And the Sphinny Goes To . . . Social Media Needs Self-Adulation

From an outsider's perspective, the SEO subculture appears to be one that is possibly reaching a zenith of self-referential and self-aggrandizing platforms. Well, I'm not sure that a true zenith exists for the amount of praise any one person or trade likes to bestow upon itself, but I am an admitted outsider. I equate the type of self-adulation to the Grammys. Most of us at one time or another were mesmerized by this event and actually staked a caring claim into who that coveted shiny statue was awarded to. Then as the years passed, you realize that the music industry puts on the Grammys. So, the industry, along with a number of others is celebrating itself. Before you get angry and think I'm being derogatory ...

As arrogant as the aforementioned ceremonies and concepts appear, they are indeed a necessary and important tool. Forums such as Sphinn and Digital Point give experts and novices alike a chance to swap ideas, explore old and new concepts, and essentially evolve. Who better than experts on the subject to discuss these theories, beliefs and ideas? Social media in general is one of the true essences of the Internet and the SEO world has a huge hand in this emergence.

Searchable terms and phrases begetting successful searches begetting further search philosophy and in the end, usability. So what if it is at times a popularity contest or a chance to flaunt your mad skills? It is an indispensable part in the continued growth of the industry and truly a cornerstone in the viability and effectiveness of the World Wide Web as a comprehensive, yet easily usable social media medium.

Search Engine Marketing is a discipline found to be strangely abstract and formulaic at the same time, making it a complex practice for just anyone to understand. With the continued popularity and availability of self-editing software and the growing use of customer generated content, these forums are only going to grow in significance. It is possibly the very organic principles found at the heart of so many social media forums that will not only keep natural search alive and well, but enable it to thrive. So give yourself a pat on the back and more importantly, take the acclaim given from others who are getting better and maintaining relevance in large part because of the feedback and information you have provided.

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5 Reasons Design Is Still Important

When considering your online marketing campaign it’s important not to sell yourself short on the total package by focusing too much on any one element. With many Internet marketing companies pushing natural and paid search efforts it’s sometimes easy to think a simple or template design will suffice. A well designed website not only gives you the ability to showcase your product in an aesthetically pleasing way, but when properly engineered can effect SEO, enhance well-written copy, and turn your visitors into paying customers. In short, these 5 ideas showcase why you should bring design to the front line with the rest of the team.

1.An aesthetically pleasing website is a sticky website

Great high res images, engaging flash elements, and a great color scheme. These elements may not be what your clients think of first for their online marketing campaign, but they are an important part of keeping potential buyers on your site. While many online marketers focus getting traffic to the site, don’t forget about these vital sticky features. I’ll preach website usability all day long, but if the site isn’t cool to look at, your website is lacking.

2. Good CSS is SEO friendly

CSS should be considered a standard for search engine friendly web design. If done properly, the styling elements of a website should be fully controlled by an external style sheet. Popular sites like http://www.csszengarden.com/ have inspired the design community to challenge what can be done with the style of a website. Clean, concise code on page will have your SEO team sending you flowers and chocolates. A website that separates your CSS from html markup makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl your site and can give you that edge in the rankings.

3. Less Clicks, More Money

A great website will not only look incredible, it will guide users in the right direction to make a buying decision. The less convoluted the click path on your website, the easier it is for the customer to get to the checkout. A well designed layout should guide visitors through the site to give your product a fair chance. The design of your website should highlight the key areas to send your users to ensuring that the right customer is getting to the purchase stage. What’s more meaningful at the end of the day, a website with a million hits and $1000 of revenue, or a website with 1000 hits and $1 million in revenue?

4. Usability is King

Make sure to give proper focus to your websites usability. While paid and natural search marketing will drive traffic to your website, unless your website has well designed usability it could all be for not. Spend time researching the latest studies in effective website usability techniques. Keeping your site current with consumer trends can help prevent your site from feeling stale and outdated.

5. Details without Design

A truly effective marketing campaign need to focus all aspects including design. For example, imagine if Apple had not bothered to spend so much time on the appearance and usability of the iPod. Sure, they could have advertised all the great technical features of the device such as storage space, screen resolutions, etc. but then they would have no edge over their competition. By giving their product a very stylized design they gained an edge in their marketing that made their device synonymous with MP3 players.

Good design can go a long way in the customers’ eyes. If we give the proper focus to design, it will support the other aspects of your marketing campaign to give you the edge. Are these reasons the only factors in why design is so important? Of course not, but if we continue to make strides in website design and other areas closely related, then we can continue to work together with the other forms of marketing to make a product the next big thing.

