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June 4, 2008
 I read a blog post recently about a three legged dog named Lucky. Hardly seems a fitting name. In addition, I saw a three legged dog yesterday outside a veterinarian's office... he or she seemed as happy as could be. Funny how I remember seeing that dog. I see lots of dogs, but why does that one stick in my memory?
I was recently interviewed by my fellow blogger Robert Phillips about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). He recorded our two hour conversation and he will make the interview available on his blog over the next day or so. I will offer the mp3 soon as well. We talked about how I manage to rank well for the term "Internet Business" in Google SERPs (SERP = Search Engine Results Page which is the listing of sites a search engine returns to you when you search for something). I offered Robert some suggestions a few months ago that moved him to the first page for that term as well. Today, Google lists me #1 out of 185,000,000 (yes, 185 MILLION). Sometimes I drop down as I did for several days last week (I was a #3), but I've been pretty successful at remaining at or near the top. At the end of the interview I mention that I may soon switch to another key word phrase as my primary target, but I haven't decided to do that quite yet.
Lucky the dog was adopted from the dog pound by his owners because, as they were walking through the pound, he stuck his paw out towards them. They were looking for a dog and he ranked number one for them. Why? I'm sure they didn't go there looking for a dog with a missing leg.
During the SEO interview, Robert mentions that he's been somewhat disappointed with the level of traffic he's received since getting on the first page of Google. I agreed with him. He's actually on the first page for more terms than "Internet Business" too.
Why are we not seeing the traffic we thought we would?
False Expectations: Perhaps we were both misled by someone selling a product to increase search engine rankings. This person would constantly brag about how much traffic he received from the term for which I now rank number one and Robert ranks #6. Funny thing is this person was not ranked number one. Should have been a clue huh?
Bad Copy? If the keyword someone searches for is in your page description Meta tag, Google will usually display that description in the snippet of text displayed along with the link to your site. So, in effect, your description is a headline, prompting people and peaking their interest enough to click through to your site. (If the keyword phrase being searched for is not in the description then Google grabs a snippet of relevant text from elsewhere on the page.) Remember, just because your site gets listed in the first page of results does not automatically guarantee that it will get clicked and visited by the searcher. You must use good copywriting techniques to grab people, stop them in their tracks, and pull them in. In other words, you gotta stick you paw out and get their attention.
Choosing the wrong keywords: You must think through the process of selecting keywords by doing the proper research into those keywords. Otherwise you can waste a lot of time, energy, and money. The goal is to rank well for a term or phrase that is relevant to your product, service, or whatever your site is about, AND that people actually search on. It does you no good to get 1000 visitors who are interested in "Dirty Dancing" when you're selling a children's dance DVD. You'd be much better off to get only 10 visitors who are looking for children's material. Neither does it do you any good to rank #1 for a term that no one ever uses for searches. I made a post a while back that addresses this: Good SERP Ranking is NOT Enough.
Back to Lucky the Dog.
So why do I remember the three legged dog I saw yesterday? I think most people remember things like that. You don't see it everyday: it's different and unique. He had a great attitude, he was wagging his tail and trying to greet someone walking by as his owner was trying to get him into her car. Plus, everyone loves an underdog (pun intended). You can't be just like everyone else in your market. To get attention you have to be different, and different in a good way. SEO, just like a paid ad, can only get you so far: you have to be like Lucky and stick your paw out through your cage door, which in this case is the search engine results page and grab the reader's attention and pull them in.
In the interview, both Robert and I recommend 3WayLinks as a good way to boost your Search Engine Optimization efforts.
Sign up for my mailing list using the form below: you'll receive notices when I post new articles and discounts when I offer new products. In the interview with Robert I talk about a tool I created that I use to monitor my SEO progress, as well as SEO research... I will release that tool as a product sometime this summer... so sign up and you'll get an advanced notice and an opportunity to purchase it at a steep discount!
Until next time,
Fred
About the Author
Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.
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Posted by Fred on June 4, 2008 | Printer-Friendly
TrackBack: http://www.pqInternet.com/Blog/mt-tb.cgi/142
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Search Engines: SEO
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Comments:
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Thank you for submission your article to the 5th Edition of the "Bringing more traffic to your blog" Blog Carnival. The edition was published today: http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/06/bringing-more-traffic-to-your-blog-june.html
Have a good weekend!
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Fred,
Interested in your comments on keywords. My experience is that the much heralded concept of "niche keywords" is very overrated.
I did a lot of keyword research for my site early on using the paid-for keyword tools. I found three things:
1) Many of the "High KEI" keywords (lots of searches but few sites containing the keywords) were statistical anomolies. The high searching was a one off during the period the research sample was taken from and was never repeated.
2) The "niche keywords" identified related to the seed keywords I entered did bring in traffic - but not the right sort. For example, instead of bringing in traffic from people who wanted to hire my consulting services it brought in people who wanted to become consultants, or people who wnated me to help find them consulting work. The keywords were related to mine - but not in the right way. I ended up going back to my original seeds and just working harder to outrank my competitors.
3) Your competitors are all using the same tools. So what shows up as a "niche keyword" with little competition today probably won't be so uncompetitive tomorrow.
Ian
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Thanks for your submission to the eighth edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live: http://thatsblog.com/?p=75
-ThatsBlog.com
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