FindYourSearch

SEO Essentials for 2012

2012-02-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

If you have built or created your own web site, you probably have somewhat of an understanding about how search engine optimization (SEO) works. Many proprietary websites do their own SEO while there are some that hire individuals, usually consultants, who are experts at doing search engine optimization. These individuals are effective at optimizing websites and understand the important areas of doing SEO and bring it all together into a search engine optimization campaign.

So what is so important about SEO? The main reason search engine optimization is used is to increase a websites visibility on the Web, so it receives more traffic. This in turn is what helps website designers and proprietors earn some extra cash. Now lets consider the various components of your website which are on-page and off-page content. On-page SEO is the optimization that is done on your actual website, which includes the code, meta data, and meta explanations. There are many strategies and methods that can be utilized to help your website become search engine friendly. You want search engines like Google and Bing to index and rank your web site properly, so the more effective your on-page optimization the easier it will be for search engines to crawl your pages and put them in appropriate groups for all those people you want to see your information. Ranking for the category that is most suitable requires that your site use key phrases for that category. These key phrases have to be enhanced on each page of your website for the best results. Likewise your site needs completely unique content to be able to be categorized as a signal of authority.

Next there is off-page optimization, which is the part that's done from an external site on the Internet. The purpose of off-page SEO is to improve the quantity of traffic your site receives, with a large part of that being link building. This is done naturally to a certain point, like when a person links to some site that's like using their own. So when that person has an Internet site that is highly rated, it may be able to provide extra traffic, as well as higher rank to your site. Another way to build links for your site is to post articles to article pages, such as an offer to improve optimization of a site, or other various techniques.

Search engine optimization can be time consuming and intensive, especially the link-building part of it. When you are not a specialist, the involvement of doing the items needed for optimization of your site can seem overwhelming. You might not want to do everything you need to do for the greatest results. This is the main reason why many website proprietors have decided to leave SEO to the experts. We have the ability to begin a campaign that considers all of the important areas of optimization and can help you to obtain the top results.

The 3 “W”s of Abandoned Shopping Carts

2011-12-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

Much has been written about how to optimize shopping carts for e-commerce sites for optimum conversions and sales, but do you have a plan of action in place when potential customers end up abandoning these shopping carts mid-transaction? If you don’t, you’re squandering a prime opportunity to win back people who might not even be aware that their purchase didn’t go through. Statistics show that a whopping 54% of companies don’t even try to win back these abandoners, making cart recovery one of the most underutilized conversion techniques. Don’t let a golden opportunity to increase sales pass you by; check out the following guidelines and take action today to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to set yourself up for success.

Why?

In order to be successful in winning back these cart abandoners, it’s first to helpful to explore some of the reasons why people aren’t going through with their orders. One of the main culprits is that they are using your cart as a means for comparison shopping. They gather all of the items they’re interested in purchasing into the cart so they can see how much it will cost with shipping and they’ll repeat this process on a couple of different sites. Some other common reasons for shopping cart abandonment include high shipping cost, an overly complicated and invasive checkout procedure or the customer simply changed his mind.

What?

Once you’ve explored and pinpointed the reasons why your customers are abandoning their carts, it’s time to try to woo them back. How you do it depends upon why they left their cart behind. For example, if you’ve determined that people are abandoning carts in droves because your checkout process is too long and/or confusing, figure out a way to streamline it. If your customers feel like you’re trying to gather too much information about them during the purchase process, figure out a different way to get it, like a follow-up survey AFTER the sale is completed. Emails are also an extremely effective way to lure back customers, but there is an art to it (see below).

When?

If you are going to use email as a means for winning back your shopping cart abandoners, time is of the essence. So many companies make the mistake of letting too much time pass before they send out that first, all-important email for fear of appearing too “stalker-ish”. Marketing to people who have failed to complete their purchases is NOT like dating—you don’t need to play it cool for days for fear of appearing too eager or uncool. Instead, you should be sending out an email immediately; in fact, the best course of action would be to have a real-time, automated message go out as soon as the cart is abandoned. Research has shown that the majority of carts that are won back are done so in the first few hours after abandonment, so don’t wait. Also, don’t stop with just one email. If you get no response after the initial email goes out, send another one out in 24 hours and then another 7 days later. Remember—you are trying to recoup money that was almost in your hand, so this isn’t the time to be standoffish and give your clients some space. You need to figure out what stopped them from buying and to remedy it as quickly as possible.

Abandoned shopping carts don’t have to be a bad thing—it’s all in how you deal with it. You should view it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve and hone your check out process. Of course you want everyone to complete their orders the first time, but if they don’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be back. Be proactive and persistent (but not pushy) and you might just be surprised by the results!

When’s the Last Time Your Site Had a Tune-Up?

2011-08-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Just like a car needs regular tune-ups, so does your website. A lot of time and effort went into building the best site possible, so don’t squander all of your hard work by letting it fall into disrepair. Going back to the car analogy for a moment—when you buy a new car, it’s in pristine condition, with everything working perfectly. In order to keep it in tip-top shape, you need to be vigilant with oil changes, washes, repairs, etc. Well, your website is the same way—it may be perfect to begin with, but it needs constant monitoring and upkeep to stay that way. Keep a close eye on the following areas of your site to ensure that it keeps functioning in optimum condition:

Technical Issues

First and foremost, you need to check for technical problems like 404 errors and broken links. Having a bunch of errors and links that no longer work is very damaging to your site—with the search engines AND human traffic. Because websites are dynamic creatures with content constantly being added and taken down, constant vigilance is required in order to avoid 404 errors and broken links. If you have social share buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc., you will also want to periodically check them to see if they are doing what they should. Act like you are a first-time visitor to your site and fill out any and all forms you have to test whether or not they work and if they are easy to navigate. Lastly, check your page load speed and adjust it accordingly so you won’t lose traffic because your page loads at a glacial pace.

Feedback and Analysis

Once you’ve made sure that your site is in good working order and is firing on all cylinders, it’s now time to focus your attention on what can be gleaned from any customer feedback you’ve received, unsolicited or not. This data really is your bread and butter and can provide you with valuable information that can have a huge impact on the success of your site. For example, you may think your site’s layout is intuitive and easy to navigate, but the actual users may think otherwise. Whether or not you choose to implement this feedback is, of course, your choice, but this raw data can be your best friend for determining what is and isn’t working on your site. You will also find it helpful to study your analytics data (you DO have some sort of analytics program running on your site, right?) to find out where your traffic is coming from, what pages are the most popular and which ones have the highest bounce rates.

SEO

Last, but certainly not least, you should keep current on the latest happenings with search engine optimization. If the whole Google Panda debacle has taught us anything, it’s that SEO best practices are constantly changing and evolving; just because doing things a certain way took you to the top of the SERPs in the past doesn’t mean it will always be the case. Therefore, it’s vital that you stay on top of the latest changes and developments in the SEO world so you can make sure that your site is easily found by humans and indexed by the major search engines.

