SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

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1 1 of 3 Jane & Scot Noel Computers Made Easy, Inc Detroit Street Grapeville PA, FAX info@cmewebsites.com SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION The Basics of SEO What is It? What are its Benefits? How is it Accomplished? by Scot Noel Computers Made Easy, Inc. Scot and Jane Noel, Owners 2615 Detroit Street Grapeville, PA Phone: Scot@CMEwebsites.com Jane@CMEwebsites.com

2 The Basics of Search Engine Optimization The Basics Search Engine Optimization... 3 What is SEO?... 3 Natural Search Results vs. Advertising... 3 Key Properties of an Optimized Website... 4 The Benefits of SEO... 5 Is Having Your Website on the First Page of Google Worth it?... 5 General Benefits of SEO... 6 How is SEO Accomplished?... 6 Site Architecture and SEO... 6 Page Titles, Keyword Meta-Tags, and Page Descriptions... 7 On-Page (Content) Optimization... 9 Off-Site Optimization Summation of 14

3 The Basics Search Engine Optimization WHAT IS SEO? Natural Search Results vs. Advertising When you search for something on Google (or any search engine), a results page appears. The page is divided into "Natural Search Results" and "Sponsored Search Results," the latter meaning "paid advertising." See the image below. The first 3 (or more) results at the top of the page and all results in the right-hand column are part of Google's AdWords, PPC (pay-per-click) system. Simply put, they are paid ads. 3 of 14

4 The remaining results in the middle of the page are "natural search results." That means Google has chosen these websites as among the most informative and useful responses to the question posed by the searcher. In this case, the search phrase was "spiral duct for HVAC." Two of the results shown are industrial customers of Computers Made Easy: hranec.com and zenindustries.com. Key Properties of an Optimized Website Search Engine Optimization (also called SEO) is the discipline of designing or modifying websites so that they can show up in natural searches for important search words and phrases, across a range of search engines. The basic components of SEO include: Age and Size of the Website The longer a website has been continuously available at its primary domain ( the more "trust" it builds up in the search engines. Build a site, keep it online, and keep it current. All other things being equal, the larger and more informative your website is, the more preference it receives. For example, a 10 page site which contains useful, shareable information is more effective in searches than a 3 page site of splashy pictures laid out as if it were an advertisement or direct mail flyer. Site Architecture Optimization The architecture of the site itself must use "search engine friendly" techniques and technologies to allow search engine "spiders and bots" to access the site and evaluate its content in terms of being an appropriate response to a search engine query. Not all websites can be optimized, as their foundational structure may block or inhibit interaction with search engine systems. In Code Optimization The code of each page on your website should include knowledgably crafted "meta-tags" that assist the search engines in doing their job. The three most basic meta-tags are: Page Title Keywords Page Description In the past, these elements were thought of as the primary tool of optimization. Today this is far from true, and Google has practically stopped relying on the "Keywords" meta-tag altogether. At the same time, Page Titles have taken on far more importance than ever before. 4 of 14

5 On-Page (Content) Optimization Supported by site architecture and in-code optimization, On Page Optimization does the heavy lifting when it comes to being found in search engines. This means the words on the page. Remember, to Google, a website represents a possible answer to a question. Unless your site is informative concerning the subject matter of a search, it does not have much of a chance to show up in the natural searches. Today, it is thought that Google even considers the time a visitor spends on your website as a measure of optimization. If the site attracts their attention for a significant time, it must be a valuable resource. THE BENEFITS OF SEO Is Having Your Website on the First Page of Google Worth it? Maybe not. There is a lot of misperception about being on the first page of Google results. Here are some things to consider. Do You Know What People are Looking for? Before you expend money and effort in showing up for a given keyword or keyword phrase, do you even know if people are looking for it, or the level of competition it represents? For example, we had one industrial customer that wanted to show up for the phrase "pallet truck," one of their primary products. Research (using Keyword Discovery), showed that only 10% of real searchers looking for this product thought of it as a "pallet truck." 90% of the market searched for the same thing as a "pallet jack." In this case, being #1 for the phrase the customer wanted was not a good idea. Do You Know the Competition? Another customer wanted to place highly for "dinnerware," but a little research showed that not even Ikea and Oneida had achieved that. It was simply not realistic for our local customer to expend the resources of a national chain in competing online with Walmart and Amazon. 5 of 14

