Orlando Search Engine Marketing Experts

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In April, Google announced a new tool that will specify your landing page’s load time: this is the time Google has calculated that it takes to load that particular page of your web site.  Google also announced that this new load time measure will be applied to it’s Google adwords quality score.  What does this mean to you? If you are utilizing Google AdWords as a part of your Internet marketing strategy, you need to be mindful of your web site’s load time.  If you web site (or landing page) is taking too long to load (i.e., heavy graphics, slow server speed, third party utilities, etc.) you may wish to isolate the problem and take appropriate action to improve the load speed so that your quality score does not ultimately suffer.

Read more about Google’s new enhancement here >>

We updated a clients online e-commerce store this morning from Miva 5 to Miva 5.5 and it was a snap.  Once we logged into the admin panel, we were prompted that there was a new update available, and it was like Christmas.  Important note: you do have the option of not updating…

While we haven’t fully kicked all of the new version’s tires yet, some really cool stuff we immediately noticed was a fresh new interface, much easier to use, much cleaner, etc.  The thing we are quite excited about is the Dreamweaver export: you can now edit store pages directly in dreamweaver, and the SEO features.  You now have complete control over each products meta tags, descriptions, etc.  as well as a sitemap creation tool and much more. There is a button in there to create short url’s for SEO, but to be honest, we need to read a bit more about that before we activate it.

We will of course keep you updated as we find new features / and / or bugs.

If you’ve got a great product to sell online, On Target Web Solutions can tell the world about it.  We offer web 2.0 web design, online e-commerce stores and most importantly, search engine marketing services.  Give us a call at 407-830-4550 or visit our web site for more information.

I obviously look at a TON of web sites on any given day, some are for clients, some for prospects and a lot for research.  I’m probably not the ‘typical’ web surfer by any means, but I have to think that people tend to get annoyed by certain elements on a web site like I do: here are some elements I can’t stand:

1.) The Enter Site Button…. If I land on a page that is entirely flash and have to dig around for some type of navigation to find what I’m looking for, I’m out.  Isn’t the whole purpose of a web site to share content, sell stuff and educate?

2.) MUSIC playing upon load of the web site.  May have been remotely cool in the 80’s, not so much anymore.

3.) FRAMES: again, 1980’s…. Old technology, let it go.

4.) Popups: I DON’T NEED ANY SMILEYS or FISH screen savers, but thanks so much for the offer.

5.) BRIGHT obnoxious contrasts of colors and 9,000 font faces highlighted and accented.

6.) FUSTERCLUCK: Keep stuff organized and with a flow: trying to push the client or web site visitor into 90 different directions isn’t really going to help get your PRIMARY web site goal across.

7.) The Bottomless Pit: I shouldn’t have to scroll down 7,000 lines of html code in my browser to find your phone number or your footer navigation.

8.) ALL BOLD AND ALL CAPS COPY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE WEB SITE: no one likes to be yelled out.  This quickly becomes overkill.

9.) NO Call to action: what in the world am I supposed to do on your web site? Help me out a bit, let me know where you want me…..

10.) MY BIGGEST pet peeve : faulty code : I was just ordering flowers for my lovely wife and kept getting a java script error EACH time I tried to personalize  the card, it took me ten minutes to put in 20 characters.

One black hat seo tactic that flourished in the mid 1990’s was the practice of keyword stuffing.  Here’s the scenario: You are trying feverishly to rank on one particular search term, but there is always this idiot ahead of you in the SERPS (search engine results page). You visit the site and can’t even begin to find the keyword in question in his metas, copy, alt tags, etc. UNTIL…..

Scroll down on that web page to the bottom, past the footer and keep going: Here’s where you will find those keywords: STUFFED into the site for only search engine robot / spider consumption.

Believe it or not, this black hat seo technique is still alive and well and is just one of the tools of the black hat SEO jockey.  This tactic actually works, HOWEVER, it doesn’t last long.

