Don’t bother to go look that up in Google, as I think I’m the only one in the world who calls it that. But it helps me to think of keywords as “seeds” of information that will eventually grow into a “garden of possibilities”, if you will allow me the artistic license. I’ve been reading a lot of classic literature lately.

I received many emails from readers (Thank you!) who didn’t exactly follow my logic, so I wanted to wrap up the process as clearly and briefly as possible… and brevity is not my strong suit, nor is good keyword research ever brief.

Understanding The Questions To Ask

To begin with, you need to make sure you understand the industry you’re working with. If it’s your own site you are researching, what you need to focus on is getting past the jargon and trying to determine how your site appears to someone outside the industry.

If you’re working for a client, chances are that you can provide a lot of insight into the layman’s terms, but may not know the jargon. You need both in your research, so working with someone in this stage can be very helpful. See 5 Questions to Streamline your Keyword Research.

Identifying The Top Level Topics

Once you start doing research, you’ll probably discover that the “keyword universe” is broader and more diverse than you ever realized. Your job at this point is to identify the primary topics or “seeds” of research. See The Keyword Research Rabbit Hole for an example of how to do this.

Expanding & Growing Keyword Seeds

For each topic you identify, you’ll need to conduct the entire research process defined in Tips for Growing Keywords with Excel Formulas. An important point of clarification here is that this article goes through an example of just one keyword seed (deck) and how to expand it.

You will need to repeat the process for each of the topics you defined in the previous step. Some topics will expand to a list of hundreds of keywords, and some will expand to only a few dozen keywords. The “deck” example is one that can expand astronomically (I ended up with over 1000 keywords for that one), but not all of your topics will expand that much.

Planning & Mapping Keywords

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, once you’ve expanded the keywords to the point where you think your head might explode from all the pressure, you have to contract them again.

The goal is to understand the entire universe of keywords around a topic so that you can identify which keywords are most valuable to you. The most important part of this step is the mapping; you’ll quickly be able to see where you have content that matches and where your content is lacking. See How to Develop a Keyword Plan for more on this.

By the time you finish this last step, you should have a “tree” (there I go with the seed metaphor again) of information that conceptually looks something like the below.

In reality, it will probably be an excel spreadsheet full of categories and keywords. I personally put each category on a separate tab, but whatever works for you is fine.

Time, Averages & Other Arbitrary Numbers

One question I got asked a lot in the reader feedback was how long it takes to do keyword research like what I’ve outlined. The real answer is that it’s up to you, but I spend about 10 hours on average for an average size site.

That number can change of course, if you have a site with thousands of products, or if you have several different target markets you need to appeal to. If you have an overwhelming number of products, it may help you to work on a few categories at a time, rather than trying to cover the whole spectrum at once.

What Tools Do I Use?

I personally use the Google Keyword Tool more than anything else available, but there are dozens of good keyword tools (paid and free) as well as different strategies that you can use to decide what keywords to target.

After Google’s recent announcement of match type changes, I’ve decided to demo several tools I am not as familiar with, so that I can do a review of those along with the ones I already like using. Stay tuned, and let me know in the comments if there are any you want me to consider demo’ing.

In reality, with Google’s Old Possum/Skip Redirect update in December, user agent redirection is all that’s necessary for mobile sites to rank ahead of desktop sites in smartphone search, even if it’s the same content formatted differently.

With canonical tags back to the desktop site for duplicate mobile pages, both mobile and desktop pages will be able to rank for competitive terms. As I’ve said often in this column, and as Google has said elsewhere, it’s a different paradigm in mobile search, and mobile sites are not, by definition, duplicate content.

However, there are duplicate content issues in mobile SEO that don’t exist in traditional or desktop SEO. These issues will split link equity within a mobile site.

Though this will likely not be a problem for mobile duplicates that are properly redirected, these issues could make it more difficult for your unique mobile URLs to rank, and could result in less link equity being passed to your desktop pages from your duplicate mobile URLs.

If your mobile site exhibits any of these seven common characteristics, you could have canonicalization issues that make your desktop and unique mobile content less competitive in search.

1.  App Interstitials

Many sites promote their mobile app when searchers try to access mobile Web content, taking them to a page created for users of their platform before taking them to the home page.

For example, Open Table takes Android users to an Android page and iPhone users to an iPhone page, and both of these pages are indexed in Google.

Does your mobile site have one of these? You could be splitting link equity.

Like Flash intro splash pages in the early days of this century, there’s a possibility( however remote) that users will link to and share the platform-specific URLs rather than the home page. This can split link equity of one of your strongest pages, making it less competitive in search.

Some companies get around this issue by promoting the app within the page rather than taking the searcher to a separate URL. Others get around it by making a mobile Web user experience that’s good enough to stand on its own. If you must promote your mobile app on your mobile website, it’s best not to have separate URLs per platform.

2.  Carrier Pages

Years ago on Google’s mobile webmaster guidelines, they warned about creating duplicate pages for each carrier. And though that warning is no longer on their mobile guidelines, many companies are still creating deck-specific content that could dilute link equity.

For example, NBC’s mobile site lists a show recap here that’s exactly the same as this show recap here, with the exception of the return to t-zones text at the bottom of the second page.

NBC.com page for T-mobile's t-zones is a duplicate of another recap page except for two words: t-zones Home

Both of these pages are indexed in Google with their own link equity.

If you must create carrier pages, use the canonical tag; or if the page is parameter-based, use Google parameter handling to let Google know they’re duplicates.

3.  Indexed Legacy Transcoder Duplicates

In the initial rush to go mobile, many companies used solutions like Usablenet as a stopgap solution to allow them to provide some sort of mobile content to their users. For various reasons, including SEO, some of these companies then elected to stop using a transcoder like Usablenet and build a mobile site in-house.

Sears.com is one such case. Usablenet currently has 180,000 pages indexed in Google with Sears.com in the URL, but Sears no longer uses Usablenet to power their mobile site.

In fact, they’ve created a jQuery mobile showcase on m.sears.com, which has 381,000 pages indexed in Google. Many of these Usablenet pages are duplicates with older, potentially more trusted links, and they’re splitting the link equity of the Sears mobile site.

One of 180,000 indexed pages of the legacy Sears Usablenet site

Canonical tags on the Usablenet legacy content could fix this problem, but contacting an old vendor to have them implement changes on a site they no longer generate revenue from is never very easy to do.

4.  Other Cross Domain Duplicates

Though transcoded mobile content seems to be the most common instance of cross domain duplicates, there are other instances where the same content will be hosted on two different domains with no canonical tags to indicate which one the search engines should promote.

For example, if you access CBS Sports mobile site directly you could do it through m.cbssports.com. But if you were to access the same page from T-mobile’s deck, you would see the same content at this URL: http://cbstmobile.mo2do.net/?src=tmobile.

If you were to attempt to access it through search by putting in the keywords [cbs sports mobile], you would find the same content at this URL: http://wap.sportsline.com/

Is this a screenshot of A) m.cbssports.com B) wap.sportsline.com C) cbstmobile.mo2do.net D) all of the above?

Again, the same content on different domains could indicate reduced ability to rank for competitive terms. Best to indicate a canonical site through rel canonical or parameter handling in Google Webmaster Tools.

5.  Mobile Site Showcase On Desktop Site

Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL all have pages on their desktop sites promoting their mobile websites.

NBA's desktop page promoting their mobile app may appear when mobile searchers are looking for the mobile site.

In spite of Google’s focus on relevance in search results, sometimes these pages intended for a desktop user show up in search results for brand + “mobile site” queries ahead of actual mobile sites.

While these types of pages rarely result in any significant link equity, they can take link equity away from the actual mobile site and make it difficult for it to rank (assuming it’s not a duplicate, which will rank with redirects).

We would love to hear from Google whether pages like this can safely include canonical tags back to the mobile home page, as the content is similar and isn’t something desktop searchers are going to want to find in search. But if the canonical tag is questionable, the pages should at least be excluded or redirected back to the mobile site for mobile users so that they don’t compete with the mobile site in search results.

6.  Duplicate WAP Sites

It’s springtime in America, and many sports fans are rooting for the home team again until the big finish in October.

Do you think any of them can tell the difference between this:

Screenshot of wap.mlb.com

And this?

Screenshot of m.mlb.com. Don't look too hard for differences.

That’s because it’s the same content. The difference is that the former was built for feature phones and the latter was built for smartphones.

These days many companies are building accessible mobile sites at m.domain.com with progressive enhancement in mind, eliminating the need for a duplicate site on a wap.com subdomain.

If you do have a wap site on a separate subdomain (and there are almost 8 million pages indexed on wap.*.com subdomains in Google) the best practice is to use canonical tags to transfer the link equity to one mobile site.

