Search Engine Marketing Blog

Author: April Hall

Internet Copywriter

What is the ultimate purpose of the internet? (Wow-I know that’s a loaded question that could take forever to answer!) For some, the internet is a source of information. For others, it’s a place to interact with friends, play games and enjoy the range of available entertainment. For many of us who work with SEO, however, we have one true purpose for ourselves and our clients: to make money. We want to sell as many of our products and services as we can, and this is done by attracting customers–not just visitors–to our sites.

But, how can we attract those ready-to-buy customers to our site, when there are so many other sites floating around out there? How can we make our businesses stand out and make it to the top of the search engine results page when there are such giants as About.com and Yahoo to content with? The answer is to make use of long tail keywords.

I first head the term “long tail keyword” a few months ago; and although I got the gist of what that term meant, I was still confused about exactly how to write content using them. Did it mean that I had to put the entire string of terms together, without any words in between? Did I have to use the long tail keyword in its entirety every time? Some quick conversations with SEO pros, along with some sample searches, led me to these conclusions:

• Long tail keywords are one of the most effective ways to draw unique visitors to your site
• You may break up these strings of words with minor prepositions without causing any major differences to your page’s searchability
• It is best to use long tail keywords in conjunction with shorter keywords on the same page
  

Long tail keywords are 3 to 4 word keyword phrases that are very specific to what you are selling. For example, rather than a t-shirt company writing content that targets “t-shirts”, they may choose to target the long tail keyword phrase “funny political t-shirts”. It seems like targeting such a specific keyword would reduce your number of site visitors and reduce your page views, doesn’t it? Well, this may be true, but there are three very good reasons to use long tail keywords anyway:

1. It makes writing SEO Content much easier. Any content writer is more easily able to write a page of content on “used hybrid cars gas mileage” than they are “used cars”. A more focused keyword content makes for sharper, more focused writing.
2. It makes it easier to target customers who are actually ready to buy. An internet searcher who is looking for “home security systems company houston” is much more likely to be to the point of actually buying a product than a searcher who simply types in “house alarms”. You may be reaching a smaller pool of searchers, but you are reaching those customers who are ready to close the sale.
3. It makes it more likely to reach the front page of search engine results. Using long tail keywords means that you will have fewer competitors trying to reach the front page of the search results, because fewer pages have targeted that string of keywords. Big-name sites usually dominate the search result pages of simple, broad searches; but smaller sites that have created properly targeted content stand a good chance of reaching their ideal customers.

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Author : Henry Adaso
Internet Copywriter

No time to keep up with all the internet marketing developments out there? No problem, pull up a seat, grab a cup of coffee, and relax as we get you up to speed with the top stories and events of the last 7 days.

Firefox 3 Ignites 8 Million Downloads
After months of intense suspense, Mozilla finally unleashed Firefox 3, its open-source browser alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. FF’s grassroots movement quickly caught a wildfire, leading it to surpass its initial goal of landing 5 million downloads in 24 hours. More than 8 million people downloaded the browser (including yours truly), making it the most downloaded software in the history of the Internet.

So, what makes FF 3 tick? For starters there’s the “awesome bar” which allows web users to type in real words rather than urls to pull up websites. Throw in the faster navigation and extra memory capacity and you’ve got yourself a hot browser.

MySpace Gets A Makeover
If you’ve been on MySpace lately, you’ve probably noticed the new, sleek, user-friendly layout. The overhaul is aimed at improving usability and aesthetics throughout the site. Wait, who am I kidding here? Of course, the MySpace makeover was more about monetization than usability.

For evidence, look no further than MySpace’s litany of advertising options: a new splash page (entry point for users) currently serves up a “Get Smart” theme and the video player comes loaded with more ad options. Most importantly, the new design filters search by location and relevancy to search engine algorithms, which yields more relevant, contextual, as well as geo-specific ads. I’m not complaining though. After all, users also benefit from optimized search options.

1 Billion Reasons to Stay LinkedIn
One of the biggest news of the week was LinkedIn’s $1 Billion valuation. The professional social networking site raised a whopping $53 million from investors for its European expansion efforts. The million dollar question is, What does that mean for your online business?

Google-Yahoo Marriage Draws Criticism
After rejecting Microsoft’s $47.5 billion offer, Yahoo entered into a partnership with search behemoth Google. The deal, which is expected to increase Yahoo’s cash flow to $450 million within the first year, came under fire this week. Anti-trust experts criticized the Goohoo partnership, saying that it’ll take the competitiveness out of Yahoo’s advertising edge, since they’ll be generating revenue from almighty “G” anyway.

