Archive for the 'Search Engine Optimization' Category
SEO with Linda Bustos at Northern Voice
Marketing consultant at Get Elastic, Linda Bustos led the SEO session at Northern Voice’s Internet Bootcamp using Kris Krug as an example. Kris is not only the president of Raincity Studios, he is also a very talented and passionate photographer. His site Static Photography does pretty well in Google ranking for a number of reasons:
- His main keyworks “Vancouver fashion and portrait photography” appear both in his title tag and main h1 tag
- His site uses blog software which is better for search engines than a static site since it can be updated frequently
- His links are keyword rich including his navigation links. For examples, instead of using fashion he uses “fashion photography”, instead of event he uses”event photography.
Kris also uses social media networks to promote his photography. The most obvious choice as a photographer is Flickr. By uploading his pictures on Flickr, Kris can share his images with others, tag them and insert keywords in his titles. Flickr also allows you to create a profile page, where a photographer can put information about their skills, link to their site and post testimonials.
It may seem like a lot of work, but these few simple tips can boost your traffic and help promote your site.
Put your business on the Google map
Here’s an easy way for bricks and mortar businesses to reach new customers. Use Google Maps to point them to your front door!
When potential customers search Google Maps for information about a business in a specific area (e.g. Flower shop in Vancouver), they will find details like a business description, address, hours of operation, methods of payment, unique services, and even a coupon or a photo of your storefront.
It’s easy, free and takes just a few minutes to set up your business with Google Maps.
Once you’re registered, Google Maps will send you a postcard to confirm your address before adding the listing. This may take a few weeks. When your business is on Google Maps, you can update or edit your listing at any time to improve its effectiveness.
To meta or not to meta? That is the question.
As promised, here is a first post by guest blogger Louise Desmarais from Mud Creative. We’re looking forward to reading Louise’s tips and advice on search engine optimization and writing copy for the web.
– Christine
Oh, those temperamental search engines. It used to be that meta tags (information about a web page that is not visible on the browser) were the sweet spot to bait search engine spiders. Now it seems they are more attracted to the title tag (the words that appear in the grey/blue bar at the very top of the browser window). Does that mean we don’t have to worry about meta tags anymore?
You could do without it, but then you might be missing out on an opportunity to influence how your web site page is described in the search engine results page (SERPs). Jill Whalen of High Rankings says, “It’s important to note that the search engines are always playing around with what they display as the descriptions for any given URL in the search engine results pages, so you may see something other than what I see.”
In other words, sometimes the engines draw from the visible page content, and sometimes from the meta tag information – even if it doesn’t have keyphrases in it. So, if there was nothing in your meta tag, the engine may draw from other places, like alt tags on photos or random blog copy, which probably doesn’t say enough about your website. Your best bet is to cover the bases with good meta tags that accurately reflect your page and entice the visitor to drop in for a closer look.
Web Marketing is about Serving Searchers
If you’ve read our blog for a while you might have noticed we often quote Gerry McGovern. His article Honest Marketing Works on the Web contains not only a good rant about the frustrations of airline ticket pricing, but some words of wisdom as well:
The Web shifts the balance of power away from the organization and towards the customer. It is the customer who searches. It is the customer who compares. It is the customer who evaluates. It is the customer who is highly impatient, with their finger always on the Back button.
Web marketing is not about finding fools. It is rather about serving searchers. We go to the Web because we have a question and we want an answer. Please answer the question, Mr. Marketer.
The importance of the text on your website cannot be overstated. You might be tempted to focus on how pretty or cool-looking it is. But if your text isn’t doing it’s job, there’s less of a chance that people will find the site in the first place or stick around once they get there. Here are some of the things we recommend to make the most of your site’s content:
- Ensure the important text is visible to search engines in the way the site is built. Your site should be built with current web standards and including text alternatives to any images or flash that contain important text.
- Avoid linking to PDF or Word documents, which the search engines can’t scan as well as a web page (if at all).
- Consider using the services of a professional writer who’s experienced with writing for the web and search engine optimization of content.
- Aim for a design that supports the text rather than undermining it. Part of that is making it easy-to-use: clear navigation, standard scrollbars, allowing the text to be resized without breaking the design, etc.
Why Use Alexa Widgets?
I was recently asked for my insights into Alexa widgets and in which situations a company would use these on their web page. I thought this would be a good forum to share the answer……
Alexa is a web information company that provides users with web search, toolbar functionality and services that allow visitors and web developers to track traffic ranking and to compare the results with other pertinent sites. The company has a suite of additional add-ins that developers can use on websites: to facilitate search; add thumbnail images of websites; customise the toolbar, to publicize traffic ranking via widgets and generate reports.
An Alexa widget allows visitors to see how the website ranks:
a) in a graph comparing sites
b) in a button showing simply traffic rank or
c) in a button showing site stats (links in and rank).
To set this up simply enter the website you want to track: the code is automatically generated for you to cut and paste into your website where ever you want it.
The widgets would be put to best use by companies with a loyal following on their site or those that are quickly increasing in rank. Bear in mind that Alexa tracks this data using their toolbar so the search results will only include Alexa traffic - making the results rather skewed.
Have you had any success with Alexa widgets?
Why should you care if your website is built with tables or CSS?
Yesterday, I was invited to have lunch at Twin Fish Creative’s monthly staff get together. Since, I’ve been doing a lot of work with them, I thought I would take the opportunity to explain what I do to their Photoshop files and more specifically how CSS is used.
What’s this CSS?
HTML tags were originally designed to define the content of a document. They were supposed to say “This is a header”, “This is a paragraph”, “This is a table”, by using tags like <h1>, <p>, <table>, and so on. The layout of the document was supposed to be taken care of by the browser, without using any formatting tags.
Want to get the most from Wordtracker?
Have you ever wondered how experts use Wordtracker to keep their clients’ sites at the top of the search engine results pages? What can you learn from their methods? How can you apply their strategies to your own website to get outstanding results? The folks at Wordtraker have put together a 75 page e-book full of insight, tips and techniques on keyword research. This guide is a great resource for anyone wanting to get the most out of keyword research.
Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
When your potential customers search the web, what keywords are they searching for? Wordtracker has launched a free Keyword Suggestion Tool that can help you determine the best search-engine friendly words to use on your site. It has two key benefits:
- lists some similar phrases which, used on your site, increase your chances of showing up when those customers are searching
- estimates how often people search for keyword phrases
Try it out - you might be surprised how a little word-tweaking will make your site more relevant to how customers are thinking.
Cheap at Heart: Search Optimization
Web Content Management consultant and author, Gerry McGovern offers us these valuable tips when writing website content with search engine optimization in mind.
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Search Engine Strategies
In April, Louise Desmarais, President of Sandbox Creative, was among a handful of copywriters who spent two days in Toronto immersed in the world of optimization at the Search Engine Strategies conference. She came away from this amazing experience with some valuable information and would like to share it with you.
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