6 Do You Know that Everyone gets a Different Search Result? It once was true that when you looked for something on Google, you would see the same page of results as another person, looking for the same thing, in California. Today, you might not even see the same page of results as the person sitting across the room. Search Engines are entering an age of personalized search results. So, being found on the first page of Google is quickly becoming meaningless. To know if your "search engine optimization" is doing anything, you need the services of an advanced statistical/analytical program. This is usually provided by your web host. A free, but good, alternative is to have your webmaster install Google Analytics on your website. The idea is, you take a baseline reading, do optimization work, and see if traffic to your website improves. A good analytic program can show you the exact phrases typed into Google and other search engines by the people who found your site online. General Benefits of SEO Potential to show up for more keywords and keyword phrases than is practical to pay for in a PPC campaign. The site is available continuously to searches, rather than limited by a PPC budget. The site receives a higher trust level from searchers (less people click on ads than on natural search results). More cost-effective long term than PPC. HOW IS SEO ACCOMPLISHED? Site Architecture and SEO Not every website can be optimized for Search Engines. Some techniques and technologies used in web development are fundamentally not "search engine friendly." A prime example is the overuse of Flash, a web development system that gives websites a slick, magazine look while allowing on-page animations and videos. Too much Flash, especially when the menu and on page text are incorporated into the Flash files, and the website becomes invisible to searches. Another example of an "anti-search engine" approach is the use of "splash pages," those entrance screens that often show an animation or video and then encourage the visitor to "Enter the Site." 6 of 14

7 The menuing / navigation system of a site needs to be developed in a way that the search engine spiders find easy to follow, so that they can read and analyze the content of the site. Friendly technologies include CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) menus and standard HTML hyperlinks. Use anchor text and hyperlinks on the page, (often in the form of a Call to Action), such as "For more information, visit our Specials page today!" Page Titles, Keyword Meta-Tags, and Page Descriptions Page Titles, Keywords Meta Tags, and Page Descriptions represent the most basic search engine optimization steps and are part of making any site search engine friendly. Search Engines develop their first impression of your website by reviewing its Page Titles, Keywords, and Page Descriptions. Each page of your website should have a distinct set of these metatags developed just for Page Title it. Page Titles This is the text that appears at the top of your web browser when you are visiting a web site. It should be different for every page on the site. Page Title Every page title should contain an informational phrase of approximately words focused on keywords to attract known searches for the subject of the page. The Page Title also appears at the top of any search result containing your website. Here are three Google results. Think of this in terms of a traditional ad, whether in the newspaper or yellow pages. Which of these ads would you click on, based on the page titles, if you were looking for these products? The one that names the company or the one that describes products and services? Page Titles at the top of Search Engine Results 7 of 14

8 Keyword Meta Tags 3 to 5 Keyword Meta Tags should appear first in the page title for each web page, in a line of code designated Keywords, in another line of code designated Page Description, and finally throughout the content of the page. (It is old-school, and useless today, to dump a dictionary worth of keywords into this meta-tag position. Limit it to 3-5 words per page, and reinforce their use in content on the page.) Page Descriptions Page Descriptions appear in the code only, and are sometimes used in part by search engines to populate the description which appears as a part of the search result. Page Descriptions help in searches and act as sales pitches. Service Area If your site needs to show up in local searches, such as a phrase like "Pittsburgh Dumpster Rental," it's a good idea to include Service Area information sprinkled throughout the site some in the meta-code (like a mention of Pittsburgh in the Page Title and/or a Page Description), and some on the web page itself, even to the point of having an actual service area listed as in the following example. Note the position of CME customer in the natural search results. Note the service area on the Driveway Dumpsters webpage. 8 of 14

9 On-Page (Content) Optimization Believe it or not, with everything we've gone over to this point, it's actually the words on your webpage that do the heavy lifting where Search Engines are concerned. 9 of 14

