There are several free and paid keyword research tools ... Today's sophisticated analytics tools can also help you under
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE
STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
One day your website is on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and the next day you are nowhere to be found. While it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what happened to create such a change, the fact is that search engine algorithms are being modified all the time. What was once considered an important factor in determining your search engine visibility has been replaced by something new.
The resources referenced herein are not affiliated with Brother™ nor does Brother™ endorse or make any representation or warranty regarding success of use. Brother™ engaged Prime Visibility, an awardwinning digital marketing agency, to compile this guide , How to Help Make Your Website Stand Out in the Search Engines. All trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owner.
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
So what are some of the secrets that can help make your website stand out in the search engines that exist today? How can you work toward achieving and maintaining higher rankings and better visibility? By implementing and keeping up to date with search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) best practices. Whether you are new to these strategies or want to improve your campaigns, here are 10 tips for getting the most out of your digital marketing efforts.
Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization, also called organic search engine optimization, is the methodology used to help a website rank higher in the SERPs when a search query is entered for a keyword related to the website’s content. Websites that rank on page one or two of the SERPs typically will have higher click through rates (CTRs) since searchers usually do not look beyond page two. There are many factors that can help contribute to a website’s rankings. Some things are within your control, (e.g., content and title tags), and some things aren’t (e.g., search engine algorithm updates). The smartest way to help position your website for success is to utilize SEO strategies and best practices. These “white hat” techniques are not meant to “trick” the search engines, rather they are meant to give the human user valuable and useful information that is relevant to their search query.
MAJOR BENEFITS OF SEO Help obtain highly targeted traffic to your website Content-driven Help increase brand awareness and credibility Help increase opportunities for conversions/leads Connect with your local market Free or low cost Measurable
It is important to note that SEO is not a quick fix; it takes time to execute and it could be weeks or even months before you’ll see any noticeable results. But SEO is a wise, long-term investment that you may want to consider to help you reach your business goals. And remember: search engine visibility and small business budgets are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many SEO techniques are free or low cost and easy to implement.
KICK-START YOUR CONTENT Need some content inspiration? Consider incorporating some of the following into your website:
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Blog
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Infographics
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Product information and how-tos
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Videos
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Product or service reviews
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Photos
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Industry updates
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Event listings
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Testimonials
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Press releases
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Seasonal product news
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
Keep the content fresh The search engines utilize the freshness of website content as part of their ranking criteria. They favor sites that are updated regularly with relevant, quality content – with an emphasis on quality over quantity. Adding product and event listings and posting reviews, videos, and blog posts are just some of the ways you can help your site stay “fresh” in the eyes of the search engines, while also providing your visitors with useful information. There are other benefits too. Good content encourages sharing through social media – and social media sharing can lead to higher quality links from trustworthy websites which may, in turn, contribute to higher rankings. Quality content can also help you build credibility and establish your business as a thought leader.
Keyword research The keyword can often be the “key” to the success (or failure) of your campaigns. Targeting the keywords that are most relevant to your business and your website content can be one of the most important factors of an SEO campaign. What you think your prospects are searching for and what they actually type into the search query box can actually be quite different. Using keyword research tools can help give you insight into how your potential customers are really searching for your product or service. There are several free and paid keyword research tools available that can help provide you with lots of keywordrelated data including:
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Estimated keyword search volume Advertiser competition Keyword variations Historical data Search trends, including seasonal trends
YOU DID YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH… NOW WHAT? Once you decide which keywords you want to target you can incorporate them into your page title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, ALT tags, and body copy. •
Title tag – This important ranking factor is what appears in the search results, as well as the top of a browser page and in tabs.
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Meta description – A snippet of information about a web page that appears in the SERP.
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Header tags – Header tags are coded as , , etc., and indicate the importance of text on a page. Typically, the H1 tag would be the headline and would be the largest text font on the page.
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ALT tags – Text descriptions of visual elements.
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Body copy – The main text on the page that is visible to the reader, such as paragraphs or a product description.
