Content is the heart and soul of any good SEO strategy. Creating unique and compelling content is probably one of the hardest parts of anyone’s SEO efforts. Search Engines love a website/blog that is updated frequently with lots of new, fresh content. The more frequently your content is being updated, the more search engines will “crawl” your site. As search engines continuously evolve, they are giving more and more weight to websites that have unique content that is updated regularly. Types of ContentContent on a website can be defined simply as anything a user can consume...

When we talk about website usability we talk about the overall experience you give the user. That includes the overall design, navigation, content layout, calls to actions, accessibility and functionality of your site. I want to give you some tips on each of these points that will help your users stay on your site longer, stay engaged, absorb more content, and improve your conversions. DesignOverall, you want to have a clean, clear, and consistent design. You don’t want to have a website that looks cluttered and unorganized. For someone visiting your site for the first time, they want...

Keyword Research is vital to any effective search engine optimization campaign. If you optimize your site for the wrong keywords you could miss out on lots of traffic and potential customers that are trying to find what you do. I have broken up the keyword research process in phases to make it easy to understand.Initial Keyword List: To start your keyword research you want to brainstorm a starter list of keywords, phrases, and terms that you feel people would use to find you. Since you probably have a pretty good idea about your industry, you could probably come up with 5-10 keywords that people...

Probably the most important part of Search Engine Optimization is making sure that your website is search engine friendly. When I say search engine friendly, I mean that when search engines “crawl” your site, they are able to read all of the content, links, and pages within your site. Big NoNo’s for Search EnginesUsing Flash, Images, JavaScript, Videos, Audio, and other non-text material is virtually invisible to search engines. If you have a site that is completely made up of these components you will have a very hard time getting indexed in search engines because they cannot...

Part 1: Search Engine Friendly Site StructureNoNo’s for Search Engines Using a Text Navigation Creating Static Pages Descriptive URL’s Internal Linking StructurePart 2: Keyword ResearchInitial Keyword List  Analytics Data  Keyword Research Tool Analyze Your Master Keyword List Test In PPC Implementing Those KeywordsPart 3: Website UsabilityInitial Keyword List  Design Navigation Functionality Content Layout Call To ActionPart 4: Content OptimizationTypes of Content Optimizing Your Content Keyword Density Anchor TextPart 5: Link BuildingAnalyzing Links Finding...

A Cookie is a pretty easy concept to understand. It is simply a tracking code that is stored on the user’s computer for a determined amount of time to track their ID session, navigation, and preferences. Where is can be a bit confusing is when you talk about the different types of cookies. There are two different types of cookies, dependent on what type of website sets them. I wanted to give you an in-depth definition of what a cookie is and the pros and cons associated with each.Definition of a Cookie? Information created by a Web server and stored on a user’s computer. Some web...

Clients always seem to ask what bounce rate is. I wanted to explain what bounce rate is, the factors that determine bounce rate, how you should analyze it, and in what cases you should take action to lower your bounce rate. Defining Bounce RateA Bounce is simply a visitor coming to your site or page and leaving immediately, without visiting any other pages on your site. So Bounce Rate is just giving you a percentage of those people who only went to one page of your site. In other words: Bounce Rate = single page visit/total entries to the site through that pageFactors That Determine...

When looking to setup a merchant account, both Paypal and Google Checkout are great solutions. They both have pros and cons but I wanted to give a brief overview of the two merchant solutions. SolutionsPaypalPaypal offers both a personal and business account. Google CheckoutOne type of account. Requires a Google Account to sign up. Buttons AvailablePaypalGoogle CheckoutIntegrationPaypalBasic: Allows you to create simple “buy now” buttons. Perfect for someone selling only a few items. Shopping Cart: This option will integrate Paypal into some of the most popular...

Setting the proper client expectations on the front-end is the key to any successful internet marketing campaign. Here is a list of things you should accomplish with your client before you start to implement your strategy.1. Learning Their Objectives/GoalsBefore you can give advice as to what tactics would work best for them, you have to learn about their company, objectives, and goals. Find out what they are looking to do. Is it, build up their brand? Bring more traffic to the site? Build an in-house email list? Sell more widgets? Do market research to find out more about their customers? Whatever...

So are you optimizing your pages the right way??? Brad Fallon, a leading search marketer, discussed a great way to structure your keywords/phrases on your website. He broke it up into 3 tiers. I will use the example he uses on his Stompernet video. Brad owns an ecommerce site, selling wedding favors. 1st Tier KeywordsFirst, you should optimize your homepage for the main keywords you want to rank for. These keywords are normally the hardest to rank for and are highly searched. As you can see in the example his main phrase that he wants to rank for is “Wedding Favors”. So he has the...