Using Keyword Clouds for SEO and User Insight

Using Keyword Clouds for SEO and for User Insight is a valuable tactic in the goal of high visibility in search results. First two definitions:

A Keyword Cloud or Tag Cloud is a visual representation of frequently used words on a website. Keywords having higher density are displayed in larger fonts, so the more frequently a word appears on your site, the larger it appears within the cloud. The following is an example of a keyword cloud that appears on the TrustTheVote.org. In this case, the tags link to a page of community postings that are tagged with the keyword.

Keyword Density is the percentage of occurrence of your keywords to the text in the rest of the website or web content. For example, let’s say your keyword occurs only once in a page of one thousand words, it has a lower keyword density than a keyword that occurs (say) four times in a page of similar length. It is very important for your main keywords to have correct density to rank well in the Search Engines. There are a number of free online tools that will generate an instantaneous keyword cloud that will visually represent the current keyword density on your site, such as: Metamend's Keyword Density Visualization tool.

Tag Cloud Widgets are available for wordpress and look to your CMS or web hosting service for the cloud tag widget and/or functionality.

Why Use a Tag Cloud? There are three reasons to incorporate a tag cloud:

1. For your users – Tag clouds highlight the most important or/and popular subjects dynamically, providing an easy-to-use, visual navigational element that is differentiated from other navigation schemes. This may help users more quickly find the page they are looking for.

2. For the KnowledgeBase/Support/Product Management teams – Tag clouds offer instant insight into user behavior at any given moment - through clouds that have been created from user-generated content; forums, blog comments, etc. This information can be used to optimize the site/product to best meet user needs. For example, what tone and terms are used to describe a certain product? Discovering the vernacular that surrounds a brand or product by observing tag clouds can certainly generate some insight on how an audience feels and thinks.

3. For SEO - Tag clouds are textual and keyword-rich. An increase in text-based content helps with visibility. And here are all of the top keywords in one place.

Best Practices for Displaying Tag Clouds:

1. Consider including a tag cloud within each category on the site; not just on the home page.

2. Be careful not to create more than one URL for each keyword/keyphrase. This will avoid duplicate content issues.

3. Ensure that the links from the cloud are absolute links.

4. If the links need to go through a redirect for, say, rewriting the URL to a friendly one, then make sure it is a 301 redirect so that the destination page will be indexed.

5. Use a sin­gle color for the tags in the cloud: this will allow vis­i­tors to see fine dis­tinc­tions in size dif­fer­ences.

6. Use a sin­gle sans serif font fam­ily: this will improve the over­all read­abil­ity of the ren­dered cloud.

7. Use con­sis­tent and pro­por­tional spac­ing to sep­a­rate the tags in the tag cloud. Pro­por­tional means that the spac­ing between tags varies based on their size; typ­i­cally more space is used for larger sizes.

8. Avoid sep­a­ra­tor char­ac­ters between tags: they can be con­fused for small tags.

9. Avoid using Flash to render the cloud as the font ren­der­ing in older browsers is not always good or con­sis­tent, and you want to ensure indexability by search and index­ing engines, both locally and publicly.

Do Searchers Still Start with Google?

In reading a report/analysis on the ecommerce market I read with interest the following statement:

Bazaar Times: Online Specialty Retailers Thrive. Deep selection, wide
variety, product information, interactive education and shopping
tools, as well as third party product reviews and recommendations will
continue to drive retail sales to online specialty retailers, in our
opinion. Companies such as Art.com, Blue Nile, eBags, Hayneedle, U.S.
Auto Parts, and Zappos are positioned well to thrive in this long-tail
environment.

Each of these sites has created a way for the engines to navigate the key content on the site even if the visitors navigate through the internal search. Some of these sites have extensive user generated content that is indexed and highly visible in 'real-time' and 'show options' search results. Each site is HUGE in terms of number of pages and all that are mentioned in the full report are old domains with good reputations.

My question is: do people still go to Google first to find the a good place to buy shoes or are they navigating directly to the long-tail sites? Are the e-commerce brand sites well enough known for people to go directly to them looking for a bargain or are the search engines still the originator of traffic? I believe that pure search drives most of the traffic into these sites. Pure search could result in any of the optimized elements of these sites being clicked on but the traffic still originates from search. Opinions?

eMarketer's Revised Online Ad Forecast for 2009

Factors Behind eMarketer's Revised Online Ad Forecast - eMarketer

Highlights from Report

Indications such as relatively strong Q3 results from Google suggest an increase in search spending. Even in down years, second-half growth is stronger. eMarketer predicts a smaller second-half 2009 decrease of 2.9%, which will mean a decline of 2.9% for the year. (Note that 52% of 2009 spending will occur in the second half of the year.)

Internet video advertising will be the main channel for these deep-pocketed companies to increase their digital brand marketing spends, said Mr. Hallerman. Search advertising, too, will draw more large-company spending as their agencies continue to weave online advertising into their cross-media campaigns.

The Synergy of Search and Social Media - eMarketer

eMarketer has produced a quick overview of some reports that are saying social media mentions/visibility/advertising increase search volume for the subject's brand. Any increase in search volume whether through the paid search ads or natural search visibility should increase sales or leads. I agree with the premise of the article.

Care must be taken so that people don't replace search engine advertising with social media efforts. The social media work, paid or not, increases the volume of searches. If your brand and/or product is not represented on search, then you have lost the benefit of the increased traffic.

Remember that search visibility includes not only the standard ads and your core website, but also the video, news, blogs, forums, etc, etc visibility.

