Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

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Why SEO Comes First

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

It’s not the fact that web designers tend to be bad at SEO that’s the problem – in fact I’m glad they are otherwise there would be no work for people like me. The problem starts when they claim that they do understand it, partly in order to secure the work.

And for the record, whilst I wholeheartedly appreciate that there is a distinction between designers and developers, I have found each are guilty protagonists, so apologize if I use these terms interchangeably. If pushed I would also say that your average Mac user knows far less about SEO than your average PC user (and take from that what you wish), but as I am about to explain, having a little knowledge could well be worse than having none at all.

The following list skims the surface of what a good SEO will do for their client. Immediately, it is clear that our responsibilities go way beyond onsite optimization and whilst the term SEO remains, our role and scope is considerably wider ranging. If there is a web developer out there who considers all of these aspects, then good on you – but I doubt you have time to do all this as well as design websites.

  • Site Accessibility
  • Keyword Research
  • Content Creation/Strategy
  • Link Acquisition
  • Social Media
  • Pay Per Click
  • Search Protocols
  • Community Involvement
  • Local Search

Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/why-seo-comes-first/

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SEO: Let Customers Generate Long Tail Search Terms

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Search engine optimization typically focuses on the trophy terms, the high-volume keyword phrases, because marketers need to drive the highest value with the lowest effort. Unfortunately, those juicy trophy terms are great for brand recognition and customers’ initial awareness, but they typically don’t convert as well as the less commonly searched long tail phrases. But optimizing a site manually for the millions of phrases that could drive converting customers to a site just isn’t scalable or possible with limited resources. User generated content such as reviews and question-and-answer sections can solve the problem by outsourcing long tail optimization to your own customers.

User generated content — UGC — is great for SEO for a couple of reasons. First, when customers write reviews or ask and answer questions about a site’s products, they use different words than marketers use. Customers tend to use the same words that other customers and searchers use. Enabling UGC on a site, therefore, ensures the best of both worlds: The product descriptions and category level content will be written by marketers using the brand voice, and the UGC will be written by customers using the voice of the customer.

The second benefit that UGC brings to SEO is the freshness factor. Search engines love fresh content because searchers love fresh content. A stale site that hasn’t changed for a month or longer doesn’t really offer much to returning visitors, and potentially offers less to new visitors than a site offering fresh content daily. Dreaming up, designing, developing and implementing fresh content daily is a big challenge for ecommerce sites. But UGC shifts this burden to individual customers, who help keep the site fresh voluntarily and without incentive beyond the desire to share their opinions on products.

In the old days of UGC, reviews were typically piped into a product page via an iframe or sequestered on a subdomain, which made their SEO benefit far less valuable. Fortunately, many reviews companies now embed the reviews content directly on the product pages so that the freshness and keyword value benefit the pages an ecommerce site most wants to rank: the product pages that can convert immediately to sales.

Source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3179-SEO-Letting-Customers-Generate-Long-Tail-Search-Terms

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Do SEO the Right Way

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a powerful way for businesses to draw traffic to their Web sites and–they hope–increase sales along the way. Today, in fact, you might even say it’s a foolish company that doesn’t use some kind of SEO, because its competitors most certainly do.

But SEO is a tricky business. You must walk a fine line between helping the search engine recognize your relevance on certain topics and deceiving it with artificially exaggerated signals. JCPenney, whether intentionally or not, took the latter route.

A New York Times report recently called attention to the fact that JCPenney had been at the top of Google’s search rankings for a wide variety of products throughout this past holiday season. Those high rankings weren’t the just reward for stellar popularity or one-of-a-kind marketing prowess, however; they were the result of black hat SEO techniques, presumably used by SearchDex, the SEO firm JCPenney has since fired.

To be precise, thousands of links were placed on hundreds of sites across the Web–many of them completely unrelated to the keywords in question, some apparently abandoned, but all leading to JCPenney.com.

That’s a huge no-no in the Google world, and JCPenney’s results have now reportedly been deflated again. (In other cases, it should be noted, Google has not been so kind. On catching BMW performing similar tricks a few years ago, Google actually removed the company from its search results for a while, as The Times points out.)

