How paid and organic search relate

Chris Dawkins is founder and CEO of search engine optimization company Trace Media Marketing. Hands-On: Search recently asked Dawkins about best practices in blending organic search with pay-per-click search campaigns.

HOS: You specialize in SEO, or “natural” search marketing. How can SEO be combined with paid, pay-per-click (PPC) search ads?

Dawkins: As a general rule, marketers should dedicate half their budgets to SEO, or natural search, and the other half to their paid campaigns. For the short term, a paid search program has the benefit of delivering traffic almost right away, whereas SEO will likely take several months to deliver traffic.

[Also] testing various keywords and phrases with paid search can be beneficial to your SEO efforts. For example, you can figure out quickly which keywords convert to leads or sales. As your SEO campaign starts delivering traffic, you can back off a little from your paid campaign and focus more on SEO.

HOS: PPC campaigns can become expensive, especially in a competitive market or industry, right?

Dawkins: Yes, but you may not always want to bid on the most popular—and thus most expensive—keywords. You may want to take more of a long-tail approach and bid on niche or second-tier words. These aren’t quite as expensive as the top 10 terms, but can be effective for a lot of small companies.

You can compare keywords and their potential cost by using SEO keyword research tools from Wordtracker or Google AdWords’ keyword tool. The Google AdWords tool will give you an estimate of what it would cost to be on the first page of Google, as well as how much competition is out there for each keyword.

HOS: But with second-tier words, wouldn’t you get fewer click-throughs?

Dawkins: You will get fewer hits, true. But the theory is that the hits you get will be of higher quality because their narrowness will attract the people who really are looking for what you have to sell.

So you should narrow your use of keywords, focusing on just the product you sell or your geographical location. You may just get more sales from 10 clicks off these keywords than from 100 clicks from more generic, and expensive, terms.

HOS: How do landing pages fit into the equation?

Dawkins: You can use landing pages very effectively with paid search because you control exactly where the visitor lands. You can also have several different landing pages, so you can match the keywords that customers use with a highly relevant landing page. Landing pages can be very powerful tools when combined with paid search and can easily be changed or replaced if needed, so they are great for A-B testing.

As far as the information included on landing pages, the theory is that the bigger commitment you’re asking for, the more landing-page information you should offer. So, if your conversion goal is something simple, like trying to get people to download a white paper or sign up for a newsletter, you don’t need a lot of supporting information. But if you’re trying to get them to make a bigger commitment, like sign up for a year’s worth of services, you probably want to include more information such as case studies or testimonials.

HOS: What about the role of SEO vs. PPC when it comes to landing pages?

Dawkins: With paid search, the more focused the landing page is, the better. For example, a keyword-oriented landing page will typically perform better if it doesn’t have any internal navigation. And ideally you should not link that landing page to the rest of the Web site, where people can look around for 10 minutes and lose impetus. Once they start clicking around, they might just click off the site entirely.

I recommend that, once a visitor takes the desired action, such as contacting you or downloading a white paper, then you can forward him to the full Web site to see testimonials and your other clients, and to be reassured that his initial decision was a good one.

HOS: Are the rules different with SEO?

Dawkins: With SEO, you don’t have the same control over where users enter the Web site and, of course, you need to offer links to the rest of the site. This is where more advance techniques come into play. Building “silos” into your site, for example, involves using the internal link structure to create themed sections. When done properly, silos help improve ranking in search engines and help visitors navigate and make sense of your site.

Each silo has a main page and supporting pages. The supporting pages link to the main page of the silo, but do not link to supporting pages of other silos. In effect, you are telling search engines which pages of your site are most important and should be considered appropriate landing pages. This way, you can gain some control over where prospects initially land.

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090715/FREE/907159985/1114/FREE

SEO Specialist Opines on Bing

Microsoft recently rolled out its new search engine called Bing in an attempt to win over search market share from its main search rivals, Google and Yahoo! Some early traffic reports suggested an increase in search queries in the first few days of Bing’s existence, and according to SEO specialist, Greg Laptevsky, "Consumers should expect to see and hear more about 'Bing the Decision Engine,' to use Microsoft's marketing term, but it remains to be seen whether it is going to be the next big thing."

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/podcasts/episode/959-SEO-Specialist-Opines-on-Bing

While error-free content is best for SEO, top universities get a failing grade

Many experts in the field of search engine optimization (SEO) have reminded those using the tool that content must be written with the reader in mind, which includes proper spelling - something a number of higher education facilities seem to be struggling with.

A new study from spellr.us - a web-based solution which reviews and reports spelling errors in online content - found that many of the world's top universities had spelling mistakes on their websites, with 13 of the top 20 schools misspelling the word "university."

With sometimes hundreds of pages on a site, it is not surprising to find mistakes on the website of any organization, but Kevin Garber, general manager at spellr.us, said it can give a negative impression to visitors of the site.

"A University's website is often the first point of contact for prospective students and staff," he said. "Spelling errors can convey sloppiness, which detracts from the message that a high quality education is on offer."

Of the world's top 20 schools, spellr.us says Duke University had the most errors with 300 while Canada's McGill University had the least with 34.

In addition to having well-written content with as few errors as possible, websites should also try to have original, quality content to help increase their search engine optimization (SEO). By doing this, experts say sites will see more long-term benefits in their SEO efforts.ADNFCR-1513-ID-19268938-ADNFCR

http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/while-error-free-content-best-seo-top-universities-get-failing-grade-$1311916.htm

Your SEO strategy should begin with a thorough review of your Web site

When it comes to building a business and bringing in leads, there's no better way to accomplish this than your Web site. More and more companies are slashing their budgets for traditional advertising and focusing on their online marketing efforts instead. After all, there are numerous stats that show the significance of this shift – as much as 90% of all purchases begin with a keyword search. This just highlights the critical importance of implementing a search engine (SEO) optimization strategy in order to attract the right visitors to your site.

