Utah Search Engine Optimization | Utah SEO Consultant

Rebecca Kelley, of SEOmoz, recently wrote a post on ShoeMoney.com entitled “How SEO is Like Guitar Hero”. The breadth of her post is an analogy of how learning SEO is like playing guitar hero for the first time. It seems extremely hard and overwhelming but the more you dive into it the better you get and the easier it seems. At that point, you advance to a whole new level and encounter the same thing all over again.

Figuring out the best way to learn SEO is hard. You don’t know where to begin, who to trust, where to look, what to believe, or how to begin. I’m going to highlight how I started and a few things I’ve learned along the road to hopefully help you decide how you want to begin.

At the very beginning I was working as a Web designer and when times were slow I was mentored by an SEO professional, Jason Miller of EngineReady, to help create landing pages for certain clients. In this process I learned the ins and outs of on-page optimization. It wasn’t until a few year later did I decide to further my education in search engine optimization.

Not knowing where to begin, I dove into the deep end of the pool swimming in an overload of information from blogs and podcasts that I found via search. The frustration I dealt with was that often times author’s information contradicted what I had just read a few articles before. I spent weeks absorbing all the information I could then began implementing and testing different strategies.

Before long, I was figuring out what worked, what didn’t work, who the authoritative authors were and who to ignore. From that point forward I’ve spent approximately 10-12 hours a week keeping up on industry news and blog publishing to keep my education current.

Learning SEO the RIGHT Way

An important thing to note is that every Website is different. What works on one site may not work on another. What worked yesterday may not work or work as well today. So the best thing to do, after learning the basics, is to begin testing yourself. Sure it’ll be a baptism by fire and you’ll make mistakes along the way and come across a few roadblocks.

Make sure you seek out the reputation and background of the professionals, like Portland SEO Greg Beddor, that share their experiences and testing with you. Test results will vary for each Website, but there is a lot to be learned from others that can save you some costly mistakes.

So a summary of the key takeaways are:

• Reading and Research
• Conduct Testing
• Get Professional Training

It’s almost Valentine’s day and love is already in the air. I’d like to announce one of the biggest, if not one of the first, SEO hookups. Sure there are already married couples in the Internet Marketing business like: Aaron Wall and his wife, Chris Winfield and his wife, David Harry and his wife, Jeff Quipp and his wife. But this particular couple met via search engine marketing and I ask you “How cool is that?”.

So without further adieu I bring to you the search world’s dynamic duo, Bill Slawski (SEObytheSea.com) and Kimberly Block (learningSEObasics.com) aka SpostareDuro. The scoop is Bill flew out to Virginia to see her recently and they had a marvelous time. Kimberly is now flying out to Deleware soon to visit. Congratulations to the both of you and I hope you have a successful and prosperous relationship together.

If these SEOs were to mate, below is what their “Super SEO” daughter might look like: (forgive the really bad Photoshop work)

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An Introduction to Universal Search

Gone are the days where organic or paid listings were all you had to worry about. We now are in the times of Universal Search. Google coined the term Universal Search as it’s culmination of search methodologies. “It’s essentially the largest revision we’ve made in the past two or three years,” Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder and president of technology, tells TIME magazine. Yahoo, Microsoft Live, and Ask have also implemented similar results into their organic listings. Some of the results you might find are:

1. Image Results
2. Online Video
3. New Results
4. Blog Listings / Results
5. Book Listings
6. PDFs
7. Local / GEO Search Listings
8. Traditional Web Search
9. Product Search
10. Catalog Search
11. Movie Search
12. Music Search
13. Map Search
14. Health Search
15. Celebrity Search
16. Job Search
17. Recipe Search
18. Financial / Stock Search
19. People Search
20. Comparison Search

What Does This Mean for Search Results?

Search results now are seen different by users. Eye tracking studies have been conducted by companies like Enquiro that track eye movement on search result pages. In the past, with Google search results, the hot spots of the search results page formulated an eye pattern of the letter “F”, also known as “The Golden Triangle,” that was positioned in the upper-left corner of the organic results. Now with Universal Search we have seen this pattern start to change. With thumbnailed images and video incorporated into the results, the “F” pattern has morphed into an “E” pattern. (SEE IMAGES BELOW)

This means Universal Search has had a dramatic impact on how we scan the page. With thumbnailed images being put in the limelight you might just steal that click away from the #1 positioned organic result if you have an enticing and relevant image. Have a sticky page for that user once they come to your site via Universal Search and you’re in. Typically, Google will keep a header bar on top of your page if they came through Google’s image search, but find some JavaScript to remove any framed bars from referring sites and you don’t have to worry about sacrificing aesthetics or your carefully crafted and positioned messages being pushed below the fold.

Are the Search Results More Relevant Now?

While that has yet to be determined, my humble opinion is “Yes.” It’s now easier to find what you’re looking for right off the bad. When conducting a search for “Britney Spears”, a fan may not be looking for informational articles or news but may be looking for enhanced media instead. Integrated YouTube music videos as well as thumbnailed images of Britney Spears combines the right mix of information, multimedia, and news results for that particular query.

Are Internet Marketers Taking Advantage of Universal Search?

Yes, but not as much as they should be. Internet marketers underestimate the traffic potential they can bring to their site by search engine optimizing their multimedia content. With proper naming conventions, accessibility attributes, and unique characteristics all embedded on a Web page with relevant content encompassing the enhanced media the traffic results can be well worth the efforts.

Not only do internet marketers now have to promote their Websites but they have to promote their content as well. In addition, links to images, videos, and syndication on various social platforms is the key to Universal Search success.

Stoney deGeyter recently wrote a great post on when usability is more important than SEO. Stoney ends by stating “By fixing usability issues you can sell more while without having to spend a lot of money always trying to bring in a lot of new traffic. A little goes a long way. Once you are able to increase your conversion rates, every dollar you spend on marketing and SEO will be more effective and have a much bigger impact on your profit margins.” Stoney is absolutely right. Rather than spending more money or efforts for the #1 position, try improving the usability, accessibility, and marketing communication of your current site. Exponential growth is derived from such improvements and will equate to higher conversion.

With this article in mind I got into a conversation with a great and well-respected Flash developer, Dan Decort, about Flash and the caveats it places on usability and search engine optimization. My problem with Flash is that the increased load times make for larger file sizes, longer waiting periods, inaccessible content, inability to bookmark, print or deep link, no screen reader and mobile device support, uncrawlable architecture, and overall problems with accessibility, usability, and SEO.

Sure, Google can crawl a limited amount of Flash now, but that’s just Google. Other search engines don’t have that technology implemented yet. I’m sure Google places less weight on Flash content due to the inaccessibility of it to other users. We started talking about technologies like SWFAddress and SEFFS that almost serve as a cloaking mechanism for Flash. SWFAddress does “address” some of these usability and accessibility issues but I’d still choose static/dynamic pages over Flash pages any day. Yes, if you’re serving the exact same content to search engines as embedded in your Flash movie then you should have the green light to go ahead and do so, but you might be looking at running the site through a spam filter with Google to check your site with a fine-toothed comb.

Aside from SEO, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this discussion. After my ranting and raving about Flash, Dan made the comment that user-experience is more important than usability, although he didn’t discredit usability. To define the difference for you:

• Usability – a property of websites (and other systems and products) that relates to ease of use. Usability is commonly defined as having three core components: effectiveness (how well a task can be completed), efficiency (how easy or quick it is to complete the task), and satisfaction (the user’s perception or opinion of the system).
• User-Experience – a concept that places the end-user at the focal point of design and development efforts, as opposed to the system, its applications or its aesthetic value alone

It’s important to note that usability and accessibility both DO contribute to the overall user-experience as well, but while user-experience is an important element of information design it really should be the icing on the cake not the foundation of the skyscraper. Usability is what drives conversion on a Website due to the efficiency in of usage, findability of desired content, and ability to navigate through site architecture with ease. Flash user-experience provides bells and whistles to be admired by people like myself and Dan, but your average user isn’t going to care about the feedback of the site (animation, graphics, sounds, actions) as much as he or she is going to care about information retrieval and timely satisfaction.

I invite you to join the oratory of our discussions and leave your feedback.

There are many great people who make the Search Engine Optimization industry a great place. There are so many honorable mentions I’d feel guilty listing my allegiance to them in fear I’d leave someone out. From my perspective, there’s three individual SEO specialists who don’t get as much attention in the limelight as they deserve so this is my tribute to them. Let’s thank these fine gentleman for bringing many things to light with the power of blogging.

Bill Slawski of SEObytheSea.com – Although Bill is well-known throughout the SEO industry, I still don’t think he receives the credit he deserves. This man has an uncanny ability of decrypting insanely ambiguous search engine related patents and translating them into plain English in terms the average person can comprehend. Don’t get me wrong, Bill’s an All-Star, he’s spoken at many conferences and has his fan-base but in my eyes he’s the MVP of 2007.

Sebastian X of Sebastians-Pamphlets.com – Sebastian, a.k.a. Sebastian X, is also pretty well-known in the SEO industry but I also do not think he’s given the props he deserves. He has carved quite a niche for himself being the ultimate guru in the programming spectrum of SEO. He has a wide array of experience with Apache, PHP, MySQL which he utilizes to always think outside the box with. You won’t find content like his much elsewhere so I recommend you check out his blog.

Marios Alexandrou of AllThingsSEM.com – I am sure I’ve read Marios’s blog postings time and time again in the past, but just recently has his blog really caught my attention. What I love so much is his updated SEO Expirements. Sure, I’ll come across experimentation here and there and even conduct my own, but rarely do I see it reported so straight forwadly in it’s own category of a site. Marios recently had a story hit Sphinn.com homepage regarding a career in SEO being a bad move. I love his insightful opinions on different things. So definitely check him out.

Let’s face it SEO is growing. There are more SEO clients and firms than ever before. Here, the Utah SEO firms are growing beyond their britches so much so that each company has begun to segment. In order to stay on top a Utah SEO company needs to be the best and specialize. If an SEO company isn’t specializing it either means that they are so big they don’t need to, or they’re on a straight and steady path to failure. Everyone knows how important their search engine optimization services are. If you can’t rely on your Utah SEO firm your business is in serious danger. To pick the right Utah SEO firm follow some of the tips below and remember that there is no substitute for common sense and critical thinking.

1. Guarantees

Anyone who truly understands search engine optimization will tell you that there are simply no guarantees…zero. If a company is offering you a guaranteed ranking double check the guarantee. Usually these kinds of guarantees are for easy keywords that the Utah SEO firm will choose. As any expert will tell you your keyword choice is extremely important, your entire organic search campaign depends on whether or not you’ve made correct keywords. In addition usually guarantees don’t give you much, no company likes giving things away for free.

2. Secrets

Every company will tell you they have all the answers. That is part of business you want to make yourself look like the best. But because SEO is so subjective there can never be an “ultimate” knowledge. Be careful of any form offering a secret or trick that will shoot you up to the first page of Google. In SEO there are no shortcuts no manipulations that will give you success. SEO is a cumulative process that requires creating honestly good content and using all the various little things, not just one.

3. Brick & Mortar

Any company that doesn’t have a physical location is one not to be trusted. Sure the employees may be honest knowledgeable people but remember that you’re placing the success or failure of your business in their hands. Good rankings can make or break a business that’s why your SEO firm should be of the utmost professionalism and maturity. Call your SEO firm to verify their phone number, go visit your chosen SEO firm and make sure they have a building. If so, then try to get a tour and get a glimpse into operations. This will demonstrate to you they are working on your website in the best way.

4. Solicitations

Most people hate solicitations at their home, the general consensus is, if I want it I’ll go get it. Likewise a SEO company that sends out mass e-mails or phone calls is likely to draw some suspect. If they cannot attract business through their main form of business (search engines) than how good could they possibly be? Additionally in order to be profitable a business must have a consistent client base. Solicitations are the least preferred method of attracting clients to most big companies and are generally considered a “spam” technique.

5. Results

In order to gauge how this SEO firm will help you, check out their results. Past and present examples of success should greatly influence your decision. Keep in mind during this process that the bigger their clients are and the more competitive the field the more likely they are to yield success for you. The good Utah SEO firms have a wide range of clients with success in each unique field.

Recently, Google has introduced Google Voice Local Search. It’s currently in beta version but it’s pretty neat. If you dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) you can get connected local businesses by stating your location and the business industry you are looking for. The results are repeated to you on the phone or you can get them sent to you in a text message.

When asked for the city and state you can tell it the city and state, zip code, or punch the zip code in on the keypad. Also, when asked for a business name or category you can tell it a business name (i.e. “Outback Steakhouse”) or say a category name (i.e. “restaurants”). There are also other features like saying “details” to get more info on the current listing or saying “text message” to get the info in a text message.

Google’s OneBox is even more important now because the results are coming directly from that. I tried it by stating I was in “Salt Lake City, Utah” then stated I was looking for “Web Design”. As a voice read back results I compared them to this Utah Web Design Search and they matched up directly with Google’s OneBox. It’s time to take localized search engine optimization more seriously. This is going to be a very vital and serious approach to your internet marketing strategies.

The long tail, in reference to search engine optimization, is all the keywords and keyphrases that hold little traffic by themselves, typically longer 4-7 word phrases, but collectively add up to a large amount of traffic. Illustrated below is a diagram of the head and the long tail.

If you’ve ever ran a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, in your search engine marketing (SEM) efforts, for a popular keyword you can certainly appreciate what a drain on financial resources that can be. Especially, if you’re landing page content isn’t “sticky” and doesn’t provide optimal ROI with conversions. There is a much cheaper way of leveraging value of PPC campaigns while driving your organic search engine optimization (SEO) efforts full force. The trick of this trade is maximizing the long tail search terms for PPC and the head terms for SEO.
You’re probably wondering how you can find your what the long tail of your own Website is. There are a few tools out there for that. My favorite is HitTail. Through an external JavaScript placed on your Website, HitTail records all search queries coming to your site and separates the head from the tail. It shows you a diagram of the percentage of long tail visit vs the percentage of head visits. SearchtheWeb2 is a semantic search engine that clusters word phrases related to your search query via natural language processing. It clusters the popular keyphrases and the long tail keyphrases in a list for you to narrow down your search if desired. It’s great for seeing what kind of long tail phrases are related to certain keywords. Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool and Microsoft’s adCenter Lab Keyword Group Detection Tool are both really great to find semantically similar keywords that people might be searching for in their longtail queries. So bookmark these tools and revamp your search engine optimization and search engine marketing strategies for maximum online profit.

Recently, Yahoo! and Google have both been adding new options to their search engine result pages (SERPs). These options include Google’s PlusBox and and Yahoo’s Quicklinks. Illustrated below is Google’s PlusBox for Walmart. They have a PlusBox for their stock quote that expands to give stock information. Along with that, they have category or sub-page links within their site. Google typically does this for strong authorative Websites with a high amount of Trust Rank.

Another example below shows Google’s PlusBox being used for localized search. They have a PlusBox that shows the localized listing in the SERPs with their map, address, and phone number. You don’t have to be an extreme authority to have a PlusBox with this type of localized integration.

Yahoo’s Quick Links are similar to Google showing subpages for authorative sites. However, Yahoo! will also be charging for these Quick Links if you’re a site that doesn’t get them naturally. The think I like better about these Quick Links in the search engine result pages is that they are inline horizontally. Thus, they take up less room.

Good or Bad Usability Practices?

In my opinion, I think Google and Yahoo! are getting out of hand with their SERPs. I firmly believe in allowing the Websites, authorative or not, to display their prominent content to the user (i.e. stock quotes, maps, sub pages, shopping categories, etc.). It is a search engine’s job to display quality and relevant results to queries, but it is not the search engines job to display a site’s content to the user.

When you have more options on a Webpage you have more:

• Distraction
• Noise
• Thinking
• Load Time
• Code
• Images
• Bandwidth (a problem for mobile search)

I think Google became the most popular search engine not by their results but by their simplistic user interface and good usability. Both Yahoo! and MSN have searches integrated into their news pages whereas Google has just had a single standalone search box.

I’m sure I stand alone on this because I’m sure Google and Yahoo! both held extensive case studies, focus groups, stakeholder research, and testing before putting this into motion. I guess they know what they’re doing, but I’m annoyed by it. Sometimes less is more, right?

The way SEOs conduct search engine optimization is changing all the time. The future of a large portion of search engine optimization is really just good usability, accessibility, development, design, information architecture, and marketing. All those measures are going to lead to one thing: developing a quality site that gets users to visit, read, bookmark, act, and come back for more.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN will start observing how users behave on your Website to add to a hidden trust rank score, similar to a page rank score. Google already has the tools in place to observe this data through Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Analytics, and sites that have registered XML sitemaps with their Google accounts. With these kind of tools Google can measure how many people visit your site, what pages they land on, how long they stay, what they click on, what they book mark, form submissions, etc. This data is invaluable in calculating the authorative value and trustability of a Website. Once this information is collected it can be used in their algorithm to give further trust rank to Websites and thus boost their SERPs.

There are two approaches to this for whatever hat you wear. Whitehat SEOs will have to make better quality sites and focus on user retention and driving calls to action. Blackhat SEOs will figure out some methodology of fake user-surfing emulation. Either way, it’s time to start preparing for the inevitable.