Search Engine Marketing – The Basics

AIM – Arizona Internet Marketing is an Arizona search engine optimization company and we understand what is required to implement and maintain a long-term search engine positioning approach. This article is provided to you as a primer with regard to search engine optimization and search engine marketing of a website.

Search engine optimization is a very dynamic and ever changing practice. As Search Engines change their ranking algorithms and new pages are added to the Internet on a daily basis, ongoing maintenance is necessary to provide stability and deep rooted positioning.

You can have the fanciest website in the world created – but you MAY be wasting your money! When it comes to web design and the Internet you need to be aware of what search engines can read – and cannot.  It is important to know….

Before beginning your website marketing campaign, it will be important to know what search engines DON’T like in a website.

• Search Engines can’t read graphics: Text written as graphics (done in PhotoShop for instance) won’t be recognized by a search engine crawler. That’s why it is not a good idea to overload our sites with pretty navigation graphics/buttons or bouncy words (flash). If you must have your main navigation buttons made as an image, then you MUST add a text-link supplemental navigation on each page so that search engines can read your navigation structure.
• Search Engines can’t read Javascripts: Sites that rely only on Javascript– or any other output – may not be crawled by search engines.
• Search Engines can’t read Flash: Flash files are also elements that search engine spiders cannot read. Many sites these days are created in Flash – since many newcomers to the web think that this is what people want. While that may have been the case a few years ago, visitors today want to quickly be able to find information without hashing through dancing animated files. Recently, it’s been suggested that you can search engine optimize a Flash site. However, I have a hard time believing that and need to see some proof (which I haven’t seen yet).
• Be Careful With Content Management (CMS): You often see “do it yourself” websites offered for sale. Here you can log in, and add or edit your website content pages. Until recently, CMS sites would not perform in search engines. But with the advancement in technologies, comes advancement in CMS sites. There are some really great content management systems out there that DO IN FACT perform in search engines. CMS websites built in WordPress, Joomla, and a few other softwares are a great way to get a site that you can update yourself, and have it work well in search engines. On the flipside, there are still some bad ones out there. CMS sites made with companies like GoDaddy, HomeStead and other companies still don’t work in my opinion, and are a waste of money.

Some Search Engine “Do’s and Do Not’s”

• DO: Carefully choose keywords and phrases to sprinkle throughout your pages and place in your meta tags. However, always remember that site content is king! This means that what is written on your pages is the most important factor with regard to search engines. Always write your content with a web visitor in mind, and don’t specifically write for a search engine. It is advisable to take a well written page that offers information of value to a human visitor, and then ‘optimize’ that content for the search engines. Do this, and you will be fine.
• DO NOT: Rely only on meta tags for your search engine placement. SEO goes way beyond that. Meta tags are only a small part of the search engine optimization pie.
• DO: Manually submit your pages to the major search engines. BUT ONLY ONCE!!  Subscribing to services that submit you more than once are generally a rip-off. You should also create an XML site map and submit that to the major search engines. Update that site map each time you update your site.
• DO NOT: Use software to submit your pages. If done incorrectly, you can get your site banned from a search engine altogether.
• DO: Follow the rules and guidelines of each search engine. This will benefit you in the long run by assuring your pages keep their high rankings.
• DO NOT: Try to fool or trick the search engines. While some tricks may achieve high rankings in the short term – they will eventually catch you and your site could be banned.

