• Are hyphens better for separating keywords in your URI (Uniform Resource Indicator)?
• If so, why not separate words with an underscore?

NOTE: Many use the term URL (Universal Resource Locator), which has been deprecated. Old habits die hard. URI is the term for the portion of a Web page’s name after the domain.

Who wins as “Best Keyword Separator” is a contest SEOs and Webmasters want to know in order to optimize websites for search engines and for users. Understanding search algorithms is an ongoing game, for sure. Knowing what’s best for people (your audience) should be thrown into the ring to determine the winner.

The issue of hyphens or underscores in file names has been discussed and debated for years.

Does the hyphen, aka a “dash,” make any difference to the search engines?

More importantly…

Does a hyphen or an underscore make a difference to readers?

Vanessa Fox Answers Hyphens or Underscores Question

Vanessa Fox answered the following question by Leslie Youngstrom (@LeslieY on Twitter) for WebMasterRadio.fm Office Hours show on March 5, 2009:

@vanessafox Would love to hear a definitive answer on whether to use hyphens or underscores in filenames for best SEO. Research available?

The following is a truncated summary (not verbatim transcript) of Vanessa Fox’s gracious and sage answer:

If all else being equal, does Google not give extra weight for ranking for hyphens vs. urls.

What is in url does influence extra weight into the site. What is in your URL does influence the anchor text for linking. Also, a lot of people will click on links expecting to see content based on the keywords in the URL.

If someone is linking to you, when keywords are separated by hyphens, they are seen as distinct.

Underscores may be seen in a similar way. Google has said they are looking into it – that they will start looking at underscores the same as hyphens. But I doesn’t know for sure if they have implemented this.

The reason, originally, that underscores weren’t the same as hyphens is that Google was built by programmers. They thought of underscores as joining words.

Having keywords and hyphens in URLs is important from a user experience perspective. You want the highest click-through rates. If you have keywords in your URLs, you give people an indication of what they are going to see as they click through. Hyphens do a good job of separating words. Underscores are often not seen, and users wonder if it’s a space or an underscore, because links get underlined. Readers may not get the URL right. So from a usability perspective, use hyphens.

It’s the same amount of extra work to take two or three or four of the main keywords and put them in the URL. It doesn’t take extra work to put in the hyphens.

Studies have found people are more likely to click on a short URL. Go ahead and use hyphens.

Visit Vanessa Fox’s site for Office Hours podcasts. Once latest podcasts are posted, you’ll be able to listen to her answer.

Did you catch how Leslie phrased her question – “definitive answer” and “research available?”

Vanessa’s answer gave good reasoning for best practices. She provided insight about usability and what’s best for users.  We all wish Google, Yahoo! and Live Search would answer DEFINITIVELY! Part of the answer may be subjective, however. I decided to see if there are any definite results or research.

Are Hyphens more Usable?

Vanessa pointed out that the majority of websites underline links in their body copy. Users are confused when they see a page name that has underscores, which show up right next to and just above the underline.

People wonder if the underline is a space.

If underscores confuse, why put them there?

POINT: Remove any aspect of confusion in your page names.

Page Name Study

I recall usability studies that show users click through to pages with keywords separated by hyphens more than underscores. It’s also been shown that people are more likely to share and link to sites with hyphens in their domain name. I didn’t find the exact studies on these points. Interestingly, an eyetracking study by Microsoft (PDF) showed the following:

People spend 24% of their gaze time looking at the URLs in the search results.

That means people are spending time looking at your page name! So, we know it matters.

Seniors – Hyphens Study

Jakob Nielsen wrote an article about usability for senior citizens in which he explains that seniors have trouble with search engines and Web forms:

We saw users thwarted because they typed hyphens in their search queries, and punished because they used hyphens or parentheses in a telephone or credit card number.

Ah… Of course! We naturally type the hyphen as a separator. We (old and young alike) don’t naturally type the underscore.

SEO Value of Hyphens

Concensus of “repeat opinion” is that hyphens have an SEO value. Why? We know hyphens are seen as word separators. We don’t know, for sure, how Google, Yahoo! and Live Search interpret underscores.

Google’s does give their recommendation for URL structure in their Help pages.

Consider using punctuation in your URLs. The URL http://www.example.com/green-dress.html is much more useful to us than http://www.example.com/greendress.html. We recommend that you use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs.

Vanessa Fox wrote about best practices for image filenames on Jane and Robot. She discusses the issue in the following paragraph:

Make image filenames descriptive

If your filename includes multiple words, use hyphens to separate them (search engines tend to see a hyphen as a separator and an underscore as a joiner (so lavendar_plant would be seen as one word and lavender-plant would be seen as two).

The following is from April 2006 from Matt Cutts’ blog, Google’s chief engineer:

And speaking of putting a dash in URLs, hyphens are often better than underscores…

Hyphen-Underscore confusion elevated after July 2007 when Google announced it was reading hyphens the same as underscores. However, Matt Cutts told us a month later that it was not yet in effect.

It’s now 2009, and the discussion and confusion continue.

Recent Research about Hyphens & Underscores

The latest post with research and ongoing discussion I found was on WebProWorld from January 19, 2009 – Whish is Better for SEO – an UNDERSCORE or HYPHEN?

Read and draw your own conclusions. The WebProWorld article doesn’t show conclusive research, however.

One opinion is worth repeating:

I have seen a lot of sources conduct basic tests to try to determine which method is better (such as the test at URLs (Update)) but most of these tests are from 2007 or before. Personally, though, I tend to be conservative and if a particular method has a historical track record of being well supported, I tend to stay with it until something comes along which is demonstrable as being an improvement.

