SEO Business Coach

Trust, Value, Integrity & Performance.
SEO Business Coach

SEO Business Coach can help you rank well for your trade name and desired key terms to bring in traffic and revenue. Most website designers do not know how to optimize sites for search engines. While they can build attractive sites that support media advertising, the last thing that seems to be addressed is how the search engines will react to the site.

This guide will help you understand the logic behind our actions and is meant to facilitate an ongoing discussion so that we can make the best use of our time and the best moves for your domain. While SEO is a theoretical best guess, past experiences have helped us put together this guide.

We accomplish your goals by performing the following tasks:

Install Google Analytics The first step in a successful implementation is to install Google Analytics so that we can get a baseline of your current traffic levels, key terms, referring sites and AdWords campaigns. From that we can determine number of visits (return or unique), number of pages visited, time on site, time on page, navigation and location of the visitors. It will also provide evidence of our work together and the results of those efforts. Reporting is available through email to the client at any interval.

Install Google Webmaster Tools We install Google webmaster tools which are the only tool where Google tells you what they see about your site. This is the only opportunity that you get to obtain feedback directly from Google themselves. The data that they provide is in depth and can show where you are weak and where you are strong. Data provided includes terms that they determine that you are most relevant in. How much traffic you are getting on each term as compared to the available amount of traffic from their search engine. How many pages you have registered in their index and who is linking to those pages. You can submit a sitemap to Google and there are several diagnostic tools available.

Initial Website Assessment We look into the code of the site so that we can determine what the search engine will see when they visit your site for inclusion into their index. We typically look to your home page to be your branded name page which links out to keyword specific pages. We measure how quickly the website loads as it is now a factor that is important to Google. We measure the size of your graphics to insure that they do not make the page load slowly. We look at your page titles and meta descriptions as well as overall content on your pages. And finally, we look at your internal linking structure to make sure that the right amount of link power is distributed through your site properly.

Setup Raven Tools We use Raven Tools for every engagement as they have the most comprehensive keyword reporting system that we can find. They keep track of all of your targeted keyterms and report on a weekly basis your current position and if it has moved up or down. You can graph the performance of each individual key term over time. The system also helps research new key terms and offers information as to how much traffic is available for each term so that you are not wasting your time pursuing a term that has low traffic levels.

Raven Tools integrate with Google Analytics so actual visitor information can be gathered and decisions can be made on how to track those key terms in the future and improve on their performance. Raven Tools also offers a monitoring service that shows you every time your brand name is used across the internet which is invaluable to those who want to follow press releases to see who re-writes them on their site. All elements of Raven Tools are reportable to the client.

AdWords Campaign AdWords serves several purposes to our clients. First, it is a great way to bring in revenue on day one. Secondly, it tells us what the user was searching for when the ad fired so we can use it as a real-time key term acquisition tool. Thirdly, it tells us how well each key term converts which tells us which key terms to optimize for on an organic level. So while you are bringing in revenue, you are also gleaning intelligence for your organic campaigns.

There are no keyword tool reporting systems that offer you such robust data points to make decisions with. From this information we decide which pages to optimize or create new content to match up with AdWords data so that we can offer fresh and timely content to the search engines as they are proven to convert for those key terms already. Very few SEO providers take this important step to acquire new key terms.

Relevant Content Creation Most website owners have invested significant time and resources into their website. At times it is necessary to expand the website with new content creation as we want to take advantage of a single key term per page of content. Search engines catalog sites and they appreciate it when there is clarity in the content. Furthermore, how these pages link together to make a logical index (or taxanomy) gives your site more credibility that you are providing relevant information and not just a ruse to capture traffic wherever you can get it. Quality content will bring quality traffic and those viewers are more likely to convert on your site. Browsing content is a trust relationship and for users who feel comfortable that they are at the right place at the right time will engage in the site much more.

