Before I was inundated with the responsibilities of running a company and managing a few hundred emails a day, I used to spend a lot of time testing theories about how the search engines handled certain elements on a site or page. I'd test the engines to find answers to questions like:
Does a keyword perform better or worse if it's higher up in the code of a page? (better)
What's better, bold or strong tags? (used to be strong, now they appear equal)
Does a link with exact anchor text for a query perform better than one that has other words in the anchor text? (exact appears to be better)
NOTE: My tests on these are more than a year old, so things may have changed.
Obviously, to test the answers to questions like these, you need a very tightly controlled environment, and even then, your tests might reveal answers, but not the relative levels of impact. Sure, having a keyword on a page in strong tags is better than not, but by how much? If one link from the crappiest PR1 page gives more of a boost, is it really worthwhile?
I've talked about this testing phenomenon in the past in a Sphinn thread, about whether nofollow sculpting has any impact (I've copied the relevant bit below):
Step 1: Register a new domain (preferably one with a domain name that has no results in Google - like yorkfabuzapeloh.com or such)
Step 2: Link to that domain's homepage from some social media profiles or pages you control (but make sure they're very obscure and hard to find so no one else discovers and links to it - this is pretty easy to do)
Step 3: Create 6 pages on the site, the homepage (A) with two links to pages (B) and (C), pages (D) and (E) - both linked to by page (B) - and page (F) linked to from page (C). It's important to make sure that (B) is the first link on the homepage (A) and (C) is the second link.
Step 4: Target a nonsense keyword on pages (D) and (F), which are linked to by pages (B) and (C) respectively.
Step 5: Wait until Google has indexed all the pages (usually only a couple days if you link to them from a few sources), then run a search for the nonsense keyword you targeted on (D) and (F). Page (F) will rank first, because there's more link juice pointing to it than to (D), as (D) is only getting half the link weight provided by page (B) while (D) is getting all of (C)'s link weight.
Step 6: Add a nofollow to the link from page (B) to page (E), which we haven't done anything with until now. Wait until Google respiders, then check the results again. (D) should now be ranking in front of (F), because it's receiving the same link weight as (F) but the original link from the homepage (A) to (B) is higher up on the page, which gives it a tiny bit more weight.
We've replicated this experiment as have several others, and certainly any global link weighting system similar to the original PageRank formula would lead you to this conclusion as well.
And I used another test we've performed internally at last week's SEMpdx conference, which created a bit of confusion, and is, ultimately, the reason for this blog post.
Directly following my keynote, a question was asked in which link placement on a page became relevant. I commented that it was important to note that only the first anchor text to a given target page would be counted by Google (we haven't yet tested Yahoo!/MSN), but there were a great number of audience members who came up to me during the day asking for clarification -- even Rebecca! And thus, even though we usually keep this kind of information internal (Jane's planning to release a PRO guide with lots of these tests later this year), I figured the beans had already been spilled, so it's my responsibility to clean up the mess.
Monday, April 7, 2008
SUO: Search and User Optimization
Being biased towards usability, I have to admit that I've always been a little skeptical about the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Of course, a lot of this skepticism goes back to having worked in the internet industry since the mid-90's. In the pre-Google days, SEO was little more than an arms race, a contest to see who could trick the search engines most effectively for the top spot. Claims of getting people to the top of search results for $19.95 were common, and many of these tricks, like keyword-loading a page, often led to lousy content and all but unusable sites.
Times have changed, though, and I've been rediscovering the world of search engine optimization and marketing over the past six months. It started when I attended the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago last winter. In addition to being one of the most educational events I've been to in quite a while, SES really helped me to see that the search engines have matured. Search spiders are being built to mimic human link-following, and crude measures of importance, like how many times a keyword appears on a page, are being replaced by complex algorithms that attempt to measure popularity, usefulness and authority.
I've also been surprised to discover how helpful the SEO community has become, with more and more people taking a holistic approach to web design and willing to share information with other professionals. Armed with some of my newfound search knowledge, I set to work using it on a major client redesign, and quickly discovered something that will change the way I approach website development: search engine optimization best practices have come to share a lot in common with usability best practices.
At the end of the day, both search engines and users want sites that are well-organized, rich in content, and easy to navigate. These days, both processes also tend to be evolutionary. The old worlds of SEO and usability often meant arriving at the end of the development process and making a laundry list of flaws. By it's very definition, though, "optimization" refers to a process of taking something that may or may not already be good and constantly working to make it better.
So, in that spirit, I propose a new term: SUO, Search & User Optimization. Designing sites for search engines and users is a process that needs to happen early and often, constantly optimizing websites to reach the right people and deliver what they want. In many ways, too, search is the begining of any site's user experience, and understanding how your site is represented on search engines and reaches search users is an integral part of good usability.
Times have changed, though, and I've been rediscovering the world of search engine optimization and marketing over the past six months. It started when I attended the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago last winter. In addition to being one of the most educational events I've been to in quite a while, SES really helped me to see that the search engines have matured. Search spiders are being built to mimic human link-following, and crude measures of importance, like how many times a keyword appears on a page, are being replaced by complex algorithms that attempt to measure popularity, usefulness and authority.
I've also been surprised to discover how helpful the SEO community has become, with more and more people taking a holistic approach to web design and willing to share information with other professionals. Armed with some of my newfound search knowledge, I set to work using it on a major client redesign, and quickly discovered something that will change the way I approach website development: search engine optimization best practices have come to share a lot in common with usability best practices.
At the end of the day, both search engines and users want sites that are well-organized, rich in content, and easy to navigate. These days, both processes also tend to be evolutionary. The old worlds of SEO and usability often meant arriving at the end of the development process and making a laundry list of flaws. By it's very definition, though, "optimization" refers to a process of taking something that may or may not already be good and constantly working to make it better.
So, in that spirit, I propose a new term: SUO, Search & User Optimization. Designing sites for search engines and users is a process that needs to happen early and often, constantly optimizing websites to reach the right people and deliver what they want. In many ways, too, search is the begining of any site's user experience, and understanding how your site is represented on search engines and reaches search users is an integral part of good usability.
Usability and SEO. Which comes First?
There is an incredibly strong link between Usability and SEO. First, you have to start with the knowledge that the business of the search engines is enhanced by having the most relevant results in their index (the ones that do in fact answer the user's question quickly), and this means that usability matters to them. Therefore it is in their strategic interest to develop an understanding of a site's usability.
There are many ways that the search engines can collect basic usability data. For example, do users bookmark your site at major sites such as del.icio.us? Do you have a high bounce rate (people who view only one page, or who don't stay long on the site)? These are just a couple of basic things that a search engine can look at to measure usability.
Second, usabilty is a key factor in driving the acquisition of high value links. Trying to get a major university or a government site to link to yours? What do they see when they come to the page you are trying to get them to link to? Do they understand it right away? Or does it confuse them?
At an architectural level, having a clean site hierarchy and an easily understood navigation structure also benefits both usability and SEO. This means things like a logically thought through hierarchy that matches up with the nature of the content you are providing in an easy to understand way. It means having a consistent global navigation structure, and a breadcrumb bar.
There are many great resources on usability. For example, there is Jakob Nielsen's usetit.com and Kim Krause Berg's Cre8PC that delve into the specifics of good usability then I will attempt to do here.
What I want to emphasize here is one key point: Usability comes first, and SEO comes second. Don't get me wrong, I am not short selling SEO here. I think it's incredibly important (well, OK, it's a key part of how I make my living). But when you are looking at a new site design, or are re-evaluating an existing site, you need to start with some basic questions. Here are some examples:
What is the purpose of the site? There are many good answers to this, such as generate leads, sell products, reduce support costs, or sell advertising. Understanding the answer to this question is where it all starts. Fulfilling this purpose can be thought of as a conversion.
What types of visitors do you want to attract to the site? Who are the people you can bring to your site that might convert, either in the short term or the long term? For many sites, there are many distinct groups of visitors. They can be divided into groups such as repeat visitors and first time visitors, visitors from different geographies, shoppers and researchers, etc.
For each group of visitors, think about the types of information and products and services they want to see on your site. What would make it useful to them? What are their goals, and how can you help them meet them?
For each group of visitors, now that you know what they are looking for, what will their experience be like when they arrive at your site? Will they know where to find what they are looking for? Or will it they arrive at your site, be one click away from converting, and simply leave because they don't see what they are looking for?
These are some of the most basic questions that every site owner needs to consider. Advanced companies do usability design and analysis, including live usablity testing with real users on their sites. Some companies get more sophisticated still, and incorporate the use of eye tracking gear, to really get down to the nitty gritty details of how people see their web pages.
While you may not be in a position to take your pursuit of usability quite that far (although you should if you can), you need to be thinking about it. Getting tons of search engine visitors and a low rate of conversion will not help you much. In addition, if the search engines have their way, a low rate of conversions (then sites in comparable markets) will also lead them to lower the amount of traffic they send you.
There are many ways that the search engines can collect basic usability data. For example, do users bookmark your site at major sites such as del.icio.us? Do you have a high bounce rate (people who view only one page, or who don't stay long on the site)? These are just a couple of basic things that a search engine can look at to measure usability.
Second, usabilty is a key factor in driving the acquisition of high value links. Trying to get a major university or a government site to link to yours? What do they see when they come to the page you are trying to get them to link to? Do they understand it right away? Or does it confuse them?
At an architectural level, having a clean site hierarchy and an easily understood navigation structure also benefits both usability and SEO. This means things like a logically thought through hierarchy that matches up with the nature of the content you are providing in an easy to understand way. It means having a consistent global navigation structure, and a breadcrumb bar.
There are many great resources on usability. For example, there is Jakob Nielsen's usetit.com and Kim Krause Berg's Cre8PC that delve into the specifics of good usability then I will attempt to do here.
What I want to emphasize here is one key point: Usability comes first, and SEO comes second. Don't get me wrong, I am not short selling SEO here. I think it's incredibly important (well, OK, it's a key part of how I make my living). But when you are looking at a new site design, or are re-evaluating an existing site, you need to start with some basic questions. Here are some examples:
What is the purpose of the site? There are many good answers to this, such as generate leads, sell products, reduce support costs, or sell advertising. Understanding the answer to this question is where it all starts. Fulfilling this purpose can be thought of as a conversion.
What types of visitors do you want to attract to the site? Who are the people you can bring to your site that might convert, either in the short term or the long term? For many sites, there are many distinct groups of visitors. They can be divided into groups such as repeat visitors and first time visitors, visitors from different geographies, shoppers and researchers, etc.
For each group of visitors, think about the types of information and products and services they want to see on your site. What would make it useful to them? What are their goals, and how can you help them meet them?
For each group of visitors, now that you know what they are looking for, what will their experience be like when they arrive at your site? Will they know where to find what they are looking for? Or will it they arrive at your site, be one click away from converting, and simply leave because they don't see what they are looking for?
These are some of the most basic questions that every site owner needs to consider. Advanced companies do usability design and analysis, including live usablity testing with real users on their sites. Some companies get more sophisticated still, and incorporate the use of eye tracking gear, to really get down to the nitty gritty details of how people see their web pages.
While you may not be in a position to take your pursuit of usability quite that far (although you should if you can), you need to be thinking about it. Getting tons of search engine visitors and a low rate of conversion will not help you much. In addition, if the search engines have their way, a low rate of conversions (then sites in comparable markets) will also lead them to lower the amount of traffic they send you.
25 Ways To Improve Your Site Today
Yes, the title may look like this post should be on an amateur blog and that it will be full of references to clip art and animated gifs, but this is serious. I’ve compiled a list of what I think are 25 ways to improve your website in as little time as possible. All can be done in a matter of minutes. Now, a website is hard work and usually there are no quick fixes but this list should provide you with a few pointers to make some updates today. If you like, it can also be used as a basis for a quality check document.
Usability/Accessibility
Because it matters. If people can’t use your site, they won’t stay.
Navigation: Ensure that your navigation is easy to use and consistent. You may be able to use it, but could a newcomer find the information they desire?
Search: If you don’t have a search box, then why not? Sometimes navigation isn’t enough. It may not be a 5 minute job to add a custom search facility, but it is extremely quick to add a third party search like Google’s.
Click here: Why? Change this phrase everywhere on your site. It doesn’t make sense out of context. The user has to read the whole paragraph (which they probably won’t) to understand why they should click there. Consider phrases like “Download the profit/loss graph” or “Listen to the podcast entitled food for thought.”
Title & Alt Attributes: Use them how they are supposed to be used. If you haven’t used any at all, then a quick fix will be to start adding them to navigation and other elements on every page.
General: If you’ve got any code snippets that could annoy the user, like resizing browser windows or opening new pages in a new window, then remove them. Just because you like something a particular way, your users may not. Don’t take over their desktop.
Search Engine Optimisation - SEO
Because you want to be found. (On-page tips only here)
Titles: Add consistent, relevant but different titles (title tag) to every page in your site. If you already have titles, check that they are short and describe the content of the page.
Link around: Internal links to your pages (I’m thinking from the body copy here) are just as important as external links. Besides the usability gain, you have the unique opportunity of specifying your link and title text.
Strengthen keywords: Probably the quickest thing you can do. Highlight some keywords and phrases and add a strong tag (bold) around them. This shouldn’t be overused but can provide some positive results if used sparingly.
Headers: The correct use of headers (in a semantic, logical manner) can produce fantastic results. The H1 tag is the most important - try using some keywords in there.
Overkill: It seems whenever I speak to someone about SEO and give them some tips, they go way overboard. This can really ruin all the hard work you’ve done for the user. So remember, optimise with the user in mind. And stay away from dodgy SEO stuff - every time you use black-hat SEO, a kitten steps on broken glass.
Design/Development Process
Design is our passion. Let it show.
Images: By all means create beautiful images, but don’t forget to optimise them for the web. You may have a quick connection - not everybody does.
Design comes from scratch(pad): Don’t necessarily fire up your graphics editor before thinking about the design. It can only take 10 minutes to draw (you know - pencil and paper) various layouts and wireframe the design. Doing this will make you think more about placement of elements and less about the aesthetics.
Contrast/Text-size: Ensure that contrast levels and text sizes are ‘acceptable’ - There are no golden figures (although recommendations are available) to aim for but at least check with other people using different setups. Just because you have perfect 20:20 vision doesn’t mean that anyone can read your site.
Consistency: There’s nothing worse (OK - an exaggeration, yes) than a website that doesn’t function consistently. A user can find it hard enough to learn how a website is put together without having to remember all the little quirks and foibles on your site.
Testing: Check (or get others to check) the site under as many conditions as possible. Try to do this every time the site has a significant update. It’s worth it as it only takes a minute or two.
Content
That’s why people visit the site.
Text/Whitespace: There’s a big trap that often people fall into. Whitespace. How many times have you heard “we need to fill that space and cram the text in a bit more” ? More text in a single area isn’t a good thing. It can make it harder and less enjoyable to read the content. It you had a shop would you cram as many products in as possible? No. You’d let them have space so they get noticed. Do the same with your text.