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Do You Know the Value of Your Keywords?

In the world of Internet Marketing we have a distinct advantage over other mediums. Our analytics programs allow us to measure the value, success or lack of success of our work directly from our consumers almost instantly. Other advertising efforts are not as fortunate. Traditional advertising takes previous consumer data, analyzes trends and sets up focus groups in order to find that "sweet spot." Online marketers know it is important to convey the value of our work to our clients and educate them about why we make the design, copywriting and keyword choices we do. Search engine marketing professionals use numerous tools when determining how to proceed with the focus of a site.

Let's assume client a wants a full site, start to finish, to compete in a competitive online market. Your fantastic design team has whipped up a beautiful, user-friendly, spider-friendly site with all sorts of "sticky" features to drive the consumer to that final sale. But it's up to your SEO/PPC team to make sure the consumer can find your site in the first place. "No problem" you think, "I'll use one of the many keyword tools available in the industry to pick the most valued terms out there, and based on relevancy to my client's market we'll get them to 1st page in no time."

That's a good start, but how will you keep them on that first page? With those fantastic analytics tools we mentioned earlier. Don't be fooled into thinking you can maintain number one rankings in a competitive market using just a "Wordtracker" score alone. A truly effective long-term Internet marketing campaign in a competitive market must be monitored on a recurring basis to understand the traffic coming to that site. What word brought them here? What page did they come in on? Did they make it to a conversion point? These are questions that you should be answering for your clients. These are also the things that will justify your keyword efforts, or show where your targeted campaign may be needing help. Measure those seasonal trends if they apply to your industry. Make sure your pay per click campaign isn't wasting effort on useless terms.

Just because Wordtracker doesn't think your term has value, a program like WebTrends or even Google Analytics can show what searched phrases are driving traffic to your site (or on to conversions if your analytics tools offer that level of reporting). This is more valuable to your client than any "score" that some tool can provide. With plenty of due diligence you can sift through all that boring traffic and trend data to make sure you’re covering all the bases for your site. You may even come across that long tail diamond in the rough that will turn all those visitors into the conversions your client is paying you for.

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How Design and SEO work together

So the routine goes, you open your Internet browser, go to trusty Google then type in a specific phrase for a product or service you’re looking to purchase. This can easily result in more than a million relevant websites in return. The SEO team for your company spent months targeting specific keywords and climbing page after page to finally have your website appear on page one. After a click or two, you land on a website. GREAT, you’re finally there! All of the effort your SEO team has put into your website ranking has finally paid off. But has it? Dum, da dummm . . .


A great debate I frequently hear is Design vs. SEO. Which is the more important factor in creating your website? The debate can go on and on and I once thought that one prevailed over the other. The truth is they are equally as important. SEO technicians can spend countless hours marketing your website, but unless a visitor can successfully land on your website from a first page position and then successfully purchase a product or service that you’re trying to sell them, you have failed.

Make your SEO specialists happy by creating a consistent website that has a rock-solid design, unparalleled usability features (great navigation, great formatted copy, etc), and effective marketing elements (power phrasing in your flash headers, great Calls to Action) to help sell the product on your website. In doing this, everybody wins. Hooray! Your design team will have a cool site for their portfolio, your clients are making money, and your SEO team members won’t detest you since their efforts didn’t go to waste. Now let the harmony abound!



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Web Content Pugilism – Smug SEO Techs vs. Hypersensitive Copywriters

In this corner: convoluted and often clunky, yet effective SEO terms developed by the natural search gurus in your stable. And in this corner: strong, active, succinct and flowing ad copy developed by that creative propeller on your team, the copywriter. As intriguing a prize fight it is and as much as I would love to hear the introduction delivered by Michael Buffer himself, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a battle. There is middle ground, it may not carry the profundity of King Solomon’s decree, but let’s face it, we’re not talking babies, we’re talking web content.

SEO authorities develop keyword phrases based on search terms that web users enter into the respective search engine that they use, or more realistically, Google, Yahoo or MSN. There are a multitude of considerations for a SEO technician including competition, popularity and complex concepts like algorithms—frightening concepts to the fragile, creative soul. What does not rank high on their list of concerns? Finding terms conducive to writing good copy probably doesn’t even make it to their top 10—because while your copy may evoke the greatness of Proust and Joyce, it won’t grace anyone’s monitor if you don’t incorporate those burdensome SEO phrases.

