http://orangesoda/ en smcroberts@orangesoda.com Copyright 2009 2009-08-27T16:42:26-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/onsite-seo-a-solid-foundation/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/onsite-seo-a-solid-foundation/#When:15:42:26Z If your business has any sort of web presence, chances are you’ve heard of SEO. The odds are also good that you’ve been told that SEO is complicated, expensive, and takes a long time (which may or may not be true in your case). What you might not have heard is that SEO is THE most effective form of online marketing. You read that right. Though it can take some time, SEO is the most effective form of online marketing. It has better returns than email marketing, pay per click, or even an affiliate programs. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. If your business has any sort of web presence, chances are you’ve heard of SEO. The odds are also good that you’ve been told that SEO is complicated, expensive, and takes a long time (which may or may not be true in your case). What you might not have heard is that SEO is THE most effective form of online marketing. You read that right. Though it can take some time, SEO is the most effective form of online marketing. It has better returns than email marketing, pay per click, or even an affiliate programs. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. SEO is commonly broken down into two components, onsite and offsite. Offsite SEO is basically link building (securing keyword targeted links pointing to your site), though social media marketing can also be termed SEO, as it often influences rankings. Link building is a necessary, ongoing component of SEO. However, it is the other half of SEO that we want to discuss. Onsite SEO is composed of foundational principals that should ideally be integrated into the website at its conception. From keyword rich URLs to well written titles, Meta tags, content and internal link structure. It is very much like building a home. When a home is being built, great care is taken to ensure a solid, even, durable foundation. Why? Because the foundation can make or break an otherwise incredible home. So it is with SEO. A million dollar website with no SEO elements in place is about as useful as a million dollar home with a foundation made of Play-Doh. A ten thousand dollar website with excellent SEO could quite easily outperform a million dollar website with no SEO. If your web designer claims to build SEO friendly websites, ask to see some examples. Give them a copy of Google’s free SEO Guide and make sure they follow it to the letter. There is nothing worse than spending a ton of money for a new website only to find that it won’t rank for anything. If you already have a website, and you aren’t ranking well for the keyword you are going after, pay to have an SEO expert perform an analysis of your site. It may be a simple fix to get you ranking. Remember, a site without onsite SEO is a home with no foundation. SEO isn’t terribly complicated. Yes, it takes some effort to stay on the cutting edge, but the principles themselves are pretty simple, easy to learn, easy to apply. The simplest definition of onsite SEO is this: making your site worthy of ranking first for a given keyword. That’s it. Do you want to rank #1 for a certain keyword? Look at your site, and then look at the sites ranking in the Top 10 for that keyword, then ask yourself if you deserve to be ranking ahead of those other sites. Be honest. If the answer is no, then make yourself worthy of ranking better. If your website is well written, relevant for the keyword you want to rank, and follows the standards and guidelines that the search engines and SEO experts have identified regarding onsite SEO optimization, there is no reason why your site can’t rank. If you feel like you have already done this, and you are still having trouble ranking, then it’s definitely time to consult with an SEO expert. Want more information regarding current onsite SEO guidelines? Contact us today for a free copy of our Onsite SEO Guide!   Small Business Advice 2009-08-27T15:42:26-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/what-is-link-building/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/what-is-link-building/#When:21:10:33Z People that are relatively new to search engine optimization (SEO) often wonder what link building entails and why it matters for their website. Although there are many ways to accomplish link building, just knowing the basics will help you understand the importance of receiving and how to obtain links back to your website. Consider a link as a vote towards your website for being relevant or popular on the Internet within a specific industry or niche. The more links (or “votes”) you have from other websites, the more your website will benefit on search engines for specific user searches, while the likelihood of more traffic to your site increases. For example, let’s say Website A and Website B are competing for the same consumers. Website A has a total of 10 links pointing back to their website while Website B has 100. Which website do you think search engines are going to “reward” more for its relevancy within their industry? Which website has the greater chance of having traffic go to their website because of exposure on the Internet? Another important aspect is using specific keywords while link building, or in other words, utilizing anchor text as the link back to your