There are many search engine optimization experts that will defend (to the death) that “content is king.” And then you have the guys that say they can use off-site factors only and get a ghost page with no content to rank on the 1st page of “all-mighty Google.”
Well, interestingly enough, both of these “experts” are correct…but with some conditions.
Yes, a web page can get ranked very high based on content and on-site SEO alone, but that’s only if the competing results are very weak and there’s aren’t many “players on the field.”
Now, on the other hand, a page with weak on-site SEO and no content can get ranked high if it has tons of backlinks and inbound anchor text links, but that’s only until the websites in that market with good on-site SEO build a couple of backlinks, then it’s all over for “no content sites.”
So, it seems like the only logical solution is to first make sure that your content and on-site SEO is pristine, then you really don’t need as many inbound links to take high positions. Both content and backlinks are very important, but if you do the content and on-site part better than your competitors then you won’t have to work nearly as hard as your competitors to build backlinks.
Here are some pointers for on-site optimization factors:
#1: Keyword in the <TITLE> Tag
#2: Keyword in the URL
#3: Keyword in H1, H2 and H3 Tags
#4: Keyword in the first sentence
#5: Keyword in the LAST sentence
#6: Keyword density of about 2% to 4%
#7: At least ONE outbound link to internal page (another page within your site) with Keyword as anchor text
#8: At least ONE outbound link to REPUTABLE external page (ie: Wikipedia)
#9: Remove all excess, junk, and unrelated outbound links
#10: Add at least 1 image with ALT text set to Keyword
#11: Have bold, italic, and underline of Keywords.
#12: Minimum of 500 words of relevant content.
Having as many of these on-site SEO and content factors in place is going to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your backlinking efforts.
First of all, if you haven’t seen this video, just watch it real quick:
Now, you may be wondering, “Why? Why is this on a web design and SEO blog?”
Well, here’s the thing…
One of the most effective ways to get links is to have a VIRAL piece of content on your website!
Do you know how many new links YouTube got from this video? Well, I can’t give you an exact number because I don’t have time to do the investigative research (don’t have the “time” ha-ha you know what that really means)…but I digress…So, the point is that even if the Tube only gets 1,000 new links…wait, 1,000!? Yea, I’d venture to say that 1,000 new in-bound, NATURAL links to your website could do some good, eh?
So, I’m going to keep the message concise today. Sit down with your team (or yourself if you’re like that) and brainstorm some ways to create some viral content…I know you can do it!
If you want to get extreme, just make a sign with your website name on it and go to the next local sporting event in your running shoes
DISCLAIMER: I’m not blatantly condoning that you do anything illegal.
Recently Adobe introduced some additional tools to the layers palette that have proven to be a huge progression. The tools are not entirely new but the way in which they are used is slightly different and way more robust for several reasons.
Lets say you wanted to adjust the color saturation of an image in your layout. Traditionally you would select your image layer then select your effect from the filter menu. Once you were satisfied with your adjustment you would then carry on with your design business.
However that maneuver was done in a way that isolates your effects into a step within your actions history. The only way to go back and change those effects would be to step back using undo, which inherently undoes all the steps you made along the way. Also, once you hit save those steps are history pal.
Here is where layer styles do the same thing but in a much more robust way. In that same scenario, rather than using the pull down filter menu, use the layer styles tool at the base of your layers panel. It opens an almost identical set of tools as the filter menu. The difference here is the effects apply on an object level directly to your layer. There is no timeline associated with these effects. Essentially you can add an unlimited number of effects to your layers which you can then toggle, adjust, and tune without any need to undo your steps.
What this does is give you design flexibility and complete control over your canvas. all of the elements in your design are available at the same time and you can adjust them individually and independently of any timeline. What a huge improvement. Additionally if a client wants to make changes three months down the road – if you’ve used layer styles you will surely be in a stronger position to accommodate the client than if you hadn’t.
For these reasons you should always choose layer styles over filters.
So, today I wanted to talk a little bit about Google Search Operators. A lot of people don’t realize that some serious search engine optimization work can be done right in that silly little Google search bar. Now, first I want to quickly give the “official” definition: Google Search Operators are search functions that you can add to a query to search for a specific set of information. Ok, that wasn’t the official definition, but it’ll do for now.
Well, we know what Google Search Operators are, but how-the-H1-tag (haha) do we use them for search engine optimization benefits?
