Category Archives: SEO

There’s so much do, what should I focus on for SEO?

Written on July 27, 2010 by Shirley Tan in ECommerce, SEO

You beg, borrow and trade. You do a little of everything…just to barely keep on top of SEO

But one thing that you can focus on today is find out what keywords are already making money for you.  With event tracking from Monitus tools for Yahoo Stores as well as other platforms, you can see what keywords are ranking, what  position they are already, and build up your SEO efforts on those keywords that you know the value per visitor. I think this is one of the most important metrics that is overlooked by entrepreneurs.

Sure SEO rankings are important — it’s awesome to be ranking number 1 or 2 for the most competitive keywords in your industry – BUT SO WHAT!? If that keyword is not bringing you the higher value per visit or converts less because its so competitive, you’re spending an obscene amount of money and time on SEO … just for bragging rights? Of course not, that would be nuts! And here’s the bonus, by knowing which pages and keywords to improve upon,  it will also help define which landing pages you should test and optimized.

My point is that you should take a hard look at your analytics and evaluate your conversion rate, value per visitor and lifetime value of your customer (repeat customers). These are the numbers, in my opinion, that are most important and most in your control. How? You can control them through PPC and optimize your landing page, even if you’re already ranking for those keywords. You would be surprised how many users are still clicking the sponsor area and converting.

Google didn’t make $7 Billion in Q4 2009 from the organic SERP (search engine results page), so someone is clicking on those sponsor ads and and someone is converting them into customer. Shouldn’t it be you?

Don’t I sound like I should be linking you to my Google Adwords affiliate account right now? Oops I forgot, I don’t have an affiliate account with Google.

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Keyword Density – Does this really work for SEO?

Written on July 10, 2009 by Shirley in Featured Articles, SEO

First, lets define keyword density. Keyword Density is when a particular article has a number or ratio of very focus keywords or phrases that may be repeated more than 4 to 6 times, sprinkled very generously through out the content.

Why do some website focus on this? Because they believe that if your website has more keywords on the page, the website would rank higher on the search engine.

Why aren’t more website doing this then? Well, actually it is common practice believe or not that many websites go out of their way to increase their keyword density to try to rank higher in the search engine.  Sometimes it helps, most times it doesn’t. I think it depends on how competitive your industry is and what the rest of the websites in your category is doing.

Done correctly, your site could do very well, done incorrectly, your site could be penalized for over optimization.  Seriously there are times whenits too much of a  good thing, and you have to be careful not to push the envelope too far or risk getting your site banned.

I think you have to be very careful and your content more importantly have to make sense to the reader. Ultimately you want your reader to either buy something or you want them to share with others what they just read. They’re not going to do either if your content doesn’t make sense because you repeated use the same keyword over and over again.

Now having said that, its important to have a certain number of keywords that are repeated in a sense that make sense (now say that 10 times out loud) and using synonyms and related keywords to describe your product or topic is always helpful.

Search Engines like Google can determine keyword relationship like wedding to bridal, they know it’s related to each other through their super secret algorithm.  To find out what other keywords are tied or related to each other, you can always use the Google keyword tool.  Type in the most generic of your keyword and it will show you what other keywords people are using in their search queries.

In the end, I think conversion should be the focal point and I would focus more on getting your customer/reader to take action on your website. If your site is in E-commerce, help them buy something, they’re itching to part with their hard earn money, don’t’ stand in their way, help them find what they’re looking for.

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Common Mistakes on Title Tags for SEO

Written on June 12, 2009 by Shirley in ECommerce, SEM, SEO

SEO   –  Title Tag Mistakes

Mistake #1 – Having the same title tag through out the entire site

Many websites, whether they are informational or Ecommerce, often do not pay attention to the Title Tags of their web pages. The most common error is that the webmaster inserts the domain name as the first keyword, and then a tag line about their site or business.

The fix for this error is to enter your primary keyword (what your site is about) and then, if you insist on entering  your domain name, put it at the end. I personally would omit the domain name altogether–space is valuable, and you only get 65  to 70 characters before Google  cuts if off the search results, which means that your average searcher wouldn’t even see it.

Mistake # 2 – Repeating the same title tags on many pages

Lets say that although the webmaster was smart enough to have a different title tag for the homepage, another all too common mistake is that the subsequent pages of the website share the same title tags.

The fix for this is to dissect what that page is really about and why you even bothered with creating a page that is basically the same as another. Okay, it may not be the same as another page you say, so make sure that your title tag is indeed unique and not duplicated or conflicting with another page on the topic or content.

Mistake # 3  – Not using keywords that your customers are using

Never mind that you’re the expert in this field.  I know you do it for a living and you should know what the keywords are, right? Wrong! It doesn’t really matter what you say: it’s what your customers search for that matter. In the end, the customer is always right (you want their money right ?– I mean their business!)?  So, use their language and wording to ensure that your site is relevant and found on the search engines.

There are a few other points about Title Tags for websites, but they are relatively minor and the above, I think, are the most crucial ones to get right.

PS: The reason why these mistakes are still so common is because most small businesses hire designers who are great at designing beautiful websites, but are not familiar with SEO and therefore, they just upload the content that the business owner supplies.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

Category Archives: SEO

There’s so much do, what should I focus on for SEO?

Written on July 27, 2010 by Shirley Tan in ECommerce, SEO

You beg, borrow and trade. You do a little of everything…just to barely keep on top of SEO

But one thing that you can focus on today is find out what keywords are already making money for you.  With event tracking from Monitus tools for Yahoo Stores as well as other platforms, you can see what keywords are ranking, what  position they are already, and build up your SEO efforts on those keywords that you know the value per visitor. I think this is one of the most important metrics that is overlooked by entrepreneurs.

Sure SEO rankings are important — it’s awesome to be ranking number 1 or 2 for the most competitive keywords in your industry – BUT SO WHAT!? If that keyword is not bringing you the higher value per visit or converts less because its so competitive, you’re spending an obscene amount of money and time on SEO … just for bragging rights? Of course not, that would be nuts! And here’s the bonus, by knowing which pages and keywords to improve upon,  it will also help define which landing pages you should test and optimized.

My point is that you should take a hard look at your analytics and evaluate your conversion rate, value per visitor and lifetime value of your customer (repeat customers). These are the numbers, in my opinion, that are most important and most in your control. How? You can control them through PPC and optimize your landing page, even if you’re already ranking for those keywords. You would be surprised how many users are still clicking the sponsor area and converting.

Google didn’t make $7 Billion in Q4 2009 from the organic SERP (search engine results page), so someone is clicking on those sponsor ads and and someone is converting them into customer. Shouldn’t it be you?

Don’t I sound like I should be linking you to my Google Adwords affiliate account right now? Oops I forgot, I don’t have an affiliate account with Google.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

Keyword Density – Does this really work for SEO?

Written on July 10, 2009 by Shirley in Featured Articles, SEO

First, lets define keyword density. Keyword Density is when a particular article has a number or ratio of very focus keywords or phrases that may be repeated more than 4 to 6 times, sprinkled very generously through out the content.

Why do some website focus on this? Because they believe that if your website has more keywords on the page, the website would rank higher on the search engine.

Why aren’t more website doing this then? Well, actually it is common practice believe or not that many websites go out of their way to increase their keyword density to try to rank higher in the search engine.  Sometimes it helps, most times it doesn’t. I think it depends on how competitive your industry is and what the rest of the websites in your category is doing.

Done correctly, your site could do very well, done incorrectly, your site could be penalized for over optimization.  Seriously there are times whenits too much of a  good thing, and you have to be careful not to push the envelope too far or risk getting your site banned.

I think you have to be very careful and your content more importantly have to make sense to the reader. Ultimately you want your reader to either buy something or you want them to share with others what they just read. They’re not going to do either if your content doesn’t make sense because you repeated use the same keyword over and over again.

Now having said that, its important to have a certain number of keywords that are repeated in a sense that make sense (now say that 10 times out loud) and using synonyms and related keywords to describe your product or topic is always helpful.

Search Engines like Google can determine keyword relationship like wedding to bridal, they know it’s related to each other through their super secret algorithm.  To find out what other keywords are tied or related to each other, you can always use the Google keyword tool.  Type in the most generic of your keyword and it will show you what other keywords people are using in their search queries.

In the end, I think conversion should be the focal point and I would focus more on getting your customer/reader to take action on your website. If your site is in E-commerce, help them buy something, they’re itching to part with their hard earn money, don’t’ stand in their way, help them find what they’re looking for.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

Common Mistakes on Title Tags for SEO

Written on June 12, 2009 by Shirley in ECommerce, SEM, SEO

SEO   –  Title Tag Mistakes

Mistake #1 – Having the same title tag through out the entire site

Many websites, whether they are informational or Ecommerce, often do not pay attention to the Title Tags of their web pages. The most common error is that the webmaster inserts the domain name as the first keyword, and then a tag line about their site or business.

The fix for this error is to enter your primary keyword (what your site is about) and then, if you insist on entering  your domain name, put it at the end. I personally would omit the domain name altogether–space is valuable, and you only get 65  to 70 characters before Google  cuts if off the search results, which means that your average searcher wouldn’t even see it.

Mistake # 2 – Repeating the same title tags on many pages

Lets say that although the webmaster was smart enough to have a different title tag for the homepage, another all too common mistake is that the subsequent pages of the website share the same title tags.

The fix for this is to dissect what that page is really about and why you even bothered with creating a page that is basically the same as another. Okay, it may not be the same as another page you say, so make sure that your title tag is indeed unique and not duplicated or conflicting with another page on the topic or content.

Mistake # 3  – Not using keywords that your customers are using

Never mind that you’re the expert in this field.  I know you do it for a living and you should know what the keywords are, right? Wrong! It doesn’t really matter what you say: it’s what your customers search for that matter. In the end, the customer is always right (you want their money right ?– I mean their business!)?  So, use their language and wording to ensure that your site is relevant and found on the search engines.

There are a few other points about Title Tags for websites, but they are relatively minor and the above, I think, are the most crucial ones to get right.

PS: The reason why these mistakes are still so common is because most small businesses hire designers who are great at designing beautiful websites, but are not familiar with SEO and therefore, they just upload the content that the business owner supplies.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!
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