Search Engine Optimization – or SEO – is a sought after service with the rise in social media and the value of marketing online.  Companies will seek to hire someone to “do SEO” on their website to increase visibility in the major search engines.  The realization that you have admitted you need some help with search engine ranking is a great start – however, when I talk to people about what SEO really entails, often times they either don’t understand it, or don’t want to hear it.

The problem with not accepting these two major truths about SEO, is that if you don’t believe them – and then hire someone to “do SEO” for you, you will never be happy and you will feel like you’ve been ripped off.  But the reality is that you have to seriously consider Search Engine Optimization as an investment of time and dollars into the success of your online presence.

The two truths about SEO that people seem to ignore are this:

You don’t just “do SEO” once and then Voila!

Search Engine Optimization is a process.  Let’s suppose a company comes to you and wants you to “do SEO” on their website.  And let’s also suppose that website has about somewhere between 8-10 pages of content.  You could just “do SEO” on that website by improving meta titles, meta descriptions and meta keywords.  You could also create optimized naming conventions for images and downloadable files, as well as alt-tags.  On top of that you could review the site content with a fine-toothed comb and make improvements to the language that are more search-relevent.

So let’s suppose you did these things to your customer’s website and sent them on their way. Technically, yes… that site has been optimized and could potentially improved it’s search rank – but here’s the reality…

Unless that company has such a niche product that no-one else is writing about online, chances are even if they do get rank on the newly optimized website – that rank will probably only last a short time.  As the competition continues to blog and post regular content, it provides tremendous value to their search rank, and with each new piece of content published about your product or service (that was not published by your customer because they maintain an 8-10 page static website only), they stand to lose search rank.

Your static website will not hold it’s position.  You need to be adding content regularly that is relevant to your business, and meets the needs of your customer and potential buyers.  Blogging is an excellent way to do this, and provides you an outlet to open dialogue with customers and prospects – while providing real value beyond a 10 page static website.

The second truth is this…

It’s takes time to gain organic search position…

Assuming you understand the first truth, know this… A solid SEO strategy takes time to implement because it’s about building content on an ongoing basis indefinitely.  You cannot expect that you’ve added 5 new pages of content to your website, and Google will automatically crawl your site and decide to throw you up on page one above all those who are publishing content regularly and are doing it well.

It is a process.  I tell clients to expect NOT to see any results for MONTHS.  This is the reality people, and anyone who tells you differently does not speak honestly with you.  This is not to say you need to keep someone in your employ for months on end and spend tons and tons of money.  You can hire someone to get you rolling, teach you the ropes and make sure you are equipped with the means to continue publishing content on your own.

When I run search rank reports, I only check them every two months.  Search rank fluctuates daily. I focus on long-term growth, not daily position – and you should too.

Monitoring keywords, top content, and referring sites can give you additional knowledge as to which keywords are performing best, and which might need some love in the way of additional content.

So.. if you are seeking an SEO professional – don’t focus on big magical promises.  Work with someone who will really provide long-term strategy for content development.  Hire someone who will not talk in buzz words but will take the time to really help you understand the types of content you should develop and the best way to go about it.

You’ll be much happier in the long-run, if you can be patient and trust the process.

In my many years in the internet marketing / SEO world, I have repeatedly been met with folks who do not see the value or importance of applying Search Engine Optimization best practices to any images on their web site or blog.  I have prodded clients to rename images using keywords in the photo’s file name.  There are so many key elements in a page’s content that can contribute to gaining visibility in search – why would you not leverage ALL of those elements.

Photo naming conventions can go add an additional element to your page – so why not take the time to rename your image files before uploading them to your website?  In the case of eCommerce, your image file names can potentially impact your position in Google Shopping, if you have your products uploaded to their product database.

This video is a short explanation of how and why you want to take the time to rename your images. I’ve heard myself say all of these things over the years. (Maybe I should have made a video )

If you are using tools like Flickr for image hosting, don’t just upload your photos and forget about them.  Take the time to apply keyword rich titles and tag each and every photo.  Adding keyword rich descriptions to all of your Flickr photos will also assist you in gaining visibility of your photos.  If your photos in an image hosting account are meant to provide supplemental content to your website or blog – be sure to include the URL to your site so you can drive traffic to the desired end destination.

All of your online profiles, pages, images, etc. should be optimized for search if they are to provide an entry point to your world of products and services.

Good Morning my internet friends!   It’s time to stop and talk about the importance of growing your website traffic versus the importance of improving your site content to increase conversions (Yet Again).

If you are the proud owner of a new website – and by new I mean less than 18 months old – then I hope you are working on improving your website and listening to what it’s telling you.  This is an area of internet I am very passionate about, and also very frustrated with why people don’t get it!

During the infancy of your new website – you should be watching your top landing pages and their bounce rates.  You should also be looking for ways to grow your conversions. Depending on your website, a conversion may either be an online sale, or an online quote requested, or even just a contact form or survey submission. Every online business varies in what they are trying to accomplish.   While your website is ‘young’ the traffic will be less, so you’ll want to work on converting more… then as your traffic grows – your conversions should increase accordingly.

Google Analytics does a fantastic job of letting know how people are finding you, where they are entering your site and where they are exiting your site. Your bounce rate can tell you a lot about why people are not buying or converting on your web site. If your top performing keyword and it’s related landing pages have a bounce rate or 90% – you have to take action. This means that 90% of the users visiting under that search term are NOT converting!    Why would not want to try to grab a hold of some of that traffic.

I find that people get wrapped around the axle about meta tags and “SEO”.   Let me again reiterate – search engine optimization is only a SMALL part of effectively marketing your website. STOP! Furthermore the common theme I get from customers is “I just need more traffic”. NO! You need to work on improving your site so you convert your existing traffic – as you make these improvements, your traffic will naturally increase.

You can have all the traffic in the world, if it’s not converting and your web site is not an effective sales toolfor your organization – your traffic is useless.

You gotta work your web site people! You have to listen to it, and be willing to constantly improve it. If you do that – you can reach markets that you might have never otherwise enjoyed.

The internet can and will help you grow your business, if you are willing to grow with your website. This post may sound like a rant, and it is. I just want you to get it! Stop focusing on traffic and seo, and start worrying about what matters!

Search Keyterms (or key words) are still a primary focus in web site search engine optimization and do continue to contribute to higher search result ranking.  While search rank should not be a primary focus, it should one of many internet marketing goals.  However, there is no point in achieving high search result ranking if the landing pages that are ranking well are doing nothing for your website conversion rate.

To put it another way (and to be blunt), if your content stinks and your landing pages lack the organization or information your visitors want or need, all the rank in the world will do absolutely no good for you.  In fact, it will drive business elsewhere.

If you are using Google Analytics (or other similar analytical tools), you should be watching this information and making adjustments accordingly.  Let’s review a real-life example. Customer “X” sells a particular type of gloves online.  Of the top 20 performing web site keyterms, 6 of them are related to a paticular type of glove which is not selling well.  Out of those 6 search terms, 5 of them rank in the top ten positions in Google (or display on Google Page 1 search results).   When looking at sales, these gloves are just not selling.   This lends to the question… why?

Why are these gloves not selling if most of our web traffic is coming from those search terms and they have great Google search rank?

We dug in a bit deeper and checked out the keyterm bounce rate for Google traffic and the associate landing page specific bounce rate.  Here’s what I found…  The average bounce rate for those 6 keyterms was over 80% – Not Good.

The above graph is showing those top 6 performing keyterms and what the individual bounce rates are for each.  With that average bounce rate being almost 84%, we quickly realized there was an issue with the content related to those search terms.  To take it to the next level we can dig in to each of those keyterms and review the top landing pages for each.

The above graph shows that the top performing keyterms from the first chart has 2 associated landing pages.  We can then dig into those associated landing pages.  In this real life example, we learned there was a gross pricing error on their site, which made their gloves appear twice as expensive as their online competition.  No wonder they were not selling anything!

We were able to take real data and make sense of the fact that even though search results were fantastic, the site just wasnt working.  The product descriptions had errors that were causing customers to go elsewhere to buy the same product.

If your bounce rates are high it could mean several things (Read “Does Your Website Have Static Cling?“).  If it’s a product page, review the product description, pricing, shipping information.    If it’s not a product page, review the page layout and content.  Find out what your users are looking for when searching on those related terms and adjust your page content accordingly to improve conversions.

Please don’t ignore your bounce rate.  There is so much it can tell you about your web sites performance if you only just listen to what it’s telling you.

Link Farming came about in the late 90′s as a means of taking advantage of Inktomi’s method of ranking based on link popularity.  Link farming later become known as spamdexing – and is frowned upon by search engine’s today. 

Having a solid link strategy for your web site is important.  Knowing the types of links that will provide value to your site, and your users and reciprocating with those types of web sites will provide a greater value to all parties involved.

Search engines such as Google still appear to place value in ranking on the number of incoming links your website possesses, but know that it is more important that these incoming links are now relevant.

Consider this – when you look at a links page on a web site and instantly find that there are hundreds of links that don’t seem related in any way to each other, or to the site you are on – frankly that to me is a useless links or resources page.   I dont want to see “make a million dollars working from home”, or “buy foreclosures for $10″ on a site that is selling crown moulding.  These links provide absolutely no value…  They are not resources, in fact it’s really just spam. 

If I’m looking at a woodworking site perhaps searching for crown moulding or some related product and find that I want to see what other resources this company might recommend – like stain products for the moulding they sell – those are the types of links you should hope (or expect) to find on a resources page on a well thought out web site.

When putting together a link strategy – consider who is using your web site and what they are looking for.  If you sell a certain product, and there are other products that you don’t sell that compliment your product – seek out relevant links to those types of companies.  

You can build relevant relationships through effective linking – and drive relevant traffic to your site as a result.  After you’ve established some of these relationships – keep an eye on the analytics data from your incoming links – this may give you some ideas on some targeted marketing through various channels of high traffic sites that do drive traffic to your site.

You will reap what you sew when it comes to linking to/from your website – so think through your link strategy carefully.

Happy Farming!

The transition of a website from “build” to “marketing” is always an interesting one. Very rarely does a new website get launched that is full of keyterm rich content, unique and interesting content, and most importantly… relevant content. That is not to say it does not happen with much pulling teeth and dragging them along kicking and screaming by our most talented production group here at Cazbah. What is does mean, is that once their site is officially in “internet marketing” mode, it is my job as their Internet Marketing Account Manager to help them to “see the light”.

Common misconception: If we build it… they will come. This is not the “Field of Dreams” people.

The correct line of thinking is much like the mustard seed – you must plant it, water it and nurture it. Only then can it grow. Like the farmer who works his field – we we reap what we sow. If we work the web site and work it well, we can reap the rewards that will follow.

What generally happens? I am handed an eCommerce website that has very little static content, and product descriptions that leave a lot to be desired. This is okay because it gives me a baseline to work from – and truth be told, I love starting with a website that has zero ranking in Google and is not converting. I am passionate about turning that website into a content rich and interesting website, that oh-by-the-way also happens to sell a product.

Don’t misunderstand, there is much emphasis placed on optimizing the product pages with well written descriptions and product titles – with the end goal for those products being that they obtain their own ranking in the search engines, and ultimately convert to online sales.

It’s the other content I like to focus on. This is an area you can define an online niche opportunity. Take a look at your customer’s base line keyword ranking – what keyterms are relevant that they are not currently gaining any search engine ranking on? (This of course assumes you have done your keyterm research and have a set of keywords to focus on.)

Analyze your list of keywords and see which terms are not getting any search engine ranking. You now know where to start with writing new content for your website. Build informational content that will educate your site visitors about what you have to offer that is unique and different. Why should your customers buy online from you? What makes you better than your online competition? What makes your online product unique? What about the service you offer is by far the best? Help your potential customers make a decision to buy your product or use your service.

