Creative Search Engine Optimization ? A Case Study

Search engine optimization this and search engine optimization that. You read and hear about it all day, but what about your site? While there are plenty of articles providing useful information, this article shows you how a real world example met with success. The point of this article is to emphasize creativity when approaching tough optimization situations.

Problems for BusinessTaxRecovery.com

In November of 2004, our firm took on the seo marketing for BusinessTaxRecovery.com. The site was being promoted through offline activities and pay-per-click campaigns. No effort had been made to achieve high rankings in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Keyword analysis revealed that combinations of the root keywords, "business" and "tax" were going to be difficult to attack. The primary problem concerned government agencies with web sites. The IRS site, for instance, had roughly 9,680 inbound links and an absolute ton of content. State agencies weren't far behind. The California tax agency site had roughly 7,000 inbound links and, again, tons of content.

For a final nail in the coffin, the client informed us the business was cyclical with the busiest months being January through April when people focused on taxes. The site absolutely had to rank highly during this period. We had two months to achieve results.

Gulp!

The Solution for BusinessTaxRecovery.com ? 140,000 Hits

After staring at a Salvador Dali painting for a few hours, we came up with a solution. It involved a combination of internal site page focus, meta tag optimization, link exchange and massive article promotion. The results produced 145,828 hits from January through April, with only 5,000 coming from the pay-per-click program.

The first step was to change the focus of the site from the home page to the article page. Jumping the tax agency sites on keywords such as business tax and taxes was impossible in two months, so we didn't even try. Instead, we decided to focus on the keyword phrase "business tax articles" and bring people into the site through the article page. Meta tags were optimized and a link exchange program undertaken. The key to campaign, however, was a strong article promotion campaign.

Since taxes are confusing, it seemed obvious that an article campaign focusing on tax information would meet with success. Boy, did it. Approximately 35 articles were written, published and submitted to article directories. Since the articles were timely, they were snapped up and published. The articles produced direct traffic to the site as well as numerous inbound links because of the link created in the article byline.

As for the search engines, we focused on everything but Google. We expected nothing from Google because the major content and meta tag changes would take six to eight months to show results per the usual practices of Google. In reality, it didn't matter. The Yahoo and MSN search engines produced big time.

In mid-January, the site went to number 1 on MSN under "business tax articles." By the end of January, Yahoo was also listing it as number 1. MSN started listing it at number 1 for "tax articles" in February. The combination of these listings produced a significant amount of traffic, conversions and a very happy client.

Can we go on cruise control now? No! With the end of the tax season, the traffic to the articles page of the site has dropped by 75%. Nobody is looking for tax information after April 15th, so this is hardly surprising. The promotion of the article page was simply a short-term solution to a difficult situation. While it should produce traffic during the first quarter of each subsequent year, it is not a year-around solution.

Over the next six months, we will focus on the long-term goal of jumping over the tax agency sites for keywords such as "business taxes", etc. It is going to take a lot of patience, but will eventually produce a significant amount of business for the client.

Creativity is often the key to conquering seo situations. Blindly slapping up new meta tags and links isn't always the best answer. Sometimes, a little pre-emptive consideration can yield amazing results. It did in this case.

Halstatt Pires is a search engine optimization specialist with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company providing internet marketing services in San Diego, California.

---

SEO -- Tips to Optimize Your Webpage to Compete for a High Ranking

Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to websites. If... Read More

Effective Keyword Optimization and Analysis Techniques

Keyword optimization involves vital keyword selection and placement strategy depends... Read More

Get Listed in Google Without Submitting Your Site

With Google delivering so much traffic, it is only normal... Read More

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a... Read More

The Latest Craze: Local Search, 7 Steps to Being #1 in Your Local Market

Anyone would agree that it is much easier to be... Read More

3.5 Reasons You Need To Forget About Search Engines

Have you ever stopped to think how much time is... Read More

Marketing Articles: Getting A Better Search Engine Rank For All Of Your Pages!

In one of my articles, I discussed how to market... Read More

An Ethical Alternative to Doorway Pages

Definition: A doorway page is content created specifically for the... Read More

How to Verify and Monitor Your Search Engine Listing on Google?

Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches... Read More

Beyond the Box with Googles Web API

Google, the most popular, and many say best, search engine,... Read More

Keyword Research And Overture

Many of us who build websites get in the habit... Read More

8 ways to build a really bad web site for Search Engines

Some web sites receive hundreds or thousands of unique visitors... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10)

If you imagine that building an optimized site is like... Read More

Has Google Indexed Your Site ?

So has Google found your site yet?Over the last 12... Read More

How To Design A Search Engine Friendly Website

There are many websites that fail to target their required... Read More

Should You Be Linking for Traffic or Rankings?

Just for a change, rather than a technical article, I... Read More

These 7 Back Link Strategies Will Get You a Top Ranking on Google Guaranteed

Google use a very complex function to determine which search... Read More

Beginners - Getting Listed In Search Engines

Once you have your web site complete and ready to... Read More

10 Basic Rules for Where to Place Your Keywords

First of all, Google and most other search engines do... Read More

How To Write Effective And Unique Articles That Are Optimized for the Search Engines

It is a well known fact that writing, distributing and... Read More

How to Make More Money with Your Mambo 4.5.1 Site

For those of you who are not familiar... Read More

How I Suddenly Stumbled Onto No.1 In Google and Yahoo Without Search Engine Optimization - So What?

Sometimes, the search engines act really strange. And this story... Read More

See How The New Kicked Up Google Sitemap Can Get You Indexed Faster and Ranked Higher!

Does Creating a Google Site Map and Telling Google About... Read More

How to Protect Your Search Engine Placement by Keeping Up-to-date on Industry Changes

There's no denying it: Search engines are a dominating force... Read More

Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners

Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website... Read More

Submit Your WebSite: Add Your URL to Web Directories & Search Engines

Why get into Search engines and directories?Increase backlinks of your... Read More

Understanding Googles Algorithm

What is the Google Algorithm?An algorithm is a mathematical equation... Read More

Adding City Names At The End Of Your Keywords Can Bring You More Profits

In recent times, I have been closely studying keywords that... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: Site Structure and Popularity

In the Global Internet era the industry presence is undoubtedly... Read More

?Google Friendly? Solutions to Graphic-Intense Sites

We all know that the search engines can't "see" or... Read More

Help Your Visitors Zero in with Site-Flavored Google search

As Google has gained in their search reputation the past... Read More

DIY SEO - Part 2 Tags n Things

Part 2 Tips 4 tagsMeta tags are the descriptive tags... Read More

Google Rankings ? Achieving a Top 10 Position in Google ? Part 1

Achieving a top ranking position in Google is every webmasters... Read More