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July 20th, 2010
SEO: Why Buying Keyword-rich Domains can be Counterproductive

domain-nameOwning multiple domains containing keywords relevant to your business can boost your search rankings and help rake in significantly bigger traffic - right?  Wrong. It can actually prove to be much more trouble than it’s worth.

Many businesses mistakenly believe that search rankings will be dramatically improved if their domain name contains one or more of the keywords being searched for. However, experts say that the process that makes this work is actually very complicated.

An article on SEOmoz.org provides some valuable insights into the pitfalls of buying too many keyword-rich domains. For instance, the article says that Google is on the lookout for organizations that take advantage of domain names purely for SEO purposes. Depending on how severe Google’s almighty powers deem your offense to be, you could be meted out with some pretty serious penalties.

In the long run, experts say you’re wasting your time with this practice. There are number of complications that can arise, and the article explains in detail why having keyword-rich domains may sound good, but once implemented things start to turn sour.

To get a clearer view of the pros and cons (and there’s much more of the latter), visit

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keywordrich-domains.

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May 4th, 2009
Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Body Copy

A quick fix to dramatically improve your rankings

seoSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long road that takes a lot of patience. Nobody knows (except the guys at Google) exactly how the search algorithms work – but we can make our best guesses. Amid the myriad of items on your SEO checklist, on-page optimization can prove to be a quick fix to dramatically improve your website’s listing in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Creating appropriate title tags, writing a meta description, and optimizing body content will point your website in the right direction toward achieving the rankings you want.

Title

SERPs weigh keywords in title tags very highly. In fact, title tags can have the biggest effect on rankings. The title tag is displayed in SERPs and at the top of the browser for each page.

Where and how to add title tags:

<head>
<title>Original Title Tag</title>
<head>

Things to consider when creating title tags:

Length

Search engines cut off title tags around 70 characters, while browsers cut off around 95. A longer title tag can squeeze in more keywords, but may not appear as user friendly in a SERP. This is a case-by-case compromise.

Originality

Title tags should be different for each page. Multiple pages containing the same title tag confuse search engines –sometimes causing neither page to be ranked.

Keyword Placement

For basic title tag optimization, focus on the key areas of your website: your home, products, and services pages. Here are some examples:Home:

Computer and Network IT Support for Small Business - Petaluma | Widgets, Inc.

Disaster Recovery Page:

Disaster Recovery Services and Small Business Backup Solutions | Widgets, Inc.

Meta description

The meta description is the short summary you see under the title tag in SERPs. While it has no impact on a search engine ranking, it is still important to entice visitors to click through to your website. If a description is not manually added for a page, the search engine will choose the content it thinks is most relevant to display, based on the user’s search query.For small business websites, it’s a good practice to include an original and compelling meta description for your home page only.

Where and how to add a meta description:

<head>
<meta name="Description" content="Insert meta description here – no more than 155 characters.">
</head>

Body Content

There are several opportunities within body content to optimize your keywords. While including keywords will positively affect search rankings, it’s important to remember that quality and easily readable content is the number one goal. Without quality content, visitors will be less interested in what you have to say and will be less likely to convert.

Header Tags

SERPs especially value keywords in header tags. Be strategic about how you place keywords in header tags.Where and how to add header tags:

<h1>Most Important</h1>
<h2>Second Most Important</h2>
<h3>Third Most Important</h3>

Bold/Strong Tags

This is a good place to insert keywords. SERPs value bold and strong tags equally.Where and how to add bold or strong tags:

<b>Keyword</b>
<strong>Keyword</strong>

Alt Image Text

Alt text can be added for images to further optimize keywords. For example, the alt text for your logo could be “Widgets, Inc. – IT Consultant”.

If you’re confused about any of this information, or want to make sure you’re following industry best practices, don’t be afraid to look at what your competitors are doing. It’s a great place to gain SEO inspiration!

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April 20th, 2009
Selecting the Right Keywords For Your Website

Get to the bottom of keyword research in four easy steps

ProntoPicThe first, and possibly the most important, area of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to conduct the proper keyword research. Without doing so, you may be optimizing your website with keywords that aren’t relevant to your business, or ones that people aren’t even searching for.

Here are four steps to selecting the right keywords:

1. Develop a visitor persona

Take the time to create a mini persona for the average user who visits your website – and think about the psychographic and demographic profiles for this person. And most important consider how that person thinks about your business, and try to determine your visitor’s motivation to contact you.

2. Brainstorm keywords

Now that you’ve developed your average visitor’s persona, brainstorm all of the keywords you believe that person would use when searching for your products or services. In a lot of cases, the exact name of one of your services might not be what people are actually searching for. Think about how people outside of your industry would refer to your services in their own vernacular.

3. Research

Once you’ve created a list of possible keywords, create a free account with Google’s AdWords (http://adwords.google.com) and use their Keyword Tool to learn more about your list of brainstormed keywords in detail. This is a great place to get ideas on related terms, and the approximate search volume for the ones you had in mind.

4. Select and analyze

From this list, select the keywords you want to use and try searching for these terms. Take note of what companies are ranking for these keywords and what they’re doing well.

SEO is all about testing and tuning. Quite possibly, the keywords you choose today may not be the best ones for the job – but you have to start somewhere. Properly executing this exercise will put you on the right track to increasing your website’s rankings.

In our next SEO post, we’ll cover best practices for how to implement your chosen keywords in your website to reach maximum potential!

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