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Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Relevancy and Link Popularity Explained
By SmartFinds Internet Marketing (c) 2009

How does a web page get ranked #1 on Google? There is no doubt
that the methods of the 1990s no longer work - and most
definitely, not since Google went public in 2004.

Back then, the content of your website's pages was the major
factor. Today, however, having links on the Internet that point
back to your website is another important criteria, which will
require that you involve yourself in the Internet community.

The latter point is very interesting to consider. How do you
involve yourself in the Internet community? What does this have
to do with search engine optimization (SEO)? Actually, involving
yourself in the Internet community doesn't directly have
anything to do with SEO; however, many people seem to pigeon
hole anything related to the search engines into SEO. Therefore,
we will need to define the various acronyms that are used in the
Internet industry.

The Internet has also created an environment in which
institutional control of information has been lost. As a result,
control of information has trickled down to the individual
level. Imagine the transition from several thousand companies
once controlling messages through traditional media to today's
expansive communication via several million individuals free to
distribute their own information on the Internet. What you find
is that the logic process has also been spread over millions of
people; and for this reason, it is harder to explain why certain
things happen on the Internet.

Because the Internet has opened communications to the
individual, the individuals are now exposed to the concepts of
business. Not everyone has a business degree and most only have
a superficial understanding. As such, the definition of
marketing and how advertising plays a role in this process is
not well understood at the individual level. This has caused
improper usage of the various acronyms used on the Internet
today.

Marketing and Advertising Defined

Before we can understand the various acronyms being used within
the Internet industry, it is important to understand the
definitions of marketing vs. advertising.

* 'Marketing' is the process or technique of promotion,
selling and distributing a product or service.

* 'Advertising' is to make your product or service publicly
known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing
qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.

You can see from the definitions that advertising is part of
marketing. Marketing includes everything about raising the
awareness of your business from branding, messaging, public
relations, advertising, events, customer relationships and much
more. Advertising is a component of marketing and should never
be the only method used to promote your business.

Defining SEM, SEA, SEO and LP

Using what we have learned about the definition of marketing,
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) would include all processes
related to promoting all of your website's pages with the
search engines. Included in this process would be Search Engine
Advertising (SEA), which would be sponsored search advertising
- or, what some also refer to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
These are the sponsored links along the top, right side and
bottom of search results. Also, included in SEM would be SEO and
your outreach program on the Internet away from your website that
increases the number of links to your website, also known as
Link Popularity (LP).

What is SEO?

It is important to understand how to tell the search engines
that a particular page of your website is an authority on a
particular topic. Keywords and phrases are utilized to
communicate this expert status to search engines. You will
notice that we are talking about pages of your website. Each
page of your website can be optimized for a topic based on its
visible content. We are no longer optimizing blindly the entire
website for the same information, but using each page to help
drive traffic to our website. By all means, this does mean that
for a particular search result, visitors may enter your website
from somewhere else other than the home page!

Each search engine has a different algorithm in deciding what
the person searching is seeking and how relevant the information
on the individual pages of your website is to the search. They
take into account the title of the page, the meta description,
and the visible text. Some search engines do look at your meta
keywords, but not nearly as much as they used to in the past.
What you are presenting with visible text is what the visitor
will see; and therefore, the content has more value than the
Meta keywords. This also prevents spammers and fraudulent
websites from hiding their true identity.

Why is SEO Important?

The volume of information on the Internet is staggering. The
Internet seems larger than our real world. Search engines have
an enormous task to filter all of this information to provide
something meaningful to the searcher in a matter of seconds.
Compared to the old days of using search tools like Archie and
Veronica that required hours and sometimes days to find
information on the Internet, the results from the current search
engines are significantly improved.

The competition of web pages (whether they are direct
competitors or not) as well as your business competitors are all
seeking to also be ranked within the first three pages of search
results. It is important that you seek out the right resources
to help you optimize your pages to give you a fighting chance.

What to do before you SEO

Research, research, research! There are many tools out there
that provide you information about what people actually type
into the search engine, the number of searches performed over a
30 day period, as well as how many competing web pages exist for
that search term. These are the three major parts to the
research you are doing. The search engines can provide you the
first two with their tools, while the third item may require you
to perform a search in quotes to get a real understanding of the
total competing web pages. There are third party tools that can
also provide complete information, however, always keep in
mind that the search volume is not an absolute from any source
including the search engines. Use the information as a guideline
to give you direction. Regardless of the tool(s) you use for
your research, they will all provide you options for other key
phrases to consider based on your initial entry. This will be
helpful to consider other alternatives you may not have thought
about.

