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By Bryan P. Hollis in Featured

spn_exclusiveGenerally I will not lead an article by stating the intended reader(s) or target audience. However, I decided that I would clearly state that this article is targeted primarily to website owners. At the same time, I am hoping that all online businesses will take note of this. These include advertising companies, web host providers, web designers and programmers, and even my own field – Search Engine Optimization.

Many online businesses (especially those in the marketing field) are plagued with bad reputations. I mean the field as a whole. A clear example is my very own category of online marketing, site management, and search engine optimization. The term “Black Hat SEO” wasn’t pulled out of thin air, nor was the idea to combat this “label” by clearly stating (or in many cases) professing to be above-board, or “White Hat”. For those that are unfamiliar with these terms, you can go with the sound…”Black Hat” having an almost evil connotation, while “White Hat” is seemingly “angelic”. This example applies to other online service providers as well, including web host providers, web designers, programmers and advertisers. I was prompted to finally write this article after my blood had boiled over in dealing with dirty, underhanded companies (again, including my very own field).

About two months ago, I was approached by a “Brick and Mortar” company that had been online with a simple site for about 3 years. The client of course wondered how I could help get her site on page one. I was up-front with her in saying that “Brick and Mortar” was a hair trickier than a business with a large online presence (or even strictly online). Nonetheless, I assured her that we would give it our all. Her site, like you would expect from a strictly “Brick and Mortar”, was not very interactive, and contained very little content. From face-value appearance, this site was “ok”. Behind the scenes was a different story.

When checking a potential new client’s web or blogsite, the very first thing that I do is really quite simple. I use the tool on most browsers by right-clicking and selecting “view page source”. This is perhaps (in my past experiences) the fastest indicator of simple site factors like the meta title, meta description, and keywords – first for the home-page. Is the title too long? Is the description poor, spammy, or too long?
Are there too many keywords? Is a particular keyword used too often (spam)? This two minute drill can really tell you a lot. By asking the owner who “described” the site, you’ll know even more. Was it the web designer? A third-party, outsourced content writer? All important to know. Now I dig deeper.

After running a full site analysis (broken links, ranking details, keywords statistics, etc.) I then use what I truly believe to be the single most important SEO tool available…Google it! By doing a search engine query using numerous keywords, you’ll find out exactly what you’re stacked-up against. What is the SERP count? Are the top SERP results articles or the actual site home-page?

Ok, right about now is when you should be asking me, “So what’s the deal with policing my site and becoming a webmaster?” We’re getting there…I promise!

So you give your potential client your facts, your theories, and your hopes. They accept your proposal. Now what do you need? You need site access, file manager access, database access, and website log-in (with administrative) access. Depending on what needs to be done and the degree of your programming or coding skills, you may need a programmer on your team. I happen to have been blessed with the knowledge and know-how to do just about everything that needs to be done to correct site issues.

Regardless of the content management solution (CMS), somehow or another me and my trusty code editor seem to plug away until we get all the “kinks” worked-out. Now comes the policing and loss of respect that give others a bad name in such a competitive area. I won’t name companies, web designers, or advertisers. My goal is not to expose or “call them out”, but rather to raise a website owner’s awareness that they exist, and what to look out for.

While I am only going to use one example, please be aware that I have encountered this on numerous occasions, and always with a unique twist or seemingly “organized” way of accomplishing their mission. I am going back to the recent “Brick and Mortar” company, as this one simply disgusted me the most.

At first appearance, the site consisted of a landing page, an about the company page, a contact page, and an FAQ (frequently asked questions). All things considered, this was ample for establishing an online presence (although I have since added a blog!). So what are we looking at, a four, five page site? Also keep in mind that this site is a simple html only site. No php.

