Internet Marketing, Web Design, SEO, Web 2.0 Optimization
Archive for August, 2011
New Jersey Business Lawyer – Featured Client
18 months ago
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The Law Firm of Samuel D. Bornstein, P.A. has been representing individual as well as business clients for over 40 years. They are located in Kinnelon, New Jersey and are well recognized in for their successful business litigation in New Jersey. One of the unique features about this law firm is the way the firm invests time in people. They make time to get very well acquainted with each client so that they can better understand their legal needs from both a personal and business perspective.
The Bornstein Law Firm has a wide base of experience from litigation for individuals as well as Fortune 100 companies. Over the last 40 plus years the firm has continued to experience consistent success in a wide variety of legal arenas. They have successfully litigated cases involving negligence both environmental and professional, malpractice claims, and disputes concerning insurance and employment issues. Their broad experience also includes arbitration and mediation practices.
They are known for providing top quality corporate law services in NJ area. Their good reputation includes recognition for their personalized and professional service. There are more than 20 specific legal areas that The Bornstein Law Firm has many years of experience in.
Although they are located in the New Jersey area, they do take some out of state clients and referrals. And on the international level they can expertly litigate International Law. Areas of expertise include International Trade Relations as well as International Business Law Trade Disputes.
In the areas of business law they have years of successful experience as well as expertise in litigation. Employment law, wrongful termination or Sexual Harassment will all be addressed candidly with the client’s needs I mind. But they can also litigate cases dealing with Insurance Defense, Contracts and Intellectual Property. The law firm is knowledgeable and experienced in many areas of the Law.
New Jersey native, Samuel D. Bornstein, P.A. has been practicing law for over 40 years. Individuals and business owners alike can rely on Mr. Bornstein’s experience and knowledge base. His firm is an asset when it comes dealing with both business and personal legal matters. He dedicates himself to every client offering them one on one personal attention.
SEO Tips for Blogging
228 months ago
Blogging
In our last blog post we discussed some quick SEO tips for blogs. In today’s post, we’ll refresh your memory about some more useful search engine optimization tips that can easily be incorporated into your blog.
Let’s begin with the title. Search engines give more weight to the first few words in your title, so if you can, include your top SEO keywords in the beginning of your title and your blog post.
Next, you’ll want to use the keyword several times throughout your post, and you’ll want to link back to relevant pages from your website. However, make sure it the writing sounds natural. What a human thinks of your site’s content is much more meaningful than what a robot (i.e. search engine) thinks of your content. The best SEO practitioners are aware of this delicate balance, and thanks to Google’s Panda update, companies are discovering that old shortcut attempts to SEO (via the use of link farms/spam) are becoming virtually impossible.
All web marketing agencies will tell you this basic SEO truth: the more inbound links you have, the more likely search engines will view your web content as being able to provide something valuable to users. Of course, there are several things that influence this. An inbound link from a popular/credible site is seen as having more weight than an inbound link from a fresh-faced mommy blog. In addition, the number of other sites the external site links to makes a difference. If you have an inbound link from a site that also links to 10 other sites, then search engines are not going to place much weight on it. If you share a bag of popcorn with one person at the movie theater, you both feel pretty content. But if you share a bag of popcorn with ten other people at the theater, then you will not have satisfied the hunger of a single person.
SEO Tips for Blogs
238 months ago
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You may not realize this, but each new blog post you write sings the song of search engine marketing. That’s because every time you write a new blog post, you are creating a fresh opportunity to rank well for another search term. The reason for this is that every blog post is a new web page, and web pages (and NOT websites) are exactly what search engines dish up to users when they type in key terms.
First, you will want to select the right blogging platform. There are many blogging sites to choose from, but we personally recommend WordPress for its intuitive interface and vast assortment of SEO plugins. After you select your blogging platform, you should take the extra step needed to own your domain. Say, for example, that you are running a non-profit called Annie’s Helpers, and you want to create a blog to help drive traffic to your non-profit’s website. The difference between blogging from annieshelpers.wordpress.com and annieshelpers.com/blog is that with the former, you are creating inbound links to someone else’s property, which is problematic because should you ever decide to switch platforms, you will unfortunately lose all the inbound links you worked so hard to build up over the years.
