What do you think about when you hear the term “search engine optimization” or its abbreviation “SEO”?

For many people, SEO is a series of actions taken with the intention improving your rankings in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing).

Or maybe you have a negative view of SEO. Perhaps you’ve gotten boatloads of email solicitations claiming they can get you guaranteed rankings or asking if you’d be interested in exchanging website links.

Just now, I received an email from an “online marketing consultant” writing in broken English about how his “dedicated team of 120 professional’s (sic) who are backed by experience and expertise” could improve my website traffic. I just need to reply and they will send me a full SEO proposal. And, of course, they are “looking forward to a long and fruitful business relationship” with me and my company.

The email author wrote from a generic Gmail address with no Google+ profile set up, no company website URL included, and a generic profile picture. The offer sounds completely legitimate, right?

With constant solicitations like this, it’s no surprise that the SEO industry has a reputation for spam, manipulation and unethical behavior.

What Is SEO?

For people who aren’t trying to scam others out of their money, what does SEO really involve? An old school SEO from a few years ago would tell you they research relevant keywords for your business, optimize and/or create content around those keywords, and modify your website’s HTML code (title and meta tags) so search engines know to associate your website with those keywords.

Today, SEO is much more complex.

As spammers have improved their techniques to manipulate search results, the search engines have cracked down. Now, instead of taking just a few ranking factors into consideration, search engines look at hundreds of signals. It’s no longer just about having a few pages of specific content with the right keywords and a few links to those pages.

Now, SEO is just one channel of online marketing that complements and integrates with your entire web marketing campaign.

• Links are still important, but the source and quality matters much more than quantity.
  
  
• Keywords are still important, but how well website visitors convert into leads and sales matters much more than total web traffic.
  
  
• Having relevant content is still important, but branding and being perceived as an authority in your niche matter much more than having a few pages of relevant content.
  
  
• Social signals like tweets, likes and +1s factor are becoming more influential.

People don’t share or link to crummy, spammy-looking websites. And search engines have no incentive to rank poor, mediocre, or even “good” sites. Their financial incentive lies in providing their users with the best, most relevant content. If they don’t recognize your site as “the best” for a particular keyword or search result, it’s on you to make your site better. They have plenty of other sites to choose from.

Why Is SEO Necessary?

Despite their advances, search engines still have limitations that make SEO a necessary requirement for any website that wants to rank well. Search rankings are a zero sum gain. The first three search results for any query get far more search traffic than any other results, so these three positions are extremely competitive and lucrative. Every day, new competitors enter the game, looking to beat out everyone else and become #1. If you hope to compete in this environment, you need good SEO to:

1. Improve website usability – Your website should be fast loading and the content should be easily accessible by both your users and search engines. Search engines don’t see websites like humans do. They can interpret text, but they still have trouble interpreting the meaning of pictures, Flash, Javascript, audio, video and other rich media. If you don’t tag your content with the appropriate keywords and provide accurate text descriptions, search engines won’t know what your page is about.
   
   
2. Make content indexable – Search engines can only index and rank content they find, so if you have pages without any links, deep content that is difficult to get to, or content hidden behind search boxes or submission forms, search engines can’t access that. SEO helps search engines determine which of your site’s content is most relevant and should be indexed – or alternatively, tells search engines which pages not to index.
   
   
3. Improve user experience – If searchers click onto your website from search results, and immediately click the back button, search engines interpret this as a poor user experience. They want to deliver results that help searchers find what they are looking for. If a searcher returns to the search results page, they didn’t find what they are looking for, and therefore, search engines conclude that your site must not be relevant for that search query. By optimizing your website, you can provide a great user experience for the keywords you want to be found for – making both users and search engines happy.
   
   
4. Demonstrate your authority – Search engines use social factors to determine what is “great content.” Search engines don’t employ human editors to read every page and make a judgment call. That’s much too time-consuming. Instead, search engines use mathematical formulas called “algorithms” to rank websites based on what other sites link to yours, how many social shares you receive, how strong your brand is, and hundreds of other factors. If no one is linking to or sharing your website, search engines think your site probably isn’t all that relevant or important.
   
