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Quick Wordpress SEO
This is an excerpt of an email I sent to a friend about SEO on their Wordpress site. They had the XML Sitemap Generator installed, and the All In One SEO pack, so the assumption is that you start with this.
1. Make sure you go to Google Webmaster tools and acutally submit the Site Map. I can expand on this if you need me to, it will require a small amount of technical knowledge to complete it.
2. Make sure you fill out the All In One SEO pack info by: 1. Setting the default Title, keywords and Description for the home page - you should do some key word research to find out what people of this demographic are searching for on the theme of your site, ie. if the key phrase is “Christian Child Rearing” you should be including that phrase in your posts on a regular basis. For the Title, use only 90 characters, For the description, use only 160 characters, for the Key Words, use only 6 to 10 of the most important ones, nothing extraneous, the second part of this is, for each post, do the same thing, by clicking on “All In One SEO Pack” at the bottom of the post page, and fill in the information using key words specific to your post.
3. Make the title of your post contain key words, and repeat them in your post.
That’s the “On-site” optimization.
Off-site:
Submit your RSS feed to FeedAg.com and other RSS feed aggregators - if you google you will see many of these.
also, you can use a service called Pingoat.com - do it after each blog post.
Join Technorati and BlogCatalog - these are pretty good ones.
Send your feed to your Facebook profile - each new post gets put up for all your friends to read.
Leave Comments on other people’s blogs with a link to your own within the key words that you are trying to optimize for - ie if you were trying to optimize for “baby devotions” you would link the words “baby devotions” by using <a href=”http://www.excellentbabyblog.com”>baby devotions</a> - Do this as often as possible - it really does work.
That’s the quick rundown - it’s not easy, and I don’t know what kind of traffic you are getting now, but if you do all that you should see an increase. Also, consistency in your blog will get you a following, especially if it is a niche topic - lot’s of times a broad topic will not attract loyal followers - try picking 6 topics, rotate between them - if you post 3 times a week you will write about each topic 2 times in a month - continue with the same 6 topics (which - if researched to find out what people are searching for-say “baby strollers”) you will start to see the site come to the top for those specific topics, rather than if you only write one post every 6 months on any given topic. Keep in mind that “Content is King” in the internet world and it does mostly come to that. Frequent updates (3 times a week is good) and 300 words or so per post are good.
Email Marketing and The CAN SPAM Act
I recently had an Email marketing clients had some questions about the CAN SPAM Act. In a nutshell, here are some of the high level things that you must do to comply with the law:
Your email’s To and From must match with the header information and domain.
No deceptive subject lines
You must have an opt-out method clearly available.
Clearly marked as an advertisement
Include the marketer’s physical address
Complying with these basic bulk emailing rules will help you both in the eyes of the government, and your prospective clients you are marketing to - they will see your emails as professional and thus your emails will be more effective.
For even greater effectiveness, make sure you are using opt-in or double opt-in with any of the excellent email systems available on the web.
Is your Web Site Mobile Ready?
I am increasingly noticing mobile browsers showing up in the stats of my local web sites. Is your site ready and available for mobile - iPhone, Blackberry or other phones?
A mobile site is a good thing to add to your existing site for your mobile user’s convenience. A mobile site is much lighter in its code and graphics. This makes it load faster and delivers to the mobile user only the most pertinent information about your business or service. The mobile site should also be designed to fit the variety of screen sizes for mobile users.
Adding a mobile site to an existing site is perhaps the best way to make your site mobile ready, with a button on your home page to direct the user to the mobile version of your site. There is also code that you can put at the beginning of your page to detect a mobile browser - also a good solution.
If you have questions about getting your site up to speed, allowing it to be seen clearly on “the third screen” give me a call!
Steve - 402-210-3283 in Omaha.
Facebook - Social Networking and Marketing - do they go together?
Lots and lots of blogs have been written about this medium of marketing - I really don’t know where to begin.
I recently helped a non-profit ministry get started with a Facebook profile, and helped them start a group. One notable problem - the gentleman had not taken other advice about being consistent with e-mail newsletters, blogging and other types of on-line presence. He was thinking that Facebook would be the “silver bullet” so to speak.
Well…suffice it to say, it still takes consistent effort to gain friends and update your group page, etc. Not something that this person is willing to commit to, unfortunately. If you want to do some of this type of marketing, you must be willing to put effort into it and grow your online reach by working it several times a week - it is a social medium that builds relationships. If you, as the principal of your business can not commit to this, you should consider appointing an employee to do it, or hiring it done. Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks can be a very powerful medium for your marketing without a lot of expense if implemented properly. I know of several local Omaha businesses who are doing this very successfully.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Limited Time SEO special
Right now I am offering an Search Engine Optimization Package that is Available for a Limited Time Only.
For Just $599…
You get:
- A 1 hour Face to face meeting
- Page Title Tags Generation
- Keyword Research and Selection
- META description and marketing tags
- Geographical target market tags
- Main Content Suggestions
- 1 Custom Written Article & Syndication
- Submission to top search engines and directories (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
- Entry into Google Maps
The above steps will drastically improve your site’s overall “search engine friendliness” as well as letting the search engines know your site even exists!
It will also help drive quality, targeted traffic to your site - which turn into quality, targeted leads!
This is a trial promotion that I am offering to only a select few and it is available through Friday, March 6th!
Call me at 402-210-3283 for this special package - Steve
Permission-Based Marketing
Permission-based marketing is kind of a buzz-word in the marketing world these days, but it is a truly important concept to your business.
Opt-in email lists are one source of marketing that should not be overlooked. When a customer opts in to your list, they are granting you permission to market to them. The customer has initiated a relationship with your business and wants the information, products, or services that you have to offer.
The concept is powerful because the customer has requested the relationship because of their interest in your orgainzation and will respond at a much higher rate to your advertising and marketing directed at them because of this.
I won’t speak much about Text Message Marketing, but it is a growing concept in marketing, reaching a different demographic. Convergence of technologies is making the cell phone a viable marketing medium.
Please contact me for a free consult on your email marketing plan, or even the text marketing idea…you will be hearing much more of this very soon! Steve 402-210-3283
Your Website Code and SEO Part 2
It’s been a while since I have posted, but I wanted to follow up on this topic that I started about SEO and your website code and how they are inter-related.
In part 1 we covered SEO as it pertains to some of the code to display javascript and flash. Let me preface this post with the statement that nothing can replace good text content with any type of coding when it comes to SEO.
Today, I will cover some of the basics of Tags and Titles and why they are important. Several tags that are important are: <title>, <meta name=”description” content=”your page description”/> and <h1> - These tags provide crucial information to search engines as to the topic of the page and how it should be indexed for relevancy to the searcher. They should all support each other (and the content of the page) and not be “stuffed” with irrelevant key words.
If you need help with this, I can provide an overview of your site and some suggestions for optimization both on-site and off-site, which we will cover in another post. Please contact me if you are in Omaha, Nebraska and want an SEO evaluation of your site.
Your Website Code and SEO Part 1
One of the first steps in the SEO process (and I always check the code before I meet in person with a customer here in Omaha) is to make the code as SEO friendly as possible. A quick checklist:
- Is there lots of flash code?
- Is the site built in Frames?
- Is there a lot of javascript, especially for the navigation
Those are the big 3. If Fireworks or Dreamweaver was used to construct the navigation, it is readily apparent, and very unfriendly to the search engines. Additionally, lots of graphic designers don’t know the difference between CSS menus and ones constructed from tables/javascript swap images - now, I am getting a little technical here, but these are important questions to ask your designer - it means the difference between a site that looks like a million bucks but gets no traffic, and one that can actually be indexed by Google efficiently.
If you have a web designer who is more designer than technical, that’s where I usually come in. I can fix some (but not usually all) without a major overhaul. Some issues require much more work, so I like to prioritize your changes, give some options, and work with the web or graphic designer to remedy the problems.
In my next post, I will address some other important code issues that should be addressed in the on-site SEO process.
I am an Omaha SEO professional who loves helping small businesses locally, give me a call if you would like to learn more about either do-it-yourself SEO or help with an SEO plan for your business.
SEO In Omaha - do businesses see the value in being found?
I have been working with several businesses in Omaha who have hired me for my online marketing expertise, either in the PPC arena, or for SEO services. Several things amaze me when I speak to new clients - usually, they don’t understand the value of the SEO process, since oftentimes it involves changes to their website. The average business owner does not understand the on or off site processes.
On site processes to SEO:
- Tags, Titles and code changes
- Content, copy and key words
- links and urls
Off site Processes for SEO:
- Backlinks
- Directory Listings
- Blog comments
These processes should both have attention paid to them as they are important to the overall site optimization.
All of these, of course, take time and energy to accomplish, and I always say you should put at least half of your online budget towards some form of SEO. It takes time and skill to get your site found on the net. Please call me if I can be of assistance in your SEO program. Steve 402-210-3283
SEO - The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Ever got an email or phone call from a telemarketer that “Guarantees they can make you number one in Google”? Hopefully you are internet savvy enough to recognize that this is most likely a bad business decision at best and a scam at worst. I have seen too many people who are desparate to optimize their site who fall for this.
Bad SEO companies use black hat techniques that could get your site banned from the major search engines.
Good SEO companies: All I can say is choose one who can sit down with you locally, they are not doing black hat techniques on your site and they can do the appropriate research to help you. If you choose someone local, they can sit down with you and explain their methodology.
Yes, SEO is worth paying for, involve a local professional! I am in Omaha and willing to help! Steve 402-210-3283
If you are looking for a technology consultant in Lincoln, Nebraska, be sure to look up David Hefley at Meridian Consulting.
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