While checking under the hood of your site may not be the most glamorous or sexy of tasks, it’s something that you can’t afford NOT to do. A successful, highly functioning website, much like an exotic sports car, requires a lot of TLC, maintenance and monitoring, so don’t neglect these much-needed tune-ups and calibrations.

‘Wine and Dine’ Your Prospects to Convert Them

2011-06-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

A recent article on conversions compared the process to trying to establish a relationship with someone. This metaphor is a clever way to look at converting potential clients, with the main point being that conversation should be the driving force throughout the process. There is no one point of conversion; instead, nurture your leads in multiple ways on their journey to becoming loyal customers.

Start With a Corny Pick-up Line

When trying to get someone’s attention in a bar, people often resort to using pick-up lines. They need to distinguish themselves somehow from the others and, while often cheesy, these lines usually get attention. The conversion equivalent, then, is crafting a creative, compelling headline that will make your site stand out from amongst the crowd on the SERPs. Try writing something that is a pun or a play on words—sure, it might make someone groan, but it WILL make them more apt to click on it!

Dazzle Them With Your Witty Conversational Skills

In the bar, once the woman falls for the man’s line, he now has to back it up by engaging in a riveting conversation that will keep the lady’s attention. At this point, body language comes into play, so there are a lot of things going on. What this means for conversions is that once you’ve lured someone onto your site with an irresistible headline, you have to keep the conversation going by delivering them the information you promised in the SERPs. Don’t just rely on text alone; much like body language enhances conversations, inserting appropriate images will make your text pack a punch. Just make sure that your content and images pertain to your initial headline and don’t go in a different direction than you indicated. Just like no lady likes to be led astray by a lounge lizard, don’t make your prospects feel duped by a bait and switch!

Don’t Beat Around the Bush

Once the bar guy gets to talk to the girl and things are going well, what should he do? If she seems interested, he should at some point directly ask her for her phone number and maybe a dinner out. If he doesn’t clearly make his intentions known, there could be a miscommunication and a missed opportunity for a real love connection. Similarly, once you have gotten a prospect to your page and you have offered them compelling, relevant content, it’s time to seal the deal by making it crystal clear what the next step is. Make sure your call to action, whether it is to buy a product or sign up for a newsletter, very apparent so there can be no doubt in the prospect’s mind what comes next. Keep the conversation going by providing step-by-step guidance so they don’t get confused and abandon your site.

Yes, the metaphor is kind of silly, but contains many useful parallels to how you should go about winning over leads--don’t rush the process and always be available and helpful. Your prospects will discover that they just can’t live without you!

For more ideas on how to gain conversions, check out FindYourSearch.com’s article over at Posterous.

Why No One is Noticing Your Content

2011-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

We’ve all heard the adage over and over again that “content is king”. Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of response to something you created that you felt was really great? If so, read on to learn about the most common culprits that are involved when your content is ignored.

You Didn’t Promote It

One of the biggest reasons content falls flat is that no one reads it. It’s very much similar to the old proverb, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In other words, you could have produced the most earth-shattering content in the world, but if you aren’t putting it in front of the right people, it’s destined to fail. Creating a great article or video is only half the battle—you need to research who your target audience is and network with them. Cultivate an open relationship and show them that you’re willing to reciprocate when it comes to sharing and commenting on content.

The Title is a Total Snore

There is a seemingly infinite amount of content out there, so in order to make yours stand out, you must craft an attention-getting, compelling headline that simply cannot be ignored. Even if the topic is not exactly exciting, you need to find a way to title your content in such a way that instantly signals to your audience that your material can’t be missed. Given how much stuff is available, people need a reason or interact with something and they look to the title for the reason. So, don’t shortchange yourself with generic, bland, unimaginative titles.

It’s All About YOU

The point of creating content is to interact with your audience so you can really get to know their needs and desires. Social media is not just another platform to use to blast your message out to the masses. Instead, your content needs to cater to the users—what’s in it for them and how will it help them to accomplish their goals? While you naturally want to broadcast your marketing, you have to do it in a way that doesn’t seem like advertising. This is where your creativity and imagination come into play; create something that has real value and adds something meaningful to the community and you will attract the attention you desire.

These are just a few reasons why your content isn’t going viral. Others include bad design/user interface, misusing social media tools and communities or targeting the wrong market. If your content isn’t performing well, take a step back and make sure you are doing everything you can to grab and keep the attention of a fickle audience without sounding like a commercial. It’s a delicate balance that can only be met through careful study and experimentation.

Putting eye-catching images and videos into long articles can break up blocks of texts and engage your readers. Check out FindYourSearch.com’s Flickr account for some inspirational images to use in your next blog.

How to Work in Harmony with Your SEO Consultant

2011-05-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Forming a good relationship with your SEO consultant is crucial to the success of your campaign. Yes, you are paying him good money to make your site rank well so you can generate more sales, but you must resist the urge to micromanage the process. SEO isn’t an exact science and there are many factors involved with it that you might not fully understand. Therefore, it’s imperative that you trust in your consultant and not do anything, consciously or subconsciously, to derail the process. Before embarking on your SEO project, keep the following guidelines in mind.

Manage Your Expectations

SEO can be quite a frustrating experience; what works for one site may not work for yours. Plus, the search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms, so one day a tactic could work and the next day, you could be penalized for it. Of course, when you are paying someone to perform a service for you, you want to see results. With SEO, you will eventually see results, but it will take some time. It’s just the nature of the beast. It is very much like cultivating a garden—after planting the seeds, you have to wait to reap the fruits of your labor. The same is true with SEO, so, as hard as it may be, give the campaign a couple of months to bear fruit. Don’t contact your SEO consultant two weeks into the process, furious that nothing has happened, accusing him of ripping you off. You just need to wait it out a little bit.

Don’t Ignore Suggestions

By hiring your SEO consultant, you have acknowledged the fact that he has proven experience in his field of expertise. Yes, it is YOUR website he is working on, but you need to have faith that he really does know what he’s talking about. So, try to avoid having knee-jerk reactions to what he suggests before understanding why, for instance, you should avoid using Flash. Again, it all comes down to trust and believing that your consultant really does have your best interests at heart. Also, don’t balk when he suggests you create a steady stream of content for your site. Some consultants will create content for you for an additional fee, so this is something that needs to be hammered out between the two of you before you sign a contact. If you opt to write the content yourself, don’t take it personally if your SEO consultant critiques its quality. Great content is an essential building block of any SEO campaign, so make every effort to create it on an ongoing basis without letting your ego get in your way.

Don’t Make Changes on Your Own

While it may be tempting to make a few changes here and there on your site (after all, it is YOURS), doing so without discussing it with your SEO consultant can have disastrous consequences. Even a seeming inconsequential change can completely derail all of the progress your consultant has made, which will not make for a fun conversation! Remember, SEO is a painstaking process with many moving parts and every action has an effect and messing with it can destroy your rankings. So, don’t go rogue!

