CONNECTIONS

–Vinh Bui, WebMaster

Part One: How to Begin

WHY SEO?

Surf the net. Call your relatives. Ask your friends. Ask a perfect stranger… “How do you find stuff online?”

Search engines are still the number one way to find anything on the internet today…and targeted marketing — the selling of things for which people are already searching — is currently driving revenue at the three big search companies: Google, Yahoo and MSN.

That being said, it is widely known that a significantly large percentage of small to large businesses are still ignoring search engine optimization (SEO). What does this mean? It means that those business that are actively using SEO are taking market share away from their competitors — small and large. Some of these SEO savvy businesses are finding and creating extremely profitable niches online where competition is either asleep at the wheel or just not there.

Whether you’re a small business or a multinational corporation (or anywhere in-between), search engines are and will be increasingly important to your success.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Search engine optimization requires work, creativity and effort. It all starts with keywords. Keywords are words people type into search engines that yield a list of results. The right keywords or keyword phrases — those which your audience uses to search for your business — are your golden ticket to finding and, I dare say, manipulating your market online. Look to the past, the present and the future of your market when thinking about these keywords, and remember that popular vocabulary changes with each generation. Finding the keywords that unlock the search doors is the challenge.

HOLD A JAM SESSION

Brainstorm topics, look at competitor sites, ask for input, research meta tags and add/subtract from existing information.

BE SPECIFIC AND GENERAL

Think of words that describe things related to your site content. For example, if you sell prom dresses, think about things and words related to proms,e.g. tuxes, limousines, florists, other accessories and services. If you were a portfolio training school, your words would include “slides,” “art slides,” “portfolio review,” etc. The idea here is to capture people who may be looking for other things related to your product or service. Think of it as keyword networking. This is a very powerful way of getting more targeted traffic to your site.

SWEAT THE VARIABLES

Marketers are always surprised at how people look for (and find) things online. Trying to predict all the possible ways and account for all the variables is simply impossible. However, there are some strategic approaches which will yield interesting results:

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF “TRENDS” AND “OVERTURES”

Lastly, check out the effectiveness of keywords that your and/or your team are using. The Yahoo Overture keyword tool (online) will tell you how popular your keyword choices actually are (multiply the result by 2 for a Google result).

Here’s the link:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Google also has a helpful tool called Google Trends. It creates graphs
that measure the popularity of particular searches through time.

Here’s the link:
http://www.google.com/trends

That should get you started. Next Issue: Design, Style and Content: Making
Sure SEO is Working For You

Until then.

Vinh Bui is a webmaster in Los Angeles, CA. His firm –
Omnipresence Web – designs
high-value, search engine-friendly websites for all manner of
client and purpose – including
online marketing (SEO and SEM).

626.429.9407
vinh@omnipresenceweb.com
www.omnipresenceweb.com (new website coming soon)

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