Archive for August, 2008

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, offers great potential for targeted lead generation. Unlike some of the other promotional methods, it is easy to independently target several different types of customers with SEO. Read on to learn more about how to use SEO for lead generation.

A single web site selling one product or service can attract customers with varying needs, by emphasizing certain aspects on different pages. For example, perhaps there is a web site which sells a fast, high-capacity battery charger. On one page, it might emphasize how many batteries the unit can simultaneously charge, while stressing how quickly it charges them on another page. Each page should include details on all of the product’s advantages, but focus upon one and begin by describing it. Both pages could have a form for requesting more information, which provides lead generation for the product being advertised and prevents the customer from having to make an immediate decision.

So how is SEO involved? The web site will not receive much search engine traffic if it emphasizes the wrong keywords on the lead generation page. The same holds true if it overuses them or applies words that too many other web sites have emphasized. For example, hardly anyone uses the words “rapid” or “high-speed” when searching for information about charging batteries quickly, whereas some do use “fast” or “quick” in these searches. In some cases, it may be best to repeatedly use two alternative (but correct) spellings of the same SEO keyword. Remember that the pages shouldn’t be too similar to each other; this can be detrimental to SEO, as search engines may see them as duplicates.

The title tag and META description tag are also part of SEO; they must use phrases which attract potential customers who have the interests emphasized on a specific page. Using the right keywords in the URL is important as well. A page emphasizing the quality of a product should use several related keywords in its URL, alongside words indicating the product type. An example would be www.example.com/cell-phone/very-durable-rugged.html; notice that highly competitive words which have been overused by other web sites, like “best” and “quality”, have been left out.

Basically, a web site can use SEO to enhance lead generation by emphasizing different search keywords on each page, creating attractive title/description tags, and using hyphen-separated keywords in the page URLs. This should make possible lead generation on many types of customers.

Mobile internet access devices have become more common in recent years, including the Blackberry and Apple iPhone. The major search engines have created mobile versions of their web sites, and a special .mobi domain name has been introduced. To tap into this additional source of traffic, web site operators will want to apply both SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and design techniques which ensure mobile compatibility. Here are some facts about SEO for the mobile arena:

1. People often search for phrases like “myspace mobile”, “mobile weather”, “mobile phone games”, and “mobile maps”. Using the word “mobile” for the filename or subdomain will be helpful in SEO, along with putting this word in titles and using it in the text. Include relevant SEO keywords that these users are liable to search for, remembering that they are less likely to enter long phrases.

2. Mobile engines typically have fewer graphics and less formatting. To see examples of these search engines and their results, take a look at m.towza.com, m.live.com, and us.m.yahoo.com on a regular web browser. They do not automatically prioritize phone optimized results, but this may change in the future and benefit web sites that have already focused on this type of SEO.

3. As with regular SEO, gaining inbound links from other web sites will help generate direct and search traffic. Obtaining links from other mobile sites (on related subject matter) should be prioritized, but links from regular sites will also benefit SEO efforts. Some directories of mobile-compatible links accept new URL submissions, and may or may not require the payment of a fee.

4. Keep in mind that people browsing with these devices typically want brief data they can quickly obtain useful facts from; they don’t want to read through pages of information or large tables. These desires apply to SEO because the titles, keywords, and META tags of such pages should emphasize these characteristics (quick, brief, concise, etc.) to attract visitors of this type.

5. Consider catering to the users of a specific phone or other device, either with an entire web site or one page on a site. Searches like “free blackberry games” and “iphone wallpaper” are common. In some cases, it is more realistic to focus upon niches like these with SEO than to target all users of these devices. It will also only be necessary to optimize the design for one device, not all of them.

