Posts Tagged ‘seo’

 

True Link Building. – 28. July, 2010

So called SEO Gurus love to throw out tons of industry buzz words in hopes of confusing their prospects into thinking that all things SEO is rocket science.  While SEO is a learned skill, there are some very simple philosophies that need to be embraced prior to kicking of any Organic SEO campaign.  I’ll spend some time in subsequent blogs discussing some more basic SEO foundations, but in this blog, I thought I’d touch a bit on link building.

Link building is the process of getting inbound links pointing to your web site.  The more inbound links that point to your web site, the more Google and other search engines may think that your web site is relevant.  It’s really quite simple, BUT, has turned into a free for all for fly by night SEO types who read a few tweets on Twitter about growing their web site traffic from the latest MLM Internet marketing scammer.  TRUE link building is about building relationships, it’s about building a truly relevant web of important, fresh information.  So, for example, your distributor in Seattle has a great web site and is constantly writing relevant white papers and blog articles about their products and services.  You can contribute to his conversations online and so you chime in about xyz product and offer your expertise.  He, then follows your link back and contributes to your web site.  This is what the Internet was intended for, communication and the exchange of ideas.  Now, the side effect is that Google loves the site in Seattle and crawls your comments / inputs back to your web site.  Your web site is similar in nature, therefore, it’s more relevant in Google’s eyes.  Rinse and repeat.

Be a contributor on other like minded industry related web sites and grow your credibility as an expert in your field. That’s what TRUE link building and TRUE SEO is all about.  It’s more than getting your web site found in the organic search engine rankings, it’s about contributing and being a relevant resource.

My next blog will talk about the latest craze, videos and SEO.  Stay tuned for some truth.

If you like this blog, be sure to check out my other SEO related site, TheSEOCEO.com

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SEO Shenanigans. – 28. June, 2010

Does your business get cold called for SEO? How about the ole form submission from a guy telling you he couldn’t find your web site in the search engines and therefore, drop him an email and he’ll get it all taken care of for you? My newest favorite is the the corrugated plastic sign stuck in road side medians here in Orlando offering SEO Success Today!

When you need your web site found, go to Google and search for an Internet marketing company. The proof is truly in the pudding when it comes to worthy SEO companies.  Can you find them? Does their web site look professional? Do they PROMISE you the world and back? SEO shenanigans abound my friends, be sure to kick the tires on the company you chose, be sure you can speak to someone when you need to, if possible, see if you can actually sit face to face with them and discuss your goals, objectives and company needs.

In my next blog, I’ll address some of the more sinister shenanigans that some fly by night so called SEO companies employ… Stay tuned!

To discuss your SEO needs with a true professional company, call mine: In Orlando, call 407-830-4550 and Nationwide: 866-998-6886.
If you like this blog, be sure to check out my other SEO Blog: TheSEOCEO.com.

Hit It & Quit It. – 17. June, 2010

I had a great conversation with a prospect today about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and his web site.  One of the key questions he asked was this: “Can’t you just go in there once and make revisions and the site will be found?” This hit it and quit mentality is quite common and I try to explain it to prospects and clients like this:

When you do a Google search, you expect to see relevant timely results on any given search.  Google knows this, so Google puts more weight on web sites that are current and relevant.  So, if your web site is sixteen years old and you’ve never even taken it out of frames, much less updated the copyright date in the footer, odds are, Google is going to wash it’s hands of your web site or it will be found on page 517.

Keeping your web site fresh can be as easy as adding a blog article once or twice a week.  As long as you are feeding your HUMAN web site visitors, the search engines (Google in particular) will pay attention and be more eager to index your site favorably.

Need help with a sound Internet marketing & search engine optimization plan? Call me today: In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Toll Free: 866-998-6886.

If you like this blog, you may also enjoy TheSEOCEO.com.

SEO Truths: All About Hits. – 28. May, 2010

Many so called SEO guys will brag about how many Hits they get. In fact, that’s all they seem to talk about… I got this web site 155,234 hits last month, just imagine how many hits I can get for your web site…… This is simply put nonsense.

