I often get asked to search engine optimize sites that have been built and deployed already. These projects actually take more work and resources to optimize than if the site was being built from scratch and tend to be strategically flawed sales funnels in internet marketing. SEO should start before any line of code is written, design considered or site map developed. SEO starts immediately after target demographics are defined and personas are developed. Why should SEO be started before the other steps above? The reason has to do with the on-page factor we in the SEO and internet marketing world call Keyword Themes.
Put yourself in the shoes of a search engine and consider what a website looks like to a search engine spider while the site is being indexed. Search engine spiders are looking at source code. What is in source code? A whole bunch of letters, numbers and character strings that tell web browsers what and how to display a website and its functionality. Many internet marketing professionals are not programmers and tend to forget this.
Search engine spiders keep track of every character string it's confronted with and the number of times they're presented. This process creates a ranked list of words for every page and is critical for SEO. The words at the top of this list (1, 2, 3, etc.) are that page's keyword theme according to the search engine. Each word is assigned a significance based on the search engine spider's perception of several on-page factors (i.e. placement, repetition, Page Title, Header Tags, Bolding, Alt Tags, etc.). Once a search engine has spidered more than one page and determined the pages keyword themes it can combine the ranked keyword lists from all of the pages it's spidered to determine an overall website keyword list. This final list shows your website's keyword theme. Google's Webmaster Tools reports on website keyword themes:
Because of keyword themes it is very important to do a keyword workshop to create a list of keywords your potential customers may type into the search engines. These keywords allow you to predefine what every page's theme will be and what the overall website's theme for SEO will be before it goes live. Assign a primary keyword or phrase to every page on your website. This assignment will drive all of the content on that page. Otherwise, you're crossing your fingers and hoping Google ranks you for those keywords. That is not SEO.
In order to convince the search engines that a particular phrase should be the overall website theme it is important to make your homepage's primary keyword phrase the secondary keyword phrase for the rest of the pages in the site. That way the overall keyword theme is well represented throughout the website and your SEO attempts will have a better chance for success.
Websites that are optimized after they are developed tend to have multiple pages with no real SEO value or don't fit within the keyword theme strategy. These pages actually hurt your SEO and chances of high rankings because they dilute your overall website's keyword saturation with meaningless words.
Always keep in mind the number one rule of SEO: Whatever you do on your website you do it for the user first. The biggest mistake I see people make when executing any type of SEO strategy is to "skirt" the system.
If you follow the ten simple steps below Google will have a clear understanding of what your website is all about. Whether or not Google defines you as "most relevant" (#1) is truly up to you. If you write high quality content and follow the rules below you will have one third of the SEO equation solved (Programming, Keywords, Backlinks).
When Search Engines spider the content of your website they ascertain a lot of information. When they are done they determine a "theme" for every individual page and an overall "theme" for your website. This is important to know because search engines define your theme based on the individual words and word combinations on the each page. They also look at backlinks, but that is another article. Self-defining these themes is called on-page SEO.
So, in order to plan a successful SEO strategy a Site Map and Keyword Workshop should be done before any development takes place. There are dozens of free keyword tools out there on the web, but I recommend Google Keyword Tool for SEO research.
Once you have done your Keyword Workshop and Site Map identify a primary and secondary keyword phrase for every page. You can have more, however you run the risk of over saturating your page and Google assigning an incorrect theme to that page or overall website. Here is an example for an internal eCommerce page of Web Design Fort Wayne.
Primary: eCommerce Secondary: Web Design Fort Wayne
The primary keyword phrase should be different for every page. However, your secondary keyword phrase on all internal pages should be the primary keyword phrase for your home page. Your company name should never be a primary keyword phrase. If someone is looking for your company online they will find you. Below is an example from Google Webmaster Tools showing what Google believes is the overall SEO theme for Web Design Fort Wayne.
2. Every page should have over 250 words and less than 1000 words for effective SEO. If you find that you need more than 1000 words for a page then consider creating subpages to break up the content. Any words over 1000 Google does not index, but ignores.
3. Your primary keyword phrase should be in the first line of your content, the middle of your content and the last line of your content for SEO.
4. Also, you want your keyword phrase to show up at a 3 - 7% saturation ratio for each page for SEO. I recommend downloading SEO Quake. Once you have it installed, just click the density link on the menu and it will give you a report similar to the below example.
5. Include one Heading 1 Tag with your primary keyword phrase on each page above the pages content. The word eCommerce is the primary keyword phrase that has the H1 Tag. It's a bigger font, bolded above the content and is important for SEO.
