Over the years I have had many occasions to modify other people’s programs. Sometimes I have been pleasantly surprised, but, most of the time I have been extremely disappointed. Many times people pick up a web programming book and think it makes them a software expert because they finished it in “21 Days”.

There is much more to good programming than knowing how to write a loop. The biggest failing I have found is lack of planning for future success. What I mean is that many programmers program for the present. They ask how do I get this to work, not how hard will it be to update tomorrow. I’ve seen sites with huge navigation menus that were hard coded into all 50 pages of the site. If I need to make an update to the navigation, I now have to edit and change 50 files. If the programmer had taken the time to externalize the navigation an update would only require one file to be updated.

Too many websites have been created by hackers who had no idea what good software design requires. Yes, it takes time to plan and create a project implementation. Yes, more time means more money. But, ask yourself if you would rather pay a few hundred extra dollars today for a site that can be easily updated or a few thousand dollars a year to get someone to fight your site into looking like you want.

Make sure that your programmer has a background in designing sites that can be easily updated.� Take the time to talk to some of the referrals. A few well placed questions can save you many future dollars.

Tags: Programming Help by Fred - No Comments »

Backlinks, or inbound links, are one of the single-most important factors in SEO. And quality is the most important factor in backlinks (not quantity). Here’s what you should look at when determining the value of a backlink.

• Anchor text – does the anchor text include your targeted keywords?
• Relevance – How closely related to your site is the site/page the backlink is on?
• Other Links – How many other outbound links are on the page that links to your site? If there are 59 other links, the link to your site will not be as valuable as if it would be if there were only 2 other outbound links.
• Domain age – Google especially places extra significance on links from older domains.
• Permanence – Your backlink should be static / permanent to offer good SEO value.
• Page Prominence – How prominent on the site is the page that links to your site? A page buried 5 clicks from the homepage will not likely give you a very valuable link.
• Link popularity – How many backlinks does the site / page that links to your site have? The more quality backlinks the site has, the higher quality the link will be.
• Other Links – Are the other links on the page related to your site?
• Site Traffic – How popular is the site that links to your site?

You can use this list when building backlinks to help you find and choose the highest quality links you can.

Tags: Quality Linking by Adam - 1 Comment »

Quite a few times lately I’ve seen postings on various search engine forums, and I’ve gotten questions from prospective clients, wondering if they should change their page file names, or worse, their domain name, to be more “keyword-rich.” For some reason, the myth of the “keyword-rich URL” refuses to die.

If your site is already indexed in the search engines — and even more if it ranks well for any phrases you’d like to rank well for — you’re simply shooting yourself in the foot to change your URLs, especially if you’re doing it because you think there’s some kind of magical benefit to having keywords in the URL.

Any time you change your file names, you’re looking at a minimum of a month or two (possibly longer) of reduced rankings, perhaps even dropping out of the index entirely for a time, while the search engines spider your new pages and figure out the impact of the changes. And that’s even if you redirect all the old URLs to the new.

If you make the huge mistake of changing your actual domain name, you are potentially looking at up to a year before your new domain ranks as well in Google as your established domain did — if the site ever recovers fully.

And for what?

If there is any benefit to a keyworded URL (and no one has been able to prove conclusively there is), it’s very, very slight at best. Many say the only potential benefit would occur if someone happened to link to you using your actual page URL as the anchor text of their link (which often does not happen). Is it worth it to see a 20%, 30% or greater drop in business for a few weeks — or potentially a near-total loss of search engine traffic for a period of months — to gain an immeasurably small — and quite likely nonexistent — boost in the search engines?

I would say no. That’s really throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Don’t toss away all the work you’ve put in. Starting over is hard to do (and unnecessary in almost every case). Keep your URLs — just make the pages associated with them better.

Tags: Internet Marketing by Adam - No Comments »

A post came up recently in one of the SEO forums I frequent, where a business owner said his website designer — without his knowledge, apparently intending this to be a “bonus service” — had starting “doing SEO stuff” on his site.

What brought this to the site owner’s attention was some unusual activity in the log files. When the owner asked, the designer told him this was just the person who was “helping” with the SEO doing some things to “push the numbers.” According to the site owner, the designer was vague about the details of this so-called “number-pushing” or what exactly had been done to the site for this alleged SEO work. Understandably, the site owner was concerned.

Quite rightly, the forum members advised this business owner to go back to the designer and get the details of what, specifically had been done and was planned to do — and if there was anything in there that sounded “fishy,” to insist that it be undone, pronto.

