by Helena Handbasket

Created on: January 30, 2009   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

Organic search results are an essential prong of Web 2.0 marketing campaigns. Incorporating organic results is uncomplicated and informative. Any web publisher benefits from organic feedback and regular keyword churn cycles.

Multiple Entry

The simple, resaleable small-business solution is robust entry. Entry points are not linked from one's intranet, but are submitted for spidering, and search-engine-optimized for specified strings. Simple SEO involves using the selected keyphrase (e.g., "web optimization") 2-3 times in its entry page, in context.

More entries always increase organic conversions: writers can brainstorm well over 100 keyphrases immediately. Copying extant intranet-linked pages, and wordsmithing them into new entries, optimizes each key individually. Restorming is monthly or biweekly.

At conversion time, host history dump reveals each account's entry point with sufficient reliability, even for blogs and simple LAMP sites. A dropdown referral question at conversion also yields statistically valid backup, even with 2%-10% response.

String Capture

When entries do not match organic search strings, a higher-end solution is full search string capture. Webmasters obtain the immediately previous URL visited for each new IP contact (e.g., "history.back()" in JavaScript).

The entire URL is either immediately written to permanent storage, or parsed into a follow-me string available from history (e.g., "?search=g-web-optimization"). Organic conversions are matched at conversion time to original or parsed strings, linking accounts reliably to engines and searches, and obtaining nuances like "programming 'web optimization' -ads".

Entries may now supply significant content, especially with end-user content creation tools.

IP Tracking

Clients with strong mining resources may archive all available datapoints from each pageview - particularly IP information, browser type, and history. When organic conversions are untrackable via immediately prior search details, mining reveals identical or related IPs or browser types, and associates the original organic search.

Reasonableness percentage is calculated: arbitrarily, 100 could represent direct search-target links, less indicates linking is complicated by other search history, and still less indicates evidence is limited to IP and browser matching. With competent database administration, and search advertising and social networking prongs, virtually every conversion can be tracked.

Building on Results

Implementing conversion tracking rapidly obtains consistent feedback about comparative marketing campaigns. Regular review in "churn-and-burn" meetings ensures results keep building. Trademark office history attests that contextualized keyphrases can hardly be overused: thousands of organic search keys are realistic, achievable, and current best practice among corporate giants.

The author's husband has been an SEO consultant since 2001.

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