Los Angeles Web Design blog
Info on Search Engine Optimization, Web Design and Web 2.0
How to build links - an honest guide to organic link building
September 26th, 2007 by admin
Of course everyone wants links! Anyone who has common internet sense knows that link building is the true key to success on the internet and getting higher up on the search engines. The main goal for a basic website is to get a few solid links so that you can plant your internet roots and give your website a solid base from where search engine spiders can crawl to your website.
Start with basic link building
Before going crazy and scouring the internet for links start with the basic areas where any business should start.
- Internet Yellow Pages - Here you can get a link for free and you can get it rather quickly. You may already have a listing for your business that you don’t even know about.
- DMOZ Internet Directory - This directory is one of the largest directories and its run by a collaboration of some of the largest ISP’s. The only downfall is that it is edited by humans that aren’t paid thus getting your link up there can take forever…sometimes over 6 weeks!
- Google Maps / Yahoo Maps - Yup you can get a free link here too but it may not apply if you are running a business from home. This applies best for ‘Brick and Mortar’ businesses that have a geographical location.
Relevant Link Building
Probably the most important type of link building and sometimes rather difficult depending on what type of website you have. What this entails is finding relevant areas where you can get links that have the same information as your website or similar. This may be a directory related to construction for example where you can list your construction website. Another example is one business trading links with another business and they’re services are similar. Exchanging links can be beneficial for both businesses provided that neither business can have a loss of business to one another or a conflict of interest.
Watch out for SEO and Link Building scams!
This is important because the ramifications can be much worse than originally anticipated. Something that seemed innocent and a good idea can turn your seo efforts into a disaster! Many companies say they can guarantee 50, 100 or even 500 links and they may also claim that they are organic links. They may be right in a technical sense…but the underlying technology is what is potentially dangerous. Typically what goes on is the website or service runs hundreds of directories all over the internet and puts your link dynamically into these directories. The bad thing is that the search engines are constantly changing their alogarythms they use to ‘weed’ out these directories once they find them. If you get caught in the mix you could get black listed too. By nature this is a bad practice because these directories weren’t setup for humans in the first place so the traffic running through them are typically search engine spiders and random traffic so the traffic that does come through them is not true targeted traffic that you would typically get from a well placed link anyway. So these can be seen as poor long-term link building efforts because they can be here today and gone tomorrow just like that.
Happy Link Building!
-Jason Schiffer
Comprehensive Keyword and Keyphrase Selection
September 13th, 2007 by admin
When selecting keywords you always want to keep in mind that targeted keywords will produce targeted results. I frequently ask small business owners what keywords they wish to use and I get random idiotic keywords that are so off target they are not worth using. By selecting poor keywords you are putting yourself against unnecessary competition and going after useless traffic or off-target results. Keep in mind when selecting keywords that if you choose poor keywords you create extra inefficiencies such as unnecessary phone calls, wasted bandwidth and increased statistics data to sort through that for the most part will only give you a false impression of positive results.
So in essence choosing the correct keywords and keyphrases will make your website effective, efficient and smart! So lets begin with a few examples of bad keywords and good keywords so you can get an idea of what is a good mindset to have when putting on your SEO hat and getting the cogs turning.
Below are some proper keyword examples:
| Bad Keyword Selection: Painting ServicesGood Keyword Selection: Interior Painting Services in Phoenix AZBad Keyword Selection: Nursing JobsGood Keyword Selection: Medical Staffing and Nursing Jobs in Chicago ILBad Keyword Selection: Programming Services
Good Keyword Selection: Financial Application C++ Programming Services |
|---|
Also keep in mind that its a good idea to review your keywords on search engines before using them to review their search volumes and advertiser competition. If a keyword or keyphrase has 20 million results on a typical search it is probably not a good idea to use that and to rethink the combination or keywords you are using. Remember if your selection primarily contains keywords with high search volumes and high amounts of results you are making it that much more difficult in your attempt to make your way up to the first or second page results. So in short using these types of keywords is setting yourself up for failure before you even start. There are typical areas of the internet that are very saturated and can be difficult even with proper keyword selection to get good results. Typical areas are certain areas in real estate, loans, financial sites and certain types of software. So before you spend a lot of time and effort into brainstorming and selecting keywords its a good idea to try a few out first on the search engines like google or yahoo to make sure you are not wasting your time.
