Dear Brian (no they are not always this formal, but it’s a nice touch)
I just launched my new website that I spent the last 6 months building. I see that you offer SEO as one of your services. I am concerned over my site because it is showing up as number 1034 in the search results. I was wondering what you would charge to increase my rakings. [Insert Web address]

So out of curiosity, more to see their new web design, I click though. With the blink of an eye I discover why their search ranking is so low. There is no content.

It doesn’t matter which search engine you look at, they all require one thing to work, words on your webpage. Without them, the search engines have nothing to read, digest, interpret and ultimately return the next time a potential customer types in your keywords.

“But I do have text my site, its right there and appears with my nifty 3D animated logo”.

Your logo may be pretty dynamic and the animation may border on a Oscar, but if everything is delivered through flash, it is not being read by search engines. The search engine bots are blind to the contents within Flash (at least at the time of this writing) and there is not indication that will change.

So how do you fix this? Take a look at your site. Using your web browser, turn off the entire plug in support, all the images, and all the sound. The look at your site again, that’s how the search engines see it. They see only the text, and the live text, that appears on your site.

So know this hidden bit of information, here is how you can maximize the content on your site.

1. Develop page level key words. Before writing content for a page, or reviewing existing content, determine what 6 keywords would be appropriate for this page. A few of these keywords should be part of your overall site keywords but not always.
2. Remember content is KING. Design is Queen. When developing content for your page, keep those keywords in the front of your mind. You will want to use them multiple times as naturally and relevantly as you can. Typically, 3 to 5 times. Sometimes it may seem redundant, but if the words are not on the page, how can a search engine know to look for them? And if they don’t appear multiple times, search engines might not realize that they are important to you.
3. Content Formatting. HTML has built in ways to format your text, much the same way as Microsoft Word. Take advantage of them, they will not only allow for easily to read content but also it allows the search engines to understand the hierarchy of your site as well.
   1. H Tags. Don’t just make headlines bold on the page, use the series of H tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) built within HTML. Using them in proper read order will also allow readers and search engines to understand the flow of you content easier. Also, remember to use your keywords inside your H tags. Search engines have been rumored to give more importance to keywords in H tags.
   2. Bulleted list. Just like bulleted list make it easier for the reader to view your content, it makes it easier for search engines to determine what is important as well.
   3. Images. Images not only add visual interest, but also add an opportunity to add more targeted content. Utilize the ALT tag and write a description of the image. As an added bonus, your site is one step closer to meeting accessibility/usability standards.
   4. Calls to Action. The content on your site should always be rounded out by clear calls to action. After explaining a product or service, include something like “click here to place your order now” or “learn more about this service here.” Links within the calls to action will lead people to the next step in the process, which should be simple and streamlined. This also creates linkages to more important areas of your site.
   5. Make it easy to connect. As your review your copy, make sure someone is able to connect with you at any time. This also ensures that search engines pick up your contact information.
   6. Links. Links are crucial to every website. Not only for the visitor, but also for search engines. They utilize the links to navigate your site in order to discover the content. To facilitate this, make sure to use your keywords in the names of the links. And utilize the title attribute to provide a longer description of the purpose for the link.
      1. Page Navigation. No matter how many whiz-bang features you place on your site, people will visit your site because they are looking for something. Clean simple navigation is key to encouraging visitors to move around your site. Not necessarily a SEO item, but worth mentioning
      2. Inline navigation (links within your copy). After your write the copy for your page, go back and reread it. Looks for places where you can link words and terms to other pages on your site. Search engines give more importance to words that are links than words that are not.
      3. Never, ever, utilizes words like “Read more.”, “Learn More”, or even just “More”. These words have absolutely no meaning to a search engine. Make sure your links are descriptive. Even though it seems redundant, a link like “Learn more about our widget” or “Learn more about the process of widget creation” will gain more importance with the search engines and aid in the readability of your content.
      4. Remember to use the Title tags on links. This tag allows you to add more descriptive content.

The language that you use in your site’s copy has a profound effect on how visitors and search engines react. Within seconds of landing on your page, visitors need to be enticed into exploring further. And the same goes for the crawlers sent by search engines. With as much detail being applied to the content of your site as being applied to the architecture and design of the site, you will quickly see your rankings rise.

Next up, Inbound and outbound linking.

The brochure utilizes a variable press to print the brochures so that each brochure becomes an unique, individual pieces. The images were tailored to the individual audiences and the position of the text was designed to allow for various line lengths.

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How do the experts achieve those high rankings? Well, that’s a secrete left to those companies but there is one common factor, content. What ever mystically factors are utilized by Google, Yahoo, Bing and others, none of them will work without content on your site. And the more that content changes, the more information for the search engines to chew on, the more important you become.

So how can you take advantage of this content is king, design is queen philosophy? IT all starts with the basics.

Under the hood

In the early days of the web, search engine relied heavily on the meta tag information on a web site to determine it’s importance. Today, they are the forgotten children of SEO. But they can be the most important.

