Optimizing Image Tag Alt Attributes: Good Use and Abuse

About using a Alt attribute in your Image tag

As per the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, it is recommended to provide a text-equivalent for every non-text elements in case some of the users have visual impairments or if users have the image display turned off on their browsers.

Matt Cutts from the Google Web Spam team, has recommended in one of his video, to use the alt attribute of the image tag and the Google Webmaster guidelines also consider the use of the attribute in the development of a search engine friendly websites. The reason behind this is that search engines spiders are not able to 'read' the content in your image.. and therefore cannot index it without a text equivalent.

How to use the Alt attribute: Who should you trust?

Even if the alt attribute has only a moderate importance in the search engine algorithms, optimising them can have an impact on search engine rankings especially if you want to target the long tail of searches with content-poor pages.

I did some research and found a large amount of really basic information on how to optimize the alt attribute. But quite surprisingly, I came across mixed messages on how to 'properly' use the alt attribute:

According to the W3C, the content in the alt attribute should fulfills the same function as the image. On the other hand, Google Webmaster Guidelines quote that the alt attribute should be used to describe the contents of an image file.

This is quite confusing: Should we focus on the description or the function? In theory it does not seem to be a big deal, but in the practice, such confusion can lead to very different uses of the alt attribute.

Lets take the example of the image on the Amazon homepage:

Following Google's guidelines, a proper alt tag could be something like: Letter from Jeff Bezos annoucning the new products and services available.

Following W3C's recommendations, the function of the image is to inform customers that new products are available and therefore the alt tag should basically contain the entire text (what Amazon did). (Note: To be fully compliant with W3C guidelines, Amazon should have included a short description in the alt attribute and the entire content in a longdesc attribute, but let's not talk about this now)

Who should we trust? Google? the W3C? Yourself and your common sense? I would probably say a bit everything. As Google is the dominant search engine, you do not want to alert their spam filters (might have some) with some long or improper alt attributes.

If you are a leading website you also want to make sure that users with disabilities will be able to understand your content and therefore it is probably better to focus a little bit more on the function of the image rather than the description.

Moreover, the decision you make on how to use the alt attribute also depends on the type of image you have.

In the case of Amazon, providing a simple description of the image will be quite frustrating for a blind user as they probably wants to know what is in the letter instead of knowing that it is a letter (Still do not understand why Amazon did not use pure text for that ???)

For more practical examples and resources on alt attributes consult the NASA Section 508website

Optimizing Alt Attribute: Good Use and Abuse

While there is no clear guidelines, I have tried to summerize some of the good practices and bad practices I have noticed in my research. It is probably not the absolute truth, but these recommendations should help you to optimize your alt attributes correctly:

- If the image is used for layout/design purposes should have empty alt attribute (no space between the ""). Using irrelevant keywords in spacers or layout pictures is an abuse.

- If the image is used for navigation purposes, it MUST have a alt attribute that match with the keyword used in the image. Alternatively it should describe the linking page accurately. To avoid any issue, make sure you use the same term in the alt and image.

- If the image is used as a link, you should also have a alt tag equivalent to the title of the linking page. The content in the alt attribute of image links is usually regarded as more important.

- If the image contains a lot of text(e.g Amazon), use the text from the image in the alt attribute. For this one, I would be careful though! If the text is too long, it could risk to look suspicious, so I would advise to offer a summary or to use a longdesc attribute. Alternatively why using an image when you can use text ??

- Do not just stuff a list of comma-separated keywords in the alt attribute, try to make a sentence that describes the picture/function and includes some relevant targeted keywords in it. You might not be able to use all your targeted keywords in the alt tag of the same image, that is fine, you probably have more than one image.

- For individual product pages in E-Commerce stores, I would recommend to use the product name as the alt attribute of the product image. That will help ranking for the product name phrases.

Tatcounter On Googlepages

Tatcounter On Googlepages

StatCounter is one of the best and most popular tools for tracking website usage statistics. Even the free service, which is limited to 100 log entries, can be very useful and informative for a webmaster, and is actually quite sufficient for a non-commercial website.

The original version of Google Page Creator did not allow JavaScript in GooglePages. StatCounter provides an "HTML only" option, but in that case most of the in-depth tracking information (such as referring URLs and search engine queries) is not collected.

In a welcome development, the current version of GPC allows to add the JS version of the StatCounter tracking code to GooglePages.

Generating "Invisible" StatCounter Code

Adding the invisible counter version of StatCounter code is currently the easiest option for GooglePages, because it is not subject to the GPC JS execution bug. Instructions for installing the visible version of StatCounter are provided in the following section.

The "invisible counter" parameter is set in StatCounter either when a new Project is created, or through the "Install Code" menu for an existing Project.

The procedure to create a new StatCounter Project or modify an existing one to obtain the invisible counter code is summarized below.

read the Known JS Bugs page for warnings and caveats about adding JS code to GooglePages

log in or create a StatCounter account

select "Add New Projects" option on the "My Projects" screen

select "Standard StatCounter Project"

enter title and URL for the GooglePages website

[instructions start here for an existing Project]

configure and Install Code

select "Invisible Counter" option

select "No Frames", leave optional check boxes blank

select "Default Install Guide"

the generated StatCounter code should be similar to the following (note the "invisible=1" parameter)

<!-- Start of StatCounter Code -->

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">

var sc_project=1691030;

var sc_invisible=1;

var sc_partition=16;

var sc_security="262f73fa";

</script>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js">

</script><noscript>

<a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank">

<img src="http://c17.statcounter.com/counter.php

?sc_project=XX&invisible=1" alt="free web page counters" border="0"></a> </noscript>

<!-- End of StatCounter Code -->

Adding StatCounter Code to a GooglePage

To add the above code to a GooglePage using GPC:

read about known JS bugs, especially before applying the StatCounter code to the default "home" page

open an existing or create a new GooglePage

select an editable field (e.g., page footer)

enter "Edit HTML" mode

add the StatCounter script at the end of the existing HTML code

add <DIV> and </DIV> wrappers around the StatCounter script

"Save Changes" and "Publish" the page

the GooglePage is now ready for tracking by StatCounter

NOTE: If the field becomes uneditable after the StatCounter script has been added to it, consult the description of the uneditable field bug for the detailed information and several work-around options.

Visible StatCounter GooglePages

As any other JS object, the StatCounter code is subject to the uneditable field bug. But because it generates text or graphic output, the visible version of StatCounter is also affected by the GPC JS execution bug. Both these JS bugs are described in detail on the Known JS Bugs page, but essentially the GPC JS execution bug means that multiple copies of the JS code text or graphical output can be added by GPC to the HTML source code for the page.

