Chattanooga Web Design and Online Marketing Blog

SEO

SEO: How Does Google Work?
May 4th, 2012 10:40 AM

I found and watched this interesting video from Google 'Evangelist" Matt Cutts. He is the guy that Google sends out to speak at SEO conferences and to explain and promote Google. It is worth watching below if you are engaged in SEO for your organization. And just in case you want more from Google here is the link to the Google Channel on Youtube. There is lots of interesting (and some nerdy) stuff there.

Posted by Greg Pearson | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: Dial Back the Organic SEO
March 23rd, 2012 5:09 PM

How things continue to change...keep dialing back the organic SEO.

It looks like Google is about to release another significant algorithm update (to go with the hundreds of small ones they do every year). This time the focus is to reduce the rankings of sites that have been overly SEO'd.

So it is as we have been saying, Google loves good and reasonable content, page titles and URLs, and as I said in the last post - a semantically consistent page.

Here is a good link to learn more.

Posted by Greg Pearson | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: SEO for Spring 2012
March 14th, 2012 1:45 PM

So, what do we know right now about what is REALLY important in SEO to have each page in your website fully optimized? Here they are in perceived order of importance:

1. Content that is semantically connected. - In fact, it appears that it is no longer about the density and placement of the keywords or phrases alone, but how the words and phrases on each page is connected. A page STILL needs to be about one thing, but the substantive words used on each page need to relate to each other.

Google knows what words it wants to see. Go to Google and enter your search word or phrase preceded by ~ . E.g. a search for ~stove shows the words 'stove', 'range', cooker', and 'furnace' bolded in the first 2 pages of results. Those are the words your page can contain to be considered relevant to Google.

2. Title Tags. - But be careful not to over optimize them (My, how the SEO world changes). Take the 'honest' approach. A page about gas stoves may be titled "Gas stoves and ovens for sale in Chattanooga, Tennessee"

3. URL Keywords. - Yep! But do not overdo these either. E.g. gas-stoves-ovens-chattanooga-tennessee will work

4. Internal Links. - These are great when they make sense. E.g. It makes sense to link the word 'gas' on your 'gas stove' page to another page in your website that explains why gas burns. It dosen't make sense to link the word 'refrigerator' when talking about how our gas stoves can be purchased in several colors to match your refrigerator.

5. Video. - Google still LOVES video. Create YouTube channels, add and optimize your videos, and embed those videos in your website where they are semantically connected.

6. Blog. - That means your site is still alive, and it adds more indexable content that should follow the same rules as above.

Do those 6 things and your website is well on its way to search engine ranking success.

Posted by Greg Pearson | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: Vid-E-O and Wordpress
October 5th, 2011 4:53 PM

When our children were young we watched Sesame Street (I think it was) and occasionally there were some space aliens who would say "ra-di-o. yip, yip, yip. uhhuh, uhhuh." I always thought that was funny and would entertain my children with my rendition of it.

Now to inform (not entertain) you with something similar - "Vid-E-O"

It appears that the latest round of Google updates has given even more weight to well tagged and placed video. We have been noticing video's ascension for some time now and it looks like it is escalating. That makes sense because with our high bandwidth today, people want video and Google has always said that they are trying to deliver the content that people want in their search results.

So, the takeaway is obvious. If it fits, get some video on YouTube and embed it in keyword rich pages on your site, and ostensibly you will see improved rankings on Google.

On another note, I saw an article about how Wordpress is not the best choice for SEO results. The logic made sense. So many of the content farm websites that are being used to spoof search engines today are built on Wordpress, because it is easy to setup and theme and build those deceptive sites quickly and easily.

So, it makes sense that search engines would be on the lookout for those deceptive sites and one thing they look for is the platform it is built on. So, the article said - use an alternative that is not under such scrutiny. Of course we recommend SiteNow :)

Until next time...

