Understanding the basics of search engine optimization

By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC  

Last week I was a guest on the Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson, the "SmallBizLady." I answered questions about the basics of search engine optimization.

Here's the transcript.

SmallBizLady: Many people have heard of search engine optimization (SEO). How would you define SEO?

Brant Skogrand: According to Search Engine College, where I became a Certified Search Engine Marketer, SEO is “the use of search engines to draw traffic to a website. It’s the technique of attaining a higher ranking in search engines and directories via alteration of website code and copy to make it more search engine compatible.”

SEO is divided into two categories: organic and paid. The Search Engine College definition mainly refers to organic SEO.

Paid (or pay-per-click) SEO also is important, because it can provide instantaneous visibility and be very useful for online marketing campaigns of a specific timeframe. Examples of pay-per-click SEO programs include Google AdWords and Bing Ads.

SmallBizLady: Why is SEO important?

Brant Skogrand:  Think about your own web search habits. I know that even if I’m really searching for something, I don’t usually go past the fourth page of Google. I’m the exception, however. According to HubSpot, 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results.

Getting onto the first or second page of search results for keywords that are relevant to your organization can make a big difference in visits to your website – and very likely in your business results.

There are approximately 200 ranking factors that go into Google’s algorithm, ranging from keywords to social signals to tags and beyond. Having an understanding of those ranking factors can help your website rise in the search results. It does take time as well as a fine balance between optimizing your website and over-optimizing your website, which the search engines frown upon.

SmallBizLady: Why are keywords important to SEO?

“Key With Keywords Text” courtesy of Stuart Miles / www.freedigitalphotos.net

Brant Skogrand:  Keyword research is probably the most crucial element to SEO. The search engines are looking to connect users with the most relevant sites. Keywords are more than just single words; they are the terms that potential site visitors would use in search engines to find your product or service.

Hopefully you already know who your target customer is. If not, start thinking about your target customer to move forward with your keyword research. Where do they live? What is their age range? What is your target customer’s gender?

Start writing down a “seed list” of keywords to choose from. For instance, a Minneapolis-based florist might start out with phrases that include the words “flowers,” “florists,” or “gifts.”

Those are pretty general terms though. Continuing on with the example of the Minneapolis-based florist, qualifying the terms will help you get closer to the phrases that visitors might actually use, such as “send flowers Minneapolis,” “florists Minneapolis,” “wedding bouquets Minneapolis,” “Valentine’s Day gifts Minneapolis,” etc.

This final list of keywords is important, because you will want to use them throughout your website: in the text, in headers, in the title of your website, and more. Most webpages can only be optimized for a maximum of two to three keywords or phrases. So, if you have a 10-page website to optimize, you’ll need approximately 30 keywords of phrases to target. You probably would want to come up with more words than that, though. It’s always good to have more keywords to choose from.

Some of the best resources that I have found to determine the actual traffic for various keywords include the Keyword Planner tool on the Google AdWords website, SEMrush and Raven Tools.

SmallBizLady: What role do tags have in SEO?

Brant Skogrand:  The title tag in particular is very important. Search Engine College defines the title tag as “a descriptive name of a page that is shown by browsers as the page name in the browser window.”

After the overall content of a webpage, the title tag is considered the single most important on-page SEO element.

Search engines prefer when your website has a unique title for each page, and may even ignore pages that have the same titles.

Search results limit the number of characters that they show for page titles. The best practice is to keep page titles to a length between 10 and 70 characters.

Use your keywords in your title tag. Put the most important keywords first, as search engines read from left to right.

The meta description tag also is important, as search engines often display this short, helpful summary of your page’s content. Searchers also use the meta description tag to decide which result to click on. A general best practice is to keep the meta description tag to a minimum of 50 characters and a maximum of 156 characters.

SmallBizLady: How can photos be optimized for SEO?

Brant Skogrand:  Since search engines are visually impaired, flashy webpages aren’t as useful as ones that have an appropriate level of text to help the search engines with appropriate context to understand the content and its quality.

Best practices recommend at least 250 words of text on each webpage.

I like to take advantage of any optimization possibility, however, and each photo has the opportunity for associated text. Both ALT text and title text for a photo provide search engines with useful information about the subject matter of an image. The search engines in turn use this information to determine the best image to return for a searcher’s query.

SmallBizLady: SEO is constantly changing. How can people keep up?

Brant Skogrand:  Several websites are very useful that track search engine updates, including: Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Moz and Search Engine Land.

Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, also has a blog with very useful information.

Many search engine updates, such as Google’s recent announcement that websites that automatically encrypt their services will be boosted in Google’s ranking formula, are covered in the mainstream media.

