relevant page on your site, maybe the general Job Postings landing page that lists all your jobs. This way, people who come to this page are redirected to another relevant page on your site, providing more value to their experience than a dead page.
If you don’t want to redirect, you could always make sure that your ‘page no longer available’ messaging says something like, ‘We’re sorry, but this job has already been filled. Here is a list of all our current job openings’ and then list all of the other openings you have, if any. This way, you are doing your best to provide value to your users and keep them interested, even when the job has been filled.
Will posting videos on your website that are hosted by another service, say Screencast, help or hurt your SEO?
Jonathan’s Answer- That’s a really interesting question. Let’s say you are hosting a video on YouTube and embedding that video on your site. Naturally, YouTube is probably going to out-rank you for that video, so it might be a problem. BUT, there is a good chance that Google will actually index both locations, assuming that the page on your site is optimized for keywords related to the webinar. In that case, you might actually get 2 pages in the search results for related searches, helping increase the chance that someone will click on one of the links to your video, whether on YouTube or your site.
Now, let’s say you are using something a little more obscure, like Screencast. In this instance, you might have a good shot at out-ranking Screencast for your video. And again, the same thought applies as in the example above, where you might be able to get two results, which is always better than one.
So, from a purely SEO standpoint, I am not sure it matters. BUT, if you are trying to control that content, say so you can charge people to view it, then it becomes a problem and you’d need to make sure that your videos were only hosted on your site, where you could control access to it. Ultimately, it depends on what your goals are. If you aren’t worried about protecting that content, then I’d say don’t worry too much about it.
For more SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO zone on our sister site, Experts Exchange. Not an Experts Exchange member? Sign up as an Expert and answer a few questions a month to earn a free membership or purchase a digital subscription.
At 11 a.m. PST, SEO expert Jonathan Hoekman will present part two of his talk on SEO Demystified. If you haven’t registered yet, GO HERE NOW to do so. Registrants will also receive a copy of Jonathan’s recent article, “7 Reasons Why Questions and Answers are a Match Made in SEO Heaven.” Here’s an excerpt from the article:
For many, search engine optimization (SEO) seems like a complex science experiment. Terms like algorithm, link-bait, archive and no-follow cause many to write the practice off as a weird science better left to ‘those people’ who understand what it is and how to use it.
At its most basic level, SEO is the practice of using targeted, relevant keywords to create useful, unique content about your business; optimizing your site categorically so people can easily access that content and then enticing people to link to it.
The challenge for most businesses is how to create large amounts of quality content that is not only relevant to what your target audience is searching for but also provides value and leads to sharing and linking.
The solution to that problem? An ExpertBase online community. Here’s one of the reasons why:
Relevant, Qualified Traffic is what Matters Most
The goal of any successful SEO campaign is not simply to drive traffic. While any traffic is better than no traffic, not all traffic has the same value to your business. When it comes to traffic, the more relevant and qualified the traffic is to your company, product or service, the better. A quick example: Say you are a cloud-based Q&A platform looking to get in front of a qualified audience that you can talk to about your product. Would it be better to write a generic article about a pop-culture topic that gets the attention of Google news and drives 500,000 visitors to your site, or a targeted article demonstrating how your product fills a specific need and drives 10,000 visitors?
My experience (as the SEO manager for an Alexa top 1000 website) tells me the 10,000 visitors interested in your product would have a higher conversion rate than the 500,000 generic visitors. Again, this is where Q&A comes in. By engaging in conversations that are specific to your product or service, the resulting traffic coming to your site is extremely relevant to your business and highly qualified to make a purchasing decision.
Want to read Jonathan’s other six reasons why questions and answers are a match made in SEO heaven? Email me for a PDF copy: jenn (at) redsourceinteractive (dot) com.
Earlier this week, nearly 400 people tuned in while SEO guru Jonathan Hoekman dispelled some of the myths surrounding search engine optimization (namely that it’s something only Silicon Valley wizards can do) and talked about the basics of building an effective SEO campaign.
Next week, Jonathan will present part two of his webinar series where he’ll give tips, tricks and best practices for your on-site and off-site optimization efforts. Specifically, Jonathan will discuss:
Part Two of SEO Demystified will build on some of the basic concepts discussed in Part One. You can watch Part One of SEO Demystified here…nearly 300 people already have!
After watching the SEO Demystified series, you will have the basic tools and building blocks necessary to build your next SEO campaign and drive relevant, targeted traffic to your site–all without spending a dime on marketing.
So what are you waiting for?
Register for Part Two of SEO Demystified today!
As anyone who has ever worked for a start-up company will tell you, the hardest part of launching a new product or service is figuring out where to begin. Often, similar problems occur when you purchase something new; if you don’t know how to start using the product, you won’t use it properly. Or worse, you won’t use it at all.
The bottom line is that a good product or service is only as good as the instruction manual that comes with it. At ExpertBase, we want to prevent that user paralysis that often comes after making a major purchase. Each customized ExpertBase platform comes with a step-by-step, week-by-week implementation guide that not only helps our customers get started using their Q&A site, but also helps it flourish. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of those best practices here on the blog. (Sidenote: Many of these best practices can be applied to launching any website or product.)
Already have an ExpertBase platform installed on your website? Here’s a few things you can start doing today to engage customers, build community and drive traffic to your ExpertBase site:
Pre-populate frequently asked questions: Have a list of questions that potential or current customers ask often? Get your employees to ask and answer those questions on your ExpertBase site then use those pre-populated questions to provide your customers with fast answers.
Recruit employees to answer questions: Everyone in your office is an expert at something. Have employees set up alerts to receive notifications when a question is asked in a certain topic area on your ExpertBase site. Once they start earning points for their answers, they’ll be hooked and your company’s customer interactions will be better than ever!
Spread the word: Let potential and current customers know about your ExpertBase site by promoting it on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Have a company newsletter? Write about your ExpertBase site and encourage people to participate on the site.
Click the image to watch video.
Jonathan Hoekman, Search Engine Optimization master over on our sister site Experts Exchange, presented a webinar today on the basics of building an effective SEO campaign. In the following video, you’ll learn:
Watch the high-quality version of the webinar here (you’ll need Windows Media 9 or higher and the GoToMeeting codec), or you can visit the Experts Exchange YouTube channel to watch.
I am not an Apple fangirl like so many of my colleagues (insert gasps here). The closest I get to Apple is iTunes and my iPod. I’ve never used Apple’s support team, though I hear it’s stellar—not even when my cat ate my first Shuffle. (In hindsight, maybe I should have brought my cat to the Apple store and asked if they could “fix” it.)
That being said, I do recognize that Apple is one of those rare companies who gets it right (almost) every time. While this week’s revamp of Apple Support Communities didn’t rock my world, like it did for millions of Mac enthusiasts, I was interested to check out the site. As luck would have it (probably not the phrase she would use), a friend dropped her iPhone in the toilet this morning, giving me the perfect excuse to peruse the site for info on water damaged iPhones.
While it’s a bit difficult to navigate to the new Support Communities site (you either have to type discussions.apple.com into your browser or click the “Communities” icon in the middle of the general Support home page), once I arrived at the new and improved Apple Support Communities, I was greeted by the typically clean aesthetic I’ve come to expect from Apple.
Difficulty in navigating to the site aside, Apple Support Communities is a top-notch question and answer experience that provides Apple employees, customers and brand advocates with a platform to ask and answer questions about Apple products.
Here’s three things that Apple is doing right and how others in the Q&A space can emulate them:
Crowdsourcing their advocates
In Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky talks about the ways new technology tools have broken down the organizational barriers that once existed and allow large groups of people around the world to share, cooperate and even take collective action. Apple users love to talk with other Apple users about Apple products. Apple Support Communities allows them to self-assemble, communicate and ultimately solve each other’s problems—regardless of the time or space between them.
What part does Apple play in all of this? They simply provide the products people are talking about and the platform to talk about them.
Providing the Incentives
As Shirky points out, another benefit of using these new technology tools is the low transactional cost for the company providing the tools and the people using them. Once Apple designs and programs the Support Communities pages (which I can’t image costs all that much in time or resources, given the brilliant minds that work there), users go in and help each other out for free, creating thousands of new pages of content each day and tagging them to fit into the appropriate categories along the way.
In the iTunes for Windows section of Apple Support Communities alone, there are currently close to 180,000 discussion threads going on with who knows how many people participating in those conversations. I guarantee that 98% of the people participating in those conversations are not receiving any compensation from Apple for their participation.
How can Apple get people to do all this for free? It’s simple: Apple knows the value of a virtual pat on the back. People will go to great lengths to help others. They will go to even greater lengths to help if their efforts are being recognized by the people they are helping. In Apple Support Communities, people can “like” certain responses to a question or award five points to the “most helpful” answer. In some cases, Apple employees will even go in and award points to correct answers. As you earn points, your “level” on the site increases and Apple grants you “special” permissions on the site.
What Apple fanboy wouldn’t want to say that he is the top iPad expert in Apple Support Communities?
Making it Easy
But all of the crowdsourcing and incentivizing would be useless if Apple didn’t make their Support Communities—just like their products—clean and simple. The white background with blue text design of Support Communities looks similar to other Apple products and pages on Apple’s main website, making users feel confident that asking a question in the new Support Communities will be as easy as scrolling through email on their iPhone or purchasing music on iTunes.
For new Support Communities users like me, Apple has provided a number of screen-shot laden tutorials that clearly depict how to navigate the site. Ease-of-use promotes more use; Apple knows that better than anyone.
Apple Support Communities for the Rest of Us
In the comment threads of articles written about Apple Support Communities, people asked when Apple was going to license their Support Communities technology so that others can build Support Communities on their own website. That’s a truly fantastic idea…and one that we’ve already thought of at RedSource Interactive.
ExpertBase lets you apply the same principles that make Apple Support Communities a success to your own website. Our platform gives your employees, customers and brand advocates a place to ask and answer questions about your products and services as well as a patented points system that rewards the folks who give the best answers, thus incentivizing people to keep using the site! Since we customize your ExpertBase platform to match the look and feel of your website, people are confident that they are interacting with your brand.
Want to know more? Send me an email and we’ll chat! Jenn (at) redsourceinteractive (dot) com. Can’t wait to start the conversation!
How do you start a company blog? I suppose I could take a play out of the WordPress playbook and say “Hello world, welcome to the ExpertBase blog! I’m Jenn Prentice, and I’ll be the one writing most of the posts each week.” (All true.) Or, I could begin with a bold statement like “online community starts here” and tell you that “ExpertBase is a question and answer platform that helps you engage your customers and build online community, drive traffic to your site and enhance your brand.” (Also true.)
Wondering how can I substantiate that last claim? ExpertBase is owned by RedSource Interactive, the same company that owns Experts Exchange, the leading question and answer site in the technology space since 1996. Long before Quora, Yahoo! Answers or Stack Exchange, we created a patented question and answer process and utilized search engine optimization best practices to build our business to where it is today. The great news is, we’re now giving everyone else that opportunity for success by using the same technology that powers Experts Exchange to bring you ExpertBase.
ExpertBase provides your employees, customers and brand advocates with incentives to ask and answer questions about your products and services. Each customizable ExpertBase platform comes equipped with:
But enough with the sales pitch. That’s what our account executives are for.
True to the title of this post, this blog will be a place for dialogue and engaging in conversation about what it takes to build a community of brand advocates in today’s digital landscape. I might even throw out a few pointers for driving traffic to your website and boosting your bottom line in the process.
So check back and check often in the weeks and months to come. I can’t wait to converse!
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