Marketing on the Web
I use Yoast's SEO plug-in on the WordPress sites that I work with. I haven't always used Yoast's plug-in, but once it came along I switched everything over and haven't looked back. It's a great plug-in that I highly recommend to tune WordPress sites for search. I ran across a warning a few days ago that a feature is being discontinued and I wanted to alert my readers. The message is burred in the Permalinks settings of the plug-in, and it's marks a pretty significant change that could break i...
MoreYour Brand in a Digital World
In the pre-internet world, marketers said there were three things that were important; location, location, and location. It was important to be where your prospects could find you. In small towns, it might have been the square, or on a busy corner, as we moved to the suburbs it became the mall. Successful businesses often worked to assure their buildings and signage projected an image. The kind of image that people would like, remember and want to return to. And of course no one expected to b...
MoreGoogle September Updates
Google made several significant changes this month that should be on every marketer's radar. 1) Algorithm Change What it means: September 4 we saw a shift in the algorithm. While these updates have become fairly routine, we monitor them because their effects may impact the traffic to your website's traffic. We now know this signal was the initial roll-out of Hummingbird. 2) Intelligent Search (Hummingbird) What it means: September 26 Google announced it is evolving beyond simple keyword matc...
MoreTop Level Domains (TLDs)
TLDs or Top Level Domain refers to the .com part of the address. When I started in internet marketing, there were only a few of these. There was .mil (military), .gov (government), .edu (education), .com (commercial), org (non-profit organization) and .net (network provider). This list has grown substantially, with .biz (business), being and early addition (Wikipedia Article). Some countries took advantage of their catchy TLD (.me -Montenegro) and sold domains with their TLD generically. This...
MoreFind the Right Words to Market Your Business
Need help finding the right keywords to market your business on the Internet? - Marketing on the web's John Allen spoke with Ad4! Group's Chris Gattis on his show at wtkiradio.com - WTKI 1450 AM / 92.9 FM Huntsville and WEKI 1490 AM / 94.7 FM Decatur. Free Keyword Tools: Google's keyword Tool* SEOBook's Keyword Tool Wordtracker's Keyword Tool Excellent article from Casey Meraz on using Google's KW tool here *Note on July 1, 2013 Google discontinued the public version of its t...
MoreSearch Console Provides a Critical Communications Link to Google
Do you use Google's Search Console (aka Webmasters tools)for your website?? You should, especially if you have seen recent declines in traffic. Search Console is where Google communicates with site owners and where you'll find warnings about everything from SPAM to Malware. This article outlines a range of problems that Google is identifying and alerting owners about. What Are Google Penalties & What to Do to Recover ---
MoreDiscussing SEO with Ad4!’s Chris Gattis
John Allen was on Huntsville radio station WTKI 1450 AM / 92.9 FM this morning discussing SEO and website optimization with Chris Gattis of Ad4!. Ad4! is a company that specializes in social media, marketing strategy, consultation, publications, and media advertising. Chris's program "Communication That Counts" can be heard at 8:00 am Thursdays at WTKI 1450 AM / 92.9 FM Huntsville, WEKI 1490 AM / 94.7 FM Decatur or on-line at https://wtkiradio.com
MoreWhere do you Stack up in local Results?
A lot has changed in the way Google displays businesses in the past few years. The changes have come in slowly, so you may not have noticed, but Google Ads that only appeared on the right side of the page have now crept above the left column, pushing organic results down. Businesses that were near bottom on the first page may now be on the second page (or worse). Google is also displaying a "local stack", kind of a phonebook listing at the top of the page for searches it considers local (like...
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