Posted on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 01:47 PM
Site Speed
Many website operators may not know or have just become aware that Google now takes into account how fast your web pages render. This will affect your overall Google Page Rank and for good reason. Google realized that web pages that take longer to load have a higher bounce rate than faster loading pages. Through additional data collection Google found that increasing site speed also reduces operating costs. Although there are numerous ways to improve overall Google Page Rank, website operators should pay attention to how quickly your sites open. Check out Hubspot's Website Grader to find Google Page Rankings.
Tend To Your Website Often
- Handle existing content with a close eye on where your niche market stands
- Create new content constantly with new links
- Carefully analyze web analytics to see where your website stands
- Promote your website through various social media outlets
- Build upon your existing relationships
Duplicate Content Myth
There’s an ongoing rumor that Google penalizes a website for duplicating web pages, but it’s not so clear cut as one would think. In a perfect world the most original content is what Google would prefer, but it’s not to say that they wouldn’t rank a page on top because it wasn’t unique. What’s more important is improving the text links to change the overall web page rather than the content itself. Google might not index a webpage if it is exactly duplicated, but it will index a page if you provide quality links and the best links will rank at the top. If you’re constantly worried about duplicating a page, use a 40% mark for making the website content unique.
Establishing Calls to Action
If you’re a website owner and cannot answer the question, “What are your calls to action?” then you have a problem. Creating a Contact Us Form, Subscribe by email, Subscribe to our blog, are all desired objectives for users to your website. Creating these forms is important because their conversion rate will become a great measuring tool for the success of your website. Also, it helps users achieve their overall needs which can be gauged through an experimentation process, distinguishing which forms are most helpful.
By Cameron Moulton, Internet Marketing Associate
Posted on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 02:17 PM
In 2004, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson wrote an article exploring the booming success of online retail sites like Amazon, NetFlix and eBay. It focused on these companies’ ability to cater to the smallest niches of fans looking for the most obscure titles and items that traditional retail stores could not carry. If you liked the best-selling and widely known Freakeconomics, you just might be interested in the 1986 paperback Fatal Equalibrium. That recommendation is something you would never experience at your local book store (the man or woman at the register probably can't name more than a pair of economic books from the past 30 years) but it happens every day on Amazon. In all probability, those traditional stores probably don't even carry Fatal Equilibrium.
Anderson opened the eyes of many and kick started the reshaping of business models. He shed light on a new movement that consumers are currently consuming in the 21st century. Subsequently after the piece, Wired went so far as to purchase the LongTail.com URL and brand it as Anderson’s blog. How ingenious.
"The Long Tail" is a marketing term that refers to the population or demographic that seeks the lesser known, more obscure products, but when aggregated together can often generate more revenue than a few of the most popular products.
On the graph to the right, the long tail is the low-sloping green tail moving left to right. More specifically, it shows how long tail marketing can be applied to Internet marketing and SEO. If you’re a small to mid-sized shoe company looking to attract buyers via organic search traffic, “shoes” is a search term that’s going to make you look like that tennis player in the fantastic Ladders.com TV advertisment. You’re competing with hundreds– maybe even thousands– of companies of all sizes. You’ll be rendered irrelevant from the start. But, small-to-mid-sized shoe company, if you can focus on optimizing your content to focus on those fresh, new small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes you just put on your shelves, you have a much better chance to corner that market and generate sales.
Because it’s a collection of the less popular, or less relevant search terms, the long tail is a cheaper and lower-risk investment. It also, as the graph notes, has proven to show a much higher rate of conversion. Someone perusing the web for small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes clearly has a motive to buy just that. And you should be out there waiting for her... or him buying for her. Or just him.
Identifying and capturing the long tail should be a primary focus for any Internet marketing company and any company looking to effectively market and get found on the Internet. There's always an opportunity to distinguish yourself from from the competition. Understand your audience and spend some time to rank high on specific search queries related to your business.
By Nick Fasulo, Internet Marketing Manager
X4VA8232EZD8
Posted on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
As an Internet Marketing Consulting Firm, one of the most fundamental elements of our work deals with search engine optimization. We've all heard of it, and at some point we have probably all wished we could just wave a magic wand across all our web pages to ensure they are, indeed, optimally optimized. Sadly, no such tool exists, but having a good understanding of keywords will put you on the right path to proper SEO.
The idea is to establish keywords pertaining to each page's topic, and effectively place them in the copy and metadata. Seems simple enough, but how much is too much? Have you ever felt like you're getting carried away inserting "dog-grooming services" as you build your new site to increase sales leads? You should be made aware that while the Internet does not have a judicial system, it is still policed to prevent people called "Black Hatters."
Black Hatters are dubbed the villains of the Internet;webmasters who, in the short-term, can get their sites ranked higher than it should be through tricks rather than Internet Marketing best practices. This can be achieved a number of ways: embedding paragraphs of hidden text that only a Google Spider can see, made up strictly with keywords. Black Hatters have also been accused of duplicating content from other web pagesas part of a content buildout plan, or even stealing content from other web sites. Essentially, these "criminals" are purposely flooding a site as a way to improve their Alexa ranking or Google SERP.
So what is the optimum density for which your keywords should appear? There's no concrete answer. A few weeks ago, a marketing director in Tampa Bay relayed that he believes it's between 3-4 percent. Last summer, a webdesigner and copywriter said 5 percent of your copy should be your keyword. Others, however, have rendered keyword density as "irrevelant." Tomorrow morning, maybe the answer will lie in my bowl of cereal.
What's my opinion? Don't stress about optimum density. Instead, focus on ensuring your keywords are placed in your headlines, metatags, page titles and page URLs. You prevent the risk of sacrificing good, readable copy for choppy sentences loaded with keywords. If you feel like you're going out of your way to insert your keywords, consider pumping the brakes or rethinking the phrases you're using to reach potential customers.
By Nick Fasulo, Internet Marketing Manager
Posted on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 @ 10:38 AM
By Nick Fasulo
Because it's so cost-effective, inbound marketing is growing in popularity and budget size with companies of every size across the country. A few weeks ago HubSpot released a report entitled "The State of Inbound Marketing," providing a peek into how business professionals involved in the strategy and/or budget of their company's marketing efforts are using inbound marketing for 2010. In short, "social media and blogs are becoming marketing powerhouses," with 85 percent of respondents labeling the use of blogs as "useful," and more than half that figure calling them "critical," according to the report.
As an internet marketing company, KeChange places a strong emphasis on page buildout and crafting a client's website and overall marketing strategy to evoke a sense of authority in the line of work that they're in. Having an engaged client who consistently files relevant blog articles helps accomplish both those ideas efficiently and inexpensively compared to traditional marketing tactics; all with the intent of reaching your target audience.
Say, for example, you're a personal injury law firm that is looking to draw traffic and, in turn, new clients who may be looking for legal consultation after hearing about a
recently recalled product. This is a fantastic opportunity to morph your blog into a news source. Provide frequent updates on the recall, what it means for those affected, how to proceed with legal action and, finally, how you can help! You can apply this method to a number of industries. The key is to inform, then convert visitors of your site by showing them you're the service they're browsing for.
Just two blog posts a week means 104 new pages for your site... 104 new pages that are engaging and speak to a relevant topic, meaning you're preventing your website from going stale. New content peppered with keywords also helps dramatically with SEO optimization, just be sure to integrate your well-oiled blog directly on to your website to ensure it's helping you rise in the all-important search result category.
Blogging is not just for the aspiring sports writer, or a new mom seeking an outlet to broadcast her triumphs and tragedies as a parent. This social media tool is also a professional tool, which can greatly enhance your website as a go-to source for commentary and information on pertinent industry topics.
Learn more about how this valuable social media medium can help heighten your online visibility, and also download a great
social media demographics chart to see how your target audiences utilizes blogs.
Posted on Sat, Dec 19, 2009 @ 07:00 AM
Twice this year we had clients who's Page Rank dropped in value from a 3 and 4 respectively, to a 1. After some research by our team and speaking with Google, we know that Google has recently made a big change their secretive scoring algorithm. The PR drop to a 1 was in both cases not a penalty for something Google didn't approve of, rather just reflective of their newest scoring method.
Since the time of the drop in Page Rank, both of our clients' respective websites have seen continuous upticks in SEO performance; website traffic has steadily increased.
What does this mean for your website? The answer is probably nothing. A drop in Page Rank should be examined to make sure your site is not being penalized for basic SEO faux pas like duplicate content, but chances are its just a change in Google scoring and has no impact on your ability to increase your visitor traffic.
The things that still matter when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are page count, original quality content and quality inbound links to your website. When it comes to devising your own website performance metrics, the last thing you want to do is "hang your hat" on Google Page Rank.