Walking through the main lobby of our office building the past few days I've been passing the latest dropped-off stack of unwanted phone books. Following the same destiny as last year's delivery, they will probably wind up in the dumpster after someone finally gets tired of seeing the pile there.
I can't remember the last time I needed to use a phone book. If I need a phone number (which is rare because I don't call anyone when I can email them) I just Google the person/company's name and there is it, in a tenth of the time it used to take my fingers to do the walking. (That's an old phone book slogan, you kids wouldn't know about)
I haven't had to use the Yellow Pages either, and I haven't talked to anyone else who has. A few years back, using the phone book was my primary resource for finding a business, a service or a solution that I needed at that time. Now I just type what I'm in need of in the search bar and instantly have more responses to my question that I could ever need.
This is where your company's blog finds its purpose, and here's a real life example:
We just bought a used pop-up camper, and as anyone who has ever had any experience with an old camper knows, they have "issues." The pop-up roof will only crank open on one side, it's getting dark and the manual doesn't have any troubleshooting advice to offer. My daughter grabs the Ipad, types in "Jayco camper top wont go up" and a whole lot of other people have had the same problem (maybe that's not a good thing for us). After reading through a few search engine results, I had the information I needed and fixed the problem.
How this applies to your company's blog: The page I found was in a series of quick how-to-fix-yourself articles from a company that deals camper parts and service. I looked around and saw they were a great potential resource for more info and solutions in my future, so I bookmarked their site.
Hopefully my next issue will be just as easy to fix, and I'll go to this site first to look for an answer. If I need to order a part, and they have it I'll probably get it there. And when I'm at the campground and someone asks "how'd I fix that?" I'll recommend that company.
In conclusion, your blog can be much more effective (and a ton less expensive) than a yellow pages ad. And unlike when we used to use a phone book, I don't have to wait until next day's business hours!
You probably already get the basic concept that Google (or any other search engine) crawls the internet and stores every web page it finds in its index like a library catalog. To search for something, you type in a word or phrase, and Google sorts through its collection of pages and keywords and shows you its search engine results pages (SERPs). If you have a business, with a website and you want customers to find you, you want to be a part of this!
Getting on the list is simple, but getting a good spot on the list takes a little understanding of how Google's brain thinks.
Have you ever wondered how or why Website X appears at the top of the list while Website B is way out on page 10, even though its name is an exact match to what you typed in? Google's measure of “relevance” to what you searched for based on page title and keywords within the page is actually only the little half of its sorting process.
Google measures the “authority” of a web page using its own trademarked algorithm called Pagerank, named after one of Google's founders, Larry Page. Based on a project at Stanford University to determine the credibility/importance of an academic document by how many other papers make reference to that document, Google's Pagerank determines how “important” a webpage is by how many other webpages link to it. The more links your site gets, like getting “votes”, the higher you'll rate in Pagerank. AND, if you get a link from a high-ranking (“important”) site, your rank will jump even more!
Ok, now how or where do you start? Make your website something they'll want to come check out, create interesting content that they'll want to see, and tell others about. Google crawls all of your pages individually, not just your site, so make each page count. You're not going to make the top of the list overnight, so the sooner you get started, the better.
That's the game (the abridged version) you have to play if you want your business to be found by any of the billions of consumers that are on Google every day; and the kicker is, if you're not playing, you're sending them to your competition who is.
In my previous post Search Engine Optimization 101, we discussed the importance of good title tags, descriptions, page heading and use of keyword phrases in content. So by now you should understand why it is important that the title of your home page NOT be "Home". Traffic from Google comes because your web page has the content that the searcher is looking for. Is "home" on your keyword list? If the answer is no, and I'm reasonably certain that is true for most businesses, why would you send Google the wrong message by using "Home" as your page title.
Another common SEO mistake is using non-keywords for link anchor text. Anchor text is what visitors click on to follow a link on your web page. It is good SEO practice to link text on your web page to other pages of your site. Google sees that you've placed emphasis on a phrase by using it as anchor text. Is "Click here" on your keyword list? Wouldn't it be logical to consider your keywords when creating links? If you link your home page to your services page, which sentence do you think would send the best message to Google and your visitors?
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It's pretty obvious when you look at it from Google's perspective. Take a look at your web pages. Do you link your web site text to pages of your site? If not, do so. If you do, what words are you emphasizing by using them as anchor text? Are you inadvertently telling Google that "Click here" or "Home" are what your pages are about? If so, you are confusing Google and hurting your chances of getting found.
I love teaching people how to search engine optimize their web site. I am hooked on the "ah-ha" moment when they unlock the mystery. To be truthful, search engine optimization isn't difficult. To do it successfully, all you need to do is look at your web site pages from a different perspective.
My favorite way to start is to take a page and look at it from the perspective of Google. Google wants to know what the page is about. Notice I said the page not the web site. If there are keywords in the meta keyword field I start there. If not, I ask them to chose two to three keyword phrases for the page.
How does Google know what is important about the site? It is easy. If the page is about "plumbing supplies", you would expect that the words "plumbing supplies" would appear in the title of the page (the Title tag in the head section of the page), the description of the page (meta description tag), the heading at the top of the page (the H1 heading) and in the first paragraph at a minimum. Seems logical enough. Nine times our of ten what the web site owner finds that their web site does not use the keyword phrases in these places at all. What is typical is:
- The title is the company name.
- The meta description is a description of the company, not the page.
- If the H1 heading if used at all, it is something like "Our Products".
- The content while about plumbing supplies doesn't use the exact term. For instance it might say faucets, drains and pipe but not the term "plumbing supplies".
If asked most people can tell you what keyword phrases they think are important to draw visitors to their site (see my previous post: How to chose keywords for your website pages). What is lacking is an understanding of how to make sure that Google knows what the page is about. Take a look at each page of your website with a critical eye and you might find out that you haven't sent a clear message at all.
Here is an example to illustrate how you should NOT optimize your page. Note: to see your meta tags, go to your browser and display the page you wish to inspect. In the view menu, chose "View Source". The Title, meta description and meta keywords fields are in the section of the page at the top.
In my next post I will explore some more common SEO mistakes.