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The
Guerrilla Consultant –
a newsletter dedicated to applying the principles
of Guerrilla Marketing to the work and lives of
consultants.
Get
the Attention You Want
The topic of search engine optimization (SEO)
shifted into high gear last month when Google
dropped its ranking for BMW Germany’s Web
site to zero because the company used questionable
SEO practices.
According
to Forbes,
the company's effort to rise to the top of Google’s
rankings “…has apparently thrown BMW
into reverse.” BMW executives quickly made
amends for attempting to dodge Google’s
quality guidelines.
BMW’s
recent woes and the hype surrounding SEO led me
to ask Jill Whalen of High Rankings® what
consultants should know about SEO. I thought Jill’s
advice was so good that it made sense to leave
it in her own words, so this month’s article
is an interview.
Enjoy the interview, and let
me know what you think.
Mike
McLaughlin
Co-Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more
about SEO, Jill Whalen will be in the San Francisco
area March 30-31, when she’ll be delivering
her High
Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminar.
Register by March 15 for the early discount. Our
subscribers can get an additional 25% discount—use
the code name GUERRILLA.
What Consultants Should Know about Search Engine Optimization
McLaughlin:
Let’s start with the basics: what exactly
is SEO and why is it important?
Whalen:
SEO is a bit of a misnomer as we don't actually
optimize search engines. Rather, we optimize
Web sites to show up better in the search
engines.
My
definition of SEO is that it helps sites to be
the best they can be for the search engines such
as Google and Yahoo, and for the sites’
visitors. Some others in the SEO biz haven't been
as concerned with site visitors, but thankfully
that's been changing over the past few years.
After all, site visitors are the ones that buy
stuff from you, not the search engines.
McLaughlin:
What’s the first step to begin the SEO process
for a consultant’s Web site?
|
“Without keyword research and optimizing
for the most relevant, searched upon phrases,
everything else you might try to do with SEO
will be a wasted effort.” |
Whalen:
The first thing to do is figure out the
keyword phrases people might use to seek out your
services. You might think you know what these
are, but there's quite an art and science to it.
We are lucky to have keyword research tools such
as Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery these days,
which can help us determine the keyword phrases
that people are typing into the search engines.
Without
keyword research and optimizing for the most relevant,
searched upon phrases, everything else you might
try to do with SEO will be a wasted effort.
McLaughlin:
There is a lot of hype out there by those selling
SEO products and services. Is it essential to
have expert help to get your Web site noticed?
How do you decide which expert to choose?
Whalen:
Anyone can do SEO. After all, when you hire someone,
they're just doing specific things to your Web
site, so there's no reason you couldn't do those
specific things just as they would.
It's
important to realize, however, that you may face
a steep learning curve. If you have more time
than money, you can find enough free information
online to learn how to eventually have your site
show up in the engines for your relevant keyword
phrases. But many people in business don't have
that sort of time. For them, it's probably going
to be more cost-effective and beneficial to hire
someone who already knows the ropes.
Prices
are all over the board. If you hire a true expert
who's been in the SEO business for many years,
it could cost tens of thousands of dollars or
even more. But, you can generally expect good
results assuming the expert really is an expert.
You can hire someone who is a bit newer to the
business, and that person might charge a lot less
but do a good job.
Of
course, you need to check out references for anyone
you hire. Make sure that the expert optimizes
for phrases that people are actually using at
the search engines, and that the expert’s
clients are actually seeing improved traffic and
sales, not just search engine rankings that don't
do anything.
Unfortunately,
the SEO field is full of slick sales people who
talk a good game, yet there are very few SEO companies
that can actually deliver results to provide you
with a positive return on your investment.
McLaughlin: You’ve said that we
shouldn’t focus on “rankings”
by the search engines. What should we pay the
most attention to instead?
Whalen:
As I touched upon already, the bottom line for
most Web sites is improved traffic and sales.
Increasing the number of conversions that your
site creates is really what it’s all about.
A
conversion doesn’t necessarily have to be
a sale. It can be a simple request for more information,
a newsletter sign-up, or even a phone call. A
successful SEO campaign should increase all of
those things.
With
the Web analytic tools now on the market, you
can measure most of your conversions fairly easily.
You should be able to see exactly which keyword
phrases people use to find you, and which ones
produce the most conversions and, ultimately,
sales.
McLaughlin:
In terms of getting noticed by search engines,
does it help to have a blog? What about a newsletter?
Whalen:
Blogs have no special powers to get you
high rankings. What they do have (if done correctly)
is fresh, unique content. Search engines do tend
to like that, regardless of the format. If they
know any given site is adding new articles on
a frequent basis, they will come around often
to index it.
Blogs
are certainly one way of easily adding new information
to your site. Newsletters archived on your site
can provide a similar benefit, as can archived
press releases, or a popular forum.
But
none of those things should be done just
because you think it will help your search engine
visibility. There are all sorts of great business
reasons for doing blogs and newsletters that are
much better justifications than just SEO. Any
residual effect that you may get from the search
engines because you have a popular newsletter
or blog is just a nice bonus.
McLaughlin:
If you were building a Web site from scratch,
what would you do to optimize the site for the
search engines?
Whalen:
As I mentioned before, everything hinges on your
keyword research. Once you've chosen the most
relevant and specific keyword phrases (not just
a few, but hundreds), you'll need to plan out
your site architecture, and decide how you can
create your site to provide the relevant information
that search engine users are seeking.
You’ll
want to be sure to use your keyword phrases within
the copy that your site visitors will be reading.
In other words, as you're speaking to visitors
on your site, you'll want to be sure that you're
using the same terminology that they understand
and use themselves. So when you write about your
services, try to do it using the phrases you've
previously researched. This alone should help
your site to start to show up in the engines over
time.
You'll
also want to be sure that the Title tags in your
HTML code use your keyword phrases. And you must
get the word out about your site so that it can
start to gain some popularity within the Internet
as a whole. This is a long-term process that won't
yield results right away (due to that popularity
factor).
McLaughlin:
What is the biggest mistake people make with regard
to SEO?
Whalen:
They think it has something to do with
Meta tags and submitting to search engines. It
doesn’t have anything to do with either
of those.
McLaughlin:
What do you think is the wave of the future for
SEO?
Whalen:
Eventually more designers will team up with SEO
experts so that they can keep SEO in mind during
the planning stage of a site, rather than as an
afterthought. This alone would save business owners
tons of money, as they wouldn’t have to
redesign their sites once they realized they were
not attracting enough traffic or making any sales.
Some
people think that organic SEO (as opposed to paid
search, such as pay-per-click) will eventually
die out. But as long as the engines continue to
show relevant results that are not simply bought
and paid for, there will always be a need to make
your Web site the best it can be to attract the
right visitors for your business.
`````````````````````````````
Jill
Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally
recognized search
engine optimization consultant and host of
the weekly High Rankings® Advisor search
engine marketing newsletter. Jill's handbook,
The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the
Search Engines teaches business
owners how and where to place relevant keyword
phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense
to users and gain high rankings in the major search
engines.
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