Choose Your SEO Expert Carefully
If you’re going to buy something expensive, don’t you want a little proof that it’s gonna work? Don’t you also want some reassurance that they know what they’re talking about? With all the SEO experts popping up, you really need to do double duty in choosing your SEO “expert” carefully.
SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of optimizing elements of your website so that your website will rank higher in search engines like Google.
It seems that many a web designer has realized that offering SEO and Internet marketing advice and services will somehow benefit their clients. So they find some old articles on the subject, and type out a pretty, well formatted article, and declare that they are experts in the matter.
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Good Content Has Natural Keyword Saturation
For the last 10 years or so, I’ve really not payed close attention to keyword saturation numbers because of it’s abuse so early on in the history of the Internet
You remember those days don’t you? You were searching for the Whitehouse homepage, and would land on a major porn site? Ahh the good ol days of when Internet technology was new.
I’ve recently been writing articles for Ezine Articles’ “Hundred Articles in 100 Days” contest, and am really getting into it. I get to stretch my mind, hone my cognitive abilities, and retrain some of my creative processes.
There’s also huge value to a website’s traffic through article marketing as well, and is considered by some to be the single most effective form of online marketing.
After I recently submitted an article, a pop-up dialogue box told me that I used the same phrase too many times, and that I needed to write a better article. In this particular article, I wasn’t targeting a keyword. Nope. Just a good article about search engines, so the term “search engine” was used where needed.
Keyword stuffing is another term used for this, if it’s used in a bad way. I thoroughly preach to all businesses to never, ever keyword stuff. There’s no reason to, and search engines are known for degrading your rankings if they think you’re keyword stuffing.
I’ve been teaching myself over the years to use nouns instead of pronouns. To use more descriptive language that is easier for readers to comprehend, and make use of. I don’t always do it, but I try to write this way a majority of the time, partly because it does add some SEO value, but it also increases the readability of most of my articles.
So is it a problem that my articles had the term “search engine” in it too many times? From Ezine Articles’ perception, yes.
Do I agree with Ezine Articles’ decision to block my article? yes. Why?
Because they have too many people that abuse their system with articles only for SEO purposes. They are looking for quality content to add to their site. This means that they have to set certain guidelines to filter out potential trash. I respect this decision to filter. It’s a protection mechanism that covers 90% of the bad articles from getting listed.
I want my articles to be side by side with good articles, so if my article gets flagged as being keyword stuffed, then it gives me a chance to reflect, improve my own writing, and make corrections.
But is it really a problem to have the term “search engine” in my article, if say I posted it on my own blog? Not at all, so long as it’s sole purpose is to convey your message to your readers.
What I’ve found is that by writing an article that is easy to read and understand, especially technical articles, that I need to use nouns a lot more often, and be slightly more descriptive, which will naturally lend certain terms to be used more often. This leads to what I refer to as “Natural Keyword Saturation”, and I think is a good thing.
But if you’re after some contrived “keyword saturation” number, then you’re writing your articles and content for the wrong reason. The primary reason that you need to be writing articles and pages is for your readers and visitors. They are the ones that will get the satisfaction of the words that you write, and will return day after day to listen to your wisdom.
So take the time to write some good articles, put them on your blog, and don’t worry about keyword saturation. Just let the keywords saturate themselves “naturally”.
What is SEO, Really?
From a basic definition, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the idea of optimizing web pages in the eyes of a search engine so that your site ranks well for given keywords.
Beyond that one needs to understand a little bit about how search engines work. Each search engine has its own complex algorithms that determine what it takes to put your site on the top of a results page. Optimization is the process of modifying a website’s characteristics to make it stand out from all other websites, in the eyes of a search engine.
Optimizing web pages is part science and part art. Search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others, don’t actually reveal what their algorithm is to the general public. SEO experts hypothesize through experimentation, testing and analysis to make a “best guess” approach. It might be fair to say that SEO is nothing more than an educated guess, but it does go with extensive analysis, sometimes on the level of a university setting, getting intertwined with mathematical diagrams and charts.
