Quick observation….It seems as though Team Ox is running full steam ahead with their online political strategy. I’m getting more and more content from them recently.

I’m just wondering when the other GOP candidates will flip the switch and start sending out press releases, agendas, newsletters and such. I will gladly post their content asap. So keep checking for your favorite candidate’s news and announcements.

How active will the 120Politics blog be in 6 months or even next June, a mere month before the primaries?

Should be interesting.

You have no doubt seen our posts analyzing the sites for Karen Handel and Ray McBerry. This is the much anticipated and might I add “requested” site analysis for John Oxendine’s campaign for Georgia Governor. I have spoken with Team Ox staffers and they were eagerly looking forward to an objective review so they can make any changes early in the campaign.

JohnOxendine.com is a clean site, good content and visuals. However, when using Internet Explorer, there’s an error message on page entry (bottom left of the screen). It would be worth fixing since it will cause some visitors to wonder what the mistake might be. It doesn’t seem to affect performance. The error doesn’t show up in Firefox or Chrome.

On the bottom of the page, there’s a cell separated as if to imply that it should contain some content and there’s nothing there. We suggest either merge the cells or put something there.

Also some of the site hyperlinks jump to another page on the same site in new window. This isn’t really necessary since they’re staying on the site.

Meta tags:
You might want to mention the keywords “Governor’s race”, but that’s just our opinion. You have room.

On the descriptions meta tag, it’s just pulling text from the page. You have 200 characters to use, write something effective.

Meta tag keywords – where are they? You are allowed 1,000 characters, use them! Search engines are starving for your keywords, take advantage of this simple tool in the code.

Links:
You have 3,199 links. Good job.

Overall, the site has a good mix of flash and html content. It should keep the masses coming back for more as long as they keep the content fresh and updated.

When President Obama’s Justice Department told Georgia over the weekend that it could no longer verify the citizenship of voters going to the polls, Karen Handel sprang into action. She exposed the Obama plan and revealed that it would allow groups like ACORN to actively find and register illegal aliens to vote in Georgia elections.

Karen took to the airwaves and the Internet to rally opposition to the Obama plan. She appeared on Fox and Friends, the Regular Guys and Herman Cain radio programs, as well as radio and TV news stations across Georgia.

She even started an online petition with the goal of getting 10,000 signatures of Americans who opposed this terrible plan and want to have their voices heard in Washington.

In the first 48 hours, more than 6,000 signed that petition, and Karen is well on her way to the 10,000 signature goal. If you have not signed the petition, please do so now, and be sure to forward this email along to your neighbors, friends and family members. If this progress continues, our voices will be heard.

Please help us tell the Obama Administration that only U.S. citizens should be voting in Georgia by signing the petition today.

Please join Karen Handel’s fight for the integrity of our elections by signing the petition today.

In a decision delivered to Secretary of State Karen Handel earlier this week, the federal department of justice announced that Georgia’s citizenship verification of voters is to immediately cease. Georgia’s verification of citizenship was begun as a result of increasing illegal attempts by aliens and others to vote in Georgia elections; and, as secure elections are a hallmark of a free republic, it is the inherent right of every sovereign state to take those steps necessary to guarantee such. Adjudication of the issue is not a matter which falls within the competent jurisdiction of the federal government, since that entity is merely the agent of the States.

Therefore, Ray McBerry, Republican candidate for Governor, most strongly urges Karen Handel, both as Secretary of State and as a fellow Republican, to officially repudiate and defy this constitutional usurpation by the federal department of justice.

Ray stated, “This week’s blatant federal intrusion into Georgia’s right to secure our elections from illegal voting is merely one in a long series of abuses upon the sovereign state of Georgia. It demonstrates now, more clearly than ever, that Georgia is destined to take a leadership role in wresting the unconstitutional powers away from an out-of-control federal government, if we are to restore our ancient liberties and the Republic of our Fathers.”

