SEO Factors Archives - Page 20 of 21 by Mark Murnahan

SEO in a Nutshell

I have written many volumes on the topic of search engine optimization (SEO) but a question was recently presented to me that required a nutshell answer of SEO. In only a few words, I will tell you what SEO is, and how it can benefit you. In fact, I will explain why your Website simply cannot do without SEO. I will leave out the statistics, Voodoo, and snake oil and give it to you simple and easy.

The Nutshell SEO

SEO is, the practice of improving the qualities of a Website in order to be better indexed in search engines. In very non-technical terms, SEO makes it possible that when somebody goes to their favorite search engine, usually Google, and searches for something, that they find your listing at or near the top of the list.

SEO is not just for big corporations. It can be effectively harnessed for even the least suspecting companies. More now than ever, people are using the internet when they need anything from a lawn service, a plumber, electrician, etcetera. They are not just seeking any lawn service, plumber, or electrician, they are searching for a lawn service, plumber, or electrician in Topeka Kansas (your city here).

Effective SEO is best based on a high quality, well programmed Website to start with. This makes SEO both a technical as well as artistic trade (related post).

How Does SEO Affect Your Business?

When a search is performed for terms relating to your industry, the search engine user will generally only look at the top few results. If your Website is not listed within the top ten, your odds of getting the searcher’s business is dramatically reduced. Adding insult to injury, somebody else likely did receive the business you have passed up.

SEO for Mom and Pop

A lot of smaller companies have questioned how this may concern them. The industry is such now that the cost of missed opportunities is quickly surpassing the cost of effective Website development and SEO. You should know that this same search engine user is not just entering the search term “plumber”, they are searching for a “plumber in Topeka Kansas”, (or electrician, lawn service, etcetera).

SEO Nutshell Summary

Just consider how you use the Internet, and how you find your way. If you go to the local telephone book for your electrician, lawn service, or plumber, you have become the minority. The longer you wait, the harder the SEO pill will be to swallow.

Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Overkill

I just read a blog post about search engine optimization that made my head hurt. It talked about how important it is to be found in search results, and how it is a far more effective way to reach qualified potential customers for your service or product. This is all fine and good, and also very true. After all, if you are selling, let’s say “weight loss” for example, you will reach a lot of thin people by advertising it on television, radio, banner ads, or other methods. When you reach them in organic search engine results, you will clearly reach a much larger percentage of people who are overweight or at least looking for ways to lose weight. Reaching the right people with your message is the beauty of Internet marketing.

Here Comes the SEO Overkill

What the blog post failed to mention, or give any consideration to at all, is that repeating the same keyword phrase over and over is about the last way you will ever achieve high search engine rankings. It is against the rules, and should be carefully avoided. It is a form of Web spam called keyword stuffing, and it is one of the most effective ways to have your Website blacklisted by search engines. Nobody will call you on the phone or send you a nice letter to warn you about it. You will simply disappear from search engine response pages (serps), and your efforts will be put into reverse.

Search Engine Spamming Never Pays

If you think that you may be clever enough to get away with search engine spamming, think again. Detecting over-use of keywords, although only one small element of Web spam, is about the easiest challenge for Web spam experts. Repeating yourself over and over again is not nice when you are talking to a person face-to-face, and it is just as annoying when you do it on a Website. A lesson I learned a long time ago and have tried to teach people is to write the way you would as if search engines did not even exist. Although you may want to phrase some things differently for keyword proximity, your overall message should never be an awkward read just because you want it to rank highly in search engine results. Spamming is not nice, and it does not pay. If you got really lucky, may see a surge in rankings for a day, week, or month, but it may be at the cost of losing it all and being sharply penalized.

Is Matt Cutts Watching?

As long as there have been search engines, there have been people trying to cheat them with clever trickery like keyword stuffing, doorway pages, hidden text, and so many other methods it is hard to count. For each of these tricks, search engine anti-spam professionals like Google’s Matt Cutts, who is in charge of Google’s Webspam team, have an answer. These men and women are working hard and smart every day to eliminate useless content that tries to cheat their search engine algorithms. They are watching, and even if it does not exclude your content from their search engines, it will have a bearing.

Quality Website Content Always Wins

When you think about all of the ways you may be able to reach your market, try to remember what I am telling you here. Good website content will always be the best way to share what you know and will always be the best way to be highly indexed and well regarded by search engines. There are thousands of pages of content that I have written over my decade in this field, and thousands of keywords in that content. Many people read my articles, and many people link to them. This is how it works, and this is how it will always work: Do the right thing, and it will always come back in your favor.

Websites and Organic Search Engine Optimization

Without a Website, search engine optimization is worthless, and with very little exception, the reverse is also true. Pay-per-click advertising such as Google AdWords or Facebook advertising can be very helpful, but will never make up for the need of relevance-based “organic” search engine results. Even with a substantial PPC campaign, a Website without proper search engine optimization will simply not have the audience it takes to be competitive in the Internet marketplace. It will also suffer a much lower return on investment (ROI) due to the need to constantly “feed” it with traffic.

An important fact of organic search engine optimization is that once the work is done, the results will generally last a very long time. This is because the basic principles of researching the right keywords, producing quality Website content, proper programming, incoming links from other Websites, and other search engine optimization considerations have been met. This would seem to most of us to be quite elementary, but it is shocking how many potentially useful Websites there are on the Internet that are just wasting away like a billboard in a basement or a retail store stuffed away in a back alley in the wrong part of town.

You understand the importance of search engine traffic for your Website, or you would not be reading my blog. The vast majority of Websites need to be visible in search engine results. Even in the few cases where search engine traffic is unwanted or unnecessary, it is important to adhere to the proper programming and quality Website content practices that lend to the Website’s optimization.

Although most people realize the need for high quality search engine traffic coming to their Websites, the number of people with the necessary search engine optimization talent to achieve this is small. Because of this fact, it is often not as challenging as you may think to be the number one result in a Google search for the product or service that you offer. There are two ways you can achieve this, and that is to do it yourself, or hire a professional SEO to handle it for you.

Can Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization (DIY SEO) Work?

Do-it-yourself search engine optimization (DIY SEO) is possible, and may even bring you to the top of Google search listings for a few of your chosen keyword phrases. If you choose this route, be prepared to lose astonishing amounts of money due to lost opportunities. The opportunity cost of bad Internet marketing efforts will always be much higher than the cost of hiring a professional search engine optimizer.

Of course I have a stake in your choice, so this is admittedly not without bias. Just for a moment, try to give me the benefit of doubt. I am telling you this for your own good, as well as mine. Assuming that you can learn all that I know from my decade in this field, you will still have to implement it better than your competitors. While you are still learning, they are still growing their market share.

Reading a couple blog posts or reading a Wiki definition of SEO will not make up for the mastery of SEO professionals with experience and who do this for a living. If you really love to read, and you can gather enough information, particularly the right information, on this field, you will probably not need the Website you were trying to optimize, because you will likely have a very promising career as an SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Art or Science?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a term that many people may recognize, but seldom clearly understand. Most people exposed to the term grasp the fact that search engine optimization is designed to help bring more traffic to their Website, but that is where their knowledge ends. Without a good understanding what search engine optimization is, many people are destined to either fail in their online marketing pursuits, or alternately throw good money out the window by paying the search engine optimizer with the best sales pitch … the SEO with all hat and no cattle. First things first, I want to address the title of this blog post “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Art or Science?”

Is SEO an art? The answer is clearly and undeniably “yes”.
Is SEO a science? The answer is clearly and undeniably “yes”.

If this sounds strange, let us look at each of these aspects of SEO so you can decide for yourself.

Search Engine Optimization as an Art

While you read this article, you can surely see the art. After all, I am writing to you in a conversational form, and the way in which I choose my every word is work that surely does not seem scientific. All the while, I am writing an article that will likely be plucked up by search engine spiders for inclusion in their databases and returned in many search results on this topic.

Search Engine Optimization as a Science

This is an area where many SEO firms will try to sell you. It is the wizardry and hocus pocus of the SEO industry. Some companies will try to tell you that they have special technologies to bring or keep your Website at the top of search engine results. Technology is certainly an important aspect of SEO, and cannot be overlooked. Factors I have written about such as keyword research, keyword proximity, keyword usage, keyword density, and many other search engine optimization technology practices are hugely important to the success of any SEO campaign. We must know what keyword phrases people are actually searching for, how competitive it is, how to format contents of a Website, and much more.

Which is More Important in SEO – Art or Science?

The art and science of SEO are both important for top search engine results, and I mean more than just finding your company name in a search engine. Without the science, you face an uphill battle against huge odds. At the same time, without the artistic part, it is like a house of cards. The truth is that the artistic part is more important to the overall results. I have been writing on the Internet for so many years that I often find that when an article is completed, I have met all of the science of search engine optimization, such as keyword usage, keyword proximity, and programming concerns without even trying. Most important to a search engine is the visible text content of the Website. The information is the most important part of this Information Superhighway. You may have noticed that I am writing about search engine optimization here, and not tractor tires and fishing lures. My content is on-topic and keyword rich.