Google recently launched its search engine starter guide within the past couple of weeks, and after reading it (and re-reading it), I was reminded of my earlier post on why some companies have difficulty getting ranked in search engines (see “Why Can’t I Get Ranked In Search Engines??“). Reiterating and reconfirming what my colleague John Ellis had to say about his review, I was glad that they were able to provide a standard guide for basic SEO work. Even if it’s just basic, it provides a refresher course for those that are in deep in the world of SEM, but at the same time makes for a great foundation for newbies.
For those new to the SEO/SEM world, PLEASE (I implore you!!!) to read this and apply it to your end of the industry.
2 things that I read that made me ponder a moment or two on how people do SEO: 1) how they come up with their search phrases and keywords, and 2) how they come up with the naming URL infrastructure of their site. It really amazes me to see how many people want to rank at the top of search engines and use plain, non-targeted words or phrases that lack search weight and search frequency. If you, for argument’s sake, run a restaurant and want your restaurant to rank on the first page of Google, you don’t want to just use the word “restaurant” to get search engine exposure. That’s like using “person” as the search word for trying to look your name up on Google. Try that sometime and see how the results fare on searching your name.
Next is dealing with the URL naming convention. It’s usually developers that do not know anything about SEO/SEM, but I won’t hold it against them. At my work, naming conventions are out of whack when it comes to optimization, because naming conventions weren’t a part of the whole online marketing infrastructure. There needs to be a cohesive balance, foundation, and best practices in all aspects of site development, but it is not necessarily common for marketers to have all of those in tact. Say, for another argument’s sake, you have a travel agency site and you want to build traffic for a special microsite or page on visiting Ireland. The person who is developing your site ends up with the index page title of visitIRL.php, and each corresponding subpage on that particular visiting Ireland site is visitIRLpage1.php, visitIRLpage2.php, etc. Will your subpage rank high on Google when a user is searching for the cost of visiting Ireland on your page and your page name is visitIRLpage[insert page number here].php? Or do you think they will see your page higher on Google with the URL name of visiting-ireland-cost.php (or some other variation of that)?
I’m sure it may be easy for some, but for those who are still confused, do not fret. My next blog is about creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to find quality keywords and phrases to generate more quality traffic for your site.
Stay tuned!