Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

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• How to Talk SEO, Part 2: If Content is King, then Links will follow

  Jul 22, 2008 :: Antje Radtke :: 0 Comments
  
  "Content is King," according to our Cord Silverstein, our Engagement Marketing VP here at Capstrat. “Content and links are the two main players in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That’s it. There’s not even a close third. Sure, a few minor things can be done to help out, but it’s a lost cause if the main players aren’t in the game.”
  
  Content
  Search engines want to deliver the best results to their users. So how does Google decide what your site is about? They evaluate pages much like Web users do: by looking at the words in the page title, in the headers, in bold, and mentioned repeatedly throughout the text.  Google calculates "keyword density" to see what your site is about.
  
  Links
  Search engines count the number of links pointing to your site to evaluate how credible and popular it is. Only one-way links count -- you can’t swap links with someone else and get credit for it. Best way to get links? Write good content. Once that’s done, you can participate in online forums, blogs, and social media to get the ball rolling. If you’ve done your job well, people will naturally want to link to your site. They will want to share it with their friends. They will bookmark it on StumbleUpon and recommend it on Digg.
  
  So as you're creating your site, don't focus on SEO, but rather focus on creating great content. Keep in mind how Google reads your site, but remember that if your site has something to offer, the rest pretty much follows suit.
  
  
  Tools:
  See what search engines think your site is about:
  http://www.seomoz.org/term-extractor
  
  See what links Google gives you credit for:
  www.google.com (search for “link:www.YourSite.com”)
  
  
  Tags: content keyword-density links seo

• How to Talk SEO, Part 1: Where Do I Start?

  Jul 10, 2008 :: Antje Radtke :: 3 Comments
  This is the first of three articles about Search Engine Optimization. Specifically, I'm hoping to help you talk about SEO with clients. A big thanks to Cord Silverstein, our Senior VP of Engagement Marketing here at Capstrat, for teaching me what I know!
  
  So let’s get started. Here’s a step-by-step guide for creating a site that Google’s search bots will love.
  
  1. Lay out a clear site structure.
  Decide what each page is about. As a general rule, search engines give the home page the most weight in search results. Each hierarchical level into the site is given a lesser PageRank, the value by which Google sorts search results.
  
  2. Write down the keywords and key phrases for each page.
  Develop a list of three to five keywords or phrases that summarize each page. Look up the top search terms that people use to find your topic (see keyword tools below). Of course, let basic business sense guide you, and remember that your top-level page needs to have broad keywords. For each level into the site, keywords need to get more specific just like the content.
  
  3. Write content for your pages.
  Invest in creative, well-written text! Use a keyword density of 7 -11 %. Seven to eleven out of every 100 words of your text should be the keywords you came up with in Step 2. This is how Google determines the main focus of the text. However, overdoing this density will hurt you – it’s considered spamming ("keyword stuffing").
  
  4. Get people to link to your site.
  If your content is good, linking generally takes cares of itself. Visitors will automatically want to share it with their friends. However, you can do a few things to help out:
  a) Invite visitors to link to you by putting an embed tag on your site.
  b) Participate in online forums and blogs and include a link to your site in your posts and comments.
  c) Use keywords as your link text. “Visit our Capstrat blog” is better than “Visit our Capstrat blog here”
  d) Check the links Google gives you credit for by googling your URL like this: link:www.yourURL.com
  
  5. Be consistent!
  When the search engine bot comes to scan your site, it always looks for the pages that it previously indexed. So don't change your site structure unless you absolutely have to! If you have to move pages, put up a "301 Redirect" page pointing to the content's new location. If it's deleted, put up a custom (404) error page. If Google search results lead users to a non-existent page, your site’s PageRank ratings will drop big time. Plus, you’ll loose credibility with your users.
  
  
  Keyword Tools:
  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
  http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
  
  SEO Tools:
  http://www.seomoz.org/tools
  
  
  Tags: seo