Web Design, Website Development and Internet Marketing - One Page Expert Guides

Top Signs Your Site Isn't Ready for Prime Time

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:49:51 -0600

Many things have changed in the last few years, but the real foundation for SEO success hasn't changed much at all.

Yeah, sure, some important things work today that weren't even available years ago -- namely blog content and promotion, and social media promotion through Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Propeller, Twitter, or what have you.

Yeah, we should always find ways to add fresh content to our Web site, optimize all digital assets that we have (images, video, etc.), but the real SEO basics are still often overlooked or not understood by many.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634178

Leveraging Social Media Buzz for SEO Success

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:42:27 -0600

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 SEO efforts. How do you build buzz, use it to build link authority, and ultimately improve your search engine rankings?

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3634134

Link Marketing Challenges & Solutions

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:36:13 -0600

What are two of the biggest obstacles companies face in link marketing? Developing linkable content and making people aware of it. Here are some insights from my experience that will make it easier to overcome those obstacles.

First let's look at linkable content. Content could be anything from an interactive tool, to videos, to user-generated content. Don't limit yourself to thinking content is just written words by a writer.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634212

Applying Probability to Landing Page Optimization

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:19:59 -0600

Landing page optimization is based on statistics, and statistics is based on probability theory. And probability theory is concerned with the study of random events.

But a lot of people might object that the behavior of your landing page visitors isn't "random." Your visitors aren't as simple as the roll of a die. They visit your landing page for a reason, and act (or fail to act) based on their own internal motivations.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634190

Spend Less on Pay-Per-Click

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:16:42 -0600

Cutting down on PPC expenditures is at the forefront of SEM discussions these days. By the looks of search marketing agency IMPAQT's newly enhanced Adaptive Bidding tool, marketers will be able to do more with less - a key to surving in today's economic climate for many businesses. In some instances the tool is reducing cost for search-originated acquisitions by nearly 80%. That's the sort of saving that can't be overlooked.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2009/06/25/spend-less-on-pay-per-click.aspx

SEO Friendly Site Structure - If You Build it, Will They Come?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:13:35 -0600

Your site's content is at the heart of what your site will rank for, and to a strong degree how well it will rank. Simply put, you need lots of it. I mean tons. Building authority takes more than a page or two, it takes a page or two or ten on every sub-topic of every category of a big idea or kind of product.

OK...once that's done, now what? You built it, now will they come?

They will come only if you've structured your information in a way that's easy for visitors to navigate, and for search engines to understand. You will see the traffic you desire only if your content complements your overall goals, your reputation feeds itself from top to bottom, and you've got good structure.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634097

How Long Should It Take for SEO to Show Results?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:24:45 -0600

The typical question that gives many SEO professionals a bit of a gut-check is, "How long will it take for you to show me results?" Typically, the answer will vary based on the age of the site in question and the level of competition for high volume keywords, if boiling it down to two major factors.

However, there are considerably more elements to a fully-fledged answer. These are also split into new vs. redesigned or reformatted (URL) Web site.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634072

Quality SEO Pays for Itself

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:58:37 -0600

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 SEO is all too rare, and should be priced like fine artwork.

If search engine optimization 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.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634113

Effective PPC Ad Copy 101, Part 2

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:21:08 -0600

In Part 1, we covered the searcher behavior funnel and tips for writing headlines and descriptions. Now we'll venture beyond the ad copy to discuss methods for testing and fine-tuning your ads to increase performance.

After you've finished writing your initial ad copy and have launched your PPC campaign, you might be tempted to just leave everything as is and let it ride. This is a big mistake. The key to a successful campaign is to check how well your ads are performing, and check them often.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634162

Search Engine Submission 101, Part 2

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:18:51 -0600

As I stated previously, manual and automated search engine submissions are still around, but are of little to no value. Some would maintain they are a complete waste of time. So what's the alternative?

Google Sitemaps Back in 2005, Google launched an initiative called Google Sitemaps, which provided webmasters with a better tool to keep Google informed of new web pages and updates. This was a much better process than having webmasters submitting their site manually or in some automated way.

Later, Yahoo, MSN and Ask united around the XML sitemap protocol and they are all supporting it through Sitemaps.org. So if you are considering any type of submission, then this is the way to do it.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3633773

Search Engine Submission 101, Part 1

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:08:28 -0600

Although it isn't as important as it once was, search engine submission is still a SEO best practice. Search engines prefer finding your site and associated Web pages on their own. However, submitting your site to search engines doesn't hurt, as long as you're careful not to overdo it.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3633692

Video Search 101, Part 2

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:28:02 -0600

Many people agree that its video searching capabilities are much better than Google's. This is just another indication that video search is growing in importance.

Last time, we looked at keyword research, tips on video production, and landing pages for video search. Today, we'll look at distribution and keyword placement and tracking/analytics.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634013

Video Search 101, Part 1

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:42:46 -0600

With Internet video on the rise and the search engines looking more favorably on video content, there's an opportunity to leverage this medium for your SEO efforts. We'll focus on five steps for optimizing for video search, many which run parallel to traditional SEO best practices:

1. Keyword research

2. Video production

3. Landing pages

4. Distribution and keyword placement

5. Tracking/analytics

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3633933

Effective PPC Ad Copy 101, Part 1

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:22:46 -0600

One of the most important factors of a successful PPC campaign is writing successful ad copy. You can spend a good deal of time on other aspects of your campaign but skimp on the ad copy and you might not get the results you're looking for. This two-part article will review several tips for crafting high performing ad copy and methods for testing its effectiveness.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634082

Five Ways to Use Twitter to Improve Your Marketing

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:49:57 -0600

Do you tweet? If so, you're part of a fast growing trend. Emarketer estimates there were about 6 million U.S. adult Twitter users in 2008, 3.8 percent of U.S. adult Internet users. Twitter users in the U.S. are projected to grow to 18.1 million by 2010, representing 10.8 percent of U.S. adult Internet users. Surprisingly, Twitter users tend to be older than traditional Internet early adopters; 45 to 54 year olds, the highest-indexing age group, are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter.

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3633745