Posted by
Bonnie Landau on 22 Feb 2010 under
Google ranking,
Online Tools,
SEO |
3 CommentsSEO (search engine optimization) is a critical part of any online strategy. While it seems like building your site was a lot of work, to be found amongst to millions of sites, a concerted SEO effort must be employed.
But SEO may seem like a deep, dark black whole of “what the heck am I suppose to do?” While there are a lot of reputable companies helping with excellent search engine optimization campaigns, many small businesses do not have the funds to hire an SEO expert.
Keywords are key
A lot can be done with search engine optimizing methods, but if you do not pay attention to your keywords, then your efforts may be for naught. Choosing keywords is the first step towards optimizing your website. Once you’ve chosen your keywords, analyzing your pages to determine if you have the right keyword density will help you make certain you are on target for SEO.
What is keyword density?
Keyword density indicates the percentage of frequency a word appears on a page and in the meta data. For example, if you have 100 words on your page, and you have the keyword “design” 10 times on that page, then the keyword density for design would be 10%. SEO experts say you shouldn’t go over 15% keyword density on a page because then it appears to be keyword stuffing. The search engines will see this as a negative, and may not index your page.
How word clouds help
Word clouds are a graphic representation of keywords on a specific site or page. Words that appear more frequently are larger within the word cloud, while words that are less frequent are smaller. A word cloud gives you a quick, visual snapshot of the keywords on your site, and dense they are in comparison to each other.
Keyword density analysis tools
The following tools we have found do an excellent job of analyzing keyword density on your site. They are all free and simple to use. You just have to input your URL, and the site does the rest. You do not have to sign up for anything, or even tell them your name, so you can use the tools anonymously and as often as you like.
What tools do you like to use?
What are you favorite keyword density tools? Have you found some commercial tools that are worth the price? We’re always open to new ideas, so let us know in the comments about the tools you like to use.
Posted by
Bonnie Landau on 03 Feb 2010 under
SEO |
6 CommentsFor all of you who have a website, I’m certain you have an SEO strategy in place that you implement on a weekly basis without fail. No? Well, I have news for you — SEO is not an option. It’s not a matter of if, but when. If you want to be found in the search engines, you’re going to have to work for it.
In February 2009, Netcraft did a research study that estimated there were more then 215 million websites worldwide. And Google has said they have indexed over 30 billion web pages. That’s some pretty stiff competition, so you better roll up your sleeves and dive into that SEO plan!
What if I don’t have an SEO plan?
How do you begin the process of implementing an SEO plan? The first step is to determine your available resources to engage in an active SEO strategy. Your resources would include:
- Budget available
- Man hours available
- Internal SEO knowledge amongst employees
- Technical knowledge of your website
- Capability of learning about SEO
Basically, your resources include: $money + time + knowledge.
Do-it-Yourself or Hire an Expert?
Now that you know what resources are at your disposal, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I have a minimum of $1,000 a month to spend on SEO?
- Are the people in my company already overloaded and have little or no time to spend on SEO?
- Do I have a hard time coming up with a single person in my company who would have the knowledge or capability of learning SEO techniques?
- Do I need my rankings to jump quickly (i.e. a strong, swift implementation of a plan)?
- Is my competition using an SEO professional to help their rankings?
- Is my website an integral part of growing my business?
If you answer yes to all of these questions, then an expert would be an optimum choice for you. If you answered no to all of them, then you need to considering doing SEO yourself. If you have mixed answers, you need to make a determination based on budget and man hours available.
Budget and man hours are generally the two biggest determining factors when choosing who should implement SEO for your site. Most of our clients are small to medium businesses with little or no budget, so obviously an expert is not an option. Some are so small no man hours are available either, so doing it in-house is also not possible. But if you have neither, then you have to adjust your perspective and find room in one or the other so you can put a plan in place.
If your website is integral to your business, then SEO must be a part of your plan. While self-implemented SEO may seem inadequate, it’s better than no SEO at all. If you’re a small company feeling the pinch of money and time, I encourage you to find an hour a day (could be shared by more than one person) to begin implementing SEO techniques. Over time your efforts will accumulate, and while they may not show dramatic results, they will have an effect.
What if I don’t have the budget, but have no clue how to do it myself?
Then you will have to do a hybrid of self/expert implementation. You will have to engage an expert to teach you, but you will implement the SEO tasks. There are many excellent books available on SEO, or you could take an online SEO class (at Landau Design we offer a Do-it-Yourself SEO webinar). You could also follow blogs of SEO experts to learn and implement strategies. Some of our favorite blogs to follow:
Doing it myself sounds too hard!
SEO can be very intimidating. There are aspects of it, like keyword selection, that require focus and some deductive logic. So perhaps for those tasks you get some assistance. But some of the tasks to implement SEO, like link building, can be implemented by somebody with basic use of the Internet. Just remember that a little is better than none.
But I have heard SEO experts are charlatans!
Just like any industry, there are some that take advantage, and the Internet industry is no exception. SEO implementation can be tedious to track, and some aspects are not trackable. So you rely on the honesty of the company that is providing your services.
