Posts archived in Search Engine Optimization

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October 27, 2009

Increase Your Exposure with YouTube

Everybody loves online video. Incorporating video into your web site can enhance the user experience and increase the rate of visitors turned into customers, but did you realize how dramatically the presence of video content could increase your exposure in Google?

Google has pioneered the principle of “blended search,” or “universal search,” which means that search results from a variety of content categories – including video, news, images, shopping results and more – are brought together on a results page in an attempt to bring the user the most relevant possible matches.

A search for something like “landscaping” in Google will return not only regular web pages, but also images of landscaping ideas, local business listings pinpointed on a map, related news articles and more.

If you search for something more specific like “growing a pumpkin patch” videos will appear as thumbnails directly in the results page. See how it stands out on a results page otherwise dominated by your basic blue links and black preview text.

Blended Search Results

Although it is possible to earn a thumbnail spot like this from any online video service, you’re likely to see better results if you host your videos on YouTube. Google tends to rank YouTube videos more favorably over Hulu, Metacafe, etc. Google also tends to favorably rank web pages with embedded video content. Notice the top results for our search for “landscaping” all have embedded video content on their page.

Signal has found excellent results from adding and optimizing online video for numerous clients. YouTube specifically outperforms the rest. It’s easy to use, it offers cool ways to embed and share your videos online, and it greatly amplifies your chances of being found by web searchers. Not too shabby a deal.

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March 19, 2009

Adding Keywords to Your URLs: Does It Help With SEO?

Yes, having keywords in your URLs does help with SEO, but search engines react differently to keywords in the actual domain versus keywords that appear tacked on to the URL string.

Keywords in the URL String
www.fakedomainname.com/widgets/
Say you’re trying to rank for the keyword “widgets.” Having “widgets” in the page URL string (after the .com) may affect rankings slightly. The real benefit is click through rate. Since search engines display the keyword you searched in bold in the search results, more people are likely to click on your listing. The key is that you have to be ranking well in the search engines for people to even see your listing. This is probably not worth rewriting all of your URLs for, but definitely worth considering for a new website.

Keywords in the Domain
www.widgetsrus.com
Choosing a domain that contains one or some of your keywords can have slightly more of an effect on your SEO efforts than just having the keywords in the URL string. In fact, if you don’t already have an established brand or domain, it’s helpful to even work keywords into your brand name and/or any tag lines associated with your brand. Just like people will begin to associate your brand with your keywords, search engines will recognize the relevance of your website to those keywords.

Exact Match Domain
www.bluewidgetsraleigh.com
If you don’t already have an established brand or domain, choosing a domain that is an exact match to a top industry keyphrase can have a major effect on your SEO efforts. Keyword choice and finding a domain that is available is the hard part. We can only speculate why having an exact match domain is worth so much, but it’s likely search engines think someone searching for “blue widgets raleigh” is actually trying to look up the bluewidgetsraleigh.com website.

It’s also possible that having a domain that is an exact match to a top searched keyphrase in your industry means that you were an early presence on the web for this topic and possibly a leader in the eyes of the search engines.

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February 17, 2009

New Canonical Tag To Help With Duplicate Content

Google, Yahoo and MSN announced last week they are partnering to support a new Canonical URL tag created to help reduce duplicate content issues.  As it stands, when search engines discover URLs with essentially the same content they group them into a cluster and select the “best” URL to represent that cluster in the search engine results.  But by adding this new HTML tag to a web page you are indentifying it as your preferred URL to the search engines and the version you would like indexed.

Why is duplicate content even an issue?  From a user’s standpoint, duplicate content is a nuisance. Google tries to filter out duplicate documents so users have a good, diverse selection of information relevant to their search query instead of a poor selection of duplicate articles or even slight variations of the same article.

Having duplicate content can be a headache for a web site owner too.  Certain types of duplicate content can have a negative effect on your site’s performance in the search engines.  Oftentimes multiple versions of the same URL are created accidentally by category URL systems, session IDs and other basic site development issues, as well as some marketing tactics. See Google Webmaster Central to learn more about duplicate content caused by URL parameters.

In many cases this new tag is the best way to communicate your preferred URL, but a permanent redirect is still necessary if the duplicate content is on a completely different domain, or if you need to transfer page history or consolidate link credit.  Check out SEOmoz for more technical details on how the new Canonical URL tag works.

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February 13, 2009

The Rise of Web 3.0?

By now, you’ve probably heard of Web 2.0, the new age of Internet use involving information sharing and social collaboration, but lately it seems like an even more innovative take on web communication is on the rise. Social media and networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can be considered the poster children of Web 3.0, but the term is most notably characterized by the shift from “containers” to “objects.”

Tom Wilde, an expert in search engine optimization (SEO,) explains this shift in a recent blog post on SearchEngineLand.com. A short time ago, consumers had to buy an entire album to listen to their favorite song, flip through a magazine or newspaper to read a certain article, and tune into a television network to watch a beloved show. Today, with the introduction of iTunes, Hulu, and countless other web sites and tools, users can find the exact object that they are looking for while bypassing their usual containers.

This presents an interesting challenge to publishers, who must now consider how web users discover their material and cater to this when they publish. Also, how will Web 3.0 affect Internet giant, Google, if the search engine provides links to containers (web sites,) rather than specific objects?

Read the post to learn more of Wilde’s thoughts on the future of the web.

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January 20, 2009

Blended Search & Why Online Video Should Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy

More than a year and a half ago Google began blending results from its specialized channels, like Video, Images, Local and more, into one universal search engine.  What this means for today’s Google users is (hopefully) a selection of more relevant results. A search for “inauguration” for example, now returns a blend of News, Images, Video clips, Blog posts and Website results all on the first page and ranked in order of relevance.

What does this mean for a company looking to gain more visibility in search engines? On one hand optimizing web pages for organic visibility in Google has gotten more and more difficult, particularly in cases where the much-sought-after real estate of the first page results has been divvied out into some of these other categories.  On the other hand, blended search results mean there are now more opportunities for visibility.  To take full advantage of all blended search has made available, today’s search marketing strategy must be all-encompassing, from claiming your Local Business Listing in Google Maps to optimizing press releases and more.

Of these opportunities, online video is predicted to show huge growth in 2009.  According to a survey by PermissionTV, 67% of US Marketers plan to focus their online marketing budget in online video in 2009.

Online video major focus for marketers in 2009

Online video major focus for marketers in 2009


Adding video to your marketing strategy or repurposing existing video for increased online visibility could be the right move for your company. For one, adding videos to your website can help increase conversions and convert visitors faster.  In addition, videos actually stand a much better chance of ranking in the top ten than any given web page.  When done right, adding videos to your website can even make your site more relevant to users, which helps you rank better in Google. The sooner you can get started the better.