Being the editor of the largest search engine marketing newsletter in the world, I’ve been asked on several occasions what my top five marketing tips would be. That’s a tough question to answer since there are so MANY tips and techniques I’ve discovered over the years that work exceptionally well. It’s difficult to boil it down to just five. However, before the drum roll starts for my top 5 SE marketing tips of all time, let’s start with something easier…
The Top 5 Search Engine Marketing MISTAKES:
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Mistake #1: Buying into the Myth that SE Optimization No Longer Works
There’s no question search engine optimization has become more challenging over the years. Many critics have taken this and declared that search engine marketing is no longer effective. However, research from third parties like the recent NPD Group study refute this idea. The NPD Group study demonstrated that search engine listings result in six times more sales on average than an equivalent number of visitors from banners ads. That means visitor to visitor, you’ll make six times more money on search engine listings than banners. I personally receive countless testimonials from customers who claim dramatic increases in traffic and revenues after starting their SE optimization efforts.
A recent testimonial from Ryan Morton of www.exploreSC.com, a customer of ours, said he started his promotion efforts “…4-5 weeks ago and have seen our site traffic increase from 200-300 hits per day to 900-1100 hits per day. We have gone from relative obscurity and word of mouth advertising to becoming one of the most heavily visited sites for South Carolina Tourism.”
So don’t fall victim to the biggest mistake: The assumption that search engine marketing doesn’t work anymore or it’s a battle you simply can’t win. The key is to arm yourself with the right knowledge combined with the right tools so you will win.
Mistake #2: Bulk Submitting is the Path to Riches
Go on and admit it. We all dream about it. We want to find that perfect product or service where we enter our domain name and then press one button and the traffic magically starts to flood into our Web site. You’ve seen the advertisements such as “Submit to 3500 Web sites for just $79.” The reality is that the majority of those sites you’re submitting to are set up for the sole purpose of collecting e-mail addresses from people like you so they can send you junk mail. Within hours you’ll receive hundreds of e-mails like “Thank you for submitting to Joe’s FFA Site, now take a look at our home-made discount Viagra products.”
Even if you do land your site in some of the real search engines (there aren’t that many), those bulk submission services generally do little to nothing to optimize your rankings. You’ll simply be buried at the bottom of the results with the millions of other Web sites.
Mistake #3: Meta Tags Will Solve All My Problems
In the press you’ve probably seen one of many tutorials on how to create the perfect meta tags so the search engines can find you. What they don’t tell you is that the majority of the major search engines don’t even read meta tags anymore. The ones that do read them tend to give them little importance when deciding how your page will rank.
Some of the “experts” will tell you to simply include your keywords in your title and meta tags and to create a Web site with quality content. The search engines will then naturally flock to you and rank your site near the top. Certainly title tags and content quality are important, but don’t make the mistake that this is all you need to do to be found on the Web today.
Mistake #4: Believing Doorways Don’t Work or Will Get Me Banned
There’s been so much negative publicity put out by the search engines about the evils of doorways that many of the SE optimization experts are coming up with clever new names like informational pages, spotlight pages, gateways, etc. to differentiate themselves, not realizing they are only complicating the issue. The fact is that every page on your Web site that ranks well for any reason is acting as a “doorway” to your Web site. Many people mistakenly believe that everyone will arrive at their site through the home page. However, do a focused search on Google, AltaVista, or another major engine. You’ll almost always find matches that are not home pages.
In addition, each search engine ranks pages differently. Therefore, you may have a page about Product X with 400 words on it. That page may rank well for “search engine A” that likes to see 400 words on a top ranking page, but it isn’t going to do well for “search engine B” that is looking for 800 words on a top ranking page. There are other examples, but you see the problem.
Lastly, some of the same search engines that condemn the term doorway page include tutorials or FAQ’s on how to create a page to rank well in their index. True, these tutorials are often too non-specific to be of great help. However, it confirms that optimizing each of your pages to rank better is not something the engines inherently object to.
