Moe Tamani's Internet Marketing and SEO Blog, Articles and Search Engine Optimization Tips » SEO Tips

Search Engine Optimization and Broken Links: Tools You Need to Know About

Seomul Evans — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:33:33 +0000

Search Engine Optimization and Broken Links: Tools You Need to Know About

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

One of the keys to search engine optimization is creating an effective website. An effective website is esthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. It should be intuitive so that visitors know where to find exactly what they want. And it should be compelling.

he information you provide about your product or service should persuade your visitors to purchase whatever it is that your selling, or to take whatever next step you wish, such as leaving an email address or signing up for a newsletter. One surefire way to ensure that visitors to your website will leave as quickly as they showed up is to have broken links on your site. Broken links are the equivalent of a house with a collapsed porch and weeds growing in front of the windows. Both make it appear as though no one cares about the place. And if your visitors perceive that you don’t care about your website, then they may conclude that you won’t really care about them either. Here are some tools to help you check for broken links on your website.

•Google Webmaster Tools: If you haven’t been taking advantage of Google Webmaster Tools then now is a great time to start. The dashboard allows you to determine if there were any errors experienced by the crawlers when you logged on. Not only can you tell if your redirects don’t resolve, but you can also get a listing of all of your site errors in an Excel spreadsheet. With that in hand you can get busy redirecting to the correct pages or fixing your code. Google Webmaster Tools also analyzes your content and tells you which pages are considered duplicate pages by the search engines.

•Link Sleuth by Xenu: All you have to do is download Link Sleuth, unzip it, and let it do its job. Link Sleuth will quickly check out your link structure and tell you what’s gone awry. This particular tool is quite helpful if you’ve begun using a content management system, which increases the likelihood that something has gone wrong with your links.

Broken links typically occur when you make large changes to the architecture of your website. While it may seem like a simple annoyance, the truth is that enough broken links can result in your website being deindexed or possibly penalized by the search engines. As a result, all the search engine optimization in the world won’t make a huge difference for your website if the search engines can’t get around it efficiently enough to index it.

If you’re new to search engine optimization or to creating a website, or if you’ve just made a substantial change to your site architecture, consider consulting with a search engine optimization professional who can help you identify all the places where things could—or have already—gone wrong. If you’re not comfortable using the tools listed above, or aren’t sure what to do once you have the information that they provide, a search engine optimization expert may also be useful. He or she can help you analyze the information provided by the tools and then determine your next steps. He or she can also take a look at your website as a whole and help you identify places where you can improve your navigation and suggest others ways to make it more user friendly. In short, anytime you make large-scale changes to your website, or build a website from scratch, it’s always a good idea to consult with an SEO professional to help you avoid any issues that could affect your business.

5 Steps to Getting Your Site Indexed Before Its Launched

Seomul Evans — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:42:32 +0000

5 Steps to Getting Your Site Indexed Before Its Launched

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Most SEO professionals agree that the SEO tasks you complete before launching your site are very important. These include things like meta tags and keyword research. While these are important, very few SEO professionals talk about what a great advantage it is to have your site indexed before you launch it. It doesn’t take long, and it’s not very involved, so why not have MSN, Yahoo, and Google index your site before it even goes live?

The way to go about getting your site indexed before launch is to have sites that are already indexed point to your site. When the already-indexed sites are crawled by the search engines, those search engines will find the links to your site. Voila! Your site is indexed by the search engines! Starting roughly one month before you launch, follow these 5 steps.

1. Choose a Domain Name. Then register it. This is not a task to be left until the last minute. The sooner you register, the sooner quality links will be pointing to it and ensuring that it is indexed.

2. Create a Home Page. This should consist of your company logo, some information about your company, and the announcement that your page will be “coming soon.” Another good addition to the page is a form where visitors can sign up to receive updates via e-mail. That way, your email list is starting to take shape even before your site is launched.

3. Blog. Use whatever platform appeals to you most and start a blog at the address www.yoursite.com/blog. Post a little bit about your site and include some of the things your visitors can expect when the launch finally occurs. After you’ve published your first post, get a Feedburner account. Sign up for “Ping Shot,” which will tell blog directories that you’re posting. This should get a few links pointing to your site.

4. Submit to Directories. You are an expert in your market niche, so start writing some articles related to your area of expertise. Once your articles are proofread, submit them to directories such as iSnare and Ezine Articles. Make sure that you provide a description of your business and link to your website in the resource box. Like the “Ping Shot,” this should get a few links pointing back to your website.

5. Get Links. Since Feedburner and the article directories to which you submit your articles are indexed sites, completing the previous two steps will get you well on your way to getting links from sites that are already indexed by search engines. But you can always do yourself a favor by getting even more links from indexed sites. Find someone you know who has a blog or a business website within your market niche to link to your website. Or you could even link to it from your personal blog if you have one and if it’s already been indexed. If no one is willing to link to your site, offer them the opportunity to advertise on your site for free when your site is finally launched.

There’s no excuse for not getting your site indexed before it’s launched. It takes a little bit of extra time and effort on your part, and it may involve asking for a few favors from people within your niche, but the effort required is minimal compared to the payoff that comes from being indexed before your big launch. If you need other ideas for getting your site indexed, or for getting ahead of the game when it comes to SEO for your website, don’t hesitate to call on the expertise of an SEO or internet marketing professional. These professionals can help you determine how to get ahead of the game when it comes to preparing for your big site launch.

Top 10 SEO Tips

Seomul Evans — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:30:11 +0000

Top 10 SEO Tips

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Because you can never have too many tips on getting to the top of the search engine rankings, here are 10 tips to give your website an SEO boost.

1. Boldness. Locate one or two instances of each of your keywords on each of the webpages within your site and use bold tags. But whatever you do, don’t use them for every occurrence of the words.

2. Go Global. The United Kingdom and Canada both have directories of companies located in those countries. See if you can get an address for your business in one—or both—of those countries.

3. Link Deeply. Your inbound links should point to as many pages within your website as possible. This lets search engines know that you have pages and pages of relevant, high-quality, everyone-wants-to-read-it content. If all of your inbound links point to your homepage, search engines think that your site has little value or that your links were automatically generated.

4. Articles. Find ezine publishers who archive ezines. If your articles are archived, they’ll stay around awhile and give you inbound linking value for a long time.

5. Link Well. SEO experts will tell you that it simply isn’t a good idea to use images for navigational links. But if you insist, at least make sure that you also use text links, and that those text links come first within your source code. Search engines go with the first links they see and don’t follow additional links.

6. Exchange Articles. While link exchanges are little more than useless, article exchanges can actually serve you well. In an article exchange, you publish someone else’s article that includes a link back to their site. They do the same for you. Both of your sites are indexed, both of them are regarded as relevant and useful, and both of your links are given high value by the search engines.

7. Use Several Domains. Consider using more than one domain if you have topics that warrant their own websites. One reason is that search engines typically only list one page for each domain in the search results. Another reason is that directories typically accept homepages. Having more than one domain means that you can get additional directory listings.

8. Links and Titles. Give titles to your links. This can result in search engines giving higher rankings to your page, and it can help surfers with visual impairments figure out where you’re sending them.

9. Limit Anchor Text. Believe it or not, it is possible to overdo it when it comes to anchor text. If your inbound links all look the same, search engines will suspect you of automatically generating your links. Use the name of your company in some cases and your URL in others. And be creative with the others in ways that will cause search engines to rank you higher.

10. Map Your Site. Always, always, always include a site map, and provide a link to your site map on every interior page. This is not only helpful for humans who are trying to navigate your page, but it also tells search engine robots exactly where to go next when they’re crawling your page. Even if your site is small, use a navigation bar as a site map.

Of course, there’s a lot more to search engine optimization than these 10 tips, but these tips will help you get started—or help you jog your memory if you’ve gotten a little rusty in your SEO. And remember that you always have the option of consulting with an SEO expert or internet marketing professional if you need further guidance on optimizing your webpage or making SEO an integral part of your overall internet marketing strategy. Do it yourself or enlist the help of someone else…just make sure it gets done!

The 4 Levels of Link Building

admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:14:06 +0000

The 4 Levels of Link Building

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

SEO experts and internet marketing professionals know that the key to high search engine rankings is link building. They will also tell you that link building isn’t all that easy until you’ve done it for awhile, and that there are so many techniques for link building that it’s hard to sort them all out. Here are the 4 levels of link building to take you from novice to expert.

1. Do It Yourself, Quick and Easy. The easiest links to build are those for which you don’t have to rely on anyone but yourself. The easiest way to do this is to submit your site to directories. Simply submit your URL, the name of your company, and a short description of your company. Know before you begin that directories are managed by humans, so you may not see results right away. Also know that some directories require a small fee for your listing.

