Posted on: February 3, 2012 by Jordan Hardy
Here are my top 10 SEO (Search Engine Optimization) recommendations for businesses online. There are hundreds of other Search Engine Optimization recommendations I would suggest, so in the coming week I’ll post another small collection. It is important to note that each recommendation can be considered a tip of the iceberg for that item, where a high level of experience and technique are necessary to deliver long term results.
- Content with keyword strategy are important, as long as the information is unique and useful to Website visitors and search engines.
- Ensure your Website doesn’t have crawl errors. Search engines dislike broken links, code errors, hosting issues, redirects, incorrect usage of JavaScript, and error pages.
- Optimize your Website and landing pages for keywords which will convert at a higher CTR. Keywords and topics should be relevant to your targeted subject matter, with high quality clicks which convert being more important than impressions. It is important to leverage, but not overuse keywords.
- Submit a sitemap to Google and bing (same as Yahoo from alliance). Search engines use sitemaps to learn about the structure of your pages and Website.
- Use bing Webmaster Tools and Google Webmaster Tools. These tools provide interesting data to consider with your own Web analytics.
- Secure quality inbound links to your top handful of pages from other Websites.
- Use a robots.txt file to provide useful information to search engine spiders, robots, and crawlers.
- Use descriptive, carefully phrased title tags in your code.
- The best code for search engines is built from scratch since there is a generous amount of unique, useful information to crawl. If you’re using a CMS, eCommerce, blog, forum, template, or other platform, work hard on the code to ensure the Website will provide nearly as much useful information to search engines as would a hand coded Website.
- Your Website structure needs to be carefully architected, providing a useful, balanced hierarchy of information to people and search engines.
Contact Jordan Hardy here to inquire about consulting for your business.
Posted on: September 9, 2011 by Jordan Hardy
I’ve been asked how the Google Panda (rolled out globally August 2011) update has affected Websites my teams and/or I have worked on over the years. Whether it is Panda, a Yahoo/Bing (Bing powers Yahoo results) algorithm update, or another search engine making changes, I find Websites I’ve worked on stay the same or do better. The reason for this is that I find it is always in the best interest of everyone to have a high quality Website with useful content, good programming, useful UI, quality links, and other positive qualities. This is from both a search engine and user perspective.
It can be of concern if a Website has too much duplicate content, low quality information, poor coding, or any other of a number of non useful items. I find it necessary to build and grow a Website that is scalable and extremely useful to users/visitors. Of the hundreds of factors I know search engine algorithms look at, I work to ensure Websites include current and possible future algorithm items.
Posted on: May 1, 2010 by Jordan Hardy
There is a considerable amount of advice presented on the Internet in the interest of achieving top results. I frequently read articles from numerous online marketing resources. Some marketers prefer to concentrate their attention towards paid ads, while others spotlight SEO or social media. There are also those who recommend do it yourself marketing.
I’ve succeeded in online marketing with top results for more than a decade, testing new technologies and holding myself accountable to deliver maximum online results.
Paid ads
Paid ads are most advantageous implemented through Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN adCenter, or Pay-per-Click Advertising on Ask. Other leading conversion ad tools include Facebook and DoubleClick (owned by Google).
SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) has matured in the last decade. The perfect SEO plan is one that will deliver both short and long term results. It is crucial that pages are coded properly. Conversion strategy should be smart and evolve without exception.
Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and other social Websites should engage and capture the attention of possible customers on an ongoing basis.
Do it yourself
To “do it yourself”, a business owner or employee would need to spend considerable time reading documentation, testing campaigns, analyzing metrics, and course correcting new strategies. The ability to respond to online challenges that arise and then deliver strong results comes with considerable experience.