Learn SEO with this Crash Course

March 26, 2010 Leave a Comment

Title tags, canonicalization, ALT text, long-tail keywords.  Search engine optimization may seem confusing and overly technical for the average marketer. The fact is, it can be quite technical, requiring specific knowledge and training. However, there are also many aspects to SEO that are not difficult to understand, nor difficult to do.

SEO Crash CourseThere are numerous resources available to learn SEO techniques. One of the best ones I’ve seen is this video presentation by Lee Odden with Top Rank Online Marketing. It’s the second lesson in Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University titled SEO Crash Course to Getting Found (GF102). The presentation is a bit lengthy so be sure to give yourself about an hour to go through it. But if you are interested in learning the basics of SEO, this is a great starting point with topics covered like keywords, link building, search friendly site structure and analytics.

Take a look and you’ll be ready to optimize your website for search.

SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102)

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide will get your SEO cooking

March 3, 2010 Leave a Comment
Cookbooks

Photo by mimundo

Search engine optimization is a lot like the culinary profession.  There are experts in the field, with a growing reputation and a following for their art. There are five-star SEO’s, one-star SEO’s, and everything in between.

Just as famous chefs create spectacular meals, unmatched by the average cook, SEO’s work their magic on websites, rocketing pages to the top of search results.

The fact that you haven’t been a sous-chef in Paris doesn’t stop you from cooking a nice meal. Likewise, you shouldn’t be intimidated to tackle search engine optimization. Aspiring chefs like you turn to cookbooks for recipes, advice, and tips. Luckily, SEO has its very own “Joy of Cooking.” It’s Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. A very concise, non-technical manual that walks you through 13 things you can do to optimize your web pages, including best practices for each:

  • Create unique, accurate page titles
  • Make use of the “description” meta  tag
  • Improve the structure of your URLs
  • Make your site easier to navigate
  • Offer quality content and services
  • Write better anchor text
  • Use heading tags appropriately
  • Optimize your use of images
  • Make effective use of robots.txt
  • Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links
  • Promote your website in the right ways
  • Make use of free webmaster tools
  • Take advantage of web analytics services

The full Guide is available here on Google’s website. Download it, read it, and get cooking with these SEO techniques on your own web pages. You won’t be an instant search engine optimization expert, but you will enjoy the results.

Bon SEO!

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Scribe puts an SEO expert in your WordPress site

February 25, 2010 Leave a Comment

When it comes to optimizing web content for search engines, there’s a lot to know, a lot to remember, and it’s always changing it seems. Wouldn’t it be great to have an SEO expert review your web content and tell you what keywords it is optimized for? And how to improve the search engine optimization of that copy? And then tell you if the improvements you made actually did improve the content’s SEO?

The folks at Scribe have built a tool that does all this and more — and put it right inside your WordPress admin site. But don’t worry if you don’t use WordPress, because in March they are launching a web-based version that is not tied to a specific platform.

There’s already been plenty written about Scribe. So I’m not going to repeat it here. But if you could use some expert SEO help with your web content, check out “Introducing Scribe: SEO Copywriting Made Simple” by Brian Clark (one of Scribe’s creators) for a great overview. And be sure to read “My Scribe SEO review” by Johnny B. Truant, who included a comprehensive video demonstration of Scribe in action. Finally, visit the Scribe website to seal the deal. Speaking of deals, there is a special introductory price that is available until Friday, February 25 at 6:00 p.m. Central Time. So better hurry and get Scribing right now!

Disclaimer:  I am not an affiliate of Scribe, so my links are free. But I have worked the past couple of years with Scribe’s development team. So I’m a little biased. But I also know firsthand the power of the technology. UPDATE: Okay, so Scribe launched its affiliate program and I signed up. The Scribe links are now an affiliate link.

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Google Announces Social Search

October 21, 2009 Leave a Comment

newsflash

Earlier today in a post about Bing’s announcement of a deal with Twitter and Facebook I wrote, “Look for Google to introduce its own social network data integration soon.” Little did I know soon would be today.

According to Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search, a new Google Labs app called Social Search will launch in the next few weeks. Social Search will add relevant updates and posts from your social network friends to the bottom of your search results page. How will Google know what networks you belong to and who your friends are? It’s in your Google Profile. As long as you have added your social networks to your Google Profile. Don’t have a Google Profile yet? Get one here.

Ms. Mayer also announced that like Bing, Google has signed an agreement with Twitter to display its real-time tweets in its search results.

