Search Engine Marketing - John Alexander Interviews SEO author Susan O'Neil about the early days.

Written by John Alexander


Continued from page 1

Susan O'Neil: "Because of my SEO skills and my marketing expertise, I and my staff have been able to help hundreds of small to large businesses succeed onrepparttar Internet. This remains exciting and gratifying. Our clients were also better able to ride outrepparttar 120359 dot.com bust because our approach to providing SEO services has been to focus onrepparttar 120360 long term "health" of a website, which means building quality content continuously. Robin in her teaching and, together, in our book - we've never strayed fromrepparttar 120361 truism that "content is king" and that continues to serve my clients well."

John Alexander: "Can you tell our readers about one of your earliest SEO success stories and what it felt likerepparttar 120362 first time you made a real difference to someone's business online?"

Susan O'Neil: "A longtime PR client of mine is a publisher of fine nonfiction for children. This company was early in recognizingrepparttar 120363 power ofrepparttar 120364 Internet and so invested in a delightful, informative website that also offered subscriptions to their magazines. However, after spendingrepparttar 120365 money to buildrepparttar 120366 website, they didn't get any visitors. I liken it to giving birth after a long labor to a beautiful new baby that no one comes to admire. Aware of their concerns, I starting tweaking tags, cleaning up code, and adding content and their site began to take off. That early first client has remained with my company all these years and has been generous in their recommending of us to others as they continue to grow their online business."

John Alexander: "What word of wisdom or advice do you have for any of our readers that might be considering building a new career in search engine marketing these days?"

Susan O'Neil: "I don't think you can be in marketing today without at least an understanding of search marketing concepts, even if you don't buildrepparttar 120367 code and writerepparttar 120368 content. As this "new" science of SEO has become not only universally accepted but consistently praised for its cost-effective strategies, there will continue to be opportunities for people who can apply consistent, aggressive, yet ethical strategies for growing online success, both in-house for e-commerce companies and with SEO/SEM agencies like mine. In fact, my agency is growing still and when I hire someone who may have a great marketing background but be new to SEO, I have them start their learning curve with one of Robin's courses because no one can lay outrepparttar 120369 ground work better."

John Alexander: "How nicely spoken, Susan."

Susan O'Neil: "The other word of advice I have is an old one: don't believe everything you read. SEO newsletters and forums are great starting points and can be entertaining, butrepparttar 120370 people withrepparttar 120371 best information don't go giving it away. Whatever you hear or read, never apply a strategy to a client's site without thoroughly testing it first extensively. We developed our own E- Commerce Lab for just this purpose."

John Alexander: "Finally in closing, I'll ask if you have any other favourite online resources you would care to mention forrepparttar 120372 benefit of our readers?

Susan O'Neil: "As my company has grown, my responsibilities have shifted from trying to discernrepparttar 120373 optimum number of words on a Google-friendly page orrepparttar 120374 best marketing spin in a title tag, to focusing onrepparttar 120375 bigger picture, so I'm not a good one to recommendrepparttar 120376 best SEO reading today. Instead, as I lead my team into our 7th year of business, I'm readingrepparttar 120377 Wall Street Journal, Forbes andrepparttar 120378 UK's Financial Times, always trying to look beyondrepparttar 120379 bend - to try to see where business in general is going andrepparttar 120380 Internet specifically. To keep our clients ahead of their competition, we need to keep ahead of ours.

John Alexander: "That is so very true. Well, I want to thank you again so much Susan O'Neil, for taking time today to share some of your rememberances ofrepparttar 120381 early days of search engine marketing and telling us how you first got in torepparttar 120382 business. It has been fascinating to speaking to you and I'll just take this opportunity wish yourepparttar 120383 very greatest of ongoing success inrepparttar 120384 future."

This interview has been brought to you courtesy of John Alexander, Co-director of Training and Education at Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) and Online Web Training(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com).

John Alexander is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops http://www.searchengineworkshops.com with Robin Nobles. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. John also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and he's a member of Wordtracker's official question support team.


20 Ideas for creating traffic rich, search engine friendly pages

Written by John Alexander


Continued from page 1

Okay, so what kind of information might a information rich page really contain? That will depend on what "your research" reveals of course, but here are about 20 rough ideas just to get you started thinking in this fashion.

20 Ideas for High Performance Information Rich pages:

Your high performance, information rich pages might be any ofrepparttar following (but not limited just to these either):

1. A Questions and Answers information rich FAQ page.

2. An introductory story related torepparttar 120358 appropriate Web site theme (something that is compelling or educational on topic).

3. Interesting and original statistics which you have discovered through your research, are in high demand by your audience.

4. An interesting interview with someone (make it exclusive and original). People love to read about other peoples experiences and or opinions and views.

5. It might be a page loaded with various product reviews with an emphasis on benefits of each in comparrison.

6. It could be a theme related feature article or story.

7. It could be a detailed tutorial loaded with valuable "How to" or "instructional" advice.

8. Your information page might even be a biography about someone's life that people are looking for detail on. Of course it should relate torepparttar 120359 topical interest of your site's theme.

Recent eg. Atrepparttar 120360 recent, sad passing of legendary screen icon Marlon Brando, just do a search for his bio and see all ofrepparttar 120361 movie or film related sites that are no doubt getting additional exposure from Marlon's fans who are looking to buy up some of his old classic films.

9. Your pages might something with a current events or newsworthy or hard news angle. Your audience is probably looking for interesting news if you take time to study what they are searching for.

10. Your information rich pages might want to contain detailed historical information that your audience is seeking.

11. There may be room forrepparttar 120362 use of information pages that use some humor or emotional content that is still of good value.

12. Would there be value to having a questionnaire which asks your audience a series of important questions. Remember that like real life, most Web based businesses are about building rapport and relationships.

13. You could build an index to a whole library of similarly themed topics and all though your articles would all be similar in theme, each individual information rich page would contain useful and diverse subject matter. Remember high value to your readers but all original (and no duplication in content).

14. What about an information rich page offering an entryway into a useful, interactive section like a message board perhaps detailing terms of use forrepparttar 120363 message board.

15. It might be a page containing an interesting advice column on your chosen theme. Just old fashioned "good reading" which offers your readers advice or solutions to their challenges.

16. Your information page might be a reference page loaded with interesting, inspirational or famous quotes quite popular with all types of personalities.

17. Your pages might contain a related territorial map (yes images can be used most effectively with text)

18. It might be a sales letter but rememberrepparttar 120364 emphasis is on quality content and originality. Things like detailed product reviews or content that emphasized some value added layout.

19. It could be a community related page with important localized community information. Tremendous value for Web sites that are looking for region specific traffic.

20. It could be any ofrepparttar 120365 above suggestions with a seasonal angle relating to Christmas, Halloween, Easter, or something else appropriate torepparttar 120366 Web content within your main theme.

One ofrepparttar 120367 best ways to come come up with original ideas is to think laterally about "your audiences needs" in comparison to how they are searching onrepparttar 120368 major search engines. For more insight on how to research your audience's realtime behaviours you may want to visit http://www.wordtracker-magic.com

Best Regards, John Alexander

John Alexander is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops http://www.searchengineworkshops.com with Robin Nobles. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. John also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and he's a member of Wordtracker's official question support team.


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