aaron dalrymple dot com

I just read a great article by Mike Grehan about the future of Search Engine Optimization. The question, “what is the future of search” is getting asked a lot lately. It’s changed a whole lot since I first got involved just about 10 years ago.

One key element that Grehan points out is that SEO is a really a function of marketing, which I don’t think many people outside the industry (and some inside) really understand. He says,

…even though industry leaders acknowledge that SEO is much more of a marketing process than a technical effort, there’s still a lot of fixation on crawler activity and indexing.

Most new clients and even developers I work with tend to think that I can put up some meta tags and do some voodoo to their code and, POOF, their site will be “optimized.” A lot of people (and, again, developers) call me a week before a new site is set to go live and say, “can you make sure this is optimized?”

Another thing Grehan mentions that stands out to me is:

Personalization and digital asset optimization will end 1999-style ranking reports, as search engine results will be based on blended results from end-user specifics, such as geographic location, time of day, previous searching history, and peer group preference.

Thank god! I’ve already started to ween myself, and clients, off of ranking reports. And with the availability of good analytics programs (like Google Analytics), there is really no need to base success on a handful of keywords. Ranking reports are easy to manipulate, inaccurate, can provide a false sense of SEO success (or failure) and, today, really have very little value.

It HAS to be about conversions! 1000 #1 placements aren’t any good if users aren’t going to and taking action on your site. Unfortunately, the search industry is still pushing rankings (Guaranteed #1 in Google!) as the be-all and end-all of SEO success. Let me make this my new motto:

Rankings are not an End, But a Means to an End…

Another key here is that great rankings and great traffic still aren’t any good on a broken site. This is why I’ve started to include a site analysis incorporating usability best practices as part of my standard SEO offering. My job is not rankings, it’s to help my clients succeed.

Another thing to point out from Grehan’s piece is that SEO is really turning into Reputation Management:

Reputation management will become more important as marketing continues its reversal from a broadcast medium to a listening medium.

It’s part of your overall marketing message. It’s about having a consistent marketing message acorss all channels and monitoring the voice of consumers. It’s social networks, it’s blogs, it’s public relations, it’s search results, and… just a little bit of voodoo. (-;

The Future of SEO - ClickZ

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Marketing, SEO, Online Marketing, Analytics, Mike Grehan, Future of SEO

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Here is Why:

Eyetools Eyetracking Research

This eye tracking research by Eyetools, Enquiro, and Did-it states that 100% of users look at the top three organic listings on Google’s search results page. Only 85% even LOOK at the number four listing and after that it’s all down hill to number 10, which only 20% of searchers even take a peak at.

In addition, the importance of managing SEO along with PPC campaigns is further strengthened by the fact that only 50% of users are even giving a glance to sponsored ad units on the search results pages.

“We see a marked difference in how people say they search and what they actually do. Previous research had indicated that people were considered searchers and spent some time before choosing a link. The past few studies we’ve done, this one included, shows that there’s a huge importance placed on where the eyeballs end up on the page. Clicks happen pretty quickly. It just shows that search marketing is a real estate game. It’s all about location, location, location.” - Enquiro’s Gord Hotchkiss

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing, enquiro, eyetools, did-it, eye tracking, heat map, serp

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Shawn over at diydollars.com has a great post on Blackhat SEO. I largely agree with Shawn’s conclusions about Google and blackhat vs. whitehat. I’ve been known to say, “Google is not the boss of me!” at times. And, I tend to get a little tired of “Matt Cutts said this” posts all over the SEO blogs and forums (I do like Matt, though - really good guy), so this is a nice change of pace.

There could be some lively debate shaping up in the comments at diy, so click over and chime in:

Is Blackhat SEO Wrong? | diydollars.com

Tagged as: Uncategorized, Google, Search Engines, SEO, diydollars, blackhat, whaitehat,

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Why doesn’t this surprise me? While Yahoo is getting really good at pinpointing successful models and snatching them up, or creating them itself, all while mastering the art of integration… Google is creating obscure tools, which may or may not be around in a year and neglecting to properly market or integrate them. I think Google is really falling short on user experience. Yes, simple is good - but times change; what worked five years ago may not be the best approach today. Yahoo has integrated its tools so seamlessly that it makes sense to me that users are more satisfied. How will they turn that into search volume though? Do they even need to worry about that?

Yahoo edges Google in user satisfaction survey | Technology | Reuters

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Yahoo, Other, user experience, survey, reuters

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I know what Google says, “this will help the quality of our results.” But, like most (who ARE NOT Matt Cutts’ disciples), I am cynical when it comes to Google - just like politicians, Fox News and Clear Channel radio.

It seems that Google is making some changes to the algorithm that determines your ranking in the PPC listings - or Adwords for the brand conscious. To review, Google bases your rankings on quality, CTR and CPC. Currently, Google uses your actual CPC to help determine rankings. In other words, it uses what you’re paying, not what you’re willing to pay - or your maximum CPC.

Well, it seems, that in the near future that formula will be tweaked to consider your maximum CPC in the ranking algo instead of your actual CPC. You won’t have to pay that max CPC (necessarily), but, according to Google, this will give advertisers more control over obtaining a top ad spot.

Maybe so, Google. But it will also encourage users to increase their max CPC in order to get better rankings under the impression that a higher max CPC will increase rankings - regardless of what your actual CPC will be. And, while users will still pay an “actual CPC,” when everyone suddenly raises their max CPC, the actual CPC will follow - because your actual CPC is dependent on what the other advertisers’ maximum CPC is.

Google makes more money, you have a harder time maintaining a positive ROI, and Google moves one step further toward world domination. Read more about the apocalypse here:

Want That Top Ad Position On Google? The Rules Are About To Change

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, SEM, Online Marketing, Adwords, algorithm, Google Adwords, PPC, PPC Advertising, Matt Cutts, SearchEngineLand, ROI, CPC

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Nothing too earth shattering here.  But, Stephan Spencer has posted some tidbits from Matt Cutts’ talk at WordCamp 2007.  Most aren’t specific to just bloggers and offer more insight into ranking well (or ranking poorly) with Google.  Matt never gives up the real juicy stuff, so I assume this is just an opiate for the SEO masses more than anything else…

Here are a few of the general SEO items that Spencer notes:

• Underscores in URLs are now seen as word separators, just as hyphens have always been.
• Keep query parameters in the URLs to no more than 2 or 3 and Google will treat your URL the same as a static one.
• Directory depth of your pages does not matter to Google.
• Page file extensions don’t affect your rankings.  Do avoid using .EXE, however.

To read Spencer’s entire piece:

Underscores are now word separators, proclaims Google | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, SEO, Online Marketing, Optimization Tips, Blogging, matt cutts, stephan spencer, cnet, underscore, optimization, search engine optimization

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Gets you some free SEO tools from Jim Boykin and We Build Pages here:

New Free SEO Tools from WBP - Sweet! - Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog

Great link bait, Jim.

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Yahoo, SEO, Online Marketing, Link Building, SEO Tools, SEO Tools

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Clients sometimes look at me funny when I tell them that their new site will probably not have any rankings in Google for a least a year. It sucks, but it’s true. Part of being a professional like myself is that you want to tell clients and potential clients that your expertise will overcome any obstacles encountered. But, just like in most professions, there are some things that are out of the control of even the top people in the field.

And Jim Boykin is one of the the top folks in the SEO field. Jim says:

I know that I won’t touch a site that’s less than 2 1/2 years old (a webuildpages policy for almost a year now). Yea, there is no sandbox really, only levels of filters. The newer the site, the more filters it has to flow through.

The fact is that getting around Google’s age filters (or sandbox or whatever you want to call it) is nearly unavoidable. So, as much as I would like to say that I’m such an incredible optimizer of all things search that I can easily skate around those silly Google age filters… sorry.

Read all of Jim’s post and click through to the “additional resources” posts for some great information on Google’s domain age factor.

Google Ranking Filters: Trust and Age Factors. - Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, SEO, Online Marketing, Link Building, Sandbox, Jim Boykin, Age Filter, Google Sandbox

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More energy continues to go into PPC advertising. According to DoubleClick, while the cost of keywords held steady in Q2:

Year-over-year overall spending on search and impressions grew by almost 50 percent; active keywords grew by 58 percent while total clicks increased by 32 percent.

Obviously marketers are getting smarter about how many keywords they’re using in their campaigns. Without knowing, though, how these increased keywords and increased spending have affected the overall ROI - or effectiveness of PPC advertising - it’s hard to assess what these numbers really mean for marketers.

Clicks increasing by 32% and the fact that terms that previously cost between 21 and 99 cents now go for more than $1, does mean that the engines are making hay.

I’ll bet that when Q3 numbers come out we’ll see an even greater proportional increase in the take for the engines. With 60% of the market share, Google’s recent update is bound to boost its take considerably.

All this can’t help but make me wonder how much longer natural SEO (non-paid results) are going to be relevant. What’s to gain on the part of the search engines by putting any development, resources, etc. into natural results? Especially for Google, who doesn’t have CPM advertising all over their pages…

MediaPost Publications - Performics: Q2 Keyword Costs Flat - 10/02/2006

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Yahoo, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing, Analytics, PPC, MediaPost, DoubleClick, Adwords

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If you’re pushing all of your search traffic (PPC or natural) into your home page, you may be missing out on conversions.

When a user gets to a page that they’ve found on a search engine, always remember that they got there (usually) by a specific keyword phrase.  You can greatly increase your chances of converting that visitor into a buyer by showing them a landing page with those same keywords.

One thing that I’m continually telling my clients is that you can truly only optimize a page well for 1-2 keyword phrases.  It is also important to note here that an optimized page doesn’t ONLY rank well, but it must convert well too.  If not, is it really optimized?  Maybe our industry should change its name to Search Engine Conversion Optimization…  SECO has a good ring to it too…

So, if a page can really only be SECOed for 1-2 keyword phrases and you’re buying 15,000 keywords that you’re pushing into your home page, it stands to reason that you may be experiencing more fall-out than necessary.  If I go into a store looking for sandals but all I see when I walk in the front door is hiking boots, I may, and a certain percentage of all people may, turn around before we find the sandals by the back door.  The great thing about the interweb is that we can have as many doors as we want.  And if someone wants sandals, or cruises or all inclusive or whatever, we can lead them through that door.

I’ve seen a couple of general studies that have shown around a 40% increase in conversions after implementing keyword targeted landing pages.  In my experience, travel sites can see conversions increase in that same ballpark.  I’ve personally seen it increase conversions by 30-35%.

Landing pages should have your targeted keyword at the top of the page and have a consistent theme throughout the page.  If the keyword is “New York Hotels,” don’t show a picture of a couple relaxing on a tropical beach - instead show the Manhattan skyline so that visitors know immediately that they’ve found the right place.  If you have a booking form on that page (which you should if you can), have the form pre-populated with the city name or itinerary, or package or whatever (you’ll be surprised how many more form submissions this simple little change will garner).

The other advantages of keyword landing pages are that if you create them for your PPC campaign, they usually rank well in the natural results too!  Make sure to include them in your site map and in your Google Sitemaps XML file.  Having well optimized keyword landing pages may help bring the minimum CPCs down in your Google AdWords account as well.

Now go make 15,000 new pages!