In order to ensure high quality search engine optimization or SEO, it is important to recognize the value of keyword research, the process of selecting those keywords or phrases that will help visitors find one’s website.  Of course, it is a primary goal of most website owners to obtain a better ranking with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing.  If “optimum performance” keywords are used but not targeted, then it will all be a big waste.  Even with great rankings with Google and the like, the wrong keywords will do little to help websites get relevant traffic on the internet.  Hence, keyword phrase research is not an aspect to be undervalued.

The first and foremost phase in an SEO campaign is determining the target audience and studying what sort of keywords or phrases those visitors might use in popular search engines in such a way that they will stumble upon one’s website.  This is called the discovering keywords phase.  And, as with all marketing strategies, it is important to know who one’s target audience is.  Whether it’s the younger or older set, males or females, Market A, B, C, or D, this is where good critical research comes in.

It is important to know that every search is based on its specifics.  A search can be location, region, or country specific. It can also be business, trade, service, or product specific.  Once again, it all depends on the visitor using the search engine, otherwise known as the “audience.”  For example, a pregnant woman searching for a free health clinic is more likely to target doctors assigned to health clinics or hospitals within her specific area.  Focusing on this particular aspect of specificity will most likely help the website obtain its targeted visitors, much like the pregnant woman mentioned before.  With this, a website will get its deserved hits, traffic will not be wasted, and both company and client will obtain mutual benefit.

Other significant phases in keyword research analysis are the analysis phase, the selection phase, and the deploying phase.  The analysis phase involves including information about a company’s existing competition such as PageRank-based limitations and the potential for being ranked.  This provides an estimate of just how many web pages are competing with one’s company for the top spot in popular search engines.

The selection phase involves measuring and shortlisting relevant keywords for maintaining the site’s focus and target audience within the given limitations previously analyzed.  With about 50-100 high-yield keyword phrases that provide accurate description of one’s website, this means that more focused keyword phrases lead to the best possible return in traffic.

Finally, the deploying phase involves making optimum use of the relevant keywords and phrases for one’s website, HTML code, and tags.  This involves narrowing down the keywords to about 15-20, which are to be used on various parts of the website, with identified sections that will feature those keywords based on themes.  The important parts of the website wherein one can use relevant keywords are the title tag, meta description tag, headlines.

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Dentox.com

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SurfboardsByRussell.com

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Well-Designed Website “Key to Success”

With all the emphasis on SEO when conversations turn to online marketing and success, it may seem that the appearance and function of the site itself are secondary, but that just isn’t true. There’s still no better marketing tool than a well-designed website. Sure, there’s got to be a strategy to drive traffic to the site, but an unappealing, hard-to-read, hard-to-navigate site will have visitors hitting the Back button.

The goal of the marketing campaign is conversion, the principle of turning a click-through into a customer. SEO, social media outreach, and article and news release distribution are the first stage of the process, bringing potential customers in. The last stage, getting that visitor to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, or at least to stay a while looking deeper, depends 100 percent on the design of the site.

So, what is a well-designed site? First, visitors need to be able to find the information they’re looking for. Readability and navigation are the two main ways to facilitate that. All fonts should be legible and text should be formatted nicely, with smaller paragraphs rather than large blocks of text.

Navigation menus should be easily found, with easy to read fonts, and it should be clear to what each menu item links. Floating navigation bars, which stay on the screen as visitors scroll down, have become popular as they’ve become easier to encode. At the very least, a complete set of navigation links should appear at the top of the screen and at the footer. A good sitemap helps with navigation, and has the added benefit of boosting search engine rank. Both navigation menus and sitemaps can be broken down into multiple, smaller units in order to keep things organized.

The look of the site matters, too. Attractive sites that look current hold the interest of visitors longer. A clean, crisp look with a simple color theme is the latest trend. Bold graphics and large fonts are popular, too. Most important is that the site has a cohesive look. That adds professionalism and supports branding.

Another consideration to site design is accessibility. It’s got to work smoothly on all the major browsers, including mobile. Mobile web is the fastest growing segment. It’s been projected that by 2014, more people will be accessing the internet through their phones, smartphones, and tablets than will be doing so using a home computer. To stay competitive, businesses must have a site that’s optimized for mobile.

A logically organized, visually appealing site is absolutely critical for keeping visitors once they’ve arrived. No matter how good the external elements of the marketing campaign are, poor site design won’t lead to conversion. A well-crafted and well-maintained site, with regular updates to drive return traffic, is the final and most important step to gain that customer.

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This site was done for Pristine Pools of Orange County. Client requested a minimalistic design with easy navigation. Facebook and Twitter site was also implemented and is linked throughout the website. Site is fully SEO optimized and is currently in the process of being ranked on first page of Google for various local pool cleaning and pool service keywords. Because this is a new domain, the process is slower than an aged one. You have to take extra precautions not to get “Sandboxed” by Google.

Browse the site here.

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The designated keyword term for this is “Make Me Laugh” which gets nearly 7,000 exact searches a month. Notice the traffic continuing to rise as we use a multitude of methods to not only get the site to number 1 on Google for this keyword, but also taking advantage of the power of social media, and the new generation of Web 2.0

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The sandbox was so named following the standard web developer term for the sequestering of a site for testing before it goes live.

The leading theory is that certain characteristics, including the time since the domain was first indexed and keyword competition, trigger filtering of a site so that it is ranked lower. A more recently indexed site with a keyword with a high search frequency would, under this theory, be de-ranked. This effect has not been seen on other top search engines Yahoo and Bing, implying that it is real.

