Webmaster Papers








Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy - Navigating the Dark Waters of Website Promotion


Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your internet marketing strategy that must be backed up with techniques designed to drive traffic to the website for successful, long-term results. You wouldn't consider opening a retail store in a major shopping mall without signage and you shouldn't consider having a nice looking website designed without expanding your web presence in order to be found on the internet. The following strategy overview is designed to bring about these results:

  • An attractive website that is complementary to your company image and provides your targeted audience with information about you, your company and your products and/or services
  • A website that creates a call-to-action in the form of purchase, contact, subscription or other commitment from your viewer
  • Create a successful marketing arm for your overall business promotion and marketing campaign to promote your business, products and/or services
  • Become competitive in your industry and marketplace by meeting or exceeding the industry marketing standards and attracting a qualified audience for your products and/or services via the internet
  • Generate and maintain or grow internet traffic to your website resulting in a conversion of traffic into sales of your products and/or services

This search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is composed of several processes in three stages.

Tier I

Website design is the foundation and beginning of a successful internet marketing strategy. It is true that several websites exist on the internet that are unattractive but seem to work. If there are aspects of these websites that work, imagine how well they could do if they simply followed basic design implementation tactics that resulted in a good image as well as simply pushed information out to the viewer. These basics are essential for Tier 1 success:

  • Good web design that complements the company image and offline marketing campaign products
  • Easy, logical navigation that leads the viewer deeper and deeper into the web of information provided by the website
  • Attractive but quick-loading graphics that are pleasing to the eye and meaningful to the website.

    • Keyword usage that is search engine-friendly:
    • Utilization
    • Placement
    • Frequency
    • Relevance

  • Coding that is lean, clean and without errors
  • Relevance of content to the theme of the site
  • Changing content that changes frequently
  • Content is king -- it's all about content, content, content

Tier II

Once the website has been created and published, many new website owners think that the project is finished. But in reality, the real work is just beginning. In order to create a money-making site, traffic must be generated and driven to the website. There are several effective methods that can be implemented in Tier II for this to occur. While all methods may not be required to see successful traffic generation, some combination of most if not all will probably be needed to create traffic, maintain traffic and finally, grow traffic to our website with long-term results. Consider implementing these strategies:

  • Dynamic content is necessary and by updating the website frequently the search engines see your website as active, not stagnant. How often should changes be made? At the very least, monthly. But the more frequent the changes, the better. There are some tried and true methods you may want to employ:

    • Monthly newsletter (or weekly)
    • Tip of the day that rotates to the page using a script from an existing database of information at your site
    • RSS feed to public news feeds that update hourly or daily at the least
    • Changes to contact information, staffing, clients, etc.
    • Checking the links frequently to make sure that they are active and valid
    • Simple modification of content from time to time should be done in between these regular maintenance tasks which will update the website

  • Good links management results in a positive weight given by the search engines for search positioning. The algorithms used for weighting one page over another require link popularity assessment for successful traffic to your website. Link popularity is also one of the main contributions to Google and Alexa Page Rank. How do you achieve link popularity? It can be tedious and requires careful attention to the selection of the links, but there are several means that can be employed:
    • Reciprocal Links - Search for relevant and desired web pages with which to trade links
    • Purchase Page Rank-based links to boost your relevance and weight in the eyes of search engines
    • List with directories, paid or unpaid that will give your website additional exposure
    • Create the links with link text in mind, designed to utilize relevant keywords
    • Link only with websites that have decent PageRank (PR); i.e., PR of 3 at a minimum, PR of 4 would be the ideal minimum
    • Blogs - web logs linked to your site or posting to popular blogs with your links included to point traffic back to your site; a good strategy is to employ pinging with the blog posting