Posted by Greg Pearson | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: When an SEO Expert Calls�
July 19th, 2011 3:02 PM

All of us have gotten the phone call or e-mail from a company telling us that our website�s search engine ranking can be improved. That is usually stating the obvious. What happens next is the real issue � should you engage that company or person to perform SEO services for your organization?

Evaluate Your Needs.

Just because you would like to see improvement in search engine rankings for some of your key phrases doesn�t mean you should pursue that.

One of our clients called me one day and had me do a Google search for one of their primary key phrases. When the search came back the client�s site was ranked number 3. I said, �This is great!� �But�, the client said, �our biggest competitor is number one and we want to be number one�. I responded that every change made to a web page WILL affect that page�s ranking either negatively or positively. Sometimes, it is better to live with �good� than to pursue �perfect� because the pursuit of perfect could harm instead of improve rankings. Is it worth the risk?

Without engaging an SEO specialist, there are some simple things you can do that will improve rankings for under-performing phrases without affecting those pages that have phrases that are performing well. Here are two: (1) If your site has an integrated blog (not an external blog), blog frequently using the key phrases that you are wanting to improve. (2) You can also create brand new content areas in your site that focus on the under-performing phrases.

$$$$ Doesn�t Equal Long-term Success

Most of the SEO specialists who contact you will ask for a large payment in return for getting certain of your primary key phrases to the top of rankings. They may succeed in the short term, but SEO success is a long-term commitment.

I remember a story I heard a few years ago from a man who angrily confronted a Google engineer at an SEO Q & A session I was involved in. A month before the seminar Google had just released a major algorithm update that turned website rankings on their heads. The man said this (I will never forget it) � �Three months ago I spent ten thousand dollars to improve my site�s rankings, and in one day, when Google launched its new algorithm my rankings fell several pages and some couldn�t even be found�.

Was that ten thousand dollars well spent? We would all agree that is was not. Long term success in search engine optimization requires corresponding long term analysis and revision, not just an initial effort. All search engines �tweak� ranking algorithms frequently and do major updates occasionally. Sometimes, those changes benefit a site owner. But usually when they tweak, you probably need to also.

And don�t forget your competition - you know, those guys that want the same top ranking that you want? As long as they are working to achieve top placements you will need to work also.

Instead of a large expenditure for �guaranteed� results that may be short lived, we think the best approach is incremental. An incremental approach means apply your best effort using best practices and see what happens and follow that with next steps as needed. Sometimes a very small investment yields very good results using this approach. One of our clients websites recently ranked on the top page of Google for nearly all of its primary key phrases. That result came within a week of the launch of its new optimized web site, and among heavy competition. The beauty of that is that the client spent very little on SEO.

The point is, why spend thousands when a much smaller investment MAY achieve the desired results? And even if the small investment doesn�t fully achieve the desired results, those efforts almost always improve rankings some. Then, if the first round doesn�t get you all the way to the top, do it again - and again if necessary.

More to come next time. Please let us know how we can serve your organization.

Posted by Greg Pearson | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: "Findability" vs SEO
March 30th, 2011 6:21 PM

I talk with clients quote often about SEO. My biggest problem with SEO is the acronym - Search Engine Optimization. SEO has nothing to do with optimizing search engines. Search engine companies do a pretty good job of optimizing themselves, usually optimizing away all the work we do to help clients improve their page rankings.

Instead of an acronym like SEO, I like the word �findability.� Improving your website�s findability involves search engines, of course, but search engines are not the only way people find your website. If your website is the center of your integrated marketing program (and it should be), every other channel of communication should drive traffic to your website thereby improving its findability.

For example, your print advertising should include your web address, as should all of your traditional media buys. Brochures, flyers, letterhead and all other collateral material should include it as well. When someone asks what you do or where you work, your first response should be, �Here is our web address.� Email newsletters, once thought dead, are making a comeback and are a great way to send traffic to your website to get more information about a story or to download a white paper or case study. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are excellent ways to cast a net to draw visitors back to your site. As much as people would like to see a vast range of sites from which visitors were referred to your website (including organic Google searches), direct visits to your website are perfectly acceptable. In a way, they are preferable as they reveal that your other channels are effectively driving traffic straight to your website.

