KISS SEO & Web Design

Strategies for Search Engine Success -- NPE 09 Presentation

2009-06-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I gave a presentation on search engine optimization (SEO) at NPE 09, the plastics industry's triennial tradeshow held at McCormick Place in Chicago. I got rave reviews on the material. Many plastics businesses don't understand the basic mechanics of how search engines rank web sites and what they need to do to get the visibility necessary to drive new business leads.

For those that missed it, here's my presentation:

Strategies for Search Engine Success

View more documents from Polysort.

Optimizing Foreign-language Web Sites

2009-06-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Optimizing a web site for foreign search engines isn't much different from optimizing for our English-language search engines.

Like Google here in the U.S., the search engine is quite popular around the world and now boasts more than 100 foreign language versions.

We recently built an optimized Spanish-language site for one of our customers. Within a month, the site has earned its way to the first page of more than a dozen Spanish-language Google sites, and the company now gets more than 10% of its site traffic from Spanish-speaking prospects.

Read the full case study on this foreign-language SEO project.

Case Study Shows Value of SEO to Industrial Firms

2009-05-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Although times are lean, many companies realize that pulling the plug entirely from their marketing efforts could impact their ability to bounce back quickly when the economy takes a turn for the better.

The key is deciding how most efficiently to spend a very limited marketing budget.

Last fall, Polysort/Pilot Fish began working with Champion Plastics, a plastic bag manufacturer, to improve the company's search engine placement. Champion had hired an ad agency to redesign the site, and the newly designed site failed to improve the company's search engine positioning, site traffic or leads.

Upon review by our staff, we discovered the site had been built in a way that blocked Google and other search engines from indexing it. We corrected the technical barriers and optimized the content. Within weeks, the company closed on a new customer that directly resulted from being found on Google. And, within three months, the company's site was performing for more than 60 important keyword terms.

All this happened in the throes of a terrible recession.

Champion Plastics' John Callaghan credited our company with his site's turnaround: “We got that customer as a direct result of the work Polysort did for us. Polysort was able to diagnose the site’s problems and provide a workable solution. We’re now performing on many variations of keywords that are bringing potential customers to our site.”

Read the full case study.

Polysort provides web design and search engine optimization to companies in the plastics and rubber industry. Our Pilot Fish SEO division serves industrial and B2B clients in other markets.

For assistance with your search engine placement, contact John Inama at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104 or fill this form.

Back to My Roots: I'm Speaking at NPE 2009

2009-04-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

I love plastics guys. Perhaps it's because of where I'm from -- Akron, Ohio. By the time the world of business had entered my consciousness, Akron was well in the throes of what would become a decade-long identity crisis.

Just months before I joined the staff of industry publication Tire Business as a reporter, Goodyear had fought off a greenmail attack by Sir James Goldsmith. Little did I know that that event would be the beginning of the end for tire production in Akron and our city as the Rubber Capital of the World.

One after the other, Akron tire giants fell to foreign ownership and the eventual departure to cities of better weather. General Tire to Continental AG, the combined Uniroyal and BFGoodrich to Michelin, and Firestone to Bridgestone.

The void that was left hasn't entirely been filled, but the plastics industry has done the best job of any other to take a position of prominence in our rubber-stained city.

During that time, I jumped ship as well, joining the editorial group that would launch the first plastics industry weekly newspaper -- Plastics News. As assistant managing editor of the publication from 1989 to 1995, I immersed myself in all things plastic.

I particularly enjoyed our work every three years in Chicago, when Plastics News would go full throttle to publish a daily newspaper during the huge U.S. plastics tradeshow NPE.

And so, here I am, 20 years and 1 month after the launch of Plastics News preparing to speak to the industry at NPE 2009. Ironically, this trip brings me full circle in more than one way. At the time I joined Crain Communications right after college, I viewed my stint at Tire Business as a short-term gig where I'd learn how to be a better writer before getting into my true area of interest -- public relations.

Little did I know that I'd spend 10 years in trade publishing, and then leverage that experience to help launch a PR-related business (web design and search engine optimization) to serve companies in the plastics and rubber industries. After leaving Crain in 1995, I spent my first week on the job at the Plastics USA tradeshow (at that time, the smaller sibling of NPE). I handed out diskettes that would help companies set up their first Internet connection and talked about how to get e-mail and why to develop a web site.

My how things have changed! And yet, how much they stay the same. I look forward to seeing many old friends in June and, perhaps, making some new ones. See you at NPE!

