The Maine SEO Blog

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

It’s not specifically for AdWords users, and it gives you probably the most accurate data for Google keyword queries and competition, as well as related keywords and phrases.

Yahoo Site Explorer

To date, Yahoo’s Site Explorer gives the most accurate picture of what websites are linking to yours.

Since Yahoo will soon begin incorporating Bing’s search results, Yahoo Site Explorer may not exist for much longer; so here are two other sources that work just as well (and arguably even better):

More recently, I’ve discovered another great site for tracking incoming links: Majestic SEO. Without logging in, you can check one website’s backlinks. By subscribing (for free), you can compare up to five different domains against one another.

This week, SEOmoz launched their brand new Open Site Explorer, what could be the eventual replacement to Yahoo Site Explorer. Those with PRO membership will have unlimited access, and for the next 24 hours, SEOmoz is offering a free trial for everyone!

Google Analytics

I talk about Analytics relentlessly, but the thing is…you’re not going to get a better Analytics system for free. And you need Analytics, so the choice is logical.

There are thousands of tools out there – from tools for checking PageRank, to checking cache dates, to checking keyword density. They’re all great. Like I said, these are just the three you can’t live without.

Nicki Hicks
Hey – these tools are all search engine-owned!

Last month, flyte relaunched a website for Levey & Wagley: a Maine law office specializing in Elder Law.

Like an Ecommerce website would optimize for products, we optimized for speciality services for Levey & Wagley. And while their speciality lies in elder law, Levey & Wagley also practice in:

• Estate Planning & Probate
• Special Needs Trusts
• Divorce & Family Law
• Real Estate
• Mediation & Alternative Dispute Resolution

Since WordPress was originally a blogging platform, Levey & Wagley (already a content-rich organization) has set out to the blogosphere. You’ll find a ton of great information about elder law, probate, and even tips for helping out your elderly parents!

So if you need an elder law, probate, divorce, or real estate attorney, be sure to give Levey & Wagley a call. If you need a blog or would like to easily update your website, give flyte a call.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

Are your customers having trouble finding you online? Are you struggling to rank for terms on Google you want to be ranking for?

Here’s your chance to turn things around!

Win a free SEO consult from flyte, equal to $500 of consulting time; including research, advice, and consulting on how to optimize your web site (and web strategy) for search engines.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Sign up to be entered now!

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

• It’s more than just content published online

• “You’ve got to fish where fish are”

SEO for Google caffeine

• Content
• Static AND real-time
• Leverage media placements, social media relations
• Google wants your site to load fast

10 SEO Tips for PR

1. SEO Tactics: Only do one thing

• How to fix a problem? It depends on the situation…
• Issue 1: Need better search rankings
  Problem: Similar title tags throughout large ecommerce site
  Answer: Create dynamically programmed title tags for products
• Magic answer: make sure your site is crawlable
• If content can be searched, it can be optimized

2. PR Tactics that Affect SEO

• 9 PR Tactics that affect SEO
  - press releases
  - letters to the editor
  - online newsrooms
  - media kits
  - corporate blogs
  - white papers
  - webinars/demos
  - newsletters
  - real world interviews published digitally
• Digital Asset Optimization
  News Content:
  - Announcements
  - Press releases
  - Images
  - Videos
  - Blog/RSS
  - Media coverage
  - Social news/bookmark
• Micromedia Optimization
  - Be there
  -  PR Tactics that Affect SEO:

3. How to get the best keywords?

• Finding keywords
  - Brainstorm phrases (competitors, customers, employees, etc.)
  - Import to keyword research tool
  - Find popularity & variations
  - Create a keyword glossary
• Keyword Research Tools
  - Google Keyword Tool
  - Google Insights & Trends
  - SEMRush.com
  - Google Trends
  - Keyword Discovery
  - WordTracker
• Structure a keyword glossary
  - Categories
  - Primary phrases
  - Derivatives
  - Permutations
  - Popularity
  - Relevance
  - Competitiveness

4. Basics of on-page SEO

Include your keywords in…

• Title tags
• Keyword placement
• On-page titles
• Navigation links
• Body copy
• Keyword text links
• Image alt text
• URLs

