Internet Marketing Topics

Top 10 Tips to make your site rank better in search engines

2010-01-21T09:58:00.007-05:00

Recap of Top 5 Tips:
1. Optimize Images
2. Optimize Videos
3. Optimize Press Releases
4. Optimize your Blog
5. Optimize your Social Media

6. Submit Your Site to Local Business Listings - These are the group of links that appear next to the image of a map when you do a search for a local business or service. Some typical searches that bring up local business listings are "Lawyers in Cleveland" or "Cleveland Cosmetic Dentist." If your site is not well optimized, a local listing can quickly get your site ranked in the top ten search engine results. Creating a local business listing is an excellent example of using blended search results to get higher rankings.

7. Create a Wikipedia Entry - Wiki entries are almost always in the top five search engine results because they offer a enormous amount of searchable content on almost every subject. While the information may, or may not be 100% accurate, search engines still recognize wikis as a valuable resource for information. Creating a wiki is free and can provide exponential benefits for your website.

8. Submit Products to Google Shopping (formerly Froogle) - Google shopping provides a quick and easy way to get all of your products listed in Google with minimal effort. The only thing you need to do is upload a spreadsheet with all of your product images, descriptions and prices. The only downside is that you must resubmit your database every thirty days. This is a small price to pay to get your products found.

9. Optimize Online Presentations - Tools like slideshare allow you to easily post PowerPoint presentations to your website. This not only adds valuable content to your site, but is also extremely convenient for visitors and email recipients (simply send them a link to the PowerPoint presentation). PowerPoint presentations have been showing up more and more in both Google and Yahoo.

10. Optimize for Organic - This is a no-brainer. Make sure your website is optimized. It is best to start with your own website by taking advantage of all on-site optimization elements first. When you have covered all of your bases, start with a few tips that I mentioned here and in my previous post about blended search. One thing to keep in mind when you are trying to optimize for blended search results is that this is a marketing or branding campaign for your business. Try to be consistent with your image and the terminology you use across the board and you will have success.

Top 10 Tips to help your site rank better in Search Engines

2009-12-23T11:32:00.009-05:00

If you want to ensure all your hard work creating videos, Tweeting, posting images and writing press releases doesn't go unnoticed, subscribe to these five methods of optimizing for Blended Search.

1.Optimize Images - Use proper naming conventions that are loaded with the keywords or key phrases for which you wish to be searchable. Avoid naming conventions such as image007.jpg or company_logo.gif. By properly describing your images, you not only get an edge with Search Engine Optimization, you will find it helps keep your image folders organized and easy to reference. Optimize the size of your images, too. The speed at which people demand information is forcing websites to increase the download speed of images and documents. The faster your webpages appear, the better your chances to rank higher in search engines. Optimize using alt text. With the exception of the name of your images, this is the only way search engines can "see" your images.

2.Optimize Videos - As the trend of using videos to find information grows, optimizing videos continues to become more critical. Video sharing sites such as www.YouTube.com and www.dailymotion.com provide ways to optimize your videos when you upload them. They allow a title for your video, a short description and even tags. Take advantage of these elements by placing important keywords in them.

3.Optimize Press Releases - Search engines love press releases because they are relevant to the times. You can easily optimize them by using keywords or key phrases in the title and in the opening paragraph. Try to use different variations of the keyword and don't be "spammy" by overloading the press release with your keywords.

4.Optimize Your Blog - First, if you are not blogging, start. Second, because blogs continue to be a more trusted source for information, they are becoming a large component of search engine results. They are a quick and easy method of getting more content on your site. Use the same optimization tips as you would for a press release.

5.Optimize Your Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, bloggin and forums; How can these help your business? Besides the fact that they are all extremely viral, search engines are indexing them. If you look back at my last post on Blended Search, you will see a screen capture of live updating Tweets from Twitter. Why is this so amazing? Because out of 61 million listings, it was in the 4th Google search ranking position for the search term, "Tiger Woods." This opens the door for smaller, newer sites to rank well for other competitive terms, even if for only a short period of time. Follow the same search engine optimizing tips you would for a blog or a press release and you may find your social media ranked at the top for your most important keywords.