Part of the testing process is analyzing competition for a given set of keywords, and comparing them to find common denominators. When you can find certain common characteristics that only top resulting web pages provide, then you have an idea of what the search engines might be looking for. Optimizing for these common characteristics that are found in top search engine rankings is the essence of SEO.
Website characteristics can include mundane things like how long have you owned a domain, to more important things like the title of your webpage, and how many people are linking to your site. Though they may be mundane, they are extremely important, and require constant testing and experimentation to verify that everything is in place.
One extremely important misconception is that websites are ranked in the search engines, but it’s really web pages that are being ranked. The distinction is that SEO has to be done on each and every page of your website to maximize your exposure and optimization to the search engines. Think of it this way, when you search for a term, do you get just a homepage, or do you get a page that is specific to what you’re looking for?
There is of course much more to it than that, but unless you want to be an expert in the field, I recommend that you get acquainted with the subject, and hire a consultant to guide you and your website along an appropriate path.
Meta Tags and Search Engines – Still Relevant?
In the mid to late 1990’s, all one really had to do was to put the right keywords into the meta description and meta keyword tags, and you were set to be ranked in the search engines.
Well fast forward 15 years, and the search engines no longer view the meta tags as the best source of information, mostly because the tags were spammed with irrelevant keywords for so many years.
The goal of a search engine is to match a question with an answer. Your question is the search engine query, and your answer is the search engine result page. The better the answer that a search engine can give, the better it is at doing it’s job, and the more likely you are to use that search engine exclusively. So the search engines do have some motivation to provide you with the best answers possible.
So is it possible that the meta tags are being used by the search engines to provide quality results to search engine questions? Yes and no. (more…)
Proper Title Tags for Search Engine Rankings
Title tags are part of the HTML code that appears for your webpage, and is considered by most SEO experts as the single most impactful change you can make to your website, and see results within search engine rankings.
The title tag is not that exciting by itself, containing a beginning and an ending tag, with the contents between these two title tags being the title itself. The title tag should be the first thing in the HTML’s HEAD section, to give the search engines the clearest picture of what your site is about.
The title of your webpages need to be unique for each page, and pertinent to the content that is on that page. So if you have a page that is your “about page”, then you want to give a title that describes a little bit more regarding what your page is about. Something like “About Acme Drilling Company in Los Angeles California” is a lot more descriptive than “About Our Company”
Feel free to use industry specific terms, if needed, but make sure that your title jives with any keyword research that you’ve done. If you haven’t done any keyword research for your webpage, then common sense will get you descent titles as well. Just think about how people would describe the page to you, and formulate a title based on those words.
Be as descriptive as you can, but keep your title short at the same time. Don’t use all caps, and don’t just stuff your favorite keyword into the title either. I suggest that you look at any instances of pronouns, like he, she or it, and replace those pronouns with actual nouns (person, place or thing). Also use descriptive terms in front of nouns, instead of “Jacks Restaurant” why not “Jacks Famous Buffalo Burger Restaurant”? See how a few descriptive words can enhance the presentation of your page?
The title is what is displayed in the search engine result pages, so you really want it to stand out to your readers, and give them an extra incentive to click the link to your page. I highly encourage you to take the time to look at your webpage, and go page by page to make changes to the title tags. Every little bit helps when it comes to SEO.
Choosing Great Domains for Improved SEO Rankings
Selecting a domain name for business branding and SEO can be a tricky task. So many domains are already taken, or they require thousands of dollars to procure from a domain owner. A little creative thinking can get you a domain that is catchy, easy to remember, brandable to your business, and has that extra flair needed for SEO purposes.
Search engines do give credit to a site in search engine rankings if the URL contains keywords in the domain. But what would be a good domain name?
