The SERPs Are Serving Up Interesting Results

I was doing some research on fitness the other day and got some really shocking search engine result pages (SERPs). After doing a search on “hiit workouts,” I saw the following universal search result.

At first glance, there‘s nothing too interesting about it.  So I quickly scanned down to the bottom of the page and nearly clicked on what I thought was the last listing.

Wait a minute! I’ve seen Google put PPC ads at the bottom of the screen when there are other ads at the top and side, but this is the first time I’ve seen the ads only on the bottom of the page. I certainly have banner blindness when I look at the SERPs (that’s probably a product of being in SEO). Others must be experiencing this same banner blindness, or so it seems, as Google has decided to switch things up a bit and test.

After seeing this, I started re-examining other things in the SERPS. I know that some of these things are fairly standard, but I wanted to point them out anyway.

Let’s start at the top of the page.

As you can see, Google is now listing site links on one line under the meta description or snippet they pull from the page content. You’ll also notice that there is an option to block all results from the same site. Why does Google even show this option? If they didn’tt trust the site, why would they rank it in the first position with site links?

Over the next few hours I watched for what I will call “the block option” as I did searches. It seemed to appear randomly. Then I turned to my good friend Google and found a support page explaining the blocked sites option. Basically, if you go to a page and leave it immediately, Google will give you the option to block that site and all its pages in future searches. So now the question is whether or not this is a metric that Google looks at in the rankings. What does it say when someone doesn’t just bounce back out but blocks the site, too?

On to the next points of interest further down the SERPs. We have forum links–nothing new here. This feature has been around for a number of years. It started showing up sometime around 2009.

The way the videos are displaying in the universal searches is where things really start to become interesting.

Notice that two of the videos have additional links under them. Cassey Ho has her Google+ profile link – the one that says “by Cassey Ho,” and a link to an advanced Google search for the words “more by Cassey Ho”. Note that these links are missing from the other video. I wanted to see why the links would show up for the one but not the other. There are a few metrics that might have made the difference.

First, let’s look at the Google+ pages. I went looking for Google+ profiles for both users. I was only able to find the one for Cassey Ho. Illsun doesn’t seem to have one. I thought, when I first noticed this, that the link had to be showing up as a result of the rel=author attribute that rolled out recently.

Notice that, in the introduction of the ‘about’ section of Cassey’s Google+ profile, there are links to a number of her other profiles. None of those links, however, have rel=author or the rel=contributer (the reciprocating tag to rel=author on any Google+ page) tags associated with them. These links should have been placed in the other profiles section which currently has one broken link. So at the end of Round 1- Cassey 1 : Illsun 0.

Next, let’s look at the differences between their channels. I’ll start with Illsun’s channel.

Illsun has a respectable number of subscribers and video views. I was actually really impressed with his number of video views for only having 11 videos. I am showing the video tab because it seems to have more relevant content to the discussion at hand.

Cassey’s channel looks much different.

You’ll notice right off the bat that it has a custom header at the top. This indicates that she is part of the YouTube Partnership program. Next, I noticed 46 thousand subscribers and 4 million video views. To be fair, Cassey has 71 videos to help her out along the way. Check out the right side bar. She has links to her main channel, which happens to have 85 thousand subscribers along with 11 million views. She then links to her Twitter, Google+, blog, website, Facebook, Tumblr, Pintrest, and Instagram.  End of Round 2- Cassey 2 : Illsun 0.

Finally, I wanted to check rankings from a number of different devices to see how it differs according to devices and different settings. Oddly enough, Illsun’s video shows up more often and always higher than Cassey Ho’s videos for “hiit workout” along with other related workout terms. So Round 3- Cassey 2 : Illsun 1.

After considering these SERPs there were a few questions for me.

1. How often, why and when does Google display ads only on the bottom of a search?
2. Why did Cassey have the link to her Google+ profile page and the customized search, and how can I do the same?
3. What triggers these links to show up (sometimes I saw her videos without the links)?
4. With so many things going for Cassey, how is it that Illsun’s video still outranks hers so often?
5. Does being a YouTube partner have anything to do with the links showing up in the results?

