Internet Marketing For Small Businesses

Internet marketing tips and advice for
small and home based business websites

SEO - Professional SEO Advice
July 2008 Newsletter
Table of Contents
Editorial Buzz About Social Media Recommended Tools
SEO News & Tips Article Of The Month Video Of The Month
Idea Of The Month For Web Designers Archive of Newsletters!
Subscribe Today

Subscribe

We Value Your Privacy

Subscribe To RSS Feed


iGoogle Gadget



Search Our Articles


 
Web theseolady.com


Learn SEO The RIGHT Way!

Your Questions Answered!
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!
 
This Month's Question
Q: "For our investment in SEO services, what kind of return can we expect?"

A: This is an extremely difficult question to answer if it can be answered at all.

The reason is that there are many factors involved in the "kind of return". After all, the "kind of return" depends on several factors;

1) The product or service
2) The quality of customer service
3) The time of year
4) The economy
5) The demand
6) The amount of work by the website owner (joining forums, social networking groups, writing articles, adding new website pages, etc.)

The job of the SEO firm is to take the existing website, fix it for the search engines and market it, analyze it and market it, and repeat this process.. The job of the SEO firm is also to advise the website owner of what else he/she needs to do to market the website. NO website can be marketed effectively without the cooperation and participation of the website owner. Unless, of course, the SEO department is in house and is acutely aware and knowledgeable of the industry they are in.

So, the "kind of return" will depend on both the SEO firm AND the website owner.


Tell A Friend

FREE
Article Submissions
FREE
Web Page Content

Resources

Following are some resources that I can personally recommend!

Esther C. Kane
Eckweb Designs, Inc.

HostGator Website Hosting
We've been through several hosting companies and this one is by far the best we've encountered!

GroupMail
I love this program! It's so easy to use, extremely reliable and very affordable. I use this program to send out my newsletter notices, monthly marketing updates, etc.
Try it, I'm sure you'll love it!

PrintingForLess.com
For anything you need printed, this is the place to go!



Going Green
One of the hottest trends now and probably for the next few decades will be the concept of Going Green. Prepare yourself for a new way of life as our energy costs increase!
 



Market With
Crazy Holidays!

Celebrate Blueberry Month with a Blueberry Sale!

Offer Blue Sticker Specials, Blueberry Pie Contests, Blueberry Art exhibitions, etc!


atlanta cat adoptions



Submit Your Article
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!!



Better Web Site ROI
Through Search Engine Optimization




Editorial   

Editorial

Hello Everyone!

Lately, I've been listening to many podcasts about Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization. It's like listening to the radio while I'm working.

I listen to maybe 5-8 of them each day.

I have to tell you. I'm extremely disappointed in these podcasts. So many of them are just a group of people babbling about some inside joke or some personal matter. And when a question or comment finally does come up that's related to search engine optimization or internet marketing, it's extremely basic and pretty much, nothing new. In other words, that information has been on the Internet for a while.

If, by some chance, some new data does get spoken, it's a 30 second bite in a 30 minute long discussion of social talk.

So, either I'm listening to some terrible groups of podcasts or I just haven't found the podcasts that give the best information.

Guess what I'm getting at is that this venture of podcast marketing can be a great tool if it's done properly. It certainly goes to show that just because people can talk doesn't mean they can interview or run a podcast "show".

So, if you have a favorite podcast that you'd like to share with me, let me know! Email me and give me your list. I'll take a listen!

Sincerely,
Esther C. Kane
Eckweb Designs, Inc.
678.279.4228

Search Engine Optimization Services


Recommended Tools   

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!

New Cool Tool

iGoogle

This great tool gives me what I need at my fingertips! My IGoogle display has 3 tabs, so that means 3 different pages filled with the information I use every day. In addition, I can even great my own "gadgets" to share with other iGoogle users. What a GREAT and FREE way to advertise! Here's a video that shows you how iGoogle works.



The Buzz About Social Media   

12 Essential Tips For Success in Social Media

by Esther C Kane
Small Business SEO Services

Chris Kenton of (www.motivelab.com, wrote an excellent article titled, "12 Essential Tips For Success in Social Media".

For those of you who haven't delved into Social Media yet, you may be doing yourself and your business a great disservice. Think of it this way, Social Media on the Internet is the same concept as Network Marketing. Of course, there are some different rules because the medium is different but the concept is the same, as Chris states in his article, "The force that is driving social media is as old as business itself: word of mouth." Network marketing is all about meeting people and introducing people to who you know, or as they used to say at BNI (Business Network International) group meetings, introduce them to your rolodex!

So, without further delay, here's a summary of Chris Kenton's 12 Essential Tips For Success in Social Media.

1. Establish Clear Business Objectives and Metrics

When you begin a social media project make sure to outline what the goals are for that project and make sure that your goals are measurable. In this article, Chris reports at least 2 ways that companies are using social media projects to their advantage:

a) Companies wanting to reduce their costs of customer service by "enabling peer support through online forums"

b) Companies are "replacing expensive focus groups and market research with online customer forums and advisory boards."

2. Reframe Your Notion of Marketing Communications

Using social media as a marketing tool is NOT business as usual. And the sooner the business owner understands this, the more he/she will be able to get out of this venture.

In standard advertising and networking, the business owner has total control. The business owner decides the type of marketing campaign to run, the ads being shown, the look and feel of the campaign, the message, everything is controlled by the business owner.

But social media marketing, the business owner must understand that he/she is ASKING clients, vendors, etc. to participate in the marketing. The benefit of social media is that consumers rely on other consumers for feedback about the service, the product, etc.

In this article, Chris puts it very well by stating that, "Marketers need to see themselves not as owners of market share but as members of a market community, and their communications not so much campaigns as conversations with the market."

3. Clarify Your Positioning

Your company's mission statement is more important now than ever. When your employees are engaging in social media marketing, they are your "brand ambassador", they should be very clear about the positions of the company, the goals of the company and they should be able to represent the company just as the owner would.

4. Identify the Influencers

A social media campaign will bring in not only customers, but old clients, competitors and many others. All these individuals will have an influence on your bottom line. What they say, how they say it, where they say it will all play a part in the success or failure of your business. In the article, Chris summarizes this step by stating, "Being able to see beyond the scope of your own customer base to understand how your market is influenced is one of the most important advantages of a social media program."

5. Listen Before You Launch

Every blog, every forum has it's own natural rhythym. That rhythym is set by the group who are participating. Listen to that rhythym and join it, "use the available tools to keep your finger on the pulse of conversation and work your way into the natural flow."

6. Integrate Social Media With SEO

If your SEO firm is worthy any salt, they will be advising you to begin, or re-energize your blog. Why? Because blogging is an EXCELLENT, CHEAP and EFFECTIVE method of marketing on the Internet. As Chris states, "The combination of continually fresh content, extensive page inventory from individual blog posts, content expansion through comments and trackbacks, and incoming links from other blogs far surpasses the optimization potential of almost any static website."

He goes on to discuss the factors necessary to make your blog a success:

a) Keep focused on a "narrow set of relevant topics"
b) Keep your text focused on "relevant keywords and phrases"
c) Focus your copy on the individuals reading it.

7. Engage Your Audience

When you write a blog, or join a program like Twitter or Facebook or Linked In, you have to remember it's not a one way conversation between you and whoever is out there reading what you have to say.

In your blog and other social media writings, you should join in and engage others to join you in the conversation. Remember, these are called "social media" - implying that in order to be involved in them, you need to be social.

How can you do that? Link to other posts, ask questions, answer questions, keep up with the conversation. Don't just go to your Linked In account once a month, make it a point to converse with the individuals you meed online daily.

8. Engage Your Employees

Use what you have! Your employees are your ambassadors and each one of them should have an input into the marketing of your company. Chris' point in the article is true, "Everyone has a slightly different take on your market issues and a different way of trawling the Web to find things you can link to and leverage." Use that to your advantage. He goes on to advise, "Put together an editorial team of employees, and set a regular schedule to discuss content. Assign people to cover keywords or specific market groups, and keep the team up-to-date on what's being discussed in the blogosphere and where the opportunities might be today for linking and dialogue."

9. Engage Your Customers

The beauty of social media is that it gives the customer the opportunity to engage with you. Their opinion is listened to and taken into consideration. Your product or service may be used in ways you never anticipated. Your customers may provide you with insight into a new feature that you had not thought of implementing. You can use your customers to market for you by quoting their testimonials, engaging them to create their own commercials about your product/service, etc. Chris summarizes this section well when he writes, "...it's important to recognize that your customers are a fertile source of new ideas and innovations, and social media makes that source more accessible than ever."

10. Be Honest and Authentic

There is no "spin" in social media. In other words, don't try to fool the reader. They can easily investigate you online, find what others are saying about you, etc. And truth is, once you have some negative commentary about your company online, it's not so easy to escape it. So, be truthful, be honest and be authentic. It's just not worth it.

11. Define Metrics According to Business Objectives

The statistics and metrics available from social media marketing may not translate easily into your standard formula for ROI but this does not mean you should discount the venue it only means you need to create other objectives. As Chris writes in his article, "Get involved in defining what business outcomes are relevant for your social media program, and look for ways to measure progress toward the goal."

12. Fail Quickly. Fail Cheaply.

Like any new venture, start off small! You don't need the fanciest template for your blog, you don't need to hire 20 people to write on social media groups. Chris' article warns that "You're like to fail..." but take that failure to simply alter your course. Learn from your failure and begin again. If you, as the business owner, engage in the social media program yourself, you will be able to see how the system works. You will be able to engage your customers yourself and you will see, with your own eyes, the reputation your company has online. Only you can make a decision on how to use this information.

CONCLUSION

Social media directly challenges marketers to stop treating their markets passively. Social media forces companies to engage with their customers, listen to their customers, learn from their customers and utlimately, give to their customers what the customers are searching for.

This excellent by article Chris Kenton outlines the essential tips you need to engage in and succeed in a social media campaign. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and engage!!


Search Engine Optimization

Make Your Website Statistics Count

by Esther C Kane, Eckweb Designs, Inc.


At Eckweb, we pride ourselves on our low prices. Since we target small and home based businesses we KNOW that we can't charge the average $3000 - $10,000 set up fees and the average $300 - $700 monthly fees. How many small businesses can afford those rates? And even if they could, the ROI (Return On Investment) would be very low!

But even though our rates are low, we still get calls from potential clients asking us if we can lower the fees or "give them a break". Of course, we understand that they have not done their homework, they don't realize what other SEO firms are charging and they also don't realize the amount of work that is involved in this "SEO" thing.

So, I'd like to take some time and let you know, in this article, about one of the time consuming activities in the SEO business, the website statistics analysis and the monthly reports.

First, let me start off by saying that the majority of SEO firms only provide a ranking report.



That's to say they only provide the client with a report that shows them where the website sits in the search engines for each of the keyword phrases they are marketing. This is a nice report, it's not accurate, but it's nice. What the client's don't usually know is that this is an automatic report. In other words, once the information is typed into a program, the program generates the report automatically month after month. So, there's really no work involved except at the beginning of the account.

Why do I say this ranking report is not accurate? Because the ranking report is merely a "snapshot" of the ranking of the website at the moment the report is generated. One hour after the report is generated, or 2 days later or 3 weeks later, the rankings can be very different.

At Eckweb, we provide several reports "beyond" the ranking report. They are...