As an advocate of States’ Rights and a lecturer on the subject for more than a decade across America, Georgia businessman Ray McBerry is clearly the leader of the Georgia GOP on the subject. Attacks by Democrats in recent days which lead with Ray as the “point man” for the Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidates, again, clearly indicate that our opposition in Georgia understand that a strong States’ Rights candidate like Ray McBerry is their worst nightmare in their unveiled attempts to federalize every facet of our lives. As the States’ Rights leader of Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial candidates, Ray’s response is “Georgia First!”

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By Randy Brown of Web-Magic, Georgia’s SEO Pro

And by Greg Hoffman, Marketing Gorilla

Site Analysis of Karen Handel for Governor of Georgia

First Impression:

Your designers did a great job with the colors, the action of the images, the style and the content inside the site. But the flash landing page is a major problem for the search engines and user friendliness.

Key Problems:

1. No way to turn off the music (problem for many users and an instant way to lose the visitor)
2. Flash content on the landing page (problem for search engine spiders)
3. Site does not auto load after landing page flash runs (problem for many users who may ignore the skip intro link and leave immediately)
4. Less than sufficient reciprocal links.

Meta Tags

There are several ways that using Meta Tags in your web pages will help increase the traffic to your site. First, they allow you to tell the search engines and web spiders exactly how to describe your site. Second, including keywords in your Meta Tag tells the search engine that when a person types in a certain word (like the word “ gif “ ) to search for, (at a site like Alta Vista) your site is one to be uploaded. Third, using Meta Tags allows you to get your site listed closer to the top of a search list (there are, of course, other factors including popularity and keyword to content density).

 
Not every web spider will read your Meta Tags but the majority will. It is enough to know that 18 out of the 20 largest search engines do read Meta Tags if for no other reason than for the description tag.

Current Meta Descriptions Tag:

Problems: You are allowed 100-200 characters in the description tag depending on the search engine. The description tag is what the engines use as your brief description in a results page to help a surfer choose the link they want to click. It will help you significantly if you write more into this tag.

Current Meta Keywords Tag:  

Problems: You are allowed 1000 characters in the keyword tag and you’re not using enough termes and phrases. The keyword tag is one of many items that search engines use to find you in a search. The user types keywords and based on the words on your site, in your tags and your links from other sites, you are placed in the results list. There are many other terms you could be using on this tag up to 1000 characters. We might also recommend using misspellings here. Undoubtedly, some surfers may not know the correct spelling of Handel, and will most assuredly search for “Karen Handle”.

Reciprocal Links

Links from Vendors/Partners/Associations are 431. That’s not terrible, but it is extremely important that you continue to improve on this – these days, this is mandatory particularly on Google. It will increase your search rankings and targeted traffic. We endeavor to get a minimum of 1000, but most of our customers are higher than that.

Some search engines calculate the number of links to your site from other sites and use it to determine your ranking. As you know, a better position equals more targeted traffic! Another way reciprocal links can benefit you is by drawing repeat traffic back to your website. If you offer a high- quality list of relevant links, visitors will return often because they know that they can quickly find what they’re looking for.

Simple Site Mechanical Analysis

Clean site, good content, but written in flash which is a problem for many of the search engines. We love flash, dont’ get us wrong, but it needs to be used in conjunction with smart SEO tactics.  Use of a landing page is not a recommended practice. Use of music with no way to turn it off is likewise not recommended.

The more targeted traffic you attract, the more potential voters you’ll attract and meta-information is extremely important to that end. This site needs a real effort put into search engine placement. Remember, on the web it’s “If you build it, WILL THEY COME?” If we don’t successfully tell them where it is, not much chance of getting targeted visitors. Do not rely on earned or paid media alone. With some solid SEO effort you will find organic traffic online. 

Also, you need to develop and submit Press Releases to online distribution services and utilize political blogs. This is the fastest, most effective way of improving search engine position for a site of this nature. Anchor links for relative keywords will get you the grassroots traffic you need through the search engines.

Start typing in keywords in search engines and ask your team why your site doesn’t rank in the top five results!

