SEO

What’s the first basic skill anyone working in SEO learns how to perform? 

Chances are, it’s doing keyword research and finding out what people are searching for with respect to whatever website that SEO’er is optimizing. 

Is it a website about dog products? 

Well, are people searching for ‘dog beds’ or ‘dog pillows’?  What has a higher search volume month over month, ‘dog products’ or ‘dog supplies’?  The answers provide the base from which to begin the SEO process for that particular site. 

Having been in SEO for a while though, I’ve also learned a few unexpected things along the way from my keyword research.  I’ve been able to see what interests people online and to see what they look for when they think no one is looking.  

For example, I was doing keyword research for a clothing company and looked up “women’s skirts”.   The answers were not exactly what I expected, with “up skirt” getting 65,000 searches per year followed by “short skirt” with 28,522. It’s interesting because although you always hear how everyone uses the Internet for porn, seeing the search results pointing to that effect really drives the point home. 

We also really like to use the Internet to learn about the opposite sex as well. While researching for a dating site, I saw the many searches for “how to attract men”, “flirting tips” and “how to impress women”.    So many people search for keywords around losing weight too, probably to appear more attractive to the opposite sex. 

Although Google and most search engines record the keywords people type into the search box, I don’t think the majority of people think about that when surfing the net.  At least personally, I tend to think of myself being the only one who sees the results of what I’m looking for. 

I feel completely safe typing in whatever I want to see, and don’t have that filter of being embarrassed or having to be politically correct or sounding stupid that I might have if actually having a conversation with another person about that same topic.  Therefore, I tend to think that the large numbers of people looking for information about the opposite sex, or just sex itself, is fascinating. 

It shows that those subjects are first and foremost on our minds.  That’s what really matters to us.  That’s what we care about, our relationships and interactions with people.   The something which we’ve cared about since the beginning of time.    Perhaps even as quickly as technology changes and things advance by the minute in our world, we can count on certain things staying the same. 

Some things never change I guess. 

By: Brooke Betts 

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We have always maintained that business strategy is the most important aspect of any search marketing effort. Throwing SEO/PPC tasks against a wall and hoping something sticks is a recipe for disaster.Before we engage a client we focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the business goals and objectives in the short term and the future.What direction is the company going?With a clear direction, we then point our tools at the competition.  How are they positioned?  What tactics are they leveraging? This is a valuable part of forming a counter-strategy to attain the goals the client has established. Competitive intelligence is a necessary component for any marketing effort. Competitive search intelligence is no different and can yield eye-opening information.Many things can be discovered by looking under the hood of a competitor’s Web site, such as the keywords with which they’re winning business. On many occasions we also get an idea of new marketplaces, products or strategies the competition is focusing on long before these tactics are completely introduced to the market.To determine your online competition type your tier 1 keyword into Google.  Pick the top three sites.  Use the link popularity checker at marketleap.com to see how your site compares to the top three in terms of incoming links.  You want to seek out sites with the highest Google rankings and lowest amount of incoming links.Visit your competitors’ sites.  Is the site easy to navigate?  Do they have content and clear call to action statements that encourage conversion?  Are they using long tail keywords?  What techniques are they using that you can also leverage, or even get ahead?If you are in business you are in a competitive battle.  Begin to think of SEO as an important strategic tool.  Include your SEO vendor in your strategic planning and see what they can learn about the competition that you might not already know.

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You lost them at Hello. Now what do you do? You are finally getting someInternet traffic on your site, with higher organic rankings or PPC activity. So what! Traffic alone will not pay the bills.Let’s be honest, the average site visitor will give you only five seconds to draw them in, to peak their curiosity. To maximize the value of this new traffic you must get these visitors to do something, to take action.Ask yourself these questions, with the correct answers you are on your way to higher click-throughs and conversion rates. What is the focal point of my landing page or Web site? Am I getting visitors to focus on what is important or am I distracting them? Do I have any calls to action, meaning does anything on my landing page prompt the visitor to do something? Have I tested different content, text sizes and other attributes for user appeal?There is an enormous amount of psychological differences in user base and target audiences, are you testing to find out what appeals to your specific audience? Is there any sense of urgency to prompt action?Answering these questions and leveraging your answers will have you on your way to keeping your visitors interested and helping them take action.

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photo credit: Koshyk
Every week I am reminded of a common problem many businesses don’t even realize they have—the quintessential form over function problem. Many companies approach their Web site design from the perspective of the consumer only. 

Unfortunately customers have very little impact on how you rank within the search engines.  And without being ranked, those all-important customers will not find you.

“Businesses tend to spend it all to look cool online and not a dime on how the site can be found,” laments Gartner Research Vice President Gene Alvarez.“

“At least one-third of the design budget should be allocated to site discovery on things like keywords, reviewing pages for Web-crawler-friendly attributes and the development of a site map.”

When making the decision to launch a new site or embark on a re-design answer these three questions and you will be on your way to better findability:

• What is your objective for the newly designed site?
• What critical business information do want the search engines to find?
• Have you established a budget for search marketing?

Spending money on a new site which is invisible to your future customers is a wasted investment.  For more information download our Guide to Findability here.

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Traffic is important, but even more critical factors are click-through and conversion. Traffic is great, but traffic alone on your site does not pay the bills.What makes the ROI in Search Marketing so powerful is when visitors to your site are encouraged through best practices to click through, or look deeper into the site. Remember that your site is like a virtual salesperson. It must attract visitors, engage them in conversation, answer objections, present solutions to their needs and finally close the deal.Last and even most critical is the ability to generate and improve upon Web site traffic conversions. In a conversion, a visitor agrees to take the next step, to sign up for a white paper or account and even to purchase something from the site. This is the close, and without it you simply have visitors rather than customers.A properly thought out and executed strategy will include all of the facets mentioned above. This comprehensive approach can lead to dramatic improvements in all of these areas.

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Keywords really can make or break a solid campaign. This applies to most facets of Search Marketing (SEO, PPC, Social Networking, etc.)Why are keywords important?Without them your targeted audience cannot find the products, services or information that is key about your business. Think of keywords as the clues that lead your customer to their desired solution.How do I select keywords?You know your business better than anyone, so shouldn’t you be the omniscient authority on your key search terms? That would be the most logical choice and if you are shaking your head in agreement, you are dead wrong.This is what gets many talented business owners and marketing folks into problems. Your personal knowledge of your business and appropriate words are only truly valuable at the very beginning of a campaign. The most valuable keywords will come from your customers and potential clients and watching the ongoing movement in the marketplace.I can hear your next question, “So how do I find out what they want and/or what they type into search engines?”The answer is research and test, test, test. The whiz-bang, mysterious dark art to search marketing is there are no secrets! It’s all research, analysis, strong strategies and repeated testing. Hmmm, that sounds like the same solid marketing principles that have been used for years.Leverage the data that is provided in initial campaigns to formulate stronger campaigns over time to deliver exceptional results.Tip: Use the research toolset provided at tools.seobook.com and you will be ahead of the competition.Use these free tools to find out what people are searching for and what they’re doing online.www.google.com/webhp?complete=1www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.htmlanswers.yahoo.comgroups.google.comwww.rankpulse.com

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The Biggest Loser is a coveted title when it comes to the battle of the bulge, not so much when it describes your Web site.How do you know if your site is a loser?For many it’s not that obvious that the site they call their own is not making the cut. It can sometimes be hard to see past your hard work of getting the site up to an honest evaluation. So what defines a Web site loser on the internet? Ideally, a site should:

• Generate relevant traffic
• Get viewers to click-through
• Get users to convert to some sort of action

Well, now you know what to look for. So basically your site should get people there, keep them interested and take desired action. But how can you validate the factors mentioned above? A simple to use tool for validating your current status is www.alexa.com.With Alexa you can measure your current ranking and measure the page views of each visitor. The higher the number (ranking), the worse your site is doing. So a 410,000 Alexa ranking is not great. The page view data is a useful tool for seeing how effective the click-through techniques are on your site. The more page views per visitor the better.One final simple but important tool is the Google page rank tool, google.com/webmasters/tools. It is also available as part of the Google tool bar. A page rank of two is not a good page rank, whereas a page rank of six or seven is fantastic.Leverage the tools mentioned above to determine whether your website is a loser or not.

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