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TAG | search marketing
Engine Ready and SEOmoz will be hosting an SEO meetup in downtown San Diego on Tuesday night, December 21st. Come on out to learn about the latest developments in the SEO world, and to see some short presentations. SEOmoz CEO, Rand Fishkin, and Engine Ready CEO, Jamie Smith, will be there among other professionals to network with.
The event will be held at the San Diego Beer Company, located at Broadway and 6th Ave. For more information check out the SEOmoz event calendar or Eventbrite. And by the way, if for some reason you need more incentive to come, the first two drinks are complimentary.
*Update: The event is listed as sold out on Eventbrite, but please register for the wait list as more spots will be opening up.
Getting started with a search engine optimization campaign? Here are some basic tips for getting started:
1. Keyword Selection
The goal of SEO is to rank organically for specific keywords. So, how do you know which keywords you want to go after? Think about how someone would search for your services or products online, and compile a list of some variations of those core keywords. Some keywords are highly competitive and the search engines will return tens of millions of results. While those keywords can bring significant traffic to your site, they may take longer to rank for and might not be the type of visitor you’re ultimately seeking. If this is the case, consider formulating your SEO strategy on some “long tail” keywords that are less competitive but will still bring targeted traffic. Taking your core keywords and attaching geographic terms like your city or zip code are a good way to break out a “long tail” list.
There are many tools out there to aid with keyword research. A couple good ones to start with include Wordstream’s Free Keyword Tool and SEO Moz’s Keyword Difficulty tool.
2. Good Quality Content that Gets Love
“Content is king!” This phrase is thrown around a lot in the SEO world, and it’s pretty accurate. Search engines want to show quality websites to their users and having good, informational, and relevant content on your site is a big step towards being recognized as a quality website. Producing unique content helps you stand out from the competition and will also generate natural inbound links from other sites who find your material unique. So, take some time when writing copy for your product or service web pages. Blogging is a great way to produce fresh, relevant content in which both visitors and search engines will take notice.
3. Meta Content and Page Titles
While developing your quality content, be sure to structure it in a search engine friendly manner. This includes a keyword rich page titles, targeted headlines, and appropriate keyword usage throughout the paragraphs. Any images that are placed on the page should have alt descriptions and keyword related file names. If you are attempting to optimize an interior web page for a specific keyword be sure to have content that is closely related to that keyword and use it consistently throughout the page. Don’t overdo it and spam your page with keywords! This is easily identified as amateur SEO and won’t do you in favor in the search engines. Keep in mind that you’re producing content and good descriptions for humans first and search engines second. Here’s a guide to the perfect SEO page via SEO MOZ
4. URL Selection
Creating a new site, or looking for a new domain? URL selection is critical to not only your brand, but also which keywords you want to rank for. Try to find a URL that has one of your core keywords in it, but stay away from multiple hyphens. A strong ranking factor for Google is keywords in the URL, so if you can find a gem of a URL you will most likely be ranking for that keyword with relative ease. Shorter is better than longer from a usability and user recognition standpoint. Shorter URLs are also easier to share on sites such as Twitter. Striking a balance between your brand name and your keywords is important, but don’t stray to a .info or some other lesser known extension. People are used to .com so try to keep that level of familiarity with your users.
5. Relevant Inbound Links
Links are the lifeblood of a successful SEO campaign. Links are how search engines determine a site’s relevancy and popularity. The theory goes that if many sites are linking to you, then you have something of value to say, and if you have something of value to say then search engines will want to point users to your site. However, not all links are created equal. If you have a site that sells car parts, then getting a link from a website that sells flowers isn’t going to do you much good. In other words, you need links from sites that are relevant to your subject matter.
Have you ever wanted to pull your hair out while writing text ads? We keep this cheat sheet of 2-3 letter words handy to help stimulate the process and thought others might find it useful as well. PPC management can be more efficient when you avoid writers block creating text ads.
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The Art of Landing Page Development
0 Comments | Posted by Keith Lovgren in Google AdWords, Landing Page Optimization
If business is war, then landing page testing and development are pitched battles to win consumers over competitors. Just as in war, the first thing we do in developing landing pages is to create a strategy
This is the process we use in Engine Ready’s landing page development section. First we like to list out strengths and weaknesses of a clients offer, product, or service.
For this example let’s say our new client makes stand up desks (a hot topic in the office lately!)
These are the strong points of their product:
- Numerous Health benefits to using one over a traditional desk.
How is it healthier? Answer: Better for posture and back. Aids digestions and increases calorie consumption by burning an additional 60 calories per hour over a sit down desk. Breaking this out for someone uses a desk 8 hours a day 5 days a week leads to burning an additional 9,600 calories per month.
- Client reports receiving emails from customers who are very pleased by their new stand up desk.
If someone pays full price for a product or service and still writes a thank you note to the company they’re more than a satisfied customer. If it’s possible, we like to speak with them directly. A conversation with a customer evangelist can be very beneficial to the development of a strong landing page.
- Height Adjustment is very easy.
Since it’s easy to adjust, it’s especially well suited for home offices where more than one person uses the same computer. And for companies where more than one person uses the same work station.
This is the weakness of the product
- It’s 9% more expensive than similar desks.
Why is it more expensive? The main reason is that because our client is smaller he does not get the same discounts larger manufacturers get when they buy materials in bulk.
There’s not much we can do with this.
Almost as a side note, the client mentions that the ball bearing system in the adjustment arm he uses is more expensive. Why? Because he uses Swiss made ball bearings and pulley system which are better quality. What does this mean to the consumer? It’s smoother to adjust than other standup desks.
After bouncing ideas around we decide on turning the weakness of the price comparison to competitors into the focus of the pitch.
We do this by building text around this theme:
“The only stand up desk with the Glide Adjustment System. It might be a bit more expensive but over the life of your desk it’s less than a penny a day.
Because all stand up desks provide the same health benefits, the secondary focus will be the calorie burning and health benefits.
From there, we fill out the rest of the page with applicable text and order a 15 second video clip showing an elderly woman adjusting the desk height.
For the first split test we reverse the benefits focus and make the health features the main focus and the glide adjustment the secondary point.
If you’re considering landing page development, why not give Engine Ready a call? We’d love to speak with you!