5. Get more from News Releases

• Research keywords
• Optimize content
• Call to Action
• Landing pages
• Post to newsroom
• Pitch to media
• RSS
• Wire service
• Measure success

7 Press Release SEO Tips:

• High and to the left
• Optimize for people first, search engines second
• Use keywords in title, subheading, body
• Don’t obsess over keyword density
• In a 500-word release, use target keywords 2-4 times
• Use keywords in links to company website
• Add media: images, podcast, video, pdf/word docs

Meta data:

• Title tag: 8-12 words, focus on 1-2 keyword phrases
• Meta description: 10-25 word elaboration of the title tag; motivate viewer to click through

6. Newsroom Optimization Tactics

• Blog software: WordPress, TypePad, Blogger
• Share/save bookmarks
• Keyword categories
• Chronological archives
• Site search
• Subscribe RSS Feed
• Optimized for keywords
• SEO: Press releases, media coverage, events
• Cross link to related pages on main website

Newsroom SEO Checklist

• Keyword research
• Title tags (dynamic and hard coded)
• Keywords in categories
• Keywords in document titles, directory names, file names
• Social links: make it easy to bookmark and share
• Optimized RSS feed facilitates syndication
• Optimize digital assets: images, video, and audio
• Optimize other file formats: MS Office docs & PDF

7. Link Building Tactics

Links “electrify” content in search

• Earn links with content
• Promote socially
• Link up with partners
• Cross link internally
• Embed links in releases
• Social bookmark pickup
• Use keywords in link text
• Link up with partners

8. SEO and social media promotion

SEO & Social: Yin and Yang

Great visual of how they work together:

9. Measuring the Value of News SEO

Measuring value

• News wire service metrics
• Web analytics for landing pages
• Google/yahoo alerts
• Monitor blog search engines
• Press release lnading page conversion tracking
• Social media monitoring
• Search engines rankings

Showing the value of news SEO:

• Social search visibility vs. competitor
• News search ranking vs. competitor

10. SEO Dont’s

• Use keywords more important to you than those searching
• Overuse keywords (stuffing)
• Over-rely on “tricks” to gain advantage
• Over-rely on KPI measurements like ranking
• Forget to link using anchor text
• Rely on text alone – use media
• Forget to be really, really nice to IT dept/web developers

Takeaways

• SEO is keyword/content and links
• Set goals
• Get trained/educated
• Test!
• Get help, short or long term

Nicki Hicks
Pseudo live blogger

Last month, flyte relaunched a website for Albin, Randall, & Bennett – a Certified Public Accountants firm right here in Portland, Maine.

The CPA firm took advantage of both a complete redesign as well as SEO. In order to enhance their search visibility as much as possible, Albin, Randall & Bennett (or ARB) decided to create specific service pages for their main areas of expertise, including:

• Automotive
• Construction
• Credit Union & Financial Institution
• Employee Benefit Plan
• Manufacturing
• Not-for-Profit

Like many websites that incorporate tools, ARB uses iFrames on certain pages of the website (like for their Financial Tools page). Search engines cannot usually read iFrames, but there are certain ways of making them work. Coupled with the same design elements as the website, iFrames can actually live quite harmoniously within a host.

With tax season nearly upon us, you might need a CPA in the area; and if you’re looking for a brand new design or SEO you might need flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

1. Structure your campaigns in the same way as your website – or your landing pages. In other words, you have your parent pages (campaigns), category pages (ad groups), and landing pages (individual ads). That way, like ads and ad groups live together.

2. Go specific, not broad – hence multiple campaigns/ad groups/ads. You want to address a specific need with each ad and, starting out, you might need to have a wide variety to see what works for you.

3. I like to start by seeing what other people are doing. Search for your keyword and see what the other ads are saying – will yours be able to compete? (Then once you’re done, go back again and double check the ad can still compete.)

4. Start with your keyword analysis and after bidding on your keywords, reiterate them in your ad. (Double check bid amounts on your keywords with Google’s Keyword Tool.)

