Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Definition)

URL Configuration

URL's, or Domain Names are a significant piece of the SEO puzzle.

It is important to choose URL's that are keyword sensitive.

For example: Landscape Services - I've seen many a web site that says they provide 'Landscape Services' such as pruning, mowing, etc. The URL for this page is typically in this format:

www.yourcompany.com/landscapeservices.html

The problem: people don't search for landscapeservices (or landscape services for that matter). It would be much better to optimize the page for 'landscaping' and have the url in this format:

www.yourcompany.com/landscaping.html

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Next, I want to explain how to configure two-word URL's.
When dealing with 'landscape design', flowering plants and red flowering shrubs, configure the URL's in the following format:

www.yourcompany.com/landscape-design.html
www.yourcompany.com/flowering-plants.html
www.yourcompany.com/red-flowering-shrubs.html

By separating the words with a dash tells the search engines that individual words are represented.

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Database driven sites often create dynamic URL's. These dynamic URL's lack keywords. Consider masking the dynamic URL for SEO purposes.

Here is an example of a dynamic URL:
www.yourcompany.com/results.asp?cc=KGYH&b=30&catID=11

Here is the same web page using a masked URL:
www.yourcompany.com/The-Best-Products-Money-Can-Buy.htm

Library

Recent and Relevant Reading

 Recession Marketing
"There are four crucial investments you need to make to ensure a long-lasting return on your internet marketing."

SEO Tips for Product Pages
"The SEO benefits of product pages can often be overlooked, with many just offering basic product details, photos and a brief description."

The Basics of Local Online Advertising
"With all the avenues available for reaching customers online, it's important to be able to determine what is working and what isn't."

Website Design - The In's and Out's of Using Flash for Flare
"While Flash can radically enhance the appeal of website, it does come with a couple of caveats. If you're a business looking to employ Flash to add spice to your website, there are a few things both positive and negative to be aware of that may affect you depending on what your target goals are."

Designing or Redesigning Your Web Site - Has The Time Come?
"Whether you've had your Web site for two years or ten, it might be time for a change."

Got Duplicate Content? Don't Let It Dilute Your SEO Efforts
"There's really nothing wrong with having multiple versions of a page co-exist on your website. Sure, there's some redundancy, but it won't break the Internet. However, the problem arises when the same page lives in different sections on your site AND it has different URLs. Then it's considered duplicate content by the search engines."

Sound Investments For Your Web Site
"Regardless of the purpose of your website, selling stuff, getting leads, or page views, utilizing these three methods of website improvement will pay off far beyond your investment in a specialist, in-house training, attending a seminar, or however you choose to get it done."

Observations

People Want To Buy Stuff

Data is pouring in from different places about how people use the Internet to do research before they buy.

It is going to be next to impossible to get real-time inventory data on live goods at the local garden center / nursery until RFID systems are ubiquitous.

Regardless, Internet users want to know what you have. Here is a chart that shows what they are doing:



Click here to see the full size graph.


Yes, they are doing research on the Internet and going to the store to purchase ... in a combination of scenario's.

The chart below shows what they influence of the Internet and in-store combinations:



Click here to see the full size graph.

Web Site Design Mistakes
Animation and Flash

Studies show that users of your web site want to get down to business starting in the upper left hand corner.

The use of animation and Flash are a distraction, plus they may inhibit the successful crawl of a search engine spider.

To be sure you get crawled thoroughly, keep important content in HTML and use Flash as an additive or "accessory".

Stick with html based web design and provide colorful images and great content that convey the emotion and the message that is compelling to your customer, and you will be on your way.

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An alternative to Flash is to have animated .gif, but that has some limitations. An animated .gif will not fade in and fade out. The images will simply jump from one image to another.

We built a web site for MattMartin.tv and utilized Flash to display images that tell his story.
Click here to see the page.

The trick to using Flash on the html page is to place the Flash source code as far down as you can so the upper parts of the page can be read by the search engine spiders.

There is some great content on the web about Web Animation. Here is a good source.

Do you have some examples of using web animation on your site?

Please share.

Thanks,

Steve

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Definition)
Title Tags

Making your web site visible to the search engines is VERY important. These days, web site designers are not SEO Engineers too. Finding both attributes in the same person is extremely rare, but not impossible.