I kept thinking about Leslie’s desire for research.

Testing How Google, Yahoo! & Live Search “Think”

Search engine result pages (SERPs) help us see how search engines think. We can’t do a Vulcan Mind Meld with the search engines on how they take in information. But we can see how they spit it out. I tried to tap into Google, Yahoo! and Live Search to see how they think about hyphens and underscores.

The following shows SERPs for various forms of “insurance rates” in the Big 3 search engines:

SERPs were different for the following:

• insurance rates – no space between keywords
• insurance-rates – hyphen between keywords
• insurance_rates – underscore between keywords
• “insurance rates” – no space, in quotation marks to return exact phrase
• “insurance-rates” – hyphen, in quotation marks to see if hyphen also returned exact phrase
• “insurance_rates” – underscore, in quotation marks to see if underscore returned exact phrase
  
• insurance+rates – plus sign between keywords to eliminate unrelated results

Conclusion?

Google says they are interpreting the underscore as a word separator. If they have already implemented it, their SERPs don’t show this change. Other search engines may have as well. But if the SERPs show how they think, this research shows search engines don’t think of hyphens and underscores in the same way.

1. Search results for exact phrases (keywords within quotation marks) display almost the exact same results as keywords separated by hyphens.
2. Search results for keywords separated by underscores are not displayed in the same way.

We know that users are equality important, or at least they should be. People understand dashes as natural word separators. Let your readers’ desires help guide your decision about using hyphens vs. underscores. Do whatever you can to improve the user experience with your site.

Take a look around. What do you see in most URIs?

Who Won?
I vote for hyphens as “Best Keyword Separator.”

Should you change your URI structure?

1. Don’t change your page names to hyphens if you already have underscores, unless you are doing a site redesign and are already planning on doing a lot of 301 redirects. We don’t know for sure if you will see a “lift” in the search engines. Search engines will then need to recrawl and reindex the changed URLs.
2. Do consider hyphens as keyword separators for new websites and future pages .

Please share your research, opinions and conclusions. The contest about hyphens vs. underscores will surely continue.

This is not just another chart. It contains rules and tips for how to play a winning game of SEO and Internet Marketing in 2009.

ProspectMX rolled out one of the best one-page overviews of the keys to understanding the latest game changer – Universal Search.

Google’s Universal Search model is rocking the SEO world as search engine optimizers adjust to the rules of the new game.

Tired of hearing the word, “game changer?”

If you’re into SEO, get used to it. The game changes, constantly. 2009 marks big changes to how Google algorithms (their internal rules) determine which Web pages and sites are popular and relevant.

ProspectMX’s chart is a cartoonish Clif Notes version of a Universal Search Optimization rulebook.

“It’s not just about content anymore.”

Learn how to play the Internet Marketing game by adding additional players to your SEO content team. Semantic keyword-rich text that is relevant to searchers and readers now requires a “team” that includes multiple forms of media and Web content:

• Video
• News & Press Releases
• Images
• Local Reviews
• Product Data Feeds
• Accessible Content

Download the PDF version of chart for tips on implementing a successful search engine optimization strategy. You must remember this key universal rule:

“All types of web content will begin to appear on page one – not just web pages.”

Universal Search Chart Print Settings

Print the Universal Search Optimization Chart as a checklist for your SEO efforts. It’s worth one sheet of paper to print a hard copy. Note, however, that the downloadable PDF settings may not print entirely on one sheet of paper by default.

Go green as much as possible, and take a moment to change the default settings, if necessary.

1. Look at your Preview pane in your print settings control panel.
2. If you a page width larger than 8.5×11, uncheck the “Choose Paper Source by PDF page size. (Shown below.)

The Preview pane should display the proper dimenstions to print the chart on one piece of paper:

Whallah!

Thank you, ProspectMX, for a creative and fun game book.

Your Universal Search Optimization Chart should spark creativity to make Conversational SEO even more fun! Your tips show us how important it is to engage and rank using many forms of content.

You hit a home run!

NOW is the time to make a list, and check it twice! Keep on your SEO Santa hat. If you wait until the Fall of 2009 to put your Christmas content online, you’re too late. It takes a few months to rank a page well for chosen keywords. Christmas keywords are very competitive, so it takes even longer.

E-commerce store owners have to think much farther ahead in the calendar than brick-and-mortar retailers. Walk-in retail stores are currently planning for Spring. Online stores MUST…

Begin planning for Christmas immediately after Christmas!

The online Christmas shopping season officially begins in November. Will your website be found by day-after-Thanksgiving shoppers? They will be typing their desires into search engines and receiving millions of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). A search for “christmas gifts” returns 29.3 million results!

Obviously, “christmas gifts” is a highly-competitive term, and you’ll want to plan for and optimize for a term that is not in such high demand. However, this illustrates the key importance of planning 2009 Christmas SEO NOW!

Below are a few suggestions to fast forward your 2009 Christmas SEO:

Research Christmas Keywords NOW!

Research keywords for which you want to rank next Christmas. Selecting the right keyword phrases is a top priority. You want phrases for which people are searching. Now is the ideal time to start researching Christmas-related keywords.

Current Keyword Research = How Christmas Shoppers Think

Do-it-yourselfers can use Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool. The following shows results for “christmas gifts” on December 30, 2008:

Wordtracker displays 100 related keywords and the estimated daily search volume for each phrase. Shown above are the top 13.

Why Research NOW?

Wordtracker’s “sampling” represents searches for the last 160 days (just over 5 months). Data from right before Christmas represents how people are searching for holiday gift giving.

