While marketers aren’t sure yet exactly how Google+ is going to change the online advertising and social media promotion game, it’s certain that Google+ is a big game changer. Google+ business accounts have only recently become available, but there are a couple of reasons you need to incorporate this new phenomenon into your SEO strategy as soon as possible.

For one thing, Google+ is from Google, and it’s always a good idea to stay on top of what Google is doing right from the start. Right now, Google is the main authority for page rankings, so you can be sure that Google+ is going to have a big impact in the future. Plus, unlike Facebook and Twitter, links within your Google+ account are Follow links, which means that they have an actual impact on your site’s page rank (as opposed to Facebook and Twitter’s NoFollow links, which do not!). If you want to start incorporating Google+ into your SEO strategy, here are three ways to get started:

1. Use Backlinks in your posts

As noted above, links through Google+ are Follow links, so they are valuable backlinks to your main page. They act like links from a blog or website, which a spider sees and assumes that you have higher value because other sites like you.

On your Google+ page, you can link to your company in a couple of ways. In the About Me section, you can put a permanent link to your blog in. This backlink will have a lot of staying power because it will be there from one day to the next. You can also link to your site through individual posts in Google+. Because you’re running these links on a news feed, they won’t be as valuable over the long term, but they can help boost short-term rankings and get you some visitors right away.

2. Create Some Social Buzz

Like Facebook and Twitter, Google+ marketing is all about social buzz. Getting people added to your circle of followers is the most important part of Google+ right now. Get out there and talk about your business, and post relevant content that potential followers will find interesting. You can create more of a buzz on your Google+ page in a few ways. Here are couple of options:

• End posts in a question, which will invite discussion on your page, drawing more visitors to jump in.
• Use your company network to build followers by having your employees get personal Google+ accounts and join your business’s circle.
• Promote your Google+ account on Facebook, your company website, your blog, and Twitter so that you’ll get even more people to check it out.

3. Create Compelling Content

Of course, keeping people in your circle on Google+ is all about having good content. Repost your blogs here, and post interesting related blogs from other websites or industry experts, too. Add in videos, which are some of the best marketing tools at the moment. As you’re creating good content, make sure you optimize it for SEO so that it’s helping boost your SEO ratings as its drawing in new visitors to your Google+ circle.

If you aren’t sure how to start a Google+ page or get it going, it might be worth hiring a freelance or part-time marketing expert to get it started for you. It will cost money to start, but in the long run, it can help build your business, since Google+ is the next “it” thing in social media marketing.

If you don’t currently have the funds to hire someone to run your Google+ campaign, consider a credit card or traditional bank loan to pay for the costs. Ashyia Hill from CreditDonkey says, if you’re using your small business credit card responsibly, it can be easier than getting a small business loan, and you can get business credit card rewards that you can also use to further your business.

Follow Key Theory on Google +

Google Anaylitics for example let’s you know many things such as “Bounce Rate”, “Average Time on Page”, “Number of Pages Visited” etc… All of this data can be used to tell you how your website is performing. If the bounce rate is really high, people weren’t finding what they were looking for when they got to the site. If the average time on a page is 6 seconds, something is not right.

One thing that we at Key Theory do that really helps our SEO efforts is review the Analytics to really see what’s going on with your site traffic. By setting goals to improve each element of your site performance by a small percent it can have more effect than simply focusing on getting more traffic volume. Which would you rather have 1000 visitors with 30% conversion rate (approx 300) or 2000 visitors with a 10% conversion rate (approx 200).

Just the act of tracking your site’s performance alone can help give you insight on areas to improve in your website.

In order to improve areas, you need to know what you’re doing. You need to track your results. Just like with your financial statements, if you’re flying blind, you’re going off the fumes of luck. It’s not good to do that with your business, and it’s not good to do it with your business online.

Traffic, Leads, Sales… Getting them in sync

Again I bring it up, SEO improves your site visibility increasing your chance to get found in search engines. This is only half the battle, getting people to your site. You then need to know what they are doing when they are there to improve the interaction.

Improving your site performance with SEO and Analytics includes:

• Analytics Review & Analysis
• Goal Setting
• Strategy Development
• Additional SEO / Social Media Efforts
• Reviewing Statistics

If you are the kind of hands on person that likes to do your own work and manage your own web efforts then do some research and consider hiring and SEO as a consultant to help you with your efforts. If you don’t want to mess with this but still want better results, then consider investing in improving your website’s performance. It is the 24/7 representation of your company and can make a huge impact with your site’s overall results.

