You are here: Home / Archives for SEO Tips

5 Affordable Quick SEO Fixes: Perfect for a Small Business or a Small Budget

4 May 2012

Prioritising your strategic activities is difficult if not overwhelming, especially for a small business. So adding in the task of Search Engine Optimisation for your website is often the task found on the bottom of your ‘To Do’ list.

Whatever time or money you have spent on your website can be completely wasted if you are not investing in the ongoing optimisation of your site. If your potential customers can’t find your site easily in search engines (such as the ubiquitous Google), they won’t find you.

Whilst there are many ways to improve the visibility of your website in search engines, here are 5 affordable fixes which you can implement easily.

1.  Keep Your Content Fresh

You don’t need to be a Hemingway or Shakespeare to keep your content alive, relevant and fresh. Making small regular updates, adding information or even just re-sharing social media updates allows your users to enjoy having a regular relationship with your site. An added benefit, is the more often you update your site, the more often the search engine spiders will return to crawl your site, thus ensuring all of your content is getting indexed for those engines.

2.  Think about your keyword phrases

Each page could be focussed on only one or two keyword phrases for content. Decide if you will be looking to attract a small ratio of visitors for a short and highly competitive keyword, or maybe carve out a profitable niche by controlling a large ratio of targeted users with a long tailed keyword phrase. For example, would you like 1% of the traffic from ‘fashion’ (who may or may not be ready to buy) or could you make better use of 70% of the traffic from ‘online plus size fashion race carnival Melbourne’? Just remember to do keyword research before committing.

3.  Site maps and Search Engines

Once you have your website complete, prepare two site maps. One is for users to find each page on your site if they are lost, and the second, is a specific site map which you can create using Google Webmaster Tools and submit to Google (and other search engines) which makes it much easier for the search engine spiders to find all of your pages. This is especially true when your site contains quantities of flash and script.

4.  Make the effort to create understandable URLs

Whilst Google appears to not attach much weight to well described keyword rich URLs, many other search engines do. Importantly also, your human users will benefit from well designed URLs. So, rather than having code-like names for your URL pages (eg www.COL.com/W12/T157), consider a self explanatory URL convention. For example you may be an online clothing store called ‘clothes online’, with one URL something like: ‘www.clothesonline.com.au/winter/tops’. Not only is this clear to search engines, it makes sense to a user, who could safely expect to find tops suitable for winter wear on this page. Never underestimate the power of a clear URL when it comes to users choosing a page from the search engine selection. When presented with a page of results from a search, if the URL is unreadable or looks ‘dodgy’, visitors are far less likely to click on it.

5.  Be clean and mean

Do a full spring clean of your site. Check all links that they work properly, try and look at the site as an outsider. Is it logical, connected and clear? Have someone else look over the pages for readability and errors. It is important to ensure everything works, as you want the search engine robots to view and index all of your content. Don’t give them an excuse to drop off your site without being finished.

As a small business owner, search engine optimisation can appear intimidating, it will take time, and it does take regular administration (such as loading new content often), but once you follow these simple steps you will be able to maintain an affordable basic SEO program. If nothing else, you will know the right questions to ask your Web site manager or Trainer should you take the next step and complete a quality Search Engine Optimisation course.

Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Pinterest and the SEO Equation

20 April 2012

Pinterest, one of the myriad social networking platforms, has created itself a niche that is focussed on the visual. Pinterest is essentially an internet based pin-board full of things that excite you. Users include links and pictures of anything that holds their interest. From home decorating to craft, motorcycles to DIY, there are opportunities for everyone.

From a business perspective, this is an exciting way to engage with customers, especially if something you do can benefit from being portrayed visually. Human beings by nature are very visual, connecting images with memories, thoughts and feelings. These connections can create very strong calls to action if you connect genuinely.

If you think of Twitter as being the Shakespeare of social networking, then Pinterest is the Da Vinci. Beautifully crafted images or just very well targeted pictures are the keys to success. Pinterest has grown 52% (source: comScore Media Metrix Mar 2012) in total unique visitors between just January and February 2012. This exponential growth says something about the human need for connection and the strength of the visual medium.

Users can pin to their account information from websites they find interesting as well as uploading their own pictures. The use of information from other sites allows businesses to benefit from viral marketing when it works well. Businesses can gain most when they contribute images to engage, entertain and inform. If you do this well, the Pinterest community will want to follow you, and when they do, you can showcase your products and services to those who are really interested in what you do.

