No. 1 SEO Tactic: Content Creation

In a recap of MarketingSherpa 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition, Adam Sutton gives a quick analysis of the most effective SEO tactics according to a survey of SEO marketers. Here are the top 5 very effective / somewhat effective tactics for achieving objectives:

1. Content Creation- -- 50% / 42%
2. Keyword Search -- 43% / 44%
3. Title Tags --  42% / 47%
4. SEO Landing Page -- 39% / 47%
5. External Link Building -- 35% / 50%

Blogging can be a stream of compelling content that engages customers, and yet only 31% of SEO marketers said it was very effective -- and only 60% use it. Surprising.

Here's one reason: They don't know what to say in twice weekly posts -- the minimum to keep readers engaged. One tip from a successful blogger: Answer people's questions. No. Matter. What.

When you commit to blogging twice a week, you'll amass at least 52 posts in just 6 months. That's 52 keyword-rich pieces of content with descriptive titles -- the top three SEO tactics in one campaign. Sweet!

SEO for Title Tags

SEO Logic's free guide, Search Engine Optimization 101, presents SEO basics on one page. For answers to your lingering questions, go to the SEO FAQ. That's where I found some tips on how to optimize title tags.

TItle tags do some heavy lifting to raise the rank of your website in search results. The title tells search engines what your website is about, which affects where the site appears in search results. (Other factors also feed the complex search algorithms.)

The website title is displayed in search results, so it's the first thing searchers see when they skim the results and decide what to click on. If they clickthrough, the title is displayed at the top of the browser. This is also the name of the bookmark (unless the user changes it).

Finally, people who index sites read the titles to quickly decide if a site is worth listing and linking. (Yes, real people do that -- at the Montague Institute, for example.)

You can optimize title tags so they do their jobs better by following a few rules of thumb:

• Type titles in Upper/Lower Case (like a book title).
• Give every page in the website a unique title.
• Make titles clear, not clever.
• Describe what's on each page using keywords.
• On the home page, name the organization and purpose.
• Do all this within a 66-character limit.

Google displays just the first 66 characters of a title, then cuts the rest. Yahoo's limit is 120 characters. Each web browser also has its limit -- e.g., 95 for Explorer.

Don't underestimate the power of proper keywords. Research keywords your customers are most likely to use and, when it makes sense, include these words in titles, meta tags and content.

And avoid keyword stuffing! This black hat SEO practice not only degrades the user experience, it often results in a site being booted from the search engine.

HubSpot's Website Grader

My CC-T Unlimited website scored better than 69% of the 3.5+ milling websited ranked to date, according to HubSpot's Website Grade. Now, this sounds a little unlikely to me, but according to the SEO tool, my site does a few things right.

On the upside, it has a blog. On the downside, few people read it (you do -- thanks!). And, none of my recent posts have been reTweeted.

Another plus: 54 pages have been indexed and stored by search engines. But, apprently you need at least a high school education to read them.

Also, there is metadata -- the tags that tell search engines what the site is about -- but there are no heading or image summaries, or description tags on each page.

Finally, 18 other sites link to my site. But the sum total of their authority or popularity ranks just 3.7 out of 10.

There's more. But, frankly, it's a little overwhelming. I have work to do. 

And this is why I am skeptical about that ranking. To see how your site stacks up, just go to websitegrader.com and plug in your URL. It's free.

10 SEO Tips from Local Pro

SEO Expert Bruce Cadle itemized the top 10 search engine optimization mistakes he sees at FPRA's Treasure Coast Media Conference. Cadle works with the full-service web design company, PD-go! Web Solutions of Stuart, Florida, to optimize sites so they naturally rise to the top of search results.

Here are his tips for getting the most visibility in Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines:

1. Use keywords first in page titles, as well as company location for local searches.
2. Write a unique page title for every page in the site using relevant keywords.
3. Find out what keywords people search on with Google AdWords and other tools.
4. Create internal links connecting keyword phrases on one page to another page in the site.
5. Get high-ranking sites to link to your site -- such as directories or membership lists.
6. Register with local search engines such as Google Places, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Manta.
7. Make every website unique for franchises, chapters, distributors, etc.
8. Update pages often so web crawlers have a reason to visit.
9. Put contact info on every page, including company, address and city.
10. User footers for contact info as well as keywords.

