The Risks of Traditional Search Engine Optimization

E-commerce companies who have churned through dozens of SEO firms report only marginal, 5-10% traffic increases. A fact confirmed by our recent research into the SEO experience of 100 US catalog companies – see the “State of Search Engine Marketing 1.0 report published by Catalog Age Magazine.

Why? Most SEO companies (Iconocast reports some 250 SEO firms) offer “band aid” solutions (e.g. mirror/static sites, additional search engine specific content – primarily doorway pages – or cosmetic content changes) rather than reworking sites to make content search engine friendly. Google – the dominant engine, with 80% market share (Nielsen Netratings) – cannot be fooled with HTML trickery in the longer term.

Additional risks you face in hiring an SEO firm, besides low ROI and results, include:
· Fees that range from hundreds to $25,000 a month
· No guarantee of the knowledge quality or workmanship
· Misinformation that results in penalties or bans that can permanently tarnish your business/website’s reputation

The CTO of Google has said that designing a content-rich site that other sites link to is the only way to get good rankings. This is what Netconcepts offers SEO clients: the knowledge to create a search engine friendly and most importantly Google-friendly site, that will stay that way over time.

Netconcepts prefers to partner with you to solve your fundamental site problems and share our knowledge and latest trends with you. We favor restructuring and tweaking existing content to present it in a search engine friendly way. The process begins with identification of appropriate keywords and identifying ways to make these keywords prominent in site content. We then take steps to make this keyword optimized content accessible and therefore visible to search engine spiders

SEO
(search engine Optimization)

The Key to Online Success A site for sore eyes

According to Bruce Clay, an Internet Business Consultant and a specialist in SEO training, "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web." In layman's terms, it's how to reconfigure a web site so that it will be ranked higher than other pages containing similar content. Often this entails analyzing and replacing the code that makes up a web site. Says Clay, "It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle." An ideally optimized web site will have been constructed with the express purpose of being attractive to the search engine spiders who "crawl" through the web, searching out sites to add to their databases. A variety of techniques are used, the effectiveness of which is magnified by being used in conjunction with one another. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Books have been written on the subject of search engine optimization (eg: Shari Thurow's "Search Engine Visibility"), but for our purposes here we can summarize the basics into Eight Simple Rules for Search Engine Success: 1. Leave out the bells and whistles -- A search engine success strategy can be dead in the water before it even begins if certain web site design features are used in constructing the site. Frames and Flash Intros are definite no-nos, as is the use of Javascript and Image Maps for site navigation. Dynamic URLs are another problem since they effectively "reset" the site every time they change. Search engine spiders like simplicity and stability, so should your web site designer. 2. Keywords are key -- Keyword phrases are, well, the keys to the kingdom. The idea is to be the target that searchers are aiming at, and that means thinking like them. A site that sells race car tires should not use "race car tires" as a keyword phrase because it's much more likely that a searcher will use a much more specific phrase when they're searching online for race car tires. Entering "race car tires" will bring up over a million sites, but entering "Goodyear D1490 rear drive tires" might only bring up a half dozen sites. If that's what you're selling and what someone is searching for, odds are you've just made a sale. Each page of a site should have its own set of keywords and keyword phrases. There are several free web sites where keywords can be tested for effectiveness. 3. The vital Title Tag -- A list of results from a search will display the various site names along with a sentence or two describing the site. This information comes from the title tag, and search engine spiders home in on a page's title tag and the keywords it contains. A common mistake web page designers make is to jam as many keywords as possible into the title tag. Search engines may interpret this to be "keyword spamming" and blacklist the site (blacklisting by Google is permanent!). A concise title and a couple of free flowing, descriptive sentences should run about 60 to 70 characters. 4. Meta tags -- Meta tags aren't as important as they used to be, but using them can boost a site's standing with the search engines IF they're properly optimized. An ideal meta tag is actually a pair of tags called Meta Description and Meta Keywords. The Description tag should be under 250 characters long and include several of the most important keyword phrases. The Keywords tag is usually about 1,000 characters long and needs to be stocked with pertinent keywords and keyword phrases. It's a good idea to include common misspellings since, wrong or not, they'll be used by people doing searches. 5. The Copy -- What a site says is just as important as how it's said. Each page of the site should contain at least 200 words of copy, and the copy should be keyword intensive. A good practice is to construct separate informational pages that link to the site's main page. This will serve to further attract the search engine spiders and other sites will find and link up to these info pages. 6. The "ALT" Image Attribute -- The images at a web site are often neglected resources. The HTML code for each image has or can be given an ALT attribute, and keywords can be inserted into that attribute. The original purpose of the ALT attribute was to display that familiar yellow description box when a cursor is moved over the image, but with the advent of search engines it's become even more useful. The descriptive phrase should certainly be used, but it should include keywords since the spiders are going to read the attribute's text. There are test sites that will indicate whether any of a page's images do not include keywords, a very useful (and free) resource! 7. Links, links and more links -- The search engines place a greater importance on link-rich web sites, perhaps because they're more "serious". Too many links, though, and a site risks being tagged as a "link farm" resulting in the site being at least ignored and at worst blacklisted. Relevant hyperlinks will help a site's standings, however. As always, keywords should be included within the text of the link and also in the site copy in front of and after the link. Give the spiders more meat to chew on, in other words. 8. Submit it -- Once a site is activated, the search engine spiders will find it... eventually. Time is money, so why wait? Every search engine has a submission form and the search engine world doesn't stop at Google. It will still take a while for a new web site to be listed after it's submitted. Approximate listing times range from one week at Altavista to two months at AOL, with the average being about one month.



Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) - The Key to Online Success

Search Engine Optimization, or "SEO", has become essential for companies who hope to establish a successful online presence. The Web is a much more crowded place these days; it seems like everyone and their mother has a web site. How does a Widget company get through to interested customers in such a crowded medium? A potential customer searching online for a Widget supplier simply doesn't have the time or patience to browse through dozens of pages of results when they type "Widgets" and hit "enter". If your Widget company's web site isn't listed on the first page or two of search results, it's pretty much a given that the searcher will quickly find what they're looking for and won't spend time digging any deeper. Let's say that your company, "Worldwide Widgets", has blown their online advertising budget on creating a flashy multi-page web site with all the bells and whistles. After a month, the sales results come in and they're a disaster: site traffic is negligible and a test search brings up the site, finally, on the 67th page. The Boss is less than pleased. If things don't improve soon, heads will roll. That's the bad news. The good news is that effective use of search engine optimization can bring miraculous results.



Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

A Superior optimization Philosophy

The purpose of search engine optimization is NOT to merely increase traffic. The purpose is to increase qualified sales and lower acquisition costs. This objective can be achieved by optimizing the four steps in the search marketing process:

1) Indexation – Ensuring 100% of the dynamic product page inventory is “crawled” and indexed by the dominant engine on a frequent basis. This requires attention to spider traps, URLs, link structures, redirects, directory depth and much more.

2) Ranking – Attaining the desired positioning for category and product content pages. This requires focusing on PageRank, link text, inbound links, keyword research and application, proper HTML coding and content tuning.

3) Selection – Winning the click decision. This involves controlling what appears in the search results page, using descriptions to qualify prospects and disqualify suspects, and applying direct marketing tactics to compel the “envelope” open.

4) Conversion – Making the profitable sale. This crucial phase requires copy that converts, reducing buyer risk, optimal design and usability, effective calls to action, measuring sales and acquisition costs, and retesting keyword markets.

SEO

(Search engine Optimization)

Reviewing Your Website & Defining Action Plans

Reviewing Your Website & Defining Action Plans

There are many factors that combine to influence the success of an optimized e–commerce site. Our process goes much further than simple optimization, as promoted by other search engine optimization service providers. Netconcepts prefers to conduct a holistic assessment of our partners’ websites that puts search engine visibility into the context of the site as a whole and the e-business goals it is designed to achieve
:The assessment process is multi-dimensional
· Through our audit division, we begin with a comprehensive evaluation of the site to define a holistic and practical strategy for optimization. The audit will identify weaknesses and strengths based on best practice in e-business Web presences and broader site goals.
· Determine the list of keywords to target based on research of relevant search behavior and log file analysis to identify the most relevant query language.
· Define a search strategy that serves overall website goals (e.g. ensuring the thousands of people a day who search specifically for particular products will find those pages prominent and compellingly presented in search results, and that those that click through to the site are converted at a reasonably high rate).
· Web metrics – We’ll advise you on how to implement referral tracking based on sales rather than just user visits.

