Queen Bee Marketing’s Blog About Marketing, SEO, and Design.

Matt Cutts recently wrote a post regarding junk mail he received soliciting search engine submissions. While the simple fact that they are sending this junk to him is extremely funny, this is a common problem in the SEO world.

Today, most of the major search engines don’t need you to submit your site to them, they can find it on their own- if you have search engine friendly links from other sites on the Web. So to pay an SEO company to do something the search engines do automatically is a little ridiculous. There are however some common misconceptions. I read an article recently in a trade publication for Realtors regarding SEO and it was very informative and mostly accurate, but the article stated a submission to Yahoo cost approx $300. This is not totally correct, a listing in their directory cost about $300, but if your Web site is designed correctly and you have a link program in place, your site should be found by Yahoo naturally and included in their search results without paying to be in their directory. I do recommend that many businesses pay to be listed in the Yahoo directory, because of the qualified traffic the directory can provide, but again it is not required.

While we normally don’t need to submit the Web sites we create to the major search engines, we do monitor the sites to see if they have been indexed or not, and if a site hasn’t been indexed within a reasonable time frame, we will take the steps to submit the site (at no charge to our customers) to the needed search engine.

I have heard of many instances where a business owner was charged hundreds of dollars by a web design company to submit their site to Google. To me this is an unethical business practice since it only takes a few moments to submit your site to Google and there is no charge from Google themselves. The argument can be made that the SEO company is getting paid for their knowledge and ability to perform this function, but I really don’t think it’s worth the hundreds of dollars many business owners have paid.

Since we are off for the next two days, and many people have already cut out of work early today (we’ll be leaving around 2pm this afternoon), it’s been pretty quiet around the office and we started doing a little Turkey Day research online. We found a ton of interesting stuff and figured we would share a few:

Each year the president pardons two turkeys from the Thanksgiving dinner.

Change things up this year with some slider stuffing from White Castles.

Some interesting Thanksgiving facts.

Mix up your traditional turkey recipe with Orange Roasted Turkey.

Here is a long list of Thanksgiving Poems.

No list would be complete without some Turkey cooking techniques.

Adam Sandler’s classic Turkey song from SNL.

Some Thanksgiving horror stories.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Web site.

A Thanksgiving guest liability and indemnification contract.

Before getting started in any new market online, it’s necessary to do some research. Many times, people will skip this research phase because they don’t know where to start. It isn’t very difficult to do some basic research once you know how to begin. Here is a 5 step outline of what you need to know to move into a new market.

1. Keyword Brainstorming - Start writing down any possible keywords you feel people might use in the search engines to find your site. Write down everything you think of, even if it’s a stretch. Ask your friends and family what they would type in to find your product. You won’t think of everything on your own.

2. Search - Go to Google, Yahoo, and MSN and type in the keywords you just wrote down to start to look at your competition.

3. Review the Search Engine Results - Look at the number of sites each keyword returns, the relevance of the top results, and the Pay Per Click (PPC) popularity they have. You may also check Google Trends to get a better idea of keyword popularity. All of these factors will give you valuable information on which keywords others are targeting and receiving search traffic from.

4. Identify Top Keywords - Using the data you gathered from the search engines, choose your top keywords that you want to target on your site and in your online marketing campaigns.

5. Analyze Top Results - Using your narrowed keyword list, analyze the top search results’ Web sites for those keywords. A few factors to take into consideration include: site design, search engine optimization, usability, and page popularity (inbound links).

Now that you know more about your competition, you can develop an effective and successful strategy.

You’ve all heard the saying that “It is better to give, than to receive.” I firmly believe that if you give of yourself you will get more in return.