Google Analytics Getting Started Guide

 Google Analytics PDF

Quote from Google:

“Improve your site and increase marketing ROI.

Use Google Analytics to learn which online marketing initiatives are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site. Make informed site design improvements, drive targeted traffic, and increase your conversions and profits.

Sign up now, it’s easy — and free!”

location, Location, LOCATION

If you were to open a physical retail store, what is the first thing you learn?  location, Location, LOCATION!  Well… why should that be any different when you go to look for something on the web?  The answer is that it shouldn’t.  Location is so important on the web because if people can’t find you, then what’s the point of having a website?

One statistic that I saw estimates that about 400 to 500 million people search the internet every day and those people total about 88 billion searchers per month!!  That’s a lot of searching!  Well, if that many people are searching, don’t you want to be found?  Which then leads us to the question, “How do people search on the net”?  Because if you don’t know how they search, how do you know how to be found.

Video on SEO

In the video below, I give a live example of how people search on search engines.

Most studies also show that a majority of people that don’t find what they are looking for on page one, strangely enough do NOT go to page two… They perform a completely new search!

This is why it is important to get someone that knows SEO, can find out what people actually search for, and how to make your site visible to those people, because like Kenny Harper showed us on the last Key Theory video, it’s all simple math…

SEO can get you more Traffic, which means more sales, which means more dollars in your pocket!

For more on SEO, contact us at info@keytheory.com.

Thanks for listening, tweet this, like this, share this!!

-Rylan Love

It’s pretty simple; by using SEO techniques you can make your site rank higher in search engines for certain key terms. You can also increase the likelihood of being found by optimizing for related terms. The easier people can find your website, the more traffic you will get. The more traffic you get, the more chances you have to make a sale (conversion).

Some people are a bit skeptical about SEO because they heard it doesn’t work or don’t understand how it can benefit their business. Again it’s simple.

Marketing is Math

SEO -> More Traffic -> More Sales -> More $$$

There is a reason why this is a competitive industry… SEO generates money.

Now… after that being said, it is crucial that you know what you’re paying for. Some people out there charge for SEO but they don’t focus on the full package. Driving traffic is vital for sales however it is not the only important thing. Having an on-line presence with a strong brand and a website that communicates your marketing message is the other important part.

Furthermore, SEO can be combined with Social Media and Search Engine Marketing to deliver awesome, quick results. If you want to get more business you need to let people know you’re out there… you need to market.

SEO Tip: Don’t get stuck focusing on a highly competitive keyword, work with an SEO consultant to diversify your keyword list.

Key Theory helps businesses market themselves online. If you’re interested in getting more traffic to your website, we’d like to help you. Contact us at info@keytheory.com

If you just want to show some support, Like, Tweet or Plus this page. Thanks! – kh

And, like the popular saying, “Knowledge is power”; if you are having your web site designed/developed or are paying someone for SEO services, it’s good to have a better understanding of what you’re paying for, so you get the best value for your money.

Top 10 SEO things to do in site development

1. Create Good Page Content
2. Develop Descriptive Page Titles
3. Write Unique Meta Descriptions
4. Format Content with Heading Tags
5. Use Keywords in the Content
6. Use Keywords in Text Links
7. Use Alt Tags on Images
8. Create a Descriptive Page File Name
9. Create a Sitemap
10. Install Analytics

1. Page Content

Create content for page viewers:
Visitors use content to evaluate a website; search engines use content to rank a website to other websites. Keep both in mind when creating the content.

Content should be:

• original / not plagiarized
• formatted for web w/ sub-headings & bulleted lists for easy scanning
• sprinkled with relevant key words
• interesting & engaging
• informative / useful / helpful
• spell checked & using proper grammar
• updated regularly

2. Develop Descriptive Page Titles

The page title is located at the top of the browser and is viewable on the search engine results page.
Each page title should be unique and contain keywords, and identify the subject of that page to users and search engines.

Page titles should be no longer than 60 to 65 characters.

3. Write Unique Meta Descriptions

A Meta Description is a brief summary of the content of a page and is viewable on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Meta descriptions should be unique, contain key words and be approximately 155 characters in length.

Each page can be optimized individually and provided with it’s own description.

4. Format Content with Heading Tags

Content can be formatted using heading tags that not only help separate the information on the page but also help search engines define the site’s message.

Good Practices for Headings

• Headings should be similar to Newspaper headings; catchy, clear, descriptive and easy to read.
• Use varying weights to break out sub-topics.
• Use key words in your headings where possible.

Things to remember:

• People use headings to scan copy and find what they are looking for.
• Search engines give better rankings to sites that use headings that help content flow in a logical sequence.
• Making the font size different doesn’t make it a heading.

5. Use Keywords (Key Words) and Keyword Phrases in the Content

Think of keywords as small text phrases to help categorize what your content is about. Ex: “Jacksonville Pet Boarding”

Short-Tail Keywords are General

“yoga” – chances of getting good rank for this is small due to competition

Long-Tail Keywords are more Specific

“Jacksonville yoga studio” – more specific, targeting right location
Jacksonville Beach Yoga Studio 32240 – Narrow search, less competition

When choosing keywords for the content of your website, think about:

• Meta Keywords are less relevant in current SEO, but are still very good for organizing your content
• Physical Location is important to your online presence
• How people search – Sometimes in question form, like “How to…”
• Related topics, not just the keyword itself

6. Use Keywords in Text Links

Internal links allow search engines and website visitors to easily navigate a website.

Outbound links allow visitors to find more information on other websites.

Inbound links (from related websites) improve the search engine rank of a website. (Link exchanges can help both.)

Choose linking anchor text with key words that are helpful to visitors and search engines (not just “click here”).

When making these text links for the purpose of Search Engine Optimization, be sure to include key words in the text of the text link.

- For example, use Best Practices for SEO rather than To Read Best Practices for SEO click here.

7. Use Alt Tags on Images

An alt tag is added in HTML code and provides short but descriptive text about its corresponding image, to benefit the search engine rank of the website and accessibility guidelines.

Alt Tag Example: <img src=”jax-beach-moon-image.jpg” alt=”An image of the Moon shining on Jacksonville Beach.”>

Alt Tag Example: <img src=”mac-book-pro.jpg” alt=”500 × 436 - Apple MacBook Pro 13in.”>

8. Create a Descriptive Page File Name

Besides the web site domain name, the page file name is the first thing a search engine sees when reviewing a site.

Where possible, choose each page file name to describe the content of the corresponding, unique web page.

Use this practice when creating site architecture.

Include significant key words in each page name / URL.

Page File Name Example: camera-store.com/canon/digital-rebel-xt

9. Create Sitemap

A Sitemap is a diagram of the organization and framework of the pages of content of a web site.

A good sitemap will help search engines and visitors find all of the content available on a website.

Google accepts XML sitemap documents which can be generated by various scripts and plugins.

10. Install Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that can give you great insight on your site statistics. You can see how many times your site has been accessed, where people are accessing it from, what content they viewed, how long they viewed each page and so much more. By looking at the data you can begin to determine what is working and what needs improvements.

Aditional Tools and Resources

• tools.seobook.com/
• seomoz.org/tools
• adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
• google.com/trends
• blog.grader.com/
• websitegrader.com/
• siteopsys.com/
• google.com/analytics/
• google.com/webmasters/tools
• siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
• webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php

When first getting into SEO, I had the wrong idea of what keywords were; I thought you just chose words similar to the topic that you were talking about, and that would get a high ranking. It’s actually a bit more involved; below are ten tips for coming up with good Keywords, thanks to Michelle Chance-Sangthong from Cool Shopping Ideas for putting together a great SEO MeetUp and sharing some good SEO practices for creating SEO keywords.

Here are some pointers from my experience and from the May 11, 2010 SEO Meetup:

1. Keyword (or Keyword phrase): is word or group of words that help search engines determine what a web page’s content is about. Optimizing for particular keywords will help your page get a better rank in search engine results when someone searches for that word or phrase.
2. Identify your users’ goals when viewing your website
   What would a user be looking for in your website? Are they looking to find out information? Looking for services? Looking for a product? This makes a large difference when crafting your keyword list and creating your page content. You may need to create several pages to optimize for several different SEO terms. For example, if you’re selling MP3 players you may want to have different pages for models, repair, players by brands, and also replacement parts, and optimize each of them accordingly.
3. Define your goals when users view your site
   What are you trying to get the user to do -visit the site, click around, purchase an item, submit their e-mail address, or contact you? Defining your goals will not only help you think of what key terms to use, but will also help you ensure you put thought into how you are guiding the user to take the desired action or complete a conversion. If your website gets a good rank but you don’t get the result you want from you website visitors, then your website is not doing all that it can for you, but you can fix it.
4. Define your target audience
   Think about the type of people that you want to come to your site, and then cater to them. You’re better off targeting a majority of your site visitors than trying to be very general. Is your target audience male or female, how old are they, what’s their income level, what’s their ethnic background? Thinking about your target audience and focusing your keywords and content for their interest will help you achieve better results from your website.  Take a look at – Google Adwords Keyword Tool, Keyword Spy, Word Tracker, Spy Fu
5. Organize your efforts
   With all these keywords and efforts it’s bound to get confusing. Using a program such as Excel or another spread sheet program, you can organize your keywords and define patterns to use for creating content. Sporadically creating pages with keywords with no overall strategy is like playing a football game with no game plans.
6. Check your competitors
   If your competitors are ranking well you may want to look at what they are doing. You wouldn’t want to try to copy them but they may give you some ideas for some terms that you can use for your own. A little research can go a long way.
7. Write for users not just search engines
   Don’t cram your keywords into your copy and make it really obnoxious to read. After all, the content is for the user/website visitor. Getting a good page rank with search engines is great, but if you’ve compromised your message in the process, it may defeat the whole purpose of your website. Write clear, descriptive copy; paying attention and add some of the keywords you’re targeting, and call it a day.
8. Keep it simple – One term per page
   Don’t try to rank high for ten terms on one page, your home page doesn’t need to carry your site. Instead use landing pages to optimize for new SEO search terms. Focusing on one term per page will help search engines clarify what you’re trying to rank for. This will also give you more pages in your website, and more pages of good content on your website will help with your SEO progress.
9. Different words equal different search terms
   If you’re trying to rank for a certain term, ex: “Jacksonville SEO”, don’t just optimize for that term. SEO Jacksonville, Jax SEO, Search Engine Optimization Jacksonville etc; all of these are also key terms to optimize for. Word order, compound words and plurals can all be taken into consideration. Mix it up.
10. Keyword density
    You need to aim for the right keyword density. Wikipedia “Many SEO experts consider the optimum keyword density to be 1 to 3 percent. Using a keyword more than that could be considered search spam. A quick search on Google can provide many tools for checking this.

If you’re currently not a fan of my facebook page facebook.com/keytheory, drop by and fan me; follow me in keeping up on new info and findings.

Slideshow features some additional information. Help me share my presentation by sharing or embedding. Thanks.

A search engine’s goal is to provide the best resources to the focus of  the search.

Goal of Good Content

Good Practices when Creating Content for SEO:

• Be original / Do Not Plagiarize
• Write for your targeted consumers
• Format for web with subheadings & bulleted lists (easier to scan)
• Be informative, useful, helpful
• Be interesting and engaging
• Check spelling and grammar
• Update your content regularly

Goal of Inbound Links

Getting inbound links from reputable, related web sites helps give your site more credibility. Some methods include:

• Post comments with links on high-ranked web sites
• List your website in website directories
• Link to articles in your website from Social Media sites such as Digg or Delicious
• Creating links to your site in guest posts on blogs with related content
• Trade links with other websites
• Pay for professional assistance getting links

Important:  Make your link better – Use your keywords in the links back to your site.

• Bad link text:  To learn more about our product click here. >> Home Page
• Better link text:  Learn more about T Mobile G1 >> G1 Product Page

Goal of Better Website Development

To help your website be successful, it is crucial that your website is developed with SEO in mind.  Not all web designers have the experience to develop the site for SEO.  Some design considerations:

• XHTML / CSS – (Validated)
• Naming Convention: file names, directories, pictures, files
• Proper Site Architecture
• Proper content formatting
• Flash & Javascript work arounds
• Meta Tags: Titles, descriptions, (key words)
• Proper link development
• Sitemap

Other SEO Considerations:

SEO takes time & continuous effort in order to achieve good results, especially for competitive key words.

Social Media is a great way to assist with your SEO efforts, but before jumping into SEO and Social Media, you should really do your homework and establish a strategy with solid objectives to achieve.

There are many other factors involved in SEO than mentioned in this slide show, but these are some core principals.

If you’re new to SEO and aren’t sure how to get started, consulting a professional can help get you focus your thoughts and set a strategy.

