You can engage in a PPC campaign in the morning and refine the campaign based on stats in the afternoon. You can know very quickly if you are making more money than you’re spending – or vice versa.

As long as you are making money, all is wonderful. But, it would not be unusual to find that you begin a PPC campaign by losing money and will need to burn through some amount of cash in the testing and refinement process to determine if you really can make money or not, with PPC, for your given product/service and market.

Of course the irresistible allure of generating traffic via search engine optimization (SEO) is that you don’t have to buy the traffic at all. And the downside to SEO is that the results are not as immediate and not as exactly quantifiable.

Two Primary Criteria for Estimating SEO Results

1) Competitiveness of the Market
2) Age of the Domain

If the market is really competitive, then it can take a while before satisfying results are realized. On the other hand, if you are optimizing a website for a specialized niche market with nominal competition, then it is much easier to push a website up the search rankings.

An older domain has more search authority than a new one, so if you are working with a brand new domain, you’ve got a tougher battle ahead of you. When dealing with a brand new domain, it may take at least three months, but often closer to six to nine months, to gain the necessary “trust” for rankings for broad competitive terms. With a more established domain, you should start seeing results much faster.

Further, if you are optimizing a website for a brand name that is well established in an industry, then the opportunities for higher rankings will be more readily translated at a faster rate.

The main point to respect is that SEO is not as immediately satisfying as PPC, in terms of results, and it’s difficult to accurately assess how quickly SEO work can be translated into profit. However, the advantage is that once your traffic increases as a result of your SEO activities, the traffic continues. And of course with PPC, your traffic only continues while you’re paying for it.

In an ideal world, you would incorporate both an SEO and a PPC strategy into your marketing efforts.

There are two barriers that complicate your attempt at finding an SEO professional for your needs.

SEO Hiring Barrier #1

Optimizing websites to improve search engine positioning is predicated upon understanding the ways that search engines utilize complex factors to determine which websites to rank higher. But the exact ways that such are accomplished is not only a highly guarded secret, it’s also continuously being refined and changed by the search engine companies.

Stated another way, the details of the best way to get SEO results for any given website are subject to some misunderstandings, not only among the individuals seeking to hire a professional for guidance, but even amongst SEO professionals themselves. Talk about an opportunity for “The blind leading the blind!”

Case in point: if an SEO professional seeks only to optimize technical factors on your website, without executing necessary offsite actions (such as inbound link building), then a significant portion of potential search ranking opportunity will be left wanting.

SEO Hiring Barrier #2

The reason most businesses are interested in engaging SEO services is to make more money. But there is a broad area between the “strategy” of how to use SEO effectively, and the “execution” of it.

Stated another way, you could potentially hire someone for economical rates to “execute” on-site SEO factors, but you may be missing the boat in terms of what is the best strategy to monetize the very site that you are attempting to improve.

SEO is a marketing channel, but there are SEO consultants who have no marketing background. In other words, you could potentially hire a highly competent technical practitioner who may sincerely execute an SEO campaign for you, but alas, you may see no increase in profits.

Do not fault such an SEO technician.

Such a person is a not a professional marketer.

Case in point: I recently spoke with a potential client who was interested in on-site SEO guidance to improve search ranking and to generate more money from the firm’s website. However, as this person was not a professional marketer, and was interested in keeping costs as low as possible, this person had pre-determined that money could be saved by optimizing only one component of the website. Unfortunately, this component had the least long-term potential for generating ongoing profit. The end result of such an arrangement would yield higher search rankings for the client for the determined area, but not the expected profits. And more to the point, not the return on investment that this businessperson was attempting to maximize.

BOTTOMLINE: There are not only misunderstandings among those tasked with hiring SEO professionals on what to expect, there are also varied perspectives among SEO’s on how to best achieve a given SEO goal. More specifically, because SEO encompasses the execution of many technical factors, the actual strategy of how to make money with SEO may be largely missed if the consultant is technically savvy, but has very little marketing expertise and experience.