View info on my SEO speech for NPE 2009.

Trust the SEO Keyword Research

2009-03-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the most difficult things a company has to do is trust their brand image to an outsourced vendor. Whether it's an ad agency designing a print ad or direct mail piece or an SEO company creating optimized content, the tendency is to not trust the hired firm to be able to communicate to your customers and prospects what you think the message should be.

Too often we hear "You don't know our industry, or our products or our terminology." This may be true, but SEO firms do know research. And, SEO keyword research oftentimes shows that the client is not seeing the full picture.

For instance, people in the banking industry talk about ATMs -- Automated Teller Machines. A company that sells these units refer to them as ATMs. But, more than 70,000 people monthly search Google for "ATM machine" or "ATM machines". Clearly, it's a redundant term "ATM machines -- automated teller machine machines", but a lot of people are using it.

A banking client might advise that we can't use "ATM machines" as a term on our site because it's redundant and we'll look like idiots to the rest of our peers. But, who are you selling to, your competitors or prospects? Using that term speaks directly to what the customer is looking for, and if you're looking for new business, you're not going to shut the door on a customer who uses the wrong terminology.

The really cool thing about SEO that differentiates it from traditional advertising is that there is so much ability to track user behavior and to use this research to develop a successful web site strategy. The key is, keep mindful of the end goal and trust the SEO keyword research.

Learn more about how SEO keyword research works.

Some things are best left to the professionals

2009-03-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

When I win the lottery, I’m going to have my yard professionally landscaped and the interior of my house redecorated. With the Mega Millions lottery up to $212 million this week, lots of people are probably making plans for their sure winnings. As my husband and I discussed it last night, it occurred to me that we had a whole list of things we’d like to have done around the house. Not because we can’t do them ourselves, but rather because there are people out there with the talent to do them much better than we can and have.

Web design and search engine optimization kind of fall into those categories as well. Just as there are nifty landscaping and decorating tools we can use to make improvements at our home, there are lots of automated software programs that will help the Average Joe build a basic site or do some semblance of search engine optimization. However, without the knowledge of how to use what and when, Average Joe most likely will end up with a site that won’t perform on the search engines or convert visitors to leads.

Successful website design and search engine optimization aren’t about the tools you use. It’s about understanding the balance between graphic design and content; the content needs and requirements of search engines and site visitors; organizational and structural best-practices for user conversion; and the ins and outs of Internet strategy to stay ahead of your competitors. You can’t find those things in the help menu of a software program.

What's Good Content?

2009-02-24T12:07:00.001-08:00

When it comes to building a business web site, companies seem to be stuck on the basics: tell them who we are, where we live, what we sell.

That's really just Step 1. If you want your site to get some traction, and ultimately show up on the search engines, it really should contain information someone might find useful.

Here's an article that I thought gave good ideas on topics for a small business web site:

10 Link Bait Tips for Small Business Marketing

If SEO doesn't work, it's because you did it wrong

2009-02-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

As a company that launched the first plastics and rubber industry portal back in 1995, we're used to being ahead of the curve. We spend a lot of our time educating clients and prospects about the Internet technologies they can use to build new business. As a result, for the last several years, we've become accustomed to explaining the why's, what's and what for's of search engine optimization (SEO).

What's nice to see in the b2b space is that companies are finally understanding what SEO is, or at least have an understanding that it's something they should check out. At the same time, we're also beginning to talk with companies that have tried SEO already and have seen it fail, making them very skeptical about the process altogether.

Unfortunately, like any other industry, there are snake oil salesmen in the SEO industry. They're the ones that blast out the unsolicited e-mails offering to "put you on top of Google within the next half-hour", or to "submit your site monthly to thousands of search engines." Or, the ones that say they can guarantee you a position on Google and you don't really have to take any active role in improving your site, you just have to pay them money.

It's important to ask a lot of questions before you hire an SEO company -- the competent, reputable ones will appreciate your interest in learning more about SEO and will be happy to help you through the process.

Another reason that SEO can fail is that a company doesn't make a full commitment to the process. Some companies get way to focused on one aspect of SEO, blaming their site URLs, meta tags, keywords, etc., rather than making sure they've taken care of ALL the big things first. Usually, when an SEO project has failed, it's because the right amount of attention wasn't given to every aspect that's important to ranking.