For example, people are NOT searching for “top 10 Christmas gifts” directly after Christmas. Wordtracker’s database of averages will drop each passing day for Christmas-related keyword phrases.

Assume you wait to do your keyword research in July 2009. You will NOT see accurate data and averages for how people were searching for “christmas gifts” during the 2008 shopping season. Do your research NOW to plan your SEO for Christmas 2009.

Redirect Christmas 2008 Product Pages

Do not simply delete your latest Christmas product pages. If you delete your old pages, users will get a 404 error – “Page Not Found.”  You might as well tell shoppers not come to your store!

Use 301 Permanent Redirects.

Redirect your pages with a 301 permanent redirect to other pages in your site. This boosts rankings of the target page. Consider the following to determine where to send visitors who may have found or who have bookmarked your 2008 holiday product page(s):

• Redirect to pages with similar product offerings.
  Transfer link juice by redirecting holiday product pages to other internal pages. Don’t just redirect to the home page, which usually has a lot of ranking anyway.  Consider… if you have a Christmas Gift Bundle with a combination of products you don’t offer outside of Christmas, redirect to the most popular product in the bundle. Boost the rankings for that product page.
• Redirect to your 2009 Christmas pages.
  Put on your creative-thinking Santa hat while remembering that your 2008 page will have higher ranking than your 2009 page. Build link juice by redirecting to pages for next Christmas season.

Reference this guide to 301 redirects.

REMINDER: Update your sitemaps (for your website and XML sitemap).

Prepare 2009 Christmas Website Copy

Get your 2009 Christmas pages online to allow plenty of time for Google to index them. Select 2-3 keyword phrases per page, and write your website copy.

Put your chosen Christmas keywords in your:

• Titles, keeping title tags unique for each page.
• Meta Descriptions, knowing this is the copy that displays in the search engine snippet.
• Header Tags (H1, H2, H3)
• Body Content / Copy
• URLs (if you have search-friendly URLs which you can rewrite)
• Internal Anchor Text when linking to the Christmas copy from other pages.
• External Anchor Text when linking to the Christmas product pages from other websites.

Once again, remember your XML Sitemap!

Let your 2009 Christmas copy gain ranking!

SEO now to ensure product pages will be ranked for 2009 Christmas gift-giving lists!

Christmas SEO List

Of course, you’ll add to your Christmas SEO list as the year progresses:

• Get backlinks from related companies, suppliers and other quality websites.
• Participate in Social Media to be part of the Christmas gift-giving conversation.
• Comment on blogs where your target audience hangs out.
• Send specials to your email and RSS subscribers.
• Use matching keywords in PPC campaigns.
• Measure conversion, test, and experiment with all of the above!

You still have on your SEO Santa hat, right? Use a little bit of your jolly creativity (and current 2008 ranking) to consider one more holiday offer…

Offer Post-Christmas & New Year’s Specials

Turn your 2008 Christmas product pages into post-Christmas & New Year’s sales machines.

There’s no need to change the product body copy. Simply cut the price and add a graphic with a $ or % discount, a 2-for-1 offer, or free shipping to kick off 2009!

Jump into 2009 by turning your Holiday Gift Bundles into New Year’s Specials!

You’ll want to set a deadline for these specials. Then you can redirect the pages as suggested above.

Two Days of Search Training that will make you so good it will be Scary

It worked! I spent two days in training, almost living and breathing search. I gained knowledge that will help elevate my clients’ rankings, and I am no longer scared! Why?

Scary? SEO?

SEO can be scary! Keeping up with Google algorithm changes and new Google tools and services is enough to scare the pants off anyone thinking about search engine optimization. THEN, throw in Yahoo! and MSN Live and figure out how to optimize your website for each search engine. EEEEEK! It’s like walking through a haunted search house. Beware!

Witches brew new concoctions in “Search cauldrons” creating a whole new recipe for Search Optimization by throwing in dashes of Social Media. Social Media and SEO have changed the landscape of marketing and how businesses operate. SEO gremlins and goblins now haunt business owners all year long.

It’s scary to think about it all!

Knowledge removes Scary from SEO.

Scary SEO, sponsored by Dave Snyder and Jordan Kasteler of Search & Social, took the scary out of SEO. Their hands-on training delivered valuable knowlege, making the conference scary good!

The “mini” approach to the conference made it less scary with only 50 attendees. We sat around tables of 8, an ideal setup for Q&A sessions and discussion workshops. We opening discussed SEO tactics, asked each other questions and shared tips, tools, secrets.

SEO and Internet Marketing Rockstars shared openly (especially since we signed an NDA), and they mingled with “attendees from all levels of experience. There were no VIP tables. Dave and Jordan ensured we all felt like VIPs!

Speakers’ Tricks & Treats

Speakers handed out tricks and treats in each session. (Read more about Scary SEO Speakers.) Here are some treats that were live broadcast on the new IMBroadcast.com. (Sorry, can’t share the tricks learned during the Q&A. We signed an NDA.)

