Questions to Ask Your Potential Search Engine Optimization Company – Part 2
SiteAdmin 
Last month, I went over questions that you should ask your potential search engine optimization company regarding its tactics. That set of questions is critical, as before moving forward with any of the myriad of search engine optimization companies out there, you should always determine whether or not they will put your site at risk of penalization in the major search engines (leaving your website worse off than when your campaign started).
However, many people researching search engine optimization companies are unaware that potential penalization is even an issue – they are primarily interested in the results that the search engine optimization company can achieve. This installment of the three-part series will focus on questions to determine the competence of any search engine optimization company that you are considering. To find out whether any particular company is worthy of your trust in terms of results, consider asking the following:
“Do you require that I make changes to my website content?”
Any search engine optimization companies that answer “no” to this question are either using shady tactics or are only scratching the surface of true search engine optimization. Certainly, there are some elements that can be changed on a website that are largely transparent to the user, including title tags, meta tags, and alt tags. While making changes to these elements can create a boost in rankings, it will not give you the search engine dominance over your competitors that you desire. Remember, search engines are interested in matching content (what appears on your web pages) with search queries (the phrases that people are typing into search engines).
The problem with a search engine optimization company only manipulating the largely unseen elements is that search engines recognize that these elements are determined by the owner of the website and may not actually reflect the real content that appears on the pages. In order to perform well across the most popular engines, you must make certain that your search engine optimization company accurately addresses popular search queries within your pages. And this almost always requires changes to your content.
“Will you be adding additional pages to my website?”
If a search engine optimization company answers “no” to this question but answers “yes” to the question above, it likely means that it will be employing what I call the “shoehorn” approach to optimization. This means that the firm will try to shoehorn keyphrases into existing pages on your website, rather than expanding your website to include new content.
The trouble with this approach is that your existing pages are unlikely to directly address the search query. When search engine optimization companies shoehorn in keyphrases, they may achieve high rankings for you, but you probably won’t have many long-term visitors. For example, assume that your company makes widgets and you have an “about us” page on your site that gives a brief history of your company, as well as contact information and driving directions. If your search engine optimization company optimizes this page for “custom widget pricing,” and you subsequently achieve high rankings for the phrase, it does not necessarily mean that you will see much benefit. One can deduce from the query that people are looking for actual pricing information, not information on where your company is located or when it was founded. Another web page that directly addresses their search query is just a click of the back button away.
Adding new, informational pages to your website is a standard approach for the inclusion of quality search engine optimization phrases. Think of it this way – your search engine optimization company should not be thinking, “Where can we shoehorn this phrase in?” Search engine optimization companies should instead always be thinking, “How can we best address this query with a new page?” The difference in results can be dramatic.
“What will you be doing besides working on my site directly?”
If a prospective search engine optimization company tells you that it will only be making changes to your site itself, this means that it will not be spending any time working on your site’s link popularity. Link popularity plays a tremendous role in determining rankings in every major search engine. Simply put, sites that have a good number of quality and relevant incoming links are held in a higher regard than sites that do not. This is because a link from another site is considered a “vote” for your site – but all votes are not equal.
Quality search engine optimization companies will spend a great deal of time looking for industry-specific directories and portals where a link to your site can be added. They will also review all of your existing incoming links and make certain that the website owner has configured them in such a way as to give your site the highest chance for high search engine rankings.
“Will you be adding additional pages and targeting additional keyphrases over time?”
This is a very important question. Even search engine optimization companies that have a reputation for providing quality initial results can fall short on this, but it is one of the most important aspects involved in improving your optimization results over time.
When your campaign is kicked off, your search engine optimization company will target an initial list of phrases. Although good search engine optimization companies will rely on readily available software to determine which phrases are being searched on most often, and common sense to determine which of those phrases will bring buyers and not “tire-kickers,” it is in all honesty an educated guess.
Forward-looking search engine optimization companies treat the initial keyphrases as the “testing” phase of the campaign. They track these individual phrases and find which ones are working (bringing in the people that actually buy something or take the point of action on your site that leads to a sale). Armed with this knowledge, such search engine optimization companies will regularly expand your campaign to include phrases similar to the ones that are working the best. Without such expansions based on real data, you are merely relying on the best educated guesses from the initial campaign, and not the hard data that comes from true metrics as the campaign progresses.
“Can you give me references and case studies?”
This one seems obvious, but there are search engine optimization companies out there who claim that their clients all wish to remain anonymous, so that it is impossible to provide any specifics. This is usually a smokescreen designed to defer proof of concept. Certainly, there are businesses that hire a search engine optimization company that wish to keep it a secret, but these are generally in the minority. Forward-thinking companies generally enjoy showing off their success stories, so you should insist on seeing some real (not anonymous) case studies and talking with some references.
When dealing with references, find out how long they have been working with the search engine optimization company. If all references are less than a year old, it may mean that the company has been unable to demonstrate value over the long term, which is certainly something to consider. After all, long-term value is what you should be trying to achieve from a search engine optimization company, and search engine optimization is not a one-time endeavor.
Armed with these questions, you should be able to determine whether a certain search engine optimization company is worthy of both your time and your marketing money, or whether you instead will wind up with empty pockets and a useless site. Remember, high rankings don’t always mean good leads, and great keyphrases are not helpful unless they are used properly on your site.
In the third and final part of this series, I will discuss the assurances that search engine optimization companies offer – or fail to offer – from guarantees to exclusivity agreements.
About the Author
Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.
A Search Engine Optimization Campaign – Quick & Dirty
An effective Search Engine Optimization campaign begins by using keywords to target the subjects which you intend your web site to rank for. In order to rank in the search engine results pages (SERP’s), a web site has to have a position of relevance to the search engine for a given search term. This is usually achieved by having keyword rich content on the site that coincides with the search term that the internet user types into the search engine.
In organic, (natural) search engine optimization, there are several factors that contribute to the ranking for a search term. Each search engine provider has their own unique set of criteria that they use to determine which web site is most relevant for that specific term. The factors that are used to determine search engine rankings are then calculated by a complex search engine algorithm.
Due to the high amount of targeted customer traffic that stands to be gained by a web site that has a top-ranked position in the search engines, the search providers keep the details of the factors which make up their algorithm a closely guarded secret.
Even though the search providers are careful with the exact formula that they use to gauge the rankings of web sites, there have been several constants discovered that when applied, produce favorable results.
Keywords – Content without Keywords = Website without Traffic
Keywords are at the center of any effective search engine optimization campaign. The basic rule of thumb in search engine optimization is that content is king. So, it is important to base all the content of a web site on accurate and informative content.
The first thing to perform in an optimization campaign is keyword research. To find the search terms that are generating traffic for the topic that you want to rank for, you need to determine what the internet users are searching for. This may be accomplished by several different means however the most common way is to use a keyword selector tool.
There are several different keyword tools that may be used. The one tool that was the industry standard for quite a while was the Overture keyword selector tool which, as of January 07′, has been retired . The data in the Overture database still remains available for historical data, but is no longer being publicly updated by Yahoo!, the company that now owns the service.
There are however several other keyword tools that may be used. Some free and some available for purchase or subscription based service.
Free: SEO Book keyword suggestion tool:
(http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/)
Free: Google AdWords keyword suggestion tool:
(https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
Various prices: Keyword Discovery:
(http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/)
You Have to do your Homework – Keyword Research
There are few things to keep in mind before starting keyword research. The fact is that you will probably not be able to rank for a very competitive single-word search term like “money” or “cars”. For that matter, there are many two-word search terms, like “real estate”, that you will not be able to rank for either. So, in order to achieve rankings for your site with a subject like real estate, you have to look for related terms that will allow you to obtain a high position and yet not be too obscure so that you will still be attracting relevant traffic. For instance, you might try ranking for the search term “South Florida Real Estate Agency”, or “South Florida Real Estate Brokers”.
In order to determine the best search terms to use on content pages, I generally make a spreadsheet based on the topics that I feel are of most relevance.
There is an instructional Video I Created on “Search Engine Optimization Keyword Research”, over in You Tube … (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lw1es477LI)
The research phase is generally considered a very crucial part of the campaign because if the keyword terms that you choose are not searched for by internet users or if there are too many pages indexed in the search engines for that specific search phrase, your chances of achieving decent ranking results are very low.
There are some SEO’s that suggest that every page on a web site should be based on a keyword. This strategy may produce a high amount of pages that rank well in the SERP’s. However, the other side to that is sacrificing quality and readability. It may be difficult for a potential customer to perceive a web site as an authority or as a respectable source of information, if that web site has a directory structure that appears to be nothing more than a group of phrases. Moreover, it is very important to maintain a level of simplicity in the navigation and layout of a web site so that when a visitor comes to the site they may quickly identify the areas that would be of interest to them.
If a visitor is trying to determine which link on the navigation is relevant to their search and is only provided a selection of keyword-driven entry page links, the site may elicit a response of being shallow, which could in turn damage the reputation of the site.
As a good rule of thumb, it is suggested to have at least three, and no more than ten, keyword-driven content pages for every topic that you are attempting to rank for.
More Keyword Stuff? Oh Yes! … Keyword and Keyword Phrase Usage
After you have performed your keyword research for the topics that you want to target, there are some considerations that need to be addressed before actually sitting down to start writing. One of the key concepts that many successful SEO’s tend to focus heavily on is keyword or keyword phrase density.
Keyword density is the measurement of how many times a given keyword or keyword phrase is used in the entire body of the page. For instance, if your web page contains 500 words on the page, and your keyword or keyword phrase is used 10 times, you would have a density of 2%.If the keyword density is too high, the search engine algorithm may consider the results to be search engine spamming which in worst case scenarios, can have your site banned from the search engines. If on the other hand, the keyword density is too low, the page will not rank for the search term. Seeing that there are fairly severe consequences for creating a web page with a keyword density that is too high, it is generally suggested to air on the side of caution and limit your density to “safe” levels.
Though keyword density is a very controversial subject, I have found that keyword densities are relatively safe between 3% and 6%. However, you should keep in mind that algorithms may also consider an overall density of keyword usage for the whole site as well as for individual pages. If you have ten pages that use the keyword “real estate” at a density rate of 5 %, and those pages comprise half the pages on the site, then the site ratio for that keyword just jumped to 12.5 % which is not good.* (5% x 10 pages = 50% / 2 (half the pages)) = 12.5%
Keyword density should be used primarily as a gauge to determine if you have your search term either enough, or not enough times on a page, and should only be used as a gauge.
There are many other factors that contribute to ranking and density is really just a useful tool that can assist you in creating a good balance of keyword rich content. Keyword density alone will not produce search engine rankings.
*There is no evidence which suggests that search engines are calculating results based on total web site keyword density. However, many SEO’s consider total density to be an important factor to measure.
In Real Estate – It’s Location, Location, Location – In SEO – It’s Content, Content, Content
In search engine optimization, content CAN determine your location in the search engine results pages. Web sites that have a high quantity of quality content, naturally appeal to internet users. But, it is not the quality of the content itself that contributes to rankings – it’s the keywords in the content.
Most internet users are searching for informative articles regarding the subject matter that they are searching for. So, it is only natural that if a web site contains information that the user finds authoritative and informative, they will be encouraged to have confidence in the views, opinions, and suggestions that may be implied from the content. However, if a web site has very little or poor quality content that does not express a level of confidence in the consumer, they are most likely going to return to the SERPs’ to search for information that they find confidence in.
Many people that are involved in the creation of web content have a misguided belief that if the content on the site is good, the site will rank well based solely on the quality of the content. This is simply not true. Though good content is paramount to a search engine optimization campaign, the quality of the content has little if any significance in search engine rankings. Again, the quality of the content is not what contributes to rankings – it’s the keywords in the content.
So, you may be wondering, “If content is king why doesn’t that equate to rankings?” The answer is quite simple – the search engine algorithm.
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
The search engines give relevance to content on a web site based on the factors in their algorithm, not the quality of the content. So to achieve rankings, it is necessary to understand what the search engine considers as relevant. Not what you or I consider as relevant.
To answer the question that’s on the fringes of your subconscious … it’s the keywords in the content.
How to Put it All Together – Web Pages for the Search Engines
In order to achieve search engine rankings for your web site, there are two things that are necessary.
First, you have to have keywords that internet users are searching for which;
There are not too many pages in the search engine index for …
You need to have good keyword rich content that is created following your own keyword / phrase density levels.
The third part of the process is based on creating the content in a manner that will produce effective results. One of the first matters at hand is the amount of text that should be used. I recommend keeping the length smaller and adding more pages because search engine robots have been noted as only crawling to a depth of around the first 100 – 150 words.