Write for your audience: Can people understand your text? Think about your audience and reword those confusing sentences.
Corporate Boasting: Which is more useful ~ “We provide 200 megaunits of wobble-sprockets to our worldwide, global markets” ~ or ~ “We can provide a wobble-sprocket to you anywhere in the world.” Speak to the reader and engage them. Don’t waffle.
Use interest: If someone has read an article or item of content, then it is fair to assume that they were interested. Instead of leaving them high-and-dry after an article, point them somewhere related, whether it be another article or a product perhaps.
Objectives: When writing content, make a little mental note of what your goal is for the page (e.g. encourage registration) and try to guess what the users goal is (e.g. to get at information.) Match the two (e.g. “to find this information simply sign up”) and you’re golden.
Off-Site
Because it’s not all about you.
Hang out: For reasons surrounding traffic and respect. Go to forums, blogs and portals within your niche and hang out. Offer advice, link up with people and gain respect. Doing this for 10 minutes a day will improve your image and lead to quality, niche-lead traffic. A bonus. Oh, and don’t spam your community.
Learn: As well as handing out advice, listen. Whether it be listening to colleagues, competition or potential clients you are bound to learn an awful lot just by witnessing other people’s actions.
Encourage viral promotion: Not particularly in a gimmicky-email-newsletter fashion (that takes budget and time) but in a social fashion. Tell your friends and colleagues (and clients if relevant) something unique about you, your company or website and chances are they’ll pass it on. 5 minutes of blabbering could lead to heaps of traffic.
Be yourself: When interacting online, don’t conform to internet stereotypes - just be yourself. Doing this will mean that you are natural when interacting online and more likely to take a similar approach as you would offline. So, take your offline business ways online.
Spam: As in don’t spam. Every time you spam, you are adding disrespect to your own company/site. It’s the real-world equivalent of pushing a leaflet into a potential customer’s mouth.
And there we go. I hope this list is useful and has shown you how easy it is to improve various aspects of your website and its marketing. This isn’t exhaustive by any means - as I said earlier it takes effort and time to really get your site near-perfect. Evolution is the key: tweak, feedback, measure and repeat. Oh, and before you go looking, no, I don’t always practice what I preach!
Usability/Accessibility
Because it matters. If people can’t use your site, they won’t stay.
Navigation: Ensure that your navigation is easy to use and consistent. You may be able to use it, but could a newcomer find the information they desire?
Search: If you don’t have a search box, then why not? Sometimes navigation isn’t enough. It may not be a 5 minute job to add a custom search facility, but it is extremely quick to add a third party search like Google’s.
Click here: Why? Change this phrase everywhere on your site. It doesn’t make sense out of context. The user has to read the whole paragraph (which they probably won’t) to understand why they should click there. Consider phrases like “Download the profit/loss graph” or “Listen to the podcast entitled food for thought.”
Title & Alt Attributes: Use them how they are supposed to be used. If you haven’t used any at all, then a quick fix will be to start adding them to navigation and other elements on every page.
General: If you’ve got any code snippets that could annoy the user, like resizing browser windows or opening new pages in a new window, then remove them. Just because you like something a particular way, your users may not. Don’t take over their desktop.
Search Engine Optimisation - SEO
Because you want to be found. (On-page tips only here)
Titles: Add consistent, relevant but different titles (title tag) to every page in your site. If you already have titles, check that they are short and describe the content of the page.
Link around: Internal links to your pages (I’m thinking from the body copy here) are just as important as external links. Besides the usability gain, you have the unique opportunity of specifying your link and title text.
Strengthen keywords: Probably the quickest thing you can do. Highlight some keywords and phrases and add a strong tag (bold) around them. This shouldn’t be overused but can provide some positive results if used sparingly.
Headers: The correct use of headers (in a semantic, logical manner) can produce fantastic results. The H1 tag is the most important - try using some keywords in there.
Overkill: It seems whenever I speak to someone about SEO and give them some tips, they go way overboard. This can really ruin all the hard work you’ve done for the user. So remember, optimise with the user in mind. And stay away from dodgy SEO stuff - every time you use black-hat SEO, a kitten steps on broken glass.
Design/Development Process
Design is our passion. Let it show.
Images: By all means create beautiful images, but don’t forget to optimise them for the web. You may have a quick connection - not everybody does.
Design comes from scratch(pad): Don’t necessarily fire up your graphics editor before thinking about the design. It can only take 10 minutes to draw (you know - pencil and paper) various layouts and wireframe the design. Doing this will make you think more about placement of elements and less about the aesthetics.
Contrast/Text-size: Ensure that contrast levels and text sizes are ‘acceptable’ - There are no golden figures (although recommendations are available) to aim for but at least check with other people using different setups. Just because you have perfect 20:20 vision doesn’t mean that anyone can read your site.
Consistency: There’s nothing worse (OK - an exaggeration, yes) than a website that doesn’t function consistently. A user can find it hard enough to learn how a website is put together without having to remember all the little quirks and foibles on your site.
Testing: Check (or get others to check) the site under as many conditions as possible. Try to do this every time the site has a significant update. It’s worth it as it only takes a minute or two.
Content
That’s why people visit the site.
Text/Whitespace: There’s a big trap that often people fall into. Whitespace. How many times have you heard “we need to fill that space and cram the text in a bit more” ? More text in a single area isn’t a good thing. It can make it harder and less enjoyable to read the content. It you had a shop would you cram as many products in as possible? No. You’d let them have space so they get noticed. Do the same with your text.
Write for your audience: Can people understand your text? Think about your audience and reword those confusing sentences.
Corporate Boasting: Which is more useful ~ “We provide 200 megaunits of wobble-sprockets to our worldwide, global markets” ~ or ~ “We can provide a wobble-sprocket to you anywhere in the world.” Speak to the reader and engage them. Don’t waffle.
Use interest: If someone has read an article or item of content, then it is fair to assume that they were interested. Instead of leaving them high-and-dry after an article, point them somewhere related, whether it be another article or a product perhaps.
Objectives: When writing content, make a little mental note of what your goal is for the page (e.g. encourage registration) and try to guess what the users goal is (e.g. to get at information.) Match the two (e.g. “to find this information simply sign up”) and you’re golden.
Off-Site
Because it’s not all about you.
Hang out: For reasons surrounding traffic and respect. Go to forums, blogs and portals within your niche and hang out. Offer advice, link up with people and gain respect. Doing this for 10 minutes a day will improve your image and lead to quality, niche-lead traffic. A bonus. Oh, and don’t spam your community.
Learn: As well as handing out advice, listen. Whether it be listening to colleagues, competition or potential clients you are bound to learn an awful lot just by witnessing other people’s actions.
Encourage viral promotion: Not particularly in a gimmicky-email-newsletter fashion (that takes budget and time) but in a social fashion. Tell your friends and colleagues (and clients if relevant) something unique about you, your company or website and chances are they’ll pass it on. 5 minutes of blabbering could lead to heaps of traffic.
Be yourself: When interacting online, don’t conform to internet stereotypes - just be yourself. Doing this will mean that you are natural when interacting online and more likely to take a similar approach as you would offline. So, take your offline business ways online.
Spam: As in don’t spam. Every time you spam, you are adding disrespect to your own company/site. It’s the real-world equivalent of pushing a leaflet into a potential customer’s mouth.
And there we go. I hope this list is useful and has shown you how easy it is to improve various aspects of your website and its marketing. This isn’t exhaustive by any means - as I said earlier it takes effort and time to really get your site near-perfect. Evolution is the key: tweak, feedback, measure and repeat. Oh, and before you go looking, no, I don’t always practice what I preach!
Buying Text Links
Buying text links. It's all the rage.
Is it evil? Is it good? Will it help your search engine rankings? Will it get you banned? Will it increase your PageRank? Will it increase your link popularity? Will it bring targeted traffic to your site? Should you do it? Should you hire a broker to do it?
These are the questions on webmasters' and search marketers' minds. What follows is my take on buying text links.
There's nothing wrong with purchasing an ad on a website that links back to your website. Advertising your site is good. Advertising it on popular sites where your target market hangs out is even better. After all, the name of the game is to bring in targeted traffic. Your advertisements on other people's sites are none of the search engines' business and will not get your site banned or penalized. They will not hurt your site in any way. How you market your site is completely up to you, and you don't need to worry about the search engines if you decide to purchase text link ads.
So what's the big deal?
Here's where it gets tricky. A good portion of ads that are bought on websites are not purchased for the targeted traffic they will bring, but as an attempt to artificially inflate the link popularity of the site being advertised. No big news to you, I'm sure, and no big news to the search engines. Since having a popular site can often help with natural search engine rankings, people have been looking for cheap and efficient ways to boost their site's popularity for years.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do -- but so do search engines.
To the search engines, a link is supposed to mean that someone found a site useful and wanted to tell others about it. This may very well have been true at one point in time many, many years ago. But today a link could mean something completely different. A link might be a simple trade between webmasters, or an ad, or even a vote *against* another site. With no way for a search engine to really know the intent of a link, things have really gotten complicated for them.
Ads used to have tracking links so that webmasters could measure their return on investment; however, today's text linkers often prefer to keep the tracking codes off because their web analytics software no longer needs them. And besides, if you're going to buy an ad, you might as well get the possible link popularity credit that comes with it. That's more likely to happen with a plain old, stripped-down href link.
Unfortunately, this is wreaking havoc with search engine algorithms. On the one hand, they know it's not their place to tell people whether they should or should not advertise on other sites -- especially since most of the engines are advertising companies in their own right. On the other hand, without any way to figure out which links are truly a vote for a site, and which are simply a paid ad, the relevancy of the search results for any given keyword phrase can be skewed towards those who are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
The good news for search engines (and I guess the bad news for link brokers) is that most text link ads and the sites that sell them tend to leave noticeable "footprints" behind in the code. It would be no trouble at all for a search engine to do a little digging into what the latest footprints are, seek out all pages that have them, and simply not allow them to pass any link popularity. This is not a penalty, mind you. It would just be a way for the search engines to count only votes and not ads. Your ads would still be worthwhile for the exposure and direct traffic they bring, but not for providing you with link popularity. So although your site wouldn't technically be penalized, its rankings could drop if it was dependent upon the link popularity of paid links.
For those of you who don't believe the search engines can or would do this, you obviously haven't been paying attention over the years. What do you think every major update at Google has been about? They haven't been specifically about purchased link ads, but they have been about finding a subset of pages that all have similar characteristics and no longer allowing them to count the way they used to count towards rankings. Which means every page using the technique in question suddenly finds their rankings have dropped like a rock.
It's not a matter of *if* this will happen with paid text link ads, but *when*. It could be next week, next month, or next year. Regardless of when the engines decide to lower the boom, you can bet we're going to hear a lot of crying in the forums about it! For now, if you're buying text link ads, or have been thinking about it, I wouldn't really worry about it. Just make a mental note to yourself that whatever boost to your rankings they may provide now could vanish at any time. It's no big deal if you're getting real traffic from your ads, or if you're simply using them to jumpstart your SEO campaign. It's going to be a problem only if your livelihood depends on buying or selling text link ads to boost link popularity.
Is it evil? Is it good? Will it help your search engine rankings? Will it get you banned? Will it increase your PageRank? Will it increase your link popularity? Will it bring targeted traffic to your site? Should you do it? Should you hire a broker to do it?
These are the questions on webmasters' and search marketers' minds. What follows is my take on buying text links.
There's nothing wrong with purchasing an ad on a website that links back to your website. Advertising your site is good. Advertising it on popular sites where your target market hangs out is even better. After all, the name of the game is to bring in targeted traffic. Your advertisements on other people's sites are none of the search engines' business and will not get your site banned or penalized. They will not hurt your site in any way. How you market your site is completely up to you, and you don't need to worry about the search engines if you decide to purchase text link ads.
So what's the big deal?
Here's where it gets tricky. A good portion of ads that are bought on websites are not purchased for the targeted traffic they will bring, but as an attempt to artificially inflate the link popularity of the site being advertised. No big news to you, I'm sure, and no big news to the search engines. Since having a popular site can often help with natural search engine rankings, people have been looking for cheap and efficient ways to boost their site's popularity for years.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do -- but so do search engines.
To the search engines, a link is supposed to mean that someone found a site useful and wanted to tell others about it. This may very well have been true at one point in time many, many years ago. But today a link could mean something completely different. A link might be a simple trade between webmasters, or an ad, or even a vote *against* another site. With no way for a search engine to really know the intent of a link, things have really gotten complicated for them.
Ads used to have tracking links so that webmasters could measure their return on investment; however, today's text linkers often prefer to keep the tracking codes off because their web analytics software no longer needs them. And besides, if you're going to buy an ad, you might as well get the possible link popularity credit that comes with it. That's more likely to happen with a plain old, stripped-down href link.
Unfortunately, this is wreaking havoc with search engine algorithms. On the one hand, they know it's not their place to tell people whether they should or should not advertise on other sites -- especially since most of the engines are advertising companies in their own right. On the other hand, without any way to figure out which links are truly a vote for a site, and which are simply a paid ad, the relevancy of the search results for any given keyword phrase can be skewed towards those who are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
The good news for search engines (and I guess the bad news for link brokers) is that most text link ads and the sites that sell them tend to leave noticeable "footprints" behind in the code. It would be no trouble at all for a search engine to do a little digging into what the latest footprints are, seek out all pages that have them, and simply not allow them to pass any link popularity. This is not a penalty, mind you. It would just be a way for the search engines to count only votes and not ads. Your ads would still be worthwhile for the exposure and direct traffic they bring, but not for providing you with link popularity. So although your site wouldn't technically be penalized, its rankings could drop if it was dependent upon the link popularity of paid links.
For those of you who don't believe the search engines can or would do this, you obviously haven't been paying attention over the years. What do you think every major update at Google has been about? They haven't been specifically about purchased link ads, but they have been about finding a subset of pages that all have similar characteristics and no longer allowing them to count the way they used to count towards rankings. Which means every page using the technique in question suddenly finds their rankings have dropped like a rock.
It's not a matter of *if* this will happen with paid text link ads, but *when*. It could be next week, next month, or next year. Regardless of when the engines decide to lower the boom, you can bet we're going to hear a lot of crying in the forums about it! For now, if you're buying text link ads, or have been thinking about it, I wouldn't really worry about it. Just make a mental note to yourself that whatever boost to your rankings they may provide now could vanish at any time. It's no big deal if you're getting real traffic from your ads, or if you're simply using them to jumpstart your SEO campaign. It's going to be a problem only if your livelihood depends on buying or selling text link ads to boost link popularity.
Common Sense Search Engine Optimization
For years, when people thought about search engine optimization, in all likelihood, gateway pages, doorway pages or informational pages probably came to mind. If you're a search engine optimization specialist, you've probably had clients requesting that you create these types of pages for them.
They may believe the following statements to be true:
Every search engine has a different algorithm (formula) to determine the ranking of a Web page, and therefore none of their "regular" pages will rank highly in all of the engines.
