Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
http://feeds.feedburner.com/searchengineguide (09.07.2008 01:00:42)
Is Your Website FUBAR in the "Other" Browser?
by Stoney deGeyter
When making changes to my websites I always take the time to view them live on the web before closing up my editing software and patting myself on the back in self-satisfaction of a job well done. Even with minor changes, I like to view them one last time to make sure my changes didn't cause any shifts in on-page display, or I didn't inadvertently create an error somewhere that inadvertently jacked everything up (believe me, it's happened more times than I can count!) But regardless of how careful I am to double check my work, there is one thing I almost always overlook; verifying that my site looks good in the "other" browser.
At any given time I have three FireFox browser widows open, each with their own number of open tabs. So it's natural for me to check and verify my changes using my browser of choice. Sometimes, I even think to check my changes in Internet Explorer. Admittedly, I don't regularly check IE when the changes are relatively minor, but always when the changes effect formatting. But that's not the other browser I'm referring to.
We get so accustomed to our own way of surfing the web that we forget that there many other browsers and browsing experiences that may be foreign to us. Now most web designers will do their due diligence and check a site in multiple versions of FireFox, Internet Explorer, Netscape and Safari. Heck you might look at a half of dozen other browsers that most people, including myself, have never even heard of. But those are not the browsers I'm referring to either.
There are four primary "other" browsers and browsing experiences that are typically overlooked by site owners, casual webmaster and, yes, even by the average web designer. But with more and more users moving to these alternate browsing experiences, it is even more important to check your websites to make sure that they function properly for these users.
For the next several illustrations I'm going to use my own website as an example. Here is what it looks like in it's current form:
The image-less browser
In a previous article I address the necessity of using ALT attributes on your images. But why is this so important? The image ALT text helps visitors surfing with images turned off to get a better sense of whatever meaning your images are trying to convey.
I remember a few years back I had very limited connectivity. And by "limited" I mean: dial up. For several weeks I had to live with the slowest of all slow internet connections. You had better believe that I turned images off in my browser. I didn't have the time for many of today's image-heavy websites to load before I could get the information I needed. During this period I came to appreciate well-thought out ALT text.
While the accessibility of high-speed internet means that fewer regular browser users are surfing with images off, there are still plenty of users that do, for a variety of reasons.
You can see in the screenshot above that all of the images, save for one, are replaced with descriptive image ALT text. The only one that doesn't is the flag next to the H1 tag, which is inserted using CSS. This is just decorative so there really isn't any need for ALT text anyway. But even with images turned off, the site is still completely navigable.
While surfing with images off isn't necessarily done using a completely different browser, it is a completely different browsing experience, and one that does need to be addressed to ensure your site works for all types of visitors.
The CSS-less browser
CSS is wonderful for web design and keeping code bloat to a minimum. But even still, some sites are so heavily dependent on CSS that they forget to make sure that the site still works with CSS turned off.
My site was designed specifically to make sure the content was placed higher up in the code than the rest of the on-page elements. When doing so, we ensured that when viewed without CSS the layout is pretty consistent with the CSS version including the right-side information bar.
The only primary difference is that the header and main navigation is at the bottom rather than the top. This is because we used absolute positioning in the CSS to place the header above the content. Normally site identification is something I am concerned about when looking at a site without CSS. But we've taken care of it here by making sure the breadcrumb, which always reads" Pole Position Marketing" is the first content on each and every page.
Obviously the formatting isn't just the way I want it to be, but that's to be expected. All of the important elements are here and in place. The site can be read properly, as intended, and my calls to action are still properly visible.
The text-only browser
Now I have to admit that I have great difficulty using the Lynx text browser. But it is definitely a handy device to see not only what your site looks like with just about everything but links turned off, but also to get a better understanding of how your site might be read if the visitor uses a screen reader.
One of the biggest problems most sites have when pulled up via text-only browsers or read from screen readers is that the left-side navigation always appears first on each page. This is one of the problems with tables designs that have their navigation on the left. Now I don't advocate moving your navigation to the other side of the screen, but there are other things you can do (as we did with Pole Position Marketing) to get your content higher up on the page.