website. Essentially, anchor text is the keyword/text of the link back to your website. Generally highlighted a different color and/or underlined, anchor text helps Internet users and search engines to understand what your website is relevant for. Let’s suppose that Website A sold various types of baby blankets. If they wanted to rank highly in search engines for their product cotton baby blankets, it would be most helpful if they used “cotton baby blankets” as their anchor text for links back to their website. Doing this allows Internet searchers (if they stumbled upon that particular link) to have a good idea where that particular link would lead them. Also, the anchor text in this instance would help search engines to know more information about your website. Of course, it’s always good to vary your anchor text (i.e., from our example, use “baby blankets,“ “100% cotton baby blankets,“ “organic baby blankets,“ “baby blanket store,“ etc.). There is a good chance that search engines may penalize your website if you solely use one phrase of anchor text for all of your links. The following examples are different ways to receive some inbound links to your website: • Directories allow you to list your website within a specific industry and/or genre, providing you with a link back to your website. • Social bookmarking is a way for people to save and share websites of interest, categorizing the websites/links by tags. • Writing an ezine article is a great way to utilize anchor text (keywords), but remember to write brand new, original content and follow the publisher’s terms of use. Though link building by itself won’t guarantee top-ranking results (as you have to consider other factors like the age of your website, the website’s on-site content, etc.), creating a number of backlinks to your website will help improve its relevance on search engines and increase its opportunity for more traffic.   Search Engine Optimization 2009-07-07T21:10:33-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/what-is-google-local/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/what-is-google-local/#When:19:44:08Z Google Local like the name suggests is all about local searches. The question is, is it going to be a new sophisticated Yellow pages and business directory combo? Some believe that may be quite a possibility given some of this programs noteworthy features. It is a user-friendly product which makes it very convenient for searchers and extremely useful for local merchants. It also goes hand in hand with today’s important earth-friendly movement of finding and using as many local services and merchandise as possible. On the Google Local site you will not only find maps, locally relevant websites and listings of businesses but it also helps web surfers by adding noncommercial content like local hot spots and attractions, parks, recreation centers, and other community landmarks to its page.   If Google detects your query is a local search, you can also narrow the range you want to travel. It then will display the three local search results closest to your desired location right at the top of the page, and also supply you with additional links to more local results. For example: You type in your city or county, then type in that you’re looking for sewing notions. It then will give you the fabric stores in your area with links and also a map to follow. The key differences between it and other local search modes are that it takes the hunt a step further then just the thousands of common headings found in the online yellow pages. It incorporates additional information into its search results, beyond the basic business listings. Here you can also request info on very specific items like Satellite dishes, stuffing for soft toys, manicures or Dean Koontz’s new novel. Unlike with the yellow pages, Google Local will include all relevant stores not just “paying clients”. Then when you click on one of the wide selections it will give you the reference pages on why it placed that particular company on its list first. This can be a very helpful feature when evaluating whether that is indeed the right choice and they really have what you’re looking for. Google Local is by no-means a foolproof method of shopping yet, but definitely worth to become the first stop for all local shopping. Search Engine Optimization, Small Business Advice 2009-06-22T19:44:08-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/5-ways-to-kill-your-online-mojo/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/5-ways-to-kill-your-online-mojo/#When:15:55:04Z In our world here at OrangeSoda, there is nothing better than a well performing Internet marketing campaign.  There is also nothing more frustrating than to see a little mistake mess it all up.  Here are a few unfortunate, but common, ways you can accidently kill the momentum of a great campaign.  1.  Making Big Changes to Your Website It’s not necessarily a bad idea to redesign your website even if you have a solid online marketing campaign running.  A new site design can increase conversions, improve bounce rate and keep your website from becoming outdated among other things.  However, if you start changing your content, internal linking and URL structure, you’ll want to have a game plan before the new site goes live.  Eliminating existing pages, changing servers, switching to Flash or other techniques can have devastating effects on your traffic.  