Econsultancy published an update its comprehensive Search Engine Optimization Best Practice Guide, which contains 300+ pages of in-depth tips to help you climb the search engine rankings*. If you need the detail then I recommend you download and print it out for future reference.
In addition we have also published many Search Engine Optimization 'tips' posts over the years, and I thought I'd collate a bunch of the more popular ones for your viewing pleasure. Get some...
The Internet runs on words. The words and phrases people use to find what they are looking for must match those you use to describe your products and services or you will not be found by valuable prospects. So, the most important part of your search engine optimization effort is carefully selecting and using keywords.
Follow these five basic steps and be on your way to improving your rankings.
Choose one page on your website you would like to work on to generate more traffic. Review the current content and pick out the relevant keywords you've already used.
Brainstorm another 10 to 20 words and phrases you think prospects use to search for your topic or product. To make sure your list is as inclusive as possible, ask current clients the keywords or phrases they would use to find a site like yours. To broaden your list, look at the source code of your highest ranking direct competitors to find the keywords (meta keywords) they use. You may discover clues to their success.
Divide the list into categories with three or four words per category. Don't over analyze the categories as your only using them to manage your keywords. It's a great way to make sure you cover the key topics you want to include on the website page.
Use a keyword tool to determine the popularity of each word on your list as well as variations you might not have included. In some cases the singular or plural form of a word can dramatically change its popularity. Different tools reveal slightly different information so use more than one for more thorough research. Free tools are a great place to start, but offer limited information. Subscription keyword tools such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery offer more in-depth information.
Develop one major keyword phrase and two to three closely associated terms that best describe your product, service or topic. Use these in all aspects of a page's content, particularly close to the top of the page and in lead paragraph sentences as well as in headlines, articles, and case studies. Create internal links using keywords to move your prospect deeper into your site. Think up as many ways as possible to increase the opportunities to use your keywords. In addition, insert the keywords in the meta tag, page title and page description.
Repeat the keyword exercise for every important page on your site. Periodically do a search using your keywords to see how your web pages rank against your competition and never let more than six months go by before repeating this process on every critical page. Keyword popularity shifts and changes and can tank your results unless you keep up with the trends.
Use keywords as many times as needed to create good content and take every opportunity to add keywords in the most natural and search engine friendly ways. Overdoing keywords for the sake of boosting organic rankings, however, is called stuffing, which may cause the search engines to actually penalize your rankings. You can significantly increase your rankings using these tips and without resorting to tricks.
As the web expands beyond more traditional means of getting traffic via search engine optimization and paid advertising, social networks and related data management services should become an important part of your online search marketing strategy. Learning how to use blogging can help you create authority, connect better with your customers and lift your visibility in the search engines.
We know that search engines are making changes to accommodate for shifts in the marketplace, as well as a more internet-savvy community. We can see this by the way the top search engines change results and test those changes on the user community. Google's universal search layouts, for instance, embed data from video, news and podcasts in the natural search engine results. Additional services, such as personalized search, are available that allow for search engine results swayed more toward user preferences or behaviors.
Universal search results represent an issue for search engine optimizers since less screen real estate is available for traditional text listings. You may find your listing pushed off the first page if you aren't watching and executing better than the competition. Social media optimization is something you should look into now, if you haven't already.
Blogs are a great first step. WordPress is a popular option that has an open source development community and several cool and powerful plugins. You get an RSS feed infrastructure and a place for embedding not only text content, but also video streaming and audio podcasts.
To take full advantage of social media optimization, here are six things you should do:
1. Set up your WordPress blog:
If you're running a business and want to start building your own authoritative blog, I recommend using a trusted hosting partner like GoDaddy.com. It takes about 10 minutes to set up. Apply for a Linux-hosted account, since WordPress isn't compatible with Windows. Unless you have a unique domain set up for this, I suggest adding the blog as a directory of your domain: your-site.com/name-of-blog-with-keywords. TypePad and the Movable Type blog system are other free services. Blogger.com--Google's platform--is free, and Yahoo! Small Business has a variety of options to select from as well.
2. Add content:
Add a blog post once every week or more to start. Frequency is important to search engines, and users will come to expect regular updates. When you add content, make sure you add the tags and category. Tags and directory structures help show the search engines what your post is about. To get ideas for content, look up article directories EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com. If you copy the entire text, include the author's bio box and be aware that Google may catch you for duplication of content. A better way is to start with the article ideas, change the content and make comments about the article, while still referencing the original author.
If you have more money than time, have someone from RentACoder.com, Elance.com or Guru.com write it for you. You can also look into private label rights articles, but watch for duplicate content there, too. eBay has a lot of these types of articles available, but try to make them your own. If you're in the B2B arena, you hopefully have good marketing and information-based materials you can reinvigorate for your blog.
3. Manage RSS feeds:
RSS is an easily tracked and managed XML-based file structure that allows compatible web systems to read the data. Get an account with Technorati.com and update them with your site feeds--also known as pinging. You can also use FeedBurner.com and OnlyWire.com to help distribute content and PingOMatic.com and Pingoat.com to alert systems that you've made a new post.
4. Promote your blog:
Always leverage the search engines when you can. Conduct solid keyword research to find out what people are searching for within your niche. Use the Overture search tool and look for longer keyword phrases rather than starting with the most competitive keywords. Include these keywords in the titles of your posts.
If you're active in the online community, visit related forums and other blogs to exchange dialogue and links. Make sure to tag everywhere and try to get a listing on Digg.com, as well as del.icio.us, reddit.com and MySpace.com. Educational content, such as "how to" articles, tend to be very popular.
5. Leverage podcasts and videos:
Podcasts are a simple way to provide more detail and personalization around your company or service. The MP3 format can easily be streamed for listening on the web and from your blog. You can podcast your files and even manage them via iTunes. You also can stream video into your visitors' homes and let them watch it on their Apple TV, a recently announced product.
6. Optimize your WordPress blog:
A blog should be optimized for users, search engines and income, in that order. A professional-looking blog is important. Look for clean sites--a white background works well--at the WordPress Theme Viewer site. Some of the themes are less Search Engine Optimization-friendly than others. Add a form to capture names and e-mails to build your e-mail list. For Search Engine Optimization, change your permalinks to this custom option: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ and enable the customizable permalinks. This is a search-engine friendly URL that's commonly used.
As I mentioned earlier, WordPress has a number of powerful plugins to consider. Here are some to start with:
Google Analytics--tracks everything on all pages
Chicklets--an array of social media tags for your users, including RSS reader icons
AdSense Deluxe--for publishing ads on your site
Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress--creates a sitemap for your site
Akismet spam filtering--filters link spam from blog comments; requires WordPress API key
SEO Title Tag--easy optimization of title tags across your WordPress blog
Ultimate Tag Warrior--incorporates the tag name into title pages on tagged pages
Podpress--everything you need for podcasting
More plugins are available at the WordPress plugin directory.
After you're set up, follow the basic rules for long-term success:
Do not use Black Hat SEO--unethical techniques--to stuff keywords and duplicate content in your blogs.
Provide value through quality content. If you're selling something, don't be pushy. Try to provide educational and constructive comments on products, services and competitors.
Use the chicklets you see on many blogs, including a big button for your RSS feed, so visitors and search engines can easily get to your data.
Place strategic AdSense components to generate money for yourself, while still providing value. Don't feel bad; big companies do it, including news outlets like CNN. Match the text and color with the layout of your site. Over time, you may get a check from Google.
Search Engine Optimization: time-intensive, ever changing, and highly misunderstood. Creating a website design that is appealing, while also search engine friendly, is one of the hardest parts about Search Engine Optimization web design.
If you're a designer, are your designs really search friendly?
A lot of misconceptions about Search Engine Optimization still exist in the web design community and many designers, who have at least some knowledge, are often acting with outdated information. Once a designer understands the value of Search Engine Optimization, there is still the concern of how to keep a design attractive, while also being search friendly.
Designers love beautiful websites and Search Engine Optimizations love optimized content and code, but neither should fool themselves, because these days, both matter. In that spirit, I've put together a list of 9 Search Engine Optimization tips that help keep your stunning website optimized for search engines. Instead of focusing on Search Engine Optimization design basics, I'll be covering some design-focused Search Engine Optimization tips, to show how Search Engine Optimization and beautiful design elements can co-exist.
1. It's not the same old Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization can be hard to keep up with, because it is always changing. Today, Search Engine Optimization doesn't mean a site has to be ugly.
First, forget everything you've learned about keyword meta tags and keyword stuffing, because those days are over. This is a great thing for designers, because search engines are looking for great content, written in natural language. Metrics, like keyword density, which make sites look hideous, are a thing of the past.
If you've been a designer for several years, start fresh and learn Search engine optimization from a source that keeps up with all things SEO. Don't let out-of-date Search engine optimization practices make you think pages have to be riddled with repetitive keywords.
2. Links talk
Links tell search engines what pages are about. This holds true on-site as well as off-site. The words you use in your designs to link to other pages do matter. The web has matured and no longer needs to be told "click here".
This is just another form of the dreaded "click here". There is an opportunity wasted here, where the designer could link out with the keyword-rich headings like "HR solutions". The "learn more" link is great for users, but leaves search bots blind to what is on the other end of that link. As a human, we make the connection, and know that this link is about "HR Solutions", but you're telling search engines it is about "learn more".
CSS can be used to keep the style, but the site would benefit from either linking the major headings, or changing the link text to something like "Learn More about HR Solutions". This would drastically improve the site's internal linking, with minimal impact on design.
3. Design is linkbait
This is great news for designers. Much of the life of an SEO is focused around baiting links from the link-giving portion of the web. The amazing thing is that this portion of the web loves great looking websites. Great design improves credibility and the user experience.
If you design great sites, use services like The CSS Gallery List to get your site submitted to CSS showcases across the web, or at least do it by hand.
4. Look at search bots as browsers Earlier I mentioned how using "learn more" leaves a search engine blind. Considering a search bot as a disabled user or another type of browser, is exactly the type of approach needed for search friendly web design.
Search bots are extremely disabled and unintelligent users who use a dreadfully outdated browser. This user's ability to understand your site may mean the difference of thousands or millions of dollars for a business.
One of the best Search Engine Optimization tips I can give a designer is to test as if Lynx was one of the web's major browsers. If you can properly navigate your site, and understand its content in a browser like Lynx, then you are on your way to being a great Search Engine Optimization web designer. Other tools, like the Web Developer toolbar, really help test a site without elements like CSS, images, and JavaScript.
Keep up on the Google webmaster guidelines, so you know the limitations of this highly impaired user of your site. Focus on creating beautiful designs that gracefully degrade for this limited web user, "the search bot." Or, instead of designing the site and working backwards, start with the lowest common denominator (the search engine), and work up.
Let's Get Tactical
5. Smoke some hash
#
That little symbol, the hash mark or pound symbol, is an extremely powerful Search Engine Optimization tool in the hands of a developer who knows what to do with it. The hash mark creates an element in the URL that is not considered unique by the search engines, so it is dropped.
There are a lot of great ways to use this. I've seen it used well on sections where new pages hardly justify having a unique URL. One example I've seen recently is a "people" section where only minor content changes are seen on each page. The designer assigned each employee's profile with "#name". These multiple, near duplicate, pages are all seen as one page by the search engines.
6. Use SEO friendly JavaScript
Any time you touch technologies like JavaScript, you need to tread carefully. I love Javascript technologies, and all the amazing things we can do with them, but they can create huge problems.
Traditionally, AJAX is not Search Engine Optimization friendly because calls are made through JavaScript, which cannot be executed well by search engines. The result is that the content is never rendered or indexed by search bots. I like what can be done with jQuery, since you can have html link navigation in place (for search engines), and still have jQuery effects.
If not done correctly, you can run into problems though. For example, jTip, which is a nice little Jquery Tool Tip, can create some nasty problems. The tooltip is nice and all, but the static html links point to a page that looks like this.
That is the whole page. This page has no title and no link back to the site. This can create multiple near duplicate versions, which can be indexed in the search engines. This also creates many hanging pages on a site. I did an audit on a site recently that used jTip extensively. The site had over 80 pages indexed in Google, with only one sentence per indexed web page. None had titles, and none linked back to the domain.
Ask your average Search Engine Optimization about flash and you'll be told how horrible it is for Search Engine Optimization. Ask someone who casually follows Search Engine Optimization news, and they'll tell you flash can now be crawled. So how should a designer approach flash?
While Google is improving, you should not depend on Google to figure it all out. Here are some basic Flash rules to keep in mind.
Do not include an entire site on one page.
Do not use flash as the navigation.
Do not include important content in flash.
Search engines are nearly blind to flash, so do not use it for important page elements. Use of flash for design elements and non-important content is ok.
Flash can be used in a search engine friendly design. You can enhance web fonts by using slfr. Since the flash does not replace the HTML content, but styles it, search engines are still able to read the titles. It's even Google approved.
8. CSS image replacement
CSS image replacement is one way to make a site look great, while also being search friendly. There are a couple differentways to do this, but the biggest concern boils down to intent.
"If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages."
I think CSS is a common tactic and a fine solution to Search Engine Optimization web design. If your intent is to improve the visual experience, and you make this intent clear, you should be fine. Do not use this method to stuff keywords or manipulate with hidden content.
9. Have great linking with footers
If you have a design that will be compromised by the inclusion of a robust navigation above the fold, a solid footer is a great solution.
Google is traditionally the main area of focus when it comes to SEO. With the search engine giant so far ahead of the game in terms of search market share, it's not hard to understand why.
Search is changing though, and there are always new elements coming into play. Since social media has come into its own, more opportunities and questions have come along with it. Now Microsoft is going for Google's throat with a new search engine and an aggressive marketing campaign. What this means for the future of search market share is yet to be determined, but there's no denying Bing is capturing some attention, and that means there are people searching with it.
SEO for Bing
Microsoft's stance on SEO really doesn't appear to be all that different from Google's. You're not going to get the same results on both Google and Bing in many cases, but that is after all why the two can co-exist. The real difference is in how the results are presented, and not as much in how the two determine quality and relevancy.
Bing and Google have separate algorithms, but both like quality, relevant links and good content, as opposed to deception and spam. Bing in fact, hasn't really changed much (from Live Search) in terms of crawling.
"There have been no major changes to the MSNBot crawler during the upgrade to Bing," Microsoft says in a Bing white paper for webmasters (pdf). "However, the Bing team is continuously refining and improving our crawling and indexing abilities. Note that the bot name hasn't changed. It will still show up in the web server access logs as MSNBog."
Like I was saying, the biggest difference between the two search engines is in the presentation. Bing of course separates (some) results into categories. This has worried some search marketers, but Microsoft says good Search Engine Optimization will work just as well with this set up. Bing also has the explore pane (navigational menu on the left-hand side of search results), which corresponds with the categories in the SERPs. In some ways, this is similar to Google's recent addition of "search options."
I discussed what Google's search options would mean for Search Engine Optimization here. Basically, I just broke it down section by section, and you could do the same thing with Bing I think. Look at the keyword phrases you want to rank for, and see how Bing breaks it up. Let's say "cell phones" for example. Bing gives you categories like shopping, brands, buying guide, providers, accessories, images, videos, and local.
This tells me that you want to play up the appropriate categories on your site, so that it shows up in the relevant categories on Bing. If you sell accessories, place emphasize that, and you'll probably have a better shot ending up in that category. With Bing, it's not about getting to the top of the SERP. It's about getting to the top of the right part of the SERP. I'll let you in on a little secret. Having quality and relevant (to that part of the SERP) content is the best thing you can do. Incidentally, this will probably help your cause in Google (and other search engines) at the same time.
"Ultimately, Search Engine Optimization is still Search Engine Optimization. Bing doesn't change that. Bing's new user interface design simply adds new opportunities to searchers to find what the information they want more quickly and easily, and that benefits webmasters who have taken the time to work on the quality of their content and website design," says Microsoft.
Curious About What Bing Looks for in Links?
Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center recently posted a pair of blog posts looking at what makes some links good and some bad. You may find some of these things familiar:
"If you don't feel you can endorse the quality of the content at another site, you shouldn't be linking to them."
Don't seek links from sites whose content isn't worthy of your endorsement.
Links to and from your site should be relevant to your site (or at least the page you're linking from/to)
Focus on quality, not quantity. Few highly relevant links are better than a bunch of crap links
Avoid "bad neighborhoods" like dedicated domains or IP ranges that do nothing but set up meaningless link exchanges.
Avoid hidden text
You can't stop bad links coming to your site. "We take the approach that bad inbound links won't adversely affect your site ranking unless most or all of your inbound links are from bad sites," explains DeJarnette.
But in a nutshell, that's essentially where Microsoft stands on Search Engine Optimization practices, or at least what they are giving to the public.
Social media Really Is Important to Search Engine Optimization
Social media definitely enters the SEO equation. "Effective social media management can be a tremendous source for generating buzz, those all-important inbound links and just plain direct referral traffic," says Mike McDonald of WebProNews, as he discusses a recent interview he did with SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin.
Facebook
Copyblogger has an interesting article about how Facebook is "killing SEO." I think that's a bit sensationalist, but the points made by author Mike Wasylik are valid, nonetheless.
"The rise of Facebook creates a growing segment of the web that's completely invisible to search engines - most of which, Facebook blocks - and can be seen only by logged-in Facebook users," he says. "So as Facebook becomes ever larger, and keeps more users inside its walled garden, your web site will need to appear in Facebook’s feeds and searches or you will miss out on an important source of web traffic."
"What's the best way to keep your links in front of Facebook users?" asks Wasylik. "The ever-more-important linkbait strategy."
The term linkbait sometimes carries a negative connotation, but generally, again, it's just good solid content that people want to link to.
Twitter
Twitter has gone from a confusing (to many) communication tool/social network, to that plus a way to find information in real time. This means that it is a good idea to tweet regularly. When someone performs a search on Twitter, they are searching right now. The fresher the tweet, the more likely they are to see it.
But Twitter's search implications are not limited to its own search. "Although Twitter is a social media tool meant to create community and relationships, it does have an Search Engine Optimization value," saysMihaela Lica at Sitepoint. "For example, Twitter can affect positively your Alexa rankings by sending visitors to your pages. Usage data is a sign of quality for Google and all the other search engines. If you can make people come to your site via Twitter, then this is an Search Engine Optimization advantage you cannot afford to miss."
With both Twitter and Facebook, good content that you create will be shared. The links within the social networks may not boost your rankings, but they can lead to more links outside of them. Either way, it is added exposure.
As a photographer, you face unique challenges in optimizing your Web site for search engines. Fundamentally, you want your site to showcase your work; unfortunately, a picture is not worth a thousand words to Google.
Sure, Google takes hundreds of variables into consideration when building search engine result pages (SERPs). But while a human can look at your photographs and feel the expressed emotions, understand the story you're telling, and get a sense for what your expertise is, a search engine needs to be told with text.
That's why, for search engine optimization purposes, it's important for your site to combine text-rich content with a solid visual representation of your work.
Adding Text Content to Your Web Site
Chances are, there's a lot you can say about yourself and your work on your site. For example -
Home Page - Use your home page to convey clearly what your specialty is, your passion for your work, the geographic location where you shoot, and maybe the amazing number of clients for whom you've provided quality work. Write three or four paragraphs to place on your home page, including the keywords identifying you with your specialty.
Bio Page - While a one-paragraph bio may work for your profile on Photo.net, it's not going to fly here. Believe me, I understand that writing your own bio is difficult, but you need a minimum of 350 words (again, incorporating your keywords). You'll probably show up in search engines when someone searches for your name even with a short bio, but the trick here is for your bio page to tell Google they need to associate your name with your specialty. Oh, and this bio needs to be completely different from any other bio you have on the Web - Google hates duplicate content.
Blog - If you are so inclined, start a blog (not a photoblog, that's different) where you can write about your specialty, describe techniques you use, talk about recent assignments, or anything else you'd like to write about.
Services Page - Create a page that uses your keywords to describe the services you offer and all the ways your clients can come to enjoy your work. Again, you want enough content to appropriately convey the topic you're covering. One or two paragraphs is not enough.
History of Your Specialty - Show that you're more than just a person with a camera; you're a photographer who maintains a passion for the art form. Host a page on your site with a history of your specialty.
Photographers You Respect - Contrary to popular belief, it is OK to link to other photographers, and it is possible to do so without losing business. Build a page to showcase your five favorite photographers. Talk about why you enjoy their work, how it influences you, and anything else about them you’d like to mention. And link to their sites. (If you're concerned about losing business, you can always choose photographers who are outside your region or market.)
Placing Keywords in Your Content
Remember that while you're creating content that's readable and useful to human visitors, it's critical that it be noticed by Google. These pages are designed to be a gateway to your site - helping visitors to find your portfolio and see your work. And that means they must be rich in keywords.
The use of keywords is how search engines determine the terms for which your site should rank. For example, one of your key phrases might be "Houston wedding photographer" or "Boston freelance photojournalist." There are tools available online to help you research the best keywords for your business.
The thing is, while keyword research is important, it is useless if the keywords aren't used correctly. From what I've seen out there, many photographers would be better off printing out their keyword lists, putting them in an envelope and mailing them to Google rather than continuing with their current practices.
Here are a few pointers for putting your keywords to use in a way that will actually make a difference in your search ranking -
Keywords should be different for each page of your Web site
Use no more than two key phrases in your title tag and always write unique titles for each page of your site
Add keywords next to your name in the header of your bio page (Joe Schmoe - Wedding Photographer)
Name your images using your keywords
Place your keywords in the alt tag of your images
Place keywords in the captions for your images
Use high-level, relevant keywords to categorize your photos
Use specific keywords to tag your images
Try to work keywords into the URL of the page
How well you will rank depends on how many other sites are competing for the same keyword. If you have three sentences of text on a page you want Google to display when someone searches for "wedding photographers," it's simply not going to happen without a major off-page (Search Engine Optimization tactics applied outside your Web site) campaign. If you're looking to rank for a phrase like "amazing wedding photographers in Maryland," you can probably do so with correct keyword usage and minimal off-page efforts.
Tracking Your Results
Once your site has plenty of text-rich content with appropriately placed keywords, it's important to track your results so you can continually improve your search position.
It isn't enough to install a data-collecting feature on your Web pages like Google Analytics; you should be paying attention to what the data tells you, too. The data collected in your analytics package is your key to really understanding what your visitors are looking for and how you can fill the needs they have.
Here are a few key performance indicators you should be listening to, because they are relevant to Search Engine Optimization and how your Web site is doing its job -
Bounce Rate - Depending on the report you're looking at, this will either be how long visitors stay on a page, or an average of how long they have been on your site. Here's a secret that some search-engine consultants will deny, and many don't even know: your bounce rate is an important factor in how long you keep your position in the search engines. If your No. 1 rank drops down to No. 5, look at your bounce rate to see if it's gone up recently.
Referrers - This is how people are getting to your site. Referrers include search engines, other Web sites, an e-mail with a link to your site, or any other way someone may find you. You can begin to review what Web sites have links to your site and pass on the most traffic, and what search engines you get your visits from.
Region - Pay attention to where your visitors are coming from geographically. If you're in Texas and the majority of your traffic is coming from Maine, you may want to review how and why you're attracting so much traffic from that region. You can usually get pretty granular in this report, down to the city. This will also help you gauge any local advertising you do that is intended to push people to your site.
Build text-rich content around your images, place keywords correctly across your site, and learn how to follow up with analytics, and you're well on your way to a search-optimized photography site.
A growing number of companies are using online marketing tools like search engine optimization to help increase traffic to their sites but one expert says that an Search Engine Optimization campaign must also consist of quality content.
