Great article today by ClickZ’s Julie Batten about Google’s changing SERPs (search engine results pages) — “What Google SERP Changes Mean to Marketers.”

Because Google is now indexing all types of content, plus incorporating its search box, it’s becoming harder for companies to rank “above the fold” on the SERP.

In her article, Julie writes:

Maybe these extra elements included on the Google SERPs are just another challenge for the marketer. That is, it’s not just about optimizing your site any more.

It’s about optimizing every type of content you have available [emphasis mine].

So instead of whining about the SERP’s reduced space, why not invest that energy into listing your business with Google Maps or optimizing your images and video for search?

Amen!

I recently posted similar thoughts about optimizing media rooms in my MarCom Strategist newsletter. You can read part I, “Optimized Media Rooms: More Traffic, More Inquiries, More Press” and “Optimizing Your Media Room — Part II.”

The long and short of Google’s changing SERP?

It pays to view your Website as a collection of mini-sites and each page within each section as stand-alone landing pages — and optimize accordingly.

For example, “mini-sites” within a larger site include Services, Products, Resources (or Library), About Us, E-Commerce, etc.

Then, within each section, optimize individual landing pages according to who would be searching for that specific type of content and why.

In today’s ClickZ article, “Chicken Soup for the SEO Soul,” P.J. Fusco talks about how SEO critics have lambasted the SEO industry.

Fusco says this is partly the fault of the SEO industry itself — the reasons being that SEO firms can’t publish results data because clients won’t allow it. Hence, SEO practices aren’t “transparent.”

(I asked Bob Bly in a separate email if he’s run into this problem with regard to direct mail, and he said he has one client who won’t let him post results. However, the DM industry has years of case studies and best practices – and for the most part, is “transparent.”)

This lack of transparency for the SEO industry, however, means that people don’t understand ethical SEO, how it works, and why it’s important to a company’s marketing strategies.

I’m currently testing the effectiveness of SEO on my own site. I’ve been getting under the hood of Google Analytics in order to determine why people take action on one part of the site or landing page but not another. The data — what little of it I have at the moment — is fascinating.

My question: if I take this data and use it to manipulate the copy on the page in order to increase search engine rankings, does that make me someone who is peddling SEO snakeoil?

Why is it ok to “manipulate” copy for a direct mail letter in order to increase conversions but it’s not ok to “manipulate” Web content so that it ranks well in the search engines (and thus drives more targeted traffic to the page and increases conversions)?

In today’s ClickZ article, “Let’s Talk About Links,” SEO expert Mike Grehan talks about non-paid links versus paid links.

If you’ve been following the story, Google did a smack down last month of sites that rely on paid links to boost rankings. A number of sites were penalized.

In the article Grehan writes:

One thing I do with new clients is sit them down in front of their Web sites and ask them to write down 10 reasons someone should link to them. Rarely do people get past seven or eight.

It’s a short exercise intended, in the main, to get the client thinking about not just differentiation but also the actual business model. Face it: if you can’t think of dozens of reasons people would want to link to your site, you may want to ask yourself why you built it in the first place.

He asks a good question so I decided to take his challenge. Here are 10 reasons why I think people should link to my site — www.dhcommunications.com:

1. I have a a full list of B2B marketing articles to which many site owners have linked.

2. Ditto for the archived e-newsletters I have on my site.

3. I offer free reports to which other site owners can and do link.

4. I offer paid content (i.e. e-books) to which some sites and bloggers do link.

5. I offer site visitors links to sites they might find of interest, which in turn helps generate links back to my site.

6. I write lots of articles for other sites — which gives me yet more links to my site.

7. I work with people who have complementary services; sometimes they will link to my site in order to offer my services as a resource to their clients.

8. I write a blog. When someone comments on my posts, they sometimes link to my Website and my blog.

9. I’ve had other sites review my e-newsletter and then provide their readers links to it and my site.

10. Because of all the content on my site, I get calls from journalists for interviews, which in turn leads to more inbound links when the articles go live.

What do you think? Are these valid reasons for people to link to my site? Can you think of any I missed?

For the record, I have over 1200 inbound links (according to Yahoo’s Site Explorer). I’ve built these links over time and have not paid for any of them.

(Thanks, Mike! This was a worthwhile exercise.)

I sometimes get this perplexing response when I talk to prospective clients about Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

“Oh, we don’t need SEO. We don’t want people calling us from the Website. They’re never good leads anyway.”

I’m perplexed by this because why wouldn’t a company want more prospects calling or emailing? 

But then I take a look at the Website and I see the problem instantly.

One, the company usually needs to revise the content of the site so that it reflects what they *really* offer in terms of services and/or products (see the RainToday article I wrote: 6 Tips for Developing a Professional Services Website.)

And two, if the site offered prospects high-value content, such as white papers, case studies, a newsletter, reports, etc. etc. — and it was optimized for searchers using the *right* keywords — the site would begin to draw targeted traffic.

Targeted traffic, AKA people who want to know about a company’s services and products, turns into leads. Leads become sales. Sales equal more bottom line revenue.

That’s why you should care about SEO and white papers — and why you should join me next week, Thursday, October 18 at Michael Stelzner’s TeleClass, “Search Engine Optimization for White Papers: How to ensure your white papers rank high on search engines.”

I received Michael’s TeleClass Special Guest Kit the other day, and people, he’s got some *really* detailed questions he’s asking about SEO. I’m pretty excited!

I hope to “see” you there!

I’m currently working with a client on completely overhauling their Website. We’ve been talking about their company, who they are, and changes to the industry.

One question I like to ask is, “What industry buzzwords describe your services or expertise?” I then use Keyword Discovery and Google’s Keyword Tool to determine how popular these words really are. (Usually there’s a huge disconnect between the keywords companies use and the keywords prospects use.)

I also go to Google and see which companies come up for specific keyword searches.

For the client that I’m working with, I ran a search on one phrase in particular — a very hot topic in the industry – and noted only one white paper in the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

The problem isn’t a lack of white papers (because I searched individual company Websites and found a number of them).

The white papers – and the landing pages – are just not optimized for search engines.

SEO and white papers is something Michael Stelzner and I have been talking about for a number of months now. A few months ago he asked me to write an article for his newsletter, which you can read here. We kept talking, and what emerged from those conversations is the idea for Michael’s upcoming teleclass.

Yes, I’m his featured guest for the October 18 teleclass titled, “Search Engine Optimization For White Papers: Get More Leads With Optimized Landing Pages.” You can register for it by clicking the link.

And, be sure to subscribe to his newsletter if you don’t already get it. It’s a great newsletter filled with meaty topics. My next article, “Help Searchers Find Your White Papers: Use the Right Keywords” appears in the October issue.

My colleague, Chris Jaeger, called yesterday. “Hey! Have you seen what’s going on with Google? My client’s all mad because his listing is getting pushed down due to Google Universal.”

Yep, I’ve been watching this for some time now. Here’s what he means:

That nice helpful map pushes the top results down and takes up most of the space in the ”golden triangle.”

Even more interesting, notice the third listing attached to the Google map for ATL Productions — it links to a Google map versus a Website, the way the listings above it do.

I learned by accident, that in order to prevent this problem, it pays to set up Google accounts for brick and mortar clients dependent on local search results.

Two years ago I opened a Google account for my client, Dr. Helaine Smith, and signed her up for Google’s  Local Business Center (which was then in beta). Now when her listing appears in Google, it includes a link to a Google map.

When you click on the map link, the map appears with her address and phone number (which is also very handy if you’re trying to find her practice via a Web-enabled mobile device).

All of this is to say that Google is pushing personalized search and that businesses who depend on local search need to keep abreast of developments.

To learn more about it, read P.J. Fusco’s excellent Click Z article, “Personalized, Universal, and Optimized.”

My good buddy, Bob Bly, quoted me regarding SEO copywriting in a recent DM News article, “Experts Share SEO Copywriting Secrets.” This is a link to the entire issue, which is a PDF. You can find the article on page 8.

Regarding SEO strategies, Bob writes:

Copywriter Dianna Huff advises having separate pages for each product and service you offer. Then optimize each page for specific keywords and phrases related to the product or service featured on that page.

Bob is referring to a strategy I outline in an article I wrote last year for Search Engine News titled, “How to Increase Traffic, Inquiries, and Sales by Expanding the Services Area of Your Website.”

I use this strategy for my own site as well as for my clients’ sites and have seen tremendous results.

Bob, thanks for quoting me!

Over the last few months I’ve become good friends with another B2B copywriter, Steve Slaunwhite. In addition to running a thriving copywriting and consulting business, Steve has authored a couple of books, including How to Start and Run a Copywriting Business and Cracking the Case Study Market.

Steve’s a great guy and very knowledgeable. And, he recently started a new business, For Copywriters Only, where he dispenses sound advice to copywriters who want to grow their businesses.

So I’m very pleased to be Steve’s guest at his next teleclass, Thursday, February 8, 2007, 3:00 PM EST.

In “Secrets of SEO Copywriting,” we’ll talk about how to optimize a Website as well as how copywriters can offer SEO copywriting to their clients.

You can learn more about the teleclinic and register for the class at Steve’s For Copywriters Only site. The cost is $35.00 (a bargain!).

I literally stumbled onto search engine optimization around five years ago. A prospect called to say, “I found you by accident on the Web. Did you know your site isn’t optimized?”

I replied, “What in the hell is that?” And so started my journey into SEO.

Since then, I’ve fully optimized my site, which brings in a ton of new business, my clients’ sites, and I wrote my book, Turning Clicks Into Leads Through Search Engine Optimization.

Many people still mistakenly think SEO is some sort of techno mumbo-jumbo that only programmers can learn and implement. (In fact, a prospective client asked that very thing yesterday.)

But what I’ve learned is that SEO is for marketers.

Why? Because a fully optimized site means higher rankings in the search engines. Higher rankings means more traffic to a site. More traffic equals more leads. More leads translates into more sales.

If you’re a marketer and/or copywriter and want to learn more about SEO, then attend Steve’s class on February 8! According to Steve, the class is almost filled, so be sure to register today.

In my travels, I’ve come across a few nefarious SEO companies – including one company that charged its clients thousands of dollars a month for “SEO” — when in reality, the SEO company had set up an interlinking Web ring of dubious sites. 

Heck, one SEO company I ran across *charged* the client (my colleague) hundreds of dollars to remove links to its site embedded in my colleague’s source code!

So I become peeved when I receive emails like this one:

I can put your site at the top of a search engines listings. This is no joke and I can show proven results from all our past clients. If this is something you might be interested in, send me a reply with the web addresses you want to promote and the best way to contact you with some options.

If the person/company (based in Boston, MA), had done even the tiniest bit of research, she would have known that 1) my site is fully optimized and 2) I’m already at the top of the search engines for many of my keywords.

People, when checking out SEO firms, one of the first points of due diligence is ensuring the SEO company is indeed offering you “white hat” or “legal” SEO tactics that search engines like Google and Yahoo! approve of.

How do you determine this? Do some research and ask lots of questions!

You can start with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines which lists everything you need to know about designing and optimizing a search engine friendly site.

Read newsletters, articles, books, or blogs from respected SEO experts. A few of my favorites? Jill Whalen, Mike Grehan, and Shari Thurow.

Attend search marketing conferences, such as Search Engine Strategies (I’ll be at the NY one in April), where you learn from the experts on how to optimize your site — the right way.

Understand that effective SEO isn’t only about high rankings in the search engines. You’ll want to work with an SEO company that understands marketing, too.

It’s relatively easy to get traffic to your site. It’s much harder to turn that traffic into leads (which is a topic I cover in my new e-book, Turning Clicks into Leads).
 

Lately, talk in the SEO world has centered around search engine rankings (where your site shows up in the search engines). Just as people say to PR folk, “I want to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,” prospects will mail SEO firms with, “I want to be #1 in Google.” Some SEO experts now argue that high rankings shouldn’t be one’s goal.

Jill Whalen, in her latest newsletter states, “Rankings are just not worth measuring. Say bye-bye to them and cut them loose.” Instead, Whalen says, you should consult your Web analytics reports in order to determine conversion rates. (She’s right. When was the last time you looked at your Web analytics data?)

In the latest SEO Chat article, “Over Optimizing Your Site: Just Say No,” Heather Lloyd-Martin is quoted as saying, “We’re in business to make money, and the search engines are not paying our bills¦Whenever you put the computer first, you’re leaving customers out.”

Yes . . . and no.

One, you should pay attention to keywords and where you rank, but you also shouldn’t be a slave to your rankings. As Whalen points out in her article, she’s converting well for keywords lower down on her list.

Indeed, I’ve worked hard to rank well for “B2B marketing communications,” but my newest client found me using the search phrase, “B2B freelance marketing” — a phrase I hadn’t even considered!

And two, viewing Websites as lead generation/money-making tools is nothing new (at least it shouldn’t be for any marketer worth her salt.)  I developed my first corporate site in 1995 for the Varian Associates NMR business unit. I certainly didn’t write its content for search engines — I wrote it to help sell NMR units to Ph.D scientists!

An important tool in the marketing toolbox, your Website deserves your attention. Optimizing it so it ranks well is important because otherwise, you’re simply sending qualified leads to your competition.

In addition to optimizing your site, providing lots of valuable content is key. Why? Because it’s the content that gets people to take action — whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or picking up the phone. (I received three calls in the last month from prospects who’ve stated, “You have a great site. I read everything on it and feel like I know you.”)

Bottom line? Yes, search engine rankings do matter because people do search and your site needs to rank well in order to be “found.” But, your Website’s job is to increase your business. Ignore that and no #1 position will matter.