Determine your unique synonymic set , learn keyword types, best keywords for ppc, synonymic set discovery, site business model and find your keyword sweet spot.

Recorded in 2007 using ThemeZoom‘s Krakken (in beta)

See the Finished Product

The Website Blueprint

Do you Understand Different Types of Keywords?

Online behavioral pattern research is just as important as keyword popularity research. How many ways are there to ask the same questions? When those variations of the same query are entered, which ones result in your desired action? This is all part of discovering your keyword genetics (sweet spot). In the list below I have gathered all the different keyword types that I believe exist. When you look at keywords this way, finding your sweet spot is a lot easier. You should know that the money keyword you have today may not be a money keyword tomorrow. This is because markets change very quickly. Do you remember pop-culture? Where did that come from?

Different Keyword Types

1. On Page- Appear in the text on pages, all known as contextual.
2. Effective- keywords that convert from on page keywords to interesting keywords. These are keywords you can find in analytics or server logs. They are the words people use to successfully find your website.
3. Competitor- Keywords your competition uses that you also use in more targeted ways.
4. Client – Supplied by the client and considered to be profitable.
5. Experimental – When new keywords are introduced to ideas and have not proven themselves yet.
6. Exotic- From other tools like Word Tracker or keyword Discovery that have not proven themselves to you.
7. Site Search- Used on your site via internal search by visitors that want to dig deeper into your website.
8. Pay Per Click- Keywords that are being used in PPC. We can break these keywords down even further into CTR, conversion and impressions. ** If each one was in a circle, 3 circles can overlap to form the PPC keyword sweet spot
9. Money Keywords- **A very small overlap where all types of keywords intersect to form a sweet spot.

** Take all of your Keyword Types They look like this:

Why You Need to Know About Keyword Types

If you can understand why keywords are now assigned a species then you should also understand this will influence research. When your keywords go to work for you they will move through cycles of keyword types as markets change. That’s why this all-encompassing internet marketing system also includes the professional set up and use of Google Analytics as a preferred website measurement tool. After-all it is free and backed up with an amazing support group of Google Analytics Certified Companies and individuals. We want to drive markets and to do that efficiently, regular analysis of your website is needed to improve usability, profits, ROI on marketing efforts and ecommerce transaction goal fulfillment. If we have the knowledge and power to drive markets, why imitate them?

Where Will Your Traffic Come From?

Next we need to decide the channels of website traffic we will tap into. Your choices include:

• Blueprinted Social Networking Grid
• Reputable Directories submissions
• Reputable Article directories
• Press Releases
• Organic traffic
• Pay Per Click
• Blog strategy
• Offline marketing- radio, TV, circulars, postcards, etc

Getting traffic boils down to buying it (paid traffic), creating it (strategy), and/or sharing it (joint ventures, affiliates, etc)

Market Drill Down

In this part of the research we move into planning for your future. Before we can do any research there is one question you need to answer. Why do you have a website and what is its purpose? You see, the focus of our research energies now is on you and your business model. This becomes the basis for the blueprint we will create for your website. Once your business goals are made clear the phases to our next steps include:

• Sandbox- Market discovery and parent keyword decisions, competitor analysis white papers
• Isolation- Focus on one primary keyword per category to get understands the market size, costs, and activities.
• Drill Clusters- Climb up and down each vertical market; make topic and topic grouping choices
• Final synonymic set/ Test Clusters- experiment and combine keyword clusters in synonymic sets to find the most profitable scenario for the client business model
• Silos and Articles- Distilled version of all research, all article skeletons and categories are finalized for output. (Includes PPC and organic purpose content blocks)
• Output Blueprint- This module insures that architecture is correct. Using very powerful algorithms this software actually warns you when you are placing content in a less profitable location. It insures absolute architectural sense with your own unique synonymic set.

Each phase utilizes video presentation with voice explanation

To accomplish these phases in an optimum way market research software, current market data, and industry experience is needed. How big is the internet? In fact, it is quite small when you are looking at the online world through powerful research software. using this software specifically designed for market research and keyword alchemy by systematically tapping into the most important and applicable keywords in your vertical market. Then put them in the proper architectural location within your website. Every successful website has a unique business “thumbprint” that cannot be imitated. That is the difference between passengers and drivers. Do you want to imitate a market or drive it? To move forward now your unique business model is an intricate part of the marketing research mix. We always want to have purpose and intention on the table before we can do meaningful research.

We highlight the specific keywords that define the themes of a specific client and organize them to create a unique synonymic set of keywords. All topics and themes are optimized appropriately for you to rank in search engines and ppc engines. Your website wire frame incorporates all traffic sources we plan on entertaining. Yes that means we create content specifically for PPC visitors and organic visitors. As a matter of fact if we think about the various channels of traffic, different content writing for each proves profitable time and time again You want to cluster your keywords together in a way that is appropriate for your business model, products, traffic and services.

There is no “one size fits all” blueprint!

When your blueprint is complete the wire frame is handed to your design team to begin working on concept. I recommend 3 creative’s to get design in the evolution stage.

Content and Interlinking

Is there a secret to content writing?

Content is the single, most powerful ingredient on your website that tells search engines and people who you are. Although the two interpret your content differently the conclusion both come to is the same or similar. During the market analysis drill down we will find terms that experts use, SIPS, technical and marketing longtails, synonyms and high co-occurrence terms. These terms are used to help guide your content pages and marketing decisions. Additionally, there are highly specialized content composing programs that help you write and research topics for your website content. At the end of the day your content is unique, well written, educational and theme focused. In simple terms, every single web page that is part of the blueprint has a defined purpose for website visitors and search engines…a perfect synonymic set.

Before we add lipstick, blush and other cosmetics (images, videos, graphic design) a blueprinted website is architecturally sound with content and interlinking ready to publish. This includes html page titles, Meta tag keywords, and descriptions.

What good are Websites that COST you Money? Websites are supposed to MAKE you Money!

The majority of this phase to the architectural sound website is using ThemeZoom keyword market research technology and knowledge. Additionally, other applications and programs can be modulated onto the final output blueprint. Other tools can also be used.

If you are thinking about designing or redesigning your website it’s important to get the big picture.  Your current web site design maybe one, two or more years old.  It is not age of a web site that dictates whether you build a new one or not.  You must first realize a web site is the essential for growth and communication.  The methodology behind building a successful website has been available for decades. The initial step to designing a new site is a mindset to get it done in today’s market.

Evolution

Then (1970-1980)

Over time people have evolved. I am a 48 year old man and who recalls when there were no fax machines, e-mail, Internet and many other modern day conveniences we take for granted. These were the days where special attention was always put on details. Human beings had more of a personal connection with each other. You could walk to your hometown hardware store with your dog and talk to the store owner. We often did business on a handshake.

Now (1990- 2010)

The digital revolution started to really gain steam in the 1990’s. Hardware and software began to threaten skill trades people, business administration, traditional marketing, imagery and business models. If you were opposed to this revolution you were most likely dust in the wind. In the late 1990’s the internet for business and pleasure became widely recognized.

Today (2010) many people suffer from information overload. Have we developed short attention spans and a keen ability to multitask over the last couple decades? There is such a vast wealth of information available to people today that multitasking and short attention spans can add up to a lot of nothing. That simple fact plays a huge role in how you would display a marketing message or design to your audience. The most common way to market your product or service is on the Internet. Understanding the evolution of people and markets will be instrumental in creating a great business image online for you.

“The human brain did not evolve to accurately represent the world around us; it evolved only to enhance the survival of our genes.”- Victor S. Johnston (born May 4, 1943)

A Great Website Design is all I Need!

The truth is it’s a small part of conversion. Conversion is when a web site visitor takes the course of action you desire. This usually includes completion of a lead form, product purchases, sign up or a free download. It is the absolute truth that your graphic design will be pivotal in converting visitors to action. But you first need a visitor on your website to convert. If your website has no visitors you can be sure there will be no conversions. This is where graphic design and marketing intersect. Shown below is the formula I basically follow to create a Nice Site Design. The main design rule I follow is the 3-5 second rule. A visitor has to be able to understand why they are there within this timeline.

Steps to Satisfy Visitors in Less Than 5 Seconds

Step1- Your Marketing Blueprint

Just having a map to follow always makes a journey more enjoyable. It does not need to be anything extravagant but knowing what the aim and goals are is a good plan. Rarely do plans just happen; they are more often driven by determination.

A marketing blueprint is a statistical conclusion from industry and market trend data. Once it is generated it is your business map. As your journey continues so can your map.

Scalable mapping software will allow you to stay on your path while adjusting to market changes. For example the small blueprint below is generated using mind map software.

Blueprint Example

Free Research Tools for Blueprinting

If you are looking for data to help your decision making here are free tools I use everyday …

1. Google Trends- Check out the long term trends of keywords
2. Google Insights- Search specific regions and compare search volumes
3. Google Keyword Tool- Find the engaging keywords for your business that have proven search volumes
4. Automated Market Analysis Tool- Enter you domain name and get a full report across search engines and social networks

In order to create your business online take a look at the following questionnaires…

Short Business Website Questionnaires

1. New Website
2. Website Redesign
3. WordPress
4. Content Writing
5. Who Are You

Step 2- Website Design with Statistical Input

Based on the theory of evolution we must conclude people are impatient today. When surfing the Internet looking for a solution, a web surfer wants answers and wants them right now.

