What keywords do people query in Google, MSN and Yahoo search engines to find content on your site? These are the words you want to use. It's all about "keyword analysis," the process of finding the keywords that best help searchers find your site. There are several tools that can help you achieve the best results. Keyword values are defined by the number of Web sites competing for them and the volume of the searches performed. The more searches made each day, the more traffic the keyword brings to the top ranked sites. Prior blogs linked to the …

Those of you who travel will likely relate to Christopher Hart's post. He makes several parallels between customer service in an airport and SEO. "Similar to the poor experience at the airport check in, ask yourself if your site's users are getting the same poor experience when they reach your Web site," he writes. "Remember SEO means optimizing your online digital business initiative for your users' experience. You want to make them happy." The parallels Hart makes between airports and SEO are clear. For starters, long lines equal poor server performance and slow page load times. Asking the …

Yes, Flash makes a site interactive. On the other hand, Google, MSN and Yahoo search engine crawlers rarely index pages built on the technology. You want to engage your customers and build brand awareness to generate leads or sell products, so what should you do? Eric Papczum believes it is possible to have a Flash-heavy site and still be effectively indexed by search engines, but it may take a little extra work on your part. Web site designs might be getting fancy, but search engine spiders still like reading text. Papczun steps you through several ways to use …

New York-based Conductor, which provides organic search solutions, released a report this week suggesting only 8% of consumer-facing Fortune 500 brands, such as AT&T, Verizon and Wal-Mart Stores, demonstrate a medium-to-strong presence for the SEO keywords they buy. Given the resources dedicated to competing in paid search, the study reveals many are ineffective when it comes to leveraging their brands in organic search. Let's face it. Many big brands don't typically put much thought into SEO. Historically, it never seemed necessary as long as their brand names turned up in the first few listing of the search engine …

It seems like a simple idea, but it might be time for a landing page makeover. Roberta Rosenberg reviews possible challenges and suggests ways you can improve conversion rates. She also steps you through a marketing plan to help achieve better results from the get-go before spending one unnecessary "dime" (a thought must be more than a penny these days). In a prior linked post, Rosenberg gives you a dozen real-life examples of landing page makeovers, where she suggested text and graphic changes to maximize impact.

The conversion of video and SEO should prove successful for the partnership between Yellowbook.com and YouTube announced this week because it provides another distribution path for the small-and-medium size business videos it produces, according to Mike Boland. This idea of combining video and an SEO strategy will gain momentum as more local businesses realize the low barrier to advertising with video, Boland writes. "Generally, the conversation in local video is evolving beyond who shoots the video and how it's done, to questions of where it shows up and how it targets the right local users," he adds. …

It appears the Internet caters to more liberal than conservative thinkers. So says analysis from Sage Lewis, citing stats from Rubicon Consulting and his own research. "If you have a product or service that caters to issues that Democrats care about, you'll probably have an easier time gathering interest and links than a business that serves a Republican audience," he writes. Lewis also suggests that webmasters look to Obama's online campaign for inspiration. With Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, acting as coordinator of online organizing, Web sites were built to foster interaction and community. "The next time …

Jonathan Mendez highlights a paid search campaign J. Crew is running inviting searchers to "Get the Look Michelle Obama Wore on The Tonight Show Only from J.Crew." Although it is one of the "smarter campaigns I've seen lately," Mendez believes "it could be improved by adding a button with the call to action, or at least an underlined text link." What did J. Crew do right? "A great job with the title and descriptions," he writes. "The landing page is also very good. It is simple, clean and clearly/immediately reveals the outfit and the pricing."

Budgets are tight, but you have been saddled with the task of optimizing a company's Web site. You might be thinking: Where do I begin and how to propose the service? Eric Landers has the answers, stepping you through the process of educating the boss or potential customer, drafting the proposal, and estimating the project or contract. The proposal document should outline your entire approach to an SEO project. Landers suggests including project objectives, goals, strategies, target audience, keyword and competitor research, list of additional research requirements, assignments of responsibilities, and an overview of the project.

Understanding these 10 SEO techniques could help you increase your chances of returning higher on the page in search engine queries. They include title tag, meta tag, heading tags, alt tags on images, title tags on links, XML sitemap, relevant content, link building, social media, and a few don'ts. Selene M. Bowlby suggests against using too much Flash in your Web site because many search engines cannot read the content. Although there has been talk of advancements in this area, Bowlby doesn't believe enough has been done to improve the process of crawlers finding content in Flash-built sites. …