Before choosing your SEO consultant, make sure you do your homework first. Ask him what his philosophy is towards SEO and if he subscribes to white hat tactics. Employing someone who engages in black hat SEO is only opening you up to a world of hurt and most likely will result in your site being penalized or banned outright. Make sure you question him about how many SEO campaigns he has been involved with, what his role was in the projects and what the result was. This person will be handling your site’s livelihood, so do your due diligence to find the right person for the job. And, once you do, trust in his expertise.

You ARE Optimizing Your Product Descriptions, Right?

2011-03-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Given the recent Google Panda algorithm change, it’s now more important than ever for businesses to take steps to insure that their content is fresh and original and not just copied verbatim from other sources. Retailers may have unconsciously been publishing unoriginal content by failing to optimize their product descriptions. Instead of taking the time to write their own unique product descriptions, a lot of retailers either copy from their competitors or use the exact same verbiage from the suppliers. While it may be tempting to do that, it can penalize your site for scraping content, so it really is worth the time to go through and start replacing any copied product descriptions you may have with fresh, original copy. Even though it may seem difficult to come up with new and interesting way to describe the products you offer, there are ways to accomplish this rather easily.

Learn All You Can About the Product

This may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of retailers really don’t take the time to know the ins and outs of the products they’re selling. They will just copy down whatever description supplied by the manufacturer and call it a day. Instead of doing this, take the time to dissect the verbiage that came with it and rewrite it in a way that will be easily understood by your customers. Oftentimes, manufactures use jargon that is vague or unclear to the average person. If you run across copy like this, put yourself in the mind of whom you are marketing to and use terminology that’s easy to understand. You should also take this opportunity to address common questions customers may have had in the past about a particular product and to build the answer into the description.

Establish a Voice and Personality

Most product descriptions are dry and boring, yet they don’t need to be. This is your chance to establish a definite voice and personality for your brand. Weave in a little story about how the customer could use a particular product and describe how it could make them feel. Tapping into someone’s emotional state and mind and showing that by buying your product they can fulfill a certain need or provide a sense of security can be some very powerful stuff. Before writing descriptions, it might be very helpful to first write down information about your typical customers and how they might sound. By taking the time to do this step, you will find it easier to write creative content that will not only inform your customers, but will draw them in emotionally.

Implement SEO into Your Descriptions

Another benefit to rewriting your product descriptions is that it gives you the chance to optimize your content for the search engines in addition to your customers. Make sure you’re using keywords in your product titles and descriptions, but don’t overdo it. As a rule of thumb, use the keyword, or product name, once every 100 words. For each product description, you will want to link the most important keyword to the home page, preferably the first link within the description. Try and make your copy at least 250 words for maximum SEO benefit. It has been documented that search engines value variety, so, if appropriate, consider using a video to demonstrate how to use your product or highlight certain features. This is your chance to get creative so that you can showcase your products in the best light possible in a way that’s unique, exciting and attention getting.

Although the prospect of rewriting thousands of product descriptions is certainly daunting, you need to tackle the project one step at a time. First, identify your most popular, best-selling, highest-margin items and start with them. Then, after taking care of your most important accounts, tackle five products a day and, before you know it, you will have it done in no time and will be increasing your sales AND your search rankings!

Do You Have Bad Twitter Habits?

2011-03-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

There’s no question that engaging in social media is an essential part of any company’s marketing strategy. Twitter is an extremely popular platform for connecting with your audience and establishing brand awareness. But, if you don’t follow the Twitter “netiquette”, you will be doing the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish and will drive people away. Keep reading to make sure you aren’t unconsciously alienating your followers.

Don’t Automate

While some people use the auto-post option to streamline their efforts, this really isn’t a good idea. The whole purpose of engaging in social media is to forge meaningful connections with your customers and bombarding them with auto-generated content is the antithesis of that. Instead, take the time to find material yourself that you feel will be of interest to your followers. Similarly, do not send mass, automated direct messages. When you automate everything, you are basically telling your followers that they are all just faceless, nameless prospects that you really don’t care about.

Be Discerning

Don’t tweet about every single article you have ever written. You will not gain the attention and recognition you seek by force-feeding your content to your audience. Instead, take some time to look through your library and pick only the cream of the crop to Tweet about. Avoid tweeting old content; the very nature of Twitter necessitates content that is extremely current and up-to-date. No one wants to hear yesterday’s news, keep your tweets fresh. Also, do not Tweet too much. If you flood someone’s Twitter feed with dozens of messages, they will unfollow you very quickly. Choose quality over quantity to ensure that your followers will be hanging on your every word.

Mind Your Formatting

Tweets consist of up to 140 characters—that’s it. So, when you tweet, be mindful of this limit and word it so it falls within these parameters. You definitely do not want to break up your messages within multiple tweets; it will be too confusing and difficult to follow. If you are going to use Twitter effectively, you must operate within its framework and learn how to write so you can leverage its microblogging format to your advantage. You also want to avoid using too many abbreviations or text chat lingo. Yes, your text real estate is limited on Twitter, but you don’t want to alienate and confuse the majority of your audience by crafting tweets that are unreadable.

Yes, getting the hang of Twitter can be a bit challenging, but with a little bit of time and effort, you will get the hang of it. Before tweeting, make sure what you’re posting is relevant, is of high quality and is something that you feel casts your business in the best light.

Build Brand Awareness Online

2011-02-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

If you want to be successful with your business, it’s vital that people know who you are and have a positive view of your brand. There are many simple ways you can create a buzz for yourself online; the trick is to get creative and think outside of the box to do so. With all of the tools and resources that are now readily available, if you put forth a bit of time and effort, you will be able to easily garner attention to your business and brand. Read on for a few ideas.

1. Match Your Blog and Social Media Profiles to Your Website

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning. It’s essential that the design of all your online content looks the same. Find blogging software that allows you to customize your design and lets you match the URL to your own domain. For social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to name a few, you will need to create a custom social media avatar that you can use across these sites. But, since the image dimensions vary between these sites, you will need to tweak your logo for each account. If you don’t take the time to do this, you run the risk of your logo being cut off or stretched, which will look extremely unprofessional and tarnish your brand’s image. Although you cannot completely customize your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Twitter allows you to do so, so make sure your profile matches the look and feel of your official website.

2. Cross-Reference All Your Profiles

Once you have all of your social media profiles looking their best, you will now want to link all of them together. Make sure your website and your blog have social media icons on them so users can go to them with a simple click of their mouse button. Similarly, you will want to make sure that all of your social media accounts link to your blog and website. By doing so, not only will you make it extremely easy for people to find your information, you will also be signaling to the search engines that all of your social profiles are related to your site, thus building relevance. If you correctly link all your accounts together, your social media sites will show up when someone enters your name into a search engine and will push any negative press or reviews off the first page of the SERPs.