Not even a database. Accessing the Control Panel and file manager should show me very little, right? Wrong! Unbeknownst to her, there were dozens of “hidden” files in her site. Provided by? Her web hosting company. In viewing these files (and I viewed them thoroughly), I found page after page that promoted her web hosting company’s site with countless “dofollow” links. Let me cite one example:

Her site is delivered from the folder “public_html”, meaning that the files directly from this folder are the next page, post, or folder directly from her domain, like example.com/ contact-us/. In her case there were odd file names like /Fbq573s.html. Of course no-one will EVER know to view this page and it isn’t linked-to. However, it is VERY much alive, crawled and cached by search engines, absolutely sapping this paying customer of any potential of being exposed for anything. Bottom line, she would NEVER see page one. Why? Why do this?

Don’t you want to see your customer succeed? My hosting company uses no dirty tricks. I want my web host user’s site to flourish, to expand. That is true credibility.

Lesson – even if it’s the basics, learn some basic html, view your website’s file manager, and if you have to, get a second opinion. To your success.

Bryan P. Hollis is the founder of Mid Carolina Freelance, LLC – A Complete SEO and Online Marketing Firm. He started the firm about 5 years ago and has progressed into many areas including affiliate management, social media marketing, web hosting and Linux server development.

By Drew Ferret in Featured

spn_exclusiveChoosing a colocation data center for your servers is an important step in the growth of any business. There are a few important things to consider before choosing a data center. The following tips will save you a significant amount of money and improve uptime:

* Choose a location that is easily accessible to your business or by a reliable support technical team. This will help in reducing or preventing outages and minimizing downtime. Most major cities have hubs full of technical expertise and resources that can be available at the drop of a hat.

* The data center facility you choose should have a sufficient amount of room to expand. That way you do not have to worry about moving if the facility fills to maximum capacity.

Alternatively, be cautious of moving into an empty facility. You do not want to do business with a data center that has a failing business model.

* Consider your future colocation Internet bandwidth needs because Internet bandwidth prices can vary dramatically from data center to data center. It is wise to select a vendor that is capable of growing with your needs at the drop of a hat. Provisioning additional resources can often take weeks to prepare and install.

* When asking for colocation rates, make sure you ask for all prices including: rental fees, rack or cage setup, additional power, interconnection, additional technical support charges etc. Ideally, you want to find a provider that does not charge for remote hands service because it can be very costly. There is no need to pay a fee when there are state-of-the-art providers that offer it for free. These colocation providers who include remote hands service for free often have faster, more responsive and experienced technical service personnel who will be on site around the clock (24/7/365), when you need them most.

* Find out what type of colocation services they provide. Most colocation services offer One Server Colocation, Quarter Rack Colocation, Half Rack Colocation and Cage Colocation.

* Make sure the colocation provider has the necessary certifications for running a data center. For example, Internet T1, a colocation provider has technicians that are certified in CCNP, CCNA, ATSP: Internetworking, ATSP: IP Telephone, A+, Network +, MCSA, MCDST, MCP, MCSE 2000, MCSE 3000, Network Application Management and Network Baseline Analysis.

* Make sure the data center offers support. A good colocation data center will provide client support 24 hours per day and 7 days a week.

* A colocation facility should have top-notch security. They should utilize video surveillance, state-of-the-art firewalls and fire detection systems. It is highly valuable to find a provider that has invested in state-of-the-art security, whereby digital surveillance cameras are throughout the facility, card key locks at every entrance and exits within the facility exist with an enforced access list, and personal locking cabinet(s) are provided. It is important to note that individual secure locking cabinets are much more secure than an open rack in a shared cage. However a shared cage can be more affordable than cabinets.

* Location, Location, Location: go with a provider who is located within a telco building or carrier neutral POP with diverse fiber connections to all carriers. The saying “Birds of a feather flock together” – meaning that there is a reason for all the carrier connections being in a telco colocation facility, mostly because of reliability for uptime of their equipment, ease of access and it being a centrally located facility for quick access and access to other network providers or customers.

* Choose a colocation service provider that is financially stable. Profitability means satisfied customers! A financially sound company allows for better pricing and overall technical security because there are no hidden/excess charges attributed to alleviating company financial burdens. A provider that is profitable will not cause you the frustration of a forced move due to bankruptcy. Choose a provider that has been consistently profitable for many years.

