Archive for the ‘SEO - Search Engine Optimization’ category

Adding Keywords to iWeb

August 14th, 2010

While iWeb makes it easy to create a stunning website, it does not make it easy to add the necessary keywords so that searchers can actually find it. Unfortunately, iWeb itself lacks a user friendly way to add targeted, keyword rich title tags, meta tags, and alternate image text all of which are crucial to being found. In order to do so you need to alter the site’s HTML coding which requires true web development skills. But don’t be discouraged!

Now Adding Keywords to iWeb is easy


There is a program you can download that makes it easy for you to add those tags without touching the underlying HTML coding. And best of all . . . it is FREE.

You can quickly and easily optimize your iWeb site for the search engines with iWeb SEO Tool – 1.9. This free download from RAGE Software allows you to customize title tags, meta tags and alternative image text, as well as add the extremely informative – and free- Google Analytics – all without adding HTML snippets.

How to Add Keywords to your iWeb Site


Once you have downloaded iWeb SEO Tool, when you sign into your iWeb site, iWeb SEO askes where your iWeb pages are. It then opens a user friendly interface where you simply type in your title and description tags and alternate image text. That’s it. Save and upload your revised web pages and you are good to go. You can even create a meta tag directing how often the search engines should crawl your site for new content.

If you want to easily add keywords to your iWeb website, download the free iWeb SEO Tool. There is even a step-by-step video tutorial to help you.

While these tags are very important to your ability to be found online, there is much more that can be done to enhance your Internet visibility. You may want to rely on the expertise of an SEO company for keyword research and analysis as well as strategic placement of keywords in your page copy among other things.

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Bing Yahoo Searches Now One In The Same? A Microsoft AOL Deal? What do these partnerships mean for your SEO?

June 18th, 2010

It appears Microsoft is doing its best to give Google a run for its money.  Last year it launched its revised search engine Bing, which currently accounts for about 12% of searches.  Now it is going full force with the partnership it forged with Yahoo last summer.  The two companies are working together to replace Yahoo’s search engine with Bing creating a single Bing Yahoo Search Engine.  They are also transferring tens of thousands of current Yahoo advertisers to Microsoft’s search-advertising platform.  It is anticipated that Bing will be handling all of the searches on Yahoo by the end of the year drawing in another 18% of searches. This will give Microsoft about a 30% share of U.S. Internet searches – still far from Google’s 64% – and reduce the number of top search engines from 3 to 2.

To further enhance its search engine presence, Microsoft is in talks with AOL to replace Google with Bing as the search engine on the company’s Internet portal bringing an additional 2% of searches.  Google and AOL’s current deal expires in December.

What do the single Bing Yahoo search engine and the Microsoft AOL deal mean for your website’s SEO?

  1. While many website owners have mainly focused on getting high rankings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL can no longer be ignored.  You need to create a web presence on all four.
  2. If you enjoy higher rankings on Yahoo than Bing, you now need to find a way to improve your Bing rankings so you don’t take a hit when Yahoo replaces its search engine with Bing.
  3. If you have higher rankings on Bing than Yahoo, you may reap a nice benefit from this partnership.
  4. You may want to consider Pay Per Click advertising on Yahoo or Bing as their search share grows.

What can you do to prepare for the new Bing Yahoo Search Engine?

  1. First, ascertain your Bing and Yahoo rankings for your most important keywords.
  2. If your Bing rankings are lower than your Yahoo rankings you can try to match Bing’s algorithm.  There are quite a few tools and resources available to help you optimize for Bing, including the white paper Bing – New Features Relevant for Webmasters.
  3. Most importantly, just focus on SEO best practices – target the right keywords, maintain an SEO friendly site, create fresh content and build links.

If these changes seem daunting, your SEO professional can help you through them.  The world of SEO is constantly changing and it’s our job to stay on top of it all.

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Can a small website rank well for competitive search terms? Yes, it can!

April 6th, 2010

Take a look at the search results page below.

Google Search Results Page for "baseball's greatest hitters"

The term “baseball’s greatest hitters” returned about 752,000 results. Included in the top listings are:

• baseball-almanac.com with a Google Page Rank of 4;
• amazon.com with a Google Page Rank of 9; and
• www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com which has not yet received a Google Page Rank.

The owners of baseballsgreatesthitters.com came to Write On Point to help improve their website visibility. Even though their domain name is the search term “baseball’s greatest hitters” they were not ranking well for it. We optimized the site – strictly on page SEO, no linking strategies or pay per click campaigns – conducting keyword research and analysis and providing SEO copyediting. In a month’s time they were in the top 5 for “baseball’s greatest hitters” and enjoy high rankings for such competitive search terms as “baseball’s top hitters” (in the top 20 out of over 1,800,000 on Google, 1 out of 7,800,00 on Yahoo and 9 out of 3,400,000 on Bing) and “steroids and hall of fame records” among many others.

www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com is a young site, with no backlinks and no press. Yet it ranks in top spots for competitive terms with the likes of Amazon, ESPN, Fox News, Reuters, PBS and Wikipedia. Imagine what could happen if www.baseballsgreatesthitters.com started Linking, Internet Marketing and Public Relations campaigns.

Effective SEO can make a huge impact – it does not matter whether your site is large or small. If you take the time to do keyword research and analysis and incorporate those keywords into the appropriate places – and stay on top of them – your small, unknown website could also compete with the big guys. There are many books on SEO on the market; however, the rules are always in a state of flux. We suggest, in order to achieve the best results, that you rely on the expertise of an SEO professional who works in this field on a daily basis. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there who say they do SEO. Don’t get taken for a ride. Make sure to ask for samples of their work and references. SEO may seem like a costly investment, but can you afford not to be found?

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What happened to Google’s local search results? How does their absence impact your site’s SEO?

December 27th, 2009

It appears that Google’s local search results for some categories – including Internet Marketing, Marketing, Advertising, SEO and Web Design – have completely disappeared globally. As a SEO/Internet Marketing company, we not only utilize and rely on traffic from Google’s local search, but also stress its importance to our clients. It is a little difficult to do either now that the search results for our categories are no longer there. Go ahead, try it. Type in Advertising Agency New York City or Marketing Los Angeles or Web Design Chicago. You will not see any local listings. Type in Florist Dallas or Dentist Boston and you will. The question is will they disappear also?

Where did Google’s local search results go? We have Googled this question and found two forums that address it:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=18b0412b6336989c&hl=en&fid=18b0412b6336989c000478bb9964569a

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=19f4b0936485546a&hl=en&fid=19f4b0936485546a000478b7db1a7347

A Google employee suggested that the local search results for terms such as Marketing and Web Design are not showing up because there is not enough local intent. This answer makes no sense because until a month or so ago, local listings for these categories did show up and they are categories you can select when you create your Google Local Business Center listing. Until these listings disappeared, local listings even showed up if you typed in SEO Warwick New York, which includes a self-created category and a small town.

The lesson. Relying solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic is not wise. While we don’t understand what is really happening with these local listings or when this issue will be resolved, we do still believe in the importance of Local Business Center Listings for our clients. However, you cannot rely solely on them. You need to optimize your site with your locale also in case the local listings for your industry disappear as well.

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