Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 22 of December , 2007 at 2:24 pm
Your blog theme is important not from an SEO point of view, but from a customer optimization point of view. I remember talking to an older Internet marketer that chose not to do business with one company because of its color scheme. It seems strange, but he had a point.
“If I start marketing their products,” he said, “I will have to stare at that color scheme all day long. It is too dark and it is too hard to read. I don’t need the eyestrain.”
The thing was, the site appealed to me visually, but it had a black background with a light gray font which, while stunning, was hard to read. In addition, the font was small, which made it an enormous turn off to my older friend.
Pick your blog’s theme carefully
All the optimization in the world will not help you turn a profit if your customers don’t want to stay. You can get creative and artistic with your headers and stuff, but when it comes to your basic color scheme, light backgrounds and simple fonts work best. Aim for a good contrast with a dark font and light background. Other than that, anything goes.
Category: Blogging
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 22 of December , 2007 at 12:24 pm
Blogs are a great way to build up traffic for your website. They are relatively easy to set up and manage. There are a few options for free hosting that are not bad, but from a branding perspective, you would do better to run your blog off your own domain.
Wordpress is one of the best blog packages out at the moment. I have used a lot of different scripts, some of which I actually prefer to Wordpress. When it comes to the crunch, however, I tend to go to Wordpress for the simplicity. It’s free, it is highly customizable and it is popular. This makes for a wealth of widgets, plug-ins and free themes that can all be used to enhance your blog and hopefully drive a bit of traffic to your site.
Category: Blogging
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 21 of December , 2007 at 2:57 pm
Don’t miss out on the benefits that localized content can offer you. It is often an untapped market, especially if you are providing specialized services. The fact is that those of us that have been online almost as long as the Internet, have gotten very good at searching. Late adopters have not done too badly either. Now most people enter at least one geographic keyword when they search.
When I am producing content, I tend to start big and work my way down. I might start with something like: “Pool filters USA,” “Pool filters America,” and “Pool Filters United States.” That is three articles there, it is not really localized, but it is including some geo-targeting. Next, I would drop down to something a little smaller, “Pool Filters California.” To further reduce the area, “Pool Filters Los Angeles.” To go local, “Pool Filters Orange County.”
Don’t skimp, cover all the areas and then cover them again with specific product names, or alternative keywords to “Pool Filters.” Localized targeting makes a tremendous amount of extra work, but it makes perfect sense, drives plenty of traffic and generates leads as local clients can expect to see their goods in a more timely fashion if they live closer to your place of business.
Category: Keyword Research, Local Search Marketing
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 21 of December , 2007 at 8:57 am
The following helpful advice was taken from Marketing Pilgrim. I think it sums up some very good advice for those of you that want to build up traffic through link buying. Link buying is a strategy that works, but is increasingly frowned upon and tends to fall into the black hat category these days.
- Only buy links from sites that are highly relevant to your web site content. If you sell ring tones, that link from an online florist will stick out like a sore thumb!
- If the site you are buying links from already has more than 5 paid links on the page, walk away.
- If the site labels the links as “sponsored” or “paid links” or anything like that, walk away.
- Be selective in your targeting. Don’t buy footer or sidebar links if you can help it.
- Vary your anchor text. Try to make your anchor text look natural. If you buy links on 100 pages, and they all use the same text, you’re asking for trouble.
- Avoid any paid link where the seller is also an affiliate for the broker. Those “earn money selling links”banners? Yeah Google can see those too!
- Check that the page ranks well for its targeted keywords. If it doesn’t rank well for its own keywords, it will likely not help you.
- Point the links at different pages within your site. Don’t buy lots of links for your homepage.
- Try to get the links in a contextual format. A link that is part of a highly relevant paragraph will be more valuable.
- I guess I should round this out to ten.
Don’t worry about buying PageRank. A brand new page may be highly relevant to your industry and rank well, yet the PR shows 0/10. Ignore that, PR takes forever to catch up.
These are some useful tips and if you are considering paying for links, then do make sure you go over them carefully. I think that the best piece of advice that can be gleaned from this is to be careful where you buy your links from. Your links are only as good as the reputation of the site that they are on.
Of course, the flip side to link buying is link selling. If you have a site with a strong ranking, it is possible to earn a great deal of extra income selling links. Do take care, however, as a whiff of scandal is all it takes to bring your page rank tumbling down. Why does Google frown upon link buying and selling, anyway, after all isn’t that what Ad Sense is all about?