Based on the two companies’ announcements, it sounds like there will be some differences in how Google and Bing will handle social posts. Google’s Profile integration means that it pulls only from within your network. Bing however, will pull from all public posts. Google will pull from all social networks that you add to your Google Profile. Bing on the other hand will only pull from Twitter and Facebook. To know more, we’ll have to wait until Google and Bing launch their new features.

Meanwhile, make sure you have accounts set up on all the popular social networks, develop your connections on those networks, and keep your keyword list close by as you post, tweet, blog, microblog and whatever else you do on the social net.

Filed Under: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc. Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Holy Social SEO Batman!

October 21, 2009 Leave a Comment

bing-starburst

Last month, I shared with you Bing’s plan to launch its Bing and Ping beta feature (Search Results to Go Social with bing), which allows for social sharing of select search results in bing, like movie times. The featue has since been released to beta users, extending at least some search results into the social networks.

Today, Microsoft announced it has signed an agreement with Facebook and Twitter to integrate status updates from these two social powerhouses’ users into its search results. Mashable has details and some screen shots in REVEALED: Details of Bing’s Twitter Search.

Ka-bang! Just like that social media’s status updates will contribute to search engine results. Soon companies who have resisted joining the social conversation will be compelled to join in…or risk losing control over valuable SERP real estate given to Twitter and Facebook status updates. Likewise, I expect more companies will more aggressively monitor social conversations with free tools like Google Alerts (website) or even subscriber applications.

To keep this in perspective, it is just bing…for now. Bing only represents about 9% of the searches conducted monthly on search engines. The trend for real-time search though is growing. Look for Google to introduce its own social network data integration soon. Then social media will officially be a viable search engine optimization technique for companies.

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , ,

Just in time for Halloween, spiders are coming to Google Docs.

September 20, 2009 Leave a Comment

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) all started with websites. Then came blogs, followed by press releases, maps, and profiles. And before we knew it, SEO was about more than just having a company website. With the recent explosion of community-driven sites like Youtube, Wikipedia, and LinkedIn to name a few, more and more companies and brands have jumped into social media to connect with their customers AND to increase their website traffic.

Word comes from a post on the Google Help Forum for Google Docs last week that in about two weeks there will be yet another “medium” added to the search index: Google Docs. All Google Docs that are published publicly to the web and that are linked to from a website that is crawled by the search engines will also be crawled by the search engines.

Google Docs Help forum

This will provide yet another resource to gain organic search engine rankings. And a non-technical one at that! What we don’t know is how the results will be displayed on the search engine results page (SERP). Will they be intermingled with all of the other web pages in the greater index? My suspicion is that the Google Docs will be treated as a group of results similar to the way Google handles maps, news, videos, and profiles on page one. But we’ll just have to wait until Google implements this change to know for sure.

News Results on Google

In the meantime, get your Google Docs account set up if you haven’t already. Get your word documents optimized, uploaded to Google Docs, published to the web, and linked to on a website. I see a lot of opportunities, including:

  • press releases
  • company overview
  • executive bios
  • white papers
  • product sheets
  • and more!

If you’re already using Google Docs and have documents that you don’t want indexed, be sure to change the settings on those documents:

  • Go to the ‘Share tab’
  • For documents and spreadsheets, choose ‘Publish as web page’. For presentations choose ‘Publish/embed’
  • Click on the button that says ‘Stop publishing’

As Halloween approaches, be on the lookout for spiders crawling your Google Docs. It’s no trick; it’s an SEO treat!

Posted via email from Katy Barrilleaux | Optimized

Filed Under: Everything Google Tagged With: , , ,

The Easy Way for Agencies to Do SEO

March 16, 2009 5 Comments

The Easy Way for Agencies to Do SEOSearch engine optimization (SEO) can be a little intimidating for the non-technical person. After all, it’s a mysterious science filled with unknown algorithms, metadata, XML sitemaps, HTML tags, linking schemes, and much, much more. And to further complicate things, it’s always changing.

Then there’s the agency that is not even responsible for the client’s website. How in the world is an advertising, public relations, or marketing communications agency supposed to get involved in SEO? Actually, it’s pretty easy these days. I’ve compiled some tips to help get you started.

Take advantage of others’ SEO technology.

SEO has matured to the point that there are countless platforms optimized for search. You just have to add the content and the search engines do the rest.

  • Social media sites like YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Merchant Circle, to name just a few, are large in size and highly optimized. Posting content on these sites will help you get listed in the search engines. Just be sure to use your keywords in the postings for the various sites. And include a keyword in the file name of any photo or video file you upload to a website too!
  • Blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger are free, easy to set up, and highly optimized. However, the biggest obstacle with a blog is that it takes some time to grow the blog to a size large enough to be noticed by search engine
  • Press Release wire services like PR Newswire and Business Wire provide optimization of press releases and host the release on their site. In addition, the press release is distributed to media news sites that also host a version of the release on their site. This gives one press release numerous opportunities for listings on a search engine results page (SERP).
  • Lead Maverick is an SEO platform developed specifically for agencies with integrated optimization tools for content, customizable landing page designs and real-time tracking stats — all in a non-technical, user-friendly interface. Lead Maverick agency partners use the SEO platform to get their clients to the top of organic SERPs or to add additional listings so their client owns more of the SERP real estate.

Write well, rank well.

There are a number of guidelines for developing content that will enhance its findability in organic search. The goal is not to trick the search engines, but to provide quality content on a subject while following SEO best practices.

  • Length of content should be at least 300 words.
  • Each content posting should focus on one keyword, keyword phrase or keyword theme. Putting too many different keywords in one posting will dilute its effectiveness.
  • Headline should not exceed 70 characters and should include a keyword ideally placed towards the beginning.
  • Subhead should not exceed 160 characters and should include at least one keyword ideally placed closer to the beginning.
  • If there is not a subhead, treat the first paragraph of the content as the subhead by making it bold, keeping it under 120 characters, and include at least one keyword.
  • Emphasize a keyword by making it bold and emphasize other important points with bold or by using a bulleted list.
  • Rule of thumb for keywords is one keyword for every 100 words. If you repeat a keyword more than this, the search engine may think you are keyword stuffing and not add the page to the index.
  • Include at least a couple of hyperlinks to your website. Also include a link or two to a third-party website, preferably ones with good size and traffic. For example, Wikipedia is good to use for a definition.
  • Link your various content pages with hyperlinks on your keywords. Be sure the page you link to discusses the keyword that is hyperlinked.
  • Avoid posting duplicate content from another website by making some edits to your posting. Add a link to the page with the original content so the search engine will know that you are not trying to trick it.

Spread Keywords Across the Sales Decision Process.

One of the greatest benefits of search marketing is the ability to track responses and conversions. For that reason, many advertisers focus keywords on driving a purchase. But, searchers use the internet throughout every stage of the sales decision process. They search for information on categories at the beginning of their research, all the way through to searches on specific products to check pricing.

Keyword Sales Decision Process

Be sure you focus keywords and content for every stage of the sales decision process. Just set your client’s expectations for ROI. The earlier in the sales decision process, the fewer click throughs on the landing page. Early on in the process, you are trying to educate and build awareness for a purchase down the road. And you’ll have keywords and content covering those later purchase-related stages where click-through rates and conversions will be the key success metrics.

Leverage Existing Assets.

Most companies have a wealth of information already developed about the company. In developing your online posts, leverage the existing assets that already exist, incorporating targeted keywords:

  • brochures
  • white papers
  • fact sheets
  • executive bios
  • advertisements (print, broadcast, etc.)
  • trade show schedules
  • speaking engagements
  • press releases
  • product photos
  • how to videos
  • power point presentations

This list is just the beginning. Try to identify all existing assets. Each asset represents a potential posting for a search engine. Spread the posts out across the sales decision process as mentioned above. Supplement with new content developed with your keywords in mind. Just be sure to follow the content writing guidelines above.

Get in the Search

Leave the website optimization to the geeks experts. Now that others are taking care of the SEO part, it’s easier for agencies to get their clients to the top of organic search — with keyword strategy and content.

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Is Your Client Doing Keyword Research Without You?

March 8, 2009 5 Comments

Brand KeywordI’ve written about the reasons that agencies should offer SEO services before. But it wasn’t until recently that they became tangible. An SEO consultant said that a client asked her to do keyword research and then write taglines using keywords.

And so it begins. Agencies are not necessarily the gatekeepers of a client’s brand anymore. Rather, the owner of the keywords will be the driving force behind the brand. Keywords for all stages of the sales decision process:

Keyword Sales Decision Process

Keywords incorporated into all communications from the company: off-line and online advertising, public relations, investor relations, internal communications, customer service, etc.

So the question to consider is do you want to wait for your client to give you the keywords that off-line communications need to integrate? Or do you want to continue to be the leader of your client’s brand by integrating online with off-line?

For those choosing the latter, the good news is that it’s not too late. Agencies that specialize in advertising, public relations, and marketing communications have options to get into search:

If you would like to jump headfirst in to see what keyword research is all about, here are some tools that will help:

Search is continuing to grow…in the number of searches conducted and in online spending. Agencies that delay getting into search risk losing control of their clients’ brands…and eventually the budgets.

