I Do Web Marketing

This post was written over at Noble Samurai and touches on a topic that I am asked regularly. With their permission, I am re-posting this here as it is a very relevant topic in today’s web marketing world.

There is a common misconception that in order to develop a successful online business you need to be targeting hundreds or thousands of keywords.

This perception often causes a great deal of confusion and can lead to ‘Analysis Paralysis’ as people spend months analyzing keywords looking for the perfect opportunity. As a result they never follow through to create a complete and profitable business.

Last week, a group of us were discussing this problem and came to the conclusion that the reason this misconception is still so prevalent is that in the past, focusing on quantity versus quality DID actually work.

In the early days of Internet marketing, if you placed a large number of related keywords on a page or included them in Meta and Alt tags you could often get rankings that led to traffic.

Similarly, in the early days of Google Adwords, it was possible to load your account with thousands of keywords and generate a steady stream of traffic to your site.

However, while this may have been the case in 2003, it is very important to realize that THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

The old approach was a ‘shotgun strategy’ in which you targeted a large number of keywords, took a shot and hoped for the best.

With the continuous improvements in search engine algorithms and the development of quality metrics such as Google’s Quality score, this approach is no longer effective.

The mantra of “The more keywords the better” is a thing of the past.

The alternative to the old shotgun strategy is a new ‘laser like’ approach in which you explore your market carefully and then zero in on a small subset of specific keywords.

To understand why this laser focused approach is so important we need to examine something we call the ‘Iceberg Principle’.

According to the Iceberg Principle, finding a good keyword is just the tip of the Iceberg.

In order to transform a keyword into a genuine asset for your business, you need to undertake a range of tasks that most people unfortunately never get around to.

These tasks include:

On-page optimisation

Off-page optimisation

Obtaining high quality backlinks

Writing articles

Conducting targeted PPC campaigns

Etc.

The truth is that every one of these activities requires time and effort. Clearly, if you are trying to target thousands of keywords, following through on these activities becomes virtually impossible.

So, instead of generating lists containing thousands of semantically related keywords, here is the laser focused strategy that we recommend in today’s SEO environment.

To get started, use Market Samurai to generate a sample of keywords in your niche and then continually refine and filter these keywords until you find 5-10 keywords that have the following characteristics:

(1) They are highly relevant to your niche

(2) They have reasonable levels of traffic eg. 100 visitors per day

(3) They have acceptable levels of competition eg. Less than 30000 competing web pages

(4) They have low strength of competition ie. The top 10 sites in Google are not well optimized

Once you have identified and selected your target keywords, redirect your focus to the on-page and off-page SEO tasks necessary to transform your keywords into genuine traffic-generating assets for your business.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

In May, Google added the Show Options feature to it’s search results pages. It wasn’t until earlier this month that Google launched more ways to utilize it’s search engine. Services like Facebook and Twitter offer real-time search capabilities, which poses a threat to Google’s results.

Google has proven time and again though, they don’t just sit on their hands. So, they are introducing ways in which they can enhance their results. This is done with new search features that give you the ability to search for results in the past hour, by date range, previously visited pages, not yet visited, and by Google’s Book, Blog, and News search tools.

How to Access The Google Search Options

Another cool feature that came out earlier this month is the integration of Google Trends into natural search results. The following screen capture will be displayed at the bottom of SERP’s, when you search for a trendy topic:

Google Trends integrated into natural search results.

This Google Trends integration is only for users in Japan and the US. Google Trends and the new search options are just the latest updates to Google’s search engine, but we’re sure to see many more enhancements in the coming months.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

A much needed update to the blog is finally complete. Haven’t been able to spend as much time as I wanted to since I started the overhaul process a couple weeks ago, due to client responsibilities that I have. However, the finishing touches have been made and the new layout should serve well once the premium SEO suite is complete. For the time being, I have added seo related tools to use, so be sure and check out the Web Marketing Tools page.

In the near future, a keyword analysis toolset will be brought to this site. It promises to be filled with things that are not seen in any other form of software. I have spent hours and countless handwritten pages developing the algorithms for the toolset, now it is just a matter of having it commercially developed. Stay tuned to the site as I update progress. In the mean time, feel free to play around with the free tools linked above and check back as I look to add my thoughts on Google Wave and more web marketing trends!

