One of these can be felt directly in the form of time that you don’t have to spend setting up and installing the software. Our team handles all the customization tasks according to what you specify, and we take care of the maintenance of your search bar. In addition, we host everything on our servers so that you don’t have to use the space on yours.

Another benefit is the security of your data that we guarantee. Not only does your data not get shared with third parties, but each customer’s information is stored separately to ensure maximum safekeeping, so you don’t have to worry about the purchase and setup of extra hardware or software. By using two-second delays, we also make sure that our service doesn’t slow down your website or affect its performance.

And for site developers who know the importance of giving their customers periodic software updates, you don’t have to worry about that with Website Search either. We install and manage all updates for you. We always take customer feedback, so definitely get in contact if there’s something that you would like to see incorporated in future updates.

Quality over quantity
Changes in the way people and search engine engine companies like Google and Yahoo view the Internet are putting more emphasis on the quality of content over how many pages of content a website has. Call it the user experience or just common sense, but the most successful websites have something to offer, and it’s not just keywords buried in text!

That goes for links, too
Adding links to your website definitely helps with search engine optimization. But the same rule that applies to content also applies to including links. More important than the quantity of links to other websites that you have, is the quality of those websites/links. The more page rank and authority they have, the more search engines recognize them and give them more weight.

Enrich the user experience
The user experience is no longer just about providing good content. Search engines now recognize a number of different factors that go into providing a richer user experience, giving your website better rankings and more organic traffic. These factors include multimedia such as videos and images, interfaces that are compatible with mobile devices, and yes, even internal search boxes that make it easier for visitors to find what they want.

Optimization is an ongoing process!
With SEO, the job is never quite done. Keywords don’t remain in the top placement forever, websites don’t stay relevant without updates and new content, even search engine algorithms periodically change. For search engine marketing, keeping up with change is just part of the game.
We periodically take a deeper look at these and other SEM-related topics, in the interest of helping our customers and visitors get closer to achieving their search marketing goals. If there’s a topic that you haven’t seen in our blog that deserves our attention, don’t hesitate to be in contact!

There’s so much attention in the news about ways that companies are improving the user experience and how important a role site navigation plays in attracting and retaining customers. Here are some items from just the last several days covering a variety of industries.

• A Huffington Post contributor article looks at the online sales activities of Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The author compares the website usability of each company, with a focus on site navigation, and lists the differences as a major contributing factor to the discrepancy in sales between the two booksellers.  Barnes & Noble: If You Want Competition, Compete!

• The Mississippi state government redesigns and launches their new website with improved search functionality, and plans to improve the mobile experience later this year. Another success story: Anytime your state government’s website receives visitors from 125 other countries, they must be doing something right. The more than 14,000 uses of the enhanced search features are icing on the cake.  Redesigned ms.gov Receives Warm Welcome

• With a look at the new reader from CourseSmart, a recent MarketWatch press release details the relationship between the reader’s new tools for efficiency and the “enhanced reading experience”. Once again, enhanced search navigation and an improved user experience go hand in hand. CourseSmart Innovation Continues With Launch of New Reader

• And because there’s always room for a little news on the mobile revolution, here’s an article from The Guardian about Google’s GetMo initiative to get more UK businesses going mobile:  Google’s new GetMo scheme aims to get more UK businesses mobile

Happy reading!

• The CTR (click through rate) of the top search results is better on mobile devices than desktops.
• The more you can offer sharing and interactions, the better your site will perform.
• “Why focus on the SERP (search engine results page) experience? Because Good Content is not enough. What matters is that the user is satisfied.” – from presentation by Mark Munroe, Reply.com
• Choose photos to add to your site with care: Google can recognize whether it’s a stock photo or a unique one. (You’ll get more value from the unique one.)
• Mobile is changing the game for search and SEO with it’s emphasis on voice and applications. Relatedly, tablet users are the most active in search.
• Nick Roshon, SEO Strategist of iCrossing, recommends going social, even if you have to do it on an automated basis.
• Review pages are getting more attention from search engines compared to traditional business – and rankings – pages as they tend to have more original content.
• When building links, share the love — don’t hesitate to give links to other websites that you reference in your articles. Michael King, ipullrank.com
• Use ALL the social media sites
• With recent algorithm changes and more attention to the evolving SEO landscape, now is the time to get more involved in your search marketing!

Of course there were too many presentations to mention at SMX West 2012. It was just an amazing experience to meet the industry leaders and learn about all the different perspectives and approaches that they use. I even had the privilege of sitting down with Bruce Clay, author of SEO for Dummies, and have a one on one talk about the history of search marketing before anyone even knew that it would become a flourishing industry.

For a fuller list of discussion high points, check out the recaps of SMX West 2012 .

One of the peculiarities about how people use the Internet on their mobile devices is that it differs from how they use the Internet on their computers at home or at work. For one thing, the use of email and social networking noticeably increase on mobile devices, as other more “browsy” uses decrease. This could point to people being more on the go when they access the Internet from the palm of their hand – more work-related email, less reading the news, for example. As for social media, those who use it are probably liable to do it anywhere, any time, on any device available.

People visiting from mobile devices are using internal search more frequently

But in line with the idea that mobile users are more get-to-the-point when they access the Internet, people also report using search engines in general, and internal search engines in particular, more frequently. That’s no surprise, given that performing a search is the fastest and easiest way to find something when you have a good idea of what you’re looking for, and especially if your time is limited.