Category: Link Building, Link Selling
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 20 of December , 2007 at 2:00 pm
Some people criticize link baiting as a genuine strategy for building site traffic. It really depends on the industry you are in. If you are selling a product then it probably will not have that much impact and just be responsible for a traffic spike that comes and goes and does not generate too many leads. If your product, however, is information then link baiting can equate to a successful link building strategy.
Link baiting can help blogs a great deal, as long as you, as the owner, are prepared to put in the hard yards and produce link bait on a semi-consistent basis. If you produce an outstanding article every week or two, you are definitely going to be on the right track. Link baiting helps blogs because it increases subscriptions. If your site becomes known as a good article source then you are likely to have a lot more people click the subscribe button and that means advertising dollars. The more links that you get, the better.
Category: Link Building
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 20 of December , 2007 at 9:59 am
Are you planning some landing pages? Here are five QUICK design tips for speeding up the process and creating better landing pages.
Did you notice what I did with that preamble? That ought to give you an idea of what this article is about.
- Use a style sheet - CSS is popular for a reason. If you don’t know how to make a style sheet, go to Amazon and buy a book. It is easy to learn and one of the most important aspects of modern web design.
- Use fixed width columns - Monitors now come in all shapes and sizes. A big part of landing page optimization is the visual optimization. Fixed column widths let you know exactly how the page is going to look on your visitors’ screens.
- Use a quality page editor - I am partial to Dreamweaver. A good web page editor is expensive, but has a lot more versatility. Your pages should end up optimized for both IE6,7 and Firefox.
- Get colorful - I like a simple color scheme with my landing pages. I usually use red and blue for keywords. I am also partial to text highlighting, for which I use yellow.
- Optimize your images - Make sure that the images that you use are optimized. Dreamweaver does most of this for you, but you will need to manually enter a title for each image.
Category: Landing Page Optimization
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 20 of December , 2007 at 9:44 am
What is the most important ingredient to good website copy? Is it keywords? Is it repetition of those keywords? Links? Good meta tags?
Answer: None of the above.
The key to good website copywriting is to write copy that gets people interested. The first thing that attracts readers’ attention is the headline. Does your headline shout, “Read me?” If not then you likely won’t find many readers. Learn to write good headlines and people will read what you write.
Next, you must have a good lead-in paragraph. That first paragraph, first sentence, and first image are what will hook your readers. The headline gets them to click on your post or search engine listing. The first paragraph will determine whether they read the rest of your content.
Here are some tips to help you write better website copy:
• Write short sentences
• Write short paragraphs
• Use bullet statements
• Don’t just regurgitate what you find elsewhere - make it original!
• use h1, h2, and h3 tags
• Enhance your copywriting with dynamite graphics
These tips should help you write better website copy. Hope it helps.
Category: Website Copywriting
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 19 of December , 2007 at 2:45 pm
SEO content not only works, it works wonders. Recently, I had the pleasure to be involved in a massive writing project for a swimming pool cleaning products company. They had been around a while and had a pretty big network marketing presence, but had never really done the Internet thing. That being said, when it did come time for them to jump into the web marketing, they did it right. It was a big budget project, they had already chosen their keywords and they chose well.
They sell enzyme based products for cleaning swimming pools. Type in “Pool Enzymes” and you get a massive field of 430,000; not as bad as some markets but still pretty crowded. I produced a total of about 30 premium articles for them and was well compensated for my efforts. The work was tough going, due to the amount of research involved and all said and done it took me just under a month for it to be completed to my satisfaction. The articles and web content were all highly optimized, but not overly so. I developed the content with the goal that it was going to be good to read. I didn’t worry about keyword density. There were very few articles that had more than one keyword per paragraph. Some did not have any.
Less than a month later and the website was in the top ten on Google for “Pool Enzymes.”
Category: Content Development, SEO
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 19 of December , 2007 at 12:40 pm
We have researched and compiled our first annual list of some of the most useful Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing Blogs…other than the Search Engine Optimization Journal!
Please feel free to visit these blogs as they provide excellent information! Please let us know if we missed any blogs off of this list.
1. Matt Cutts: Google, Gadgets and SEO
Blog URL: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
SEO news and tips coming straight from a Google employee who is recognizably one of the biggest names in the SEO industry.
2. Search Engine Watch Blog: Search Marketing News
Blog URL: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/
Not only does SearchEngineWatch.com give you everything you need to know as a whole about SEM, but this blog is definitely a great addition to the impressive website.
3. Marketing Pilgrim
Blog URL: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com
This site has new content rich posts per day. It also has a job board and other valuable parts of the site. It has a comprehensive e-book you can download as well to learn more about online marketing.
4. Graywolf’s SEO Blog
Blog URL: http://www.wolf-howl.com
Not only does Michael Gray offer consulting services, he also offers his own fun and unique and personal insight on SEO and all that is going on in the business.
5. SEO Scoop
Blog URL: http://www.seo-scoop.com
SEO-Scoop is a well written and interesting blog that offers SEO tips, theories and news.
6. Ask the SEO Guru
Blog URL: http://massa.techndu.com
While there is less glitz and glamour on this page when it comes to colorful ads, fonts and photos, it provides valuable information on SEO based on questions asked. You can submit a question and if it gets chosen, the author will answer it with a thorough blog post.
7. SEO Refugee
Blog URL: http://www.seorefugee.com
A funny and interesting approach at an SEO blog, SEORefugee provides comical cartoons and other interesting articles that you are sure to enjoy reading.
8. Search Engine Roundtable
Blog URL: http://www.seroundtable.com
Six well rounded individuals write in this popular blog. Each new posts offers invaluable insight in a different voice.
9. Mr. SEO
Blog URL: http://www.mr-seo.com/wordpress/
Mr. SEO offers not only a blog but a very interactive one. He also hosts a podcast in which he will actively do an SEO strategy on a site or two.
10. Search Engine Journal
Blog URL: http://www.searchenginejournal.com
Arguably one of the most popular blogs about search engine marketing out there. With several posts a day written by various authors, the content on this blog will never leave you looking for more.
11. SEO Service Provider
Blog URL: http://seoserviceprovider.com/seoblog/
Just as the tagline says “Just good SEO - no hype.” It’s a to the point blog that updates you on the SEO news and tips.
12. Small Business SEM
Blog URL: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com
This blog offers an alternative to small businesses who simply cannot afford to get consulting services on their own. The content is extremely thorough and provides various links and resources to other useful websites and tools.
13. Search Engine Land
Blog URL: http://searchengineland.com
Website has good quality content and several pages with SEO, marketing and other information. It has detailed sections of the site dedicated to everything Google, Yahoo and MSN related and contains tons of new articles posted each day.
14. SEO Wife
Blog URL: http://www.seowife.com
An interesting look on SEO through the eyes of a wife and SEO marketer. Not only is there search engine optimization news and tips, there is also some other interesting reads!
15. Hybrid SEM
Blog URL: http://www.hybridsem.com/blog
The authors fuse old school and new school SEO techniques together to maximize your ROI.
16. Natural Search Blog
Blog URL: http://www.naturalsearchblog.com
Natural Search Blog provides articles on search engine optimization including keyword reasearch, on-page factors, link-building, social media optimization, local search optimization, image search optimization, and mobile SEO.
17. Search Marketing Gurus
Blog URL: http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com
This site not only contains valuable articles but also useful links and resources. It has an emphasis on women within internet marketing with a weekly column.
18. Deep Linking from the Desk of Bluebert G. Peabody
Blog URL: http://blog.cre8asite.net/
The Gurus at Cre8asite have teamed up to provide you with an upbeat SEM blog that has content that will certainly get you thinking.
19. Zunch Search Engine Marketing Blog
Blog URL: http://searchenginemarketingblog.zunch.com
A blog with facts and opinions from the search engine optimization / search engine marketing teams at Zunch Communications, Inc.
20. Scotland SEO Blog
Blog URL: http://www.scotlandseoblog.co.uk
Here is an SEO blog based out of Scotland giving a fresh look at the current SEO industry. The blog is updated daily and is always worth reading.
Have we missed any? Please leave a comment of other Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing related blogs that might be worth reading.
Category: SEO, SEO Tools, Top SEO List
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 19 of December , 2007 at 7:45 am
I tend to shrug off PPC in favor of good old-fashioned organic marketing whenever possible. I have a number of reasons for doing this:
- PPC produces a finite result - once your budget is expended, it is gone.
- Distinguishing buyers may avoid PPC ads - People that have been around the Internet block, may unconsciously screen out obvious advertising.
- PPC is not a guarantee of leads - PPC merely guarantees traffic not leads.
PPC has a definite place in web marketing, but I will always prefer what can be accomplished through the right balance of keywords and text. Great content can work wonders.
Where PPC has its place is when you are trying to give your sales a short term boost or when you are launching into a particularly large market. In such cases, PPC can give you the boost that you need to market your site effectively. PPC has a definite place in marketing, but you should never rely on PPC alone. Have great content to back it up.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 18 of December , 2007 at 2:00 pm
There are tons of keyword research tools out there and there are some that are very good, but don’t forget the benefits of brainstorming. Brainstorming comes up with some great keyword ideas and once in a while you will think of something that a computer program just won’t come up with. Customers are humans and the human edge does come in handy from time to time.
Brainstorming is always the first step of my keyword research. I aim to come up with as many short phrases as I can possibly think of in one sitting. Going through the phrases that I would type in is the easy part, thinking of things that others might type can be a little more challenging. The more you do it, however, the easier it will become. Some people are better at brainstorming than others, but those that are really good at it can save themselves a lot of time in their keyword research.
Category: Keyword Research
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 18 of December , 2007 at 8:01 am
A lot of people ask me about what I believe is the best way to kick their sites off. Should they launch the site before it is officially ready for launch? Should they include pages that are under construction? I always answer, why not? The site does not need to be finished for a launch date. You need to make sure that the essential elements are in place, but other than your main pages, everything else can come later.
The core pages for your site are the following:
- Home page / Index
- Contact page
- Company information page
- Core product pages
Everything else can wait, but don’t let it wait too long. You want to start bringing in the traffic and the only way that you are going to do that is with some optimized content.
Category: Content Development
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 17 of December , 2007 at 2:00 pm
Search Engine Optimization, its all about getting people onto your website, right? The thing is that all the optimization in the world will not help you if you are releasing a website into a crowded market full of well established competitors. You want to get your site out there, you want it to be seen, but the fact is that SEO just does not cut it when you are getting started. You still need to optimize your site, but you will need a little bit more to drive the traffic through your gates. PPC offers you just that little bit extra. There are some that dismiss PPC as mere link buying, but so what, it gets you to the top of any search pile and it doesn’t cost all that much.
There may come a time that you don’t need PPC, but when you are starting out, it is one of the best ways to build up guaranteed traffic. If your site is well optimized, if it looks good and encourages website sales, then it will do the rest. It takes the effort out of traffic building and it works. If you are not satisfied with your sites traffic levels, then it could be time to Pay Per Click.
Category: PPC
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 17 of December , 2007 at 8:48 am
In your website copywriting, are you using emotional trigger words? This is the one thing that I see more often on website copy - copywriters not using the trigger words.
Trigger keywords are words that trigger an emotional response. You want that response to be an appropriate response for your product or service - one that inspires action. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean a positive response. Trigger words could be words that provoke fear, love, greed, self-confidence, lust … and it must be appropriate to your product or service. In other words, if your website is about food then you want people to get hungry, not greedy for money.
Website copywriting is all about getting people to respond. End your website copy with a call to action with a strong trigger word. Then watch the dollars roll in.
Category: Content Development, Website Copywriting
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 17 of December , 2007 at 6:47 am
There was a time when all one had to worry about for optimizing their site was the text. There was also a time when websites were indexed manually. How times have changed. These days, text is still king of SEO, but integration of other technologies is becoming more important.
Photo and to a greater extent video now has a part to play. Yahoo! has featured universal search for a while now, but you might be surprised to know that they were beta testing it long before that. Universal search is the new standard and as Internet speeds increase, video will become the new web medium. YouTube is largely to thank for that, but do not be mistaken into thinking that YouTube is the be all and end all, you can host video yourself, you just need to make sure that you have the bandwidth to handle it..
Optimizing video is more important than optimizing images. Any video on your site should be optimized for search. People that look for video look for the same reasons that they look for text. They are looking for information and or for entertainment. Many people that are seeking out images are not doing so in order to seek out information. Video brings in the right sort of traffic. Chances are that if your site has video it does not have that much. If your video files are not properly tagged, you should go back and tag them. Optimizing your older photos might be more trouble than its worth if you have a lot of images. It is worth weighing up the potential traffic benefit against the workload. You might just want to optimize older key images and any new images that you post.
Category: SEO
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