By Steve Phillips, Principle, Purple Trout and Jeff Drum,
Senior Account Manager, Justice & Young Advertising and
Public Relations
The “basics” of search engine optimization – and
doing them correctly – is what put Gold Star Chili on the
fast track with high rankings in Google, MSN & Yahoo.
Since 90 percent of all search engine users never look past the
third page of results (30 results), it is important for businesses
to be at the top of search engine results in order for potential
customers to find you.
Gold Star Chili (www.goldstarchili.com) wanted to focus on 12
primary keywords: everything from “Cincinnati chili” to “cheese
coneys” to “best of Cincinnati”.
The results as of January:
•
Ten keywords in the Top 30 in Yahoo, including four keywords
at No.1.
•
Six keywords in the Top 30 in MSN.
•
Five keywords in the Top 30 in Google, including “best
Cincinnati chili” at No. 4 and “Cincinnati chili” at
No. 10.
No tricks, secrets or hidden techniques were used in our search
engine optimization project with Gold Star Chili. In fact, most
search engines will ban your website if you utilize any “black
hat” efforts which try to fool search engines into ranking
your site higher.
The path to honest and ethical search engine optimization – and
utilizing all SEO tools available – can better one’s
chances of getting higher rankings in search engines. And, in
turn, higher rankings usually result in more traffic to your
website which will generally result in more inquiries, more prospects
signing up for your company’s newsletter, and ultimately,
more sales.
Gold Star Chili utilized the basics of search engine optimization,
including:
•
Extensive keyword research – By finding out what current
Internet users are searching for in the major search engines,
Gold Star Chili was able to focus on specific keywords to get
a better share of the search audience (once, of course, their
website moved up in the rankings). For example, are users searching
for “chili” or “Cincinnati chili”? Or
both? Not only can keyword research confirm keywords your business
wants to focus on, but you may also find other keyword possibilities.
•
Competition research – Also conducted during the keyword
research phase, you can study the top sites in the major search
engines by searching on the keywords you are considering.
•
Writing new code – Page Titles, Page Descriptions, Meta
Tag Keywords and Alt Tags were also re-written and utilized in
Gold Star Chili’s new website. Keywords are strategically
implemented within the newly written code to emphasize the website’s
content and keyword focus.
•
Search Engine Submission - The new website – and keywords – was
submitted to 55 search engines, including Google, MSN & Yahoo.
While this does not guarantee inclusion, it does notify the search
engine spider of your website’s presence.
•
Creation of Google and Yahoo sitemaps - While a website does
not get “bonus” points for creating sitemaps, they
do ensure all of your website’s pages are crawled by the
search engine spider.
•
Developing a Link Building program – This is a very important
part of search engine optimization. Link building is the process
of getting other websites to publish a link on their website
pointing to your website. This process is also referred to as “back
links.” The focus is on one-way links, rather than reciprocal
or paid links. Link farms (websites containing pages of links)
were also avoided, as these sites are frowned upon by Google.
•
Ongoing Process – True and successful search engine optimization
is not a “one-and-done” process. Keywords for Gold
Star Chili are researched and re-checked and rankings are conducted
and examined weekly. The website is re-submitted to search engines
and directories in a timely manner; fresh content is added and
the website is updated; and link building never ends. Should
any of the processes be skipped or the SEO process put on “pause”,
the clients’ rankings would definitely drop.
•
Fresh content – Not only did Gold Star Chili opt for new
keywords, but they also gave search engines what they love the
most: fresh content. Nothing attracts a search engine spider
to your website over and over than fresh content. And, of course,
the new keywords were easily worked in and utilized into the
new content.
A proactive public relations campaign is an ideal strategy for
generating fresh content for websites. Gold Star Chili recently
partnered with Cincinnati music legend Bootsy Collins for the
release of “Who Dey Invasion.” Throughout the publicity
campaign Gold Star Chili utilized the benefits of search engine
optimization to make this promotion a success. By posting Collins’ appearance
schedule on the company website along with the combined with
24 media stories, fans flocked to the by the droves to have their
picture taken with the Cincinnati icon. Resulting in over 2,600
of the "Who Dey Invasion" CDs being purchased at one
of the area's over 100 Gold Star Chili restaurants. The reach
that the SEO provided included, Bootsy fans from Chicago making
the 5-hour trip to get an autographed picture and a bowl full
of Cincinnati’s favorite chili. |
