How to do SEO in 3 Steps

I often get asked how to do SEO and what tips I can offer. The short answer is, there are no SEO tips. Now I'm going to contradict myself, because there are 2 steps to SEO that EVERY webmaster NEEDS to know.

I'm pretty active in my professional community as an SEO manager and usability expert. Occasionally I get asked the question, "How do I do SEO?" I usually suggest starting here:
Google's SEO Starter Guide

Google is the gold standard of search, which is why searching is referred to generically as "googling". Google wants better websites on the internet, and they want to show those sites to their searchers. If they can show better sites and better content to their searchers, that re-enforces Google as a quality search engine. So, when the king of search engines writes an SEO guide and you want to learn about SEO, READ IT! In fact, read it twice.


1. Don't be do "SEO". Often when many people say "SEO", what they usually mean is that they want "tricks" that will make them come up higher in search results. Usually when people try SEO tricks, their site ends up looking spammy and visitors generally get an "icky" feeling. Yes, you should do things like put keywords in your link text, but you were probably going to do that anyway. Why pay someone $185/hour to tell you something you already know?


2. Good quality content. All the SEO in the world is wasted if users don't like your content. If you have good content, users will share your site with each other. When people share your site, it builds your link popularity, which is more powerful than SEO.

My favorite sites on this subject are:
Copy Blogger
Zen Habits


3. Good usability. All the SEO in the world is wasted if your site is difficult to use. A site that has good usability naturally brings in SEO techniques. I'm sure that must sound strange, but SEO is quickly becoming the science of building a website with common sense.

My favorite sites on this subject are:
UseIt.com
Webpages That Suck


Be careful, when it comes to SEO, there are a lot of BS and scam artists who will sell you a big box of lies and bad practices that will get your site banned from the search engines. Of course, I have to plug myself, because I think that I write some pretty good material on SEO and usability :
PageRank and Link Juice SEO Blog


Good luck,
Chris

3 Second Rule Gets Confirmation

Several months back I blogged about the 3 Second Rule. For years, I have considered the 3 Second Rule to be the single most important rule that I work by. In my experience, you either live by the 3 Second Rule, or you die by the 3 Second Rule. It's also my most commonly read blog entry, and for good reason; it's the single most important entry I have ever written. When I talk to new clients, work with interns, or other people who are entering the world of the web, I always start with the 3 Second Rule. If the 3 Second Rule were the only thing they knew about building a website, they would build a better website than most professionals.

After years of making noise about it, it's interesting to see that it's finally starting to be picked up by other marketers. If we can get this message to the designers, mabye we can finally start making the web easier to use, and more powerful.

Here are a few links and excerpts that I found recently that support the 3 Second Rule:

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/09/02/just-say-the-thing/

Google and the Internet have trained us to ruthlessly sort for relevance, and we now demand messaging formatted for, and adapted to, rapid sorting. If visitors can’t get on your website, perform a 7-second scan and immediately see exactly:

• what it is you do,
• what your offering, and
• why they should care,

those visitors will leave.

http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2006/press_110606.html

Akamai and JupiterResearch Identify '4 Seconds' as the New Threshold of Acceptability for Retail Web Page Response Times

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2006/12/20/deja-vu-web-rage-still-lurks/

Web Rage Only Takes 4 Seconds to Activate

What’s the root cause of Mouse Rage Syndrome? It’s primarily caused by badly designed and hosted Web sites, according to the research center.

The experts agree, live by the 3 Second Rule or die by the 3 Second Rule.

Cheers,

Chris

Running AdWords

Do you want to run an AdWords campaign? Do you know how to get the most effect for your effort? Don't go broke running ads and not getting sales. With the right strategy, AdWords can be a very powerful tool for sales.

A client recently asked me what I knew about running AdWords. As you know, I ran the AdWords campaign for Wellness.com in 2008. We ran a lot of tests, spent a lot of money, and learned a lot about AdWords. One of the first things we learned is that AdWords CAN be a great way to get exposure for your business. We also learned that it can also be a great way to go broke unless you're vigilant and willing to learn.

• Locations: When Google suggests that you target your ad to a specific area, I strongly suggest DO NOT use this tool at all. Google's "geo-locator" is notoriously inaccurate and often shows ads to people in the wrong areas and doesn't show ads to people in the right areas. The reason is that Google's geo-locator is based on where your internet service provider is sending your signal. You could be in San Diego, but your ISP could be sending your signal through Los Angeles. Therefore, Google will think you live in Los Angeles and show you ads for Los Angeles instead of San Diego ads.
  