The story raises all sorts of questions not only about black hat techniques like these–which, however morally reprehensible, are generally not actually illegal–but also about Google’s behavior, given that the company that succeeded in getting away with the tricks for so long happened to be a major advertiser.

Such questions aside, however, it’s also an excellent opportunity to draw out some key lessons about how SEO should and shouldn’t be done.

1. Pay Attention

Particularly given that JCPenney says it knew nothing of the links and that SearchDex has thus far declined to comment, the case is a good reminder for small businesses that they had better be aware and stay aware of the optimization techniques being used on their behalf.

Whether it is someone in-house or an outside firm, don’t simply assume that those handling your SEO are doing it ethically and well. Scrutinize budget requests and pay attention not just to results but also to the means used to achieve those ends. Sometimes, as in JCPenney’s case, the long-term results might outweigh any short-term gains.

2. Know Thy Master

Google has a fairly lengthy set of guidelines for webmasters, including quality rules distinguishing what is and isn’t acceptable. Your SEO team should be intimately familiar with these, but it’s a good idea to be familiar with them yourself, the better to judge your SEO team’s efforts.

3. Take the High Road

According to SEO software maker SEOmoz, acquiring links from known link brokers and sellers is the second worst thing you can do for your search engine rankings. (The very worst thing, it says, is "cloaking with a malicious/manipulative intent," or presenting different content to search engines than you display to users, while next in line is linking to Web spam sites.)

Undertaking such illegitimate tactics is, from an SEO perspective, like shooting yourself in the proverbial foot. Don’t do it! Just a singe instance could bring Google’s wrath down on you, as we also saw in the DecorMyEyes case late last year.

The five best things you can focus on in your SEO efforts are the following, according to SEOmoz:

  • Keyword-focused anchor text from external links, or the specific words external sites use as anchor text to link to your site.
  • External link popularity, which considers the quantity and quality of external links to your site.
  • A diversity of link sources.
  • Keyword use anywhere in the title tag.
  • The trustworthiness of the domain based on its "link distance" from trusted domains.

JCPenney’s links, of course, used anchor text carefully chosen to match search terms like "dresses" or "home decor," and they were placed on a large number of sites, albeit poor-quality ones.

A much better approach is to stick to legitimate SEO strategies to make your site visible.

4. Communicate Your Intent

Make it known to everyone involved in your online efforts that you will not tolerate the use of unscrupulous SEO tactics. That’s doubly important when you’re in the hiring process. Individuals can be tempted by the prospect of winning their employer short-term results, so it’s up to you to make sure that temptation doesn’t overpower your corporate goals.

5. Keep Tabs

Assuming it was ignorant of them, JCPenney could probably have uncovered its SEO problems before the New York Times did by using webmaster tools such as SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer, which was used in the report. Billed as a link popularity checker and backlink analysis tool, Open Site Explorer is free for up to 1000 links with metrics. Another such tool is Yahoo’s Site Explorer. You need to use such tools regularly to monitor your search traffic, rankings and backlinks for any irregularities.

Of course, the JCPenney story is of particular concern to companies that outsource their SEO. This is a very common practice, and the story highlights how dangerous it can be. Just as close supervision is critical to the outsourcing of other functions, such customer support, so it is for SEO.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/219822/

learn_from_jcpenney_and_do_seo_the_right_way.html

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Marketing your small businesses? Here are three tips for success

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Sure, your business website may be on the World Wide Web, but that doesn’t mean your site needs to attract a global audience to be effective. The fact is, a well-designed website can help you expand your local market and build customers in your own home town.

Local search marketing can help you advertise to potential customers that are in your community as they search for products and services online – which you are ready and willing to sell them.

Once these visitors get to your website, however, how can you turn potential customers into paying customers? The key to getting the sale is a measure of how usable your website is. Given how important the Internet is for businesses, having just anyone build your website can be a recipe for disaster.

More than 60 percent of small businesses have a website today, but 51 percent of those had their first website created by a friend, family member or themselves. When it comes to website development, find a full-service company that can help guide and support you. The right company will help you choose the package that fits your needs, provide copywriting that will help sell your service or product, and design a website that will help reinforce your brand, enhance credibility and attract new customers.

