Is traditional SEO worth it anymore?

I'm currently in the process of reading a book about Google Adwords entitled "Winning Results with Google Adwords" by Andrew Goodman. One of the things that came up in the start of the book was whether SEO, the traditional one site method, is worth the investment.

Is SEO worth the money?
Now I'd be inclined to say yes, but I'm going to hesitate there. SEO has become such a large industry that it would be hard to give a sweeping answer either way. When speaking of SEO there are the traditional on site methods such as keyword optimization, copy optimization, title tags, etc. Then there are the off site factors like link building and social media generation.

As the book notes, some if not all of the practices of traditional SEO could really fall under good usability. These are things that you would want to do regardless of whether the search engines existed or not. Having a good title tag that describes your page is just smart no matter what effect it has, and the same goes for page content and calls to action.

So what part of SEO is worth the money?
There definitely is value in "SEO" which should probably be referred to as SEM or search engine marketing, or website marketing to be more precise. Building good quality content and distributing it to note worthy blogs is a great resource for driving traffic to your website and hopefully boosting sales. The same can be said for twittering or having a facebook page. These are all resources that without some know-how can be a little overwhelming to tackle.

Then what is the answer, is SEO worth it?
I think we need to stop thinking of SEO as "being #1 on the search engines". We need to start looking at SEO as a form of marketing, just as it was meant to be. Sure going through the site is a good idea to make sure it's up to par, but if you are paying a company a monthly budget to "maintain your SEO" you are wasting your money (that is unless they are maintaining your PPC campaign, doing link building, twittering, etc). But if all they are doing is generating a report that shows you where you are ranking and "tweaking" your site accordingly, please stop the contract you are getting very little if anything in return.

Your monthly payments should be going towards services that you can track and monitor and can see what type of ROI your are getting. Link building for example can be directly tracked and monitored with a variety of tools. Your SEO/SEM expert can show you what they've done and how that has impacted your traffic and hopefully sales.

Remember: You get what you pay for, and if you are paying for "maintenance" you might want to figure out what is being maintained.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
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Local SEO - Targeting Your Neighborhood

Many companies think that SEO is only for the large corporations that have offices and customers nation and world wide. This however, is not the case. SEO is for every company and/or website, it's just a matter of how you go about optimizing your site.

Home Grown SEO
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website for local phrases. So if you have a website that deals with plumbing for your local area and some of the surrounding areas, local SEO is perfect for you. You aren't going to travel to California for a plumbing job (unless the client was picking up all the costs!), so you want to target people in your area.'

The best and most effective way to target local searchers would be to use your town, city, state names throughout the site. So instead of just saying Plumbing Services, you might change that to Reno Plumbing Services, or perhaps, Reno Nevada Plumbing Services.

Don't forget the phone number and zip code
Another way to get people to your site based on local searches is to be sure you have your phone number listed on your site in text. Many times people who are looking for local businesses online will search with the area code as a prefix or suffix to the search (ie: plumbing services + 203). This goes for zip codes as well.

Just think about the different ways in which you signify a local business and chances are you will have another way to optimize your website for local searches.

Remember: When writing copy for your website, or building out the template be sure you have your local phrases worked in, without being annoying about it!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Is Cuil really cool?

Cuil, the new search engine that has set its radar on Google, is ready to play, but is it really ready to compete? After many months/years of development and some very experienced engineers and owners at the helm, will Cuil really be able to take on the king of the web, Google?

A slow trot out of the gate:
Unfortunately, on the day of the official launch Cuil was anything but raring to go. Because of the overwhelming media response and thus increased traffic, the servers started to buckle under the strain. Searches were taking forever if happening at all, and people were becoming very annoyed at the newbie. After some time, and increased capacity they servers were back up and running and searches started to work a bit more smoothly.

Will they withstand the test of Google?
Although not really the Google killer some had hoped for, I think that Cuil can make it's mark in some small way. They haven't revolutionized search like Google did back in the 90's but they have changed things up a bit. For example, the layout of the search results page is much different. Rather then the phonebook style listing of Google, Yahoo! and MSN, Cuil took the approach of a "magazines style layout". Interestingly this changes the whole ranking focus from being in the top 3 to something a bit more obscure. It's not clear as to whether they are considering the top 3 across or the top 3 down as the "top".

How were the searches?
This area is where they seem to be lacking the quality of data. They say they have more indexed pages then Google, but their algorithm seems to be a little skewed. Searches for local keywords bring up some rather random results and alternate suggestions. Perhaps it was just another early glitch that will be worked out, but hopefully they work it out soon.

Recommend, or stay away?
It certainly is not something that we will be jumping over to in full force with here at Ignite, but we will be keeping an eye on them. They may not be the Google killers, but they may produce some interesting attraction down the road.

Remember: sometimes even a little change can make you think of things in a whole new light.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

White Hat vs Black Hat and what about the Grey?

