Marketing on the Web I was surprised in February of 2010 to see that SEO had become mainstream enough to be the subject of a Dilbert strip. Scott Adams continues here, not only confirming how mainstream SEO has become, but also acknowledging that there is a dark "black hat" side to this industry. ...an easy road to go down, until those chickens come home to roost.
MoreSearch Engine Optimization
Marketing on the Web explores Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how it can impact your web marketing efforts.
Don’t use PDFs as Web Pages
I routinely provide SEO audits as a part of my services and a common situation that I encounter is the use of PDF files as web pages. In general, using any non-web file such as .pdf, .doc, xls, etc. as primary content on a website is a bad idea. When people enter your site on these pages, they have no logical way to find information about related products and services (say they land on a page about blue widgets and need information on red widgets) or navigate to your Contact Page. In addition...
MoreSEOMOZ, Ranking Factor Study for 2011
Great report on ranking factors. Biggest surprise is the influence facebook continues to have, even with much of its data blocked from Google. I think moving forward, slide 49 may be the most important indicator of where our efforts need to be. Ranking Factors Data 2011: SMX Elite Sydney
MoreSketchy SEO Practices, Just Say No.
There's a great Google Webmaster Help thread about a sketchy SEO firm. You know firms like this, ones that promise "first place in Google search results guaranteed". Ok there are dozens (hundreds?) of firms that promise results like this. The problem is that these sketchy "black hat" SEO tactics can work for a while. Truthfully, you may see great results from these shysters for six months or so until you trip an circuit breaker in the algorithm and your website disappears from the Search Resu...
MoreEight Tips for Better Ranking
Optimizing your site for search can be a daunting task. Here is a list of eight things you can do to help your content rank better in Search Results. Optimize the Structure of Your Site (Information Architecture) Clearly communicate the organization of your site through navigation, breadcrumbs, and file path. Organize Your Content Display whatever you are promoting by category and cross-link to related categories to support searches for category, location, country of origin, brand, etc....
MoreGoogle SEO Starter Guide 2010
Google has just released a new SEO starter guide. The new guide is more complete, has more examples, and covers wider range of issues, including mobile content and images. I highly recommend that anyone who is launching or reworking a website review this document before you start. > Google SEO Starter Guide
MoreLink Building can be Detrimental to your Wallet
In a recent article in Inc Magazine, a on-line merchant of gift baskets discusses how a link building campaign cost him 4 million dollars. The loss comes both from a direct drop in traffic to his site and indirectly from the money that he had to spend on AdWords to bring traffic while his site was banned. While link building is an important part of any marketing effort, I would disqualify anyone who is sending bulk emails promoting this as a service. I feel that anyone doing link building in ...
MoreSaving Search Rank When Launching a New Website
On July 14, 2010, I will discuss how to maintain Pagerank when you update or launch a new website with the North Alabama Web Developers group. In this meet-up we’ll discuss Google webmaster tools, Google analytics, sitemaps, and using redirects to map content with the .htaccess file (emphasis will be on Apache/Linux hosting). Please visit the meet-up site for details and sign-up. https://www.meetup.com/web-99/calendar/13878846/ Slides from this discussion are here: Maintain Pagerank wh...
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