What we usually find is that companies ignore incoming links -- it's difficult and time-consuming to do and so it gets pushed to the back burner. When their SEO doesn't work, they start re-examining the keywords, the site structure, the content, rather than addressing the most obvious problem -- lack of links.

I saw a blog post this week regarding SEO naysayers who claim SEO is snake oil. Check it out.

Importance of Finding an SEO-Friendly Web Design Firm

2009-02-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

As you consider a site redesign, it's important that you find a web design firm that's also skilled in SEO. Incorporating SEO right from the start of a web design project will save you time and money as many of the elements that will be built in the web design process are impacted by SEO efforts.

Read more about SEO-Friendly Web Design Firms in an article I wrote for Xemion.com.

The Land of Opportunity

2009-02-11T09:24:00.001-08:00

I picked up my son and his friends from school last week and one of them immediately plugged in an Ipod. Out blared Big Band music, circa 1940s! I couldn't believe my ears. Turns out they got turned onto it from a video game they were playing and downloaded the music.

Which got me to thinking: There is so much opportunity companies haven't yet leveraged for marketing purposes. The convergence of technology has created a land of opportunity, limited only by our own creativity and ambition.

Much of it will play out for b2c companies, but b2b firms should keep their eyes and minds open to it too. It took a while for people to realize all the different entry points that the Internet provided to a given website. Similarly, we're getting to a point where cellphones, MP3 players, computers and other Internet-enabled devices will easily share the same information. We just need to be creative in identifying the way businesses can utilize them.

You're Spending Too Much Time Online When...

2008-12-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

To bring some levity to our office on this dreary December day in Northeast Ohio, we had our staff come up with some funny observations on how they know they've been spending too much time online.

Read "You're Spending Too Much Time Online When..." from the staff of Ohio SEO firm Pilot Fish.

Include an SEO Firm in Your Site Redesign

2008-09-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Many companies operate under the misguided notion that a simple facelift or “freshening up” will improve traffic and leads to their web site. Although having a fresh look and new content are important to site credibility, a site redesign alone won’t improve your site’s performance on the search engines or get more eyeballs to your site.

As you begin your next site redesign, be sure to include an SEO firm in the process. An SEO firm will help make sure that the improvements you are making to your site at the minimum won’t hurt your search engine positioning and at best will improve it.

For example, although Flash adds a lot of pizzazz to a site, building a site entirely in Flash will render the content virtually invisible to the search engines, making it nearly impossible to gain top performance on important keywords. An SEO firm will help guide you on the best ways to use Flash so that it’s graphically effective, not a hindrance to your site’s search engine ranking.

Read about the important factors that a qualified SEO firm can help you with during the redesign process.

This Working Mom Won't Vote for Sarah Palin

2008-09-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Perhaps my headline is a bit strong given that I haven't heard Sarah Palin's VP acceptance speech yet. But, I have my doubts that her speech will put to rest any of my concerns with her candidacy.

I have no doubt that she is bright, capable and ambitious. Really, in 99% of the cases, you have to be for success in politics.

She's a woman, and working mom, with conservative values cherished by the Republican Party. That's where it starts to get sticky for me. I won't vote for a woman just because she's a woman, or a working mom like myself. I'm putting race and gender on the shelf when it comes to deciding who's most qualified. Rather, I'm interested in who is in best position to have my interests at heart.

One would think that Sarah Palin would be in the best position to understand the complexities of raising a family and balancing a career. That there are times in a woman's life when career ambitions have to take a back seat to the more pressing needs of family. That a true commitment to family values means direct involvement by both parents. That sometimes you have to say no to some great opportunities because right now your kids need you more.

That's where I have a problem with Sarah Palin. She's sending one son off to war, the youngest of her children, an infant, has Down's Syndrome, and her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Any one of these situations might give any parent pause when considering a life-changing career, but to have all three situations and think "Gee, this would be a great time to run for Vice President," seems cold at best, perhaps even mercenary.

It's hard to conceive that these issues will never create distractions for Ms. Palin. And, in any other job, in any other career, she'd be expected to deal with it and still show up to work. But, we're not talking about just any other 9-5 job. We're talking about being one heartbeat from the presidency with travel demands and schedule demands that make it impossible to be a dependable mother.

I feel the most sorry for her 17-year-old daughter. Sarah Palin's infant son no doubt will receive excellent care, albeit without much involvement from his mother. And her older son will take care of himself. But, her daughter seemingly is being thrown to the wolves. It's hard to imagine how much direct support Bristol will get from her mother while mom is jet-setting around the world. And, when it comes to the birth of a child, shouldn't it be Bristol's mom who the girl should be able to rely on for help?

I've never been offered the chance to be vice president of the United States, but I have considered opportunities that would have required a similar upheaval in my family's life. In the end, it became difficult to rationalize the sacrifice my family would endure for my own career ambition. That type of decision would seem to fall in line with the promoted Republican values.

Instead, Sarah Palin's decision to allow the her daughter to endure the limelight as a result of her candidacy perhaps is a more realistic example of the promise that Republican morals offer: Let's teach our kids only about abstinence and, when they screw up and get pregnant, force them into a teen marriage or onto welfare rolls, leave the child-rearing entirely to them, and then push for the death penalty when the young dad shakes the baby.

No compassion. No support. No help.

And, as far as I'm concerned, no vote.

Are You Infecting Your Customers' Computers?

2008-08-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

As part of our company's customer prospecting activities, our sales staff will routinely review a prospect's web site to learn more about the company before making contact.

Several times in the last few weeks, we've nearly become infected by computer viruses by sites that are infected just by visiting the web site. Fortunately, our anti-virus protection has enabled us to avoid catastrophe.

I often wonder how long it will be before the company will discover that their site is trying to infect everyone that visits it. I don't blame any company that becomes a victim of hacking as it can be difficult to keep up with all the new viruses launched. But, if a company's site has been infecting visitors for some time without the company knowing or addressing it, then that's a clear sign of web site neglect.

Every company should take responsibility for making sure that its site is functioning as intended by regularly reviewing it. From the standpoint of virus protection, that should happen every day by visiting the site. Applications should be tested once a month to make sure they're operational.

Having a site requires a proactive attitude toward marketing, customer service and site maintenance at a level that wasn't heard of in pre-Internet days. Not to make that adjustment hurts not only your company's ability to compete, but ultimately could damage the relationships you have with existing customers.

Quality SEO Services Focus on Three Areas

2008-07-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Given that Google and Yahoo regularly tinker with their algorithms, I thought it might be good to review the specific areas that are most important currently (summer 2008) in search engine optimization.

There are 3 primary areas that comprise SEO services:
-- Keyword Research
-- On-Page Optimization or SEO Copywriting
-- Off-page Optimization or Link Building.

Keyword Research is the process of identifying which terms are most used by the prospects you are trying to reach. Keyword Research not only evaluates the most popular terms, but also the competitiveness of those terms. Some terms might be too competitive for SEO purposes, making them more suitable for pay-per-click advertising. A good Keyword Research program will put together the best set of keywords for your site to generate the most and best quality traffic.

SEO copywriting involves incorporating the keywords into your site content, developing a site strategy that logically describes your business using those keywords and coding the site to emphasize the proper keywords.

Link building has become increasingly important and ignoring this area likely will result in a failed SEO program. Once you've identified your keywords and incorporated them into your site, it's important to find appropriate third-party sites that are willing to provide a link to your site. Trade publication sites, association sites and business directories are among the types of sites that can provide a valuable incoming link.

For more information about SEO services, contact Pilot Fish at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104.

Google Defines Change, Change Defines Search

2008-06-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if these words by American inventor Charles Kettering (developed automatic transmission, spark plug, safety glass, electric railway gate, among others) were etched above the doors at Google Inc.’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Google has single-handedly changed the way people locate information on the Internet. Every move it makes is studied, second-guessed and mimicked by its competitors. And, in the spirit of all great American inventors, the company is never satisfied with the status quo, always working on the next iteration of search that will make its site that much more vital in the research habits of Internet users worldwide.

And, true to Mr. Kettering’s quote, every time Google changes its algorithm, the world of Internet users and web site owners hates it. Hates it because for some businesses the hard-earned positions on the search engine suddenly drop off and with it, traffic and leads.

Once again, Google is going through an algorithm change, the results of which will be felt in the weeks to come. To help you understand what your business can do to weather these changes, I recommend you read this article on “What’s the Best Way to Deal with a Search Engine Algorithm Update?”

Check out some other quotable gems from Charles Kettering.

RSSHugger a Good Way to Learn about Blogs

2008-05-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still looking for a resource that lists blogs being written in the b2b and induststrial space, but I stumbled on one that lists lots of other stuff.