Hits are nothing more than how many files were loaded on your website.  The more files you have, the more hits you’ll get.  This does NOT give us any real indication of how much actual traffic that the web site gets or more importantly, how many UNIQUE VISITORS your web site got.

When it comes to monitoring your web site traffic, be sure to look for the unique visitors count.  This is much more of a true depiction of how many human beings are visiting your web site.

Need help sifting through all of the SEO nonsense out there? Call me: in Orlando: 407-830-4550 or nationwide: 866-998-6886. Be sure to visit my web site to learn more about web design and Internet marketing.

If you like this blog, be sure to also visit theseoceo.com

The Geniune Article. Who’s writing your content? – 9. January, 2010

This morning I stumbled upon a competitor’s press release telling the world and the media all about their search engine / Internet marketing services.  There was really no news in the article, it was merely an advertisement disguised as a ‘press release’.  Press releases can be a good tool to help build inbound links etc. for SEO purposes, but the release should at the very least attempt to be newsworthy.  As I scrolled down to see who had submitted the poorly written release that was clearly stuffed with keywords and not for human consumption, I noted that the release was submitted by a third party in a third world country. So, this so called Internet marketing company has hired a third party to crank out spam releases meant to only increase inbound links.

I have nothing against using third parties, I have nothing against news releases, I do have an issue with people cranking garbage (spam) out in order to gain inbound links and keyword density in the search engines.  The whole point of Internet marketing is to reach out to reach out and engage your target market, NOT inundate them with mumbled up garbage saturated with keywords.

Create content for people, optimize that content (be mindful of the words your web site visitors would use as you are composing) and be unique.  Give PEOPLE valuable content and you will be rewarded by the search engines for your work. If writing isn’t your brand of vodka, then yes, hire a company dedicated to creating useful content, not dedicated to creating garbage.

Need help with your Internet Marketing? Call me. Let’s discuss your plan, your product, your demographic, that’s what true Internet Marketing is all about. Call 407-830-4550 in Orlando or toll free: 866-998-6886. Visit my web site to learn more about our Internet Marketing services.

How NOT To Hire A SEO Company. – 9. November, 2009

Business owners get solicited everyday now by so called SEO experts, Gurus, Chiefs, etc. via email spam, fax spam and phone spam, so I thought it would be helpful to list some of the top reasons to NOT hire a  SEO company:

1.) They Cold Called You. I don’t know about you, but I have ZERO tolerance for Spam, I consider unsolicited phone calls to be spam, if a so called SEO company calls you, it usually means one thing: they have NO Internet presence which means you can’t find them in Google, Bing or Yahoo.  Translation: no results for you.

2.) They Emailed You. I get about 10 emails a day from so called seo gurus who are going to get me number one rankings in Google tomorrow by 12:25 p.m. if I just reply for a quote.  Again, if you can’t promote your own web site in the search engines and you have to resort to spamming every web site on the Internet in order to MAYBE get one poor soul to hit reply, time to hang it up and go back to serving fries and burgers.

3.) Top Ten Results GUARANTEED OVERNIGHT! Ok, this is perhaps the most sinister claim.  I love instant and immediate gratification as much as the next business owner, HOWEVER: SEO does NOT work like this.  Not only can NO ONE guarantee you top ten results overnight in Google, Bing or Yahoo, SEO is not just a one time ‘thing’.  SEO is an ongoing process over time.  Steer WAY clear of any instant results claims.

4.) They have a terrible web site that you can’t find in the search engines. I was solicited by an Indian company this morning that asked me to help them with their SEO web site.  The company claims to just ‘DO SEO CHEAPER”. They have a hideous web site, they don’t really have a firm grasp of proper English / sentence structure and are focusing on throwing tons of POINTLESS garbled, non relevant garbage on a web site in order to get ‘results cheaper.’ Isn’t it important that your SEO company cares about on site web optimization as well? Shouldn’t their web site convert and MAKE SENSE to you? If they can’t do it for themselves, how can they do it for you?

