Universal Search is the “other” content that Google displays in the search results: Images, Video, Shopping results, News, Maps, and more. The prominence of universal search results means less space on the first page of Google results for your own website to appear. Your search engine optimisation strategy isn’t just about your optimising your website, you now need  tactics for getting your other content ranking well.

How do you optimise your own content for Universal Search?  I’ve produced some quick checklists for the main results types that I presented at the eChampions event about Universal Search.  I’ve summarised them here, and provided access to my slides:

Optimising Video for Search

• Use Original Text when describing your video – make it unique, and keyword rich
• Video Title (120 characters)
• Description (start with your URL) (1000 characters)
• Tags (120 characterse)
• Nothing new under the sun: Incoming links
• Community interaction: Views, Ratings, Comments
• Your own interaction on YouTube: contributions
• Views: embed on other keyword rich relevant pages
• Going viral: Name your channel something good (“How to..”

Optimising Your Products for Google Shopping

• Requires online sales
• Create a high quality data feed with complete set of item attributes
• Category
• Mandatory, Recommended & Optional attributes
• Tax and shipping
• Specific Image
• Manufacturers Part Number (MPN) or Universal Product Code (UPC) or equivalent
• Custom attributes (what people search for)

Optimising Your Google Local Listing:

• Verify listed in Google Local Business Centre
• Have a local address
• Choose appropriate categories for listing
• Include product/service in Company Name
• Get listed in the major local directories
• Create a complete listing
• Have a locally-optimised website
• Get customer reviews

Optimising your News

See my article on successful Online PR (PDF)

• Press release newswire services
• Keyword rich
• Headline
• Summary
• Headings
• Bold, italic
• Focus on keywords at the top of the release
• Keyword density
• Keyword rich links back to your site

Universal Search Optimisation
– Slideshare Slides

Choosing the right keywords is an essential part of your SEO strategy.  Once you know the killer keywords that your customers are using to search for your products you can build your search engine optimisation plan accordingly.

So, how do you go about finding those killer keywords?  Here are my tips:

Brainstorm keywords you think you should use

It’s an obvious, but important step.  What does your company do?  What do you sell?  Starting with a basic list of your products or services is an easy way to get some initial keyword ideas.  But once you’ve got the obvious keywords on paper dig deeper and add subcategories.

For example, you own a beauty salon and all you have on your keyword list is waxing, facials and massages.  That’s a great start but you can do better.  Don’t you actually offer eyebrow waxing , leg waxing and bikini line waxing (ouch!)?

With a little bit of thought you can probably come up with some two word keyphrases and you’re on your way to developing a good SEO strategy.

Keyword Research: The Secret Weapon of SEO

There’s a secret weapon used by Search Engine Optimisation experts the world over – Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  This will show you if your customers are using synonyms, misspellings, singular or plural versions of your keyword and more.  Let’s look at our beauty salon, who came up with the keywords “leg waxing”:

All basic variations to do with leg waxing that they might expect.  But further down you’ll see gems like:

and

…these could be smartly optimised articles “Does leg waxing hurt?  Not with Our Beauty Salon’s patented anti-ouch leg waxing formula…”  Or they might suggest new markets to target.  Who knew men long for silky smooth legs too?

Now this example may seem silly but it’s unexpected keyword results like this that might suggest new directions for your SEO campaign.

Long-tail keyphrases

Here’s another top tip for successful search engine optimisation.  Searchers who are looking to buy or book something will often use 3 or 4 keywords in their search engine query.    These are known as long-tail keyphrases and you want to find the ones that your customers are using.

If a potential customer for our beauty salon searches for leg waxing here’s what they’ll see:

Not very useful.  They are far more likely to get what they want if they search for “professional leg waxing Nottingham” or “mens leg waxing Nottingham”.  It is these keyword phrases that you need to identify and start using.

You’ll generally find that less people are searching for your long-tail keyphrases.  But the ones that do are more likely to become customers.  Especially if your website is well-optimised and full of useful content to help them buy your product or service.

So, to identify the killer keywords that will make your SEO strategy a runaway success, remember to:

• Brainstorm your keywords
• Research your keywords
• Think outside the box – never miss an SEO opportunity suggested by keyword research
• Start thinking like a customer and develop long-tail keyphrases.

Good luck!

+ + +

Katie Saxon

If Social Media is so important,  then why I am I recommending that your company ban Facebook?

Facebook now has 350 million active users around the globe – that’s an increase of 40% in just six months .  Of these users at least 175 million log on every single day, and they’re posting more content to the site than ever before.  So it may seem inevitable that your company will jump on the Facebook bandwagon and let your staff post away.

But is allowing access to Facebook really the best thing for your business?  Let’s look at the facts:

Facebook Wastes Staff Time

Statistics suggest that a large proportion of Internet use in the office is for personal business.  And – even more shocking – that two-thirds of traffic to porn sites happens during office hours.  I’m not suggesting that Facebook is a hotbed of pornographic activity, just that Facebook is not appropriate use of company time.

If your staff are updating their status, tagging themselves in photos and leaving posts on their friend’s’ walls they are wasting your time and your company’s money.  And, if you allow access to Facebook for business use how can you tell the difference between genuine business activity and time wasting?

Facebook Strains Your Internet Connection

Research shows that a massive 50MB of bandwidth a day could be wasted on non-work activities.  That means you’ll be paying significantly more than you need to for you internet connection.  And any business that you do conduct online will be slowed down by the loss of bandwidth.

Not only are you throwing money down the drain but you are putting more strain on your IT department by letting staff use Facebook.

Facebook Could Ruin Your Reputation

Your previously immaculate reputation could go down in flames very quickly indeed from just a few careless Facebook remarks.

Virgin Atlantic employees are calling their customers Chavs, and say the airplanes are full of cockroaches.

More than 8,000 Vodafone customers received an obsene tweet sent out by an employee based in local Stoke, and hundreds replied thus propogating the message over social space.  Vodafone has had to do some serious grovelling to get out of hot water.  And more importantly, they have had to suspend the employee.

If you allow your staff onto Facebook – and they can mix business and pleasure while they are there – it’s only a matter of time before the headlines read “Facebook Disaster for [insert your company name here]”.

Facebook Could Land You In Legal Hot Water

While the Vodafone case is a story of a stupid joke gone horribly wrong it does show how easy it is to mess up.  Your company has a responsibility to keep your client’s private data private, and all it takes is a slip of a click for someone to accidentally broadcast confidential information to the world.

Not only could this be potentially damaging to you, your client and your respective reputations, but it could also put you in hot water legally.
And that’s without considering the damage a disgruntled employee could do all with the help of Facebook.

Facebook Could Get You Sued

One of Facebook’s best features is how easy it is to share content with other users – but this content isn’t always be appropriate for the office.  And, if an employee is offended or intimidated by the content their colleague is sharing via Facebook, your company could be landed with a lawsuit.

The easiest way to avoid the potentially unlimited payouts from a discrimination claim?  Block employees access to Facebook and other similar file sharing services.

So when you consider the additional costs to your company and potential damage to your reputation, can you really afford not to ban Facebook?

+++

Katie Saxon

Welcome to Katie Saxon, who has joined Hallam as an SEO Executive. She’ll be part of the team writing blog postings, and this is her Social Media Checklist for New Employees.

Welcoming a new member of staff into your company? This is a good time to run through the essentials of a good social media presence.

Build a LinkedIn Profile

An absolute must – not only does it help your company by boosting your online presence, but also new employees can connect with your staff, partners and clients in a quick and easy way.

Remember to include a keyword rich link to your company.

If your newbie is at all shy or not good at remembering faces, this is an ideal way to introduce themselves while showing their credentials.

Take a look at my LinkedIn profile.

Get Blogging

Does your company have a blog?  (If not, why not? Blogging is an important SEO tool, ignore it at your peril.)  Ask your new member of staff if they would write a post for your blog.

