As most of us know, Google has formally launched “personalized search” in an effort to continually improve each individual’s search experience in their engine.  The goal is to track user’s search behavior in order to continaully improve and “personalze” the relevance of results.  When these discussions first began, many SEO’s and Internet marketing companies feared that this would mean the end of Search Engine Optimization as we know it.  We are still waiting to see what affect this will have over the coming months but from the information disseminated thus far, it seems that most of the fundamental best practices will still apply. 

So How Does this Impact SEO for Our Clients?

The truth is, some of the important areas of focus that these changes bring to light, have really always been important.  The end goal of SEO is to grow a business through relevant natural search traffic that leads to conversions (whatever those conversion goals might be).  You can chase rankings all day long but if the result is not good quality traffic and conversions that lead to growth, there is something missing.  The key things that still matter are:

• Focus on traffic and conversions more than rankings:  Of course, we are still always going to look at rankings but now more than ever, we really need to combine the focus on rankings and the resulting traffic.  If a site sees an increase in rankings but stagnant levels (or decreasing levels) of traffic, personalized search may be posing a negative effect and the strategy shoulf be adjusted.  On the other hand, if rankings see a slight dip but traffic is improving, the site might be experiencing better results from the shift to personalized search. 
• This has of course been important for a long time but there is a renewed focus on “brand” quality:  The quality, interactivity, value, and user experience of a website will always impact traffic, bounce rates, repeat visitors, and link popularity.  Google is now placing more emphasis on this with personalized search.  This can create challenges for new businesses that may not yet be a “trusted brand” yet.  However, it certainly does encourage any business to develop great content and have a good user experience. 
• Other sources of traffic might have a positive impact on natural search results:  It seems that all traffic sources will now be taken into account with Google’s personalized metrics.  This could mean that paid search traffic and other key drivers to a website might positively (but indirectly) impact natural results within the personalized search spectrum.  It will be interesting to see the results of this in the coming months.

How Should We Be Adjusting Our Strategy and Campaigns?

Best practices still apply.  As mentioned above, we must conitue to improve user experience, brand loyalty, content, and traffic (from all sources).  Continue to follow best pratices for basic SEO coding and making all pages accessible to the search engines, use a keyword strategy relavent to your business goals and that is aligned with your user’s search behavior, continually develop good content, and earn great inbound links by being proactive in your industry.

Google Webmaster Tools have launched some new features. One of the most relevant tools for SEO’s, marketers, and website developers is called Fetch as Googlebot (in the “Labs” section). This tools allows you to chose any URL on a given website and run a test to see what Google sees when it requests that URL from your server. 

For example, if you want to test a home page or new page on your website you can use this tool to obtain the exact HTTP responses that Google receives from your server.  Simply paste the URL into the tool and click “Fetch”.  You will then receive a report showing the page code. 

So how is this different than just viewing the source code?  This tools shows you specific HTTP header info that is no contained in the source code because it comes from the server, not the page.  This allows you to find potential discrepancies in what the server is showing and how the page is coded. 

The Fetch as Googlebot tool is great for:

• Find discepancies in how the page is coded and what the server shows to Google when it requests a page (URL)
• Finding bugs that may exist in the site
• Testing 301 redirects
• Testing the site for potential “hacking”
• Ensuring that your SEO strategy is consistant for page code and how the server is showing Google

Search engine optimization is more than just following best practices.  You must start by definig the fundamental strategy and business goals that need to be reached as a result of the SEO effort.  Many SEO’s will just do the general keyword research, find terms that are relevant and highly searched, and then use these in the keyword assignment/application. 

 There is so much more to real SEO and it all starts with in depth discovery:

• Discuss current and future business goals
• Define conversion factors that need to be a result of new organic traffic
• Review financial goals, profit margins, and key products and services that drive the most revenue
• Gain a deep understanding of the target audience and demographics
• Consider not only what keywords apply but how the target audience might use these in search queries

Once you have gone through this process you should spend time digging deep into keyword research and try to dial down on your top 20 list.  This can be a difficult task and should not be rushed.  For example, if you have an e-commerce platform that sells hundreds of products I suggest starting with the top product categories.  List four or five keyword phrases that apply to each category.  Then start zeroing in on your key revenue drivers of areas of focus.  This will be an ongoing process throughout the life of the campaign so do not get too bogged down in the process, but be very thoughtful about it.  Everyone from the CEO to the sales and marketing team should be involved. 

