Industry News & Trends
Can SEO "E.R." Shock Paddles Rescue Dead-on-Arrival Websites?
By Michael Murray, VP-Search Engine Marketing
Dead bodies may make for great drama on TV, but I'm not sure they're a ratings winner for natural search engine optimization.
From an SEO perspective, websites die in the hands of marketers who remain out of touch with industry trends. Similarly, they're doomed by short-sighted graphic designers and IT folks who create ugly and poorly functioning websites with no SEO life.
Search engine consultants sometimes form an "E.R." team when someone brings the next website body. Most websites are alive (they have some links, relevant text, etc.) and only need some help. On the other hand, some are dead in terms of SEO and require emergency surgery.
First, we'll look at 10 SEO viability signs of the dead SEO website patients:
Can anyone find a pulse?
Even with SEO shock paddles, our resuscitation strategy does take time. It also requires some rather frank conversations like these with new clients.
SEO doctor to patient's family:
Design architecture and sparse text
We can't say, "Do you have something against words and logic?" We opt for, "You need more text on many pages. Your source code and site structure also need some fine-tuning, including cleaning up URL displays, fixing navigation schemes, turning some images into text, shortening the page load time, moving scripts to a separate file, creating reasonable image alt attributes, ensuring consistent use of absolute links and earning a stamp of approval for WC3 compliance."
New domain and hosting snafus
We can't say, "Why didn't you buy this domain a year ago and put up some practice pages on a properly configured server?" We opt for, "Domains are better when they age like good wine and cheese. We can help you sort out your sever issues, including a common duplicate content problem and your http status codes."
Few or no inbound links
We can't say, "Did you notice that no one cares to connect with you?" We opt for, "You lack links. We're going to establish your link presence through other websites, specialty directories, newsletters, blogs, social networking profiles, news releases and more."
Anorexic internal links
We can't say, "Usability helps." We opt for, "Well-organized internal links with appropriate anchor text can influence rankings."
Limited or no website analytics
We can't say, "You really don't know how many people come to your website?" We opt for, "We can read your log files with the website analytics we arranged for our clients, set you up with Google Analytics, or help you identify an analytics solution that matches your budget."
Little emphasis on keywords
We can't say, "Do you understand your target market?" We opt for, "People search differently for products, including the various stages of the buying cycle. We'll uncover those possibilities from more places than just a keyword database."
Inability to make timely updates
We can't say, "Can we bribe you to post the recommendations you approved?" We opt for, "We need to post changes as soon as possible in order for the search engines to record the source code and content modifications. We can do them for you or work with your developer. Can you resend the access information? We can also upload an effective XML sitemap for the major search engines."
No link bait
We can't say, "Why would anyone possibly link to you?" We opt for, "Let's start by talking about some of your ideas and innovations that can become the basis of articles, a white paper or other useful information."
Conversion opportunities
We can't say, "Apparently you don't care if people call you." We opt for, "You may want to place your phone number in a more prominent location throughout the website and develop response forms that will help you establish relationships with prospects."
Desperation
We can't say, "Is this the end of the road for you?" We opt for, "Let's start with SEO basics and work with keywords and phrases that make sense given your website vital signs."
It's possible to bring SEO life back to a website that has serious search engine optimization flaws. The SEO website - a dead patient in terms of natural search engine optimization - just needs extra cooperation from everyone involved.
If you have a website that didn't factor in search engine optimization, it must go under the knife and will need some new blood. Amazingly, the look and feel of a website may not change.
If marketers want help, they need to come to grips with past failings and pledge to do whatever it takes to succeed.