The simplest procedure that guarantees that both of the JS bugs will be safely avoided is as follows:

prepare the HTML code for all the GooglePage fields (title, subtitle, main, sidebar(s), and footer) in an external editor

create a new empty GooglePage in GPC

using the HTML Editor window, paste the prepared HTML code into the selected field (do not use the WYSIWYG interface to edit any fields with JS code or custom formatting options)

note that the visible StatCounter will not be actually displayed in the WYSIWYG window—that is normal, in fact desirable, see GPC JS execution bug description for details

"Publish" the GooglePage, but don't go "Back to Page Manager"

use the "View Live" link to look at the published page (using the "Preview" option is not recommended, as it can cause the GPC JS execution bug)

if any changes need to be made, make them in the external text editor and paste the revised HTML code into the appropriate fields using the HTML Editor window (again, do not use the WYSIWYG interface to edit these fields, as it will likely corrupt the JS code)

"Publish" the page and use the "View Live" link to examine it again

repeat the last two steps until the published page looks as desired

save and backup the final version of the HTML code for each field in the external text editor (these will come in handy for changing the page later, so use remote backup if necessary)

use "Back to Page Manager" when finished

the GooglePage with JS code has been created!

if at a later point the page needs to be edited, e.g., StatCounter needs to be moved to a different field, delete the existing page and re-create it from scratch as described above (using the backup/revised HTML code)—do not open a GooglePage with visible StatCounter code for editing in GPC—the visible StatCounter JS code may become corrupted if a page is opened for editing

More information: JavaScript tutorial and Known JS Bugs.

NOTE: A helpful example, provided by Christina during the discussion of this feature on the StatCounter user forum, clearly demonstrated that StatCounter can be added in both Firefox and IE versions of GPC. Follow-up testing indicates that the originally reported problem with the visible counter in IE was actually an example of the more general empty field bug in the IE version of GPC—JS is removed by GPC in IE if the field has no other non-JS content.

Text or Image Visible StatCounter?

Testing indicates that the image version of the visible StatCounter code works more consistently than the text one. For example, see the StatCounter images underneath the navigation menu in the sidebar.

It is not impossible to add a working text StatCounter, but it is more difficult to prevent it from being corrupted on all but the simplest pages. In either case, it is also recommended to choose the "disable link back to StatCounter" option during Project setup. StatCounter offers a wide variety of styles and formatting options for its visible counters, which are described in detail in the StatCounter help files.

Netnography: The Marketer’s Secret Weapon

How Social Media Understanding Drives Innovation


Executive Summary



Marketers in today’s competitive world need an edge. This paper offers two of them. First, it tells marketers to
consider social media not just as a marketing tool, but as a way to continuously build high-level consumer insight.
Second, it offers a rigorous method based in anthropology for building social media data into applied cultural
insights. That method is called netnography.
In netnography, online interactions are valued as a cultural reflection that yields deep human understanding. Like
in person ethnography, netnography is naturalistic, immersive, descriptive, multi-method, adaptable, and focused
on context. Used to inform consumer insight, netnography is less intrusive than ethnography or focus groups,
and more naturalistic than surveys, quantitative models, and focus groups. Netnography fits well in the front-end
stages of innovation, and in the discovery phases of marketing and brand management.

Netnography follows six overlapping steps:

1. Research planning
2. Entrée
3. Data collection
4. Interpretation
5. Ensuring ethical standards
6. Research representation

A short illustration of a computationally assisted netnographic approach to a brand study of Listerine is
provided. It demonstrates how insights can be used to inform marketing activities including brand perceptions,
brand positioning and repositioning, segmentation studies, new product development and innovation, trend
identification, new service models for co-creation of value, social media usage and opportunities for marketing
campaign activation. By leveraging the power of netnography, marketers can make better business decisions,
giving companies a unique competitive advantage.

Marketing and Social Media Space


The new social world is online. Internet penetration rates continue their global climb. Reasonably, we can say that
over a billion people now participate in various forms of social media. We are in the midst of a technology-led
communal revolution.
The implications for marketers, marketing researchers, and managers of all stripes are vast. Consumers are
sharing all sorts of emotions and information with each other about an incredible panoply of products, retailers,
and brands.
The online environment offers us nearly unlimited access to consumer-to-consumer communications that are:
• relevant and detailed
• from a naturally-occurring context
• unelicited
• obtained in an unobtrusive way, and
• obtainable in a timely, effective, and efficient manner
This data is raw. It is authentic. Spontaneous. Indigenous. Unforced. Unadorned. Powerful. Highly involved and
often spectacularly creative.
Marketers have responded by beginning to build social media into their marketing plans, their advertising and
promotional campaigns. But in terms of consumer insight, marketing is dominated by the same old methods.
Focus groups. Surveys. Data models. The move to build rich understanding with the cornucopia of online
consumer data is just beginning.
What is in this overflowing horn of plenty? A range of overlapping opportunities. Applied to business and
marketing needs, netnography builds deep consumer insights that provide:
• All-embracing descriptions of the marketplace—segments, product groupings, attribute sets
• Realistic comprehension of online communication—categories, trends, symbols, images
• Social understandings of consumer choice—influencers, adopters, WOM properties
• Natural views of brand meaning—decoding authentic consumer language and terms, as well as visual
and audiovisual analysis
• Embedded discoveries of consumer innovation—based in lead user, inno-tribe, and prosumer creativity
Compare netnography to the focus group or survey data dominating the world of consumer insight research.
• Focus groups offer detailed and relevant data. But they are elicited, obtrusive and completely artificial.
The one-time group dynamics are synthetic and strange.
• Surveys are artificial, obtrusive, and elicited. We often have no way of knowing if our survey questions
are relevant to the consumers’ world.
• Both focus groups and surveys can be expensive. Consider that a national set of focus groups can easily
run in the hundreds of thousands.


There are currently only a handful of far-sighted companies that conduct netnography. Although it is now globally
established in the academic world of consumer and marketing research, the very notion of online ethnography
is still unknown to most marketers, product managers, marketing researchers, and product innovation and
consumer insight specialists.
That is why you need to read this paper.
You need to read it because netnography offers a sharp new arrow in the consumer research quiver, a powerful
new tool for the marketing workbench. Or, if you prefer Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”…
Netnography is the marketer’s secret weapon for developing innovative ideas.