As far as search engines and �optimization� goes, the goal here is to optimize your content, not just for the robots, but for the humans as well. It is tempting to manipulate your site�s content to get Google�s attention hoping that your efforts will land your website on the first page of Google results. But if the content is so obviously written for the machines, your human visitors won�t find anything there that is beneficial. Even if Google rewards your optimization techniques, without a subsequent conversion of visits to transactions, the reward is empty and meaningless. The key is to provide content that your visitors can use. If Google isn�t cooperating yet in helping people find your site, start looking for other ways to improve your �findablity.�

Posted by Kent Callison | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: Google's New Algorithm Forecloses on SEO Content Farms
February 25th, 2011 10:11 AM

The holy grail of SEO is to achieve a first page ranking in Google search results. Google is famously tight-lipped about how their search algorithms work, but they encourage organizations to create relevant, high quality content to achieve the best SEO results. Until now, Google didn't make much distinction between high-quality and high-volume content. Content farms took the latter approach to game the system.

Content Farms are websites that feature an enormous amount of content on a wide range of subjects in order to get the attention of search engines like Google. The articles on these content farms contain just enough information to be relevant to your search query. Companies like Demand Media identify topics that have a high advertising potential and flood the internet with articles on those topics. They pay writers a few dollars per article-typically advice or how-to articles-and syndicate them across as many sites as possible. You've probably come across these sites before. You search for a particular topic and find a site on the first page of Google results that matches your query. At best, the site provides very little information about your area of interest. At worst, it provides a list of links to other equally worthless sites or advertising for related products and services.

While there's nothing illegal about this practice, it blurs the line between ethical business and gaming the search engines. Starting today, Google has decided to do something about it. Beginning in the United States, and rolling out worldwide over the coming months, Google is implementing a new algorithm designed to eliminate "low quality" sites like content farms from their search results.

From the official Google Blog:

"Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking�a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries�and we wanted to let people know what�s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites�sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites�sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on."

As always, the best practice to improve your rankings in search engines is to produce relevant, high quality content. With the help of the new Google algorithms, it should be easier for people to find your website as Google begins to foreclose on the content farms.

To learn more about SEO or to discuss how to improve the quality of your content, contact Kent Callison at 423-485-4709.

Posted by Kent Callison | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: The SEO Power of the Page Title
February 15th, 2011 11:56 AM

There are a lot of SEO tactics that help improve your rankings in the search engines. But one SEO tactic that is often overlooked, or at least underestimated, is the page title.

Adding your keywords, geographic location & company name
to your page title can provide significant SEO benefits.

The page title is the line of text that appears at the top of a user's browser window. It is indexed by search engines like Google so it is the perfect place to include your keywords. According to a survey conducted by SEOmoz, 66% of top SEO experts say using keywords in your page title boosts your search engine results. In our own testing, we have found that clients who format their page titles with relevant keywords do see a significant improvement in their Google page rankings. In one case, the only change a client made was to a single page title and their site jumped three pages in the Google search results - from #34 to #7 in a Google search.

Let's say you have a company called Ace Billiards that sells pool tables in Atlanta, Georgia. Your website probably has a page about the types of pool tables you sell. Too often, that page title looks like this:

Ace Billiards: Our Products

Unless someone is searching for your name, it is unlikely you are going to see much traffic from a Google Search. A better page title would be:

Pool Tables | Billiards and Pool | Atlanta Pool Tables | Ace Billiards

Your primary keyword (in this case pool and pool tables) appears three times in the page title. A secondary keyword (billiards) is also included, as is your geographic location and your company name. This one simple change to an often overlooked element of your website can pay big dividends in SEO.

