In our next installment of optimizing Meta Data for a website, we look at the Description Tag. This tag is often the first description of a page the Search Engines and searchers will see. The Search Engines will see it when they crawl the page, and the searchers will see it when they have results displayed in the search results. If this tag is not utilized or left blank, the Search Engines will go else where on the site to find information to give to users in the search results, which means you have no control of what the searcher sees. By writing effective Description Tags, you have the chance to tell the Search Engines, and searcher what your specific page is about.

Tips for writing Effective Description Tags
When writing Description Tags, it is important to keep the searcher in mind. Writing unique and descriptive tags will help convert lookers to clickers. Research what is being displayed for your targeted keyword and then write a description that is appealing and different from the others displayed. This can be difficult so here are some quick tips to help in the process:

• Include Keywords – 2 times if possible. If two times doesn’t make sense or is not readable, don’t force it, once will do.
• Be Unique – What makes you different from your competition? Highlight these aspects in your Description Tag. It is also important to make it unique from all of the other pages on your site. Each page needs a different Description Tag.
• Be Creative – This is your chance to capture your target audience. Think about whom that is and write your tag in a way that will engage them.
• Limit to 180 Characters including spaces.

Like other Meta Tags, Description Tags are just a piece of the SEO pie. You are now one step closer to having a more optimized website.

If I had to single out the most difficult objection I hear from prospects it would be the fact that we don’t offer guarantees. Time after time, I hear a story of someone who has been burned by one of these SEO firms who “guarantees” everything under the sun and fails to deliver. Did they read the fine print that mentions the SEO firm would be selecting the keywords for the top 10 placements? For example, Mary Smith, a realtor in South Florida may expect to show up for “Boca Raton Realtor”. However, the guarantee is she shows up in the #1 position in Google for “Mary Smith realtor Florida who specializes in foreclosures on Dixie Highway in Boca Raton”. Sure it’s relevant, but is anyone going to type that into the search bar? Also, how can a company even guarantee results when they have absolutely no control over it? I still think it’s a ridiculous guarantee, no matter how obscure the terms may be.

I also see dozens of ads that say “we will submit you to 30,000 search engines!!” Are there even 30,000 engines? Wouldn’t you rather be in the top 3 engines that handle approximately 90 percent of web search traffic?

What about a guaranteed ROI? “If I am going to spend $10,000 to optimize my site, how much money am I going to make?” Because there are so many variables to consider, there is just no way to estimate your ROI. I can’t predict what position you will arrive at for your keywords. I can’t predict your click through rate based on that position. What if you are in the #1 position in Google for your desired keywords but the searcher who arrives at your site leaves within 3 seconds? Does your search engine positioning really have anything to do with ROI? When you purchased that billboard on the highway did you determine how much money you would make? Sure, I can give you an estimate of how much traffic will pass your billboard, but I can’t tell you how many drivers are going to dial the phone number they read on that particular advertisement.

The problem is that the internet is still in its infancy and there are so many people who are uneducated with the ins and outs, and do’s and don’ts of internet marketing. There is no way to determine your return on investment when you optimize your website. Optimization should be viewed as the foundation of a site, or a work in progress for future growth. And the next time someone asks me about a guarantee, my answer is going to be “I guarantee that if you select an SEO Firm who offers you a placement guarantee, you will call me in about 6 months to fix that mess!”

Landing Pages are an excellent way of driving your traffic to a particular page, and funneling your visitors to a specific goal. We design landing pages for clients and recommend them for specific campaigns and promotions. That being said, they can be time-consuming to design and code. So how can you get the greatest use out of them?

Aside from having a well-designed page and a well-targeted campaign with a clear call to action, Seasonal Pages can get you a lot of bang for your buck. The variety of seasons and possible promotions are endless, and can be quite lucrative, depending on your product. Major religious holidays, back to school, Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day are all great opportunities to give your campaign a boost. A versatile landing page can do that!

Before you begin to design the page, think about the elements that will remain stagnant throughout the seasons, and those that will have to change. The general look and feel should stay consistent, but think about a graphic or text area whose color can be changed to reflect seasonal colors. Perhaps allow for an area of the header to include a seasonal icon, so that when the time comes, you will just have to update that image. Buttons and icons within the text can also be easily switched out to match.

These graphic changes, in addition to updated, seasonal text, are a quick and easy way to get a fresh landing page in a fraction of the time. But as always, the initial design has to be smart and flexible!

Happy Mother’s Day Readers!