Posts Tagged 'seo'

Why SEO shouldn’t be measured on Keyword Ranking

Published June 14, 2008 search engine optimization 0 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,

In preparing an SEO document for a client the other day, I spent some time clarifying why we were not proposing to measure the success of ongoing SEO services to them based on achieving first page Google SERPs for a pre-selected group of 10 keywords.

I’m interested to know if other SEO professionals out there agree, or have a different perspective.

Specifically, I wrote

“Whilst keyword ranking is an important step within the process, it represents part of the journey towards successful SEO (more traffic), rather than a final measure of success (more online conversions e.g. sales).

In essence, achieving high keyword rankings for a pre-defined number of keywords may not necessarily constitute a successful SEO campaign. Valuable keywords may change over time, and our assessment of which keywords are driving the highest volume of valuable conversions highlights new opportunities and sets new priority keywords.

Our focus is instead on optimising the number of valuable online conversions delivered via natural search traffic, and a key strength of this ongoing SEO program will be to take advantage of new opportunities to increase natural search traffic from keywords that are proving to drive conversions.”

Let me know if you agree (or not), or if you have had similar experiences with clients obsessed with selecting keywords that sound right, but are not yet proven to work.

For more SEO / SEM related posts see seo and sem

Share:
add to del.icio.us Add to Blinkslist add to furl Digg it add to ma.gnolia Stumble It! add to simpy seed the vine TailRank

post to facebook

Adding Comments to Your Own Blog - Right or Wrong?

Published June 7, 2008 social media 3 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Searching for ways to increase comments on a blog, I came across a good article from copyblogger (see link below).

One way I’ve considered trying to increase blog comments is by writing the first comment myself, under the same name as I use on the blog (not trying to fake comments), but so that readers get the idea that the post wasn’t supposed to be the end of the story, and might be encouraged to join in.

Do other people out there do this? Does it work? Does it come across as fake?

I’m tempted to think that done correctly, in a way that genuinely adds to the conversation, it’s an innocent way to encourage other folk to comment. Do you agree?

Naturally, I’m wary of how other people feel about this. So I’ll leave the box below blank this time and see what you think . . .

Links:
http://www.copyblogger.com/more-blog-comments

Share:
add to del.icio.us Add to Blinkslist add to furl Digg it add to ma.gnolia Stumble It! add to simpy seed the vine TailRank post to facebook

Best Sites to Submit Press Releases by Google Page Rank

Published May 18, 2008 search engine optimization 1 Comment
Tags: , , , , , ,

Writing keyword rich press releases for SEO is a great way to generate content that can help your site receive more traffic from users searching for product / services relating to your business.

However, writing the press release for SEO is just the first step. Now you need to distribute it as effectively as possible by submitting it to sites with the highest Google Page Rank (a well known Google measure of how important a page).

The list of websites available from this link below is a great place to start seeding a press release, but if you’ve found better please let us know as we’re always on the lookout for new options. And for an overview of SEO tools see here.

Links:
http://www.avangate.com/articles/press-release-distribution_69.htm

Share:
add to del.icio.us Add to Blinkslist add to furl Digg it add to ma.gnolia Stumble It! add to simpy seed the vine TailRank post to facebook

image search trends and tools

Published May 1, 2008 search engine marketing , search engine optimization 0 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Looking for new trends in search engine marketing? New developments in image search are improving the user experience using specialist browser plugins, while the major search engine results pages still look the same as ever.

This is not to say the results themselves aren’t changing, but the format of results and the way a user interacts with them seems to have gotten stuck. Remember the early Google results, a white page with blue links. And what is it now again?

Of course, that simplicity coupled with relevant results propelled them to the top. But will that approach really last forever? Admittedly, Universal search brings image, maps, shopping, video, photo results etc, but the experience is pretty disjointed.

Let’s say I want to research a Plasma TV to buy. A search on ‘plasma tv’ brings me retailer and manufacturer text listings, maps of installers near me, prices and spec in shopping, and some random user generated videos and photos of TV’s.

But what if I want to see the latest Plasma TV’s up close, spin it around, zoom in, look at the controls, all integrated with the price/spec/location of retailers etc. Off I go on a (potentially long) journey through the web until I find a site that can help.

Presenting more visual search results would seem an obvious way to step up the user experience in some cases. So perhaps the only thing that’s holding back Google, Yahoo!, MSN etc. is figuring out how to integrate those handy sponsored links that drive $500 share prices.

I wouldn’t doubt Google is looking at constantly improving results for users, but their commercial motive is ultimately to increase Adwords clicks rather than reduce them.

A couple of cool examples of image search results are below, from companies that don’t have Google Adwords revenue to protect.

Image search links:
http://cooliris.com/
http://beta.searchme.com/Initial.html
http://www.like.com/

Google image search update:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/04/google_refines.html
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3833337.ece

Share:
add to del.icio.us Add to Blinkslist add to furl Digg it add to ma.gnolia Stumble It! add to simpy seed the vine TailRank post to facebook

seo tools overview

Published April 21, 2008 search engine optimization 1 Comment
Tags: , , , ,

Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools to research competitor strategy and measure the relative performance of a website is a critical part of effective SEO. It allows you to identify new opportunities to improve page and content structure, source quality inbound links, and measure improvement in keyword ranking over time (amongst other things).

A few minutes searching online turns up a seemingly limitless number of sites that offer you access to such SEO tools. So how to choose?

I’ve used a few over the last few years, and my recommendation for a great place to start is the tools section of SEO Book (link below). It’s a great overview of the different tools out there, some of them free, some paid for. Want to compare your website to the website that has top spot in Google? Try one of my favourites, the page comparison tool.

List of SEO Tools
http://tools.seobook.com/competitive-research-tools/

Page Comparison Tool
http://tools.seobook.com/general/website-comparison/

Share this:
add to del.icio.us  Add to Blinkslist  add to furl  Digg it  add to ma.gnolia  Stumble It!  add to simpy  seed the vine      TailRank  post to facebook

Subscribe to Nextmuffin via RSS Subscribe to Nextmuffin via RSS
Add to Technorati Favorites  Marketing & SEO Blogs - Blog Top Sites