The Way Back Machine - for fun

Have you ever wondered what some of your favorite websites looked like when they were first launched? Well, you can find out by using the Way Back Machine at web.archive.org.

You can type in any domain name and see the history of that site. For example, this is Google's very first homepage: http://web.archive.org/web/19981111184551/http://google.com/

A really great SEO primer and How to Write for the Search Engines

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but while I've used tools on www.SEOBook.com and read the blog posts there, and even gone there for advice, I had never purchased and read Aaron Wall's SEOBook!

I just bought it today and Wow! Not only does all that I've read agree with the methods and techniques that I use for SEO, but it's well written, easily accessible to technical and non-technical folks alike. I haven't read the whole thing yet, I'm on page 150, but so far it's excellent and I HIGHLY recommend it. Good, solid, down to earth SEO advice. Definitely a winner.

I should also mention an e-book I got long ago, from my SEO "guru" Jill Whalen (www.HighRankings.com) called the Nitty Gritty of Writing for the Search Engines. If you're interested in learning simple techniques for making your website copy more search engine friendly and targeting your copy for your keyphrases, this is THE book to read.

Both of these recommendations are for e-books in PDF format, so once you get them, you have the instant gratification of being able to delve into them immediately.

Enjoy!

Website Optimizer (beta) - AdWords - Google

Really COOL new tool from Google on optimizing your website to increase conversions! It provides ways of testing, experimenting and analyzing how people use your website.

Website Optimizer (beta) - AdWords - Google

I'm learning all I can about it now....

Designing your Website with Credibility

Last night, while re-reading Andrew Goodman's book, Winning Results with Google AdWords, I came across a listing of what makes a website credible from a credibility study by Stanford University. Fascinating stuff. Most of it makes the utmost sense but is often overlooked by website owners.

As an SEO, I have learned that while it's fun to help people get higher rankings for their websites, I am doing them a disservice if I don't point out things on the site that may reduce the credibility of the site and the business.

Here are the top 10, details and references are available at the Stanford site...

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
2. Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
7. Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
8. Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Use your Key-Words!

Have you ever heard a mother say to her child "Use your Words!" when trying to encourage more social behavior from a toddler? In optimizing your website for the search engines, "Use your Words" is actually the perfect little nugget of advice.

The search engines determine what a web-page is about by the words used on that page. You say you want your site to be found whenever someone searches on "personal development course"? Well then, make sure to Use your Words (personal development course) in your page title, in your keywords, in your meta-description and in your page copy.

This is also why for Search Engine Marketing, content is king. If you have 5 pages on your website, but want your site to be found for 300 very relevant key-phrases, you have a problem. To be found for that many keywords, you need more copy, more relevant content. If you want your website to be found for 300 different phrases, you need to have about 100 pages of unique, relevant, targeted content. This is because ideally you want to focus on only two to three keywords per page of your site. If you try to target a page for many more than three main keywords, each keyword gets "diluted" and it becomes harder for the search engines to know what the page is about.

To get more pages of content....Write about your business. Write about successes your clients have had. Write about why your business is different. Write about your products and services. And when you write content, make sure to optimize each page for the keywords that appear in that content, for the keywords that you want your site to be found for.

Google Base for Real Estate (and more)

Google Base has been around a while as a place to post just about any kind of information or things for sale (it's Google's answer to eBay!)

Just found this on the Google Blog... they have a special section set up for Realtors and Agents to upload listings to Google Base

I recommend keeping a close eye on what's going with Google Base... results from things in the Base are going to start showing up at the top of the search results page (just like Google Local results do).

If you need any help getting your information up on Google Base, just Ask Joanne, we've done lots of bulk uploads to Google Base and can do it for you, set up an easy-to-use template for you or train you on how to do the whole kit-n-kaboodle yourself.