Once you have your “inal list of top “money” keywords, do one last revue with management so that everyone is on the same page about campaign goals.  You must weigh many factors:

• Keywords apply to business goals and relevant to users
• Consider how often terms are searched and how competitive the terms are – use open source SEO tools to gather data
• Just because a term is not searched much does not mean you should strike it off your list (consider the long tail)
• Have a blend of broad (competitive) terms and long tail (niche) terms
• Keep in mind that plural and singular are different terms in Google’s eyes
• Be specific because you final list will direct the link building strategy

This process defines the strategy and will affect every move you make moving forward so don’t rush through this process.  This process will help you avoid having a shotgun approach as apposed to a sniper approach.  When you start seeing results, they will be the right results that drive qualifies traffic and convert.

Things change rapidly in the SEO world and good marketers are always trying to stay on top of the latest and greatest information around “best practices”.  There is a science to SEO but not an exact science.  Many SEO’s have slightly different strategies and I think we can all agree that no one campaign is created equal.  However, when listening to different types of SEO advice circulate, there are always seem to be some misconceptions behind some of the core theories.  This is normal in such a dynamic industry so I wanted to review a few of these points as a discussion piece. 

LINK TRADING

This is a big one because everyone is very careful not to “anger the beast” (Google).  We all want to abide by best practices so as to build great relevant link popularity and increase rankings for oursleves or clients.  However, the fear factor has pushed this a little over the edge.  The idea behind link building is to create a interaction between a site and other relevant resources, partners, content, etc.  The foundation should be similar to how we build our own relationships personnaly or in the business world (at least if we want to gain the most value). 

So for example, people seem to still think that you should only build high power inbound links and never reciprocate.  This is true in some cases and may not be true in others (these are just my opinions).  If you get a link request that comes into your site from some randon website then you should probably stay away from it.  However, if a partner company, client, or relevant blog has linked to you and is interested in having you reciprocate, then it should be fine.  Again, this goes back to key relationships and have a link architecture that makes sense.  Don’t accept a link and give a link if both parties are just doing to have another link.  It probably won’t do you much good.

CONTENT:  SEO VS MARKETING VALUE

This topic is a difficult one because there is value on both sides and the truth or best practice most likely falls somewhere in the middle.  Bascially, I am talking about the difference between search engine optimization copywriting that may be good from an SEO algorithm (a machine reading your content) perspective vs a more emotion driven marketing perspective (a person reading your content and being compelled to link to you, share the content, or convert to a sale). 

The best case scenario is to have a blend of both it seems but this is easier said than done.  To achieve this the SEO content writers must be very good writers and have a sound understanding of an industry and the audience.  This is why I always encourage cleints to blog.  They know their business the best, and with a little coaching, can weave in some keyword strategy as well.

TITLE, H1, AND URL STRUCTURE

All of this starts with keyword strategy and understanding the clients core goals.  Once that is established you want to dial in on how the keyword assignment will reflect the titles and description in the SERPs as well support the page content.  For example, a title tag that simply uses keywords may rank high but might not be as compelling as the result around it in the SERPs that may have a better “marketing message”.  I have seen both work quite well so it most likel will vary from site to site and industry to industry. 

I have also heard people say that title should not mirror H1 exactly but I have seen this work well too.  From a marketing and conversion optimization perspective, the page title (or H1) should be representative of the title tag itself which is what will appear in the search results.  This goes back to the marketing message and being consistant.  For example, if you are running a PPC camaign and use a specific call to action in your titles, the landing page used to support that link should have a direct keyword association and reflect the message in the title.  The same could hold true for SEO title tags. 