Check back on Friday, January 21 for the rest of my Top 10 Tips for Blended Search Optimization.

Previous Post: Blended Search Results can help your site rank better in Search Engines

Blended Search Results can help your site rank better in Search Engines

2009-12-15T13:32:00.009-05:00

A hot topic at this year's Search Engine Strategies Expo in Chicago was the emergence of Blended Search Results and how they can help improve your positioning in search engines. Blended results have been around since 2007, they just hadn't made as big a splash as they are now.

What are blended search results?
Blended search results combine the typical blue text link and the two line description with many other types of results including image, video, news, wiki, social media and more. For example, I did a web search for "Tiger Woods," which returned:

Image Results

Video Results

News Feeds

Wikies

Social Media

How will blended search results affect my business?
With more than 20 different types of blended search results, the top 10 search engine ranking positions are becoming more competitive. Before blended search was created, there were ten results listed on the first page in a search engine. These listings were driven by search engine optimization elements such as page titles, meta tags and inbound links. Now, the typical blue text link results are fighting for position with image results from Google Shopping or video results from YouTube.com, and even Twitter has found its way into the top ten.

How can my business take advantage of Blended Search?
Similar to the search engine results of the past, you must optimize. Blended search is primarily based on keyword rich content and relevancy to the other content on your site.

To read my Top 10 Tips for Blended Search Optimization, visit our blog on Tuesday, December 22.

Twitter in Web Searches Means More Ammunition for Your Company

2009-11-18T13:20:00.007-05:00

Having a company Twitter page is now more appealing than ever!

The three search engine giants, Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are now each planning to include Twitter "Tweets" in their search engines. This comes as no surprise considering that Facebook profiles and pages can now be found in web searches quite easily.

Twitter, which allows users to post short, 140-character messages, has fast become one of the most widely used social media applications to date. These text only "Tweets" can range from simple news entries to self promotion, or even pointless babble.

In a corporate setting Twitter is perfect for quickly announcing upcoming events, or commenting on related news issues. Think of it as a micro-blogging platform that allows potential customers to easily get the information they need about your company or organization.

Not convinced? Check out all the ways Twitter can be used:

Personal branding
Feedback
Hiring, finding prospects
Connects employees to one another
Customer notification
Setting up meetings
Acquire votes
Live coverage
Time management and analysis

Above all else Twitter is a great traffic generation tool. Each tweet has an incredible amount of "pass-along" potential, utilizing the viral nature of social media to it's fullest.

Let us know if your interested in having Dynamics Online create a customized Twitter profile for your company.

And of course, follow us on Twitter!

Sources:
17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to Include Tweets in Web Searches

Company Party on Nautica Queen

2009-10-19T22:55:00.005-04:00

Here are some photos from our October company party on the Nautica Queen, cruising the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, and past Sammy's in the Flats.

We also commemorated Dave Cintron's 10th anniversary serving our clients.

Dynamics Online to Showcase at 2009 Business to Business Show

2009-08-31T11:54:00.016-04:00

It's time to... Connect, Grow and Profit! Come check out Dynamics Online's booth at the 2009 Business to Business Show hosted by the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce!

We will be exhibiting our wide range of services including Search Engine Optimization, Website/Email Design, Content Management, and Social Media Marketing. The event will be held at the Hilton in Beachwood on October 12, 2:30 - 7:00pm. See us at booth 28.

Look forward to ...

A Small Business Symposium & Education Workshops
Over 100 Exhbitors
Samplings of some really, really good food by area restaurants and caterers
A Chinese Auction with fabulous items (winners need not be present to win)

As a prize for the Chinese Auction, we will build one lucky company a customized branded blog worth over $400!

Click Here for more info.

Hola Fruta Tasting Party!

2009-07-22T13:30:00.004-04:00

Matt, Laura and the nice people at Pierre's Ice Cream Company were so nice to treat us to a "Fiesta Friday" to celebrate Hola Fruta, their premium sherbet, and the relaunch of their website at Pierres.com. Keith was out today, so we invited our friends from the building management office to help us sample five great flavors.

From left: Bruce, Jeremy and Kirk from Dynamics Online, Lisa, Herb, Dave (HVAC guy) and Marcia from building management.

Dave enjoyed one of the five great flavors we had to choose from.

You can sign up to win your own Fiesta Friday on the HolaFruta.com website. Enjoy!

Introducing XoomDaddy Photo Gallery!

2009-07-15T10:48:00.014-04:00

Can't find a good photo gallery for your website? Let Dynamics Online provide the right solution with XoomDaddy Photo Gallery! XoomDaddy accesses photos and sets from your Flickr account and displays them on an easy-to-use web-based Photo Gallery. All you need is a Flickr account and Dynamics Online can install this gallery on your website lickity-split!

Benefits of XoomDaddy Photo Gallery

It's sleek, simple, and customizable design can easily fit in with the look of your site or brand

Uses Flickr's simplified interface to upload and organize your gallery

Made with ultra-light PHP/Flickr API code that won't bog down the speed of your website

Keeps track of tags, description, and titles on all album or image pages

Includes Flickr slideshow links

Utilizes simplified breadcrumb navigation

Comes with detailed instructions for the not so web-savy users

The idea behind XoomDaddy was to create a gallery that allowed website owners to control their images with greater ease. There are thousand of galleries out there all promising to be simple and easy to use, but most still require knowledge of HTML, XML, Databases, Flash, Dreamweaver, or other complicated user interfaces. XoomDaddy promises make this process much easier by using Flickr's user-friendly interface to access photos and sets into your gallery.

View our Online Demo!

Facebook URLs Get A New Look

2009-06-12T15:55:00.002-04:00

Facebook recently announced the introduction of vanity URLs to their pages. What does this mean exactly? It means if you want to send someone to your Facebook page, you can send them to www.facebook.com/DynamicsOnline
as opposed to
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Beachwood-OH/Dynamics-Online-Inc/45519076220?sid=64a1632921eb33c24cbdece985d1dbcd&ref=search.

These vanity URLs will be great branding opportunities and lend themselves extremely well to print, television and radio advertising. Here are a couple rules about the vanity URLs:

Once your name has been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it.
If you signed up for a Facebook Page after May 31 or a user profile after today at 3 p.m. EDT, you may not be able to sign up for a username immediately because of steps we've taken to prevent abuse or "squatting" on names.
Names will be available at 12:01 AM on Saturday June 13th.

I recommend thinking long and hard about the name you would like associated with your Facebook page, logging in early and when the clock strikes 12:01am, get typing.

Changing the World 360 Degrees at a Time

2009-05-01T16:48:00.011-04:00

The Green Dream, an eco-friendly program at Beachwood High School was looking for the best way to showcase their classroom online. Dynamics Online to the rescue! After merging over 100 photos, we created a 360 degree panorama with hotspots. Would a panorama be right for your website? Depends, panoramas can offer:

A great, modern way to show off your office, warehouse or showroom.
Customers can zoom in on hotspots for more information about your product or space.
An intuitive way to through your "virtual" office space.

Contact Dynamics Online for more information about panoramas

New Website Feature: Flash Slider

2009-03-31T09:59:00.002-04:00

We have implemented many "sliders" which are usually rectangular areas near the top of a website's home page that feature 4 or 5 news stories that rotate every 10 seconds or so. We have now implemented a more animated version programmed in Flash scripting. You can see that here:

http://www.centerforfamily.com/

See the Flash slider in the right column under the heading "Meet Families Waiting to Adopt." Contact us if you are interested in a feature like this for your website.

Writing Workshop Benefits Our Staff and Clients

2009-03-02T10:25:00.005-05:00

Writing consultant and instructor Norm Friedman conducted a workshop for Dynamics Online staff and a few clients on February 27. The workshop taught us about proper grammar and punctuation usage in the electronic age (no different than in the paper age!) as well as important tips for more effective use of e-mail communications.

Dynamics Online staff and our client guests listen to instructor Norm Friedman's presentation.

One example of Norm's useful tips is the refocusing of an e-mail's subject line after a few replies and forwards if the purpose of the e-mail has changed.

According to Norm, the rule is "that the commas and periods always reside inside the quotation marks." How are we doing so far?

