Carolyn’s Posts

SEO is Important but Not Exclusive to Website Success

May 26, 2009 Beth Devine

It is important to optimize your site for search engines. That means it should employ the three tried and true search engine optimization (SEO) techniques: good titles, meta tags and most importantly well-written content.

Three Tried & True SEO Techniques

Title Tag
Title tags are within the head section of the html code and it is what appears in the blue bar at the very top of the browser screen. Titles tags should succinctly describe (using 6 -12 words or about 60 characters) the content on that page and they should be unique for each page.

Meta Tags
Meta description tags are also included withing the head tags of the html code. The meta description is often used as the text that the search engine displays below your link. So it is important that this text is keyword rich and accurately describes its page. Meta descriptions should also be unique for each page on your website and should be written in a way that would make a potential customer want to visit your website.

Use the meta keyword tag to focus on what’s important on the page. Again, make it unique to each page and don’t stuff it with every imaginable combination of keywords. Pick a few keywords that focus on the content of that particular page and list them. Search engines may or may not use the tag to list your site, but they won’t penalize you as long as you don’t stuff it with excessive versions of keywords.

The Heading tag and Content
The H1 tag is an html tag that identifies an important heading. There are actually 6 levels of heading tags within html with h1 having the most importance. Your content (that means the content that people read on the page) should use appropriate keywords and should be well-written and structured for easy reading. Use the H1 tag for important keyword rich headings and write content that clearly and quickly identifies the focus of the content and supports the heading. Use video and graphics to support your concepts too and remember to use descriptive alt tags for images.

What if SEO doesn’t work as well as you expected?
These search engine optimization (SEO) techniques have been around for at least a decade or more and while I highly recommend optimizing your website for search engines, you should be aware that SEO in itself will not make your website successful and may not provide your site with the desired search engine rank.

If you’re confident that your site has been optimized well but you’re not happy with your current search engine rank, it may be time to analyze the competition. Which websites consistently rank higher than your site in the search engine results? What differentiates the top-ranking sites from your site?

Typically, I find 2 or 3 obvious factors that seem to contribute to the higher search engine rank.
1.Their site has better content – it’s more in-depth, it’s better written, it appears to be the better resource.
2.The site has been established longer and has been managed consistently and kept up to date.
3.It has current information and uses current techniques for presenting information.

There are of course many other factors that can come into play. But given that your site is free of technical errors and is coded to be crawled easily by search engine bots, probably the most important thing a website owner can do to optimize their website for search engines is to optimize their site for their customers.

The search engines’ goal is to list the best resources – it should be your goal too.

1.Continue to add depth to your content. You might add a blog or a user forum that will encourage customer participation while building the depth of content on your website.
2.Reach out to your audience – participate in social networks and give freely in the areas of your expertise.
3.Ensure that your site makes your customers feel secure with appropriate security measures and easy to find contact information.
4.Set a schedule to review your site regularly and edit dated information with updated content.

Your website may not be an overnight success, but with continued diligence in managing your website it will continue to improve as a source of referrals for your business and will become more and more valuable over time.

Just stick your toe in the twitter water

May 8, 2009 Beth Devine

I took a little field trip a couple weeks ago and attended the Hartford Business Journal‘s E-Technology Summit in South Windsor. The hot topic of the day was, not surprisingly, social media. It’s hard for some business folks to wrap their heads around how “tweeting” and “friending” will help their business grow.

I kept hearing “How do I integrate it (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) into my business and how exactly can I use it to improve my business’ bottom line?”

I’m still a novice when it comes to integrating “social media” into my business but really Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn ( to name a few) are just communication tools. They are tools that expand the reach or your network.

Most of us know how to network. You listen. You talk. You find out what other people do. You tell people what you do. You see if there is a connection. You try to find people you can use as a resource. You see if you can be a resource to the people you meet. You make new friends. You tell your new friends about other friends who they might find interesting.

In the process of networking, you find business–via referrals, collaboration or strategic alliances. And you learn stuff–stuff that makes you more marketable. This all adds to your bottom line.

The new tools don’t change the concept of networking. But they do expand your network. Now instead of your business network being limited to Hartford, or to your region, you can make friends all over the world. Isn’t that a cool concept?

So, I made a new friend at the E-Technology Summit and she came by my office to have a chat yesterday. She’s a writer, I’m a web designer, so there’s opportunity for collaboration. We talked about the kind of clients we have and the kinds of things we’ve done and are doing.

I mentioned that with the popularity of blogging, there might be great opportunities for writers these days. I brought up the post one of my tweeple (a Twitter contact) made recently about a winery in California that was looking for a writer to blog about wine and food. They were offering a 6-month contract at $10,000 a month. That’s not bad green for eating, drinking and writing.

I saw the light go on in her head. But although she recognized that opportunities were out there in “twitterland” she was still kind of hesitant about the technology. She said she’s been to workshops about social media and they all tell you to “just jump in”. She pointed out that if she were the type of person to “just jump in” she probably wouldn’t be at the workshop.

Point well taken. I didn’t tell her to jump in.

But I did tell her what I did. As I said earlier, I’m a novice, so there are many people who are far more knowledgeable about this than I am. But for all you newbies out there who are afraid to “jump in” here’s how to stick your toe in the “twitter water”.

Sign up at twitter.com
You don’t have to answer the question “what are you doing now” (if everyone answered that question honestly there would be a lot of “I just signed up for Twitter and I’m wondering what to do now”)
Use twitter search to find posts about topics you’re interested in. I might have originally done a few searches, probably for SEO, web design, and Google Android.
Look through the search results and click on some interesting posts. See an interesting post? Click on the poster’s link – read their other posts. If they seem interesting, click the “Follow” button. Now all the posts that person makes will show up on your screen when you’re logged in.
The person you “Follow” will get a message and may decide to “Follow” you. You’ve now got your first “follower”.

That’s it. I’m going to stop there. That’s how to stick your toe in the “twitter water”.

Next week I’ll talk about some of my favorite Twitter tools such as TwitterFeed, Twirl, TweetDeck.

Using .tel for digital branding

April 17, 2009 Beth Devine

There’s a new domain type in town and it’s different than the .com, .biz, .org and .nets domains that you probably know. The .tel domain is not attached to a website like all the others. This new top level domain (TLD) is an internet directory listing that gives you complete and easily managed control over your online contact information.

When you sign up for your .tel domain you’ll get a username and login. With that you can login to your account anytime and update your contact information, address, and business information. They are like an online real-time business card. It’s a low-cost way for a business to keep current information available online without having a business website or in addition to their website.

From the .tel website…

Join a global online directory that provides you instant worldwide exposure…
Integrate all your means of communication in a single place under your control…
Update and manage your contact information and keywords in real time…
Increase your search engine visibility through descriptive keywords…
Provide a fast way for your customers to connect with you in a single click from any mobile device…

Another take…

Top Ten Reasons to Buy Your .Tel domain

It’s a low-cost alternative or addition to a website and the new digital business card. Buy through your favorite domain seller – hopefully that’s cgwebhelp 😉

See a sample at cgwebhelp.tel

Stimulate Your Economy: Give Freely

March 31, 2009 Beth Devine

Yesterday, Katie Couric featured Denny’s on the evening news. Denny’s is more Main Street than Wall Street and the CEO wasn’t showcased for multi-million dollar bonuses but for giving away breakfasts. It made a great “feel good” story.

Denny’s CEO plainly stated that the free breakfasts were a promotion to get more business.”It was just a couple of pancakes, eggs and bacon,” he said.

But amidst the nightly gloom-cast of unemployment and Wall Street bailouts, Denny’s was portrayed as humanitarian for giving back to the unfortunate in their communities. The reality was that it was a successful campaign that has since brought in more than enough customers to cover the costs of the free breakfasts because the promotion expanded it client base.

Free is good. It makes good press and helps develop a client base. It’s one of the building blocks of tremendously successful online and traditional businesses. Google was a free search engine long before it began collecting revenue. Craigslist, Facebook and Twitter are all examples of websites whose successes are not yet matched by revenue.

