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Thursday, April 17, 2008
How to Write Good Web Content

Write good web content. Easier said than done.

I was cleaning out my Inbox when I stumbled on a revised web usability study from the usability expert, Jakob Nielsen.

Important point: “Start with highly information-carrying words”. These are also good for links too.

Also check out:

How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines and

How Users Read on the Web.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:25 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO, Writing For The Web


Thursday, February 28, 2008
My Website Rankings Dropped in Google Search Results

Problems with Google dropping our rankingA website I own dropped significantly in rankings from Google’s search results today. It was #3 in the rankings for a top level keyword & domain combination.

I just updated the site recently and asked Google to re-index it. They did and now the site mysteriously disappeared from the top rankings.

I hope that Google is just re-indexing it’s database and our site will show up in a few hours or days.

Google DOES show the website in it’s database.

To not worry so much, I had to do some investigating. I landed on this comment at High Rankings.com.

We Don’t Have Control Over the Search Engines

That’s pretty much what I explain to my customers. We don’t have control over the search engines and they don’t give us their algorithms. You work with the search engines.

I’ve seen it before where a website drops and comes right back. It’s just the quicks of computers and the internet…I hope. ;-)

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 7:07 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Internet Yellow Page Usage Continues to Rise

Yellow Pages
Hello.

Anyone reading this blog knows that I talk a lot about optimizing your website for your local customers.

Well, another headline speaks the facts once again that more people are using the internet to find local businesses.

I quote:

“The number of searches conducted on Internet Yellow Page (IYP) sites increased by 27 percent in 2006 over the previous year.”

I am currently working with a client right now that has been having trouble getting his website listed higher in Google’s local search results. This is very important because his whole business relies on local customers. The main problem is that his website is not “showing up in Google’s Local One Box.

To solve this problem, I can’t just go to Google and tell them to place his website first. I must look into many different scenarios into why his website is not listed higher.

  1. First I need to check his listing on Google Local. Are there any errors in the listing? Is there information missing?
  2. Second, I need to study the local competition and find out why they’re getting preferential treatment?

There are a number of factors that go into how Google displays local businesses, so it’s up to us, the search engine optimizers, to try each fix individually and not expect a one fits all solution…because there isn’t one.

“They” say SEO (search engine optimization) is an art not a science and I would have to agree with “them” completely. There are a few things everyone can do, but it’s always a work in progress after that.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:26 am

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO, Web Marketing


Monday, August 20, 2007
Ask.com Still Doesn’t Provide Relevant Search Results

Don't Ask.comI have a post called How to Get the Highest Price on eBay. If you type “how to get the highest price on ebay” into Google, our post is #1.

I thought I would give Ask.com a try (a chance). I typed in, “how to get the highest price on ebay”. The first result is “How to get the highest price for your home - Jupiter, FL – Carole …”

I understand maybe why my page wouldn’t be number one, but the first page is not even about eBay. It’s about “your home”. I didn’t ask (pun intended) how to get the highest price for my home.

I click on the link to give ask.com the benefit of the doubt…maybe the page will be about “your home” on eBay? Nope. The word “ebay” doesn’t even exist on the page.

Don’t Ask. They Still Don’t Know

Apparently, Ask.com still needs a lot of work to provide a more relevant search. This is why I continue to use Google and NOT ask.com.

P.S. I noticed the paid searches had no problem finding the word eBay. Is there something to this? Does Ask.com want to make money or provide better searches for the user? You tell me.

Mike Swartz says, “Don’t check it out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 8:58 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Web General, SEO


Monday, August 6, 2007
How I Got My WordPress Blog Posts Out of Google’s Supplemental Results

Google's Supplemental ResultsWhoohoo!

Thanks to cheesehead2 on Web Master World’s forum, all of my WordPress blog posts have been removed from Google’s supplemental results.

Here is the code I used:

< ?php if(is_home() || is_single() || is_page()){
echo '‘;
} else {
echo ‘‘;
}?>

Just add the above code into the HEAD tag of your header.php file.

The Problem Was…

I was wondering why I wasn’t getting the traffic I expected from my new WordPress blog, so I did a search on Google (site:www.mjswebsolutions.com) to find out what web files Google was indexing on my site.

Apparently Google had indexed my blog posts, but they put them in the Supplemental Results. Supplemental results are just that…supplemental. They don’t show up when you do a regular search.

Doing some detective work I found out that when WordPress is setup, it creates many links to the same page (i.e. Calendar, categories, etc.). Google was recognizing this as duplicate content, so I implemented the fix above.

The fix above basically says: index only the blog homepage and each blog post and do not index anything else (i.e. category pages, calendar pages, etc.). As soon as I implemented the fix, my blog posts appeared within the regular search results and were removed from supplemental hell. A proud day. :-)

UPDATE: As soon as I implemented this fix, Google ups and decides to ‘hide’ the Supplemental Result indicator from their results. Whaaaa?

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:18 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Monday, July 23, 2007
How to Get the Highest Price on eBay - Study the Competition

Hello.

I just sold another item on eBay with great results…I got the price I wanted.

How? By doing my research.

Research the Competition - Get the Highest Price

Before you post an item to sell on eBay, check out the competition.

