Tag Archive for seo

06 Mar 2011
business tips • internet marketing • seo

How Many Hours Should You Spend On SEO?


Lately I’ve been seeing this question pop up here and there, “How many hours should you spend on SEO / Internet marketing?” I think like anything having to do with SEO and Internet marketing, the answer “depends” on a variety of factors. But I thought I would share what I do for my clients’ SEO campaigns.

Activity – Analyze Website Statistics
Time Spent – anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour
Purpose – the reason for looking through the website stats is not just to see how many visitors came to the site, it’s really to see how the website is doing. What I mean is, what pages are bringing in visitors (and which ones are not?), what keyword phrases are working (and which ones aren’t?), what call to action buttons are working (and which ones are not?). Basically, I’m looking for ways to improve the site, page by page, paragraph by paragraph. That’s the real purpose of website stats analysis.

Activity – Optimization Actions
Time Spent – anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours
Purpose – This is where the nitty gritty of SEO really happens. If I discover that a particular page is not indexed in the search engines, I need to find out why. I need to correct any broken links throughout the site, or remove a duplicate description tag or increase the content on the website page or re-write the content somehow. I also need to make sure that all the tags are correctly written on the page. This is usually done during the initial SEO but if phrases change, links to and from the page change, and of course, search engine “rules” change – then all that means that the tags have to be changed as well. Optimization is a constant, never ending process of tweaking and re-tweaking website pages to get the most out of them.

Activity – New Keyword Research
Time Spent – anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes
Purpose – Finding new keyword phrases is not really that hard. Finding really good keyword phrases, well, that can be a bit difficult. The reason is that there are certain numbers you have to look up for each keyword phrase. I mean, is the phrase too competitive? Is the phrase typed in often enough to bring in traffic? Is the phrase relevant in your geography? Is the phrase the kind of phrase that “window shoppers” are typing in or is it one that “buyers” are typing in? If a page were added about this phrase, where would be the best spot to add it on the website? All these issues have to be answered before the phrases are chosen and sent out to the clients. The truth is, this one little service that we give our clients, each and every month, is the BEST way that they can get more and more traffic. But unfortunately, because it involves some work on their part (they write the content or at least pay someone to) – this is the least acted on!

Activity – Competition Research
Time Spent – anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours
Purpose – I don’t think there’s anyone in business who doesn’t have a constant eye out for their competition. Internet marketing is no different. Knowing what the competitor down the street or the competitor on the first page of Google is doing can give you an edge in not just keeping up with them but surpassing the competition. The beauty of the Internet is that you can get quite a bit of information on your competition, without ever having to leave your desk!

Activity – Submissions
Time Spent – anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours
Purpose – Although these days, it’s not necessary to submit websites to search engines, it still is helpful to submit press releases, articles and to find local directories and of course, niche directories to submit your information to. Especially now a days with social media sites such as Foursquare, Yelp, UrbanSpoon and so many others, it’s important to claim your space and be seen. Years ago you would have never imagined opening a business without getting listed in the Yellow Pages. Today, the same can be said but instead of just the Yellow Pages, there are literally hundreds of online sites to get listed on.

Activity – Keeping Up With The News
Time Spent – anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours per day (every day)
Purpose – The Internet is amazing, it’s wonderful and at the same time, it’s frustrating and difficult. There are so many new events, new technology, new techniques, new algorithims, new engines, new online sources, etc. that keeping up with all of this information and sorting out what is working and what isn’t working can be daunting and is, absolutely, never ending. I scan through at least 50 articles per day and that’s certainly not keeping up! I have several thousand backlogged that I still haven’t gotten to. So, if you think that keeping up with what’s new online is not part of your Internet Marketing time frame, you’re in for a failed marketing campaign.

So, how many hours SHOULD you spend on SEO or Internet Marketing?

The minimum time I spend on a client’s marketing is 3.5 hours per month (not including reading up on new information). Of course, the size of the website, the willingness of the client to make changes on their site, all play a part in how much I can do on the website. And it goes without saying, that the more “action” that takes place on a website, the more it changes, the more new information is added, the more traffic the site will get.

Can all this be expensive if you outsource it? Sure – there’s no doubt, time is money and you’re not just purchasing time here, you’re also purchasing knowledge. But the truth is, if you are disciplined enough and if you are willing enough to put the time and energy into marketing your own website, it can be done. Would you be just as successful? Maybe. After all, who knows your business better than you do? But, then again, the Internet marketer knows the Internet – so, it’s a bit of a balancing act!

Know what you’re getting into, what’s needed to do the job of Internet marketing and you’ll be better off, not only with the campaign but with your expectations for that campaign as well!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , , , ,
16 Dec 2010
internet marketing • small business

Pumping Up Your Internet Marketing For 2011


Okay, you know the old saying…

Do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.  (or something like that).

Point is – review the Internet marketing that you’ve done for 2010 – what worked, what didn’t?  Look to see what’s new, what haven’t you tried that was recommended?  Make a list, make a plan and go for it.

