HFTB Marketing Blog

Are you optimizing crap? And if so, how optimal do you expect crap can get?

David Meerman Scott points out that search engine optimization (SEO) without good website content is like optimizing crap. In his recent post, “Visualizing Crap,” David goes on to show an interesting visual created by Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Marketing Blog of the crap creation process. I’m including it below.

What’s interesting to me about the idea of optimizing a site that doesn’t provide stellar or exceptional content is that the practice is so prevalent.

So what accounts for the need for optimal crap?

For one thing, it’s easier to optimize a shoddy existing site than it is to go back, take a hard look and sink the money into developing great content and revising the existing site (or starting from scratch). It’s easier to bring in an SEO expert/firm and pay him/her/them to wave their magic wands and… voila, your crap is more findable. Congratulations.

I would make the case, and often do to those that at least are polite enough to feign interest, that SCO should preempt SEO.

What’s SCO?

Site Content Optimization (SCO). Not only does SCO come before SEO from an alphabetical perspective, it is also frankly, more important.

This is the point at which the SEO geeks stand up and throw out the “if you’re not indexable it doesn’t matter how good your content is,” excuse the term… crap.

This is partially true. But the interesting thing about good content is that it tends to get found. And assuming that a business has had some success selling its products or services to some market, there is a good chance that their content, if compellingly SCOed, will reach that market. That’s the beauty of the Internet; Google does a pretty good job of sniffing out the relevant content.

So in honor of all those that have ramped up the crap assembly line as so ably illustrated by Mark Smiciklas and further distributed by David Meerman Scott, let’s start hyping SCO – at least as a precursor to SEO.

Funny thing is, if you give SCO an honest go, you’re half way there with your SEO anyway.

After all, the world could use less crap… particularly the findable sort. Personally, I prefer my crap unfound.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

SEO David Meerman Scott, Good Job, Sco, search engine optimization, Search Optimization, Seo Optimization, Site Optimization, Website Content

It'll make sense by the end of the post

Now that we’ve seen where to start with keyword research and that crazy, some may even say zany, Latent Semantic Indexing stuff, let’s take a look at one great way to use some of those keywords.

A Rose By Any Other Name…

Titles matter… they just do. I’m not talking about your Uncle Rico who insists on referring to everyone as “chief” or “boss.” No, the titles we’re talking about are a little less smarmy.

We’ll concern ourselves with page titles… web page titles in fact. A title is the little phrase that comes up in the upper left-hand corner of your browser window when you land on a web page. Take a look at the example below.

So what’s the big deal about titles?

Imagine walking into your next mixer, networking event, or other non-descript glad-handing session, and instead of filling out your name tag with your God given name, you simply leave it blank. When I see this, my first inclination is to fill in the blank with a host of colorful monikers – some of which might be accurate, some not so much.

Indeed, we all need a title. And while your name might not tell others what you are about, the title tags on your site pages do.

With this in mind, how should you choose those all important title tags? Glad you asked.

Remember the keyword research you did in tip #1. Shameless deep-linking opportunities aside, revisit your keywords on each page and select the keyword or keyword phrase that really describes the page content best. That’s your title.

Each page title should be different according to the content on the page. According to those who presumably know this stuff, optimal title length is about 65 characters including spaces. Primarily, this is so your title will fit in the limited space it has in the upper left hand corner of your browser window.

Also, don’t bother with stop words.  What are stop words?  The common little words that join parts of speech but add little (guess that depends on the context, but go with me on this one).  So you can leave out words like “the, to, and, from.”  They don’t add anything in this case and Google just ignores them. You want to use all of your 65 characters to add search value to your title.

How do you add a page title?

Couple of ways. If you’re using a WYSIWYG editor, there should be a menu option to add the HTML code to your page. Dreamweaver makes this really easy with a “title” field right in the user interface.

If you want to add the code yourself, no problem. Just cut and paste the following between the <head> </head> tags.

<title>Page title goes here</title>

Seems like an insignificant little tactic, but it can be extremely powerful in telling Google what your site pages are really about.

Here’s the Camaro part

One warning. As with keywords, just because you tell Google your page is about a certain topic, doesn’t mean Google believes you. You have to have the content to prove that your page supports that page title or keyword.

So if your site is about cars, and you use your keyword ninja skills to deduce that the top car keyword search term is “bitchen Camaro,” but not only is your Camaro really not all that bitchen, but you don’t even have a Camaro, bitchen or not, on your page… you might want to reconsider titling the page “Bitchen Camaro.”

