~~~~SEO Question~~~~
From: Ian Chiu
Hi Heather,
I've been reading your columns for two months now. You and your team
have a very insightful look on SE optimization. However, what you're
suggesting is almost unattainable for most medium websites as they
already have developed a certain amount of content that couldn't be
optimized right away. Take my site as an example. All my articles may
not be what you call SE-optimized, so, it would take large amount of
resources just for the SEO.
Also, I tried to optimize my site for Google and AltaVista without
much success. I know if you want a successful SEO campaign, you need
to spend some money. However, my site focuses on USB, which is
perhaps the most competitive keyword you can get.
With WordTracker, USB is rated for under 0.18 as the keyword score,
which means there are tons of other sites out there that compete with
my site. So, I think for above reasons, SEO isn't exactly what I need.
Then again, I don't know what to do.
Best regards,
Ian Chiu
EverythingUSB
http://www.everythingusb.com/
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hi, Ian-
I'd have to disagree with your statement that strong rankings are
unattainable for a medium-sized business. In fact, we've had stellar
success with medium-sized businesses (and in many cases, their site
ranks better than their corporate competition). However, SEO can be REALLY overwhelming, so here are some tips to get you through.
Keyphrases:
I hate to break this to you, but you ain't gonna rank high with the
keyphrase "USB." The market for single keywords is incredibly
competitive, especially with a keyword like yours.
Your best bet is to choose well-researched keyPHRASES that relate to
your site. For more information on what keyphrases are and why they're
important, read Rank Write 035. Remember, don't
skimp on the keyphrase research! The results are often very
surprising - and it saves you from optimizing for ineffectual
keyphrases.
How can I get started?:
OK, take a yoga breath...feel better? If your site has 200 pages, the
thought of optimizing ALL the pages at once may be completely
overwhelming. If you want to start your SEO campaign, work on your
home page first. THEN you can worry about your other pages.
The home page is crucial for both the search engines and your
prospects. To learn more, just read, "How to Write a Keyphrase-Rich Home Page the Search Engines Will Love". You'll discover all the
home page SEO writing information you'll need!
Another tip!:
Don't forget your press releases. Although they aren't a top
priority, editing your press releases for keyphrases is a reliable
method for targeted traffic. Check out why this technique is a savvy
strategy in Rank Write 045.
What happens next? I'm handing the microphone to Jill, and she'll
give you her side of the scoop. Stay tuned for more great
information!
Heather
~~~Jill's Response~~~
LOL at the "microphone"! (Hello...hello...is this thing on???)
I used to wonder if search engine optimization was necessary for all
sites. Even being in the business, I realized that in some instances
the field may just be too competitive to rank high (e.g., the Web
hosting market). Certainly, for highly competitive markets, you want
to use lots of varied marketing techniques to get your site noticed.
But I strongly believe that those other forms of marketing should not
preclude SEO. What so many people forget (or don't know) is that
optimizing a site for high rankings in the search engines is a
*long-term* strategy. It's not something you have to do all at once,
but it is something that should be done, one way or another, for any
site. It doesn't have to cost you anything, and it can't hurt to play
around with it.
As a quick aside, I got a call from a Web designer the other day.
Now, here's a guy that has designed a whole bunch of sites over the
years. He starts out the conversation with, "Is there really any
value to what you do? Is it really worth it?" I was like, "huh"? I
started in on my spiel about how most people find sites through the
search engines, and blah, blah...when he cut me off and said, "yeah,
but what's the use if you can only be number 3024 in the list?"
Ahhh...okay...now I understood his concern. This guy was so used to
hearing about search engine *submission* companies, that he had no
clue about *optimizing* for the search engines. He only knew of
*submitting* to the engines. (Kinda scary when you consider he was a
Web page designer!) My point in bringing up this little story is to
remind everyone of the fact that SEO is indeed worth doing if/when you
know how to do it right and can get top-10 or even top-20 results.
If you're just submitting, then no, it's not worth the trouble, and
certainly not worth spending any money.
But the truth is that it IS possible to obtain top results. It was
true five years ago and it's still true today. We do it all the time
for our clients, and you can do it too! I admit that I keep waiting
for the boom to lower and I'll suddenly find that the sites we work on
won't rank high, but it just hasn't happened. In fact, it appears
that our tried and true methods are finally, finally, the ones that
the rest of the SEO world has come to recognize as the
smart/ethical/honest way to go about it. It is beyond me why it's
taken this long for it to happen, since our methods have been the same
since the beginning. I think it's the whole quick fix mentality. The
right way takes time. People don't like things that take time.
Like Heather said, you've absolutely got to be realistic about your
choice of keyphrases. True, you can't expect to get a high ranking
for "USB." Sure, your site may be about "everything USB" (from
looking at your domain name), but even so, I'm having a hard time
figuring out why someone would even go searching in the engines for
just "USB"? I'm thinking USB drivers, USB accessories, or USB
products, but just USB? They might be, but I wonder why they would be
searching for this one "word." And even if they are, I would imagine
that once they got the search results showing a whole variety of pages
coming up, they'd realize they have to narrow their search to be more
in line with what sort of USB thingee they were actually looking for.
You mention that you have articles on your site. Generally, articles
are the perfect playground for getting high rankings without hardly
trying. Our multitude of articles on the Rank Write site are our best
rankers. My article about Meta keywords, for instance, gets a whole
bunch of traffic from people typing "meta keywords" into the engines.
Did I change the text in that article to make this happen? No,
sir-ee. The article naturally uses this phrase, because that's what
it's all about. Yes, I did make sure that my Title matched, and I do
believe I probably created a complimentary Meta description, but
that's pretty much all I did. Along with your home page, articles are
a great place to start your optimization. Do you have an article on
USB drivers? Optimize it for that particular phrase. If you have
such an article and it's not using the phrase "USB drivers" a number
of times, why isn't it? Is there a way that you could slightly edit
it so it does? What about the rest of your articles? You wouldn't be
writing articles that were of no interest to people, so the phrases
you're using in them must be stuff that people are searching for. Use
this to your advantage, and optimize these pages accordingly!
You mention that it would take large amounts of resources to optimize
your articles right away. As Heather mentioned, you don't have to do
it right away. But aside from that, why would it take large amounts
of resources? Even if you have 100 articles, you could easily go
through two or three a day in your spare time and just check for
keyphrases, then make your Titles and tags match. This shouldn't take
you more than an hour or so. If you don't have an hour, then do one
existing page a day. The bottom line is that your articles give you
the
perfect opportunity to let people find you from the engines. If you
have an informative site on a particular subject, then go for it! Good
pages deserve to come up during a relevant search...and you have the
power to make it so! It doesn't hurt to try, and it's really not
impossible. Don't expect immediate miracles, and don't expect tons
and tons and tons of visitors. Slowly do what it takes, keep your
expectations reasonable, and then don't think about it too much. You
may be surprised to wake up in six months to find all sorts of highly
relevant traffic suddenly coming to you from the search engines!
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
