SEO in 2013 is shaping up to be more diverse and holistic in nature, and the old search engine optimization methods are quickly finding themselves kicked to the curb with each of Google’s algorithm updates.

What once were tried and true tactics for increasing traffic, leads and sales are now causing pain points for many businesses involved in SEO.

Fortunately, SEO.com has consistently stayed ahead of the curve, and continues to employ quality, holistic methods for helping businesses achieve their goals. Our account managers pride themselves on creative and strategic campaigns that are built around long term objectives, and won’t be victims to future search engine algorithm changes.

Think of SEO similar to building a community of followers for your blog or Facebook page,” says TJ Welsh, Director of SEO at SEO.com. “A long term SEO campaign takes time to build before you may potentially see the rewards. Algorithms will change but it won’t be much of a concern because you have a solid foundation.”

Here are 5 things to abandon, and how we are moving forward with quality search engine optimization methods in 2013:

While link-building is still an integral part of an SEO campaign, scoring quick links through “blog networks” and low quality article sites is exactly the kind of method Google is targeting with their Panda algorithm update. Rather than targeting opportunities for easy and quick links, the best use of time is through building relationships with bloggers and websites, and writing guest blog posts for them. In the process, we add valuable content to their website, while increasing the brand’s exposure to their readers.

In the past, websites potentially had the ability to rank for different keywords simply by creating a separate web page for each keyword they were targeting. All they had to do was “spin”, or reword the content slightly, and insert the right keywords into the copy. Today, website content needs to be written for the audience, yet still optimized for the search engines to ensure accessibility and indexability. Plus great content can help your brand, drive sales and increase the opportunity for great links.

At SEO.com, we provide clients round the clock access to their rankings anytime they choose through our integrated reporting system. We believe in this level of transparency, because businesses choose to invest their time and money with us, and we want to prove our value. But since ranking reports don’t adequately communicate the true value of an SEO campaign, we instead focus on driving relevant traffic to the website, capturing those visitors and turning them into leads or sales. SEO in 2013 should be comprised of strategies to meet our clients’ goals, not simply moving keywords.

Websites with high quality, engaging content have the ability to capture a high percentage of visitors arriving from Google’s search engine, but it should not be the only source of traffic. Sustainable SEO strategies should include driving traffic from a number of sources, including social media, webinars, direct traffic, video, news sites and more.

It’s relatively easy to just set a campaign on auto pilot and just “build links”, but it’s vitally important to track the outcomes of these initiatives through website analytics. If the goal is to increase the number of leads coming in to the website, specific strategies to increase traffic to the website should be implemented and measured in order to prove value. If a certain method isn’t working, analytics will bring this to attention, and the strategy can be adjusted.

Don’t be fooled by promises of quick rankings. SEO in 2013 is a long term investment in the future, and while the dramatic performance of a website can be achieved within the first few months of a campaign, a holistic approach to SEO will ensure the sustainability of the website through any algorithm change the search engines decide to make.

Client Spotlight: Speed trap and road hazard app uses search marketing to continue growth

What’s better than a fellow driver flashing his bright lights to warn others about a police speed trap? An app that exposes speed traps, road hazards and enforcement cameras. Trapster, the social networking app that documents traffic and speed traps, allows motorists to warn drivers of potential problems on the road.

The Trapster app launched in 2008 and became an instant hit. Today, it has more than 17 million total users. According to Stefanie Frederick, Trapster’s community product specialist, the startup’s fame was fast and furious.

Because the company was just a fledgling at the time of its big boost, it was doing its best with their limited resources to keep up with the popular pace.

The company website was created hastily and updated on the fly as Trapster’s popularity and success grew,” said Frederick. “While the website offered lots of features, most of them were not easily found or deeply buried.”

Once Trapster was acquired by Navteq, the company was capable of growing its staff to meet the needs of its dedicated users. One of the first steps toward helping the company continue to thrive was utilizing internet marketing.

Our primary goal was to create a seamless experience between our app and the website. We also wanted to create more brand awareness and unify our users across various social media channels,” said Frederick.

Trapster selected SEO.com to secure their competitive online edge. SEO.com created a strategy to assist in content creation and improving the company’s overall online presence.

Frederick openly touts SEO.com’s success for Trapster. The year over year organic traffic is up 88.81 percent with a 103.53 percent increase in the number of unique visitors going to their website.

With SEO.com’s help we reduced crawl errors, launched six infographics, and increased our search ranking,” said Frederick.

SEO Tip: Social Timing Matters

Creating a content strategy is great, but don’t waste away hard work by sharing content at the wrong time. By perfectly planning the release of your content on social media services and different platforms you can amplify your exposure and ensure more engagement.

When it comes down to it, social timing is a science. It’s key to realize that 50 percent of the U.S. population lives in the Eastern Time zone. If you combine the Eastern Time zone with the Central Time zone, you will cover 80 percent of the U.S. population.

According to research, differing platforms have optimal times for the best reach.

Twitter

• Best time to get a retweet is 5 PM EST
• Best days to get a click-through for links is generally mid week or during the weekend
• Best time to get a click-through is during lunch at noon or after work at 6 PM EST

Facebook

• Best day to get a share is on Saturday
• Best time to get a share during the week is at noon or after 7 PM EST

Blogging

• The highest percentage of readers is in the morning
• Blogs get the most traffic on Monday
• Traffic tends to peak at 11 AM EST

If you want what you post to become share-bait, try to go live with your content at active times.

Industry Events

• Social Media Strategies Summit: Las Vegas; February 5-7, 2013
• Online Marketing Summit: San Diego; February 11-13, 2013
• SearchFest 2013: Portland; February 22, 2013
• SMX West: San Jose; March 11-13, 2013
• SES: New York; March 25-26, 2013

The Link: SEO.com’s Newsletter January 2013 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

8 Things That Changed the Internet Marketing Industry in 2012

In just this past year, there have been remarkable changes and challenges in internet marketing. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) became the largest protest in the history of the internet. Google’s Gmail became the world’s most popular email service. China blocked the New York Times from their searches and social media. Facebook became a public company, and Apple Inc. became the largest company by market capitalization in the world.

Search engines and social media sites also made changes that altered the entire digital landscape. Here are at least eight game changers that rocked the internet marketing industry:

1. Google+ Gained Traction

Google Places became Google+ Local, which changed the approach to local SEO. Users who log into their Google+ account while performing a search will see personalized results based on social data from Google+. Google+ Local has aimed to make reviews, recommendations and opinions of those in a user’s Google+ Circles a central part of their search experience. Bing also provides what’s known as “social results,” but because Google is still the search giant, users have more incentive to use Google+ more than ever before.

 2. Author Rich Snippets

Author Rich Snippets have given internet marketers the opportunity to build their author rank by linking their Google + page to the content they write through what’s known as rel=author. Utilizing rich snippets allows the author to have their photo show up in the search results next to their content, and build author authority which increases click-through rates on those pages.

3. Social Media Accommodations for Brands

Throughout the year many of the big players in social media have made numerous updates to better their platform for users and businesses. One common change was making it easier for brands to standout:

• Facebook created Global Pages so brands can manage multiple accounts using one central dashboard
• Twitter announced cover photos so brands have more real estate to promote the company
• LinkedIn designed new company pages to showcase more company information and logos
• Pinterest allowed businesses to set up official business accounts     

4. Panda Update

To continue the crusade against webspam, Google launched a number of Panda updates throughout the year. One of the major things that these updates cracked down on was page layout. The algorithm adjustments targeted sites with low quality content and ad-heavy page layouts. The update encouraged websites to deliver high quality content “above the fold.”

5. Penguin Update

In another step to reward high quality websites, Google introduced Penguin updates. The first Penguin update hit hard against “over-optimization.” Google cracked the whip to punish spam-like keyword stuffing, exact match anchor text, low quality content and other practices that attempt to manipulate the search engines.

6. Knowledge Graph

In an attempt to start building the next generation of search, Google rolled out the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph offers additional search results to help users find the right thing faster and receive a bigger summary that is relevant to the search topic. The idea is to help people do less time searching and more time discovering.

7. Google Disavow Link Tool

As the search engines get better at evaluating links, Google introduced the Disavow Link Tool to help websites clean up any suspicious and spam-like backlinks. Websites that receive warning concerning “unnatural links” can use this tool to remove the low quality links to their site to prevent penalties.

8. SEO.com’s 5^th Year Anniversary

Okay, so maybe our anniversary didn’t rock the foundation of internet marketing—but it was a big year for our skilled teams and clientele. We’ve been in the industry for five fun years adjusting and anticipating changes all along the way.

Moving Forward

As the way we communicated and even marketed continued to change throughout the year, one thing remained constant: the need for high quality content. The most effective (yet most difficult) SEO tactic of the year was content creation. Honest content marketing assists with social media and SEO efforts, and will surely be one of the best practices to follow in the upcoming year.

Client Spotlight: Thanksgiving Point Uses Digital Marketing to Remain a Hot Community Spot

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, many of us have lost our connection to nature, history and the world around us. A desire to re-establish those connections is why, more than a decade ago, the nonprofit Thanksgiving Point Institute was established. The grounds offer a family-friendly experience nestled in Utah that strives to change lives through education, family experiences and interaction with the community. Offering gardens, museums, an emporium, restaurants and shops, this Wasatch Front destination provides a vast array of fun things to do in Utah, every season of the year.

Visiting Thanksgiving Point is not just for families, the expansive property offers venues and programs for corporate events, parties and even weddings. As a nonprofit organization, the institute’s mission is to foster learning, bring families closer together and give opportunities for people to form lasting community connections.

In an attempt to continue to fulfill their mission and give back, Thanksgiving Point decided to increase their digital marketing efforts, and they enlisted SEO.com to help them raise the online profile of the property’s best features.

Our main goal for the 2012 campaign was to increase attendance to our venues, events and catering bookings,” said Thanksgiving Point’s marketing manager, Emily Duffy.

SEO.com built an aggressive campaign for the organization prioritizing certain search terms to improve their rankings online, and a year later organic web traffic to the site rose 22 percent. Seventeen specific keywords for the organization have risen to the first page of search engine results, and most have increased as many as 20 to 40 positions.

Thanksgiving Point is a stunning venue for weddings, and one of their marketing goals was to increase their search rankings for wedding-related keyword terms.

While most of our chosen keywords have seen significant movement, we also had a very successful summer of wedding bookings at Thanksgiving Point,” said Duffy.

While the organization has plenty to do to prepare for the upcoming holiday season, during which their popular Christmas light display attracts thousands, their search marketing efforts are in good hands. The team at SEO.com is working to continue their success with online marketing for all of Thanksgiving Point’s unique venues.

Hiring SEO.com allowed us to draw from a pool of industry experts who have the ability to monitor our rankings while keeping us apprised of changes that may need to be addressed,” Duffy said.

The dedicated experts at SEO.com will certainly be on top of things for Thanksgiving Point, and work to help them see even more success in the year to come.

SEO Tip: Personalize Your Follow-Up

A study about the effect of dinner mints proved that a personalized follow-up (post-purchase) can affect a customer’s perception of service. According to the research, waiters who left dinner mints saw an increase in tips. But, there’s more.

• The group that received mints from the server with the check, without the server actually mentioning the mints, saw a small 3 percent increase in tips.
• The group that received mints that were mentioned by the server (ex. “Would you like a mint?”) saw an increase of 14 percent in tips.
• The final group received mints with the check, but also received another set of mints a short while afterward in case they wanted more. Here, the tips increased by 27 percent.

In the final group, the difference was not the extra mints. The difference was the post-purchase personalization with the seemingly genuine concern for the customer. This connection can be used to your online advantage as well.

A highly effective method for increasing the value of an online customer is a personalized follow-up. Personalization can have a positive and direct impact on customer loyalty, conversion rates and customer retention.

To get it right, personalization is more than sprinkling a customer’s name on an e-mail. Better personalization dives into what your customer likes, when they want to hear from you and how they want to hear from you. In essence, it’s about delivering the right content to the right potential customer at the best time possible.

Some examples of post-purchase personalization can be offers for free training and support for your product or service, a complimentary guide that is related to the product or service or a reward for trying your product or service.

Industry Events

New Media Expo: Las Vegas; January 6-8, 2013
Affiliate Summit: Las Vegas; January 13-15, 2013
Online Marketing Summit: San Diego; February 11-13, 2013

The Link: SEO.com’s Newsletter December 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

8 Things That Changed the Internet Marketing Industry in 2012

In just this past year, there have been remarkable changes and challenges in internet marketing. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) became the largest protest in the history of the internet. Google’s Gmail became the world’s most popular email service. China blocked the New York Times from their searches and social media. Facebook became a public company, and Apple Inc. became the largest company by market capitalization in the world.

Search engines and social media sites also made changes that altered the entire digital landscape. Here are at least eight game changers that rocked the internet marketing industry:

1. Google+ Gained Traction

Google Places became Google+ Local, which changed the approach to local SEO. Users who log into their Google+ account while performing a search will see personalized results based on social data from Google+. Google+ Local has aimed to make reviews, recommendations and opinions of those in a user’s Google+ Circles a central part of their search experience. Bing also provides what’s known as “social results,” but because Google is still the search giant, users have more incentive to use Google+ more than ever before.

 2. Author Rich Snippets

Author Rich Snippets have given internet marketers the opportunity to build their author rank by linking their Google + page to the content they write through what’s known as rel=author. Utilizing rich snippets allows the author to have their photo show up in the search results next to their content, and build author authority which increases click-through rates on those pages.

3. Social Media Accommodations for Brands

Throughout the year many of the big players in social media have made numerous updates to better their platform for users and businesses. One common change was making it easier for brands to standout:

• Facebook created Global Pages so brands can manage multiple accounts using one central dashboard
• Twitter announced cover photos so brands have more real estate to promote the company
• LinkedIn designed new company pages to showcase more company information and logos
• Pinterest allowed businesses to set up official business accounts     

4. Panda Update

To continue the crusade against webspam, Google launched a number of Panda updates throughout the year. One of the major things that these updates cracked down on was page layout. The algorithm adjustments targeted sites with low quality content and ad-heavy page layouts. The update encouraged websites to deliver high quality content “above the fold.”

5. Penguin Update

In another step to reward high quality websites, Google introduced Penguin updates. The first Penguin update hit hard against “over-optimization.” Google cracked the whip to punish spam-like keyword stuffing, exact match anchor text, low quality content and other practices that attempt to manipulate the search engines.

6. Knowledge Graph

In an attempt to start building the next generation of search, Google rolled out the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph offers additional search results to help users find the right thing faster and receive a bigger summary that is relevant to the search topic. The idea is to help people do less time searching and more time discovering.

7. Google Disavow Link Tool

As the search engines get better at evaluating links, Google introduced the Disavow Link Tool to help websites clean up any suspicious and spam-like backlinks. Websites that receive warning concerning “unnatural links” can use this tool to remove the low quality links to their site to prevent penalties.

8. SEO.com’s 5^th Year Anniversary

Okay, so maybe our anniversary didn’t rock the foundation of internet marketing—but it was a big year for our skilled teams and clientele. We’ve been in the industry for five fun years adjusting and anticipating changes all along the way.

Moving Forward

As the way we communicated and even marketed continued to change throughout the year, one thing remained constant: the need for high quality content. The most effective (yet most difficult) SEO tactic of the year was content creation. Honest content marketing assists with social media and SEO efforts, and will surely be one of the best practices to follow in the upcoming year.

Client Spotlight: Thanksgiving Point Uses Digital Marketing to Remain a Hot Community Spot

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, many of us have lost our connection to nature, history and the world around us. A desire to re-establish those connections is why, more than a decade ago, the nonprofit Thanksgiving Point Institute was established. The grounds offer a family-friendly experience nestled in Utah that strives to change lives through education, family experiences and interaction with the community. Offering gardens, museums, an emporium, restaurants and shops, this Wasatch Front destination provides a vast array of fun things to do in Utah, every season of the year.

Visiting Thanksgiving Point is not just for families, the expansive property offers venues and programs for corporate events, parties and even weddings. As a nonprofit organization, the institute’s mission is to foster learning, bring families closer together and give opportunities for people to form lasting community connections.

In an attempt to continue to fulfill their mission and give back, Thanksgiving Point decided to increase their digital marketing efforts, and they enlisted SEO.com to help them raise the online profile of the property’s best features.

Our main goal for the 2012 campaign was to increase attendance to our venues, events and catering bookings,” said Thanksgiving Point’s marketing manager, Emily Duffy.

SEO.com built an aggressive campaign for the organization prioritizing certain search terms to improve their rankings online, and a year later organic web traffic to the site rose 22 percent. Seventeen specific keywords for the organization have risen to the first page of search engine results, and most have increased as many as 20 to 40 positions.

Thanksgiving Point is a stunning venue for weddings, and one of their marketing goals was to increase their search rankings for wedding-related keyword terms.

While most of our chosen keywords have seen significant movement, we also had a very successful summer of wedding bookings at Thanksgiving Point,” said Duffy.

While the organization has plenty to do to prepare for the upcoming holiday season, during which their popular Christmas light display attracts thousands, their search marketing efforts are in good hands. The team at SEO.com is working to continue their success with online marketing for all of Thanksgiving Point’s unique venues.

Hiring SEO.com allowed us to draw from a pool of industry experts who have the ability to monitor our rankings while keeping us apprised of changes that may need to be addressed,” Duffy said.

The dedicated experts at SEO.com will certainly be on top of things for Thanksgiving Point, and work to help them see even more success in the year to come.

SEO Tip: Personalize Your Follow-Up

A study about the effect of dinner mints proved that a personalized follow-up (post-purchase) can affect a customer’s perception of service. According to the research, waiters who left dinner mints saw an increase in tips. But, there’s more.

• The group that received mints from the server with the check, without the server actually mentioning the mints, saw a small 3 percent increase in tips.
• The group that received mints that were mentioned by the server (ex. “Would you like a mint?”) saw an increase of 14 percent in tips.
• The final group received mints with the check, but also received another set of mints a short while afterward in case they wanted more. Here, the tips increased by 27 percent.

In the final group, the difference was not the extra mints. The difference was the post-purchase personalization with the seemingly genuine concern for the customer. This connection can be used to your online advantage as well.

A highly effective method for increasing the value of an online customer is a personalized follow-up. Personalization can have a positive and direct impact on customer loyalty, conversion rates and customer retention.

To get it right, personalization is more than sprinkling a customer’s name on an e-mail. Better personalization dives into what your customer likes, when they want to hear from you and how they want to hear from you. In essence, it’s about delivering the right content to the right potential customer at the best time possible.

Some examples of post-purchase personalization can be offers for free training and support for your product or service, a complimentary guide that is related to the product or service or a reward for trying your product or service.

Industry Events

New Media Expo: Las Vegas; January 6-8, 2013
Affiliate Summit: Las Vegas; January 13-15, 2013
Online Marketing Summit: San Diego; February 11-13, 2013

The Link: SEO.com's Newsletter December 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

A Lesson in SEO from the Presidential Debates

Politicians may be the ones using fighting words during debates for next month’s election, but it’s the search engines that are doing damage.

When you enter the search query “completely wrong” on Google Images, the results are dominated by pictures of the presidential candidate Mitt Romney. With a similar story, if you search on Google Images for “debate fail,” you will find pictures of President Obama.

Who is responsible for detonating what seems to be Google bombs? Find out.

What in the World Happened?
At first glance it might seem that someone had manually done some dirty SEO work to manipulate the search engine results page. However, these photos were attached to legitimate online new resources where Romney discusses being “completely wrong” about a quote. Likewise, Obama was associated with “debate fail” as a results of a variety of new sources analyzing his first presidential debate performance.

Technically, both instances are not traditional Google bombs and here’s why.

Traditional Google Bombs
A Google bomb is when someone attempts to make a webpage rank for a term that the page is not relevant for. The first Google bomb was back in 1999 for the search term “more evil than Satan himself,” which revealed results for Microsoft.

Here’s a look at some traditional political Google bombs:

• Senator John Kerry was a target during his 2004 presidential campaign. Conservative bloggers used his name as a synonym and search term “waffles” to refer to his flip-flop campaign statements.
• In 2007, the White House biography for former president George W. Bush was ranked number one for the phrase “miserable failure.”

As far as Google is concerned, they don’t meddle with the results page just because it may ruffle feathers. Google states, “we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.”

What This Means for Image SEO
With the clarification of a Google bomb, the Romney uproar and Obama outrage is not in the precise definition—but the instances still reveal a lot about SEO. The situations are natural results of the flurry of news articles associated with the candidates. The fresh content and images connected to the story happened to dominate the results. Both circumstances reinforce the importance of inserting title tags on images, and how the words surrounding the photos are very important. Not to mention the great power of credible sources.

Your Image SEO
Although we can see what the picture represents, search engines require help from SEO to determine the pictures relevance.

When it comes to helping your images grasp more attention for the search engines, here’s a checklist of things to do:

1. Include keywords in the image filename, this also becomes the image title tag. For example, if it’s an image of a cup of coffee name the image ‘cup-of-coffee.jpg.’ Dashes work better than underscores.
2. Use image ALT tags. Further describe your image in detail in the ALT text. For example, “drinking a cup of coffee.” Five words or less works best.
3. Place the image close to the most relevant content. If you have a headline that reads “The Nation’s Best Coffee,” be sure to position the image nearby.

Now What?
The presidential candidates’ search engine troubles prove that images are more than aesthetics, and that brands should be leveraging their power for good. Images hold a fair amount of SEO weight and the right image SEO can open up new opportunities for people to discover your brand.

SEO Tip: Improve Your Checkout Process

After you utilize search engine optimization to pull in more website traffic and you’ve done what you can to your landing pages to encourage conversion, don’t stop there. Too often websites drop the ball on the checkout process, but the checkout process is still a very vital part of your conversion.

The checkout process is just as important as the landing page, if not more. If something goes wrong during the process, or it becomes too complicated, customers will leave and never turn back.

To drive better conversion rates for your website, show them that they can trust you. Consider the following techniques:

• Showcase SSL certificates and badges. When it comes to an eCommerce website, this element lets customers know their credit card information is safe at all times, and protected from hackers. If you have a SSL certificate, put the security badge on your cart and checkout page. Buying a SSL certificate can start at around $50 and will increase depending on the level of security you need for your website.
• Include Testimonials. Studies have shown that 57 percent of online shoppers look for reviews or testimonials prior to their purchase. It helps to place a powerful testimony close to the source of reconsideration—like during the checkout process. Putting client logos or pictures of the source of the testimonial will also add credibility to testimonials. Not very many customers will openly provide you with a testimonial, but do not be afraid to approach customers and ask them for a review.
• Offer a Guarantee. Even after filling a cart, customers still need convincing your product is the right choice. If you can, provide a 100 percent money back guarantee to help pacify any anxiety. A satisfaction guarantee can give the customer an extra sense of trust.

These three suggestions are small and simple elements any eCommerce website can implement. Tweaking your checkout process can help you with cart abandonment issues and improve conversion rates. Addressing the customers’ fears and doubts will prove to go a long way.

Industry Events

ad:tech: New York; November 7-8, 2012
SES: Chicago; November 12-16, 2012
SMX: Las Vegas; December 5-6, 2012

The Link: SEO.com’s Newsletter November 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

A Lesson in SEO from the Presidential Debates

Politicians may be the ones using fighting words during debates for next month’s election, but it’s the search engines that are doing damage.

When you enter the search query “completely wrong” on Google Images, the results are dominated by pictures of the presidential candidate Mitt Romney. With a similar story, if you search on Google Images for “debate fail,” you will find pictures of President Obama.

Who is responsible for detonating what seems to be Google bombs? Find out.

What in the World Happened?
At first glance it might seem that someone had manually done some dirty SEO work to manipulate the search engine results page. However, these photos were attached to legitimate online new resources where Romney discusses being “completely wrong” about a quote. Likewise, Obama was associated with “debate fail” as a results of a variety of new sources analyzing his first presidential debate performance.

Technically, both instances are not traditional Google bombs and here’s why.

Traditional Google Bombs
A Google bomb is when someone attempts to make a webpage rank for a term that the page is not relevant for. The first Google bomb was back in 1999 for the search term “more evil than Satan himself,” which revealed results for Microsoft.

Here’s a look at some traditional political Google bombs:

• Senator John Kerry was a target during his 2004 presidential campaign. Conservative bloggers used his name as a synonym and search term “waffles” to refer to his flip-flop campaign statements.
• In 2007, the White House biography for former president George W. Bush was ranked number one for the phrase “miserable failure.”

As far as Google is concerned, they don’t meddle with the results page just because it may ruffle feathers. Google states, “we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.”

What This Means for Image SEO
With the clarification of a Google bomb, the Romney uproar and Obama outrage is not in the precise definition—but the instances still reveal a lot about SEO. The situations are natural results of the flurry of news articles associated with the candidates. The fresh content and images connected to the story happened to dominate the results. Both circumstances reinforce the importance of inserting title tags on images, and how the words surrounding the photos are very important. Not to mention the great power of credible sources.

Your Image SEO
Although we can see what the picture represents, search engines require help from SEO to determine the pictures relevance.

When it comes to helping your images grasp more attention for the search engines, here’s a checklist of things to do:

1. Include keywords in the image filename, this also becomes the image title tag. For example, if it’s an image of a cup of coffee name the image ‘cup-of-coffee.jpg.’ Dashes work better than underscores.
2. Use image ALT tags. Further describe your image in detail in the ALT text. For example, “drinking a cup of coffee.” Five words or less works best.
3. Place the image close to the most relevant content. If you have a headline that reads “The Nation’s Best Coffee,” be sure to position the image nearby.

Now What?
The presidential candidates’ search engine troubles prove that images are more than aesthetics, and that brands should be leveraging their power for good. Images hold a fair amount of SEO weight and the right image SEO can open up new opportunities for people to discover your brand.

SEO Tip: Improve Your Checkout Process

After you utilize search engine optimization to pull in more website traffic and you’ve done what you can to your landing pages to encourage conversion, don’t stop there. Too often websites drop the ball on the checkout process, but the checkout process is still a very vital part of your conversion.

The checkout process is just as important as the landing page, if not more. If something goes wrong during the process, or it becomes too complicated, customers will leave and never turn back.

To drive better conversion rates for your website, show them that they can trust you. Consider the following techniques:

• Showcase SSL certificates and badges. When it comes to an eCommerce website, this element lets customers know their credit card information is safe at all times, and protected from hackers. If you have a SSL certificate, put the security badge on your cart and checkout page. Buying a SSL certificate can start at around $50 and will increase depending on the level of security you need for your website.
• Include Testimonials. Studies have shown that 57 percent of online shoppers look for reviews or testimonials prior to their purchase. It helps to place a powerful testimony close to the source of reconsideration—like during the checkout process. Putting client logos or pictures of the source of the testimonial will also add credibility to testimonials. Not very many customers will openly provide you with a testimonial, but do not be afraid to approach customers and ask them for a review.
• Offer a Guarantee. Even after filling a cart, customers still need convincing your product is the right choice. If you can, provide a 100 percent money back guarantee to help pacify any anxiety. A satisfaction guarantee can give the customer an extra sense of trust.

These three suggestions are small and simple elements any eCommerce website can implement. Tweaking your checkout process can help you with cart abandonment issues and improve conversion rates. Addressing the customers’ fears and doubts will prove to go a long way.

Industry Events

ad:tech: New York; November 7-8, 2012
SES: Chicago; November 12-16, 2012
SMX: Las Vegas; December 5-6, 2012

The Link: SEO.com's Newsletter November 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Social Media and News: A Match Made In Heaven

I can’t really think of another industry that’s a better fit for social media than the news industry. Think about it: high-quality content that’s produced on a consistent, timely basis, that users want, need, and crave.

But even the most perfect couples have problems they need to work through. I discovered some of the challenges that news organizations face at the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City’s event entitled, “The Newsroom Goes Social.” Besides just challenges, four of the brightest social media news professionals from KSL, Fox13, KUTV and The Salt Lake Tribune weighed in what’s working with social media and what’s in store for the future:

Media Organizations Have Differing Goals For Social

Much like marketers, news organization use social media for brand awareness and to promote their content. They are also using social media to find story ideas by staying in tune with the things their viewers are interested in. If there’s a topic that is trending locally on Twitter or a story being shared over and over again, those are strong indicators of what readers are craving. Scott Sherman, the New Media Content Editor at the Salt Lake Tribune used an example where he found one of his best story leads from a frustrated Twitter user who was pulled over by an under-cover cop right across the Utah border.

The news industry isn’t just using social media to promote their own content, they’re listening to what their followers are saying on each different platform and crafting their social media strategies around what the viewers want. For example, the panelists noted that Facebook fans like contests, photos and fun status updates whereas Twitter and Google+ users just want the dang news, unfiltered!

Social Media Faces Hurdles To Profitability

The biggest challenge that the news industry faces when it comes to social media, and the internet in general is how to monetize it. Let’s face it, marketers aren’t even making money off social media. When it comes to the newspaper industry, the advertising side of things and the journalism side of things are still very much separate. The problem with banner advertisements still remains, visitors rarely click on them. Although these news sites receive an ample amount of traffic to their website, the traffic doesn’t always convert to revenue. Traditional advertising models are still funding news organizations and a new model for how to improve their bottom line, via the internet, still doesn’t exist.

Mark Sternfield, of Fox 13 said one of the ways they’re monetizing social media is by co-sponsoring contests. For example, a smaller business with a small social following might use Fox as an avenue to promote their contest and in return receive a much larger reach. Much like the social media companies themselves will need figure out how to make money, so will the companies using them.

Jenni Stokes, the Web Producer at KUTV said one of the challenges they face is all of the new platforms and figuring out how to use each one effectively. News organizations are a little more cautious when it comes to jumping onto the next platform because they want to make sure they are doing it right in order to protect their brand. There is certainly a lot at stake. An entire news organization can be remembered by one dumb tweet rather than months of great content. But in my opinion, this is a conflict of conservatism with evolving media, that the previous generation needs to get over. If a news organization wants to remain the main provider of news, they have to offer their product (the news) in the spaces where their customers want to find it. They need to be social, be there first and innovate.

Social Strategies That Work

The good news is that these organizations are finding that a lot of their content promotion, brand awareness and engagement goals for social media are being met.

Organizations are figuring out how to master each platform by leveraging their top-notch content and employees. I found it interesting that news organizations don’t have strict social media guidelines about what their reporters should and shouldn’t say. As a rule of thumb, reporters don’t share anything they wouldn’t say on air (or in print). They are also not “forcing” their employees to own their social media personalities; if a reporter can’t stay consistent on Twitter, they shouldn’t use it at all. Although it should be noted, many younger journalists are using their news organization as a platform to further their career by building their name and following.

Natalie Wardel, the social media director of KSL has found creative ways to use Instagram by giving visitors a behind the scenes look of the newsroom and building renovations.  KSL also uses Pinterest effectively by pinning hot tech items and recipes that are good for Sunday Night Football. The Salt Lake Tribune has also found success on Pinterest by posting historic photos from their “Look Back” series and photos from their food column, local events and restaurants.

The Salt Lake Tribune has devout readers online that like to continue the conversation in the comments section, and often times the comments take on a life of their own. According to Scott, some of these folks who comment actually get together and meet. They have created their own offline social group and discuss different topics.

Marketers can learn a lot from journalists about crafting great content that keeps their users coming back again and again. But there’s still a lot of things news organizations need to figure out as technology continues to rapidly change the way we communicate. Will TV, radio and newspaper reading be reduced due to social media, or will social media help ratings and reader/viewership? It will be interesting to see how the news organizations continue to work out these challenges of traditional news in a social media world.

What are your thoughts on how social media and the news compliment each other? Is there anything you would do different if you were running the show? Look forward to reading your comments below.

Traditional News In A Social Media World is a post by SEO expert Rebecca Babicz. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Startup to Success: Businesses That Only Used Online Marketing to Make it

In the case of two personal hygiene startups, a promising social media site and a personal finance business, there was a defined magical moment when almost overnight these businesses seemed to take off.

In these instances, this moment wouldn’t have been possible without the internet.

Take a look at what some superstar startups did to utilize the power of the internet and see how you can implement some of the same strategies:

• Orabrush

Taking the title of one of the first successful viral marketing campaigns, Orabrush launched in 2009 with nothing more than a YouTube video. The creative approach and viral video “Bad Breath Test – How to Tell When Your Breath Stinks” garnered a dedicated online fan base and today has over 17 million views.

At the time of its debut, Orabrush took an unconventional approach using internet marketing. The video created a high level of awareness for consumers online. This transformed into a demand for the product in retail stores. Orabrush is now sold in 3,500 Walmart stores worldwide just by leveraging a newer platform.

Marketing takeaway: In the case of Orabrush, the company created one high-quality, funny video that took off. Don’t spread yourself thin by putting 50 percent of your effort into a variety of different things. Instead, pick one creative solution and give it 100 percent.

• Dollar Shave Club

In the event someone would suggest Orabrush found its success from its originality, consider the brilliance of the Dollar Shave Club. Much like Orabrush, the Dollar Shave Club found victory armed with nothing but a YouTube video nearly two years after Orabrush’s launch. Within 48 hours, Dollar Shave Club received two million views on YouTube and 5,000 orders.

Humor has a lot to do with this viral video, but it isn’t everything. This bold use of content marketing was memorable because it caused a visceral response.

Marketing takeaway: Great content will make for an emotional response, and in turn, will become memorable for your audience. There’s nothing extra special about Dollar Shave Cream razors, except that “they’re f***ing great.” Separate your company by providing a unique and fresh stance.

• Mint.com

In 2006 when the personal finance startup Mint stepped into the scene, the public brushed it under the rug. Fighting to survive, the company adopted an aggressive online content strategy using a blog. The blog, “MintLife,” offered news, tips, videos and even infographics to become a serious resource for the financially curious. Over time, they built credibility and converted their audience into loyal customers. Three years later, Mint sold for $170 million.

Marketing takeaway: Don’t just produce content about your company, create content that is helpful and you’ll create a loyal fan base that keeps coming back for more. It takes time and dedication— content marketing is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

• Pinterest

Initially, Pinterest relied on advocates and not numbers. The intriguing website attracted thousands of signups using its members-only service and limited its use to create exclusivity. By being coy, the website built and sustained a big buzz and trusted its users to recommend the site. Now, Pinterest has over 10 million users.

Marketing takeaway: People make decisions based on recommendations from those they trust – mainly our friends and family. One of your goals should be to turn your users into personal advocates that spread the word using social media services and word of mouth.

Sometimes a solid internet marketing plan is all you need to reach success. These examples of internet marketing done right arguably provided more longevity than any one-time traditional marketing campaign could have offered.

Client Spotlight: Medical jewelry company uses search to succeed

Health is everything. When mother and entrepreneur Toni Bissell’s daughter was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes, life changed. While the family began to work to develop a new diet, learn how to check blood sugar and administer insulin injections, they faced an additional problem: medical ID’s.

According to Bissell, one of the harder tasks of helping her daughter adjust to being a diabetic was getting her to wear her medical ID bracelet. It was then that Bissell recognized an opportunity to design, develop and provide fashionable medical jewelry. N-Style ID has been a successful small business for over ten years now.

“A lot of kids have conditions that other kids make fun of them for. Part of starting it [the company] was to give something to these kids to make them feel special,” Bissell said.

Life Saving Fashion Statements

With fashion forward bracelets and necklaces, the idea behind the business was also to transform the need to wear the jewelry into a desire to wear it.
The company is always evolving to keep up with trends and offers a wide variety of bracelets for diverse tastes. They provide durable bands for youngsters, sports bands, bangles, charm bracelets and even chains.

Better yet, with N-Style ID you only need one ID plate with your medical information. The ID plate is actually interchangeable so you can wear a number of different bands for multiple styles and occasions.

Becoming and Being the Best

With no brick and mortar stores, N-Style ID relies on its online visibility to reach out to those who want to make a statement with their style and circumstance. Bissell sought out search marketing to help her business flourish.

“The problem is that I have this great product and I couldn’t be found,” Bissell confessed. “I needed better rankings in the search engines where I deserve to be.”

The process of pushing her business forward has been working with time and serious effort.

Since working with SEO.com, N-Style ID has seen an increase in search engine rankings and website traffic. At present, revenue driven by our targeted keywords is up 76.20 percent year over year, accounting for a 700 percent return on investment. Additionally, all of N-Style ID’s 27 keywords are ranking on the first page.

“It takes time and nurturing to see results with SEO. This past year has been great. It’s not an overnight fix but the momentum has sure picked up,” said Bissell.

SEO Tip: Minimize loading time

Loading time for a website is a major contributor to page abandonment. The average internet users have a very low tolerance for a page that takes too long to load.

Research has shown that the slower a page loads, the higher your bounce rates will be.

Internet users expect the same web-browsing treatment on their mobile devices as their desktop. So how long are mobile web users willing to wait for a site to load before they go elsewhere?

In a small study of internet users, participants revealed that while using a mobile device they are willing to wait around 6-10 seconds before they abandon pages.

Around 79 percent of online shoppers who are dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to buy from the same website again; their overall experience includes loading time. Keep in mind that your website performance has a direct correlation with shopping behavior. In fact, 47 percent of people online expect a webpage to load in two seconds or less. If it takes longer than three seconds, you increase the likelihood of abandonment.

To help speed up your website, try a few of the following:

1. Use a content delivery network with servers across multiple locations to deliver content to users more efficiently.
2. Utilize browser caching so the next time a visitor returns to your website it will load faster.
3. Minimize redirects. Keep redirects that are necessary, but never have more than one redirect to get to a resource.
4. Optimize images by keeping image sizes to a minimum to help users with slower connections.

A one second delay in page response can decrease customer satisfaction and will cost you about 7 percent of your conversions. When it comes down to it, know that speed matters on the internet.

Industry Events

SMX East: New York; October 2-4, 2012
Pubcon: Las Vegas; October 15-18, 2012
Inbound Marketing Summit: Boston; October 23-24, 2012
SES: Chicago; November 12-16, 2012

SEO.com Events

6 Months of Free Local Marketing Giveaway — Enter to win!

The Link — SEO.com's Newsletter September 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

It’s been an exciting year for SEO.com to say the least.

Last month we were named to the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in the country and to Utah Business Magazine Fast 50. Our success and growth would not be possible if our clients weren’t also succeeding and growing.

We want to congratulate and highlight some of our client’s who have achieved tremendous growth and have been named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list:

Phone.com: Based out of Livingston NJ, Phone.com is a voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP), cloud, and API-based phone service specializing in small to very small businesses and sophisticated home users. The firm did about $5.3 million in revenue in 2011. With a staff of roughly 25 employees, Phone.com ranked No. 262 on the Inc. 5000.

Spillman Technologies: Salt Lake City based, Spillman Technologies designs specialized computer software for public safety professionals serving police departments, sheriff’s offices, communication centers, fire departments and correctional facilities nationwide. Spillman has been a client of SEO.com since March 2010 and has earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 every year since 2007. Spillman enjoyed a 40% 3-year growth and earned about $35 million in revenue in 2011 which warranted them the no. 3863 spot on this year’s list.

Certiport: Cetiport develops certification exams and practice tests for schools and businesses. Certiport works with industry-leading certification providers to bring their programs successfully to market. With about 165 employees and more than $48 million in revenue last year, Certiport came it at no. 2502 on the list.

Plastyc: Plastyc created the successful UPside Visa Prepaid Card program and the online banking portal iBankUP.com, which provides web and mobile-accessible financial services for consumers. The company employs about seven people in the US and last year did $3.3 million in revenue which earned them the no. 564 spot on the list.

SEO.com is thrilled for our clients and will continue to seek out new ways to help all of our partnerships grow.

We understand that SEO is a competitive and growing industry and our clients have a lot of choices when it comes to picking who they want to work with. Want to help us grow? Check out our job opportunities and see if SEO.com is the right fit for you.

Feel free to take a look at the original press release here:

Congrats To Our Clients Who Have Been Named To The Prestigious Inc. 5000 List is a post by SEO expert Rebecca Babicz. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

It’s Not All About Traffic

Everyone with a website loves traffic, and although attracting an audience is a big goal, it isn’t the main goal. Website traffic in and of itself does not keep you in business—it’s those who follow through with your call to action.

If you focus solely on increasing your number of visitors, you’re missing an opportunity. Improving your site can increase the percentage of visitors that make a purchase. Optimizing conversion is more than selecting the right color for a button or deciding on the best placement for a contact form. Conversion rate optimization is evolving. The new definition of conversion optimization encompasses emphasizing engagement, relationships, value, and your processes.

Here are three overarching principles that will help you with your conversions:

• The user’s experience matters most.
Problems with conversion can range from usability issues to delayed load times. In an era of convenience, the online tolerance of the average person is low. Streamline your site to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to access the information you are providing. The more information you request the greater the risk that they will exit your site. Only ask visitors for what you really need, and make your content clear and concise to help visitors navigate efficiently.

A little known way to cater to the customer is to let go of using a CAPTCHA. It’s nice to protect yourself from spam, but the three extra seconds it requires of your user could be a deal breaker. An interesting study showed that with a CAPTCHA turned off, only a few automated submissions were received, but no conversions were lost. Shockingly, using the CAPTCHA resulted in 160 failed conversions. Consider if it is really worth it.

• Provide adequate information.
Improving the user’s experience also relies on providing important information to simplify their product research process. One way top converting ecommerce sites do this is by inviting customers to leave feedback.

Unbiased reviews left by customers offers proof that your product or service is worth it. Allowing potential customers to see candid reviews increases the chance of conversion. Because users love to research online, providing reviews or testimonials on your site makes this stage of the process easier and gives them a favorable impression.

• Ongoing effort is essential.
Many businesses make one of two mistakes when it comes to online marketing data: they only track small pieces of information or they track everything but only utilize a small portion of the information. If you want to be certain your changes are working, look at more than the volume of sales. Be sure to identify how your visitors are engaging with your site, checkout abandonment and delve deeper into your purchasing process to gauge if things are underperforming.

If you do ongoing research into the barriers of conversion, you can address the root of the problem and find a solution.

Overall, conversion rates are personal. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that what worked for your competition will also work for you. Be sure to continually test your conversion tactics and their effectiveness in order to find best revenue-generating version of your website.

Client Spotlight: Driving School and Driving Website Traffic

Stats suggest that nearly 50 percent of new drivers will be convicted of a traffic violation during their first year of driving. Clearly, the need for a thorough driver’s education program is obvious. The Driver Training Group goes beyond traditional driving lessons by offering driver’s education through 911 Driving School, taught by current or retired police officers to improve the roads.

Because distracted driving has a whole new definition in our era of iPods, smartphones and GPS, driver’s education means teaching students to focus. The 911 Driving School adapts its courses to help encourage a collision-free life.

“We leverage police officers and their experience in our classrooms. The benefits of having a police officer are they understand the rules of the roads and they’ve seen it all,” said Joe Pruskowski, marketing coordinator for The Driver Training Group. “They share their knowledge in the classroom and things aren’t just rules of the road–they offer real consequences.”

While some high schools still offer driver’s education courses, others do not. Teenagers looking to complete the required courses and necessary hours to obtain their license are forced to find a decent program to appease their parents and prepare properly.

According to 911 Driving School, graduate drivers from the variety of programs offered receive fewer violations and collisions than the average for other driving schools located in Washington. The school is also offered in additional states including California, Colorado, Ohio and South Carolina.

“We have a strong brand and a great product with great instructors. The trick for us was figuring out how to get noticed,” Pruskowski said. “With search [marketing] there is a national component as well as a local component and we need both to get ranked so people can find our brand.”

911 Driving School required a good boost in the search engines in order to do their part to change the driving environment for everyone. After seeking the help of SEO.com, the driver’s education program has seen success.

With an aggressive campaign, 911 Driving School experienced an increase in organic search traffic and organic ecommerce revenue.

“Nothing works quickly, not even SEO, but we’ve been diligent and patient and we’ve been able to see results,” Pruskowski said.

In a mission to educate and inspire better driving, an in-depth look into the 911 Driving School makes a 16 year old teen driver behind the wheel seem a little less frightening. And when 911 Driving School sees results, the roads are seeing results as well.

SEO Tip: Experiment With Unique Content

 When it comes to inbound marketing, regularly creating content is a must. For those who already know this, it’s likely you have a blog and a few social media accounts. As you must also know, providing continually compelling content can get tough and it is far too easy to produce boring overused content.

Visual content is really becoming a huge necessity for any content cocktail. When planning your next move for content, keep in mind that variety matters. If you want to shake things up to stand out against the competition, we suggest trying out in some of these under-used ideas.

• Animated GIFs
Websites like Reddit and the blogging platform Tumblr have resurrected GIFs. Animated GIFs add a touch of eye-catching movement to break up a content heavy site and are a social sharing magnet.

• Infographics
Infographics may not be new to the scene of content, and we have definitely highlighted the power behind this technique before. However, we still want to encourage this form of visualization to spice up a blog post and entice social sharing. We might even add that infographics are a nice source of linkbait.

• Memes
Memes offer fun, shareable content for all social platforms. Do a little research to find out about the current popular memes and adapt them for your brand. Memes can be catchy, clever, and memorable and can work toward your advantage in terms of marketing.

• User-generated content
While you may have the financial ability to create your own content, sometimes giving the power to the people is cost-effective and more creative. Rather than offer a typical testimonial, embed a positive tweet about your company instead. Embedding tweets can both promote your social media and your brand.

Mix up your content marketing strategy and test new forms of content. If your competitors haven’t tried these newer forms of content, you are likely to really set yourself apart.

Industry Events

Inbound 2012: Boston; August 27-30, 2012
Marketing Sherpa B2B Summit: Orlando; August 27-30, 2012
SMB Digital Marketing 2012: Chicago; September 17-19, 2012
SMX East: New York; October 2-4, 2012

SEO.com Events

6 Months of Free Local Marketing Giveaway — Enter to win!

The Link — SEO.com's Newsletter August 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

It’s Not All About Traffic

Everyone with a website loves traffic, and although attracting an audience is a big goal, it isn’t the main goal. Website traffic in and of itself does not keep you in business—it’s those who follow through with your call to action.

If you focus solely on increasing your number of visitors, you’re missing an opportunity. Improving your site can increase the percentage of visitors that make a purchase. Optimizing conversion is more than selecting the right color for a button or deciding on the best placement for a contact form. Conversion rate optimization is evolving. The new definition of conversion optimization encompasses emphasizing engagement, relationships, value, and your processes.

Here are three overarching principles that will help you with your conversions:

• The user’s experience matters most.
Problems with conversion can range from usability issues to delayed load times. In an era of convenience, the online tolerance of the average person is low. Streamline your site to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to access the information you are providing. The more information you request the greater the risk that they will exit your site. Only ask visitors for what you really need, and make your content clear and concise to help visitors navigate efficiently.

A little known way to cater to the customer is to let go of using a CAPTCHA. It’s nice to protect yourself from spam, but the three extra seconds it requires of your user could be a deal breaker. An interesting study showed that with a CAPTCHA turned off, only a few automated submissions were received, but no conversions were lost. Shockingly, using the CAPTCHA resulted in 160 failed conversions. Consider if it is really worth it.

• Provide adequate information.
Improving the user’s experience also relies on providing important information to simplify their product research process. One way top converting ecommerce sites do this is by inviting customers to leave feedback.

Unbiased reviews left by customers offers proof that your product or service is worth it. Allowing potential customers to see candid reviews increases the chance of conversion. Because users love to research online, providing reviews or testimonials on your site makes this stage of the process easier and gives them a favorable impression.

• Ongoing effort is essential.
Many businesses make one of two mistakes when it comes to online marketing data: they only track small pieces of information or they track everything but only utilize a small portion of the information. If you want to be certain your changes are working, look at more than the volume of sales. Be sure to identify how your visitors are engaging with your site, checkout abandonment and delve deeper into your purchasing process to gauge if things are underperforming.

If you do ongoing research into the barriers of conversion, you can address the root of the problem and find a solution.

Overall, conversion rates are personal. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that what worked for your competition will also work for you. Be sure to continually test your conversion tactics and their effectiveness in order to find best revenue-generating version of your website.

Client Spotlight: Driving School and Driving Website Traffic

Stats suggest that nearly 50 percent of new drivers will be convicted of a traffic violation during their first year of driving. Clearly, the need for a thorough driver’s education program is obvious. The Driver Training Group goes beyond traditional driving lessons by offering driver’s education through 911 Driving School, taught by current or retired police officers to improve the roads.

Because distracted driving has a whole new definition in our era of iPods, smartphones and GPS, driver’s education means teaching students to focus. The 911 Driving School adapts its courses to help encourage a collision-free life.

“We leverage police officers and their experience in our classrooms. The benefits of having a police officer are they understand the rules of the roads and they’ve seen it all,” said Joe Pruskowski, marketing coordinator for The Driver Training Group. “They share their knowledge in the classroom and things aren’t just rules of the road–they offer real consequences.”

While some high schools still offer driver’s education courses, others do not. Teenagers looking to complete the required courses and necessary hours to obtain their license are forced to find a decent program to appease their parents and prepare properly.

According to 911 Driving School, graduate drivers from the variety of programs offered receive fewer violations and collisions than the average for other driving schools located in Washington. The school is also offered in additional states including California, Colorado, Ohio and South Carolina.

“We have a strong brand and a great product with great instructors. The trick for us was figuring out how to get noticed,” Pruskowski said. “With search [marketing] there is a national component as well as a local component and we need both to get ranked so people can find our brand.”

911 Driving School required a good boost in the search engines in order to do their part to change the driving environment for everyone. After seeking the help of SEO.com, the driver’s education program has seen success.

With an aggressive campaign, 911 Driving School experienced an increase in organic search traffic and organic ecommerce revenue.

“Nothing works quickly, not even SEO, but we’ve been diligent and patient and we’ve been able to see results,” Pruskowski said.

In a mission to educate and inspire better driving, an in-depth look into the 911 Driving School makes a 16 year old teen driver behind the wheel seem a little less frightening. And when 911 Driving School sees results, the roads are seeing results as well.

SEO Tip: Experiment With Unique Content

 When it comes to inbound marketing, regularly creating content is a must. For those who already know this, it’s likely you have a blog and a few social media accounts. As you must also know, providing continually compelling content can get tough and it is far too easy to produce boring overused content.

Visual content is really becoming a huge necessity for any content cocktail. When planning your next move for content, keep in mind that variety matters. If you want to shake things up to stand out against the competition, we suggest trying out in some of these under-used ideas.

• Animated GIFs
Websites like Reddit and the blogging platform Tumblr have resurrected GIFs. Animated GIFs add a touch of eye-catching movement to break up a content heavy site and are a social sharing magnet.

• Infographics
Infographics may not be new to the scene of content, and we have definitely highlighted the power behind this technique before. However, we still want to encourage this form of visualization to spice up a blog post and entice social sharing. We might even add that infographics are a nice source of linkbait.

• Memes
Memes offer fun, shareable content for all social platforms. Do a little research to find out about the current popular memes and adapt them for your brand. Memes can be catchy, clever, and memorable and can work toward your advantage in terms of marketing.

• User-generated content
While you may have the financial ability to create your own content, sometimes giving the power to the people is cost-effective and more creative. Rather than offer a typical testimonial, embed a positive tweet about your company instead. Embedding tweets can both promote your social media and your brand.

Mix up your content marketing strategy and test new forms of content. If your competitors haven’t tried these newer forms of content, you are likely to really set yourself apart.

Industry Events

Inbound 2012: Boston; August 27-30, 2012
Marketing Sherpa B2B Summit: Orlando; August 27-30, 2012
SMB Digital Marketing 2012: Chicago; September 17-19, 2012
SMX East: New York; October 2-4, 2012

SEO.com Events

6 Months of Free Local Marketing Giveaway — Enter to win!

The Link — SEO.com’s Newsletter August 2012 is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.