When the concept of SEO first hit the online marketing radar, the strategy was pretty simple: saturate your content with critical keywords and you’d float to the top of the results lists on all thenmajor search engines. The approach was initially successful, but it didn’t take long before search management teams caught on and developed programs to filter those keyword-rich sites out of the search results.
Website developers were now challenged to devise multilevel search strategies that would restore their clients to the top of the heap without raising the red flag of search string manipulation. This was done through keyword tags that are incorporated into the site’s electronic markers, opening the door to a new level of electronic media professional: the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Matrix) specialist.
These professionals provide a critical service to website designers, undertaking hours of research including search string analysis, competitor keyword tag comparison and results rankings. From this basic foundation they build layers of data that tie to site content and service details. When first implementing SEO strategies, many sites experience a drop-off in overall site traffic, which disappoints many new clients. But the effectiveness of the strategy is proven by its ability to attract buyers rather than lookie-loos.
SEO professionals are typically directed by the client to ensure that their site will rank in the top 5% or top 20-search results for their specific business demographic. While that might seem a successful strategy on the surface, it is virtually impossible for anyone to guarantee results. Search rankings are a moving target as the rankings vary daily – and sometimes hourly – based upon the consumer trends and the effectiveness of sites to retain visitors and close the sale. Search engines monitor click rates and the time each visitor spends on different sites, adjusting search rankings by traffic trends.
If visitors to your site ascertain that they can’t easily find what they’re looking for from your landing page, they’ll likely close the window and go on to the next intriguing result. For this reason, it is critical that your SEO tagging represents the actual content or service offered by your site. And remember: it takes time to build any successful business. Likewise, it takes time to build the steady and dependable traffic flow of hard-line buyers to your online e-business.
For this reason, it is critical to monitor other trends such as the number of visitors navigating your site, the number of visitors that are filling out electronic forms requesting quotes or feedback, the number of site sales and the feedback provided by site visitors. It is also important to quantify the length of time it takes to convert a first-time visitor into a sale.
Keyword development strategies are generally multi-layered approaches to define a unique footprint for a particular site. For instance, under the umbrella term “Sign Manufacturer” falls two, three or more tiers of keyword terms or search strings that will drive search traffic to specific pages within the site. “US Sign Manufacturers,” “US Sign Designers” and “North American Sign Installers” would each drive traffic to the landing page that sums up the history and experience of the firm with intriguing links to category-specific information.
The next layer of search terms is designed to drive visitors to areas of the site that are designed to answer commonly asked questions and capture their personal information. Here, personal interest inquiries could include “LED Signs,” “Institutional Sign Options” and “Directional Signs,” for example. It is critical to tie feedback, question and order options to every page within the site to ensure that even the most time-strapped visitor can quickly connect with sales staff who can close the sale. The sales team is well advised to work from a script designed to capture critical personal information that will be used to improve site functionality and rankings. Questions might be broad reaching, such as “What brought you to our site?” or direct: “What other sites did you visit?”
In defining these layers and specific search terms, the SEO professional researches the effectiveness of each of the words or terms in returning specific results. They then define the hierarchy of the terms to structure the hidden tags in order of importance. It’s a labor-intensive process that requires hours of quantifying and qualifying the effectiveness of individual search terms. The results are tabulated and rated, then reviewed with the client to ensure that the final selection of tags will return the desired volume of sales.
Calls to Action are an aspect of electronic marketing activity that bridge the gap between traditional advertising strategies and e-businesses. These are the “buy it now” strategies that inspire a visceral reaction in the consumer … offering them a deal that they simply cannot resist. It is difficult to meld these action-items into the SEO or SEM tags as they are fluid and likely to change as opportunities develop. For instance, when the e-business obtains a close-out deal on a hot item, they are well advised to post it as a special “buy it now” product. But SEO professionals must monitor the effectiveness of these strategies to determine whether they are enhancing or diluting the efficiency of the site.
Are visitors price-shopping for a specific product? If so, are they enticed to “buy up” by following a sales strategy that points the consumer to a slightly better product at a competitive price? Once you have the visitor at your site, the specific flow of that traffic through your site is indicative of whether your site is delivering on all levels. If site visitors are still not clicking through or contacting the business through online questionnaires or feedback opportunities, the site needs tweaking.
Some sites will never be top performers and it’s the job of the SEO professional to provide that quantifiable feedback to the customer. A small startup may be unable to compete with the larger firms that offer a greater mix of products, free shipping and other value-added options to the consumer. These smaller sites still have potential, but they are unlikely to ever achieve and sustain highly rated search engine results placement. At this point the SEO must put on their marketing hat and counsel their client about alternative strategies that will improve their results and grow their business over time.
Even these bare-bones sites can produce valuable returns, however, if the SEO professional has done their homework and devised a keyword matrix that returns valuable traffic. In general, one strives to achieve a .5% traffic sales return, so for every 1,000 visitors they could expect to close five product sales.
Ongoing SEO site audits provide key markers that allow the SEO professional to counsel their client on trends in the market and strategies that should be incorporated to improve their sell-through rates. Partnering with other sites, such as Click-Bank and Google, employing ad strategies and periodic freshening of content all work together to refine the functionality of the site and improve its search rankings. A “dead site” that implemented all the right tools in its original design will slide down the search results list if it isn’t managed and maintained.
Each page within the site must be indexed and keyword tagged to ensure its presence in the electronic search realm. The site designer identifies the primary target landing pages designed to return hard sales results, then utilizes the supporting pages to establish and heighten the visitor perception of the professional quality of the firm. 65% of sales are driven by visual impact: splashy graphics, pleasing design and well-written content that captures the interest of the average consumer. The other 35% of sales are relationship driven. The supporting pages are designed to create a connection to this level of consumer … to reinforce the durability and commitment of the company in a way that will reassure the consumer that the business will be there to serve their needs over the long haul.
Many clients balk when it comes to making the additional investment in SEO keyword research and site tagging, but this is a critical element that truly drives the success of the site. SEO and SEM trends must be periodically revisited to ensure that the site continues to perform effectively as competitors respond to trends and model their own sites after their most successful competitors. Educate your clients about the intricacies of keyword strategies and you’ll likely develop a client for life.
May 21st, 2009
Cars need tune ups and airplanes go into the hanger to get optimized for the next flight. If you are a web owner that has the “upload it and leave it” mentality, consider adding a weekly or monthly tune up to your website. Ten to Fifteen minutes here and there can only do one thing–make you more successful.
1. Start small with the meta information.
a. Examine your Title meta tag on each page. Do they describe the page contents? Do they contain the right keywords to drive traffic to that page? Is at least one part of the Title geo-specific? Example, “Attorney, Los Angeles, CA” and not just “Attorney” or “Lawyer” or “My Law Firm.”b. Examine your Description meta tag. Make sure that each page, if it is at all possible, has a different meta tag description. Google does not like repeated information.
2. Check your links.Use a free online program to make sure you don’t have any broken links. Go to your favorite search engine and type in “free link checker” and use one that looks good to you.
3. Do a little marketing.Go to your favorite search engine and search for something you do or sell. Let’s say you are a dentist. Perform two different kinds of searches, global and geo-specific.Example: 1. “dentist,” global and 2. “dentist, (city)”, geo-specific. Examine the backlinks to make sure that you are also on the same business directories as the top ranked websites. You do this quickly using a “backlink checker.” You can easily find one of your choice through a quick search engine search.Steps 1, 2, and 3 can be repeated daily, weekly, monthly–whatever your schedule allows. The next 2 steps go a little deeper into your maintenance plan.
4. Google Analytics.It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s extremely useful. If you aren’t paying an SEO company to handle your website, you should definitely take advantage of this amazing tool.You sign up for it here: http://www.google.com/analytics/
5. Alexa.Alexa monitors traffic levels for websites. While arguably a flawed system, it is still used as a measuring stick to gauge your website.
March 13th, 2009
One of the ways search engines determine site ranking is to sort through your online content and rank the site based on repeated keywords or phrases.
Content rich websites have found success in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. While I highly recommend this strategy there is another viewpoint that is less dependent on content for exposure for site rankings.
Some webmasters are strong proponents of non-content SEO strategies. These technical experts rely very heavily on meta-title and other html or code-based SEO strategies for sites that are less content oriented.
Purists on both sides of the argument will say their approach is far superior to the other.
For the content sites they can judge their success through keyword strategies that are observable in long-term site rankings.
For the non-content sites they can observe keywords or phrases being used to determine site rankings from a more technical source in behind-the-scenes code.
So, which is the better approach?
Both.
This really is a matter of being able to have your cake and eat it too. You can maximize SEO strategies in the coding on your site while infusing your website with knowledge based original content.
