Getting started with SEO
I still prefer reading a printed item rather than looking at a screen, and many co-workers laugh at my predilection for printing reports, e-mails, and even blogs! Outside of the office, I subscribe to our daily newspaper and have a number of magazines collecting dust around the house. Admittedly, the magazines are school fundraisers for the local middle school, and I have a quixotic desire to keep the local newspaper in business.
One of my favorite magazines is called The Week, and it is a weekly summary of news items and excerpts of stories from other sources. The Week highlights the latest domestic and international news, keeps tabs on politicians and movie stars, and includes a “best of” commentaries and cartoons for good measure. The musings of the editor, William Falk, are my personal favorite. In a recent issue, he reports the average American spends 70% of his or her time consuming data — that’s three times as much as 1980 according to a study by the UC-San Diego. Mr. Falk wonders what we do with this additional information and if it makes any of us “smarter” than 30 years ago. His conclusion: “Consuming information, though, does not necessarily lead to wisdom, which is the art of knowing how to spend our allotted minutes amid the prevailing stupidity and chaos, so that one’s life has meaning.”
As an internet marketer, I am overwhelmed by the amount of data available online related to SEO, SEM and PPC. Everyone, it seems, is an internet marketing specialist or is selling SEO. Searching for “Search Engine Optimization” in Google yields almost 92 million results and Search Engine Marketing” produces almost twice as many (173 million) results! Agencies, consultants, and even newspapers, are selling SEO these days.
If you are just getting started, yesterday’s blog about picking your keywords is a great place to start. Here are basic steps for your company to consider before you tackle your keyword phrases:
First, what are your goals for your web site? In other words, what action or actions do you want users to take? Sign up for an e-newsletter, download a brochure, watch a video, request a quote, or make a purchase. These conversion points need to be clear in your mind and featured prominently on your web site.
Second, how do you measure your goals and ROI? You have to know what is happening on your site as a baseline and the best way to do that is to add tracking code. Google Analytics is free and easy to add so you have no excuse not to be collecting your traffic data.
Okay, you have your goals and you are tracking your website visitors. Now it is time to consider your website’s usability. Are you attracting visitors only to have a negative user experience that ruins that relationship? Are you turning off potential customers? We know to schedule an annual physical and a visit to the dentist may be overdue, now is the time to assess the health of your website. Contact Ecreativeworks for a free website assessment.
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For SEO, its easier to just aimlessly click and get backlinks all day than make a strategy. I find it incredibly frustrating. However its necessary. What are your main keywords? What are your long tail keywords? What pages are going to hit what keywords..etc. Its hard to map out a strategy for sure. Its hard to get started with seo..good post thanks
Comment by Connor Bringas — August 27, 2010 @ 5:42 pm
Connor – thanks for your comment. As someone on the team at Ecreativeworks likes to mention – search engine optimization is like a marathon versus a sprint. A strategy or training guide for finishing your marathon is always recommended. But it is hard work and even harder if you want to be at the top of those that are finishing the race. How competitive are you?
Comment by Jules — September 3, 2010 @ 6:48 am