Getting Back
To Search Engine Optimization Basics
By Andy Beal
Contributing Writer
When starting any SEO campaign it is tempting to leap
straight in and start tweaking meta tags and changing text.
However, like any successful marketing strategy, it is vital to
ensure that you know whom your audience is and how to reach them.
In the same way traditional advertising agencies survey their
demographic audience, search engine marketers must ensure that
their SEO campaign targets the correct keywords or search phrases.
Target the wrong search phrase and you could end up with great
search engine rankings for keywords that have no search requests.
A few hours now spent ensuring that the correct search phrases are
targeted, can save months of useless optimization.
Brainstorm
When you started your company or developed your products, you no
doubt sat down with your friends, relatives and business partners
and discussed the needs of your target audience. You would have
been foolish to stubbornly press ahead with your products without
first testing the market to see if there was a demand. Likewise,
when you start out on your SEO campaign it is important to
brainstorm search phrases that are likely to bring qualified
visitors to your website. Sit down with your co-workers and
business partners and discuss which keywords are relevant to the
products and services you offer. Compile an initial list of 5-10
search phrases that you feel best represent your company and which
you believe people would type into a search engine when trying to
find you. Consider the following factors when brainstorming:
· Is your audience likely to search for industry standard terms or
simple layman phrases?
· Which of your products are in stock? There is no point targeting
search phrases that are popular if you don’t actually stock that
item.
· Which products have the highest profit margin? If you had just a
$0.20 mark-up on a very popular product, could you sell enough
online to make a profit? A product that is less searched but has a
higher profit margin would be easier to obtain a search engine
ranking and would yield higher revenues.
· Identify your biggest competitors. View competitor websites and
see which products they appear to target; which search phrases do
they have rankings for?
Make use of any PPC data
Chances are, your decision to begin a SEO campaign is fueled by
your desire to reduce costly pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. While
reliance on PPC will be reduced with a good SEO campaign, you can
make use of your current PPC efforts when researching your search
phrases to target. Analyze your PPC keywords and look to see which
of them have brought the highest traffic levels, best click
through rates and greater sales conversions. It is likely a search
phrase that brought successful results through a PPC campaign will
be very relevant in your quest to obtain top search engine
positioning.
Expanding your Keyword list
Once you have completed your brainstorming and have compiled your
list of 5-10 core keywords, it’s time to move on and expand that
list. A list of 5-10 search phrases will not, as I am sure you
will know, bring the amount of search engine traffic needed to
make your website successful. However, that list will be a vital
tool when determining which phrases to add to the mix. At this
point, you need to turn to the search engines themselves and
research which search phrases are actually being typed into
Google, Yahoo, MSN et al. While few search engines will openly
tell you which search phrases are the most often searched, there
are a couple of very useful tools you can use to expand your list.
The first and most well known, is the Overture Search Suggestion
Tool. This great little research tool is primarily for the use of
Overture PPC users and if you have ever endeavored on a PPC
campaign with Overture, you will no doubt have come across it.
Take any of your main search phrases and enter them into the
suggestion tool. Overture will then spit out all other popular
search terms that contain that phrase. In addition, Overture will
place the search phrases in order of popularity and give you an
idea of the number of searches per month for each phrase across
their network. While this tool can be very useful, especially as
it is free to use, it does have some key drawbacks. First, it does
not differentiate between singular and plural search phrases.
Consequently, “desktop computer” and “desktop computers” are
combined together, leaving you to use your own judgment as to
which variation is the most popular. For many search phrases, you
can take an educated guess as to which one is likely to be the
most searched, but often you will be left without a clue as to
whether to target the singular or plural. Secondly, the Overture
Suggestion Tool does not handle punctuation very well, preferring
to ignore it completely. Thus “kid’s toys”, “kid’s toys”,
“kid-toys”, “kid’s toy” would all be shown as “kid toy”. Again,
this never used to be a big problem, but go to Google and search
for each of these phrases and you will see different results for
each one.
If you are serious about your SEO campaign, you will consider a
subscription to WordTracker to be a worthwhile investment.
Starting at just $7 a day, with discounts all the way up to one
year of service, WordTracker offers a similar type of research
tool as Overture but with many more bells and whistles. The
biggest advantage with WordTracker is that is uses Meta-Crawlers
when sourcing search phrase frequencies. This eliminates inflated
search phrase frequencies from Overture users checking their own
rankings and thus artificially increasing the popularity of
certain phrases. In addition WordTracker offers the following
advantages:
· Offers a “thesaurus” and “lateral” search. Allowing you to view
search phrases that are related to your main search term, but not
necessarily containing that term.
· Shows search frequencies for both singular and plural phrases;
allowing you to determine which is the most popular.
· Identifies which form of punctuation is the most popular.
· Allows you to place your targeted keywords into a “shopping
basket” so that you can analyze all of your phrases together.
· Has an exclusive KEI analyzer that allows you to compare the
popularity of the search phrase with the number of websites
competing for that keyword.
