So, here is the new Free Long Tail Keyword Analysis and Research Tool from BusinessOnLine.  Let me know how you like it and also if any of you other Excel wizards want to add other cool features to it, let me know and I will post those updates for the community.

Bookmark to:

Related SEO Blog Post

• October 14, 2009 -- Catfish is Back! What’s new in SEO for 2010 (3)
• February 11, 2009 -- Online Marketing Summit (OMS) 2009 Conference Recap (1)
• April 4, 2008 -- 4 SEO Tips for Improving Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy (2)
• November 11, 2009 -- Pubcon Link: Attribution Analytics Data (Formerly View Through Data) Free Webinar (0)
• September 14, 2009 -- First Link Checker in Alpha Stage Tested by Initial SEOs from SES (2)

For my personally, the opportunity to perform and sing in my acoustic project for the first time ever in front of the 100+ people at the Thursday evening cocktail hour was amazing. I really enjoyed myself and so did my band. Thanks to everyone for all the kind words and wonderful feedback about the performance. That was our first show together as a band and we are looking forward to playing a lot more of them soon.

If you missed this year’s event, don’t forget that regionals are coming and definately make plans to be here next year. It really is one of the coolest conferences that you can attend. See ya soon!

Catfish

Bookmark to:

Related SEO Blog Post

• November 11, 2009 -- Free Long Tail Keyword Analysis, SEO Research and Measurement Tool from BusinessOnLine (6)
• January 6, 2009 -- A Preview of my 2009 Online Marketing Summit (OMS) Presentation on Long Tail SEO Strategies (1)
• August 6, 2008 -- Online Marketing Summit (OMS) – SEO and Social Media in Houston and San Jose (2)
• July 23, 2008 -- SEO Videos from OMS – Internal and External Link Building Strategies (7)
• July 9, 2008 -- More Videos from OMS – Duplicate Content Issues and the SEO Benefits of Authoritative Content (1)

If you are not familiar with Rand, he runs SEOmoz.com, is a very well respected speaker at a number of SEO conferences, and he has contributed a great deal to the SEO community. So it’s very exciting for me to have an opportunity to speak at the same conference as Rand and talk a little SEO. I know that the OMS community will be very impressed with the depth of knowledge and experience that Rand brings to the table. And he is a really nice guy.

I will also be trying to bring some new SEO ideas and tactics to the table for 2009. My presentation this year will be focused on targeting the long tail. If you’re not familiar with the concept of long tail SEO, here is a good reference for you. Essentially we are talking about putting yourself in a position to capture as many of the less competitive keyword phrases as you can, on an ongoing and consistent basis. During my presentation, we will be talking about some of the on page, off page, universal search and social media SEO tactics that will improve your ability to target relevant, long tail keywords.

Some of the SEO topics that we will touch on will include keyword research, page titles, content optimization, internal linking strategies, blogging tactics, other social media opportunities and using analytics to augment your campaign.

It makes a lot of sense for companies to focus on long tail SEO for 2009. Advancements in personalization and Geo targeting are making it less and less likely that any two users will see the same listings for the same search query. That’s not to say that rankings for competitive keywords won’t continue to be a focus of SEO. But rather, just like the stock market, you should be diversified and not put all your SEO eggs in one basket.

One last thing, if you haven’t already signed up for free to be part of the OMS community and checked out all the cool SEO and Internet marketing blog content, visit the OMS Blog and do it!

Original dog image is a modification of a preview image of a 3D dog model by Andrey Kravchenko on his gallery on TurboSquid™

Bookmark to:

Related SEO Blog Post

• February 11, 2009 -- Online Marketing Summit (OMS) 2009 Conference Recap (1)
• November 11, 2009 -- Free Long Tail Keyword Analysis, SEO Research and Measurement Tool from BusinessOnLine (6)
• October 14, 2009 -- Catfish is Back! What’s new in SEO for 2010 (3)
• March 3, 2009 -- Eliminate Potential Google Duplicate Content Penalty with SEO Tag "REL=Canonical" (5)
• February 13, 2009 -- Google Announces New SEO Tool to Stop Duplicate Content Problems! (4)

SEO Strategy Tip #1: Add Internal Links Based on Your Analytics and Long Tail Keywords

Too often in SEO we focus on the big words that we want and we forget the low hanging fruit that can taste the sweetest. By studying your analytics and getting your keyword referrals, you can usually find a number of long keyword phrases that are relevant to your business. Because these phrases are long, they are not that popular with searchers and therefore the competition to target these phrases is much less. So for example, if you sell dog food, you might find that you start getting hits for “discount dog food in san diego” because your business happens to be located there. So you go to Google and find that you are currently ranked #6 for the phrase and it gave you two visitors last month. Now because you are smart, you have set up your analytics to measure conversions (sales) based on keyword referrals. If you are not smart and haven’t done this yet, stop reading this post immediately and go fix that because it is a major problem with your business. Seriously.

(Back to the analogy) So looking at your conversion data you find that both clicks resulting from “discount dog food in san diego” converted into sales. So obviously it behooves you to rank #1 for that term. And the good news is that because that term is not that competitive, you can probably improve your rankings by adding a little bit of internal link text! Usually a few links for non competitive terms really makes a big difference in your ranking. So the first thing to do is to go to the page that is ranked for that phrase and make sure that the phrase appears at least once in the body of the main content. If it doesn’t, figure out a way to add it without detracting from the readability and professionalism of your content. Now, go to Google and use this command to search:

site:www.yourdomain.com “discount dog food in san diego” (or whatever your keyword is)

This search command will show you all the instances of the phrase that already exist on your site. Change those occurrences of the phrase to link text pointing back to the page that already ranks for the term. If you don’t have any results from the Google search, it’s time to evaluate what other pages on the site you could add the phrase to manually and then link it. This is a very effective technique if you do it CONSISTENTLY. So part of your overall strategy should be to have time every month when you do this.

PS. This also helps with site usability

SEO Strategy Tip #2: Produce Content Based on Keyword Research on an Ongoing Basis

The biggest problem I see with most SEO initiative is the lack of resources dedicated to producing content on a consistent basis. And more so, producing content that is keyword focused. Whether its Web site content, articles or blog entries, your Web site should be producing content that is relevant to your readers on an ongoing basis. And there is no better gauge of what is relevant to your readers than the keywords that they are using to get to your site. Additionally, internal site search analytics are essential to understanding what your audience is looking for, and perhaps having difficulty finding. Give your users what they want and you will be successful. Your SEO strategy must include producing content on a consistent basis that is driven by keyword research. If not, your falling behind your competition even as we speak (um, read..lol).

SEO Strategy Tip #3: Blog

The advantages of blogging from a branding, authority building, content producing and networking perspective are too numerous to mention in this short article. From an SEO point of view, one of the biggest advantages to blogging is the number of links that you can generate in a fairly short amount of time. And I don’t mean blog comment links (from do follow blogs) or profile links (make sure you customize your LinkedIn Anchor text to your Web site) although there is some merit in utilizing both of those in your overall link development strategy. But the primary advantage really in terms of linking is that bloggers link much more frequently than traditional Web masters. If for no other reason than they generally produce more content. But also the blogosphere has a little different culture than the World Wide Web in general and most bloggers are prone to linking within their content and their blog rolls when the content they are linking to justifies it.

Additionally, by promoting your blog in social media sites like Digg or Mixx, you can connect with like minded bloggers who are likely to link to your content (if it’s good enough). Having a blog allows you to participate on the Internet in a completely different way than having a Web site. And if you do it right (make a great resource), you will find that it becomes one of your best link development tools. And it can also become one of your most important content creation tools as well.

SEO Strategy Tip #4: Make the Most of Your Existing Links

Many times companies come to us and they already have thousands and thousands of links. Rather than go out and look for more, sometimes the best use of time is to optimize the ones they already have. One of the things I typically do is gather all the back links I can find for a Web site and then evaluate what opportunities might exist to augment the most important ones with keyword focused ALT text. Many times these are links that the company already controls because they own sister sites or have related divisions under a different business name. Sometimes because of the size of some of these companies, the Webmaster for one division or international section of a company won’t be in communication with another. And that’s a gap that we bridge. Sometimes it’s as easy as seeing which trade shows a company sponsors and asking those shows to add appropriate ALT text to an image link. Sometimes it’s sending an email to a Web master thanking them for the link and asking them to add a keyword or two to the existing anchor text if possible. The point is, there are usually a number of creative ways to take better advantage of links you already have. Part of your SEO strategy should be to evaluate those opportunities on a consistent basis and then take action.

I hope these 4 SEO strategy tips help you to not only improve your overall search engine optimization campaign, but inspire you to start thinking about your overall strategy and stick to it consistently. In SEO, slow and steady doesn’t always win the race, but it’s usually in the top 3

Bookmark to:

Related SEO Blog Post

• January 5, 2009 -- Proven Spam Free Blog Comment Link Building Strategy (13)
• December 12, 2008 -- 3 Top Ways Blogging Enhances Your SEO Campaign (0)
• March 5, 2008 -- 8 Rules of Directory Submissions for SEO and Link Building (5)
• December 5, 2007 -- Don’t Buy Paid Links for SEO (0)
• November 11, 2009 -- Free Long Tail Keyword Analysis, SEO Research and Measurement Tool from BusinessOnLine (6)