Next week Sean Jackson, CEO of content optimization company Ecordia will be speaking at a DFW Search Marketing Association meeting entitled Content Optimization - Strategies and Tactics for Improving Sales Conversions which will focus on how quality content can play a role in search engine optimization and paid search campaigns.
Tony Wright, president of the DFW Search Marketing Association, says the use of quality content is "a key element" of any search campaign.
While the world of search engine optimization is always changing, there appears to be a growing trend of experts suggesting that websites employ quality, original content on their site rather than just using keywords to draw traffic.
In recent months there have been multiple people in the industry who have warned those using search engine optimization to not "write for robots" and to instead consider the people who are most likely to actually read what is on their webpage.
Optimizing blog posts for Google has just become a lot easier. Search Engine Optimization Blogger http://labs.wordtracker.com/seo-blogger/ is a free Firefox plug-in from Wordtracker which helps bloggers grow their audience by easily producing search engine friendly posts.
For a blog to be successful it must get to the top of the search engines. To be easily found by search engines like Google, bloggers need to use keywords in the copy that the people they are trying to attract are actually searching for. Search Engine Optimization Blogger sits alongside whichever blog publishing software they're using and allows them to do keyword research as they write.
Writers can find the most popular keywords for a topic without leaving the publishing screen. The tool also gives a count of how many times a chosen keyword has been used in the blog text.
Such is the rise in blogging, with an estimated 1% earning over $200,000 per year, the WSJ** are declaring blogging to be the newest profession in America. According to comScore blogs attracted 77.7m unique visitors in the US in August 2008, and the number of bloggers in the US is predicted to reach over 35m by 2012, equating to around 16% of the total online population.
"Blogging is becoming big business - whether as part of a social media brand campaign, selling products or earning a living from writing a blog as a trend or opinion former or a brand advocate" said Andy Mindel, CEO, Wordtracker.
"The Blogosphere is growing in size and influence, and bloggers, whether trend and opinion formers or brand advocates, need to react quickly and accurately to create copy that will attract their target market, improve their position on search engines and increase traffic." Said Ken McGaffin, CMO, Wordtracker.
Consumers routinely turn to the Internet to research products and services, making search engine optimization increasingly important for companies looking to compete and grow their business.
Lipperhey is an objective and independent online service that uses a spider similar to ones used by search engines to analyze the quality, searchability and popularity of a Web site. The analysis generated by the service is based on guidelines provided by the leading search engines and works by researching each page on the Web site until all pages have been indexed, analyzed and assessed. http://www.lipperhey.com
Lipperhey analyzes Web sites the same way the search engine spiders do, thus providing an in-depth analysis of every page of a Web site -- from the search engine point of view.
Lipperhey generates a detailed report to guide the growth and improvement of the Web site analyzed.
The report is broken down into the following components:
1). Technical quality -- analyzes the application of industry-recognized web standards and indexing components. The evaluation is based on 35 topics and is achieved by assigning each aspect a weight or level of importance, which is determined by the relative complexity and importance of indexation by search engines. A site's technical implementation is an important part of search engine optimization and a Web site with a solid technical foundation has a better chance of ranking high in search results. Examples of topics analyzed include pages using unique META-descriptions, excessive use of Flash and prevention of dead links.
2). Search engine optimization -- assesses the degree to which a Web site and its pages are optimized for easy searchability by popular search engines. The service investigates which HTML elements are employed and which search terms are located within them. Search engine optimization requires not only the proper use of keywords, but also determining those keywords in the first place. Examples of things analyzed include content keywords and anchor text in links.
3). Popularity -- evaluates the number and quality of inbound links to the Web site. Besides overall technical quality and search engine optimization, search engines use link popularity to determine the position or rank of the Web site in their results.
An overview report is free. For a nominal cost, companies can get a detailed report, a comparison of their Web site to three top competitors or a monthly progress report detailing the progress the site makes. The cost for each is:
Comprehensive advisory report - $75 USD
Comparison to three competitors - $15 USD
Monthly progress report - $15 USD per month
As part of its pledge to provide an independent and objective analysis, Lipperhey does not offer search engine optimization services. People using the Lipperhey service, including search engine optimization professionals and service agencies, are encouraged to use the analysis generated by Lipperhey as they see fit.
Lipperhey returns the results of the analysis in minutes as opposed to countless hours of work if done manually.
Multimedia Elements:
Example of Detailed Report
Video demo with Christian Branbergen, lead developer, Lipperhey
Lipperhey Twitter Account
Quotes, attributable to Marc Noet, Founder and CEO
"People decide to purchase products and services based on recommendations from friends and family and what they come across when they search Google. So not optimizing your Web site really isn't an option. However, it can be daunting for Web site owners who don't have a technical training. The service was specifically designed to help Web site owners quickly and easily assess the strengths and weaknesses of their site and understand how they can improve it. The algorithm can save people the many hours they would spend if they tried to do all of the analysis themselves."
"We have found that many search engine optimization and design agencies are enthusiastic about Lipperhey because it saves countless hours of manual analysis. By using Lipperhey, those firms are able to concentrate on using the analysis generated to make substantive changes rather than getting buried under painstaking analysis."
"We felt it was important to maintain our objectivity and not use this service as a means to sell additional services. As such, we don't provide services to make any of the changes we suggest, but merely provide all the information needed to make those improvements. Since optimizing your Web site is an ongoing effort, we also offer a monthly progress report to track how the Web site is doing over a period of time."
Lipperhey is an objective online service that analyzes the quality, searchability and popularity of Web sites. The service is based on privately developed software that assesses Web sites according to the search engine optimizationprinciples developed by the leading search engines. The service helps Web site owners understand how to better optimize their Web sites to attract more customers and increase sales. Lipperhey is based in Amsterdam and can be found at www.lipperhey.com
Google announced that its SEO Starter Guide is now available in 40 languages. This covers 98% of the global Internet audience according to the company.
"We hope that webmasters around the world can use the guide to improve their sites' crawlability and indexing in search engines," says Brandon Falls of Google's Search Quality Team.
If you are unfamiliar with Google's SEO Starter Guide, it is a "compact guide" that lists best practices according to Google that both teams within the company and external webmasters can use to improve the indexing of their sites.
The guide was announced back in November, focusing on areas like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, etc.
In many languages it is available you can download in any languages from here. If you want to make sure your site is ranking as well as it should be in Google, it's probably not a bad idea to go over it and apply the advice to your site - particularly if you are new to the game.
Last week SMX Advanced took place in Seattle, considered to be one of the most advanced search marketing conferences out there. Sander Kolderman (Natural search manager) and Luke Miller (Internet marketing manager) at eBay/Marktplaats.nl are sharing their Search Engine Optimization and SEA (PPC) learnings below, Thanks guys!
With Microsoft being the platinum sponsor at SMX advanced 2009 we saw the official launch of Bing.com. As intended this generated buzz, but the biggest buzz here at the conference has been all about pagerank sculpting.
PageRank sculpting? In short, PageRank sculpting is the act of using the rel="nofollow" tag to flow your pagerank to the most important pages on your site. It wasn't unusual for this to be discussed at an SMX, but things got really interesting when Matt Cutts dropped the bomb that it no longer works. "Or it doesn't work as well as it used to".
Lots of questions followed, twitter tweets exploded about it, blog posts popped up everywhere but what will happen exactly? So far that seems still unclear and I haven't spoken to anyone who is yet to see any negative effects.
What should we do? Personally I think we shouldn't make dramatic changes until the whole story is clearer. What we know for sure is that there is a change on how Google is looking at the nofollow tag, but the question is will it effect your traffic?
To see how many people are actually using the nofollow tag and what the impact will be, Rand shared some linkscape figures (~ 474 billion links in there index) which indicates that 9,3 billion links will be effected. This means that this is BIG! Questions are raised that when it does start to effect traffic will we see a lot of people returning to different methods of sculpting the pagerank by making the links invisible again?
But there was off course more to the conference. Here are some (fun) quotes heard:
"Should I go to this session...just search in Bing" Danny Sullivan
"On a random search result..Wikipedia. Oh that's there by law" Danny Sullivan
"The best ranking factor you can have is a hot product" Laura Lippay
"Use a variety of tools, and use them in combination - no keywordtool is perfect" Christine Churchill
"I'm a SEO with many hats (and they are all white)" Adam Audette
PPC Tactics SMX advanced 2009 has been a lot of networking, a little re-enforcement of known practices, some nice confirmation of theories that were believed to be true and a few nuggets of gold. The PPC Tatics was great but some can nearly be described as black hat ppc. Here are the short highlights of the PPC stream.
Frederick Vallaeys, Google's own AdWords evangalist, played a big role in the PPC stream. Some of the snippets of advice from him: "Companies should have their own adwords account and not use an agencies account. The company owns that quality score, so you don't want to be giving that to an agency account."
The content network doesn't suck People are only searching 5% of their time on the internet. That means they spend 95% of the time doing something different. You want to reach them the other 95% of the time.
Google's Search query report is now much improved and captures 99% of all terms driving clicks. When starting a new adwords account ad and keyword combinations should be moved to quickly start their QS rebound. It should take about 2 weeks to converge.
Broad Match does not lower quality score Quality score is only effected when search term matches bid term. Braod Match is not worthless (over 30,000 ways people spell Britney Spears). You couldn't know them all. CPA on content is only about 2% more than search CPA.
PPC Tactics, this session was one of the more open sessions with some edgy topics discussed. Picks of the bunch.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion Using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) on Yahoo will increase Quality Index because Yahoo gives extra credit for using DKI. Use DKI {KEYWORD:Default_text} to get a caps headline in Google. Splitting high CTR and low CTR keywords into separate adgroups in Yahoo usually results in higher Quality Index in both sets.
Having a high initial CTR positively effects quality score over the long run. Double serving (creatively) and surrounding competitors ads with their own ad can drown them out.
Yahoo Quality Index You can remove Yahoo's min bid. Quality Index in Yahoo mainly lives on the ad/adgroup level. Ask Yahoo to create a new account unlinked to your current one. Unlike Google, Yahoo won't port the data if they're unlinked. Move the keywords over, watch the MinCPC disappear. If it reappears, repeat action but change creative. Using Google's ad creative and landing page link you can see competitors ad Quality Score and FirstPageMinCPC.
Another very interesting line of thought was: does tight themed adgroups effect Quality Score? Data from Addie Connor said yes, but saying no was Alex Schultz from Facebook (it's more about keyword clustering eg all high QS words together) and Frederick Vallaeys (it is the ad, keyword pair at the account level).
Good SEA (PPC) Quotes "DKI will increase Quality Index because Yahoo gives extra credit for using DKI" Dan Soha
"If you can't make a profit when you know EXACT-ly what the searcher typed, good luck with broad match." Dan Thies
"Most of you already know this" Frederick Vallaeys speaking on how quality score is normalised to position
"There's no spoon in PPC" Shane Snow refering to the spoon scene out of the matrix
"Step 1: Cut a hole in the box..... oops, wrong set of instructions" Dan Soha's 1st slide, a joke, on explaining one of his PPC tactics
"you don't buy clicks, you buy profits"
"Geotargeting is not accurate for smaller areas as Google use unreliable ip data still - Country good, state ok, city bad" paraphrasing Reid Spice
"Yahoo MinCPC ... Another revenue blocker put in by Yahoo to further reduce their market share" Addie Conner
"Experts warn that day parting is really "advanced" but it's just 5th grade math" Dan Thies
FlamingoSoft has announced the release of SEO Administrator 4.2, comprehensive website optimization and promotion solution. The new version 4.2 delivers significant enhancements to the Inbound Links module.
The importance of inbound links is critical, as they remain a key ranking factor for all modern search engines. Page rank is defined by number and quality of inbound links pointing to a site, and links from reliable sites boost search result rank.
