How do you improve your websites search engine placement?

Looking for the secret to Google SEO (search engine optimization)? Algorithms? Page one rankings? You are about to read the top secret SEO techniques. This is the REAL magic behind SEO!

Magically. . . there is no magic!

SEO is three parts:

1) Onpage elements

2) Offpage elements

3) Common sense!

Let’s start with Onpage Elements:

There are only a variety of items on your physical page or code that the search engines care about. In some cases, they could care less about what is on your page. A perfect example of this would be a site made of complete flash with no text, yet it shows up on the first page of Google for competitive keywords.

The elements the search engine will read:

1. URL’s (www.site.com/sfdaklm23kl?php=fak12.html is an example of a poorly optimized URL. It is recommended you use common sense to develop URL/page names. A great url would be www.site.com/products/books/henry-potter.html — This URL describes the topic, category and product)
2. Meta Data (title, description, keywords)
3. Navigation (but only search engine friendly navigations)
4. H1 Tags
5. H2 Tags
6. H3 Tags (yes, they are text and still read by bots!)
7. Content
8. Titles in link code (title=”content here”)
9. Alt Tags (alternate tags)
10. and a variety of other basic elements

All of these things are used to generate a common “theme”. If the URL of the page is: www.site.com/products/books/henry-potter.html but the content of the page talks about the stock market, you are far less likely to achieve a position for either one because the theme and onpage elements are inconsistent. Use common sense. Everything on your page should talk about the target of that page.

Content is also very important. To be considered 100% optimized or “White-hat”, you should have uniquely written content on ALL of your pages that discuss your product/service or niche. Analyze how those already in the top 10 have written their pages. Don’t copy but use these sites as “inspiration” for your content. Consider presenting the devils advocate to what they’ve written. It’s strange . . .The search engine knows what is relevant and unique . . . and its simply a robot! So don’t try tricking them.

Moving on to: Offpage Elements:

The standard definition of Offpage search engine optimization is to generate links from valuable sources (that the search engines reads) that tell the search engines what the website it is pointing to is all about. Again, this generates a common “theme”. Every page of your site has a different theme and your website as one unit should have a common theme as well.

This link here: Search Engine Optimization Companies is a prime example of excellent “off page optimization”. The link is now coming from this blog which is considered a basic authority to Google because it has some Page Rank (but not much!). The search engine will read this link, where it points and use it to establish an offpage theme. This helps the placement of the site the link points to.

This link here: Click here is an example of not-so-great offpage optimization. How can the search engine read the link and understand the purpose of the site it is pointing to. The link is still valid (as long as it doesn’t have a no-follow tag) and will help to improve link popularity, but is not optimal.

Where do you find places to point such links?

• Research
• Press Releases
• Social Sites
• Blogs
• Any relevant websites (use common sense!)
• Creating authority sites and pointing links back to your main site

Avoid sites with a “no-follow” tag. I believe they are still valuable but it is an industry “idea” that no-follow tags tell the bots not to follow the link and find your site. I would acquire the link regardless.

Hire a company or individual to provide search engine optimization consulting services. SEO campaign management is time consuming. It requires analysis of the webmaster tools and adjustments of the link building techniques.

Lastly, we move to: Common Sense:

SEO is a common sense game. If you sell Widgets, your homepage should talk about the widgets you sell, what type, how much they cost, link to competitors, give information on widget building, what they are, etc… and links from other companies, manufacturers, builders, social sites, etc… should link back to your homepage and have the keywords you believe people are using to find such a product in the link text.

If you don’t want to guess, you can use a keyword research tool such as:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

but, we recommend using both common sense, keyword research, Pay Per Click data and any website analytics data available to choose the right keywords to target. In the end, you should know your business and niche better than anyone else.

Some good reading:

• Natural Organic SEO
• On Page SEO Optimization Techniques
• Offpage Link Building Techniques
• SEO Process
• Pay Per Click Management
• Email Marketing Tips Whitepaper
• Landing Page Optimization

More to come.

Every search marketing company has a unique way of reporting analytics. Some pull screenshots, some create powerpoint visuals, and some pull straight from Google Analytics or Omniture. Whatever method of reporting and strategy, there are only a few KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators that will lead to action items:

• Traffic Trends (increase/decrease/or flat traffic)
• Conversion % / Conversion Rate (how many people converted to a customer)
• Customer Loyalty % (returning visitors) although this may not be as important for certain businesses that do not require return visitors

So it seems the two most important KPI’s are traffic and conversion rate %’s.

After reviewing the reports of several large search marketing companies, here are the things I feel are the most important items to address each and every month, and the things that are most readily accessible:

1. Traffic Trends vs Keyword Positions: is traffic up? down? has it spiked? is it flat? Traffic may go down but positions stay consistent. This is an indication that search volume in your particular business has declined. You may want to consider reoptimizing and link building for underperforming keywords.
2. Top Exit Pages: looking at the top exit pages every month is great. Your objective should be to decrease the exit rate from those pages (unless this is a page clearly meant for an exit). Increase the call to action. Offer something new on these pages. Even on the thank you pages within your website after a purchase, lead, or any conversion is triggered, why not take them through an entirely new goal? If they converted once, they are more likely to convert again compared to visitors who came and left.
3. Top Entry Pages: top entry pages may also be your top exit pages. However, this is most likely not the case. Analyzing your entry pages is critical. Look at the 3 top entry pages. A) What keywords/referrals are bringing visitors into this page? B) What is the desired action once they reach this page? Write both answers down and consider the things you are doing vs. not doing that would take a visitor from landing on your site to their desired goal/action through the path of least resistance.
4. Fallouts & Conversion Paths: if you have multiple steps involved in a conversion (typically for ecommerce or long form lead generation) it is recommended that you split test and vary conversion pages. Look for the pages that have the highest fallout, tweak that page or consider building an entirely new page, shorten it, make it simple for the end user and review in 30 days. If the fall-out % does not improve, continue tweaking.
5. Demographic & Location: location and demographic matter depending on the robustness of the data. If you can tell mostly women visit your website, adjust the colors, the tone of content, the call to action accordingly. Same goes for men. Tailor your content and call to action based on gender, age, race, etc . . . I’ve yet to see a company reporting on such data. Make sure you capture as much data as possible in your forms. Add gender, age, location (if your demographic is one that would be willing to divulge such information) to your online forms and that data can be used to significantly improve your website.

In the end, there is no trick or magic that will make visitors convert more. It’s using the data and common sense, giving the professional look and feel, keeping the call to action simple, short, and sweet, and engaging the visitor immediately to take an action toward the desired conversion goal.

Pay Per Click Adwords Dynamic Keyword Insertion is a great example of giving visitors what they want. There are studies that prove using dynamic keyword insertion (which inserts the keyword the searcher USED to look for a specific product/service/information into the title of the advertisement) will improve click-through rates dramatically.

Clickmaps and heatmaps are a great tool but more than 85% of websites are not properly setup to utilize them. Google Analytics, for example, (we will go into more detail in a separate article) requires that you tag each individual link with a custom URL ?= syle in order to track each and every link. That may take some time if you have 30 links on every single page. Some of these techniques even apply to visitor engagement, newsletter marketing, email marketing, pay per click, etc . . . so look out for more information from us in the coming months.

On a final note, when launching any major SEO marketing campaign, make sure you have focus. Do not try to rank for every keyword all at once. Pick 3 and work as hard as you can to achieve and sustain top 10 positioning for those 3. Think about it. Tracking performance becomes simple. You work on 3, you track the performance of those 3, while analyzing your traffic, entry, exit, and fallout accordingly.

Article provided by SEO Company, Qualified Impressions, LLC