It sounds all great, but when you sit down at your desk to “make the list” or “make the plan” – all of a sudden, you find yourself just sitting there staring at a blank piece of paper!  So, here’s an article that can help you get started.  My business coach, John Miller sent it to me – and I’m sharing it with you.

http://litemind.com/tackle-any-issue-with-a-list-of-100/

Check out the links for mindmaps as well – those are some great ways to begin the process of “thinking” and “planning” for success in your business.

Oh, and just another tip.  If your Internet marketing webmaster is recommending some strategies, don’t put them under the rug.  He or she is not doing it “just cause” or “to make money”.  The bottom line for any Internet marketing webmaster is the success of their clients.  If the client doesn’t succeed, then neither does the webmaster.  Recommendations are made based on what the competition is doing, what the Internet is offering and what the trends are showing.

Like I always say, “Find out what your audience wants, and then give it to them.”  It’s really as simple as that.  You just have to remember to listen!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
06 Nov 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business

Notice To Small Business Owners


At Eckweb, we specialize in Internet marketing for small businesses.  It’s a great niche because frankly, it’s extremely difficult to provide effective Internet marketing at affordable enough rates for small businesses.  But we’ve had 10 years of experience and we’re very happy to say that we can and we do accomplish that goal!

But, (you knew there was a “but” didn’t you?) – we can only accomplish this goal with the cooperation of the small business owner.  I mean, if we can do anything we wanted to the website – that would be one thing – but the truth is, the website is not ours to do anything with.

We need the owner’s permission.  We need the small business owner to give us the information needed to put on the website.

And hence, that is our stumbling block.  I’m positive we’re not the only Internet marketing firm with this problem, but larger companies have the luxury of delegating these duties to employees.  More often than not, small businesses do not have that luxury.  Hence, it’s more work for the owner and one that doesn’t always, absolutely positively produce effects.  (Like any marketing venture)

But, as a successful Internet marketing company, at least one who has given many small businesses income they would have never had, we can tell you that getting involved in your Internet marketing strategy is the very best investment you will make for your small business.  No doubt.

So, having said that (my 2 cents worth) – what exactly does it mean “get involved”?.  If you read my posts you know I’m fond of lists (precisionist I guess) so, here’s my list!)

1) Every business owner (no matter the size of the business) wants to know how to make more money, more profits.

2) The way to do that on the Internet is to find out what the audience wants and then give it to them.  Think of it as finding out what the “hot new toy” for the holiday season will be.  Once you know what that is, you may want to stock up on them in order to get that traffic and the profits.

3) Keywords are the “items” that tell you what your audience wants.  Your Internet marketing company can identify what your audience is looking for, give you those keyword phrases and your job is to give your Internet marketing company information about those phrases.

4) Yes, it means spending a little bit more to add the content of a new website page to the website, it means maybe putting in some time or paying someone to add that content to your facebook or twitter or blog, or whatever other social media you’re using.  But what’s the expense?  Let’s break it down (using the prices from Eckweb)

a) If you’re signed up with the $210.00 per month marketing package then you get one free new page per month – so there’s no additional cost.   Just additional cost of time on your part and if you wanted a specific graphic or photo, then the cost of that (these range from $1.00 – $15.00)

b) If you’re signed up with the $150.00 per month marketing package then you pay just $60.00 to add a website page to your site.  (Again, graphics/photos are additional).  You write it, we put it up.

c) Can’t write, don’t have time to write?  Only $85.00 for an Internet copywriter to write a page / article for you.  Very cost effective.

You can calculate what the costs would be for an entire year of doing this, if you added a new page every month.  But what are the benefits?  What do you get for this?

MORE EXPOSURE

MORE TRAFFIC FROM YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

The benefit for you is that more traffic comes through the site (resulting in more sales).  The benefit for your Internet marketer is that they have more data to work with.  In other words, they can analyze how your traffic is moving through your site, what pages are working, what isn’t working, etc.  The more data, the more opportunities to tweak the site even further for more conversions.

After all, at the end of the day, isn’t that what marketing (on the Internet or not) is all about?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
04 Oct 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business

To Web Designers: Listen Up!


The great majority of websites that we get here at Eckweb are sites that have already been built and have already been online.  A great majority of those site owners claim that their web designer told them they know how to market their sites.

I have no way of knowing if this is actually true or not but I do know that the websites, for the most part are in no way optimized or prepared for the search engines.  Some aren’t even ready for the public, but that’s another story!

After speaking and consulting with multiple designers over the years I do believe that there’s a sense of  “it’s not important” – from the designers’ perspective.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m writing this post to once again emphasize how important every SEO factor truly is.

It’s Not Just Me Saying This

Here’s an excerpt by Adam Audette at SearchEngineLand.

We can think about SEO ranking elements as signals to a search engine. Each one of them communicates something to the engine, and is considered (or not) and applied to the internal algorithms. When all of these signals are pointing in the same direction, powerful things can happen.