You should also use social media as a way to get links to your page. SEO experts don’t find these crucial to success, but they’re still a pretty simple and cheap way to target an audience that’s going to be using the sites anyway.

2. Do It Yourself, Not So Quick and Easy. Before you start on Level 2, make sure you’ve started a business blog. This is crucial if you want to have good content to which others can link. And the way you’re going to get these links is through press release optimization and article marketing.

When you’re writing your articles and your press releases, always keep your keyword strategy at the front of your mind. Links should coincide with your strategy. Before you send your press releases and articles into the ether, use a press release grader to see if they pass muster.

3. Networking Plus Significant Time. Networking is by far the most effective way to get links to your site. It’s time consuming and it can be frustrating, but it can also get you results that you never dreamed of. There are many ways to go about this type of networking, but the key is putting yourself amongst those who are potentially interested in what you have to say.

The best way to do this is to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. But never make people feel like they would be lost without your presence. Engage them. Show compassion. Share your own opinions and ideas and vulnerabilities. Start by reading industry-related blogs and commenting on them. Eventually you’ll want to establish a one-on-one relationship with bloggers, probably by casually mentioning third-party content that they might find interesting.

Ideally you’ll soon be asked to be a guest blogger on blogs that are related to your niche. In the process, you can link to yourself and let others in your niche know that you know what you’re talking about. If all goes well, they’ll start following you as well, which leads to the final level…

4. Links Resulting From Good Content. Once you’ve reached this level, you have established yourself as a knowledgeable resource within your field. Although you can probably never afford to abandon the strategies mentioned above, you are now generating most of your links from people who respect you and enjoy reading your excellent content. This kind of success doesn’t happen immediately. It takes a lot of time and effort, including effort in providing your followers with an array of high-quality, interesting, and relevant content. You may do his through your blog, through hosting webinars, or through publishing white papers.

The key to keep in mind as you’re starting out is that, while content is crucial, you’re going to have to start out doing more than creating great content. You’re going to have to go out and find followers, and then give them a reason to stick around. It’s not easy, but it’ll pay off in the end.

5 Keys to Effective Content Writing

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:53:43 +0000

5 Keys to Effective Content Writing

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

SEO experts and internet marketing professionals know that the key to online business success is great content on your website. Your website is the first, and maybe the only, chance to make an impression on potential customers, so it has to have great content. Having a good-looking site isn’t enough. It needs to be organized well, it needs to be easy to read, and it has to contain relevant information. Most of all, it has to be compatible with the attention spans of internet surfers who tend to skim content rather than reading every word. As you’re creating content for your website, keep these 5 keys in mind:

1. Concise Writing. One of the greatest temptations of content creation is to include every single detail about your company. This is a natural tendency given your own excitement and passion about your business. But put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer and think about what information you would like to glean from a business website, particularly how your product or service can help your customer solve a particular challenge or problem. And after you’ve finished writing, cut your word count in half!

2. Clean Layout. SEO professionals know that a potential customer reads only 20% of a website’s content. Reach out and grab your website visitor by using catchy headings, writing in short paragraphs, using bullets to make your points, and bolding important words and phrases. Your headings should guide your visitors to your page’s content so that they can easily find whatever they’re looking for. Bullet points draw a reader’s eye to short, easy-to-digest content that gives them pertinent information.

3. Keywords. Before you begin writing your content, research your keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases that web users type into search engines to find webpages related to the topics they’re looking for. If you use the keywords on your webpage that your potential customers are typing into search engines, then your webpage will show up in the search engine results.

4. Easy-to-Read Language. One of the greatest pitfalls of content creation is using lingo only familiar to people within your niche. Have someone who knows nothing at all about your business read your content before you publish to make sure that the average reader will understand it. Avoid technical language at all costs.

5. Quality Content. Visitors to your website are looking for relevant, helpful, high-quality content. They are visiting because they have a problem to solve or a challenge to overcome, so make sure that your content delivers a solution. Remember that great content is not content that you find compelling, but content that your visitors find compelling. Start by writing an article that solves a problem that a potential customer might have. Then consider turning that article into an ebook that potential customers might be willing to download. You may consider starting a blog to share your ideas. Invite your friends and family to comment at the beginning until you get a larger following. Then consistently join in the conversation that takes place on your blog.

