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SEO Speedway – Getting Ahead
and Staying in Front of the Pack
By Bill Stroll, StepForth Sales and Marketing Manager, StepForth Search Engine
Placement Inc.
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
» Click here for  PDF &  Word Versions
A large part of my sales cycle is educating and sensitizing
clients and StepForth resellers to the ever changing nature
of search marketing trends and techniques. The recent proliferation
of search engine optimization sites and their range of offerings
are staggering; those providing or selling tips, quick fixes,
placement guarantees, search friendly website template “specials” or
shopping carts and their mandatory custom hosting services,
to name a few. Unfortunately, an inappropriate majority of
these sites offer misinformation, unethical and compromising
information. Much of this stuff on the internet can make my
work more challenging and even eventful at times. I am amazed
constantly at the inaccuracies of information posted out there
and the false impression some folks have about getting website
visibility and high keyword phrase rankings.
In the world of non paid placement, organic or natural search
marketing for websites is so much more than putting up a website
and expecting the search engines to place your website in its
rightful place; high up on the first page of the search engine
result pages (SERPs). It would appear many site owners perceive
that once their site is launched – THAT’S IT! -
the search engines are waiting in eager anticipation for it
and immediately place it on the first page of the SERPs. (Curiously,
many people really have such expectations.) And, after much
time without any sort of exposure or success on the internet,
the bewildered (and sometimes SEO-tarnished) site owner calls
us for help.
In explaining the search marketing landscape to clients I am
often reminded of go-karting; lots of similarly equipped go-karts
(information), all having the same intention of getting ahead
(research and SEO campaign) and staying ahead of the pack (on-going
maintenance and website analytics). There always seems to be
an initial traffic jam (waiting to be indexed), jostling (re-tweaking
the site, adding new textual content and link building) and
bouncing about without any clear sense of actual forward motion.
This article is about running the gauntlet, getting free of
the pack, and staying ahead of them.
The ideal campaign
To achieve success on the internet the business owner and/or
webmaster have need of the following: practical goals, a clear
focus on the site’s overall message, a realistic timetable,
patience, and a call to action for each page. Often I present
an overall strategy based on an ideal campaign. Many clients
have expressed appreciation at learning about and understanding
the range of services they can choose from and then make an
informed decision on how to proceed. This process requires
the site owner to invest additional thought and focus on what
really needs to be done in order to achieve the results they
want.
The timetable
I know it may be difficult to imagine at this moment but websites
are starting to gear up for their Christmas, New Years and
even Valentines Day campaigns.
Last year Jim Hedger and I in an article titled, “Christmas
Time for Search Marketing” discussed the need
for careful advance planning for holidays. Generally keyword
search for
a specific holiday escalates about 3 months prior to that
holiday. Also, the minimum requirement for running an organic
search
marketing campaign is 3 months. In total then, business
owners should plan their organic SEO campaign about 6 months
in advance.
Knowing the trends and how to harness the power of search engine
marketing is only part of the battle. Making effective use of
that knowledge is the other. The chart below illustrates holiday
search by month.
In logical progression the services for successful organic
placement may comprise several (if not all) of the following:
keyword analysis, competitor research, website design/redesign,
creation of textual content, usability, consultation, SEO campaign,
on-going maintenance, website analytics, and link building.
Competitor Analysis HOT TREND
This is a cornerstone to everything one plans to do on the net.
Objectively understanding the data-mining of results from top
competitor visibility under specific keyword targets we learn
how they were able to achieve such successful rankings. As well,
their marketing strategies are revealed. This analysis will
ultimately determine the universe of keyword targets for your
site; it sets the site up for any number of services from which
to run successful campaigns.
Keyword Research
At a minimum all sites should undergo keyword research to
determine best fits for placement. In conversation with
callers, many
website owners are unable to identify their site’s
primary goal and/or keyword phrase. Focusing on these two
factors will
ensure a much higher probability for a great ROI.
Copywriting
“
Just because something is common sense doesn’t mean it’s
common practice” – (unknown). Once a set of
primary and secondary keywords have been established it
is time to review
existing textual content or create new text. Often times,
site owners are surprised to learn that the textual content
on their
home page does not once mention their primary keyword phrase!