6. Make sure your page titlesare keyword rich and every page has a different page title for SEO. Google will "punish" you if you have identical page titles. See Optimizing Page Titles for SEO. In addition, don't use words that do not matter for searches (ie. a, an, the, Home Page, my, your, best, overview, industry, etc.). This will negatively effect your SEO. Here's an example:
7. Put your primary keyword phrase on pictures usingalt text. It's the words that pop up when you hover over an image with your mouse. These keywords become even more relevant to Google when you place the image in close proximity to the actual keyword in your content for SEO. Warning: Do not "Keyword Stuff." Make sure that the words are relevant to your content and the image.
8. Meta Tags
Google does NOT use the keyword meta tag for ranking. This tag has been overly abused in the past and is not a very good SEM tool these days. However, other search engines use them and should you choose not to include them or have identicle Meta Tags you can have your SEO efforts dinged. Having said that...here's a loose list of things to remember:
Limit Keyword list to no more than 20 targeted phrases of two or more words.
Separate using comma with no spaces.
Avoid repeating keywords more than 3-7 times
Repetition up to 3 times is ok, just don't place them one after the other.
Limit it to 1024 characters. List keywords in order of importance. Don't repeat the same keyword more than 7 times.
9. Meta Description
Limit your Meta Description to 65 - 150 character spaces.
Google wants the Meta Description to accurately represent the web result. They frequently prefer to display meta descriptions of pages (when available) because it gives users a clear idea of the URL's content. This directs them to good results faster and reduces the click-and-backtrack behavior that frustrates visitors and inflates web traffic metrics. Keep in mind that meta descriptions comprised of long strings of keywords don't achieve this goal and are less likely to be displayed in place of a regular, non-meta description, snippet. And it's worth noting that while accurate meta descriptions can improve click through, they won't affect your ranking within search results for SEO. See the snippet below.
10. Bolding
Some keywords can be bolded to point the search engines in the right direction for SEO. When you are writing your web content you will probably want to stress a certain word or two. Bolding a word to make it stand out doesn't carry the same weight with search engines like a Heading tag would. Don't discount it though, because it does matter.
Any time you stress a word and make it stand out you are also stressing that word to the search engines. Using Bold Text should be done only when it fits into the flow of your content. Over bolding your content can detract from the overall look of your website, make users think you're yelling at them and have a negative effect on your SEO.
Digital Hill Launches Granite Ridge Social Media Infrastructure
FORT WAYNE, IN, March 04, 2010 - Granite Ridge Builders, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has chosen Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. for the design, development and deployment of their forthcoming Social Media marketing campaign. Granite Ridge Builders is the largest home builder in Northeast Indiana and has been in the home building business over 35 years.
Granite Ridge Builder's new social media marketing campaign aims to reach out and educate the residence of Northeast Indiana on the home building industry utilizing today's preferred Internet medium - social media. Granite Ridge Builders is deploying Digital Hill's Social Media Infrastructure program in order to engage users of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Blogs. Feel free to visit Granite Ridge Builders on these sites in the near future for valuable information about home building. Visit their website for further information www.graniteridgebuilders.com.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Social Media, Web Hosting, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
The Rule of 1, 3 and 7 in Internet Marketing & Website Design
Every website and internet marketing campaign should have one major measureable goal. Once this goal is defined a strategy can be developed and tactics can be deployed. The key to this goal is the word measurable. Sometimes, when I take on a new client, they begin by telling me how they want an "informational" website only. For starters, all websites are informational, and second, informational is not a measurable goal.
It takes a measurable goal to correctly determine ROI. An example of a measurable goal for a non-ecommerce website might be to grow the email data base by 50% over the next six months, or to increase the number of web-tracked phone calls by 75% in the next quarter.
The Rule of 1
If your goal is measurable then the Rule of 1 applies. The biggest boldest callout on the whole website should be some form of email capture or web-tracked phone number based call to action. This could be done via a robust Contact Us, UVP, moral bribe or portal strategy. Otherwise, you're just hoping your website visitor is compelled enough by your content to look for your contact us link, click on it, and fill out your form.
The Rule of 3
This rule is comonly utilized as a segmentation best practice in internet marketing. Segmentation strategies using the Rule of 3 clearly highlight three specific paths that a visitor can take that will help that visitor solve a problem. More than three paths can be presented, but the callouts should be clearly grouped in threes or less and be cleary separate from the other groups.
Below is an example of the Rule of 3 and the Rule of 1 on the same website. You'll notice there are 5 destinct major paths a visitor can take. The first three, Laser, Optical and GPS represent segmentation to convert a visit into a sale. The other two callouts are for lead capture and survey equipment services which are secondary goals. Therefore, they are cleary separate from the three major segmentation paths. This was done utilizing design, color and shape differences.