Unfortunately, most people only start thinking about Internet marketing after they’ve launched their website or revamped their current site.  You can save yourself hundreds or even thousands of dollars and a lot of time by consulting and Internet marketing company during your web design process.  2.  NOT Changing Your Website Forgetting to update your website can really cost you.  You can have #1 rankings across the board but if you have old or incorrect information on your website, you’re not likely to convert well.  Keeping your website current and updated is a positive signal to search engines and potential customers. Here are a few things that should always be current: Business contact info – this includes phone numbers and addresses.  Even if you aren’t a local business, you need to provide a way for people to contact you. Broken Contact Form – If you have a contact or lead capture form, you should test it regularly or you’re losing customers Website design – If your website looks like it was built in 1996, your visitors are going to laugh first and then hit the back button. Blog – If your blog hasn’t been updated in several months, people will quickly notice that your website has been neglected 3.   Using a Bad Hosting Company Your site may consistently load when you type in your URL but what about the other 23 hours of the day?  You should be using a downtime monitoring service (if not provided by your host) to make sure you aren’t losing clients due to timeouts or server errors.  This is also a major problem if search engines consistently run into issues while trying to crawl your website.  In addition to checking for downtime, you should be checking your server’s error logs.  I recently worked on a website that was losing about 5% of their traffic each day due to server issues. 4.  Let Your Domain Expire This one seems pretty self explanatory but you definitely need to keep an eye on your domain’s expiration date. If you do let it expire, it will likely get picked up by someone else and will cost you much more than the $9 it would’ve cost to renew it. From a SEO standpoint, we recommend renewing your domain for at least 3 years in to the future and setting it on auto-renew just to avoid any issues.  Renewing your domain for an extended period of time is a signal to search engines that you’re a legitimate business and not just testing the waters. 5.  Try  Going Blackhat Testing out blackhat or spamming techniques on a well-performing website is just a bad idea.  It’s easy to get greedy once you’ve had some success but you run the risk of getting your whole site banned on the search engines and killing any business it is generating. Search Engine Optimization, Small Business Advice 2009-06-10T15:55:04-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/orangesoda-review-and-a-few-new-tools/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/orangesoda-review-and-a-few-new-tools/#When:23:51:41Z I found this review about OrangeSoda today using a new tool to help you see how your local business is doing online. It’s called Get Listed. It’s quite small and targeted, basically showing your profiles are on the top 3 search engines, but it’s a start. It’s how I found this OrangeSoda review (last paragraphs) and the one below.I found this review about OrangeSoda today using a new tool to help you see how your local business is doing online. It’s called Get Listed. It’s quite small and targeted, basically showing your profiles are on the top 3 search engines, but it’s a start. It’s how I found this OrangeSoda review (last paragraphs) and the one below. Here’s the review: More calls, more business and larger orders. I worked a few local groups to try and show up in the search engines then I got a call from OrangeSoda and decided to I needed expert help. The price was very reasonable (I don’t have a lot of money to spend but did have very high expectations for anything I was going to spend) and it’s only been a few months and I’ve had more business than ever and just hired a full time receptionist. All my other marketing has stayed the same (I have a billboard locally and do some newspaper ads) so it has to be OrangeSoda. I’ve called in twice with questions and both times talked directly to an account person and had an answer quickly (both were needed clarifications on my part). They’ve been great to work with and in just a few months have done more to grow my business than the 2 years previous trying to either do it myself or using the local internet expert. Last month was my best month ever and the average order size seems to be steadily going up. I love online reviews like this that are specific, or that tell a story about an experience you had with the business. Another new service that helps you monitor your online reputation is called MyStepRep. You can see what is being said about your business on the Internet (or any business) and choose the ones that are relevant and that you want to keep. Then you can add a widget of these results and put it on your blog or web site. To encourage feedback on your site, consider adding a Get Satisfaction widget. It adds a tab where people can easily comment on your business, web site, or blog. They can leave suggestions too. OrangeSoda has a tool to get your web site get into web directories efficiently. It’s called InLocal. OrangeSoda does reputation management for a few enterprise companies. I’ve noticed most companies don’t notice or care what people have said about them online until a very bad review comes up really high in search results for their company name. When a bad review hurts business, it motivates action. However you track your reputation online, it’s better to be proactive than reactive (and it’s cheaper). 