Introducing Netnography

In August of 1995, there were 18,000 websites on the net.
At the time, I was a Ph.D. student studying how culturally embedded consumer innovation occurs in person, and
on the Internet, in fan cultures.
Beginning my research career with this amazing new tool (or was “cyberspace” just a “fad”?), I became convinced
that online communities had momentous implications for marketing. I believed that the Internet’s ability to
connect consumer to one another would change the marketing world forever.
In 1995, on that group of a few thousand websites and many active usenet newsgroups, I began developing a new
method for Internet-based marketing research: netnography.
Netnography reflects an unusual hybrid of training: I am an anthropologist, trained in marketing. I apply
anthropology and its time-tested method of ethnography to an expansive range of questions about markets and
consumers. To simplify things considerably, let us say ethnography is built upon several foundations:
1. It is natural. It seeks out and approaches a culture where it exists, living and breathing.
2. It is immersive. It seeks cultural understanding from an active stance that develops engaged personal
participation alongside “objective” observation.
3. It is descriptive. It seeks “rich description,” the thick, evocative, living language that conveys the subjective
reality and emotional truth of culture members.
4. It is multi-method. It promiscuously uses other methods such as interviews, semiotics, projectives,
photography, and video to complete the portrayal of the lived reality of the culture.
5. It is adaptable. Ethnographies have been conducted with every major culture on Earth. As Sigourney
Weaver demonstrated not only in “Gorillas in the Mist,” but also in “Avatar,” ethnography even works
on nonhumans.
Netnography is Internet, or technologically networked, ethnography. Netnography is ethnography adapted to the
complexities of our contemporary, technologically mediated social world.





Netnography is ethnography that bridges the century-old method of Bronislaw Malinowski and Franz Boas with
the reality that many teens conduct more of their social life on Facebook than in the schoolyard, that new moms
get much of their information not from their family or friends, but from new mom web forums, and that, in many
workplaces, bloggers and tweeters are the most important sources of industry news and opinions.
Because many of us live our lives in an interrelated matrix of online and offline social behaviors, meaningful
studies of culture must attend to both types of communication. Netnography adapts ethnography to this
complex combination of online and offline sociality by giving us ways to study life in the time of technologicallymediated
culture.

How is Netnography Different?



There are many different ways to study consumers’ interactions in the online social world. Here are a few of the
major ones:
• We can survey people and ask them about their behaviors
• We can track and trace online behaviors and clickstreams
• We can set up online focus groups, panels, and artificial communities
• We can code, catalog and categorize data.
The key to netnography, and what makes it different from methods like focus groups, surveys, CRM data models,
clickstream tracking, and even artificial communities, is this:
Netnography is focused on cultural insights.
Netnography is different because it treats online communications not as mere “content,” but as social interaction,
as embedded expression of meaning, and as cultural artifact.
Netnography pays very close attention to context.
Netnography looks not merely at the words present in social interactions, but at the forum elements, the
communicator characteristics, the language, the history, the meaning, the type of interaction. It examines fonts,
spacing, symbols, texts, images, photos, and videos.
And, like its predecessor ethnography:
1. It is naturalistic, following social expression to its online appearances.
2. It is immersive, drawing the researcher into an engaged, deeper understanding.
3. It is descriptive, seeking to convey the rich reality of contemporary consumers’ lives, with all of their hidden
cultural meanings as well as their colorful graphics, drawings, symbols, sounds, photos, and videos.
4. It is multi-method, combining well with other methods, both online and off, such as interviews and
videography. Like all methods, netnography often works even better when triangulated with other
sources of insight. For example, complement netnography with targeted surveys to validate the
replicability of findings.
5. It is adaptable, moving effortlessly from newsgroups to blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, social networking sites,
podcasting and mobile online/offline communities, and whatever else the future has in store.


More than this, netnography offers specific, rigorous guidelines about:
• How to plan research and plan for work in the field. An organized netnographer will need a research
question, or set of questions, to direct her investigation.
• How to conduct netnographic entrée. How to use a focused research question to hone in, reach out, find,
enter, and investigate the different online fields where a culture or community expresses and gathers.
• How, when, and where to collect data about the culture and community.
• How to apply consistent, interactively-adjusted, insightful analysis and interpretation to the data.
• How to apply strict ethical research standards and procedures.
• How to evaluate and present the end-product of the research.
Stated in brief terms, netnography follows these six overlapping steps: research planning, entrée, data collection,
interpretation, ensuring ethical standards, and research representation. Each of these topics merits a longer
discussion of its own.
Because online data collection can be so challenging and interesting, let us proceed to a brief examination
of this topic.

Online Data Collection and Computationally Assisted Netnography



Two of the chief data collection challenges for the netnographer are: (1) how to find the appropriate data,
and (2) how to balance vast amounts of available data with the ethnographic necessity of an in-depth
cultural understanding.
As anyone who has used a search engine to investigate a topic knows, Internet data is easy and cheap. Type the
brand name “Listerine” into the main Google search engine and you will be faced with approximately 907,000 hits.
It is relatively easy for someone to download a few dozen of these web pages and forum posts about the brand,
review and summarize them, and then to pass themselves off as an online anthropologist. However, something
would be missing.
There are likely to be at least two major problems with the 907,000 or so hits about the Listerine brand, or
any other popular brand, product, or market category that we might be interested in investigating. First,
there are many different communications going on at once, and this makes finding the research appropriate
communications difficult. There is advertising, official communications, spam, promotions, and reposts coexisting
with the social, consumer-to-consumer interactions that drive netnography. Google only gives us the first 1,000
hits. And even with those thousand hits, we face a situation of abundance. More is not always better. Even if we
were to transcend the common search engine’s limitation, the prospect of manually downloading and reading
tens of thousands of online interactions is a daunting time commitment.
Netnography requires the researcher to investigate the range of pertinent cultural activity occurring in online
social spaces. These social spaces have been growing prodigious both in volume and in variety. Because of these
two facts, I have found it increasingly valuable to have quality software tools as an adjunct to netnography.