3. Engage Your Existing Audience and Actively Woo New Fans

Being involved in the social media sphere presents you with endless opportunities to interact with your customers and reach out to potential ones. For instance, you can create contests, quizzes and surveys and provide fun rewards and promotions for the participants. Online gaming is huge, so if it fits in well with your niche, you may want to consider creating a game. Creating videos and interactive content such as infographics that aren’t directly related to your brand but are related to your niche will also go far in promoting your brand. You may also want to consider reaching out to your fans and brand loyalists to see if they would be interested in sharing a particular piece of content with their friends and followers. This move has multiple benefits—not only will you be increasing the chance of your content going viral, you will also be engaging in an open dialogue with your customers, which is another good way to boost your brand.

The above guidelines are but a few ways you can bolster your brand’s presence and gain credibility. You are only limited by your imagination and if you dedicate yourself to finding new and innovative ways to spread the word, you are certain to be amazed by the results!

Landing Page Optimization

2011-02-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Landing pages play an important part in converting visitors to customers, so great care needs to be taken when creating these pages. A landing page is a specialized page where someone is directed when they click on your link from an email or social media sharing sites. Since the landing page is the first thing visitors new to your site will see, it’s of the utmost important to make sure this page is optimized for optimum conversion. Following are a few suggestions for making the most of your landing page.

Keep it Simple

The primary purpose of a landing page is to tell your visitors what you want from them, whether that be purchasing a product or signing up for a service. Thus, you want to have as few distractions as possible to divert visitors from the main call to action. Avoid superfluous images and text that can overwhelm and divert a visitor from the reason why they’re on the page to begin with. Your landing page isn’t the place to experiment with different fonts and design elements. The best plan of action is to keep the fonts simple and easy to read and to use white space and headers to organize your information.

Put the Important Information Above the Fold

People want to be able to find the information they seek and do so fast, so it’s extremely important to place your call to action towards the top of your landing page. You definitely don’t want to make visitors have to scroll over halfway down the page to find the sign up button. Make it as easy as possible for them to find the appropriate information by putting it at the top of the page and list the less important data below it.

Hone Your Content

Since your landing page’s function is to achieve a conversion as quickly as possible, you’ll want to use text sparingly, yet effectively. You don’t want to throw up just any old content; rather, it needs to be carefully crafted so it has the most impact. After all, it is the wording that will be doing the selling, so you need to pay attention to every word, from the first line in the headline to the last one in your call to action. Just remember to keep your message clear and to the point to avoid any confusion or uncertainty.

Keep in mind that there’s no exact science to landing page optimization and that constant testing and experimenting is necessary to find what will work best for your particular company. If you aren’t getting the results you are after, try tweaking your headlines and the wording of your copy. Don’t get discouraged if at first you aren’t able to succeed—just keep trying!

The Importance of Meta Tags

2011-01-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of years, the use of meta tags have become widely debated, with many abandoning them because they don’t have a measurable affect in search engine placement. While this is true, meta tags don’t factor into how the search engines will rank your site, they still have an extremely useful function and if you aren’t using them to their full potential, you’re seriously hampering the effectiveness of your website. Meta tags control the information that’s listed about your site on the search engine results pages (SERPs) and it’s crucial to optimize it to generate traffic and conversions. Following are examinations of the most useful meta tags and how they can boost your business’s reputation.

Title Tags

Title tags define what your business is about, so you definitely don’t want to leave it blank. If you do, Google will create one for you and do you really want a third party defining your company for you? Of course not, so don’t overlook this crucial step. When choosing a title, make the most of the ~60 characters that are available to you by listing your organization’s name and a descriptive tag line. You will want to create a different title tag for each individual page within your website by acting as though you are placing an ad for each particular page. Take some time to come up with copy that will entice users to click through by thinking of what would lead you to be interested. This process sounds very time consuming, but it only takes a few seconds if you do them as you create the pages.

Description Tags

These tags generate the description that shows up underneath your website’s title on the SERPs. Again, while Google has acknowledged they don’t use this information for ranking purposes, it’s still very important to include it. This is your chance to list more in-depth information about your company and to represent your brand so people will be interested in learning more. Don’t merely repeat what you put in your title tag; instead, enhance your title, be as descriptive as possible and don’t waste this precious real estate with quotes, dashes or other non-alphanumeric characters. If you don’t create a description tag yourself, a random snippet of text will be chosen from your site by the search engine and it may not always make sense or be relevant.

When you take time to optimize your meta tags, you are signaling to those who come across your website that you’re a business that wants to be taken seriously and cares about its customers. While it’s desirable to be ranked well in the search engines, you need to keep in mind it’s actual human visitors, not search engine spiders, who will be buying your product!

SEO and Usability — What’s More Important?

2011-01-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

We’ve all heard the old question, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” When it comes to creating a successful website, it’s easy to get bogged down by a similar issue; specifically, is it more important to create an amazing-looking website that dazzles visitors and is easy to navigate or is implementing SEO the most valuable use of time? If you want your website to be a success, it’s necessary to find the ideal balance between these two very different elements so your site is findable and engages visitors and converts them to buyers (or, whatever else it is you’re trying to accomplish with your website).

Another old adage comes to mind surrounding the SEO vs. usability debate: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” In other words, you could have the greatest website in the world, but if no one is able to find it, it may as well not exist. Therefore, it is very important to optimize your site with the use of keywords, links and quality content so it can be easily found when someone performs a search.

While there’s no denying the importance of getting your site to rank at the top of search results, it’s essential to make sure once users find your site, they will want to stay there. Having a well-structured, easy-to-navigate site is crucial in being able to convert visitors into consumers of your brand or product. Now that you have people in the forest to hear the tree fall, so to speak, you have to make sure your website will make them want to stick around.

Even though it can be a delicate balancing act to get SEO and usability to work well together, by following a few tips, you will get started down the right path. For one thing, these two components of your site should be weighed equally from the very beginning of the creation of your website. At the outset, if your SEO and design teams are considered equally important and work well together, you will be saving yourself from a lot of problems down the road. Also, at certain times, SEO will need to take top priority over usability and vice versa, so the ability to recognize this fact and make adjustments as time goes by will be key to your continued success. It takes careful planning to please both your human visitors and search engine spiders and with some experimentation, you will be able to accomplish this goal!

Are You Doing Anything to Build a Good Online Reputation?

2011-01-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you Googled your name to see what others were saying about you online? If you haven’t done this in a while, it is a must to determine what others have to say about you or your business. Being aware of your reputation and then taking proactive steps to cultivate it is essential to your success. Even if you find that nothing has been said, this indicates you have a lack of reputation, which is not a good thing. Make 2011 the year you take control of your reputation and take active steps to ensure that when people Google you, only the positives emerge.