Not long ago a lot of search engines provided the tools for collecting information on websites that are linking to a page. However, as search engine optimizers started using these tools to trick or crack ranking algorithms, search engines had to restrict access to inbound link information. Due to abuse, MSN Search/Live disabled the link: operator, while Google and Yahoo resolved to display only first 1000 pages.
As a result, webmasters were unable not only to analyze search algorithms, but also to manage their own the inbound links information. To improve the situation, Google, a major search engine, created Webmaster Tools, which provides a webmaster with access to his website's visibility on Google, including unrestricted inbound link information.
But analyzing information on hundreds and thousands linking websites manually is rather difficult, time-taking, and therefore inefficient. Search Engine Optimization Administrator streamlines and facilitates analysis, making webmasters more productive. The software allows automatically collecting Google Webmaster Tools data, detecting Google Page Rank for every page, performing semantic analysis of the link text and tracking the history of linking domains number.
"The opportunity to analyze inbound links from such a major source as Google database is essential for a webmaster, because it allows making a list of linking websites as comprehensive as possible", - says Nikita Melkin, CEO of the Search Engine Optimization Administrator project.
Feature-rich Search Engine Optimization Administrator provides a webmaster with all the necessary inbound links information, allowing to maximize search engine rank of the website. The software offers a suite of essential Search Engine Optimization tools that cover all aspects of website optimization and promotion. Thanks to intuitive user interface Search Engine Optimization Administrator can benefit both professionals and novices.
Product page link: http://www.seoadministrator.com Direct download link: http://www.seoadministrator.com/seoadministrator.exe
As the name implies, an Search Engine Optimization Action Plan is a strategic plan to achieve the ranking, traffic and return on investment objectives from the Search Engine Optimization campaign. Typically our Search Engine Optimization Action Plans are 90-days in duration, but sometimes shorter or longer depending upon the specific circumstances of the campaign. After 90 days we re-evaluate the progress along with the market at that time and develop a new 90-day plan.
As I was outlining the first 90-day Search Engine Optimization Action Plan to a new client the other day, the client asked me why I was not following best practices. Having thought I missed something in my plan, I asked the client to explain his question. He asked why I did not include an XML Sitemap in my Action Plan. Apparently he read on Google Webmaster Tools that every site should have an XML Sitemap and that not including one goes against Search Engine Optimization best practices.
I informed the client that in general Google Webmaster Tools is correct. It is a best practice to have an XML Sitemap. In fact, depending upon the content a website could have several types of sitemaps including video, mobile, news, etc. However, in this specific situation creating and uploading an XML Sitemap was not advisable.
It turns out my client's eCommerce website was "over indexed" in Google. With most clients over indexing happens more with MSN than Google, but not this time. In my client's case, Google was reporting that it indexed 50,000 pages. My client has about 7,600 products. With the integrated blog and other pages, the site only has about 10,000 pages.
After analyzing the situation, Google was over indexing the site due to a quirk in my client's content management system (CMS). The CMS appended a few sections of the website with an extra parameter giving the appearance that the website has more web pages (content) than it really has. Worse yet, my client's website has top rankings for several of the keywords that are included in this over indexing.
It turns out if I implement an XML Sitemap, I am essentially telling Google they have made a mistake in over indexing and they will flush roughly 40,000 pages from the index. Almost overnight this will drop the existing rankings for my client because the site is not as relevant for a given set of keywords.
Instead of losing rankings and thereby revenue for my client by blindly following a "best practice", I've elected not to follow a best practice. Once the client is able to replace the website with equivalent content - I will then create and upload an XML Sitemap.
This is not the first time I have not followed best practices in my 9 years of Search Engine Optimization. Last year I inherited a website that has 25 doorway pages. Doorway pages are intended only for the search engines and are not intended for people to access.
We discovered the doorway pages during the initial audit. Our analysis suggested these pages were contributing to the site rankings. Upon finding these pages the client wanted me to immediately delete the pages but I advised against it to preserve existing rankings and revenue stream. Instead I decided to slowly remove a few pages a month and replace them with real content. This was a painstaking process but it was successful. Today my client has first page rankings and no doorway pages.
Rankings and traffic are key metrics that Search Engine Optimizations should measure. However, an Search Engine Optimization's job should not end there. We are also responsible for return on investment from the campaign. As a result we must understand and appreciate the business side of SEO - cash flow, revenue and profitability. Yes, my Bachelor of Science degree is in business administration and management. From time to time, I will not let Search Engine Optimization best practices get in the way of business.
For more information about webmetro Action Plans please visit webmetro.com.
VERGO Marketing, Inc. has furthered its credentials as a leader in lead generation by enhancing their Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing capabilities. VERGO Marketing's Online Content Manager, Rebecca Miller, has completed the SEMPO Institute's Insider's Guide to Search Marketing becoming a certified expert in search optimization.
SEMPO's Insider's Guide to Search Marketing is a comprehensive course covering such topics as the evolution of search engines, Search Engine Optimization web design, copywriting and search advertising. The course has enable VERGO Marketing to maximize their lead generation abilities to the fullest extent.
Miller said the course provided her with information about everything from the evolution the internet to how to design well-targeted and successful Search Engine Optimization and PPC campaigns.
"As the Online Content Manager this course has enhanced my ability to develop creative, interesting and effective content for our clients and lead generation microsites, like universitydecisions.com," Miller said.
Miller and VERGO Marketing have benefited from the course so much so that other employees are now enrolling in the class.
Project Manager, Sara Gullickson, recently began taking the course and has already put some of the tools she learned to use.
"The Search Engine Optimization web design section of this course stress the importance of site design and architecture in relation to achieving your search optimization goals," Gullickson said. "Immediately after completing this lesson, I hopped on our site, WintheUltimateProm.com, and began using the tools I learned in the course to enhance the site."
Since the course, Miller and VERGO are continuing to strength their Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing capabilities by enrolling in SEMPO's second course Effective Search Marketing-Keywords and Copywriting.
SEMPO's Insider's Guide to Search Marketing and Effective Search Marketing-Keywords and Copywriting are available online at sempoinstitute.com.
VERGO Marketing, Inc. is an integrated marketing and communication agency connecting colleges and universities with today's students. From large public and private universities to small vocational schools and careers colleges, VERGO Marketing's fresh and insightful call-to-action campaigns are designed to reach prospective students, capture their attention, earn their trust and provide memorable experiences while introducing pathways to education. VERGO Marketing stands by their mantra of "building partnerships by providing quality leads, high conversion rates and excellent customer service.
For more information on VERGO Marketing Inc. visit vergomarketing.com or call (480) 990-1399.
There are some very different schools of thought out there regarding 404 error code pages. Some Search Engine Optimizations recommend:
Never allowing them - 301'ing every error page back to the home page or an internal category level page to preserve the maximum amount of link juice (in case someone links to a broken URL)
Letting any erroneous/mistyped URL 404.
Something in between - 301 some kinds of 404 pages and not others.
I'm generally in this last group. I think there are times when it pays dividends to let a URL 404, both for accessibility and search engine reasons. I also don't think it's intuitive or semantically accurate to 301 every 404 page on the site - it certainly pays to build great custom 404s (good piece with examples on that here), but to simply have your homepage appear when a URL is mistyped or a link breaks doesn't send the right message to users or search engines.
When faced with 404s, my thinking is that unless the page:
Receives important links to it from external sources (Google Webmaster Tools is great for this)
Is receiving a substantive quantity of visitor traffic and/or C) Has an obvious URL that visitors/links intended to reach
It's OK to let it 404:
Recently, though, Lindsay and I were faced with a tough call on a consulting project. The client has a site that receives a ton of search queries, many of which map to their category and subcategory level pages (which are more landing pages than search query pages, but also serve to address the search keywords). The client also has a number of search pages that have no content (either because they're for mis-typed, nonsense or mis-spelled searches or because they simply don't have content for those terms). Some of these pages earn links, some get a moderate amount of traffic and up until recently, they've essentially existed as error pages that resolve with a 200 code.
What to do?
Our conundrum contained a few critical elements. We don't want the search engines wasting bandwidth crawling and indexing junk pages (especially since the site is monstrous and needs that crawl/index power to flow to the right sections). We also don't want users to have a bad experience and while the error pages effectively communicate the right message (there's no results for this query), semantically the pages should really 404. Finally, of course, we don't want to waste any of that precious link juice that's flowing to some of them.
The solution turned out to be a compromise - we'd 404 the pages, but keep track of those that earned links and any substantive level of traffic and try to build better experiences for those pages (sometimes a 301 to a sub-category page, sometimes to a results listing and sometimes we'll actually add content to those pages and make them resolve).
Puzzlement has greeted the decision to award €50,000 of public money to enable a Liverpool-based search engine optimisation agency to set up an office in Manchester.
CL5 Ltd is getting the grant from a Regional Attraction Fund run by creative and digital industry support body Northwest Vision and Media.
Established in Liverpool in April, the company employs six people but is looking to recruit another seven and set up a permanent base in Manchester by the end of this year.
Chris Bellamy, managing director of Manchester-based Search Engine Optimization firm FirstFound, said it was strange that one commercial organisation should be given the money to compete with other firms in the city.
He said: "Maybe they should be giving us all €50,000. It does seem a bit strange with the rest of us going out there doing a good job for clients and earning money that way. In reality though, €50,000 doesn't go anywhere. I spend that on developing IT systems in a couple of months."
Ollie Phillips managing director of Warrington web development company Eantics Ltd said he doubts the government would hand over €50,000 to a Manchester agency looking to set up in Liverpool.
He said: "It seems like a large amount of money for a business that seems to be doing okay. There are many small companies who struggle to get any money out of the government. A few years back I approached Business Link to see what assistance was available for me but if you don't meet certain criteria there is nothing."
John Elcock, CL5's head of search, denied that the grant would give his firm an unfair advantage, saying that they deal exclusively in Search Engine Optimization, unlike many companies which offer additional services such as web design.
He said: "The decision making process was very transparent and candid. We went through a rigorous process and spent a lot of time putting the case forward about CL5."
Alice Morrison chief executive of NWVM said: "The fund is to help companies grow and develop so it is being used for exactly the right thing."
Search Engine Optimization is a booming sector in Manchester. FirstFound boosted its sales to €3.5m this year from €2.2m. Rival Lakestar Media, also based in Manchester city centre, achieved a €1m turnover in 2008, its first year of operations, and is projecting €3m in its second year.
While many companies are using SEO to help increase their online presence in the hope of boosting sales, a new report finds that HR departments need to increase their search engine optimization if they want to find the most qualified employees.
A recent white paper from SharkStrike finds that companies can help increase their talent pool by incorporating search engine optimization methods that are typically used to help marketing efforts.
The company reports that as there continues to be changes to more traditional forms of seeking candidates, a growing number of businesses are using search engine optimization. SharkStrike notes that at Microsoft the HR and marketing departments are working together to acquire talent while also implementing branding strategies.
"The arguments for HR SEO are compelling: higher quality candidates, fewer non-qualified candidates and lower costs," finds the report. "Still, many of the world's largest companies are struggling to fully utilize the potential of search engine optimization."
Candidates looking for work may also want to consider learning about search engine optimization as an increasing number of firms are using the tool to help boost their online visibility. According to freelance job site Elance, jobs related to writing for the search engine optimization industry have continued to grow since the company began releasing its Online Work Index several months ago.
An Search Engine Optimization company in India, while offering flawless Search Engine Optimization services also incorporate the time-proven Google analytics into its Search Engine Optimization tactics. Google analytics provides valuable information about the way visitors interact with a web site. Utilizing this visitor tracking solution, an Search Engine Optimization company in India keeps a track of what pages visitors like and what they don't. It is of vital importance from Search Engine Optimization perspective to know how visitors use a website, and which site they come from. The Search Engine Optimization company in India finds out the most popular keywords or search terms visitors type into popular search engines. With Google analytics integrating seamlessly with Google AdWords, it becomes easier for an Search Engine Optimization company in India to give distinguished visibility to websites.