Another thing to consider is having your site looked at for usability and performance. If your site gets a good search engine rank but doesn’t produce the results you are looking for, then you probably need to change some things on your site to make it more effective.

SEO Resources

http://tools.seobook.com
http://www.seomoz.org/tools
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://www.google.com/sktool
http://websitegrader.com
http://www.siteopsys.com
http://www.google.com/analytics

If you’re looking to meet with others interested in SEO, try joining a group like Jax SEO Meetup, a MeetUp group in Jacksonville that gets together once a month to talk about SEO techniques and information. You can also check out Jax SEO Works tips on improving your SEO ranking.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization involves using online strategies to improve site visibility and rankings on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

SEO Facts:

Basic SEO Process:

An SEO strategy can be very involved and take quite a bit of time to execute and even longer for results to occur. Anyone can go through the motions but it takes an expert to really hone in on what will be effective for an SEO strategy.

1. Initial Analysis
2. Keyword Research & Analysis
3. Competitor Analysis
4. Sitemap & RSS feed inclusion
5. Search Engine Directory Submission
6. Social Book Marking / Social Media
7. Blogs + Press Release Creation
8. Articles Submission
9. Link Popularity
10. SERP Report / Analytics

Three Basic Principles for Search Engine Optimization:

1. Good Quality Content (formatted for web)
2. Inbound Links
3. Proper Web Site Development

In Part 2 of this 3 part series, we’ll look deeper into the basic principals of Search Engine Optimization.

Navigational Search Engine Searches

Navigational search is when someone knows where they want to go, for example to a particular website. They’ll search for it and will most likely find it easily, if they entered the right search terms.

Example:  if someone where searching for me they could type in “Kenny Harper”, they’d find me in the top results but there would be a couple other Kenny Harpers to sort through.

If they were to type “Kenny Harper Jacksonville” my personal site “kennyharperdesign.com” pops up at the top of the SERPs, and they effectively used the search engine for navigation.

Informational Search Engine Searches

One could also use a search engine to find information about a particular product, service or topic. If someone wants to find out more about Twitter for instance they could enter “what is twitter for?”, “how to use twitter for business”, “what obsesses people to tweet?” each would provide different results but the point is they’d find information about a topic and not be going to a pre-determined  destination.

Transactional Search Engine Searches

I believe we’re all familiar with these types of searches. When we know what we want and we’re just looking for a place to get it. People may search for “i-phone”, “smart phone”, “new i-phone touch” and are looking to find a place to buy a particular product. They may be also just looking for information about the product as well.

How to use trends in people’s searches in optimizing a website

Keeping these different ways that people search in mind when optimizing a site is important. You can add pages and optimize them to respond to an assortment of different but related search trends, to have a better chance to be found (before your competition) in the SERPs.

Another Key thing to keep in mind

I go into further detail in a later post, but keep in mind that general keyword terms are going to be very competitive and you shouldn’t base your SEO campaign on terms such as “tv repair”; the competition for general keyword terms will blow you away.  You are better off to optimize your website pages for some more “long-tail” (specific) keyword phrases, for example: “Jacksonville tv repair 32202″.  Your website page could rank well for that phrase and get better results for your website.

So what is the difference and why should you care?

When I started doing SEO, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do, however I wasn’t sure what was white hat vs black hat. I think most SEOs (search engine optimizers) may have accidentally used some black hat techniques in the beginning of their career thinking they were doing something helpful for some web pages. The more you learn, there is a right way and a wrong way to do just about anything.

White Hat SEO Techniques:  following the guidelines and etiquette established by the search engines.

You are basically not trying to manipulate or trick the system.

• Create good content
• Update information
• Use keywords in my content
• Address Meta Tags
• Get quality inbound links
• Market your business and website on the Web
• Add a blog to your website, and post helpful and interesting information
• etc…

Black Hat SEO Techniques:  trying to deceive web crawlers to get better SEO results.

You may think you are going to get better results by using black hat techniques like these, however, these techniques can get a website banned or blacklisted by the Search Engines. Don’t do it. Write for your consumers not for search engine robots.

• Stuffing Keywords – repeating keywords excessively for trying to manipulate SEO results
• Cloaking – Hidden text
• Doorway Page
• Meta-Spamming
• Spam-dexing

If you are trying to get good results, play fair and be patient; SEO takes time to do and more time to work. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes months, and sometimes longer, but patience is the Key to getting good results.

You’ve got to keep working at it and eventually you will make it. (like in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare)