Information Architecture Optimization involves the global navigation of your website. It will be helpful for users and search engines. Basically, it is a way to get the keywords you want to rank high for within the link text. The users experience should always come first before the search engines – so, you don’t want to cram a bunch of keywords on the buttons at the top of your website, because it might confuse users, it may not fit within the space you have, and could disrupt the look and feel of your website.

For example, most people have very general terms like “about us”  “contact us” and “customer support” as their navigation pages. With information architecture, you would make these more specific and keyword focused, so if we were to implement in our about us page, we could say:

“About Us – We are an internet marketing firm in San Diego”

The ways around actually displaying all of those words on the page, but still having them there, is by using one of four different strategies listed below:

Code Order

Within the code of the website, you can rearrange the order so that the first thing listed is the content of the page, then the side bar navigation, and then the header information.  This way, your website will be more optimized so that the links with the keywords are prioritized.

CSS Status Tip

The CSS Status tip is what appears in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. If you use this technique, your keyword rich sentence will show up at the bottom of the page when someone hovers over one of the buttons in the navigation.

CSS Tool Tip

This strategy is most commonly used and would display the longer keyword phrase right at the same place you are scrolling over. So, it will appear as a text balloon right next to the link.

Image Based Navigation

This way you would use images as the actual buttons and add alternative or ALT text to these images as the keyword phrase you want to use.

All in all, information architecture optimization is a more advanced technique, but if you are willing to put the effort into it, it will make a big difference. Have any questions? Let us know!

You need to be selective when choosing inbound links to your website.  Just having random websites link to you is not enough these days. You need to take a close look at them and understand that there are some important SEO factors and criteria to consider first. Read on to learn how to  improve your link building strategy overall.

Visit the link – how does it look?

First, visit the actual website. Does it look like a natural website that web visitors will enjoy reading? Does it provide good information or are you bombarded with spam-like images and banners when you visit it? If it looks like the website only exists to spam users or solely to provide a back link for many websites, reconsider using it.

Is the content relevant?

Now, if the link passes that test, the next thing to look at is if it is relevant to your website. Is the topic of that website related to your website?  Does it mention the targeted keyword terms that you want to rank high for in search engines? For example, if your business is a Casino, you want to partner with websites about the gaming industry and casinos, not football. Try to get inbound links from websites that are within your industry or field of expertise.

You don’t want a site that is overly saturated with keywords either, as this will make it difficult for users to read, and may lead to having a keyword density number that is high.  Search engines look upon this negatively.

What is the Page Rank of the URL?

Take a look at the Page Rank of the website. If the site is not related specifically to your website topic, but has a Google Page Rank of 5 or higher it may still be good to include it. For example, a local news station that has a link to your website is very helpful. Not only will a lot of people see this, but it will show search engines that you are connected to a high quality website.

Additionally, a website that has a link to your website on it and the domain ends in .edu, .org, or .gov is beneficial, because these websites are seen as authoritative and generally have higher Google Page Ranks.  Keep in mind just because the website extension ends in .edu or .gov does not mean necessarily it has a high Page Rank. A good rule of thumb is the closer your website link is to the home page of that .edu or .gov site is the better. If it’s hidden within a blog or forum, it won’t help as much.

Is the link set as a No Follow?

The link will not help your search engine rankings if the URL is set to “No Follow” and its page rank will not carry over to your website. “No Follow” discredits the link for search engine robots. A website may use the “no follow” attribute value if it is a blog or forum and gets a lot of spam.

How many outbound links does the website have? (more…)

Link Building is a big part of SEO, which you already know. So how do you get the most from your link building efforts without getting lost in the wild wild west, er web?  Well, focus on anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable text attached to a hyperlink.

Not only is anchor text important to search engines, but it’s also helpful to your website visitors. It helps them know the topic of what they are about to see. You want to make sure to choose effective anchor text for the incoming and outgoing links to your website.  This will greatly increase the value of the link and boost your search engine rankings.

To get started, during your link building acquisition, seek out links where you can determine the anchor text that another website uses for your website link.  This is an important part of the search engine ranking algorithms.  Aim for websites that not only have a link to your website, but also the words around the link that include the keywords you want to rank for. For example, in the descriptions of directory listings, blogs, and press releases you should be able to include the text you want to hyperlink.

To illustrate, instead of saying, “Click Here” as your anchor text, use the keywords that you are targeting. If the search engine bots see that the text around the link includes the keywords related to the website that the web link is pointing to, that will help you gain authority and increase the value of that link.

As an example, if we want to direct web visitors to a web page about internet marketing, we could write Internet Marketing and hyperlink that to an external website about internet marketing, or even a page on our website about it. You should also add variety to your anchor strategy to increase the value of the links. Don’t just have the same anchor text over and over.  Let’s look at some examples of this below:

• Internet Marketing Company
• Internet Marketing Firm
• Web Advertising Agency
• Website Optimization and Promotion
• Search Engine Marketing Solution

Notice how some of these have 3-4 words in them. This incorporates the long tail keywords that help us show up for many keyword terms and they typically have a high search volume.  Every day, about 25% of searches are keyword terms that never been searched before, so having variety in your anchor text is a very important way to get new visitors!   Notice that those links aren’t all going to the same page, this is termed “link diversity”.  The same would be true for inbound links, it would be better to have less links  from different sources, then many links from the same source. Keep in mind the anchor text should be different for those inbound links.  This falls in line with Google’s methodology- keep everything natural and relevant for your users!  Now, start getting creative with your anchor text- you’ll be happy that you did!

