Search Engine Optimization

1. Determine who your customer is/will be (target audience):

Published January 3, 2010 | By Coburn Enterprises

Who will be coming to your site – people who you tell to go there (you will drive traffic to your website via other marketing channels such as a sales force or they are already clients and you want to enhance the services you offer them) or people that have a need for your product or service but don’t know you offer it?

If most clients will be coming to your site because of other marketing / advertising strategies what is the purpose of your site?
- To share supporting examples of your previous/current services or products such as a portfolio?
- To facilitate 24/7 communications – such as a customer relationship portal, appointment requests or to let people know your daily specials or current events?
Are you looking for new customers?
- How will they search for you if they don’t know your product or service exists?
  - Talk to your existing customers, friends, associates or even strangers and ask them “If you were looking to (buy, learn, hire someone to) [your service or product] what words would you use to look for it?
  - Develop as many words and short phrases as you can that people might use to find you – don’t stay with terms you or people in your industry use – think like someone who has never heard of your company, service or product.
What will your visitors expect when they get to your site?
- Are they highly technical looking to be impressed by your use of technology?
- Are they young, old, Male, Female, computer savvy or computer illiterate?
- Are they looking for a local solution – is your location important to them?
Will they want detailed information or easy access to basic information?
- Are they potential clients that need more information about you or your services to convince them that you are the right choice for the job such as references or testimonials?
- Are they looking for information such as hours and location only?
- What do they need to know about you or your company to decide to take action?
- Do they want to be able to complete transactions or submit information during non-standard business hours?

Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Step by Step Web Site Planning and SEO | Tagged Design vs. Function, Determining your target audience, How do customers find my product or service?, Step by Step Web Site Planning and SEO, Who are my customers?

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

Published December 22, 2009 | By Coburn Enterprises

You get emails about it, you read about it on chat boards and forums, you know it’s what makes your site “successful” but what does it really mean?

Search Engine Optimization is the art of taking your site’s content and making sure it mathematically reflects the value it offers to your target market.

You have a website, you want your website to be seen by as many people as possible. In order for your site to be found when someone searches for what you are promoting on your website the search engines (computers) have to believe that your site has the best answers to their request. Search engines are run by computers, therefore, they make determinations on black and white statistics. They don’t care how pretty your site is, they don’t even like “high tech”. What they care about is the math – what percentage of your site matches the search criteria and how many honestly related sites link back to you? This is often referred to as “keyword relevance”.

In summary, when writing content for your website think about your potential customers and how they might search for you if they didn’t know you existed. What problems do you solve and how would someone with those problems try to find you? Once you know this, you are ready to optimize your site. Remember, it’s not about keyword spamming – it’s about honestly providing the information that people that come to your site are hoping to find.

You can view this entire article on our website.

Posted in Design vs. Function, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Step by Step Web Site Planning and SEO, Understanding the Lingo | Tagged Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

What is SEM?

Published December 22, 2009 | By Coburn Enterprises

SEM is yet another acronym being tossed around the Internet by companies like Coburn Enterprises. What it stands for is Search Engine Marketing. So… what is Search Engine Marketing?

Our definition of SEM is the planned and effective use of all of the tools this incredible marketing machine we call “the web” to help your potential customers, clients, fans and followers find you among billions of websites, blogs, ads and articles they have to choose from.

By implementing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), appropriate link building, rich content and coordinating PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns (when it’s wise to do so) you can increase your exposure and therefore your results from your web presence.

Search Engine Marketing professionals spend their time keeping up with the latest trends in how search engines rank, rate and list websites and help you make the most effective use of the vast sea of potential choices out there based on your particular market and how they shop or search for the information or products you have to offer.

Learn about our SEM Services here: SiteBuilderNow SEO Dominance Packages

You may also want to see how others define Search Engine Marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing

Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Step by Step Web Site Planning and SEO, Understanding the Lingo | Tagged Search Engine Optimization, sem, SEO, What is SEM?