  • Forums -- forum participation that allows you to leave your link with the intent of attracting traffic back to your site
  • Listing with the few free search engines and directories is essential although you won't see any results for months
  • Develop an email list subscription function on your site with the intent of sending e-newsletters and announcements on a regular basis. This subscription list can be used for several other campaigns, including the sale of advertising space on your newsletter.
  • Purchase sponsorship on other email lists where you can promote your product and/or services as well as get your website promoted in the process.
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns with Google and Yahoo Search Marketing where you purchase advertising space for keywords that are popular for your industry if you are not in a saturated market. If your business operates in a saturated internet market, seek niche keywords for your PPC advertising. Determine your budget first and from there, you will know how much you can afford for the positioning your desire. It's all mathematical:

    • Price Per Click = monthly budget/number of clicks or
    • Number of clicks = monthly budget/price per click

    Some combination of price and number of clicks will result from a well-designed and constantly monitored campaign. The important result to watch is the conversion rate. How many paid clicks convert into the desired result; i.e., new contract, sale of product, sign up for e-newsletter, etc.

Tier III

Finally, after the hard-core efforts that are directly related to generating traffic to your website, you will want to create follow-on, additional traffic that is under your control. Several methods exist for this strategy:

  • Taking the large list of ancillary keywords that relate directly or indirectly to your website, begin purchasing keyword related domain names that will be used to create traffic driving websites that point to your money site.
  • Setup satellite pages using the keyword domain names that are heavily populated and geared toward keyword designed to develop niche market traffic. As you develop niche markets that create new customers, you are going to be able to capitalize on those customers for the other products and/or services that your company offers by focusing on information sites that link back to your money site while informing and attracting these new customers.
  • Create links, backlinks and cross-links between the satellite pages and your money site, improving your link popularity for all websites, especially your money site.
  • Display articles or e-books related to your industry and place these articles on your websites being aware of the best location based on keyword dominance.
  • For long-term, viral marketing results, create articles or e-books that you will either sell on your website or offer to public domain websites where your link information must be retained for use by anyone else on the internet.

Monitoring

In order to determine if the SEO efforts are successful, you must monitor results of backlinks, PR and web trend statistics. There are many sources for generating this data as well as programs that will assist in these analyses. Whatever method you choose, whether it is using specific programs or setting up a spreadsheet for entry of data, be consistent in tracking the data. There will be fluctuations from day-to- day. You are looking for general, overall upward trends. Upward progress followed by maintenance of a strong position with slow, steady growth would indicate a successful SEO campaign.

Article written and copyrighted by Chesa Keane, TAO Consultants, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Website: http://www.computergoddess.com

