Five Sparrows Biz Talk E-Newsletter

Why Do We Need SEO Anyway?

If you’re like many small businesses, you probably spent a lot of time (and money) pulling together a web site for your company, only to find that in order to be found in the search engines, your site needs to be optimized.

Why is it necessary to optimize a web site for the search engines in the first place? Basically, it’s because there are millions and millions of web sites on the internet today, all different, with no standardized mechanism for indexing or organizing the information they contain. It’s like a giant internet encyclopedia with no table of contents to help users find what they’re looking for.

Search engines were developed in an attempt to organize all of that web information and make it searchable and relevant for users. In the early days of search engines, web authors could simply add “keywords” to the meta data (the behind-the-scenes code) of a web site to let the search engines know what keywords they wanted their sites to be associated with. But eventually, people started using all kinds of keywords that had nothing to do with their site content, and abuse of the system ultimately meant that the search engines had to get smarter about how they organized and evaluated web sites, and how they judged a site’s relevance to any given search.

Today, web sites must rely on search engine optimization techniques and well-optimized web pages in order to get noticed by the search engines, and ultimately found by searchers on the web. Since Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most effective way to achieve higher rankings in the search engines, it’s important to understand the differences between a web site and an optimized web site, and also to know the basic SEO building blocks that are used to prepare a site to be read, indexed, and ultimately judged relevant by the search engines.

Optimized vs. Non-Optimized

A non-optimized web site might display perfectly fine on the web, but the search engines will all but ignore it. The search engines need to see certain optimizations in place before they can read and include the site into their databases. Some of the basic optimization techniques typically used in SEO include: 1) adding meta tags such as keywords, title, description, etc., 2) including on-page optimizations, e.g., using keywords effectively in the page text, and 3) initiating external link-building activities to boost the relevance and popularity of a web site. An optimized web site will have these elements (and probably several others), which will then help the search engines understand what the site is about and what search terms it should be associated with.

There are, however, several types of sites that cannot easily be read or indexed by the search engines, including frames-based, image-based, or Flash-based sites. Template-based sites can also be a problem in certain instances, since they frequently prohibit individual page code access or block edits to the HTML meta data tags. These types of sites are contradictory to the idea behind SEO, which is to make it as easy as possible for the search engines to read and index a site, and provide the right kinds of “clues” so the search engines can determine which search terms should be associated with the site.

The Case for Optimization

The clear message of SEO is that without optimizing your web site to be read and indexed effectively by the search engines, there’s very little chance that it will show up when users search for the products and services that you sell. Your web site, no matter how beautiful or impressive, is still just one of millions on the web today, all competing for attention. If your competitors take the time and effort to optimize their web sites with well-researched keywords, on-page optimizations, and link building activities, the search engines will understandably pay more attention to those sites than to sites that do not provide any SEO structure or components.

Research shows that the way customers look for information online is through the search engines (more than 74% of all web users, in fact). So it's vital that you give your web site every possible opportunity to be listed where customers are already searching. SEO is currently the best tool available for getting your web site listed in the search engines, and for influencing the way in which the search engines judge your site’s relevance to the specific search terms and phrases that people use when searching on the web.

Without SEO, your site could very easily be lost in the massive amount of information on the web, without any of the landmarks or signposts necessary to help people locate your business. With SEO, your site stands a much better chance of being noticed by the search engines, indexed into their databases, and displayed on their results pages when searchers look for information on the web.

How to Write Headlines that Grab Attention

Headlines aren’t just for newspapers, of course. But they are typically the first thing that customers read in your ads, in your e-newsletter articles, on your web pages, and even in your emails. A headline that grabs attention can immediately engage customers and pique their interest – or it can be skimmed over and ignored as they move on to something else. But since headlines are responsible for up to 80% of a customer’s response, here are some ideas for writing headlines that boost those response rates and attract lots of attention from readers:

Give Tips, Hints, or Information – One of the best ways to grab attention is to use a list of tips or hints in your headline. The “top 10 ways to”, “tips to help you”, or “the best ideas for” are sure-fire ways to get attention from readers.

Use a How-To – Another tried-and-true attention grabber is using a “how-to” teaser in your headline. Customers love free advice or gaining new information, and “how-to” headlines are a great way to clue in your readers that you’re about to give them something they already want.

Ask a Question – Involve your customers immediately by asking a question in your headline. Make sure the question is relevant to both their interests and your products or services. Use a question that will make them curious enough to read what comes after the headline.

Make an Announcement – People love something new, so write your headline to announce something in a way they’ve not heard it before. Use words like “Introducing,” “New,” and “Announcing” as a way to generate excitement.

Point Out the Benefits – Let your customers know right away that your message will help them in some way, or fill a need that they have. Touch on the benefits in your headline, then provide the supporting detail in the content of your offer.

Writing powerful headlines can be the spark you need to capture your customers’ attention and compel them to keep reading your message. And once you get their attention, you have an opportunity to convince them with your content and motivate them to respond. If you can write effective headlines for your ads, articles, and web pages, you greatly improve the odds that your content will be noticed instead of neglected.

Alphabet Soup

We all know how important the web has become in our daily lives; whether it’s for our work, home life, education, shopping, communication, or just about anything else. And as the web continues to evolve and become more useful everyday, there is a constant stream of new acronyms, abbreviations, and words that have been invented to describe the ever-changing applications and services available on the web today. Here is a list of some common terms that you may have seen lately, with a brief explanation of each:

SEO: Search Engine Optimization — SEO is the process of modifying a web site to achieve better search engine rankings, and to influence the search engines’ judgment regarding the site’s relevance to important search terms and phrases.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page — SERP is the listing of web page links that are returned in response to a user query on a search engine.

BLOGS: Short for "Web Logs", Blogs are a collection of articles or comments that are posted by using blog software. Blogs can accommodate a wide range of content types, including text, video, photos, podcasts, and are typically collaborative, allowing users to post information that is visible to all other users of the blog.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Often referred to as Web 2.0, these are the interactive components of web sites that allow users to share video, photos, podcasts, and other applications that promote user participation. Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are all examples of social media applications.

CSS: Short for Cascading Style Sheets, CSS is a specific language used to define how a web page written HTML or XHTML should display in web browsers. CSS provides behind-the-scenes capability for coding web sites so they are more powerful, efficient, and also more search engine friendly.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication — RSS is a way to syndicate content from web sites, news sites, social media sites, and blogs where the content is frequently updated. It uses a feed-based technology that “feeds” content from a site to an RSS reader, enabling users to track information and current news through the RSS feeds they have set up.

PPC: Abbreviation for Pay-Per-Click, PPC is an advertising model that allows advertisers to pay their advertising fee only when users actually click on their advertisement (this is the model used in Google’s Adwords program, among others).

PR: PageRank is a Google algorithm that measures the popularity of a web site on a scale of 1-10. PageRank is visible when the Google Toolbar is installed on a user’s browser, and indicates the value of a site compared with other sites on the web.