Determining Competition
Once you have identified possible additions to your search phrase
list, you must research further to determine if there is a good
chance you will achieve your prized top search engine ranking or
if the competition for that phrase is already saturated. While it
can be tempting to target only search phrases that are very
popular and searched hundreds of thousands of times in a single
month, you must also consider the likelihood of you being able to
obtain a ranking higher enough to capitalize on all of that great
traffic. Many, many search terms are so saturated by competitors
that it would be highly unlikely that you would achieve a high
enough ranking to reward your efforts. Therefore, it is often
worthwhile considering those search phrases that may not have
quite the same level searches each month, but likewise do not have
as many websites targeting that term.
WordTracker’s KEI (keyword effectiveness index) allows it’s users
to analyze their chosen search phrases to determine the level of
competition for that phrase. WordTracker has a great explanation
on their website as to how to use this index, but in summary it
provides a numerical scale for identifying the popularity of a
keyword compared to the number of competitors targeting that
phrase.
For those of you on a strict budget and opting to use Overture for
keyword research, there is an alternative answer. Enter each
identified search phrase at Google, using quotations around the
phrase (e.g. “discount computers”). Google will then display the
search results for all pages that target that phrase exactly as
entered. View the top right, blue navigation bar and you will see
the number of results Google matched. This number represents the
total number of web pages that Google has identified as targeting
that exact search phrase. This number represents your competition
or your very own KEI. Make a note of this number for each of your
identified search phrases and pretty soon you will be able to see
which of your search phrases have the most competition and which
have less competitors and therefore a better chance of obtaining
top ranking.
Selecting Your Keywords
By now, you should have an expanded list of search phrases to
target, taken from either Overture or WordTracker. In addition,
you should also have a good idea as to the competition for each of
those keywords, whether you used the KEI or Google format. Now is
the time to start selecting the search phrases that will form the
foundation for a successful SEO campaign. Ok, deep breath, we’re
almost there.
When selecting the keywords to target, there are many factors you
must take into consideration. You will no doubt have your own
unique considerations, but you must also take into account the
following:
· Is the search phrase relevant to your website and the page that
you are optimizing?
· Is there a page within your website that would be particularly
suitable for targeting the selected search phrase?
· How many other websites/web pages would you be competing
against?
· Do you offer competitive pricing for the product or service that
relates to the keyword?
· Will top search engine ranking for the search phrase generate
enough revenue for your company?
Arranging Keywords into Themes
Once you have asked yourself the above questions, it will become
easy to narrow down your list to the main search phrases that you
wish to target. When doing so, remember that you should not try
and target every selected search term on your index page. Your
index page is the most important page of your website and likely
to have the best positioning on the search engines, therefore
choose 5-10 search phrases to target here and ensure that they are
all closely related. Trying to target “desktop computers” and “dvd
players” on your index page will get you top rankings for neither.
Instead, identify the pages within your website that target those
particular keywords and use those instead. The key to selecting
keywords to target for each page is to think of “themes”. Each
page should ideally target just one theme. This will assist you in
making sure that the targeted page is relevant to the selected
search phrase. In turn, this will not only increase your chances
of obtaining top rankings, but also increase your customer sales
conversions by bringing the visitor to the most relevant page.
In summary
When researching search phrases and targeting keywords for your
SEO campaign, it is important to follow the steps above. Research
your industry, talk to your potential customers and make use of
the themes within your website. In addition, consider these final
tips:
· Determine the intent of the visitor
Thoroughly research all search terms to ensure that the searcher
intended to find your product or service. E.g. reconsider
targeting the keyword “DVD” if you store only sells blank DVD
discs, the chances are the searcher intended to find DVD movies
rather than blank media.
· Don’t always rely on the numbers
Both Overture and WordTracker use historical date when displaying
search phrase frequencies and neither archive more than two months
back. Therefore you must know your industry and account for any
seasonal or other trends. E.g. the search phrase “red roses” will
be more popular for Valentines than at Christmas.
· Look for opportunities
Identify the search phrases that have been untapped by your
competitors. Some search terms may have slightly fewer searches,
but may have dramatically fewer competitors.
· Target the right pages
This cannot be stressed enough. Do not try and target every
keyword on every page. Identify themes within your website and
group relevant search phrases around those pages. You will see
much better results
Title Tags
When I decided a few weeks ago to write a series of articles for
those new to search engine marketing (SEM), I considered whether
there truly was a need to discuss the topic of Meta Tags. After
all, this topic has been so heavily discussed that anyone remotely
interested in search engine marketing would already have grasped
this basic of techniques. My decision was justified just a few
days ago when I was asked by the American Marketing Association to
provide a workshop on how to create Meta Tags and discuss their
benefits. It was at this point that I recalled starting out on my
own quest for search engine marketing knowledge many years ago and
researching the basic topics that today seem so fundamental. So
for the next few parts of this series, I hope to enlighten those
of you who are discovering SEM for the first time and maybe
refresh the knowledge of those more seasoned marketers.