The Rule of 7
Ever wonder why phone numbers have seven numbers? It's because the average human mind can remember, handle and digest up to seven numbers at once. This same idea holds true for websites and throughout internet marketing. Never present a visitor with more then seven callouts or links of equal weight to sort through. Your site will suffer from poor click-through rates because visitors don't have the patience to sort through all of the information you're trying to present them with. You can present more then seven paths but they must be cleary presented in groups of no more then seven. This can be done utilizing headings, design, color and shape differences.
During my Internet Marketing career I've been fortunate enough to work with and be exposed to many different companies, agencies, designers and internet marketing professionals. Some of which are considered international leaders in the internet marketing community while others talk a mean game, but fall very short on results. Each and every person has their own idea of what makes a successful website. This experience has allowed me to test and verify dozens of concepts and ideas on the best way to design a website that converts as many people as possible.
What I've found isn't rocket science. It can be summed up in one word - Simplicity. Less truly is more. Unfortunately, most web development companies want to sell you a big bloated website with lots of pages, functionality and links because they can charge more for it. Even if it's a detriment to your website conversion performance. The below concepts are so obvious it baffles me when internet marketing professionals ignore them.
People go to the web for two reasons only:
To be entertained or to solve a problem -> QUICKLY.
1. Establishing the number one goal of the website and making it the biggest eye catching callout on the homepage.
If your core competency is plumbing then there should be a big fat "Schedule Your Plumbing Appointment Today" callout, or something to that effect, and not a small text link that is buried in a list of a bunch of minor services you provide. This callout should present a phone number and contain a link to a contact page or an actual form on the callout to capture email addresses. Why is email capture so important? What other "tangible" asset can a non-ecommerce website provide a plumber? Email addresses have a monetary value and by having a visitor's email address you keep them in your sales funnel until they opt out.
2. In less than a second it should be completely obvious what the website is for.
Whether this is done graphically, with large text or both, it is critical that a website visitor knows exactly what they can expect from a website within .6 seconds. Also, don't use industry jargon to communicate this message. Remember, your visitors have a problem and they've gone to your site for a solution. If they understood your jargon they wouldn't be on your site. This message should be displayed above the fold. Flash can be used, but correctly and sparingly.
3. Don't try to make your website everything to everybody and stick to your core competencies.
This will frustrate your visitors because they'll easily get lost in all of the navigation you present them with. You only have four seconds to get someone to click on a link. Most website's function like sales funnels, but if that funnel has 50 different entry points on the home page you'll cause the visitor to have to sort through them. Drop down navigation is notorious for this. Remember, people are on your site for entertainment or to solve a problem. Most companies are in the business of solving problems so solve them quickly without making your visitors hover over 10 drop down menus to figure out where they need to go.
4. Offer and test UVPs and/or Moral Bribes.
If you have a non-ecommerce website and don't have a unique value proposition or moral bribe than you are basically crossing your fingers and hoping the phone rings. What if that person never goes back to your site? If you would have collected their email address with a UVP or moral bribe you could continue to market to that person whether they go back to your website or not. If someone is on your website because they have a problem than offer them something of unique value to help them solve their problem in exchange for an email address. Never expect the classic, "sign up for my newsletter" to significantly grow your email database in internet marketing.
Digital Hill Multimedia is pleased to announce the launch of a new website for a Elkhart County business, New Energy Homes. Click here to see the New Energy Homes site.
This new web design with a Content Management Solution (CMS) and custom photo gallery enables New Energy Homes of Nappanee (Elkhart County) to showcase their innovative Green Building services and the work they recently completed on a Net Zero Model Home.
The website features a robust manager area enabling New Energy to add pages, add content, insert YouTube Videos, and easily add new galleries and images to the website.
At left is a screenshot of the New Energy web design. New Energy is building green homes in Elkhart County and is expanding nationwide. Part of the well-known Elkhart County business group Borkholder Corporation, New Energy was started in 2009.
Digital Hill Multimedia is pleased to be the local web design provider serving Elkhart, St. Joe, and surrounding areas.
Whether you are in Elkhart or nationwide, Digital Hill can provide professional web design and Internet Marketing services.
1. Miniature golf, Par 3 courses, 18 hole golf courses - The keyword phrase you're going after determines what type of course you're playing on. Coming up number one on Google for the phrase "New York" would be like playing in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club and winning. However, going after the phrase "Ligonier grocery stores 24 hours" is like playing on your favorite miniature golf course, quick and easy.
2. A perfect game is impossible - Nobody can hit 18 hole-in-ones in a row. But, just like golf, in SEO you just have to play better than the your competitors to win. In SEO, your competitors are the organic links on the first page of Google.
