Content is the words, pictures, text and media that you place on your web pages, web site, social media profile and landing pages.  In order to be indexed in Google, Bing and other search engines; it helps to have content.  In order to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) vis-à-vis a given keyword phrase, your content needs to be relevant to the search phrase.

So, if you want to get found on Google, one of the first things you need to do is ensure that the content and keyword density on your web pages and social media profiles contain Content that is relevant to your intended target audience.

Code

HTML, or Hyper Text Marketup Language, is the programming language that we use to enable us to display our web pages across the internet and for it to be seen in a way that we intended it to be seen through Web Browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari.

Withing HTML, we have the ability to specify attributes, tags and elements that help to describe the data or content within our web pages.  For example, every web page should have a unique and relevant <title> tag that describes the primary topic or subject of the page.  The title tag carries a lot of weight with regard to the search engines.  So, you need to make sure that the title tag not only describes your web page but also includes the key word search phrase that your intended target audience.

But code doesn’t stop at Title tags.  Every image could have alternative text or ALT text to help describe the meaning or content of the image to people who cannot see or are visually impaired.  Through the use of screen readers, blind people can surf the web using assistive technology.  But, if you think about it … does Google have eyes?  No, it doesn’t.  Google is visually impaired as well.  So, if you make your site Accessible for people with visual disabilities then you also make it more understandable to search engines as well.

Crawlability

There are dozens of coding opportunities to make your web pages more search engine friendly and crawlable.  The best way to make your website crawlable is to avoid search engine roadblocks and obstacles such as:

• Flash intros (skip intro)
• 100% Flash websites
• Flash navigation
• Frame sets
• Robots nofollow
• Link nofollow
• Image headings
• Image sliced websites
• Powerpoint Presentations
• Old version PDFs
• Javascript menu navigation
• AJAX menu navigation
• Navigation that requires a user to select options
• Navigation that requires more than one variable
• Parameter driven content
• Heavy/slow loading web pages
• Image intensive web pages
• Duplicate content

Credibility

With millions of web sites competing for attention, search engines such as Google have very complex algorithms that try to determine the credibility, authenticity and integrity of web pages.  One way that search engines do this is through trust algorithms.  Just like in finance, lending agencies such as banks and credit card companies use a FICO score to determine a potential customer’s credibility.  Likewise, Google uses it’s own algorithm called Page Rank or PR.

Page Rank is determined, in part, by the number of other web sites that link to or reference your site within their own pages.  Think about academic journals and research papers.  Often, we will site other publications within our research papers to backup our point or our thesis.  Citing other publications not only adds credibility to our argument but it also adds credibility and authority to the publications we cite.

Likewise, when we reference other web pages from within our web pages, we are granting authority to these referenced sites.  And, by linking out, we add credibility to our own pages.  It’s like being the go-to guy or gal.  You come to me with your questions, not necessarily because I can solve your problems, but because I know where you can go or whom you can ask to help solve your problem.  A well-connected individual has credibility, influence and authority.

If I have one million followers on my Twitter profile then I wield quite a bit of influence.  All I have to do is Tweet about one website, good or bad, and that website is going to get a ton of traffic.  Same thing if I have a large following on MySpace and Facebook.   The same could be true for blogs and web pages with high web traffic, readership and subscribers.

All these factors lend credibility to web pages and this credibility, or link juice, is like a firehose.

Conversation

Conversation is the discussion between and among people online.  The more conversation, or buzz, about your product, service, blog or web page, the more traffic you are likely to experience.  Say for example that you run a blog on your website and your blog posts are very controversial.  You are likely to get of a lot of comments on that topic from web visitors who either agree or disagree with your point.

The same thing can be said for Tweets on Twitter, status updates on Facebook and responses on YouTube.  Usually, it is the polarizing or controversial topics or statements expressed across blogs, news sites and social media profiles that generate and dominate the conversations.

Conversion

It’s one thing to drive traffic to your website, but what about your goals, objectives and the overall purpose of the website?  What do you want your web visitors to do?  Is there a Call to Action?  If you want your website to be effective, if you want visitors to take action then you need to lead them to action.  Your site should be a lead generator.  It should have calls to action in the way of forms to complete, information to download, registration to complete, etc.  Unless you want to simply give information, i.e., fire and forget, you need to somehow figure out how to convert web surfers into loyal clients, customers or subscribers.

