Monthly Archives: December 2010
Michael Lock absolutely rocks for creating such an awesome video about creating a custom theme page for WordPress.
http://www.mlwebco.com – In this video I demonstrate how to create a wordpress page template and use a static html page as your wordpress home page. This is useful if you want to use a custom static html wordpress home page and display your blog posts on a seperate page other than the home (index) page.
@mlwebco
When it comes to successfully marketing your business online, it’s important not only to have a Web site that serves as a virtual showroom for your business, but you also need to implement Internet marketing strategies that will lead people to your showroom. Whether you are selling goods, services, or information, your online marketing campaign should be built around sound Search Engine Optimization (SEO) principles.
Here are 4 common myths about SEO that all businesses need to know if they are going to effectively market their businesses online:
Myth: I should only work with companies that can guarantee SEO results.
Truth: As you begin to grow and market your business online, you’ll come across plenty of information about SEO strategies that are “guaranteed” to work for your business. However, experienced SEO specialists know that there are no guarantees when it comes to SEO.
There are a few reasons why no one can guarantee SEO success. One reason is that no one outside of the walls of search engine companies knows what the search engine algorithms really are. Therefore, all SEO strategies are based on trial and error.
The SEO strategies that work for some companies may not work for others. Business owners should do their best to feel comfortable with the fact that there are no guarantees. However, working with experienced SEO specialists can help to ensure that they make some significant in-roads by trying the most effective strategies.
Myth: As long as I have enough keywords on my Web site, my Web site is search engine optimized.
Fact: Keywords are the center of any strong SEO campaign. However, without the proper SEO techniques and foundations, the keywords won’t be very effective. Proper SEO begins with keywords, but other facts, such as programming, are critical to the success of Web site.
Of course, those other components will revolve around the keywords, such as ALT tags, H1 tags, hyperlinks, and the page’s meta description. You’ll need to work with an SEO company that understands all of these components in order to effectively use keywords to optimize your site.
Myth: If the SEO strategies are good, they will start to work right away.
Fact: Because of the nature of search engines (and the Internet, in general), SEO campaigns don’t really start to achieve measurable results for about 6-12 weeks. Therefore, businesses need to adopt a degree of patience when marketing themselves online with SEO techniques. They should also be weary of companies that promise instant, guaranteed results.
The good news is that the quantitative and qualitative results are worth the wait. Thanks to the ease of SEO analysis tools, you will be able to track the results of different SEO campaigns in real-time to get a clear picture of how effective certain techniques and implementations are for your business.
Myth: I’ll get the best results by working with SEO experts.
Fact: There is no such thing as an “SEO expert.” Those who have been in the SEO industry for any degree of time often chuckle when they see newer SEO marketing companies position themselves as “experts.” Like with the fact that there are no guarantees when it comes to SEO, there are no experts. Because of the constant changes to the Internet, technologies, and the way people interact with their digital tools, no one can be an expert at capturing effective SEO strategies, but we can specialize in SEO.
What’s the difference between being an expert and being a specialist? In part, it’s the focus that one puts on constant improvement, versus resignation to already knowing everything there is to know. To specialize in SEO means that we are constantly learning about technologies, techniques, research, and changes to various industries and components to better understand and refine our techniques. Therefore, businesses should be weary of marketers who position themselves as SEO experts.
Are you longing to improve the ranking of your search engines? If yes, then it is important for you to be aware of the different things that you can do in order for you to achieve such aim. A higher rank in the search engine can bring traffic to your website. Because of this, it is important for you to take some steps in order to obtain a higher rank. You can try the following moves:
1. Creating quality content for your website.
If you want people to come swarming into your website, then you should consider putting relevant content into it. When writing articles for your website, make sure that you constantly take into account your target market. You have to write contents that are really designed for your audience. This is important as there is a great possibility that your search engine ranking will be negatively affected once your website is found anywhere else instead of reaching its real target market.
2. Choosing relevant keywords.
Being able to select the most appropriate keywords for your website can improve its ranking in the search engines. Once the ranking is improved, you can also expect a vast improvement in the performance of your business. In order for you to find the most relevant keywords, you need to perform an effective keyword research. You can do this online by finding free keyword research tools that will be useful for you in determining the specific keywords that are often searched by people. Through this, you will be on your way towards obtaining a keyword that creates a huge impact to the public.
3. Exchanging links.
If you want to improve your search engine ranking, then it is great if you consider exchanging your links with other websites that own higher ranks. Start researching about high ranking websites that are related to your business and ask them for a link exchange. Once you are linked to a higher ranking website, you will also be increasing your chances of obtaining a high rank in search engine. Through this, you can expect to bring more traffic to your site. This will allow you to also increase your profitability.
Are you spending thousands of dollars on your website and you are nowhere to be “found” on Google?