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Last Week in Internet Marketing

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Author: Philip O’Hara

CEO, Directory One

I always wonder how many of my customers are successfully responding to sales leads.

Good SEO and internet marketing campaigns may successfully send potential clients their way, but because of the way their offices handle the calls, the lead is dropped. Do they even answer the call at all? Is their receptionist starting with the information gathering process, and is this information then relayed to someone who can close that lead as soon as possible? It may be hard to believe, but a few simple steps at the beginning of the sales process can be the fastest way to increase your sales.

If you answer the phone every time it rings, you can identify and handle the problem accounts more quickly; you also stand a better chance of earning new customers more quickly, as well. When a potential customer calls an SEO company, they want easy access to technical support. They really don’t want to leave a number and wait for a callback. Turning on the answering service should be the absolute last resort for a successful company that uses SEO.

How can you improve your telephone customer service?

1. Hire a competent, courteous receptionist. No matter how large or small your company, it is imperative to make the investment in a quality receptionist. Make sure this staff member is knowledgeable about how to take down lead information, and is also clear about how to refer leads to the appropriate sales professional.
2. Establish a clear process for following up on leads. Whether you use professional salesforce software or prefer to see a clear paper trail, make sure everyone who has contact with customers knows the process for dealing with leads. This means that companies need to understand the importance of quality employee training and continuing professional education.
3. Provide exemplary customer service from day one. You want leads to turn into sales, and sales into longstanding customer relationships, which means your customers need to know your company values them–from the initial phone call and throughout the life of the SEO customer account. Providing a clear path for customer and and technical support, and encourage your clients to contact you with any questions or suggestions they have.

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Author: Jeremy Schooley
PPC Coordinator

Many website owners out there think Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a waste of time and money. The amount of time and money should vary for different goals and niches. The functionality of PPC is useful for every website owner. Here are 10 reasons why.

10. Click fraud has been minimized considerably.
When it comes to PPC, click fraud was the phrase that scared many website owners away. These days, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. keep a very close eye on the clicks and automatically refund and amounts that accrued from fraudulent clicks.

9. You can expand your PPC as your business expands.
It is very easy to add a new product or service as your website expands into new areas.

8. PPC is perfect for seasonal products and services.
You have the ability to turn on and off campaigns as needed. If you sell Halloween costumes, you can run the campaign in October and turn it off when Halloween is over. The beauty is, once it has been set up, it will still be there next year, just waiting to be turned on.

7. You can set monthly/daily budgets.
PPC allows you to spend your marketing dollars strategically. If you want to test something out, but are only willing to spend $100 on the testing, you can do it easily by setting your budget accordingly.

6. PPC is a great test bed. If you have a new promotion, but are unsure how potential customers will take to it, you can set up separate campaigns with limited budgets just for testing purposes. This can save tremendous amounts of money on marketing a poorly received promotion.

5. PPC campaigns gather tons of useful data.
This is crucial information. It gives you insights to your customer base and changes in the market. You can also use this information to determine what is giving you the best return on investment.

4. PPC is very customizable.
You can spend your money exactly the ways you want to if you take the time to set up the PPC campaigns properly.

3. PPC is another doorway to your site.
If your site is ranking on search engines for certain search queries, then having an ad that shows on the results pages of those queries ads another doorway to you site. This increases the chances of searchers turning into traffic.

2. You only pay when people click.
PPC is like a virtual billboard on the super information highway. The key difference is, with traditional billboards, you pay for how many eyeballs drive past your billboard. With PPC, you pay when they click the ad.

1. PPC brings immediate traffic to a website.
Your website can literally start receiving traffic within its first hours of existence if it is promoted using PPC.

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Author: Henry Adaso
SEO Copywriter

If you think you’ve heard the last of the social media gold rush, think again. LinkedIn, the largest business social networking site, has raised $53 million for its European expansion effort which brings the company’s total estimated value to slightly over $1 billion. That’s good and all, but what does that mean to the rest of us who may never see a billion bucks in this life or the next? Whether you’re looking, find, or get found by others in your niche, there are many ways LinkedIn can be beneficial to your online business.