Actively Engage in Social Media

This point has been pounded into the ground but it really is that important. You must be proactive and set up a Twitter, Facebook and other profiles, for if you don’t, in time, others will and it most likely will not be complimentary. You really don’t want your Internet presence to be hijacked by someone who, for one reason or another, may harbor a grudge against your company. So, if you have yet to do so, the first step to take is to create social media accounts so you can control the message that’s being communicated online about your company.

Monitor What is Being Said and Respond Thoughtfully

Now that you have entered into the social arena online, it is crucial to actively listen to what is being said and, before responding to any criticism or complaints, to take plenty of time to research what happened and why. You should put twice as much effort into reading and analyzing what is being said as you do into responding to it. By taking ample time to simple “listen” to everything that’s being said, you will be able to determine the underlying issues surrounding a particular problem and come up with a solution that will bode well for the long term.

Analyze Your Weaknesses and Formulate a Plan of Action

Perhaps you have discovered a huge mistake your business recently made (it happens!) and before news gets out about your error, you need to address it online. Don’t ever try to hide anything, for your customers will find out one way or another and it is best if it is from you. By acknowledging your weakness and being upfront, you are establishing yourself as an honest and accountable enterprise that truly cares about its clientele and is willing to admit to its shortcomings. This openness and honesty is key in your being able to build a good reputation and although it may be a bit difficult, it is worth the payoff.

The key takeaway here is you must invest time and effort into building a reputation built on honesty, transparency and accountability. The masses can either sing your praises or they can destroy your brand—it is up to turn the tide in your favor. Your willingness to face customer complaints head-on and not letting stubbornness or pride lead you to make rash decisions are your biggest assets in ensuring your reputation is as good as it can be.

Do Your Homework When Choosing an SEO Company

2010-12-29T17:03:00.001-08:00

If you are an online business owner, investing in search engine optimization (SEO) is an absolute must. There are millions of sites on the Internet and in order to stand out, your site must be designed and formatted in a specific way. This optimization process is very complex with a lot of variables involved, so it is best to go with a professional to ensure that it’s done correctly. Since more and more businesses are deciding to cultivate a web presence, a lot of SEO companies have sprung up in the past couple of years and it is necessary to do your research in order to choose the best one.

The first thing you should ask an SEO company is what kind of tactics they employ. Do they use best business practices and employ “white hat” techniques? You want to work with a company that only uses ethical methods for optimizing your site, otherwise you run the risk of your site being penalized or banned outright.

Another thing to look out for is a company’s willingness to share information with you. Are they willing to answer your questions and explain the processes they use? Or, are they being secretive and evasive about their methods? If it is the latter, you should steer clear, because they are most likely utilizing “black hat” tactics that violate search engines’ rules and regulations and will only end up negatively affecting your site.

Once you feel confident you have found a reputable company, make sure you check out what others have said about them. Do an online search of their company name and see what comes up. You cannot afford to not take this step, for you will gain invaluable insight into what they are really like and if they have any unhappy customers. Although it would be nice to be able to trust a company’s claims, you just never know, so do not neglect to do a little digging.

Keep in mind you will not see results overnight with SEO; rather, it is an ongoing process that is constantly changing and evolving. So, make sure the company you choose isn’t promising you overnight results and request frequent updates. If done right, SEO will yield great dividends and is a worthwhile investment—just be smart about it.

Posted via email from FindYourSearch

How Squidoo Can Boost Your Site’s SEO

2010-12-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

There are tons of social service websites out there, each with its own unique interface and tools to help with link building and online promotion. It is easy to get them confused and to be unclear on what, exactly, these different websites have to offer, especially in terms of search engine optimization. Squidoo is one such site that can positively influence your SEO.

Squidoo consists of a collection of lenses, which are pages on a wide variety of different topics. In order to use Squidoo to your advantage, you need to come up with an appropriate topic pertaining to your area of expertise and write your lens using well thought out and researched keywords. The name of your lens will be reflected in your URL, so take care when naming it to glean the most beneficial ranking results. You can add eye-catching modules to your lens, such as videos, images or infographics, to attract attention to your lens.

Each individual lens is ranked on Squidoo, with a higher ranking earning more visibility, so it is a good idea to take some time to really make sure that your lens looks thorough and professional. Make sure to add a photograph and a biography frequently update your lens and make comments and “favorite” other lens that you find relevant. Once you have created a high-quality, relevant lens, you will then want to promote it through the usual channels of link building, social media and the like. Since Squidoo contains a PageRank of 8, it is a very effective tool for gaining quality links back to any page of your website.

Although it will take some time and effort on your part, Squidoo is worth experimenting with to boost your SEO by attaining free link juice.

Evaluating Your Marketing Plan

2010-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

In today’s economic climate, every edge is important. That’s why you need to make sure your marketing plan is up to speed. It’s a good idea to go over your marketing plan periodically and audit it to ensure your plans and methods match with the overall goals of your organization.

One of the most powerful tools of any marketing campaign is the measurement. Metrics are the most reliable and unbiased way to test the effectiveness of your campaign and any changes you may make. You need to decide exactly what needs measuring and why. If you aren’t sure, you can measure a number of metrics until you determine which are the truly important ones. Then, keep careful track of those metrics and set reasonable goals to improve them.

It is also crucial to ensure your marketing team is being maximized for its effectiveness. Ensure people are being used for their strengths and are motivated to produce their best efforts for your company. People are what make up a company, so you need to fill your company with the best and then make the most of them. That means keeping tabs on the strengths and productivity of your personnel is just as important as tracking the success of your website directly.

Overall, the most important thing to keep in mind with regards to your marketing plan is whether each aspect of your plan is in keeping with your primary company goals. Do your metrics reflect a general trend in the direction of your goals? Are your people all on the same page, whether they be marketers, technicians, or the CEO? Do you have a plan in place to continuously move the company forward? Each of these areas should be evaluated regularly to ensure your company is progressing along the right track.

Targeting Moderate Relevance Keywords in PPC

2010-11-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Much of the job of a search engine marketer is finding the perfect balance between competitiveness and value in keyphrase choice. Much has been said about utilizing the long tail (including by us here at FindYourSearch), and of course most SEO/SEM articles focus on how to rank for and profit from nearly any keywords, including those in high-competition, if you have the time and money and find them worthwhile in terms of return on investment. In PPC, in particular, it is usually accepted that highly targeted, highly relevant terms provide the best ROI. One article contends differently, however.

The basic premise is that, although some level of relevance is necessary (e.g. cat breeders shouldn’t market to people looking for roofing companies), sometimes a bit of cross-marketing can be profitable. For instance, a business just outside a city can profit by marketing to people looking for hotels within the city, as long as certain care is taken. The article outlines three steps.

First, separation of the ad campaigns is essential. Ads targeting the most relevant keywords should not be the same as those going for the less relevant. In fact, you should have a few campaigns of varying specificity going at any one time. This makes tracking much easier and allows you to properly refine the ad copy for the keywords being targeted.