5.) They claim to submit your web site to over 40,321 search engines and directories for only $19.95. Wow.  Didn’t even know that there were that many search engines and directories out there.  I guess if you include Auntie Annie’s Embroidery Search Engine or Fred’s Quick Marble Finder, or the Istanbul Daily search engine as a search engine that people actually use to search for companies like yours for, then, sure. Here’s the bottom line: your clients and prospects use Google, Yahoo and Bing to search (and those last two are questionable.) SEO is so much more than button mashing and submitting web sites.  I get a kick out of some hosting packages that sell the SEO add on: We’ll submit your web site every quarter for an SEO Blast…… Nonsense. Again, SEO is about providing relevant and unique quality information to your web site visitors that will also interest Google Bot, Bing & Slurp (Yahoo’s robot).

If you are seeking to boost your online presence and get serious about pulling clients and prospects to your web site, call me: 866-998-6886. I’ve been doing this for over a decade, I will never cold call you, I will never spam you and I’ll never make promises or guarantees that I can’t deliver. When you call my company, you’ll speak to a human being located in Orlando, Florida (provided you don’t call at 2:00 a.m.), you will at some point speak to me personally about your web site and your Internet Marketing plan.

SEO Tip # 99,221 : Open Directory Project & Your Site Meta Tags. – 21. October, 2009

SEO Tips: The Open Directory Project and Google organic search results:

Ok, this blog won’t be getting nominated for any brilliance or amusement awards, BUT, this can be a stumbling block to ranking well in Google under the key terms you are after….. Way back when, the Open Directory Project or DMOZ.org was the place to submit your website.  Getting into DMOZ was a big deal, it was a volunteer human edited directory with a Utopian vision.  Google saw value in DMOZ and would put some weight on your web site in their listings if you were listed there.  It was always a challenge to get the perfect title and description as the human editors would change it 9 times out of 10.  The more that the volunteers hacked away at your submitted title and description tags, the lesser the possibility that your website would be found in Google under your desired search terms, that was reality.

Today, the open directory project (in my humble opinion) has lost a lot of steam.  We have waited well over a year on certain sites on getting them accepted or indexed in DMOZ.org. Volunteers have lost interest, corruption has reared it’s ugly head etc., BUT, if your web site has been around the block for quite some time, it is quite possible that Google is using DMOZ’s title and description for your web site and ignoring any customized titles and descriptions that you have installed.  How can you see what title and description that Google is using for your web site? Google your company domain : yourwebsite.com and observe what title and description is being used.  Browse to your web site and glance at your own title tag (you should see your title tag in the very top of your browser).  If the title tags match, Google is pulling the title directly off of your web site (which is good.) If the titles don’t match, it’s a good possibility that Google is still using the DMOZ title and description for your web site….. here’s the fix:

Add this line of code in the head portion of your web site home page:

. This tells Google and other crawlers to ignore the open directory project listing and to pull your own title and meta description. It may take some time for Google to start displaying your custom meta tags in the search results, so patience will be key here.

Have any SEO questions? Give me a call, I’m happy to help.  Call 407-830-4550 or visit my web site for more information on SEO / Search engine optimization.

SEO & Links : Not All Links Are Created Equally. – 15. October, 2009

When it comes to relevancy in a search engine, inbound links pointing to your web site can be a huge contributor to how important Google thinks that your page / information is and subsequently, how your page can be ranked for particular search terms. Link building is of course one facet of SEO that should be focused on by your search engine optimization team, but I’m a huge believer in quality over quantity: here’s why…..

