SEO Tips from Matt Cutts (Mr. Google)

Matt Cutts is considered the face of Google which I think is brilliant because he is such a regular, unassuming guy and gives Google the persona of an approachable person.  Just brilliant!

In the video interview below with Jefferson Graham from USA Today, Matt Cutts answers questions about the “common sense” things you can do to have your website found in Google.

Below is a summary of Matt’s responses to Jefferson’s questions and my commentary:

Matt Cutts: In response to what is the #1 thing you can do to be found in Google: Use keywords in your website content which are actually being searched by people.

Bernie Borges: Duh…Absolutely!  But, this is a bit oversimplified.  First you must research keywords.  You shouldn’t assume your keywords are good.  You may be too close to your business to know which keywords are searched most frequently.  Additionally, some keywords are very competitive.  Keyword research will tell you which keywords are more and less competitive.  Often, the Long Tail keywords are the most effective.

Matt Cutts: Title Tags Matter.  Users see the Title tags first in the search results.  But, the description tag actually describes your web page listing in Google.  The description tag should be short but very well written about your web page.

Bernie Borges: Absolutely! But, many marketers make the mistake of using the same Title tags on each page.  Each page should have a unique Title tag and a unique description tag.  Optimizing many web pages will increase your chances of being found by Google. 

Matt Cutts: Links are Important: There are many ways to get legitimate links.  One of the best is to start a blog and participate in the conversations on the web.  A blog doesn’t have to be fancy.  You can talk about your customers, why you started your business, things about your business.  People will learn more about your business.  Give people compelling ideas from your blog and you will get links. Also, participate in other social media sites. 

Bernie Borges: I generally agree, but Matt makes this sound easy and it’s not.  Starting a blog requires development of a strategy, which requires research and planning.  Once you start a blog, you must be committed to it, or you’ll lose credibility for starting and stopping a blog.  Matt didn’t mention other link building strategies such as syndicating content, or SEO optimizing press releases.  Social media marketing can be very effective in link building, but it requires strategy, commitment and resources.  Not all businesses are able to make and follow through with this committment.

Matt Cutts: The most common misconception is that you have to pay Google to get listed in the organic listings.  Not true.  Google crawls web sites for free.  Another misconception is that the PPC (pay per click) listings will help your organic search engine rankings.  Not true.  PPC has no affect on your “editorial search results.”

Bernie Borges: This is aka “separation of church and state.”  Matt’s referall to organic listings as “editorial search results” is terrific.  Media firms have always maintained separation between advertising and editorial.  This is exactly the same principle.  This is 100%, indisputably accurate!

Matt Cutts: In response to: Does it take 3 to 6 months to get your website crawled?  No.  Google updates their index monthly and crawls all websites it can find for free.  Google also provides a free tool called Google Webmaster which allows you to list all your URLs to be found there in days, not months.

Bernie Borges: Absolutely!  We use Google Webmaster with our SEO clients.  It is a valuable tool which gives a lot of insight into how Google sees your website, including identifying broken links which you may not even know you had.

 

Bernie Borges Final Commentary:

While everything Matt Cutts said in this interview is 100% accurate, it is a bit oversimplified.  It’s a little like saying if you want to compete in a marathon, all you have to do is train 5 miles a day for 3 months, then 11 miles a day for 1 month prior to the marathon event.  The execution of such recommendations takes discipline, coaching and just plain hard work.

SEO is hard work!  I’m sure this sounds a little self serving, given that we provide SEO services.  My argument is that the details associated with these valid suggestions are plentiful.  A successful Internet marketing strategy requires planning, execution and measurement by resources with the know how and availability to get the job done.  Matt Cutts’ suggestions, while accurate, are also just a portion of an overall SEO strategy, for example, he made no mention of the importance of the technical architecture of your website, along with other important factors. 

Oh, one more thing.  I take exception with people who say that SEO is a one time process and once you’ve completed it you are done (Matt Cutts did not say this).  Whoa!  That is so far from the truth.  That’s like saying today is sunny and therefore I assume everyday going forward will be sunny…Others are doing SEO in your keyword space and you will lose ground if you stop working at it.  I will agree there is more effort required on the front end, but you should not just walk away from an SEO plan or you will see declining results, unless perhaps if you are a in very unique niche with little competition for your keywords.  

