Tips, thoughts and topics on marketing for small to medium-sized businesses in Michigan and throughout the world. Contributions by Chris Slocumb, Casey Frushour, as well as other members of the Clarity Quest team.
Great post by Aaron Muller discussing myths related to search engine optimization companies.
You can almost think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a somewhat secretive industry. You see a lot of people claiming to be SEO experts, and some charge a lot of money for their SEO services. Some people guarantee results and some don’t. At the same time, almost nobody will tell you the exact methods he or she uses to improve your web site’s rankings, so you are left wondering: am I paying too much? Am I being too cheap? Am I hiring the right person? What should I look for when hiring a SEO company? Is it worth the investment?
If you think about it, there is a reason that the SEO industry is somewhat secretive. For one thing, search engines like Google do not like people tampering with their search results. If you are a dentist in Chicago and you realize that thousands of people type “Chicago dentist” into Google every week, imagine how much more business you would get if your web site comes up first in the search results! When I say search results, I mean the organic search results, not the paid advertisements, since 70% to 80% of people click on the natural search results instead of the paid advertisements.
This brings me to the second reason why search engine optimization companies are somewhat secretive. They take away Google’s revenues from paid advertisements! The more people hire SEO companies to improve their rankings on the natural search results, the less likely they are to use paid advertising with the search engines such as Google AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements.
For these reasons, search engines such as Google do not like search engine optimization companies, and the SEO experts have to be somewhat hush hush with their methods. As a result, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to hiring SEO companies. However, this does not mean you need to be at a lost. You are likely to get better investment of your dollars with some SEO companies than others. With a little education and understanding of SEO companies, you will be better equipped to choose the right SEO company for you.
Here are the top 3 myths when it comes to search engine optimization…
1. The majority of the SEO work takes place on your web site. The logic behind this myth is that if you design a really search engine friendly web site, your web site would be ranked high by search engines such as Google. Yes, it may be true that having the right keywords and meta tags on your web site help your ranking, but if it were that easy, don’t you think everybody would be doing the same thing? The truth is – only a small percentage of the SEO work is done on your web site. The majority of the SEO work to improve your ranking should be done on other people’s web sites! Search engines tend to care a lot more about what other web sites think about yours rather than what you have on your own web site. This is the reason that a good web designer is not necessarily a good SEO expert, and vice versa. Web designers tend to focus almost all of their energy working on your web site. Good SEO experts, on the other hand, tend to focus their energy on other web sites in order to help improve your web site’s rankings.
2. Good SEO can be done cheaply. There is a saying that people tend to get what they pay for, and this saying applies to hiring SEO companies. However, you should not base your decision on price alone. What you should understand is why some SEO companies charge you so little (such as $49.95 per month). Some keywords are more competitive than others. For instance, let’s say you run a hair salon in Los Angeles called “BJ Hair Design”. Which keywords do you want to optimize? Do you want to optimize “BJ Hair Design”, or do you want to optimize “hair salon Los Angeles”? I can charge you very little to improve the ranking of the keyword “BJ Hair Design”, but potential customers searching for hair salons on the Internet don’t know your company name (which is why they are searching in the first place), so no one is going to type in “BJ Hair Design”. Chances are they will type in “hair salon Los Angeles”, and this is when you want your web site to come up first. It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords such as “hair salon Los Angeles”, which means it will cost you a little more to get high rankings on highly desirable keywords. So before you go with the cheapest SEO company, think about this… Which keywords are they helping you optimize?
3. SEO stops when your ranking is high. Another myth is that SEO is a one-time investment. If you have a very high ranking on Google, there are probably 9 other companies trying to compete with you. If everyone else is advancing but you, your ranking will eventually drop. That is why you should think of SEO as an ongoing investment for your business. By continuing to invest in your web site’s ranking, you will ensure a steady stream of new customers that will visit your web site and call you up.
Google has extended its personalized search results to worldwide users - not just those signed into their Google account. So now when you search with Google, it will provide results that are aimed at higher relevancy to you as an individual user, as opposed to relevancy for the average person. For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes.
The feature has been available to Google users who have accounts, are signed in, and have their web history enabled (on Google) for a while. Now it appears to just be the standard way of delivering search results to everybody.
You'll know when Google customizes results because a 'View customizations' link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how Google has customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.
What Does This Mean for Organic SEO?
Our agency has never promised search placement results (such as we'll get you the #1 ranking for a particular keyphrase) because we believe it's unethical. Now for certain search phrases it's impossible to make that promise. One user's search results could look significantly different than another user right across the hall. What we do promise with our internet marketing services is to increase lead generation and conversion, which in the end is the only metric that should matter.
If you're worried about privacy, Google lets you turn personalized search off altogether. For signed-in users, all you have to do is remove web history from your Google account. For signed out users, click "web history" in the top right corner of a search results page, then click "disable customizations." You can also just clear your browser's cookies.
Microsoft today announced that it will add live updates from micro-blogging service Twitter to its Bing search engine results. Google also announced plans for live Twitter updates integration in its search engine. At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft announced it has access to the public Twitter feed and released the Bing Twitter search beta for U.S. residents. Google promised to roll out Twitter integration in its search engine "in the coming months". In addition, Microsoft has inked a deal with Facebook and Google is said to be in talks with them.
Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's online services group, said, "We are going to get access to all of the public Twitter information in real time." Bing will also get the Facebook status feed at a later date. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook, said, "We are giving Bing a feed of data made open to everyone. No money exchanged hands. We are not trying to make money on data."
Bing Twitter search sees the text of a Twitter update and any shortened links tagged with it. Domain names are displayed after the shortened links mentioned in the Twitter update. However, Bing Twitter search only shows Tweets that happened in the past week.
This is the first attempt of the search engine giants to show real-time information in search results. Stay tuned to see how both Google and Microsoft will roll this search functionality out of beta. If you do not have a social media strategy, it's time to get cranking.
Although it's been out awhile, I just started playing with Google's Wonder Wheel. If you perform a Google search, you will see a "show options" link at the top. If you click on this link, you will get a bunch of different Google tools including the Wonder Wheel.
I've found the Wonder Wheel really useful in trying to come up with keywords and key phrases for websites. It's a much different tact than the Google Keyword Tool which just starts spitting out phrases and data at you. The Wonder Wheel makes you think visually about the relationship between words and phrases. I thought I had exhausted volume-getting terms for a particular niche, just to find a couple more using the Wonder Wheel. It's just another tool to add to your keyword analysis arsenal.
Do you have a particular tool you use often for building keyword lists?
One of the largest behind-the-scenes updates to Google's search technology in three years is in the works. On August 10th, Google quietly began soliciting feedback for "Caffeine," a new system for Web searching that is being tested. Google makes almost constant changes to its search algorithms and infrastructure, but it hasn't made an update of this magnitude since 2006, said Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google who is considered one of the driving forces behind the company's approach to search.
Preview Caffeine to see how it might affect your company's search result rankings. So far we have not seen a huge difference in rankings for Clarity Quest's site or our clients' sites. In all cases tested so far, the changes were actually positive for us. I credit this to the fact we build links the correct way through public relations, social media and rich content.
Feel free to post your comments to let us know what you are seeing.
You can pay a firm like ours to do internet marketing or you can learn it on your own. Either way, we're here to help. If you are into learning some of the basics yourself, download Dan Thies' SEO Fast Start 2009. Dan always gives rock solid info especially in the areas of keyword analysis and link building. Download the free report.
I've had two clients call me this morning confused about Facebook recently allowing individuals and companies to claim custom domain names. Now instead of a long string such as www.facebook.com./234fsd0 you can actually get www.facebook.com/chris.slocumb. Unfortunately you do not have to be the owner of a personal name, trademarked name, or domain in order to claim the custom URL.
Even though the name land grab began this past Sunday, you can still claim a custom URL by logging into your Facebook account and directing your browser to http://www.facebook.com/username/.
Validating what we have been seeing for awhile with our clients, senior marketing executives view search engine optimization, pay-per-click (PPC) and e-mail tactics as the three most effective tools, according to a new study by Forbes Media.
Among the pool of senior marketing executives, the tools seen as most effective for generating conversions were SEO (48%), email and e-newsletter marketing (46%) and pay-per-click/search marketing (32%).
Respondents to Forbes’ survey rated ad networks and video ads as least effective.
The study, “Ad Effectiveness Survey,” received 112 responses from senior marketing executives.
Welcome to the last installment of my Wow with Web Copy series. In past blog posts I've discussed setting website goals, finding the most effective key phrases and setting up a web content template. Today I'll address writing the actual on-page copy for a site.
Step 4. Write keyphrase-rich headers & body copy with anchor text links. Now that you know the primary and secondary phrases you are targeting on your page, you need to figure out how you can link to other pages within your site. Since your homepage is probably going to have the most authority in Google’s eyes (link juice to pass on), you’ll especially want to ensure you have keyphrase-rich links off your homepage.
As an example, consider the copy on the Clarity Quest homepage in the graphic below. We link to several sub-pages within the Clarity Quest site. We also use keyphrase-rich copy "Marketing Agency...Technology Companies" in the H1 header.
We've also put a small flash area at the top of the page and it's here where we inserted our snazzy copy which is not keyphrase-rich, but eye-catching and attention-grabbing.
There is a Google penalty if you try to stuff too many links into a page, especially if you put a whole bunch in the footer. The key is to provide just enough links so you are guiding the user to particular areas of your site and not putting in links just for their own sake. If you write for a site visitor, Google rarely penalizes you.
I hope this four-part series has been helpful for those who write copy for websites. As always, I welcome any feedback.
Part 3. Create a master web copy template. In my ongoing series on crafting the perfect copy for your website, this week I'll discuss creating a master copy template. I recommend you setup a master copy document in a word processing application. I create a new page for each web page and insert a table with the following headers at the top of each page.
Page Name Call to Action for this Page URL Title Tag Meta description Keyphrases to use
a) Call to Action for this Page – Earlier you determined the overall goals for this site, now it’s time to figure out what you want the visitor to do as a result of visiting this page. In the case of the Clarity Quest outsource marketing page, I want the visitor to either request a proposal or further investigate our other marketing service offerings.
Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page Call to Action for this Page: Go to request proposal form, check out our clients or additional services.
b) URL – Use your primary keyword phrase in the URL. In this case “outsource marketing” is the primary phrase for the page. If you do not already own a domain name, it will help your search rankings if you can obtain a domain containing the keyphrases such as www.outsourcemarketing.com. However, since we already owned a domain, we just used the keyphrase at the end of the URL separated by underscores. There’s debate in the search engine community on whether dashes are better separators than underscores. The consensus seems to be dashes are better, although we have not seen a detrimental effect using underscores.
c) Title Tag - Although visitors don’t often know where to find the title tag, it’s one of the most important pieces of information in the eyes of the search robots. It’s located at the very top left of your browser window and it’s the first line you will see in a search engine results page listing. a. Use the title of your site or your company brand at the beginning or end of every title tag. If you are working with a nationally-known brand such as IBM or Apple, put the company name first for brand awareness. For all other companies, I recommend the putting the brand at the end of the title tag. b. Limit the length of the tag to 65-70 characters (including spaces) or less. The search engines limit the number of characters they display on the results page listings. c. Use keyphrases in the tag. Incorporate your primary and secondary keyphrase in the title tag without keyword stuffing. d. Use different keyphrases or variations in every page’s title tags. This is one rule we see violated all the time. If you use the same tag on different pages you’ll force the search engines to decide which page is more relevant. For example, on the Clarity Quest site we use “technology marketing agency” on one page and “high-tech marketing firm” on another. This way I've fulled used each page of real estate to my advantage. e. Use a divider symbol to separate your brand name from the rest of the title tag. We like to use the “|” (pipe) symbol but the forward arrow “>” or hyphen “-“ also work effectively. f. Use the title tag keyphrases in your headlines. Re-using the keyphrases in your H1 and H2 header tags makes search engine robots happy because it is confirmation you didn’t falsely keyword stuff the title tag. More importantly, it makes visitors more comfortable when they land on your page and it actually has something to do with their search term.
d) Meta description - The meta description tag is most often seen as the descriptive text in a search engine ranking page listing.