Many people have read a book, or a blog article, or a tweet about how important it is to get inbound links from everywhere, I firmly believe that it’s much more important to focus on quality inbound links rather than a multitude of non related, non quality links.  When you put yourself in the shoes of the Great Google, you have to realize that Google is ranking sites based on relevancy, if your inbound links are all coming from a non-relevant source (based on your web site content or genre) and pointing to your web site, how can Google determine the relevancy of your web site? For example, Your new non-profit organization that is driven to save the elusive carpet beetle from extinction wants some inbound links, you find a great resource of free page rank 3 inbound links from Bob’s discount mail order brides and submit….. Is this relevant? Nope, not even close. Wasted time, and potentially hazardous to your web site and it’s Google rankings.   Now, if you submitted your non-profit to the friends of Carpet Beetle foundation web site, or the study for the enrichment of the Carpet Beetle’s web site, you’d have a tight connection and a more targeted inbound link.

Bad Neighborhoods: Just like you would not locate your non-profit carpet beetle’s non-profit office in a bad section of town, you also need to be cautious of web sites from the wrong side of town.  Google can penalize a site if it has an inbound link coming to it from a bad neighborhood, this includes link farms, shady porn sites, dangerous or malicious code sites, etc.

Give & Take: Don’t forget to share the love.  The more you give, the more you get.  Be sure to start a links page on your web site to offer a link back if you get some link love from others.  This is good Karma and just an over-all swell thing to do for your fellow humanity.

Bottom line: submit when it makes sense.  Seek relevancy, seek out sites that make sense to your content and seek out sites that have been tried and trusted by Google.

Seo Myth # 22,337 : Submitting Your Web Site To Search Engines. – 15. September, 2009

Ever seen this?
We will submit your web site to 12,234 search engines and directories for only $29.99?

Back in the day, yes, you had to manually submit your web site to web sites such as hotbot, snap, Google, infoseek, lycos, etc.  That was WAY back in the day.
T
oday, it’s a different ball game.  Search engines like Google would much rather follow your link off of another page and find you all on it’s own.  Think of it like this, If another web site that is indexed well in Google took the time to list your web site, it has to be of some value.  Google then crawls this new link and then starts indexing the content on that web site.  Voila, your web site is being crawled by Google. Getting it to rank under specific keywords is an entirely different conversation for a later blog.

5 Easy Steps To Attract Search Engines / Spiders To Your Web Site.

1.) Build a blog with an RSS feed and add worthy indexable unique content. Rinse and repeat.
(Quick tip: install the blog on your domain name for maximum SEO effect, add text links to your navigation so that Google and the other bots can find it easily. Create a technorati account and claim your blog, this will also alert Google to start crawling your blog.)

2.) Get your web site linked off of like content area web sites.
(Quick tip: Contribute to other people’s blogs with USEFUL and MEANINGFUL comments.  Leave your web site address when you post the comment so that when that comment is published, Google crawls the link back to your web site.  Did I mention MEANINGFUL content? Don’t spam other people’s blogs, etc to get inbound links, not cool, not targeted, a waste of your time.)

3.) Build and keep an up to date XML sitemap, submit it to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.
(Quick tip: build an xml-sitemap here and upload to your web server: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/)

4.) Keep contributing.  In my experience, adding content on a semi-regular basis keeps enticing Google to come back, the more you feed Google rich and juicy stuff, the more it wants to come back.
(Quick tip: consider adding white papers, company news, press releases that have featured your company.  Google can also digest PDF’s, so upload those suckers.)

5.)  Navigation: keep your navigation simple, remember, Google doesn’t crawl graphic links, so use text links to allow Google to ‘deep’ crawl your website.  Imagine laying out a bread crumb trail to find your way out of the forest: make sure Google can follow your structure

In my next blog, I’m going to discuss ‘noisy web sites’ and how to ‘defluff them’. In this challenging economic time, it’s survival of the fittest and cleanest!

Need some help getting found? Give me a call. I’m happy to review your web site and offer pointers and suggestions for improvement.  Call 407-830-4550 or visit my site to learn more about Internet Marketing and SEO.

