5 Things You Should Know About SEO

Search engine optimization is about setting realistic goals within respectable guidelines, seeing past short-term setbacks and targeting the phrases with the most significance (and traffic) within your market.

Websites do not optimize themselves, but knowing what to expect is instrumental prior to embarking on the journey of targeting competitive keyword verticals.

1. It takes time: Like anything worthwhile, good things come to those who wait? Of course while you’re waiting, you could always spend money on PPC if you are impatient. Cost for cost (SEO pricing vs. PPC) is all about cost to value received, SEO is an investment while PPC is just like paying rent. Sure, they both drive traffic, but one is far more sustainable than the other (providing less risk and greater reward).
2. You may have to change a few things: There is a reason why sites that are optimized and ones that are not rank differently. It’s all about the continuity of purpose that unifies each page in a site for a particular purpose with optimization and the best sites only have minor differences on the outside. It is what occurs on the level of site architecture, naming conventions, meta tags and internal links that can rank of tank a site, so don’t be surprised if some pages don’t make the SEO grade and need a slight makeover to change things up.
3. Monitor the baseline: You need to know where you’re at, to understand where you’re going. What metrics matter most? The answer is simple, traffic and conversion, but more importantly more relevant traffic and using a diversity of related semantic content to target a market and not just a few keywords.
4. There is no such thing as too much Keyword Research: Keep in mind that what is relevant and hot today, may be yesterday’s news tomorrow. There is no such thing as too much keyword research, so dig deep into trends while improving traction for your markets root phrases and lucrative two and three word keyword combinations.
5. Understand the value of perpetual momentum: Once a site gains a significant foothold in a niche or market, the barrier to entry lessens. Specifically the more related and overlapping keywords surrounding a contextual array of phrases you optimize for, the better. Each page optimized for 3 distinct keywords can translate into dozens of keywords if a website has authority. The more authority a website has, then the less you have to concern yourself with optimizing for keywords, just the mere fact that someone searched for a related phrase or keyword that happens to exist on some page in your website, if you have more authority then your site can outrank your competitors based on the degree of trust it has acquired.

Here are a few related posts:

• The Advantages of Online Marketing
• SEO Tips for Keyword Research
• Adding New Content Adds Value
• Developing Your Internet Brand Identity

-Jeffrey

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Managing Link Equity with Links in to Links Out

Sculpting link equity within a website is what distinguishes that site from others targeting the same terms using SEO. For example, say for instance there are two websites fighting for a dominant position in search engines with nearly identical off page considerations.

Let’s assume Site A has 100 pages and relies on the homepage as the primary page and houses 90% of the inbound links to the site and then randomly distributes (or rather squanders) the link equity in the site by relying on the home page and primary navigation.

On the other hand, let’s assume Site B has 100 pages with 9 sub folders that use relevant naming conventions, SEO-friendly URL’s (website.com/descriptive-folder/main-keyword.html) and 10 pages in the root folder. Site B also uses contextual internal links to link from relevant page to relevant page whenever a keyword appears on a page in the site (to thereby sculpt an internal link preference for each keyword).

Also, site B does not have 90% of the off page ranking factor pointing at the homepage (*which is often the least likely page for conversion), on the contrary, links are distributed evenly throughout the site to either the individual pages with the highest contextual relevance to the keywords in question or the sub folder which houses the content (10 pages or semantically related content) which then redistributes that link equity to the pages as needed.

Which website do you think will rank higher for a given array of keywords? My vote is for website B…

Not to say that either site is incapable of conquering a competitive vertical or an array of keywords. The main distinction is the inherent differences in how each website’s referential integrity conveys a distinguishable preference for specific keywords vs. taking a wild-west approach and crossing your fingers and simply swapping out meta tags and expecting dramatic shifts in rankings.

Ironically, site architecture and internal linking are often thought of last in the process of scaling a website; much like finishing a building, then forgetting to add the plumbing or electrical; it will cost you more to improvise and create workarounds than just starting fresh (or at least creating a new site segment of beacon) to consolidate a tiered and structured approach to rankings.

Rankings are a byproduct of (1) a programming platform that is conducive of adding relevant content (2) a pliable content management system or pliable array of templates to accommodate the market focus of each page and (3) the extent of the internal linking and cross-linking of pages, segments or off page inbound links from other sites (deep links) to validate the degree of peer review and internal relevance capable of conveying a semantic structure to search engines.

Falter from this model and you may have a strong site that ranks for everything you don’t want, with the inability to capture the more competitive keywords and key phrases that have the highest potential for return on investment and positioning for a given market or market segment.

You have 100% control over your own website, also, there is no penalty for creating content, however the extent of indexation depends on how unique the content is, what the degrees of consumption are from search engines, social media and other online sources as well.

