While the word “tricks” is often applied to SEO techniques or processes, the word “trick” to describe how SEO is implemented is a bit misleading. Using a term like “tricks” implies that there is some kind of secret way to duck the accepted methods, and yet acquire the same result – or even better. This is the kind of thinking that black hat SEO uses, which you certainly do not want to get caught up in.
In this article, we want to return to the roots and explain the basics of SEO. Currently, there’s a lot of activity in the online marketing world regarding Google and the changes planned for the way we do search. This does not come as a surprise to the industry as search technology and the algorithm used continue to advance, however, one needs to understand how SEO worked in the past and how it’s working now, to determine and grasp how it should work in the future.
Nexternal offers Ecommerce solutions to small and medium sized businesses. By creating static search engine friendly pages with the click of a button, they are able to base the static page on the client’s product information database. A quick link-up to the root catalog page allows the search engines to start accessing the information which increases the search engine optimization in quick, easy steps. At Optimum7, we have worked with several Nexternal solutions and we are very familiar with how this shopping cart system functions when it comes to SEO capabilities.
Google has released a bunch of cool technologies today at I/O. One which interest me is the Google fonts directory. This allows you to easily embed really cool open source fonts on your website for free! You don’t need to do any programming; all you have to do is add a special stylesheet link to your HTML document, then refer to the font in a CSS style and Voila! More importantly its being hosted on the google. As the Google Font API becomes widely used, visitors will likely already have the font you’re using in their browser cache when they visit your page. All CSS3 effects are available. Text-Shadow, rotation, etc.
Should I have a flashy website? What is a flashy website? Video? Music? Spokesperson? High Resolution Pictures? These are just a small fraction of the questions when folks starting thinking about content and what type of content is best suited for them. Clearly, if you are a professional such as a doctor, lawyer or CPA you won’t seek to be “flashy;” instead you will seek to have strong textual content, which is concise, precise and unquestionably professional. If you have an entertainment site you would seek content that is, in fact, entertaining i.e. the use of strong visual content with less text. These obvious differences aside let’s delve a bit further into the best type of content for winning websites.
The Gmail (Google) vs. Hotmail (Microsoft) war continues; and this time Google has really stretched far into the lead. Google looked to the development team of the Rasmusen brothers, the creators of Google Maps to help them build Google Wave. At the Google IO Convention, Lars Rasmusen gave a sneak peak to the new open sourced, personal online communication and collaboration tool. It is a web hosted email system like Gmail or Hotmail that promises to extend beyond the current limitations of traditional emailing. Google Wave was introduced first to developers to aggregate assistance in discovering bugs and developing new extensions to enhance its functionalities.
Organic Search Engine Optimization is that part of Internet Marketing that focuses completely on the organic or natural results for a keyword phrase. As opposed, to paid search, this is also targeted for keyword phrases, organic search results are achieved or earned, not paid for. So, those on the top 3 pages of Google (98% of searchers don’t go past the 3rd page) have a great opportunity for “free” traffic; that is, no matter how many times the listing is clicked, it doesn’t cost the website any money. However, getting to the first page(s) is no small feat, particularly for keyword phrases with over 100K or even millions or tens of millions of competing pages. So, how do the Search Engines and particularly Google determine / rank for relevancy.
Follow this list please -
1. Answering Machine
2. Voice Mail
3. Caller ID
4. VCR / Betamax
5. Cable TV
6. PC
7. National Do Not Call List / Directory
8. Cordless Phones
9. Cell Phones
10. Email Filters
11. Search Engines
12. Spam Filters
13. Pop-up Blockers
14. PDA’s
15. Video on Demand
16. DVR’s
17. Satellite Radio
18. Internet Radio
19. Podcasts
20. ITunes
21. GoToMeeting
22. iChat
23. Internet Marketing
24. SEO
25. RSS Feeds
26. Social Networks
Have you figured it out yet? What, you may ask? What the revolution is and what these listed items represent?
Small Businesses have great opportunities to market their business by shifting their focus AWAY from traditional, poor return, tactics TOWARDS high return, highly trackable online Local Internet Market Strategies.
Website Development
If you have a website, that’s great. Most do. However, your website is more than an electronic business card or an online brochure; at least it should be. Unless you are found easily on Google, you only have an online brochure because the only ones who will read your brochure are those who already have your address. So, what can you do to change this?
In our previous article we illustrated quite clearly how Internet Marketing is TRANSPARENT where traditional marketing such as Direct Mail, Print Advertising, TV & Radio, Billboards, Telemarketing are quite the opposite.
So, it would make sense that if you are dealing with a medium that is ultimately transparent and measurable, that you should be more efficient in your marketing efforts … AND … this is unquestionably true. However there are human elements that cannot be eliminated.
The human element is mainly commitment. Simply, here are those commitments:
The Internet, if nothing else, is a huge tool of measurement. Fundamentally, everything that occurs can be recorded and measured. This fact, in and of itself, makes Internet Marketing including all of its components and sub-specialties compelling for any serious marketer in the 21st century.
All pre-Internet and many current marketers surely are aware that if, for instance, you purchase a mailing list and then send out a mailer to an audience i.e. direct mail, the only thing you surely will know is how many responses you have to the first mailer; that is, if you track it which it often times isn’t. So, what you have here is a defined cost of marketing with relatively little visibility as to the results, the history , the ability to forecast leads, sales, profits. Consider the questions you absolutely cannot answer:
What compels this writing is what I continue to see online regarding all things having to do with Internet Marketing. Here is what I mean:
1. Some talk about meta tags, title tags.
2. Some talk about search engine / directory submissions.
3. Some talk about keywords / research.
4. Some talk about analytics
5. Some talk about paid search advertising
6. Some talk about organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
7. Some talk about site maps.
8. Some talk about Blogging.
9. Some talk about Social Media.
10. Some talk about Ecommerce.