The Synergy of Search and Social Media - eMarketer

10 Mind-blowing Microsites - Definition and Uses

Microsites let you take more risk? As corporate content continues to fragment more and more, is a microsite a way of controlling some of that fragmentation or does it just mess with the brand message? Different groups within a company will certainly give you different answers.

If you look at from the Search point of view: it gives you a targeted destination for converting keywords, it provides more content associated with your brand that you control, and the sites may get you another place on the coveted first page of results. On the down side: many developers of microsites do not design them in a search friendly way, they don't tend to be linked into the rest of the world, and rarely do they have enough text-based content. If I were developing a microsite and would like it to be visible in search results, I would make sure it was search friendly.

Imedia Connection recently posted a really good article by Fred Brown on the subject. Read the Article on Microsites.

Internet Statistics on China - lots of 'fun' users

China Internet Statistics 2009

View more documents from Rocky Fu.

East-West: An Instance of the Natural Search Difference

Those who are steeped in doing search marketing for clients or for your companies know that having appealing visibility in all aspects, all types, of search is key with increased quality traffic being the most common goal.

But we all suffer from the East-West Coast syndrome. This is really a short-hand way of describing the situation where people are looking at Google search results, from all different parts of the world and each with very different histories of searching, trying to see where their website is ranking. [Because I focus on B2B SEM it seems it is always Google.] No matter your opinion on using ranking as a measurement, clients search to see if SEO recommendations and tactics are being successful.

The first thing I do is try to find the time early to give a basic tutorial on blended search. The second thing I do is try to get them to 'sign out' of their Google accounts. By telling them about blended search I hope to show the vast number of elements that are now part of what needs to be optimized. By getting them to logout of their Google account I get a chance to explain the levels of personalization and localization associated with natural search results today.

Here is a great example of the difference in visible results from different coasts of the country.

We are working with a non-profit organization called the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. One of their key phrases is cancer research foundation. If I am logged in to Google then the results are totally useless since I have visited a ton of cancer research sites lately so nobody's results look like mine. If the client is logged in to Google they don't see their own company very often or highly ranked since they have searched for it and NOT clicked on the natural result so many times. If you see it and don't click on it then how else would the engines interpret that except in rearranging things so that you don't see what you don't click on.

So, nobody is logged in. But results still vary in the standard natural search results. West Coast search shows one unique item that changes the view completely - Local Business Results. With local business results being highly visible the instance of Damon Runyon's website result in the search results below the fold and slowing the traffic under that key phrase. East Coast search shows no Local Business Results. [See screenshots below.]

What can you conclude? Certainly one thing: Google knows the location of the searcher whether they are logged in or not. And probably that many people on the West Coast - specifically in the Bay Area - have been clicking on the local business results when they do the same or similar searches, thus reinforcing, in the mind of the algorithm, that displaying those results is a good idea. Maybe that we have a ton more cancer research organizations in the Bay Area than in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Remember that I am not advocating this as the only way to measure success but it is a way and needs to be interpreted in a realistic manner. Realistically very few search results are now the same.

What do you see when you search for cancer research foundation?

East Coast Results:

West Coast Results:


Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has a fabulous facebook group, linkedin group, twitter feed and does regular youtube submissions, all being optimized to help increase traffic to their website. A full case study on the SEO project will be published this year.

Why still use keyword meta tags?

Google has recently restated its position on Keyword Meta tags. They are very clearly saying that they don't use them. Ok, fine. But we still recommend them for all clients for all pages. Why? For the following reasons:

1. Google admits it may change their mind in the future. Per Matt Cutts:

Q: Does this mean that Google will always ignore the keywords meta tag?

A: It's possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it's unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy.

2. We don't know what algorithmic elements other engines are using;

3. We don't know what new search engines will use for optimization elements.

Additionally, my team at WebMama.com and I use the tags to help us and the client remember which keywords/phrases were mapped to which pages. It is a great tactic for helping content writers remember what keywords to use.

Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Dead? No!

A catchy title for sure. This was the beginning of a presentation I gave at the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver on whether search engine optimization plays a role now that the world is moving towards real-time search. I, of course, said YES, it isn't dead it has just gotten more complicated. Instead of optimizing just your website content, now you need to optimize every element that you post that represents your company. This includes twitter, slideshare, linkedin group messages, facebook (friendfeed), and in the management of all user-generated content.

This is the time that keyword analysis is critical. Those converting keywords need to be used in all of the postings. Those postings get visibility in search results - so why not under your keywords. Everypost company 'poster' needs to be taught that list of important terms and encouraged to use them often. Search Engine Marketing isn't dead, it is just expanding.

Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Dead? No!

View more presentations from WebMama.com Inc..

Search Uplifted by Banners

It is true - based on experience and a number of studies - I firmly believe that using the contextual banner networks in conjunction with search campaigns can increase the volume of searches. This is a highly desired outcome - and has been true for many years even though many of us old timer SEM people had a hard time coming to grips with the idea.

Banners increase visibility. They help you dominate the page. Domination leads to more people being familiar with your brands. Familiarity leads to curiosity or clear interest, thus more searches. Hopefully, therefore, more conversions.

Why not extend your Paid Search campaigns to Google's banner network - one of the largest in the world. It is all the same user interface - easy, easy, easy if you can pry the banners from the design team. Even with the belief that this is the way to go, it is still hard to integrate designed elements with search marketing campaigns due to company business structure and internal politics.

Let me know any stats or case studies you have that support this excellent marketing tactic.

icrossing study - Display Ads Boost Search Site Visits and Click-Throughs
Google White Paper - CPA Performance Trends in Google's Content Network
iprospect - Search Marketing and Online Display Advertising Integration Study
Comscore study - a little biased but interesting no the less - Publishers Hire ComScore To Kill Off The Click-Through