Personally, I write my pages anywhere between 400 and 600 words in length and sometimes a bit longer. But the basic logic here is this: The more pages that you have, the more crawlable content you have. So, the answer is to simply create more small-sized pages. Furthermore, robots seem to crawl and index lightweight pages better. So, it might be wise to keep the page size rather low by limiting the amount of words, and especially the amount of images that you use on a web page.
Note however, that there really isn’t an ideal page size because different search engines index at a varying rate of depth and page weight. For instance, Yahoo! doesn’t typically index pages that are over 200KB. Google on the other hand, finds pages that are between 500 to 550 KB as “preferable” with regards to page weight.
When creating the content there are some very important guidelines that need to be considered as well. The placement of your keywords on your web page should be at the top of the page since the prime real estate for the robots are the first one hundred words or so. I generally like to follow a self-guided rule of writing the keyword or keyword phrase with in the first two opening sentences.
After that, I follow a formatting technique which tends to elicit excellent results for me, which is:
Paragraph
Call-to-action
Intro-bullet list
Paragraph
Paragraph
Call-to-action
Closing
This simple format has several powerful elements that contribute to optimization here. The key to using this format successfully is the positioning of the first three elements; the paragraph, call-to-action, bullet list. The use of this combination supports:
The creation of keyword or keyword phrases in the first few sentences of the opening paragraph.The ability to create keyword or keyword phrase based links in the Call-to-Action.
Many more keyword linking opportunities and supporting topics in the bullet list.
Web pages that are created with this format and use relevant search terms in the bullet list have a tendency to rank for the content in the bullet list as keyword stems on the main keyword.
Oh Boy! Let’s work on In-Page Optimization
So now we come to the point where we start to look at the implications of actual HTML – web page creation. There are several key areas that are important to proceed carefully at when creating an optimization based web site. The first matter is deal with how the Meta tags are used.
There are three main Meta tags that are relative to the creation of optimized web pages.
The first, and with out a doubt the most important is the Meta Title tag. The Title tag should contain the keyword or keyword phrase and any relevant stems provided that the quantity of the entire title is within an acceptable character count. As with many areas of SEO / SEM, there are many opinions on how many characters should or should not be included in the Title tag. I normally stay between 50 to 60 characters when I am performing optimization on a site for a client. However, I will sometimes push the envelope if I am working on a site for which I am the only liable party. In short, if you use too many characters / words – the site may be penalized for “spamming” the search engines.
The next tag which I believe to be equally as important in an antecedent and consequent sort of way, is the Meta description tag. I feel that this tag is highly underrated and requires some consideration. The Meta Description tag works very much as a support to the Meta title tag and if it is created properly, can offer several opportunities to add keyword relevance and / or stems that may promote a wider marketing saturation for the keyword or keyword phrase.
For instance, let’s take a look at this example of the Meta Title tag and the Meta Description tag “in agreement” with each other:
Meta Tag Optimization Services – Campaign – SEO Specialist – Consultant
At first look, it seems that this is nothing more than a simple title and description. Well, it should because it is really that simple. The Title has the keyword phrase and relevant stems trailing after it to promote a wider saturation for the main topic of the keyword phrase. Though in this example the character count is a little higher than I would recommend, the Title contains strong keyword phrase support and the description reaffirms the keywords and stems so that the phrase is stated twice and the stems are stated twice. This is a simple example of how the description tag offers a lot of opportunity to increase saturation for relevant search terms.
The next Meta tag is the center of much controversy and that is the Meta Keywords tag. The rule for this tag is quite simple – and should be closely adhered to. Only use between 10 and 12 words at the most, and the keywords that are used in the tag should be on the page that you are placing the tag on.
Lastly, but equally as important, do not use keyword stems like “keyword, keyword stuffed, keyword stuffed Meta tag”. The search engine will consider this spamming and the web site could suffer quality deductions for improper usage.
It Might Look Great – But What If Your Customers Can’t Find It?
The careful creation of web pages is a vital part in developing a web site to perform in the search engines. However, there too are other design & layout considerations that need to be followed as well. JavaScript, oversized images and Flash based templates may add a degree of dynamic presentation to a web site and be appealing to users. However, search engine spiders have difficulty indexing the code. To explain further, spiders are relatively simplistic in design and must be to be able to move swiftly through the web. A text link browser such as Lynx, portrays what a web site would look like to a search engine spider.
The most practical way to accomplish the problem with code and spiders is to place all of the files for JavaScript and images into directories and then import the files in to the page at run time.
In order to build sites that are geared toward the search engine spiders, images, JavaScript and Flash should be on pages that are either not “created for rankings” or be positioned in ways that will allow the spider to index the text-based content prior to “crawling through the code.”
Though it may be much more complicated to build a web site based on the requirements of the search engine spiders, the results can be the difference between being on the first of the search engine results pages, and being so far in the results, that the site is rarely if ever visited for the search query which the page is (presumably) attempting to rank for.
Links – The Holy Grail of SEO
One of the main factors that a search engine relies heavily upon is the density of internal and external links. The largest major search engine, Google, gauges to a large degree, the “position” of a web site based on the quality and quantity of links for the site.
Internal links should be created with keyword relevance in mind. Link text and internal links are considered to be of major importance when weighing a web site’s relevance for a keyword or keyword phrase. The basic idea here is that a keyword in a link should point to a destination URL that is relevant to the keyword or keyword phrase.
If the keyword phrase is “web developer”, the link should be pointing to a URL that has the keyword phrase “web developer” in it. If the link has “web developer” in it and is pointing to a URL that has “contact form”, your keyword strength is “draining” and the value of that keyword is thereby reduced. I feel that an analogy using electrical current explains this type of scenario quite well. If the continuity is not consistent from end to end the power is either lost, or drained out of the connection.
Another important matter regarding internal linking is the amount of links on a page. My advice is to keep links to no more than one hundred per page. If a web page contains more than one hundred links, the search engines may consider the site to be part of a link-farm or a link-exchange which may result in obtaining negative consequences for having a “bad character”, and the site may receive penalties for being in a “bad neighborhood.”
A large part of search engine optimization is based on the quality of inbound links to a web site. The relevance of the links that point to a site, and the PageRank of the site that is pointing to that site, have a great deal of importance regarding the “class” of the site that is receiving the inbound link.
For simplicity, Google has categorized web sites into “classes”, much like the model that society or Object Oriented Programming where each web site (Object or Person) holds a certain degree or position based on their attributes, and characteristics.
