10 SEO Tips

Hi Everyone,

This might be common knowledge for some, but hopefully helpful to others.

An article I read by a guy who attended the Search Engine Marketing Conference.

Happy reading

1. An Apple a Day

Matt Cutts, the popular ‘Google Guy’ shared this tip in one of the day 3 sessions. Content is King in search marketing, this means that lots of high quality content (copy) on your website is the best way to be found by the search engines. Matt suggested eating an apple a day is good for our health, adding a page of copy each day will improve your search engine performance.

2. Measurement is Hot

Everyone is talking about measuring the traffic to their sites and the different software that provides this information. A few basic, but critically important questions: What is your website conversion (% of sales/visitors)? How many people leave your site from the home page (an indication of lack of interest)? What is your top exit page (an indication of a page that turns people away)? By answering these questions you can identify the opportunities to improve your site.

3. Make News Releases Keyword Rich to Capitalize on Search

Identify the top keywords people search (http://www.globalpromoter.com keyword suggestion tool) and include these keywords in your media wire releases. Try http://www.prweb.com they offer internet and search friendly releases for a great value vs. the traditional wire services.

4. Conversion is the next Frontier

We are all getting better at driving traffic to our sites; we will hit the next level by converting more visits into leads or sales. Driving traffic to specific relevant landing pages is one of the most effective tactics. Overall average site conversion is 2.3% how are you performing?

5. Diversified Search

This is the strategy of moving beyond Pay-Per-Click and Natural Search Optimization to develop quality traffic in other ways. One successful tactic is Paid Organic, this works like ‘advertorial’ print ads you pay for in newspapers and magazines, highly trafficked sites will place articles and links to your site for a fee (see http://www.TrafficLogic.com).

6. Linking Strategies

There was a lot of discussion about the high value of increasing the number of links to your site. This is particularly relevant for your performance on Google and contributes heavily to your Google ‘Page Rank’ one of the important measures that Google uses to rank your site on searches (get this tool free in the Google toolbar at: http://toolbar.google.com. Increase links to your website by trading links with partners and suppliers, and write articles for submission to popular industry websites. Another great tool, in Google type link:http://www.mysite.com to see how many links you have to your site in the Google servers.

7. SEMPO

Looking for a Search Engine Company or a Search employee? Call me for recommendations, or visit http://www.SEMPO.org the new Search Engine Professionals Organization. They have the best job board in the industry.

8. The 8 Second Rule

When people click on a search link and come to your site (or a landing page) you must tell them who you are and what you offer in a clear concise way that takes less than 8 seconds…or they are gone. As consumers, we’re all impatient, we all know to click the back button and try another link in our original search.

9. Watch out for scams, promises and Boiler Rooms

Search firms ‘guaranteeing’ page 1 rankings and calling from telemarketing boiler rooms are often not the partners you want to hire. Check references very carefully and search the company name on industry chat boards and Google to ensure they aren’t scammers. Traffic Power has been mentioned frequently in sessions and on boards, buyer beware!

10. Put the keyword in the title

For paid search, put the keyword in the title of the ad. In most cases this improves click-thru because the searcher believes he/she has found a relevant link.