aimClear Search Marketing Blog

In SEO a significant amount of research needs to be done as part of any project. We don’t do it in advance for free anymore simply to get the job (though the prospective client would certainly be happy to have us do so). In the traditional advertising agency model it’s often necessary to provide free creative ideas to get the gig. SEO is different because of the relative scarcity of serious consultants, and limits on an agency’s time. As point-blank as it may sound, we have come to believe we should get the job based on solely on reputation and case studies. If not, maybe we’re not a good fit for the client.

Over time we’ve worked some presentation techniques to show the client we understand-without spending hour upon hour doing the job they propose to hire us for. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it is possible to predict keyword niches from current events or things you believe will happen. Recently Yahoo Small Business Hosting had a 3 day HTTP server 500 error issue which affected WordPress blogs and other .php applications running on their servers. When we called Yahoo to deal with the issue (this blog is hosted with Yahoo Small Business Hosting for the moment) they told us “Yahoo runs .php scripts just fine” but that the outage “only affected .php pages.” They told us the server 500 error would last for up to 3 business days which surprised us. We responded with a link baiting article on our main website, aimClear.com to attract other upset Yahoo Small Business Hosting Customers.

Predicting Future Keywords
Both wordTracker (12/06 – 3/07) and Trellian (2/06-2/07) were reporting that no searches were queried for “yahoo small business hosting bug” and other keywords which might be associated with the outage. Still, since lots of people host .php applications on Yahoo Small Business Hosting servers. We wanted to experiment with attaining ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) for what we believed would be a future pocket of searches that were easy to attain rankings for now while the phrases were uncontested. Here’s the thinking in 6 steps. Read the rest of this entry »

What is Geo-Targeting?
Geo-targeting refers to a search engine’s ability to discern the IP address of incoming search traffic and resolve the user’s IP address to a geographic location. The technology of IP targeting is not perfect and search engines offering geo-targeting options are careful to put forth disclaimers regarding the accuracy of their geographically targeted media placement capabilities.

For instance Panama, Yahoo’s ad platform (the evolution of Overture) allows advertisers to target PPC ads by state province or DMA but offers the following caveat: “Note: Please note that geo-targeting accuracy is not guaranteed and may vary depending on the level of targeting selected, as well as other factors.”

Google AdWords help explains the inherent inaccuracies of geo-targeting technology as follows: “You (or others) might not be able to see your ad if we’re unable to determine the search location. This might happen if you or another searcher: Uses an ISP that employs a proxy server, preventing us from identifying the computer’s IP address , Has an IP address that doesn’t match the actual region of the person searching , Hasn’t entered a recognizable location-specific term in the search query.”

First Google unveiled geo-targeting and we’ve been successfully using it for years. Panama Geo-Targeting is a major feature of Yahoo’s advertising platform and, after a bumpy start, works fairly well. It’s a brave new world. However it is important to strategize the mix of geo-targeting and geo-tags with full understanding of the tools. Read the rest of this entry »

More often then not, in any SEO project, the spiny issue of homepage word-count arises in the process of optimizing a client’s site. Unless the company we’re providing SEO services to is relatively small, most likely there are multiple factions invested in the homepage content. To make our task more complex interested players on the client side can include advertising agencies, PR consultants, internal Internet marketing team members, IT personal, writers, and product managers. There are often layers of conflicting needs or even politics involved. The interesting irony is that most everyone’s position is reasonable.

Players most concerned with the brand and image of a product usually want sparse text on the homepage with lots of white space available for images, flash, video, and other cool stuff. To advertising folks optimizing the homepage may mean uncluttering it and making sure the homepage has direction, intent, and a distinct call to action. IT personnel (who had total control of websites in previous generations of website development) want security, ease, and control of the technical process. All of these objectives are admirable but often boil down to conflict over control of the word-count density on the newly optimized homepage-or even arguments as to whether the SEO firm is allowed to impact the homepage at all. Who’s position should prevail? How many words should there be on the homepage? Read the rest of this entry »

The magic of contextual advertising on Google, Panama, MSN, or other paid placement channels, is that advertisers can target and tailor ad messages to a search just performed by a potential customer. With high quality of keyword research available, the ability to target and track leads and ROI grows every day. It’s no small wonder that the focused nature of paid Internet advertising has brought many industries to their knees.

What’s the Sale Proposition?
As in all advertising, there are many ways to communicate the sell-proposition and value of your product to your target market. Common tactics include touting the difference between your product and similar ones (points of differentiation), the benefit of a product, the consequences of NOT using a product (like anti-viral software), the quality of your customer service, and (last but not least) the economic benefit of dealing with your company instead of others. Read the rest of this entry »

“Search” Is Not Just About The Internet anymore. Search means people actively looking for things, no matter where they go to do so. Whether our audience is reading the newspaper in the barber’s office or social bookmarking a website on technorati, to know precisely what people search for, the words they use to ask, and how often they seek gives us powerful insight in every communications channel. Read the rest of this entry »

Google has now imposed personalized search without an easy way for customers to turn it off or even know about it. This means search engine results pages (SERP) are no longer consistant from user to user rendering traditional organic prominence reporting tainted. While there are “best practice” tactics to deal with personalized search engine results, this is a very big deal. Read the rest of this entry »

Ecommerce (A.K.A. e-commerce) speaks to the exchange of valuable goods, services, and money from vendor to consumer, B2B, peer to peer (like E-bay), and by way of other models. If your business is researching new e-commerce website technology (platform) make sure the system you build, buy, or rent is friendly for SEO. The needs are basic and often overlooked. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes clients or prospective clients send us pay per click (PPC) conversion data for our comments. Usually these metrics include spreadsheets with keywords, ad copy, headlines, click-through ratio, and cost. We look at the standard data provided in these reports: but more often then not the most important statistics are missing: Read the rest of this entry »

Interested in Blogs?
If you are reading this then you are probably curious about what this blog phenomena sweeping the Internet is about. Perhaps you want to create a centralized place for you and your friends to share stories or memories. Perhaps your company seeks to connect with other professionals and customers who share similar interests, concerns, and needs. Still others seek an organized outlet for expressing their points of view and passions. Read the rest of this entry »