This somewhat describes how Google considers the character of a site. Quite simply, web site links are much like that of neighborhoods. If you have neighbors (inbound links) that hold a position of status (respectable neighbors), then Google gives your web site credit as being of status based on the company you keep. (In a good neighborhood)
If however a site has low ranking inbound links that are of little or no relevance to a web site then Google considers the links as being of a poor quality and does not give credit to the site for those links.
That Should Get You … Started
Though this is no where near everything that should go in to a comprehensive search engine optimization campaign, you should be able to get a good start from here and build up enough information to get you on your way towards ranking in the SERP’s.
For a really great resource of “FREE” stuff on SEO, check out the resources in Google’s Webmaster tools … there is a wealth of information in there that should really help you get up to speed with search engine optimization. If that doesn’t have what your looking for … just Google it!
There are many great websites, Blogs and articles on the subject to keep you reading for a long, long time.
And If you are still wanting to find even more information regarding SEO, and you have just run out of resources …
there are some articles on my site, Florida Search Engine Optimization, that might have what your looking for to get your next search engine optimization campaign underway.
Best of Luck!
Search Engine Optimization – A Must
As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don’t get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic. What is their problem? They have the content. What is left?
The problem is these sites aren’t optimized for the search engines. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SE Friendliness, however you refer to it doesn’t matter, the fact is it works and I’m going to tell you what’s involved.
Before we continue let me familiarize you with some relevant terminology in my own words.
**Search Engine Optimization**
Search engine optimization can be referred to as the addition and modification of all variables and extended variables of a web site in hopes of achieving a better position in the search engines. By variables I mean components of a website such as META tags and content. By extended variable I mean things such as links from other sites.
Different SEOs, search engine optimizers, may have different opinions on this but alas this is only my own.
**What is a Search Engine Optimization Company? **
A search engine optimization company is a company that offers the service of creating and adjusting all the variables involved in search engine optimization in order to get your web site the best ranking they can achieve, during the designated project period, for all the major search engines.
**Search Engine Optimization Hurdles**
Back to the question of why these sites rich with content aren’t bringing in the numbers. There are several reasons why sites small and large aren’t optimized for the search engines, fortunately these can be remedied.
1. Many webmasters/site owners believe in “If You Build It They Will Come”. This attitude will get your web site no where fast. Sure if you build it you will get users maybe even a decent amount of users but you will not be unleashing the real potential of your web site.
2. Not feeling that your site can do better than it is. Websites can always be further optimized. Search engines change their algorithms all the time so what worked 2 months ago may not work as well or at all in present times. For any of you that fee you can get your site optimized better, think of the story of the Little Engine and don’t think you can, KNOW YOU CAN.
3. Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization.
This is partially true. Search engine optimization is not easy but then again, anyone can do it. It does take time though and time is a precious commodity. In situations where you just can’t devote the time to search engine optimize your site I would recommend seeking the services of a professional search engine optimization company. You can choose one here http://www.lilengine.com/seo-companies.php
4. Time + cost = a deterrent. For a situation like this I would recommend optimizing little by little on your own. Eventually you will become better and better at it and be able to accomplish more in less time.
5. Another problem is many people think “Well my site is only a small site, there is no way I will be able to compete with the larger sites that have top spots in the search engines”. If you think like this I’d like to say this to you. It is possible that that if you optimize your web site you may not be able to compete with the larger sites and may not be able to get a page 1 or 2 ranking in any of the search engines, BUT, what if you did. Always shoot for the stars so if you fall short you will at least hit the sky.
Now for those of you who plan to better your websites via Search Engine Optimization here are the stages you need to follow in order to have an efficient and effective SEO campaign.
**Planning Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign**
Planning is an essential factor in your SEO campaign. Knowing exactly what steps you are going to make and in what order and how you are going to go about achieving each of those steps will save you not only time but it will save you frustration as well. Planning is essential.
**Researching the Most Effective SEO Strategies**
What works and what does not. You will need to learn as many optimization strategies as you can that are currently effective with the search engines. This will be one of the most time consuming steps in your SEO campaign as you will have to sift through information as well as participate in SEO related forums to get additional information from professional. You can take this process in stages and apply your newly gained knowledge as you get it. There is also some useful software available both free and paid that will greatly help with this effort. WebPosition Gold is one of the more popular ones.
**Search Engine Optimize Your Site**
This should be done in stages so you can see the effectiveness of the applied strategies you are using. Don’t change your entire site all at once, instead, change a few areas at a time and see what results they produce. If you are satisfied with this then move on and optimize another section.
Search engine optimization does not only deal with your site it also deals with the relationship other sites have with yours and yours with theirs. Keep this in mind when utilizing your link building strategies.
**Monitor Your SEO Progress**
There are many ways to do this you will have to find the best method for you. You will need to monitor your search engine ranking for the keywords you are targeting after each update. Changes should be recorded and used as references to monitor progress and for strategy adjustments. There are many tools for this process as well. I recommend SEOCount.com for monitoring your progress on the Google search engine as it is very easy to use and you can monitor several domains and keywords all from within the same account. It also gives you the option of viewing the number of backlinks.
These steps follow the Plan Do Review methodology which is a proven strategy for engaging in any task. It is again unfortunate that there are so many webmasters who overlook this entire process; hopefully this article will stop you from making this same mistake. For more information on search engine optimization visit http://www.lilengine.com
Copyright © LilEngine.com 2003
Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.
What is search engine optimization?
SEO is optimizing your website for search engines, acquiring inbound links, and monitoring your traffic and referring links to use them optimally. SEO is also studying and monitoring your competitors’ techniques.
The goal of SEO is to bring in targeted traffic that is organic, i.e., from search results. When people type in a keyword or phrase that you’ve optimized your site for, you want your site to appear on the first page, preferably high on that page. Good SEO results in increased traffic without the cost and time spent on advertising.
The SEO industry
Where there’s a need, there’s an industry ready to help you spend money on that need. SEO firms charge from a few hundred dollars up to six-figure amounts to optimize your site for search engines.
If paying thousands of dollars to an SEO firm isn’t in your budget, consider using SEO packages to optimize your site yourself.
A combination of SEO tools is needed to get the best results. The SEO packages described below offer a variety of tools to help you optimize your site for search engines.
SEO tools compared
While we’ve listed numerous features of each SEO tool, these comparisons are summaries only.
