Entries from Category Organic Search Optimization

A few weeks ago, we received a concerned call from one of our clients.  Apparently, they had been solicited by another company that offers similar online marketing services to Three Deep, and they were directly questioning the work we had done for them.  The solicitors did a great job of undermining our efforts by simply putting the URL through a free service called Website Grader, printing a screen shot, and clicking send.

Frankly, they made a compelling argument; the grade the site received was not great by any means, and was a definite cause for concern at a surface level.  Nobody wants to receive a poor grade.  At the same time, I was equally concerned with the implications of these results, because I personally built much of the site, entered content, and did a quality job of making the site search friendly for the their local market and the services they offer.

It looks bad, but it's not really THAT bad

I have spent many hours with this client over the past several years, working hard to make sure they were happy and that we were meeting their objectives.  So when the work that we had done on this website came into scrutiny, it hit me like a ton of bricks.   Were we not properly servicing this client?  How much work will it take to fix?

Rather than dwell on the poor score we received, I spent the next 45 minutes skimming through the criteria that this site used to grade SEO scores (honestly, I feel the criteria is very out of date and I don’t agree with much of it).  I then found the elements of the site receiving poor grades (90% of the grade comes from home page only) – “fixed” it – and reran the grading program.

Voila! In no time I had increased the score by 51%!  Now the site was no longer a laughing stock, but actually a leader among its sitegrader peers.

But what exactly changed on the site during those 45 minutes to actually make this site better for SEO?

Continue Reading Thoughts on Automated SEO Services like Website Grader →

Here at Three Deep’s offices, we are always talking about our craft and how to improve the service we provide our clients.  We are presently in the process of building out a model for how we can best serve our clients… and also educate them on how SEO best fits into their overall marketing mix.  Through much trial, continued learning, and a few hundred whiteboard sessions, we have made major inroads in establishing an equation as to where exactly SEO fits in to our clients marketing mix (the answer is everywhere).

Given all of the time that we have put into working on this equation, it’s a little surprising that we don’t have any excellent infographics to help visualize what we are working to achieve for our clients.  Fortunately, there are many bright minded and artistically gifted bloggers out there who can help fill the gap.  This weekend, our president Dave Woodbeck sent us the following graphic (courtesy of SEO superstar Matt McGee):

SEO Success Pyramid

You can read the full breakdown here, but the basic premise is that rather than relying on one or two tactics to simply try to “exploit” Google’s ranking algorithm, the most successful sites focus on building quality content that engages users, presents something of value, and is easily “linkable” from other sources.

Continue Reading SEO Success Pyramid – Strategic SEO →

Two weeks ago, I bared all and showed you our worst SEO project results. Today it’s time to brag a little about some good results. Not very timely coming mid-way through 2009, but here we lay out our best project from 2008

What was your most successful SEO project? What went right and why?

Our most successful SEO Project in 2008 was the re-launch of <redacted>.com in 2008.  This project was very complex from an SEO standpoint, because it involved merging two completely different web sites into one unified site.  Under a truncated timeline and much pressure, Three Deep was able to analyze the new site from and SEO perspective and give detailed instructions on how to structure the site for maximum SEO results.  Specifically, during the transition process, we were able to accomplish the following:

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – What Was Your Best SEO Project? →

Another question we answered during the RFP process for a potential client.  As you can see, they did their homework.  Fortunately, our answers to the question below, as well as our questions about performance based SEO and others helped us get the gig!

What are the practical search engine changes you see that are going to impact your SEO in 2009?

1) Personalization of search rankings is increasing every day.

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – Search Engine Changes in 2009? →

Several of the SEO Q&A questions coming up in future weeks come from various RFP’s that we have been asked to answer.  Now that this process is over, we are displaying some of our highest quality answers on the blog.

Worst SEO project?  What went wrong and why?

The worst SEO project Three Deep worked on last year (2008) was for <redacted>,

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – What Was Your Worst SEO project? →

This question came to me indirectly through Twitter. Three Deep is developing a good relationship with the excellent ladies at the Savvy B2B marketing blog, and in order to keep up with one another, we follow our mutual Twitter updates. When @michellelinn had a question about WordPress (which is my favorite thing in the entire world), I knew I could help. Here’s how it all went down (in true multi-channel fashion):

My website, built on WordPress, is only showing up in Bing (not Google or other search engines). Any ideas on what I can do? Many thanks!

2:18 PM Jul 1st from TweetDeck

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – Search Engines Can’t Find My WordPress Site →

Got this question from a potential client earlier this year during the RFP process, and thought it would be worthwhile to share with our readers.

What is your agency position on performance based SEO?

There are several factors that need to be taken into account when discussing performance based SEO in order to ensure that the project is successful and cost effective for both parties. 

Continue Reading SEO Q&A – Performance Based SEO →

I’m going to make an attempt at a series of posts around SEO questions/issues that often come up in my day to day workings.  If you have specific questions that you would like to have answered, please feel free to leave a comment on any SEO Q&A post, tweet @ThreeDeep or by filling out the contact form.

Q: Why do you recommend creating unique files and/or file names for each page on a site when you can just use AJAX, Flash, Lightbox or Div tags to show/hide content without refreshing the page for a better user experience?

A:  There are several reasons why you would want to paginate your content.  Here are 4 prime examples:

1. SEO is important!  You took the time to invest in an SEO consultant, now listen to their advice so that your site can be properly optimized for search.  If you don’t have pages dedicated to your keywords, how do you rank?

   Continue Reading SEO for Navigation Elements Q&A (part 1) →

Congratulations to our client Cardinal Builders for being mentioned in the upcoming issue of Replacement Contractor Magazine. Cardinal Builders will be featured in the article To Your Credit.  The story is about how contractors are quickly incorporating the new tax credits that are available to homeowners who make qualifying replacement window upgrades in 2009 or 2010 into their overall marketing strategies. View the article from Replacement Contractor Magazine featuring Cardinal Builders.

Two days after the 2009 Economic Stimulus Bill was signed into law in February, Cardinal Builders VP of Operations Mike Lelasher called Three Deep Marketing with an idea.  He wanted to put a red CNN style breaking news banner across the top the Cardinal website with the headline:

Breaking News: President Obama signs stimulus plan into law, includes up to $1500 tax credit only for windows with .30 u-value or lower. All windows Cardinal Builders offer meet or exceed requirements to earn tax credit. Click here for more information.

Continue Reading Three Deep Marketing Client Cardinal Builders Featured In Replacement Contractor Magazine. →

I have heard a lot of discussion over the last year about nebulous leads, especially in the home improvement industry. What do I mean by “nebulous?”  By definition, nebulous means indefinite.  A nebulous lead is prospective buyer for your product that happens to be early in the educational buying spectrum.  While they might not be at the stage of soliciting estimates yet, (and therefore won’t respond to traditional advertising), these prospects certainly have product needs on their mind and are gathering information preparing to do the project.  Putting systems in place that identify these potential customers presents a tremendous tactical opportunity for savvy companies to make contact with these prospects before their competitors.  These companies are then able to introduce their company and their products to these potential customers; building goodwill that can ultimately be translated into a sale when they are ready to buy.

Marketers typically identify this type of prospect by offering free information such as a whitepaper, or a free sample or through sweepstakes marketing efforts — the thought being that if an individual is interested enough to request a free window brochure, or sign up to win a house full of windows they will become a window buyer sometime in the foreseeable future.  Conventional wisdom suggests that 85% of respondents to these types of offers are prospects for the product.

Continue Reading Nebulous Leads – Can Your Company Turn Them Into Sales? →