• Jeff Quipp - Jeff looked into his crystal ball to share about the future of Search, including how search engines personalize Search:
  • Search engines will know who your friends are and will reorganize the search results in response to their preferences and reviews.
  • Quality of content will matter more in the future.
  • SEOs must become content and usability experts. Links and on-page factor will be important, but user behavior will be more important.
  • Google is unlikely to be displaced as king.
• Carolyn Shelby - CShel shared key insights about design and coding to improve SEO efforts:
  • Automation - Build as much on-page optimization into your templates as possible.
  • Legislation - Create a Policies & Enforcement Book that is your Constitution or Business Plan for your website.
  • Information beautification & overwhelmation of the user nation - Design!
    • Use clear calls to action.
    • Don’t overwhelm users with too many options.
    • Remember different types of users.
• Jordan Kasteler - SEO geek stuff doesn’t have to be geeky, so Jordan broke it down into understandable morsels.
  • Use a strict document type for clean markup, and aim for a low code-to-text ratio. You’ve heard of the KISS principle. Well, decrease your file sizes! My takeaway - Keep It Clean!
  • Work off only one domain, aka canonicalization. Use 301 redirects, always!
  • URLs with keywords have a higher ranking.
  • Use SEOBrowser.com to view a site and see how bots are accessing content of that site.
  • I’m Looking forward to his presentation with links to tips for FLASH SEO optimization, use of AJAX, and other SEO resources.
• Loren Baker - Link building alone can be scary, and Loren turned fears into actionable steps.
  • Place links where you will get an action. Link with the intention to convert.
  • Build links to attract relevant traffic, not for Google. Buy a link if it fits.
  • Get authority site links, yet don’t discount a PR 1 link. A PR 1 today might be PR 8 in a few years!
  • Become an authority. Get blogging now, and participate in industry blogs.
• Brian Chappell - From widgets to linkbait to link buying, Brian enhanced our understanding and confidence.
  • Wrong tactics in link building can crush a company. Weigh the risk vs. reward.
  • If you get kicked out of Google, file for a reinclusion request.
  • Linking is about psychology and relationship building.
  • Never Digg your own stuff. Always use multiple social networks, e.g. StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit. Make it easy for people to share with sociable widgets for blog posts.
• Brian Carter - Comedy was interlaced with tips for getting online results faster! Brian applied his keynote speech about business optimization to PPC campaigns.
  • Identify your goal.
  • Establish a measurement.
  • Know where you are.
  • Plan strategy and resources.
  • Let results guide progress.
  • Takeaways:
    • Be creative.
    • Kill what doesn’t work!
• Brandy Eddings - No chaos! Brandy shared how to build AdWords accounts in an organized manner for a higher quality score and lower cost per click.
  • Choose keywords for one ad group at a time.
  • Write ad copy one at a time. Don’t mix them together.
  • Write copy to focus on that group of keywords.
  • Make landing pages designed for specific keywords.
• Brian Chappell - His reputation management focus was on “monitoring your brand.”
  • Don’t rely solely on Google Alerts. Google is not all that matters, and the alerts only come as soon as Google crawls it.
  • Monitor your reputation with various RSS feeds: images from Flickr (see RSS icon at top of Address Bar for “blackberry storm,” Google Blogsearch, Bloglines, Technorati Search (see Subscribe RSS icon). Monitor comments from blogs with Backtype.
  • Takeaway – There are many ways (free and paid) to monitoring reputation. Whatever your budget, you need to be listening!
• Rhea Drysdale - Oh, boy! Rhea showed us the hoops one can jump through to ruin a company’s reputation.
  • Mitigate, take proactive action, to soften the blow if someone tries to actively attack you online.
  • Start creating your social profiles now; squat on your brand name, derivatives of your domain name. Buy your own “hate” sites, and negatively rank them. Do it NOW!
  • Give people a resource to express their experience. Setup a blog and/or a SuggestionBox.com site.
  • Reputation Management, overall, is nothing more than customer service. Satisfied customers will go to bat for you & help protect your brand.
• John Carcutt - Social Media Sucks!
  • John answered the question, “What does Social Media have to do with my site’s organic rankings?”
    • There’s a direct correlation – Unique quality content. Quality target inbound links.
  • Social Media Optimization (SMO) is what you do on your site to add features of Social Media, (on-site activity). Adding social features to your site should be geared to helping your users add unique content to your site, User-Generated Content (UGC).
  • Social Media Marketing (SMM) is generating quality inbound links to your site using the same standards you would for a traditional linking campaign (off-page factors).
• Jeff Quipp - Jeff delved further into Social Media and Search to explain various types of content and how they work together.
  • Benefits include a large number of diverse incoming links.
  • Write resource and educational posts routinely, and submit them to Social Media sites that are DOFOLLOW.
  • Content is fundamental for success in Social Media. Read 12 Common Blogging Mistakes To Avoid.
• Brian Chappell - SMO tactics included a real-world example of viral seeding.
  • Content goes viral via various platforms. Twitter retweets, Tumbler reblogs, StumbleUpon thumbs, emails get forwarded, etc.
  • Know the psychology of the market. Find verticals for your target audience.
  • Use good content. Drop a “Top 10″ list article to attract people.
  • People don’t link to ecommerce sites. Build a micro-site strategy, and host on a blog or micro-marketing site.
  • You have to keep creating stuff.
• Dave Snyder - Dave opened horizons by stressing the need for analytics.
  • For every dollar you spent on an analytics tool, you should be spending $5 in people to analyze those tools. The most valuable tool is the person doing your data mining.
  • Spend at least an hour a day inside analytics to see what is going on for your site.
  • Don’t put all your analytics eggs in one basket. Use multiple platforms.
  • Approach the data away from numbers. Listen to your users. Conduct a focus group.
• Rhea Drysdale - More analytics training focused on ranking models and the future of search metrics.
  • Future search and ranking factors will include:
    • Links
    • User behavior probability
    • TrustRank – separate good pages from spam, links pass trust of the originating site
    • BrowseRank – user behavior data (only MSN Live)
  • Google Website Optimizer is a powerful tool to improve content and site. Doubling conversion can be less costly than doubling traffic.
  • Reached limit of improvements on a page, then bring in focus groups for new and fresh ideas.
• Chris Hart - Project management and educating clients is Chris’ role at Bruce Clay, and he let us in on the strategies.
  • SEO is about properly doing business online. It needs to be part of integral business plan.
  • It’s about constantly monitoring what you are doing online.
  • It costs 3-4 times more money to redo a website rather than do it right the first time.
  • Your website is a full-time job. You need to fully commit time to SEO, your content, and your online business.
• Pamela Lund - Her talk on project management focused on client relations, including how to deal with unhappy clients.
  • Be realistic with deadlines.
  • Educate your client on what you’re doing. Over-communicate.
  • Approach concerns and issues with actionable steps: “These are the things I’m going to do and what you’re going to do…”
  • Don’t get in a bad cycle of giving away things for free.
• John Carcutt - More discussion focused on business relationships:
  • Focus on the people involved. Projects will succeed or fail based on relationships between people.
  • Primary key: Figure out the goals of the project!
  • Prioritize project needs based on goals.
  • Discuss issues and make decisions based on a framework of those goals.
  • Set, track and adjust goals.
• Carolyn Shelby - CShel covered how to outline for information architecture and content creation plans.
  • Determine the best architecture for your users.
  • Create an outline with specific definitions for site topics. Repeat – be specific!
  • Keyword research is key for your architecture.
  • Create content based off internal site logs and competitive analysis.
  • If you can’t be the first, make sure you’re the best.
  • If your site is not useful to the user, it will fail.
• Dave Snyder - Information Architecture is about “Search Friendly Information.”
  • Key components to address for every site:
    • Domain – correct canonicalization, link equity, correct use of redirects
    • Sections – SEO siloing tactics, no deep site linking, keeping conversions close to the home page
    • Categories – slicing
    • Pages – Title tags, robots crawl directives, semantic markeup, clean code, quality written content, page architecture (heading tags)
    • Media – microformats to label files, semantic tagging, keyword-rich file naming, linking to media and PDFs, ALT attributes for images
  • Read more about the making your site search-friendly with Information Environment Design.
    