If you do not provide a meta description tag, the search engines will scrape the content off your page that most closely matches the search terms. However, if you provide the meta description you can target your keyphrases within the descriptive text. This tag is not so important for the search rankings, but it makes a big difference in click-through rates. Here’s where you can write the eye-catching, ad-like copy that is compelling and gets attention. Remember there are 9 or so other listings on the search engine result page and you want your site to stand out. The tag should describe your page clearly and accurately. Google allows the fewest number of characters at 160, so use this as your limit. There is controversy in the internet marketing world on whether or not you should always provide a meta description. Here’s a general rule. If you are targeting 1-3 high-volume, highly-targeted keyphrases on the page, then write one. If your page is a blog or product model catalog with many possible long keyphrases, then let the search engines scrape the best descriptive text off the page. As with many aspects of web copy, it’s always best to test for the best conversion rates.
Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page Meta description: Clarity Quest provides outsource marketing services serving as the virtual marketing department for technology companies across North America.
e) Keywords to use - I like list primary and secondary keywords to use on the page just so I have them staring me in the face when I go to write the body copy for the page.
Here's some useful info on optimizing PDF for search indexing from the folks at SEO Panda.
Should you include PDFs in your optimization strategy for your web site? The answer is a definite Yes. PDF are the standard for sharing and displaying documents on the Internet. The question is: Can Search Engines find them and optimize them accordingly to a specific strategy?
You have seen and maybe even quite often Search Engine Listings to a PDF that has a non-sensical title and description not related to the content of the PDF. This is because the Search Engine is trying to make sense of PDF document that is not probably optimized. Most Search Engines esp Google can index PDFs, but some work is required to get it properly optimized.
First off, make sure you actually have text in your PDF not just images. Next make sure you have a document that is structured with text that follows your SEO objectives for that document. The "reading order" is the natural way in which the Search Engine sees the text in your document. The "reading order" can be viewed with a PDF creation and editing tool such as Adobe Acrobat by selecting Advanced>Accessibility>Touch Up Reading Order form the top menu bar. Use the Touch Up Reading Order feature to change the order in which text gets read or indexed by the engines. You can also use PDF tagging feature to force engines to read your document based on your tag structure. Engines can see links in PDFs so think about using PDFs as part of your internal and external link building to increase visibility and authority of your site.
Squidoo launched yet another FREE site, The Ever Project. The concept is simple: the site lets users build a keyword-rich page such as greatest.seocompany.ever. You should grab your keyword-rich site URLs while they are still available.
You can choose from about 50 superlatives for the first word and add anything you want for the second word in the url. You are then taken to a page where you add reasons why you chose a company, product, person etc. as the best, worst, smartest, etc. thing ever. Then pagebuilder takes off and builds the page for you. The result is a Squidoo-type page with a newspaper look.
They only downside I see so far it that the page displays pay-per-click ads so you can give your competitors ads a new forum
Words, Words, Words The foundation of any successful internet marketing effort is establishing a list of keywords and phrases to emphasize on your site. Most search engine optimization and full-service marketing firms offer keyword research and analysis. You'll find deals on the web offering keyword analysis for under $100. But beware, those low-cost marketing firms do not take the time to understand your business, your target markets and your competition. The best keyword analysis is performed by a marketing firm that truly understands your marketing plan and product positioning. The phrases with lots of volume and lots of competition are easy to find. Finding those keyword gems with large volume and no competition in most cases demands the researcher really understands your business and product offerings.
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