SEO – Not Dead Yet

If you use Google for your searches, you’ve most likely noticed the most recent innovation, Google Instant. As you type your query in the search box, it automatically populates the page, as shown below:

We’ll be seeing a lot of articles proclaiming, once again, that SEO is Dead! But is this really the case? The short answer is no, but to learn why SEO is still alive and kicking, read the well thought out article Does Google Instant change the SEO game? by Jonathan Leger.

You may find this new rollout to be helpful in your keyword research, as a matter of fact. As you can see in my example, as I typed “learn seo” it gave me suggestions that are popular with searchers. So to promote my SEO Power Team course, I should use the keyword phrases learn seo online and learn seo step by step (SHAMELESS promotion I know!). Give it a try with your product or service and see what Google suggests. This is a quick and dirty way to do some longtail keyword research.

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On-Site or Off-Site SEO: Which is More Important?

This is a great question a commenter recently asked: Which one is more important – on-page SEO or off-page SEO?

First, let’s clarify terminology: on-site (or on-page) SEO includes titles, descriptions, content, headers, alt tags, navigation, URL naming, load speed and other ways to make a site more friendly to both visitors and search engines; off-site(or off-page) SEO comprises inbound link building using a variety of techniques and strategies. When you include social media, video syndication, newsletters, advertising and the like, the whole shebang becomes an online marketing campaign.

I once read that on-site SEO is 80% and off-site SEO is 100%. That makes sense in the world of SEO. Here’s why…

The Importance of On-Site SEO

On-site SEO should be your primary focus. A well-optimized site will load quickly; it has content that makes it easy for visitors (as well as search engines) to understand what the site is about. Both visitors and search engines will be able to navigate through it easily, find what they want, and not get lost or reach a dead end. On-page is the most important element in your SEO efforts in the beginning. A site that is not well-optimized (80%) may do okay, but then again if visitors and search engines don’t like it, you won’t get far.

The Importance of Off-Site SEO

Once your site is optimized, off-page SEO becomes 100% important. Without inbound links, a site has little to no chance of ranking in search engine results. The following breakdown from an SEOmoz survey of top SEO experts shows the importance of inbound links:

The easiest part of your SEO will always be on-site optimization. Follow basic SEO practices, avoid sneaky (black hat) tricks, and offer up the best site you can for your visitors. After that, although link building is time consuming, tedious, and can take a long time to take effect, it’s also vitally important if you want your site to rank in Google’s search results.

So what’s my answer? Both – but put them in the proper order so they will work synergistically.

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Google Search Encouraging Local Business Results

If you haven’t claimed or updated your Google Places/Maps listing, you are losing out even more than ever now.

Google has implemented a new service that encourages searchers insert a location when a generic keyword is typed in, such as dentist. Results for my local search for a dentist returned the top ten business listings on Google Maps.

If you have a local business and have not taken care of this extremely important facet of off-site SEO, it’s time to get busy. Your competitors are already there, and it will take some time and effort if you want your website to rank in the top ten.

If you’re at a loss as to how to go about getting good rankings, check out the SEO Power Team. This step-by-step guide for DIY SEO will tell you exactly how to optimize your site for top rankings in Google.

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5 Steps to Get Your Site Found on Google

Google just changed the face of their search results with a huge innovation, blending local with organic results. My last blog post was about how you’re missing out if you haven’t updated your business on Google Places, and now it means even more than ever!

First I’m going to show you how Google has changed. Then I’m going to tell you exactly how to get your own site ranking, and quite possibly showing up on the first page of Google search results more than once.

The Google 3 Pack, 7 Pack and 10 Pack have mostly disappeared. Now when you look up a search term with a local designation, you get a page that looks like this:

The organic listings are the first three below the ads. Note the little plus sign and “Show more results from…” below the second organic listing. When you click on the plus sign you get a list of that site’s indexed pages that Google thinks fit the search parameters, with the option of going even deeper:

Following the organic results are the top three Places results, and when you click on the Place page link you are taken to that site’s page:

Below the organic results for businesses that rank in the top three Places results are the more generic local directory results, icluding Merchant Circle, Magic Yellow, and Yahoo Local.

So what does all of this mean for you? If you own a local business, you have more opportunities than ever to get your site found on the first page of Google.

5 Magic Steps to Google Ranking

1. Your first step is to ensure that your site has the best search engine optimization possible, for both visitors and search engines.


2. Get yourself over to Google Places, click on Put your business on Google Maps, and spend time making your Places page complete and informative.


3. Ask customers to write testimonials and reviews on Google, Yelp, Insider Pages, Merchants Circle, and other local directories.


4. Add quality content to your site. Informational pages and/or a blog will work.


5. Build inbound links to your site from other sites. The best way to start the process is through article marketing.

Okay, so these aren’t really magic – they take hard work, dedication, and money if you don’t have the time or knowledge to do it yourself.

You have a few options – you can scour the Internet for information on SEO and implement it on your site, you can join the SEO Power Team’s 3 month course ($97 a month) and get professional tutorials on how to do it yourself (written by yours truly), or you can call an SEO Consultant and have it done for you.

What you must NOT do is ignore or put off marketing your website any longer.

© Kay Frenzer-Zeeh - visit SEO Diva for more great content.

Tags: Google, local search, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO tips

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SEO Tactics That Work

Marketing Sherpa just released this chart on the marketing effectiveness a various SEO efforts. Although their reports are written for B2B, we can use the same information for Business to Consumer (B2C).

Although keyword research is the foundation for all SEO, and should be at the top of the effectiveness portion of the chart, the effort expended is on the low side:

It’s surprising that respondents did not indicate that keyword research required a high level of effort. In order to conduct effective keyword research that will drive results of SEO campaigns, a considerable amount of effort in research is required. This may be an indication of organizations executing incomplete keyword research.

Keyword Research – The Foundation

It’s very easy to conduct a quick review of keywords via Google’s keyword tool. However, that keyword tool was recently changed and doesn’t give results that are as trustworthy as they may have been in the past. Additionally, just because a keyword gets a lot of searches does not mean it will convert well or at all for your product or service offering.

My favorite tool for keyword research is Market Samurai, which includes competition analysis and monetization among many other valuable tools. You can get a free copy (does not include all modules) by clicking on the link.

Blogging for Fresh Content

I found it interesting that businesses perceive blogging as being very high in effort but low in effectiveness, yet developing new content is perceived as highly effective. Including a blog on a site means adding new content on a regular basis (hello). It’s content that gets crawled regularly, and can rank on it’s own merits.

Businesses are missing out on a huge source of ongoing, targeted, fresh content opportunities if they don’t include a blog or utilize their existing blog effectively.

Inbound Link Building

Ongoing link building is perceived as a high effort, highly effective tactic. Although some smaller, local businesses can get by with fewer links, those with a lot of competition must keep inbound link building work going all the time in order to get and maintain their rankings. My company has a department dedicated to inbound link building for our clients.

The link building work we perform is predicated on keyword research – aha – and now we’re back to the value of spending more time on keyword research to improve SEO!

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