Search engine algorithms are intended to satisfy searchers by providing the most relevant results to the search terms entered. From the engine’s standpoint, a newer site doesn’t have an established reputation, even if it is using strong keywords, so it isn’t permitted to rank as highly until it has earned some authority. New sites with a lot of inbound links may also be seen by Google as “unnatural,” which is a known factor for de-ranking.

Google’s silence on the matter of whether the sandbox exists or not isn’t unusual. They need to protect the proprietary nature of their algorithms to protect searchers and honest websites. If the algorithm were transparent, it would give unethical link spammers too much power for manipulation.

In this sense, the sandbox should not been seen strictly as a penalty. Google has a higher responsibility to its searchers than to SEO web marketers, no matter how ethical. There has been some evidence that using less competitive keywords on a new site is an effective workaround. A strong program of building quality external links ups the site’s reputation so that more competitive keywords can be incorporated without causing the site to fall back into the sandbox.

Sandbox checker tools have been created by third-parties. The URL in question is typed into the checker, along with top keywords, and the tool then reveals whether or not the site is showing up. These tools are generally not considered to be of much value by most experts.

Whether the sandbox effect truly exists, there are definitely factors which lead to Google de-ranking or banning sites. They are explicitly stated in the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Adherence to the guidelines, as well as generally ethical marketing strategies, is the best way for a site to achieve and to maintain a good page rank on Google. At 50 Media we take every precautionary measure to make sure you stay out of the dreaded Sandbox!

Max Halberg

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It’s no secret that search engine optimization (SEO) can be approached in ways that are highly unethical. This is known in the industry as Black Hat tactics. Many of them are in direct violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and therefore lead to de-ranking and even banning, if detected.

White Hat tactics are those which are upfront, straightforward, and do not violate Google’s guidelines. Link building is important for site ranking, but there are lots of ways to do it ethically. Furthermore, quality links lead to improved rank and more accurate indexing. There really isn’t any reason to go Black Hat.

There are a few practices which can fall into the grey area. The same approach, depending on how it is applied, might be considered unethical or not. One of these is creating a large number of backlinks in a short period of time. Google sees this as an unnatural activity and will de-rank pages that do so.

However, there could be circumstances in which a page does have a large amount of quality content ready to go. The best strategy in this case is to roll it out slowly. That eliminates the appearance of unnatural activity and may be more effective overall, as it provides consistent content over a period of time, which search engines like.

Another grey area technique is creating blog posts which are in bulk a list of links. As a cohesive blog post, pulling together the “best of” or “latest news,” these may have genuine value to some readers. Others might see it as a waste of space, or a lazy post, and search engines would definitely see such a post as excessive linking if the list points to the same site.

Some who practice Black Hat SEO defend their actions by saying that Google and other search engine providers are playing unfairly by being secretive about their own activities. While some questions do exist, such as whether Google manually changes search results, this is a simple case in which two wrongs still don’t make a right. Taking the high road with White Hat practices will always be more productive in the long run.

There are plenty of people who practice Black Hat SEO, and many instructional resources on the internet. It can be effective, especially at first. However, the ultimate hit to one’s reputation isn’t really worth that initial burst in rank. Grey area strategies may have some value, if used cautiously. Using White Hat SEO is the best strategy because it produces the strongest long-term results, through building and maintaining reputation and authority of a site as seen by both search engines and web users. At 50 Media we pride ourselves on our ability to perform quality White Hat SEO, to ensure that your company that you spent years building, isn’t going to be tarnished. Contact us today for a free quote.

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WordPress has grown from its origins in 2003 to become a leading provider of open source blogging software. In fact, more than 14 percent of top sites use it; for new sites, that number is 22 percent. The original intent of the software, growing out of a similar application known as b2/cafelog, was to create an open-source personal publishing application, using the scripting language PHP and the open source database management system MySQL.

The WordPress development team is dedicated to continuous improvement, and depends on feedback from users. Updates, large or small, happen on roughly an annual basis, implementing new functionality or improving old ones.

The software has been designed to be intuitive, easy to implement and use. Installation and upgrades are simple and smooth. Once installed on a site, WordPress is easy to use without an overdependence on code. As open source software, there are no licensing fees and technical users can modify the software for their own uses without voiding any agreement. It is now available for use with mobile technologies, the largest emerging market of web design.

The template processing system makes it easy to design and maintain any site. In addition to blogs, WordPress can be used to manage any kind of content, and web design elements including widgets, plug-ins, and themes. The plug-ins are particularly beloved by users for the flexibility they provide, including smart SEO tools.

Full tagging and filtering capabilities expand the possibilities for design and linking. The link structure, including permalinks, works well with search engines to optimize ranking. Outbound links are created using Trackback and Pingback standards, which allows users to keep track of who is linking to what. Linking can be automatic or manual, as preferred. Commenting by visitors can be enabled or disabled, on a post-by-post basis, and registration can be required for more control.

Another alternative, WordPress.com is a blogging site launched in 2005 and hosted by the open source team. It allows the average person to maintain a blog without maintaining a hosting account, database, and FTP. Other hosted blogging services may have more users, but WordPress is gaining ground with bloggers who like the interface, custom design features, and the dedication to active development encouraging feedback from users.

The hosted site is a good alternative for users who don’t maintain a personal website. Businesses and other organizations benefit more by integrating the full WordPress content management system into their web design. The features and open-source nature of WordPress make it likely that it will continue to gain market share. At 50 Media we like to use WordPress for many of our clients sites because it allows us to hand your website over to you on a platform with a multitude of support and resources. After a brief tutorial from us, you’ll be editing content and posting to your blog in no time at all.

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Googles own Matt Cutts explains the benefits of proper search engine optimization:

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