Internet Business Promoter (IBP)
Known for their link popularity tool ARELIS, IBP also produces a three-step suite of tools to help you promote your website:
1. Page optimization
o Generate, analyze, and edit keywords
o Optimize for the top 10 search engine rankings
o Optimize the title, link texts, and other parts of the web page
o Validate the HTML
o View the site via a spider simulator
2. Page promotion
o Submit your site to search engines and directories
o Search for sites that might add a link to your site
3. Results tracking
o Verify search engine positions automatically
Price: $179.95 or $349.95.
LinksManager
Links Manager is designed to help users manage reciprocal linking. It doesn’t require any software downloads, and current links pages can be imported into it. Some of its features:
Link organization and formatting
o Organize your links into multiple categories, subcategories, and “most popular links” lists
o Store the links on your own server
o Highlight newly added and featured links
Link management and tracking
o Remove dead links temporarily via a dead link checker
o Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
o Rotate links automatically
o Deny link submissions according to the criteria you set via a blacklist
o View the most popular keywords on your links pages
Price: $19.95 a month.
SEO Administrator
SEO Administrator automates website promotion with tools that can do these tasks:
Keywords and site visitors
o Track your site’s position for your keywords in over 30 search engines
o Report on the keyword weight and density of your site as well as of competitors’ sites
o Suggest keywords that are relevant to each page
o Analyze your site logs to find out about site visitors, keywords used, referrers, and more
Search engines and directories
o Check which pages at your site have been indexed by various search engines
o Check Google PR, the number of inbound links, and whether or not the site is listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories
o Show the automated descriptions that search engines display for your pages
Price: from $70 to $150, depending on the version.
SEO Elite
With SEO Elite, you can find out exactly what your competitors are doing and copy their strategies. You can find out about your competitors’ web pages:
o Keyword density and prominence
o Their and headings
o Their meta keywords
o Whether their site is listed in the Yahoo directory
o Which websites your competitors are advertising on
Concerning link partners and search engines, SEO Elite can:
o Find thousands of possible link partners
o Track details about pages with inbound links
o Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
o Indicate which of your pages search engines have indexed
o Keep a record of where your site is ranked for search terms
Price: $167.
SEOToolset
The focus of SEOToolset is to provide data to help with website promotion. The toolset includes:
Your website
o Keyword density analyzer
o Keyword selection tool
o Reports on rankings for keywords, page names, and indexed page counts
o Link partner finder
Search engines and directories
o Engine-specific keyword research
o Traffic checker for keywords
o DMOZ category selector
o Search engine submission tool
o Search engine ranking monitor
Your competition
o Keyword research summary
o Link analysis of inbound links to competitors’ websites
Price: $90.00 per quarter per site.
Web CEO
The 10 tools in the Web CEO package are designed to help you promote and maintain your website, improve search engine results, and analyze site visitors. A summary of these tools:
At your website
o Keyword research
o Website optimization
o Inbound link tracking
o WYSIWYG website editing and file uploading
o Link checking
o Website monitoring
o Stats analysis to track visitors, ad campaigns, transactions, and more
Search engines and competition
o URL submission to search engines
o Search engine rank checking
o Tracking who links to the competition
Price: $295 for one person. A free version is also available.
WebPosition
WebPosition, one of the oldest and most popular SEO tools, offers a five-step SEO process:
1. Determine your position in search engines
o Create search engine ranking reports
o Monitor your site’s placement in search engine results
2. Research and choose keywords
o Identify the most searched and least competitive keywords
3. Optimize your pages
o Compare your pages to those of top-performing sites and specific competitors
o Detect when your competitors’ pages have changed
o Be alerted to changes that could affect your site rankings
4. Design and submit your pages
o Use Page Builder and Upload Manager to design and maintain your site
o Submit your site to search engines with the Submitter tool
5. Analyze your results
o Track the correlation between search rankings and revenue
o Import top-performing keywords
Price: $149 or $349.
How to hire an SEO firm
If you’d prefer to hire an SEO firm instead, do your research. You’ll be spending a minimum of a few hundred dollars, more likely thousands of dollars for a medium-sized or larger website.
While many SEO firms are good at what they do, the field unfortunately has its share of scammers as well. They may tell you that a variety of tricks such as hidden text or cloaking will improve your site’s position in search engines. In reality, these techniques may get your site banned from search engines. More information is at these pages at Google.com:
o Webmaster Guidelines
href=”http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
o Search Engine Optimizers
href=”http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
If you’re considering an SEO firm, ask how they measure success. Will your site hits be organic? Look at the sites of SEO firms’ clients and the site for the SEO firm itself. Do the sites rank well for keywords at these sites? The search engine results for relevant keywords will indicate how successful an SEO firm is.
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.
Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Make Love, Not War
When it comes to search engine optimization strategy, there are basically two camps – those who view search engines as adversaries to be conquered at any cost and those who regard search engines as partners in their online marketing efforts. Long-time readers of my articles probably already have a good idea of which camp I fall into; however, I believe both approaches can be effective optimization methods.
Adversarial Optimization Methods
Service providers who have this “adversarial” philosophy will tell their prospects that the formulation of a search engine optimization strategy is much like a high-stakes game of chess. It’s an “us vs. them,” “winner-take-all,” and “every man for himself” mentality. It’s also rooted largely in technology – under this philosophy, success is defined as unraveling the latest search engine algorithm to find new optimization methods and exploiting its technical aspects for immediate benefit.
The underlying premise of this search engine optimization strategy is that you must use optimization methods that trick the search engines into showing a website predominantly in the results since the site isn’t currently offering attributes that the search engines consider valuable. The primary benefits of this approach are that it doesn’t require much work on the part of the client and that results can be realized more rapidly. These qualities both stem from the fact that there isn’t a large amount of additional content needed, nor are there many wholesale changes to make to the website when using such optimization methods.
While this is not the methodology that I recommend, it is a valid – albeit potentially volatile – search engine optimization strategy.
Partnership Optimization Methods
Those who view search engines as partners have a very different search engine optimization strategy. These service providers embrace the idea that the attributes and optimization methods that give a website high rankings in search engines are, by and large, the same ones that make the site more valuable to website visitors and potential customers.
This theory makes sense. Every search engine needs to return results that their users find to be the most relevant and useful. If search engine R&D people operated in a vacuum, they would probably find their market share rapidly diminished while they lamented about how “people are stupid”. This means that each of the major search engines spend endless research dollars to determine exactly what it is that search engine users find valuable, and each has a high stake in the results of the research. No search engine marketing or web design firm has the resources or motivation to conduct studies of this magnitude. It is, therefore, highly advantageous to use the findings of these studies, deduced from common algorithm traits of multiple search engines, to improve your search engine optimization strategy and website.
I consistently hear from companies who are puzzled as to why their expensive, cutting-edge website is perpetually outranked by a site of perceived inferior quality – “our website is better than theirs” or “we are a much bigger company” are common remarks. Beauty is, as always, in the eye of the beholder. The sites that consistently rank highly are almost always using optimization methods that offer something of value to people who entered the search query. Search engines care as much about the size of a company or how much it spent on its website about as much as they care about what you had for breakfast this morning (I had blueberry muffins, but Google hasn’t called to ask).
The advantages to the “partnership” search engine optimization strategy are numerous. Rather than chase the ever-changing technical attributes that can get you short-term results, you instead use optimization methods that leverage your company’s knowledge of your industry to create something useful for the searcher. You can improve your website and offer the information and products that prospects are seeking, even if those prospects are in the earliest stages of the buying cycle. In general, you will not have to watch your rankings swing wildly based upon new spam filters and algorithm shifts, and thus will enjoy a higher level of predictability when it comes to your website (although with search engines, there are never any guarantees). Since you aren’t constantly forced to re-address your site’s search engine optimization methods, you’ll have more time to focus on other online marketing areas that need attention, such as the website’s conversion rate, an e-newsletter, or online PR.
Conclusion
It’s a fact that websites rise and fall in the rankings all the time. The only real constant is that the sites of TRUE value, the ones that offer something relevant and important to the searcher, are generally always near the top – even after the latest algorithm shift has sent the “adversarial” crowd into a frenzy of activity as they attempt to reformulate their search engine optimization strategy.
While it may take a little extra effort, I like to think of the relationship with search engines as a “partnership” in a real sense. We use optimization methods that apply the attributes search engines have deemed to be valuable to a website, which improves both the website and the website’s search engine rankings. The search engines, in turn, send highly-targeted visitors who have shown an interest in your industry, products, or services. Sure, it may seem that we get more out of the deal, but the engines don’t complain. They haven’t even acknowledged our partnership.
Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, SEO Today, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to the recently released Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Georgia-Pacific, DuPont, and Boston Scientific. To receive Scotts monthly articles, sign up for Medium Blues e-newsletter, Out of the Blue.
10 Reasons Why You Should Pay for Search Engine Optimization
Most people who are internet savvy probably would assume it is much easier to do search engine optimization themselves without the need to hire any professional search engine optimization assistance. In some cases this may work, but in most cases this is an absolute injustice for your web business. Marketing is an important and viable aspect of any business and without the proper marketing attention a business can easily fail. The following are 10 reasons why you should hire a professional search engine optimization consultant or SEO company.
Search Engine Optimization Takes Time, Effort, & Dedication
It takes an extreme amount of time, effort, and dedication to successfully complete a search engine optimization campaign. Search engine optimization consultants and companies usually have dedicated time to work on your search engine optimization project, thus giving you a controlled and managed search engine optimization campaign. Large companies as well as many small companies can provide your search engine optimization campaign the SEO effort and architecture it needs. Attempting to dedicate your own time can sometimes be overwhelming and without strict self-discipline you can easily get sidetracked. Additionally, progress for your search engine optimization campaign can take time to see any results, this fact can lessen your motivation to complete your own do-it-yourself search engine optimization campaign.
SEO Tools, SEO Strategy, & SEO Experience Goes a Long Way
The available SEO tools are ever-changing, but most skilled SEO’s have a suite of SEO tools which they keep up with and use to execute reports and other processes, such as keyword research, keyword density reports, keyword competition reports, traffic reports, etc. Like any profession you need the necessary tools and essentials to get the job done, the experienced use of SEO tools will aid in any SEO campaign. Professional SEO consultants and companies create SEO strategies and roadmaps to successfully market client websites, this strategic roadmap outlines in detail the planned effort to market clients’ websites. SEO strategy is essential for any SEO campaign. Having an experienced SEO professional on your side is always ideal. Experienced SEO’s stay up to date with the latest SEO trends and news. By having an experienced SEO your website can impressively gain ranking within a short time and much more effectively, providing greater Return on Investment (ROI).
Search Engine Optimization Is Not Easy
Search engine optimization is not simple, it’s not just starting a website and throwing around hundreds or thousands of links. Those days of search engine optimization are gone. It is now more about strategy, method, and architecture. Search engine optimization is a form of engineering these days. True search engine optimization engineers stay up to date with search engine algorithm and search marketing. Knowing the trends is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean following trends, true search engine optimization engineers use experience, skill, historical methods, and best practices to successfully market websites. Researching trends and not just following trends is very important, a good search engine optimization engineer uses good judgment, to know what methods work and what is borderline unethical or useless methods.
SEO Services Do Not Have to be Very Expensive
Most full SEO campaigns are expensive, but relatively affordable compared to other advertising avenues, such as: print advertising, broadcast advertising, etc. Shop around for SEO Services which match your marketing budget and needs. Do not settle for the first bidder, compare the first bidders’ rate against other SEO companies and consultants rates. Contact various SEO consultants and SEO companies to receive a free custom quote. Negotiate the SEO rate and services until it fits your budget and needs. Get yourself a fair and honest deal that you are satisfied with.
Search Engine Optimization Can Take Your Website to New Heights
It’s no secret that having your site rank in the top 10 results on search engines is very rewarding and can provide you with herds of traffic, if you rank for the right keywords. Search engine optimization can excel your website through the ranks and land your website in the top search results for virtually any keyword of your choosing. It is important that the search engine optimization company or consultant you choose targets top search results for all 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, & MSN). By having top search results in all 3 major search engines for a popular search term you are surely going to increase website sales and exposure.
Professional & Experienced SEO Services Can Be the Difference Between You and Your Competitors
Most online businesses and services invest in professional and experienced SEO services. The top search results for popular keyword terms usually have professional and experienced SEO companies and consultants in their corner, leading their online marketing campaign. By having professional and experienced SEO’s working for you, your website will naturally outrank your competitors who use the do-it-yourself method of SEO services. It is always imperative to stay one step ahead of your competition and it’s more likely you will do so with the aid of professional and experienced SEO services.
