Very new ideas for the old internet

Creative Search Engine Optimization – A Case Study

Search engine optimization this and search engine optimization that. You read and hear about it all day, but what about your site? While there are plenty of articles providing useful information, this article shows you how a real world example met with success. The point of this article is to emphasize creativity when approaching tough optimization situations.

Problems for BusinessTaxRecovery.com

In November of 2004, our firm took on the seo marketing for BusinessTaxRecovery.com. The site was being promoted through offline activities and pay-per-click campaigns. No effort had been made to achieve high rankings in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Keyword analysis revealed that combinations of the root keywords, “business” and “tax” were going to be difficult to attack. The primary problem concerned government agencies with web sites. The IRS site, for instance, had roughly 9,680 inbound links and an absolute ton of content. State agencies weren’t far behind. The California tax agency site had roughly 7,000 inbound links and, again, tons of content.

For a final nail in the coffin, the client informed us the business was cyclical with the busiest months being January through April when people focused on taxes. The site absolutely had to rank highly during this period. We had two months to achieve results.

Gulp!

The Solution for BusinessTaxRecovery.com – 140,000 Hits

After staring at a Salvador Dali painting for a few hours, we came up with a solution. It involved a combination of internal site page focus, meta tag optimization, link exchange and massive article promotion. The results produced 145,828 hits from January through April, with only 5,000 coming from the pay-per-click program.

The first step was to change the focus of the site from the home page to the article page. Jumping the tax agency sites on keywords such as business tax and taxes was impossible in two months, so we didn’t even try. Instead, we decided to focus on the keyword phrase “business tax articles” and bring people into the site through the article page. Meta tags were optimized and a link exchange program undertaken. The key to campaign, however, was a strong article promotion campaign.

Since taxes are confusing, it seemed obvious that an article campaign focusing on tax information would meet with success. Boy, did it. Approximately 35 articles were written, published and submitted to article directories. Since the articles were timely, they were snapped up and published. The articles produced direct traffic to the site as well as numerous inbound links because of the link created in the article byline.

As for the search engines, we focused on everything but Google. We expected nothing from Google because the major content and meta tag changes would take six to eight months to show results per the usual practices of Google. In reality, it didn’t matter. The Yahoo and MSN search engines produced big time.

In mid-January, the site went to number 1 on MSN under “business tax articles.” By the end of January, Yahoo was also listing it as number 1. MSN started listing it at number 1 for “tax articles” in February. The combination of these listings produced a significant amount of traffic, conversions and a very happy client.

Can we go on cruise control now? No! With the end of the tax season, the traffic to the articles page of the site has dropped by 75%. Nobody is looking for tax information after April 15th, so this is hardly surprising. The promotion of the article page was simply a short-term solution to a difficult situation. While it should produce traffic during the first quarter of each subsequent year, it is not a year-around solution.

Over the next six months, we will focus on the long-term goal of jumping over the tax agency sites for keywords such as “business taxes”, etc. It is going to take a lot of patience, but will eventually produce a significant amount of business for the client.

Creativity is often the key to conquering seo situations. Blindly slapping up new meta tags and links isn’t always the best answer. Sometimes, a little pre-emptive consideration can yield amazing results. It did in this case.

Tags: search engine optimization, seo

Five Reasons Why SEO Is Better Than Paid Online Marketing

Online Marketing is becoming an essential marketing medium for a successful business.  If a business can successfully marketing their product or service online they open many new doors to potential customers and sales leads.  A well structured and organised SEO consultant will suggest two avenues for online marketing, Search Engine Optimisation and Paid Online Marketing (like Pay Per Click).  Ideally you would be able to afford both paid and unpaid marketing campaigns but if you are like most businesses you are on a budget and need the proof that online marketing actually works.

The most common phrase I hear is “But everyone knows who we are and what we do” in relation to their business.  This is just not true otherwise every potential customer would already be beating down your door wouldn’t they?  There is always room for growth and if you sell a product or service then there is always online marketing potential.

So, let’s explore why SEO is far superior to paid online marketing.

1. SEO is a long term strategy for your online marketing.  Should you implement pay per click or other paid online marketing then as soon as you stop paying your bills to the advertiser the traffic to your website will stop.  Although you pay for setting up an SEO campaign with a reputable agency often their other client’s results are so impressive it is almost compelling to go with SEO instead.  With SEO, should you stop paying for the refinements a reputable firm might charge at an ongoing rate, you might only see a slight leveling off of website traffic.

2. With pay per click marketing you pay for every visitor delivered to your website whether they like your service or not.  With Search Engine Optimisation your website will hopefully appear high in the free search results and this will mean you do not pay for a click through to your website – effectively once your SEO is setup every click or visitor to your website is free.

3. False or fake click throughs.  In a study released in August 2007 it was determined that 18% of click throughs on pay per click links on Google were false.  In other words this could be competitors clicking through to your website just trying to cost you money in advertising.

4. The psychology of clicking on sponsored links.  If you appear in both the paid and unpaid search results then you would see about 80% of your website traffic come from the unpaid free SEO website links.  There is a psychology associated with consumers clicking on paid advertising links especially if they are labeled as such, like in Google “Sponsored Links”.  Searchers see straight through this and know it is a paid advertising link.  Consumer preference is placed on the freely generated results and links at a rate of 4 to 1.

5. Over the period of one year the cost of setting up the initial SEO campaign will have more than bettered the underlying website traffic that an equivalent costing pay per click campaign will have achieved.  From my client examples there is about a 4 times website traffic factor weighted for SEO against pay per click.  I was amazed myself!!

In a recent newspaper article in Melbourne, Australia, it was shown that holding a position in the top 3 spots in the search engine results pages for a competitive term is worth an estimated $1.5 million.  It was also shown that holding the top spot generates 3.5 times the traffic that the number two spot generates.

When it boils down to it a well executed Search Engine Optimisation campaign will get your website massive amounts of website traffic.  Of course selling the product or service is then the responsibility of the actual website so make sure you couple your SEO with good design, clear and prevalent calls to action and correct marketing principles like colour schemes and layouts.  In my opinion it is vital to get this SEO campaign mix correct so talk to a reputable SEO firm and gain some information on how they can help you.

Tags: Search Engine Optimisation Company, Search Engine Optimisation Expert, Search Optimization, SEO Company, SEO Professionals

The Importance of Anchor Text Keywords

While any webmaster knows that doing some link exchanges will bring more visitors on their site, few people know how to use the full potential of a link exchange campaign to boost their website popularity.

One of the key elements that determines web page rankings is the number of high quality links pointing towards that page. Combined with the keyword density of that particular page, these factors will determine where your web page appears when a search is initiated.

Let’s say you have a website on wood carving. Now, one of your pages is dedicated to wood carving tools, which is also the key phrase you optimized the page for. A good keyword density is not enough, however, and if you want to tank high you need to get as many incoming links pointing towards that specific page as possible.

While links pointing towards your domain name are valuable, you actually need to get links pointing towards that particular page in order to get the best results.

Anchor keywords

The anchor text is the one that you can insert in an HTML code so that your link is actually a series of keywords or a keyword-rich phrase. The importance of anchor text keywords is high because it tells the search engines that the page the link is pointing at is focused on the topic described by the keywords. Here is how the HTML code for a link looks like:

<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com”>Keyword Rich Description</a>

In the case of the wood carving site example, the link for the specific tools page should look something like this:

<a href=”http:// www.yoursite.com “>Wood Carving Tools</a>

The web browsers will only display the link anchor text, so the phrase “Wood Carving Tools” will become underlined and hyperlinked.

Where to use anchor text?

Everywhere! When you are doing link exchanges, when you are posting on blogs, forums or groups. When you are creating your website description, when you are sending articles to ezines and directories.

For example, if you plan to send a few articles for submission to a directory, you should try to include keyword rich anchor text links in the resource box.

By doing so, you ensure a much better chance for ranking high on particular keywords. Always remember to use a keyword rich phrase in links that allow HTML, instead of the classic http://www.yoursite.com.

It also helps if you use variation in the keyword text links. When posting on blogs, for example, try to have your links point to different pages on your site, and for each page use the main page keyword in the anchor text.

This is also true for article submissions. You should submit one article to as many directories as possible, but change the link and keyword anchor text once in a while.

Tags: anchor text keywords, article submissions, link exchanges

The Truth about Search Engine Optimization

While the basics of Search Engine Optimization or SEO are pretty much textbook, it isn’t the textbooks that you’re competing with, it’s the competition … who within the most competative markets make it almost impossible to get to that search engine position of being number one. Discovering the Truth about Search Engine Optimization will require an analysis of every factor of optimization.

Professional SEO

Profession Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more than simply understanding the goal of a website. The real SEO Professional, or real ‘Search Engine Optimizer’, will do extensive query-based keyword research because they know professional optimization needs a strong keyword foundation.

SEO professionals ask the all important question … Who is the “target audience” or the “target market” … and then, they work to create a website that brings their content to that audience through the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves:

-Optimizing every page’s page titles, meta tags, attributes, anchor text and more. – Theming of the primary domain, sub-domains and supporting web properties (such as blogs, forums and companion websites). – Content is king … and paramount to good optimization.

