The Maine SEO Blog

Earlier this week, flyte relaunched a new site for Acadia Center for English Immersion – courses for learning English as a second language. After a redesign, SEO, Web marketing, and finally relaunch…I must say, it’s a beautiful website.

As far as the SEO portion was concerned, I had my first experience with internationally optimizing. It soon became clear that folks who want to learn English as a foreign language aren’t altogether familiar with Maine. How bizarre.

What did we do? We quickly found out that international searchers look for things like “english courses USA” or “learn english united states”. At the same time, it was important to not forget local search, as some students do come from the New England area.

So, if you’re in need of English lessons – be it to master English as a second language or simply to remaster it as a first language – look no further than Acadia Center for English Immersion! Check out Acadia Center on Twitter and Facebook too. And if you need help optimizing on an international level, look no further than flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

There’s been a lot of talk of late about PageRank sculpting as it relates to nofollow tags. Why? Because the way PageRank works changed just over a year ago and now they’re telling us.

PageRank has always flowed like this to pages from links that are not nofollowed (affectionately known as dofollow).

When you add a nofollow tag to a link, you stop PageRank from flowing. This result remains unchanged; but now, you’re not adding any benefit to the other (dofollow) links on the page. They still pass the same percentage of PageRank, as if all the links were dofollow:

What does this mean? Nofollow isn’t as strong as it once was. You can’t use it to PageRank sculpt.

Should you stop nofollowing? No, I don’t think so. To those pages like your Search page, Contact page, and perhaps Privacy Policy, I think nofollows are still a great idea. They are pages where you wouldn’t necessarily need PageRank to flow.

There’s a lesson to learn here. If you don’t trust a website enough (or just don’t want to pass the PageRank) to dofollow a link, you probably shouldn’t be linking in the first place.

The right way to PageRank sculpt? An intuitive site architecture – for both searchers and search engines.

Nicki Hicks
Sculpting is an art

I realized how lately I’ve been writing a lot about topics that, while related to SEO, aren’t necessarily discussing what I would call more traditional optimizing techniques. The reason? It’s not just about SEO anymore.

Yes, you should optimize your site. But going are the days where that is enough. Not only is SEO an ongoing process, but so are other types of web marketing outlets – and those are exactly the places you need to invest your time in order to even hope to succeed in the search engines.

Video

Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s all about YouTube. Sure there are a ton of other video outlets, but YouTube is the best out there. With its easy-to-use interface, it also provides easy-to-embed options (AKA no code knowledge necessary).

Better yet, views from your site or blog add to the total views on YouTube. Why does that matter? The more views a video has, the higher it will rank in Google’s search – and with universal search, that’s just one more way to rank. Not to mention, it’s an easy way to optimize for smart phones.

Photos and Images

Can you say alt tags? Search engines can read, but they can’t see very well. So we have to help them out a little. But when you do it right, and create great keyword rich descriptions for them, images are another way to rank in the search engines.

Social Media

Pretty shortly, if you’re not using any sort of social media outlet for your business, you’re going to be behind the game. Not only is social media a great way to share links and increase buzz, but it also humanizes your business and can almost be used as a PR medium. Plus, while it would really only affect searches for your company name, your social media profiles typically rank extremely well.

Here are some of my quick guides to where you should be, why you should be there, and what to do once you’re there:

• Facebook: Why it’s for your business
• LinkedIn: How to leverage your account
• Twitter
  - A guide to get started
  - What you should tweet about for business

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is great way to make things go hot. While there’s no SEO power to sites like Digg, Sphinn, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc., the traffic you get from just being “sphunn”, “stumbled”, “dugg”, or the like is entirely worth it.

Nicki Hicks
How are you working toward better online visibility?

Dear Confused,

Although you can perform SEO at any point before or after the launch of a Web site, I can think of three good reasons why it’s better to start with SEO:

1. It’s less expensive. A good keyword analysis (an important part of a healthy breakfast an SEO package) will drive your content and your copy; if you do it after the site is built, you’re in effect doing the work twice.
2. It’s market research. A keyword analysis may uncover some opportunities that you hadn’t thought of yet; new topics to cover, even new services to offer.
3. It will help focus your social media strategy. You can take your optimal keywords and start working them into your tweets, your Facebook fan page, your YouTube videos and your LinkedIn profile…all things you can be working on while your Web designer builds out your new site.

There is some parts of SEO that can’t be performed until after the site is launched, specifically a link building campaign. Obviously, other sites, blogs and directories won’t want to link to a coming soon page; they’ll be looking for something of value if they’re going to be linking to you.

Rich Brooks
SEO for Small Businesses

In a matter of days, I will be able to changes my Facebook URL from www.facebook.com/people/Nicki-Hicks/172700110 to quite possibly www.facebook.com/nickihicks (Update: I snagged www.facebook.com/nickihicks) or even www.facebook.com/nicki if I get really lucky! My company will be able to change its URL from www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-ME/flyte-new-media/26696935640 to www.facebook.com/flytenewmedia.

