Local link building

It seems that according to this SEO Roundtable post, if you want to rank for a local search, i.e. "Birmingham florist," you want links from other Birmingham sites. That makes sense to me, but it's not something I would have really thought about. I know you want links from sites that have to do with, in this example, flower arranging, but I've never thought about blostering your connection to Birmingham via link building.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting it though. Let me know if you got a different idea from the post in the comments here.

post: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020435.html

SEO News for the Week of May 25, 2009

Industry News

Facebook has received a $200 million investment infusion from a European firm, placing the company's value at $10 billion.

Companies are increasingly combining social media with cause-marketing campaigns.

Microsoft is gearing up to revamp live.com and re-name it Bing. This is just as Google reaches nearly 73% of market share.Microsoft plans to use its huge marketing budget to plant the idea that "today's search engines don't work as well as consumers previously thought by asking them whether search (aka Google) really solves their problems."

SEO News

Local SEOs now will have to leave Local Business Center profile verification up to their clients due to a change in process by Google.

SEO Advice

Target one keyword for organic rankings and its synonyms. One page per idea is best.

Over-explaining is great for usability and SEO.

Usability and SEO compatibility no excuse to ignore SEO

I couldn't agree more with the excellent points made in the searchenginejournal.com article on usability vs. SEO.

The point of the article was that SEO and usability aren't at odds, but go hand in hand. The author listed examples of things you'd do for SEO that are helpful for users as well, and explained why they are helpful for both.

My only concern is that people might take this article to mean that as long as they're keeping usability in mind when designing and writing their Web sites, they're doing SEO as well.

Unfortunately, it's possible to write anchor text that is great for users and terrible for search engines. I see it all the time. I'll use an example from this very blog post.

I linked to the story referenced above with "usability vs. SEO" as my anchor text. Here I've sacrificed usability a little bit for SEO. I think it's most rational to click on the word "article" if you're linking to an article. But I'm sure the author of the article doesn't want SEO credit for the word "article," but would prefer to have it for the subject she covered in the article. I'm assuming she has no interest in ranking number one for the word article, but would love to be number one for "usability vs. SEO."

The point I'm trying to make is that you need an experienced SEO who knows when to choose SEO over usability and when not to in order to win. Just one or the other doesn't cut it.

The Mom Test for Usability

I've been seeing this all around and I think it really applies to the small-business Web site because its very cost-effective. It's called the mom test, and I like it. Basically, every site should optimally go through some usability testing, to be sure that an average user can figure out where to go and what to do on your site. Over at the Bruce Clay blog, Virginia Nussey talked about using the mom test to figure out what your call the action is. I've been to many a site where I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. Was I supposed to call, e-mail, what number, what address?

So before going live or shortly thereafter, or ASAP, ask your mom to visit your site and then ask her what she thought, from the site, you wanted her next move to be. If she stares at you blankly, you might need to tweak something.

E-commerce vs brochureware sites

I'm kind of tired of hearing about how awesome e-commerce is. Yes, not having to manage a brick-and-mortar store can save you a lot of money. But that only works if people are as willing to buy online as they are in the store. One study claims that customer satisfaction in e-commerce is on the decline.

I'm not trying to knock e-commerce at all. For some things it works well. I think it's a great addition to stores. But I think we need to get real about it obliterating the walk-in store as we know it. I also think that we should re-examine the e-commerce site's red-headed stepsister: the brochure-ware site.

I think everyone who is trying to sell someone something should have a Web site. But it doesn't have to sell anything. Just putting your basic information out there, what you sell, where you're located, ect., is extremely important. I think many times, with small business owners especially, they get caught up in thinking that their site needs to do everything, sell their brand, sell their stuff, feature all kinds of flash animation. There's definitely something to starting small. Buy a domain and let it mature. There's nothing wrong with a little 5-page brochure-ware site to get you started. It may be all you need.

Trolling forums for great SEO content

As an SEO Copywriter, creating relevant content is priority one for me. I've finally found a great article on tips for creating great content.

The tip in the article that I liked best was to research the most popular questions relating to your industry. The article suggested trolling forums, which I think is a great idea.