A myriad number of websites are introduced to the web world every single day and without any serious efforts and Search Engine Optimization tactics from a reputable Search Engine Optimization company in India, your website is bound to get lost among loads of search results. An Search Engine Optimization company in India with its sustained website promotion campaigning, ensures that your website keep hovering among the top search results of different search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask jeeves and Alta Vista.
Seasoned web optimizers of an Search Engine Optimization company in India introduce professional web content to your website to help you convert more and more of visitors into customers. Search Engine Optimization services of an Search Engine Optimization company in India comprise link building, website traffic analysis, web content optimization, HTML coding, directory submission, CMS, blogs and forums posting, pay per click management, directory and article submission, news release postings and even micro blogging.
So allow your website to reach more and more of your target audience and untie the real potential of your business websites with an Search Engine Optimization company in India.
When companies begin a search engine optimization campaign, they typically focus on getting content to page one on Google or Yahoo or another search engine - but if a new engine's popularity takes off, these companies may need to start considering the algorithms of all search engines.
Last week Search3 (www.search3.com) announced the unveiling of its new search engine which it says allows users to search for terms from a variety of sites including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter and even eBay.
David Fireman, cofounder of the site, says the new "meta-search engine" works under the theory that "three is better than one" and says the company is working on tools that will help people track their search engine optimization performance.
"Search engine optimization professionals can use Search3 as a tool to benchmark clients' performance on search engines, and measure the impact of website changes they make on their clients' search engine rankings," he said. "Search3 will sell convenience to search engine optimization professionals."
The fact that the new site allows users to search on Twitter shows the growing importance of real-time search.
Although Twitter currently appears to be on top of the real-time search world, Facebook recently announced it is testing a new search function which it says will give users "up-to-the-minute" results.
You can't simply open a new Web site, sit back, and expect to welcome a horde of visitors showing up at your virtual storefront. If you want your online business to be successful, you must promote your site.
Both SEO and paid advertising on search engines can help drive visitors to your e-commerce site. More visitors can ultimately lead to more customers for your online business.
How can you use a combination of SEO and search engine ads to increase your online business and boost your bottom line? I'll give you useful tips on both, based on my real-world experience promoting my sites and those of my clients.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Optimization refers to modifying your Web pages to enhance your visibility in search engine results. If your business sells, say, left-handed widgets, your goal is to be listed near the top of the results if someone performs a search using the keywords "left-handed widgets."
Research shows that if your site isn't within the top 30 search results, very few visitors will click through to your site.
How do you reach that coveted high rank in a search engine? You have to learn to think like the robots (also called spiders and crawlers) that search engines such as Google use to find and catalog Web pages.
First, learn to describe your products and services at your Web site using words that your prospective customers would likely use in a search (most search engines understand words, not images).
Search engine robots give certain aspects of a Web page, such as the page's title and its major headings, special emphasis. Don't squander the potential benefit by using a nondescript title such as "Home Page of Rick's Online Store" (the search bots wouldn't even notice that).
I saw this question posted on a message board recently:
Title: Wanted SEO/SEM Vendor Referral Message: Does anyone have a COST EFFECTIVE SEO and SEM vendor referral. I am open to outsourcing, if referral for trustworthy vendor. Thanks, "Uninformed Buyer"
I actually cringed in horror; just look at those capital letters on precisely the wrong attributes! Cost is usually the wrong question to focus on when choosing a search engine optimization professional, as it implies you are buying a commodity.
Strategic effectiveness and search marketing profitability impact are much more appropriate questions. A quality Search Engine Optimization is all too rare, and should be priced like fine artwork.
If SEO is about organic ranking effectiveness on the web that drives relevant, converting and revenue-generating traffic - wouldn't online research of organic listings be a good first step? I'd assert it would be a good place to create a short prospect list of vendors to perform due diligence.
Yet many Search Engine Optimization firms receive sales calls from companies which don't have their Search Engine Optimization act together every day. Educating people to resist this is part of changing the industry's image, and quality Search Engine Optimizations share responsibility in creating this reality.
Quality Search Engine Optimization is presently a significantly undervalued skill set. Yet it can dramatically transform profitability of a business, as it has superior economics when compared to traditional media spending. However, since this value proposition is not yet understood by many management team executives, it often lacks the executive support it requires both in terms of financial resources and supporting needed operational changes.
It is also competing with large, highly entrenched budgets which are frequently controlled by individuals without a deep knowledge of search engine marketing which adds uncertainties to the selection process.
Let's examine in more detail the reasons why:
Most executive management teams don't yet fully understand the economics and far-reaching business implications of Search Engine Optimization. Once established, the marginal cost of each visitor from organic search engine traffic is essentially zero. No other marketing channel matches the relevancy and economics of search.
Search engine marketing's transformation of legacy enterprise profitability is in its infancy. I have a small business client who had a 45-percent increase in unique visitors to their site. The business owner also reduced his yellow pages advertising by $15,000, yet maintained their revenue for luxury services during this recession. Constant or increased revenue, combined with reduced traditional media spending increased profitability.
Most people outside of the search engine community do not fully appreciate the magnitude of the shift from push to pull marketing. Setting up your organization to be effectively found by people creating their own customer segmentation from search requires infinitely more domain skill and creative thinking than traditional strategy consulting brainstorming followed by push marketing. This is creating a migration of focus to niche brand attributes that search engine technology enables.
Management teams must understand Search Engine Optimization to effectively manage it. To manage search engine marketing at the thirty-thousand-foot level, you have to understand it at the three-foot level. Whether an internal employee or an external consultant, you've experienced this problem.
Recently, I was on an "ask anything" panel at CMS Expo and numerous technology professionals expressed frustration with management that did not understand content strategy, web site organizational impact or related change management issues. They asked the panel what they should do. I suggested that they educate the head of IT or CTO and others about these issues, as some people won't embrace content strategy. Smother people with education about the benefits, and the tide will eventually turn.
Measuring Search Engine Optimization is still an imprecise art form, which Google appears determined to prevent from becoming a science. Recent "localization" schemes, alleged paid link PageRank penalties, rumors of blocking of rank checking tools and other changes that certain management team members seem determined to obfuscate the ability to measure Search Engine Optimization activities.
The strategy may backfire on them in the end, as it's creating more focus on why these activities are hard to measure. This creates abundant opportunities for entrepreneurial Search Engine Optimization thought leaders to develop measurement and accountability tools that are independent of Google. In the long run, this should be healthy for the industry.
Search engine marketing might be the largest change management project in history. Successful change management must have strong executive sponsorship. This is a major bottleneck as most management teams do not understand search engine marketing.
To increase both forward speed of budget transformational processes to search engine marketing and Search Engine Optimization content strategy, companies must hire a new breed of CEO and CMO. These emerging leaders must have a rare combination of traditional business skills and who have gone through the process of learning search engine marketing and the lessons of relevancy and efficiency.
Executive recruiting needs to look beyond the job title to hire effective search engine marketing leaders. Organizations need to seek out leaders and consultants for their competencies regarding search engine marketing and profit improvement abilities. But they cannot ignore other competencies that go with it, like passion, a track record with analytics and metrics regardless of industry, curiosity, and the ability to bring traffic and awareness via personal branding using both web sites and social media.
Resume databases are simply vertical search engines after all. Unfortunately, they are creating too much focus on job titles rather than competencies, cultural fit and transformational leadership ability.
Search marketing-centric organizations will outperform. Successful Search Engine Optimization involves technology, management, marketing, customer service, process improvement and more than a dash of financial acumen. Executive management teams capable of navigating this complex convergence are in short supply. The dynamic won't change significantly until there are executives at the top of the house and on the board of directors who fully understand and hold people accountable for search marketing results. Only then will budget shift from traditional brand marketing spending to search marketing and content strategy truly accelerate.
Once understood, it becomes quite clear that Search Engine Optimization is a senior level strategic activity affecting enterprise profitability. So why are most quality Search Engine Optimization getting paid less than they should?
Likely Answer: Most purchasers do not yet fully understand what they are buying or how to maximize Search Engine Optimization profitability improvement. This means we need to continue to educate people about the benefits of Search Engine Optimization, so that business leaders understand the value and will tolerate nothing less than rapidly shifting legacy budget to acquire the best Search Engine Optimization outcomes for their business.
Let's start the education process about the value proposition of Search Engine Optimization with the simple step of sharing this article with several people in senior management, co-workers in other departments, friends and other interested parties. Then ask them to share lunch or coffee or a phone call to have a conversation about questions and enable deeper mutual understanding.
While the web industry is in a frenzy over social media - some .com businesses are quietly thriving as products of Search Engine Optimization successes. One such business with an A-list domain, Catalogs.com, the premier company of opt-in catalogs on niche subjects has been operating for more than a decade, flourishing by providing a useful service to consumers nationally.
I sat down for a Q&A session with Leslie Linevsky, who is the founding partner of Catalogs.com, along with Matt Craine, who is the Information Services Director and in charge of their Search Engine Optimization. I wanted to find how they got started, and any insights, tips, or tricks they could share on search engine marketing and optimization.
1) What prompted you to start catalogs.com?
Leslie: Recognizing the untapped potential of aggregating and indexing a wide array of catalogs that shoppers might not know about or have access to, we developed an ingenious way for internet shoppers to select and receive catalogs of their choice all in one place. Allowing catalogs to be conveniently delivered to consumer homes at no additional cost while giving consumers the opportunity to shop online from "well known" as well as "niche" catalog companies is how Catalogs.com makes its mark.
2) Have you always owned the domain catalogs.com, or did you acquire it?
Leslie: We acquired the domain name only.
3) With the ever growing "green" conscious consumer, how if any is this affecting the Catalog industry?
Leslie: It's a GREAT TIME for Catalogs.com because we provide only qualified leads from consumers who have specifically requested the Merchants Catalogs.com. As our mission statement says: Part of Catalogs.com's mission is all about helping people find the goods and services they need.
- By request ONLY.
- The overwhelming majority of catalogs consumers receive were never requested.
- Unlike receiving random catalogs just because you are on some mailing list...
- Get only the catalogs you request
- Catalog shopping (and internet catalog shopping) can and should be one of the most environmentally green ways to shop. After all, it eliminates trips to the store - and that saves time, trees, money and reduces the amount of gasoline we burn.
- It's funny but this has been our goal from day one.
4) Where do you see Catalogs.com in 5 years?
Leslie: It's difficult to say, because our growth percentage has been double digit, in terms of traffic and revenue. I can only hope that we continue doing everything right to sustain our growth.
5) How much organic search engine traffic does catalogs.com receive monthly?
Matt: Between 600,000 and 700,000 unique per month.
6) What are some of your best practices for optimizing search?
Matt: Well written unique copy on every page of the site. Researched and unique key-phrases in the Title Tag, and the Meta Description of every page. Proper use of the H1 tag and proper internal linking of pages. Thematically related pages and groups of pages interlinked. Incoming link building is very important as well.
7) What advice would you give people who are just starting to learn Search Engine Optimization?
Matt: Don't over think it. There is tons of information out there on the web about the basic, and best practices in Search Engine Optimization that every site should be doing. Start there. Proper tagging, keyword copy, and good interlinking - will get a badly optimized site a huge reward. After getting your foundation in place, you can then start to worry about higher end fine tuning - and of course, nothing beats links in.
8 ) What Search Engine Optimization tools do you regularly use? What if any tools should people avoid, and why?
Matt: Google tools (analytics, webmaster tools, adwords keyword tool) have become probably my most important. Studying your sites performance in analytics and webmaster tools and then making adjustments is key. We use the adwords keyword tool for research these days as opposed to Wordtracker ,or Trellian. I found them to be inconsistent and unreliable - plus they don't report on a very large sample of user data as opposed to Google. I also use many of the tools found at seobook.com including Rank Checker and their Competitive Research tools.
9) What areas of Search Engine Optimization do you most enjoy? What is the most difficult aspect of Search Engine Optimization?
Matt: Crafting a perfect TITLE tag that optimizes the key phrase for that page perfectly, and also satisfied the client with their business objective is always fun. The most difficult is steering clients and internal resources towards the long term goal, when they know just enough Search Engine Optimization to be dangerous.
10) What are the most important on-page elements for search engine performance and how would they rank it in order of importance? E.G. Is it Title tag first? Description tag? Headers? Text?
Matt:
1) Title tag
2) H1 tag
3) Copy and keyword density
4) Meta Description (disputed, but I have evidence it has helped us)
At Search Engine Strategies Toronto, the big buzz was generating buzz and gaining a social media presence -- ultimately, how to get people talking about your brand online.
Lots of discussion centered on the importance of buzz and how to build it, but more insight is always needed about how to leverage buzz for your Search Engine Optimization (define) efforts. How do you build buzz, use it to build link authority, and ultimately improve your search engine rankings?
We'll start with the basics: the importance of external links for search rankings.
If Google sees a link to your site as a sort of "vote" for your site, and the Web site with the most votes gets to the top of the search engine results, then all other things equal, the more links you have, the better, right?
Well, not exactly. Remember, the authority and relevance of your links are equally as important, if not more so, than the number of them. So all other things equal, the more authoritative, relevant links you have, the better your chances of being visible in the search engines for your keywords.
But to get authoritative relevant links -- and lots of them -- you need buzz. You need to get people excited enough about your brand, product, Web site, or content to want to share it, actively, with others. And when it comes to online, what better way to generate buzz (and links!) than through the plethora of social networks and user-generated content sites?
When someone submits, shares, or promotes your content on one of these sites, they typically include a keyword-rich link to your content. As this content gets shared over and over, your site generates more inbound links. Therefore, your link authority increases over time, along with (hopefully) your organic search engine rankings.
Now that you understand the potential benefit, it's time to get out there and do it:
* Get "dug" (on Digg)
* Get "upvoted" (on Reddit)
* Get "propelled" to the first page (on Propeller)
* Get bookmarked (on Delicious or Furl)
* Be "tweeted" and "retweeted" (on Twitter)
* Be blogged about (on any number of blogs)
* Be "stumbled upon" (on StumbleUpon)
* Gain "fans" (on Facebook)
How do you do all that? Create amazing content.
Amazing content, designed with your target audience in mind, such as tools, video, stories, articles, tips, and guides, will naturally win you recognition on social networks, because you'll be offering something of value that people will want to spread the word about.
But if you build amazing content that is super relevant to your target, and you still lack pick-up on social media sites, you might need to help things along.
Here are five quick and easy tips to gain online buzz (and links).
Make Sharing Easy
Include "AddThis" or "Share This" or other social media button links to your Web site content, so people can share content quickly and easily throughout their various networks.
Add an RSS feed to your site so people can opt-in to get content pushed out to them versus having to come back to your site all the time to find out what's new.
Keep It Fresh
No one will share a site that was built in 2007 and hasn't been updated since. Keep your content fresh, give people something new to talk about, and people will keep giving you "link love."
Search engines like fresh content, and so do social network users.
Submit, Don't Spam
You can submit your own content, but make sure to always follow the rules. Make sure your submission is done manually versus through mass auto-submitter software. Tag your content appropriately, following the suggested structure and user guidelines. Above all else, avoid anything sneaky -- people will sniff you out.
Be an Active Participant
If you want people to take your submissions seriously, you need to build a reputation in these networks. Just like on eBay where sellers build a rep, and buyers make decisions based on this rep, you need to become a "household" name on the network. Complete your profile and make a name for yourself so that people trust what you have to say.
Don't just submit your own stuff. Share other sites and useful resources. You'll appear more credible and less biased. And don't just submit -- vote, comment, and share other's content as well.
Become a Power User
Don't make an appearance every once in a while. Be a constant presence on these sites. The amount of time and energy you invest will directly correlate with what you get back.
Build your list of friends or followers as big as you can. The bigger your network, the more chance someone will hear what you have to say and share it.
And the best way to build a large network is by -- you guessed it -- sharing amazing content!
The world of SEO is awash with scores of tools that promise to make a marketers job easier.
Wading through all these options can be a daunting task and not a few of these products are quite expensive.
But take heart.
These tips offered by Search experts during the recently concluded SES (Search Engine Strategies) Toronto 2009 conference could help you avoid a ton of labour and expense.
Before presenting the list of free or low-cost Search Engine Optimization tools offered by Search gurus it's best to begin with the caveat offered by Ken Jurina, president and co-founder of Epiar Inc., an Edmonton based Search Engine Optimization services provider.
"No single tool will answer all of your problems," Jurina said. "But there are a few you can use in combination to help you accomplish what you need."
He noted that many tools are developed by little known software companies, but can be accessed from sites we very likely already use.
"Firefox and Google for instance are terrific sources of free goodies. All you need to do is do a little snooping."
Jurina was one of the presenters of the segment titled Tool Time: The Search Marketer's Free-to-Cheap Goodie Bag.
Here are his top picks:
Web Developer toolbar -- The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar is one of the most useful tools you can have for Web design. It brings together functions related to Web development, validation services, and links to standards and other documentation.
SEO Quake: Allows Web masters and marketers to view tons of important Search Engine Optimization parameters inside the toolbar and/or search bar.
Ice Rocket: An invisible tracker that counts the visits your blog receives along with other important blog details.
Google GEO Search: Enables users to view their rankings within different geographic regions for paid and organic listings in Google.
G-Site Crawler: This is a site map generator for Yahoo and Google. While use of Google Sitemaps fosters optimal site indexing by Google, GSite Crawler helps you generate the best Google site map file for your Web site.
BackTweets: Searches for links from Twitter (shortened and unshortened) pointing to your Web site.
SpyFu: Allows you to spy on competitors organic and paid keywords. The paid keyword information includes competitors' daily budgets, clicks, average cost-per-click. Google Insights for Search: With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.
When you want information, often the context of that information is as important as the content. That's why lately I've been playing with Google's Experimental Search options.
Experimental Search launched in 2007, and since then Google engineers have kept expanding and tweaking these offerings. When you select one of these options (you can only apply one of them at a time), Google applies that functionality to Google searches in your Web browser.
For instance, last night a journalism student asked me when I'd first heard the term "entrepreneurial journalism." I honestly couldn't recall, but her question made me curious.
So I activated the "alternate views for search results" experimental search, which includes a time line view option. I searched for the phrase "entrepreneurial journalism" and got this time line chart showing when that term started getting really popular online. (It appears to have been around the mid to late 1990s.)
Google explained more about the alternate views experimental search option, saying:
"See results on a time line, map, or in context of other information types. With these views, Google's technology extracts key dates, locations, measurements and more from select search results so you can view the information in a different dimension.
"Time line and map views work best for searches related to people, companies, events and places. Info view shows all the data found for each result, to help you select the best choice."
This tool can be useful for gaining fast insight on a topic or areas of relevance between topics that might not be apparent simply from keyword-based searches.
Other experimental search options currently offered include specifying your preferred sites (which influence ranking of the search results you see when logged in to your Google account); special features for Google's Searchwiki (a service launched last November that allows you to add, remove, move or annotate Google search results); keyboard shortcuts and accessibility features for people with visual impairments.
Try playing with these search tools. See whether they help you think differently about, or work more effectively with, online information.
Do you have a website for your Illinois Business? If you aren't getting the results you expected, efficient Search Engine Optimization and Internet marketing tactics should do the trick often, we wonder why our beautiful, dynamically designed website isn't working and pulling in profits.
The look and feel of your site is important for keeping visitors and compelling them to return, but the content and coding, as well as effective off-site methods, are what drives traffic and propels rankings to the top. Achieving a top ranking is the key to getting consistent targeted traffic, which should convert to leads and profits if done correctly.
When you choose specific key terms you want your Illinois business to rank for, there are several things that factor in to optimizing your site for these profitable terms. Search engine optimization consists of utilizing keywords on your site properly, creating descriptions and title tags correctly, building manual backlinks, and numerous other tasks. This is not an easy feat for most business owners.
You can hire a professional to design a website for you, but that certainly does not guarantee that proper Search Engine Optimization will be done. Many people are great when it comes to building a site, but don't have the knowledge to optimize it efficiently. Getting a site to rank in a desirable spot, especially when key terms are highly competitive, requires the expertise of a professional who specializes in this area.
Writing articles, publishing press releases, building links from authority websites pointing back to your site, social bookmarking. All of this is enough to make some business owners pull out their hair. Who has the extra time required to perform all that is necessary to build a successful online Illinois business?
The truth is, most business owners do not have the time it takes to implement the steps necessary for a high ranking website. Even if they did, it is unlikely that the knowledge they have in these areas is sufficient to dramatically increase targeted traffic and conversions.
If your Illinois business is suffering even though your site looks professional and attractive, there is a solution. By employing the services of a reputable search engine optimization and internet marketing firm, you can expect to see a dramatic improvement in targeted traffic, conversions and revenues in six months or less!
Visit Dataflurry for Chicago Illinois Search Engine Marketing - Help your Illinois company succeed in these tough times with talented and reliable search engine marketing and optimization services.
Most estate and elder lawyers see a significant slow-down in their practices this year due to the struggling economy. With expenses up and revenues down, marketing budgets are on the chopping block, just when attorneys most need to reach new clients and generate revenue. Integrity Marketing Solutions has the answer to this Catch-22 with a free webinar showing how estate and elder lawyers can get top website rankings on major search engines, drive targeted traffic and convert visitors into revenue.
Research conducted last year by Harris Interactive confirms that consumers tend to seek advice from those around them or from easily accessible, impersonal resources where they can gather information before making a personal contact. They turn most frequently to the internet and friends, family and acquaintances as their primary sources.
"For estate and elder law attorneys, this means that a hard-working website, optimized for the right key phrases and a solid conversion strategy is essential for building new business," says Jennifer Campbell, CEO of Integrity Marketing. "Just a few years ago, a website was more or less a back-up marketing strategy for attorneys. But law firm marketing is evolving, and the recession has just accelerated that pace. More prospective clients than ever before are beginning their search for legal services on the web, so SEO is a must-do marketing strategy."
"We launched the free webinar, Internet Marketing and Website Optimization, to help de-mystify the process for our clients," says Campbell. "Lawyers are experts at breaking down complex procedures into their component parts, they do this for their clients every day. We just wanted to do the same for them. Understanding reduces the perceived risk and the makes it easier to move forward."
Campbell designed and recorded the webinar with Kyle Krull, an estate attorney in Overland Park, KS, and President of Integrity Marketing Solutions. The program is available on-demand, 24 hours a day, at the Integrity Marketing Solutions website: www.estateplanningpartners.com.
"The webinar answers key questions for estate and elder lawyers," Krull said. "What makes an effective website work? Why does one website languish unnoticed, while another jumps to page one with the search engines and regularly generates qualified leads, and new clients, for the law firm?"
The webinar explains website and SEO, key factors that give a website credibility, how to measure web marketing results and the four key site components that will boost rankings with the major search engines.
"We know these strategies work. For example, we just finished optimizing a site for an elder law attorney in Massachusetts. When we started the process, we ran some analytics and her site was not listed among the top 50 on any of the search engines for her target key phrases. With some strategic changes, we literally got her site on page one search results for her key phrases on the three major search engines," Campbell said.
The webinar is free, but participants must register to attend: www.estateplanningpartners.com.
Founded in 1995, Integrity Marketing Solutions is a niche marketing firm specializing in marketing and practice development for estate planning and elder law attorneys. With more than 200 client firms in more than 40 states and nearly 500 participants in their online discussion forum, Integrity Marketing brings the collective experience of hundreds of successful attorneys and law firms from large, medium and small markets.
Terralever, a leading interactive marketing agency, was awarded two awards from the American Marketing Association (AMA) on Wednesday, May 27th. Terralever received the AMA Spectrum award in two categories: "Best Web Advertising Creative" and "Best Existing Product Marketing Campaign."
