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Search Engine Optimization Terms Defined

Affiliate marketing — Revenue sharing between two Web sites. Affiliate site normally provides free advertising for an e-commerce site and compensation is based on performance (i.e., sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of all)

DMOZ — The most important Web site directory. When you get your site listed in DMOZ, it is also listed in all other directories that use DMOZ's database.

ISP — Internet service provider, a company that provides an Internet connection.

Key phrase — A group or phrase of key words.

Key word — Words typically used to search for the goods and/or services you provide. They are used to present your pay-per-click ads and Web site content to potential customers.

Key word analysis — The process of analyzing a subject area or Web site with the goal of identifying key words that best describe the subject of the site. A factor in the analysis is discovering key words that match or resemble words people will use when performing searches on search engines. The ideal result of the analysis is a list of key words that, if incorporated correctly into a Web site, will increase probability of traffic to the site.

Key word optimization — The process of performing key word analysis and incorporating the discovered key words into the Web site.

Keyword spamming — The process of stuffing a Web page with keywords not related to the theme of the Web site as an attempt to influence/trick the search engines.

Link popularity — The popularity of your Web site in the eyes of the search engine, based on the quality and quantity of links to and from your site. For more information, read the article on link popularity .

Meta tags — Special tags placed in a Web page (but not intended for users to see) that provide extra information about the page to search engines. The meta tags are not visible on a Web page unless you view the HTML code.

Natural or organic search results — Organic here means natural, as in the natural results found by the search engine through its ranking algorithm, as opposed to the "artificial" results produced by paying for a position.

Page rank — To examine the entire link structure of the Web and determine which pages are most important.

Ranking — The position within search engine results that a Web site reaches for a particular search phrase.

Results page — After a user enters a search query, the page that is displayed is the results page. Sometimes it may be called a SERP, for "search engine results page."

Robot — Another name for spider .

ROI — Return on investment, which refers to the percentage of profit or revenue generated from a specific activity.

Search engine — A database of information retrieved from indexing Web pages from all over the Internet. A user can use a search engine's interface to search their database of information and find links to Web sites that provide information relevant to their search criteria. The majority of search engines have their own piece of software called a 'search engine spider' that visits Web pages and extracts the required information it needs to allow its search engine to function.

Search engine optimization — The process of modifying a Web site's content, structure and link popularity to maximize the chances of a higher ranking within search engine results; basically optimizing a Web site to make it more important in the eyes of a search engine.

SEO — Acronym for search engine optimization.

Site map — A special page on a Web site that contains a treelike representation of the link structure of the site. It allows a search engine spider to index all the most important pages of the site with ease because it can access them all from one page. A link to the site map should be clearly accessible from the home page.

Spiders/crawlers — Programs sent out by search engines that mechanically categorize your Web site based upon its text. Spiders work by extracting relevant information from a site and following any links on the page to continue the categorization. A common method used to ensure that a spider indexes all the most important Web pages on your site is to include a site map on the home page.

Subject directory — A subject directory organizes Internet sites by subject and is usually maintained by humans instead of software. The searcher looks at sites organized in a series of categories and menus.

TITLE tag — The TITLE tag is used to specify what text appears at the top of a browser window when visiting a Web page. It can influence rankings a great deal and should contain the page’s key phrase.

Unethical SEO — Involves employing underhanded or illegal activities to increase search engine ranking. Among the many unethical SEO practices are cloaking, gateway pages, and key word spamming.

Source: Webmaster World Forums

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Direct Hit : Web Site Optimization for Normal People

Successful internet marketing is not: A turkey shoot, a fast buck, smooth sailing, mere child's play or something to do in your spare time

Attracting qualified prospects to your web site is a continuous and costly process. Businesses are successful online because they consistently market, monitor their marketing efforts, make adjustments, and market some more.

This article will help you to understand the most popular strategies for Internet marketing — but unless you want a new full-time career, use this information to help you choose, supervise, and assist an internet marketing professional to promote your site.