Many web site owners fail to realize that the URL of an individual page can affect how much search engine traffic it receives. Like titles and keywords, URL structure is an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Read on to learn more about the best practices for creating an SEO based URL structure…

Putting related search keywords in the URL will help improve a page’s ranking. However, it is best to separate these words so that search engine “spiders” (a.k.a. “robots”) can distinguish between them; otherwise, it just looks like one long word. Some people use underscore (_) symbols in between the keywords, but using a hyphen (-) is generally considered preferable for SEO. If the page has content people are likely to revisit regularly - such as updated news or weather - consider creating a page with a short, easy to remember URL (perhaps a subdomain) which redirects to the long URL. Make sure the longer address is linked to from the “Site Map”.

Using a long URL structure generally isn’t a problem with regard to SEO; search engines will still index very long (over 100 letters) URLs, and most web browsers can handle addresses which are thousands of characters long. Nonetheless, excessively long URLs are less appealing for people to use in print or email. There is no need to repeat words already used in the URL; don’t use a word in the filename that repeats the domain, directory, or subdomain name. The same applies to the page’s title and “keywords” META tag, but not the body/text of the page, where SEO keywords should be used several times.

As an example of applying these best practices to the structure of a specific URL, the file name for a page selling portable computers might be cheap-laptop-notebook-computer. The entire address would be something like www.example.com/shopping/cheap-laptop-notebook-computer.htm. Changing the directory name “shopping” to “buy” would best target keywords people are likely to search for. On some search engines, text files (.TXT format) are listed with the URLs as their titles; others use the first line of text for this purpose. The same goes for documents in PDF format.

Basically, the best practices for creating an SEO oriented URL structure include using keywords (or phrases) people search for, separating each word with a hyphen, and avoiding repetitive URLs. Applying these practices isn’t difficult, and has the potential to substantially increase traffic.

Once seen as a flawless way to enhance search rankings and traffic, reciprocal linking now has the potential to affect a website in both good and bad ways. The following list of “pros and cons” will help determine whether reciprocal linking is right for your website, while providing some tips on how to trade links more effectively.

PROS

1. Reciprocal linking increases the direct traffic between both websites involved, especially if they are about related subjects. This decreases reliance upon search engines and/or paid advertising, which is good for saving money and maintaining a more stable flow of traffic. It is best to avoid trading links with sites on completely different topics.

2. It may still improve search result rankings, particularly when the two sites are relevant to each other, it isn’t obvious that the linking is reciprocal, and both sites have good PageRank levels. Sometimes one site will receive more benefit than the other, based upon these factors - such as when a popular PR5 site exchanges links with a new PR0 or PR1 site.

CONS

The potentially bad effect of reciprocal linking is largely associated with search engine rankings, and has become more problematic in recent years. Website operators may want to specifically agree beforehand about what sort of links (”nofollow”, link text, etc.) they will use.

1. Some search engines, especially Google, now disapprove of reciprocal linking and may penalize the search rankings of sites that are involved (if detected) - unless the “nofollow” attribute is used in the links, which eliminates any good or bad impact upon rankings. Any linking (reciprocal or not) to sites that have been “banned” by the engines will have a bad effect on search rankings.

2. Linking to other web pages can distract visitors from your site, possibly causing them to forget about it. Using links that open in new windows can help limit this bad aspect of reciprocal linking. A link also “endorses” the other site to some extent, so you will want to examine it for offensive content, viruses, or other material which may reflect badly upon anyone who links to it.

The ability to increase traffic among the linked websites remains an undoubtedly good aspect of reciprocal linking, but its benefits regarding the search engines are no longer as clear. Regardless of this, links should only be traded with high-quality relevant websites, and it is best not to exchange them excessively.

“Insight for Search” is a new tool Google has recently introduced in to add to the current Google Trends and AdWords tools. Google claims Insights for Search will help you “see what the world is searching for.”

Basically, the tool should help people better understand what is being searched for on Google as well as to see the details for certain keywords across various geographic regions, verticals and time periods for more insight.

Internet marketers or bloggers that what to determine what kind of content is engaging to more people should consider looking into the tool. One of the most powerful uses it offers is that you can actually narrow your search by categories to figure out which keywords are more popular in certain categories.

