The Forge

Google just announced the inclusion of real time search results that include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and a number of blogs on their results pages.  This news isn’t shocking, as Google was a step behind Bing to tap the real time web and pretty much obligated to take a stab at it.

This is some big news, given that Google is by far the most utilized search engine.  One affected eco-system will be the realm of Search Engine Optimization.  While the old method of SEO primarily targets the ’static web,’ a new brand of Real Time SEO needs to evolve to address the ‘real time web’.

Real Time SEO

SEO is essentially maximizing the potential of a website to be indexed by Google based on a number of factors the algorithm takes into account when ranking sites, including the number of incoming links, title tags, keywords,  updated content, etc.

The Mountain View crew claims that real time search will utilize factors such as “author quality,” “probability of relevance” and “query hotness,” in order to determine which results pop.   These new factors, among others, will be the guiding principles of real time SEO, a process that is sure to be exacted from this point forward.

Sure, the social web – including twitter, facebook, myspace, and blog articles – have been an integral piece of SEO work for some time now. Utilizing social media pathways to provide extended exposure to a website has been important.  However, these efforts have always been somewhat ephemeral in comparison to the bulk of a search engine optimization campaign.  With the advent of Google’s real time web, this is about to change.

Real time search results could bring as much, if not more, traffic to a website than standard indexing on any given day.  This means making a website relevant and fresh through updates will become even more important.  There are sure to be other tactics and strategies that emerge as real time search evolves.  I’ll  be sure to keep an eye out for these results and post the findings.  In the meantime, feel free to let me know your thoughts on the subject!

Researching and choosing your site’s target keywords is the first step to SEO success.   In a sense, keywords are the DNA of your master SEO plan; keywords will be the blueprint of where your site gets indexed and what type of customers are visiting you.   It may seem fairly simple – choose the keywords that best suit your industry.  However, there are several factors that must be considered and compromises that must be taken to target the perfect keywords.  I’d like to briefly analyze what factors should be taken into account when choosing your site’s keywords.

1.  Local or Not: Is your business local or not?  If you are a Napa Valley Winery, it doesn’t make sense to target the single word ‘winery’.  Although ‘Winery’ may have more monthly search traffic than ‘Napa Valley Winery,’ the competition will be much stiffer and the ROI much smaller.  On the flip side, if your website is selling a broader online product, like ‘MMA Shorts’ than it wouldn’t make sense to include a specific location (unless you had a brick and mortar store front you were promoting).

2.  Monthly Search Traffic: You can easily find the monthly search traffic for various keywords using Google’s keyword tool.   Search traffic should be a primary factor in determining which keywords to target.  If you have a super specific product, like ‘eco-friendly puppy treats’ you will probably find out that those specific keywords get nearly zero search traffic.  This probably means you want to broaden your keyword to something that gets more searches, like ‘puppy treats’.

3.  Keyword Connotations: Even after determining the monthly search traffic of your target keywords, be sure to actually search for them on Google to see what results come up.  Certain keywords may have various connotations which you hadn’t previously thought of.   Make sure that the competitors on the 1st page of results are in your industry wheelhouse.

4. Competitors: It never hurts to check out what your competitors on the 1st page of search results for your keywords are doing.  View their website’s page source to see if there is any secret sauce of keyword variations that you haven’t thought of yet.

5.  The SEO Compromise: When all is said and done, choosing the keywords that will give your website the best traffic is all about compromise.  If you aim too high at broad keywords that are incredibly competitive, the chances are you won’t break ground on them for quite a while (if ever).  If you aim too low at super-specific keywords that have nearly no traffic, you will likely see very little return on your SEO efforts. The key is finding the compromise in keywords that will provide your business the perfect amount of traffic meshed with the ideal type of traffic.

Insight Forge has expertise in Search Engine Optimization for Resorts and the vacation industry in general.   While many of the basics of SEO apply to driving organic traffic towards resort websites, there also are several specific details to hone in on.

I’d like to take a minute to highlight some of these tips for Resort Marketing.

1.  Location is Key Your target keywords should definitely be relevant to your resort’s location.  Potential visitors will be typing things like ‘New Hampshire Resort‘ into Google.  You can even afford to get more specific with the keywords, such as honing in on a specific town in New Hampshire.  Even if the traffic is trimmer as you get more targeted, it also will be more relevant to a person’s search and is likely to convert into a booking.