Your thoughts?

Content is Still King

I talk every day with clients and write often in this blog about the importance of links in any SEO strategy. Anyone who has spent more than ten minutes reading about SEO knows that back links are critical ingredient for organic search engine rankings.

One point I make often is that a good link strategy will yield limited results or no material results without a strong foundation of content. In fact, we say that (in round numbers) 30% of a website’s SEO success is based on “on page” factors. On-page factors refer to well-optimized content with good use of keywords, meta tags, header tags, search engine friendly URLs and optimized source code.

The math is obvious. We like to say that about 70% of a website’s SEO is based on off-page factors. Primarily, this refers to the extent to which others think your content is good. At first, this sounds very strange. How can others determine how good my content is? And, how can Google (and other engines) determine what others think?

Consider a comment made by a Google engineer at the Online Marketing Summit conference I attended last October. He said this: “Google doesn’t care about your content. Google cares about who cares about your content.” What he means, is when other content (on other websites) link to your content, they are “casting a vote.” for your content.

The Google technology explanation describes how this works.  Essentially, other web pages link to your content and Google considers that a “vote” for your content.

To accentuate this point consider how Google’s origin as Backrub, is based on this concept of keeping score of the popularity of your content.

So, if creating links to content is so critical to SEO success then why don’t we just go out and buy a g-zillion links to our content?  Well, some do.  First, consider that if you pay a site to link to you, that is frowned upon by Google and the other major engines.  We don’t condone it.

Let’s go back to the comment by the Google engineer.  In fact, Google does care about your content.  He went on to say that the more relevant, keyword-rich content you have (along with a search engine friendly architecture), the more links your content will naturally attract.

Then, if you pay someone to build legitimate links to your website (not pay the website to link to you), those links will be well supported by your content and provide good SEO value.

Now, let’s go back to the 30/70 ratio although, this is admittedly hearsay, not a statistic backed up by Google.  The point to this ratio is this.  If you build a strong foundation in your SEO plan with great, relevant content, then the links you get will carry weight in SEO value. 

Of course, the Google PR value of the source of the links counts as well.  The point here is that links without content are not effective.

So, it comes back to this – content is king! 

Juiced Up Press Releases

I’ve written before about the importance of merit based link building.  I talk about it everyday with our clients.  So, here I go again writing about it.

Wait a minute – the title of this post says it’s about press releases.  Right….

Too many marketers have a one dimensional view of their press releases. They think a press release is an announcement designed to produce some public relations (that other “PR”) value.  Once upon a time, I hawked press releases in a previous life, working the editors and analysts hoping to get ink and win kudos from my boss and my sales counterparts.

Marketers should think of their press releases as content for their website.  Even more, they should think of press releases as content that can be syndicated across the web.  And, it is a great opportunity for merit based links back to your website, ie., SEO, ie., Google juice!

Those of us in the Internet Marketing business refer to “Google juice” as any content which helps us get indexed by Google.  The most powerful Google juice is content which has valuable links anchored from our desirable keyword phrases on a web page of relevant content.

Another term for this simply is an optimized press release.  If we optimize our web content for search engine optimization (SEO), then an optimized press release is just another form of optimized content.

The difference is that an optimized press release can get distributed over a search engine friendly wire service such as PRWeb and BusinessWire.  And, it can produce valuable and juiced up links, anchored from some of your favorite keywords.

Understanding this should inspire marketers not to limit press releases to the most newsworthy stories in their company.  A good marketer should be thinking of press releases as a key component to their SEO strategy.  That’s because a good marketer understands that in SEO content is king, and press releases can make for great content.  And, great content produces merit based links.  This is the SEO circle of life!

Take for example this press release.  In this release we announced a client engagement.  Regardless of your opinion of the news value, note the anchor text linking in this press release.  By optimizing it for keywords such as “SEO strategy” with links back to our website, we are producing valuable one-way links from news services such as PRWeb: http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/3/prweb774424.htm. 

So, juice up your press releases by optimizing them and creating great content and great links for SEO value.  It’s not too hard to do it and definitely worth the effort.

Linking Building for SEO

Link Building Strategies for SEO (Podcast Show Notes)What is a link? Links from other websites into your website. Links are critical to SEO. Remember that the web is about links – that’s why they call it the web: Google’s PageRank defined: PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance. Google’s search algorithm was originally designed to measure “back links.” Check Google’s original history: Backrub.

