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=============== Publisher's Note =============== Top Ten Tips for Search Marketing Tactics Below are 10 of the hottest no-so-obvious tips for organic search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns. Just like the reviews above, these insights are kindly given to you and me by SEM (search engine marketing) Gurus Detlev Johnson and Heather Lloyd-Martin. Read them and then check out a facinating offering of theirs aimed at enterprises that want to bring their Search Engine Marketing campaigns in-house. It's an online class training course called Search Marketing Tactics: http://www.searchenginewriting.com/distance_learning.html. 10 Not-So-Obvious Tips for Organic SEO and PPC Campaigns 1. Beware of ungrammatical or misspelled keyphrases. Some inexperienced SEOs focus almost exclusively on bad keyphrases because they are less competitive. The downside is that a site filled with misspellings and phrases like "warranty extended auto" won't convert (and poor writing reflects poorly on your business). When in doubt, leave them out - or develop a specific strategy that won't sabotage your branding. 2. Embrace the Google snippet trick! Unfortunately, Google doesn't display your carefully crafted description - rather, it shows a "snippet" of page text containing the search query. If you want to enhance (read: control) your snippet as much as possible, insert a benefit statement or call-to-action around your main keyphrases. It doesn't always work, but when it does it's a very powerful technique (and will help enhance your click-thrus). 3. Beware of mini-me sites. Mini-me sites (small direct response sites typically designed for profit centers or PPC campaigns) can actually sabotage positions (the search engines don't want one company dominating results). If you're utilizing multiple domains, simply 301 redirect your mini-me sites to your main site. Or, use the robots.txt protocol to make them invisible to spiders. Quick Tip: Have a site that's "impossible" to spider? XML feeds were designed for dynamic, database-driven sites. Plus, specialized spidering technology can make dynamic pages flat for Google. 4. Think of Titles like a headline - not as sp*m fodder. Remember, conversion starts at the search engine results page. Craft your keyphrase-rich Title to read like a compelling headline - not like a laundry list of keyphrases. Quick Tip: All of your pages should have unique Titles. All of them. This tweak alone can mean instant positioning. 5. Track and measure everything. Do you know how people are finding your site? Are you tracking prospects' progress from page to page? If you don't have WebTrends, ClickTracks or comparable tracking software (with comprehensive stats you can understand), purchase it right now. Yes, it's really that important - and you'll gain a wealth of intelligence that will skyrocket your SEM success. 6. Visibility. The best way to achieve ranking is to have all your pages in the search index. Try to achieve an upward trend over time. Using advanced search features at search engines, look for your listings: Google / Teoma- site:www.yoursite.com inurl:yoursite.com MSN- domain:yoursite.com Replace "yoursite.com" with your actual website address. These searches bring up a list of all your pages the search engine knows about. 7. Submit correctly. Submitting via "add-URL" links may be a bad idea. The only remaining free and effective submission is at AltaVista, which limits you to five pages per 24-hour period. The best way to get listed is to submit only to directories like Yahoo!, DMOZ and Looksmart. Spidering search engines rely on directories to discover new sites. Use paid inclusion for the search engines that offer them. Enterprise and Fortune 500-sized sites qualify for Trusted Feed. 8. Site search. If you don't currently run site search (a search box on your site), install one and check the searches performed. This data will help your search marketing campaign by helping you understand what words your users associate with what is thought to be at your site. This helps you help your users and can broaden your keyphrase research campaign at the same time to include terminology or industry-based nomenclature you have not yet considered. 9. Flat design. Design so that the search engines can see your content. This is not always as easy as it sounds. For dynamic sites, this can be a nightmare. Spiders can be held in their tracks by session IDs, for instance. Things to avoid also include using more than two obvious parameters in URLs (?), frames, content locked up in Flash, PDF or just plain images. The best design appears like a flat file and has good link architecture. Even though search engines can record the file formats mentioned, the best sites have content written in HTML text. 10. Hosting. Host with a dedicated IP and make ample use of the Web protocols at their time of importance. When you update your site, you may have changed page names, etc. Use 301s to redirect any agents that request the old URL. Spiders are inclined to update their records by crawling through to the new URL when they receive this message. Do not redirect back to the homepage. Find a relevant page and send users there. |  Order Larry's Book Now from Amazon.com |
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