7.  Promoting Mobile Apps Ahead Of Mobile Web Content

Some companies don’t have a mobile website at all, but promote their mobile app instead. There are numerous problems with this strategy that I’ve covered in a past column, but from an SEO standpoint, it often results in creating native app content that can’t be linked to or shared.

So while companies are often duplicating their content and splitting link equity, this particular duplication doesn’t result in any additional links or shares which could ultimately help them rank for competitive terms in search.

If you are creating software or mobile Web functionality that truly can’t be replicated on the mobile Web, by all means build an app. But if you’re just building a stripped down version of your desktop website with mobile searchers in mind, make your mobile content accessible on the Web first.

BIC is a non-profit organization that does some very cool things but, like most non-profits, hasn’t updated their website for many years.

Needless to say, they have almost no Internet marketing or SEO strategy which led them to ask for help by submitting their site for this series.

In this post, I’m going to break down:

1. Who the business is and what they do
2. First Impressions: Overall analysis of website look, feel, targeting and usability
3. Second Impressions: Overall analysis of social media and Web 2.0 presence
4. Top Level SEO: Keywords, navigation, rankings, competition, backlink profile, content, etc.
5. Page Level SEO: Structure, tags, usability, etc.
6. 3-step action plan for biggest/fastest improvement

So let’s get started.

[Editors Note: Remember, opinions and recommendations made are that of the contributor - Search Engine Land does not actively provide site audits as a service; nor is this intended to be a complete and thorough review by the author. Advice given is merely intended to be constructive criticism and a jumping off point for sites looking to improve their website marketing efforts.]

1.  What Does The Organization Do?

As explained to me in layman’s terms, the Bank Information Center is a watchdog group for the World Bank.

The World Bank isn’t a bank in the traditional sense in that a single person cannot open an account or ask for a loan.

Rather, the World Bank provides loans, grants and technical assistance to countries and the private sector to reduce poverty in developing and transition countries.

Sometimes though, the Bank’s huge projects —like roads, power plants, and dams— displace people from their homes or hurt the environment.

BIC’s mission is to raise awareness of when this happens and try to work with the World Bank to fix the problem or create new rules that will keep the World Bank from doing more harm than good. You can read more about BIC here.

2.  First Impressions Count: Website Usability

When I loaded up the BIC website, I was taken back to a nostalgic time – 1997 – when hand coded websites ruled the world and just having a website was a big deal for most institutions.

Needless to say, BIC has some work to do to bring their overall website and online presence up to speed.

Now, while there are several factors to consider – the purpose of the website, budget, organizational focus and probably most importantly for BIC, resources – I believe that BIC should start with a refresh of their entire Internet presence.

The primary reason for doing so should focus on relaying the organization’s purpose, mission and bringing attention to those efforts.

It took me about 20 minutes to figure out what they did and I was purposefully looking for that information for this site audit.

Since I still didn’t fully understand it, I had to ask them to explain to me in plain English what they did, which I passed along in the previous description.

What Is The Purpose Of The BIC Website?

It seems to be trying to do many different things, which is a part of the problem – there is no clear unique selling proposition (USP), call to action or general purpose.

And what does their tagline mean?

In addition, there’s a donation button/link buried at the bottom of the homepage, but shouldn’t that be highlighted more significantly?

If individual donations are not a large part of BIC’s revenue, they may consider removing this area entirely, or put it in another part of the website to clean up the clutter on the homepage.

The same applies to the often cold, obtuse and corporate-speak language used in the latest news updates, ad copy and navigation.

If the site is designed for corporations, trusts, or larger institutions that understand and respond to that language, then keep using it; otherwise, it needs to be made much more conversational and easier to understand.

I certainly shouldn’t have to email the company to get a better understanding as to what they do and how they do it.

These and other issues, beyond the scope of an SEO/Internet marketing audit, need to be addressed before an SEO action plan is put into place.

Key Takeaways

• Website looks tired and old – lacks trust, social proof and “gut” feeling of a reputable organization.

• BIC needs to decide who and what the website is designed for: individuals, or organizations/trusts that already know the nomenclature, and design it accordingly.

• Website has to quickly and easily allow the user to find what they are looking for, whether it’s information on how to contribute, or the latest work the foundation is doing.

Overall Score: 3 out of 10

3.  Second Impressions: Social Media Presence

This section is supposed to be devoted to a quick look at a company’s social media presence.

Well, BIC made that super easy!

They don’t have one – not even a blog – just an “updates” section on the site.

Other non-profits like Kiva.org use social media in a very compelling and advantageous way and I think BIC needs to address this shortfall immediately.

Key Takeaways

• No social media presence – must be addressed immediately especially with such a targeted and passionate audience.

• The “updates” section is a good place to start. BIC needs to flesh this out and offer user participation and make it a part of a larger content marketing strategy.

• Add comments and social sharing icons for all blog posts.

• Make their email sign up form more prominent.

Overall Score: 2 out of 10

4.  Top Level SEO Review

This analysis will vary from website to website based on a company’s goals, target audience and other factors.

In addition, because of space and time constraints, I simply cannot cover every single aspect of a company’s SEO profile, but will choose those I feel have the potential for the largest impact.

For BIC, because I know it would be really easy to pick on them for poor keyword choices (or none at all) or site navigation and other related issues – instead I wanted to focus on low hanging fruit – things they could easily/quickly/cheaply fix that would give them the biggest bang for their buck.

Important note: It should go without saying, however, that BIC needs to perform and implement a complete top-down keyword research strategy in order to understand their market and what keywords they need to rank for in order to reconstruct their site navigation around those goals and keywords.

Total Domain/Website Authority

First, let’s look at BIC’s overall authority using some broad level metrics.

• Toolbar PageRank: 6 (out of 10)
• Domain Authority: 62 (out of 100)
• Domain MozRank: 5.17 (out of 10)
• Domain MozTrust: 5.91 (out of 10)

From these preliminary metrics (because they are logarithmic in scale), it looks like BIC’s website and domain are highly authoritative, trusted and influential – which is a great start.

Backlink Profile

Next, let’s do a quick check of BIC’s backlink profile to take a peek at the possibilities for ranking higher for different keywords over time and get a sense of their SEO efforts – even if they are entirely accidental.

Here’s a look at BIC’s backlink profile courtesy of Majestic SEO.

Needless to say, I was very impressed:

You can see that BIC has been gaining backlinks very steadily over the last 5 years.

In addition, their backlink discovery profile has been very steady with a couple of blips.

First, there was a large spike in backlinks and referring domains in late 2010, early 2011.

After speaking to BIC, it appears that this was likely due to the fact that there were protests going on for several major projects in Spanish-speaking countries. Because BIC had information on these events in Spanish, they received a ton of backlinks as one of the only sources for information.

Then, over the last year or so, backlink discovery has dried up or disappeared entirely, depending on what month it was.

According to BIC, this was likely due to the fact that they had budget/staff cuts, so their information wasn’t being updated as frequently if at all, leading to a loss of backlinks to new content.

Overall though, BIC has a fantastic track record of being able to acquire links from all over the Web from high ranking and trusted authoritative websites – which in turn has elevated their website into an authoritative and trusted website.

Even if these links were purely accidental in nature – BIC was not doing anything specific, aside from day to day operations to get these links – the fact that they were able to grow their backlinks and authority without “trying” makes the potential of the website incredible.

Referring Domains

As an addendum to the above two points, BIC has an incredible dossier of referring root domains.

Here are the top 25 referring domains taken from Open Site Explorer:

In addition, you can see from the screenshot below, also taken from Open Site Explorer, that most of the referring domains are from .org domains, and 6% are from .edu’s (out of the top 300 referrers).

It’s no wonder BIC’s own website has gained huge amounts of authority and trust.

Anchor Text Analysis

I probably already knew the answer to this question, but I wanted to confirm what anchor text was being used to reference the BIC website from other websites.

Was BIC getting link juice for other corollary keywords or to other pages on their website? Or were they merely getting generic links to their homepage?

Here’s a list of the top 10 anchor text phrases being used to link to BIC’s website, courtesy of Majestic SEO:

Sadly, I was right in my assumption. BIC is getting anchor text pointing mainly to their homepage while using generic anchor text or the “Bank Information Center” company name.

This obviously won’t help BIC rank for other keywords without some effort.

First Page Rankings for Company Name

After taking all of the previous information into account, I now wanted to make sure BIC at least dominated the first page of Google for their company name: Bank Information Center.

Here are the results:

As you can see, while the company does occupy the top spot (with some nice sitelinks to boot) and one other spot below (with an old Vimeo profile that is no longer in use), you can now see how their lack of social media presence is really hurting them.

