Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

"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”)

I don't like scales. They scare me. Seriously. They scare me so much in fact, that I can't even stand to look at it on the bathroom floor. I hide mine in my closet. But unfortunately, doctors-doctors love scales. They love them so much in fact that they like to put them right in the middle of their office where everyone can see the big numbers that appear when you step on it. Total nightmare.

Last week, I had the privilege of going to visit my lovely "woman" doctor. Never  a happy visit, but this year I would give it the all time worst award. My visit went a little something like this:

Scene: Amy sitting on the examining table reading US Weekly waiting for her doctor who is now twenty minutes late.

Enter doctor.

Doctor apologizes for lateness, gives the usual small talk and starts rattling through my chart.

Doctor: "Well let's see, everything looks good so far. Your blood pressure is great. Hmmm, I'm sorry about the weight."

Silent, awkward, horrible longest pause in the history of the world.

Me: (Face turning as red as a tomato and general look of absolute what the hell?!)  "Excuse me?"

Doctor: (Realizes she has extremely offended me and starts to compensate). "Oh, I don't mean your fat, but you've gained six pounds since last year and we don't want it to keep going up. I mean, it has gone up." Flashes me fake smile.

Me: Well, there are no words.

I stared at the BMI chart on her wall for the duration of my visit. According to her handy dandy chart I'm in a normal weight range and have a healthy BMI. I am not overweight. but somehow when I left her office that day I was on the verge of a panic attack and racking my brain for the quickest way to get rid of those absolutely terrible, horrible no good six pounds. 

What my doctor doesn't know about me is that a few years ago I actually weighed a lot less than I do now. A lot less than my weight six pounds ago. So much less in fact that I was anorexic and was forced to gain weight by my friends and family because they honestly thought I looked like a skinny freak. And I did. I never ate more than half my food in those days regardless of what it was, I skipped meals and drove my mother insane when she tried to feed me at dinner. Going to a restaurant with me was probably the most unpleasant experience you can imagine, and I was an absolute control freak about food. I judged my self worth based on whatever number appeared on the scale. I also weighed myself five to 10 times a day.

I realize it's our doctors' jobs to be concerned about our weight, but my doctor had no concern for my overall health. I workout six days a week and eat healthy 95% of the time. I have abnormally low blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels and great cardiovascular fitness. I run, lift weight and ride my bike. I also wear smalls and buy a size four. The average woman is a size 12.

Would it really kill health care professionals to have a little bit more compassion? Our health is the most important thing in our lives. But I don't want to be a skinny bitch. I love to workout, but I also like to drink wine and eat ice cream sometimes. It took me a long time to get a healthy attitiude about eating and even longer to embrace the way that I look. My doctor should be praising me for making healthy choices and taking care of myself in a postiive way, not lecturing me for a influx of six pounds. It's especially important when we are bombarded with images of size zero celebrities and women of all ages are suffering from eating disorders. Being skinny doesn't equal being beautiful and I would much rather be what I am now than the unhappy rail that used to. My scale will stay in my closet and me and my six pounds will continue to be very happy together.

 (Also please note: My doctor was at least 20 pounds overweight.)

(Remember to post a comment on what you think the definition is before taking a peek.)

Disastertunity : An unfavorable project or combination of projects which may cause widespread distress and will leave you looking like a pile of charred remains. <--Highlight to reveal definition.

Look at the big button on Soundcloud.com. This variable width beauty scales in at 920px wide on my 1280px monitor. Someone call the Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries--I think this might qualify as a new record.

 

 

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