Introduction So you ve heard that search engine optimization (SEO) can help you make a lot of money on your website. But just what is SEO, and how is it implemented? According to Wikipedia: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid ( organic or algorithmic ) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. The goal of SEO is to: Understand your targeted consumers/market Identify the keyword phrases they use on search engines Match the content on your website to language of these search queries Build authority on the web for targeted, key concepts Achieve high search engine rankings for your targeted keywords Engineers design search engines to guide users to the most relevant content available. They want users to have a positive, useful experience. SEO develops websites that demonstrate to search engines and consumers that the site has information strongly related to the search query. When done correctly, you can earn a page one ranking for your targeted keywords. Once you attain high rankings, you can draw a great deal of targeted free organic traffic. With a well optimized and ranking website you can earn high ROI, but it takes time and effort to get there. 2
Keywords Research In his book Killer Web Content, web usability expert Gerry McGovern calls keywords carewords. This is an effective frame to have as you begin keyword research. On an ecommerce site like Big Commerce, you don t just want traffic. You want traffic from consumers that care about what you offer and want to buy it. From the beginning, keep in mind that organic search that drives conversions works because the website owner took the time to understand the needs of customers--and built the content around it. So where do you get information on the keywords your target audience uses? There are a number of free and paid services with tools that allow you to research and list words and phrases people actually use when they search. Try Google s Keyword Research Tool and Wordtracker s Free Keyword Tool. Say you sell coffee beans on your website. With these tools, you put in the search term coffee beans and the keyword tool will give you a list of related keywords and phrases. It is now up to you to analyze this list and discover keywords (carewords) that have a chance to drive profitable traffic to your website. 3
Long-tail vs. Short-tail The Internet game is competitive. It s unrealistic to expect to your website to rank for short, commonly used words, referred to as short-tail keywords. For example, the term pizza restaurant would be all but impossible to rank on page one for. But a phrase, like best pizza restaurant Denver Colorado is much more specific and therefore easier to rank for. This is an example of a long-tail keyword phrase. On a new website, try to rank for long-tail terms. You have a reasonable chance to get high rank for them, they re more specific, and they target the cares and needs of the searcher. Each page on your website including product pages can be individually optimized for specific, longtail phrases. The more variation you have with topics and related keyword phrases, the better your chance to rank on page one. Onsite Optimization Once you have your targeted keywords, it s time to start optimizing your website. You can begin with what is called SEO meta data: title, description, and keyword tags. Sounds like a job for techy nerds? It used to be, but the Big Commerce content management system makes putting this information in easy. The SEO Big Commerce interface: Title Tags Search engines use the title tag as a primary factor in determining what the content of the page is about. It is the title tag that appears as the link on SERPs. For example, a search query of snowboards for sale online SERP shows: [continued] 4
The blue link text is the title tag of the page. You are limited in how many characters you can include in your title tags. Google only reads and displays the first 65. Put keyword phrases into the title tag in a concise, targeted statement. It is important to note that search engines give more credit to the keywords at the beginning of the title tag. Therefore, write your title tag in such a way that your best keywords for the particular page you are optimized are leveraged toward the front of the tag. Let s look at the title tag of a BigCommerce store that is ranking well for its best keyword. The store is GetBoards.com. GetBoards is on page #1 of Google organically for the keyword phrase Twin Tip Skis, which is their top seller! This is GetBoard s homepage title tag at the time of this publication: Twin Tip Skis Freeride Skis Snowboarding Gear Skateboards GetBoards.com Notice that the best keyword is first, followed by other important keywords. Also notice that the store name GetBoards.com is last. It s best to place this last because it s the least competitive of the keywords and therefore does not need to be at the front of the tag. Ranking highly for your own store name is generally pretty simple as long as you have a fairly unique name. For more competitive store names you might consider putting it at the beginning of the title tag, at least until your store ranks highly for it. Once that happens, it can be moved back to the end of the title tag. 5
Description Tag In this tag, you can give a basic summary of what the page content is about. It s good to use this area like ad copy. Add in your main keywords in a compelling statement with a call to action that encourages the searcher to click onto your site. For example: Also note that Google will take content from the page itself and create the display description. Keyword Tag The keyword tag has little SEO value because of past abuse and keywords stuffing tactics. You can still add your individual keywords into the keyword tags, but because of the low SEO value it s not worth taking much time with this Meta tag as search engines do not acknowledge it. Creating Content Search Engines Love Content is central to website success. It s what visitors use to determine value and is used by search engines rank your website. Quality content has a direct connection to how well you are likely to rank--and whether customers from you. Here are some key points that will help you create great web content: Communicate to people. Original, well-written content not only serves human readers better, it is also recognizable by sophisticated search engine algorithms. Write specific, clear copy that is flavorful and persuasive. It keeps people from hitting the back button and gets rewarded by search engines. Avoid duplicate content. Search engines recognize and penalize duplicate content on both individual websites and across the Internet. Create original content on every page, and avoid using product descriptions or other content copied verbatim from other websites. 6
Use keywords and thematically related terms. Use the keywords and keyword phrases in the content you write. But do so naturally don t stuff the keywords. Search engines also understand terms that have thematically related meanings to determine the relevance of the site. For example, if you have a page about golf clubs and use the term putter, search engines recognize that the terms are related. You don t have to overuse the same keywords. Keep content current. Search engines value fresh content over outdated material. You can use the Big Commerce interface to update content on your pages (see below). Also, blogs are an effective way to create fresh content on a regular basis. Use keywords in headers and text based links. It s a good idea to break up your content into short sections with headers. Create text links to other pages on your website using the content creation tools. Include keywords in these because they re recognized as more important by search engines. This example includes the keyword phrase cool Christian T shirts in the header and a text link: Off-site Optimization Many factors influence your rankings that are external to your website. Some you can control, others depend on exposure and popularity of your site in the online community. Link Building Google computes how many websites link back to yours and the value of these links in a fraction of second. These links are referred to as inbound or backlinks. Acquiring links to a website takes time. One of the main factors is having a website with content which merits a link from another site. Search engines view links as a type of citation a signal that another website sees the content as valuable and therefore worth a link. Links have the most value when they are text based hyperlinks that use your targeted keywords. 7
Here are some other methods you can use to build links into your website: Submit articles and press releases. Write and submit articles or press releases and include text based links in the articles you write. These articles need to have informational value rather than be sales pitches. Other websites, blogs, and online publications can pick up the articles, giving you more backlinks to your site. Try Ezine Articles and PR Web. Request Links. You can request a link exchange from other websites where there is mutual benefit. Research websites that relate to your site, and request the opportunity to place a link or write a guest blog articles where you can include a text based link back to your site. Social media, forums and blogging. Participate in the Internet community. Link back from Twitter and Facebook. Read blogs, join online forums and make comments with a links back to your website. Buy links. Take care with this practice. There a services that allow you to buy links, but often they end up coming from irrelevant sites and don t carry much value. Also, if links are added too quickly, you may end up being penalized. Google Product Search and Merchant Center For online sellers, Google Merchant Center and product search are an opportunity to expose your product pages directly to shoppers. When you go on Google, you ll notice that you can narrow your search by selecting shopping. The Merchant Center allows you to upload your product listings to be used for Google Product Search, Google Product Ads, and Google Commerce Search. You can include pictures, descriptions, pricing, and ordering information. Many of the same on-page SEO techniques described above will influence how well your products rank for search queries. Google Product Search is important to online sellers because it categorizes the searcher as a shopper. Usually these searchers are farther along in the buying cycle, which translates into more convertible traffic. Learn more at the Google Merchant Center. Similar free product search engines include: [continued] 8
The Find ShopWiki.com These offer a mix of free and paid services, and offer easy to follow merchant sign-up instructions. Measuring and Optimizing Your Success Google Analytics Google Analytics is a free analytics tool designed to give you a complete view of the activity on your website. SEO is virtually never a one-hit wonder. You must analyze your traffic and modify your website content and marketing efforts accordingly. With analytics data, you can find more profitable keyword phrases and revise content to better engage visitors. Areas you can analyze include: Traffic Sources Keywords Visitor Navigation Patterns Conversion Goals/Funnels Content Overview Ecommerce Goals (tied to Adwords) The tool is complex but intuitive to use. The Dashboard offers a quick overview: 9
You ll have to take some time to learn all the intricacies of this powerful tool. Google offers training at: http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_ type=indexsplash&rd=1 Google Webmaster Tools Google Webmaster Tools allows you to get information on how Google views your website. It gives information to ensure your sitemap has been crawled and displays errors found when reading the site. You can control the crawler, block URLs, and get traffic stats. You can test to see if your site is coming up for specific search queries. When you create a new product page, you can see how many people link to it and get data on what products are most popular. Webmaster tools also checks your site for malware, and will send email updates if a problem is discovered. You can learn more and submit your site at: http://www.google.com/webmasters/ Bing has a similar service at: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster/ Evaluating and Hiring an SEO Firm All of this SEO work may sound daunting. Or at the very least time consuming. That s because it is. Learning how to optimize your website and then carrying out that work is a job unto itself. And while you should at least be familiar with the concepts and tools that are primary to SEO, you may prefer to leave the work to an expert and use your time to focus on running your business. This can work well, provided you hire a reputable, competent SEO firm. Here are some of the main things to look for when shopping for SEO services: Realistic Expectations. If an SEO firm makes guarantees about hitting page one in a week or that you re going to get rich without doing any work, it s a red light. They are either lying to you or planning to cheat the system (called black hat SEO) to get results a practice that can get you sanctioned by search engines. Experienced SEO firms talk long term goals and set realistic expectations based on analysis and data. 10
Top Notch Keyword Research. Talk to your SEO firm about how they do keyword research and how targets are established. Work with a firm that recognizes the importance of targeting longtail keyword phrases and offers consultation time to analyze your target audience. Make sure the goals for different pages on your site are established and that keyword phrases that express buying intent are focused on with your product pages. You don t just want traffic you want profitable traffic. Proper Link and Directory Strategies: Beware of SEO firms that offer to submit your site to hundreds of online directories or use link brokers to build a large quantity of links fast. These are ineffective short cuts. Instead work with a firm that uses high merit content both on and off site to help build links, and submits your site only to valid business directories like: Yahoo Business Directory Business.com The Best of Web Directory Use of 301 Redirects. If you are doing a site redesign or changing your domain, make sure your SEO understands and plans to use 301 redirects. 301 redirects tell the Internet that your website moved, and redirects old pages to new. If this step is skipped, you can lose search authority and links from your old site. Big Commerce includes 301 redirect functionality. Complete Onsite SEO. Make sure your SEO discusses and gives you the opportunity to do complete onsite SEO. A bit of keyword research and a few terms plugged into the title tags are not going to be enough in a competitive marketplace. Optimization should include Header tags, Alt tags on images, proper keyword density in copy, image captions, and keyword rich text links. Great Content. Search engines match the search query with the content on the page. Work with an SEO firm that helps you develop effective content that both search engines and people love. For ecommerce sites, this must be matched with an expertise in sales copywriting that develops your brand, is persuasive, and ties into conversion goals. Ongoing Marketing and Analysis. SEO, ultimately, is a process not just a project. After the keyword research and onsite optimization, the focus turns to link building, social media optimization, creating fresh content, and analyzing your keyword strategy. Work with a firm that understands this process and can stay with it for the long haul. What can I expect from SEO? Whether you do the work in-house or hire an SEO firm, organic search is not an exact science. Even 11
when best practices are followed, there are no guarantees. In the end, the search engines control how you will be ranked. Realistic expectations are based on the fact that search engines want to see the slow, steady, natural growth of your website. It s that type of growth that will ultimately pay off. As you develop authority and relevancy for your targeted topics, rankings will increase across your site. But even for the most specific keywords, don t expect instant results. Most new websites take at least a few months to see results from organic search, and more general or competitive keyword terms can take more than a year (even years) to achieve high ranking. A well-designed Big Commerce site and a solid SEO plan will give you a solid chance to beat your competition. With the right strategy and the agility to modify based on data, you can clearly target and dominate--your market. Other Resources: SEO Sites: SEOMoz: http://www.seomoz.org/ SEO Book: http://www.seobook.com/ Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/ Books: Search Engine Optimization, A Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing; By: Kristopher Jones, 2008 Killer Web Content; By: Gerry McGovern, 2006 Yahoo! Style Guide, The Ultimate Guide for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World; Chris Barr and the Senior Editors at Yahoo!, 2010 12