Search Engine Optimization Gets You the Best Bang for Your Buck
When you compare search engine optimization with other media advertising efforts such as print advertising, television commercial advertising, and radio broadcast advertising then search engine optimization gives the best bang for your buck. While other advertising methods can cost hundreds of thousands for advertising, search engine optimization cost peanuts compared to these other advertising methods. Let’s say you spend $25,000 for a full search engine optimization campaign and you spend (let’s say) $100,000 for a television commercial ad which runs for 1 full week at prime time (I know that ad is a whole lot more than that, but this is just an example). The search engine optimization campaign is much cheaper and the return on investment is much greater for the search engine optimization campaign. Why? Because the search engine optimization campaign has a broader reach, it can reach anyone across the globe, while the TV commercial ad is specific for local or nation broadcasting within their network. Secondly, the search engine optimization campaign is much more targeted and relevant to the customer needs, because the customer actually initiated the search and was looking for you, while the TV commercial ad is an interruption to the customers viewing program and the customer is more likely to ignore the commercial ad, especially if it does not entice them.
SEO Services Can Help Increase Business Sales Drastically
Increasing business sales have never been easier. If you have a brick & mortar which sales goods, then it is advised that you also have an online store to sale your goods as well. Having an online business while investing in professional and experienced SEO services will help your business expand and grow drastically. Like any sound business decision, as a business owner you are always looking for new ways to monetize, expand, and stay ahead of competition, SEO services for your online business is the perfect solution for getting this done.
Professional Search Engine Optimization Can Increase Your Search Ranking in a Shorter Time Period
Professional search engine optimization services can get your website ranked in a shorter time than trying to do it yourself. With the aid of professional and experienced search engine optimization your website can rank within the search engines within weeks, maybe even days. Finding the right professional with the skill level you need can be quite rewarding.
Treat Your Website Like a Business
If your website is going to be a part of your financial lifeblood then it is sensible to treat your website as a business and recruit professional search engine optimization services. Good business sense is to outsource or employ others to complete day to day task and projects such as search engine optimization and search engine marketing, so you can have more time to concentrate on running a successful business. Many businesses fail due to the do-it-yourself model. Doing things yourself is ‘okay’ if the task you are performing is your profession or relates directly to your business service, but trying to do things yourself because its your hobby, interest, or saves you money can be damaging to your business, as you need to treat your website like a business and only seek professional and experienced assistance for your business needs.
I highly encourage that any true website owner who is interested in reaching top search results seriously consider professional and experienced SEO services for a full search engine optimization campaign. SEO services may be an expensive advertising avenue, but as we discussed above it is much cheaper than its other advertising counterparts and the reward is much greater. Search engine optimization has long been a mystery to many people and is foreign to some, but with the help and aid of professional and experienced SEO services you will easily increase website sales, traffic, and exposure. If you employ the right search engine optimization company or consultant I can almost guarantee you will have a rewarding experience and will not regret it.
Ant Onaf is the owner & founder of AntOnaf.com (http://www.antonaf.com), a provider of professional and quality SEO services. AntOnaf.com offers affordable search engine optimization services as well as custom SEO packages to fit your marketing needs. Ant Onaf ingenuity, dedication, and passion for internet marketing & technology has made him an monumental icon across the World Wide Web.
How Do I Avoid the Most Used Keywords?
When you start driving traffic to your site – you will immediately find yourself competing with millions of others doing the same.
So how can you stick out?
Your success is depending on how fast you can master Google. You will learn that Google is “a living thing” – it´s not static and you have to keep on learning, and you can actually be a part developing it!
How? By driving traffic to your site with certain keywords. Avoiding most used keywords can make your advertising more competitive in the search engines.
Use this for an example; If you want to write an article about how to avoid the most used keywords.
The first thing you have to do is beginning your search for keywords – don’t rush – take your time, do your research thoroughly to find the right keywords. This is the key to compete in the top at the search engines.
Helping your imagination and ideas – a good tool to avoid the most used keywords is Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery. There you can put in the word you have in mind, and find how many actually search for that word per day.
A good suggestion is to put your word inside quotation marks – like this “keywords”.
Don´t chose a keyword under 20 search per day – because that will not drive enough traffic to your site.
Then go to Google an put in your word within “quotation marks” – that will tell you how many actually have that exact search word on their page.
If you find a keyword and the result is between 5,000-10,000 pages – that is really good!
Take it and use it!
Another way to get new ideas for keywords is to read other articles with topics that are similar to your topic.
When it comes to the article itself – It is important that the articles contains quality material. You also need to know how many times that keyword should appear. You have to pick a good headline – and your body text should not be too long.
These are a few tips on how you can Increase your traffic to your site. This is a start to get traffic to your site.
Always remember – Don´t give up! As I stressed in one of my earlier articles; You have to be Persistent! That´s the key to success!
“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.” William Shakespeare
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Stefan Berg is a Online Entrepreneur from Sweden, now living in Borneo, Malaysia.
He teaches people how to develop and progress as a Entrepreneur Online.
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Keywords and Success – When is it Right to Use Keywords?
Keywords and Overkill
You need to use the right keywords in order to get your site in the search results for queries using those keywords, right? Sure.
For the most part that’s the case. The rise of latent semantic indexing has changed that a little, but in most cases, you should use those terms verbatim to get the best results.
You should also use keywords more than once in order to instruct the search engines that the term is at the heart of your content’s meaning and purpose, right?
In most cases, that’s still a good idea. If you have a 2,000 word page and your keyword is only showing up once in the text, it’s likely that the search engines won’t key into its importance in terms of the overall message.
With those two observations behind us, we’ve set the stage for one of the most common blunders in the world of Internet content creation, site building and search engine optimization: keyword overkill.
You’ve seen keyword overkill in action before.
Someone has a site about “oblong widgets”. They’re page says, “Welcome to our site about oblong widgets. Oblong widgets are very popular. We sell a wide variety of oblong widgets to meet all of your oblong widgets. If you want oblong widgets, you’ve come to the right site. We’re your oblong widgets headquarters!”
Strangely enough, you’ll never find that site high in the rankings if you query “oblong widgets” (unless there is a real paucity of competition for the term). It’s keyword overkill and it doesn’t work.
In fact, it’s a very bad idea. It’s a good way to make sure you don’t rank for your keywords, in fact.
First, even if it didn’t upset the search engines, it certainly wouldn’t make you any friends with your real human visitors. No one likes reading redundant text that seems to have a weird fixation with the repetition of specific terms. It’s “junk” content and people will respond to it as such.