Enterprises with rich grounds for mining images include:

  • services which ‘sell’ a look such as hairdressers and makeup artists, specialist motor spray painters, interior designers and other artists
  • products which need to be seen before a sale is made, such as fashion designers and  clothing retailers and home decor retailers
  • products which may not be easily recognised by name such as plant types from nurseries and specialist food products which may benefit from showing all the different shapes and types of pastas or chilli peppers
  • Products or services which generally engender little emotional connection can create a ‘feeling’ through video. Some may remember the old advertisement for international direct dialling by the Australian company OTC (by George Patterson), which showed images of families in Greece and the UK amongst others, with tears in their eyes and shouting for the rest of the family to come to the phone when they received a call from their family which had emigrated to Australia…cue the highly emotive and visual Barbra Steisand song ‘Memories’ in the background. This award winning ad (it was the first Australian advertisement to win the Grand Prix in Cannes) had people crying in front of their televisions in the 1970s and reaching for their telephones like never before. This created an amazing depth of feeling especially as telephone calls were intangible, were utilitarian and had traditionally held no obviously emotional connection until this ad came along. Connecting images with feelings creates an incredibly strong bond so that when you ask for the sale, you have fertile ground for acceptance.

The SEO connection

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has generally not benefited by social networks (other than Google+) as links have tended to all be of the ‘no follow’ style. Pinterest currently allows ‘follow’ on all the links within its domain. Therefore, take advantage of this wonderful free tool. Set up your Pinterest account and start sharing targeted images linked back to your website (don’t upload from your desktop). This allows all of those images to be associated with your website, thus increasing your legitimate back links and not only being attractive to your audience, but all the while improving your website’s organic rankings.

Take note however, that this will probably come to an end, there are always those unscrupulous internet fraudsters who will utilise this helpful tool to increase their backlinks in an inappropriate manner, this will force Pinterest to remove the ‘follow’ from posts as Facebook and other social networks have had to do.

Another area of concern is that of scammers putting links into pictures which imply safety but are in fact redirected to a scam site. The way it works is a picture related to a high profile organisation is tampered with by hackers who attach their own coding to the image, thereby redirecting users to a site which may be porn, gambling or just trying to sell something you don’t want. Vigilance is currently the only way to stop this, check your links regularly to make sure they lead where you expect them to lead.

Pinterest is now the 3rd most popular website for sharing, thus giving you a useful tool which is large and continuously growing. A further attraction is that it is one of the only sites to successfully aid in the ‘discovery’ of video online. So where there are video clips available for various interests on say, websites, Pinterest is a way of collating and making these available to many others who would never have found them.

As one of the newest method of connecting with people, Pinterest is a visually appealing, enjoyable sojourn into each others worlds which we can use for enjoyment, networking with like minded people and showcasing our businesses.

Filed Under: Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engines, SEO Tips, Social Media

All links are not created equal

4 April 2012

LinkedIn is the social media platform which is all about genuine networking with connections in your industry, connecting with suppliers, customers, potential employees and capital providers amongst others- don’t be caught out thinking LinkedIn is only for B2B.

The user statistics are impressive

  • Greater than 150 million users, including over 3 million in Australia alone. (http://press.linkedin.com/about)
  • There are more than 2 million company pages
  • Over one million groups have been created servicing parties with their niche interests

Incoming links from LinkedIn carry relative strength depending on where they come from. Your checklist to achieve stronger link ‘juice’ for increased visibility of your website’s organic listing includes:

  • Having a LinkedIn company page which references the website you hope to increase organic visibility for
  • Have your LinkedIn company page associated to all of your employees
  • Ensure your employees have their public profiles optimised (see instructions further down)
  • Ask your employees to share important updates on their own profiles
  • Encourage sensible user (read employee) activity- being active in LinkedIn will be good for optimisation as well as engagement with your greater community
  • Don’t automatically have every update from every social media stream carry into LinkedIn. It’s a bit like the boy who cried wolf- if you see ‘exciting’ updates 3 times a day from one user, you will doubt that any of them are worth reading.

 

Having a specific LinkedIn Company page, which is associated to employees, carries far stronger link value than having a page which people, who happen to be your employees, link their profile to.

How your employees can optimise their Public LinkedIn Profile:

  1. They need to log in to LinkedIn and go to their own Home Page
  2. Then hover over their name in the top right corner of the profile screen and choose ‘settings’

  3. In the settings section,  choose ‘edit your public profile’ and then

 4. Tick the box which says ‘make my public profile visible to everyone’

 

There is great value apart from links in having a quality LinkedIn Company Page. LinkedIn talk about the company page this way “It’s a centralized location where millions of LinkedIn members can go to stay in the loop on company news, products and services, business opportunities and job openings.” (http://learn.linkedin.com/company-pages/)

Take a look at the LinkedIn Company Page for Search Engine Academy Australia as an example.

