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I’m going to do a case study series on a new client site, http://www.travelsintaste.com. This is Part 1.

In my career, I have spent countless hours talking with prospective clients about the importance of doing web marketing prior to your website launch (i.e. during design or redesign phase). My client did a very respectacle amount of research, market analysis and planning prior to her website launch and I would like to share some of the ways in which this dedication to planning and strategy has benefited her.

First, in creating a website marketing strategy for TravelsInTaste.com, I performed extensive keyword research. Her website is comprised of numerous related pages (restaurant listings) located in a handful of US cities. Due to the sheer size of the site and number of locations, it became clear early on that avoiding duplicate content and creating an easy-to-manage SEO strategy would be our two primary goals.

To that end, I created a “keyword mapping scheme.” (i.e. rules for assigning keywords to content pages with as little duplication as possible) As you might imagine, coming up with unique keywords for hundreds of web pages is a daunting task. To create uniqueness, I used a series of rules and variations to keywords. For instance, for New York restaurants we used New York City, NYC and Manhattan as alternate ways to describe the location. In addition, we used modifying words like romantic, top rated, exclusive, fine and outdoor to differentiate keywords like “dining” and “restaurant.”

With the keyword mapping scheme clearly stated, it became an easy task to assign keywords to different pages and create optimized content. When new pages are added, optimizing these pages becomes a much simpler task. This became increasingly important as the website when from 300 to 400 and even 500+ pages! And, as the client expands the site to include new restaurants and locations, a clear process has been put in place to make optimization more manageable.

In Part 2, I will discuss link building preparation. Stay tuned…

Recently, a client asked:

If you do image replacement on headers with css will those images be indexed by search engines?

In answer to that question, I want to discuss intent. In the Google Webmaster Guidelines, Google says:

“If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. ” (read complete discussion here)

Now, the use of CSS to hide text is listed as one possibly punishable offense by Google.  But the key phrase here, I think, is “deceptive in intent.” For instance, if you intent is to use CSS image replacement to load your pages with keywords that users will not see, then yes, you should expect to be penalized. On the other hand, if you are simply repeating your image text so that spiders can see it too, then you probably will not have a problem in the search engines.

Ultimately, determining intent is difficult - especially for a computer. If your site is otherwise search engine friendly and spam-free,  you most likely will not have any trouble in the search engines.

In implementing your CSS image replacement, please consider the following rules (rules that should be applied to all of your search engine optimization efforts):

1. Make sure your text is meaningful.
2. Don’t keyword load - use keywords sparingly and only when relevant to website content.
3. Always remember, your website is about human users first.  Use of cloaking and other deceptive devices intended to improve your search engine ranking can be extremely damaging and, in the end, may keep you from accomplishing your primary goal - to reach your target audience. 

Just finished reading How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders by Catherine Seda. The book is divided into two sections. Section one deals with online public relations and includes discussions on SEO, blogging, press releases, etc - things that would help you earn higher ranking in the search engines, as well as attracting the attention of the press. Section two is a look at online advertising and how to make it more effective for your business.

The book is a great, non-technical introduction to these topics. It is not a resource for the experienced website designer or search engine marketer - but then, it was not created for those audiences. Instead, Seda provides an overview of website marketing, online public relations and online advertising for the business owner, focusing primarily on the potential benefits of these elements.

I would recommend this book to any business person who is trying to understand how the Internet can positively impact their business.

When optimizing a website, you’ll need to first identify the keywords that are most relevant to your business and are most likely to be used by potential customers to search for you. There are a variety of tools online that you can use to come up with your list of keywords, but before you start using a tool, I recommend brainstorming a basic list yourself.

First, think of all the words and phrases you would use to describe your core services. If you sell necklaces, perhaps you’d use keyword phrases like “buy necklace” or “jewelry store” to describe your business.  Try to think of at least 10 phrases relevant to your business.

Next, use the thesaurus. While you may use “car sales” to describe your business, your customer may be looking for “auto sales” or “buy new truck.” It’s important to think about the different ways a potential client might try to find you.

Then, look at competitor sites! It’s always a good idea to know what your competitors are up to, and they may have thought of wording that you hadn’t considered.

Finally, once you’ve come up with the widest variety of possibilities on your own, then you can use an online tool to figure out how many people are searching for the keywords your chose. You can use Overture, Wordtracker, or a variety of free tools you’ll find by searching for “keyword research tool” in Google or your search engine of choice. These tools allow you to search for a keyword and find out how many people searched for it over a period of time. You can use this information to prioritize your keywords.

For instance, if 1000 people searched for “auto sales” but 10,000 searched for “car sales,” you might want to use the higher volume phrase in your optimization efforts. On the other hand, more searches means more competition and it may be harder to rank high for high volume words. Tools like Wordtrackerwill also allow you to run a competiton search to see how competitive each keyword you chose is.