* Longevity translates to experience and stability in any industry. It is wise to find a colocation service provider that has proven itself over time, having survived the dot.com bust, moreover sustained business and growth repeatedly for numerous years. Look for a colocation service provider which has been in business for over 5 years.

* It is crucial for the provider to maintain an especially cooled environment for all of the servers it houses on a continual basis. Heat is the enemy of servers and network equipment. Having redundant A/C systems means that if any of the A/C systems fail, another A/C system is already helping to cool each separate colocation suite and can therefore take over as the primary cooling system. Choose a provider that has a state-of-the-art A/C system that provides air in each section of the facility redundantly.

* These days power consumption is costing businesses more and more. Consider negotiating an acceptable power amperage rate to service your servers. In many cases you can request lower power amp costs in the negotiation stage of your services. If over time you are finding your power consumption is more and more, don’t be afraid to ask for improved power pricing. Data centers should be providing A+B Power options, in other words if the main power supply to the building should fail it should have failover to UPS while diesel generators kick in to support the main load. These generators should be able to sustain power for potentially 1 week should a catastrophic event occur.

Drew Ferret is a business communications consultant at InternetT1.com, a full service ISP (Internet Service Provider) specializing in high speed Internet services, such as Ethernet Internet and data center colocation. Internet T1 offers a suite of other services that can improve the growth and value of your business, to learn more please visit Internet T1.

By Robert Keating in Featured

wp-bigOnce you identify a keyword that you wish to rank in Google for you want to get your on-page S.E.O right.

S.E.O stands for Search Site Optimization and is the method a website undergoes to boost its odds of being found in Google for the relevant keywords.

Meta-tags are HTML ( site code ) classes that search websites use to identify which keywords an internet site is relevant for. There are three first tags you will need to get right ; ‘Title ‘, ‘Headings ‘ and ‘Description’.

Page Title

The page title must contain your keyword. It doesn’t have to only be the keyword but ideally your keyword should appear at the start of title and there shouldn’t be any more than 70 characters in your title. Hence for instance I may have titled the page something like ;

SEO – Using WordPress To Lift Your Site in Google

Or

SEO – Why You Want an SEO Company

Or

SEO – Local Economy SEO Services

What ever your keyword is use it in the page title.

Advanced WordPress Tip

Using a plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast will permit you to make 2 different headings – one for Google and the search engines and one for human readers. This is one of the things I adore about WordPress – it is so flexible and is concentrated on S.E.O.

I have used that methodology on this post so that the title that you the reader sees is ;

How To Simply Optimize Your Site for Important Keywords with WordPress

But when Google comes along to take a look at this post it will see the title as ;

SEO Using WordPress To Lift Your Internet Site in Google

This lets me target my desired keyword, without putting in a page title that’s unimportant, or at the very least slightly strange, for the human reader.

Page Headings

There are numerous header tags on a webpage – H1, H2, H3, H4, etc – and Google uses these as a robust indicator of relevancy, so making sure your keyword is in these heading tags will help a lot .

The H1 tag is the most vital, H2 second most crucial and so on , so if you only have one heading on the page ensure it is a H1 tag.

So use your keywords in you headings and sub-headings on the page.

Outline

The outline tag informs the text that Google displays for your net page in its search results. Plenty of your competitors will get this wrong in a couple of other ways. A good description tag should hold the following ;

Keyword phrase fresh content An action call

Just as you place your phrase into the page title and the headings and sub-headings, you should place it your description too.

The outline should be hand written and be unique to the page – Google ranks pages not internetsites, so you have got to view your internet site not as a single entity but as a collection of unique and seperate pages based around a common theme.

If you have the same description for every page on your site then Google will downgrade your site. If you don’t write an an outline meta-tag at all then Google will just take the 1st 150 characters fom the page itself and this represents a lost opportunity for both S.E.O and getting your message out.

The description tag offers you the opportunity to steal traffic from websites that are actually places above you in the search engines. If you take the time and trouble to scribble a good unique outline which appeals to your target shopper and incorporates a ‘call to action ‘ then you can entice the searcher to click on your result rather than a competitor who has not troubled to write a unique and applicable description.

Meta-tags Summary

Place your keyword in all 3 meta-tags – page title, page headings and page descriptions.

SEO – Place Keyword in URL

Re importance this is great – Google gives big weight to URLs. That’s the reason why if you can get your primary keyword in your root domain you will get a giant ranking advantage.

If you don’t have it in the root domain you can still easily place it in the URL for the individual pages. Take a look at the URL for this post in your browser.

The keyword – SEO – is in the URL – with WordPress it is really easy to manipulate your URLs to make them shorter and more S.E.O friendly. SEO – Conclusion

This post has been about on-page S.E.O – getting your web pages right for the keywords you want to target. The primary things you need to fret about are ;

Page title Page headings Page outline Page URL Body copy

We haven’t mentioned body copy so I will briefly discuss it here ;

Word density ( the ratio as a % the keyword appears in the body of the article ) used to be a major element in ranking, but research suggests that it’s becoming less significant. Simply by writing naturally it is virtually certain that your keyword will occur numerous times in the text anyhow.

In my experience it is more vital to get the meta-tags right than to attempt to shoe-horn your keyword into your article at every opportunity.

Note this isn’t original stuff, but the majority of your competition, especially if you are a local business, will not be concentrating on, or perhaps be conscious of the importance of keywords in meta-tags.

S.E.O company. If you can get your on-page S.E.O correct you will be on your way to ranking above your competition for your keywords – http://www.leadgeneratingwebsites.co.uk/wordpress-seo/essex-seo/ – and grabbing a nice piece of net traffic for your business.

By Terri Seymour in Featured

mythsSEO, which stands for search engine optimization, can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with it. Unfortunately many things you read about SEO on the internet are not always true. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions floating around the net and they can sometimes be hard to confirm or debunk because of the ever changing techniques and the complexities of the search engines.

Some of the most common SEO myths are listed below and with it, the information to expose the truth so you can concentrate on real SEO methods to improve your site rankings and increase your traffic.

1. The More Reciprocal Links You Have on Your Site, the Better Your Ranking.

Have you ever been to site that is nothing but a long list of links? These sites are called link farms or FFA (Free for All links) and they do nothing for your site’s ranking. They are usually just filled with spam and can hurt your rankings because they are probably in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines which you can find on the Google site.

You also do not want to link to sites that are not relevant to your site. For example: if you own a site that sells jewelry, don’t link to sites about home repair or other topics that don’t relate to your site. You want to find quality sites that can complement yours such as fashion sites, make-up sites, etc. So, keep exchanging links but be selective and choose only quality, content-filled sites that complement your site.

2. You Need to Manually Submit Your Site to the Search Engines.

Submitting your website pages to the search engines will not boost your rankings, or help your site get indexed any faster. The search engines find sites by a process called web crawling done by spiders or bots. It has little to do with you filling out those long forms and submitting to the search engines. What will get you indexed faster is a quality site with relevant links, good content and the wise use of keywords.

3. Cramming Your Site Full of Keywords Means a Higher Ranking.

Have you ever seen a site that repeated the same words over so many times, it barely makes sense anymore? This is called keyword stuffing. Unfortunately, many people believe the more keywords you can stuff into your site, the better. This is sometimes done to such extremes that the content sounds ridiculous and unprofessional, thus defeating the purpose of the keywords.

For example: Jewelry ‘n More has beautiful diamond rings that don’t cost as much as most diamond rings because our diamond rings are more affordable than other diamond rings. If you are looking for diamond rings, visit our site for diamond rings because we have more diamond rings at cheaper prices than any other diamond rings.

This is really an extreme example but this type of thing does happen. The best way to use keywords is to use different combinations of relevant keywords throughout your site’s content. There is no set number of keywords that will magically make your site appear in the number one position so do not over stuff to the point of redundancy. Your web copy should be natural, professional and informative.

4. Duplicate Content Can Get You Banned.

Fortunately this is not true. Using duplicate content on your site can cause problems if it is done in a “spammy” or exaggerated way. If you mix the duplicate content with other quality and relevant content, your site will stand a better chance of a higher ranking. What happens when duplicate content is found by the search engines? Well, once the duplicate content is discovered, the search engine will base their decision (which page to add to the search results) on how long the site has been active, the page rank, the amount of incoming links and other qualifying aspects of the site. Duplicate content is a part of the internet (as we have all seen) and there is no penalty for it.

Many people also believe that using reprint articles on their site will bring them a penalty. This is not so. While you don’t want ALL your site’s content to be duplicates, using quality informative articles on your site (that happen to be published elsewhere) is not a problem for the search engines.

5. Higher Page Rank Means Higher Search Engine Ranking.

Many people mistakenly believe that if you have a high page rank, you will also have a high ranking in the search engines. This is not so. Page rank is not as important as most people believe. The search engines use other factors to determine your ranking. You need to have a high quality site with functionality, relevance, a good linking system, good information, user-friendliness and purpose. Do not rely on your page rank to raise your ranking in the search engines.

I hope this information will help you in producing a more search engine friendly site. You can do it yourself but be sure to learn the facts and find out which SEO myths are true and which ones are not.

Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com

By Johannes Selbach in Featured

linksDo you want to know how your website compares to the big players in your industry? Do you want to learn how to compete with these sites? This month, SEO analysis provider SEOprofiler.com has published a list of the websites with the most backlinks in November 2011.

Comparing the backlinks of these websites with your own backlinks can help you to improve the position of your website. The necessary three steps are explained below.

Backlinks are the cornerstone of successful search engine optimization. The more high quality backlinks a web page has, the higher it will rank in the search results of Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Which Websites Do Have the Most Backlinks?

The published backlink statistics are grouped by country and the top 10 websites in the USA come as no surprise: Facebook and Twitter lead the group, followed by WordPress, YouTube, Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Digg, Amazon and Flickr.

All of these websites are major players in their category and it’s no wonder that many websites link to them. The websites with more backlinks in other countries often show unexpected results.

By Ajay Prasad in Featured

localsearchThere is competition in every industry today and small businesses are fighting one another to keep from being eaten up by the giants. Visibility is everything and never before has ‘out of sight, out of mind’ been more applicable. Local search marketing is a digital marketing strategy that helps improve the visibility of your business.

People, while doing online searches, may assume you don’t exist, because a lot of times they use different keywords to search for the same thing. It is rare that people look for information by directly typing the company name into the search engines; they usually do so by typing the location, or the service, or the feature.

Local search marketing helps people reach your business when they search for related terms, not just the name of your company. It involves having your company registered on various local search engines. However, just registering is not enough. All your details need to be filled in correctly, along with descriptions, keywords, links and maps. Many sites personally make a phone call to check the authenticity of your company before they register you. This phone call ensures that you are listed on their site and thus increases the visibility of your website.

For small businesses local search marketing plays an even more important role. Rarely are there budgets for large scale advertising, and yet it is essential to get the word out about your business. Most of your potential clients are looking for what you offer by searching online. Your company needs to organically be filtered into their searches whether they are searching for you by product or location. The world wide web has revolutionized the way business is conducted nowadays, and online visibility has become critical for the success of your business.

You will surprised by the amount of footfalls local search marketing can organically lead towards your site. A lot of small businesses are unaware of these tools and hence lose out on the many advantages of it. This kind of digital marketing is extremely essential for small businesses and cannot and should not be overlooked. Google is a very important aspect of local search marketing. There are many ways to help you turn up on the front page of Google search results. You need a very strong web presence to help you do this, not only on your own website but also on other search engines, on local search groups and on listings websites. The constancy and accuracy of your information helps your company legitimize itself as a reliable and recognized institution, irrespective of size.

Digital marketing strategies form a large part of marketing plans, especially for smaller businesses. No longer do people flip through yellow pages when they can find what they’re looking for with the simple click of a button. Local search marketing puts on you the map; literally and otherwise.

Ajay Prasad is founder of Global Marketing Resources, LLC, which runs a number of e-commerce websites under its umbrella. Ajay’s functional expertise includes website strategy, marketing management, business development, consumer research marketing analysis and strategic planning. Local Search HQ is a Local Search Engine Marketing company that aims to develop an overall Web Marketing and Local Search Marketing solution for small local businesses.

By Stephen Monday in Featured

videomktgThings tend to evolve quickly on the Web, especially in marketing strategies. Techniques that worked great a few short years ago produce little to no results today. What method has proved to be the mainstay cash generating effort?

This is an easy and obvious answer – the sales video script. This is nothing “new” so to speak; sales videos have been growing in use, year after year – but, the script writing for the videos has gotten better and better – year after year.

A great sales page is still a must – but more and more Web sellers are using sales videos to crush their competition. It is no secret – people love video. When it comes to making sales online, the use of great sales videos will only increase.

Whether it be for products, or services, online sales videos have taken the Web by storm, and it is the super tool of the future for successful Internet marketers. The better the content contained within these videos, the better the sales. Conversion rates tend to go through the roof for sales videos that are done really well.

A good sales page may convert visitors at 5 to 7% using copy alone, but when you add a great sales video to the same page – conversion rates go up dramatically. (Some as high as 11 – 38%)

These kinds of numbers sound almost unbelievable, but when you combine all of the right elements into a Web sales campaign, they are not unheard of. A lot of different things can affect your response rates.

One of these things is the quality of the traffic. Visitors who are keenly interested in the content presented convert at much higher rates than passive visitors. To attract these kinds of targeted leads the content must be rich, unique, top quality material, aimed directly at what these viewers are most interested in.

Take for example the “make money from home” niche. This saturated niche is somewhat comprised of many low-grade, poorly written, often plagiarized content. A lot of these “sales” Web sites were seemingly “thrown-up” overnight and sport very little original concept material.

Yet some savvy marketers are absolutely killing it in this arena by providing high quality, top grade, sales videos that are informative, unique, and engaging. The sales video script is a critical component and tends to make or break the success of these sites.

Even a low budget video can still compete to make sales (think you-tube) if the script for the video is crafted by a professional sales writer who knows how to create a powerful script that resonates and strikes a nerve with viewers.

However, it is better still to use moderate-budget video producing equipment that gives higher resolution, less grainy frames, as well as better audio. Using a host site that supports higher bandwidth will allow your videos to appear much more professional looking.

Nevertheless, the script itself is still just about the most important element at work. Just because a video looks better, and sounds better, does not make the message it contains any better (Just easier to hear and look at). If the video script is weak, poorly written and is not compelling – even a professional actor plus a 1080 DPI will not help it to make sales.

By combining two of the most people-favored elements; (a great story, plus video) Web marketers have discovered they can generate very powerful Web Pages to hawk their goods and services.

Having a positive, solid script also gives the narrator a great boost in confidence so they may come off as being personable, and engaging, instead of boring or unsure of themselves.

To give your sales video “teeth” compose your script to address a very specific need your target market has. To keep it personable and believable, speak as though you are sitting right beside your viewers.

Give it a short introduction, but use the audience’s attention wisely by letting the focus of it stay upon them, their needs, and how you, or your product will benefit them directly.

By addressing viewers in this manner, you will keep their attention because they can relate – no one knows what is going on with them better than they do, and when you personify the script to them, they will engage the message.

If the script is all about your business, what you have done, can do, or will do, folks tend to disengage from this kind of script because they feel as though they are being “sold.”

By approaching them in the opposite manner, you will be able to break through the natural “sales barrier” of resistance, most people have set up. Once past this hurdle, you will allow them to “sell themselves.”

Keep your script clear, concise, and short. No one wants to hear an “all about you,” type of pitch – of course they want to hear about what you can do for them, but they would rather hear it from the point of view that concerns the “what is in it for them.”

At the close of the script give them several calls to action such as: “to learn more about how we can help you – call us at,” or “email us,” or “visit our Web site.” The sales video is a great tool that has the potential to reach a huge audience.

The better your script – the more sales you will make, the more leads you will bring in, the greater response you will achieve. Your video script can set the stage to bring in more sales, more leads, and huge rewards for your business.

Most sales videos are poorly produced, unscripted, and fall way short of the potential they have to generate massive response, simply because the producer does not know exactly how much power to “succeed or fail” the script itself has.

Give the next sales video you produce the gusto it needs to be a smashing success, by paying attention to the copy within it.

Your message can “set you apart from the rest,” and have folks scrambling for their credit card.

Is this the type of sales video you want to produce? Great!

Stephen Monday is a Professional SEO, Web Copywriter. Let him craft your video script to maximize your profit potential for your next sales video. Visit his Copywriting site here: http://www.AAAWebcopyservices.com

By Joseph Baker in Featured

spn_exclusiveMany businesses have a strong focus on their advertising campaigns, integrating pay-per-click ads, targeted email marketing, social media, and traditional advertising to broadcast their products and services to potential customers. One critical area that many businesses fail in, though, is SEO.

On-page SEO in particular tends to fall by the wayside or is tacked on almost as an afterthought. This would be fine if the majority of users went directly to the website, but most find a website through use of a search engine, even if they already know the URL of the site they’re visiting. The rules for on-page SEO can seem daunting, but in reality the basic on-page rules are fairly simple. Producing quality content that people will want to see should be one of the main concerns, and providing a friendly, functional user interface will improve not only the experience of those using the site, but also the website’s ranking in Google.

Content

Google’s Panda updates have added a new dimension to Google’s algorithm, allowing it to judge content similarly to a human. This is consistent with Google’s attempts to refine its algorithm to the point where every searcher will find the exact result they want as the first result on their first search. Because humans desire content, not filler or ads, the Panda update emphasizes that. Sites that want to rank well on Google must make sure that all of their pages have deep, well-written content.

Before Panda, some sites attempted to fool search engines by posting a well-written paragraph followed by several paragraphs of keyword-stuffed unintelligible text. Now, though, Google can see through that. Content must also be unique, because every time it is reused Google values it less, lowering the rank for the page. Including relevant keywords throughout the text will make the context of the page and site easier to determine, resulting in a higher rank. Going too far, though, will hurt rankings, so keywords should only be used in situations where they might naturally occur. By updating the website’s content–not the overall design–frequently, businesses show search engines that their site has new, up-to-date content that will provide something fresh for users, resulting in higher search rankings.

Site Architecture

Making the website easy to navigate for users will also increase its chances of ranking well on search results. Every page should navigate back to the home page and to the most popular pages or categories, while the least popular pages should be accessible through a standard menu. Page titles should be unique, short and readable. Some businesses include the full business name on every page, but that is an unnecessary and unwise policy. As with the content of the site, search engines favor unique titles and descriptions. Reusing titles and descriptions for unique pages is a red flag for search engine crawlers and will likely result in a lower rank. Links within the site, whether in the menu or within the content of the site, should be optimized. Appropriate, simple anchor text should be chosen in order to help search engines properly categorize links and pages.

In the past, optimizing a website for search engines was very different from building a positive user experience. While keyword stuffing and cloaking used to be capable of quickly raising a site’s position on search results pages, those tactics are now singled out and penalized. Instead, websites should be built to provide users with a positive experience and useful, unique content. As search engines continue refining their algorithms and creating newer, more intelligent crawlers, building for SEO and building for users will increasingly become indistinguishable.

Joseph Baker is a freelance writer living in the Midwest. He enjoys working on his novel and drinking large amounts of Earl Grey tea. He writes this article behalf of American InterContinental University.

By Karl Walinskas in Featured

wp-bigYippee! Open Source Software! We love it!

Really? I’m not a tech guy nor do I play one on TV, but all the hype about how WordPress and other similar stuff makes your life easy is overestimated, at best. My latest escapade into herding cats is trying to manage the zillion plug-ins I have running on my site by myself. Kill me now, but outsourcing is for me.

Plug-in Fever

I’ve developed a website that has plug-ins, those little bolt on attachments all created by various authors and revised at different times, coming out of the wood work! I have plug-ins for…

* affiliate ad postings
* similar blog posts
* social media icons
* e-commerce
* SEO
* form generation
* spam avoidance
* popups
* columns

That’s just to list a few. As you in the web development world laugh at me now, you already know what this does to speed of my web page. No worries! I can resolve that as well with…

ANOTHER PLUGIN!

They all work together and are as much on the same page as the Hatfields and the McCoys, fighting for domination on my site server! Hey web developers, look at this…

GIVE US BACK FRONT PAGE!

Give me software that isn’t unlimited in options and the chance for mistakes and the white paint that Daddy told his little boy found its way onto his hairline would have never figuratively shown up in the first place.

Hire What You Aren’t an Expert At

This whole ordeal made me figure out that my cat herding is a foolish activity. I’m good at assisting companies with their sales, getting natural traffic to small business websites, at making cool videos for service firms, and creating LinkedIn profiles that draw attention. I am a mess at web coding, design, and solving technology. And to be honest, even the stuff I am fairly good at, like writing my own copy, can use work and takes me too freaking long to do!

A cloud descends upon me as I figure out the answer:

OUTSOURCE ALL THE STUFF I CAN NOT DO VERY, VERY WELL!

Have you come to this realization yet? Keep doing what you’re doing do it yourself DIY guy, and you will when you figure out the kid whose diapers you changed yesterday can kick your a&$ and steal your lunch money today, and you didn’t even notice that growth trend.

Need help creatively marketing your business image on YouTube? Find somebody who knows the process who can help with the video creation, editing and placement (Hey, I know one). Can’t ever find time to get those social media profiles doing anything but taking up space? Find a gal or guy who is immersed in that stuff and get ‘er done. You understand.

So now, I am actively getting bids on copy writing, new site design using a custom WordPress theme that has all the stuff that I plug-in to it now (like little acupuncture needles I tell ya), logo and ad design, and I’ll think of a bunch more before it’s all said and done.

Now I just need to get back to rewiring my attic without any electrical training. It will save me money. I promise.

SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS THAT YOU SHOULDN’T BE DOING? TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PLUGIN PROBLEMS.

Why did Inc.com seek expert opinion from Karl Walinskas on the greatest use of Skype for Small Business? Because he provides first-class Video Marketing for small business owners using Skype Video Interviews. Karl also assists white collar professionals leverage LinkedIn for business and put business growth on legal steroids via Virtual Mastermind groups. He owns Smart Company Growth and has been published on business growth and communications in magazines and top blogs for the past decade, and is author of Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership.

By Amanda DiSilvestro in Featured

BrandingBeing a part of a marketing department in today’s world is somewhat exhausting. All day I am stumbling, digging, tweeting, liking, and connecting. For some, this may sound like a foreign language, but for an employee in the marketing field this sounds like work, work and more work. Social media is a great and cost effective way to start growing your company brand, so I love the idea; however, there comes a point when enough is enough. I have always felt that pretty soon consumers are going to fall behind, and it will then become harder and harder to introduce any new social networking site. In other words, if another networking platform is going to try and weasel its way into the hearts of bloggers and marketers, it would have to be pretty amazing.

Although I have held this opinion for a while, I have finally found a new site that I think is absolutely worth explaining to the tweeters and stumblers out there – Quora (http://www.quora.com/). Believe it or not, this site is not all that new; it was created in 2009 by the former CTO of Facebook, Adam D’Angelo. However, it seems that it is now finally getting more publicity. It is a site where you can ask a question and then receive an answer from a reliable source (unlike my current, less than reassuring website Wikipedia). Quora seems to pull together a lot of features that you will find on other information/social networking sites:

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