SEO is not about creating content for the search engines. You are building pages for people and search engines reward better performing pages with higher rankings. If a user comes in on the term motorcycle helmet, there had better be a wide selection of motorcycle helmets for the visitor to read about, browse through, watch videos on, shop for, read reviews and whatever else is relevant to capture that person’s interest.

Search engines capture how long the visitor stayed and what actions they took while they were there through Google Analytics. If the time on page is less than 20 seconds on average then it is a sign that users are not very interested in your page, so you are less relevant and will get lower rankings in the search results. Every page that you create on your website must be a stand-alone page as it is judged individually by each search engine. To be successful, every page must have value by housing relevant information that the user feels is worth spending their time on. Secondly, the page must be worthy of being linked to on other websites, forums, blogs and other online media forms to be considered relevant. And remember, individual pages must be relevant to people, not search engines as the search engines simply provide what the people have been spending their time on.

Who Links To You? Search engines determine the importance of your site by finding out who is linking to you. If a trusted library, college, municipality, government, high ranking business or organization links to your site, you are going to have an easier time finding your desired rankings. The alternative is to get several personal websites, blogs and forums to link to your website so that the search engines find your site important.

There are several directories that you can include your site in that can be helpful but they should only play a part in your linking strategy. Human edited directories are the most desired like Yahoo Directory and DMOZ as they have the size and scope that search engines trust. Logic being, if they trust your site, then I do too. There are many directories that allow you to input your site information automatically which can be helpful. If you can post and keep a link on Wikipedia it can be helpful to capture traffic, but the weight of page rank will not follow because Wikipedia blocks that aspect of it with No Follow tags on their links. Requesting links from private and public websites can be a good strategy as many webmasters like to have the most complete listing of a certain topic.

Getting natural links from a wide variety of pages is extremely important and failure to do so will impede you in your goals. Search engines can store the date that new links are discovered. From that they can determine when an artificial link campaign has occurred. People that buy links for their domain are sure to be discovered and penalized by the search engines. The only way to benefit from incoming links is to have people want to naturally link to your site. Of course you can send people emails making them aware of your site, but do it steadily and over a long period of time.

Keyword Acquisition Every time someone searches for something, they enter what is called a key term or search term into the search engine's search field. Search engines track every search and record it in a database for future reporting. Instead of creating content blindly and hoping that people will search for it, you can instead find out what people are searching for and write content to capture as much traffic as possible.

So how do you find out what people are searching for? Google offers a report from their database called the Keyword Tool but I find the data to be stale, inaccurate at times which can be incredibly frustrating. When making a decision to buy keyword-rich domains or build content for your website, I want to know exactly how much traffic a key term has.

The only way to accurately accomplish this is to run an AdWords campaign and test the terms by running them in exact match. By running the ad over a period of seven days, you will know the exact number of impressions the key term is searched for. Your ad must run 100% of the time and must have a decent quality score. You must bid high enough to capture every impression for the test to be accurate but it is worth it to know if the term really brings in organic searches. Make sure you have the search partners turned off or you will get data from AOL or others when you just want Google searches. You can also make your ad vague an unattractive to discourage clicks but not so bad to get your ad disapproved. You can test several key terms at a time and it will help you prioritize your efforts by tackling the highest number of key terms as possible.

If your company runs AdWords campaigns already, you can run the AdWords Search Query Performance report. Focus on the Search Query column to understand the actual key term that the user typed in to trigger the advertisement. Secondly, focus on the impressions to know how many times that key term was searched for over your time period. Other important factors are the CTR, meaning the % of times the ad was clicked in relation to the number of times the ad was shown. The higher the percentage, the higher the conversion rate. Why is this important? Users feel that this ad was most relevant for them so they clicked on it. If your company is advertising for these terms and people are clicking on them in the ad space and you are not organically ranking on them, then you are losing out on opportunity. Paid traffic is the absolute best way to determine key term opportunities when deciding your organic strategy.