There are thousands of methods that search engine optimization and internet marketing specialists will use to help get a site ranked well. Anything from content building, link building and keyword stuffing, to viral marketing, guest blogging, and various others. So which methods are better then others, and which ones are considered black hat and white hat?

White Hat Methods:
I like to think of these methods as the methods that would be used if you didn't have to worry about the search engines. What I mean is that if you asked yourself "If I didn't have to worry at all about ranking, would I do what I'm about to try?", would you still do it? If the answer is no then it clearly is not White Hat.

Content building, link building (for the most part), code structuring, etc, are all mostly White Hat techniques. They can take longer to have an effect, but over the long run your site will be better off for trying these methods.

Black Hat Methods:
Pretty much the opposite of White Hat, Black Hat is anything you can do to get your site ranked well regardless of whether it is ethical or legal in the eyes of the search engines. Spamming blog and or forum posts with links back to your site, stuffing keywords in every possible place, cloaking your domain, etc.

Black Hat techniques can give you good results in the short term, but over time can prove to hurt your site overall. There have been instances of sites being delisted in the search engines for using such techniques, which obviously is the exact opposite effect that was intended.

The Grey Area:
As with anything in life, there is always a grey area. This area is where White meets Black and the line is blurred as to how ethical an action is. For example, buying links for inbound linking campaigns is often frowned upon by the search engines, but what if the link is for a reputable association but they just so happen to charge for them? It's hard to say what to do in cases like this. The link itself is probably very valuable but there is a chance the search engines will not look so kindly on it. My suggestion would be to ask yourself "Will the link benefit a user who clicks on it?". If the answer is yes then proceed, if the answer is maybe or no, I would tend to say don't even consider it.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race:
Although it may seem like an old, over used cliche, it is indeed true. Long terms internet marketing takes time, and over time your hard work and effort will pay off and those people who have employed Black Hat techniques will have to continually look over their shoulder to see if their site is still listed.

Remember: It's not about quantity, it's about quality.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

International Marketing Tips

The smaller the world gets, the easier it has become to do business overseas. Marketing your product overseas however, is not as easy as it may seem. Here are a few basic tips to help you when considering your venture into the international market.

Not everyone speaks English!
That's right, believe it or not, not everyone in the world speaks English. Although your product is made in the USA and you currently market it using the English language, you will have to seriously consider having everything translated. How frustrated would you be if you saw an add for a product/service you were interested in only to get to their website and see that it is in a language you don't understand?

Translations aren't always created equal
Just as in the English language, not all words translate clearly. Another thing to remember is that there are many different dialects for some languages, such as Spanish. You want to be sure to have someone who is native to that region either translate or proof read the translations so you can be sure you are not offending anyone.

Meaning is everything
Always be sure to see what your slogan means when translated. Most of us remember the story about the car company that had a slogan that translated into "doesn't run" (or something like that). You certainly don't want to be marketing your product only to realize that people are interpreting it as a negative thing.

Take the trip, see the people
There is no replacement for a first hand experience. Actually taking the time to visit the places that you are going to be marketing in and speaking with the local people can give you great insight. What you may once have thought about a particular destination based on what someone told you may not be true at all.

Remember: Do your homework, and you'll find it will pay off later.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Can I redesign my site without losing my rankings?

It's a common question among people who so badly want a newer looking website, but don't want to lose the great search engine visibility that they are seeing. How much is too much, and if it drops will it ever come back?

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that anyone can make you as to whether your rankings will go up, down, or remain the same. However if things are done correctly you can certainly minimize the risk of them going down.

Keep File Names the Same:
You need to make sure that you keep the file names the same where possible. So for example if you have a page for products and the file name is products.htm you want to be sure that you keep this file name. If for some reason you can not keep the file name products.htm, then you want to be sure you can use 301 redirects before you start changing the names. 301 redirects are a search engine friendly way of telling the robots that the page that used to be called products.htm is now called cleaning-products.htm.

Keep Title Tags the Same:
Just like the file names you want to be sure that you keep the title tags of your current pages intact. The slightest change could make the spiders give your page a different "score" for their listings. Of course it could turn out to be a good thing if your visibility and rankings increase, however you may not want to take that risk.

Keep the Content to Same:
Whenever possible you want to try and keep the main content on each page the same or increased. For example if you have a page for widgets and it has 3 paragraphs of information about your widgets you want to try and keep that info intact. Reducing it or removing it will make the search engines look at that page again and decide if it is as relevant as it was before.

Always have a Sitemap:
A sitemap is important because it is a page with links to all the pages on your website. When the search engines crawl your site and find this page they can easily see all the pages that are available for them to crawl. There is no hard evidence that this helps your search engine visibility but it certainly can't hurt.

These are just a few tips to help improve your chances of redesigning your website without haring your search engine visibility.

Remember: Change can be a good thing, but there is such thing as too much change.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Should we hire an Inhouse SEO/M or Outsource?