  Suggestion: Use keyword phrases that include a city name. For example, instead of running "hot yoga" and relying on Google to show it to the right people, use "hot yoga san diego". If someone doesn't live in San Diego, why would they add that city to their search? At Wellness.com we discovered that people looking for local businesses almost always add a city name to their search.
  
  
  
• Keywords: Keyword phrases that have 1 or 2 words are generally people that are "researching". People who are researching are rarely ready to buy. Therefore, you're paying for someone to do research.
  
  Suggestion: By including the city name, you're also taking care of this issue. People who include a city name in their searches are usually looking for a local service to buy from. Local people who are ready to buy, just add the city they want to buy in.
  
  
  
• Match Type: Google usually encourages people to run they keywords on a "Broad" match, because that makes Google the most money. However, that means that if you want to advertise for the phrase "yoga studio" and a person searches for "yoga studios that are a scam", you come up for that search. Not only is that person NOT buying, but you're actually paying for a negative impression.
  
  Suggestion: Always run "Exact" match, and even use a few negative (words you don't want to come up for). This will ensure you will reach the audience you want to reach. You will never have to guess where your traffic is coming from, and you can make fact-based decisions based on scientific data.
  
  
  
• Avg. Pos.: The best place to be is number 1. Reason being, visitors who click on the top spot tend to buy more often than visitors who click on other spots. Strangely enough, the position that visitors tend to click on is usually a direct indication of how ready they are to buy and how much they're willing to spend. Visitors who click on the bottom ad usually don't buy and if they do, they tend to be "cheap". Bidding low often turns out to be a money losing game.
  
  Suggestion: Use the Keyword Tool to find out what it will take to be number 1 for the keyword you've chosen and make that bid. The number you bid is your maximum, and you rarely pay that actual dollar amount.
  
  
  
• The Keyword Tool: This is probably the single most important marketing tool ever invented. USE IT! USE IT OFTEN!
  
  Suggestion: Before adding a keyword phrase to a campaign, use the keyword tool to see how if that keyword is worth using. If your keyword has so few searches that there is no data available, drop it. That keyword is only going to clutter up your campaign. It's much easier to track 10 keyword phrases than 100.
  

AdWords can be a great way to grow your business, just follow it closely and keep an open mind to what works and what doesn't work.


Cheers,
Chris

User Expectations Part 3: Do You Match?

Does your site design match your industry? Does your corporate site look like a corporate site? Does your cooking site look like a cooking site?

When someone visits your site and your "children's site" looks like a "professional corporate site", will it matter how fun your activities are? Probably not. Your visitors will assume they went to the wrong place and leave.

Lessons From Alexa Top 10 Part 1: Design is Over-Rated

What can we learn about design from the 10 most popular websites on the internet? Design is over-rated. There, I've said it. No doubt the design Gestapo will be here any minute to take me away.

According to Netcraft, in October 2008, there were 182,226,259 websites on the internet. With that much competition, what does it take to be the most popular website on the internet today?

There seems to be a general feeling that in order to have a successful website, your website's design must be stunningly beautiful. As though visitors will make their buying decisions based on the use of texture, or how long they sit on your frontpage in stunned awe of the beauty on their monitor.

Honestly ask yourself, have you EVER made a purchasing decision based on the design of the website?

How much design does Google use (Alexa 1)? Occasionally they'll do a creative piece with their logo, but that's it!

That bargain $1,500 flash design you got from the starving college student is not such a bargain if it's actually costing you $60,000 in sales a year. If that same designer had tried to sell you that design for $60,000, there's no way you would have bought it. But that's exactly what you're doing if you choose a design that gets in the way of usability.

Now, I'm not saying that successful sites have to be ugly, because design is one of the most enjoyable things about building a site on the internet. But I want to make sure that we have perspective. What Alexa Top 10 teaches us is that design does not make your website successful ... unless you're a design company.



Cheers,
Chris

User Expectations Part 2: Layout

Are your website users finding what they're looking for? Are they able to perform the tasks on your website that you want them to? Are the tools they need to perform those tasks where users expect them to be?

In the previous article about design and user experience we covered general feelings that users have towards designs that don't work for them. This article will discuss layout, but this time in a specific way with specific action steps. We will discuss how to meet user expectations and how that will help your site succeed.