RSS Hugger is a simply laid out site intended to connect blogs with blog readers. For folks just getting started and wanting to see what other people are doing, RSS Hugger is an easy-to-navigate site that lists more than 1,700 blogs among more than 100 categories.

Check out RSS Hugger.

Questions to Ask Prospective SEO Firms

2008-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Not all SEO firms are alike. Unfortunately, because search engine optimization is a mystery to most marketing managers, it can be pretty easy to get bamboozled by an unscrupulous company offering you SEO services on the cheap.

To help you avoid that problem, which at minimum would result in money wasted on an ineffective campaign and at worst could cause your site to be banned by Google or Yahoo, I've created a list of questions to help you choose the right SEO firm and also have identified common mistakes that neophyte companies make when starting SEO.

You Can Manage Your Own PPC, but Should You?

2008-05-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

Search engines Google and Yahoo have created user interfaces that enable most companies to set up and manage their own pay-per-click advertising campaigns. But, in the end, your ad campaign is likely to be far more successful if you invest in having an appropriate agency manage it for you.

Not all PPC ads are created alike; there’s a trick to writing a search engine ad that entices search engine users to click yours ahead of others and a bigger trick to getting these prospects to take action once on your site.

Search engine marketing companies that employ experienced Internet copywriters are best suited to manage your pay-per-click campaigns to maximize the response rate. In addition to providing high-response ads and landing pages, your PPC manager also will invest time researching the best keywords for your campaign, and monitor performance regularly, making adjustments to ads and landing pages, keywords and campaign buys to improve overall effectiveness.

Recently, Pilot Fish began managing the PPC ad campaign for one client that had been running its own PPC ads. Within one week’s time, the click-thru rate had doubled and the client reported receiving four very promising leads.

Not only did we rewrite the ads, we advised them on the pages to use as landing pages (finding that they already had pretty good copy on their site) and made recommendations on how much to spend for each keyword.

We regularly review the results and will continue to advise the client on how to maximize their investment for best return.

This client is using PPC as a lead driver during the time that we redesign and optimize their site for better natural position on the search engines. The expectation is that once their site optimization is in full gear, we'll be able to use PPC to fill in the gaps.

How to Get the Website Redesign You Want

2008-04-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

The answer to the title above seems simple enough ... just tell the graphic designer.

However, when it comes down to it, it can be pretty difficult to describe to a graphic designer what you're picturing in your head. And, it's next to impossible when you really aren't sure what you want from your website redesign.

We've found that web site redesign projects are far more successful from the standpoint of customer satisfaction when the client provides a significant amount of detail about what they want. They don't have to draw it out for us. Rather, all we're looking for is a pretty good indication of their design preferences, which we then can use to create a unique design for them.

To help our clients communicate those preferences, we've created a list of design questions with sample sites. Check out the 20 questions to ask before starting your website redesign.

Tips on SEO Copywriting

2008-04-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

One of the primary reasons that companies outsource to SEO services firms is the knowledge they bring to the SEO copywriting process. Sites that are poorly written from an SEO standpoint face an uphill battle in gaining position at the forefront of search engine results.

To help you understand better the complexities of SEO copywriting, I've put together a comprehensive article on SEO Copywriting Tips for Google, Yahoo and Your Prospects. If you're committed to doing SEO on your own, this will give you an idea of what areas to focus on. If you're looking to outsource SEO, then use the article to determine which SEO services vendors are best capable to provide what your site will need to improve its search engine ranking.

Will PPC become an obsolete model?

2008-03-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

With the news last month that PPC clickers aren't the valuable customers that advertisers might have expected, will we see a major change in the revenue models of search engines?

According to a Feb. 2008 report on PPC click-through rates, 6% of ad clickers are responsible for 50% of display ad clicks. These clickers, tagged as "Natural Born Clickers" further erode the validity of pay-per-click models because of their demographics.

These clickers tend to be younger, in the 25-44 age bracket, and have lower incomes, less than $40,000. What that means, is that many companies that measure the success of their ad campaigns by the number of click-throughs, are possibly getting site visitors not able to purchase the products or services being advertised.

The study went on to imply that the sucess of an ad campaign, therefore shouldn't be measured by clicks, but rather than by exposure. If that inference sticks, might we see search engines revert to the old CPM model?

Optimization will Save the World!

2008-01-22T07:11:00.000-08:00

I'm all for optimization. I think we could better our lives, our economy, our environment and our web sites with optimization.

