Long Term SEO Planning For Content Sites

In a world that is lead by real time information and search and reacting to friends posting links on social sites sometimes taking a longer view of what people could be interested in can pay off when developing a new website.

This past year when first working with the Castello Brothers on Grape.com there was planning that was done around what content to post as the site started to ramp up. One thing people like is lists, its been proven time and time again lists of things do great. We did quite a bit of research on what types of things people searched for as it related to wineries and went from there.

One thing that surprised some as a choice was an idea that someone else actually gave to me, I would not of thought of it, but the idea stuck and is paying off now. It was something that would not of been on anyones mind at the time but now that its October it is on peoples minds, that term, Haunted Wineries.

Its something that gets very little search traffic for the majority of the year but while in Google Analytics earlier today looking at various sites I took a look at noticed something interesting, here was the last several searches, and they all came within the past hour:

Americas Most Haunted Winery

Haunted Wineries

Haunted Winery

And all of those were searched for a few times, now here is the really fun part. I happened to be watching a show on the Travel Channel about the most haunted places in the US and they were doing a segment on the most haunted winery in American, the Marjim Manor. So it was all very timely but a fun thing to see real time how a show can affect people sitting on their laptops searching while they watch.

So, whats the point, if you are building a content rich site around a topic, think long term about what the users may be interested in, planning your SEO around this can be very valuable and bring you very targeted visitors and allow you to sell seasonal ad packages or products.

Hope this helps someone that may be planning content for a site.

Forget Hyperlocal Google Goes Statewide With Local Search

As much as I love all the hyperlocal buzz and things going more and more community focused I have reasons to love larger geographic regions as well, seems Google has some love for them too.

Over at SearchEngineJournal there was an interesting post analyzing Googles latest local search changes. Now they show local results for statewide searches, this is an interesting concept and one that I can already see ways to take advantage of for some of our customers.

Take a read of the linked post above, but here are a few quick tips they pointed out on how to take advantage of this:

1. Check and see if your Industry and State are showing local listings.
2. Make sure you aren’t stuffing location keywords into categories. If your category is city + keyword then what happens when someone does a search for state + keyword.
3. Do keyword research for city vs. state terms. Your business might benefit by trying to go after one or the other.
4. Look at citations from businesses in other areas of the state and see if you can use them.

I think number 2 is very important in this, in most cases people go straight to city level categories or keywords, but with Googles shift to show local search for statewide a business that is trying to take advantage of this is going to have to think a bit differently.

Long Tail Search Results, iPhone Apps, And A Third Grader On Google

I always like to sit back and watch how "non-technical" people use the tools (like search) compared to how people that live online constantly use them. It can be enlightening and show you why certain things work and why others do not.

As many people have shown with various graphs, numbers, marketing data, and other ways to show the same thing, long tail search is growing. The number of people using more than a couple words when searching grows every year which means that people are getting much more sophisticated and using the tools the same way many of us did that were early adopters. I know this is not earth shattering news to those that keep up with this trend, and anyone that buys names for network sites or who does any level of SEO research for high conversion keywords has probably spent a good portion of their time research long tail searches (up to several words or more).

Well tonight as I sat with my daughter on the couch (with both of our laptops out, bonding???) offering to help her with her creative writing home work (seriously, creative writing in third grade?), she shunned my help to use Google to search for writing prompts. I thought this would be a fun thing to watch, here is how the process went:

1) Search for writing prompts

2) Before clicking on one thing switches search to third grade writing prompts

3) Clicks on two entries that look likes made for Adsense sites, starts to click on ads but I stop her (someone can thank me later).

4) Blames Google for bad results. Says she wishes they would show something to help her, her brain works for a few minutes thinking.

5) Refines her search even further to something even longer

Now, even though she was not looking to buy, this is the basic learning process people go through as they search. This is why many smart people focus on the long tail terms for higher conversions.

I know a third grader may not sound like a good reference point, but in reality I think this means alot because if a typical (it is my daughter so I want to say brilliant) 8 year old refines their search to find more relevant searches as she becomes the consumer aged kid (lets say the tween years) how she searches is what matters. I watch her when she browses on her iPod Touch and she will sit in a Paneras on WiFi and search like any other mobile search user. Can you imagine what these kids will be doing in a few years.

The thing I hate to admit here but should be pointed out is that other than a few gaming sites I know my son visits I can honestly say I have never witnessed my kids actually type in a generic domain name. I know that may frustrate some but they are the future users. They hit Google or use an iPhone app for pretty much any information gathering online. Search traffic matters, social media matters, mobile apps matter, do not ignore that, instead think about how you can blend all those together to be successful.

OK, what is my point.

My point is watch what the kids around you do and how they use the Internet. They will be the ones driving how items are consumed online in the near future. Long tail search is just one way that we see all people changing their habits, but with kids using mobile search combined with local long tail search  to find products it may be just the way to determine how to make your next domain purchase or search engine optimize your next project, or even more importantly, figure out how to implement social media and mobile apps into your plan.

The Art Of SEO

I finally found an SEO book that I like.

Although I do the majority of my research on topics online I do still like to read real hard copy books, I know hard to believe, I know how to read.

One thing I believe most people get themselves in trouble doing is thinking they know everything about a subject, that is usually the first step to failure. Even though I have had some luck and success with various SEO methods I know there is still much to learn, and I would expect a lot of so called experts would say the same, search optimization methods are always changing so keeping up to date is something anyone involved with site development should always be doing. Most do not though....

All that said, most books on search engine optimization that I have read or browsed through were a re-hash of tips you could find online in a quick search or something that worked in 2002 but really is not relevant now. Or the book focused so much on the technical aspects that you could not read past the first 10 pages without falling asleep.

Well, while at the Affiliate Convention a member of an SEO panel (cannot remember if he was a white, grey or blackhat SEO) said the one book on SEO that was of value was The Art Of SEO.

I decided to give it a read and see if he was telling the truth (he was not one of the authors, although another panel member was referenced in the book a few times).

I can say that this book is different, truly the first book on this very complex subject that I can say I truly enjoy. Within the first 2 chapters I had already sent an email to my team members recommending this book. There are not many books I recommend  but as of late there have been three (on 3 different topics):

The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice)

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

(Yes those are affiliate links but I have bought and read everyone and recommend them).

The book does a great job going over market statistics, even if you are a pure techie you should pay attention to the marketing statistics to make sure you focus your  search marketing in the right direction.

If you have not read this book yet or have been frustrated by other SEO books, give this one a try. It is different, and the way it is written pulls it all together much better than any I have found.