1) Traffic Analysis Report
2) New HOT Keyword Phrases
3) Keyword Review
4) Competition Review
5) Tips and Recommendations

In this article, we're going to discuss the work that goes into the Traffic Analysis Report.
At Eckweb, we use the Google Analytics tool for our traffic analysis. We review several different areas.

  • Number of visitors to the website
  • Length of time visitors spend on the website pages
  • Bounce rate from website pages
  • Sources of traffic
  • Geographical locations traffic is coming from
  • Paths visitors take through the website
  • Whether or not call to action buttons are being used
  • Are goals being reached
  • Which keyword phrases are converting into goals
  • Long tail keyword phrases

The traffic analysis report that we write for our customers is a simplified review on the highlights of the traffic. But the complete analysis of the report helps us to identify what areas of the website need help, what keyword phrases we need to improve on, etc. This information then goes into some of the other monthly reports.

Let's review in depth the "pieces of information" that every SEO firm SHOULD be reviewing to properly analyze a website. Oh, by the way, this work takes 5-6 hours per month, per customer.

1) Number of visitors to the website

In this section we like to look at the total number of visitors coming to the site for a certain month and also the number of NEW visitors coming to the site. Of course, the numbers will always be going up and down but the general overall trend should always be going up. IF the website owner heeds the advice of the SEO firm (if the SEO firm is giving any) then that number will always go up. IF the website owner does nothing, makes no additions to the website, blog or newsletter, well, the numbers may not change much at all.

2) Length of time visitors spend on the website pages (aka: stay rate)

Why is it important to know how long people spend on your pages? Well, if a page on your website has an average stay rate of 5 seconds and that page is filled with information, that should tell you that either the information is not correct, the information is not what the visitor wants, the information is presented poorly or maybe there's just too much information on that one page. This factor indicates that SOMETHING needs to be done to that page. Will that SOMETHING always bring a positive change? No. It's an experiment. The following month the stay rate may be shorter, then the SEO firm needs to try something else. It's impossible to know exactly WHY the stay rate may be short but the idea is to keep trying to figure it out. Websites are not meant to be static. And this is partly the reason why.

3) Bounce rate from website pages

Bounce rate is calculated when a visitor comes to a website page and then leaves the website entirely without going to any other page on the website. One website could have a bounce rate of 52% on one page and 12% on another page. Obviously, the page with a bounce rate of 52% needs to be looked at. Changes need to be made. Something can be wrong with that page. It depends on the page. If the page has all the information the visitor needs and the "call to action" is to pick up the phone and call, then that page may be doing that. But if the "call to action" is to make a purchase or contact the website via email then something is wrong with the page.

4) Sources of traffic

What search engines are visitors coming to you from? Ideally, it should be Google, Yahoo and MSN or ASK (in that order). Why? Because Google is used by about 60% of Internet users, Yahoo by 24% of Internet users, MSN and ASK by about 10% of Internet users so you obviously want the most traffic to come to you via the biggest search engine.

Also, what other websites are sending traffic your way? Are you getting traffic from your blog? From other blogs? From your articles? From ads in magazines, online advertising? You should track this. If you're paying $1000.00/year for an ad in a local online directory, you should find out how much traffic are they bringing you? Is the $1000.00/year worth it?

5) Geographical locations traffic is coming from

Where are visitors coming to you from? You may be surprised. One website we track, here at Eckweb, is based in Florida. They sell their products throughout the USA but their address is in Florida. Where do they get the most traffic from?

California! Specifically the southern part of California, near Los Angeles.

Why? Not exactly sure but we believe it's because of their product line. They sell several "bling" type items and we believe that the current "fashion trend" in that part of California may be these "bling" type of items.

How is this useful? If the website owner is investing in print advertising, radio advertising, tv advertising, they may want to consider doing this type of advertising in this part of California. Since, it seems, they have an audience there.

6) Paths visitors take through the website

When visitors enter a page on your website, it's useful to know where do they go next? If 85% of visitors coming to the home page go to the contact us page then you know that the information on the home page is enough to get the visitor to contact you.

When planning your website design, you should be considering how do you want your visitors to maneuver through your website? You need to think of every page of your website as a home page, in other words, the Internet viewer can enter your website from any page. So, from each page, where do you want that viewer to go? Are they going there? If not, why not?

7) Whether or not call to action buttons are being used

One of the features we love about Google Analytics is the site overlay. This is basically a visual "map" of each website page and the links on those pages. You can then take a look and see which links are being clicked on. If you have a button on a website page that says "Buy Today" yet 2% of viewers are clicking on that button, maybe they don't see the button. Maybe it needs to be larger, maybe it needs to be moved, maybe it needs more information.

8) Are goals being reached

Every website should have goals, after all, what's the point of tracking, changing, selling, marketing, advertising, etc. if you aren't tracking something?

So, what should you track?

  • sales
  • leads
  • pay per click ads
  • print ads
  • visitors from certain sites

If your website is not designed to track this information then you're really not providing your SEO firm with the information they need to make the best recommendations and changes to your website.

9) Which keyword phrases are converting into goals

When you track goals on Google Analytics, it will automatically let you know which keyword phrases are bringing in those sales. This gives you an idea of the "value" of the keyword phrases. And we have to tell you, the more specific the keyword phrases are, the higher the value. We know that many clients want to be Number 1 for a generic phrase but the truth is, those generic phrases rarely convert into goals.

10) Long tail keyword phrases

Always, always, always, the list of keyword phrases that Internet viewers find your website with are always filled with long tail keyword phrases. The majority of the list is made up of long tail keyword phrases. These are keyword phrases that are used 1 - 5 times to find your website. They are the infrequent keyword phrases. But the total number of those infrequent keyword phrases ALWAYS counts for a much higher number than the more popular keyword phrases.

So, the lesson here is to keep adding niche pages to your website. The more long term keyword phrases your website can be found for, the more traffic you will get.


Online and Offline Marketing Tips

Not Your Usual Marketing Tips

Visit Joel's blog!

Cookin' With Gas

Who knew chochkes would have such cachet?

Ad specialties are apparently – if not bigger and better than ever before – more popular than ever before.

Welcome to the pre-fireworks edition of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management

According to The Detroit News:

“The Advertising Specialty Institute, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, announced…results of its annual advertising specialties sales analysis indicating that industry revenues reached $19.6 billion in 2007 - up 5.4 percent from 2006 and a new record.”

Now check this out:

“Spending on advertising specialties, or promotional products - items and incentives branded with a company logo or marketing message - was 83% greater than radio advertising, 73% greater than Internet display ads and nearly five times larger than outdoor advertising for the same period. Industry increases also outpaced the 2.2% growth rate for the United States GDP.
"In today's climate of increasing economic uncertainty, purchasing decisions for advertising and marketing are being scrutinized closely," said (a company spokesperson). "Advertising specialties are a relatively safe advertising investment and are nearly recession-proof, because they provide a proven high return-on-investment at a low cost and have a lasting impact on target audiences.

"Promotional products offer an opportunity to creatively advertise a company or product," said Carol Constantino, president of Noteworthy Company. "Since the life span of a promotional product extends beyond a conventional ad, savvy marketers recognize value and ultimately extend their advertising dollars to reinforce an ad campaign with the diverse product lines that our industry offers."

Then comes this additional news item from the paper:

“A café…is doing it. So is a (local) hotel, a carmaker, an awning seller and a national golf club company. Even the American Red Cross is getting in on today's hottest giveaway gig -- free gasoline.

“With the price of gas shooting up more than 30 percent in the past year and now stuck above $4 a gallon, businesses are turning to the gas card as a way to get consumers' attention and increase sales. Business owners say they know free gas isn't necessarily the deciding factor for patrons looking to buy their wares or services, but they believe it makes people more inclined to stop and take a look.

"It's pushing our hot button activators," said Dave Regan, an advertising instructor at Michigan State University. "We're still looking for that deal -- for that break -- on gas."
Other types of money-saving promotions, such as discounts and rebates, have lost their luster because their novelty has worn off, he said.

"You've seen it, done it and used it. It's old." Gas cards, on the other hand, "stand out as something new," Regan said.


"On top of that, "people hate to spend their money on gas," said Richard Divine, instructor of marketing and hospitality services at Central Michigan University. "Gas cards may be more effective than saying 'I'm going to give you $4 off.' Businesses are putting a value on the savings they're giving you."

Hmmm…ad specialties humming along, and gas cards helping to “drive” them. A “not your usual marketing tip”…or something that may be more mainstream than we all realize? Either way, something to think about putting in your “tank” the next time you consider ways of promoting your services.


See you again the first Tuesday of next month for another sizzling-hot-for-summer “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


Video Of The Month

Remember those great Power Point presentations? Well, you can use that concept to create your video commercials! Just like this one.

Article Of The Month
Seniors and E-Commerce

JULY 15, 2008

Original Article on EMarketer.com

Heading to the store to research online purchases

Many studies in the US have focused on the relationship between online and offline retail sales. Typically, consumers comparison shop and get product information on the Internet before buying the product in a brick-and-mortar store.

However, new data from the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future examines the opposite situation: consumers ages 50 and over who have researched offline before making purchases online.

The researchers found that about two-thirds of consumers ages 50 to 69 had researched their online purchases in stores. More than one-half of consumers ages 70 and over had done so.

"Online seniors are a lucrative consumer segment that Web retailers cannot afford to ignore," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. "They have higher incomes and are more likely to be employed than seniors overall."



From 2006 to 2011, eMarketer estimates that the percentage of Internet users ages 62 and older will increase at a 7.6% average annual growth rate—more than twice the 3.1% growth rate for the entire US Internet population.

Researching in local stores overcomes the main objection to online shopping for all age groups: People like to see things before buying them.

Pew Internet & American Life Project researchers released data in February 2008 indicating that older consumers were less enamored of retail e-commerce's benefits than were younger consumers. So it makes sense that many of them use a multichannel approach to get the best possible retail experience.



The Internet is growing in influence for all parts of retail, both online and offline. Web-influenced sales will account for 28% of total retail sales in 2012, up from 18.7% this year.



Learn what's ahead for online merchants in the second half of 2008. Read eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth report.


Idea Of The Month

Information, Information, Information

The majority of Internet users use the Internet to find "information". Some estimates state that 90% of Internet users go to the Internet for information first before they go through the process of purchasing.

This makes sense. Think about yourself when you go shopping. If you're a savvy shopper, you'll do some research on a product before you buy it. Maybe you'll look for reviews of the product or type of product, maybe you'll research some prices from different stores, etc.

The same on the Internet. In fact, it's even easier on the Internet.

So, whatever it is you're selling, whether it be a product or a service, you should provide information for that product or service. That information can be placed on your website, on a press release, it can be generated on a blog, on a PDF report and then marketed, etc.

The idea is to establish yourself as the SOURCE for that information. If you're a divorce attorney in Colorado then you want to be the SOURCE of information for all things related to divorce in Colorado. So, whenever Internet viewers are looking for any divorce in Colorado related information, your name, your site(s), some connection to you is presented, over and over again.

Do you have an Internet Marketing Idea or Tip you would like to share?

Email us at...
info@theseolady.com

For Web Designers

Site Redesign: 4 Vital SEO Tips for Web Designers

By Mark Jackson, Search Engine Watch, Apr 22, 2008

Original article on SearchEngineWatch.com

Many times when companies consider a site redesign, they'll say, "We need a fresher look," or "We need to delete a lot of these garbage pages in our Web site." Their rationale may be that they need better -- marketing fluff -- content, or a more interactive Web site with Flash demos or things of that nature.

Rarely do you hear companies say, "We need to redesign our Web site because it wasn't built for SEO," or, "We need to be careful when we launch this Web site to make sure our search engine rankings don't drop due to changes."

If you find yourself in this position (undergoing a redesign) stop everything until you've read this column. The advice I'll give to you today will save you countless headaches, months of aggravation, and -- perhaps -- a lot of money in lost traffic/leads/sales.

Here are four absolute SEO essentials you'll need to consider in site redesign:

Information Architecture

When you're putting together your information architecture, you should be considering usability (first and foremost), but you should also be bringing SEO objectives into this portion of the project. Don't let SEO be something you do after the Web site has launched. That's backward.

Develop a set of keywords you know you want to focus on and make sure you're building a Web site that actually has pages devoted to the keywords. Having a ranking for a keyword is not happenstance. You need to have content in order to have any "meat" the search engines can chew on.

Also, don't "pare down" your Web site. Your new Web site should have more pages. You want the search engines to see your Web presence is growing, not shrinking. I've often seen a Web site with 100 pages relaunch with 500 pages do better because of the "tail" traffic (those additional 400 pages are getting direct traffic), and the Web site seems to get a bump in "authority" because the entire Web site has grown. I refer to this as the "Wikipedia" effect (that's a huge Web site, in case you didn't know).

Platform/URL Structure/Design

Many content management systems (CMS) cause problems with SEO. If you have a small Web site or a brochure Web site (e.g., lead forms), consider using WordPress as your CMS platform.

You can create search engine friendly pages, search engine friendly URLs, and light code with WordPress and many other CMS platforms. If you have unique needs from your content management system, ask your sales rep to give you examples of Web sites running on the platform. See if they have any organic rankings. Check several pages of these Web sites to see that they all rank. It's easy enough to get the home page to rank, but we need to make sure all of the pages are well indexed and able to rank, themselves.

Your design should allow for textual content for each page -- use text-based navigation (CSS), and be "light" code. Try to avoid "Flashterbation" (what I call using Flash for no real reason).

Content

Text on the page. Real text on the page, not "text in an image" we see all too often. It's possible to make the text "look good" (through CSS) so get over that internal objection. There are many schools of thought on this, but shoot for 400 words of content on the home page and 250 or so words on internal pages.

Launch

Don't launch your Web site until you've checked to make sure your entire legacy (old) pages/URLs are redirected to the new URLs. Riona MacNamara of Google Webmaster Central wrote an excellent post on Best Practices when Moving Your Site.

Your Web site structure/design/content has everything to do with whether your site will rank in search engines. Many "so-called" SEOs will let you believe it's all about the links pointing to your Web site. That's false. One very large brand I know of has a Google PageRank of 9, yet that site doesn't rank for any relevant keywords.

Like many large brands, they opted for a Flash Web site. The entire Web site is not in Flash, but the home page is 100 percent Flash. This is a company that could basically choose which keyword they'd like to rank for and, with just a little effort, they could be there in no time flat.

They hadn't given SEO a second thought. By changing their creative approach, and having their IT team spend about one day (at the most) implementing a design, they could be enjoying millions of dollars worth of "free" traffic within two months (an attainable estimate).

If you follow these simple steps, you should earn a raise from your boss. Your Web site will do much better in the search engines and you'll never realize the time/money you saved in the process.



Feel free to pass this this newsletter on to others who are interested in SEO! If you are not on our subscription list, complete our form and subscribe today! Eckweb Designs, Inc. is committed to protecting your privacy, we do not share or sell our email lists with anyone.

As a client of Eckweb Designs, Inc. you automatically are subscribed to this newsletter. However, if you wish to unsubscribe -- send us an email to: unsubscribe@theseolady.com

Or, if you wish to unsubscribe by mail: send us a postcard to:
Eckweb Designs, Inc. 1323 Riverview Run Lane Suwanee, GA 30024

If you have suggestions on improving this newsletter, please email us at info@theseolady.com

FeedPublish