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Posts Tagged ‘Search Engine Optimization’
April 29th, 2011
Search Engine Optimization Basics

The majority of people have made one of the “big three” search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) their main portal to search for products and services on the Web. And, people who are not using one of the “big three” search engines, are still likely carrying out their searches online via another search engine.

The search engines use algorithms to determine the value of a website which determines where the site will show in search results. For this reason, any seasoned veteran of online marketing will tell you the first step in creating a successful website is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This consists of a variety of techniques applied to your website to help ensure the site is indexed by search engines and ranks well in organic search results.

SEO Technique #1: Keyword Optimization

An important SEO technique involves making sure you use “the right” keywords in your website. Keywords are defined as the terms people enter into the search box on search engines to find products or services.

The best keywords to use in content on a website are:

a) Keywords relating to products or services offered on the website.

b) Keywords that have a favorable search volume to competition ratio.

The search to competition ratio can be determined through a comprehensive keyword analysis. Once the optimal keywords have been identified, they are then implemented into URLs, meta tags, titles, content, and links throughout the website. Keep in mind that it is important to use keywords appropriately. Over-use of keywords, or “keyword stuffing”, is frowned upon and can negatively impact search rankings.

SEO Technique #2: Meta tags

Meta tags include the meta title, meta keywords, meta description, and alt tags. Meta tags need to be filled out correctly and placed in the source code for each page of your website. Search engines “read” your site differently from human beings. Properly filled out meta tags tell search engines what each page is about and provides the title and description that normally appears in the organic search results for an individual page.

If these tags are not filled out properly, you are taking a gamble that the search engines will “know” what each page is about, which search terms are most relevant, and will provide a good description of your site’s page in the organic search results. Leaving these tags blank often means fewer pages are properly indexed with poor descriptions showing in search results.

SEO Technique #3: Quality Links

Search engine optimization is, in some ways, a popularity contest. Search engines place a fair amount of weight on high quality links back to your website. High quality links are links coming from trusted sites as determined by search engines. It is important to implement a good link building strategy for your website as these links are similar to votes for your site to the search engines. The more votes your site has from other trusted sites, the more trusted your site will be. This affects how your site ranks in search engine results.

Gain Online Success

The above three techniques are really just the basics, there are many SEO tools to help you gain an edge in your online marketing efforts. The Web is an ever-growing and ever-changing landscape. Unless you know how to get your site on the coveted first page, someone else will take that spot right out from under you. Implementing strategic SEO techniques is just one of many important steps to achieving online success.

Clickbrand is full service internet marketing agency providing search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media services tailored to the individual needs of each business. Contact Clickbrand today for a free custom quote to fit your SEO needs.

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POSTED BY: deanna || COMMENTS: No Comments » | TAGS: , ,
November 4th, 2009
Getting A Website To The Top Of Google Search Pages

We all want our website to be the first (top) position on the Google search engine. No doubt that any site that is in the first few coveted positions is going to get a lot of visitors and potentially a lot of business.

The whole business of working to get websites to these top positions is called Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), and the industry is filled with many firms that offer these services. Unfortunately, most of these firms prey on naive customers, guaranteeing 1st page results, and delivering very little. Their business model is based on aggressive sales and high turn over. It is because most people don’t really understand how the search engines work that they end up buying services and believing the promises from these rouge companies. The goal of this article is to shed some light on the mystery of Search Engine Optimization. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 29th, 2009
A Brief Overview of Search Engine Marketing
Marketing a website is generally divided into two categories called Paid Search (aka PPC, CPC, Pay Per Click) and Organic (aka SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Natural Listings). Currently, I run a Paid Search marketing campaign for you (which we really need to discuss soon). Current, you do not do any Organic marketing (but I have discussed it with Courney in the past.
Paid Search is basically buying positions on the search engines for specific search terms, like “medical malpractice”. You set a price your willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad and comes to your site. Your position (top, 2nd, 10th, etc) is based on the amount you bid relative to other bidders for the same term. To get a Paid Search marketing campaign pay off, you need to manage these keyword bids very carefully so that you don’t over-bid and waste money, but also so that you don’t underbid and simply  get nothing in return. The entire system is pretty (no, very) complex and I am happy get into details and explanations with you via a teleconference call any time you like.
Your new website – once complete – will have no direct bearing on the costs of running a campaign or the costs of getting the clicks. However, because the site will be high quality, it will have a much higher rate of “return” (more people will call you after coming to the site), so that the actual costs leads you get from the clicks will be reduced. In essence, you will save money because your advertising is much more efficient. That goes back to my argument that a well designed site will save money in marketing because it does a better job turning marketing dollars into real clients.
The amount you decide to spend on Paid Search is very controllable and measurable and we can adapt it, and experiment until it works in a way that justifies the expense.
Organic is a completely different approach. Every search engine will show two categories of results: The Paid sponsors and the regular listings. The goal of Organic is to “convince” the search engines to list your company, for a given search term, at or near the top of these free listings. They are free – you don’t pay the search engines for them – and they bring in a lot of traffic. However, there is no direct method of getting your site to those coveted top positions. That is where SEO/Organic marketing comes in.
The way search engines work is that they send out these programs called “spiders” that visit every website in the world, and revisit them, on a continual bases. These programs collect the information they find on the websites and store that information in a database so that when a user does a search on a term, like “medical malpractice”, the search engine can then just query its database and display all the websites that contain information about those words.  The complexity comes into play on the “ranking” or the order in which the search engine decides to display these websites. Their goal is to present the most relevant, or “on topic” sites on the top. They keep their algorithms under tight wraps so no knows exactly how to get their website on top.
However, through experience and trial and error, SEO experts have figured out how to design websites, position the sites and manipulate the organic search results to get their listings ranked high. This processes is called Search Engine Optimization and is an on going process of manipulating things under our control to get higher rankings (which are not in our direct control).

Marketing a website is generally divided into two categories called Paid Search (aka PPC, CPC, Pay Per Click) and Organic (aka SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Natural Listings).

Paid Search


Paid Search is basically buying positions on the search engines for specific search terms, like “medical malpractice”. You set a price your willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad and comes to your site. Your position (top, 2nd, 10th, etc) is based on the amount you bid relative to other bidders for the same term. To get a Paid Search marketing campaign to pay off, you need to manage these keyword bids very carefully so that you don’t over-bid and waste money, but also so that you don’t underbid and simply  get nothing in return. The entire system is pretty (no, very) complex typically requiring daily, hands-on management. Read the rest of this entry »

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