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

It seems I am running into more and more people who have been burned by bad SEO firms. Now, as I previously discussed, there are certainly plenty of bad SEO people to watch out for. However, you can do yourself a huge favor by preparing some questions for your prospective SEO providers. This will allow you to gauge how knowledgeable they truly are on the subject, and give you a better feel for what to expect.

Before engaging in ANY discussion with an SEO provider, you should have done your research first. Ask yourself, how did you find this prospective SEO provider? Was it through a search engine? Was it through a social media platform such as LinkedIn? If you found them there, chances are they have an idea of what they are doing. Pull some analytics on their website. Run their website through HubSpot’s website grader and see some information about their website. There are other analytical snapshots you can review as well such as www.quarkbase.com to get some quick information. This will give you an idea of who you are engaging. If an SEO firm cannot represent that they are ranked highly themselves, then what makes you think they can do it for you?

Now, once you have done your due diligence, these are the questions you should be asking:

How long have you been in business?
You should know the answer to this provided that you have done your due diligence. Now it is just a matter of them being honest with you.

What keywords have you attained ranks for?
This is important, because you want to know that the keyword campaigns they build are legitimate. An eight word keyword phrase is not difficult to rank for, so pay close attention to this.

What keywords do you feel my site should be ranking for?
If this is your first conversation with them, then a respectable SEO firm should have to get back to you after they do some preliminary research. They might be able to quickly go through your site and give you some keyword ideas off the top of their head. Match whatever they give you up to the research you have already done.

What is your SEO process?
Shady SEO people will dance around this question. Or they may even claim that it is a trade secret. This should throw up caution signs. Respectable SEO’s should never have a problem explaining their process to you.

Is my industry competitive?
You should have an idea on this before you engage in discussions with an SEO provider. There are a ton of factors into determining an industry’s competitiveness. A general rule of thumb is to look up a keyword query in Google and look at the number of results. You will see a number on the top right that says 1 of 10 of X, where X is the total number of pages that are relevant to the search query. Now, this isn’t always 100% accurate of a term’s competitiveness nature, but it gives you an idea. If your primary keyword has less than 500,000 results, and the SEO firm tries to tell you it is a very competitive industry – then you will want to proceed with caution.

Are you working with anyone in my industry?
This is important, because you don’t want your SEO firm to be targeting the same keywords with you as they would with someone else. Most SEO companies will not offer industry exclusivity without charging higher prices for it. You should be able to provide an SEO Firm a list of your competitors that they agree not to work with while under contract with you.

Do you require changes to my site?
If they answer “no” to this question, then this should throw up caution flags. On page optimization is absolutely necessary and is the second step of a campaign (after the research). Some SEO firms require that you make their recommended changes. Respectable SEO firms will handle this themselves and make the necessary behind the scenes changes. They should not be changing your website design unless you have a specific agreement in place with them to do so.

What will you be doing besides working directly on my site?
Again, if they answer “no” to this question, there is cause for concern. The on page optimization is only PART of the SEO process. If they are not building links for you, then you are not gaining credibility in the eyes of search engines. All SEO campaigns should include a link building process.

How long will it take to see results?
An SEO firm that tells you it will happen in days, is one that is most likely using very shady tactics. These shady tactics could result in having your website removed from Google’s index. The truth is, no one knows for sure. It isn’t up to SEO firms to dictate this, search engines do. Usually you will need to wait 2 to 3 months to have an idea. If absolutely no improvement is made by 90 days, then you will want to investigate this a little further.

Can I speak to references?
Some SEO firms do not provide this information. They should always be able to show you something and allow you to speak with someone regarding the work they have performed.

And just for fun…What kind of a relationship do you have with Google?
Absolutely NO ONE has any special relationship with Google. Those that tell you that they do are full of it and you should end the phone conversation immediately and never consider their services.

I hope these questions help business owners from making a bad decision. You can avoid putting your business in jeopardy by doing your homework beforehand. If you have other questions, share them in the comments!

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.