Crown Point Design Blog » SEO

SEO is only 1 Component of Internet Marketing Success

CPDScott — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:41:54 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the big buzz words in internet marketing, but the truth is that SEO is only one component of creating a successful web presence. Yes, search engines like Google are the most common tool that people use to try to find a business and showing up on the front page of organic searches is very important. Does this mean that you should spend your entire marketing budget, time, and energy toward SEO? NOOOOO! Here is why…

There are multiple resources available on the internet to drive users to your website. Social networking sites are now becoming very mature and offer even more capabilities than their early years. Sites like Yelp, Kudzu, StumbleUpon, and Delicious encourage user interaction which makes for a great user experience. Being involved in a community based site has more value than a paid advertisement, because you can let your clients advertise for you and often times these services are free.

When you search for your company on a search engine how many results do you show up in? A successful internet marketing plan will have your company listed in multiple resources making you look like an established and professional business.

Other components of a successful internet marketing strategy include email marketing, blogging, and search engine marketing (also referred to as SEM, PPC, or CCP advertising). Utilizing multiple resources is the best strategy for gaining users from across the web. Simultaneously, while taking advantage of these tools you will in turn be helping your search engine rankings by increasing you inbound link activity and establishing a better web presence.

When designing your website, it is vital to take advantage of white-hat search engine optmization – SEO – best practices, but don’t overlook these other areas or think your job is done once the on-page SEO components are taken care of. SEO is only the beginning of how you can achieve internet marketing success.

5 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques Tutorial

CPDScott — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:39:14 +0000

This tutorial outlines 5 simple On-Page SEO strategies. Anyone that has experience surfing the web should have an understanging of the topics covered.

sitemap.html Vs. Sitemap.xml

CPDScott — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:56:30 +0000

There are two types of sitemaps that you can create to help search engines crawl your website. The first is an HTML file labeled sitemap.html. This file provides the links to all the pages within your website in a simple list fashion and usually categorized. They HTML file helps search engines figure out how all the pages on your site are linked together so that it does not miss anything as it crawls your site. This is also helpful to users who may be looking for a page in a paticular category or section of your website. The sitemap.html file should be linked from the most important areas of your website (usually the home page).

The second type of sitemap is the XML file refered to as the Sitemap (capital S) and labeled Sitemap.xml in the root of your website. A Sitemap is a list of the pages on your website, but has some other benefits to search engines like Google. You can provide Google with additional informaion about your pages including:

How often pages on your site are updated. (ex. your Products page or News page may be updated daily, while your Contact and About pages are only updated periodically)
Last modified info on each page
The relative importance of each page on your site. (ex. your Home page may have an importance of 1.0, category sections have an importance of 0.8, and blog entry pages have an importance of 0.5) *Note this does not impact the rankings of your pages within search results

Sitemaps allow Google and other search engines to crawl your website faster and more effectively. As you know, we want to keep Google happy:) It is also important to know that sites are never penalized for submitting a Sitemap.

There are also other types of sitemaps for Video, Mobile, News, Code Search, and Geo.

More information can be found on the sitemaps.org website.

Using Video to Improve your SEO

CPDScott — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:24:11 +0000

Google recently announced its plans to discontinue the services of Google Video. This comes as no surprise to many as rumors have gone around for a while about Google’s plans to increase the use and relevance of YouTube videos.

: YouTube

Google purchased YouTube in Oct. of 2006 for a lofty $1.65 billion. YouTube is still seeing daily video uploads in record quantities. So how can utilizing YouTube video help your SEO? Because video will become a broader part of Google’s search plans, if optimized correctly, videos that you include on your website may have more visibility in searches than those on YouTube. Here’s how…

Each video that you create in YouTube should have its own landing page on your website. This page should include a title and description. Along with other best practices on your website, these videos will begin to gain traction with Google as they push Youtube videos.

What about videos that are not yours? You can use videos that you have not created but want to display on your website. The same SEO principals apply and you may even see these videos get better placement in searches than the actual YouTube clips.

Video and multi-media are very important for the next generation of the web. But remember, don’t ignore the SEO… Happy Hunting!

Optimize Your Page Titles

CPDScott — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:30:06 +0000

One of the most common SEO tips that we give as part of Crown Point Design’s free SEO site consultations, is to optimize the page titles on your site.

Page Titles are located in the very top left corner of your web browser. We often find that websites are using the same page title for every page and is usually very generic such as:

Crown Point Design – Home

The page title is actually included with the meta-tags, which is information describing the page. Each page should have a unique title that describes the content of that page. This helps search engines like Google to determine the information on the page. As we know, it is important to help Google out whenever possible to achieve the best possible search results.

Optimizing page titles has become a white-hat best practice in SEO techniques. try to be descriptive about your page titles, but not too long. Some people estimate that the maximum allowable length is 75 characters including spaces for most web browsers.

3 Tips for SEO: 1) Patience 2) Patience 3) Patience

CPDScott — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:52:23 +0000

All companies are competing for the same landscape… to be on the first page of search results. Perhaps you have done everything right and your site follows all the white-hat SEO guidelines. So, why are you still buried in the mix of competitors? The answer may be as simple as patience.

The best strategy for SEO is to consider it a marathon, not a sprint. Google and other search engines work like spiders, crawling your website looking for updated content, relative links, and a flurry of additional best practices. Eventually, if you constantly prove to Google that you are providing up-to-date information and additional resources; you’ll build credibility. As time goes on, search engines recognize your efforts and increase your page rankings.

In addition to best practices, one of the top criteria for increasing your website’s page rank and traffic is by incorporating inbound links from other credible resources. As search engine spiders crawl the web they’ll come across your link and notice where it’s from. The spiders then store your site in the bank and continue on their way. Over time, as the spiders find your site in several places, they begin to realize that it must be pretty important and therefore increase your page rank. The underlying theme here; however, still is patience.

Another criteria for page rank is the tenure of your website. Google, as well as other search engines, recognize a website’s longevity. Simply put, the longer your site has been up… the more credibility it gets. This is a major advantage to companies that have had a longer web presence. Additionally, search engines reward companies that have invested for the long haul by registering their domain names for extended periods of time. Instead of spending $5.99 per year on your web domain; why not spend an extra 10 bucks and have it registered for five years? Coughing up the extra money will help your SEO!

All SEO techniques and strategies share a common theme, ‘patience is a virtue.’ Invest in your website SEO now to build web traffic for the future!