  • Global information design includes your link neighborhoods. Remember who you are linking to and who is linking to you.

ADDED 10.29.08: How could I forget Great Scott of SEOmoz? Was I so captivated that I didn’t take notes?

• Scott Willoughby – Scott demonstrated the “revolutionary” new linking tool, Linkscape.
  • Linkscape gives you anchor text for incoming links to your domain, and it even lets you know each incoming link’s popularity and link juice.
  • Two new terms to learn: mozRank and mozTrust.
  • Think “competitive intellilgence.”
  • SEOMoz’ indexing of the Web is over 30B pages (mostly English, so far). Yes, there is a Moz crawler, but I couldn’t get Scott to divulge the name.

Scary SEO offered even more…. We also spent a lot of time clapping, laughing and networking!

The conference closed with a well-deserved long applause and standing ovation! Want images? View my Scary SEO photos. You’ll see that everyone had a great time!

In summary, Scary SEO training removed the “spook factor” from SEO!

Your privacy policy is your insurance that you guarantee NOT to share, divulge, sell or misuse any information you collect about each visitor to your website.

Who cares?

1. Your people!
   Your site visitors care.
   • They are on your website because they are interested in what you say, what you offer – your information, products and services. They need to understand how you plan to use information collected while they visit.
   • Your people are concerned about what is being done with their personal information.
   • They need to trust and be confident you are not being sneaky or Big Brother about their visit.
2. Lawyers.
   Lawyers care. (I won’t venture into “why.”)

People come first. However, if the lawyers feel you’re not meeting their privacy policy requirements, they will come first.

Where to you start?

I used to recommend clients run their privacy policies by their lawyers first. I have a “library” of privacy policy content samples from working in Web development in years past when I would put on my Business Law hat and “draft” one for them. (Often, that draft became final copy on their websites.)

I, admittedly, didn’t put much effort into Pixel Position’s Privacy Policy upon relaunching the site recently. Until this week, my version of privacy has been:

“If you don’t want is spread, don’t make it said.”

I made that up, but that doesn’t meet the needs of my visitors or my lawyers.

You need to consider a lot more about privacy issues! Take a look at these privacy act resources and requirements to grasp the full extent of considerations.

So you ask, “Where do I start?”

Garrett Pierson and his company just launched a Professional Privacy Policy Generator, and it’s all you need! Yes, it generates your privacy policy for you! He offered me a free trial, and I jumped on it. (Thank you, Garrett!)

Sign up. Save hours!! It takes 5-10 minutes. Here’s How It Works:

See that?

1. Create your own Privacy Policy for your needs.
2. Review it to ensure you put all the right information into the generator wizard.
3. Insert the HTML code into your website.

It’s that easy to get your own customized Privacy Policy that meets the needs of your site visitors and the lawyers.

Privacy SEO?

Should you think SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in your privacy policy? Sure, why not? “How?” you ask:

• Link to your home page.
• Use your company name in and around the anchor text of the link to your home page.
• Place a link to your Privacy Policy and your Terms of Use page in your footer.
• You may want to NOFOLLOW to your Privacy Policy, however. You’re not trying to build PageRank for this page. You’re really trying to build trust.

Conversion studies show that a link to one’s Privacy Policy on a contact form increases trust to the point that more people sign up when they feel secure enough about giving you information. SEO is also about conversion. It’s not just about search engines. Your people, your visitors come first!

Give your visitors a sense of confidence that you safeguard their information. Ensure privacy to your people!

I’m no longer “actively active” in the effort for an SEO Code of Ethics (other than with the team I work to provide services). Ethics is a personal matter and cannot be legislated. (Standards or regulation was not the point in the first place.) My hope was that a team could develop and accept a common SEO Code of Ethics that consumers could reference to understand when they are being snake-oiled. Unfortunately, anyone could simply use such a code as a marketing ploy. It, too, could be misused.

