Top Five Tips for Smart SEO and SEM
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
We recently had the pleasure of hosting Ruth Barr from one of Seattle’s largest and most respected search marketing firms Point It for an informational meeting on search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). As a results-driven communications agency, we are always looking for ways in which we can better serve our clients – whether it is through services we offer or recommending a different expert resource. And to do this, we realized we need to brush up on our knowledge of this topic.
We sought to gain a broad understanding of SEO and SEM and better understand how we might integrate it into our efforts, supporting other client vendors, and helping to achieve business goals for clients. It was an insightful, fun, interactive session and from it, we’ve captured and shared our top five tips for smart SEO/SEM.
Start with a clean (Website) slate:
- Create a Google Places page
- Make sure you have words on every page of your site – images are not words.
- Find and fix broken links
- Create a custom 404 page redirecting people to another page on the site versus leaving them high and dry
- Make sure each page on your Website is no more than four clicks away from the home page
Create good content:
- Write for your audience, not the search robots. People are the ones that have money and make buying decisions
- Speak to your audience in the same language they use
- Deliver the content your audience wants to find when they are searching – not the content you want them to find
Know and use key words:
- Use the same words used in searches for your business
- Use your key words in headlines, for file names and in image alt text
- For 300-500 words, incorporate 2-3 key phrases, for 500+ words, use 3-4 key phrases
- Be natural
Build links:
- Use press releases
- Create a blog
- Host links in contests and promotions
- Target competitors’ link sources
Engage in social media:
- Create high-quality shareable content
- There is a correlation between Re-Tweets and SEO
Thanks for your time Ruth! For more information on Point It and their search marketing services, please visit www.pointit.com.
