What Your SEO Strategist Won't Tell You

Maybe you own your own business, or perhaps you're a critical cog in the corporate machinery responsible for marketing your company, brand, product or service. If that describes you, here's eighteen things you need to know about Web-marketing but were afraid to believe.

1. Time To Be Heard
Your mother told you 'children should be seen and not heard,' but you're not a kid anymore. So why are you listening to all those guys telling you not to use audio on your website. If you want to deliver a lot of content that people will remember, try letting your website do the talking.

2. There's Nothing Like the Real Thing
In a world of virtual everything there's nothing like the real thing. The sound and image of real people delivering your marketing message makes it a believable, memorable presentation.

3. Unlock the Conventional Wisdom Straightjacket
Driving traffíc to your site is great, if those visitors stay long enough to find out why they should be doing business with you. If your website traffíc is leaving as fast as it's arriving, maybe search engine optimization isn't the answer you've been looking for.

4. Linking Your Way To Obscurity
You know the reciprocal linking strategy everyone is talking about as a way to generate leads? Did you ever consider that each link to another website is an invitation to leave your site? Is that really what you want - to invite people to leave? I think not!

5. Your Company's Voice Is It's Personality
Give your company a professional voice, with a finely crafted scrípt delivered by a professional voice-over announcer that presents a compelling, memorable marketing message and a unique brand personality. Or do it yourself and sound like an amateur. The choice is yours.

6. Addressing Ass-backwards Priorities
If your website design firm is twisting your marketing message out of shape to conform to the technical 'technique du jour' that only looks good in one popular browser, then you hired the wrong guys. It's not about technology; it's about communication.

7. Text-Ads Are Dead. Long Live Web-Video
Squeezing your marketing message into a pay-per-click text-ad is like trying to attract leads using one of those newspaper real estate ads where every word needs to be decoded. Start communicating with a Web-video that tells a story - your story.

8. Nobody Ever Bored Anybody Into Buying
The vast majority of website text is boring, unimaginative and self-promoting. If you don't present a compelling focused story then you are just wasting peoples' time. Seduce your audience with an informative, entertaining, and memorable presentation created by marketing professionals.

9. Too Much of Good Thing, Isn't So Good
You were worried about load times and search engine optimization so you dumped most of your images and multimedia and proceeded to put enough text on your site that would take a month to study; but have you considered whether anybody is ever going to actually read that stuff? And that's assuming people could ever find what they were looking for in the first place.

10. Stop Hiding Behind Your Email Address
You've got a killer website. It tells visitors everything. All they have to do is place an order. But wait � somebody has a question. So they go to your contact page and find an email address. No contact name. No address and no telephone number. You've provided a Q&A, an FAQ, and a líst of technical specs. What more do they want? Well, what they want is to talk to somebody to make sure you're legit and if they have a problem that you'll stand behind what you're selling. Silly them.

11. Do You Suffer From Redundant Redux Reflux?
Search engines love content. They index all your text, searching for keywords and phrases. So what do you do? You repeat and repeat stuff, over and over to make sure the search engines understand what you're all about. To bad all your Web-visitors get indigestion from reading your redundant copy and leave because they forgot why they were there.

12. Inform. Enlighten. Persuade.
Knowledge is today's high-value commodity. If you have a set of skills that people want to acquire, then you've got something to sell: something to build a business around. But if you don't know how to present that knowledge to an audience, then your skills are unmarketable. If you want to get paid for what you know, you better find out how to deliver your content.

13. It's Not About Numbers; It's About Quality
It's not the number of hits you get on your website, it's how long visitors stay on your site and how much information they retain after they leave that counts. It's about the quality of traffíc not the quantity. And the best way to create quality traffíc is to provide easy to find, easy to understand, easy to remember content.

14. Don't Play Constant S.E.O. Catch-up
Every time an S.E.O. whiz kid comes up with a trick to beat the search engine algorithms, the experts at the search engines change their criteria. This means you're constantly playing S.E.O. catch-up. Good for the whiz kid, not so good for you. And have you ever wondered how all those search engine optimizers can guarantëe you, and everybody else they are selling, top billing - kind of hard to believe isn't it?

