SEO Review

I thought it might be fun to write what I have noticed recently in the ongoing evolution of the Search Engine industry. To help set the stage - allow me to provide a little background.
That was then…

I was very active in building websites in the mid to late 90’s, I know, I know - that was oh so last century. I learned a great deal about how to help my clients get their websites into good positions on the search engines without using what is referred to today as Blackhat SEO. Eventually my interest in developing websites led to a position in a small dot com where I developed an application for the Automobile Insurance Industry - connecting Claim Service Representatives to a network of repair shops. Fun stuff!

Through an usual turn of events - I ended up starting a small business manufacturing surfboard shaped signs for the surf retail and specialty store markets. Maybe you have seen them for sale in stores like the Ron Jon Surf Shops or the Margaritaville Stores. When it came time to move our product list to the web, I selected an open source shopping cart and after a month of customizing the user interface - went to market. After getting our products online - it was time to focus on optimizing the site for the search engines, and make an attempt to position the sites as best as possible.

Having been "out of the industry" for nearly a decade, I was certain it would not be an easy challenge to spin up again and learn the tricks of the trade and all the new do’s and don’ts of modern day SEO. Turns out, there’s a new bag of tricks being used, but the old fashioned, tried and true methods of generating valuable content - still apply today just like they did 10 years ago and are still rewarded when found by the search engines.

So there you have it, an unusual perspective at best. Having been out of the industry for so long, it was really fascinating to see the changes that have taken place and be in a position to compare them to the way it was when I exited the arena.

What follows are some key observations and occasional postulations on where I think the Internet search industry might be headed. Having gotten our background behind us… here’s the first of three articles I intend to write.

Article 1: Googles Rendition of the Hawthorn Effect

For those that aren’t familiar with the term "Hawthorn Effect" here’s a brief definition and explanation.

The term Hawthorn Effect refers to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. Individuals may change their behavior due to the attention they are receiving from researchers rather than because of any manipulation of independent variables.

This effect was first discovered in 1924 and named by researchers at Harvard University who were studying the relationship between productivity and work environment. Researchers conducted these experiments at the Hawthorn Plant of Western Electric in Chicago Il. and found that productivity increased due to attention from the research team and not because of changes to the experimental variable.

So… how does this relate to Google in this century?

Google is watching you. Before you get excited and run to grab your bathrobe - I don’t mean in a clandestine or illicit way - but in a user behavioral and beneficial manner. Google is working on several products and projects that will eventually reshape how the search engine will respond to your interaction. Google captures your request for information and measures the response to the data it provides to you. By measuring your response, Google obtains key data that helps them understand how to better manipulate the results that are being returned to you. There are several tools currently in place or that are in various stages of beta testing to help them determine their course of action and refine their process in their effort to produce a better user experience for you - their customer.
One such tool is the "Web History" utility that is now available to all users of Google Search. Using this tool, Google will collect information about the sites you visit and use it to generate a better response to your queries. Some of the key points of the utility are:

1) The ability to view and manage your web activity - search across the full text of the pages you’ve visited, including Google Searches, web pages, images and news stories.

2) Get search results that are more personalized and based on the things you’ve searched for on Google and the sites you’ve visited.

3) Get reports on your trends and web activity - how many searches did you conduct and at what time of the day. Which sites do you frequent the most?
You can read more about the capabilities and features of Web History at: www.google.com/psearch .

How will Web History affect the Search Engine industry?

It will help Google provide you with results that you want to see the most, and, when combined with another tool in the beta process, will help discard items that you are not interested in seeing in your search results.

Want to try an experiment?

Break out your google goggles and let’s get started! Begin by creating a user account with Google. Then turn Web History on for a week or so, and chase your tail looking at keywords that are specific to the ranking of your website or a site you are maintaining. Check several times a day, closing and relaunching your browser each time you check. Eventually you are going to see a message near the top of the window that the results of your search are being influenced by… you guessed it… Web History. Pay attention to where your site is ranking with Web History turned on.

Now, after a week of allowing "Web History" to collect some information… go to your google account and turn it off, and check your page positions on Google for the same Keywords? Did you see any difference? You betcha! Google is watching you and capturing your behavior and they are manipulating your search results to match your expectations and what they perceive is your preference based on the "experiences" they have collected from you. If Web History perceives that Blue Donuts by a particular manufacturer are important to you in the majority of your searches, they will bubble to the top of the page while other Blue Donuts by different manufactures will sink lower and lower.

Is it the end of the Search Engine Optimizing Industry?

Probably not, factors that will account for the appearance of one site’s links above another may not be completely limited to the users interaction and preference in the future. Other traditional factors such as content and page ranking may continue to play a part in getting the position on the page ahead of some of the clients perceived preferences, in addition to other new developments currently underway.

Does it end here?

I for one don’t think so. There’s at least two more prominent areas where Google can capture user preferences and then modify the result set to meet their expectations, and they are actively testing or running programs to do exactly that right now. I’ll cover the second area in my next article. "There’s Room for 10".
This is my first online article and I’d like to thank those that have taken the time to read it. I hope you will find this useful and that it might stimulate some additional discussion on the subject material covered.

About The Author

Gaver Powers is the owner of and actively maintains the following web sites: TropicSigns.com, AuthenticEndlessSummer.com and SurfboardSigns.com .

How much time does it take your website to deliver your marketing message? Assuming the site traffic you generate is the least bit interested in what you have to say, how much of what you’re saying do they remember, or more to the point, how much do they need to remember?

Have you ever thought about, or even considered, how much face-time your website needs to be effective? It is probably the last thing many business website operators ever think about, let alone do anything about.

The notion of ’stickiness’ has been around for as long as the Web has been used as a commercial vehicle, and stickiness is a vital website ingredient. Developers, designers, and marketing experts are continuously coming up with ways to keep people on their clients’ websites. Many of these sticky methods do work and keep people on sites for hours, but are they effective; just because someone stays on your site for hours doesn’t necessarily mean they have any intention of doing business with you, especially if these so called sticky ingredients are implemented without any commercial purpose.

Sticky Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Effective

Many sticky concepts were developed for sites whose financial model was based on advertising, which makes sense; the longer people stay on a site the more chance they will see the ads presented, and the more likely they will click on one of them. But for sites that are in business to sell something and are not just advertising vehicles, stickiness takes on a whole different purpose.

The challenge is to make what you have to say engaging so that it attracts attention, informative so that it explains the offering, AND entertaining so that it is retained in memory. We have a goal for each website or campaign we create, and that is to turn advertising into content, and content into an experience, a challenge for sure, but one that needs to be achieved if the client wants their site to be effective.

Provide A Memorable Experience In An Appropriate Amount of Time

Think of website face-time like a restaurant thinks of the dining experience. A restaurant has only so many tables and can only accommodate so many quests at one tíme; so in order to maximize profíts, restaurants try to turnover the tables as many times as possible. The trick is to provide guests with a delicious meal, great service, and a memorable experience without rushing them, but also in a way that turns the table over in an appropriate amount of time; allowing the restaurant to maximize it’s seating capacity.

Websites for the most part, don’t have the capacity problem, but the discipline of providing value, quality, and a memorable experience, in an appropriate amount of time is just as valid. Many complicated sticky site implementations take too long to unfold, and lack the purposeful payoff that makes them commercially effective.

People have other things to do, and will only invest so much time on your site; therefore you better say what you have to say as efficiently and effectively as possible. Site information presented as bulleted points may seem efficient, but it sure isn’t effective due to its abbreviated nature and lack of psychological context; and sites with thousands of words of search engine optimized text may provide copious details, but if no one reads it, it isn’t very effective or efficient.

So how much time is appropriate? How much time do you need to deliver your marketing message in a way that website visitors will remember it, and hopefully contact you? And what presentation method does the job both efficiently and effectively in that appropriate time frame?

One Message One Minute

It takes, discipline to focus on what makes you special, confidence in what you sell, and an understanding of how to deliver an effective website presentation.

Every presentation you make on your website should only take about a minute or two to deliver. If you have six points to make create six separate presentations, each concentrating on one message. That way visitors can choose which specific concern they need clarified without boring them, or loosing their interest by covering things they aren’t interested in hearing.

With a series of focused, entertaining presentations, you maintain interest, establish memory, and get them hooked on what you can do for them. As a result they will delve deeper by investigating the other presentations; and with each viewing they become more comfortable with what you do, more aware of what makes you special, and more confident in your ability to deliver what you promise.

It’s all about establishing a memorable experience in an easy to understand, fast-paced digestible format that will be memorable and effective.

Why Creating An Experience Is Important

If your visitors do not remember your website, than it won’t ever achieve its full marketing potential. Over and over we talk about the importance of making your site a memorable experience. To fully appreciate why making your site a memorable experience is so important, you have to understand a little of how the brain retains memories.

Episodic Memory

Think of an event that has stayed with you for years and will probably stay with you forever. Perhaps it’s a life altering experience like the birth of your daughter, or maybe it’s an inconsequential incident that refuses to disappear from your memory. These kinds of experiences, or episodes, create what psychologists call Episodic Memory, memories that are associated with a specific experience. By delivering your marketing message in an entertaining, informative video presentation you create the episodic memory that is the essence of product or brand positioning.

Semantic Memory

Now think of a strongly held opinion. Chances are that opinion was formed by some long forgotten experience. This is called Semantic Memory, a memory induced point-of-view formed by the brain’s processing of an experience where it retains the significance but buries the memory of the specific event. Consistent, continuous, ongoing marketing campaigns that focus on what makes you special have the long-term psychological effect of creating product preference even after the specific campaign details are forgotten.

Putting It All Together

From a marketing perspective, the opinions we hold and many of the products we purchase are the result of both episodic and semantic memory induced experiences. If your website doesn’t generate these kinds of memories, it is not fulfilling its potential as a marketing presentation vehicle.

5 Ways To Connect To A Web Audience

In order for your website to reach its maximum marketing potential, it must make an impression on your audience, and it must connect to those potential clients on multiple levels, emotional, psychological and rational. In order to communicate to website viewers on all three levels you must effectively employ all the presentation options available: layout, text, images, audio, and video.

Some people learn best by reading, some by listening, and others by viewing. Each presentation element targets a different aspect of recognition and connects to the audience in different ways. By combining all five elements into a coherent presentation you relate to your viewers on multiple levels, each re-enforcing the other, creating a memorable experience. For an example of how all these elements work together to form an effective and efficient marketing presentation visit www.136words.com.

About The Author

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

As the population with internet access explodes, and more and more people are using search engines to find what they need, the usage of local search also continues to rise. For any sites servicing a local or specific geographic audience, submission to local search based engines is becoming more and more important.

What is it?

In a nutshell local search involves the use of specialized search engines specifically created to focus on a selected geographic region to find local businesses and websites focused on your area.

Local search is commonly utilized as a directory, where users select their location, and narrow their search by categories till they find the listíng they want. In many cases local search engines also guess at the users’ location by using their IP, so when you visit the site and search, for example, "Chinese restaurants" you automatically see results specific to your location.

Google has been doing this for a while to one degree or another. When you perform a search in Google using a geographic modifier the map comes up with results specific to that location. You can also take it one step further and search Google Local specifically.

But Google isn’t the only engine out there focused on local search. There are several of these directories ranging from the better known Best of the Web, right down to small town specific websites offering local search options. You even may find a web directory or guide specifically created for your city, and chances are, it will be a great place for you to submit your site.

Many local directories are free for basic listings along with paid advanced listing options.

Who needs it?

Local search is ideal for anyone serving a specific region, especially those with brick and mortar stores. While you do not necessarily need a physical location, some local search directories, including Google Local, require that you do.

Only recently have small local businesses realized the need to be found in the major search engines. I know that if I am personally looking for a bike tune-up, the first place I turn to is online, to find the various bike shops in my area, if at very least, I search online to find their contact info. I can’t remember the last time I picked up a phone book. As the internet grows in popularity, there are more and more people like me who use it exclusively to find what they want, local or otherwise. For businesses not found within the various local search sites, they are missing out on a growing piece of their market.

Considering the limited expense in getting lísted in local search directories, traditional brick and mortar business can’t afford to not be listed, it’s quickly becoming a necessity.

Why bother?

With more people using these directories, and the incredibly low cost of "free" involved in being listed in many of them, it only makes sense to get listed. These directories, even the lower traffic ones, are a great free source of relevant traffic and the few minutes required to submit to them (usually around 10 minutes or so) only needs to result in a very small handful of site visitors to make it worthwhile.

Where to get listed?

When it comes to local search there are a few places you don’t want to miss such as Google Local. Many local search directories are country specific, so try your searching by using your country name; such as, "Canadian business directory".

Try to focus your efforts on finding local directories that not only focus on your geographic region, but also offer you something in return.

How to decide if a directory is worthwhile

There are 5 main factors you need to consider when choosing to submít to a local search directory.

1. Location

What geographic regions does the directory serve? Do they serve your location?

2. Relevance

Does a relevant category exist? When you navigate to your appropriate category, are the other business listings relevant to your business? Some local directories may focus only on one industry, such as hotels. If the theme of the directory will not cater to your industry, you certainly don’t need to be listed there.

3. Price

How much does the directory charge? If it is free, it’s most likely worthwhile. If there is a cost associated with the listing, you need to know more to find out if it’s money well spent (which is where the next two points come in).

4. Traffic

Does this directory have much traffic? The quickest way to get a rough idea on this is to check their Alexa rating. Alexa is a rough indicator of how busy a site is, the busier the site, the closer their ranking will be to 1. If the site looks like it has very limited traffic, then you need to find out if the listing will have any SEO benefits if you are to spend any money here. (A low traffic free directory is likely still worthwhile however.)

5. SEO

Will your listing help you with your organic rankings? This is relatively simple to find out. You want to first check the Google Page Rank for their home page. If it is low (less than 5) then this is not one of the major directories. If it is between 5 and 10, then they likely have some authority. Next check the page your listing will actually reside on. Is this page indexed by Google, and does it have any Page Rank? If so, is the link back to your site search engine friendly?
Many local search directories may link to your site using the rel=nofollow tag, or by redirecting through a variety of tracking methods, which can cause your link to have no value in terms of SEO. However, some of them will give you a straight link fully readable by Google, so you will also get the added benefit of increased link density from many of these links. Some directories will also create a brand new page just for you. In that case, your page will not be indexed by Google and will have no Page Rank, but in time, it will. If this is the case, check a few of the listings to see if their pages are indexed.

If Google can not see this link, it has no SEO value. If the directory has no SEO value, and no traffic, it is not worthwhile to pay for this submission. (That said, if it’s a free listing, you may as well list your site there.)

How can I get listed?

Unlike organic SEO, getting lísted in a local directory is often as simple as finding the local directories that are relevant and submitting your site. Once you have decided that a directory is worthwhile, filling in a few online forms and submitting payment where applicable is all it takes. Most paid local directories will have your listing posted within a few days, if not immediately. Free directories can take anywhere form a couple of days to several weeks, depending on their policies, etc.

StepForth will soon be offering a Local Search service, so stay tuned to see what we can do for you.

About The Author

Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott’s articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at www.stepforth.com, Tel - 250-385-1190, TollFree - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198

Have you heard of the 80-20 rule? Well, an Italian economist called Pareto noticed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. His work was taken up by others until it entered mainstream thinking. You’ve probably heard variations of what’s now become known as the 80-20 rule, or the Pareto principle. They go like this: we spend 80% of our time with 20% of our friends, or we wear 20% of our favorite clothes 80% of the time.

More generally, of course, it is a common rule of thumb in business: e.g., "80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients." In business, for example, Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% percent of the errors and crashes would be eliminated

So far, so good. But what if you found out that - where your website is concerned - the Pareto principle didn’t hold up so well? That 80% of your major keywords only account for 20% of your sales? In other words, by focusing on a handful of major keywords you may be missing out on the ‘real’ keywords that prospective customers are actually using to find your product or service.
Most webmasters apply the 80-20 rule: that the top keywords provide 80% of the business, but in practice, this has proved to be the opposite. In other words, the keywords that are most sought after are actually rarely those that provide the most business.

Let me put it another way: your website is far more likely to receive most of its search engine visitors through an assortment of low-volume search queries instead of a small group of keywords. And this means that by focusing on identifying the keywords which receive a lower volume of search queries you will see a jump in the overall amount of prospective customers from, say, Google, to your website.

What are these keywords? And how will they improve my visitor traffic?

Well, these keywords have become known as Long Tail Keywords. "Long Tail" because they are phrases that are usually made up of more than three words. For instance: "Paint" is not long tail, but "Outdoor paint for wooden shed" is long tail. Or, take "shoes": "Adidas running shoes" is almost there. But "Adidas running shoes for women" is a long tail keyword.

Can you see the difference between "horse training" and "quarter horse training products"? Here is another example: ‘Credít Cards’ is the general keyword but effective long tail keywords within this niche could include: ‘good low cost credít cards for nurses’, ‘credít cards for people with bad credít’, ‘credít cards with low interest’, ‘benefits of corporate credít cards’, and so on.

The core ideas about long tail keywords is that there is less competition for them, so it’s easier to get good search engine rankings, and also the fact that people who search certain long tail keywords are much more likely to be potential purchasers. By optimizing your website and delivering content to match these search queries you will be attracting visitors who are searching for specific product information using these and other related search phrases.

And there’s no doubt that long tail keywords are highly effective at attracting traffic. What’s more important, there are thousands and thousands of long tail keywords which no one or very few people are pinpointing and so can easily be utilised.

So here are four key reasons why you should consider using long tail keywords to optimize your website for search engines:

First, focusing on long tail keywords will slowly but surely lead to more search engine traffic because you will have many, many web pages indexed and ranked for specific phrases related to your products or services. This means higher visibility and so a greater volume of search engine traffic.

Next, long tail keywords lead to higher purchase ratios. Visitors who come to your site via long tail search queries are more likely to purchase or take up on affiliate programs. By focusing on these long tail phrases, you are actually zeroing in on a vast market of potential buyers.

Third, long tail keywords lead to higher page ranking because there is generally far less competition. There is so much more scope for variation when you start digging for the phrases that people actually use when they enter search terms.

Finally, using long tail keywords means that your sites have the potential for greater monetization. People who find your site because they used a search engine such as Google or Yahoo are high value for this reason: they are people who are looking for specific information. So they are highly likely to follow relevant advertisements or subscribe to your blog feed or ezine.
So here’s the nutshell: more long tail keywords equals more potential customers equals more likely sales. Good luck!

About The Author

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