Filed Under: Keyword Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

6 Ways Organic Search Results are Like Superbowl Ads

March 6, 2009

When it comes to advertising, the Superbowl is the granddaddy of them all. During this one football game, viewership is huge. Advertisers shell out millions of dollars to run just one thirty-second spot and agencies vie to produce THE spot that will have everyone talking, blogging and tweeting long after the MVP’s trip to Disneyland.

It occurred to me as I reviewed the January search stats that organic search is the superbowl of online marketing; here are six ways:

  1. A very large number of people tune in.

    2. Nielsen Media Research reported that Super Bowl XLIII, which aired on February 1, 2009, drew an average of 98.7 million U.S. viewers. By comparison, the highest rated broadcast television show last week was Fox’s American Idol which drew 24.8 million viewers.

    According to monthly search engine tracking by comScore, Inc., there were 13.496 million searches on the five major search engines during January.

    comScore January 2009 Search Report

  2. Audience size is on the rise.

    3. Below is a chart from tvbytheNumbers.com showing Nielsen Media Research’s data for the number of viewers of the Superbowl each year, beginning with Superbowl I in 1967 through Superbowl XLIII in 2009. Although there are some years that were flat or even dipped in total viewers, the overall trend is up.

    superbowlthrough2009-550x383

    I charted comScore’s monthly search engine ranking data for the past twelve months. Like the Superbowl viewership, some months remained flat, others actually decreased, but the overall trend is up.

    ussearchvolume1

  3. Placement is everything!

    4. Superbowl XLIII began at 6:18pm eastern on Fox. Nielsen Media Research reported that the most-watched quarter hour of the game was the 9:45-10:00pm ET spot, with an average audience of more than 106 million viewers. The most-watched minute was 10:07pm ET, which amassed 111.6 million viewers. Advertisers were fortunate that this superbowl game was competitive up to the last play of the game. It’s been more common in previous years that one team dominated the game, dropping viewers as the game progressed.

    For search engine results pages, Cornell University conducted eye tracking studies for users’ behavior, including click distribution as well as the time spent looking at each result. As the following image shows, the top three positions on page one received almost 80% of the clicks, with the number one position receiving a whopping 56% of the clicks!

    click-distribution-serp

  4. The ad must stand out.

    5. For several years, Master Lock devoted its entire annual advertising budget to the Super Bowl in the form of one :30 spot. You may recall the spot from the 1970′s that even today is considered to be one of the best Superbowl ads of all time.

    Many point to this Master Lock spot as the beginning of the big Superbowl ad hype that exists today.

    When it comes to a search engine results page (SERP), there are three key components: the headline, the snippet and the URL. The more specific to the keyword and the more descriptive, the better – which is to say in the world of SERPs, the more likely the searcher is to click on your link. In the SERP example below for “supebowl XLII,” look at the headline and snippet for the second result; this result is so vague that I doubt it would get very many clicks.

    googlesuperbowlserp

  5. There are no guarantees for the effectiveness of your placement.
    • all NFL teams do not enjoy the same popularity
    • the teams competing in the superbowl are not determined until two weeks prior to the event
    • audience size varies from year to year
    • the competitive nature of the game is not predictable
    • write quality content
    • limit keywords to one “theme” per page
    • link to related content
    • include keywords in your headline (h1) and early in your first paragraph
    • use bold to emphasize keywords

    6. superbowl43logo1Although advertisers purchase an ad during a specific time period of the superbowl game, there are many uncontrollable factors that contribute to the viewership of the ad:

    In the world of organic search, you don’t buy your placement, but rather are at the mercy of the search engines’ double-top-secret algorithm to determine your SERP ranking. All you can do is follow SEO best practices and hope for the best:

  6. Anyone can do it!

    7. Every year, superbowl advertisers range from the companies who are there every year, like Budweiser, to first-time superbowl advertisers like Go Daddy. There are big budget spots like Audi and even Doritos spots produced by amateurs in a contest. It’s an example of a medium that anyone (with the $3 million+ dollars for airtime) can participate in.

    Likewise, organic search is now a medium for everyone. It’s not just for web developers and SEO consultants anymore! New online services — like the SEO platform from Lead Maverick — and optimized social media sites, like YouTube, enable advertising, public relations, and marketing consulting agencies, in addition to web developers, interactive agencies, and SEO consultants, to publish optimized content that appears at the top of organic search.

Get in the Game!

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Filed Under: Search Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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