What is SEO anyway?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving the visibility of your website on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing and increasing the number of desirable visitors that come to your site. These search engines have ever-changing, and in some cases, very secretive algorithms that they use to rank websites for relevant search strings. Who are desirable visitors? Those people searching for your specific product or service. The more desirable the visitor, the better chance that their visit will result in a conversion. Conversions can be defined as a purchase, a request for information, or a newsletter sign-up. The better optimized your site is specific to key search phrases (example: specialty dog groomers in calgary), the higher the site will rank organically on the search results pages. Depending on how competitive your product or service is, you can also choose to pay for higher rankings and that is the practice of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) through pay-per-click or advertising banners. SEM is something that might be recommended as part of your online marketing strategy if needed, but in general, when you take proper care to optimize your site organically in the first place, you should be able to garner first page search results for most relevant long tail keyword searches (searches that are very specific to your product or service – in turn less search volume and higher rankings). When assessing whether or not SEO is something you should invest in for your website, consider this. Over 60% of internet searches end on first page search results…. Still think it might not be important to show up on that first page?

What are the Top 5 SEO Best Practices?

Many factors come into play when developing an SEO strategy. One of the most important exercises is deciding who you want to come to your site, and then how to get them there. Determining your top keyword search phrases relating to the content specific to each page on your site is paramount. There are some ‘best practices’ that should be put into place when a site is first designed:

• Page title – Each page title should be bullet-specific to the content found on that page.
• Order of title – Keyword phrases should always go at the beginning of the page title.
• Headings – Try to ensure that you’re using your H1 and H2 tags on each page. Search engines rank them much higher than regular paragraph text.
• Image naming – ALWAYS use alt text tags to describe the image and use keywords in this description and the image name if possible.
• Page content – Make sure that you include relevant keyword phrases within the HTML body of each page.

Those were just a few very basic tips and there are many more aspects of SEO that generate search engine ‘love’ including inbound and outbound linking, and site map submissions to name a couple. The overall message should be that if you have a website and you have a B2C competitive product or service, SEO should be on your radar to help ensure your site is getting maximum exposure with your intended audience.

Be Consistent

Decide how often you’re going to blast out to your database, and stick to that plan. Once a month is a great starting point, then you can increase frequency from there. When people sign up to receive information from your company, they WANT to hear from you. If you wait too long to reach out, they may lose interest or worse, lose confidence in your brand.

Make Sharing Easy

One of the best ways to help your message spread, is by making it easy for readers to share interesting information with friends. If you’re not including a share bar at the top of each blast with social media and forward to a friend links, it is a wasted opportunity to have your database do your marketing for you!

Segment your list

You will generally see much higher response rates and better list retention when your customer has requested to receive specific information. Good practice is to offer checkboxes on your sign up page that allows the user to select what specific information they are interested in receiving. Maybe they only want you to blast them with sales and promotions. Perhaps they are interested in new product launches. Alternatively, some customers may only want article based blasts. This way, you are only sending out relevant blasts and the changes of a customer unsubscribing are substantially lower.

Study Metrics

The metrics garnered from your e-mail campaigns are like gold so treat them as such! Analyzing the behavior of your database and then adjusting your next blast accordingly can be a sure-fire way to increase the success of your e-mail marketing efforts. Some key metrics I always assess are ‘open rates’, ‘click-through rates’, ‘conversion rates’ and ‘unsubscribe rates’. By looking at these number and adjusting your content, subject line or frequency, you can dramatically improve the success of each campaign.

Stick to what you know

Yes it would be easy to just talk about your products or services but you should also use your e-mail marketing campaigns to educate your customer as to why you’re an expert and industry leader. Share news, tips and tricks and any benefits that don’t cost the reader a penny. That will help you build brand loyalty and that is the most valuable asset around. My favorite example of this takes me back to the first time I walked into a Lululemon retail store. It was on West 4th in Vancouver. It might even have been their original store. I was looking at a pair of their famous yoga pants and a clerk walked up to me and told me everything there was to know about the fabric they use, why it’s the best and what the benefit would be to me (ie sweat wicking, no stretch, no smell, etc). It was a completely no-pressure sales approach and whether I bought the pants or not, I left armed with some great knowledge about fabric and production techniques. That one visit made me feel like they were the only place to shop for athletic gear because they knew so much about the product. I was (and still am) hooked!

Amanda’s experience as a design educator, paired with her corporate background as Brand & Marketing Director for a global retailer have helped her develop an organic approach to integrated design strategy. No decision is made in a ‘vacuum’. Every aspect of a company’s marketing goals and direction are taken into consideration when recommendations are made. Her professional style can be described as collaborative, communicative and results oriented. Amanda is respected for combining analytical thinking with creative solutions and delivering strategic results that meet or exceed expectations.

More recently, Jonny graduated with his Masters of Architecture from the University of Calgary Environmental Design faculty. He didn’t want to be limited to the type of projects he could work on based on his educational background, and architecture seemed like the most natural progression.  He is currently a practicing Intern Architect / Designer and contributes to the idtreehouse team on all projects that involve more than two dimensions.

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