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We recently had a unique and enlightening look at the power of the title tag for acquiring organic traffic (Case study below).  As a marketing agency focused on search and SEO, we are acutely aware of the need to ensure targeted keywords are used in a web page’s title tag.  The philosophy we preach to clients revolves around the dual audiences of SEO.

On the surface, SEO is about getting high rankings, so that in turn you get increased organic search traffic (unpaid traffic from the search engines).  However, an often overlooked element in this equation is that tags written for SEO purposes (title tags for instance), in select cases, are presented to users.  The most prominent example of this is on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), where a ranked web page’s title tag is presented to a user in a set of search results.  This is the blue text that a searcher actually clicks on to go to a particular site which is ranked in the SERP.

Traditionally, many SEOs have attempted to simply stuff this tag with unattractive copy primarily to influence search engines into interpreting a page’s content in a particular way.  On the other end of the spectrum, marketing personnel use this tag to present some sort of marketing message, with little regard for keyword usage or describing the page accurately.  To achieve maximum results, it is absolutely essential to find a compromise between the two, where search engines can determine the true relevance of a page AND the tag is appealing to human searchers to encourage clicks from SERPs.  Without getting the clicks, organic traffic will not increase.  Without giving search engines descriptive text in the title tag, a site will not rank high in SERPs to have a chance to get clicks.

To illustrate this point, a client recently accidently deleted part of the title tag on their most trafficked webpage.  The title tag was chopped to only have the website’s brand name, without any descriptive text.  For example, for illustration purposes only, let’s say the title tag of the highest trafficked page on sitelab.com had a title tag of  ”Interactive Marketing Agency – SiteLab”.  What happened is that the first part was chopped off, so that the title tag reads “- SiteLab”.  This title tag stayed like this for about 1 month.  The site maintained it’s #1 ranking in SERPs for its primary keyword throughout, but instead of having a descriptive title for people to click on in SERPs, the title tag simply had the name of the website, which didn’t relate directly the targeted keyword.  The following graph illustrates what happened to their organic search traffic to this page (keep in mind this page was still ranked #1 in SERPs, but it’s title tag accidently became much less descriptive and attractive to searchers, despite it’s #1 ranking).

Pageviews to Landing Page (In Organic Search Traffic Segment):

Keyword Traffic for Targeted Keyword (#1 Ranking maintained throughout, poor title tag while traffic depressed):

As can be seen from the above graph, organic search traffic returned immediately when the title tag was updated in Google’s index.  Long tail rankings also returned contributing some increased traffic, but the majority of this lift is due to capturing a greater percentage of organic search clicks for the top priority targeted keywords.  This demonstrates that not only is it essential to appeal to search engines with the title tag, but also to human searchers who have to decide between search listings based solely on one line of text (in the title tag).

Posted in Search Marketing Today, SiteLab Clients | No Comments »

From time to time it’s useful to update yourself on the search market share of the major search engines.  Especially with the recent release of a brand new search engine (Bing) this is an opportune time to check in.

Today comScore released December 2009 search engine rankings.  The rankings showed Google and Bing moving up slightly, while Yahoo, Ask and AOL lost some market share.  Considering the relatively slow shifting of market share for major search engines, Microsoft’s Bing search engine showed quite impressive performance.  This search engine still maintains a robust TV advertising campaign, which is certainly contributing to its fine performance.  Google’s performance is also quite impressive considering that its share of overall searches continues to grow despite its absolute dominance in market share, registering a share of 65.7%.  To continue growing that number over time demonstrates Google’s powerful on the search marketplace.

This also seems to suggest that Bing is not taking market share from Google, but rather from Yahoo, Ask and AOL.  Of course, with the upcoming merging of Yahoo and Bing search results, this is not where Bing would ideally like to make gains.

Another key finding of this report is the continuing growth of search.  Overall searches were up 2% at a time when search engines have increasingly been questioned about their overall position in the online marketplace.  Some have theorized that social media sites are becoming more of the de facto gateway for users to the internet (much like portal sites were before search engines), taking away this position from search engines.  However, to date, usage of both does not seem mutually exclusive.

Posted in Industry News, Search Marketing Today, SiteLab News & Events | No Comments »

This is Part II of a 2-part series.  In  PART I: The Disadvantages (and Advantages) of a CMS (Content Management System), we primarily discussed the advantages of a CMS.  In Part II, we will focus on the disadvantages.

As we discussed in Part I of this series, not many clients consider the possible disadvantages and compromises of using a CMS for site management, rather focusing on the main CMS benefit of ease of website updating.  However, we have found a number of instances where a CMS is not an ideal solution to content management.  That’s not to say that a complete lack of a CMS was the solution, but rather simply that a CMS is not a one-size-fits-all strategy.