Recent Workshop Shows How Our Internet Solutions Help Our Clients Grow Business

2009-02-27T17:46:00.005-05:00

Bruce Newburger, president, and Keith Mayer, Internet marketing specialist, last week conducted a workshop on Internet marketing at the annual national convention of SparkleWash franchisees.

SparkleWash franchisees provide pressure washing solutions to residential, commercial, industrial and construction customers. For many years, we have designed, maintained and promoted the national SparkleWash website at http://www.sparklewash.com/. A few years ago, we developed a popular franchisee website program that features a template-based websites with a online content management system (example at http://www.sparklewashofcuyahoga.com/). We have also developed more elaborate custom websites for select franchisees (example at http://www.sparklewashbyce.com/).

Bruce and Keith reviewed the opportunities for franchisees, including website design options, search engine positioning and keyword purchase options, and social networking such as posting video demonstrations to YouTube. See example:

Keith's experience includes marketing to potential franchisees for his previous employer in the promotional products industry. In the below photo, Bruce discusses options with two franchisees, Eric Smeltzer and Chris Earll.

Our point here is this: many times the strategy behind the website program is at least as important as the design and execution. A well-strategized Internet project can strengthen existing relationships and provide a framework to attract future prospects. Well done, SparkleWash!

Camp Robin Hood Website Redesign Roasts Marshmallows

2009-02-20T16:12:00.003-05:00

This website is hot! This month we launched a redesign for Camp Robin Hood, a New Hampshire sleepaway summer camp that competes for campers drawn from across the country and overseas. The new website design features layered textures of wood and cork, with a "white board" motif for presenting content to the visitor. Seeing the site is the next best thing to eating gooey s'mores! Visit www.CampRobinHood.com.

We Welcome Keith Mayer to our Internet Marketing Team

2009-02-20T16:06:00.002-05:00

Keith Mayer is the latest addition to our Internet marketing team at Dynamics Online. Keith joined our company in December, 2008, as an Internet marketing specialist and manager of our search and social marketing services. He was previously the recipient of such services on the franchise marketing team of Proforma, a supplier of promotional products. Please read Keith Mayer's bio and welcome him to our team!

News: Staff Additions and Promotions

2009-01-26T10:53:00.001-05:00

After nearly 10 years serving our clients, Kirk Hiner is promoted to E-Commerce Solutions Manager. His focus is helping you to select, customize and populate the ideal e-commerce solution for your product line. We are also pleased to announce the addition of Jeremy Fleischer, who has joined us as Website Production Manager. Jeremy is a recent Professional Arts graduate of Kent State University with experience as a webmaster and graphic designer using Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and FrontPage. See complete staff bios.

News: Remember Our New Domain, DynamicsUS.com

2009-01-23T16:27:00.004-05:00

Yes, we are now sporting a slimmer domain name for use on this website and our email addresses. See our new, more friendly email addresses.

New Website Launch: DiabeticPromotions.com

2009-01-12T10:06:00.003-05:00

We are pleased to have orchestrated the re-launch of http://www.diabeticpromotions.com/ using a newer, full-featured e-commerce platform. The new platform offers our client considerably more merchadising and pricing options, including coupons, bundle offers, shipping deals and much more. It also supports our clinet's network of product manufacturers who link to the site for sales of their individual product lines. This upgrade was orchestrated by Kirk Hiner, recently promoted to E-Commerce Solutions Manager.

Five Tools for Competitive Analysis

2008-10-01T09:56:00.004-04:00

By Matt Wilkinson, Internet Marketing Specialist.

Live, from New York, it's... the Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference and Expo! OK, perhaps it's not as exciting as Saturday Night Live, but this annual conference is where Internet Marketers go to learn about the latest news, tricks, tools and resources for search engine marketing. I attended in order to stay on top of the latest developments for your projects. This year's hot topics included viral marketing, web analytics, social media marketing and competitive research. Look for future tips of the month on all of these topics, starting with this month, as we look at using search engine optimization tools for competitive research.

