Keyword Selection Tips – Google’s Wonder Wheel and Keyword Relevance

Marketing Practicality | January 23, 2010 in SEO, Small Business Marketing | Comments (2)

Tags: Google, Keyword Selection, marketing tips, SEO, Small Business Marketing

Keyword Selection Tips – Using Google’s Wonder Wheel

Keyword selection is a crucial part of developing your internet marketing strategy. Many factors come in to play, such as:

What is the search volume for my targeted keyword?
What is the relative competition for the keyword?
What is the relevance the targeted keyword to my website’s content?

Presuming you already selected keywords with (ideally) high search volume and relatively low competition, then it’s time to answer how relevant the keyword is to your site’s content. This can be a deceptively tricky process, so here’s a keyword selection tip as well as a great tool to validate your keyword selection strategy: Google’s Wonder Wheel.

Keyword Selection Tool - Google's Wonder Wheel

Google’s Wonder Wheel

The Wonder Wheel is a free tool that is easily accessible within Google – no need to log in to a Google account. Simply perform a search (in the example above I searched on “internet marketing”).

In the light blue bar (below the search box) you’ll see “Show Options”. When you click on Show Options, a sidebar opens up and about two-thirds of the way down the list of options you’ll see Wonder Wheel, this is where the fun starts.

Once you select Wonder Wheel your search term will be graphically displayed in a hub and spoke pattern – similar to a mind map pattern. The spokes are based on actual Google searches and represent a visual display of how people searching on Google refine their search terms, switching from short tail terms to long tail terms or even switching search terms entirely. Again, in the image above, I searched on Internet Marketing and selected the spoke Internet Marketing Company.

For example, if someone searched on the term Apple, the intent of the searcher is difficult to fully understand (i.e. is the person looking for computers, phones or fruit – or something else entirely). Using the Google Wonder Wheel can help you identify terms that are highly relevant to your product or service, and if your web page is optimized effectively, you will attract more qualified traffic.

Keyword Selection Tips – Keyword Relevance

The concept of keyword relevance should not be casually overlooked or assumed. Just because you believe a specific keyword is relevant to your business does not mean the masses searching on Google will use that term to find your service or product. So start by casting a wide net and then use Google’s Wonder Wheel to refine your keyword targeting.

And note – although this post is mainly covering the Wonder Wheel and Keyword Relevance in SEO – this tool also works well for identifying long tail keywords for your Google AdWords campaign (pay per click marketing).

More keyword selection tips will follow in future posts (search volume and competition) – in the meantime, try using Google’s Wonder Wheel – let me know what you think of it and if you think it is a useful tool.

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Search Engine Optimization and Meta Tags:
Meta Keywords | Meta Description

Marketing Practicality | January 17, 2010 in SEO, Small Business Marketing | Comments (8)

Tags: Google, marketing tips, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Small Business SEO

This comes up far too frequently when I speak with clients or potential clients, so I thought it would be useful to cover the role of common meta tags and search engine optimization (SEO) – elements like meta keywords and the meta description. When you see a listing on a search engine – here’s what the title tag (which is not a meta tag) and the meta description commonly look like – search engines don’t display meta keywords.

The Importance of Meta Keywords and SEO

Meta Keywords Tag is not important in search engine optimization – or not in the way you want it to be. Many high ranking websites don’t even use them. I admit, I still use them sometimes, perhaps it’s just an old habit and often clients insist meta keywords are important – but consider the following if you choose to use the meta keywords tag:

Keep the keywords short – 5 or so is fine
Use relevant meta keywords – don’t add keywords that aren’t in the web page’s content
Meta keywords should be unique to each page
Understand meta keywords won’t help the ranking of your page but overuse or misuse can negatively impact rankings
Your competitors can easily view your meta keywords and know which terms you are “trying” to target or rank for – think about that

If you, your SEO resource, or staff thinks that meta keywords are a way to improve your search engine rankings – well, they are not.

The Importance of the Meta Description and SEO

The meta description however is an important meta element – because, as shown in the picture above, the meta description is what search engines typically display to describe your website. While the meta description does not have significant SEO value, it does influence whether or not someone may click on your website’s search engine listing.

For that reason alone, care should be taken to craft relevant, meaningful description that are unique for each page.

In some cases, a search engine will choose to display a description other than what you have carefully worded as your meta description. The most common example is Yahoo! is a Yahoo Directory description (if you have one) or search engines electing to use a DMOZ description (if you have one). Though I have even seen Google use alt tags as a web page description. Yahoo! directory and DMOZ listings can be easily controlled (by using another meta tag!). If Google is using other on-page elements for your description you need to understand why and fix it.

Your Website’s Title Tag and Search Engine Optimization – SEO

OK – the title tag (which is not a meta tag) has significant search engine optimization value and they influence whether someone will click on your website’s search engine listing. So website titles should be crafted carefully and well, to target the intended keywords, provide a meaningful description of your website’s page and influence someone to click through your website’s search engine listing.

The title tag is probably the most important on-page seo element and one of the easiest to modify and improve.

SEO Marketing Services – Pricing and Value

So if you are shopping a search engine optimization partner, and you see a variety of different rates and service levels, and you don’t really understand what kind of value you are getting for your investment, I’ll offer these points for your consideration.

If the seo service provider is planning on changing your meta tags, title tag, submitting your website to a bunch of search engines and directories – the rate is probably low, for a reason. There will be little return (albeit some) for that sort of service.
If your seo marketing resource is charging you a high rate for doing the above, look elsewhere.
Many seo marketing agencies offer tiered plans – and while it’s good to see a list of what will be done for your marketing investment, understand you are purchasing a pre-packaged seo plan – which may not fit the specific needs of your business.
If your resource provides seo marketing services which include on-page and off-page optimization; stays current with search engine trends; understands the different algorithms and has a successful track record with other clients – you may be on to something. If you can effectively determine that seo provider’s professionalism and responsiveness, well then, now you may really be on to something. Just be sure to use a qualified seo marketing consultant.

Meta Tags and Search Engine Optimization – Recap

So to summarize, here’s the real search engine optimization value of meta tags:

Meta Keywords – They will not help your search engine rankings. If used improperly, they may have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

Meta Description – Important for your search engine listing and can influence whether or not people click on the listing and visit your website.

Title Tag – Very important for both search engine optimization as well as gaining traffic from search engine listings.

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Small Business Website Help – Website Security Risks

Marketing Practicality | January 3, 2010 in SEO, Small Business Marketing | Comments (2)

Tags: marketing tips, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Small Business SEO, Website Security

Website Security Risks

OK – it’s 2010, are you considering your resolutions for your small business website? If you are looking for small business website help, one of the things near the top of your list should be website security risks.

Do You Backup Your Small Business Website?

No one wants another task added to their list, but regularly backing up your website can save a lot of headaches if your website gets hacked. I have had several clients come to me because their search engine rankings dropped significantly, which often results in a drop in traffic to their small business’ website, which results in a loss of revenue. Having a small business website can be your primary means of revenue so I strongly recommend your consider the website security risks associated with the responsibility of owning a website.

Blogs and Website Security Risks

WordPress can be a great help to your small business website. It is an extremely robust and useful, open source blogging platform. But with popularity comes a price. WordPress blogs have several website security risks – hackers have automated the process. In fact most clients that come to me for help with their small business website (after a major drop in rankings) – have had some sort of website security breach.

Here is a great article on best practices for managing a small business WordPress blog:

Triple “P” Of Total WordPress Security

Website Security Risks and Your Small Business Website Host

Have you checked with the company that hosts your small business website? Do they regularly backup your website? Are you comfortable that your website could be completely restored in the event of a malware problem? If not, I recommend you check with them and don’t leave anything to chance. Backing up your website yourself can save you a lot of hassle if your hosting company isn’t there for you when you need them (or you didn’t understand their policies… remember all that fine print?).

An Ounce of Prevention

It’s an old saying but good sayings get old for a reason. So if you are looking for small business website help first consider your website security risks. Then move on to the fun stuff like SEO, Google AdWords and other small business marketing techniques.

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Google Adds Real Time Search – Integrates Twitter

Marketing Practicality | December 13, 2009 in SEO | Comments (0)

Tags: SEO

Google Integrates Twitter – Real Time Search

The much discussed Google-Twitter integration appears to be underway.

CNet wrote about it here: Google Launches Real Time Search

At the time of writing this post – I can see the live stream if I search on “Tiger Woods”.

Seems like the beginning of a paradigm shift to me. I have read how Google’s mission was to “organize the world’s information” and the addition of streaming news feeds and tweets strikes me as more aggregation than organization.

Whether this is another arrow in Google’s quiver to prove superiority over Bing or it’s the beginning of a fundamental change in search behavior remains to be seen. But it certainly strikes me as a strategic change for the world’s largest search engine. An attempt to provide information to people who want to know what’s happening “right now”.

Others will certainly present the counterpoint that with real time search, image results, news results, video results, book results, etc. Real estate on the first page of Google is getting pretty cluttered.

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Google Caffeine and SEO for your Business

Marketing Practicality | December 4, 2009 in SEO | Comments (0)

Tags: Caffeine, Google, SEO, Small Business SEO

Google Caffeine and Small Business SEO

By now, most SEO’s are very familiar with Google’s new infrastructure update, referred to as Caffeine. The new infrastructure is expected to roll out after the 2009 holiday season.

Why Caffeine? Because of the way it indexes websites is like old Google jacked up on caffeine (and the old Google was already faster at indexing than the competing search engines).

As of this post, Caffeine results can be seen at this data center: 209.85.225.103. The Caffeine search results appear about 50% of the time so you may need to refresh your search if the results are the same as current Google. Try a search by clicking on this link:

http://209.85.225.103/search?hl=en&q=marketing+practicality&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=

So What Does This Mean For Your Business’ SEO?

Well, your rankings may change. Caffeine is not necessarily believed to be a change in the way Google ranks website pages, but it does enable Google to crawl more pages more quickly. So if more competition enters the rankings, it may affect how your business ranks.

On the plus side, I have seen websites jump in rankings.

The websites that improved rankings with Caffeine were a result of changes or improvements to web pages I would have done if Caffeine was there or not. But the indexing speed is currently incredible – hours, not days.

Optimizing your Small Business Website

No one will really know until everything goes live after the holidays, but your SEO should be working on your website rankings now and checking them in the Caffeine datacenter.

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Keyword Selection Tips – Google’s Wonder Wheel and Keyword Relevance