How to tell where you really rank for terms on Google

Recently, I’ve encountered this question when talking to prospective clients:

How do I really tell where I rank for terms on Google. When I do a Google search, we seem to be ranking okay for search engine terms.

It’s critical to understand that what you search for is personalized by Google based off of your location and search history. Given this, it’s important to use tools that separate this personalized search and give you more of a true representation of where you rank.

In the video below, I look at where Columbus Underground, a Columbus, Ohio online resource for events, news, restaurants and other things stands for various keywords. I use Firefox’s Rank Checker addon to view where they rank for various Columbus focused keyword phrases.

Google Adwords and SEO – The correlations that lead to success

I started learning/ doing SEO in 2007 while in graduate school. I immersed myself in the various concepts and saw how it effected traffic for various websites that I created and for clients. I started experimenting with Google Adwords in 2009 because I was curious. I had seen how Adwords campaigns had effected traffic for clients of the various ad agencies that I had worked for. I wanted to know more though. I started to read more about it and eventually signed up for the Google Engauge program.

Learning Adwords changed my SEO approach/ strategy

The philosophies that I learned by doing PPC impacted the way I approached SEO. In Adwords or PPC, it’s critical to drive people to relevant pages and have a call to action. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to in the past who’ve set up PPC campaigns that just drive people to their homepage.

You are paying per click and you don’t want to waste your money. Have the conversion (either via phone or online form) is critical to success. I applied this strategy to the way I set up SEO campaigns. So my SEO strategies/ approach can actually benefit your PPC campaign. I’m seeing this benefit with a client I’m currently working with. We were brought in for SEO, however, he asked me to review his PPC or Adwords structure. The first month SEO work that we did has helped his click through rate and conversion rate.

In summary, if you do SEO the right way, your Adwords could benefit in several ways. These ways include:

• Decreasing cost per click
• Increasing click through rate
• Increasing conversion rate
• Increasing ad position

As always, there are many things you can deduce from Analytics that will give you good feedback on your campaign. I’ll try to elaborate on both analytics in adwords and SEO and Adwords in future blog posts.

Viewing the history of the internet

I wanted to write a quick blog post about one of my favorite all time websites: http://www.archive.org.  It’s commonly referred to as the “Way Back Machine.”  What’s so interesting about this website?  You can view the history of any website out on the web all the way back to the late 90′s.  With some skillful work, you can find your old college website (someone was working the “cheese” factor).  I also love seeing the visual and structual evolution of websites from incredibly static pages in the late 90′s to the explosion of flash websites in the early 2000′s.  I’m already planning out a future college course entitled “the history of website design.”

What’s so significant about this other than nostalgia purposes?  You can use it to track not only your company history but also your competitors.   I often use it for a variety of purposes including reviewing:

• Where we started from in an SEO campaign.  You can see where they started from with meta data structure, page content and call to action
• How aggressively competitors make content changes to their site.  I will look at this when prospecting a client
• When the last time the site was redesigned (competitors and your own site)

I hope they incorporate the history of mobile websites.  In 10 years that will be significant.

I encourage you to check it out.  What have you used the site for?

You got Googled

By now you’ve probably Googled your name.  If you haven’t, you should.  Why?  Because other people are.  Who is Googling you?   It could be any of the following:

• Business colleagues
• Crazy ex’s
• Your clients
• Future employers
• People looking to network
• Recruiters
• Your homecoming date from freshman year (which could qualify as crazy ex too)

Some are more concerning than others.  Which is why you should Google yourself.

It’s incredibly important to see what shows up when you Google your name.  In some instances, things may show up that you don’t want.  A friend recently reached out to me with this situation.  There were a number of websites using public information to post not so flattering information about him.  Knowing that he would soon be searching for a job (and potential employers searching on his name and possibly city), here’s how I helped him:

I set out with the goal of saturating the first page of Google for his name.   I would use SEO to out-rank these websites.   It’s important to put both name and city into online sites/ profiles that you are creating.

How to use SEO to saturate Google for your name

1. Create profiles on linkedin.com, Google Plus and Twitter.  Fill in as much info as possible.  Make sure to add the city that you are currently living it to the text that you enter.
2. Go to WordPress.com and sign up for a account.  Make sure to incorporate your name into your username.  It will be included in the URL. An example would be johnrsammon.wordpress.com.  This is what they assign you by default.  Add a few pages of content and a picture or two.
3. Purchase a domain name ($12/per year) and some website hosting.  I recommend bluehost.com.  Often these sites will include a free domain name when you sign up for hosting (cost $100 per year).  They will allow you to set up WordPress ( a free website management system) in a few simple steps.  If you have never done it before, they have fantastic support.  Set up your website, add few pages of content and a picture and you’ll be good to go.  It’s key to buy a domain name with your name in it.

You can choose to do either step 2 or 3 or both.

I did steps 1 and 2 for my friend a few weeks ago.  His wordpress.com blog owns 5/10 of the front page listings on Google (10 total).  I would show you the screen shots but there’s some sensitivity about what has been posted about him.  So I’ll let you plug and play.

How to measure a successful SEO campaign

When meeting with a prospective client last week, I was asked this question:

How do you measure success in a SEO campaign?

It’s a great question. This particular client had been working with a SEO company on the West Coast.  It’s common practice to be shown or sent large extensive reports on all aspects of your website.  More information is great, however, most just want the figures that are making the most impact toward the goals of the SEO campaign (I treat every SEO engagement as a campaign – establishing a “before” snapshot and working to show improvement from that).

Whether you are currently working with a SEO company or are shopping for one, you should be shown these key metrics regularly:

1. Percentage change in overall traffic to your website ( Shown via Google Analytics)
2. Percentage change in traffic from search engines ( Shown via Google Analytics)
3. Change in keyword standings on Google. It’s good to know where you stand on Yahoo and Bing but Google controls the majority of the market share for search engines.  So I’d focus on Google.
4. Percentage change in goals or conversions (Showing Via Google Analytics).  This element is not set by default and you should request it from your SEO company.  Conversions can show anything you want them to.  It can represent someone filling out a contact form or a sale on your website

Most SEO professionals would agree with the top 3 items listed above.  Some would debate the fourth.  My take on this is that you are hiring me to get you more business.  Leads or sales equal business.  If you don’t factor this element into the equation then you are missing out.

It also helps me to see what keywords are driving leads so I can make adjustments to the overall strategy.