One of the most frustrating things for many small business owners, who are new to SEO, is all of the industry jargon.  In an effort to make things a little easier for anyone who is just getting into the arena, here are definitions to some of the most common phrases in our industry.

Algorithm – This is an intimidating sounding mathematical term that basically means using calculated steps to solve a problem.  What does this have to with SEO?  Everything.  Algorithms are how the search engines determine where your website will be listed when someone types in one of your keywords.

Adwords – This is Google’s “cost-per-click” form of advertising.  When you enter a keyword into Google’s search bar, you usually see results on the right, in addition to the ones you see on the left.  The results on the right have paid to be placed there.  They’ve gone through a sort of auction, and the price of their bid, the quality of their website, and a few other factors will determine their placement in that column.

Back links – Also known as “incoming links”.  These are links on third party websites that point to yours.

Conversion – A conversion occurs when a prospect either buys something from you, signs up for your newsletter, or takes some other action that gets them close to becoming a customer.

Spiders – These are automated programs used by the search engines to “crawl” over the World Wide Web.  They find and catalog the information found on websites worldwide.

Splash Page – A splash page is a homepage that doesn’t contain any actual content.  It’s usually a page created using flash or multimedia imagery that has a place where users can click to enter the actual site.

SERPS – Search engine results pages.  These are the pages that appear when someone searches for something on the Internet.  For example, enter the phrase “New York” into Google and you get over 7 million pages or SERPS.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give those new to SEO a starting point for some of the common industry jargon.

Basic SEO Definitions is a post from: SEO For Small Business

According to BusinessWeek, “videos are 53% more likely to appear on the first page of search results than text pages.”  Clearly, online video is a fantastic way to increase your traffic, propel your brand, and optimize your website.  Here’s a quick rundown of what to consider when creating and posting video for your company.

Video isn’t just about the big ideas. Don’t think that in order to record a video about your business that you need to have something amazing or groundbreaking to say.  In reality, video is just one more way to communicate with your target audience.  What are the questions your clients ask the most about your industry?  If you own a restaurant then make a video of your top chef creating your special dessert or appetizer.  If you own a body shop you can make a video explaining how quickly and easily your shop gets out the most common dents.  Here’s a good example by NYC dermatologist, Dr. Neal Schultz, who releases two to three new videos a week on various skin conditions.

Stay on point. Your video shouldn’t be longer than 10 minutes.  Videos that drag on and on just don’t work.  If you have a lot of information you’d like to cover then do a video series.  Remember that your video is not supposed to replace actual contact with the client.  You don’t need to reveal all of your secrets or tell your prospects how to build their own version of whatever it is that you sell.  Your video should provide a bulleted overview of one your products, services, or update people on what’s happening in your industry.  The key is to add value – inform, educate or solve a problem.

Come up with a title that ranks and gets people to watch. When creating a title for your video make sure that it’s catchy enough that people will watch it and remember to utilize your keywords so that it can rank appropriately on Google.

Consider third party hosting. You can either host your video on your website or through a third party like YouTube or Metacafe.  Hosting on YouTube or any other 3^rd party site offers you the easiest way to upload, share, and promote your content. You can also take the “embed” code from these services and paste the video on your site.

The bottom line is that online videos are another great way to market your company online.  So, get your camera ready and get in the game.

Online Video and SEO: Where to Start is a post from: SEO For Small Business

Search engine optimization is not simply about getting high results on search pages.  SEO can also be a powerful way to build your company’s brand or identity.  Regardless of how big or small your company is it has a brand.  In other words, your current and many of your potential customers already have an impression about what your company stands for.

One of the biggest challenges in building a brand is finding ways to deliver your company’s message to your target demographic.  When you use high search rankings as an advertising tool you’re much more likely to reach your target demographic than you are with almost any other form of advertising.

When you optimize your site for the keywords that best represent your company, you know that you’re advertising to people who already have an interest in your industry and your products.  To put it plainly, they’re actively looking for you.  They’re not trying to watch a football game when your company’s commercial comes on.  They’re not scanning their favorite magazine when they flip past your advertisement.  When you use high search rankings as an advertising tool, you’re marketing to people who are actively looking for information about companies just like yours.

When potential customers see your company listed in search results, they’ll be reading your title and meta tags.  While it’s important to optimize your title and meta tags for keywords, you can also use them to communicate messages about your company and your brand.  Title and meta tags are a great place to include your company slogan or key phrases that illustrate what your company is all about.

Remember that people trust their search engines.  If your website consistently gets high results for the most common keywords in your industry, it communicates to the consumer that their favorite search engine trusts your company.  Furthermore, most consumers will begin to think that your company is a leader in your industry.

The bottom line is that search engine optimization should be a part of every company’s marketing budget.  SEO is about more than clicks and conversions; it’s also a powerful yet simple way to keep your company in the minds of your target demographic.  If you’re looking for a way to get the most bang for your advertising buck, don’t overlook search engine optimization.

Build Your Brand Through Good SEO is a post from: SEO For Small Business

Here at SurchSquad we spend a lot of time helping businesses achieve first page rankings for their websites.  At the same time, we’re always working to increase our own rankings on the major search engines.  Late last week we achieved the top place position on Bing for the search keyword phrase “SEO for small business.”

Our #1 ranking on Bing is a terrific example of the SEO process at work.  These results didn’t happen overnight.  We achieved them by using the proven SEO strategies that we talk about on this blog and in our Small Business SEO guide.  They’re also the tools we use for our clients every day.

One of the most effective tactics we used was to think outside the box when it came to exploring our keyword options.  The most obvious keywords for our business are phrases like “SEO” and “SEO companies.”  However, the competition for these keywords is fierce.  Ranking for them could literally take a year or more.

So, we got creative.  By focusing specifically on three and four word phrases, we were able to come up with keywords that worked for our business, but had a lot less competition.  Don’t get me wrong, there was still a lot of work to do in getting to that #1 position.  Bing lists almost 4 million results for the keyword phrase “SEO for small business.”  Getting to the top meant consistently using tried and true SEO tactics like taking the time to conduct extensive keyword research and building a comprehensive link building campaign.

We can’t stress enough how crucial it is to know which keywords to focus on when you set out to optimize your website.  Here are a few ideas of what you can do to determine which keywords you should emphasize to increase your results with the search engines.

1. Get creative with your keywords. We focused on three and four word keyword phrases that had less competition than our main keywords.  Utilize keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword Analyzer to find relevant modifiers to your main keywords that will be most effective for your company.
2. Get more bang for your buck by focusing on specific geographic locations. Geography is a great modifier for companies that sell and operate locally.  For example, focus on a keyword phrase like “New York City Plumber” instead of “Plumber.”
3. Examine how most people navigate to your website. Google Analytics or your server logs can help you determine which keyword phrases people are using to navigate to your website.  You might be surprised at the keywords on your website that drive your traffic.
4. Use Paid Search campaigns to analyze conversions. One of the best ways to know which keywords are the most profitable is to run Pay-Per-Click or Paid Search campaigns and focus on the keywords that have the highest conversion rates.  Use these high converting keywords to build your SEO campaign.

Getting a #1 ranking on a major search engine is not impossible.  Decide now that you will take the time to implement proven search engine optimization tactics.  You will see better results and you will see your business grow.

Achieving a #1 Ranking on Bing is a post from: SEO For Small Business

We’ve all seen them, the SEO ads that guarantee overnight success.  They promise that your website will be listed in the first position on the major search engines within 24-72 hours of hiring their firm.  Many business owners who are just beginning to explore their SEO options will logically think that it makes more sense to hire a company guaranteeing first page or first position placement almost immediately as opposed to the company that is offering this same level of success in three to six months.

Here’s the problem.  No company that utilizes ethical SEO techniques can guarantee immediate first page results.

One of the most important things to know when you begin thinking about how to optimize your website is that there are several SEO techniques that will get your site banned from the major search engines.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing may refuse to list your site at all for an extended period of time.  Unfortunately, SEO companies that guarantee incredible results are most likely utilizing techniques that will get your website banned.  You’ll still need to pay for their services because they delivered on their promise, even if your website was eventually pulled from the major search engines.

Optimizing your website for the long haul is not like turning on a switch.  It requires employing a series of tactics and strategies on your website and elsewhere on the web.  It requires extensive research and keyword testing.  To put it plainly, it requires patience.

Almost all of our clients have and continue to achieve first page rankings for their top keywords however, these results occurred over the course of months not hours.  To read about the kind of success our client’s have achieved, check out our free SEO guide “6 Tips on How Search Engine Optimization Can Help You Grow Your Business.”

No matter which firm you hire for your optimization needs, make sure to choose one that’s not going to get your site banned or damage your brand.

Run, Don’t Walk, from SEO Ads that Overpromise is a post from: SEO For Small Business

Many companies will spend countless hours researching and refining the perfect set of keywords for their business website.  That’s a good thing, because keywords drive search.  To put it plainly, keywords are the language of the Internet.  Without them, we can’t tell search engines what we want.  Without them, we can’t bring targeted prospects to our websites.

It does appear, however, that many people are only using their keywords in their content.  Parenthetical keyword usage is important, but there are four other critical places where keywords really matter.  Every website should be utilizing keywords in their title tags, meta tags, meta descriptions, and H1 tags.  If these phrases sound like a foreign language, they should, because they’re HTML.  However, what they represent are some very basic locations within your website where you can use your keywords for maximum effect.

First, let’s talk about title tags. Every page on your website has its own separate title called a title tag.  Title tags appear in search results.  For an example, check out the image at the beginning of this blog.  They also appear in the top of your browser bar.  If you’re using Microsoft Explorer to view this blog page, then you should see the phrase “SurchSquad Blog – PPC Management and SEO Services for Small Business.”  That’s our title tag for our blog pages.

Meta tags are keywords that you can imbed in each of the pages on your website.  They can’t be viewed by people reading your website, but they can be detected by search engines.  These serve to tell the search engines what each of your webpages is about.

For an example of a meta description, take another look at the image above.  Every page on your website should have its own meta description, since Google indexes every page separately.  This means that when someone is searching for a company like yours on the Internet, the first page they find may or may not be your homepage.    They might first land on your services or about us page.  That’s why it’s critical to optimize every page on your website.

H1 tags are subheadings that separate your paragraphs.  Subheadings are great because they break up your text and make your content easy to scan.  Using keywords in your subheadings can allow the search engines, and your readers, to know what each section of your web page is going to be about.

Finding the best keywords for your business really is just the beginning.  Knowing where to use them can be the key to getting dramatically better search results for your website.

Critical Places to Include Keywords is a post from: SEO For Small Business

When working with clients to optimize their websites, we talk a lot about what they should do to increase their rankings with the search engines.  However, we rarely discuss the specific activities they should not do in order to not get penalized by the search engines.

There is a set of activities that, when performed on a website, are considered by the major search engines to be covert or “black hat” SEO techniques.  When the search engines find websites that are participating in these activities they will often delist them from their search results or, at a minimum, give them very low rankings for an extended period of time.

The only problem is that some of these techniques might appear to be smart from a beginner’s point of view.  To help ensure that you don’t step into a sticky mess with the search engines, let’s go over some of the more common black hat SEO techniques that you need to avoid.

1. Keyword Stuffing. Probably the biggest culprit is called “keyword stuffing”, which basically just means putting too many keywords on your website.  Don’t spam the search engines by overusing your most effective keywords.
2. Using Invisible Text. Another area where many websites get in trouble is they choose to include invisible text utilizing font colors that match the background of their webpage.  They do this to ensure that their page comes up for high ranking keywords, even if those keywords don’t relate to their business.
3. Link Farms. One of the areas Google assesses when deciding where to rank pages is how many websites are linked to or pointing to yours.  To trick the search engines, sometimes website owners will get together and agree to link their websites to each other, even though their sites are not at all related.

Stay away from these tactics, because they can get you in serious trouble with Google and the other major search engines.  Work strategically and ethically to optimize you site and, over time, you will see drastically better results.  To learn more about how to optimize your website, read our free guide “6 Tips on How Search Engine Optimization Can Help Grow Your Small Business.”

SEO Techniques to Avoid is a post from: SEO For Small Business

Customers don’t like websites that try to reinvent web design.  Remember, prospects come to your website with a purpose.  They might be conducting research to answer a specific question, they might be trying to get a sense of your company brand, or they may even be ready to make a purchase.  Don’t complicate their efforts by utilizing web design techniques that are outdated or uncommon.  Stick to the basics to convert prospects into customers.

Always use consistent colors, fonts, and layouts. You don’t want your home page and your services page to look as though they’re from two different websites.  Make sure that your basic design choices don’t change from page to page.

Make sure that your website is easy to navigate. Most websites follow a common set of criteria.  Very few companies can get away with web designs that completely reinvent web navigation.  Placing the buttons for your pages in random places isn’t how you want to show off your company’s creativity.

Prospects run from websites that aren’t easy to read. If you love the way that bright pink and lime green go together, then design a tie-dye t-shirt, not a website.  Don’t use a bright pink font on a lime green background because no one will be able to read it without seriously endangering their vision.  Also, blank space is your friend.  You don’t have to fill every corner of your website with text or images.  Blank space on your website will not only give the readers eyes a rest, it will also make the most important information pop.

Make sure that your site is easy to use on handheld devices. You never know if a potential client is using a Blackberry, an iphone or a regular cell phone to research your company.  If pertinent information can only be viewed by excessive horizontal scrolling, you may need to consider adjusting the width of your site.

Always include a lead capture form. A lead capture form allows your prospects to provide you with their pertinent contact information.  These forms usually work best with some sort of giveaway that justifies your request for their information.  For example, you can offer a free consultation, or you can sign them up for your monthly newsletter, or promise to send notification whenever you’re having a sale.

Every time someone visits your website they’re having an interaction with your brand.  Make sure that your website is easy to use so that your prospects are more likely to become paying customers.

Tips to Increase Website Engagement is a post from: SEO For Small Business

Getting people to your website is always a good thing.  Increasing your traffic and getting higher rankings with the search engines are goals every business owner should have.  Unfortunately, increasing your website traffic may not be enough to grow your business.  Your site should be designed and written in such a way that it compels your prospects to do something like make a purchase, contact you, sign up for a newsletter or something similar.

Don’t lose your stream of steady prospects by having a website that ignores one of the most tried and true concepts in marketing.  Every website needs a well-crafted call to action.

A call to action is a phrase or statement that urges your website visitors to take an action sooner rather than later.  Why?  Because people are busy.  They might look at your website and tell themselves that they’ll get in touch with you this afternoon or tomorrow.  Will they remember?  A call to action gives them a compelling reason to get in touch with you now.

How do you incorporate a call to action into your website?  First it’s important to utilize links and buttons that tell visitors to your site exactly what you want them to do.  For instance, if you have a newsletter, don’t hide that fact on an obscure page in your website.  Include it on your homepage and offer a gift for people who sign up.  Second, a call to action should include a reasonable sense of urgency, like “20% off until the end of October,” or “For a limited time only.”  Finally, don’t overdo it.  Customers should feel compelled to act, not harassed.

A company website is one of the most comprehensive advertising tools business owners have available to them.  Make sure that you’re utilizing yours to turn prospects into customers.

Remember to Use This Tried and True Marketing Tactic is a post from: SEO For Small Business

The short answer is yes.  Sometimes business owners are reluctant to take the SEO plunge because they aren’t sure whether or not it will really make a difference.  If they’ve been getting clients through referrals and walk-ins it may be hard to understand how Internet Marketing can help their businesses grow.

Search engine optimization works for business to business companies, mom and pop shops, service providers, consultants, and everyone in between.  Even if your prospects aren’t likely to search for a company in your industry online because referrals are so critical, you should still use SEO to build your brand.  You can connect with your clients and prospects through blogs, articles and more.

For example, the average consumer may not use the web to find a flooring company in their area.  Flooring costs are high and contractors can be unreliable.  Consumers may be more likely to rely on referrals instead.

Even in this case, they’d still get online to learn about the different types of flooring available, whether or not they should put hardwood in the kitchen, why linoleum costs more than tile, yet can devalue a home and so on and so on.  If a consumer received referrals for two different companies, but yours is the one that keeps showing up online with helpful solutions, which one do you think will win their business?

Search Engine Optimization is not a trend that will fade away like pet rocks or leg warmers, it’s here to stay.  SEO works because it addresses the way that most people today acquire new information.  They use the web.

If you’d like to learn more about how search engine optimization can help your business, download our free guide: 6 Tips on How Search Engine Optimization Can Help Grow Your Small Business.

Does SEO Really Matter In My Industry? is a post from: SEO For Small Business