SEO / SEM

Search Engine Optimization

  • I use Google’s Keyword Suggestion tool and Yahoo’s keyword tool to find relational keywords/phrases on a particular keyword targeted for high ranking. Sometimes I take these relational keywords/phrases and find sub-sets to help generate SEO-rich sites. I tend not to target top 3 keywords or generics because those are too competitive, but usually focus on the 80-90% range of most queried keywords/phrases. This information is useful for writing SEO-rich content… from scratch or re-writing existing editorial for the web. It is also useful in setting up the architecture of the web site (using a parent category/sub category/sub sub category ‘tree’) — in the URL, navigation purposes, breadcrumbs, site map, cross linking within the site, etc.
  • Have done some work creating SEO-specific web sites focusing on a specific product or service. This helps strengthen your rankings on targeted keywords/phrases and you can use these sites to send traffic to a main corporate web site.
  • Using idea similar to investing in stocks, you want to have a ‘portfolio’ of web sites using varying SEO tactics. For example, you can have an e-commerce storefront with the same products, but you want to use different templates to begin with and also varying SEO strategies. Google’s ranking algorithm changes all the time (among other search engines)… so using the analogy of the stock market, one industry (algorithm) might be strong one week but this could slant towards an alternative one the following week.
  • Site maps are very important (HTML page and Google XML site map) as is intelligent SEO-centric cross-linking within the web site
  • Don’t over-use competitive keywords/phrases in context in web sites or the page/site could be flagged as a spam site, or loose Google PageRank points
  • Always good to still make use of META tags… ensure titles change for each page and that they are relevant for the content, along with the keywords and description tags (must also be relevant to content). The following tag is important to use as it instructs search engine spiders to follow links within the web page, allowing the engines to revisit pages… important if content has been updated, etc.: <meta name=”robots” content=”index,follow”>
  • This phrase, overused is important to consider: “content is king” — the more relevant content, the better… some people like to do this using RSS feed technology to deliver information from various sources but this may be best suited for portal web sites because it sends the user to other web sites — as such, you don’t benefit from the pageviews, etc. there
  • Image ALT tags are important to utilize
  • Google Universal Search — now you no longer just get text-based search results… at times you can get results from other Google databases (images, Google News, videos from YouTube, results from Google Local, books and other products from Google Base, etc.) so its always good to source data to these databases as well, if applicable. For instance, a news publisher might want to apply for submission to Google News if they have not done so already because it can help boost traffic to their web site(s)… many simply log right into the Google News site

Pertaining to Web Marketing (Just a few Items)

  • Web 2.0 / social networking helps build content on a web site, encourages users to continue regularly revisiting your web site(s)… sense of community. Maybe implement at least an article commenting system, article rating system, blog on current topics, a message forum and/or listserv (depends on your audience… for some, it may be more sensible to implement a listserv if your audience does not frequent the web much during the work day)
  • Having your articles on Digg, Delicious and other social bookmarking sites can help send more traffic to your site… your users can bookmark articles directly from your site using submission buttons
  • E-newsletters are important as they are a useful medium for pushing content to someone’s inbox… another means for collecting more advertising revenue as well (sponsorship/advertising opportunities)
  • RSS feeds (more than one) is recommended… even if your site is very niche, might be a good idea to break down a subject into sub-topics to encourage readership/clicks, if it makes sense (if a very broad niche/topic)… otherwise one RSS feed might be acceptable
  • Not many know about this but search engines exist that specifically index RSS feeds only… not a bad idea to submit your RSS feed URLs to these engines as well (i.e. www.octora.com, www.plazoo.com, etc.)
  • E-mail marketing beyond e-newsletters is an important method to help market your products/services… many company either do not use this or do not do it right (e-mail content, template design, not creating both HTML and plain text (multi-part) email, deliverability issues due to spam settings, etc.)
  • Smartphone/PDA-optimized web sites… untapped territory but more devises are supporting this and there is a growing subscriber base to phone web. Theory: be the first to build a niche web resource accessible (and appealing) on phones and you could become the #1 ‘go-to’ web site in the future
  • Sell any products (or even services?) — submit to product feeds and shopping comparison web sites such as Shopzilla… establish an eBay storefront, etc.
  • Aim on keeping articles free… display only a brief blurb on an index page… forces the user to go to the article and suggestion would be to break a long article into 2 or 3 slices, generating more pageviews. An aside – many people have earned big $$ using Google AdSense on their web sites but you would need to weigh the + and – of this especially on niche-specific web sites… sometimes the advertisements may not be entirely relevant to your content/audience and can potentially hinder your brand’s image… the ads also send the user away from your web site
  • Many people are against using pay per click (SEM) campaigns such as Google AdWords because it can be costly. Recommendation: research which web sites in your field a) rank highly in Google and b) display Google AdSense ads. A lesser-known strategy involves programming yoru AdWords campaigns to display your ads only on these web sites vs adjacent to Google search results. This can reduce the cost per click (CPC) for your campaign.