SEO is a website marketing strategy that considers the algorithms that search engines use, as well as the phrases that web users incorporate into searches. By tweaking the text of a website’s content, the html content, or the tags associated with the website, Search Engine Optimization utilizes the content of a page to increase the page ranking of a site. By increasing the page ranking, this technique moves a website forward from obscurity to a first page ranking. In other words, SEO can organically move your website up to the first page of your chosen search engine for your key words.

There are two different ways to increase/generate leads; these are organic and Pay Per Click (PPC). Organic SEO is optimizing a website to be search engine friendly, indexed by multiple search engines, and through optimizing html code to be indexed for your targeted keywords. Organic searches are the type of searches that appear based on the keywords that a user types into a search engine and are listed in order of relevance and frequency of search terms. In comparison, paid keyword advertising is the box that appears in a special section of the search engine results that indicates that it is an advertisement. Paid advertisement is also referred to as Pay Per Click (PPC) ads. This is because the company is charged each time their ad is clicked/viewed by a search engine user. PPC ads can be utilized on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other high-traffic search engines. PPC advertising works by setting a budget for your campaign based on keywords and competition; price varies greatly based on key words, competition, and geo-targeting. After determining keywords and venues, you can set a budget per week or month based on how much you are willing to spend. In addition to PPC ads, there are also other paid advertisements such as banner advertisements, which most web users are familiar with. The newest paid ads are video advertisements, which you are currently seeing on Google, YouTube, Hulu, Blinkx, and other video-based sites (web 3.0).

The first step in Search Engine Optimization is keyword research. For example, you might consider how you would search for your own business on the web if you didn’t know the name of what you wanted. Think about who your target demographic is and what they would search to find you; these are your keywords. Web professionals can help you determine your target keywords. It’s very important that you identify the demographic of the customer you want to reach. If your client base is regional, then you do not want to attract potential leads outside of your jurisdiction. Very different results are returned from the same search engine if you search “Annuities” vs. “Annuities Broker Honolulu”. It is the job of your SEO consultant to help you determine who your market audience is and how they are most likely to find your site.

Once your keywords have been determined, SEO professionals will help move your site up in search engine rankings. You can move from an obscure page 10 Google.com ranking (around 100th on a list) to within the top ten sites returned. This is beneficial to your business because web searchers are more likely to look at only the first page of results to find what they are looking for. If users have to click through multiple pages to find your information, they are more likely to give up looking and choose a competitor instead. Oppositely, if you beat out your competitors by ranking higher, they may stop looking for the name they recognize and browse your website or purchase your product instead.

While keywords are very important to get search engines to rank your site within the first few pages, the content of your site is also very important. An algorithm or a search engine may be searching the text of your site in order to give a page ranking, but a potential customer will be reading through the content of your site. Therefore, it is important to balance the text and make sure the content of your site is user-friendly as well as searchable. It is important to keep a consistent ratio of around one keyword per 100 words. Any more than that will be considered by search engines as spam and your site may be banned or penalized.

Selecting the right domain name for your website is also important for the success of your business for a variety of reasons. Not only does the domain name need to logically relate to your business and be fairly easy for people to remember, your choice of domains can have a very real effect on your placement within search engines. The actual domain name of your website may be included as one of the factors considered by the large search engines in determining whether your web site is relevant for a specific keyword. As a result, including the most-searched keyword for your business in the domain name itself can increase the relevance of your site in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines use complex algorithms to determine websites’ relevance, so remember that this is just one of many factors.

Web designers and SEO experts have additional techniques to improve the ranking and increase the SEO performance of a website. Some of these techniques include:

Linking within pages of the same website and to other websites. Linking pages within your site and to external websites provides search engines with the richness of data that is incorporated into your site; it establishes that you have information that backs up your claims both internally and externally.
Submitting your site to multiple/specialized directories and search engines in order to increase ranking. Having links to high ranking websites such as government provided directories, Wikipedia, or major news sources will increase your ranking. You will be given priority when being viewed by search engines.
Increasing and prioritizing Meta tags. Meta tags are the first element that a search engine utilizes in order to rank page content organically. Meta tags are words that the webmaster uses to describe the site to search engines; however, most of the time end users do not see these keywords or descriptions. Your SEO consultant can tell you more about Meta tags.
Local SEO is a vital marketing strategy for any business trying to reach a consumer base in a specific area. Local SEO is a must for businesses that sell products or services locally or to a specified geographical area. Consumers are often further along in the buying cycle when they search locally. This locally focused traffic is generally more qualified, and results in higher lead conversions. You also enhance the user’s experience by bringing your prospective customers to highly relevant local content on your site. For example, someone in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is looking for plumbers. Instead of directing them to the main page of your Web site, they’re provided with the page containing your business address, phone number, and other information specific to that location. Land a consumer on relevant local information and your conversion to sale increases while page bounce rate and site abandonment decreases. With more consumers going online to research or purchase products and services, the time has never been better to integrate local SEO. This wave of consumers searching locally will continue growing. The channels consumers are using to search are changing. Is your marketing strategy adapting?

While the majority of this article has discussed ways to build web presence organically, not everyone uses such methods. Within the web community, following the established guidelines (as described above) is termed white hat. However, black hat practices also exist. Black hat practices include spamming the same terms multiple times on sites, redirecting traffic to another site that doesn’t contain your keywords, and receiving links from a mis-advertized source. Using these non-approved techniques can result in a banned IP address or domain. This means that your site will no longer be listed by search engines. Grey hat is another term that includes actions that are neither approved nor banned. This includes buying links to increase your rankings. This is not encouraged by search engines, but there are some individuals who use these techniques.

Along with SEO, site design, generation of leads, and contact tracking are valuable marketing tools to assure that after users get to your site, they will become customers.

First, it is important to have a site that is well-designed and is easy for clients to navigate, as well as having an easy-to-spot link that leads directly to your lead generation page. Your site needs a way to gather information from visitors so that you can contact them in the future to sell your product or remind them of who you are. This form usually asks for contact information (name/ email/ phone number) and a reason for visiting the site, but may be as extensive as an online application. Once the information has been gathered from the lead thought the website; it is important to make contact with the potential client. Your website should be designed to send an automatic response to each lead that provides them with additional information. Simultaneously, you will be provided with the contact information in order to provide a more personalized contact. Additionally, you can use this database of leads to keep potential clients informed about new products, specials, or items of interest through email marketing and campaigns.

Once you have a database of potential clients that have visited your site and learned about your product, it is important to track which potential clients actually become clients. Tracking your conversion rate, top keywords, number of page clicks, visits per month, and reoccurring visitors are important to targeting future clients and improving your sales techniques in the future.

Training and hiring your own workforce that specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is a vast and expensive in house investment. The technology changes often and you need people working for you that have the necessary experience and expertise. The technology is here and the slower you are to act, the further behind you get from your competition.

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is a long term investment in your business. By using approved organic Search Engine Optimization, your site will continue to grow credibility and ranking with the search engines, even when the algorithms change and new engines are created. Think about where you are currently spending your marketing dollars. Consumer habits have moved toward the internet and web solutions; your campaign should be poised to take full advantage of this new consumer climate.

As you can see, there are many techniques you can use to improve your web presence. While some techniques can be done independently, it is highly recommended to find a professional that has mastered search engine optimization and e-marketing that understands your business needs.

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1. Components of a great website design and marketing
2. How To Get Free Web Design Advertising
3. SEO Tips To Make Friendly Web Pages

The key components of a great website include: aesthetically designed pages, consistency across the site, a site that is based on a great theme, market-specific keywords/phrases, efficient navigation between pages, appropriate graphics, advanced SEO techniques, and great content. To design and develop a site requires mastering these tools and related topics.