Next up, we look at Ray McBerry’s campaign site.

Karen Handel, Republican Candidate for Georgia Governor, unveiled her new website last week and the design made me wonder about its effectiveness in the search engines.  Is this new design going to attract the right visitors? Will she even rank under relevant keywords, or will other sites rank first, giving the user a chance to see competitors sites before hers? 

I’ve asked my longtime business partner, Randy Brown of Web-Magic, to run an analysis on some of the sites of statewide candidates for search engine visibility. This is not an attack on any particular candidate or web designer. We are merely showing you the search engine optimization aspect of online political strategy. Web Designers are a creative. They can build you the best looking hottest websites on the web. But SEO must be a part of the plan.

If you take the analysis back to your designers and consultants and they argue that search engines are irrelevant to political campaigns for any one of thousands of reasons – then your competition will gain on the grassroots level and you may be scratching your heads after election day.

Good job to Mark Rountree for setting up and effectively using a Facebook group for Rep. Melvin Everson, R-Snellville, who is running for Georgia Labor Commissioner.

Rountree sent out a message to the group today thanking volunteers for their help at the GOP Convention in Savannah this past weekend. He adds that members of the group have:

“Helped lay the groundwork for a fast take off for the Everson campaign.”

This is one of those lessons that everyone should take note of…

Check out this story in today’s AJC.
Candidates kiss fewer babies, press flesh online

I’ll be referring to this article often in the next few months. Not enough of you candidates are doing this, especially Georgia House and Senate campaigns.  

Look for a series on candidate’s websites and how-to posts for internet marketing.  Did any conservative candidates learn from last year’s elections???

Campaign Update May 2009

From: Kathryn Ballou – Campaign Manager

To: Team Oxendine
________________________________

The political landscape in the Georgia 2010 Republican Party primary has experienced historic events since the unexpected withdrawal of Lt. Governor Casey Cagle.

A number of good people gave serious consideration to entering the primary. Likewise, many good people declined to move forward with a campaign.

It appears Congressman Nathan Deal and state Senator Eric Johnson, with their entries into the primary, have set the stage and settled the field of candidates.

The question is not which candidate are you for, but which candidate is for you?

We have great respect for both Congressman Deal and Senator Johnson and consider them formidable candidates who we will take seriously. Their addition to Secretary Handel and Commissioner Oxendine brings a set of four candidates who we believe can compete on a statewide basis. A fifth candidate is state Representative Austin Scott, who completes the current elected officials in the race.

We respect Ray McBerry. Team Oxendine understands he is sincere and passionate about those values he believes in and those issues that need to be debated.

Given the past several weeks, we realize that nothing is to be taken for granted when it comes to who might want to run against John in the primary. There are, however, a few facts and a few points we wanted to be sure we communicated with you, our grassroots leaders:

John Oxendine is in this race and will not be dropping out – period. John Oxendine is in it to win it. No matter how many times the opposition tries this tired and lame rumor, it will not alter reality. John Oxendine will be the nominee of the Georgia Republican Party for Governor in 2010.

John Oxendine is committed to a positive, issues-oriented campaign which empowers the grassroots of the Georgia Republican Party and the taxpayers of Georgia. Team Oxendine has been told to expect a series of personal, negative attacks from at least two of our opponents. Regardless of how negative any opponent goes, John and Team Oxendine will never, ever attack the personal life of one our opponents – we plan to stick to the issues.

Lies, rumors, and more lies – get used to them. You will be subjected to them on an almost daily basis it appears. Because John is a solid, Ronald Reagan conservative, who will offer positive solutions to Georgia’s issues, our opponents and the status quo will avoid entering into debates on the issues. All that will be left is to lie and spread rumors. We will hold the line and stay positive.

Who can win in November of 2010:

John Oxendine has received more votes in three of the past four general elections in Georgia than any other single candidate on the ballot of either party.

