Did you watch this past season of The Biggest Loser? Did you notice the dramatic increase in product placement throughout the course of the show? Yes? So did all of the friendly neighbourhood SEO techs working for the advertisers, and you can bet they took advantage of it.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the term used for making your website easily noticed by search engines, which of course gets your website placed higher in the listing of websites when a term is “googled” or “yahooed”. Getting on the first page of search results is the main goal; getting in the first three listings is the ultimate dream.

Search engines find your website by the text it contains. The more relevant the text, the better your chances of making it onto page one of the search results. Someone who googles “biggest loser” will get various sites devoted to the popular TV show. When The Biggest Loser started touting heart monitors as a good tool for weight loss, manufacturers of heart monitors didn’t take very long to figure out that having a reference to “Biggest Loser” on their site, even if they had no direct link to the show, increases their “site traffic” (a tech-term to describe the number of visitors to a website).

I’ve heard it referred to as “SEO drafting”, “current events optimization”, and “media-based SEO”, but it’s always the same function: attaching a product or a service to a popular, high-traffic subject. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition advertised their cabinetry in the same way. This smart way of doubling your return on product placement is becoming more and more prominent.

It also helps to have associative goodwill on your side. If you have a chance to align yourself officially with a popular product or service, all the better. When one of Stagecoach Designs’ favourite clients, HealthyGirl, presented Wellspot2008, their one-day networking event in Toronto last month, it certainly didn’t hurt that the owner was able to partner with such popular names as Flare Magazine, KitchenAid Appliances and Playtex. References to those and other companies (along with links to their websites) significantly increased the SEO for their website.

You, too, can increase your website’s ranking in search engine listings by making savvy connections with popular products, services and events. Email me to find out how at nboylan@stagecoachdesigns.com.

Nik Boylan is general manager of Stagecoach Designs and our in-house search engine optimization expert. He is the guy we turn to for advice on anything IT, be it web hosting, XHTML standardization or fixing the photocopier. Nik is a native of Michigan. He is also the office checkers champ.

Stagecoach Express is a newsletter produced by Stagecoach Designs. Each issue is written by one of four in-house experts, each of whom brings his or her storytelling talent and special knowledge to the quest for superior marketing and brand development. Articles printed in the Stagecoach Express are based on true events but identifying information may be modified to protect the identity of the innocent (and guilty).