A well planned and developed business web site absolutely requires professional help in its construction. Search engine optimization will help it rank higher in search engines and attract targeted traffic. This movement is important for business in that more traffic means more potential customers, and will mean an increase in income. However, when thinking about creating your own site, there are several concepts to keep in mind.

CSS and HTML: The HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and web page editor helps the developer to build the website. Help is available for the beginner with free online tutorials and articles with valuable assistance in building the web pages and site.

Design and Multimedia: Essential to the finished concept are good fonts, graphics, audio, video, and appropriate colors. A good page layout can be easily planned using the free and paid online tutorials. Note: Avoid using frames, too many images, animations, or videos on the site as it slows the process of loading the webpage. Using only appropriate graphic elements will help improve the relevance factor.

Content: The most important part of any website is its content. The content must be of superior quality that is relevant to the topic. Professional writers can help produce high-quality content at a nominal price.

Inbound and Outbound Links: Make sure that internal and external links are functional and that other sites link to your site.

Organization and Accessibility: Content has its own subdivisions, such as titles, creation and setup of meta tags and keywords, as well as general beautification using appropriate fonts, colors, length of paragraphs, and related graphics. Using correct grammar and flow of the story are paramount. Make sure content ratio/density is the ideal length to maintain reader interest and readability. The more consistent these elements are, the more your search engine ranking will improve.

Other Options: Advertisement is an additional source of income and advertisement programs like Google AdSense are equipped with subject-related ads in text and graphic formats. Contextual advertising is also a feature of Google AdSense. It is therefore recommended to use these ads on your site. A word of caution here, Google AdSense has a strict code of conduct and requires users to follow their program policies. There are many other similar programs that can be used for site revenue through contextual ads.

Keep in Mind: Search engine optimization helps your site to rank well in the various search engines, including Google and Yahoo!. A good website with high traffic, especially targeted traffic, is a winning combination. Thus, hiring a professional web design firm (such as Fox Web Creations) with experience in SEO techniques can do wonders for the popularity of your website. Updating the site regularly is an important factor not to be overlooked.

There are various other issues related to web design concepts, some more advanced than others, but the basic web design tips are listed above and can help any type of site. A web design firm should be consulted and hired to complete business sites. On the other hand, social networking pages (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.) are also necessary because your visitors would like to feel the personality of your business and perceive a more individualized connection.

If creating your own web site is too large of an undertaking for your staff, or you need assistance designing or programming your site, contact Fox Web Creations today.

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At Fox Web Creations, we know doing a redesign can be a daunting task. We help customers through them every day. We know some steps you can take to take the stress out of the process. Ask yourself these questions when going through the first stages so you’ll have a head start when you’re ready to move forward.

Step 1. Determine Website Objectives: What are your future web marketing initiatives? How will you measure the success, what strategies are you using currently, and what strategies will you need to use in order to measure your success? Define your high-level objectives, targets, initiatives, and measures for this program.

Ideal Outcomes: Have users come to the site, have users/clients be able to see the services and quality of work you do, and convert web users into future clients, supporters, or investors.

Step 2. Gather Functional Requirements by Department: Work with each department to determine their requirements that can be handed off to a software engineer for technical implementation. This document will act as your list of deliverables.

Ideal Outcomes: Sales Departments are easily the first thing you think of, but the website functionality can also help the administrative side. A form for applications or an employment page for human resources (job postings, benefits administration, timecards, etc) is another area of your site that can be beneficial, even if staff members are the only individuals to see this part of your site. Almost any department can benefit from integrating with the website.

Step 3. Prioritize Website Requirements: Have a meeting with the website team and work through your list of deliverables. Find out which deliverables are most essential and which are auxiliary.

Ideal Outcomes: After the main priorities are established, it is best to prioritize additional needs. Is a priority a flashy animation that will enhance the site and keep clients on your page or will an additional few pages for internal tracking of shipments be more useful. Web designers and research can help you with determining what priorities are. Determine with your team what is most necessary for success of your objectives and reach a clear consensus.