So…what’s the big deal?

The biggest bonus: sharing your URL with friends and family. Up until now, a random number code has been a difficult and not-so-easy-way to remember profiles. With vanity URLs, Facebook simply says “people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you”; the official blog also says:

We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.

Facebook, you tease us.

No, seriously. What’s the big deal? (Nerd Version)

I think it brings up a long-lived argument about the importance of keywords in URLs.

When clients ask if they should get a keyword rich domain, I always say yes. If you already have one, however, it isn’t worth porting and redirecting your current site over. However, if you’re picking a new one, then why not make it keyword rich?

As far as the URL goes, same story. If you’ve got a page with an old, not very keyword rich URL, stick with it. It’s probably built up enough equity that there’s really no reason to change it. But, if you’re working on a new page, make sure that one would make the keyword gods sing! What’s more, if you use a great CMS, your URLS are auto-generated and therefore auto-awesome.

The thing is…as a searcher, seeing a keyword rich URL (notice I did not say keyword stuffed) gives me a little more confidence in clicking than one full of random characters (!@#$%^&*).

For search engines, SEOs still go back and forth whether keyword rich domains do better than non-keyword rich domains. As far as I’m concerned, whatever difference there may be, it isn’t a significant one. So pick one if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t.

Bringing things full circle (or back to Facebook, at least)

Securing vanity URLs may not do more than be cool and help your family avoid carpal tunnel by typing less keystrokes, but then again…it will most definitely help search visibility for your name – or even better – your company’s. The clock is ticking, you’d better grab your username.

Nicki Hicks
And here, I thought we were friends!

For every local client we have, we always submit and verify them to the major local search engines – including Google Local Business Center (essentially Google Maps). Recently, Google added a great addition to the works – the Local Business Dashboard! Here’s Google’s official story on it.

Some say the addition was simply for those with limited web presence, although if sites are even showing up in local search results, I’d say they’re doing something right. Regardless of the reason behind it, these statistics will be helpful for any local business: from those with a huge search presence to those with none. Furthermore, even with Google Analytics, this information is awesomely powerful; not to mention, you wouldn’t be able to figure it out any other way.

Your business info

If you already have an account, you know that there is a ton of information you can include in your local listings –  from what you do, to payment taken, to business hours, to tags, to photos, to video. What’s more, the dashboard acts as many social profiles do, with a % complete meter – to further persuade you to continue filling out information.

Activity & Totals

Activity is set up very similar to Google Analytics – impressions indicating how many times (in the past month – or whatever timeframe you select) your listing has shown up as a result. What I find even more impressive is the fact they drill down into actions: those people who click for more info on the Map, for driving directions, and those who click the link to your website.

Top Search Queries

Here’s where you can verify that you’re being found for the correct keywords. The only problem I can see: you don’t see the locations searchers used. In other words, for flyte, all of these keywords look great. But we don’t know if they were looking for website design in Portland, Maine or Kennebunk, Maine. My guess would be the former; but for a lot of our clients who are in lesser-known towns in the middle of Maine, that information is vital.

Where driving directions requests come from

Again, priceless statistics: who’s thinking of coming to your location? Are you investing in those opportunities enough? This information may be a little less important for a company like ours than, say, an Inn or hotel who finds they get a ton of driving directions requests from the Boston area. That might convince them to advertise a little more in Massachusetts.

Coupons are another addition to the dashboard. You can further enhance your local listing by adding coupons for customers who find you via Google Maps.

Nicki Hicks
What are you waiting for? Go submit your local biz!

I don’t expect clients to entirely understand search engine optimization when they come to us – or really even know what it is at all. And in all honesty, that’s fine, because that’s why I have a job. (Thanks for that.) 

But, after reading this perhaps you’ll know a lot more and be that much the wiser when you talk to your Search Marketer.

1. How bad is it to use white on white and write in a bunch of keywords?

Umm really bad. Probably as bad as you can get actually. In the olden days (probably all of 10 – 12 years ago), you could possibly get away with stuffing keywords. Today? Not so much.

2. I know SEO is important, so I’m going to do it this once and get it done with It’s a one-step process, right?

Sorry, no such luck. We’ll talk about it a little more later, but with search moving toward other venues like social media, local reviews, RSS, blogging, and other modern forms of web marketing, there’s no way you can do it once and be done. SEO requires constant massaging and experimentation.

3. What are these meta-keywords I keep hearing about? Can you make me a huge list of them?

Well I could. But it probably wouldn’t do a whole lot.

The thing with meta-keywords is 1) only Yahoo uses them and 2) if you use too many, they’ll hurt you. So, what do I suggest? Using a small group of focused keywords for each page if you’re intent on using them. And remember – even though Yahoo uses them, they don’t have much weight at all.

4. I just don’t have time for social media. Plus, I can get away without doing it.

Again, it’s really not an option any more. Soon, folks who haven’t hopped on the social media bandwagon are going to be struggling to catch up with the rest of the crowd.

So…create a LinkedIn account, get yourself on Facebook, and – if you’re feeling really socially frisky - join Twitter!

5. I’ve heard about this nofollow thing. Do I need to do that to all of my outgoing links?

Nofollowing links is sometimes a good strategy. But that doesn’t mean you should do it to every single outgoing link. 

Nor is it PageRank sculpting. To demonstrate that point, I like this short, sweet description by @Halfdeck.

(more…)

I just watched the MarketingProfs’ webinar with George Seybold, head of Seybold Scientific, put on a great presentation on PPC basics. Here are some of my notes from the presentation:

Advertising Basics

• Traditional Advertising – TV, radio, print; impression based
• Banner Advertising – online equivalent of traditional advertising; impression based
• Pay-per-click – performance based

…and they all work together…

• Traditional – awareness, informative, branding, sales lead
• Banner Ads – awareness, informative, branding, sales lead
• Pay-per-click (PPC) – awareness, informative, branding, sales lead, closest point of sale
• The way they flow:
  Awareness & Branding –> Research –> Promotion & Point of Sale

Example: Car Buying

1. Awareness: TV, radio, search
2. Consideration: website, brochures
3. Point of Sale: PPC, website

Great quote from George: You have to be present to be selected.

Rules of Thumb

• PPC is not necessarily good for…
  - building awareness
  - branding
• PPC is good for…
  - incentive
• Banners are great for…
  - branding

Why do we search?

• Answer questions
• Find information
• Validation
• Entertainment
• Find products/services

How PPC providers differ

• Cost – Google is approximately 50% more expensive than other search engines
• Relevance – Google gets 63% of total traffic
• Demographics – Ask heavily targets women
• Shopping – New market entrant Bing is focused on Ecommerce
• Psychographic – Yahoo targets the financial/news-focused

Yahoo

• Lower cost per click (CPC)
• Financial/news target
• Attempt to drive searchers to the search engine
• Yahoo Mail solution is very popular
• 2nd largest search provider

Google

• Greatest search
• De-facto search standard
• Most advanced/relevant results
• More advertiser competition, more searchers to balance
• Largest content network (Adsense)

Ask

• Female demographic
• NO right hand column advertising
• Sponsored links are (almost) indistinguishable from organic results
• Lower CPC
• Less overall search result

Bing

• New! (as of about a week ago)
• Targeted for Ecommerce
• Freshly positioned as the “new type” of search engine
• Hybrid of Google, Yahoo, and Ask
• Decision-based search results

Ad Creation Basics

• Keyword selection
  - Use descriptive words (cd player vs. cd)
  - Think like your customer (cd album vs. compact disk)
  - Balance of search volume to competition (mp3 cds vs. best cd)
  - Longer tail search term is closer to the sale (red nike tennis shoes vs. tennis shoes) 
  - Recognize terms used across other industries (CD – compact disk vs. CD – Certificate of Deposit) 
• Can I pay for the first position in Google? No…quality score. 
• Quality Score – Google’s algorithm for PPC, based on: 
   1. relevance of keyword
  2. performance of ad click through rate (CTR) 
• Ad Copy
  - Needs an incentive, call-to-action
  -  Use geo-targeting (region, zip code, country, language, etc.)
• Measurement/Goals: Google Analytics
  Focus on:
  - New visitors (should be upwards of 75%)
  - # Pages/visit
  - Bounce rate (should be less than 50%) 

Some PPC Jargon

• Keywords – what your consumers are searching for
• Impressions – number of times ad is presented
• Cost-per-click (CPC) – money you pay for a click
• Click-thru-rate (CTR) – ration of impressions/clicks
• Conversion – reaching a desired goal

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEM 

I recently watched the Searchology Webinar about all of the new Google products – some of which have already been released - and others, like Squared, are just now live.

Let’s get right into it, shall we?

First off – what is Squared good for? Well, topics you’d normally have to do multiple searches for. Essentially, Squared creates a spreadsheet of like information and compares similar results for your query.

For example, I did a Squared search for “large dogs”, as I’ve been looking for one of late.

You’ll see there is no Labrador Retriever – the breed I decided on – included in this Square. So what can I do? Click down at the bottom of the first column to add an item, type in my addition and bada-bing-bada-boom, there we go:

Likewise: the cocker spaniel? Not a large dog. Simply hit the X and that row is gone!

You can also add and remove columns. I don’t care as much about the country of origin, but I’d really like to know more about the dogs’ coat lengths or dispositions. I simply add those columns!

How about changing values? The Collie’s weight is listed in kg, and I’d like to compare all of the weights in lbs. Simply mouse over the square, and choose “other values” and find what you’re looking for!

There are still kinks to work out – where some searches don’t work out well. But, for the most part, Squared helps reduce the number of searches you need to make in a given category.

Nicki Hicks
Save time and square it