April Blog 7 of 12 : TriMark Solutions SEO Director Daniel Hurst Discusses SEO & SEM Best Practices

SEO & SEM Best Practices

Since this is my first blog post, I’ll start out by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Daniel Hurst & I’m the Director of Search Marketing for TriMark Solutions, which means (among other things) I manage our clients’ SEO. I am originally from Spartanburg, SC & I studied marketing at Clemson University. I’ve been happily married for almost 3 years now & I enjoy sports, outdoor activities, working in my yard, reading, learning about the ever evolving world of internet marketing and of course…SEO!

Enough about me, moving on…

To dive right into our topic for this week, Best Practices for SEO. I really feel that, at its most basic level, SEO can be broken down into 2 main categories (there are others as well and these two can be broken down MUCH more, but for the purposes of this post, I’m keeping it very simple), they are:

1. On-Site:

a. Design
b. Development
c. Content
d. Page Header Information (Title’s, Meta Data, etc.)
e. Site Architecture (Site Layout, Page Names, etc.)
f. Etc.

2. Off-Site:

a. Links
b. Online Reputation Management
c. Social Media
d. Etc.

My goal with this post is not to get too technical or detailed at all, but to provide some VERY BASIC best practices/guidelines to keep in mind when optimizing your own website (or a client’s website). So, here we go…

ON-SITE SEO:

DESIGN:

True SEO for any site starts at the design level. You’ll want to design a site that’s:
1. Functional
2. Easy to Navigate
3. User-Friendly
4. Easily Accessible (for search engines & users)

DEVELOPMENT:

The development of a website is probably the most important piece to the SEO puzzle. When you develop a site, make sure that it’s in line with Google’s Webmaster guidelines. You’ll want to develop a site that:
1. Is developed in a search engine friendly language (pretty much anything other than Flash, a little flash here and there is okay, just be sure you’re entire site isn’t developed in Flash.)
2. Has SEO friendly page names (i.e. dont-force-too-many-keywords-in-your-page-name-or-it-looks-really-spammy-like-this.html) This is a sometimes common problem with WordPress blogs.

CONTENT:

Make sure that your content is first and foremost relevant, but also:
1. Completely Unique
2. Keyword Rich (not too many keywords, in most cases, if you just naturally write about the subject, then the right amount of keywords will be in the copy. Just remember, it’s all about the user)
3. Interlink your pages where it makes sense. It’s like complimentary products in economics. Two complimentary products are hamburger buns & hamburger meat, so staying with that example, if you have a page about hamburger meat, it would probably make sense to link to a page about hamburger buns. Link together your pages, but only when it makes sense. I’ll say it again; it’s all about the user!

PAGE TITLE’S & METADATA:

Again, relevancy is the key here. Write title and Meta tags that are relevant & ones that make sense to the user. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:
1. Title Tag: keep it less than or equal to 70 characters.
2. Meta Description Tag: keep it less than or equal to 150 characters.
3. Meta Keywords Tag: don’t even bother writing one, not worth your time

SITE ARCHITECTURE:

Build your site so that it’s user friendly, easy to navigate & functional. Utilize folder structures:

Home
Main Page 1
Main Page 2
Folder 1
Sub Page 1
Sub Page 2
Folder 2
Sub Page 1
Sub Page 2

Sub Page 3

Also, keep in mind that you want to build your site not only so that it’s easy for people to navigate through, but also for search engines. Don’t make unnecessary use of folders if they aren’t needed.

OFF-SITE SEO:

LINKS:

The primary piece to the off-site SEO puzzle is link building, which can also be one of the more difficult tasks for an SEO. Google sees each link pointing to your website as a “vote of confidence” from the website linking to you. In the case of links, the saying quality, not quantity holds true. I won’t get into PageRank or anything like that, but the higher quality the link (in Google’s eyes); the more it will help your rankings. If you have a website for your jewelry store that you own, then getting a link from some obscure, automated directory website isn’t NEARLY as valuable as getting a link from a local blogger who writes about jewelry stores in your area. A few other guidelines to keep in mind:

1. Don’t build all of your links at once, build them steadily & consistently over time
2. Don’t link from sites in “bad neighborhoods”
3. Don’t partake in link farms or affiliate linking programs (it’s all in The Google Webmaster Guidelines)

ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT:

I’m not going to get too much into this, but in short terms, ORM is what people see when they search for you on search engines, especially by name. Follow these simple steps to better manage your reputation online:

1. Go to google.com
2. Search your business name
3. Look through the results
4. Do what you can to get rid of the negative (negative reviews, testimonials, etc)

Obviously, the 4th step is the hardest, but it will go a long way in your long-term performance online.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

Get your name out there in the fast paced world of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). Create accounts, get fans, interact with them, but more than anything, just listen to what they have to say. Don’t try to sell your followers or fans your product or service, especially during the initial stages. Your customers see enough commercials every day and when they log onto Facebook or Twitter, they’re not typically looking to buy something, they are there for fun, so make it fun for them. Just be there to interact & listen to what the customer has to say & I think you’ll be surprised at the valuable information that you’ll get. Above all, just listen, listen, and then listen some more!

SUMMARY (TL;DR Version):

To summarize this, there are really 3 key points that you should remember:

1. It’s all about the end user, don’t spend tons of time worrying about keyword densities, alt tags and all of those other things that truthfully don’t matter a ton. Instead, spend your time making a functional, user-friendly website with really good, interesting content. Don’t try to optimize your site specifically for search engines, definitely keep the user in mind!
2. Relevancy is king!
3. Read! Go to any search engines & research SEO. There are plenty of good resources out there that are FREE (blogs, forums, websites, etc.). So, read, read & then read some more.

Well this was my first blog post, and I’ll definitely make a few more guest appearances from time to time. Thanks for stopping by Inside Trimark, TriMark Solutions’ Internet Marketing & SEO Blog. Please let me know your comments and thoughts, and I’ll answer any questions you may have.