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There are many tools around the web that measure keyword visibility. My favorite free tool is SEObook’s Rank Checker. This tool allows for webmasters and marketers to check keyword phrase visibility across the three major search engines on the fly for multiple phrases. Features such as import make it easy to check the position of your top keywords and compare them against your competitors. If checking the visibility for only one keyword phrase, I recommend using Chrome’s SEO site tools. Be sure to disregard personal search preferences, and set the website you wish to test in the options and do a normal search on Google. The tool will highlight the website being tested and place a clear numeric next to each result. The web also includes many tools that have an associated cost. Often these tools are best to consistently measure visibility for multiple sites, a variety of search engines (by location), and obtain cleanly displayed results. Some of the tools I have used include AWR and RavenTools.

The real question for most analysts is how to read visibility reports. Not all keywords are weighted equally, and therefore all encompassing measurements can often be deceiving. As an example, 100 phrases may be tested and of those only 1 or 2 may actually have high volumes of search queries. A positive movement on the other 98 phrases could provide a false positive for visibility. This is why visibility reports should always be correlated with volume and/or organic visit data. When looking at these 3 metrics together, analysts can get a clear picture of where the largest gaps are. These gaps will help determine which keyword phrases to focus on and the type of KPIs that should be associated with transcending these gaps.

The first step, even before doing keyword research is to determine your target audience. Does your business cater only to individuals in a certain geographic area or are you looking for international traffic? The second thing that needs to be determined is exactly what your company is about, really think about what differentiates it and gives you a competitive advantage. This is one of the biggest keys in all forms of advertising and something I rarely seeing business owners thinking about. Got a good idea of what you are all about and who you want to target? Great! Let’s move on to step 2: keyword research.

I do most of my keyword research using Google tools. The reason is because that is where most people are searching, and I trust that their statistics will be the most accurate. Keyword research is about finding out what terms that are related to your business get high volumes of traffic. It’s that simple! If your site had a high PR then focusing on short term phrases will probably send the most traffic in your direction. If your site is brand new, the answer is simple; choose more long-tail phrases that include the high volume phrases. This way, your page structure and inbound linking strategies are always building upon those short high volume keyword phrases.

There is one other element that I haven’t discussed and that is competition. Competitive phrases are often difficult to rank with on a brand new site that has a low volume of traffic. Sometimes choosing a few keywords that are more descriptive and not as competitive may be a good option to gain additional traffic while you are working on the more competitive phrases. Having the supplemental traffic from these lower volume terms plus the long-tail phrases will increase your site’s traffic and in the long run put you in a good position for focusing more on the best phrases.

Looking at the big picture, it seems that my methods are working. Of course, I can and should be trying to speed up this process, and at this point I may have to in order to compete with the companies that hold the top positions. So what does this mean for this SEO start-up?

Simple, continue clean white hat SEO methods and increase blog productivity. In addition, new sites and clients must be added to the Racano Media portfolio to help build new links. The blog must produce only high quality content that will attract organic traffic. No silly free giveaways, empty promises, or dirty tricks out this site.

As a popular commercial that many of us may remember from Wayne’s World 2 says, “they’ll tell two people, and they’ll tell two people.” This kind of viral marketing cannot be bought with traditional advertising means. One great example of this is the NJ Devils ‘Tweet your seat’ promotion in which they upgrade one persons seat each game to the first person that tweets their seat and hashtag after the announcement. Other companies are putting more of a focus on Facebook pages, trying to create interaction between Facebook users and their own brand.

Many other companies and organizations are looking to take advantage of the demographic advantages and virality of social media. The audience is looking for new ways to interact with their favorite companies, making new inbound marketing strategies far more effective than old traditional means.

Key Web Development Issues
Do not be concerned with how much content but rather the quality and structure of the content. There are many medical sites on the web that provide a link to every page on their site from their homepage and have well over 20 pages. Keeping the site organized for visitors can also have benefits with search engine crawlers. Use a mix of dynamic and static programming languages to create an optimized site. For instance, a good example of a homepage would include a labeled flash header or other image, a neat html navigation that can be edited from a single location, some html content including headers, paragraph content and office locations, dynamic contact request, and RSS feed to recent articles if applicable. There is no recommended amount of pages but the navigation should be as simple as a textbook. Be sure to label each page title and create a sitemap file for search engine crawlers. Avoid homepages that take longer than 3 seconds to load.

