There’s something vaguely voodoo about search engine optimization — the process of attracting more crawling spiders to your website through some mystical HTML coding that results in a higher ranking when search results are presented.

An entire industry of “optimizers” has sprung up to make your website more search engine friendly so you can beat out your competitors when a prospective student does a Google search for “college illinois communications major.” But these consultants are not cheap and their results are often disappointing.

Now you can go directly to the source and obtain Google’s “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide,” a free 22-page PDF that lists some of the best practices for improving your site’s search results.

“SEO is often about making small changes to parts of your website,” writes the team at CreativeTechs Inc., a Seattle-based firm that recommends the Google guide. “Individually, those changes might not seem like much, but when combined, they can have a significant impact on your site’s search results.

“There is nothing groundbreaking in this guide. Which is good. SEO isn’t about crafty tricks or crazy techniques to game the system. Understanding the fundamentals of good SEO is important for any designer who makes a living designing or working on client websites.”

The guide is tech-heavy, so you may not be inclined to study it thoroughly yourself. But it should make a nice holiday gift for your webmaster and anyone else responsible for designing, maintaining and optimizing your website. And you can’t beat the price.

To read the SEO tip from CreativeTechs, visit:
creativetechs.com/tipsblog/googles-official-seo-starter-guide/

To download a PDF of the Google guide, click below:
www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Advertising icon Bob Garfield can’t understand why so many marketers have yet to enter the wonderful world of widgets — those mini-software applications that can be downloaded to browsers, social-networking pages and mobile phones, creating a direct link between you and your target audience.

“Branded widgets are the refrigerator magnets of the Brave New World,” Garfield writes in the December 1 issue of Advertising Age. “These portable little software apps — from video players to countdown clocks to makeup simulators — are inexpensive to distribute, free to the user and (often enough) distinctly useful.”

The challenge in using widgets as a marketing tool is to discover or develop something that your audience finds fun or functional while simultaneously promoting your brand.

Garfield offers some of his favorite examples, including the “Ding” widget from Southwest Airlines that sits on your desktop waiting until a special price becomes available for the destinations you have identified. When it dings, you click through for details about the special fare and then go ahead and book it if you want.

Travel company Groople makes available a widget that counts down the days to the college football games of your choice — something your school could make available to alumni, students and staff. Moreover, fans can click the icon and collaborate with their friends and colleagues to plan a group getaway to a particular game. Or if they prefer to watch it on TV, Groople will assist in helping plan the ultimate game-day party.

“The widget may not be the holy grail, but it’s arguably pretty damn grail-ish,” Garfield writes. “Maybe the highest expression so far of online marketing in the Post-Advertising World.”

To read Garfield’s article, visit:
adage.com/article?article_id=132778

For a sense of the enormous variety of widgets — and to stir your creativity in developing your own — click below:
www.widgetbox.com/

Using language that your key audiences use is one of the most effective things you can do to engage visitors when they arrive at your website and give you 2 to 10 seconds to capture their attention.

That came through to me again yesterday while reviewing 20 pages on a client's website for ways to increase their search engine visibility. While you never want to write for a search engine at the expense of your live visitors, sometimes the two overlap. When that happens, it is time to seize an opportunity.

In this case, the client was using the term "Graduate Programs" and "Undergraduate Programs" as major topic headings on the site. And so I used the free tool available from Wordtracker at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ to run a quick check on alternative terms that might raise the search visibility of those pages and help capture interest from people interested in online degree programs.

Here's what I found:

• Very few people search for "graduate degrees online" or "graduate programs online" online.
• More, but not many more, search for "masters degrees online."
• The winner by a wide margin is "masters programs online."

Check the labels you're using now on pages with content in this area. Check the page title tags and the major headings on the page and your left-hand navigation. If you don't offer doctoral progams online, make a quick switch to "masters" programs from the "graduate" word. If you do offer doctoral programs (almost nobody searches for those, by the way),  break up the content so you can use both words.

Make changes like that and you'll please both people and search engines. Can't beat that combination.

Is there growth potential in online doctoral programs? Capella University thinks there is. 

Not quite sure when the ads first started, but sometime in the last week or so I've noticed a new campaign for Capella appearing as banner ads on various websites.

The ad is very simple and doesn't feature any wiggly dancers or fetching women that seem out of place on other group ads for online college and university programs. Other than the name, the ad copy is limited to "Over 30 doctoral specializations, all focused on advancing your career." The call to action is for receipt of a "free university guide."

Follow the quest for a guide and you arrive at http://capellalearning.net/default.aspx?v=unilong 

Easy to Scan Degree Offerings

Some points of note about the landing page:

• You'll see a very visible question: "Does Capella have my program?" that leads to an easy to scan chart of the degree programs available. Seems very effective to answer that critical first question, "Do they have what I want to study."
• Visitors are told clearly that a follow-up call will come along if you complete the inquiry form as requested. That's a nice way to sort out who's serious from who is not. (And of course, if you just want the guide, you don't have to give them a real phone number.)
• At the bottom, you have an option to pick up the phone and call.

Complete the form and you get a quick thank you with a note that "An enrollment counselor will be contacting you."

There's also a PDF version of what I suspect is the guide (called "Capella Degree Programs") that will come in the mail. What's unusual about this one is that you can actually read it online without having to increase and decrease the size of the image to see the photos and read the print. Nicely done for a PDF. You can move directly from the content page to the major content area of most interest, so you don't have to scroll through each one of the 38 pages in the guide.

Building the Capella University Brand

Although the ad highlights doctoral degrees, the program information outlines everything available from the bachelor's level up. That makes sense, since many people who explore the opportunity may aspire to a doctoral degree without yet having the earlier degrees in place. And for some visitors, it might enhance the Capella brand to associate the bachelors and masters programs with the doctoral offerings.

Test the form for yourself at http://capellalearning.net/default.aspx?v=unilong