In the Beginning..

March 16th, 2008

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This Video will showcase:

The WEB 2.0 mindset

How you can use these strategies to explode ANY Business.

 

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Are Title Tags Dead on your Website?

March 7th, 2008

 

Source: Jerry West from SEO Revolution
 
Leaving out your title tag is similar to a magazine leaving out a headline. Leave it out and your website is dead in the water.
 
Also, don’t make the mistake of using just your company name for your Title. The Site’s title should grab attention, hook the user and evoke emotion.  The same "hooks" in newspapers and television commercials can be used for your Title and Description.
 
Example:
For a Book Store, instead of using a Title of: "XYZ Corporation -XYZ Book Store", use "Book Store - Giving You Tools for Your Business".
 
This Title is more effective because it incorporates the main solution the company provides, and it does not include any "stop words."
 
Search engines do not alphabetize the results, so refrain from using symbols such as "!!" or "AAA" in your Title. That technique was effective back in the late 90s, it isn’t anymore.
 
Placing your most important keywords in the Title, while it was a useful strategy years ago in SEO, is no longer a requirement. It is far more effective for you to create a killer Title, one that is highly compelling and generate a top ranking through incoming links. Your Title must be readable and descriptive, don’t just stuff keywords in the Title.
 
Do not use ALL CAPS, as it makes it difficult to read and it is considered "shouting" on the Internet. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word (when appropriate). Generally, your Title should be 5-7 words. Google displays a maximum of 64 characters, so make sure you have 64 or fewer characters in your Title. If you don’t you risk your Title not fully displaying, which can cause other problems for you. MSN and Yahoo! display more, but with the market share Google has, you must comply with their current standards
 
Here is how a Title looks that is too long. Notice the ellipses at the end. Don’t let this happen to you.
 
As I stated, in the above example the Title is too long as “Travel Web Site” is not displayed in the search result. This hurts the message being delivered and the click-through rate will probably suffer because of it.
 
Yahoo! essentially doesn’t have a limit of what they will display with 110 characters and MSN will display 70. Your best bet is to focus on Google and have your Title 65 characters or less.
 
According to testing, more characters are often indexed than which display in the SERPs. For example, Google displays 64 characters, but indexes 72; MSN displays 70 but indexes 82; Yahoo! is the only engine which displays and indexes the same number of characters, 110.
One of my mottos is “Success is 50% competitive intelligence and 50% figuring out how to do it better.” This is true for the Title tag as well. If you want to see the top scoring Titles for your targeted key phrase, type: “allintitle:keyphrase” in the Google search bar (minus the quotes). For example, if I wanted to know the Titles for “home security system” I would type:
 
Some experts will recommend using the “intitle” command. This is a mistake. In order to see the top Titles, you must use “allintitle” or the entire phrase will not be used. The above examples are the top three results. I would suggest you look at the Top 30 results to get ideas on how to make your Title more effective.
 
PageRank is a factor in the “allintitle” results, so if you have optimized your Title and your site still isn’t in the Top Ten results, you will need to turn your attention to improving the PageRank of that page, which is an Off-Page Factor.
 
Don’t use more than one Title tag per page. Although, it is allowed on some search engines, it is not a good practice, as penalties can be assessed. The most common penalty is a drop in ranking.
The Title should be the second tag following the tag in your HTML code (the character set tag should be first). If you use Microsoft FrontPage, be aware it may place the Title tag after the META tags, which may lower your ranking in Yahoo! and MSN. You will need to manually change this by clicking on the HTML tab and moving the Title above the META tags.

Using Blogs To Grow Your Business

February 14th, 2008

Our team sits down with a client because they want to grow their business. We look at their site and quickly pick apart some of the strategies their former consultant implemented, like "hidden keywords" in the footer or hiding text within the index page. These strategies may work, (temporarily) but are considered "Black Hat SEO" by many experts. Google doesn’t look kindly at these strategies and within their Terms of Service, your site can be de-indexed and cost you thousands or millions of dollars a year.One of the easiest, simplest, safest white hat strategies is implementing a blog to your business. Now, there are several ways to do this and the question often comes up, should we implement a "stand-alone" blog with its own domain name and build a business around the blog or should we implement the blog within our site, like we’ve done here at Donzos.com/blog. There is no easy answer to this question, but the key is that either way will drive traffic to your business.

How to Start Your Own Blog.

Blogs get picked up quickly by the major search engines for two main reasons….. and the two keys to SEO.

1. Content - Google and other search engines love ‘em because it’s fresh, unique content uploaded on a frequent basis. (We recommend to have at least one post per day to keep the readers and spider bots coming back on a regular basis)

2. Links - If you are providing some valuable, good content, you’ll get nonreciprocal inbound links from other bloggers, and Google will continue to love your blog in a way that’s oh, so nice. Picking the Right Blog Software or Platform is critical if you want any success with blogging. Generally, you have several options to choose from, but for discussion of this post, I’ll limit our discussion to the three platforms below.

1. Blogger In early 2003 Google acquired blogger as their own blogging platform/software. While the platform is extremely easy to use, the major problem from an SEO perspective is that all of the blogs are hosted on Google’s host. So, even if you were to implement the latest SEO strategies on your blog …..www.whatever.blogspot.com….it won’t be the optimal platform for your business. In other words, essentially, you’ll be helping Google’s Blogger program. Sure, you can sprinkle your blog with links to your "money sites" or business links, but again, its like fighting with one hand behind your back.

2. Wordpress (two versions) Wordpress is a great platform and has two versions and both are free. The first version is when you go to: www.wordpress.org and sign up with an account. There you’ll setup a free account and choose your domain name and set up your blog. The problem is similar to blogger. Your domain name will look like this: http://whatever.wordpress.com/ The key here is to use wordpress software and place it on your own server so the domain looks this. http://www.whatever.com This is the best deal of all because it gives you all the benefits of the wordpress software, and drives traffic to your site. Wordpress also has a tremendous development support with free widgets which allow you to enhance your site with free features and plugins. You can also completely customize your site to your needs.

3. Movable Type This is a paid software that you install on your own domain name. It works just like the self-hosted option of wordpress above. I have friends who love the program and the ease of software. Our team recommends using the self-hosted wordpress with a customized theme. Watch for more videos on how to setup your own self-hosted wordpress blog.

How to Write a Post in Wordpress

February 12th, 2008

In this video, Mark Archer, founder of donzos.com shows his readers how they can easilty write their content within their blogs.  Mark is using Wordpress version 2.3.1 with a Semiologic theme version 5.0.  (a not so subtle affiliate link is below) http://www.getsemiologic.com?aff=donzos  Mark Briefly describes tagging, and the differences between a post and a page. Also, keep in mind that the demo Mark is using is a stand-alone blog. If you have a blog as a subdirectory of your main site (ie. www.domain.com/blog) then you’re defaulted login would be (www.domain.com/blog/wp-admin) Enjoy the video.

What is SEO?

February 11th, 2008

What is SEO?

SEO is the short form for Search Engine Optimization. To define it more clearly, SEO is a set of practices that yield better rankings for a website on the search engine results page. Over the last few years, SEO has become almost a norm for any business website that indulges in any form of Internet marketing.

 

Search engines are an important source of looking for relevant information on the web for more than 80% users. Chances are that you and I have at various points logged on to any of the major search engines to recover information from the Internet. Whether it is a product, we are looking for or news or even advice, we tend to rely very heavily on search engines. This makes SEO a must for website developers.

 

When you enter a set of keywords into the search box, the engine parses through a set of pages it has already indexed by relevance to yield a result. The results page is a long list of websites that are likely to contain what the user requires. If your website matches a user’s requirement you would ideally like it to feature somewhere prominently on the list but this is not obvious. With millions of pages on the Internet being dedicated to similar products and information it is hard to get a top ranking. SEO practices can actually help you get on top consciously.

Under the wide banner of SEO come specific practices like keyword optimization, meta-tags, site submissions, and link exchanges among others. By following these methods, you can create sites that are indexed as highly relevant by search engine crawlers and therefore increase the organic ranking of the site.

 

Ten Easy Ways to Get Your Website Ranked

September 19th, 2007

 

 

Owning a web business and achieving high rankings for your web site is no simple task. It takes lot of hard work and determination to succeed, reach, and stay at the top. The following ten ways could prove to be of immense help:

Creating and increasing web traffic: Your web site is alive and kicking as long as there is regular flow of web traffic, which can be free or paid. Paid traffic can be achieved with ezine advertising, paid directory submissions, and pay-per-click advertising. Free traffic is surfers locating content on your site through search engines.

E-mail signatures: Set up your personalized signatures to develop excellent customer service and print your web site name in all correspondence.

Correct usage of directory and file: Search engines choose key phrases from file and directory names while indexing. Therefore, naming according to content within is essential.

META tags: Search engines use META tags while indexing. Use proper description and keyword tags with short and important phrases separated by commas. Keep your language simple and do you research to see what converts before you invest tons of time and energy into SEO.

Accessibility: Accessibility of your web site is essential for good search engine rankings. Proper title tags, and heading tags ensure easy accessibility.

Inclusion of apt pages: Search engines look for specific pages love pages like the Sitemap and Links page on your web site. Links page provides connection to similar web sites and search engines give greater credence to such pages. Sitemap makes it easier for search engine to index your web site from a single location.

Content: Content at your web site should be of excellent quality for favorable ranking on search engines. Good content will bring in more traffic and linking too, which again increases your ranking.

Contests: Holding contests at your web site can increase your ranking as you gain more popularity with visitors. Traffic increases leading to increased rankings too.

Recommendations: Use a recommendation script at the end of your web site for visitors to recommend your site to their friends and associates.

Autoresponder: An autoresponder is an essential tool to maintain regular contact with your customers and clients alike. This can improve your search engine rankings too.

Why Use Us?

September 15th, 2007

There are many good web developers that know how to make sites look pretty but know very little about SEO. My question is, what good is a site if nobody can find it?

Donzos places great emphasis on educating its clients By providing free reports, blogs and information regarding the art of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, clients are privy to the same information that is shared in our staff room. Simply put, an educated client is a satisfied client.

Personalized Service

SEO can be an overwhelming and confusing experience. We are very aware of this and that’s why our advisors take the time to address all of our clients’ concerns. By cutting through the jargon and geek-speak, our advisors assist clients get their sites ranking higher, which leads to more traffic and more sales.

A Foundation in Education

We know our clients can think for themselves and that all they need is good information. Through free reports, blogs and newsletters, we make sure you have access to all of the latest developments with the online search engines and marketing strategies. It is this access to this critical information and expertise that sets us apart from the competition.

Get Results or Your Money Back with Our Ironclad Guarantee

All of our packages include our 100% ironclad guarantee. If you are not happy with our client services, and don’t see an improvement in traffic and sales, then we will issue a full refund. Our guarantee is good for 120 days after our initial consultation. The risk is on us. You have nothing to lose.

Perfection is Our Goal

In a competitive industry, we understand that our clients are our most important asset. It is our goal to meet every need of our clientele. We value the thoughts and suggestions of those we serve above all else. While we may never be perfect, striving for perfection means that we’re always improving.

Geek Speak”, SEO, AND Your Future

September 15th, 2007

 Actually, finding a great web developer without knowing “Geek Speak” is positively frightening for most of us.  It’s kind of like your car developing a terrible vibration while on vacation forcing you into some strange garage.  The next thing you know you have some $600 repair bill because the mechanic said you needed to replace half of your suspension.  How do you know all of the parts really need replaced?  How do you even know if they were replaced?  What if you get 300 miles down the road and the vibration returns—or the car breaks down completely? 

Much like the unsuspecting motorist who knows nothing about cars, website owners must be able to locate trustworthy web developers even when they can’t speak “Geek”—or the consequences could be very costly! I recently heard from a very successful businessman that he had shelled out thousands for some state-of-the-art software program.  In theory, this program could generate website templates that would automatically rank well in the search engines if the instructions were followed precisely.  I know—sounds like magic in a box, right? 

 Well, month after month roll by and there is literally no traffic—I am talking this site is a virtual ghost town.  Embarrassed but desperate to turn things around, he asked me to take a look at his site.  Within 5 minutes, I found the problem—the “magic” software program had created pages that were all dynamic generated links.  Basically, the spider bots from all the search engines would never even find the inner pages of his site—he hadn’t a prayer of getting ranked on any of the search engines and his program was complete and utter garbage! And I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have heard about people starting websites and having some “graphic artist friend” design the site for them!  Now this sounds like a great way to save some serious money while also helping the “graphic artiste” gain some exposure, right?  The ironic part is that most of these graphic artists do in fact create some amazing sites that positively look brilliant—but they won’t be seen by anyone!  The web designer must also incorporate basic SEO tactics like title tags, H1 tags, etc.—or the site will never get ranked in the search engines and thus there will be no traffic—and ultimately—no sales! Yes, the Internet is loaded with a lot of technical jargon but you should never allow “Geek Speak” to scare you away from your dream of owning your own website.  Unlike some web developers out there, we promise not to bombard you with a ton of technical terms or geek jargon while creating a site that is poised for success from day one. Look, you wouldn’t hire your brother-in-law or your best friend Jimmy to build your home—you would hire a professional, right?  Your website is your financial lifeline so why would you trust its construction and infrastructure to anyone other than a pro?  Even if you save a few bucks going with the brother-in-law or lowest bidder, the lost revenue and time caused by an ineffective or incompetent web developer will far exceed the cost of having a professional do it right the first time.  A full 90% of all web traffic flows through the search engines so if the site is not SEO—it will essentially be DOA (dead on arrival)! 

Our crack team is staffed by marketing experts, graphic artists, web designers, and the top SEO experts in the business and you have exclusive access to all of them when you use our service.  Not only will your site be a visual masterpiece and designed to entice visitors with the latest and most advanced marketing techniques—it will also be Search Engine Optimized to maximize rankings, traffic, and ultimately—sales! 

What is Search Engine Optimization? (SEO)

September 15th, 2007

I think I was the happiest and proudest person on the planet the day I launched my first website.  I had labored for days and put a lot of time, money, and hard work into creating the site, getting the shopping cart functional, etc…  And then, on the second day when I awoke to go check on my traffic, a disturbing trend began:  I had no visitors.  Not the first day…not the second day…not any day.  Sadly, I am not alone when it comes to this very common misperception about websites which essentially boils down to: Creating a functional website is THE EASY PART.  Getting people to actually find your site—that is what separates the winners from the losers.  Traffic does not just happen—it is generated via SEO!

SEO is the art of optimizing a website so the search engines can easily navigate your site and "rank" your site.  The higher your ranking, the more traffic you will have and the greater your sales will be.  Unfortunately, few people really understand SEO because there is so much misinformation out there about the topic.  Our SEO experts will fully explain the optimization process and then assist you in boosting your rankings higher and higher—right along with your profits!