Step 4. Analyze Infrastructure Requirements: Website infrastructure is composed of People, Processes, and Technology. Determine if you have any gaps in your existing infrastructure.

Ideal Outcomes: Do you already have a time card system? Maybe you want to integrate it to work online. Do you track sales by commission? How will you track those sales from the internet? Is there anything missing here? If so you’ll want to update your requirements in step 2. Talking with web designers can help you streamline your current process and make sure it fits within your company’s internal process.

Step 5. Perform a Web Program Gap Analysis (WPGA): Evaluate your functional & infrastructure requirements. Determine the feasibility of closing each gap and make adjustments to your required documents accordingly.

Ideal Outcomes: This is where our experience really helps. Evaluating cost and benefit is the biggest step to customer satisfaction. We have a good idea of what makes a good web presence; you have a good idea of what makes your business run best. When we put these together the result is a successful website.

Step 6. Promote the Updated Website: After your site is developed, you need users to visit it. Use your collateral, materials, and promotions to tell your current and past clients about the new site. Also think about the best way to get new clients.

Ideal Outcomes: Now that you have established a website that will best service your company, you want people to visit your site and purchase your product. You can use lists of past, current, and potential clients to inform them of your new site and products. Additionally, one of the most effective ways to get users to your site is with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Being on the first page of your local Google search will capture the people who are looking for your services. There are many ways to use SEO. Ask us about this at the beginning of your project if you’re interested. It is much more effective when integrated into the design. Watch for next month’s newsletter for tips on SEO and how Fox Web Creations can optimize your site for more targeted search engine views.

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By Jason O Connor in Featured

If your business website doesn’t have a blog, get one. A blog, if done right, can act as a direct and indirect mechanism that brings large amounts of qualified visitors to your site, many of whom may become customers.

This is mostly related to the way blogs interact with search engines and the traffic I am speaking of will come from search engines, mostly Google.

Before I explain how you can do this to help your website, let me first give some background on how search engines work, Google in particular.

When it comes to optimizing your website (or blog for that matter) for search engines you must always keep in mind two things: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the elements of a Web page that better optimize it to be found and ranked well in the search engines. These elements can include on-page content such as the actual sentences and paragraphs on the page, the headlines (or headers or Hx tags), the links, the links’ text, the title tag and much more.

Off-page optimization means the things that are done on sites besides your own, namely link-building. Off-page optimization is the process of creating links (or causing others to create links) on other websites that point to your site. Inbound links as these are often called have a major impact on how well you rank in search engines. Generally speaking, the more inbound links, the better. But the quality of the sites with these inbound links, or the way the search engines perceive the sites, is even more important.

To rank on the first couple of pages on the search engines requires work on both on-page and off-page optimization.

Two additional and important pieces of information that you’ll need to understand are related to site content and internal links.

Search engines also very much love new, original and quality content, and they like to see your website regularly adding this kind of new content. You don’t need to add pages every day, just add pages at the same rate over time. So if you add a page a week to your site, keep it at around that same pace, or increase or decrease gradually.

A website can be considered a living entity in a sense. It certainly shouldn’t be static. It should grow over time. And the fantastic thing about content is that the more of it there is on your site, the more chances you have of getting found in the search engines.

The idea that inbound links help your search engine rankings that I explained above can be extended to your own internal pages as well. In other words, the more links to a particular page coming from other pages within the same site will boost that page’s rank as well.

Think of it this way. If you had a ten page site, including a product page and every page on the site contained a link to your product page and, if all other things were equal, your product page would rank higher than the rest of your site’s pages (besides the home page which is given a little extra weight).

Now let’s consider what would happen if there were only you and your competitor in your industry (if only that could be true!) and your site still had those ten pages while your competitor’s site contained one hundred pages. Furthermore, your competitor set it up the same way as you where he added a link to every page on his site that pointed to his product page. If all other things were equal, his product page would outrank your product page every time. Why? Because he had 100 internal links pointing to his product page and you only had 10.