5. Hit pain points…many, many pain points.

6. Include a call-to-action or incentive as appropriate. Is it “Buy now!” “Free shipping!” “20% for a limited time”. Think about what would make your audience not only click, but convert.

7. Direct your ad to a killer landing page that gives the searcher exactly what they were expecting (and more!).

8. Give other ads in the same ad group the same feel with a different spin; remember they’re all targeting the same keywords. Use percent served to mold and change the ads depending on what you find.

What did I miss? What other tips can you offer?

Nicki Hicks
8 Quick Tips

Flyte recently finished an SEO project for KimsCrafts, a company that makes gorgeous handmade slate signs right here in Maine.

With an intuitive site structure in place and a developer who’s willing to try anything (don’t you just love those?), we got our hands dirty optimizing the pages at the deepest product levels.

Copy is often where Ecommerce websites fall short – putting product images and big, beautiful “buy now” buttons far ahead of content on the old list of priorities. So adding bits of unique content to each product page has been where a lot of the KimsCrafts team has been spending its time.

Instead of a typical “breadcrumb” navigation so many Ecommerce sites favor, “Find more like this” was preferred for KimsCrafts’ product line; much like Amazon’s “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” widget. (See my favorite slate, the Black Lab Welcome Sign, as an example.)

A few more tweaks, and the newly optimized site was ready for the holiday rush. Don’t worry, though, it’s not to late to grab a unique, personalized gift for a loved one!

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

Since there was too much to say from last time, I’m continuing thoughts on drawing Analytics conclusions today.

Bounce Rate

Crap. Bounce rate went up.

• Did it increase drastically? For the most part, bounce rates don’t change more than a few percent unless something major happened. Did you get a powerful link that brought in ton of traffic? (In which case, maybe the call-to-action on that page wasn’t strong enough.)
• Does your website have a blog, or is it a blog? Blogs tend to have excruciatingly high bounce rates, since individual blogposts answer a question and once the question is answered, the visitor will move on. The key for a blog: is your high bounce rate coupled with a high new visits rate and/or a low subscription number? If visitors never return (your new visits rate is high), then you need to work to bring it down. Likewise with subscription rates – what can you do to make people subscribe? Sometimes it’s as simple as making a call-to-action to subscribe a little more “in your face”.

Yes! Bounce rate went down!

• Like pageviews, a decrease in bounce rate can sometimes be a negative thing. Is it difficult for people to find what they want so they have to visit multiple pages?
• Did you start displaying your phone number prominently? We’ve become a web-based world, but that doesn’t mean people don’t pick up the phone anymore. Many companies actually prefer to be contacted by phone, by burying any web-based means of contact and displaying phone number in the forefront. In this case, the call-to-action is to call so a low bounce rate (hopefully) means they took that action. By creating a means of measurement for this (by using a service for it), you’ll be able to successfully track this assumption.

A note on bounce rates: good vs. bad bounce rates depend heavily on your industry, as well as website vs. blogs. The flyte website typically stays around a 75% bounce rate, this blog about an 80% bounce rate. I’ve seen them get as low as 20-30%, typically in the hotel/inn industry.

Average Time on Site

Crap. Average time on site went down.

• Are your conversions going down too? Then you might have an issue on your hands. If people are spending less time on the site, and not doing what you want them to do while they’re there, take a look at your top landing pages and optimize them in order of popularity. Take time to make your call-to-action bold and attractive.
• Did pageviews also go down? That might not be a bad thing. Did you add a better call-to-action? Check your conversions. They might be up!

Yes! Average time on site went up!

• Has bounce rate also gone up? Then there might be a problem. Luckily, people are still taking the time to look for what they need; but then they’re leaving. Make it easy for your visitors with easy-to-use navigation and, can’t say it enough, your call-to-action.
• Add a really popular new page or blog post? Or perhaps you have a great new incoming link? In that case, people are actually reading what you write – which is fantastic! (Find out which page/post it is by sorting your top content by time on site.)

New Visits

Crap. New visits went down.