Before discussing how to find that compromise, let’s cover the disadvantages of a CMS:

1. Design Consistency Can Mean Dulled Down Designs – By forcing all pages in a site, or just certain sections of a site, to share a common design, this naturally reduces the design’s richness and possibility of unique pages throughout the site.  This can lead bland designs because all pages across the site (or just a section) are virtually the exact same.
2. Initial Investment Higher – In order to build a CMS, which is customized for a particular site’s needs, work is required.  Not only does the CMS need to be built, requiring planning, execution and maintenance, but it also needs to have the original site content added, which can be a significant task when launching the site.  This commonly makes initial investment higher versus simply building custom pages (especially for smaller sites).
3. Customization Difficult – When unique web pages are required, it can be difficult to produce these unique pages without the assistance of a developer.
4. Increased Resources Required to Run a CMS – A CMS takes more computing power than a static webpage and thus requires higher hosting costs due to the need for more processing power.  This will typically require a higher level of support from the hosting company to ensure proper site management. Also, a CMS will require more maintenance than a static webpage as technologies change and software needs to be upgraded.
5. Search Engine Optimization More Difficult – Some CMS have modules to address SEO, but due to the consistency supplied by a CMS, it naturally makes SEO more difficult as you are forced to work within the confines of the system rather than uniquely writing important tags manually.

In order to find the right level of compromise for a website (assuming the website changes over time), and there always is some level of compromise in any proper solution, all of the above advantages and disadvantages need to be considered.  It’s important to identify #1, the budget for the site, not only considering initial investment, but also ongoing costs, #2, what are the capabilities of the person making update, and #3, the level of compromise you’re willing to make in regard to the website’s branding.

How important are aesthetics to the brand image of your website?  This will go a long way in determining how much of your site should be CMS-driven.  Frequently updating sections where unique designs aren’t necessarily important, such as News sections or Events sections, can typically be CMS-driven with little concern for the design limitations.  However, sometimes a CMS can hold you back by mandating a certain layout and format even if you want a different one.

How important is SEO to your site?  If you rely on search engines for the majority of your traffic, you better be sure that it is addressed in your CMS.

It’s important to realize that there really is not one answer.  The goals of any website can be accomplished in any number of ways, but what’s important is that before you pick a path you have considered the potential compromises you’ve made that you could encounter down the road.  While CMS are great for certain functions, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Posted in Industry News, Search Marketing Today, Web 2.0 | 3 Comments »

According to About.com, the definition of a Content Management System, or CMS, is; “A tool for managing content, usually on a Web site, that separates the design, interactivity, and content from one another to make it easier for content authors to provide content.”  The advantages of having a CMS for managing a website have been well documented, as demonstrated by this definition, with the main benefit of allowing content producers the ability to add website content without the prerequisite technical expertise of web programming.  The disadvantages of a CMS, on the other hand, have not been as well chronicled.  Before covering the compromises of a CMS, let’s take a quick look at the advantages.

The advantages of a CMS include the following:

1. Ease of Adding Website Content – Depending on how well it’s built, a CMS has the undeniable advantage of allowing non-technical users the ability to add website content themselves.
2. Separation of Design, Structure, and Content – Separating these elements allows you to adjust any one independent of the others.  This creates a situation where you can simply change the look of your site, but the content and structure all remain, without the need for manually constructing new pages.
3. Multiple Users – A CMS typically allows content management by many users.  Since each user does not need much technical know-how, it streamlines the content addition process.
4. Remote Website Management – CMS also typically make the task of administering a website remotely easier by allowing website editing via a web interface.  Without a CMS, remote management would be much more difficult requiring the remote computer to have far more software than a simple browser.
5. Dynamic Content – CMS also allow the use of “modules” which typically can simply be installed to the CMS to automate various processes.  Examples of modules would be Forums, Polls, and Shopping Carts all of which can be added to a website quickly and easily.
6. Content Publishing Scheduling – Content can be produced and then added to the website at a desired point in the future, eliminating the need for real time updating.

Content Management Systems also have other benefits, but these points cover the most common advantages of a CMS.   What’s typically not considered by clients who want a CMS are the potential compromises being made by having a website CMS.  The key to a successful website, both regarding your users and your own internal business, is to find the right compromise between having CMS-driven content versus not.  As with most things in life, the answer lies between the two extremes, by finding where it makes most sense on a website to use a CMS and where it makes most sense to leave the CMS out.

Update (1/12): Continue reading PART II: The Disadvantages (and Advantages) of a CMS (Content Management System)

Please visit us again Wednesday next week (1/13) for Part II covering the disadvantages of a CMS.

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