3. Teeing off, Short Game, Putting. A good 300 yard drive reminds me of a website launched with its on-page SEO factors carefully crafted with keywords put in all of the right places. That's exactly how you want to start a round. However, you still can lose if you don't pay attention to your short game (off-page factors) or putting (programming).
4. Sand Traps - Sometimes good SEO and internet marketing professionals accidently get websites caught up in bad keyword neighborhoods, link farms or even red flagged by Google. This is a result of losing focus and being sloppy.
5. Mulligans, Blackhat, Cheating - SEO is no different than golf: People cheat. If they get caught Google will throw them out of the SERPs. Golfers get tossed from the tour.
6. Golf Equipment, Instruction - Ever try to shop for golf equipment online? There's thousands of items available for sale that allow you to play the game or improve your game. SEO and internet marketing is no different.
7. There's no guaranteed winner - Nobody can guarantee results in SEO just like nobody is guaranteed to win in golf. However, some people and companies can have a pretty good record of SERP placement over time. If you're going to invest, invest in a solid track record. I usually bet on Tiger Woods.
8. Keyword Research, Mental Game - How often do you hear that golf is a mental game? Even the best players in the world can have a poor round if their head isn't in it. I've seen lots of SEO professionals do everything right in SEO, but fail because they chose the wrong keywords to go after. Doing good keyword research and preparation for SEO and internet marketing is like having your "mind in the game" in golf.
9. Getting good takes time - Nobody steps on a golf course for the first time and plays like a pro. SEO is no different. Depending on the keyword you're working on, it could take 12 or more months to see first page placement in Google. Patience is a requirement in the SEO business.
10. Basketball is a sport, but it's not golf - Don't expect your web designer or IT programmer to get your website to the top of the SERPs. SEO is a completely different sport. Nobody would expect Charles Barkley to beat Vijay Singh in a tournament.
11. Golf Carts, Cigars and Beer - What do these have to do with SEO? Not much, but believe it or not, SEO professionals are not a bunch of computer geeks that don't like to have fun. If you don't believe me, attend a search conference or internet marketing after party. . .
FORT WAYNE, IN, February 24, 2010 - Chad H. Pollitt, a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will one of four panel members discussing social media marketing and its business benefits in "Social Media Explained."
Also appearing is Eric Hall of EH Design, Scott Howard of ScLoHo Marketing Solutions and Jean Bansemer. The social media marketing panel will meet Wednesday, February 24th at noon and is open to the public as a brown bag lunch event. There's no cost to attend and door prizes will be given away. The event is sponsored by OurSpace, LLC located at 825 S. Bar Street in downtown Fort Wayne.
Reviewed by the panel:
Small business applications
Personal Branding
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Seats for the panel discussion are limited so reserve your seat via RSVP: ourspacefortwayne@gmail.com.
Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco's prestigious School of Business and Management. Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been a guest lecturer, blogger, keynote presenter and featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Web Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
Digital Hill has added new "How To" videos on youtube.com/digitalhill. These How To videos show how to use our Digital Hill Content Management System (CMS). You can check out our new videos by going to www.youtube.com/digitalhill See How easy it is to self manage your own website.
What is a Page Title and why should you use it for SEO?
A Page Title describes the contents of your web page in one line and is very important for SEO. It's likely to appear in search engines' results and in bookmarks. It's also the first thing a search engine's spider sees on your page. Since your page title will be seen by both readers and search engines, it's particularly important. The most important keyword phrase for my business is "Fort Wayne Web Design." Below is a Page Title example using "Fort Wayne Web Design."
HTML Page Title of "Fort Wayne Web Design:"
Here's what the Page Title "Fort Wayne Web Design" would look like on Internet Explorer:
Here's what the Page Title "Fort Wayne Web Design" would look like in a Google search:
Your title is the most important part of your page as far as search engines are concerned and SEO. Google, Yahoo and Bing also support the page title tag and place a lot of importance on keywords that appear inside it. Here are a few tips on how to make your page title tag more appealing for both SEO and people.
Using keywords in your Page Title
Don't just make your title the name of your company. It's far more important for a page title to contain targeted keywords for SEO. Although you may include your company's name, including keywords should be your top priority. So, instead of "Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc.," try "Fort Wayne Web Design - Digital Hill" for SEO
Though it's important to include keywords, you shouldn't just make a list of all the keywords you come up with. Rather, try to include them to market your services. Avoid using common words that search engines are likely to ignore, such as "home, overview, best, etc." Additionally, geography can be very important. Users tend to search with the name of the nearest metropolitan center in the search query. If you only do business in Fort Wayne it should be included in your title. For example: "Fort Wayne Web Design - Digital Hill"
Your Page Title's Length
Although all search engines allow up to 150 characters, they will only display 80 characters or so in their results listings. To make sure that browsers and search engines display the titles of your pages correctly, limit your title to about 80 characters. Also, the more words in the page title the more diluted you primary keywords become.
