Pimp My Keywords

Keywords: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 171

When planning your search engine optimization strategy, it's easy to get caught up in targeting every keyword in the dictionary in hopes of earning high rankings on some keywords and little action on other keywords.

This brings up the all-important question of "how many keywords should you be targeting for your website?"

Recently, a SEO-know-it-all (who fails even with his black hat techniques) advised a local IT networking group that you should target three or four keywords per website page.

Wrong.

That's stuffing and it's an all-too-typical black hat technique that doesn't work. It doesn't make sense for the reader either because the keywords would be too forced for the content.

Remember, the content on your web page needs to support the targeted keyword. Can you really write enough content to truly convince Google that you should be ranked in the Top 3 on four keywords per page?

Very doubtful.

Here's the rule:

Target 1 keyword for 1 page.

Simple.

If you have a web page about chocolate chip cookies, there's certainly no need to mention sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, etc. You'll only be writing about chocolate chip cookies, which makes perfect sense for the customer and perfect sense for Google.

Each Web Page Is A Different SEO Opportuntiy

Every business would like to see their website ranked No. 1 in Google. 

However, you have more opportunities for higher rankings than you think as Google ranks web pages and not websites. Each page of your website is a separate opportunity for higher placement in search engines.

For example, let's say your website has 10 web pages with each page focusing on a different theme, product, service, etc. That's 10 different chances for higher search engine rankings. If you're targeting 10 keywords, then you can focus on one keyword per page.

Treat each page of your website like it's a one-page website. It should stand alone and be optimized on its own merit, content, keywords, links, etc. 

Too many times website owners try to stuff all their keywords on the home page. They cram the Page Title, content, ALT tags, links, etc. with a ton of keywords thinking "let's get my website ranked No. 1 in Google."

But what about the other pages? What keywords do you incorporate in those pages?

When potential customers are searching targeted keywords they want to "land" on the page with the correct information. If they don't, they'll click the browser's "back" button and try something else. This is true for search engines, social media, pay per click, etc.

The "purple widgets" page should target keywords about "purple widgets" and the "green widgets" page should target keywords about "green widgets" and so on. If you post a Tweet about "green widgets" the Twitter link should point to the "green widgets" page and not the home page of your website.

Improving content and optimization on each page of your website will greatly increase ranking opportunities, inbound traffic and conversions.

* * *

Purple Trout, LLC lives, sleeps, breathes and even eats search engine optimization. Visit our website for more information and to receive a free, no-obligation SEO Analysis of your company's website.

Find The Right Keywords For Your Website

Keyword research is extremely important in SEO. Think about it, before you start writing content, tags, link building, etc., you must find and use the right keywords for your website and search engine marketing campaigns.

If you're currently using a search engine optimization firm and they haven't shared keyword research with you, then you're using the wrong firm.

Read the rest of the keyword research article...

Jingle Bells: SEO Style

For those of you who love Christmas carols; check out our version of Jingle Bells:

Dashing through the web

In an SEO kinda way

Up in the rankings we go

Laughing all the way

HA HA HA

Hear the twitter sing

Make the writers write

What fun it is to meta-tag

Late into the night

 

Purple Trout, Purple Trout

Keywords all the way

Oh what fun it is to see

Your links go up and stay HEY!

Purple Trout, Purple Trout

Keywords all the way

Casting a wider Internet

Ups your rankings every day

 

Since Christmas time is here

And website hits are low

Don’t worry, have no fear

Local splash makes rankings glow

PPC will help you too

And social media bonds

Your comp-e-tition won’t have a clue

When your clientele responds!

 

OHHH Purple Trout, Purple Trout

Keywords all the way

Oh what fun it is to see

Your links go up and stay

Purple Trout, Purple Trout

Keywords all the way

Casting a wider Internet

Ups your rankings every day!

(Photo by: anneh632)

 

The No-No's of Social Media Content

By Sarah Groneck

SEO/SMO Writer

A big part of having a social media strategy is how you portray your company’s persona. Your followers and fans won’t listen to you if the company’s voice does not match up with the company’s purpose statement. So, as you decide on a company persona, remember that how you write is equally as important as what you write.

When it comes to writing voice, keep these no-no's in mind:

Don’t be casual. Remember all those rules you memorized in high school grammar class, such as capitalize at the beginning of a sentence? Implement them, and stay consistent. Your viewers have enough friends who use ten exclamation marks to emphasize a point; they don’t want to see a company doing the same. Stay away from texting jargon such as “lol” or “ttyl.” If you respect grammar rules, you will appear to be a serious, more professional company. That way, when you do implement sarcastic or humorous content, your readers will still take you seriously.

Don’t be corporate. Cut out long-winded, confusing language. Viewers’ attention spans are short in social media; they won’t spend time reading your wordy words. They also do not want to spend time deciphering meaning, especially if content lacks substance to start. Put a little soul into your content. Be straight-forward, be humorous, be human.

Above all, don’t conspire publically. It may seem obvious, but do not rant against your competition on Twitter and Facebook. In fact, it might be better to not mention them at all. Pretend your competition does not exist (while keeping track of them on the sly), and don't create content bragging about your company’s latest gains or making low-blow jabs at your competition. Your readers want to see your company as professional in content and in conveyance.  

Remember, your company is what it says (or writes). Make sure that when you speak through social media, you speak well and with class.

{Picture by Horia Varlan}

Recent Changes To Google Places Catching Businesses Off-Guard With Change In Listings, Ranking

Google’s recent changes with its Places feature has caused a stir among businesses who have seen a change in how they’re now ranked (or not ranked) in Google search results.

Recent Google changes include:

• Google Places (previously called Google Maps) has been moved to new locations within search results. Now, the “map” is shown on the right of Google search results above display ads (called “Adwords”).
• Previous business listings within Google Places have been merged with search results causing an entire restructuring of Google search engine results pages. For example, a business previously listed first in the Google Places section may now find itself listed first in the Google search results. This is causing other businesses to see lower results in Google listings.
• Some businesses that were positioned first in Google Places and listed first in Google organic search results are now seeing both results merged into one result in Google search engine results.
• Many other business listing websites, such as Yellow Pages, City Search, Yelp, etc., may now have been pushed off the first page of search results.

“Google continues to make changes and local businesses need to be aware of how that’s affecting their listings in Google Places, overall Google organic rankings, and traffic to their website,” says Steve Phillips, President of Purple Trout LLC, a Newport, Kentucky search engine optimization consulting firm specializing in local search engine optimization and local listing optimization.

“If your business was ranked No. 1 on a local keyword in Google and you were not listed high in Google Places, you may now find your No. 1 organic ranking has dropped to No. 8 or worse,” says Phillips. “This is another sign that Google is focusing more and more on local search results.”

Now, says Phillips, local businesses need to make sure they are listed correctly and accurately in Google Places, and that their websites are properly optimized for local keywords.

“Businesses shouldn’t rely on Yellow Pages, City Search or Yelp,” says Phillips. “Those listings are probably no longer a part of the Top 10 search results for Google. The way Google has repositioned its Places listings has pushed the other service sites out of the Top 10.

“Businesses need to make sure they are listed in Google Places and then optimize their website for the best locally-targeted keywords to attract local customers to their website,” Phillips added.

The Dynamic Duo Debut at Purple Trout

Hey everyone! We're Kristin Bednarski and Sarah Groneck, the new SEO/SMO writers at Purple Trout, LLC. From here on out, we'll be blogging every Friday about all things social media, including things we've learned, tips we've come up with, and facts and information regarding your favorite social media venues.

Feel free to ask us any questions or make any suggestions, and we'll try to speedily respond on this blog.

Our first post will debut next Friday, and we're looking forward to exploring the wonderful world that is social media.

Google Trends: Where's The Beef?

By Amanda Collins
SEO Specialist

No, I’m not referring to Lady Gaga’s meat dress!  As I reviewed Google Trends  this week , I was not surprised to see Ms. Gaga ranked in the top 10 hottest searches and topics. Her “hotness” peaked to the level of volcanic  at 8:00pm on Sunday evening (see graph below) when she appeared at the 2010 MTV VMA Awards in a “meat dress”, which continues to deliver a steady stream  of tweets, blogs, and news discussions.  I’m hoping Ms. Gaga will consider a “fish dress”, preferably in a shade of purple,  for her 2011 VMA appearance.


Like myself, you may not appreciate this new bit of Hollywood trivia entering your consciousness and/or conversations.  However, I have no doubt that Ms. Gaga will continue to fill our news forums, discussions, tweets, and blog posts for years to come.  She is especially popular Mexico, Venezuela, and Chile, with the United States ranking #7 for Gaga related Internet traffic.

If you’d like to see what else is hot (or spicy or volcanic) at Google Trends, you will have to sort through the latest celebrity gossip.  However, with some patience, you can find the real meat if you plan what to search for and take time to sort and analyze your results. If you haven’t used Google Trends before, I would recommend starting off with a few simple searches that could easily reveal some trends about your business, products, and services.

• Compare your product/service vs. your competition during a specific time period.
  
  • (ie: Coke, Pepsi during the past 12 months).
  • You may notice spikes in interest based on a news story or time of year.
• Compare your product/service along with your competition in specific regions, or sub-regions.
  
  • (ie: Searches for Coke/Pepsi in India).
  • You may be surprised to see the popularity of your product or service in an international or local market where you never considered your product or services to be of value. 
• Discover what your customers are saying about you and your product/service in local blogs, tweets, and discussions.
  
  • (ie. Latest buzz about Coke and Pepsi)
  • Take your findings a step further by limiting your search to specific time frames and look for trends based on time of day, time of month, year, etc.

Good luck searching for trends and have fun!

(Note: Every Friday, Amanda will share thoughts, ideas and findings using Google Trends)

P & G and Bedbugs: Cincinnati Leads The Way in Search Numbers

It seems bedbugs and Procter & Gamble have been in the local headlines quite a bit lately, so I was curious to find out how many consumers have been searching for the pesky bastards (meaning bedbugs) and P&G.

According to the Google Traffic Estimator, 550,000 searches are conducted monthly for the term "p & g" as compared to 201,000 searches per month for the keyword phrase "procter and gamble".

• p & g - 550,000 local monthly searches
• procter and gamble - 201,000
• procter & gamble - 110,000
• p&g - 60,500

For bedbugs, the numbers are also impressive with 301,000 searches conducted each month for the term "bedbugs" and 165,000 searches for "bedbug".

Taking a look at Google Trends, reveals some more interesting results.

For the search team "p & g":

• The top three regions are Pakistan, Singapore and India.
• The top three cities are Cincinnati, Mumbai and Singapore.
• The top three languages are Indonesian, English and Vietnamese.

For the search term, "bedbugs":

The top three regions are Canada, United States and Australia.
The top three cities are Cincinnati, New York and Winnipeg.
The top three languages are English, Dutch and German.

Notice a trend?

The top city searches for both "P&G" and "bedbugs" is Cincinnati. 

Nasty.

I checked the term "baseball" to see if the city of Cincinnati is one of the top cities searching for the term. After all, the Cincinnati Reds are currently leading the NL Central is hopes of a pennant title and a spot in the upcoming playoffs.

Nope.

The top three cities searching for the term "baseball" are St. Louis, Minneapolis and Chicago. Cincinnati's not even in the Top 10.

How about the term "NFL" with the new season upon us? Hopes are high for the Cincinnati Bengals with the duo of Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens.

Fortunately, Cincinnati is No. 3 in Google Trends in cities searching for "NFL" behind Waterloo, Canada and San Diego.

Overall, with "Cincinnati" keywords, users are searching more for "Cincinnati" than any other local keyword. In fact, according to Google, there are over 4 millions searches per month for the keyword "Cincinnati".

On a more local level, there are approximately 450,000 monthly searches for "Cincinnati Ohio" followed by "Cincinnati University" at 165,000 searches and "Cincinnati Enquirer" at 110,000 searches.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 117

One of the many presentations I attended at Search Engine Strategies Conference, San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, included a great session by the folks at Wpromote Inc. called "Ten Things To Supercharge Your SEM Campaigns."

1. Test everything. Test button color, text, headlines, images, etc.
2. Do PPC (Pay Per Click) and remarketing. Remarketing is the technology by which you drop a cookie on your site visitors and "follow them" to other web pages where your ad will eventually appear in front of their face again. Very effective.
3. Use the Google Content Network in PPC. When you find winner keywords, go big. When you find loser keywords, make them into negative keywords.
4. With PPC keywords and ad grouping, you're better off grouping by either services or grouping by city (group by location is the way to go).
5. Go for out of the box thinking on link building. Great links are closer than you think. Vendors, partners, users, friends, customers, stores, etc.
6. Creating amazing SEO content. You have control over your website's content. Do something with it. Adopt a page a day mentality to improve your website's content. Ideas can include a blog, resources, FAQs, articles. Be a thought leader when it comes to your website's content. 
7. Be timely, seasonal and hip. Why not try something different? For example, for the holidays, use art work or a seasonal header on your website's home page? Change your colors; add some new artwork and see what happens.
8. Craft the perfect message. Use your website data for analysis. Using the proper keywords + ad + landing page = reinforcing what the user wants to see.
9. Use Google Insights to help find good keywords (and negative keywords as well).
10. Me, You & Social Media. Start with what is being said about you. Use Google Alerts; search Twitter; ScoutLabs.com; ViralHeat.com to monitor the chatter. Then, create a strategic message and integrate it into your website. Consider Facebook and StumbleUpon ads.