   
5. Eliminate duplicate content – If you use a content management system, chances are, you have duplicate content. Since 2011, Google has cracked down on “thin,” duplicate, and poor content with its ongoing Panda updates. By using SEO practices, you can improve or eliminate these pages.
   
   
6. Determine context – Despite all the progress made with semantics, search engines still have issues with relevancy and determining meaning. Often, people type in keywords that aren’t commonly used in everyday vocabulary or that may have several meanings. Search engines have to essentially guess what that searcher is looking for. If you search for “mouse,” are you looking for information about a computer device or the rodent? If you search for “foot,” are you looking for information about your body part or the measuring unit? It’s much easier when searchers type in phrases instead of single words – but returning a completely relevant and accurate search result for every query is virtually impossible. When you optimize your website for specific keywords, you add relevancy and contextual meaning to help search engines better categorize your site.

SEO isn’t dead. But it has evolved. Now, before you embark on an SEO campaign, it’s essential to determine your marketing goals. Is it to build your brand through content marketing? To establish your credibility and expertise? To generate leads and clients? To get press mentions? Don’t just shoot for traffic and high rankings – because that probably isn’t enough to achieve your targets.

The post What Is SEO And Why Is It Necessary? appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Small business SEO is a powerful tool service providers can use to market their websites cost effectively. Many people want to know how they can get their website ranked in the organic listings of Google so they receive lots of free targeted traffic to their site.

The exact process for how search engines rank websites is not public. Each of the major search engines (primarily, Google and Bing) has a proprietary algorithm for determining where a website should show up in its search results.

That said, there are specific ranking factors that matter more than others. For a complete list of important ranking factors, I highly recommend SEOMoz’s Search Engine Ranking Survey. For readers who just want a quick overview of the basics, here are a few ranking factors you should consider in your small business seo strategy.

On-Page Ranking Factors

On-page ranking factors are those factors that you have some control over. If you just get these right, you should be able to rank for a number of your less competitive keywords within a few weeks to a few months.

• Title Tag Keywords – Your website’s title tag is what shows up in the top left-hand corner of your internet browser above the “File” menu, so it is virtually invisible to your website visitors. However, the title tag shows up in search results as the headline of your listing so it is extremely important both as a search engine ranking factor and as a headline to attract your reader’s attention and get him to click onto your website. Your title tag should contain the keyword or key phrase the page is targeting, preferably within the first few words, and should be no more than 65 characters because that’s the maximum amount that search engines will display.
  
  
• Unique Content – Having plenty of unique and informative content on your website will boost your website’s credibility and trustworthiness with search engines. Focus on writing content around your major keywords.
  
  
• H1 Headline Tag Keywords – Your H1 tag should be the first headline on your website that tells readers what the page is about. Unlike the title tag, the headline tag is usually prominently displayed on your page – and is usually what visitors see as the page title. Use your main keyword or key phrase in your H1 tag.
  
  
• Keywords in Link Anchor Text – Link anchor text is the word or phrase that is clickable when you create a link to your website. Use keywords in your links to internal pages, rather than a generic “click here” or including the page URL. For instance, “small business marketing” instead of “www.morningstarmultimedia.com.” You don’t want to overdo this. In 2012, Google released a huge algorithm change called “Penguin” that cracked down on these keyword anchor text matches, so using the exact text every time may harm you. The rule of thumb is – if it looks spammy, don’t do it.
  
  
• Freshness of Page Content – Search engines view pages that are frequently updated as more relevant to searchers, so add new content to your website regularly.
  
  
• Proximity to Home Page – How many clicks does it take to get from your “Home” page to the page you are trying to rank? Search engines view the pages that your “Home” page links to as more relevant than those that sit a few clicks away.
  
  
• Keywords in first 50-100 words of site content – Write your website’s content to sell, inform, or persuade, but use variations of your keyword or key phrase wherever they make sense, and preferably in the first 50-100 words of your website’s content. You must write your content so it sounds natural to readers, but include keywords when you can.
  
  
• Domain Name Keywords – Using your keywords in your root domain name helps to boost its rank in listings. The root domain name is http://www.yourdomain.com. Subdomain names can also play a factor in ranking your website, so if you didn’t get your top keywords for your domain name, you can use them here. Your subdomain name is would look like http://keyword.yourdomain.com.