If you put all these pieces together now, on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking, can you begin to see why a blog may be a good thing? A blog helps with all of these.

A blog that is regularly updated is providing a mechanism for adding fresh content on a regular basis. Plus, it’s so easy to use a blog that anyone can use them, so even if you or your employees don’t know a thing about Web pages and HTML, you’ll still be able to add new content to your site.

Consider this. If you add fresh, quality content to your blog on a regular basis by writing posts, something the search engines love, and within each post you link to an important page within your site, let’s say your product page for instance, you’re now building links to help your rankings using your blog. With this additional link your product page gets that much more boost in the search engines.

Remember how I explained that links from within your own site help your rankings? Adding links within your blog posts pointing back to your other important pages that you want to rank well is a great way to help your rankings.

And every time you publish a new post, you’re giving the search engines one more entry point into your site. Your site will quickly get bigger, and with each new page your site gets more visible.

Keep in mind that the links you make within your blog posts should be relevant. Only link to your product page from a post that has to do with your products. And also, blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. The less you talk about your products and instead offer useful, free information that people can use, the more traffic and repeat visitors you’ll get.

Remember that people really don’t care about you, your website or your products, they only care about how you can help them. If you sell furniture, a blog post about how to find the best deals on furniture would be far better than a post about how your chairs are the best in the world.

One important thing to remember is that if you plan on creating a new blog for your business as a way to augment your website be sure you put the blog on your actual domain. This means that you would not use a remote service like Blogger.com. Instead, you must have the blog on your business website’s address (or domain). For example, if your website address is http://www.yoursite.com/ then your blog should be located at http://www.yoursite.com/blog or http://blog.yoursite.com/

By adding a blog to your business website you are creating a way to get more traffic. You’ll get direct traffic from your posts, which get indexed by the search engines and drive traffic to your site from searches. And, you’ll get indirect traffic from your other site’s pages ranking well in the search engines because they have links pointing to them from your blog posts.

You’ll be regularly adding fresh content to your site, which search engines love, thereby creating more ways to be found in the search engines at the same time. And each post provides a new opportunity to create a link or two to other pages and blog posts on your site, thereby boosting those pages’ rankings.

Like I suggested at the beginning, if your business website doesn’t have a blog, go get one.

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2. Components of a great website design and marketing
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October 9th, 2009 | by Barb Dybwad ( From Mashable )

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Hiring a good web designer to design your website can at times be
exorbitant. Instead of spending all your money simply on an expensive
firm, you can find an affordable web design company with a strategy
that is both innovative and admirable. Therefore, it is essential to
survey the market before finalizing any deal.

Most business owners try to invest a minimal amount that will help
them to get a business name and display their services or products to
the customers as quickly as possible. For an initial start up, an
affordable web design firm can help you accomplish these goals the
best, without having to sacrifice on the quality of work.

Many business websites do not need flashy animated pictures or
complicated programming. A good web designer can build the custom
layouts for your website and make it look very striking for an
affordable fee. This layout can support a design with beautiful
images and relevant, informative text to make your site look
attractive. Before selecting any Kansas City web design company, check
their design principles. You should be aware of the rates and
packages available in the market, the services they have to offer, and
the relationships the create with their clients. Also, it is
recommended to make sure that the company is local (in your area) so
you can schedule face-to-face meetings in order to better communicate
your ideas to the web designers.

Keep in mind that a good web design maintains a process that analyzes
the business needs, plans for the best solution, creates a structure,
and then designs it accordingly. The planning process and needs
analysis of your business is integral to establish before the first
lines of code are written. This process will not only provide an
effective online presence for your business but will also help to make
your website an important resource for your customers.

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2. Introducing Web 2.0 to Kansas City.

Scott gives you an overview with some great editing tips, plus a very helpful optimization tip for conversions at your websites.

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Go from the simple acts of joining all the way through set up and administration

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