Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
Friday, November 20th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Optimizing your website’s content for search engines costs about half as much as relying solely on a paid-search campaign for getting customers to your site. So says a recent study by Frommer’s Unlimited I read about in the Travolution article, “WTM: Rich content ‘more cost-effective than PPC’.”
Of course, the main flaw I saw in this study is that it analyzes SEO and PPC results separately when many ecommerce companies use a combination of the two. SEO and PPC have different strengths and weaknesses. SEO is slower but more cost-efficient while PPC is fast, but each click costs money.
It’s essential for a website’s long-term future for it to have strong content that is designed to attract search engines’ attention and increase its ranking in their search results. But that doesn’t mean PPC is irrelevant or too expensive for companies to take advantage of in their Internet-marketing campaigns.
According to Frommer’s study, it costs about 17 cents per visitor to optimize a site’s content. On the other hand, it costs about 33 cents per visitor through PPC ads.
You can find the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Paid Search Blog on November 24, 2009. It will be entitled, “PPC clicks cost more than SEO.” The photo of the SEO, PPC Scrabble game is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of therichbrooks.
Tags: Ecommerce, Paid Search, PPC, search engine, search engine optimization, SEO, study, Submit Solution, website
Posted in Pay-Per-Click, SEO | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I read an article on Entrepreneur.com a while back, entitled, “Rev up the Search Engines.” It gives a helpful rundown of solid SEO principles for small businesses, which don’t have a whole lot of money to spare but need to start generating results from ecommerce.
This article gives six tips for a small business to get the most bang for its buck, when it comes to search engine optimization. They are attributed to Steve Wiideman, a fairly renowned SEO expert. I already talked about most of these in my SEO series right here in the eHarbor Blog, back in February and March of 2009. But I think a refresher is healthy.
Here is one highlight I took from these tips:
- Search engines are getting smarter. Don’t expect Google, Bing or Yahoo to fall for the same old SEO tricks. Bloggers and other content generators used to focus on their keyword-to-content ratio, but now search engines recognize when you use the same keyword too many times in the same post. Use relevant keywords prudently. If you use keyword-stuffing tactics, don’t expect much success.
You can find the rest of this blog entry on the Submit Solution SEO Blog on November 23, 2009. It will be called, “Getting your business on top with SEO.” The photo of the flying biker is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Grundy Photo.
Tags: article, Bing, company, Ecommerce, google, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, website, yahoo
Posted in Ecommerce, Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
Monday, September 7th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Jeff Ashby, an SEO technician at eHarbor Inc., is the latest employee to be named the company’s Most Valuable Player. He received this honor at our monthly company meeting on Wednesday, September 2, 2009.
In addition to his normal responsibility of providing search engine optimization for our clients, Jeff created a new website called Theme Fury, which offers more than a hundred free Wordpress themes. These themes help Wordpress blog owners stand out with a creative design instead of using a standard format.
Theme Fury already offers themes for websites in a number of categories:
- Animal
- Artistic
- Business
- Car
- Craft
- Education
- Electronics
- Family
- Health
- Music
- Nature
- Personal
- Sports
Be sure to visit Theme Fury’s installation page to find out how to install your favorite theme to your blog.
When Jeff’s not doing SEO or computer programming, he enjoys collecting Pez dispensers and watching Filipino movies. His favorite restaurants are Red Robin and Olive Garden, and he likes to watch shows like “Seinfeld” and “Arrested Development.”
This is the third time I’ve spotlighted an MVP in the eHarbor Blog. You can read about last month’s winner, Derek Anderson, in my blog entry, “eHarbor MVP gives great customer care.” We have many great employees to spotlight. I’ll keep you posted on them at the start of each month.
The photo of Jeff Ashby is from the blog post “Halloween Pictures” in the Ashblog, his personal blog. The Theme Fury logo is the copyright of Jeff Ashby and Theme Fury.
Tags: award, blog, eHarbor, MVP, new, search engine optimization, SEO, Theme Fury, Web Design, website
Posted in SEO, eHarbor | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
This is a follow-up to my previous blog entry, “I link, therefore I am… on top of Google.” I’m talking about what I learned at Webmarketing123’s August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.” Without further ado, I’ll return to where I left off.
Unless a website is cached or saved by search engines on a regular basis, the links found on it won’t count toward the search engine optimization of the sites it links to. That explains why Google can’t keep up with Twitter and other social-media sites, as I discussed in an earlier eHarbor Blog entry. It’s trying to take a snapshot of websites that change multiple times every second.
Returning to caches, I learned a cool trick at the Webinar that I would like to share. If you want to know if a Web page is cached by Google, all you have to do is type “cache:www.thesitename.com” into a Google search and it will tell you.
The big question is how do you get inbound links? After you’ve gone through and added great content that is relevant to your keywords, you can start using the following sources to get inbound links:
- Directories
- Paid Listings
- Article Syndications
- Blogs
- News Releases
We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will debut soon. We’ll be transferring our ecommerce and Internet marketing articles from the eHarbor Blog to that one soon. You can find the rest of this blog entry there after it debuts.
