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	<title>Marketing, Optimization and SEO Plain and Simple - Cirelle</title>
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		<title>Keyword Analysis, The Backbone of Optimization</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/156/keyword-analysis-the-backbone-of-optimization/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/156/keyword-analysis-the-backbone-of-optimization/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 11:17:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Keyword Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing and SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Commercial Value of Keywords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[analysis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword analysis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword research]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the past I&#8217;ve written about the importance of organic optimization or theming your web pages for good search engine rankings. Theming starts with your choice in keywords, then optimizing the text to support those keywords. Next we apply a &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/156/keyword-analysis-the-backbone-of-optimization/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the past I&#8217;ve written about the importance of organic optimization or theming your web pages for good search engine rankings.</p>
<p>Theming starts with your choice in keywords, then optimizing the text to support those keywords.</p>
<p>Next we apply a proper keyword analysis to our keyword selection.</p>
<p>There is a concept of Informational Keywords (usually single words), which are usually the keywords used when starting the search process.</p>
<p>There are also those phrases referred to as Buy Keywords. These are phrases used when the person searching is ready to act, by inquiring about your product, or making a sale. This action is also called Conversion.</p>
<p>In both situations above, the assumption is the chosen keywords are driving traffic to your website.</p>
<p>The third concept belongs to those keywords that are Duds, Thuds, or black holes.  These keywords provide little if any traffic to your website. To have a decent conversion rate on your website (the actionable process), you need traffic.</p>
<p>This is why Keyword Analysis is the Backbone of Optimization.  Optimizing your web page to a keyword or keyword phrase which draws little traffic to your website is a waste of your valuable resources.</p>
<p>Keyword Analysis brings several components to the table during the optimization process. They are, Commercial Value, Competition Level, and  Traffic Level.</p>
<p>The commercial value of the keyword is an historical marker indicating an expected dollar value per sale.</p>
<p>The competition level indicates the number of websites having been optimized for the phrase. The competition level can range from a few websites to millions.</p>
<p>The traffic level references how many people are using this phrase in a search campaign. This can range from a high positive number to zero.  A level of zero means the keyword phrase could very well be a Dud, Thud, or black hole phrase.</p>
<p>Properly choosing a target keyword phrase becomes an art rather than a science. You know your product or service and the value placed on that product or service.</p>
<p>Be realistic when choosing a metric for the commercial value. Too high may hinder your efforts. Can you expect to make $10,000 per click?</p>
<p>Choosing a very low competition value may have the same effect as choosing a very high competition value keyword.</p>
<p>The same applies to the phrase traffic level. Too high may put you in competition with well optimized sites and provide poor rankings, while too low a value may give you a better ranking, and little traffic to your website.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s best to start with middle of the road values.</p>
<p>Once you have decided on your keyword phrases, set a range reflecting an acceptable commercial value of your product or service, determine the competition level you will be comfortable with, and set a target traffic level.</p>
<p>Finally, check your keyword phrases validating your phrases have values falling within your defined component ranges.</p>
<p>You may need to repeat this analysis several times until you have several related keyword phrases meeting the criteria.</p>
<p>Now choose the primary and secondary phrases and begin writing your supporting content. You are now on your way to optimizing your web page for good search result rankings.</p>
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		<title>Do You Have An Organic Website?</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/151/do-you-have-an-organic-website/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/151/do-you-have-an-organic-website/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:21:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Keyword Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing and SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Targeted Traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=151</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More of us are becoming aware of the benefits of going Organic. Organic gardening, organic food, meats raised on organic feed and so on. When we consume organic foods, we get more value from the food in the way of &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/151/do-you-have-an-organic-website/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>More of us are becoming aware of the benefits of going Organic. Organic gardening, organic food, meats raised on organic feed and so on.</p>
<p>When we consume organic foods, we get more value from the food in the way of nutrients.</p>
<p>When it comes to your website, you should be thinking organic as well.</p>
<p>An organic website should be rich in information (nutrients) which is &#8220;food for thought&#8221;. As with organic food, nutrient rich or information rich websites provide more value to your visitor, which in turn may produce a higher conversion rate (sales) for your business.</p>
<p>When we introduce additives to our food, we actually reduce the nutrient value. It may look like we&#8217;re getting more, but in reality they&#8217;re only fillers that tend to leave us less satisfied. It won&#8217;t be long before we look for something else to give us what we&#8217;re looking for.</p>
