Pimp My Keywords

Questions To Ask Before You Hire An SEO Firm

Search Marketing Standard has published an excellent article in its summer 2008 issue titled "Outsourcing SEM: Finding the Right Agency".

Included are the following questions you should ask when considering to hire the prospective vendor:

• Can we see your client list and contact a few for references?
• Which people will comprise the team to work on our campaign? Will our campaign have a dedicated project manager?
• Is there a limit to the number of times we can contact the project manager? Does it cost anything to have a phone conversation?
• Are you outsourcing any of your SEO/Pay-Per-Click tasks?
• Which business categories have you worked with (retail, automotive, etc.) and/or do you specialize in specific industries or verticals?
• Do you provide a written methodology for SEO/PPC, including preliminary information on market share, competitive landscape, and site strengths/weaknesses?
• Will we have access to all PPC campaign logins, keyword lists, ads, reports, and other campaign information?
• What happens to the code and content should our company stop using your services?

Excellent questions.

What kind of answers would you expect when considering to hire an SEO firm?

Our detailed answers will be posted here Monday.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 8

The keywords have been selected, the meta tag code (Page Titles and Page Descriptions) has been written.

What's next?

Content, of course. Always, always, always be working on content.

I've always heard "content is king".

Not true.

"Quality content - which includes keywords - is king".

Think about it: if your web page (notice I said "page") is about new gutter installation, then you better be using the keyword phrase "new gutter installation" on the page.

Sometimes it's easy to get too close to your topic and overlook the importance of using targeted keywords in your content.

Come back next Tuesday and we'll explore this a little more.

A Different Look at Web 2.0: The Circuit

Doug Ross (Western Southern Life) and Tom Marrs (CYBER) spoke recently about Web 2.0 technologies during an event hosted by The Circuit.

Ross explained Web 2.0 is the use of the Internet as a platform, instead of purchasing and installing an application. For example, Google Maps uses the browser as the application.

A blog is an easy-to-use news publishing platform. You can write about anything in a blog. Currently, blogs are huge as Technorati is tracking 112 million blogs. Wow...

Ross added corporations first viewed blogs as a threat (as in "what if someone writes something back about our company, products, etc."). Now, however, corporations are using blogs as a marketing tool.

At Western & Southern, an internal blog (called "iSpace") has 1,500 posts and over 60 authors. W&S rolled out a blog factory in 2007 allowing its users to create a blog in approximately five minutes. Some examples include a Microsoft Excel blog and a call center blog.

Ross went on to talk a bit about wikis (Wikipedia was founded in 2001 and is now 15 times larger than Britannica) and Digg (founded in 2004). These types of sites are "crowd-sourcing" as readers are also contributors.

Ross and Marrs went a little deeper into the technologies that drive 2.0, including AJAX, XML, RSS and RIA.

In all, we have yet to scratch the surface. Corporations still create expensive websites with bells and whistles and believe the traffic will come. Participation is a key whether its with a blog, new articles, case studies, wikis, social media, etc

SEO Webinar Set For Thursday, May 29

Purple Trout, LLC. a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is offering a free, online webinar focusing on the basics of SEO.
 
The webinar will be held on Thursday, May 29, 2008.

Steve Phillips, principal of Purple Trout, will provide an overview of SEO; explain its importance and share ideas on how you can apply simple, yet powerful SEO strategies to strengthen your website.  The webinar will also cover keyword research; what to do when you've uncovered your targeted keywords, meta tag codes, content; link building and more.
 
The webinar will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.  Admission is free.  To register, visit www.purpletrout.com/seminar.html.  For questions, please contact Steve Phillips at 513/885-5000 or steve@purpletrout.com.

For more information, or to register:

A Beginner's Guide To Search Engine Optimization

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 7

When it comes to writing meta tag code for your website pages, don't worry about the Keyword meta tag.

It's worthless.

You are not only wasting your time, but you are telling your competition which keywords you are targeting.

Rainbow & Brown Trout

I have returned from a brief fishing trip to Bull Shoals, Arkansas.

While the picture says it all (a 20-inch brown trout caught on the first day of a three-day trip), I managed to catch a sunburn, dehydration and a splitting headache. Still, however, I had a good time hauling in plenty of fish.

On the first day, fishing buddy Don Kunhle and I caught 51 rainbow trout and the aforementioned brown trout.

On Day 2, Jeff Wilson and I teamed up only to have Jeff smoke me by hauling in 10 brown trout. Wow!

On the final day, my brother, Joe Phillips, joined up with Don and I. While I caught five brown trout, Joe caught the big fish of the week - a 26-inch brown trout!

Of course, there were plenty of "big" ones that got away, but we'll save those for next time.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - On Vacation

As you read this, I am taking a brief vacation from search engine optimization.

Instead of researching keywords; tweaking content; building links and looking for other ways to help improve rankings in Google and other search engines, I am trout fishing in Arkansas.

Here, there are more eagles than laptops and, if I'm lucky, my cell phone won't work. It's not that I don't want to talk to you or meet you for coffee, but I was past due for a little break (I'm actually writing this on Saturday before we hit the road).

I'll be back in a few days.

Develop profit tactics in a tough economy to get more business

A guest post today from Ken & Tina Hare, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coaches, with Image First Solutions:

* * *

Tactics for getting more business are always important to learn and apply – so we’ll focus on things that can help boost response in any economy (and can perhaps be a bit more useful when things get tough because they’ll set you apart from your competition).

Give people better reasons to choose you.

When telling about who you are (and why they should pay attention to your message) – you are obviously looking to influence them to select you as their provider.

More often than not, an “about us” page on the web site … or, some “about our company” brochure has been developed for prospects.  If it is centered on the self righteousness of the business; this approach does nothing to motivate people. People really don’t care about how great you think you are, unless it directly affects your ability to perform for them.

The components frequently missing are the great reasons why your business maybe the ideal match for that particular prospect who’s checking you out. In other words, tell people why choosing you will fulfill their Interests, needs and desires.   

For more information contact:
Ken and Tina Hare
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coaches
Forty Years of Real World Experience
(859) 441-8888
 www.imagefirstsolutions.com

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 6

While the Page Title is the most important meta tag code, the Page Description plays another important role in your search engine optimization efforts.

The Page Description has no bearing - repeat - no bearing on getting ranking higher in Google and other search engines.

Instead, the Page Description should be in place to impress potential visitors who find your site through search engines.

Huh?

Do this: Search for any product or service in Google. Your results will pull in 10 listings (per page) from the top web pages.

Google pulls the "title" from the web site's Page Title and the "description" from the web site's Page Description.

Get it?

Well-written Title and Description tags are very important is describing your page to the search engines and to potential human customers. Limit your Page Descriptions to 255 characters or less.

Next week, we'll take a look at the Keyword meta tag code.

Questions? Comments? Drop me a note. I'll help!

Thinking SEO? Start Here

If you are considering search engine optimization for your company's website, where do you begin?

Search engines are just like people: they want to see fresh content on your website. If your website is old and stale, then get started by writing new content.

This could start with new headlines on every page; re-writing product descriptions; writing an article about how your company was created, or something new in your industry.

Publish company press releases on your website and consider creating and writing a blog.

Always write website and page content for your “human” audience first. Then write for search engines.

Fresh content will keep potential customers and search engine spiders coming back to your website.

While there are many factors in determining search engine placement – keywords, site maps and link building strategies - content will always be king in earning higher rankings in Google, Yahoo and other search engines.