What’s the Solution to the SEO Barriers?

It starts with you.

If you happen to be a seasoned and experienced marketer, including with SEO, but don’t have the resources to actually accomplish the necessary actions to achieve what you know needs to be done, then you don’t need to hire an SEO consultant for strategic profit making purposes at all. You simply need to outsource SEO execution. In other words, simply hire someone to put your strategy into practice.

On the other hand, if you are NOT confident about the best ways to use SEO to MAKE MONEY for your business and website, then you would be wise to seek and speak with an SEO professional who not only has experience establishing high search rankings, but whom is also an experienced Internet marketer with a focus on making money and improving your marketing ROI.

You can read and test your way 80 percent into the oh-my-god-space, but the final few steps are done from a greater distance and a bigger commitment of time.

It simply articulates that a lot can be gained in the world of SEO with some vigorous study and application. But that last 20% requires a greater devotion than the earlier 80%.

Further, he states:

Being involved in forums, attending conferences, and reading as much as you can is the essential way to become a skilled practitioner in this space. Make connections and engage with people on the forums or blogs. You may be surprised who you can become.

I would add to these latter sage words that the same concept is pertinent to making an impact within most any industry and serves as a simple statement that encompasses personal networking and social media networking.

Check out the entire post here: There Are No Search Rock Stars.

Think of “keyword stuffing” which garnered search engine favor a long time ago. That expedient of placing lots of relevant keywords on a page can actually work against the purpose of making a page more attractive to search engines and users.

OK, that’s an obvious example, but what else has changed over the years?

Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz has created and published some graphs of his perspective on the relative value of different SEO processes, over time.

The two graphs depicts the relative value of user-focused SEO tactics as well as search-engine-focused tactics from 1997-2009.

Click here for the link to the article: Terrible SEO Advice: Focus on Users, Not Engines.

You can also access the graphic via the original blog titled, Corporate SEO Services.

On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors

• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag: 66% very high importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag: 63% high importance

Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics for SEO

• Linkbait + Viral Content Creation: 67% very high value
• Blogging and Engagement with the Blogosphere: 66% high value
• Classic “Create Valuable Content” Strategies w/o Promotional Marketing: 58% high value
• Public Relations (beyond just press release publication): 56% high value

Additional SEO Data

• Question: Which of the following statements best represents your opinion of how Google will treat links as part of their ranking algorithm over the next 5 years?
• 48%: Links will decline in importance, but remain powerful, as newer signals rise from usage data, social graph data & other sources to replace them.

To read all the compiled data, click the following link:
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

This quick check isn’t meant to substitute for a complete and thorough site audit. However, it’s good to do this at the beginning of an audit because it will find a good portion of a site’s major problems. This can allow you to provide critical input to the developers on what they should work on while you move onto a more detailed audit.

Click the following link to see all of graphs noted below: 4 Essential SEO Infographics

#1 – Pie Chart of SEO Time Expenditure

#2 – Hat Color vs. Value Scatterplot of SEO Tactics

#3 – Flowchart of SEO-Friendliness

#4 – Venn Diagram of Internet Marketing Professions (seen below). This last one, in particular, does a good job of illustrating the various technical, intellectual and experiential areas that equate to success as an SEO pro.

Regardless, traditional media is certainly not dead yet.  In fact, in spite of the ongoing implosion of newspapers and traditional media, the reality is, the big names aren’t all going away, but the way they communicate to readers is changing.  And the most obvious point is the news is moving online.

So, what about press releases? That old stalwart for getting new info about your company’s products and services promulgated to the world (or not)?

Online Press Releases

Like everything else, press releases have moved online.

However, there is a big difference comparing press releases of today, to press releases of olden times when citizens used to read physical newspapers.

Number one (good news and bad news): you don’t have to beg and plead to get your press releases printed.  In fact, not only can you be assured that your press releases will be utilized, you can even know they will be distributed as you have written them (however, you do need to adhere to the publisher’s editorial standards). This is in contrast to traditional press releases which may very well be significantly edited prior to publication. However, for those with any experience in submitting press releases to newspapers, the reality is most press releases do “not” get printed.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the advantages of online press releases come at a cost.  Well, in fact, that is the bad news: cost.

Traditional press releases were printed at no cost as an aspect of editorial content.  Today, press releases can definitely get distribution, and you can control what is written, but in reality, online press releases have morphed into another paid lead generation, publicity and marketing service.

But who the heck reads online press releases?

Ahhh, well that’s a good question.  They do get picked up by bloggers and other distribution services and there are plenty of individual companies and readers around the world who monitor the Internet for the latest news that includes keywords related to their area of interest. Of course, there’s also the potential that a traditional news outlet will pick up your online press release and publish it, as well.

All of those are good opportunities for getting your message across. But it’s worth emphasizing that bloggers, particularly those that have a following, are often monitoring keywords related to your industry. If even one important blogger picks up your story, it can receive broad propagation directly within the industry you are targeting. (This point is so valuable, that it’s common for public relation firms to target industry-specific blogs with their press releases).

Regardless, if you are primarily interested in traffic generation, the most useful answer can be determined by actually testing out a press release campaign and measuring what kind of traffic is generated. The numbers after-the-fact will reflect the real news for your story.

But, even the test of traffic generation is not the only interesting news here.

Backlinks from Press Releases

There is one more important feature that is more compelling for search engine optimizers: Press releases not only get your message out further than the reach of your own subscribers or RSS, they also establish more backlinks to your website, even if it’s just from the company hosting your release.  (However, this is an important enough feature that you should confirm that your press release service does indeed provide this service).

Of course if your press release is legitimately newsworthy, is well written, tells a good story, and is compelling enough that others want to share it, then you may receive an avalanche of backlinks from all manner of readers and websites around the globe.

Press releases are another part of the online marketing and publicity world whereby good copywriting skills are the determining factor on how much mileage you’ll get out of each release.

Which company should you use?

Click the following link for the Top 10 Press Release Distribution Companies.

A sidelight of these critiques is that the sites are developed by search engine insiders and one might presume (rightly or wrongly) that such developers are privy to SEO insights not readily apparent to mere mortals. Regardless, the case studies emphasize SEO “basics” and reflect a notion that insiders emphasize similar SEO fundamentals as would be expected of non-insiders.

A few of the basic noted in the reviews include use of titles, navigation, linking, meta descriptions, page structure and content.

Click the following link to review the case studies: Do Former Search Engine Insiders Make Great SEOs?

The good news is that there are intelligent ways to test, for yourself, which strategies and tactics are the most effective, and you can certainly study what others in the SEO community have tested and found to be true.  And ocassionally, you even get indications from search engine company representatives to add some news to the mix.

Danny Sullivan wrote a post today entitled, Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting that diminishes the use of PageRank sculpting as an advance SEO tactic and changes the way webmasters should handle the presentation of paid links on their sites.

This post was a result of new info divulged by Matt Cutts (head of Google’s Webspam team) at Search Marketing Expo – Advanced (which ends today).

None of this will mitigate basic SEO activities but it serves as a good example of the necessity to stay current in an industry that is continuously evolving. Further, it serves as a highlight for why you can purchase SEO courses and training, and/or hire SEO consultants that provide conflicting information:  SEO best practices are changing and evolving.

How Does Your Website Rank?

The following tools will help you determine where your web site ranks in Google’s search results for a given keyword phrase.

♦ FireFox Rank Checker: Download and install this Free Search Engine Ranking Checking Tool for Firefox, by Aaron Wall

♦ Advanced Web Ranking: A paid service ($199/year),which tracks keyword rankings over time.

Keyword Research Tools

Keywords form the very bedrock of Internet marketing.  The more you know about the keywords related to your products and/or services, the more you can use them to rank higher in the search engines and/or use them more effectively with Pay-Per-Click campaigns.