As an Internet marketer, I frequently use a number of online tools to research, track and measure the results of our Search Engine Optimization and Keyword Purchasing campaigns. However, you don't have to be an online marketing specialist to use the tools below to gain valuable insight into the strategies of your competitors. Here are five free tools for online competitive analysis:

Keep Track of Your Competitors in the News

Sign up for Google Alerts to receive notifications (by e-mail) for news updates about your company and your competitors. Simply enter the search terms you would like to track (company names, products, websites, etc.) and choose the frequency of your updates (daily, weekly, or as-it-happens). Google will e-mail you when your selected search terms appear in Google's aggregated collection of news, blogs, videos, etc.

Analyze the Traffic of Your Competitors' Websites

Search metric sites, such as Compete.com and Alexa.com, provide estimated traffic numbers for many websites. Data is collected from a sample Internet audience through user-installed toolbars. There is some debate regarding the accuracy of these traffic estimates, as the sample audience may not be representative of the entire Internet population. Also, less-trafficked sites tend to have little to no information. However, both tools can provide useful insight into the overall traffic trends for many of your competitor's websites.

Find Out What Keywords Your Competitors Are Buying

KeyCompete, KeywordSpy and SpyFu allow you to gain insight into your competitor's keyword purchasing campaigns (pay-per-click advertising.) Each site allows you to search by keyword or website, the latter providing search terms that a website is "bidding" on. All three tools restrict the number of results in the free versions of their respective tools. If more data is needed, you would need to purchase subscription packages.

Keep Track of Updates to Your Competitors' Websites

Remember what the internet looked like in 1996? So does the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine keeps archived versions of websites for future reference. While browsing your old homepage from 1998 can be quite nostalgic, the Wayback Machine can also be used for competitive research. Use this tool to check for past updates to your competitors product or service offerings. Or, use the Wayback Machine to see how your competitors overall online strategy has changed over the years.

Identify Sites That Link to Your Competitors

The quantity and quality of incoming links to a site is one of the most important elements of search engine optimization. However, finding links from appropriate websites can be a tedious and time-consuming task. Thankfully, the search engines give us an easy way to generate ideas for possible link partners. Simply enter "link:www.YourCompetitor.com" in the Yahoo or Google search field to find out who is linking to your competitor. Use this to examine link opportunities on industry-related sites, blogs and directories.

The above tools represent a small sampling of the resources available for online competitive research. For more information or for assistance with your Internet Marketing strategy, contact Dynamics Online today.

Banner Year for Internet Display Ads

2008-09-01T10:58:00.003-04:00

By Dave Cintron, Art Director.

This year we have seen a resurgence of demand for our services to design animated banner ads for our clients to place on other sites that already reach their targeted audience.

"I think what we're seeing are companies that experimented pre-1999 trying it again," said Mia Amato, online marketing consultant to romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises. "The difference is that smarter companies are using banners in targeted audience environments."

Some of the important elements of a successful banner ad campaign are:

Effective Animation.
The trend is to capture the viewer's interest through the drama, storytelling, tension, excitement and humor that can be delivered more creatively through short animated sequences. The popularity of Flash animation allows designers to include rather complex graphics, such as photos, and smooth animation sequences, while maintaining the required small file sizes. Flash animation is sometimes called rich media. However, traditional gif animation remains popular because it is frequently less expensive to design and more universally accepted on target sites.

A study by ZD Net found that animated ads generated click-through rates at least 15 percent higher than static ads, and in some cases as much as 40 percent higher.

Clear Call to Action.
The viewer should have no doubt about the nature of the product or service being advertised, and be motivated to click through for more details about the offer. "Shorter words in bigger type are always better," said Amato. "Strong images should resonate emotionally with the audience and relate to what's being sold."

Extension of the Brand.
The banner ad can be considered as a companion piece to the advertiser's site. Effective use of the existing logo, color palette and style of images serves to introduce viewers to the advertiser's identity, which is more recognizable for future ads or website visits.

Hitting the Target.
There are thousands of sites that accept advertising and each one can target a specific industry segment or different demographic mix. It is important that you pick the right sites or networks of sites that attract viewers you are trying to reach. USA Today reported that 52 percent of survey respondents said that they would be more likely to respond to a banner ad if it were more relevant to their particular interests. "The most beautiful ad on the wrong site is like paying to display a billboard in your basement," said Amato. "How many potential customers will see it?"

