Small business internet marketers were happy to say goodbye to 2012. Those infamous Google Updates, Panda and Penguin, had every small business SEO ducking for cover. Thousands of small businesses may never recover fully from the drop in rankings. Ever the resilient profession, ambitious SEO’s started “link removal” practices they desperately hoped would fix the SEO mistakes that led to their downfall. In a hurry to undo the damage, some businesses actually paid to remove links that only months before they had paid to create! Adding salt to the wounds, small businesses also had to figure out what to do with social media newcomers, the monster that is Google+ and that other one...Pinterest, while still fumbling around with Facebook and Twitter.

If 2012 made you want to throw in the towel, the following stats will make you want to think again:

• In 2011, Google had more than 1.7 trillion searches. Source: Google Official History
• 92% of internet users use search engines (59% on a daily basis), 71% purchase products online and over 80% research products/services online before buying. Source: ComScore qSearch

So let’s leave 2012 behind and turn our attention to these tips that will help you filter out the hype and focus on sustainable SEO tactics.

Get Better SEO Metrics

Before I spend even one minute or a single dollar on a new project, I define goals and a measure of success. I recommend you do the same using these metrics:

1. Non-branded organic visits - SEO is not about creating brand awareness, it’s about capturing existing demand for your products/services via industry keyword searches, NOT your brand keywords. Brand keywords refer to words that people use who already know your business (i.e., Albert Moving). Non-brand keywords are the keywords that refer to your category (i.e., moving companies). When evaluating your SEO campaign, you want to exclude those people who use your brand name when they search.

First, set up your Google Analytics account. Once the data starts coming in, keep an eye on your organic non-paid search traffic. Log in to analytics and on the left side of the screen, select Traffic Sources → Sources→ Search → Organic.

Then, select Advanced Segments → Non Paid Search Traffic.

Now, look at the non-branded keywords and you’ll see the number of visits per keyword. Use the Analytics calendar feature to compare the numbers to the previous month. Track the changes each month and you’ll know how well your SEO campaign is working.

2. Comparative Ranking Scores – At my company, we developed our own webgrader with which you can compare your organic traffic to your competitor. Every business and industry will have different scores. The important thing to track is where you stand in relation to your competitors. Once you have that critical piece of information, you’ll know where you fall short on your link building efforts for your targeted keywords. We produced this tutorial to explain exactly how the webgrader works.

3. Phone Call Tracking - You don’t have an accurate measure of your SEO and online marketing campaign performance if you’re not tracking the source of your phone calls. Once you start tracking calls, you may find that some or all of your campaigns are more successful than you think! There are many call tracking tools available through companies such as calltrackingmetrics.com and www.callrail.com.

Your business name, address and phone number (or NAP) is the core information that makes up your basic online listing identity. Properly installed, most call tracking numbers do not interfere with the search engines’ indexing of your actual phone number. Most phone tracking scripts use a cookie and a javascript rewrite to determine the source of the call and show the website visitor the phone number that’s been assigned to the particular campaign. For example:

• 888-555-5000 is your actual phone number.
• Your website visitor clicks a link from a Google Adwords ad.
• The tracking script replaces (or overwrites) your actual phone number with a trackable replacement number like 888-555-9999. Upon landing on your website, the visitor that originated from that Adwords ad sees the tracking number, 888-555-9999. When the visitor calls the tracking number, the call tracking system reroutes the call to ring to your actual number.

Execute Your Content Marketing

Content marketing emphasizes the creation of useful and compelling content that educates and informs. It doesn’t sell or push; it draws people in. To guide your writing, think about the problems people encounter that are related to your industry. For example, a furniture store owner could write about how to repair or conceal furniture scratches. A dry cleaner could write about how to care for delicate fabrics so they last longer. Face it, no one wants to link to content that is all about you and your business. Content marketing is a solid, long-term SEO strategy because it makes information shareable and link-worthy.

Content marketing is part strategy and part tactic. A well-executed content marketing program includes:

• Good researchers and writers to develop content that is useful to your target audience, but also related to your targeted keywords.
• Content that is published to other websites through guest blogging, social media, videos/webinars, infographics and so on.
• Content on your website that people will want to share on social networks.

Quality over Quantity

2012 taught us that more links aren’t always better. Most small business websites that I look at have a few hundred links. Yet many SEO agencies are still selling programs that promise thousands of links in a month. In 2013, ask some questions about where those links will be placed. Go for quality over quantity. Keep these SEO tips in mind:

• Focus on root domain links - don’t get caught up with lots of links on the same domain. Get one link and move on. When you find a site that gives you an unlimited number of links by merely commenting on their content, you may feel like you’re making progress, but you’re not. Don’t waste your time.
• Look at domain authority of linking domains - that content you’ve written is a precious commodity. Don’t waste it! Make sure you look at the domain authority of the website before placing your content. Check the open site explorer tool on SEOmoz to get the data. The higher the domain authority, the better.
• Look at the website - Is it littered with ads and poor quality or even tawdry content? If you don’t feel comfortable associating your business with the content on a website, don’t.

Bonus: Social Signals and Rich Snippets

2012 showed us that Google will continue to give us carrots like social signals and rich snippets in the search results for Authorship, Ratings, and Videos. Right now, you should:

• Set up Google+ authorship so you can link content you publish on your website to your Google+ profile. This can help you stand out in the search results.
• Use schema.org to markup any local, video, product and address information. When you use schema.org, search engines get structured information that helps improve search result quality.
• Increase social media activity. At the very least, keep your Google+, Facebook and Twitter pages updated and active. Reportedly, Google+ pages appear in search results for 30% of brand term searches for brands with G+ pages, up from 5% in February 2012.

Always take advantage of these valuable (and free) SEO incentives and keep on the lookout for more in 2013.

Follow these tips to get your 2013 SEO off to the right start.