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SEO Popularity:Third Ingredient for Longterm SEO Visibility

CommunityTeam — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:27:00 GMT

Maximizing your SEO visibility and SEO rankings will help your website reach the right audience at the right moment. Find expert advice and information to help increase your site's SEO popularity.

SEO Popularity: The Third Ingredient for Long-Term SEO Visibility

by icrossingSEO
The previous two articles, SEO Fundamentals and SEO Marketing Strategy, focused on the controllable aspects of SEO - eliminating technical obstacles, and using relevant keywords to achieve SEO visibility and engage a wider audience with your business.

SEO popularity, the third and final component to maximize SEO visibility and rankings for your business, addresses the external tactics to drive traffic and conversions to your website.

Linking
The primary method search engines utilize to find websites is from following links from other relevant, on-topic sites. Quality links from other websites can play a significant role in the SEO visibility of your web page(s).

When acquiring external links, it's important to focus on deeper areas of your site instead of your homepage - category, sub-category and product pages are ideal. This can improve the SEO popularity of those pages and ultimately improve their SEO rankings. Improved search rankings for deeper pages can also lead to a shorter conversion path and improved online sales.

Where should I find relevant sites to solicit links? A great place to start locating links to your product pages is your business partners - wholesalers, manufacturers and other suppliers. Not only can this improve the SEO popularity, it can lead to greater sales of those products, which creates a win-win opportunity for you and your business partners.

Moreover, web directories can be useful sources for inbound links, due to the fact that they are trusted sources of information for consumers and search engines. Directories such as Best of the Web, Business.com, Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ are high-quality, trusted directories to which every business should submit their listing. When submitting a business listing to a directory, be sure to include your web page's targeted keyword(s) in the link text and description.

Although some directories require a nominal fee to review your business listing - which is an acceptable practice - it is never recommended that you pay for links. Google, Yahoo! and other search engines publically state that buying links from sites can lead to the buyer's site being removed from their indexes.

Social Media

In addition to actively soliciting links, there are other tactics that can improve SEO popularity and rankings virally. Allowing consumers to post comments and links about your site via social media sites such as Digg, Facebook, Delicious and Twitter can greatly increase exposure for your business, lead to viral traffic and links, as well as improved SEO visibility. Consumers will have the ability to post negative comments about your business, so it's recommended to research this option carefully.

Publishing content via articles and blogs can also create additional consumer reach and can lead to greater SEO popularity. Publishing this information via RSS and email marketing are excellent, cost-effective ways to ensure your consumers receive this information. Please note: To maintain consumer interest, this type of consumer engagement requires publishing information frequently - and on regular schedules.

Sitemap Feeds

If your site has a significant amount of "unchangeable" obstacles, sitemap feeds can be an alternative method to help search engines find and index your site's content. Not to be confused with a web page sitemap, a sitemap feed is an XML file of your site's URLs that can be submitted to search engines. Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live and Ask use the same sitemap feed protocol via Sitemaps.org.

Removing obstacles and enabling search engines to crawl your site naturally is preferred over sitemap feeds. Sitemaps are highly recommended for mobile sites due to the limited amount of inbound link opportunities.

Integrated Marketing Channels

Integrating all marketing channels into a cohesive message can help create long-term SEO popularity.

It's important to understand that your other marketing campaigns drive search behavior. Defining targeted keywords as the core of your overall marketing strategy and integrating them into all marketing channels, such as paid search, banner/display ads, email marketing, social and offline marketing, can help ensure that your business is visible for all residual searches from other marketing campaigns, such as TV and print.

In conclusion, a comprehensive SEO marketing strategy addresses all technical issues, clearly defines and integrates targeted keywords, and ensures other relevant sites and marketing outlets speak to your business.

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.

The Only Article You Will Ever Need To Read on SEO

SBOCTeam — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:44:00 GMT

by ZekeLL

Do you think that SEO is rocket science? What if I gave you a step-by-step plan that has worked for us and our clients time and time again? What if it was so easy than even a computer-idiot could do it?

This is going to be a long article so I will break it into parts and post one part every day.

Today we will talk about the very first step of SEO, keyword research.

Step 1: Coming up with a list of possible keywords
Let's say you sell furniture online. Some of the keywords that I could think of are: wood table, metal dresser, kitchen furniture set. Make this list a lot longer. Add as many keywords as you can think of.

Step 2: Use a keyword research tool to get even more keywords
I love WordTracker and even the free version provides priceless information. When I enter "furniture" on WordTracker I get a lot of suggestions: dorm furniture, patio furniture, storage furniture, office furniture. This will give you a lot of keywords you didn't think of before.

Step 3: Check search volume
You can use WordTracker (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/) or/and Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to find out how many searches your keywords have. You don't want to waste your time optimizing your website for keywords that are searched for once a month.

Step 4: Check competition
After you've found relevant keywords with a good search volume you have to make sure that they are relatively easy to rank for. The less competition, the better. You can go to Google and type "allintitle:patio furniture" (without the quotes) and it will tell you how many websites are competing for that same term.

At this point you should have 5-10 keywords that are highly relevant to your business, have a lot of monthly searches, and are not too competitive. For some markets this is a very easy task. For others, such as financial services and real estate, coming up with the right keywords can be a daunting task.

If this is the case, break down the market into micro-markets. For example, if you own a national chain of car dealerships, ranking for the term "cars" will be extremely hard. But by breaking down the market into locations, car brands, and models, it will be a lot easier. Take a look at how it should be done:

Toyota Prius Cleveland Ohio
Ford Focus Denver Colorado

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur. The Outsourcing Company, his 6th endeavor, is a creative web design and Internet marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York.

Zeke writes Let's Do It!, one of the most prestigious and popular entrepreneurship and Internet marketing blog. Check it out: www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog.

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.

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.

Get Noticed

SBOCTeam — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:37:00 GMT

Search engine optimization is the most effective way to make sure your web site gets the visitors it needs

By Chris Freeburn

There's no avoiding the Internet these days. Even the smallest businesses need some sort of web presence to compete in today's marketplace. But while creating and maintaining a web site - or even a web storefront - has become easy enough for the average small business owner to handle with the help of the right Internet Service Provider (ISP) or web hosting company, many fledgling ecommerce entrepreneurs soon discover that it's one thing to get your company on the web, and quite another to draw customers to your website.

"Steering web traffic to your site requires some thought and planning," says New York-based computer and network consultant Kevin Freeman. "First, you need to understand how people actually find web sites on the World Wide Web." Freeman says that most website traffic is generated by search engines like Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Ask and the now household name, Google. "People begin looking for a product or service by throwing the product name or a few descriptive phrases into a search engine and seeing what comes up," he explains. Most of the time, for any product or service search, the first results the search engine returns will be ecommerce websites. Depending on the product or service, there may be hundreds or thousands of such online vendors willing to sell their products to the first consumer who clicks through to their site.

That means that in order for your website to stand out among the legion of possibilities that any of the major search engines are apt to turn up, you need to try and get your website somewhere near the top of the listings. "People are much more likely to click on the first dozen or so sites the search engine provides them," Freeman says. Any shopping decision they make will likely be made on one of those websites. If your site is the eightieth or hundredth site listed, potential consumers are much less likely to ever click on your link.

So, to improve your website's chance of landing relatively close to the top in any search engine's listings, here are a few tips.

Keywords
Develop strong keywords and key phrases that accurately describe your business and repeat these words and phrases all over your website. Search engines deploy specialized programs called spiders that "crawl" through the web, scanning millions of web sites a day, and indexing them based on certain criteria, including words and phrases that appear often on their web pages. If your business caters to a specific city or region, make sure the name of your area of operation appears repeatedly too. Putting your keywords near the top of your websites' pages is important, since search engine indexing programs give priority to content at the top of the page. Search engine giant Google offers a free online tool that helps web site builders determine which keywords to use on their website (*adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal*).

Getting Meta
Meta tags are short bits of text that are encoded into a web page in the HTML language that computers use to create and read documents on the web. Meta tags provide a description of the web page's content that can usually only be seen by search engines. In the early days of the web, most meta tags consisted solely of keywords and phrases; however, since the beginning of the decade most search engines have moved away from simple meta tag keywords for indexing since the method is considered unreliable and open to misuse by spamming websites. Many search engines now favor Meta tag descriptions. A meta tag description is a short piece of text describing - as concisely and accurately as possible - the web page's content. Meta tag descriptions should be no longer than 200 characters of plain text.

You can enter meta tag information in the HTML framework of your web pages using any one of several available website creation programs. In the event that your web-hosting company (which maintains your website on its servers) has created your website for you, simply inquire what meta tags have been added into the website's pages and add any descriptive meta tags you think are necessary.

Update Your Site Often
A number of search engines periodically re-index websites in their directories based on the number of changes they notice when they scan the websites. A frequently updated website will be considered more "current" than one less often updated and will receive a higher ranking in the search engines results.

Keep It Easy
It should be easy for customers to view your website. It should also be easy for the spider programs that search engines use to scan websites. Some of today's flashier website display technologies, like JavaScript and Macromedia Flash, may add visual interest to your website, but only if potential customers have the correct plug-ins for these subprograms already installed in their web browsers. "Nothing will stop a potential customer from looking at your website faster than getting an error message saying they need to install something in order to view it," Freeman says. Worse, search engine spiders usually scan websites in text format, which means that they are unable to read data contained in JavaScript or Flash. If they can't read it, it doesn't get indexed.

Additionally, some search engine spiders have trouble reading websites that use frames. Frames are a way to divide a webpage so that multiple documents can be displayed simultaneously. Search engines including Excite, Hotbot, and Alta Vista will not fully index frame-laden websites, thus reducing your website's chances of appearing on their search results.

In order to see if search engine spiders can fully read your website, you can examine it they way they see it - in text format - using a free text-based web browser like Lynx (http://lynx.isc.org/).

Submitting Your Site
In addition to loading your site with keywords and adjusting your HTML meta tags, you can also submit your website directly to search engines for their consideration. All of the major search engines provide a submissions process for website owners, which usually involves filling out and submitting an online form in which you provide your website's URL and various kinds of descriptive information. Resubmitting your website on a periodic basis - say, every few months - can help increase your ranking. There are also a number of web-businesses that promise to submit your website to a variety of search engines for free, or for a price. Paid web engine submission services can cover a larger number of search engines via an automated process.

Paying for Attention
Many search engines - who are always looking for revenue, just like everyone else - will offer preferential search results positions to websites that pay for it. Depending on the search engine, there are several levels of placement offered, with increasing fees for better search results placement.

Get Linked
Among the things search engine spiders take into consideration when indexing websites is the number of times a particular website is linked to by other websites, especially high-traffic websites. In short, the more people, organizations or other businesses who link to your website on their websites, the higher your ranking will be with search engines. You can increase you website's number of incoming links through a variety of methods. Involve your business in local civic or charitable events. The websites for these organizations or events will likely list your business as a contributor or sponsor and provide a link to your website. Make sure your business's website is listed in professional or industry organization online directories or the local chamber of commerce website. Locate other businesses - presumably non-competing businesses - with which you can trade links, or try a site like LinkExchange (www.linkexchanged.com/) that will help you find websites willing to link to your own.

Chris Freeburn is an associate editor/writer for Priority magazine.