Briefs

SEO and SEM best practices

Interview with Nereus strategic partner Corrie Herman of Mad Fish SEO

Corrie Herman is the communications director and co-owner of Mad Fish SEO where she develops, manages and monitors all client campaigns. When Corrie started with Mad Fish in May 2007, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) were just getting their legs. More companies were realizing that there was value in strategically marketing to an online audience.

Like traditional marketing, the use of words plays a very powerful role in successful SEO campaigns. If you have any questions for Mad Fish, feel free to contact Corrie at www.madfishseo.com or follow her on Twitter: @corrieh.

N. Please provide a brief explanation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) from a Mad Fish SEO perspective.

CH. At Mad Fish SEO, we use the term SEO to describe campaigns and tactics used to make a site easily read and understood by the search engines. SEO tactics encompass both on-page factors (Web coding, content, design) and off-page factors (links to your Web site). SEM is used to describe purchased online advertising. Pay-per-click or PPC is the most commonly used SEM strategy for businesses.

N. How do you develop an organic SEO strategy?

CH. The best way to develop a strong organic SEO strategy is to think of it as a primary component of your overall marketing plan. When we evaluate a Web site's SEO needs, we look at a company's overall goals and its primary Web site goals. Then we look to see how to reach the right audience with the right information in the right way. It is not just about sprinkling content with keywords. You have to analyze how users interact with your site, what information they need that you can provide and find the right ways to bring the two together.

N. Are there any basic rules of thumb when approaching SEO?

CH. For one, always optimize for the user experience first, then optimize for the search engines. Our philosophy is that your Web site is first and foremost an extension of your office or brick-and-mortar store. You want users to feel the same way going to your Web site as they do coming to you.

Second, use your data. It's important to use Web analytics to help identify where traffic is coming from and how users are interacting with your Web site so that you can make adjustments or take advantage of trends right away. A good SEO strategy will always start with data analysis and will grow by watching and reacting to the changing data.

N. What should be avoided when implementing SEO strategies?

CH. Don't try to game the search engines. A SEO strategy should never appear deceptive. Anything from false company reviews in Google local listings to hiding content within your Web site are considered bad practices and can ultimately get your site filtered out of the search engines.

N. Are there differences between short-term and long-term SEM strategies?

CH. Because SEM is primarily paid advertising, it lends itself well to both short- and long-term online marketing strategies. A one to three month pay-per-click campaign used to send qualified traffic to a landing page designed to promote a short-term offer, event or product, would be a good use of SEM as a short-term strategy. It gets traffic quickly and the cost of that tactic ends the minute the campaign is stopped. E-commerce sites typically use SEM as a long-term strategy to maintain daily online sales.

N. What are key tips for leveraging SEM for a small company?

CH. A lot of small companies try using paid search to grow traffic to their Web site, especially if they are a new company looking to build their business quickly. The trick to leveraging SEM is being diligent.

Our PPC campaign managers follow a basic philosophy when managing campaigns: Plan, Do, Check, Act (repeat regularly):

  • Plan landing pages, ads and keywords based on the best data available.
  • Implement your plan.
  • Check and monitor your plan's performance daily using appropriate analytics.
  • Act on the data that you get back.

    - Create new ads and test the new ads against your existing ads.

    - Implement the positive data you've gathered from your landing page testing, and benchmark new combinations against old ones.

Once you complete the above items, repeat the cycle. Never set it and forget it.

N. What are key tips for leveraging SEO for a small company?

CH. For small companies, SEO is the most versatile way to grow traffic to a Web site. SEO tactics for small businesses can be tailored to meet a niche or scope very easily. When doing so, a few things must always be considered:

  • Always use the keyword research to make decisions on content strategies and target audiences.
  • Keep your eyes out for any ways to get a back link from a high quality Web site.
  • Your competitors are most likely already doing SEO, watch what they are doing, and do it better.

N. What are tips for honing in on a niche market

CH. For niche markets, you have to be willing to do what the data tells you rather than make decisions based on your gut instinct about what your target customers want.

That means understanding the keywords that a demographic is searching for and understanding the level of competition surrounding those keywords. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to aim for the low hanging fruit rather than expending money and energy vying for a popular search term.



N. Any final thoughts?

CH. In the world of SEO, there is no more "black box" and there's no one magic answer. Successful SEO campaigns require diligence, flexibility and constant creativity.

We often talk to business owners and marketing managers who have used SEO/SEM services with companies that did not live up to the expectations set, were unethical or who put rankings ahead of a company's reputation. If you are looking for help with SEO, avoid the following:

  • Anyone who guarantees a top 10 ranking (if they don't work for Google, they can't guarantee it).
  • Anyone who proposes purchasing text links as part of a strategy.
  • Anyone who asks you to implement incoherent content which is not easily understood by humans.
  • Anyone who offers to have writers post fake reviews for your company/product.