First, type in the item your selling. Check out the prices of like items you’re selling. Also review some of the listings. How do they title their listing? What words do they use? What kind of description do they give? Is it detailed? Do they include pictures? Etc.

Unfortunately these are items that are selling, not SOLD. It would be better to know the prices of sold items. We can.

When performing your competitor search, on the left margin under “Search Options”, check the Completed listings box. A list of sold items will appear. Now you can better gauge how much to price your item. Review the ads that garnered top price. When did the auction close? What keywords were in the title? Were there pictures? How many? Etc. Use this information in your own ad and I guarantee you’ll get a higher return on your items.

Get Your Website Higher in the Search Engines - Research the Competition

You can use this same approach when trying to get your website higher in the search engines. Check out your competition. How?

Type in the keywords you want to optimize for in the search engines. These are your competitors. Go to their website. Are the keywords you typed in on their website? How many? What other keywords are they using? What websites are linked (backlinks) to their website? Etc. Apply this information into your own website.

Really…the only way you’re going to get higher in the search engines or get the highest price on eBay is if you beat the competition. What better way than to beat them at their own game.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 6:14 pm

Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Web General, SEO


Monday, July 9, 2007
Promote Your Business With Local Networking Sites

Yelp LogoI write a lot about optimizing your website locally. I believe it is the easiest and most beneficial ways of promoting your business online because most of us rely on our local customers and you’re competing with local businesses rather than the rest of the world.

Searching for local businesses on Google you will find at the top of the search results a few businesses listed along with their addresses and maps to their business. (e.g. type in “auto repair alameda” into Google). What you’ll also find in the search results are listings to ’social networking’ sites. Google seems to be placing more emphasis on these websites lately. (On a side note…you need to be a good searcher to be a great SEO expert.)

Social Networking Sites

We’ve all heard of the popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, but other social networking sites are focusing on a local level and can give your business the exposure it needs.

  1. Citysearch: Citysearch was one of the first local networking sites, allowing you to review restaurants and nightclubs. You still can and it’s a great site for retail establishments.
  2. Yelp: Yelp allows you to write and share reviews of local businesses. At Yelp you cannot add your own business, a reviewer must add your business first. Ask a few of your most satisfied customers to give you a review and then update and promote your business.
  3. Insider Pages: A lesser known local networking site that resembles Yelp, allows you to add your own business. Just make sure to get some good reviews in there too.

The reason why theses sites work for SEO and why Google likes them is because they’re genuine and most people searching for “auto repair in alameda” are not necessarily looking for one particular shop. They’re looking for many shops and may (and will) do comparison shopping. If you’re business is not within the list to compare, you’re potential customers won’t have a reason to call. Simple as that.

Mike Swartz says, “Check ‘em out”.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:50 am

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Monday, April 9, 2007
Web Designers Are Not Created Equal

Not all web designers are SEO specialists. When they are, you get an added bonus.

I am redesigning a new website for a client of mine. She has excellent rankings (i.e. #1 rankings) for a majority on some highly competitive keywords.

When redesigning a website, usually the name of the files or web pages may change or they will be placed in different locations on the web server. For example, let’s say the page products.html has the #1 ranking on Google. If this file is moved or it’s name is changed to, let’s say index.html and placed into the /about/ folder, your #1 ranking may disappear. Why? Because after Google and other search engines re-index your site they essentially have to start all over - from the beginning. In their eyes, it’s like you just launched a new site. So now you’ll have to wait (maybe forever) and work real hard to gain top position you once had. To avoid this easily, do not change or move files that have top placement.

If your site is currently going through a redesign and you have web files in top SE positions, make sure your webmaster/web designer understands the implication of making web filename changes.

Being a web designer is good, but being a SEO web designer is great!

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:22 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, SEO


Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Cost Effective Website Optimization

I recently received a request to offer my “opinion on a cost effective method of optimizing my site”.

I’m not inclined to work for free or give out free advice, but I gladly offered links to many of our publications on optimizing a website. Below is what I sent back and thought everyone else may be asking the same question.

  1. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, check out our article on how to Optimize Your Website in 10 Steps (these are the same steps we follow in getting our clients higher in the search engines).
  2. Also, read our recent newsletter on Profiting From Local Search.
  3. Check out our SEO blog for other tips and suggestions.
  4. If you require some guidance, we offer a $500 website review or for $1500 we will optimize one page on your site, usually the homepage. Visit our web solutions page for more information.

Thank you for contacting MJS Web Solutions.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:19 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Keyword Tool: Search Engines

When researching keywords, I use multiple keyword tools, but one of the best tools are the search engines themselves (go figure). Just type in your suggested keywords into Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and you’ll get some amazing results.

Results from a recent search I did came up with a list of:

  1. Competitor websites with other listed keywords to optimize for
  2. Online directories I can add my client’s website to
  3. And a blog post recommending my client’s competitor

I recommended to my client to post a comment to the blog post with a link back to their website, stating to “also check out this website”. My client will get a link back to their website and hopefully more traffic as a result.

So, perform an actual search using your keywords. If you don’t, you’re missing out on many other ways to optimize your website.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 1:58 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


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