Web Site Design Specialists

By Steve Haar, Search Engine Watch

I started a hunt last week. I am looking for a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) book to give to those decision-makers who will never actually do SEO, but who cut the check or approve the time spent for SEO. I haven’t found it yet…but I just started.

Too often, I have seen companies “approve” SEO only to treat it as a one-time hit, or a short-term project. Months or years later, when they asked someone else to “do” SEO for them, it is discovered that the company had laid none of the basic foundation for SEO, and it is clear that even the implementation was done incorrectly. Unfortunately, no follow-up or long-term measurement plan is in place that would catch this. From what I hear, this is not uncommon.

So, absent a book and being too impatient to wait for one, I thought I would come up with some guidelines for those who approve SEO.

But first, for clarity, when I write SEO I am referring to web page optimizing against organic search. Optimizing paid search is a closely related, but different animal.

So, if you are going to embark on organic SEO…

1. Plan to keep in it for the long haul. Line up the resources to engage SEO for at least 6 months. An entire year would be better. This is not the long haul, this is just the time you need to validate the program for the longer term. These resources will come from many parts of the company; from your marketing and sales to finance and IT. Be ready to go after them before you start.
2. Be patient. SEO can take time to generate results depending on your starting point. You may not see your sales (or other target metric) increase right away. Unlike most other online efforts, there is no immediacy about organic SEO.
3. Set objectives. The goals for SEO must be clear and the benchmarks to achieving them agreed upon. This means setting up measurement capabilities that may not currently exist as well standard reporting procedures. At the start, there may be no ‘measured’ metric to report, no changes. Reporting should be done anyway and include the steps taken to improve the metric, not just the metrics themselves.Brace yourself; the SEO folks may appear to be goofing off. They will be surfing the net, looking at SERPs, looking at web pages, and reading blogs or articles. These are necessary parts of the program. Earlier, I mentioned monthly reporting. This helps you know the progress of the project and gives you an idea of what is accomplished with the daily activity that may seem a little out of the ordinary for typical business operations.
4. Keep people informed. They need to know your plans and those of the company. Any new products or product changes impact your web site. With enough fore-planning, your SEO team can help generate the traffic early on. And just as importantly, they can plan to gracefully handle traffic currently going to pages for phased-out products. Well informed SEO teams can add value and prevent surprises. Leverage them.
5. Set expectations. If you outsource SEO, don’t jump for promises of absolutes. There are none.

A Final thought: nothing is free, especially clicks. Enter into SEO knowing that there is a cost. It may be outsourcing costs, new people, or the opportunity costs of current people being refocused. I get very concerned when I hear organic SEO talked about as a way to get free clicks. It blinds people to the commitment needed and the value of SEO. Like everything else, tie the increases in target metrics to the cost of the SEO activity. This gives you a view into SEO ROI.

Google Maps, foud in the the Google Local Business Center, supplies an excellent submission tool to get your business found locally.

Why should you list your business on Google Maps?

Google Map of Keystone Media

1. It won’t cost you a thing. You can create and display a business listing for free. Period.

2. You’ll reach qualified prospects. There’s a very good chance that lots of people are currently searching on Google Maps for the products and services you offer. Why not make it easy for them to find you?

3. You can offer coupons for free. Displayed in your listing on Google Maps, coupons can reward loyal customers and attract new ones.

4. You have full control over your listing. With Google Maps, you don’t have to worry about publishing deadlines or outdated content. After we initially verify your address, you can edit your listing whenever you like. You’ll see your changes reflected in the search results within six weeks.

5. You can manage listings for businesses of any size. Whether you have one business location or one on every block, you can manage your listings from a single account. (If you have more than ten locations, you can make updates by sending Google a data file.)

Do a search on Google or Yahoo!, and you’ll notice a different type of listings set around the organic results. These “sponsored results” are pay-per-click ads that appear when people search using the keywords in the ads. PPC has some tremendous advantages for online businesses:

Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click Ad

1. PPC ads show up immediately.

You can drive traffic to your site right away, even if you haven’t been indexed by search engines yet.

2. You only pay for results.

No matter how many times your ad is displayed, you pay only when someone clicks on it. And by watching your results carefully, you can determine how well each ad is converting and if it’s worth continuing.

3. It’s a great testing tool.

With PPC, you can run several ads simultaneously, allowing you to see very quickly which ones work best. Test your keywords this way and use the best ones on your site to boost your organic search results.

In fact, you can use PPC to test everything from your product offerings and price points to your ad headlines and sales copy.

With a combination of PPC and SEO you can make sure your target market will find you. No other set of strategies offers you so much scope as search marketing. You can dramatically improve your search engine rankings and direct quality, targeted traffic to your website.

A lot of the techniques here are basic, but some techniques come and go. What worked last year may fizzle this year. And discovering a great new search marketing trick could put you far ahead of the competition. So have the basics covered, but also try new techniques and strategies. With ongoing search marketing, you’ll be where your market can find you–front and center in the search results.