Cuil It!
July 30, 2008
By now just about every blog related to the Internet or Internet marketing has chimed in on Cuil (pronounced cool.) In case you missed this Cuil was a really hyped as worlds biggest search engine beating out Google . It was created by a Group of Googler’s who cashed out and attempted to create the world biggest search engine.
They rolled out the new SE yesterday amidst tremendous fanfare. The problem is that it just doesn’t work very well at all. It was a public relations nightmare. The marketing folks got out way ahead of the development group. So this baby may end up succumbing to SIDS before it even gets out of the cradle and starts walking.
The reviews across the blogosphere have been frigid. I liked the layout out of the website but it is clear that this product is not ready for prime time yet, the worlds biggest search engine needs a lot of work before it becomes a useful tool. While we techies and early adopters may have given it bad marks for its launch the general public has never heard of Cuil, and that’s a good thing.
Cuil has a lot of work to do but they have a good core group that should be able to work out the technical problems. As Google morphs from the 800 lb gorilla into a 1600 lb monster, a hunger will grow to replace them. Google is already becoming the company to hate just as happened to Microsoft, and just like Microsoft they will be hard to replace. I wish this company well.
Since our company is # 1 for the search Tucson SEO with Google and can not be found on Cuil I am not overly excited. But it will be worth watching to see if this ever turns into a serious search engine at least for now its ad free.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in Flagstaff or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
T Boone Pickins Alternative Energy And Yahoo
July 29, 2008
I have desired to write about this old Texas oilman, T Boone Pickins for sometime but I didn’t see the connection for my audience until today. Mr. Picking has come up with his own alternative energy plan. He has been claiming in TV ads that our energy problem is not something that we can drill our way out of. That’s big talk coming from a famous oilman.
Mr. Pickins also has held a large stake in Yahoo, at 10 Million shares. He was adamant that the board of directors should have sold to Microsoft. So now that Carl Ichann has become a board member he has decided to was time to sell. For further reading see T. Boone Pickens selling off his entire stake in Yahoo.
Perhaps, he will then use this money to further expand his vision for his wind energy ventures. My hat goes off to Mr. Pickins for telling America that truth.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg, Sphinn it, or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Button All.COM Worth A Look
July 28, 2008
This is one of those websites that I found using my StumbleUpon toolbar. I must admit in the past I used this toolbar daily, but not so much anymore. Today, I decided on a whim to give it another try and like and old friend it came through. That’s when I discovered www.buttonall.com.
At first blush it seemed like a rather dull website and somewhat plain like Google’s home page. Then just as I was ready to click away to the next site in the Stumble rotation something prompted me to take a closer look. That’s when I realized that this website was worth exploring a little more closely.
It had your basic search box with five columns of buttons with four rows in each column. The first row included the four major US search engines and Mahalo, a mostly useless search engine. The second row included reference material sites that include Wikipedia, a dictionary, a thesaurus, Map Quest, and About.com. The third row they refer to as their people channel it includes MySpace, FaceBook, White Pages, Super Pages, and a site called Socialzr. This last site I not sure what it is about. The fourth row or channel is for shopping sites including Amazon, E-Bay, Craigslist, Buy.com, and Overstock.
While I do not personally use many of these websites I can easily see that this could become a highly used website for me since I regularly use 11 out of these twenty sites. I just gave it a test run and this is what I discovered.
First enter your search query and then you click on a button it takes you to that website. In this case I did a Google search and it delivered Google results below a row of Google AdSense ads. I found that somewhat amusing. It also explained how the website makes its money. The only thing that I found that I didn’t like was that you can not get back by using the back button. I found this flaw annoying but not so much so that I would not recommend using this website. If you are a power searcher you might find this site useful. It is now happily bookmarked.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg, Sphinn it, or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in Flagstaff or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Are You Part Of The Conversation?
July 27, 2008
It never stops amazing me that so many bloggers miss the opportunity to engage their readers with their blogs. For us the blog is part of our social media efforts. We believe the blog should rule social media. Many individuals seem to spend copious amounts of time on other social sites like Digg, Twitter, or Facebook, and they overlook the social benefits of their own blogs. The small business owner working an SEO and website marketing program doesn’t have time for this but many can find time to work their blog for all its worth. You don’t need a high paid consulting service to apply these few simple techniques.