As we all know, link building is the bulk of true SEO and one of the most important aspects for authority in Google’s eyes.  There have been many common practices for building link popularity over the years such as directory submissions, sending out optimized press releases, blog and forum posts with links, paid links, etc.  Most of these are a good support element but won’t take your SEO to the next level.  True link building takes time and real effort because it starts with developing great content, being involved in respected organizations, and attending events.  These five tips require more time and work, but will result in “real” links that will improve your search engine optimization strategies.

1. Develop Great Content – This can come in the form of articles, white papers, blogs, or videos.  The point is that it needs to be compelling and informative enough for people to share and distribute it.
2. Distribute Your Content – This is where social media can come into play.  Having good content is one thing but unless you already have a ton of traffic, you need to proactively get it out there.  It is recommended to have a blog and submit it to blog directories.  Utilized social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to distribute content.  If you have videos, get them on YouTube.  Use a “Share This” social media tool bar to allow people to easily submit content to sites like Digg and Technorati.
3. Leverage Your Partnerships and Associations – Link building can have a bit of business development involved so you need to get out there and lobby for some links.  For example, ask for a link on websites of companies that you have business relationships with.  It is optimal to have this on a page with a decent PR and have some supporting content.  If you are involved in any trade associations, ask if they offer links to the companies involved.  Attend trade shows and speak on panels.  Most of the time there are interviews and videos that you can leverage to gain some extra link juice. 
4. Offer FREE Services – You can discount your services or do some FREE consulting in exchange for a good link.  Depending on the value you provide its not much to ask for and costs the partner nothing.
5. Being Involved in Your Community – This strategy can be executed in many different ways.  Your company should get involved in charities, attend events, etc.  You could also throw a cocktail party and give a FREE seminar about Internet Marketing or Legal Advice for example.  Ask the attendies to blog about it of they feel compelled to.  Make sure not to forget the link!

True SEO strategy is of course a lot more involved that just choosing some keywords and implementing those into your site structure, content, and off-page strategies (link building).  Just like any other marketing effort, SEO should start with a foundation of core business goals.  Whether you are doing this for your own company, outsourcing to an SEO company, or a hybrid of the two, make sure to follow these steps for building a great strategy that the whole company can stand behind.  This article spends less time on the technicalities behind on page SEO and places more emphasis to how marketing and off page efforts enhance the overall strategy.

Define the company goals:  The “discovery” process is probably the most important opportunity for getting the strategy defined right out of the gate.  The company goals will of course the be applied to the keyword research and keyword assignment.  This discovery process should involve company owners, executives, marketers, content providers, and possibly accounting.  The bottom line is that everone has to be on the same page as to what drives the company forward, what keywords relate to both the brand and the products/services, etc.  You should also look at what keyword phrases drive revenue (or have the potential to drive revenue). 

Apply the goals to the keyword strategy:  Even companies that have been doing “SEO” for a while often need to put on the breaks and redefine the strategy.  You can of course apply all the research you need to help you refine the goal (i.e. competitive analysis, website analytics, etc.).  Start by dialing down on your top 25 or so “money” keyword phrases.  Make sure the list is a mix of both broad and long tail terms.  This task is more complicated than it sounds and can take time.  For example, if you have an e-commerce platform and sell hundreds of products it might seem impossible to dial down to 25 keywords.  Keep in mind this is a starting point and should be developed throughout the campaign.

Apply keyword strategy to the keyword assignment:  Now that you have your list and everyone from the CEO to the marketing team has signed off on it, apply the keywords to the website.  Keyword assigment should start with the home page and work down from there.  Remember to follow best practices such as charater limits, the use of hypens to separate title words as opposed to underscores, page hierarchy, etc.

Make sure to have a blend of SEO and “marketing” in the application:  SEO is not just about having your top keywords associated with the page in the title tag.  Getting rankings is only the first step.  You then have to entice clicks.  If your not getting the clicks, who cares about the ranking.  That is where marketing comes into play.  Your title pages are what will appear for your search result listing so make sure you use a structure that is appealing as well as keyword appropriate.

Have a comprehensive off page strategy:  The fundamental goal of the off page SEO effort is to distribute content and build links.  Good links start with compelling content.  The old link building strategies won’t do you much good anymore.  The natural link building efforts take more time, more energy, and forces you to develop great content that people want to consume and share.  This may include but is not limited to the use of blogging, social media, SEO focused PR, engaging your local community, engaging you online communities, and continually developing great articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, and any other content that is relevant and that will add value to your users.

This Google Webmaster video is of Matt Cutts answering the Question:  Do footer links carry as much weight as links higher on the page and surrounded by content.  As Google’s link analysis becomes more advanced, the search engine will assign different weight to links based on placement and HOW they are used.  For example, a link placed in the body copy of good relevant content will now most likely carry more influence than an anchor text link place on the footer and displayed on every page of a website.  As we know, links are one of the most important components behind a quality search engine optimization strategy.  Watch the video for more details!

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.