The above elements require specific HTML coding – but you don’t have to be an HTML whiz to incorporate them into your website. There are several content management systems, such as WordPress, that can help make it easy to create an SEO-friendly website.
Keyword ideas by geographic locations and languages
NOT TOO DENSE! Say “no” to keyword stuffing. In the past, keyword density was a big deal. It was believed that if you used a keyword an X% of times in your copy that your site would rank higher. This likely is not the case anymore. Search engines have become smarter and look for web pages that are relevant to the search query and that are well written. The art of SEO copywriting is to choose one or two keywords to focus on each page and then carefully include them into your copy. The writing should always sound natural, and never as if you are forcing a keyword to fit.
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
Create unique meta descriptions
Add ALT Tags
Give your prospective customers a positive first impression of your business with a carefully crafted meta description. Meta descriptions are the short snippets of copy that appear on the SERPs, and while they do not have an impact on your rankings, they can dramatically affect click-through-rates.
ALT (short for “alternative”) tags are HTML-coded text descriptions of an image. ALT tags appear if an image cannot be displayed properly and they can be helpful to visually impaired users who use software that reads the webpage aloud. It can assist them in getting a better understanding of your content.
Think of a meta description as a 156-character advertisement of your webpage and include the page’s targeted keyword, a unique selling point, and a call to action (CTA) if possible. The goal of the meta description and its messaging is to create enough interest so that your prospect clicks on the link and visits your website. SEO best practices dictates that each page should have a unique meta description written to reflect the content of that specific page. If you do not create a meta description for a page, the search engine will create one for you based on the content of the page, so it is in your best interest to take control of what you want it to say.
But ALT tags also have SEO benefits and are a frequently overlooked part of SEO strategy. Since search engine algorithms cannot read images, ALT tags give your website another opportunity to attract the attention of search engines. A brief, accurate description of your image that includes a relevant keyword if possible can help the search engines identify all the content on your website – both visuals and text. Adding ALT tags can also help your visuals show up when someone does an image search. This is especially important if you have an image-heavy site, with a limited amount of textual content.
THE DON’TS OF SEO The search engines tend to reward websites that offer positive user experiences, and penalize those that don’t. Believe it or not, there are some black hat tactics that can cause your website to actually get banned from the search engines. To avoid getting into trouble, keep in mind these SEO don’ts: •
Keyword stuffing – Excessive use of keywords is bad for the reader and for the search engines.
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Hidden text – Don’t hide your keywords in links or in text that is the same background color as the page.
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Duplicate content – Each page should have unique copy. Don’t duplicate large blocks of copy from page to page on your website, and of course, do not plagiarize another website’s copy.
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Cloaking – Cloaking, also called doorway pages, is when a page appears in the SERP but when you click on it you are brought to an entirely different page than you expected. Think of it like a bait and switch tactic.
Analyze your website Understanding your website and its visitors is critical to determining if your efforts are working effectively toward your goals. There are several free analytics platforms that can help you gain a wealth of data and insights you can use to your advantage. Learn everything from how many people are visiting your site and where they are coming from, to how long they are staying and what pages they are going to. Today’s sophisticated analytics tools can also help you understand the entire customer path from initial engagement to conversion. These multi-channel tracking and attribution modeling tools can help analyze how your digital footprint is working together, delivering metrics pertaining to your website, paid search, social media, mobile, and more. By monitoring and measuring all your campaigns you can obtain actionable data you can use to guide your decision-making.
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
Search Engine Marketing If you have a budget, you may want to consider search engine marketing (SEM). Also known as paid search or pay per click (PPC) advertising, SEM is bid-based advertising. Advertisers bid on keywords and the paid search ad will appear at the top of the SERP listings based on the search query, bid, and the relevancy of the ad and its associated landing page. Setting up a campaign is free but every time someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged the amount budgeted for that specific keyword. MAJOR BENEFITS OF PAID SEARCH The largest search engine marketing programs are Google AdWordsTM and Bing Ads, and there are Fast and easy to set up growing opportunities for paid search advertising Can highly target your message by keyword, through social media. geographic location, device, time of day, day of SEM can be a great complement to SEO. For example, you can use the data acquired from a paid search campaign to identify which keywords are converting well and include them in your SEO efforts. When used together, SEO and SEM may help improve results across-the-board.