How would you view the auto industry if every car that was made was built VERY different from every other car? Not just shape and color, but what if some cars had steering wheels, while some cars had levers that you had to pull and push in order to steer the car? What if the gas pedal were on the right side of the floor on some cars, while some had the gas pedal on the dashboard? Each time you borrowed a friend's car, test drove a new car, or had ANY reason to drive a car other than yours, you'd first have to spend quite a while just figuring out how to drive the dumb thing!

Of course, it would be RIDICULOUS for car makers to do this to their customers. But when it comes to websites, we seem to have the attitude that users would actually enjoy the fact that we decided to place the gas pedal on the dashboard.

For the user, this is unexpected, which means that they have to stop when they were doing, and take time to learn how to use your website. Do most users have that kind of patience? Most do, usually about 80% will take the time to figure out how to use that "interesting" gadget you built.

What if you ALSO changed the steering wheel to steering levers? 80% of those users would probably stick around.

BUT you've already had 2 drop offs, and that will happen each time you want a design element that is out of the ordinary. So, if 1,000 users came to your site, the first unusual design element will cost you 200 users. The 2nd one cost you another 160. Now you only have 640 of your original 1,000 users simply because your design doesn't match what users expect to see. Wouldn't you want all of those 1,000 users?

So this begs the question, what kind of layout do users expect? I suggest looking at the Alexa top 10 sites to find what an average expectation is. Why? Because these sites have entire departments dedicated to this subject. We can take advantage of the millions of dollars they've spent, just by studying what they did.

Here are the Alexa Top 10, as of this writing:

1. Google


2. Yahoo!


3. YouTube


4. Facebook


5. Windows Live


6. Microsoft Network (MSN)


7. Blogger.com


8. Wikipedia


9. Baidu.com


10. Myspace

Actually, 10 is Yahoo (China), but it's really the same site as 2, so MySpace got a bump.

I'd like to point out a few things they have in common:

• None of them have an "interesting" flash intro (with exception to MySpace's ad space where they play movie trailers)
  
  
• None of them have an "interesting" background. They want you to perform the task you came there to do. Have you ever been to a website with a bad background? Remember how hard it was reading text against that awful background?
  
  
• None of them have complicated navigation. In fact, most of them are moving towards a VERY simplified navigation. Many are using a left-side navigation of simple links, while a few still have a "traditional" navigation bar, so either option would probably work for your site. MySpace has the most complicated navigation of the Top 10, and they only have 7 items in their navigation bar.
  
  
• Links look like links. A simple color change to keep with the theme of the site is fine, but let's not get carried away. Just make sure that your links look like links, and only ever use an underline on a link. Why? Because most people that see an underlined word, automatically assume that it's a link. In fact, Blogger.com (Alexa 7) doesn't allow the option to underline words for this very reason. Since I know HTML, I was able to place that in there so you could experience what I was talking about. If Blogger.com thinks it's a bad idea for bloggers to be able to create underlines in normal text, that should tell the rest of us something.
  
  
• None of them have a very busy page. In fact, most of them have REMOVED almost everything that distracts their users from what they want the user to do. On Google, there are practically ZERO distractions from the big and obvious search bar in the middle of the screen. The same goes for Baidu. At first glance, Amazon appears to be an exception, because they have a pretty busy looking page. But look again, all of the "busy" things on Amazon's website are ways to engage a user in something that will result in a sale. EVERYTHING on Amazon leads to a sale. No newsletters. No blogs. There is just the sale. No distractions. Is your website THAT focused?
  

Finally, I want to leave you with this diagram that I also left you with in my previous article about design and user experience. As I said last time, this is probably the single most important image I've ever seen on the internet. It is a basic diagram of how most website layouts look. The shading describes how much attention the average user pays to each section, darker being more attention, and lighter being less attention. Use this image well.



Cheers,
Chris

User Expectations Part 1: Links

This is the first entry in a series that I want to dedicate to the User Experience.

The user experience is the most important part of any website. All the SEO in the world won't help your site if it is not designed to give your visitors a good experience. Simply put, if you give your users something they're not expecting, they probably won't know what to do and they will likely leave before buying your product or service. Remember The 3 Second Rule?

The first item I want to talk about, and one of the most common, is use link design that's "creative". Usually this involves:

• Using images for links
• Disabling mousesover changes
• Making links look the same as text

Using images for links. Using images for links is not necessarily a bad idea, you just have to do it well. Usually when I see the use of an image, it's because the designer wanted a special font that most people don't have on their computer. So, the only way to make that font visible to the rest of the world is to put it into an image. Here are a few tips for effecitvely using image links:

1. Make the link look like a link, or a button, or a tab, or put it in a place where people expect to see links. The point is, all the links on your site should tell your visitors, "You can click on me!"
   
   
2. Make it change a little when you mouse over it. I don't care if it changes color, underlines, changes background color, or does the hokey-pokey. Just make it respond to your visitors. Have you ever had a waitress or a bartender that ignored you? 'Nuff said.
   
   
3. Use the ALT attribute, otherwise your link is WORTHLESS when it comes to SEO. A LOT of SEO power is contained in the link text. This is an example of link text, and it has a LOT of power, especially if it contains keywords that you and your webmaster worked so hard to research. Search engines can't see what an image is, they just know that it's some sort of an image. So using the ALT attribute tells search engines what's in the image. The ALT attribute is almost as good as using plain text.

Disabling mouse over changes. I see this almost as much as I see images, and I honestly don't get it. As far as I'm concerned, mouseovers are fun! Mouseovers are a way of interacting with a website that makes it feel alive and welcoming. How do you feel when you go to a site, and moving your mouse around illicits NO response from the website? Here's an example: http://www.famouscupcakes.com/

It's a cute site design, but it's DEAD. No part of the site responds to ANYTHING the visitor does. Going to a site like this feels like a bad blind date. How can your site be inviting to visitors if it doesn't respond to them? Remember that waitress or bartender that ignored you?

On the opposite site, is gmail. Almost every part of gmail is alive, responsive, and welcoming.

Making links look like text. This one happens quite a bit, and I REALLY don't understand why. How do visitors get around on your site? Links. How do you expect your visitors to get around on your site if they don't know a link when they see one?

You have probably noticed that my preference is to do the same thing as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Youtube do (the 4 biggest websites on the internet), I leave them alone. By leaving them alone, they look like links. Every link is clearly and obviously a link.

The point of this post is to help build sites so that it meets with what people expect. Build to what your visitors expect to see and experience and you'll have a much better result from your efforts. When users have an experience that is unexpected, it's usually a bad thing, because usually they have to figure out what's going on. They probably won't admire your creativity, they'll probably be annoyed by it.

E-Mail Address versus Contact Form

When I see a website that has an e-mail address posted on it, I IMMEDIATELY want to take it down and replace it with a contact form. Why? Here are a few reasons:

• E-mail addresses on websites looks amateurish. It looks like someone doesn't know how to create a proper contact form, and it looks lazy.
  
  
• Spam bots LOVE it when people post e-mail addresses on their website! 'Nuff said on this point.
  
  
• Most people haven't configured their computer so that clicking on an e-mail address will actually open a working e-mail client. Usually the default thing will happen, Outlook Express will open, which VERY FEW people actually configure. So, most people will simply close the window that doesn't do anything for them and leave. A few will take the trouble to copy the e-mail address and go to their e-mail and send a letter, but that's not the majority. If you actually want people to contact you, why would you make it hard for them?
  

I know that creating a contact form is not a simple matter for most people, which is why I suggest trying this tool. It's really easy to use, and to post. Any webmaster worth the money you pay him/her should have no problem adding this web form to your site: http://www.tele-pro.co.uk/scripts/contact_form/

Using a contact form on your site instead of posting an e-mail address is more secure and professional looking. Your customers may not notice if you use a contact form, but they will definitely notice if you don't.


Cheers,
Chris

Call to Action

What is a visitor on your site supposed to do? Often we tend to try to cop-out on this one by thinking, "Isn't it OBVIOUS?!" Quite frankly, no, it's NOT obvious. Here's a good example of what a lack of a call to action will get you: http://www.brillpublications.com/

Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do? I bet the person who approved that design thought the entire experience was "obvious". For those of you in sales, have you EVER gotten the sale without ASKING for the sale? You must ask for the sale, you must present a call to action. Many of the most successful marketing calls to action have a deadline, a little something to get you going:

• Call now for this limited time offer!
• Sign up now while supplies last!
• Sign up in the next 2 minutes, and receive this FREE bonus gift!
  

If you don't ask your visitors to click on something, they're probably not going to click on it. Why should they? You can give the greatest sales pitch ever, but if you don't tell your prospective customers how to take advantage of your offer, how can you expect to sell anything?

I'm sure I sound like I'm harping on this a bit, and I am. I am amazed how many website owners try to be overly polite and use a passive voice to try to sell. A passive voice is an indirect statement, it implies a call to action, but it does not explicitly ask for a call to action. Here's an example on one of my client's website that will be going away soon:

• Not a member yet? Fix that here.

This is a small notation pushed off to the side of the page, and buried underneath other material that isn't at all compelling. It's not just that the language is indirect, but the fact that it's almost hidden makes it seem like it's apologetic for asking the visitor to become a customer. The rate at which visitors becomes customers (conversion rate) on that particular site is less than 1%. Is this really the kind of result we want?

Another issue I come into is the desire to not be pushy or rude, the desire to be polite. That is absolutely understandable, and I definitely don't want to work with a rude or pushy salesman. The "remedy", is to usually be OVERLY polite when presenting the call to action. This is a matter of perspective and context. If you use a certain tone of voice when talking to someone, and you suddenly change that tone when asking for a sale, what does that say to your prospect? For example, "Click here to join" becomes something like "Please click here if you'd like to join". Something DEFINITELY changed, and now as a prospective customer, I pause, because now I'm suspicious. Something's not right here. A second ago you were using a "normal" conversational tone, and now you're suddenly being polite and cautious, why? If nothing else, you've broken the energy flow you've built up to that point, and now it's all gone, and you'll probably lose the sale because of it.

Using a simple and direct call to action is not taken by most visitors as rude or pushy, it's simply stating the next step the visitor should take, that's it.

Remember to use the call to action. Don't be rude and pushy, but don't apologize for it either. Just ask for the action you want, perfectly OK, and it's expected.


Cheers,
Chris

Meta Descriptions: Don't be Boring

Meta Descriptions are the part of SEO that happens after you get to the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The search results and give a little "blurb" about your site to the searcher. Write a good description, and you can DOUBLE your clicks. Here are a few basic points to keep in mind:

• This is your chance to sell a searcher on why they should click on your site, this is your opportunity to really stand out to get the click.
  
  
• Most search engines will give you 165-172 characters to give your description. I tell my clients to make it under 165, so that they will always be safe. Why do I make it clear to my clients that the description MUST be less than 165 characters? Because that's as long of a description as you can count on. Anything after that is simply cut off and wasted. Even worse, you'll get the dreaded ellipses ... What's wrong with that? Nothing, if you don't mind losing 33% of your search visitors. I'm not sure of the psychological explanation, but this is well documented by many SEOs and companies that invest in SEO departments.
  
  
• DO NOT put your company name in the Meta Description! You only have 165 characters, and 99 out of 100 times, your company name is not interesting enough by itself to get a click. This is not about branding, it's about getting the click. You have plenty of chances for branding in the site domain (domain.com) and inside the site. Right now, all we need to focus on getting that first click.
  
  
• Write the Meta Description the way you would write a "tweet". On Twitter, you have 140 characters to say what you want. If you were to make a sale on Twitter, how would you do it? That's EXACTLY what your Meta Description should be.
  
  
• Don't be boring!
  

Here is an example of an average meta description:

Beau-coup offers the largest selection of unique wedding favors, decorations, supplies and bridal party gifts. Find the perfect wedding favor idea to suit ...

Zzzzzzzzz ... Completely FORGETTABLE! What part of this is compelling? What's the sales pitch? Why should I click on this site, and not the 6,170,000 other sites that came up in this search result? Not only did they waste valuable real estate with their company name and a boring description, but it was TOO LONG! They didn't get all of their boring description in, AND they're probably getting 33% fewer visitors than they should just by having a shorter description.



Here is an example of a well written meta description:

Unique Wedding Favors, click or dial 1-866-942-1311 for Truly Unique Wedding Favors. We've got the Best Prices Guaranteed!

It has a call to action. It has a sales pitch. It has a guarantee. It will fit into a tweet. Heck, you can buy from them without even clicking on their site!

So, to write a great meta description, which is one of most powerful things you can do to get the click:

1. Forget branding, keep your company name out of it for now.
2. Keep it short. Sell like you're on Twitter.
3. Don't be boring!
   

Cheers,
Chris

Design and Over-Design

For most, the web is a place of expression. Most of my clients see their website as an extension of themselves and they want to put their best foot forward for their visitors. In theory, I agree 100%. I certainly wouldn't show up to a black-tie event in jeans and a t-shirt, so why would anyone want to put forward anything less than their best possible effort for their customers? Personally I truly see the web as a medium of art and a place of self-expression.

Once of the biggest compromises I find that I have to make in my line of work is design. Usually, my clients want a site that's beautiful AND converts their visitors into customers. What do you do when a clients hands you a design that actually REDUCES usability, but the client insists that the design is perfect? Asking for any change is a big deal, and needs to be done extremely skillfully.

First, I find things about my client's design that I genuinely admire and want to give as much praise to as possible. Asking for a change is much easier when the client believes that I honor their creativity and personal taste. As I said, I find things that I GENUINELY admire, so this is not simply flattery. I have found that flattery is usually easy to spot, and it tends to be a kind of passive-aggression; like a patronizing pat on the head as if to say, "Nice try, kid." It's likely that there will be times when I will have to take a strong position, or two. I want those times to be about matters that will make a big difference, so I want to choose them carefully, and not get caught up in the little things.

Second, I never say I don't like something unless I have a replacement in mind AND I have data to back up my suggestion. For example, if a client wants to use a meta description that's more than 165 characters, I give them the facts. In this case, the facts are:

• Search engines will cut off a site description somewhere between 165 and 172 characters, which means that your description will end like this ...
• If that happens, the number of people that will click on your site in a search results will drop by 33%. I don't understand the psychological explanation, but that is an effect that has been THOROUGHLY tested by any number of SEO's and companies that have dedicated SEO teams, like Amazon, Google, etc.

At this point, I've spoken my piece and there's nothing more for me to add, unless I am asked. Armed with these facts, my clients decides what they want to do. Usually they rethink how they want their meta description to look, and ask for more input about what goes into a good meta description.

Third, what to do if the design is "over-designed" and the client is unwilling to make any changes? They say it takes 2 people to create a masterpiece; the artist and the assassin to keep the artist from messing it up. There is a point where design should stop, but design can be fun and often it's hard to step back and really take a look at the design and what we're trying to accomplish. Over-design is when the design process doesn't stop and the site design design ends up being so "busy" and outside of the normal visitor's expectations that the average visitor doesn't know what to do and just ends up leaving. Remember, you have 3 seconds.

While this sounds like an extreme case, it's actually not. Unfortunately, this happens from time to time and it's a challenging situation. In these situations, I have to be as forthright as possible. Often times we can work through the design and come out with something both of us can be really proud of.

Just in case you need an example, here is a site that does almost everything that I recommend against when it comes to design and SEO (except for the initial call to action). Seeings sites like this make me want to go all Rocky Balboa on a side of beef.

http://www.juliegarwood.com/

Update: This site has been updated ... I wonder if she read this post. This site has now added navigation at the top so visitors can actually find their way around. Visitors may actually enjoy the "hide and seek" feel of this site now, because aren't forced to play.


Just as a little plug, this site has some great content. I first read their book in 2000, and it had a profound impact. It wasn't earth shattering in itself, but the basic concepts really stuck with me. Look for websites you like and decide WHY you like them, then find sites that suck, and decide WHY they suck.

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/


Cheers,
Chris

Pagerank Factors

In my post about Pagerank and Link Juice, I mentioned the factors of creating pagerank, but now I'm going to discuss them at a little bit of length. The factors of pagerank are:

• How long your site has been on the internet.
• How large your site is.
• How many inbound links your site has.
• What your bounce rate is.

How long your site has been on the internet. Search engines like sites that have existed for at least 2 years. These sites have shown that they are not a "fly by night" search engine spam site, but that they have at least SOME value to the internet.

How large your site is. Search engines like sites that have relevant content. In fact, search engines seem to have this kind of equation: Content = Good. More Content = Better. If your site is about antique tea sets, having content about antique tea sets will gain you more pagerank. Why? Because you're providing more information to the world about your subject, and the more information you provide, the more valuable visitors are going to think your site are, and thus search engines will also think your site is more valuable.

How many inbound links your site has. Not just ANY old link will do, but links from "authority sites". In other words, if you get a link from someone who sells links (link farms), it's worthless as best, and harmful at worst. There are plenty of link farms, so do your self a favor and DON'T EVER BUY LINKS. Buying links to your site is usually a scam that will only take your money and possibly get you in trouble with search engines. Link farms are considered to be a form of spam. Buying ad space from a site that is relevant is not the same, so there's no problem with buying legitimate ad space on a legitimate website. If you get a link from someone else who writes about antique tea sets, that link helps pagerank. If that site is very large and well established (amazon, wikipedia, etc) and the link is relevant to your site, you get even more pagerank!

What your bounce rate is. This is actually a debate in the SEO community as to whether this actually contributes, and I believe it does simply because it makes sense. A "bounce" is when someone comes to your site, and leaves without clicking on anything. If your site has a high bounce rate, your site probably doesn't have good and/or relevant content or it's built poorly, and you will not gain page rank. If your site has a low bounce rate, your site probably has lots of good and/or relevant content that users enjoy and your site is built well. It's in the best interest of search engines to give high ranking to sites and pages that visitors like.

In summary, build a good site with content that your visitors will love, and share it!


Cheers,
Chris

The User Experience

The User Experience is probably the single most important thing to consider when creating a site. Without a good user experience, SEO is pointless. What good is it to get to the top of the search engines if visitors to your site can't figure out how to use your site?

A couple of years back, I did research for a fitness company that needed to find equipment. I had 126 company websites to visit to asses what kind of equipment they had, how much it would cost, what the quality was, etc. I only ended up contacting 31 companies. The biggest reason; they were the only companies that had websites that were good enough to use. Please notice that I didn't say that they had "great" sites, I said they were "good enough".

$2.1 MILLION in contracts was lost by the companies with bad sites. I had so many to visit and such little time to do it, that if I couldn't use their site to find what I was looking for within a minute, I HAD to move on. Unlike the 3 Second Rule, I gave them a FULL MINUTE before I moved on.

I was AMAZED by how many sites were beautiful, but useless. Many companies had contact information that was difficult to find, poor navigation, security warnings, slowness, and sometimes I couldn't even figure out what the heck it was that a particular company did! If I go to your company's website, and I click through a half dozen pages and can't figure out what your company does, even in the most general sense, I've given you a more than fair chance.

As I was doing this research, I just kept thinking, "Can't these companies just make a simple site that says what they do?!" That's all I wanted. Just by doing the MOST BASIC things to their websites, these companies would have had a chance to get a piece of that huge contract I was working with.

FREEBIE!! As an SEO professional, this is probably the most important image I have ever seen on the internet. I give it to all of my prospective clients as a gift, because I want them to win, with or without me. This image was created by cognitive psychologists and user interface experts. The experts that created this actually tracked the eye movement of thousands of people across thousands of websites. This image is a basic website layout. The different areas are shaded based on how much attention a visitor pays to each area. Darker areas are where users pay the most attention and lighter areas are where users pay less attention to. Use this image wisely!



Cheers,
Chris

The 3 Second Rule

The 3 Second Rule is the first and biggest hurdle your site has to overcome in order to win over your visitors. This article is about how the 3 Second Rule works and 3 ways to win by using it to your advantage.

What I really like about SEO is that it makes us cut the clutter and get to the point. Visitors want you to get to the point. Your visitors have a LOT of search results to go through, and if you don't make a great case for your product or service really fast, the visitor is GONE and will probably NEVER return.

Here's how the "3 Second Rule" works. A visitor that lands on your site must be able to do the following in 3 seconds:

• Find what they're looking for
• Find a way to get what they're looking for
• Find something more interesting than what they were looking for

If your visitor cannot do one of these things in 3-5 seconds, they will LEAVE your site, and they will probably NEVER return.

If we want to win, we MUST RESPECT the 3 Second Rule. Here's how to win:

1. Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Your visitors can't do any of the 3 tasks they need to do if they can't figure out how your site works.
   
   
2. Whitespace is good thing. You don't have to use every single pixel of your site, and cram everything together. In fact, that's how you get a crowded looking website. Who wants to spend time on a site that makes them feel clausterphobic?
   
   Why is Google the most popular website in the world? Is there ANY question as to what to do with Google's site? Does Google use EVERY single pixel on their website to cram in more content and links, or do they use all the empty whitespace on the page to draw attention to the single most important thing on the page? I guess what I'm saying is, don't worry about how much stuff you have on your page. Your page looks best when the things you want your visitors to do are given plenty of breathing room.
   
   
3. Drop the "classic" marketing talk. Newspapers used to give lots of "cutsie" and "clever" headlines in their papers. Newspapers are created for casual browsers, but the internet is full of ACTIVE SEARCHERS.
   
   If a visitor is looking for a story about Mr. Potatohead by searching for "mr. potatohead", and your story about Mr. Potatohead has a headline like "The Spudman Sputters Out" there's a good chance the visitor will leave without reading your story. Why? They searched for "Mr. Potatohead". When they went to your site, they didn't see "Mr. Potatohead". Visitors quickly scan a site that has words or pictures that relate to what they looked for. If your visitor does not quickly see their search words or a picture of Mr. Potatohead, why should they stick around looking for something that isn't there? Remember, this visitor has 1,070,000 sites in the search results.

How does YOUR site stack up with the 3 Second Rule? Being honest about your own work is relaly hard, because we're on the inside looking out. This is where having a 3rd party's opinion is REALLY VALUABLE.

In summary, respecting the 3 Second Rule is just respecting your visitor's time. If you just get to the point, make a site layout that is easy to use, and you have good relevant content, users are going to find your site, and they're going to LOVE visiting your site!


Cheers,
Chris

Why SEO?

If I meet a potential client who already knows that I do SEO, say because of a referral, I immediately have to deal with the question: Why should I pay for SEO?

That's an important question, in fact, I don't sell SEO services until I have already answered that question. Even if my potential client didn't ask, I'll tell them anyway, because it's important they understand the full value of SEO. Phone book companies have lost 85% of their market share to search engines! Paying for space in a phone book is now almost pointless. Personally, I'm glad for it. I've always hated the phone book, because I could never figure out the right way to look something up. In the end, I could rarely find what I was looking for, let alone in a timely manner. Google, Yahoo, and Bing (MSN) get the same job done a lot better and a LOT faster!

In summary, search engines are the new phone book. Now, instead of buying space in a phone book, you buy space in a search result, or you optimize your site to "organically" come up in the searches. SEO is the key to getting organic search results in the new phone book.


Cheers,
Chris

Pagerank and Link Juice?

So, why the name "Pagerank and Link Juice"? When I advise a client about SEO, I try to tell them what I want to do to help them and why I think it's a good idea. I find myself using these terms a lot, "Pagerank" and "Link Juice". They're simple to explain and easy to understand.

Google patented "pagerank" when Google was still an idea. Pagrank is how much "power and authority" your site has. Pagerank consists of these factors:

• How long your site has been on the internet.
• How large your site is.
• How many inbound links your site has.
• What your bounce rate is.

"Link Juice" is how much pagerank you are able to get or give through a link. The following exercise is just to help understand a concept, these numbers are made up, so please don't put too much weight on them.

• Let's pretend that your site has pagerank of 50.
• Each link you have on that page will get pagerank passed to it, so let's say that you are linking to 2 pages, a second page on your site, and a page on someone else's site.
• Each of those pages will get ~25 pagerank passed to them. Why 25? Because you're giving 50 pagerank between 2 links (50/2). If you had 5 links, each of them would get 10 (50/10).
  
• So, now you have a frontpage with a pagerank of 50, and a second page with a pagerank of 25, and you also passed 25 pagerank to that other site you linked to. You didn't lose any pagerank by linking, in fact you shared.
• If that other site links back and they also have a pagerank of 50 and 2 links on that page, now you have a pagerank of 75!

The more pagerank you can build, the more "link juice" you have to work with to pass to your other site pages, as well as sites you want to link to. One of the ways of getting pagerank is to get links to your site, so that the other site is giving you pagerank with their "link juice".

If you had any trouble following this example, here's the really short version: Create quality content and share it!


Cheers,
Chris

SEO Blog: It's About Time!

It's funny, I've been doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a couple of years now, I almost always advise my clients to "write a blog, and do it today!" I constantly tell my clients that if they want pagerank and link juice, they NEED to write a blog. Honestly, I can't help feeling slightly like a hypocrite.

Truth be told, I've written many blogs in the past on various subjects that I've been personally interested in. I've not created a site or a blog for myself, because I thought, "Every freakin SEO guy out there has a blog and a site, why bother?" As a matter of SEO, I honestly don't care, because trying to SEO "SEO" is not only the hardest game in town, it's also the most pointless, and here's why:

• Search results for "SEO" are generally filled with search engine spam! There are TONS of "black hat" SEO professionals who are constantly filling the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Yes, they can get to the top, but their success is usually short-lived before they're blacklisted from the search engines. These folks usually don't care, and will burn the site and create another one, just to do it all over again.
  
  
• There are 247,000,000 search results that contain "SEO". Why would I ever want to compete with 1/4 BILLION search results?!
  
  
• Do clients search for "SEO"? Occasionally, but usually not. Many of my clients have searched for "SEO" and almost immediately gave up, because all of their search results were full of "black hat" search engine spam. I've never had or heard of a client that actually bought SEO services by searching for "SEO". Most of them bought through traditional marketing methods; in my case, mostly referrals and JUST TALKING TO PEOPLE. Amazing, isn't it.
  

So, why am I writing this blog? I genuinely want to help and serve my clients and potential clients. My intention is for this to be a resource for my clients to better understand SEO, as well as me, my services, and my personal philosophies in the SEO market place.

I'm looking into some multi-media production to make these blogs easier and more fun to follow. Stay tuned!


Cheers,
Chris