Search Engine Optimization Guide A non-technical approach to SEO

Transcription

1 Search Engine Optimization Guide A non-technical approach to SEO

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction What is Search Engine Optimization? Check the rankings of your provider s website Ask exactly what is it that they will be doing for you Industry specific search keyword analysis. Meta-tags based on the analysis Add tools to the site for click analysis and conversion rates Meta-tags should be page specific instead of site specific Content should be modified to match keywords The options to change Flash banners to HTML5 or JavaScript banners Modify meaningless link names to relevant ones Indexation of your site to search engines and business listings Site map development What is SEM? How do I sell my brand over the internet? Landing pages Marketing Campaigns Social media development, maintenance and links Conclusion References... 18

3 1. Introduction This guide is developed for the non-technical, novice user in mind. This is not a guide for the expert who would want to learn more about the Panda Project or the Farmer s update. This is a tutorial for people who need to know the meaning of concepts such as SEO and SEM; why they are so important for their organization and what tasks should a good SEO provider offer. We have included topics such as key word search and analysis; website rankings and conversion rates; meta-tags; relevant link names; search engine indexation, sitemap development; SEM concept; lead capture pages; social networking and marketing campaigns. We have left aside pay per click campaigns (PPC), pay per impression ((PPI) and many other SEM practices because we want to focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) instead of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is probably the most important portion of any SEM effort thus the implied relevance given to it throughout the guide. I don t want to diminish the effectiveness of SEM efforts but if you have to start somewhere it should be SEO. SEO is the most cost effective technique to attract customers to you site thus increase your sales, referrals or sign ups. Regardless of your business goals; SEO is the first step. LJ Solutions in its compromise to educate its users and provide with the most relevant information and services would like to ask you for your feedback. Please tell us what you like (and what you don t like) about this guide and how we can make it better. Please write to feedback@lj-solutions.com. Enjoy!

4 Carlos Osorio CEO 2. What is Search Engine Optimization? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) relates to the processes in place to increment the visibility of your website via organic searches (non-paid ones). By a general rule the more times that your website is shown in the first page of search engine results, the better your chances to increase your traffic. More traffic can be translated into more sales if the correct marketing strategy is in place. Increased traffic does not necessarily translate into more sales. There s the need to lead your prospects into the right course of action that will allow you to make a sale. SEO takes in consideration how search engines work even though the algorithms are always changing and they are kept secret as much as possible. Optimizing a site requires for you (or your web developer) to modify the content of the site (what the users see) and the source code (what makes the pages display on the internet and that is understood by search engines). It is also necessary to let search engines know about your existence by proper indexation of the content.

5 3. Check the rankings of your provider s website As my organization is listed on several business listings; from time to time I get calls from companies offering me web deals and SEO services. It never stops to amuse me when I Google the name of such companies to find out that I can t find them under any category or even their name. In the same manner that you wouldn t take weight lifting classes from anybody but a body builder you shouldn t trust your SEO efforts to a company which cannot improve their own rankings. Google or web design Newark and you will find my company to be listed as first and third in the first Google search result page (as of 12/30/2012). LJ Solutions is a company that you can trust.

6 4. Ask exactly what is it that they will be doing for you Many organizations promise to bring up your rankings but they fail to explain what exactly they are doing for you. It is true that SEO is not an exact science due to the ever changing algorithms in place by search engines but there are several tasks that must be done regardless of the client s industry. Customizing those generic tasks is the tricky part. A good SEO provider should provide with the tasks presented in the following sections. 4.1 Industry specific search keyword analysis. Meta-tags based on the analysis When I was doing the SEO for my page I had written as a keyword within the meta-tags the words web development. I did this while I was in a rush to put something together before taking in consideration a thorough keyword analysis. I do web development after all and web design is just a part of it. Web development includes design, programming, testing, releasing, updating, documenting, marketing, etc. So the logical thing was to write web development. How wrong I was. After performing a keyboard analysis I came to realize that the amount of searches for web development were limited to a few hundred while web design was several thousands. I m not here to fight the market but educate consumers; I can t do that if I m not found. Once I get found I can explain my clients that I design but there s so much more I can do for them and, of course, I changed my net tags.