The idea is that you can use them bring back specific information. So, I’m going to give you an example here and explain the benefit (but I’m sure you’ll be able to see it as we go along).
Now, let’s say that you’re doing some inbound link building for your website (which you better be doing if you want Google to throw you some love) and you think to yourself, “Gosh, I sure wish I could get some .EDU links. I know how much Google loves .EDU links, and I want Google to love me.” Well, thanks to Google Search Operators, they’ve “handed out the stick to their own piñata.”
I want you to do a little test with this and tell me if it doesn’t work for you.
Go over to www.Google.com and copy/paste this into the search bar (obviously replacing the word, “keyword” with your actual keyword):
site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” – “keyword”
OMG! Look at how many opportunities just showed up for you to get links from .EDU domains. Now, I do realize that some of these links might be tagged with a “nofollow,” but they will all help you (I know from experience). If you need help on how to actually get links from these pages, just make a comment on this post and let me know.
One thing I want you to keep in mind when using these types of inbound link building methods is to avoid getting to “spammy” and covering every site with your links. Keep it limited to one per page and be a responsible link builder.
A talented and experienced SEO named Dori Friend put together a nice “cheat sheet” on the subject of Google Search Operators. Here’s the link to check it out: http://www.dorifriend.com/GoogleQueryTerms.pdf.
I hope you found this helpful in your SEO education.
THAT Agency was contacted by an existing, long-time client to assist with the creation of his new consulting website, Hotel Internet Help. With a strong background in the hotel and travel industry, www.hotelinternethelp.com was created as a website in which frustrated hotel owners and upper management, could come to seek advice and services to HELP their hotel, its website and marketing efforts.
In an effort to turn around the website quickly, and cost effectively, THAT Agency designed and developed the website around the open source platform, WordPress. Known for its ease of integration and plethora of features, THAT Agency felt it would be robust enough to handle the type of information being collected and generated.
Part 3 of our Understanding Website Analytics series is going to be brief. In this post, we’re going to quickly talk about just one Google Analytics report that can help you better understand your need (or lack thereof) for a mobile version of your website. Of course, we wouldn’t rely on this report alone to decide on the need for a mobile website, but it will tell you a few important things to help you make a good decision.
Google’s ‘Mobile Devices’ Analytics Report
In Google Analytics, go to Visitors – Mobile – Mobile Devices:
First, take a look at the the number of visits that mobile devices have sent and compare that number to the total number of visits that your website received during the same time frame. If a significant portion (or a significant number) of your visitors come via mobile devices, you may want to make sure that you’re providing sufficient support for mobile browsing:
Next, take a look at the most popular mobile devices that are used to access your website. Knowing what the most popular devices are can help you in making the decision between creating an application for a specific type(s) of mobile device(s) or just creating a more mobile-friendly version of your website. For example, if an overwhelming majority of your visitors are using the iPhone, an iPhone app may be a good investment. If there is a fairly even balance of all devices, building a more mobile-friendly website (which can be accessed by all mobile devices) may be a more efficient way to support your moblile visitors:
Lastly, consider the Bounce Rate and Pages/Visit of mobile users. While we’d expect bounce rates to be higher and pages/visit to be lower for mobile users on most websites, we’d still use these stats to keep a lookout for extreme stats such as exceptionally high bounce rates or low pages/visit ratios. Extremely high bounce rates or extremely low pages/visits can be an indicator that mobile visitors are having trouble loading or using your website:
The advancement of mobile devices/networks will certainly lead to an increased usage for web browsing and will also to an increased need to understand mobile browsing behavior. We’ll talk more about mobile visitors and Analytics in future posts in our website analytics series.
Among the necessary on-site optimization factors, building backlinks (or inbound links) is the most important
thing you can do off-site to improve your search engine rankings.
Now, there are many theories and opinions on how to build backlinks. And there are a few that work; a few that have withstood the “test of time.”
Besides gaining natural backlinks from public relations efforts or just being a nationally recognized, public company,
you do need to be actively building backlinks to your website(s).
The good ol’ fashioned “backlink request” is quite effective, but can also be…well, it IS very time-consuming and tedious work (if you would like a further explanation of the system we use for backlink requests, just post a comment and I’ll create a quick tutorial for you).
What I want to talk to you about today is something I like to call the “Coffee Filter” Strategy. Now, I’m just going to go ahead and say that I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, and this is also a combination of other strategies I’ve learned over the years. But, the marketer in me likes to give things cool names like the “Coffee Filter” Strategy.
