Archive for December, 2008

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9 Reasons Why You Need Google’s Webmaster Tools

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

I’m a huge advocate for measuring success and using geeky measurement tools to do it.  As a compliment to Google Analytics, there is Webmaster Tools.  While there is some overlap between the two, together, they give you a pretty good picture of how your site is doing.  And while some think Google knows too much about our websites (yes, they see same data as you do), the trade off is that it’s free.

  1. Installation is easy. Choose to either plop a meta-tag into your code or upload an HTML file.
  2. Quickly check for web crawl errors. Have any 404 errors?  Any nofollows or robots.txt you didn’t know about?
  3. Can your site be accessed via smart phone? No need to check manually…Webmaster Tools will tell you!
  4. Specific help for SEO. In the Diagnostics > Content Analysis section, check out any meta-description, title tag, or non-indexable content issues your site may have.
  5. Top Search Queries. More of a fun fact than anything.  What top 20 keywords do you rank for?  What percentage of people that search for that term click on your site?  More importantly, ask yourself…are these the terms you optimized your site for?
  6. “What Googlebot sees.” Very powerful information.  You can see exactly what anchor text people are using when linking to your site.
  7. Pages with external links. Which are your most linked-to (read:popular) pages?  Webmaster Tools will show you most, if not all, of your incoming links.  Plus, you can view your backlinks in graph form with Glync.
  8. Remove a URL. This tool can be incredibly useful if you have duplicate content or have removed a page for some reason.  This tool goes hand-in-hand with the web crawl errors page: after you find an error, you can then remove the page from Google’s index (it usually takes only a few days to complete the process).
  9. Various other perks of having Webmaster Tools: crawl stats (how often Google crawls your site), subscriber stats (if you have a blog or email newsletter: how many subscribers do you have?), view your sitemap(s), generate and view your robots.txt file, enhance your 404 error pages (if you don’t already have a template matching your own design), and many more!

Nicki Hicks
If I add any more tools to my toolbox, where the heck am I gonna put my hammer?

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Posted in Google, SEO Tools | No Comments »


Link Building for Online Publicity, Buzz, and SEO: Online Seminar with Stephan Spencer and Eric Ward

Monday, December 29th, 2008

About a week and a half ago, I attended a MarketingProfs webinar with SEO and link building gurus Stephan Spencer and Eric Ward.  The presentation itself was called “Link Building for Online Publicity, Buzz & SEO – What’s New & What’s Tried and True”.

Here is a sampling of my notes, basically the major things I pulled from the presentation (most of which I either did not know or Stephan and Eric simply solidified).

  • It’s not all about the SEO and PageRank. It’s about driving qualified traffic; there are other quality links (many that have no SEO value at all) that you should go after:
    - Directory links (DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory)
    - Temporary buzz links (Digg)
    - Paid-for links (Eric gave the example of Adbrite)
    - Vertical links
    - Email-based links
    - Links from blogs
    - Editorial links
    - Organic links
  • Finding vertical/topical links:
    - searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
    - searchenginecolossus.com
    - Google (search for “seo search engine”)
  • 301 redirects pass link juice; 302′s do not.
  • Tips for requesting links:
    - Subject line is the most important, letting the webmaster or blogger know that you are not a spammer.  Make it personal and use the title of their site.
    - Make the email short and sweet, again letting the webmaster/blogger know you’re not a spammer.  Link to a specific page (preferably NOT the homepage) and why/how it would interest their audience.
    - Include a brief overview of what the site is all about – don’t make your potential linker do all the work!
  • Tips for link reclamation (in other words, what to do if your URLs change):
    - Identify these useless links in your Google Webmaster Tools
    - Contact linking sites
    - 301 redirect
  • Tips for updating link text (in other words, getting backlinks to change anchor text from “click here” to something a little more relevant and keyword rich):
    - Review existing backlinks with a backlink analyzer (something like Linkscape from SEOmoz)
    - If the keywords you’re targeting are NOT in the anchor text, consider contacting the webmaster/blogger (using the same sort of technique as requesting links).
  • Check how PageRank is flowing and if you have an error codes with a Server Header Checker (search for Google and use one of the top 10).
  • Track link building efforts with tools:
    - trackengine.com
    - changenotes.com
    - google.com/alerts
    - urlywarning.net
    - changedetect.com

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

Posted in Expert Advice | No Comments »


Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Have a safe and happy holiday; and if you’re traveling to or from New England, be careful in the snow!!  (Or just use it to build an obnoxiously large snowperson….)

