InterneteCommerce

Applied SEO Marketing Strategy to Engage Consumers

SBOCTeam — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:11:00 GMT

by icrossingseo

SEO relevancy, the second component of an SEO marketing strategy, focuses on defining keywords and applying them to your site. Find out how keyword relevancy and understanding the Keyword Consumer Decision Process can help you connect with customers.

SEO Relevancy
Applied SEO marketing strategy to engage consumers with your business

The main components of any successful SEO campaign can be broken into three parts; Crawlability, Relevancy and Popularity.

The previous article, SEO Fundamentals, focused on the technical aspects of SEO - providing an overview of the major obstacles that affect web site crawlability.

The second major component, SEO relevancy, focuses on the applied SEO marketing strategy of your web site. This critical stage is where keywords are defined and applied to your web pages.

Keyword Relevancy

Keywords provide the greatest insight into consumer behavior. The consumer is telling the world exactly what they are looking for by the search terms they use.

Researching keywords relevant to your website is the most critical component of SEO. This is where you will determine which search terms are critical for your business.

Keyword Consumer Decision Process

When researching keywords, it's important to consider your entire site structure and choose only keywords or phrases that are most relevant to each page. During this time it's tempting to use the same popular keyword on every page of your site, but it's a temptation that should be avoided. Instead, apply individual keywords as they would flow through the Keyword Consumer Decision Process (see graphic).

General Interest: Keywords in this stage are usually most relevant for a home page or major category pages. Search terms typically have high search demand and tend to convert at a lower rate. Keyword example: Cookware
Research: Keyword relevancy at this level is most applicable to category and sub-category pages. Although search demand will decrease at this stage in the keyword consumer decision process, they will convert at a higher rate. Keyword example: Frying pans
Conversion: While search demand is at its lowest during this phase, conversion is at its highest. Product-level pages are the most common at this stage. Keyword example: 10-inch non-stick frying pan

Applying Your SEO Marketing Strategy

To achieve the highest-possible search-rank position, targeted keywords must be visible on the page and should represent each page's overall theme. When consumers visit your web site from search engines, the page must speak to keywords they searched. The following page elements are crucial for keyword integration:

Page title: A short phrase that describes the overall theme of the page. This is the main link from a search engine results page (SERP). Keywords should be integrated into the title and should be part of a compelling marketing message that entices users to click-thru. Page title example: Shop for Gourmet Cookware from Rita's Kitchen Store

Meta description: Displayed in the SERPs, a meta description provides a detailed description of the page theme. While it is not visible on the page, meta descriptions are visible in the page's HTML code. Meta description example: Rita's Kitchen Store offers gourmet cookware at low prices. Choose from a wide selection of cookware from your favorite brands. Free shipping is available on all orders over $100.

Page content: Applying keywords to the visible page elements is critical. Integrating targeted keywords into page headers, paragraph content, page links, etc. will help consumers and search engines understand that the page is about the targeted keywords. This helps ensure that your web site is relevant to a particular keyword and, over time, higher keyword rankings in search engines should reflect this.

Note: You should use no more than two to three keywords/keyword phrases on each page. To help you gauge keyword relevancy, use tools like Wordtracker, Keyword Discover or Google AdWords Keyword Tool when developing your SEO marketing strategy.

Crawlability and relevancy are the primary controllable factors of SEO. Eliminating technical obstacles and applying relevant keywords to your web site can create strong search engine visibility and engage a wider audience with your business.

The next article in this SEO Fundamentals series will cover popularity - the third phase of any successful SEO marketing strategy.

About the Author: Richard Chavez is an SEO Manager at iCrossing, a leading digital marketing agency, who develops search strategies for Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, publishing, CPG and pharmaceutical sectors. He is also a frequent search-industry conference speaker.

Put SEO Fundamentals to Work for Your Business

SBOCTeam — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:09:00 GMT

Many obstacles can reduce web site crawability - and impact your chances of achieving a coveted spot on a search engine results page. Learn the SEO fundamentals from an industry expert and put his SEO best practices to work for you.

SEO Fundamentals
Improving Web Site Crawlability

By icrossingseo

Over the years, the growth in search engine usage has become increasingly popular. Consumers use search engines to do everything from research investments to buy shoes. With this in mind, ensuring your business has good visibility in search engines should be a critical element of your marketing mix.

The practice of search engine optimization (SEO) is concerned with maximizing the visibility of your business by ensuring its web pages appear frequently and prominently in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

The goal of this marketing channel, and therefore the SEO best practices outlined in this article, is to create an environment where all businesses, both large and small, can achieve top rankings in SERPs on leading search engines for search terms that are relevant to their business.

Search engines assign weights to various elements on a page and use algorithms to determine the value of each element - and thus how pages will rank in the SERPs. These algorithms vary by search engine and are regularly modified, so there is no "silver bullet" to getting a page-one rankings. Instead, it's best to follow the engines' SEO best practices - and your own good judgment - in developing and maintaining your web site - and ultimately your brand.

This series of articles describes SEO fundamentals and is designed to help you not only understand how various elements of your web site are evaluated by the engines, but learn to optimize your web site in three specific areas (crawlability, relevancy, and popularity) for improved visibility.

Web Site Crawlability

To achieve visibility, search engines must be able to find the content of your site. Using programs known as "spiders, bots or crawlers," they are able to "read" both the on-page content and take cues from a site's programming language. These crawlers follow a very simple process; read content and follow links (e.g. crawling).

To achieve top rankings, it's imperative that spiders are granted access all the salient points of your web site. The following are some common factors that would prohibit a search engine spider from crawling your site and ultimately reducing visibility of your business on the web. Duplicate Content

Duplicate content exists when two or more URLs display the same content. Search engines often become confused as to which URL is the correct source. Many times a search engine will reduce rankings for web sites with duplicate content.

Flash

Although Flash technology creates a rich visual experience for visitors, it can prohibit spiders from effectively reading the content on the page. That's because content in a Flash file is broken into several components that is not visible in the HTML code of the page.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a useful technology that drives drop-down menus, enables add-to-cart functions and more. Search engines historically have ignored JavaScript code on web pages. This is not to say that JavaScript shouldn't be used, but using it in a way that won't prevent a spider from crawling the pertinent on-page content is important. Placing JavaScript in external files or in CSS navigation are both excellent ways to minimize obstacles created by on-page JavaScript.

User-action and cookie requirements

To gain an understanding of user-behavior, adhere to legal requirements and other reasons, many web sites require cookies and user-actions to declare location, age requirements, etc. This is common for regulated industries (financial services, pharmaceutical, energy, etc.). The issue this presents is that a spider is not able to crawl past this point. If the entry page to a site contains this type of obstacle, the search engine may be prohibited from indexing all the relevant content.

Another critical component of web site crawlability is the internal linking structure. Because search engine spiders only read content and follow links, it's important to develop an easy-to-follow internal linking structure that will enable all visitors to navigate your site and find all the critical points easily and quickly. SEO best practices suggest creating an easy-to-follow navigation and internal sitemap page to facilitate better crawling and provide a better user experience.

Once all web site crawlability issues have been solved, your site will be ready for optimization. The next article in this SEO Fundamentals series will cover relevancy - the second phase of any SEO program.

About the Author: Richard Chavez is an SEO Manager at iCrossing, a leading digital marketing agency, whodevelops search strategies for Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, publishing, CPG and pharmaceutical sectors.