You see it all the time a blog owner makes a post and never returns to the post except to moderate the comments. The trouble is that all they do is clean up the spam. If you want social media to work for you then practice it on your blog. Respond to your commenter’s and you might just see a huge increase in comments. You might not but at least you show that you care. I see comments left behind that ask a question. However, the question goes unanswered. So there is no conversation just a post and some replies.
What do you think the chances are that this commenter will be back to your blog when they see that you didn’t care enough to respond. This is where you can really loose by not answering questions. You never know if the person asking the question was going to follow up and give you a shout on their blog with a trackback.
I have personally considered following up a post with an expanded version or maybe a post with a different twist. So I have left a follow up comment trying to get a better understanding of what the author meant. This has happened maybe a dozen times with no response.
I call this lost opportunity. Yet, we see this behavior as the norm rather than the excepted way of doing business. This misses the whole point of blogging. Now, I don’t respond to all comments if I get a bunch of similar comments all in the same day. But if it’s a period of slow commenting I will respond to all comments that are more than “nice blog.” We also take the time to respond to the detailed comments with a personal email. It all about putting the social in Social Media.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Does Google Give An Unfair Linking Advantage To Established Websites?
July 25, 2008
Since Google has encouraged blogs not to pass link juice, a valuable but very time consuming white hat method has been diminished. For many website marketers, making comments on blogs were our main or only tool for acquiring links.
Many blogging platforms, such as WordPress have been set as “No Follow.” This simply means that the link created by leaving a comment is only good for generating website traffic. The “No Follow” link attribute renders the link incapable of assisting in the pursuit of higher search ranking.
In the past we would begin blogging our way through Top Ranks huge SEO – SEM list at the beginning of each month. The goal was a letter a day. This left a few extra days for things like the letter “S.” Back then almost all blogs were “Do Follow” now most of them are not.
We just completed covering the entire list scouring for blogs to be included in our “Do Follow List.” I was shocked by how few blogs are actually passing link juice. Since thousands of websites depend on this method they now are scrambling to figure out how to find usable links.
This is where I believe Google gives an unfair advantage to established websites that have already accumulated a huge amount of links. New websites are playing by a different set of rules then the older sites used when they established their links in the past.
The Top Rank list is a good example of that advantage. If you worked the list in one month you might have ended up with 300 links from one list. Now you might be lucky to get 30. Thus Google is making it roughly 10 times harder to obtain links through this method.
It becomes extremely more difficult to produce enough links to overcome any website with a sizable link advantage. The unintended consequence is that this sharply increases the cost related to any website link building program.
Another unintended consequence is that it will force many out of the ethical white hat approach to search marketing. They will conclude that if you can not win by playing by the rules then they will find new ways to manipulate the search engine.
Like many things in life, solving one problem often creates another one somewhere else. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of Google; we owe our businesses existence to Google. We are merely writing about our industry, and Google is the Big Dog in this neighborhood. When you write about websites and linking you inevitably will write about Google.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or in the Arizona cities of Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, and beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
We Learned Something Today, Actually Two Things
July 24, 2008
We received an email today asking if we work on websites outside the state of Arizona. The emailer provided a link to their website, which is generally a sign that this is a serious inquiry and they also provided their name. Now, we get a fair amount of inquiries that lack this specific information. We know these people are shopping us. We know that because we email them asking for their contact information and never here back from them again.
However, this was not the case today. Unfortunately, the person who contacted us about their website has an E-commerce site and we do not work on these types of websites. He also asked if we work outside of Arizona. I quickly realized that even though we work outside of Arizona the website did not indicate this.
I graciously returned the email and informed him that we did work outside of Arizona but not on E-commerce websites. Since I always want to know “how did you find us” I asked. He responded back and said that he found us by doing a Google search for small business SEO solutions.
So I Google’d that search query and found that we are on the first page of Google at the # 7 position. To say that I was blown away and happy about this discovery would be an understatement. I have been laying plans to create a new website to target small business SEO and I was already ranking for a closely related search. That was the very good news.
