Posted by admin on December 28th, 2008 — Posted in SEO + More
You may have heard how important it is to have your website optimized for search engines, especially Google, which is currently the most popular worldwide. The reason for this is so your website will be ranked high in the search engines and people will see your site first, click on it, and increase your traffic and ultimately your sales. You might think this all sounds like a wonderful idea and want to get your web site optimized for Google, but you may have no idea how to go about it. Don’t worry, getting your web page ready for the Google search engine is not as difficult as you might have thought. Google has a system called PageRank that ranks the different web pages according to different standards. When you learn the standards you will know how to best optimize your page to get a high ranking in Google.
Tip #1 Search Engine Spamming
If you want to get a long term, high ranking with Google it is important not to spam. The reason for this is Google will blacklist you from their index and not list your URL. Also, most other web search engines operate the same way. Learn what is considered as spamming so you can avoid doing this.
Tip #2 Links
The more links you have on the Web that point to your website means the higher ranking you will receive on Google. This is because Google gives preference to sites with more links on the Web, so make sure you work hard to increase the links to your website that exist on the Web.
Tip #3 Keywords
Keywords are another major consideration if you want to get a high ranking with Google. The reason for this is that Google searches for the keywords that are related to your website and then ranks your website for those keyword phrases. If you have a website that is optimized for many keywords related to your niche, you’ll attract tons of free, targeted search engine traffic.
Tip #4 Do not Use Frames
Google does not support websites with frames very well, so if your website utilizes frames you run a risk that your site will not rank well with Google or even get indexed at all. Get rid of those frames if you want Google to list all of the pages on your website!
Tip #5 More Text
Google searches for text, not photos or images. Make sure that you keep your content keyword rich and accurate. Keep the graphics to a minimum as well because the more images you have, the less text you have, the fewer keywords Google will be able to search for, and the longer your web pages will take to load.
Tip #6 Links
Make sure all pages within your site have their own URL or otherwise Google will have problems picking up and ranking these pages.
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Posted by admin on October 10th, 2008 — Posted in SEO + More
One thing is for sure, you don’t want to spend hours, perhaps days, months, or years on a website to have some stupid little mistake get your site dropped or never even listed in the search engines. There are a lot of rules that search engines have created to block out what they call spammers, so don’t kid yourself by telling yourself you are not an evil spammer. As the courts might say, ignorance of the law is no excuse. So what kind of horrific mistake could sneak upon you and possibly ruin all your hard work?
When I first starting making web pages, I created basic templates that I used for an entire site. Of course it’s great to have a uniformed look for your site, but what if you had a screw up on a template you used over and over again. What kind of screw up? How about hidden text or a hidden link? You see the old WYSIWIG editors, like the older versions of FrontPage sometimes leave behind links within the html code even after you’ve deleted the link. As far as hidden text, that can happen by not paying attention to what you are doing. If you make hundreds of pages eventually you might accidentally color some of your text the same as your background. You say it’s not likely. I wouldn’t think so either, but it’s happened to me several times. If you use the mistake ridden template over and over again, you might have a problem. It’s generally understood that search engines frown on hidden text and links. How many will they overlook is anybody’s guess. So if you haven’t checked your old web pages, it might be profitable to check out your html code. Look for urls with no link text in the code. You can usually find hidden text by simply highlighting your webpage in your browser.
Solutions
If you find out you have the problem over hundreds or thousands of pages, it might be worth investing in Microsoft FrontPage 2003. It has a split screen that helps in finding html errors, and best of all you can do a site wide search and replace. The software will find the code you search for, and all you have to do is leave the replacement code box blank, thus removing the offending hidden link.
The good news is that there are some other ways to avoid this problem altogether. You can learn CSS for template designs for instance. A trick I like to use is Server Side Includes (SSI) for my links menu. To make it work you have to have two things, a code like this [an error occurred while processing this directive] with your links menu page inside the code, and your server has to be set to take it. Most servers are automatically set to use SSI includes in shtml pages, but most web hosts allow you to pick .html or .htm pages to parse. The only thing to keep in mind is it puts an extra task for the server to perform on each and every page that contains the extension you choose to parse. For example one of my web hosts has in their control panel a apache handler section. I simply go there put server-parsed in the Handler box, .htm in the extension box, and click add. That’s it. Now if I need to add a link to my menu I change one page the menu.htm page and I’m done.
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Posted by admin on September 24th, 2008 — Posted in SEO + More
In efforts to increase sales and profitability, more and more companies are turning to online marketing initiatives - specifically, search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization or (SEO) is the art and science of blending technical and marketing skills together into a finely tuned website that is both search engine-friendly, ranks well for specific keywords and phrases, and is tailored to your audience from a buyer and seller perspective.
According to a recent U.S. study, only 20% of all businesses outsource search engine optimization programs to professional SEO firms. The remaining 80% either do not conduct search engine optimization at all or they believe they have the resources and skills to do it in-house. Of this 80%, it is probable that 90% of these companies can’t be found on the web - they don’t exist. In order to generate any amount of significant web visibility, your website must typically rank within the top-30 results.
So, the question comes down to what is in your company’s best interests?
Conduct your SEO program in-house or out-source it. To answer this question, let’s first take a look at the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to implement and maintain a successful search engine optimization program.
SEO knowledge and skills required
1) Basic understanding of how search engines and directories work.
This may seem overly obvious, but you would be amazed how many people do not understand how they actually work. This knowledge provides the foundation for your SEO program.
2) Website design
Although SEO is not completely a technical marketing process, it does require a fair amount of technical knowledge of what constitutes search engine-friendly web design. Certain web design elements can either help your search engine rankings or hurt them. You simply have to know which is which.
3) SEO experience
This is the most important and most difficult knowledge to obtain. If you have never implemented a SEO program, then you are in for a big surprise. Search engine optimization programs require a lot of research and are extremely time consuming. Most importantly, they require actual SEO experience. This means knowing what SEO strategies and tactics work and which ones don’t.
In-house vs. out-sourced SEO programs
If your company is considering conducting your search engine optimization program in-house, here are some questions to consider.
- Who will be responsible for analyzing, developing, implementing and measuring the success of your SEO program?
- Is this considered the role of your IT department, Marketing department or some other individual(s) within your company?
- Do they have the time, knowledge, and resources to successfully implement and maintain your search engine optimization program? And do they really care if it works or not?
IT Department
Typically your IT department handles multiple daily tasks from trouble-shooting your company’s LAN or WAN to fixing the sales department’s laptops? Out of a busy IT person’s day, what priority and focus do you think he or she will commit to for your SEO program? And even if your IT department has some skills in web design or development, these skills make up only a small percentage of the knowledge required for a successful search engine optimization program.
Marketing Department
Typically, your marketing department juggles many marketing projects at once and faces strict completion deadlines. From handling new print collateral campaigns to getting ready for new product or service launches, marketing personnel’s time is spread very thin. In addition, how knowledgeable is your marketing department in the technical aspects of web design and search engine optimization? Do they have the time to become well-versed? Do they have sufficient internal resources? Often the answer to both questions is no, they do not.
Other individual(s) within your company
Ok, so the responsibility falls onto someone outside of your Marketing or IT department. Who will that be and why are they responsible for your SEO program? Providing these individuals with a new “project of the month,” will typically result in another check mark off of their monthly to-do list and frustration by top management of why their website is not producing any sales results.
Summary
From a business standpoint, it makes sense to try to leverage internal resources to maximize your company’s productivity and profitability - whenever possible. However, there must be a line drawn in the sand between knowing what your organization’s capabilities are and what they are not.
As you can see, there is more to search engine optimization than meets the eye. In order to implement and maintain a SEO program, you must acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources. This can be done by hiring a professional search engine optimization firm. Professional SEO firms have dedicated resources and experience to support your company’s web marketing initiatives. By leveraging their experience and know-how, your company can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program.
About The Author
Corey Wenger is owner of Key Position Web Marketing and is a professional Search Engine Optimizer and Consultant who has over three years of experience in helping companies increase sales and profitability through strategic web marketing programs. For more information, please visit www.key-position.com or email him at corey@key-position.com.
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