Discussion about a Code of Ethics turns into a heated discussion, it has before and still is. It feels too much like politics and religion. I vote as an independent and see both sides to many issues and find many of the issues are not issues for me. I’m a Christian but don’t push or advertise such as part of my offering. Actually, I’m embarrassed by how some operate. I read a comment about how some use Christianity as part of their marketing. ugh… Others would use a Code of Ethics as part of their marketing. This, too, is snake oil, not SEO. Politics and religion are not SEO either!

Bottom line, I’m going quiet on this topic. I respect those who are following their own SEO Code of Ethics and walking their talk. Comments closed.

SEOs unite! The SEO Code of Ethics Effort is underway!

Do you provide SEO services and serve clients or represent a company that does Search Engine Optimization and/or Social Marketing? Are you interested in being part of an effort to discuss best practices and ways to implement a voluntary SEO Code of Ethics?

Join the SEO Code of Ethics Group

If so, join our SEO Code of Ethics Google Discussion Group.

The effort needs participation and GENUINE collaboration of many members of the SEO and Social Marketing Industry.

Discussion & Approach

Discussion about an SEO Code of Ethics is not new. I could post links upon links about discussion regarding the “lack of best practices” (to say it nicely) in the SEO industry. There have been similar initiatives in the past; however, nothing has formalized due to a lack of participation and adherence by many SEOs.

Many of us are in agreement. The need for a Code of Ethics in SEO is stronger now more than ever.

One group member suggested a great approach for the discussion:

Vision: In a perfect world, what do we see this doing?

Mission: What, therefore, is the purpose in this exercise?

Deterrents: What potential problems could occur that we want to deal with now rather than later?

Strategy/Tactics: How or what would we do to accomplish our goals?

Implementation: How has it been implemented before? How can we improve upon that process?

We’re starting from the beginning in forming the approach, yet the path has already been paved. Bruce Clay’s SEO Code of Ethics leads the way as their exemplary model to follow. (Bruce Clay leads the way in SEO on many fronts!)

Voluntary – No Regulation

Can ethics be regulated? No!

Do we want regulation? No!

We’ve seen State & Federal governments try to regulate ethics and morals. It’s not possible. One has to voluntarily want to adhere to high standards.

Discussion about an SEO Code of Ethics is simply an effort to bring the issue to the forefront, not to create a governing body.

We are an impartial voice with no motives to regulate or set standards. We’re aiming for an all-inclusive approach and collaboration. We are not in this to sell services or gain linkbait!

Quality SEO & Social Marketing

The effort and discussion is an opportunity to help educate about quality SEO and best practices for Social Marketing.

The goal is to help fight against stereotypes that SEOs are snake-oil salesmen (and women) and to help educate and enlighten, to fight “entrenched misinformation” about attaining search engine ranking.

I recently met someone who said they do nothing but “black hat SEO.” At least this person was honest! Also, the individual is not selling his services. He utilizes principles to rank his sites high in the search engines for affiliate marketing. Some SEOs, however, do fit this persona, unfortunately. We’ve all received the emails that guarantee “high ranking in 24 hours” in the search engines. This is NOT quality SEO.

Someone mentioned this past week:

“Where there is a will there is a way.“

Our “will” is to help find a way for all who value and deliver quality SEO and Online Marketing services. It’s our personal promise to our customers, to work in their best interest, and to help educate about best practices.

Join the SEO Code of Ethics effort!

Songwriters understand the value of good lyrics. Where ever there is real, live music, there is good content. Musicians, for centuries, have been writing and singing songs that speak of their heart and soul. Their lyrics can have far-reaching influence.

• A popular song can put a town on the map. I recently moved to Folsom, California. People immediate connect Folsom with Johnny Cash. His At Folsom Prison song created an association that outlives him.
• A catchy tune can result in memorizing a phone number you never plan to call. Tommy Tutone’s song, 867-5309 Jenny, embedded that phone number in our brains.

Good copy is the core of a memorable song! It’s all about the content…and the jingle.

Content made the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Elvis Presley is the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. He wrote many of his own songs, yet he relied on good copywriters, I mean…songwriters, for the majority of his lyrics. Elvis’ songwriters worked behind the scenes to create recordings that will go down in history as the greatest hits of all time. Their content helped make Elvis the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

You surely know many of their works, but you probably don’t know many of their names. They all had one thing in common and one requirement when they wrote their copy – their tone and “voice” had to be like Elvis when they performed their demos.

Website content should also have a uniform voice – your unique way of expressing and delivering your message. Make your copy flow, naturally, to a beat. Forget the long drawn out sentences.

Melodic website copy is music to your visitors’ ears.

Content is the Heart & Soul of SEO

Search Engine Optimizers continually say, “Content is King!”

<response while humming Huey Lewis tune>
And from what I’ve seen, I’ve believe them. Good content keeps the heart of SEO still beatin’!

Songwriters create memorable songs that come from their heart and soul. Each page or blog post should be like one of their songs.

Write about a topic, a focused subject.
Good website copywriters are like songwriters who wouldn’t mix country, blues, pop, jazz and rap on one page. Too many topics will distract your readers and confuse the search engines.

Search engine spiders love themed pages.
They only capture the keyword morsels that are repeated, like the chorus lines of a song. They like pages with focused, themed content. Keyword-rich copy moves the heart and soul of the search engine spiders. Spiders move to your beat; they start digging your page, clapping in applause and coming back for more.

