This is no surprise: we are, all of us, different.  Whether it is our appearance, attitude, spirit, intelligence, wit, perspective, what have you, we are unique snowflakes.

Isn’t that nice?

Even if we seem somewhat similar, oh, we’re not.  People, though using different means, may ultimately achieve the same end.  Two doctors, for instance, each of whom received identical educations, internships, and residencies, will offer very different, but helpful, treatments to a patient.  Two teachers, with identical backgrounds, educations, and grade level placements, will render completely different methodologies for effectively instructing the same principle.  And two Web marketers (for today’s intents and purposes, this is all about organic marketing), with identical educations, training, and workplaces, will successfully optimize and market a site using opposing approaches.  What’s more, each aforementioned professional will cling to their dying day that their approach is THE ONLY WAY.

Our industry, the search marketing industry, is oh so new.  And, like many others, is oh so adapting.  When I was first trained to do this job in 2000, it was zygotic.  Cloaking, doorway pages, keyword stuffing; all that creative, black hat tom-foolery actually worked without a potential of penalty.  Today, most know better; and, what’s more, they’ve found a myriad of ways to optimize a site.

There must be 50 ways to optimize a Web site (side note: these were Paul Simon’s original lyrics).  Here’s one example…

Without muddying our hems too much in the practicum of optimization, when a marketing specialist sits down to render a site search engine marketing-friendly, they will start with key phrase research.  This is, for my money, the sturdiest foundation for all that follows.  A site’s targeted phrases will dictate audience, and whether or not the site even has a shot at performing what it ought to.

From the gathered research, one may move forward to optimize each page of the site for a different phrase; the theory being that the more phrases used, the better the site’s potential saturation within the online market.  Another may select 10 to 20 prime phrases and repeat their usage across multiple pages; these believe in the idea that the best chances of high and frequent placement will be determined by site sections, rather than singular site pages.  Still another approach is an amalgamation of the two former methods, whereby a marketer will select one or two prime phrases, implementing these throughout the site, in addition to many page-specific phrases.

Which is best?

All and none.  Some find an approach and clutch on to it for all they’re worth, never wavering.  But, truly, your best optimization approach depends on your long-term marketing goals, your industry, your competition, and your site.  And this goes for all marketing techniques.

Ultimately, conviction is fantastic, but severely limiting.  Always be nimble.

Most recent posts by Joanna

• Post-Recession Online Marketing - November 17th, 2009
• The Evolving Social Media Landscape - October 6th, 2009
• The Delayed Purchase - September 22nd, 2009
• Social Media Marketing and Women - September 9th, 2009
• Twitter-Jacking? - August 25th, 2009