What an easy way to build trust with complete strangers, eh?

You could certainly argue that the algorithms and search index bots created by the Googles of the world are in fact very similar to viruses: They travel the web from link to link gathering as much information as possible and transmit that information back to a private company that profits from it. Is this technically different from a virus that travels to your hard drive and transmits your personal information back to someone whose intent is to profit from it? The intent is the same but the word ‘personal’ is where the difference lies. When you get personal you break the law.

There is a lot of debate among online marketers about the tracking of individual behavior on the web. Behavioral targeting and retargeting use your surfing history to assemble a profile of what you’re interested in and then use that profile to serve up ads that they think you will be interested in. These ads appear in sites you are expected to surf to. For advertisers these ‘targeted by intent and relevance’ ads are far more valuable than taking a shotgun approach to a campaign. So is your privacy being invaded? Are they related to malicious viruses? Again, no, because they only know your IP address, not your identity.

This is where the line is drawn in the sand in online marketing. As long as they can’t identify us personally these techniques should be legal. To use personal information we must have opted-in or given permission for that use. As regulators look at the world of personalized marketing online this should be the standard benchmark for defining the difference between legitimate targeted marketing tactics and spammy illegal attempts to acquire personal information without permission.

Take this real-world scenario as an example:

Jody is a great friend with very expensive taste. She is searching Google this very minute, trying to find a fancy spa in the Rochester area because she knows it will make a perfect wedding shower gift for her friend, Salley.

Jody has searched the Web before, though, and she knows that if she simply types in the phrase, ‘Day Spa’, she won’t find what she is looking for. Instead, she types, ‘Day Spa Rochester’. “Oops, too many results from Minnesota!.” She forgot about that… that happens all the time. She refines her query to, ‘Day Spa Rochester NY’. She also needs a gift certificate, so she refines her search yet again.

If you happend to be the local business that was smart enough to optimize your landing page for the keywords: day – spa – rochester – ny – gift – certificate; you just made $215.00 (without even trying very hard) and can look forward to a lifetime of repeat business (in addition to future referrals to friends and family) from a very special customer.

Okay, enough story-telling…here’s the tip: Local search drives highly qualified and highly focused traffic right to your front door. You want some of that action, right? Simple. Just add your business address, phone number and zip code to the footer of every page on your site and you will dramatically increase your chances of winning these precious customers.

By the way…those longer, more targeted search phrases? This is referred to as ‘implied intent’. They are ready and willing to become customers.

Not only will you rank higher in the search engines for targeted local searches, but you will also look more credible and trustworthy in the eyes of the visitor. People tend to trust a company that is not afraid to put their contact information all over the place. A business that encourages customer contact and feedback just appears to be more honest, reliable and above-board.

People are skeptical when shopping online. Make it easy for them to trust you. Trust, (even if it is just ‘perceived’ or ‘emotional’ trust) is good for your brand, and is good for your bottom line. This one’s a no-brainer.

They had me at “Matt Cutts Balls”

www.rochester-seo.com/articles/page-title-optimization.html

…then you can bet that a search engine will be able to figure it out, too. Search engines are just dumb humans. Here is a tip: Write your file and directory names like you were organizing a book. For example, if you were writing a online book about insects (and spiders, in particular), a good, human readable URL might look like this:

www.InsectWorld.com/spiders/spiderfood.html

A URL that looks like this:

InsectWorld.com/page.asp?cat_id=23&page=15 is bad. Very bad. Crazy bad.

See where I’m going here? If you can read it, so can a search engine.

BTW, don’t over do it. (e.g. don’t make them too long). You should be able to tell a friend what the URL is (out loud, using your own voice) without sounding like a complete idiot.

SEO is simple. Just give people the information they are looking for (when they are looking for it), and the search engines will richly reward you with a top-ten listing that includes your site (preferably above-the-fold, and before your competitors’ listing).

Okay, it’s not that simple.

But it is important to understand that good SEO is not about “tricking” the search engines into listing your site without proper merit. There’s no black magic or secret voodoo involved here. Search engines are all about “relevancy”. That’s how they make money and that’s how they keep people coming back again and again to use their services (so that they can make more money, so more people will continue to use their services, so they can make more money, so…). Okay, you get the picture. Besides, search engine are changing their algorithms all the time. Algos (as they are called) are heavily guarded secrets. “Tricks” today, won’t work tomorrow (and worse, they could damage your current rankings and reputation). Don’t rely on short-term gains by trying to cheat the system. You will lose in the end. Google and their search engineers are smarter than you, way smarter. The easiest way to win, is to play by their rules…you  just have to know the rules in order to win, that’s all!

It’s not in the best interest of a search engine to be easily manipulated. If they deliver crappy results, a user will go somewhere else. Google, for example, has billions and billions of dollars at stake here. That’s why they are such a hard nut to crack (as far as being manipulated goes), and that is exactly why they are the world’s most popular search engine. There is a very good reason why Google stock is trading at $529.06 (as of 04/27/10). They simply deliver the best results (in both natural organic and paid PPC), so people keep coming back for more and more. Other search engines (and I won’t name any names), are more easily manipulated, and so people trust them less (and their stock is trading at $16-$30/share, for perspective).

It’s the search engine’s job to get “into the head” of the searcher in order to deliver the best and most relevant results, based on their query. And that’s your job, too. Start thinking about how your customers think. What kinds of questions can you answer for them? Which of their problems can you solve? Provide your real life customers with this information and the search engines spiders and BOTS will discover it. And once the BOTS discover that relevant content, the algorithm will start delivering those answers (e.g. your website pages) to them. Simple, right?

This article is #1 in a series about Search Engine Optimization. The next article will teach you about how search engines work. Special thanks to Katharine at Marketing by Kat for kicking my ass into blogging again.

As a business owner, you owe it to yourself to learn as much as you can about the search engine optimization process before you make the decision to hire an SEO firm or consultant. My best clients are the ones who enjoy learning and are constantly asking me questions about my posts as well as posts from other blogs they’ve read. I love talking about search engines and how they work, and I love educating my clients.

If you feel like your local firm isn’t giving you a straight answer to your educated inquiries, just shoot me the question here at Pixelpunk. I’ll tell you (and several thousand others) what the real deal is.