In this process you will learn two important items.

* First you will learn that the rest of the world may not
necessarily search for your website's products and services the
same way you expect them to. For example, you may be ranked
number one for a particular term, but if no one is searching for
that term, what difference does it make if you're number one or
number 100? Go with what people are searching.

* Secondly, you will want to seek out a balance between the
number of searches and the number of competing web pages. The
search term that has several million competing web pages will
take you longer to rank whereas those that are only in the
thousands will be easier. Take a look at the search volume to
see what would happen if you had 1% of those visitors purchase?
Based on what you are selling you may not need to be ranked for
terms that have thousands of searches. For your business, those
with lower search volumes and less competition may suffice as a
foundation.

Consider your research as a starting point, not an end point.
You can always change your optimization later; and always keep
in mind that you can optimize the pages within your website to
cover a variety of possibilities from your research.

What you do to SEO

Search Engine Optimization does require some technical
understanding of HTML code in order to add the necessary
meta tags, insure you have the right image alt descriptions, the
right link title descriptions and lastly, to appropriately write
the visible text on the pages. The elements of this process
include the following:

HTML Code

Be sure that your HTML code adheres to the World Wide Web
Consortium's (W3C) standards. Many will ask the question why
and the answer is simple. If you adhere to the standards, you
can't go wrong. If you don't adhere to them, there is a higher
chance that it will have a negative effect for browsers and
search engines.

HTML structure

Websites with outdated Flash animations, frame designs, and
broken links are certainly not going to allow search engines to
identify the content of their web pages. Use current coding
methods, not table based websites. Can you easily navigate your
website? If not, then neither can the search engines; and
therefore they cannot identify how to rank your web pages.

Website Flow

Does your website allow a visitor to reach your business
objective easily from the point of entry? Make sure you have a
call to action on all pages of your website.

Use of all meta-data

Meta data goes beyond Title, Keywords and Descriptions. There
are a variety of meta tags that inform search engines about the
content of your web page. Use all of them. Don't forget to have
unique Title, Keywords and Descriptions for each of your web
pages. Duplicate content is not something the search engines
appreciate.

Visible Content

Be sure to have well-written, grammatically correct and
spell-checked content on your web pages. If your website becomes
a resource for its unique content, you are more likely to receive
traffic-seeking information about your business.

Your Outreach Program: Link Building

Consider link building as a process that will increase the
critical mass of information about your business. The
information or content you post (vs. advertise) on the Internet
will have a shelf life of years. Therefore, the links to your
website will also accumulate over time and also have a shelf
life of years.

The more links you have pointing back to your website the more
popular your website is considered by the search engines. Based
on the content that is posted, your website will be considered an
authority on that topic.

The process of posting content on the Internet will not only
generate traffic from the search engines, but also generate
traffic to your website from the websites where the content is
posted. Oddly enough you will get traffic from these websites
before receiving traffic from the search engines.

Content you post on the Internet will come in five primary
forms: Articles, News Releases, Videos, Photos and Social Media
Marketing. The process of content marketing is quite involved
and is also labor intensive when done correctly. If you come
across anything that looks like a "link farm", you should
want to run because link farms will not give you any long term
results and are not considered responsible link building.

Finally the link building process comes in three formats: direct
links to your website, cross linking content on the Internet,
and deep linking to specific pages within your website.
Understanding this process becomes a strategy in order for your
prospects to find you and have all paths lead back to your
website.

Conclusion

Is this an overnight process? Absolutely not! It is an ongoing
process that acts not only as a public relations tool, but also
as a long term advertising tool. The process of maintaining your
website and the content marketing process of link building is
something you do daily, weekly and monthly. Part of this process
and Internet marketing strategy also require the initial
research process and the measurement of the results and the
effects of your efforts.
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SmartFinds is a digital marketing agency providing mid- to
large-sized corporations with digital creative, digital
marketing, and digital advertising solutions for the Internet.
The most critical element of SmartFinds Internet Marketing
service is the creativity and imagination to apply the
technological aspects of the digital marketplace to the marketing
objectives of a particular business. Initial research provides
SmartFinds the ability to develop a digital strategy that can be
measured every step of the way. Some of SmartFinds' clients
include Delphi, Flagstar Bank, Guardian Industries, McCann
Erickson, Wendy's and Vietnam Veterans of America. You can learn
more about SmartFinds at http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com
Contact: Doug Menzer, 330 E. Maple Road, Suite 503, Birmingham
MI 48009, 866.501.5758, doug@smartfindsmarketing.com
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