About Search Engine Optimization

For the average company, it's not hard to optimize your website for search engines. That is a fixed-cost project that requires a little maintenance each quarter or so. But this "on-page optimization" effort alone won't get you a good ranking for a competitive search term. You need inbound links to rank well, and the key to obtaining that is a strategic content development effort. (That is, without the jargon, writing things that help people.)

For good SEO, the average company should have:

  • Editorial ideas to attract readers. (For more, read about the "authority opportunity")
  • A plan to attract links from relevant sites. This includes social media.
  • In-house processes to support the above.
  • An imperfect but directional understanding of the reasons for their current rankings.

 
Talk with Andrew to learn the upside and effort of building this.

Blog Posts about SEO

Hooray for crude solutions

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 10:16

The good folks at GigaOm take note of a study that shows how web pages have increased in size: 

...The HTTP Archive charted the growth of the average web page and found that average web pages have grown from 726 KB a year ago to 965 KB now...

And a graph: 

Is your firm running uphill?

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Tue, 12/07/2010 - 12:03

Have you got that intimidated, guilty feeling? About how much better your competitor ranks for the good search terms, has more Twitter followers and Facebook friends, and has more online "gravity"?

This post is for you:

The Rich Get Richer: True in SEO, Social + All Organic Marketing

The writer is an SEO expert, but his main point touches on why online marketing needs to be thought of holistically.

Research shows: Content development is a winner

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Tue, 11/16/2010 - 17:17

La-di-da, the very day I sing the praises of content development, MarketingSherpa shares this chart.

It shows what "highly effective" SEO techniques are being used by B2B companies.

Better Content for Better SEO and Lead Conversion

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Mon, 11/15/2010 - 12:01

Is a search engine optimization program just for lead generation?

Nope.

What's the top spot worth?

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Sun, 11/14/2010 - 17:50

Editor's Note: Someone must have done this before. My plagiarism, if any, is unintentional.

How much more frequently does the #1 search result get clicked, compared to the ones further down? 

All About Online Content, for the Business Owner

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 15:00

Most of the material on this blog is about improving the online reach of your company’s selling message. Or getting the message out in less time, or for less money, or higher conversion effectiveness.

Of equal importance to the distribution of the message, though is the message itself.

The content.

Herewith, some basics about online content…

SEO gone wrong

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 15:57

I have the dubious pleasure of shopping for a new car. Although I've decided on a make and model (Honda CRV), the question of what dealer to patronize is open. So off to the websites I go, looking for specials and the general tone of the various places. Like most people facing a trip to the dealer, I was in a, shall we say, pre-adversarial state of mind.

On one dealer website (UPDATE: dead link now, with awful error message), I see this (formatting in the original): 

Business Blogging - Five reasons why it might work for you

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Tue, 05/06/2008 - 15:03

Let’s define a business blog just as a regular stream of commentary on a topic. Here's how it can work:

Engages and builds trust with customers and prospects.

How SEO can screw up your...

Submitted by Andrew Benkard on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 17:53

Some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics can give you a marginal boost in rankings, but hurt you on a net basis.

The main culprit is usually an overweening preoccupation with on-page keyword optimization, but link-building can hurt too.

This article is not about black-hat SEO practices, which are covered in plenty of detail elsewhere. Instead, we’ll look at “good” SEO practices when they’re overdone.

Let’s see what gets hurt.

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