An SEO campaign begins with a thorough review of your Web site and content along with an evaluation of your competitors’ sites. During this review, you are looking to determine the best keywords that people will enter into a search engine in order to find the product or service that you offer. This is an in-depth review as you are looking to find the actual terms that people will use instead of the terms you think they should enter.

During this review, you should also take an objective look at the content on your site. Are your Web pages written in a way that makes your company seem like an expert in your field? If you offer a service, do you include your own articles on the site to build yourselves up as a leader? If you sell products, do you enable people to leave reviews? This is just the initial step but it begins to lay the foundation for revising your content as part of your SEO strategy to bring in more visitors.

This critical review will lead to several surprises. For example, many companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars on an outside firm to create their Web site only to realize that something as simple as the metatags weren’t coded properly. Each page on your site should target a specific keyword, so repeating your company’s name in the title of the page makes no sense. Most likely, your name is in the Web address anyway so the search engines will easily find it. Also keep in mind that most people won’t be searching for your company name; they’ll be entering keywords that describe a product or service. And if your site is optimized, it will come up on the first page of results.

If you’re a beginner to SEO, don’t fear. To view the metatags on your site, click View on your Web browser, and then click Source. This will display the source code for your Web page. Below is an example of a metatag from a firm offering copywriting services:

The title tag displays the title of the page on your Web browser. The keywords are intended to provide search engines with a list of the important terms on the page. The description typically appears in the search engine results to show what content is on the Web page.

Now while you’re going through the content on your Web pages, also make sure you view the source code and take a look at your metatags. 90% of the time, you’ll find these aren’t optimized. The good news is that this is an easy place to start revising your site as part of your SEO program. Keep in mind that your review will take time and there’s a lot that goes into it. Here’s a brief checklist to look for as you go through the Web pages:

1. Are the metatags optimized?
2. Is it easy for a visitor to find the contact information?
3. Is your Web site too graphic-intensive so it takes too long to load?
4. Do you have alt tags on your images?
5. Do you present useful content on each page?
6. Would someone visiting your site consider the content informative and helpful?
7. Are there a lot of Flash movies on your site? These are not found by search engines and can take a long time to run.
8. Do you have information about your company including its history, mission statement, management team, and locations?
9. Are you offering a lot of content about the field that you’re in?
10. Do you include a blog so you can easily connect with visitors and enhance your rankings?

These are just a few items to consider during your review. Feel free to email me any questions to cabramson@seohutnj.com as you begin the process.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16921-Newark-Internet-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d14-Your-SEO-strategy-should-begin-with-a-thorough-review-of-your-Web-site

Content from users can improve SEO

Companies generally don't think of taking the advice of their prospective clients when putting together a business model, but one expert says having content on a website that is created by users can increase search engine optimization (SEO) and lead to higher conversions.

Writing for Search Engine Land, Daniel Waisberg says that having user generated content on a website can benefit a company in a number of ways - not the least of which is having free content on a site for search engines to crawl.

Having user generated content can also give a site credibility, says Waisberg, as it shows what "real people" think about, while also giving feedback to the company that runs the site.

Although there is a level of unknown when it comes to user generated content, Waisberg says when done right it can have great effects.

"[L]everaging user generated content is an advanced technique to improve a website conversion rate and, in parallel, its SEO efforts," he writes.

And while some might think that the opinion of strangers means nothing to most people, a recent study would disprove that thought.

According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Customer Survey, people still put a lot of faith in "word of mouth" with 90 percent saying they trust recommendations from people they know online. However, 70 percent said they trust the online opinions of people they've never met.

Resource:http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/content-from-users-can-improve-seo-$1311467.htm

Robert Sharp & Associates moves Jillian Anderson into Internet marketing

July 2009
Rapid City, SD - Jillian Anderson has assumed the position of Web Content and Social Media Developer for the Interactive Web Development Team at Rapid City marketing agency, Robert Sharp & Associates. Formerly Office Manager, she comes to her new post with a strong set of skills honed over the last two years in which she helped with the search engine optimization and social media advancement for this agency.

Thoroughly infused with customer service, Jillian contributes a broad professional background to a constantly changing field.

“Jillian has the kind of inquisitive and proactive personality that it takes to excel in this web marketing environment,” says Robert Sharp, president and CEO of this Rapid City interactive marketing firm. “A Jill of all trades, so to speak.”

Ms. Anderson is also a frequent contributor to this agency’s online marketing blog, with topics ranging from traditional media to social media marketing.

“I’m a fan of marketing and customer service as a whole,” says Jillian, “and the interactive web lends itself pretty seamlessly to both, so it’s a good fit and I am excited about all of the possibilities!”

For additional information, contact Tracey Scheich at Robert Sharp & Associates. Reach by phone 605.341.5226, fax 605.341.7390, or email at tracey@bbmstudios.com.

Robert Sharp & Associates is a Rapid City based advertising agency, and has achieved over three decades of excellence in advertising. They specialize in audio/visual production, graphic design, web development, event management, public relations, internet marketing and customer service.

SEO Secrets For Outranking Competition

In a video interview with Laura Lippay, director of technical marketing at Yahoo, Mike McDonald confirms it takes more than title tags to outrank competitors. The strategy also requires social media, creating buzz, getting links and more.

McDonald writes that SEO is a competitive game, and staying on top requires more than standard best practices. Social media, for example, can help smaller businesses focus on what people say about their products and services, as well as how competitors "might be flailing," Lippay says.