On-Page SEO
Title elements, meta descriptions and URL naming conventions within the website, as well as within the search engine results, are all part of the on-page SEO description. These variables are the first information a user will find, as they are what the search engine results page (SERP) viewer based their initial click on. A well-rounded on-page SEO campaign, as well as a solid internal and external linking strategy, are essential to improving rankings.

Impressions vs. CTRs
It is possible to analyze how web users interact with your search engine listings by using the impressions vs. click-through rates (CTR) tool in Google Webmaster Tools. This tool will show how many SERP viewers chose your listing per impression at different SERP positions. It is also a more variable way to test “Front SEO” elements with those searching for your targeted terms.

Organic Keyword Referrals
It is very important for the right page to be ranked for your targeted term. Organic keyword referrals in Google Analytics will help assess what pages refer keyword referrals. It is also sometimes beneficial to focus more on what your placeholder in the search engines says about your site, rather than concentrating on just on-page elements. This will help drive additional, quality traffic.

What do you believe is the most important element in an online marketing campaign?

Working on improving and resolving large numbers of 404 and timeout errors on your site can help search engines minimize the bandwidth used to completely crawl your site. One way to go about doing this is by utilizing Google’s Webmaster tools. SEOmoz also suggests checking your outbound links for errors. “Linking out to expired external URLs isn’t great for user experience, and implies perhaps that as a resource, your site is getting out of date”.

One other tip to make note of is ensure you are performing spot checks of frontend code, missing page titles and duplicate meta. Duplicate meta is one mistake that can unintentionally wreak havoc on your website.

Additionally, Econsultancy and ExactTarget report that natural search would see a rise in spending by online marketers worldwide, nearly two-thirds of whom planned to increase outlays in the channel.

One highlight of the data found shows that Google is king when it comes to non-branded terms

• If you intend to change your domain name, a 301 redirect of the old domain to the new domain name will ensure search engine rankings will not be affected.

• Ensure that all existing SEO work is properly migrated. Transition over titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords, heading tags, alt tags, and other SEO-specific content.

• Do not create a 100% flash website. However, if you have a flash embedded object, be sure to include optimized text. If you’re designing a new website, do not include frames. If the current site has frames, replace them with a dedicated page under your domain. If including certain elements of content within your site via frames, be aware that the content from frames will not be indexed as part of the master page.

There are other steps you can take to transition your optimized website. Are you taking the right steps?

In terms of HTML head tags, title tags are “the most important of on-page elements”. Title tags should incorporate target keyword themes, especially as the first word(s) in the tag. Other elements to incorporate into head tags are meta descriptions, meta keywords, meta robots and other meta tags. As far as URLs go, shorter is better. Shorter URLs will usually perform better, and are easier to share. Other URL essentials include keyword location, the use of subdomains versus subpages and word separators (SEOMoz suggest using hyphens rather than underscores to separate words). Page Architecture is another key component for an optimized page. Keyword location and content structure are two things to look out for when it comes to page architecture. Where are the keywords located? Usually engines will pick up key phrases within the first 100 words.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for on-page optimization, and as SEO changes constantly, it is important to be aware of what these changes are.

What are the right keywords for a company? That depends on what kind of company it is, and what they want users to find when they arrive to their site. Nevertheless, it is becoming more and more important to think of keywords in terms of their length. A recent published report by HitWise shows an increase in use of lengthier search terms by search engine users:

In fact, one and two word keywords are on the decline, showing that users are getting more specific with their searches. How does a company go about choosing the right keywords? Think about what the user would look for if they were searching for a specific product or service. Is the company location-based? If so, try incorporating the state and city into the search term. There are many ways to optimize a keyword, keeping the user in mind is the first step.

Linkscape offers many features such as mozRank,  mozTrust ,full lists of links that point to a domain, and anchor text analysis.  mozRank gives users the popularity of a link in based on how many  other sites are linking to that particular link.  Then, mozTrust evaluates a site’s level of trust based on the quality and quantity of trusted sites linking back to that site (this is also evaluated by search engine results).  The analysis of a site’s anchor text is a key component of Linkscape as it shows where the terms are distributed as well as their popularity.  The new Linkscape tool will help website optimization through its astute features, allowing users to tweak their sites for ultimate exposure.

Google explains that the new ability to search through flash works intuitively. That is to say, Google’s algorithm reads flash sites the same way in which users click through a site, remembering its text. This is facilitated through Adobe’s integration of a new searchable SWF library. However, other media within flash sites such as images cannot yet be indexed. Nevertheless, Adobe continues to make strides in the right direction towards making flash sites available through search engines like Google and Yahoo! With this progress made, the future may be bright for flash.

There are many advantages to using Google Analytics. One clear advantage is that the service is free, allowing companies extra budgets for their marketing campaigns. Beyond its cost effectiveness, Google Analytics gives businesses an in-depth look at user behavior. Some of the questions that Analytics can help answer may include: How long are users staying on my website? How do they find my site? What keywords are searched when finding my site? Targeting keywords for a business’ website is facilitated through the incorporation of Google Adwords into Analytics.

Google Analytics also integrates a series of visual aids further providing an all-inclusive perspective on website trends and user behavior. These visual aids consist of various charts and graphs, which can track revenue, conversion rates and ROI. Furthermore, these charts track the ways in which users navigate throughout websites.

Google has proposed a new innovative tool, VisuaRank, which is said to work the same way as PageRank. VisualRank is supposed to take ranking one step further by analyzing not only the text on an image’s tag, but it also reads visual cues to determine the rank of the image (e.g., relevancy to the searched keyword). While the tool is still in development, Google has struggled with the difficulties of image analysis through computers. Nevertheless, Google continues to work on solutions to the problem, and VisualRank’s potential success will definitely change the way in which images affect PageRank.