Dynamics Online can design and produce banner ads to meet a target site's specific requirements quickly
and effectively, often under demanding timelines and within a reasonable budget. See a portfolio of sample banner ads that we have designed in both Flash and animated gif formats, including our recent banner designs for Harlequin, here:
http://www.dynamicsus.com/flashbanner.shtml

For assistance with your banner advertising campaigns, contact Dynamics Online today.

Mia Amato can be reached at
miaamato@nyc.rr.com.

Local Search: Targeting Customers in Your Own Backyard

2006-09-01T11:19:00.002-04:00

By Andrea Greene, Internet Marketing Specialist

Over the last several years, buying keyword listings in the search engines has become a widely used and effective method of advertising your products and services online. For businesses with a website and a national audience, this approach makes most sense. It allows you to put your message in front of the entire Internet audience, for any potential customers to see.

Unfortunately, for many businesses serving a local market there can be one major drawback: lack of geographic targeting. These keyword listings can show up for searches done anywhere in the country, from California to
Florida to Maine. For products and services available nationwide, that might be an appropriate strategy. But consider the local pizza shop in Beachwood, Ohio. They don't want to be stuck paying for irrelevant clicks on searches for "pizza delivery" from a searcher in Philadelphia because chances are that pizza shop is not going to make the 900 mile round trip just to deliver a pepperoni pizza!

Research from The Kelsey Group estimates that at least 10% of searches
are local in nature* and that by 2008, advertisers will spend approximately
$2.8 billion on local search.

Search engines are now developing new tools and programs that allow you to pick precisely which areas your potential customers will be able to see your keyword listings. You can target by city, state, region, and in some cases even by inputting custom coordinates.

Local Keyword Purchasing Programs: Currently, there are a number of different keyword campaigns available in the top local search marketing programs. Both Google and MSN have programs in place that can actually determine where you are searching from and cater the search results to your location. Other programs let you buy listings directly in the local search engines, such as Yahoo Local, or in an online directory, like the Verizon Superpages, that are displayed when the searcher inputs their location, usually city, state or zip code.

Example: For Designs of Distinction, a local event production and planning company, we tested a geography targeted campaign with the Verizon Superpages. We were able to put our client in the top results of the party equipment & supplies category in the Cleveland, Ohio geographic market!

Business Profiles: Don't want to pay for clicks? Consider letting Dynamics Online create and manage custom businessprofiles for your business in your specified local market. You control the information provided,
including business hours, contact information, payment options, reviews, and more. Your business profile can be added in the top local search engines and directories, including Google Local, Yahoo Local, Superpages, MSN Local, InfoSpace, Switchboard, and many others. See examples of optimized business profiles in Google Local, Yahoo Local, and Verizon Superpages.

If you are interested in starting a local search engine marketing campaign or just want to learn more, contact
Dynamics Online today.

*via Local Search Guide:
http://www.localsearchguide.org/html/local_search.html

Writing Content for your Website and the Search Engines

2006-08-01T11:44:00.001-04:00

By Kirk Hiner, E-Commerce Solutions Manager

When we're designing websites at Dynamics Online, the site's content factors as much into our development strategy as does the site's appearance. The increased popularity of Flash animation and the advent of CSS (cascading style sheets) have made it easier for designers to create attractive websites, but it's important to also keep in mind how content is written and presented within these designs.

Remember your Keywords

Because your homepage is generally the page first indexed by search engines, it's important to place as much content there as possible; searchable content. If there are keywords or phrases for which you want to rank highly in search engines, use those terms here. Likewise, for searchability purposes, it's never a good idea to make your homepage an "intro" page with only a Flash animation or a simple graphic. These are not searchable, and-depending upon how they're implementedcan prevent search engines from looking beyond the homepage into the rest of the site.

Consider the User

It's not only important to consider the text featured on your homepage, but also the manner in which that text is presented. Although you want your content to be keyword rich, you don't want to inundate your visitor with volumes of text. It's fine to present the history or philosophy of your company somewhere on your website, for example, but forcing visitors to see this right away by placing it on your homepage could drive these visitors away from your site. Better to write about customers and solutions than about yourself or your company.

