SEO Planning for Beginners

Listen to Katie Donovan of the SEMPO Institute discuss the history of the Institute, the details of the courses—including topics, authors and frequency of updates—and why the Institute courses are right for you.

http://www.webmasterradio.fm/Search-Engine-Optimization/Webcology/Sphinn-Sphamm.htm

More on SEMPO Institute: SEMPO Institute is THE Source for Search Marketing Training

Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) launched SEMPO Institute to meet the challenges facing businesses as Search Marketing grows from a niche to a critical marketing player.

Search Marketing has gone mainstream. The industry is expected to double between now and 2011. In the United States and Canada the expected spends in organic and paid search will reach $11.6 Billion in that year. Search Marketing is becoming an integral part of every business’ marketing efforts. SEMPO’s 2006 research shows that more than half of the companies in the survey created and/or expanded their Search Marketing budget by shifting funds from other marketing initiatives. As this trend continues to grow, every marketing professional will need to have a basic understanding of Search Marketing just to keep up-to-date with the best marketing practices.

Supported by SEMPO, SEMPO Institute has been able to tap into the knowledge and experience of SEMPO’s members and sponsors to deliver courses which have developed best practices and standards. Our course authors consist of more than 35 industry leaders. Additional experts have peer-reviewed the courses to ensure that all the information is accurate and truly is a best practice.

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In one of the last posts, I was talking about how helpful it is to use Google Trends to estimate search volume, spread your PPC budget over time and factor in seasonality. I have always been naturally inclined to start any Client Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Plan with a Pay Per Click (PPC) program and learn from it before creating an SEO Strategy. I just thought about this intuitively, and I believed that would make the best process. In Search Marketing, process is key. You skip a step and your plan goes sideways. I found a great article today that talks about this and how to use paid search results to guide your site optimization plan. It is a great article written by Nathan Lewis.

In a nutshell, because PPC is a serious business that drives billions of revenues for Google, MSN and Yahoo, and because it could be a serious investment item for your business, you need to gain as much information as you can in the process. There is a lot to be learn on how people search in your industry, how they think about it and you need to understand these nuances in order to implement an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Plan.

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People fear change. They fear what they don’t understand. I have seen that behavior time and time again in this new field called Search Marketing, the art and science of getting traffic through Search Engines. Whenever I try to convince someone to engage in a Search Marketing project, even the most basic SEO package, business owners feel like they are taking a risk. The ironic part is, the risk is actually much greater if you are NOT doing it. Here is why.

Search is a zero-sum game. If traffic goes to site A, that means it does not go to site B. Have you followed the Search Engines market share landscape lately? Google’s market share is on the rise. Everybody loves Google. When is the last time you search on AOL, Altavista, Ask and even Yahoo or MSN? Ask any Search Engine other than Google what they think about this. If you don’t get in, someone else with nothing to lose will. They will build market share and you won’t. A famous quote from an IBM executive that I have kept over the years goes like this: “It is no longer the big eating the small, but rather, the fast eating the slow”. It does not matter how small or how big your business and your Search Marketing budget is. You HAVE to step in, before your competitors do. 

One of the Search Marketing grand masters, Gord Hotchkiss from Enquiro, wrote another memorable piece last week that is called Caution will kill you in the Search Game. There is a part within this article that I especially liked where he reported a conversation he had a few weeks back about the idea of taking the risk of investing into Search Marketing. Most people want to use caution when investing in Search Engine Marketing (SEM). They watch their competitors and based on this, then decide to move forward or not. Gord mentions, well, those are only the competitors you know about. I bet competition will arise from completely unexpected places. Here is an excerpt that summarizes this perspective: 

But the irony here is that while it appears you have a choice, you really don’t. Because if you don’t take this chance, someone with a lot less to lose will. And eventually, that someone else will win. They’ll win, and you’ll lose, because Web traffic is a zero-sum game. Just ask every search engine who’s not Google. So while it appears there’s way too much to lose by reinventing your business model, it’s much, much riskier not to. Because as much as you think you’re in control of your business, you’re not. The users are, and you have them now by the simple virtue of there not being a better place to go—yet. In the Internet world, there will always be a better place to go, eventually. Either you build it or someone else will.

Have the courage to step in. It will be rewarded. In the end, you don’t have choice.

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I seriously did not think I would see this kind of information available for free anytime soon. And yet, it is here. Get competitive metrics (ie. traffic) for every site on the web - powered by the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the industry. Compete.com considers themselves the best in the industry and I believe it. This is competitive intelligence 2.0. I played with the tool for an hour yesterday and I can tell you that the numbers are pretty accurate, actually far more accurate than anything I have seen from a free tool such as Alexa Ranking. Sure, you can buy Hitwise which provides the full meal deal on competitors data for $30,000 a year but the bottom line is, how do you measure up on the sheer volume of traffic against your competitors. It is an awesome tool and you should use it. Here is a screenshot based on major tourism sites (BC vs Quebec):

During summer months, we usually see an increase in traffic, which we don’t in this case with BonjourQuebec.com compare to HelloBC.com. It is even better (for BC) when we compare it with Ontario Tourism. Try Compete.com today and beat your competitors.

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When a business owner expresses the interest to launch a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan, which is the most entry level form of online promotion, a lot of questions come to mind. A long time ago, I prepare this list of questions for business owners, not currently engaged in Search Marketing, before they come and see me for advices, prices and such. They are basic questions but they are quite important since they make an overview of the fundamental elements of online promotion. They also contribute to a good client assessment process so nobody is wasting any time. Too often I see sites that are broken, inappropriately hosted with poor domain names, no web analytics and so on. Therefore, before you get into any forms of online promotion, you need to be able to answer the following questions, so that we will be able to help you and your business go further on the e-commerce side. They are simple, but you must be able to answer most of them. Here it goes:

Do you have a reliable hosting plan? What is your uptime?

How much do you pay for it on a monthly basis?

Do you use all of the data transfer?

Do they (the hosting company) provide a comprehensive visitors stat report?

Do you have any other Web Analytics software (such as Google Analytics)

Are you satisfied with your actual website (graphic, content etc.)?

How much did you pay for it (your website)?

Who created it?

Are you proud of it?

Is your website up to date in terms of design and content?

How much do you invest in it every year in maintenance cost ?

Would you be proud to invite 40,000 targeted potential customers to take a look at it?

How many people visit your website, on a monthly basis?

How many people would you wish visit your website per week?

in 6 month? in a year?

Did you ever think of your website as an employee, a sales rep essentially, working for you 24 hours a day / 7 days a week (and never complain)? 

Do you agree to spend marketing dollars to attract more customers to your company’s website?

Do you have a marketing plan?

Does your plan include search marketing?

Are you willing to learn more about search marketing?

Do you want to do it yourself or you want to hire a pro?

Do you have a keyword-rich domain name?

Do you plan on registering more keyword-rich domain names?

Does investing $20,000 in search marketing per year overall sounds like a good idea?

What does it worth to you if you reach your sales objectives?

How is your life will change if you sell more?

These are eye opener questions that help build the foundation of a future Search Marketing plan. If you are not proud of your site to start put, do not put any value in this channel, there is obviously not much we can do for you. But, if you are willing to learn and see this initiative as a long term investment in your business, we should talk.

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A lot of website owners are upset or puzzled when their website’s Google PageRank goes down or does not rise. Is it worth losing any sleep over changes in that green line and number that appear in a Google tool bar at the top of your browser? I think that excessive worry or thought about PageRank is not constructive, and it is better to put it all in perspective by taking a rational look at what PageRank is and what it is not. If you don’t even know what PageRank is, take a minute to download an install the Google Toolbar. Make sure you enable the advanced options, which includes the PageRank bar.

First of all, the concept behind PageRank is indeed at the heart of Google’s ranking process. The Google founders noticed that in many academic documents some sources were continually cited. They reasoned that if a particular document such as a book or research paper was mentioned in many places then it must be important. They applied this to the web and assumed that if one website links to another it is in fact, giving a “vote” for that site. A website that has many incoming links (or vote) must have a certain degree of importance. In the current Google algorithm the quantity and quality of incoming links is certainly a factor in deciding the ranking of a particular website for any given search-query.

Think about it. In the early days of the web people would build websites and then they would tell their visitors to check out other “cool” sites and they would link to these sites. This is the process of natural linking and it still goes on today. If you really have good content people will link to you without letting you know. Similarly if your name is Nickelback and your website is http://www.nickelback.com , thousands of people will link to you without you having to send a cheesy email begging for a link.

Various government agencies, educational institutions, established companies and anyone else who is “big” in the “real world” is likely to also be big on the Internet simply by virtue of their previous fame and accomplishment. This is not always true though. Google’s ranking system took this into consideration and this is one of the reasons why Google is currently the number one search engine. It gives better results and that is the main reason why people use it.

But, does that mean that only the big players can be seen on the net? Far from it. While there is a difference between one guy working in his house with one computer and a corporate giant with a whole staff, and this is indeed reflected in rankings. Prior to 1995 it would have been very hard for someone to spread their news and views far and wide as bloggers do today. It costs millions of dollars to publish a daily newspaper or to print and circulate a magazine, but it costs far less to publish a website or a blog, and lots of “little guys” have taken advantage of the power of the Internet.

But what about PageRank, how much of it do I really need to get my site noticed?

For those who are not familiar with the PageRank system:
Google supplies a toolbar which you can download and install on your browser. If you make a complete installation with all the advanced features, then every time you open a new website you will see a green and white bar with the label PageRank. Put your mouse on the bar and you will see a number from 0 to 10. If a website is not indexed by Google or banned by Google the bar may be grey or all white.

But what do the numbers mean? Is it worth worrying about a number 3 PageRank figure? Based on my observation I answer with my unofficial view on the rankings. Here is how I currently see it:

Page 0-2 shows that a site does not have many links and needs work. However, that does not mean you could not rank well if you have PageRank of 2 for several search terms in a fairly competitive industrial category. Therefore, PageRank is not everything; it may have an impact on your rankings and traffic, but in some cases it may not matter. In any case, if you have a PageRank of 0-2 (out of 10), you can work on it through proper link building activity which I will explain a little more at the end of the article.

PageRank 3 can be OK in some cases but in highly competitive industries you should work to improve it.

PageRank 4 is quite a normal number and indicates that you have enough links in either quantity or quality to make your site competitive.

PageRank 5 indicates that a site has many links or links from authoritative sites, and that Google has good “trust” in the site. It is a respectable and attainable PageRank.

PageRank 6 is very difficult to attain. This rank indicates that the site has many links and links from respected places. Remember the example of http://www.nickelback.com, which I mentioned above, it has a PageRank 6, so you can get an idea of the difficulty involved.

PageRank 7-10 is usually earned by large and established institutions or websites which have tremendous authority, due to the quantity and quality of the incoming links. It is extremely difficult to attain this ranking. You really have to be special to get it.

So, don’t worry excessively about PageRank. First look at your traffic, then look at your sales and finally at your bottom line. They are all important numbers to watch. If you want to increase your traffic and also PageRank, then here are a few steps that you can take:

1. Add content to your website. Make your website is so good and so useful that people will link to you without you asking for a link.

2. Write articles and get them published on other websites and blogs with a link back to your site.

3. Distribute online press releases

4. Judiciously exchange links, or even better, exchange content (containing links back to your site) with other websites.

5. Get your site listed in online directories.

These efforts will certainly help you to build targeted traffic, and they most probably will also help you to increase your PageRank as well. If you want me to get the job done for you on increasing your PageRank, then get in touch with me.

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