3 SEO Tips for the Ages

SEO has evolved since the mid 1990s from a cookie cutter method (pre-Google) to a set of best practices that are anything but simple. Many companies still get SEO wrong even when they think they’re doing it right. Often, a webmaster informs the IT Director, who informs the Marketing Manager and the CEO that the website “has been SEO’d.” Even the verb tense is wrong. It implies that search engine optimization is a one time process like upgrading a copy machine. Nothing is further from reality!

SEO is a Marathon

SEO is anything but a one time process. I liken it to training for and running a marathon.  If you’re serious about running in a marathon, you better start training at least six months before the race. After the marathon event, unless you have no plan to ever run another marathon, you must continue to train. As long as you are a marathoner you’re always in training – ALWAYS. SEO is the same. It’s like every other aspect of business that needs ongoing care and feeding. Sure, you go through different phases of an SEO plan, but it’s never done. If you believe that, you’ll make your competitors very happy.

Simplifying the Mystique of SEO

While SEO has certainly evolved over the years, I seek to boil it down to three key points.

Site Architecture

Your website must be friendly to search engines. It starts with the code that lives behind the front end which humans see at www.yourcompany.com. For non-techies think of website code as the plumbing, wiring and brick or wood structure of a house. While, the human eye sees furniture and decorated walls, without a solid infrastructure a house is not functional.

A website’s code should be “lean” which is the opposite of bloated. When a website has a bloated CSS or long scripts, the content on your website simply gets lost in the eyes of search engines. Literally, the search engines have difficulty finding your content because it’s so buried in a bloated code environment. The solution is to have a web developer clean up the code by consolidating it (optimizing) so that the content is easier for search engines to find and index it in their search engine (database).

Another important aspect of site architecture is the meta data. This is the data that speaks to the search engines about each web page. The title tag is very important because it identifies the central theme of the page. It’s also the title which is displayed in a search engine listing. The description tag is also important because it’s the snippet or summary of the page in the search engine listing. A well written title tag and description tag can make or break click throughs from your listings in a search engine.

Keyword Strategy

Developing a keyword strategy is also critical to a sound SEO strategy that delivers results. There is no way getting around the fact it takes work. At my SEO services agency we use a keyword strategy approach that is very effective. I’ll share it here for companies and competitors alike with no reluctance. We identify the products or services of our client and the buyer personas of each one. Then we conduct keyword research by putting ourselves in the shoes of each persona. We create tables to list each persona and their pain points in order to think the way they think. Whenever possible we interview the personas or, at a minimum the people who know the personas very well inside a client’s business. Below is a sample of buyer personas used in keyword research:

This method of keyword research sets up a keyword strategy that drives the content strategy. The SEO results increase greatly for being found in search engines by each of the personas that buy the target product.

Content Strategy

It’s been said that content is king. I once had a friendly debate with my friend Andrew Davis at Tippingpoint Labs about the role of content in SEO. His viewpoint was that all you need is great content to get good SEO results. It’s true that great content can provide good SEO results. But, the keyword strategy should drive the content strategy. The keyword strategy will guide what content you produce, for whom and the writing style. For example you may need content written for a management audience and some content for a more detailed worker. If you’re writing a page about a software product, the management level page and the data sheet page should be different to address each audience. The persona tables will help define how to write each content page.

Another important aspect of a content strategy is diversity. Text based web content is very important. But, search engines score all your content. By offering a good mix of content including images (with text tags), video and audio you please the search engines. Spreading your content across the web through social media including social bookmarking sites also contributes greatly to getting good SEO strategy results.

Lastly, the best benefit of a good content strategy is that it will result in getting inbound links. That means that people will link to your content and those links are the currency of search marketing. The more relevant inbound links you have, the better you’ll score with search engines.

It’s All About Conversions

I hope these three SEO tips were helpful to you.  But, the truth is this is an incomplete plan. A solid SEO plan will get you found in the search engines, but you need a strategy that converts visitors to your website into sales prospects or members of your community. I’ll get to that in a future blog post.