The text-only browser will help you see if your site is too heavily dependent on visuals to get visitors to interact with your site. Here you have no formatting and no images. Just the words on the page. If you can't get your point across here, and can't persuade your visitors to move through your site, then there is a good chance that you have a deeper problem than how "pretty" your site may or may not be.
The mobile browser
Mobile web browsing is becoming more and more frequent. Cell phones are becoming mobile devices designed to connect us to the world wirelessly regardless of where we are. That means more people are using the internet on their tiny cell phone screens to shop, gather information, learn, read and research. For many businesses, ensuring that their web site looks good on mobile devices will be time and money well spent.
Of course, developing your site to look good on mobile devices isn't easy. Every phone uses a different browser which may or may not import CSS and/or images. Here, perfection isn't necessary, just so long as the site is usable with strong site-identification.
These are the two major issues that I've seen on mobile devices. The header gets messed up to the point where you can't tell what site you're on and the main navigation is jacked up to make navigation near impossible. If you fix those issues, also ensuring the text is readable, then you're meeting at least the basic needs of your mobile audience.
How important is all this, really?
One of the basic of the web is making sure you meet and exceed your audience's expectations. Many make the argument that the audience that browses with images or CSS turned off, or even on text-only browsers is so small that going through the effort to fix that just isn't worth it. I disagree.
Think of it in terms of the long tail. Sure, a clear majority of your visitors use the standard browser on a high-speed connection to browse the web. Most of them will never even know, or care, if your site functions in these other browsers. But that doesn't make the people who do any less important. Nor does it make them any less of a customer.
For the same reasons that businesses must have ramps for wheelchairs and handicapped accessible parking, businesses on the web need to take care to care about this audience as well. Target has already been sued because their site wasn't accessible for disabled visitors. It likely won't be long before every site must come into certain accessibility compliances or risk similar repercussions, or worse.
As far as the mobile browsers goes, well, that's where more and more internet activity is headed. It's best to be ahead of the game, rather than trailing behind. No sense giving up customers to your competitors who do take the time and effort to meed the needs of this growing audience.
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08.07.2008 17:40:54 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Does Your Company Name Really Belong In Your Title Tag?
by Stoney deGeyter
Question: When I only have about 65 characters to work with in a title tag (that which is visible on the search engine results pages), should I use any of that valuable real estate to display my company name?
This is a question that I hear quite often, and it's a good one. I don't necessarily think there is a universal right or wrong answer to it. Many believe that the real estate in the title is just too valuable to waste on a company name. Others believe that the branding you get from placing your company name in the title is just too good to pass up.
Let's dissect this a bit and then I'll let you come to your own conclusions.
Why use your company name in the title tag?
The single best reason to use your company name in your title tag is to brand the searcher with your company name as they scan through the results after a search. Many argue that there is no branding effect unless you already have a well-recognized brand name, but I disagree. I think this is how you get a well-recognized brand name, especially on the web.
Let's say that you've branded all your title tags and have gotten yourself pretty firmly established in the search results for a number of core and long-tail phrases. Many people don't perform just one search. They search, scan through results, maybe click on a few links, then go back and further refine their search. Each of these searches is an opportunity not to just get a click because you're ranked well, but it's an opportunity to get your company name in front of some eyeballs. The more search refinements performed the more opportunities you have for your name to be branded in the searchers mind, just by being there in the search results.
It may be only two searches, or maybe it's five, but if you are ranked, and your title tags are branded with your company name, then that's several opportunities for someone to see your name, regardless if they click or not. Sooner or later, they will click. Your name will be ingrained in their mind. Search after search, they'll have begun to associate you as an authority on that topic, possibly without ever having visited your site.
You can make the case that the URL can be used for branding, therefore save the Title tag for a clickable message. That's certainly true. I tend to look at URLs more than I look at titles when searching. But remember, branding is all about repetition. Putting your company name in your title is one more instance that your name appears!
Where to place the company name?