Proximity
Your keyword phrases are all grown up now and no longer need to flank each other with each appearance. Give them some room—let them breathe! Your copy will thank you later for it. Just because you are handed a phrase to incorporate throughout your copy, does not mean that each word of the phrase should appear in succession. The search engines will pick out the phrase just as effectively if you have a few words separating the terms that make up your phrase. Is that a muddled enough explanation?

It is painfully obvious when reading web copy, if the author is under the impression that SEO phrases must not be torn asunder. It’s kind of like watching the kid who tries to cram the square piece into the circle shape. Don’t be afraid to throw an article, noun or verb, that is, if you’re feeling crazy, in between the terms that make up your SEO phrase. Depending on which search engine is used you could get anywhere from 3 – 6 words separating your keyword phrase.

Don’t be the kid quizzically staring at the square piece—give the terms that make up the more convoluted SEO phrases some space and let the search engines do their job!





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SEO. Science or Art?

As you get to know more about myself through this blog, you will see that I like to debate. Not argue, but discuss a topic with someone of a different opinion, exploring their reasons behind their thoughts. One of my favorite debates is the idea of SEO being more art than science. I'm of the art opinion, but one of my superiors is of the science crowd. I asked him (Scott Ross) to write his thoughts so that we may learn a bit more about his reasoning. So, without further ado, I introduce to you Scott Ross. With his fancy Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science, he is currently the Director of Search Marketing for Vizergy (Hmmm...fancy title too)



SEO. Science or Art?
by Scott P. Ross

Some say that the world of SEO/SEM is a Science while others say it is an Art. During the debate of Science vs. Art there have been many arguments for one or the other. I have been asked about my stance on the subject, and after 5 years of working in the industry, I lean towards the Science side of the conversation. I look at it this way, Google employs thousands of individuals to help run its company. And looking into their job postings from time to time (only from a research stand point, of course), I find them looking to employ individuals with Neural Network and Expert Systems experience. These two fields in the computing industry require a level of intelligence far above that of a typical employee, and I can’t help but wonder: why would they hire an individual if they don’t plan on taking advantage of that talent and expertise? Of course, any good business wouldn’t. This is where my journey into the Science behind SEO will begin.

The world of search as we currently know it is powered by Algorithms. Those algorithms are no more than a mathematical equation- albeit a highly sophisticated one- they may even be an expert system. An algorithm has variables that need to be met for certain conditions to match. The more matches that occur, the more precise the solution that is presented to the algorithm. So for SEO/SEM purposes, the more matches the higher our pages rank in the SERPs. With the variable matching left up to an SEO expert, this is where experimentation comes in to play. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are not going to give us the search algorithm they use for their engines, so we must manipulate HTML on a site and deploy link building techniques to improve a site’s positioning in the SERPs.

Experimenting is a scientific process that includes many steps. Even though I may not be a traditional Scientist, I still can use the Scientific Method of experimentation to help improve a site’s keyword ranking. First a hypothesis is formed. If I modify my title tag in a certain way it will produce a certain outcome, however if I modify my content in another way it will produce a different outcome, etc. (I know those are poor examples but a hypothesis does not need to be fancy). Second, we must make a modification to our site to back our hypothesis. We then record any reaction that may occur (observing how our rankings changed). Finally, we come up with a conclusion that either the changes we made had a positive or negative effect on our rankings. We then get to repeat this process for every phrase we want to improve in the SERPs. Anyone who tells me that making these types of changes on a site and then waiting around to see how the rankings were affected would only be kidding themselves if they argue this is not experimenting.

Now with that said, here is where I start to ride the fence. There are many of us out there that have a strong background in HTML or any one of a number of computer languages but struggle when it comes to creativity. As a Search Engine Marketer we will need to make visible content changes to help support a phrase. Without a certain level of creative juices flowing, any changes we make to page content may become written in a way that sounds robotic. There have been numerous articles written about writing your content for your visitor and not for a search engine. Well to do this correctly, a specific skill set must be used to write effective website content for both entities. Because if we don't show up well in the SERPs then a site will not receive as many visitors and no matter how eloquent our site copy may be, no one has the opportunity to read it.

To finalize my thoughts, SEO/SEM must combine both Science and Art to truly be effective in the world of Search Engine Marketing. Because without experimentation we will never find new techniques to use to combat understand the minds at Google, MSN and Yahoo and without creativity our site content will be written strictly to help out with search and not getting the consumer to the site.




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