There are also ways beyond the website to market your business. Leaving sharp,custom brochures around town can be another avenue to help get your business’s message across to a consumer. Tri-fold brochures can be a great and colorful way to get your business or special event some needed notoriety and publicity, while offering a professional way to tell your story.

An expertly designed color brochure is a versatile handout and self-mailer that can be easily customized with your name, logo, products, location, guarantee and promotional offer.

Thinking – and marketing – locally can be an effective way of making your small business really take off.

Source: http://www.lvrj.com/sponsored/marketing-your-small-businesses-here-are-three-tips-for-success.html?ref=664

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SEO: Part Science, Part Art, Part What?

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

For some, when thinking of SEO they get all wide eyed and dizzy. SEO can be overwhelming at times, and with Google and the other search engines changing their algorithm so often, it can become even more frustrating. Depending on whom you ask, they will say SEO is more science, while others think it is more of an art form. But is it more than just one or the other?

Part Science
SEO has many parts to the equation, and obviously when you are dealing with algorithms and formulas science is involved.  According to Search Engine Watch, “Obviously, data and analytics are essential pieces of the work, along with disciplined testing and analyses. While many times it’s the hunches a SEO has that allow her to discover things, the process cannot and will not stand up to a disorganized approach. You must have a formal structure and procedure with which to work through things, because SEO audits (especially for large enterprise-level sites) can be severelycomplicated affairs.”

For many of us, this is the part that makes our head spin. After all, isn’t that why we are in marketing? I doubt many of us double majored in chemistry and marketing. With that being said, a great attribute a marketer will have is the ability to adapt. SEO is such an intricate roll for your company’s website that we as marketers need to get over the math and science aspect of SEO and embrace it.

In science you need to observe and come up with a hypothesis and then test to see if your hypothesis is correct. The same goes for SEO, since we never know the exact algorithm, it’s hard to decide what will and won’t work with on page optimization.

Part Art
One of the few things we know for sure about SEO is that the more links pointing to your site the better. This makes writing an integral part of the process.

Getting on highly accredited blogs and publishing sites cannot be done without a great knowledge of your field and know the ability to write compelling content.

Taking writing out of the picture, you also need to be creative in your ideas and tactics. Being able to see the big picture and find new creative ways to get your site mentioned on other sites is a key part of SEO. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting the same results is the definition of insanity, so make sure you aren’t doing the same thing over and over again for SEO.

StuckOn, a SEO firm in the UK, believes, “Artistry makes something beautiful, but it needs purpose for it to work in the real world, and that’s where the heart of a philosopher comes in. The best SEOs know their Aeschylus from their Euripides, and can ‘think’ for their country.”

Part What?
Even with science and art, there is something else that is needed for a great SEO strategy to work. What is it? Well it’s education. Reading up on changes to Google’s algo and tools that are best to help your SEO efforts can really up your chances of having a great strategy.

Sites like Search Engine Land and SEO Book are great sites to utilize to stay up to date on the latest SEO tips and trends. This is a must for any industry, but with SEO it is even more important because of the constant change. What worked one day, might not the next.

The challenge SEO brings can be exciting and fun if you let it. The science might make your head hurt, but focus on the art and education too. There is more than one piece of the puzzle when it comes to SEO so make sure you are doing all you can on all sides.

Source:  http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/seo-part-science-part-art-part-what/31537/

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Top 10 Small Business SEO Tips for YouTube Videos

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Source: http://bit.ly/dM0Edg

How important is YouTube video to your small business marketing strategy, and how can you use small business SEO to boost clicks on those videos? Consider these facts:

Google Instant, the recent feature that begins displaying search results while you’re still typing your query, has increased clicks to videos in search results by 28 percent, according to a panelist at the fall 2010 Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East conference in New York.

And, as if video needed any help getting attention, a panelist in another session at the SMX Expo East conference said that, regardless of Google Instant, search engine users were 50 percent more likely to click on videos in search results than on text-based results.

Still think that posting YouTube videos about your business is a waste of time?

Of course, there’s no guarantee your videos will go viral like Blendtec’s ‘Will it Blend?’ series or the Old Spice guy ads — or even Blendtec’s spoof of the Old Spice ads. But aside from creating great videos, there are steps you can take to help make sure your small business marketing videos are easily discovered.