Case study: one of my clients is ranked number one under the term Florida VA Mortgage in Google and has been for quite some time.  A few months ago, a newcomer came along and stole the thunder… I dug around his site and realized he was employing keyword stuffing. (Scroll down and check out the keywords stuffed into the site.)  Long story short, his Google ranking has dropped and my hunch is, will continue to drop.

Much of this stuff comes down to ethics: as with everything, there is the right way to do stuff and the wrong way to do stuff.  Sure, the wrong way may be the path of least resistance, BUT, one can be assured that the right way will always triumph.

Was digging around my google webmaster tools account and stumbled upon what looks like a new feature: Google Geo-Targeting.  Geo Targeting is simply put: targeting your website to a specific geographic location.  For example: you own a furniture store in Canada and your website is ends in a .ca extension: People searching from within Bolivia (for example) would not necessarily find your furniture store relevant to them as they want to be able to stop by the store, or order more locally.  If you did own a .com domain and did serve the entire world selling products or services, you should be able to specify that to Google as well, thus not limiting searchers utilizing google.ca, etc.

Here’s how you can set it up:

Step 1. Go to Google.com and setup a  Google Account.

Step 2. Go to Webmaster Tools

Step 3: Under dashboard add your site

Step 4: Google will ask you to verify your site: they will give you a verification code that you will need to upload to the root of your web site.

Step 5: Go back to your google account and hit verify: it may take a few tries, but if you have uploaded the code correctly, it will find the verification file.

Step 6: Click your site under manage

Step 7:  Click tools on the bottom left of the screen

Step 8: Click Set Geographic Target

Step 9: Click Associate a geographic location with this site

Step 10: Choose your geographic target.

That’s it! You’re all set.

As all of us are aware, it’s not an option for us as business owners to start coming up with a solid plan to save our planet.  Deforestation is certainly one of the leading causes for global warming and if your home is like mine, the local phone company loves nothing more than to dump off 16 phone directories off on my front porch which I instantly send to the recycle bin so they can decompose in a landfill which of course is a whole other issue.

Here’s a possible solution: JOIN THE ANTI PHONE DIRECTORY crusade. Stop wasting money advertising to no one in the phone directories! Check out this quote from Bill Gates:

“The Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. When you go to this service that’s going to take our technology and Tellme technology that we acquired, when you say something like “plumber,” the presentation you get will be far better than something you get in the Yellow Pages. After all, we know your location, and so we can cluster around that. We can take the information and show you the names, and you can expand the information easily. These things always take time, but Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero — near zero — over the next five years.”

For once, I  think he’s right on target.  If you are spending thousands of dollars monthly for that prized real estate in the phone directory, you are potentially contributing to the global warming problem, not to mention, the return on your investment can starkly compare to the targeted search engine traffic that you can receive with a professional web site and search engine marketing package.  People use Google as their phone directory, they search locally and they pre-screen companies before they ever call them or take an action.  Will they find your company there?

Start advertising to your target market today: With search engine marketing, you can quickly adapt to new demographics (Not wait a year until you can change your print ad), you can add fresh and relevant content used to pull your audience to you, you can introduce and test market new products and services with a minimal investment. One of the most important elements though:  you can do your part to alleviate the waste paper and deforestation contributed to by the phone directory industry.

At On Target Web Solutions, educating our web design and internet marketing prospects and customers has been the key to our success.  In the last year alone, we have spent nearly 65 hours through our free 30 minute consultation sessions educating folks about what works online and what doesn’t. 

If your web site isn’t generating leads, sales or traffic, you need to call us.  Let us take a look at your web site and current search engine marketing plan from an objective standpoint and offer you pointers, tips and suggestions to help you succeed online.  NO pushy sales tactics, just 30 minutes of free telephone consultation on your web site. 

You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain by calling On Target Web Solutions today: Call 407-830-4550 or fill our our online form today. On Target Web Solutions : Orlando Web Design & Internet Marketing Experts.

Your web site’s web stats can speak volumes about the overall ‘health’ of your web site.  Bounce rate is one such variable that will tell us how long people are sticking around on your site, and further, were there expectations met when they landed on your site? For example, if I search for widgets and land on your site and see the latest in cat litter cleansing techniques, I’m more than likely going to ‘bounce’ away from your site and return to the search listings.

