Online Marketing for Local Business
Archive for April, 2011
SEO For Blogs Part II – Length of Search Query
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Part II of our discussion on SEO for blogs focuses on the phrases and keywords you should use to attract the most visitors to your site.
Recent research suggests that the highest conversion rates from search engine traffic actually comes from people who use a specific number of words in their search queries. The first question is: Do you know how many words you should be using? And the second more important question is, If you don’t know the answer to this question, how are optimizing your site for SEO?
The great thing is that your blog can become so well-indexed with the proper promotion that you have potential to show up for a large number of these phrases relevant to your industry with that knowledge.
Targeting your blog discussion to shorter phases is another strategy to potentially yield high traffic to your website and blog, once again by choosing appropriate keywords that may have less competition than others, and even less so since they aren’t what some consider the “optimal” length.
And think of it this way: Would you rather be the 20th result for a very competitive query, with loads of competition vying to win it, or be the 2nd or 3rd result for a relevant, but less common phrase or query?
Which do you think could generate more visits, and thus more attention, awareness and revenue for your company?
Also, some believe that since Google and other engines have been around for so long, and recognized the “big” players in most keyword and query categories, that competition is far too intense for any of the “good” keywords or phrases.
In one sense this is true for most general keywords and phrases, or the specific ones that are absolutely the most profitable – the ones that major corporations and other large institutions are willing to spend big money to “win” – or terms which many other larger organizations may simply be more relevant in regards to. They have spent large amounts of resources for lengthy periods of time with the engines to ensure they rank very highly for their target keywords and search phrases.
But many of the “most popular” queries currently conducted in search engines right now have come into existence in just the last couple of years…and of course as technology (and everything else!) continually advance, there will always be opportunities to “win” newer, profitable queries – if you know how to discover them. (This is one of the subjects that we focus on here at Hat Trick Associates.)
You can also set up your blog to repeat the keywords that you want to target just enough times to establish a theme that search engines can identify. You can take full advantage of this in your post titles, your category names, the pages URL names, or even a combination of Technorati tags and the text of your permanent links that appear after each post.
Up Next: The Importance of Timely Posting and Getting Linked with Your Blog
Increasing The SEO Visibility Of Your Blog – Part I
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
A keyword focused and well written, keyword rich blog can naturally attract search engine traffic to your site for a variety of reasons.
Most blogs already have an “optimized” site architecture for the search engines, and have clear navigation options and links that go back to the homepage and other main pages of your site. They are also a simple way to keep your website content updated with fresh and relevant information for your readers, as thousands of readers of our Hat Trick Associates blog already know – increasing not only your search traffic, but you conversions and sales revenue, too.
So what are some of the other ways you can the SEO value and effectiveness of your blog?
Blog Directories
Links that “aim” back to your site can be very valuable to you in the eyes of Google and the other search engines, since they help prove that your content is valuable and relevant to readers. “One way” links, or non reciprocal, are the most valuable…the premise being that “two way” links (from two sites linked to each other) could simply be part of an agreement to boost each other’s SEO score.
One great way to provide some of these great one-way links back to your website is through blog directories. There are thousands of relevant blog directories online, of many different sizes and specialties or importance.
Adding your own blog to the right ones can be a fantastic way to share your web content while raising the search engine visibility score of your website.
Knowing which ones can be difficult for many folks, however, and without the right subscription software, the process of submitting your own blog to each directory can be quite time-intensive.
But not only do we write blogs and write web and social content here at Hat Trick Associates, we also have the automated tools needed to easily submit your blog to the hundreds and thousands of blog and web directories out there that matter, and which can really boost the SEO of your website content.
If you would like to find out more about using this valuable, convenient service for your own website and professional blog, please contact us here at Hat Trick Associates.
But before you head out to start submitting your website, there are steps you should take to optimize your blog even before you promote it. You want your site to get the best keyword placement in the major search engines, but for the right keywords…the ones that not only bring in but convert traffic.
Blogs Keywords
With blog content keywords, you can choose to target a generalized, high-traffic keyword, but you often have little chance of ranking well for this keyword, and might not receive much in the way of additional traffic. The better option is to shoot for a keyword that gets a more moderate level of traffic – targeted traffic – which can result in more subscribers and sales.
These more lucrative keywords are important not because they bring the most eyeballs to your site, but because they bring the most profit to your organization.
You might even be surprised to learn that there often is NOT a great correlation between high traffic and high sales.
Many of the most profitable Internet sites on the globe actually get more modest traffic – but their lucrative keywords result in a much higher ratio of Visitors to Buyers, i.e. they rank for the right terms and keywords for the right subset of people who are suitable customers.
A good example of this phenomenon can be found right here on the Hat Trick Associates website.
We have a particular post on How Many Blogs Are There? This post has become a favorite of Google, Bing and Yahoo search, with thousands of visitors a month who find and read it.
However, much of this traffic comes from educational institutions or from other places in the world. In other words students conducting research or folks on the other side of the globe. High traffic, low conversions.
We are happy to share this information with whoever can use it, but this popularity and web traffic don’t actually bring in business. So focusing on the right, most lucrative keywords is critical for your organization.
If you don’t know what the best keywords for your organization’s website, that is another area that we can help with here at HTA.
Up next: Part II – Length of Search Query and Keyword Placement
Want to learn more? Contact us to ask any questions you may have, or to discuss your current web and social content programs and how we might be able to work together!
“Facebook Depression” Appearing In Young People
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Taking another quick break from web content and e-marketing topics, to shine a light on a harmful side effect of our nation’s current fascination with social networking services:
Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site.
Researchers today disagree on whether it’s simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site.
But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.
With in-your-face friends’ tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don’t measure up.
It can be more painful than sitting alone in a crowded school cafeteria or other real-life encounters that can make kids feel down, because Facebook provides a skewed view of what’s really going on. Online, there’s no way to see facial expressions or read body language that provide context.
The guidelines urge pediatricians to encourage parents to talk with their kids about online use and to be aware of Facebook depression, cyberbullying, sexting and other online risks.
Abby Abolt, 16, a Chicago high school sophomore and frequent Facebook user, says the site has never made her feel depressed, but that she can understand how it might affect some kids.
“If you really didn’t have that many friends and weren’t really doing much with your life, and saw other peoples’ status updates and pictures and what they were doing with friends, I could see how that would make them upset,” she said.
“It’s like a big popularity contest — who can get the most friend requests or get the most pictures tagged,” she said.
Also, it’s common among some teens to post snotty or judgmental messages on the Facebook walls of people they don’t like, said Gaby Navarro, 18, a senior from Grayslake, Ill. It’s happened to her friends, and she said she could imagine how that could make some teens feel depressed.
“Parents should definitely know” about these practices,” Navarro said. “It’s good to raise awareness about it.”
The academy guidelines note that online harassment “can cause profound psychosocial outcomes,” including suicide. The widely publicized suicide of a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl last year occurred after she’d been bullied and harassed, in person and on Facebook.
“Facebook is where all the teens are hanging out now. It’s their corner store,” O’Keeffe said.
She said the benefits of kids using social media sites like Facebook shouldn’t be overlooked, however, such as connecting with friends and family, sharing pictures and exchanging ideas.
“A lot of what’s happening is actually very healthy, but it can go too far,” she said.
Dr. Megan Moreno, a University of Wisconsin adolescent medicine specialist who has studied online social networking among college students, said using Facebook can enhance feelings of social connectedness among well-adjusted kids, and have the opposite effect on those prone to depression.
Parents shouldn’t get the idea that using Facebook “is going to somehow infect their kids with depression,” she said.