Secondly, the messages of the ad campaigns need to cater to the audiences they target. Less relevant keywords need more qualification. If someone is searching “purebred puppy breeders” it’s impossible to know whether they want to buy puppies or simply research breeders, or what breed of puppy they’re looking for in what location. Therefore, an ad for a dog breeder selling Golden Retriever puppies in Las Vegas needs to specify all that information in the ad to ensure only qualified click-through.

The third and final key is persuasion. Since you are targeting people who are not directly searching for your product, you need to explain the reasons they should choose you. If you’re promoting a hotel just outside an area being searched for, you should express how easy it is to get to the area. That way, you weed out people unwilling to consider something nearby before they click your ad and cost you money.

As you can see, it’s important to be extremely careful with ads targeted for moderate relevance. When proper care is taken, however, it’s possible to get returns even for these terms.

Building an Outstanding Brand

2010-11-03T14:32:00.001-07:00

When you are starting a business or building up an existing brand, you need to make it your goal not to be simply “good,” but to be absolutely amazing. You need to think big, plan big, and design your entire branding strategy around blowing your competition out of the water. As the saying goes, “Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” So how, exactly do you go about this lofty goal? Here a few things to keep in mind as you build your brand.

From Oskay on Flickr

First and foremost, develop a solid core company value and belief system. Far more important than logo and design (and foundational to them) is the core driving force behind your company. Once these are established, the rest flows more naturally. Not only that, but the people working on other aspects of the company will be encouraged to protect the brand on a deeper level than simply following color and style guides.

Once you have a core value system, you can be bold with your vision. Put aside your fears and dream big. Don’t just dream big, however -- act big. When you embark on a marketing campaign, you need to put forth a message of confidence through every channel you choose. This doesn’t mean you should pour every dollar you can access into your every campaign until your business has been bled dry; it does mean that whatever avenue you choose to pursue should be done with gusto and confidence.

Finally, don’t be afraid to be strict with how your brand image is being handled when it is in your control to do so. Don’t let people off the hook with “good enough” when it’s your business that’s being represented. Make sure everyone working for you puts forth only their very best efforts.

These suggestions only just scratch the surface of the intricacies of brand management, but they should give you a beginning from which to start building a truly outstanding brand. Let FindYourSearch partner with you in getting that brand more exposure and helping you find success!

3 Common Types of Link Bait

2010-10-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

When you're working on SEO for your site, you'll quickly learn that the most important step is link building. Once you have the basics in place for on-site SEO -- proper title tags, keyword optimized content, and so on -- you'll begin the process of building links. The more influential the site you are linked from, the more value the link will provide. One link from the front page of CNN.com would be worth more than a considerable chunk of links built from commenting around on various small do-follow blogs. The trouble is, you can't plant links on CNN.com or other major sites yourself; they have to want to link to you. So, what can you do to encourage this?

The key is to create content others want to link to, aka link bait. The higher quality of content you create, the more likely people will be to share it with others, first through social media, but eventually by creating content of their own linking to you. Link bait is content developed specifically to attract links. Infographics, "how to" guides, and "best of" lists are some of the most frequently shared content on the Web, and so are often created as link bait.

Infographics are particularly popular at the moment (so much so, I believe the market is nearing saturation, so be careful). These are visually pleasing representations of data. They're a step above charts and graphs, usually incorporating cartoon-like characters, silhouettes, or vector art scenery. They must be both pleasing to look at and contain accurate, interesting data which is clarified by the visual enhancements.

"How to" guides answer the obvious, often in steps. How do I build a website? How do I build a deck? People will always need instructions, and "how to" or "how do I" are common phrasings for this style of query. Just don't stick a question mark at the end of "How to build a website" -- that's just a statement. The question form of this phrase is "How do I build a website?" or "Are you wondering how to build a website?"

Finally, "best of" lists are another common form of link bait. You might collect a group of the funniest cat pictures from I Can Has Cheezburger, the most useful SEO tools on the Web, or the most valuable marketers to follow on Twitter. There is a lot of content online, and people are constantly looking for quick and easy distillations of their favorite subjects to help them quickly digest top quality content.

From Talking-Cats.com

Just because this kind of content is often created with link baiting in mind doesn't mean it loses its value. If you do real work to find your top list of funny cat pictures or create the best how-to guide you're able, you are providing a service to your readers, old and new. As long as your link bait is high quality, relevant to the rest of your content, and interspersed with other articles less obviously "link baity," your readers will appreciate your efforts, and you'll be inviting backlinks.

SEO: The Essential Blueprint of Any Website

2010-10-05T15:17:00.001-07:00

There really is no overstating SEO’s crucial importance in a website’s overall effectiveness and success. Just as you would not rush into building a house without first having a clear plan and blueprint in place, you shouldn’t start building your site without a plan in place. Before you buy that domain or start debating the aesthetics of your page, you need to tackle the “nuts and bolts” of your site so that it will operate optimally.

(Image from Peg Syverson)

The foundation of any website, no matter the industry, lies in SEO. It is crucial you take the time to research the terms that people are searching so that you can formulate a list of keywords you can build into your site from the get-go. Implanting these terms is a vital step that must be taken, the same way that it is imperative to build a strong, lasting foundation when building a house.

Once you have taken the time to lay out the necessary groundwork, it is then time to address the structure of your website. You need to decide upon the levels of navigation you want to present to the viewer, keeping in mind it is integral to present just the right amount of information. You don’t want your visitors to be underwhelmed, yet care needs to be taken to make sure that they aren’t overloaded, either. It is also essential to structure your site in a way that is logical so that visitors can follow a path through the sales process.

Just remember: building your site is a lot like building a house. If you were building a house, you certainly wouldn’t go off, willy-nilly, building aimlessly with no clear plan in place. By the same token, you need to approach the website building process in the same manner. Take your time to do the research and planning and you will be well on your way to success!

Don’t Forget About the Images

2010-09-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

As important as it is to optimize your website’s written content, your website contains more than text. As such, it’s also vitally important to remember to optimize your images as well.

Search engines view Web pages as a series of text and code only; they do not “see” images like we do. When using images on your site, it is important to take time to optimize them so the search engines recognize and index them.

One extremely simple, yet amazingly effective, step is to give your image a relevant name, even using a keyword if possible. While it is crucial to not use a generic, meaningless name, such as ‘photo 1’, you must not stuff in too many keywords, either, as your craftiness will be recognized by the search engines. Just be sure the name you choose is relevant to the image and not overly long, and you should be fine. It’s also a good idea to replace any spaces in the title of your images with dashes.

HTML tags are another great feature that can be adjusted to increase your image SEO. By adding keywords into the tags for your title (the words that pop up when your mouse hovers over an image) and alt text (the text that is displayed when an image cannot be displayed), you’ll be strengthening your site for those phrases. As always, don’t be spammy about it - the search engines will catch on and it will be useless to any visually-impaired users who rely on those tags to experience your content.