Above all, make sure that your content is free to your potential customers. If you start asking your visitors to leave their email addresses and other contact information, they’re going to leave as quickly as they arrived.

The days of low-quality websites are behind us. If you want to be competitive then you have to have a website that not only looks good, but offers relevant information to visitors. If your website doesn’t have the answers that potential customers are looking for, they can quickly find the information they need somewhere else. Keep their attention on your website by following the above guidelines and you’ll find that your visitors keep coming back and eventually turn into loyal customers.

3 SEO Considerations Before Changing Your Website

admin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:32:00 +0000

3 SEO Considerations Before Changing Your Website

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

SEO experts and internet marketing professionals understand that changing and/or moving your website can result in positive outcomes regarding your search engine ranking. The most common changes that business owners make are changes to domain names, changes in web design, changes in content management systems, and changes in web hosts. All such changes can be beneficial, but they don’t come without risks. So before you make a move, consider how such a move might affect your business in particular.

1. A Change in Domain Name. Many business owners feel that a change of domain name is appropriate since a domain name relevant to website content can have a positive effect on search engine rankings. Some businesses change domain names because they’ve been acquired by other companies, and some businesses change domain name because the name of the company itself changed. So what should you do if you plan to change your domain name, for whatever reason? If you’re only changing your domain name, 301 redirects are a good start. Once those are place, contact the owners of all your top referring websites and ask them to update their links to reflect the change in your domain name.

Your primary concern in changing your domain name should be to communicate to other search engines that your change is permanent in order to retain as much “link equity” as you can.

2. A Change in Web Design and Content Management Systems. These are the two factors that can most dramatically effect your visibility. Before you undertake such a change, be sure you understand exactly how search engines will treat your website in the aftermath. When companies make a change to a website, their primary concern is making the transition smooth for potential customers who visit the site. What they often neglect to take into consideration is the effect that a change in URL syntax will have on search engines.

Create a map of old URLs to new URLs, and use 301 redirects as mentioned above. And just as you did when changing domain names, contact the owners of your top referring sites and request that they change the URLs to which they are linking.

If you have pages that can’t be mapped, use user-friendly and search engine-friendly 404 error pages. Once you’ve finished the CMS and design changeover, beware of the need to constantly monitor broken links.

3. A Change in Web Host. The only real issue with changing web hosts is timing. If this is your plan, you should start by putting your site at its new location. Then make your DNS changes so that your domain names points to the new location. Make sure your new location has been crawled by the search engines before closing down your previous location.

If you’re considering a website change, your primary concern should be making a smooth transition both for your customers and visitors, and for search engines. Many companies are so concerned about making a seamless transition for users that they forget the impact a change can have on search engine rankings. Make it easy for search engines to understand what’s going on.

If you’re uncomfortable with making a website change, or if you’re not sure how to make it easy for search engines to translate your move, consider hiring an SEO expert or internet marketing professional to help. These individuals have years of experience in helping companies transition from one web location to another. They can help you communicate a domain name change to search engines. They can help you create maps and implement 301 redirects if you change your design and/or your content management system. And they can help you correctly time your transition if you change your web host.

Free Directories or Paid Directories: The Pros and Cons

MoeTamani — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:59:00 +0000

Free Directories or Paid Directories: The Pros and Cons

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

A web directory is nothing more than a list of websites categorized by subject. If an internet user wants information about a particular subject, she simply goes to a directory, searches for the information she needs, and she’s given a list of relevant websites. Web directories are managed by humans, so each directory submission is reviewed before the website is added to the directory. This means that website owners need to be very meticulous when submitting a site. Submission guidelines must be followed to a T.

Despite the potential tediousness of directory submissions, they are very valuable for driving traffic to your site and increasing your search engine ranking. Each link from a directory is viewed as a one-way link by the search engines, and search engines place much higher value on one-way links than on reciprocal links. The older the directory is, the more value it is assigned by search engines, too, so submitting to well-established directories can also increase traffic and search engine ranking.

There are two ways to go about submitting your site to web directories. The first is to use free directories, and the second is to use paid directories. Here are the differences:

Free Directories

The primary advantage to free directories is that they are just that—free. Beyond that, there isn’t much redeeming about them, particularly if you’re serious about using directory listings to build your business. The major drawbacks are that you’ll have to wait awhile between the time you submit your site and the time that it’s listed, your link will be lost in a sea of other links because free directories are often so crowded, and a general devaluing of your link since it will be listed with many lower-quality sites.