Site wide Search Words.

Before any writing begins on your website, before any graphics are created, and especially before any wizbang animations is developed, sit down with your team to determine what search words or terms you want to be known for.

When developing these search words, be realistic. If you want to be know for being the best baker in your community, you want to be more specific in your terms. There are a lot of bakers in the world and you don’t want to compete on that level. Are you know for a specific product, like wedding cakes or a specific flavor of cupcake? What are people saying when they talk about you to their friends? If you can’t ship your product across the country, focus on the city, county in your search words. By focusing your search words and terms, you will be able to tailor your SEO efforts more efficiently.

When you are complete, you should have anywhere from 6 to 10 search words or terms. There may be more, but you want to focus your efforts site wide on a select few that you can take ownership of.

Metatags.

In the early days of the web, the metatags were it. They were the ways in which search engines discover what you were about. Today, most consider these to be outdated. But they still have use. Search engines still read and incorporate the information into their mysterious algorithms. But more importantly, they help you define the content on your site, much the same way a thesis defines a term paper.

Meta Title: Contains the name of your site (company) and the one key feature you want to be known for. Limit, 63 characters (including spaces)

Meta Description: In two or three sentences, description your site (company) utilizing your search words and terms. Limit 156 characters (including spaces)

Meta Keywords: Place your search words within this space. When using search terms, remember not to repeat any one word more than 3 times or it might actually hurt your rankings. Limit 256 characters (including spaces)

Facebook Meta Tags: Facebook uses it’s own meta information to determine what is being pulled in social sharing (big surprise). By using Facebooks OpenGraph tags with your information above will ensure that the correct information is being pulled. And it will help Facebooks search engine find your site amongst all others.

Have enough yet?

Well this is just the beginning of your SEO adventure. Next we will talk about the content of your page and how to structure it for Search Engine Optimization. But for now, take a look under the hood of your site in order to makes sure your meta information is set up.

Campaign consisted of posters, ads, digital billboards, coupon cards, and specialty items.

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For this years Summer Session, we changed the focus and highlighted the students involved in summer session. I took their experience and combined it with their image to showcase what Summer Session is all about. And in all, we utilized the University’s red shirts against a dark grey background to grab the students attention.

Campaign consisted of posters, direct mail, billboards, digital displays, elevator doors, direct mail, t-shirts, and bus displays.

Now let’s see if I can pull a triple crown in this year’s Peoria Ad Club’s Addy awards.

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So let’s break it down.

• FourSquare allows your customers to check-in at your location. Why should you care? Well, as a owner of that establishment, you can actually see who has been at your business, when they came, and the number of times they have been. The latter allows you to identify some of your most loyal customers.

• It’s a fun little game. Everyone likes a little competition, especially when that competition comes with a reward. As your customers are checking in, they are also competing for mayorship of your establishment. Being mayor, gives you a fun little title and a notice to everyone else checking-in. As a business, you can turn around and take advantage of this friendly little comptetition but offering perks to whoever owns the mayorship title. Some examples of this are a free item for the mayor when he checks-in, a special discount, or even a special table at your establishment, all of which encourage your customers to compete to be the mayor.

• Tapping into you customers friend base. When a customer checks in, they have the option to share that information on Facebook and Twitter. When they do, they’ve just announced to all their friends they are at your location. In essence, they have just given you a non-solicited testimonial.

• Specials to encourage that last minute decision. With FourSquare, you may offer specials to everyone who checks in. The other day I was getting in my car to head home when that nasty little green light came on informing me that my car needed a bit of gas. Being the cheap minded individual I am, I looked around to see which of the gas stations on the corner had the best deals. Since all the prices were the same, I launched FourSquare. Sure enough, the station with the big green sign (who will remain nameless) was offering a free soda to anyone who checks-in with FourSquare. Ten minutes later, my gas tank full (but my wallet empty), I head home with a free soda in my hand. Specials from FourSquare can be utilized to encourage customers to use your business over your competitors.

• Shout outs. You can instantly send a message to people who have “opted-in” for communication from you. Image that you have a retail outlet. On a Saturday afternoon you walk into your store only to discover that it is void of customers and all the employees are playing Angry Birds (and being paid for it). Time for FourSquare. Once you log in, you can shout out a special to everyone who has checked in and offer them a 30% off special for the next 3 hours. All they have to do is show the FourSquare check-in. Now your loyal customers are rewarded and your store is filled with business, keeping your employees from saving those Angry Birds.

Location based social media has been around for a bit, and has yet to take off. But it is starting to mature. Companies like Buffalo Wild Wings are using SCVNGR to create a game environment ultimately encourage people to visit their restaurants. Facebook launched Places and is now incorporating that in with their new Facebook Deals. And the internet coupon master Groupon is in talks with FourSquare to see how they can join forces. Then there is augmented reality. That’s one for another day.

That was the challenge I faced in the Summer Session ’11 campaign for Illinois State University. The solution I came up with involved three simple ideas; on-line, on campus and on track.

What does that mean to a college student, well if the student is around for the summer you can take class on campus. The summer sessions schedule is designed with shortened terms to allow for easy scheduling. These classes are also designed to keep the students “On track” for graduation. With the states truth in tuition, students tuition rate is locked in for 4 years. After that, it rises to the current rate. And finally the students can take classes “On-line”. This way they can take classes when they head back home, on their own time.

The posters were a Gold winner in the Peoria Ad Club’s 2011 Addy awards.

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Todd Wasserman, by way of Mashable, reminds us of some common mistakes made in email marketing.

1. Emailing Without Permission. Don’t start of on the wrong foot with your customer by invading their privacy. Email arrives on your client’s phone, their tablet and their computers which are personal devices. And as such, they take it very personally when they receive solicitations they did not ask for. Build up your list organically by having an opt-in form on your website or, if you have a brick-and-mortar business, using a sign-up sheet.
2. Having Ineffective or Irrelevant Subject and “From” Lines”
   No one can guarantee anyone will open an email, but you can guarantee it wont be opened if your customer glazes over the subject line.  A good subject line should promise short, digestable information that is likely to be of interest or answers the questions “What am I asking the recipient to do?” and “Why should they do it?”Also take a look at the from address. Is it from somebody called “info124@gmail.com” or “Acme Company”. Few people are likely to open an email if they don’t recognize the sender. Email address that uses a Gmail or Yahoo address is a tip-off that the company is small-time and company names are scream mass email. Set up an email account with your name that is used for email marketing only, something like john@acme.com creates a virtual handshake with your customer.
3. Blasting Irrelevant Content
   Make sure your emails are relevant to the audience you’re blasting them to. Suppose you have a family and you signed up to get email from a travel firm. If you get a few emails with information about singles vacations, it’s not only going to be irrelevant to your needs, but it’s likely to sour you on the company, too. At that point, Schmulen says, “even if the fourth one is for families, you’re already checked out.”
4. Not Looking at the Numbers
   Do you know how many emails were opened after your last blast? What the bounced back rate was? These numbers will allow you to discover if your subject lines are relating to your customers because if they’re not, your emails wont be opened. By sending your email out on different days, at different times you can also discover which is the best times and days to send your email.
5. Having No Purpose
   What’s your goal? Is your email going to inform your customers? To announce events? To drive them to a action? Having a purpose will help you define your content and make sure it fits within your overall marketing strategy.
6. Providing No Entry for Dialogue
   Your email, just like a tweet, a Facebook post or a blog entry, if compiled well, will b shared. Make sure you write content relevant to your customer’s needs. And don’t be afraid to ask for their ideas, their content. It’s important to listen to what they need. Your content, sparking an idea, leads to a tweet or Facebook post by your customer to their friend bases. In essence, turning your customer into your most loyal, trusted sales person.

But that’s only a few. Here are a few others to keep in mind while you are compiling your next media blast.

1. Images vs. text. Don’t you love receiving an email that has the outline of a box with a little red “x” in the middle. Especially when it comes from a name you don’t recognize. That’s what your client sees when they receive your image based email. When using images in email, remember that email browsers don’t automatically load images. Make sure your message is in actually live text. That way your customers can obtain your message without have to click on more time.
2. Not looking at the numbers (expanded). Do you really know what your customers are reading. Customize the links in your email, driving them to unique pages on your site so you can track them using analytics. From that data, you can discover which articles people are really reading and taylor future emails around the content that interest them.
3. Feedback mechanism. If your client wants to take an action, can the quickly and easily find the links? If they have a question, do they know how to get it answered? If they want to shout about your product or forward the email to their friends, can they? All of these area quick and easy ways for you to discover how your customers feel about your product and it they are truly interested in it.
4. Keep it brief, keep it actionable. Your customers are busy, respect that. Keep your emails short and actionable. If the customer wants to learn more, give them a microsite to click into.
5. Customized content that is timely. Just like direct mail, what’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. Utilize demographics, psychographics, communication styles and interests to develop content relevant to your customer. Also, examine the external variable like seasonality, upcoming events, news and limited-time offers to message that content into an actionable item.
6. “I” everything. Keeping in mind that the popularity of reviewing email on mobile devices and tablets is on the rise. Keeping this in mind, plus keeping your images sizes down and writing brief but target content will increase the likely of your customers seeing your message on the go.
7. Data list management. Continually review and update your mailing list with the items you’ve learned from your analytics and feed back mechanisms.
8. Check, double check and triple check for spam protection. Make sure you spell check and have someone proof read your copy. Examine your email for the hot spam words. Review your html in order to make sure it’s formed correctly, your links work and your images have alt information. Afterwards, send a test email to a gmail, yahoo mail, aol email address to see how your clients will see the email.

Photo courtesy of elviskennedy on Flickr.