Let the Link Building Begin! Your new website just went live so you’re now enjoying the fruits of your labor and admiring the exceptional job you and your team did on design and development. The project is finally over and it is time to settle back and wait for your website traffic to climb to new heights. Reality check! I repeat - it is time for a reality check. You’re about half done with your quest for internet dominance. The research, website design, build out, and on-page SEO are all ... Read More
Search Engine Optimization Articles
SEO related blog posts, discussion and instruction covering all aspects of search engine optimization for small to mid-market companies.
Web Design Ain’t Over Until the SEO Sings
So you’ve gone through weeks of website design, content creation, and setting up your social media accounts. You are ready to go live with your beautiful new website. Ah, not so fast. You’re forgetting the SEO consultant has the last word and no website should go live until your SEO guru dots all the I’s and crosses all the T’s. At Web Savvy Marketing we work on a good mix of web design projects and straight SEO consulting. Our website design clients typically select us because our ... Read More
I Owe Bing a Big Fat Apology
Bing I owe you an apology. As of this weekend, I’ve realized I owe you one big fat public apology. For years I’ve dismissed Microsoft and I was a loyal fan of Google. This weekend you made me see a new you. A new, improved and pretty cool Bing. On Saturday morning I was drinking my coffee, surfing the web, and reading blog posts. Yes I am an SEO (aka nerd) and this is what we do on a Saturday morning. As I explored the web I happen to run across a blog post on Bing’s Webmaster Center blog. ... Read More
Keyword Research for the Average Joe
Good keyword research is imperative for organic SEO. We SEO consultants typically view this practice as common sense, but it’s only because we do it all the time. In the real world, keyword research isn’t necessary easy for the average marketer or webmaster. But keyword research doesn’t have to be some big crazy formula. I read a lot of SEO articles and blog posts and the internet is full of great content and advice for performing elaborate keyword research. While this works, the activity ... Read More
With Good SEO Google Has a Memory Like an Elephant
I’ve always said short-term memory is like lake front property. There is only so much lake front property to go around and you have to allocate it to the most important things within your life. Now that I’m forty, my lake front property – aka my short-term memory – seems to erode faster with each passing day. Google is far from forty and has a memory like an elephant. Good SEO only makes this elephant stronger. My SEO Efforts Will Outlive Me This concept has been overly apparent to me this ... Read More
Accountant Turned SEO
Today I read an article on Marketing Sherpa about formalizing an SEO process and plan. Wow! It took me back to college, aka twenty years ago, when I was enrolled as an accounting major. Yes folks, this SEO started out as an accountant. My Reality Check as a Future Accountant My college years were self-funded. I lived off waiting tables and I paid tuition via grants and loans. My 30+ hour work weeks were spent waiting tables. My days as a server did more than just bring in money. They taught me ... Read More
The Indisputable Power of the Blog Post
Today is vacation. I sit alone, quietly drinking coffee, as the rest of my family and our friends sleep. It is our annual family vacation up north and this is the first morning. As I sit with my cup enjoying the sunrise over the lake, I begin reading Engage by Brian Solis. I am bothered. Not by the book, but by a conversation I had with a prospect a week ago. Yes a week ago. The woman was an SEO referral from another marketer I know in Detroit. We had a wonderful conversation about her company’s ... Read More
DIY SEO or Professional SEO Consultant?
What’s your SEO approach? Are you a do-it-yourself SEO or did you hire an SEO consultant? DIY SEO can be great because it is a whole lot cheaper than hiring an SEO professional. And even better, since you are your own SEO expert, you are in control of everything. On the flip side, DIY SEO can also be very time consuming and it can lead you down a dark path of destruction without you ever even knowing. It can also give you a false sense of security and make you believe you know enough to be ... Read More
Bad Website Architecture: The Silent SEO Killer
My focus is small business marketing, so I encounter a lot of people who have tried a do-it-yourself SEO approach to internet marketing. The semi-savvy business owner thinks his SEO knowledge is pretty darn good, yet he just can’t figure out why he isn’t seeing increases in website traffic. In our conversation he provides obscure long-tail keywords to illustrate his SEO tactics are working. He also tells me he lacks traffic and real revenue resulting from all the time he has allocated to his ... Read More
The Magic Formula of Great SEO
This weekend I looked back at SEO related statistics for a B2B website I launched in November of 2009. A full year has passed and I wanted to see the progress this company made over a twelve-month period. After launching the new WordPress website, the client retained me to work on their internet marketing efforts. It helped free up time for the client, it gave their internet marketing a cohesiveness it would not have had otherwise, and it gave me time to nurture my new baby. I believe it was ... Read More
What’s Your Threshold of SEO Pain?
