Archive for the ‘Web Site Tips’ Category

With all the excitement about You Tube and Google in the news lots are people are asking What is the big deal?

Video is an excellent way to add dynamic informative content to your website. Pictures are always better than words. If you have a product or a service that could lend itself to demonstration or a video introduction we can help!

If you tend to watch the Search Engine trends you will know that there are many factors that can influence the ranking of a web page on search engines. A factor that is overlooked by many webmasters is the click distance.

What is click distance?

Click distance is the number of clicks it takes to get to a web page from the home page of your web site. If you need 5 clicks from your home page to go to page A and 2 clicks from you home page to get to page B then page B has a smaller click distance than page A.

Why is click distance important?

Some search engines (including Google) seem to take click distance into account when calculating the ranking of web pages. The lower the click distance, the more value is given to a web page. In addition to the click distance, some search engines might also take the directory structure into account. A web page with the URL www.example.com/page.htm is considered more important than a page with a URL that points to a sub directory: www.example.com/here/there/whereever/page.htm

How can you influence the click distance on your web site?

It’s likely that a clean site with less click distance gets better Google rankings than a site with a cluttered navigation. An easy way to make every page of your web site available with at most two clicks is putting a sitemap link on every web page. Using Google’s Sitemaps service doesn’t help because it does not change the click distance of your web site. You have to put a normal sitemap on your web site. If you use a normal sitemap on your web site then you don’t have to participate in Google’s Sitemaps program because Google will find all of your pages through your regular sitemap.

Are there official documents about click distance?

A MSN Search patent application with the title System and method for ranking search results using click distance contains further information about click distance and its possible effects on web page rankings.

Click distance is another factor that shows how important it is that search engines can find and parse your web pages quickly and easily. To make it as easy as possible for search engines to parse your pages, use our proven top 10 optimization tools for web pages and links. This article provide by Axandra.com

I think the most important question to ask is who is most likely going to become a customer, visitors to your web site or search engines that visit your website? Seems like a silly question but some web masters get so wound up in the technical they forget that ultimately it’s the real people visiting the web site that really matter.

So what does that mean for content? Here are the five steps to creating properly written content from a search engine point of view:

1. Writing Your Content

Write your websites content as if you were supplying content for any other type of marketing materials. If you usually employ someone to handle your copy writing needs then you should continue that through to your web page. Be sure to keep your content relevant to your product, describe your product or services in well written details while still maintaining a marketing approach to the words. In other words make your content appealing to visitors who will read it and leave them wanting to continue to read it.

When writing your content try to use terms and phrases for your headings and sections that your average customer would use when searching for your products. For instance if you sell computers, try using the term, student laptop computers, as opposed to a brand specific like terms like HP Pavilion dv6000.

2. Optimizing Your Content

There are a few practices to follow in order to optimize your web content. First, as mentioned above use your “search terms” as headings and to make sections in your content. Bullets and lists are excellent ways to provide quick and easy read information about your product or service. Always be sure to include images within your content to provide visual appeal and to break up the white space.

3. The Obvious But Overlooked

Spelling, spelling, spelling. Sounds obvious right? There are millions of web sites out on the Internet that are completely littered with spelling mistakes. You wouldn’t spell the information your business card wrong, so don’t do it on your web site. Spelling mistakes sends a message that most customers don’t want to see. Grammar is also an issue. Sit down and take some time to read your content out loud. Does it make sense? Do you understand it? If you don’t like it – how do you expect your prospective customers will?

4. The Technical

This is a large section that should be an article all on it’s own, but here I will touch on a few basics. The technical aspects of the content of your web page are all behind the scenes. The most important part is using html tags such as bold, heading tags and italics to put emphasis on certain phrases or words. This will help visitors and search engines determine the main content of your page and what is important enough to stand out in the content.

Another aspect of the technical side is making sure your html code, CSS and java script complies to the current standards and is cross browser compatible

5. Links and other information

Finally try and provide links to other websites that provide valuable information to your customer that is related to your product or service but does not compete. This enforces the main subject of your web site and individual web pages.

What is in a domain name? Whenever you are writing or providing something for your web site, always ask yourself, “Does this match my products or services?”.

When we go to the trouble of writing keyword specific content that is geared both for web visitors and search engines, build links that share the same common subject matter as your website, and post related articles, tips and editorials on your website – Shouldn’t you be just as careful with your domain name? The answer is a resounding Yes!