Mistake #5: Submitting Before Establishing any External Links
We have customers who use WebPosition Gold’s submitter and achieve great results. However, we have others who setup a new site and are unable to get indexed. Or, they submit and see their site indexed only to be dropped two to three weeks later. There are many mistakes that can create these scenarios, but one that is easy to fall into is failing to achieve any links from other Web sites before submitting.
Some engines such as HotBot are known to drop pages after a couple weeks if it finds no other domains linking to it. Google has also stated that it will not index a site that does not have at least one external link pointing to it.
Sometimes a link from a major directory such as Open Directory, LookSmart, or Yahoo will suffice. However, you should also try to trade links with other Web sites that are complementary to yours, then submit the URLs of those pages that are linking to you. If you can submit the page of one of these external links and let the search engine spider find your site on it’s own, you’ll stand to rank much higher than if you’d submitted your site directly. The drawback is that it may take a bit longer for the spider to get around to indexing you.
If you’re in a big hurry, buy a second domain and put some unique content on it and cross-link your two sites. To give the impression of independence, it’s best if you host the two domains at separate hosting services. You might also vary the spelling of the information you submit when your purchase the domains or use a valid PO Box on one and your street address for the other. This can further the illusion to an automated spider that the two sites have different owners.
Now that the Top 5 mistakes are out of the way (drum roll please) here are my…
Top 5 Search Engine Marketing TIPS:
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Tip #1: Target the Right Keywords
For those of you new to search engine marketing, a “keyword” is simply a word or phrase that people would search on to find your Web site. You might think that choosing the right keywords to target should be a no-brainer. However, you’d be surprised at how many people jump in, optimize their Web site, and achieve top rankings. They then cry out in dismay when their hit counter registers no more visitors than it did before they went to all the work to tune up their site.
What happened? They failed to choose keywords that people were actually looking for. Therefore, I recommend you:
A. Brainstorm a list of keywords and phrases that apply to your Web site’s products and services. Try to place yourself in the shoes of the Web searcher. Avoid generalities like “small business.” Yes, you may sell a product for small businesses, but who is going to search for “small business” when they are looking for a new Windows accounting program?
B. Take advantage of excellent services like WordTracker to tell you which keywords are popular, but still not so competitive as to make a top ranking next to impossible. There’s a fine line between targeting keywords that are TOO general or competitive versus keyword phrases that are so specific that few people ever think to search for it. WordTracker handles both with ease. In addition, it will do much of the brainstorming for you by taking just a couple of keywords and producing a broad list of related words and phrases from which to choose.
Again, please don’t make the mistake of picking the wrong keywords. Nothing is more disappointing than taking the time to achieve top rankings and then seeing no increase in traffic from all your efforts. Also, don’t pick keywords that are too popular or broad like “games” or “entertainment.” You’ll not only get visitors that are far less likely to buy your product, but the amount of work needed to gain that ranking will not be worth the trouble. You’ll then join the ranks of misinformed critics screaming “search engine optimization doesn’t work – don’t waste your time!” SE Optimization works and works well, IF you take the time to do it right.
Tip #2: Proper Submission to the Major Directories is Critical
One of the most significant changes in search engine marketing in recent years has been the rise in popularity of human reviewed directories and catalogs like LookSmart, Yahoo, and Open Directory. Some search engines prominently display directory listings for many popular searches. MSN is a prime example. Do a search on MSN and you’ll generally find the first page of results dominated by LookSmart directory listings. Some of the other major engines also list directory results prominently, or at least emphasize them in various ways. You can recognize directory listings since they are often called “Web Site results” rather than “Web Page Results.”
Once you submit to a directory, it’s difficult to go back and correct mistakes later. Some of them like Yahoo and LookSmart charge you as much as $200 for the privilege of simply being reviewed for inclusion. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance to get it right the first time.
There are many strategies for achieving great visibility with the directories. Some of them involve keyword placement and some involve human psychology. Tips for other directories are found in the directory submission guide in WebPosition’s Submitter. Read all the information you can about submitting to each directory BEFORE you submit. Even if you’ve submitted already and ranked poorly, you should find some strategies to help you reverse the damage.