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Posted in Just For Fun | No Comments »


SEO for Blogging: Five Ways to Optimize Your Blog

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

We’ve begun, of late, to suggest our clients not only optimize their sites, but their blogs too.  Here are some easy ways to start:

  1. Keyword-rich titles. Since your blog titles become your page titles, make them keyword-rich and, at the same time, enticing to your readers.  Using negative titles can often be a good hook (like “5 Ways to Lose Money this Holiday Season”).
  2. Optimize your categories. Category names have an obsene about of SEO benefits: they are links, usually apart of the URL, and can also help readers make decisions (for example, when looking into your archives – which categories interest them).  So, category titles should be keyword-rich and descriptive.
    There’s a discrepancy as to whether or not it’s better to assign a blogpost to a single category or more than one.  Typically, your blog will choose which category it is designated to, and Google will index it under that category.  Duplicate content is the issue here, so watch out!
  3. Link Building. Ping back your own blogposts as often as you can – as long as they provide a good resource for what you’re talking about.  Link to other sites as you would on your website – to quality sites and blogs.
  4. Post often. Blogs tend to get crawled and indexed more because of how often new content is added.  For a new blog, posting 2-3 times a week should be a priority.  After your blog has collected a certain amount of trust and readership, posting at least once a week (depending on how much you have to write about) is important.
  5. Bonus out-of-the-box idea: Set your blog to follow comment links. This way, your readers will more likely leave intelligent comments, knowing they get a link out of it – and therefore starting a more interesting coversation.  Of course, you’ll need to monitor your comments that much more heavily.

So if you have a blog or are thinking about starting one, remember…SEO is just as important there as for your website!!!

Nicki Hicks
Maine Blogging

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Posted in Blogging, flyte new media, Social Media | No Comments »


ProSites – Affordable Web Sites for Small Businesses

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Maine-custom-woodlands
We don't often promote individual ProSites — our affordable Web sites for small businesses — here at the flyte blog, but every once in a while it's nice to list some of the companies that are now using the ProSites.

All of these sites are built on the WordPress platform, allowing our clients to update their Web site without any HTML knowledge or expensive 3rd party software. Just a modern browser is all they need to keep their Web site fresh and smelling like springtime.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Web Sites

Posted in Client News, flyte news, Web Design & Development, Web Site Launches | No Comments »


Portland Motor Club – Climate Controlled Car Storage in Maine

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Portland-motor-club
Today flyte launched a Web site for Portland Motor Club, a climate controlled car storage facility here in Maine.

PMC is a brand new, state-of-art facility with radiant heat with climate and dust control that was specifically designed for car storage. It's also surprisingly green.

For your vehicle there's:

  • Custom storage preparation services
  • Engine starting & running service
  • A full menu of professional reconditioning and detailing services from
    a wash to a wax-and-shine to a deep restorative cleaning and custom
    care services
  • Rental of wash/detailing bay with access to our professional cleaning products
  • Rental of mechanical lift bay with a complete professional automotive tool system
  • Access
    to our automotive mechanic specialists trained and experienced with
    working on antiques, muscle cars, exotics and everything in between
  • In-house professional covered automobile transportation services
  • Outside car trailer and boat storage

For you there's:

  • Unlimited key access to the Portland Motor Club member area during business hours
  • Handsome,
    well-appointed lounge with flat-screen TV, cable television, wi-fi,
    iPod entertainment and computer station with beverages and snacks
    available
  • Conference/Meeting room scheduled on a first-come/first-served basis (applicable fees for planned
    events)
  • Car club meetings & special automotive events (educational programs, rallies, car shows, etc.)

