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- Introduction

- Acquistion, Conversion, Retention

- Common Issues:
- When you build an external link.. Make it to _blank
- Page Speed (start thinking about it)

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http://splityarn.com/
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- Title Tag
- ALL IN ONE SEO PACK
- Must Must Must have a Keyword in the title.

- H1 with Keyword

- Pull off useless links that aren’t helping rankings/conversions/usability
- Focus on keywords when building links
- Pick a focus and run with it.

- Deep linking (internally & externally)
- GOOD ARTICLE: http://www.seobook.com/archives/001470.shtml

- Primary Index — site:http://splityarn.com/*

- Start watching your site:
- Google Analytics | Figure out the keywords that are driving traffic.
- Google Webmaster Tools , Yahoo Site Explorer, Bing Webmaster Center

- Lean on keyword research BEFORE writing content and page titles.
- Google Search Based Keyword Tool
- Google Adwords
- Keyword Difficulty (SEOMoz)

- Change Category Base
Common Settings Under Permalink Settings

- Create a game plan.
- Pick your keywords and start monitoring your rankings:
- RockinSEO.com
- Free Monitor for Google
- ZoomRank.com
- WebPosition.com

- Obtain ‘keyword rich’ links.
- Currently you have ~61 links – majority of brand name as link.

- Link Acqusition
- Sponsor events
- Linkbait
- Become actively involved in your niche community
- Social Bookmark
- Blog Commenting
- Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Groups etc)

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SEM/Usability

- Featured article is doubled.

- Contact Form
- Contact Form 7 Plugin

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http://www.alexrodrigueznotebook.com/ & http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/ | too many external links

- You can’t always monitor those sites.  If you start unknowingly linking to a malicious, spammy, bad site it will affect rankings.

- Focus on what your trying to do.
- Top Links.
- Meta Keywords
- InLine CSS

SEM/Usability -

- Calender

- Fine Polish Details:
- Alt Tags
- Keywords in the initial content.
- Bold Keywords (Emphasis)
- Freshness

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Some people make a lot of money using advertising methods such as pay per click marketing but because of they spend so much on that form of traffic generation, their profit levels are very minimal or they may end up actually losing money (I’ve done this before!).  It won’t matter if you’re making $8,000 a month advertising your product or service via pay per click marketing, if you are paying out $10,000 a month in expenses.  This is largely why search engine optimization and high rankings are very important. They lower your costs which and leave more money in your pocket.

Most people that have any experience with search engine marketing will be able to let you know that it’s not easy. It is a process that takes a certain amount of knowledge and skill. It must also be focused and ongoing. It is very difficult to optimize your site only once, whether it is on-page or off-page optimization and then never touch it again.  Having a company or individual that can give you ongoing support or who can provide needed updates to your site can be very helpful.  Companies are out there to give you the incentive to do this when you do not have the internal resources to do so yourself.  Whether it be 1 or 2 bodies or a small agency – these companies do exist, but it’s even possible to do it yourself with the right tools and mindset.

It is important to look at the entire picture when doing search engine optimization. You should first come up with a concept (what you’re trying to achieve), then you’ll need to properly plan how you intend to go about putting that concept into action.  Lastly, you must execute that plan.

In summary, having a concept, planning out exactly how you intend to achieve it and then executing that plan are all very important in search engine optimization and will be what we will be discussing below.

Concept: The concept of your search engine optimization plan will include what you want to achieve. Are you attempting to be in the top ten for all of your keywords? Are you going to go after long-tail keywords phrases or are you attempting to break into a more competitive group of keywords.  Once you have a determined this then you can begin planning.  If you choose to go after more competitive keywords then your plan and will likely be one that requires much more time, work and patience. In many cases it easier to rank high highly for a five word phrase that has 1000 competing web sites then it is to rank for a single word which has hundreds of thousands of people competing to rank highly for that term. Your concept will have a big impact on your planning.

Planning: Planning makes the whole process of search engine optimization much easier.  It can be very difficult to look at the entire picture at one time. Breaking everything down into small, doable ‘chunks’ is much easier and also relieves some of the stress that comes with search engine optimization.

Execution: This will be the final step. After you have developed a concept, come up with a workable plan, next it’s time to put it into action or execute it.  If you will be doing everything yourself this is where you will actually begin most of your work.  If you seeking outside help for some of these steps (like an SEO Agency), not only will they execute your plan but they will probably help you come with a concept and spend the time and effort necessary to plan out how they will enable you to reach your goals or flesh out the concept.  At this point, it is hands off for you and the person you outsourced the work to will get started executing the agreed upon plan.

If you are looking within to complete these tasks, ensure that you have mapped out your concept and planning effectively and efficiently.  Ensuring that all your ducks are in a row and you are ready to complete the mission at hand is key.  If you are ever struggling, it always helps to take a step back, reorganize your thoughts, and reconsider your concept & planning strategies.

If after a time period you still do not exceed – it’s time to hit the drawing board again.

Good luck.

1. The internet provides much more exposure then the phone book.

2. The world is more internet-based then paper based.

3. The Yellow Pages are becoming archaic.

4. The internet provides more ‘bang for your buck.’ The money spent on a large and full color Yellow Pages advertisement could go much further online.

5. Proper SEO can get your website in front of thousands of people everyday. Of course this depends on what keywords you are targeting.

6. Many people preparing to make a purchase will check online to research the product and price check, before or instead of looking through the Yellow Pages.

7. The younger generations will hardly every check the Yellow Pages. They prefer the internet.

8. It is impossible to make any changes to a Yellow Pages advertisement after it has been published

9. Website owners can provide updated information about their business any time that they want. This is not possible using the Yellow Pages.

10. A website makes it possible to collect addresses and stay in touch with customers both past and present. This is impossible with a Yellow Pages ad.

11. A search engine optimized website has the ability to reach people outside of the business owner’s immediate area. A website can be viewed by people all over the world. This means the potential for more sales.

12. It is harder to stand out on in the Yellow Pages.

13. Unless you spend a ton of money and your business’ name begins with ‘A’, your ad could end up in the back of your section in the Yellow Pages.

14. Only those who spend the most money get the most business. This isn’t necessary true when it comes to internet marketing and search engine optimization.  If you were trying to optimize for “Drug Addiction Help” , you can do so on the internet for a different price point than in the yellowpages.

15. In a Yellow Pages advertisement, there is only so much that you can say.

16. Fewer and fewer people are using the Yellow Pages to find local resources.

17. Without having a strong internet presence, it is hard for businesses to compete.

18. Not being online means leaving a lot of money on the table

19. Being in the Top 10 in Google will likely mean much more traffic then an ad placed in the Yellow Pages. Remember, people from all over the United States and the world, are online. This translates into more traffic and hopefully more sales.

20. A high ranking for a highly trafficked keyword can mean so much more to a businesses bottom line then an ad in the Yellow Pages.

21. HONESTLY, WHO USES THE YELLOW PAGES.

Some of you may already know of this tool but if not I encourage all to take a look: http://google.com/sktool/

I’ve been just doing some analysis of this tool and the “monthly searches” numbers seem very realistic to me. I think this may be the most accurate tool out there. Any thoughts from anyone who has used this tool strictly speaking about the “monthly searches” column?

I’ve done some case studies with personal sites and the numbers seem to be very close to the numbers of hits I get a month on them (within the ballpark ). The numbers currently listed within the “old or original” Google Keyword tools is not even close. Sometimes I feel the numbers are inflated by at least 10x the actual number of real searches a month.

I’ve looked at my personal site and I’ve got some pretty interesting results. On the keyword tool I punched in the searched phrase with no website filled in. It tells me “monthly searches” is 42. On Google Analytics it explains to me how many clicks I’ve rec’d from the phrase and that number for the month of October was 31. I am searching #1 for that term so I can assume when someone searches that name about 73% of people searching that phrase in are clicking on my site (that seems pretty darn accurate and a very fair number).

The tool says another small searched term gets searched 66 times in a month, in Google Analytics in the month of October I received 62 hits for that exact term. Honestly – Does it get any more accurate than that?

UPDATE:  Let’s look at some case studies for using this data for PPC:

A word like Crawfish Cooker get’s 66 Searches Monthly ($0.53c suggested bid).  Another phrase like Hotel Reservations gets 18,000 ($2.53 suggested bid).  If you look at the suggested bid for either of these phrases, you can see “Hotel Reservations” cost is 5x that of “Crawfish Cooker”, but the traffic is 300x that.  I would consider “Hotel Reservations” a much better buy.  The reason being the associated cost is so low, the traffic is reasonably high, and your successful conversions (hopefully) should pay out enough to cover your expenses.