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Search Engine Optimization Tips from Industry Experts

Practical SEO Insights for Your Small Business

We know that small business owners are looking for practical, affordable ways to drive traffic to their sites — and a solid search engine strategy is one of the best foundations for web success. The interview below gives some strategic insights from two key players at Tidal Research, a highly accomplished SEO shop which began supporting NameMedia's SEO effort earlier this year.

BuyDomains:	Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves, and about Tidal Research?
Paul Nute:	I am a partner at Tidal, and Steve Clark is the firm's Chief SEO Engineer. Tidal is a boutique SEO firm which serves a range of clients: from small- to medium-sized businesses up to Fortune 500 companies. We tackle traditional SEO engagements for well established sites (like BuyDomains.com): helping site owners improve their page ranking and grow organic traffic. Our firm also specializes in helping new site owners establish successful SEO programs to drive success right from the start.
BuyDomains:	How hard is it for a small business to make their site SEO-friendly?	Optimize Your Search-Engine Positioning Learn how to drive more traffic to your website by completing the form below. Fields marked with an * are required. Brought to you by: First Name * Last Name * Company Name * Phone Number * - - Email Address * Number of Employees *
Steve Clark:	It's not hard if they follow some basic rules: Be sure to focus page content on the keywords and phrases that potential visitors use when searching for the type of goods or services which you offer; Put in title tags on your pages — again, be sure to include keyword(s) in the title whenever you can (for example: "Buy women's dress shoes or casual shoes at PrettyShoes.com"); Make an effort to interlink your pages to facilitate spidering of your site (search engines have "crawlers" which index the pages in a site, and having interlinks help to facilitate this process); Feature new content on your home page on a regular basis: this is important both to site visitors (returning visitors should see new content or they may stop coming back) and because you want to have your site crawled on a regular basis; Avoid using Java Script for navigation elements; spiders cannot "see" these elements and so they will not be able to crawl them; Use static URLs whenever possible — these are seo-friendly and will help to ensure that you get your site properly indexed; Seek out inbound links from local sources such as the Chamber of Commerce or local trade association. Inbound links build site credibility, and if you have a localized business (a restaurant or auto body shop, for example) links which are highly specific to your target market area especially valuable.
BuyDomains:	What do you tell clients about pursuing a multiple domain strategy? How can this contribute to their online success?
Steve Clark:	If you think that your audience will be typing in a range of search terms then it can be very helpful to have more than one domain with good keyword value which is redirected to your main site using a 301 redirect code.
BuyDomains:	What factors do you review when doing a site audit for a client?
Steve Clark:	When doing a site audit, here are some of the factors which we evaluate: 1) The quality and quantity of links pointing to the site, 2) The number of pages indexed by search engines, 3) Determine if there are any problems with those indexed pages (duplicate content, for example), 4) Look for search engine friendly elements (such as keywords in content and page title, alt tags on images, spider-friendly navigation and so forth). We also look at the age and history of the site; new sites need to pursue SEO results in a different way than do established sites. For example, if you have a new site which is just launching, you may want to ramp up your link buying activity more slowly.
BuyDomains:	How is SEO changing, and where do you see the future of SEO?
Steve Clark:	I think that there will be more emphasis on personalization and local search. Engines will look to directories which they see as authorities on local search, such as the Yellow Pages and local Chamber of Commerce.
BuyDomains:	Do you recommend that clients buy keywords and inbound links? Is this feasible for the small business?
Paul Nute:	Small business owners should realize that there is a significant difference between buying keywords — that is, essentially, a media buy — and pursuing inbound link buys. Keywords can be tracked and directly associated with revenues, so you can measure ROI and determine your spend and strategy based on returns. Link buys really build a groundswell of traffic to your site and create a volume of traffic which can be converted into paying customers. That said, there is a right way and a wrong way to buy links. You should look at the relevance of the sites where you wish to buy links, the value of the link (is the site where the link will be placed highly-ranked itself?), where the link will appear on the site and who else is buying links on the site. New businesses need to be careful: ramp up your efforts carefully so that search engines will perceive it as an organic growth of inbound links.
BuyDomains:	If you could only make three changes to your website as a business owner, what would they be?
Steve Clark:	I think that my short list would be as follows: 1) Include relevant keywords in the home page content, 2) Use HTML links so that search engines can spider your entire site, and 3) Get inbound links from authorities in the your field.