The SEO Blog

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson

While it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing that is the “most important” component of page optimization, there will be few who disagree that content is consistently at the top of the importance list.  With keyword research and page titles complete, the next consideration is content, or copy, on the page.  I’ve narrowed down a much larger list into 4 considerations for content creation you should make.

Action oriented web content
A user should easily identify what action or activity (conversion) you wish them to take.  For an e-commerce site, the ability to purchase a product (the sales process) should be easily recognized and easy to follow.  For an informational site, the ability to contact you should be easily recognized.  The internet is the ultimate example of a medium that limits the amount of time that a user will be engaged, so action oriented content should quickly convince them to take the activity you wish them to take.

Web Writing Patterns
Writing patterns for the web should reflect a conclusion first approach, letting the user know about the ultimate goal of the content previous to building it up with supportive content that will typically not be read by the user.  However, the search engine will appreciate the presence of supportive, relative content on a page and will consider it when evaluating the strength of it.  Additionally, studies show that the utilization of bullets can be an effective method for both user and search engines. Emphasis on the page, accomplished by appropriate HTML tagging will also be beneficial.

Content Keyword Density
Keyword density, or the saturation of key phrases on a page, is one of several factors that help the search engine determine the theme or topic of the page.  While keyword density is important, an overly saturated page can be perceived as “spammy”.  The general rule of thumb, as it is for other optimization strategies, is to ensure that the content reads well for the user, which will translate well for the search engines.

Site Readability Studies
Typical studies, such as the one provided by various readability studies in the picture below, reflect a typical pattern of reading that is demonstrated with most sites.  The “F” pattern, should be considered when thinking about where to place the important pieces of the information for the user.  From a search engine perspective, higher importance is placed to copy placed in at the top left of the page.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson

For those new to the SEO, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of information that needs to be collected so that your search marketing campaign is on target.  While we have discussed some issues such as creating page titles and keyword research in previous blogs, I wanted to take a second to mention some  tools available through the search engines that can be very useful.  These tools are built into the search engines and can provide a ton of great information that may help you in a variety of ways.  We’re focusing on Google, because well, it’s usually accepted as the industry benchmark, although tools in the other search engines are also available.

Search Operators
Known as search operators, these word based phrases (there are a few symbols that also help) added to the text of a Google search can provide a plethora of information that assist the planning or execution of an SEO campaign.  The basic syntax for their entry within the google search box (although some can be used within the search string and others have other exceptions) is:

{SEARCH OPERATOR}:{URL} OR {PHRASE}

Syntax examples of each are provided within each of the operators below.

site operator:

The site: search operator added to a search query tells Google to restrict results to those pages within the supplied domain.  The site: operator is also fantastic tool to evaluate the visibility or “indexability” of a site.  The search operator returns a listing of pages within a site that have been indexed by the search engine.  If you know that your site has 100 pages within it, and the search engines only see 1, then it is an indication that you have issues that need to be resolved.

Example: seminars site:www.tkg.com

(noting no space after site:,  resulting in pages about “seminars” within www.tkg.com)

link operator:

The link: operator reports the number and source of links coming into a specific URL, and is a general indicator of a sites popularity.  External link popularity, or the quantity and quality of links comining into your site, is an extremely important indicator of value to the search engines.

Example: link:www.tkg.com

cache operator:

The cache: operator displays the cached version of site as recorded in the index of the search engine.  “TEXT version only” options, available when viewing the cache: results, also give a good indication of the text (search engine favorite) that is seen on the page.  The absence of text in a cache: page result may be an indication of site limitations that would need resolved.

Example: cache:www.tkg.com

allinurl operator:

The allinurl: operator displays google results where the search phrase is contained within the url of the page.  When using multiple phrases, the Google results will display results where the phrase(s) occurs anywhere within the URL, in any order.

Example: allinurl: web marketing

info operator:

The info: search operator will report information that Google has about the specific domain you are inquiring about. Usually, the results are simply linked entry points into many of the other tools already mentioned.

Example: info:www.tkg.com

I am confident that these search operators will allow you to gather some great information about your site, or that of a competitor.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson

With your initial keyword research complete, as discussed in the Initial Keyword Research blog entry, you can now start turning your attention to how your phrases will be optimized within individual pages. Remember, you have targeted about 20-30 core phrases, depending on the size of the site, that represent popular but not too competitive key phrases that will maximize qualified traffic.

I don’t want to oversimplify things here, but the optimization of a page generally centers on the selecting optimized keywords and phrases that will be used as the page titles on the page. Page titles, which are displayed in the blue title bar of a browser window, are a crucial component to the optimization of the page and establish the theme to the page you are optimizing. But in addition to developing a page theme, here are a couple of general guidelines when thinking about the page titles to create:

1. Keywords selected for top tier pages, like the homepage, will generally be broader than pages that are more inside. For example, an inside page may contain specific product information. While there are always exceptions, inside pages will be traditionally more specific than top level pages and therefore the selected keywords should reflect it.

2. On any site, never optimize for a single phrase more than two times. Keep track of your optimization efforts so this can be avoided.

3. Don’t use misspellings in your page titles, unless the misspelling of a company phrase is the point of the page.

4. Use the company name only on pages where branding the name is appropriate. These include pages like about us, home, and contact us.

One final thought, while I try to utilize as many core keywords within the page titles as I can, pages can include key phrases that are not on your core phrase list. But don’t forget to research and document these “non-core” phrases to ensure you are making the best choices and not duplicating your efforts anywhere within the site.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson
Now that you’ve completed the initial site review, you should have a pretty good picture about what challenges you are faced with. You should also come away from post # 2, Initial Website Analysis, with a good idea of what you need to work on from a usability, layout, design, and of course search engine optimization perspective.