The awards recognized Terralever for its online marketing campaigns developed for two of Red Bull North America's top internationally known events: Red Bull Flugtag and Red Bull Soapbox Race. This is the fourth consecutive year that Terralever has been recognized by the American Marketing Association for its client work.
In the comprehensive online marketing campaign for Red Bull North America, Terralever designed and developed the Flugtag web site, which included a video-flash player and an interactive newsfeed. Also included in the campaign was the Flugtag game, online banner advertisements, email marketing and various interactive online applications for Flugtag.
The interactive banner campaign included advertisements for both Red Bull Flugtag and Red Bull Soapbox Race. Terralever's strategy was to conceive, design and implement banner ads that were highly interactive allowing the user to engage with the brand and gain a better understanding of what the events were about. The campaigns successfully drove traffic and event awareness to new highs, which resulted in record attendance levels at the events. You can interact with the banner ads at http://www.tinyurl.com/nrec88.
"We're especially proud of the wins in these two categories as they highlight the importance of solid creative as well as the strategic concepts behind an entire online marketing campaign," said Andrew Richter, Managing Partner of Terralever. "Receiving recognition from our peers in the marketing community is one of the ways we define success at Terralever; it feels great to know that our work is critically evaluated and recognized by an organization for which we have great respect."
Red Bull Soapbox Race is a national non-motorized racing event that challenges both experienced racers and amateurs alike to design and build outrageous, human-powered soapbox dream machines and compete in a timed downhill race.
Red Bull Flugtag, which means "Flying Day" in German, challenges teams of volunteers to build human-powered flying machines and pilot their crafts off the end of a 25-foot ramp in hopes of achieving flight.
The American Marketing Association's Phoenix Spectrum Awards, now in its seventh year, honors professionals from large and small companies across diverse industries in Arizona. The association is one of the largest marketing-related organizations in the state.
Terralever's work for Red Bull Flugtag USA and Red Bull Soapbox Race USA can be found online at www.redbullflugtagusa.com or www.redbullsoapboxusa.com.
Terralever is an award-winning interactive marketing and technology services firm that delivers online solutions for growing mid-size to Fortune 2000 companies. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, with offices in Tucson and Los Angeles, the growing firm specializes in online marketing strategy, Web site design and development, rich internet applications, SEO and email campaigns. For more information, visit http://www.terralever.com.
Poughkeepsie law firm adds counsel - Ralph A. Beisner of Hyde Park has joined McCabe & Mack as counsel.
Prior to joining McCabe & Mack, Beisner was a New York state Supreme Court justice in the Ninth Judicial District.
Beisner is also designated a judicial hearing officer for the New York state Unified Court System.
He will concentrate in the areas of mediation and arbitration.
Visit www.mccm.com for information about McCabe & Mack.
Marketing firm names director of social media - DragonSearch, with offices in New York City and Kingston, has named Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy of Kingston the director of social media, a newly created position.
D'Arcy will lead the creation, management and oversight of international social media campaigns for various clients, including the American Museum of Natural History, Loehmann's, Giftsin24.com, Wine on the Way, 5thAvenue Digital and Charles Fazzino.
D'Arcy was formerly a SEO technician and blog consultant with the Kingston-based firm.
D'Arcy will help DragonSearch's clients take advantage of social-networking sites.
Visit www.dragonsearchmarketing.com for more information about DragonSearch. AWARDS
Chamber foundation presents 4 scholarships - Four high school seniors were awarded the Norman and Rita Nussbickel Memorial Scholarship by The Chamber Foundation Inc., which is affiliated with the Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce.
Awards, including $2,000, were given June 10 by Wayne Nussbickel, president and CEO of N&S Supply, to Maura Danehey, John Jay High School; Jessica Indyk, Arlington High School; Emily Rokitowski, Roy C. Ketcham High School; and Aileen Coughlin, Beacon High School.
These students were selected based on their achievement in academics, sportsmanship and community involvement.
Speaking at the chamber dinner at which the college scholarships were given was Donna Beegle, president of Communications Across Barriers, whose theme was education as a ticket out of poverty.
NewBay Media, a leading media company in the entertainment technology industry, will handle advertising sales for the broadcast and professional products featured on www.HDCameraGuide.com, in a deal announced today. The site, whose visitor numbers have grown over 500% since it was introduced last November, is a perfect complement to NewBay's own stable of publications, websites and e-media products.
"Today, the media mix continues to expand, and SEO continues to grow as an important source of information and a valuable part of the sales dynamic," said Eric Trabb, VP/Group Publisher, Broadcast/Video Division, NewBay Media. "HD Camera Guide represents an exciting opportunity for our company as we help our advertisers reach their buying market through our various print and online assets. The site delivers the most valuable real estate on the web -- Page 1 on major search engines (organic listings) for specific search words including 'HD camera' 'best HD camera' and many branded HD cameras searches, as well as models."
Broadcasters and professional HD camera buyers who need a camera for studio, ENG, Documentary, High-Speed, Digital Cinematography, Reality TV, or Sports and Events can find it from among the major brands including, Sony, Ikegami, Grass Valley, Panasonic, Hitachi, Red, and others at www.HDCameraGuide.com.
The site, which has quickly become the premier online marketing site for high-end video cameras and accessories, recently added a new camera application selector feature above the main video window on the home page, as well as a teleprompter selector.
"We listen to our visitors," states Michael Grotticelli, Editor-in-Chief of HDCamercaGuide.com. "While we list cameras by manufacturers, many visitors were also asking for a listing by application, so they could quickly find the HD Camera that met their shooting requirements."
HD Camera Guide also features a wide range of product and Learning Center videos, an interactive HD Lens Selector, and a wide range of information.
HDCameraGuide.com is the premier source for high-end HD Cameras, Lenses, and Accessories, and membership is Free. The site regularly features exclusive video interviews, product-introduction videos, a video-rich Learning Center, an Interactive Lens Selector, pertinent news, and more.
NewBay Media's market-leading brands are centered on five vertical markets: Pro Audio, Broadcast and Video, Musical Instruments, Systems Integration, and K-12 Education. NewBay publishes and produces over 40 publications and show dailies, 50 websites, 30 daily and weekly E-Newsletters, three Expos, and more than 50 custom-publishing efforts annually. NewBay reaches over two million readers in print and one million online and in-person, around the world in over 100 countries. Additional information on NewBay can be found by visiting www.nbmedia.com or contacting Eric Trabb at etrabb(at)nbmedia.com.
PeoplePond, LLC, the leading provider of online personal brand Search Engine Optimization profiles, announced today users can now integrate their PeoplePond profiles into their Facebook accounts. This shares the personal brand and online identity elements of their PeoplePond profiles with anyone viewing their Facebook pages.
PeoplePond users can now share their profile image, the complete list of Web sites where they maintain an online presence and an identity verification badge on the sidebar of their Facebook profiles. In addition, they can share their profile image and PeoplePond "About Me" section on their Facebook "Info" pages.
"This is a great way for PeoplePond users to share their entire online personal identity with people who otherwise would be looking at just a part of it," said PeoplePond president, Theron McCollough.
PeoplePond users do not need to download or install anything to enable the Facebook applications. Activation buttons are provided within their PeoplePond accounts to display their information in either or both locations on their Facebook pages.
PeoplePond profiles are designed to make a personal brand more visible to its best audiences by training top search engines to give higher ranking to the online assets belonging to the personal brand. These profile pages are also designed to be portable to increase visibility of a personal brand even more when republished in other relevant online locations such as Facebook. To aid users and others to easily republish PeoplePond profiles several Web site plugins and modules are available as well as PeoplePond's open and free ADAM API.
Besides boosting personal brand Search Engine Optimization, increased visibility and identity verification, PeoplePond combines the portable address book functionality of WeaveMet.com with PeoplePond's social media content tracking, creating the first online service to harmonize these distinct capabilities within a single platform.
PeoplePond was launched to the general public earlier this year during the annual South by Southwest conference and festival in Austin, Texas.
PeoplePond is part of the network of Web sites developed by Cranberry Venture Partners, LLC. Cranberry is home to an unmatched team of innovative developers led by Internet visionary David McInnis. McInnis is best known for founding the first direct-to-consumer news service, PRWeb, which changed the way the world uses press releases. WeaveMet is also part of the Cranberry network of Web sites. For more information about Cranberry Venture Partners, LLC and the Cranberry network of Web sites visit www.cranberryventurepartners.com.
Jackson, NJ - Over the past 4 months, Jackson NJ Online has seen a 543% growth rate according to online trend and analysis website, compete.com. The daily reach of the newly launched Central Jersey online community has recieved up to 4,500 unique visitors daily through June, 2009.
On June 12th, the website reached the total visitor count for the previous month, with an expected jump of over nearly 100% between May and June. Growth has been infectious for properties of Stilton Company, LLC, which owns and operates nearly one dozen online properties. The flagship property owned by Stilton Company, a regional media and search marketing leader is GoKidsNJ, a family based entertainment and event planning website which boasts a daily reader base of 10,000 readers, followed by a video game news website which has a daily reader base of 8,000.
GoKidsNJ has experienced a 61.9% growth rate over the past 52 weeks, which included three months of low ratings due in part to the stock market crash of 2009 which saw levels drop by nearly 200% between August and December of 2008.
Zergwatch video game news has seen a 188% percent increase over the past 12 months and continues to be a growing force in the international video game news syndication market.
Business has been good this year for Stilton Company as owner Phil Stilton explains "In the fall of 2008, I truly began to worry about the future outlook of these entities, but the resurgence in growth after a dismal fall is starting to clear away the clouds. Hopefully the economy picks up."
Stilton Company LLC, includes several top 10 Google and Yahoo web properties in the family entertainment, media, video games and travel industries. While some industries such as family vacation travel remain in a downward spiral due to the economy, the company's travel portals and cruise ship tracking service have seen a 61% decrease in visitors, leading to a 30% decrease in online bookings, travel guide sales and related vacation products. "People just can't afford to take cruises like we used to. When you have to decide between paying the mortgage or going on a cruise, I find people tend to stick locally, which has also been a key factor in the boom of GoKidsNJ directly matching the decline in foreign travel sales". Stilton Company, LLC is an affiliate partner of Travel.Com and a CLIA member which operates several travel portals and vacation planning websites with integrated online booking and excursions through a partnership with shoreexcursions.com.
"While things can be better, this year, it looks like we may finally be out of the downard trends we saw in 2008" Stilton explains "We have a bit of an unfair advantage over our competitors as we are also an Search Engine Optimization and internet marketing firm whereas other travel agents, gaming networks and products companies have a high over head when it comes to Search Engine Optimization and online marketing."
Stilton Company LLC, is an online Search Engine Marketing company with over 15 years experience in helping businesses find the right business solutions to harness the power of the internet and drive sales.
"We have such a great network of businesses we work with including TicketMaster, Amazon, Google, Fandango, TravelNow and we're always creating new and exciting opportunities such as mutually benefiting relationships with local professional sports clubs and charity organizations. The GoKidsNetwork is a network of hundreds of businesses utilizing our media network to promote their services, events and products." Stilton adds.
If you wish to learn more about Stilton Company's Search Engine Marketing and how your business can benefit from their Search Engine Optimization, Marketing and Media services, contact 732-575-4891 or visit www.stiltonco.com
Please visit the below address to see independent third pary online analysis of information http://siteanalytics.compete.com/jacksonnjonline.com+gokidsnj.com+zergwatch.com/
The ebook is titled 'Expert SEO: How to get Massive Exposure Fast' by Rosemary Donald. Webmasters have the opportunity to learn the insider secrets that put Rank 1 websites at the top of Google, Yahoo & MSN. There are no gimmicks just proven website marketing techniques that are guaranteed to help website owners get massive exposure on the Internet.
Rank1 Website Marketing are search engine ranking specialists and have personally helped 2 clients in the last month alone get page 1 rankings on Google in just 2 weeks for their major keywords, using the same techniques that are in this ebook. There are no gimmicks just Expert SEO.
