Posts Tagged ‘Keyword density’

5 Myths Of Online Marketing – Part 2

By: Ryan Freeman

We’re back for part two of the list I began yesterday [link to first post], talking about our Top 5 Online Marketing Myths.

3. Search Engines Are Your Friend

clip_image002Myth: Search engines are the best thing to happen to business owners – cancel all other advertising!

Background: Many business owners think that search engines exist to promote the interests of website owners by providing a steady stream of traffic. They view search engines as the saviour of small businesses – a reliable source of endless free business leads.

Fact: A search engine’s only responsibility is to the user – not the website owner. As above, search engines live and die on their ability to provide the most relevant results to a user, thereby creating loyalty and trust in the user. If the results are not relevant, the user might switch to a different engine (just ask Yahoo! how that works).

Best Practice: Enjoy the traffic you get from the search engines, and keep working to maintain or increase the flow of leads. Seek to diversify your traffic sources. Remember that a search engine has no loyalty or responsibility to you, so the moment your competitors position themselves as being more relevant, they will get your traffic. Don’t become complacent or you will lose market share – and the search engines will offer no sympathy or comfort.

4. Meta Tags Are The Secret Sauce

Myth: If I cram the right keywords into meta tags often enough into the pages of my site, I will rank higher in the search results.clip_image004

Background: Like keyword density, this fable keeps hanging around, likely because it, too, offers a simple and easy solution to the complex problem of search rankings. A decade or more ago, search engines placed some weight on the values in the “keywords” and “description” meta tags on a Web page. The meta tags are not visible to users of the website, but provided some contextual information for the robots crawling the site. As you can imagine, this was quickly exploited – and quickly devalued.

Fact: Search engines ignore the “keywords” tag. So should you. Stuffing it full of off-topic, repeated permutations of your generic keywords won’t help you, but it might hurt if you’re flagged as a spammer. The “description” tag won’t help with rankings, but can certainly help attract clicks as this descriptive text is often used to form your listing in the search results.

Best Practice: Write short, inviting descriptions of two or three sentences, including the key phrases targeted so that your listing will appear more attractive to a search engine user. As with keyword density, if your software or search marketing consultant focus is on meta tags, it’s time to cut your losses and run.

5. A No. 1 Ranking Is The Key To Riches & Success 

clip_image006Myth: If I can rank number one for “lawyer,” my law firm will have customers lined up for eternity.

Background: It’s true that having a number-one ranking on a search engine will drive much more traffic than a lower ranking, but as search terms become increasingly longer, it’s more and more important to focus on ranking for specific and relevant terms, not just one-word generic queries. If you’re practicing real estate law, it won’t do you any good to have a stream of traffic looking for a good DUI attorney. Additionally, ranking for obscure terms is vanity if no one is searching for those phrases.

Fact: Keyword research is an essential first step in building a website. Before the design, before the content, you need to know what phrases are best for you to target. There are several free keyword research tools available online to help you build a suitable list.

Bonus Fact: No ethical search marketing firm will guarantee search engine rankings, simply because no one can guarantee the behaviour of a third party – in this case, the search engine. Often the firms that promote guaranteed rankings will also mandate that they get to select the keywords. This leads to money being wasted on irrelevant, low-competition keywords where ranking is more easily achieved but is of little value.

Best Practice: Research your targeted keyword phrases at the beginning of your project and continually expand and revise your list. Target more generic (but relevant!) terms on the top-level pages and more specific terms on sub-pages of your site. By siloing your content, you will paint a thematic picture for the search engines, rank for the appropriate terms and provide a better experience for the user – which leads to more conversions and a profitable business.

Truth be told, this topic could easily be expanded into a twenty-post series dealing with myth and misinformation, but it’s my hope that the points I’ve outlined here will help you avoid costly mistakes and the occasional snake oil salesman.

Got questions or disagreements? What are your favourite SEO myths? Post your responses in the comments below.

 

 

Ryan Freeman is a fifth-generation small business owner and the founder of Strider Inc., an online marketing firm providing SEO consulting and online marketing strategies for businesses and non-profit groups. You can contact Ryan through the Strider Inc. website, email or by phone at 800-314-8895.

Posted by Lynnette in Marketing on January 28th, 2010

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5 Myths Of Online Marketing – Part 1

By: Ryan Freeman

In my line of work, I am blessed to encounter many businesses of all shapes, sizes and varieties. From Mom-n-Pop retailers to international manufacturers, there are some truths that invariably apply when it comes to online marketing. When it came time to pick a topic for this post, I thought: “Does the world really need another ‘Intro to Web Marketing’ post?” When barely half of all small businesses even have a website, I think the answer is clear.

There is much that can be said to explain what online marketing is, but for this post I want to talk about what is isn’t. And so, based on conversations with clients over the past fifteen years, here is my list of the Top 5 Web Marketing Myths.

1. Keyword Density

clip_image002Myth: It is essential to have “keyword density” on each page of X%.

Background: The myth of keyword density is one that just doesn’t seem to go away. No matter how many times it is discounted, keyword density keeps resurfacing in cheap ebooks and low-grade SEO tools. I think this particular myth has survived for as long as it has simply because it creates an easy and understandable metric for people new to SEO, regardless of its effectiveness.

Fact: Using Google as an example (because they do deliver up to 80% of North American Web search traffic), there are reportedly hundreds of factors, each weighted differently, with the weights being adjusted daily. If you spend your time trying to find the right trick for today’s algorithm, you’re just putting yourself further behind tomorrow, as your competition invests in proven long-term strategies. Also, content written with keyword density in mind does not have a natural flow and will usually appear awkward to readers.

Best Practice: Build relevant and topical content that engages users, on a site that is well structured and easily crawlable by the search engines. Even if keyword density was a reality, it’s no good to you if your site is blocked by flash, forms or bad coding. If you come across any SEO “gurus” or software packages that advise a target keyword density, ask for your money back and run.

2. Search Engines Are The Enemy

clip_image004Myth: Search engines are adversaries that must be deceived.

Background: It’s not uncommon to see business owners frustrated by what they perceive to be a lack of justice on the part of the search engines. Of course, to the business owner, the “injustice” is ranking a competitor higher in the search results. No matter that the competition has a professionally developed website with engaging content and links from authoritative sites, while the offended business relies on  a site built by the owner’s fourteen-year-old nephew who’s really good at video games.

Fact: Search engines live and die on relevance. They are not able to suggest which is the better business, but rather, they offer results in order of relevancy to the searchers’ query. For the most part, that relevance is determined based on what clues you offer up in your site’s content and structure, along with the references to your site in links on other sites.

Best Practice: Don’t try to fool the search engines by playing dirty tricks like stuffing keywords in the text, or hiding type on the page. Not only will you be creating a poor experience for your potential customers (and likely driving them to your competitor’s professionally crafted site), but you run the risk of being penalized or banned by the search engines for employing spamming tactics. Instead, make sure you have your Web pages grouped into themed “silos” of information and write in a way that matches the searcher’s terminology. The more you can appear naturally relevant, the higher you will be ranked by the search engines – without the potential downfalls.

Tune in tomorrow for the three remaining Online Marketing Myths. In the meantime, let me know what you think about the first two in the comments below.

 

Ryan Freeman is a fifth-generation small business owner and the founder of Strider Inc., an online marketing firm providing SEO consulting and online marketing strategies for businesses and non-profit groups. You can contact Ryan through the Strider Inc. website, email or by phone at 800-314-8895.

Posted by Lynnette in Marketing on January 27th, 2010

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