Concentrating on the latter, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is typical to most SEO campaigns: increase natural results position and increase conversions for the site. AKA, getting qualified, interested users to where they need to be.

So, with that mission in mind, we have to start initial SEO keyword research to ensure that you are going after the correct phrases. This step is an extremely important in the overall process, so don’t be afraid to spend a little extra time on it. Here are a couple of keyword targeting guidelines that I try to follow:

1. The number of phrases you target should depend on the size of the site.  Obviously, the bigger the site the more opportunity you have to target more key phrases.
   
2. Spend some time on the site, putting yourself in the position of a potential visitor. What terms would you be using if you were looking for this information? Most of you will know your business fairly well, so it may be pretty easy for this initial run-through. Document your results in a separate document for tracking purposes.
3. Although there has been some recent debate on whether you should invest in long tail phrases, I wouldn’t be really quick to abandon the idea. For example, a client in the custom carpentry business,  may be interested in going after the term “legs” in association with a table part, but that may be just a little too general and way too competitive. While you may have the desire to go after some of these more general terms, unless your sole mission is to bring in traffic to your site with no regard for the visitors qualification to convert, it probably will not result in a ton of sales or contacts.
4. Consider the competition and popularity of sites you are trying to go after. Automated tools can help here, (including Trellian, Google AdWords tools, etc.). The goal is a popular (often searched), non-competitive phrases.
5. Target key phrases that can be currently supported on your site.
6. Document your findings, so in the future when you are adjusting your keyword strategy, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Once you have narrowed it down, do some benchmarking so that you can compare what impact your SEO efforts has had on the rankings for your core list.  As a general SEO strategy, TKG relies heavily on our ability to compare site trends through benchmarking, including a great post on benchmarking online conversions that may give you some ideas about the strategy.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson
As it relates to the recent discussion about the use of the long tail theory,  I’m nowhere close to abandoning the strategy as an important component in keyword targeting.  I thought it might be helpful to spend a couple of minutes expanding on my “yes” vote for the continued use of  long tail keywords.

Web traffic is unlike typical business models where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.  Most qualified web traffic is the reverse of that, where 20% of your business comes from your “top” key words, with the remaining traffic being generated from the remaining 80% of your key phrases.  What it boils down to is trying to figure out the multiple variations of key phrases, and choosing key phrases that capture the market share.

To help illustrate this marketing point, the long-tail concept is demonstrated in the following graph utilized in some recent forum and blog threads concerning long tail theory.   Here,  Seth Godin discusses three “pockets” of the long tail and highlights three areas of importance on the curve.

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Here are a couple of other examples of choosing long tail optimized keywords to give you a better idea about the concept:

• An online auto parts store choosing “ford mustang exhaust system” versus “auto parts”, or
• A dog training service choosing  “dog obedience classes” versus “dogs”

In both of these examples, the selection of the “longer” key phrases will most probably result in more targeted traffic to the site, and thus more conversions.  The moral of the story… don’t be afraid to use 2-4 word key phrases as your target key phrases, it may end helping your overall objective.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson
This is post # 2 in a series of who knows how many, discussing a rookie’s approach to SEO. Topic of the day, the value of an initial web site analysis…..

It can be pretty overwhelming when you are faced with the overwhelming task of figuring out the best place to start an SEO campaign. But for me, I have personally found that a valuable SEO tip is to complete a thorough initial site analysis to ensure that some important components are in place, and to determine what might be missing. Even though we’ll actually start the SEO campaign concentrating on another area (post #3 keyword research will be coming soon), I’ve found it is always helpful to get a good overall picture of the usability, structure, and current optimization of the site before digging too deep into the research stuff.

So, here is a brief list of a couple of the things I look for when going through this process. Each one of them could probably be expanded into its own post, so be sure to post any questions, comments, or additions to the list. Also, this listing is by no means complete, so additional thoughts would be great.

1. check that the non-www version of your site is being directed to the www version. Can of worms, a whole discussion about duplicate content.
2. check that your sites file include a robots.txt file which identifies “off limits” paths for the spiders. The Karcher Group has an excellent Web Development & SEO Glossary to reference any terms you may not be comfortable with.
3. check to make sure that unresolved pages (someone going to a relocated, removed, or incorrectly typed URL) go somewhere other than a blank page.
4. check common on-page search engine optimization items, such as page titles and internal tag usage (like the headers).
5. check site usability, including navigations, design, and layout
6. check conversion points for functionality and usability

In the next post, we’ll clarify some objectives of our campaign, discuss the possibility of looking at some case studies, and begin our key phrase research.

Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson
In a very short period of time, I’ve pretty much gone from 0 to 60 in the search engine marketing field. While more than 15 years in various corporate marketing and small business operation roles have made it a bit easier to bridge into the field, it would be an understatement to say there has been a lot to learn.

One advantage to being relatively new to the field is that I will not soon forget how easy it is to become overwhelmed with everything you need to consider when putting together a solid SEO campaign. So this blog is dedicated, that’s right I said dedicated, to the rookie SEO person (does “peep” work better) that may be asking the question “Where do I start…”

In the coming weeks and months, I’d like to take a look at some of the key components and best practices of a basic SEO campaign. This will include topics like:

Starting strategies
Page theme development
Keyword research
On page optimization basics
And many more…

I invite anyone to let me know if anything else comes to mind that you’d like to know a little more about, or if you have general responses to my genius.