Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization’

Is SEO a better deal than PPC?

Friday, November 20th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Optimizing your website’s content for search engines costs about half as much as relying solely on a paid-search campaign for getting customers to your site. So says a recent study by Frommer’s Unlimited I read about in the Travolution article, “WTM: Rich content ‘more cost-effective than PPC’.”

SEO, PPC Scrabble game

Of course, the main flaw I saw in this study is that it analyzes SEO and PPC results separately when many ecommerce companies use a combination of the two. SEO and PPC have different strengths and weaknesses. SEO is slower but more cost-efficient while PPC is fast, but each click costs money.

It’s essential for a website’s long-term future for it to have strong content that is designed to attract search engines’ attention and increase its ranking in their search results. But that doesn’t mean PPC is irrelevant or too expensive for companies to take advantage of in their Internet-marketing campaigns.

According to Frommer’s study, it costs about 17 cents per visitor to optimize a site’s content. On the other hand, it costs about 33 cents per visitor through PPC ads.

You can find the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Paid Search Blog on November 24, 2009. It will be entitled, “PPC clicks cost more than SEO.” The photo of the SEO, PPC Scrabble game is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of therichbrooks.

Top SEO tactics for small businesses

Monday, November 16th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I read an article on Entrepreneur.com a while back, entitled, “Rev up the Search Engines.” It gives a helpful rundown of solid SEO principles for small businesses, which don’t have a whole lot of money to spare but need to start generating results from ecommerce.

Bicyclist soaring through the airThis article gives six tips for a small business to get the most bang for its buck, when it comes to search engine optimization. They are attributed to Steve Wiideman, a fairly renowned SEO expert. I already talked about most of these in my SEO series right here in the eHarbor Blog, back in February and March of 2009. But I think a refresher is healthy.

Here is one highlight I took from these tips:

- Search engines are getting smarter. Don’t expect Google, Bing or Yahoo to fall for the same old SEO tricks. Bloggers and other content generators used to focus on their keyword-to-content ratio, but now search engines recognize when you use the same keyword too many times in the same post. Use relevant keywords prudently. If you use keyword-stuffing tactics, don’t expect much success.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on November 23, 2009. It will be called, “Getting your business on top with SEO.” The photo of the flying biker is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Grundy Photo.

Internet marketers brace for Google Caffeine changes

Monday, October 5th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Google could soon change the rules of keyword Internet marketing with the debut of its new Google Caffeine search engine. Right now, Google is not doing a good job of searching through social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. So the company is working on a new version of its popular search engine that will add them to the mix and shake up other sites’ rankings for certain keywords.

Upside-down YouTube video

The online marketing firm 360i released a study a little while back in a blog entry on Digital Connections, entitled, “6 Things to Expect if Google Decaf Gets a ‘Caffeine’ Boost.” In the post, SEO Group Director Mike Dobbs and SEO Analyst Martha Mukangara noted some pretty surprising findings.

They included 40 retail keywords in their study of the differences between the first three pages of regular Google search results and Google Caffeine search results. The 40 keywords are made up of 10 major brand names (keywords), 10 retail head terms (single keywords), 10 retail torso terms (two-word phrases), and 10 retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases).

They pointed out six ways the new search engine will dramatically affect online marketers’ strategies. For instance, 15 percent of all first-page rankings were different for the 40 keywords used in the study. Amazingly, the single keywords and two-word phrases saw 50 percent of their first-page results change with the new search engine.

You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on Monday, October 12, 2009. The photo of the upside-down YouTube page is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of engineroomblog.

Submit Solution launches new website with design services

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Submit Solution, an Internet-marketing company, just released an advanced new version of its website, submitsolution.com. The updated site now includes two new services – custom Web and logo design – as well as four ecommerce blogs and free search-engine submission, in addition to its search engine optimization and paid-search packages.

Submit Solution is already an expert at getting qualified traffic to clients’ websites via SEO and PPC campaigns. By adding custom website design and logo design to its services, Submit Solution can now help turn a higher number of site visitors into customers.

Submitsolution.com has a more user-friendly design, allowing visitors to quickly navigate its Web pages. The site boasts free search-engine submission, as well as four new blogs focusing on SEO, PPC, social media and Web design, respectively. It also provides additional Internet-marketing tools, definitions of ecommerce terms and FAQs to help newcomers learn the ins and outs of Internet marketing.

“The new Submit Solution website helps potential clients understand both the intricacies of a successful search-engine marketing plan and what we can do to help,” said Oliver Bigler, chief executive officer and founder of Submit Solution. “Internet newbies can often be drowned in a sea of conflicting information. Our website helps clients navigate their way toward information and services that fit their needs best.”

For 14 years, Submit Solution has worked in the Internet-marketing industry. Its SEO packages were recently updated to add social-media posting and inbound linking to its traditional tactics of optimizing site content, such as adding Meta tags. Other new or improved services include:

- Website designSubmit Solution logo

- Logo design

- Paid-search advertising

- Competitive analysis

- Website consulting

This launch of Submit Solution’s new website makes this the second week in a row in which we’ve introduced an innovative product or service. Be sure to check out my blog entry on Magellan Commerce’s new online merchant service: “Magellan Commerce the 1st to offer ecommerce and merchant services.”

ThemeFury.com creator named eHarbor MVP

Monday, September 7th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Jeff Ashby, an SEO technician at eHarbor Inc., is the latest employee to be named the company’s Most Valuable Player. He received this honor at our monthly company meeting on Wednesday, September 2, 2009.

In addition to his normal responsibility of providing search engine optimization for our clients, Jeff created a new website called Theme Fury, which offers more than a hundred free Wordpress themes. These themes help Wordpress blog owners stand out with a creative design instead of using a standard format.

Theme Fury logo

Theme Fury already offers themes for websites in a number of categories:

- Animal

eHarbor MVP Jeff Ashby- Artistic

- Business

- Car

- Craft

- Education

- Electronics

- Family

- Health

- Music

- Nature

- Personal

- Sports

Be sure to visit Theme Fury’s installation page to find out how to install your favorite theme to your blog.

When Jeff’s not doing SEO or computer programming, he enjoys collecting Pez dispensers and watching Filipino movies. His favorite restaurants are Red Robin and Olive Garden, and he likes to watch shows like “Seinfeld” and “Arrested Development.”

This is the third time I’ve spotlighted an MVP in the eHarbor Blog. You can read about last month’s winner, Derek Anderson, in my blog entry, “eHarbor MVP gives great customer care.” We have many great employees to spotlight. I’ll keep you posted on them at the start of each month.

The photo of Jeff Ashby is from the blog post “Halloween Pictures” in the Ashblog, his personal blog. The Theme Fury logo is the copyright of Jeff Ashby and Theme Fury.

How to get inbound links

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entry, “I link, therefore I am… on top of Google.” I’m talking about what I learned at Webmarketing123’s August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.” Without further ado, I’ll return to where I left off.

Fingers touching light

Unless a website is cached or saved by search engines on a regular basis, the links found on it won’t count toward the search engine optimization of the sites it links to. That explains why Google can’t keep up with Twitter and other social-media sites, as I discussed in an earlier eHarbor Blog entry. It’s trying to take a snapshot of websites that change multiple times every second.

Returning to caches, I learned a cool trick at the Webinar that I would like to share. If you want to know if a Web page is cached by Google, all you have to do is type “cache:www.thesitename.com” into a Google search and it will tell you.

The big question is how do you get inbound links? After you’ve gone through and added great content that is relevant to your keywords, you can start using the following sources to get inbound links:

- Directories

- Paid Listings

- Article Syndications

- Blogs

- News Releases

We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will debut soon. We’ll be transferring our ecommerce and Internet marketing articles from the eHarbor Blog to that one soon. You can find the rest of this blog entry there after it debuts.

The photo of the fingers touching light is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of littledan77.

I link, therefore I am… on top of Google

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

I enjoy Webmarketing123’s free Webinars on Internet marketing. I always learn a lot from them, and I try to apply what I learn. Today, I’ll talk about what I learned at their August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.”

Confusing keyboard arrows

The five things a website needs to get ranked on the first page of Google results are:

1. Keywords – The search terms you want people to type into a search engine in order to find your Web page.

2. Site Content – You need to use your chosen keywords in your website’s text to show search engines your site is relevant to those topics.

3. Meta Content – You don’t usually see this content, but it must be there in the backend of your site and in your Web page titles.

4. URLs – Include important keywords in your URLs. For example, it is better to have a URL like www.eharborinc.com/blog/2009/07/17/is-twitter-overhyped, which includes the date and headline keywords, than something like www.eharborinc.com/blog/post-81. The second URL gives no clue as to what it contains, while the first one gives a much better idea of the page’s subject matter.

5. Inbound Links – These are links (or votes) from other websites to your site. Search engines look at both the number and quality of the links you receive from other sites.

We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will debut soon. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one soon. You can find the rest of this blog entry there. Stay tuned!

The photo of the confusing keyboard arrows is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jeremyfoo.

Done right, SEO and PPC deliver tasty results

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

The unattainable goal for many search campaigns is the ever-elusive melding of PPC and SEO tactics for bigger and better top-line results. Theoretically, the two should go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwichThat’s how Herndon Hasty starts his superb Search Engine Watch article, “Of PPC and PBJ: Combining PPC and SEO Effectively, Part 1.” His comparisons of search engine optimization to peanut butter and pay-per-click advertising to jelly are apt, and they work well through the article.

We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will soon be launched. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one. You can find the rest of this blog entry there when it comes out. Stay tuned!

The photo of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jacky_oh_yeah.

Angry ecommerce customers fight back on Twitter

Monday, July 27th, 2009

By Robert Lockard

Customer retention has always been an important part of business, but it is even more essential for survival in the world of ecommerce. I read an eye-opening E-Commerce Times article, entitled, “Mapping Out an Effective Online Customer Retention Strategy,” that really laid out the situation.

Dog jumping in San Francisco

I’ve talked a lot about using social-media websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to spread the word about your online business. These, combined with search engine optimization, are powerful Internet marketing tools. However, they can also be used against you by disappointed customers with an ax to grind.

Word of mouth used to be the most-effective and least-expensive way to market a company’s products or services. But today, anyone with online access can easily send a message about a company, whether good or bad, and have it seen by hundreds or thousands of people.

This is an important topic, and this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about customer service on the eHarbor Blog. I mentioned some customers’ efforts to get even with companies they thought were unfair to them in the blog entry, “Do you hate customer service?” In that post, I talked in general about losing customers and how they often turn to social media to vent their frustrations. But now I can share specific statistics that show why it is so important to keep customers happy.

The E-Commerce Times article mentions some sobering statistics that add a sense of urgency to retaining online customers. I think it’s okay to republish them here because the article’s author was quoting from a book, “Leading on the Edge of Chaos.” Here they are:

- Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.

- The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year.

- A 5-percent reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25 percent to 85 percent, depending on the industry.

- The customer-profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

- A 2-percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10 percent.

Clearly, customer retention should be the focus of every business. Angry customers’ unfavorable words could influence a large number of people who might have otherwise become customers. If you keep your customers happy, they could share good stories about your company with their friends on social networks.

The photo of the dog catching a chicken in midair is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of mylerdude.

Experts are wrong: Twitter and Facebook help SEO

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

By Robert Lockard

On Wednesday, July 15, 2009, I attended one of WebMarketing123.com’s free webinars, called “Increase Sales Through Social Media Optimization.” I highly recommend you attend these wonderful webinars. They teach a lot about search engine optimization, paid-search campaigns and other important ecommerce topics that can help your bottom line.

Free-Google-search coupon

At this particular webinar, the speakers talked a lot about optimizing websites to get the best results on search engines. That’s a topic I also covered in my seven-part SEO series a while back. The part that really caught my interest was when they talked about social media and its relation to SEO.

The speakers said Facebook and Twitter are not useful at all for gaining first-page ranking on search engines, like Google or Bing. Any links posted on these two websites have a “nofollow” tag in their HTML code, telling search engines to disregard them in their algorithms. The good news is links on other social networks, such as Digg, LinkedIn, Technorati and Propeller, actually do count toward SEO for your website.

I also took away from the webinar the fact that Facebook and Twitter are great for generating qualified leads. You can tweet about company offers or post links to landing pages on your Facebook wall to invite interested customers to your site. They can definitely help increase traffic to your website, though not through the search engines.

I think the webinar speakers got one thing wrong, though. They said Facebook and Twitter offer absolutely no help with SEO, but I think that’s only partly true. Yes, they don’t offer direct SEO because the links on them don’t attract search engines’ attention. But one of the reasons you post a link on these sites is to get other social-media users to find it and post a link to it on their own blog or website. And that does help with SEO because inbound links are powerful.

I think Twitter and Facebook are useful SEO tools, even though they might not seem so at first glance. I’ve been talking a lot about Twitter and Facebook in the last week. My last eHarbor blog entry was called “Is Twitter overhyped?” but now I’m starting to realize Twitter is more helpful than I previously thought. Both Twitter and Facebook are fascinating tools and they can be useful when incorporated into an overall marketing strategy that includes SEO and other online strategies.

The photo of the free Google search coupon is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Bramus.