Two or three words put together are generally great domains, and not too hard to get a hold of. For instance, CarBuyer.com, BBQlife.com and SwimTeam.com all of them have two keywords tacked together in an easy to remember way that can create a lasting bond between your customers and your business.
Domains with keywords in them tend to be naturally easy to visualize and remember, so you’ll get a lot of repeat customers because they can remember the URL, and will type it in directly. Over time, and good domain name that is found in the search engines will be clicked on more often because people remember your brand.
Part of the search engines algorithm also seems to imply that there is a certain preference for domains that have the keywords in it. So if your industry is used car sales, then UsedCarSales.com would rank fairly well, over a more obscure domain like RefurbishedRollingTransporters.com. Notice also that the obscure domain is really long, and doesn’t use words that completely relate, even though in this case they had similar meanings.
Another thing to avoid in a domain is the hyphen (-) because of it’s appearance related to spam. So Reburbished-Cars-4-Your-High-School-Graduate.com might (or might not) be relevant to used car sales, if no one will click on it because it sounds like spam, then it’s not worth your time either.
GoDaddy has a related domains feature, so when you try a domain, and it’s taken, you can see domains that might be similar. This can give you great ideas of related terms to use for keywords. There is also the option to view related domains that are for sale. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a great domain for a bargain price that suits your needs.
But no matter how you come about your domain, make sure that your domain is clear about your business, is easy to brand, is easy to remember, and that it has a keyword or two thrown in for good measure.
Choose the SEO Company That’s Right For You
Being online is paramount to most businesses, and understands the need for search engine optimization (SEO) on their site, but how does one go about hiring an SEO company that does what they need?
An SEO company is just like any other company. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. You will mesh well with one, and not another. It is very important to find a company that you feel confident with and feel that they answer your questions satisfactorily and in a timely manner.
Aside from “gut feeling” and personality traits, there are some very specific questions that you need to make sure are answered correctly. For instance, do they have a portfolio, complete with testimonials? If they have been in the SEO business for very long, they likely have a portfolio, but many are also protective of their clients, which can be another benefit to you.
Ask potential SEO companies what sort of reporting they provide, what will be in the reports, and how often they can expect to receive a report. A minimum report should include the locations of the back links that they’ve put into place, what on page SEO changes were made, and a Google Analytics report that includes a summary of traffic results from the previous month. Monthly is usually adequate for reports, though some will send out reports quarterly.
Ask if the SEO company you are interviewing provides ethical whitehat only solutions, and have them describe what SEO techniques that they plan on using. Have them put it in writing for you, so that you can go to one of the SEO forums, like WarriorForum, to ask around and get other opinions.
Avoid companies that email you with guarantees of page one results. They don’t own Google, and can’t make such a claim. Usually they are using PPC advertising, or ranking your site for a keyword that has no volume, and no competition. Always be wary of email solicitations for SEO services, just like you do for other unsolicited emails.
Part of your job as an SEO shopper, is to educate yourself on the generally accepted practices for SEO. It’s your site, and if an SEO company does the wrong thing, your site can go from little traffic to no traffic overnight. Take the time to get to know who you’re hiring, and you can have a site that gets much more traffic than it’s getting now.
Article Marketing Extravaganza: 100 Articles in 100 Days
If you’re into article marketing, you might have heard of EzineArticle’s second annual HAHD contest – That’s One Hundred Articles, One Hundred Days
If you’re new to article marketing, you may be wondering what the big deal is. For starters, only 1000 authors made the mark. Its not difficult, but it takes a certain level of dedication, focus and persistence.
I will mention that the awards are pretty awesome, my favorite being an invitation to a private 4-hour Article Marketing TeleSeminar hosted by Chris Knight, EzineArticles Publisher & CEO (Valued at $10,000). That would be pretty awesome to win, and he’s giving this away to the first 100 people to qualify.
The other giveaways are things like fleece blankets, hats, mugs, etc – traditional contest prizes.
But none of those prizes should be why you should enter the contest. Nope. None of the prizes will bring visitors to your site, which aren’t worth near what the prizes are worth (except maybe the grand prize).
The real reason that you should enter this contest, is for exposure to your business. Article marketing is considered by some (myself included) to be the single most powerful internet marketing technique available in your traffic building arsenal.
Why? Because it builds upon human psychology factors and search engine optimization factors simultaneously.
The human factor is the part where they are reading what you have to say about a subject. You are educating them on what you have to say. You are their authority on the subject.
If well written, they will want to know more, and will click on one of your links in the resource box at the end of the article. That’s part human factor, and part SEO. The act of clicking on your link is human behaviour at it’s finest. The link in the eyes of Google and Bing, is abonus point to you in the search engine rankings. Do this again (say 100 times, in 100 days?) and you’ll have more human interest and search engine interest than you’ve ever seen before.
But wait – There’s More!
EzineArticles.com isn’t the only article directory online. There are hundreds of article marketing sites that will take your article, and make them open to public view, with credit to you, and another link back to your site.
And if you want to, you can even submit the same article to them as well. Some say that you should not submit the same article to more than one place, out of fear of a duplicate content penalty. Perhaps. But if it’s that good, then you are really more concerned about the human psychological behavior of them clicking on the link back to your site, right?
There are even some online article submission companies that will take your article, and submit to 10’s to 100’s of sites for you, on your behalf.
So you’ve just taken a single article and had it thrown around the net to a hundred places. Now imagine if you have 100 articles! I think you can get the point here about number of backlinks for SEO, and the human factor of getting more people the opportunity to read your article and click on your links.
And if you want to re-purpose the article even further, you can submit the article to your own blog as well. There really isn’t an end where you get your articles syndicated to.
As you can well imagine, I’m a huge fan of article marketing. And with that, I give to you my pledge…. my pledge to write 100 article in 100 days….
Let the race begin. Please join me on the journey!
Is Yahoo Microsoft Search Engine Deal Really a ‘Good Deal’?
Well it’s official. Microsoft and Yahoo have finally agreed to merge their search engine technologies. But is this a good thing, or a bad thing to combine search engine companies together?
I’ve been reading about the merger, and it seems that there are both good and bad things about the Microsoft and Yahoo merger.
Randfish of SEOmoz gave a nice summary of the top 10 things that might change with the Microsoft and Yahoo Search Engine merger, and gave some nice insight into things that could change.
I hadn’t even considered that Yahoo Site Explorer could go away, which right now is the best source of back link information, through the linkdomain search query operator.
There are some, as noted in this SearchEngineWatch article on the merger reaction, that seem to think this will be a good thing for advertisers and marketers.
I personally think that is a wee bit too early to decide for sure what this means, but I do think that with only 2 major players at the table, there will be more and more reason to SEO a site for both of them, instead of just relying on optimizing for Google.
What does this mean for SEO cost? it might cost more to get organic results if you push to have both search engines return your site in top search engine rankings, but I think that overall PPC costs will go down on a “per click” basis, but having to manage two separate accounts, instead of just an AdWords PPC campaign will cost more to manage.
Less is more… or so I read in a Unix book at one time.
I do think that with only two big search engines, instead of one big one, and two little ones, that we might see some neck-to-neck competition.
Just like the good ole beginning days of AMD and Intel, duking it out to to see who would be the first to 1Ghz… or who could pipeline more data simultaneously.
Personally, I think that it will be a humbling experience for Google, and they will be forced to do a little bit more, and raise the benchmarks for superiority a little bit higher. But I’m sure that Yahoo and Microsoft are well aware of this, and will be ready to charge forward with their own ideas of what it will take to dominate the search engine marketing space.
I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited to see what the future of search engines has in store for us in the near future.
Title Tags are the King of Content
Everyone in the SEO world has heard the phrase that “content is king, and links are her queen”.
I still content that this is a fairly accurate statement, and if you break down the content of a page, I’d say that the title of a page is the king of the on page content.
A page has many (hundreds perhaps) factors that influences it’s rankings in the search engines, but none are nearly as influential as the page title.
The page title sets the stage for what the rest of the article or blog post is going to be about. It can be descriptive enough that the content of the page need not be read, for the title says it all. (more…)
Christmas SEO? Start Now!
Being that SEO usually takes 3-6 months to get going, and that the Christmas holiday shopping spree’s are expected to start a little early this year, starting your SEO campaigns for the Christmas holiday now, just might be the right thing to do.
After watching this Alarming Headline on Christmas Shopping, I realized that what he’s getting at is is so true ( be sure to watch the Comedy Central Clip on the Economy too).
So what do you need to do to begin your Christmas SEO?
Two things: 1) Decide that you’re going to (more…)
How Many BackLinks Should My Website Have?
A common question of website owners and new SEO consultants is “How many backlinks do I need?”
And the answer is both simple, and complex.
The simple answer is “More than your competition for a given keyword”.
The complex answer involves knowing what your goals are.
Backlink strategies are not something that you just “set and forget”. Backlinks are something that you need to plan, a specific number every month.
For instance, let’s say (completely made up here) that the top 5 competitors for the keyword you’re trying to rank well for each have about 10,000 backlinks (per Yahoo, not Google).
This tells you that you need to have about 10,000 backlinks today, but you’ll also need to be gaining more per month, since your competition will be doing the same thing.
You also don’t want to suddenly have 10,000 links, since the search engines will immediately view that as SPAM.
So create a plan to get your 10,000 links over time. Split it out over 6 or 12 months. Once you’ve obtained your 10,000 link goal, you need to create a smaller campaign to keep steady.
But always keep an eye on your competition. If they are getting more links, then you need to match – nay, beat – your competition in number of back links.
Just keep at it, no matter what your competition is. The more competitive the keyword, the more work you’re going to have to do.
If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend starting with the optimization of lesser competitive keywords. The volume may be less, but if you can be in the top 3, you’ll make it up in clicks direct to your site.
Pick Your Shopping Cart Wisely
I was just reading an article from the folks over at Brafton about choosing the right shopping cart for your SEO needs.
Now I’ve only used a few shopping carts, like osCommerce, X-Cart and Zen Cart, but they all had various SEO components installed and a high degree of configurability. I assumed, wrongly, that all shopping carts had this capability.
Looks like there are shopping carts that don’t give you a product-by-product or category level page titles. From an SEO perspective, these are imperitive.
There are a lot of things that you need to look for in a shopping cart to fit your needs, but now you need to know more about the SEO capabilities of the cart as well.
Read more about how to choose a shopping cart for SEO.
Flying Blind with SEO
What is the one thing that sets a Professional SEO Expert apart from someone that is blindly following whatever the newest article tells them to do for their search engine optimization?
The SEO Plan
Set & Almost Forget SEO Basics
- What makes a word a keyword?
Your website will be made up of many words, but a keyword is special, it is what your website is about. Take this one step further an define a keyword phrase as a group of words that define what your website is about.- Focus on 1 – 5 keyword phrases for your entire website.
- Focus on 1 – 3 keywords phrases for your each individual page.
- Keyword phrases need to be in heading, titles, hidden tags, etc.
- Focus on keywords sounding natural in the text…don’t overuse.
Barack Obama and SEO?
Historic Moments
Breaking News
Famous People & Moments…
The inauguration of Barack Obama is on everyones’ fingers. Typing aways searches about the coverage of the ceremony, or the first 100 days, finding out all the details about the historic event of Barack Obama’s step into the White House.
So what does Barack Obama have to do with SEO? Nothing really. It is the trend of searching for Barack Obama’s name that has to do with SEO and SEM.
The picture below is from Google Trends and it shows that there have been a few spikes in searches for the term, “Barack Obama”. It also shows that searches are on the rise. No real surprise, since the inauguration is happening tomorrow.