So the question begs, if you are going to brand your title tag, where do you put you company name? Should it go at the beginning or at the end? I showed you two examples above illustrating each. I've had people tell me that they would absolutely never place the company name at the beginning, but I'm not all that convinced that it's a bad thing.
If you're going for the branding effect, then the beginning is absolutely the best place for your company name to be. Putting it at the end just doesn't have the same impact. Often people will only look at the first few words of a title and then the bolded words (the words used in the query that also appear in the title) as they scan down the list. If your business name isn't found at the beginning of the title tag then there will be no real branding going on.
But this is also the reason that many propose putting your company name at the end instead of the beginning. Since searchers scan only the first few words (and the bolded words) of the title, you'll want to make sure your most important keywords are at the front. Why would you ever give up that real estate for a company name?
I don't disagree with that logic. But if your company name says enough about what you do, or is keyword rich, then there is no reason not to put it at the front of your title tag. If you need those first few characters in order to out rank your competition then by all means use it for specific keywords you are targeting. But if you company name is compelling, uses keywords and/or provides the visitor with enough information about what you do, then get it there where it can, and will, be seen.
Why not always brand your title tags?
If you're a proponent of always using your company name in your title tags I still think there are times when you may not want to. Or if you do, to use it after the 65 characters that the search engines will display in their search results.
Looking at my example above, you can tell that the page in question is a very specific page, looking for a very specific product. The search that brings that page up is performed by a searcher that is ready to buy. They are no longer researching or shopping, they now know what they want and they are ready to put money down for it now..
This is the time to give them exactly what they want. You don't necessarily want to fog up the issue with company names or any other information that isn't necessary in getting them to the information they need.
That's not to say, in this case, that having your company name in the title is bad. In fact, if you've already established your name via other searches and search results it could come in handy here, but the most important thing is the keywords in the title. And with specific searches like this you'll often run out of room before you get a chance to use your company name, unless you put it at the front. What you don't want to do is run out of room for your most keywords that will adequately describe your product. They take priority here.
Over the years I've fluctuated back and forth on where to use the company name in the title tag. Ultimately, we look at it on a page by page basis. To see what the needs are for SEO and for the visitor. Hopefully I've given you some food for thought.
If you want to get it "right" you just need to consider your marketing goals for each page of your site, what you want to achieve and the best way to do that. There is no wrong way to brand your title tags, except to do so in a way that conflicts with your goals.
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07.07.2008 18:47:42 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Stop Wasting Your ALT Attributes and Make them Work for You
by Stoney deGeyter
When providing SEO advice on the topic of website design, we often warn against placing important content into images. This is because search engines can't read images like a person can. To them, an image with text is just an image. They really have no idea what the image is or if, in fact, it says anything at all. So when optimizing sites, anytime we are dealing with keyword optimized content, we want to make sure it's standard HTML text. This includes headers, benefit lits, and even normal body copy.
While the search engines can't read actual images, they can read what we say about the image. This information can be gleaned a few different ways:
- Image file name (image1234.jpg vs. mustang-gt.jpg)
- Text immediately surrounding the image
- The overall content of the page the image is on
- Image ALT attribute in the image tag
When trying to optimize images for image search, all of these can provide important indicators the search engines use to produce the best set of image results. In terms of traditional optimization and website usability, the ALT attribute plays an important role.
The ALT attribute is an image descriptor
The ALT attribute should by no means be considered a substitute for regular text. ALT text doesn't get weighted as heavily as body text so relying on it as a replacement for body text is like entering a Prius into the Indy 500. It doesn't have a chance.
Ok, so that was a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point. There are effective uses of the Image ALT attribute when it comes to SEO and usability. Let's start by looking at an image tag with the ALT attribute:
Almost universally, you should be using ALT text to describe each of your images. I say "almost" because if you are still using clear images for formatting, styling, or spacing (you shouldn't be!) then those images don't need any description. As a side note, if you want your HTML to validate properly then every image needs an ALT attribute, even if it's left empty:
In some cases, the ALT text can act as a replacement for the text in an image, such as a company name, tagline or some kind of special promotion, and in other cases the ALT text should actually describe the image. In either case, if the image contains text, then you will almost always want to put it in the ALT attribute as well.