Encourage readers to link and share.
Think about the viral effect of a band’s tour. Concert attendees bring their friends and tell others, resulting in increased sales. Popular pages on your site increase your search rankings. Search engines measure your popularity by the number and quality of links to each page. Words that are linked to your pages, anchor text, is one way search engines (and people) determine the topic of that page.

Plan your Content like a Producer

Musical producers plan their content and mix of songs for each CD released.

• Each CD targets an audience.
• Producers have a content strategy that is optimized for the number of songs, length of each track, including the desired overall experience for the CD.
• Each CD has a theme. The desired mix of talent is brought into the studio to produce it.
• Some CDs take longer to produce based on the complexity of music mixes and edits.

Content strategy is one of THE most important aspects of online marketing. Plan like a producer. Take time to plan, develop and produce your content. Consider the various needs and resources required for each production. Plan your site content with a focus on:

1. Appealing to your audience, then
2. Attracting search engines spiders.

The essence of a good song includes a melody that delivers a meaningful message.

The essence of quality content on the Web is a message that adds value to the reader, the viewer, the listener.

Write quality, themed and keyword-rich content to keep the heart of SEO still beatin’!

Are we using our skills and talents to make a positive impact? Are we helping optimize society? How are we giving back and making a difference?

Is SEO “all about me?”

SEO, the process of getting websites to rank high in the search engines, is a critical component of online marketing efforts.

• We need to develop a lot of content.
• We optimize various forms of content (text, pdfs, podcasts, video) and our website(s) for universal search.
• We work to improve PageRank (authority) with Google while building up “social trust” by getting more links from other sites.
• We Blog, Sphinn, Digg, Thumb, Tweet, Snip, Share, Bookmark, Comment…

Focusing on SEO can result in tunnel vision, since a lot of this effort is “all about me!”… My website. My clients. My reputation. My content. My opinion. My pocketbook. Me. Me. Me. Remember, I’m talking to “myself” as well.

Enter Social Media…

Social Media properties are the hot topic and target of marketers. As marketers…

• We create and deliver information to influence consumers to purchase products or services.
• We deliver messages to the people who are spending time on Social Media sites.

Social Media Marketing is one way advertisers promote and gain insight on their products. (Read post on Social Media conversation and engagement.)

Social Media is important for SEO. Speakers at the SEOmoz Expert Training in Seattle this past week did a great job explaining the importance of SEO techniques and Social Media participation. One Take-away: SEOs must know how to use Social Media to go viral, to increase links and exposure to their websites.

Use. Did you pick up on that word? (I’m hearing Bill Wither’s song, “Use me” in the back of my mind as I type.) Are we using Social Media as a means to an end? Are we genuinely involved? Answer: Probably a combination of both. Unfortunately, it’s too easy to use online marketing skills to focus on self promotion.

How are you using your SEO skills?
How are you contributing to society?
Are you making a difference?

What need is met by Social Media?

Social Media communities provide places where people can be social online, where like-minded people can share, interact, mingle, explore, help and support each other. Dana Larson wrote a great article, Hierarchy of Social Media Needs, in which she lists Maslov’s list for human motivation:

• Physiological Needs
• Safety Needs
• Social Needs
• Esteem Needs
• Self-Actualization

Dana does a great job explaining how one should genuinely participate in social media. She states:

Social sites are not designed for the classic swoop-and-dump (think seagulls) tactic, so users need to be careful with how they are using social media for marketing and what kind of information to pass along to other users.

Social Media has a valuable place in SEO and in our personal lives. It fulfills many needs, and is a valuable avenue for companies to engage with customers. I know it meets many of my personal needs. I am empowered by collective thought, including thoughts of non-like minds. Both sides of the brain are stimulated, left and right. I meet people whom I would never meet otherwise, and I get to know others at a deeper level, understanding them better and appreciating their likes and dislikes. (Ooops, I’m talking about me.)

Being Social is “all about you!”

Those with good social skills are people who listen, who ask questions, who genuinely care and go out of their way for others, who put the other person first. It’s all about you! Do these traits carry over to your involvement in Social Media? Are you giving back?

Focus on Optimizing Society

There is untapped potential for using SEO and Social Media to make a difference in society. Does society gain from any of your daily SEO efforts, your participation in Social Media? Or is your sole focus on getting Diggs, Sphinns, Thumbs, Bookmarks?

Consider using some of that energy to dig deeper, to share your pocketbook and your calendar. Help optimize society with your skills and gifts.

How? It’s different for everyone. It’s easier for me to give money than to give time. Sunday’s my birthday, and I told my Mom I wanted time wrapped up with a bow. However, I decided to give away time and money instead this weekend – oh, nothing big. However, I’ve been motivated by people in my social network – those who are giving and doing more.

Start today…

Today, my husband and I participated in Impact Orangevale, an effort organized by our church to make a difference in the community. We spiffied up a local school – dug dirt, planted flowers, cut weeds, swept and cleaned up the place. We helped a local food bank and gave them almost 10 tons of food. (That’s approx. $65,000 work of food collected in one week.) We made a difference. I thought to myself, “we optimized the school and the food bank.”

Today, Chris Brogan posted an article, Solve Some Real World Problems, in which he outlines ways those of us in Social Media can make a difference. Yesterday, he tweeted about a cause to raise money to help send a young woman from Cambodia to college. Chris Brogan is making a difference. He’s optimizing society using his skills in Social Media.

Today, I met a gal, Christina McGee, who is studying microbiology. She wants to go into medicine to help people in other countries. Listening to her excitement about how she wants to work with others to make a difference inspired me. She will be optimizing society!

It’s time to get out of our (my) narcissistic fishbowls! Make a difference in the lives of others. If you know SEO and Social Media, you have valuable skills. Use your knowledge to make a difference!