Some Common SEO Mistakes & Tips To Avoid Them. – 8. September, 2009

With so much disinformation available online about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), I thought it would be helpful to shed some light on common SEO mistakes that I see web design companies make.  These aren’t in any particular order…

Navigation.
Your web site navigation is the key to Google and other search engines crawling your web site and indexing each and every page of valuable content.  If your web site’s navigation is all in flash or graphics, the spiders / crawlers have nothing to crawl.  If you must use flash or graphics, you can always utilize text links to each relevant landing page of your site in your web site footer.

Quick tip: Add an XML sitemap to your web site and submit it to Google. This is a clean formatted sitemap that Google prefers to read.

Title Tags.
My biggest pet peeve, web designers who leave the home page called ‘home’ or worse, ‘untitled’.  The title tag is what shows up in search engines like Google when you search for a company.  This is within your web site code and will show up at the top of your browser as you are browsing a web site. Take the 3 minutes and write a unique title tag for each page of your web site.

Quick Tip: Make certain that the title tag actually emulates the content on that particular page. Also, as hard as it maybe to swallow, unless you are a huge brand like Coca-Cola, put your company at the END of the title tag and focus on relevant keywords at the front of the title tag.

No Copy.
Perhaps the mother of all cardinal sins.  It would be better had your web site never been born….. Web designers who design web sites with copy as a graphic should get their license to breed revoked. I have seen complete web sites with brilliant copy composed by a copy writer as one gigantic graphic.  Search engines cannot read graphics, translation, the content is pointless to the search engines and you won’t be ranking on any search term other than MAYBE your domain name.

Quick Tip: If your web designer insists that building the web site in all graphics is the best practice, it’s time to fire Skippy and move on to a web design firm that has your best interests in mind.

Spam Copy.
This is a key point: your copy needs to be written for PEOPLE.  I can’t stand seeing content composed solely for search engines. The whole point of SEO is to get your web site found so that people will actually read it.

Quick Tip: When you are composing copy for your web site take a few minutes and jot down some keywords that are relevant to the article. After you’ve composed your copy, re-read it and see if there are any opportunities to sprinkle those keywords within your copy.

Pointless Linking.
Hiring Bob from New Diehli to submit your web site to 23,000 Page rank 2 websites and directories ALL AT ONCE is sure to catch Google’s attention and possibly get you penalized in the search engines.  Stick with submitting and / or link exchanging with quality and relevant web sites.  If your web site is linked in some ‘sketchy’ web neighborhoods, it’s guilt by association.

Quick Tip: Bob from New Deihli doesn’t care about your web site and your company’s reputation.  Work with people / companies who are passionate about helping your company and it’s web site grow online.

Paid Links.
Google is on the lookout for paid links, if you are paying a link farm or link directory to get your URL listed on their ‘comprehensive’ directory listing, you may be hurting yourself more than helping.  Google wants to deliver FAIR and relevant results, therefore, if it suspects that your web site is paying to play, it could also penalize your web site in the listings.

NO Description tag or poorly written meta description:
The meta description tag is what you see when you do a Google search about a particular URL, so be sure that your meta description is written to compel both PEOPLE and the search engines.  Write copy that is actual copy and not just a collection of spam keywords that you’ve thrown together.

Quick Tip: Like the title tag, the description should be unique to each page and relevant to what that page is actually about.

SLOW Load time.
The great Googlebot is a very busy robot.  It does not have the luxury of infinite time to wait for your home page to load.  If your web page is constantly timing out and not loading because you have a video of silly Uncle Ned juggling firecrackers on your home page, Googlebot isn’t interested and will move on to the next web site.

Quick Tip: If you must have a video on your home page, setting it to auto-play will annoy most web site visitors. Let people watch what they want and control their own visit,  it’s about them, not your video.

Next blog
: social media mistakes and how to avoid them.

By the way: it may seem far away but Christmas will be here before you know it. It’s  Time to get your web site and your Internet Marketing plan in full swing for the season. How will your web site stand out and sell in a tough economic climate? Give me a call to discuss your plan: 407-830-4550.

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