They should be dominating the first page of Google and could easily occupy more spots by simply claiming their social media profiles on Facebook (screenshot below), LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Twitter, and linking to those pages from their website.

Because their largest source of traffic is for branded terms, at the very least, BIC needs to make sure they are dominating that entire first page.

Other Housekeeping Items

The above are broad-spectrum site-level SEO recommendations designed to identify low hanging fruit and areas where BIC can make some powerful and highly impactful changes for their overall SEO profile.

I now wanted to briefly touch on some other “housekeeping” items that should be taken care of as well:

• Title Tag (Homepage + Other Pages): The title tag on the homepage and other pages is too long – this is a big no-no. As well, it contains the word “Welcome” – an unnecessary use of 7 characters.

• Title Tag Part 2: There are literally hundreds of pages on the site with identical or nearly identical title tags. Each page should have a distinctive page title. Remember that the title is the most important on page SEO factor. Here’s a video I created to teach you how to effectively write great title tags.

• Ugly URL’s: BIC is losing some SEO juice because their URL’s are generic, not keyword rich, and end with the wasted extension of .aspx. This might be a by-product of their Content Management System (CMS) but they should look to clean all of this up. 

For example:

The Africa Region link looks like this:

http://bicusa.org/en/Region.1.aspx

It should instead be something cleaner like this:

http://www.bicusa.org/en/bic-in-africa

Or:

http://bicusa.org/en/bank-information-center-in-africa

BIC should then do the same for all of their updates/blog posts:

Instead of:

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.12606.aspx

It should instead say something like:

http://www.bicusa.org/en/lphu-launches-global-campaign-for-disability-rights

In addition, the BIC website is not returning a 301 redirect from www to non-www or vice versa. This means that Google may cache both versions of your site, causing site wide duplicate content penalties. Courtesy of Virante.com.

Description Tags Missing

Where are the META Description tags? The description tag is vital to getting folks to click through to your website. The entire BIC site is devoid of them…oops! This was courtesy of Screaming Frog.

Duplicate Content

Some other things to consider and check, especially as BIC institutes some of these changes, include duplicate content and canonicalization issues.

I could go on forever, but these were some glaring mistakes that should and can be corrected immediately.

Key Takeaways

• BIC needs to institute a complete top-down keyword strategy before anything else gets done.

• They then need to execute that analysis by upgrading their navigation, titles, descriptions and URL’s across their entire domain and online presence.

• Finally, knowing what they want to rank for, they can begin a link outreach campaign for specific keywords.

Overall Score: 3.5 out of 10 – because of domain authority only!

5.  Page Level SEO Review

This audit has already gotten longer than I intended…I guess that’s what happens when there are a lot of things to fix, right?

(I suppose in that respect, BIC was an excellent choice to kick off this site audit series! Huzzah!)

At any rate, I’ll try and cut to the chase and analyze one page of BIC’s website for its on-page SEO and then apply that same advice to ALL of BIC’s pages.

We’ll use this page for our example:

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Region.1.aspx

Some quick hits that should be taken care of to make sure the page is SEO friendly:

• The page layout is cramped and makes it hard to find information. This should be a part of the overall website redesign strategy.

•  I would like to see more information on all of BIC’s pages – make them more in depth with better and more comprehensive information.

• The page header should say something more than just Africa. Page headers are a part of search engine algorithms, so your page header should be descriptive – something like: “Bank Information Center in Africa” or whatever keyword phrase you are trying to rank for.

• Page META title needs to be shortened and more descriptive (see Top level SEO advice).

• The page URL should be fixed as previously mentioned.

• Code is not using Image Alt text or Title text. For instance, the image in the middle of the page, has the alt text as: img alt=”Mararaba 1″:

This word isn’t used anywhere else on the page. Instead the alt text should be more descriptive about something on the page so search engines can better understand what your page is actually about.

Instead, how about using:

img alt=”BIC Helping The World Bank In Africa”

Then, the title attribute (which is entirely missing from all your pages) when you hover over the image should say something like:

title=”BIC helps villages in Africa have a voice”

Key Takeaways

• BIC should make their pages more “juicy” with deeper content and easier navigation.

• They then need to fix the titles, descriptions, section headers and image alt and title text, at the very least for their main pages and from now on for their “updates”/blog pages.

Overall Score: 2 out of 10

6.  Three Step Internet Marketing & SEO Action Plan

When I selected BIC as my first “victim” I never realized until I rolled up my sleeves and started digging deeper, how much work and guidance they really needed.

The sad part is that I just don’t have the space to go over every last detail, but hopefully with what I covered here, BIC – and just as importantly your organization – can take immediate action on the highest level priorities.

To that end, here is a specific action plan for how BIC can systematically fix what is wrong with their website, SEO and Internet marketing strategy for the biggest return on their investment.

Step 1:  Overall Site Redesign and SEO Upgrade

I highly recommend that BIC undertake a complete makeover of their website, SEO and online marketing presence taking into consideration the GOAL of their online presence and their target audience.

I understand due to cost considerations, resources and time constraints that this might be difficult, if not impossible.

Therefore, the next best thing would be to immediately implement the Top Level SEO changes that I specified above.

These should include:

• Figuring out the goals of BIC’s website, their target market and then their overall objectives before implementing anything
• Creating a master keyword list and overall SEO strategy
• Fixing/upgrading the link architecture and navigation throughout the website using this information
• Fixing/upgrading the content on as many pages as possible
• Fixing the title tags for at least the top 50 – 100 pages
• Adding Description tags for at least the top 50 – 100 pages
• Adding Alt and Title tags for all images on the top 50 – 100 pages
• Fixing the URL extensions for the top 50 – 100 pages and making sure to REDIRECT the old pages using a 301 redirect to the new pages
• Checking for duplicate content on the entire website and either removing it, or at least canonicalizing it

Step 2:  Social Media Implementation

BIC should immediately claim and develop all available social media accounts.

My top recommendations are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+.

BIC should then make sure to add social sharing icons on their blog and perhaps throughout the site, as well as adding the ability for folks to comment on their “blog”.

Once that is done, BIC should curate and build up these channels immediately by creating a social media marketing strategy that involves their main website, blog and social media properties to provide unique content and value to each of them, while also leveraging their powerful brand and Internet presence.

Step 3:  Link Outreach, Traffic Generation and Inbound Marketing

With everything cleaned up and in place, BIC should now look to expand their traffic and diversify the company’s inbound traffic strategy through other sources.

This means asking other websites to link to BIC using various anchor text — to appropriate internal pages – that will in turn help BIC rank for keywords people are using to find their website that they aren’t ranking for now, but can easily rank for with a little outreach.

It also means mining their social media, blog and other channels to create a veritable self-fulfilling loop of goodwill, brand affinity and traffic through their continued updates, content and user interaction.

This will then culminate into BIC’s most desired outcome for their website: whether that’s to get donations, inform, generate awareness or some other goal that BIC ultimately decides upon.

Bottom Line

The Bank Information Center is an incredible non-profit with a seriously powerful and underutilized website property that is losing vast amounts of traffic (and potentially donations)  because they haven’t taken the time to map out a sound Internet marketing – SEO and social media strategy – and implement that strategy on an ongoing basis.

If they systematically utilize the information I’ve broken down for them in this audit, they’ll see a huge increase in their rankings, traffic and ultimately, what all businesses care most about – even non-profits – an increase to their bottom line that will grow and sustain their entire organization.

[Submission Instructions: If you would like to submit your company for consideration for this series, please visit the LinkedIn discussion group that we created for this series by clicking here. You’ll find instructions on that page on how to add yourself and what information I’ll need from you to consider your website. Note there is no guarantee your site will be selected, nor is there a set schedule for audit times.]

If you’ll forgive me, I’ll continue the planting analogy for categorizing and mapping keywords. It seems appropriate, with spring upon us. You’ve found your seeds, planted them in little cups, and gotten seedlings from them. Now it’s time to plant them in the garden and watch them grow.

But just as you shouldn’t drop a bunch of seedlings into the ground in no particular order, you have to have a plan for your keywords as well.

Keyword Categories are like Garden Plans

In case you aren’t familiar with planting, I’ll digress briefly to explain. When you plant seedlings, you need to plant them in groups according to how much sun they need and how aerated the soil should be. You also want the plants to be visually appealing when they grow, so they need to be spaced appropriately and you’ll want to have a plan for how tall they grow and what colors they’ll be at maturity. It is actually the same with keywords.

Keep in mind while you do research that these “search volumes” that you retrieve (whether it’s from Google or some other source) are just estimates. The values are useful for determining trends and relative volume, but should never be used to estimate expected traffic.

What’s That Mean?