Meta Tags – an analogy
I don’t recall ever reading the following description of Meta Tags
anywhere else (although have been using it for years) so hopefully
the following analogy will be new to you. When considering the
function of Meta Tags, it helps to compare a website to an old
fashion book (remember those paper things that we all used to read
before the Internet). The first part of any Meta Tag is the
“Title” tag. The Title tag is very similar to the title of a book,
it gives a visitor the first hint as to the theme of the website.
The next section of any Meta Tag is the “Description” tag. The
Description tag is comparable to the summary found on the back of
a book, providing a brief guide to the content of your website.
The last part of any Meta Tag is the “Keywords” tag. The Keywords
are similar to the index of a book, allowing anyone to clearly see
if the website contains the information they are seeking. If you
compare a search engine to a bricks-and-mortar library, with
millions of books you’ll hopefully have a good understanding as to
relevance of Meta Tags for your website.
In this guide, I wish to focus on what many believe is the most
important part of any Meta Tag, the Title tag. Now before we
continue and discuss suggestions for the best format for your
Title tag, lets stop and consider exactly how it looks in your
website’s HTML code.
<head>
<title>Title of Your Webpage Here</title> (bolded for emphasis)
<meta name="description" content="Brief description of the
contents of the page">
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword phrases that describe your
webpage">
</head>
As you can see, the format is pretty straightforward. You will
also notice that your Meta tags should be placed within the “head”
area of your website as opposed to the “body” area.
Ok, now we have the basic idea of what Title tags are and we’ve
taken a look at the standard structure, lets turn our attention to
ideas for optimizing the content to ensure a successful search
engine marketing campaign.
The Best Use of a Title Tag
While many people have differing opinions as to the benefits of
the Description and Keywords tag, most all are in agreement that
the Title tag is extremely important for any SEM campaign. The
Title tag is used by pretty much every search engine that uses
spiders to crawl your website. That list includes Google, AOL,
Yahoo, AlltheWeb, AltaVista, ExactSeek.com and more. The Title tag
is pretty much the most effective Meta Tag and is used for
conveying the theme of your Webpage to the search engines. Not
only is the structure and content of the Title tag used by the
search engines when calculating your webpage’s relevance, but it
is also displayed in most search engine results pages (SERP). It
therefore needs to be carefully constructed in such a way that it
influences your websites position in the SERP, but is also
attractive enough to encourage a surfer to click on your link.
Long gone are the days when cramming dozens of words into a Title
tag would result in better search engine positioning. These days
the search engines, Google in particular, prefer to see shorter
Title tags that are succinct in describing the content on the
page. In fact, it appears that stuffing more words into your Title
tag will do more harm than good, especially when targeting very
competitive search phrases.
So how should a good Title tag look? That, my friend, is one of
the many questions that us marketers strive to answer. Each of us
have our own ideas of what constitutes a good Title tag and the
format for one page, might be totally inappropriate for another.
However, I understand that to not provide an example would be a
complete omission, so here goes:
<title>Desktop computers and computer supplies</title> or;
<title>Desktop computers and computer supplies at
123Computers</title>
As you can see, there are really only two identifiable phrases
that make up the above Title tag, but they provide for many
different keyword combinations such as “desktop computer supplies”
or “desktop computer”. Equally important is the fact that they
focus on just one theme. Many times, I’ll see websites that will
try and target two or more very competitive keywords that do not
follow the same theme e.g. “desktop computers and digital
cameras”.
You’ll also notice two different formats depending on whether you
wish to include your company name or not. In an ideal world of
search engine marketing, webpages would not include the company
name at all. Unless you’re Dell or IBM, the name of your company
really doesn’t make much difference to the user at this stage.
They are more interested in knowing the theme of your page and
whether it is relevant to the search query they entered. Likewise,
the Title tag is a valuable thing and adding the name of your
company might reduce the relevancy of your page in the eyes of the
search engines and reduce valuable space that could be used by an
extra keyword. That being said, more than 80% of website owners
prefer to see their company name listed somewhere in the Title
tag. If that is the case for you, it is my advice to place the
company name at the end of the Title tag, allowing the search
engine spiders and surfers to read the keywords first and
determine the relevance to the search query before seeing the name
of the company.
In most cases, less is definitely more when constructing optimized
Title tags for your website. Keeping to fewer keywords will help
to demonstrate to the search engines and their users that the
webpage is both highly relevant and solely focused on a particular
product or service. In the same way, ensuring that each page has
its own unique Title tag will ensure a greater chance your site
will be positioned higher on the SERP.
In Summary
In finishing, I’ll leave you with three things you should never do
when constructing your Title tag.
1. Leave “Untitled” as your Title tag (don’t get me started).
2. Use “Homepage” as your Title tag (only slightly better than
“untitled”).
3. Use only your company name as your Title tag. Unless your
company name is searched thousands of times each month, add
keywords.
About the Author:
Andy Beal is Vice President of Search Marketing for
KeywordRanking.com and
ProRanking.com, global
leaders in professional search engine marketing. Highly respected
as a source of search engine marketing advice, Andy has had
articles published around the world and is a repeat speaker at
Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Strategies conferences. Clients
include Alaska Air, Peopleclick, Jos. A. Bank and Build.com. You
can reach Andy at
andy@proranking.com.
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