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Monday, June 29, 2009

Three Startup on page SEO tips

This is the thirdpart of a series where I will be discussing startup SEO tips. In Part 1 you can find five tips on, analytics, title tag, keywords, meta descriptions and valid XHTML compliance. In Part 2 you can find tips on HTML and XML Sitemaps. These tips are aimed for people and businesses with a startup SEO campaign and not intended for the company that requires hardcore exposure on the web. Browse to our website at http://www.opencircle.co.za if you require a more tailor made SEO solution.

Index:

* Part 1
* Part 2
* Part 3
* Part 4
* Part 5

Part 3

In Part 2 I discussed sitemaps and that search engine bots crawl XML sitemaps easier than HTML sitemaps. But now you have created your XML Sitemap, now what? In the next section I will explain what you can do with your sitemap and where to submit it for the best results.

1. Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools helps you see how your site is performing in Google’s search results, troubleshoot potential problems, and build Google-friendly sites. With the Webmaster tools you can see “Web Crawl” errors the Google bot has experienced when crawling your site (broken links, http errors and sitemap errors).

Find below the address of Google Webmasters (You need a Google Account to access the Tools)

* http://www.google.com/webmasters/

You can view diagnostics for your website, statistics that includes your websites top search queries (only in Google), indexed stats, crawl stats and subscriber stats. You can even view statistics on what the Google bot sees about your website.

On the Webmasters tool is a dedicated section called “Sitemaps”. On this section you can enter the url of where your XML Sitemap is situated for the Google bot to crawl. Once you have entered the url it takes a couple of hours for the bot to crawl your sitemap and it shows how many pages it has found in the sitemap. After the bot has crawled your sitemap it will show you the status of the sitemap as well as the number of pages in the sitemap and how many pages found on your sitemap is indexed by Google.

The Google bot doesn’t crawl your sitemap only once. This tool also shows you the date when the Google crawled your XML Sitemap and it is quite usefull when you have a large site with regular fresh content to see if the new content has been indexed.

2. Yahoo Site Explorer
Yahoo Site Explorer is similar to Google Webmasters and they have a section called “Feeds”. On this section you can enter the url of your XML Sitemap (Feed) for the Yahoo bots to crawl your sitemap. I have noticed that it takes a bit longer for the Yahoo bot to crawl your sitemap.

On Yahoo Site Explorer you can also view a couple of statistics regarding your website. Crawled pages, Known pages, external and internal links are also shown on the statistics section.

Find below the address of Yahoo Site Explorer (You need a YahooAccount to access the Site Explorer)

* https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

3. MSN Webmaster Centre
MSN has a tool that shows basic statistics for your website. It shows crawl issues, backlinks, outbound links, keywords and sitemaps associated with your website. On the Sitemaps section you can add the url of your website but it doesn’t have a function where you can see how many of the pages found in the sitemap are indexed by MSN.

I have never had much success with MSN so I just stick to the tools provided by Google and Yahoo.

The Google Webmasters Tool and Yahoo Site Explorer are great tools that you can use to further enhance your website. You can view the number of indexed pages of your website and errors found on the links.

Watch this space for Part 4.
Friday, June 26, 2009

One Startup on page SEO tip

This is the fourth part of a series where I will be discussing startup SEO tips. In Part 1 you can find five tips on, analytics, title tag, keywords, meta descriptions and valid XHTML compliance. In Part 2 you can find tips on HTML and XML Sitemaps. in Part 3 Google Webmasters tool and Yahoo Site Explorer are explained.

These tips are aimed for people and businesses with a startup SEO campaign and not intended for the company that requires hardcore exposure on the web. Browse to our website at http://www.opencircle.co.za if you require a more tailor made SEO solution.

Index:

* Part 1
* Part 2
* Part 3
* Part 4
* Part 5

Part 4

Content is King
Ever heard of the popular phrase “Content is King“? Regular updated and new Content for your website is critical. Search engines and portals are constantly changing and adjusting their algorithms, but one thing has always remained constant and that is Content is king. Search engines value relevant content and they reward websites that have it with higher rankings.

Search engines processes of ranking pages (page rank) means that the relevant content on your web pages matters to your websites ranking.

Well written balanced content with targeted keywords is the key to achieve great search engine rankings. Using targetted keywords on your content in a specific format is one of the elements that are needed for good optimization of your website. This is all achieved by formatted and balanced keywords through your content with the right keyword density.

What is Keyword Density? Keyword density means the number of times that your specifically chosen keywords appears in relation to the total word count on the specific content page. There are tools available on the web for free that can give you statistics regarding the keyword density of your content pages. Now the proper amount of density is a debate that is not totally settled. A good keyword density seems to be around 8% -16% . Less than that keyword density and your content pages may not hold as much density to the specific keywords that are being search for. On a higher keyword density than 16% and it may look to search engines that you are keyword spamming and it can ruin your search engine rankings as well.

A CMS (Content Managment System) and a Blog is a great way for fresh content to be distibuted as you are not limited to a number of pages. With a well written XML sitemap, search engines will find your new content fast. If you use the tools as explained in Part 3, you can view how fast your content gets indexed.
Sunday, June 21, 2009

Startup on page SEO tips

This is the second part of a series where I will be discussing startup SEO tips. In Part 1 you can find five tips on, analytics, title tag, keywords, meta descriptions and valid XHTML compliance. These tips are aimed for people and businesses with a startup SEO campaign and not intended for the company that requires hardcore exposure on the web. Browse to our website at http://www.opencircle.co.za if you require a more tailor made SEO solution.

Index:

* Part 1
* Part 2
* Part 3
* Part 4
* Part 5

Part 2

In the second part I will be discussing HTML Sitemaps and XML Sitemaps.

1. HTML Sitemaps
Sitemaps are exactly as the word describes Site-Map. It consist of a page where you have all the pages on your website listed as links. If you have a website with hundreds of pages, users can quickly jump to a page via your sitemap. These sitemaps are called HTML sitemaps. To view an example of a HTML sitemap click here. You will noticed that all the pages on that website is listed on the sitemap.

HTML sitemaps are intended for users. I will repeat that “HTML sitemaps are intended for users”. Most of the times it is difficult for search engine bots to crawl your HTML sitemap as it contains lots of jibber jabber (funny html tags, text on images, etc).

Google and Yahoo came up with a plan to create a sitemap which they both can read by writing an additional Sitemap in the programming language called XML. These Sitemaps are known as XML Sitemaps.

2. XML Sitemaps
Search engine search bots can easily crawl your XML Sitemap as it is written by using the Sitemap Protocol. To view an example of a XML Sitemap click here. XML Sitemaps are not intended for users and it is a simple way for search engine bots to crawl your website as it is written in a language that they understand.

For dynamic websites (a CMS system, Blog, E-commerce site, etc) this is a great feature as you can create a script to create a dynamic XML sitemap everytime you add a new page. This way you can be sure that the search engines will find your new content fast.

You might be wondering “How will the search engines ever know about my XML Sitemap?”. I will discuss this in great detail in Part 3 where you can submit your XML Sitemap and you can view how many pages are indexed via the Sitemap.

Watch this space for Part 3, where I will be discussing a few tools where you can submit your XML Sitemap to the search engines.
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Five Startup on page SEO tips

This post will be the first in a series where I will be discussing basic on page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tips and techniques. These techniques are not aimed at the hardcore web marketer or for the company that is considering extreme exposure for their online profile. if you require additional SEO information, browse to our site at http://www.opencircle.co.za or contact us to discuss it with you.

Index:

* Part 1
* Part 2
* Part 3
* Part 4
* Part 5

Part 1

1. Google Analytics (or any other analysis plugin)
I strongly suggest you get an analysis plugin from day one for your website. What does itl do? It shows critical information regarding your site’s visitors. It show’s how users browsed to your website, unique visitors, returning visitors, which keywords were used in the search engines, which pages were viewed, time spent on the site, etc. This tool is important from day one as you can exactly view statistics regarding your website and it gives you a rough indication for areas of improvement.

Most analytics tools has a section where you can setup automated reports to be emailed to required recipients. I usually let the reporting get emailed weekly when I start a new SEO campaign and when I’m satisfied with the statistics I switch it to monthly reports.

2. Title tag
Second on the list is the title tag. When you are viewing the search results on a search engine, the title is the link that contains the url for that specific page. In the beginning it is a good idea to keep your company name in the title tag followed by information regarding the page. For example you have a page listing all the services that your business has to offer you can create the title tag like this “Company name, services information as well as the area your company resides in and does business in”. The reason for this is so that search engines can associate your services with your company name. At a later stage when you are well known online, you can make way with your company name and insert extra keywords describing the contents of the page.