You can think of your LinkedIn Company page a little like giving your company a personality and creating this individual on LinkedIn. Use this as an opportunity to give a ‘voice’ to your company page which reflects the persona of your branding and engages the audience you are targeting.

Essentially, utilising the company page in LinkedIn in conjunction with your employees and adding great updates and content can improve the organic rankings of your website, this is continuously and especially useful when all other things are equal, especially with your competitors.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engines, SEO Tips, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

10 top tips on how blogs help SEO

5 October 2011

What is a blog? A blog (the shortened form of weB LOG) is an online series of entries rather like a journal, which can have content added to it very simply and quickly. They have a front end which allows the user to merely type in their content, no coding required. You click on the ‘publish’ button and instantly your article is available for all to read.

So in what ways does a good Blog help with Search Engine Optimisation of your website?

  1. Good fresh content – everyone rewards great content that is new – users enjoy the result and return frequently to your blog as do search engines. It is so easy to add content using blogging platforms, there is no barrier to timing regular content updates, both users and search engine love fresh content.
  2. More pages for your site – there appears to be a correlation between the total number of pages on your web site and how frequently search engines visit you and thus index new content. Because it so quick and easy to add a blog post, you can quickly increase the number of pages on your site with quality content.
  3. More keywords – by completing your regular keyword tracking, you will know what keywords your audience is searching for. As this changes, you can quickly respond to the market by creating relevant blog posts including an optimal number of keywords in each post to satisfy both users and search engines. There are even some software plug-ins for blogging which works out the perfect keyword placement for you.
  4. Take advantage quickly of long tailed keywords – there is evidence to show that users who query using 4 or more keywords in a phrase are those most likely to convert into a sale. The longer the keyword phrase the closer the user generally is to the purchase decision in the buying cycle. Thus it is sometimes helpful to garner a small number of highly qualified buyers using long tailed keywords, than to get a huge amount of traffic that are really only “carpet crushers” and not ready to buy. Blogs can help you take advantage of these long tailed keywords simply and quickly to meet changing market needs.
  5. Helping users – why do you really exist? To inform, make sales, communicate, provide a service….. any number of reasons. Most importantly, to achieve any and all results, you need to help your user. As a blogger, you are in an exciting position to do exactly that – help your users – on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis by providing information that will help them. There is no other way in business you can have such an immediate relationship with so many people at the same time so simply.
  6. Users want to come back – because you are so successful following tip #5, you will know (or hope) that many of your readers will want to read your wise words regularly. To do this, they will link to you or subscribe to your feeds. In doing so, you will gain followers and link popularity, all great fuel for good SEO.
  7. Suggest your link to others – humans love to share. One of the three cornerstones of great SEO is links (the other two are awesome content and an architecturally sound site). To gain links you need good content as well as regular feeds. If you follow those principles within your blog, you are adding value and others will want to read your blog, share it and link to it. SEO is built on great links.
  8. Blog software has clear URL structures – making it easy for search engine spiders to crawl and index, this comes under the great site architecture part of SEO. As part of this concept, you can build your blog on a blog company’s domain (e.g. www.blogspot.com) or you can have your blog on your own domain (e.g. www.yoursite.com/blog). To gain the most SEO benefit, it is better to use you own domain. I have seen some writers suggest hosting your blog completely separately, even on a different host company so that you can link from your blog to your business web site, garnering links. I disagree, whilst in the short term your rankings may improve due to increased links, your long term goal should be to gain links from other real sources because your blog is genuinely linkable, not because of dodgy administration.
  9. Connecting with more people – Blogs are great at linking with other blogs and social media, they create an active community. There are even software plug-ins to help linking and improving the conversation. Good blogs encourage citations and contextually relevant links that are generally attractive to search engines and thus rewarded.
  10. Doing it for the right reasons – Remember you are using a blog to communicate – not just to get SEO rankings. By genuinely targeting your blog to meet a need in your audience you will gain in SEO organically.
Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

In SEO, A Picture IS Worth A Thousand Words

24 September 2011

Well it can be with well optimised supporting text!

Anchor Text

Whenever you want to link within your website’s pages, either to an external site or just another place within your’s, you need to use a hyperlink. The words that the user actually clicks on to reach those links are known as Anchor Text.

Anchor text can be as simple (and not well optimised) as ‘click here’, to take a user to a contact page or a good example could be: ‘Craft questions are answered here’. In each case the user will be directed to the correct page, but in the second example, search engines will find ‘craft questions answered’ for searchers. The most important element is to ensure the anchor text clearly describes where the link is taking your reader. The anchor text should be descriptive and understandable to the average visitor.