It is best if you could choose a company that comes recommended from an actual customer. In lieu of that, read the following articles on how to choose and hire an SEO company:
It is worth the time to investigate your options so you choose a company that will provide the services for a fair price, while also implementing the latest techniques to gain optimum results. Steer clear of any company that promises top spots in Google search results. While SEO strategies are very effective, there is no way to guarantee results.
Conclusion
SEO should be taken seriously. If you have the budget, an expert is the way to go. But if you don’t, then find a way to implement a plan in-house. The goal is to be seen online, and you need to use the means available to you to achieve this objective!
Posted by
Bonnie Landau on 26 Jan 2010 under
SEO |
0 CommentsRecently one of our clients asked:
We have a question regarding the text on the home page. I remember someone stating that the text should contain words that are key to our service for search engines to find it. Is this true? Second question is meta tags. If the home page or other pages have meta tags, is that the same as having those same words as text on the page.
Keywords on the page are most important
You are correct that the text on your home page should contain keywords you are targeting on the search engines. It’s important though that you distribute those keywords in a way that makes sense for the user, not just for the search engines. This means you don’t overuse a keyword on your page. Optimally your keyword should be integrated into the headings on your page, then peppered throughout the text. if you’re unsure if you have used a keyword too much, you can use a keyword density tool to determine if it is over used.
Do you have Google Analytics installed on your current site? A statistical package like this would show you what keywords people are using to find you, which might help determine the best words to optimize for. If a lot of people are finding you on one of your most-used keywords, this will tell you that you’ve done a good job optimizing for it. If the keyword you’re working on indexing is not on this list, you either haven’t optimized enough, or it might not be a keyword people use to find a business like yours. Choosing the right keywords is an art unto itself, and should be approached with methodical focus.
Should we input meta tags?
Meta tags are a different story from keywords. There are different types of meta tags that you can incorporate into your site. The ‘description’ and ‘keyword’ meta tags are the ones that get the most attention because they are thought to be used in ranking your site among search results.
Google has publicly stated that they no longer use keyword meta tags when ranking sites in search results. But they do sometimes use the other meta tags, such as description. So the keyword meta tags are not as valuable as text on the page, which means your time should be focused on weaving your keywords into your content, not in generating a long list of meta tags.
You should always put in a description meta tag since this is the tagline that is shown to describe a page when Google brings up search results. This tagline should describe the content for a specific page, rather than a global description of the site. It is a good idea to weave in your keywords, but it still is more valuable to spend the time getting those keywords into your content.
Posted by
Bonnie Landau on 20 Jan 2010 under
Blogging,
link building |
2 CommentsYou put a lot of effort to write your blog, but how do you get people to come and read it? Social media outlets are very effective in reaching viewers, but can sometimes take more time than you have. If you want an effective blog sharing strategy, consider using blog and bookmarking directories for spreading the news about your valuable posts.
What is a blog directory?
Blog directories are like a phone book for blogs. People submit their blog URL into specific categories in the directory, so all your blog content gets indexed. You only have to submit it once, which means it’s a quick and easy way to share your blog.
Once in the directory, users who are looking for specific information will come and search for content, and if they are looking for your content genre, you will have easily gained some new readers. Some of the most popular blog directories include:
Sometimes an individual creates a private directory, and while it may not get as many eyeballs as the commercial ones, the users it gets tend to be more engaged. A great example is the Directory for Bloggers by The Brave Programmer (Robert Bravery).
What is a bookmarking directory?
There are many sites that are bookmarking directories, which means they are indexing specific URLs of specific blog posts. These sites you have to submit your blog posts one at a time. The advantage of bookmarking directories is that they are part of the social media world, so you can have buttons on your blog that allows your readers to submit your content as well. All these sites have submission counters, so the more a specific blog post is submitted, the higher it is ranked in the bookmarking directory index.
Users come to the bookmarking directories and browse posts in specific categories. Again, an excellent way to gain some new readers. Some of the most popular bookmarking directories include:
Consistently submitting your posts to the bookmarking directories is also a very effective way to continually add link backs to your blog.
Keep track of your progress
If you are going to utilize a directory strategy, be sure to track where you have submitted your blog. In this way you can hand off submission responsibilities to others without worrying about duplicating effort. Also, watch your traffic analytics to track how many people are finding your blog through places you’ve submitted. This will give you a great idea of what types of directories are most likely to bring you new visitors.
Posted by
Bonnie Landau on 18 Jan 2010 under
SEO |
3 CommentsSEO (search engine optimization) can be an overwhelming subject for website owners. There are many details that go into an effective SEO plan, but how does one sort out what is most crucial when first implementing an SEO campaign?
What is an SEO Analysis tool?
SEO analysis tools are an excellent way to determine where your website needs help. Each tool analyzes your site and provides evaluation in specific areas of SEO. While not all tools cover all areas, each tool will review one or more of the following aspects of SEO optimization:
- Keyword frequency
- Keyword optimization
- Meta tag optimization
- HTML compliance
- Inbound links
- Interlinking within site
- Page errors
- Page rank
- Search engine indexing
What do I do with the information from these tools?
After reviewing the information, you will have a good idea of how optimized your site is, and where it needs work. You can then make a list of what needs to be improved upon, which you can prioritize and implement in your SEO plan. You should analyze your site at least once every month in order to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO implementation.
Free SEO Analysis tools you can use:
