If you’re aiming to be found by people searching online - which you are - then it’s your use of keywords that will make it happen. If you get your keyword frequency wrong however, you’ll risk poor performance on searches and even getting your site penalised - so it’s important to know what boundaries you’re working within.

Getting it wrong

The overuse of keywords in online copy - either deliberate or unintentionally - is generally known as ‘keyword stuffing’. Like a lot of SEO methods, keyword stuffing did used to work to some degree - once. However, search engines are now incredibly sophisticated compared to what they were, and such crude techniques are spotted a mile away. If your copy is loaded up with keywords to a degree that makes it basically unreadable to your audience, then you’re keyword stuffing.

It’s not just the body content that you should be considering here either, keep in mind your page titles, H1 tags, anchor tags and even navigational link titles - they’re all opportunities to over-do your keywords, potentially by accident.

Getting it right

Getting it right on keywords is easier than most people realise, as long as you keep the real purpose of what you’re doing in mind. “Create a positive user experience” should be the mantra of any SEO-savvy web developer, and the same definitely goes for search copywriters. As we’ve said on Green Notes before, copy really doesn’t need to be prize-winning novelist standard, it should simply be informative, interesting, on-topic and easy to read. If it’s staccato with keyword repetition then it’s unlikely to be any of these.

For more information on search copywriting, read our article on refreshed content or take a look at our search copywriting services page.

The biggest mistake

It’s often thought that simply having a massive volume of backlinks is the way to go with link building, and there are countless companies offering link building as a quick-fire service. However, these services more often than not involve masses of links from irrelevant sites, link farms and generally disreputable sources. Take a quick look in your junk folder and you’re sure to find a promo email from a company selling this service - there’s a very good reason it’s been classed as junk… Using these services results in hundreds (or thousands) of new links being added at once - a great way to set alarm bells ringing when your site is indexed. Once the service is finished, which won’t take long, you’ll be saddled with a load of pointless - and at worst negative - links attached to your website.

Think quality over quantity

Quality, effective link building for SEO is a straight-forward enough process, but it takes a good deal of planning and time to implement correctly.

Building your links steadily and regularly shows search engines that you’re developing organically. Aim for between five and ten quality new links a week, with sites that have relevant themes. Working this way over six months or so will result in a good batch of backlinks that present your website as a reliable and authoritative resource.

Outbound linking

Don’t restrict yourself to inbound links either. Although inbound links are absolutely more important from the mechanics side of SEO, having a good range of useful outbound links can provide a helpful service to your visitors and give them another reason to come back to your site. Think of outbound links simply as good content that enrich the user experience - the ultimate goal of SEO.

Next month’s updates will include a suitably stylish Maserati campaign as well as the amazing new website for specialist motor brokerage Precious Metals.

“I’m not sure I would say ranking is dead but it’s not as important as it used to be,” said Cutts. “The fact is the smart SEOs (search engine optimisation companies) are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversions, they are looking at their server log. It’s great if you’re ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn’t help you very much.”

“The challenge is not to pay so much attention to ranking, pay attention to traffic, pay attention to conversions and keep building good content and don’t worry about ‘can I show people that I rank number one for my trophy phrase,’” he added.

These sentiments echo precisely what we’ve been saying here at Green Media for a long time now. We mentioned the problems with purely ranking-orientated SEO in a blog entry back in July 2007, when discussing our own approach to search. As we pointed out way back then, it should always be about conversions and ROI - something that’s only now being acknowledged by the wider SEO industry and those at the very top of Google.

If you’re still using an SEO company that is preoccupied with getting “1st page rankings” over all other considerations, then you’re wasting your time and budget. SEO, like any other type of business marketing, simply needs to be accountable - and there’s no value whatsoever in boasting about a 1st page result on a term that absolutely no-one is searching for, no matter how it’s dressed up or shouted about. When your SEO is delivering massive ROI and genuine business benefits across targeted markets, then you’ve really got something to boast about.