Tip #3: Optimize your Page Content
There are countless tips for optimizing your page’s content so that it will be more “relevant” to a given search. Each engine ranks pages differently, so most tips are not universal. However, there is one tip that overrides them all:
Create pages that emulate the “statistics” of pages that already rank at or near the top of the search results.
These statistics include:
a) Frequency of the keywords on the page. Tip: This does not mean more keywords are better. Instead, emulate the same number of keywords of top ranking pages as closely as possible. Be careful not to base your entire strategy on the statistics of a single top ranking page. The content of a top ranking page could have easily changed since it was last indexed. Therefore, every page ranking in the top 10 may not always represent exactly what the engine is currently looking for today. Using averages is one way to combat this problem.
b) Total words on the page. Tip: Mimic the approximate number of words of a top ranking page on your own page.
c) Weight of the keywords on the page. (i.e. frequency divided by the total words) Tip: Too high a weight is just as bad a too low a weight.
d) Area or location of the keywords on the page. (i.e., title, heading, etc.) Tip: A keyword is given more relevance by an engine when the keyword appears in the engine’s “preferred” areas.
e) Prominence. Tip: Generally, the closer to the front of the area you can place the keyword, the better.
f) Proximity. Tip: The closer that the words of a phrase appear together, the better.
g) Off-page criteria. (i.e., link popularity, click through popularity, etc.) Tip: Even when you’ve done everything else right, don’t forget the off-page factors!
Bonus Tip 1: In general, you should try to include your keyword or phrase in the title tag, the heading tag, the link text, and to a lesser extent, your meta keyword and description tag. There are other areas you may want to include the keyword depending on the engine. For example, Google is known to give a ranking boost to keywords that are in bold or large print.
Bonus Tip 2: Naming your page after your keyword and/or obtaining a domain name with your keyword in it will often boost your rankings.
Bonus Tip 3: If you run a regional business where most of your business is local, it’s critical that you include your full company address on every page of your site. Otherwise people could search for “Ford dealer in Chicago” and you’d not appear if your company address were buried only on your contact page. Also take advantage of “proximity” by putting the word Chicago as close to the phrase Ford dealer as possible. Lastly, make sure the address is in text form since search engines can’t read your address out of a graphical logo on your page.
Bonus Tip 4: Don’t spam the engines. Every engine has their pet peeves so make sure you know what they are and avoid them.
Unfortunately, generalized tips will only take you so far. That’s why we developed the Page Critic feature of WebPosition Gold (www.webposition.com/product.htm) and have continued to fine-tune it over the years. We also update the advice every month to keep pace with the changes at each engine. The Critic gives specific advice for the keyword, the Web page, and the engine that you select so you’re not overwhelmed with advice that doesn’t apply to your current goal. It also has the ability to compare your page against other top ranking pages and compare how they match up statistically. Without such a tool, you’d find yourself wasting hours trying to count and locate keywords on your page and your competitor’s pages.
Tip #4: Increase your Link Popularity
This “off-page” statistic has grown in importance in the last year, becoming a significant factor at many engines. You must have at least one or more links from other domains in order to be indexed by some engines. In addition, if you don’t have a high enough link popularity, you’ll never achieve top rankings on many keywords. Therefore, make link popularity a high priority in your Web marketing plan. There are many strategies for increasing links to your Web site. Links to your site not only improves your rankings, but will increase your traffic in a consistent and long-term manner. I explained and tested many link generating strategies in a past MarketPosition article.
If you’re curious about how you stack up against your competition, you can check your link popularity for free at:
http://www.linkpopularitycheck.com
Tip #5: Track Your Progress
As you learn more about search engine marketing, you’ll discover it is not an exact science. Some of your pages will rank well the first time out, and some will not. In addition, your rankings will fluctuate, calling for tweaks in design from time to time. Therefore, as with any marketing strategy, you need a method to measure your progress. In this case, you need a convenient way to report your rankings for each keyword and engine you’re targeting, and to track the number of visitors to your Web site, along with where they came from. WebPosition helps you manage and automate both these essential tasks.
Tags: Bulk Submitting, Meta Tags, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, Submitting
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