To begin with, you’ll need to think about what your keywords really mean. Don’t sort them into groups too early based on something arbitrary like what word they contain.

For example, don’t sort real estate keywords into “house” and “home” type keywords. Sort them according to what they mean. For example, you might have keywords that people use when they are looking for a house/home that is new construction vs. people who are looking for a house/home that is in an “established neighborhood”.

You might still have another set of keywords for people looking for townhouses or apartments. Seem too granular? It’s really not.

Patterns Take Practice

To categorize effectively, look for patterns in the way that people search. Are they looking for a specific type of something, or do they seem concerned with style, color, features? Is there a local component to their searches?

It’s actually easier to do this if you’re working on your own site because you know the subject matter so well. But if you are helping a customer, you’ll need to take time to get familiar with the subject matter first. The more you do keyword research, the better instincts you’ll have.

As you sort keywords and determine categories, make sure you do a quick search for anything that you aren’t 100% sure what it means. Put the keyword into Google or Bing and look at the results.

Do these seem like your customers? Are your competitors showing up? There’s nothing worse than wasted effort on a keyword that won’t convert to visitors and customers.

If you find a keyword like this, take an extra minute to go back and take out any similar keywords. Keep in mind that you might change categories a couple of times as you get more familiar with the patterns. It’s always better to start with too many categories and consolidate them later than to go back and re-categorize one that was too broad.

Questions Are The Key To Great Content

As you categorize the keywords in this way, keep an eye out for questions that people are asking about the topic. This is a great opportunity for you to create more content on your website later that specifically meets searchers’ needs, or to change existing content so that it more exactly matches the search terms that you found.

After you have everything sorted, take a look at the estimated volumes and make sure that they match what you expected.

For example, do more people search for “washers”, or “washing machines”? Does that match how you refer to them on your website? If “washing machines” as the technically correct keyword is searched less often than “washers”, are there ways you could work references to “washers” onto your site also?

Draw A Keyword Map

The last step is to look at the categories to see how they correspond with pages on your site. Are there perfect or near-perfect matches? Go ahead and match those up and optimize those pages for the corresponding keywords.

Are there keyword categories that don’t match anything you have on your site? Make a quick editorial calendar of content to create. Prioritize the content however you want; you might choose to do the highest profit margin areas first, or the areas where you currently have the lowest traffic, or you might even have a seasonal product/service that it makes sense to write about first. This editorial calendar will help you continue to create relevant, interesting, keyword rich content over time.

Don’t worry about creating all of the content at once; even one new piece of content per month can make your site more attractive to search engines. As you create the content, don’t forget to add it to your Google/Bing sitemaps.

Done & Done, Or Are You?

Now you have a great list of keywords that are categorized by customer intent and mapped to the right content. You even have an editorial calendar of content that needs to be created, which keeps your website fresh and interesting over time (a key component to great ranking).

So you’re done, right? Nope. You’ll need to refresh this research periodically, because people change the way they search for things over time. You’ll also want to refer back to this research each time you create a new page or add a new product or service. But it will be much easier next time, since you won’t have to start from scratch.

And that’s the seed method of keyword research! If you’re reading this out of order, be sure and go back to the other articles in the series:

• 5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research
• The Keyword Research Rabbit Hole
• Tips For Growing Keyword Seeds With Excel Formulas

Photo from http://gardenthemedwedding.com. Used under Creative Commons license.

Germinating your Keyword Seeds

Using the example of Artisan Construction Services again (thanks!), we’ll walk through the process that I use to grow a single seed.

In this case, let’s use “deck”. To begin with, I want to think of the types of decks my client might build:

• Composite
• Wood
• PVC
• Hardwood
• Cedar

Then I am going to use what we learned about the client already to develop a list of verb modifiers:

• Build
• Building
• Builder
• Replace
• Replacement
• Replacing
• Construct (wait, I’m not going to use that one, see below)
• Constructing (not this one either)
• Construction

I was able to generate the list above based on conversation with the client and a working knowledge of the deck building industry. If you’re not familiar with your client’s industry, you may want to research this more – look at forums, the discussions part of Google Search, and Yahoo Answers, for example.

Categorize Keywords By Intent

After I build my list of modifiers, I go back and think about intent. I’m not going to use “construct” or “constructing” as modifiers because I think the intent behind them is DIY. Construction probably has some DIY in it as well, but it might glean several useful keywords. I’ll make a note to filter those after the fact.

By the way, don’t go above 10 total modifiers; it gets to be too much to work with.

Since the focus of this post is how-to research, I won’t go into all the modifier sets I’d use, but normally, after I did this set, I’d go back and do one for decking and maybe also for specific brands (Azek, Nichiha, etc.) When you do this for yourself, keep in mind that de-duplication will be important (see below).

Concatenation

(Yes, it is a word, and a useful one for search!)

Next, I use a tool like the one found here to concatenate (that means put together) the keyword seed with the modifiers. I prefer not to use the “concatenate” function in Excel, because sometimes it is limiting. I also find this formula to be infinitely easier to remember and manipulate:

Let’s say you have the following cells:

You want to get the phrase [build composite deck] out of this. Use the formula A1&“ ”&B1&“ ”&C1.

The &“ ”& just adds a space between the two cells’ values. If you want to lock down a value, as in the list below, so that you could get the phrase [building wooden deck]:

Use the formula the same way as above, but lock out C1 with dollar signs: A2&“ ”&B2&“ ”&$C$1.

You can “lock out” either a Row or a Column value.

Ok. If you haven’t already clicked to open the spreadsheet I mentioned above, do it now. This will show you my initial list of keywords based on the modifiers I listed above.

Notice that because I didn’t use all 10 possible modifiers, my actual keyword list ends at line 40. Just don’t use the incomplete keywords at the bottom.

Getting Search Frequencies

Go to the Google Keyword Tool. Login if you have an Adwords account; it saves you from having to enter the captcha for each search.

Cut and paste the first section of keywords from your list into the keywords field. Make sure the box that says “only show ideas closely related to my search terms” is NOT checked. Click the box on the left for “exact match” (and turn off “broad”).

Google Keyword Tool Settings

After you click “Search” and get a list of results, don’t even look at them. Just click the “download – all – CSV for Excel” link.

Repeat these steps for each modifier, but when you get the CSV’s for the other modifiers, paste them into the original Excel sheet so that you have one big list of keywords in one Excel sheet.

Once you have your full list, you need to de-duplicate.

Steps to De-duplicate

1. Make sure all of your data is in the same format. I like to find and replace (CTRL-h) all of the brackets with nothing. Find=[, Replace=nothing (leave it blank). Then repeat with “]”.
2. Sort by global monthly searches ascending. Delete any rows where global monthly searches are “0” or “-“.
3. Now sort by Keyword A-Z.
4. Go to Data – Remove Duplicates. Specify (check) only the “Keyword” Column. If you’re using an older version of Excel, it’s a little harder to do this – see these instructions to de-duplicate.

Removing 0-Value Keywords

Now we’re going to look for keyword patterns. The first obvious one I see is “how to”. Anyone using the word “how” is not interested in paying a contractor (at least not at this time).

1. Use the following formula in Column E: =FIND(“how”,A2). This will “find” anywhere in A2 that has the text string “how” and return the character position it starts at. Trust me, this is useful.
2. Now copy/paste the formula all the way down your list.
3. Select Col E and copy it.
4. Paste special for values only in Col F.
5. Sort Col F. ascending.

This brings all of the keywords with “how” to the top of the list. Simply delete out these rows, and then look for another pattern.

Hint: to easily look for another pattern, just select all of Col E and find/replace the string you’re looking for (example “how”) with the next one you need (example “design”).

When you think you’ve removed as much as you can, you will probably be down to under 100 keywords. These are the ones you really care about. Take just a minute to scroll through the completed list to make sure you didn’t miss anything and delete it.

Rinse and repeat as necessary. It takes a lot less time to do it than to explain it. You may also enjoy these easy PC/Excel shortcuts:

Shift+space bar = select an entire row

CTRL+- (that’s the minus sign) = delete an entire row

CTRL+h = open the find and replace window

ALT+e, then s, then v = copy and paste special for values only

Next time: Categorizing and mapping keywords.

Photo (http://www.women24.com/HomeAndAway/Gardening/Growing-seedlings-20090216) from Abalimi Bezekhaya.

Best Practices for Title Tags in SEO

• It has the most SEO power of any tag on the page for establishing keyword relevance
• Its contents are the source for the blue-link text shown in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
• It’s the best place to get a concise description of the content on the page (well, that’s the theory)

In an optimal world, the last bullet above would always be true. But how many times have you seen a page come out of development sporting the <title> tag text “Page 1” or “Home Page” or “Template” or even simply left blank? Yeah, too many times (me, too).