Your web site bounce rate can be calculated using the following mathematical formula: First, you will need some basic numbers from your stats: you will need your unique visitors and your page views data:  Now, take the unique visitors (A) and then the page views for that particular page (B) over the same time period and divide B (page views) by A (unique visitors).  Here’s an example:

Your web site for the last 30 days has accumulated 1,000 unique visitors and the page you are analyzing has 300 page views: then 300 divided by 1000 = 0.3: MULTIPLY this by 100 and you get 30%.  Your page has a %30 bounce rate.

Obviously, the lower the bounce rate the better: If you experience a bounce rate over 55% etc., you may need to lead your web site visitors better, offer them content to stick around longer, or redesign the web site entirely.

For a free 30 minute assessment of your web site and it’s strengths and weaknesses, give us a call at 407-830-4550 or fill our our online contact form at On Target Web Solutions.com.

So, you’re existing web site developer is obsessed with Front Page and frame sets, doesn’t respond to your phone calls and ONLY wants to be referred to by Webmaster?  You’ve got problems.  You seek out a reputable web design firm (like, for example, On Target Web Solutions) and hire them to redesign your existing web site.  No problemo… Until… The domain name needs to be transferred in. The new web design firm is to be hosting the domain, BUT, they can’t get access to the domain name to transfer the name-servers because the old ‘WEBMASTER’ either bought the domain name in your name (under his account…) or added himself as an administrator on your registrar account.

This happens MORE than you know and causes MANY problems.  Here’s how to prevent this from happening all together.:

:: Register YOUR own domain name.

:: Keep the user and password in a VAULT or bury it in a shoebox, what have you.

:: You can add your new web design firm as a TECHNICAL contact which will allow them to alter name servers if needed.

:: DO NOT add others as an ADMIN to your registrar account… This essentially gives them access over everything.

Hope this helps in your quest.  As a side: NONE of the employees at On Target Web Solutions, Inc. are EVER allowed to label themselves as webmasters.  Give us a call if you need a fresh look and feel for your web site or to get your web site found online.  407-830-4550.

I, like many of you receive a TON of email each day: some junk, but the majority from our customers.  The last few days I began to notice something as we were up against some tight web launch deadlines: I noticed that my emotions were swayed in different directions by the PERCEIVED tone of emails from people.  I put together a list of things that drive me nuts when I receive an email:

1.) PLEASE DON’T COMPOSE YOUR EMAILS WITH ALL CAPS!!!! OR USE EXCESSIVE !!!!!! POINTS!  Utilizing all caps in an email is akin to yelling at someone.  It comes off as a bit hostile in my humble opinion.

2.) Smiley Faces: Don’t have time for them, but thanks for the sentiment.

3.) READ receipts…. Sorry about your luck, you’ll never get one back from me.  In fact, it annoyed me so much that I altered my outlook settings to NEVER reply to them.

4.) One of my favorites: setting the priority of your email with the red exclamation mark: Frankly, I don’t put more weight an email with an exclamation mark next to it: it is 9 times out of 10 spam.

5.) Don’t go crazy with the highlighter in your email messages: if your email is that long that you have to highlight the important parts for me, we’re going to have issues.  Send a clean pdf or word doc….

6.) Short and sweet: self explanatory.

7.) Plain text is just fine… no need for embedded images, twirlydos, etc. 

8.) Remember to be clear and concise with your message: Being overly direct can cause cognitive dissonance on the other end of the email.  Remember to still use the manners mom hopefully taught you, please, thank you, etc.

9.) Forwards of forwards of forwards: if you have to forward a document from other people, such as in a dialogue string, etc., take the extra minute and clean out unnecessary stuff: example, email signatures, etc. the end user will thank you.

10.) Work related email: if it’s related to work, send it to the work address: if it’s personal, i.e., joke of the day, etc., send it to the recipients personal email address.

Thanks for reading…. hope you enjoyed!