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.

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.

Selecting A Small Business SEO Company

All SEO companies targeting small businesses are selling snake oil!

OK not really but there are many out there you need to watch for which I believe has given the industry a bad name. Search Engine Optimization is something every company with a website or developing a website should take into consideration as they develop their plan for implementation.

If you are not familiar with SEO the simplest explanation without getting technical is the following:

SEO is the process of building your website in a manner that allows it to show up in the search engines for specific items that people maybe searching for, and more importantly it is optimizing it in a way that draws in searches that are specifically targeted at the products you sell.

There are many more technical explanations but that one really is the gist of it.

Now, why did I say many companies are selling snake oil, well let me first say, my company is not an SEO company, I say that very specifically because we do more than just optimize sites. That said we do work with customers that do want some level of SEO work done on their websites and we do build every customer website with SEO in mind from day one. Our success getting customers the search traffic they want has been great but we never guarantee anything, period.

There are a few things that you need to pay attention to when selecting a search engine optimization partner.

If they promise you page one listings run away, here is why. In many businesses you can guarantee something, when it comes to the search engines you are always at Googles (or Bing, or Yahoo) mercy. The provider can do everything right but at the end of the day there is always a chance that Google may not rank the site on the first page number one listing.

If they guaranteed it there are a few things they may be doing that you need to ask about or be aware of, there are companies that will take advantage of the lack of awareness of how the search engines work and will sometimes do one of the following to show you a first page listing:

1. Paid submission directories or search engines - Many will pay a fee to have your site listed number one in a lesser search engine or website directory or possibly take advantage of pay per click advertising on a lesser search engine or directory. These listings are only there if you are paying, quit paying and the listings go away.
2. Black Hat SEO - When it comes to search engine optimization there are two main types without getting to technical, there is white hat which is the proper way to optimize the site, and there is something called black hat. Black hat is the process of trying to trick the search engines into ranking your site but doing things that Google and others frown on. It may work for a short period of time but sooner or later Google will catch on and your site will be banned from search and your competitors will be smiling.
3. Using very odd searches to rank - What this means is showing you a page one ranking for a term that really no one searches for, for instance if you are interested in showing up for Chicago Hair Salons they may work to optimize for Chicago Illinois Hair Salons On Rush Street. You can see how it changes the value of a first page ranking.

Those are just a few things, there are many more but after speaking with customers lately I have a concern that there are people still working down these paths with customers.

All that said, there are many very upstanding SEO companies out there, there are MANY MORE good than bad. Make sure you select one you are comfortable with and ask the right questions.

How To Search Engine Optimize For Google Image Search

After my post earlier today I had a couple questions asking for more detail about SEO for Google Image Search. I Thought I would do a quick post with some quick and easy steps, by no means will I ever claim to be an SEO expert but I do think there are many basic rules you can live by to give yourself a solid chance at success.

Here are the things to look at:

Image File Name - Make sure you name the file based on the keywords you are optimizing for, in other words if the page is about iPhone App Reviews do your keyword research to determine the optimal words to put in file name. The easy way to look at this is it is not much different than the file name for the actual site page.

An example, and Aron will hate me for this (Sorry Aron) but search Google for Aron Meystedt or click here. You will see I rank on the page first based on my file name of the image when I did the interview with Aron.

Also, a little tip that seems to work but if you look around you will see much debate on, is using dashes in a file name rather than running the words together, i.e. Bruce-Marler rather than BruceMarler. I try to use dashes.

Content On Page - The content and surrounding information on the page around the photo is taken into account by Google as well, this will have an effect on how your images rank. In otherwords, do not try to scam Google by ranking high for an image name for Debt Consolidation on a page about iPhones.

Title Tag - The next thing is to make sure you have the title tag set an based on the keywords you are optimizing for, here is an example:

<img src=”http://YourSite.com/Keywords-Here.jpg” alt=”Keyword Focused Description.” title=”Keyword Based Title” />

This is something quick and easy to do and CMS software like Wordpress has a place to insert this text when uploading a picture making it really easy.

Alt Text Tag - You can see in the above example that the "alt" tag is also set based on keywords, this is the text that show if the image does not load or the browser does not support showing images.

Although there is also debate about how much emphasis Google puts on these tags, any extra edge you can get is important. Set them and you may of given yourself just enough juice to move higher.

I hope this helps answer some of the questions. Good luck!