For starters, let's address the Title Tag. The Title Tag is found at the very top of your web page (at the top of the screen) as a blue bar. In the blue bar is the text that defines the page.

Best practices for the Title Tags are to make the Tag words very specific to the content of the page. A classic mistake is to have Title Tag on every page be the name or your company.

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Title Tags (and pages) should be selected and titled according to the popularity of the chosen search term (keyword) for the page.

Build one page at a time, and design the page with the objective of teaching the search engines to land there for a specific keyword.
It all starts with the title tag.

Here is a link to Title Tag best practices.

Here is an example of someone who used the title tag to include some geographical informaton as well. There are issues with some of the other attributes of the page that I don't agree with, but as far as the Title Tag goes, he is heading in the right direction.

Do you have examples of Title Tag optimization that is working for you?

Thanks for sharing,

Steve

Statistics

The Influence of Search on In-Store Purchasing

In 2005, less than 5% of all retail sales was eCommerce. That means that 95% was catalog and in-store sales.

Of in-store sales, almost 70% was influenced by research on the Internet before going to the store to buy. In the consumer electronics space, almost 90% of purchases were influenced by the research on the web.

We've heard that the consumer is overwhelmed by the local nursery and garden center. Might using the Internet to research your store break-down the barrier to entry for the consumer?

Might a portfolio of images of 'Outdoor Living Spaces' be an influential idea generator for landscaping services.

These are ideas that are inexpensive to implement, and ones you can take to the bank.

If you are one of the ones that says (or thinks) "I don't sell on the Internet, so I don't need to advertise or have a web site", then you SERIOUSLY need to reconsider the facts.

Here is a chart that shows the influence of the Internet on local in-store purchasing.

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Here is a recent article from the New York Times titled: Small Companies Are Finding A Home On The Web.

One of the quotes in the article that caught my eye was this:
"In its first survey of small-business Web sites last April, Jupiter Research found that just 36 percent of all businesses with fewer than 100 employees had a Web presence.

So don't just run out to your nephew and post a half-baked web site. Make it a professional representation of who you are, and the way you do business, and it will significantly influence in-store purchasing.

Do you have a web site that you feel is professional? Please share it with us.

Thanks for sharing.

Steve

Trends Number of Searches Growing I recently was at a Search Conference and the presenter stated that the number or searches per person was currently at 40 searches per month. He said that 65 searches per month would be the number in 2010. That is a 60% increase per person. Searches Per Day (Millions) Per Month (Millions) Google 91 2,733 Yahoo 60 1,792 MSN 28 845 AOL 16 486 Ask 13 378 Others 6 166 Total 213 6,400

The numbers above are how many searches happened within the United States in March 2006, based on comScore figures.

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Another interesting note about searching is that 40% of all searches have a geographical modifier. For example, let's do a search on Google for the word landscaping. Notice the results are mostly content sites like about.com and hgtv etc.

There is NO WAY your small landscape company is going to show up in a search for landscaping unless you do the sponsored ads on the right side of the page.

So having a geographical modifier on your pages makes a lot of sense because the Internet searcher is going to have to add a geograhical modifier in order to get relevant results.

Do you have pages that are geogrpahically optimized? If so, please share them with us.

Thanks for sharing,

Steve

On the flight home from the ANLA Management Clinic 2008 I was reflecting on what had just happened.

For 3 nights in a row, Andy Hull (acting as Vanna White for the evening) and I interacted with just short of 200 people, and reviewed nearly 150 web sites for message and Search Engine Optimzation techniques. All 150 web sites failed the examination.

So the thoughts on the plane ride were along the lines of :

"How are these green industry businesses getting this information ?"   

"Well they aren't !" 

"Is a once-a-year conference going to be enough to make a difference ?"

"Nope."

(Note I was not actually talking to myself - well, atleast not audibly)



So then came the Ah-ha moment. I need to transorm my "ranting blog" into an informative newsletter and blog combination that allows for education and discussion.

So here goes friends, the first thread in what is now:

Dot Common Sense - Internet Advertising Insight for the Green Industry.

There will be a newsletter covering assortied topics as part of the Dot Common Sense offering. Each topic in the newsletter will be covered here as an opportunity for discussion.

Please chime-in.


See you online.

Steve