Tag: seo

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Is Your Website Headstrong?

Originally published at “InsideSEM.com” in June, 2007.

Headstrong often carries a negative meaning, such as someone who is disobedient, determined to get their way. Well, if you want to obtain top rankings and want to drive quality visitor traffic to your site, headstrong might be a good thing.

By headstrong though, I’m not advocating being disobedient, turning to unsavory methods and tactics. To be fair, what I’m really talking about might be better described as head strong. Continue reading “Is Your Website Headstrong?”

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Search Friendly Website – Talking to Spiders

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the April 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

On the simplest level, a Web site visitor can be classified as human or spider. Of course human visitors are obvious and highly desirable as they are the only one of the two that can buy from us. Back in November of 2007, I talked about the importance of making sure your Web site met your human visitors’ needs in the article, It’s not about you.

But what about these spiders? Is your Web site about them, and how could it be if it is about your human visitors? Thankfully, your site is still about your human visitors, even when the spiders come crawling. While your message doesn’t need to change, we may need to change how it is delivered to get the most out of the message for both humans and spiders. Continue reading “Search Friendly Website – Talking to Spiders”

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Realizing Recessionary Gains

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the March 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

Economy got you down? Talk of recession and overall uncertainty keeping you up at night? If you said yes, you can at least take comfort in knowing that you aren’t alone. But the real question is, “what does this mean for your Web presence?”

The thought might surprise you, but possibly now more than ever, your Web focus should be stronger than ever. Let’s take a look at what this economic condition might mean and how we can best position ourselves.

Don’t panic. No deep macroeconomic discussion here. Essentially we are talking about an economic period of negative output — whatever that means. What it means to us is we are going to be more cautious with our money.

Let’s take a look at how we can use our Web presence to address some of the key recessionary thought drivers. Continue reading “Realizing Recessionary Gains”

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Leap Onto the Web

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the February 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

If your business doesn’t have a website yet, then this month’s column is especially for you. And even if you do have a site, it may still be worth the read. If you’ve been holding out on making the leap to the web, well it’s time to move past that. Web access is available in more businesses and homes than ever, and thanks to smart phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, people have access to the web 24/7, just about anywhere they are.

Let’s talk about this thing called “web design.” We’re going to bypass the do-it-yourself discussion. If you want to play around on your own with a hobby site or site for your family, great, but don’t jeopardize the image of your business while trying to learn web design — there’s much more to it than just understanding a little HTML code. Businesses will either have staff on hand or, more likely, will outsource the development of their site. It is very important to understand up front that graphic design and web design are extremely different things. Continue reading “Leap Onto the Web”

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Search Engine Marketing Diet

Originally published at “InsideSEM.com” in March, 2007.

Talking with clients, reading countless posts in forums and blogs, and discussions with others within the search marketing world has revealed a fairly common story about rankings in search engines and search marketing. This story illustrates a surprising comparison between search engine marketing and good health and weight loss… “I want to be healthier and lose weight… but I don’t want to have to exercise, I want to be able to eat whatever, whenever and as much as I want… and I want all this by tomorrow.”

Unfortunately, just like dieting, there are people who are ready to answer this call for immediacy in the SEM world with guarantees of overnight, effortless success. And like dieting, most if not all of these “solutions” aren’t worth the time invested in considering them, nor the money spent on them. The reality is, there are no SEM pills that you can simply pop that will jump your website to the top of the search engine ranks or drive tons of new business through your website.

The good news is that there are steps you can take when it comes to SEM that can help you to achieve your goals. There are also plenty of professionals in the SEM world who share this belief as well… and you’ll find that there is probably far more agreement in SEM than in all the dieting crazes. Best of all, the fundamentals are true wherever you are… from South Beach Miami, Florida to Atkins, Iowa to Beverly Hills, California and beyond. Continue reading “Search Engine Marketing Diet”