Content should be written for patients or other parties that may visit the site such as other doctors and drug representatives. Focus on the credibility of the practice and what differentiates the services provided. It is not important to focus on keywords for search engines as it the best practice to stay involved, interact, update content, and organically grow the site.

The Value of Social Media & Networking
The most important aspect of marketing a medical practice is to develop credibility and referrals. Using web pages to showcase the most modern practices and sharing the benefits through social media and networking is almost required to stay competitive.

The industry consists of all areas of specialized medicine. Within each area, only the experts will know what their audience is looking for. Ask yourself, “What services and questions are my patients asking?” It is important to focus primarily on the benefits and solutions provided by your practice rather than on negative aspects of old or outdated techniques. Patients want to see results and how they are achieved. Using social media to help develop more credibility is a great way to help market a medical business but should not be looked at as the sole intent. Use technology as an advantage to connect the site with social media. Allow patients and other visitors to get to know you and your practice and referrals and traffic will develop naturally, the way it is intended.

Using Office Location to your Advantage
Some industries that provide services do not have the benefit of having a physical office location. Make sure that your business is located in important directories. Submitting to mass directories is not the way to take advantage of this aspect. Rather it is best to focus on selective directories and then monitor the amount of referrals received from each. Local directories like Google and Yahoo! are a must, as well as local listing on township business directory, and DMOZ.org. Other valuable directories are available and differ in locations. A little research into where competitors are listed may provide valuable insight in to which directories may drive traffic.

I call this model an Interactive Business System. Visually, it can be interpreted as a circle, rather than a path with two ends. Media companies should pride themselves in being the center of a network that helps both businesses and the communities in which they lie. By creating an interactive relationship between all parties consumers can be attracted through valuable promotions, incentives and information that will further the success of the business. In hard economic times an interactive business system provides solutions to all that participate in the social network. This is referred to as Hybrid Economics. Realizing the importance of these relationships and staying in constant contact with clients so they can effectively reach their consumers with everything they seek in return completing the system circle.

There are many components that make up Inbound marketing which include content, social media, and search engine optimization. Mixing the correct components and discovering new and creative ways to allow users for an interactive experience is the key to a successful campaign. It is also important to set well-defined goals to help measure the rewards of the inbound traffic being delivered.

Outbound marketing strategies are also useful in reaching both new and existing customers. Permission e-mail marketing is one of the fastest growing trends for reaching customers. This form of outbound marketing is popular because results can be measured and companies can ensure that they are reaching their customers. Other forms of outbound marketing are starting to see declines but as new technologies emerge to support different media, outbound marketing may provide businesses with statistical reports that were not available in the past.

Interactive marketing is quickly becoming the next phase and is making marketing without the use of results driven data obsolete. Inbound marketing is essential in gathering information in regard to user behavior and other trends. It also provides for a cheaper, well-defined target in which success can be quantified and measured through analytical reports.

Racano Media does have a structure of directories and social media sites to work with to improve their ranking. To start, the site is listed in both Google and Yahoo local directories as well as DMOZ.org, webdesigners-directory.com , us-city.net, designfirms.org amongst a few others that do not have much or any effect on page ranking results.

In addition to these initial directory submissions, Racano Media is armed with a variety of social networking profiles to help spread material including technorati, digg, stumbleupon, twitter, facebook, myspace, linkedin, naymz, and younoodle.

Current inbound links range between 7 and 16 according to link tracking software. As you can see, this site is nowhere near complete and should provide some excellent examples during the optimization process.

It is all about determining who your target audience is and what they would like. In the web design and online marketing industry the audience is primarily looking for tips for success. Keeping your audience intrigued is the most important part of any campaign. There are unlimited possibilities and ideas. Do a little research into successful campaigns of both yourself and competitors.

Every article I write, I ask myself “Who will be reading this?” and that is what determines the content, style, and language. The same aspect should be applied to all marketing efforts as well.