What troubled me was that the website gave the message that we only work in the state of Arizona. While that has been true up to this point, we have been working to expand our reach beyond Arizona. Yet, that is not the message that my website was producing. I have to wonder how many visitors came and got that impression and moved on without asking.
It just goes to show how easy it is to miss the mark. Reflecting on this question I can easily understand where the site has fallen short and will begin to address this short coming, So thank you Daniel for opening my eyes to this weakness and strength of my website.
We always ask how someone found our website; it’s just a good business practice. I am truly grateful that he took the time to return my inquiry. Now, excuse me I have a website that needs fixed.
Since Daniel was very nice and helpful here’s a link to his Topiary site and a thank you.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in the US, Canada, or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
What Are You Fishing For?
July 22, 2008
I love it when I read articles about linkbait. I really do love to read about creative linkbait approaches. There is so much of the same old do this or do that that on the subject it can get old quickly. So when I read about novel ways to lure people into linking to your website I pay attention.
It also reminds me of my days growing up along the banks of the Allegheny River and the French Creek in rural Franklin, Pa, as in Pennsylvania. Except that we called the creek a crick. I know go figure, but that slight regional variation is very important when considering keyword development, but that’s for another post.
As a youth in rural Pennsylvania there wasn’t much to do other than to go fishing. So I did a lot of fishing with two major rivers within walking distance. When fishing you generally choose what fish to target on any given day based a multitude of factors such a time of day, water conditions, available food sources, and what you ultimately want to catch.
Then I had to choose which river to I was going to fish that day. I would have to choose between the huge Allegheny River or the smaller but robust French Creek. Once the river choice was made I would have to choose between slow deep waters or faster shallower waters. There is a lot to consider if you want to be successful fisherman.
Now, I would have to have to choose my bait wisely to match my prey of the day. That choice was based on a myriad of environmental conditions, if I wanted to be successful. It also had a lot to do with what I had available. Your bait must be attractive to your targeted fish and be delivered in a way that induces a bite when you want.
Choosing a linkbait for your website is very much like fishing. The bait needs to be targeted towards the group of websites that can provide you useful relevant backlinks that are Do Follow. This is where effective linkbaiting can be very difficult. It can be very easy to create a bunch of links with a very creative baiting method, but getting the desired fish to bite is a lot more difficult.
As any seasoned fisherman knows you can catch a lot of unwanted fish while going after a targeted species. The same thing is true with any linkbaiting method. So when developing linkbaiting programs or methods don’t loose site of your target.
There is another huge benefit to linkbaiting for the blogger that is not often written about. A good linkbait effort can generate hundreds of comments. If your blog is part of a website, those comments provide lots of fresh content that will boost the overall website in the SERP’s.
This is where a great page title that includes a targeted keyword phrase or two can be very beneficial. When titling your page focus on a targeted keyword phrase. Your linkbait comments can break you into the first page of results for that targeted keyword phrase. So linkbait if done correctly can not only supply you with a flood of new links to can assist your website in the SERP’s. This is just another reason why we use WordPress to build websites.
Are You ready to build your WordPress website?
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
SEO PPC And Supermarket Slotting Fees
July 22, 2008
This one might be a stretch for many but give me a few moments to explain. If you have a product that you would like sold in just about any supermarket today, you will first have to pay slotting fees. That’s right grocery stores require fees to be paid just to display your products on their shelves. It is a very difficult process just to earn the right to sell your products. Once you have earned the opportunity to sell your products, you then must pay before you have ever sold anything. This has been going on for decades.
In many ways, Pay Per Click search engine advertising programs like Google’s AdWords are very similar to slotting fees. You pay to play and you keep on paying daily. That is why I like search engine optimization. SEO can provide many websites the opportunity to avoid paying for search engine traffic.
A well optimized website has the ability to end up high in the free organic results. What’s better than free advertising that is highly targeted? If you are in the industry you already know this, the comparison to slotting fees maybe unique, but the basic concepts are still the same.
We write for a larger audience other than the SEO crowd. Our readers are searching for small business SEO solutions. These kinds of analogies we believe are very useful to our core readers. The website owners have two choices they are, pay to play using PPC or optimize. But let me caution you here, my small business friends, SEO is never a one and done situation. It puts you in a position to gain higher search engine rankings. Maintaining that ranking and taking it higher takes lots of planning and effort.
Just like in grocery sales, it is not enough too merely to get placed on the shelf. You have to continue to market your product. The same is true with successful websites. They create other advantages through different channels such as inbound links. You simply do not have the luxury to do SEO on your site and call it good. A truly successful website owner knows and understands that SEO is part of the process, and not an end all option.
As a small business owner who wants to play the search traffic game you have to pay to play. You can pay once for SEO or you can pay everyday using Pay Per Click.
Which makes more sense to you?
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or in the Arizona cities of Casa Grande, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, and beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Portfolio: Mountain View SEO
July 22, 2008
Tucson SEO Solutions created the Mountain View SEO website using an open source content managment system to provide a clean website with easy to update pages. Visit Mountain View SEO
Welcome To Tucson SEO Solutions
July 16, 2008
This website has been a work in progress for the last year. We have recently re-launched this website after nearly a year of dreaming and planning. Previously, we had used a self built Office Live website.
While the website software left a lot to be desired it was free. Yep, the domain name, the website and hosting were all free. We were able to leverage this website to grow our small business beyond merely providing SEO services.
We noted early on that every website that we looked at had serious design and marketing flaws. With this in mind, we decided, never to SEO a broken website. This posed unique challenges as we (the owners) are marketers and not web designers.
We knew we wanted to build and rebuild broken websites so that they were best able to convert their new website traffic. With this in mind, it has been a nine month journey full of obstacles putting our design team together. Finding honest, ethical, and trustworthy designers and editors has been way harder than we had ever anticipated.
We, now have a solid team in place that shares the same vision. This vision is to develop websites that are affordable, that sell, and create customers out of visitors. We simply apply simple basic Geo-Targeted SEO, basic sales 101, proof reading (not the blog), open source CMS, and marketing training to produce tremendous results.
We fully understand how difficult it is to obtain high search ranking in competitive fields. That is why we focus on the local small business owner and niche national players. We play the numbers game, and we play to win.
We never take on a client that we do not believe has a reasonably good chance to obtain first page results over multiple keyword searches (think long tail here.)
We invite you to do some verifying of what we say. Do a Google search for “Tucson house cleaning service.” This is our first website, www.yourfreshstart.us and it has held the #1 or #2 position for this search since April 2007.
We learned SEO out of necessity to market our own website and now we share our experiences with you. We encourage you to comment and thank you for visiting, and if you really like us we would ask that you link to us. This blog is about empowering the small business owner to leverage the web to grow their business.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or even maybe social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Google Sandbox Theory Debunked
July 15, 2008
We re-launched this website back in April of 2008. To market the site we created some linkbait that we call our ‘Do Follow List.” It is a of lists of blogs that still pass link juice from comments on their blog.
Two months later the websites “Do Follow Page” sat at #4 in Google for the keyword phrase “Do Follow List.” Now, up until we began this linkbait effort we were not targeting this phrase. These three words never appeared together on the same page of our website previously to this project.
This is where the sandbox theory comes into the story. So if you follow the sandbox theory it should take six months before this keyword phrase would start to appear in the SERP’s for our site. Almost every SEO will tell you that any work done on a site will take that long to be effective.
Yet, this phrase was regularly appearing on the first page after one month. We did not want to write about this until it had reached the top 5 and stayed there for a week. Well, this just occurred.
You might think that we did so well because our linkbait produced thousands upon thousands of links. However, we were not flooded with tens of thousands of links. We did pick up about 2,000 or so links because of this project.
What I believe had the greatest impact was the comment activity on the blog where the list resides. The comments have dribbled in every other day or so and we responded to every question and almost every comment. We put social into our social media effort.
At the time of the original post there had been 90 comments. Currently (as of) Nov. 28 2008 there are now 345 comments. The search engines reward this kind of activity. The visitors and commenter’s enjoy being part of the conversation and seeing a lively discussion. Also their kind comments were very encouraging when the process was becoming tedious and boring.
In less than 2 months we were able to rise to the 4th position in Google for a competitive keyword search “Do Follow List”. We are talking 156 million competitive results. The whole process required time commitments that have exceeded 300 hours and we are still counting.
So this is our evidence that the fabled sandbox doesn’t exist. I am so thrilled to have such documented evidence to debunk this theory. We have never believed in the sandbox after our first website went onto the first page of Google results quickly. Skeptics chided me on blogs and forums that it could not be done for a competitive keyword search. I think 156 million results make my point.
This accomplishment is partly due to that fact that few websites are actually making an effort to maintain their interest in the “Do Follow Movement.” We seized the opportunity and began planning our assault on this keyword phrase two months in advance of ever publishing the list.
So my friends there are no secrets in this business, except those held within the algorithms. If you really want to obtain the first page of results, it is obtainable; you don’t have to except sandbox theories. You really only need a burning desire to be a winner, a good plan that is well executed, time, and resources.
Success is within reach, you just have to want it bad enough and ignore those who say it can’t be done. Believe in the sandbox theory if you must for me is has never existed.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
What’s In Your Websites Upper Right Corner?
July 14, 2008
Today, I am going to explore a common misconception of website marketing as it relates to the upper right corner of your website. This one is used extensively by marketing professionals. So let me ask you, what’s in your upper right corner of your website?
For many of you the answer is simply a graphic header. For many other website owners that area is occupied with a newsletter sign up form. This is common practice for those who use a newsletter as a part of their marketing efforts.
I recently had appointments with two clients with vibrant marketing businesses. I asked them both the same question. Why is your sign up form in the upper right hand corner of your website? The first man, Sam stated “I don’t know. It was there when I bought the website. Why do you ask?” I answered “because it makes you look desperate!”
The second gentleman, Johnny stated “that’s where marketing websites tell you to put it.” Johnny seemed surprised that I would ask. I again related that it comes off as being desperate. Johnny seemed very confused, the look on his face said “how could they be wrong?”
So imagine, if you will, that your websites home page is the front door of a retail store. How would you feel if when you walked into the store and were immediately greeted by a salesperson? Now, also imagine that that salesperson asked you for a sale right there on the spot. No, “hi how are you.” no qualifying questions or chits or chat.
You would probably turn around and leave. That’s what happens to these websites and they often have very high bounce rates. Isn’t it a little presumptive to think that a visitor will want to sign up before they have an opportunity to judge your credibility? You have to earn their respect before you can ask to sign up for a newsletter.
This approach comes off as desperate. So why does this bad advice persist? I believe that this and many other Internet marketing beliefs and practices began early on and no one spoke up and challenged these approaches. Then another person with a herd mentality does it and the practice snowballs. I have heard that this is an expect able practice from other marketing professionals as well.
It is amazing that people whose business is marketing can so easily miss this fundamental marketing mistake. All good sales presentations include three elements the features, the benefits, and the call to action. When you place the sign-up form on the top of your website, you are effectively asking for the sale first and that’s the last thing that you should do.
Effective marketing requires thinking outside the box. It also often requires challenging long held beliefs.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or even maybe social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
#4 out of 156,000,000
July 13, 2008
Our SEO practice is all about developing and exploiting niche opportunities. Since SEO is basically a numbers game, you want to target your keyword phrases that are actually being used, but that have only a few competitors. It comes down to the fewer competitors the better.
So while we do well at landing this website on the first page of results for SEO related searches, these would not be considered competitive. That’s the whole purpose of what we are trying to achieve.
So today, I read a question on a forum that I had never visited before. It asked “what is the most competitive keyword that you have ranked for?” I knew that we ranked high for the search “Do Follow List” but I never pay any attention to how many results came up on a Google search for this term. Well, the answer is that we are #4 out of 156 Million search results… Wow!
All of those ahead of us have had 8 months to a year or more advance lead on us. So to say that we are pleased would be an understatement. I am still a little bit in the clouds over this revelation.
We were able to accomplish this because we put in over 300 hours developing the list and marketing it effectively. The whole project was created as linkbait for the relaunching of our website and it has worked very well.
The bottom line here is SEO is not an easy fix, but if you are willing to put in the effort you will succeed.
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Our Best SEO Customer
July 8, 2008
Everyone has their own take on what is their best customer. For many their best customer is one who pays on time. Some will take that a little bit further; their best customer is one who pays on time and never complains.
Many will relate that their best customer is a happy customer who sends them quality referrals time and time again. We all appreciate our customers who send referrals. We call this WOM marketing, or Word Of Mouth.
I have developed a very friendly relationship with a business coach here in town who has been a client of mine. We travel in a lot of the same business circles. She warmly introduces me by saying “this guy knows what he’s talking about” in a loud gruff New York City kinda way. She really puts on a very good presentation for me. So Lynn, I want to take a moment to say thanks.
However, I may have a new best customer. This man, Paul gave me my first job in this business. At that time I had been in business 2 months and had only done a few website reviews, but never got a chance to work on someone else’s website.
He was a sales manager at a local moving company with a local customer base. Before I began the Geo-targeted SEO process the website could be found 3 times on the first page of results. Within in two weeks of implementing basic Geo-targeting the website was on Google’s first page 16 times. That grew to 33 times in one month.
We used basic SEO here and targeted 50 or so Geo-targeted keywords. However, they failed to implement any vehicle to add fresh content. Then they slowly slipped off the first pages. I recently found that over the last year that they had lost almost every thing that they had gained and surrendered to the competition.
This development changed the way that we approach business and clients. We decided that if the client wasn’t motivated to do everything possible to succeed that we would no longer take on these types of clients. We concluded that it was a waste of effort to SEO a site that is broken or a site that has no way to readily be updated.
Last week I discovered that Paul was no longer with this company when I meet his replacement. Then within days Paul calls me out of the blue. He explains “I’m working for a bigger company now and I want you to do what you did before, and this company has the budget for it.”
He went on to explain that he has talked to a lot of SEO people over the past year and I’m the only one that knows what I’m talking about. He went on to say “you have shown that you can do the job.” He was very surprised when I explained that he was my first customer.
It is this kind of response that keeps me up at night as I plan to roll out our services nationally. When you get this kind of customer feedback anything seems possible.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in Flagstaff or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Free Zip Code Database
July 6, 2008
I recently read a comment about blogging on other websites as a total waste of time. I noted that I consider this activity to be both a part of our social promotion, but that it is also part of our continuing education. The response also noted that there are a lot of great resources that are gained by visiting other sites and participating.
This post began simply enough, while I was checking the SERP’s for the Keyword phrase “niche SEO” I noticed that SEOBook had an article on niche SEO. After landing on Aaron’s site I followed a link that he provided for a free Zip Code database.
Since we provide Geo-targeted SEO we figured this database would be very useful. The site provided 2 options link to Free Zip Code Database in a blog post and get a free version or Pay $25.00.
As you can see we opted for option one. It was such an easy decision. I hadn’t posted to the blog today, so here was fresh content just begging to be used. It also allows us to assist you by providing useful information and tools. This is a basic part of our business and personal styles. When we help others we often find many benefits for ourselves. Helping and assisting others has so many rewards.
I had no idea when looking at the SERP’s would take me and this is why I love what I do so much… Everyday it’s some think new, better, or different.
Did I say “I love my job.”
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or in the Arizona cities of Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, and beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Goggle Is Offering A Free Online Seminar
July 5, 2008
That’s right if you want to acquire training from Google that’s free then pay attention. Google will be offering a webinar on July 9th at 9:00 AM PST. They are calling it The Google Trifecta.
The three topic areas will include
We think this could be a very powerful combination of tools for most website owners. Since we are an organic results based service we don’t currently use website optimizer. However, I have viewed a Google video on the subject and found it very interesting. The tool allows you to create A/B testing of your web pages. We h considered signing up for AdWords just to try out the optimizer service.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or in the Arizona cities of Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, and beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
God Bless America
July 4, 2008
I wanted to take a moment or two to say how grateful that I am to be an American. We are currently the most blessed nation in the world. I have advantages that the rest of the world merely dreams about. We have freedom… To say what I want, to blog what I want, to start a new business.
The only thing that limits most of us is ourselves. So Happy Birthday America… I love you!
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg, Sphinn it, or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Tucson Website Designs Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization
Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Do Follow Blog List
If your business is located in US, Canada, or in the Arizona cities of Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, and beyond and would like to learn how your website can benefit from a blog please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.