Internet Marketing, Web Design, SEO, Web 2.0 Optimization
Cost of a Bad Website
02 weeks ago
Web Design
Having a functional website is imperative in today’s business world. Even though it is very important to establish a solid web presence, just having a web site is no longer sufficient. There was a day when just any site was acceptable; but as online marketing has escalated and internet traffic has increased there is a greater demand on creating quality sites with valid and pertinent information. Having a website that functions poorly or not at all can certainly cost the business down the road.
What Makes a Site “bad”?
A bad site is usually identified very quickly. Perhaps you notice the formatting, images that do not load properly, or glaring grammatical mistakes; these are all immediate signs that the site is not a quality site and not worth spending your time on. But there can be other issues that make a visit to a website an unpleasant experience. Content that is not kept up to date is a sure give away that the site is not getting the attention it deserves. A site that has poor functionality will cause great frustration for users. Forms that request information but do not send properly, back buttons that do not work or broken links will cause visitors to get off the site as soon as possible. Websites are many times a customer’s first impression of a business; it is important to use SEO best practices so that the site reaches a customer’s view, but website optimization also includes being able to interact properly with the online population.
How Does a Bad Site Cost You?
The whole point of an SEO campaign is to optimize a website so that it holds a top rank in search engine results. The point of that is so that potential clients and customers will see the site and visit it. It does no good to have lots of traffic graze through the site if no one is connecting with the business for the services or products being offered. A good site will be both search engine friendly and user friendly. It takes both of these elements to make a site work.
With that established, a bad site may still get some traffic if the SEO campaign was successful, but there will be no connection between clients and the business. The success of a business will involve the purchase of products or services by customers. A website is like the interface, or a shop window that displays to customers what a business has to offer. If the user has a bad experience on the site they will likely not become a customer. This can mean loss of revenue; and that is hitting a business where it hurts. A site that is poorly designed will greatly reduce the chances that a customer will make any kind of purchase or attempt to contact the business. It is very important for websites to be trustworthy. A poorly designed site can have a loss of traffic and a loss of revenue. This will also mean that the money, time and effort spent on web development were all a waste. It is costly no matter how you look at it.
Bad Website ans Your Online Reputation?
IF you type your name or the name of your business into any major search engine it is very likely to appear many times in search results. There can be some good, and some bad. Too many bad reviews of your business or your site can definitely have an ill effect on your online reputation. Too many negative reports can harm your attempts at branding. A bad experience on a site can certainly cause bad reviews by customers who did not find what they were looking for – or were very troubled with their ill experiences with a bad website. While a poor online reputation can be overcome, it can take much time and effort to try to clean up even a few bad comments or reviews. With the online traffic that is using social media and web 2.0 platforms a little bit of information can go a long way to harm an online business’ reputation.
A bad site can also have a very high bounce rate. This simply means that someone found your site in SERPs, clicked on the link and then backed right back out because they did not like what they saw. Too high of a bounce rate maintained over a long period of time can certainly hurt the site in SERPs as it will be deemed a low quality site.
Sex Does Sell
03 weeks ago
Sex Sells
There are plenty of valid arguments on either side of the question. Most researchers can agree that sex in advertising is at least effective. Instead of asking if it works at all, it may be better to ask when and where is it a valid method of advertising? In general, it is pretty conclusive that sex in advertising is at a bare minimum an attention grabber. However, if sex only grabs internet user’s attention to a particular product which is not necessarily related to sex then it is likely that it will not be beneficial in the long run even though it may generate a one-time sell. So the question may be if using sexual content in an SEO campaign will indeed drive traffic to a particular site.
While some are arguing whether sex is an attention grabber, many researchers believe that it is far more than just something to grab attention. About 75% of sexual ads found in magazines do relate to a sex-related product. Most use the premise you will achieve at least one of three things by purchasing their product: sexual attraction, better sex, or feel sexier. Axe body spray has a marketing campaign where a man uses the product and very attractive women are chasing him down. Research conducted by Axe discovered that it was effective with their target audience which is teens and men from 14 to 34 years of age. About three times as many ads use sex in branding rather than for the purpose of just getting attention. Axe, Old Spice and Tag have produced quite a lot of money for parent companies in very short time frames by using sexually attractive products.
Research leans toward an affirmative response when thinking about whether or not sex sells. But how does it affect a web marketing campaign, if at all?
Trends in Marketing
As long as there is any kind of web marketing advertisers will most likely use various ads containing sexual content to get customer’s attention. However, marketing is both push and pull. This means that a strong message must pull the customers to the product not simply get the message out. It is certain that two of the biggest terms in search results are “sex” and “business.” Using either of these terms in title tags may get traffic to your site, but if the content does not match it will not yield the profits desired.
Tenants of Marketing
The world of web marketing is in a state of constant change and whether or not it is tasteful for your particular business to use sex appeal in its marketing strategies will depend largely on the type of product you are marketing and your ability to manage your online reputation. When done tastefully it can indeed be an important part of an SEO campaign which has the goal of driving traffic to your site. You cannot argue with big companies such as Calvin Klien who have successfully used sex in advertising for many years. However, there are some marketing strategies that will remain “norms.”
It is very important that your ads and various marketing campaigns be centered around customers and their needs. It is much more important to listen to your customers than to simply talk at them or around them. This makes it imperative that you understand the push and pull of digital marketing and where advertising with sex can effectively be used in the process. (if at all)
While it is important to use an SEO campaign to rank high in SERPs, it is also good to remember that you are not marketing to the search engines – you want to reach customers. Search engines are simply the tools used in a marketing campaign whereby customers can find your product or business site. This makes managing your brand and online reputation very important parts of digital marketing.
The Importance of Proper Brand Reputation in Marketing
When certain companies are mentioned you immediately have a mental image. If someone mentions Gieco, it is likely that you immediately think about a little green lizard. A few years back when someone mentioned Taco Bell, the little Chihuahua came to mind. Companies who use sex in advertising also know how to burn their image into your mind. That’s the point behind branding. When your product is mentioned you want someone to see your logo or other feature designed to stick out in their mind. It is very important that every business projects positive images to be associated with their business name. It is equally important to ensure that the company maintains a positive online reputation. These will take intentional and deliberate action on the part of SEO specialists and company officials. It is important that customers associate positive images with the business. When customers have an experience with a company or purchase their product or services they are getting a first-hand picture of the brand and what the company really delivers.
Best Online Review Sites
23 weeks ago
online review sites
What exactly is an online review site? Simply put it is a location online where customers can post reviews of various businesses. Having your site sit comfortably in the number one slot of Google search results is only about half the battle. If customers are leaving negative reviews pertaining to your site, goods or services then the ranking can quickly be negated. Building trust is more than just having a decent online presence or a nice looking site; your online reputation is important too. This is built partially by what others are saying about you on review sites. If a potential customer cannot find someone handy to grab a quick referral from they will turn to the online community to see about the reputation of your business there. There are literally thousands of online review sites where customers can find or leave information about businesses and the experiences they have had with them. However, a few of them are a little weightier than others.
The Top Online Review Sites
Local SEO best practices include listing your business in Google’s business listings. Another plus for identifying and confirming your business information is that you will get a better placement on their map. This is one place where customers can enter reviews of your business. Having valid reviews on Google Local Business Listings or Maps can seriously help your business achieve that top place.
Yelp
Another top review site is Yelp! They have worked diligently to reduce the number of fabricated reviews and they have steadily grown since about 2006. First, you will want to make sure to verify your business listing by using their simple process. Yelp! Does show up in SERPs and it is a reputable site. Reviews display what others think about your business.
Yahoo! Local Listings is very similar to Google’s local business listings. This is a handy tool to use to promote your business and in conjunction with Local SEO campaigns. It allows customers to post valuable reviews of your business.
Citysearch is a business review site and although they do not post user generated reviews but their top ten lists are reputable and make others stand up and take notice. These reviews are provided by their staff and are fair assessments of local businesses.
How can Online Reviews Help or Hurt a Business?
Online reviews can help or hurt businesses. However, depending on how it is handled, even a negative review can have a positive result. Registering with Google and other business directories will open up a source for online reviews. These inbound links can actually have a positive effect on an SEO or web marketing campaign. It also gives your business more visibility. Businesses should encourage their customers or clients to always give an honest review. It is even a good practice to place a link for customers to use to leave reviews on some of the main sites. This helps potential clients feel more confident about your small or medium business and can help generate trust more quickly.
Research indicates that nearly 90 percent of consumers will read online reviews about businesses before deciding to use their services. And well over half read reviews written by consumers before purchasing products over the internet. And almost 75 percent said that they choose companies based on what others have said about them. Online reviews have the potential of truly helping a business or brand gain popularity. By the same token, negative reviews can affect consumer’s choice to purchase a product or service. But there are some positive results that can be generated from negative reviews.
How Negative Reviews can have a Positive Effect
The most important thing to remember when a company or business receives a negative review is to not ignore it. Always address it promptly and positively. Turning around customers who have had a negative experience or who have left negative remarks can provide much more exposure for the business. It’s all about how it is handled. If it is an area that does need addressing; customers will recognize your efforts to making changes that directly affect them. (I recently stayed at a B&B that had a few negative reviews, upon reading these reviews I decided that the reviews were too picky and decided to stay at the hotel, I did not regret my decision and will leave positive reviews for this awesome B&B!)
How to Increase Referral Traffic
24 weeks ago
Referral Traffic
Obtaining referral traffic is an important tool for an SEO campaign. After all the goal of SEO optimization is to get a site ranked high in search engine result pages (SERP) so that traffic to the site will be increased. One way this traffic is measured is by referrals, or referring sites. When you use various social media strategies and link building strategies you certainly hope that they will work to increase traffic to your site. There is a strategy to increasing referral traffic.
Ways to Increase Referral Traffic
Referral traffic comes from outside pages which provide links back to your site. There are many different strategies that can be used to help increase referral traffic. Obtaining referrals can come from many different sources including using social media strategies. Always include various social media share buttons on pages and web publications. Some of the most popular are the Facebook “share” or “like” button or a retweet button. However, they are not limited to these two sites alone. There are many social media platforms to use across the web 2.0. Be choosey about the ones you include. You will want to include as many as is reasonable and generally, it is a good practice to be involved on those sites and links as well.
There are many sites such as squidoo and Scribd that are designed for users to upload information in their niche and then link them back to their site. These can be valuable referral links when used appropriately. Many social bookmarking communities can be used to provide referral links too. Social sites can be invaluable; when one person visits your site and then shares it on web 2.0 platforms potentially thousands of users can find your site.
Never underestimate the power of the blog. Providing guest posts on other user’s blogs can be a very effective way to increase referral traffic. Writing content for another blog not only helps branding campaigns, it can also provide more opportunity for others to be informed about your product or services. These links help increase referrals as well.
StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and YouTube are all great sites that can send a lot of referral traffic to your site. It will require your participation in uploading videos or information but as long as they are updated frequently they will provide considerable referrals to a site.
Why Build More Referral Traffic
Referrals are basically any online traffic that reaches your site by using a hyperlink from some other site. Upon arrival on your site, the referral information is obtained. This will include any referring URL as well as the time and date. Referral traffic is relatively easy to obtain, and yet difficult at the same time because it is a reflection of the quality of content your site contains. However, referral traffic is a very good indicator of the popularity of your brand; and it is a very good source of natural backlinks. Referral traffic can come very quickly. Many times as soon as you leave a guest post or post an interesting comment on a popular post traffic can come almost immediately. Just make sure to diversify so that the incoming traffic is from a wide range of sites. The search engines will then see these as quality traffic to your site and many of your referral sources will also provide your site with quality Dofollow backlinks, which will help you, rank in search engines.
How Good Referral Traffic Increases SERP Ranking
The search engine algorithm for ranking sites remains an enigma. But it is certain that part of determining a site’s ranking in search engine results is the number of generic, or quality links that provide traffic to the site. One part of building an effective SEO campaign is to generate outside referral links from quality sites. Usually, these sites will be closely related to the site’s main keywords. Having quality links is part of the algorithm that is used to determine where a site falls in the final ranking results. This is of course only a single piece of the SEO puzzle but it is one of the more important pices that can increase the probability of success.
