Last week, our president Jim Kreinbrink spoke about “Driving traffic to your blog with SEO techniques”. It was a technical presentation that gave away many great tidbits. The audience was full of experienced search marketers, and we hoped to show the value of collaboration and community.

The previous month, two excellent PPC case studies were presented by Alex Porter from Location 3 Media. Seeing the approaches Location 3 took for two PPC campaigns, and the results attained, were very exciting.

Search marketing is growing in a recession, so expect a packed house. The focus on measurable, trackable results makes it particularly appealing to agencies and advertisers alike. All this means that the Denver search marketing coomunity will continue to grow and flourish.

1. If developers do not implement Flash detection, pages can appear broken to visitors. They leave the site and/or do not convert to prospects/leads/sales.
2. If flash detection is done poorly, it can be seen as cloaking to search engines – which is returning different content for search engines than for visitors. This is rare, but possible.
3. If flash is the sole navigation for search engines and human visitors to follow, search engines cannot spider the site. This is the kiss of death you’ve probably heard about.

Some claim it isn’t a problem any more because:

Adobe has implemented better accessibility in the last few versions. But these links are still hard to follow and rarely rank well in the engines. MSN/LIVE has enough problems with HTML links, and probably will not find the content. Also, the landing page where visitors would land sometimes doesn’t show properly – it could be a part of a flash animation that doesn’t load, etc.

Google made a deal with flash that allows flash to be crawled more easily. But again, these links are still hard to follow and rarely rank well in the engines. Google seems to be looking more for hidden redirects and other black hat techniques with their Adobe API deal.

So what can you do to make sure your content is accessible to search engines, and seen as a valuable landing page for organic search visitors? Nothing beats good old fashioned HTML: Links that can be followed, and relevant keywords marking the content from it’s anchor text and title tags down to it’s keyword density.

The first session, Search Engine Optimization, addresses increasing web site rankings in Google, Yahoo, and more. SEO is all about helping the search engines see and understand the content of your website. Search engines want to be successful in directing visitors to quality destinations, and SEO should be focused on connecting with the right visitors.

The second session focuses on targeting potential customers with PPC (Pay Per Click) and other advertising. It’s possible to waste enormous amounts of money on Pay Per Click advertising networks like Google AdWords. this session will show how to make your limited budget work most efficiently for your business.

The third session builds on the first two. The Solution Clinic is for businesses that already have a web site and want real time evaluation and solutions for their site. Bring your hosting information, and we might just be able to fix it on the spot!

The training is sponsored by Southeast Business Retention, Expansion, and Attraction. For more information or to register, call the SEBREA office at 719-336-1523.

1. Keyword research  / suggestion services
Services like WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery and even Google Suggest can give a great idea of the traffic surrounding certain keywords, as well as the variations of keywords a site should target.

2. Analytics / Statistics
If you currently have analytics or web visitor statistics on your website, it is very helpful to look at how existing customers have found your site. If you haven’t loaded Google Analytics, it is quite easy – and free!

3. Brainstorming / Asking customers
Great keywords can also be found, just be interviewing current customers with “How did you find us?” Even a quick glance at your business plan can lead you to a few new ideas on how prospective customers might find you.

4. Competitors
Competitor websites can be a treasure trove of keywords. Scan their source code for a keywords metatag, if present. Also look at the keywords in their page titles by searching google for:
site:competitor.com

These four methods should lead you to plenty of keywords for your next campaign.

Track A:
Local Search Engine Marketing 101
Advanced Keyword Research

Track B:
Search Engine Optimization Workshop
How to Effectively Use Social Media for Search Marketing Campaigns

Of course, the track you should choose depends highly upon your own search marketing goals. I encourage any small business owners to attend SEO training whenever possible. When implemented correctly, Search Engine Optimization can yield a tremendous return on investment.

Are you optimizing your greatest asset? Website content is an essential part of online success. Help search engines see the relevance of your pages, articles, press releases and more. Learn to identify and target ranking opportunities with titles, headings, bolding and additional techniques. Also, HTML can be used to communicate the relevance of your website and content to search engines. You don’t need to be an HTML whiz either!

Once you have the content, you must know how to maximize your search engine exposure. Find out how aggressive search engine submission may harm your ability to get into Google’s listings, as well as modern strategies on how to get your site indexed safely. Learn how to take an active role in getting pages indexed quickly in the major search engines as you add new content. Finally, links from other websites are an important source of traffic and search rankings. Several kinds of links will be discussed and you are sure to leave with new link building ideas!

5 reasons to attend!

• Translate the user experience to all online channels
• Learn about online measurement and analytics tools
• Use your SEM campaign to maximize your ROI
• Ensure you are paying for profitable clicks
• Discover 26 sources of links to target

BONUS! Free manual with registration

Hope to see you there!

1. Who is my target audience?
Too many websites try to be all things to all people. Instead, think of your most important visitors and design according to their tastes. They may or may not appreciate animation. They may be on dialup connections or they may be visiting the site via a cell phone. Knowing your website’s target audience is vital to the project, even before a web site design has been created.

2. What do I want them to do?
If the purpose of your website is to get prospective customers to call, be sure your phone number is prominently displayed. A link to the “Contact Us” page should also be prominently displayed. Other websites may want to capture email addresses or newsletter signups. Ecommerce websites want to make a sale. Whatever the objective, make it as easy as possible for your customers.

3. How will they get to my site?
With competition among websites growing daily, it’s important to plan how you will increase the visibility of your website. Will you blog? Or participate in forums? You might even use pay-per-click advertising on Google AdWords. There are many ways to bring targeted visitors to your website, but they won’t come just because you’ve launched a new website design. Plan ahead, and watch your website bring you new business!

4. How can I measure the project’s success?
Many smaller website owners do not measure their web site metrics or statistics. Without an idea of traffic patterns and popular keywords, it is difficult to tell if a new web site design is effective. Are web site visitors converting to leads? Is the web site generating sales? Only by measuring can you know for sure.