My CMS

Tag: search engines

  • Header Tags and SEO

    If you aren’t sure what header tags are, these are tags in HTML used to create…well…headers. They have a range in size, and can be used for header and sub-headers. Header tags are signified by the syntax, ‘x’ being a number from 1 – 6. Example as follows:

    Please note: I used an image instead of actual header tags because the header tags are changed for my blog with CSS.

    As you can see, the largest of the header tags is the H1 tag, and the smallest the H6.

    Normally, we would use these at the top of pages to let our visitors know what the page is all about. And so, the thought is, if we have a header, explaining what a page is all about, then a keyword in said header would count for a lot in our on-page SEO efforts. The debate comes from those that believe that abuse of the headers, much like the keywords tag, has forced the search engines to discount the keywords in them. There are even some who say the use of headers is needless in any fashion. I strongly disagree with this thought due to a little experience.

    Long before I was an SEO, and before I realized I haven’t the talent needed, I aspired to be a writer. I wasn’t sure of what type, but I loved to write. It was common to use a larger header at the top of a paper to signify what the paper was about, and further use the sub-headers to describe the coming paragraph or section. It only seems logical that we should do so for our websites, to help our visitors navigate.

    That being said, SEO isn’t an afterthought for me with regard to headers. But because I believe in quality content, I don’t even have to put much thought into “SEOed” headers. Think about it. If you are writing about a certain subject, and you are creating quality content, and you make use of headers in the way we were taught in school, wouldn’t you end up naturally using keywords in your headers? (the answer to that question is “yes”).

    Now, this isn’t to say we won’t tweak header now and then to target the right term with a little more specification, but it is to say we don’t stress over them. As for their SEO benefit?

    Sure, they may not be the number 1 factor in on-page optimization efforts (that I can certainly agree with), but in this field, every point counts. If we are going to be creating quality content, and we will likely be making use of headers anyway, might as well give them an SEO eye real quick.

    The thing to remember is this. Headers (and any other element on your page) will work because they stand out against the rest of the text on that page. If we over-do it, then the headers will mean less.

  • Google Local | SEO Factor

    During your continued monitoring of your link profile, you may find a few links that continuously pop up as a result of a blog discussing your company or content that you had produced. This blogger was nice enough to not only link to your site, but they also send little traffic your way due to […]

    Every once in a while you come across a situation in which you must move your company’s website to a new domain name. But if you move the site to a new domain name, you have to ensure that the search engines can find the new location, and that you hi

    It’s no secret that having a keyword or 2 in your domain name can have an impact on your rankings. In fact, in some cases it’s difficult to see any other reason why a site may rank; with the exception of their spam-keyword-keyword.com domain name. Bu

    Though this doesn’t happen as often as it did 5 years ago, we still bring on clients to whom we suggest either re-writing the URLs to their site’s pages, or re-creating pages with search engine friendly URL structure and redirecting. Please note t

    When we talk SEO with our clients or potential clients, the topic of link-building will undoubtedly come up. And this conversation always gets into “what is a good link.” There are plenty of other articles on what signifies a quality link (relevan

  • Local Seo | SEO Factor

    During your continued monitoring of your link profile, you may find a few links that continuously pop up as a result of a blog discussing your company or content that you had produced. This blogger was nice enough to not only link to your site, but they also send little traffic your way due to […]

    Every once in a while you come across a situation in which you must move your company’s website to a new domain name. But if you move the site to a new domain name, you have to ensure that the search engines can find the new location, and that you hi

    It’s no secret that having a keyword or 2 in your domain name can have an impact on your rankings. In fact, in some cases it’s difficult to see any other reason why a site may rank; with the exception of their spam-keyword-keyword.com domain name. Bu

    Though this doesn’t happen as often as it did 5 years ago, we still bring on clients to whom we suggest either re-writing the URLs to their site’s pages, or re-creating pages with search engine friendly URL structure and redirecting. Please note t

    When we talk SEO with our clients or potential clients, the topic of link-building will undoubtedly come up. And this conversation always gets into “what is a good link.” There are plenty of other articles on what signifies a quality link (relevan

  • SEO Company in Jacksonville, Florida – SEO Factor

    You have a plan. You started a business. You even have a website. Now what?

    You need a way to show the search engines that you are exactly what people are looking for when they need your products or services.

    We show Google that your site is in fact what people are looking for. Our SEO solutions provide your site with higher rankings for search terms that matter, and our PPC management services get quality clicks to your site at the lowest cost possible.

    By charging SEO Factor with the task of promoting your site, you increase its potential for ranking and traffic, and thus the potential for increased income. Most small and medium-sized businesses already make use of a Pay-Per-Click option, but aren’t getting the returns they should be.

    From search engine optimization to PPC management, we create a custom strategy with your business’ needs and goal in mind. We don’t just drive traffic to your site, we drive converting traffic.

  • Small Business and Local SEO

    Not only has the Internet helped in connecting millions of people all across the globe, it has provided a strong hub for people to find local products and services. Anytime someone uses a city or region in their search for what they want, they are conducting a “local search.”