Commercial Remodeling in Seattle – Built Right – Featured Client
01 month ago
Commercial Contractor Seattle
Built-Right is a commercial contractor in Seattle, WA area which specializes in commercial renovation projects. They offer their expertise in many different construction areas in a commercial environment. Their specialty is commercial tenant improvement in Washington’s King and Snohomish Counties. Although they specialize in tenant improvements, they also have varied experiences in a multitude of other commercial construction areas.
The business’ principal, J Morgan, is widely knowledgeable and experienced in the construction industry. He has been a commercial contractor in Seattle WA and surrounding communities for more than 30 years. Mr. Morgan works with and coordinates many contractors and effectively planned their work so that each major project was completed successfully by professional contractors with the expertise in their respective areas. He coordinates commercial projects with sub-contractors who complete work for tenants, building departments, designers, sub-contractors, architects and property owners. He works to ensure that each project is completed suitably and efficiently.
Professional Attitude
Built-Right works with reputable sub-contractors who are responsible and highly qualified to complete the jobs that are under contract. They have an excellent record with completing projects properly and within scheduled deadlines. They are committed to making sure the job is done right and that each project is completed in a professional fashion that they would approve for their own business. Built-Right is honest and dependable in dealing with their clientele.
Professional Expertise
The Washington State Web Site contains information pertaining to the validity of Built-Right and their professional information. The company is fully licensed and bonded. They also are appropriately insured and have high standards for their work. They have no unsatisfied claims against the company and are considered a reputable company with a professional attitude. Built-Right offers a wide variety of references who can validate the quality of contractual work that is completed.
Professional Experience
The services offered by Built-Right contractors are widely varied. They have a very broad range of capabilities in the area of commercial remodeling and renovations. While their expertise is largely in tenant improvement projects they also offer many other types of professional services from office remodeling including pharmacies, retail and medical facilities. They can also work within the guidelines and expectancies for all phases of construction contracts. Contractors can renovate office space to help businesses run more efficiently as well as save money. They can also renovate, repair or remodel various types of retail spaces or medical clinics. Among their wide experience is also complete warehouse conversions and fast track commercial remodeling projects.
Professional Associations
Built-Right is a member in good standing with these professional organizations the MBA, BIAW, and NAHB.
The Built-Right Mission
Built-Right is dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality of service and craftsmanship. They offer their professional services at the lowest rates possible and keep a competitive going market rate. When scheduling projects for businesses they offer a detailed estimate complete with a reasonable schedule of the aspects of each project including when they will be completed. The staff is highly educated and knowledgeable in handling contracts and in scheduling projects so that they can be completed in a timely manner. The company works with a team of sub-contractors who all share the same commitment to maintaining an appropriate schedule and completing tasks according to a pre-set schedule.
Service Areas
Built-Right is located in Mountlake Terrace, Washington and provides commercial contracting services in Seattle and the surrounding areas. Services are available in communities around the Seattle, Edmonds, Bellevue and Everett areas. Many of their landlords and business owners are located from Tukwilla to Snohomish and from Seattle to Woodinville including many locations in between these areas.
Failed Social Media Campaigns
01 month ago
Social Media Campaigns
Social media has become an essential part of web marketing campaigns. They help businesses share information about their particular products or services and give customers a platform from which to promote or recommend their brands. Some of the most popular platforms used in a social media marketing (SMM) campaign are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. There is a right way to employ a solid social media strategy and incorporate the various platforms into an overall marketing campaign. One way to look at these social sites is to consider that they are cost effective ways to advertise for your business; and much less expensive than traditional ads were in the past.
While using SMM can be a very beneficial tool for a business if they are strategized properly, they can also be very detrimental if they fail to meet the business goals. Here are some SMM campaigns that failed and why they did more damage than good.
McDonalds Failure in Social Media
The intent was a good one; McDonald’s presented their second hash tag on Twitter hoping to solicit positive input from customers. Their promoted tweet #McDStories was trying to encourage interaction between fans of the food chain. However, it all went south when critics of McDonald’s began to post negative experiences that they had at the restaurant. Instead of getting heartwarming stories about memories of going to McDonalds when you were a child… (which is what they wanted) they got bombarded with Tweets about hair in the hamburgers, burgers being served raw and much worse Admittedly, once the campaign was rolling, the business had relinquished controlling interests in the conversation. It was in the hands of the public and the food chain was pretty much at their mercy. This is one of the major reasons businesses are reluctant to launch SMM campaigns. One area in which McDonald’s failed was in the fact that they were not proactive or reactive when the backlash began. The conversation was not framed tightly enough and they apparently were not aware of the consumer’s perception of their business.
Even though there were positive comments which were shared as well, they were overshadowed by the negative ones. McDonald’s failed in the sense that they basically ignored the negative comments. But the social media world capitalized on them. Turning a blind eye to the negative aspects of the conversation was the worst thing that they could do. A successful business needs to know and listen to their customers, be understanding of any grievances, and react honestly to the negative comments. This could have turned the situation around, but ignoring the comments made the situation even worse. The key to a successful SMM campaign is to frame the conversation tightly and interact with your consumers, especially if it takes a nasty turn.
Chapstick’s Failure in Social Media
One point of a social media marketing campaign is to interact with consumers. Businesses need their feedback and their input. The makers of Chapstick learned this the hard way through a recently failed SMM campaign.
Chapstick put an interesting ad on Facebook. It was of a woman who was looking for her Chapstick, but had her back to the camera and her rear end up in the air trying to find her Chapstick behind her couch. A blogger noted the ad as distasteful in her blog; and then posted similar comments on Chapstick’s Facebook page. Chapstick admins deleted the comments along with others who posted similar disgust. This action was in direct conflict to their own line, “Be heard at Facebook.com/Chapstick.” Whenever there were negative comments posted, Chapstick continued to delete the posts until followers became angry. The comments turn to why their previous comments are no longer on their Facebook wall which continues to raise many questions among their fans. Comments continued to get nastier and the company couldn’t keep up with the deletions. Chapstick finally responded with a sort of apology that really put the blame back on customers.
This did not have to end up being such a negative campaign. If they had addressed their customers concerns, and actually “listened” to them like their promotions said, it could have been a great opportunity to open up discourse between the company and their customers. Communication is one of the key concepts in SMM and it cannot be overlooked – even when it seems to be negative. When issues are addressed and dealt with properly, communication is kept open and honest then a SMM campaign can still be a very effective tool and link between business and customer.
Is SMM for Every Business?
While social media marketing can work equally well for every company, it is certainly not a “one size fits all” proposition. The campaign will have to be tailored to the company to be effective. IT is important to realize and remember that SMM is simply a tool that can be utilized to help promote a business, brand or product. Setting a clearly defined set of goals is essential to planning and implementing a successful social media marketing campaign. Furthermore, it is important to note that any marketing campaign if not implemented properly can fail, much like a badly done newspaper ad and television commercial. Businesses ought therefore not be afraid of social media and should embrace this new technology – after all, even the harshest critics of McDonalds still get a warm feeling in their stomachs when they see an old fashioned cardboard cutout of Ronald McDonald.
SEO for HTML5
01 month ago
HTML5
HTML5 is the 5th version of the computer language that is used to create web pages. HTML5 is designed to bring about several improvements for users. There are various new tags that are supposed to be very helpful for web design specialists who want to be able to classify their content. It offers some great alternatives to both Silverlight and Flash and HTML5 is SEO friendly, especially in terms of indexing and crawling. One of the greatest advancements is its usability with mobile devices. All the advancements sound wonderful; the trouble is that the internet browsers have not yet caught up with the latest features and HTML5 codes. They can render the language, but not all browsers are totally compatible with it.
HTML5 Web Design
There are several new elements provided in this upgrade that are advantageous. The <aside> tag allows for tips or sidebars. This is for content that is related to the main content but not necessarily part of the main document. The <canvas> tag allows for displaying graphics; even though it is primarily a container, JavaScript can still be used to render any 2D images and shapes. And <figure> is used for a diagram, photo or some other sort of illustration within the site’s content. And to add a caption for a figure you can use the tag, <figcaption> inside the figure element. While the changes in this language are beneficial for a web designer, it doesn’t eliminate the use of tags from prior versions of HTML. Some of the header tags are still preferable. For instance <h1> is still used within the ne <header> and the information that is secondary is still signified with the <h2> tag.
New Tags and SEO
There are some tags that will be important for the SEO specialist. These will be important aspects of the web design portions of an SEO campaign. To signify a block of content that is self-contained use a <article> tag to warp the article. A <section> tag can help divide a blog post or an article into section. These tags act somewhat like chapters in a book. For wrapping sections of headings use the tag, <hgroup>. This will be useful when there is content that has a headline and a sub-headline at the top. As an example, this tag might look something like this:
<hgroup>
<h1>Primary Headline</h1>
<h2>Tagline or sub-headline</h2>
</hgroup>
To enclose the site’s navigation use <nav>. This tag can be used any place on the site. A <header> tag can contain navigational information as well. The header tag has two possibilities. It can specify a header to a single page, or it can specify a header of an article or a section that is a self-contained piece of content. The <header> tag can also contain branding or a document’s main headline. The <footer> tag is similar to the <header> tag in that it can signify the <footer> for a single article; or it can be for an entire HTML document. The <footer> tag can contain meta-data and specifics like author of an article, or it can contain footer navigation.
These tags are all very important for SEO specialists who are working on website design as part of a web marketing campaign.
How HTML5 affects SEO
The shift to using HTML5 will no doubt be a slow one; but very beneficial. The newer tags allow for a new structure for each page and with the changes each part of the page now has a separate tag. Most of the tags that have been mentioned are bound to affect SEO in various ways. Some of the other tags such as <dialogue>,<audio>, and <video> tags will help to separate content into clearer categories. And as pages use HTML5 more frequently, search engines are likely to pay a lot more attention to the changes. The adoption of new tags will help search engines segment the material on pages. For example, using the <article> tag helps to clean up the HTML code and also reduces the need for <div> tags. Search engines can now place more importance on the content inside the <article> tags rather than comparing it to other sections on the page. And the new <footer> tag can isolate important information that can be beneficial to an SEO campaign too. This allows for more flexibility as each footer (or header) can be used for each section and more than one time on a page. This can be advantageous.
SEO for Flash Websites
81 month ago
Flash Websites
What is Flash and how does it affect SEO?
Flash is a multimedia tool that was developed by Macromedia. It is a complex program that allows web design specialists to create pages with animations and other artistic images. They can also develop interactive videos and embed them into a web site. In today’s web 2.0 world Flash can be a useful tool for web development and web marketing. A site can use flash for a multitude of purposes. It can show pictures of work a contractor has completed, be used to send a video message about a product or service or house a video clip pertaining to various business activities. The possibilities are virtually limitless. The trick is to use Flash in a discretionary manner. It does what it was designed to do – grab the visitor’s attention. However, if there are too many moving sections on a web page, the site can be overwhelming and business can be loss.
Used properly, Flash is a great tool in web design and development. Flash used to be frowned upon because of the length of time it took to download. But this was when most computer users were on dial-up connections. Today’s fast paced computer systems are much quicker, and many users have a broadband internet connection which allows for faster loading of websites; research indicates that over 90 percent of computer users now use a flash player. Professionals in web design can use Flash so that it will create a site that will be appealing and useful for clients and internet users alike.
Flash is not the best way to plan for website optimization; and some do not suggest using it at all. Search engines are looking for content and Flash does not have enough relevant content as a general rule. This makes it very difficult for search engines to crawl and index the content on a site. Many designers build an entire site using Flash and this makes it very difficult on search engines as there are not any links for the spiders to crawl and there is no HTML text for them to copy. Recent research indicates that about 30 to 40% of web pages contain Flash files; and many of them are constructed totally of Flash. This indicates that there are pages with content that may be excluded from search engine results or pages that are partially indexed. Until recently search engines and Flash mixed about like oil and water – the two do not mix at all.
How Search Engines See Flash
Inside Flash text is not quite as clean as inside HTML tags. Search engines can index output files, but they cannot play a guessing game as to the intent of your content. Flash also does not display external links like HTML does. Usually, it is HTML that is responsible for earning links for a site rather than Flash. One way external links are established on the web 2.0 is that users find a blog or article that they like and then copy some of the sections that they deemed most important. These are then placed into their own site and linked back to your article or blog. Flash makes it very difficult to copy and paste for sharing across the web.
Inside Flash files there are some of the basic SEO elements missing. For instance, headlines, img alt tags, title tags and anchor text are not easy to include in a Flash file. It’s possible, but rare that a designer does it properly. This makes it a very difficult process to include SEO inside Flash files and it is not the status quo for the development of Flash. Although Google is changing the way it sees flash, it is best to not overuse it on a site.
Making Flash More SEO Friendly
Google is constantly making improvements and with these come the ability to crawl Flash files too. It is certainly not within SEO best practices to build an entire site in Flash. But there is a way to achieve a correct balance for those who want to use Flash and implement SEO for Flash. For one thing, do not use Flash as the site navigation. Flash files should be embedded into the HTML. Page titles and Meta descriptions should be used to carry descriptive data about the site. An entire site should not be one big Flash file, but rather, separate content out into several Flash files that have their own HTML pages. Also keep Flash exclusively for design elements and for some of the content that is of lower importance. Then use HTML for the page elements that are the most important. When it is set up properly, Flash will enhance HTML content instead of replacing it. This way the search engines will be able to read the page’s titles.
Properly using a sitemap is a great way to help Google index a site as well. When the XML document is placed in the root folder it makes the layout of the site visible to Google crawlers. This helps Google index the info on each page of the site. This is a very good way to ensure that the pages on a site are all spidered, especially for websites that are exceptionally large.
Improving Flash
It is important to note that search engines can recognize and index flash files. Any text that a user can see when they are interacting with a Flash file is also discernible by search engine web crawlers. The actual text in a Flash file can be used by the search engines to match terms that are entered in a query. Spiders also recognize URLs that are contained in Flash files.
Make sure that when designing a web page you use descriptive page titles and meta tags. Embed flash into your HTML pages and if it is possible, use regular text links. You can also add HTML text on the page this may help when the web crawlers are indexing. Use noembed tags to create textual content of what is contained in the flash. Also remember to break the flash down into separate flash files and put them on different HTML pages. Spreading the content over multiple pages rather than trying to get it all into one flash file can be very beneficial.
Strategic Online Marketing
21 month ago
Online Marketing
There are various strategies to be used when organizing an online marketing campaign. While there are many different types of strategies that can be used, any one SEO campaign may use only a few of them. The SEO specialist needs to be able to choose which of the strategies available will be the best tactics for each client. It is not a simple task since there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all SEO marketing plan. Much research and hard work is necessary to determine which strategic tactics make up the most effective SEO campaign to meet a client’s online marketing needs.
Site Essentials
There are literally billions of web 2.0 websites that can be visited; however, many of them are not successful. While the needs and goals are different for each client, there are some elements that should be included on every site. Website optimization will include a series of items that are mostly unique to the client or business but remain basically the same across the board for each SEO campaign.
The first decision in website optimization is the URL. The domain name is like the business’ brand. It should be something that describes the basic premise of the business but is easy for users to remember. The site should be easy for visitors to navigate and find information pertinent to the business. If a visitor has to spend any length of time trying to find the information they are looking for they will likely move on to a more friendly site. The site design should also include contact information that is easy to find. It is good SEO practice to include contact information on every page on the site. Within the site, usually on the landing page, there should also be a very clear description of the businesses or services that are available. Potential customers should easily understand services as they are being offered to see if it meets their needs and be able to contact you about such services.
Every page on the site should contain content that is fresh and of high quality. It should not be just empty filler but should contain valuable information. There should also be a “call to action” that encourages the online visitor to call for a quote, sign up for an email list or add products to an online shopping cart.
From there it is always important to include SEO best practices for every web marketing campaign. Using SEO campaign strategies will ensure that traffic is driven to the site.
SEO Practices that Differ Depending on the Business
One of the differences between online business sites is the targeted audience. A lawyer site and a contract painter site will be trying to reach very different populations. Some internet users are looking purely for information but many are looking to employ various types of services. These considerations must come into play when developing an SEO and online marketing strategy.
The types of SEO strategies that are used will largely depend on what types of services are being made available. For instance, a legal site may largely deal with sharing information pertinent to their area of legal expertise while sites selling products will need to have some form of e-commerce available on site.
Local SEO will also play a large part in many business marketing strategies. It is important for contractors, doctors and lawyers to be able to reach an audience in their locality where they can easily provide services. An online marketer who will be shipping products or selling only through online sources will not be as concerned with local SEO.
The use of social media marketing on the web 2.0 platform will largely depend on the type of business as well. It is important to make use of this very effective platform. However, their usefulness will depend largely upon the marketing technique and the product being sold. Social bookmarking communities can be beneficial for most business areas; and social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook can be used to make potential or current clients aware of new products, services or information as it becomes available.
SEO for Yandex
01 month ago
Yandex
Yandex is a Russian search engine which in the past has experienced a remarkable growth rate. Actually, its growth rate is quite a bit larger than most other major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Many try to define Yandex as a sort of Google copy, but in reality, Yandex launched just a little while before Google hit the mainstream. When it was initially developed, it was designed to handle the complexities of the Russian language. Its focus was mostly on searches for intellectual properties and documents. The fact that it was developed and focused on the Russian language has led to the development of multilingual SEO.
Similarities of Google and Yandex
Although these two search engines work differently there are some areas of similarity in their algorithms and processes of ranking. For one thing, Yandex and Google both frown on duplicate content and both reward unique and fresh content. The use of good descriptions as well as Meta titles are still very important factors in ranking for these search engines.
Differences Between Google and Yandex
Yandex uses a Thematic Citation Index which in some ways is similar to PageRank by Google. The difference is that Yandex counts out-bound links to relative sites along with incoming relevant links. However, Yandex does not count links going to or coming from web forums, directories that are not moderated and any other types of sites that do not have humans controlling the posting of the links. The emphasis here it to ensure that links from link building strategies remain all organic.
How Yandex Works
The primary job for a search engine is to produce accurate results to the queries presented by users. When a user types in a question, they expect to get a list of links to relevant websites. Most of the time when a query is entered it will yield literally millions of pages. These pages may be exactly what the user desired, close to what they are looking for or not even close. The point of site ranking is to provide and sort websites that will meet the expectation of the user. Yandex’s search engine sees about a hundred million inquiries every single day and about half of these are unique. The algorithm must be able to use previous experience to provide relevant answers to user’s search queries.
Orange is the robot designed specifically to index sites that have been updated recently. One of the important ranking features for Yandex is when the site was last updated. Sites that have been recently or frequently updated will likely be at the top of search engine results.
Yandex recently updated their algorithm for indexing and ranking sites. One thing that the search engine is very effective at is geo-tags. It will use the computer’s IP address and geographical regions that are given in various contact information to narrow search results down inside a geographical region.
One of the main things that will get a site penalized by Yandex is having too many pop-ups, ads and banners on a site. High bounce rates and low times spent on a page will also be cause of a lower ranking. Yandex is also very interested in a site’s usability. It will also consider navigational links, and where they lead. Content is also very important to Yandex search engine results; and all content must be relevant and readable.
SEO for Yandex
яндекс
Yandex uses the two main elements used in SEO strategies for Google: off-site and on-site optimization. On-site SEO has three key ingredients, site relevance, internal links and content. The main difference here is found in the way Yandex focuses on semantics so it is very important to make sure all grammar is used properly. The other emphasis for on-site SEO best practices is to ensure the site is “healthy.” This means no broken links, correctly configured 404’s and a correctly configured tobots.txt file.
Off-site website optimization is very different for Yandex when compared to Google. Yandex does not count links that are not quality. Websites should try to obtain links from various sites that have a high Quotation Index (TIC). The Quotation Index is somewhat similar to PageRank. Unless a site has TIC, Yandex will not consider the site worth ranking at all. The best way for you to achieve this is to obtain a listing in the Yandex Catalog that will get your site TIC. Another off-site SEO campaign strategy is to distribute press releases. While this is not as beneficial for SEO in Google search engines, Yandex will recognize the links as trustworthy. Two “wire” services that are very important to include on an SEO specialist’s list are InterFAx and InFox.
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