It may seem counterproductive to give something away–possibly even before you’ve established a steady stream of revenue. But any business owner who is trying to attract new business should consider offering something free.

What can you offer? Three simple ideas:

Information. It may be the most cherished and sought after commodity on the web. Give it freely — on your website, through social media, blogs, etc., and you will develop your market. Develop your market and you will sell products and services.
Free shipping. If you’ve got the goods use free shipping will help close the deal.
Free samples. Turn prospects into customers by letting them try a free sample.

Give freely. It pays.

Do you know your SEO score?

March 4, 2009 Beth Devine

If you plan to or have optimized your website for search engines, it’s a good idea to know your SEO status. Domaintools.com has a beta SEO score tool that gives you a SEO score. Just go to domaintools.com and enter your domain name is the Whois Lookup field. When your site comes up you’ll see your SEO score. Click on the SEO score link to see how and what is used to derive your score and how you can make your site more search engine friendly. More details on how the tool works at http://www.domaintools.com/seo-score/

Time to sweep out the digital dust bunnies?

February 27, 2009 Beth Devine

Just like your house, every so often it’s a good idea to go through your web site, sweep out the corners and get rid of the dust bunnies. I’m talking digital dust bunnies – those bits of material that meant something once but are no longer connected to anything tangible. They come in the form of broken links and dated information.

Broken links are frustrating for your site visitors and they can hurt your search engine rank. So take the time to ensure that all you links work. You can check them manually, but if you have more than a few pages that can get tedious fast, so use one of the online link checking resources. There are many online. Google “website link checker” or try this handy tool – http://validator.w3.org/checklink.

The web is an ever-changing dynamic place so if you haven’t checked your links lately, you may be surprised to find that the great resource your site linked to no longer exists at the address in your link.

As far as the dated information, I don’t know of a tool to check for it, but you know if your website has old information. Make sure your website isn’t promoting events that have passed or services you no longer offer. Outdated websites may leave people with the impression that your business is as neglected as your website.

Let’s talk passion

February 16, 2009 Beth Devine

WebSavvyMarketers is a group of four marketing professionals who have joined together to explore and comment on digital and on-line marketing. We each have a unique passion that drives our individual careers and as savvy marketers we recognize the power of strategic alliance and collaboration. Meet the WebSavvyMarketers.

Rahna Barthelmess, who jumped in with the 1st post on the blog, has a passion for marketing. She’s helped large corporations and small companies navigate the digital marketing world with up to date, and effective online strategies. She’s focused and energetic about her passion. Tap into her energy here and through her website beacon-marketing.com.

Nancy Simonds loves to proofread. Isn’t that an unusual passion? In a world where the practice of texting has developed a new lexicon and threatens the art of a complete sentence, we need people like Nancy. Although Nancy has helped develop web content for many business websites, she would probably be the first to admit that blogging, facebook, and twitter are a bit, shall we say, beyond her comfort zone. But exploring new worlds is part of being a websavvymarketer and I think Nancy’s perspective on this “new world” will bring comfort to those of you who might find some of the new technologies overwhelming. More about Nancy at simonds.com

Have you ever met anyone who loves to cold call? Meet Beth Devine. I swear, her passion for cold calling, could possibly be an addiction. What’s her perspective? How does a cold calling addict become a websavvymarketer? Stay tuned. By the way, Beth also creates multi-media sales CD’s and tradeshow presentations. and recently has begun to work with me on SEO projects. More at devinesolutionsinteractive.com,

And finally, who am I and what’s my passion? I’m Carolyn Griswold and have a passion for the web and for building websites. I love the technology that is ever evolving. I love the immediacy of the web. I love the interactivity, the functionality, the design, the language and the art. I love to explore the web and as I explore I plan to use this space to share ways to become a web savvy marketer. More at cgwebhelp.com

SEO is Important but Not Exclusive to Website Success

Using .tel for digital branding

Stimulate Your Economy: Give Freely

Do you know your SEO score?

Time to sweep out the digital dust bunnies?

Let’s talk passion

Our Location

Services

Talk to Us