    Not only will this return the normal results as per each search engine, but this will also likely produce a map and local search result (this varies slightly from search engine to search engine). This local search result and map are usually at the top of the results, above even the “normal” listings.

     

    So what does this mean?
    It is, and is becoming more important for even local businesses to concern themselves with an online marketing campaign. That’s where SEO Factor comes in.

    Though ranking for local searches in the search engines is important, there are more reasons to consider a Local SEO campaign.

    More Than Just Search Engines
    With the advent of “smart phones” so to came another avenue for people to find what they need in their area. A lot of these phones including the iPhone and the “Google phone,” use apps that rely on local search engine and directory listings to provide their information.

    By ensuring you business’ rankings and positions within the local search engines and directories, you are also placing your products or services, quite literally in the hands of your customers.

  • One Time SEO – Affordable Internet Marketing and SEO Services

    It’s obvious that having a website for your business is a need. But just as important is the need to have visibility. Meaning, you need people to actually see your website. That’s where we can help. By optimizing your website and implementing an Internet marketing strategy, you can make full use of your website, and its potential online.

    “Affordable SEO Services” Doesn’t Mean “Sacrifice.”
    The problem with most SEO services boils down to 2 things; cost and quality. If you want quality, you’re going to pay for it. If you need to stay conservative, your left with unfulfilled promises and a bad taste about SEO in general.

    why not a bit of both? We don’t make false promises or outrageous claims. We simply provide you with a strong base and a customized strategy to help your website, and your business succeed online.

    Search Engine Optimizaion (SEO) has gone through many definition debates and changes over the last few years. In the end, SEO is simply the act of making changes to a website so as to achieve higher rankings. Now, that’s a very broad definition, and there is surely more to it, but you get the idea.

    The fact remains that if you want your potential customers to see your website, you’re going to have to get it to the top of the search engines, and maximize its visibility online. To do this, you have to start by having your website optimized. And then, you have to implement a well-planned Internet marketing strategy.

    Let a professional handle this stuff for you, and put you on the right path.

  • What Can SEO Do For My Business?

    Posted by admin on Tue, 01/29/2008 – 15:29

    All this talk about what SEO is, and we haven’t even begun a pitch the idea to a business. But, we got all the basic idea stuff out of the way, let’s talk some numbers.

    Appealing To The Masses
    Take a look at the Nielsen/NetRatings Report for August 2007. This shows that 4.2 billion searches were conducted at Google in August alone; and that’s only 54% of the search share. Yahoo! and MSN show another 33% of the total number of searches. These three search engines alone made up roughly 6.8 billion of the total searches through a search engine online, and those are the top three.

    Spendin’ Money
    According to a BIGresearch report just before the 2007 holiday season, it was estimated that 47% of consumers planned to make at least one online purchase. This was up from 36% three years prior. The same report 88.7% of consumers regularly or occassionally examine products online before buying from a store directly. Percentages are great and all, but let’s talk dollars.

    Makin’ Money
    The U.S. Census Bureau reported $32 billion in ecommerce sales in the first quarter of 2007, which is up 20.7% from the same quarter in 2006.

    What Does This Mean For You?
    As a business owner of any size, having an online presence should be one of your more important considerations. Further more, making that presence as visible to as many people as possible should be even more important. Having a webiste is one thing, but making sure people see your site is something else. It’s obvious that people use search engines to find what they are looking for, so having your site listed as close to the top as possible can help your bottom line. And that’s what we do.

    By making use of SEO techniques as a part of your online campaign, you can increase the amount of visitors to your site, and potentially grow your business as a whole.

  • Additional Reading – SEOCopywriting.com

    As many blogs and sources I read, you would think that I share them a little more on my blog. Not too sure why I don’t, but I think I’m going to try. Especially the newer ones that are popping up and producing some really great stuff. Today, I want to shine a little light on a very important (if not tied for the most important) aspect of SEO, and an awesome blog dedicated to the subject. SEO Copywriting.

    Even myself, in all my SEO greatness, use a copywriter for a lot of my projects. why? Because I want to make sure the content created for my clients is of the best quality, with a mind for SEO. I let my professional copywriter create the content, which is then passed to me for an SEO glance.

    By name of the blog, and the subject itself, SEO copywriting is one of those aspects that seems to elude even some experienced SEOs. The thing is, all too often we are wrting copy for the search engines, and not thinking about how it might read to a real live person. A website created for a human? Who would have have thunk it?

    Over at SEOCopywriting.com, Heather Lloyd-Martin and Aimee Beck post about creating quality content for your readers, while keeping a mindful keystroke for the search engines. Though still a new blog, there have been some really great posts generated, and I bet more will follow.

    So head on over there, and read some more. Tell them I sent ya, will you?

    With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.

  • How Long Is This Going to Take?

    Posted by admin on Wed, 02/13/2008 – 21:10

    One more introduction topic to start this SEO eBook, and then we will start to get into the good stuff.

    We know how important an SEO strategy is, and we know what some of the basic ideas are, but how long is this whole ordeal going to take? First, let me say that a question like that means you are likely thinking of SEO or Internet marketing as a plug in for your site, and not as a permanant aspect. Try to get around that as quickly as possible.

    You SEO/SEM/Internet Marketing campaign needs to be a part of your long term strategy. There are no quick and easy returns in this environment, and chasing such goals will leave you spinning your wheels. However, the idea of the question is not a bad one, we just need to word it a bit differently. Successful people don’t have all the right answers, they ask all the right questions.

    How long will it be before you see results? This depends on your goals. With strict regard to SEO and rankings, it’s often not as bad as most people might think. When you start looking at conversions, ROI, and profit margins, things get a little thicker. Because I want to try to keep this eBook as beginner oriented as possible, I’ll try to focus on the rankings/traffic aspect. But even with that, there are a few factors.

    Brand New Sites
    If you just started a site (less than a month ago), you’re in a situation where you will see the most waiting time. First, the search engines have to find and index your site. A brand new site can usually be indexed within a week. At the time of my writing this page, I am seeing indexed sites within a few days.

    Once indexed, the site has to rank. With proper optimization and promotion efforts you should see “results” within about 3 weeks. “Results” is in quotes because though you may see something happening, the site’s success is far from fruition. You might see a few more indexed pages, or rankings for your search terms within the first 10 – 15 pages of the results.

    At about 3 months, you should see a few terms within the first 5 pages of a search engines results for desired search terms At 6 months you should see a few page 1 terms, and perhaps a recognizable flow of traffic. By 9 – 12 months, you should see good rankings across the board, large chunks of page 1 rankings, and a steady flow of traffic.

    Aged Sites
    If you have a site that’s been up for a while, and it’s not indexed, then there’s a whole new issue. There may be technical problems with the site, or there may be a ban or penalty in place. Either way, if we have an older site not indexed, the site is going to need some attention. We will be going over these issues later, so don’t worry too much.

    Assuming there are none of the issues above, aged sites that are indexed will see results much sooner than newer ones. A simple title/internal link/keyword research overhaul could indeed do wonders. With proper optimization and promotion efforts, you can usually cut the time it takes to see results for newer sites in half.

    Now, looking at these timeframes, you may be thinking that this is just way too long. To that, I ask you to consider how long you plan on being in business. Do you not plan on running a successful business 5 or 10 years from now? You Internet marketing campaign should be a part of that success the whole time, so the first year will breeze by. It’s a long term process for long term successes.

  • Questions To Ask You SEO Company » SEO Factor

    Can you show me proof of your methods working?

    This is usually the first question that a client wants to ask. And it is perfectly understandable. SEO can be a very expensive service, and a lot of your business rides on it’s success. Unfortunately this is a tricky one. With website design, it’s easy to show a portfolio. In this business, many clients don’t want anyone to know who they used, especially if it worked. The idea is to dissect every method that a company or person is going to apply. Ask as many questions as you can. Make good use of the following questions and you should have enough information to make an educated decision.

    Tell me what methods you plan on applying when trying to rank my site.

    This is important because you really should know what’s going on. There are methods that can not only not help your ranking, but get your site into a lot of trouble with the search engines. Try to get at least a basic rundown on what a specialist is going to do to optimize your site. It’s easy enough to find Google’s webmaster guidelines on the Internet. Match them up and see if everything they plan on doing is OK.

    What do you mean by “optimize” my page?

    Even if you can’t quite grasp everything that we as specialists do in this respect. Try to understand the difference between making good use of your target terms on your page, and spamming. Take note that a person or company is not applying illegitimate methods like hiding text or making it so small you can’t see it.

    How many links will you promise my site? And where will they come from?

    There are many services out there that promise a large amount of links in a short amount of time. One of two things will likely happen. Either these are automated, providing you with a piece of code to put on your site so as to easily add and trade links with others in the same program. Or, you will be getting a large amount of links from places that are not relevant, in turn not helping. Link popularity, when done correctly, is time consuming and tedious. Thus creating a price that seems almost unfair. But the rewards are more than worth it. Link popularity will not only get traffic from other relevant sites, but also help in the search engines. There are a few posts about link popularity on the SEO Blog and FAQ’s page, so check them out when deciding on a service.

    How long will it take for my site to gain ranking?

    This is, at the same time, my favorite and most hated question. SEO takes some time. But the time it can take for a site to rank can be even longer. If you are promised that you will gain ranking within days, or even months depending on your desired search terms, really do some homework. Some terms are very competitive and it will take a great deal of time to rank. Usually, there aren’t too many terms that can not be handled in under a year. Methods that rank a site quickly, are sometimes a little on the gray side of acceptable practices. There is a saying in this field. “Fast. Quality. Cheap. You can pick any two, but you can’t have all three.” There are cases that a site can rank quickly, most often involving scarce competition or local services. Be sure to ask how the time line you are given was decided upon.

    Hopefully, with these questions in your arsenal, you will be able to choose a service that will meet the needs of your business. If you have any questions regarding a service, feel free to email us. Note that I will not be able to give opinions on the validity of a specific company offering a service. I have honestly not ever used another service other than my own. But if there is anything that you need help in figuring out, we will be happy to assist.