Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a form of technical writing for the web that improves your web site’s ranking on the search engines.

Step 1: Select Relevant Keywords

The first step in Search Engine Optimization is the selection of keywords that are relevant to your product or service.

This selection of relevant keywords cannot be automated.

Keywords are selected based on three criteria:

High monthly search volume.
Low web site competition.
High search engine relevance.

We use subscription tools to find and select keywords for your business that have the highest number of searches and the lowest competition.

Step 2: Verify Search Engine Results

Once we have generated your keyword list, each keyword needs to be manually checked to verify that it returns the intended Search Engine results.

For example, the word “desert” demonstrates the problem of relevant keyword selection. Desert can mean a dry region, or desert can mean the act of running away. If the goal of the web site is to discuss people who desert the army, search results about the Sahara desert would irrelevant.

Step 3: Integrate Keywords into Your Site

Once we have selected keywords for your business, we use these words to optimize every aspect of your web site.

Our optimization includes the parts of the site that your customers will read, including your site content. It also includes the parts of your site written specifically for Google and the other search engines.

Step 4: Produce Effective Online Marketing and
Web Page Copywriting

We are professional writers, with skills in both marketing and technical writing. We deliver attractive sites with well-written content.

We are also skilled researchers, providing the kind of informative content that the search engines value as the most relevant content on the web.

Our Search Engine Optimized web sites climb to the top of Google and the other search engines with no monthly fees.

We at SEO Pittsburgh create web sites that are both attractive and functional. We have extensive expertise in fine art, and a combined twenty years experience in web graphic design.

We build our sites using attractive color schemes, elegant navigation, and cleanly arranged text content. We also integrate images into our sites to help narrate the ideas being expressed.

We Build Search Engine Optimized Sites

For a web site to work, it has to be more than pretty. Every part of our sites is carefully crafted for optimal search engine performance. We build our sites around ten top SEO criteria, and assemble these elements into a visually coherent web site design.

We Use Google Heat Maps

We base the design of our web sites on the Google Heat Map. This is a statistical map developed by Google that is based on where people look for specific features on a web site. We place the most important keywords and information in the highest traffic locations on each web page.

We Optimize Web Site Navigation

We optimize the navigation of our web sites for the search engines. Since Google cannot yet read words imbedded in pictures, the navigation on our web sites is text-based. We optimize this navigation text with top keywords as part of our Search Engine Optimization process. We position the navigation on our web sites in accordance with the Google Heat Map to make our sites easily searched by both customers and search engines.

We Optimize Web Site Graphics

We optimize the size of the graphics that we use on our sites, since web page load times are another important aspect of SEO. We label each of our graphics with short, optimized descriptions called “alt tags” to aid in search engine placement. Our use of alt tags also allows people with visual challenges to identify the images on our web pages with the use of a screen reader.

Do you have a web site that doesn’t rank well on the search engines? Are your customers visiting your competitors’ web sites, and not yours?

Even if you already have a web site, we will optimize it to make it rank more highly on the search engines.

We optimize your web site in five important ways:

1) We research top keywords for your business. These keywords have:

High search volume.
Low competition.
High relevance to your business.

2) We optimize the text of your web site using your top keywords:

We copyedit your web site text for clarity, eloquence, and relevance to your topic.
We infuse your web pages with your top keywords.
We optimize the “Search Engine readable” portion of your web site.

3) We optimize your web site navigation to follow the Google Heat Map. Web site navigation should:

Be text based.
Appear at the top of your web site.
Appear in a consistent location on your site.

4) We optimize your web site graphics. Web site graphics should:

Be optimized for size for faster page loading.
Include alt tags for search engine ranking.

5) We submit your web site to the major Search Engines and Web Directories:

We submit your web site’s URL and a brief description of your site to the major Search Engines, like Google; to the minor Search Engines, like Scrub the Web; and to the Web Directories, like The Open Directory Project. This process entails manually submitting your web address and customized descriptions of your site to over 50 different Search Engines and Web Directories.

We generate and optimize your presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook is now the most popular web site on the Internet. People are searching Facebook for businesses before they search on Google. Facebook allows businesses to network and advertize to their customers in a way that a static web site does not.

We use our skills as Search Engine Optimization specialists to generate optimized Facebook pages. We optimize the names, descriptions, and content of Facebook pages using highly sought keyword phrases.

Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter helps you advertise directly to your customers. With Twitter, businesses can provide a private news feed of relevant information to their customers, keeping them current in their customers’ minds.

We optimize your Twitter channel using highly sought keywords specific to your business. Having an optimized Twitter channel allows new customers to find your business easily.

We also provide detailed instructions for how to use Twitter to the best advantage of your business. We teach you what is relevant to Tweet about, what is useful to link to, and how to get new followers.

YouTube

YouTube allows businesses to demonstrate products and services that are best presented using audio and video. YouTube is the most popular video site on the Internet, and is the place where customers search for how-to and product demonstration videos.

We optimize your YouTube channel name with keywords that follow the special optimization rules of YouTube.

We provide you with an optimized description of your business that helps customers find your channel, we optimize the appearance of your YouTube channel, and we provide detailed instructions for how to get new YouTube subscribers.

LinkedIn

Linkedin allows businesses to network with each other to help build business-to-business relationships.

Linkedin is also a referral network that helps you extend your customer base.

We optimize your Linked in profile with keywords specific to your business, and we provide a description of how to use Linked in to the best advantage of your business.

At SEO Pittsburgh, we are researchers and skilled technical writers. We provide copyediting and copywriting services for all of your writing needs.

Web Site Copywriting

Many web developers will design your site, and then expect you to write the content. We go beyond design and use an interviewing process to create quality web site content, using your words to personalize your site. We then refine and optimize your words so that they speak to the search engines as well as they speak to your customers.

Grant Writing

As professional grant writers, we use our skills as researchers to create well-documented and statistically based presentations tailored to your specific grant requirements. Having this well presented numeric data is compelling to grantors and is useful for market positioning.

PowerPoint Presentations

We also use our skills as professional writers and web site developers to build compelling PowerPoint presentations.

Being skilled at analyzing and presenting data, we create presentations that are both content rich and easy to understand. Like the development of a well-written web site, a quality PowerPoint document offers an audience well presented information through concise writing and appropriate graphics.

Research and Documentation

We are skilled researchers and meticulous fact checkers. We use our data analysis and research skills to develop a wide range of business documentation.

The projects we have worked on include the development of engineering specifications, the creation of software documentation, and the ghostwriting of how-to manuals. We are skilled at presenting complex information in a way that is easy to understand.

Contact us. We are prepared to meet your writing needs.

As computer graphic artists, skilled at building optimized web sites, we can also apply our skills to creating a unique corporate identity for your business.

The corporate identity we develop can then be applied across all of your print and advertizing media.

We begin by creating a unique company logo that will distinctly identify your business wherever it appears.

The development of a distinctive logo becomes the basis for creating your other print media.

As skilled digital typesetters, we will produce business cards and letterhead that offer your customers a uniform and professional experience of your business.

We can also create brochures and newspaper advertizing to attract new customers to your business.

For trade shows other public venues, we can create banners and signs that promote your company.

Our market research answers the basic question: Does anyone want to buy your product or service?

We use our keyword analysis as a tool to identify broad market interests for which there is a low market competition. We then position your business to answer the needs of these underserved, in demand markets.

Our subscription keyword analysis tools give us access to the number of searches per month done for any keyword phrase, which we use to determine how many people are looking for your specific product or service. With this information, we can position your business in a profitable niche with sufficient market demand.

Using our keyword analysis tools, we also recommend specific products or services for your business to offer. Before you invest time and money starting a business or doing product research and development, let us tell you if there is interest in your good or service.

Business Naming

We use keyword research to help you find the right name for your business. By using highly-sought keywords in your business name, your business will be easily found on the search engines, and your customers will be clear that they have found the products and services they are looking for.

By using keywords in your business name, your keywords become your brand. In the early days of he Internet, businesses like Yahoo or Amazon could brand themselves to become household names. Now the cost of Internet branding is beyond what most businesses can afford. By using keywords in your business name, you can have instant product recognition for only a little more than the cost of Search Engine Optimization.

SEO Doesn’t Work for Every Web Site

For many products and services, the Internet is far too saturated with existing web sites for SEO to be an effective marketing tool. One customer asked us to SEO his web site in a market where there were only 480 searches per week with more than 22,000 web sites already built to sell his product. We declined to build this web site and told this potential customer that SEO would not be an effective marketing strategy in this oversaturated market.

Let Us Identify Available Markets for You

SEO works best where we can use our keyword search tools to identify markets with high search volume and low competition. It is common for our customers to choose products to sell, having done no market research to identify if there is any interest in their product line. Since market analysis is a result of doing keyword analysis, we can frequently identify adjacent markets that will result in a greater number of sales.

SEO Works Better for Service Businesses than Product Businesses

With the current saturation of the Internet, few businesses can sell enough products online to make a living, unless the product has a high enough markup, or it fills highly specific unfilled market niches.

For service industries, however, a few new repeat customers per month brought in through a web site can make a substantial contribution to the business’s bottom line. Too frequently, we are asked to build web sites for products that cannot be effectively marketed on the web.

SEO Works Better for Regional Markets than for National Markets

It is becoming increasingly difficult for web sites to compete for top search engine ranking in a national market. Search Engine Optimization works best when businesses can target their web site to a regional market, such as a specific city. We will only consider building nationally ranked Search Engine Optimized web sites for businesses that sell unique products or services.

We Are Now Identifying Top Markets for Ourselves

Using our keyword analysis tools, we are able to identify high volume, low competition markets for a variety of products for which we are now building in-house web sites. We question the ability of other SEO companies if they are capable of doing market research and are still in the business of building customer web sites, instead of developing top ranked sites for themselves. It has become increasingly clear to us that our best business model is to develop top ranked web sites for our own projects.

Under the Google search term:

#1: ”Kangen Water Pittsburgh”

#1: ”Kangen Pittsburgh”

#1: ”Alkaline Water Pittsburgh”

Regional Marketing

This is a site we built for a retired nurse who had discovered the health benefits of a Japanese water treatment system called Kangen Water. The water filter market is highly competitive and oversaturated with many people and companies offering a variety of products, making this a project we generally would not have taken on.

Speaking with this customer, we understood that the contract with her supplier was that her sales territory was limited to Pittsburgh and that this project could not include online sales. Because we were able to regionalize this site to Pittsburgh, the site rose to #1 Google in its category within two weeks of launch, and it continues to rank at the top of the search results.

Under the Google search term:

#1: ”Social Skills Lessons Pittsburgh”

#8: ”Social Skills Pittsburgh”

#1: ”Wendy Halley-McAllister”

Grant Writing

In addition to the commercial work that we do for customers, we also do extensive charity work for the autism community. This particular customer provides social skills training for people on the autism spectrum.

Being a startup business, this customer had no money for marketing and was considering selecting another line of work. When we initially consulted with her, we were able to demonstrate to her that there was a very high demand for this specialized service here in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan area.

As professional writers, we applied for and received a grant to build a top ranked web site for this customer. The success of this grant was based on the statistical data from our keyword research that demonstrated the customer’s high demand and low competition field of work. Our completed site rose to and has remained in the #1 position on Google since one month after launch.

More importantly, because of the high market demand for this service, the conversion rate on this site has been spectacularly high, exceeding the capacity of this service provider in only a few months. In all, we were able to produce a web site at almost no cost to the customer, and were able to provide a service to the autism community.