Facebook continues to try to fight against compromised accounts. I know the other day I was online in Facebook when an old friend started talking to me about her trip to England where she was mugged and needed money to be able to get home. The story was quite in depth and the ability to reference that person’s friends and family was impressive. All except the part where I know that person is not in England. I let her know he Facebook as compromised and she should go to: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=420 to submit to Facebook to have the account taken down.
If they have not changed the account email you can try the “forgot your password” link and reset it. Likely they have changed the password and started send spam. How did they get in? Most likely through malware on your PC or browser. Facebook is too large to verify every account so typically they will just delete you so you can start your Facebook like all over again, bummer.
If you are going to use Facebook on a public computer, try out their new feature, temporary passwords. You have to already put in your mobile phone number into Facebook. Then text “otp” to 32665 and get a password that will work for only the next 20 minutes.
It is either innovative solutions like this or more security questions like what color was your favorite dog…
This is a good video by Matt Cutts of Google. The webmaster channel is worth keeping tabs on over on YouTube. Keep in mind that Google won’t give away any secrets and will pretty much always say content is king. But buried in the videos are little nuggets of information into the world of the Google algorithm.
The nugget of this video is a reminder that content is king also means reaching out and sharing in communities. Find a forum where you have some expertise and share your expertise. Don’t try to throw backlinks in every signature, instead provide real advice and value and people will find you. Give out links more sparingly and be surprised how much more strength you will get then link spamming.
At ITP we do believe relevant and quality back-links are important to your sites ranking but there are so many more wrong ways to do link building. Share your link building struggles and successes.
I usually don’t like to give credit to other people but this site has a great article with screenshots on using the bates stamping features of Adobe Professional. You have to be at adobe pro not standard for bates stamping and redaction but for smaller firms or firms not in a big system like Concordance this is a great option for bates stamping software. Click the link below for a really well done article.
It has been estimated that 70% of all business transactions begin with a search. Even if that is 50% correct, that means over a third of business transaction begin with some type of search function. Clearly, coordinating all effort toward appealing to those searches is necessary to drive business to your website. Logically then, it follows that doing so is a matter of knowing what people are searching for. From my previous post we know that finding out what search terms (i.e. keywords) need to be targeted isn’t a matter of simply guessing. So how do you employ them to get people to find your site? Include them in the right areas of your site in the right proportions. Here’s how:
Domain Name – admittedly using a keyword or a combination of keywords in your domain name is not often an option, however, doing so on landing sites IS almost always an option. More about this in a later post. Suffice it to say for now that this can make a huge difference in how search engines rank your site.
Metatags – “Meta” information is simply user-defined data that is added to your site specifically for the search engines. It is, for the most part, unseen by visitors to your site and should be crafted using keywords. It’s important to mention, however, that not all search engines even use metatags in their ranking algorithms. So it’s still valuable to include your keywords in your metatags, just know that certain search engines – Google especially – will ignore the data.
Site Title – This is the name that appears in top of your browser. Often you’ll see website titles like “home” or “welcome” or some other name that lacks keywords. Including a keyword or multiple keywords in your site title can make a big difference in your site rankings.
Anchor text of Links – For sake of simplicity, let’s divide the links on your website into 3 parts: the name of the link, the string of characters that says where the text goes, and the tool tip for the link (the anchor text). The tool tip is text that shows up when you hover your mouse pointer over the link. Make sure your anchor text includes your keywords
H1 & H2 Headers – These are the titles of your articles and or sub-articles. Resist the urge to title the different articles on your site with catchy or nifty titles – unless they include your keywords.
Content – I talked about how keywords should be used in your content in a few of my previous posts, but for the most part using your keywords 2 to 3 times within the first 150 words is a good starting point. Additionally, keeping your keyword usage within 2% to 5% of your total word count generally works out best.
Unlike other advertising mediums (magazine, yellow pages, radio, tv, etc.) the online world moves fast, often changing by the day. It’s part of what makes online marketing so challenging and intriguing. It also means that in order to succeed you have to be better than your competition. So understanding what factors matter the most can make all the difference. Here’s a quick list (and maybe a little recap from previous posts) of the things you should pay close attention to as you engage in your online marketing efforts:
Keyword in your domain name – whether it’s your main site or a landing page having the proper keyword(s) in your domain name is critical.
Age of domain – not much you can do about this, but it’s important to note that there’s value in the duration of time you’ve owned your domain name.
Title of Web page – Pretty self explanatory here.
H1 & H2 tags – Header tags, especially your H1 and H2 tags, should be properly worded and, ideally, specific to the keywords your targeting.
Competition of the keywords – know your keywords and compete them intelligently.
Keyword density – Articles you write, blog entries, pretty much all content can benefit from good keyword density. In general, using a keyword 2 to 5 times in first 250 words of any content is a good rule to follow.
Frequency of updating – Search engines like change. Keep it fresh and make them happy.
Internal link structure – I’ll be posting more about the dynamics of website links in the future, but for now, ensure you have a logical link structure for your site. And be careful not to create a link structure too deep. No more than 3 layers deep if you can.
Next time, more about keywords – how to find them and what to do with them when you do. Stay tuned.
From time to time we like to take a break and recognize our clients and their online work. One client we are particularly proud of his continued investment into his online marketing through blogging is Attorney Tristan Pettit of Petrie & Stocking. Tristan is both knowledgeable and personable and you can see by his large online blog following a clear expert in the field of landlord tenant law and eviction in the Milwaukee, WI area. Whether you are a property owner, know someone who is a landlord or just interested in good writing- do yourself a favor and read through a quality, informative blog. Wisconsin Landlord Tenant Law blog by Tristan Pettit
So you’ve completed your site and now you’re ready to unleash it on the world. Congratulations, if you used all the good design principles detailed in my previous posts, you’re probably a long way ahead of your competition. But now you need to put your site somewhere. Your Internet service provider is a good option, right? Hmmm….Well, if not your Internet service provider, certainly the firm that designed your site then, right? Or how about just going to one of the large hosting companies? The price is right and with the amount of sites they host they’ve got to be good at it. The answer is a resounding “maybe.” In short, a few simple factors are going to make all the difference. Knowing these can make or break your online marketing and SEO efforts.
The good news is these factors are pretty simple: bandwidth, who-you’re-with, and location.
Bandwidth – pretty simple stuff here. Whoever hosts your site needs to have enough bandwidth to serve your site to all those who want to see it. There aren’t really any “sure-thing” tests or tools you can use to verify this, but this information should be provided to you by your hosting company in your agreement. Verify data throughput maximums and check to see if there are any bandwidth guarantees.
Who-you’re-with – this criteria may be the most important of them all. Ultimately, the other sites hosted on the same server as you make a difference – both in terms of the server’s ability to deliver the site (too many sites can bog a server down) and even more importantly, the type of sites that are on the server. Want to be hosted with pornography sites? Probably not. The sites your website “commiserates” with makes a difference. Use this tool to check and see who you’re hosted with. You might be very, very surprised.
Location – the facts are that many of the largest hosting companies and data centers are located domestically in Florida and Texas. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if your business is located in or near either state (or if many of your customers are). However, if you’re located quite a ways away from either of those locations and many of your clients/customers are local, this can make a difference in the time it takes for your site to load. Is it likely to be a huge difference? No, probably not. But how many times have you waited 4 or 5 seconds for a site to load and gotten frustrated? The fact is that even as ridiculous as a few seconds sounds, people don’t expect to wait so why make them? Ultimately you want to drive people to your site and get them to become customers. Hosting your site in a local data center may not be the answer, but then again if you have a quality data center near you it is probably worth looking into.
Ultimately, your decision on where to host your site can make a difference in how the search engines look at it and how quickly it loads for people. Both should be considered very seriously.
Next time we’ll talk about how to be better than your competition. In the online world you don’t necessarily have to be good, you just have to be better than your competition. Stay tuned.
Before I delve too deeply into the design principles that will help your site rank well, it is incredibly important to keep a few things in mind:
Getting your site to rank prominently is not the end goal – or at least it shouldn’t be. The end goal is to get people to contact you and ultimately, purchase your products or services.
Accomplishing the bullet point above will only happen by executing a variety of online marketing activities well.
Search engines read the text of your site. To take a look at how a search engine might “read” your site you can use a tool like Lynx Viewer.
Okay, with those points duly noted, executing proper site design principles for the search engines is absolutely essential to getting quality ranking results for your site. In short, good design can be overly-simplified in this way: it’s the way you label the different parts of your site. Let’s take a look at how to do it:
We can get into some advanced design principles in later posts, but for now, we’ll go through the following areas:
Title Tags
Header
Body
Alt Tags
Meta (index, keywords
Title Tag – this is the text you see at the top of your browser when your site is up. Naming this properly is exceptionally important. It should be descriptive and focused. Even better would be if it used terms people will use to search for your site.
Headers – Headers can generally be described as the titles of articles and other prominent text found within your site. There are different levels or categories of headers beginning with H1 headers (generally the first title on a page), going down to H6 and so on (less prominent headers). All headers should be descriptive and specific to the pre-established goals of your site. Your H1 headers in particular should be very specific to the keywords your targeting.
Body – this is the text of your site. See my previous post about crafting quality copy for your site.
Alt Tags – Ever use pictures or other images on your site? Of course you do. Alt Tags provide the search engines an alternative method for displaying images in case those images don’t display properly. Instead of naming your image something like “stock photo #5″, give it a name that is specific to the keywords you’re focusing on.
Meta Tags – In general terms Meta Tags are simply user-defined terms or text assigned to different areas of your site. Once upon a time, Meta Tags were the way to get your site ranked by the search engines. Today, meta information is still important, but not nearly the way it once was. Most search engines look at the data, but the value of this data varies.
One last note that is probably fairly obvious at this point: be very careful about the use of flash or other “web development tools” on your home page. Often search engines won’t be able to “read” them properly thereby reducing or eliminating all your other optimization efforts. Splash pages are almost always a bit no-no.
Okay…now that we’ve talked in detail about how to create your site, it’s important to discuss the platform and hosting variables that can make or break your optimization and marketing efforts. That, next time. Stay tuned.
Writing good website copy is very different from many other types of writing, yet it is still something your 9th grade English teacher could be proud of. Sound confusing? Then allow me to explain…
The single largest reason writing website copy is challenging is because, if done properly, you’re not just writing for people – you’re writing for the search engines, as well. In essence, what this means is that you need to write clean, appealing, informative copy for people while simultaneously mentioning certain “key words” just the right amount of times that the search engines will also find it “appealing.” Unfortunately, like all writing, there is no magic formula. Rather, you should base your writing on good principles – as they apply to both people and the search engines.
Writing Website Copy for People
This is the part your 9th grade English teacher would approve of. Simply put, no one cares to read sloppy, poorly punctuated, grammatically incorrect copy. Nor does anyone care to read copy that is boring, uninformative, or lacks creativity. So what constitutes good writing for people? Of course, good writing is an incredibly subjective topic, however, I find most people agree with the following guidelines:
Write cleanly, and stay on topic. If you’re writing the text for your home page, don’t go on and on about one particular product or service. Your home page is an introduction to your company. Keep it that way.
Use good grammar.
Be informative. Yes, we all want to sell our products and services, but writing that is informative provides value to the reader and it keeps them engaged – both of which are good for gaining the trust of the reader.
Expose your industry knowledge. Using industry terms without being confusing can display your expertise.
Write creatively. No one cares to read boring, mundane text.
Easy on the sales pitch. Remember, everyone wants to buy, but no one wants to be sold.
Writing Website Copy for Search Engines
Search engines – especially Google – prefer a keyword ratio of 2% to 5%. This means that before you write your first word, you should have an understanding of what keywords you want to focus on. This is a post topic all by itself, however, in essence, these “keywords” are searchable terms likely to bring people to your site. What products/services are people looking for that you provide? What potential terms might they search by when looking for those products/services? These questions should lead you to determining what keywords might be valuable. Aside from the keywords, there are a few additional things you should be aware of:
Don’t plagiarize. Not only is it illegal, but you can get “blacklisted” by search engines for doing so.
Don’t duplicate. Using the same copy can dilute your web presence, but minor changes in text and reuse can be useful
Write succinctly, preferably with good structure and/or logic
Use keywords in groups they are likely to be searched like “IT Support Milwaukee” but also don’t be afraid to use it normally in a sentence like: “If you need quality IT support in the Milwaukee area contact ITP at 414-453-7100)
Better yet use both methods above to work towards good keyword density
Okay, enough about website copy. Next time… how to tag and label the pages of your site in a way the search engines love. Stay tuned.
The first and arguably most important aspect of your online marketing efforts is the design of your website. From an online marketing perspective, your site is the base of all your efforts. It is what you want to drive people to in order to learn about your business or, even better, encourage them to act upon what they see and call you. Without a well designed site, marketing the site will be far more difficult and, worse yet, people that do get to the site won’t be encouraged to contact you or purchase your products and/or services. The good news is the elements of quality design aren’t difficult to recognize and can be achieved by employing some basic principles. In essence, these quality site design principles can be broken down into 3 parts:
• The look and feel of the sight (graphics, functionality, colors, etc.)
• The information provided on the site (copy, videos, etc.)
• The “programming” of the site
Over the next few days, I’ll cover each aspect of good site design in more detail. Stay tuned.
Gadgets and Technology, Law Practice Management, Marketing, SEM, web site marketing | Paul Hager | 
October 13, 2010 2:29 am | 
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