I’m starting a new series of posts where you can submit your questions about search engine and internet marketing (which can be a variety of things). Today’s question comes from the DP forums. No one had answered this question yet, so I thought I’d use it as a start.

Hey,

I am using wordpress and I am wondering how to choose the names of the categories and posts. There is a field for the ‘name’ and a field for a ’slug’ (the slug is shown in the URL bar in the browser and the name in the menu )..

Now I would like to know what is the best way of choosing names for these two in regard of search engines.. for example :

Should I try to put keywords which I think a viewer will search for in google in the slug ? Or in the name field ? Or in both ? And which one is more important ?

Also, what about a name and a totally different slug ? Would that be bad ?

Regards,
-FOP-

I’d suggest putting both the keywords and whatever you’re going to use as the slug be the same. Keywords in the URL definitely help with optimization, but also, your keywords in the title of the blog post is going to help too. The blog post title usually is wrapped in H tags, which does carry little weight in the search engines.

If you really wanted to target the specific you were putting in the Title/URL, I’d suggest doing both, but if you wanted to target a few more broader keywords in the URL and the go specific in the title, that is an option too. You’ve got to remember though that you’re probably putting your blog posts in categories, which should be high-level keywords anyway. Example:

BlogAboutYoga.com/yoga-mats/best-yoga-mats-in-orange-county/

So keep that in consideration.

Good luck!

This week, Google bought DoubleClick ad network for $3.1 Billion coin. That is a lot of coin. The interesting aspect to that purchase is DoubleClick owns Performics, which is a search engine marketing company.

Performics started out as an affiliate network, and they still are, but a good portion of their business revolves around SEO now. What a coincidence that Google happens to purchase DoubleClick, which also owns Performics. What does that mean for Performics clients?

I have to say, I’d love to be a Performics clients. Don’t get me wrong, SEM Inc. is very capable to optimize in any industry, but we’re not Google. We’re not Yahoo. (And who wants to be Live.com) Interestingly, does this mean Performics clients get the benefit to look under the skirt of Google and see the goods? I don’t it, but its an interesting thought. And if Performics clients did get the inside scoop to rankings and such, what would that do to other websites in those markets online?

Time will tell what Google decides to do with Performics. I’ve talked with other SEOs that think Google will sell that portion of the business off. It’s just too much of a conflict of interest. But we’ll see.

I thought about writing search engine news and updates, but I thought I would be better to introduce myself, since this IS the first post and all. My name is Adam Maywald. I’m the COO of SEM Inc. You might know me as Voasi online. It’s been my “handle” for about 5 years now, which stands for Vision, Opportunity, Ambition, Success and Integrity.

I’ve been doing search engine marketing and various forms of online marketing for about 6 years now. I kind of fell into it, like most experts in the SEO field. I was working for an insurance company at the time and they didn’t have any web presence. Now, I was familiar with building websites, as I’d been doing that for the past 4 years prior to working there, so I felt I had a good idea of what they needed. As I build their site, I realized that a website is going to get them traffic, I needed to market the website. I researched different ways to market websites online. I first came across PPC advertising. I implemented PPC for their site and they started to garner 20-30 leads a day, which was excellent for a health insurance company. The costs then were a LOT lower then what they are today.

From, there I kept on learning and learning, pushing the envelope of what I could learn on forums and do with my own personal testing. I’ve worked with Fortune 1000 companies and have helped companies hundreds of thousands of dollars MORE a month with my experience.

My partner and myself started SEM, Inc to really focus on building a firm search engine marketing company that really stands behind its service and provides exceptional products to our clients, including metrics and analytics to help clients make educated decisions for their marketing budgets.

As for this blog, I’ll be updating it on a daily basis parsing industry news, our own case studies and other important develops in the search engine marketing world, as well as other marketing arenas that drive more customers to your website.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me anytime adam@seminc.com and I’ll be happy to answer!