If you are using SiteNow from Williams Web you can edit your page titles with ease. Here are some tips to make them more effective.

Make each page title unique. Google doesn't like duplicate page titles on the same site.
Use your primary and secondary keywords in your page titles.
Use your geographic location, if applicable, to assist with location specific searches
Include your keywords at the front of the page title, and try to limit the page title to 84 characters or less. The conventional wisdom is that Google ignores anything beyond that limit.

Posted by Kent Callison | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: Using SEO to Maximize Your Online Marketing Investment
November 17th, 2010 8:50 PM

A website is an integral component of an organization's marketing strategy. In a difficult economy, making sure your website gets noticed by potential customers is more important than ever. One way to increase traffic to your website is with search engine optimization (SEO).

Every company wants to see their website at the top of a search results page, or at least on the first page of results. Each page after the first page is a step closer to oblivion in the world of online search. This desire, and need, to be at the top of search results has created an entire industry of "SEO Specialists." Some of these specialists are professionals and use proven methods to improve an organization's rankings over time. Others are downright fraudulent in their claims, produce temporary-if any-results and offer guarantees that cant possibly be backed up. Here are some guidelines to choosing a reputable SEO partner and avoiding a scam artist:

Guarantees

There are so many variables and unknowns at the outset of an SEO project that no one can legitimately guarantee a first position ranking. In fact, no one can back up any guarantee in SEO except to guarantee their best efforts. Don't trust anyone who tells you otherwise.

Fast Acting SEO

Quick results are for stain removers and headache medicines. SEO takes time. It may take up to a month after the project is finsihed before improvements can be seen. Avoid companies who claim quick results.

Keeping Secrets

There is no reason for a service provider to keep you in the dark about what they are doing to optimize your website. If you are ever told the methods being used are proprietary or secret, keep walking. This is not a reputable partner.

Jargon and Geek Speak

If every conversation with your SEO provider requires a technical dictionary, it's likely you are dealing with someone who learned a lot of buzz words to cover up their inexperience. As with all service providers, a good SEO partner will use common, non technical terms and easily explain the SEO process in everyday language. If you don't know what an SEO specialist is talking about, don't trust them to do the work.

Just remember, search engine optimization is a process that requires a lot of research and an ongoing series of content adjustments. Results take time and there are no guarantees. However, a reputable SEO partner will be able to demonstrate improvements over time by working with you to develop a solid plan to optimize your website in a targeted, methodical fashion.

Summary: Your website is a critical part of an effective marketing strategy, regardless of the economy. Making sure it gets noticed with proven SEO is an investment that will net significant returns if you choose a reputable provider who produces results and not just promises.

Kent Callison specializes in strategic online marketing, social media and SEO. You can reach Kent via email or at 423-485-4709.

Posted by Kent Callison | 0 Comment(s)

SEO: Google Instant Previews - Lower Bounce Rates, Higher Conversions
November 11th, 2010 10:28 AM

Google Instant Previews gives you a quick look at any web page listed in the search results. You hover over a small magnifying glass icon and see a preview of the page Google indexed. Here is the introduction video from Google:

Google Instant Previews is exciting for a number of reasons. It will help people identify the website they are looking for more quickly, and potentially direct traffic to your site that is more likely to result in goal conversions. Moreover, it gives you a chance to redesign or refresh your website's home page or landing page to stand out from the competition. Much like the old argument in Yellow Pages advertising that a display ad provides better results than a simple listing, a well designed homepage in a Google Instant Previews might be the key to differentiating yourself and making a positive first impression.

Posted by Kent Callison | 0 Comment(s)

SEO

Ace Billiards: Our Products

Pool Tables | Billiards and Pool | Atlanta Pool Tables | Ace Billiards

Guarantees

Fast Acting SEO

Keeping Secrets

Jargon and Geek Speak

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