My husband and I are finishing our basement and attempting to make it the cool place for our kids and their friends. Whenever we make a major purchase, the decision always boils down to my financial pain threshold. I don’t know the competitive market price for granite or quartz, but I know my budget and what I can afford. My list of wants end up being scaled back to what my bank account will allow. As we discuss a custom bar and bamboo flooring (I’m a bit high maintenance I’m told), it ... Read More
Local Search Will Become the Golden Child in 2011
There’s been a lot of talk about local search recently. A lot of SEO experts, including myself, feel local search is still in its infancy stage and as it matures, it will have a major impact on search engine optimization and internet marketing. Many of us feel 2011 is the year in which local search will come of age. Not only come of age, but also become an important part of the internet marketer’s bag of tricks. Remember when most people had no idea what social media was, what it meant, or ... Read More
Twenty Tips for Creating the Perfect Blog Post
When I said I blogged five years ago, people looked at me as if I was crazy. Well I was, but blogging didn't drive me to insanity. Today it is a bit more mainstream and bloggers are everywhere. I actually like blogging. I enjoy it and it has been a huge help to me professionally. Last weekend I attended WordCamp Detroit and I was surrounded by bloggers. I wasn't prepared for that one, as I use WordPress for website design and I guess I assume everyone in the room would too. Was I wrong. ... Read More
Ten Steps to Quality Link Building and Strong Organic SEO
Whenever I create a new website for a client, I always tell them the website is only the core foundation of strong SEO. Strong SEO requires a solid, well planned, and long-term link building campaign. Interestingly enough, as I prepare for a live Q&A sessions for my friends over at JuJuQ on the subject, I found myself an email to a client nagging him about building inbound links for a brand new website we launched last Wednesday. Inbound links are a huge part of SEO and since I’m an ... Read More
Blekko vs. Google: I’m Now in Love With BOTH
This morning Blekko invited me to beta their new search engine. I was absolutely thrilled when the DM invite appeared in my Twitter inbox. I am an SEO consultant, so for me this was like Christmas morning. I so hoped the excitement would not lessen once I accepted the invitation and unwrapped my new gift. Unlike Christmas morning, where I savor the unwrapping of presents, I ripped into my Blekko access as fast as I could. I was not only impressed, I really loved the experience. I quickly ... Read More
A Good Blog Title is Like Wrapping Paper on a Present
I always loved Christmas as a child and love it today as an adult. It is filled with family, great food, and presents. As a child I liked the family and presents; as an adult I love all three. The difference is as a child I liked to receive presents and as an adult I like to give them. While I probably didn’t care much about the wrapping paper as a child, I do as an adult. I think the wrapping paper and presentation should be as good as the present itself. Gifts for adults need perfect corners, ... Read More
Pay Per Click Campaigns: The Black Hole of the Internet
I hate pay per click campaigns. I love Google and even respect Adwords’ capabilities, but I hate pay per click and everything it represents. Pay per click is an Internet black hole that sucks you in so deep, you can’t get out. As an SEO consultant, it’s everything I can do to drag you and your hesitant self back out into my world of free organic search. I’ve talked to a lot of prospects and clients who have ongoing pay per click campaigns. When I say ongoing, I mean they’ve been spending ... Read More
Google’s Search Results Skews Your Self Image?
What is your view of your current website traffic and Internet marketing campaigns? Are you receiving as much traffic as you’d like or are you scoring as high on your top keywords as you had originally hoped? No, this isn’t my sales pitch; there is a point to these questions. If you’re the average small business owner, you know enough about organic search engine optimization to make you dangerous. You know a little about SEO (search engine optimization) and you periodically check your keyword ... Read More
When You Know Good SEO, Bad SEO is Like a Neon Sign
This week I was working on a project for a long-term client of mine. In doing some online research I visited a large number of B2B software developer websites. Some were large companies and some were smaller niche players. I was disappointed at the large percentage of these websites that were using less than stellar SEO practices. Technology companies own these websites and I would have imagined they’d know better. Back in my early days of SEO (search engine optimization) I was overwhelmed by ... Read More
The Value of Search and the User Experience
I’m currently reading a book titled Search Patterns by Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender. Picking up a book is a rare treat for me, so even though this book is technically work-related I’m don’t mind. It is a good book and speaks to the Internet geek within me. As I read through the pages I’m awestruck by the explanation given for the qualities associated with the searcher’s experience. The authors boil this down to a simple illustration called the User Experience Honeycomb. The User ... Read More
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