2. A Hosted Blog is Integral In a travel industry full of big players, differentiating your resort with a hosted blog is a very big deal to getting ranked.  This is where you will have the opportunity to expound on the various amenities, seasonal deals, mini-vacation specials, activities and other great things that make your resort unique.  This super targeted content will contribute to making Google see why your resort is relevant for those location specific keywords.  We recommend at least two posts a week using a hosted Wordpress solution (www.myresort.com/blog).

3.  Targeted Social Media Instead of trying to reach as many people as possible with your social media efforts, try and target them towards your resort’s location and specialties.  If you are a ski resort, hop on the #ski Twitter hash, and blast out some of your blog posts mixed with other intresting ski-related articles.  Visit some location relevant forums and begin to create a repetoir with users, before letting them know why your resort rocks.

We have some other tricks up our sleeve… If you own or market for a resort feel free to contact us and we’d be glad to give your resort site a review, free of charge.

A Zen ‘Koan’ is a short story or sentence that seems paradoxical in nature, but can also prove to enlighten a person.  One Koan states: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

SEO Writing  is also a bit of a paradox, due to the fact that all good online articles will inadvertently have an SEO effect, and those written purely for the ‘purpose of SEO’ will most likely fail to accomplish their goal.  In other words:  if you begin with the mindset of writing purely for the search engines, you’ve failed already.  The key to SEO writing is to forget SEO.  Kinda Zen huh?  Let me explain…

The Art of ‘No Mind‘.   Zen Masters used to profess a state of mind called ‘No Mind’.   This mindset was attained when a specific art, say archery, was perfected to such a degree that the master did not need to devote a single thought to hitting a bulls eye.  In modern athletics, this is often referred to as ‘Muscle Memory’.

I’m not saying an SEO writer needs to punch a board ten thousand times to get their article picked up, but rather an SEO writer should stop thinking about SEO.   An SEO writer should think like a REAL writer:  What sort of relevant topics are novel and interesting for my audience?  What writing style should I utilize?  What are the reoccurring themes within my article?  Do I have a beginning, middle and end?   Concentrate on writing first; forget about the keywords.

Keywords are Only as Good as What Surrounds Them.  Now that you’ve gotten all this keyword nonsense out of your head, lets talk about keywords.   Are your target keywords working for you or are you working for them?

IF you are writing SEO articles and stopping to think about throwing in your keywords, you’re working for them.   This is how SEO articles are born with titles like:  ‘5 Ways to Purchase Discount Leather Boots, Leather Gloves and Leather Belts.’   And I’ve definitely written articles just like that.  Nobody reads them, I know.

Write about something you would read.  Even if you are limited by your target keywords, like ‘Leather Boots,’ try to find an angle with some interest.  What are the recent trends with Leather Boots:  did Lindsay Lohan just puke on a pair?  Who wore the first leather boots in history?  How fast can a chimp run 200 meters wearing leather boots?  Seriously, that last one may seem a bit crazy, but wouldn’t’ you read it?

The List is a Powerful Tool…If Used Correctly. I’m sure you’ve heard the hooplah about how lists are great for SEO writing.   There is a grain of truth to this, however, just because you are using bullet points instead of paragraphs doesn’t mean your list will be a sure thing.

Good List:   Top 10 Most Ridiculous Craiglist Posts of All Time

Bad List:   Top 10 Promotional Pens and Pencils by Category – Promotional Gifts with a Difference

While the first list may not be for SEO purposes, it should be used as an example of something people might actually be interested in reading.  The second article clearly was not meant to be read by a person.

Target Keywords… Finally

So you ask, where’s all the ‘basics’ about inserting target keywords into your article?  What is the proper density of keywords to content?  How about anchor tags? And what about story titles?

I’ll answer these questions with another famous Zen Koan:

“When you can do nothing, what can you do?”

Another hot trend in search engine optimization is social media marketing.  Approaching social media work from a beginner’s standpoint can be a daunting task.  There are a ton of tools, sites and ‘expert’ opinions which you will find shoved in your face as the ‘new best way’ to get your website on the map.

The truth is, there are quite a few routes to go with social media marketing, and only several that will provide any real dividends.  When it comes down to it, as far as utilizing any social media method that requires gaining followers or building clout, honesty and repetition are the ways to go.  Many people will tell you that there are fast tracks to social media success, but there aren’t.  Like anything, it takes time, repetition, and trust to get ahead.

I’d like to take a moment to go over the basic points of social media marketing to get a beginner in the field on the ground and running.

Forums

Forums may be old school, but they are also a great place to reach a targeted group of users in your space.

Are you promoting the website of a bike shop  in San Francisco?  Post on local bike forums, but don’t just sign up for an account and blast your url out, that will probably only result in you getting kicked off the forum.  Try to participate in worthy discussions, and lend your input for at least a month before slipping your relevant site into the mix.  Be open with the forum community, tell them you work as a marketer in the field and are simply interesting in picking the brains of relevant users.

No forums on your specific topic of interst?  Create your own.  Our friends over at Lefora provide an easy to use Web 2.0 forum solution that will get you going in a jiffy.

Social Sharing Tools:  Twitter / Tumblr / Jaiku

Twitter is fast becoming spam central like MySpace, with legions of marketing bots attempting to gain as many followers as possible.

Don’t spam people on Twitter: what goes around comes around.  Sure, you may end up with thousands of followers using twitter bots, but they will be essentially worthless.   It’s pointless to have followers if most of them don’t care about the subject you are tweeting about.

Any real value you will gain from twitter will be sending out tweets to people in your space.  100 followers that are somewhat relevant to your San Francisco Bike site are far more valuable than 1000 irrelevant followers (most of which that are primarily spammers and robots).

If you are building a twitter following, send out relevant tweets with the topic’s # (hashtag) attached.

Ex.  I can’t wait for the #SanFrancisco Bikeathon in Golden Gate park this Weekend!  Anyone planning to attend? 

Building your following won’t happen overnight.  Keep a schedule of consistent tweets and be flexible.

Social Aggregation Sites:  Digg / StumbleUpon / Reddit

There are all fantastic tools for ‘blasting out’ your relevant blog post, site news, or site launch to the masses.  The key here is using the tools for what they are meant to be used for: allowing users to find and share interesting / entertaining information.

Of course ‘interest & entertainment’ value can be somewhat difficult to achieve depending on the subject of your site.  If you working on the SEO for Tom Brady’s new webpage, filled with updates about his latest date with Giselle, getting the word spread will be fairly easy. However, if you are trying to find an angle to make a used toilet brush site look entertaining, it may be an uphill climb.

The key here is picking the interesting content out of a haystack and ‘blasting’ it to the right audience.  Make sure to categorically classify your used toilet brush site update and get it to the right people.  Stay tuned for a post on the basics of SEO writing, and how to make a totally uninteresting subject somewhat palpable.

Social Networks:   Facebook / MySpace / Ning / LinkedIn

Just as in forums, the key to utilizing social networks for marketing purposes is reaching the right users.  Don’t go crazy and simply try to get as many friends as possible- find users that may actually be interesting in what you are promoting.  Join and create groups, fan pages, etc about your site or subject, but do so discreetly.  Build some trust by participating in discussions even if they don’t directly relate to you marketing your site.

The Associated Press reported that online advertising has felt the recent economic slump, falling 5% in the first half of 2009.  Although online advertising as a whole has felt the pressure, search advertising seems to be doing fine.  Google Inc., which controls 2/3 of the search advertising market, reported  a 4% gain during the first half of the year.

So what does this mean? Maybe nothing, and we are simply seeing fluctuations due to an unsteady market.  However, it could also be a sign that search marketing is continuing to eat away at other forms of online advertising.  Consumers continue to rely heavier on web search as a prominent source of educational, entertainment and business related information and media.   This supports the fact that getting basic SEO on a website now will provide enhanced dividends in the future.

During an economic downturn, if consumers are still attuned to peripheral  Pay-Per-Click ads (like Google Adwords), they must be even more familiar with getting what they want within the actual search results.   As far as spending money on marketing, getting a higher search ranking for a website would probably place among the highest cost / benefit ratios of any advertising budget.

Search Engine Optimization has been a trendy topic over the past several years, and while it has certainly proven to be very effective, some ‘experts’ can often get out of hand with the details.  Google & Co’s algorithms for crawling websites and providing search results are  constantly evolving,  which can explain the need for SEO experts to adapt their methods to a constantly changing field.

However, there are several basic SEO techniques which are proven and haven’t changed much at all.  It is important to always keep the SEO basics in mind, and not get too caught up in the details.  I’ll start with three of the most important things to keep on the top of the list when implementing an SEO friendly site:  Title Tags, Page Copy and Content.

Title Tags

Title Tags are definitively one of the most important single elements in a website’s SEO structure.  These are the integral keywords that appear on the top of each search result listing.  It is important to keep title tags simple, descriptive, and to-the-point (under 68 characters).

For example, if you run a San Francisco catering and event planning service:  San Francisco Catering and Event Planning | Caterati

Of course, there are other factors to take into account, such as keyword traffic and page copy relevance.   Otherwise, fairly simple and straightforward.

Page Copy and Headers

It is important that your page copy and header tags (H1, H2, etc.) mesh with the general topic your site covers.   If you have a website about puppies, the pages should generally be about puppies, from different types, to how to train them, etc. Makes sense, doesn’t it? There are a surprising number of sites out there that don’t follow this simple rule though, whether it be covering too wide a breadth of topics or simply not staying on topic.

The target keywords on eac page should be inserted deliberately but discreetly within the copy.  This means the keywords should go unnoticed (from the rest of the copy) to your average human reader.  Try testing this: have a friend read a page without ‘keyword pretense’ and see if they notice if something is ‘off.’

Fresh Content

Providing ongoing fresh, keyword relevant and interesting content for your website is probably the most important thing you can do to give it a boost in search rankings.  This isn’t about ‘tricking’ Google or any other sort of work-around:  it is simply about keeping a regular schedule to publish your fresh, on-site content.

We often recommend installing a hosted Wordpress blog as a forum for publishing your fresh content.  Wordpress can do wonders with SEO.  Even if you don’t have anything to write about, just write and see what comes out.  If possible, throw in some of your relevant topics / keywords in a discreet,  ‘non-spammy’ way.

Our SEO and Marketing firm is based out of San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District.  Around The Forge ‘HQ’  is a plethora of tasty restaurants (Bistro 9, Park Chow, La Fonda), welcoming bars (Yancy’s Saloon), Dentists, Gyms, Hair Salons, Supplement Shops, Magic Stores  - you name it, the Inner Sunset has it.

Lately, walking around the neighborhood, I’ve seen many local business owners placing ads on buses, billboards, benches, newspapers, and magazines.   On the local TV stations I often find myself watching an infomercial or ‘paid-for’ segment to advertise for a local business.

Most of these local businesses have a web presences to some extent. They also have Yelp reviews that they have almost no control over which often appear higher in the search results than their own website (which they do have control over).

These small businesses need to realize that if they put a small portion of their local advertising budgets into basic SEO for their websites, it would be well worth the while.  Especially in a web-savvy city like San Francisco, where many potential customers are Googling terms like ‘Inner Sunset Bakery’ or ‘San Francisco Magic Store,’ the benefit to the business would be visible and immediate.

Going forward, I’d like to continue to analyze the cost/benefit ratio of traditional forms of ‘real-world’ local advertising vs.  local SEO projects.

We recently implemented a basic SEO campaign for our local Inner Sunset Kickboxing & Jiu Jitsu hotspot, Gym 445.   Gym 445 is a great place to get whipped into shape as well as learn a variety of martial arts, from muay thai kickboxing to brazilian jiu jitsu and MMA.  Head trainers Edge Brown, Bebe Etzler and Bret Bergmark are top notch.

Even though the monthly keyword traffic for ’san francisco kickboxing’ isn’t extraordinary, it is extra relevant.  In fact, when I first moved to the Inner Sunset, I initiated my search for a kickboxing gym by Googling those very words: ‘San Francisco Kickboxing.’  Sure, you get a bunch of yelp reviews, but I also often find myself clicking through the 1st and 2nd page results to see what else might be out there.

On our initial keword research it was very interesting to take a survey of the competitors for keywords like ‘San Francisco Kickboxing.’ Although many of the results were relevant for various obscure martial arts, they weren’t straight kickboxing gyms.

I think the same problem might occur for many other local establishments that aren’t utilizing the basics of SEO.  Almost every local business realizes that they need a website presence, but many still are overlooking SEO.  If more jump on board, hopefully some of those Google results will shape up too.

Welcome to the Forge, the official blog of Insight Forge.

Our team will be broadcasting / writing from the dense fog of San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, so forgive us if our posts suddenly take a turn toward the dark side of Internet Marketing (not black-hat SEO, but rather geeks dressed as Sith Lords).

Anyways… we’ll try to keep our posts here  informal as well as  informative.  We may at times stray off our primary topics of internet marketing, SEO, and advertising to discuss one of our favorite San Francisco bars, a trending internet meme, or whatever else is on our minds.

Essentially, we hope to make this a blog a bit different from the norm in marketing.

So stay on your toes and get ready, cause here we come.