By Kyle McCabe | December 5, 2011

A First Page of Google in every home!

Common sense strikes back, it seems, as I can’t swish and flick my SEO wand the last couple weeks without hitting someone who’s talking about being on the “first page of Google.”

The first page of Google. Right, yeah seems like common sense, doesn’t it. We all want to be there. “Get on the first page of Google in 30 days.” “First page of Google in two weeks.” “First page of Google 5 minutes ago…just sign here, step right up everyone’s a winner!”

It makes my soul hurt. Here’s the problem with all that: Google doesn’t have a “first page.” Read that one more time.

What people mean when they say “the first page of Google” is page one of search results for a particular query. But that’s one, single search phrase. It’s unique to that phrase. Conclusion: Google has as many first pages as it has search phrases submitted to its system. Where’s the “common” here?

So when someone says “page one of Google” or “the first page of Google,” ask them what specific search phrase they are referring to. Because I guarantee the guy offering to put your wizbang store on top isn’t going to be able to do it for the term “wizbangs.” It’s too general, too competitive. Try “purple wizbang cylinders” and then maybe you have a shot.

But that’s a completely different “first page,” isn’t it?

By Kyle McCabe | November 17, 2011

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Common sense isn’t.” I find this to be true more often than not.

In the case of SEO and keywords, many times it seems “common sense” needs to be ignored or thrown out the window entirely. Every person has their own perspective and their own ways of doing things. Search is no different. Ask 10 people to find a single product online, you’ll probably get 7 different keyword searches.

In fact, according to Google’s internal data at the time of this post, 16% of searches each day have never been submitted before.

So where is the “common” here? We all want to optimize our websites for search engines – that’s how we get found these days. Hell, I have clients telling me this now, so I’d say it’s probably common sense. But what does it mean?

What is optimization?

“Optimization” seems to have a reputation for being some magical voodoo concoction we apply to the web server, or a wand we can wave at our screens and Inquisio Optimus! Heh. Not likely, Potter.

Search engine optimization is a very focused, data-driven effort. Like a thin-beam flashlight in a dark room, you can’t focus everywhere at once. You need to find the most relevant area (keywords) to focus on, and then put them on your website in a way that makes sense.

But you can optimize for only so many keywords before you’ve diversified your website’s subject matter into search obscurity. But how do we know what keywords to focus on? It’s actually very simple.

How to Choose Keywords

There are two main figures to focus on here.

Traffic: we need to determine as best we can how much daily traffic a keyword gets. By this I mean to ask how many searches per day, on average, occur for this particular word or phrase?

Competition: we also need to find out how many other websites are indexed for this phrase. This is our competition.

Google has all this data, and they’ve generously shared it with us. Competition is easy, as you just type the term into the search field and see how many total results are returned. That’s your total competition.

To get an idea of average traffic, we use Google’s Keyword Tool (sign in for best results). So let’s say I do woodworking and I want to sell items on my website. I need people to find my website for woodworking related terms. So let’s see what Google has to say.

Woodworking gets a monthly average of 823,000 searches, so a daily average of about 27000. This is fantastic! So let’s look at the competition: 53,300,000. Oh. Alright, so our chances of being ranked well for this keyword…pretty much zero, unless we have millions to spend.

But I don’t just do “woodworking,” do I? How about “custom woodworking?” Google says 403 average daily searches and about 1,820,000 competitors. That’s pretty good search traffic, but the competition is still really stiff. But I don’t do all kinds of woodworking, I specialize in furniture.

For “custom wood furniture” we have 146 average daily searches with 173,000 competitors. Ah, here we are – this is a good keyword phrase. Decent daily traffic that will be relevant, and not too much competition. I have a good chance of being ranked well for this term, given the right effort and enough time.

But this is just one keyphrase – I’ll need a small list of different keywords and phrases for my site. Better get researching!

Onward, upward

So you see the “common sense” approach doesn’t always work. Just guessing about keywords and optimizing for “woodworking,” would disappoint. A strategy based on research, however, will eliminate the guesswork and afford a much better chance at success. Of course there are more factors than just traffic and competition, but this is the starting point.

So let’s get started.

By Molly Albrecht | July 21, 2011

Places

Did you know one in five Google searches is for local information? People of all ages now go online to look for details about local businesses and organizations. That’s why it’s so important for business owners to make sure they manage their web presence – one place to start is your Google Places listing. Are you listed? Have you “claimed” your listing? Updated it with correct phone numbers, addresses, websites, business hours, special deals and promotions, photographs and even videos?

Google creates basic Places pages for many businesses automatically, but the business owner has to “claim” and update it with complete information. Check if you already have a Places page by searching for your business name under Google maps, and clicking on your link when it shows up on the left. If there isn’t a listing for your business, you can create one. If one exists, you’ll have the option to claim it.

When claiming a business, you’ll need to choose a way to verify your listing. Google will either send you …Read more »

By Kyle McCabe | July 21, 2011

We’ve come a long way since 2007, with incredible growth in the SEO/social media portion of our business. It didn’t come without a healthy dose of challenges, but that’s what we’re all about and we’re still going strong.

What we do isn’t easy in this changing world of Pandas and Zaarly’s; each new update or piece of technology brings a fresh challenge to our doorstep. Our task is to stay on top of it all *and* bring our clients with us. So we’re always reading, always experimenting, forming new strategies, brainstorming with the rest of RSA, attending seminars, trying to figure out the best approach, the reason for that traffic spike, or how to turn an apparent failure into a success or at least a lesson.

