I was on the phone with a new prospective client just yesterday and he brought up the use of meta tags. I immediately felt like a time machine had just sucked me back to the 1990s when search engines gave attention to the meta keywords tag. The topic of the meta keywords tag comes up once in a while, and each time I think to myself “somebody really suckered you bigtime, buddy.”
I find it really hard to comprehend how some people imagine that something simple like meta tags will make a real difference in their website ranking in search engines. It is as if they think they have really out-smarted all the technicians over at Google, Yahoo, Bing, and etcetera, with this cool trick called a meta keyword tag.
As long as there are people who ask “do meta tags help with SEO” there will be plenty of people to con them out of their money.
Why can’t the meta keywords myth just die? There was a day when a good SEO could outsmart a search engine with tricky little tactics like this, but how can somebody in 2010 really think that there is such a simple way to outrank billions of other pages vying for search engine rankings? Do these people really think they were the first on the scene and they have uncovered the golden key to the Internet? Come on … anybody smart enough to tie their shoe should be able to reason this out with just one little “duh, I guess this kind of makes sense” moment of reality-checking.
I still hear people talk about meta keywords from time to time, and more often than I like. I guess maybe it is just some people’s way of trying to sound like an expert. Maybe they will sound like they did their homework if they can start a discussion of meta tags when they call the SEO. Seriously, is that what people think my job is as a search engine optimizer … to strike up some good keywords and feed them into the back door of Google? That is either totally absurd, or so brilliant that I want to choke myself for being so dumb I didn’t think of this sooner. Perhaps all I really needed to do all this time was add some meta tags to my websites. Gosh, I have wasted so many years of my life creating useful and amazing website content that people link to and share with others. I should be punished for being so slow to catch on to this one simple fix that could have made me the king of Internet search. I guess maybe all of the SEO lessons that I have authored over the past decade and a half are useless.
OK, enough of the sarcasm … I had my fun. The fact is that although you will still see sites using the meta keywords tag, it is as my grandpappy would say: “about as useful as teets on a boar hog.” For those of you big city folks, that means boobs on a boy pig. They don’t feed the piglets, and meta keywords will not feed you, either.
Google’s Matt Cutts on Meta Keywords
There has been so much speculation of the usefulness of meta keywords that if we were sitting in a bar, I would curse like an angry sailor to make my point. My wife says that makes me sound less intelligent, and since we are not having beers together, I will just give you good solid references. Here is what Matt Cutts from Google has to say on the topic of meta keywords. In his words, “we don’t use that information in our ranking, even the least little bit.”
There was a time when the keywords meta tag mattered to search engines. It was designed to help search engines understand the overall emphasis of the page. That was a great idea to make the Internet easier for search engines to index all of the Web’s content. A few search engines even chose to use the information, but that only lasted just a short time before people started trying to attract searches for Brittany Spears and Madonna to their completely unrelated website about treating bedsores. It never really worked all that great, because above all, search engines have always read the visible text of websites, and the links pointing to the website. By the way, invisible text (text that is the same color as the page background) is also a huge mistake that a few idiots still think is a good idea, but that is another blog post.
If you really think that something so easy as a meta keywords tag is going to drive traffic to your website, ask yourself how logical that really sounds. If some slick talking SEO somewhere convinced you that meta keywords will help, take your money to the grocery store now, before that slick talker takes all your money and leaves you hungry.
Which Meta Tags Matter?
There are a couple meta tags that actually matter, so don’t just assume that all meta tags are totally useless. The meta description tag is quite important, and is often used to display a description of the page in search engines (unless there is more relevant on-page content to display). The “robots meta tag” will direct search engines to follow links on the page or not, and whether to index the page or not. This is also why we have a “robots.txt” file. The “Content-Type” meta tag tells computers the character encoding of the page. Yes, there is useful meta data in a web page, just as with any other computer file.
While I wonder why the keywords meta tag myths still circulate, I think it must just be because people want to sound smarter than they really are about the SEO industry. If you can make it sound like some really advanced programming skill is involved, it must be more important. I mean (in a booming voice) “meta keywords tag” sure does sound “techie” and important, right? So why do they even exist if they are not used by search engines? I think it is simply because of habits and lingering myths that most of the meta keywords tags on the Internet still exist. After all, there are still some meta keywords right here on my blog. I guess mostly because I have been too lazy to remove them and they don’t actually hurt anything. However, if you look at the source code on this page, you will not see a keywords meta tag, but I assure you it will still rank really nicely in search engine results.