Key Design Factors

For placement of certain graphics and key conversion components we will take a look at viewing monitor statistics.

Where do most people look?

When people look at a monitor it is about all real estate. Some of the real estate is prime space and some is not. For example, the top fold (what the person sees before they scroll down) is considered prime real estate. Top fold space varies depending on user’s desktop settings.

Top Fold

Bottom Fold

In general you want to design your web site with its core message in the top fold. Beyond that, there are other facts you can depend on from reliable sources. These facts will help you develop a more intelligent and intuitive graphic design that speaks loud and clear to its audience.

Heatmap

In this heat map of Google’s home page we get a good idea what areas of the webpage people are most interested in. The hotter the color, the more clicks (eyes). We are beginning to see a pattern forming in the top fold … upper left.

Pixels from the left edge

Source

Thanks to super smart usability experts such as Jakob Nielsen we can also learn what area of the monitor gets most attention. In the data above we can conclude that graphics placed 300 to 500 pixels from the left edge of your design will receive the most attention.

Call to Action

Generally it’s true people like to be told what to do from a trustworthy source. I understand this is not the case with all people but the majority needs you to “tell them em what you want em to do”. Whatever your goals are (leads, purchase, brand, sign-ups) make them clear and concise to inquiring minds where applicable.

What Next?

If you have set up a sales funnel (highly recommended) this will include several pages until your visitor reaches the goal (leads, purchase, brand, sign-ups). You’ll want to insure each step of your goal funnel is frictionless. This is generally done by telling people what you want them to do and asking for very little in return. Walk them through your process like walking a plumber through your home to your leaking pipes.

Step 3- On-Page Optimization

During the process of web site design there are many extra features that can be included. These extra features will help your website gain respect and good ranking in search engines. The best time to perform on page search engine optimization is during the design process.

Examples of on page search engine optimization designers can include

• Alt TagsTagging content
• Headings, boldface, italic
• Meta tag keywords
• Meta tag description
• HTML page title

There are countless ways to improve on-page structure. For an extreme verbal explanation of SEO here is a one minute SEO video with a text log.

Step 4- Tracking

Of course no marketing or advertising is complete without some method to gage your response. If you have followed through this article you hopefully observed the significance of goals, website architecture and a marketing plan. At this stage here are key questions I am asked …

1. How do I know what we are doing works?
2. How will I know the best keywords people use to find me (money keywords)?
3. Can I learn more about people that complete goals?
4. How many people are coming to my site?
5. How do people find my site?
6. Who refers traffic to my site?
7. How can I improve the results I am getting?
8. I want to make my sales process online easier!

All these questions and more are answered with any decent website analytics software. Here are the top 3 paid web analytics providers.

1. ClickTale Ltd.
2. Omniture Inc.
3. Coremetrics Inc.

Of course there is Free Google Analytics which works great and definitely is up there in the enterprise class range.

The simple take away here is to be tracking and analyzing your website. You’ll be impressed with what you learn about your business as it relates to your prospects and clients.

There you have it. I have tried to give you the Reader’s Digest version of website design today. In a perfect world these website design steps give you the tools you need to achieve more goals in your business. Once your machine is running here’s your ongoing process to follow.

GALearning.com Website Design Examples

Below are a few of our latest launches. They are all built on the WordPress publishing system. This means you can easily publish content from anywhere in the world yourself.

Regent-Tool

Electrical Solutions Corp.

AJW Engineering

Mirow

My Floor Installed

• Have you ever been involved in the sale of a domain?

• What if the domain is in Google’s bad book?

• Has your site ever suddenly dropped out of search engine indexes?

Get a thorough website check … quality of links, health of site, historical references, see keywords people use, backlinks yahoo & Google, etc. This is one of the best check systems to use before you buy a website. What good is your new $5000 domain name if it’s penalized by the engines?

Most people believe the Internet is larger than life. Can you imagine looking at the web through magic glasses that make it look small? The truth is our web is small and very predictable in many ways. By understanding basic principles by which your website is assessed your success online will have a better chance. That is the difference between a market driver and a wanna-be copycat. In this article you will get the straight scoop on important factors that website success reflect directly from. Most of my claims are supported with a reputable source link if further verification is needed.

• Are you ready to discover yourself?

• Do you want to learn what money you are leaving on the table?

• Are you prepared to realize how wrong you were about your market?

Auditing Your Existing Website

If we are going to perform meaningful and actionable research the past is a part of the present and future. What if your website is banned from search engines or penalized? To understand where a website has been will often provide insights that are not evident on the surface. This data can also be set as benchmark data before new SEO work is done, if your website is new then you can completely skip this step.

The website rubdown (audit) includes the following check steps.

Website Health Factor Analysis

Off Page Site Analysis

1. Google Cache Date- Shows when the last time your site was cached.
2. Traffic Value-Tells you about competition, keywords used to access your site, adWords Traffic and landing pages.
3. Age- YourWebsite.com age pulled from Archive.org, shows the first time a page was indexed by Archive.org’s spider. The theory is that if Archive.org found a page so did many of the major search engines
4. Google Pages Cached-Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page
5. Whois-Whois lookups for hundreds of TLDs with site details like IP location, screenshots, whois history, name server, IP History, blacklist status, SEO score.
6. Domain Count – stats show how many domains are currently registered and how many domains used to be registered.
7. Sktool-Keyword. Terms on which you are not currently running your ads, but are highly related to your site.
8. Majestic SEO linkdomain-Majestic-SEO is worlds biggest back links and anchor text database where you … Do NOT use link: or link domain: commands

Results Social Networks

1. del.icio.us-number of times a URL has been bookmarked on Del.icio.us. Heavily skewed toward techy / Web 2.0 stuff.
2. del.icio.us Page Bookmarks-number of times a URL has been bookmarked on Del.icio.us. Heavily skewed toward techy / Web 2.0 stuff.
3. Diggs- Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blogDigg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog.
4. Digg’s Popular Stories-”Diggnation” would eventually be used as the title of Rose and Alex Albrecht’s weekly podcast discussing popular stories from Digg.
5. Stumbleupon-StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.
6. Twitter-Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.

Results Search Engines

1. Y! Links-(Yahoo! linkdomain) shows a rough estimate of the total number of links pointing at a domain.
2. Y! .edu Links-(Yahoo! .edu linkdomain ) shows a rough estimate of the total number of .edu links pointing at a domain.
3. Y! .gov Links-(Yahoo! .gov linkdomain ) shows a rough estimate of the total number of government links pointing at a domain .
4. Y! Page Links-(Yahoo! link) shows a rough estimate of the total number of links pointing at a page .
5. Technorati-Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also provides popularity indexes
6. Alexa-Provides a search feature and a directory from the ODP. Directory listings can be ordered by popularity, user rating or alphabetically.
7. Google Position-How well saturated is your domain name int the Google Search Index?

Results Market Analysis

1. Compete.com Rank-Compete helps you benefit from click-sharing by providing free services that create a more trusted, transparent, and valuable Internet.
2. Compete.com Uniques-Compete.com released the January ’09unique, which site has more unique?
3. Google Trends – Explore advanced features with Google Insights for Search New! Explore flu trends across the U.S. with Flu Trends.
4. Quantcast.com Audience Profile – Quantcast is a new breed of measurement service helping buyers and sellers quantify the characteristics of digital audiences against which they can activate addressable advertising solutions

Directory Listing Results

1. dir.yahoo.com-The first large scale directory of the Internet. Lists sites categorised by topic and location.
2. dmoz-The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content director.
3. Botw-Internet Web Directory organized by category, offers content rich and well designed web sites. Submit URL for editor review and have your site listed. A very worthwhile directory to be listed in.

Blog Presence Report

1. Bloglines-Bloglines is a free service that makes it easy to keep up with your favorite blogs and news feeds. With Bloglines, you can subscribe to RSS feeds.
2. Google Page blog links-Add your blog to Blog Search. If your blog is not listed in our results, you are missing out on traffic.

Other Areas of Interests

1. PR: YourWebsite.com- (Google PageRank) an estimated measure of global link authority. To get an accurate measurement of your PageRank you will need to use the Google Toolbar.

After completing this phase of analysis we are able to see where we are lacking references and where we have presence. We can also see what changes took place over time and what the organic result was of those changes. A full white paper report is provided for client review.

You can conduct this research yourself with this handy free research tool. Our team can research it for you and provide a solid action plan with the results.

Education is the KEY to your success!

The Science of Keywords

Ranking with search engines naturally is rarely a fluke today. You really need to know the anatomy of keywords. Yes, there are different keyword types that will definitely affect the way people interact with your website. For example, if you are using experimental keywords (ones you just decided to try) you really have no idea how people will convert until the keyword proves itself. When it does it becomes a money keyword.

The science of finding your keyword sweet spot is hidden within all the keyword types used to access your website. What channels of traffic are sending visitors to your site and how did they get there? That’s called post site visit analysis.  Market analysis is not the same as post site visit analysis, they are different. In a good market analysis there is more attention placed on your business model, interesting keywords and unique selling proposition. With post site visit analysis, much attention is on key performance indicators, organic growth and goal conversion.

There are tools available that help you see on both sides of the fence. Once you tie the 2 together your content message becomes clear and easier to measure. Employing your blueprint, primary topics can be researched and composed with defined purpose.

Website Auditing & Analysis

The internet is a wealth of information. To many, it is simply too much, where do you start learning about your market? You want to start at the top with as much relevant information you can obtain about your business (market). That way you will often learn much more about your market and find money that would have otherwise been left on the table.

If your website already exists and you have lost your ranking it is not difficult to learn why. With a thorough off-page analysis you will be able to gain the insights needed to figure out why your website does not rank. We can look at history, Search engines, social networks, the market, blog presence, and directory listings.

Google Organic- Step 1

If you are not sure about SEO a good place to learn basic SEO for Google is Google themselves. There is a lot to learn but if you want to know the basics I have compiled 2 web pages that show you how to optimize your website for Google. One of the biggest gremlins is search engine devaluations or penalties from the content your have on your site.

• Are you using excessive keywords?
• Is your content heavily duplicated?
• Are you involved in link schemes?
• Do you link to bad neighborhoods.
• Multiple domain nets (same owner multiple domains)

These are just a few negative possibilities that can influence your ability to rank in a big way. For this reason I have introduced a content analysis step to SEO auditing we may perform on your site. Remember, as the internet grows at astounding rates so does Google’s quality control.

Google can understand concepts, ideas and context of content better everyday. Top ten ranking for your money keywords in the Google index has become a fine science. People that use old school ranking techniques (keyword stuffing) learn that this is not the “key” to ranking … the hard way.

Google Organic Step 2

What is the message of your content? Focusing your content message is going to help you rank better and people will understand what you are saying with clarity. One of the technologies that many think Google uses is LSI and LSA to decide whether your content will make it into the main index. Whatever you want to believe you can be sure Matt Cutts and the boys are using quality control for spam detection. If your content score is too low you will end up in Google’s Supplemental index, a place you want to avoid if possible.

Put your content at the top of the list for on-page ranking. The context of your content can be obtained from a primary and secondary keyword analysis, along with several ‘off-page factors. Other on-page factors include alt tags, content interlinking, robts.txt file, sitemap, and creating a custom 404 page.

Google ON Page SEO

The first question some people may have is “what is SEO?” At this very moment in time that’s a good question. I think it has evolved into a science of marketing and conversion.  Translated literally SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization, a phrase that many believe Bruce Clay coined in 1998. Bruce Clay is considered one of the grand daddy’s of SEO by. It is a term that has no official recognition or credentials. If you are a SEO professional, it’s a good bet you are self proclaimed or elected by the people. You may even go so far as to claim you are a Google SEO expert, but to claim this you would have to be a Google engineer. Because Google’s the only game in town it’s a smart claim to fame, at the same time Google is the toughest engine to optimize for. As long as you comply totally by Google’s webmaster guidelines, you are always on the safe side (not necessarily optimized).

If you have spoken to, read white papers or watched videos from search engine optimization pros, why do the theories differ? What really works for your business? In this white paper you see my best practices with Google SEO. They are safe to employ and will add to your quality score for Google’s natural search rankings.

Google On Page Organic Factors

1) H-Tags (Headings)

Heading Tags are used for a few reasons:

• The first is to make your on page content easy to digest. Readers of the current day web are scanning documents for what they are looking for. The primary targets of such scanning are
  

  Headings and …

  Subheadings

  …Properly structured, they bring great value to on page SEO. They provide visitors with an easy method to sort through information that satisfies their needs —> not yours.

• The second reason is for keyword seo. On page headings are part of the SEO picture. Using keywords in page headings cannot help but put more emphasis on the keyword you are trying to rank for. On the other hand if you use to many keywords you will trip a spam filter that Google uses to detect spam pages.

2) Document Keyword Analysis

This is a new SEO step developed for content optimization. You will not find it in any Google SEO tutorials. What is it and why? Part of the work we do for clients is Google Analytics Analysis.

After maintaining over 800 accounts for several years, repetitive patterns begin to form. My first clue to this problem is a client says “My website used to rank so well and now it doesn’t show up in Google”. I wrote a blog post about duplicate content on the rise to the top blog with a recap on how I found it using Google Analytics.

Either that or content can be a problem. Your website content that has not changed for X years can be a problem. It may contain too many keywords, poor structure, old html code, links to broken or bad sites. The outcome of this is your web pages may not see search engine result pages, it is flagged as spam or substandard quality.

Google Analytics Training Video Series
It got me thinking about expanding analysis into document analysis. So we include it as an option.

The content analysis above is actually this article. You can see it passes with flying colors. We start to not like content that exceeds 2.9% keyword density.

