The Maine SEO Blog

There are two major parts to SEO: on-page optimization (your copy, title, headers, descriptions, etc.) and incoming links.  Google measures incoming links with PageRank - essentially an algorithm that assigns a value to a web page from 0-10 most importantly noting how many incoming links that page has (0 being very few links and 10 being very many links).  PageRank is a contributing factor to Google’s overall ranking algorithm - however, the weight to which PageRank is held, no one knows.

What we do know is that incoming links are important.  So for a site that is new or maybe just doesn’t have many incoming links, how do you get more?!  Well, there are many things you can do…

First and foremost, identify which site(s) you want a link from.  It should go without saying that it/they should be related to your site or article - that way, you have related viewers who are interested in the topic(s).

After identifying links you want to pursue, contact the blogger or webmaster somehow.  Truth be told, it’s probably easier to engage a blogger rather than a webmaster; reason being you can comment on blogposts in a much more casual setting.  Just a few things to keep in mind when commenting:

• Get to know the blogger.
• Bring something to the table.  Don’t leave a quick “This was really intriguing” with a link to your site/blog.  (By the way, you get no link juice that way - links in comments are almost always nofollow-ed).
• Start a conversation.  Make the blogger think about what you have to say and possibly respond (that’s what your site’s link is for!)
• Don’t sell yourself…too much.  Sure, include a link back to your site in case they want to visit.  But leaving a comment that is 100% a marketing ploy reads as spam.

After leaving a few (intelligent) comments, contact the blogger directly and ask for a link.  Then, the same rules apply as directly contacting a webmaster.  When contacting a webmaster or blogger directly, then an email or a phone call (maybe both!) is in order.  There are many examples of link building letters out there.  Many of the rules of thumb are the same as leaving blogpost comments, with a few additions:

• If the person blogs or writes articles, and depending on the industry you’re in, you could suggest a review of your site/service/product.
• Spell check.  This is perhaps the easiest rule to overlook.  It’s easy to hit the wrong key, but be sure to read through your email before sending.  What looks more spammy than misspellings?
• Add a little something special, if you can.  If you’re a hotel and contacting a hotel critic, send along a coupon for a stay at your hotel.  If you’re an author looking for a book review, send a copy of your book.  Just like many things in life, you’re more apt to get what you want if you stand apart from the crowd.

Last but not least, return the favor.  Again, always be willing to offer a link in return.  As they say, sometimes it is better to give than to recieve.  Simply by giving links, you’re more likely to recieve them!

Nicki Hicks
Link Builder

A few years ago a book came out called Moneyball. It was about how Billy Beane, GM of a small market team, the Oakland A’s, competed and beat teams with a much bigger payroll, like the evil Yankees and the beloved Red Sox.

The idea was that baseball teams had been measuring the wrong things when looking at players: batting average and pitching speed for example. Instead, he looked deeper into the data and found that on-base percentage (which would include walks, hit-by-pitches, etc.) and pitchers who got ground outs were much more valuable, and completely ignored by other teams. In this manner he built a successful team at a fraction of the cost of the Yanks or Sox.

Did it work? Well, some of those big market teams took his advice (why did he share that info anyway?) and the Sox have won two world series since. Now on-base percentage is viewed as an essential metric for hitters, and shown on NESN for every at-bat.

It feels like the same sort of transition is going on now in the SEO world. The leaders in the industry seem to feel that we’ve been measuring the wrong things.

• Last week I read an article by Stephan Spencer called The Latest SEO Trends and Metrics which argues we’re measuring the wrong metrics.
• Just now I read 5 Reasons Why Rankings Are a Poor Measure of Success by Jill Whalen, who claims she hasn’t checked clients’ rankings in years. This is an excellent article that clearly explains why rankings are more subjective than you’d like to believe.
• A few weeks back Google blocked Web Position Gold, a tool used by SEO professionals (including flyte) to measure if and where their clients appear in the first three pages of Google.
• When Nicki in our office manually attempted to check a client’s visibility last week Google banned her after a dozen checks! In fact, the ban affected other computers in our office as well. (Not her fault; I think I asked her to do it. Shame on me.)

For years I’ve argued that search engine rankings don’t matter, Web sites don’t matter, and even conversions don’t matter. The only thing that matters is you sell enough widgets, book enough rooms, or mobilize enough people to your cause. Of course, conversions, attractive Web sites and good search engine rankings all lead to those successes.

So, do search engine rankings matter? Yes, I believe they do. Good search engine visibility will continue to help businesses and organization bring in new traffic. However, measuring is getting tougher as personalized search and localized search continue to evolve and affect search engine results on a person-by-person level.

Perhaps we should be less worried about our search engine rankings, and more about whether those results are driving qualified leads to our sites.

Earlier this morning I made a few searches to determine where some of our clients rank for the keywords we optimized their sites for. Needless to say, this became necessary due to a recent tiff between Google and WebPostion Gold. So there I was, minding my own business, scanning through the first few Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), when I made my final search (I’d made only 12 altogether). That’s when this little beauty of an error message showed up:

Without having to read it, Google basically told me they thought I was spam and they’d like me to verify that I am, in fact, human. I typed in the code, and again, I get a Google message of love:

I’m sorry too. I’m sorry because I’m not spyware, spam, or some nuisance of a spider. I just like to make a lot of searches…is that so wrong?!??!