15. Show Me What To Do
Anybody who has ever spent the night before Christmas trying to decipher the arcane instructions provided by the manufacturer of the bicycle you bought your kid, or the bizarre graphics included with the do-it-yourself kitchen you bought from 'you know who', knows that there is nothing like a good video to explain how Part A actually does fit into Part B.

16. Even Cows Have Brands
If you've got a business, you've got a brand. We're not just talking about a logo. We're talking about every thing you do: your website, your print collaterals, everything, including how you answer the telephone. You do answer the telephone don't you? If your website design firm doesn't get it, if they aren't creating a brand personality, what are they doing?

17. Lost In Space
Ever go to one of those websites that's impossible to navigate. Maybe the navigation system doesn't work in your favorite browser, or maybe the navigation system is so confusing visitors get lost in cyber-content-hell. Information architecture, how people find the content they are looking for, is critical to creating a satisfying user experience.

18. You Can Have It Both Ways
Remember when your mother told you, you couldn't have dessert if you didn't finish your broccoli? Sounds like those know-it-all search engine gurus telling you that you can't have multimedia on your site. Well you're a big boy now, and if you want that multimedia hot fudge sundae you can have it. And you can also have all the good-for-you search engine friendly copy too. Who said you couldn't have it both ways?


Thanks to Jerry Bader (Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.)

Search Engine Optimization for the Small Business Owner

You've worked hard to design and develop a website that will promote your products and services to the world. You've spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars to get your site online. But where are the visitors? I mean, you've always heard, "If you build it, they will come."
Why Aren't Customers Lining Up To buy?

That's the largest problem faced by small businesses attempting to do business on the internet. Largër companies have the resources to pay for traffíc. They can advertise on the busiest sites on the net to attract potential customers. They can promote their sites through multiple channels including radio, television, and event sponsorships.

How Can a Small Business with Limited Resources Compete in This Arena?

The best way to drive traffíc to your new website is through the use of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Traffíc from search engines will usually yield higher conversion rates due to its targeted nature. Individuals performing a search for a particular product or service have already demonstrated their motivation to obtain what you have to sell. You just want to be sure you're optimizing for the correct search terms and that you're following all the rules.

Liberal Use of Keywords

You may have heard that on the internet "content is king." This is because search engines can only determine the value of a site based on the textual content within the pages of that site. Search engines can't see pictures or video. (There are methods to assist them to do so, but that's beyond the scope of this article.) To rank highly in the search engines for a particular word or phrase, your selected target phrase should be used throughout the content on your site.

How Often Should You Repeat Your Keywords?

The various search engines operate slightly different in this regard, so it's a little tricky. Here are a few general recommendations to get you started on the right path:

1. Use your selected keyword or phrase near the top of the page. Search engines assume that a site that includes content that begins with a specific keyword should probably rank highly for that term.

2. Use your keyword or phrase in a headline tag (H1, H2 HTML tags). If you aren't familiar with HTML tags, do a web search for HTML tutorials or pick up a book on HTML. Most website editors will allow you to easily define headings. The key here is to use the keyword in a heading to emphasize the fact that your site is targeting that subject. Just be sure not to overdo it. If the word or phrase is repeated too often, some search engines will consider this "keyword stuffing" and penalize or ban your site. You want to be sure to avoid this.

3. Repeat your keyword or phrase within the content of your site. Again, you want to demonstrate that your site is a good resource for the selected topic. You don't want to go overboard. Search engines may think your site content is keyword sp@m and ban you from their listings. A general rule is to maintain a keyword density of around five percent. Keyword density is the term used to refer to the ratio of keywords to total words on a page. For example, if your content was 100 words in length, you would want to have your keyword repeated five times throughout the page. Keep in mind that many search engines can now determine word or phrase variations. To keep your site content interesting, you should probably try to use variations of your keyword. This may actually help to boost your results since your content is less likely to be considered sp@m.

4. Use your keyword or phrase in hyperlinks. Another way to add your chosen keywords to your content is to include them in the links on your page. This includes both inbound (links to other pages within your site) and outbound (links to external sites) links. Using your selected keywords in inbound links helps to emphasize the relationship of your site to your chosen keywords. That's because a link that includes your keywords demonstrates relevance of the site content to the chosen topic.

What Are Some Other Search Engine Optimization Strategies?

Beyond the use of keywords within the content of your site, there are a few other things that must be done to rank highly in search engine results. The most important is to íncrease the number of sites linking into yours. Why is this important? Search engines assume that a site with a higher number of links into it will likely include content of interest to their users.

There several methods for increasing the number of links into your site:

1. You can locate and join forums that are relevant to the content of your site. These forums will usually allow you to sign your entries with your name and website address. This will be counted as a link into your site. Be careful to read the rules of each forum before posting because they are often different. Also be sure to make your postings relevant to the discussion of the forum. Don't sacrifice your online reputation by becoming known for spamming forums. Using this method correctly can actually position you to be viewed as an expert in your chosen field.

2. You can seek out sites with complimentary content and offër to exchange links. This is usually a win-win situation because both sites will benefit from an increased number of links. The drawback is that you're giving up a link from your site. You really want to have more inbound links than outbound since search engines typically have a formula for determining site value that favors higher numbers of inbound links. Outbound links count as deductions from the count of inbound links. They're good for another reason, though. The other site's visitors may locate your site on their links page. This will íncrease traffíc to your site in much the same way that search engines will. And again, these are targeted visitors since they arrived from a site that offers products or services that are similar to your own.

3. You can write articles and publish them to article distribution sites. This is a great way to íncrease traffíc to your site. It can help to position you as an expert on a particular subject, readers that have chosen to visit your site have already been partially qualified (they are interested in what you provide), and one article can potentially provide multiple inbound links. This is because the article can be picked up by many others and used to íncrease content on their own sites. Since you are allowed to include a link to your site in the author details section of the article, your link will be maintained as it is distributed.

4. Another good way to íncrease links into your site is to produce content that visitors will want to share with others. This may include funny stories, comics, funny or informative videos, etc. If you include a way for site visitors to easily link to your site content, they very often will. This is a great way to get large numbers of inbound links quickly. You will also have the positive side effect of increased traffíc from word of mouth that doesn't even depend on the search engines.

As you can see, getting visitors to your site requires some effort. But it is definitely well worth it. Global Internet traffíc is growing rapidly and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Doing a little extra work now to secure your place in this marketplace will be very rewarding for many years to come.


Thanks to Gary Hughes (president of Imparadise LLC, a software development company that specializes in developing custom business software to improve organizational efficiency. He also provides instruction for small business owners to assist them in promoting their products and services on the internet. Small Business Web Solutions)

How Search Engines Work

The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.

Crawler-Based Search Engines

Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found.

If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Human-Powered Directories

A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.

Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.

"Hybrid Search Engines" Or Mixed Results

In the web's early days, it used to be that a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.

The Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine

Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. This is what it means when someone refers to a site being "spidered" or "crawled." The spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such as every month or two, to look for changes.

Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this book is updated with new information.

Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed -- added to the index -- it is not available to those searching with the search engine.

Search engine software is the third part of a search engine. This is the program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant. You can learn more about how search engine software ranks web pages on the aptly-named How Search Engines Rank Web Pages page.

Major Search Engines: The Same, But Different

All crawler-based search engines have the basic parts described above, but there are differences in how these parts are tuned. That is why the same search on different search engines often produces different results. Some of the significant differences between the major crawler-based search engines are summarized on the Search Engine Features Page. Information on this page has been drawn from the help pages of each search engine, along with knowledge gained from articles, reviews, books, independent research, tips from others and additional information received directly from the various search engines.

Now let's look more about how crawler-based search engine rank the listings that they gather.

Thanks to Danny Sullivan (Editor-In-Chief Searchenginewatch.com)