I have even recently coined a term for this useful mode of netnography: computationally assisted netnography.
Computationally assisted netnography adds the careful use of software tools to the protocols of the netnographic
process in order to assist the researcher. Wisely deployed, high-quality software-based computational tools can
help the netnographer by assisting with the following tasks:
1. Sourcing: allows the netnographer to scan the online environment for relevant and interaction-oriented
mentions of brands, categories, product usage situations, and markets. Good tools will allow for a breadth
and variety of sites. The more the better.
2. Tracking: provides some context to the data so that relevance and cultural insight can be judged. They will
also provide source information (preferably hyperlinked), so that the data can be usefully traced to its source
3. Marking: allows the researcher to write and save their own notes and observations on top of the data set
4. Collecting: facilitates the archiving and collection of sets of data in ways that organize it without losing
the subtlety of its cultural condition
5. Reducing: at some point, large amounts of the data need to be reduced into order to build them into
coherent insights. Strong tools will be flexible, subtle, and adaptable
6. Visualizing: using different types of analysis, unexpected insights can occur when data is presented in a
new visual ways
7. Pervading: with easy, user-friendly interfaces, computation tools can allow the researcher to be on top of
the dynamic, ever-unfolding, naturally-occurring situation that is online interaction. Real-time consumer
insights inform better and better strategic decisions.
As this paper suggests, computational software tools can be most helpful in the selection, data collection, and
data analysis stages of the netnographic research process

The Power of Netnography: Taking a Strong Swig of Social Media



Participant observation and keen description are at the heart of my netnographies. I also use many types of tools
to conduct them. I use search engines such as Google, including Google Groups, Google Trends, and Google
Social Search. I also use Technorati, and Twitter Search. I use qualitative data analysis software such as Atlas.
ti. and NVivo. For automatic semantic recognition, organization of relevant semantic forms and patterns, and
location of online conversation sites, and overall understanding of what consumers are saying, I have recently
been using NetBase’s ConsumerBase tool. I continue to build my cultural insights with non-textual searches of
sites like Flickr, YouTube, and DeviantArt.
Let us take a very short, simple example. Consider the power of an integrated, computationally aided
netnography to enlighten a brand manager about brand meanings and consumer innovation.
The example I chose is Johnson and Johnson’s Listerine brand. Participating mainly offline in Listerine use and
introspection, and online reading, viewing and collection, I used a selection of search engines such as Google,
Technorati, and Twitter Search, as well as scans of visual and audiovisual data on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and
DeviantArt. I used Netbase’s ConsumerBase tool to locate, organize, and classify these findings, and to recognize
semantic patterns among them for my further investigation.
NetBase technology, which also includes a powerful lens for online social behavior, revealed a range of oral
health blogs, medical and medicinal advice forums, social media groups and microblog feeds that mention and
discuss Listerine.


In the netnography, I discovered that Listerine has become thoroughly absorbed into popular culture’s social
conversations. Currently, mentions of the product include this insulting gem from celebrity gossip site perezhilton.
com: “If Jon Gosselin is really strapped for cash, we suppose he could always pose nude, but then we would have
to find a way to soak our brains in Listerine.” Multiple sites also mentioned Listerine in connection with mentions
of John Mayer’s kiss-and-tell lovelife. In each of these mentions, Listerine’s cachet drew from its harsh overtones,
its connotation as a strong, necessary medicine that purifies, but that has an edge of nasty-tasting chemical
cruelty about it.
This netnography begins with the question “Which online communities and other social spaces do consumers
who are interested in Listerine congregate to?” The next set of questions might concern more specific purposes,
such as “What brand meanings do culture members associate with Listerine” and “What are some of the novel
uses to which Listerine is put?”
We find a range of Listerine-based opinions in domestic blogs such as Lost in Laundry, The Daily Bitch, and The
Happy Slob’s Guide to Housekeeping. In these blogs, we often find that the use and, especially, scent of Listerine
are nostalgically and practically linked to the notion of “grandpa.” Grandpa always made me gargle with Listerine
when I had a little cough or cold. Grandpa soaked his feet in Listerine. Coming up close for a hug, my Grandpa would
always have the slight lingering scent of Listerine about him. The mom blogger at “From Cribs to Carkeys” wrote:
“Generally, the idea of Listerine gives me the shivers. I think of the old school original flavor that my grandpa used
to use and want to run screaming.”
In a primordial sense explained well by cultural analyst Clotaire Rapaille, consumers encode these memories
and impressions as deeply significant. Symbolically, the brand is scent-focused, medicinal, old, stale, and male.
It arouses stories of the past, of family, of childhood. This is a brand that is rooted in nostalgia, in hard-to-budge
meanings of the foul smelling yellow mouthwash (at least to the mom blogger target). To a brand manager
interested in brand meanings and extensions, however, they speak volumes about limitations and opportunities
(such as new geriatric lines and targeted products).
These meanings of chemical harshness and artificiality are echoed in visual imagery that portrays Listerine bottles
with strong muscular arms, as a hand grenade, and with an alien blue glow. In addition, far-reaching old Listerine
advertising lives on, repeated and reprised, showing Listerine being used as an aftershave, as a skin ointment to
treat wounds, as a cold remedy, and as nose drops.
In fact, in 2008, Listerine was called to task for shameless false advertising by blog Mental_Floss, which rated
Listerine #1 on its all time list of offenders. The blog overviewed some of the brand’s far-fetched health claims
over the years, including using the product on stings, as a dandruff preventative, as a substitute for flossing, and
preventing “halitosis”, the bad breath “disease” invented by Listerine’s ad agency.
It is fascinating to note how many of these uses, propagated almost a century ago many of them disputed by the
FTC and denied in the 1970s by “corrective advertising,” live on in the Internet sphere of today. As if the old liquid
maintained some of the slippery snake oil magic of its early years, consumers continue to recommend Listerine
for a mélange of different ailments and usages.


These creative uses appear in a variety of different forums. We still see Listerine recommended to prevent or treat
dandruff, to treat cuts and bruises, and for use as a bracing (if foul-smelling) aftershave. Metafilter and various
other forums recommend treating canker sores with Listerine. Soaking your toes in Listerine, we are told, will kill
toenail fungus.
In the recipe-sharing community RecipeZaar, we see Listerine recommended as a “recipe” against mosquitoes. It
also appears in other recipes, such as one that combines equal parts Listerine with baby oil and warm water to
treat dogs’ dry itchy skin and “hot spots.”
In Scott Products’ Common Sense community, a forum where “thousands of members across the country and
exchange real-life Common Sense wisdom for saving time and money” we can find innovative consumer posts
about Listerine, suggesting it be used:
• On a sponge, to kill ants or bugs anywhere in your home and keep them away
• To take the stains off of your bathroom counter
Another popular use is as a toilet cleaner. And there are many more medicinal and around-the-house uses for
Listerine. Some representative examples follow:
• On the early-retirement.org forum, we find a concoction of Listerine, Epsom salt, and beer recommended
for use as a mosquito repellent.
• The alternative health site Ayurvediccure.com recommends applying Listerine to a sterile cotton pad and
applying it twice a day to cure yeast infections.
• Myhomeremedies.com recommends “dousing” the hair with Listerine in order to kill head lice.
• Wonderhowto.com provides a video in which a grey-bearded pharmacologist wearing a tie tells us how to
cure athlete’s foot using a combination of vinegar and Listerine.
• Various gardening blogs and home care sites recommend spraying flowers, such as roses, with different
types of Listerine-based solutions (including some that mix Listerine with water and tobacco)
The cultural themes circulating around these uses are those of strength in killing and repelling. Listerine kills not
only bacteria, but fungus. It also kills small insects such as aphids, ants, and lice. It also repels them, and other
pesky insects, like mosquitoes.
Online, we can see how the creative uses of Listerine move it closer and closer to that of a pesticide. Even if
Listerine worked as an insecticide and a repellent, an insightful cultural analyst would immediately recognize that
the toxic brand associations of pesticide-in-your-mouth would be undesirable.
So, from this brief netnography, we learn about some key issues and opportunities for the Listerine brand. The brand is:
• Culturally meaningful and omnipresent
• Associated with harsh, strong, purification
• Linked to age and the past
• Associated with grandpa
• Seen as artificial and chemical
• Associated with many different uses (i.e., fun to experiment with)
• Linked to home cleaning products
• Viewed as a natural home remedy
• Recommended for garden use
• Linked to pesticides


Listerine’s brand managers can use this necessarily brief netnographic analysis to focus their efforts. Should the
brand be repositioned from the past to the present and future? How might this happen? Is there strong value in
the nostalgia appeal? Can the “shameless” trickery advertising of Listerine’s past be used to current advantage?
Can some of its creative consumer uses become useful brand extensions (Listerine Garden Helper? Listerine
Natural Skin Care?)? How can the toxic, pesticidal cultural meanings of the brand be managed? How can some of
these sites of social media activity become sites for Listerine’s marketing campaign activation?
Although, in a full-length netnography, these ideas would be developed in significant breadth and depth, this
example suffices to underscore how social media data, combined with netnographic analysis attuned to cultural
insights, can yield potentially valuable ideas about consumer impressions, brand meanings, brand extensions, new
product innovations, and social media sites of marketing activation.

Netnography and Management


A thorough, detailed, netnographic study can reveal much about consumer behaviors, opinions, tastes,
impressions, and interactions. Like face-to-face ethnography, netnography provides a window into the realities of
consumer groups as they go about their lives.
We learn about the local language, the history, the players, the practices and rituals, as well as the enculturation
and education of cultural members. More than this, we learn where consumers congregate, what they share, and
how they communicate. We gain deep insights into who our consumers are, where and how they find sources of
community, who are the most influential voices in those consumer communities, what are the meanings, rituals,
and traditions of these communities, and so on. With analysis and interpretation, we discover the variety of forms
and the patterns within how and why they consume.
Over the last ten years, I have had the privilege of working with a range of far-sighted global companies,
exploring the applied use of netnography. Working with clients such as American Express, Campbell’s Soup, eBay,
and Merck, we have found that the intelligence of netnography empowers a range of important marketing and
business decisions.
In particular, we have found that netnography is a powerful way to understand the changing marketplace, to gain
an understanding of tomorrow’s trends today, and to gain ideas and insights as valuable inputs to the front-end
ideation process. Today, netnography enlightens managers on matters such as:
• Advertising reception, alteration and interpretation
• Brand community opportunities and negotiations
• Brand perception
• Brand positioning and repositioning opportunities
• Choice making
• Community management
• Competitive analysis
• Innovation in new products and services
• New service models for co-creation of value
• Product and category usage
• Segmentation forms and patterns
• Social media audits, usage, and opportunities
• Trend identification
• Web-page and interface design


Netnography offers transformative new opportunities to today’s marketing researchers and marketers. However,
change is not easy. Many companies have their marketing research systems oriented around the input from
regular focus groups and surveys.
To begin making a transition to a world of richer, more realistic, more natural, and more informative consumer
data, here is an 8-step plan to guide you.
1. Understand and state your consumer insight goals—How do they currently involve the benefits of social
media and netnography? How might they involve it in the future?
2. Educate yourself about the different methods for using naturalistic social media data. Remember that
being an early adopter of effective new methods can carry competitive advantages both for your career
and your company.
3. Educate and train your co-workers and employees about the benefits of netnography, and other methods
that are appropriate. Become informed about these powerful new methods, and share your expertise.
4. Build consensus in your company through high quality presentations and reading materials.
5. Develop a plan that intelligently integrates the use of social media insight methods with your other forms
of research. Use some of the ideas in this paper as your starting point.
6. Learn through trial. Find out how different forms of netnography work, and different applications of
netnography for different purposes.
7. Sample appropriate tools. Be discriminating. There are many tools currently available that simply do
not measure up. Insist on ease of use and comprehensiveness, among the other attributes I have listed
in this paper.
8. Build a skill set and a competitive advantage.
The returns have revolutionary potential.

Key Takeaways and Lessons


1. Social media channels provide data for innovation that is relevant, detailed, naturally occurring, and
obtainable unobtrusively.
2. Netnography is a method designed to provide consumer insights from social media data.
3. Like ethnography, netnography is natural, immersive, descriptive, multi-method, and adaptable.
4. Unique among social media methods, netnography seeks to generate cultural insights from
contextualized data.
5. Netnography follows six overlapping steps: research planning, entrée, data collection, interpretation,
ensuring ethical standards, and research representation.
6. Computationally assisted netnography adds the careful use of software tools to the protocols of the
netnographic process in order to assist with data collection and analysis.
7. Netnography offers a range of new insights for front end innovation, providing:
• Holistic marketplace descriptions
• Communicative and cultural comprehension
• Embedded understanding of consumer choice
• Naturalistic views of brand meaning
• Discovery of consumer innovation
• Mappings of sociocultural online space
8. Transforming to a company that uses netnographic data may take time, education, and require
organization consensus building.
9. Netnography is your secret weapon for deep strategic insights, for fresh ideas for innovation, and for
new approaches to brand, campaign and community management.

SEO Basics - Tips For Small Business Owners

Introduction

Whether you've created a website already or are planning to create one in the

near future, you know that's only half the battle. The other half is getting your

website found in the search engines in hopes of attracting those interested in

the type of products or services you offer.