Although these steps are very simple to carry out, they are massively effective and the necessary time should be taken to ensure that your images are optimized. You will be amazed by the results!

Foursquare: The Ball is in Your Court!

2010-09-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Since its launch in March 2009, Foursquare has been able to reach one million users in just over a year of existence. The phenomenon of location based social check-in is poised to forever change the way businesses and consumers interact with one another. This leading player in the space is being called the Twitter of 2010. With its game-like quality, it encourages users to explore their neighborhoods with their smartphones by offering rewards and incentives for people who “check in” to various places of business. These rewards can range from simple Foursquare badges to actual coupons, specials, and interactive contests and promotions. So not only is checking in a fun and easy way for users to share their lives with friends, it also offers them tangible (and intangible) rewards for doing so!

While there is no denying the incentive for the customer to check in, the business also reaps many benefits from participating in this new social media service. It is no secret cell phones are everywhere nowadays; it has become an uncommon experience to see someone NOT using one. There is no denying there is an ample audience for this type of communication and, by recognizing and harnessing the power of social media, a company can use Foursquare to easily and quickly give their businesses a big boost.

By making sure your place of business has an up-to-date presence on Foursquare and encouraging your customers to check in, it is simple to get a good “word-of-mouth” campaign going. In embracing this social media trend, you’ll be able to better directly interact with your customers. In turn, by offering their feedback, the customers are then able to provide you with invaluable information they may have not been able to receive otherwise. It’s truly beneficial to everyone!

Foursquare is ingenious because although it is a social media phenomenon with the addictive quality of a Facebook game, is also an extremely smart and simple way for businesses and consumers to better connect. No matter your industry, you can’t afford to discount the power the Internet has to make or break reputations. As a businesses owner, it’s wise to embrace this new way of communication and use your imagination to see how far you can take it.

Focus on Quality Over Quantity

2010-05-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

If you are just starting out in the blogosphere, you may be tempted to churn out as much content as possible to keep people coming back. Common blogger knowledge dictates that more content encourages return visits. In addition, active sites rank better than stagnant ones; frequent, regular updates train the search engines to crawl your site often. Unfortunately, quantity over quality doesn’t produce stellar articles, and the Web is full of mediocre content that is generated at high speeds. If you want your users to come back, share your content with their friends, blog about you, link to you, and most importantly convert from you, you need to stand out.

If you need figures to back up this presumption, take a look at this blogger, who claims a single, well written page from 2004 has drawn in over $50,000 over time. This content was carefully optimized for both search engines and readers, and continues to pay off even six years later. While writing this type of solid, detailed, helpful article will take more time, it clearly pays off. Creating high-quality content will increase readership and conversion, and that is really the ultimate goal of any blogger. Don’t cut corners; spend the time to generate content that serves your audience, and you may see returns for years to come.

(Image Credit)

Engage on Facebook for Greater Returns

2010-04-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

It can be tempting as a business to create a Facebook page and never visit again, but this ignores the true power of Facebook to market your business and connect with your customers. A recent article on Web.com discusses the importance of engagement with fans in order to build followers and influence. Fans of a business on Facebook are probably some of the most loyal it has, and engaging them will cement this brand loyalty and a positive perception of the business.

So how does one go about engaging fans? Remaining active is the most important thing you can do. Updating regularly is critical, even if these updates are pulled from your Twitter or blog feeds. Be careful the conversation is not one-sided, however. It’s very important to monitor the activity on your page and respond promptly to comments, questions, and complaints. No one likes talking to a brick wall, and that’s exactly what your company will appear to be if you do not respond to viewers. Of course it never hurts to offer incentives for engagement, either, such as contests, free gifts, or discounts for your Facebook followers.

Follow these tips and you’ll no doubt see a marked increase in loyal customers generated from the company Facebook account.

Focus on the Positive to Improve Conversion

2010-04-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last week we posted about how design influences conversion rates, but the question remains: Where do you start the process? You may have taken an honest look at yours or your client’s site and discovered an overwhelming number of things that need fixing. One way to get started is to do as blogger Robert Brady suggests and focus on the positive.

(Image Credit)

It may seem counter-intuitive at first; after all, you want to fix what’s wrong not pat yourself on the back for the good stuff. Although it’s important you learn from mistakes, don’t forget you can learn from successes as well! Brady suggests reviewing your analytics tracking to find out which keywords, referrers, or other traffic sources are working best, then comparing them to what isn’t working. Once you discover what the differences are, you can mold your other content against a working template. After making the first changes, you can again observe which rise above the others and make improvements based on the new information in an iterative process.

This is only a starting point. Eventually you will reach a ceiling, at which point you will need to look outside your site for further possible improvements. However, looking at what already works is an excellent way to begin your conversion improvements.

Guest Blogging Tips

2010-04-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

There is no denying guest blogging as a great way to get your ideas before a wider audience, especially if your own blog is not yet widely known. It’s also a way to put your name and your brand in front of your target community and build lasting relationships. Finally, it gives you a chance to link back to your site, which is great for SEO. Recently, a few folks around the industry have shared their thoughts about guest blogging, including The Blog Herald, Richworks and DKS Systems.

[image credit]

When considering guest posting, first give some thought to your own site. Does it have a lot of entries already, or are you still building up your content base? If the latter, you should probably use every article you write as content on your own site. Assuming your site is solidly packed with content and you do decide to guest post, is it ready for the influx of visitors? You can be assured you will see an increase in traffic to your site as people seek more information about the topic or the person behind the article. Be sure your contact information is up to date, your content has been recently updated, and your design is user-friendly.

As with any form of promotion, you will see results based on the amount of effort you expend. Research your niche for blogs that best suit your target audience base, then spend some time on those blogs getting to know their style and the community which follows each. Leave meaningful, well articulated comments regularly and the editors may recognize you when you make your guest post request. In addition, the community might also recognize you when they see your name or brand in the byline.

Guest posting is a powerful promotion tool when used effectively. Consider spreading your content before a wider audience, but don’t forget the simple tips above.

A Quick Look at Optimizing for YouTube

2010-03-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Do you have videos on YouTube or another video hosting channel? Videos are a great way to engage viewers and build fans, as well as provide links back to your company. However, with millions of videos already posted, how can you make sure yours gets found? SEOptimize has published a great guide for optimizing your YouTube videos. Their checklist of ten steps can help ensure your video gets the best possible exposure.

Writing descriptive titles and relevant tags is perhaps the most basic step in video SEO. As with blog posts and site titles, careful crafting and keyword inclusion is a must. Internal linking, important in any campaign, can be achieved on YouTube through video responses and playlists. Link out to your main Web site through the video description, and don't forget to build external links as you would in any campaign. Comments and ratings are another important factor, so consider adding an annotation reminding users to leave their feedback. Finally, perhaps the most frequently forgotten step when posting a video is to remember YouTube isn't the only online video hosting service; don't forget to post to various places like Google and MySpace.

