Search Engine Marketing Interview

This is a transcript from a recent interview Between the CEO of Codesource SEO and two major internet based businesses
The CEO of Penguin Web Host A Linux Hosting Firm and Mike Sernoff- editor and chief of hard to find seminars; a Marketing Seminar database.

Nick:
We are with the founder and CEO of codesource-seo.com, a Boca Raton based Search Engine Optimization firm.

Nick: Greg, how long have you been doing SEO?
Greg: I have been working in the web marketing field for over 6 years now.

Nick: Who are some of the notable clients you have worked for?
Greg: Military.com, SEO-Inc, And Resort / Hotel Chains throughout the country. Recently I have begun to develop my own firm, which includes codesource-seo.com, endurancehosting.com and a string of niche based web development companies.

Nick: How many pages have you had first page rankings for?
Greg: Over 40 successfully ranked sites, in a gamut of hard to achieve key terms. Included with this is a PDF of my most recent seo achievement… Endurancehosting.com is in high positions and quickly gaining for every key term that it is aiming for.

Nick: Any #1 ranking?
Greg: Page 1 pos.1 for the Term Army, Beating goarmy.com for 6 consecutive months. Currently I am working to achieve first place rankings in national travel terms, and a niche hosting term set.

Nick: Let’s get into some specifics. Let’s start with Google since they are the biggest and if you’re ranked high on Google you will probably get more traffic there, than from all the other sites combined.

Nick: A number of things contribute to what spot you show up in on the search engine. How much do you think page rank weighs, in the rank your site will get on Google?

Greg: As the search marketing strategies that must be used are constantly changing, that is a more loaded question then you realize. In the past couple of years, drastic changes to googles search spiders have changed my opinion on page rank, and its value on overall successful search marketing. , although it is still a semi-accurate judge of how google sees your site, It is less and less imperative that your site have a 6 or 7 PR in order to place well. For example endurancehosting.com , has only a page rank of 3, but is within the top 5 for most of its targeted keywords, and within the top 10 for every term aimed towards the video game web hosting industry.

Nick: So page rank goes from 0-10 and there are only a couple sites that have a 10, and one of them is Google.com. What is the highest you have had a page rank at?

Greg: I have had multiple 7 PR sites, and an 8PR site.

Nick: If I don't really have any links now, what is the best way to get some links?
Greg: Links are a simple process for someone who only runs one site, using targeted key words in google you can find tons of relevant link partners… but, a warning to you, watch for sites using keyword spamming techniques, or that has links in “bad neighborhoods” such as pharmacy, adult sites, or occasionally even travel sites (thin affiliate programs).

Nick: How do you find the best people to link exchange with?
Greg: Sites which are niche specific will always return the best results in your link exchange campaign.

Nick: Do you want to go go for the gold, like a page rank 7 or 8 site, or go with someone with just one or two Page Ranks higher than you?
Greg: Its always great to have high ranking links back to your site, but often difficult to find a page rank of 7 or 8 who will reciprocate, as more often you will find page rank 3 or 4 sites who will. Try not to exchange with sites below a 2 PR, as these sites are either not indexed at all (0PR or N/A) or are not doing well in their chosen niche (1pr)

Nick: Should you have the links on the home page, on a links page, or in another format?
Greg: Always have a link to your links page from your home page, but unless someone is paying you, don’t link back from your index directly. Also, how you structure your links pages is entirely up to how many links you have, or if you have linked with a broad category.

Here is an example: if you have 20 links all in the same category… use a single page. However, if you have links in multiple categories, create a directory style structure.

http://www.endurancehosting.com/links/links.html is a current well performing link directory which I have built recently, but is already gaining page rank.

Nick: How many links should you have?
Greg: You can have tons of links, honestly as many as you want, but no more then 40 per links page. Also, Try not to have multiple pages for the same link category ( hosting 1, 2,3,4,) as these pages may not get ranked well.

Nick: Ok, I've got my link exchange going, what else do I need to get listed high.

Title Tag – Your title tag is a requirement for google, yahoo, msn and others to properly display your site in the search engines, choose something which describes your site directly, without long sentence structure. Als , add a page related key word to each page of your site, which describes that internal page specifically.
Meta Tags – Your meta tags, Description, and Keywords must be chosen carefully, as to not overuse your terms.
Alt tags on images – Use image related terms, as well as a keyword (if the image is relevant to the word) on all of your sites images.
Keyword placement on the page (keyword prominence, keyword density) – Keyword prominence and density is crucial to keep your site holding a specific position in google, I recently removed one key term from an index page, and lost 2 positions for nearly 2 weeks.
Hyperlink text – Hyperlinked text within all of your content is suggested to show site relevant keyword links … for instance, using your chosen key term, bolded, and then a paragraph later, linked to a specific related page, will give your site not only deep relevance, but multiple ways for a keyword-hunting consumer to find your success event (purchase)
URL, keywords in both the domain, and directory or page name – I believe that although google and the other top search providers “accept” dynamic URLS Static (or even masked) URLS are better for your search results, buy adding a key term in your domain, followed by a site section name (services, clients, information) in the folder, and further to a specific key word for your page name (keyterm.html) will give the engines a nice clean path to follow your terms, and therefore understand and promote your site exceptionally well.
Bold, or large text, h1 or h2 tags – Bold is mentioned above, but I will go into a little more detail regarding h1 and h2 tags. Use H1 tags to describe your whole site, or that particular site segment, without using your key terms… still descriptive, but not exactly targeted. This surprisingly enough may be used to display your site if the page does not have title tags, or is deemed a better description of the page if the title is not well formed. H2 tags I believe should be used with specific page related key terms, and be treated as another bolded keyword on the page.
Number of words in the title tag, meta tags and body – Title tags, As I said earlier, It is pretty well proven that title tags are used first and foremost as the anchor text that google uses in its search results… do you want to use keywords… yes, but you also want to keep it short, simple, and to the point so that your potential buyer knows what your all about!, Your meta tags-
Description – I believe that if you look at google, yahoo, or the new msn/live PPC systems… they give you just enough space to describe your purpose. Use no more then a single sentence, or two catchy taglines to describe your site in Meta
Keywords – If your sites meta is filled with keywords, your ranking will become very sporadic, try to maintain 12-18 maximum keywords (15 or less is best)
What is the importance of customer tracking, analytics and data mining in online sales today? In TVs earlier days, Nielsen ratings created a way for them to decide what direction TV should go in. Analytics is taking that same basic Idea and revolutionizing it. You can (with all the proper tools, and settings) discover who your customer is , how they travel thru your site to ultimately reach your goal… their entire demographics set can be yours to dissect.
Why in the world would you tell everyone these things so openly ;)
Because the explanation of my services, and what I am capable of using these techniques, is how I treat all of my clients. I believe that with these simple yet powerful tools, they can leave the more difficult job of creating a full scale web marketing solution – that really hits home – to me J

Nick: Besides Google, what other search engines do you focus on? What are the main differences in their algorithms compared to Google?

Greg: I focus on the big 3, Google , Yahoo, and MSN/Live I don’t believe that one or the other should be left out because google has more market share, and my recent accomplishments show that I have already gained the top positions for all of my key terms in yahoo and msn/live.

I believe that the algorithms in each engine differ greatly in some aspects, but on the whole are looking for the same thing. clean quality websites with fresh content and a purpose.

Nick: What are a few things you want to avoid? What’s going to get you negative points as far as the search engine is concerned?
Greg: Duplicate pages of content, Overuse of your key words (don’t put your top term 500 times a page, don’t create a string of keywords at the bottom , side , or under the images of your page to mislead the engines, and DON’T link with farms or links that have nothing to do with your sites targeted niche).

Nick: Is there a lot of trial an error involved?I remember you were showing me a few resorts sites that you had listed #1 on Google, how many things did you have to change to work your way up? Did you mainly focus on page rank or did you also use some of the 10 things we talked about above?

Greg: There is only trial and error if you’re not sure where you are headed… if you setup a site schematic, stick to the plan, create a network of likeminded links… and do ALL of the 10 things listed above, you will guarantee yourself a top spot in google, yahoo and MSN. Then all you need is a network of paid banner locations, legitimate non spammy email campaigns, a PPC (pay per click) campaign, and some web2.0 advanced community marketing strategies to create a never-ending stream of viable income.

Nick: What is something cutting edge?
Greg: Community viral marketing is something that is very very hot right now, using sites like myspace, facebook and online gaming to create a word of mouth client base.

I know more then one client who has used my community marketing services that is producing an excellent monthly income as we speak

http://www.purple-haze-designs.com – this site produces very viable income with NO search marketing at all, purely word of mouth advertising and viral marketing.

http://www.techbros.net - a PR of 4, this site was started on search marketing , and then quickly turned into a viral marketing project nearly 6 months ago, and STILL holds top positions in google for Orlando Florida Tech Support and Central Florida Tech Support – both excellent terms.

This is only a small portion of the 2 hour long conversation between the senior search marketer at codesource seo and the individuals mentioned above, to hear the whole seminar in its entirety, go to : Marketing Mastermind