2009-02-03T23:51:41-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/seocom-featured-on-speaking-on-business/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/seocom-featured-on-speaking-on-business/#When:14:46:12Z I was in the car last night and heard this feature about SEO.com on the radio show “Speaking on Business” by Fred Ball. I love how Fred takes complex ideas and simplifies them. He did a feature on a tech business named Cymphonix and did a great job at explaining what they do, how they got started, and the value they bring to their customers. Since SEO.com also provides SEO services like OrangeSoda internet marketing, I thought this piece would be helpful. I can use it to explain to my parents what I do for a living. It can be useful for local businesses who want to understand what an SEO company can do for them. Look for SEO.com under February 2009 shows and click on the audio symbol to listen in. Or you can read the transcript about the SEO.com interview (not as interesting). 2009-02-03T14:46:12-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/orangesoda-review/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/orangesoda-review/#When:12:01:51Z I found this review about OrangeSoda today using a new tool to help you see how your local business is doing online. It’s called Get Listed. It’s quite small and targeted, basically showing your profiles are on the top 3 search engines, but it’s a start. It’s how I found this OrangeSoda review (last paragraphs) and the one below. Here’s the review: More calls, more business and larger orders. I worked a few local groups to try and show up in the search engines then I got a call from OrangeSoda and decided to I needed expert help. The price was very reasonable (I don’t have a lot of money to spend but did have very high expectations for anything I was going to spend) and it’s only been a few months and I’ve had more business than ever and just hired a full time receptionist. All my other marketing has stayed the same (I have a billboard locally and do some newspaper ads) so it has to be OrangeSoda. I’ve called in twice with questions and both times talked directly to an account person and had an answer quickly (both were needed clarifications on my part). They’ve been great to work with and in just a few months have done more to grow my business than the 2 years previous trying to either do it myself or using the local internet expert. Last month was my best month ever and the average order size seems to be steadily going up. I love online reviews like this that are specific, or that tell a story about an experience you had with the business. Another new service that helps you monitor your online reputation is called MyStepRep. You can see what is being said about your business on the Internet (or any business) and choose the ones that are relevant and that you want to keep. Then you can add a widget of these results and put it on your blog or web site. To encourage feedback on your site, consider adding a Get Satisfaction widget. It adds a tab where people can easily comment on your business, web site, or blog. They can leave suggestions too. OrangeSoda has a tool to get your web site get into web directories efficiently. It’s called InLocal. OrangeSoda does reputation management for a few enterprise companies. I’ve noticed most companies don’t notice or care what people have said about them online until a very bad review comes up really high in search results for their company name. When a bad review hurts business, it motivates action. However you track your reputation online, it’s better to be proactive than reactive (and it’s cheaper). 2009-02-03T12:01:51-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/lee-gientke-danny-sullivan-bruce-clay-orangesoda/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/lee-gientke-danny-sullivan-bruce-clay-orangesoda/#When:16:11:44Z Tomorrow some of the most respected search engine strategists will be speaking at DomainFest. Lee Gientke, OrangeSoda’s director of Partner Development will be speaking on a forum about extending domain names you have that you want to sell. Many sites are simply links or ads but using SEO you can build a lot more value on your domains. Here’s another post about making your domain name search engine friendly. DomainFest is on Wed. January 28, 2009 in Hollywood, California. This press release has more details. Also joining Lee: Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land Mike Zapolin co-founder of Music.com Michael Zacharski VP of Publisher Acquisitions at CPX Interactive Jamie MacMillian who is the director of search for LinkShare SEO expert Bruce Clay Alex Garner who is the director of Publisher Relations at Casale Media. They will answer questions about how to quickly build traffic on a new web site, how to attract buyers, and best practices for building out a new domain. I asked Danny and Bruce, two people I respect greatly, for some insights on how to apply SEO principles to web sites. “As my focus is in increasing the value of a domain through Search Engine rankings, I suggest that small groups of like-themed domains be acquired and built such that they all rank well in search engines. The motivation for a domain acquisition goes up when you own a site that is taking business from their site. Buying a better ranked competitor is a good move for many businesses. Besides, if successful, the profits from the ranked domain is a wonderful way to fund other SEO, and so on and so on.” - Bruce Clay “My advice is more from a search marketing perspective. That if domainers are looking to do more than just turn and churn domains, they should ask themselves if they can add value to their domains beyond just putting up automated ads, as so many seem to do. Having a great domain name is a good start to having a good content site, and over time, the search engines tend to reward content sites. It might be that a little effort could produce greater returns, in the long run. But that’s clearly not going to match everyone’s business models or desires.” - Danny Sullivan Thanks to Bruce and Danny for a quick reply. I hope Lee brings back pictures from the event! 2009-01-27T16:11:44-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/could-leaving-a-negative-review-online-get-you-in-hot-water/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/could-leaving-a-negative-review-online-get-you-in-hot-water/#When:10:41:00Z From what I’ve seen a major search engine starting with the letter G seems to favor negative reviews. Perhaps because they want to keep things authentic. And that means that even the best companies screw up and who knows what people will say about you online. I’ve recommended that small businesses have a profile and watch feedback from customers on Yelp (read my tips on using Yelp). There was a blog post about Yelp and a pending lawsuit against someone who left a negative review. Did you know that if you call a business dishonest they could sue you? That’s what happened when someone left this feedback for a local chiropractor on Yelp. Here’s what he wrote: “I don’t think good business means charging people whatever you feel like hoping they’ll pay without a fuss. Especially considering that I found a much better, honest chiropractor.” The chiropractor billed this guy’s insurance company four times what was quoted for two office visits in 2006. This is common practice from what I’ve seen. The chiropractor said he charged more for the extra time and effort his office spends dealing with the insurers. The case was recently settled out of court. While you can always state your opinion but be careful not to represent it as a fact. Normally a lawsuit isn’t the best way to go. Personally I think you should only go online with your criticism if you’ve given the company a clear chance to make right. Blogger Carl Natale suggests not deleting or restricting comments that are critical of your business. The commenter can get angry and start a campaign to smear you on other sites. At least by responding you can keep criticism on your site and respond directly. Carl makes another good point. If you keep the negativity on your site you will be the first to read and be able to respond to it. Hopefully you can contain it - after all you asked for feedback. 2009-01-16T10:41:00-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/orangesoda-on-seomoz/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/orangesoda-on-seomoz/#When:10:54:51Z A post OrangeSoda wrote about avoiding hiring a rogue SEO company was recently featured in a post on SEOMoz: Just Say No to Bad SEO. It has information that is helpful to anyone looking for an SEO company to help their site get indexed well and found on search engines. It’s tempting to look for quick fixes, and SEO can be seen as one way to get results. In this economy, there are more businesses struggling. SEO does deliver, but it can also backfire. If done wrong, it can actually hurt your business.  So it’s imperative to find a company that focuses on building a strong foundation. Depending on your site, that can take time (and money). “SEO isn’t as simple as placing a Yellow Pages ad…Good SEO isn’t cheap either, although it is very cost-effective over time.“ Most businesses don’t have a basic understanding of SEO. Any time someone complains about results and have only been a client for a few months, I’m suspicious. SEO is not quick. Search engines may not have even updated in the time you signed up and quit. Which brings me to the SEO process. Initially we do an analysis on a site to identify the issues. Then, if a site has a lot of issues that prevent it from being represented well in search engines, the majority of your budget will go to address those issues. That means your budget will go to establishing a foundation rather than on building rankings or traffic. A tough pill to swallow, but necessary. Title tags, links, and other on-site changes are next. Once problems with programming or the actual site are worked on, the focus turns to building links. Your site will be listed in directories, on article sites, and  sometimes optimized press releases. We also do social media optimization. An SEO-optimized blog is a good option for clients who are committed to regularly updating them. SEO is a process. It’s slower with a lower spend. If your site has a lot of SEO issues to correct, or for one  competing in a competitive niche it will take longer to see results. As the article points out, you can expect a report of work done and know what the goals are for your site. This article is a good start in building an understanding what’s involved in SEO and finding a trustworthy company. 2009-01-13T10:54:51-07:00