The Importance of Keyword Proximity
Keyword Proximity refers to the distance between two related keywords in SEO. Generally speaking, the shorter the distance between two targeted words, the better that page will rank for that primary keyword phrase in the major search engines, all other variables being equal. As an SEO example, consider the heading or title "We sell engines that are remanufactured for all makes and models of trucks made by Ford Motor Company."
18 Words
4 Key Words - 22% keyword Density
2 Key Terms - Fragmented
The SEO keyword combinations to consider here are "remanufactured engines" and "ford trucks." Notice the distance, or proximity, between the keywords "Ford" and "trucks", the distance between "engines" and "remanufactured", and the distance between the two key phrases in relation to each other. These factors are very important to consider, especially the distance between Ford and engines.
To optimize the phrase "We sell remanufactured engines for Ford Motor Company Trucks, including all makes and models" for keyword proximity, two SEO concepts need to be addressed: keyword prominence and keyword dilution.
Keyword prominence in SEO refers to the position, sequentially, of a keyword or phrase in relation to the rest of the text in any given area. In SEO words at the beginning of a tag, section, paragraph, heading or area are assigned a greater value than those occurring at the middle or end. Keyword dilution in SEO refers to the effect of text in the given area that is not directly related to the key terms being targeted, or the effect that targeting multiple keywords or phrases has on each other.
Consider "Remanufactured engines for Ford Trucks." Remanufactured engines has a greater keyword prominence than Ford Trucks. Considering that there are 4 non-stop words ("of" is a stop word that will be ignored accept in cases of exact searches) and two key phrases, the density of each phrase is 50%. The keywords are diluted by 1/2. In the case of "Remanufactured Ford Truck Engines," Engines is reduced in importance, Ford gains in importance and remanufactured still has the greatest prominence. Our end SEO title, by applying both prominence and proximity looks like this:
Remanufactured Ford Truck Engines - all makes and all models. To increase keyword density for SEO, thus reducing the dilution, the "all makes and models" can be removed; this is logic filtering (removing irrelevant text to reduce dilution and increase key term density for SEO).
Variations for key term breadth:
Ford Truck Engines - Remanufactured
Engines, Ford Trucks: Remanufactured
Remanufactured Engines - Ford Trucks
The keyword density in this title would be 25% for each word, which is excellent, as each word is part of a targeted term for SEO. The density of the key phrases is 50%, i.e. "remanufactured engines" and "Ford Trucks." The three variations above could be used to improve the key term density in the body of the page without repeating the keywords in the exact same manner. If the site theme were remanufactured engines, then the page title: "Remanufactured Engines - Ford Trucks" or any logical variation would be ideal. If the site theme were Ford Trucks, then an ideal page title would be: "Ford Trucks - Remanufactured Engines." If the site theme were engines, then an ideal page title would be: "Engines, Remanufactured - Ford Trucks." Proper SEO web copywriting and technical writing addresses all of these issues as a logical step in the writing process for SEO.
Your Page Title's Appearance
Don't use all CAPS in your title. Search engines hate it and it's difficult for users to read. No one like to be yelled at and it's a bad SEO practice.
Marketing/SEO Copywriting
Aside from containing keywords, your page title needs to interest your reader in the material on your site. If you're a webmaster with no previous marketing experience, you might want to get some help in this area from a copywriter or someone in marketing. Keeping length in mind, review your keywords and try to come up with a title that entices the reader to learn more about your site. Don't use marketing language such as "We're the best" or "Overview." It will only clutter your page title with stop words without adding much relevance. Remember, if your page title is identical to the key words typed into Google, it is automatically relevant to the user. Use your Meta Description to entice the user with marketing language.
Golden Rule for SEO
As always follow the golden rule of organic search engine optimization (SEO): Create pages for your users, not SEO. This means writing a descriptive and convincing page title appealing to your audience. You can then make your page title SEO friendly by ensuring that your keywords appear in it.
Page Titles and Human Directories
Directories that are composed by human editors rather than robots, like Yahoo and DMOZ, don't care about your page title for SEO. They do, however, care about the title you specify in their submission forms. Each directory should let you know how long your title should be on its form. Prepare a shorter, alternative title for directories that allow a maximum of 40 characters.
Professional Website Development