- Search engine friendly GUI navigation (internal linking strategy). – A must have ‘inbound link’ building strategy (external links coming in).

The professional SEO (search engine optimization) knows that if you want to be found in the top of the search results for a competitive keyword term, you have to cover all your search engine optimization basics and more. That means both, exceptional website on-page and external off-page SEO, as well as a fully comprehensive link strategy.

Professional SEO Company

Any Professional SEO worth hiring understands that effective SEO (search engine optimization) constant continuing education because the search engine algorithms and the rules search engines use to position a web page within the search engine results page (serp) are always changing. The search engine most challenging to the SEO professional is Google. Here’s Google’s tips on things to look for in an SEO company:

- Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue. – No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. – Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do. – You should never have to link to an SEO. – Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar. – Choose wisely. – Be sure to understand where the money goes. – Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm you’re considering. – Make sure you’re protected legally.

- Professional SEO Strategy and Conversion

The truly Professional SEO and Search Engine Optimization Company understands that there are other considerations to be kept in mind.

For example, a website must not only be optimized for search engine spider algorithms, but it also has to remain optimized for the visitor as well. Ranking number one in all the major search engines is what gets the visitors to your website, but then the website must convert those visitors into actual sales.

Professional SEO is like Royalty

If content is king, then website design is queen. The combination of the two, if done correctly, will produce results for both your search engine rankings and your revenue. While keyword location, weight (absolute and relative), density, proximity, frequency, keyword targeting … is a important part of the puzzle, how the code for the website is created and the linking strategies are equally considered royalty in the world of the professional optimizer. The knowledge of how best to accomplish that is always changing and that’s why a real SEO professional who is on top of the trends, can be worth gold to the success of your business.

Tags: freelance, keywords, search engine keywords, search engine optimization, seo, seo writer, writer, writing

The Truth about Search Engine Optimization

While the basics of Search Engine Optimization or SEO are pretty much textbook, it isn’t the textbooks that you’re competing with, it’s the competition … who within the most competative markets make it almost impossible to get to that search engine position of being number one. Discovering the Truth about Search Engine Optimization will require an analysis of every factor of optimization.

Professional SEO

Profession Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more than simply understanding the goal of a website. The real SEO Professional, or real ‘Search Engine Optimizer’, will do extensive query-based keyword research because they know professional optimization needs a strong keyword foundation.

SEO professionals ask the all important question … Who is the “target audience” or the “target market” … and then, they work to create a website that brings their content to that audience through the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves:

-Optimizing every page’s page titles, meta tags, attributes, anchor text and more. – Theming of the primary domain, sub-domains and supporting web properties (such as blogs, forums and companion websites). – Content is king … and paramount to good optimization.

- Search engine friendly GUI navigation (internal linking strategy). – A must have ‘inbound link’ building strategy (external links coming in).

The professional SEO (search engine optimization) knows that if you want to be found in the top of the search results for a competitive keyword term, you have to cover all your search engine optimization basics and more. That means both, exceptional website on-page and external off-page SEO, as well as a fully comprehensive link strategy.

Professional SEO Company

Any Professional SEO worth hiring understands that effective SEO (search engine optimization) constant continuing education because the search engine algorithms and the rules search engines use to position a web page within the search engine results page (serp) are always changing. The search engine most challenging to the SEO professional is Google. Here’s Google’s tips on things to look for in an SEO company:

- Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue. – No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. – Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do. – You should never have to link to an SEO. – Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar. – Choose wisely. – Be sure to understand where the money goes. – Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm you’re considering. – Make sure you’re protected legally.

- Professional SEO Strategy and Conversion

The truly Professional SEO and Search Engine Optimization Company understands that there are other considerations to be kept in mind.

For example, a website must not only be optimized for search engine spider algorithms, but it also has to remain optimized for the visitor as well. Ranking number one in all the major search engines is what gets the visitors to your website, but then the website must convert those visitors into actual sales.

Professional SEO is like Royalty

If content is king, then website design is queen. The combination of the two, if done correctly, will produce results for both your search engine rankings and your revenue. While keyword location, weight (absolute and relative), density, proximity, frequency, keyword targeting … is a important part of the puzzle, how the code for the website is created and the linking strategies are equally considered royalty in the world of the professional optimizer. The knowledge of how best to accomplish that is always changing and that’s why a real SEO professional who is on top of the trends, can be worth gold to the success of your business.

Tags: freelance, keywords, search engine keywords, search engine optimization, seo, seo writer, writer, writing