Some SEO Questions Answered

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ?

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via ‘natural’ or un-paid ( ‘organic’ or ‘algotithmic’ ) search results.

Why is Search Engine Optimization important ?

Cornell University did an eye tracking experiment, basically tracking users eye movements and figuring out what part of the computer screen they looked when reviewing search results. The number one spot in the Google ranking received 56% of all the search traffic during this experiment. Page two of the search results was only visited rarely.

So, its pretty clear that Search Engine Optimization matters hugely, you should be striving to get as high as you can in the search results.

How do Search Engines work ?

Search Engines basically crawl the internet skimming text, image descriptions, meta data, page titles and URL’s. All this information is indexed as they go and then presented to you in a nice friendly format on the search engine results page.

Google uses PageRank to determine how important each page is, there are some complicated algorithms behind this which I am not going to get into here. Basically PageRank is a value of that page on the web, when page one links to page two, page one is effectively voting for page two. If page one is a very important page, that vote carries more weight and will therefore increase page two’s PageRank moving it higher up on the search engine results page.

So a link from RTE.ie would carry a lot more weight than a link from DmacMedia.ie, unforetunetly.

So why don’t I just get all my friends to link to my website ?

Well, Google is not stupid. They know the quality of the link and they know if there are reciprocal links being passed between sites. There are websites out there that are dedicated to generating links commonly known as link farms. These are to be avoided, if Google finds a link to your site on one of these farms they will deduct points from your PageRank.

These are just a few things to think about for now. There’s more to follow…

Why Metrics Matter

So lets get the basics out of the way What are Metrics? – In terms of online marketing metrics are a statistical analysis of visitor behaviour when they interact with your online presence.

When it comes to marketing your business online there are a multitude of methods available, CPC, CPM, Social Networking, Email Marketing, Re-marketing, The list is endless.  The difficulty most business face is in deciding where to spend there advertising budget.

Depending on what they are able to deliver each service provider will tell you that their service or product is the best.  For example we offer web design services so of course we think the answer is in having a great website

So how are you as a decision maker going to make the correct choice?  the answer is in the title.  Metrics are the single most important tool you have to help you make the right choices for your business.

The number one platform for measuring the performance of your marketing efforts is Google Analytics  This services is provided for free to anyone.  It is a simple job for any web developer (amateur or professional) to install the necessary codes on your website and then the fun can really start.  In Google’s own words the tracking can do different things for different people:
For Executives:

• Which marketing initiatives are most effective?
• What are accurate traffic patterns/trends on my websites?
• Which customer and customer segments are most valuable?

For Marketing Professionals:

• Where are my visitors coming from and what do they do on my site?
• How can my website convert more visitors into customers?
• Which keywords resonate with prospects and lead to conversions?
• Which online ad or creative is the most effective?

For Content & Web Developers:

• Why do so many people leave my site without doing what I want?
• Are there website design elements that are turning visitors away?
• What site content are people most interested in?

Analytics gives you the ability to measure performance and if you can measure it you can manage it!

New Website – What’s in it for you?

Ok, you have looked around at the competition, you have talked to some professionals, in short you have decided it is time for a new website.  Revamping your website can give you new lease of life online but the key to a successful website is a clearly defined goal.  This post gives you a few pointers on how to set a measurable goal.

What does it do for you?

What is the point of your website?  does it sell products? does it provide information? or is it a bit of both? Regardless of the websites function, its purpose is to communicate with customers or potential customers.  To define your goal you must be able to identify a successful event on your website:

• An enquiry through the contact form?
• A transaction on the site?
• A new member sign up?

Once you have decided on what a successful event is, it is a very easy thing to begin mapping your goal.

I Want, I Want, I Want

A common goal many people will spend a lot of time & money on is:

I want to be number one on Google for “this search term”

This is a noble pursuit but it is not a goal, it is a means to an end.  Why do you care about Google Rankings?  In and of themselves they are pointless and nobody will pay you because of your ranking.

What a good ranking will help with is bringing more traffic to your website which in turn should create more successful outcomes.  By focussing on the ranking you can miss the reason you decided to revamp the website in the first place.

A good goal must have an impact on you or your business in the real world

Choosing a real world or practical goal for your website is much more concrete and measurable.  For example lets say you run an online shop that sells blue hats, a real world goal for you would be:

My new website will increase my orders per month by 25% in the next 12 months

This is a well defined goal with easily measurable results it also puts a time limit on achieving it.

Now that you have your real world goals you can set about seeking advice on how to achieve these goals.  This is where tasks like improving your Google rankings come in to play they are tasks that will contribute to your goals.  They are not goals in and of themselves.

Set your goals, be realistic and good luck