| Overview |
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| We recognize that perhaps hundreds of articles have been written on optimizing search results. However, what we have discovered is that until a company is ready to focus on that arena, the extent of the industry literature is irrelevant. And at the time a company IS ready to focus, the extent of the information available is overwhelming, and generally provided by a company that is trying to sell a service or product. |
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| Organic search, also called natural or algorithmic search, drives visitors to a given website through the non-paid rankings generated in a given keyword search. Because there is no cost associated with the actual click that brings a visitor to the site, organic search can be more cost effective than paid search, banner advertising, or affiliate marketing, to mention a few of the pay per click/pay per acquisition mediums. Improving results through organic search is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). |
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| To help jumpstart the process for you, we are sharing our integrated analysis based on a recent project of providing a client with a blueprint for identifying terms to be optimized and determining what technical changes were required on the site to improve its searchability by external search engines. |
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| Marketsmith sees optimizing organic search results as a four step process: |
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| 1) | Establishing a list of terms which the company wants to promote to further business objectives. This list should be in priority order to guide the implementation schedule. |
| 2) | Creating the copy on the selected pages to reflect and support the terms to be optimized. |
| 3) | Performing the necessary technical procedures to make sure the underlying technology /coding of each page is consistent with the actual copy and the business objectives, AND meets the criteria for being searched by the various search engines, particularly Google and Yahoo. |
| 4) | Resubmitting the web pages to the search engines when changes have been made. |
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| Process |
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| The process begins with identifying the terms that have the greatest potential for optimization. While ideally one would like to optimize every item/page, there are very real people costs associated with that activity—writing page copy and either coding pages or monitoring the software which codes the pages. Therefore a company will want to focus its resources on maximizing those keywords and web pages which have the greatest potential for return on that investment. We suggest somewhere between 25 and 100 terms, depending on merchandise mix, product category breadth and depth, and the competitive environment. |
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| An analysis can be performed to determine which terms potential customers are most likely to search on and which have the most potential to be profitable. These keywords should form the core of those to be optimized. We suggest establishing a priority for other terms to be optimized after the initial ones have stabilized. |
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| To identify the top terms, we created the following table, which can be sorted on any of the variables. |
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| Recommended Term | Total Internet
Searches/Month | Monthly
Revenue From
Keyword | # of Products
on Site |
| Gifts | 619,614 | $12,580 | 1,601 |
| Baby Gift | 447,452 | $6,423 | 43 |
| Garden | 145,381 | $8,912 | 74 |
| Outdoor | 43,711 | $2,356 | 393 |
| Holiday Decoration | 4,692 | $8,750 | 25 |
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| It is also important to identify keywords which are variations of the same term; these variations in search terms have implications for web page copy and coding. |
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| After determining the terms on which to focus, a company must look at the individual web pages that include those terms. If there are multiple pages on a site which include the term, consider a category page which can help customers narrow their search once on the site. |
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| The real key to improving natural rankings lies in making sure web page content and underlying coding are in synch and, in fact, promote products/categories consistent with business goals. |
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| In the recent assignment mentioned above, Marketsmith helped a client identify the top 25 words to be optimized for organic search. After determining which words the company should focus on, we then looked at the copy and coding for a number of the company's web pages. We observed several factors which are not uncommon throughout the industry that seriously curtail the ability of these pages to move up in organic search listings: |
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| 1) | Use of Titles and Meta descriptions is not consistent across the pages; many pages lack these two defining pieces of the source coding. Without provisions or content in the Meta descriptions, a page will not be indexed, or consequently, searched. |
| 2) | HTML and JavaScript are intermixed which can affect the ability of search engines to index. JavaScript is not read by search engines; so it is necessary to have the critical information in HTML. |
| 3) | There are very few, if any, keywords included in the description. Keywords can be coded for every page and should be included on all pages which have either products for sale or information which may be of interest/value to consumers. |
| 4) | There is not always a consistency between the coding and the text on the page. Search engine crawlers can tell when there is a disconnect between copy and coding and do not effectively index pages which exhibit that discrepancy. |
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| Our client had been relying on a software package to generate the source coding for each page. We have provided specific guidelines for website coding and copy at the end of this article. When relying on such a tool, it is incumbent upon the company to make sure the program is functioning as expected. Our client discovered through our analysis that a program override had been put in place and the software was not creating any coding, which explained the missing meta information. |
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| Such programs, even when they function as they are intended, are only as good as the copy on the page since they pull from the copy to develop the meta tags and keywords. Good copy is critical to the success of any optimization effort. |
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| Measuring Results |
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| The purpose of improving natural search rankings is to drive more traffic to the website and to increase orders. We have determined that the best way to measure the success of optimization efforts is to track page views, organic terms and orders for about one year to create an average that will serve as a benchmark. It will also be important to look at these data both on a month by month basis and a seasonal basis. It can take up to six months to see the effects of the Search Engine Optimization once it is implemented. |
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| Final Comments |
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| Optimizing organic search requires marrying business objectives and analysis with technical expertise and execution. It is an effective way to increase revenue and decrease costs; since every time, a searcher chooses a natural listing over a paid listing, the company saves money. Also, by creating business rules which govern the coding of web pages, ultimately all pages can be set up for being accessible to the search engine crawlers, improving organic rankings for as many terms/pages as possible. |
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| Because of the seasonal nature of many merchants' product mix, it may be necessary to determine terms to be optimized by season. Historical data plus merchandising plans can provide the basis for this analysis. In this way, as seasonal pages are developed for the site, they will be coded from the start in a manner that will encourage the greatest web traffic through organic listings. |
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| Our client said we identified an untapped opportunity which they now expect to generate $150,000 to $175,000 per month, through natural search. |
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| Below we have included guidelines for optimizing searches through Google and Yahoo as well as what to keep in mind when developing copy and coding for web pages. |
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| General Criteria for Maximizing Organic Search by Search Engine |
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| Google is the top referring search engine to most websites and Yahoo is number two. Together these two search engines generally account for about 90% of searches. |
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| Search engines send out "robots" (sometimes called "bots") or "spiders," programs which "crawl" the web to index the various web pages. The most important factor in making a page accessible to search engine crawlers is making sure in its coding each page has a title and meta description. If these are missing, the robot will not index the full content of the page. |
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| Additionally there are other requirements to make web pages most likely to be indexed and to move up in the listings for natural search. We have summarized the key factors in how both Google and Yahoo do their indexing, based on the recommendations provided by Google and Yahoo with supplemental information from searchengines.com. |
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| Google: |
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| 1) | Does not Index (Googlebots will not index these pages for natural search inclusion) |
 | Registration pages |
| Text in graphics |
| Multimedia files/flash |
| XML |
| Java Applets |
| Comment Tags |
| Acrobat Files |
| Spammers - those who use unethical practices to try and improve their search rankings |
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| 2) | Content and Location |
| Web pages should contain all relevant keywords in both their visible copy and in the source coding |
| Content should include keywords in text or links |
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| 3) | HTML Title |
| Critical factor |
| Should contain keywords |
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| 4) | Meta descriptions |
| Critical to include |
| Reflect copy on page (see coding recommendations below) |
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| 5) | Link Popularity |
| Links both to and from the website increase its rankings. It is very important to include where relevant |
| Does not approve of Free- for all sites or link exchange programs which do not discriminate among the links they will post and therefore have no relationship to page content |
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| 6) | Preferences |
| Keywords near each other |
| Keywords in URLs and link text |
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| Yahoo: |
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| 1) | Does not Index |
| Spammers |
| Does not indicate if it indexes text, multi media, etc. |
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| 2) | Content and Location |
| Worthy of indexing as determined by editors |
| Appropriate categories |
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| 3) | HTML Title |
| Title should be concise |
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| 4) | Meta descriptions |
| Critical to include |
| Reflect copy on page (see coding recommendations below) |
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| 6) | Preferences |
| Concise and accurate descriptions |
| Choice of keywords in appropriate categories |
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| Overall Page Design/Copy Recommendations |
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| 1) | Make sure the actual copy on a web page and the underlying tags and coding are consistent with respect to titles, descriptions and actual text. |
| 2) | Don't use images to display names, content or links since Google does not recognize text contained in graphics. However, Google will read the names of the pictures and it will read the "alt tags" associated with images. |
| 3) | Be sure the site has a clear hierarchy and text links. |
| 4) | Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link, which is a link that is normal text or html, that a bot can find and follow. |
| 5) | Keep URL parameters short. |
| 6) | Make sure the robots.txt is current and not blocking the Googlebot crawler. |
| 7) | Re-submit the URL to Google to be indexed when there are major changes to the site. We suggest quarterly or semiannually at least. Even though the search engines are out there crawling, it is important not to wait to be found. It is necessary only to submit the top-level web page and the crawler will do the rest. |
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| Overall Coding Recommendations |
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| Meta description tags must be an integral part of the source coding behind each Web page and describe the site's content. These are incorporated in many search engine algorithms to determine natural search ranking. |
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| Meta Description Tag Design |
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| 1) | Should contain multiple keywords organized in a logical sentence. |
| 2) | Keywords should be placed at the beginning of the description and close to each other to achieve the best rankings. |
| 3) | Keep the description tag approximately 150 characters. |
| 4) | Do not repeat the same keyword more than seven times or it will be considered spam. |
| 5) | Do not use apostrophes in the source coding even if one would normally use one (e.g. use "its" instead of "it's"). An apostrophe has a specific function in coding and including one in the text of the coding could change the meaning. |
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