A recent student asked me a couple of question via Facebook about what to do once you’ve had some success on Google.

He asked:

1. I’m showing up at #3, what do I really need to do to fight for the #1 or #2 position?
2. OK, so I am finally #1, now what?

The answer to the first questions depends on several things. First, have you made sure that the rankings you are seeing are not due to the Personalization of Search? Be sure you are logged out of your Google account when doing a search.  It might also be helpful to ask a friend from another part of the country to do the same search you are doing and have them tell you where they see your listing.  Check out this link for several other things Google says you can do to help turn off search history personalization.

Once you are certain you are not showing up at the top of the listings due to personalization, you’ll need to look at who are you competing against?

For example, if you are number 2 or 3 for Olympus Digital Cameras and number 1 is Olympus.com and number two is Amazon.com, the odds are you are NEVER going to be #1. It’s nearly impossible to beat out the website of the company that owns the name brand of a product you are trying to sell.

If the sites listed at #1 or #2 are not related to a particular brand then you need to evaluate some of the other search factors that play a roll in competitive industries such as:

• the quality and number of inbound links,
• the authority of your site and of the sites that link to you,
• the title tags of the pages that link to you,
• the text used on those sites that link back to you,
• your own title tags, quality of your content and other on-site SEO factors,
• the age of the sites ranking above you,
• quality of the content, etc.

If you can’t stand toe-to-toe with them on those fronts then you will need to work on those aspects of your SEO.

You might also want to look into a competitive analysis tool like the one from Michael Marshall called SEO Recon.  It can help you figure out what SEO factors of your site you need to work on and what areas not to change in order to compete for competitive phrases.

The easy answer to question #2 is to pat yourself on the back and continue doing what you’ve been doing! Obviously it’s working.

The thing NOT to do is to do nothing and expect your number 1 listing to remain. Stay diligent in your SEO efforts and be sure to stay on top of the latest changes to the Search Engines algorithms or you might find your #1 site is now #101.

Good Luck and Good Rankings!

Steve Scott
SEO Training Educator
877-736-7361

A friend of mine recently reached out to me on Facebook and asked, “Hey Steve, can you give me some tidbits on how to increase website traffic to http://www.momcentral.com“.

Here was my response:

“Boy is that a loaded question! These open ended general questions really need to be looked at on a case by case basis as every company has a different set of goals, competitors, and requirements to being successful.

The best single tidbit I could give you for SEARCH traffic is to build links to your site from other high quality websites that are in similar or related fields using the keywords you want to get your site found for.

The other thing is to write new and unique content for your website on at least a weekly basis (2-3 times a week is even better).  Don’t forget about the Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Participation in those places is necessary.

You could also try doing targeted Pay-Per-Click Ads or even targeted Facebook Ads to really reach your specific demographic.

The thing is that there are over 200 Ranking Factors that Google and the rest look at to evaluate your site… many of them having to do with the architecture/design of your site.

Also, you compete for traffic on a keyword phrase by keyword phrase basis and not business to business so the words you want to be found for need to be researched and qualified and the content and links you create should focus on those words.

The whole process is MUCH more complex than it was 10 years ago and it’s harder and harder to manage.  I mean, I teach a 5 Day SEO Training course that runs from 9-5 each day and even after all those hours we’re only really scratching the surface.  Many of the topics I cover could easily be stretched out into a full day course in and of itself.

The best thing to do is to try to stay on top of the changes.  One way to do that is to sign up for my SEO Tip of the Day at http://www.tampa-seo.com/. Another way is to check out and get involved in SEO industry sites like http://www.searchengineland.com or http://www.seomoz.org or even http://www.searchenginenews.com.  Each of these sites (as well as many others) have great info and articles every day that help you learn and stay on top of what’s going on in the Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Universe.

Good Luck!”

Steve Scott
Tampa SEO Training Academy

http://www.tampa-seo.com Video transcript (with minor edits).

Hey Guys, Steve Scott here from the Tampa SEO Training Academy.  I received an interesting question from one of my former students that I thought I’d share.  She says, “I’ve discovered one of our competitors is beating us to the punch on launching a new product that parallels ours… NOT GOOD.  What suggestions would you make for me to find information on their activities that wouldn’t be obvious to the naked eye?”

Well, what I was thinking about after reading this was a great tool from Google called Google Alerts.  What Google Alerts allows you to do is set up an alert so that whenever Google finds anything on the web that mentions something you are interested in, Google will send you information about it.

So, if you go to http://www.google.com/alerts you’ll see this page that shows up.  You simply go to where it says “Search terms:” and say you want to find something about the New York Jets, just type in New York Jets.