I like Mexican food and and will stop by my local Chipotle for lunch on a regular basis. They always have a fishbowl there for people to drop business cards into for a free meal and it’s always full. I am happy to say that they do indeed provide free meals to people that drop their card in the fishbowl. About 2 weeks ago, I got an email from my local Chipotle at 86th and College Park telling me that they had drawn my card out of the bowl and that I could schedule a lunch or dinner for between 15-20 people! So, I called up some family and friends and we met for a great little dinner this week. On a more national level, Taco Bell recently promoted it’s “steal a base, steal a taco” idea to the U.S. (I like this example because it’s about Mexican food again).

These are both very specific examples, but I’m sure you’ve been to a fair, trade show, sporting event, or any number of other public events where a business is handing out free stuff. Ok, so a little taco may only cost them $.20 each, but if you end up giving away 500,000 of them… it comes out to a $100,000.00 price tag (I have no idea what the actual operating cost of a taco is for them, or how many they actually gave away). But the question becomes: Why would they do that?

The biggest reason is the belief they will get business in return. So they give away a $.20 taco, the average consumer is likely to walk out the door having spent 5-10$ after getting their free taco. About half of the family and friends that dined at Chipotle with me this week had never eaten there before. I know they enjoyed the meal and I’m sure some will return in the future and others may even become regular customers.

While the motive may normally be to generate further income, I am happy that several charities and those in need have benefited from the generosity of businesses. For example, how many of our homeless received a free taco because of this promotion? You may think that idea is a little far fetched, but you may not have seen Tom Mabe’s idea on feeding the homeless.
My point is this: If you want to increase sales and promote goodwill, practice the art of giving. Even if it doesn’t return a profit, you may help to make this a better place to live.

For many SEOs, directory submissions form a solid base of links for a Web site. Of course there are many ways to obtain inbound links, but you have the most control over directory submissions. But not all directories are worth submitting to. Some are spammy link farms that are best avoided. Here is my quick list on how I choose which directories are good enough to submit to:

1. Is it human edited? This is really important to me. If every single submission, spam or not, is accepted automatically it greatly reduces the integrity of the directory. It may take longer to get listed in a human edited directory, but it is worth it to keep out the spam.

2. Number of Inbound links. Does the directory have a substantial number of links? I like to check that both the Home page and the sub pages have some inbound, natural links.

3. PageRank on sub pages. There has been a lot of talk over some sites losing or having their PR lowered. Obviously, this is just a number, but it does indicate some level of trust with Google. Checking to make sure the internal pages of the directory have some PR lets me know the directory is trusted by Google.

4. Quality of current listings. If all of the listings in the directory are spam, I don’t bother submitting my site. It’s not a quality directory.

5. Submission Guidelines. I like to know what the submission requirements are up front. I’ve been on too many directories that don’t clearly state the cost and other guidelines before I’ve started the submission process.

6. Web site usability. If a directory has broken links, database errors, or is confusing to use, I don’t view it as a quality directory.

7. Visitor usability. I want to make sure visitors to the directory have an easy time navigating the site. We don’t just submit to directories for the link value, we also receive decent traffic from various directories. But if the directory is confusing and hard to use, we won’t get any traffic from it.

We also carefully track our directory submissions. By recording the date is was submitted, and the date it was included, it ensures we don’t double submit a site. It is also good to know how many directory links your site has, as opposed to natural links. It also helps to know how quickly a site is included in a directory for future submissions of other sites.

Last Friday the new Mac OS Leopard came out and was met with criticism from some, and praise from others. There are a few things I wish they hadn’t changed, but over all there are many new features that are useful. A few of the design related changes I’ve noticed are listed below along with my observations about them.

1. The Dock - The dock didn’t change much, but the parts that were changed, weren’t changed for the better, in my opinion. The blue orbs indicating a running program are harder to see than the previous black triangles. Also, the “ledge” that the program icons rest on now only comes up half way behind the icons instead of all the way. This reduces the amount of contrast between the icon and the background. These changes reduce the over all readability of the dock.

2. Stacks - Stacks is a new feature, and a helpful one. Stacks allows you easy access to downloads, programs, and documents. It makes navigating to these items much easier.

3. Preview - Preview works in two ways. One is Icon Preview. It displays the icon of a file as a miniature version of the real file. You can also press the spacebar while an icon is selected and it will bring up a preview window of what the file looks like. This is extremely helpful for text and PDF files. It’s no longer necessary to open a file to view its contents.

4. Spaces - Spaces allows you to have various desktops running at once. This could be good for organizing types of programs, differentiating between work and home, or just to reduce clutter. I haven’t had the need to use this yet, but I think it will be a great tool in the future.

5. Dashboard - Dashboard still works the same way, but has one new feature that I really enjoy: Web Clips. You just “clip” a portion of a Web site and it will display that part of the site on the Dashboard. I’ve been using this for Web cams. I clipped a Web cam of Waikiki, Hawaii and put it on my Dashboard. Now when I need a short break, I can check in on Waikiki beach and watch the surfers!

6. Coverflow - Coverflow is a feature I haven’t used a lot either, but I know a lot of people who think it’s great. It uses the same concept that iTunes has been using for a while, which allows you to flip through files quickly while previewing the contents.

These are the main design and usability changes that have stuck out to me. Feel free to agree or disagree, or leave your other observations in the comments!

I hope everyone is having a fun Halloween! I didn’t dress up this year, but I at least have on a festive orange sweater. Other SEOs are getting into the spirit, too. Here are a few links to Halloween related stories and pictures from the search community.

1. Larry and Sergey Halloween Costume 2007 - Great illustration of Larry and Sergey along with a caption contest in the comments! I haven’t come up with a caption yet, but some of the ones already posted are really funny.

2. Matt Cutts Costume Dilemma - Matt has links to pictures of his previous costumes, and he’s taking suggestions on what to be this year.

3. Halloween Google Logos - A time line of Google’s Halloween logos from 1999 to this year. It seems each year they get a little more involved. Also included are Halloween logos from Yahoo, Ask, and YouTube.

4. Halloween Costume Search Stats - Some interesting stats on the most popular Halloween costume searches. There are also links to some cool, geeky costume ideas.

5. Google Maps Halloween Icon - Instead of an icon of a person walking on Google Maps Street View, there’s a witch for Halloween.

We decided to post this list as an addition to our Common Questions section for use by our clients or anyone interested in getting started in SEO. These are very basic definitions, and some could be interepretted differently. Let me know if any of these need clarification.

Adwords: Google’s advertising system which shows relevant advertisements on search results pages and Web sites.

Algorithm: The mathematical function that a search engine uses to organize and rank Web sites based on the user’s query.

Alt Attribute: Provides a text description of an image when the image can’t be seen. It also helps describe the image to the search engines and helps people with screen readers access your site easier.

Analytics: A tool that gathers and measures visitor data for a Web site. This data could include the number of visitors, which pages they visited, how they got to the site, how long they stayed, etc.

Anchor Text: The text a user clicks to follow a link.

Backlink: A link that is pointing from one Web site to another.

Blog: Short for “Web Log,” it is an online journal or diary.

Click Through Rate (CTR): The number of clicks a link receives out of the possible number of clicks, or impressions (views).

Content Management System (CMS): A system that allows for easy updates to be made to a Web site.

Conversion: Occurs when a person completes the intended action. This could be making a purchase, filling out a form, downloading a file, etc.

Crawl: The process of search engine spiders gathering information from Web sites.

Directory: An organized, and often human edited, list of Web sites.

Headings: Normally used as section headlines, or for larger/more important pieces of text on a page.

HTML: Short for Hyper Text Markup Language, it is code that tells a Web browser how to display elements on a Web page.

Inbound Link: Synonymous with “backlink,” it is a link pointing from one Web site to another.

Indexed: Included in a search engine’s database.

Keyword: A word or phrase that a person might use in a search query to find a Web site. Web site owners may do research to find the most popular keywords related to their industry and include them on their Web site to capture more search traffic.

