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Basic Marketing SEO Checklist for Website On-Line Visibility

February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Marketing Positioning

Dynamic Marketing SEO

As the internet continues to rapidly change and evolve, especially with the influence of Social Media, its important that we remember the basics to achieve online visibility of a website.

The key point to remember is, that it’s not just the mechanics of SEO that I list below, that will make your website stand out, it is your marketing positioning, your unique competitive positioning and the unique content that supports it.

Brand Positioning for Optimum Online Visibility

Brand Positioning for Optimum Online Visibility

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different”.  Coco Chanel

Page Titles

Page Titles are the single most important SEO element on a page.  Most people don’t pay attention to them because they aren’t an element that we spend a lot of time looking at, but they are critical for people searching and for website online visibility. Page titles should have relevant keywords (relevant means describing what this page is about) while also being no longer than 80 characters.

Keyword Density

Another key measurement of promoting your keywords efficiently, check out to the SEO Tool Live Keyword Analysis

Links

Internal Links help people navigate the site including the “search engine robots”  and a good link strategy helps with search rankings

URLs

From a usability standpoint describing what the page is about in the URL can help someone figure out what they are clicking on.  The key is early planning of the positioning, website goal, structure and architecture, Google advises “ Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans (when possible, readable words rather than long ID numbers)”. I recommend using hyphens rather than underscore in URLs. For more detailed information visit Google URL Structure

Alt Tags

All images need descriptions using Alt Tags to provide details of the image or the destination of a hyperlinked image.

Headings 

Paragrah headings should be identified by <h1>, <h2>, <h3> HTML elements on a page.

Meta Keywords and Meta Description

The key SEO elements are the famous “meta tags” for each page, meta keywords and meta description.  Although Google currently does not even look at meta keywords  it is still a best practice, and a good SEO disciplne.

Site Map

Provide SiteMap for vistors to navigate and search engines to confirm the website structure

Submit SIte to All Search Engines

The basic step many people miss or ignore

Webmasters Account with Google and Bing

Helps identify any problems quickly and improves interface with search engines

Contact John Cullen direct  jccullen@proteusism.com

Filed Under: Launching New Website, Marketing SEO Basics, Marketing SEO Tips, On Line Visibility Tagged With: , ,

YouTube – Marketing Benefits for Small Business

February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

You Tube LogoYouTube – Statistics

48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day

Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day, 800M unique users visit YouTube each month

YouTube’s demographic is broad: 18-54 years old

• Nearly 17 million people have connected their YouTube account to at least one social service (Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Buzz, etc)

• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in — whether it’s a friend, or the NBA — and keep up on their activity on the site

You Tube Updates – Tips

New YouTube Analytics allows more analysis on which videos are working and where they are being viewed.  Avoid data paralysis by setting goals / targets and metrics to be used 

New Layout and Graphics for your YouTube Channel, make sure you update all your settings. More visibility. Pay extra attention to Titles, Description and Keywords.

New “in your face” subscription feed and YouTube coming of age in Social Media, so what’s the benefit? More opportunities for exposure. Build your subscribe base and use your channel regularly and comment and share other videos, be active and encourage activity and comments on your videos.

YouTube – Life in a Day  check it out

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, You Tube Videos Tagged With: ,

Analyzing Top Line Data in Google Analytics Efficiently

October 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Google Analytics Logo

“Paralysis by Analysis” advice for theGoogle Analytics Logo Data-holic!

I find it easy to waste time or at least lose track of time, while working on my laptop, but especially when I am using Google Analytics.

There always seems to be one more statistic which fascinates me, and pulls me in to ask one more question, which leads to one more analysis and I enter slowly into the “data trance”, where I just can’t get enough data and statistics..and time flies by….data-holism? I would prefer to say I am “enamored with” or “gaga over” Google analytics rather than addicted. But maybe I am in denial.

Planning Routine Data Analysis

To avoid wasting time or too much time of one client’s website performance, I plan and structure how I analyze the Google Analytics data. My routune keeps me focused on the critical data / metrics and delivers better data research, so this my mindset:

  1. clarify original objective by client by this point in time
  2. what were goals to be measured
  3. analyze data at a similar point in time each week or month
  4. analyze data over similar time period and comparison
  5. analyze the same list of metrics, my top-line reports are
  • Goals achieved during period
  • Unique Visitors to the site
  • Unique Page Views viewed by visitors
  • Non-Paid Search trend
  • Bounce Rate trend
  • Average Time of Site trend
  • Average Page View trend

The above information should provide sufficient quantified information to identify issues that need extra investigative analysis and to plan the next period work plan and activity, and this top-line review is usually completed within the hour.