Whenever you are using anchor text, make sure the format is obviously a link, not just a different font on the page.

Alt-Text: The Housework

Labelling

At school we were all taught to label our drawings, pictures and graphs that went into an assignment, this was so that who ever looked at our work was able to understand what they were looking at.

In the world of the web, it is even more important to correctly label every image. Not only do you need all of your human visitors to understand what they are looking at, but you also need to let the search engines know what the images, graphs and tables are using words. By having excellent, clear and relevant accompanying text, allows the search engines to “see” the files on your site.

Also, as a matter of housework, every time you are putting an image on your site, ensure that they have distinct and relevant file names. Check for keywords that users are searching on, which would correctly bring them to your page with the image and use those words in your file name (remembering not to just use it as an excuse to ‘stuff’ keywords into your page).

Image file placement

alt-text example

Consider keeping all of your image files in the same place which will keep the file path simple, for example craftshop.com/images. Also use generally accepted file types such as .JPG, .BMP and .GIF.

Alt-text

The alt-text attribute is another naming description you can use for images which is part of optimising those images. The benefit is that if for some reason your image doesn’t appear on the screen (maybe fire wall blocked, slow download, a browser which doesn’t support images), the alt-text you have chosen will show in the image’s place.

Eg. your online craft shop shows the alt-text (shown in the red box) for an item if the picture doesn’t download. This then allows the user to click on the box to go to the full product page which may contain all the information they need.

5 Quick Tips

  • Using keywords (if it makes sense), name every image file clearly and concisely
  • Don’t stuff keywords into file names
  • Don’t make file names too long
  • Choose an alt-text title for every image
  • Don’t leave an image on your site with a generic useless name such as image01.jpg, picture12.gif
Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips for Better SEO pt 4 : 404 error page not found

15 April 2011

Fiddling with your URL

How do you feel about your users fiddling with your URL? No, this isn’t a naughty question. Let’s say a user wants to buy a book and uses a link of www.bookshop.com/horror/author/stephenking.html, then decide they really feel like reading horror but not necessarily Stephen King. To broaden their search they just drop off the stephenking.html and hope to get a list of all horror authors. When they do this, will they find a real page of horror authors or be presented with a nasty ‘404 page not found’ error?

The optimal outcome is for the user to be presented with the aimed for list of horror authors or whatever. Try to have this set up for your site if possible. If it is unavoidable to go to a 404 error page, ensure the page has a simple navigation back to a home page and/or a good search facility on that page.

What is a 404 page and how do I make the most of it

When a user comes to your site via an incorrect URL which identifies your site but not a valid page, or comes via a link which has been broken, or navigates with an incorrect URL as above, they need to see something.

It is important for them to not get the equivalent of ‘the number you are calling has been disconnected’. However this is often what a user sees – a blank page with ‘404 Error- Page not found’. When this is the sum total of what a user sees, they become frustrated, go elsewhere and usually carry a poor view of your professionalism.

If on the other hand they receive a page of useful information and help, they are more likely to remain within your site and you are more likely to be regarded positively.

Therefore, some of the things you can include on a custom 404 error page can be:

  • A friendly response retaining the look and feel of your site and branding image
  • A link directly back to your root or home page
  • A link to the html site map allowing a detailed view of your site
  • You could also have links to the most popular pages on your site or related content pages

Google has a couple of useful tools when it comes to site error pages. The first one is a ‘404 widget’ which can make your 404 page more useful to your visitor. The widget has a functional logic which can offer alternative relevant pages based on the incorrect URL entered. This helps to stop the 404 page feeling like a dead end.

The second tool is a Google Webmaster Tool which finds the sources of those who come in on 404 error pages. This is especially useful in contacting others who may have your URLs incorrect on their sites, email newsletters going about with wrong information or correcting internal link errors etc.

Look at incorrect URLs as an opportunity to show how customer focussed you are and to provide exceptional service.

Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , ,

Tips for Better SEO pt 3 : Navigation Structure

8 April 2011

Having a clear structure of your site and being easily understandable through a site map allows both your users a simple way to find items as well as giving Google a better understanding of your whole site’s meaning.

When the site meaning is clear and matches with the meaning of the web copy, you have a recipe for satisfying your visitors as well as being meaningful to search engine spider bots. Being clear in meaning and target gives you more visitor credibility and higher search engine rankings.

Think of your structure as being like a corporate hierarchy. It is helpful to pictorially develop your structure around a branch like concept. Your structure could be depicted like this:

navigational structure

To ensure simple navigation throughout your site and an easy return to previous pages, a breadcrumb trail is the most common tool. Starting from the left the broadest and most general pages leading to the specific is the usual way we see breadcrumb lists.

Hierarchy of pages

Try and keep your hierarchy of pages logical and simple. Think of your organisational hierarchy, the CEO at the top (general management) coming down through a layer of middle managers who manage the different business units, down to you doing your specialised detailed role. Keep your structure logical from this perspective.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do start with broad subject areas, drill down to more specific pages by increments. This allows your users to go from general information to specific content logically.

Don’t try not to link every single page to every other page.

Don’t force all navigation downwards through drop down menus. It is frustrating for a user who just wants to browse a subject area to have to click on a drop down box every time they want to move to another item. For example, you may be interested in basins for your bathroom and only know you want a white one, if the manufacturer’s site lists each of their bathroom design ranges, eg Range A, Range B and Range C, and to find the basins, you click on a drop down box next to Range A and are presented with two different basins, and then have to go back to each range and do it all again, you will be frustrated and will just go elsewhere. It also makes comparisons of product almost impossible. These negatives increase when you realise that it is more difficult for search engines to follow through drop down menus.

Do make the most of text links to move throughout your site. These are easy for search engines to read, devices that don’t handle JavaScript or Flash will work better with text links and many users have a preference for them also.

Basically, keep it simple and logical in all forms for your navigation. You want your users and search engines to be able to find everything easily.

Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , ,

Tips for Better SEO pt 2 : Structure and Your URL

4 April 2011

Structure and Your URL

Do you do a search and then as you skim your list of results, glance at the URL before clicking? For many users this is exactly what they do and if the URL is unintelligible, they often won’t choose that result even if the description is clear.

URL Naming

When your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) includes words that were also included in the query, that provides another opportunity for those words to appear in bold on the search results page, making your listing stand out further.

Being simple in your URL names implies a greater level of comfort in your users. They feel less is concealed when the URL says what they think they want rather than a random list of letters and numbers.

When creating links to URLs it is far easier to make a mistake if the URL is non-word like. There is much greater likelihood of having broken links due to mistyping, so reduce errors by including natural keywords in the URL.

Anchor Text

Anchor Text is the collection of words and phrases on your site which link to other pages. These are often found on the top, bottom and sides of your pages as menus. Each phrase is the front or anchor for a URL to link to that required information. If you use good quality keywords which relate well to the subject, search engines rate the link favourably.

An important facet of anchor text is the ability to improve your search engine rankings when other sites link to your site using your anchor text. Gaining the very best ratings from these appropriate links can occur when the linking site content is closely related to the pages of your site it linked to. When your ratings are high, your entire domain becomes more authoritative.

Dynamic and Static URLs

A static URL is the actual name given to a page which remains the same, can be typed in exactly to give the same result every time and is perfect for search engines to index. For example:

www.shopname.com.au/onlineshop/book.html is a static URL.

A dynamic URL is a URL created as the result of some operator or activity. In the previous example, it may be the result of putting ‘book’ into a search box of an online shop. The URL which appears would not be that listed above, but something like:

www.shopname.com.au/search.html?search_item_id=&q=book&search.x=0&search.y=0&search=Submit

This URL only exists because a search query was entered. It will be different for every variety of search, even if the same page is returned for many different searches. This is the type of URL we do not ever want the search engines to index. If they do, the spiders can be caught in a loop of dynamic URLs which keep leading to the same pages, never allowing the search engines to trawl deeper into your site.

Directories

Have a simple directory. Keep the names of the directories relevant to their content: For example:

2009/web design/articles/keep-URLs-simple.html

Rather than dir1/dir2/dir3/keep-URLs-simple.html where dir1 = 2009, dir2 = web design, dir 3 = articles. No user is going to understand this and will find it impossible to navigate around. By being clear in your directory design, you will enable your user to trawl through your site looking for other items of interest as you have a clear set of repositories for someone who is interested.

A real life example based on the above directory issue occurred recently. A person watched a lifestyle type of TV show. The show was a rerun and the viewer wasn’t sure from when, but knew it was fairly recent (as in the last 2-3 years). The item they were interested in was a craft segment making crepe paper roses. So, based on a quality directory, the user went to:

www.lifestyletypeshowname/tvshowdirectory/YYYY/craft/crepe-paper-roses.html where YYYY = year of show

The searcher could directly go to each year for the directories involved instead of just trying to search on roses (which elicited about 1000 results on that site).

Final quick tips

  • Remembering the URL for linking etc is easier if the URL contains words that relate to the page.
  • Don’t use generic names in URLs like documentpage1.html and don’t stuff with keywords.
  • Remember the canonicalization issue – don’t dilute your rankings between the same pages. Always use the one method of getting to the same page.
  • Also, have content accessed through one path, not through root and sub domains.
Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Top 10 Grammar Errors that Haunt Web Pages

7 November 2010

by Robin Nobles

. . . Since content is crucial, isn’t it time to introduce a few grammar tips?

With all of this talk about content, don’t you think it’s time to have a frank discussion about grammar? Our Web sites are our online store fronts—our online images. If our sites are full of grammar errors, what does that say about the professionalism of our businesses?

The Internet tends to be a more relaxed atmosphere, so should we expect to see a more relaxed use of grammar on the Net?

No. Just because the Internet is a different publishing medium, and just because we’ve gotten a little lax in our editing or forgotten some of our grammar rules, that doesn’t make it correct.

It’s time to pay attention to our own Web pages and relearn some of the basic grammar rules that we may have forgotten along the way.

Let’s look at what I consider to be some of the top grammar errors that haunt Web pages:

  1. it’s = it is

    Example: It’s perfectly okay to bring your dog to work at Google. (correct)
    Example: It’s goal is to increase productivity by 100 percent by the year 2007. (incorrect)

    In example #2, replace it’s with it is. It is goal is to increase productivity . . .

    Doesn’t work, so you know it’s wrong. This is one of the most common errors I see, so comb through your Web pages for this one.

  2. Web site (or page) vs. web site/page vs. Website/website (page)

    The Chicago Manual of Style states that Web sites and Web pages are correct. After all, we’re referring to the World Wide Web, so Web should always be capitalized. The book uses Web pages (sites) as two words.

    Webster’s New Dictionary of the English Language published in 2006 agrees with Chicago.

    However, the online version of Chicago states, “But generally, I would recommend Web site for formal writing, but website for informal writing or friendly writing. Unless, of course, you prefer Web site even when you’re being friendly.”

    Now let’s look at it from a different slant. How do people search?

    Capitalization doesn’t matter, because the major engines aren’t case sensitive at this point in time. However, if you’re in an industry where your keywords contain Web site or Web page, you may want to use both variations (one and two words) on your pages, because people certainly search in both ways, no matter which is correct.

    3. Think about your target audience and how they’re searching. After all, you want a professional Web site, but your ultimate goal is to sell your goods and services.

    TIP: The titles of books should be italicized.

  3. Periods and commas: do they go inside or outside of quotation marks, or does it depend on the sentence?

    Example: She said, “Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, just like this.” (correct)
    Example: This is “incorrect”, because the comma is outside of the quotation marks. (incorrect) It should be: This is “correct,” because the comma is . . .

  4. E-mail vs. email, plus what is the plural of e-mail?

    E-mail stands for electronic mail. According to Chicago, e-mail should contain the hyphen, and it doesn’t have to be capitalized (E-mail).

    Here’s where it gets interesting. The American Heritage Dictionary considers e-mails to be the plural version of e-mail.

    Chicago says that either is correct. After all, the plural version of mail is mail. Here are some examples straight from their Web site:

    “How much e-mail do you get each month?”
    “Send me some e-mails when you get a chance.

    If e-mail is a keyword for you, you may want to include email on your pages as well. Again, remember your target audience and the words they will be using when searching for your products and services. Honestly, if I could make a prediction based on being an Internet person, it would be that e-mail evolves into email due to popular usage. And do you know anyone who uses e-mails? I sure don’t!

  5. SEOs or SEO’s

    This is one of those rules where I ran into some contradictory information. In The Wordwatcher’s Guide to Good Writing & Grammar by Morgan S. Freeman, he states:

    “How to form the plural of letters and numbers is a stylistic decision. There are no rights and wrongs, merely eye appeal. Some writers would write the plural of O.K. with no apostrophe, and follow suit with the plural of letters (the three Rs) and numbers (the 1930s). Others think the apostrophe makes for clarity (the three R’s, the 1930’s). Consider “Hooray for the YMCAs.” Take your pick.”

    Chicago thinks differently. They believe that capital letters used as words that contain no interior periods can be made plural by simply adding an s. However, lowercase letters do require an apostrophe and ans.

    However, every source agrees that if interior periods are used, an apostrophe is required, like Ph.D.’s.

    My recommendation? Do whatever works for you and be consistent.

  6. Spelling spot check

    receive (remember: i before e except after c)
    all right (alright is not a word)
    category
    dependent
    a lot (should always be two words)
    cannot (preferred way to spell)

    Visit yourDictionary.com (http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html) for 250 of the most commonly misspelled words.

  7. Hyphens

    This is a confusing one—whether to hyphenate compound words, combine the words as one word, or use them as two words. As it states in Chicago, the best place to go for answers is the dictionary. Hyphens also depend on readability and trends, such as the trend from on line to on-line to online.

    compound adjectives + noun—hyphenate when the adjectives appear before a noun but not if used after

    Example:
    The newsletter contains the most up-to-date material in the SEO industry. (up to date is hyphenated because it is used as an adjective modifying the noun “material”)

    Example:
    The material in the newsletter is kept up to date. (There’s no noun following up to date, so it shouldn’t be hyphenated.)

  8. Additional spot check

    Their vs. there vs. they’re – Their is the possessive version (their house—not they’re house); they’restands for they are; and there is a filler word.
    Example: There goal is to give they’re members the best online experience. (incorrect)
    Example: Their goal is to give their members the best . . . (correct)

    You vs. your vs. you’re – Using the search function in your word processing program, search for you and make sure you didn’t mean your.
    Example: If your looking for the latest industry news, visit his blog. (incorrect)
    Example: If you’re looking for the latest industry news . . . (correct)

  9. Singular vs. plural (getting close to ad nauseam by now)

    Data vs. datum
    Data is plural; datum is the singular version. So technically, if you’re talking about multiple pieces of information, you’ll need to use a plural verb:
    Example: The research data are being collected as we speak. (correct)

    If you’re talking about one piece of data, the correct form is datum, the singular version.
    Example: The datum shows that the Yahoo! search engine visited the site during the last twenty-four hours. (correct)

    However, popular usage has come into play. Because data is considered a mass noun, it is now being treated as either singular or plural except in formal writing and in the sciences. Because we are in the data industry, this is important to know.
    Example: The research data is being collected. (correct)

  10. Commas

    When you read your content out loud, do you naturally pause at certain places? The best rule of thumb is to insert a comma in those places. Grammar can actually be quite logical.

    Let’s look at some common uses for commas:

    a. To separate words in a list (apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes). Notice that I used a comma before the and. Grammar sources such as Chicago strongly recommend inserting the last comma. Here’s an example from Chicago:
    “I want no ifs, ands, or buts.”

    b. Introductory phrases and words. Use commas after introductory phrases and words, especially if a slight pause is needed.
    Example: At the end of the day, he left the office.
    Example: Therefore, the next SES Conference is in December.

    c. To separate compound sentences. Use commas to separate compound
    sentences, which are sentences that could be divided into two separate and complete sentences.
    Example: Search engine optimization is both art and science, and it requires both creativity and technology to be successful.

    NOTE: I used seven different grammar books as reference guides when writing this article. None of the information is listed here without a reference from one or more of those guides. I highly recommend that all content writers purchase a grammar book. My latest is The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. You can even subscribe to the online version at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.
    A free 30-day trial is available.

    In Conclusion

    The Internet represents a lot of things to a lot of people. In our informal areas like forums and newsgroups, we don’t need to worry so much about grammar and spelling. We’re simply chatting among friends.

    But on our Web sites, our online store fronts, we must give a professional image, in my opinion. Let’s do our best to make sure our sites are as free from grammar and spelling errors as possible.

Do you want an easy way to improve your Grammar?

You don’t have to understand all of the grammar rules to use this cool tool.   It is very fast and it will show you the problem area and make suggestions explaining how to fix it.

Included are:

  • Grammar Checker
  • Punctuation Checker
  • Syntax Checker
  • Writing Strength Checker
  • Style Analysis
  • Selectable Analysis Methods
  • Strength and Complexity Indexes
  • Advanced Spelling Checker

Check out this quick little tool for doing a check of your content before submitting or publishing:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/grammar-check.html

About Robin Nobles:
Robin Nobles conducts live hands-on SEO workshops in locations across North America. Localized SEO training is now being offered through the Search Engine Academy. Sign up for a free SEO tip of the day.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.

Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: , ,

12 Tips to help build the foundation for a new SEO career

6 November 2010

by John Alexander

Tip 1. Set your focus on your clients success.

Stop focusing on sales and start focusing on your client’s success! Do all that you can do to make them successful. Pour all of your talents into making their projects work. So many folks I talk to can never stop thinking about where they will make their next sale, instead of working on delivering results to the clients they ALREADY have. In so doing, you establish “lifetime” residuals.

Make your client successful and they will literally become part of YOUR sales team.

Tip 2. A difference in your performance is a difference in your profits.

If you are NOT up to speed, you better catch up fast. Truely a difference in your performance is a difference in your profits! If you are not up to speed on solid SEO marketing techniques and methods, start learning now. Take a course or study at a live workshop but however you do it, get your SEO career skills up to speed so you can genuinely help get your customers results. If you can show them a strategy that really puts dollars in their pocket, they’ll put dollars in YOUR pocket!

Tip 3. Have confidence in your own strategies and explore profit sharing.

How’s your batting average with profit sharing? Don’t be afraid to explore this one! If your skills are medium to above average, why not share in the profits yourself? I am referring to offering someone a vertical deal. This would be a deal where you own part of the company in return for making it successful with your SEO skills. Don’t brush this off. There are some exceptional deals to be had if you start thinking laterally.

Tip 4. Don’t forget community and charitable work.

When’s the last time you helped promote a charitable work at NO cost. Build a site and promote it for the literacy council or the Easter Seals Society or your local Rotary Group or your Chamber of Commerce.

Don’t forget that this work can OFTEN open unusual and even surprising doors. Help make others successful and you will NOT fail. Many important leaders within your local community will be serving on these committees right next to you!  This is a great way to network and meet new people and help the cause too.

Tip 5. Work on Relationship building and position yourself for success to come.

Watch the latest SEO trends and position yourself to quickly take advantage. The study and practice of SEO has been extraordinary. A few years ago, I never dreamed that my study of optimization would lead to the Internet lifestyle. As a result of our work, we enjoy wonderful repeat business and client loyalty.

If you have not been enjoying good profits, a rewarding lifestyle and being appreciated by your clients, then you need to consider a plan of action.

Tip 6. Set your course of action and get started.

Consider taking a live hands-on SEO workshop which can kick-start your professional SEO career in just a few days of hands-on training. Or if you cannot travel, consider taking an Online SEO Training Course.

Tip 7. Choose which voices you choose to listen to carefully.

You MUST be able to “deliver” and make a difference. Do whatever it takes to get your SEO skills and lateral thinking skills up to speed. In business there are many voices offering free advice. You need to choose carefully who you will listen to.

Tip 8. Run a balanced business.

Are you charging for what your services are worth? There are some folks who charge steeply and don’t even know how to get the results. For goodness sakes, if you’re good at what you do, make sure you are charging well for your services. You DESERVE fair reward if you’re helping other business owners to prosper.

(Some folks are afraid to charge for their work)

Note: The ones that charge steeply but DON’T deliver may make a few dollars initially, but they won’t enjoy the customer loyalty, the referral business, and the repeat business that you do, and they won’t have a “customer for life” like you will.

Tip 9. Don’t forget to recognize and be thankful for the progress you’ve made.

Yes, this is extremely important. How else can you truly measure your progress unless you benchmark along the way. Be sure to benchmark your victories but even more important, celebrate your CLIENTS’ VICTORIES too! After all, you helped bring them about.

Tip 10. Give something back to your community (with gladness).

Look for opportunities to help others who genuinely need help and avoid those who are only after your talents to exploit them. (Trust me, when your SEO talents and success stories increase, you’ll have strangers coming out of the woodwork to take you to dinner and wine you and dine you and pick your brain). Proceed with wisdom.

Tip 11. You must be willing to change and take action!

Performing the way you perform now has delivered a certain result. Maybe you’re happy with that result. If you’re happy with this result, carry on exactly the same way and you should get very similar results. However, if you are NOT happy with your results now, then you must change the way you do things.

Some people go all their life complaining that they would like a better career or a better position in life and yet they continue taking the same actions and getting the same results year after year.

Think of it like this…

Same action = same result
Different action = new results

Tip 12. Surround yourself with the high quality people!

Without a doubt, your SEO interests and abilities will make way for many new working relationships. Be sure to carefully choose the people you want to work with. Look for those with whom you can share synergies and be very observant of the skills and abilities within the others that surround you. No single person can operate as effectively as a group of people that work as a team. Learn to choose the right people to work with and recognize the latent strengths and talents that will sometimes be present but initially hidden within the group. Build to your ultimate potential by choosing wisely, encouraging one another and recognizing the talent in one another.

Is a career in SEO right for you?

Are you ready to take your SEO career to the next step?

We would be delighted to meet with you personally and teach you exactly how search engines work. The beauty of learning new SEO skills, is that it puts you back into the position of having the power to choose and make your own choices.

Check out upcoming workshop dates here if you are interested in building an SEO career.

About John Alexander
John Alexander is Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses. John is author of an e-book called Wordtracker Magic and has taught SEO skills to people from 87 different countries world wide. John’s articles can be read in publications like REALTOR Magazine, Search Engine Guide, WEBpro News and many others.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.

Filed Under: SEO Tips Tagged With: