The Blogs of Visible Technologies

Visible Technologies started out as a traditional search engine optimization company. And though we still offer core SEO and PPC services, our growth over the past couple of years has been focused on developing social media measurement technologies and online reputation management technologies to support our Fortune 100 clients . I rarely discuss online reputation management on SEO Theory, and then only in the most generic of terms. The Visible Technologies ORM and Social Media solutions are diverse and go well beyond managing search engine results, for what it’s worth.

Our Marketing department maintains a blog, VisInsights, where they discuss VT initiatives, social media, metrics, and reputation management. I used to write for VisInsights (and my articles are still archived there) but my ability to contribute was limited by time and topic. I have since had to focus on brand value, brand building, and similar topics within the SEO Theory blog.

The current authors for VisInsights are Blake Cahill and Mike Spataro (two of our Vice Presidents). Blake and Mike have extensive backgrounds in marketing and brand management and they are, with our CEO Adam Selig, the most visible faces from Visible Technologies, Inc. (as far as the news media and broader industry are concerned).

SEO Theory, as I have mentioned previously, is the blog I created at the end of 2006 for two reasons: first, I needed a place where I could participate in the online SEO community and the company felt it would prove to be a valuable asset for us; secondly, I felt it would be helpful to establish my credibility with clients and prospects if I maintained an active resource that focuses on search engine optimization (as opposed to just being a daily link list site or self-promotional site).

We’ve limited self-promotion on SEO Theory to a small collection of SEO white papers that are being moved to the Visible Technologies site (I’m not sure if we’ll keep copies on SEO Theory). Of course, SEO Theory was created after Visible Technologies, Inc. spun off its 1st Query brand for SEO and PPC services, and only a few months ago a decision was made to recombine the brands all under the Visible Technologies branding umbrella and website.

In effect, 1st Query went away and that left us with a blog (SEO Theory) that was promoting a discontinued brand. SEO Theory had to be redesigned and we eventually got back to it.

But wait! There’s more!

That is, we also have the Best SEO Blog. I had my team set up this blog last year to be the “official blog of 1st Query”. But I work them like slaves and the blog languished (although Gene Tapang’s article on keyword research is totally awesome, in my opinion (we lost the images when the blog was redesigned).

The Best SEO Blog had to be repurposed I began contributing to the Best SEO Blog a few months ago and now you can look for articles from Nicholas Ramirez, our blog admin and the head of our SEO Web team.

For my part, I try to keep the theory here on SEO Theory and be more practical on Best SEO Blog. In fact, I have probably written almost as many SEO technique articles for Best SEO Blog as I have for SEO Theory. So those of you who have been hungering for more direct technique articles from me, head over to Best SEO Blog and browse the growing archive. I’m trying to post 2 articles per week. I do want my staff to participate more in Best SEO Blog, and I hope you get to see some of their insights in the near future. They work hard and they’ve learned a great deal about search engine optimization.

So, what is the theoretical focus of this article? It comes down to building and managing a network of Web assets. A company with diverse interests can express itself in multiple ways. There are indeed times when it makes sense to create multiple assets around different brands. Visible Technologies, Inc. has invested considerable resources in developing the SEO Theory brand — not only through my contributions, but also through the work that Nic and others have done behind the scenes for the past two years.

Once in a blue moon someone asks if I actually practice what I preach. Today I think it’s worth saying you don’t have to look far to see that Visible Technologies, Inc. does pursue multiple brand strategies and I have contributed to that process.

But the real point of this article is, if we can do it, so can many other companies. It helps to have experienced, eloquent writers on staff. But practice makes perfect, as far as I am concerned. Sure, your first blog posts may make you cringe after six months, but every 5,000 mile journey begins with the first step.

You can choose to be self-promotional or not. There is nothing wrong with honest self-promotion, and some companies do that very well. Despite all the hoopla over microblogging and other alternative media, blogging continues to provide value to Web marketing and I am glad that some of the many different teams here at Visible Technologies are involved.