3 Common SEO Mistakes
November 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under Search Engine Optimization
I just read a great blog (via @DemetriosDallis on Twitter) by John McCarthy of WebMetro. In his blog, entitled “D’oh! Not-so-best SEO Practices”, he writes about 3 mistakes he’s seen businesses make on their websites. You can read the article here but I’ll summarize it below.
1. Domain names… lots of domain names. McCarthy doesn’t say that having lots of domain names is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But what you do with those domain names is the real key.
2. Spider blocking. I had no idea that this was as common as McCarthy suggests. Apparently, lots of businesses accidentally keep their website from being indexed because of some incorrect code. Easy to fix (and devastating if you don’t).
3. Expiring domains. This one makes sense. Google tends to rank sites higher if their domain name or SSL registration is set to expire soon. The thinking is: The longer a website is registered for, the better.
Local businesses can benefit by carefully navigating these SEO pitfalls. Read McCarthy’s article to find out how to make sure that local buyers can find you.
Using Google Video For Your Local Business
November 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under Search Engine Optimization
Are you a local business looking to advance in the rankings? One way to do it is with video. If you create a video and post it on YouTube, you have a good chance of getting a nice high ranking… even on broad keywords!
Here is a great example of someone who did just that with the phrase “video SEO in Google”.
Why is video such a great opportunity? Search engines are designed to search written content — words — for clues to index things. In a page of 500 words, the search engine might make its indexing decision by looking for keywords that amount to only 2% to 4% of the total words on the page.
But a video can’t be searched in the same way. So search engines rely on far less information (through descriptions, tags, and perhaps outgoing links) to indicate what the video is about. The density of information is far greater. It’s like fishing with dynamite instead of a hook and worm.
What does for local businesses? You may not want to search for a broad term like “restaurant” or “plumber”. But you can still search pretty high with far more local terms — like “Miami plumber” or “Cincinnati restaurant” — using video.
Video gives good SEO benefits, but it also is a nice way to give a personal touch (which is one major reason why people buy from local vendors).
If you don’t want to do this work yourself, please see our Local Domination Packages.