Instead, think about using a term that actually appears on the page fairly frequently (aka, keyword density). Maybe “crappy Firebird” or “explosive Pinto” or “must-have-a-bad-mustache-to-drive-Corvette.” You get the idea.


Image by dave_7 courtesy of flickr Creative Commons

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

SEO Keyword Phrase, Keyword Research, Page Content, SEO, Small Businesses, Title Tags, Web Page Titles

So we’ve learned the importance of keyword research in the first DIY SEO tip. You’re now a master at keyword research, spitting out long-tails in website meetings at a moment’s notice.

Then the jackass new guy sitting across from you asks, “what about Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)?”

OK… maybe he doesn’t go parenthetical, but you get the point.

Never fear, Latent Semantic Indexing is one of those names made up to make people sound a lot smarter than they are. Google describes it a lot better in their keyword tool – additional keywords to consider.

The idea is that keywords lead to other keywords – or themes.

Additional Keywords to Consider – Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)

Just think of Latent Semantic Indexing as keyword synonyms that Google expects to find on web pages relevant to certain subjects.

In other words, if you have a web page about log cabins, Google might tell you that in addition to its keyword recommendations, there are additional keywords you might want to consider. I don’t know, maybe “syrup” or “Grizzly Adams.” Words that Google would expect to find on a page relevant to log cabins.

What’s more, Google also tells us, in an actual parenthetical (unlike the new guy in the intro), that the additional words are “sorted by relevance.” This is really important, so make sure you understand what Google is really saying.

The additional keywords are listed in order by level, or rank, of relevance. The most relevant additional keywords are listed first. Least relevant, last.

So what does this mean for you? Use some of these highly relevant additional keywords in your site content. Google thinks they should be there. If they make sense for your page content, make sure you weave them into your copy.

Show Me How

First, go to Google Keyword Tool.

You’ll see a description of the tool and then a couple options on how you’d like to generate your keyword ideas. Select “Descriptive words or phrases” to start.

Assuming you have generated your list of keywords as we discussed in the keyword research post, you’re ready to generate your additional keywords. Make sure “Use synonyms” is checked and enter you keyword into the box.

Fill out the Captcha below the box and click the “Get keyword ideas” button.

When Google returns the keywords list, scroll down until you see the next group of words. It will say, “Additional keywords to consider.” This is where you find your LSI words. And remember, Google tells us they are sorted by relevance. So the words at the top are the most likely to be found on a page relevant to your keyword search term… according to Google.

Take a look at the top words and grab those that make sense for your site content. You’ll want to make sure you incorporate some or all of these words.

See… definitely not as hard as the name would suggest.  And now you’re ready to answer the new guy about LSI in your next web meeting.  And might not be a bad idea to bring up some of his “latent” behaviors at the same time.

Look for the next DIY SEO tip post on effective page titles next week.

Image by Balaji Dutt Courtesy of flickr Creative Commons

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

SEO Google, Keyword Ideas, Keyword Tool, Latent Semantic Indexing, Lsi, Page Content, Relevance, SEO, Small Businesses, Synonyms, Web Page, Web Pages

Small Business DIY SEO – Simple SEO Tactics Most Small Businesses Forget (Tip #1)

When I talk to smaller companies about their websites and optimization, it is easy to understand how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) gets swept under the rug.

First, there is a perception that it is complex and time consuming.

Well… it can be. But there are definitely things that can be done quickly that will really benefit the site.

The following series of posts on DIY SEO for small businesses will start with the basics. Most of the tips can be accomplished in an afternoon.

Tip #1 – Keyword research

To put it simply, keyword research sets up your entire website presence. Without knowing the online market, competition and relevant keywords for your business, you can waste a lot of time.

One common mistake in SEO is assuming you know how people are searching for your product or service. Remember that optimizing keywords is just the first step. The other side of the equation is conversion. Assuming you know the keywords to optimize for may lead to high rankings for terms that don’t convert.

In other words, you may be telling people you sell apples when you’re all about oranges. You might have the best pitch in the world for apples, but guess what… all the clever copy in the world isn’t going to convince an apple shopper that you’re orange is red, crisp and makes a nice pie.

Conversion starts with the right keywords. People want to know what they can expect on your site.

What the Hell Do We Do at This Company Anyway?

So how do you start with keyword research?

First, revisit your company’s mission. Understand what it is you actually do.