For example, the logo in my company site is really nothing more than just the words "Pole Position Marketing" with my tagline.
I could go a couple of different ways with the the construction of the ALT attribute, depending on the context of how it's used. Here, since I'm using the image as an example, it's not important for me to use much more than a basic description:
alt="Pole Position Marketing logo and tagline"
But on my own website, since this isn't jut an image in the body copy, but one of my key site indicators, I produce a much more complete description:
alt="Pole Position Marketing: Velocitize Your Website Marketing"
Now, if I wanted to be even more descriptive, and more accurate, I'd write my alt tag this way:
alt="Pole Position Marketing logo: Velocitize Your Website Marketing"
Again, I let the context be the guide for what I write in my ALT text. If the reader, with images turned off, won't know that the image is a logo then I'd add that to the description. But since this image appears repeatedly at the top of the page, in the typical place that logos and/or other site indicators go, then I really don't need the additional description.
Describe your image meaning
Let's look at another example. Here is an screenshot of an image-heavy home page:
Now, when we look at this same page with the images turned off you can see how that by not using any image ALT attributes the site becomes unnavigable.
The only place you can see any ALT text is in the logo, which reads "Super 8 Taos". The rest of the site is just a big jumble of images, some of them links and some not.
[Note: you can mouse over any of the images on this page to check out my ALT text usage for each.]
As you can see above, ALT text becomes even more important when navigating a site with images turned off when the navigation is all image based. Let's add some ALT text to these images and see what we get:
The header and navigation are pretty obvious. Here we simply added the same words that are in the image. Again, since this is obviously navigation we really don't need to describe the images, so much as just reiterate what they say. This allows the visitor to know where each link will take them, just as if images were turned on.
You can see that I didn't bother adding ALT text to any images that didn't serve a function beyond eye-candy. There really is no reason to attempt to describe them in any way, so in these cases I would just add an empty ALT attribute, as shown above, just so the code will validate.
In the center area I got a bit creative with my ALT text. Even for less image-heavy websites, this is a great example of how to use ALT attributes for images that attempt to convey meaning without words.
We could attempt to describe the pictures perfectly by saying something like, Picture of our room, picture of the bay, picture of downhill skier. While those are accurate descriptions they don't convey the intended meaning that you get when you actually see the image. So in this case we'll use the ALT attribute to try and get some of that intended meaning across:
alt="All of our rooms are comfortable and spacious with living room seating and ceiling fans."
alt="You can reserve a suite featuring breathtaking ocean views."
alt="We are only minutes from some of the worlds best ski resorts."
With images like this you can get a bit more or less flowery, depending on your needs. It also makes it easier to work keywords into the ALT text without looking junky. Instead of just throwing a keyword in every image, describe the image a bit and work the keyword in naturally. Just like you would with body text.
Considerations for SEO and usability
It's easy when SEOing a website to just throw a quick word or two into your alt images, but that's a mistake. Even in your navigation the ALT text can be used to expand on a links meaning when there is not enough image space to do so.
For example if the image reads "About Us" the ALT attribute can say "Learn more about our company." If the image reads "Accommodations" the ALT text can read "Deluxe accommodations." If your image reads "FAQs" then the ALT text can spell it out with "Frequently asked Questions."
When dealing with navigation you want to be careful about how many words you use. Too much and you lose the ability to be effective, especially with quick scans. Always check what your page looks like with images turned off, ensuring that your ALT tags flow well with the rest of the site design. On my site I edited my ALT attributes specifically to provide better usability with images turned off. Here is what my site's top navigation looks like with images:
The drop downs are all absolutely positioned so if I had made any of these ALT descriptions longer then the drop downs would have been been misaligned. By editing my ALT text properly, we keep proper alignment.
Just to provide one more example of good ALT attribute usage, I've added ALT text to the Better Business Bureau logo on our site. Instead of just saying "BBB Accredited Business" I added a more lengthy description that reads:
alt="We are a Better Business Bureau accredited business. Click here to check our BBB rating."
This text much more valuable to the reader that has images turned off.