3. Keywords
Third on the list is “keywords”. Keywords has been in the SEO world from the beginning and is most likely the most important factor regarding SEO. I will discuss “keywords” in more detail at a later stage and might as well be a topic on it’s own. You search on search engines by using keywords describing what you are looking for. It is very important to only use keywords found on the content for the page where you are adding them. Please take note: Don’t use more keywords than it is necessary. One powerful keyword is worth more than twenty rubbish keywords. Study your page carefully and think which keywords the user will be using on the search engines to browse to your site.

4. Meta Descriptions
Fourth on the list are Meta Descriptions. Meta Descriptions goes hand in hand with keywords as it is what is displayed to the user when they have searched using keywords on the search engines. Ever noticed the small description underneath your link in the search engine results page? Most search engines uses a maximum of 160 chars for the description. Select a sentence or two found on the specific content for the page you are creating it for.

5. Valid XHTML Practices
Not everyone are professional web developers that knows the in’s and outs of valid XHTML practices but a good HTML structure is the foundation for building a strong SEO campaign and to enhance your visibility online. Search engines can’t read your website links if you have a menu structure that is written purely in Javascript. It makes it difficult for them to crawl and see the pages listed on your website. There are other ways to sidestep this (XML Sitemaps), but that will also be discussed in detail on another post.

Ask your web design/development agency if they are using correct XHTML practices and ask them to explain it in detail with you.

Web sites designed with a heavy emphasis on graphics, frames and Flash or other codes that are not HTML compliant, can make your website’s page rank suffer. Search engines can’t view text on images or flash animations and these kind of pages require strong keywords and meta descriptions associated with them. By doing it this way, you lose a couple of hundred points for the optimization for your site as the golden rule still stands “Content is King”.

Well this was it, the first post in a series where we will be discussing on page SEO techniques. Watch this space for the next 5 tips and techniques.
Sunday, June 14, 2009

Here Are 10 of Them

From the obvious to the "Hey-I-never-thought-of-that-great-idea-before", here are 10 of the top 52 tips on how to optimize your website for its turbo-charge rocket ride up the search engine rankings.

Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.

Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site. Here is an example of deep linking, in this case to my personal happiness workbook.

Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?

Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.

First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page

Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?

Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)

Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.

Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.

Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?
Friday, June 12, 2009

Startup SEO tip, target landing pages

This is part 5 of a series where I will be discussing startup SEO tips. In Part 1 you can find five tips on, analytics, title tags, keywords, meta descriptions and valid XHTML compliance. In Part 2 you can find tips on HTML and XML Sitemaps. In Part 3 Google Webmasters tool and Yahoo Site Explorer are explained. In Part 4, the importance of content is explained.

These tips are aimed for people and businesses with a startup SEO campaign and not intended for the company that requires hardcore exposure on the web. Browse to our website at http://www.opencircle.co.za if you require a more tailor made SEO solution.

Index:

* Part 1
* Part 2
* Part 3
* Part 4
* Part 5

Part 5

Targeted landing pages is a powerfull business tool to increase leads, sales and conversions. Turning a couple of extra visitors to sales leads or clients can mean a substantial increase in business revenue. Instead of wasting a click through to your website, you make your pages work for you.

Importance of landing pages
Email marketers has long known the value of specialized landing pages to receive the clicks from a newsletter or a online advertisement. As part of the whole process, a unique new page is created that repeats the offer to the user, and carries through to the final sale closing. The only purpose for this unique page is to sell the product or service highlighted in the email newsletter or advertisement.

Most online marketers understand that after countless attempts that a website home page is not the best place to send prospective customers if you are marketing a special service on a newsletter or advertisement. The home page of the site is too general, and not focussed directly on conversions to paying customers. The home page is more of an introduction to the business in general. The landing page is a targeted sales page. That’s the difference.

Conclusion
Stop throwing away precious advertising and pay per click dollars, and losing potential sales from your e-mail newsletter by sending the customer to the site homepage.

Create a well written, marketing oriented landing page for receiving the click throughs.
Monday, June 08, 2009

SEO tips on things to do and don’t do

To attract more visitors to your website is the ultimate goal in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Everyone agrees that organic search results is more effective for conversion and producing positive results.

Websites that have a higher organic search ranking are usually more trusted by people for a service or product and it shows that the website has authority.

This post is the first part in a series where I will be discussing things to do for the optimization of your website.

12 Search Engine Optimization steps to do:

1. Research: Start your SEO campaign with keyword research. Select key phrases that are highly relevant to the services that your business provides. Specific key phrases with 3-4 words are best if you want visitors that are ready to buy.
2. Structure: Use keywords in your domain name, page names, titles, headings, folder names, etc.
3. Navigation:Use keywords in your navigation links. Make your website easy to navigate for both search engines and for visitors. Include a XML sitemap if your website navigation is complex.
4. META Tags: Use keywords and key phrases in the title, description and keyword tags. Each page in your website should have about 4 keyword phrases that are highly relevant to the content found on that page.
5. Content: Use keywords in your content. Use keywords 1-2 times in the top 25% of the text.
6. Local: Take advantage of local search opportunities by using your city, state and community names in your body text and on your contact page.
7. Valid Code: Validate your code and remove coding errors. These errors interfere with spiders crawling your site and they affect browser compatibility and usability. There are many online code validation websites available.
8. XML Sitemap: Include a XML sitemap for your website and submit the sitemap to Google Webmaster tools and Yahoo Site Explorer.
9. Links: Gain backlinks to your website from highly relevant blogs, authority sites, directories and other websites that are part of your industry.
10. Blog: Start a blog either as part of your website or on a separate domain. Link to relevant pages on your website using your keyword phrases. Comment and participate on other blogs.
11. Web Analytics: Install website analytics on your website to monitor progress. Watch not only your overall visitor count, but which keyword phrases are bringing visitors and from which search engines.
12. Patience: Do learn patience. Search engine optimization is a long term commitment.
Monday, June 01, 2009

Reaching Women via Word of Mouth Marketing

As a hobby blogger in the "mom" realm, I often get swamped at conferences by companies looking to market their products to women. These companies have figured out that women are online en masse and they're communicating their likes, dislikes and daily lives with friends and strangers. I applaud their initiative in trying to reach out to women on the web, but sometimes I wish they'd take a step back and think a little harder about how they approach these women.

With that in mind, I think it's essential for marketers who target women to take a trek over to Church of the Customer Blog to read Jackie Huba's latest post: "5 things you need to know about women and word of mouth."

There's no doubt word of mouth works well with women; after all, we're social creatures. None the less, there are a few subtle differences in how marketers should push word of mouth to us if they'd like us to pass things on to our friends. Jackie shares some insight and a handful of tips from Michelle Miller, co-author of "The Soccer Mom Myth: Today's Female Consumer: Who She Really Is, Why She Really Buys."

Huba starts with some stats on how women spread the word.
Women are three times more likely to share personal stories with a friend than men. Ask any woman how she found her hairdresser, doctor, or favorite wine, and she is likely to tell you that it was from a friend. Women are natural word of mouth spreaders. They are wired that way - with four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, women tap deeply into that area that is responsible for bonding and connecting with others.

Most marketers read a paragraph like the one above and rejoice; they've finally found the key to getting their product in front of legions of buyers. They just need to convince some mom to blog about it.

Except...that's not quite right.

See, one of the points I push home hard when I teach about viral marketing is the need to create a campaign or offer that someone is willing to stake their own reputation on. After all, if you want them to tell their friends, you're asking them to evangelize your product. If they are evangelizing your product to someone who ends up disliking it, they risk losing credibility. While you've got to look at things from the "will they risk their reputation on it" angle for all forms of viral marketing, you have to give it extra consideration when you're trying to work via women.

Huba writes:
If you are doing business with her, and she values your relationship, it may seem perfectly acceptable to ask her for a list of friends who might benefit from your services. But that may not be a good idea, even if she thinks you're the best thing since Starbuck's drive-thru. She is the gatekeeper of her relationships. She's not being stingy, she's being protective. A better idea might be to give her a few of your business cards and say, "if you know of anyone who might benefit from my service, feel free to give them my card."

In other words...

Don't expect women to spread the word for you, enable their ability to do so.

Don't ask them for access to their friends and family, give them access to YOU so they can share that access.

Don't tell them what to offer or what to say, make them happy and let them create the offer or pitch themselves.

After all, women know their friends better than you do. If you impress them enough to make them want to tell their friends, they'll find a far better way to spread the word than you would have.