Website Design or Redesign
How old is the site, how was the site made, who wrote the site
and where is it hosted? When was the last time it had a checkup
or a redesign? Frequently I inspect and come across a website
that has 0 backlinks pointing to the site, and 0 pages spidered
and/or indexed by Google. This is problematic of course and
although the client may wish to talk about website optimization
I first need to recommend we take a step back; we need to
determine the site architecture and to what extent the design
is search engine friendly. If the site utilizes a frames design
is the owner willing to consider a site redesign or come to
terms with the site being compromised without a hope of attaining
exceptional placements. Similarly how much of the site is
in Flash? Is there a splash page?
Be cautious of those low monthly all-in-one templates sites;
they are challenging to optimize due to their inflexible architecture.
If you are unsure ask the following: is there the capability
to alter unique pages elements such as title tags, H1 (main)
headers, description and other meta tags. Can one edit menu
positioning, text navigation, image alt tags, layout of text,
headers and footers? Does the site have a cms (contact management
system)? Is access to its back end available? As regards e-comm
templates we need to know where the shopping cart is located;
is it part of the site or 3rd party?
Usability
Many callers say their website receives a large volume of visitors
but the exit rate is very high and the conversion rate is
extremely low. Good questions to ask: Are you targeting your
traffic (audience) properly? What is the significance for
each and every page of your website? How do you want to direct
your visitor? Does each page carry a message or a call to
action?
Consultation
So many people say they know enough information to hurt their
sites. We can help them. Or we can validate if what they have
done is proper and effective. Owners can move forward with
confidence on how to expand the site, what coding to use,
finding a suitable shopping cart, etc.
SEO Campaign
The logical combination of optimization services from keyword
research, developing efficient navigation for the spiders,
keyword enriched text, source code, site map creation and
optimization, xml site maps, etc. The minimum campaign to
consider is 3 months.
Ongoing Maintenance
Each website is not static; it is like an organism – it
needs to morph and respond to search engine indexing, keyword
placement competitiveness or traffic conversion rate. A
properly monitored website will stabilize and perhaps enhance
the positioning
of the website. SEOs are always working to understand the
latest search engine updates and make website adjustments
as necessary.
Website Analytics NEW and HOT TREND
Increasingly sophisticated analytic programs are surfacing and
provide pinpoint data and accuracy. In a game of inches for
high up on page 1 in the SERPs website dynamics, customer behaviour
and tracking just about anything you can think of are now making
the critical difference that is needed. Data mining and statistics
can be complex and intimidating. They are not for everyone to
try to figure out on their own. Contact Ross
Dunn to find out
more about this extraordinary wealth of information service.
Link Building A NEW SPIN
Everyone is in agreement that a critical and necessary element
for organic search engine success is a link building campaign.
Scott Van Achte,
StepForth’s Senior SEO takes this up
a notch in revisiting quality and authoritative links.
He recently advised a client,
“Links are difficult to achieve without question. There
are a number of ways to work towards the increase. One way
is to have a blog and post industry specific news to it on
a regular
basis. This blog can then be distributed around to other
news sites, which will republish your articles and provide
you with
a link back to your site. This can also be achieved with
a weekly newsletter that is also posted to a section of your
site which
welcomes republication of your articles. This is primarily
how StepForth has achieved our 1600+ incoming links and growing.
Find an online publication that prints industry specific
news.
In the case of StepForth we send our articles to places
like WebProNews, SiteProNews, and others.”
If you are not familiar with the above services please contact
us. We will be happy to try and answer your questions. Below
is a valued (generally non-technical) resource list that I reference
on a frequent basis. For those trying to stay up to date these
sites have invaluable and timely information.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance
to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills
countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things
occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in
one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would
have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do,
begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin
it now.” -Goethe
RESOURCES
Blogs:
Video:
FREE Newsletters:
Of course there are other avenues one can pursue.
Paid Subscription:
Yahoo! Directory Subscription
is $299 USD per year
Audio–Video:
- Podcast HOT
TREND
Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files,
such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using
syndication
formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. –(Wikipedia)
- The Podcast
Directory
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