I was excited to test Google’s new browser “Google Chrome” and have spent a better part of today testing it. I have decided not to set it as my default browser on both of my computers but I have downloaded it on one so I can continue to watch and test it. It is in BETA right now and I usually make it a rule not to change to something permanent until it is out of BETA.
This is my opinion so far…
· I really like its clean design…no more messy toolbars cluttering my space.
· Seems to be a quicker when searching.
· I love the fact that each of your searches operates in a new session which means if you visit a site that crashes your browser only that search session will close.
· I still rely on some of the old Google toolbar settings which do not come with Chrome so that is a disappointment.
· I do a lot of Social Media Marketing and use Stumbles Toolbar to “Stumble” sites. With Chrome there are no options to install additional toolbars.
· Chrome only works on Windows XP and Vista.
As far as I can tell with the testing I did today this browser is perfect for someone who likes the simplicity of a clean and tab browsing. But it does have many new features that you may enjoy. Go give it a try…download it and check it out and let me know what you think.
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Blog Posts – This involves getting respected bloggers to write about you or your website. In addition to the benefit of having the topics discussed by recognized “experts,” often they will link back to your website within relevant text with an appropriate anchor text link.
Press Release Marketing – Press releases are a marvelous way to increase the visibility of your website. They get your news and information in front of a potentially limitless audience through targeted distribution.
Article Marketing - Article marketing actually provides two benefits: it gives you contextual links back to your website and it allows your site to become the authority on a given topic. Because those who read articles you’ve written on a particular subject are generally following a link because they are already highly interested in the topic, traffic to your site will convert better than typical search traffic. It’s crucial that you provide articles that are informative, nut just fluff, and that you place them on high quality sites that are respected.
Blog Comments – Commenting regularly on relevant blogs can be a great source of traffic and links for your websites.
Bookmarking – Getting your site noticed on sites social media marketing that rate sites for their quality and interest can lead to impressive as web surfers visit and vote. Be sure you’re bookmarked on these popular sites for lots of incoming links.
Directories – Directories are pretty straightforward – steer clear of those that will accept everyone one and look for those that have editorial reviews. The more discriminating the directory site, the better the ranking you’ll get by being associated with that particular directory. If the directory has particular standards you need to meet and a review process before you can be accepted, it’s a good sign that the directory is a respectable one.
Videos – YouTube and other sites allowing you to post your own videos with links back to your site are great ways to increase traffic to your site. These days there’s no predicting what videos will go viral, and short “how to” videos are an excellent way to educate viewers and build trust.
Social Media Marketing – On Google’s own webmaster forum social links were recognized as a valuable source for inbound links – you can’t find a much better advocate for the validity of this source of incoming links. Because of the informal, social-based nature of this form of marketing, search engines tend to trust these links.
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Being a professional search engine optimizer instructor I am always on the look out for new affordable SEO tools that I can share with my students. Google just launched a free analytics took called Google Insights.
Being able to follow your Web site trends and targeting the correct keywords if half the battle when it comes to fighting the rankings war on the Internet. I am a long time user and follower of Wordtracker but I do realize many of my students just starting out in their SEO skills are on a limited budget and may not being able to afford the yearly subscription fee. There are many free analytics tools out there but what Google is offering for free is spectacular.
As long as you have a Google account you can access their new tool for free and be able to down load excel spreadsheets of your research. It has some great features to help you understand search behaviors and even has a world heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest.
Go check it out…. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
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Are you becoming frustrated with all the challenges you face keeping your Web site competitive on the Internet?
If so I have a great collection of techniques, tips and proven SEO tactics that you can apply to your Web site right away.
Leave the workshop with 6 months free SEO Mentoring and a personalized Web site audit performed on your site during class. You will leave the workshop and know exactly what your next steps to a successful Web site will be!
Visit our Web site for a complete agenda for the 3 Day SEO Workshop.
Join me in North Charleston, South Carolina for our next SEO 3 Day Workshop, September 16, 17 & 18th, 2008.
Read what last months students had to say about the workshop…
The expertise offered by Tracy is incredible! Her knowledge and the success of her work on SEO instills confidence. - Vickie G.
Great, specific and immediately useful information thanks to the personal atmosphere and the earnest concern of the instructor! - Joe S. -
I feel very excited and encouraged for the vast improvement I can supply my future and current clients. The teaching approach suits my learning style perfectly. - Denese S.
Not being a Web Designer, I liked the fact that I could look at ways to improve my Web site and optimize it that I could understand. It’s not too technical and incredibly useful. Vickie G.
Discover the Powerful New SEO in You!
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If you are anything like me I notice any minor changes in my SEO efforts and this morning I did notice a slight change in some page ranks throughout some of the sites I work on. I had not even had a change to read through my feeds but if I had I would have read one that came from Matt Cutts from Google the end of last week.
His latest post informed us of that Google had updated plans to update PageRank last week and this is the cause for the changes. Before anyone panics this data refresh should have any effect on your rankings. By the time we see the newer PR in the toolbar those values have already been incorporated in how we rank in the search results.
Let me explain how Google calculates and updates PageRank. Every 3-4 months they take a snapshot of PR values and export them so the new values are visible in the Google Toolbar. They calculate PR by indexing data about your site such as backlinks, current PR and directory data.
So what happens if you are not happy with your current or new page rank?
Then this is the time to start working on your PR for the next data refresh that will happen in a few months.
You can start by making sure your site is linked and added to industry related directories throughout the Internet. If you are not included on Yahoo!’s or Go Guides Directory that would be a good place to start. You can also start working on building those incoming links. Work on getting sites to link to you that have a PageRank of 4 or above and are authorative sites.
One thing to remember…PageRank is not all what it is cracked up to be. Even though I do check my PR’s every so often and do notice when they have changed I do not stress over the numbers. I continually create high quality content that people naturally want to link to and if I keep my focus on that then PR will come as an extra bonus.
You can read Matt Cut’s post at: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-pagerank-update/
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It’s been a long time since I have addressed Google’s Page Rank. It almost seems as if it has fallen off the face of the Internet. It defiantly is not as important as it used to be but there are still some factors to using a pages PageRank to help build link popularity to your site.
In the days of old everyone was concerned with a pages rank. We are seeing a shift away from this and concentrating on other things like Social Media Marketing.
Today PageRanks most important element is the effect it has on a pages in-coming links. The PR of the page itself does not have as much influence as it used to for helping in ranking for specific keyphrases. However, the PR of an in-coming (keyphrase-relevant) link does help with ranking for that specific
keyphrase.
So what does this really mean for you? It means that you should look at the sites you are trying to get to link to you. Look only for those Web sites that are industry related and have a PageRank of 4 or higher. Those are the pages that are going to benefit you the most in building your link popularity.
As far as internal links goes the PR of your internal pages help with internal linking and, therefore, the way you pass and distribute Google PR throughout your site via absolute vs. relative URLs does make a small difference on ranking.
So you should still be concerned a little bit about your internal linking by always choosing absolute linking vs. relative linking for your internal pages and always look for those sites that link to you that have a PR of 4 or higher.
Would you like to learn more SEO techniques to apply to your Web site? Sign up for one of our 3 Day SEO Workshops today and take your Web site to the next level!
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I watched a short video the other day with Jeffery Graham interviewing Matt Cutts from Google. They were talking about some basic things you can do to help Google index and find your pages faster. They are common things but we often get so tied up with trying to figure out the hard stuff we forget to check and make sure our pages have some of the basic SEO techniques applied to them first.
#1 - Are you giving people what they are looking for? Have we really sat back and thought about what people will be typing in when they are coming to our site. Have we done any keyword research to back up our choice of keywords and keyword phrases? I know for a fact that many of my students will come to one of our seo workshops and say they want to come up in the SERP’s for a particular keyword phrase but when I look at their site they have not even included that word on the site.
This is the most basic tip. Include the words you want to come up for in your text starting with your title tag and description tags. Your title tag is the first impression someone gets of your site and if the words they are looking for is include in the title and snippet of information ( the description tag) they first see in the SERP’s it will defiantly give you a better chance of them clicking on your site. Give your users exactly what they are looking for and you will be automatically building trust and confidence in your site from the get go.
#2 - Incoming links and more incoming links - Most of my students struggle with this fact but Matt Cutts made it real simple. He suggested that if you are struggling with getting industry related links pointing back to your site start a blog!
Blogs are great way to participate in the on-line community while adding good rich content to your site. If your start posting about things that interest you about your products or services or even you industry other people will find it interesting as well. Blogs work like a big viral marketing plan. One blog post can be linked to another which can be picked up by another blogger and the virus goes on and on. Linking will come natural without you having to try very hard if you start blogging about what you know….your industry! Blogs also help add pages to your site and helps in adding fresh content to your site on a regular basis. We know that Google loves fresh content so this is a no brainer.
#3 - Matt stated that one misconception to Google’s indexing policy was that it takes months for a new site to get indexed on Google. He said that this is highly unlikely and that it usually only takes them less than a month. They refresh their data base about once a month now and if you take advantage of your Google Webmaster tools and submit a Google XML sitemap it may take even less some days within days.
Again these are just a few basic SEO tips that you can apply to your Website today. If you would like to receive tips like this on a daily basis please feel free to signup for our SEO Tips of the Day.
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A couple weeks ago I posted a Blog on Google Speaking out on Duplicate Content Issues, I am back today to address that topic once again. There a few things that I can make clearer for you to help you keep the duplicate content penalty from getting you.When checking your site make sure you look for these items these are things that set off a red flag for duplicate content:
- canonical issues (www and non-www version);
Search engines may think www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com are two different sites. You should set up a permanent redirect (technically called a “301 redirect”) between these sites. Once you do that, you will get full search engine credit for your work on these sites. By correctly configuring a permanent 301 redirect, the search rankings might improve as all inbound links are correctly counted for the website. Check Link Split at: http://www.marketleap.com/
- pagination when different pages have identical titles and meta description;
Each page of your site should have a unique set of Title, Description and Meta tags that clearly represents the content on that page.
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various versions of the home page (e.g. www.site.com and www.site.com/index.php);
This is an easy one to over look. All your home links should point back to a absolute link such as http://www.yoursite.com vs. http://www.yoursite.com/index.html
There is a free tool I found that will help you identifying if your site has duplicate content. It will check the following:
- www and non-www header response;
- Google cache check;
- Similarity check;
- Default page check;
- 404 header response;
- PageRank dispersion check (i.e. if www and non-www versions have different PR).
Check it out: http://www.virante.com/seo-tools/duplicate-content.php
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Online you only have a few seconds to capture your visitor attention before they fall victim to “back button syndrome”. It is a big fear of everyone who concentrates on attracting visitors to a web site. We all fail prey to the disease everyday we use the Internet.
I am sure you all can think of multiple occasions just within the last couple days where you were disappointed, overwhelmed, disillusioned and frustrated at results you got when surfing the net.
When users come to your site for the first time they immediately want verification that you are delivering what they are looking for – this happens within the first 10 seconds of landing on your site. In those 10 seconds you must impress, validate and earn their confidence that you are truly offering what they are searching for.
So what can we do to make sure your visitors are staying on your site once they have arrived? You can break it down into 4 segments and address each one of them on your own site to make sure you are making a great first impression and not creating more “back button syndrome.”
To begin with it is not always about the design of your site but encompasses many factors like SEO, Marketing, Design and Research.
Let’s break down the 4 elements of keeping a visitor on your site.
#1 SEO – The Pathway into Your Site
There are many different ways someone can come into your site:
They can do a search and find their way in from a search engine results page. -The most powerful way one can capture some ones attention is in the title that shows in the SERP’s (search engine results pages.) The title that you set on your Web page is the same title that normally shows in the SERP’s. This title is the first impression some one gets of your site before they have even visited it.
Think about the way you search…you type in a keyword phrase into a search bar and you scan the results on the first couple pages. You make your decision based mainly on what the tile says and you only click through once they have impressed you with the way they have described what you may find on their site.
You need to make your title jump off the page and stand out above all your competitors.
Your keyword phrase needs to appear in your titled but the clue to improving your click through rates is to include both a benefit and clicking trigger to the equation.
They can follow a link from a referring site. -The text that surrounds the linking text that points back to your site goes a long way in building confidence in your site. If you have industry related Web sites pointing back to your site it is a way of verify your information.
They can find you through paid advertising links. -As the same as your title in the search engine result pages your paid advertising must have a message that stops a web searcher and makes them click on your ad. Your ad must clearly state what the user will find when clicking through to your site. Your landing page must deliver what the ad has promised.
#2 – DESIGN
As soon as visitors first encounter your site, they will form an immediate first impression…usually within the first 10 seconds. Your goal for these first few seconds is to orient your visitor and make them feel that the site is worth exploring. Remember you are trying to impress, validate and earn their confidence in them sticking around. Your ultimate goal is to get them to click on a link and go deeper into your site.
Exciting designs are always a nice visual but unless they engage the visitor to crawl deeper into your site they will immediately suffer from “back button syndrome.”
Let’s talk about a few design elements that will help in keeping your Web site sticky enough to keep your visitors.
- Visual – Do your graphics match your target audience? -Graphics affect the user’s behavior when they first come to your site. The graphics should clearly portray which ones are interactive and help guide a visitor through your site. People are generally lazy and need text broken up but related photos or graphics.
- Are the colors of your site portraying the right message? It’s no secret that website color schemes are a vital component of web design. If you’re just beginning to design, I should say that it may become no secret when the website you’re building seems to have the right elements, the design works … but somehow it doesn’t look quite right. It may be that the color scheme is a bit “off”.If so, that’s what your website visitors will perceive. They may not know why, but it won’t look right to them. Thus, website color schemes form a vital part of your visitors’ impression of your website.
- Are your links easy to follow or does it take to long to understand what their next step should be?
Web visitors see so many messages these days that most rely on a site’s architecture to guide them through your site. You almost have to treat your internal links like a walk through the park. Hold your visitors hand and walk them through each step along the path. Make it easy for them to stay on the trail by creating breadcrumbs or clearly defined choices.
- Can someone figure out what the mission of the site is within just a few seconds?
I am referring mainly to making sure your visitor clearly knows what your site is about all above the fold of your home page. Convince your visitor that you have delivered exactly what they are looking for and they will stay on your site and crawl deeper.
#3 - MARKETING
Sales Copy – Writing Effective Sales Copy for Your Web Site A professional looking web site is a very important part of making sales. However, if your sales copy is weak, your web site will be useless. Writing effective sales copy is simply learning how to write persuasive words specifically written for your target audience. You must feel your potential customers’ needs and write your copy with passion, excitement and benefit.
- Writing A Catchy Headline - This is the most important part of your entire sales copy. Not only should you include your Keyword Phrase is your headline you also must write a headline that demands attention and forces your visitors to read on. Most of your visitors will only read your headline. If it doesn’t instantly grab their attention, they’ll soon hit the back button.
- Writing Your Beginning Summary - Once you’ve captured your potential customers’ attention, you’ll now need to direct their attention to your summary Keep your summary brief and to the point and let them know exactly what you are about to offer them.
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Use Plenty of Subheadings - Subheadings are basically just smaller headlines used to break up your text blocks. They also provide your readers with important highlights of your paragraphs. Use plenty of subheadings throughout your copy, as not all your visitors will read your copy word for word. They’ll simply scan it and only read what catches their attention.
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Build Confidence - That trust worthy feeling you get on a Web site goes a long way in keeping your visitors focused on your product. Provide a limited time free trial or download, add trust building logos, offer a money back guarantee all these will help build your potential customers’ confidence in you and put their mind at ease.
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Call for Action - Ask for the order and provide an easy ordering process. Continue to reassure your potential customer and lead them to your order page.
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Provide Testimonials - Testimonials provide another great way to reassure your visitors. Blend your testimonials in with your sales message. Avoid making your visitors have to click to another page to view your testimonials — chances are they won’t. By blending your testimonials in with your sales message, you can ensure they will be read.
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Writing Your Copy - Now, you’re ready to begin filling in the spaces. When you begin writing your paragraphs, get straight to the point, avoid negativity and hype, and write in small sections. Vary the paragraph sizes and limit each paragraph to four or five lines max. If you feel that your paragraph will be longer than four or five lines, try to use bullets to display important points.
In addition, write in an everyday language that everyone can understand. Make sure you use plenty of white space. White space is the empty space between your paragraphs and around your text. You don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with a solid page of black text. Nothing will make them click away any faster.
Pack your sales copy with benefits from your headline straight through to your order form. Make sure you don’t confuse features with benefits. Features don’t sell… Benefits sell. Your visitor wants to know exactly what your product or service can do for them.
#4 – RESEARCH – Focus Your Design on Personas
Before embarking on any website design project, it is important to understand the needs of your users. It is then possible to identify the features and functionality that will make the website a success, and how the design can support users with different goals and levels of skill.
Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behavior.
A good way to get a good handle on your visitors is to create two or three personas that would best describe the audience you are trying to attract to your site. A persona is a brief fictional biography that captures the individual you are targeting.
Large companies spend a great deal of time research and creating personas. But you can benefit from simple and quick personas based on your knowledge of your industry.
Once you outline 2 or 3 different outlines work into your design and sales copy these different marketable areas.
Think about your Web site…how many different personas do you currently market to?
Research Using the Internet
Personas are a powerful search marketing tool. You can use them as a common-sense model for audience behavior, and test your assumptions about keywords, different search engines and landing pages.
Here’s how:
Check Your Keywords - Sometimes a keyword shows promise because it gets lots of searches. But it may make no sense at all in the context of a particular persona. Check your keywords and phrases. Do they make sense for that persona? Keywords that don’t fit may still be relevant - you’re probably missing another persona that bears consideration.
Think About the Search Engines: Focus Your Effort - Which search engines do these personas most likely use? Different people prefer different engines. I won’t make any sweeping generalizations here - you can find this kind of demographic data on a site like Quantcast
Tailor Description Tags: Maximize Click through -Search engines use the description. META tag to format the snippets they show in their organic search results. If you already rank well for a few phrases, check and see which personas will use each phrase. Then see which pages are listed in the search results. Edit the description tags on those pages to best appeal to the relevant personas.
Think About Conversions: Pull it All Together - What’s your site’s goal? Will your personas, after finding you on a search engine under a particular keyword, and landing on a particular page, be more or less likely to convert?
Observe and Adjust - Watch how visitors behave when they come to your site from a search engine. Do they match what you expect? Probably not exactly. Adjust your description tags, landing pages, keywords and overall strategy accordingly. Armed with this knowledge, you can focus your paid search marketing (pay per click) efforts. You can also tailor your organic search engine optimization campaign to specific search engines.
As you can see it takes a multitude of factors to consider when taking that extra effort to keep someone on your site. Your main goal is to get in head of your visitor, deliver exactly what you are promising and make your site so that it impresses, validates and earns the respect of your visitor and try to do it within those valuable 10 seconds before the back button syndrome happens.
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#1 - Deliver what you’ve promised - Provide your visitor high quality content on your pages, especially on your home page. Google is looking for pages that contain useful information that will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. Think if the words your visitors would type in to find your pages and be sure to include those words on your site.
#2 - Build your incoming links - By building your incoming links you’re are helping the Google crawlers to find your site and giving your visitors greater visibility to your site in the search results. When Google serves up search results they combine PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to display the most relevant pages. They are looking for natural industry related links pointing to your site. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of web sites when those sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful to their visitors to link to your site.Google can distinguish through their algorithms the difference between “natural links” and “unnatural links” that are specifically to make your site look more popular to the search engines.
#3 - Make your site accessible - Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
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