Caro Consulting

Agencies Hate Search Engine Marketers

Okay, technically I work for an agency now, so I should be offended. But, in case you didn't know, Avenue A | Razorfish does offer SEO services through A|R Search and SEM through its media services. This article refers more to the traditional agency... although with the "subservient chicken phenomena" in full force, some of the interactive agencies are not too pleased with search marketers... or anyone who wants to show a return on investment on a campaign.

Of course, I can't resist a good countdown... Especially when it is as funny as this one. In iMedia last week, Stuntdubl posted their countdown on why Agencies Hate Search Engine Marketers. I tried to summarize it, but it loses the humor. Definitely check out the full post.

So which way is the pendulum swinging for your company these days? More direct marketing / ROI focused or do you hear more cries for the "big idea?"

Search Engine Optimization Tools

I was making my weekly rounds at Fabric.com the other day and ran into their search marketer extraordinaire, Mike. As usual, he found a new tool he had to show me. After weeks of new tools,  I finally asked him to compile his recommendations together into one post. Now, you can view Mike's favorite search engine optimization tools on his blog.

Here is a brief review of his list, plus some tools of my own.

• WordTracker - Before you begin to build a site, do your research. As I mentioned in my previous SEO Tips post, WordTracker provides you with the number of searches as well as competitors.
• Overture Keyword Tool - Similar to WordTracker, but free, does not provide competitive information, and only talks about a third of the marketplace.
• Netroglycerine Site Map Generator - A key step to creating a properly optimized site is to create a robust site map. Once your website is complete and posted online, Netroglycerine can help you build an outline - and identify if anything is broken. Google Sitemaps Beta is also available, but you need to be good friends with your tech guy to implement it.
• MarketLeap - Check the number of links to your site as well as your competitor's sites. Note: you can do the same thing by going to Google and typing link:http://www.yoursitehere.com. You can also check your site's search engine saturation on MarketLeap or by going to Google and typing in site:http://www.yoursitehere.com.
• Link Harvester - Another link analysis tool, but this one seems to be a bit more intelligent compared to MarketLeap. As Mike says in his post, "it will give you a good idea of exactly how many links you have (as indexed by Y! at least)."
• SERPs Position Tracking - Sick and tired of hunting for where you show up in the keyword results? I know Mike is since he is tracking hundreds of pages at this point. He hunted everywhere and found this tool to be the most accurate.
• Keyword Density Analyzer - If you're finding the page is not showing up at all or on page 5 (which is basically the same thing), your page may not have enough keyword density. SEO Tools sums it up perfectly on their site, "Keyword density needs to be balanced correctly (too low and you will not get the optimum benefit, too high and your page might get flagged for 'keyword-spamming'). "
• Double Trust - Search on Google and Yahoo! at the same time. For searchers it means finding something faster. For you it means saving time tracking down your Google and Yahoo! rank. They provide a nifty table format explanation to get you started.

What are your favorite tools. Add them in the comment section.

Last minute addition - Going through my favorite blogs and found a post in the SEW blog about Myriad search. Shows Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves search results all in one place. Shows the copy and search result position. Quite useful.

09/26/05 - I recommend checking out Aaron Wall of SEO Book.com - he has his own list of SEO and PPC tools, free and paid.

10/04/05 - I forgot one of the oldest and most hotly debated tools out there - Alexa Related Links and Traffic Rankings. Enter in your URL address and you can obtain traffic reach, rank, and page views. Do the same to compare your site to your competitors.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

I just returned from beautiful Destin, Florida,  feeling relaxed and ready to blog again. Has it really been a week? Time flies!

In my Success Made Easy - Five Simple Steps newsletter article I talk about knowing who you are and what you are good at. To do what you love and make money, many times you have to take risks and go out on your own.

I did it and now many friends and family members are venturing out as well. Of course, #2 in my newsletter article says know who you are not. They are not marketers. So, who do they call? You guessed it.

And what is the most commonly asked question? "How do I set up my website so it is found by the search engines?" A twenty minute conversation ensues where I am rambling on and on while the person on the other line is writing furiously.

I am certainly not an expert, but I do know the basics. So, instead of making you write furiously, I thought I would capture my basic recommendations in this post...

1. Pick your theme song
Or, in this case, your theme keyword phrase. The best way to figure this out is to use WordTracker. Plug in every keyword and keyword phrase you can think of. WordTracker will feed you the terms people actually use, the number of searches, and the number of websites competing for these searches.

Pick a keyword phrase you will use to optimize your entire site - and then pick several you will use to optimize specific content pages.

2. Measure twice, cut once
Many companies - big brand names and small start ups - create the website first and then go back and optimize it. Many times these same companies are forced to spend even more money to redevelop their site because it was not built correctly the first time. Do your keyword research upfront, ensure your web development partner understands SEO basics, and then develop the site.

Include your keywords in the title tag, meta tags, and H1 tags. As you write your content add your keyword phrase 3-4 times. Include keyword phrase text links throughout your site pointing to other content rich pages. And, most importantly, include a link from your homepage to a site map or store directory page with every single page in your site linked by keyword rich text links. Much like the Caro Consulting site map.

3. Enter the popularity contest
All search engines feel a quality website, with quality content are linked to by many other quality websites. The most linked to or "most popular" website is given the highest rank and in most cases, listed on the first page of the search results for that relevant keyword or keyword phrase.

With good content, this happens over time. To speed things up, you can do the following:

• Contact similar websites, tell them about your great content, and ask if they would mind linking to a particular page in your website using a keyword rich text link.
• Create a blog. You will notice in my blog, every once in a while I link back to specific pages on my website. Blogs are also a great way to create valuable content, reinforce your brand, and get to know your customers and prospects on a more personal level.
• Comment on relevant blog posts. Do not promote yourself or your solution, you will be flamed. Provide valuable insight and then let your signature do the linking for you.
• Write keyword rich press releases with interesting information and post them on PRWeb. This provides more valuable content for your website, links back to your site, and ideally garners some media pick up.

As you can tell, this takes a lot of time and effort. Going back to recommendation #2, know who you are not, if you are not the type of person who wants to dig in and get this done, hire someone to do this for you. There are search engine optimization companies for every budget.

Have more questions? Give me a call, I'd be happy to ramble on and on!

Search Marketing is No Longer Easy

No kidding, right?

Gone are the days when all it took was a website with a few keywords sprinkled in. Gone are the days when keywords could be purchased for five cents a click and the campaign basically ran itself.

Today, dynamically generated content with long URLs, competitors with endless content development budgets, and eBay keyword buys are just three of the hundreds of thorns in search marketer sides each day. Today, search marketing can no longer be given to the intern in the corner cube—a unified strategy needs to be created, so all marketing programs work together. Today, even your PR team needs to get involved to manage search engine reputation.

Yesterday, the people from Jupiter and Search Engine Watch came to Atlanta for a half day presentation and round table event—Search Engine Watch Forums LIVE!

Key take aways were...

- Dave Williams from 360i. "Watch the trends. There is tremendous growth in the vertical search market – Orbitz, Shopping.com, Froogle, and Shopzilla. Out of search new ad models have emerged – click to call, local search, day parting, demographic search, contextual search etc. Your competitors are becoming savvier with A/B testing & multi-variable optimization. More and more studies show search is a valuable component of a branding campaign."

- Stacy Williams from Prominent Placement. "To overcome search marketing challenges, use all the tools available to you... Optimized blogs & press releases and well placed, high quality links to your site. Make sure your PR team is regularly monitoring the web and is working with the marketing team to address any negative PR that crops up. Take a look at local search – 25% of today's searches."

So, to sum it up, search marketing is hard and yet there is so much opportunity for growth. This post merely scratches the surface. How have you seen success? What creative methods are you using to get found and keep your reputation pristine?