If your answer is Yes, our Search Engine Marketing services may be a great fit to you. We provide PPC Management, Web Analytics and SEO Services.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robin_Tan
Did you know that roughly 80 percent of North Americans get online regularly? Now, more than ever, it is important to invest in online advertising. By going online to advertise your business, you’ll reach larger amounts of browsers and shoppers than traditional advertising mediums. Plus, advertising online is, by far, the most cost-effective and affordable advertising methods.
To learn more about why advertising your business online is the right choice, check out these simple reasons why it’s important to create an online advertising plan:
It’s simple: people shop online
With hundreds of millions of people buying online, it’s time to take advantage of the limitless opportunity to get their attention. The internet is a virtual mall, full of stores–and storefronts. Take the money you would spend on a neon sign that is seen by thousands of people a year, and spend your advertising money on Search Engine Optimization and Web site functionality that will be seen by millions of shoppers a year.
Sell worldwide
Your business can reach people all over the world who may be looking for your products or services. Invest in an online advertising strategy to help to drive shoppers to your sit. A good advertising campaign will be targeted to shoppers who are looking for the types of products you sell that way, you’ll have a greater chance of having high conversion rates when shoppers make a purchase.
Be a resource for information
The internet is a resource for information. People want to know details about something they might buy, such as how the products are used, how they are made, and what the best price is. Spend some advertising bucks on developing robust product descriptions and reviews for your products. As a result of your efforts, you’ll see an increase in traffic and get more confidence from your visitors (who are likely to become buyers).
Online business advertising is one of the smartest and most cost-effective ways to reach customers around the world. Begin advertising your business online today to start growing your business in a worldwide marketplace. Don’t forget: long-lasting results are worth the effort and the expense they take to do properly!
The most important function of the primary SEO is ensuring departments across the organization are pulling together strategically. SEO can never be a siloed department it has multiple inputs/outputs and needs to transcend organizational boundaries. Effectively coordinating multiple departments into a cohesive SEO plan is a managerial nightmare. SEO’s have to deal with differing levels of buy-in, technical understanding, departmental calendars, and stakeholders who may have little or no interest in SEO.
My recommendation? Start at the beginning, with an SEO onboarding training program for every/any new hire. Also remember, there’s no reason you can’t go through SEO onboarding with your existing team if you haven’t done so in the past. I’ll take you through a high level overview of the Avvo SEO Orientation to use a model should you want to create one of your own.
Who To Include?
SEO will touch more departments than you can think of the obvious suspects include front and back end development, content, and marketing. Less obvious players include PR (or your agency) and Business Development. For Avvo, even the sales and customer service departments field SEO related questions from our customers. Additionally, being more inclusive in training incoming employees communicates that SEO is important to the company as a whole.
Depth
Keep onboarding training very high level and cursory anyone who needs to know something in-depth, like link building tactics or XML sitemap feeds should already have those skills (if not, you have a hiring problem, not an SEO problem). The goal here is to touch on the things beyond an individual’s personal responsibility to communicate the inter-dependencies required for successful campaigns.
Course Materials
I describe SEO as a stool the three legs being Infrastructure, Content and Links, noting that without nailing all three of these the stool falls down.
1. Infrastructure. Cover URL infrastructure, canonical issues (www. vs. non www.), importance of Title tags, H1′s, meta descriptions as an advertisement on SERP results, and importance of alt text for images and descriptive text for video. Discussion of how to get pages indexed and technical exceptions like no follow and no index .
2. Content. How to do keyword research, importance of including targeted terms in on page factors. For Avvo, because we deal with local issues, I talk about local signals to a page, like zip codes and area codes. Talk through approaches for keyword targeting and what your page categories are targeted towards. Discuss theory around long tail and identify how aggressively your site plays with the long tail. Identify those short tail terms where you rank, or aspire to rank. Explain duplicate content/supplemental results issues and show examples.
3. Links. Explain value of both internal and external links, and where those links exist on a site. Talk about how all links are not created equal value of links from subject-relevant domains as well as highly authoritative domains.Explain anchor text. Discuss link building tactics.
Black Hat vs.White Hat
If you have done a good job hiring smart, innovative people, you’ll invariably get people thinking about black hat techniques. You must talk about where your organization sits on the black/hat white hat continuum. Showcase the BMW used cars penalty as an example of what can go wrong. Here, I focus on SEO as a long term investment and caution people that they aren’t as smart as they think they are.
SEO Tools & Resources
Cover SEO resources and tools that you use make sure your newbies have access to the appropriate log-ins. Depending on the position, this may include proprietary information from your web analytics package or Google Webmaster Tools or internal reporting. You may also use tools like SEOmoz, Majestic or others.