Meta Tags: Information in the Head section of a Web page that is not readily visible to human visitors. Although Meta Tags don’t play a large role in SEO anymore, the Meta Description Tag can still play a part in an overall SEO campaign.

Organic Search Results: Search results that are displayed based on the natural algorithm of the search engine, not based on the paid advertising.

On-page: Any factors within a Web page.

Off-page: Any factors that are not a part of the Web site that influence it. These could be links, advertisements, reputation management, etc.

Pay-per-click: An advertising system where an advertiser pays a certain amount of money every time a person clicks on their ad.

Query: The search term or phrase a person types into a search box.

Rank: Where a Web site is listed in the ordered list of results returned by a search engine.

Reciprocal Link: Occurs when 2 Web sites both link to each other.

Search Engine: A tool used to search indexed Web material, which is ranked in order of relevance based on the query.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The results that are shown after a person submits a query to a search engine.

Sitemap: A page on a Web site that displays links to all, or the most important, pages with in a site. A sitemap can be used as an efficient navigation tool for both search engines and human visitors.

Spider: A name for a search engine bot that crawls Web pages, or the process by which search engines index Web content.

Title Tag: Located at the very top of the browser in the (often) blue bar. It is the title of the Web page.

Traffic: The amount of visitors to a Web page.

We hear this all the time from clients when starting a new Web site. My answer is, “Sure, we can do that, but will it help your business?” Looking “cool” isn’t always the best strategy for a business. There are three areas that could be harmed by just looking cool and not doing real research - branding, marketing, and SEO.

As we’ve talked about many times on this blog, branding is so important for a business. Your logo, storefront, packaging, atmosphere, and philosophies all go into your brand. Is creating a flashy, “cool” Web site right for your brand? In many cases it’s not. Think about your brand and who your customers are. Are you a professional with serious-minded clients? They will probably want to see an equally professional site where they can easily access the information they’re looking for. Is your audience not very technically savvy? You’ll want to keep things simple. Here’s a link to a blog I came across recently about “trying to be cool.” It’s a year old, but still very relevant to this topic. The last paragraph sums this up perfectly:

Authenticity, originality and uniqueness. If your brand doesn’t inherently have these traits, please… don’t attempt to be cool. You’ll look like you’re having a mid-life crisis, and you will be laughed at. You can play the “cool dad” who’s still a grown-up and acts accordingly, but don’t try to be 18 again. If it’s important to connect with the younger audience, don’t do it with your existing brand… this is the time for a new one that’s created from the ground up to appeal to a different mindset.

Similar to branding is your marketing plan. Your Web site needs to be consistent with the rest of your marketing. If the site is drastically different than the rest of the marketing pieces, customers may become confused and will have a harder time trusting your brand. Having a “cool” site isn’t worth it if it turns customers away.

Finally, having a “cool” site usually means implementing fancy “tricks” with Flash and Javascript. These can obviously have detrimental effects on SEO efforts if not done in moderation. Don’t get me wrong, Flash, Javascript, and other SEO-unfriendly techniques can add a lot of value to a site when used purposefully. But when it is done just to look “cool” it is unnecessary and could hinder the effectiveness of the site. If you want to gain leads from people finding your site, you need to make sure the search engines have an easy time indexing as much material as possible. As most SEOs will tell you, “What’s the point of a pretty site if no one sees it?”

If you haven’t gone to SEOShirts.com yet, go check it out. There are some really funny shirts there. I love the “Dudes Digg SEOs” one! We decided to make a few of our own for fun. But if some one over at SEOShirts likes these, feel free to take the ideas!

“Hey Baby, Can I buy you a link?”

“Got Traffic?”

“Fish + Ken = Love”

“Feed Me”

“Give a man a link, he has traffic for a day. Teach a man to linkbait, he has traffic for life.”

“SEO experts know how to get it up.”

Here’s one for the little SEO offspring: “Don’t blame me, I’m still in Beta.”

And one more that is blatant, shameless self promotion: SEO Pirate logo