Mobile-friendly interfaces lead to more conversions

And that’s exactly why so many websites are going the route of mobile-friendly interfaces these days. After all, someone who comes to your website and already knows what they want is much further along in the buying process than someone who visits on a whim without any direction.
Of course the transition is not just about getting the interface right, it’s also making sure that your website is mobile-user friendly in other ways. And that means getting a search engine that satisfies the timely needs of those who are on the go and are accessing your site from a mobile device. And for those of us who maintain websites, it’s also about discovering how going mobile and SEO can work together. More on that soon!

An internal link can best be described as a link on one page of a website (such as this one) that links directly to another page on the same website (such as this one). If the page that is linked to exists several levels deep in the website, then providing a link to it from, say, a search results page effectively brings it closer to the surface. So if you use internal links properly it will help drive more organic traffic to your website. This is a very tangible benefit to your onsite SEO strategy.



Creating internal links can be a cumbersome task: We can help

Manually combing through a website and creating internal links can be a bear of a task as many websites have hundreds and even thousands of pages on them. That’s where Website Search comes in. Every results page that a visitor sees from an internal site search is made up of links – internal links. By making these links available within search results pages, internal linking on your website becomes practically automatic. This feature saves our clients money and time while increasing the organic traffic as their sites are more optimized for the search engines.

With Website Search, the benefit of internal linking for SEO is effortless! Try it out and see for yourself.

One of the best sources of information on these terms and phrases is the internal site search box. Unlike other data sources it doesn’t just tell you what keywords are the most popular across the Internet, but more importantly what people are searching and viewing on your website.

Using site search as a keyword research tool offers another important piece of data beyond what people are searching for. It also tells you what language they use to search for it. The terms that customers use for certain products, services or information is often different than what a site operator or marketer might use. So it’s necessary to find out the specific language that people use for searches in order to optimize your site for those keywords.

At this year’s SMX West, Christine Churchill discussed the benefits of using diverse sources for keyword research, and the role that a site search box plays as an important source of data. An expert on search engine marketing, she pointed out that in addition to revealing what keywords and expressions people are actually using, data from a site search box also allows you to “follow the visitor’s path” and see if the site converts. So you can see which searches are more effective in terms of your SEO goals and follow through by optimizing more for those keywords.

As time goes on, search engine algorithms are increasingly finding ways to recognize and reward websites that boast of a rich user experience. A look at some of the data for corporate websites during 2011 shows just how much the changes to Panda’s algorithm are affecting rankings and site traffic.

This graph shows one example of just how dramatically – and quickly – a site can see their SEO efforts go down the drain. The way to avoid this, or recover from it, is to shift focus to the user experience, including quality content and legitimate link-building.

And now for the how-to …

There are several ways that you can build up the quality of your content. Blogs and white papers are a generally a good way to go, as they can also bring in natural links and tend to avoid the template trap. But you can also spice up your content with the addition of things like videos and infographics, to name a few. Search engines recognize these as being of rich quality and contributing to the user experience in ways that other methods do not.

A note on videos in particular: these have seen a marked increase in popularity in recent years. Just in the last month of January, the average viewer of videos watched 22.6 hours of online video content. (View the comScore press release here.) As multimedia such as videos become more popular among Internet users, we expect that algorithms will continue to evolve in ways that take this into account, and reward websites that follow suit.

A recent article published on the eve of Facebook’s initial public offering (expected to be one of the largest in history), points out that many of its features were borrowed from other sources. The company’s success would seem to indicate that it doesn’t hurt to recognize the popularity of an existing feature or product.

As a signal of the continuing relevance of search, and its increasing use among website visitors, the new search engine Volunia was launched just this past week. Aside from the social layer that it attempts to integrate with search in a new way, it makes a pretty important statement about the state of search itself.

In line with its name in reference to flying, Volunia offers a sort of “fly-over” view of a website that the user can see before they decide to visit the site. This view can either look like a spatial representation of the site’s structure, or a grid of folders.

Both provide a quick look at a site’s layout, indicating that navigating this layout is the first interest of the searcher, even before they enter the site.

Whether or not this model catches on remains to be seen. But it does highlight one important aspect of Search: that people are using it is a navigational tool, and more and more creative ways to use search are inevitable.

A well designed search engine for your website (and all your digital content) is easy to implement. Let us create a demo for you today and see how Website Search can help you take your website to the next level and meet demands of modern internet users.

In this post we take a look at one of the many reasons why it’s so important to have a quality internal site search function, and why providing truly relevant content in search results is essential.

Positive reactions to relevant content come from the response that people have when things are selected specifically to meet their needs. Providing relevant content not only tells your website’s visitors that you have what they want, it also taps into what a NeuroFocus white paper calls the “FOR-ME” response. This is the brain’s natural reaction to content that seems personalized or chosen specifically for them.

The FOR-ME response increases not only the viewer’s attention, but their memory of that content. This, in turn, makes it more likely that they will stay tuned to what your site offers, and keep coming back for more. And it can lead to a more positive response to your website as a whole and the information it offers. Providing a tool like Website Search that consistently provides relevant content in its search results, helps you create that experience for the people coming into your site – making it positive, memorable, and effective.