Since Google keeps cranking up the QC (Quality Control) it would make sense that a page once bearing top ten ranking loses its ranking power. It could be competition, penalties, algo updates, and/or a higher level of filtration. Most of the analysis we do [where websites have tanked] we’ll check for duplication of content and keyword stuffing. Although this is not within reach for Google Analytics, it’s something a client truly benefits from when pages are penalized. The results quickly become apparent in Google Analytics every time.

The bottom line is, when I find heavily duplicated or spam (keyword stuffed) content, the problem ALWAYS seems to disappear, and rankings reappear once corrected.

Every web page you have should have a clear point and purpose. Much of that, not all, is determined by the context of your content. “How do the experts talk?” says the big Googly giant. Believe the SEO gurus that tell you Google search continues to develop human AI.

The amount of data Google has allows lets them paint a benchmarked picture of documents. They will reference documents written by experts in markets. Word co-occurrences are measured with other broad and longtail phrases. They are all part of the content blueprint that Google sets aside for expert recognition that other documents are compared to. Generally authority (expert) documents are favored in Google results pages…as they should be!

The last part of this process is placing the keywords that best describe this content in meta tags. They are used for placement in Meta tag keywords, description and page title.

Summary

The take away from this article is how smart Google is. they will continue to develop the largest index of information in the world. There are ways to recognize who experts are—again; context of content plays a large role. Meta tag keywords should NOT be randomly stuffed in your head content. Instead, take the time to craft them carefully—in sync with page content, page <title> and meta= “description”.

Google Analytics Training Video Series

In this article on going to discuss ways to increase your market share online, with minimal effort.  One of the biggest challenges in business today is to balance technical expertise and management.  Internally, how you run your company is entirely your own business.  I can tell you from exposure to corporate environments it’s a challenging balancing act (technical and managerial).  Outsourced solutions often end up being a preferred solution because knowledge bases are greater and politics are less. The bottom line for you is “How do I get more out of my website?“For those of you that can relate this information is for you.

Five Simple Steps To Gain Exposure Online

1. Research your market – to help with website architecture and content ideas perform some simple keyword research first.  You can do this using free key word tools such as Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool.  Find the most related keywords with the highest search volumes.  This will allow you to target larger audiences.
2. Spread your wings- if you have many store locations make sure they are easily acknowledged by search engines. This can be done by simply creating a landing page for each store location. In many cases I have seen companies that keep multiple store locations hidden behind dynamic pages or a search engine database. Make sure each store location has its own unique identity.
3. Engaging page titles- in the source code of your website there is an area known as the browser page title. I believe this to be the single most important element to natural traffic from the engines. Most search engines will display your website in their index using your page title. With some really sticky and provocative wording in your page title it will serve as a warm invitation when people find it in search engine result pages. This helps increase targeted traffic to your website.
4. Data interpretation- of course this is based on the assumption you are using web analytics software.  This also assumes that you have clear objectives and goals configured in your analytic software.  Interpreting the data will allow you to improve the conversion rate of your website effectively and consistently.
5. Socialize- make sure you connect your business to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. You can apply the social networks to your business in both communication and marketing efforts.

I know it’s easier said than done but at least I’ve said it so you can do it. I know from experience these five steps for increasing targeted traffic work very well. Don’t expect miracles overnight, the best marketing plans are long-term. Regular meetings with management and your IT team are  recommended to improve your results. Once you get everyone working from the same page you will be impressed with the results you achieve. Your website is a valuable sales tool that can perform for you in ways you never imagined with the right chemistry (people) in place.

First, for those of you who do not understand the value of getting indexed but Google let me explain it for you.  In case you haven’t noticed Google is where everybody goes to search for stuff. Although the other search engines may bring traffic to your site, if you can please Google they will send you a lot more traffic. This is simply because they have a controlling market share in search hours performed each day (24/7). In the UK Google had a 90% controlling market share.

Source

Around the world, controlling market shares will vary but you can be sure every country will show Google as the dominant player (does not apply to countries that deny Google search access to their population).  The message here is if your business is not in Google’s index you will never be found by people searching Google for your product or service.

Prepare your Site for Indexing

You’ve heard the expression before “first impressions matter”? In the machine world it’s no different than people. For example, Google has a quality scoring system they use that ranks web pages for quality. The search engine giant does not disclose exactly what they look for to determine quality score but I will share with you a few common techniques that are considered good practices.

Four Steps to Friendly Search Engine Indexing

1. Insure good page structure. Good use of heading tags, anchor text, interlinking, boldface, paragraph text.
2. Handcrafting meta-tags. Includes keywords, description And page title
3. Check for broken links. Use automated software to crawl through your web site to look for broken links.
4. Alt tags and broken images. Make sure alternative tags have been applied to all images and image source paths are all functioning clearly.

When you have published your website for the first time how the does Google know?  The Google Bot takes its sweet time finding your website unless you have a few links pointing to your site from authority web sites.  There are also a few other tips I can offer that accelerate the process of getting your pages to show up in Google. Right now we’ll cover the easy stuff.

Steps To Faster Indexing In Search Engines

1. Create a XML. site map of your entire web site
2. Publish quality content that is uniquely written
3. Clean code that loads quickly with good navigation
4. Acquire links naturally from well respected sites
5. Create no follow rules were you do not want Google to see
6. Submit website to Google for inclusion

As I suggested there are other ways to accelerate the rate in which Google indexes a web site. For now, the six steps above should get you indexed quickly. Getting your site indexed by any search engine is the first step to a good natural ranking.

Website Redesign with Built In Everything

Most website developers will agree the best time to perform optimization for your website is during design production. Even though the SEO plan should be decided before you build your site it will actually be implemented to the pages during the design process. Not all website designers are equipped with this knowledge, so it’s best to check first with your design team to make sure your website redesign delivers everything you want and more. Simple on page SEO factors such as page titling, alt tags in the images, paragraph structure, Meta tags and other ranking factors can be molded into the design. Redesign or first design … what’s the cost of a site redesign?

Website Redesign Cost

Getting quality website designs is at the top of my list when it comes to a professional website redesign. If you are serious about doing business I would stay away from your fourteen year old daughter’s friend who builds web sites for nothing. No offense intended (I have 2 daughters) I have seen it happen all too often. Everybody has good intentions but the business owner has no conversions. It is not really the cost of building a high quality visual will rich web site that I worry about. It is the cost of having a cheap looking, amateur style, poorly coded, low conversion, low quality website. Over time, this will cost you dearly! All search engines have quality score algorithms that almost completely ignore low quality sites. To me, measurement of a high quality site can only be judged by engagement. How long do people spend on your website and how many desirable actions did it take?

What Does it cost to Make a Conversion Friendly Website?

Here are some rough prices I have seen in proposals

• $1,800.00 to design a custom template for a content management system (WordPress, Expression Engine, Joomla)
• $300.00 for each web site composition you see
• $4,500.00 for a custom designed content management system with twenty unique content pages
• $75.00 per hour is a common rate for full production design teams

A ballpark figure for creating a SEO friendly 20 page website is $6500 (all inclusion figure – market research – keyword research – marketing blueprint plan – content written – on page optimization)

Thoughts for Corporate Website Redesign

How well does your audience perceive you? In every corporate website design, that question needs to be answered clearly before designers get involved. Visual communication is one of the most important elements of corporate site redesigning. Your designer will need to understand the goals of your corporate site and target audience in order to create an engaging redesign of your website. The steps to redesign a corporate website are as follows. And if your audience is missing something it’s a good time to consider the steps in rebranding.

• Market research.  For low hanging fruit and market changes since last website build
• Production plan.  Development plan for project scope
• Keyword research. With business model integrated into a blueprint site wireframe
• Content creation. The blueprint will serve as a guide to create content or inject content from old site properties
• Creative design of compositions. It’s usually two or three different ideas presented at this time.
• Acceptance of conceptual design. Once design is accepted production can be implemented. This is where coders and designers unite.
• Proofread and review first draft. Here you see the first published look of your new web site in beta mode. It’s your opportunity to make any changes you like.
• Install Analytics Software. Preferably Google Analytics with filters profiles and goals.
• Getting ready to launch. Now you can check your changes and make sure they’re all completed. The entire team and client must check the entire site for functionality. Test, test, test. (try and break stuff)
• Launch web site. This is the climactic moment! After all the hard work the team has put in let’s go live.

With corporate website designing, having a web analytics savvy person is a strong recommendation I would make. Whether it’s inhouse or outsourced analysis having at least one ‘analysis brained’ (I mean trained)  team member involved with site redesign is a huge asset. This is because they can offer insights into usability, design and results from previous and current data sets.

Why Redesign Website

Have you ever had the urge to go back to an old neighborhood from your childhood? I know I have, and actually went back to my old neighborhood only to discover everything had changed. The evolution of design influenced by culture of society had given my old neighborhood a real cool look! People drive the Internet technology that is the method they use to communicate. Technology and people change together. In the world of web site design three years is considered a very long time. What features you can have on your website today that you could not have three years ago are countless. Redesign features such as transitional flash, Ajax, html 5 site interactivity and great usability features can be included in the redesign of your website.

Maybe you have a problem with the way your brand is being perceived by your target audience? That’s another good reason to look at redesigning your site. Creating a new image using the web as your primary medium will likely provide the greatest exposure along with simple methods to measure the cause and effect.
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In the top of your web pages in between the two <head> </head>  tags are the meta tags. They are the areas of the webpage designed for a search engine crawler to gather information about the topic of each page. People do not see meta tags (unless you reveal the source code), only bots do. These SEO elements are often talked about in different SEO camps. One extreme right camp says, “nah, they don’t even matter anymore”. The other  extreme left camp says, “they are the secret, the end all, the one # 1 ranking factor, the magic bullet”. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth!

Viewing Meta Tags in Your Firefox Browser

If we look at the GALearning.com website as an example I’ll show you  how to reveal meta tags in any web page.

In Firefox, right mouse click on the screen and “View Page Source”

Once you click the view page source link a new window will appear revealing the source code of the webpage you are reviewing.

Above I have circled (in red) what I believe to be the three most important parts of the webpage for search engine indexing. In the large majority of cases search engines will index your website according to the information that appears in the page title or meta tag description. This is not always the case but in most of the observations I have made, when a website has these elements present they usually play a role in what displays to the public in the search engine index. Did you get all that? That means that these particular areas of each webpage are worth spending extra time handcrafting to convey a certain message that meshes with your business marketing campaigns, SEO, PPC and business model.

Proof Meta Tags Matter for Click Through & Conversion

Here’s a quick test I will do so you clearly understand what I am communicating to you.

1) Let’s visit Google and enter part of the exact search phrase that appears in the title of GALearning.com’s home page. “website redesign steps for 2010”. The result is a number one ranking (at the time of this experiment).

2) Take a closer look at exactly what Google is displaying for the world to see when this phrase is entered. This phrase to describe search engine indexes appearing to viewers  is also known as SERPS (search engine result pages).

3) Compare the displayed results from Google SERPS to the meta tags that are appearing on  GALearning.com’s home page. Look at the yellow highlighted areas and compare them to the Google search engine result that displays to the public. They are an exact match! That’s where Google got the information that will display to millions (hopefully) of searchers.

Light Bulb Moment?

Now are you beginning to see the importance in creating meta tag data that makes a lot of sense. Spend some extra time trying to get in the mindset of the people that are entering phrases into search engines. This is where I like to begin crafting the verbiage for my page titles and meta tag descriptions. To me, those are the two most important areas. I don’t wanna say meta tag keywords are important but they are a part of good web site development manners. When a web page is finally published to the Internet it is a large number of SEO factors combined that will spell out the contextual meaning to a search engine. Tests have already been done that conclude search engines such as Google have the technology to understand the context of a phrase.

The take away from this article is the information appearing in the top of each webpage (meta tags) connects directly to each visitor through search engine result pages. Make them nice, make them inviting, make them engaging … speak right to your audience!

Check out this Free Meta Tag Tool to Help You Make Meta Tags

Generate your own Meta tags http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/meta-tag-generator/

It sure does help!  It is not the only ranking factor that search engines such as Google look at but links are very important.  Not all links are created equal.  Artificial intelligence technologies being used by search engine engineers are almost human like.  They are very smart indeed!  If a mama and papa small town shop that have a website put a link on their website pointing to yours it will have a certain value.  By ‘value’ I mean link juice.  If Larry King (CNN News) said “that’s s cool product” it would have a lot more influence then if  a small town news station said the same thing. Search engines understand who the authority websites really are.  When you receive a citation from one of these authority sites pointing to your site it has a lot more link juice.  This usually translates to having a stronger affect on you or web site’s ranking.

When other websites have links pointing back to your website the anchor text they use is also important. Anchor text is the key word describing the page you are going to land on (usually).

Depending on the purpose of your link building campaign, keywords can be used to in anchor text to attain goals. Let’s first ask why we’re building links?

Links That Convert

I am the owner of an old fashion candy store in Orillia on, Canada. There are a couple of keywords that come to mind that I would like to rank for “old fashioned candy” “old fashioned candy store” (long tail keyword).

Those two key phrases above need to be incorporated into your link building campaign as well as on page SEO attributes. They will accomplish the goal of bringing a targeted visitor to your website. They can be used as a phrase that links people to your website in articles, directories, content on your website, social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

With every link building strategy there should be clear objectives. Those little key phrases that people enter into a search engine are all representative of a certain mood. Some people may be happy, sad, angry, disgruntled, ready to purchase, ready to learn more about your company, etc. The point is, you have only one connection with the mood of your visitor before they enter your site; the keyword.

According to Kristi Hines @ search engine journal , there are five types of incoming link campaigns to consider in your strategy. I think that this is the tip of the iceberg, anchor text in links can have a ripple affect throughout the entire web in ways you never imagined. The best links are honest (real citations), if you have to buy links I would be careful. Pay Per Click is when you buy clicks, that’s perfectly fine. Buying links from high page ranked sites for the purpose of manipulating search results is not a good strategy.