There are a number of ways to encourage and measure conversion – or click through rates, including:

• Well written meta content=description tags
• Contact forms
• Sign up (register) forms
• PDFs to download
• Add to Wish List
• Add to Shopping Cart
• Check out
• Buy Now

If your web visitors don’t know what to do – if you haven’t told them what to do – then how do you expect them to do what you want?  You need to lead them to the purpose or objective of the website with clear and distinct Calls to Action.

The Concept of Search Marketing Mix

So, if you want to get found on Google then it is important that you be cognizant of and leverage the Six C’s of Search Marketing: Content, Code, Credibility, Crawlability, Conversation and Conversion.

Make sure that your content is relevant, meaningful to the interests of your targeted web visitors.  Make sure that you have leveraged every possible attribute and element within your web page code or social media profile.  Work hard to produce material that works as link bait, concepts that people will want to reference or link to from their web pages, blogs and social media profiles.  Finally, engage your subscribers, followers and fans in meaningful conversation.  Go out on the limb with controversial topics, mention something polarizing, be the Devil’s advocate and see how much buzz and conversation you can generate.

Say for example that you apply makeup to brides on their wedding day. Do you think that brides are going to be Googling for an esthetician or cosmetologist? Probably not. Most likely, they’re looking for a makeup artist. So, call yourself what you are, what people think you are and be sure to apply these words throughout your website in a way that it attracts Google’s attention.

Video by: Blake Newman, founder of inQbation™ and SEO Quotient™

While I can’t take credit for the clean, elegant and simple web design of The Bowdoin Group – a professional staffing and recruiting firm based out of Wellseley, MA; I can certainly admire and comment on it’s simplicity and effectiveness.

The Bowdoin Group website simply works for me.  The navigation is clear and intuitive.  The font family is readable.  The logo and header is bold and impactful.    In less than a minute, I know exactly what they do and whether I have landed on the right site or not.  There is enough flash going on to make the site alive and less static.  And, they have integrated social media in a very subtle but effective way.

In short, the web design is well done.  The only shortfalls that I see and would recommend to The Bowdoin Group if I were their web consultant would be to:

1. Get rid of Joomla as their content management system and replace it with WordPress.  We’ve worked with Joomla in the past and find WordPress significantly easier to design, maintain and manage content.  Joomla was a nightmare for us whereas WordPress is a Godsend.  Thanks Ma.tt – creator of WordPress.
2. Give the site a little bit of search engine obsession (SEO) love.  The only keyword phrase that this site is likely to get found for is it’s name, The Bowdoin Group
3. Add social bookmarking icons in addition to their social media profile chicklets.  It’s one thing to get people to visit your profile, but it’s quite another to get web visitors to share your site on their social media profiles.  That’s where the real power of social media and viral marketing exists.

We don’t refer to SEO as search engine obsession for nothing. inQbation is serious about helping you catapult your web traffic to new heights through search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM) and white hat search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. While most clients book us for our world-class designs, we believe that it doesn’t matter how beautiful your site is if you can’t get found on Google.

How to Prepare Website Content for Google

Many of my clients ask me for a little guidance on writing content, preparing website content, and optimizing their site for Google and other search engines. So, I put together a little bit of guidance for them and you…

5 Rules for Preparing Website Content

1. Determine what laymen terms your ideal clients might use to find you if they were searching for you, your products, or your services online. These laymen terms, we are going to call, “key words” or “keyword phrases”.
   • For example, in our case, we are an online marketing agency. However, my clients would never think of using those key words to find us in a Google search.
   • Putting myself in the mindset of my client, if I were looking to build a new website then I would be looking for a “website builder” or “website programmer” or “web site developer” or “web site designer”.
   • It doesn’t really matter what I prefer to call myself. What matters is what words or phrases my clients would use to find somebody like me.
   • So, when you develop your list of key words and keyword phrases, it helps to pick up the phone, call one of your favorite clients and ask them, “if you were looking for my products or services, what words would you Google to find me?” Then, start writing furiously as they think out loud.
2. Prepare a table of contents (TOC), like what you would expect to see in the beginning of a textbook, which structures the information and message that you want to deliver, in a way that is logical and easy to understand. In the case of this particular website, www.artistscafe.com, the table of contents is:
   1. Home
   2. About
   3. Websites
   4. Marketing
   5. Blog
   6. Contact
3. Use your keyword phrases define in Step 1 within your table of contents.
   • The table of contents will ultimately be the names of the links or the pages that your website visitors will click on to get information.
   • If you want your site to be intuitive and if you want to get caught up in Google searches, it is critically important that the links to your pages reveal the information that lies on the other side of the links.
   • So, when you create that table of contents (TOC), make sure they both use your keyword phrases and reveal what information people would expect to find if they were to click on that link. If you look at the bottom footer section of www.artistscafe.com, you will see a more expanded and elaborate version of my high level table of contents, which reveals a bit more about what you expect to see if you were to click on the link:
     • Home
     • Website Designer
     • Web Design Options
     • Online Marketing Agency
     • Online Marketing Blog
     • Contact Web Designer
   • I recently met with a guy who rents out photography equipment for professional, commercial photographers. He has a couple trucks, which are fully loaded with commercial camera and lighting gear.
     • Currently, his high level site structure is as follows:
       • truck 1
       • truck 2
       • assistants
       • booking
       • billing
     • The links do not accurately reveal to me what I would expect to find if I were to click on that link. Worse, his company name is a meaningless acronym and at first glance of his site, I can’t figure out what he does. In my opinion, I should be able to figure out within 3 seconds or less what this site is about, am I at the right place, does this site have what I’m looking for, and where should I go or what should I do next. He should have a name with meaning and a tag line that says in 5 words of less what he does and who he serves. From a high level perspective, I would prefer his table of contents be more along the lines of:
       • Solutions
       • Resources
       • Booking
       • Contact
     • Or, if I really wanted this to be intuitive AND get caught up in Google, then I would rename the high level Table of Contents:
       • Commercial Photography Equipment Solutions
       • Commercial Photography Resources
       • Reserve Commercial Photography Equipment
       • Contact Commercial Photographer’s Supplier
     • Of course, the only problem with this is that it doesn’t look nearly as elegant as:
       • Solutions
       • Resources
       • Booking
       • Contact
     • So, at some point, you need to decide what is more important; design or content, design or functionality, design or traffic.
4. Name each page of your website in a way that uses the most important and general keyword phrase for that entire page. The name that you choose for each page of the website is one of the most important pieces of information that Google looks at. At a glance, Google wants to see what this page is about, whether it’s worth indexing or not, and whether Google’s website visitors might be interested in the content on this particular page. At the code level, your page name should be placed within the <title> tag and the <h1> header tag.
5. After you fill in the details and the information for every section within your table of contents, be sure to use the proper tags, which search engines like Google and Yahoo pay attention to, i.e.,

• Page title should be within both a TITLE tag as well as the H1 HEADER tag
• Prepare your pages like an executive level PowerPoint brief using bulleted lists
• If something is important, emphasize it using either the bold (STRONG) or EM tag
• User hyper links to point visitors to important or relevant pages*

Paranoia will Destroy Ya

* Don’t be so selfish or defensive or afraid to create links, which point outside of your website. Don’t worry about the stickiness factor. I say this for the following reasons:

• The Internet exists and has value because of hyper links (inbound and outbound)
• You provide a valuable service and information by referring people to outside resources
• You obtain better credibility and authority by referring people to other sites
• You can always direct the link to open up in a new tab, window, or browser so that when they are done with that site and close that window, yours remains open, then end up back at your site in the end
• The most successful networking relationships, and I’m talking about schmoozing, working the room, and personal networking, is when you offer information, guidance, value, and assistance to people without expectations in return. Linking out follows this altruistic strategy
• What goes around comes around. This is karma. If you want people to point to you, to link to you, to create inbound links into your site then guess what … you have to do the same to others and for others.
• The Golden rule. Do unto others what you would expect them to do unto you. But when you do, be positive, be optimistic, be generous, think of the best situation, assume the best of people.