If you still just must decorate the behind-the-scenes head section of your website, here is a meta tag generator that I wrote sometime back in 2001 or earlier. I do not know an exact date off hand, but I was able to find it in the Internet archive at archive.org from Jan 2002 (hilarious archived version). Maybe you will find it to be a cool tool, but just don’t count on those meta keywords to feed your family.
I guess it should not shock me to see the many Facebook profiles with a company logo or even a company name instead of a person. It seems that a lot of people simply do not realize the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page. I will break this down really simple for anybody who is confused.
Facebook profiles are for people, and not businesses. Facebook will delete your account for using a profile for a business. They may not catch each one, but I have seen it happen, and there are a lot of people out there who will report businesses using Facebook Profiles for business. It is written clearly in the Facebook rules as follows: “You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”.
Facebook Pages are for business, and include features that are better suited for a company seeking to do business on Facebook. They are easy to create, and may save you from a deleted account. Go and check it out for yourself. Here is the link to create a Facebook Page.
The Receptionist and Facebook Marketing Expert
In this age of social media frenzy, a lot of people are scurrying to find the next silver bullet that will assure them the highest level of exposure at the very lowest cost. Small businesses are trying to turn receptionists into marketers and SEO (search engine optimization) experts. The cost of this can often mean utter failure, embarrassment, and even banning from the world’s favorite social network.
I see a lot of businesses using Facebook Profiles and it stuns me every time that they actually think it is fine to do so and that it is normal for potential customers to have to send a “Friend Request” in order to communicate with them on Facebook. Really, doesn’t that seem like an obstacle? Wouldn’t it make more sense that people can freely choose to communicate and see what a business has to say?
Facebook Pages and Other Facebook Business Tools
Facebook provides a lot of useful tools for those people who choose to use the Facebook service and Facebook Pages properly. There are many possibilities to integrate Facebook Pages and other Facebook business tools with your business website. For example, below is a Facebook “Like Box” including a stream of recent activity on my newest Facebook page. It allows people to “Like” my new Facebook Page from right here on my blog, without even having to leave and go to Facebook.
Just one more thing! Did you “Like” my newest Facebook Page yet? I plan to share some things and have some discussions there which will not be here on my blog. Go ahead … I made it easy for you! See below!
I took a short break from my blog over the past week. I was very busy with other projects, and it gave me some time to consider why I blog and the benefits I receive from it. While I was away, I thought about some less obvious ways it helps me in my business. Some obvious benefits to a blog are easy to list, in fact, here are 10 really good reasons to blog. I want to share a couple additional benefits I consider to be extremely important, and perhaps you can relate to these as well. If you have a blog, I want you to think about those ways it benefits you and how you can further harness those benefits. If you do not have a blog or you are not blogging enough, I want to give you positive encouragement and help you recognize reasons you should.
Blogging as a Thought Portfolio
I want more business, and I know a lot of people feel the same way. In my case, I do not just want more business … I want better business. Blogging helps me to achieve this, because it allows my potential clients to have a better understanding of my work as a marketing guy. It allows people to know a whole lot about what I do and how I do it, before they even pick up the phone and call me. It provides excellent proof that I really know what I am doing with SEO, social media, and other Internet marketing topics. Here is my blog archive. It is like a window to my mind as it relates to my work. The people who spend a lot of time here before they call me are always better clients, because they already know we will make a good fit. That means better business, and not just more business.
Think about how blogging could benefit you in this way. Regardless of your industry, being useful to others and showing what you know and how you think can be very attractive to potential customers … the best customers.
Blogging as a Sales Tool
I am not the salesman type. I give great factual data and I let people make decisions based on real information. I like for people to make their own decisions. People who cannot see the benefits of my marketing services without my having to poke and prod them with a big sales pitch do not make good clients for me. If a business relationship begins with a salesperson pushing to convince somebody to buy, you can bet there will be a lot of hassle down the road.
I realized a long time ago that chatting somebody’s ear off to sell them something they are unsure of is about the last thing I could ever hope to do for a living. I think I would rather be a professional house mover, and with this body, I don’t see that happening.