10 Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips
1. Include a call to action at the end of each video.
What do you want your audience to do after watching the video? Take advantage of your product or service promotion? Visit your website? Call your toll-free number? Whatever it is, don’t forget to suggest a next step to your audience.

2. Shoot brief, high-definition, widescreen videos.
YouTube has evolved from the slightly grainy videos of yesterday. To put your best face forward, post high-definition videos in widescreen format. YouTube has a page explaining the best formatting options for video uploads. In a nutshell, here are some formatting recommendations to follow:

HD quality video with 16:9 aspect ratio
MP4 video file format with .H264 compression
MP3 or AAC audio compression
30 frames per second
Also, keep videos to 2 minutes or less in length. Viewership tends to drop off in videos longer than that, unless they’re extremely compelling.

3. Find potential keywords for videos by typing them into YouTube’s search box.
As with Google’s keyword suggest tool, as soon as you begin typing a query in YouTube’s search box, YouTube (which Google owns) offers suggestions. Type "silly pet," for instance, and YouTube will complete your query with suggestions such as "silly pets," "silly pet tricks," and "silly pet videos."

YouTube’s suggestions give you an idea of which terms people use more frequently in video searches at the site. Though identifying popular keywords is important, keep in mind that there may be a lot more competition for these terms, too.

4. Perform a search using your intended keyword phrases on YouTube.
Once you have some keyword ideas, use them in searches on YouTube. This will give you an idea of what the competition is like for those terms. You can customize your search results to sort by relevance, upload date, view count and rating. Limit your searches to specific categories (such as People & Blogs).

5. Place your most important keyword phrase in your title, description and tags.
As with any SEO effort, make sure your target keyword phrase is included at the beginning of your video’s title, in the description, and in the tags. Use the entire allowed space for your description, too, and make it as compelling as possible. The goal is to get people to decide to view your video from among all the other choices in the search results.

Keep your video titles within 65 characters, if possible (including spaces and punctuation). Titles longer than that get clipped in search results.

While your YouTube video description can be up to about 5,000 characters, only the first 140 characters will be displayed in YouTube search results. Make sure to put your keyword phrase within the first 140 characters, to reinforce the phrase and encourage click-throughs. And try to fill the entire 5,000 character description with good, keyword-rich details (without resorting to keyword stuffing).

6. Check the analytics of videos similar to yours.
In many cases, you can see the keywords, URLs, and related videos viewers used to find a video, as well as view a graph showing viewership over time. You can also see which audience demographics the video is most popular with, though this being YouTube, it’s usually males aged 13 to 17. Bottom line: Other people’s video analytics may give you ideas for keywords to use for your own videos.

To view the analytics, click the button to the right of the thumbs down button under the video. Keep in mind some people who post videos to YouTube don’t allow their analytics to be viewed by others.

Of course, you should also monitor your own video’s analytics. If the metrics YouTube offers aren’t enough, consider third-party tools like VOOT (Video Online Optimization Tracker), a new service currently in private beta.

7. Add captions to your videos.
YouTube offers the option to add captions to videos. YouTube, Google and other search engines index captions and use them to help decide if a video is relevant to a query. As the video’s owner, you have the option of uploading your own caption or letting YouTube automatically generate one — though the results may not be completely accurate. Check out YouTube’s page on how to add and edit captions for more information.

8. Relate your videos to each other.
Research shows that YouTube users tend to watch batches of videos per visit. So make sure your videos are clearly linked, to encourage multiple viewings. Aside from using similar tags, you could also use a series title for multiple videos in the same vein, such as "Silly Pet Tricks: Dog vs. Cat Smackdown," "Silly Pet Tricks: Dog Does Yoga, Drives Car," and so on. You could also post a new video as a response to an older one.

9. Share your video socially as soon as it’s posted.
As soon as you post a new video, use YouTube’s Share option to add it to your Facebook profile or business page, tweet about it, and so on. Also embed the video on your blog with a post that describes it — and be sure to use your target keywords.

10. Develop a branded YouTube channel.
Branded channels give your YouTube presence a more professional look by incorporating your company’s logo, a custom background design, and so on. You can easily syndicate your channel to other websites, add gadgets and ads to your channel, and tie your channel to Google Analytics for more metrics.

