How to be an SEO Rock Star

About The Author:

Lidija Davis is the Web Strategist for WebMama.com Inc. WebMama.com Inc. is Silicon Valley's premier search engine marketing company providing SEO and SEM services to corporations around the world. Lidija is also the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Tech Talk Radio Australia and runs her own blog at http://blog-well.com

Has your site got what it takes to rock the search engine results, or is it still struggling to make an appearance?

According to ComScore, there were over 338 million searches conducted every day in January [2008] in the United States; where does your site fit in, and, does it fit in at all?

While there are more resources available now than ever before to help you get your head around search engine optimization, there are also many new factors that have come into play, one of the most relevant being social media.  If your company isn’t keeping up, you could be losing out to your competitors.

A lot of businesses see search engine optimization as a set-and-forget, or an unwanted burden on their resources, instead of including it as a natural part of their marketing effort.  If you want to succeed in the online space, you need to understand that SEO is an important aspect of your overall Web strategy.

“SEO is simple,” explains Barbara Coll, CEO of WebMama.com Inc, “but it’s not easy, and that’s where people fall over, they confuse the two words.”  It is simple because it is easy to understand, but it is not easy to accomplish because it requires a great amount of effort.

SEO Basics: Titles and Descriptions

While title and description tags are considered to be the fundamentals of SEO, an astounding number of businesses still overlook their significance.

Your title and description tell not only visitors what you do and who you are, they help search engines generate better results.  You can control what search engines display about you in their search results.

A good title tag must include your business name and your descriptions must summarize each page succinctly.  To create effective tags, keep titles under 65 characters, descriptions under 165 characters, include a couple of keywords and most importantly, choose your words well.

The most common mistake, according to Ms. Coll, is that companies forget to use different titles and descriptions for every page of their site.  “If every page on your site is different, why would you want the same title and description for each one?”

Keywords

Determining keywords can be difficult.

Keywords need to be descriptive and related to your product/service.  They need to be terms that people search for, yet to maximize their effect, you also need to look for words that have less competition.

You know you need keywords that are relevant to your site, but don’t make the common mistake of choosing words that you think are relevant.  The best keywords are words that potential customers would use to find your site.  You may call it a notebook, but most people still call it a laptop.  When it comes to keywords, the most common term is your best choice.

The best place to start is by talking with as many people as possible to get a broad view of what keywords you should target.  Ask colleagues, customers, friends and family which words they would use to search for you online - you may find some surprising results.

Other things to consider:

1. Take a look at your competitors’ sites and see what words they are using
2. Pull out your trusty thesaurus to find similar words
3. Check out Google Suggest
4. Sign up for a free demonstration of WordTracker
5. Examine your log files and see what customers are searching on to get to you
6. Use the search engines’ own free tools: Google’s Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Microsoft’s Live Search Webmaster Centre.

Finally, don’t limit yourself to a one or two word key phrase; Google has recently announced that the average search query is now four words.

Start a Blog

Technorati is now tracking in excess of 112.8 million blogs, and if your business is not blogging, it’s time to consider adding a blog to your website and your overall Web strategy.

The advantages of business blogging are enormous.  Suddenly an ordinary site becomes a virtual playground that encourages conversation and creates a connection with your audience.  But don’t get complacent or let vanity get in the way.  To run a successful blog, you need to ensure you interact with your visitors.  If they take the time to leave a comment or question, make sure you reply, or they might not come back – it’s just common courtesy.

Search engines love blogs because they offer up fresh content.  Additionally, if you spend the time to create and run a blog that is clever and useful, you benefit from others linking to you, and links are very good for SEO.

Getting Quality Links

While getting links is often beyond your control, there are steps you can take to encourage the process.  These include:

1. Create useful content and keep promotional blurb to a minimum
2. Develop a product or resource for your industry, such as a glossary of industry terms
3. Apply to Yahoo Directory and The Open Source Directory (DMOZ)
4. Submit to quality directories such as Best of the Web, Eaton Web, Gimpsy, Joe Ant, Rubber Stamped, Site Sift and Blogged
5. Comment on other blogs in your industry, and make your comments thought provoking 
6. Determine which social media and networking sites you prefer and join them.  Put pictures on Flickr, videos on YouTube, resume on LinkedIn, bookmarks on del.icio.us and your favorite sites on StumbleUpon, Digg or Reddit.  If you’re in the marketing industry, join Sphinn and submit your blog posts
7. Create a 125 x 125 pixel ad and buy ad space on industry related sites

Social Media

Social media and social networking sites are now creating huge opportunities for businesses to promote their sites for free.  This is not SEO, but SMO, Social Media Optimization; you can look at social media marketing as SEO 2.0.

A natural side effect of participating in social media, and doing it the right way, can bring in hundreds if not thousands of quality links to your site, one of the many factors that affect your search ranking.

According to social media maven, Maki, of DoshDosh “There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors; some of whom may come back to your website again and again.”

From his post: The importance of social media marketing: Why you should learn and master it, Maki describes how he created a post that received roughly 12,000 pageviews every day for the first month.  The site was one month old; the article took 20 hours to write.  Do you think it’s worth it?

If you do decide to participate in social media, don’t make the common mistake of submitting your own content.  Muhammad Saleem, one of Digg’s most influential contributors, explains that while it is okay to submit your own content occasionally, the best thing to do is create compelling and useful content, and let others Digg it for you.

Sphinn, Search Engine Land’s sister site, is one of the few sites that prefer you submit your own stories.  From their news story submission guidelines:

“Yes, you can submit your own stories. In fact, we'd rather you directly submit your own stories you think are of interest to the community than have someone do it for you.”

So if you have a great new post that is related to search, social media, search marketing or Internet marketing, give Sphinn a try.

If you choose to submit your own content at other social media sites, make sure that it is not the only content you submit, become active in the community first.  Visit the various sites and get a feel for what they have to offer.  When you find a couple that you like, join them, create a profile, make some friends, and join the conversation.

But, take care not to fall into another common trap; joining too many and participating in none.

Some people sign up to dozens of social media sites, but don’t use them correctly. Social media sites were not introduced solely to send links to your site, this is an added benefit if you use them well; they were created to share great content, and incorrect use of them can ruin your online credibility.

The best way to participate in social media sites is to pick a handful that you like, for instance I belong to StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter and Mixx, and then contribute.  Contributing means submitting posts you consider useful, voting up other people’s submissions if you feel they are worthy, and voting down those you feel are just noise.

While it does take time to get to know the various communities, and contributing requires a time commitment from you, it is worth the effort.  Who knows?  You may even enjoy it!

Lidija Davis is the Web Strategist for WebMama.com Inc.  WebMama.com Inc. is Silicon Valley's premier search engine marketing company providing SEO and SEM services to corporations around the world. Lidija is also the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Tech Talk Radio Australia and runs her own blog at http://blog-well.com