Not sure where to start? Here’s a simple tip that I have found works with my clients. Often times I am dealing with VITO of Company “X”. VITO (or Very Important Top Officer) does not have time to write content, and frankly does not see the value of writing “stuff”. “My products are online what more do I need?” If I can get VITO to write just one piece of content to prove my point, I push them to write a Glossary of Terms for their website.

Write me a glossary – start with your top ten keywords and build them into an online glossary. Or take each product and define it. For example I have a client who sells Air Pollution Abatement Equipment. Well not everyone on the planet knows what a carbon scrubber is or what it does – and I tell you with no uncertainty that the search engines do not know what they are.

I emphasize to my clients that they are writing this content more for the search engines then they are for their website visitors. Now, that said – once the search engines recognize the new content as being relevant, and it is well written, the end result of course would be gaining ranking on some of your additional keywords – thereby helping new and potential customers not only find your website, but LEARN about what you do and/or sell online.

I have proven this to be an effective technique to teaching my clients how important keyword rich website content can be. Taking some important keyterms that are ranked somewhere below 30 in Google and working them to the first page on Google is proof that your content can define your website. Once my clients see this online glossary of terms work, they are more than willing to continue writing new content.

Keep track of your keyword search engine ranking on a regular basis. If you a see keyword begin to lose search engine ranking, or a keyword that is not performing – analyze the content (or lack thereof) associated with that keyword and work it!

That’s my story… and I’m sticking to it! Content. Content. Content.

I had a dinner meeting with a close friend tonight who is re-building her web site and we just chatted through some of the areas she needs to be focusing on to help promote her web site.

I was astounded to find that the company doing her web site was offering to charge her “x” amount for search engine optimization for 3 hours of work per month (and the dollar amount was way off), and made a brief mention of email marketing, but the proposal stated nothing about what they covered under the title of “SEO” and what they proposed for email marketing.

So I lend these thoughts – things to consider when searching for a “marketing strategist” for your web site. Plain and simple… find someone who knows what they are doing – and pay attention to the details they are providing you.

Internet Marketing has several layers to it. I will compare it to my favorite dessert – A Triple Layer Chocolate Peppermint Torte!

The bottom layer of the cake… What I consider the
“technical” pieces of your plan. This layer includes your search engine optimization, keyterm research, meta tags, page titles, image and file naming conventions, site maps and basically, the aspects that are addressed through your site’s code/tags.

The middle layer of your cake… Your content. Know your customers and what they are looking for and provide the content, products or services in your content that will answer questions easily and help them make their buying decision quickly. Your content should also be optimized using the information compiled when building the first layer of your cake by building your keyterms into your content allowing the search engines to find it!

The top layer of your cake… Listening to your website and making the necessary adjustments to content and product offerings. Modifying keyterms, building new content, adding new documentation and information as people your customer are looking for. Work your site through email marketing, blogging and much much much more! What I describe here only scratches the surface of working your site and continuously modifying your strategy to marketing your site to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers.

And then there’s the frosting… This outer layer is your brand, your persona, your online personality. Working your site by building your brand through Social Media and Social Networking. Think of it this way… The frosting on a cake is the first thing you see, and usually the first thing you taste on a cake. Relate it to your brand or persona – this is the first impression you make – the face of your business. Professional decoraters take great pride in the details of the impression their cake will leave (as it may result in more business for them in the beauty alone). The same should apply to you and the effort you put into to building your online personality through social media. (Cake image shown at right is a creation of Sincredible Pastries in Central NY)

The frosting does not refer to a flash heavy site with blinking images and glitzy appearances – remember that your site must function effectively and efficiently allowing your customers to find what they want quickly – AND allow the search engines to find your site as well. Flash has it’s place and when used properly can be a very effective tool – but that is a whole separate conversation.

The whole cake… This is just a birdseye view of how I see internet marketing and the layers that lie within. There are many aspects of marketing your website most of which I haven’t even touched on – I would simply encourage you to ask the questions to your marketing strategist and feel confident that you are working your site continuously and getting the desired results.