♦ Google’s Keyword Tool is a basic and useful tool to get new keyword ideas. Enter a keyword and it will show a list of related keywords as well as an approximate amount of searches for that term in the past month, and an average monthly search for that keyword over the past year.

♦ The Trellian Free Search Term Suggestion Tool is a useful tool for keyword research, which is an introduction to their paid service.

♦ Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool is another very useful tool, which is also an introduction to their paid service.

♦ Aaron Wall, of SEO Book, provides a free “Coolest Keyword Research Tool” which uses Wordtracker and then adds a whole bunch of other useful info.

♦ Google Trends is a free tool that lets you see longer-term trends for the keywords you enter.

♦ Google also has a free Search-Based Keyword Tool that looks at your existing web page’s keywords and cross references that data with search volume numbers to show you relevant keywords that you are not already using, good for expanding that page or creating similar pages on your site.

♦ Microsoft has a free online tool for Detecting Commercial Intention for keywords, which offers insights into the probability that a keyword will result in a sale.

♦ Quintura is a “Visual Search Engine” tool that helps you recognize related keywords. These are not just synonyms, but words that are associated with whatever you type in to the search field. You might be surprised at what comes up.

Tools for Traffic Analytics

♦ Click the following link for a list and description of Tools for Traffic Analytics.  These free and paid tools are for competitive research, and/or determining a sites relevance.  Further, if you are considering selling a website, you’ll want to know how independent services are measuring your site’s traffic.

♦ Split test landing pages to determine which will generate the most sales: Google Website Optimizer

♦ (Paid Resource) View visual resources, such as heat maps, to see where your users are clicking: CrazyEgg.com

♦ (Paid Resource) Movies and heat maps of visitor behavior, as well as link analytics and form analytics, all to better optimize landing page performance: ClickTale.com

Website Research Tools

♦ Enter a website url, IP address, Google Adsense or Google Analytics code and find out what resources belong to the same owner: SpyOnWeb.com

♦ See your website like a Search Engine sees it: SEO-Browser.com

♦ Shows remarks on how to boost your website’s visibility: Spider Simulator

♦ Domain name search tool: DomainTools.com

♦ Check for broken links: Dead-Links.com

♦ Website performance analysis overview: WebsiteGrader.com

♦ Local search marketing resource: GetListed.org

♦ Split-Testing Analysis: VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com

“White Hat” SEO refers to strategies that make web pages more friendly to search engines, which results in higher placement for the same pages.

To emphasize the difference between the two, Black Hat tactics are deceptive to search engines and White Hat is not.

Although in reality, there are some gray areas, the key point of deception is a good yardstick for differentiating tactics.

Oh! Another important element is that, in the long run, deceiving a search engine can result in greatly reduced search rankings, or worse yet, such a website can be banned entirely and not show up at all.

Here are a few examples of Black Hat strategies:

Keyword Stuffing, or jamming too many keywords into your web pages is akin to spamming the search engines. In the past this used to be a way to generate higher rankings. However, a page that contains too many of the same repeated words (or phrases) is just unnatural to read and provides a poor user experience for the actual visitors, so search engines seek to penalize these kinds of pages.

Hidden Keywords is a variation of keyword stuffing, except that, in this case, the repetitive keywords are rendered the same color as the background. This means actual people do not see all the repeated words, but the search engines do. In fact, some strategies add keywords that have nothing to do with their site, which deceives the search engines into thinking the pages are about something they are not. This can not only be penalized by the search engines when detected, but it’s not even an effective tactic anymore.

Incoming links are an important component of SEO. So much so, that ways to generate more incoming links have been developed. However, Google’s search engine can detect unnatural linking patterns and variations of auto-link-building. As a noteworthy example, if overnight your site has received thousands of extra links it will make your entire site suspect and subject to penalty.

These are not the only Black Hat tactics, but they serve as illustrations of the idea.

SEO is an Internet marketing discipline that uses copywriting, coding and other activities to make websites more friendly to search engines, which results in better rankings on the search results pages for your website.

Additionally, a broader SEO focus includes interaction with other related websites, for the purpose of generating links. Links can be helpful for search engines since a number of links pointing to a particular website verify that site’s relevance, at least from the search engine’s rankings.

Links, and the use of certain words and phrases, comprise somewhat of an Internet popularity contest for the search engines.

For example, if your real name happened to be “Harry Potter,” you would have a difficult time getting the search engines to respect that you, a real “Harry Porter,” are more relevant than the fictional Harry Porter of books and movie fame. (“More relevant” in this case means having your name appear higher in the search rankings).

The fictional Harry Potter has made such an impact on our world that the “popularity” of that name would be remarkably difficult to compete against.

Search engine optimization is somewhat of an art and science, since the search engines maintain secrecy about the exact calculations that are used to rank pages.

And to make things more interesting, the calculations and rules the search engines use are subject to change.

Hence, some folks refer to the practice of SEO to be somewhat akin to wizardry.

Regardless, there are established industry best practices as well as ongoing research and testing by SEO consultants for the purpose of delivering the best results possible for their clients.

My own research over the past several years has confirmed that SEO is a worthy endeavor for establishing more website visitors, although it is a bit more involved than waving a wand and saying the right words, so it isn’t offered at Hogwarth until the final year.

For more information, check out this training video on using SEO to drive more traffic to your website.

What’s the current state of SEO and the world of search at large?

Aaron Wall conducted an insightful interview with Ralph Tegtmeier, a European SEO and Technology Professional for more than 40 years, who has seen SEO develop from a relatively simple and effective activity in the 90′s, to a more complex and technical challenge in the 21st century, developed as a necessity to remain effective.

The interview touches on a number of current search matters, including social media, the good-bad dichotomy of Google, the inherent flaws of inbound links as a “vote” of relevancy, and some insight into the gray area between black and white hat SEO, for example, the use of cloaking for purely ranking benefits as opposed to user deception.

Click Fantomaster Interviewed! to check it out.

• Good photos and graphics engage viewer interest
• Images offer viewer relief from text-heavy documents
• Useful graphics can more readily convey certain concepts better than words

Additionally, and in some respects, more importantly, images and graphics can be used to attract and drive more traffic to your website, as an SEO tactic.

Indeed, to feature photos and graphics on your website and NOT use this tactic is really doing a disservice to your business and the visitors who will never arrive to your site because you did not take advantage of this.

The most fundamental point is to incorporate keywords into the file name of the image. This means you will need to CHANGE the name of the graphic, since in most cases, the image delivered from your camera, or a stock photo service, will be described as a number, which has no search engine benefit.

In other words, a graphic of an Internet Marketing Book should use the name “InternetMarketingBook.jpg” instead of some auto-generated number, or even your own filing reference, such as “IMTM09.jpg” which has no keyword relevance to search engines and will not offer any search benefit to your site.

There is much more that one could know about image SEO, but taking a moment to give your website images a search-friendly keyword description is a very simple and effective way to attract more visitors to your website.

On SEOBook.com, we’ve been writing a lot about the intersection between SEO with related fields such as marketing, PR, advertising and business strategy.

This is the way SEO is going. SEO is being integrated into other forms of promotion. Without undertaking such promotion, ranking will be that much harder, especially in crowded niches.

Ranking signals have traditionally been about links, however code tweaking and link begging is fast becoming a marginal activity. Ranking signals in the future will be about attention.

Those who command the most attention, win.

In the same way that traditional media has been (and still is) a multivariate way of garnering attention, so, too, is SEO. And in the game of gaining popularity to place quality products and services in front of the most people that would be interested in the same, it’s hard to imagine SEO not being a central strategy, even if the rules evolve about how the game is played.