There are two factors that affect your blog’s search engine ranking: 1) on-page optimization, and 2) off-page optimization.
As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, the first step in on-page optimization is identifying your internet marketing keywords. What terms are your potential clients typing into search engines? Are your keywords geo targeting such as: SEO firm in NYC? These are the keywords that you will want to optimize your web page for. Again, keep in mind during your research process that you want to pick the keywords that have high search volume but low competition.
To learn about off-page optimization, be sure to check out our next post.
How to Reduce Bounce Rate
88 months ago
The Sexy Metric: Bounce Rate
There are many different reasons people don’t stick around on your website for very long, and having a high bounce rate on your website is a frustrating experience. Often, what causes them is a mystery to website owners, as they can seem to point out just what is causing users to leave their page. But fixing a high bounce rate is actually a pretty manageable problem, one that has many easy fixes.
Make It Faster
If you’re website loads slowly, then you may be irritating potential visitors. Waiting for a website to load can cause frustration for the user, who most likely doesn’t like waiting. Instead of letting your website finish, they can be off visiting a quicker site that loads immediately. A slow loading webpage is a major cause of a high bouncing rate, especially with the speed of today’s high speed internet. Nobody wants to wait around anymore, so having a fast webpage is essential. To fix a slow page, simply optimize your code and remove unnecessary plug-ins, or anything else unnecessary that is causing your page to load slowly. It’s not worth it.
Avoid Intrusive Pop-ups and Registration
Nobody likes to be interrupted, and a pop up does just that. Having an advertisement pop up when the user is enjoying your webpage is kind of like an argument at a party, it ruins everything. The simple fix to that is simply to not do it. Push you’re ads to the side, make sure they’re not in the visitors way. And forced registration is another thing never to do. Nobody wants to give out their personal information, especially if you have nothing they want in return. Obviously, if you’re selling something, they’ll be registering anyway if they want to buy it, but if you’re not selling anything, then never force users to register just to maintain access to your site. You can offer a few select services to registered users only, but the bulk of your site should be accessible to anyone, signed up or not.
It Needs to Look Good
A professional looking website is key. If your site looks cheap, users will assume it is. Your site is your product, your selling it. Or you’re trying to attract users to buy your actual product, but even still, a professional appearance for your site is important. The site must be easy to navigate to and from pages, it must be easy to find what you’re looking for, and it should be easy on the eyes. No lime green in large doses. Or hot pink.
Good Content
Your site’s content is its vitals. If these aren’t up to snuff then you’re back to step one. Everything on your page should have a purpose and every word written should have meaning. It’s not always about quantity (although you should have enough to keep people coming back). Fewer, higher quality articles will destroy a mass of redundant, poorly written articles every day. And it’s not just words; make sure your site has some images on it. Nobody wants to read a wall of small font text. A picture helps entice a user to stay awhile.
The Social Media Advantage
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are huge in this day and age. Not utilizing it to its full advantage would be a waste. Advertise your page on Facebook and tweet about it. Join the revolution of social media and your site will be rewarded.
These fixes are generally quite simple, and no site should have a high bounce rate. The causes of it are just oversights, and oversights can be fixed with a simple use of repairing. Follow these tips, and you should have users sticking on your page like glue.
A/B Testing
If you have pages with high bounce rates then consider A/B tests, these allow you to test different versions of your website’s pages to reduce bounce rate. Try experimenting with different content, images, tiles and colors and layouts to see which has the biggest impact on reducing bounce rate.
This is a guest post by Ralph Johnson
Ralph Johnson writes for Maxymiser where you can learn more about A/B testing, multivariate testing and website personalization.
What is a Google Penalty?
39 months ago
Google Penalty
There is still a lot of controversy over what exactly constitutes a Google penalty. In its most basic state if a site is seen by the Google search algorithm to be keyword stuffing or any form of shady SEO practices then the penalty is that the site is dropped down in the rankings. There are three main types of Google penalties: -30 penalty, -950 penalty and index exclusion. Basically the site will be penalized in the search engine rankings depending on the nature of the infraction. Once it is attended to the penalty will be removed, although it may take 6-12 months for Google to remove a penalty and even then it may take longer for the site to regain its original position.
Some schools of thought say that when too many links occur inside a short time span Google will slap a penalty on the site. For instance if you start a site and get about 15 to 20 new links a day and then all of a sudden get 1000 in one day it will look like the links were not legitimately acquired and Google will hit the site with a penalty. Over some time, it will go away. But to avoid getting the penalty do not use link building software. Instead, work on building your link strategies slowly.
The index exclusion penalty is a total ban from search engine result pages. This Google penalty can seriously harm a site. This type of penalty usually occurs when there is a very serious violation of Google’s quality guidelines. Usually there is some sort of black hat method being practiced such as doorway pages or cloaking. If your site is hit with this penalty it is likely that it will be removed entirely from Google search results and it may be very difficult and timely to regain your rankings.
To avoid the -30 and -950 penalties simply employ best web marketing strategies. It comes down to best SEO practices and being straight forward in their applications. There is no need to do any keyword stuffing in page titles, alt tags, description or even in the content. Pure and simple good, informative content is appropriate. Remember to always build your site with the user in mind and not the search engines.
As far as links, avoid using any links to farms or sites which practice any type of link manipulation. Consistently build links and change up your link anchors where possible. At all costs, avoid doorway pages and cloaking.
There are several things that can result in a Google penalty and the whole internet world is still reeling trying to figure them all out. But one thing seems to be holding true whether it is duplicate content, inappropriate link building or too many ads; once the infraction is discovered and repaired the penalty is removed; although it may take 6 months to a year to remove the penalty and it may require the webmaster to submit a reconsideration request to Google.
In the past year a number of prominent companies such as JCPenney and Overstock have been hit by Google penalties b/c they ignored the rules and tried to game Google, they will likely be paying the price for this for many years to come. Remember, Google is not “The Internet”, it is a private company, and being included in the Google index is not a “right” given to webmasters by the government or g-d but rather it is a privilege that can be taken away if you misbehave. Our best advice is to not use black hat SEO techniques and to question your SEO firm about the tactics that they employ. If you think that your site has been hit by a Google penalty you should contact a trusted internet marketing company that has a reputation for using best SEO practices and white hat SEO.
What is an XML Sitemap?
119 months ago
XML Sitemap
When an internet user is trying to locate specific information they will put a phrase or keyword into the search engine. Search engines send out web crawlers, some call them spiders, to crawl out across the web and find the most pertinent information to meet the request. When these bots come to a new site, if there is a Sitemap they will crawl through the site to see if there is any information worth being displayed on the search engine results page.
One thing an XML Sitemap does for your site is to list aspects of the site which might not otherwise be discovered. The Sitemap contains a list of all the pages on the site and you can see information about each page. This will let the search engines know about some of the specific kinds of content on the site. A Sitemap can also contain information about how often the site is updated and when the next update is scheduled.
Some benefits to having a Sitemap include helping crawlers find their way around a new site, or a site that does not yet have very many external links. It can also help make it more visible if there are not a lot of links within the site. Basically, it makes your site much more visible to search engine crawlers and helps them find the pertinent information on your site. It can then get the information into the hands of your readers, users or potential customers.
As far as an example, let’s say you just started a home remodeling business. You prepared your SEO content for your site to help the crawlers find the site, but without a Sitemap the crawlers may not be able to find the information that is most pertinent to the search. In your XML sitemap you can include metadata that helps the crawlers see where you have photos or videos of recent work your company has completed, along with all your specific geographical information.
When the Sitemap is created the extra information can be included so that the search engines will find their way around. The Sitemap can contain a list of all the URLs on the site, which makes them more visible. It can also include relevant prioritization. This means you can rank each page according to its priority. This helps the crawlers know exactly where to look for relevant information. And tags can also be included on each page to let the crawlers know when the page was changed last and when it is supposed to be updated in the future.
An XML Sitemap can help search engine crawlers be able to explore the entire site. They are beneficial to those who do online marketing. It helps to get the site out where customers can view the information it contains.
There are a number of free XML sitemap creators on the web, one that we like to use is, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/. These free sitemaps have most of the features that you need to have on your sitemap, although the one listed above will limit the sitemap to 500 pages.
Best Landing Page Design
59 months ago
Landing Page Design
To design an effective landing page, you want to take several things into consideration. This includes, but is not limited to, the type of landing page you want to design, the copy, headlines, photos or videos, and calls to action. To get started on a landing page project, incorporate all of the following tips in your design plan.
Choose a Type of Landing Page
Before getting started on a design project you want to choose the type of landing page you want to design. There are two to choose from: landing pages linked to a website or blog, or a standalone landing page.
-Landing Pages Linked to a Website: Landing pages that are linked to a website are often designed to reflect the overall design and layout of the website itself. With linked landing pages, visitors complete their sale or purchase on the website that is linked to the landing page.
-Standalone Landing Pages: Landing pages that act as a standalone website can have their own unique design and layout and are not linked to a website or blog. With standalone landing pages, visitors will complete their sale or purchase directly on the landing page.
Deciding what type of landing page to design is one of the most important steps in the design process. Standalone landing pages may be the best choice as visitors are encouraged to remain focused.
The Copy – The Message
Once the type of landing page has been selected, the copy for the page should be written.
To increase conversion rates, it is imperative that the landing page be filled with a lot of well-written and compelling copy that includes as much information on the details and benefits of the product and service as possible.
Create Attention Getting Headlines and Subheadings That Are Relevant
The use of headlines and subheadings when designing a landing page is extremely important because it engages and helps visitors to scan the landing page easier. In addition, they are important because headlines and subheadings are what visitors normally read first before anything else. By offering well written, attention grabbing headlines and subheadings, sales should increase.
Add a Video to the Landing Page
The use of photos and videos on landing pages have become extremely popular and are being used more than ever to get a message across to visitors. Embedding a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by over 80%. The importance of adding a video to a landing page should not be underestimated.
The Call to Action
To get visitors to take action, the landing page should incorporate several calls to action. A common call to action could be a small form visitors complete, or buy or pay now buttons at several points in the copy.
By following all of these tips on how to design a landing page, you can create an effective landing page that will convert your visitors into customers.
This guest post was written by Eric Wyatt
Eric Wyatt writes on internet marketing and social media. He particularly focuses on conversion rate optimization and landing page design.
Analyzing The Google Panda Update
59 months ago
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Internet communications and website marketing are all wrapped up in search engine optimization (SEO). We learned how search engines worked and precisely what they were looking for. The ultimate goal of course, is to have your site listed in the first page of the search engine result pages. Ultimately, you want your site to show up in the top three when a related search is conducted. Where there is a system, there will always be abuse. Instead of using SEO techniques properly and tastefully, many website designers stuffed keywords in their content, even when it didn’t make sense.
In the early part of 2011, Google changed the way it conducted its searches. The Panda Update uses a different algorithm to perform searches to find keyword relevant sites. This changed the ranking of many sites because it was penalized by the Panda update. The trouble is that Panda update now runs in a cycle of four to seven weeks. This means that if you make changes to your site, you’ll have to wait until the next update to find out if the Panda okays it next time.
The goal of Panda is really to remove sites that are poor quality from search results. You know the ones we mean. How many times have you been disappointed because you typed in a search and ended up with a “junk site” that had barely any decent content but was loaded with advertisements? You could tell it was written for the search engine and not to give you access to any pertinent information. The key then for website marketing is to properly use SEO techniques to get your site placed in the rankings without being penalized by Panda. And honestly, as long as you have a quality site there probably will not be a problem with that. But there is a way to ensure your site gets recognized by Panda without getting penalized and shot out of the search loop for four to seven weeks.
First, let me say that there is no need for you to try to fool the Panda. Go to your website and take a good look at your content. Panda is trying to keep sites with very weak content out of the search results. So double check your site’s content. If you are following best practices and creating valuable content that is worthwhile to your readers, you will be safe from the wrath of Panda.
To stay on Panda’s good side simply focus more on the quality of your content rather than the quantity. Before Google’s update, website owners were just pumping lots of copy into their sites. The focus was not so much on making the articles good quality, just to keep them coming as fast as possible to keep the site updated. The trouble with this system is that quality suffered. The way to avoid this is to create content that your readers will be interested in. You are not writing for a search engine, your audience is your visitors. As long as you are writing good quality content for readers Panda will be happy.
It is good practice to keep the content on your site updated and fresh; having unique and quality content will keep you safe from Panda and place your site at the top of search engine results pages.
