SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Simply put: Internet Marketing Services – Specifically Search Engine Optimization is used to

promote a website’s position in the natural or “organic” results for a keyword search.

Why do I need SEO?

Whether you’re selling a product directly from your site or promoting your business to capture leads,

the closer you are to position “1”, the higher percentage of ‘clicks’ you will catch for your keyword.

How does it work?

SEO is 100 little things done just right. It is a combination of on-page (or

“foundation”) optimization plus off-page optimization (or “link-building”). Different

companies have different theories as to which is most important. Reputable

companies realize that BOTH are important and design campaigns accordingly.

On-Page Optimization

Although Yahoo! and Bing capture some market share of search on the Internet,

Google is still the big boy on the block.

Each search engine has a unique algorithm that

determines where your site will reside in the search

results.

These algorithms are highly secure and the exact

‘recipe’ for what works for any engine is known only

to those engines.

Since Google gets the lion’s share of search and

since they publish best practice recommendations,

SplinternetMarketing uses those as our guidelines for

optimizing your site. What works for Google also

tends to work for the other search engines.

On-Page Optimization

What is common to all of the engines is the idea of “relevance.” Each search engine displays

search results based on what they consider to be the most relevant site/information.

“How do I build relevance for my web pages?”

Relevance is built through use of the different “meta

data” points within the source code of your page, and

a cohesive relationship to the on-page content of the

page.

Consistent use of keywords through these data

points and content creates a “theme” for your page.

When done properly, search engines spiders should

be able to scan your page(s) and know exactly what

they are about.

Off-Page Optimization / Linking

Once your on-page optimization is complete its time to start linking.

“Why is linking important?”

Link building can be considered similar to a

popularity contest. The more sites on the web that

link to your site the more ‘popular’ your site will

appear.

However, for most search engines it’s not just the

number of links but the relevance and authority of

each link that is pointing to your page.

(continued…)

Off-Page Optimization / Linking

In the offline world, we’re all familiar with the business card. As a business

owner, you could go out to the nearest crowded parking lot and place your card

on hundreds of different car windshields. You could also go to the chamber of

commerce and hand out 10.

Which would yield better results in terms of business return? It’s likely the 10

cards you handed out at the chamber would produce more business than the

hundreds plastered on car windshields. Why? Your audience was much more

targeted at the chamber. Although the number of cards at the chamber is

lesser in quantity, the quality of those contacts is much more valuable.

Search engines are more likely to rank your website based on similar

principles. The more relevant and targeted the backlinks are from the

referring sites, the more authoritative your site is considered. The more

authoritative your site is considered, the better your chances are for

ranking for targeted keywords and generating qualified traffic to your site.

Both quantity and quality are important. SplinternetMarketing’s methods

and tactics behind that strategy yield the balance needed to bring you

results!

Social Media

Everybody is talking about Social Media these days. But what is Social Media

– really? We could dedicate a whole separate presentation to explaining Social

Media since there are hundreds of variations of campaigns that would

technically qualify. The shortest an easiest explanation is:

Social Media is your online “voice.”

You’ve probably heard of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other websites

that you might use to post comments and videos about your personal life.

Think about your business for a moment. What does your brand represent?

What are your core ideals? What “personality” does your company have?

For businesses, Social Media is the way to speak to the public and your

customers. You can be sure they are talking about your company –

favorably or unfavorably – so having dedicated business Facebook or

Twitter accounts is a way to make sure you are engaging in those

conversations… and that your company voice is heard.

Although there are many different agendas that can be achieved through

Social Media, the important thing to know is that – in relation to SEO –

search engines are now including Social Media activity and linking as a

significant part of their ranking algorithm. Being active in these spaces will

magnify any other SEO efforts you may be pursuing.

Results and Measurement

Some companies will guarantee you top rankings within a specific time

period. BUYER BEWARE! No reputable company should ever guarantee

you a placement for any keyword in any time frame. Only the search

engines know their algorithms and could predict placement and timing…

And they don’t share that with the public.

While the most common belief of measurement of results is improvement in

rankings – really – the best measurement of results is improvement in your sales

and lead flow. Rankings are the means to increasing traffic to your site.

Increased traffic should result in increased sales and leads.

While SplinternetMarketing understands the importance of improving rankings and

increasing traffic, we also go the extra mile to make sure that your traffic is

converting. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

Throughout your campaign we will always be looking for better ways to capture

and ‘convert’ your site’s visitors.

SEO Myths & Sales Gimmicks

• No reputable company should ever guarantee the placement for any keyword

and/or time frame to achieve that. You may never reach the #1 position. The

quickness and ability to maintain placement is dictated by the amount of

competition for the online space and the authority of the competing sites. Any

company that ‘guarantees’ placement is not to be trusted.

(Google’s comments on the matter: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291&ctx=sibling)

• No SEO company knows the search engine algorithms… only the search

engines do.

• There are no “secret formulas” for SEO. As with any business, some

companies are just better than others at their craft. SEO is a lot of hard work

done the correct way. Companies claiming to have ‘proprietary software’ that

works miracles… well, they’re leaving it to a computer program to automate

your campaign.

• Companies claiming to have a “special” SEO relationship with Google are ones

to be wary of. Although SEO, by nature, is a way of gaming the search results,

most search engines quietly frown on the industry. None of the companies are

going to help an SEO company by giving away secrets or manipulating results.

“I’m #1… I’m done!!!”

Not quite. SEO is an ongoing process. Because search engines are in the business of trying

to objectively provide the most relevant search results, they are continually “crawling” the

Internet to find the best results for a keyword or keyword phrase.

Imagine if Google, for example, only crawled a news website once a year. The information

would be very old and no longer relevant. Users would then turn to a different search engine to

find more current results.

Like the search engines, your SEO campaign and the information provided on your

site needs to be up to date and kept “fresh”. SEO is an ongoing race with no set

finish line. With new companies entering the online space and utilizing SEO for their

sites, the more competitive each segment will become.

The level of effort needed to get from #50 to #10 is substantially less than to get from

#2 to #1. Consider how much capital in traditional marketing the number two or three

companies in a market segment must spend to bypass the top company. The same is

true for the Internet - once your site has attained #1 rankings, know that your

competitors are devoting that much more effort to displace you.

For any business that relies on their Internet presence to generate revenue,

continued SEO is an essential part of your marketing future and business success.