Then, you can select what you want to find, whether it’s everything that Google discovers, News items, Blog posts, Videos and so on.  I typically just leave this on Everything.

Next, select how often you want to find out about it. Whether as it happens, in other words as Google discovers it, once a day or once a week.  I usually go once a day.

You can then change the volume of information you get.  So if you are getting a very large amount of information or setting up an alert on a topic area that’s sure to have a high volume of data you can select “Only the best results” rather than “All results”.  I’ll generally leave it at only the best results at first.

Lastly, you can select where you want the information delivered to?  Select either your email address, which would be your Google account that you’d want to sign in with or you can set up an RSS feed and use that instead. I’m going to say to just send it to my Tampa SEO Training Academy account and hit “Create Alert”.

Now what will happen is, you see I’ve got several of them here, whenever Google finds any information about what you want an alert about it will send you email.  So this is great!  You can put in your own company name, you own products or in the case of the client, since she’s trying to discreetly keep an eye on her competitor, she can put in the competitors name,  company name, the URL of the company, the name of the competitors product or product line.  Now, anytime Google finds any information out about that particular product or company name, they’ll shoot her an email.

So it’s a great tool, easy to use,  easy to set up… Again it’s www.google.com/alerts and I would definitely suggest you check it out.  Even if all you do is put in your own company name in for brand management so you can be informed of when Google finds information about you that you might not have know that somebody else put out on the web.

Good Luck and Good Rankings.

Steve Scott

Some SEO folks used to believe that you could gain some small amount of relevancy by placing your keyword in a BOLD tag rather than using it in a STRONG tag.

In actuality, Google’s Matt Cutts says he was shown the piece of code in Google’s  algorithm that says <b> and <strong> are viewed as the same in the algorithm.  The same goes for italics <i> and emphasis <em>.   See for yourself at the 50 second mark in this video:

Of course it’s important to keep in mind that this video is 4 years old!

My opinion is that since <strong> is the newer tag, you should use it over <b> within any new content you may be developing.  I don’t think either is better from an SEO ranking perspective but in the future if a decision is made to change, it makes sense that the newer tag would be favored over the older tag.

Directory Listings may not be as influential as they once were but they are still an important part of your overall off-site SEO strategy.

A link on a well known or popular directory still has value to you particularly if your main keyword phrase is in the Title Tag of the page linking to you and you can link back to your site with your keyword phrase in your listing.  (This is one of those times where having keywords in your company name can be extremely useful.)

For years now I’ve been recommending Dan Paris and his directory listing site Info Vilesilencer http://info.vilesilencer.com to my students.  IVS researches and displays the internet’s original SEO friendly free directory list.  It also lists the top paid directories, niche directories and offers a professional manual directory submission service for those who don’t have the time or experience to submit to the directories themselves.

But my favorite part of the site is the free downloadable Excel file that you can use to submit your site and to track your submissions if you plan on doing it in-house.

Mention the Tampa SEO Training Academy and Dan may even give you a small discount on his already ridiculously low priced submission packages.

Remember, directory listings should not be your only link building strategy but they should play a part in your overall link building plan.

I recently read an article from a former librarian who began using tags at the bottom of his pages to help users.  While his intentions were good, listing a bunch of keywords at the bottom of every page can also be seen as spam by the search engines.

While tags can certainly be used to help your readers find related information about what they are reading, they can also be overused or abused by some… either intentionally or unintentionally.

Using a CMS system like WordPress can certainly make it easier to tag your post but you really need a plan when doing this so as not to overdue it.

I once had a client that had so many “tags” on his WordPress blog that it began to have a seriously negative effect.  Once we researched and determined the best keywords and phrases, we then limited the number of tags on his site and he started to move back up in the rankings.

Remember, the search engines are just trying to give their users the best, most relevant content to meet the searchers needs.  The problem is that there are many people trying to figure out a way to “cheat the system” to get better rankings.  That in turn forces the search engines to make changes to stop the “spammers” from winning.

Unfortunately, that generally means that once the engines determine something is bad, it’s bad for everyone (the good guys and the bad).

Keep this in mind… you should always test and try everything that you think will be helpful to your readers or users first.  Provide them with unique, original content that reads well and offers something of value to them.  Ask yourself, would you be doing this even if there were no search engines?  If you answer yes then more than likely it will be OK with the engines as well.

Whatever you do, do it in moderation!  Today’s hottest ranking tactic could be tomorrows biggest spam penalty.

Good Luck and Good Rankings!

One of my former students, Bill Valentine of Mitra Creative, recently asked me a question regarding the importance of local search.  He mentioned that soon after he got a client set up in Google Places they were #1 for one of their keywords and they now think he is a genius!

Bill’s question was in regards to companies with multiple locations;  “… what about businesses with more than one location? I have another client now that has three offices.”

First of all… congrats to you Bill on your initial success for your client! When it comes to clients with multiple locations the process is pretty much the same.

When working with companies that have multiple locations, be sure to list each of the locations under the same Google/Bing account and be sure to list each of the clients physical addresses for each location.  It’s also important that each location has it’s own local phone number and not some main corporate number or an 800 number.  Remember that P.O. boxes are not considered an addresses so don’t use them.

Be sure to also include all relevant categories the client belongs in and to use keywords in the company description.  Make sure the description sounds natural and not stuffed with keywords for the sake of ramming it down the search engines throats.

In addition, it is important to create citations for each of the locations around the web.  Citations are basically listings of your business, its address(es) and associated local phone numbers on places like Internet Yellow Pages, Local Listing sites (like Yelp, CitySearch, HotFrog, etc) or other local directories specific to the clients market.  Be sure to fill out the company profiles as completely as possible on these sites to gain the most traction.

Using something like Universal Business Listings (UBL.org) can help standardize your listings across the web.  Being consistent with your company name, address, phone number and more is extremely important towards building trust with the search engines.  Don’t try spamming the engines by stuffing keywords into your company name either.

Lastly, be sure to list the addresses of all the individual location of your client on the main website.  A simple text listing for each location is one way.  However, using microformats is a better way to go in today’s world as the engines are starting to move more in that direction.  Try a tool like this one: http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator to help you create the microformat code which you can then place on your website.

Following these basic guidelines for clients with multiple locations can yield great success in Local Search for each of the markets your client is located in.  Continued success to you all.

Steve Scott
Tampa SEO Training Academy

I often say to students, clients, and prospects that a web designer is a lot like an interior decorator. The interior decorator will make your home look great and help you pick out beautiful furniture, create a color palette to paint your walls, and select all the accessories to make your house a home. In much the same way, a web designer can develop your website so it looks great and includes all the bells and whistles.

However, you would never talk to an interior decorator before you spoke with an architect or a contractor, would you? A Search Marketer is the “architect” you need to speak with before you design your website. They can help you not only design your site correctly but also help you develop your online strategy and build your brand.

Remember, it’s not that the web designer is doing anything wrong or trying to hurt your chances at getting found. It’s just that most web designers and programmers do not have the knowledge or the level of understanding regarding many critical SEO aspects and can inadvertently cause your site to do poorly in the Search Engines.

So here’s a small bit of advice… don’t make the same mistake so many others do when it comes to their website. Talk to a reputable SEO company or get yourself educated before you decide to design or redesign a website for your business.

Steve Scott
Owner and Head Trainer
Tampa SEO Training Academy

No matter what industry you’re in, build relationships.

I’m referring to real, honest, long standing relationships built on a foundation of trust. Surround yourself with the very best in your industry.

No one can be the “best” at everything. No one can know everything. But with these relationships, you can pool your resources and keep yourself informed. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. By combining your strengths with others, you can help to offset your weaknesses.

But, be sure to build these relationships honestly and make absolutely sure that they’re real. Otherwise, there will be no foundation at all if they aren’t.

Social media sites such as Linked In, MySpace, & FaceBook are great places to start finding people in your industry. Make sure to establish a business account separate from your personal one.

Once you’ve established an account search for groups and people related to your industry and request to be their friend. Then make contact. Introduce yourself, and be active in the community you are a part of.

Social media sites like these may not pass to much in the way of page rank or link juice to your site but rather brand you and your business.

If done correctly you should see an increase in traffic to your site. You can see this through your analytics.

If you would like to receive more SEO Tips more often then check out www.tampa-seo.com and sign up for our SEO tip of the day.

The search engines love simplicity, so give it to them.

Two ways you can do this is by using CSS (cascading style sheets) or by creating a simplified version of your site with out all the bells and whistles.

CSS is a great way to get rid of unwanted code bloat. Code bloat is when you use inline and on page styling instead of putting it in an external style sheet. If your web site has too much in the way of code bloat then you may loose points from an SEO standpoint.

There are more than 60 things to do on each page of your site to fully optimize it. Code bloat is one of these elements. Reducing code bloat can increase your page load time, help you to better read and modify the code, keep your code more organized and help your rankings in the search engines.

More than likely code bloat is not that big of a deal from an SEO standpoint. It probably holds about as much weight as the keyword meta tag does.

However, if you have a competitive site that needs to rank for competitive keywords, you want to make sure you hit as many of those 60 on-site page elements as possible.

Remember, every little bit helps.