I usually do keyword research to find the terms people are searching. For example, "cosmetic dentistry," and then figure that a dentist's Web site really needs a page on cosmetic dentistry, based on the search traffic. Then, I come up with generic questions I want the page to answer, such as, what is cosmetic dentistry? Who is a good candidate for cosmetic dentistry?

But a better solution might be to troll forums to find out what people are asking about, then do the keyword research relating to those topics, to choose what to write pages about.

Not that they're mutually exclusive. Obviously I can do things my way, up until right before I'd start writing, then do a survey of forums to see what questions people are asking about my keywords.

Bartering for SEO

Sometimes the SEO and, I'm guessing, Web design worlds can seem a little incestuous, with everyone linking to and talking about the same people, stories and topics.

Some of my interests lie beyond Search Engine Optimization, and while some may say that makes me less of an SEO, I say, "Non!" (French accent, for no reason)

While pursuing an interest outside of SEO, I ran across an article that I then linked with SEO. It's about bartering, and how in times of economic uncertainty, bartering begins to look more attractive. The interesting thing about this article is that the author used graphic design services as an example multiple times. And since that's related to Triad Web Design, in that we do Web design, it made me think about bartering we could do.

For instance, one of our clients is a dental services company. It's been a few minutes since I went to the dentist, maybe we could barter SEO for dental work.

That would save me from having to pay taxes like a freelancer, which, if you don't know, is something you want to avoid because they're egregious.

The point here is that marketing, including Web marketing, is often one of the first things a troubled business will abandon. But it should be the last. I really, honestly don't think you could get better ROI than a well-built, Search Engine Optimized Web site. Maybe if you don't have the cash on hand, you could offer a trade to a Web marketing company. Read the article and think about it.

Here's a great article on the importance of blogging for small businesses. I couldn't agree more with the author.

Happy Mother's Day

Mine's at work, or I'd be spending time with her instead of blogging. What kind of heathen do you think I am?

So Triad Web Design doesn't have a full site yet. Part of the reason for that is that I'm not done writing the copy. For some reason I'm finding it really difficult to get motivated to finish the copy. Thankfully we're not just waiting on me, there are design and hosting aspects that haven't been hammered out fully yet, I think. But I still need to be writing.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly it is that's holding me up, so I can deal with it and get to writing. I think one thing that's making it hard is that I'm still trying to wrap my head around exactly what we'll be offering.

For example, when I write copy for a Web site, I always write the home page last. By the time I've written all the interior pages I know the products, I know the brand, and I know what's important. Having that information makes writing the home page a million times easier. It's still hard, but at least I have all the relevant information.

I feel like I'm not qualified to write this site until we do some work, and I know what our process is, how we do things, and what exactly we're going to offer. I know in my head I can, should and will re-write the site as time goes on and things change. Plus, fresh content is great for SEO. But part of me just wants to hold out until I know more.

Oh well, I've got to get over it and get something on the page so we can get business and form a process and I can figure our stuff out!

Committee - Where Great Ideas Are Sent to Die

Today at my day job I was part of a "brainstorming session" to come up with a tagline for a client. Most of the people in this room had little to no experience with the client or the client's industry.

After an hour, predictably, we had nothing. I kept calling out ideas and getting no response. I was getting frustrated when I remembered that committees are where ideas go to die. And this was essentially a committee. I was putting my ideas before a committee of people who didn't know more about the business than I did, and they were letting them die. That's what committees do.

So I asked a reasonable question: who's the copywriter for this account? The answer was something like, well, I was, then this girl who's no longer here was, then this other girl who's no longer here was, now this third girl edits what their internal marketing person writes. Well, duh! That's why they don't have a tagline. In fact, before they worry about a tagline, they need to find a copywriter who knows them and knows their industry.

The good news, dear Triad customers and customers-to-be, is that there is no committee at Triad Web Design. You get a copywriter, a designer and sometimes a programmer. As your copywriter, I will get to know your business, so when you need a headline, tagline or whatever, there's no hour wasted trying to explain to ten random people what it is you do so they can reject good ideas.

You're welcome.