Although there are a variety of ways to get your website found, this report

focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Through effective SEO tactics,

you can improve your search engine rankings for important terms, gain more

traffic and do more business.

As I'm routinely asked to give SEO advice/tips, I decided to put my thoughts to

paper. The resulting articles have been compiled to create this report. Because

of this, you may see some "overlap" in the information presented.

Before I dive into the SEO tips, I'll give you my definition of both SEO and SEM.

I'll also cover some of the most common SEO terms and give you explanations

in plain English. This knowledge will help set the stage for everything that

follows.

To improving your SEO

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization

(Screenshot of Google.com for the keyword phrase, "denver auto repair."

A - The top three ads in the shaded area are paid ads. They have been created through

Google's Adwords program and are Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. B - As I conducted a "local

search," Google is showing me a Google Map relevant to my search. The red drops, lettered

"A-G," represent the businesses that have claimed their Google Places listings. C - These ads

are also paid ads created through Adwords. D - This is an "organic" listing that can be

manipulated through SEO. You can see that this business has created/claimed their Google

Places listing as the "A" tear drop appears in their listing. E - These two listings are

standard "organic" listings… the kind most are familiar with)

Search engine optimization, aka SEO, is the term that refers to the things you

can do to improve your website's visibility in the search engines. Search

engine optimization techniques focus on increasing the organic, or natural,

traffic that you receive based on your ranking within the search engines.

The goal of search engine optimization is to ensure your website appeals to

search engine crawlers, or bots. The search engines will take note of your site

and its content, categorizing it in a way that will allow it to show up in the

SERPs (search engine results pages) when certain keywords are typed.

Search engine optimization is achieved through a wide variety of methods.

Many webmasters or SEO professionals will focus on proper keyword

research, clarity in the setup of your website's headers, tags, file names and

descriptions, external backlinking, internal cross linking, and quality content

creation.

While each search engine uses its own algorithm for determining the ranking

of every page that is indexed, it is possible to increase your rankings by

making your site informative and visible via both on-page and off-page

techniques. Sites that are designed with ease-of-use and quality information in

mind tend to do better than those built sloppily and without a solid plan.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is similar to search engine optimization but

focuses less on natural rankings and more on the actual promotion of a

website. SEM techniques generally include natural SEO but almost always

branches out to include contextual or paid search advertising.

Paid search advertising models became more prominent in the late 1990's,

after the search engines themselves became more popular. SEM focuses more

on business-oriented websites and their overall online marketing strategies.

Because many of the paid advertisements appear at the top of the search

engines, the FTC in 2002 responded to complaints by clarifying that paid

advertisements and website listings must be clearly denoted so that

consumers do not confuse them with websites that have obtained high

rankings naturally.

It really doesn't matter what type of website you have, whether it's personal

or geared towards your business. Incorporating search engine optimization

techniques into the creation and ongoing upkeep of your site will ensure you

receive higher levels of traffic and, ultimately, greater success

SEO Terminology - 5 Terms You Should Know

One of the reasons Search Engine Optimization seems so complex is that it

there are so many foreign terms used. In this short article, I'll list some of the

most common terms and will try my best to give you "geek free" definitions.

1. SEO

SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization." This is a set of techniques and

processes used by a SEO Specialist to improve your website's rankings in the

search engines for a particular set of keywords, or keyword phrases.

Of course, the real goal is to increase targeted website traffic in hopes of

generating new business. It's just that this is achieved through better search

engine rankings. Studies have proven that the top 1-4 listings get far more

traffic than the others found on the page.

2. SEM

SEM stands for "Search Engine Marketing." Defining SEM is a bit tricky as

many authorities have varying ideas as to what the term means.

However, as a general rule, SEM Specialists use three distinct practices to

promote their clients' websites:

• Traditional SEO techniques including both on-page and off-page search

engine optimization strategies.

• Buying paid ads from the search engines that offer this type of service...

primarily Google, Yahoo and Bing.

• Buying paid "inclusions" from the search engines. This is paying a

search engine company for a guarantee that the website will be included

in the search.

3. SERPs

SERPs stands for "Search Engine Results Pages." Basically, it's the page that is

returned to you whenever you use a search engine.

The goal of SEO is to improve your web page's ranking amongst the other

"organic" listings in the SERPs.

4. Keyword Phrase

A keyword phrase is any set of words that is searched upon by internet

"surfers." It is the goal of the SEO Consultant to determine which keyword

phrases are most relevant to your website/business and are likely to bring

you targeted website traffic.

These keyword phrases are then used in the optimization process with the

intent of getting your web page's strong rankings for the chosen terms (aka

keyword phrases).

5. Backlinks

Defining backlinks is a challenge only because there are a variety of other

terms that mean basically the same thing. You may also hear them referred to

as text links, anchor text links, hypertext links, one-way links or contextual

links.

A backlink occurs whenever another site links to yours. The link could come

from an image or banner type graphic or it could be a linked piece of text.

For SEO purposes, the text links are of primary importance with the goal being

to get links that include the keyword phrases you are optimizing for.

While there are hundreds of other SEO terms to learn, these will give you a

good framework to build upon. Whether you are learning more so you can

improve your own site or just want to be able to communicate better with

your SEO Specialist, I encourage you to keep studying.

Don't Most Web Designers Know SEO?

The world of web design is complex and fraught with misinformation. Chief

among them is the belief that most web designers have a solid understanding

of Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO).

In truth, the exact opposite is true. Most web designers know very little about

SEO and this includes those with college degrees in Website Design.

A friend of mine received a Bachelor's Degree in Web Design from a reputable

University. When I asked her what she was taught concerning SEO she

replied... "Not much."

They gave her their definition and spent a little time explaining the basic

concepts. However, they weren't actually trained in the art and science we call

SEO. They were told that work should be performed by an

individual/company that specialized in Search Engine Optimization.

I agree with this as web designers are "artsy" by nature and not best suited to

things that are highly technical. That's not to say that there aren't some who

are good at both, just that it's probably the exception rather than the rule.

The real problem is that most clients know little about the web design process

and mistakenly believe that their web designer has optimized their site for the

search engines. As many web designers forget to discuss the topic with their

clients, the site is put live without being optimized.

To improve your chances of getting a beautiful website that is well-optimized

for the search engines, it's important you understand these three factors:

Web Design

In this phase, your web designer will work with you to create a nice looking

website according to your project specifications. This part is primarily graphic

in nature but it does form the foundation of the entire project

Website Coding

After the website graphics are finished, the design will be coded such that it

can be understood and displayed by browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer,

etc. Some web designers will use a program like Adobe's Dreamweaver to

code the design while others will hire a web coder to do the process manually.

As a general rule, designs that are "hand coded" by a code specialist are more

likely to follow the standards set by the Worldwide Web Consortium (aka

W3C). They are also more likely to be "lighter" in their design, which is

beneficial to SEO.

Search Engine Optimization

After the site has been designed and coded, the work can begin to optimize the

website for the search engines. This is best performed by a SEO Specialist.

The SEO Specialist's job is to work closely with the client in an effort to

understand their business and what outcome(s) they are looking to produce.

With this information, the will begin the process of keyword selection and set

about optimizing each page of the site.

In addition to the work performed to the site itself, the SEO Specialist will

perform a variety of "off page" tasks. These tasks may include linkbuilding,

social bookmarking, the creation of citations as well as many others.

As you can see, successful web design is a rather complex topic and frequently

requires the work of several specialists. Armed with this information, you'll

know what questions to ask to ensure your project is completed to your

satisfaction.

After all, a beautiful website that receives little visitors won't help you achieve

much in the way of new business

Keyword Selection For Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization really isn't rocket science but there is a lot to

know and consider when optimizing one's website.

At the forefront is the understanding of keywords/keyword phrases and what

affect they have on your ability to get targeted website traffic.

What is a keyword/keyword phrase anyway?

It's the word, or words, that internet users are typing in when they conduct an

internet search. Fortunately for us, there are a variety of tools that keep track

of this incredibly valuable data.

With that understood, here are some tips to help you choose the right

keywords for your website... keywords that will draw the specific type of

visitors you are looking for.

Keyword tools

There are a variety of keyword tools, both free and paid. Unless you are an

SEO professional, you'll probably want to use the free tool provided by Google.

To find it, simply conduct a search on Google for the term (aka keyword

phrase), "Google Keyword Tool." As Google has done its job to optimize for

this keyword phrase, you'll find it to be the first "organic" listing on page one

of the results.

Search Volume

Search volume is an indicator that tells you how many times a particular

keyword phrase is searched upon. The data is "search engine specific" so you

will find that the numbers differ depending on which search engine's data you

are looking at

It's important to note that Google now tracks "local" and "global" search

volume separately and can even tell you how frequently someone is searching

the term with a mobile device.

Most SEO Consultants disagree as to the accuracy of the data so you should

consider the data to be more "comparative" than accurate. For example, if

"keyword phrase #1" is said to get 3,000 searches per month and "keyword

phrase #2" is said to get 500, it's safe to say that keyword phrase #1 is more

searched upon.

Competition

It's vital to remember that most search engines only show ten "organic"

listings on any page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Because of

this, you are competing with the websites/web pages that are already ranked

for the keyword phrase(s) you have chosen.

In order to get your web page listed on "page one" for a particular keyword

phrase, you are going to have to outperform one of your competitors.

There are many factors to consider when gauging competition but the main

ones include:

• On-page Optimization - In other words, how well have they

optimized their page around the keyword phrase(s) they are ranking

for.

• Age of the domain - Generally speaking, the older the domain, the

better.

• Domain extension - Although you can improve the SEO of any

website, those with a .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov or a country specific

domain tend to rank better than those with other extensions.

• Inbound links - The amount of links the page has from other websites

as well as those coming from other pages of the site itself.

Intent

Before finalizing your keyword list, it's best to see if you can get into the mind

of the person conducting the search. While your keyword research will tell

you what keyword phrases are being searched upon, do you really know what

they are looking for?

Here's a real-world example:

Let's say I wrote a book on emergency first aid and CPR and am looking for

keyword phrases to promote my book. During my keyword research I find

that the keyword phrase, "how to save a life," is searched more than 40,000

times per month. I get excited because this phrase seems perfect for

promoting my new book. But is it?

I

I dig a little deeper and find that this phrase will be meaningless for me. Why?

It's because the average searcher isn't looking to actually save a life, they're

looking for information (lyrics, the music itself) for the song, "How To Save A

Life" by The Fray!

The search volume is great, but the intentionality of the search is different

than what it appears on the surface.

Keyword research is paramount to Search Engine Optimization and the ability

to increase targeted website traffic. It's best to avoid rushing in as this is the

foundation for which all other SEO tactics will be built upon.

Website Factors That Affect SEO

Search Engine Optimization is generally comprised of two distinctly different

activities... optimizing the website itself , referred to as "on page"

optimization, and increasing the authority of the website in the eyes of the

search engines, referred to as "off page" optimization.

While both strategies must be employed for best effect, most SEO Consultants

begin with the on page optimization work before beginning their off page

optimization efforts.

In this article, I'll cover some of the things that can be performed to your

website in order to increase its ability to achieve better rankings. First,

however, you must understand that each and every page of your website

needs to be SEO'd. This will not pose too much difficulty if your website is

rather small but if you have dozens (or hundreds) of pages, the work to be

done will be substantial.

Here are eleven website factors that may affect your SEO:

Meta Title

Your "meta title" information is added to the page source (i.e. your website

coding). This may be done manually by your web designer or added through a

WYSIWYG editor if your site uses some form of Content Management System

(aka CMS). On some dynamic platforms, the meta title is created automatically

as soon as the page is published.

Generally speaking, your meta title should be kept relatively short (no more

than 60-80 characters) and should include the two-to-three keyword phrases

you are specifically trying to optimize the page for.

Meta Page Description

Some may argue how much this affects SEO but there are other benefits to

writing a good meta page description as well. Google will only display the

first 156 characters (including spaces) of your page description so it's best

to use that as your maximum length.

Your page description text should read well, include your primary keyword

phrase at minimum and be somewhat exciting. The page description will

generally be shown to searchers just beneath the clickable title. If your

description tells of a benefit or evokes curiosity in the reader, you will

enhance your ability to get visitors.

Meta Keywords

Most will tell you that meta keywords are worthless when it comes to SEO and

I would tend to agree. However, if you are going to add meta keyword

information I would recommend that you keep the amount to no more than

about five terms in total.

It's bad practice to add dozens of meta keywords to each page and you may

actually get penalized for doing so.

On Page Content

Your on page content should be unique to your website if at all possible and

should also include the keyword phrases you are targeting. You don't need to

worry about the specific "keyword density" anymore as that is mostly a thing

of the past but it does help to include the terms you are specifically targeting

at least once.

Your Web Page URL

If your website architecture allows you to control the name of each page, it's

best to see that it includes your primary keyword phrase

If you were targeting the term, "search engine optimization," for example, you

might cause the url to be: domain.com/search-engine-optimization or even

domain.com/search-engine-optimization.html

Both examples work quite well so use whatever version is easiest for you to

achieve.

Your Web Design

You may be surprised to see "web design" included in this list but it can

affect your SEO in a variety of ways:

• Your design should be attractive and professional so as to keep your

visitors on your site as long as possible .

• Your coding should be as "clean" as possible and should validate with

the "W3C validation tool" whenever possible.

• Your images and coding should be optimized so as to maximize the

speed of your site. This is good for both SEO and human visitors... no one

likes to needlessly wait.

On Page Link Text

As you can control your on page link text, you can increase your optimization

for a term by using the term in the text link that points to your other page.

The gain is generally considered minimal so this should only be done

sparingly and only when the keyword phrase is relatively short.

Links Pointing To Other Sites

This topic may surprise you but most SEO Consultants agree... the search

engines' believe that no one website is the "be all, end all" authority on a

topic and therefore expect a website to link to others on the same topic.

Of course, there is a downside to this practice… you may find that the visitor

leaves and never comes back. An intelligent strategy is to link to

informational only sites, like Wikipedia, that do not provide competitive

products or services.

Visit Duration

Many search engines now track how long your visitors remain on your site.

The longer the average is, the more apt the search engines are to believe your

site is relevant to the keyword phrase that brought them to your web page in

the first place.

Visit Depth

In addition to visit duration, they can also track how many pages of your site

the visitor looked at before leaving and which specific page they exited from.

You can see this data for yourself when viewing your web stats and can use

the data to help you improve your visitor's experience.

Page Load Speed

I touched on this when I spoke about web design but your page load speed is

also affected by the speed of your web hosting. It may not be a major factor,

but the search engines are paying attention to how long your pages take to

load.

It makes sense, really. The search engines do their best to deliver the best

possible visitor experience and if your pages take forever to load, it's easy

to conclude that many are probably irritated as a direct result.

If you address the majority of the topics contained in this article, you'll be

on your way to well-optimized pages. With a strong SEO framework, you'll

find that your off page optimization efforts yield better, and quicker results

The Importance Of Building Quality Backlinks

If you've studied SEO for any length of time, you know that there are things

you must do to your webpages themselves, called "on page optimization," and

things external to your website, called "off page optimization."

While there are a number of tactics that fall into the off page optimization

category, the most important is the building of quality backlinks. A backlink

occurs whenever an image, a piece of text, or your full website url is linked

"back" to your site from some other.

The best links are those that are "one-way," meaning that a site links to you

but you do not link back to them. It can be beneficial to "trade links" (called

reciprocal linking) with another webmaster for the purpose of gaining

website traffic but it's not a strategy that will improve your search engine

rankings or SEO.

As each page of your website should be optimized for 1-3 keyword phrases,

it's best to build "anchor text links" (aka text links, hypertext links, hyper

links, contextual links) that include the keyword phrases you are targeting.

The more links you build, the better your ranking will be for the terms

contained in the links.

Here's a perfect example of this in real life:

If you search Google.com for the term, "click here," you will find a page that

gives access to the free Adobe Reader (a page off of Adobe.com) ranked in the

first position.

This is an interesting/valuable observation as their page is not optimized for

this keyword phrase at all. You won't find it in their Page Title, their Meta

Page Description, or anywhere on the actual page itself.

Then how is this page ranked in the top spot for this term?

It's happening for one reason, and one reason only… a huge amount of

backlinks have been built by webmasters from around the world, that link to

this page. Want to guess what keyword phrase they've used when creating

their links? That's right... they're linking the term,

This shouldn't be taken to mean that you should abandon your on page

optimization efforts, but it does reveal the power of anchor text backlinks.

The more links you build to your pages that include your targeted keyword

phrases, the more likely your pages are to rank well for the terms... it's just

that simple.

SEO Tips For Small Business Owners

While there are a variety of ways to increase targeted website traffic, every

business owner should consider optimizing their website for the search

engines.

Instead of putting all of your eggs in one basket, it's best to drive website

traffic through several sources. This way, you can cast a wider net, resulting in

more traffic, and track the efficacy of each source.

Before you begin, you should understand the core concepts of Search Engine

Optimization (and Search Engine Marketing). In order to increase your

website traffic and attract qualified prospects, you need to understand three

things:

1. Everything related to SEO starts with an understanding of what a

"keyword phrase" is.

Anytime someone conducts a search on Google, or another search engine, they

enter some text to start their search. In SEO terms, the entered text is called a

"keyword" or "keyword phrase."

If you know what keyword phrases your prospects are entering when looking

for the type of information, products or services you offer, you will know what

phrases to optimize your web pages for.

2. Websites are not indexed or ranked by the search engines... each web

page is indexed and ranked independent of any other.

This is commonly misunderstood but so vital to understand! Just because you

have one web page that ranks really well in the search engines, that doesn't

mean that your others will also rank well.

Each page of your website must be uniquely optimized for a handful of

keyword phrases… keyword phrases that are searched upon and those likely

to attract your targeted audience.

If you pay close attention to the optimization of each page, you should see a

dramatic improvement in terms of search engine placement.

3. Like it or not, you're competing against others!

Some have a harder time with this concept than others but the truth remains

the truth... in order to get your web page listed on page one of Google, you

have to kick one of the currently listed web page's off!

This is valuable information because it will help you understand what you

must do to achieve the ranking you're after.

Thorough analysis of the web pages currently listed for a particular keyword

phrase will tell you how hard it will be to overtake one of them. You need to

pay close attention to a number of elements including:

• How well is their page optimized for the keyword phrase?

• How old is their domain (the older the better)?

• How many links can be found that point to the page (the more the

better)?

While there are other elements involved, these three are of primary concern.

If you find you can outdo your competitor's web page in at least two of the

three areas mentioned, you can probably kick them off the page and take their

place.

After ensuring you are optimizing for a keyword phrase (or phrases) that are

likely to bring you the kind of traffic you want, you'll often find it is the

quantity of backlinks that make the real difference

Of course, the quality of the backlinks is important too but if you are going to

concentrate on one objective, it should be the building of links. Ensure your

text links use the keyword phrases you are optimizing for and you'll find you

quickly climb the ranks of the search engines.