I should also note that Internet Explorer will display the ALT attribute when you mouseover an image. FireFox, on the other hand will only display text that is in the image's title attribute. If you are adding great descriptive text in your ALT attribute as I have shown here then it's probably a good idea to also place that text in a title as well.
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03.07.2008 19:29:31 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
4 Tips to Making Your Proprietary CMS Search Friendly
by Manoj Jasra
There are often cases where a business will choose to develop a custom content management system (CMS) rather than buying something off the shelf. I have some first hand experience building my own content management system and can testify that if it's implemented corrrectly it will rank as well as any commercial CMS powered website. The key to a developing a good CMS is to first understand the purpose of your website (requirements) and secondly to design the framework (database, business logic, GUI) to support it. There are also some fundamental SEO related guidelines you should build into your proprietary CMS if you hope to rank well in the search engines.
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Unique Meta Tags: Each page on your website should allow for unique meta tags. This will keep your site away from any supplemental index issues and allow you to rank for a broader range of keywords.
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URL Rewriter: Stay away from dynamic URLs/querystring variables to load content, static URLs are the only way to go. Keywords in the URL are an important ranking factor so make sure to use relevant kewyords in your static URLs. Creating static URLs often requires parsing your URL for keywords so that you can query your database for the correct content.
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Links: To help search spiders easily crawl throughout the site, add the ability to have unique links within the body content and footer. Implementing a strategy such as bread crumb navigation (with keyword rich anchor text) is both useful for crawlability and search engine rankings.
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Content/Keyword Insertion: Not only should your content be unique for each page, you should also allow for your CMS to dynamically insert relevant keywords into your content for image alt tags, links, page copy, and meta tags.
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03.07.2008 08:34:44 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Grab Your Profile Link Before Some Jerk Does
by Debra Mastaler
Why? Well anyone can register any name at a social media site and pass themselves off as you. Or just register the same name and tie it up so you can't. If you've worked hard at promoting your name (or a forum nick-name), people will assume it's you they see on various social media sites. Imagine their confusion when some interloper starts posting differing opinions or ridiculous comments! By not registering your name you've lost the opportunity to build on it and promote yourself in that location.
You've heard the old saying..."online, no one knows you're a dog"? It's true. Anyone can come along and register your username, no verification or identification is required. Once they become "you", serious damage your reputation can be done by making outlandish accusations or promises on behalf of your company. At the very least they cause unintentional confusion. It could go on for quite some time before you find out and by then... negative opinions are formed, reputations are damaged and people are left scratching their heads.
If you think it's a big waste of time to go around and establish your branded username, consider the time and expense it will take to get those negative comments deleted and the confusion straightened out.
Also consider the added link bonus you'll get by taking possession of your username; many of the social media sites allow clean links in their profiles. (LOL - what kind of link builder would I be not to find the link opportunity in this! ;)
Be pro-active and register your brand/name on as many social media sites as you can. Tie up your username and avoid damaging your reputation, don't make it easy for anyone to steal your online identity
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03.07.2008 05:05:46 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Puppy's Picks for 07/02/08
by Jennifer Laycock
A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From new data on offline conversion rates to social media via newspapers, check out four posts Jen thought you need to read.
- Geoff Livingston points to a new report from e-Marketer that continues to show online traffic pushing offline sales. According to the report, the web influences $3.45 of store sales for every $1 in online sales. Further proof of the need for brick and mortar stores to mix online and offline promotions to increase overall sales.
- If you serve a local market instead of a national market with your small business, you need to check out Matt McGee's post on the trend of newspapers building out social communities on their web sites. Matt's post focuses on a new online community in San Diego, but offers up some great advice for small businesses serving local markets all over the country.
- While I'm still not sold on Plurk, Mack Collier makes some good points on why Plurk may beat out Friendfeed as a potential Twitter-killer in his post today over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix. Of course apart from the steep learning curve, Plurk is still populated mostly by ultra-techy early adopters and marketers. That means there's not a lot of true value for small businesses looking to do things other than network with the over-networked. Will that change in time? We'll see. I doubt it, but I've been wrong before...