Additionally you can simply click the “search” button without entering any words in the search field to find the most popular rising terms for all categories and regions. And, by narrowing your empty search to a specific category you can see the most popular search terms for the category for its history.

This has the potential to be quite a powerful tool for anyone in the online marketing arena because essentially now you know which article topic will be more popular or which keyword is searched for more often in certain areas.

Google recently rewrote their article about what an SEO is and if they recommend them. The rewrite now includes how an SEO firm can help a company with valuable services as well as the warnings about common SEO scams that were there previously.

Some highlights from the article include Google’s definition of SEO and what SEO firms can do including the following list:

•    Review of your site content or structure
•    Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
•    Content development
•    Managment online business development campaigns
•    Keyword research
•    SEO training
•    Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

Google also offer the following list of questions as helpful questions you can ask an SEO firm when thinking of hiring them to help increase your search engine rankings.

•    Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
•    Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
•    Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
•    What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
•    What’s your experience in my industry?
•    What’s your experience in my country/city?
•    What’s your experience developing international sites?
•    What are your most important SEO techniques?
•    How long have you been in business?
•    How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

Finally, Google provides a list of things to be wary of if you run across them when dealing with an SEO firms. They are as follows:

•    owns shadow domains
•    puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
•    offers to sell keywords in the address bar
•    doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
•    guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
•    operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
•    gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
•    has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google
•    requests your FTP account information or root access to your server

Overall, it’s a good to see that Google is showing support for search engine optimization firms that follow their guidelines and can help increase your rankings as a result.

SEO copywriting is the practice of writing promotional material (or “copy”) in a way that optimizes it for search engines. Ideally, effective SEO copywriting should help the web page achieve a high search result ranking, while convincing potential customers to buy a product or service. Here are some more details on what SEO copywriting is and how to best apply it.

Some characteristics of SEO copywriting include appropriate keyword density, the use of keywords (or phrases) that people search for, and search engine (SE) optimized formatting. Attractive and SE-friendly META tags should be used. The copywriting must be in text format; it will not be indexed in results if it is inside an image or animation.

Good SEO copywriting doesn’t compromise clarity for the sake of optimization; it is best to avoid redundant or awkward phrases. Even if it is well optimized, poorly-worded copy has some drawbacks with regard to sales. Customers may question the quality of a company’s services or suspect that the words were translated from a foreign language.

Using bold text and/or H1 (large font) tags for important keywords in SEO copy will help search engines identify the web page’s topic, potentially producing higher rankings. These tags shouldn’t be used excessively and only ought to be applied to words directly related to what the page is about. They also must be words or phrases that people actually search for.

What about using links in SEO copywriting? This is acceptable, but they should open in a new window so that readers are less likely to leave the current page. When the link points to a competitor’s web site (perhaps to compare prices or features), consider utilizing the “nofollow” tag/attribute to prevent the link from giving SEO benefits to the other site.

Any images accompanying the copy/text should include relevant ALT tags. Some SE “spiders” take these into account; people with images turned off or text-only web browsers can also see these tags. It is best if the page containing the SEO copywriting is still fully usable and provides all of the necessary information without images.

To sum it up, SEO copywriting emphasizes relevant search keywords and uses search engine optimized formatting to enhance its ranking in non-paid SE results. At the same time, the copy must be persuasive and hold the reader’s interest, which can often be achieved using the same techniques as effective email or print copywriting.

When creating a new web page with SEO in mind, choosing the right title becomes important. Good titles attract the interest of searchers while identifying the page’s subject. They also use the right number and type of words to gain better search engine rankings. Here are some tips on creating an SEO based page title.

1. The page title length shouldn’t exceed 65 characters, including spaces. Otherwise, most search engines will cut off part of it in their results and use an ellipsis (…) in place of the remaining text. Titles may also be abbreviated in this fashion on web browsers if they are too long. If a lengthy title must be used, try to put less important words near the end, so that it won’t matter if people can’t see them.