Be sure and check out the original article for more in-depth information about each of these steps, and remember to treat your YouTube channel with as much care as any other site in your SEO campaign.

Optimizing for the Long Tail - A Brief Overview

2010-03-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

While it can be tempting for the SEO to focus on a few primary or “trophy” keywords, this ignores a significant chunk of all keyword referrals known as the long tail. The long tail is made up of those key phrases that are only searched a few times, but collectively make up a significant portion of searches.

Those trailing keywords, which can be thousands or tens of thousands strong, are actually responsible for far more traffic than the head keywords because of their sheer numbers. Bill Tancer of Hitwise concluded they make up nearly 90 percent of search traffic.

Clearly, the long tail should not be ignored in optimization. Should an SEO attempt to focus on thousands of individual keywords? Returns diminish quickly when optimizing for too many keywords. Even a thousand is too many to effectively cover, but according to Tancer’s research, even the top 10,000 keywords only bring in 18.5 percent of searches. So what is an SEO to do?

The key is to focus on keyword groups. By targeting one primary keyword and its variants per page, that page can be optimized for thousands of related tail keywords all at once.

Start by carefully planning the site with keyword grouping in mind. Mark Nunny of Wordtracker suggests categories as a great way to build around primary keywords. Each category then targets a specific primary and secondary keyword. Write a long article (1,000+ words is suggested) focusing on each of these keywords and their variants, and the tail keywords will appear naturally in the copy. Be sure to put the primary and secondary keywords in prominent locations such as the page title, headlines, and links.

By targeting the long tail, you probably won’t rank first for any trophy keywords. You will, however, gain access to considerably more potential customers through a broader variety of searches.

[image credit]

Marketing and SEO with Google Squared

2010-02-02T10:18:00.001-08:00

Nearly nine months ago, Google Labs released Google Squared. Rather than displaying a list of correlating websites in the usual fashion, Google Squared combs the Web and attempts to display relevant information in tabular form, organizing that information according to item, image, description, and a number of item-specific headings. For example, a search for “roller coasters” returns the following square, with capacity, height, and speed as the additional fields:

Google Squared has particular value for product comparison searches - just search “iPod” or “digital camera” to see what I mean. Prices, capacity, and video playback values are all displayed side by side from across the Web. Due to this exceptional potential for product comparison, product websites should pay special attention to further developments in Google Squared.

Optimizing for Google Squared should be much like optimizing for regular Google queries. Attention to semantic layout would appear to be of paramount importance so Squared can easily discern the relevant information and categories to include for a user query. Content, as always, is king and should be treated with particular care. It is unclear as yet if or how inclusion in Google Base, Google’s structured online database, will impact ranking on Google Squared, though it certainly can’t hurt. Rich Snippets, a type of microformatting technology introduced by Google last May, could also play a role.

Google Squared is by no means perfect, reflecting its status as a Labs project. Included columns and rows are not always relevant, nor are they always populated. The displayed data itself is only as accurate as the source from which it is pulled. Sometimes, the results themselves are downright strange. Searching for “Persian cat” seemed to include intelligent data about every feline breed except Persians -- although “Persian kittens” was included some distance down the page, with descriptive data not about the breed, but about breeders and distributors of Persian kittens.

One important feature of Google Squared is its ability to accept and adapt instantly to user feedback. Rows or columns can be added and deleted dynamically, and a completed square can be saved for future viewing. The “Persian cat” query resulted in only one additional column, “eye color,” besides the three default, so I imagined that I had been searching for a comparative display of cat breeds and added “fur type” and “temperament.” Squared found relevant possible values for the majority of breeds it listed, though it required me to select the best choice for each before displaying it in my square. Despite requiring this further user interaction, Squared provided me with a way to compare cat breed data much more quickly than if I had compiled it myself.

Google is not terribly clear on exactly how Google Squared functions. Still, it is safe to say that Google still reads pages based on their semantics and SEO-friendly content. When adding my columns to the cat search, the values I was presented to choose from were essentially highly specified keyword search results, as though I had typed in something along the lines of “Burmese cat temperament” into a normal Google search. In fact, selecting “search for more values” opens a normal search results page with “Burmese Temperament” as the query.

Google is legendary for its long beta times, but the smart SEO will keep an eye on Google Squared long before it leaves the Labs. While its specialized, comparative nature makes it unlikely to replace traditional search even once perfected, Google Squared provides another window into the increasingly complex, ever growing Web.

Posted via web from findyoursearch's posterous

An Opinion on Personalized Search

2010-01-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

Google announced Personalized Searches for everyone on their official blog on the 4th of December. What does this mean for web searching? At first it sounds pretty awesome for all your searching needs, but will it actually be awesome when it’s fully implemented? This reminds me of the suggested search function from Amazon when you’re looking for items on the site. Unfortunately more often than not it will come up with items that are not what I’m looking for or worse yet, items I’ve been warned against for being inferior or bad products. Now if that doesn’t work for Amazon, how will this work for web searching? I can’t honestly see it working well because it will start filtering things I might be looking for but can’t find the perfect search words.

On the other hand this could come in handy for SEO sites like FindYourSearch, because if I’m looking for say, “New York Style Pizza” and Google already knows that I look for businesses in the San Diego area they might just show me results in my area. This sounds cool as less keywords are needed to find what I’m looking for but “New York style pizza in San Diego” isn’t that much longer. This sounds more like a tool that will benefit the lazy more than really save the average user much time.

All Google needs according to their help page on Personalized Search: Basics is the use of an anonymous cookie that will keep your search history information up to 180 days. Now that sounds pretty easy to deal with because most people don’t clear out their cookies on a regular basis. Don’t forget with multiple people using the same computer your results will get skewed by other people’s searches.

At the end of the day I feel that this can be a good or bad thing depending on how you’re looking at it. On the SEO company side it can make things a lot easier as less keywords will be needed to return the desired search results. At the same time that can also make it harder as less keywords being needed means more sites will be fighting for the first page with the same keywords which means there will be need for changes in the way sites come up. On the user side this means they will be less likely to explore other sites meaning less diversity on their end which can get very annoying, for example; when you’re looking for different prices for the same object or similar objects. For things like recipes, tutorials, how-to guides, etc this could be really nice as typically I myself prefer to use the same sites for that because they typically are written in the same fashion when from one site but for other searches I can see this being more annoying than helpful.

Happy Holidays from FindYourSearch!

2009-12-24T12:05:00.001-08:00

We're working hard here at FindYourSearch on Christmas Eve to make sure all of our clients stay happy, but we wanted to take a little bit of time out just to wish everyone happy holidays!

No matter how you celebrate during this time of year, make sure to have some fun and relax.It's important to remember to take time out every once in a while to enjoy yourself. We'll be doing that later today at the Christmas party, and hopefully you find your own way to enjoying yourself during these festive times.

Posted via web from findyoursearch's posterous