Keyword-rich copy that the search engines will like is not text they can visibly put on their site where people can see it, especially not on their front page!
Our site needs to be on the cutting edge and use Flash animation and/or lots of graphics. Since the search engines can't index these very well, I have to use gateway pages.
Business sites need to be on the cutting edge and use Flash animation and/or lots of graphics, and they shouldn't have to change this just to please the search engines.
Although there is a grain of truth to each of the above, let's examine each point in more detail so you'll have some ammunition the next time you get this type of request.
Dealing with Differing Algorithms
Yes, it's true, search engine algorithms are varied and do change. There will always be SEOs who spend many hours poring over search engine results and statistics, trying to figure out each search engine's current formula for high rankings. There have been many software programs written over the years to help crack the algorithms and automatically generate high-ranking pages for each engine.
One of the problems with using this method is that as soon as a new algorithm is in place, these carefully crafted gateway pages will often drop out of sight in the rankings. The new algorithm must be cracked again, and new gateway pages must be created. It's truly a never-ending, time-consuming and expensive process that is very much against the best-practice guidelines put forth by the search engines.
The truth is that even though search engines do have slightly different algorithms (and they do change them at times), basically all engines appreciate the same things that real people look for in a Web site:
A simple, cleanly coded design
Well-thought-out, intuitive navigation
Well-written, descriptive copy
Titles and Meta tags that help identify relevant keyword phrases
Links that accurately describe what can be found at the site.
It's really just common sense. Web sites with the above features don't need to crack algorithms. These sites have the potential to achieve high rankings for many keyword phrases in all major search engines for many years, regardless of ever-changing algorithms. And more importantly, they will likely be a hit with their site visitors.
Writing Keyword-rich Copy
Clients (and even some SEOs) often justify the use of doorways and gateways by claiming that there's a difference between good copy for search engines and good copy for their site visitors. That is simply not true. Good marketing copy can be written that sounds great, stresses the benefits to the user and also utilizes keyword phrases. There's definitely an art to it, and you have to be a good copywriter to begin with, but it most definitely can be done. The key is to use a professional copywriter, not an SEO, for that aspect of the job.
Use of Flash Animation and Graphics at the Expense of Content
Over and over again we hear from companies that want high rankings and lots of traffic and sales, yet refuse to forfeit their LUGs (large useless graphics) and Flash animation in favor of good content. Unfortunately, these pages don't give the search engines much to go by when trying to determine what the site is all about. This forces the engines to figure things out solely based on the Title tags and the links. That may be enough in some cases, but the best indicator of what a site is about is through the content on its pages. Now, it's true that some search engines have started reading the content of Flash files, but there's generally not much "meat" contained in the ones I've seen!
Never forget that the ultimate goal of most business Web sites is to sell a product or a service. When you see a Flash presentation on a site, does that make you want to purchase their products or use their services? Sure, it might appear cool the first time you view it, but thereafter it only serves as an annoying distraction and/or waste of time. And if you're on a dial-up modem (yes there are still some left!), you probably don't want to wait around to view it. Besides, you can have your cake and eat it too by simply using small amounts of Flash in appropriate places, along with your great content.
When all is said and done, most people would rather be presented with information on the types of products or services offered in clear, concise language, right on the main page of the site they're visiting. Luckily for us, that's exactly what the search engines want to see as well!
Optimize Your Actual Site
You don't need a second (or third or fourth) site for SEO purposes. Those companies that are willing to create useful content within the pages of their Web site can very often own long-term high rankings. Plus, they won't have to rely on link popularity as much as the low/no-content sites have to.
In years past, convincing companies of this fact was one of the most difficult jobs we had to do. Thankfully, as the Web matures, more and more site owners are discovering that their fancy, cutting-edge sites don't convert as well as the competitor's informational site that gets right down to business. It's usually at that point that they become more receptive to doing what it takes to make their site the best it can be for their visitors as well as the search engines.
They may believe the following statements to be true:
Every search engine has a different algorithm (formula) to determine the ranking of a Web page, and therefore none of their "regular" pages will rank highly in all of the engines.
Keyword-rich copy that the search engines will like is not text they can visibly put on their site where people can see it, especially not on their front page!
Our site needs to be on the cutting edge and use Flash animation and/or lots of graphics. Since the search engines can't index these very well, I have to use gateway pages.
Business sites need to be on the cutting edge and use Flash animation and/or lots of graphics, and they shouldn't have to change this just to please the search engines.
Although there is a grain of truth to each of the above, let's examine each point in more detail so you'll have some ammunition the next time you get this type of request.
Dealing with Differing Algorithms
Yes, it's true, search engine algorithms are varied and do change. There will always be SEOs who spend many hours poring over search engine results and statistics, trying to figure out each search engine's current formula for high rankings. There have been many software programs written over the years to help crack the algorithms and automatically generate high-ranking pages for each engine.
One of the problems with using this method is that as soon as a new algorithm is in place, these carefully crafted gateway pages will often drop out of sight in the rankings. The new algorithm must be cracked again, and new gateway pages must be created. It's truly a never-ending, time-consuming and expensive process that is very much against the best-practice guidelines put forth by the search engines.
The truth is that even though search engines do have slightly different algorithms (and they do change them at times), basically all engines appreciate the same things that real people look for in a Web site:
A simple, cleanly coded design
Well-thought-out, intuitive navigation
Well-written, descriptive copy
Titles and Meta tags that help identify relevant keyword phrases
Links that accurately describe what can be found at the site.
It's really just common sense. Web sites with the above features don't need to crack algorithms. These sites have the potential to achieve high rankings for many keyword phrases in all major search engines for many years, regardless of ever-changing algorithms. And more importantly, they will likely be a hit with their site visitors.
Writing Keyword-rich Copy
Clients (and even some SEOs) often justify the use of doorways and gateways by claiming that there's a difference between good copy for search engines and good copy for their site visitors. That is simply not true. Good marketing copy can be written that sounds great, stresses the benefits to the user and also utilizes keyword phrases. There's definitely an art to it, and you have to be a good copywriter to begin with, but it most definitely can be done. The key is to use a professional copywriter, not an SEO, for that aspect of the job.
Use of Flash Animation and Graphics at the Expense of Content
Over and over again we hear from companies that want high rankings and lots of traffic and sales, yet refuse to forfeit their LUGs (large useless graphics) and Flash animation in favor of good content. Unfortunately, these pages don't give the search engines much to go by when trying to determine what the site is all about. This forces the engines to figure things out solely based on the Title tags and the links. That may be enough in some cases, but the best indicator of what a site is about is through the content on its pages. Now, it's true that some search engines have started reading the content of Flash files, but there's generally not much "meat" contained in the ones I've seen!
Never forget that the ultimate goal of most business Web sites is to sell a product or a service. When you see a Flash presentation on a site, does that make you want to purchase their products or use their services? Sure, it might appear cool the first time you view it, but thereafter it only serves as an annoying distraction and/or waste of time. And if you're on a dial-up modem (yes there are still some left!), you probably don't want to wait around to view it. Besides, you can have your cake and eat it too by simply using small amounts of Flash in appropriate places, along with your great content.
When all is said and done, most people would rather be presented with information on the types of products or services offered in clear, concise language, right on the main page of the site they're visiting. Luckily for us, that's exactly what the search engines want to see as well!
Optimize Your Actual Site
You don't need a second (or third or fourth) site for SEO purposes. Those companies that are willing to create useful content within the pages of their Web site can very often own long-term high rankings. Plus, they won't have to rely on link popularity as much as the low/no-content sites have to.
In years past, convincing companies of this fact was one of the most difficult jobs we had to do. Thankfully, as the Web matures, more and more site owners are discovering that their fancy, cutting-edge sites don't convert as well as the competitor's informational site that gets right down to business. It's usually at that point that they become more receptive to doing what it takes to make their site the best it can be for their visitors as well as the search engines.
Search Engine Optimization and the Bottom-Line
A question on many Webmaster's minds these days is whether or not they should bother with optimizing their site to rank high in the search engines. We've discussed this in previous articles, and it always seemed to come down to a big "it depends." However, I'm starting to realize that for many clients, good search engine rankings can actually make or break a business.
While putting together my presentation for a conference in Amsterdam back in Jan. 2001, I decided to base my speech around one Web site we had recently worked on for a client. The site in question was the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky. Dr. Randall Bolar performs gastric bypass surgery on morbidly obese patients so they can lose weight and lead happier, healthier lives.
Do you have money to burn?
The work we did for this site lead to a very successful optimization. Dr. Bolar had originally let his Web design firm handle his site submission and, as he put it, he "might as well have taken the $1,000 out of his pocket and lit it on fire!" When we began work on the site, it had nearly no presence in the search engines and directories. After our optimization, it had achieved the desired top-10 results in most of the search engines and directories, for a number of relevant keyword phrases. Traffic had increased substantially, and users were finding the site through the intended keywords. Since those are the metrics I look for when determining our success, this appeared to be quite a successful optimization, indeed!
However, I realized that I had never actually asked Dr. Bolar how effective the Web site had been in attracting new patients to his office, which of course, is the bottom-line. So I dashed off an e-mail to Dr. Bolar, asking if he had received a lot of new inquiries and new patients over the past few months since the rankings had taken hold. Within a half hour, and on a Sunday no less, Dr. Bolar called me to answer my questions. Here's what he told me:
Before their optimization, they were getting approximately 2 - 4 new patients a week through their Web site. Once the rankings kicked in, these numbers jumped to a whopping 50 - 70 new patients a week!
Dr. Bolar told me that he went from having a struggling practice that nearly went bankrupt and closed down, to a thriving practice. He's currently in the process of looking to hire another surgeon. Nearly all of his new patients have found him through the Web site. He even had one patient who drove 7 hours to his office and has gotten numerous other patients from out-of-state. The very next day, in fact, he was seeing 11 new patients, all of whom had found him through the Internet. Dr. Bolar's Internet presence has enabled him to move from being a very small clinic -- Georgetown Surgical Clinic -- to a much larger institution -- the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky!
All I could say was, "Wow!"
Was it just a fluke?
This startling revelation made me wonder how some of our other clients' businesses may have been impacted by being easily found in the search engines, so I dashed off a few more e-mails and eagerly awaited the responses. Again, each one had nothing but great things to say about the effects of good search engine placement for their bottom line.
Joe Tedesco of JE Brown told me that his company had spent thousands of dollars on advertising at the same time they did their optimization. Their results were good, but not compared to their total outlay. They decided to lay off the advertising and re-think their marketing strategy, but when they stopped the advertising, they realized that it had little to no effect on their bottom line. The majority of their visitors were coming through the search engines! Joe says he's a big believer in Search Engine Optimization because of the "little to no work that's involved once the rankings are achieved."
I also heard back from Kathy Drewien, from Atlanta Relocation. Most of Kathy's clients find her services through her Web site, so search engine visibility is extremely important to her. Kathy told me that in1998, before her Web site optimization, she had 14 Internet transactions that grossed $100,000 in commissions. In 1999, after a successful optimization, those numbers increased to 22 transactions for $121,500 in gross commissions. Again in 2000, she had 22 transactions for a total of $165,939 in gross commissions.
Content is still king
It's important to note that simply being found in the engines isn't always enough. Once found, your Web site still has to sell its products or services. I believe that a big reason why our optimized sites end up getting so much new business is because we increase the overall appeal of a Web site when we work on it. That is, we write great, professional marketing text, and suggest other changes that may give the site a more professional appearance. These things are just as important to the bottom line, as getting the High Rankings® in the first place.
It's true that not all businesses will achieve the same kinds of return on investment from a successful optimization as the sites discussed here. However, when you consider the low cost of SEO compared to other forms of marketing, your bottom line may increase substantially. Just make sure you find the right specialist for your needs. All Search Engine Optimization consultants are NOT created equal!
While putting together my presentation for a conference in Amsterdam back in Jan. 2001, I decided to base my speech around one Web site we had recently worked on for a client. The site in question was the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky. Dr. Randall Bolar performs gastric bypass surgery on morbidly obese patients so they can lose weight and lead happier, healthier lives.
Do you have money to burn?
The work we did for this site lead to a very successful optimization. Dr. Bolar had originally let his Web design firm handle his site submission and, as he put it, he "might as well have taken the $1,000 out of his pocket and lit it on fire!" When we began work on the site, it had nearly no presence in the search engines and directories. After our optimization, it had achieved the desired top-10 results in most of the search engines and directories, for a number of relevant keyword phrases. Traffic had increased substantially, and users were finding the site through the intended keywords. Since those are the metrics I look for when determining our success, this appeared to be quite a successful optimization, indeed!
However, I realized that I had never actually asked Dr. Bolar how effective the Web site had been in attracting new patients to his office, which of course, is the bottom-line. So I dashed off an e-mail to Dr. Bolar, asking if he had received a lot of new inquiries and new patients over the past few months since the rankings had taken hold. Within a half hour, and on a Sunday no less, Dr. Bolar called me to answer my questions. Here's what he told me:
Before their optimization, they were getting approximately 2 - 4 new patients a week through their Web site. Once the rankings kicked in, these numbers jumped to a whopping 50 - 70 new patients a week!
Dr. Bolar told me that he went from having a struggling practice that nearly went bankrupt and closed down, to a thriving practice. He's currently in the process of looking to hire another surgeon. Nearly all of his new patients have found him through the Web site. He even had one patient who drove 7 hours to his office and has gotten numerous other patients from out-of-state. The very next day, in fact, he was seeing 11 new patients, all of whom had found him through the Internet. Dr. Bolar's Internet presence has enabled him to move from being a very small clinic -- Georgetown Surgical Clinic -- to a much larger institution -- the Bariatric Institute of Kentucky!
All I could say was, "Wow!"
Was it just a fluke?
This startling revelation made me wonder how some of our other clients' businesses may have been impacted by being easily found in the search engines, so I dashed off a few more e-mails and eagerly awaited the responses. Again, each one had nothing but great things to say about the effects of good search engine placement for their bottom line.
Joe Tedesco of JE Brown told me that his company had spent thousands of dollars on advertising at the same time they did their optimization. Their results were good, but not compared to their total outlay. They decided to lay off the advertising and re-think their marketing strategy, but when they stopped the advertising, they realized that it had little to no effect on their bottom line. The majority of their visitors were coming through the search engines! Joe says he's a big believer in Search Engine Optimization because of the "little to no work that's involved once the rankings are achieved."
I also heard back from Kathy Drewien, from Atlanta Relocation. Most of Kathy's clients find her services through her Web site, so search engine visibility is extremely important to her. Kathy told me that in1998, before her Web site optimization, she had 14 Internet transactions that grossed $100,000 in commissions. In 1999, after a successful optimization, those numbers increased to 22 transactions for $121,500 in gross commissions. Again in 2000, she had 22 transactions for a total of $165,939 in gross commissions.
Content is still king
It's important to note that simply being found in the engines isn't always enough. Once found, your Web site still has to sell its products or services. I believe that a big reason why our optimized sites end up getting so much new business is because we increase the overall appeal of a Web site when we work on it. That is, we write great, professional marketing text, and suggest other changes that may give the site a more professional appearance. These things are just as important to the bottom line, as getting the High Rankings® in the first place.
