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Why Do I Need a Website Anyway?

Doug Williams @ 5:27 am

This blog entry was posted on June 28, 2011.

Don’t put up a website just to have one. You need a real business reason, or why spend the money? A website should be designed to help you reach your business goals. If you have concrete goals, then you will know what type of website you really need. These are things your website can do for you.

Serve Customers: Tell current or new customers about your business. What you do, your business hours. Answer the questions your customers are asking through great content and a strong FAQ area. Use pictures and video to communicate. If you are a restaurant, then this means menus with photos of meals. If you are a contractor then have a photo gallery of your work.

Find Customers: Use your website to generate new business. Entice the visitor with free items in exchange for their name and e-mail address. A lead generation website needs a flow of interested visitors with a strong call to action. Use search engine optimization or paid advertising to send interested people to your site. Then have a form where they can request a quote or sign up for your email list.

Transact Business: Create an ecommerce website that closes the deal and collects the money online. Your web store can sell products or services. Products can be delivered digitally (ebooks, ecourses) or they can collect orders that will be shipped out by traditional methods. Your web store is open 24/7.

Educate: Use text, images, video, blogs and email to teach a skill or connect with your audience. Offer useful information which is education based marketing. Establish trust and credibility. People will listen with enthusiasm when they are not receiving a sales pitch. This is a great marketing strategy when you are not the low cost provider.

Before you purchase a website, decide your business goals and objectives. Then craft a website that will help reach your goals. Otherwise your website will just end up sitting there serving for no real purpose.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Link Building Secrets: 10 Large Directories of Web Directories

Doug Williams @ 6:49 am

This blog entry was posted on June 24, 2011.

Getting your business listed in a business directory is one of the original link building methods and is considered a good and respectable linking method (white hat). Website directory listings can be local, national or international. They can be associations or market niches. They can be free or some charge for a listing.

How do you find website directories to get your website listed?

Directory Critic is a directory of website directories. This makes locating directories easier. Directory Critic has nearly 15,000 directories listed. Directories are categorized by free vs. paid, those that allow linking to specific pages, or searches by PR.

Here is a list of 9 more directory listing sites similar to Directory Critic.

  1. Best SEO Friendly List Includes lists of free directories, most trusted directories, niche directories, etc.
  2. Blog Directory List List of blog directories that pass link juice. Includes a list of feed directories too.
  3. Directory Snob: They claim to be the Internet’s largest directory list with the ability to search by language or market niche.
  4. Free Directory List: List of web directories where you can submit your website for free.
  5. Free Web Directories Listing of directories that do not charge for listings.
  6. Strongest Links List of directories showing PR, Alexa fees, etc.
  7. Top 25 Most Powerful Web Directories List List compiled by Paul Teitelman
  8. Top Web Directories Web directories rated by inbound link quality
  9. Web Directories This directory of directories includes listings by market niche, Languages and geographic area. Shows PR and Alexa rankings for each directory.

The key to good link building is to do many forms of linking and to do all in moderation. It can be time consuming to find the best website directories and these lists of directories make it easier.

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Filed under: Link Popularity



How to SEO After Google's Panda update

Doug Williams @ 2:41 am

This blog entry was posted on June 21, 2011.

Google’s Panda update was designed to eliminate low quality websites from its search results. To rank well after Panda, you need to provide a valuable user experience. Panda has webmasters refocusing their websites on providing quality. So what does this mean in how you should approach SEO for your site?

  1. Focus first on your visitors: Don’t create your site around the Google algorithm. Approach SEO by providing a great user experience. Answer the question that your visitor came searching for. Provide valuable and original content. The search engines will reward sites that best fulfill search queries.
  2. Prune away low quality content. Get rid of the dead wood. Keep the pages that engage your visitors and use your analytics to find pages with high bounce rates and low time on pages. Remove duplicate content or junk pages.
  3. Add good quality content. Content is still king, but the emphasis is on producing interesting content that people actually want to read. Provide new and original content rather than rehashing other web pages, blogs or articles. The Panda update penalized article syndication that have the same (or similar) articles as may other article syndication sites.
  4. Watch your analytics. Use your analytics to improve visitor interaction. Constantly change and improve the pages on your site that have the highest bounce rates. The same applies to low “time on page”. You want each page on your site to engage and interest visitors.
  5. Create linkable content. Link building is now and will always be a central part of SEO. The best way to do this is by providing content that people will want to link to. Create content that people will want to share.

Websites serving up duplicate content or low quality content were strongly hurt by the Google Panda update. The answer for the future of SEO is to focus on quality first, not volume.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



How to Buy Pre-Owned Domains

Doug Williams @ 7:30 am

This blog entry was posted on June 17, 2011.

When you purchase a brand new domain, you have to wait one to two years to get top rankings for competitive phrases. It takes this long before Google will trust a new domain enough to reward it with page one results. Some call this the Google aging filter.

One way around this is to purchase a pre-owned older domain with a website already on it.

You will want a domain that someone is selling or purchase one that is expiring (but has not gone though deletion) from one of the registrar auctions. There are plenty of auction sites available to look at potential domains. One of my favorites is GoDaddy Domain Auctions.

Tips for selecting domains

  1. Age: Domains should be at least 2 years old… ten years is ideal.
  2. Backlinks: Many times you can find domains with hundreds or even thousands of existing backlinks. This is a very important factor in selection.
  3. Banned: Is the domain banned by Google? Use a tool like the Google Banned Checker. Stay away domains that may have been banned.
  4. History: Check what kinds of websites have been on that domain by looking at the WayBackMachine. Has there been a website on that domain continuously? Stay away from sites that have had gambling, porn or other sites with a seedy reputation.
  5. Indexed: Does Google have indexed or cached pages from that domain? Do a Google search for site:yourdomain.com. Note which URLs are indexed. You will need to know these when you create a new website.
  6. Google PR: If it already has Google PR, great. If not, it may quickly return once you put a website on it if it has age and backlinks.

If you have checked these factors and all looks good, then buy your new domain as a platform to launch your new venture. You will have the SEO advantage of an older domain.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



12 Tips for Writing SEO Optimized Web Pages

Doug Williams @ 4:57 am

This blog entry was posted on June 14, 2011.

Writing for the web is different than writing for print. Writing for the web is brief and to the point with shorter paragraphs, shorter sentences and fewer words.

Targeted keyword phrases are weaved into marketing text so search engines take note of the important phrases. Use keywords as a central theme in your messaging, your page headlines and your hyperlinks.

  1. Plan of action: You should storyboard out the sales process and then write the text to give the results you are after.
  2. Get their attention: When they first arrive, they need to immediately see your sales pitch, your offering and even your order button. Don’t make them scroll down or switch pages.
  3. Three second rule: Internet users are active, not passive. If they don’t immediately see what they are looking for, they are gone within 3 seconds. First impressions are critical.
  4. State the benefits: Benefits are what sell. Benefits are what features mean. Features are what products do.
  5. Anticipate Questions: Focus on the benefits and answer your visitor’s questions “So, what’s in it for me?” “What am I doing here,” “How do I do it,” and “Where can I go next?”
  6. Keywords: Your most important keyword phrase should be used a minimum of 3 times. Once in the headline, once in the first paragraph and once in text that will be hyperlinked to another relevant page on your site. Other keywords should be used 1-2 times.
  7. Headline: The headline sets the tone. It grabs attention…or not. It reveals a promise. It raises hopes. Your headline has to be the most powerful text on your page.
  8. Easy to scan: The main points should stand out in sub-headlines, lists, images, colors, italics and indented text.
  9. Enough Text: An optimized web page should have a minimum of 300 words of text. 400 is better. Break up your content into small articles for easy reading the way a newspaper does.
  10. Call to action. End your page by asking for some sort of action. Have questions? If you need answers call, email, click on live chat or whatever action you want your visitor to do. Better yet: Buy now!
  11. Back up what you say: Web visitors don’t believe hype. If you want to be believable, you have to back it up. Reference your sources.
  12. Start strong and finish strong: Grab their attention when they arrive, and astound them with your finish. Put your best material at the beginning and the end.

Go through your website and test it against each of these writing tips. Remember that your home page is the most important page on your website. You only have a few seconds to make that perfect first impression.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



12 ways to Use Your Keyword Phrases for Maximum SEO Benefit

Doug Williams @ 6:23 am

This blog entry was posted on June 10, 2011.

Use your keywords visibly on each web page for maximum benefit. Keywords used on your web pages will attract visitors as they search and then engage them once they arrive. These same words will be spidered and indexed by the search engines and make your website available for search.

  1. Domain: Include your most important keyword phrase.
  2. Page URLs: Name pages with keywords phrases that describe the page. Separate keywords with hyphens.
  3. Navigation: The navigation should be SEO friendly HTML links rather than JavaScript links or an image map. Use keywords as much as possible in the navigation links.
  4. Breadcrumbs: Use breadcrumb navigation on larger sites that include keywords.
  5. Title Tags: Each page should have unique Title tag. Keyword phrases should be at the beginning and the company name should be at the end.
  6. Description and Keywords Tags: Use unique page descriptions and keywords tags for each page that accurately describes each web page.
  7. H1/H2 Tags: H1 Tags are the main web page headline. They should contain your most important keyword phrase and grab an arriving visitor’s interest. Additional keywords can be placed in the H2 tags.
  8. Body Text: This is the page content. Each page of your website should have 250 or more words of text. Each page should include your most important keywords and if yours is a local business, your pages should show the cities that you serve.
  9. Emphasized text: Within the content, use keywords in bold and italicized text, in bulleted lists and numbered lists. This makes them standout as important.
  10. Internal Links: link to relevant internal pages using your keywords.
  11. Images: Name images with your keyword phrase and use them in your ALT text.
  12. Backlinks: Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Keywords should be used in the anchor text of backlinks for maximum SEO benefit.

Other ways keywords can be used include in the website file structure, website slogans and in footer links.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



How Does Google Treat Domain Age on Pre-Owned Domains?

Doug Williams @ 5:51 am

This blog entry was posted on June 7, 2011.

The age of a domain is a factor in the Google algorithm. Google sees these older domains as more trusted and rewards them with higher rankings. This is why it is difficult to get a newly purchased domain to rank well for competitive terms until 1-2 years has passed.

How is domain age treated when you purchase a domain that has been in use for some time? The Domainface blog had a good posting on this topic last week.

Domain Age: A domain’s age is documented with a registration certificate called a “whois” record. If a domain is transferred rather than allowed to expire and be deleted, the age of the domain continues uninterrupted. If a domain is registered after it expires (and is deleted), then the domain age and the resulting Google age filter starts over.

This assumes two things

  1. Google uses domain age as a ranking factor. (this seems well substantiated)
  2. Google uses the whois record as its measure of domain age.

Experience shows that #1 is very likely true. The question is does Google use other methods in addition to the Whois record to measure domain age?

PageRank: This has always been an important part of the Google ranking algorithm since Google was created. If a domain is purchased before it expires, then the website and its resulting backlinks are likely to stay intact and the PageRank will transfer with the purchased domain.

  1. If a domain expires then the website goes offline. The website is gone, so there is nothing to index.
  2. This will appear as broken links to the back linking sites, so they will remove these broken links.
  3. Google will quickly notice that the site is offline and stop serving this up in its search results.

Experience shows that PageRank is frequently lost when purchasing a deleted domain. But all or part of the PageRank can frequently be recovered within a relatively short time once the domain is re-registered and a website is put back up on the URL.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



10 Ways to Turn Your Website Visitors into Paying Customers

Doug Williams @ 5:27 am

This blog entry was posted on June 3, 2011.

  1. Answer their question: People come to your site searching for answers. Your home page should address and answer those questions. This means you need to understand your customers and the problems they need to solve.
  2. Sell benefits, not features: People first want to know how what you are selling will help them, how they will profit. This gets their attention so they will become interested in the features.
  3. Grab their attention with headlines: Studies show that people read the headlines first. Get their interest so they will read the rest of your message.
  4. Show your credibility: Tell your story on your About-us page. They want to know to know your story. They want to know how long you have been in business. What are your credentials?
  5. Build trust: People arrive to your site suspicious and thinking “Can I trust these people?” Show your phone number and address. Show social reviews and testimonials.
  6. Post a guarantee: People won’t do something that puts them at risk. Risk reversal is part of building trust. Have a no-risk returns policy.
  7. Call to Action: Drive your visitors toward a desired action. Make it clear and highly visible. This could be to sign-up, join, call or buy now. Place your primary call to action where it can be easily seen.
  8. Build value then give the price: Show how your product is different and better than the competition. Emphasize what they will receive both initially and through the life of the product.
  9. Relationship: Build a relationship with your visitor. Educate them on what they are buying. Give them free helpful information. Offer a free eCourse. These are things that build long-term trust.
  10. Payment plans: Offer multiple payment options to make your products available to a wider audience. Offer third party financing on high priced items.

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Filed under: Web Usability