To be honest, I'm a little jealous of your vehicle.

DSC_0002
I took some photos of some cars from a special show PMC put on the other night. You can find all the classic car and muscle car photos here.

If you live or vacation in Maine and you have a car that needs a little extra TLC, Portland Motor Club is the place for you.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design

Posted in Web Site Launches | 1 Comment »


Twelve Months of Web Marketing Articles from Flyte

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

It's December, that time of the year where we look back and regurgitate our content rather than create fresh content reflect on what we've said and done.

Like in years past, we've published 12 more issues of flyte log, our monthly Web marketing ezine. If you haven't read all of these posts odds are you aren't my mother (aka my editor.) Here's your chance to catch up:

Looking back on it, social media seems to be the topic of 2008, and I don't expect that to change in 2009. Small businesses will continue to look for low-cost, high-return methods of marketing, and a social media strategy will be the competitive advantage many of them are looking for.

What trends do you expect to see in 2009?

Rich Brooks
Seer

Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, flyte news, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »


SEO Web Marketing Reminder

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Flyte's first Webinar open to the public is tomorrow, Thursday, 12/18/2008, at 1pm EST. The topic is Search Engine Optimization: Rank Higher, Sell More!

Who Should Attend:

  • Small Business Owners
  • Marketing Professionals

Experience Level:

  • Beginner to Intermediate

What You'll Learn:

  • Understanding of how search engines work and rank your site
  • How to optimize your site for increased search engine visibility
  • How to increase the number of quality incoming links

What You'll Need to Participate:

  • A decent Internet connection
  • A separate phone line

Cost: $25

To learn more and register, visit flyte's Web Marketing Events page.

See you then!

Rich Brooks
Search Engine Webinarista

Posted in flyte news, Search Engine Marketing | 2 Comments »


Flyte Has Street (View) Cred

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

A few weeks ago (or so) Google Maps Street View published new photos of southern Maine. This shot of 136 Commercial Street is a little off (we're actually a couple of doors down in the highlighted building) but it's still nice to see our building.

Hey, is that my 4-Runner?

136-commercial

That DiMillo's sign (top right corner) is also featured at the flyte Web site in a night time shot.

Where in the World Is…
Rich Brooks

Posted in flyte news | No Comments »


A Beginner’s Guide to Google AdWords: How To Get Started

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

AdWords is Google’s paid search program – complete with an easy-to-use interface and, when campaigns are done correctly, can actually add to your conversions.

  1. Do a keyword analysis. No ifs, ands, or buts about this one…unless you enjoy throwing away money.  Theoretically, that’s exactly what you’re doing if you choose keywords blindly.  Find out what your customers are searching for and target those keywords.  There are a ton of keyword research tools out there – both free and paid.
  2. Set up your account.
  3. Choose which is right for you: starter or standard edition.
  4. Target the right customers. You have the option to target by language (if applicable) and geographic location.


  5. Create your ad.


    Tips for creating ads:
    a.  Use keywords in your headline whenever possible.
    b.  Write a long paragraph about your business, then narrow it down to the main points.
    c.  Include negative or “filtering” language when applicable.
    d. Test, tweak, and track your campaign(s).

  6. Choose your keywords. (Using a tool like Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool will give you an idea of competition for keywords and phrases.)
  7. How much are you willing to spend? Per day?  Every time someone clicks on your ad?  You get to choose!


  8. Define your campaigns based on:
    a.  Time restraints (for example, turn your ads off at night)
    b.  Demographics (age, gender, etc.)
    c.  Geographic Location
    d.  And more!
  9. Track your conversions with Google Analytics and Placement Performance Reports from AdWords.

Paid Search in conjunction with Organic Search can really do wonders.  The key is simple: keep an eye on your stats and what your customers are searching for!

Nicki Hicks
People really DO click on the right side!

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Posted in Pay Per Click (PPC) | No Comments »

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