The exact angle is up to you – they could write about their first day/week/month on the job.  Maybe you want them to give a beginners perspective on some of your expert knowledge.  It could be as simple as asking them to write a short piece introducing themselves.
Just go with whatever will work best for your company blog.

Start Tweeting

If you’re on twitter perhaps your newbie could write some twitter posts for you.  It’ll take them less time than writing a full blog post, so they might be happier with doing this.

Maybe you don’t want them to tweet on behalf of your company, but could they use twitter professionally?
If they have their own profile, which establishes them as an industry expert and employee of your company they can tweet about relevant content that interests them.  It helps you to build your company profile, without you necessarily needing to monitor what they say.

Follow @ksaxoninternet to see my latest tweets on Internet marketing

Sign up to Delicious

This is a really good way for any new member of staff to start knowledge sharing.  I’m always stumbling across interesting articles online that I want to share with my colleagues and connecting on Delicious is an easy way to do this.

If your staff already use Delicious then this is a great way of pointing your new employee towards the articles you want them to read. You can see what I’m reading on my Delicious profile.

Create a Google Profile

This is another useful way to build your company’s online presence.  And if you’ve got your staff tweeting, blogging, connecting on LinkedIn and bookmarking on Delicious their Google profile can direct you to all of their other social media profiles.  Take a look at Susan Hallam’s Google Profile.

There are of course lots and lots of other social media applications that your staff can use to enrich their experience of working for you – and to increase your web presence.  My checklist is just a starting point – you just have to decide which are most appropriate for your business.

Hope you find this useful, I’ll be writing again soon, Katie.

You may be fantastic at putting pen to paper, but when you’re writing for the web things are a little bit different.  There are some basic guidelines you should keep in mind when writing web (and search engine) friendly copy.

1. Remember to Use Headings

There are two reasons for doing this.  Headings break your text up so that it’s easy to read on screen.  And they’re great for search engines – which use headings to work out what your page is about.

2. Keep it Short

I don’t mean that you can’t write a long page for your website, Google actually tends to prefer longer pages.  But you need to think about keeping your sentences and paragraphs short.

Most people won’t read a paragraph that’s longer than 3 lines.  And using one sentence (or even one word) paragraphs can be a great way to hook your customers.

Go on…

3. Ask Questions

Another good way of engaging with your readers and holding their attention is to address your text directly at them.  And an easy way to do this is to ask your customers questions – don’t you agree?

4. You Don’t Have to be Grammatically Correct

I dnt fink u shud rite lik this, but the web is a more informal medium, so strict grammar rules don’t always apply.  Indeed, sometimes more grammatically correct content can sound forced, because online copy tends to be more conversational.

You wouldn’t normally write a sentence starting with the words “but” or “and”.  But sometimes this is appropriate to keeping your copy flowing naturally.  As a rule of thumb, if it sounds ok when you say it out loud then it will work on your website.

5. Emphasise the Right Words

Using bold text and italics is a really good way to add emphasis to certain words or phrases.  But you have to do this right.  Consider the difference between these two sentences:

“Please get the emphasis right when you are writing for the web”

And…

“Please get the emphasis right when you are writing for the web”

The first sentence probably sounds more natural to you – you can imagine me sitting here, exasperated, begging you to get your emphasis right.  But stop right there.

Search engines think that you will emphasise the most important words in your copy.  And so, they will use text in bold or italics to decide what your page is about.  The second version shows that this page is about writing for the web and that’s why I should use it.

Remember that humans as well as search engine spiders have to read your website.  If you emphasise too many words you’ll make your text hard to read – and you’ll probably confuse the search engines too.

6. Make a List

Lists and bullet points aren’t just a good way to make reading your website a nicer experience for your customer.  They can be a tool in your SEO arsenal.

People love numbered lists (6 Tips for Writing Well for the Web, The 5 Best Tricks for Keeping Fit, How to Write a CV in 3 Easy Steps).  So if you want to write articles that your customers will shout about – and link to – a numbered list might do the trick.

For more advice on optimising your website try our SEO training, which will cover copywriting perfect webpages.

I like to use Amazon as an example of best practice email marketing, but every so often even Mighty Amazon makes an Email Marketing Mistake:

I received this email message this morning from Amazon, offering me a Christmas deal in February:

How did this happen?

My email client software, Googlemail, does not display images until I ask it to, displaying the text only version first.

The graphic version should have looked like the image below.  Compare and contrast with the text version above:

The culprint for the Half Term offer is in the ALT text associated with the banner image containing the Software Half Terms Deals message. This text displays when images are turned off or are unavailable.

By right clicking on the banner imnage you can see the ALT text properties, and there is the Christmas Cracker:

I’ve had the pleasure of speaking at the SMX conference in the past, and am currently deciding whether to pitch a session again this year…

The SMX Advanced Conference takes place on 17 & 18 May in London, and it is designed exclusively for experienced Internet marketers.  No beginners stuff here, it’s all power SEO and search marketing content.

The speakers are world class, and  is always a worthwhile event.

And I’m very pleased to be able to offer you a 15% discount on the registration fee if you quote the code HALLAM010

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/london

The essential one day Hallam Search Engine Optimisation seminar focused on improving your rankings in the search engines, solving your SEO problems and answering your search marketing questions.

This independent, practical and highly enjoyable SEO Training course is a must for businesses owners and managers who want to get Found in Google.

This course has been designed for business owners and managers who need to understand what is involved in search engine optimisation.

Many attendees are senior managers who are working with an Internet marketing agency and want to get a better understanding of what they are getting for their money, and to be sure they are receiving a high quality service.

Or, you may want to be undertaking the SEO (search engine optimisation) yourself, and want to sharpen your skills to improve your rankings in the search engines.

You will learn how to:

• Diagnose your website problems
• Create an SEO plan of action for your website
• Use search engine optimisation tips and tricks to increase your rankings and traffic
• Understand why some sites rank so highly
• Measure your SEO success

Date

23rd February 2010

Times

09:00 – Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 16:30 Course
16:30 – 17:00 Informal Q&A

Location

Hallam Training Suite
2 King Street
Nottingham NG1 2AS

Fee

£395.00 + VAT
Includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, drinks and snacks.

Select the “Other Payment Options” if you would prefer to pay by cheque or pay by invoice.

Click here to book your place now via email

About this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Training Course

This course has been designed for business owners and managers who need to understand what is involved in search engine optimisation. You may be doing the SEO yourself, or you may be working with an agency and need to be sure you are getting value for money, and that they are delivering a high quality service for your business. We are assuming that you already have a website, or you may be planning a new website and that you understand the basics of how search engines work.

You will leave the day with a written plan of action detailing the specific steps you need to take to optimise your website.

Susan’s workshop materials are constantly updated as the industry shifts and changes, and this workshop will reflect the latest strategies to reflect the evolving search engine optimisation marketplace.

You will be provided with a comprehensive set of course notes, articles and reference guides. Following the course, you will have access to Hallam’s password protected online library of SEO support resources.

Seminar Programme

• Update: the lastest news in search on the Internet
• Principles of SEO: content, links and relevancy
• Jump starting poorly performing websites
• Producing keyword rich webpages
• How and when to use keyword analysis tools
• Copywriting perfect webpages
• Understanding Google Page Rank
• Innovative techniques for getting inbound links
• How to use Blogging as an SEO tool
• Your Google Toolbox: Webmaster Central, Local Search & More
• Google Analytics: What to measure, and how to interpret your web statistics
• Staying out of trouble with the search engines
• Researching your competitor’s SEO campaigns

The Trainer

Susan Hallam one of the UK’s leading Internet marketing trainers and consultants, with more than 20 years experience in the information industry.

She is a regular speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies, InternetWorld, and is a Qualified Google AdWords and Google Analytics consultant.