This post is to serve as a quick introduction to the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard and help provide an understanding of what those dashboard metrics mean and how you can begin to take action and help contribute to your company’s SEO effort.

The Google Webmaster Tools dashboard is laid out in a comfortable and well-know Google format - highlighted website KPI’s occupy the right 2/3 of the  screen, and simple navigational aids anchor the left-hand side of the screen. The key pieces of information that Google shares with a webmaster tools user are the following reports; the Search Queries, Crawl Errors, Keywords, Links, and Sitemaps. Each report can help you identify weaknesses (and strengths) in your website, as well as help guide your ongoing SEO effort.

Search Queries Report
The Search Queries report provides a 30-day snapshot of impressions and clicks that occurred with your site when a Google search engine user typed in a search query in its search box. You can then drill down into more specific data about where your site ranked when it was visited. This is important for understanding how your site ranks on specific keyword searches, its visibility and how it is helping to drive visitors to your site.

Crawl Errors
If your site lacks visibility in the search results page, the Crawl Errors report can help you identify the pages within your website that Google is having trouble with. These reports can help your IT staff identify pages that are not found, unreachable or even restricted to be crawled and indexed by Google. Investigate the issues and work with your site administrator to resolve as many issues as possible.

Keywords
The keyword significance report relays information about the most weighted keyword found within your site. The weighting of the keyword is derived from its use in content within the site and the inclusion of the keyword into the HTML elements found within your website. If your company’s “shortlist of desired keywords” are not appearing near the top, it is time to reevaluate your content and website structure.

Links to Your Site
Google is much more transparent once you are a verified user and site owner in GWT. The inbound link report or Links to Your Site is the current number of trusted links pointing to pages within your website. It is not uncommon for your homepage to have the most number of inbound links pointing to them, but this report can also help you identify the high value SEO pages that have a disproportionate low number of  links.

Sitemaps
Google wants to know about your pages contained within your website. By submitting a sitemap in a GWT supported format, you can provide Google with a list of the pages that should be indexed and shown within the search results pages. Once your sitemap is submitted, the dashboard will highlight the number of pages indexed. This can help you find your submitted website pages to indexed pages ratio. Knowing this information can help map areas of your site that are being indexed as well as help encourage Google’s crawl bot to index new pages.

The Webmaster Tools Dashboard is essential for marketers and webmasters to begin to understand how Google views your website and the areas that need attention or focus to make improvement and strides into your website’s visibility and SEO effort.

Follow this simple process and you too can generate real business results through social media:

1. Create Measurable Social Media Goals. Rather than developing general goals such as “generate exposure for my business” or “increase website traffic and subscribers”, get specific. Develop goals that are measurable and tie them to actual metrics such as “achieve 100 mentions of my brand on Twitter and blogs by the third month of the program” or “increase traffic to my site from social media sites to 1,000 visits per month.”

2. Understand Your Investment. Since many of the tools used in social media marketing are free, the majority of your investment will come from time invested in creating content, syndicating it across the appropriate social media sites and then measuring and optimizing the program. When planning how much time you will invest in your program consider mapping out your investment per activities such as developing goals, listening and engagement, creating and syndicating content and tracking, reporting and team training. Remember that your level of effort and the cost of that time become the denominator in the ROI formula - ROI = Return/Investment.

3. Measure Your Return. In order to calculate the ROI of your social media marketing program, you need to quantify the “return” part of the ROI formula. Again, ROI = Return/Investment. Since most of your social media activity will result in more web traffic, you can easily measure this traffic and the business value of the traffic. Using a tool such as Google Analytics, you can set up a segment report that shows the visits from specific social media sites. You can also see how many people “converted” on one of your landing pages.

4. Measure Brand Benefits. You can measure brand impact through the number of positive and negative mentions you get on blogs or sites such as Twitter. Another measure is the number of times your content gets passed along or retweeted. Also, look at the conversion rate of the offers on your website. If more people are buying or requesting information as a percentage of the total visits, you can attribute this uplift to more effective branding.

