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Search Engine Optimization postings.
As presidential candidates strengthen their online presence, it seems obvious their sites would be highly-optimized for search engines, filled with relevant content and primed for online marketing. According to Search Engine Watch, however, most candidate sites deserve failing marks for search engine optimization.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an area where many mid- to large-size companies can literally be leaving millions on the table. SEO is often referred to as organic search. It refers to the unpaid, algorithmic process used by search engine companies to assess your website and determine where your company will show up in the “natural” rankings when a customer, consumer or prospect enters a relevant search term. SEO also refers to the methodologies used to measure, improve and integrate those rankings into a viable marketing system.
This natural search ranking can have a profound effect on a company’s volume of business. There are over 6 billion searches per month on major search engines. These search engines have become a primary way for many people to find and compare high-involvement products and services. As a result of this search process, they often either buy online or determine where they will make a purchase through the best brick-and-mortar location in their area. According to ROI Research, online search affects 49 percent of major online purchases and 42 percent of major offline retail purchases.
It’s easy to build a case that video will continue to transform the online world, but a significant obstacle remains: an effective, comprehensive video search engine. Today’s Washington Post details the various efforts to champion this rich but technically-challenging opportunity.
A Pew Internet & American Life memo from last year predicted a “Silver Tsunami” in the next decade as aging Baby Boomers create a new wave of older Internet users. Cranky.com, which launched last week, aims to become their primary search tool.
SEO Egghead has posted a collection of SEO tips written the past year by Google’s Matt Cutts that serves as a nice intro to SEO fundamentals. If you’re just getting into SEO or want to learn enough so you can have an educated discussion with your team, I encourage you to take a look. Each tip has a link to the original post by Matt so if you want to dig deeper into any one topic you can.
Optimizing a Web site is a constantly evolving madness and you can quickly find yourself wondering what exactly your SEO expert or team is talking to you about. These 21 tips can help get you up to speed, not only on some basic SEO topics but a few techie things your development team may be doing and not even aware it could pose a problem. This should be a must-read for anybody involved with marketing, designing, developing or managing a Web site. Since search engine algorithms are complicated beasts, every small piece that you can do to improve your chance to move one position up matters.
Even seasoned SEO pros might want to take a look to get refreshed. It’s really that good of a collection, now go read it.