- Jason Schiffer
Common Sense Marketing for your website
September 3rd, 2007 by admin
Sometimes I am shocked when I go about my daily life and see many businesses who have a wonderful opportunity to market their website and they fail to do so. Not every business is privileged to have a storefront business with walk-in traffic and be able to use that to their advantage in getting more eyeballs to their website. Typical things I have seen are restaurants that have business cards or menus with no web address on them or a good local market or bar that I know has a website because I’ve seen it before and sure enough no mention of their website is anywhere to be found in their local establishment.
There are so many simple steps you can take to increase your traffic that take very little effort. I feel like there should be a class for this stuff or some kind of documentation but I guess many small businesses eventually find this out by making mistakes and learning the hard way. So if you own a small business or know someone who does this article should help and eventually help you increase your profits.
Printed Materials and brick & mortar advertising:
business cards - This one should be self explanatory, business cards are most likely one of your most important printed materials for your business. If you think you are saving money by using up all of your old business cards without your web address think again. Throw out your old business cards and get new ones or if you really have to save the ones you have then stamp your web address on the back or get stickers made with your web address and stick them to all of your business cards…you’ll be glad you did!
invoices & receipts - When you give your customers an invoice or a receipt, put your web address on it! Most likely in the future someone may have that invoice or receipt filed away and may look it up later to purchase more products or to plan to return to your establishment. Unless you have some old antiquated piece of equipment adding this address to your printed recipts or invoices should take a very short amount of time.
In-store advertising - If you have a store with walk-in traffic put up a banner with your web address. You can go to your local print shop and get a banner fairly inexpensively…in most cases well under $100. Well worth the investment in my mind. If you really have to do it the cheap way you can print out something on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper for free. If you have a trendy store and you want to do something really cool you can get a gobo light and project your web address on the floor or wall. Bottom line if you have people standing around reading and observing the inside of your store while waiting, having your web address in any fashion is better than having nothing at all.
Miscellaneous Printed Materials - There are also other various printed materials you can add your web address to if it applies to you. Such printed materials may be postcards, newsletters, flyers, product tags, menus, bags, etc.
Traditional Business Advertising for your website
Voice mail - This is one that gets overlooked all the time. If you have voice mail and many people call your business after hours. Mention that they can visit your website and then spell out or say your web address. In many cases they will be glad you did this because they may have already wanted to purchase your products anyway and you just made it easier for them. This may also save time for you because they may have called just to ask a simple question. By going to your website they can probably read a list of FAQ questions on your website and not call the next day.
Email - If you send out many emails to customers and clients then you should add your web address to your email signature. This way every single outgoing email is an advertisement for your business and it cost you nothing extra.
In-store announcements - If you have a sound system that plays in-store announcements then you may want to mention your website every now and then in your announcements where it applies and is also not too obtrusive to your customers. Remember you don’t want to shove it down their throat…you just want them to know that you have a website and that it exists.
Keep it Local
September 2nd, 2007 by admin
After building and managing over 200 websites I’ve seen many people make the same mistake over and over. They have a local business and the keywords and page text on their website have little if no keywords pertaining to their local business. This is a common mistake that many businesses overlook. If you take the time to put in an extra effort and add in all of the local metro areas at that business into all key areas it will have a significant increase on both targeted traffic and showing up higher in key areas of google and yahoo search results.
You can also go one step further and add your website to local areas like google maps, citysearch and other locally based directories to increase your geographic-based search engine optimization efforts.