• First decide: do you want new visitors? If the answer is “yes”, then have you been writing articles? Blog posts? New content? That’s where you should start. Then, try social media and social bookmarking. You’ll reach new audiences (nearly) every day there).
• If you want to keep your old visitors coming back, give them a reason to. Add a blog, or a section that changes often. Maybe an email newsletter is the answer: incorporating links to keep your visitors hungry for more.

Yes! New visits went up!

• Have you been active on social media or social bookmarking sites? Make sure you’re well aware of any pages that go viral (and thank folks who might have ReTweeted you .)
• Check your traffic sources for where these new visitors are coming from. That should share even more insight.

In conclusion

Google Analytics isn’t perfect and you can’t see why every visitor does what they do on your website. But, you can get a great picture and even gain a lot of insight.

Nicki Hicks
Mind reading through Analytics

Hopefully you have Google Analytics installed on your website. (If not, I’ll wait for you to go and do that now.)

Done? OK, let’s continue.

As you probably know, there’s a vast amount of data on Google Analytics – nearly to the point of information overload. It might cause us to gasp and say Crap! My bounce rate went up! or Yes! I have 10% more visits this month than last month!

All of these seemingly deep, thoughtful conclusions may seem well and good, but what do they really mean? For some businesses, an increase in one stat might be great while for another, it might be negative.

I think the first and most important step in analyzing analytics data is ask yourself why something happened. So we’re going to go through a series of questions to ask yourself for the six major stats in GA: visits, pagesviews, pages/visit, bounce rate, average time on site, and new visits. (We’ll leave some of the deeper sections for another time.)

Visits

Crap. Visits went down.

• Holiday – or seasonal – downturn? It sounds ridiculous, but I noticed a drastic decrease in visits in many clients’ statistics in December (those not centered around holiday business, that is).
• Do you have a blog you’ve been ignoring? If you have a blog on your domain, or if you’re looking at GA stats for your blog, traffic will more often than not decrease if you haven’t been keeping up with it.
• Have you decreased your marketing efforts? Web and/or traditional? There’s an obvious reason for a decrease in traffic.

Yes! Visits went up!

• Did you send out an e-newsletter? I often see a drastic boost in traffic if an e-zine is sent out – and guess what? The more subscribers to an email newsletter, the more visits you’ll see! (Hence the need to always include a link back the website.)
• Did something go viral? An article you wrote? A YouTube video? A tweet? Track back through your analytics to see where the traffic came from.

Pageviews

Crap. Pageviews went down.

• Did you recently do a redesign? Pageviews going down may not be a bad thing. It may very well mean that people can find what they were looking for more quickly in only a few clicks!
• Did you launch a new landing page? A simple landing page with an easy call-to-action would certainly decrease clicks. Again…GOOD thing.
• Do people get frustrated and leave? Are people leaving without doing what you want them to? Double check by looking through the Content section: top exit pages.

Yes! Pageviews went up!

• Did you recently do a redesign or add a landing page that is a dud? Pageviews going up might be a bad thing. Making more clicks might frustrate your visitors.
• Did you add a scintillating new post, page, or copy? In this case, say if your pageviews are currently no much more than 1, increased pageviews is fantastic. Look through your content section to verify what did the trick – then keep doing it!

Pages/visit

All of the same issues as pageviews, as pages/visit is simply an average of pageviews/visit.

That’s going to do it for today. We’ll save the other half (bounce rate, average time on site, and new visits) for tomorrow.

Nicki Hicks
Long-winded

Maine boasts some of the most gorgeous scenery, nature, and outdoor splendor of most of the country. On the edge of Moosehead Lake, Maine’s largest lake, sits The Birches Resort: the perfect place to enjoy your Maine wilderness vacation and the wonder of nature.

Like many of our recent WordPress launches, The Birches has the ability to update their website quickly and easily, with no need for HTML knowledge.

Why do we love WordPress so much? Not only is it easy to update, but it’s great for SEO. An easy-to-crawl platform, you can quickly update and change pages on a whim (perhaps incorporating new keywords), use the helpful SEO plugins, and even incorporate a blog.

Unlike other resorts, The Birches has a myriad of wonderful winter activities including snowmobiling, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and so much more. Book your winter excursion at The Birches today!

Nicki Hicks
A new year means new web sites!