It's true that not all businesses will achieve the same kinds of return on investment from a successful optimization as the sites discussed here. However, when you consider the low cost of SEO compared to other forms of marketing, your bottom line may increase substantially. Just make sure you find the right specialist for your needs. All Search Engine Optimization consultants are NOT created equal!
Letting Your Search Engine Optimization Expert Do Their Job
I just don't get it. Why do some companies pay lots of money to have an expert do a job for them and then not let them do it?
Before I sign on the dotted line with any new search engine optimization client, I always make sure they understand that the visible text copy on their current Web site will *have to* change in order to achieve maximum success.
That's right, the visible text copy...the stuff that people see and read when they visit your site.
Can't You Just Change the Meta Tags?
"What?" they often ask incredulously. "Can't you just change the Meta tags?" "What if we make the new copy invisible?" "My nephew told me that there are ways to do all this in the background."
Isn't There Any Other Way?
Sure, there may be other ways, but like any successful professional, I use methods that have been proven to work for me: adding professionally written, keyword-rich marketing copy to the important pages of the site and optimizing them accordingly. This SEO method worked for me back in 1995, and it continues to work in 2002. Judging from the amount of email I receive from my long-time readers, it works for them also!
Why Do Search Engines Exist?
Think about it for a moment: search engines exist to guide people to pages that are relevant to their searches. What could be more relevant than a page that "discusses" the very keywords the person is looking for?
Once I explain it like that to potential clients, most will agree that perhaps their fancy Flash splash page should be moved off their front page. The bulk of them also agree that perhaps a rewrite of their copy with keyword phrases in mind is actually a good idea. And very often, once they see that the new keyword-rich copy not only helps them get high search engine rankings, but also enhances their visitors' experience, they are very happy campers.
There's One in Every Crowd
Unfortunately, every now and then I run across one of *those* clients. You know the type. They appear to "get it" and happily go along with all the necessary site changes. They participate in the copywriting, they make suggestions and edits and they even comment on how great their site is turning out. Everything is 100% perfect and you know that it's only a matter of time before the rankings will be pouring in.
UNTIL...
A few weeks later, a look at the client's site shows that all of the new text you worked so hard to create is gone! All that remains of your carefully crafted optimization are the Title and Meta tags. Even Alt tags were not spared the delete key!
If you think this could never happen, think again! Unfortunately, this happens to SEO consultants all the time.
Brainwashed By Meta Tag Hype
I've never quite figured out why some clients ask for help and then don't follow through with it. One theory I have is that because so much is written about Meta tags and the like, there are still a lot of people who have been brainwashed into believing that Meta tags are the be-all, end-all to high rankings.
Perhaps these clients are simply looking for some professionally created Meta tags, and just go along with text changes to get what they want. If so, the joke's on them because they'll soon find out that their Meta tags were created for their site based solely upon the keyword-rich copy. The two must go hand in hand; without the matching copy, the tags will be useless. (Which is also why stealing a high-ranking page's Meta tags will rarely do any good.)
SEOs: Spell it Out in Your Contract
You can't stop rogue clients from changing their site against your best advice. However, you can protect yourself and your company by having a smart contract at the outset.
If you're an SEO doing work for clients' sites, be sure to clearly state the changes you will be making to their site in your contract, before any work has begun. If you don't have a contract, get one now! Specifically state that the client must not change or delete the new copy and HTML coding for at least three months. If they sign up for continued monitoring services, ask to review any copy or design changes to ensure that they won't affect the search engine rankings. If you really want to cover yourself, specifically state that you take no responsibility for the rankings if they change the pages without your knowledge and approval.
Clients: Trust Your SEO!
If you're going to hire an expert to do something for you, whether it be search engine optimization or building a house, you've got to trust them to do their job correctly. Professionals do not make specific recommendations just for the heck of it. They have tried-and-true methods that they know will work. If you hire someone who has a good reputation and track record, then put your faith in him or her. If you have any inkling that your SEO is not trustworthy, look for a new SEO. Best results are always obtained when there is good communication between all parties. Once you've found an expert you can trust and are satisfied that their methods are in the best interest of your site, then whatever you do, don't sabotage their best efforts! Your SEO wants high rankings for your site as much as you do. Give them enough latitude to obtain them for you!
Before I sign on the dotted line with any new search engine optimization client, I always make sure they understand that the visible text copy on their current Web site will *have to* change in order to achieve maximum success.
That's right, the visible text copy...the stuff that people see and read when they visit your site.
Can't You Just Change the Meta Tags?
"What?" they often ask incredulously. "Can't you just change the Meta tags?" "What if we make the new copy invisible?" "My nephew told me that there are ways to do all this in the background."
Isn't There Any Other Way?
Sure, there may be other ways, but like any successful professional, I use methods that have been proven to work for me: adding professionally written, keyword-rich marketing copy to the important pages of the site and optimizing them accordingly. This SEO method worked for me back in 1995, and it continues to work in 2002. Judging from the amount of email I receive from my long-time readers, it works for them also!
Why Do Search Engines Exist?
Think about it for a moment: search engines exist to guide people to pages that are relevant to their searches. What could be more relevant than a page that "discusses" the very keywords the person is looking for?
Once I explain it like that to potential clients, most will agree that perhaps their fancy Flash splash page should be moved off their front page. The bulk of them also agree that perhaps a rewrite of their copy with keyword phrases in mind is actually a good idea. And very often, once they see that the new keyword-rich copy not only helps them get high search engine rankings, but also enhances their visitors' experience, they are very happy campers.
There's One in Every Crowd
Unfortunately, every now and then I run across one of *those* clients. You know the type. They appear to "get it" and happily go along with all the necessary site changes. They participate in the copywriting, they make suggestions and edits and they even comment on how great their site is turning out. Everything is 100% perfect and you know that it's only a matter of time before the rankings will be pouring in.
UNTIL...
A few weeks later, a look at the client's site shows that all of the new text you worked so hard to create is gone! All that remains of your carefully crafted optimization are the Title and Meta tags. Even Alt tags were not spared the delete key!
If you think this could never happen, think again! Unfortunately, this happens to SEO consultants all the time.
Brainwashed By Meta Tag Hype
I've never quite figured out why some clients ask for help and then don't follow through with it. One theory I have is that because so much is written about Meta tags and the like, there are still a lot of people who have been brainwashed into believing that Meta tags are the be-all, end-all to high rankings.
Perhaps these clients are simply looking for some professionally created Meta tags, and just go along with text changes to get what they want. If so, the joke's on them because they'll soon find out that their Meta tags were created for their site based solely upon the keyword-rich copy. The two must go hand in hand; without the matching copy, the tags will be useless. (Which is also why stealing a high-ranking page's Meta tags will rarely do any good.)
SEOs: Spell it Out in Your Contract
You can't stop rogue clients from changing their site against your best advice. However, you can protect yourself and your company by having a smart contract at the outset.
If you're an SEO doing work for clients' sites, be sure to clearly state the changes you will be making to their site in your contract, before any work has begun. If you don't have a contract, get one now! Specifically state that the client must not change or delete the new copy and HTML coding for at least three months. If they sign up for continued monitoring services, ask to review any copy or design changes to ensure that they won't affect the search engine rankings. If you really want to cover yourself, specifically state that you take no responsibility for the rankings if they change the pages without your knowledge and approval.
Clients: Trust Your SEO!
If you're going to hire an expert to do something for you, whether it be search engine optimization or building a house, you've got to trust them to do their job correctly. Professionals do not make specific recommendations just for the heck of it. They have tried-and-true methods that they know will work. If you hire someone who has a good reputation and track record, then put your faith in him or her. If you have any inkling that your SEO is not trustworthy, look for a new SEO. Best results are always obtained when there is good communication between all parties. Once you've found an expert you can trust and are satisfied that their methods are in the best interest of your site, then whatever you do, don't sabotage their best efforts! Your SEO wants high rankings for your site as much as you do. Give them enough latitude to obtain them for you!
Link Popularity
For years, "link popularity" and "Google PageRank" have been the talk of the town in the search engine optimization community. However, the definition of link popularity and how it differs from PageRank (PR), as well as how much effect these actually have on search engine rankings, is often misunderstood.
What is Link Popularity?
The theory goes something like this: The search engine Powers That Be have decided that if other sites are linking to your site, it must be a winner; therefore, it deserves a boost in rankings (when all else is equal). If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. People link to good sites, not bad ones.
PageRank Does Not Equal Link Popularity
It's important to note that Google PageRank is not the same thing as link popularity. PR is actually a subset of link popularity. Whereas PR focuses strictly on the quantity and popularity of links, link popularity adds a "quality factor" into the equation. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly use the terms "link popularity" and "PageRank " interchangeably, which has served to confuse the issue further.
All major search engines place some emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithms. There appear to be 2 main types of links that work best to increase your link popularity: links from other sites that focus on the same keyword phrases your site focuses on, and links from relevant categories in major directories and industry-specific portals. "Free-for-all" (FFA) sites do not constitute quality links, so don't waste your $24.95 submitting your site to 500 of them. Links from sites that focus on topics that have nothing to do with your site probably won't help you win any link popularity contests, either (although they may temporarily boost your PR).
How Does Link Popularity Work?
Here's an example of how I believe link popularity works:
Let's say that Bob's Pizza Palace Website has a link to Joe's Men's Clothing store site. If the link uses the keywords "men's clothing store" in the anchor text (the clickable part), it may help Joe's link popularity a little bit for those keywords. However, Joe would benefit a lot more if the same link came from a site that was more related to Joe's site than a pizza palace. For instance, a more related link might be from a woman's clothing store, a men's shoe store or any other type of store that relates to clothing in some way.
An even higher-quality link for Joe might be from "Sam's Clothing Store Directory," which lists a whole bunch of clothing stores that can be found on the Internet. That is exactly the kind of link that the search engines would want to credit toward link popularity. Again, the key is in having that common thread between the sites.
Where Do Reciprocal Links Come In?
The other popular misconception floating around is in regards to reciprocal linking. Since so many people think that exchanging links with sites is the easiest way to get them (it may or may not be), new people learning about link popularity are under the mistaken belief that they must have links that are reciprocated on their site (e.g., "you-link-to-me-and-I'll-link-to-you"-type links). Still others are saying that reciprocal links are dead and you won't gain any benefit from them.
Both camps are wrong. You certainly don't need to get reciprocal links, but you can if you want to. Remember, it's links pointing TO your site that are the helpful ones. Links pointing FROM your site to other sites are wonderful to have because they help your visitors find related stuff, but if your site doesn't lend itself to linking to other sites, then by all means, don't do it. You need to do what's right for your company and your site visitors, first and foremost.
Should I Care About Link Popularity?
In general, there's no need for the average site to obsess over link popularity. Yes, you'll want to keep it in mind, and yes you should make sure that your site is what I like to call "link-worthy." However, from my experience (and contrary to popular belief), link popularity constitutes only a portion of most search engines' ranking algorithms. Arguably, Google places more emphasis than most other engines on incoming links at this point in time. How much these actually boost a site's ranking is debatable and truly depends on the site. It also depends on the words that are placed in the anchor text. I have found that just a few highly relevant links with strong anchor text can go a long way towards link popularity for many sites.
For sites that want to take it to the next level and are trying to rank highly with extremely competitive keywords, it may be necessary to actively seek out links from other relevant Websites. This doesn't mean you should go out and create a whole bunch of domains yourself and link them all together because it sounds easier than getting others to link to you. (Yes, that trick has been tried before!) It simply means you should look for sites that are related to your site in some way, and see if they might be interested in promoting your site to their users.
Whatever you do, do not send automatically generated link requests to any site. Most Webmasters consider them a nuisance at best and sp@m at worst. Certainly, a personal email may be welcome, and it also doesn't hurt to pick up the phone and begin a dialogue with a potential link partner. Remember, very often these links from relevant sites will bring more traffic to your site than a high search engine ranking will bring.
How To Get Linked Without Even Trying
My favorite way to get links (but the most time-consuming) is to simply have the best site on the Internet in your specific niche. Interestingly enough, if your site is well written, provides tons of useful information and is constantly updated, you often won't have to seek out links at all. Other sites will link to yours of their own volition.
This has worked for me on my High Rankings site for many years. Without actively requesting any links (other than a few major directories), hundreds of highly relevant sites have added HighRankings.com to their list of recommended sites related to SEO. Some people link to my home page, others to the main newsletter page, and still others to my forum. Some will link directly to an article or newsletter they've enjoyed, and some will ask if they can republish some on their site, while also including a link.
This is the ideal, and not every site is going to have the time or inclination to get to this stage. However, I firmly believe that any kind of site in any type of business can use this method if they are willing to work at it. I know of no other method that can even bring links from direct competitors! Personally, I'd rather spend my time creating a link-worthy site than sending out repetitive reciprocal link exchange requests...but maybe that's just me!
Your homework for this week is to think about how you can make your site so good that others will be only too willing to link to it -- without your even having to ask for it. If you can figure it out and actually spend the time implementing the strategy, eventually you won't have to worry about link popularity, reciprocal links or PageRank ever again!
What is Link Popularity?
The theory goes something like this: The search engine Powers That Be have decided that if other sites are linking to your site, it must be a winner; therefore, it deserves a boost in rankings (when all else is equal). If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. People link to good sites, not bad ones.
PageRank Does Not Equal Link Popularity
It's important to note that Google PageRank is not the same thing as link popularity. PR is actually a subset of link popularity. Whereas PR focuses strictly on the quantity and popularity of links, link popularity adds a "quality factor" into the equation. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly use the terms "link popularity" and "PageRank " interchangeably, which has served to confuse the issue further.
All major search engines place some emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithms. There appear to be 2 main types of links that work best to increase your link popularity: links from other sites that focus on the same keyword phrases your site focuses on, and links from relevant categories in major directories and industry-specific portals. "Free-for-all" (FFA) sites do not constitute quality links, so don't waste your $24.95 submitting your site to 500 of them. Links from sites that focus on topics that have nothing to do with your site probably won't help you win any link popularity contests, either (although they may temporarily boost your PR).
How Does Link Popularity Work?
Here's an example of how I believe link popularity works:
Let's say that Bob's Pizza Palace Website has a link to Joe's Men's Clothing store site. If the link uses the keywords "men's clothing store" in the anchor text (the clickable part), it may help Joe's link popularity a little bit for those keywords. However, Joe would benefit a lot more if the same link came from a site that was more related to Joe's site than a pizza palace. For instance, a more related link might be from a woman's clothing store, a men's shoe store or any other type of store that relates to clothing in some way.
An even higher-quality link for Joe might be from "Sam's Clothing Store Directory," which lists a whole bunch of clothing stores that can be found on the Internet. That is exactly the kind of link that the search engines would want to credit toward link popularity. Again, the key is in having that common thread between the sites.
Where Do Reciprocal Links Come In?
The other popular misconception floating around is in regards to reciprocal linking. Since so many people think that exchanging links with sites is the easiest way to get them (it may or may not be), new people learning about link popularity are under the mistaken belief that they must have links that are reciprocated on their site (e.g., "you-link-to-me-and-I'll-link-to-you"-type links). Still others are saying that reciprocal links are dead and you won't gain any benefit from them.
Both camps are wrong. You certainly don't need to get reciprocal links, but you can if you want to. Remember, it's links pointing TO your site that are the helpful ones. Links pointing FROM your site to other sites are wonderful to have because they help your visitors find related stuff, but if your site doesn't lend itself to linking to other sites, then by all means, don't do it. You need to do what's right for your company and your site visitors, first and foremost.
Should I Care About Link Popularity?
In general, there's no need for the average site to obsess over link popularity. Yes, you'll want to keep it in mind, and yes you should make sure that your site is what I like to call "link-worthy." However, from my experience (and contrary to popular belief), link popularity constitutes only a portion of most search engines' ranking algorithms. Arguably, Google places more emphasis than most other engines on incoming links at this point in time. How much these actually boost a site's ranking is debatable and truly depends on the site. It also depends on the words that are placed in the anchor text. I have found that just a few highly relevant links with strong anchor text can go a long way towards link popularity for many sites.
For sites that want to take it to the next level and are trying to rank highly with extremely competitive keywords, it may be necessary to actively seek out links from other relevant Websites. This doesn't mean you should go out and create a whole bunch of domains yourself and link them all together because it sounds easier than getting others to link to you. (Yes, that trick has been tried before!) It simply means you should look for sites that are related to your site in some way, and see if they might be interested in promoting your site to their users.
Whatever you do, do not send automatically generated link requests to any site. Most Webmasters consider them a nuisance at best and sp@m at worst. Certainly, a personal email may be welcome, and it also doesn't hurt to pick up the phone and begin a dialogue with a potential link partner. Remember, very often these links from relevant sites will bring more traffic to your site than a high search engine ranking will bring.
How To Get Linked Without Even Trying
My favorite way to get links (but the most time-consuming) is to simply have the best site on the Internet in your specific niche. Interestingly enough, if your site is well written, provides tons of useful information and is constantly updated, you often won't have to seek out links at all. Other sites will link to yours of their own volition.
This has worked for me on my High Rankings site for many years. Without actively requesting any links (other than a few major directories), hundreds of highly relevant sites have added HighRankings.com to their list of recommended sites related to SEO. Some people link to my home page, others to the main newsletter page, and still others to my forum. Some will link directly to an article or newsletter they've enjoyed, and some will ask if they can republish some on their site, while also including a link.
This is the ideal, and not every site is going to have the time or inclination to get to this stage. However, I firmly believe that any kind of site in any type of business can use this method if they are willing to work at it. I know of no other method that can even bring links from direct competitors! Personally, I'd rather spend my time creating a link-worthy site than sending out repetitive reciprocal link exchange requests...but maybe that's just me!
Your homework for this week is to think about how you can make your site so good that others will be only too willing to link to it -- without your even having to ask for it. If you can figure it out and actually spend the time implementing the strategy, eventually you won't have to worry about link popularity, reciprocal links or PageRank ever again!
SEO and the Zen Factor
I don't get a chance to read much that isn't related to search marketing these days, but since I'm traveling more, I've been using those long plane flights to read different types of books. One of my favorites has been Dr. Wayne Dyer's "The Power of Intention," which I bought after seeing him speak on public television.
In the "The Power of Intention" every sentence has a powerful meaning that really needs to be pondered in order to get the most out of it. When I read a book that is packed with such deep concepts, I find that the best thing for me to do is read through it once without trying to grasp everything that is being said. At that point I find that I have understood the information at only a very basic level. I may know what the author is talking about, and I may not be confused by it, but I really can't verbalize it to anyone else. I'm now on my third or fourth read of Dyer's book, and am a bit more at home with the concepts he presents, but I find that with each read I get more and more out of it.
Currently, I'm reading another book on a similar topic, but it's presented in a totally different manner. This book ("The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle) has helped me further understand Dr. Dyer's book, just as Dyer's book has helped me understand this book. I've also realized there is so much to learn on this subject that I'm sure I could read a hundred books and never understand everything.
By now, I'm sure you're totally confused and wondering what the heck my personal reading habits have to do with SEO. Stay with me, as I do have a point! When I think about the vast information that *any* subject contains, be it SEO or personal growth, I realize that when people first get interested in something, there's a steep learning curve involved. Every day I hear from people who are just learning SEO, and they're simply not grasping what I consider the very basic concepts. For those of us who live and breathe SEO, it's sometimes difficult to step back and remember what it was like when we were first learning.
Even though SEO isn't as complicated as Zen Buddhism, it's still going to take most newbies a lot of time and study to truly understand things at a fundamental level. For those of you just starting to learn SEO, you may read some of the more ethereal stuff written on the topic (such as my "Art of SEO" article) and simply not be able to grasp it -- yet. But don't despair! If you immerse yourself in the topic, you will find that every day you understand more and more.
When practiced at the level of those of us who've been in the game for 5-10 years, SEO is in fact very Zen-like. We can look at a website and know exactly what needs to be done to make it the best it can be for the site visitors and the search engines. Often, it's easiest for us when we can just roll up our sleeves and do what we know needs to be done, rather than try to explain the whys and wherefores. Many times it's not even possible to explain exactly why we are doing a specific thing, because it simply comes from the gut. Unfortunately, many clients and even more budding SEOs aren't cool with the explanation "it just feels right"!
There will always be SEOs who need to do their work based on some logical, formulaic reasoning. These people may never be able to simply trust their own instincts. To them, it can't just "feel right," because search algorithms and how to beat them have got to have a logical explanation. However, as time marches on, search engines are becoming ever more sophisticated. The logical among us have all kinds of theories and acronyms (e.g. LSI) that supposedly explain how the engines will be determining relevancy in the future. Personally, I prefer to believe that they're simply adding a "Zen factor" to the mix!
In the "The Power of Intention" every sentence has a powerful meaning that really needs to be pondered in order to get the most out of it. When I read a book that is packed with such deep concepts, I find that the best thing for me to do is read through it once without trying to grasp everything that is being said. At that point I find that I have understood the information at only a very basic level. I may know what the author is talking about, and I may not be confused by it, but I really can't verbalize it to anyone else. I'm now on my third or fourth read of Dyer's book, and am a bit more at home with the concepts he presents, but I find that with each read I get more and more out of it.
Currently, I'm reading another book on a similar topic, but it's presented in a totally different manner. This book ("The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle) has helped me further understand Dr. Dyer's book, just as Dyer's book has helped me understand this book. I've also realized there is so much to learn on this subject that I'm sure I could read a hundred books and never understand everything.
By now, I'm sure you're totally confused and wondering what the heck my personal reading habits have to do with SEO. Stay with me, as I do have a point! When I think about the vast information that *any* subject contains, be it SEO or personal growth, I realize that when people first get interested in something, there's a steep learning curve involved. Every day I hear from people who are just learning SEO, and they're simply not grasping what I consider the very basic concepts. For those of us who live and breathe SEO, it's sometimes difficult to step back and remember what it was like when we were first learning.
Even though SEO isn't as complicated as Zen Buddhism, it's still going to take most newbies a lot of time and study to truly understand things at a fundamental level. For those of you just starting to learn SEO, you may read some of the more ethereal stuff written on the topic (such as my "Art of SEO" article) and simply not be able to grasp it -- yet. But don't despair! If you immerse yourself in the topic, you will find that every day you understand more and more.
When practiced at the level of those of us who've been in the game for 5-10 years, SEO is in fact very Zen-like. We can look at a website and know exactly what needs to be done to make it the best it can be for the site visitors and the search engines. Often, it's easiest for us when we can just roll up our sleeves and do what we know needs to be done, rather than try to explain the whys and wherefores. Many times it's not even possible to explain exactly why we are doing a specific thing, because it simply comes from the gut. Unfortunately, many clients and even more budding SEOs aren't cool with the explanation "it just feels right"!
There will always be SEOs who need to do their work based on some logical, formulaic reasoning. These people may never be able to simply trust their own instincts. To them, it can't just "feel right," because search algorithms and how to beat them have got to have a logical explanation. However, as time marches on, search engines are becoming ever more sophisticated. The logical among us have all kinds of theories and acronyms (e.g. LSI) that supposedly explain how the engines will be determining relevancy in the future. Personally, I prefer to believe that they're simply adding a "Zen factor" to the mix!
Ten Tips to the Top of the Search Engines
Having a website that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. isn't hard to do, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are my latest and greatest tips to get you started:
Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to. Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.
Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines. This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.
Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.
Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.
Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)
Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.
Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly. (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)
Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.
Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.
Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. (You can sign up for a free trial of ClickTracks, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!
Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to. Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.
Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines. This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.
Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.
Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.
Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)
Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.
Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly. (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)
Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.
Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.
Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. (You can sign up for a free trial of ClickTracks, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!
Realistic Search Engine Optimization Expectations
Those who've been in the SEO biz for a number of years know how much more competitive it is these days as compared to a few years ago. The number of webpages indexed by search engines has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in past years. On top of that, a good portion of site owners and webmasters know just enough SEO to be dangerous. In the golden age of SEO, the vast majority of websites hadn't given a thought to the search engines, and when they did, it was only to place some keywords in their Meta tags. (Which, incidentally, didn't help then either.) Those were the days when anyone who knew even the slightest bit about SEO could easily rank highly in all the major search engines, with very little effort. Even competitive areas were doable with just a little more work than their non-competitive counterparts.
These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain high rankings with unless you really and truly know what you're doing. And even then, those rankings may be here one day, and gone the next. The problem is magnified for new businesses and new websites. If your site isn't at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will be less likely to provide the results you want. This is one reason why your website optimization should always be seen as a long-term proposition.
As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and SEOs need to shift their focus from that of asking how they can get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers. Unfortunately, a large portion of those looking into SEO services are still seeing the small picture. For instance, on the contact form on my site, I ask people to tell me a little bit about their "business goals." A good portion who fill it out want something like "top-5 rankings in Google and Yahoo for this keyword." Huh? That's not a business goal! A business goal is more like "Bring more people to my website who are searching online for the types of products we sell." (As a side note, soon after writing this, I got an email from someone whose goal was to have their Flash site be "#1 in all the search engines for the word 'spring.'" I kid you not!)
Don't get me wrong, I very much understand why people would love to move their rankings up from #11 to #1 for a highly sought-after and targeted keyword phrase. I'm quite sure it would very much increase their targeted traffic and their sales (assuming they're doing everything else right). My frustration lies in the fact that there are people who believe that somehow an SEO company can magically snap their fingers or wave their magic wands and make it so. They probably found my site at #2 in Google for search engine optimization and expect that I can just do to their site whatever it was I did to my site, and voila -- instant rankings!
Even the best SEOs are not magicians. They can't simply place a site at the top of the engines when there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of others that offer basically the same thing, and provide basically the same information. If they could, you'd see a whole lot more millionaire SEOs.
Does this mean that SEO is dead?
Absolutely not! But SEO that focuses on rankings for the most highly sought-after keywords in any given space is most definitely dying. This doesn't mean that you have to settle for keywords that receive few searches. It just means that you have to broaden your horizons and see the big picture.
Almost every time I review one of those "put me at #1" prospects' websites, I see tons of opportunities for fixing the site in general so that it will work better for both their users and the search engines. They are almost always so focused on their "money phrases" that they completely neglect many areas of their site. Instead they put their special phrase on every page and never research the thousands of others that are being typed into search engines every day.
Another trend I've been seeing a lot lately is the creation of content simply for the sake of creating content. What's that all about? SEOs certainly throw the words "good content" around a lot, but why is it that nobody seems to know what that means? We now have a whole cottage industry of companies who will allegedly write "good content" for you. Worse, there's even one that will *rent* you content! Newsflash...good content has nothing to do with the history of your products. Nor is good content a bunch of madlib spam pages where you simply substitute keyword phrases from one page into the other. Good content isn't stuff you write for the search engines.
Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your space has thought of yet. The key to good content is creativity. Unfortunately, creativity itself seems to be a dying art. Being creative isn't looking at what your competitor is doing and copying them. It's being a leader, not a follower. It's having your own voice and your own opinions and expressing them, regardless of what others might think. It's pouring your heart and soul into your website, not looking for the next quick fix. And it's (say it with me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND the search engines. It's what's made my site rank highly for the most competitive phrase there is (among thousands of other phrases), and it's what will make your site rank highly for whatever phrases relate to it. But it's not easy, and it's not fast. And it can't be done with the flick of a switch.
So please...if your pet phrase isn't ranking highly enough, don't call me and don't email me. In fact, don't call or email *any* SEO company. Instead of calling, you need to reassess your goals. No SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need. Read that last sentence again until you really understand it. Forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need.
And remember, there are plenty of companies that will say they can do whatever you want them to do. You want to be #1 for spring? Sure, no problem. They will happily take your money, do some work, and promptly get no results. Don't blame them though -- they were just telling you what you wanted to hear.
Those who've been in the SEO biz for a number of years know how much more competitive it is these days as compared to a few years ago. The number of webpages indexed by search engines has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in past years. On top of that, a good portion of site owners and webmasters know just enough SEO to be dangerous. In the golden age of SEO, the vast majority of websites hadn't given a thought to the search engines, and when they did, it was only to place some keywords in their Meta tags. (Which, incidentally, didn't help then either.) Those were the days when anyone who knew even the slightest bit about SEO could easily rank highly in all the major search engines, with very little effort. Even competitive areas were doable with just a little more work than their non-competitive counterparts.
These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain high rankings with unless you really and truly know what you're doing. And even then, those rankings may be here one day, and gone the next. The problem is magnified for new businesses and new websites. If your site isn't at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will be less likely to provide the results you want. This is one reason why your website optimization should always be seen as a long-term proposition.
As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and SEOs need to shift their focus from that of asking how they can get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers. Unfortunately, a large portion of those looking into SEO services are still seeing the small picture. For instance, on the contact form on my site, I ask people to tell me a little bit about their "business goals." A good portion who fill it out want something like "top-5 rankings in Google and Yahoo for this keyword." Huh? That's not a business goal! A business goal is more like "Bring more people to my website who are searching online for the types of products we sell." (As a side note, soon after writing this, I got an email from someone whose goal was to have their Flash site be "#1 in all the search engines for the word 'spring.'" I kid you not!)
Don't get me wrong, I very much understand why people would love to move their rankings up from #11 to #1 for a highly sought-after and targeted keyword phrase. I'm quite sure it would very much increase their targeted traffic and their sales (assuming they're doing everything else right). My frustration lies in the fact that there are people who believe that somehow an SEO company can magically snap their fingers or wave their magic wands and make it so. They probably found my site at #2 in Google for search engine optimization and expect that I can just do to their site whatever it was I did to my site, and voila -- instant rankings!
Even the best SEOs are not magicians. They can't simply place a site at the top of the engines when there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of others that offer basically the same thing, and provide basically the same information. If they could, you'd see a whole lot more millionaire SEOs.
Does this mean that SEO is dead?
Absolutely not! But SEO that focuses on rankings for the most highly sought-after keywords in any given space is most definitely dying. This doesn't mean that you have to settle for keywords that receive few searches. It just means that you have to broaden your horizons and see the big picture.
Almost every time I review one of those "put me at #1" prospects' websites, I see tons of opportunities for fixing the site in general so that it will work better for both their users and the search engines. They are almost always so focused on their "money phrases" that they completely neglect many areas of their site. Instead they put their special phrase on every page and never research the thousands of others that are being typed into search engines every day.
Another trend I've been seeing a lot lately is the creation of content simply for the sake of creating content. What's that all about? SEOs certainly throw the words "good content" around a lot, but why is it that nobody seems to know what that means? We now have a whole cottage industry of companies who will allegedly write "good content" for you. Worse, there's even one that will *rent* you content! Newsflash...good content has nothing to do with the history of your products. Nor is good content a bunch of madlib spam pages where you simply substitute keyword phrases from one page into the other. Good content isn't stuff you write for the search engines.
Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your space has thought of yet. The key to good content is creativity. Unfortunately, creativity itself seems to be a dying art. Being creative isn't looking at what your competitor is doing and copying them. It's being a leader, not a follower. It's having your own voice and your own opinions and expressing them, regardless of what others might think. It's pouring your heart and soul into your website, not looking for the next quick fix. And it's (say it with me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND the search engines. It's what's made my site rank highly for the most competitive phrase there is (among thousands of other phrases), and it's what will make your site rank highly for whatever phrases relate to it. But it's not easy, and it's not fast. And it can't be done with the flick of a switch.
So please...if your pet phrase isn't ranking highly enough, don't call me and don't email me. In fact, don't call or email *any* SEO company. Instead of calling, you need to reassess your goals. No SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need. Read that last sentence again until you really understand it. Forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need.
And remember, there are plenty of companies that will say they can do whatever you want them to do. You want to be #1 for spring? Sure, no problem. They will happily take your money, do some work, and promptly get no results. Don't blame them though -- they were just telling you what you wanted to hear.
These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain high rankings with unless you really and truly know what you're doing. And even then, those rankings may be here one day, and gone the next. The problem is magnified for new businesses and new websites. If your site isn't at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will be less likely to provide the results you want. This is one reason why your website optimization should always be seen as a long-term proposition.
As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and SEOs need to shift their focus from that of asking how they can get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers. Unfortunately, a large portion of those looking into SEO services are still seeing the small picture. For instance, on the contact form on my site, I ask people to tell me a little bit about their "business goals." A good portion who fill it out want something like "top-5 rankings in Google and Yahoo for this keyword." Huh? That's not a business goal! A business goal is more like "Bring more people to my website who are searching online for the types of products we sell." (As a side note, soon after writing this, I got an email from someone whose goal was to have their Flash site be "#1 in all the search engines for the word 'spring.'" I kid you not!)
Don't get me wrong, I very much understand why people would love to move their rankings up from #11 to #1 for a highly sought-after and targeted keyword phrase. I'm quite sure it would very much increase their targeted traffic and their sales (assuming they're doing everything else right). My frustration lies in the fact that there are people who believe that somehow an SEO company can magically snap their fingers or wave their magic wands and make it so. They probably found my site at #2 in Google for search engine optimization and expect that I can just do to their site whatever it was I did to my site, and voila -- instant rankings!
Even the best SEOs are not magicians. They can't simply place a site at the top of the engines when there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of others that offer basically the same thing, and provide basically the same information. If they could, you'd see a whole lot more millionaire SEOs.
Does this mean that SEO is dead?
Absolutely not! But SEO that focuses on rankings for the most highly sought-after keywords in any given space is most definitely dying. This doesn't mean that you have to settle for keywords that receive few searches. It just means that you have to broaden your horizons and see the big picture.
Almost every time I review one of those "put me at #1" prospects' websites, I see tons of opportunities for fixing the site in general so that it will work better for both their users and the search engines. They are almost always so focused on their "money phrases" that they completely neglect many areas of their site. Instead they put their special phrase on every page and never research the thousands of others that are being typed into search engines every day.
Another trend I've been seeing a lot lately is the creation of content simply for the sake of creating content. What's that all about? SEOs certainly throw the words "good content" around a lot, but why is it that nobody seems to know what that means? We now have a whole cottage industry of companies who will allegedly write "good content" for you. Worse, there's even one that will *rent* you content! Newsflash...good content has nothing to do with the history of your products. Nor is good content a bunch of madlib spam pages where you simply substitute keyword phrases from one page into the other. Good content isn't stuff you write for the search engines.
Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your space has thought of yet. The key to good content is creativity. Unfortunately, creativity itself seems to be a dying art. Being creative isn't looking at what your competitor is doing and copying them. It's being a leader, not a follower. It's having your own voice and your own opinions and expressing them, regardless of what others might think. It's pouring your heart and soul into your website, not looking for the next quick fix. And it's (say it with me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND the search engines. It's what's made my site rank highly for the most competitive phrase there is (among thousands of other phrases), and it's what will make your site rank highly for whatever phrases relate to it. But it's not easy, and it's not fast. And it can't be done with the flick of a switch.
So please...if your pet phrase isn't ranking highly enough, don't call me and don't email me. In fact, don't call or email *any* SEO company. Instead of calling, you need to reassess your goals. No SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need. Read that last sentence again until you really understand it. Forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need.
And remember, there are plenty of companies that will say they can do whatever you want them to do. You want to be #1 for spring? Sure, no problem. They will happily take your money, do some work, and promptly get no results. Don't blame them though -- they were just telling you what you wanted to hear.
Those who've been in the SEO biz for a number of years know how much more competitive it is these days as compared to a few years ago. The number of webpages indexed by search engines has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in past years. On top of that, a good portion of site owners and webmasters know just enough SEO to be dangerous. In the golden age of SEO, the vast majority of websites hadn't given a thought to the search engines, and when they did, it was only to place some keywords in their Meta tags. (Which, incidentally, didn't help then either.) Those were the days when anyone who knew even the slightest bit about SEO could easily rank highly in all the major search engines, with very little effort. Even competitive areas were doable with just a little more work than their non-competitive counterparts.
These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain high rankings with unless you really and truly know what you're doing. And even then, those rankings may be here one day, and gone the next. The problem is magnified for new businesses and new websites. If your site isn't at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will be less likely to provide the results you want. This is one reason why your website optimization should always be seen as a long-term proposition.
As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and SEOs need to shift their focus from that of asking how they can get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers. Unfortunately, a large portion of those looking into SEO services are still seeing the small picture. For instance, on the contact form on my site, I ask people to tell me a little bit about their "business goals." A good portion who fill it out want something like "top-5 rankings in Google and Yahoo for this keyword." Huh? That's not a business goal! A business goal is more like "Bring more people to my website who are searching online for the types of products we sell." (As a side note, soon after writing this, I got an email from someone whose goal was to have their Flash site be "#1 in all the search engines for the word 'spring.'" I kid you not!)
Don't get me wrong, I very much understand why people would love to move their rankings up from #11 to #1 for a highly sought-after and targeted keyword phrase. I'm quite sure it would very much increase their targeted traffic and their sales (assuming they're doing everything else right). My frustration lies in the fact that there are people who believe that somehow an SEO company can magically snap their fingers or wave their magic wands and make it so. They probably found my site at #2 in Google for search engine optimization and expect that I can just do to their site whatever it was I did to my site, and voila -- instant rankings!
Even the best SEOs are not magicians. They can't simply place a site at the top of the engines when there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of others that offer basically the same thing, and provide basically the same information. If they could, you'd see a whole lot more millionaire SEOs.
Does this mean that SEO is dead?
Absolutely not! But SEO that focuses on rankings for the most highly sought-after keywords in any given space is most definitely dying. This doesn't mean that you have to settle for keywords that receive few searches. It just means that you have to broaden your horizons and see the big picture.
Almost every time I review one of those "put me at #1" prospects' websites, I see tons of opportunities for fixing the site in general so that it will work better for both their users and the search engines. They are almost always so focused on their "money phrases" that they completely neglect many areas of their site. Instead they put their special phrase on every page and never research the thousands of others that are being typed into search engines every day.
Another trend I've been seeing a lot lately is the creation of content simply for the sake of creating content. What's that all about? SEOs certainly throw the words "good content" around a lot, but why is it that nobody seems to know what that means? We now have a whole cottage industry of companies who will allegedly write "good content" for you. Worse, there's even one that will *rent* you content! Newsflash...good content has nothing to do with the history of your products. Nor is good content a bunch of madlib spam pages where you simply substitute keyword phrases from one page into the other. Good content isn't stuff you write for the search engines.
Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your space has thought of yet. The key to good content is creativity. Unfortunately, creativity itself seems to be a dying art. Being creative isn't looking at what your competitor is doing and copying them. It's being a leader, not a follower. It's having your own voice and your own opinions and expressing them, regardless of what others might think. It's pouring your heart and soul into your website, not looking for the next quick fix. And it's (say it with me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND the search engines. It's what's made my site rank highly for the most competitive phrase there is (among thousands of other phrases), and it's what will make your site rank highly for whatever phrases relate to it. But it's not easy, and it's not fast. And it can't be done with the flick of a switch.
So please...if your pet phrase isn't ranking highly enough, don't call me and don't email me. In fact, don't call or email *any* SEO company. Instead of calling, you need to reassess your goals. No SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need. Read that last sentence again until you really understand it. Forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need.
And remember, there are plenty of companies that will say they can do whatever you want them to do. You want to be #1 for spring? Sure, no problem. They will happily take your money, do some work, and promptly get no results. Don't blame them though -- they were just telling you what you wanted to hear.
All About Title Tags
What Is a Title Tag?
The title tag has been — and probably will always be — one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.
In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP), changing them may result in more clickthroughs.
Search Engines and Title Tags
Title tags are definitely one of the “big three” as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they are equally as important as your visible text copy and the links pointing to your pages — perhaps even more so.
Do Company Names Belong in the Title Tag?
This is one of the most common questions asked about titles. The answer is a resounding YES! I’ve found that it’s fine to place your company name in the title, and *gasp*, even to place it at the beginning of the tag! In fact, if your company is already a well-known brand, I’d say that it’s essential. Even if you’re not a well-known brand yet, chances are you’d like to eventually be one. The title tag gives you a great opportunity to further this cause.
This doesn’t mean that you should put *just* your company name in the title tag. Even the most well-known brands will benefit from a good descriptive phrase or two added, as it will serve to enhance your brand as well as your search engine rankings. The people who already know your company and seek it out by name will be able to find you in the engines, and so will those who have never heard of you but seek the products or services you sell.
Title Tags Should Contain Specific Keyword Phrases
For example, if your company is "Johnson and Smith Inc.," a tax accounting firm in Texas, you shouldn’t place only the words "Johnson and Smith Inc." in your title tag, but instead use something like "Johnson and Smith Inc. Tax Accountants in Texas."
As a Texas tax accountant, you would want your company’s site to appear in the search engine results for searches on phrases such as "Texas tax accountants" and "CPAs in Texas." (Be sure to do your keyword research to find the best phrases!) You would need to be even more specific if you prefer to work with people only in the Dallas area. In that case, use keywords such as "Dallas tax accountants" in your site’s title tags.
Using our Dallas accountant’s example, you might create a title tag as follows:
Johnson and Smith Tax Accountants in Dallas
or you might try something like this:
Johnson and Smith Dallas CPAs
However, there’s more than enough space in the title tag to include both of these important keyword phrases. (I like to use about 10-12 words in my title tags.)
One way to do it would be like this:
Johnson and Smith - Dallas Tax Accountants - CPAs in Dallas, TX
I’ve always liked the method of separating phrases with a hyphen; however, in today’s competitive marketplace, how your listing appears in the SERPs is a critical aspect of your SEO campaign. After all, if you have high search engine rankings but your targeted buyers aren’t clicking through, it won’t do you much good.
These days I try to write compelling titles as opposed to simply factual ones, if I can. But it also depends on the page, the type of business, the targeted keyword phrases, and many other factors. There’s nothing wrong with the title tag in my above example. If you were looking for a tax accountant in Dallas and saw that listing at Google, you’d probably click on it.
Still, you could make it a readable sentence like this:
Johnson and Smith are Tax Accountants and CPAs in Dallas, TX
I’m not as thrilled with that one because I had to remove the exact phrase "Dallas Tax Accountants," as it wouldn’t read as well if it said:
Johnson and Smith are Dallas Tax Accountants and CPAs in Dallas, TX
It sounds redundant that way, as if it were written only for the search engines.
In the end, it’s really a personal preference. Don’t make yourself crazy trying to create the perfect title tag, as there’s just no such thing. Most likely, either of my examples would work fine. The best thing to do would be to test different ones and see which rank higher and which convert better. It may very well be that the second version doesn’t rank as well, but gets clicked on more, effectively making up the difference.
Use Your Visible Text Copy As Your Guide
I prefer not to create my title tags until the copy on the page has been written and optimized. I need to see how the copywriter integrated the keyword phrases into the text to know where to begin. If you’ve done a good job with your writing (or better yet, hired a professional SEO copywriter), you should find all the information you need right there on your page. Simply choose the most relevant keyword phrases that the copy was based on, and write a compelling title tag accordingly. If you’re having trouble with this and can’t seem to get a handle on what the most important phrases are for any given page, you probably need to rewrite the copy.
I recommend that you *don’t* use an exact sentence pulled from your copy as your title tag. It’s much better to have a unique sentence or a compelling string of words in this tag. This is why you have to watch out for certain development tools. Some content management systems (CMS) and blog software such as WordPress automatically generate the title tag from information you provide elsewhere. In WordPress, for example, the default is to use your blog name, plus whatever you named the page. The problem is that this same info is also used as the headline, plus in the navigational link to the page. Depending on your setup, it could also be the URL for that page. Very rarely would you want all those to be the same.
The good news is that most of today’s CMS and blog software have workarounds so that you can customize your title tags. For WordPress, I recommend installing the "SEO Title Tag" plug-in developed by Stephan Spencer. It works like a charm on all my WordPress sites.
The title tag has been — and probably will always be — one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.
In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP), changing them may result in more clickthroughs.
Search Engines and Title Tags
Title tags are definitely one of the “big three” as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they are equally as important as your visible text copy and the links pointing to your pages — perhaps even more so.
Do Company Names Belong in the Title Tag?
This is one of the most common questions asked about titles. The answer is a resounding YES! I’ve found that it’s fine to place your company name in the title, and *gasp*, even to place it at the beginning of the tag! In fact, if your company is already a well-known brand, I’d say that it’s essential. Even if you’re not a well-known brand yet, chances are you’d like to eventually be one. The title tag gives you a great opportunity to further this cause.