7 4.2 Add tools to the site for click analysis and conversion rates If I m paying for marketing I must make sure that every dollar invested is giving me in return a dollar plus. One of the most common mistakes of amateur SEO providers is not putting in their plan tools to measure the success of the campaigns. A couple of lines of code to integrate Google analytics to your site can solve this problem. For a simple mathematical formula to calculate your conversion rate percentage for your leads, apply the following: (sales/visits) x 100 = conversion rate Let s says that you had 10 sales this month and 200 visits then we have: (10/200) x 100 = 5% conversion rate To calculate your return on investment (ROI) you have to use your number of sales (10 if we follow the previous example), the APP (Average product price) and the money that was invested on SEO. Let s say that you purchased the $500 basic SE0 package. Then we have the following: (number of sales X App) SEO cost x 10 = ROI SEO cost (10x125) = x 10 = 15% 500 By applying these two formulas we now know that a 5% lead conversion rate produces a ROI of 15%. Higher conversion rates produces higher CR thus higher ROI s. Even a simple

8 increase amount of visitors, if the same sales rates are kept, will bring additional returns to your business. Do you see why those often omitted lines of code are so important? 4.3 Meta-tags should be page specific instead of site specific Another rookie mistake is to keep meta-tags generic for all pages within the website. View the source of all the pages of LJ Solution and you ll see that in the header section of the code there are different meta tags content for every within it. I don t need to keep advertising my SEO guide on a page where I m trying to sell Avira products. 4.4 Content should be modified to match keywords Even though this step might seem the most logical one out of them all, it does not always take place. Are you trying to sell web design and the words in the page read web development? Modify your content so it has relevant information for your clients as well as the search engines. 4.5 The options to change Flash banners to HTML5 or JavaScript banners Is your site search engine friendly? Does it have a lot of graphics that search engines cannot read? A simple way to find out is by trying to highlight keywords within the pages. If it can t be done it means that it is embedded as a graphic and unluckily for you, search engines can t read graphics as we do. Search engines cannot read flash banners and they have a really hard time understanding flash sites. The optimal solution is to integrate a healthy combination of java script, html 5 and embedded video replacing all that flash.

9 4.6 Modify meaningless link names to relevant ones Many CMS generated files have no relevant meaning to its actual content. Search engines like links with names which are in-line with the content. Check the name of the link that took you to the download of this side Look at the name of the file that was downloaded As you can see they both have relevant names; if search engines like it that way, do it that way. 4.7 Indexation of your site to search engines and business listings Whenever you Google a keyword or phrase, the search engine does not actually go to every single server on the web looking for the information that you requested; it searches its index which has been carefully built around a series of complex algorithms in order to provide users with the most relevant information based on user criteria. Yes, you guessed it; Google is a big yellow book that chooses who goes first on the list. Google does keep searching information on internet servers throughout the world in order to keep its content updated but it is not performed on a daily basis. Actually the engine works 24/7 but that doesn t mean that content changed in your page in the last 24 hours is going to reflect on the Google engine. It might be a few weeks or maybe months before Google realizes that there was a change. The same principle applies when you just launch a site or implement SEO best practices to its pages; you need to let the search engines know about you. Google is just one of them thus you have to perform the same operation for all the engines that are out there such as Yahoo,

10 Bing, etc. The proactive way is to let them know of your existence (or the updates) way before they find you on their own. There are services such as yext.com that will upload your company information to search engines and directories for a fee. On the down side, this service can be expensive if you consider the fact that even though they promote their services with a somehow low monthly fee; they charge annually. You will have to pre-pay a whole year for something that can be done manually and of course with better accuracy. Even on its highest paid package, Yext left out many important directories such as Manta, Yellow pages, Kudzu, just to name a few; that is without considering the industry specific directories that must exist for your type of business. A good SEM plan* must include indexation to the following sites: Chamber of Commerce YellowPageCity.com 8coupons alike MerchantCircle ShowmeLocal YelloMoxie Best of the Web Yahoo Mapquest Superpages CitySearch GetFave ZipLocal Avantar CliqSearch Yelp Kudzu CitySquares Co-Pilot WhitePages YellowPages LocalPages Cricket USCity.net AmericanTowns.com elocal factual Local.com Manta MojoPages HopStop 411.com Switchboard PhoneNumber Navmii FourSquare Insider Pages Yellowise Patch EZlocal Topix Tupalo YellowBot *Search Engine Marketing. SEO is a portion of a SEM effort.

11 4.8 Site map development Site maps are XML files which contain a list of the pages of the website. A sample of an XML file is as follows: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <urlset xsi:schemalocation=" xmlns:xsi=" xmlns="  <url><loc> 13T02:22:37+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/index.html</loc><lastmod> T02:22:37+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/about.html</loc><lastmod> T13:34:05+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/services.html</loc><lastmod> T17:47:56+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/designs.html</loc><lastmod> T22:44:13+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/contact.html</loc><lastmod> T13:29:53+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/rpservices.html</loc><lastmod> T17:47:56+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc> solutions.com/application.html</loc><lastmod> T17:47:53+00:00</lastmod></url></urlset> There are two parts that are imperative for search engine indexation through sitemaps; page name (highlighted yellow) and latest update (highlighted green). Search engines are always trying to bring the most relevant and current results thus the importance of the last time that a file was modified; the most recent a page, the most likely to be bumped up in ranking. This is the

12 reason why many people create blogs. To keep ever changing content and threads that convert into higher relevance and rankings. This XML files are sent to search engines and most of the times they require for a few lines of code to be added to the source code of your main page. XML are very easily generated automatically by free online services. While the addition of code is relatively simple; it requires little technical skills and probably the use of a web development editor. It is not required but it will make the edition of code simpler.

