Job-hunting must: Write a cover letter

I'm in the process of reviewing resumes for two positions we're filling. Here's something I've noticed that make me wonder whether some candidates will ever find a job.

Many people send their resumes online without a cover letter. Most of these are coming via a job-posting site, so responding to my ad is as simple as clicking a few buttons. And that's why this annoys me. Given the number of applicants I've had for each of the positions, I've resorted to canning any resumes that arrive without a cover letter. It makes me think that the person applying really doesn't have that much interest in the position. If they did, they'd put a little more effort into making themselves stand out. A cover letter helps do that.

Here are some other ways a well-written cover letter can help:

1. Relate unrelated experience -- Quite a few people have applied for our positions who don't seemingly have the experience we're seeking. I don't have a problem interviewing people who feel they can translate other prior experience into this position, but I've got to know why you feel that's the case. Without a cover letter, I have no idea why you're applying for my position.

2. Explain job hopping -- I know times are tough and people are finding themselves in unfortunate situations multiple times. But, I'd really like to know why you've worked at 5 different places in the past 7 years. And, I'm not going to call you in for the interview to find out.

3. Draw attention to special accomplishments -- A person with 10-20 years work experience can have a pretty extensive resume. Help the hiring party out by detailing in your resume the special skills or accomplishments you've attained that set you apart from other applicants.

4. Showcase your communication skills -- Many jobs require someone with good written and verbal skills. A well-written cover letter will help show your ability in these areas. People who list "strong verbal and written communication" on their resume and then don't include a cover letter are liars or just lazy.

When Google Speaks ...

On Monday, Google engineer Matt Cutts posted a video on his blog in which he discussed Google's official policy on meta keyword tags. In a nutshell, they don't use them.

That's old news to SEO firms that optimize web sites to perform on Google. We've known that for a long time.

But, we still have conversations with prospects and clients who ask us to quote an SEO project that entails "updating our meta keywords." In their eyes, updating the keywords tag is a quick and inexpensive fix. The problem is, it doesn't work.

Google gives no weight to the meta keywords tag at all. What they do look at is the title tag, description tag (for purposes of displaying your listing), your content and incoming links.

That doesn't mean that keywords have become obsolete. It's an issue of how you use them. Read my article on The Difference Between Meta Keyword Tags and Keywords.

Survey Identifies Links as Top Ranking Factor

For those wondering about all the hype around links and SEO, there’s a new study out by SEOmoz that identifies the current most important factors to a site’s performance on the search engines.

The survey highlights the universal experience of SEO professionals who work on websites every day. Pilot Fish’s own John Inama is a member of the organization; we find it beneficial to have the opportunity to brainstorm and network with folks in our own industry.

The SEOmoz report identifies the Top 3 ranking factors as being related to a web site’s incoming links. More specifically, they are:

1. Keyword-focused anchor text from external links: This is the text in clickable links that are pointing to your site from external sources.
2. External link popularity: This refers to the quality/quantity of external links.
3. Diversity of link sources: This is the number of links from several diverse root domains.

Here’s a link to the SEOmoz Search Engine Ranking Factors study.

To find out whether your web site has enough or the right type of links to help your site perform on search engines, contact John Inama at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104.

National High School Sports Site Model Launched

I've been away from my blog for a while, and now I can tell you why. We've been developing a new business concept, which we are now launching.

Check out Sports Reporting Technologies, our new company devoted to licensing our SPORTSITEWARE(TM) system for developing a high school sports site business.

This system is different than any other sports site software out there. It's not geared for schools or individual sports teams to record detailed game stats.

This system is about developing news and filling the gap where newspapers have fallen in their coverage of high school sports. With the SPORTSITEWARE(TM) system, you can select the schools, sports and conferences you want to cover. We provide the tools to publish news, photos, audio, video, game schedules, results and stats. Our system also includes advertising and premium content subscription modules for revenue generation.

Currently, we're offering custom programs for these high school sports: football, volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, wrestling, swimming/diving, baseball, softball and track and field. We'll be adding new features once our inital rollout is complete and expect to add more sports for next year.

We've just launched our pilot site, SportsInk, which covers all the sports for 35 high schools in Summit and Medina counties in Ohio. We've gotten great feedback from coaches already, many of whom we provided a preview during the summer while the site was still in development. It's still in development; we're rolling out new features every week, but when you have a chance, check it out!

What you'll see on SportsInk is that they've already sold a good bit of advertising. Talk to local advertisers about high school sports -- they'll tell you they're interested in sites that show high interest in local markets. It's like shooting fish in a barrel!

We'll be licensing the technology to persons or companies that want to run an online sports site business. Licensing will include revenue rights to national advertising contracts we're already negotiating, as well as a "how-to manual" on setting up an online business, from staffing to promotion to selling advertising.

For more information, contact me at 877-799-9994 ext. 2102.

Strategies for Search Engine Success -- NPE 09 Presentation

Last week I gave a presentation on search engine optimization (SEO) at NPE 09, the plastics industry's triennial tradeshow held at McCormick Place in Chicago. I got rave reviews on the material. Many plastics businesses don't understand the basic mechanics of how search engines rank web sites and what they need to do to get the visibility necessary to drive new business leads.

For those that missed it, here's my presentation:

Strategies for Search Engine Success

View more documents from Polysort.

Optimizing Foreign-language Web Sites

Optimizing a web site for foreign search engines isn't much different from optimizing for our English-language search engines.

Like Google here in the U.S., the search engine is quite popular around the world and now boasts more than 100 foreign language versions.

We recently built an optimized Spanish-language site for one of our customers. Within a month, the site has earned its way to the first page of more than a dozen Spanish-language Google sites, and the company now gets more than 10% of its site traffic from Spanish-speaking prospects.

Read the full case study on this foreign-language SEO project.

Case Study Shows Value of SEO to Industrial Firms

Although times are lean, many companies realize that pulling the plug entirely from their marketing efforts could impact their ability to bounce back quickly when the economy takes a turn for the better.

The key is deciding how most efficiently to spend a very limited marketing budget.

Last fall, Polysort/Pilot Fish began working with Champion Plastics, a plastic bag manufacturer, to improve the company's search engine placement. Champion had hired an ad agency to redesign the site, and the newly designed site failed to improve the company's search engine positioning, site traffic or leads.

Upon review by our staff, we discovered the site had been built in a way that blocked Google and other search engines from indexing it. We corrected the technical barriers and optimized the content. Within weeks, the company closed on a new customer that directly resulted from being found on Google. And, within three months, the company's site was performing for more than 60 important keyword terms.

All this happened in the throes of a terrible recession.

Champion Plastics' John Callaghan credited our company with his site's turnaround: “We got that customer as a direct result of the work Polysort did for us. Polysort was able to diagnose the site’s problems and provide a workable solution. We’re now performing on many variations of keywords that are bringing potential customers to our site.”

Read the full case study.

Polysort provides web design and search engine optimization to companies in the plastics and rubber industry. Our Pilot Fish SEO division serves industrial and B2B clients in other markets.

For assistance with your search engine placement, contact John Inama at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104 or fill this form.