Avoid the Sales Pitch Promising “Guaranteed Results”:

• RUN, DON’T WALK - You will often see advertisements from “search engine optimization” companies offering a quick fix. Claims like “We guarantee first page rankings in 30 days!” We recommend moving away. And we recommend moving away FAST.
• Guaranteeing a particular ranking in a particular engine is impossible. Search engine ranking algorithms are proprietary and complex, and SEO professionals have no basis for guaranteeing specific keyword performance. A true SEO professional will not guarantee rankings – but can give you a good idea of what marketing efforts will be involved in competing for your particular keyterm.
• Search engine rankings vary wildly according to competition for keyterms. A company that guarantees “first page ranking” won’t tell you for which key terms you’ll be ranked on page one. There’s a reason. For instance, the term “Computers” is going to be many times more competitive than “Prescott Apple Computer Repair.” So without a specific key term agreed on, if you get on page one with the latter term, they have fulfilled the promise. But you don’t benefit because the amount of people looking up that term is minimal.
• Software submissions to “thousands of search engines” are a waste. At best they do nothing for premium positions, and at worst can get your site banned from the search engines for spamming them. When submitting to search engines, you should really just concentrate on about 5 or 6 primary engines and directories.
• Companies that give these sorts of promises sometimes use “black hat techniques” in marketing your site. These techniques, while possibly effective for the short term, are frowned upon by search engines and considered spam-like. Once discovered, you run a high risk of having your site banned from the search engines as a result.

Below are some of the keys to consider regarding marketing your new or existing website:

• Key Phrases: It is important to identify the most effective key phrases to be found under, and then create the right content (text, graphics, etc.) on your web site for these phrases. There are other important factors to consider such as; link popularity, current volume of traffic to site, and the proper “optimization” of your pages to meet the criteria of the search engines.
• Content / Additional Pages: The most important factor in getting good search engine rankings is content. CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT. We can’t say enough about how important it is that you have the right information (and enough of it) on your web site. Remember, content is king. If you have good page content, people will come. You can then have that content optimized for keyterms and search engines for better rankings.
• Page Construction: There are many intricate methods that should be carefully adhered to when constructing a website for SEO purposes. Normally there are many details from the meta tags, to the coding methods, to the text copy and images that can be altered (without visual changes to the site itself) to enhance search engine rankings. A good web development company (like AIMAZ.com) will pay very close attention to how the code is written on your pages.
• Link Popularity: Be sure to create your own network with complimentary businesses.  To some search engines, like Google, the more links you have to your site the more “important” your site is. Google uses uses link popularity as one factor in ranking sites.  Recently, it has become apparent that “link swaps” are losing favor with the search engines. Too many websites have overdone this, and it’s almost becoming a form of spam (in my opinion). Now, it is more important to obtain one-way inbound links to your site. And admittedly, this is hard to do. If you have a good website, this task becomes a bit easier.
• Integrate your website into your existing marketing efforts: You might be stunned if you knew how many businesses spend the money creating a website and then don’t tell anyone about it!! You should add your website address to all of your marketing materials – invoices, letterhead, print ads, etc. Your web address should appear everywhere your phone number appears.
• Learn about our marketing services and what a professional company like AIM – Arizona Internet Marketing can do for you.

Just get a new website? Here’s what you should know:

If you are getting a new website developed, or have had one recently created, here are some facts that you should keep in mind regarding search engines:

• Market Share: At the time of this writing, Google has about a 60% market share of U.S.  internet searchers. Yahoo is second with 20%. The rest of the thousands of search engines account for the last 20%. Your SEO efforts should target Google. Other search engines crawl Google’s results for their own indexes. If you’re in Google – you’ll shortly be listed in all of the others.
• Don’t Expect Quick Results: If you are targeting a highly competitive key term (for instance, “computers”), you could end up waiting a year or more to see yourself ranked appropriately. If your keyterms is less competitive (for instance “Prescott home builder”), then it may only take a month or so to see results. To battle spammy sites, Google implemented the “Sandbox” – a waiting period for new sites. Be prepared to initially target less competitive keyterms if you have a brand new site.
• Good Content: If you have good page content you will generally be ok. Google gives favorable rankings to sites that offer visitors good information. The smartest way to acheive good rankings, and see a quicker return on your investment, is to put some time into providing good well written content. It is then advisable to “Search Engine Optimize” that content for specific keyterms and search engine rankings.

If you would like further information on search engine marketing, AIM – Arizona Internet Marketing offers marketing consulting services.