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Should You Finally Outsource Your SEO Overseas

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Source: http://bit.ly/gQvoYs

Every businessman today knows the value of internet marketing and SEO. SEO is the abbreviation for search engine optimization, which is to make you go top onto the results of search engine results. The entire community of businessman today wants to be on the top of the search engine results to get proper return out of their investment. Many a big corporate are having their own search engine optimization team to do the services for you. For others you need to out source the services to someone. For this you need to go to search engines and find for the right professional to do the service for you.

You need to take the first step by talking with him and then you will be able to get the perfect service and be sure that the person does not give the same to any of your competitors. They are experts and hence they will provide you a much professional service and make you most happy with the results, as being on the top is not an issue being their constantly is an issue.

There are many benefits seen in the outsourcing of the SEO services. They are

• Quality Optimization

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process and hence you need to have a Quality Optimization. For this hiring a professional is always a better decision. The process needs a complicated research and development site. The experts are great in the service and hence they will provide you with a service that will satisfy you utmost.

• Free From Tension

Once you use the outsourcing you will be able to gain a tension free life. The more and more you will be able to do productive business with this. They will take full care of your SEO service and make you happy with the results. They will even periodically adjust with the services and make you reach a high in the business.

• Cost Saving

Cost saving is the main aim of every businessman and hence you need to go for search engine optimization. Hence they are experts they can give you results that you are unable to reach normally. This way you will gain more and more business which will ultimately save your cost in SEO purpose.

• Making a More Professional Approach

The more and more you employ experts the more professional attitude you will be gaining out of them. This will make you gain huge profit in the business. They are even known to give the service to you along with necessary regular changes and changes that required being on the top.

Trying out outsourcing can be a good idea as we all know professionalism is the key to success in any field and the SEO experts are very experts in it. Make sure that the service that they will provide you will be top class and will make you happy with the returns. Outsourcing also needs regular guidance and hence you must be in regular touch with them. Make sure that the SEO expert you are using is really an expert in the field and is not being providing the same service to your competitors.

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5 Important Tips For Choosing Your SEO Agency

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Source:http://bit.ly/djxD8g

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors for success when running almost any online business these days. Having the ability to ensure your customers can go to a search engine and easily find your business’s website is absolutely invaluable in both B2C and B2B markets.

For many, the answer is to hire an in-house expert and ensure that their recommendations are followed. However, for many — especially in more competitive online industries — the risk and costs of employing the one expert or even a small team is outweighed by the reassurance of using an agency and benefiting from service level agreements, broader knowledge bases, and insight from other SEO campaigns in different markets.

So what are the key factors in choosing an SEO agency and why are they important? These are my top five tips.

1. Look for an agency to show examples of using different SEO techniques to bring results.

Every client will have different requirements in order to achieve great results. For some there will be major content requirements; for others the focus may be on improving their link profile.

If your agency can show examples of achieving quick results by using a range of different on-page and off-page techniques then you can feel secure that they will be able to diagnose changes accurately and act appropriately. It will also mean that if results aren’t improving, they won’t simply carry on doing the same things in the hope of a change of fortune.

2. Find an agency that will be able to work closely with your developers, content teams, and other agencies.

Your agency should be like an extension of your team. With SEO a range of elements will lead to success. Your agency needs to be able to work closely with tech teams, creatives, as well as potentially with your paid search, PR, display agencies, and more.

3. Don’t underestimate the value of sector knowledge, but also ensure you won’t get the same approach as taken for another client (see point 1).

An SEO agency that knows your market can be valuable for a number of reasons, including having an understanding of appropriate keyword strategies, competitor insights, and an idea of how to engage with relevant link partners. What’s important to remember, however, is that you’ll need an approach that isn’t exactly the same as everyone else in the market.

4. Try and avoid any agency that claims to have a ‘network’ of their own sites for link building.

The ability to affect your client’s link profile quickly and cost effectively can be of huge value. But if you’re looking for an agency and they believe that one of the biggest selling points they have is that they have their own network of sites they can call on for links, that is generally a bad sign.

There are numerous examples of sites that link out exclusively to clients of the same SEO agency — this isn’t something you really want as part of your link profile. It’s better to use a range of different techniques to build links, not just the one.