Tayeb Hyderally Employment Lawyer in New Jersey (featured client)
39 months ago
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Tayeb Hyderally is a very well respected employment lawyer in New Jersey. Ty Hyderally chose the area of employment law because of its vast complexity. Mr. Hyderally has had many years of successful litigation in employment law cases and is considered by most as an expert in his field. He is often featured as a key-note speaker for many regional as well as national seminars dealing with the topic. Many times his speaking engagements are aimed at other lawyers but he also speaks at business conferences to help keep human resource professionals informed about employment law and its recent changes.
He takes the time to share his employment law expertise with employees as well as employers. His purpose is to keep each party informed of both their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. Employment law affects both parties and it is important to stay informed about the many legal issues that can arise in the workplace.
Ty Hyderally graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California, Berkeley. He has his own law firm, Hyderally and Associates, P.C. which specializes in employment law. Mr. Hyderally has offices in two locations, New York, New York and Montclair, New Jersey.
In his many years of practicing New York employment law Mr. Hyderally has had the opportunity of serving in a wide variety of prestigious positions. He was appointed to the position of president with the New Jersey Chapter of the Executive Board of the National Employment Law Association. This is New Jersey’s largest group of plaintiff employment lawyers. He also served in the capacity of chair person on the Trial Advocacy Committee of the American Bar Association Employee Rights and Responsibilities Section.
Mr. Hyderally has gained the mutual respect of other law professionals as an employment lawyer in New Jersey. This is partially due to his years of successful litigation, but also because of his ability to provide aggressive litigation to protect the rights of his clients. One of the honors that Mr. Hyderally has is that he is listed in the list of Top Ten Employment Litigators in Northern New Jersey.
How to Find an SEO Company
89 months ago
It’s true that everyone who owns a website needs SEO to make it big with the search engines. But then again, not everyone who owns a website knows the first thing about SEO. While it’s a good idea for everyone to learn more about SEO, fact is that it takes time to fully understand its concepts and use it to your advantage. So unless you’re willing to put website optimization on hold, it’s recommended that you leave the hard work to the experts.
Putting together an in-house team could be really expensive though. But even that should not keep you from getting expert help. When the costs outweigh the benefits of an effort, business owners simply need to find alternatives such as outsourcing business practices. This should not be difficult considering the number of companies that now offer outsourcing services. The real challenge is finding a company that can deliver results.
For instance, when outsourcing IT services like SEO, it is important to make sure that you are getting the services of a reputable SEO company. But how do you know if an SEO company is reputable? Finding out requires open communication lines and good research skills.
Ask—and then ask some more
When you first get in touch with a business IT outsourcing company, it would be a good idea to take the time to sit down with a representative whether offline or online. Face-to-face meetings these days no longer require the parties to be in the same room—much less the same continent. What matters most is that you will have a venue to ask the important questions. Prior to the meeting, make a list of the items you are most concerned about so you will not miss out on something. The list should not restrict you though. If more questions come up in the course of the conversation, then go ahead and ask them. An open communication line is especially critical for business IT outsourcing set-ups because the partnership sometimes involves companies on two different parts of the globe.
Do your homework
Every company puts its best foot forward. Keep this mind and take the time to do your own research. Outsourcing business practices has become such common practice that fraud incidents are no longer uncommon. There are many bogus companies that offer their business IT outsourcing services, but actually have no intention of putting out quality work once the transaction is done.
To avoid this and to get value for your money, do your own research. Do a background check on the company offering its outsourcing IT services by reviewing their portfolio. Get in touch with some of their past clients and ask for a recommendation. If the company offers free trial, by all means, avail of it. This would not only give you insight into how their team works. It would also allow you to test drive the working relationship. In the end, a good research can go a long way in preventing scenarios that could be possibly harmful for your business.
Perform a reality check
Any SEO company that guarantees a number ranking position should not be trusted. A reputable SEO company knows that SEO isn’t about instant gratification. In fact, it takes approximately six to twelve months before significant results can be seen, especially for small businesses. The most realistic claim that a business IT outsourcing company can guarantee is a first page listing on search engines plus increased unique visitor traffic. To make sure that you are on the same page, present to them your business and website objectives and ask them how they propose to meet your goals realistically.
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