SmallBizLady: What were the effects of the most recent Google updates?

Brant Skogrand:  Google changes its search algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year. Most of the changes are minor, but sometimes there’s a major algorithmic update – such as Google Panda or Google Penguin.

Recent updates include Pigeon (updates to local search algorithms), Panda 4.0 (part of an update to prevent sites with poor quality content to get into the top search results), changes to Google Authorship, and Payday Loan (an anti-spam update).

SmallBizLady: How can SEO be measured?

Brant Skogrand:  Hopefully it ties to business results.

While you can look at where your website ranks in the search results, there are more measures to look at by having Google Analytics installed on your website, which can track site usage and visitor behavior.

With Google Analytics, you can set a goal conversion – meaning that if people visit a certain page, request an appointment, buy an item, etc., you are meeting specific goals for your website.

Other measurements in Google Analytics range from bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site) to the geographic location of site visitors to the most popular content and more.

SmallBizLady: What role does social media and public relations have in relation to SEO?

Brant Skogrand:  Earlier this year, Google’s Matt Cutts said, “But as far as doing special specific work to sort of say ‘you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook,’ to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”

There’s value in having an active presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks (like Google+), however, because it can be a way to drive traffic and visitors to your website.

Having a blog on your website also can be valuable as a way to demonstrate thought leadership.

Search engines also reward sites that frequently refresh content, which generally can be accomplished by having a blog.

There’s also value in obtaining media coverage through public relations outreach. The resulting articles could drive traffic to your website and increase the popularity of your organization. In addition, media websites often link to the websites of companies that they cover, which can be a boost to your organization’s SEO efforts.

SmallBizLady: How can entrepreneurs learn more about SEO?

Brant Skogrand:  I found the Search Engine College program very helpful. Their curriculum covers topics ranging from organic SEO to pay-per-click to copywriting and beyond. It’s on online program, and tutors grade your assignments.

Google also offers free online courses through Google Analytics Academy to help people improve their Analytics skills. There also are Google Partners certifications, including the AdWords certification, to demonstrate proficiency.

SmallBizLady: Why did you decide to write the 19 Tips for Successful Public Relations book?

Brant Skogrand:  Many organizations struggle with how to successfully integrate public relations into their marketing mix.

Because of the numerous demands on entrepreneurs’ time and money, many small business owners neither are able to learn public relations on their own nor hire an outside public relations firm.

My goal with the book is to help entrepreneurs learn small business public relations through straightforward tips and by analysis of real-life examples – and then be able to apply public relations strategies and tactics to help achieve their business goals.

SmallBizLady: Are there any other tips for SEO that you can give to startups and developing businesses?

Brant Skogrand:  As you probably have noticed, there are a lot of factors that go into SEO and it can be tough to keep up with the changes.

Even though you can do it on your own, the results generally are better when you hire an outside professional.

Be wary of people who guarantee results. Since we don’t run Google or Bing, we can’t guarantee that your website will rank at the top of the search results for specific terms. By using our knowledge and experience, however, your site should see optimization improvements.

For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!

Removing links from Google

By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC  

What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet, right? Yes -- except for in the European Union now.* Thanks to a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Google and other search engines now also are in the business of being caretakers of people's reputations.

Here's how it works with Google:

• Europeans can visit this page to complete a form requesting that search results be de-indexed from Google's listings.
• The results must be “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.”
• Google will "assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating the request, Google will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials."
• A copy of a valid form of photo identification is needed to complete the form, in order to "prevent fraudulent removal requests from people impersonating others, trying to harm competitors, or improperly seeking to suppress legal information."
• Lawyers or other authorized agents may submit a request for someone they represent.

Google processes an estimate 90 percent of the searches in the European Union, a 28-nation bloc of more than 500 million people.

*In a USA Today article, Eric Schiffer of Reputation Management Consultants in Irvine, Calif., said, "There's nothing that you do on the Internet that can truly be erased. Even this Google ruling—it's the equivalent of destroying a library index card, but the book still exists."

For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!

How to do keyword research

By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC  

Keyword research is considered the most crucial element to search engine marketing.
Utilizing the appropriate keywords and phrases to connect with your target audience can greatly impact your search engine rankings.

According to Search Engine College, "Keyword research is simply the process you use to come up with appropriate keywords and phrases that you wish to target in search engines. In other words, the keywords or phrases that you believe your potential site visitors would type in to search engines to find products and services similar to yours."

Here are the steps for keyword research as recommended by Search Engine College.


Before You Start

Think about your search engine campaign requirements. Are you looking to connect with a certain demographic market? If so, where do they live? Are you trying to reach men or women? How old are the people in your target market?

As an example, Search Engine College uses a fictional florist located in Miami, Florida. Possible target markets include:

• women in their early to late 20s
• people living in Miami and surrounding suburbs
• brides-to-be living in Miami and surrounding suburbs
• dating males
• couples (especially around Valentine's Day)

The next step is to create a "seed list" of keywords. As you yourself probably use a search engine every day, put yourself in your target audience's shoes and think about what you would type into a search engine to find the relevant goods and services.


Gather Your Seed List

As you think of appropriate search terms, write them down. Search Engine College suggests the following search terms for the florist example:

• flowers
• roses
• bouquets
• Valentine's Day
• wedding flowers
• florists
• gifts

Since those seed terms are very generic, they need to be qualified.


Qualify Your Terms

Refining the search terms can help you connect better with your target market. For instance, the Miami florist probably wouldn't want to connect with people interested in growing roses or with people who live in a different state.

So, Search Engine College recommends adding the following terms to the original list:

• [send] flowers [Florida]
• [send] roses [Miami]
• [wedding] bouquets [Miami]
• Valentine's Day [gifts Florida]
• [Florida] wedding flowers
• florists [Miami]
• [send] gifts [Miami]

That really narrows down the searches. After all, the goal is to connect with your target audience. You have something to offer them. By connecting with the target audience, hopefully they won't click away from your website.

One thing to note -- it's important to make reference to your target search terms in your website's body copy as well.

To expand upon your keyword list, ask people that you know what terms they would use to find your website. Visit your competitors' websites too -- you'll get some additional ideas there.


Keyword Research Tools

Each web page can be optimized for two to three keywords at the most. For a 10-page website, you would need approximately 30 target keywords. For good measure, your keyword seed list (in this instance) should have at least 60 phrases to choose from.

I like to use Raven Tools when conducting keyword research, as it provides a collection of tools. Google AdWords also offers its Keyword Planner tool.

These tools can provide you with information on how much competition there is for the keywords. You want to choose keywords that have enough traffic, but also aren't too competitive so your site has a fighting chance.


Refine

Remember your target audience for your website. It's no use to target very generic keywords. By targeting the keywords that tie most closely to your website, visitors will be pleased with what they find -- and hopefully convert to paying customers.


Allocate Your Keywords

The final step is to take your final list of words and decide which pages on your website they should be assigned to. By looking at the body text, hopefully this should be straightforward.


For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!

Business Wire releases 'A Guide to Press Release Optimization'

By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC  

Major changes in search algorithms in the past couple of years have kept search engine optimizers and public relations professionals on their toes.

Press releases, a key tactic in a public relations professional's toolkit, can have an impact on SEO if done correctly. To advise the public relations, investor relations and communications industries, Business Wire recently issued a guidance report titled "A Guide for Press Release Optimization."

“In recent years we have seen many press releases more focused on SEO keywords and strategically placed links — at the expense of quality content. Our new research report provides a welcome path for PR practitioners to return their focus on quality writing. Well-written press releases with engaging multimedia content continue to be among the most powerful and cost-effective communications tools available. We are thrilled to see that quality writing and quality content are at the top of PR best practices for SEO in 2014,” said Tom Becktold, senior vice president of marketing for Business Wire. 

The report offers the following 10 tips:

1. Research and learn "real time" user behavior
2. Make friends with the algorithms
3. Make format improvements
4. Use natural links
5. Press release keywords
6. Focus on quality content
7. Always include multimedia
8. Use social media strategically
9. Use responsive design for mobile
10. Choose the proper distribution method

I highly recommend downloading the free guide. Visit visit http://go.businesswire.com/guide-to-press-release-optimization today.

For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!

Understanding the basics of SEO for public relations

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a discipline that public relations professionals should have some awareness of. After all, search engines, in addition to people, are reading our words.

SEO has a strong intersection with public relations and social media, given the importance of online presence to brands. If SEO is new to you, this overview will be helpful.

Search engine optimization definition

According to Search Engine Wiki, SEO is "the use of search engines to draw traffic to a website. It's the technique of attaining a higher ranking in search engines and directories via alteration of website code and copy to make it more search engine compatible."

SEO is important because 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results. I know that's generally the case with me. If I'm really digging for something, I'll go all the way to page four.


Keyword research

Keywords are the most crucial element to SEO. Search engines work to match queries that have appropriate keywords in them with the most relevant content on the Internet.

Keywords are phrases you wish to target. They are the terms that potential website visitors would use in search engines. As an example, think about what you would type into Google to find an excellent Italian restaurant in the Twin Cities. You might type in "Italian restaurant Minneapolis," "Italian restaurant St. Paul," "best Italian restaurant Twin Cities," or "best Italian restaurant Minneapolis St. Paul."

To come up with relevant keywords for your project, think about your target market. Is there a specific geography, age or gender with which you want to connect?

Write down as many keywords as you can think of, and then do some research to find out how frequently they actually are used. Some tools to determine how popular keywords are include:  Google AdWords, SEMrush and Raven Tools.


Optimizing press releases

Like it or not, search engines don't have a sense of humor, and that impacts how clever one can make the headlines and copy in a press release. One aspect of effectively optimizing a press release going out on a wire service (Business Wire, PR Newswire, etc.) is to use a clear (not necessarily clever) headline. Another important tip to take into account is to place your key messages at the beginning of the press release, as search engines consider the copy near the beginning of the release more important than the rest of the copy.

To use the most appropriate number of characters for readers (and online news services like Google News), noted writing expert Ann Wylie recommends keeping the headline length to eight words or fewer, the deck/subhead length to 14 words or fewer, and the lead paragraph to 25 words or fewer.

Now back to the relevant keywords. Hyperlinks to the respective page on your organization's website are important to the algorithms of search engines.

The keywords that you consider important should be hyperlinked in your press release, but use caution. Yahoo! Finance, one of the leading Internet news sites, has placed restrictions on hyperlinks in a press release, such as: one hyperlink per every 100 words, a maximum of six links within a press release, and a maximum of three consecutive words can be hyperlinked.


Using photos for SEO opportunities

Search engines are visually impaired, which is why keywords are so important. Search engines can read the words on a page, but not see photos.

However, a related way that search engines can "see" photos is the associated text that can be assigned to each photo. In a press release, the associated text comes into play when publishing a multimedia press release using a wire service. Remember to use the keywords that you deemed relevant.


Understanding META tags

META tags are HTML tags that are in the code of a website. I mention them here just because they are important to SEO, and you see them everyday in search engines.

In the example above for Sparkweave (a client that I work with through KC Associates), the TITLE tag is the top line, and the META description is the phrase that starts with "Sparkweave" and ends with "today." Other aspects of META tags include the keywords tag and ALT IMG/associated text for images. (The keywords tag and the ALT IMG/associated text don't show up in search engine results, but are in the HTML code.)


Optimizing your online pressroom

Having a pressroom that is very easy for journalists to find and has the information that they need can make the difference between your organization making the cut in a news story or not.

In research that I conducted with journalists for an article (opens PDF) that ran in "Tactics," here's what I found:

• Keep it simple.
• Make media contact information prominent.
• Ensure easy access from your company's home page.
• Provide RSS feeds.
• Keep your online pressroom organized.
• Use the terms "media" and "press" in your online pressroom.
• Offer a search box.
• Provide more than just press releases.

I shared these SEO insights at the Public Relations Society of America Midwest District Conference on July 25.

Lee Odden Optimize book review

With "Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing," Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing has delivered an important text that covers the breadth of search engine optimization and social media with a dose of public relations.

Odden divides his book into three phases that take readers on a journey of optimization success:  planning, implementation, and scale.

Near the end of "Optimize," Odden provides probably the most concise summary of his book:  "Your journey through this book has taken you from creating a road map and strategy at 30,000 feet to diving deeply into a sea of specific tactics, ranging from persona development to keyword optimization to social networking."

That's precisely why this book is so darn useful. Wondering where to start in the SEO process? Odden answers. Curious about appropriate keyword placement on a web page? Odden goes into great detail. Interested in measuring success? This is your book.

Odden covers just the right number of topics and provides real-world examples and statistics to demonstrate how to succeed in marketing online.

He ties together optimization, social media, and content marketing to provide the reader the complete package in one book. Highly recommended.

P.S. For those in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Odden will be having a book launch event on July 25.

Understanding HTML IMG alt text

Search engines are "blind." Many people think that images make for an excellent website. While images can be visually appealing for the user, they don't really help for search engine optimization (SEO) unless they incorporate Alt IMG attributes.

Search engines are essentially text readers. Each image on a website has the opportunity to have Alt IMG text associated with it. For SEO purposes, take advantage of this; this provides another opportunity to be more relevant to search queries.

One of the easiest ways to determine if an image has Alt IMG attributes is to right click on the image in Mozilla Firefox and click "View Image Info."

In the instance above, you see the associated text for the image is "Mobile Technologies and Cloud Computing for AEC Firms." Here is the respective HTML:

<img width="814px" height="278px" src="/portals/0/mainheader.jpg" alt="Mobile Technologies and Cloud Computing for AEC Firms" />

When adding Alt IMG attributes, take into consideration your target keywords. Alt IMG attributes also provide an important way for visually-impaired users to browse your content.