Learning SEO from the Experts

HubSpot's free e-book, Learning SEO from the Experts, is a step-by-step guide to identifying keywords, using keywords in context, building links and constantly tweaking your site so the search engines find you. It's a good how-to intro or refresher course--stuff we should be doing daily.

Thanks to Debbie Weil for the heads up. Her favorite tips:

• Ditch industry lingo and think like a customer when you choose keywords
• Identify geographic identifiers to capture local markets
• Narrow targeted prospects with specific keyword phrases
• Attract inbound links with great blog content

I favor the tips for on-page optimization "the new way" by SEO Book Author Aaron Wall, who says:

"Rather than repeating the same word over and over again, you should use a diverse set of related keywords to help you rank for a variety of long tail keywords."

This overthrows the old-school practice of repetitive copywriting, which drives me crazy.

Define: Social Media Optimization

Andy Wibbels posted a succinct definition in his post, "What is Social Media Optimization?"

"Social media optimization is a set of practices to ensure that your content is easily shareable across all social networks and services, and ultimately by your target market."

He adds that social media keep your business in touch with prospects, clients and colleagues: "Email newsletters have expanded to blogs and RSS feeds and email alerts and instant messaging alerts and Twitter tweets and Facebook notes ... ."

After briefly trying Twitter then trashing my account, I now see the potential value in flying with the flock on this one. Thanks, Andy!

Questions searchers ask

Use WordTracker's Keyword Question tool to discover what questions people type into search engines to turn up your keywords and phrases. This helps you target long tail keywords -- the  "3 and 4-keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you are selling."

Google's SEO Guide

Brushing up on SEO, I found Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide to be a handy reminder about best practices. It's gratifying to see Google reinforce my own SEO philosophy right up front:

"[Y]ou should base your optimization decisions first and foremost on what's best for the visitors of your site. They're the main consumers of your content and are using search engines to find your work. Focusing too hard on specific tweaks to gain ranking in the organic results of search engines may not deliver the desired results. Search engine optimization is about putting your site's best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines."

The Google guide gives detailed examples and explains how these SEO steps help improve visibility:

• Create a unique, descriptive title tag for every web page. The title tag appears in the first line of the search results.
• Summarize page content in the description meta tag, which may be used as the snippet that appears under the page title.
• Structure URLs to include relevant keywords that visitor- and crawler-friendly.
• Provide a clear navigation hierarchy, using text (not graphics) for navigation links to guide visitors through the site. 
• Include a site map and breadcrumbs for a quick, visual orientation to the site structure.
• Create compelling, useful and relevant content that visitors are looking for, find exclusively on your site, and will refer to in the future.
• Write descriptive anchor text for links to other pages, not "click here," to inform visitors about what's next and guide crawlers to deep pages.
• Use heading tags to create a visual hierarchy on the page -- headline, subhead, sub-subhead -- which takes visitors from the most to least important content.
• Name images with descriptive captions as alt text, which can be read by crawlers and visitors who browse text-only.
• Use robots.txt to steer crawlers away from searchable pages. E.g., a NOINDEX tag prevents a page from appearing in search results; a NOFOLLOW tag  prevents crawlers from going from your page to an untrusted page (i.e., referenced in a blog comment).

Google's guide concludes with tips for promoting your site and includes webmaster resources such as a website optimizer to fine-tune pages for higher conversion rates -- guiding visitors to the desired action.

Google Keyword Tool

Just got an update on SEO from James May of ManageMyAdvertising.com, and he pointed me to Google's enhanced keyword tool. Use it to get ideas for new keywords based on existing site content, or on the keywords you are already targeting.

Two keywords: Active voice

Users scan Web content in an F-pattern and often read only the first 2 words of a paragraph, according to Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox. With this factoid, Nielsen justifies writing in the passive vs. active voice.

The passive voice may let you front-load headlines, blurbs and lead sentences with keywords, but is it ultimately more engaging? I think not. Nielsen himself say:

"Writing style impacts website profitability."

I'd rather sacrifice scanability and SEO to write more compelling copy. Opt for the best style: Use the active voice.