Also, a network can be used as a way to force you into using the agency. Leave them, and they kill your link profile and lower your rankings.

5. Look for an agency that is willing to be completely transparent in how they work.

If you can find an SEO agency that’s happy to show you exactly what they do in building links, in investigating indexing issues, in understanding competitor site profiles, etc., then you can be more confident in seeing the value that they’re adding, and be sure that there will never be any hidden issues or any use of black hat techniques.

So, those are my recommendations based on my experiences both client and agency side. There are literally hundreds of individual questions you could look to get an SEO agency to answer but these are the areas I would suggest any in-house team focuses on when looking to appoint an agency.

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What is SEO and Why You Should Care: Four Quick Tips To Optimize Your Website

Friday, November 26th, 2010

By Expansion Media

Every day billions of people use search engines to find information about topics that interest them. In July 2010, the research firm Comscore recorded 16.6 billion searches in the U.S alone. From consumers searching for restaurant reviews to multinational corporations seeking major partnerships, search engines are a key way that customers find businesses, and businesses find each other.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of optimizing your company’s website so that it can be easily discovered through web searches. The more successful your optimization, the wider is your sales net. Considering the vast scope of the Internet, once your website has been successfully optimized, customers you would never have been able to locate through any other means will start approaching you for goods or services.

Although SEO is a great way for any business to attract new customers, I have found that only e-commerce and consumer-targeted companies tend to invest a significant portion of their marketing budget into SEO. Yet, data shows that websites that don’t appear on the first page of a search are largely ignored. Even the difference between where you are on that first page can make a tremendous difference.

From my experience I’ve found that most cleantech companies neglect SEO simply because they haven’t heard of it, or they think it is only important when selling directly. I’m here to tell you that if you aren’t thinking about SEO, your competitor probably is, and you need to act now to maintain your competitive edge.

Cleantech SEO Overview

In the same way that you plan collateral for a trade show, the elements on your website need to be tailored to appeal not only to customers but to search engines. Think of it this way: instead of flashy signs and giveaways to get people to talk to you, you have search engines that show results for exactly what your audience is looking for; instead of the booth itself, you have a well-designed website that keeps the attention of the visitor and encourages him or her to follow up with you.

Two Cleantech SEO Myths and Misconceptions

 “We’ll do a big push later.” Often, cleantech companies mistakenly assume that a SEO “push” can be done at any time, and that this will instantly increase their search engine visibility. Wrong. Like any marketing or public relations campaign, SEO needs to be included from the beginning in order to be most effective. 

Google, which controls the majority of searches (currently 70%), detects sudden changes relating to your website, such as when there is a marked increase in the number of links pointing to your site within a short period of time. Therefore, to suddenly do a SEO “push” is not only bad planning, but can lead to a Google penalty. Nowadays that is the equivalent of casting your company’s online presence into obscurity.

“SEO isn’t necessary for my website. I’m in cleantech.” Many companies mistakenly conclude that they don’t need SEO because they don’t have a product they are selling directly, or perhaps they are not actively reaching out to customers at the current time. But if your company doesn’t have an audience of some kind, you wouldn’t have a website, or a business, for that matter. Understanding your audience and what they search for is vital to the overall success of your business.

Four Quick Tips To Get Started With SEO

Now that we’ve covered the importance of SEO, let’s discuss three simple ways you can optimize your website.

1. Evaluate the SEO Strength of your site

There are many more factors that influence your SEO score, and learning all of them requires precious time which you probably don’t have. You can use our company’s free online SEO evaluation tool to get a pretty good idea what the SEO health of your site is. With This information you get can easily spot common SEO issues like problems with your metatags or sitemap, and fix them yourself.

2. Fill in the Title Bar

Take a peek at your Title Bar (the blue space at the very top left of your screen, or found on the Window menu of Macs). If you see a generic default that says “Home” or “Company Name,” you can be sure that your site is definitely suffering from a lack of SEO. The Title Bar may mean nothing to you, but it is one of the most important pieces of information that search engines use to determine the relevance of your company’s website to the searcher’s query. In other words, it provides search engines with the key terms they use to determine what your site is all about.

