1st Priority - SEO or WebDesign?

This really is the chicken and egg question of the internet age but depending on who you ask will determine the actual answer you receive.

A graphic designer based website development company will argue in a majority of cases that the design comes first of course. And let’s face it without that aesthetically pleasing to the eye design a visitor will bounce off your site within a matter of seconds or so they would have you believe. But then that raises the big question of how did they get there in the first place?

The most common web development curve goes along the lines of website gets designed ..looks great let’s go for it. Needs some content ok, copy and paste something out of our corporate /company leaflet…..time passes and no traffic!

And then more time until eventually perhaps 6-12 months later the situation is either so dire or the company are spending a fortune on Adwords that finally the SEO expert gets called in (or somebody gets intrigued by one of those SEO e-mails that seem to hound webmasters these days), and before you know it you are on a 6 month search engine marketing campaign to try and rescue some website rankings.

Is this really the best way to go? The thousands of business owners that have been through this exact cycle will certainly argue that it most definitely is not, as this hope and pray web development criteria delays any websites success by months and sometimes years, and even more frighteningly results in thousands in lost profit, turnover and ongoing prospect capture.

What is really laughable though is that if you actually read the sales pitch on any one of the myriad of web design companies own websites many of them blatantly claim to be SEO experts as if it is a badge of honour or perhaps a must have tick in the box but a quick check of their portfolio soon reveals that if they are the search engine marketing experts, then it is clearly evident that their clients are definitely not on the receiving end of this claimed expertise.

So what is the real answer, can you really optimise a website before you launch it? Absolutely, web design and SEO should go hand in hand and the thought process of optimising a website and SEO friendly website design should form the foundations of the web development brief right from the outset, as it is the site structure, and ultimately the content that will capture free organic web traffic and also mark the website as a potential authority site or an also ran.

The search engines don’t care about what the site looks like but so often this initial chance to make the best impact when the site first gets indexed is wasted, if all the search engines find is a poorly optimised site with scant regard paid to any SEO requirements or keyword capture.

Extra time and money spent on pre development SEO (which should at the very least include keyword research and SEO copywriting) gives an outstanding return on investment as invariably when the site goes live and gets indexed it will achieve a far better website ranking from day one and even in some cases a page one result straight away.

If a web designer is not promoting web design SEO as part of your initial client brief then they are selling not only themselves short but also the client, if they don’t have the expertise themselves then best practice would be to team up with a non competing SEO professional to give the client the best possible start and return on investment on their new website.

And to any business owners who are commissioning a new website, if your developer does not offer this service then find one who does as a little extra investment will see your website many months ahead of where it would otherwise be.

Author: Dave Talbot: Correct search engine optimisation is a vital ingredient for any websites success. For new web development projects this is just as important as it is imperative to give the search engines the right initial impression of your website when it is first indexed. To find out more about giving your website the kickstart it requires visit =>> http://www.advancedwebmarketing.co.uk

5 SEO mistakes to avoid

Just as there are different ways of writing for novels, for advertising and for films, there is a way to write for the Internet. To find content on the web we use search engines. To make sure the search engines find our content we optimize it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) copywriting is writing content that the reader wants to read and will be easily found and rank well with search engines.

The object of writing for the Internet is to get the reader to use your content to click through to your website. If they don’t get to your website, they can’t look at your products or services and you will have lost a potential customer. Here are a few mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.

Mistake #1 - Have a Boring Or Vague Title

This is a very important mistake not to make. If they don’t even look at your article, all your time and effort are wasted. If you provide an attention grabbing title, one that makes them curious enough to open your article, you’re halfway there.

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking: Use titles that describe the content of your article but are short and concise; Use keywords in your title that people might be searching for; People can’t resist articles with lists or tips such as, “Top 10 Copywriting Mistakes” or “Top Tips on Getting Your Articles Read”; and “How to” articles are popular as well.

The bottom line here is to put some thought into your title. Think about how to get a reader’s attention.

Mistake #2 - Create Bland Content

From beginning to end - try to keep it interesting. Make reading your article a pleasurable experience for your reader. Here are a few suggestions.