This might sound simplistic. It isn’t. You need to identify the market niche that your company competes in. Once you have the overall market and the word or phrase (preferably one word or phrase) to describe it, then you can drill down.

But don’t neglect identifying your niche. One key component of keyword research is drilling down from your macro-niche to find micro-niches in which you can differentiate from your competitors. Your business probably already differentiates in some way. Now use that differentiator to rank high on micro-niche keywords through your research.

Fee or Free?

Next, you have a choice to make – fee or free?

There are numerous free keyword tools out there, and to start out, not a bad idea to explore these first.

Not surprisingly, Google has perhaps the best. Two that I recommend are:

Google Keyword Tool
Google Search-base Keyword Tool

There are great video tutorials for both… just follow the links. Google makes it really easy to use these powerful tools.

Just because there are some great free tools out there, don’t assume that the pay-for-play tools aren’t worth the cash. They can be. And often will save you a lot of time for a small fee.

Two of the best are Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. Once again, these tools are easy to use and can expedite the keyword process enormously.

One other keyword tool, or keyword application in this case, that caters more to small businesses is a tool called Market Samurai. The great thing about Market Samurai is the tutorial content available. Not only do the tutorials provide detailed use instruction, Market Samurai actually provides extremely helpful content on Internet marketing in general.

The application is the product of Noble Samurai, a company that specializes in Internet marketing. And although the sales pitch comes on a little strong, the tool can be extremely useful and is certainly a time saver. What’s more, it’s less expensive than both Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery.

Now Get Started

Keywords truly are THE PLACE to start your SEO efforts. Content, while not the topic of this post, should flow from your keywords… not the other way around.

This idea is counter-intuitive to some. But think about it. Keywords are really what your content should be about at its core. So it makes sense to start with the keywords for each page and develop content around those terms and phrases.

Once you have your keywords, you can start to focus on the next tip for DIY SEO – the all important page titles. Look for Tip #2 in the next few days.

Post Link List

Google Keyword Tool
Google Search-base Keyword Tool
Wordtracker
Keyword Discovery
Market Samurai

Image by cambodia4kidsorg courtesy of flickr Creative Commons

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

SEO Conversion, Market Niche, Optimization Seo, Relevant Keywords, search engine optimization, Search Optimization, Small Business, Small Businesses, Website Presence

Image by AirMe

No such thing as a free lunch?

How about, no such thing as a free link.

Christopher Ross publishes a web design and marketing blog I read and comment on frequently. The blog has a lot of useful content, including tips, how to lists and recommendations for online marketing and site/blog design. In fact, I list it on my blog roll here.

One of the tactics Christopher has used to drive comments on posts is a free page rank 5 link from his site to the top 10 commenters – by number of posts. Interesting idea. Incent visitors to comment – those that comment drive traffic – both his site and his top commenter’s sites’ page ranks go up as a result.

Only one small problem. There was no subjective measure of a post’s worth. And as a result, many virtual spammers (my words, not his) climbed to the top of the top 10 commenter’s list. Comments soon became more about quantity than quality. Those looking to grab a spot in the top 10 barraged the blog with short comments that best case had little to do with the post, and worst case were completely devoid of any type of thought about the topic at hand.

So Christopher made the tough call of taking down the backlink incentive.

The reaction – entitlement.

For some reason, people had come to believe they were entitled to the links – regardless of the quality of their contribution.

As a frequent contributor, but someone who never scratched the top 10 list, it seemed a reasonable thing to do. After all, a comment that actually contributed to the topic of the post was less valuable under the old system than a quick and dirty comment posted to get into the top 10. The assumption being that more comments were better than quality comments.

So I wasn’t really that surprised when the practice was dropped.

The same cannot be said for many of the other visitors to the site. Christopher actually chose to address the issue in a post following a number of emails and posts from commenters who felt they had a right to their links. They had grown accustomed to getting the links, regardless of their contributions to the blog community.

In other words – they felt entitled.

To me, entitlement is lazy. It fosters a belief that no matter what happens, you deserve whatever benefit, right or privilege you currently have (or think you should have).

In business, entitlement is deadly. And from a marketers perspective, will almost certainly lead to the loss of sales, clients or your business.

So how do you fight the entitlement urge?

Constantly deliver value. Whether it be new and better products or services, impeccable customer service, or relevant and valuable web content, the idea that you have to earn your clients and their continued business every day is a hallmark of a successful and enduring company.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Links, Marketing, SEO content, customer relationships, linking strategy, links, Online marketing