To download your free Search Engine Optimization ebook add this URL link to your browser:- http://www.sitecontent4u.com/index/33;Free-Seo-Ebook/
This is the second published ebook SEO Consultant Rosemary Donald has written for website owners, it's 7 pages long an easy read and packed with loads of top tips on how to build and promote a website successfully on the Internet.
Most people think 'Organic' is something which has been developed or maybe created 'naturally', without chemicals or anything 'man-made' used in the development. And you would be correct.
So why is it difficult for people to recognised that 'organic search engine optimisation' rankings are any different? It simply means the search engine has positioned your listing where it believes your web site comes in terms of 'importance' that has been fairly calculated using an algorithm, i.e. with no outside interference or influence. But what does 'value' mean in this sense?
The concept of 'value' in this sense ultimately means, the search engine asks who is linking to your website and what is the value, of their link is and how valuable they are. If they have a high page rank (PR), they are very valuable in the 'search engines eye's'. Then the search engine says. "Hey, you must really be valuable as well, if they are linking to you. What happens?, You go up in the rankings consequently.
At least that's the theory, but before that happens, there are many different considerations, calculations and permutations to consider. Perhaps the best way to get your head around this is to think of it as a 'level playing field', as everybody has to start somewhere and everyone starts out equal, (but of course, some are more equal than others), but it's what you do with that 'playing field' that really counts. You can stand on the side lines and cheer or shout abuse, or you can actually play the game and try and score a goal. Now that's not a bad image to have in your mind, as you start out with your strategy.
Your keyword can also be geographically based. For example, if you are a Motor Mechanic in Manchester, then organic search engine optimization techniques will revolve around the keyword 'Manchester' and this in turn, then becomes the main part of your strategy for your search engine optimization plan. Yes, it can be that localised. If you haven't guessed already, it' all down to keywords. Now, here is where you need to do some research, because you cannot not just have "Manchester Motor Mechanic" as your keyword, just because you think it suits your selected niche. Why? Because nobody may be searching for those keywords, (or lets put it this way, there may not enough traffic may be generated with that keyword phrase for it to be viable in the first place). On the other hand, it may turn out to be a fantastic keyword and it may be thriving for you, but you have to do your homework first!
The great thing for you, is that not many companies have the know-how or expertise that is needed to put together an 'organic plan', as a lot of companies 'still' use techniques like keyword density, meta tags, keyword filling, internal linking etc. This is very much now the 'old school' way of thinking. Now search engine optimization has taken on a life of it's own and is now playing an important part of the modern way of business thinking.
Organic search engine optimization services engage a combination of different techniques like consumer psychology, digital media, site usability, semantics and analytics, as in very competitive markets, you need 'an edge' to stay ahead and endure the aggressively fought competition for your preferred keyword phrase and this is often time consuming. However, when it is used appropriately, it can be an phenomenal, cost effective way to give your business an indefinite long term and sustained flow of traffic (and of course customers), as opposed to pay per click (PPC), which requires you to pay for each and every click that comes to your website, regardless of whether it converts to business.
Research has proved that most consumers prefer using 'natural' results, as opposed to paid or sponsored rankings, because search engine optimization lets customers find your website 'naturally'.
Choosing the right company for your search engine optimization can be hard and also either the making or breaking of your business, so choose carefully, analyse the company and the expense before you sign up for their services.
Link popularity and link quality are very important because every major search engine now considers them as a part of their ranking algorithms. If you don't have links, you won't rank well for competitive keywords.
Link popularity consists of:
Number of links
Quality of links
Number of times people click on links to your site
How long end users visit your site
How often people return to your site
In other words, do your site visitors:
Continue navigating your site?
Link to your site?
Bookmark your site?
Return to your site?
Factors That Affect Popularity
Substantial and unique content
How other sites are linked to your site (anchor text)
Site usability
Link Development Tactics
Choose quality over quantity. Link quality carries more weight than quantity. Spend time getting the highest quality links pointing to your site.
Begin with Web directories. Yahoo Directory and DMOZ are two reliable places for high-quality links.
Harness online publicity. How-to tips, helpful articles, even press releases often attract links from other websites. The search engine optimization world calls this "link bait ."
Use blogs and forums wisely. Blogs and forums can call attention to useful information on your site.
Use search engines to research link development. Look at competitors' sites to determine their link development strategy. It can help you with your own. What newspapers and media outlets do they use for online publicity? What Web directories link to their sites? No link popularity checker ("link: domain.com" in Google, "linkdomain: domain.com" in Yahoo) can substitute for doing the research yourself.
Getting Listed
There are basically three ways to get your site listed in a search engine:
Submit your site directly to the search engine using a free submit form.
Let the search engine find your site through links to your site from other sites such as directories. Submit to these directories.
Pay the search engine to index your site.
Submitting to Directories
To get started, be sure to get your site listed in the following directories that are crawled by the search engines:
Open Directory Project or DMOZ
Yahoo! Directory
When you are submitting to directories, be sure to take the time to find the best category for your site and read the submission guidelines provided by each directory. By following their guidelines, you will improve your chances of being listed and decrease the amount of time it takes to get listed.
There are many more directories where you can submit your site. Don't forget to find local or thematic directories that are relevant to the topic of your site. You will be able to find many in our list of search engines and directories.
It will take time for the search engines to index your site after it has been listed in the major directories. So, be patient and expect to wait at least a couple more months before your site starts appearing in the index of the major search engines.
Resources
Improve Link Popularity in 10 Easy Steps
Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO
Linking Strategies: Do's And Don'ts
Using Internet Directories as a Link Building Tool
Here are the 20 most popular business websites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast.
Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size.
Here are the 15 Largest Search Engine Optimization Websites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast.
Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size.
Here are the 20 Largest eBusiness Websites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast.
Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size.
AVIATION WEEK has released the results of its Top-Performing Companies (TPC) Study, the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry's leading annual rankings and competitive analysis, which identifies Lockheed Martin, Precision Castparts, FLIR Systems and Ceradyne as the top companies for 2009. A series of articles and ranking tables are available in this week's issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology and at AviationWeek.com/TPC. The winning companies will receive awards during the Paris Air Show at AVIATION WEEK's Chalet on June 17.
To read the articles and for complete rankings on the 79 companies in this year's study, extensive data going back 10 years on the 50 largest companies, commentaries, podcasts, and graphics, go to the TPC microsite at AviationWeek.com/TPC. Sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the microsite contains the most extensive online coverage of the TPC study in its 13-year history. A companion online analytics tool, the Top-Performing Companies Benchmarking Tool, is also available to enterprise subscribers and allows companies to regularly monitor performance and set competitive goals.
Launched in 1996, AVIATION WEEK's TPC Study identifies relative strengths and weaknesses in companies' operational performance and evaluates how well they are executing business strategies. Proprietary metrics have been refined over the past 13 years with input from industry leaders to include scores in four equally weighted performance categories: Return on Invested Capital, Earnings Momentum, Asset Management, and Financial Health.
"Something real is going on here, and you can see it in the results of this year's Top-Performing Companies study," says AVIATION WEEK Editor-in-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. in his TPC overview. "Contractors are continuing to apply 'lean' initiatives to their operations,...the industry as a whole is getting progressively more productive, [and] the best-run companies are demonstrating they know how to maintain world-class performance."
Each of the top companies is the leader in its category, based on A&D revenue for the 2008-09 fiscal year:
Ranked no. 1 in the "Revenue Greater Than $20 Billion" group for the second consecutive year, Lockheed Martin is characterized as "firing on all cylinders," capitalizing on its success at integrating a disparate collection of businesses and reflecting consistent improvement in all sectors.
In the "$5-20 Billion" category, Precision Castparts benefits from its strong culture of accountability and a return on invested capital to match, commanding premium prices for its specialized products.
In the "$1-5 Billion" category, FLIR Systems is viewed as a "cash machine," generating operating margins of 40% and maintaining its highly competitive position in the defense market.
Top ranked among small companies ($250 Million - $1 Billion) for the second year in a row, Ceradyne continues to leverage robust military demand for its advanced ceramic armor and products.
"Although 2008 was a banner year for the A&D industry, 2009 and 2010 will be very challenging," says AVIATION WEEK Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo. "The results of this year's Top-Performing Companies Study provide clues about how well A&D companies are positioned to withstand the tough times that are descending on the industry."
Kyocera Wireless Corp., (KWC), a leading global manufacturer of wireless handsets and devices, announced today it has earned its ninth consecutive recycling award from the City of San Diego's Environmental Services Department (ESD). The Director's Recycling Award is one of the city's highest environmental honors and marks Kyocera's sixteenth environmental award from the City to date ' the most of any business in San Diego, according to the ESD.
'We commend companies such as Kyocera who take the initiative in waste reduction and recycling. These actions help the City of San Diego to keep the Miramar Landfill open longer, reduce greenhouse gases, and help improve our environmental quality,' said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders.
In 2008, KWC recycled more than 195,531 pounds of paper, plastic, electronic and other waste otherwise destined for landfills. The company reduced the amount of waste sent to the landfill by 24 percent compared to 2007, when it also earned the Director's Recycling Award. Along with protecting the environment, Kyocera's recycling, waste and energy-reduction programs contributed almost $70,000 in recycling revenue and approximately $311,000 in cost avoidance to the company's 2008 bottom line.
KWC's 2008 recycling efforts were complemented by significant savings of both water and energy. Continuing a reclaimed water program initiated in 2003, KWC averted the use of more than 4 million gallons of potable fresh water ' enough to service 64 average San Diego households for one year. New software was installed that reduced electricity consumption by the company's computer servers by about 90 percent. And, together with an efficient new VoIP-based phone system, these two energy-saving projects earned KWC rebates from SDG&E totaling $33,500. Careful energy conservation and area consolidation yielded savings of more than 2.1 million kWh ' enough to power 442 average San Diego homes for one year ' and approximately $256,771.
'We're proud to continue our commitment to the environment and hope we can provide an example of how environmental stewardship also can benefit a company's bottom line,' said Rod Lanthorne, president of KWC and its parent company, San Diego-based Kyocera International Inc. "Seeking harmonious balance between economic development and environmental preservation has been a core tenet at Kyocera since its inception 50 years ago. We are proud of our employees as they continue to work protecting the environment and conserving natural resources to benefit future generations.'
Company-wide programs are in place at Kyocera to reduce copying and faxing by increasing scanning and use of LCD projectors; recycle cardboard, paper, plastics and precious metals used in manufacturing processes; reduce waste and disposable plates and utensils in cafeterias and even to re-use landscape trimmings and damaged wooden pallets as mulch material around the grounds to preserve moisture in the soil.
Continuing the efforts beyond the local footprint, Kyocera has become a Southern California sponsor of Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet, a public art exhibit with the purpose to educate about global warming and solutions for individuals and companies to combat the global issue. Kyocera has also been a sponsor of, and participant in, the Virgin Mobile Festival, the worlds 'greenest' music festival held annually in Baltimore, Maryland.
More information about Kyocera Wireless Corp., including the company's ISO-14001 environmental certification, is available at www.kyocera-wireless.com. Information on Kyocera Corporation's global environmental preservation efforts is available at http://global.kyocera.com/company/csr.
Kyocera Corporation, parent company and headquarters of the worldwide Kyocera Group, also recently announced the formation of Kyocera Communications Inc. (KCI) as a next step in the global integration of Kyocera's wireless device business. KCI, headquartered in San Diego, comprises the combined sales, marketing and service functions from KWC and Kyocera Sanyo Telecom Inc. (KSTI), and manages those functions for all Kyocera- and Sanyo-branded wireless devices.
PeoplePond, LLC, the leading provider of online personal brand Search Engine Optimization profiles, announced today users can now integrate their PeoplePond profiles into their Facebook accounts. This shares the personal brand and online identity elements of their PeoplePond profiles with anyone viewing their Facebook pages.