From a ranking perspective the variation seems to not matter much but from a marketing perspective the two should at least be a close mirror of one another in my opinion.  This of course also depends on how you use the H1 one, where it is on the page, and the page design (as far as call to action is concerned). 

conclusion

There is value on both sides of these arguments which is why this stuff takes constant testing and researching to find what works best in a myriad of different circumstances.

Google has made yet another change in their algorithm.  As of last month, Google has changed the way they look at PageRank sculpting and “nofollow” links.  Let’s first define PageRank.  PageRank was designed by Google to show how valuable the search engines will percieve a webpage to be – ranking a page 1 through 10 (10 being the best).  Many factors go into earning a good PageRank from Google, especially link popularity. 

In a website, the power of a good PageRank can flow (or be distributed) from page to page.  The deeper the site goes, the more diluted that influence becomes from page to page.  A goood example would be a river or irrigation system.  In desert regions you will see how green and lush the landscape is near a body of water.  As you move further from that body of water, the irrigation has a diminishing effect and the land becomes less green.  This is how the power of PageRank works as you move from the home page deeper into the sub pages.

To ensure that the more important sub pages (such as product pages or pages used for “selling” and conversions) benefit from the PageRank distribution the use of “nofollow” tags has been used.  Let’s use the irrigation system analogy again.  Let’s say you have only a certain amount of water to distribute so you want to make sure that the most important areas are irrigated.  You could shut off the flow of water to certain areas.  This is how “nofollow” links work. 

Well, as always, things change.  Nofollow links will no longer be able to control the flow of PageRank influence.  The best way to combat this is to ensure websites have a sound SEO architecture and internal linking process.  The best practices still apply so the more compelling content and inbound links you have the better.  The higher your PageRank is, the more you will have to distribute.  If possible, try not to make your site too deep…4 to 5 pages deep is ideal but not always possible.

It is still possible to control the flow of PageRank influence.  It is really all about your site architecture.  Link pages together in a logical way using a good breadcrumb strategy.  If you  can avoid it, don’t go further than 5 levels deep.  Use anchor text links to connect good content pages to their parent category pages.  Keep it simple and follow the usual rules.  As far as what will happen to rankings, we’ll have to wait and see.

Social Media Circle

With the way outlook has been like since the financial meltdown, companies are looking for ways to cut costs by any means available to them.  They are looking to survive, meaning the days of wanting to be the best are becoming a faded memory.  If your company is in such a pit as most companies are, you do not have to despair – but only if you take the right steps towards survival, and thriving.

Recently on Yahoo! News, there was a story featured about a London bakery that is thriving.  But, they are not thriving through traditional means of radio, television, or print ads.  Instead, they have decided to embrace social media technologies at their disposal.  They are using Twitter to inform their Twitter followers when they are serving fresh bread.  They are a small business who have embraced social media for their sales purposes.  Large companies are also following suit.  They are building what is called “engagement marketing” by allowing consumers to be actively engaged in the branding, products, and more that companies sell or offer.  Online users are no longer restricted to the high schoolers, college students, or simply tech savvy people.  Instead it has become successful in attracting people from all ages and background – this is why companies are now not only following suit temporarily to save money, but because social media is here to stay.

Advertising online, appearing in organic listings, being talked about online in forums, social networks, discussion boards and more is what is now considered the norm for online marketing.  Additionally it also is how companies such as Dell convert disgruntled customers become happy ones through Twitter.

Having a tracking and reporting tool installed to your website is a very important factor for conversion based websites and your SEO strategy. Make sure you have a tracking code on your site to track visitors and their behavior on your site. For example the bounce rate tells you how many people are coming to your website and leaving within 5 seconds this way you are able to identify which web pages are turning away the most visitors and which are making most conversions.

With today’s internet marketing technology you can run tests on different pages of your website and let your visitors decide the best version of that page. A – B testing serves the user 2 different versions of a particular page on a random basis. This way instead of just going with a gut feeling you will actually have the statistics from your users to prove usability.