I invite you to add more tips below or comment on my three tips. I hope this blog post delivers on my goal of 3Es of content marketing, as I have preached in my book, Marketing 2.0.

Two New Improvements to Google Search Results Pages

Throughout my years of doing search engine optimization (SEO), I’ve often been asked by clients, how does your inbound marketing agency keep up with all the changes from Google? The answer of course is, we don’t have a choice.

Here’s an update from Google I’m please to cover. It’s a good example of how Google is making search results more relevant. And, if you read between the lines Google is helping the long tail searcher get better results.

There are two new improvements to Google’s search results.

More Useful Related Searches

If you search for “psa” the search results now will offer results which pertain to more than one meaning of “psa.” One common meaning is prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Another meaning is Plano Sports Authority. Another meaning is Professional Sports Authenticator. What if you are a software developer of professional services automation, or PSA software? At the bottom of the page, Google offers suggestions for other meanings of PSA, which includes professional services automation. Google is using “intent based logic” in their algorithm to give the searcher options in the search results.

But, what is Google really doing? …

Longer Descriptions

Google knows that people use longer search phrases. Of course, we call this long tail search phrases. Google now provides longer snippets of descriptions displaying all the words in the search. For example I searched “how information technology directors use social networking in business” and below is the first result showing a longer description:

Notice that the description is longer than what we’ve seen in the past. Google is clearly accommodating long tail searches.

I’m pleased to see this improvement. It helps us educate our clients on the value of long tail keyword search optimization.

@berniebay

Impact of Economy on SEO Services

On the date of this writing, the world is in a financial crisis unlike anything we’ve seen since the great depression (years before my birth).  Yet, I’ve noticed a very interesting trend in our business.  Lately, there is increased demand for our SEO services. 

I noticed the trend about a month ago when more inquiries and referrals started coming our way for SEO services.  So, I started asking prospective new clients what they are doing right now in the face of this economy?  The answer I’m hearing consistently doesn’t surprise me.

Most businesses across all industries are cutting expenses.  Some industries are affected more than others impacting the severity of their cutbacks.  Most marketing managers are being forced to cut marketing expenses. 

So, why are we seeing increased demand for SEO services?  Because marketers are cutting back other more traditional forms of marketing and relying more on the web to “find and convert” new sales opportunities.

Marketers are relying more on inbound marketing strategies through the web and it starts with search engine optimization (SE0) recognizing that when someone has found them on the web and contacted them, they are a potentially serious buyer.  In this economy, most sellers want to avoid wasting time with tire kickers and only spend time with serious buyers and the web is the most efficient medium to source out serious buyers.

While this is good news for internet marketing services companies like us, there is one word of caution I share with new clients.  I advise all client not to put all their eggs in the Google basket.

I inform all our clients that our web analytics prove that the top five referring sources of traffic to Find and Convert’s website include Google as well as other social media sites such as StumbleUpon, Twitter, Junta42 and Sphinn.

I advise all our clients to build a rock solid foundation in their SEO plan, and build out a social media marketing strategy on top of it for best long term results.  I’ve always believed we should “fish where the fish are,” and Google is not the only pond that has fish.  Focusing an entire internet marketing strategy just on Google would seriously overlook “other ponds of fish.”

Your thoughts?

Bernie Borges

 

Internet Marketing Myths

Internet marketing is comprised of organic search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising and social media marketing.  Many marketers don’t use pay-per-click (also called SEM).  Other than for some of the most competitive keyword phrases in your market niche, you are best served driving traffic from organic search engine rankings.

I argue that marketers should be actively working on their Internet marketing plan on an ongoing basis.  This isn’t a self serving comment as much as it is just reality.  It’s true that a new SEO plan for a website which has not previously gone through the conventional SEO process requires some heavy lifting that usually takes months to complete.  But, once it’s complete, it’s NOT done. 

To think you do SEO as a one time activity is the biggest Internet marketing myth on the planet.  I’ve actually read that and I’m amazed that people can actually think that. 

Search engines crawl your website regularly and ongoing. Imagine if search engines just crawled your website once then never again.  You wouldn’t like that would you?  You want credit for your great new content and for the new incoming links you’ve received over the past weeks, months and even years. 

Search engines crawl websites because they are in the business of providing search results to you and me based on the most relevant content and incoming links.  A website that was less relevant last week may be more relevant this week due to new content and links.  What if your top competitors have made their websites more relevant to your favorite keywords in the past week?  They will probably move up in search engine rankings.

So how can anyone actually believe that once you set up your SEO plan you are done?  That’s like saying once you roll out a marketing campaign, you’re done.  Or, like saying once you go to the gym and exercise, you’re done.  Or, once you …………ok, you get my point by now.

Earlier I stated that Internet marketing includes social media.  If you have not yet acknowledged the importance of social media in your marketing strategy, I urge you to.  Social media has allowed your prospects to learn more about you and your competitors than ever before.  The good news is you are less dependent on outside media to deliver good content to your prospects and customers.  And, the good news (there is no bad news here) is you get to do it as often as you want without needing a Fortune 100 marketing budget. 

The second Internet marketing myth point I’m making is that any business of any size (down to the sole proprietor) can deliver a great message using social media.  If you don’t have your own blog (which you should consider) visit popular blogs in your industry and post comments with your insights and thoughts.  Visit the websites of the main publications in your industry.  They probably have a blog where you can also post comments and see what people are talking about.

These Internet marketing myths can be summed by saying that working on organic SEO in part through active social media marketing can take time and effort, but the choice is do on an ongoing basis or not.  If you don’t you run the risk of being out-marketed by those competitors of yours who are.

If you have an experience to share pertaining to ongoing Internet marketing strategy success, please post it in the comment below.  Share it with us!  The world awaits your input…

 

Social Media Lines Blurring

As social media continues evolve, grow, blossom and even mature among both personal users and businesses, the lines are beginning to blur among them.

Well known social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are now being used in the same sentence as Twitter and Flickr.  Isn’t Twitter a micro-blogging tool?  Isn’t Flickr a photo content sharing tool?

What about YouTube?  Is YouTube a social networking site?

I don’t intend to give you a concrete answer to these questions.  Who am I to define these platforms? The user community is defining them.  But I will offer some offline comparisons to consider as you ponder this question.

If you belong to a health club, you joined it (presumably) to exercise.  On the surface, that is the purpose of a health club (or gym).  If you belong to a business organization such as a chamber or local business club, each of these organizations has a defined charter.  When you join any of these organizations mentioned here as examples, the premise of your membership is to participate in their charter.

Even if you joined any of the above for pure networking, you have to play by their rules.  You can’t go to your gym and hand out fliers and a business card in street clothes.  You’ll annoy so many patrons you’ll get kicked out. 

I have developed some very good relationships at my health club that carry into my personal and professional life.  I can say the same for a local non-profit business club I belong to (TBTF).  In both cases, my intent has been sincere.  I go to my healthclub to workout.  I go to TBTF functions to get involved, give of my time and talents and meet smart people.  Because both of these examples are local to me, I occasionally overlap.  I see people at my healthclub that belong to TBTF and vice versa.

The same can be said of social networking, even though the local aspect is much less a factor.  I know people in Facebook whom I also know in LinkedIn and Twitter, and vice versa.

So, what’s the benefit to this cross platform networking online?  I submit there are many benefits.  At a minimum I can meet other smart and interesting people through both platforms, and I really enjoy meeting smart people.

Since my profession is Internet marketing, and in particular we do search engine optimization (SEO) for our clients, another benefit is exposure to the content I produce.  Such exposure can result in content being shared among the network resulting in quality links.  Some content exposure can be incidental and some can be intentional. 

As I continue to network in the online social media world, I’m amazed at how the mutual benefits of social, networking and relationship building coincide with SEO value through the propagation of content and organic link building that occurs.

What’s your experience on social networks?  Which platforms do you use the most?  Which platforms mentioned here are social networking sites and which are (fill in the blank)?

 

What’s In Your Toolbox?

Have you ever tried to hang a picture on the wall and realized that the only tool you had access to was a screwdriver?  You laugh, but deep inside, you know you tried to use it as hammer, didn’t you?  Marketing a website, hanging a picture, same rules apply. If we try a tool that is cheap, free or is just absolutely wrong to accomplish the job, we usually end up with a broken screwdriver or a few extra holes in the wall.

I find that it isn’t the size of the project or even the grand scale of what you are trying to accomplish, it’s what kind of tools are you using and how you are using them. Personally, I would rather work smarter than harder any day of the week by using the right tools from the get-go. It might take a little longer, but in the long run, it was the right thing to do.

It used to be that when a website was made, the “thing to do” was to submit your site URL to hundreds of search engines and hope that they get picked up.  Unfortunately, even still today, there are unscrupulous Internet scammers that prey on the new and unsuspecting site owners who sell list after tired list and software submissions after tired submissions that do nothing to get your site into the search engines.  After that hard lesson on money-down-the-drain is learned, the site owner looks to find a better way. 

A better tool…

This brings us to the most valuable set of tools that should be in your toolbox arsenal when you are launching a website.  Google has mastered the Internet search world, no surprise here, and their ultimate objective is to create the most relevant search result to the end user.  They provide webmasters the tools needed to help you achieve exactly this in your website.  The Google webmasters tools are the first and foremost steps that anyone should utilize to properly get their website indexed in Google. 

There are two very important steps on how the Google Webmasters tools can help you.  First, they help you get your site verified.  This means that you are indeed the owner of your site and are authorizing Google to have access to information on how people are looking for your site. This, in and of itself, is priceless information from a marketing standpoint.

The second is called a sitemap.  An XML sitemap to be more specific.  This is a very powerful tool that helps feed the spiders.  Google is a very hungry spider and loves to find new, juicy tidbits of content on websites.  Unfortunately, if you do not have the right entry way to all of your pages on your site, the spiders are left out and they move onto other more enticing sumptuous offerings to nosh on.  An XML sitemap is exactly that doorway needed to help them find each and every page that you have on your site.

Coupled with the Google Analytics and Website Optimizer programs, the Google Webmasters tools is the strongest foundational tool to have in your toolbox. Additionally, we do not wish to leave all our eggs in one basket.  Both Yahoo, and now more recently MSN, have also created their versions of webmasters tools that are used to build indexed pages in their respective search engines as well.

We use these tools as an SEO foundational architecture with our clients’ sites day in and day out.  This is what we do.  We feed spiders!

Stay tuned for more tips on how to get your Google Webmaster tools and how to create an XML sitemap to feed the search engine spiders!

So tell me now… what’s in your toolbox?

Dianna F. Kersey
Internet Marketing Analyst
CIW Webmaster

 

Bernie Borges on Tampa Bay CEO Lounge Radio Show

Bernie appeared as a guest on the CEO Lounge radio show on March 29, 2008. Following is an excerpt of the interview.

What is Web 2.0?

Analogy: the world was once considered flat.  When the world was discovered to be round the flat world became obsolete.  Web 1.0 is like a flat world.  Web 2.0 (coined in 2004) is like a round world….In Web 2.0 people can subscribe and get involved in communities.  The value to marketers is the collective influence of these communities.

Important for businesses to understand Web 2.0.  Marketers can harness the power of the collective influence of communities in Web 2.0.

Blogosphere: You can be a speaker or a listener.  Visit or participate or both.   People subscribe to blog conversations.  blogs are two way conversations.  People subscribe to the blog (the conversations). 

Podcasting: it is a media file (audio or video).  People subscribe to a podcast as a series of episodes.  Study: July 2006 Knowledgestorm & Universal McCann surveyed 3900 business and IT professionals.  They are increasing using podcasts.  73% listened to business podcasts more than once.  More than half want more podcast content for white papers, case studies.  Their biggest frustration is scarcity of content. 

Post podcasts to a blog with show notes which are indexed by search engines.  Post podcasts in podcast directories such as iTunes.  Plus the search engine indexing of show notes can drive traffic to your website.

Search engine optimization and Internet Marketing is much more than it was ever before.   With the advent of Web 2.0, many more avenues are available.  But, it takes more strategy and effort.  But, the results can be awesome!

SEO: The Perfect Storm

I often talk with marketers about the difference between SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click advertising).   I remind myself that, unlike me and my team at Find and Convert (and others in our business), most marketers don’t spend their days thinking about Internet marketing strategies as we do.

So, when we look at the difference between SEO and PPC, it goes beyond the costs.  After all, most marketers understand that PPC can cost a lot more than SEO.  But, for so many marketers PPC (also known as SEM) is the path of least resistance. 

Many marketers believe they can measure results from PPC easier than from SEO strategies.  But, let’s examine some of the facts.

We spend a lot of our time producing reports for clients.  These reports summarize (usually in painstaking detail) many statistics.  For the sake of this blog post I’ll hone in on the most telling stats which really point to the advantages of SEO over PPC. 

Time and again we see that visitors to our client’s websites which come from organic searches spend more time on the website, visit more pages and have lower bounce rates than paid search traffic.  The first two stats mentioned here should be self evident.  A bounce rate refers to someone who visits a web page on your site and does not visit another page, essentially “bouncing” off your site.

Moreover, when we provide reports on our PPC plans for clients, we track the cost of conversion (the desired action for the client).  Such conversion costs are tracked for the ads and for the keywords.  The most telling conversion cost is for the keywords we track.  This metric really tells us the cost to produce a lead for the most desirable keywords.

All too often we see marketers show the most interest in the most competitive keywords.  They wind up paying dearly for these keywords simply because they are competitive.

In SEO strategies, we are able to (with a lot of hard work) build optimization strategies for select keywords which are less competitive (long tail keywords).  For example, we work hard for a client to rank on page one for “project accounting software.”  But, the software client we represent has a product that runs only on Oracle.  So, when someone searches for “oracle project accounting software,” we hit a home run in ranking and in a qualified website visitor.

So, the message in this post is to think long term with SEO strategies.  Do the hard work which will require ongoing care and feeding, but can have long lasting and cost effective sales results through organic search traffic.  And, don’t be afraid to target lower searched, less competitive and long-tail keywords. 

I’ve always said I’d rather be found by the 10 people who are a perfect fit, than targeting 1000 people who may be a fit but are harder to reach and therefore a higher risk search strategy. 

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.

Making PDF Content Search Engine Friendly

We often see web content in PDF format.  In most cases PDF content can be read by search engines.  But, if the content is made up of something that was scanned and saved in a PDF format, that content is image based.  And, of course you already know that image based content can NOT be read by search engines. 

To ensure your PDF content is SEF (search engine friendly) make sure the content can be read by search engines.  Start by saving a plain text document (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) in a PDF format.

To get the maximum SEO value from your PDF content, link important keywords from your PDF document into relevant pages on your website containing those keywords (don’t over do it though). 

In your PDF document, select File, Properties.  In the Description tab type in meta data including a Title comprised of a few keyword phrases which represent the main theme of your document.  Enter the subject (a short sentence) and a description using the main keywords in the document (once again, don’t over do it). 

Once you’ve done this, you have optimized your PDF document and when it is placed on your website you will get search engine optimization value from your PDF content! 

BTW, you need Adobe Acrobat Professional to do this, but it is well worth the price if you place PDF content on your website.

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