Engage the Short Attention Span

A good approach is to treat your website's homepage as you would the cover page of a product brochure or flyer. Be succinct. Use bullet points to highlight the important items. Introduce the visitor to all that your site offers, but there's no need to go into too much detail here. Instead, link from your keywords to the corresponding page within your site. Navigation throughout your site does not need to be restricted to the site's menu bars, after all.

Example

Check out the website for Sitka Point Lodge & Fishing Charters, a travel destination offering Alaskan fishing vacations, to see an example of an effective use of content written for both the website and the search engines. Notice the emphasis on important keywords related to "Alaska" and "fishing," as well as the short, informative paragraphs used throughout the site. (http://www.sitkapointcharters.com/)

As better technology and faster Internet connections allow for more graphically intense website designs, remember to stay focused on providing your visitors with a description of your product that's not only concise, but that also will attract visitors through search engines and engage them in your offering. For assistance with this or to develop your internet
design/marketing strategy, contact Dynamics Online.

Turning Search Engine Misses into Hits

2005-09-16T11:12:00.003-04:00

By Bruce Newburger, President

Have you ever clicked a site listing on the search results in Google or Yahoo only to find a "404 Error - Page Not Found" message? Of course you have! How would you know if the destination site no longer exists, or if that particular web page address (URL) is no longer supported? You don't know and probably don't care, since you are likely to navigate back to the search results page and select another site.

If the destination site still exists, but that particular URL no longer does, then that site owner has just missed an opportunity to entertain a targeted and interested website visitor. This tip can help you turn that miss into a hit.

BACKGROUND
These days, Dynamics Online and other website designers are more likely to redesign an existing site than we are to design a new site from scratch. As a website's structure, content, or underlying technology changes, the new site's URLs will likely not exactly match the previous site's.

For example, a website redesign may result in the discontinuing of a URL for a specific parts page: www.example.com/specific_part

However, searches in Yahoo or any other search engine may list the URL in the search results page, and will continue to list it until that search engine re-indexes the site. That may take weeks or months to happen. This URL might also be linked to from other sites, and those outdated links might persist even longer.

SOLUTION
The site owner needs to answer the question, "What would you like to appear in place of the discontinued URL?"

One approach is to identify the individual discontinued URLs and pick a URL on the new site that most closely matches the content of the old site. In the above example, that might be the new Parts page found here: www.example.com/new_parts

In that case, we would design a page, with the same URL as the discontinued URL, which immediately redirects the visitor's browser to the most appropriate new page URL.

Another approach, better for larger websites with 10 or more discontinued URLs, is to implement a general 404 error solution for the entire site. Implementation details vary by the type of server hosting the site, but the idea is to intercept the 404 error generated by a request for any non-existent URL and redirect the visitor's browser to either a more helpful error page or the site's home page. You can see an example of a helpful error page here: http://www.party411.com/oldpage.html

The Importance of Links

2005-09-07T16:40:00.002-04:00

By Andrea Greene, Internet Marketing Specialist

Often when considering how to raise a website's rankings in the search engines, one crucial factor is overlooked: Links. Search engines have become flooded with websites vying for top placement and many are utilizing unconventional ways to get there. Now, the search engines rely more on page content and links to your website for many reasons, notably:

Quality & Validity - Be sure your website contains legitimate content that would be useful to searchers. According to a popular search engine resource, Search Engine Watch, "Having websites that are experts in your field or subject area link to you notifies search engines that you are likely a valuable source of information and highly relevant to the keyword phrases that characterize your site."

Popularity - Google rates websites according to "popularity" or PR (Page Rank) which is determined by how many other qualified websites link to your website versus the number of links to your competitors.

Overall Internet Penetration - Try not to think about acquiring links to your website merely for increasing search engine rankings. Rather, think of it as an avenue for trying to attract people in your demographic from venues other than search engines where they would be interested in finding your website (and of course, the products you sell). An example would be a recipe website listing you as a resource for this niche product.

You do not have to acquire hundreds of links to achieve higher search engine rankings, however, a handful of high-quality links are worth more than a thousand Free-for-All links.

Do You Blog? Maybe You Should

2005-09-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

We've heard plenty of hype about blogs, but this tip exposes the nuts and bolts of how your participation in blogs can boost your search engine visibility. Read this Marketing Tip now!