RELATED ARTICLES


Beyond Search Engines
Some webmasters report that search engines account for 75% or more of their total website traffic. However, it's important not to become too dependent on search engines for new business. Achieving a top listing from a major search engine is becoming more and more difficult over time. The competition for top spots is intense and it's getting harder every day to get listed at all. Also more and more search engines are moving to a pay-per-click model, and paying for top listings may not be in your budget.
Search Engine Musical Chairs
News broke this week that Yahoo has purchased the Inktomi search engine for around US$235 million. This is an interesting development in the search engine industry that may impact greatly on exactly where sites get their traffic from. Another new development in the past few weeks is the change to the HotBot service but first, I'd like to look at the ramifications of the Yahoo/Inktomi deal.
Why Does The Link Page Have A PR Zero?
For beginners, link exchange campaigns can be a minefield of problems. For example, here is a question I was asked:
If Content is King, then surely Relevance is Queen!
There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the searchengine world of late and there are lots of conspiracytheories as to why these things happen.
The Role of the Robots.txt File to Improve Site Ranking!
Not many web master take the time to use a robots.txt file for their website. For search engine spiders that use the robots.txt to see what directories to search through, the robots.txt file can be very helpful in keeping the spiders indexing your actual pages and not other information, such as looking through your stats!
Meta Tags - An Important Part of Every Web Page
Meta tags are an absolute must from a search engine optimisation perspective, there are many mistakes that can be made by not including these or even trying to 'spam' the SE's using them so heres a quick summary of the three main ones:
An SEO Checklist
Would you like a checklist of the important steps to take in optimizing a web site? Well, here it is:
The Life Blood of Internet-Based Home Businesses...Search Engines
Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come to recognize the importance of search engines as a vehicle to attract potential customers.
Your PC can Contribute with Google Compute
Have you heard of the SETI Project? SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the project is operated by the University of California at Berkeley. SETI monitors and processes radio signals from space, looking for possible signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. SETI uses proprietary software to distribute computer processing power among all connected PCs participating in SETI project so that the radio signals can be processed faster and more efficiently. SETI effectively creates one big supercomputer from thousands of connected PCs across their network. Now users of the Google Toolbar can contribute to scientific research in much the same way, through Google Compute.
High Google Rankings: Frequency vs. Positioning
There's an assumption that the higher a ranking or positioning you have with major search engines; the more people will beat a path to your web doorstep. But based on my experience, that's simply not true! There's another factor that is just as important and may actually drive more traffic to your site.
The Fundamentals of Inbound Links
We have all heard that adding quality content to your web site will give the search engines a good idea of how to index your web site, it's a topic we covered in "Content, Content, Content" back in November 2004. But the secret to luring the search engines to your web site, and in part to improving your position within those listings is your inbound links.
Choosing a good domain name isnt always so simple.
So you need a domain name for your brand new internet business. You may even have some cool ideas for a new domain name combination that will really impress your friends. Question is, is your new domain name going to help your business or hurt it?
Gaining Link Popularity Techniques
Link popularity is very important these days for all websites since most major search engines look at link popularity has a tool for ranking your site in there search results as well as the quality of your websites content keyword wise. Link popularity is a great way to gaining targeted visitors to your website. This article is going to show you easy and free and effective ways to increase your websites link popularity.
7 Steps to Highly Relevant, Search Engine Friendly, and People Useful Web Site Content
The task is to build a Content Rich Search Friendly and People Friendly Web Site Quickly. These 7 Steps will show you how with about 10 Hours work you can build over 50 pages of rich, Search Engine relevant content for your web Site
10 Things to Expect from Your SEO Copywriter
From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing manager, the change exhibited by the Internet is profoundly exciting, yet profoundly disturbing. The information (and misinformation and disinformation) it offers, the business benefits it promises, and the rules it is governed by change at such a rapid rate that it's almost impossible to keep up.
Keep Your Content Fresh with this Quick and Easy Tip
Some of the Search engines want only original content. So if the Search Engine Get's to your web Page on your Site and realize they have already seen this Page they won't Index it again, This can be a real hazard if you submit Articles for free Re-Distribution. It is not only possible but highly probable that a site with a higher Page Rank then yours will get your page Indexed First.
Google Rankings ? Achieving a Top 10 Position in Google ? Part 1
Achieving a top ranking position in Google is every webmasters dream. Unfortunately very few ever make it high enough for it to make a big difference on their traffic volume. If you are one of the few to make it onto the Top 10 list, you have probably found out that your listing doesn't always stay on top. So, besides all the other advice online, it is also extremely important to under stand your competition, and to properly use their key words to your advantage. This article will be part one of a two part series. Below we will look at GoogleRankings.com and how this useful tool will help you in your quest to achieve a top listing within Google. Just as an addendum, we use these tools on a daily basis to achieve top 10 listings for our web properties.
Use Search Engines For A Guaranteed Web Site Promotion
For your web site to succeed, you must use is search engines optimization. Web sites definitely need top rankings in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN. The higher the ranking, the more likely viewers will come and visit your web site. Your site should stay in one of the top positions in the search engines to draw the largest amount of customers.
Search Warrant
So, you've just paid £300 - £10,000 for a new web site to be designed 'registered your URL' and now it's sitting on the World Wide Web. All your new stationery and Business Cards give the Web Site address quite clearly. The designer assures you that it has been 'submitted' to all the 'Search Engines' and, when you type in the address, there it is.
The Search Engine Showdown
If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search engine and you're loyal to it. You never use any others (which made this research difficult for yours truly), insist yours is the be-all and end-all and you even go so far as to deny any shortcomings it may have. But is your search engine truly the best? Inspired by a great article at the BBC News (BBC News: Search Wars), we decided to compare the major search engines. Here's what we found.