3. Keyword Selection

Selecting the right keywords is easier than you think. If you sign up for Google Adwords, you will be able to see at no charge not only what people are searching for, but also exactly how many people do a particular search each month. This allows you to determine the big keywords everyone is looking for such as “green energy,” but also smaller more targeted ones that your direct audience will be looking for. These keywords are known as long-tail, and though often ignored, they can sometimes be the most vital.

Our firm, Expansion Media, specializes in cleantech PR and SEO, and I’d like to give you an example from the work we recently did with one of our clients, GreenRay Solar. After doing extensive keyword research for this firm, we decided that one of the primary keywords should be “home solar panels.” Simply by using this as a primary focus in the content, their firm started appearing in the top ten Google search results for this phrase, while it had previously appeared on page seven.

If you look at their homepage now, you will see the exact phrase a few times, and if you look at the title bar I spoke of earlier, you will see “solar panels for your home.” Though it is not the exact phrase, those words are close enough together for Google to still assume they are highly relevelent to people searching for “home solar panels.” Choosing the correct keywords or keyword phrases can be a painstaking process, but if successfully carries out and implemented, it can mean a dramatic increase in the number of visitors to your site.

4. Meta Descriptions Matter

Often when building their website, companies ignore the “meta description” area, seen only in the HTML but not by visitors to the site. Search engines often insert this text below a website’s name in the search results. By leaving this section blank, you let the search engine’s robot to decide what is important about your site, rather than providing that information yourself. To use GreenRay as an example again, their meta description is very concise and includes our selected keyword. As a result, when users look for “home solar panels,” they will see a blurb that speaks directly to them and motivates them to click on the link.

The Best Long-Term SEO Strategy

There is no substitute for quality content when it comes to website design. Quality content is also the key component in SEO, because search engines privilege sites that provide detailed information about what they have to offer. Sites that offer only meager information such as those that, for example, list only products and prices, fall to the bottom of the search results. Creating pages that are interesting, useful, and even educational to your audience is the best long-term SEO strategy. It will not only score points with the search engines, but it will repeatedly bring customers back to your site, and cause them to want to share it with others via email and social networking platforms.

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Government agencies urged to adopt SEO

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

by John Hilvert

Australia’s first Information Commissioner, Professor John McMillan, has recommended Federal agencies consider the use of search engine optimisation (SEO) to ensure public data is more accessible to citizens.

This among a raft of recommendations launched yesterday in the form of 10 draft principles to guide Federal Government agencies in promoting public sector information.

Draft Principles at a glance:
1.    Open access to information by default
2.    Effective Information Governance
3.    Robust information asset management frameworks
4.    Findable Information
5.    Sound decision-making processes
6.    Transparent complaints processes
7.    Open and accessible formats online
8.    Appropriate charging for access
9.    Clear reuse rights
10.   Engaging the community.

The principles are intended to complement changes that come into force with the amended Freedom of Information Act and the operation of the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 from November 1.

Highlights from the draft principles include #2 which propose agency "information champions" such as Government CIOs to be responsible for ensuring adherance to open access principles and the routine and proactive disclosure of information.

Of equal interest to IT is principle #4 on "findable information". The Information Commissioner suggests potential users should be readily able to discover the information an agency has published, and identify assets the agency holds but has not published. 

It recommends applying search engine optimisation strategies to ensure that all published information can be indexed by search engines. It also suggests the publishing of an agency’s information asset register, to enable both internal and external users of information to identify available data from a single source.

Principle #8 – "Appropriate charging for access" – discourages Government agencies from restricting access to information through implicit price gouging practices of the past. Agencies are asked not to charge more than the additional marginal cost of providing access to published information, and in particular dropping the cost associated with producing the information.

It urges using online channels to reduce the cost of providing access to the information.

The vexed issue of rights to re-publish Government information is highlighted rather than resolved in Principle #9, "Clear reuse rights."

While it opts for so-called "open licensing terms", it appears to qualify this when it adds "The Statement of Intellectual Property Principles for Australian Government Agencies" requires government agencies subject to the Financial and Management Accountability Act 1997 only to "consider" licensing public sector information, upon release, under an open access licence.

In an extensive interview with iTnews, Information Commissioner John McMillan said that this uncertainty comes down to the OIC’s deference to the Attorney General’s office on such matters.

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