This doesn’t mean that you should put *just* your company name in the title tag. Even the most well-known brands will benefit from a good descriptive phrase or two added, as it will serve to enhance your brand as well as your search engine rankings. The people who already know your company and seek it out by name will be able to find you in the engines, and so will those who have never heard of you but seek the products or services you sell.
Title Tags Should Contain Specific Keyword Phrases
For example, if your company is "Johnson and Smith Inc.," a tax accounting firm in Texas, you shouldn’t place only the words "Johnson and Smith Inc." in your title tag, but instead use something like "Johnson and Smith Inc. Tax Accountants in Texas."
As a Texas tax accountant, you would want your company’s site to appear in the search engine results for searches on phrases such as "Texas tax accountants" and "CPAs in Texas." (Be sure to do your keyword research to find the best phrases!) You would need to be even more specific if you prefer to work with people only in the Dallas area. In that case, use keywords such as "Dallas tax accountants" in your site’s title tags.
Using our Dallas accountant’s example, you might create a title tag as follows:
Johnson and Smith Tax Accountants in Dallas
or you might try something like this:
Johnson and Smith Dallas CPAs
However, there’s more than enough space in the title tag to include both of these important keyword phrases. (I like to use about 10-12 words in my title tags.)
One way to do it would be like this:
Johnson and Smith - Dallas Tax Accountants - CPAs in Dallas, TX
I’ve always liked the method of separating phrases with a hyphen; however, in today’s competitive marketplace, how your listing appears in the SERPs is a critical aspect of your SEO campaign. After all, if you have high search engine rankings but your targeted buyers aren’t clicking through, it won’t do you much good.
These days I try to write compelling titles as opposed to simply factual ones, if I can. But it also depends on the page, the type of business, the targeted keyword phrases, and many other factors. There’s nothing wrong with the title tag in my above example. If you were looking for a tax accountant in Dallas and saw that listing at Google, you’d probably click on it.
Still, you could make it a readable sentence like this:
Johnson and Smith are Tax Accountants and CPAs in Dallas, TX
I’m not as thrilled with that one because I had to remove the exact phrase "Dallas Tax Accountants," as it wouldn’t read as well if it said:
Johnson and Smith are Dallas Tax Accountants and CPAs in Dallas, TX
It sounds redundant that way, as if it were written only for the search engines.
In the end, it’s really a personal preference. Don’t make yourself crazy trying to create the perfect title tag, as there’s just no such thing. Most likely, either of my examples would work fine. The best thing to do would be to test different ones and see which rank higher and which convert better. It may very well be that the second version doesn’t rank as well, but gets clicked on more, effectively making up the difference.
Use Your Visible Text Copy As Your Guide
I prefer not to create my title tags until the copy on the page has been written and optimized. I need to see how the copywriter integrated the keyword phrases into the text to know where to begin. If you’ve done a good job with your writing (or better yet, hired a professional SEO copywriter), you should find all the information you need right there on your page. Simply choose the most relevant keyword phrases that the copy was based on, and write a compelling title tag accordingly. If you’re having trouble with this and can’t seem to get a handle on what the most important phrases are for any given page, you probably need to rewrite the copy.
I recommend that you *don’t* use an exact sentence pulled from your copy as your title tag. It’s much better to have a unique sentence or a compelling string of words in this tag. This is why you have to watch out for certain development tools. Some content management systems (CMS) and blog software such as WordPress automatically generate the title tag from information you provide elsewhere. In WordPress, for example, the default is to use your blog name, plus whatever you named the page. The problem is that this same info is also used as the headline, plus in the navigational link to the page. Depending on your setup, it could also be the URL for that page. Very rarely would you want all those to be the same.
The good news is that most of today’s CMS and blog software have workarounds so that you can customize your title tags. For WordPress, I recommend installing the "SEO Title Tag" plug-in developed by Stephan Spencer. It works like a charm on all my WordPress sites.
The Art of SEO
As much as Google *pretends* to like SEOs by inviting us to parties at the Googleplex and posting on SEO forums, the bottom line is that they don’t like us — or rather, they don’t like what we do. Google wants to find the best, most relevant sites for the search query at hand all by themselves. Perhaps someday they will actually be able to do that, but for now, they still need our help, whether they like it or not.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous SEOs have given Google good reasons not to like us. Because of search engine spammers, Google is constantly changing their ranking criteria and is always on the lookout for the telltale signs of SEO on any given site. It’s not a huge stretch to say that they may even downgrade the sites that they believe have been SEO’d.
If you think that having your keyword phrases “in all the right places for
SEO” is a good thing, think again! You’re essentially telling Google, “Hey
look…my site has been SEO’d!” To which they reply, “Thanks so much for
letting us know… ZAP … see ya later!” Doesn’t matter if your site is
the most relevant (in your mind) to the search query. Doesn’t matter that
you’ve placed your keyword phrases strategically throughout the site.
Stuff that worked like a charm for many people in the early years of SEO may actually hurt rather than help now. As to what might trigger an SEO “red flag,” my guess is that it’s a combination of things. Like, if you have a certain number of traditional SEO factors on any given page, those may set off some Google warning bells (otherwise known as a spam filter).
Some of the traditional SEO formulaic elements that you may have been taught to use include putting the keyword phrase:
in the domain name
in the file name
in the Title tag
in the Meta description tag
in the Meta keyword tag o in the image alt attributes
in an H1 (or any H) tag
as the first words on the page
in bold and/or italics or a different color
multiple times in the first paragraph or twice on the page
in the copy in every single spot on the page where it might possibly make sense to use it, and
in all the hyperlinks pointing to a page.
If you put the same keyword phrase in many of those spots, you might very well trigger a spam filter. Since it’s difficult to determine how many and which combinations of those things might trigger the filter, the best advice I can give you is to do your SEO without any particular formula in mind.
That’s how I’ve always done it and it’s always worked because every site is
unique and has different SEO needs.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to describe this type of SEO to others, as
people are always looking for the magic formula. For as long as I’ve been
doing SEO (over 12 years now), I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I
wouldn’t want to tip off the engines that my sites were SEO’d. This is one
of the reasons I’ve never used keyword-rich domain names or file names.
That’s probably the most obvious SEO thing you can do.
The most important aspect to being a good SEO is creativity. You shouldn’t
worry too much about the specifics of putting keyword phrases here and
there, and again over there. Not every page needs an H1 heading with
keyword phrases in it. If your page isn’t designed to use H1 headings, you
don’t need to change it to use one just for SEO purposes. And many images don’t really and truly make sense with a keyword phrase in their alt attribute (alt tag). Don’t force one to be there just for the search engines.
Most importantly for Google (and for your users), when it comes to your page copy and how you use your visible keyword phrases, less is definitely more. Please don’t read my Nitty-gritty report and then put the same keyword phrase in every single available spot on your page that you can find. My report is supposed to help you think about a few places you may have missed because you weren’t thinking about being descriptive when you originally wrote the copy. You can definitely have too much of a good thing.
A first paragraph on a page that has, say, 4 sentences, should not have 10
instances of your keyword phrase. It will look and sound dumb. I know that I have stressed this in my conference presentations and in our High Rankings seminars, but no matter how many times I say this, people don’t quite grasp the importance of working this way. If your copy reads poorly to a human, and does not come across as natural professional copywriting, the search engines won’t like it either.
When you do SEO, you don’t follow a guidebook. Think like a search engineer and consider all the possible things they might have to combat both now and in the future. Always optimize for 3 or 4 or even up to 5 phrases, and spread them out throughout the entire page. Never, ever, ever think that it’s the first paragraph that matters and stuff ‘em all in there. There should be an equal distribution throughout the entire page, and you should never use the phrases so much that you hear them constantly when you read it.
If you’ve done it right, an everyday user should not have any idea that a page has been SEO’d. A trained SEO should be able to spot what your keyword phrases are, but it shouldn’t be glaringly obvious. Last, but not least, hire a professional copywriter to work on the important pages of your site. This is the best investment you can make for your site and your business. Even if you don’t want to hire an SEO, you absolutely MUST hire a
professional copywriter. You need someone who really and truly understands target audiences and how to speak to them about the benefits of what you offer. You can easily teach someone like that the SEO writing part.
Hope this helps to give you some ideas on how you might get out of formula-SEO mode and start doing more creative SEO. More than ever, SEO is much more of an art than a science. The science is only a small portion of it.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous SEOs have given Google good reasons not to like us. Because of search engine spammers, Google is constantly changing their ranking criteria and is always on the lookout for the telltale signs of SEO on any given site. It’s not a huge stretch to say that they may even downgrade the sites that they believe have been SEO’d.
If you think that having your keyword phrases “in all the right places for
SEO” is a good thing, think again! You’re essentially telling Google, “Hey
look…my site has been SEO’d!” To which they reply, “Thanks so much for
letting us know… ZAP … see ya later!” Doesn’t matter if your site is
the most relevant (in your mind) to the search query. Doesn’t matter that
you’ve placed your keyword phrases strategically throughout the site.
Stuff that worked like a charm for many people in the early years of SEO may actually hurt rather than help now. As to what might trigger an SEO “red flag,” my guess is that it’s a combination of things. Like, if you have a certain number of traditional SEO factors on any given page, those may set off some Google warning bells (otherwise known as a spam filter).
Some of the traditional SEO formulaic elements that you may have been taught to use include putting the keyword phrase:
in the domain name
in the file name
in the Title tag
in the Meta description tag
in the Meta keyword tag o in the image alt attributes
in an H1 (or any H) tag
as the first words on the page
in bold and/or italics or a different color
multiple times in the first paragraph or twice on the page
in the copy in every single spot on the page where it might possibly make sense to use it, and
in all the hyperlinks pointing to a page.
If you put the same keyword phrase in many of those spots, you might very well trigger a spam filter. Since it’s difficult to determine how many and which combinations of those things might trigger the filter, the best advice I can give you is to do your SEO without any particular formula in mind.
That’s how I’ve always done it and it’s always worked because every site is
unique and has different SEO needs.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to describe this type of SEO to others, as
people are always looking for the magic formula. For as long as I’ve been
doing SEO (over 12 years now), I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I
wouldn’t want to tip off the engines that my sites were SEO’d. This is one
of the reasons I’ve never used keyword-rich domain names or file names.
That’s probably the most obvious SEO thing you can do.
The most important aspect to being a good SEO is creativity. You shouldn’t
worry too much about the specifics of putting keyword phrases here and
there, and again over there. Not every page needs an H1 heading with
keyword phrases in it. If your page isn’t designed to use H1 headings, you
don’t need to change it to use one just for SEO purposes. And many images don’t really and truly make sense with a keyword phrase in their alt attribute (alt tag). Don’t force one to be there just for the search engines.
Most importantly for Google (and for your users), when it comes to your page copy and how you use your visible keyword phrases, less is definitely more. Please don’t read my Nitty-gritty report and then put the same keyword phrase in every single available spot on your page that you can find. My report is supposed to help you think about a few places you may have missed because you weren’t thinking about being descriptive when you originally wrote the copy. You can definitely have too much of a good thing.
A first paragraph on a page that has, say, 4 sentences, should not have 10
instances of your keyword phrase. It will look and sound dumb. I know that I have stressed this in my conference presentations and in our High Rankings seminars, but no matter how many times I say this, people don’t quite grasp the importance of working this way. If your copy reads poorly to a human, and does not come across as natural professional copywriting, the search engines won’t like it either.
When you do SEO, you don’t follow a guidebook. Think like a search engineer and consider all the possible things they might have to combat both now and in the future. Always optimize for 3 or 4 or even up to 5 phrases, and spread them out throughout the entire page. Never, ever, ever think that it’s the first paragraph that matters and stuff ‘em all in there. There should be an equal distribution throughout the entire page, and you should never use the phrases so much that you hear them constantly when you read it.
If you’ve done it right, an everyday user should not have any idea that a page has been SEO’d. A trained SEO should be able to spot what your keyword phrases are, but it shouldn’t be glaringly obvious. Last, but not least, hire a professional copywriter to work on the important pages of your site. This is the best investment you can make for your site and your business. Even if you don’t want to hire an SEO, you absolutely MUST hire a
professional copywriter. You need someone who really and truly understands target audiences and how to speak to them about the benefits of what you offer. You can easily teach someone like that the SEO writing part.
Hope this helps to give you some ideas on how you might get out of formula-SEO mode and start doing more creative SEO. More than ever, SEO is much more of an art than a science. The science is only a small portion of it.
Using Content That Works (CTW) to create traffic.
Content, content, content. That's all I hear...probably because that's what I am always saying. Content! I think people don't fully understand me when I tell them let their content do the work work for them. Usually, it's the other way around. People write content to post on their blog, for
creating a page to put adsense on and to write articles. These are all very good ways for you to use your content. What you need to do is create not just content but Content That Works (CTW). This is something I created to help me keep my writing goals in mind.
CTW is content that either creates a buzz or is used to start a conversation, so to speak. It's content that gets people involved in what you are writing It could be positive, negative or neutral. It's a way of thinking. How many times have you written an article just so you can submit it for backlinks? I think just about everyone involved with SEO has at one time or another. But how many of those articles gave people something to really talk about? Not too many, I would assume. The same goes for messageboards, blog posts and other places where you can use CTW.
We all know content spam is bad. But that doesn't mean you can't give people on a blog a reason to see your site. Who is the most popular person blogging in your field? I bet he receives a lot of hits. You can steal some of those hits and gain more readers for yourself. The key is to have knowledge of the topic and give people a reason to leave and see your site. It could be an article you wrote or a podcast you made related to the topic. If your opinion differs from other bloggers and you can back it up, people will flock to your blog or site out of pure curiousity.
Articles are the best way to use CTW. I know we all have written some not so terrific articles. Why was that? Were you pressed for time, short on ideas or perhaps you just didn't care? The more you care about what you are writing about, the better your article will be. What was the message? Their was a message, right? How attuned are you to what people in the industry you are writing for want to read? I wrote an article about how to spam Google and get away with it. It really had nothing to do with spam. The title alone, however, generated a lot of buzz. That article is one of the the most posted articles I have written to date. It not only created a buzz, but it created traffic. People on message boards discussed it. Some agreed with it, others hated it. The bottom line is, it served its purpose by creating buzz.
Do you frequent messageboard? Are your posts with CTW in mind? Anywhere you can write something that other's see is a place where you can potentially gain a new visitor, sale, listener or notoriety for yourself. All if these things are important. I know, we all want backlinks. We want high rankings and we want to brag that we are on the top of Google for our keyphrase. That's fine. But, with every algorhythm change their is a risk of your methods not working quite as well as they use to. Or, maybe you get banned, or overrun by your competition. Whatever the case may be, as long as you use CTW with everything you write, Google and all those other search engines can never take that away.
creating a page to put adsense on and to write articles. These are all very good ways for you to use your content. What you need to do is create not just content but Content That Works (CTW). This is something I created to help me keep my writing goals in mind.
CTW is content that either creates a buzz or is used to start a conversation, so to speak. It's content that gets people involved in what you are writing It could be positive, negative or neutral. It's a way of thinking. How many times have you written an article just so you can submit it for backlinks? I think just about everyone involved with SEO has at one time or another. But how many of those articles gave people something to really talk about? Not too many, I would assume. The same goes for messageboards, blog posts and other places where you can use CTW.
We all know content spam is bad. But that doesn't mean you can't give people on a blog a reason to see your site. Who is the most popular person blogging in your field? I bet he receives a lot of hits. You can steal some of those hits and gain more readers for yourself. The key is to have knowledge of the topic and give people a reason to leave and see your site. It could be an article you wrote or a podcast you made related to the topic. If your opinion differs from other bloggers and you can back it up, people will flock to your blog or site out of pure curiousity.
Articles are the best way to use CTW. I know we all have written some not so terrific articles. Why was that? Were you pressed for time, short on ideas or perhaps you just didn't care? The more you care about what you are writing about, the better your article will be. What was the message? Their was a message, right? How attuned are you to what people in the industry you are writing for want to read? I wrote an article about how to spam Google and get away with it. It really had nothing to do with spam. The title alone, however, generated a lot of buzz. That article is one of the the most posted articles I have written to date. It not only created a buzz, but it created traffic. People on message boards discussed it. Some agreed with it, others hated it. The bottom line is, it served its purpose by creating buzz.
Do you frequent messageboard? Are your posts with CTW in mind? Anywhere you can write something that other's see is a place where you can potentially gain a new visitor, sale, listener or notoriety for yourself. All if these things are important. I know, we all want backlinks. We want high rankings and we want to brag that we are on the top of Google for our keyphrase. That's fine. But, with every algorhythm change their is a risk of your methods not working quite as well as they use to. Or, maybe you get banned, or overrun by your competition. Whatever the case may be, as long as you use CTW with everything you write, Google and all those other search engines can never take that away.
Linkbaiting. How hard is it?
Linkbaiting is a big topic for discussion lately. Everyone wants and needs links. We can ask for links, buy links or create articles and submit them for one way links. Linkbaiting is about getting links without doing any of these. Linkbaiting is essentially baiting people in by creating something they want to link to. So, what could we use to bait people into linking to you?
Podcasting: Creating a podcast that discusses news, tips or information on your industry is great baiting tool. Making your podcast unique and consistent is the key to steady stream of new links.
Interviews: These are great. If you could interview someone well known in your industry, that would certainly be worth linking to. For an added boost, do the interview on your podcast and then transcribe it.
Awards: Awards are another way to bring in traffic, though you can't (or at least shouldn't) simply make up an award. It has to have criteria, high standards and most importantly, meaning. If you give awards to everyone who applies, your award will seem insignificant and unimportant. The upside is you can gain a lot of traffic and one way links from award winners.
Tools and games: These will always be popular. Create a new tool for your industry that is legitimately helpful or develop a game related to your industry that is either informative or amusing. Firefox or wordpress plugins will bring steady traffic for a long time.
Content: Content is the easiest of all to create. Articles and blog posts are a great way to go about linkbaiting. You need to use your imagination to make your post compelling. Keeping on top of news and current affairs will help you pick a topic that people are already interested in. There is nothing wrong with piggy backing on some top stories if it relates to what you do.
Video: The is becoming one of the fastest forms of link baiting, in my opinion. Creating a funny or informative video can create quiet a buzz.
Giveaways and contests: These are great for a quick boost in traffic. However, these are also short lived. Giveaways need to have an associated monetary value. Contests, unless they are monthly, will die along with the links after the contest is over.
Blogs and forums: These are usually overlooked as a form of linking baiting, but they are one of the earliest forms of link baiting. Nothing says "link to me" more than a forum or a blog. Proving they have something of interest for the readers.
Guest appearances: This is one I like to use. I like to exchange writings, interviews or ideas with other bloggers and podcasters. Let me post a post on your blog and you can post on mine for a cross promotion. It's a great way to get a link as well. If you have a podcast, exchange advertisements with other casts along with a link on your podcast page.
Lists: List are very popular. Why? Well, because they are a list of something of value that people want, all in one place. I have a list of over 200 article submission sites to submit articles to, directories that you can submit your podcast to for free and free directories to get your site listed on. These are always my most often viewed posts.
Where to set your bait: Press releases and social networks are the best places to cast your line. Make an enticing headline and real in some hefty traffic.
If you try once a week to do some form of linkbaiting, by at least writing a topical post or putting together a lengthy list that readers will find useful, you will see a steady increase of traffic and hopefully links.
Podcasting: Creating a podcast that discusses news, tips or information on your industry is great baiting tool. Making your podcast unique and consistent is the key to steady stream of new links.
Interviews: These are great. If you could interview someone well known in your industry, that would certainly be worth linking to. For an added boost, do the interview on your podcast and then transcribe it.
Awards: Awards are another way to bring in traffic, though you can't (or at least shouldn't) simply make up an award. It has to have criteria, high standards and most importantly, meaning. If you give awards to everyone who applies, your award will seem insignificant and unimportant. The upside is you can gain a lot of traffic and one way links from award winners.
Tools and games: These will always be popular. Create a new tool for your industry that is legitimately helpful or develop a game related to your industry that is either informative or amusing. Firefox or wordpress plugins will bring steady traffic for a long time.
Content: Content is the easiest of all to create. Articles and blog posts are a great way to go about linkbaiting. You need to use your imagination to make your post compelling. Keeping on top of news and current affairs will help you pick a topic that people are already interested in. There is nothing wrong with piggy backing on some top stories if it relates to what you do.
Video: The is becoming one of the fastest forms of link baiting, in my opinion. Creating a funny or informative video can create quiet a buzz.
Giveaways and contests: These are great for a quick boost in traffic. However, these are also short lived. Giveaways need to have an associated monetary value. Contests, unless they are monthly, will die along with the links after the contest is over.
Blogs and forums: These are usually overlooked as a form of linking baiting, but they are one of the earliest forms of link baiting. Nothing says "link to me" more than a forum or a blog. Proving they have something of interest for the readers.
Guest appearances: This is one I like to use. I like to exchange writings, interviews or ideas with other bloggers and podcasters. Let me post a post on your blog and you can post on mine for a cross promotion. It's a great way to get a link as well. If you have a podcast, exchange advertisements with other casts along with a link on your podcast page.
Lists: List are very popular. Why? Well, because they are a list of something of value that people want, all in one place. I have a list of over 200 article submission sites to submit articles to, directories that you can submit your podcast to for free and free directories to get your site listed on. These are always my most often viewed posts.
Where to set your bait: Press releases and social networks are the best places to cast your line. Make an enticing headline and real in some hefty traffic.
If you try once a week to do some form of linkbaiting, by at least writing a topical post or putting together a lengthy list that readers will find useful, you will see a steady increase of traffic and hopefully links.
Using SEO and other methods to help Brand and Market your business online
With so many new busineses hitting the Internet on a daily business, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate one's company from others. You need to constantly get your brand in front of people. The Internet has not only made it easier for people to start a business online, but that same simplicity has made the competition enormous. The potential to reach millions of people is as close as your own computer. However, many companies don't know the first thing about promotion and branding.
Articles have always been a way to market a business on and off the net. A well written article in a newspaper or a column would generate some business years ago. Today with so much content available and few publications writing articles about specific businesses other than from a strictly newsworthy standpoint, marketing professionals must strive to create well recieved ad campaigns. Articles are still a great way to boost internet businesses and can provide SEO backlinks and anchor text. Articles also help drive in quality traffic. The most important use of articles, however, is to help brand your company. Informative articles are a great resource for the Internet. The better an article is written, the better chances of it being placed on other sites. The article will be viewed as an extension of your company's knowledge, policies and mission, so make it count. Regularly written articles will help ensure not only a steady flow of traffic, but will help get your name in front of more people. RSS has made it easy to not only have your content syndicated but it also makes it easier for people to know when you have new content available.
Organic search is a necessity in today's online business. If your site can rank well for it's key terms, people who search regularly for your type of business will become familiar with your name, which consequently increases your chances of making a sale. You could also purchase paid listings on search engines. If your URL shows up for keywords and paid listing on the same page, it may help push a visitor to your site. The problem is you don't have control over what sites your ads are placed on. It could hurt your brand if your link was found on an inappropriate site. Some search engines like Yahoo have become smart enough to associate a person to a website or a company. A search on Yahoo for my name, Joe Balestrino, returns my site www.mr-seo.com as the #1 position.
Give your business a human presence. The Internet for the most part is just words and images. Letting people associate a name and a face with your company will let then know that there is a person in charge and that he is accessible, whether it is through email, telephone or instant messenger. Letting them know you are there if they need you can be a big selling point.
Podcasting is a new way to get the word out about your company. Podcasting is basically audio to go. People can download the audio files to their computer or ipod. You can provide news about your industry, tips, ideas etc. This powerful marketing tool is growing by leaps and bounds. If your industry doesn't already have a few podcasts, start one. Be the pioneer in your field, or do something that separates you from the others. If it's informative as well as entertaining, you can grow a steady fan base. The fans are a very important resource to you. You can ask them for feedback, concerns or problems they have in your area of business. Sometimes free advice can go a long way. Also, If your make it entertaining and informative enough, people will tell others.
Blogs are a great way to let people know what is going on with your company, offer tips, insights and provide other information. Many large companies use blogs as a way for consumers to see the company on a more personal level. Companies also use it as a way to release information and to acquire feedback.
Another useful tip is to get your logo out there. Some article sites will let you upload an image. Most message boards allow you to use an avatar. Take advantage of those. Message boards are also a great way to get your name and brand out there. Share some insights or help others with their questions. People do get business from message boards.
These are just some basic ways you get get your business and your brand in front of people. This is not an overnight process. Hard work, persistence and a steady stream of quality content will get you on your way to becoming recognized in your field.
Articles have always been a way to market a business on and off the net. A well written article in a newspaper or a column would generate some business years ago. Today with so much content available and few publications writing articles about specific businesses other than from a strictly newsworthy standpoint, marketing professionals must strive to create well recieved ad campaigns. Articles are still a great way to boost internet businesses and can provide SEO backlinks and anchor text. Articles also help drive in quality traffic. The most important use of articles, however, is to help brand your company. Informative articles are a great resource for the Internet. The better an article is written, the better chances of it being placed on other sites. The article will be viewed as an extension of your company's knowledge, policies and mission, so make it count. Regularly written articles will help ensure not only a steady flow of traffic, but will help get your name in front of more people. RSS has made it easy to not only have your content syndicated but it also makes it easier for people to know when you have new content available.
Organic search is a necessity in today's online business. If your site can rank well for it's key terms, people who search regularly for your type of business will become familiar with your name, which consequently increases your chances of making a sale. You could also purchase paid listings on search engines. If your URL shows up for keywords and paid listing on the same page, it may help push a visitor to your site. The problem is you don't have control over what sites your ads are placed on. It could hurt your brand if your link was found on an inappropriate site. Some search engines like Yahoo have become smart enough to associate a person to a website or a company. A search on Yahoo for my name, Joe Balestrino, returns my site www.mr-seo.com as the #1 position.
Give your business a human presence. The Internet for the most part is just words and images. Letting people associate a name and a face with your company will let then know that there is a person in charge and that he is accessible, whether it is through email, telephone or instant messenger. Letting them know you are there if they need you can be a big selling point.
Podcasting is a new way to get the word out about your company. Podcasting is basically audio to go. People can download the audio files to their computer or ipod. You can provide news about your industry, tips, ideas etc. This powerful marketing tool is growing by leaps and bounds. If your industry doesn't already have a few podcasts, start one. Be the pioneer in your field, or do something that separates you from the others. If it's informative as well as entertaining, you can grow a steady fan base. The fans are a very important resource to you. You can ask them for feedback, concerns or problems they have in your area of business. Sometimes free advice can go a long way. Also, If your make it entertaining and informative enough, people will tell others.
Blogs are a great way to let people know what is going on with your company, offer tips, insights and provide other information. Many large companies use blogs as a way for consumers to see the company on a more personal level. Companies also use it as a way to release information and to acquire feedback.
Another useful tip is to get your logo out there. Some article sites will let you upload an image. Most message boards allow you to use an avatar. Take advantage of those. Message boards are also a great way to get your name and brand out there. Share some insights or help others with their questions. People do get business from message boards.
These are just some basic ways you get get your business and your brand in front of people. This is not an overnight process. Hard work, persistence and a steady stream of quality content will get you on your way to becoming recognized in your field.
Do we create sites for user or the engines?
What’s more important? Creating sites for users or the engines? The answer is both.
Primarily a site should be designed for the user, with search engines in mind. Google tends to talk out both sides of their mouth when they say, “Don’t do anything special for the engines”. Yet, they create a webmaster tool center where you can submit a sitemap, and get information about how the engines see your site, errors and what key phrases your site ranks for. That gives new site owners a little bit of confusion.
I like sites that are easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and that help sell whatever it is you need to. Pages should be set up as landing pages. This way you can give the visitor everything they need to make a purchase or fill out a form. At the same time you can optimize these pages for the engines and use the pages for your PPC campaigns. I believe in doing sites this way. It brings the visitor a much better experience.
The perfect site is not only user friendly, but optimized for the engines. You need to target where people go to in order to provide them with the information or product they need. There is nothing worse than having people landing on a page that is optimized for a phrase but offers no information about it.. It brings the user a bad experience and you a missed sale or lead. Once you have a page optimized, you can streamline the transition from viewing what you have to offer to facilitating a purchase. You can also provide related content and links. This, in turn, will help with you PPC because Google is now checking to see how relevant your landing pages are to the keywords you buy.
In the grand scheme of things, you do need to optimize your site. However, if you do not have usability for the user, your traffic won’t convert. Non-converting traffic is worse than having no traffic at all. It’s a webmasters nightmare.
Primarily a site should be designed for the user, with search engines in mind. Google tends to talk out both sides of their mouth when they say, “Don’t do anything special for the engines”. Yet, they create a webmaster tool center where you can submit a sitemap, and get information about how the engines see your site, errors and what key phrases your site ranks for. That gives new site owners a little bit of confusion.
I like sites that are easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and that help sell whatever it is you need to. Pages should be set up as landing pages. This way you can give the visitor everything they need to make a purchase or fill out a form. At the same time you can optimize these pages for the engines and use the pages for your PPC campaigns. I believe in doing sites this way. It brings the visitor a much better experience.
The perfect site is not only user friendly, but optimized for the engines. You need to target where people go to in order to provide them with the information or product they need. There is nothing worse than having people landing on a page that is optimized for a phrase but offers no information about it.. It brings the user a bad experience and you a missed sale or lead. Once you have a page optimized, you can streamline the transition from viewing what you have to offer to facilitating a purchase. You can also provide related content and links. This, in turn, will help with you PPC because Google is now checking to see how relevant your landing pages are to the keywords you buy.
In the grand scheme of things, you do need to optimize your site. However, if you do not have usability for the user, your traffic won’t convert. Non-converting traffic is worse than having no traffic at all. It’s a webmasters nightmare.
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