I had to smile when I turned the page and saw chapter 19 was all about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Only because that what the exact topic I had chosen for my grad project in Advertising 848, Social Media Design. It’s really a fascinating topic when you dig into the logistics and how you can move your website to the number one listing on a search engine site like Google. In my previous class, we had to learn html and then create a website. Instead of a portfolio site like most people, I decided to create one for my personal company, Graphic Fruition. Considering this was a summer course, we only had five weeks to learn code and being a grad student choosing SEO for my final project, I spend numerous late nights researching keywords and what Google AdWords would be most beneficial for meta tags. For example, I had my original keywords of “graphic designer, letter art and save the date cards” but after searching through AdWords which compares keywords, their competition and number of average searches I found it more effective to use “freelance designer, photo letter art and save the date wedding” for my keywords which is more specific to what I offer and had less competition than my original vague words.
If look at the screen shot below taken from my website, you will see the title page contains the words “photo letter art” as well as the words “letter art” in the actual url for this page. Headline 1 contains the word “personalize” and the text is all related to include my keywords. All of the photos are tagged with certain words and the G.F. in the upper left hand corner links directly back to the homepage. These are all examples of ways to improve your SEO when the “spiders” crawl through your page.
One thing that’s been great that this chapter talks about is outward and inward links to your website. Now that I have this blog and will be creating a personal one as well, I finally have outward links to my website which will continue to help the growth of my page. I use Google Analytics to keep track of my website’s stats and learn where traffic is coming from across the world and what my audience is most interested in. I was surprised by the amount of information that you can get for free about your website but also the also the amount of time it takes to make your site listed number 1.
For anyone who would like more information beyond what Chapter 19 touches on, I have included my grad project below. By no means am I an “expert” but this what I learned from Ben Norman’s “Get to #1 on Google In Easy Steps”.
“Implementing Search Engine Optimization”
By Jenny Green
By definition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to appear higher in the search engine’s natural listings. (Norman, pg. 13) While this might seem like an easy task, it is quite complex and something that I knew nothing about before taking advertising 458.
I chose to read Ben Norman’s “Get to #1 on Google In Easy Steps” as my addition text to really understand how Google’s algorithm works so I can efficiently apply this to my Web site. This book focused solely on Google, which first appeared in 1997 as a simple search box. Today Google has become an Internet icon as well as the hottest verb most commonly used in the phrase, “Just Google it.”
The topic of SEO is actually very important to me as I have my own side business apart from my job for hire. I do various graphic design projects from save-the-date cards for brides to developing new logos for businesses. I also create letter art, a new art form of taking abstract photographs of buildings, objects and scenery to develop words. Since letter art is fairly new, it’s important that I have a way to display my work across the country. Thanks to class I now for the first time have a Web site for Graphic Fruition but I now need to create top of mind awareness and get my website to the topic of search engines. The most people who view my Web site increase the chance of sales for my business. The key to all of this is utilizing SEO.
Google has created their own algorithm to evaluate websites to determine their relevance. To collect all the information for this secret equation, Google uses “spiders” that crawl through HTML code and travel from Web site to Web site via hyperlinks. The more your content on the page is relative to your subject, the more emphasis and higher rank Google will give your page in the search engine. This is important for many reasons.
According to Norma, 90 percent of people find what they’re looking for thru a search engine and of those ninety, 63% use Google (Norman, pg 11). Another important fact is that 84% of searchers will never make it past the first two pages of Google which emphases why top ranking on SEO is crucial for a Web site (Norman, pg 13). The best thing about Google, is there are many ways to create a top ranking for free. Although there are sponsored links where companies can set up pay-for-click ads, natural lists are created free of charge and used by more than 70% of searches. Searchers prefer natural listings because one cannot buy the top spot. It is given by content relevance, popularity and shared links which all serve as a “word of mouth” reference.
To help track all of this information, Google hosts free accounts which include numerous features such as: Google Webmaster Tools, Google Sitemaps and Google Analytics. Google Webmaster Tools. Google Webmaster Tools is a suite of tools supplied to help make sure your Web site is operating properly and efficiently. Along with a general website overview, other tools include: sitemap checker, crawl analyzer and statistics, top search queries, linking analysis and 404 page enhancement tools. Once I created an account for GraphicFruition.com, I followed their number one recommendation of linking my site to Google and creating a site map for valuable feedback. Google Sitemaps help understand Google’s view of my site. It also helps me see how Google crawls and indexes through my site and tells me what phrases and keywords bring traffic to my site. Last but not least is Google Analytics which is, in my opinion, the most interesting aspect of a Google account. This allows me to see the average time spent on my site, top pages, back links and where my visitors are coming from. The more I know about my audience, the better I can tweak and modify my message to them.
So much like the book did first, I gave an overview of Google and tools to help my site, but I now need to know what specifically I have to do in order for the “spiders” to take Graphic Fruition to the top. The most important part of optimizing my Web site is the selection and implementation of my keywords (Norman, Pg. 32). Keywords should be identified and incorporated throughout the whole design of a website. Numerous mistakes are often made when targeting keywords from including stop words (and, a, the, in) to using too many words to too broad of key phrases. It’s important to use multiple keywords together in a search phrase. This makes the search more relevant with less competition and a better chance of higher positioning from Google.
A tool I found very helpful was the free keyword tool under Google AdWords. I had my original keywords of “graphic designer, letter art and save the date cards” but after searching through AdWords which compares keywords, their competition and number of average searches I found it more effective to use “freelance designer, photo letter art and save the date wedding” for my keywords which is more specific to what I offer and had less competition than my original vague words. This was a great example of not picking the most commonly used word with the most searches but creating a niche for top placement. Since I have a new website it is best for me to also use long tail keywords which are phrases of typically three words or longer like “freelancer to create new logo” or “event planner for small business”. Using these won’t give my site large amounts of traffic but the traffic I will get will be more relevant and help boost my rankings.
There are many common mistakes when choosing keywords that are important to be aware of such as: copying competitors’ keywords, trying to target every keyword possible, picking keywords solely on search volume, using the same keywords on every page and overusing keywords in copy. People often get caught up in using vague keywords like “book” or “artist” when they need to focus more on their niche and what sets their Web site apart from the competition. Since this is the most important part of optimizing a Web site, spend as much time needed reviewing keyword lists to find the right match.
The next step after finding keywords is effectively representing them within the page’s meta descriptions, meta keywords, page titles, alt tags, header tags, body text and link anchor text. It is deemed that the closer the keyword is to the start of a field the more important that keyword is and the more times a keyword appears in a particular field the higher the keyword density and weight for search engines (Norman, pg 44). Be careful not to overuse keywords and phrases as spiders may detect and label the website as spam. “Black hat SEO” refers to the unethical techniques which draws people to the site on false pretensions, making searches chose your site to find false or no information regarding the keywords they selected. This method used to create high traffic can penalize and even get the site removed from search engines all together.
The “Meta” tags are made up of the title, keywords and description and are found in the head of the HTML code of each site. Even though a description is provided by the company, Google will create its own from the “spiders” investigation of the site and display that text under the title on a search page. This prevents false tagging and ensures the information is relevant to what is listed in the content of the Web site.
Accessibility is an important issue on the Internet and one that needs to be taken into account when building a Web site. High accessibility enables Google to crawl the website more easily, reduces risk of errors on a site and a overall better experience for searchers. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has created rules and guidelines for building Web sites which validates HTML and CSS code. Having a valid page gives the page a higher ranking in Google and also allows you to place the relevant logo on the site to display the fact that it does so. Since class, I now only use Firefox and find the web developer tool very essential when browsing Web sites, including my own. I often look at other sites’ code and find it very interesting what makes up dynamic Web sites like msn.com or facebook.
If a website has multiple pages, labeling each page in a particular and proper way can greatly assist Google in deciding what the page is about, its relevance and what theme it should appear under in results. To do this, place keywords targeted to that specific page and use them in the title, page name and content. As an example instead of using /aboutus.html (as I originally titled it) use /about-graphic-fruition.html which includes my keywords and builds relevance.
A great example of a company who utilized SEO and reaped the benefits is New York Guest, a hospitality marketing company that assists travelers to New York City with hotel reservations, tours of city, Broadway and sporting event tickets, airport transfer and other items. Richard Williams is the head of New York Guest and had not previously advertised his company on the Web. Through Server Side Design (SDD) Inc., the team re-designed New York Guest’s Web site, wrote content with keyword phrases that attracted the attention of search engines, and their site rankings began to increase.
SSD used 28 different keyword phrases on Bing, Google and Yahoo!, New York Guest’s visibility began to increase on the Web with many keywords rising to the number one position. Twenty-five of the keywords were listed in the top five positions on the search engine sites, while 44 of them were listed in the top 10 positions (http://www.serversidedesign.com/seo-case-study.php, September 30, 2009). When New York Guest first hired Server Side Design in April 2009, they were averaging about 450 visitors per week. As of Sept. 30, New York Guest was averaging about 900 visitors per week and doubled the amount of traffic in less than six months. A few keywords and Web site rankings include:
- broadway packages – page 1 of Google
- empire state building tickets – page 1 of Google
- new york christmas travel – page 1 of Google
- new york city event planning – page 1 of Google
- new york helicopter tours – page 1 of Google
- new york hotel deals – page 1 of Google
- new york travel agents – page 1 of Google
This gave great examples of keywords as well has the results a company can receive when using SEO techniques. Since I have a new Web site, I look forward to watching it in Google Analytics over the months to come. I will be looking for more keywords to update and spend time on competitors’ websites to learn more about my field and target audience. As my Web site grows, I need to remember to update my Google sitemap and include code to track traffic along with adding proper alt tags to any picture or link that I upload. My biggest struggle will probably be linking to and from other websites. Google places a huge importance on inward, external and reciprocal links. Google relies on what others are saying about your website for reference. Since I’m not a huge blogger or have many friends in the same industry, I will need to branch out and look for opportunities within press releases, articles, forums and blogs to promote Graphic Fruition. I’m also in the process of updating my business cards to include my new Web site, which will hopefully create numerous direct links.
Although SEO has only been around for the past decade, it is quickly growing as one of the fast ways to market online. Search engines are getting smarter and technology is enhances day by day. With all the free services Google offers to the public, there is reason to believe personal and business websites will become more optimized with relative results, making the online market more competitive. It has been said Internet users will be able to cast their votes as to which Web sites they use and love; much like natural listings and what’s already being done in social news sites like Reddit and Digg. Whatever the future brings, one thing will remain the same: the more relevant, clean and validated a Web site is, the better chance it has to appear number one on Google and other search engines for years to come.
jennifergreenjg 