That being said, this strategy revolves around the idea of “caffeinating” up your existing backlinks (and the backlinks you get from now on). In other words, we’re going to build backlinks to our backlinks.
So, why “Coffee Filter?”
As marketers, SEO’s, designer’s, etc., we are pretty much obsessed with our coffee and/or tea (shout out to Tazo Awake). And, because of that fact, this illustration will be easier for you to understand.
Without the filter, you would end up with a pot full of nasty coffee grounds. However, if you had no coffee grounds, you would just have…well, hot water (and if that’s what does it for you, then by all means, be my guest).
But I think the majority of us would agree that we don’t want either of the following: 1) a delightful cup of coffee laced with ground coffee beans, or 2) a comfy cup of hot water.
That being said, the filter is what provides us with the opportunity to create better tasting, less-gritty cups of coffee.
Here’s a table of how the coffee-making relates to backlinking:
So, simply put, you bookmark, ping, and RSS aggregate (backlink to) the links pointing directly back to your site,
thus “caffeinating” the power of those links. This allows your direct backlinks to act as filter for the thousands of
bookmark and ping-type of links that are indirectly pointing back to your website.
Right about now you may be thinking that I’m full of it and this is a bunch of “hot water.”
So, let me give you a quick example of how I used this strategy in “real life” (haha).
Last week I wrote a blog post about creating gold text with Photoshop. I targeted the keyword phrase: “photoshop gold text tutorial” (which has 1,330,000 competing results). After writing the blog post, I created a Squidoo lens that allowed me to put an anchor-text, DoFollow link back to the blog post permalink. I then bookmarked both the blog post permalink and the Squidoo lens. Result? This whole week my post has been on page 1 of Google for my targeted keyword phrase and out of 1,330,000 competing results. It’s also brought 107 unique visitors to our blog since last week.
So, I encourage you to at least give this a try, put your own spin on it and find something that works. Test, test, test!
(And use Firefox.)
Talk soon,
Tommy
PS. Amazing bookmarking plug-in to help save you time (AddThis) click here to check it out. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4076
In this post, I will show you how to add a nice print button to the fancybox jquery plugin. Of course like many of the posts I write, the idea came about from one of our clients who wanted to be able to have their users open the lightbox, show the coupon or whatever promotion they are doing and give the user the option to print said promotion.
To begin, there were a couple of things that we had to do. First, we needed to download the fancybox jQuery plugin. At this point I am assuming you have jQuery javascript file downloaded, if you dont, go get it at jQuery.com
The Breakdown
The javascript required is 3 main pieces. The fancybox plugin, the jquery file and the third piece that handles the printing functionality.
If you are familiar with the fancybox plugin, this is not too far fetched. basically what I added was the “print” image to the plugin itself as well as added some css too to position the image where I wanted it to appear.
Ok, so something I’ve seen a decent amount of website owners really going for these days are shiny gold text effects. The problem is that most of them end up looking a little too gaudy or just really poor quality.
So what I’ve got for you today is a tutorial on how you can create a professional, realistic gold text in Photoshop. Here are the steps (and there’s a video below).
Step 1: Open Photoshop
Step 2: Type your name (or desired text) and use the following specifications: Georgia, Bold, #666666 (this is the hex code for web-based colors, it turns out to be the gray you see here). By the way the font size I use in this demonstration is 138 point.
Step 3: Open up the Layer Options Dialog box by double-clicking the text layer of the text you desire to make gold.
Step 4: Now the first thing you want to do is add a Drop Shadow. So, click the “Drop Shadow” option in the Layer Styles dialog box. Now make your settings exactly like the settings in the picture below:
Step 5: Now it is time to add an Inner Shadow. Click the “Inner Shadow” option in the Layer Styles dialog box and set the settings exactly as you see in the picture below (the yellow color is #ffcc33):
Step 6: Now it is time to add a gradient overlay. First, you need to click the “Gradient Overlay” option in the Layer Styles dialog box. Now look below the “Opacity” slider and you will see where it says “Gradient” with a color bar next to it. Click that color bar to open the Gradient Editor which looks like this:
To achieve the golden gradient you see in the color bar above, use the following settings:
#cc9966 location 0%
#cc9966 location 14%
#ffcc99 location 33%
#ff9966 location 50%
#ffff99 location 64%
#ffcc66 location 82%
#ffffcc location 99%
Now, click “OK”.
