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Do you have a Question about Internet marketing
or search engine optimization, or your website?
We'll answer your question privately
or in our next newsletter! |
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| This Month's Question |
Q: I have several domain names. How can I best utilize them?
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A: I get this question at least once a week from someone searching for SEO services.
First, I want to say "Congratulations!" It's great that you have several domains. All the mid to large size companies have several domains and one factor that small business owners tend to ignore is the impact that this very small investment of owning several domains can have on their business.
Anyway, with that said, let me tell you how to best use these domains.
1) Mini Websites are a great way to market your service and/or product. Many website owners make the mistake of putting everything under one domain name. The truth is, it's much better to create several niche websites versus creating one major website. Why? For one thing, you immediately create links TO your sites when you interlink these websites. Second, the theme of each website is much more concise and leaves no doubt (in the minds of the search engines) what each website is about.
2) If some domain names are short, I suggest those be used on print material and for email. It's easier for people to remember short names and easier to read in print if it's short.
3) If some domain names are descriptive with dashes, I suggest that those domain names be used to market on the Internet. An example would be:
www.something-like-this.com
Reason being that when a search engine comes to the domain name above it sees the words "something", "like" and "this". The dashes separate the words. If the domain above was written such as:
www.somethinglikethis.com
the search engines would see it as one word, not three. So, if the domain name in dashes matches the product/service you are marketing then it's just more food for the search engines
4) If you have a blog, one of those domain names can be used as the URL of your blog.
5) If you have a newsletter one of those domain names can be used as the URL of your newsletter.
6). If you want to run several test campaigns you can use different URL's for tracking purposes.
One tip. Make sure your registration period for each domain is at least 2 years. Google indexes domains that are registered for 2 or more years much faster.
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Following are some resources that I can
personally recommend!
Esther C. Kane
Eckweb Designs, Inc.
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Ultimate Guide To Google AdWords- If
you're really serious about managing your Google AdWords account or you want to learn all you can
about Google Adwords so you can provide the service to your clients, this is the book to get.
Click the book above
to buy your copy now!
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Web Marketing For Dummies - the dummies
books are a great way for anyone to begin the process of learning just about anything! Web marketing
is no exception. If you're just starting out or even if you're a seasoned old pro, you'll love
this book. It explains things simple enough so that even if you know "how" to do web
marketing, you'll learn how to explain what you do! Something we all struggle with!
Click the book above
to buy your copy now!
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101 Ways To Boost Your Web Traffic -
I love these 101 ways books. Many ideas I've already heard of or thought of but inevitably I will
always learn a few new ideas!
Click the book above
to buy your copy now!
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Beginning CSS Web Development - if you
haven't begun the process of really learning CSS then you better get cracking. Web designers trained
in schools can't graduate if they create a website with tables. They can only graduate if they
create full blown css websites. So, don't get caught behind the 8 ball. Get cracking!
Click the book above
to buy your copy now!
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How can you sweeten your marketing campaign? What are your customers looking for and how can you give it to them? |
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Do you have an article
that you would like
to share with us? |
One of the BEST ways to market your web site is to show the Internet audience that you
KNOW your stuff!
If you would like to write an article about any of the following topics and submit it to our Newsletter,
we would love to review it for inclusion in future issues.
Our topics of interest are...
Marketing (General)
Internet Marketing
Small Business Issues
Web Design
Web Hosting
Web site Programming
Contact us today about your article(s)
and get yourself promoted!!
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| Editorial
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Well, another year is almost over and in the rush of all the holiday events it seems as if it will go quicker than I would like!
I hope for many of you, 2007 has been a great year, not only personally but in your business as well. Eckweb has prospered well in 2007 growing to an international level! I am extremely grateful to all our clients for giving us the opportunity to help them grow on the Internet.
I don't believe anyone will argue that 2007 has absolutely been a year of change in the search engine industry. Google introduced Universal Search and Social Media has begun to come into it's own. These two major changes will impact Internet websites and website marketing for years to come.
Ask.com launched it's new marketing campaign with some success and is now commanding 4th place in the list of top search engines.
Apple's iPhone launched and with that the mobile web's growth as well.
These three major changes (there were hundreds of smaller changes as well) will impact how your website functions, is viewed and is marketed in 2008. So be prepared!! There's more exciting new ventures to come and we're gearing up to keep you on top of all the happenings!
Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Esther C. Kane
Eckweb Designs, Inc.
678.765.0120
Search Engine Optimization Services
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Cool Tools
I receive so many questions about the types of tools that I use not only for Internet Marketing but also for business that I decided I should add a section to the newsletter about them. So, each month (or so) I'll try to add a new tool to this section. Of course, if you have any tools you would like to recommend, please let me know!
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If You Haven't Tried It, Don't Knock It...
Okay, for some time now I've been attempting to check out this "social media" thing. You know, programs like MySpace.com, StumbleUpon.com and LinkedIn.com. (Just to name a very small few!)
Anyway, I haven't really put in the time to check these programs out seriously and although I have accounts in all the three social media programs I mentioned above, I wasn't getting anything out of them. So, I wasn't putting much into them. I was so wrong!
Marketing Experiments Journaldid a little experiment. The experiment compared the cost and effectiveness of social-media against PPC (pay per click) advertising over a time span of 12 months.
The end result was:
Social Media Campaign:
Cost: $3600.00 (paying someone a salary of $10.00/hour)
Number of Visitors: 93,207
Cost Per Visitor: $.04
PPC Campaign
Cost: $1250.00
Number of Visitors: 2,057
Cost Per Visitor: $.61
The social media campaign yielded a 1,578% better ROI than the PPC! The biggest difference was that the PPC campaign was quicker. In other words, once the ads for the campaign were completed and submitted visitors began coming in immediately. But, once again, the turtle wins over the hare. Although the social media campaign took longer to get going, the end result after 12 months of use was, without a doubt impressive.
In addition to this little experiment, I recently attended a local networking group where a speaker was presenting a talk about LinkedIn.com. In case you haven't heard of that program or tried it yet, let me fill you in. LinkedIn is basically an online networking group for businesses of all sizes. It's intention is to link up folks who can use each other's services. Not only do you get connected with another person, but you are then connected to their list of other persons. If you know anything about BNI (Business Network International) then you'll understand LinkedIn. When you attend a BNI meeting they tell you that it's not only the people in this room that you are meeting, you are also meeting the Rolodex that everyone in that room brings with them (in other words, everyone they know). LinkedIn works the same way. And just like BNI where it's "givers get" philosophy works so well. LinkedIn is the same concept with their Answers section. After you join LinkedIn you can go to the Answers tab on top and either answer questions or ask questions. That's how you "get to know" each other. That's how you build trust and begin an online conversation.
After that meeting, I came home and logged on to my LinkedIn account. I asked a question, I answered several questions and it's been about 2 weeks now since I attended that meeting and I've gotten several responses and requests for 2 SEO proposals. So, does it work? Absolutely!!
So, your assignment this month is to join these networks, or at the very least, join LinkedIn (since it's geared towards business folks). Put in your entire portfolio, a photo, etc. And begin asking and answering questions! You'll not only establish yourself as an expert in your field but you'll grow your business at an extremely low, low cost!
Esther C. Kane
SEO Webmaster
Eckweb Designs, Inc.
Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services
"What's the point of having a business website if it doesn't bring you business?"
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The Importance of Optimizing Your 404 Pages
Posted by Joe Whyte on March 6, 2007
One of the most overlooked SEO techniques is optimizing you 404 error pages. Its a very simple process, especially if you have a formula or a template you build your sites in. Many SEOs today are unfamiliar with optimizing the 404 page or have not put the time and effort into developing this page properly.
A 404 error message is a response delivered via an HTML document indicating that the request was unable to communicate with the server. Usually this is caused by a request not being able to locate a file or a link is broken on a site. Lets say you put up a site and when a spider crawls it, for some reason, the page is not loaded, requested or the link is broken. The unoptimized 404 error page will KILL the potential site spidering causing a site to not rank in the search engines. This can also cause a novice user to get frustrated and abandon your site.
One of the best 404 error pages I have seen created is Searchenginewatch.coms 404 error page. The searchenginewatch.com error page implements their entire navigation, search box, RSS feed, advertisers, links to popular posts, news links and more. This means if a spider finds a 404 error page the spider will continue crawling and indexing the entire site without getting stopped by an unoptimized 404 page.
Some of the ways 404 pages are reached are:
Bookmarked sites that have since been moved
Made an error when typing in a url
An moved page is still indexed in the SERPS
Broken links in your link structure
What are some tips when customizing your 404 error pages?
1. Put a link to your FAQ page
2. Put a link to your top level categories
3. Put a link to your sitemap
4. Create a templated 404 page that blends with your site
5. Add a search box
6. Make your 404 pages look as close to your site theme as possible
7. Add a true navigation to your site.
Optimizing your 404 error page is one of the most overlooked SEO techniques I have seen in the industry. When doing SEO it is easy to become overwhelmed with doing your on-page and off-page optimization but failure to optimize this can lead to problems down the road and more importantly a tarnishing reputation.
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| Not Your Usual
Marketing Tips
It's holiday gift-giving time. Now, you can do the fruitcake thing, the gift basket thing, the popcorn-in-a-tin thing or the gift certificate thing. But you might also want to consider giving a gift that is truly customized and personal.
Welcome to another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management.
Cartoonists have been lampooning politicians and royalty with devastating caricatures for over 300 years. This season you might wish to consider presenting a caricature from yourself. Not to devastate, however, but to tickle...
Caricatures make a great, customized gift for your clients or your favored customers...and certainly families and friends on the personal side. Caricatures of loyal (and long-standing) staff make great gifts as well, showing your appreciation for their dedicated service. Yours truly has done caricatures of individual staff members, framed and mounted on company walls. So it’s not only a unique, fun idea…it’s great for morale.
(If you’re new to this column, Yes, I do caricatures. And I’ve been doing them professionally – apart from my copywriting, conceptual and marketing strategy work – for, sheesh, three decades now.…)
Another popular means by which to utilize caricatures -- and no less a marketing tool than a corporate brochure or flyer -- is a Holiday Greetings card...customized to feature the illustrated likenesses of company officers and selected staff, and sent out to clients with a seasonal message thanking them for their business.
Naturally, caricatures can be applied to ad specialty items as well -- on coffee mugs, beer decanters, tension sqeeze'em toys, and the like. And regardless of season, caricatures can enliven collateral marketing materials, ad campaigns, publicity packages, PowerPoint presentations and trade shows
If you've run out of ideas as we near the holidays, give a thought to caricatures...the "art" of gift-giving.
And in the meantime, frame the first Tuesday of next month for another masterpiece sampling of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips.
Joel Kweskin
JDK Marketing Communications Management
704.846.4835, office
704.575.8850, cell
704.841.2746, fax
www.jdkmarketing.biz
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Facebook or LinkedIn: which one should you join?
by Krishna De on 13 December 2007, 01:55
Earlier this week I received an invitation to join an online social networking community from an old college friend who is now based in New Zealand.
My heart sank - not because I had just heard from her - no it was the idea of having to join another online social networking group. So I carefully crafted my reply to say that I would love to stay in contact, but unfortunately I would have to decline joining the group as I am already on Facebook, LinkedIn, Ziggs, Ecademy and participate in a number of online forums, am on Twitter and Jaiku and author a number of blogs.
I knew that I could not do justice to being an active participant on another online forum.
It was a little like Christmas lunch - another social networking site was just one too many, like taking that extra mouthful of turkey and feeling like you were about to explode!
But I’m noticing I am not alone. I just heard from a friend they were about to unsubscribe from Facebook as they feel like they are spending too much time online and then Damien emailed me to say he was cleaning up his LinkedIn contacts but was staying on LinkedIn as he thought a number of people were there that he wanted to be connected to.
I often get asked which social networking site should we use - and my answer is that it always depends on your goals for being a member of a social networking community.
It’s no different to joining a professional association of face to face networking community. In fact it’s a good time of year now to evaluate which of the associations and communities you are a member of and if you want to continue to be a member of them in the forthcoming year - to help you, you can listen to a podcast I did about evaluating your networking plan here.
Let’s take a look at a couple of specific examples and why you might want to consider being a member. There are many similarities between the online communities so I am just going to highlight a couple of specific differences.
LinkedIn
This is one of the first social networking sites I recommend you upload your personal profile to, especially if you are in a corporate a position as you can:
- add your complete work history and career profile - it’s like having your CV or resume online
- you can search for people through your immediate contacts that you would like to connect to - for example when the Challenge Ireland round Ireland Yacht race was taking place in 2006, I got to know the organising team and supported them in connecting them with key contacts and with research all through a mutual contact on LinkedIn
It is especially important if you are looking to progress in your career as Linkedin is certainly seen as THE professional online network and is used by executive search consultants and recruiters alike to find candidates for roles.
Facebook
Increasingly in 2007, more and more business leaders are moving onto Facebook. This is partly due to the publicity about Facebook and word of mouth, but the ease of use and ability to customise your profile has been another driver.
In Facebook you can:
- directly connect to people unlike on LinkedIn where you have to have a paid membership to directly contact people rather than through an introduction. I have been amazed at some of the world leading experts who have been happy to connect to my Facebook network.
- customise your Facebook page to reflect your interests and expertise, enhancing and reflecting your personal brand online
- use Facebook purely for personal networking as many people do, as at this moment in time your Facebook profile is not visible to the search engines so there is no risk that it will be found in a Google search - though my recommendation is to always make sure that whatever you write online you would be happy for anyone to find and read
- quickly scan information and news from your network and follow up with them if there is something of interest you want to connect with them about
- add your feeds from your blog to your Facebook profile.
I have found people are generally more active on Facebook which makes it feel like a more energetic place to be.
In summary, I find LinkedIn is used by people in leadership roles in business and those people actively managing their career as it’s a little more discriminating in terms of connections. I consider my connections in my LinkedIn network as people I would happily recommend and refer as I know their work.
Facebook is far more relaxed and is like a group of eclectic friends with perhaps business or social interests in common. I’ve found people who are world wide experts are really happy to connect on Facebook which is exciting and seems to level the playing field.
For me, the question of which social network to join really comes down to the time you have to nurture your online network and your purpose for joining a social networking site – but it’s like any network online or offline, if you invest in it you will reap results.
I predict that over the next 12 months more and more people will join social networking communities but they will become more discriminating about the ones they choose to use.
Just as we choose which professional association or offline networking community we want to join based on perceived value, return on investment (be that time or money), the ability to connect with key influencers (be they people who can support us in our career or may connect us to potential clients) and where people we like to be with hang out, you can use similar criteria to determine which online network to be a member of.
But remember that the same rule for networking online as offline is critical - it is about giving to your network, adding value and supporting them - that is what will enable you to build lasting relationships and friendships which is the platform for great career and professional success.
You can read the original article at http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/22718
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Video How To's
Go to Youtube or GoogleVideos and type in the search bar the phrase "how to". (keep the quotes)
What do you see?
I see hundreds of videos on "how to" do just about everything from car maintenance to prom hair. What a great way to promote a service or a product.
- If you sell shaving cream, why not create a video about "how to" perform a perfect shave.
- If you are a bankruptcy attorney why not create a video about "how to" file for bankruptcy.
- If you see skin cream why not create a video about "how to" properly wash your skin?
- If you sell diabetic equipment, why not create a video about "how to" use the equipment?
What can you show the world "how to"?
Think about it and put it on a 10 minute video and submit it to Youtube and Google Videos.
Do you have an Internet Marketing Idea or Tip you would
like to share?
Email us at...
info@theseolady.com |
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| My Pet Peeves
Esther Kane
Eckweb Designs, Inc.
As some of you may know, the bulk of my business is optimizing existing websites. So, that means that the majority of my clients (and potential clients) come to me with an existing site for me to "review" + "write a proposal" + "optimize" + "market" for them.
The process can be smooth, it sometimes is but more often than not, it's a bit of a nightmare. Why? Well, I'll list my pet peeves about websites. I'm not intending to offend any web designers out there BUT maybe you'll understand my frustrations when I look at your websites.
- Websites with frames! - It's the new millenium - get out of frames!
- Websites without CSS - if you're still using <font> tags you should be designing websites for free.
- CSS secret codes - "style22" means nothing to me when I'm working on a website, but "boldtext" does. Take the tiny bit of time to name your css styles as they pertain to what they actually produce. It just makes things so much easier.
- Multiple image folders - it's so much easier to put all images in one folder versus buttons in button folder, headers in a header folder, etc. Name the images appropriately and you won't have any problem finding them. Plus, it makes it so much easier to scan through the website folders. I've seen websites with 10 different folders for images. That means I have to download all those folders. Plus, there's more chances for link errors. Just keep it simple!
- Old Files - I can't even begin to tell you how many times I open up a website on the server side expecting to see the 15 pages the website has only to find 130 pages! Why so many excess pages? They're old pages!! So, how do I know they're old? I don't always know. That means I have to go through the website manually and make sure that I upload the pages I need to work on and then I need to remove the old pages. If you remove a page from a website, please place it in a folder. Called it "old", call it "unused" call it "crap", whatever. Just get it out of the root folder and make sure you put that folder in the robots.txt file so the search engines can stop indexing it.
Well, I hope I didn't offend anyone - please know I'm not perfect by any means (as most of you know) and I don't expect anyone to be. One thing about this Internet business is that it's in constant motion. Just when you got a handle on one language a new one pops up, just when you've finally found the right program for a technique, a better one comes up. There's no end to it. So, I understand the difficulties in keeping up. But, please make an effort to consider that others may be looking through your websites in great detail. So, be gentle and please be kind. |
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