<p>The same holds for websites. When sites are missing the good quality information we crave, we quickly go some place else to find what we need.</p>
<p>Another phrase associated with organic websites is Organic Marketing.</p>
<p>Orgainic websites, having an information rich presentation, providing good quality, authoritive food for thought, designed to attract your prospective customer, keeping them coming back for more, and also helps your ranking in the search engines without the need for key word programs.</p>
<p>Many of us have been approached by the major search engines to buy into the paid advertising key word programs. You&#8217;ve seen them, those first 3 or 4 paid advertiser links on the first page of the search engine results. They appear above the organic (free listing) search results.</p>
<p>These key word programs can be thought of additives when used with websites lacking in good quality information. Unlike adding seasoning to your food preparation, they typically result in acting like fillers specifically designed to drive traffic to your website. Conversion of that traffic into sales may be another thing all together.</p>
<p>Key word programs can end up costing you $100, $300, $700 or more per month, and fail to produce the desired conversion results you are hoping for.</p>
<p>How could this be?  My website gets lots of traffic, but we&#8217;re not getting sales!</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s true the key word programs can drive traffic to your website, if you&#8217;re serving junk food, folks are going elsewhere.</p>
<p>Questions you should ask yourself about the content you are serving include; Am I being clear about my product or service offerings?, Do I sound like the expert in my field?, Do I appear as mediocre or ordinary?, Does my competition do a better job at appearing credible?, and most importantly, Can my content be found on other websites (referred to as Duplicate Content)?</p>
<p>Nutrient rich content leads to a clear understanding about your product and service. When you are the authority, people will realize your credibility and be inclined to do business with you.</p>
<p>Avoid just copying and pasting content from other sites, even your suppliers, into your website. If you need help writing the content for your site, you should utilize the services of a professional copywriter. This small investment will boost your credibility and help toward increasing the conversion rate of your organic website.</p>
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		<title>How to Eliminate the About Us page on your Website</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/147/how-to-eliminate-the-about-us-page-on-your-website/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/147/how-to-eliminate-the-about-us-page-on-your-website/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:33:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Targeted Traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=147</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the years of building and analyzing websites, I&#8217;ve noticed, in a fair share of sites, more attention has been afforded to the About Us page than to most other pages on the website. It seems there must be a &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/147/how-to-eliminate-the-about-us-page-on-your-website/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Over the years of building and analyzing websites, I&#8217;ve noticed, in a fair share of sites, more attention has been afforded to the About Us page than to most other pages on the website.</p>
<p>It seems there must be a passage in one or more holy books that says, Thou Shalt Have an About Us Page.</p>
<p>While there may be legitimate uses for an about us page, more efficient ways to emphasize the &#8220;about us&#8221; information, lending credibility to your business can be utilized, while placing emphasis on important aspects about you and your company throughout your website.</p>
<p>Take for example the following common information given on a typical about us page:</p>
<p>&#8220;Our company is located in some town and state and has been providing widget sales and services since 2000. We have a combined experience of 90 years in the sales and service of widgets.&#8221;</p>
<p>This abreviated example will be sufficient to present the concept of eliminating the about us page and creating content and layout designed for your website visitor.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s start with &#8220;Our company is located in some town and state&#8221;. This information is best presented in the header and/or footer of each page, as part of your call to action such as your logo or contact phone number and/or email address, thus removed from the about us page.</p>
<p>Next we look at &#8220;&#8230; we have been providing widget sales and services since 2000&#8243;. This important information belongs on Each Page either in the header, footer, side bar or a sub header line. Repitition is key.</p>
<p>Now we come to the credibility of your company and services by defining the following: &#8220;We have a combined experience of 90 years in the sales and service of widgets&#8221;.</p>
<p>Credibility is important and this blanket statement can be expanded in such a way to bolster your company credibility while possibly adding a face to your business.</p>
<p>Assume your company has a sales and service division, each with one or more employees. An effective use of space can be achieved by placing a quote and photo of the individuals on the associated pages.</p>
<p>For example, let&#8217;s say you have a page defining your services. Placing a brief information panel introducing the manager of your service division, Bob Smith, with a statement such as, &#8220;Bob Smith, Manager of our Services department has 20 years maintaining and repairing major brand widgets. He oversees his team of experts to insure you are satisfied with your widget maintenance and repair&#8221;. Below this statement, you could also place a photo of Bob, putting a face on your service division.</p>
<p>Now, when your site visitors view your services, they are also able to see the credibility statement about Bob and your company (which may go unnoticed on an about us page). When the customer calls, you have placed a face and name to the voice on the phone, and you have effectively removed the need for this information on your about us page.</p>
<p>Applying this technique to any information you would place on your about us page, enhances your website with &#8220;Quality Informational Content&#8221;.</p>
<p>A little thought and preparation goes a long way toward providing an effective layout packed with information and credibility, without an About Us page.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Optimized Theming of Your Web Site</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/137/optimized-theming-of-your-web-site/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/137/optimized-theming-of-your-web-site/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:28:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Keyword Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Targeted Traffic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimized website design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[targeted keywords]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=137</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What does Optimized Theming mean? To optimize means, &#8220;to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible&#8221;, while theming is used to &#8220;create a unifying or dominant idea&#8221;. So Optimized Theming is to create an effective dominant idea. Now what &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/137/optimized-theming-of-your-web-site/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What does Optimized Theming mean?</p>
<p>To optimize means, &#8220;to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible&#8221;, while theming is used to &#8220;create a unifying or dominant idea&#8221;. So Optimized Theming is to create an effective dominant idea.</p>
<p>Now what does this have to do with websites?</p>
<p>In the world of Optimized Website Design, content is your weapon, it is what you use to identify and present a need and apply a solution to fill that need. This is a natural extension of your keyword research process as your optimized theme will surround and reinforce your best or primary targeted keyword phrase.</p>
<p>As an expert in your field, you would pick a specific topic to focus your content. For example, a doctor may pick a specific ailment for his dissertation, while an auto mechanic might pick a specific repair to write about.  To define this methodology a doctor writing about psoriasis would hesitate to include a lot of information about the heart and cardiovascular system, or the mechanic writing about tire repair, would be less likely to be talking about the proper operation of the cooling system.</p>
<p>Skin disease and heart disease would be two different dominant ideas, as would be tire repair and anti-freeze. Your primary keyword phrase is your dominant idea or theme.</p>
<p>Focusing on a dominant idea or theme, is the first step. Next comes the optimization process and is where you build supporting content to make your case. A good word count target would be in the area of 500 to 1000 words. As an expert in your field, it would be relatively easy to come up with 500 to 1000 words of content, and in reality, you may have much more.</p>
<p>For a web site, or web page, much more than 1000 words may be daunting, and cut down on the number of people that will actually get to the end.  This means editing out the superfluous content or embellishment  and stick to the facts as much as possible.</p>
<p>Your content should be focused on the dominant idea or theme of your targeted phrase. You can always create more pages later on, to either go into detail or write about related themes as they pertain to your dominant idea. Cirelle can help provide unique supporting content, optimized to your theme.</p>
<p>Why is this important?</p>
<p>This brings me to the search engines. Search engine algorithms (of which there are many) take into consideration foremost, quality focused content. This allows the algorithms to identify the focus of your web page, and consequently will provide your content to their users when a search is done for your keyword phrase.</p>
<p>Their (the search engines) business is to provide links to quality content based on the user&#8217;s search criteria. If they produce junk results or unrelated results, users will go somewhere else to get their information. Hence search engines will reward a web site with a top link for well optimized, themed content.</p>
<p>Remember, you are the expert, your content should reflect this. Being the expert you will find less (if any) need to copy and paste from the work of others and your content will be unique, in presenting an optimized themed web page.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>﻿Whoops! Are You A Search Engine Spammer?</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/133/%ef%bb%bfare-you-a-search-engine-spammer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/133/%ef%bb%bfare-you-a-search-engine-spammer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:24:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing and SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Competition]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=133</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In your efforts to improve your search engine ranking, a little bit of bad advice is all it takes to turn you into a Search Engine Spammer. Everyone wants to be on the search results first page, and some go &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/133/%ef%bb%bfare-you-a-search-engine-spammer/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In your efforts to improve your search engine ranking, a little bit of bad advice is all it takes to turn you into a Search Engine Spammer.</p>
<p>Everyone wants to be on the search results first page, and some go to great lengths to get there including the use of deception.</p>
<p>Purposely designing a web page to deliver different messages, one for the visitor and one for the search engines constitutes search engine spamming. This includes embedding text in the HTML code in an effort to hide text, creating invisible text such as very tiny text and or coloring the text to match the page background, keyword stuffing, HTML Comments, doorway pages and so on.</p>
<p>Search engines need text (usually 500 to 1000 words targeted to and supporting  your keywords works best) for inclusion into their index.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s say you have a home page which is composed of one or more images or a flash presentation, or your logo as part of a collage of images showing your product or service, but little actual text. Search engines may not properly index this type of page.</p>
<p>You might think having a bunch of text will spoil the look of your landing page, so you look for alternative ways to get your keywords on the page like, &#8220;I can use the image Alt tag for my text&#8221; or &#8220;I could make the text real small and the same color as the page background&#8221;.</p>
<p>First of all, the image Alt tag is designed to be used by accessibility software, for the visually impaired to explain what the image is about. This would be a quick sentence such as &#8220;Image of a red apple&#8221; or &#8220;Attractive bowl of fruit&#8221; for an image of an apple or bowl of fruit respectively.</p>
<p>Tasteful use of keywords in an Alt tag is acceptable in a properly themed web page. Stuffing this tag with 500 or so words or repetition of your keyword phrase, will likely be seen as a Spam attempt and result in a penalty.</p>
<p>Second, making the text real small or the same color as the background (to make it invisible), is one of the older tricks in the book. Google and others routinely penalize sites using this technique resulting in very poor rankings.</p>
<p>Being penalized for spamming is not the worst that can happen. Search engines have been known to outright ban domain names for routinely spamming.</p>
<p>One way to determine if you have been banned is to search for your domain name. If your domain name is not returned, you probably have been banned or never indexed.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been banned from a search engine, you have little recourse except to get a new domain name as your domain may never be indexed again. In some rare cases, Google has lifted a ban if the site owner proves (with proper documentation) the ban is unwarranted.</p>
<p>When designing your web pages, allow for the inclusion of properly themed text supporting your chosen keywords, be the authority on the subject, and make sure your content is unique.</p>
<p>Remember the mission of the search engines is to give &#8220;Their Users&#8221; the best experience possible with quality unique content. Ranking well is the reward you receive for providing quality, unique, properly optimized content.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Primary Search Results and SEO</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/113/primary-search-results-and-seo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/113/primary-search-results-and-seo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Keyword Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing and SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimized Website Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Competition]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=113</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What are &#8220;Primary Search Results&#8221;? Primary Search Results (PSR) are the subset of all results returned by a search for a given keyword phrase. When I do a search on Google (for anything) and Google reports, say, 100 million results, &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/113/primary-search-results-and-seo/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What are <strong>&#8220;Primary Search Results&#8221;</strong>?</p>
<p>Primary Search Results (PSR) are the subset of all results returned by a search for a given keyword phrase.</p>
<p>When I do a search on Google (for anything) and Google reports, say, 100 million results, what gets returned is more in the range of 500 to 600 results (give or take), as the actual results you see. You may see repeats beyond that.</p>
<p>I had a recent experience where I was trying to resolve a chirping sound coming from the serpentine (accessory) belt in my car. The chirp only happened when the car was cold and disappeared when it warmed up. Very annoying, so I was determined to find out if there was a solution on the web. My wife calls it the &#8220;Answer Box&#8221;.</p>
<p>In the process of searching for a remedy, I was willing to view hundreds of pages  of search engine results. The chirp was annoying!</p>
<p>After clicking the next page a couple of dozen of times (getting into  page 60 and 70),<span id="more-113"></span> I started coming up with the same links I had seen in the first few pages.</p>
<p>Getting bored with clicking &#8220;Next&#8221; I set my browser to give me 100 results per page (to reduce the mouse clicking and the maximum Google allows).</p>
<p>I did a Google search for &#8220;2000 lincoln ls v8 belt chirp&#8221;. Google reported 112,000 results.</p>
<p>So with my results set (in advance search) to 100 per page, I got an initial 6 pages of results.</p>
<p>I then clicked on page six, and low and behold, it showed &#8220;Page 5 of 399 results&#8221;.  But I clicked on page 6, so why did I get shown page 5? I expected page 6 of 112,000 results!</p>
<p>Apparently, out of 112,000 results, there were only 399 that made sense (at least to Google, after all they didn&#8217;t have a belt chirp in their car).</p>
<p>This made me think about all those pages indexed in the Google index, and although the number of pages can be impressive, I routinely got less than 1000  results out of millions of reported results in some cases.</p>
<p>So are there multiple result sets, primary and secondary and so on?</p>
<p>I figured I&#8217;m being shown links in the Primary Search Results. Those Google deemed as authoritative.</p>
<p>So what happens when you get indexed and you miss being listed in the Primary Search Result Set?</p>
<p>Not Found? Not Seen? Just Fabulous&#8230;</p>
<p>So this brings me to the topic of SEO and why it&#8217;s important.</p>
<p><a title="SEO - Website Marketing and Optimization" href="http://www.cirelle.com/website-marketing-optimization.php">Marketing and SEO</a> are not the panacea, but are the foundation of getting pages indexed in the PSR, and require a <em>just</em> effort in <a title="Keyword Research" href="http://www.cirelle.com/keyword-research.php">keyword research</a>.</p>
<p>Having an optimized website means you have done a thorough keyword research regiment to properly theme your web pages and not just put out junk. People know junk when they see it, and the search engines need to be given the components to index.</p>
<p>Providing authoritative content focused on your keyword phrases provides your visitors with valuable information and you become the primary source of information which is what the visitors and search engines like. When the search engines like you, they reward you with good rankings. Good rankings mean you have a better chance of being seen, and maybe someone will purchase from you and that&#8217;s a good thing.</p>
<p>Google suggests content needs to be written for the visitor not the search engine.</p>
<p>So you pick your topic, your primary keyword phrase, and begin to write.</p>
<p>Where keyword research can help, is in finding out what terms people are searching for, as they relate to your topic, keeping in mind, 1 &#8211; 2 word phrases tend to be informational keywords (think tire kickers), where longer phrases, 3 or more words (long tail keywords) tend to produce conversion or sales. More on this can be seen in the article <a title="Buy or Info Keywords, What's the Difference" href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/39/buy-or-info-keywords-whats-the-difference/">Buy or Info Keywords What&#8217;s the Difference</a>.</p>
<p>An analysis of content written by an expert in a particular field shows a natural flow in language with a number of supporting keywords and keyword phrases related to the topic of the article. The expert knows the related terms to use in support of the topic. Ensuring those terms are being searched is important.</p>
<p>The content should be original, staying away from the desire to copy and paste from an existing article. You certainly want to avoid being tagged as duplicate content and chance falling out of the Primary Search Results group.</p>
<p>A properly written article will develop a natural flow and have a better chance of being indexed with a higher ranking giving the content a better shot at being listed in the Primary Search Results.</p>
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		<title>Imagine There&#8217;s No Money, It Isn&#8217;t Hard To Do</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/89/imagine-theres-no-money-it-isnt-hard-to-do/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:40:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Commercial Value of Keywords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[analysis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bottom line]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversion rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword commercial value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword research]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=89</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[John Lennon wrote the song Imagine, where he suggested we imagine such things as, no heaven, no countries, no possessions.That was years ago. This is today: Imagine there&#8217;s no money It isn&#8217;t hard to do Lot&#8217;s of traffic daily But &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/89/imagine-theres-no-money-it-isnt-hard-to-do/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>John Lennon wrote the song Imagine, where he suggested we imagine such things as, no heaven, no countries, no possessions.That was years ago. This is today:</p>
<p>Imagine there&#8217;s no money<br />
It isn&#8217;t hard to do<br />
Lot&#8217;s of traffic daily<br />
But no conversions boo hoo&#8230;</p>
<p>Unless your website is a hobby, chances are you would like to use it as a venue to sell your product or service. The only way to do that is to have a decent conversion rate.</p>
<p>Conversion Rate: The ratio of visits to action where someone buys something from you, joins your program, etc&#8230;</p>
<p>It has been said a conversion rate could be in the order of 3% to 20% on average. What is usually omitted is the process to reach your targeted audience with the right message. <span id="more-89"></span></p>
<p>Where so many websites fail is in the process of reaching that targeted audience.  Most likely the site owners missed out on a proper keyword research program. I&#8217;ve said in the past, keyword analysis will reveal words and phrases with an acceptable level of traffic, what competition you face, and the commercial value of the keywords you have chosen.</p>
<p>Missing out on the commercial value metric of your keywords can lead you to choosing phrases, while driving traffic to your site, historically have little ability to make you money in conversion.</p>
<p>Overloading your content with Info Keywords instead of Buy Keywords is also easy to do. The difference between these keyword types is outlined in <a title="The difference between Buy and Info Keywords" href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/39/buy-or-info-keywords-whats-the-difference/">Buy or Info Keywords What&#8217;s the Difference</a>. What happens is you have visitors trying to educate themselves and more so than not, refine their searches and move on. If you&#8217;re optimization is missing the longer tail keywords, you may be missing out on a conversion.</p>
<p>Another concept which will be discussed in more detail in another post is that of Testing. Using the proper tools you can essentially test different versions of your content to determine which version leads to a higher conversion rate.</p>
<p>Typically called A/B testing and Multivariate testing, you can reduce the guesswork in your site design and increase your conversion rate and visitor experience.</p>
<p>A/B testing is typically testing different versions of entire pages and could be visualized by a different layout of your graphics, using different titles for your product lead in, and other major shifts. For example, you may have a product graphic at the top of your content in a panorama style, and text below on page A, while on page B you may have a similar graphic running down the left and all your text to the right. These are basic examples but should give you an idea of a simple content test.</p>
<p>Multivariate testing is more detailed in you are testing components within the target pages. You may be testing for different versions of your content text, are visitors clicking on the links you want them to, are they just leaving giving you a high bounce rate (where they come, and leave right away).</p>
<p>The testing software would determine when to display each version of your content then measure and report the differences to you. Having this data, you can make the decision as to which version of the pages you want to display to obtain a higher conversion rate. Proper testing of your content should put you on the path to higher conversion rates and add to your bottom line.</p>
<p>Now Imagine There&#8217;s Lots of Money! Be well.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>The Importance of Optimizing Website Content for the Visitor</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/98/the-importance-of-optimizing-website-content-for-the-visitor/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing and SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[expected keywords and buzzwords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jeremy burchard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[links related to content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimized website content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web search yoexpert com]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Guest Post: This article was written by Jeremy Burchard, an expert in the Web Search category at www.yoexpert.com Ever since Google became one of the most powerful companies in all of Internet commerce, websites and companies have been clamoring to &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/98/the-importance-of-optimizing-website-content-for-the-visitor/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Guest Post: This article was written by Jeremy Burchard, an expert<br />
in the <a title="Guest Article by Jeremy Burchard" href="http://web-search.yoexpert.com" target="_blank">Web Search</a> category at <a title="Guest Post Article from yoexpert.com" href="http://www.yoexpert.com" target="_blank">www.yoexpert.com</a></p>
<p>Ever since Google became one of the most powerful companies in all of Internet commerce, websites and companies have been clamoring to figure out how to make search engines work for them by optimizing website content. Think about it: the search function is the crux of the Internet; it&#8217;s the heart of the internet experience.</p>
<p>Remember some of the first-generation engines like Lycos and Ask Jeeves (now simply Ask.com in the U.S.)?  The nature of typing a few keywords into a box and having a search engine &#8220;go get it,&#8221; or asking a question and getting an answer, is what the information superhighway is all about. On the other side of the coin, being a content provider and optimizing website content for your visitors is one of the only ways to ensure that yours is the product Lycos is getting, or the answer Ask.com is giving.  <span id="more-98"></span></p>
<p><strong>Immediate Recognizability</strong></p>
<p>The most important thing content providers can do is to know exactly what they offer their visitors. If a visitor doesn&#8217;t know exactly what he or she can expect to find on a site within 5 seconds, the site has failed in the most fundamental way. If the core function of the website is to sell watches, don&#8217;t have a feature article on DVD players taking up valuable real estate. It&#8217;s not just a matter of attracting visitors once a site shows up in a search engine, but a matter of keeping them on the site.</p>
<p>The site title (what appears at the top of an internet browser) should contain every keyword the site simply can&#8217;t do without — &#8220;Discounted Designer Watches&#8221; — and nothing superfluous. The site description (what shows up in search engines) can be more specific, but must be completely on-point.</p>
<p><strong>Stay On Target With Keywords</strong></p>
<p>Optimizing website content means visitors have a reason to return to the site. It means keywords and buzzwords visitors expect are in every new piece of content. Does the site specialize in environmentally friendly appliances? You better bet the words &#8220;green&#8221; and &#8220;environmentally friendly&#8221; need to be in every new piece of content. It also means staying away from content that simply doesn&#8217;t fit.</p>
<p>Even something as simple as a personal blog usually starts to take shape after the writer&#8217;s personality, causing visitors to come to expect a certain level of craftsmanship in the writing or certain topics to be covered. Don&#8217;t add content simply because it&#8217;s interesting; add content because it&#8217;s pertinent. Look at sites like StumbleUpon: even though it&#8217;s a massive host and reference for content, StumbleUpon only shows users the content that best fits their interests.</p>
<p>Visitors want tailor-made experiences. Optimizing website content doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean catering to individuals like StumbleUpon does, but it does mean catering specifically to the topics directly related to the site&#8217;s industry.</p>
<p><strong>Beware The Links</strong></p>
<p>Links are great. Optimizing website content means having great links. But links can be tricky. Avoid placing links to things that don&#8217;t directly relate to the visitor&#8217;s experience on the site. This especially means embedded link-based advertising. It&#8217;s a complete content buzz-kill and always runs the risk of compromising the content integrity. Do make sure to link within your site as much as possible to make it easy for visitors to get around.</p>
<p>And always check to make sure none of the links are broken or faulty. Links are a two-way street. Being linked from another website can never hurt. Just remember that when it comes to optimizing website content for visitors, it&#8217;s about the quality of links, not the quantity.</p>
<p>This article was written by Jeremy Burchard, an expert<br />
in the <a title="Guest Article by Jeremy Buchard " href="http://web-search.yoexpert.com" target="_blank">Web Search</a> category at <a title="Guest Post Article from yoexpert.com" href="http://www.yoexpert.com" target="_blank">www.yoexpert.com</a></p>
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		<title>I Never Get Listed On The Search Engines&#8230; Why?</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/77/i-never-get-listed-on-the-search-engines/</link>
		<comments>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/77/i-never-get-listed-on-the-search-engines/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:37:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword analysis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[on-page optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine competition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine results]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[targeted traffic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[top spot on search engine results]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=77</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Moe was talking to Larry about his website but was dismayed&#8230; I don&#8217;t know Larry, I got the hosting, got a good price too, only $1 per year, went on-line and they let me build my own site with great &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/77/i-never-get-listed-on-the-search-engines/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moe was talking to Larry about his website but was dismayed&#8230; I don&#8217;t know Larry, I got the hosting, got a good price too, only $1 per year, went on-line and they let me build my own site with great picture at the top, I can change the colors and it even has a flash movie. They got this really cool feature where you can say click here to skip this intro, all kinds of add-ons for advertising. I can also put all kinds of ads on it so I can start making some real money. Larry asks, <em>&#8220;so what&#8217;s the problem Moe?&#8221;</em>. Moe responds, well Curly said he tried to find my site on Google, but my site didn&#8217;t come up.</p>
<p>You should treat your on-line business like any other business giving it the same care. Getting cheap, cutting corners shows in more ways than one, but the major downside is your potential customer may see this downfall and wonder&#8230; <em><span id="more-77"></span>why should I do business here?</em></p>
<p>Let&#8217;s assume Moe was able to hack his template and get it optimized with the right structure, all the keywords in the right places, was able to generate some pretty good content, and made some friendly URLs. So what could be the problem? In a perfect world this should do the trick, Right?</p>
<p>The problem is, Moe picked some highly competitive keywords. You can get some background in the article <a title="The absolute need for keyword research" href="http://www.cirelle.com/keyword-research.php">Keyword Research, You Ask Why?</a></p>
<p>As it turns out, Moe&#8217;s keywords were also targeted by major companies that were also well optimized, had thousands of pages indexed, well over 100,000 backlinks to their domain and pages, and a page rank of 6 and above. Not to mention they were in the top 20 slots in the result pages.</p>
<p>Poor Moe&#8217;s chances of ever seeing the first page of the search result pages was slim and none.</p>
<p>Like Moe, most folks see optimization as having some on-page optimization components like the Title Tag, fancy URLs, Meta Tags and so on. Remember you also need an AdWords program too&#8230; (Oh Boy&#8230;)</p>
<p>What rarely happens are some of the meaty things such as, keyword analysis, commercial value tests, and keyword competition to targeted phrase analysis, to name a few.</p>
<p>If Moe  had done a proper keyword research regiment, he would have seen the keywords he had chosen were highly competitive and would have probably made the decision to utilize a reasonable derivative.</p>
<p>The important key is to get seen, so you want to choose a keyword phrase that will allow you to be seen by more people, while still giving you a chance to become visible in the top results of the search result pages.</p>
<p>Rather than shoot for the moon, and miss your target, you should choose a target that will give you a leg up to the next level. Remember, it&#8217;s not about being the best, but it&#8217;s about being just a bit better than the next guy.</p>
<p>Once you have attained the desired position, built your backlinks, get your page rank higher, then you might want to go after the next low lying fruit on the tree.</p>
<p>Start by picking the fruit you can reach from the ground, then decide if you want to climb the tree to get some of those higher hanging morsels. You want to focus and target the top positions, get some visitors, then move on. Everybody starts somewhere, everybody starts sometime, it might as well be here and now!</p>
<p>So what has to happen?</p>
<p>Well, you need to start with your chosen keyword phrases, not many, just that 50 thousand foot level choice to start you on the quest. The next thing that happens, you need to find out what derivations of those keyword phrases apply. Once you&#8217;ve done that, you need to check what portion of those keywords actually has an acceptable level of traffic. It makes little sense to pick a phrase resulting in little or no traffic. Once you have this data under your belt, now check to see what the competition level is for those phrases and make your choices. Less is more here, because each phrase can be time consuming in building the off-site components to get your site ranked higher.</p>
<p><em><strong>This is the part of the optimization process, which is usually overlooked.</strong></em></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not downplaying on-site optimization, as &#8220;content is king&#8221; (circa 1997) and a good page structure is necessary, but you need to know the game you are playing and the lay of the land where you choose to play.</p>
<p>Moe figured he had to do something, so he took a good hard look at his site and product offerings and chose several 2 and 3 word high level keyword phrases. Next he had those phrases analyzed to find out if these phrases had any derivatives that also focused in on his products. After removing the derivatives that clearly missed his focus, he checked to see what kind of traffic those phrases were receiving, and what commercial value those phrases could offer.</p>
<p>After selecting some acceptable phrases, he checked to see if the competition for those phrases (sites having the top 10 positions for those phrases) was too daunting or maybe he had a chance to wiggle into any of those slots.</p>
<p>Having found a couple of phrases having an acceptable level of competition, he revisited his site and began to create some new keyword rich content focusing on his newly chosen phrases and restructured his on-line components to conform to these new phrases. You can see more information on this by reading <a title="Organic Marketing Strategy" href="http://www.cirelle.com/organic-marketing.php">Organic Website Marketing Strategy</a>.</p>
<p>So Moe made the first step to go after targets he could reach, and begin his road to success and treat his on-line venture with the respect it deserves.</p>
<p>If you need a consultation to see if you&#8217;re targeting the right keywords and avoid facing major competition, and get on the road to a top listing, call 603-425-2221 for a free consultation or click the link on the upper right and send us an email.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s time to be found and be seen!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>I&#8217;ll Take Any Traffic To My Site, or Should I?</title>
		<link>http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/69/ill-take-any-traffic-to-my-site-or-should-i/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:16:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>GregCirelle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Targeted Traffic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buy keywords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[info keywords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyword rich content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimized for your visitor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[targeted traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/?p=69</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You&#8217;re standing around at a gathering sipping on a cocktail when someone walks up and asks; &#8220;So&#8230; How&#8217;s Your Uniques?&#8221; Smiling you respond, they&#8217;re doing just fine, as a matter of fact, I just had them cleaned last week! I &#8230; <a href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/69/ill-take-any-traffic-to-my-site-or-should-i/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;re standing around at a gathering sipping on a cocktail when someone walks up and asks; <em>&#8220;So&#8230; How&#8217;s Your Uniques?&#8221;</em> Smiling you respond, they&#8217;re doing just fine, as a matter of fact, I just had them cleaned last week! I suppose I will get a few more wearings out of them when the weather gets warmer. Standing alone again, you continue to sip your cocktail.</p>
<p>Knowing some basics can help you understand the type of traffic you&#8217;re getting to your website, Random or Targeted.</p>
<p>While unique visitors represent new visitors, you also need to watch the return visits. Say you have 10 unique visitors to your site, and the total number of visits is 10, this looks like nobody is returning and you may consider <span id="more-69"></span>altering the content on your site to entice people to return to your site for additional information. This could be in the form of revising what you say to be more complete, adding more content to a lean content page, adding pages with detail reference to the topic being discussed on the page, and lastly, ensure the keywords you have chosen are actually targeted to what you are writing about.</p>
<p>It was mentioned in <a title="What is a Site Review - A Roadmap for Success" href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/47/what-is-a-site-review/">What is a Site Review?</a> your content may not be reflecting the keywords you have chosen, thus, you might be getting visitors expecting one thing and getting another. This will just drive up your bandwidth costs rather than turn in a positive conversion rate for your product or service.</p>
<p>Targeted Traffic is not born out of magic, but is a product of having the right keyword/content relationship.</p>
<p>When a searcher enters a keyword phrase, they are expecting a certain content relationship to those keywords when they click on the links presented by the search result pages.  Using targeted keywords has a bi-directional effect. 1. You are targeting the searcher anticipating they will  search for your keywords, and, 2. The keywords are targeted to your content closing the gap between the searcher and your content.</p>
<p>Getting your unique visitor count up is a process which includes having the right keywords for your intended audience, revealed by a proper keyword research analysis, also having keywords that will result in an acceptable level of traffic. Of course getting in the top 10 slots of a search result page is very important. Chances of getting the visitor to click to your site is shown on <a title="Acceptable Targeted Keyword Traffic - Website Marketing &amp; Optimization" href="http://www.cirelle.com/website-marketing-optimization.php">Website Marketing &amp; Optimization &#8211; Why You Need It!</a>, where the #1 slot has the potential of getting 42% of the clicks and just goes down from there.</p>
<p>Increasing your return visitor count is primarily the job of your content. Return visitors find value in what they have found, and may have seen additional content on your site to cause them to return again, or link to your site giving you valuable backlinks which will help your page ranking.</p>
<p>You might realize, the process of optimization goes beyond the search engine optimization model, and reaches out to the visitor. Having great content is what the human visitor is interested in, while having keyword rich content is the food for spiders and  becomes a  highly integrated environment.</p>
<p>Focusing on targeted traffic is a driver in your quest to increase the conversion rate and your bottom line on your website.</p>
<p>Offering up your website to just any traffic may or may not give you the desired results, where it is more useful to focus on visitors having a genuine interest in your offerings.  As you take another sip of your cocktail, create a mental view as to what your website is actually saying. A critical eye is necessary to get the feel and understanding of what you are presenting to website visitors.</p>
<p>Make a point to use a keyword extraction tool against your landing page to see what keywords are actually being projected (this is most likely what the search engine spiders are picking up). Are the keywords coming back the keywords you anticipated? If so, Great!  If not, you may need to re-evaluate your content to be more in line with the keywords you wish to target. This will inevitably lead to more targeted traffic to your content.</p>
<p>For more information on keywords, you may want to take a look at the article <a title="Understand which keywords lead to conversion and which fail to do so" href="http://www.cirelle.com/marketing-optimization/39/buy-or-info-keywords-whats-the-difference/">Buy or Info Keywords, What&#8217;s the Difference?</a> to get more of an understanding about your keyword choice.</p>
<p>You may also contact us for a free consultation with regard to services available to you.</p>
<p>So, here&#8217;s a toast, to more targeted traffic, a higher conversion rate and continued success!</p>
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