SEO and PPC should be considered children of the same parent: search marketing. Their strategies should be considered together for best results.

There is some debate in the industry if running PPC and SEO can cause cannibalization of traffic; and there have been studies suggest both a positive and a negative result. You should, therefore, monitor both initiatives closely to prevent cannibalization if present.

There are some great benefits however, including:

• Shared keyword data. Data from your PPC campaigns can help you identify your best converting keywords which can be applied to your overall strategy.
• Informed content strategy. As with keyword data, converting content from PPC may also convert well for your SEO campaign.
• More comprehensive ecommerce data. Ecommerce landing pages can also be used in your PPC campaign to move visitors directly the page where they can purchase a product.

Again, if you do run PPC and SEO programs together, monitor them closely to assure positive results from both. Using both programs can enable you to share data between campaigns making both more effective.

Marketing objectives

Seems like a simple thing, but you need to know how SEO will fit into the overall marketing objectives of your company. What will it accomplish? What do you want it to accomplish? Don’t just do SEO because everyone else is doing it. Do it for a specific reason.

Timing is everything

Don’t rush into an SEO campaign because you are feeling pressure to get results. Here are some timing considerations to think about before you move forward:

Seasonality. Does your industry have a high and low season? If so, then you probably want to start your SEO in the low season. This way, you are in prime positions during your high season to capture key traffic.

Website redesign. A new site launch is a big deal, and yes, it DEFINITELY affects SEO. If you want to start an SEO campaign, but you know in your gut (and have known for a while) that your website desperately needs an update, take care of the site FIRST. New site launches during an SEO campaign are a huge hindrance and can delay results significantly.

SEO is not a quick fix

Search engine optimization is a long term marketing strategy. No, let me rephrase, EFFECTIVE SEO is a long term strategy. If you are looking to jump into an SEO campaign in October because you need to finish out Q4 well, you’re a day late and dollar short. There are no “special contacts at Google,” no magic buttons, and no amount of guarantees that can change this. Depending on your situation, SEO can take anywhere from 6-18 months to see top results.

Access to a Web developer

Chances are that if you have a website, you have a developer you work with that manages that website. SEO campaigns require many time sensitive website adjustments. Having a reliable and available Web developer that can implement recommendations made by your SEO firm is vital to success. Make sure you have a developer and he or she is ready and willing to make changes before embarking on your SEO campaign.

Content generation capabilities

It is no secret that content is king. Relevant content on your site is a huge aspect of SEO. Be aware that some sites require more website content then others, depending on your current layout. Assure that you have content creation capabilities, and if not talk about your limitations with your potential agency upfront.

“I only need you for…”

SEO companies can be partners in your marketing efforts. They have the ability to provide expertise in Internet marketing, not just SEO, that can benefit your overall marketing vision. Let them do what they do best. Don’t tie the hands of your SEO company because you only want link building from them. Mostly likely their approach is more holistic, and not allowing them to utilize all the aspects of SEO will underhand their efforts and sabotage success. Listen to the expertise of you SEO firm. Allow them to perform their work, because after all, you hired them for a reason.

The full Monty

Full exposure. Complete transparency. SEO companies cannot be your partner if you treat them like a vendor. Be open, honest and transparent with your goals and the current state of your business. Explain your business model, your industry, past experiences with search marketing, and most importantly what it is you are trying to accomplish with your website. Give your SEO company the data to prove their value to you, in dollars.

If your SEO company only sees a small piece of the pie, they will do their work based on that information. This can cause frustration and a communication breakdown as bits and pieces of information can be taken out of context and misconstrued. Prevent this through open and honest communication. If you don’t feel comfortable exposing yourself just yet, you may want to hold off on an SEO campaign until you can.

ROI

Everyone knows that it’s about the bottom line, so what return are you getting on this investment? Do you know? Can you know? Have you put the appropriate metrics in place that will tell you? Ask these vital questions first. If you don’t know the answer, don’t hesitate to consult a trusted SEO company to find out.

When you do hire a SEO company, make sure you communicate the importance of evaluating ROI, if they don’t already, and your willingness to cooperate in that effort.

It takes two to Tango

If you haven’t noticed already, an underlying theme throughout this post has been cooperation and partnership. To execute and effective and successful SEO campaign you have to be involved. SEO is an active marketing effort, requiring constant communication and adjustment. The best SEO firms will always be in communication, and wanting to work together as an active partner. If you lack the time to attend such an effort, find someone who can.

Try to eliminate red tape as much as possible so things can get done. Again, SEO can be time sensitive. The quicker recommendations are implemented, the quicker you see results. It’s that simple.

Hopefully now, you will be better prepared to ask the right questions before beginning your SEO campaign.

Here are seven points to help bridge the gap:

1. Change your vocabulary

Industry jargon is not client friendly. Learn the concepts behind the acronyms and big words, explain them in terms the client understands. This involves understanding your client, their industry and business model.

2. Put things in context

You: “You need to add a 301 redirect here.”

Client: “Why?”

You: “Cause it’s good for your SEO.”

The answer to every client “Why?” is not, “because it’s good for your SEO.” This means nothing to clients. It sounds more like, “I don’t really know why, but everyone is doing it so I guess we will too.” Clients need to see the big picture. Explain how a change will ultimately affect their bottom line. Once clients can see it all in context, they will be happy to do whatever you suggest.

3. Educate

It’s to your benefit to educate your clients on proper SEO tactics. As you educate them, you are building trust. Your clients want, and need, to know you are the best at what you do. But most clients have control issues. They may believe you are the best, but will still have trouble letting go and allowing you to do your job.

Some SEO professionals believe that because the industry is ultra competitive, we have to keep our most precious SEO secrets to ourselves; otherwise all our clients will quit and do SEO themselves. Not so. Most clients want to partner with someone to do their SEO. They don’t really want to worry about it. But they will if they are not educated about what you are doing. It will take time to build that level of trust. Be patient.

4. Use analogies

The best teachers use analogies to explain difficult concepts. As mentioned above, educate your clients on SEO and use analogies that put things in context.

Explaining SEO to a client without analogies is like telling a Kansas farmer how to program a spaceship in Greek. See how well analogies work?

5. Tell your clients where to go

The fact is they hired you for a reason: to drive the SEO strategy. The client expects you to tell them what to do, because they really don’t know what they are doing. This means if a client comes up with a bad idea, say so, but nicely. Don’t be afraid to push back and fight for suggestions that you know will work. When you do, and they work, clients will trust you and be less inclined to fight back in the future.

6. Be realistic

Don’t try and “BS” anyone. We can all tell when someone doesn’t know what they are talking about. Be upfront and honest about everything. If you don’t know the answer, say so. Then go find it. If a client wants you to meet a ridiculous deadline, tell them it’s impossible and tell them why. They may be angry you can’t do it, but they will be far less angry if you said you could, and then missed the deadline.

7. Fix your reporting

Most SEO reporting is complicated and doesn’t tell the client the big picture. All reports should tell a story. They should all come together to communicate one or more main point. It’s not about the numbers; it’s about the story behind those numbers, how they relate to each other, and what that will mean for the future.

By implementing some of these points you will see a definite improved relationship with your clients.

A quick note to those working with SEO companies: If your SEO company is not doing above mentioned items and you feel frustrated, sometimes all it takes is communication. Tell your SEO firm how you feel and what you need. Most likely they had no idea there was a problem, and they would be happy to fix it.

Now introduce long tail optimization into your reputation management. That won’t do any good you say! Long tail optimization should not be a focus! High traffic keywords should receive all our time, attention and effort! Blasphemy! Now look here, son. Wait for me to explain.

Why Long Tail In The First Place?

While most people ignore long tail due to lack of volume and traffic, long tail actually makes up nearly 75% of searches in search engines. So think about it, monopolize long tail traffic for your site and you have just won 75% of all potential search traffic. That is hard to ignore. For all you visual learners, here is a graphic illustration of my point. (Thank you Rand Fishkin at SEOMoz for your awesome Whiteboard Friday! For more detailed information and explanation on this graph see his post Ignore the Long Tail at Your Peril!)

The red bar is the high volume searches, general terms like “computer.” These searches receive millions of searches a month! It is hard to make a space for yourself with that kind of competition. The yellow bar is secondary terms, like “computer cases” or “computer mouse.” These phrases receive 10’s of thousands of searches a month.

The green section is where the term “long tail” came from. It is the longest part of the curve, or tail. These terms or phrases receive 0-5 searches a month and consist of phrases like “Where can I find a computer case in Nashville TN?” or something similar. This is mostly uncharted territory, a place for you to create a space and authority for yourself. And it is relatively easy to do, creating content, linking, and other basics will do the trick. Pretty sweet huh?

Once you dominate longer tail keywords, your other primary keywords will improve from this effort. An analogy is similar to Robyn’s explanation of deep linking to boost home page juice. It works the same way. Boost your authority and presence through content production in long tail, and this can boost your main domain in other larger trafficked terms.

A+B=C

An illustration should help put this all together. My father’s website, when you type in his full name and title, doesn’t show up. Instead a competitor’s name shows up before him on the SERPs. Now that’s just wrong. He doesn’t even own his own digital name space.

A good SEO company can fix this quite easily. Focusing on long tail optimization, his company can produce content in the form of articles, press releases, etc. Using considerably less time and effort, he can rise to the top of the SERPs for his full name. His rankings for other high volume keywords will increase because of the presence and authority he has created with long tail optimization. Obviously, similar tactics for the high traffic terms will always benefit and work nicely in improving his image on the net.

The name Baidu was literally taken from an ancient Song Dynasty poem written about the persistence of searching for the ideal. Well la de da! Ain’t that dandy. Sure it is. Baidu lives up to its Chinese origins. It is a combination of innovation and tradition in this increasingly fast paced SEO world.

“What a piece of work is a [search engine], how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.” -William Shakespeare

Often times “thems folks out west” misunderstand the ways of the East. Unfortunately this cultural misunderstanding seeps into SEO. What do we know about Baidu? How does it work? Why should we even care?!

Why “Do the Baidu”

Firstly, it’s relatively easy to understand. Just think, Google, five years ago. Baidu does work much like Google and Yahoo once did in the late 90’s early 2000’s but has come through with some quality innovations. “Pin-yin” is a new search feature that allows users to enter search queries in the more phonetic English alphabet as opposed to Chinese characters. This makes for a quicker search for the user and search engine alike.

Secondly, Baidu focuses on the quantity of links as opposed to quality of links. Good news SEO’s, bad news users. The way to get “quality” links according to Baidu is to create a lot of links with Chinese characters as anchor text. Even better is to have completely Chinese content, with anchor text included. However, Baidu doesn’t necessarily take into huge consideration where the anchor text comes from. Just make sure your content doesn’t include adult content, or anti-China material. That’s definitely a Baidu “no no.”

Thirdly, Baidu has a “load capacity friendly” spider. That means it won’t overload your site with visits, and will obey the robots.txt agreement.

Optimizing tips for Baidu

1. Brush up on your metadata vocab because your gunna need it. Baidu, like Google, puts emphasis on the title. However, unlike the all-knowing Google, Baidu also looks at other metatags such as description and keywords. Make sure it is relevant.
2. Always include an Alt tag with images. It’s an easy code adjustment and can add more relevance to your site.
3. The higher your keyword density in your content, the better. Whoa there tiger, don’t get too hasty, 6-12% density will do just fine.
4. Try to get hosted in China; Baidu is a local search engine. If you can’t do that, get a local domain like a .com.cn. That’s should do the trick.

References:

• http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1104033
• http://www.metamend.com/baidu-search-engine.html
• http://www.filination.com/blog/2007/03/25/chinese-baidu-search-engine-optimization-seo-in-china/
• http://www.evancarmichael.com/SEO/1185/Search-Engine-Optimization-for-Baidu.html