- Anyone who has heard me speak on any topic at all knows I'm big on relationship building. The long-term process of getting to know your customer and then soft-selling them is a proven way to build the type of customer base that stays loyal and sells your product for you. That's why I found Clate Mask's short post over at Small Business Trends to be interesting. Clate asks if you are hunting or harvesting your customers. Worth reading.
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03.07.2008 04:38:38 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
More People Share WOM Offline, But Does That Make Offline Stronger?
by Jennifer Laycock
Almost anytime I talk about viral marketing, the subject of offline word of mouth verses online word of mouth comes up. People ask questions like which is more powerful, which has more potential and which leads to higher conversions and purchases. The truth is, it depends on the campaign and the product. Still, two new sets of data have been released about word of mouth marketing that are worth looking at.
Jackie Huba covers them over at Church of the Customer today in a thought provoking post on the difference between online and offline word of mouth. In it, she talks about the studies that examine the way people spread ideas and advice about products and services they've used.
Here's the data:
| Active online researcher | All adults | |
|---|---|---|
| Regularly gives advice | 47.0% | 29.4% |
| Occasionally gives advice | 49.8% | 63.4% |
| Never gives advice | 3.2% | 7.2% |
Source: BIGresearch, SIMM 11 (December 2007)
After searching, how do you communicate with others about a service, product or brand? (Check all that apply)
| Face-to-face | 72.7% |
| 63.2% | |
| Telephone | 55.0% |
| Cell phone | 35.3% |
| Instant messaging | 17.7% |
| Text messaging | 13.1% |
| Online communities (e.g. MySpace, Facebook) | 11.8% |
| Blogging | 6.8% |
| Other | 1.8% |
Source: BIGresearch SIMM 11 (December 2007)
Jackie writes:
"Apparently, the value of eye contact, voice and perhaps even non-verbal communication provides a boost to credibility and the likelihood that we'll do something about what we've learned," said Brad Fay, a study co-author.Here's what I consider a flaw with that thinking: The frame of credibility. Being credible isn't dependent solely upon the medium in which a recommendation occurs. Credibility comes from an established position of trust, whether it's in-person or online, or from a preponderance of independent evidence, such as a collection of reviews on a product site like Amazon.
I tend to agree with Jackie here. We build up a level of trust based on our past history with someone. Credibility is gained over time as we demonstrate our ability to make solid recommendations and we're able to establish shared interests, tastes and connections.
That said, I see the potential for some of this data to be misconstrued and used against those of us who push companies to explore online word of mouth, or viral marketing.
Here's the comment I left to Jackie's post:
The Keller Fay study says:"75% of word of mouth occurs in person, 17% on the phone, and just 7% online using instant messages, chat rooms, email and blogs"
But if I understand it correctly, they are looking at this from the perspective of the person doing the WOM and not the person on the receiving end.
I'd be curious to hear it switched around and see how those numbers look, i.e. how do you HEAR about recommendations.
Here's why...
When I tell someone something via offline WOM, I'm generally telling one person at a time. Occasionally I may tell a handful of folks at a lunch or dinner. Once a month or so, I may tell a few hundred something at a speaking gig.
But overall...the impact in terms of my WOM going out is minimal. Sure, I do more telling in person, but the impact of each WOM action is small.
On the other hand, if I make a recommendation via Twitter, I'm reaching 1600 people. If I send it out in my newsletter, I'm reaching 30,000. If I post it on my blog? Half a million or more.
Thus, you can't really compare my offline WOM actions with my online WOM actions and tip the scales in favor of offline. I can reach more people with a single blog post than I will in an entire year of offline WOM.
So even if you disregard the issue of trust and credibility (which is obviously still important) I have to think even that limited amount of online WOM is having as much or more of an impact as that large percentage of offline WOM interactions.
I find the data interesting, but in my mind, it only serves to reinforce how important word of mouth marketing is becoming.
There's already a lively discussion going on in the comments, including some debate about exactly how much extra weight an "in-person" recommendation carries.