A note of caution – be sure that the baker of your cake is on the level… Recently I took on a client at work who was paying a third party company to manage their pay-per-click advertising. When I took over managing their AdWords campaigns I found that this 3rd party company was charging my new client a flat monthly rate for AdWords and my customer never realized that the amount they were paying was almost 3 times the actual amount being spent on their AdWords activity. Fortunately for them, we cut their AdWords budget by roughly 60% and they are still getting the same bang for their buck.

Find a strategist who is passionate about internet marketing and who will share your passion for success in YOUR business. That will surely be a recipe for success!

What is Bounce Rate: It is the percentage of users who are exiting your site upon landing on a single page and not continuing to any other pages during that site visit. If a user hits your home page and leaves without digging into your site content that is considered a “bounce”. This rule applies to any page on your site a user lands on, whether it’s bookmarked or found through search.

Internet marketers use bounce rate to determine whether certain pages of your site are communicating properly. A higher bounce rate means there is much work to be done in improving the content on your site, whether it be an informational site or an eCommerce site. There are factors to look at that on a page by page basis that will affect your bounce rate, and in some situations a higher bounce rate might actually be okay. A page that is bookmarked on a news site that is updated daily with stories and such may have a higher bounce rate. eCommerce sites should not apply the same line of thinking.

Static Cling for eCommerce:

We, as internet marketers, need to be passionate about bounce rate. You want a lower bounce rate on eCommerce sites – mainly because the end-goal would be getting your users to click that magic “add to cart” button and completing the sale. If this is not ocurring on your product pages and your bounce rate is high you may want to assess the following information:

Does the user know WHAT you are selling? It is clear they have landed on a product page and can EASILY purchase? If you are selling, be sure that you product pages communicate that effectively.

Does your product’s description provide enough information to assist the user in making the decision to purchase. If you are selling an item that has many applications or uses, this should be spelled out in your description. For example – if you are selling glue, and this glue can be used on wood, plastic, metal, etc – your product description should reflect that and not leave any unanswered questions the shopper may have.

Can the user/shopper easily figure out HOW to buy this product? Is there a clear “add to cart” or “buy now” button or link? In most cases, this should be found above-the-fold (meaning the user does not need to scroll to find it). This is not always possible, and may not prevent the sale, but it’s a good general rule of thumb.

Is your price point competitive? People shop around – and the internet is the easiest way to price compare products before making a purchase. If a user lands on your page and finds your product to be overpriced – the user/shopper will “bounce”.

If you are running AdWords, is your campaign set up properly and effectively optimized? Be sure if you are paying for site traffic that they are not bouncing quickly. If you are advertising on specific keywords, be sure the user who has searched on that keyword is finding EXACTLY what they are looking for when they land on your site. Use negative keywords to increase the value of your click-through-rate (CTR). If you sell glue that only works on wood and not on plastic – remove the search traffic for “plastic glue” by adding negative keywords. Also be sure your landing pages for your ads allow your user to find what they have searched for immediately. Preferrably the user will land on the product page where they can immediately make a purchase.

At home, we use Bounce to get rid of static and stickiness on our clothing. On the internet, we do not want bounce, we want our search traffic to stick, and we want our users to find what they are looking for.

If your bounce rates are higher – throw away that fabric softener or staticguard and start digging into why your traffic is not sticking on your site. Be sure if it is an eCommerce site you are checking your bounce rate at the product level and start working on improving the shopping experience for your user, by making it easy to make a decision to purchase, and then even easier to actually make that purchase on the spot.

These are just a few of my thoughts. I’m sure you have your own sticky points to ponder about bounce rate, and I’d love to hear them!

SEO back in the day was the latest and greatest thing.  People realized they could improve their search engine ranking through optimization of their site.  Everyone jumped on the SEOwagon.   It started with meta-tags, and people packing their sites full of invisible keywords to get ranking.  You remember – white text on white background that nobody but the search engines could see.  That just doesn’t fly anymore.