John Oxendine has demonstrated he can win in both swing counties and traditional Democrat counties in a general election. John regularly carries counties such as Dougherty, Muscogee, Bibb, and similar counties which historically vote for Democrats in November.

John Oxendine does not need to raise millions of dollars for the sole purpose of introducing himself to the Republican Party and general election voters. They already know and trust him.

We have three candidates who start off as regional candidates. They will have to raise several million dollars just to introduce themselves to Georgia. Can our Party really move forward with an unknown statewide candidate in this important election?

John Oxendine is a proven statewide fundraiser. According to the 2006, 31 December reports John Oxendine raised $2,307,854, Nathan Deal $1,107,572, Karen Handel $1,090,603, and Eric Johnson $769,975. John Oxendine raised $100,000 for the John McCain campaign and the Georgia Republican Party in 2008. We need a candidate who has proven they can raise the money necessary to win in November that candidate is John Oxendine.

To date, every independent poll has John Oxendine as the only Republican candidate for Governor who polls ahead of every Democrat. In the most recent poll by a left of center organization, the polled John Oxendine as the only GOP candidate defeating all the Democrat potential nominees (including former Governor Roy Barnes). This same poll has Karen Handel losing to all the potential Democrat nominees.

John Oxendine has almost 16 years of executive management in state government and over 7 years of management the private sector. Yes, one of our opponents claims she is the only candidate with private sector experience but her facts are about as accurate as her policies are conservative – not very.

The Polls:

Facts are stubborn things.

The fact is every single poll that has been released has John Oxendine in the lead among announced candidates. The latest poll by Democrat leaning Daily Kos has John Oxendine defeating every Democrat (including Roy Barnes) and Karen Handel losing to every Democrat (including Roy Barnes). All the polls show the other candidates in single digits in statewide name ID and approval ratings.

The fact is Karen Handel has not demonstrated that she would defeat any Democrat in the November election and her negatives are higher than her positives on statewide approval ratings.

The fact is both Eric Johnson and Nathan Deal will have to raise millions of valuable campaign dollars (in this stressed economy) just to mount a professional campaign to introduce themselves both to GOP Primary voters and General election voters.

The fact is our Party needs a proven statewide vote winner, with high approval ratings, who poll after poll demonstrates he can defeat all the Democrat candidates. That person is John Oxendine.

What is at stake:

The next Governor will deal with redistricting. Every single Republican seat at both the Federal and State level are at risk if we lose the Governor’s Mansion. Can you imagine Roy Barnes and company with the big seat at that table?

The next Governor will deal with hundreds of millions of Federal dollars relating to many projects and issues. Can you imagine Roy Barnes and company in charge of spending that money? Do you think any Republican county would see even one dollar?

The next Governor will deal with critical issues such as, transportation, water, education, and jobs. Can you imagine Roy Barnes and company making these important decisions? They think MARTA is the answer to transportation, the animals in Florida really do deserve our water, the National Education Association really does know how best to educate your child, and the answer to jobs is to fund a Federal government jobs program in downtown Atlanta.

The issues are too important to risk control of state government to a nominee who is not a proven grassroots, Ronald Reagan conservative with statewide executive management and who can work with both the House and Senate on behalf of the taxpayers.

The one candidate the Georgia GOP has that unites our Party, fights for our conservative values, and actually defeats Democrats in the General Election is John Oxendine.

The Bottom-line:

The Georgia Republican Party cannot take the general election for granted. Our party and the conservative movement face a serious decision in this Primary. Are we going to nominate a proven statewide vote winner, with the strong name ID, with the highest approval ratings in the state, and who has demonstrated he is a true conservative – John Oxendine? Or, are we going to nominate a person who only announced after Casey dropped out of the race and decided that Georgia needed them to run or the Governor’s chosen one?

Team Oxendine will run our positive, issues-oriented, grassroots campaign. Our opponents will do what they need to do and define themselves. We look forward to a positive campaign and uniting the Party for victory in November of 2010.

John Oxendine

Governor 2010