NEWS FLASH
The recent study by Jupiter Media Metrix proves that search engine optimization generates a better return on investment than any other conventional form of marketing. Web promotion provides a better return than television, radio, direct mail, print ads, and trade shows.

Current Internet Marketing Strategies

STRATEGY #1
Web page optimization - Getting to the top "naturally"

Search engine optimization (or Web site optimization) is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the results of a search engine such as Yahoo, Google, and Ask Jeeves. This is achieved by adjusting key elements of a Web page in relation to the “theme” or key phrase for that page.

Pros
Potential to make huge profits with minimal spending

Cons
Requires strategic research, up-to-date information, and tweaking
Search engines are not consistent with each other or over time in the methods they use to rank Web pages
You have to play favorites. Trying to be the top dog on all search engines at once will make you insignificant to all of them.

The higher a web page ranks on the results page, the greater the chance that a user will visit and perhaps buy from that site. (Web sites “rank” differently depending on which key words or phrases a user types in.) If someone claims his or her site ranks number 10 in Google, your question should be “For which key phrase?”

What do search engines look for when they determine how important or relevant your web site is for a particular key phrase?

They analyze title tags, image tags, link structure, directory structure, keyword density, relevancy, prominence, proximity, total words on a page, word repetitions, total words in specific areas, alt tags, input tags, JavaScript, comment lines, domain name, directory name, filename, and more.

Each search engine has its own unique way of ranking pages.

Not only do they rank sites according to different parameters, but they also change their criteria regularly.

Expect to pay top dollar to have your site optimized by a professional. Why spend so much money on optimization services?

If you are right in front of prospective customers when they need your product or service, they are more likely to buy from you! Search engine optimization is the process of tweaking your site so that search engine spiders will more readily recognize your site and hence boost its ranking.

NEWS FLASH
More than 55% of all Internet purchases begin with a search engine. Today's top search engines receive hundreds of millions of searches per day. If your Web site is not appearing within the first two pages of these results, you are missing thousands of qualified leads. (Juniper Media 2005)

What parts of a web page are important to optimize?

• Think of each page of your site as a separate entity. Each page of your Web site needs to have basic optimization techniques applied to it so that search engines (and visitors) can easily determine what the page is about and what value the page has.
  
• Choose appropriate key words or phrases for each page. The words you choose to describe your product or service are critical for success. Don’t guess what phrases are the most popular and the least competitive; you can use key phrase suggestion tools to help decide: Overture Keyword suggestions - SEOmoz keywords tools - Google keyword suggestions - Wordtracker or a program like WebPosition 4 which offers all the optimization tools you need along with current search engine preferences and page analysis to help you achieve top ranking for your site.
  
• Give each page an appropriate title that includes the key word or phrase at least once.
  
• Put the key words or phrases you've chosen in the page's title tag, meta keywords, and meta description.
  
• Be sure your chosen key words or key phrase is repeated throughout the page, but don’t overdo it or your page may be rejected as spam. How much is too much? That number, along with many others, changes often; consult an expert.
  
• Write, or hire someone to write, original copy that would interest your target market. Keep in mind that what catches and keeps the attention of others is usually information that relates to a need they have for which you have the solution.

NEWS FLASH
The total volume of online searches conducted in the United States increased by 22 percent year-over-year in July, reaching more than 4.8 billion.

Web sites are ranked not only by key words and content but by overall popularity as well. Most major search engines use the number (and relevancy) of incoming links to your site (other web pages that provide a link to your Web page) as the core method of determining the importance of your site. (Exact methods — algorithms — for scoring importance are usually kept well-guarded secrets.) They rank your site according to the number of links pointing to it, and they measure the quality of those links.

Link popularity strategy: Submit your articles for publication to other Web sites and online resources. Don’t forget to have a complete link to your site on your by-line.