For starters…

Investor Confidence is Good for Business

This huge investment indicates a great level of confidence investors share in LinkedIn’s business model. They obviously have plenty of faith in the networking site’s long-term growth strategy. Thanks to investory confidence, business marketers who may have been skeptical about LinkedIn’s prospects may soon start saying to themselves, “Hey, if investors can trust them, why shouldn’t I?”

• Global Reach - There are over 23 million professionals on LinkedIn from all walks of life. That’s the  equivalent of the entire population of Texas in your palms! There’s no doubt that, after today’s significant news, millions more will probably tag along. And with LinkedIn’s proposed European expansion,

• Niche Networking - LinkedIn functions as a business directory in that it allows you to find the people with the knowledge and expertise you need to achieve your business goals. You can search for people in your niche based on recommendations, profession, network, etc.

• Improved Visibility - Want to maximize your brand visibility? Then make it a point of duty to develop an extensive web of connections on LinkedIn. For the uninitiated, “connections” are the Myspace equivalent of friends. The more the merrier. After all, people will much rather connect with people their friends find trustworthy. LinkedIn give rank preferences to the most active participant, and not necessarily the member with the most college degrees.

• Easy Connectivity - If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me to forward them a list of my PR contacts, I’d be typing this post from a million-dollar yatch right now. LinkedIn eliminates this problem by incorporating contact sharing into the social networking experience. Your contacts are my contacts.  Your friends are my friends.

• Enhanced SEO Results - LinkedIn allows its members to promote websites on profile pages. This is a smart and inexpensive way to improve search engine optimization results for your online business. So, go ahead, link away to your personal blog, business site, etc. Just be sure to enable “Full View” in your public profile settings.

LinkedIn is quite the unique social networking tool, one that presents online businesses with numerous long-term growth opportunities. So, go forth, search, connect, and be merry.

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Author : Thomson Chemmanoor
SEO Coordinator

As an SEO specialist, I interact with several people in our field from time to time. Some of them seem to have mastered effective SEO practice, but most show no interest in understanding safe optimization techniques that will stand the test of time. I’m completely baffled that such mediocrity can exist and it makes me angry that the average person may not be able to uncover it. Well, not anymore.

If you’re paying an SEO firm for quality service, you deserve nothing less. Here are 10 signs that you may be dealing with a bad SEO company.

1) Doing SEO after the site is designed - Most website owners think the site needs the web design finished first and then you do the SEO later on. But, actually it should be the opposite. Before building the website, SEO should be done first.

2) Does your site have a custom “404 error” page? A “404″ is an error message you get when you follow a link to a web page that doesn’t exist. This is especially important from the search engines point of view.

3) Does your site have a robots.txt file? A robots.txt file provides restrictions to crawlers or search engine bots that crawl the website. Since these bots are automated, and before they check the pages of a website, they check to see if a robots.txt file exists that prevents them from accessing certain pages which you restrict from indexing.

4) Duplicate content - If your site has duplicate content within the site like duplicate Meta tags in the title and description, then whoever did your SEO - wasn’t optimizing properly.

5) XML Sitemap installation - Sitemap protocol is a way to allow and inform search engines that your website URLs is ready for crawling. This XML site map file includes a list of URLs of your site. It is also a way to include information about your website pages when it was updated and any changes that have been made.

6) Using Paid Links - Links should be natural and should stand the test of time. Paid links are temporary and once you stop paying for it, the links are gone. A good link is one which is gained naturally when a website editor puts the link on the site. So if the company that is doing SEO buys links to gain immediate search ranking, they are not doing a good job.

7) Doing Reciprocal Link Exchange programs - If you find your website has a link exchange program with a page full of links pointing to other websites, then the person doing your SEO did not do proper link-building.

8 ) Sneaky Redirects or Doorway Pages - This is a black hat technique where the idea is to create a single page for the user and a different version of the page to the user. If your SEO partner is using this technique on your site it is going to get your site banned on search engines since they dislike these techniques.

9) Text Link - Each page of your site should be reachable through a text link. If it is not done, the person who did SEO on your site doesn’t have any idea of what he is doing. This helps search engine bots to crawl through those text links easily and index those pages. Change the link buttons or JS into text links.

10) Over Optimization - If your site is over optimized like repeating the keywords more than two to three times inside the Meta tags H1 Tags, and having a high keyword density instead of a moderate density and not using the long tail keywords inside the content. Also Spamming the ALT tags for images with keyword stuffing is considered a bad SEO technique.

The bottom-line is that if your site has the above signs, it is not going to help your ranking very well and chances are that it won’t even come up on search engine results.

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