Relevancy

Using SEO to make meaningful connections
September 28th, 2009

How to Select the Right Keywords for SEO

If you know anything about CSG Interactive, you understand how much we value keyword research and content.  We believe the best campaigns have insights from actual user queries and in-depth content analysis. Very often we uncover scores of keywords that are not top of mind. These new keywords can overwhelm a client.  Fortunately, we have some helpful tools and tactics to make the selection process less taxing.

First, I like to look at the competitiveness of the search engine space. Even though a client’s website is a dead-on match for a keyword phrase, he or she can be going up against high-ranking giants. A little research can show:

  • Number of search results
  • High volume periods
  • Competing websites
  • Competitiveness scoring

Data can help us see what is highly competitive as well as some gems that have promise.

The other exercise I like to run through with a client is a semantic drill. We critique different keyword meanings and audiences. For example, a client that sells industrial riveting equipment may see “riveting” as natural keyword choice; however, after a semantic breakdown, we see other applications of the term and a lot of noise on search engines. (We could be attracting a lot of the wrong people with the right keyword.)

I also like to move up and down a ladder of key terms, going from general to specific. This exercise is done with both the competitiveness scoring and the semantic drills. We end up answering questions like:

  • Is this keyword used by real people on, say, Google?
  • Is the keyword too general? Too vague?
  • Can we realistically compete for this keyword? Any goliaths?
  • Is this keyword phrase a good fit for us? Is it relevant?
  • What are the other connotations for this keyword? Is the keyword search space noisy?

All of this effort helps sharpen assumptions, but ultimately SEO takes patience and practice—tracking, reporting, and evaluating. The fun never stops.

September 17th, 2009

Mobile SEO. Are You There?

When you think of search engine optimization, you probably think of being found on that ubiquitous Google page—a big white page with a simple logo and a search box and button. (I bet you have it bookmarked has your homepage.) But take time to think about the other “screens” users now have to find your website.

Mobile phones have become one of the fastest growing sources of Internet access. There are over 250 million cell phones in the U.S. alone. Add this reality to the growing usage trend of smartphones like iPhone, Blackberry,  and Google Phone, and you have millions of people with mini laptops ready to search for you over a data connection.

The common drill is for users to look up business addresses and phone numbers. “411″ info calls are not cheap, so everyone has the incentive to use their data connection to retrieve numbers. They could be less pragmatic about it, too. Smartphones are great for browsing the Internet. All of this adds up to a whole new channel for website traffic generation.

When you think about this opportunity, search engine optimization takes on a different light. How ready are you for mobile SEO?

August 3rd, 2009

Quick SEO Tip

Spend one week listening carefully to your customers. What words do you hear? Anything jump out at you?

Make a list and at the end of the week, see how that list jibes with your website and any search engine marketing campaigns.

July 28th, 2009

SEO Copywriting Is Not for the Faint of Heart

SEO Copywriting is challenging. Website owners get glassy-eyed quickly when they take on this task without the help of an SEO content professional. Balancing search engine demands and user readability is a delicate art.

To start, search engines read. It’s that simple. If there’s more content, they are more likely to understand what your site is about. If content is organized and thematic, they are even more inclined to understand your site and know it’s relevancy to their searchers.

So, the challenge is two-fold:

  1. How do I edit and write with good keywords?
  2. How do I organize existing and new content to support good keywords?

So, SEO copywriting requires a person who can appreciate the architecture of a website and organization of content just as well as the on-page edits needed for optimization.

Let’s look at the second challenge first. What I like to do is categorize keywords so I can manage my copy optimization process more efficiently. So, with a running list of keywords, I group them into categories that map to user search needs. For example, look at this breakdown:

  • Brand / Company Name – “Furniture Store Extraordinaire”
  • Business Type – “furniture store Pittsburgh”
  • Products / Services – “eclectic dining room set”
  • Best Practices – “choosing a good dining room set”
  • Related topics – “throwing wild dinner parties”

I find clients receive more qualified referrals from search engines when we prioritize with keywords from the top categories. And this reality usually dictates copy optimization priorities. If the prior SEO assessment work reveals that the search engines favor competing sites with a lot of additional supporting content, we then can build out new content with the lower categories and keywords.

Back to the first challenge… there are some general formulas for how to edit and write optimized copy for pages. In general, I like to have a minimum of a couple of paragraphs on a page with a tight keyword focus.  The title, heading, body copy, and hyperlinks all dance with targeted keyword phrases.

The real art of my craft is blending in keywords without sounding too artificial. I am a writer by nature, so I favor good content that is user-focused. My tip here is to write for the target audience but for two different views – search results and the actual web page. I anticipate her search, her click, and her arrival. If I can keep this top of mind, I find that the search engines see the relevancy and reward my clients with higher listings.

One more tip… Content needs to be compelling and useful.  With Web 2.0, users are likely to link to good content with social media tools, providing much-needed inbound links. Link building (and baiting) is important for any SEO campaign.

I’ll touch on linking techniques and Web 2.0 strategies in another post.  Stay tuned!

June 7th, 2009

Content is King for SEO

I am sure you have heard it at least once before when working on your website, “Content is king.” In the SEO space, that saying rings true. Without a focus on content, any SEO effort is headed for trouble.

This fact surprises my clients the most. They brace for the code changes, they get hip to metadata, and they grasp the linking challenges. But when it comes to the mandate for optimizing copy and adding new content, the road gets rough. It’s the part of the project where you are driving on a paved road, and when we get to “content town”, the road turns to gravel, then to dirt, and then sometimes dead-ends.

We put so much emphasis on keyword research and content at CSG Interactive because it makes an optimization effort successful.  Search engines have rewarded us time and again when we have a little latitude with content and create relevancy. We challenge clients to look at who they are and what they do in the context of their consumers’ searches and interests.

Sometimes our research reveals a great demand for information about how a client’s product is applied. Thousands of people want to know how to install their widget or clean their widget.  We remind clients that search is a channel that satisfies information hungry users. We need to ask, “Are you willing to satisfy that appetite with optimized content?”

My advice if you are thinking about a serious SEO program? Prepare to examine how your content measures up to what search engine users demand. Most importantly, be ready to allocate resources and time to a content overhaul.