The combination of these two strategies can work with greater efficiency than either strategy alone.
If you are ill equipped to manage coding then you should work tirelessly to incorporate knowledge based articles into your website.
The standard negative reply to this concept is when a business is primarily selling a product or service and do not feel original content really works with their online store.
If, for instance, your business sells blocks of gourmet cheese you could incorporate original articles on the various cheese offerings, their taste and texture and the history behind each cheese type. You could incorporate articles that provide recipes that include the cheese types you provide.
Hopefully you get the idea, by adding knowledge-based articles you can assist your site ranking, help your customer and minimize the need for coded SEO strategies until you learn how best to implement the non-content SEO.
There will always be a battle as to which SEO strategy is best, but I will go so far as to say the best strategy will be the one that includes both concepts to the best of the web owner’s capabilities.
While some want to make the issue an either/or decision it is really a both/and solution.
However you optimize your site, work to the best of your ability to implement strategies that work for you long-term.
Too many strategies are short-term props that help you very little in the grand scheme of the life of your website.
February 11th, 2009
Google has been providing tips for optimizing AdSense ads to enhance their performance. The company has provided a three-part video series on this subject -
The key items to note in this final video is that when positioning your AdSense ads for performance:
- Ad units placed at the bottom of the page don’t perform as well.
- Place Your Ads Where Users Will See Them.
- Ad Units Perform better when they are placed above the fold.
February 7th, 2009
I have seen rankings come literally within hours. It is very rare but it happens. In one specific example a blog post was put up on a very specific niche topic that had almost no coverage online. Google coincidently spidered the blog within an hour or so of posting, and within an hour from that, the blog post was #1 in the organic results for the most relevant phrase. The site saw a giant spike in traffic for the next couple days while the phrase was a hot topic. (The search phrase was very specific and localized: “election results”). This shows that for a site with an established link base, and a good reputation in Google, rankings can sometimes come extremely quickly.
Regardless of industry and target phrases, you will have to wait for your search results. Just how long you will wait varies on far too many factors to give a solid number, but expect to wait for results anywhere from a few days to several years. It’s the best time frame I can give without knowing specific details of your site and project.
February 6th, 2009
In the session “SEO Tools” the panel discussed a variety of tools that can be used for site optimization.
(Coverage of SES Chicago continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)
Bob Briski, Software Marketing Consultant, Raybeam, recommended the following tools:
Yahoo! Pipes
Google Analytics
Yahoo Site Explorer
Briski said “You don’t need a developer, you can do it all yourself.” Integrate search analytics, simplify your life-and make money.
Horst Joepen, CEO, Searchmetrics, said a good SEO job needs the following:
Brain
Experience
Content
Buzz - links
A minimum of 10 different tools to gather data and control effectiveness
Joepen says you must know what is screwed up on a site from a search engine’s view.
Data you must have:
Page Rank
Backlinks
Number of indexed pages
Keyword rankings
Keyword phrase/popularity
Google Analytics will simplify SEO. You need integrated SEO tools.
Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc., talked about SEO tools for SEO marketers in 2009.
What Clay sees in 2009:
2009 will bring behavior based search impact
2009 will bring intent-based search impact
2009 will bring local search impact
2009 will bring universal search impact
2009 will mean Ranking is dead
His tools: Browser Toolbar
It’s free works in IE and Firefox Reports statistics about pages in search results Performs searches beyond 1 engine Clay said, ” The difference between data and wisdom is what you can apply to your business and make it work for you.”
December 11th, 2008
Optimizing a blog is one of the absolute best ways to capture Google’s most coveted top spots very quickly. You can hit number 1 on Google in a matter of days. Here’s how you do it…
a.) First, find a good blogging tool. There are plenty out there. I use WordPress. I originally picked it because it was so quick and easy to setup. And I soon realized the platform does 50% of SEO by its very nature. It’s free and you can get thousands of themes, to fit any style you wish, also for free.
b.) Next, make sure your hosting provider can support your blog. I’ve never seen one that can’t. If you are starting fresh, do a Google search for “WordPress blog hosting” and you’ll find great packages that only cost $25 for a whole year. Just avoid the freebie hosts since you are almost guaranteed to be sharing server space (and likely an IP range) with sites banned by Google, which can cost you your ranking.
c.) Once your blog app is installed, turn on the “permalink” option from the control panel. This ensures each posting you enter will also get its own URL. And finally, start entering postings of 200 words or more, focusing on only one or two keywords per post. Try to begin each post title with the primary keyword for that topic.
d.) To best optimize your keywords and content follow the steps outlined in SEO cbt’s release “Google Domination”. This is a free computer based training module for SEO do it yourselfers that works extremely well. It was not written specifically for blogs but all the information is perfectly suited to them.
Inside Tip: Register your domain name for a five year period or longer. Just extend it if needed. Google has been known to check “whois” records and assumes the longer the domain is registered in advance, the more “real” the site is.
May 24th, 2008
Here, I am making an attempt to discuss and clear the top 10 organic SEO myths:
Organic SEO Myth 1: You must submit your website URL to search engines. Once upon a time, this could have been the “in” thing. But since the past 5-6 years it has become unnecessary.
Organic SEO Myth 2: In order to get better ranking, you absolutely need a Google Sitemap. It’s partially correct. However, if you have built your site properly (ensured its crawler-friendly) you don’t require a Google Sitemap. That being said, having one won’t hurt you and you can even use other Webmaster Central tools offered by Google, but this doesn’t guarantee higher ranking.
Organic SEO Myth 3: For higher rankings, update your website regularly. Regular updating of your content pages may certainly increase the crawl rate for search engines, but not your website rankings. Only update your website content if it is necessary and not because search engines will like it any better. As a matter of fact, the highest ranked websites on Google are those that haven’t been updated in years!
Organic SEO Myth 4: PPC (pay per click) ads can help or hurt rankings. What amuses me most is that many people believe that participating in Google AdWords campaigns will hurt their organic SEO ranking, while many others believe that PPC will spike the traffic and up the ranking. All I can say is that neither of this is true!
Organic SEO Myth 5: Not following guidelines on Google will ban your website. Google’s guidelines are common sense but not mandatory. It’s advisable to read them, however just don’t do anything purely for search engines and you’ll be fine.
Organic SEO Myth 6: Buying links can lead to banning of your website. It is partially true again. Google doesn’t like to count paid links as votes for a website page. Mostly Google is unable to find out if the links are paid for, but even if it does, it won’t count the links. Google won’t ban your website in any case. A quick update - Google has made it easier to report paid links in sites that are unrelated to your site. Though the reasoning is yet unclear and best practice should tell you don’t buy links in unrelated sites to your theme.
Organic SEO Myth 7: Header tags or H1 should be used to ensure high ranking. There is no evidence to prove this. However, this is one of the most common myths. You can reach top Google positioning without H1 but they certainly don’t hurt so use H tags correctly.
Organic SEO Myth 8: Meta keywords tag need to be used on your page. The fact is that a Meta keyword tag was introduced to use keywords that are NOT on the site page already! However, this tag is ignored by Google in any case.
Organic SEO Myth 9: The SEO copy should be 250 words in length. 250 words is not really an optimal number nor is it specific for SEO rankings. Easily, 250 words allows one to write good marketing copy and
Organic SEO Myth 10: Your pages should be optimized for the long tail keywords. This is not true. Nowadays, long-tail keyword phrases are no longer effective as not many pages use them and not many people search using long tails. You can include these keywords in blogs or even an article, but that is not really optimization.
Remember don’t go spreading any SEO myths that you believe may be true. Test it yourself several times on different websites before reaching any conclusion as there are other factors involved as well.
April 11th, 2008
No Longer Part Of Yahoo! 360
The Yahoo Answers Blog is no longer a part of Yahoo 360.
Yahoo says it has “always dreamed of a home for the blog that was more a part of the Yahoo! Answers community.” The new address is www.yanswersblog.com. Yahoo says its Answers blog is a little cleaner and has useful features to improve the connection with Yahoo Answers.
The blog team describes some of the changes that users will notice. “On the upper right of the page, you’ll see a link to Yahoo! Answers as well as tools for finding information. The Search box gives you three places to look in: Blog, Web, or Answers.”
“If you still don’t find what you need, you can post a question directly to Answers from the box below Search. You’ll also find subscription links for My Yahoo! and RSS feeds, blogs we like, and recent readers from the MyBlogLog community.”
The Yahoo Answers Blog also has a tab at the top of the page where users can find all the posts from Ask Mike. There is a feedback tab that allows users to contact the blog team to report bugs, abuse or, make suggestions.
Under each post user can comment and add the post to del.icio.us, or go directly to Yahoo Answers.
By Mike Sachoff
February 1st, 2008