week, and more. Full control over costs Measurable Easy to test
THE POSITIVES ABOUT NEGATIVE KEYWORDS Negative keywords prevent your ad from appearing for certain keyword search phrases that are not related to what you have to offer. Adding negative keywords to your SEM campaign can help you avoid paying for clicks that most likely wouldn’t lead to a conversion. Here are a few examples:
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For an ecommerce site that sells a particular sauce, you may want to consider adding the negative keyword “recipe” to your campaign. You don’t want clicks from people who want to learn how to make their own sauce.
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If you have a website that sells electronic gadgets and want to attract people who are in the active buying stage, you may want to add the negative keyword “reviews,” to your campaign. People search for reviews when they are in the research stage, not when they are ready to make a purchase.
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A company that sells software may want to add the negative keyword “free” to prevent an ad from appearing to people who are searching for “free software.”
Define monthly spend budget
Build keyword strategy based on goals
Small businesses often have limited budgets and you may want to consider testing the paid search waters with a modest campaign. To determine your budget, figure out the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a conversion, for example, a lead, sale, or a desired action such as a video view or document download. The total opportunity depends upon the available inventory of searches within a month for your set of keywords. There are free tools that help estimate how much money you could spend to reach that total opportunity, but it is a business decision to determine how much you should spend.
The foundation of your SEM campaign is your keywords. Every paid search ad is designed to be shown for a specific keyword. The goal is that your ad will show up at the top of the paid search advertise ments in the SERPs when a query is done for the keyword that you are bidding on. But since it is paid search, mistakes can cost you money, so it is important to choose your keywords carefully. Use keyword research tools to select top keyword phrase combinations, and remember, it is more about relevancy than volume. Try to understand how people are searching for your
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
product or service and develop your keyword strategy with that in mind. Focus on your most profitable categories and include:
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Brand and non-brand keywords – Brand keywords are keywords that contain the name of your company and can also include a branded product name.
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Close variants and misspellings – Marketers can leverage certain campaign settings that will show your ads on relevant searches for close variations of your keywords. Close variations may include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings (such as roof and roofing), abbreviations, and accents.
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Modifiers – It is suggested to expand on your generic keywords (e.g., widget) to help improve the efficiency of your suggested keyword set. You can utilize qualified modifiers such as geographic location (widgets in new york), specifications such as color (red widgets) and intent (buy widgets), to name a few. The addition of modifiers can help increase the specificity and relevancy of the keyword while potentially lowering your average cost per click.
Keep Quality Score in Mind Keyword phrases should be structured into campaigns and ad groups in accordance with Quality Score guidelines. Major search engines use the Quality Score as a way to measure how relevant users will find your paid search ad and landing page, as compared to the keyword search queries. A Quality Score is assigned to each ke yword in a campaign and ranges from 1 (lowest score) to 10 (highest score). It is all about creating a positive experience for the user. The ad copy should be relevant to the keyword, and both the keyword and ad copy, should be relevant to the landing page. A search for “women’s riding boots” should serve an ad that has copy about women’s riding boots and the ad should lead to a landing page that sells women’s riding boots. The better the user experience, the higher the Quality Score and expected click-through-rate. A higher Quality Score can be a factor in lowering cost per clicks, easing ad auction eligibility, and helping determine whether your ad is eligible for ad extension displays, sitelinks, and other ad formats. These upgraded features give you even more opportunities to attract and reach your customers. For example, sitelinks promote additional pages of your website below your standard ad copy, and a location extension includes your business address and phone number in your ad.
Write effective ad copy Adhering to best practices when it comes to writing your paid search ad copy can be beneficial in two ways. Good ad copy can help enhance your Quality Score, plus it can help boost your conversion rate. Here are some quick tips:
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Your paid search ad should include your targeted keyword, if possible, in both the ad title and the body text. You want searchers to immediately connect their search query with your ad. Search engines will sometimes “bold” keywords if they are included in the ad copy which will make your ads stand out even more.
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Write your title and body copy in initial caps, not ALL CAPS.
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Consider avoiding exclamation points!!!! But you can use other types of punctuation like periods and question marks.
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Feature your unique selling point. What do you offer that your competitors do not? Emphasize that in your ad.
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You have very limited space in a paid search ad. Choose each word carefully and consider abbreviating some words, for example use “&” instead of “and.”
Consider including a call to action – sign up, buy now, get a quote, etc. Get the user excited about taking the “next step.”
Test Ad Creative Testing is an important part of the paid search process. By testing your ad creative you can help determine which messaging resonates with searchers and leads to increased site conversions. Focus on changing one piece of your creative and test it against a control ad. The area to be tested could include adding in price, a vanity display URL, swapping placement of information from the body of the copy to the title and vice versa. Learnings can be applied to other ads within the account. Testing different variations is an effective way to evaluate your ad creative and can help you better understand what matters most to your target audience.
QUALITY SCORE CRITERIA Some of the factors that are considered when determining your Quality Score include:
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History of the account and the past click-through-rates of the keywords and ads
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Expected click-through-rates for a particular keyword Ad performance by device (mobile, desktop, tablets, etc.) Performance by geographic region Relevancy between keyword, ad, and search query Landing page relevancy and usability
HOW TO HELP MAKE YOUR WEBSITE STAND OUT IN THE SEARCH ENGINES
THE ALPHABET SOUP SEO, SEM, PPC…when it comes to digital marketing it’s like an alphabet soup of acronyms. Here are some frequently used acronyms you might come across. CPA Cost Per Acquisition. The total cost of an advertising campaign divided by the number of conversions. CPC Cost Per Click. How much an advertiser will be charged every time someone clicks on its ad. CPM Cost per thousand impressions. This is the amount advertisers pay every time an ad is displayed. CR Conversion Rate. The CR is a measurement of how many people clicked on your paid search ad, landed on your web page, and performed the desired action (i.e. filled out a form, bought a product, requested a free trial, etc.). CTR Click-Through-Rate. This is the measurement of how many people click through a paid search ad after seeing it. A higher CTR means that more people are visiting your site and can be an indication that they find your ad relevant to their needs. KPI Key Performance Indictor. The metric that is used to quantify your goals. For SEO or SEM, a KPI could be a specific conversion rate, traffic, click-through-rate, etc. PPC Pay Per Click marketing. This is another name for SEM. ROAS Return On Ad Spend. ROAS measures how much gross revenue is earned for every $1.00 of spend on advertising. Dollars sold / dollars spend = ROAS. ROI Return On Investment. ROI is the ratio of your net profit to your costs: (Profit – Cost) / Cost x 100. The difference between Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and ROI is that ROAS measures revenue, while ROI measures profits. ROAS calculates revenue based on ad spend only. ROI takes into account all the costs related to your business (overhead costs, etc.). SEM Search Engine Marketing, sometimes called paid search or pay per click marketing. SEM consists of paid ads that appear at the top of the search engine results pages. SEO Search Engine Optimization. The process of obtaining rankings for your website organically. SERP Search Engine Results Page. The web page that lists the results of a keyword query.
Gearing up for the future Since the search engine rules are always changing, you have to keep up with the trends and adapt if you want to stay competitive. Give your website the right foundation and you’ll be better prepared to handle the next big development. The good news is that search engine optimization and paid search advertising are fluid and measurable. You can quickly assess your strategies, examine your insights, and refine your initiatives accordingly.
Brother International Corporation is one of the premier providers of products for the home, home office and office. The U.S. corporate office in Bridgewater, NJ, was established on April 21, 1954 and currently markets many industrial products, home appliances and business products manufactured by its parent company, Brother Industries, Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan. Our award winning products include color and monochrome laser printers and All-in-Ones, color inkjet All-in-Ones, mobile and desktop scanners, fax machines, video-conferencing systems, label printers and P-touch electronic labelers. Learn more about Brother Office Products at www.brother.com.