Online Marketing Matters » search engine optimization

Increase Site Traffic with a Solid SEO Program

Mike — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:47:28 +0000

We all know that ranking higher for a search term will deliver more traffic to your site. But how much more traffic can you really expect from a higher ranking?

Read the full report published by Chitika.

When you rank number 1 for a search term, about 34% of the people who searched for that word will click on your site. Number two drops to about 17%, number 10 (bottom of the first page) gets about 2% of the clicks.

There’s a huge drop for sites ranking in the 11-20th spots. These ranking positions appear on the second page of search results.

Here’s a breakdown of the percentage of traffic a site will get based on its rank:
1 34.35%
2 16.96%
3 11.42%
4 7.73%
5 6.19%
6 5.05%
7 4.02%
8 3.47%
9 2.85%
10 2.71%
11 1.11%
12 0.85%
13 0.70%
14 0.57%
15 0.48%
16 0.39%
17 0.33%
18 0.28%
19 0.28%
20 0.29%

Remember that you can use the Google Keyword Tool to estimate the global monthly search traffic for your phrase.

SEO Pricing

Mike — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:01:15 +0000

In my SEO Is NOT a Candy Store series, I take on SEO pricing in Aisle #2.

SEO pricing is all over the map - from initial SEO pricing details to the length of contracts.

When a company signs up for SEO, the pricing must factor in who the business is hiring (individuals or whole teams) and details about what the experts are actually expected to accomplish.

In the SEO pricing video, I walk through scores of questions. If you don’t want to be left with doubts or misunderstandings, you should have clear answers to each question.

What’s your experience with SEO pricing? It hasn’t been a problem? It’s confusing? You’ve been misled?

The best SEO firms are candid and clear. Is your consultant up front about his SEO pricing?

SEO is NOT a Candy Store

Mike — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:47:42 +0000

SEO Is NOT a Candy Store

Over the last 13 years, I’ve learned a lot about search engine optimization (SEO) and made my share of mistakes.

Now I’d like to share some views from the front lines – cut through some of the confusion and misunderstandings about what an SEO firm does.

In this SEO Is NOT a Candy Store Series, I’ll periodically offer some tips, help marketers avoid some traps and provide insights about the industry, including pricing and the scope of services.

Why compare SEO to a Candy Store?

A Candy Store is how I think a lot of business executives view SEO – if they’re not just ignoring it all together. Since SEO involves the regular listings, people look at those natural rankings as the FREE stuff. Google may not charge anything, but someone is going to take your money. And if you go it alone, then get ready for the business opportunity cost.

Once marketers and business owners start thinking about keyword phrases, it’s like the Candy Store owner opened the doors on a Saturday morning and announced, “Everyone’s welcome. Today, everything is free. Grab as much candy as you want.”

I realize SEO is a serious discipline, part of an Internet industry filled with excellent minds. In other words, business executives do respect our knowledge. Time and time again, however, they become fascinated with one keyword phrase or expect to rank for just about any keyword that comes to mind.

Everything I share in this Candy Store series is intended to educate marketers and business owners so they understand that SEO is neither easy nor FREE.

Web Designers: Aisle #1 in the SEO Candy Store

I’m dismayed by website designers who rob their clients. No, they don’t break into homes or work on pick-pocket skills. But they sure pull one over on companies who think they’re getting a deal when they’re not.

Isn’t it funny how business executives decide they want SEO services and trust their website designer to handle everything?

In the end, we still end up with frame websites – a taboo for years. We get websites with no Calls to Action and no effort to include keywords in text navigation. Page titles only reflect the site structure. If someone pretends to be an SEO expert, he or she either dreams up the broadest, most competitive keywords for page titles or litters the page titles with an endless string of keywords.

I’m fighting with one website now that has make-it-up-as-you-go CSS throughout the website. I thought the whole idea with CSS was to establish design standards.

Sometimes it seems that a website has so many things going against it from the start that it seems like God himself would need to perform a new miracle to make the website grab a top ranking position.

Are all websites train wrecks when they arrive for SEO services? Not all. But many need a lot of work. It’s such as shame when no one bothers (or knows) to take more care from the start.

SEO Mistakes

Mike — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:49:02 +0000

Check out this great piece by David Naylor called SEO 101 Common Mistakes.

It’s a terrific set, well organized.

You’ll learn something whether you’re new to SEO or a seasoned pro. SEO mistakes happen all of the time.