Even when people email me or call me, I can often either reference something I already produced on my blog or give them an article to read about the given topic. Having so many of my thoughts and ideas laid out on my blog and indexed nicely by Google makes an invaluable tool when I need to answer a question for somebody. Just having written the information also makes it easier for me to have words to answer the question.
Give it some thought about how your blog or other website may be an excellent sales tool beyond just those nameless and faceless people on the Internet. You may find a blog to be extremely useful, because it already says all the things you want to say, and can prevent a lot of wasted breath. In my case, I find that if somebody is not willing to do some recommended reading about what I offer, they are probably not too serious about doing business with me anyway.
Other Blogging Benefits and Tools
Blogging holds extremely high value when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and it is at the core of good social media marketing. If you feel that you just don’t have the time for it, by all means, hire it out. If you feel that blogging is not important or does not have a benefit in store for you, reading the following articles will surely convince you otherwise. I am confident that there is information in these past articles on my blog that will provide value to you and help your business pursuits. Take a moment and find out for yourself.
10 Really Good Reasons to Blog If you think blogging is just for geeks or those with extra time on their hands, think again! If you ever wondered if you should be blogging, or why to continue blogging, this list will give you very strong reasons.
Blogging Improves Intelligence and Here is Proof! Blogging can increase your business intelligence, expand your creativity, provide you with a better perspective on the intelligence around you, and more. Much relies on how you use it, and I am here to help you get smarter, so stop scanning and start reading!
Twitter is Useful but Blogging is Better This article shows a statistical analysis of how blogging provides more value than any single social media effort alone.
6 Essential Blogging Tools for Non-Bloggers and Bloggers Even if you are just a casual reader, I want to give you some really useful pieces of information to help you receive more benefit from blogs and to make the information more manageable. These will not take a lot of time to implement, and it will be worth the time you spend.
In today’s marketplace with all the desperate static on the Internet, it seems that honesty is hard to find. I can give you instances like the guy I found claiming to be an Internet marketer for over 25 years; the liars telling you that more followers on Twitter will make you money; or the many search engine submission jokers with pink ponies for sale. I can list instances of lies, deception, and fraud in Internet marketers all day long. I have heard Internet marketing described as “the last refuge of sleazy,? get-rich-quick scumbags too slimy to sell used cars.” and I agree with that statement.
The fact is that I am not here to sell you anything. Only a small fraction … and I mean a tiny number of the people who will read this can afford my services or care enough about their company to build a business the way I do it. I want their money, and not yours. Just relax, my hand is not reaching for your pocket.
This article will possibly bore you to tears, but at least you cannot say I never gave you something. I am going to give you some harsh truth about Internet marketing. For those who choose to brave the truth, my work here is worth my effort.
If you smell one whiff of typical Internet marketing “bullshit perfume” in what I will tell you, just turn the page and don’t bother coming back. I want to tell you how to truly achieve success in a market, and I am not going to lead you wrong. If you don’t come back, at least I know that you are not serious about doing the right things for the right reasons. That shame is on you.
You can chock this up as just another blog post from an Internet marketing guy trying to seem revolutionary, or you can drop what you are doing and listen to the truth. The truth of how I truly, factually, and without lies, have earned millions of dollars for myself and my clients using the Internet … and how much I hate the directions my industry has taken. You may not want to read all of this, because it will not spell out a glorious pink pony ride to success or the convincing unicorn hunting expedition that other Internet marketing and SEO people hit you with every day, like this Johnny Come Lately Internet Marketing Parody video.
I made a late night coffee run with a friend who reminded me how much truly spectacular marketing takes benevolence, persistence, honesty, integrity, intelligence, and marketing talent. It really requires a whole lot of other “magical” secrets that the huge wave of Internet marketing “experts” will try to sell you, but the piece I want to focus on here is truth about Internet marketing. Not the kind of truth you may expect, and not the kind of truth you may want to stick around and endure. I am offering the real deal. I want to give you the honesty about Internet marketing that you may be missing, and help to set you in a better direction.
So, you want the truth about Internet marketing. This will require you to read, and against all forces of outside persuasion, to pay attention to what I tell you. Only a desperate need to rush and read the next ineffective ideas of how to improve website traffic and reach more people to sell your stuff to should tear you away from this. I understand, there is a lot of that bad Internet marketing out there, and it all seems very tempting. If you are under time constraints to get rich today, go ahead, you probably have something more important to do. If you must go, just get lost … this is a story of truth in Internet marketing that I am telling, and not a ploy to help you get rich fast or to get you to buy my stuff.
Oooh, look … there is something shiny over there … *blinking advertisement* … you should click and check that out. Really, go ahead, you are not going to hurt my feelings. That is the way of the Internet. Click away, because you may get massively rich with that very next click. That seems to be the popular message these days.
OK, since you are still with me, and if you can shut out the temptation to go see the next message on Twitter or the next thing your friends on Facebook just did, sit there until you finish this.
I am going to give you a tip. I am going to tell you why and how it takes more than all those Internet marketing lies people will lead you to believe, and why I drink more coffee and smoke more cigarettes than the average person. It is so that I can be consistently alert and useful in my SEO and Internet marketing career. I know work … I know real work, and what it really takes to earn millions of dollars in Internet marketing, for myself and for my clients. No, not the crap you see in most marketer’s arsenal of fakeness … the real deal. I have walked a high and narrow path with hell on each side and I have battled business alligators until I found the swamp plug. I have endured insane work schedules and taken the risks that wives hate their husbands to take. I even released a book titled “Living in the Storm” to share what it takes to become successful. I wrote it as a man who dropped out of school at fifteen years of age and owned successful companies before many of my classmates finished their schooling. I have also been there to wave goodbye to a half a million dollars in fine cars when I decided that I could not justify my six digit per year second job as a race car driver. The truth is that I have walked along the highest steps in the top percentile money earners worldwide, and I have also looked in the cupboard and found nothing but peas and pancake mix and found a way to make a fantastic meal of it to get there. If you want lies and you want to find a shortcut, at least be ready to live as hard as that successful dropout kid I have grown up to be. That is a bit of truth about what it actually takes to be a success. You have to be ready and willing to make sacrifices, and be ready to work hard … or pay somebody who has been willing to make those sacrifices for you, and learned the truth about Internet marketing.
For your own sake, if you think it is easy to have Picasso hang on your wall, walk across a rug worth more than the $50,000+ desk you write blogs at, or ride a motorcycle that cost more than your first two homes combined … go ahead and read from those Internet marketers who know an easier way than I did, because it took me to my knees more than once to have those things. Go ahead and suck it all up and believe them, but don’t come to me to fix what they mess up for your business. Also, don’t blame my industry for your being too naive and getting conned into something stupid. Now, if you are ready to work hard and stop chasing unicorns long enough to learn something useful about Internet marketing, keep reading.
I am going to give you a piece of truth about Internet marketing, social media, and SEO that you can confirm. Here you go:
Internet Marketing Success Requires Hard Work
If there is no sacrifice, it probably will not work. Otherwise, everybody else would be doing it, and then the market would no longer be so great … kind of like the market for good SEO and Internet marketing. Instead of selling real services with real marketing strategies that work, the majority of Internet marketers are all trying to sell you some crap about how you can get it all and have it all just by sitting there at your keyboard adding up your money. They are lying to you. Go back and read my blog to see if I am telling you the truth. Just go and read the last few days, few weeks, or few months of my work of telling the truth about Internet marketing.
Maybe you think that due diligence will take too much of your time and you may just miss that next click from a Twitter friend or you may not catch that link that will make you filthy stinking rich. What it may save you is a whole lot of wasted time and money spent on Internet marketing with the wrong agenda. Let me remind you that I am not here to sell you anything. What I want from you is enough of your time to stop believing in all the unicorn chasers and static makers, enough to put them out of business. Then, perhaps without all the suspicion and static making the Internet deaf with something worthless to sell, we can all benefit. We can start looking forward to a world where people can see through the clouds and build their businesses the right way again, instead of getting scammed out of more money and then looking at the whole Internet as a failure.
Let’s face it, good marketing that brings loyal customers is trickier than ever. It gets harder and takes more creative marketing to be heard above the rumble of bottom-feeding Internet marketers who want you to believe that you will get what you want and will not have to make big sacrifices. You have probably heard somewhere that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yeah, well it seems that a lot of people overlook that sensible statement as soon as they switch on their computer.
As I visited with my friend late last night, I gave him a fantastic rendition of many things he could do to effectively build his business and reach all the right people. He and I both know that I would never sell him anything for money. The things we brainstorm together are the best kind of honesty, and without any awkward agenda. He is a long-time technology guy, like me, and he strongly agreed to everything I said. If he disagrees, he is a close enough friend to be extremely stubborn. As it was, it was one of those light bulb moments for him, and he quite frankly flattered me with his attentiveness to my ideas. I shed light on his marketing thinking, and I feel really great about that.
We had one of those conversations where we came up with some brilliant business ideas for his company, but he kept trying to switch it around and focus me on how to improve my company. He complained about how I constantly have great ways to help monetize other people’s ideas, but yet, I will overlook the best direction in my own business. He called me a “cobbler with barefoot children”, and I had to agree. He really nagged me about how hard I work for others, and the sacrifices I make to build their success. It is not the easiest thing for me to hear, because I actually know he is right. He is one of the closest friends in my life, and when he kept trying to focus me on how little I try to maximize my own company, I had to internalize it. It kind of stings to feel my shortcomings, just as it does for most people. It is not because I don’t have the talent or the drive. I guess it is just because I am really focused on what I do. I make people more successful in their business. That is my job, and it is something I am passionate about.
So, my plan for following up on Mike’s urge to focus on my own business is not just for my own benefit, but to benefit others as well. My intent is to inform people that as long as there is static in my industry, it hurts us all. As long as people keep believing that it will be easy and not take serious efforts and make sacrifices to build their business, I have done us both a disservice.
Internet marketers who will tell you the truth and the ones who are just out of your reach are the ones you listen to. You know that you probably cannot afford their services anyway, so they really are not a threat to you. You nod your head as you read their blogs, and it all makes very good sense. Then you walk away from it and try to trust an industry of thieves to implement it cheaper, or try to do it yourself. If this rings any bells for you, please take a step back and look at your motivations. Take a moment to decide if you have the persistence to do things better than before. Take the time to use the sincere honesty that you will find here at my blog and those of a few other industry leaders. Use it … don’t just try and hold onto that hope in the back of your mind that there really is a simple way to win.
The truth about Internet marketing as I know it is that I have to keep turning away companies who want and need my help, but they have wildly misguided ideas of what it really takes to be successful. I am tired of watching so many people suffer from the belief that it should all be so easy and that anybody can do the job. These are the same companies who come back to me after they get the shirt ripped off their back and can no longer afford to implement the best solution to their needs. I think it is a damn shame.
Maybe if I tell you the truth that you didn’t want to hear, we can all be more successful tomorrow than today. The truth is that I am seeking one new client … just one, and it probably is not you. I have turned away a lot of people in the process of seeking that one new client. Maybe in exchange for some truthful and useful articles about Internet marketing, you can help me find that one new client. Maybe you can help to clean up my industry and remind people that there is no pink pony ride to success.
Perhaps you know a business person who wants to do it right and is not afraid to start seeing the truth. If you know somebody who needs to impress their board members or investors with more profit, please pass them my name. If you know somebody who can make serious sacrifices to make their business more profitable, please pass them my name. I only want one, so it would be hard to call me a big threat.
If you know somebody being conned with the vision of easy and cheap success, please help them to know the truth about Internet marketing, too. It is going to take a lot more work than most people are ready to withstand.
Have you ever taken a moment to consider what people are really looking for when they come to your website? Of course you have, right? Maybe you have tried some keyword research tools and done your best to discover as many lateral keywords as you can possibly optimize. What may be surprising is how many customers you are missing, and the relatively simple reasons why. I want to give you some Google website marketing ideas for how to improve your website traffic, and optimize the traffic you already have.
Let’s take a look at two types of website traffic that come from a Google search. I will call them “first-search” and “second-search” website traffic. Both are important, but most companies are too focused on one to even recognize the other. Their loss may be your gain!
Website Visitors Google What They Want!