Given the theory that the <title> tag’s text is supposed to describe the page, search engines ascribe a huge amount of SEO value to the tag’s content – but only if it’s well-formed, contains page-relevant text, and reflects in the limited space available what the page is about (there’s not much SEO power in “Page 1”).

This one tag is a huge opportunity to properly introduce your page to both human users (via the SERPs) and to search engines (for building keyword relevance). Whatever you do, don’t let this opportunity go to waste!

Best Practices For <title> Tag Optimization

When you are reviewing the code of your webpages, look for the <title> tag. See what it says. And note the following suggestions for making it be all that it can be for both human users and search crawlers alike:

1.  Use only one per page, placed within the <head> tag

I have seen many pages in my reviews that have either no <title> tag at all, have multiple <title> tags in the code, or have put the <title> tag within the <body> tag instead of the <head> tag. All of that is wrong, and negates the potential value of the <title> tag.

To keep your code valid and earn the value inherent in this key HTML element, simply keep this in mind: there should only be one <title> tag used per page, and it should only be used within the <head> section of the code.

2.  Place top-performing keywords in descending order

Your <title> tag is the place to put your page’s best keywords. In fact, the value of the words used in the tag are so potent that the search engines can deem the first word the most valuable word used, the second word next most valuable, and so on in descending order. Given this knowledge, write your <title> tag text with care.

When you do your keyword research (such as with Google AdWords), note the search traffic that each word or phrase generates per month. Also note how competitive the word is as well for close calls and as tie-breakers between keywords. Then use these traffic values as a general guideline to help you create your <title> tag text in descending order of value.

That said, don’t make the <title> tag text a mere keyword dump field. No one wants to read a list of words. Write your <title> tag text in natural language, making it as compelling to the human reader as possible (after all, they are the ones who click the most interesting link in the SERP!).

3.  Ensure site branding goes last

Because of the descending value of keyword relevance given to <title> tag text, unless your company branding is a more searched-for term than the individual products or services you offer (and there aren’t that many Amazon.com-like businesses out there), always put your branding last in the <title> tag text.

For pages other than your homepage, you might even leave it out of the <title> tag text if you have stronger keywords on the page competing for exposure.

4.  Use no more than 70 characters, including spaces

The search engines don’t typically like long <title> tag text. After a certain length, the keyword relevance value drops to pretty much zero.

In addition, the blue-link text in the SERPs only shows so many characters before it’s truncated by an ellipses. To stay within the limits where the keywords used earn relevance value, limit the <title> tag text length to no more than 70 characters, including spaces.

I’ve noticed over time that as the search engines redesign the presentation of their SERPs, the <title> tag length at which it’s truncated by an ellipses changes.

As of this writing, after running many test queries, I found examples of 70-character <title> tags showing in both the Google and Bing SERPs, but I could not find anything longer than 65 characters in the Yahoo! SERP. Given the rate of change recently, however, that’ll probably change again tomorrow.

5.  Avoid using stop words

Stop words are words that carry little to no keyword value. Your best keywords are, grammatically speaking, nouns and verbs, with adjectives in close support. But function words are your stop words, which consist of:

• articles (such as “the”, ”an” and “a”)
• auxiliary verbs (such as “am”, “is”, and “can”)
• conjunctions (such as “and”, “or”, “but” and “while”)
• particles (such as “if”, “then”, and “thus”)
• prepositions (such as “of”, “that”, “on” and “for”)
• pronouns (such as “he”, “we”, “which” and “her”)
• and more

Given the limited real estate allocated for developing keyword relevance in <title> tag text, minimize the use of stop words.

But as stated earlier, <title> tag text should never be a keyword dump. Use your writing skills to maximize your keyword usage while creating a naturally compelling message. Those links don’t click themselves.

6. Reflect the most important keywords used in the page’s body text

To get the full benefit of keyword relevance for the words used in the <title> tag text, you want to reflect important words used in the body text of the page.

This tells the search engines that these words were selected for the <title> tag because they best define the overall contents of the page.

7.  Keep it unique between pages

On a well-designed website, you don’t have multiple pages devoted to the same topic over and over again (duplicate content, anyone?). So don’t repeat the same <title> tag text over and over again! Ensure each page has a unique <title> text string, reflecting the targeted keywords used in that page.

8.  Avoid duplicating the exact text string within the <h1> tag text

Similar to the <title> tag, the text contents of the <h1> tag also represents a description of the main theme of the page. However, while the <title> tag’s content is really only seen in the SERP’s blue link text and in the label of the tab in your browser (I’m assuming we’re all using modern desktop web browsers by now), the <h1> tag text is analogous to the on-screen headline of the page.

That’s how the search engines regard it’s intended role. As such, the contents of the <h1> tag also develop keyword relevance for the page. But by merely repeating the <title> tag text in the <h1> tag text, you’ve lost a great opportunity to develop other keywords for the page. I’m not saying both strings need to be completely different, but tag text duplication is a sad, missed opportunity.

9. Avoid keyword stuffing

Lastly, using the same word seven times in the <title> tag text is as subtle as a punch in the nose. The search engines certainly see the intended effort made here. And the algorithms are a tad more sophisticated than, “if using a keyword once is good, using it seven times must be seven times better!” I could rail about page spam for an entire column (and perhaps I will someday soon).

Suffice it to say that such a clumsy attempt to game the system is foolish, and potentially dangerous. If a keyword-stuffed <title> tag is detected, might there be other forms of page spam in the page code? It potentially raises a red flag that prompts a more detailed page review, and if additional spam problems are found, penalties could be levied.

It’s akin to claiming a $25,000 charitable tax deduction to the IRS with only a $28,000 gross income. You’re just asking for an audit. At a bare minimum, consider this perspective: keyword stuffing <title> tags wastes keyword development opportunities for other, valid terms and phrases for the page!

Tell the search engines what your pages are about. Help them understand the theme of each page by using well-conceived, powerful keywords and phrases, used in order of search usage potency, limited in length, unique to each page, reflecting text used on the page, all within the <title> tag text string. It’s really pretty simple!

Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license.

To begin with, you should have three lists of keyword-types (I call them seeds):

Elements to include in keyword research

1. Seeds most important to your clients (note that these may include jargon and industry-specific terms that need further research)
2. Seeds that accurately describe the business (these would be your own layman’s terms for what this client does)
3. Seeds that are not relevant or core to your client’s business

I like to refer to these as seeds because they are a seed of an idea that could grow into giant “trees” of information and possibilities.

There’s no need at this point to distinguish between “deck” and “decking” for example, and this is a mistake SEOs often make; trying to narrow the field too much too early.

Let’s dive into each of these a little more deeply using an example of a client I did work for: Artisan Construction Services.

Note that all of these lists have far more than 2-3 keywords on them, but for purposes of example, I’ve simplified them. This client is a local (to Raleigh, NC) remodeling company that specializes in building decks and screened porches and remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. (Those are my own words for List Two).

The owner of the company, when asked to describe the product in his own words, said:

“We provide decking, siding and window replacement, and interior remodeling.”

Seeds most important to the client (based on the above description and the keywords he mentioned) are decking, siding, windows and interior remodeling. This would be List One above.

Seeds that aren’t relevant (List Three above) are things the client prefers not to do or sub-contracts out, such as roofing (says he can never do it as cheaply as professional roofers), plumbing (he hates it) and highly specialized design work like tile inlays. He’s also not a licensed electrician. So these are keyword seeds to avoid.

Example of Keyword Seed Lists

List One

List One is based on jargon, and requires further research. The first thing I do with keywords like this is to look at competitors’ websites. I’ve gotten a list of competitors from the client that I’ll research, and I’ll also put these terms into Google or Bing and look at the sites that come up in the results (I’ll localize to Raleigh, NC so that I’m getting the most accurate set of competitors).

Reviewing these sites will give me more seeds to research based on that jargon. In this case, I found specific types of decking, such as composite and pressure-treated, and I found that many competitors also refer to screened porches as sunrooms or patios (which are slightly different, but may cover more potential customers).

One additional thing the client told me is that customers often aren’t sure of what they want until they call him in for an estimate, so I’m keeping this in mind. Also during my research, I found another competitor in search that wasn’t mentioned as a major competitor. I’ll put this on a list of things to ask the client about in our next meeting.

Example of List One Expansion based on Competitors research

Next, I’ll look at how customers are actually referring to the different products and services.

I’ll use the “related searches” area at the bottom of Google’s SERPs, Google Insights to look at trends, and the “Discussions” search option (click “More” under “Search” on the left side of a Google SERP page).

Based on what I found here, I’ve learned that many people are asking what the differences are between screened porches and sunrooms, as well as that they’re sometimes referred to as lanais or three-season porches. I’ll add these seeds to my research.

I also learned that many people are interested in enclosing an existing deck into a screened porch, or “winterizing” a screened porch. More seeds for my research.

To review, I’ve taken the keyword seeds [screened porch], [patio], and [sunroom] and added:

• enclosing deck
• winterizing porch
• lanai
• three-season porch

These are all things that my client’s customers are looking for that his competitors aren’t servicing. They should be easy wins.

Example of List Two expansion based on Google "Discussions"

List Two

I can research List Two in much the same way I did List One. I’ll add these seeds to the research as well.

List Three

List Three is a little different from the others. I won’t add these as seeds to my research, but I will save them for the elimination and refinement process later.

This is where instinct and experience becomes particularly useful, as it’s likely that I can take any list of keywords to avoid and expand it on instinct.

For example, based on what I know of this client, he already wants to avoid roofing, plumbing, tile, and electrical. But here are a few more statements I jotted down at our meeting that give me more clues:

• “I’m not the best priced contractor out there, because I don’t hire any undocumented workers and I pay my taxes. But I am very experienced and my clients are always happy with my work.”

Now I know I need to avoid [cheap], [free], [low-cost], [best priced], and other keywords like that. [Quality], [experience] and [ethical] are possible modifiers that are allowed.

• “I prefer to work with composite materials rather than pressure-treated lumber for decks. It’s much higher quality and creates a nicer finished product.”

So it’s a good idea to focus on any searches asking for the differences between those materials. Also I’ll probably weight the research more heavily to different types and brands of composite materials.

Another note I’m jotting down from this statement is to suggest the client create a page that discusses the pros and cons of composite vs. pressure-treated materials.

• “A lot of customers get a quote from a company like SEARS home improvement when they’re thinking about doing a remodeling project. This makes it tough for me because the materials that SEARS uses are limited to less-expensive ones. It helps me a lot if I can get a sense of a client’s budget beforehand; a single project can vary by thousands of dollars depending on the materials used. But of course, nicer materials create a nicer finished project.”

I’m not exactly sure what I could take from this, but there are likely to be a lot of keywords related to home improvement and/or SEARS.

I’ll be careful of those keywords and use something like Google Insights to determine if those trend higher at a certain time of year. I might even put them into a tool like ComScore to see if I can determine if people who search for [home improvement] related terms are in a lower income bracket. Of course, I also know I’ll have to avoid any keywords having to do with the television program of the same name.

Example of expansion of List Three based on notes from the client meeting

This is just the tip of the iceberg for keyword research. The proverbial “rabbit hole” can get very deep sometimes, so it’s important to make good decisions about which keywords to expand and which to keep at surface level.

I’m sure at this point, you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned Google’s Keyword Frequency Tool. Researching search frequency can be very useful, especially in determining how far to expand a certain keyword seed. For example, I found almost immediately that [lanai] has very low search frequency. So I didn’t spend a lot of time on it.

Conversely, I found that [enclosing deck] is actually quite large, especially when viewed through Google Insights in the spring and summer months, localized to North Carolina.

Ultimately, I’ll put all of these keyword seeds into the Google Keyword Tool to find the most highly searched combinations of keywords and an overall estimate of the search frequency of one service (decks) over another (window replacement). This will help me guide the client on what content should be created for the website.

I prefer to do most of the research in the manner discussed above, and then use search frequency to refine, categorize and prioritize it. I have certain tools and formulas that I use to do that. Next time, I’ll give you these tools and explain how to refine what you’ve found and present it to your client.

Thanks to Artisan Construction for allowing me to use them as an example.

If you’ve been following along in this series, we covered the first steps in the previous two articles.

1. Choose The Keywords To Focus On

In Organic Keywords: The First Step In Search Engine Optimization, I covered how to use Google analytics to choose the organic keyword phrases to focus on first in your optimization efforts; those keywords already contributing to the business goals. We then looked at how to use Google analytics to help “map” those keywords to existing pages on the site.

Below is a copy of the prioritized keyword mapping we developed for a client in one of the previous steps. I’ll refer to this later.

Prioritized keyword mapping

2. Prioritize Your Keywords

In How To Prioritize Keywords For Optimization Based On Organic Competition,I covered how we prioritize the keywords by evaluating the difficulty of reaching top organic results.

3. Check That Important Content On The Page Is Getting Indexed

As I start optimizing a page, I check to make sure all the important content on the page is getting indexed by checking Google’s “text-only” version of the page’s cache, Bing’s cache, and/or using one or more page analyzers or crawlers.

Find the page in Google or Bing’s index with a “Site:domain.com keyword phrase” search. In Google, hover over the search listing then hover over the arrows that appear at the end of the listing to see the page snapshot. Then click on the “cached” link above the page snapshot.

View Google Page Cache

Finally, when the Cache version of the page appears, click on the “text-only version” link.

View Google’s Text Only Version of Page Cache

In Bing, you also hover over the listing, then hover of the arrow that appears. A window with info about the page will appear. Click on the “cached page” link.

By doing a “Site:domain.com keyword phrase” search, the keyword phrase will be highlighted if Bing can read it. You can also select sections of text on the page to see if the text is editable text that can be read by search engines or whether the text actually part of an image.

View Bing Page Cache

I put the cache version of the page side by side with the actual page and compare the two. I’m looking to make sure that all important content on the page is getting indexed.

I make note of any issues that we need to discuss with the web developers such as the use of techniques that are not indexed easily by search engines (Flash, content included by JavaScript calls etc). I also make note of text in images that we’d ideally like change to indexable text.

If employing more search engine friendly methods isn’t currently an option, I’ll make a note not to optimize that content since it isn’t being indexed anyway.

4. Ensure The Indexed Text Is Unique

Next, I make sure the content on the page I’m going to optimize is unique.

Copy a snippet of what appears to be unique text from the page that you are going to optimize. Then search for it in Google with parenthesizes around the text.

If you get multiple results for a search on unique text, examine the files to see if a large portion of the content is indeed duplicate or very similar.

If the pages are duplicates or very similar content located on multiple websites, this may be a case of multiple web sites using similar content (very common with affiliate or ecommerce sites that use content provided by manufacturers etc).

If you find this to be the case for a significant amount of the content on a page you are going to optimize you’ll need to decide whether to rewrite the content or attempt to include “enough” unique content on the page otherwise you’ll be competing with all those other sites for listings.

However, before you start making significant changes like this to a page see the note below About Potential Effects on the Conversion Rate.

There are other reasons you may find duplicate content on other websites such as the content having being scraped and used elsewhere which you’ll want to deal with (that could mean getting a lawyer involved).

You might also find duplicate paths (URL’s) to the same pages or other pages on the site with very similar content which is another issue that can affect rankings. See How To Improve Organic Search Results With A Simple Site Audit for more about duplicate paths.

A Note About Potential Effects on the Conversion Rate

Before we get started actually optimizing, I do want to point out that I’m very careful not to make extensive changes to content on a page that is already converting well.

If you’ve been following the steps outlined in this series of articles, then you are likely optimizing pages that have been generating business. Just about any change you make on a page can affect the user experience and have an effect, either positive or negative, on the conversion rate.

Many of the changes we make are fairly subtle changes to existing text and images that shouldn’t have a dramatic effect on the conversion rate.

However, if you are going to make fairly extensive changes such as adding new content, completely rewriting content etc then consider testing those changes first using either an a/b test within a PPC campaign or a multivariate testing system such as Google’s Website Optimizer to make sure you don’t significantly decrease the conversion rate.

5. Try To Improve The Search Listings For The Keywords

Search for each keyword phrase you are going to focus on and determine how the search engine is generating the search listing so that you can attempt to improve it if needed.

In this case, you’ll want to search for the phrase the same way most people search, that is without putting quotes around the phrase. So for one of the phrases in the keyword mapping example above, I’ll search for [chrome frame sliders] without putting quotes around the phrase.

In North America, you should check the listings for at least Google and Bing (The Yahoo listing will be very similar to the Bing listing).

Tip: Rather than searching through pages of listings to find a search result you can append the keyword phrase to a Site:DomainName search. It’s the same listing. I’ve checked this many times. A Google search for “site:domainname.com chrome frame sliders” for example returns the same listing as does a search for [chrome frame sliders].

Determine How The Search Engine Generated The Listing

 Next determine how the search engine generated the listing; by extracting text on the page, from the Meta Description Tag, some combination, etc.

Google may still display the listing from the Open Directory Project, but typically only for the home page. I believe Bing/Yahoo may still display the listing from the Yahoo Directory, although I haven’t seen this in some time. I also see Bing displaying listings from the Open Directory Project.

If the results being displayed from a directory are not ideal, you can try to update the directory listing (which can take quite a while with the Open Directory Project) or see this Google article for information about how to use a noodp Meta tag to tell search engines not to display the description from the Open Directory Project. See this article for info on how to use a noydir meta tag to stop Bing/Yahoo from displaying the listing from the Yahoo Directory.

Try to Influence the Search Listing

I list all the current search listings for the phrases I’ll be focusing on as well, as well as average rankings, CTR etc., as I optimize a page and try to improve the listing by modifying the text the search engine is pulling from on the page whether it’s text on the page or from the Meta Description Tag or some combination.

For example, a typical Google search listing for an important keyword phrase was being extracted from the main paragraph of text on a client’s home page.

The listing was not horrible (many are) but the CTR for this listing was low. I reworked the message on the home page to make it more client focused which lead to a much more enticing search listing.

6. Update Or Add A Headline

Page headlines are usually read by your human visitors so I try to make sure most pages I work on have one. If I can include one or two important keywords in it all the better. This not only should help rankings but also help assure site visitors who just searched on the keyword that they came to the right place.

7. Optimize Existing Text

Next I make suggestions to optimize the rest of the visible text on the page. These are usually very subtle changes as I try not to negatively impact the conversion rate. I look for ways to include variations of the  important keywords without forcing them into the text and making the messages awkward (Remember your human visitors come first).

Here’s an example of some existing test from the motorcycle frame sliders page:

“These were produced by Diamond Powersports and are made of high quality Delrin or Chromed Billet Aluminum and are designed to protect the motorcycle’s fairings and frame in the event of a fall over or other accident. The materials used maintain the color even if scratched or chipped. The color is solid throughout the part and is not a surface coating. These sliders come complete with superior grade metric bolts and high quality machined mounting brackets if needed for the make and model of your machine.”

And here’s how I’ll suggest they modify this text.

“These frame sliders were produced by Diamond Powersports and are made of high quality Delrin or Chromed Billet Aluminum and are designed to protect the motorcycle’s fairings and frame in the event of a fall over or other accident. The materials used maintain the color even if scratched or chipped. The color is solid throughout the part and is not a surface coating. These frame sliders come complete with superior grade metric bolts and high quality machined mounting brackets if needed for the make and model of your machine.”

I could have “forced” keyword phrases into this text even more but at the expense of readability. I then continue on and make subtle changes in the rest of the visible text on the page.

8. Look For Text In Images

There is often content on webpages that can’t be read by search engines including text within images. I’m working on a website now, for example, where the only visible text on the home page is actually within an image.

As search engines are extracting text to create search listings from the only text they can read, they are only grabbing a few news items that appear on a mouse over. This is leading to irrelevant search listings that won’t help entice people to click though to the site. Plus, we can’t optimize the text to improve rankings and listings.

So, I’ll be recommending they have a Web developer rebuild the image using text that the search engines can read. A skilled web developer should be able to rebuild most images so that text is search engine friendly using CSS, background images, etc. I’m amazed at how many clients use Web developers that have no clue how to do this. If search engine results are important to you (you’re reading SEL so I assume they are) then find an experience developer who can do this.

9. Possibly Add New Content On The Page

After editing the existing content, I may look for places to add new content on the page, especially if we need more content in order to focus on important keywords. Here are some ideas.

Left/Right Column Content

I look for places on the page to add content that can be both helpful to the user and may help improve search results and conversions.

For example, I might suggest some sales or positioning messages in the right of left columns. I’ll ask if the client has any testimonials and possibly insert snippets from one or an entire testimonial in right column, ideally on that includes one or more important keywords. If they have some useful articles they’ve written, I might suggest putting a summary in the right column that links to the full article.

Content Below The Fold

I sometimes develop a paragraph or more of text and suggest they add it below the fold. This is usually the case for the often image heavy homepages. In that homepage, I mentioned above the text contained in the image only talks about a couple of broad important keywords.

I’ll suggest they add some new text lower on the home page to talk about some important services they offer and ideally link to pages for more information about each service.

10. Develop Alt Tags for the Image Links

Alt Tags for static images (images that are not used as links) are used to provide information about what is in the image for those who mouse over the image, those with slow speed connections, those who turn off image downloading, or for the visually impaired who use page readers.

Alt Tags for images that are used as links should provide additional information about what can be expected when someone clicks on the image link.

If you can develop keyword rich Alt Tags for image links this can help improve the rankings for both the page where they are embedded in and the page they link to (see below for more on internal linking).

11. Update The HTML Page Title & Meta Description Tag

After I’ve developed all the suggestions for optimizing the content on the page, I work on the HTML Page Title and Meta Description Tag.

There are plenty of articles in Search Engine Land about crafting HTML Page Titles and Meta tags such as these:

• Writing HTML Title Tags For Humans, Google & Bing
• Google’s Tips On How To Write A Good Meta Description

I will make a few points about these tags.

Check for CMS Issues with Tag Handling

Before spending your time crafting beautiful tags check to see if there are any issues with how these tags are generated on your website. There are often limitations with CMS systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.

You may need to see if there are settings or plug-ins available to improve HTML Page title and description tag handling. Sometimes, you’ll need to develop your tags within limits constrained by the web development system.

Longer, Truncated Titles

I usually make titles longer than what the major search engines display, which is currently about 65 to 70 characters. However, I make sure the first 65 to 70 characters is crafted to do the best job of enticing people to click through from search listings.

I focus on 2-3 important keywords even if they are not all contained within the first 65 to 70 characters of the page title as the search engines likely index beyond what they display.

Title and Description Should Entice Searchers to Click

Remember that the purpose of Titles and Description tags is to tell people what the web site, site section/category, or the specific page is about. So craft Title and Description tags to work together to try to attract visitors scanning search results to click to your website.

Keywords in Both Title and Content

You’ll usually want to focus on 2-3 important keywords that are included in the visible, indexable content on the page within the Title. Again, the title and description tag should relate closely to the content on the page.

Plus, it will take the combination of the keyword in the page title and within the content on the page (along with other factors such as internal and external linking) to reach top rankings for competitive phrases.

12. Increase Internal / External Links  & Social Engagement

Internal links from within the Web and even more so external links from other sites affect rankings. So I look for how we might increase the internal links to the page such as adding it to one or more of the navigation systems if appropriate, adding it to the HTML site map etc.

More importantly, I look for ways to add links to the page from within the main body of content on other pages, ideally those that are ranking well for other competitive phrases. This should help rankings. However, again remember that your human visitors come first: these links should be added only if they make sense for moving humans along to the page

For the Frame Sliders page, for example, the current product line is a closeout so maybe we can put text or image links on the home page and some other pages such as the following:

Frame Sliders Clearance

Up to 50% Off

I then look for ways to get social mentions and more external links pointing to this page or to pages one click away such as mentioning the topic in a press release or article with a link to an inner page, talking about the topic and pointing to a page in some social venues, etc. Frame sliders at 50% off could be mentioned in the client’s social media venues for example.

Make Sure The Recommendations Are Implemented Correctly

Finally, if you are not the person who implements the suggestions you developed make a point of checking them as soon as possible after they have been completed. Most of our suggestions are implemented either by a client’s IT department or their Web development company and it’s very rare that the suggestions are implemented correctly the first time.

Dalai Lama (of keyword research?)

First, realize that the real Dalai Lama feels no need to prove himself, he just *is*. Project an aura of confidence, and realize the most elusive concept in our industry. It is not about you, it is about the customer.

Sidebar: Even if you’re an in-house marketer, you can still use these techniques. Pretend your VP of Product Development or someone similarly entrenched in the product/service is your “customer”.

Similarly, that first meeting should be all about the customer. This is your best chance to get an outsider’s perspective of how your customer views their products and what language they use to describe them.

After this first meeting, you’ll be an insider, and asking some of these questions will make it seem like you don’t know what you’re doing. So let your customer do most of the talking.

As you listen to the answers, jot down key phrases, jargon, and abbreviations they use to inform your keyword research later. Don’t forget to ask them to clarify anything you don’t understand.

Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list of questions you should be asking; merely a sample of questions for keyword research purposes.

Question 1: I’ve reviewed your website, and have learned about your business. However it always helps to hear you explain it in your own words. So, Mr. Customer, how would you describe what you do?

The answer to this is likely to be the same words you read on their website or see in a brochure. Point out any jargon that you don’t understand, as this will set the stage for later, when you tell them they need to change the way they describe their product.

Question 2: In your opinion, what is it that makes your product/service special? What differentiates you from your competitors?

These are their value propositions; the key elements that need to come across on their pages to compel a conversion. If one of them is that they offer the lowest cost, then you know to research keyword modifiers like [cheap], [low cost], [price]. Alternatively, if they’re not low cost, you know to avoid these keyword modifiers. More on this in my next article.

Question 3: What do you think are similar services/products that you do not consider competitors?

The keywords that come out in this answer will help you refine the research. Often, keywords that are very similar may have a completely different meaning in a particular clients’ industry.

For example, “phone lines” and “phone trunks” are very different and each appeal to a distinct target market. You’ll only want to explore the right one in your research.

Question 4: Which products/services are most profitable for you? Are there other reasons (inventory, seasonality, location) that you would want to push one product/service over another?

Again, the answer to this question will help focus your research. Spend the most time expanding and refining the products that the client indicates are most important. This can sometimes save you from exploring an entire product line, if the customer says something like, “Product A is a necessary evil. We have to carry it, but we also have to price it below cost.”

Obviously, that’s not an area you want to focus on. You’ll include some keywords to be thorough, but you’ll spend more of your time on the “money” keywords.

Question 5: What do you think are your top ten most important keywords?

Ask for ten keywords. The reason for this is that some customers think they need to rank for their entire keyword universe of 1000 × 10¹⁰⁰ keywords.

On the flip side, there are clients that think they only need to rank for one keyword and it will solve all their problems. Chances are that’s a virtually unattainable keyword like “tablet”. This question will help you determine which type your customer is, as well as let you know what keywords absolutely must be included in your final research.

Asking these five questions will complete a formidable amount of your keyword research before you even sit down at your computer. It will also help you focus priorities and set realistic expectations with the very first client meeting.

Next time: how to take what you’ve learned and conduct the research.

Photo © UW-Madison University Communications

In the world of Internet spam, scams, and shams, we’ve learned to be wary of what we find online.

Search engines are no different. Too often we forget that search engines aren’t just a tool to help us find news articles or guacamole recipes. Search engines are running a business—a business whose success relies on providing you legitimate, relevant results.

Fail to give their searchers what they want, and they’re fast on their way to joining Dogpile and Ask Jeeves in the search engine graveyard.

Naturally, Google, Bing, and Yahoo all want to ensure they’re only returning trustworthy and legitimate search results to their users. To ensure quality, the engines work to determine a site’s credibility.

Theoretically, the more you please and earn trust from your past visitors, the more likely you’ll please and earn trust from new visitors. But how do the searchbots measure an abstract human concept like credibility?

Factors To Improve Upon & Measure Your Site’s Credibility

The search engines evaluate a variety of factors when determining your site’s legitimacy. We’ve known about certain tried-and-true factors that can boost your site’s credibility for years, including:

• In-Links: The search engines see in-links (links leading to your website from external sites) as signs of your trustworthiness. In-links are the virtual equivalent of someone “vouching” for your site. The more successful and credible the other site, the better you look to Bing and Google.
• Out-links: Contrary to in-links, out-links are the links on your site that link to external sites. If your links are broken or the external site is irrelevant or outdated, your search rankings can take a hit.
• A clean, error-free site: Broken/missing images, spelling mistakes, or 404 errors are all poor signs of a site’s credibility.
• Traffic: Theoretically, the more traffic you get, the more relevant you are to searchers.
• An easy-to-navigate website: A site that’s easy to navigate can reassure new visitors that your site contains the information they need. If your site is difficult or confusing to navigate, your site’s bounce rate (the percentage of users who immediately leave your site) will be higher— indicating to the search engines that your site wasn’t a successful match for those search queries.
• An XML sitemap: Just like your site must be easy to navigate for humans, it should be similarly easy to navigate for the search spiders, too. An XML sitemap acts as a “road map” that leads bots down each interconnected page of your site, allowing them to index your page more quickly and accurately. Most websites have two sitemaps: a text-based list of pages within the sites and an .xml file for the spiders.

Social: The New Factor That’s Increasingly Affecting Your Credibility

For a long time, SEO and social were two entirely separate departments. A successful company had a social team and an SEO team and the two rarely mingled. It made sense: SEO was all about being found, and social media was about keeping those who’ve already found your brand. SEO set the bait and social kept ‘em on the hook.

Today, SEO and social are inseparable. Customers can just as easily find a company through Twitter as they can Google — and those social media links are busy boosting a company’s SEO signals.

As Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz noted, social now has the ability to affect your search results — meaning that all that traditional SEO legwork you put in could be displaced because a searcher’s Aunt Myrtle shared a related link.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however—after all, if Aunt Myrtle shares your link, it might be your own site that gets a free pass to the top of the search rankings.

Social Puts The Human Back In Search

Incorporating social into search has one huge benefit for users: it lets humans, not algorithms and search spiders, have a say in search results.

Generally speaking, which link would you rather click: one chosen for you based on keyword density, or one deemed relevant by 10,000 other users?

Hence, the Google +1 button: it gives any user with a Google account the opportunity to publicly vouch for a link. The same applies for social media: before Twitter and Facebook, only content creators and site owners had the power to send in-links to other sites; today, anyone with a social media account can share (and thus “vote” for) any link.

Naturally, now that Google and Bing are bringing social to the SEO party, users now have a variety of social factors to play with when attempting to boost site or brand credibility.

Granted, social SEO is still a new concept, but it’s assuredly the direction where search is heading. Below you’ll find some of the emerging social factors that can boost your site or your brand’s credibility.

Author / Social Authority

The search engines have recently started evaluating a social media user’s credibility just like they evaluate a site’s credibility. Google and Bing have both admitted to considering an author’s authority when incorporating social signals into search results.

Take it from Bing, in a Search Engine Land interview with Danny Sullivan from December 2010:

“We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.”

Google also considers a user’s authority when ranking search results. In the below screenshot, a Google search for “blogging” reveals an article by ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse—along with Darren’s Google+ profile picture and the number of G+ Circles Darren appears in.

To make a quick (if imperfect) analogy, author authority is similar to Klout. On Twitter, for example, the search engines might consider such factors as:

• Follower to following ratio
• Number of postings a day
• Number of lists the user appears on
• Number of @mentions a day

The Retweet Factor

Retweets from a power Twitter user can affect your search rankings just like in-links from an authoritative, established source.

As Jennifer Lopez revealed in her case study on SEOmoz, a retweet from the power user Smash Magazine about the SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO led to the site receiving significant traffic for the search term “beginner’s guide”—a term that had never brought the site traffic prior to the Smashing Magazine RT. The SEOmoz guide still ranks #2 in the Google search rankings for “Beginner’s Guide” to this day.

Search engines can also consider a tweet’s retweet rate. If a link tweeted to 1000 followers gets 100 retweets, it’s got a 10% retweet rate—and that link may do better in search rankings than a link with a 3% retweet rate.

Network, Network, Network

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know—or rather, who you’re engaging with on social media. Interacting with Twitter power users boosts your own credibility.

Of course, that doesn’t mean a food blogger should start tweeting Lady Gaga or Anderson Cooper. Relevance matters: if that food blogger starts a Twitter conversation with Wolfgang Puck or Anthony Bourdain, the blog’s credibility as an authoritative source for recipes may get a huge bump.

Build Your Links and Your Social Presence at the Same Time

Why do companies launch linkbuilding campaigns?

• To increase their visibility and credibility.

What do shared links on social media do?

• Increase visibility and credibility.

In-links (via BOTH social media sites and “traditional” external links from sites) are incredibly valuable to search engines, since they prove a user found it useful, not a searchbot.

The more shares you get, the more people are “voting” for your site. As I wrote previously, going viral can boost both your SEO signals and your credibility.

Encourage Sharing (& Trick Out Your Sharing Options)

If you want people to share your content (and thus boost your credibility), you’ve got to ask for it. A simple “If you found this content useful, share it!” can do a world of sharing good for a website.

Likewise, the more sharing options you include on your website, the easier it’ll be for users to share your site. It’s much easier for readers to click one link and instantly share your content than to go to individual social media sites.

The Obvious Downside of Social Credibility

In theory, credibility works the same way in the virtual world as it does in the real world. Before search engines will list your site or bump you up in the search rankings, they’ve got to trust you—similarly, your customers have got to trust you before they’ll buy from you.

The bright side of building your social credibility is that you’re building trust with both the search engines and your future customers at the same time.

However, in the real world, no one will instantly trust your brick-and-mortar business: you’ve got to earn your customers’ trust through quality customer service, word of mouth, and good publicity (staying in business for a long period of time helps, too). Online credibility is built in the same slow, eventual way.

Establishing your credibility takes time. There’s no shortcut. There’s no get-trust-quick scheme. Do good work over a long period of time and you’ll establish credibility. It’s as simple—and as difficult—as that.