Choosing whether or not to go with an in-house or outsourced SEO/M can be somewhat agonizing for many companies. There are many things to consider when going with either option, and each has its own set of pros and cons. And believe it or not, just because we offer these services here at Ignite Media, we don’t always believer outsourcing is the right choice.

In-House SEO/M
The biggest thing to consider when thinking about bringing your internet marketing in-house is not how much it will cost, but rather how many people you will need. The immediate thought might be that only one person is needed, and in some cases that might be correct. However, for larger companies you may need an internet marketing team. Not every SEO/M is good at all phases of the marketing.

The challenge with finding the right person(s) is knowing enough to know whether they will be effective for your company. This can be tough because most likely the reason you need an SEO/M is because you don’t know enough about this subject.

Outsourcing SEO/M
This should also should to be completely decided on price. You need to make sure that the company you are going to use will really give your company the best possible change to gain more traffic to your website. As we all know, more traffic means more chance for conversions.

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between each SEO/M company, but the biggest sign will be if you go to them and say you want this to happen they come back to you and say ok but you really should be doing this or that. You don’t want a company that is just going to do what you tell them you want, after all they are supposed to be the experts here right? You wouldn't go to your accountant and tell them how they would best do their job on your account would you?

How do we decide?
Unfortunately there is no easy answer, but if you do your homework and you carefully consider your options you should be ok. Don’t be afraid to get on some SEO forums and ask them if the have heard of the companies you are considering or what questions you might want to ask a possible in-house candidate.

Remember: Don’t be afraid to change companies or employees if they aren't taking you in the right direction.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Which meta tags do I use and which should I not?

There is a constant debate over which meta tags the search engines use when considering listing a certain page in their results pages. So how do you know who you should listen to and who you should ignore? Well that is not so easy, because no-one except the engineers working for the search engines know what they are looking for or not.

So what do I do with my meta tags?
Our suggestion is to use what you feel is necessary to define that page. The reason that meta tags became such a problem was because people were "stuffing" them with "keywords". What this means is if you were selling red cars your meta tags would only say red cars, red cars, red cars, etc. Although for a while this worked, it is now considered SPAM to "stuff" meta tags and/or page content.

A meta tag should be used for the purpose they were created. For example the eta description tags are just that; a description of what that page is about in 2-3 sentences. This is not a place to pitch your product or service and not a place to use your keywords as every other word. Should you use keywords at all in there? Yes, whenever it makes sense to do so you should use your keywords/phrases, but make sure it makes sense to the people who will be reading it (yes people do read the things you write on your website, it's not all just the search engines).

What happens if I use a meta tag that the search engines don't use?
As long as you aren't spamming or stuffing your meta tags then there should never be a problem. If they don't use that tag, then you just did a little extra work. Better yet, you may have done something before you had to! What I mean by that is the search engines are constantly changing what they look at to list a website, and there may come a time when that meta tag they aren't using now will actually be used. So you've just covered your bases.

Remember: Create for your visitors not for the search engines!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

SEO or SEM - What to do?

There are two terms that people sometimes get confused, SEO and SEM. SEO is search engine optimization and SEM is search engine marketing. From someone outside of the field they may seem identical, and in some respects they are. They are both focused on getting and converting website visitors into customers.

So what is the difference and which is better?
The answer to that is not nearly as simple. It really isn't a matter of doing one over other, but rather one before the other. SEO as noted above is search engine optimization. This is the process of taking a website and making it as optimized for the search engines as possible. For example this would include creating keyword rich and powerful title tags, enhancing and/or cleaning up the code of a website, and many other things. This is extremely important to ensure that the search engines will be able to quickly and easily index your website for the appropriate phrases.

Recently there has been a lot of debate over whether or not SEO is an ongoing process or a one time thing. At Ignite we feel that for the most part this is a one time thing. We optimize your site for the phrases we are targeting and let the search engine spiders have at it. If the company changes it's focus, or things change with the search engines then more optimization may be needed. Usability and traffic analysis are often clumped in with SEO, but these are really subsets of SEM and website development in our eyes.

SEM on the other hand, is search engine marketing. This is the process of marketing your website to the internet and trying to drive as much targeted traffic as possible. This includes but is not limited to inbound link building, social media marketing, email blast creation and more. For the most part this can be thought of as any means by which you use to drive more and better traffic to your website.

So which comes first, SEO or SEM?
SEO would ideally come first. You have to make sure that your website is optimized for what you are going to be marketing it for. For example if you are selling bicycle and bicycle parts and your page about seats had a poorly phrases title tag and the code was a mess you certainly would not want to be sending the search engines there. Along with SEO you want to make sure to perform some usability tests as well. After these two things have been done then you can start with your SEM campaigns. This approach will ensure that the traffic you are sending the the site will have the best possible chance of converting.

Remember, you aren't just sending the search engines to your site, you are sending people and people will be the ones to decide if you are successful or not.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization