Keyword research (Part 1) Advice on getting started
January 31, 2008 | 1 Comment
If you’re a beginner you may be wondering where you start with all this business of SEO. Do you start by writing quality content around your target business, product or niche? Do you start by designing your website and manipulating your code in some magical way? Do you start by building a site and then going about the work of getting people to link to your site?
Let me just say that all of the tasks mentioned above are important, but they’re not the most important first step in an SEO campaign. Your first step should always be research. You may know it as keyword research, keyword discovery, key phrase selection or any number of different titles. What’s important is that you know that it’s the first – and most important step – before you do anything else. Read more
Keywords in your domain name
January 26, 2008 | 5 Comments
Quickstart summary: Should you purchase multiple domain names that contain your most important keywords? I get this question all the time. Well, the answer is “yes” and “no”. Really, I don’t think it benefits you to own multiple domain names that point to the same website unless you’re just trying to secure domain names that the competition might utilize. In general, the search engines are focused on your content and other elements related to your page so you should focus your SEO efforts here. The words in your domain name can figure into your ranking but they should not be your primary focus. Here are a couple things to consider. Read more
Tidbits: Underscores vs. Dashes
January 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There has been some discussion recently about how to properly name the files on your website and server. An obvious decision would be to name them something that makes sense to you. This will help you stay sane and organized but the question I’d like to ask you is “Do your file names make sense to the search engines?”.
If you’ve build a website I can guarantee that you’ve made a decision regarding the name of your site, a directory or a file name. The most important thing to remember is to name your files with words that describe the content; you want to do this in as concise manner as posssible. This will certainly help the search engines determine what your content is about. Read more
Hosting and SEO
January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Where you host your website is usually not high on the list of considerations when first addressing the issue of SEO and online marketing. Most people look first for a reliable host that meets their needs and they consider the business of marketing at a later date. This is a mistake. They’re immediate needs might include space, bandwidth, price or special features like free domain name for life. Whahoo!
All of these things are important. (Well, except for the free domain name) I’d rather pay the $10 a year and retain control of my name. Anyway, my point is that most people don’t know what’s important regarding SEO and your hosting. Without further delay, here’s a quick rundown of the important points regarding SEO and your website hosting. Read more
Website traffic development 101
January 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
Thanks to webmasterworld.com and poster sugarrae for this useful list of traffic development practices for the new year. Enjoy…
1) Find sites that are about your topic in general but are missing pertinent information that you provide on your site or that you can create an angle to merge with their topic and email the webmaster at one email address with a personal email that notes things about their site only a human visitor would and explain why you think linking to your content would benefit their readers. Read more
Sitemap news and FAQs
January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Sitemaps are an important part of any successful website and SEO campaign for two main reasons: The search engines use sitemaps to index all of your content and pages and it helps human users find their way to all of your content. Read more
Promote your site locally with online yellow pages
January 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
photo credit: metrostation
So you say you want to advertise your local business but a full online marketing campaign is just too much investment for your small local business. What are your options? Try the Yellow Pages… Online!
Now, I’m not suggesting that you call up the phone company to get listed on their website. Most yellow page sites don’t provide enough traffic to justify any extra expense. If you advertise in the Yellow Pages you know what I’m talking about. So what are your options you ask? Try Google local and Yahoo local. Read more