2. Searchers may not bother to read the description if the title doesn’t appeal to them or attract their attention. It should be specific to the content and purpose of the individual page. For example, when creating an SEO title for a page about a specific truck model, make sure it reveals whether it is a review, a promotional advertisement, or a list of details. This way, people won’t have to load and review the web page to find out.

3. When creating SEO titles, make sure the words in the title are repeated in the text of the page. This will help pages gain higher rankings in search results by showing that the content is relevant to the titles. Avoid using the same word repeatedly. Consider including related search keywords if the title remains under forty characters in length, perhaps by adding a “category” word at the beginning (followed by a colon).

4. Don’t use uppercase or lowercase letters for the entire title. It isn’t entirely clear as to whether or not search engines find this important; either way, lack of capitalization makes the site less appealing to people looking at search results. It also looks better if there aren’t too many short (1-3 letters) capitalized words in page titles.

5. Sometimes adding a commonly misspelled word (”keybord”) or an alternative spelling (like “criticize” and “criticise”) can have SEO benefits when creating titles. Certain words are spelled differently by people of particular nationalities, such as “favour” or “favor”. For example, a television sales page targeting British customers might use the phrase “Colour TV” in its title.

Marketing Sherpa, one of the better know research firms that publishes case studies and benchmark data for marketing professionals, recently launched another newsletter. The newsletter known as SherpaSearch will focus on all things related to search marketing, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), cost per click (CPC), trends and marketing information about the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

SherpaSearch will be released every other week and will include tutorials, case studies, research insights and how-to articles. You can sign up to receive the newsletter at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/page/Search-Marketing-Newsletter-2008.

The goal of the newsletter is to help marketers better understand the world of search marketing. Readers will receive guides on how to improve SEO and PPC strategies, plan search budgets and forecast results to discover what really works in search marketing.

MarketingSherpa publishes 10 weekly newsletters and reaches 237,000 professionals every week. Topics in the newsletters covered include practical how-to and exclusive data and proven tactics in business-to-business marketing, ecommerce marketing, email marketing, search marketing, telemarketing, media relations, landing page design, marketing measurement and online subscription marketing.

Tracking changes in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) progress of your website can help identify effective techniques and reveal areas where improvement remains necessary. Here are some tips on more easily tracking SEO progress changes.

1. Record the Google PageRank for your site’s home page every few weeks; consider tracking the PageRank changes of other important pages as well. Using a spreadsheet (with individual pages in the rows and different dates at the top of each column) may make this easier. PageRanks can be checked using the Google Toolbar or websites like prcheckingtool.com. Here is an example of how the fields of a two site, three-month PageRank spreadsheet might be formatted:

Row 1: Web Site, Aug., Sep., Oct.
Row 2: Example.net, PR 6, 8, 7
Row 3: Example.org, PR 6, 5, 5

2. Monitoring the site’s position in search results for various relevant keywords is also helpful for tracking SEO changes. For example, you might record that your site ranked 6th on Yahoo! and 8th on Google for the search phrase “antique radios” on September 1st. If its ranking changes the next month, you could assess whether or not your SEO techniques have been effective. A spreadsheet can be useful for this type of tracking as well, although it will be somewhat more complicated than the PageRank tracking spreadsheet. Reviewing your site’s usage statistics can reveal additional SEO keywords it receives traffic from that you might not be aware of.

3. Usage statistics (accessed either through the site’s control panel or a third-party tracking service) can also be used to monitor how much search traffic each of the major pages receive. This may help you recognize which pages need more SEO work before they will receive sufficient traffic. Website statistics systems (like AWStats) often keep data from previous months and store it for future reference, so it may not be necessary for you to store this information manually. Other SEO information these systems provide includes data on how much traffic came from each search engine and the number of hits from various engine-specific “spiders”.

Applying these tips will make tracking SEO changes easier and more effective. When deficiencies are found, the best solution may include obtaining more links, META tag changes, or different keyword usage. Each technique should be used once every month or two, more often as a site becomes popular and search ranking changes appear with greater frequency.