Question of the week - Meta Tags

Recently, a friend of mine sent me an email asking for a favor regarding some SEO she was helping out with:

Please look at this for me, I know you know a lot about websites, I think this guy has too many meta tags.  I sent him a separate email with screenshots of other people’s metatags and he is pretty much adding everyone’s college names into his…thoughts?

I would recommend him get rid of anything that isn’t directly relevant to the content within his website in the meta tags.  With what he has now, it would actually be better to have no meta tags at all. He’s definitely going to be penalized organically. 

From Wikipedia:

Meta elements are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a Web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTMLdocument. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes.

The meta element has four valid attributes: content, http-equiv, name and scheme. Of these, only content is a required attribute. 

Essentially, by including all of those irrelevant keywords in the meta tags, he is telling the spiders to look for content that isn’t being included in his page.  I’d suggest only using the keywords for the names of his school, DMA locations around the area, and broad keywords associated with his vertical.  Length doesn’t really matter, as long as the content is relevant.    Explain to him that the meta tag section is similar to the index or Table of Contents of a book.  If he were to open a book and try to find information from the index or TOC that wasn’t actually in the book, he would probably be upset.  The same goes for the search engines.

I hope this helps.  If you need me to explain it further just let me know.

SEO index cheat sheet

Here are a few quick pointers to remember when developing your individual html pages

1.  Meta Tags - Keep your Meta Description at or below 150 characters. 

Often times, SEO’s will frequently overload the meta descriptions with tons of keywords, phrases, etc.  This is detrimental for SEO success.  Keep Meta Descriptions as accurate as possible with the content on the website.  In essence, think of your Meta tags as the Table Of Contents for the rest of the page.

2.  Title Tags - Keep your Title Tag at or below 70 characters.

As with meta information, developers often times try and put too much information into the title.  Keep the title accurate and short.  SEO moz suggests using this title syntax - Keyword < Category | Web Title.  I have used this for multiple wordpress and other websites and agree that this is a fantastic way to properly title your websites.

3. Links - Minimize unique links per page

This is more controversial.  Some SEO’s are huge advocates of outbound linking as much as possible.  I am a fan of outbound linking, but try to limit it and spread out outbound linking between individual pages.  Also keep outbound links accurate and relevant and include a title in the anchor code.

That’s it for now! I plan on posting more of these in the near future.

Google Maps API and SEO

In recent months, I have been working a lot with the Google Maps API.  I have been utilizing the API to optimize landing pages for “multiple location” websites.  In customizing these sites for the API, I have discovered that Google’s organic listings absolutely love when a website utilizes their Maps API.

In less than two weeks, I have seen my organic listings skyrocket up the pages with very little additional SEO practices in place.

Obviously Google loves relevant content, but as Google expands it’s capabilities and customization techniques, geotargeting has become much more relevant.  In this particular case, creating a website encoded with the Maps API for all locations has exponentially boosted optimization at a much quicker pace that normal.

In a nutshell, if you have a geo-specific website you are developing, I highly recommend implementing a geographic KML file and implementing it into your websites using the Maps API. 

KML is an extension of XML that pertains to geographic locations in Google Maps and Google Earth.  It’s a very thorough and organized markup language that is useful in presenting data to the search engines.

Example of KML code:

 Utilizing this particular KML file, I was able to geocode over 20 locations on one page in the API and include, address, phone number, location image, and a link to each individual page.  This created an insane amount of relavence and quality information for Google to boost this website up the organic listings.  

 

As you can see above.  There is a ton of relevant information included in a very small and precise space.  This information utilized by the API is a great way to gain instant optimization.

In the next couple days, i will create a step by step tutorial on how to fully integrate this technology into any website.

Landing Page SEO + SEM part 1

Landing Pages for increased Search Engine Optimization.

Landing pages and their correlation between a website and Search Engine Optimization is a difficult process that can end up very beneficial or detrimental.  The union between these two entities to increase profitability and exposure is very volatile. 

A Landing Page is the first page that shows up after a customer clicks on a search engine result link, an advertisement, or a sponsored link.  From here, a landing page is split into two different types, a reference landing page and a transactional landing page.  Reference landing pages, which are typically SEO specific, are normally informational websites with relevant content for the searcher.  Transactional landing pages are pages that engage the searcher to provide some form of information (whether it is filling out a form or buying a product) from the clicked link.

The Goal of a Landing Page, whether it is a reference or transactional page, is to get the user to do one of four things:

1.       To teach the visitor about the term they searched (Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Etc.).

2.       Encourage the visitor to click through to another section of your website or another website (Branding).

3.       Encourage the visitor to register or have a follow up in some form or fashion.(E-mail registration, Phone Number, Address, Etc.).

4.       Encourage the visitor to make a purchase from that page (Commerce).

Landing Pages in an SEO sense are pretty straight forward.  If you have a business website that does Auto Repair, you are going to want the most pertinent information showing up to the end user.  For example, if a customer is doing a search for ‘brake repair’, you are not going to want your landing page to show up as air conditioning service or scheduled maintenance.  For the most part, Google and the other search engines handle these themselves in organic search.   If you type this term into Google, the first results will undoubtedly be the referential websites including Wikipedia and Dictionary.com, followed by the second tier reference websites and then the rest of the pack.  

For SEM and PPC advertising, correct Landing Pages are vital for success and provide multiple uses.  These optimized landing pages can help:

·         Provide direct access to the product or information being searched

·         Convey a direct message related to the user search

·         Provide tracking information for the Advertisement or campaign

·         Create additional keyword content and relevance for SEO

Small Business SEO and SEM in a Recession

During the last year, a lot of businesses have been making cuts in all aspects of their respective operations.  For an online enterprise, Search Engine Optimization is one area that should not catch the ax of cost cutting and I will explain why.

During this period of Economic uncertainty, Big Businesses are taking sweeping cost cutting measures.  Companies like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Frito Lay, can afford to make these online marketing cut backs because of one thing - Brand Recognition. These Fortune 500 companies have created recognizable world wide brands.  Even if the company isn’t advertising, the products are advertising themselves.

Although there is uncertainty, this is the perfect time for smaller businesses to seize control of their online destiny.

With larger companies making cut backs - specifically in online marketing.  Small companies in every industry can take advantage of the downsizing and use combinations of optimization and search engine marketing to reach out to customers that were previously unattainable.  

In the words of Mark Cuban, “I want the risk and I want the gain.”  In all business, there will be risks.  Right now, while many people are hunkering down in this storm of uncertainty, those who are willing to take a chance to expand their business are likely to see success.  Yes, the opportunity for failure is present, but the fruit of victory tastes much more sweet.  

If you are in a business that can see increased revenue in these uncertain times by investing online marketing, you may want to take that risk… you could see a great reward.

How popular is your website?

Have you ever wanted to know how popular your website is?  

Many people want to know the reach of their website.  A company called Alexa monitors almost all websites and ranks each website according to popularity.  For instance, in the United States, Google, Yahoo, and MySpace are the three most popular websites respectively.  

Alexa uses a proprietary method for achieving these rankings by allowing users to insall the Alexa Toolbar in their Internet Explorer.  Once this toolbar is installed, Alexa monitors the sites people visit to establish the rankings.  

This method has established a somewhat reliable method for determining page rank for websites. 

Now, take a second, open up up the Alexa link here, and check out your page rank.

Not Showing up on Google? try SEO for success

Would you like to generate more traffic for your website? of course you would! The problem is that most small businesses don’t know how to use the internet to drive traffic to their website.  Just because you have a web page doesn’t mean that people are going to look at it.  You have to use the web to direct traffic to your website.  This is where Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing become key.  

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO is a way to develop your website and content in a way that draws the search engine to it.  Using a combination of meta tags, key words, inbound and outbound links, websites can get the upperhand on their competition and boost through the ranks.  

Obviously, there is a little more to SEO than keywords, links, and meta tags, but with a little patience, anyone can take the necessary steps to move up the search engine ladder.  SEO doesn’t happen overnight.  it takes weeks and even months for the changes you make to actually blossom.  

Remember that SEO is a long process, like anything of value, you are typically not going to see results in just a day.  Take your time, do some research, acquire the tools necessary to boost your website to the top of google and yahoo!

Luckily, here at yourthinkbox.com, we are experts at Search Engine Optimization.  Our team has over 5 years of experience in designing campaigns to encourage SEO growth.  Let us handle the hard work.  Please feel free to contact us for a free quote.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization - Tips, Tricks, & more - Part 1

 

SEO is all the rage. Search Engine Optimization is here to stay.  Dont get caught in the dark by some firm promising your SEO.  Here are some tips I have come up with -

1.  Relevant content is key -  This is the most important piece of any SEO.  Make sure all content you post on your blog, website, or anything else relevant.  If you are trying to make a website about “Bad Credit”  make sure you talk about bad credit. etc.  You can broaden your horizon a little, but for the most part, stay relevant.  

2.  Update Frequently -  Make sure you update your blog frequently.  This is important for multiple reasons.  First, The more you update your website, the more it will get ‘crawled’ by search engines.  For example, if Google crawls your website and finds updated content, it will check again sooner for new content than it would if you dont update.  The second reason for updating frequently is that it adds more content to your website to be crawled.  I will go into this more further down the list.

3.  Keywords -  Keywords are very important in SEO.  <– putting keywords in bold or italic also helps. Concentrate on placing keywords throughout your posts.  Another tip for key words is to put alternate versions of the keywords in your posts.  for example, (yourthinkbox, yourthinkbox.com, your think box,thinkbox, think box) etc.  Break it up.  this will create more keywords that will be crawled.

4.  In bound links - In bound links at the end of the day help your website substantially.  The more websites that link to your website means your page is relevant.  Posting well organized posts will help you receive in bound links.  One side note on this… dont spam your website or join link exchanges that look or feel “shady”  Search Engines frequently have black lists.  If you join one of these lists, your site could very well join the black list.

5.  Out bound links - These are almost as important.  Having links out helps a lot, especially to other blogs.  This is the best way to build in bound and outbound links.  Find another blogger and help him or her out.  He or she will probably return the favor. 

That is it for now.. I will post 6-10 sometime later this week.  If you need help with SEO, shoot me an email.

www.yourthinkbox.com