Ways to create links for SEO:

• Content produces links naturally (weeds grow in dirt)
• Press releases
• Syndicated content comprised of articles with your theme-specific and keyword rich content
• Blogs – content in blogs grows rapidly and attracts links
• Special requests – outsourced link building through experts like Find and Convert

Not all links are created equal:

• Relevance of the content of the page linked from
• The PageRank of the page linked from
• Importance of anchor text linking
• Importance of quality of linking page
• Mix up sentence or description with the anchor text
• Link to home page and inside pages to diversify the mix of back links

Study link stats as well as search stats:

• Yahoo: link:www.website.com to check the links back to this website.
• Set up Google Webmaster services to track links: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.

Quality of links is very important. Build links slowly for specific keyword phrases. Build them at a pace according to the size of your website. Ranking improvements will happen eventually but it’s not an exact science. Improvements depend on quality of links anchored from relevant keyword phrases.

Be patient, give it time (3 to 12 months). Build links for many keyword phrases (diversify).

Link building is a must in any SEO strategy.

Blogging Basics for Business Podcast – Part 2

Blogging Basics for Business Podcast - Part 2

Why should a business blog?

Blogs have marketing value to a business through:
Credibility
Exposure
Feedback
Learn what other people are saying
People can interact with your business
Search engine optimization value

Start with a strategy!

Each blog should have a purpose.  Define your objective, your target audience.
Define your blog content strategy.
Identify who is qualified to write on selected content in your company.
It may be one or many people in your company.
Plan out a content strategy when your blog is new.
Eventually let the conversations flow.
Study other blogs that are competitive or similar.
Select a strategy with a different voice in your industry.
Be conversational.  Don’t write like a press release.
Let conversations happen.  Sometimes you need to NOT comment.  Let others comment.
Allow the community to interact with each other.
Don’t rule over your community in your blog.
 

Should you moderate your blog?

Start out moderating it then if edits are not needed let it flow unmoderated.
Have someone review the blog at least once per day.
Time and resources are needed for a business blog strategy.  That’s reality.  Get over it!

Promote your blog. 

Start with customers, suppliers, employees, partners.
Announce your blog.  Email a link to it.  Put it on your business card, in your auto signature, newsletter, etc.

Search engines and blogs.

Technorati is the Google of search engines for blogs.
Submit your blog to Technorati.  You can have Technorati “ping” your blog for updates.
Use Tags in your blog posts which will tell the search engines about the content in your blog.
Search engines like blog content because blog content gets indexed updated frequently. 
Blogs are very search engine friendly.

Blog marketing.

Some marketers effectively blog on topics that they do not rank well for.  Blog content can get ranked quickly.  So, it’s an effective way to improve your search engine optimization rankings on desired topics.

Avoid blog fade.  Do not start a blog that you can’t commit to.  Plan the work, then work the blog plan.

Blog statistics. 

Track blog stats using your blog tool, e.g., WordPress, TypePad.  You can also use Feedburner.  Watch how many subscribers you have, how active it is, etc.

Blog links. 

Blogs produce links which are very helpful for SEO.  You should link to other blogs from your blog as a service to your reader.
Use a blogroll as a list of other blogs that are meaningful to your blog readers.  When you link to other blogs you pay them a compliment. 
Often others will find your blog from your links and therefore the viral exposure is a huge benefit and others may link to your blog.
Ultimately, the link centric nature of blogs is very powerful for exposure.

Success stories.

Large company: IBM has over 10,000 internal blogs.  They form communities of people who work together.  Blogs are used productively to communicate and collaborate.  Employees even cut down on email by using blogs.

Small company: We’re currently working with a client.  We’ve identified the target market, topics, useful tips, information, how to’s, things to avoid.  Initial focus is building a Web 2.0 blog strategy.  We’ve identified about 5 people inside the company who will be blogging on these topics.  Then, the blog will be developed and launched and marketed.

Blogging for business can be very productive.  Plan the work and work the plan.
 

Who links to your site?

Everybody knows that links to your site are important for organic search engine rankings, especially in Google.  But, how do you know who links to your sites?  Google’s Webmaster tools provide valuable insight into such details.  Read more about it here.