Keeping Your Priorities Straight - When to Invest in Social Media

In your list of online priorities, your site is first, your blog is second, and social media is third. IMHO, social media isn't something you think about until you're up-to-date on your site and blog. Why put your site and blog before social media? First of all, you don't want to get people excited about and interested in your brand through social media, just to disappoint them once they get to your site. Second, social media will not provide your customers with the dialogue, information and SEO value that blogging will. Social media is a great way to continue the conversation, or expand the conversation. But the central hub of the conversation needs to be your blog. In addition, you'll get more ROI on a blog than you will on a Facebook page or twitter account.

Paul Gillin over at B to B online has a great article on When to Avoid Social Media.

Since Triad Web Design caters to small, local businesses, I'll summarize the three situations that might apply to them. Say you're the marketing person for a small business and you'd like to get into social media, but you can't get your boss on board. Abandon ship. If you can't get your boss to buy in, the effort is doomed to failure.

If you're interested in social media because it seems like the "thing to do," but you don't have any clear goals about what you'd like your efforts to accomplish, hold off until you have a concrete plan. You don't want to have conflicting, inane messages about your business floating around the Web. In addition, when you get busy and the campaigns aren't seeing any results, they'll be shuttered and you'll have wasted your time.

There are some businesses, such as health-care companies, where you have to be cautious about what you say. If you have to run every tweet by legal, it's not going to be worth the expense.

Why You Should Incorporate SEO Into Your Building Plans

I've been trying to think of a very common-sense way to explain why it's so much better to build a site with Search Engine Optimization in mind, rather than going back and trying to SEO an existing site.

The best analogy I could come up with is to liken building a site to building a house. I actually think the analogy is rather apt. First, think about the pages of a Web site like the rooms in a house. Rooms are separate and distinct, but they all fall under the same overall structure, the house. Similarly, the pages of a Web site are distinct from the site in general, but still exist within it.

Think of a page's content like a room's furniture. If you remove all the furniture and decoration from a room and replace it with other furniture, the room will be in the same place and be the same room, it'll just look different. It's the same with a Web page. Take all the page's content out and replace it, it's still the same page, it'll have the same url and exist in the same place, it'll just look different.

Where is this going? Say you decide the living room should be on the eastern end of the house instead of the western end. You can just switch the furniture up, which might help, but if the rooms are different sizes, this probably won't work. Then you have to actually move walls around to make it happen. This is expensive and time-consuming. If only you'd known you would want it like this when you were building the house, it would've been no more expensive or time consuming the build the room where you wanted it than building it where it is now.

The location of a room in a house corresponds with the location of a page in a Web site and its url. Changing either after the fact can be expensive and time-consuming. Putting your page in the right place, with the right url, would have been super-easy when you were building the site.

What does this have to do with SEO? A lot of SEO has to do with urls and site structure, where pages are located. A good SEO will know where your pages should go and what their urls should be for maximum SEO benefit. You want that knowledge and expertise when you're building the site, when good decisions are as easy to implement as bad ones, rather than having to go back later and move walls.

That's what we do at Triad Web Design. We build your pages with SEO in mind, with solid site architecture and urls that incorporate relevant keywords. Hopefully this helps to explain why that matters!

Triad Web Design, New Company, New Site, New Blog

Welcome to the first ever blog post of Birmingham's newest Web design company: Triad Web Design. Right now the site is just a contact us page, and now a blog post. Until we get our real home page and about us pages up, I'll explain a little about why we started Triad Web Design.

Triad Web design is the creation of a Search Engine Optimization copywriter and a designer. All around us we saw design companies and SEO companies. Some of these would offer the other service, on a limited basis. But what we realized is that SEO and design are inextricably linked. It makes no sense to design a site, and then go back and hire another company to SEO it. Similarly, it's problematic when designers claim they know SEO (which most will do) but then design sites that sacrifice searchability for looks.

The best time to SEO a site is when you're building it. So that's what we do. And while we're at it, we offer hosting as well.

So that's the triad: Web design, SEO and hosting, the three services you need to build a compelling, effective Web site. Because a beautiful site that no one can find is pretty useless.

We've got one active client right now and a few in the queue. Check back soon to see the rest of our site and to read our next blog post.

Thanks for visiting!