Once we understand the website’s objectives and intended audience, we spend numerous hours interacting with the site, identifying strengths and weaknesses, detailing where the site fall short of best practice, and most importantly, providing practical recommendations across all areas of the site that impact search strategy, such as:

· Style: Are the basic style and design elements present and consistent across the website? Is the style appropriate for the target audience?
· Design: Will the design context for your customer experience appeal to prospects and existing customers alike?
· Structure: Does the site organize and present content in an intuitive logical way?
· Usability: Is the user interface friendly to customers? Does it allow users to obtain the product information they require with ease?
· Accessibility: Is the site accessible to all potential users, whether they are disabled, on WAP phones, or on slow connections?
· Content: Does your content provide your target audience with all the information needed to convert visitors into customers and achieve the website’s goals? Does the site make content, including company and product information, available to users in a compelling, easily digestible, intuitive and value-added way?
· Legal Requirements: Does the website display the necessary legal information, including airtight Terms & Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy?
· E-Commerce: Does the site connect with visitors and compel action? Is it effective at maintaining security, allaying fears and building trust with consumers? Will your site convert visitors to customers and customers into company advocates?
· Public Relations: Is the website supported by an ongoing PR effort to build awareness of your Internet presence? Does your website cater to journalists? Is there negative PR occurring in online communities on the Net?
· Customer Service : Is the site effectively supported by customer care?
· Search Friendliness: Is the website prominently positioned in search engines, directories, and relevant niche sites?
· Community: Is the site’s community active, sustainable, and effectively maintained?

As a result of this assessment, we can provide practical recommendations to improve our partner sites in search engine visibility, site traffic, usage rates, performance, navigation, information architecture and other key factors that all influence the success of any search optimization campaign.

Typically within 20 days you receive the assessment along with our keyword recommendations for product/category pages. Depending on what we find, the audit deliverable ranges from 60 – 100 pages filled rich analysis and content. The short- and long-term recommendations form the basis of our optimization strategy and collective priorities during the engagement.
Search engine Optimization(SEO)

Search for Success_ SEO

Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

Search for Success

Let's look at an example of the power of search engine optimization. Canterbury Limousine Tours contracted with an SEO firm to revamp their web site with the aim of improving its search engine ranking. Two months after major changes were implemented and the site resubmitted, traffic was up 350% with an upward trend. Analysis of the traffic showed that most of the increase was a result of search engine referrals. Skillful use of keywords and keyword phrases resulted in the extra traffic being highly targeted and directly related to the services provided by the limousine company. This translated into an extremely high conversion rate into paying business. Using search engine optimization as a sales and marketing tool has some advantages that offset the cost, too. There's no need to hire extra salespeople and set them up with office space and equipment. Once a company's web site has been given the SEO treatment, there are no ongoing costs to budget for. Most companies are thrilled with the results of an effective SEO campaign. To quote Tammy Falleti, Office Manager of Harry's Steering Gear Repair Inc., "We have received such a good response from the Web page that we have decreased our advertising in the phone book and other such advertisements. We get at least 5-10 e-mails a day and at least two or more sales from that. Plus, we have made out-of-state customers that have opened accounts with us and have made continuous purchases." Over time, the original cost of an effective SEO campaign will decrease as a function of increased sales, making it an almost obligatory advertising expense since it provides an extremely high return on investment over time. If the competition is playing, then it's time to get in the game... and using search engine marketing is the way to win!


(Search Engine Optimization(SEO

The Key to Online SuccessA site for sore eyes

(Search Engine Optimization(SEO

- According to Bruce Clay, an Internet Business Consultant and a specialist in SEO training, "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web." In layman's terms, it's how to reconfigure a web site so that it will be ranked higher than other pages containing similar content. Often this entails analyzing and replacing the code that makes up a web site. Says Clay, "It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle." An ideally optimized web site will have been constructed with the express purpose of being attractive to the search engine spiders who "crawl" through the web, searching out sites to add to their databases. A variety of techniques are used, the effectiveness of which is magnified by being used in conjunction with one another. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Books have been written on the subject of search engine optimization (eg: Shari Thurow's "Search Engine Visibility"), but for our purposes here we can summarize the basics into Eight Simple Rules for Search Engine Success: 1. Leave out the bells and whistles -- A search engine success strategy can be dead in the water before it even begins if certain web site design features are used in constructing the site. Frames and Flash Intros are definite no-nos, as is the use of Javascript and Image Maps for site navigation. Dynamic URLs are another problem since they effectively "reset" the site every time they change. Search engine spiders like simplicity and stability, so should your web site designer. 2. Keywords are key -- Keyword phrases are, well, the keys to the kingdom. The idea is to be the target that searchers are aiming at, and that means thinking like them. A site that sells race car tires should not use "race car tires" as a keyword phrase because it's much more likely that a searcher will use a much more specific phrase when they're searching online for race car tires. Entering "race car tires" will bring up over a million sites, but entering "Goodyear D1490 rear drive tires" might only bring up a half dozen sites. If that's what you're selling and what someone is searching for, odds are you've just made a sale. Each page of a site should have its own set of keywords and keyword phrases. There are several free web sites where keywords can be tested for effectiveness. 3. The vital Title Tag -- A list of results from a search will display the various site names along with a sentence or two describing the site. This information comes from the title tag, and search engine spiders home in on a page's title tag and the keywords it contains. A common mistake web page designers make is to jam as many keywords as possible into the title tag. Search engines may interpret this to be "keyword spamming" and blacklist the site (blacklisting by Google is permanent!). A concise title and a couple of free flowing, descriptive sentences should run about 60 to 70 characters. 4. Meta tags -- Meta tags aren't as important as they used to be, but using them can boost a site's standing with the search engines IF they're properly optimized. An ideal meta tag is actually a pair of tags called Meta Description and Meta Keywords. The Description tag should be under 250 characters long and include several of the most important keyword phrases. The Keywords tag is usually about 1,000 characters long and needs to be stocked with pertinent keywords and keyword phrases. It's a good idea to include common misspellings since, wrong or not, they'll be used by people doing searches. 5. The Copy -- What a site says is just as important as how it's said. Each page of the site should contain at least 200 words of copy, and the copy should be keyword intensive. A good practice is to construct separate informational pages that link to the site's main page. This will serve to further attract the search engine spiders and other sites will find and link up to these info pages. 6. The "ALT" Image Attribute -- The images at a web site are often neglected resources. The HTML code for each image has or can be given an ALT attribute, and keywords can be inserted into that attribute. The original purpose of the ALT attribute was to display that familiar yellow description box when a cursor is moved over the image, but with the advent of search engines it's become even more useful. The descriptive phrase should certainly be used, but it should include keywords since the spiders are going to read the attribute's text. There are test sites that will indicate whether any of a page's images do not include keywords, a very useful (and free) resource! 7. Links, links and more links -- The search engines place a greater importance on link-rich web sites, perhaps because they're more "serious". Too many links, though, and a site risks being tagged as a "link farm" resulting in the site being at least ignored and at worst blacklisted. Relevant hyperlinks will help a site's standings, however. As always, keywords should be included within the text of the link and also in the site copy in front of and after the link. Give the spiders more meat to chew on, in other words. 8. Submit it -- Once a site is activated, the search engine spiders will find it... eventually. Time is money, so why wait? Every search engine has a submission form and the search engine world doesn't stop at Google. It will still take a while for a new web site to be listed after it's submitted. Approximate listing times range from one week at Altavista to two months at AOL, with the average being about one month.



(Search Engine Optimization(SEO