The purpose of internal SEO is to optimize your web pages for ranking well in organic SERP. However without performing additional external SEO, you should know that no matter how well you optimize your website internally, you will not rank in the first pages for highly competitive keywords. With internal SEO you will rank higher on less competitive terms searches compared with search results with no internal SEO at all.

Internal SEO requires modifications of your web pages, so you need to be familiar with the web development technologies used to develop your website or you can ask someone who knows how to do these modifications. In case your website is still in the development phase, make sure that the programmers team follows the search engine optimization rules presented.

Internal SEO focuses on the following areas of a website / webpage:

Web Page Content

Content is (still) king. Original, rich content is the search engines’ robots preferred “food”. It’s logical that if you want to rank high in SERP for specific keywords you need to have relevant content for those keywords. But forget about search engines robots! The main reason you should have interesting content is your visitors; the robots will not buy your products and read your articles and they will not link back to your website from other websites. Your visitors will do that! So, your SEO efforts regarding content should focus on:

• Page Titles – The title of a webpage should be relevant to page’s content. Don’t use the same title for all your website pages;
• META Tags – These are HTML tags used in “the past” to provide information about the web pages. Google and other search engines disregard them, but there are a few search engines that still use them in ranking the pages. And with search engines continuously changing their algorithms, you never know when they might become important again. The most important meta tags SEO wise are: name=”keywords” and name=”description”;
• Format Tags – The text format tags like (bold, italic, h1, h2, h3) are used for titles, sub-titles or to highlight a word or an idea. Search engines know this and add more weight to those words or phrases;
• ALT Tags for Images – For an image, the ALT tag represents a description of that image that will appear in case the image source is no longer available or the visitor is using a text-only web browser (i.e. Lynx). Provide a description for all the images on your web pages;
• Keywords Density – Write original content, but make sure you have a good keywords density. The recommended average keyword density is 3-5%. Remember to count singular and plural versions as the same word. Start by writing for your visitors and edit the text afterwards so that it has the right keywords density. If you can not manage to get your keywords in, then they might not be the right keywords for your web page;
• Links Neighborhood - Some search engine weight the text surrounding a link with greater importance so links inside the paragraphs are more relevant than, let’s say, links in the footer navigation of the page.

To be continued …

Initially it was supposed to be just one article about the 2008 SEO trends, but as I kept organizing the ideas and finding new information it turned out to be quite a large entry so I decided to split the article in two parts:

• part (I) – A Bird’s Eye View
• part (II) – Visitors and Search Engines.

In the first part we’ll talk about SEO as part of the bigger picture and in the second one we’ll look at visitors and search engine trends for 2008.

A Bird’s Eye View

The search engine optimization is a paid service offered by SEO professionals and just like any other product or service; it is influenced by the “health” of an economy. With U.S being the largest producer and consumer of online advertising and online transactions, the growth rate of the U.S. economy plays an important role in the overall demand for search engine optimization services.

In January 2008, U.S. unexpectedly lost jobs for the first time in more than four years, raising concerns that the US economy could tip into recession. Higher gasoline prices combined with the slumping housing market increase the odds that the economy will at least slow down. But, if the economy slows down, marketers are going to look even harder for better ROI. And when it’s done right, it’s hard to beat the ROI of SEO.

Also in the news: … e-commerce sales of goods and services will continue to grow, despite forecasted economic slowdowns. In United States for example, the rate of growth is between 15-20% per year which clearly suggest that the market is still far from maturity. Online advertising spending will increase as well. In a recent study, Barry Parr, lead analyst at JupiterResearch, reported that the local sector will experience the biggest growth, slightly outpacing total online ad spending. Local online advertising spending is expected to increase 82 percent in the next five years, Parr reported.

S.E.O. and Traditional Marketing

The goal of your search engine optimization efforts is to get you visibility and quality traffic but the overall objective is to increase sales, and I’m using sales here as a broad term for a product/service sale, a subscription, a quote or whatever your website has to offer. So, you need to convert part of that traffic into sales, and the conversion rates depend mainly on how clear your marketing message is. Of course it’s better to have 1,000 visitors and a 1% conversion rate than 10 visitors and a 20% conversion rate, but, if possible, why not have the 20% conversion rate for those one thousand visitors too?

To improve conversion rates, you will need first to define your market by selecting the proper keywords for searches, to get traffic, to analyze the behavior of your visitors by analyzing the traffic to see what type of visitors came to your website, from where and which pages were the most and the least successful. Based on this information you will know what needs (or needs not) to be changed or tweaked.

Does this sound like traditional marketing? You better believe it! Starting with 2008, SEO agencies will not be just search results promoters, they will have to be marketing experts, public relations experts, image managers, etc. SEO has started to fall in line with traditional marketing and public relations tactics. However, the main function of search engine optimization will remain the same: increase the client’s websites visibility in SERPs. Traditional marketing is changing, and the change will “affect” SEO as well. Organizations are becoming more customer-centric and marketing is no longer seen as the sole responsibility of the marketing department but rather as a way of thinking, as a way of doing business.

The integration of online and traditional marketing seems inevitable so the “bundle” SEO-marketing will be the wining card for 2008. Either the companies will look for SEO-marketing services from the current search engine optimization agencies or they will staff their own full-time SEOs to work with the existing marketing department. We expect the demand for SEO specialists to rise. The need for accurate ROI reports will also drive the need for accurate traffic analysis tools. Things like traffic funneling and visitors’ behavior will become important in the effort of increasing the conversion rates. But, more about visitors and how to increase traffic in the 2008 SEO Trends (II) – Visitors and Search Engines article.

When it comes to search engines and search engine optimization, most of the people refer to the search engines as”the big 3″, because the majority of the searches are done via the big three search engines: Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Although Google is #1 with a very comfortable lead in market share (it already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market), MSN and especially Yahoo! are still “players” in the market.

The Big 2?

Despite broader economic worries about an economic slowdown and a drop in online traffic, Microsoft (the owner of MSN) is attempting the biggest-ever technology takeover. Today (February 1, 2008), Microsoft Corp. has proposed Yahoo Inc. an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in an attempt to compete with Google in a market that may almost double to $80 billion by 2010. The offer includes a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s closing stock price on Thursday, January 31, 2008. This is not the first time Microsoft Corp. tries to takeover Yahoo! Inc.; one year ago, Microsoft’s offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel who just resigned as Yahoo!’s chairman.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO wrote:
“Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers …”

No matter how this goes, I’ll just stick a note on my monitor to make sure I will not forget …

Note to self:
Invent something that can be later sold for around 46 billion

Update February 2nd, 2008:

How is Yahoo! responding to the unsolicited bid? Here is a comment from the FAQ issued by Yahoo press:

The Yahoo! Board is undertaking a deliberate review process. They’re going to take time to thoroughly evaluate the proposal in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans. This will include evaluating all of the Company’s strategic alternatives – including maintaining Yahoo! as an independent company. That process will take some time, but the Board will ultimately pursue the option that it believes can best maximize value for our shareholders.

Update February 3rd, 2008:

What is Google’s position on the issue? Here is a comment from the official Google blog:

… Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation. … We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first — and should come first — as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.

Update February 9th, 2008:

Yahoo has rejected Microsoft’s $44.6 billion offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that:

… a Yahoo source says that the Board felt that Microsoft was trying to “steal” the company. The same source stated that Yahoo wouldn’t consider an offer below $40 per share which would cost Microsoft another $12 billion.

Update February 11th, 2008:

Microsoft responds to Yahoo:

It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. … The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

Update February 19th, 2008:

In an escalation of its fight for Yahoo, Microsoft will authorize a proxy fight at the Internet company this week, people briefed on the matter told DealBook. Unless Yahoo quickly reverses course and enters into talks, Microsoft would then seek to nominate a slate of directors to Yahoo’s board by March 13, the final deadline for nominations, and pursue a lengthy campaign to oust the board.

The move, expected to cost about $20 million to $30 million, was Microsoft’s alternative to raising its $44.6 billion bid and is seen as a less expensive way to put pressure on Yahoo’s board. Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s original offer as undervalued.

To be continued …

No matter if your website is an informational one or if it’s an online store to sell your products, you want people to come and visit it. Without visitors your information remains unknown and your products remain unsold. So, you need some sort of advertising in order to attract customers and visitors. A great deal of the web traffic you get is driven by the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN, because entering search queries in the search engines is a primary method of navigation for most of the Internet users. So it’s obvious that it is desired to have your website coming up in the search engine results pages (SERP).

With millions of websites out there, users usually check the first couple of results pages, so it’s important that your website is listed in those pages. You can do that by “buying” yourself a place in the sponsored links area or, showing up for free, through “organic” results. SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization is a collection of techniques and practices that will make your website show up in the first page(s) of organic SERP.

The objective of SEO

As in any other endeavor you need to have defined goals and objectives; because if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know you got there? The goal for SEO is to rank in the first page(s) of the SERP for specific keywords with the final objective to bring in web traffic. So, the first step in obtaining good rankings is keywords researc. Effective keyword research is at the core of your SEO efforts can mean the difference between your success and failure.

The SEO – Internet Marketing relationship

SEO is a part of your overall web marketing efforts. It is an efficient tool to get you quality traffic, but to convert that traffic into sales it depends on how clear your marketing message is (“sale” here is used as a broad term for a product sale, a subscription, a quote, etc). To improve conversion rates, first you must analyze the traffic you’re getting, to see what type of visitors come to your website, traffic sources and which pages are the most and the least successful. This way you will know what needs (or needs not) to be changed on the pages and how your visitors are entering and leaving your website.

Think of SEO as the goal and the Internet marketing as the objective. Goals are general directions that are not specific enough to be measured (i.e. get better ranking, get more web traffic, etc.) while objectives are specific and measurable. They are concise, you can measure them (i.e. get $10,000 in product sales, get at least 200 subscribers to your newsletter, etc.)

In conclusion, SEO is the goal through which you can reach your web marketing objectives.

Additional reading:

• Understanding SEO
• Internal SEO
• External SEO