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.

Password-protected content

Speaking of spiders, websites with password-protected content don't fare well in organic searches unless they offer a sampling of content for spiders to crawl.

SEO expert Erik Dafforn suggests using abstracts of articles and reports as a teaser for the search engines. If the protected content is a money maker, he says abstracts can be the 5 percent of your content that sells the remaining 95 percent. Dafforn writes in his ClickZ column:

"Distilling a 3,000-word report down to a 200-word summary can be tedious when you have thousands of reports to offer, but when those 200 words thoroughly explain why you need the other 2,800 and won't find them anywhere else, chances are your page (when equipped with proper titling and meta description elements) will contain the essentials for pulling in the proper audience. Add these elements to an effective call to action, and sales will increase without giving away your intellectual property."

Interesting to note that the problem does not affect publishers, who can subscribe to Google's "First Click Free" program. This allows the news archives to be indexed and returns one article for free before activating a subscription screen. Wonder why other organizations can't do this.

SEO is dead. Long live SEO

ClickZ Editor Rebecca Lieb's report on Search Engine Strategies Toronto posits that two revolutions in search engine technology are changing they way marketers do their jobs.

In May, Google rolled out universal search results, which adds results from news, maps, blogs, local, books, shopping and video to Web search results. How to get to the top of that list is confounding even the most experienced SEO professionals.

At the same time, search engines are getting more adept at finding what searchers want. Conferees agreed that the "holy grail" is to get a single search result to a query. But for that one result to be a perfect match, the engines need to know a lot more about their users. Enter privacy concerns.

Lieb observes:

"Strange, isn't it, that the two themes obsessing search insiders these days are so diametrically opposed? On the one hand, universal, multimedia, multi-vertical search results. On the other, a solitary, perfect result."

Marketers who want their content to top the Google search results list will have to learn more than ever about their customers and how they use the  Web. 

Get high on Google

SEO expert Rosemary Brisco, president of to the web, says you have just 7 seconds to get the attention of visitors to your site, provided they can find you.

Brisco invited SF IABC Roundtable participants to use her search engine simulator to see their sites the way search engines see them -- then get to work optimizing each page so they're more likely to be found.

Critical SEO strategies she recommends include writing unique title tags for each page with the keywords your customers use to describe what you do. You can use up to 60-90 characters, but the first 7 words are crucial.

Quick tip: To check title tags, enter "site:your URL.com" in the Google search box, and see how the results are displayed. If what you see doesn't describe what you do, get busy rewriting!

totheweb.com offers several other free SEO tools, including a keyword suggestion tool, link popularity tool and search engine saturation tool (to see how many of your pages have been indexed).

Thanks, Rosemary, for a great presentation! And thank you, Molly Walker of Walker Communications (and president of SF IABC), for  facilitating the session in my absence, then sending me your notes.

SEO best practices

Here's a checklist of 20 SEO best practices, from ClickZ Search Engine Marketing Expert P.J. Fusco:

1. Target keywords relevant to site content.
2. Use popular phrases from search engine queries.
3. Start page titles with keywords.
4. Use H1 header tags for headlines.
5. Write keyword-rich body copy.
6. Include keywords in linked text.
7. Render graphic navigation as accessible text.
8. Use keywords in image alt tags.
9. Provide a site map with text links.
10. Present data-base driven page URLs as text.
11. Make site architecture flat and wide, not deep.
12. Solicit in-bound links to achieve PageRanks.
13. List your site in Open Directory.
14. List your site in industry-specific directories.
15. Write keyword-rich meta tags for every page.
16. Name site directory files and folders with keywords.
17. Develop a custom error-message page.
18. Don't try to fool the spiders by cloaking content.
19. Don't use pop-up windows.
20. Don't exchange links with unknown/untrusted sites.

Remember the rule of thumb: If your website is accessible, it can be indexed by the search engines.

White paper SEO

Search engines will be better able to find your white paper (or eBook) if you take these steps to optimize the content:

• Write with keyword phrases in mind, using various phrases as appropriate.
• Write a summary page that recaps the problem-solution using targeted keywords.
• Publish the white paper in PDF file format, which search engines can index.
• Publish the summary page in HTML format, with links to the PDF file download.
• Link to the summary page from relevant pages in your website.
• Launch a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign for targeted keywords.

Thanks to WhitePaperSource for these tips from Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr.

Search Engine Land

Search engine marketing pioneer Danny Sullivan has left the publication he founded (and later sold) to start fresh with Search Engine Land. Get his news feeds to stay on top of the trends.

Improve local search

Local search engines get information about local businesses from primary data source directories, not just web crawlers. To optimize your results for local search, SmartSearch Marketing Founder Patricia Hurst recommends taking these four steps: 

• Update your directory listings. For quick links to major directories, download the Search Engine Relationship Chart.
• Submit your site to local search engines. I'd focus on Google Maps and Yahoo! Local.
• Update your Internet Yellow Pages listings. ATT's YellowPages.com is a safe place to start. (IYPs also get info from the primary data providers in the chart.)
• Publish your address on your site. Put it on the home page, in a sitewide footer and on the contact page.

That last tip seems obvious, but the point is to have the address show up on any page that gets indexed. These basic steps will at least get your business listed, and ensure the listing is correct. Work on higher rankings later!

PPC advertising advice

Anvil Media's Kent Lewis shares his insights into successful pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. To optimize the core campaign elements, take these tips:

• Structure PPC campaigns to take advantage of seasonal and regional buying habits.
• Use 4-6 word keyword phrases to achieve more focused results at less cost.
• Insert keywords in ad copy to improve conversion rates (called dynamic keyword insertion, DKI, in Google AdWords).
• Carry the ad theme through to the landing page, where the ad offer is fulfilled.
• Manage campaign strategies manually instead of relying of automated bid software
• Test each campaign component, tweak to optimize, then test another.

Anvil has some great search engine marketing resources, including a glossary, FAQs and free white paper.

SEO fundamentals

MarketPosition presents an excellent overview of SEO fundamentals in the July issue. With links to definitions and resources for more in-depth study, it's a great kick-start for newcomers and brush-up for those of us who have been doing SEO for a while. It covers topics I've talked about here, including:

• keyword research
• website optimization
• website design
• blackhat tricks to avoid
• link popularity
• performance monitoring

I've been tinkering with my site for a while now, and I can attest to the fact that SEO helps qualified prospects find you.