Second, the search engines don’t like it. Search engines haven’t mastered artificial intelligence yet, but they’re well beyond the point of being fooled by constant repetition of a keyword. The biggest reason to avoid overkill? It doesn’t work. Period.
So, what is the ideal keyword density? There isn’t one. How’s that for tricky?
You’re probably safe if you’re anywhere between 1% and 4%, but there’s no real mathematical formula to determine optimal use. Anyone who tells you there is a magic number is deluding himself or herself.
The real trick is to combine natural use with other quality SEO maneuvers. Use the word the way you would if it wasn’t one of your chosen keywords and then buttress its SEO value by placing it in an H1 or other appropriate tag. You might even try to bold or underline the keyword term for good measure.
The last thing you want to do, however, is to go crazy with a keyword.
Excessive use isn’t fooling the search engines and it’s frustrating to your visitors. Avoid overkill and you’ll get much better results.
Copyright John Adams Honest Home Business
Good use of keywords is one of the 7 secrets to long term home business success. Get free training and keyword advice by going here: http://www.honest-homebusiness.com/what-are-keywords.html
Using Keywords – Part 5 – Google’s Wonder Wheel
Find More of Your Keywords Using – ‘Wonder Wheel’
We have put in our keyword, ‘German Shepherds” into the Google search engine and clicked on the search button to get our results. At the top of the search listings you will see a link titled, ‘show options’. Click on it and a sidebar will open up. This sidebar full of information directly related to your search and is Google’s present to you in helping you to do your keyword research.
It’s a Carnival of Ideas and Information
You can now easily find videos, photos, forums, and reviews which are directly related to your German shepherd keyword research. You can easily see what the search results have been through as far back as a year and as recently as 24 hours ago. Take a few minutes to explore and click on each of the links to see what is available.
Having this information at your fingertips is very powerful stuff. In the past it would take days and days of research to put together enough research to build your site. Now, literally in a few minutes, you can have and see the information and content that Google likes.
But it gets even better.
The Wonder Wheel
Further down the options sidebar is the Wonder Wheel link. When you click on it, the wonder wheel appears with your keyword in the center and Google’s related search options. If you want to drill down even further, you can click on one of the options and a new wonder wheel will appear, offering even more related keyword searches.
Actually, these keywords aren’t just suggestions, they are actual results fom Google’s search engine. Google is giving you the exact keywords and phrases that people are actually typing into the search engine when looking for information related to German shepherds.
But Don’t Get Lost
Make sure to keep focused. It’s not unusual to keep clicking just to see where it will take you. So play around for a few minutes, but remember, that you still have to go back and put those keywords into the Google keyword tool in order to get results to see how many people are actually using those keywords for searches.
The other good news here is that you will have plenty of ‘long tailed keywords’ to work with. This is where you will find those golden keyword nuggets that were mentioned in an earlier article.
Putting This Information to Use
When writing articles, I don’t mind if only a few hundred people are searching for that keyword. I will write an article around that subject and usually end up on the first page of those particular search results. And when you have 100 – 200 articles written down the line, those small numbers really add up.
But when using keywords to name your site, I would want the biggest of the smaller searches and then use other related keywords to build the site up with.
Have fun with your keywords and don’t look for fantastic success overnight. Build a solid foundation and you will be guaranteed long term success.
Be Fearless
Billy Ojai
Would You Like Some Great MRR and or PLR Products for Your Internet Marketing Projects? Visit: http://billyojai.com Need to learn better copywriting techniques? Pick up a free copy of ‘Copywriting For The Web’ at: http://billyojai.com
Using Keywords in Your Webcopy to Get Your Pages Ranked
USING KEYWORDS Hey, guess what search term we’d like to see this article rank for? 74 people a day search using the keyword phrase “using keywords”. Our keyword research indicates that it also a favorable search term and should be easy to rank for. We’ll see. If this article doesn’t rank on the top page of Google for “using keywords” by December of this year, I’ll eat an entire spam loaf without anything to wash it down. (I hate spam!).
Assuming you’re beyond the keyword research phase of your business planning, now you need to understand how to use your keywords. We like to teach our clients that using keywords is nothing more than knowing the keyword you want to promote when you write your page. Using keywords in your copywriting should be a very intentional process. You should not get hung up in the details put forth by anal SEO guys who think you need to have 6.2% of the page content covered by the keywords you are using.
As we build the pages using keywords and grow the core infrastructure of our websites, you should know that what we write is VERY intentional. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the theme of of this page, and the search term we’d like to rank for is “using keywords”. We are NOT putting a great emphasis on the technical SEO aspects. I don’t think getting my clients to focus on “keyword density” is really going to get them very far. I actually get the opposite result. My clients shut down as their creative process gets overwhelmed with technical garbage. It’s better just to say to them that whenever you use text, try to use your keywords. That should be enough…and it is.
Google doesn’t want your page to look fake and they don’t want you trying to decipher their algorithms to get it exactly right. The more you try to match how Google is reading the page, the more you put your content at risk when Google changes their algorithms. The more you write for your audience, the more you’ll be rewarded in the long term, both by the search engines and by your customers who have to ultimately interpret your writing. Write for your readers! Let your keywords keep you on topic!
Now, having said that, there are some things you can do that will improve your chances of getting noticed and indexed by the search engines using your keywords.
Once you’ve written your page, you can improve your ability to rank in the search engines by using keywords in articles that you write. You can distribute those articles and use them to point to the same page in your website (you point to the page by hyperlinking your keywords to the page you want to promote for the same keywords).
There are also provisions within a page that also may help. Most website builders include form based entries for your metatags for every page. Don’t worry if you don’t know what a metatag is. Just know that you are encouraged to enter keywords (search terms relavent to your page), a description and a title when you build each of your pages. So know what keyword you want a page to rank for. Put it in the keywords box. Use the keyword in your description. Put the keyword in your title. Use the keyword or variations of your keyword on your page in the headers, in the regular text and in the alternative text on the images. You don’t need to know any code to do any of this.
Having said this, please note the first sentence of this article. Smart keyword choice is essential to ranking for keywords. If your choices are too general or too competitive, you have an uphill battle no matter how well written your page is. That’s because your links relative to the competition will probably pale in comparison.
Smart choices and intentionally using your chosen keywords in your webcopy keeps you on track, on point and hopefully on Google.
by Greg Newell Greg owns http://www.buildawebshop.com This site is designed to help new ecommerce and new business owners understand the nuances of how a website is found. Using keywords is at the core of understanding sound website marketing techniques.
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