I see a lot of companies scramble to be found in a Google search for what they sell, without enough consideration for the real reasons people are searching. I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody told me “we are in Google” and they think that is what matters. They may even be well ranked in Google for their product or service, and still be missing a huge number of potential sales. This often happens because much of their website traffic is from second-search users (I will explain in a moment) and competitors searching to check out the competition. I don’t know about you, but in a lot of industries, the competition is not the best target customer. Now, that is not true for every industry, because other SEO and Internet marketers are good clients for me (SEOs see “How To Market SEO and Vertical Internet Marketing“). I actually want to be a great resource to my “competition”, but for most people wanting to improve website traffic, the competition is not their best target.
Improve Website Traffic Through First Search Not Second Search
What is this “first search” and “second search” thing that I am writing about? An important Internet marketing factor that a lot of people do not measure or understand is that many people who search for something perform multiple types of searches. I will just give two main categories to explain this. I will call them “first-search” and “second-search”.
First-Search Website Traffic: First-search traffic comes when people search for what they want. If their toe hurts, they may search for “big blister on toe” as a first search. It helps them get direction. They want to know what to do with that big blister, and maybe what caused it. They are researching. They are not quite sure yet just what they want or need, but they are trying to find their way. Once they know their way and learn the industry-popular terminology and can refine a search, then they will use a second-search approach to filter through the available solutions.
Second-Search Website Traffic: If you are a podiatrist (foot doctor), you may feel that it is just great that they can find you when they search for a podiatrist, but what if you caught them in the first search? Wouldn’t it be more likely that if they found you in the first-search category that they will see you as a greater authority when they discover you again in the second-search? Then, once they figure out they need a podiatrist you will be a more likely choice to help them. Doesn’t this seem like a great idea to be an authority in both searches? Of course that makes sense, but do you think you are accomplishing the task? For most people, the answer is no. This includes your competitors.
Increased website traffic and better Google rankings are not the only things that matter. I could go into the topics of search conversion (getting more people to click on your website once they find you in Google listings) and website conversion (getting more people to take action once they are on your website). Those are both great topics for other articles, but what I want you to think about here is how to improve website traffic by answering people’s problems. In order to solve their problem, you will have to look at the core of your business. What do you do? I don’t mean looking at it as “practicing podiatry” but rather “we help people with sore toes who want something to help toe pain.”
As you notice the heading of this page states, “Google Website Marketing: How to Improve Website Traffic” and that is what I am here to tell you. “Google website marketing” is my example of first-search traffic, and it reaches my equivalent of a person with a sore toe. Once they learn more about my industry-specific terminology, they refine their search to compare solutions. For example, “reasons to blog” or “compare SEO” may be second-search considerations, because now they have a better feel for what they need.
Improve Website Traffic by Knowing Your Return Visitors
There is often a huge disparity between what a company hopes people will search for and what actually creates more business. I find that for many companies, even when they know what people search for, they often only mimic the competition by targeting the second-search users. They know that these second-search users become customers, but often ignore whether they are actually returning visitors who found them previously. Any business should target people who search for their product … the actual things that they sell. It just makes sense. What is too commonly missed is the website visitors who are actually returning first-search users, or otherwise knowing where they have been before they came to you. They may have been highly influenced long before the search term that you recognize as important. Imagine the value in knowing what they looked for the first time and honing in on those search terms. All of this is measurable, but many people just overlook the importance.
If you analyze your web server logs, your Google analytics, or other website analytics tool to find what people search for when they find your website for the first time and match it with the returning traffic, it may surprise you. Sometimes a better target is to reach people searching for the solution to a problem. Then, if you do not make them a customer in the first-search, you can be there for the second-search when they want to compare you to the competition. Analyzing your website traffic logs and giving close attention to returning website visitors can tell you a lot about what drives people to buy from you. If you are not paying attention and taking appropriate actions, you will miss a whole lot of customers.
A Real-Life First-Search and Second-Search Example
Many people find my websites for things like “compare SEO“, “lateral keywords“, “h1 tags“, and “Google SEO Starter Guide“. I rank nicely in searches for the things I do. However, I often find that some of my best clients came from first searches that were less industry-oriented, but then returned to my website as a result of a much more sophisticated search that shows they have done their homework. Reaching these readers in the first-search phase and repeatedly being there through their learning process is invaluable to me. Monitoring for these trends is important.
Maybe you rank nicely for your industry terms, too, but it is sometimes not the things that you do or sell that your best buyers will initially find you for in a Google search. If you improve your first-search exposure, you may find it a lot easier to reach the second-search buyers.