Neither here nor there. I think Google was making a point. High rankings are great, yes, and speaking strictly short term, they are the major goal of SEO. However, do you get paid for ranking #1? I wish, but alas, not the case.

The long term goal of good SEO is qualified traffic being driven to your site, resulting in whatever transaction you want your customer to make (be it a text book retail purchase, newsletter sign up, or software download). That, my friend, is a conversion. When conversion rates increase, that is when you know your search marketing strategy is working.

The issue, however, is that this is not a perfect world. Like nearly every other form of marketing or advertising, when your company participates in multiple strategies at once (SEO being one of them), it’s nearly impossible to tell which tactic is making (or unfortunately costing) you money.

Let’s think positively though - with a good SEO strategy, your rankings should increase. With higher rankings (all the while optimizing for the right keywords), you should see more qualified traffic. More qualified traffic should undoubtedly yield higher conversion rates. And then the wonderful cycle of search marketing begins all over again!

So…lesson of the day? Don’t pay so much attention to where you rank as to whether or not you’re making a higher profit!

Nicki Hicks
Anti-Spam

Google has put its algorithms to good use and given a great gift to SEOs everywhere: introducing Google Insights! The great part is that you don’t necessarily need to be an SEO to appreciate this, so let’s see all the fun things it can do, shall we?

I performed a search for “SEO” under the default location setting of “worldwide” and time range “2004 - present,” and added the “Internet” category. This is the map of where those searches come from globally:

You can see both with the colors on the map as well as the numbers to the left how easy it is to see where the majority of searchers are coming from.  Then I changed my query to view a graph that shows the growth of the search term “SEO” as it is relative to the “Internet” category over the past four years (this graph still shows the global results):

SEO is going up..Up…UP!! (As is the “Internet”!)  You can also compare a given search term over a given period of time with Insights. The following graph shows how the search volume for “SEO” has increased between 2004 and 2007 (this time we’re looking specifically at the United States):

It seems there are tons of possibilities with this new program. In a nutshell, you can cross reference any of the following with one another: search term, location, time range, and category - essentially making it possible to look through search history (since 2004, that is) pretty easily.

Nicki Hicks
“Insightful” SEO

Lists are a handy dandy thing to have, don’t ya think? They captivate us: the Top 10 Signs Your Airline is Cutting Costs or the Top 10 Things Overheard in Line to See the New Batman Movie.  They are inviting and an easy way to access information. Want to know what else is easy? Doing basic SEO on your own site.

Before you get too excited, I’m not advocating that you never get a professional web design firm to do SEO for you (*cough cough*), but there are a few things you can do to increase your visibility all on your own.

1. Write naturally for both search engines and humans. You want to include enough keywords for the search engines so they know you are optimizing for those words, but not so many that they see you as spam…or worse: your users find your content spammy.
   You may have read that there is a certain number of words a page of copy should be: 250 seems to be the magic number. You’re more than welcome to stick with that number, but in my mind, why not write until you get your point across? If you only need 150-200 words to say what you need to say, it would be silly to continue writing and (most likely) keyword stuffing. Likewise, if you naturally write 400 words of copy, there’s really no reason to condense that. Many of your users won’t scroll, but then again, many of them will!
2. Use keyword rich titles. If you don’t know which one is the title, look to the top of your web browser on the same line as your minimize/maximize/close buttons. Then, look to the right if you use a Mac, to the left if you use a PC. There’s your title!!
   While you’re on a site, it’s not something most people notice. However, when you’re searching it’s the very same title that pops up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This is important - think in your own searches how those titles can make or break your choice to click. Would you click on a link if the title is simply “Home Page”? My guess is no.
   Your titles should be keyword rich and different for every page on your site. The last discrepancy amongst SEOs about titles: length. Some say 10 words should be all you have (you’ll notice Google cuts off the title at 65 characters). This simply means you should put all of your important words near the beginning of your title, and it shouldn’t be much longer than those 65 characters/10 words (you wouldn’t want your title expanding off the title bar!)
3. Create descriptive meta-descriptions. Just under the title in SERPs, you’ll see a description. If your site has a meta-description in its code, the search engine will pull that and insert it for the user to see (otherwise the user won’t see it unless you View the Source). If you don’t have a meta-description, search engines will simply pull a piece of your content to show the user. This may be all well and good, but you have absolutely no power as to which piece Google or any other SE uses! So WHY NOT put in a description you actually want your users to see?!
   For meta-descriptions, 165 characters is the limit when Google cuts them off. Again, it’s unnecessary to conform to under this amount. However, it’s always a good idea to insert a marketing message at the end of your description (phone number or address - essentially a call-to-action). In doing so, you’ll want it where users can see it: right on the SERP.

By optimizing your site in just these three ways, you’ll increase your search engine visibility in no time. That isn’t to say that it couldn’t be better still - there are many ways to optimize a site above and beyond these major ones (many having to do with simple usability). But for today, get started on these pieces, it could make all the difference!

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO