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January 23, 2007
Don’t neglect your “free Google ads”
By Kai Blum
Pay-Per-Click advertising, if done by experienced professionals, can yield high conversion rates and substantially increase profits. But don’t neglect the other major component of search engine marketing: organic search result listings. They’re free and users generally look at them first. Optimizing them leads to a higher number of visitors and potential conversions.
Organic search result listings are essentially free ads and site owners need to put as much effort into writing them as they do with their paid search results. Writing attention-getting titles and compelling descriptions for each page of the site will lead to a higher click-through-rate and can also improve search engine rankings if done right.
Most important is the selection of a keyword phrase for which a page should be optimized. These keyword phrases need to be included in the page title and the page description (both are placed in the appropriate meta tags of the page’s source code), in the headline of the page copy, two to three times in the first 100 words of the page text and a few more times later in the text. The challenge is to write something that appeals to search engines and users alike.
I cannot stress enough the importance of paying attention to every page of your site. Even if you don’t have a top-ranked site in the major search engines, it is possible to get a lot of visitors through individual pages, if they are optimized for specific keywords and users are looking for related information. But users will only click on the search result if the title and text are inviting. Keep in mind that paid search results which contain a call to action and speak directly to the user tend to have a higher click-through-rate. The same should be applied to organic search results.
There are other important factors that determine page rank (such as the number and quality of inbound links), but putting some effort into writing good page titles and descriptions as well as consistently adding high quality content will already make a noticeable difference and increase your number of visitors.
Posted by staff at January 23, 2007 10:56 AM
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Comments
Even if you don’t have a top-ranked site in the major search engines, it is possible to get a lot of visitors through individual pages, if they are optimized for specific keywords and users are looking for related information.
Couldn't agree with you more, Kai!
Posted by: Alicia Dorset at January 23, 2007 11:11 AM
Kai, a lot of people are promising to deliver these kinds of SEO results. Is it hype?
Posted by: Charlie Kondek at January 23, 2007 11:28 AM
Charlie, SEO can make a real difference. However, there are no quick results. It takes weeks or months to see major improvements. Therefore, I wouldn't do business with anyone who promises instant results.
I also can't emphasize enough to pay attention to basic SEO rules during the creation of a new website. Many times SEO comes in to fix problems that should have been avoided in the first place. Hiring an SEO consultant at that stage is not a bad idea.
Posted by: Kai at January 23, 2007 01:55 PM
I agree, Kai. More results come from paid links that probably contain action and minister directly to the user and have a higher user rate or they perpertrating a fraud!
Posted by: Lucia Baker at January 24, 2007 08:52 AM
Hey Kai, I totally agree with you. SEO does matter and the points your bring up are very valid. I've been doing SEO full-time with Quicken Loans now for over a year and I've seen first hand how important this is.
But, don't underestimate the power of link value, especially with Google. It is probably the most important factor, regardless of what you might read. If you don't believe me take the Google "exit test." Google the keyword "exit" and check out the results. Disney, Google, and Yahoo are 3 out of the top 4 results. And I doubt you'll find the word exit anywhere on any of those pages -- not in the title, not in the content, not in the meta data. The reason they rank for the keyword exit? Because porn sites always have an exit link and they point to those sites all the time!
Posted by: Clayton at January 25, 2007 03:54 PM
FYI - Google adjusted its algorithm to decrease the effectiveness of Goolge bombing and the exit search no longer brings up the sites I mentioned. Either does the Bush "miserable failure" Google bomb. It was bound to happen. Hopefully content will play a greater role now in page rankings.
Read all about in in Flyte Blog
Posted by: Clayton at January 29, 2007 11:10 AM
It took them six years to fix this problem!
Posted by: Kai at January 30, 2007 04:18 PM