Consider the following, if you are looking for discount shoes and you are presented with the following two domains:

1. www.Carls-Boutique.com
2. www.Carls-Discount-Shoes.com

Which one would you check first? Seems simple but people rarely consider this when selecting a domain name. Take our domain name for instance RiverEndConsulting.com our services or products could be anything. This is why we have a few other domains that are more specific to the services we offer. The important part is how you set these ‘other’ sites up. Do it correctly and you can increase your website traffic and get more targeted visitors, do it incorrectly and you can lose all your rankings in the search engines and find yourself in the sandbox. This goes for having the same top level extensions in your domain name. Top level extensions are the .ca .com .org .net if these are set up incorrectly search engines will punish your website for having multiple sites with the exact same content.

Most businesses today have multiple domains even if it is just .com and .ca, the question is are they set up correctly? Contact us and we can tell you

The first thing I would recommend is to do some research. Sign up for some SEO newsletters, join some news groups and browse web sites like these.

SEO can be very in depth and continues for the length of owning your web site. Since this is a new web site here are some things to consider before beginning the creation:

• Choose a domain that matches your products\services
• Host your web site on a reliable, host. One that does not use reseller accounts (possible SPAM issues) and doesn’t hide behind the wall of a ISP (could block search engines).
• Make your site easy to use and the navigation clean.
• When writing the code keep as many of the technical functions outside of the main page. By this I mean include the Java script in a separate file, the same for the CSS etc.
• Keep flash to a minimum and always provide a text menu where the main menu is flash or graphics
• Keep a detailed and up-to-date site map
• Register your site with Google Site Maps
• Install some tracking software so that you can see how your on going changes effect your traffic
• Be sure to manually submit your web sites to the major engines and directories
• Search out some like minded web sites to exchange links with
• Don’t do it all at once. Leave some content back so that you can continually update the site. Search Engines like to see you adding to your content on a consistent basis and so do people

These steps won’t guarantee you success but they will help.

Did you know that publicity is supposedly seven times more effective than advertising? And it is free ? that is if you do it yourself. If you know the elements of writing a good media release to capture the attention of journalists, you can benefit from free editorial coverage. Here’s a few tips to help you write a media release.

The Beginning

The first and most important thing is to have something interesting to say. Consider your USP just like in sales. It’s your unique selling proposition. After all publicity is “selling”. You are selling a story idea to the media. I like to call it the unique shining point. It really needs to stand out, shine, be compelling not an advertisement, not a boring product plug.

Another element that will really hook the journalist in is to consider the ESP the emotional selling point. Often it is the human element in the story that will capture the reader’s attention therefore the attention of the media. Think about what your story is. What is your background? Have you overcome any obstacles to get where you are today? Any achievements or milestones? Where is the human interest?

What’s more compelling? An announcement about a wedding limousine service, or the 30th anniversary both in marriage and business of the couple who run the service? This is a story I helped someone uncover in a seminar I conducted. The couple later went on to get a full page colour photo and editorial story in a wedding supplement in their local paper for free, just by working out the human element of interest to readers.

WIFM

What’s in it for me? Or what is in it for them. How does your product or service help others? Your media release needs to state that key element. How will the reader benefit?

It’s uninteresting to just say, “Jones & Smith Accountants today announced the launch of their revolutionary new accountancy software package”… Better to state – small businesses now have a better way to measure, monitor and manage the costs involved in running their business, thanks to Jones & Smith’s new online measurement & analysis accounting system.

The Content

Have a bright opening; start with your strongest point first. Instead of the conventional “today announced that” lead, you should make your release stand out from the crowd with a strong, compelling lead paragraph. Since editors and journalists get so many releases every day, you only have seconds to grab their attention. The first paragraph is where your important information goes, but it needs to be written in an exciting, creative, interesting way.

Consider the 5 W’s ? Who, What, When, Where, Why; This is an easy formula to remember when writing your release but it is still not enough without some “zing” or compelling elements to “hook” the reader in.

Again – how does it help? Remember the benefit to the reader and perhaps include some “how to” tips on whatever your product or service is.

Use memorable quotes; either of you or someone well-known who can endorse your product. Quotes are often used by the media as they make the story more “real” or personal. A good quote can include why you’ve started this business or developed your product or how it helps your target audience.

The Format

Title it “Media Release” and always include the date. Include your contact details of telephone, mobile, email and website address. Use letterhead and keep the content to one page any more and you will loose the journalists’ attention. When using email, cut and paste into the body of the email don’t send an attachment.

The Contact

Send your release to the appropriate person and be sure to do your research. Check that the “food editor” is still just that and not now the “finance editor”. Find out the name of the person and their direct email.

Always follow up with a telephone call or email and keep your media liaison consistent. If you provide good information you are not a nuisance, you are providing a service. Journalists and editors need our information to fill their newspapers, magazines and radio shows.

Supply a creative photo or suggest a photo opportunity that will add to the impact of having your information publicized.

Gaining publicity in the media will help you become known as an expert in your business field; it will enhance your image and reputation and help you to grow your business.

About The Author

Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace – your inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business educator and speaker on personal branding through image and media. Sign up for free monthly tips on personal and professional PR at ShineComms.com.au and learn more about how you can achieve recognition, enhance your image and shine.

By Sue Currie (c) 2007

Social Networking, online community & targeted PPC are all buzz words and phrases that have been bouncing around the business world over the last year or two but why? What is so exciting and fundamentally different about using Social Networking sites for promoting your products or service?

The most revolutionary feature of advertising on social networking sites is how targeted you can make your ads. For instance, when you advertise on Google Adwords you can pick specific keywords but you can’t limit the potential viewing audience by sex, age or specific interests. Let’s pretend you have a Ski Shop that caters to a client base of people aged 25 and younger. Advertising with Google Adwords you can target the snow board based keyword searches but you could end up paying for clicks of people out side your targeted age who come to your site but do not by because what you offer is not their style or taste. Advertising on Facebook allows you to target an audience that is within your age group, is actively interested in snow boarding and therefore is a more qualified potential buyer.

The icing on the cake is that you can advertise through Facebook usually at a much more economical level when compared to traditional Pay Per Click advertising campaigns.

For information on Facebook advertising you can visit there web site at Facebook Advertising or contact us at 250-744-4131 and we can help\manage your Facebook advertising campaigns for as little as $100 per month.

There are several ways web hosting can be utilized for SEO purposes. In fact, there is a special kind of web hosting called “SEO Web Hosting.” This kind of hosting enables the companies to exercise greater control over their clients’ internet properties or domains in that they can make them (domains) appear separate web properties to the search engines. This practice prevents their client domain rankings from being filtered by the web hosting filters.

What is an IP class?

In order to understand an IP class, we must first understand what is an IP or an Internet Protocol address. An IP address is a numeric address of your computer. For example, an IP address looks like: 74.86.246.210. It consists of four parts called: Class A, B, C, D. In this address, the figure 74 is called Class A; 86 is class B; 246 is class C; and 210 is class D.

Of these four classes, class C or C class is important for hosting a site from the SEO point of view.

What are “Multiple C Class IP Addresses?”
When you have multiple class C IP addresses, each address has a different C number. Some web hosting companies give you multiple C IP addresses. Multiple C class IP hosting is a very powerful SEO tool to boost the page ranks of the websites. These addresses are specially designed for seoing the blogs and small websites.

Why do we need multiple C IP class web hosting?
It is quite well-known that the best way to secure high page rank for a website on Google search pages is to have as many links (rather back links) as possible directing the searchers to that website.

Getting the back link is, therefore, the greatest challenge for the web masters or internet marketers to optimize their websites. Most people resort to link spamming, link harvesting, or similar other black hat techniques to get back links in order to boost the rank of their websites. This is obviously not an ethical way.

Moreover, Google also does not approve the links from websites that are hosted on IP addresses in the same IP C class as yours. Multiple C IP class web hosting is a powerful tool to circumvent Google’s stringent web hosting conditions and getting back links from the same IP C Class address.

Getting Multiple C Class IP hosting is quite easy. You should go to the website of a Multiple C Class IP Hosting provider and sign up for 5-10 Multiple C Class IP package. Search the internet for comparative shopping to get the best deal. Register 5-10 different domain names related to the main niche keyword/phrase of your website.

Create 5-10 Wordpress blogs with the domain names you have acquired. Write original, informative and useful blogs with main keywords/phrases. Create text links and use them as back links to connect to your website.

The large number of back links coming from so many websites is sure to boost your search engine ranking for your niche keywords or phrases. Getting back links from different websites is all that the modern SEO is about. You can maintain your high page rank for a long time by creating more and more blogs or articles on your websites.

Author: Seo Traffic Spider