The first step is to think of 2 variations of your page. The current one as the first and the second you can make a few small changes to the page. Maybe try changing photos or making links into buttons using large calls to action. Using tools like the Google website optimizer you can test your changes by randomly showing different visitors different versions of your site. These tools will then report back to you about the conversions and goals reached by each design. From these reports you can decide which design had the most valuable conversions dependant on the goals you set for your pages. These can be sales, links clicked, forms filled, etc.

Many think that there might be too many aspects of the website to change so why test at all? This is true there are many different components to each and every website but you can just start with your current most prevalent call to action on your page. Try changing simple links to buttons with calls to action. Try cleaning up the page to not be text heavy and insert some great images relevant to your business.
• Have a friend take a look! If you have a friend that doesn’t know your business very well have them take a look at your website. Give them 10 seconds to look and then ask them what you think the site is about?

• Give, Give, Give! Tell the user why they should stay on your website. Tell them the benefits of being your website: to look younger, to be healthier, to save money.

• Make your website relevant! Make sure that all of your client see your website as relevant starting with the content and pictures on the site! Make them personal and relevant to your website and your brand.

• Users love to shop and that is why they are on your website don’t make them search. Make it easy for the user to find what they want and make it even easier for the to convert. If you are basing your conversions on sales make the “buy Now” prominent if your conversations are tracked by sign ups make sure to have a quick and easy form on every page!

The days of simple on page optimization are over and have been for a while.  A year ago most search engine optimization strategies included the simple practices of basic site structure, seo copy written content, and building inbound links.  As Google continues to progress and make new updates to the algorithms, we must also adapt and develop new strategies that will keep us competitive.  A well-rounded approach is imperative which is why a good Internet marketing company can take on all aspects of search engine marketing and combine them to create a truly united front.

I tend to use the analogy of military combat when analyzing business and marketing situations.  For example, the reason a small special operations force that has superior training and works as a team will always defeat a larger force with mediocre training is becasue each person on the spec ops team works in complete synergy with one another.  In Internet marketing, it will no longer suffice to use one approach with a non-targeted strategy if you want to be competitive.  A comprehensive online marketing plan will ensure true optimization of all online assets and maximum exposure and conversions.

So what does all this mean?  What is Universal search?  What are digital assets?

Bascially, it means that optimizing all of a company’s digital assets is the best way to ensure good rankings as they apply to Google’s new “universal” search.  Universal search means that Google gives rankings to not only web pages anymore but also news results such as press releases, video content, images, local buiness results, etc.  Simply optimizing the pages of a website will not ensure that a site will rank as well as its competitiors.  Websites that use well rounded internet marketing strategies are getting traffic from other assets that appear in the search results pages.  For example, a company’s web page might not appear for a specific result but a SEO optimized press release might.  That press release if optimized properly would then have links back to the website which would drive trafic.  The same situation would apply for video content appearing in the results.  The vidoes if well optimized could then have links or calls to action noting the URL that people should follow. 

So are we taking about social media?

Basically, yes.  Social media is popular for many reasons other than viral marketing and online reputation management.  Social media can be a fantastic provider of inbound links which of course supports the ongoing organic search engine optimization campaign.  A good SEO company will optimize all a company’s digital assets to ensure the best possible ROI.

Where does conversion optimization come into play?

True conversion optimization is at the root of all online marketing strategies…or at least it should be.  Nobody wants to spend time and money implementing any marketing plan unless there is a strategy to ensure conversions and ROI.  Conversion optimization is more than just manipulating a web page to make the user do what you want.  All marketing strategies should be completely complimentary and support the same goals…that goes for offline and online components. 

Not so long ago, an SEO team would work independantly from a PPC team, and nobody would be communicating with the print team.  These days that is just poor marketing.  Everyone must be in constant communication with each other…that is, if you were to use different teams for each component.  The best practice for having a truly effective online marketing plan is to use the same team for all aspects and make sure that team knows how to coordinate with traditional media aspects as well.