Make it fun, relevant and grammatically correct. Nothing pulls the reader out of a story more than bad grammar and misspelled words.

Use short sentences and try to limit paragraphs to two or three lines. Concentrate on writing rich and appropriate copy rather than just practical words.

Have a sense of humor. This gives your articles personality. Don’t give a sales pitch - use a call to action. The purpose of your article is to get your reader to get to your website. Your writing could include a reason for them to find more information, either from another article that you’ve written or from your website.

“Content is king”. If you keep this in mind, you’ll be ahead of the game. Search engines love well-written and useful content. So do readers.

Mistake #3 - Make Your Article As Hard To Read As Possible

Every post should be easy to scan. That means your reader should be able to easily scan your article and find headings that will tell them what the section is about. You can use numbered lists and bullets to organize your ideas so they are quickly read. If you italicize, bold or underline a word, the search engine assumes that it’s a keyword. You can use this to your advantage. However, if you use these tags a lot or if you use them on non-keywords, you’ll confuse the search engines and lose any advantage you would have gained.

The other thing that makes a page easy to scan is short paragraphs. When you look at your copy on the page, you should see a lot of white space. Looking at a page that’s completely filled with words is intimidating to a reader. You want to make it as friendly and welcoming and as easy to read as possible.

Mistake #4 - Misuse Keywords

Keywords are at the core of writing for the web. You should research and know your keywords. Here are a few suggestions about keywords:
• Target a set of keywords in every post but don’t use them more than three or four times on a page. If you use the same keywords again and again, search engines can tell that the article isn’t very useful.

• Use a wide variety of words that pertain to your topic.

• Use synonyms of your keywords in addition to the keywords.

• Don’t stick to a standard keyword density for every article or post. You want your words to flow naturally, and overuse of keywords makes your copy sound forced.

• Review your keywords every so often. Sometimes your business changes and you want your articles to change also.
If you provide your reader with content that lets them learn or experience something, you’ll have a happy reader. If you provide the search engines with good keywords and a variety of them, you’ll have a happy search engine.

Mistake #5 - Try To Trick the Search Engines

Practicing questionable tactics like cloaking and using hidden text is a bad idea. The last thing you want is to get your site banned. These kinds of tricks will do it. So can using hidden links, link farms, linking to bad sites, distributing viruses and sending spam. Don’t try to trick the search engines and don’t work with any companies that use these techniques.

Overcoming these common mistakes can give you head start when creating effective content on the Internet. SEO copywriting requires effort. Putting content on your site and distributing it on the web takes time. If you work at it over time and create lots of valuable content, effectively “brandcasting” your site, you’ll be rewarded with more traffíc.

About The Author
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketíng and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: Brandsplat.com and www.brandsplatblog.com .

New SEO features in BING

Microsoft recently released a new 24 page document titled Bing: New Features Relevant to Webmasters. The PDF file detailed not only interface updates on Bing, Microsoft’s own decision search engine, but also provides SEO tips for webmasters and web publishers. In addition, the white paper document contains instructive guidelines on how to create friendly, easy to index websites, as well as ways to make sites look attractive to search engine spiders.

Webmaster’s center

Bing’s primary function is to bridge users with websites and content across the Internet, a target all search engines aim for. So, what is different from other search engines you may ask? Unlike ordinary search engines, Bing offers categorized choices. Users can select options from the side tool bar, picking more to-the-point selections which, in the end, will reduce the amount of irrelevant sites popping up and saving the Bing users a lot of valuable time.

Long tail strategies

Did you know that more than 300 factors are used in determining categorization and that the categories that appear are entity-dependent? For example: if you search for [baby monitor], the search results may offer you options, such as “shopping”, “reviews”, “ratings”, and “videos”, splitting up the search in convenient sections . Microsoft believes that this innovative way of organizing results provides new long tail opportunities for website owners.

Best match

A key objective of Bing is to deliver premium search results and one of the ways the search engine approaches this goal is through a new feature called “Best match.” Watch what happens when you conduct a search for a particular brand, such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Campbell’s, or Chrysler. The result is amazing. Bing will actually separate the official sites of these brands from the rest of the results, featuring a “Best Match”.

Bing Hover Links preview

One of the cool features Bing has to offer is “Bing Hover links”. Just hover your mouse over your search results and a window will pop up on the right of it. It will show a summary of that specific query result, as well as and important links related to that result. Webmasters feel this feature increases qualified traffic and helps searcher to find the information they want without having to leave the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). This time-saving feature is truly appreciated by Bing users.

Data Extraction for previews

Through intelligent data extraction, Bing is able to compile useful information in the hover link section. This includes addresses, phone numbers, and email links the search engine has gathered not only from the content of a specific page, but from anywhere else on the Internet.

Flash recognition

Websites saturated with Flash and Silverlight-based content often lack readable Meta data text. Titles and descriptions in the HTML source code are so poor, web crawlers hardly notice them. In an effort to bring these empty-tagged websites out of obscurity, Bing implemented a new technology capable of extracting limited data.

Instant answers queries

Recently upgraded, Bing’s “Instant answers” feature now offers even more comprehensive and richer results to informal queries than ever. Type in a short question in the query box and wait to be impressed by the result!

Local listing center

Businesses should take advantage of the opportunity to list their company with Bing’s newest addition, the Local Listings Center.

Searchers and Surfers

Searchers who do not know how to start a new or specific search often refine their keywords and phrases halfway through their query. Furthermore, the more information is available, the more people adapt the way they search and surf the Internet. Microsoft has done a number of intense studies to analyze specific search patterns and behaviors. As a result, updates and additions were initiated. Microsoft’s goal is to improve searcher satisfaction by delivering faster, more accurate and complete results. It is a tough objective that, perhaps, is closer in reach than you think.
Visit Shout SEO to find out more.

Shout SEO is a premium SEO Services business based in Melbourne. Shout SEO will help increase your traffic and sales through achieving top rankings on the major search engines. Visit Shout SEO to find out more.

Multiple websites at the click of a button.

Ever wanted your own easy to develop and manage websites?

Achieving a meaningful extra income using the world wide web is now in the mindset of the average person, especially now that times are hard. The web remains a great place for opportunity and with hard work and dedication, earning extra homebased money is still a possibility.

Like me, you have probably been rather envious when hearing about others making a great deal of money via the web and have never really understood how to get involved and start making money for youself. Now, it is time to join them!

There are very many ‘Get Rich Quick’ schemes out there, many with ridiculously long sales pages really spouting off how easy it has been for the site owner to make a mountain of cash in a very short time. It is pretty easy for a noobie to fall into this smooth sales talk, sign up and then have no idea what to do with the information, product or service they have just paid for.

What newcomers really need is a very simple and easy to understand way of being able to develop a website that promotes growth and recognition on the search engines whilst providing a fool proof way to make money using the most obvious channels, such as Google Adsense and Amazon

Yippee as SEOCreation.com has just launched a new service which allows somebody with no previous website or internet experience to create not just one but 25 whole and rich content websites with ease. They can easily add websites and them modify them from their Admin Control Panel and including income stream code such as Google’s Adsense or Amazon’s Store code is easy to set up and understand.

You just need a domain name, then log in to your account at SEOCreation.com and click a button and suddenly you have a great store or video site and even a really cool looking Blog. Futhermore, they can also install a WordPress blog with their choice of great themes at the click of another button. This means that they get a good website to keep customers coming back plus the ability to add their own mark to a site, via the blog system, which really helps in attracting the eye of the search engines

Currently, they are selling the website slots for $24.95 which means you get a fully hosted website with great content for less than $1.00 a time, which makes serious business sense and there is surely no better way to make use of a domain name, short of expensive and time consuming major development.

I would definately suggest visiting SEO Creation.com to check out their offer in more detail. They offer continual support for the lifetime of your account so help is always close to hand although it really is child’s play and your road to internet based wealth has begun.

www.seocreation.com
admin@seocreation.com

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