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03.07.2008 00:42:19 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Are You Ready to Outsource to a Search Engine Optimization Company?
by Scott Buresh
So, you are the marketing manager of your firm, and you've finally decided to pull the trigger and hire the search engine optimization company that you've been talking to for months. The budget has been cleared, the SEO firm is ready to start, and it should be just a matter of time before you start seeing a huge uptick in business. Right?
Not so fast.
An experienced search engine optimization company will tell you that an ill-planned campaign can be a non-starter from day one. This usually happens when there is no clear understanding of what will be required of the client to make the project run smoothly.
What follows is a list of just a few of the things that your search engine optimization company will need from you in order for the company to get its job done as effectively and quickly as possible. It's a good idea to consider these things before you sign the contract - because a stalled campaign will cost you money, even if it is just lost opportunity cost.
Access to and Control of Your Website
You may be ready to do whatever it takes to take the steps necessary for a successful SEO campaign. Your IT team, on the other hand, may have ultimate control of the website. This only makes sense - an internal IT team that controls the website knows the ins and outs and doesn't want anyone jeopardizing the functionality of the site. However, an SEO campaign will usually require extensive changes to the site - and you don't want to hit a brick wall when you bring recommended changes to the IT staff or ask them to give your search engine optimization company access to the testbed. Make sure that you have an understanding with them before you sign on with a firm, lest you suffer delays and internal strife.
Additionally, it is important that you can get access to either the log files of your website or to the current reporting platform. Before a search engine optimization company begins work on your site, you want to be sure that you have a baseline of current search referred traffic. Without this, you'll have nothing to brag about later - and no way to hold your firm accountable if results do not turn out as planned.
For more on achieving buy-in from different departments within your organization before embarking on an SEO campaign, please see this article.
Control of Your Website Copy
If internal politics are such that you have to consult with every department in your organization in order to get website copy changed, it's imperative that you make sure you have this process streamlined before you bring in your search engine optimization company.
There are many reasons why several departments may be involved in the content of your website. For example, mortgage brokers, medical offices, and investment firms (to name but a few) will almost certainly need to run copy changes through the legal department before they go live on your website. If your company sells complicated software, for example, the copy may need to be run by the developers to be verified for accuracy.
No matter how your internal politics work, make sure you are on the same page with all the people who will be involved in the copy approval process before you start the project.
Awareness of Current Code Limitations
Your prospective search engine optimization company should be able to look at how your website is constructed and let you know if there are limitations that may impede your ability to implement recommendations that can help your search engine optimization efforts.
For example, there are many CMS (Content Management Systems) that will not allow changes to be made that are beneficial to search engines. While many of the new systems are "SEO friendly," many of the older ones are not. Updating your CMS to one that allows changes to be made for maximum SEO benefit may incur additional costs. If your search engine optimization company has been around for a while, they should be able to steer you in the right direction and, indeed, help you and your IT team to switch to a more SEO friendly platform.
Change like this can sometimes be difficult - another reason why you must be committed to SEO and achieve the buy-in from your IT team before you embark on a campaign.
Time
The largest commodity that most marketing managers do not have is time. Frequently, there are innumerable campaigns running at once, and outsourcing SEO to a search engine optimization company may make you feel that it is done and off your plate. Alas, this is rarely the case. A good search engine optimization company will take the requisite time to learn as much about your business as it possibly can, but the fact remains that nobody knows your business as well as you do.
This means that you will have to be involved in the SEO process. If you can't dedicate an hour a week to offering feedback, approving changes, and making sure that the work being done is consistent with your overall message, there will be large delays in the project.
Set aside one hour per week to make sure everything is running smoothly. If you make SEO a back-burner issue after you have hired a search engine optimization company, you will lose money in opportunity cost (and very likely in project cost, since SEO is normally billed on a monthly basis).
Conclusion
Your chosen search engine optimization company, if you have done your due diligence, is ready to help you to maximize your exposure on the Internet and help you to reach your online goals. However, it is essential that you review the required resources and relationships before you sign on the dotted line. You will save yourself a lot of headaches and see results much more quickly if you do.