Start today with Social SEO! I’d love to hear what you’ve done or want to do to make a difference, however small.

No fanfare? No hoopla? Sadly, no. Actually, Dana Larson of Top Rank Marketing made up the day on Twitter. I thought, “we could really do something with this to build awareness about SEO around the world.” We collaborated, and I purchased the domain and setup a site. However, we’ve been too busy doing SEO to develop the site and the idea any further.

I was pleased to get comments and support from two Italian SEO companies! Gracie!! SEO is International and world-wide, and the skills needed to design and develop a good site, with quality on-going content, are essential for success on the WWW.

I have no idea if National SEO Day will go anywhere. Heck, maybe we’ll do it on 09.09.09 next year! But I thought I’d use this opportunity to share a couple quick thoughts about SEO.

1. Education and understanding of SEO skills are clearly lacking in the educational system. We need qualified people to carry forward best practices.
2. There are a lot of SEO practitioners who try to “cheat” the system. Search engine algorithms have to change constantly to counter SEO terrorism, my term for “black hat SEO.”
3. The industry is filled with ego. There has been a lot of backbiting discussion online lately. I’m choosing to stay away from these conversations and disassociate. The saying “You are who you associate with” is true. I choose to remain in the field to be a light and associate with those who share a like mind to help others.
4. SEO skills are essential, and an understanding of overall online marketing best practices is key. There are a lot of good people who really want to help others and small businesses and organizations compete online.
5. It would be great to build a platform to share best practices, to have various online marketers share best practices and raise money for an annual SEO scholarship.

Do you love SEO, SEM, SMM? If so, unite! Visit NationalSEODay.com, and show your support.

So, today is 08.08.08, the first National SEO Day. It’s half over in California. (Actually, I’m posting this during a lunch break from a Leadership Conference.) Time flies, and we all are so busy. If nothing else, let’s unite and work together in love, to help others online!

Did the conference go to the “Dark Side” with Black Hat SEO?

Should there have been more advanced topics?

Was there enough White Hat SEO discussed?

The 2008 Advanced Search Marketing Expo also delivered a fast-paced, action-packed venue of topics and opportunities for networking with top-notch performers who specialize in organic Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search and Web Development.

Who won the “SMX Advanced Awards” depends on your preferred type of Search Marketing entertainment. After all, those who wear a Black, White or Gray SEO Hat are all part of the the WWW media production. If we’re not the lead role at a Search Marketing Agency, we are In-House SEOs acting as supporting actors and actresses, Copywriters developing keyword-rich scripts, or Link Baiting Publicists.

All “blockbusters” generate conversation. SMX Advanced generated a lot of talk…and talking, we have been. You can view a snapshot of Twitter conversations about SMX+Advanced on Summize (shown right).

Post SMX Advanced, critics reviewed the Seattle ‘08 production. The reviews may have generated more controversy than the conference. A lively discussion about The Dark Side was held on Bruce Clay’s blog, lead by Lisa Barone (an eloquent writer and critic). Danny Sullivan, the Producer and Director of SMX Advanced did a great job responding to the SEO controversy and demonstrated good Online Reputation Management skills.

SEO Hat Color Selections

SEO performers, Search Engine Optimizers, often refer to their trade of building organic traffic as White Hat, Gray Hat or Black Hat. Each Search Engine Marketer needs to determine what color hat they are going to wear to each WWW production. They may choose to wear different colored hats for different types of shows they attend.

SEO Definitions

Wikipedia says…

“A white hat is the hero or good guy, especially in computing slang, where it refers to an ethical hacker that focuses on securing and protecting IT systems.”

• SEO defined by Wikipedia:
  • “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords.”
• Accepted White Hat practices: Google Webmaster Central Guidelines lays out SEO guidelines accepted by the search engines.
• White Hat vs. Black Hat: Wikipedia explains the chasm between accepted and unaccepted SEO strategies.
• Gray Hat: Couldn’t find a good definition, to paraphrase: Slightly sneaking SEO that doesn’t break the Black Hat laws.

Choose White Hat SEO

SEO Hat colors come in White, Black or Gray. Most shows require white!

Most Search Marketers only have white hats in their SEO wardrobe. However, gray and black are the color of choice by a few who work in highly-competitive circumstances or with a company not worried about loosing its reputation.

Who Won at the SMX Advanced Awards?

The Search Marketing industry as a whole won! It was the best conference I’ve attended in years. The majority of the sessions I attended discussed White Hat SEO techniques and strategies. Discussion of Black Hat SEO actually proved entertaining and informative. These scenes in the SMX Advanced movie will be edited out, however.

You can read for yourself. The following sites provide PlayBill or ClifNotes versions of each session:

• SearchEngineLand: SMX Advanced ‘08: Day 1 Recap
• SearchEngineLand: SMX Advanced ‘08: Day 2 Recap
• Graywolf’s Blog: SMX Advanced 08 Recap

I started going to “industry” events in 1998 to Flash Forward conferences in New York & San Francisco. SMX Advanced of Seattle 08 outshined any of these glitzy and glamorous conferences by delivering solid content, a good story line, and a captivating “Give it Up!” finale.

The winner is…

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz for his White Hat SEO techniques and his yellow shoes!

Rand was an outstanding moderator and delivered some valuable take-aways, tips and tools for organic Search Engine Optimization.

Gotta love those yellow shoes!

Rand’s company, SEOmoz offers “PROfessional” content for members. Aside from conferences, it’s the best value for your money! Learn about their SEO tools, guides, custom Q & A, and marketplace for Search Marketing professionals.