Lots of lists focus on what you should do to improve your local SEO, but I recently ran across a list that hit on important things NOT to do. It was so good that I am just providing a link to it here: Local SEO – What not to do. I think you’ll find it valuable.
June 23, 2011
January 20, 2011
SEO copywriting in Omaha
A recent question came in from a friend who has delved into the world of SEO copywriting. I actually get this question a lot – on-site blog, separate blog, or both? Here’s my response:
Fresh content is always good, so if you already have the on-site blog, continue with that.
The benefit of adding the external blog to the mix – get some links coming in from an outside source. Other ways to accomplish this would be to get involved in a forum where you can leave a link in your signature, commenting on someone else’s blog post, submitting articles to ezinearticles.com or even establishing a relationship with another blogger to “guest blog” where you would have the chance to link to your site.
The inbound links provide a signal to the search engines that your site is relevant to the keywords you link it with, and often a handful of well placed links with strategically chosen key words can make a big difference for you.
Rather than maintain a second blog, you might be better off finding a couple of these other spots to link back to your site.
Hope that all makes sense, usually you can get me to talk for an hour or so about it if you just buy me a coffee too.
June 5, 2009
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.
February 27, 2009
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
February 18, 2009
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.
February 2, 2009
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.
January 27, 2009
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
January 21, 2009
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.
January 1, 2009
Setting Marketing Goals for 2009
Hope you all had a great year on, and off the web! If you have not already stopped to reflect on 2008 and ponder some goals for 2009, it’s not too late. You should write a quick plan for each web site you own and plan to dedicate time to seeing the plan through. I am doing it today, even though I have significant work that needs to be completed for clients. I feel that this activity is an important part of my online success for the year. Also, I want to put many of the things I have learned, and the ideas that Chris – a colleague of mine at CGMTechnologies.com – have come up with, to work. We are truly motivated to lose the day job, and help others along the way do the same thing.
If you are an internet marketer, or you have a brick and mortar store, setting these goals is good – they help you evaluate where you wish to focus your resources.
If you have a desire to learn Adwords, need someone to help you implement an SEO strategy or need consulting to help make any of your goals happen, I am in Omaha, and happy to help. As you think about your marketing for 2009, think of a a few outside the box strategies – here are a few that I am thinking of for the new year:
- Opt-in Text Messaging.
- YouTube videos – I can help you produce these and place them on video submission sites.
- Content Writing for SEO for local businesses.
- Directory submission for local businesses.
Call me if you would like info on how any of these strategies can work for you – on or off the web. Steve 402-210-3283
December 13, 2008
Do Follow Commenting on high PR blogs
Many times I get asked what the best way to get links from other sites. Do Follow comments provide some of the best links back into your site if done properly. Here’s a quick rundown:
Find some blogs or forums with high page rank that are do-follow (meaning the code is written such that the search engines will follow the link to your site)
Leave a comment or post with a link to your site, preferably in anchor text.
Things to do to ensure effective backlinks:
Leave valuable comments – there is NOTHING a webmaster hates more than spammy comments.
Comment on relevant posts to the content on your site.
Build slowly – Google looks at backlinks over time, if you all of a sudden have 500 in one day it looks fishy-spread them out over time.
How to find these links – I have launched a brand new site called SEMAddict.com – we have a free instructional video outlining a method on how to find the best pages for backlinking.