To find significant, noncompetitive sites, install the Alexa toolbar or Google toolbar, which will provide a site's relative ranking. Suggesting reciprocal links with qualified sites is a good practice that takes time and patience. It works only if you can offer something of value — at the very least, a link from a truly relevant site (yours), which boosts their search ranking. (Whatever you do, don't use those automated programs that request links. Your e-mail will just get deleted.)

One way to build a network of links to your site is through affiliate marketing. With an affiliate marketing program, you sign up other Web sites to link to yours and you pay them a commission if a click-through results in a sale.

• Examples of software you can use to analyze and help optimize your site are WebPosition 4, ClickTracks, and Urchin.
  
• How to find out who links to you — In the search field of a Web browser, type link:siteXXX (where XXX equals the URL of the site you want to investigate) to see the pages that point to a particular URL. For example, link:www.google.com will show you pages that point to Google's home page.

NEWS FLASH
NEW YORK -- March 10, 2005 -- The Online Publishers Association (OPA) today released its full-year 2004 Paid Online Content U.S. Market Spending Report. The study, conducted in partnership with comScore Networks, found that consumer spending for online content in the United States grew to $1.8 billion in 2004, a 14% increase over 2003.

STRATEGY #2
Get listed in subject directories

Web directories increase the number of inbound links you have. Each listing will be another inbound link to your site. Some smaller directories use the listings from larger ones. Getting listing in DMOZ can easily turn into 200-300 inbound links.

Directories on the Internet are compiled by humans, not by the robots or spiders that compile search engine results. An actual person evaluates every submission, and these people are selective. It requires strategic planning and careful execution to receive a top 10 listing in a major directory like Yahoo or DMOZ. Search for online directories that relate to your products or services, and request to be listed in the appropriate category. Follow each directory’s instructions EXACTLY. Many directory listings are free. For the larger directories, you might find it worthwhile to pay their "fee" for a faster listing.

NEWS FLASH
“The degree to which shoppers now turn immediately to the Web underscores the critical role of retail site design in attracting and engaging the multichannel consumer,” noted David Fry, president and founder of Fry, Inc. “At the same time, retailers will increasingly find it worthwhile to focus offline media investments to generate consumer awareness of and interest in online storefronts.”

STRATEGY #3
Pay for visibility: Pay-per-click search engines

In today's competitive online marketplace, merely optimizing your site for high ranking is rarely enough. Many competitive companies doing business online are paying for high-profile search results called pay-per-click advertising or PPC.

Pros

• Offers some control over where your listing appears in a search engine
• Offers an avenue for immediate results

Cons

• Competitive terms can be very costly
• Requires babysitting for maximum return

To guarantee that your ad is presented when a user searches for a given term, you bid for that term on a per-click basis. The more popular the term, the more expensive it is. Search engines will allow you to set a spending cap.

Google and Yahoo offer the major pay-per-click advertising programs. Google's program, called Ad Words, delivers targeted pay-per-click ads via its own search engines and a host of partner sites. Yahoo owns Overture, which has a selection of specialized PPC advertising programs 

NEWS FLASH
Google currently has BILLIONS of Web pages in its index. Today's top U.S. search engines receive hundreds of millions of searches per day. If your Web site is not appearing within the first two pages of these results, you are missing thousands of highly qualified leads.

STRATEGY #4
Traditional internet advertising

Banner ad networks
These networks sell banner ad space on your Web sites to other companies and sites.

E-zine advertising
Many e-zine newsletters are available, and it usually costs to advertise in them. The investment may pay off if you offer a good product or service. You can also offer to contribute your own articles to these e-zines.

NEWS FLASH
A recent study by Jupiter Media Metrix proves that search engine positioning generates a better return on investment than any other conventional form of marketing.

STRATEGY #5
Blogging

 Reach your market by writing regular and valuable content in an online “journal.”

• A blog is a regularly updated online journal of information and opinions.
• Many search engines are partial to blog contents.

A well-done blog does two important things for a business web site:

• It makes it easy to add and update content, so there's always something fresh on the site.
• It helps establish a relationship with visitors and build an environment of trust. Potential customers get to know you and know about your company through your blog.

Resource: Blogger.com

NEWS FLASH
Reston, Va., Aug. 8, 2005 – ComScore Networks today released a report detailing the scale, composition and activities of audiences of Weblogs, commonly known as “blogs.” The report, which was sponsored in part by Six Apart and Gawker Media, found that nearly 50 million Americans, or about 30 percent of the total U.S. Internet population, visited blogs in first quarter 2005. This represents an increase of 45% compared with first quarter 2004.

STATEGY #6
Be so good that you’re contagious: Viral marketing

• Strategies include e-books and e-publishing; e-mail; affiliate programs; word of mouth
• Hot marketing trend: There are several good books out on the subject

NEWS FLASH
The inaugural EMC2 study confirmed that for a vast amount of consumer spending, online information sources are the starting point for consumer decision-making. Thirty-four percent of respondents reported that they frequently shop at Web sites first, before buying in a store. 

STRATEGY #7
E-mail marketing - opt-in marketing or permission marketing

Send out newsletters, promotions, and information your target market WANTS to read.

 Pros

• Low costs, high conversion rates, and detailed tracking
• The majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them.

Cons

• Consumer distaste: The average consumer receives more than 300 e-mails a week, 62% of which are spam.
• The temptation arises to create and publish a campaign yourself because so many other people do it (but it’s a bad idea unless you are sure you know what you are doing and can accurately test the results).
• Important or critical content and messages can get lost or blocked in a slew of spam.
• Once the intended recipient opts out, contact is suppressed; he or she is no longer contactable.

How can I send prospects prime rib instead of Spam?

• Assure your potential subscribers that you will never give or sell their e-mail address to another party.
• Remind your subscribers to add you to their "safe senders" list.
• Make sure the provider you use for your e-mail marketing has a good relationship with Internet service providers.
• Select e-mail marketing software or providers that have strict anti-spam policies
• Secure against runaway or lost graphics: Publish your e-mail campaign to a location on the Web. Each graphic on your campaign will then have a full HTML address in the code pointing to the graphic on the Web site.
• Provide an unsubscribe link so recipients can easily be removed from your distribution list.

Do I have to wait until I have developed a substantial database to see a profit?

You can rent or buy e-mails gathered from people interested in a given topic. However, some of these vendors are spammers and the e-mail addresses are “harvested” without consent. Marketing to these lists is worse than marketing a pyramid scheme to your friends and family. You can search for e-mail list vendors at the Direct Marketing Association.

The marketing strategies discussed above are the most significant and widely used; however, many more techniques are also effective. Consider getting familiar with some of them, such as using RSS feeds and contributing to discussion lists that deal with topics appropriate for your target market.

How do I find a good internet marketing professional who is right for my budget and my business?

Ask around and collect a small list of recommendations from people who already have excellent results. (Typing in a key word or phrase and selecting your ideal marketer from the top search engine results would probably NOT be the most reliable way for you to make a good match in this instance.)

• Make a list of any important questions or pertinent information (budget, time factors, desired results, target market information, competition) beforehand.
• Speak with each candidate personally.
• Do the candidates explain things in a manner you can understand? If not, don’t bother.
• Do they promise you quick and powerful results that sound 10 times better than what anyone else is offering for a fixed price? Think snake oil salesman.
• Will they provide you with a list of happy clients you can contact? There is never a good enough reason for them to refuse.
• Is their pricing structure something a reasonable person can understand?
• Do they sidestep your questions and try to sell you a product, service or result that you previously had no interest in? If their solution contains an easy-to-use, powerful something or other that you can do yourself, just say “no.”
• When you find someone you have confidence in and you’ve checked out their references, make sure to get everything in writing. What specific actions will they take and in what time frame? What is required of you and in what time frame? What are the expected results and in what time frame? How much will it cost and how is that figured? What happens if your results are not as promised?

Marketing and Design Department Wynn Solutions 2005