Marketing on the Web Google added a feature to Webmaster Tools yesterday that I hope will find its way in to Business Listings and other services. Now, if you are verified owner of a website, you can simply add additional users to the Webmaster Tools account (through the verify link). This means site owners can add individuals that do development, marketing or optimization, without having to upload additional files or edit pages. This greatly simplifies things, giving owners a simple way to remove this access. Mo...
MoreSearch Engine Optimization
Marketing on the Web explores Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how it can impact your web marketing efforts.
Improving Search Ranking with Dilbert
I couldn't resist posting this Dilbert cartoon strip from February 19. I am not sure if its the recognition that SEO has become mainstream enough to merit a Dilbert strip, or the fact that Scott Adams understands that sometimes sacrifices must be made to keep Google happy. Enjoy:
MoreImprove Page Load Times to Improve Page Rank
Last year Google said that load times would become a factor in determining your page rank. I have been toying with Joomla load times trying to speed things up and found two things that are very effective (and easy): In the >Global Configuration panel under >Server, enable gzip compression (duh!) Using this, the content the server send the info to the browser compressed so bandwidth isn’t as big of an issue. Install a CSS/Java compression plug-in. I used a plug-in CssJsCompress to ...
MoreNew Ways to Address Duplicate Content
Duplicate Content has long been an issue with webmasters and is cause for concern because duplicating content dilutes your ranking in search results. Perhaps the most common cause of having duplicate content is in allowing both www. and non www versions of your site to exist. However, another place where I see duplicate content occur is when a customer has multiple domain names pointing to the same content. When you use multiple domain names, and there are good reasons to do this, you should pic...
MoreCreating Content that Relevant and Reputable
Matt Cutts at the 2009 WordCamp. In this video he discusses terms like google juice, page rank, and back links, but don't get overwhelmed by the jargon. The central theme is creating content that is relevant and reputable. Worth watching! There are so many nuggets in this. You can skip the first 5 minutes and 30 seconds, but from there to around 19 minutes in, it's great general information to help you understand ranking and content. After 19 minutes, it briefly goes more into WordPress ...
MoreWhitehat SEO for WordPress
Matt Cutts' Whitehat video from WordCamp 2007 still rings true. While it's targeted at WordPress users, it has broad application and conveys an enormous amount of information. The video discusses SEO tips in plain speak - recommended. Note, he starts with a site that has been banned and gets a bit technical, but quickly moves into more general territory. The Q&A at the end is very much worth watching.
MoreYahoo and Microsoft Deal
The big news in the press today is the Microsoft/Yahoo deal. I have already received questions about this from a couple of clients, so I thought it best to expand here. In the deal the search brand at Yahoo will remain to be "Yahoo Search" but it will be "Powered by Bing." There will be no immediate changes however until they get regulatory approval, following approval the integration effort will move forward (expected early 2010). What about allocating advertising dollars? In the deal ...
MoreAdWords Search Query Performance Report
The Search Query Performance report in AdWords is a rich source of information that can help you hone in on the most productive phrases in your campaign. If you were bidding on a broad term like "Marketing" the report shows all the phrases that were triggered from that term, you might see "internet marketing", "web marketing" or "marketing on the internet." You can then evaluate the click thru rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC) and conversions on that term to determine if it's a good fit for yo...
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