SEO is the Tortoise that beats the Hare in a race of Endurance

In Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare the fast paced rabbit is in a hurry to reach the finish line and prove to the world that he is the best athlete. Meanwhile the tortoise slowly moves along and eventually overtakes the cocky hare that stops to rest and falls asleep from exhaustion. Optimization is similar to the tortoise in that it takes a long time to see the results of building links, adding articles to online publications and requires a great deal of patience before a website begins to show the result of making it to the front of the pack at the top of a results page.

Through concerted efforts that demand the attention of a website owner and their SEO specialist the goal of landing on the first page of the directory results can be accomplished. Typically taking anywhere from six months to a year to achieve the slow process of gaining a natural ranking in the search engines can be accomplished by those that are consistent in their efforts and who do not stop to rest when things start to appear to be working.

This week I met with a client who was so concerned about reaching the top spot in his profession that he did not want to take a methodical and somewhat slow approach to his online marketing. Frustrated by the competition he wanted to produce a large quantity of articles in a short three month time period and measure the success of his Internet marketing campaign based on what the search engines would perceive after cranking out as much work as possible before stopping to rest and examining the distance that the massive amount of work would be covering.

Not realizing his mistake that the search engines do see links, but take their time to index the information that is submitted to the various online publishing sites this client (whom I refer to as the hare in our story) became agitated by the fact that I was unwilling to deliver what he wanted knowing full well that his effort would have very little impact on his goal. Requesting that I deliver the hare's pace for a meager fraction of what the work would normally take to be affective [in the long term connections and relevancy that makes up his page ranking (PR) and affects the overall quality score] I had to refuse to work with the man because of his improbable request.

Although I had planned on performing some PPC work to augment the SEO content and directory submissions to help expedite the success of a well planned marketing media strategy I was fully aware that in a three month period of time there would no significant changes to his current page ranking and I would be exhausted by the effort that would have ended in the termination of my services out of sheer frustration on the part of the client.

The expectations of many people is to gain a fast result when it comes to their online marketing work, but the reality is that the search engines are designed to move slowly and increase a website ranking over the long haul. If it were simple to gain a coveted position in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) there would be a constant turnover of businesses that are holding onto the top spots of the search engine results. But in order to be fair and avoid the unlawful "Black Hat" practices that speed results, the major search directories are designed to follow the methodology of the tortoise in slowing the pace and bringing a website into the winning position on a page after many months of steady work. That is not to say that a concentrated effort of producing a large volume of articles and blogs as well as adding links to other directories cannot be sustained for a full year, but the efforts require a solid commitment on the part of the SEO provider and the client to manage the workload and stick with the marketing media strategy that has been developed to reach the goal of any Internet marketing campaign.

As I realized before signing up the business as a client and committing myself to an impossible agreement, the prospect of adding a client is often more exciting than working for someone that does not appreciate your contribution. Like the tortoise that maintained the same pace and speed throughout the race, SEO delivers the intended result when it is carefully initiated and kept moving forward at a steady rate over a minimum of six months and is best when planned for over an entire year of continuing work.

Optimize search results with Geo Targeting

I was speaking to friend about his website marketing and in particular what he is doing to attract new business when I was surprised to hear that he is not doing anything to develop an ongoing SEO platform. When I asked why he had not been using search engine optimization to gain a natural foothold in the searchable web directories I was told that he had looked into it, but in the past no one had been able to help him narrow the field of competition from a national search inquiry to a local one. Naturally, I was concerned that this man's law practice is suffering because he has no idea how to generate business from the web. So I introduced him to the very specific keyword searches that narrow down the region, the city(s) and even the neighborhoods that he wants to reach through the most effective and inexpensive marketing media strategy available.

Referred to as Geo Targeting the search engines can be allocated to return results to a browser that are intended for a specific audience. Through keyword selection that identifies the city and even the zip code that a business is located in it is possible to build organic results that will lead local consumers to the door of a very specialized individual and their business. Because my friend practices law he is only interested in meeting with clients that he can represent within the same state, county and cities that are close to his office. Concerned about his license to practice this individual has put off establishing any real Internet marketing plan because he was unaware that the search parameters can be set to target the neighborhoods and zip codes that he is interested in serving.

Going beyond the natural results of the search engines that are determined by optimization efforts, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising in the search engines or the ads that appear on social media sites can be highly effective in geo targeting the ideal customer or client. Because unique IP addresses contain a set of numbers that are used to identify a city or even a neighborhood it is possible to set up paid advertising that responds only to the homes and businesses whose Internet connected IP address corresponds to the results of a web search that is targeted by the keywords a person browsing the web is looking for.

The combination of very specific keywords and the selected geo target of an exact location have made online marketing much easier for business owners to use. On a modest budget PPC advertising can produce results for a business that is only paying for the clicks that move a person from the search engine to their website. If the keywords target the business products and services within an identified community only the people with corresponding demographic data will see the PPC ads in the returned search results, thereby eliminating anyone browsing outside of the target audience.

Organic searches can also provide the information that delivers local customers to businesses that are using geographic terms to set up their keyword phrases and meta tag descriptions on their website. By coding a URL with the <meta name="keywords" content="sample city keyword"> and <meta name="description" content="sample city or state content description"> companies that are using a local marketing media strategy can attract people that are in the same location as their business' physical presence without generalizing their online marketing for the entire Internet.

Working with geo targeted keywords, IP addresses and zip codes for paid ad placement or organic search results is an ideal way to reach a specific audience and attract consumers living or working in a small area that is limited to city, county or state boundaries.

For help setting up keyword specific geo targeted marketing email me: info@MarketingMediaStrategy.com

How Landing Pages relate to SEO Links

After building a website it is vital to the marketing that links be set up which connect the site to any electronically published articles and posts. Most people understand the importance of linking their site, but the key point to remember is that content written about in the online marketing must be directly linked to the corresponding page on the website. If you are targeting a keyword for a specific product that you are selling then you want to link the article to the page that displays the item in question. As the search engines look for direct connections and relevancy in the written materials that appear online and how those links relate to the website you do not want to set up the link to bring your site visitors to the home page if you are talking about a product that is featured on a product page. 

If you make the reader work to reach the pages that they want to see, you will lose them before they reach the page that highlights the product your keywords are written about. Using ease of navigation to bring a reader from the blog posting or online article to your site you can directly link a webpage to the subject matter of the article.

For example, today I was working on an article for an SEO client that had an enormous page address connecting the target link. It was filled with back slashes and .aspx?= coding directions that lead to a very specific page on a huge website. With a large inventory to cover, the article singled out one product from among hundreds of others; so the link from that article had to be directed to the exact item that I was writing for. Without the proper link for the target URL a reader would have to search the entire site for the product. Taking a great deal of time and effort that would most likely confuse and frustrate anyone that was interested in the product being promoted, the business would lose the customer and the article would lose credibility with search engines and the intended target audience.

Although linking the appropriate landing page with the corresponding keyword(s) sounds trivial the reality is that the search engines do recognize the relevant link which can increase the quality score of the site. Search engine optimization therefore must always have a purpose to it. With keywords carrying the weight of the marketing strategy, stressing the importance of linking articles and blogs to the exact page of the site (that is being referenced the search engines) will make the right connection and have a positive impact on the marketing efforts of the site.

Something else that I run across in my work which troubles me as an SEO professional is when a client changes their website and deletes their old links as they update the content on their site. This is frustrating because all the materials that have been previously published and linked to the missing pages have nowhere to go. In other words the links that have been established go nowhere and the articles that once had meaning to the Internet marketing strategy are lost. Although I agree that updating the site allows a fresh look at the pages by the search robots, I personally prefer to maintain each page's HTML address; so that all of the work that has been created for the optimization of the site remains intact and searchable from the links that are already established.

 

With landing pages that no longer exist the work of online marketing is stifled and the site which may be gaining ground in the search results will lose credibility. If you are going to update a page (and I do recommend doing that from time to time), please remember to keep the same page address names in the URL so that the search engines can maintain the previously connected links and support the ongoing work of optimization which after all is the goal of any online marketing media strategy.

Does your Social Media Marketing have a goal?

Almost everyone is into social media these days, but without a goal in mind of what you want to accomplish for your business or personal objectives you are just posting information that has little if any meaning. Consider building a reputation management campaign that has a specific goal that you want to reach. It is important to realize that unless you have something that is relevant to your end goal to say in your posts it is not worth saying anything. 

The trouble that most people run into is that they are too busy dumping as much information about their business or them self onto the internet that they do not realize the potential damage they are doing to their own reputation.

With the search engine algorithms recognizing quality in the wording of every scrap of information that is being blogged, tweeted about and posted on the social networks most people do not know that when they are chatting about their cat or how their weekend was with their friends they are effectively reducing their credibility as an expert within their chosen field of business. Not that your hobbies and interests are unimportant, but they carry no weight for anyone that is in business with you.

To circumvent the common mistakes that individuals make in regard to their personal socializing it is best to create two different and accounts for your social standing. If you do want to keep everyone on your friends list informed about what you ate for lunch and what you thought about the last film you watched you can do that, but keep in mind that your clients, vendors and coworkers are more interested in what you can deliver by way of productivity and increased revenue. With separate networking media accounts you can be social with friends and family members while maintaining a professional image for all of your business contacts.

Going back to what I stated before, the best way to plan out a social media strategy is to have an end goal in mind. What are you attempting to do? What is the goal of your work? If you don't have one you will never know if you have reached it. All too often business owners say that they want to increase sales--which is why they are on the web. But that broad statement does not identify their purpose or the function of their social media campaign.

Just as any marketing effort is targeted to an audience and directed at gaining a specified result the work of any and all social media posts, blogs and commentaries has to be aligned with the overall goal of your campaign. So what you say through any social channel should to be relevant to your business, your website and the readers who will be reviewing your dialog.

Before sending out any message it should be filter through your strategy statement and measured to make sure that it is aligned with the goal of your media campaign. Basically a strategy statement is like your mission statement--it is the foundation of what you do, the essence of your business and relates to everything that you are presenting to an audience through your online marketing. A friend of mine and marketing expert, Brian Pope came up with what he calls a Unique Marketing Positioning Statement. Essentially this is what I am calling a strategy Statement. Identifying what you do and why you do it helps to create the vision of your company and is a test for each post and blog you put into cyberspace. If a posting is not in alignment with what you are offering to clients, it does not belong in your social media campaign.

However, if you are posting a blog and then telling others about your work, you can promote a relevant message that you will be happy to link back to your website. The acid test comes down to asking yourself this question. Is the post I am about to send something that I would put on my website to attract new consumers? If the answer is yes then move forward, if it is no then rethink your position and only post what will build you up as an expert in your area of business.

The goal of every marketing media strategy is crucial to the success of your ongoing public relations effort which is building your reputation. Keeping specific goals in mind each time you are tempted to post anything online will help you to decide what to post for the business public and what to send to your network of friends. With a targeted message you can do a greater good for your business than if you just sat down commenting on the things that no one really cares about. 

As you write your posts, ask yourself so what? What do others take away from this message? Is there a call to action if so is it relevant to your work? What is the reader going to do next? If they like the article, blog or post ask them to indicate it by taking action.

So what are you waiting for, click the like button, re-tweet this message to the people that can benefit from it and start following my blog! After all that's one of my social media goals. What are yours?