Posts Tagged ‘Web search engine’

Building Your Business on the Web (Part One): Generating Online Traffic

By Rick Sloboda

Q&A with Rick Sloboda, Senior Web Copywriter for Webcopyplus

Businesses large and small are tapping into the ever-expanding web, which can cost-effectively market products and services 365, 24/7. With more than 75% of North Americans using the Internet and online spending increasing annually, getting your business online just makes sense. To help explain how to grow a business on the web, Rick Sloboda, Senior Website Copywriter, at Webcopyplus.com, a Vancouver-based web copywriting firm that helps businesses increase website traffic and conversions with search engine optimized web content, offers the answers. Rick speaks at web content conferences, and Webcopyplus conducts online studies with various organizations, including Yale University.

So a business wants to improve its performance online. Where do you suggest it starts?

It starts by looking at the business’s objectives and goals, the intended audience and the action you want the visitor to take. Once there’s an understanding of where the business is and where it needs to go, we can then look at aligning online strategies, resources and technologies. Business can tap into a many of opportunities, from social media like Facebook and Twitter, to blogs to press releases and email campaigns, to paid marketing and search engine optimization. Search engines can be a business’ best friend, as search websites can drive more than 80% of all new traffic to websites.

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Which search engines should you target?

Google owns more than 70% of the search market, so if you’re doing well on Google, your business is likely doing very well. Yahoo still has a following, and MSN’s Bing is also gaining ground. Those are the top three search engines our website copywriters pay close attention to, since that’s where consumers and businesses tend to look for products and services.

How do you optimize your website so you appear in search results?

Two key elements are keywords and links. Selecting the right words to target on your website helps search engine robots — programs that search and index websites — determine what your website is about and where you should rank. Links are also critical. When other reputable sites in your industry link to you, it builds credibility with search engines. It’s like a democratic vote in cyberspace. So it’s definitely worthwhile to get vendors, suppliers and partners to link to your website.

Can you simply exchange links with others to mutually benefit?

Yes, but that’s an old and overused SEO tactic called reciprocal linking. Google and friends will actually discount the value of reciprocal links. One-way links carry more clout. It’s likely worth mentioning that some SEO types are trying to beat the system by carrying out three-way linking strategies, which would have business A link to business B, business B link to business C, and business C link to business A. But the search engines catch up to these types of search engine manipulations as well.

And these SEO tricks are frowned upon by the likes of Google, right?

Yes, when you get overly aggressive or break the rules, it’s commonly called Black Hat SEO, and it can get you penalized or knocked off a search engine’s index altogether. For instance, we recently brought on a new client who unknowingly had white text placed on white background. It’s called hidden text, a Black Hat SEO tactic that used to work a decade ago, but not today. In fact, it can really hurt your business.

How do you determine the best keywords to target?

We used to hold focus groups, but they weren’t overly effective because what people say and do can be very different. Fortunately, you can gather hard data from various software, like a program called Web CEO. Our website copywriters and SEO specialists now have the luxury of analyzing and cross referencing actual data that reveals keyword popularity, competition and trends, which often produce surprising results for organizations. For example, a national airline’s executives were using the term “reduced fares.” We were able to reveal that term was searched fewer than 10 times a day — and that’s globally. Meanwhile, “cheap flights” was searched by consumers more than 10,000 times a day. This type of insight can make a big difference to a company’s bottom line, regardless of the industry.

And once you know what keywords to target, what do you do?

Simply put, repeat them often in your web content. For optimal results, our website copywriters strive for keyword density of at least 3%, meaning three out of every 100 words on your website are your targeted keywords. There’s a free online tool website owners and writers can take advantage of at www.webcopyplus.com/tools, which helps achieve the ideal keyword ratio.

Is it true fresh content helps achieve and maintain higher search engine rankings?

Yes, fresh content helps. That’s what makes blogs such a wonderful marketing tool. You can incorporate blogging software like WordPress to your website, and post a few items a month. You’re providing search engines additional content to index, and giving visitors a reason to keep coming back.

When a business achieves desired search engine rankings, what are the perks?

Greater, cost-effective reach and presence, increased leads and sales, and possibly some PR. A Vancouver HR client with dozens of write-ups in high-profile publications like Canadian Business, The Globe and Mail, and National Post, recently told us 100% of their PR opportunities came through reporters Googling terms like HR consulting Vancouver and HR experts Vancouver. Google can really be a goldmine.

Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Tune in tomorrow for Part Two: Turning Online Visitors into Customers.

 

Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at Webcopyplus, which helps designers and businesses boost online traffic, leads and sales with optimized web content. Clients range from independent retailers to some of the world’s largest service providers, including AT&T (formerly Cingular), Quest Diagnostics and Scotia Bank. Rick advocates clear, concise and objective website content that promotes readability and usability, and conducts web content studies with organizations in Europe and the U.S., including Yale University. He speaks frequently at web-related forums and seminars, including Small Business BC, Content Convergence & Integration, SUCCESS and HRMA. Rick also serves as a consultant to various organizations, such as the Web Development Advisory Committee at Vancouver, B.C.’s Langara College.

Posted by Lynnette in Growing Your Biz on June 1st, 2010

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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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