The SERPs are changing constantly, but understanding how to use the existing SERPs landscape to help in rankings is powerful. I’ll be monitoring the SERPS to see how these new displays can help us improve click through and see if I can figure out some of the questions this blog post has raised.

If anyone has thoughts on any of the questions listed above, let me know in the comments below.

What Is Going On In The SERPs? is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

After a number of years working at an SEO services agency I have monitored, worked on, analyzed, and overseen many projects across nearly as many industries. Some of these projects were successful beyond both the clients’ and our expectations while others struggled to climb the in rankings. I have been very careful to note the similarities between the campaigns that have the most success.

Some companies assume that their success is directly related to the amount of resources dedicated to that campaign by the agency. Although the budget an agency is given dictates what resources they can use in a campaign, I have found a number of things that companies can do to maximize their results, whatever their budget. The following is not intended to be all-inclusive, but even adopting a few of these suggestions can greatly improve your SEO spending.

1. Update Your Site With Relevant, Quality Content

It should come as no surprise that a site is no better than what it contains. Content can including videos, interactive games, pictures, graphics, audio recordings, written information, forums, and blogs just to list a few. Regardless of how much an agency or individual promotes a site, if the site does not contain content relevant to the search, it will be more difficult to consistently rank well for that search term.

2. Provide Content For Your SEO Team’s Efforts Across The Web

I have worked on campaigns that range from high-end summer camps for teenagers to companies that help large corporations manage their network infrastructure with IPv4/IPv6 support. For some reason I, along with 90% of the population, would have a hard time speaking authoritatively about the nuances of IP address management and related topics.

A professional  SEO company can employ many different link building strategies that use content across the Web. Some of this content can be generated by writers at the agency and then published under a pseudonym, but this becomes exponentially more difficult if the subject is very specialized. Use your SEO agency to show off the industry experts that are already in your company. The one down side to writing under the names of the experts in your company is when they move on to another company you no longer have your expert. This is when pseudonyms come in handy.

3. Implement Suggested Changes To Sites (After Everyone’s On The Same Page) Quickly

Nearly every online marketing company will provide suggestion on how to better optimize your website. In its simplest form, search engine optimization is made up of two major parts: optimizing the site, and promoting it around the Web. From large corporate sites to small startups, getting the necessary changes made usually takes more time than one would expect. Each site has its own unique set of limitations that can cause problems. Generally, the person or team who built the site is going to be more familiar with these limitations and know how to work with them. If you no longer have access to those people, most search engine marketing companies should have resources, or trusted partners that can help make these changes.

There is a time delay between when those changes are made and when you see the results, though, so it is important to get it done correctly and in a timely manner. And remember: just because you have completed one set of changes that doesn’t mean you won’t be asked to make some more. A site can never be fully optimized for SEO let alone all the other parts of online marketing and there is always something more you can do to improve your rankings.

4. Discuss Major Changes To The Site With Your SEO Team Before Making Them

All too often I have had companies optimize their sites only to turn around and change everything again a few months later. Large websites often make this mistake because internal teams are not communicating. Whether the communication gap exists internally or between the agency and your company, it is more of chasm that can gulp up months of progress in seconds. Consider your agency an extension of your marketing team. Consult with them on everything from large, site-wide changes to any little modifications that you plan to make on the optimized pages. This will keep your campaign moving forward in a positive direction and give you greater ROI on your SEO budget.

5. Be Committed For The Long Haul

Companies sometimes come to me two or three months before their peak season and ask what we can do for them. Unfortunately, SEO results don’t happen overnight. If you want to increase your marketing budget to include SEO, consider doing it well in advance of your peak earning season so you will have plenty of time to rank.

If you don’t have time to climb the rankings before hitting this season you should think of any work done this time as an investment and head start on next season. Be committed to having an SEO campaign for years not months. You should be able to see progress, movement and patterns established in three to five months, but the most successful campaigns I have seen are ones that are years old. Don’t worry. I am not saying that it takes years to get a good ROI, but rather that just like good cheese or wines, SEO campaigns simply get better with time under the right conditions.

6. Be Open About Your Business And What Makes You The Most Money

This has got to be one of the biggest things you can do to help get the most out of your SEO budget. As a SEO expert I can take a look at keywords, words that could potentially drive traffic to your site, in any industry and come up with some potentially profitable solutions. What I don’t know is what products or services you would most like to sell. Maybe the basic service package you offer is actually the one with the best profit margins. Some businesses are apprehensive when it comes to sharing details about profits and profit margins. Just get your SEO company to sign a non-disclosure and move forward. Once I know what makes the client more money, I am better able to provide not just rankings but ROI.

7. Identify Goals With The Agency

Determine what you want from the beginning of the campaign. Are you looking for pure ROI, traffic, rankings on specific terms? What is the measuring stick for success? Goals are an important part of any project. SEO, as stated previously, is a long term marketing strategy, and setting goals all along the way will help you determine if a campaign is on the right path.

I want to issue a few words of warning, here. Often people come to us and say: “I want to show up on the first page when people type “door” into the search engine.” As a search marketer I know that although I could potentially get you ranked for door, or any other major term, it would probably come at a high cost, require a lot of time, and potentially not convert all that well. Be sure all parties involved have good input on these goals. Set some short-, medium- and long-term goals at the start of the campaign with the short-term goals getting you closer to your medium-term goals and so forth. Also be sure that you have a good way to quantify and measure your progress. Tracking comes in many forms and could be a blog post in itself, though, so I am going to leave it at that.

8. Identify The Largest Roadblocks To Your Goals And Help Remove Them

After your goals are identified, look to see what is keeping you from achieving them. Once you identify these roadblocks look for ways that you can help remove them. I have yet to see a roadblock that would not benefit from, and often require, the client’s help. The two most common roadblocks that I see come up in SEO campaigns are fixing issues with the website to make it more search engine friendly, and getting internal decisions made in large corporations. (Both of these items are addressed in other points in greater detail.)

9. Coordinate Efforts With The Agency Team

The larger the campaign, the more important coordination becomes. Often, after starting an SEO campaign, I learn of other efforts that the company is undertaking to promote themselves online. It is not uncommon to have large corporations come to us that already have other companies to take care of PPC (paid advertisement through Google and other sources) press releases, and social media among others. It is great to have all these teams to their online success, but usually there is little cooperation between these different teams or companies. You can even take it a step further and see that corporations rarely manage to coordinate their online and offline efforts. Make sure everybody is on the same page. For example if you have a booth at a large tradeshow:

• Let your social media team set up a campaign around the trade show
• Write a press release about about the trade show
• Identify potential keywords that people at that specific tradeshow might look for and have your SEO team work on getting them ranked by the tradeshow

This is just one way to coordinate efforts, and there are many others. Look for opportunities to have different facets of your marketing team work together on a campaign. The combined efforts of each team will help you get more out of your online, offline and social campaigns.

10. Have Key Players On Key Calls

This has been discussed in passing in several other points, but I feel it is important to discuss it in detail. When I get on a phone call to discuss site changes I want two people in particular on the call: the person that can authorize the changes, and the person that can make them. If those two are on the call, then by the end of the call I know the approval for the suggestions has taken place, and the technical person has asked all the questions she has. Sometimes the decision maker can’t get on the phone. If that is the case put the next person closest in line on the call – whatever it takes to expedite the decision making process.

Every company has limited resources and wants to maximize their budgets for a better ROI. By implementing these points a company will find themselves getting more out of their budgets. This is not a full list of things that a company can do to maximize their budget but rather a few tips. Are there any other things you see that companies can do to get the most out of their SEO spend? Would love to hear back from you in the comments below.

10 Ways to Maximize Your SEO Budget is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

For the past few months, the SEO world has been buzzing about two major developments. First there is the comment that Matt Cutts made at South by Southwest about a new over-optimization penalty. While that potential hammer is looming over the heads of many sites, Google Webmaster Tools’ warnings are already taking the SEO world by storm. Barry Schwartz wrote a post about this on March 5 at Search Engine Land. He started out by saying

[quote]At SMX West last week Tiffany Oberoi from Google shared that Google has sent over 700,000 messages to webmasters via Google Webmaster Tools in January and February 2012. That is more than the total number of messages Google sent in 2011.[/quote]

This influx of messages seems to indicate that Google found some way to scale their messaging system, but there is no indication as to what percentage of these messages is manual vs. automatic. One of the notifications that seems to be getting sent out the most frequently is Google’s unnatural link warning:

[quote]We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.[/quote]

[quote]Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.[/quote]

So now that an “unnatural links” warning has been issued what is a webmaster to do? For the first time, webmasters and SEOs are getting warned before a penalty or a drop in ranking occurs. In the situation where a warning has been sent out but rankings have not dropped, there are a few basic strategies a webmaster might employ:

• Change the way you are link building moving forward to avoid getting penalized
• Identify potentially bad links and send a reconsideration letter to Google to show you are trying to remove them
• Ignore the warning, continue poor link building practices, and know you’re working against Google’s next algorithm update

As the last option is one that few people would ever consider, I want to go into greater detail on the first two strategies and compare potential thoughts on the pros and cons of each. If you had the same resources to dedicate to each of these two solutions, which would give you a better outcome?

Whether or not you’re innocent of the links that got the warning sent, there are reasons for choosing both options. Here are some questions you might be asking yourself along with potential answers for each strategy:

What is the best use of time moving forward after receiving this warning?

What should I do if I feel this is a manual warning?

What should I do if I feel this is an automatic warning?

What should I do if I was guilty of the links?

 What should I do if I was not guilty of the links?

Regardless of how I choose, Google will see a change in the number of new links being built or the overall number of links. Which is better? 

Whether you choose to  submit a reconsideration letter or not, one of two things is going to happen: your rankings stay the same or your rankings will drop. Google will think you were gaming the system or Google will figure those links were out of your control. It could end up good or bad for you either way you go.

Google has not given this much clarity into what they are doing, so the search engine optimization marketing world is in somewhat new territory.

These warnings are just one more reason why you need to have your Google Webmaster Tools set up properly and verified. If you don’t have a verified webmaster tools account for any site you run, do so as soon as possible.

If you’ve received this warning recently, your situation is a bit like one of those “Chose Your Own Adventure” books—Which door will you choose?

Steps to Take After Receiving an Unnatural Links Warning from Google Webmaster Tools is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Not too long ago I needed to hire a lawyer. As I looked at different attorneys in the area I turned to Google Maps to find which ones had the most reviews and most positive reviews. Although I could have done a basic search in Google I find that when looking for local services a Maps search gives me a better list for consideration. I went to visit the lawyers in person that seemed credible from the reviews that I read. After visiting with the two different lawyers I found that the reviews online were a fair representation and decided to hire the lawyer that had more reviews than the other.

As we went through our business dealings with this lawyer (I am going to call him Chris from now on to simplify things) I noticed things he did to improve the amount of reviews he was getting online. Although Chris is a lawyer, I feel many of these same tips can be applied to any person or business that offers services locally.

1- Start Early and Look For Clues

During my first with Chris he wanted to know how I found out about him. This is a common practice for businesses because it helps identify what part of their marketing budget is working. I mentioned that I looked at online reviews during this discussion and Chris said he would greatly appreciate it if I would also provide a review when the services were provided.

While a sales person is trying to build rapport with a potential client it is easy to find out how technical an individual is. Once a sale is made to a tech savvy person you can plant the idea early on that it would be great if they would share their experience online through a review or social media.

2- Emphasize the Unique Value Proposition

When I was “sold” on going with Chris he emphasized his Unique Value Proposition (UVP). As I continued through the process with Chris I noticed him talking about his UVP, not in exact words usually but the same idea was expressed over and over. Chris was telling me what I could expect through the process and what he was doing to make sure that he delivered on what I was sold on. By doing this Chris was priming me to see the things that were unique to him and his practice.

3- Repeat it Often

Although my business with Chris was not a long and drawn out process I want to give some suggestions about how you can keep the review fresh in the minds of your clients even if your services stretch over a long period of time. Usually longer service contracts have bench marks or progress points where a client can assess the progress of the campaign. Every time you provide a win for the client, fulfill something you have promised them, or reach a goal be sure to inform them. With tact and preparation, the client-facing individuals in your company can get testimonials/reviews that can be used in sales material, website testimonials, or online reviews. When a client is happy with the progress on the project it is easy to ask them for permission to use what they say as a testimony. This can be as simple as: “Thanks. We try to provide great services here at XYZ. Although we are not done, I am seeing great success in this project. I like sharing successes stories with other clients in similar situations. Can I share part of what you have said to some of my other clients?” At this point you can identify what information can be shared and how many people it can be shared with.

4- Strike While the Iron is Hot

Chris was very helpful throughout the entire process. When we got done I was happy with the end results and so was Chris. Right as we were finishing up our business together Chris expressed his happiness with the results and he said something along the lines of: “I really would appreciate it if you would write a review about the great results we achieved. Can I send you an email with a link to a location where you can write a review?” There it was. He asked for a review right after we had experienced a win together.

5- Keep it Stupid Simple (That is right I switched Kiss to mean it needs to be stupidly simple)

When I got the email that he promised he would send I noticed several things.

• There was a live link to their Google Places page. I was already in my Gmail so I easily went and wrote a review.
• Chris re-emphasized the great results we had achieved together. None of this was new to me or something that had not been mentioned before, but it kept everything fresh in my mind so I did not need to search for things to say about the process.
• He included a brief set of directions on how to provide a review.
• I was thanked for my willingness to provide a review. This made me even happier to do so.

All of this was done in two short paragraphs because word economy is very important. If you have clients with a Yahoo email then send them a link to your Yahoo local listing. Likewise if you have someone with MSN or Hotmail accounts send them to your Bing local listing. If their email is some other type use your best guess. In any of these situations it would not hurt to provide the client with links to multiple locations where they could provide an online review or become a fan, follow, like, etc. These links could include Facebook Twitter or Yelp. Remember to make it as simple as absolutely possible.

Through this entire process I was able to learn how businesses can get better reviews for their sites. If you want more reviews or testimonials it is not always as simple as asking for these reviews. There are many things along the way that you can do as a business owner to encourage people to provide these reviews though the most important thing, of course, is to always provide a quality service.

Chris is an attorney not an online marketer yet he does things that really help out his online campaign. I am not sure that he even concisely did these things to encourage more interaction online. Once a company has a process for encouraging online interaction in place, implementing it could take just a few minutes each day yet have a huge impact in an online campaign.

To learn about how local search works in more detail, watch this webinar Learn the Secrets of Google’s Local Search

Five Steps to Getting More Testimonials or Reviews is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Often times when I visit the mall, I have the same experience. I park my car next to a store with an exterior exit. That’s important for me because I need to find my car when I am finished shopping. Once I enter the mall, I wander around looking for a map. Usually the malls have kiosks in the middle of the walkways with maps nicely coded with some crazy numbering system derived from a handful of advanced non-linear equations.

This is when my first-grade reading abilities kick in- the skill where pictures speak a thousand words. After walking around for a bit, bumping into people and finding some random store I never knew existed, I exit and realize I parked on the other side of the building. All the way back to my car I’m cursing under my breath, vowing that I will never return to this labyrinth.

My experience with malls is not much different from the way search engine robots might feel when visiting websites. We lay-out what we believe is a perfectly logical website. A search engine robot visits the site, and some weird anomaly in the navigation confuses it, causing the site to be abandoned after a partial index. After a period of having the site live, we realize not all of the pages are indexed in Google.

So, what do we do? Add a sitemap.

Unfortunately, a site map written in Klingon doesn’t help the search engines. Just as I need a readable map in a mall, search engine robots will usually index a site quicker if you have a sitemap they understand.

When optimizing a site, it’s important to include a sitemap in a format that Google and other search engines can navigate. One of the most common is the XML-sitemap.  Another option is the URL list, which includes a text file with one url per line, and is saved as urllist.txt. If you have videos on your site, you can submit a sitemap with all the videos. The same thing applies to sites that provide geo data, samples of code, and news. Google can also use RSS 2.0, Atom 1.0 and mRSS feeds as sitemaps. There are even sitemaps for mobile pages.  As each XML sitemap should contain no more than 50,000 URLs, multiple sitemaps are sometimes required to index an entire site.

As of last December, Google made submitting a sitemap easier. You no longer have to specify the file type. Google will detect the file type and handle it appropriately. There are three different ways to submit a sitemap- which I’ll discuss in my next post.

Sitemaps and SEO is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

In my last post, I wrote about using keywords in your domain.  If you have already chosen a domain, you can still benefit by naming your deeper pages with keywords.

When placing keywords in the URL you can use hypens or underscores. In the past, the hyphen has been recommended, but opinions vary on which is the best practice for URLs. Earlier this year, Matt Cutts posted a video in which he stated if you are using underscores and they are working for you, don’t worry about changing them. In other words, if you are using underscores, your site won’t be penalized or banned from the search results. However, if you’re building a new site and have the choice, it is still best to use hyphens rather than underscores, because Google treats hyphens as separators between words in a URL–unlike underscores. If you want to listen to Matt’s comment, check out the youtube clip: hyphens and underscores.

Hyphens or Underscores in URLs is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

I have a friend that registered the domain name coldplaymusic.net. The .com was already bought and was parked by some domainer, so he settled for the .net. If you do a search for “Coldplay music” you will find that coldplaymusic.net is in the second page of results. This is the shocking part… The domain name was purchased about a month ago. There have been no links built to this site, and there is not a lot of content. Even with these aspects working against its rankings, the site has still managed to make it on the second page for a search with a volume of over 200 thousand searches each month.

The content on the site has been optimized, so I can’t give all the credit to the domain. However, it does suggest the importance of having keywords in your domain. Because having keywords in a domain has helped web sites show up for in particular keywords, some domains become quite valuable. Some of you might remember that the domain Pizza.com sold last year for over two million dollars. The previous owner purchased it fourteen years ago for twenty dollars. Now that is what I call a good ROI.

As with everything, you need to be moderate in how you place keywords in your domain.  You are limited to 63 characters or less in your domain (this does not include the .com, .net, or other country codes). Also, you should remember that if you have a domain like cheapviagragamblingpornreplicawatchesandmoneymakingschemes.com it will definitely look like spam to the search engines. Keep an eye out for my next post that will provide other tips to making your domain work for you.

Keywords and Domains is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

When I search for a topic in a search engine, I don’t always click on the top listing. I scan the titles and results for what seems relevant and interesting. If you want people to come to your site AFTER you are ranking well in the SERPS (search engine results pages), you need relevant and interesting content in the SERPS.

A search engine result consists of a title, description and URL. The URL that shows up is chosen by the search engines but can be influenced by how you link to your site. The other two pieces of information are also chosen by the search engines, but they can be influenced by using several different methods. Yahoo and MSN will usually use the meta description and title for your listing in the search result. Google is more arbitrary with how they display search results and will sometimes use your meta description, but will often pull a snippet of text from elsewhere on your page, depending on the search keywords. When writing the meta descriptions and titles for your site, keep in mind that your site will be judged by these in the SERPS. The better your listing looks, the better chance you have of getting people to click through.

When writing your titles make sure they are:

1. No longer than 70 characters
2. Relevant to the page and compel the reader to find out more
3. Comfortable in their keyword usage

When writing meta descriptions they should:

1. Be no longer than 160 characters
2. Contain a call to action
3. Entice the reader to find out more
4. Read smoothly

Concise titles and meta descriptions will keep your fine work from getting truncated by the search engines. Don’t underestimate the value of a well-written title and description and always take the time to write good titles and descriptions. Never leave your titles or descriptions blank.

If your site has a link in DMOZ or the Yahoo Directory, the title of that listing is sometimes used as the title in the SERPS. If you would rather have your normal title show up all the time rather than the DMOZ or Yahoo directory title, you should include the following meta tag on your site.

<meta name=”robots” content=”noodp,noydir”>

“Noodp” refers to the DMOZ and “noydir” refers to the Yahoo Directory. This code applies to all search engine bots that use DMOZ or Yahoo directory listing data.

Finally, there is the topic of sitelinks. Sitelinks typically appear when someone performs a navigational search for your company or site name. Google determines what shows up in those links by looking at how the site links internally.  Google tries to show the most prominent pages of the site to make it easier for the searcher to find the specific page of the site they are looking for. Although you don’t have complete control over your site’s sitelinks, if there is a page showing up in the sitelinks that you don’t want to show up, you can remove it through your Webmaster tools account.

So if you want people to click through to your site you need to have something good on the SERPS pages.  If you don’t have something good then get in the game and make some changes to make your listing more clickable.

Your Site is Ranked, Now What? is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

I like to learn from the world around me. As I browse the internet I look to see what makes one site successful and another one a flop. WSHome.com is one of many sites owned by Williams-Sonoma. The site has a wonderful design and feel to it. When I went to the site I could tell that they were targeting people who want high-quality luxury products. This site exudes quality in its design and also uses a lot of good SEO practices. Even though the site is huge, it maintains unique titles even on the deep pages. Along with this, the entire site has unique meta keywords for each page and unique meta descriptions. The on-page optimization seems to be good throughout most the site. The Google toolbar shows a page rank of 5 on the home page. When looking at WSHome.com’s back links they seem to have a lot of links. According to Google they have over 300 links pointing to their site. That may not seem like a lot but those familiar with looking for back links using Google will realize that this is a significant amount of back links. According to Yahoo they have over 25,000 back links.

Even with all the things that WShomes.com is doing right, they are not showing up as well as they could be in the search engine results. I took the keywords that WSHome.com was targeting on their home page and did a little research to find out how they were doing. Below is a sample of the keywords on their home page and how they are ranking for them.

I ran this report two different days to make sure that I had a good representation of how they were doing. The numbers on the left side of the dash or arrow show where they show up in Google for that particular keyword. The number on the right of the dash or arrow show how much it has moved (green arrow showing upward movement, and red arrow showing downward movement). For the most part, these keywords seem to be staying about the same. In this report the site has only three keywords on the front page. I used the Google Adwords keyword tool to see how competitive these keywords are. Below is a screen capture showing how competitive the words are.

This shows how competitive these keywords are for paid advertising in comparison to other keywords. By looking at advertising competitiveness and the number of searches for the keywords, it is fair to say that these are competitive terms.

As I looked through this site I felt that there was a need for more content on the pages. The search engines like to see unique content on the site and WSHome does have good content on their individual product pages.  However, aside from the product pages, the rest of the site doesn’t have much content. The pages look good but there is little more than navigation and links into the individual products on most pages.

The navigation needs some changes to be more search friendly. The site uses images in their navigation instead of words. Why not just make it easier for the search engine bots to do their job? At least they’ve labeled their images with alt tags.  However, it would still be better if they changed these images to words.  One benefit of doing this would be to provide keyword rich internal links to the inner pages. The other major problem with the navigation is that it uses Java Script to control the drop down menus. In general it is not a good idea to use a lot of java script in site navigation as it makes it more difficult for the search engine bots to crawl and index every page of a site.

After looking at WSHome.com I wanted to see how other Williams-Sonoma websites were doing. I looked at PBTeen.com, and just like WSHome.com, it did a good job with having unique meta tags on all of its pages. The Google toolbar page rank is only a 4 on this site. There are not as many links to this site either. Google says they have just over 200 links while Yahoo says they have 3,900. With all these numbers I expected this PBTeen.com to be doing worse in the rankings than WSHome.com. The image below shows what I found.

PBTeen seems to be doing very well in the rankings and has a fair amount of number one positions. It would seem same to assume that these keywords must be less competitive, right?  This is what the Google Adwords tool showed:

WSHome.com had a keyword with over 134,000 monthly searches on it in February but averaged 50,000 searches most months. PBTeen.com’s highest searched keyword, teen bedding, averaged over 60,000 searches most months.

Both sites have about the same amount of content on their pages and they both use images in their navigation. So why does PBTeen.com seems to be doing so much better in the rankings? Take a look at this graph showing the difference in traffic the each site.

PBTeen.com seems to have a lot more traffic. I have my feelings as to why these two sites are experiencing differences in ranking and traffic to their sites.  One reson is that PBTeen.com has a better navigation system.  PBTeen.com uses ‘breadcrumb’ naviagation which is more user freindly and also seo friendly as they add keyword rich links.  There are a couple other reasons, but I can’t give away all my secrets in one post!

Williams-Sonoma: WSHome.com Site Review is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

There are many factors that contribute to showing up well in search engine results. Some of the most important items are found on the web site themselves and are called “On-Page Optimization.” Some of the areas of concern on websites include:

• Page Title
• URL
• Meta Description
• Alt Attributes for Images
• Content

Before doing anything with On-Page Optimization (or any other SEO for that fact) you first have to choose the right keywords for your site. You can learn more about keyword research on one of our previous posts.

Page Titles

Titles are very important to on-page optimization. The titles show up at the top of the browser and are often used by search engines as the title in search engine results. The title is a good place for keywords. Make the title direct, to the point and ensure that all the pages on your site have their own unique titles. For example, a page about PVC pipes on a plumbing site could have a title of “Cheap PVC Plumbing Pipes | Joes Plumbing Supplies” (I had to use Joe the Plumber as an example, couldn’t help myself). Notice that with one long keyword term many targeted words are included. By using this keyword phrase a search engine is likely to serve this page when people search for PVC pipes, cheap PVC pipes, cheap plumbing, cheap plumbing pipes, cheap plumbing supplies etc.

URL

Often when sites are designed using a Content Management System (CMS), the URLs on deeper pages look like you just spilled a cup of alphabet soup on your desk. Sometimes these URL’s are dynamic so they change every time you visit the page, making it a huge problem for the bots to properly index the pages. Unfortunately the URLs also have nothing to do with your targeted keywords unless you want to show up for po=J0ro57v. Many CMSs have modifications that can be added to make URLs search engine friendly. For example: www.joesplumbingsupplies.com/products/pvc_pipes is a URL that is Search Engine Friendly, because it is short, descriptive, and includes relevant keywords.

Meta-Description

The meta description shows up in the code of the page. Make sure each page on your site has it’s own unique meta description tag. The meta description is often used to describe the page in the search engine results after listing the page title. Having a relevant meta description increases the chances that people will click on your listing. It can also be used to include a phone number or some other call to action.

Code Structure

When structuring the body of the site, use h1 and h2 tags. The Search Engines place a high priority on words in the h1 and h2 tags. Getting ranked first in Google will be of little worth if the content on your site is not relevant or the content is confusing. Sometimes coders forget that people are reading this page and not just some random Google bot. When designing and coding sites, always place priority on the humans coming to the web site over the search engine bots. Be cautious about what content you place in flash. Although Google can now detect the text inside of flash files it is still better to place keywords in the html surrounding the flash. Some sites use Java Script extensively for site structure and navigation. Because bots tend to get confused when reading Java Script avoid using in this way. Many coding geeks have debated whether the bold tag or the strong tag is better for SEO. According to Matt Cutts Google places the same weight on both tags

Alt Attributes

Often times when people do on-site optimization they overlook placing Alt attributes on pictures. By properly describing the pictures on a site the search engines will see that even the pictures are relevant to the keywords. By doing this you are also more likely to show up in the results when people search for images.

Content

The last point is one of the most important. Whether you have content to sell your products or your product is the content it’s important to have enough relevant content all your pages. Make sure the entire page reads smoothly and is understandable because humans buy products not search engine bots. It’s good to link out to other sites as long as they are relevant. Be careful of having too many outbound links on any one page of a site. Many people have the misconception that you build a website and then kick back and watch the money roll in. Building a website is a job that is truly never done. You should always be updating and modifying information on your sites. If you want people coming back to your site you have to give them something to come back for. By adding new content to a site you also improve your chance of ranking well in Google. Regular updates will help your site get indexed faster. Search engines will see frequently updated sites as up to date, accurate and relevant.

On-site Optimization should be the first thing you do after determining your keywords. If you follow these simple guidelines you will find that you will rank much better in search engines.

On-Page Optimization Tips is a post by SEO expert Albert Mitchell. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.