For whatever reason, a lot of website designers, copywriters and programmers lately seem to have decided to start offering “SEO services” as part of their packages. I’m sure most of them mean well, and I’m sure few of them set out with the intention of causing harm to their client’s sites

However, there’s a big difference between somebody who “does SEO” and somebody who’s spent the time it take to learn how to do SEO right. And a lot of damage can be done — however inadvertently — by someone whose primary expertise is design or writing or programming or marketing or whatever and who hasn’t taken the time to learn the ins-and-outs of effective, ethical search engine optimization.

Many search engine optimization professionals started out in design, copywriting or programming. This in itself isn’t necessarily a red flag. But whoever you have “doing SEO” on your site should be able to explain, clearly and in plain language, what they’ve done and what they’re planning to do to promote your site’s pages.

If they can’t (or won’t), keep looking until you find an SEO professional who will.

Caveat emptor!

Tags: Internet Marketing by Adam - No Comments »

I spend a good portion of my time fine-tuning the process of writing and submitting SEO press releases, and am continuously evaluating new resources and new techniques. When sizing up SEO press release distribution points, there are a few key factors that are the mark of a valuable resource:

SEO

• Anchor text (the ability to embed links back to your site in target keywords)
• Live http:// links (second best to anchor text)

Publicity/Exposure

• Forced distribution to a wide audience
• Inclusion in Google or Yahoo News
• Ability to include an image

Each distribution point has its own best attributes. I’ve found that in order to get the best results, it’s better to submit to a variety of different resources.

That said; here are my top picks for press release distribution sources:

• PR Web
• Open PR
• Free Press Release Center
• dBusiness News
• PR Buzz
• PR.com
• Google Base
• PR Leap
• PR Zoom

It is quite a lengthy process to submit a press release to all of these distribution points, but well worth the effort. If you’re doing it yourself, be sure to read through each site’s policies very carefully to ensure publication. Also, you’ll want to carefully analyze your SEO strategy before submitting so that you get the most value from every link back to your website.

Need an SEO press release? Hey, we do that too! It’s all part of our ethical search engine optimization plan.

- Christine

Tags: Internet Marketing, Marketing by Adam - No Comments »

Despite what some people might think, search engine optimization (SEO) is not magic, and it’s not rocket science. Here, in a nutshell, are the five steps you need to follow to optimize your site for maximum search engine performance:

1. Do keyword research and analysis to ensure you’re targeting truly useful phrases.
2. Make sure the title tag of each page contains the primary (and if you can fit it in, the secondary) target phrase for that page.
3. Write good, useful content for each page. Write for your human visitors, not for the search engines, but make sure the copy does contain your target phrase a time or two (or three or four).
4. Set up internal navigation. Link your pages together using each page’s target phrase(s) in the anchor text of links pointing to the page.
5. Seek out links from valuable, high-quality pages outside your site. Concentrate on pages likely to be visited by your target audience. Don’t get hung up on whether they’re straignt one-way links or if they require you to reciprocate, and don’t get too crazy over whether they’re paid-for or “free” links. As long as the sites pointing to you are useful resources and attract the same “crowd” you want to have visiting your site, they’re good links to have. If you can get these other webmasters to use your desired target phrase in their link anchor text pointing toward you, that’s the icing on the cake.

See? Nothing to it. Now, of course, comes the hard part… the part where most webmasters trip up… putting in the necessary time and effort.

Good SEO is simple, but “simple” is not synonymous with “effortless.” If you want success, be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get to work!

Tags: Internet Marketing by Adam - No Comments »

Are you ready for personalization?

Google and other search engines, in their neverending quest to offer up more relevant results to searchers, are moving toward “personalized” search. This has profound implications for those trying to optimize websites, but is not fully understood by many webmasters and site owners.

In a nutshell, when users are logged in to their Google accounts, Google will — over time — “learn” what sorts of pages those users generally click on, and attempt to show them more of those kinds of pages.

So what does this mean to you, the site owner or webmaster?

Basically, it means soon you may no longer be able to use “rankings” as a measure of site success — since every searcher may potentially see different rankings from what you see (or what your rank checking program reports). In other words, just because you see your site at #1, this won’t necessarily mean that anyone else sees it there.

So what can you use to measure site success?

The same things as have always been the true measure of site success for those in the know — traffic, and perhaps more importantly, conversions (as in, leads generated or sales made).

Tags: Internet Marketing by Adam - 1 Comment »

I believe you should not depend on the search engine traffic for your business success. This may sound strange coming from a search engine optimization professional, but if you think about it, you’ll see this position makes total sense.

A good SEO knows you can’t control your rankings in the free search listings. You can attempt to influence, you can try to suggest, but you have no real control over your rankings. And a good SEO knows it’s dangerous to base your entire business on something you can’t control.

Imagine a community newsletter. It carries some paid ads and features some content, and in order to attract readership, it allows local individuals and businesses to run classified ads for free. Members of the community know this newsletter is a great resource — and as a result, many people turn to the newsletter when they’re ready to shop… so most businesses in town make sure they’ve got some kind of classified ad running each week.

For a long time, one business dominates a particular section of the classifieds. Their ad is well-written and seems to be always listed first, and because of this they get a steady flow of new customers.

After awhile, the company loses sight of the fact their ad is free, and their ad placement is entirely controlled by the newsletter publisher. They come to count on their ad always being first, and they come to depend on the new customers this proiminent ad placement brings them. They never bother to set up any other advertising channels, and they neglect to budget any money or time for marketing activities.

One day, for whatever reason, the newsletter publisher decides to shake up the ad order. Suddenly, this business finds itself down in the middle of the pack, while one of its competitors now occupies the coveted first position. The flow of new-customer traffic suddenly dries up, and the business finds itself in trouble.

While they can complain to their friends about how “heartless” the newsletter publisher is, and how the publisher doesn’t seem to care about all the lives being “ruined” by his “reckless” actions, the truth is, the business owners themselves are to blame. They let themselves be seduced by the siren song of free advertising and lost sight of the risk they were running.

You must be in control of your business and your traffic. When you have good rankings, take full advantage of them, but never forget they’re simply the icing on the dessert cake, not the meal itself. If you want to build a successful business for the long term, your marketing plan must be solidly grounded in factors you can control, and must be designed to spread the risk in the event any one marketing or advertising channel dries up suddenly.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Marketing by Adam - No Comments »

Last Forth of July we had a hacker use one of the forms on a client website to send out thousands of e-mail messages. We worked all day to find out what the issue was and fix it. This is part one of a multi-part series on making sure your forms are secure.

For each of your fields you need to determine if a plain text field is the best form control to use. If a question has a finite number of answers I suggest that you use a drop down selection control, radio buttons or check boxes. Which you use will be determined by the data being selected. Radio buttons are good for either or selections, yes or no. Check boxes are good for a small amount of choices where the user can select multiple. The drop down selection control works well for long list of data such as state or country.

This post will focus on the client side programming you can use to help prevent form abuse. The most common client side programming uses JavaScript as the programming language. For each of the text fields on your form you should decide if you want the data to be required or optional. The first step to secure your forms is to use JavaScript to make sure that required fields are filled.

This script is one of the easiest to implement that I have found: http://javascript.internet.com/forms/basic-validation.html. All you have to do is add the word required to the names of your fields and include the script. If you only want to make sure that required fields have values, use this script.

The next level would be to check that the field data contains correctly formatted data. If it is a date field, use a script to check for a valid date. If it is an e-mail field, use a script to check for a valid e-mail. You can find many scripts to validate fields at

http://javascript.internet.com/forms/.

The next level is to prevent invalid data from being entered into the field. If it is a date field, only allow numbers and dashes or slashes to be entered. If it is a phone number field only allow numbers and dashes. You can use a script that creates a mask for the data. A mask define the format for a field. A mask for a phone number might be (###) ###-####. If you would like to have masks for your fields you can use this script: http://javascript.internet.com/forms/dfilter.html.

The last thing on the client side that I would suggest is to use JavaScript to insert a hidden field into your form with data that can be validated on the server. I use an MD5 JavaScript function to place a field in the script based on a seed term. I then check for the hidden field’s value to make sure in has the correct data. Neither the field nor the data is visable in the html code of the page.

All of this still does not completely secure the form, but, if your form is harder to break into than the average site most hackers will look for an easier site to hack.

Tags: Programming Help by Fred - No Comments »

Yesterday when checking the rankings, we were surprised to see that a company we had never heard of came in and took over the #3 position that had been our client’s for months. Where did these people come from?

Well, after a little investigation, it became clear how they had jumped up so quickly and will ultimately fall off as fast as they came in. They were cheating big time with a bunch of hidden text (text the same color as the background) in the left and bottom border. Being a huge proponent of ethical search engine optimization, David was…let’s just say… not too thrilled by the news of this.

Our team notified the company about the issue—they most likely hired an SEO company and have no idea about the hidden text or if so, that it’s a major offense. Note that it is the #1 item on the SEO King’s list of bad SEO practices. Today the hidden text is gone. The site is still there, but I can almost guarantee that won’t be for long. I’ll keep you posted on this event.

There are few things more frustrating than playing against a cheat. If this company did hire an SEO company, that SEO company knew full well that hidden text is a big no-no. What’s worse is that they gambled their client’s right to exist on the search engines at all by trying to get a fast position.

Tags: Internet Marketing by Adam - No Comments »