So you have a website that is not doing too great in the search engines, and you have just now heard of search engine optimization but don’t know where to start. Welcome to the party! Or say you’re an SEO beginner who is taking on some websites to optimize — where should you begin? Here is a basic assessment checklist of what you should investigate about the site before diving in and doing any of the actual work.
Link Building Through Virtual Relationships
Believe it or not, I actively build links with relationships without meeting people in the flesh and wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for doing this across my social media networks. The main thing to remember is that if you are helpful and can provide value to someone else, it is basically a virtual handshake and a way to fire up your virtual relationship. Simple things like a vote, comment, retweet or even just praise can strengthen your relationship. Here are a few things to do to meet people in Social Media, and turn them into friends (who can help you build links).
Link Building through Relationships
Ah, relationships. Good relationships are strong, meaningful bonds that act to hold people or objects together. Like the craftsman furniture maker’s forgotten “dovetail” joint that once held a strong piece of furniture together and is now replaced with weak staples between faux wood fiberboard, relationships seem to be the forgotten glue that once held the business world together. Oh relationships, where have you gone?
8 Ways to Target Keywords for Ranking and Usability
Savvy Internet marketers know the importance of keyword targeting for ranking and usability, but as a refresher (and for you beginners out there) I thought I’d run down a list of various areas on the page where you can include your core keyword. It’s not a completely comprehensive list and I’m not going to bother with percentage of importance or how crucial it is to target these particular spots — this is just my opinion of areas to be mindful of and possibly include a keyword if you can, because it can potentially help with rankings and should provide a solid user experience.
Integrating Flash into an HTML Site in an SEO Friendly Way
Flash websites have been the fear of SEOs since the inception. Many of us have to constantly battle clients who want a pretty flash website and don’t want to understand the technical jibber jabber about why it’s not good for search engines. We try to explain as best as we can why “Flash sucks,” and…
The Future of SEO
By Jordan Kasteler (Utah SEO Pro) Search engines are getting smarter day by day, technologies are advancing minute by minute, and search engine optimization specialists need to get on board and prepare for the future of SEO. While many traditional SEO tactics and strategies may always hold true, creativity and ingenuity is needed to master…
Most Overlooked SEO Metric: Link Placement
By Jordan Kasteler (Utah SEO Pro) Have you ever received an email from someone requesting a link exchange touting that they have a valuable link to offer you? Ever purchased a link from a broker at a particular cost based on metrics over negotiation? How do they usually declare that link is valuable? There’s a…
Search Friendly Information Environment Design
by David Snyder One of the most overlooked concepts in the construction of a website is how the information for that website will be structured. Too often the organization of this information is constructed without any usability or search engine optimization in mind.
Link Shaping and Bot Herding
by Dave Snyder My last post on NoFollow and NoIndex was a way for me to: 1) Try to explain an issue that many starting out in this industry do not completely grasp, or understand the importance of. I myself had some misinformation on the topic that some were good enough to set me straight…
To NoFollow or To NoIndex That is the Question
by Dave Snyder (Update: I had some inaccuracies and hard to understand parts of this pointed out by Edward Lewis of SEOConsultants.com, a person I trust and respect. Since I wrote this post to be a discussion starter and resource I thought it important to update.) This is kind of a beginner to moderate post…