13 5. What is SEM? Search Engine Marketing is the process of increasing traffic through search engines. SEM encompasses SEO thus it has a broader spectrum. While SEO focuses on the optimization of the website in order to make it appealing to search engines, practice that translate into more traffic; SEM uses a variety of strategies that are in many instances external to your site.

14 6. How do I sell my brand over the internet? SEO focuses on the work necessary within your site to increment Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) while a lot of the SEM efforts could be external. This increased visibility can be achieved by paid advertisements such as pay per click (PPC), pay per impression (PPI), paid inclusions; and non-paying ones such as link sharing, and cross references to your site. In the other hand, increased traffic does not necessarily mean more money in your pocket. Unless your main goal is to create traffic and become famous; you are likely to be in business to make money. Even non-profits need to direct their client to make contributions for their cause. Landing pages which will be explained in the next section are the main source of leads which can be converted to actual customers in the future; if not today by directing prospects to the correct course of action. 6.1 Landing pages Landing pages (lead capture pages) are in place as its name implies to direct your customers to either give you information, buy something from you or both. These are heavily armed with SEO tactics and lead generation strategies in order to increment your conversion rates and ROI. Lead capture pages will help you keep track of your paying clients as well as the ones that haven t bought anything. Yet. I have seen many one page websites which generate more leads and sales than many conventional sites. These pages are usually a complement for traditional marketing campaigns.

15 6.2 Marketing Campaigns Everybody knows (or at least they should) that you just can t send unsolicited s to a random list just because you bought it. Those s usually end up in the spam folder or deleted as soon as it hits the inbox. Why would you spam and have the risk of being reported when you can obtain legitimate leads (click 27) and promote your product to people that have shown interest in your product. Marketing campaigns are the logical next step for all the leads captured by your landing pages. The process should be no harder than sending a regular and in some instances they could be automatically generated. There are several organizations that will handle your marketing needs and your SEO provider can provide you with a customized solution. 6.3 Social media development, maintenance and links Social media is an undeniable source of new contacts for your business if applied properly. Presidents and other head of States have, and use regularly, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook says it now has 1.01 billion people using the site each month, consistent with a status update CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a few weeks ago to mark the 1 billion thresholds. (Press, 2012). With over a billion potential customers; who would let the opportunity of exposure aside? There are two types of Facebook accounts, personal and pages. Personal accounts are the ones that every user has in which they share their text stories, pictures and videos. Facebook pages

16 are designed for businesses which also want to gain exposure. Setting up a page is not much different or complicated than creating a regular page. Facebook has added sponsored ads and sponsored stories to their services. Sponsored ads can appear in the right-hand column of pages throughout Facebook. These ads may appear on many types of pages such as apps, photos, groups, pages, timelines, and the home page. Sponsored stories are messages which come from your friend friends that contain links about specific pages, applications or events that organizations of their liking which have paid Facebook to be shown. Due to space limitations and the scope of this booklet I m suggesting the following link if interest to find out more Twitter has the advantage of being short and concise. You must transmit your message in 140 characters (yes, characters not words). Twitter is the tool of choice when you want to create awareness of a special event and you want that message to be delivered fast. Twitter is also a great tool for posting links. Create the right attention grabber message and follow up with a link to find out more about it. Successful organizations twit one to two times a day. Less than that shows that you don t care; more than twice a day shows that you have nothing better to do than twit. Unless your organization can come with highly relevant content more than twice a day (like a newspaper) you should abide to these guidelines. Setting up a Twitter account shouldn t take you longer than 5 minutes.

17 7. Conclusion The purpose of this booklet was to educate customers with small businesses (and not so small) in the practices used to increment traffic, obtain leads and convert those visitors into clients of your own. With the concepts learned and the techniques of this book you can now have a website which is better positioned in search engine result pages thus allowing you to increase the possibility of reaching your goals; whatever they might be (sign up, donations, sales, leads, etc.) Many of the techniques presented in this book can be implemented by non-technical users. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, keyword research, business listings and content modification are some of them. In the other hand; landing page development, analytics, source code modification and Flash to JavaScript transition are some of the ones that need a SEO professional. Visit us at to find out which plan fits your organization needs or to request a customized quote. Our goal is to help you achieve yours thus your feedback is always appreciated. Let us know how we can improve this guide by writing to feedback@ljsolutions.com. May the SEO be with you!

18 8. References Press, T. A. (2012, October 23). Number of active users at Facebook over the years. Retrieved January 12, 2013, from inance.yahoo.com: