What is SEO?
Sitting in on the SEO panel at Mom 2 Summit, I noticed three things:
1) looks of confusion
2) looks of eyes-glazed-overness
3) looks of terror
It's time to turn those huhs? into ahas! Because SEO (search engine optimization) isn't scary - quite the contrary, it's fascinating!
I have a friend named Seth Jenks who has helped take the mystery out of SEO for me. And I trust him. Because he uses cupcakes and skin care to talk about SEO - what's not to like!? I asked him the questions I have about SEO - and feel free to ask your questions in the comments. We're all learners here!
Seth, what is SEO? Why does it seem all witchcrafty?
When I get asked, “What is SEO?” I usually answer with the simplest definition I can think of: It’s the process of getting your website found on the Internet. Search engines, and specifically Google, are the main ways that occurs. Since none of the search engines publish how they serve up the results when you type in “world's best cupcakes,” or something like that, figuring out how to get your site to rank near the top is an exercise in trial and error. At times it can even feel mysterious or witchcrafty.
We do know a fair amount about how the search engines work, however. There are a lot of people who spend a lot of time and effort figuring it out. One of my favorites is SEOmoz.org. They have done their homework and are one of the organizations that have been able to take a lot of the mystery out of search engine optimization.
I know what optimized skin looks like (and the daily regimen needed to optimize my own). Is SEO the same? Should I be doing something daily?
Yes. There are actually a lot of similarities between exfoliating and moisturizing your skin and SEO, as far as a daily regimen goes. It takes some daily effort, but the results begin to show up over time.
One of the most important things that you can be doing on a daily basis is building links to your site. Google weighs inbound links heavily. If a page has a lot of sites linking to it with the word “cupcakes” as the hyperlinked text, it assumes that this page is about cupcakes and will place it higher in the search results.
I would recommend that for half an hour a day you comment on sites that are related to your niche. And remember the name that you use will probably be hyperlinked to the URL that you enter. So it's important that you use a keyword that you want to rank for.
Another thing that you can do daily is to create blog posts that will attract links. Remember to use targeted keywords, and make it a little controversial -- something that will bring out opinions in people. Make claims that you might have to defend like, “My cupcakes will change the world.” This is called “link bait,” and it's a good thing to do as long as you're still being honest.
Google has over 200 variables that they use to bring people the most relevant results for a given search query, so there is a lot that you could do. We actually produce an SEO report that outlines how well you are doing and what you could do better.
A lot of the things that help with ranking in the search engines are a bit beyond most people. So just like you might hire an aesthetician for your skin, you might want to hire an SEO consultant.
I'm doing a site makeover for GwenBell.com and I want it to be beautiful. Not just SEO friendly, but beautiful, too. What steps should I take to make it both?
I have an interesting take on this question since I come from a design background and I am also a computer geek. I feel it's important to create a website that's beautiful for both human and robot eyes. If you begin the design process with SEO in mind, it's easy to do both. Going back once a site has been designed and trying to optimize can muck up the look and feel sometimes. With some planning you can avoid that.
When you're in the designing phase, focus the content of the site on the keywords for the search engines. Focus the design for ease of use and converting visitors into customers, or returning readers, or contributors, or whatever your bottom line is.
Sometimes my site feels a little like my house - messy with hutches everywhere, piles of information that aren't sorted very well. Is this a problem for the Googly bots?
It depends. Some of our clients have come to us with muddled code that was bad enough it confused the Google bot. You can fix this by making an sitemap and uploading it to Google. The sitemap can be set up in an XML format that automatically updates itself.
I want to be known as a social media teacher - I love sharing what I know. But I'm terrified of being pigeon-holed and only being able to write on one or two topics - just social media or just branding. How do I focus without losing the joy of blogging, tweeting and being online - I want to share all my passions!?
It's important to keep a focus, but at the same time I think it's good to branch out and always continue growing. I think back to a project that I had in a photography class. The assignment was to take something boring and shoot it in a way that made it interesting. The assignment's purpose was to force us to look at things from an unusual angle that nobody had seen before. It was amazing to see the variety of interesting pictures that sprang from that challenge. I strive to use the lesson from that class in as many aspects of my life as possible and I have always been amazed at the hidden wonders in the seemingly mundane just by getting close or changing the angle from which I see something.
The same can be said for blogging and social media. A bow that is always strung loses it’s spring. Find a way to do something else, and just like that song that you played 2,000 times a few months ago, when you come back to it it'll seem new again.
Your are welcome to hire Seth for SEO work and consulting through his company Advent Creative. You can contact him via email at Seth[at]adventcreative[dot]com or @SethJenks on twitter.
Thanks for the interview, Seth. As always, a lot of great advice. I should totally hire you. Or at least buy you a cupcake.
[The photo up at the top is of manscaping, in case you're wondering. Guys, yes. Even you need to have a great aesthetician! Women love well plucked men!]
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Reader Comments (19)
Love how you and Seth broke this down more and make it seem not so much a mystery! I know there are a TON of things I don't know about SEO, but reading this made me feel like I could be very capable of doing more. Thanks Gwen!
Wow, that wasn't so mysterious! Thanks for all the great advice.
There are some excellent points made in this article. But unfortunately Seth makes the same mistake almost all SEO experts make. Seth says that search is the main way your web site is found on the Internet. That is simply not true. It seems to be true, but isn't a fact. Most people get to web sites either because someone else has told them about it (often these days via social networking), or because they have read about it, seen it advertised, saw the link on TV, saw the domain name in a leaflet, heard it on the radio etc etc etc. Or they clicked on a link. And when people do use search engines they are often not searching. They are either using Google as a "short cut" to get to the site they know they want. For instance, many people type "bbc" into Google because the BBC News site then comes up third in the search results. They can click on that more quickly and easily than typing in "http://news.bbc.co.uk". However, the stats that are produced by Google and by the analytics software suggests that people were searching for "bbc" when they were not. Similarly, many people type actual URLs into Google because they don't know how to use their browser properly. In my own studies people have told me that you HAVE to type the name into Google because Google is THE index of the web. In other words, another set of people are not actually searching, even though they are using a search engine. Good SEO people can sort through the anlaytics and weed out such people. However, when they do that they discover that MOST people who get to a web site do so WITHOUT searching. Much of what Seth says is spot on - but like others, assuming that the only way to be noticed is via the search engines is to deny web site owners a whole raft of ways of getting traffic to their web site. Even nowadays, OFFLINE promotion brings more traffic than SEO to the top sites. Indeed, that's exactly how Google got most of its traffic - and Facebook and Twitter and Amazon....they all relied on OFFLINE promotion for the substantial part of their traffic. This doesn't mean that SEO is unimportant - it just means it is not the ONLY thing people should focus on, yet frequently web site owners put all their energies into SEO, which is a shame.
Kris, happy to hear this had an impact for you. I loved hearing you talk about how you all have created your business and grown it from scratch over the past three years to where it is now. You really have done a lot of work and it shows - I look forward to seeing where you take it next (and if you do try SEO things, holler, I'd love to hear how you are able to incorporate it). <3
Great article -- I'm a little confused about the advice to comment on other sites. Should we put keywords in the name? Or in the actual comment? Also, I'm on Wordpress and I believe comment links are no followed, so that wouldn't help others, would it?
Graham, so much fabulous advice here! I totally hear what you're saying & can't speak for Seth but have the feeling that he'll agree with what you're saying here - I know he's an avid user of social networks. Perhaps there should be two categories for what we're talking about - SEO: Search Engine Optimization and PEO: People Engine Optimization - as in, how to get your site to a place where people do actually want to share it across social networking sites. This could be an area that would be hugely popular. I feel another blog post coming on - thanks for the inspiration!
you can do either. Some blog comment fields can support HTML tags that would allow creation of a link. but use your best judgement.
This is a great link that may help explain as well. http://bit.ly/loHO7" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/loHO7" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/loHO7
Thanks!
[...] +Nursing Bra Flingings Count as Link Bait? + The Other Top 20 Most Memorable Mom 2 Summit Moments, What is SEO by Gwen [...]
I didn't attend this choice for the breakout sessions, and now I'm somewhat bummed that I didn't. I really need to get my head around this! I'm on a .com blog at Wordpress, and they are somewhat dismissive of the theories behind SEO, saying that they have provided all the optimization their users need. I'm going to refer back to this post and keep doing my research, because I just know I'm missing some good opportunities to get my blog in tip-top shape. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the comment, I should clarify SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, it has become a blanket term for online marketing, which includes social media marketing, Pay Per Click, viral media marketing, etc. I would be more correct in stating that SEO is getting your website found online through search engines. And we could pick apart how accurate that statement is as well. However, for the audience this article was written for, I feel that a statement that can be easily digested rather than an in-depth technical definition is best. I agree with you that SEO is not the only avenue in which people should focus their marketing efforts. We have some clients that are better off sending out direct mailers than focusing their efforts on SEO. In any case, one should become as educated as possible on all of the options available to them and make a decision based on the information you have and the specific needs of your organization.
Not to be a pain - but I have another question. How do we determine what keywords to optimize for? For example, I have a review blog, and on the home page, I'd want to optimize for words like "review blog", "mom reviews", etc. However, if I have a review for strollers, I'd want to optimize for "stroller review". Is it best to optimize each individual post for the appropriate content?
[...] the SEO Panel at the Mom 2.0 Summit, Gwen noticed some looks of terror and confusion among the ranks of women. So we’ve got to fix [...]
You want to optimize for keywords phrases that are going to drive traffic to your site but are not too hard to rank for, sually that means choosing keywords that are two or three words long like "fantastic cupcakes" or "worlds best cupcakes" because the competition for the word "cupcakes" is just too stiff. Keyword strings that have two or three words in them are called "long tail keywords". Yes you want to optimize each page to be found for your chosen keywords.
Thank you -- this is great advice!
Graham you're definitely correct that SEO in NOT the only thing people should focus on. And I think that becomes more true all the time as social media sites become more and more powerful. For our ecommerce stores, we get most of our converting traffic from organic search results. But, for our blogs, we get most of our quality traffic (those that stay on site longer) from referring sites and other sources. We do get a lot of traffic from Google to our blogs, but it generally isn't as quality traffic as that from referring sites. So, I tend to think in general that for personal blogs, SEO is less important than it is for ecommerce sites. BUT... I still think it is very valuable for everyone to know the basics of SEO (ie. understand keywords and anchor text etc.) so that they can allow the search engines to give them the best traffic possible. Our SEO 101 phone call tonight will hopefully help people understand some basics to use on all their sites.
Thanks for your advice.Great help for me
Is it important to use something like Wordpress for blogging or can I just have a page I dedicate to 'blogging' on my site? Do search engines look at these things differently?