Owners of free directories have to make their money somehow, though, and that’s usually by using Adsense or selling advertising space. Both Adsense and paid advertising space distract a visitor from the actual free listings, which can cost you traffic and business.

Paid Directories

If you’ve decided that you want to use a paid directory, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck. Make sure that any directories you pay for are maintained by professionals and have a professional-quality layout. They should include a lot of content, including articles and high-quality resources. A paid directory should be able to guarantee you a turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours between the time you submit your site and the time your site is listed in the directory. It should offer the opportunity for deep linking as well.

Make sure that Adsense is not included in a paid directory, and a paid directory should have more features than just a sea of links. Look for a blog, articles, or other things that are there simply to enhance a visitor’s experience.

The next step is up to you. As a business owner, you have to decide whether paid directories are the right investment for you. After all, they are more well-respected by directory users, and links from paid directories are given more value by search engines than links from free directories.

If you’re not sure exactly how to proceed, consider consulting with an internet marketing professional or SEO expert. An internet marketing professional can sit down with you and help you decide how to make directory listings part of your overall internet marketing strategy. She can help you weigh the benefits of free directories and paid directories, and can ultimately help you pick out which directories will be most beneficial for your business. Don’t hesitate to get expert help from an experienced professional. When you see the increased traffic to your site and see all those sales, you’ll be glad you did!

11 Small Business SEO Tips

MoeTamani — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:56:01 +0000

11 Small Business SEO Tips

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you’re a small business owner then you know how difficult it is to get into the top Google rankings for your targeted keywords. It may be that you want to hire an SEO expert or internet marketing agency to take care of SEO for you. But if you don’t, here are 11 things to keep in mind as your optimize your website.

1. Write for readers. While it’s important to optimize your site so that spiders pay attention, remember that it’s human who are going to buy your product or service. Make sure you content is relevant, interesting, helpful, and unique. Bots are not buying your stuff, humans are. Of course you need to include keywords in your text, but never so many that they render your copy unreadable.

2. Include a unique meta description and title on each page. The title of your page is the key on-site SEO factor. Your description tag won’t influence your rank, but it will most likely be what potential customers see when they conduct a search, so include your keywords and a compelling copy that will inspire them to click on the link to your site.

3. Make your content unique. This is key for everyone, but it’s especially important for online retailers, particularly if you’re selling a product similar to what everyone else is selling. Rather than using the description provided by the manufacturer, write your own description. If you’ve done your keyword research, then you’ll know exactly which keywords to target in your copy. And no matter what you’re selling, you’re more likely to get powerful inbound links if your copy is good.

4. Be smart about links. When you submit your site to directories, only submit to trusted ones like Yahoo and Aviva. Find authorities in your market niche and ask them to link to you. Find out which sites are linking to your competitors and find out if those sites will link to you as well.

5. Keywords as anchor text. Never use “click here” for internal links. It’s a waste of a good way to increase rank.

6. Blog. Blog about what you’re doing and read other blogs in your market niche. This increases your exposure, and commenting on other blogs can help you get new links. By blogging and commenting on other blogs you’ll be creating new content and creating relationships with others in your niche.

7. Be smart about press releases. Rub elbows with the media in your area who cover your industry. See if local media sites will link to you. Distribute press releases online, but only when you have real news to share. Writing a press release for every breath you take will only annoy journalists, and you need them on your side.

8. Be smart about social media. Two words: NEVER SPAM. The purpose of using social media is to establish yourself as a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable authority in your field. If Flickr is relevant to your product or service then post photos there. Yahoo Answers is a great place to let people know that you know what you’re talking about.

9. Use search engine tools. Webmaster Central on Google and Site Explorer on Yahoo will tell you how search engines view your site.

10. Be smart about local search. Attract local traffic by making sure that your address and phone numbers are displayed prominently on your website. List your site in local directories like Yelp, CitySearch, and Local.com. Ask customers to post reviews on these sites as well.

11. Find new ways to get traffic. These include newsletters, blogging, social media sites, and anything that can keep you afloat if your Google ranking goes south.

Small business SEO is challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. If you’re unsure of your next steps, consider talking to an SEO expert or internet marketing professional. Then prepare to see great results.