5. Track Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Once you start tracking your program keep the key performance indicators organized in a marketing dashboard and be sure to track key metrics such as retweets, comments, clicks, followers/fans and conversions.

6. Maximize Your Impact Through Quality and Quantity of Content. Every program starts with listening to the conversations about your brand and the issues you care about. Once you understand how and where to engage, you’ll be able to create and syndicate content to a variety of social media properties in order to drive traffic to your web site.

Fact is, a social media marketing program can produce measurable ROI. To start you need to take your general business goals and translate them into specific measurable goals that can be tracked and reported on. You also need to organize your activities and content to drive the traffic and the results you want. By blending strong content with solid metrics, you can create a social media marketing program that delivers a strong ROI.

One problem is that sometimes the clicks from Google’s Content Network are listed in the referral medium, not CPC. Internal ‘test clicks’ are also measured plus other paid programs from Yahoo and MSN may greatly skew the numbers – making it literally impossible to measure the overall ROI of all paid clicks. It can be a nightmare if you use unique HTML code for the different paid search Analytics programs and create extended time periods just to create the reports.

If you are having difficulties getting the numbers to match up correctly, it may be time to review and update the process of creating landing pages. One big problem I’ve found is that the actual URL of the pages do not adhere to a standard set of rules.

If you are using a specific landing page for paid search, simply rename the URL of the page to

www.company.com/ppc/offer-number-one

If you use this method, then once the pages are live you can easily go into your content report, scroll down to the bottom, and filter all the pages that contain /ppc.

If you are spending a lot of money in both AdWords and Yahoo, just create duplicate landing pages and name the URLs

www.company.com/ppc-yahoo/offer-number-one

www.company.com/ppc-google/offer-number-one

It will be important to use the robot.txt file for this specific folder in your site directory, as you don’t want these pages indexed by the search engines. Also, you will want to create unique “Thank You” pages for goal measurement of each landing page.

Another filtering option that is easily overlooked is the Filter Manager in your Analytics account settings. It gets a bit more complicated with this but in this section you can exclude ALL of the traffic from IP Addresses, domains and subdirectories. Keep in mind these filters will apply to all web traffic:

Go to your Profile Page

Select Filter Manager at the bottom of the screen

Select + Add Filter

Options include excluding traffic from domains, IP addresses, and more for the available website profile of your choosing and can be used as an alternative method of filtering specific marketing programs by just creating new Website Profiles in your overall analytics report.

These processes may take more time, but if you create a standard process of how to name web pages on your site and correctly filter the traffic that skews your data, it will really help you utilize the power of Analytics and better measure the effectiveness and the ROI of your paid marketing programs.

Internal link building can help provide clues to search engines as to which pages of your site are most important and which deserve more attention. Just like inbound links count as a vote for content, internal links work much the same way. Pages within your website that have higher internal links pointing to them are typically more important to your site’s hierarchy of content and the search engines will reward those pages over time.

A benefit of using an internal linking strategy is you can control the anchor text for your internal links. There are a few ways to implement internal links but it is best that it the tactic is well thought out and structured, as consistency will produce the best results.

Internal linking can be something as simple as linking body copy text to other pages when referenced within your site’s content or the introduction of related content links that promotes other articles or content on a similar topic. Providing links to more related information is also a great way to increase visitor engagement metrics – getting your site visitors to click into other pages on your website to increase site page views or stay longer on your website to improve time spent on site.

A more technical approach for building internal links is to incorporate breadcrumbs or footer links within your website. The advantage to using one of these tactics is users gain a secondary navigational aid, the linking becomes almost automatic as new pages are associated to sections within your website and search engines like Google are now indexing breadcrumbs and presenting to searchers within the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Now that you’ve completed keyword research and optimized webpage elements such as title tags, meta info and urls, how are you ensuring that your search engine optimization strategy is still working for you? Chances are, if you’ve implemented these web changes and haven’t looked back, it probably isn’t.

But, to help you take your SEO strategy to the next level, we have identified five areas for achieving continuous success:

• Before you begin any new work, make sure all of the optimization you intended to implement has actually been completed because this will become the foundation that you will build upon. You may find in some instances that you’re short a few keywords in the body copy or a title tag includes a keyword you decided you didn’t want to optimize on. Or you may find that you’re in good shape and ready to continue with an ongoing plan. Either way, take a few hours to ensure that every detail and every element has been optimized with one of your target keywords.
• A very important factor in keyword visibility is, and always will be, fresh content. For those of us who sell a service, solution and/or product, it isn’t always easy or resourceful to be adding new web content. But, here is a list that will help guide you when thinking about your search engine optimized content strategy:
  • Expand your existing content
  • Create media content - video, podcasts, photos, etc
  • Leverage blogs
• Conduct an ongoing competitive landscape analysis, talk to your sales team and talk to your field marketers to ensure that the keywords you have optimized on are still relevant to the industry
• External linking is an integral component of a search engine optimization plan as it covers two different tactics - link popularity and traffic.
  • Link popularity is a device created by the search engines to help rank and categorize relevant sites within their index. Each link is essentially a vote for your sites content. And the more votes your site has, the more popular you’ll be in search engine results.
  • External linking should also be used for generating traffic. SEO’s overall goal is to increase website traffic. So don’t ignore websites that can really help take your Internet marketing program to the next level.
• Include internal links to your most important pages to help spiders easily identify which pages they should pay closer attention to. Visitors will also benefit from internal linking since you’ll be promoting related or more in-depth information on a given topic. And, don’t forget to optimize your anchor text as well.

Search engine optimization should be treated as a living and breathing organism - it needs constant attention in order to be truly successful. By conducting ongoing analysis and identifying new and inventive ways to continuously improve your search engine visibility, you’ll be a step ahead of the competition both in your search engine traffic and in the marketplace.

I don’t really remember what I was reading or even where I saw the formula, but it made enough of an impact that I wrote the formula down as well as committed it to memory. All future conversations on rankings with clients could be presented in a different context, a simple formula; the formula for search engine rankings, a formula that everyone can understand and help remove some of the confusion around SEO.

The visibility equation is a formula that contains the core elements for rankings and how to go about improving any website’s or web page’s visibility. It serves as a reminder that no single factor will make for great rankings, but all the important pieces are needed.

V=(O+C)*L

V = Visibility
O = Optimization (on-page HTML elements)
C = Content
L = Links

The next time you wonder why we aren’t ranking for that oh so important keyword – ask yourself, did you exclude one of the factors?

The focus of optimizing your Meta Tags should then be on improving your website’s descriptions. If you have created a good Meta Description and it is useful, the information contained within the tag might be shown as a snippet within the search results page. If your tag is well written and is relevant, the Meta Description can help improve the quality and quantity of traffic to your site by increasing your site’s SERP click through rate.

Here a few things to keep in mind to help create better Meta Tag Descriptions.
Make each description unique. Each description should accurately describe the page. Site level descriptions are allowed, but should be used in places like the home page and other main category pages. All other pages found within your website should use page-level descriptions that reflect the content of each page. The Meta Description doesn’t always need to be in sentence format and can include bits of information. If your page is about a product, the Meta Description is a great place to aggregate pricing, manufacturer or other important product information.

If you are struggling with your Meta Descriptions, start by summarizing the page in a sentence or two. You want to tell a potential visitor what the page is about and the information they will find if they choose to visit. You may also find yourself having to rewrite all of your site’s descriptions, but tackle just a few a week and over time all your site’s Meta Description tags will be unique and more in-line with Google’s webmaster guidelines.

1. Let your website visitors share and bookmark your content with “add-this” www.addthis.com or “share this” www.sharethis.com
2. Build transparency and the human element into your website with videos, photo sharing and profiles of your team, customers profiles, video case studies and/or product reviews
3. Add unique RSS feeds from your social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs in categories that align to your website’s content, and open your thought-leadership content like white papers and articles up for discussion on those networks
4. Build gateways into your social networks like hub pages and newsrooms, and add persistent links out to social networks on every page of your website
5. Implement a CMS system with modules or extensions that allow for 2-way communication, so that your website can become a place where a community of your team and can interact with comments and content sharing

This webinar was “Session Three” of a three-part series presented jointly with OneSource, “The Social Media for B2B Demand Generation Webinar Series”. If you’re interested in watching recorded versions of any of these webinars, they are available at this microsite under the “Sessions” tab.

Shortly following the last webinar, we sent out a survey to gauge participants’ readiness or progress in adopting social media optimization on their website. 50 people completed the survey.  Based on their interest in attending the webinar to begin with, it’s no surprise that most participants were already convinced of the value of social media for increasing brand engagement and driving new leads and sales. The majority, however, had not yet acted upon this conviction by making their website a catalyst for social networks and social media activities. Detailed survey results are available for download here.

It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to discuss website optimization in light of the social web, a subject that I’m exploring almost every day with clients who want to stay ahead of the curve in their Internet Marketing efforts. Thanks to everyone who attended, and especially to those who participated in the survey. If you’d like to discuss any of the subject matter of the webinar, or any related ideas, I’m very interested in continuing the conversation.

If you and your company struggle to find fresh, new content that you can not only frequently post to your website, but also optimize for search engines, it might serve well you to look right below your nose at your eNewsletter strategy for help.

eNewsletters already contain valuable information that you share with your email lists on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc., basis. Well, this information can and should be leveraged on your website to help increase the quantity and frequency of new content. Here are a few, simple suggestions on how you can incorporate this one piece of content into your search engine optimization plan:

• Archived eNewsletters: Once you send your eNewsletter, what happens to the content? Create an “Archived eNewsletter” section on your website and post it in PDF format (including all live links) or as text. Depending on your distribution frequency, you could easily add new content on a monthly basis to your website, and we all know Google loves refreshed content.

• Potential Blog Posts: Chances are, your eNewsletter has great content whether it’s a featured offer such as an eBook, a news headline, an interview, etc., that could potentially be used on your blog. Break up your eNewsletter content into a blog post format and suddenly you’ll find you have a handful of potential posts.

• Link Building: And last, but not least, now that you have all this great content on your website, you now have stronger potential to build your link popularity. Submit your new blog posts to social bookmarking sites, start talking about them on social media, and build the number of links that point back to your site.

And remember, for all of this new site content, follow your standard SEO strategy by including your target keywords, tagging all key page elements, and leveraging your internal linking strategy to turn this easy to follow plan into a successful optimization program.

As the CEO of Nowspeed, I am thankful that although we are in tough economic times, we, our co-workers, and our families do not personally face the greatest humanitarian crises of our time: The AIDS pandemic.

This is why I am committed to helping this humanitarian crises by donating $1.00 to Boston AIDS Africa for every person who becomes a Facebook fan of Boston AIDS Africa and/or follows them on Twitter between today and December 31st, 2009. Boston AIDS Africa is a Boston-based initiative to respond to the AIDS pandemic in Africa by providing essential supplies to care for those suffering with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

It’s that easy. Nothing to donate or give. Just follow Boston AIDS Africa and we’ll give up to $1,000 to this important cause. You can help support a worthy cause and Nowspeed will pay for it! Simply go to the Boston AIDS Africa Fan Page on Facebook, and/or follow them on Twitter.

Feel free to spread the word to any of your friends to help us donate as much as possible. Of course you can learn more about Boston Aids Africa at http://www.bostonaidsafrica.org.

Thanks and Happy Holidays,

David Reske,
CEO, Nowspeed Inc.
Boston AIDS Africa Fan Page
Boston AIDS Africa Twitter Page

About Boston AIDS Africa
Boston AIDS Africa is a non-profit initiative to mobilize the Boston community to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa by providing compassionate care to those suffering from AIDS. In partnership with World Vision, an NGO committed to AIDS care in Africa, Boston AIDS Africa is leading a community-wide effort to fund, assemble and ship Caregiver Kits to an affected region in Africa. Learn more at: http://www.bostonaidsafrica.org.