For those who will have access to advanced tools, a thorough hands-on training is imperative. Talk about traffic ranking (and the problem with traffic reporting) from free sites like Compete, Alexa, Quantcast as well as paid data from Hitwise or Nielsen if you have that access. Finally, I recommend most people with any hands on day to day SEO responsibilities download the SearchStatus plug in.
The most important function of the primary SEO is ensuring departments across the organization are pulling together strategically. SEO can never be a siloed department it has multiple inputs/outputs and needs to transcend organizational boundaries. Effectively coordinating multiple departments into a cohesive SEO plan is a managerial nightmare. SEO’s have to deal with differing levels of buy-in, technical understanding, departmental calendars, and stakeholders who may have little or no interest in SEO.
My recommendation? Start at the beginning, with an SEO onboarding training program for every/any new hire. Also remember, there’s no reason you can’t go through SEO onboarding with your existing team if you haven’t done so in the past. I’ll take you through a high level overview of the Avvo SEO Orientation to use a model should you want to create one of your own.
Who To Include?
SEO will touch more departments than you can think of the obvious suspects include front and back end development, content, and marketing. Less obvious players include PR (or your agency) and Business Development. For Avvo, even the sales and customer service departments field SEO related questions from our customers. Additionally, being more inclusive in training incoming employees communicates that SEO is important to the company as a whole.
Depth
Keep onboarding training very high level and cursory anyone who needs to know something in-depth, like link building tactics or XML sitemap feeds should already have those skills (if not, you have a hiring problem, not an SEO problem). The goal here is to touch on the things beyond an individual’s personal responsibility to communicate the inter-dependencies required for successful campaigns.
Course Materials
I describe SEO as a stool the three legs being Infrastructure, Content and Links, noting that without nailing all three of these the stool falls down.
1. Infrastructure. Cover URL infrastructure, canonical issues (www. vs. non www.), importance of Title tags, H1′s, meta descriptions as an advertisement on SERP results, and importance of alt text for images and descriptive text for video. Discussion of how to get pages indexed and technical exceptions like no follow and no index .
2. Content. How to do keyword research, importance of including targeted terms in on page factors. For Avvo, because we deal with local issues, I talk about local signals to a page, like zip codes and area codes. Talk through approaches for keyword targeting and what your page categories are targeted towards. Discuss theory around long tail and identify how aggressively your site plays with the long tail. Identify those short tail terms where you rank, or aspire to rank. Explain duplicate content/supplemental results issues and show examples.
3. Links. Explain value of both internal and external links, and where those links exist on a site. Talk about how all links are not created equal value of links from subject-relevant domains as well as highly authoritative domains.Explain anchor text. Discuss link building tactics.
Black Hat vs.White Hat
If you have done a good job hiring smart, innovative people, you’ll invariably get people thinking about black hat techniques. You must talk about where your organization sits on the black/hat white hat continuum. Showcase the BMW used cars penalty as an example of what can go wrong. Here, I focus on SEO as a long term investment and caution people that they aren’t as smart as they think they are.
SEO Tools & Resources
Cover SEO resources and tools that you use make sure your newbies have access to the appropriate log-ins. Depending on the position, this may include proprietary information from your web analytics package or Google Webmaster Tools or internal reporting. You may also use tools like SEOmoz, Majestic or others.
For those who will have access to advanced tools, a thorough hands-on training is imperative. Talk about traffic ranking (and the problem with traffic reporting) from free sites like Compete, Alexa, Quantcast as well as paid data from Hitwise or Nielsen if you have that access. Finally, I recommend most people with any hands on day to day SEO responsibilities download the SearchStatus plug in.
Highlight Past Results & Share Future Goals
End the orientation with an overview of your SEO results to date, covering successes and aspirations. This is a great time to demonstrate SEO based ROI which invariably outperforms other channels. If you use an SEO reporting dashboard, this is the right time to introduce that as well.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
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VESTAL, N.Y., Dec. 13, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Many Web designers are challenged by trying to develop data-connected interactive websites, according to dataBased Intelligence Inc. (dBI), heir to the historic dBASE software program. “Although Web designers are comfortable with HTML and CSS, they’re not database programmers,” said Don Franck, CEO of dataBased Intelligence. “That’s why we created …
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December 13, 2010 — A new study finds 71 percent of British Web designers feel insufficient investment is hindering the success of small-and medium-sized enterprises on the web.
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Fasthosts has revealed that British web designers continue to face tough market conditions, according to recently conducted research.
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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
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Free Search Engine Optimization Report (gotta love the domain!) is a new easy-to-use tool (which launches today) that generates in-depth competition research reports based on your keyword. The tool works a follows: Give the service your keyword and domain you want to rank for. Confirm your registration from within an email message (for first-time users only); Wait [...] Check out the Search Engine Optimization Tools guide at Search Engine …
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