Here’s a scenario: You’re redesigning a site – maybe it’s yours or your client’s site – and you’re concerned about how the redesign is going to affect your current SEO state. The redesign is anticipated to launch about 6 months to a year. You decide that, to make things easier for your “redesign,” and for fear of becoming a victim of another Panda update, you hold off on all of your SEO optimization until the redesign is done. Which means no content updates and no on-page or off-page optimization, among other SEO campaigns you’re running on the site. And to make it fair in your mind, you plan on saving or cataloging your content so that you can maintain that “ranking content” when your site goes live. Sounds like a plan, right?

As the words of one of the greatest rappers of all time, LL Cool J, plainly put it: “I don’t think so.” And here are reasons why it’s a bad idea to postpone your SEO:

Content is STILL King

Your content still matters to your audience, and by that measure alone should be reasons why you cannot stop your SEO. You need to be able to continually revise your content to increase your exposure and engage/re-engage your audience into your site. If halting your SEO campaigns for a period of time is your choice of measure, you’re not updating your site with fresh, relevant and usable content for your audience. Think about the long-term snowball effect this has on your content production: stale content over a fixed long-term range can damage your content appeal to your users, which will force users to look elsewhere for what they need to find. When users look elsewhere for the content they need, search engines won’t see your site and your content as relevant and useful to the users looking for it. This will force your content to be perceived as little value by search engines, primarily Google, and thus your page ranks and perceived value will decline.

Metrics? We Don’t Need No Stinking Metrics?

That’s exactly what is going to happen when your SEO is postponed: your metrics will be shot. I can’t say for every site that your traffic, page views, conversions, etc. will fall dramatically, nor do I guarantee that at all. However, I do know that you will experience a drop or dip in some way, shape or form on your site. How dramatic of a drop will depend on how long the redesign will take, how big of a redesign your site will span, and the number of pages will be affected.

It should be noted that your metrics and analytic reports should be part of the equation when planning on redesigning while postponing your SEO. If metrics are not part of the marketing strategy behind this redesign, then I suggest educating your managers, directors, and/or executives on the potential issues that will show up on your reports. Make them aware of what will happen before and after the work stoppage and how much work it will take to get back into the search game.

Bye, Bye, Bye (Rankings)

Google has stated that they take into consideration user interaction and engagement towards your content in its algorithm to determine site rank, weight, and overall value. If your users don’t see your site to be relevant in the time that you do the redesign, search engines will take note of that and use it against you. By not changing and refreshing your content over that period of time, you’re providing your users with more useless, irrelevant information that, in this “give it to me now” day and age, will be seen as “so 10 minutes ago.” Not engaging your users with relevant, up-to-date information, you’re more than likely going to lose your rankings and your search exposure due to stale, unchanging and boring content.

Redesigns And SEO Can Co-Exist, But Only If Your Managers Know How

I know this for a fact that redesigns and SEO can work together and in unison. I have done it as a Senior SEO Specialist for a marketing agency, working with content developers, designers and developers, and IT to create redesigns, newer/fresher content, along with revamped on-page and off-page optimization. It’s not too difficult to do in most respects, but the knowledge and best practices of managing your redesign and SEO should be passed on from the top down. Think about it: If you’re an SEO expert in your company, and you’re told to stop your SEO campaigns/optimization because of a redesign, and the reasons given to you are a load of crap by industry standards, then it looks like the managers, directors, or C-level executives responsible do not know the massive implications of this tactic.

You’re Not Using Technical Assistance That Can Help Your SEO

Are your managers and directors not helping you argue and protect your SEO investments? Your managers are probably afraid that by doing the redesign, they’re going to screw up any optimization (and results from those optimization campaigns) already done throughout the site, such as keyword-rich URLs, title and description tags, landing pages, etc. If that’s the case, let your IT team help out with 301 and 302 redirects during and after the redesign. This will help your site get positioned to visibility while your managing the redesign and the work after that has transpired. Moreover, sitemap submissions conducted on a regular basis will keep spiders up-to-date on what’s hot and what’s not on your site, including relevant temporary or permanent redirects that can push your older contents aside for fresher meat.

Social Media Won’t Be Enough To Replace Your Search Position

If you think that pure social media alone will help you offset your SEO, think again. Do you really think that tweeting and posting content on your social platforms pointing to your outdated site is going to make your site have a stronger relevancy on your searches? Do you really expect to push old and stale content to your users who are looking to the here and now? Social media needs updated content just as much as SEO does, and the integration of two will create more firepower for your brand online. So why screw your SEO campaigns over?

You’re Screwing The SEO Work Previously Done To Get You Where You Are

By conducting SEO stoppage on your site, you’re basically screwing the work that was previously done to get where you are on a search visibility scale. If you’re the marketing genius who wanted to stop the site from being optimized while you’re redesigning, do you really think that picking it up again later on (whether it’s 6 months, 1 year or worse) will put you back in the map automatically?

If you’re the SEO person, content writer, or SEO team involved (or chosen to NOT be involved) in this predicament, are you already conducting a short-term and long-term strategy to help decrease the time that you’ll be gone from your user’s search? If not, I believe that you and/or your team should have a back-up plan, and plan it well.

You’re Screwing Your SEO Foundation, Then Starting From Scratch

SEO is the grounds that hold the foundation of your online marketing. Halting and restarting your SEO campaign is like taking out the foundation of your existing house, and then re-building the foundation under the weight of the existing house. It’s going to take a lot more effort from an SEO perspective to get back the ranking and relevancy you would lose if you were to continue to halt your campaigns. Imagine the amount of work that your content marketers, SEO specialists and other online marketers will have to do to ramp up back to the relevancy that you probably enjoy now. Now, imagine the time it will take for that work to actually produce fruit for your site.

My Conclusion

If it was up to me, I would not halt any SEO work during a redesign at all. Not now, and not ever. If you’re not too concerned about SEO like some companies I know of, then this is up to you to conduct and likely at your own risk. However, if you are concerned about your overall visibility and you’re conducting the halt anyway, then I suggest  conducting a vast project management and risk assessment before proceeding with your redesign project. Having a solid SEO strategy for your website is great for long-term benefits, but these long-term benefits depend on your short-term work. If your short-term work involves no SEO whatsoever, then your long-term SEO strategies are useless, like microphones given to Milli Vanilli.

Being in marketing, I know specifically first-hand that when a company goes under, or when it is trying to cut costs, the marketing department is “usually” (and I say this loosely) the first of several departments to go first. I understand some of the reasons why, and I know that some of those reasons that I have gathered from my former employers and managers are that companies need to keep the workers that do between 65-80% of the work for said companies to stay afloat. That I definitely understand and do know that work has to be done to be able to generate as much positive ROI as possible. I also don’t want to assume that ALL marketing employees will be let go during a company crisis. But let’s take this reason to a whole new level, shall we? Continue Reading »

I JUST had a conversation with a print marketing writer about her job and responsibilities, and of course, how she’s faring up with writing for content online.  She gave me the “what’s the difference” speech, so of course, I had to bust out my teacher hat and give her the scoop.  Of course there are differences in print and online content, and while there are many that can be considered, there are a few that I believe are very important to consider:

Continue Reading »

I was speaking to a SEO newbie recently on establishing a solid foundation on SEO/SEM, and included in this discussion was how to view search engines from a marketing perspective rather than a consumer perspective.  I do admit, he had some great questions to ask, and was very inquisitive on question upon question.  I enjoy those kinds of discussions, especially when it makes me sharpen my foundation as well.  With their permission, I am able to share a few keynotes on this discussion.

Continue Reading »

I’ve had many a conversation with other designers, online marketers, and other people in the marketing world, and so far the concensus is that print designers will never be able to do web design because they do not have the knowledge to design web sites.  Generally, those who focus on graphic design for print lack the foundation to know server-side/client-side development, online marketing techniques, functionality, and other online techniques for effective web design and online marketing.  Even some web designers are not effective in their designs because they lack the marketing skills to conduct online marketing.  Most designers that I know of know are well-versed in functionality and design, but lack call-to-action elements and response methods, metric analysis, SEO/SEM, and other marketing (guerilla and otherwise) to assume a well-designed, fully-marketable website for a company or firm.

Do you have any thoughts on this subject?  Please feel free to comment.  I would love to know your opinions!

I am sure that there are various ways of creating optimized content for site development, but I hardly think that a lot of them result in positive ROI given by the “click here” verbiage, lack of quality search terms, and untargeted search phrases that are predominant in most sites and advertisements I have seen.  Below you’ll find a method I use that really helped me in differentiating keyword weights and defining a targeted search engine marketing infrastructure.  I wrote a response to an SEO question in my LinkedIn account that is similar to what I am writing here, and basically outIines a more complete basic SEO guide.  I hope that this tutorial will help ease the content development process for you.

For the purpose of this tutorial, the business in question is an independent record label named Rawk Fist, and its summary is as follows:

1) Rawk Fist is a new record label with a new web site and a budding following.
2) Rawk Fist is looking into conducting mostly guerrilla marketing tactics and online marketing initiatives to offset their modest marketing budget.
3) Rawk Fist’s artist base and target market are mostly unsigned bands, musicians and artists that are predominantly online but also offline-based.

RESEARCH KEYWORDS AND KEY PHRASES

Google Keyword Tool and SEOBook Keyword Tool

1) Have a list of keywords to research. The first thing to do is to determine the best possible key phrases that will produce better ROI and search engine exposure for Rawk Fist.  I suggest writing down words and phrases that you want to include or want to research and keep notes on them.  Some of the notes I usually take down are the search volume data for each keyword and/or key phrase, the average volume, competitor use, and so forth.

2) Use Google’s Keyword tool or SEOBook’s Keyword tool. There are a few free tools that I like using to find key words and phrases that have great search engine weight:  Google Keyword Tool and SEOBook’s Keyword tool are 2 I will focus on for this tutorial.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Using Google’s Adwords Keyword tool, typing in “record label” will net these results [See images to the right].  I have recorded the metrics for both October and November. For both metrics, notice that the advertiser competition for this search term results in a very high amount for a broad generic “record label” term, generating over 90,000 search queries (more if plural), and averaging between 110,000 to 160,000 search queries throughout a 12-month period. That’s a lot for a monthly search query, especially if the goal is for Rawk Fist to reach the 1st page and/or top 3 search positions.

What this means is that there are WAY too many people searching for that “record label” phrase at any given month.  Moreover, it will take a lot of effort to even compete in generating a positive ranking for that phrase due to the high volume.  Generating positive ranking (or in other words, positive return on investment, or ROI) requires a lesser search volume and average search volume to: 1) increase chances of the company and search terms being searched, 2) increase chances of search terms being positioned and company being ranked, which leads to 3) an increase in branding power, search quality and integrity (how Google defines and values your company and your value as a search entity), deliverability, and prolonged search exposure that leads to direct (and indirect) business revenue growth.

3) Target your keywords. In order to gain better ranking positions in search engines, the search phrase “record label” needs to be more targeted. Targeting keywords and phrases results in a smaller, more refined search volume which gives your keywords a better search positioning. While it is ok to include the generic keywords to your site, it is more important to include targeted keywords and phrases, as these will be the driving force of your organic search results.  In this case, the phrases “independent record label,” “independent record labels,” “music record label” and “indie record label” are more likely to generate a more positive return because of the level of search frequency.  You will also note that the advertiser competition box for each keyword and phrase show different levels of advertiser activity.  The differences in levels will be need to be addressed when you’re trying to find keywords that fit for your company.  In this case, while the advertiser competition is high on some of Rawk Fist’s potential phrases, it shouldn’t be a deterrent to  choosing that keyword nonetheless.  Using it will help expand into other territories and give other businesses a run for their money.

The keywords and phrases to start off are as follows: record label (s), independent record label (s), music record label (s), and indie record label (s).

Outside of “record label” and “independent record label,” Rawk Fist wants to be more diverse in its genre and musical audience.  There will be a need for musical genres to be infused in the keywords and phrases for Rawk Fist.  Examples include “hip hop record label,” “rock record label,” “pop rock record label,” and “funk record label.”  Going back to the Google keyword tool, add the words “hip hop,” “funk,” “rap,” “rock,” and other genres you want to put in the mix and press enter to see the results.  To show you a more detailed example of a genre, let’s focus on the word “hip hop.”

Google Keyword Search

The phrase “hip hop record label” shows a high advertiser competition rate, with a search volume of 1300 search volume for the month of November and average search volume of 1000 for a 12-month period.  Its plural version (“hip hop record labels”) show double the monthly search volume and at least double the average search volume.  The results of both term’s search volume show a great starting point for building organic search engine credentials and integrity from the ground up.  Why?  Because there is enough search volume to warrant the work to conduct optimization without drowning in heavy search volume, and at the same time, having enough volume to climb up the search positioning and ranking with the keywords being searched on.

4) Expand on your targeted list. Now that we have established the keywords further, we can add hip hop record label (s) to the mix.  To research other genres, keep adding phrases and words on the Google keyword tool to find positive results in mid-size search volume and average search volume.  To include more targeted versions of these keywords, add other market audience parameters of choice, such as city, state, geographic location, more defined genres, etc.  Some examples can include: los angeles underground hip hop record label, seattle grunge rock record label, new york indie hip hop record label, etc.  Adding mixtures such as the examples I mentioned will create more refined and funneled search structures for your marketing initiatives.

That’s it for this tutorial.  Are you exhausted yet??  The next few tutorials will be built on this keyword tutorial, focusing on creating meta codes such as titles, keywords, and descriptions, naming convention infrastructures, and diving into more detail on content development, with examples of proper image optimization, in-text linkings and more!

Stay tuned!

Google recently launched its search engine starter guide within the past couple of weeks, and after reading it (and re-reading it), I was reminded of my earlier post on why some companies have difficulty getting ranked in search engines (see “Why Can’t I Get Ranked In Search Engines??“).  Reiterating and reconfirming what my colleague John Ellis had to say about his review, I was glad that they were able to provide a standard guide for basic SEO work.  Even if it’s just basic, it provides a refresher course for those that are in deep in the world of SEM, but at the same time makes for a great foundation for newbies.

For those new to the SEO/SEM world, PLEASE (I implore you!!!) to read this and apply it to your end of the industry.

2 things that I read that made me ponder a moment or two on how people do SEO: 1) how they come up with their search phrases and keywords, and 2) how they come up with the naming URL infrastructure of their site.  It really amazes me to see how many people want to rank at the top of search engines and use plain, non-targeted words or phrases that lack search weight and search frequency.  If you, for argument’s sake, run a restaurant and want your restaurant to rank on the first page of Google, you don’t want to just use the word “restaurant” to get search engine exposure.  That’s like using “person” as the search word for trying to look your name up on Google.  Try that sometime and see how the results fare on searching your name.

Next is dealing with the URL naming convention.  It’s usually developers that do not know anything about SEO/SEM, but I won’t hold it against them.  At my work, naming conventions are out of whack when it comes to optimization, because naming conventions weren’t a part of the whole online marketing infrastructure.  There needs to be a cohesive balance, foundation, and best practices in all aspects of site development, but it is not necessarily common for marketers to have all of those in tact.  Say, for another argument’s sake, you have a travel agency site and you want to build traffic for a special microsite or page on visiting Ireland.  The person who is developing your site ends up with the index page title of visitIRL.php, and each corresponding subpage on that particular visiting Ireland site is visitIRLpage1.php, visitIRLpage2.php, etc.  Will your subpage rank high on Google when a user is searching for the cost of visiting Ireland on your page and your page name is visitIRLpage[insert page number here].php?  Or do you think they will see your page higher on Google with the URL name of visiting-ireland-cost.php (or some other variation of that)?

I’m sure it may be easy for some, but for those who are still confused, do not fret.  My next blog is about creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to find quality keywords and phrases to generate more quality traffic for your site.

Stay tuned!