I looked up "optimization" on Dictionary.com, which defines it as “the fact of optimizing; making the best of anything” and “the condition of being optimized.”

I'm trying to do my part living an optimized life. My husband and I built a home using a geothermal energy system, so we're optimizing our energy use for heating and air conditioning.

I bought a hybrid car and have been trying to alter my driving habits to further optimize my use of petroleum.

A friend of mine is very health conscious; she's optimized carbs pretty much right out of her diet.

In each of these instances, the act of optimizing results in the use of less of something in order to be more efficient or gain a better result.

But, in the field of search engine optimization, the act of optimizing actually requires the addition of some things (i.e. fresh, optimized content, optimized meta tags, quality incoming links) as well as less of some things (i.e. less-complicated site coding, clean navigation).

If your company has a web site, it's important to have it optimized; not doing so only ensures that your site will be difficult next to impossible to find on the search engines.

Unfortunately, unlike the optimization examples above, in search engine optimization, doing everything correctly usually helps, but won’t guarantee the exact desired end result for every web site every time.

If it did, we’d call it search engine nirvana.

IT'S ABOUT KEYWORDS, STUPID

2007-12-04T06:34:00.000-08:00

I hate when people type their e-mails in all capital letters. It's hard to read, and shows little regard for the laws of English punctuation. Just call it a pet peeve of mine, as a former reporter and copy editor.

But, I decided to cross my own disdain for this practice and use all caps in this headline. Why? Because regardless of all the hype over how many and what types of incoming links a site needs to perform on the major search engines, success is first and foremost determined by identifying the right keywords and optimizing the web site for them.

Case in point: We recently worked with a client that runs an established company, a brand leader in its industry. As part of our research into the "Performance Keywords" by which this site would best drive traffic, we asked the client for their list of keywords. We do this to establish a baseline from which we do our research, and usually the client will get some of it right. They will be able to identify some of the money words by which Internet users are finding their site.

Usually, however, by the end of our research, we will have found a number of keywords they didn't give us that perform just as well or better than ones they are using. In this particular case, more than half of our recommended terms were ones they hadn't provided and that were not being used on their site. The result is that the site is not being easily found by many Internet users searching for sites like theirs.

Depending on the strength of the keyword, that can mean the difference in traffic of tens of thousands of visitors. Carry it through and it also means lost opportunity for sales.

Fortunately, the client expected as much. They'd been managing the site themselves for some time and had reached a point where they felt it was time to bring in the professionals in order to maximize the value of the site.

But, for many businesses, ego gets in the way of having the most effective web site. The client feels "they know their business, they know their customers" so they do their own interpretation of optimization and then wonder why it didn't work.

There are lots of things that can affect the success of a web site. Most people understand the relationship between search engine positioning and site traffic. But still too few realize the relationship between keyword selection and site traffic. Being No. 1 on a keyword that no one searches for might be good for the ego, but does nothing to drive sales.

Because no business likes to hear they lost potential business because the prospect couldn't find them, A SUCCESSFUL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION PROGRAM ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS SHOULD START WITH A KEYWORD RESEARCH PROGRAM.

Comprende?

Read more about what's involved in a Keyword Research project.

What you need to know about 2nd generation SEO

2007-09-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

DIY tools have made it really easy for companies to build their own web sites, but the increased complexity of getting your web site to appear on the first three pages of Google or Yahoo still favors having the professionals do it for you.

Just as companies learned that adding “tags” on their home pages was important, the search engines changed their requirements, making optimized content and inbound links more important to site performance.

In May, Google launched Universal Search, which incorporates site images and videos to the optimization equation. On top of adding these new elements to the search formula, Google also has made it more difficult to get your pages indexed at all. The company’s Supplemental Index is a way of limiting the total number of pages in the database that displays web results; the pages Google deems to be of lower quality are banished to the Supplemental Index, where they have little chance of being seen by search engine users.

Given Google’s continual fluidity, it’s tempting to say “To heck with them,” and optimize your site for Yahoo and MSN. Unfortunately, Google is the 800 lb. gorilla. In July, its marketshare was 53.3 percent, compared to 20.1 percent for Yahoo and 13.6 percent for MSN. So, not putting the effort to perform well on Google is pretty much a suicide mission for your web site marketing.

Continued developments in software have made it easier than ever for companies to build and host their own web sites internally. But, the lack of internal expertise in navigating search engine waters usually renders these types of sites completely ineffective, as though they don’t exist at all.