Google just keeps getting smarter and smarter, don’t they?  Well, with there newest algorithm updates it is rumored that Google is making some judgements for rankings based on “brand”.  Naturally, the first question that come to mind is how Google defines a quality and trusted brand through the Internet.  I would assume that some of the factors include:

• age of domain
• number of mentions on the web (Web 2.0)
• overall traffic (maybe)

Many of Google’s algorithm updates make sense but this one seems much more subjective.  The question then remains…how does a hard working company build a brand on the web if it doesn’t know what Google is really looking for.  The best answer to all this mystery is always to follow the best practices, stay on top of Google Guidelines, and keep your ear to the grindstone.  Providing users with great content and a valuable experience will always lay a good foundation for rankings.  Of course, you must have a good SEO company or search engine optimization consultant working with you to ensure best practices are followed. 

You will most certainly not be able to build your brand online for long term results if your site is not following at least the basic rules of SEO.  Often times, people wonder why their site isn’t ranking even after they have been working with an Internet marketing company for months.  There could be many reasons for this of course including the competitiveness of the key terms, ability of the SEO company, etc.  However, a good firm can look at a site for 30 seconds and see if the bascis are being performed.  It is sad to see companies  spending money on SEO when the firm implementing the campaign is either using black hat tactics…or no tactics at all.  Many firms out there play on the assumed ignorance of the client and just tell them to “stay the course”.  In the mean time they are doing virtually nothing to the website or performing any on page or off page SEO.

So my advice to any company out there seeking to improve orgainc rankings…make sure the company you hire knows what they are doing.  Make sure they are transparent about their methods and ask for references, past clients, and of course…look at how well their own site ranks.  If they do not even appear in the SERPs, you may want to think twice.

Many people out there think SEO is just about getting to the first page of Google and simply entails putting keywords in meta tags.  Search engine optimization is an art and science with a huge learning curve for both client and professional SEO consultant.  Many times clients are confused why an SEO company is making design recommendations or suggesting copywriting changes.  Sometimes an SEO company will suggest a complete redevelopment of a site and will not touch it until that happens.  These are very difficult things for a client to hear, especially if they have a site that is visited frequently (which means they probably have a fairly high opinion of their site).

With the new emerging trends and search engine algorithms, SEO will not be just about rankings anymore (this being a common misconception).  It will be about the end results such as traffic and more importantly, conversions.  A conversion could be some kind of registration, a newsletter sign up, an online sale, etc.  Whatever your business goals are, your online marketing tools need to be a means to that end.

A truly well-rounded Internet marketing company will offer all of the important aspects of SEO which really does involve additonal strategy such as web design, development, information architecture, URL rewriting, and copy writing.  Depending on the site, there might be months of work needed to be done simply to prepare a site for proper search engine optimization.  As I mentioned above, sometimes a tough reality is faced by a client when they are told their website needs a complete overhaul before SEO can start.  In the long run though, only a healthy platform with good well-rounded SEO strategy applied will yield lasting results.

The goals behind SEO should no longer be focused simply on first page rankings for the top keywords associated with the campaign.  The business goals for the client need to be set first, then you can reverse engineer the Internet marketing strategy to support all those goals.  As Google rolls out personal and universal search functions, we all will start getting slightly different results for the same searches based on our own prefernces and user behavior.  That said, number one rankings will not matter as much as overall user experince, the value your site offers, and how it helps your business grow.  Getting rankings is only one small step towards true business development.

We have all run searches and clicked on some of the first page results only to find a less than appealing website with poor navigation and site architecture.  Nevertheless, the site is right there on page one.  Maybe some good SEO principles have been applied but maybe not.  However, the online consumer/user is continually becoming more sophisticated.  For a company to have a sub-par online rpresence will do then no good.  Businesses need a site that can not only be found, but that offers the best possible value in accordance with their business.  The site must also be design to transform traffic into fuel for reaching the business goals.  Obviously, if it is an e-commerce site, then it should sell products.  If it is an advertising site, then it should generate leads for the advertisers.  You get the idea.

All of the concepts mentioned above are part of a comprehensie well-rounded search engine optimization/Internet marketing campaign.  If you have a business in need of transforming your online presence, there is no better time to get started.  It doesn’t happen over night so invest the time and resources now!