The photo of the fingers touching light is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of littledan77.
Tags: Bing, blog, Directory, google, Link, News Release, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, webinar, yahoo
Posted in SEO, Search Engines | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
I enjoy Webmarketing123’s free Webinars on Internet marketing. I always learn a lot from them, and I try to apply what I learn. Today, I’ll talk about what I learned at their August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.”
The five things a website needs to get ranked on the first page of Google results are:
1. Keywords – The search terms you want people to type into a search engine in order to find your Web page.
2. Site Content – You need to use your chosen keywords in your website’s text to show search engines your site is relevant to those topics.
3. Meta Content – You don’t usually see this content, but it must be there in the backend of your site and in your Web page titles.
4. URLs – Include important keywords in your URLs. For example, it is better to have a URL like www.eharborinc.com/blog/2009/07/17/is-twitter-overhyped, which includes the date and headline keywords, than something like www.eharborinc.com/blog/post-81. The second URL gives no clue as to what it contains, while the first one gives a much better idea of the page’s subject matter.
5. Inbound Links – These are links (or votes) from other websites to your site. Search engines look at both the number and quality of the links you receive from other sites.
We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will debut soon. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one soon. You can find the rest of this blog entry there. Stay tuned!
The photo of the confusing keyboard arrows is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jeremyfoo.
Tags: content, keyword, Link, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, url, Web Design, webinar, website
Posted in SEO, Web Design | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The unattainable goal for many search campaigns is the ever-elusive melding of PPC and SEO tactics for bigger and better top-line results. Theoretically, the two should go together like peanut butter and jelly.
That’s how Herndon Hasty starts his superb Search Engine Watch article, “Of PPC and PBJ: Combining PPC and SEO Effectively, Part 1.” His comparisons of search engine optimization to peanut butter and pay-per-click advertising to jelly are apt, and they work well through the article.
We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will soon be launched. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one. You can find the rest of this blog entry there when it comes out. Stay tuned!
The photo of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jacky_oh_yeah.
Tags: article, eHarbor, Internet Marketing, PPC, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution
Posted in Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, June 19th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Search engine optimization is a good thing for businesses to get their names and services on top of Google and other search engines, where customers will find them. However, SEO can also be used for malevolent purposes that can make our job as online marketers more difficult.
Malware creators are targeting popular 
keywords to get their damaging viruses onto an increasing number of unsuspecting users’ computers, according to a CNN article, “What are the most dangerous search terms on the Internet?” Some of the most dangerous search terms you can look up because of these malware sites include:
- Screen savers
- Free games
- Work from home
- Olympics
- Videos
- Celebrities
- Music
- News
This presents a serious challenge to the ecommerce industry. How can online consumers know which websites are legitimate and which will do them harm? Some antivirus software can automatically check websites for viruses, which can help consumers know which search results are safe to click.
We can work on gaining their trust, as well. This goes back to earning online shoppers’ trust, as I discussed in an earlier blog entry. If you want to learn six ways to develop trusting relationships with potential clients, I recommend reading that post.
eHarbor, Inc. and its affiliates offer safe SEO, paid-search and custom-design solutions for online businesses.
The photo of the Danger! Thin Ice sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Sister72.
Tags: advice, article, CNN, computer virus, consumer, eHarbor, internet, marketing, news, online, search engine, search engine optimization, SEO, trust
Posted in Ecommerce, SEO, Search Engines | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Microsoft’s new Bing search engine is quite an impressive tool for Web users and online marketers. I read an article in USA Today, entitled Bing it on: Microsoft overhauls search, again, which gives some excellent info about this new search engine.
Bing includes search suggestions on results pages to help people narrow their searches and find exactly what they’re looking for. This is what I talked about in my eHarbor Blog entry, “Paid search about to get complicated.” Web users want to find information, products and services faster, so they’re using an increasing number of keywords in their searches.
Including suggested search terms on a results page is nothing new. Google includes them on many of their results pages, as well.
I noticed there are no paid listings on Bing results pages. Maybe that is because the service is just getting started and has not yet had time to develop pricing and other metrics to charge for pay-per-click ads. This could present a challenge to ecommerce, but there is probably a solution, whether it is more investment in search engine optimization, social media or other marketing strategies.
Microsoft calls Bing a “decision engine” instead of a search engine. That has a nice ring to it. They call it that because it is supposed to help people make decisions, instead of just provide a whole slew of disorganized information.
I like the fact that Bing gives price comparisons and reviews of products, 30-second clips of videos on results pages, and its image results page is huge! You just scroll down to see all the images, instead of clicking on lots of pages in Google and waiting for them to show up.
What does Bing mean for ecommerce? It will probably reward companies that work hard on online marketing on SEO with high search ranking and quick access for consumers to their websites. We’ll need to continue to refine the search terms we target. It’ll be interesting to see everything that happens.
The photo of the Bing search engine is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Kimberly Saia.
Tags: article, Bing, CNN, Ecommerce, eHarbor, google, marketing, Microsoft, msn, new, online, Paid Search, positive, PPC, search engine, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Ecommerce, SEO, Search Engines | 2 Comments »
