Many of our clients ask us about “meta tags” when we perform fundamental search engine optimization techniques. Our reply? Don’t waste your time. Here’s the story of the death of the meta tag keywords attribute.

First a little history on the meta tag keywords attribute or what is popularly know as “meta tags”.

According to Wikipedia, the meta tag keywords attribute “was popularized in 1995 by search engines such as Infoseek and AltaVista.” Use of the meta tag keyword attribute quickly exploded until in late 1997, search engines realized the majority of information in meta tags like the keywords attribute was unreliable. This lead to dropping the support of the meta tag keywords attribute in 1998.

From 1998 till now, search engines have continued to drop support for the meta tag keywords attribute altogether. Google and Bing never supported it. Yahoo! drove the nail in the coffin by announcing at SMX East they stopped supporting the meta tag keywords attribute months ago.  We’re safe to call the meta tag keywords attribute dead in the water.

In fact, on page optimization, where you craft titles, descriptions, keywords and copy to be optimized for a specific topic has slowly dropped in importance. Take a look at the seoMoz 2009 search engine ranking factors survey and collectively only one on page optimization tactic, “Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag”,  made the top five most important factors. What was number one? “Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links.”

What do you want to know about search engine optimization?

Last week Google redesigned the local business results ten pack, well formerly ten pack. Now it’s a seven pack, but we’ll get into those implications in a bit.

The local business results are the map plus business listings that appear when you search for a product or service local businesses provide. Google figures, since you’re not going to travel to the ends of the earth for carpet cleaning or a dentist, they’ll show you local results along with or often above their national or global search results.

The old local business results ten pack was information rich, but user experience challenged. Take a look below at a screenshot of the former local business results design.

The information on the old local business results is packed together tightly.

The new local business results feel like a breath of fresh air for the weary searcher. You’ll see there’s still a ABC ordering system, though the new results have a map locator icon next to each listing. This makes scanning the listings so much easier. The white space between each listing helps you focus on each one individually. The map sized has increased as well, further separating each listing icon on the map for an easier sense of location.

New local business results.

As you can see the changes also made the entire pack taller. Google compensated by eliminating three of the listings—from ten to seven. Our jump from ninth to fifth on the list when searching for “web design” in Orlando helped us stay in the new pack, though if you’re not in the top seven, you’re no longer on page one. Local search optimization is that much more critical now that this change increased competition for the top seven spots.

Got it, now what?

Is your company or employer in the local search engines? How has it affected you?

Getting the right equilibrium in your search engine optimization (SEO) and a profitable user experience can be a challenge. It seems that most companies error on favoring one strategy over the other. 

For example your company may be stuffing the same keywords into every “alt” tag navigation graphic. This detracts from the user experience by making the page slower to load or visually impaired for page viewers.

Or your company maybe maximizing usability without concern for SEO by streamlining the homepage and other relevant pages, making it as simple and non-relvent as possible. Allowing search engines nothing to sink their teeth into to identify appropriate keywords for your business. 

When SEO is used properly it can enhance the usability of the site for the user and visa versa, usability, when used properly enhances the search engines findability of the site.

Think of your internal hierarchical linking structure for both your users and search engines, you want users to link to you because the more relevant links you have the more Google see them as votes and the more votes you have search engines see you as a authority in your business, and this ultimately helps your site climb to the top of search engines which increases your ROI. 

Want to see what type of synergy you are creating on your site. Fill out our “Get A Free Quote” form and put in the comment section “free google analytics report” to start tracking your sites performance today!

Can you predict your company’s marketing ROI (return on investment) for 2009 or the years to come from a simple ad campaign, television spot, or billboard?  It seems as though smart businesses are focusing on the highest ROI for their marketing dollars—the web. Top internet gurus think in 2009, business owners will be focusing on conversion rates supported by actual reports/statistics, something the web gives you easily.

Here’s a great video that was forwarded to me over the weekend, “You Down With ROI?… Yeah You Know Me” from renowned businessman and internet celebrity, Gary Vaynerchuk.

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/10/08/you-down-with-roiyeah-you-know-me/

How do you plan to measure the ROI on your marketing this year?

Rise Creative Group is eager to announce top placement in our organic search marketing campaign for Car People Marketing. Rise Creative Group has remained focused on securing and maintaining targeted keyword positions for Car People Marketing in their efforts to gain top ranking in a fast-paced, ultra-competitive SEO market. Top placement includes the coveted organic search results of Google, Yahoo, MSN and all major search engines. Car People Marketing’s internet rankings have achieved six (6) top positions over the last three (3) months and have driven the highest volume of traffic among all of their online initiatives.

The benefit of targeted key word optimization and placement has enticed the savviest of companies to come out and compete for website traffic, global search exposure and substantial gains in new business revenues. Imagine what a comprehensive search marketing strategy could do for your company—call Rise Creative Group for your SEO analysis today!

Certain people have a keen way of just saying what they mean and others insist on guiding you through a crafted journey that ultimately persuades the same conclusion. At Rise, we’re the latter. We thrive on the journey the user takes and we feed off our ability to provide well crafted ethical persuasions. At heart, we side with our form in the proverbial debate that is: content vs. form. On a long day of code munching and laffy taffy use, knowing that our well tailored path (or form) is the ultimate contributor in a successful conversion, truly makes the invasive sugary goo in the back of our mouths that much sweeter.

But how do we really do it?

We use a concept that, according to Web Design for ROI, has been around for some time; yet, its potential and influence often go overlooked. Landing pages organize a user’s path and in return provide a desired action. More often than not, landing pages miss the mark because they lack in being clear, obvious, and concise. Attempts at being subtle, mysterious, wordy, or even timid dreadfully drive potential clients to the competitor or away all together. It’s important to note that when a new user is searching out a solution, they’re on a quest and the most effective course of action is to provide, yes you’ve guessed it, clear, obvious, and concise answers.

As a designer, these 8 methods exist as my fundamental checklist for a landing page.

I |  Integrate Your Entire Sales Cycle
Landing pages should lend a particular air of confidence because they consciously examine the entire “sales cycle.” When formatting content, it’s important to take into account the types of users that will potentially find one’s service the slightest bit motivating. If the page proves convincing, it must reinforce interest, instill desire, and ultimately guide the user to take action.

II |  Simplify and Separate
When it comes to landing pages, some elect to keep the overall website design and others argue that one should simplify the landing page to focus on the offer. At Rise, we’re firm believers in a hybrid of both techniques. We consider an end user to be extremely experienced in what to ignore on the internet so having too much could easily make a user feel choked and too little may possibly lack in confidence and grant minimal to no success.

III |  Provide an Extension of Your Ad
It is no coincidence that running an ad can become an expensive and timely undertaking; hence the use of similar ad’s or those that don’t divert from the original. With a landing page, it is important to repeat the offer that instills the desire the brand has infused. The landing page must recall the extension from which it arrived and determine the persona that chose to click. Some come via Google Ad’s, others discover the site in print, or discovered through an organic search. All three distinct systems lend themselves useful for tracking purposes.

IV |  Offer Segmenting Option for Different Audiences
It’s sometime unclear how someone will arrive at your landing page, so it’s key to offer segmenting options to the minority. This can be prepared with mini-ads that correspond with each possible extension. The key is to make them visible and not hide them in a drop down or subsequent choice which the end user will need to make. Creating segmenting options cumbersome will provide unsuccessful results.

V |  Use Compelling Copy
Glossy facts and call to actions are important, but not individually compelling; so, it’s imperative to speak to visitors directly. Drowning visitors in code speak will hastily destroy any sort of connection. As you would in any semi-formal setting with a client, explaining things calmly and patiently delivers the best outcome.

VI | Engage Visitor by Relating
Knowing what your visitor cares about is more important for conversion than what you may “think” they care about. Studying your personas and targeting common concerns allow one to effectively determine how to structure comprehensive copy, graphical content, and even what sorts of media to utilize. Knowing and relating to the audience creates a reoccurring relationship.

VII | Clear Call to Action
Of all the nuances that make up an effective landing page, the one that should be understandable to a designer and most importantly to a visitor is the call to action. It is at the epicenter of a landing page and one should be lead there with no mysterious contest. All the elements on a landing page support the “actionable” words whether they read “Add Now” or “Sign Up”; they all guide the visitor to take action.

VIII | Have a safety valve
We can try to plan for every scenario, but it’s inevitable that one or two visitors may miss the boat on a clear path toward further exploration. Some are simply not ready to take the primary offer. Like any risk, one should always carry some form of security. Nothing is truer than when it comes to landing pages. Having a “safety valve” allows the visitor the ability to journey through other substantial yet simpler content. This secondary measure emphasizes the confidence a visitor should enjoy to eventually return to the principal offer.

Though there are over 30 ways to guide yourself with a landing page alone using just Web Design for ROI, these aforementioned methods are the select that stand proudly over the others that I reflect in my use.

What do you use?

In a world of e-revolution, where electronic store fronts are taking a competitive marketing approach, your organic internet search placement is becoming crucial for success. A normal query on a search engine often turns up hundreds if not thousands of matching web pages and only ten matches are displayed on the first page — are you in the top ten?

If you’re not in position one on the first page, third or fourth can be just as beneficial. Of course the higher your site is positioned, the higher its exposure and opportunities for capturing visits from engaged customers. Top ranking gets an estimated 56% of the clicks from searches. Second and third place get about 14% and 12% respectively. It pays to be number one.

As we all know, there is no Search Engine Optimization (SEO) formula for placement, just methods to follow to beat out your competition and obtain higher rankings.

Steps to Success in Search Engines

There are many steps to getting top placement online. 

The first step in obtaining better search placement is to make sure you have significant rich text content that pertains to your business on your site. Keyword rich content helps catch the attention of the search engines and is key in generating and converting more traffic.

Another important step would be the process of link building. Link building allows you to create in-bound links to your website by ways of reciprocal links, newsletters, directories, search engines, and more. Link building is a program of enhancing a site’s link popularity through link placement on other relevant and authoritative sources.

Landing Pages Make the Difference

Let’s say you’ve obtained first page rankings on the most popular search engine out there and are seeing a major spike in visits, but conversions simply haven’t followed the same trend. Perhaps your landing pages — pages that visitors first see upon clicking a link to your site from an email, search engine, or other source — are not performing as well as they could. Having effective landing pages is critical for success. For example, the reader might find more information, register for an event, fill out a survey or make a product purchase on a landing page, but none of this can occur if the user is confused about what actions he or she should take next. Make certain that each page of your site is organized, well thought out, and constructed to see visitors through the conversion process. Every page on your site can be considered a landing page, as each could bring in links from outside sources based upon keywords and phrases, so no page should be considered less important than another.

Experience Delivers Results

Although there is no exact formula for Search Engine Optimization there are great methods in place which allow you to build your presence online and keep it there. It may take an aggressive approach to your online strategic marketing plan, but you’re top rankings will set you apart from your competitors and enable you to dominate your field.

TALK BACK

Let us know how being on top of search engines in your field has helped you dominate the marketplace.

Website? Check. Traffic? Not sure. Conversions? Huh?

You must learn how to market your site to bring customers that convert.

GETTING STARTED:

Getting started, you need to have a plan in place, a web site marketing strategy. Without planning you have no direction to follow. So think about WHO you are wanting to target. WHAT their needs are once they get to your site. WHEN and how often will they need what your company has to offer them. And HOW you can get them to convert into a sale or a qualified business lead!

Promotional strategies will help narrow down what works for your company, don’t be afraid to try several at once, this will help you narrow down what is working and what isn’t. With the popularity of the internet you have so many ways you can test market what your company is selling; i.e. search engine campaigns, email marketing campaigns, forums, pay-per-click campaigns, web site optimization, writing press releases, social networks, blogging, etc.

YOU’RE HALF WAY THERE:

What is your return of marketing investment (ROMI). By keeping track of how much money you’re investing in your marketing strategy campaign verses the profit you are receiving in return will help navigate your efforts. Consistent marketing efforts will grow your return of marketing investment.

Analyze your web site traffic. Know who has been visiting, how long they spent on your site, what keywords they used to find you and if they converted in a customer. By the analysis of your traffic you will be able to figure out the keys to success and what is working on your web site to continue to drive qualified traffic.

YOUR SUCCESS:

Test, monitor and track your results. To perfect your web site marketing strategy you must constantly keep track of what is working and not working and keep trying new things to refine your strategy plan that generates a great return on the money you are investing. Also look to monitor the keywords your audience uses to search for you. You can learn how to optimize your web pages for higher search engine rankings and attract more qualified visitors with this valuable information.

Need help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and internet marketing please contact www.risecreativegroup.com for more information.

You’ve seen it before, the common day-to-day unfolding of most organizations. They start somewhere between a second serving of coffee and a verbal rehash of yesterday’s news. Between the foreseeable dehydration and irrelevant debate, few decisions are made about the state of their web presence. What is far more daunting is that when the website is considered a topic of discussion, nothing profound or progressive pushes the rhetoric further than the aesthetic of the website.

Granted, to those involved in filling a 9 to 5 block, it may seem like time well spent picking pretty colors and finding more reasons for the website to “Pop!”. Unfortunately, these sorts of discussions are not sufficient in understanding the impact of an organizations website. Those in charge of making big decisions must come to terms with the idea that their website is an investment and should be cared for with the same amount of discipline. To those in the know, such accusations may come off as unsound or irrelevant due to the adoption rate of the internet. However, the affects of the internet along with simply having a website do not guarantee results.

I challenge you to examine your next company meeting and see if John-Doe from marketing is determine to send out his polished mailers or Jane from sales is set on buying more leads. If the latter describes your organization’s current state of investment, loosely, then I invite you to read on. On the other hand, if you’re fortunate and your company’s adoption characteristic in conversions is what Geoffrey Moore describes as pre-chasm(early adopters and or visionaries) in his book “Crossing the Chasm”, then we commend you and invite you to read for leisure. For those of us in the early majority, let me focus on the opportunity of converting a return on investment through the explorations in Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus’ book “Web Design for ROI.”

According to Loveday and Niehaus, certain organizations are plagued never to maximize a return on investment because they insist on making adjustments for the web in a traditional quantitative approach. Slow adopting organizations have quickly found themselves spending quality time pointing the finger at one another resulting in adverse discourse and no real solutions. Loveday and Niehaus suggest that the circular blame pointing desperately needs to end. They insist that it starts with the leaders of set organizations believing in the adoption of a strategic approach to web site design. Their research suggests that a strategic approach supplies impressive gains. Such gains are ultimately controlled by a combined metric: enhancing usability, a profound understanding of ones audience, and conversion optimization.

You may be asking, so what does that mean? What sort of “impressive gains” will I be making if I enhance my usability, understand my audience, or invest in my conversion optimization?

Initially, we’re provide a spectrum of evidence, but encouraged not to think how a site redesign will double our sales. The goal is to encourage one to think about how the design can improve the user experience and therefore positively improve business metrics.

Initial Numbers & Charts for those of you who enjoy them:

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Loveday and Niehaus express that their experience falls around these same findings and they’ve seen gains of 30% to 1,000% as a result of of conversion optimization. However, the test of estimating your likely return will depend on many factors; including, ones industry, objectives, online strategies, your site’s quality, the target audience expectations, and the competitive environment.

If you haven’t noticed, the motif that is unfolding is an organization’s need for self reflection. Spending the time to explore this approach from the inside-out as well as from the outside-in, is crucial. Accordingly, Loveday and Niehaus draw parallels of this system to a sales funnel. In the business case of acquiring more sales there are two obvious choices: drive more traffic, which yields a proportional gain; or, adopt an active focus on one’s conversion rate to yield transcending gains. Using the sales funnel analogy one can determine that the conflict is whether to put more into the funnel only to produce slow and costly results or widening the bottom of the sales funnel and achieve a higher conversation rate at a lower cost. Using their simplified metric, we can see charted results that once were unimaginable. Note, Loveday and Niehaus mention that the numbers are rarely this clear and easy but used in the following example for clarity and encourage one to conduct a similar exercise adjusting as needed.

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Ultimately, conversion optimization is “the gift that keeps on giving” because it’s biggest asset is time. The beneficial element of increasing conversion is that it consists of a one-time cost with an ongoing benefit. Buying traffic is a one-time cost with a one time benefit that can become costly. An organization must spend the same amount to purchase traffic each month or else traffic diminishes.

So conversion optimization is the ideal method for succussful ROI. What next? Easy, managing your ROI, of course. In our next session we’ll discuss principles for successfully managing web sites for optimal ROI.

As you were.