Robots Deliver

Robots Deliver

We’re going to start with the basics of how the search engines work, and a major component of this is a robot, or spider, which is software that gathers information about your site and brings it back to be analyzed by a powerful central “engine.” This activity is referred to as crawling or spidering. There are lots of different metaphors for how robots work, but we think ants make the best one. Think of a search engine robot as an explorer ant, leaving the colony with one thought on its mind: Find food. In this case, the “food” is HTML text, preferably lots of it, and to find it, the ant needs to travel along easy, obstacle-free paths: HTML links. Following these paths, the ant (search engine robot), with insect-like single-mindedness, carries the food (text) back to its colony and stores it in its anthill (search engine database). Thousands and thousands of the little guys are exploring and gathering simultaneously all over the Internet. If a path is absent or blocked, the ant gives up and goes somewhere else. If there’s no food, the ant brings nothing back.

So basically, when you think of a search engine, consider it a database that holds pieces of text that have been gathered from millions of sites all over the Web. What sets that engine in motion? A search. When a web surfer enters the term “grape bubble gum” into the search engine, all of the sites that might be relevant for that term are brought to the forefront. The search engine sifts through its database for sites containing terms like “grape growers,” “stock market bubble,” and “gum disease.” It uses a secret formula—a.k.a. a search ranking algorithm—to sort the results, and in a fraction of a second, a list of relevant sites, many containing the exact phrase “grape bubble gum,” (or with links from other sites containing this phrase) will be returned in the results page.

There are lots of things that factor into the way robot search engines determine the rank for their main search results. But just for a start, in order to be in the running for ranks, you need to provide HTML text to feed the search engines and HTML links as clear paths to the food. Keeping those robots well fed and happy is one of your biggest priorities.

Nonprofit

Nonprofit

Those of you in nonprofit organizations are working with a different sort of bottom line for your websites. Rather than following the corporate mantra of “money, money, and more money,” you fine people are out there trying to change the world, educate, and improve society! And as a thank-you from the world of web search, you have some huge advantages in SEO.

Advantage: Linkability The culture of the Web generally adores noncommercial content—something that your website should be chock-full of. And, let’s face it, giving you a link doesn’t cost a thing. Any webmaster or blogger who supports your cause or at least has no major problem with it—will see adding a link as a cheap and easy way to help out. You will want to adjust your SEO plan accordingly, giving extra effort to link building.

And what is even better than inbound links from other sites? How about some fabulous “site of the day” awards from major web presences like Yahoo! and USAToday.com? “Site of the day” editors are always on the lookout for worthy sites, and nonprofits are in a perfect position to tap into this source of visibility and traffic. It’s helpful—but not necessary—if you have something new on your site to show off. Be sure to include some time in Your SEO Plan for building that “site of the day” potential. Sure, it’s a little like winning the lottery of SEO, but for you, it’s worth a try. Your odds are a lot better than for-profit sites’ odds.

Advantage: Simple Website Structure And there’s more good news: Some of the characteristics that might, at first glance, seem like disadvantages for nonprofits are actually not so bad. Oftentimes, nonprofits are short on cash but have plenty of untrained personnel available. Since many SEO tasks don’t require a great deal of technical skill, using sharp-witted college students or interns might just be the SEO strategy that brings you to the top. Another “problem” that might not be as bad as you think: an old website. That’s right, your cruddy old 1999 website was probably built using no Flash, little JavaScript, and an absence of dynamic bells and whistles. Well, guess what? Those are just the things that can send search engine spiders packing anyway! A “classic” all-text site can be just the ticket for getting noticed by the search engines. Before you make any changes, make sure you aren't in an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” situation.

Advantage: Less PPC Competition Many nonprofits think that there’s no way that they can survive in the competitive world of paid listings. However, there are a few ways that you can, as a nonprofit, get your foot in the door. For one, it’s possible that the keywords that matter most to you are not the same words that commercial organizations are vying for. After all, nobody’s out there selling “AIDS in China.” Even better, both Google and Yahoo! offer free advertising programs for nonprofits. Be sure to check their websites for current programs and availability.

Challenge: Internal Issues Internal disorganization, an overworked and underpaid workforce, lack of funding, and lack of a clear bottom line could throw hurdles in the way of Your SEO Plan. If you are a small operation, you may not even have a marketing department to manage the website. And without a clearly measurable bottom line, it may be very hard for you to prove the value of your efforts. You will need to do some creative thinking to figure out a way to get that return on investment (ROI) measured. Is there a specific event that you can promote? A campaign or drive that can be earmarked as an SEO testing ground? With any luck, your SEO campaign will be funding itself after a few months of effort. You may be surprised to find that it becomes one of the most important outreach venues your organization will use.

One final word of encouragement: We asked SEO luminary Jill Whalen whether she thought do-it-yourselfers could do as good a job as professionals in SEO. Her response? “Absolutely!” You know your business—and all its nooks and crannies—better than anybody. After reading this chapter, you should have a long-view understanding of how you’ll need to approach SEO so that you can make the most of your advantages and minimize your challenges. In the next chapter, we’ll start talking details about the search engines. Get ready to be imbued with some Eternal Truths of SEO.

Which Pages Do I Most Want My Website Visitors to See?

Which Pages Do I Most Want My Website Visitors to See?

Now it’s time to start thinking about the top-priority pages for your SEO campaign. These are the pages you’ll optimize when you get to your daily tasks in Part III. These are the pages that you most want people to get to from the search engines, and for best results, they should contain the most compelling content and the most useful information. Since your visitors “land” on these pages from the search engines, we call them landing pages. The main functions of our landing pages are that they speak to your desired audience and contain a call to action for your desired conversion.

Often, your landing page and your conversion page will be the same. This is a great situation because your site visitor doesn’t have to navigate within your site to complete a conversion. Other times, your conversion page will not be an appropriate entry page because your visitor will need to review other information first and then make the decision to continue. After all, the Web is a highly nonlinear space, and your visitors are free to ramble around your site in all sorts of ways.

For the purposes of your SEO campaign, you need to ensure that for each type of conversion, there is at least one clear path between the search engine and the conversion outcome. We find it helpful to think backward: First consider where you want your visitor to end up, and then work backward to find a great page for them to enter your site.

What makes a good landing page? One with just the right information that your target audience is looking for. Vague enough for you? Don’t worry; we’ll walk you through the specifics of how to choose your landing pages and how to make sure the “right” information is on those pages. For now, we want you to begin thinking about what pages might work. If you don’t have any pages that fit the bill, don’t despair! Get some landing pages built if you can, or think about ways you can add compelling content to existing pages to turn them into excellent landing pages. And just a heads-up: Once you start your SEO campaign, all of your top-priority pages will probably need to be revised at least a little bit as part of the optimization process. Notice that the landing page ElderPets chose for this conversion is not the home page. Many site owners don’t think in terms of deeper pages and think that they just want their home page to be found on the search engines. But in truth, your home page is probably only good for achieving the most general of your goals. Your deeper pages are more likely to contain a wealth of specific information and specific calls to action that you’d be thrilled for a specific audience to find one click away from a search engine!