What we hear more and more often from clients themselves are things like, “I know it’s important and I have to do it at some point…,” or, “I noticed a drop in traffic when I stopped SEO,” or, “Every website should be optimized for search engines,” are becoming more common. Business owners and marketers are getting it – an invisible website is an invisible business.

So what’s the hang-up? Usually it’s budget. No one wants to throw thousands of dollars at something they don’t understand the mechanics of – even if SEO seems necessary it can still look like a bunch of voodoo.

That’s why we try to take the mystery out of it all. We tell you exactly what we’re doing and why, and show you the results.

By Allan Emerson | May 26, 2011

website optimization...yes, it's just like this

To a web developer, website optimization* is a worthy goal all by itself. There’s a certain pride in managing to create a site with the fewest lines of code possible, only the most essential element ids and classes, a robust CSS file and nary an unnecessary <img> tag to be found. But this isn’t just web geeks trying to earn more points on our geek cards. There are also some practical advantages to website optimization, and choosing a good web designer will make sure you benefit from them.

Website optimization: Page Load Speed

Do you like waiting for a page to load? Does anybody? Several factors can add to page load times, from extra communication with the web server and lots of user-side scripting to plain ‘ol bloated code. But clean code reduces page load speed because the web browser simply has less to construct before showing you the page. If your web developer isn’t concerned with website optimization, they’re slowing this process down unnecessarily.

Furthermore, search engines know …Read more »

By Laura Baldwin | April 20, 2011

When the E*TRADE baby made his first appearance (Superbowl 2008), no one imagined he would become one of the most popular figures in advertising to date. Currently, he has over 30,000 Facebook fans and nearly 12,000 Twitter followers (not to mention Youtube views). Etrade.com even devotes an entire page just to display all 25 of the little guy’s commercials.

These days embedding video in websites is commonplace – so why aren’t you doing it? Here are 5 reasons you should.

1. Video is entertaining.

We love video. Look at how much time the average person spends watching TV and movies. Consider that a lot of people who surf the internet instead are watching video there! We love he movement, the activity, seeing and hearing other people. Video is engaging and can be a lot of fun, adding a lot of energy to otherwise still and silent websites. …Read more »

By Nancy Marshall | March 16, 2011

[This guest post from Nancy Marshall Communications in Augusta, Maine, was written by Matt Rideout, Internet Account Coordinator and Social Media Strategist, and originally posted on the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies blog.]

Ever seen the movie “Hackers”? Computer programmers can be “different” sometimes, and their terminology for computer stuff can reflect that. Today we’ll be looking at different sorts of search engine optimization “hats,” as they are called, specifically black hat and white hat search engine optimization. Call them yin and yang or good vs. evil. Each hat has its own culture of followers, code of ethics, as well as its plusses and minuses.

One of the most important factors affecting the ranking of your website in search engine results is the number of links that point from other websites to your website. The more high quality links pointing to your site, the higher your site will show up in search engine rankings. Google will assume that because all of these websites are linking to you, that your site must be a great authority on its subject. Nancy Marshall likes to say that it’s like a person in real life. If a person has a lot of important and popular friends, then people will assume that person is also important and popular.

Chances are you have seen an advertisement or received an innocent-looking email from someone promising …Read more »

By Molly Albrecht | February 16, 2011

Analytics? Bounce rate?

What language are they speaking?

I have to admit, I thought I might need a passport and a pocket dictionary on my first day at RSA. That day I attended several meetings with the search engine marketing team, and most of the words buzzing around me sounded like a foreign language.

I’m the first to admit, I’m a search engine marketing (SEM) newbie.

I applied for the interactive marketing specialist job at RSA because writing skill was included in the job description. That sounded ideal, since I love writing and studied journalism in college. Little did I know the job encompassed so much more, and I’d be grasping to understand parts of it.

I’ll let you in on a few of the secrets I’ve learned.

Luckily for me, I’ve discovered …Read more »

By Kyle McCabe | August 31, 2010

Search Engine Marketing... it's not voodoo

There’s still a lot of confusion out there about what a search engine marketing firm does – and doesn’t do – and I think this confusion is holding businesses back or causing people to waste a lot of money on false expectations.

Put simply, search engine marketing (SEM) is just what it says it is: marketing. It’s not search engine sales, or search engine lead generation, or search engine voodoo…it’s just marketing; bringing your products and services to market.

I can bring your product to someone …Read more »

By Tarah Heupel | July 22, 2010

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), many business owners don’t understand how it works or how to use it – so this week we brought in the big guns to help demystify the process.

The SEO Expert

Woessner, SEO Guru

We had the pleasure of bringing in renowned SEO expert (and one-time RSA intern) Stephen Woessner from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse to host public workshops and meet with our staff.

Stephen kicked off the week with a seminar for small business owners, sponsored by RSA and AAF Black Hills. More than 40 people turned out to learn Stephen’s 15 simple steps to SEO, and we’ve heard some great feedback from attendees who took home a step-by-step plan for optimizing their sites.

For those of you who missed out, you’re probably wondering what big secrets Stephen revealed. We can’t give you all the details, but Stephen’s book is a great resource for business owners who want to take a stab at doing it themselves. Want to try to do SEO yourself? Here’s what you should know. …Read more »