eTraffic Jams Blog

For Search Engine algorithms, there is no constant equation that will give identical results every time. For a nautical look at the types of variables SEO professionals have to deal with day after day, it is enlightening to consider the problem symbolically and see which variables come to the surface.

Let’s say it’s your job to get your passengers on a ship heading to a certain specific destination. You are responsible for predicting ship arrivals and departures and scheduling passengers for the cabins they desire.

A sea vessel is doing the ferrying for your passengers. This ship must take these passengers back and forth. You are depending on it. Your passengers are depending on YOU.

This ship travels all around the world, a vast ocean. (Let’s call it the WWW) It has its storms, hurricanes and tsunamis, but overall it’s pretty predictable. High tides and low tides, beach condominiums, populated islands, surfers; these things are symptoms of regularity.  The ocean is something people (a lot of people) can live by, on and around.

Ultimately, What is most concerning for you and your passengers is who or what is navigating the ship? (There is no one offering anyone traveler’s insurance here.)

Could this concern be the fathoms-deep algorithm? Probably. But in this story, it looks like an old mean seafaring captain maniacally rolling ball bearings between his fingers. This captain has a fairly regular schedule and he has accurate maps, a mariner’s compass and all that. How do you predict how this old captain will sail this ship? For this, you will probably want to look for clues before your passengers cross that ramp.

Take a look:

1) Which way are the ocean currents flowing? Are other boats following these currents?
2) You might want to examine the captain’s prior behavior. Does he have binges of weekend drunkenness? If so, are they predictable binges? Are there bouts of depression?
3) Does the captain generally make it to his destination? What percentage of the time?
4) Which way is the wind blowing?
5) Has the captain become the victim of mutiny? If so, how many times?
6) Is there a captain?
7) Are the rats leaving the ship? If so, is it clear why?

In this allegory, the captain is an algorithm; the ship is the search engine, and the ocean, our beloved web. The ship’s passengers are our SEO clients, expecting their SEO guide to get them top rankings. Search Engines shuttle websites and surfers all over the place, to their intended destinations or not. Your search engine may leave you in the middle of the Leeward Islands when you were looking for a Long-Island hotdog. Who knows?

Where does SEO fit into all this?

In examining SEO in relation to Search Engines and the WWW, look at our algorithmic captain a little closer. By looking at past behavior, bad behavior, predictable bad behavior and the behavior of others affected by his behavior, can we find some hint of predictability in the unpredictability? Is Chaos Theory afloat here? If this is the case, then the solution just might be as simple as watching those rats a little more closely. Because as everyone knows, when the rats leave the ship before its departing voyage, a sinking ship is in the future, and your passengers are going down with the ship.

Your client’s site is now ranking for some great keywords and is drawing a decent amount of traffic. You have ample traffic and your clients are fairly happy. Could you be missing anything? As a Search Engine Optimization Professional working on the prestigious “Little Red Wagon” account, you couldn’t be happier. You have hit keywords relating extremely well to the red wagon industry but is there something you’re missing?Are you missing the “where” in your wagon?

Have a look at the initial strategies regarding the Little Red Wagon Account:

1. It’s a Red Wagon
2. It’s the CLIENT’s red wagon
3. Who Uses Red Wagons
4  Types of Red Wagons
5. Different Red Wagon Uses
6. Product Benefits: It’s Red, The Wheels Stay On, etc.
7. What’s missing here?

Pitch to Local Traffic Using the SEO Geographic Strategy 

What’s missing is local traffic. SEO Professional Companies use local traffic to their advantage and enjoy the extra traffic (and conversions) this kind of marketing brings. However, it is amazing how many SEO companies miss this strategy completely. High local SE rankings are easier to obtain than broad search rankings. Even better, local searches are likely conversions.
 
Think in terms of where the product is available and add possible places where outlaying customers live. Optimize for:  provinces, states, counties, major cities, small cities, towns and half a-dot on local maps.

Geographic Targeting, The Hometown Advantage

The h1 tag is a great place to introduce local and regional names that will draw the additional traffic you want. You can also use Google regional ads (shown only to specific states, cities, or region of your choice.) Think also about Local Pay Per Click Campaigns. PPC can focus your ad marketing to a ditch along Main Street, if necessary. When you target local traffic, you give your client additional rankings for less-competitive city, county or state searches. This really is “The hometown advantage.”

Don’t target all areas at once. Let each page target no more than 3 or 4 local regions. If your client has distributors or representatives in different counties or cities, their individual pages are ideal for geographic optimization.  Be clear- don’t be overly repetitive with your geo- targeting text; and use that h1 to your advantage. Geo-searches are a goldmine…take the time to pan for local customers.

Websites exist to be seen. If a search engine caches your site, why put money into it? Why update your site? For that matter, why have a site? Your website can be so much more. The Search Engine Optimization industry is surging because being one of the top-ten websites on a Google, Yahoo or MSN search has its very real rewards. If you’re in business to make money, you won’t get there ranking in the 78th position. Utilizing SEO Professionals gets you the traffic you need to sell what you need to sell.

Question: I realize something needs to happen to make my website a moneymaker. I need to optimize but how can SEO companies tell how or if it’s working?

Answer: This is where web analytics comes in.

SEO’s use analytics to evaluate all data pertaining to activity on your site. In the next few days and weeks after your site has been initially optimized, specialized reports on visitor behavior are studied. These include: which pages your visitors use to enter your site; which pages are most often used as exit pages; how long your visitors spend on each page, and much, much, more. All traceable aspects of web user behavior are examined. This data gives your SEO Team information on which variables of your site are working and which are not. It’s an ongoing process and good SEO companies know what to look for and how to make it work. They know how to make your site reach your ranking goals. The closer your site is to the top of a search term result, the more visitors you’ll get.

Trends

As your site develops a customer history through ongoing website analysis, your SEO Company will begin to see important customer trends. This gives your SEO Company even more data that is used to regulate and optimize the flow of visitors to buy items or services on your site.

Hitting Your SEO Goal

As your site begins to hit its goal ranking, new directions and techniques can be added to the overall process. The goals are to: 1.) Insure a lasting result on your initial optimization campaign and 2.) To further increase your e-commerce gains by targeting other venues and niches that help you get the most from your website. Analytics are an important part of what an aggressive SEO Company needs to fight for your website rankings. The goal is to get your website working for you, not you working for it.