We’re still on Step 6, because now you need to make sure the “Gradient Overlay” settings are exactly as you see it in the following picture:
Step 7: Now, we need to add a stroke. So, click the “Stroke” option in your Layer Styles dialog box. Make sure that the settings are exactly the same as the following picture. Please note the FILL TYPE should be changed to Gradient, then open the Gradient editor and use the following settings:
#ffffcc location 1%
#cc9966 location 16%
#996633 location 27%
#ffcc99 location 45%
#ffffcc location 60%
#cc6666 location 91%
#ffffcc location 100%
Step 8: Congrats! You now have Gold Text! Save the settings so you don’t have to redo this every time you want some gold text effects.
Thanks for checking out this photoshop gold text tutorial and I’ll talk to you soon!
Having done a fair amount of marketing for various hotels, I’ve dealt with TripAdvisor often enough to have a pretty strong opinion about appropriate ways to interact with TripAdvisor. We’ve seen a number of clients take different approaches to implementing their own TripAdvisor stats into hotel websites and we often recommend against the practice. Today, I want to touch on the topic of why utilizing the TripAdvisor widget can possibly hurt your business with regards to both the impact it can have on your traffic and more importantly, your conversion rate. We’ll also briefly cover a few different ways for hotels to promote a good TripAdvisor ranking while minimizing or completely removing the harmful side-effects.
Helping TripAdvisor to ‘Own’ Your Brand Name
Go ahead and search for almost any hotel name on almost any search engine and you’ll probably notice that TripAdvisor.com appears in one of the first three spots. This not-so-gentle giant has done a brilliant job at competing with and sometimes even outranking hotels for searches related to THEIR OWN BRAND NAMES in the SERPs. As a result, it has become almost as important to have a good TripAdvisor rating as it is to rank well for keywords related to their hotel.
As with any search-saavy company, TripAdvisor has embedded somewhat ‘hidden’ SEO strategies in many of their product offerings, the most effective of which seems to be the infamous “free widget.” If you have been to any hotel’s website in the past few years, you’ve probably seen at least one variation of the widget. Most of the “free widgets” offered have a couple SEO friendly (for them!) things in common.
First, most of TripAdvisor’s wonderful widgets include a keyword-rich text link back to the hotel’s main listing on TripAdvisor. How does this help TripAdvisor? It provides a keyword-rich deep link using the hotel’s brand name, further improving the chances that TripAdvisor will rank highly for searches related to that hotel’s name. To be clear: Linking to TripAdvisor from your homepage, site-wide or wherever you choose display that widget helps improve the chances that TripAdvisor will compete with you for searches related to your own brand name. Additionally, the sheer volume of additional links which comes from these widgets continue to support TripAdvisor’s search domination of location specific keyword phrases.
“But I want to promote the fact that my hotel is one of the highest ranked hotels on TripAdvisor!”
Hooray for you! But highest ranked or not, using their standard widget can cause you to lose traffic to TripAdvisor by providing a link to their website. Once visitors click off your site through that link, they will be presented with a number of ads from your competitors and other travel agencies. By providing a link to your TripAdvisor page, you’re basically sending your own hard-earned website traffic to TripAdvisor will little chance of getting them back to book.
What can you do to promote your great TripAdvisor reviews without hurting your business?
Good solution – Create your own image promotion which promotes your TripAdvisor prowess and make sure that it doesn’t link to TripAdvisor’s website. This solution is recommended for any hotel with a very good TripAdvisor rating.
Another good solution – Don’t mention TripAdvisor at all. If your TripAdvisor reviews cause you to sit up and cry at night, it should be fairly obvious that the best move is to avoid the subject completely by saying NOTHING about TripAdvisor on your website.
A mediocre solution [Updated] – Use an iframe to display your widget and disallow (robots.txt) the widget file for all search engines – If for some reason your hands are bound by corporate nonsense and you can’t talk sense into your superiors, this solution will make them happy and, at the same time, will tell the search engines not to pass link credit on to TripAdvisor. Note: Users will not know the difference and will still be able to leave your website to visit TripAdvisor.
While you alone cannot completely control TripAdvisor’s search impact on your business or even its ranking for your brand name, you can certainly have some impact. Think globally, act locally and help prevent TripAdvisor from controlling your hotel’s future!
