Webmarketing123

The Top 5 SEO Mistakes in B2B Marketing

November 15th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Many businesses believe that: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of today’s most effective marketing tactics. If done correctly, businesses can increase their ranking on search engine result pages as well as experience a boost in traffic to their site—resulting in increased lead generation and conversions. If your business is implementing SEO but you are still not seeing your site on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing, your execution may be off. In our November 10th webinar, Mike Turner, Search Marketing Executive discussed the Top 5 SEO Mistakes in B2B Marketing. Here is a recap in case you missed it:

1) Keywords are the most important aspect of SEO and if they’re not researched properly, they can be one of your biggest problems.

A keyword is typed in by a potential client so be sure you’re using consumer vocabulary and not company jargon. Another point is that the best keywords to invest in are usually phrases, as illustrated by this graph:

B2B-longtail-seo

Shown above, the one-word phrases are likely to have high competition from other sites and a high search frequency. The more descriptive phrases that are upwards of five words long are going to have low competition and a lower search frequency.

At Webmarketing123, we have found that the Keywords with the best ROI will be three to four words in length. These more descriptive terms will have a higher conversion rate than the single keyword searches. People who search using three to four word key phrases will generally be further along in their sales process, more informed and therefore more likely to make a purchase.

2)      Missing Keywords in content and text links.

Once you have the correct keywords, you want to make sure that they’re visible to Google spiders. Including Keywords in more places than just the written content of your site will improve your raking for those keywords. Here are a few places to include your keywords:

  • Title tags
  • Headings
  • Paragraph titles
  • Keywords in body copy
  • Anchor text in links
  • Image alt text

Pages can have as little as one to two keywords but should not have more than seven to ten. Too many keywords on one page will overload the user. Pages should flow nicely and make sense. You need to decide what the preferred landing page for a given search term will be. These could be called the blueprints of your site.

3)      Using content that search engines can’t read.

This is a common mistake because Google bots cannot read certain content and thus cannot give your site credit. Flash and images are not variables that go into a search engine’s algorithm.

flash

4)      Not creating fresh content.

If Google bots don’t see any new content they’re not going to visit your site regularly. An easy way to avoid this, especially for B2B companies, is to have a blog and regularly post keyword-rich content with links back to the primary website.

…and make it easy for others to link towards your site by utilizing some of these tools:

  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Facebook & LinkedIn status/groups
  • Networks & Media
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Flickr
  • YouTube

5)       Being Activity-focused, not outcome-focused.
Set goals for keywords with high conversions. Google analytics and Webtrends are just two of the programs that you can use to determine conversion rates on your different keywords.

Be outcome-focused, not activity-focused. Focus on what matters—outcome!

Finally, here is a graph to help you keep your site SEO Friendly.

order-of-operations

This Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. (Pacific) to 12:00 p.m. we’ll be hosting our next webinar, How to Succeed with SEO During the Holidays–click here to register!

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Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Back to the Basics: Long Tail Keywords vs. Short Tail Keywords

October 18th, 2010 by Ray Mao

If you’ve ever seen one of our webinars, or know the first thing about SEM (search engine marketing), you know how essential keywords are to your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. You may also know that keywords can be split up into 2 groups, long tail and short tail keywords.

Short tail keywords are generic or broad keywords that are highly searched. They lack any specificity that can characterize the user as uninformed about the search term. Also, unless your company is a giant monopoly and a household name in your industry, it’s going to be pretty tough (and expensive) to rank for and go after generic keywords. On the other hand, long tail keywords are phrases that are detailed. Though they are less widely searched, ranking for long tailed keywords will refine your audience and bring qualified users to your site, increasing your chances of conversion. Seems pretty simple, right? But with SEM, we know that’s not always the case.

Effects of Google Instant

With the new Google Instant that rolled out last month, the days of waiting for Google to deliver results are long gone. As you may have noticed, Google will actually deliver search results as you type– does this mean the end of long tail keywords? One might think that the months, perhaps years they have spent eliminating short tail keywords and going after the quality converting phrases will go to waste now that Google delivers instant results, but here’s what I think:

From a user perspective, I can see how Google Instant’s predictive search opens up a new can of worms for chasing keywords. I mean, who could resist a recommended search for juicy gossip about your favorite band when what you originally wanted were their tour dates–but really, how often will the predictive results influence a user’s search?  I’m willing to bet not that often. Only time will tell if Google Instant will have an effect on long tail keywords but after one month, I have not seen much of a change. Personally, I like predictive search. It shows me what else is being searched and rarely do I find myself getting carried off track by a predicted search term. If a user really knows what they are looking for, don’t you think they’re going to follow through with their search query? And if they don’t, they aren’t necessarily the users you want to bring to your site anyway.

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Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Webmarketing123

Google Instant–Will it Affect Your SEO?

September 17th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

The biggest question from our webinar yesterday (held by Travis Low–@TravisLowSEO) was: Will Google Instant Affect SEO?

Before we get into the details, we want to make sure we define a few key terms that will be used throughout the post:

Short-tail/Head Match Keywords – a general 1-2 keyword search term. For example, with keywords such as “black running shoes size 12,” “nike running shoes for women” or “light running shoes” the head match is “running shoes.”

Long-tail Keywords – at least 3+ keyword search term. For example, “business process management software solutions.”

Impressions – (defined post-Google Instant)

1)      User begins a search query and clicks anywhere on the page

2)      User chooses a particular query by clicking the search button, hitting enter, or selecting an auto-complete suggestion

3)      User stops typing and results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds

An example of seeing impressions through Google Adwords can be seen below:

Impressions on Google Adwords

Impressions on Google Adwords - KW: "bpm software" with 1,600 Impressions

Now that we addressed key terms, we can discuss how Instant has changed. Google Instant displays the predicted query—unless searchers continue typing or click on the search button. What is important to know is that Google Instant is changing the overall experience for the user, and now it is even more important that your website ranks on the first page, preferably within positions 1-3. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Keywords should be in your site content, meta content, inbound links, hyper text links, URL, and content silos
  • Focus on your title and meta descriptions
  • Short-tail keywords will get a lot more impressions, but the quality of search terms will improve over time as users are given more long-tail suggestions
  • You need to start focusing on optimizing for the long-tail keyword suggestions Google provides

For example:

google-instant-predictive-text-ex

Keyword “BPM Software” - Google Instant Predictive Text

Google captures what are the most searched queries on certain topics. If one of your keywords, for example, is “bpm software” (seen above), you want to start optimizing for the long-tail keywords that Google suggests. Frequently check to see if there are newer keywords Google suggests, or if the ones shown above remain to be the top searched queries on “bpm software” and optimize for those.

Keep in mind that with Google Instant, there is no change to the organic algorithm. If you ranked #1 prior to Google Instant, then you remain #1. The significant affect of Google Instant is with user experience.

Key Takeaways:

1)      Google makes no changes in ranking algorithm, it’s primarily just changing the user ranking

2)      Too early to tell how user behavior may change, but first page rankings and auto complete suggestions are more important. Essential to optimize for these suggestions.

3)      Impressions for head match terms will definitely increase. The quality for the search terms will improve as we are starting to give more long-tail suggestions.

4)      Important that your SEO campaigns focus on your return on investment. What are your overall marketing and business goals? Once these are defined, it’ll be easier to optimize.

We will keep you updated on the progression and/or any changes with Google Instant, and how or if it will affect your Search Marketing efforts–so keep checking back! To download a copy of the slides, click here.

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Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »

Webmarketing123

Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies? Which Keyword is Optimal for SEO?

May 28th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Yesterday’s webinar was all about the ABC’s of keywords optimization. Or as Travis puts it: “How much is that keyword worth to you?”

KEYWORDS are the FOCAL POINT of your SEO efforts. So naturally, identifying your highest impact keywords, and then strategically incorporating them into your site are crucial to your SEO success.

Keywords fall into two buckets: Head match and long-tail match. Head Match keywords are general searches, like “shoes” or “cookies”, whereas long-tail match keywords are more descriptive searches, like “women’s dress shoes” or “chocolate chip cookies”. Because long-tail keywords are more specific, they are better matched to the searchers needs, have less competition than generic head match keywords, and therefore can produce a high volume of impressions.

The first step in maximizing sales from: SEO is setting the right keywords. This means focusing on a short and ideal list of key phrases your sales prospects and customers use to find you.

On May 5th or 6th 2010, depending on where you live, Google changed its search results page. One of the changes included the Google Wonder Wheel, a keyword expansion tool which shows related searches to your current search inquiry. The Wonder Wheel is an incredible tool and particularly helpful with finding other options for keywords.

Using the example that Travis used during the webinar, let’s say your company is in conveyor services.

In Google, search “conveyor systems” and on the left side of your screen click on “Wonder Wheel”.

5-26-10_wonder wheel_1

Here, you can see other keyword options, to help narrow your search. Since you are in the industrial sector, click on “Industrial Conveyor Systems”.

industrial-conveyor-systems

Boom! Now you have six other keyword options to help optimize your search. We’ll go with “belt conveyors”.

belt-conveyors

Other Key Tools and Highlights:

  • Google Insights – diagnose keyword search trends & its popularity in geographical regions
  • Google Analytics – helps you understand what your customers are typing in to find your website, and which keywords you need to push to optimize, or if you need to start a PPC campaign
  • Make sure that your company‘s terminology is in line with your customer’s terminology—the keywords they search for should be the ones you’re optimizing for!
  • Keyword selection is your foundation for optimization. Keyword selection takes 2-3 weeks, in order for the account management team, analysts, and engineering teams to understand your keyword selection base.

Choosing the right keywords are the KEY to success—wow, that was cheesy…but you get the point. See you at the next webinar!

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Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization, Webinar Highlights | No Comments »