For more information on Marketing Optimization visit my website www.proteusism.com

 

Filed Under: Google Analytics, Marketing SEO Tips, Metrics and Conversion Tagged With: , ,

Google Top 10 “rules” for SEO and why you should use them.

August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google SEO Top 10 “Rules” and “Guidelines”

and

Marketing SEO advice on why to use them

1. Create Unique Accurate Page Titles

Each page should contain unique content and the title should accurately reflect that, and each of these titles should support the website overall “positioning” therefore they should all be consistent and make sense as a website structure and a marketing message.

2. Have a clear accurate Meta Description for each Page

In addition to the Title, the Meta Description is critical, and should summarize the page content in less than 200 words, using priority sales and marketing keywords that exist in the page copy, and reflecting words / terms in the URL and Title.

3. Have Quality Unique URLs describing each page

Often overlooked as usually they are dictated by technical development / website design structure, the unique URL’s and the words they contain should be composed for the marketing needs of the website,   Despite what developers advice I suggest you avoid dynamic URL’s.

4. Make your Site easy to Navigate

   In the ideal world the your overall business positioning and internet marketing strategy, will “design the website architecture” and should deliver what the visitor is looking for, and fast! The KISS acronym applies (Keep It Simple Stupid) with clear headings, page links, headings and a site map.

5. Provide Quality Content and Information / Services

The Key to Quality content is to communicate your “marketing positioning” i.e. what are product and services competitive advantage,  in terms and words the visitor understands.

 6. Build into Copy / Text quality Anchor Text and Links

People visiting a website, are generally searching for an specific answer or solution, anchor text and links should be used like “marketing messages” highlighting the key competitive elements of your business, helping visitors find the answers quickly.

7. Use Heading Tags to show priorities

This is another simple rule / guideline which is either overlooked or ignored, allows key subjects to highlighted by priority using <h1> <h2> etc tags, again these should reflect your “marketing message” for that page.

8. Describe Images with Alt Tags

Using the right Images in website design helps improve branding and the essence of the page content. The fact that Images cannot be read by robots males it essential to describe in words, using relevant keywords which correlate with the rest of the page and site.

9. Support and Promote Website: Blog / Facebook / YouTube / Flicker 

The website maybe the core of your internet marketing strategy, but its only one element of the various “touch points” with your potential customers, so broaden your presence and link back to your website, ideally to a specific relevant landing page.

10. Measure with Google Analytics and continually improve

It all come down to the metrics. With internet marketing you measure your marketing effectiveness. If don’t measure and analyze how do you know what’s working and what you need to improve?

For information on consulting services in Marketing and Search Engine Optimization visit www.proteusism.com

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Plan, Marketing SEO Tips, SEO, Small Business SEO Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

10 Marketing SEO Benefits of Writing a Business Blog

May 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
10 Benefits of writing a Business Blog

10 Marketing SEO Benefits of writing a Blog

10 Benefits of writing a Business Blog

10 Benefits of writing a Business Blog

  1.  Speed of indexing by search engines, posts go live within hours of publishing
  2.  More Visibility on relevant search pages
  3.  Higher % Share results on the search page results
  4.  Organic search visits increase
  5.  Links to your website and other related information, means more traffic
  6.  Authority recognition increases with search engines with relevant content
  7.  More up to date topics and comments, more newsworthy
  8.  More colloquial & friendlier writing style, easier to read
  9.  Research benefits of most visited topics (and comparison to website content)
  10.  Quick & Direct Feedback and comments
For more information on Marketing SEO and getting more qualified visits to your website, and converting the visits to sales lead go to www.Proteusism.com
Filed Under: B2B SEO Marketing, Benefits of Internet Marketing, Marketing SEO Tips Tagged With: , , ,

2011 Marketing SEO – Hot Tips for Small Business Websites

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
SEO Tips 2011

World Cup Rugby Logo 2011

A Winning Year!

I believe 2011 is going to be a great year……and not just for Irish rugby, i.e. when Ireland win the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand!

It’s also going to be a great year for my small business and yours!

Begin the year by setting up a winning strategy for your business to beat the Competition in 2011, by exploiting what Internet Marketing has to offer for your business. Lower Marketing costs, drive more traffic to your web site and get more sales leads. Your competitors are planning to do just that.

So here are some Marketing SEO tips to help your business planning to make 2011 a winning year:

1. Dig into your data analytics and check out what worked effectively in your SEO and Ad Words / Pay per Click Campaigns or Internet Marketing projects in 2010. Select what is working and build on each success. If you don’t have any Analytics Data, set it up for FREE with Google Analytics as soon as you finish reading my article below!

2. Check out Internet Marketing and SEO / SEM Trends – what is changing?Focus on what are the hot trends for 2011. Here is my Top 10 Marketing SEO List for 2011:

  • Small Business will look for Lower Marketing Costs: This can be achieved through effective website marketing and regularly optimizing your web site content & tags, to be a better fit with the search engines.
  • Free Local advertising: If you have not updated your Maps listings on all the search engines do so, and check out the newly named Google Places, take time to fill out all the details, paying extra time on the categories.
  • Free Social Media Advertising: Why pay out lump sum fees to be a member of an “industry association”? Challenge the high fixed costs / charges of Directories & Associations or even better join your local business online community which free.
  • Business Blogs: All small business owners should start a writing a Blog, which with the help of Word Press is merging the company presence of Web Site and a Blog
  • Low Cost PR Campaigns: The amazing communication results delivered by PR WEB, and Free Press Release should see them continue boom in 2011.
  • Reach New Audience: Finding out yesterday that everywhere was out of stock of iPhones in Cincinnati, in fact Southern Ohio, the Mobile Usage with 3G 4G and iPad will bring access to a new audience for small businesses and a new approach to search.
  • Internet Profile Maintenance: Keeping track of all the new internet accounts and listings means the consistency of your business profile is critical, so set up a system to update all your Internet profiles regularly.
  • Online Competition: 2011 will bring more increased on-line competition especially as more small and medium size businesses realize benefits of Internet Marketing, increasing the demand for a good SEO consultant?
  • Coverage of All Search Engines: Make sure your business presence on all search engines [Search Engine Share in 2010 looks like this: Google 72%, Yahoo 14%, Bing, 10%, Ask 2%, AOL 1%]. The number of searches are so high making sure your business is represented an each one is beneficial.
  • Sharing Experiences: Specialists helping other specialists brings rewards of fresh ideas from a different perspective.

3. Refresh All Listings & Updates to Website, Blog, Social Profiles, Customer Testimonials, EMail Lists, Directory Listings, Memberships

4. Stop Procrastinating start a New Year 2011 Blog ….NOW

5. Review Competitors Sites - what’s new on their website? what can you learn? how can you compete more effectively? where are they weak?

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, Marketing SEO Trends, SEM - Pay per Click Advertising, SEO Tagged With: , , ,

Medical Centre Website – New Client – SEO Case Study (1)

December 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Work with a new client started some 4 weeks ago. Not only a new client but also a new industry experience for Proteus Internet Marketing.

We are implementing an Internet SEO Marketing Plan for a Medical Centre [Doctors Family General Practice] in Dublin, Ireland.

As the job / project progresses, I intend to keep a blog diary (with client approval) to highlight the SEO Marketing opportunities and milestones.

From my perspective SEO is the “method” to get the “the right people” to see and understand your business proposition. The marketing goal is to convert as many as possible contacts (visits) to become new business leads and new customers.

The SEO research work done to date  :

  • assessment of current business position and goals, and current visibility on the internet
  • reviewing competing medical services in Ireland, especially in the Dublin area
  • internal discussions with the doctors and managment team to identify core positioning and target audience for internet presence
  • keyword analysis using Wordtracker and Google Keyword Tool to quantify market / search potential
  • analysis of top performing “medical centre” websites (keywords, copy style, links, tags, rankings)
  • analysis of the on-going Ad Words Campaign

Google Webmaster Tools proved to be a really useful basic checklist for SEO, and it helped speed up getting the website pages indexed.

Now we are ready to identify & measure opportunities with the new data that’s starting to come in. The new data is being captured by website analytics which we set up for each page, plus we also have data coming in from the Ad Words Campaign.

This data will help us to:

  • reassess audience size & growth potential, comparing expectaions to actual number of hits / clicks / visits
  • which keywords are most popular and reconfirm the volume potential of keywords /key phrases / long tail
  • identify what pages (titles / subjects) are mosted viewed and for how long
  • develop new effective copy and keywords which will be used consistently across marketing

Basic SEO Lesson 1: Doing business on the internet has changed our perspective of time and how long it takes to get things done. The technical interface and the other infinite number of Marketing SEO variables can make implementing SEO both time consuming and very frustrating, as not everything is in your control. Laying out the Baseline of where you started helps keep you sane. When progress appears slow, you can check the metrics and remind youself that you have come a long way in a short space time, relative to marketing business services some years ago.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Plan, Marketing SEO Tips, SEO Tagged With:

SEO – Small and Medium Size Business Research

November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

My jaw is still against my chest, after reading the 2010 UK Website – SEO Study of 1,001 SME (small medium enterprises) websites and compared them against a range of SEO criteria.

  • 70% of companies researched have less than 50 employees, and they either have no SEO or very basic optimisation of their website
  • 12% of SEM websites are not indexed in any search engine,
  • 35% of websites did not have unique page titles
  • 56% lacked unique page descriptions
  • 82% of small business websites had no HTML site map

It is especially worrying as I also read the results of Zoomerang 2010 US Research “…. understanding of how small to midsized businesses (SMB) are using their

marketing budget in 2010, as well as 2011 projections”

- 46% of SMB (small medium businesses) businesses, in USA, do NOT have a website!

- 35% of the SMBs surveyed employ some form of social media

The net take away is SEO has made very limited progress in Small Business Marketing in USA and UK.

The good news, however, is the opportunity for Marketing SEO Consultants is huge, if we live long enough!

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, SEO, Traditional Marketing vs Internet Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Selecting Keywords – Marketing Optimization Tip

August 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Harbour in Aghios Nickolas (beside Stoupa)

Frequently asked question in a conversation on SEO is: How Do You Select the Keywords?

The quick answer is Research, and Ongoing Research……

1. Business Proposition – It always starts with business / positioning and proposition to potential customers.

2. Confirm how Internet Marketing i.e. website / blog / SEM / social, all work together to communicate common message.

3. Research

  • Word Tracker
  • Google Ad Words
  • Google Trends
  • Competitors sites & tags

4. Check Search confirms research work

5. Write Web site copy and measure performance, against goals

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Internet Marketing and Marketing SEO

July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Role of Marketing SEO

For me the key marketing & sales benefit of internet marketing is the ability to measure more effectively:

a) measure your interaction with potential customers, against the key benefits & goals targeted in your marketing plan

Role of Marketing SEO

b) measure your competitive positioning and SWOT relative to your own website, using a Marketing SEO Scorecard to measure your competitors WebSite example below

Marketing SEO ScorecardThe basic example above breaks down Internet Marketing into 2 Basic Elements Visibility and Branding weighting them 70% and 30% respectively, for this illustration.

The metrics and analytics of the Marketing SEO Scorecard helps to focus on internet marketing gaps, especially your internet competitive SWOT, and I am sure can be improved upon, comments and feedback is welcome.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Plan, Marketing SEO Tips, SEM - Pay per Click Advertising, SEO Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Search Engine Optimization: It’s Not Just the Words, It’s getting them in the right order!

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Monty Python and SEO

As we provide our different views (hopefully original) on SEO and the complexities of how to optimize your website, it reminds me of a sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus “Great Actors”, when John Cleese (as Sir Edwin the “Great Actor”) responds to a question on the number of words in Othello and Hamlet.

Sir Edwin: Ah, well, I don’t want you to get the impression it’s just a question of the number of words… um… I mean, getting them in the right order is just as important. Old Peter Hall used to say to me, ‘They’re all there Eddie, now we’ve got to get them in the right order.’ And, er, for example, you can also say one word louder than another–er, ‘To *be* or not to be,’ or ‘To be *or* not to *be*,’ or ‘To be or not to *be*’ you see? And so on.

So there you have it, SEO in a nutshell, select your keywords, get them in the right order and then use the words in the right tone and emphasis to reflect your website page content, and you are optimizing your web site for the search engines.

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, SEO Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Break Down the Walls – Writing Tips for Better Marketing

June 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Stone Walls Galway by JC

Better Marketing SEO delivers More Qualified Sales Leads

I started this list to add to my website business writing services but decided it is also a good blog post, and will hopefully encourage feedback and more comments which will improve my work in progress checklist.

General Tips on Internet Marketing Plan & Marketing Strategy

  • Each business communication must have a Goal = Call to Action
  • Strategy of each Communication is to create a introduction and dialogue
  • Copywriting reflects business image therefore zero tolerance of mistakes,
  • Need to be selective in use of subject or industry acronyms
  • Copy should be original, internet transparency means you should be who you are

Business Presentations (Power Point, Keynote)

  • Make it personal – customer logo, management names, date etc
  • Focus on the audience (how will they search, where will they search)
  • Achieve maximum impact through images
  • Minimize slide visual effects
  • Minimize use of humor

Optimize Company Website

  • Consistency – create a holistic entity, not different page by page authorship
  • Focus on your Visitors = Potential Customers, not the company Ego
  • Optimize website copy and tags for Search Engines – get SEO Marketing advice
  • Plan the Landing Page and call to action
  • Build brand through Tone of Copy and Images

Business Proposals (Bank, Investors, Marketing)

  • Research audience / decision makers
  • Provide executive overview and use body section to support key proposals
  • Ensure there is clarity in the proposal structure and format
  • Provide professional sections and evidence e.g. appendix / references
  • Make it factual i.e. copy with substance, supporting data

Press Releases

  • Impressive Headline
  • Select Keywords for search engine optimization
  • Substantive quotes from key personnel
  • Ensure effective mechanics of distribution for efficient coverage
  • Achieve synergy with other marketing activity

Blog

  • Make it relevant to title
  • Build efficient links
  • Use topical subject
  • Maintain consistency of subjects and style
  • Interest is generated by originality

Sales Brochures / Leaflets

  • Select a core message / offer
  • Benefits for customers not just product or service features
  • Call to Action = Sales Opportunity
  • Drive point of difference
  • Provide a solution for customers

For advice on business copywriting, especially website and internet marketing SEO copy development for better search engine visibility, visit John’s website www.proteusism.com

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, SEM - Pay per Click Advertising, SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

10 Tips Traditional Marketing & Marketing SEO

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Olive Trees Kardamyli Greece

 

Overview

Rethink the purpose of your company website and other touch points with potential customers through the internet or digital media.

Remember all business materials and actions should be consistent and work in synergy, and be focused on the company positioning and competitive advantage of its products and services…..mmm Traditional Marketing approach…….

The website is your opportunity to present these products and services and convert visitors to buyers.

Your conversion rate will depend on how well your website company offering, its positioning and your credentials fit with what the searcher is looking for.

  1. Consistency in the marketing message and how it flows across the web site and social media touch points, reflecting the business culture, positioning and offering, the holistic approach to marketing SEO. Identifying the specific strategic role of the website within the overall plan is critical.
  2. Encourage your visitors to explore your site by making it easy to navigate, and also make it easy for the robots to explore the site as well, by providing a map of the site architecture. Here is the opportunity to start a relationship.
  3. Ensure the technical development of the site SEO is clean and that it’s accurate, and follows a “white hat” approach to work in synergy with the Marketing SEO. SEO should be Marketing lead not Technical.
  4. Be honest and open (and consistent) providing reassurance to visitors wherever possible.
  5. Research most efficient and effective keywords and focus on the goal of explaining your company positioning using the keywords and pharses identified.
  6. Think as the Searcher i.e. your Visitor (and potential Customer) when designing each page, asking “is this what they expect” or “ is this what they are looking for”.
  7. Quality Information and Content is critical, i.e. good copywriting will keep the visitor interested, just as in a first interview, sell ourself.
  8. Be willing to meet and adhere to all SEO guidelines and rules, this will avoid breaking any obscure or unknown rules with risk of penalties.
  9. Avoid using too many acronyms or jargon words, the site copy should reflect what the searcher is thinking and words used in search, the goal is meeting the searcher’s need.
  10. Periodically go back and review your website, challenge your own content and copy, as SEO is true “dynamic marketing” in which everything is changing fast and the changes are generally not under your.

Comments and Feedback.

Visit my website at www.ProteusISM.com

Filed Under: Marketing SEO Tips, SEO, Traditional Marketing vs Internet Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,