10 Think of it this way, all the things that happen in the code and the architecture merely open the door and introduce the search engines to your website. Without them, the door is closed. With them, the search engines say "I can read, understand, and evaluate this website." Now that you have their attention, what are you telling them? Web content must fulfill many functions specific to online media, including the following: Informative but easily scannable. Contain, repeat, and reinforce keywords and search phrases. Employ calls to action to direct visitors toward trial interactions with the company. Demonstrate an understanding of visitor concerns, rather than merely bullet products and benefits. What the search engines are actually trying to do is determine if your website represents a useful resource of information for the searcher. If it is designed to merely attract search engine algorithms, they will recognize this and discount its usefulness. If your web site presents an authoritative, informative, well-designed, and userfriendly experience, it will become a respected resource in the eyes of the search engines. Example 10 of 14

11 In the example on the previous page, the search for a TMJ doctor (an orthodontist), brings up a result for that goes NOT to the home page of the website, but to a page presenting information specifically about TMJ treatment. The search engines value this site -and its internal pages- as containing useful information on TMJ treatment. The page the search result goes to is presented below: There is no easy way to accomplish these results. It is best done by knowledgeable web content developers experienced in creating optimized web copy. Even so, anyone following the basic principles will do better than anyone ignoring them or creating search engine "unfriendly" websites. 11 of 14

12 Off-Site Optimization There are things you do "off-site" too. The most critical of these is Link Building Link Building Every time another website provides a link to your website, it is counted as a vote of confidence in the usefulness of your website. There are both high value and low value links. Some links are even counter-productive or detrimental. The worst links are from "link farms," which are essentially websites designed to provide massive pages of links for pay. Here we are not talking about valid online directories, but cheap scheme sites designed to make a few bucks for placing a link to your site among thousands of others. Also of dubious value are link trades and three way trade schemes (where you agree to link to site X, which agrees to link to site Y, which agrees to link to you). What is a high-value link? A high value link (which is possibly worth many hundreds of low value links), has the following properties: It is from an authoritative website in your field or industry. It is provided free of charge by the linking website. There is no trade (your site does not link back in return). The link uses anchor text. (This means the link does not take the form: It takes the form: "We've found an amazing micro fluid pump made by Simply Pumps. Small enough to fit inside a golf ball, the HP 100S is fully submersible " In this example, the links are the words, or "anchor text," and the links go, NOT to the home page of the website, but to specific pages on which information about the anchor text is presented. As you can see from the very concept of it, this is a difficult mountain to climb. That is why true link building services from an experienced SEO company are among the most expensive web services you can buy, and are often far more expensive that your website itself. The benefit is that high-value inbound links are both important in and of themselves and form a part of the evaluation made by search engines, helping to boost your website's visibility in searches. 12 of 14

13 Summation The basics presented in this short document are sufficient to warn any web developer of the most critical mistakes to be made and guide him or her toward a more "search engine friendly" design process. Realistically, it should be understood that these are not simple tricks applied in a few minutes, or even a few hours, to bring a website to the top of the searches. Can you imagine a car dealership handing a novice mechanic a manual on engine rebuilds and putting him in charge of motor repairs for a top customer's Mercedes? As in any skilled service, experience counts for a great deal in both auto repair and SEO. Search Engine Optimization is a learned skill as much as a series of techniques. It is also a constantly changing field, just as the Internet is a constantly changing resource. This means that a few "fixes" to your website may have a minor initial effect, but a year from now may prove meaningless. The goal of Google and other search engines is to bring back relevant results that the searcher will appreciate. While it is important to build a website that interacts well with the search engines, it is even more important to keep the ideal of the search engines in mind: finding informative, customer friendly websites that make the searches seem smart. Scot and Jane Noel are the co-owners of Computers Made Easy, Inc., a web development company founded in 1999 that specializes in "serious web design." CME has designed over 140 websites, operates its own hosting server network, maintains registration for over 550 domain names, provides updates for many non-cme websites, and takes on a select number of new clients each year, mainly by referral. Visit their presence on the web at 13 of 14

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