If your company is not currently running an AdWords campaign and you want to gain key term intelligence then you should immediately start running AdWords campaigns and setup your targeted key terms as broad match. This will not only potentially bring revenue to your company but it will also build a database of actual search terms used that triggered your ads. Again, the AdWords Search Query Performance report can be used to see the variety of people's searches as well as the popularity of each term used. Remember, this is the only accurate way of capturing new key terms to decide if you are going to tackle them organically.

Another way to acquire key terms for your paid or organic search efforts is through your analytics software. If you don't have analytics installed on your site you should do so immediately. Google offers an analytics package for no charge and it is more than adequate for most installations. Within the software, you can export all of the key terms that people used to come to your site for both paid and organic traffic. This will give you a good idea for key terms to target. However, analytics records traffic to your site so the data may represent terms that you already rank well for which is how you got the traffic in the first place.

If you have a search engine on your site and people are trying to find products or topics by using it, store the searches so that you can review them later. This will give you great intelligence for merchandising and possibly adding new product to your catalog. The more frequent the users are searching for products on your site means that they are probably searching in the search engines for it to. Do you organically rank well for those product searches?

There are an endless number of ways to collect key terms, but there are only a few that bring the process in a manner that seem to make the most sense for most businesses. Remember, AdWords offers real-time impression based data, analytics brings opportunities based on prior visits and site search brings key terms that help you merchandise your product, make decisions on products to add to your catalog as well as terms to rank organically with.

Domain Name Evaluation Domain names themselves can tell the search engines what your site is about. Some companies register their company brand, and another strategy is to register a domain name that is topic-driven. For example, Apple.com has nothing to do with fruit but the domain is a top 10 traffic domain on the internet. Other companies place their market-driven terms into their domain name, like Motorcycle-Superstore.com. Either way is fine as the search engines place more emphasis on the content and who is linking to you.

However, there are instances in which you can get extra power by registering exact match domain names for Google and especially Bing. For example, the key term ‘PWM Controller’ has a fair amount of exact traffic. Registering the domain name pwmcontroller.com gave an extra boost in both Google and Bing when relevant content is added to the domain name. It is important to know that the domain name needs to be all of the key terms together with no spaces, dashes or extra characters. It only works when there is an exact match and the extension is a .com.

When shipping for an exact match domain name, it is important to use AdWords to run and exact campaign to measure the traffic on the key term before spending money on the domain name. You need to know exactly how many impressions the key terms have before buying the domain name. Some people use host names, like peanutbutter.sandwiches.com. Search engines do not treat this any differently than what the content is on the page, what the page rank is and who is linking to that page. For example, do a lot of search queries in Google and show yourself how many top results come back with hostnames, or other inferior extensions like .cc, .biz. or .co. Most of the power comes with domains with key terms in the domain name, .com extension and without hostnames.

There are some situations where .org will offer more power than a .com but that is due to the organization behind the website and who is linking to it, not simply because it has a .org extension. Extensions with .edu and .gov have the most power because you have to prove you’re an educational facility or government organization to get the name, plus the number of quality sites linking to those sites.

Widen your scope when buying a new domain name. Don’t look just at what has never been registered before through your registrar. Flippa.com is a great source to buy an existing domain name and sometimes they sell the website along with it as well. Another place to check is JustDropped.com as it sells the domain names that people have failed to re-register. Ebay offers some domain names for sale and often times you can pull up the domain name in your browser and look for a for sale sign.

We use GoDaddy for our registrar as they seem to have the lowest prices and best support. Before checking out, search Google for ‘Godaddy promo code’ and find the best promo code from fat wallet. It can save you up to 30% on your domain buys, so I just register for a longer term. Also, search engines do not like short-term domain name purchases so always register your domain name for five years or more at a time.

When you buy a domain name, install it on your hosting server right away and get a little bit of text content on it. Get the site linked in and regardless of what you plan to develop the name into so that you can start the burning-in period while you are sitting on the sandbox. It is better to set a small site live then have it sit with your registrar until you plan on developing the site.

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