SEO is about getting your weblink in front of people precisely when they’re looking for what you offer. Looking at it from such a brass tacks angle, it’s the ultimate form of web marketing and as such it really shouldn’t be optional for business anymore - it’s nothing less than essential.

Organic SEO is an incredibly rewarding process at the best of times, but the value of a regularly high-ranking position on a prominent keyword during a downturn cannot be underestimated. It’s as effective as any targeted marketing and it’s out there all of the time, 24/7, on the world’s most used medium.

To find out how you can take advantage of SEO during the downturn and beyond, get in touch.

There are plenty of ways to keep things fresh, and with a little strategising you can find a number of different approaches that you can keep to hand in your marketing arsenal, picking and choosing to suit. Here’s an effective one to try out…

Occasionally promoting an individual product or service can be a great way to generate interest in your wider offerings. Singling out one area of your business can create a more exclusive focus to your marketing, making a refreshing change from more general sales advertising. When you’re only taking about one thing you’ve got a better chance of streamlining your message and getting a positive reception - then opening the door to other opportunities.

A recent e-flyer for Aston Martin Lancaster Cambridge (take a look at it in our portfolio) showcased a rare V12 Vanquish, presenting the car as a ‘last chance’ for prospective buyers. Another email marketing campaign for Porsche Centre Cambridge highlighted a unique pink Boxster, the only one of its kind available at the time. Both campaigns played on the ‘opportunity’ of the offering, instantly demanding attention.

As well as drawing attention to a particular product or service, this type of marketing can also generate interest in your other offerings and create clear selling opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. Although you’re genuinely advertising a single item to begin with, you’re ultimately exposing your prospective customers to everything else that you’ve got to offer once they click-through to your website or walk into your shop.

Think about what you’ve got to promote from every angle, and you might find that an occasional detour from a usual approach can deliver results.

We’ll be updating the page regularly, so be sure to check it out again soon. Next month’s additions include an absolutely stunning Bentley email marketing campaign, which is our first sole branded work for the classic marque.

While “click here” still has great relevance in email marketing for obvious reasons, you’re missing an ideal SEO opportunity if you continue to use it indiscriminately on websites. From both a user accessibility and search engine indexing perspective, the term isn’t exactly the most helpful. Thinking about the search engines, if an anchor text and tag uses some of the keywords relating to the page that it’s linking to, then it’s far easier to classify - boosting the relevancy to a given topic. What’s more, your real-world users will know instantly what they’re clicking on, so you’re enhancing their visit as well. “Click here” doesn’t offer any information whatsoever, other than the presence of a link.

It’s another example that usability and creating a positive web experience should always be at the forefront of your web development and copywriting.

So, try to come out of the “click here” safe zone and you’ll soon find that SEO benefits will follow.

Prospective customers are resistant - even immune - to traditional hard sell advertising during an economic downturn, and you could be wasting budget to carry on with the same approach that perhaps worked for you two or three years ago. Think about what you’re offering, and how you can offer it in the most suitable way for today’s buyer.

A recent email marketing campaign for our client at Cloverleaf Honda took a direct conversational copy style, outlining Honda’s response to the credit crunch and showcasing some models with massive savings. This moved away from the typical salesy marketing that a customer might be expecting, and towards a more open tone. We combined the copy with a clearly laid-out branded design and a personalised email subject line, and as a result achieved a click-through rate of almost 30% - smashing the industry average of between 5-10%.

These results show that the customers are still out there - it just takes a different approach to successfully connect with them now.

Talking figures, the cost of the mailing was just £212, and the Aston Martin DBS retails at around £149,000.

It’s another example of how effective our email marketing can be - delivering the phenomenal ROI that we talk so much about. As well as this, it’s a neat illustration of how continuing business marketing through the current economic downturn really does produce results, something else that we’ve mentioned recently.