Off-Page Ranking Factors

While it would be nice if Google ranked websites based solely on the website characteristics we have control over, unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Search engines also look at the quality and quantity of inbound links pointing to your website from other websites. Here are a few of the most important elements for your small business SEO strategy.

• Keywords in Anchor Text – Like with your on-site anchor text, having external sites link to your website with specific keywords plays a large role in how search engines rank your website. The anchor text is important because it tells visitors what they can expect when they click on that link, so search engines highly rate the importance of that content. Again, like with internal links, don’t overdo this if you start any type of link building campaign or you may get penalized by Penguin.
  
  
• Number of High-Quality Links – How many links you receive from high-quality and credible websites is extremely important. High-quality links are used in editorial content rather than the footer or sidebar of a website. Search engines also frown on paid links or links from known link brokers. Search engines use high-quality links as a measure of how important of a resource your website is on the Internet.
  
  
• Diversity of Link Sources – Not only are high-quality links important, but you also need links from a variety of sources. If you have a well-trusted website giving you plenty of links – that’s good – but it is even better if you can get links from numerous credible sources.
  
  
• Trust of Link Sources – The trustworthiness of your link source is important in ranking your website. If you receive a large number of your links from web spam sites or known link brokers, search engines may actually discount your links or lower your website’s ranking. Make sure the site linking to you doesn’t also have links to the 3 Ps of spam – pills, poker, and porn.
  
  
• Topic-Related Links – Finally, try to get links from websites that are topically related to your website’s subject.

Small business SEO isn’t rocket science but it does take work to get right. With so many factors influencing your website, it is important to have an SEO strategy in place for how you will target all of your main keywords and phrases on your website. By taking into consideration the above ranking factors, you can create content that search engines will consider high-value, thus giving you a much greater chance of ranking well.

The post Small Business SEO Ranking Factors appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Small Business SEO (search engine optimization) can be a great way to get high-quality, targeted visitors to your website. In this article, I’ll discuss the necessary steps required for any effective small business SEO campaign.

Step 1 – Setting Goals and Objectives

Many people believe (erroneously) that getting a top rank in Google is “the goal” of any small business SEO campaign. Unfortunately, a top rank in Google won’t do much for you if

• no one is searching for those keywords you hope to rank for
• those who do search for those keywords aren’t looking for your product or service
• or if your website isn’t set up to convert those new visitors into subscribers, leads or sales

Every good small business SEO campaign starts with understanding your website goals and who you want to visit your site. Ask yourself these two questions.

• Who is your target audience? – What types of people do you want to visit your site? In other words, who can benefit the most from your products and services? Put yourself in the mind of your visitors – if they are looking for what you sell, what keywords do you need to target, what content do you need to provide, what offer do you need to make to grab their attention?
  
  
• What should they do once they get to your site? – Until your visitors take action, they will remain anonymous. Ideally, you’d like your visitors to raise their hands and let you know they are interested in your information, products or services. In other words, you want to generate leads from your website, so to capture their information, they might join your mailing list, download a free report, request a consultation, subscribe to your blog feed, buy your product, etc. How can you make it as easy as possible for them to do that? What would compel them to take that action immediately?

All successful small business SEO campaigns start with understanding the psychology of your target audience. Yes, you know your product or service can help them. But they don’t. They don’t know anything about you – and they aren’t likely to read every page of your site to see if you can potentially help them.

When your visitors click onto your site, they are in control of what content they read – so it’s up to you to design a site that very clearly explains what you can do for them and what the next step is if they are interested in learning more. How can you make it as easy for them as possible to take that action?

Step 2 – Keyword Research

Once you know a bit about your target audience, you start looking at your website the way they would. Your goal in this step is to make sure your website shows up where your target audience is actually looking – not simply where you think they’ll be looking.

Often, what people actually search for when they are ready to buy a product or service is not what you think that might be. They might use different phrases, terminology, or brand names than those you use to describe your products and services. Alternatively, if you pick keywords that are too generic or seem irrelevant to your services, your visitors won’t be as qualified as you’d like.

Keyword research usually starts with a brainstorming session – which keywords do you think are most relevant? You can also look to your competitors’ websites – which keywords do they target.

Make a list of all keywords you may want to rank for, then plug them into the Google Analytics Keyword Tool. This free tool will give you a good approximation of how many people type those keyword into Google each month.

To make the most of this tool,

• Make sure exact match is set on the left side (uncheck broad and phrase match). Exact match shows you the search volume for just that particular keyword, not its variants, misspellings, or related keywords, so it gives you a better indicator of actual traffic you might get to your site if you ranked for that keyword.
  
  
• Look at number of local searches, not global. Local searches shows you how many people in your country search for this particular keyword.

Step 3 – On-Page Optimization

Once you know what keywords your target audience is actually searching for, it’s time to evaluate your website for how well it ranks for those keywords. On-page optimization means everything you can do to your website that will influence its rank in search engines. This can include:

• using those keywords in your content, title tags and other HTML tags
• creating more content about those keywords
• linking to pages using those keywords in the link’s anchor text
• making sure visitors can skim your web copy within a few seconds by providing headlines, bullet lists, and bold words
• keeping content up-to-date
• and so forth

Before I get too far, let me stress – concentrate on your visitors first and then worry about search engines. If your site looks like it was written for search engines rather than your visitors, they’ll be able to tell – and will quickly click away.

Never forget the goal of small business SEO – you want visitors to come to your site AND take some sort of action. Conversion is the end goal!

Step 4 – Linking Strategies

On-page SEO will only take you so far. If you are targeting highly competitive search terms, you’ll need to devote considerable effort to getting other quality sites to link to you. Inbound links are a major factor in how search engines rank sites because search engines assume that if other quality sites are linking to you, you must have good content.

Think of it this way – not every site someone wants to be ranked No. 1 on Google for a particular keyword actually deserves that rank. Over the years, webmasters have tried to game search engines by getting as many links as they can without regard to the quality of sites that are actually linking to them. This strategy no longer works anymore.

Now, search engines rank sites based on a number of link-based ranking factors in order to filter out the spammers while promoting the quality sites that do deserve a high ranking. Rather than just look at quantity of links, they look at whether the site linking to you is a relevant, authoritative site that is also considered trustworthy on the web.

What should you be looking for?

• Is the linking site relevant? Search engines give greater weight to links coming from sites that are of a similar nature as yours.
  
  
• Is the linking site reputable? Do other websites link out to this site, implicating that this site is an authority on its topic?
  
  
• What anchor text does the site use to link to you? Anchor text is the text portion of a link. A link that includes your keywords is better than a link that just includes your site’s title or your URL.
  
  
• Where will the link be placed? Links located in the main content of the site are usually weighted more than those in the page footer or near other paid links.
  
  
• What type of traffic will the page send your site? – Look for sites with readers who might actually click through to your site rather than just focusing on getting a link back to your site.

A link from a high-quality, relevant site is far more valuable to you than submitting your site to thousands of directory sites or shady sites that will link to anyone.

Step 5 – Measuring Results

Finally, once you’ve implemented your campaign, you must measure and tweak the results.

Where does your site rank for your priority keywords? Are you getting more qualified traffic from those rankings? Are you getting good links from reputable and relevant sites? Are you getting the conversions you want? And specifically, are you getting a good return on your investment?

By following these five steps, you should start to see results from your small business SEO campaign within 30-90 days of implementation, depending on how competitive your keywords are. As you monitor your results and make the necessary changes, you’ll soon find your website ranks well – and converts visitors into subscribers, leads and sales.

The post 5 Steps to Creating Your Small Business SEO Campaign appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

The basic principles of good search engine optimization have remained unchanged for years. Find relevant keywords that bring in targeted, profitable traffic. Optimize your website content for those keywords. Add lead capture forms and buy now buttons throughout your website to convert visitors into leads and sales. Build back links to increase your website’s authority.

It seems simple and straight forward. Yet many search engine optimization myths just won’t die. Here are a few.

1. The Goal is a #1 Google Rank – A top rank in Google can have no effect on your bottom line if you aren’t targeting the right keywords (those keywords aren’t relevant to your website’s content or no one is searching for those terms) or if your website isn’t set up to convert visitors into leads and sales. The goal of an SEO campaign should be to deliver highly targeted visitors who want/need your product or service – and are ready to take action.
   
   
2. SEO Involves Secret Techniques or Manipulation – SEO isn’t rocket science, nor is it a secret practice that only experts are privy to. Good SEO doesn’t involve shady “black hat” tactics that go against Google’s best practices or taking advantage of loopholes in how search engines rank sites. There’s no magic bullet other than writing great content optimized for relevant keywords and getting people to link to that content.
   
   
3. An SEO Company Can Guarantee Top 5 Rankings – You’ve probably received unsolicited emails claiming they can get you a top 10 ranking on Google “guaranteed.” Unfortunately, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is – especially in this case. Google even states that no one can guarantee top search engine rankings.
   
   
4. You Should Use The Same Keyword For Every Page – A common belief is that if you want to rank for a specific keyword (like “blue widgets”), every page on your website should use that keyword. A better SEO strategy is to rank your website for your most profitable and highly traffic keyword. Then, use secondary keywords and longer tail search terms for internal pages. So your homepage might be optimized for “blue widgets” but your internal pages would be optimized for “affordable blue widgets,” “unique blue widgets,” “buy blue widgets in New York,” “blue widget ideas,” or “popular blue widgets.” Use the Google keyword tool to find related keywords.
   
   
5. SEO Is a One-Time Event – SEO for profitable keywords can be very competitive. New websites join the game every day. Older, established websites start publishing content about that keyword. Search engines tweak their algorithms regularly to change their ranking factors. Once you achieve a top ranking, it is never safe or permanent. Don’t stop your marketing efforts once you achieve your goal.
   
   
6. SEO Is The Cheapest Way To Market Your Site – This depends on how competitive the keywords you choose are. If you are trying to rank for a keyword with hundreds of thousands of competing sites, SEO can be very time consuming. If you are paying someone hourly or by project, it could end up costing you quite a bit to write content, build back links and monitor your performance.
   
   
7. You Can Rank Any Keyword Within A Few Months – If you are a big company with a big online marketing budget and a team of quality writers and link builders, then yes, you probably can unless you are going for the extremely difficult keywords like “credit cards” or “travel.” For the average solopreneur or small business owner, stick with easier to rank keywords that still get good traffic. Finding easy-to-rank keywords through your initial keyword research efforts is the most important factor in determining how long it will take to rank your website.
   
   
8. Meta Tags Are The Key To SEO Success – Back in the late 1990s, before Google, all you had to do was stick a few keywords in your meta tags and you could rank well. Once spammers discovered this technique, search engines dropped it as a major ranking factor. Meta tags do not affect rankings. They are useful, however, because search engines display your “meta description” tag under your page title in search results. Your meta description then acts as a mini ad for your website that should your attract visitor’s attention and motivate them to click onto your page.
   
   
9. You Have To Submit Your Site To Search Engines – This was true 10-15 years ago. Search engines did have submission forms where you could tag your website with keyword information and submit it. Now, this is useless. Search engines find new sites through links, not submission forms, so if you want your site to be found, build back links. It is also good practice to submit a sitemap (a list of all pages on your website) to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools.
   
   
10. Higher Keyword Density Means Higher Search Rankings – Your keyword density is the percentage of how many times you used the keyword you want to be ranked for compared with the total number of words on your page. If your percentage is too high, search engines consider your website to be spammy because you are “keyword stuffing.” It’s useful to use keywords intelligently, but write for readers first.

SEO can be a great way to send high-quality, targeted traffic to your website, but getting web traffic isn’t enough. If you aren’t also focused on converting that traffic to leads and sales, you are wasting a lot of time and money for minimal results. A solid SEO strategy will help you get the most return on investment (ROI) for your SEO efforts.

The post 7 Common Search Engine Optimization Myths That Won’t Die appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

While many factors of search engine optimization change with the times, one constant that will probably always factor in how search engines rank sites is the number of links pointing back to your website. Building high-quality back links should be a key priority for your search engine optimization strategy.

What is Link Popularity?

Link popularity is how search engines calculate the quantity and quality of links to a website. Quantity is simply how many websites link back to your site. Quality is how relevant the website linking to your site is to your subject matter.

It’s not enough just to get a large number of links from various websites. To have the most effect on your search ranking, the best links are from websites in a related industry. For instance, a marketing blogger might link to another marketing blogger or a bankruptcy law firm might link to a credit counseling company. The idea is that the website topics are related somehow. If a lawyer links to a dog grooming site, it won’t carry as much weight because the topics are seemingly unrelated.

When you build links to your site, aim for quality. This needs to be stressed in the modern area of Google’s ongoing Penguin updates that target spammy backlinks.

5 Ways to Build Links Back To Your Site

Getting other people to link to you can be challenging. Link building often is time-consuming and you only see gradual results. Years ago, it was much easier to build links because search engines weren’t as strict about which websites linked to others. Now, search engines have cracked down on spam sites whose sole purpose is to link to other spam sites. Here are a few ways to generate links to your website.

1. Guest blogging – Build relationships with prominent bloggers in your industry by leaving useful blog comments or interacting with them on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+. As you build rapport, ask if you can submit a guest post to their blog for a back link. For the best links, pick websites that have great content that you’d be happy to be affiliated with and submit one of your unique, high-quality articles.
   
   
2. Directory links – These used to work pretty well, but Google has now been cracking down on web directory links. If you go this route, stick to the highest quality directories like Yahoo Directory ($299/year) and Best of the Web ($299.95). Also, focused, industry-specific directories can also be worth considering. However, for the most part, most directories (and the fees they charge) are not worth it.
   
   
3. Produce content – If you regularly publish articles, free reports, podcasts or video, you have a much greater chance of getting people to link back to that content.
   
   
4. Send testimonials – If you have used a product or service, sometimes you can submit your testimonial and the site owner will give you a link back to your website.
   
   
5. Conduct interviews – Interview key players in your niche. Often, the interviewee will link to you, as well as some of his or her readers.
   
   
6. Press releases – Many online press release services give you the option to link back to your website. Google has discounted many of the spammier services but you can still go the paid route with PRWeb.com or sites like it. Choose quality over quantity here.
   
   

Though it takes work, if you spend a few minutes each day getting quality back links to your website, your results will pay off long-term.

The post How to Increase Your Link Popularity For Higher Search Rankings appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Creating descriptive internal links is crucial to creating a user-friendly, search engine optimized website. Your internal linking structure helps search engines determine which pages on your site are most important, based on how many links to each page you include. It also helps visitors determine whether they should click your links to learn more. Here are five tips for developing a website internal linking strategy.

1. Start with keyword research – What keywords are you targeting? Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to brainstorm keyword ideas. Write your webpages with keywords in mind. If your keyword isn’t found on your page, chances are, it won’t show up in Google’s search results. Then, whenever you link to that page, use your keyword in your link text.
   
   
2. Be consistent – Make your links consistent. Your links should clearly stand out from your web content. Use the same color and format for all links in the main content of your page. It is also good practice to make sure your regular text does not look like a link. For instance, don’t underline it or use the same font or color so it looks like a link when it isn’t.
   
   
3. Don’t use misleading text – Make sure your link text matches the contents of the webpage you are linking to. For instance, if you include a link to “Learn more about our marketing services,” the title of the linked page should use the words “Our Marketing Services” to confirm readers are in the right place. This also helps search engines confirm your page is really about what the link text said it was.
   
   
4. Use meaningful link descriptions – Tell people what relevant information they will find when they click your link. Use keywords or descriptions of page contents rather than generic “click here” text. Download your free marketing plan guide is better than Click here to download.
   
   
5. Designate file types – If you offer files for download, clearly state what type of document (MP3, PDF, Word, PPT) your visitor will be downloading and how large it is. Often, downloaded files require another application to view the content. Let visitors know what program is required and where to download the program to view the files, if possible.

Effective websites are optimized for visitors first and then search engines. Make sure your readers can understand your internal links. Most elements that make up user-friendly internal links (meaningful link descriptions and keywords) are also important to search engines.

The post How To Create User-Friendly Internal Links appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.