Posts Tagged seo
Integrating Global Search Into Your Seattle SEO Campaign
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization on February 4, 2014
International SEO is one of the most effective ways to reach a global market, even if you are already successful with your local SEO. While international SEO is not right for everyone, it does provide search-marketing results on a global scale, meaning that your products and services are exposed to people from around the world. While international SEO is an extremely complex process and can take years to set up effectively, the following includes a few quick tips to get you started with integrating an international campaign into your localized Seattle SEO tactics.
Domain
There are two basic routes for setting up a domain for international SEO. These include using a basic URL (typically a .com) or choosing a top-level domain (TLD) for the country (such as a .de for Germany). These are Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and Country Specific Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). You probably already have a gTLD, because that is typically a .com. This type of domain can and will come up around the globe and is therefore ‘generic’. gTLDs have a number of pros including that they make SEO campaigns easier. One domain means one campaign, and ranking for a .com in France increases the ranking in Germany, meaning that your current sucessful campaign will boost your international results. The only catch is that you have to create subdomain language folders, but we’ll get to that later. It’s also considerably easier and more affordable for lower budget companies to take this route.
ccTLDs
Utilizing ccTLDs in an international SEO campaign means purchasing individual TLD domains per country. Unfortunately, that usually requires that you live there or have a registered address or office there. Therefore, for example, Rorymartin.com might become RoryMartin.ge, or RoryMartin.ca. This is advantageous for a number of reasons including that each individual site is more likely to rank in its country and that local searchers are more likely to see the site as a local and trustworthy website. ccTLDs also allow marketers to utilize local hosting and servers, which sometimes benefits SEO, and sometimes benefits website loading speed. However, using ccTLDs is resource consuming in that it literally requires the owner to manage and keep up individual websites for each ccTLD. Essentially, you’ll need separate SEO campaigns, and very little cross-link value between sites. For this reason, ccTLDs are mostly only recommend for very high-budget campaigns.
Subdomains
Some marketers choose to use their ccTDL domains as subdomains. Essentially, someone from Germany could type in Rorymartin.ge and show up at Rorymartin.com. This has no real SEO benefit, but is beneficial for anyone who wants to advertise with a local domain.
Language Sub-Folders
Anyone using gTLDs rather than ccTLDs should take the time to create language subfolders. This can be done in a variety of ways including creating an individual folder for each language or creating a folder for each country. It is recommended to utilize the ISO language and country codes in the URL for the source files. For example:
Rorymartin.com/en
Others choose to include a country code, which can be represented in either a single file for country and language, or a dual file:
RoryMartin.com/ca-fr
RoryMartin.com/ca/fr
In this case, it is almost always best to create a single folder for country and language, rather than for both. In this case, the ‘correct’ subdomain would be ‘RoryMartin.com/ca-fr’ rather than dividing information between multiple folders. However, countries where you want to optimize for two languages would still require two folders.
/ca-fr
/ca-en
For the most part, it is better to choose one main language for the country and rank for that.
Focus on the Right Markets
Digital marketers know that choosing a market can be the most important part of any strategy, and that rule holds true with international SEO. While you could invest in creating an international campaign for every potential market, chances are that this sort of campaign is going to be far too expensive and difficult to upkeep. Instead, focus on creating a smaller campaign that you can easily manage and invest in. Quality is one of the more important ranking factors of SEO, and focusing on one or two prime markets allows you to focus on quality translation, markups, and URLs, rather than using a lower budget for more content. Lower budget marketers with global goals can consider creating international campaigns for specific high-potential markets first, and then moving on to new markets one the first sites are set up. For example, if you want to expand to Toronto, Berlin, and Paris from Seattle, then you would want to do so one city at a time, rather than all at once.
URLS
As with any other form of SEO, international SEO requires optimized URLS. In this case there are a number of different strategies you can utilize for language, localized, and internal SEO. As a rule, you should include the following considerations in any URL.
• URL should be in the same language as the page.
• Use hreflangs
• Avoid redirects, as they confuse the reader and Google
Hreflangs
Hreflangs are a confusing point to anyone not quite familiar with HTML or the more technical aspects of SEO, but they are an extremely important factor in international SEO. The HREF markup, as you may know, stands for ‘hypertext reference’ while the ‘lang’ stands for language. So a Hreflang is quite simply a hypertext markup that tells Google you are using another language and would like to rank this page for that language. Hreflangs are also useful for telling search bots that while the content is duplicated somewhere else, it’s because it is now in another language and intended to rank in another country.
<rel=”alternate” hreflang =”Fr” >
You should include a specific hreflang in the URL header for each alternate language page that you have. You do not have to use canonicals with hreflangs, and the hreflang already tells Google that the page is duplicate but in another language. Hreflangs are also important for pages with dialect changes, such as US to UK word changes.
Translation
Translation is an often-overlooked factor of international SEO but most search engines rank quality content over keyword optimization. For this reason, it is important to invest in quality translations no matter what the language. If you’re simply translating to other forms of English, such as British and Australian English, you can use a simple program like Microsoft Word to help. Otherwise, you most likely need a professional translator. Any translating software will have grammar or other errors that will affect search and reader satisfaction. For the most part, it is a mistake to use any sort of auto-translate or flash program on the page. You want an individual URL and individual pre-translated page for each country.
Keyword Research
Very few countries have the same keywords for the same topics, so it is important to research keywords for the country in question. Google’s Keyword Planner is an excellent free tool for anyone who wants to do keyword research by country. However, any keyword research software or tools that you currently use may also be appropriate. In most cases, international SEO requires the use of both language appropriate and English keywords. For example, someone in Germany may search using both English and German.
Linking
International SEO, like other forms of SEO, also requires a link building campaign. In this case it is important to create links from domains and websites that reflect the language and country location of the new domain. For example, anyone setting up a British version of their site would want inbound links from sites using British English, and hopefully with a .UK instead of a com.
How are you implementing your international SEO strategy?
Seattle SEO & The Long-Tail Keyword
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on December 10, 2013
If you do anything with SEO or marketing, then you are sure to hear about the long-tail keyword. With new Google search algorithms, new search results, and more people using longer searches, it is now becoming increasingly important for Seattle businesses to utilize longer keywords in order to keep up.
What is the Long-Tail?
The long-tail keyword is essentially a short phrase or specific search term that someone would use to look for something specific. While many people do use short-tail keywords to look for items, the results are much more vague, and usually used by someone first looking into an industry. So, for example, someone who is just starting to look into SEO might search for ‘SEO’ which wold bring up the Wikipedia page.
On the other hand, once that person has looked at the Wikipedia page, they are going to move on, and probably start looking for SEO companies to hire. A long-tail search for ‘Seattle SEO Company” is much more specific and as a result typically offers slightly more specific results.
About the Search Process
Right now, Google’s Hummingbird algorithm offers priority to websites that have the same long-tail keywords as the consumers search. So, if someone looks for ‘Marketing company SEO and Social” then they are going to get results that have all of those words. However, most people don’t start out looking for a long-tail keyword.
For example, if you’re considering hiring a Seattle SEO company but don’t know anything about SEO, your first search is going to be for ‘SEO’ or a similar ‘beginners guide to SEO’ where you would then read the Wikipedia Page, or browse around on sites like SEOMoz or SearchEngineLand in an effort to understand the process. For most people, the first searches are ‘what is it’, ‘how does it work’, and ‘do I need it’. While these searches can generate a lot of traffic, very few of them generate any sales.
Next comes the decision making process. The searcher knows what they want and they know what it does, so they start looking for something to buy. This is where the long-tail keyword comes in. The search for ‘SEO’ turns into “SEO company’s in Seattle’ or ‘Seattle Marketing’, which turns into a sale for one of the results.
Applying Long-Tail Keywords to Your Marketing Campaign
Unfortunately you have to know what your long-tails are before you can use them. If you only service a small area, then your long-tail keywords are obviously your location, but you also have to consider other specifics such as your exact products. A local bakery could utilize area and food specific long-tail keywords like, “Kirkland Wedding Catering” or “Where to Get Chocolate Cupcakes on 12th Street.”
Any long-tail keyword runs the risk of being too specific, but this is where keyword research comes in. A keyword with an average of 30 searches per month offers less traffic, but also the potential for 30 sales each month, as those 30 people find exactly what they are looking for. Broader searches offer more competition, and less chance of a sale, but can still be useful as well.
What Google’s Hummingbird Algorithm Means for Your Seattle SEO
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization on October 9, 2013
Google’s latest update, Hummingbird, was announced on the 26th of September after already running for a few months. Hummingbird is a new search algorithm and is expected to affect some 90% of search, much of which has already happened. Unlike previous search algorithms Panda and Penguin which were updates to Google’s algorithm, Hummingbird is actually a completely new algorithm, making it Google’s biggest change in 3 years.
What is Hummingbird?
Hummingbird is quite simply the newest search algorithm from Google and is quite similar to the previous algorithm but with a few major changes. The biggest change is that most keywords are now geared towards semantic long tail search, meaning that questions and phrases now matter more than single word keywords. Google will also be paying attention to other statics like traffic, bounce rate, and time spent on the page rather than just your keywords. Essentially, Google is getting smarter, and Hummingbird is their smartest algorithm yet. Hummingbird is mobile optimized and designed to turn up the highest quality results as quickly as possible.
• Uses semantic or ‘speaking’ keywords
• Uses PR (Page Rank)
• Less Emphasis on Individual Keywords
• More Emphasis on Social Signals and Activity
• More Emphasis on Quality
• All Search is Now Secure
Earlier this month we talked about Google’s vanishing keyword data, which was actually the first sign of Hummingbird. Secure search means no more keyword data in Google Analytics, which also means changes.
Because most users are looking for answers to questions, Hummingbird is also moving towards an ‘answers’ rather than ‘results’ type search. As a result, titles with “How, why, and whom’ could be slightly more prioritized for future search. Website owners can also expect to see niche sites rising in the SERPS as they tend to have more specialized content on specific topics.
How it Affects your Seattle SEO
The Hummingbird algorithm affects your site in two different ways depending on whether or not you already had good SEO policies. If your SEO is good and you’re still ranking well then you can most likely just keep up what you’re doing, make sure all of your keywords are semantic, and if necessary update any articles or pages that aren’t semantic. Most of the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) have already changed so you can already see where you are. If you’re losing traffic, your domain authority dropped, or your ranking pages are showing up lower then you can blame Hummingbird.
If you have lost traffic because of Hummingbird, your best bet is to rework your content with quality and work on making your keywords more semantic. This means natural, flowing keywords that make sense when spoken aloud. Typically if your content is mostly aimed towards quality rather than SEO, then you don’t’ really have to worry about it too much.
Essentially Hummingbird integrates natural spoken search to make room for new search methods such as mobile and voice command search. If you want to learn more about it, consider contacting your local Seattle SEO expert to talk about your specific site or problem.
Blogging & SEO: Do the Two Really Have to Go Together?
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization on June 20, 2013
If you’re looking into SEO for your local Seattle business then you have no doubt been told to start a blog. Search engine optimization and blogging seem to go hand in hand no matter where you turn, but why? Do you really need a blog? And if so, what does it actually do for your localized SEO? Chances are that as a business owner, blogging might not be your forte’ and you might not know where to start. Fortunately there are plenty of bloggers out there who can help you with your SEO, so all you need is to know why you need them.
Good Content Means Traffic
If you write it, they will come. Content, especially high quality unique content that serves a purpose, is going to get traffic. If you have a booming social and like to share content, you’ll get even more traffic. Traffic to a blog means traffic to your website which eventually turns into exposure to your merchandise. Most importantly, if you write about your products and services correctly, you will attract people who are actually looking for those services. So if you sell hair accessories for women you could blog about how to wear your hair to a formal occasion or ten casual hairstyles that make you look fabulous. A restaurant could blog about nightlife in Seattle, almost anything about food, what to wear eating out, or similar. In either case, the blog would attract people who are looking for the product or service offered, which means that each visitor has the potential to become a customer.
Increased Keyword Density & Long Tails
In order for your site to not come off as spam, you have to take it easy on the keywords on your actual pages. You can’t keyword stuff if you want to show up in search for anything, so how do you increase the density and value of your pages? Actually writing about those same keywords via a blog can help a great deal. You can actually increase the value of the keyword for your site by mentioning it more across more blogs, meaning that you get the same density without keyword stuffing. You can use the same ideas for inserting long tail versions of your keywords as well so that you get an SEO friendly website.
Google Loves Blogs
You can’t combine the words search, engine, and optimization without Google coming to mind and rightly so. Google controls some 70% of search (at least). In order to come up in search, Google has to like you and one aspect of that can be blogging. While there are other ways to enhance your SEO, nothing says search friendly quite like content, and blogs are all about content. A good blog will also increase visitor interaction on your site, which also sends positive signals to Google.
So what are the rules? Always write original content, keep your grammar high quality, and make sure any facts in your posts are true. While you can write in any style you like, you should find something that you are comfortable with, and that reflects the style and tone of your business.
Why You Have to Monitor Your SEO for Long Term Results
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization on May 10, 2013
For many people, SEO is a simple matter of finding out which keywords rank well for their business, setting them up on a blog or website, and then leaving it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work so well. Unless there is practically zero competition, quality SEO requires monitoring and detailed analysis in order to determine what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved. This can be applied to keyword usage, placement, linking, social media strategies, and more.
Monitoring Keywords
Keyword monitoring is the most basic part of SEO but it can also be one of the most tedious. For this reason, most people who have a number of keywords tend to hire an SEO company to do the work for them. Keyword monitoring includes the process of keeping track of each keyword for performance, click-through rate, sales rate, SERPS, and competition. Without these factors, a keyword might induce hundreds of clicks that result in bounced or exiting visitors, or even drop in SERPS ranking and stop performing.
Monitoring your keywords helps you to decide which keywords are your best performers so that you can build campaigns around them. Best of all, this same strategy can be moved over to your PPC campaign because it allows you to use your best keywords in a paid ad campaign to support your SEO.
One of the easiest ways to monitor your keywords is to start by creating list of similar keywords and then grouping them together. As some keywords outperform others, you can move them into another group with fewer keywords. This helps you to keep high performing keywords separate from your non-performers so that you can gradually test and replace everything that isn’t working for your site.
Links
Links are becoming increasingly important in any sort of SEO so monitoring them should be even more important. Monitoring links helps you to recognize quality links that are adding value to the site while helping you to notice and remove links that could potentially harm the site. Monitoring for incoming, outgoing, and internal links are all important and should be included. Link monitoring can unfortunately be a little difficult if you aren’t
Competitor Monitoring
While not exactly the ‘nicest’ thing to do, monitoring your competitors is almost essential for any successful business in a competitive market. By keeping track of what your competition is doing with their SEO, you can keep up and stay ahead so that you come up in search. Competitor monitoring typically involves researching on what type of keywords they use, which backlinks they use, and how they manage their SEO. This helps you to understand why your SEO may or may not be working, and in many cases, even helps you to see exactly what customers and demographic your competitors are aiming for.
In final, monitoring is a key element of SEO because it helps you to stay in control. Whether you do your SEO yourself or have an SEO company handle the work for you, monitoring and analyzing each keyword and strategy should be an important part of your daily or weekly routine.
SEO vs PPC – Where Should You Be Spending Your Time and Money?
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing on April 2, 2013
Most websites require some form of marketing, and for most, the decision comes down to PPC (pay per click advertising) or SEO (search engine optimization). There are many benefits to both, but most webmasters should learn best policy for each tactic including how, when, and where to use them. Before going into detail, you can compare the two marketing options.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the easiest way to get natural and organic clicks. Studies show that between 40 and 60 percent of searches end with clicks on organic results, mostly because buyers are more likely to trust unpaid options. However, Google and other search engines have been inserting paid ads into search results so these numbers are going down.
SEO requires that a site have a quality social program, good usage of keywords related to their topic or niche, and plenty of quality backlinks. The basic points of SEO include:
- Relatively affordable
- Offers unlimited return on investment
- Is constantly changing
- Allows websites to rank for quality content
- Is reputation based
PPC
Pay per click advertisement is the most popular form of advertisement because you literally get what you pay for. You bid on the click and then you pay that much each time someone clicks on your ad and visits your site. What they do once they reach your site is entirely dependent upon how targeted your ads are and the content or products you have on the site. PPC can be cost effective for small campaigns but also very expensive for larger campaigns. The pros of PPC include that if you spend the money, you are guaranteed traffic in return.
- You only pay for traffic you receive
- Ads are posted in search, on websites, or on social
- Pay how much you want per click
- Run ads for as long as you want
PPC vs. SEO
SEO and PPC both have their benefits but for most websites, SEO definitely has an advantage over PPC in that it can offer more clicks and traffic for the same or less money. A good SEO campaign can direct thousands of visitors to a site for one small flat rate price while PPC costs more per extra visitor. For budget purposes, SEO definitely has an advantage.
Long term SEO programs that are intended to increase ranking and SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking can also be more effective over time than PPC. However, SEO is a long term strategy and can take weeks or even months to show quality results. PPC usually shows results within a few hours of the campaign being launched.
Choosing Between PPC and SEO
Many webmasters think that they have to choose between SEO and PPC but for most websites, choosing one or the other can be a mistake. SEO is a great way to build long term results and should have the majority of focus for most websites, especially those on a budget. However, including PPC campaigns can be beneficial as well, especially for sales, special occasions, or any time when a little extra traffic, more interaction, or even more sales are needed. SEO is definitely the better choice for anyone on a strict budget, and for anyone looking for long term results, but PPC definitely has its advantages as well.
Author
This is a guest post.
Brandy Cross is a full time tech and SEO blogger for The High Tech Society. Catch her on Twitter @MissBCross or leave a comment here to talk about your SEO.
Build Your Web Presence in 2013 with Social, Website, and Blog
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on January 25, 2013
Your web presence is important for marketing and selling your business or content, but many Seattle web developers don’t give enough thought to how they appear, and how they interact on the web. Studies and algorithms now show that your web presence and social interaction could be one of the most important ways to come up in search, gain traffic, and attract new customers or clients. Here are a few tips from the experts at Rory Martin to help you build your web presence in 2013.
Social Helps with SEO and SMM
Your social media, no matter where it is, is part of your SEO and your social media marketing. While shared links on your social don’t exactly count towards your website page rank or your actual SEO, new results from Google show that shares, likes, comments, and discussions on your social all help to build your authority, which in turn enhances your search optimization. For example, a tweet that has been favorited and retweeted, and has the title and keyword in it, will actually show up in search when you look for your content. Sometimes social content will even appear above the original blog or webpage.
The more social interaction you have, the more attention you attract, not only from search engines but from the people who know the ones interacting with your content. If you want to build your social presence, you have to add targeted followers, interact with those followers, and make your posts interesting.
Is Your Website Optimized?
While search engine optimization isn’t quite as important as it used to be, you still need keywords and context that lets Google know what it is you are about, and what you want to come up in search for. If your website doesn’t explain who you are, what you are selling, and why they should be interested, you’re doing something wrong. Google now ranks websites by how helpful they are, how accurate the page is, and even takes grammatical errors into consideration.
But that’s not all. Web optimization in 2013 doesn’t stop at using keywords, you also have to optimize for maximum visitor interaction. If you can get a visitor on your home page to visit your blog and leave a comment, you’ve just dramatically increased your traffic interaction, and therefore your web presence. Integrating social with your website can help to improve conversion and grow fans, and that usually means making it easy to like, follow, or +1 your pages from your site.
Blogging for Traffic, Content & Interaction
Blogging has been a time honored tradition for increasing traffic volume, but it can also be used to enhance your web presence. Whatever you blog about, your blog will draw visitors, increase the SEO on your site, and of course, give you valuable content to share with your followers via social. A few tips to increasing blog interaction include asking opinions, talking about controversial or new subjects and ideas, covering two sides of a topic to make it more interesting, or approaching your content in a new and interesting way. There are plenty of ways that you can increase your online presence. Even with new Google algorithms and search rules, your Seattle web development and optimization can still help you to get traffic, followers, and interaction. Focus on being interesting, helpful, factual, and most of all, engaging if you want to build your web presence.
What Search Engine Marketing Can Do For Your Brand
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing on September 19, 2012
When was the last time that you invested in some search engine marketing for your business? If you think that all that was dealt with when you set up your website, then it might be time to gather up your colleagues and have a little chat.
Search engine marketing doesn’t stop once your website is set up, it’s an on-going process which everyone in your company can be a part of. In a world where link-building and social signals are a key part of boosting your company websites rankings, it seems strange that over half of most U.S companies actually block their employees access to social sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Why? Earlier this year we thought up seven solid tips for good SEO, one being to cultivate links with other sites. Well, what if the links were coming from inside the building?
As a part of a wider search engine marketing strategy, which includes link building outside of the company, it can be very beneficial to encourage employees in the building to talk about their work on social media sites, and even to blog about their work and research – with links back to the company site.
Of course you would want to keep a handle on the specifics, but developing a strategy like this – where potential customers feel as though they are getting to know (and coming to trust) more sides of the company than just the marketing arm – can do wonders for the visibility of your brand in search engine rankings. And with all the sites linking to each other, they’re only going to continue to become stronger.
Would you consider implementing a search engine marketing strategy like this at your workplace? How do you think it would benefit your brand?
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