For example, if you are searching for bass equipment in relation to music, Google will review your browsing history and produce results that pertain to the musical instrument rather than links to bass fishing supplies. When you type the word “bass” into the search engine—and receive a series of suggested key phrases–it would appear that Google already knows which type of bass you are referring to. That’s because it does.

How Does It Work?

For years Google has provided personalized search results for account holders by recording the web browser history linked to their Google accounts. The information searched for–while signed in–is accessible to Google until you clear your web history or change your settings to disable it. As long as you store your web history within your Google account, they have access to it and will automatically suggest key search phrases based on your browsing history.

In late 2009 Google extended the service beyond account holders and now provides the same personalized results to anyone who uses the search engine without signing in. The Google servers keep a record of past searches linked to an anonymous browser cookie. The search history is stored for up to 180 days and enables Google to personalize your search accordingly, even to non-registered users.

What Are These Suggested Key Phrases All About?

While Google is keeping track of your browsing history they’re also evaluating what words the general public commonly search the most. The suggested phrases that Google offers are those typically entered worldwide by people conducting the same search, ultimately leading users to the most popular results. This also gives Google a considerable insight into what the best–and most expensive–paid advertisements are suited to frame your search results pages.

The Advantages?

Aside from a faster and more efficient browsing experience for all, the marketing value of personalized search result techniques is astronomical. But it isn’t just Google who is reaping the rewards. The benefits extend to anyone with a website that incorporates SEO techniques and keyword phrases into web content, blogs or article marketing campaigns making the Internet—once just an information source—and advertising and marketing wonderland.

Knowing what the public wants enables businesses and corporations of all types and sizes to give it to them. Well implemented SEO techniques are driving websites closer to the front of page of Google, Internet advertising is steadily on the rise, and keyword rich article marketing, blogging and search engine marketing are rapidly becoming the most effective and cost efficient sales, promotion and marketing techniques.

In today’s web-dependent world, search engine placement has become a crucial factor in whether a business or promotion thrives or fails. At the very least, it determines whether little Billy gets an amplifier or a fishing pole for Christmas.

The most practical, useful, and budget friendly way of marketing is still search engine placement.  The best way for people to find and trust your site is through the search engines.  Ever heard of the expression “Google it”? Search engines have become an everyday facet of modern life. People who are looking for a veterinarian for their sick dog do a Google search for a veterinarian.  People tend to trust the results the search engines bring them. 

So simply put, search engine optimization still reigns supreme for the most cost effective form of Internet marketing. If you’re interested in pursuing seo give us a call at 1-888-275-5301 and we’ll give you a free analysis of your site and let you know where you stand with the competition.

1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool: Google’s keyword tool is an essential part to any website’s internet marketing toolbox. This tool is the industry standard to finding out how many searches your main keywords get. This is an integral part to shaping your site’s keyword structure.

2. XML Sitemap Generator: This is probably the most skipped part of search engine optimization. Google, Bing, & Yahoo love to see a xml sitemap for your site. You don’t have to link to it on your site, but it does have to be in your ftp. Luckily, there is a site that does it for free.

3. Meta Keywords: In September 2009 Google announced that it no longer reads your meta keywords tag. If you only have a few keywords in there don’t worry about it, but if you have obvious over-stuffing you might want to fix that.

Believe it or not 90% of websites ignore these three basic seo practices. If you implement these steps you’ll have an immediate advantage over most of your competitors. But if you’re really serious about getting top rankings for your keywords, call Search Placement (1-888-275-5301) and we’ll give you a free analysis of your site and tell you where you stand with the competition.

What search engine optimization does is utilize all aspects of ranking factors to get your business in the top rankings in Google, Yahoo, & Bing. As I’m sure most people who’ve put up websites before, this is easier said then done. Luckily, after years of optimizing businesses and thousands of dollars spent on different software, Search-Placement has the tools and experience to get you ranked!

SEO Optimization | Search Placement

One of the more difficult decisions to make is figuring out what your keywords for SEO will be. In Miami search engine optimization keywords may include Miami and Florida as your locations. However, if what your e-commerce website is selling isn’t necessarily based in Asheville, you may actually not need these as keywords. One or two keywords you will definitely want to incorporate into your website are words or phrases linked to your business. If you sell flowers, for example, you may want to include the words “flowers,” “florist,” and “flower shop” as keywords. You may have to actually modify your keywords a few months after you do SEO on your site if they don’t seem to be bringing in the amount of traffic you want.

Once you’ve got your keywords selected, it’s time to add them to your site. You can write new text for your website that includes these keywords, but be careful: you don’t want to use the keywords too often in your text. If you do, it will sound like you’ve written this text simply for search engine robots and not for people. If your text doesn’t sound natural when read, it may have too many keywords stuffed in it.

Link building can be done in several ways. The old concept of link building is finding other websites that are similar to yours and contacting their webmasters. These sites will post a link to your site in exchange for you linking to their site. It’s mutually beneficial for both parties most of the time. However, if you link to a site that doesn’t get much traffic, you may send them a lot of potential customers without getting many in return.

Another form of link building that is more popular today is getting link backs. This is done mainly using blogs. You post a blog that includes links to similar blogs and websites. These sites see traffic coming in from your blog and will often visit your blog in return. You may also use trackback and pingback options. Trackbacks can actually extract links and connect your site to these other sites.

Some people also go out, read other blogs and websites, and leave comments with links to their website. Sometimes, however, this is seen as spamming. These blogs may delete comments that aren’t specifically about their blogs or that contain links that appear to be spam. Be careful when doing this type of link building.

However, what this report does inform us about is the potential to act upon heretofore untouched or underloved opportunities. If a particular permutation of an important keyword is ranked #13 (meaning top-middle of the second set of results on a normal 10-result search results page) in a specific cycle, and we have been concentrating efforts on the seed keyword it contains (ie, ‘information technology’ and ‘information technology management’ or ‘information technology consulting’), we can see where we need to focus our efforts to bolster those associated terms that very well may be more in tune with what the searching user/potential customer has in mind– and this translates into targeted traffic that has necessarily carries with it specific interest in what they’ve searched. That kind of targeted result to a targeted search is the best kind of breeding ground for sales and increased conversion rates.

We send these reports to those we work with on a cyclical basis to enable them to gauge the results that our efforts have yielded for themselves in terms of the search engine optimization services we provide and the economy and their sector of industry as a whole. We always are interested in addressing any and all concerns of our clients in terms of branding, marketing strategies (especially those that coincide with traditional print/airwave advertising as well), and their upcoming and underpromoted products and services among many other considerations. We also review the data collected by our reporting tools on a weekly (sometimes daily!) basis to further inform our decisionmaking processes as we move through each cycle.

As Search Placement’s Web Analyst, I find that working with and gaining understanding from the data we collect and utilize for our work is incredibly rewarding as a growing and educational experience– I look forward to meeting new clients and tackling new projects in new niches.

Our experience working with web analytics and diagnosis tools such as Google Analytics and Google Webmasters allows us to make informed decisions regarding the choice of resource allocation in a given cycle that yield the best possible results for the keywords we are focusing on together. These reporting tools allow us to see data such as where the flow of traffic is coming from; organic search engines, pay-per-click advertising, direct traffic, referrals, and so forth. In addition, one of the features of this report allows us to see which keywords have been driving that traffic to the website in question and we can then bolster efforts thereon– or spot a ripe opportunity to pick! The reports generated by these tools also allow us to gauge the results our efforts have borne during that cycle and the one(s) preceding it (although it should be noted that some of the effects of our organic search engine optimization methods are exhibited not only in the short, but also medium and long-term) relative to traffic flow overall.

We use another set of analytical tools to help intially determine what will best improve search engine rankings when we get started with new clients, but for month to month focii and performance tracking web analytics tools are where it’s at. Thankfully both the web and these tools have become robust enough in recent years to glean accurate impressions from relatively complete data sets (for example, compare Google Analytics/Omniture/WebTrends web data to a Nielsen TV survey in terms of accurately capturing the whole) that allow us to gain actionable insights that ultimately strengthen our clients’ projects.

The caveat, of course, is that truly informed decisions cannot be based on one set of data alone. In the near future, I’ll write about some of the other tools we use to track results over time and enhance search engine ranking performance for those we work with– check back soon!

As a resident of Asheville I am so happy to see our city get this acknowledgement.  I can remember an interview I once did with the owners of Pisgah Brewing Company, when I asked the question, “why Asheville?” I was told “because Asheville is the most beer drinkingest city in the country.”  It says quite a bit that Asheville was held up with a city eight times its size.  As I write this Buncombe County, where Asheville is situated, is home to 7 breweries and we have 2 more currently in the works.  That gives us more breweries per capita than even Portland, OR.

I myself am a great lover of our local beer scene.  Heading over to Pisgah Brewing Co. on a Thursday for a Pisgah Pale Ale is one of my favorite times during the week, going to chill out after work at the Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co. with a Shiva IPA and the great regular crowd is hard to beat, and my fiance Kati, who isn’t really a big beer drinker, could never turn down a Gaelic Ale from Highlands Brewing Co.  Our local beer and breweries are just a fundamental part of the Asheville culture, it is one of those things that makes Asheville Asheville.  Not to long ago an NPR journalist named Asheville the “happiest city in the nation”  and now we have “beer city”, I am willing to bet there is some sort of connection there. Asheville SEO

A blog for your business can serve you well in many ways, not least of which is that you and your employees will be able to easily add new content, thus updating your website often.  And because your blog is focused on your services it will be easy to generate content that organically targets your desired keywords and phrases.  Search engines love fresh content, especially content that is pertinent to the subject of your site.  My favorite analogy is that search engines are the bees of the Internet and your blog is a sweet sweet flower, the more you add content to your blog the more those bees will return and naturally the more they will spread your marketing seed all across the web.  There is nothing to loose by taking advantage of this enourmasely powerful marketing tool.