The main takeaway here is that your own website after it reaches a climactic threshold (based on keyword co-occurrence) can provide vital ranking factor to other pages and provide buoyancy with a fraction of external links from outside sources.

If you understand the depth of this implication, with content, your website can cross that tipping point and (a) serve as a primary destination from search engines (after they crawl and index your content) as well as (b) those pages can provide primary ranking factor for new pages in the site.

This is how Wikipedia dominates the web (1) a powerful CMS (2) relevant content reinforced by strong internal linking and (3) an aggregate collection of deep links (links from other websites) to specific pages with themed / related keywords which correspond to the on page content.

Sure, you could build a website the old fashion way and rely on links to the homepage (to carry the site and rankings) or, you could diversify the link equity in the site, create a topical hierarchy and consume the web one keyword cluster at a time.

So, the premise of links in to links out is more than just a catchy saying, if you have strong internal links feeding a page, you should limit the amount of times you link out from that page to unrelated content or allow the navigation to seep potential link flow away from vital pages.

The more links that you have leaving a page, the less ranking factor that page has (unless augmented by other internal or external site links). So, the moral of the story is, make each link count.

-Jeffrey

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What Separates Professional SEO's from Fly-by-Night Amateurs?

Knowing where to look and why is what separates the SEO pros from the wannabes, and did I mention “performance“…

A professional SEO has:

• The ability to define areas where others see obstacles and formulate a scientific plan.
• The ability and know-how to implement an array of optimization tactics simultaneously to develop page level and domain authority.
• The ability to produce superior value (regardless of the price).
• The ability to differentiate their websites from their competition through tangible and quantitative competitive advantages.

What are some of the tools a professional SEO would use?

Competitive Intelligence

If you are still worried about meta-tags as a revolutionary SEO technique, then your focus is askew. With various dimensions to any SEO campaign, you need tangible market intelligence to create a blueprint that you can use to produce sustainable yet progressive benchmarks and goals.

Understanding that post-click marketing is equally as important as SEO as well as design, usability and conversion optimization are equally as important for performance.

All of these components are holistic and require consideration before any aspect of the campaign is implemented. The more thoroughly your tactics overlap, the less friction there is to account for diffusion of the ultimate objective (to acquire and retain your visitor’s attention).

What happens next is all a condition of two things 1) what their intention was for visiting in the first place and 2) if you can facilitate that emotion with a solution that satiates their original intent.

Targeting Consumer Behavior, Not Keywords

SEO is not about products and services as much as it is about finding the right type of consumers to cater your marketing efforts towards. Also, it’s not always about more traffic, it is about maximizing the conversion of the traffic you receive.

Amateurs focus on keywords, professionals focus on conversions. Actionable intelligence allows you to be more efficient, and since time equals money or time to market to acquire a larger percentage of market-share, then efficiency is the ultimate equalizer for business.

Competitive intelligence in this regard implies understanding the motivating factors that compel consumers to purchase and then shifting your business model, landing pages, keywords and modifiers and imagery to speak directly to that intent instead of being nebulous general or “just another website” which they can pass up without regard.

Just as a penny saved is a penny earned, and 90% of the waking day spent in survival mode for most individuals struggling to stay afloat due to economic duress, things that may have worked when disposable income was more abundant no longer reach eager eyes to engage your offer.

Use competitive intelligence to determine the undercurrents in a market and more importantly, how is your message going to provide more value to the consumers your keywords target.

Facets such as stemming your campaign into new keywords, more structured value propositions, narrow casting vs. broad casting, niche marketing or focusing on more specialized products or services? Refinements based on this premise alone can redefine your entire online monetary model; yet, it also must “FIT” within the other critical metrics.

Conversion Optimization

SEO ends and conversion optimization begins with the first click or instance when a visitor engages the snippet of the meta-description in a search engine. Just as the search engine snippet (the description in search engines for that page) is the first attempt to market your product or service.

Something this critical (and how you use it for SEO alone) can differentiate your offer and can be the first thing a visitor engages or the last thing that prospects ever sees, so make it count.

Each action should be structured to lead the visitor through a series of mini-conversions through building rapport with benefits. Depending on why they are there, either to fix something or remedy a real problem or to consider something they might not need by want, determines the tone used to convey significance through either urgency or by proposing value.

CMS Optimization

Regardless of what you are selling, the infrastructure of the website should be optimal, which means integrated CRM (customer relationship management) features within a CMS (content management system). The ability to make site wide changes by amending one file, the ability to segment each page from the site wide changes, modify headers, pull data from various sources, have unique titles, meta descriptions, naming conventions are mandatory for SEO.

Programming best practices into a CMS can create a scalable site capable of devouring markets if the site architecture is built on a premise of pliability and relevance. Aside from content, the content management system is a critical component of SEO for producing rankings.

Content Saturation

Understanding that search engines reward impeccable content as well as use a collective array of term frequency, link assessment and volume of data on a given topic to score the page and websites correlation to specific and broad queries.

If you competitors have 1000 pages and their main keyword is present in 750 of those pages, then the amount of concentrated optimization to each page requires less fine tuning (due to the pool of topical relevance those occurrences produce).

Content creation based on filling the gap between your current position and those web pages that occupy the top 10 positions means the more relevant content you have, the higher the probability of you leveraging that content in unison through internal linking of selecting a champion page or folder to produce buoyant rankings.

Authoritative Deep Links

Another well known fact is, rankings are by the page in search engines, and in order to win the ranking battle, you need to have a significant array of deep links specifically to each page that you want to contribute to the global site profile.

To understand the threshold, look for pages, not just a domain ranking in the top 10 results, ten see how many deep links they built to identify that page as an island of relevance.

An example would be www.website.com/web-design.html if that page had a top ranking for the word web design, then see what is supporting it both within the website as well as how many deep links it has to “rank on its own independence and authority” vs. a top level homepage / ranking.

Depending on the strength of the inbound links and the site architecture and internal links determines just what the tipping point is to catapult a page past competitors to reach the top 10.

Execution Timelines and Search Engine Reciprocity

Professionals know that changes take time and in order to surpass competitors, you need search engine trust. Trust is not always about content saturation, link volume or time, it is a unique fusion of all three. The longer you wait to get started/optimizing keywords and their respective landing pages, the stronger the barrier to entry you have to overcome as the pages with authority cement their ground.

These are just a few metrics involved in topical level SEO tactics, yet any one of them magnified through execution is more than enough to make any website a contender.

With over 200 metrics that search engines cross-reference to determine which pages are deemed worthy of representing a given keyword or topic, you need to manage as many granular changes as possible with consistency to surpass the less formidable contenders that are vying for the same industry, market share and consumers.

-Jeffrey

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SEO, Digital Asset Optimization and Understanding the Sales Funnel

The prospect that is looking for a product or service performs the same function – they skim results in search of something, the then act on an emotional impulse that entices them to click.

Despite the fact that they may have two distinct mindsets one wants it now and uses PPC the other wants to know more before committing so they want to investigate the application, reputation or reviews about a product or service before using it. However, regardless of the mindset in this scenario, they both use a search engine to arrive at a potential destination/site.

What happens next in the sales cycle is universal, it is the qualifying phase and regardless of the medium that delivered the traffic, it boils down to emotional appeal and logic to duke it out to see which prevails. Despite the product or service the qualifiers of (a) how bad do I want it? and (b) what is stopping me from getting it from you? must be used of diffused to move on to the next step.

If you recognize this now, it will save you from episodes of frustration eventually when you scratch your head pondering why your prized offer is not generating the returns you may have envisioned.

The Simplicity of Appeal:

The simplicity of supply and demand, desire and fulfillment are at the crux of any sale. The next step (in evolving past just SEO) is to establish the proper signals to quickly convey value and trust to prospects and expedite the qualifying phase of the sales funnel.

If your landing pages, videos or other digital assets (images, widgets, etc.) all have the common thread of a simple conversion objective attached, it makes it clear to the viewer what the purpose is and allows them to quantify “if they’re sold” on what you are selling.

The beauty of the web is, if you don’t like what you see, hear or indulge, there are always more options to entertain. This double edge sword can work on your behalf or against you if you fail to leverage each impression. Hence, the concept is to have as many optimized conversion mediums to capture the attention of your audience and introduce them to the various stages of the sales funnel to see where their interests translate into measurable action or better yet dollars.

In many ways the analogy of a room full of children all screaming “I Want, I Want” with keywords attached is as close as it gets for a popular keyword or trendy search term. Rather than looking at SEO from a one dimensional expression of marketing alone, think of it as an opportunity to reach a broader array of individuals with a broader array of conversion mediums.

RSS Feed optimization, video optimization, podcasts, guest posts, article syndication, social media engagement are all part and partial to the ultimate internet marketing consortium. As the lines get blurred by less distinction of modalities, the fact is, it boils down to a simple transactional analysis.

Visibility / Interest * Action = a conversion opportunity, how you leverage that to one site or across multiple sites is entirely up to you. Don’t get me wrong, rankings are important; they always have been since the inception of search engines and still are today.

However, what is more important is to understand the emotional triggers that cause individuals to purchase and the continuity between multiple mediums that are all designed to appease different stages of interest. If each of your landing pages can still reinforce the desired action/outcome (making a purchase, joining a newsletter, opting into an RSS feed, signing up for a trial offer, etc.) then you are one step closer to evolving past the need to depend on SEO rankings alone.

It shouldn’t matter how a visitor gets to your site, what should matter is the mind set and emotional expectation they bring when they get there. So, instead of obsessing on rankings, make sure that when they arrive, it is clear what action items are desired of them and in the interests of reciprocity and the action/reward modality.

*The image of the sales funnel was referenced from this post.

-Jeffrey

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Create Topical Relevance for Keyword Stemming

What degree of contextual extraction from search engine snippets contributes to ambient or unintentional search engine rankings? Considering that over 50% of keyword queries are unique and even search engines have not seen them; information retrieval relies on contextual relevance to determine a pages quality score determined by the domain authority.

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves fine tuning your pages for optimal performance in search engines.  While many webmasters and SEO’s only focus on metrics you can measure, there is a holistic and alchemical element that occurs naturally over time when the value of each page blends and fuses to create topical islands of relevance. This topical relevance allows pages to rank for a plethora of key phrases unintentionally and deliver an array of traffic to fuel conversion for your website.

There is a window of relevance that search engines use to determine which content stays and which content goes. For example, pages from sites that have not been visited since 1997 without inbound links, references or any type of inference from peers (other sites) lack the necessary impact to remain a relevant result and are either minimized to ranking for 1-2 terms or are essentially pushed out of the index.

On the contrary a new page from a trusted site or a new page from a site being linked to from other topical sites, social media sites, news aggregators, directories or editorially from various sources does have the needed ingredients to toggle the metrics necessary to be considered a relevant page and thus ensures its survival in the SERPs.

Essentially, each page that crosses a relevance threshold for the on page and off page synergy starts to stem and rank for keywords found sparsely on that page. This translates into hit after hit for keyword that was not considered primary phrases for the page in question.

This is typically referred to as mid-tail to long-tail traffic, however, this type of traffic can often exceed intentional (sought after) primary keywords consistently. In addition, using this aspect of how search engines scale relevance (before awarding a site a top ranking) keyword stemming should be utilized as a strategic advantage.

Mapping out the most relevant shingles to define your page to search engines, then using accommodating anchor text (on page) within the site with internal links and reinforcing that with (off page) links from other sites with related topical reference (peer review) creates authority for those keywords and key phrases.

So, for those still trying to measure the ROI of SEO prematurely, the results are cumulative and essentially continue to overlap over time. The takeaway is, with the exceedingly high degree of click fraud occurring in PPC (up to 35% in some instances) taking control of how you communicate your pages purpose to search engines and how they evaluate your website (as a reference or authority) is an added benefit of SEO.

For every keyword you target with purpose, 10 more are also pulled into the spotlight (which you can use to stem and pull up multiple related pages within your website into the top 10 results).

What is the value of a top 10 ranking you might ask? That all depends on how trafficked the keyword or the topic are. However, aside from visitors typing in keywords and searching for those pages, search engines can evaluate when your content has passed the contextual point of relevance and will essentially return those pages as relevant results (when someone searches).

With this in mind, you can target the low hanging fruit of today to capture the most competitive keywords in the long-run and create a pure win/win relevance model for your website.

Viewing SEO from this standpoint, you can reap the immediate short-term benefits of rankings funneling visitors to landing pages or take the approach of devouring market share so that “just in case” prospects search for a particular topic; your website is there at the helm of all things related.

-Jeffrey

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Keep Your Organic SEO Natural to Avoid Penalties

Since the inception of search engines, there have been attempts to exploit every loophole using every manor of abuse from cloaking, keyword stuffing, link schemes and every possible imaginable tactic to exploit their algorithms to artificially inflate relevance for pages.

As a result of battery, trial, error and recovery, search engines are weathered veterans and prepared algorithmically to spot any type of unnatural pattern or anomaly that does not coincide with a natural organic growth rate ranging from on page and off page continuity.

Real SEO Means Scaling Results Over Time

Chronology and using a time line for optimization and scaling it over time is the most misunderstood elements organic/ natural search engine optimization. It is not always about how much SEO costs or the budget involved, there are just some things that require timing and patience to acquire, regardless of the tactic involved.

Link velocity is one of such attributes, it is not natural for a website to have multiple links appear with duplicate shingles across multiple or clustered IP addresses (as this indicates automation).

For example, it is not natural for a website to go from having 10 pages to 10,000 pages in one month. It is not natural for a website to instantly gain 2000 subscribers on an RSS feed without adding fresh content in months. The point being, your website is gauged by the curiosity of surfers, the content you produce and the value proposition you offer.

These are the metrics that translate into website popularity and authority. As a result, things like increases in RSS subscriptions, a reasonable amount of backlinks (linking to your content), and a steady growth over time in base level traffic (1,000 to 4,000 visitors a month, not 1,000 to 250,000 visitors a month) is considered natural.

In order to get past the sophisticated trust rank algorithm, certain cues and signals must be present (for extended periods of time) before your site is acknowledged as a real contributor to the industry or (semantic) niche your content is focused upon.

I stress the importance of understanding this delicate chronology and not only developing content and links over time to accommodate a natural rate of growth for your website, how optimized it is, how many external links you attract, etc. There is no faster way to end up at the bottom of search results (buried somewhere past page 11 in obscurity) if you trip a penalty for over optimization (which is the result of abusing or using unnatural methods to inflate your position).

Each keyword has a unique threshold and each industry has its own degree of competition. The idea is, if you are starting fresh (not ranking for anything related) you want to (a) set the tone for future optimization through using overlapping keywords (unique modifiers, singular, plural, superimposed keywords, as well as synonyms) to create familiarity, then as time progresses, use each page as a piece of the puzzle to internally link them together to accomplish the crowning achievement (your trophy keyword or key phrase).

Essentially, starting with multiple 3 word variations that have a lower barrier to entry (such as less than 100,000 competing pages) is an ideal way to (a) cut your teeth and build relevance as well as (b) see incremental gains in traffic over a short period of time. Going after the word “internet” or “sales” or “marketing” with a new website and expecting to rank for them quickly is an exercise in futility.

Keywords that are that broad and competitive are not always worth the effort to acquire. You are much better off acquiring keywords that are specific to the landing page they are most suited for, that have a high concentration of search volume and low number of competitors targeting those exact phrases. As a result, you can essentially devour multiple keywords with traffic that can (a) increase the bottom line and website conversion while (b) creating relevance for the root phrase they embrace.

When tackling a competitive keyword, it is not always about what you have to “fix” to get there, it is more about starting with a goal in mind initially, then crafting a site (or a segment of the site) specifically around that ranking objective.

90% of SEO projects are based on dilemma where that are stating with (1) a broken / non optimized site, (2) marginal content on the subject (3) sparse internal linking if any at all (4) no history of high crawl or indexing rates from search engines (5) not enough backlinks (or deep links to sub pages) to be of consequence for rankings or (6) a plethora of challenges from URL parameters or entire segments of the site that are not friendly or conducive to search engines due to programming preferences. Yet at the same time, all that the prospect cares about is ranking for the industries “trophy keyword” or crowning key phrase.

Sadly, considering SEO after the fact means that your site already has a history of not ranking (which will take some time to undo). So, until some process intervenes, it will remain that way unless you know something we do not about organic optimization. SEO’s are not magicians; there is more science to the method than most understand.

Just as search engines are not just thrown together with bubble gum and duct tape, creating a viable search engine ranking strategy must embrace all of the countermeasures they have in place to detect and eliminate unnatural patterns, while providing value, quality and appeal while integrating best practices in order to stay on the good side of search engines (if you value free editorial traffic).

When you start after the fact with SEO as an afterthought, you essentially have to “get in line” behind all of the prior websites that have started optimizing those keywords before you and essentially “earn your” way to the top.

Fortunately for most, websites that enjoy top rankings have a tendency to become complacent once they have reached a suitable summit. The good news is, through a systematic application of content, links, traffic or (D) all of the above, a website further down the food chain can evolve and devour the competition and market share with the right cues.

However going back to one of the real topics for discussion that spawned this article, you should start with a feasible range of keywords (that are within your reach) while developing inroads for more competitive keywords over time.

If the keyword you are targeting is competitive 1,000,000 competing pages or more, depending on your website, the age, authority and trust it has, as well as the amount of content you have to work with (5 pages 20 pages, 500 pages, etc.) when initiating an SEO campaign all determine the amount of time it will take to acquire favorable positions for the said keywords.

SEO is not just something you do; it is a continual process that perpetuates self sustaining momentum over time. It’s not just about keywords, it is about market share and constantly broadening the funnel to reap additional rewards from searchers in need of a solution, product or service.

Depending on the amount of relevance, trust and authority each website has, essentially determines who ranks at the helm of those respective keywords and who does not. So, for anyone seeking to “skip in line” and cheat the system when it comes to search engine algorithms, do so at your own risk.

The proof is in the pudding with SEO results and just like Newton’s law for every action, there is an equal or greater reaction, so choose which actions you put into play wisely if you want to rise above others who have started before your conquest or endeavor to grace the top 10 results for any competitive keyword.

-Jeffrey

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With the various types of ranking predators (your competition) looking to siphon your traffic at a moments notice, relevance is the prize and those who amass hordes of content or links can sway the algorithm through the fresh content or link factor.

Attention is market share online and once that attention is acquired through devouring keywords, your site has to perform to maintain its position. Click through percentages, user engagement time, rss popularity, bounce rates and multiples of algorithmic diversity are measured to determine which sites gain authority and which are essentially brushed under the rug for specific keywords and phrases.

Just getting in the top 10 is a feat for most competitive phrases, staying there requires that you constantly reinforce and fortify key relevance points that pertain to the topic or market.

Measuring Performance

There are essentially two kinds of keywords, keywords that people actually click that drive relevant traffic to your site and keywords that do not much like the analogy “if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, will it make a sound”.

Keywords that do not deliver traffic or worth to your website are essentially inert, but it is easy for a site to be pigeonholed or typecast due to not fighting for anything further up the food chain.

If you cannot remember the last time you added a page, tweaked a few internal links or revised meta data for your content, then chances are you either don’t have real competition for those phrases or your position is in jeopardy from a ranking predator.

Remember most search engines are showing cached data a month to six weeks old. So, just because you are here today, does not mean your pages will survive a shift in prominence or relevance for other key indicators. Any keyword could potentially slip or rise based on which PHD’s formula gets to dominate others in Google’s intricate blend of layers that determine SERP position.

SERP Survival Tips to Avoid Ranking Predators:

1) Know Your Enemy – Comfort, Laziness, Ignorance or Fear. Engage any one of them and your website becomes a fossil and goes on display beyond page four in search engines where only loyal employees would tread to find it for an occasional click.

2) Keep Content Fresh – Nothing like a fresh ping from your server to a search engine spider to keep you in the game. Creating a post a day or a white paper a week will do the job.

If you are an expert in your field, then surely comprising a gem of sorts that gives back to the industry responsible for paying your bills every month is not too much to ask. If you don’t have the time, then find a writer who specializes in your topic.

The value of content creation and fortification through internal linking is currency for market share and attention, not to mention each keyword co-occurrence or phrase can serve as an anchor point for rankings.

3) Build links – Before you even look outside of your own site for support, use blogs or RSS Feeds for SEO value.

Getting into the search engines’ index is the original objective of new pages, after that, aging your pages with fervor is the next objective so they can augment other topically related pages as hub pages to support your key landing pages.

Think of each page as a mini-site, rankings are by the page, not by the site, so it is possible to acquire more than one position on a page. Relevant titles, relevant internal links and relevant external links (per page as well as site wide) matter.

Search engines reward great information, so, once you establish a foothold for a series of related keywords, sometimes just blogging about a topic or mentioning it every 3-4 weeks is enough to keep your collective pages alive rising and defending themselves in the SERPs (search engine result pages) with SEO defense until website authority kicks in.

-Jeffrey

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Hub pages are typically pages that send traffic away, however if they are good at it, they eventually become a resource as viable aggregators of content or news to feed an intellectually insatiable audience. Google is an ultimate example of a hub site with a transparent focus (quality content). Can you identify which pages in your own website that have this blueprint, or can be used to increase relevance or heighten brand awareness?

Think of the value of a trusted third party referral, the fact that someone else has taken the time to create an editorial backdrop for your perusal (such as a useful article, product review or press release). Then think of the satisfaction you received after ingesting that morsel of media.

Just like regulars, if you enjoy a flavor of information such as problogger or copyblogger, then that website becomes one of your go to spots for topics related to that theme. Each industry has their own media giants that represent the definitive destination site.

Sites that contain value are indigenous to the fabric of the web and transcend mere analytics (traffic in to traffic out) as far as brand worth and online equity are concerned.

We all have our favorites, this is truly what makes us unique, choice. Knowing that each person has a unique mind set, set of emotional triggers and a specific type of appeal that sets their gears of attention or conversion in motion is what makes the word wide web so unique.

Is it information foraging according to Jakob Nielson? or just plain curiosity with a mouse attached to your cerebral cortex as a result of visual stimuli?

As websites inherently get reduced to emotional appeal and aggregate components on a subconscious level, they either leave their indelible mark on us (such as I like it) or (not enough) as we move on in search of yet another burst of information from another source encapsulating a more suitable array of emotional triggers to indulge.

In either case, understanding the role that hubs play online is crucial for online positioning. Any or all of the methods briefly mentioned above such as articles, reviews, press releases, mashups or useful blog posts can yield a tremendous amount of branding power in addition to the sheer value of potential lead generation or direct traffic they create as a side-effect.

Each page should have a purpose in the grand scheme of things. Orphaned pages are pages without internal link flow, which as a result cannot flourish and thrive. Avoid pages like this like the plague. The last thing your site needs is a legacy page that is not worth it weight in pixels.

It may in fact be time to clean house and refocus the continuity of your website. Is there more use for your pages to link out to other sources to gain more authority? or will you horde all of the traffic and link juice you can muster in order to isolate yourself from your audience?

The premise of the web is to pass it on, no visitor is going to stay at your site indefinitely, no matter what you do. So, you may as well make their experience a pleasant one so you get a high conversion of return traffic your website or blog.

Our hub pages are the SEO blog and our SEO services page. They are platforms to drive traffic and link flow deep throughout the site.

Although a hub pages purpose is only to leave an impression. If they truly make their impact (and impress you) they serve their purpose. The fact that people leave to appreciate them more only goes to show, its not about being stingy, if you want to thrive in the new online environment, its not what you hold on to, its what you give away that comes back to you.

-Jeffrey

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Typically there is a triad of relevance that balances the distinct signals a site emulates from (a) their link profile which boils down to the anchor text linking to the site (b) the amount of information available on the subject and (c) how long the topic made its debut.

What this implies is, if you intend to start ranking for new keywords outside of your accredited range of relevance, it may take longer than expected to see results. From our assessment, it appears that search engines adding an extra layer of due diligence when compiling relevance score.

Speculations such as longer URL’s not carrying the same weight, only the first link to a target page counting and other minor adjustments to search algorithms have many SEO’s scrambling to get to the root of the problem when rankings fall out of favor. Although these factors may or may not be the case, one thing in certain, something is distinctly different and some pages are affected more than others.

Just consider, as Google’s search engine index grows (with millions of new sites lining up each day), the safeguards that were at one time rather lax are not showing the same lacksidaisical allowances for newer sites and links and getting in requires that the relevance score is up to par.

Having a website and having content is not enough, you need relevant links and relevant content to ensure your site has the right ingredients to get the attention from the Google bot to crawl and index your content regularly. Now it appears that authority and reputation have a bigger role in the relevance mapping of sites as semantic crawling is only one layer of the assessment.

Looking at the different types of retrieval and the fact that the weekend index (the be back in 72 hours cache of Google search results) has been in extended play for weeks while under the surface, the infrastructure appears to have underwent a complete transformation.

Aside from older penalties being updated with new consequences, Google Bombs have been diffused, anchor text from other sites does not hold the same weight and links that appear in clusters (either with similar anchor text, across closely grouped IP’s as well as chronologically within a concise time stamp) are being quarantined until they pass the trust rank algorithm (and pass link weight and value).

What this means is, search results as we know them are fluctuating due to personalized search results, new metrics for assessing quality and relevance and many of the rankings you may have enjoyed are on hiatus momentarily. Search engines call this evolution, SEO calls this challenge, what you see and how you mold your perspective depends on which side of the fence your on and what your objective is.

Search engines make revenue from advertising, not SEO, so just keep in mind that a friendly game of chess is not uncommon. You must constantly refine your game plan and innovate new solution oriented methods to stave off the competition, have curb appeal for visitors as well as appease the constantly evolving search algorithm.

Simple suggestions for adding depth to your SEO efforts:

1) Don’t rely on one dimensional SEO techniques like low quality directories.

Let’s face it, search engineers are savvy. If link from website A does not have relevant content for text in link A, then link is null. In other words, those who abused getting off topic links from the past will find that search results inflated as a result now are falling flat.

Topical relevance is now more important that ever, and when building links default to quality and trusted sites to solidify your SEO defense.

2) Integrate multiple platforms to work cohesively to reinforce relevance.

Use press releases, build software or templates for giveaways (that gain links from authority sites or niche directories), offer a free e-book to attract new readers or create incentives for existing visitors, think of ways to integrate social media (create quality posts so others will link to you) and above all keep building links.

3) Keep your pages on topic.

Some things will never go out of style and one of them when it comes to SEO is the title tag. I personally have noticed that with other forms of measure falling out of favor, that the title tag has withstood the test of time. What this means is, when in doubt, keep it simple and go back to basics. Write quality content in smaller bursts but make each range of keywords emanate relevance from keeping the pages on topic and title tags solid.

4) Give your pages and links more time to mature before jumping to conclusions

Time is an asset, as each page ages it gains more authority if integrated properly. Look for internal linking opportunities (think wikipedia) to cross reference and link content with aged links and trust rank to lend a helping hand until your fresh content makes the grade.

5) Be patient during major algorithm changes.

How many times have webmasters panicked for no good reason. As many phrases you ranked for subside and newer phrases reach their apex, one fact remains. Change is imminent, but how you react to it to a great extent is up to you.

Just consider it a test of your sites mettle, as millions of new pages push their way up, all pages in the existing index are being challenged.

The site that links to the site that links to your site may have fallen out of favor. Perhaps an authority site went down due a bad server during a crawl or dozens of unseen influences impact the world wide web and its reciprocity.

For this reason, when one action sets off a chain of events, it is not always easy to determine a cause from an effect when they are in flux, so patience is required until you can take a measurement and assess the situation with a firm grasp.

More often than naught, the ranking returns in due time after the new algorithm has introduced itself and the everflux takes all of the past considerations of value into account. As long as you are continually creating ethical advances by providing value with your content, not pushing the envelope of promotion into gray areas and linking to safe neighborhoods, then you have nothing to fear from a new change in the algorithm on the contrary only new rankings to shore up your website during transitions.

-Jeffrey

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This is known as a long tail search engine query, with this in mind, you can target queries using long-tail SEO (optimizing your pages for less competitive keywords with less traffic but higher sales conversion). The concept of the long tail was originally coined by Chris Anderson editor in chief of Wired Magazine in 2004.

The basis is that typical marketing and keyword research only scratches the surface of an industry to acquire competitive keywords with one or two word query to funnel traffic. The only problem with that logic is, most search queries contain 3 or more words using additional modifiers and semantic qualifiers to zero in on a specific item.

Someone searching for information for a research paper may use a very generic or broad match phrase to find information, however, the more specific a search becomes, the less competitive it tends to be as each additional keyword (modifier) reduces the competition for that specific “exact match phrase”.

Instead of dedicating months of SEO resources to acquire an extremely competitive keyword, the logic of long tail search engine optimization is to target all of the semantic and behavioral off-shoots of your main keywords, “the low hanging fruit” to gain a robust online presence across a broad range of themed phrases.

Each word in a keyword campaign has its own buoyancy, peak cycle, and hang time momentum in the SERPs (search engine result pages). Based on (1) the competition for the phrase and what measures other are taking to optimize the phrase (2) The availability of information on the topic, is the topic saturated or is there room for improvement through crafting relevant resources or pages on the subject, and (3) how relevant is it to your content (which is scale through link popularity and content development).

How to distinguish a standard search from a long tail search query

For example, someone searching for “buy a house” (a broad match term) is much less likely to purchase a house because the information provided in the query is general. The lack of specific search parameters about size, number of bedrooms, price range and GEO specific information about region and would result in search results with moderate relevance (which are all likely candidates for a higher bounce rate since the reader, not finding what they intend returns back to the search engine to look for more relevant information).

Whereas the same person searching for a home using additional keywords and modifiers to eliminate unwanted noise in their search result would be more specific such as “400,000 2 BR Condo in (neighborhood) and (City)” would return a very specific range of web pages that have clearly identified those criteria in their on page factors (titles, image alt attributes, internal links, etc.).

Understanding the opportunities that exist for your existing site and mapping the ideal demographics to the ideal search behavior is the appropriate method to find expression for latent keywords with a high propensity for sales conversion.

Most SEO firms are only concerned with general keywords, however the real secret to increase sales without having to focus on dramatic increases in traffic boil down to targeting the right type of consumers with the right message (geared to engage their emotional triggers).

It is through finding the balance between the exotic searches, the obvious candidates and the competitive phrases that one can identify a base of queries that revolve around a specific group of their target audience and then provide multiple derivatives to pad the gap with relevant search results.

Why Should You Target The Long Tail as Well as Competitive Keywords?

According to a conclusive study by Craig Silverstein & Monika Henzinger of Google Inc., Hannes Marais and Michael Moricz, they provided an in depth analysis of an AltaVista Search Engine query log consisting of approximately 1 billion entries for search requests over a period of six weeks. This represents almost 285 million user sessions, each an attempt to fill a single information need.

They presented an analysis of individual queries, query duplication, and query sessions. That also presented results of a correlation analysis of the log entries, studying the interaction of terms within queries. Their data supports the conjecture that web users differ significantly from the user assumed in the standard information retrieval literature. Specifically, we show that web users type in short queries, mostly look at the first 10 results only, and seldom modify the query. To purchase this report, follow the link.

This is primarily just an adjustment to the link building process and can be tailored rather effectively in a short period of time. Instead of targeting 10 keywords, a client can attain 30, 40 or 50 keywords in the same link building and content development cycle to spread the risk over a number of phrases when trolling for new customers.

If you are truly interested in seeing which phrases your website inherently possesses, then a thorough website analysis is in order to capitalize on semantic phrases and potential keyword modalities that already exist and are just waiting for activation to funnel relevant traffic.

The Take Away for Long Tail SEO

The ideal way to leverage long tail SEO is to delve deep into the psyche of your ideal client and think the way they would think and search how they would search. Your goal is to build as many relevant relevant pages that they would find useful and target the low hanging fruit that delivers relevant traffic. This way, your content finds its target audience, they find the items they need faster and it is a pure win / win situation for you, your new clients and your online brand longevity.

-Jeffrey

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