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02.07.2008 20:42:23 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
How to Fix the Bloated (Tables and HTML) Code that is Jacking Up Your SEO
by Stoney deGeyter
Yesterday I discussed code bloat by looking at how we can move style sheets and JavaScripts off the page in order to clean the coding up quite a bit. I this third post about cleaning up bloated code I wanted to address Tables and other typical causes of bloated HTML.
Bloated Tables
The most typical code bloat I find in sites I work with is created from an excessive use of tables on the page. Personally, I like working with tables over CSS. They are easy to understand and manipulate. I'm not a coder so once tables are moved to CSS it all becomes a bit more difficult to manipulate everything they way I want.
But even while I like tables, I understand the distinct value in creating a tableless website design. Tables create a significant amount of excess code that can slow down page download times significantly. Below is an image of a very simple web page built using tables.
On the surface this looks like a very simple design which shouldn't require a lot of code. But if we look at it with images off and the tables outlined, we see quite a different picture:
While this is a very simple design, the amount of tables used here is quite incredible. This small design has 13 separate tables and 45 table cells. Even if you were not to reformat this using all CSS for a tableless layout, an experience developer could re-create this with one table and five cells. That's a lot of excess code for an itty-bitty web page.
Another drawback about using tables is that your most important content isn't always read first. Within your code, the table content is displayed not top to bottom, but left to right, one cell at a time. The top cell, if there is one, is read first then the rest of the cells are read in order.
Most websites contain the header in the top cell and then the navigation in the far left cell. This means that all the items in your navigation are essentially given more prominence than your main body content which often comes next. Let's place the above layout over the design we already looked at, to get an idea of what the search engines will see first:
Assuming that this was just a four cell page (not including the footer) the content is pretty much near the bottom of the code. Will the search engines find it down there? Sure. Will it make a difference in ranking to move it up? Probably not much. But it could make a difference in getting the page spidered. Pages with a large amount of code bloat, with content pushed down pretty far, can often get bypassed or the search engines will stop spidering the page before getting to all the content.
Now here is the great thing about using CSS and div positioning. You can rearrange your content in the code without rearranging it's appearance on the page. With this method you can put your content first while pushing your navigation, which is non-essential-for-rankings, further down the page.
Not every site can go completely tableless. But even if you don't have the CSS skills to create the table-less design, eliminating unnecessary table code bloat can improve page performance quite a bit. Especially if you've got a considerable excess number of tables going on. But take that a step further and position your content via CSS to get your important content as high up in the code as possible.
Other HTML Bloat
If you're like me then you use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editor for editing web pages. Now I can write code, but I find WYSIWYG editors to make things a whole lot easier, since I'm more of a visual person. But I love programs like Dreamweaver that allow me to have both the visual view and the code view open at the same time.
Usually, I'll use the visual view just as an assist while I edit the code by hand. Editing in code view, rather than visual view, ensures that you get cleaner code. Over the years I found that when you edit in the visual view it can often add excessive garbage to the code. Do this enough and over time you can get yourself some considerable code bloat.
One example of this is when you copy text from Microsoft Word. Word creates a lot of excess junk when you past it into a visual editor. Just the other day I copied some bullet points from Word into an editor. Each bullet was a line long. But upon importing, Word carried over an additional four lines of junk code--per bulleted item--that I had to go in and edit out.
Deleting things from the visual view can also leave behind excess code. An number of times we've run broken link checks for our clients to find a broken link on the page. Looking at the page in the browser you could not find the link anywhere. It wasn't until we got into the code that we found an empty link tag, like this:
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02.07.2008 19:28:09 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
BBC Busts Out Top Level Domain Name News
by Sage Lewis
The BBC reports a complete internet overhaul with relaxed rules for the previously restricted .com's, .net's, .org's, etc. Google's Inside AdWords blog announces an Ad Planner to assist you with every aspect of your media campaigns, and Yahoo! kills a free keyword research tool offered through Overture. Sage also reports on increased local and global online advertising, with funds reaching $13.1 billion spent locally and estimated to exceed $106 billion globally by 2011.
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02.07.2008 02:27:17 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
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