This is especially well illustrated with the problem of duplicate content and canonicalization. There are several ways sites can communicate to the engines which URL is to be treated as the canonical, including:

  • 301 redirects
  • XML sitemaps
  • rel canonical tags
  • Internal linking
  • External linking

Think for a moment about a typical website. It is likely to have many pages linking internally with multiple versions of URLs. The classic home page problem, for example, where sites often link to both mydomain.com and mydomain.com/index.html, is quite common. That doesn’t begin to cover the potential duplication that occurs on the enterprise level with large, complex websites and dynamic content.

This article speaks more about Canonicalization issues but the take home message is the same.  The details of SEO are extremely important when it comes to marketing websites.  If there are 200 different ranking factors that Google takes into consideration, and your competitor has fulfilled 130 of them but your website has only fulfilled 70 of them.  Well, guess who’s going to rank higher?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , , , , ,
24 Sep 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business • social media

Small Business Owners Beginning To Realize The Impact Of The Internet


Well, I have to say that after 11 years of Internet marketing I’m still “promoting” the concept of Internet marketing – especially to small business owners.  I can’t tell you how many clients I have who gawk at spending $3000.00 a year for Internet marketing but yet, they quickly spend $5000.00 for a yellow page ad!

I don’t get it.

But yesterday, I saw a little flashlight at the end of this long tunnel.

I was speaking with a client who has been “dragging their feet” on getting the Internet marketing process begun on their website.  She admitted she had taken too long, but she was now ready and wanted it right away!!

What turned her around?

She placed ads in local papers, yellow book and local radio for her new day spa in Fort Lauderdale and got ZILCH results.  She sent out 300 emails and got a 10% result.  Cost for the print ads?  (She wouldn’t tell me).  Cost for the emails?  (Just her time).  She told me, “Print is dead…” – I think she finally gets it!!

So, the next time your Internet Marketing manager tells you to make a change to your website or to add something, etc.  Listen to them!!!!  They’re not just blowing smoke up you know what…they’re telling you what they know, that Online direct marketing and social media marketing (in other words, Internet) are where your customers are and where your sales are!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , ,
05 Jul 2010
internet marketing • seo

How To Market Your Business On The Internet


If anyone asked me “What’s the most common question you get from prospects?”  My answer would be, “What’s the secret to getting my site on top?”

I usually laugh a little and say something like, “…there is no secret…just hard work…”  But I wonder if they believe me.  Maybe sometimes they do.  Certainly the ones who try the SEO firms that “promise them results” and “guarantee placement” do.  Those are the prospects that come back and turn into great clients.  Why?  Because they know the truth now.  Internet marketing is just plain hard work.

Steps To Marketing Your Business On The Internet

The simple truth of Internet Marketing is…

1) Find out what your audience is looking for
2) Put that on your website
3) Go social

Basically, this means find the keyword phrases your audience are typing in, have your website optimized for those keyword phrases and use the power of social media to let everyone know who you are, what you do and why they should use you.

I guess if I had to say that there was a secret to Internet marketing, this would be it!

I just read a great article from the SEOBook – it goes into a bit more detail on how to market your business on the Internet….check it out!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,
17 Jun 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business • Website Analytics and Stats

How To Read Google Analytics


Here, at Eckweb Designs, Inc. we use Google Analytics for our Internet Marketing clients.  Not only does it allow us to analyze a plethora of information, but it also is very customizable (which we love!).  So, if you haven’t yet used it or you don’t know how to use it, let’s see if we can help!  Here are some tips…

For Beginners – this tutorial at Mahalo.com is excellent.

For those who are a bit more advanced, here are some of our tips…

1) Take advantage of the Goals section.  Create as many different goals as possible to track as many different “campaigns” and “actions” on your website.

Some examples of what to track on your website…

a) number of visitors who fill out your contact form
b) number of visitors who take an action on a website page (like click on the “click here” button)
c) number of visitors who fill out any form on the site (free quote, get an ebook, etc.)
d) number of visitors that come to a certain page and then bounce off
e) number of visitors who come to the website from another specific website

Well, you get the idea.  Pretty much anything can be tracked and the point is, you should know what each page of your website is supposed to do and you should be able to track all of that!

2) Use the keywords section on Google Analytics to give you a list of the long tail keyword phrases that you’re getting customers for.  Find the conversion rate for each of these phrases and the ones that are giving you a decent conversion rate, well, add more to the website about that theme.

The concept is if ONE keyword phrase is bringing in 30 visitors a month and the conversion rate from that 30 is 10%.  Expanding on that theme should bring in more visitors and because it seems to be a “hot” topic, the conversions should then increase as well.

3) Analyze the pages that aren’t doing very well on your site and fix them!  Sure, you may not get it right the first, second, third or even fourth time.  But the point is to keep working on those pages until they bring in a decent amount of traffic.  (Decent being whatever you’re happy with!)


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , ,
29 May 2010
internet marketing • seo

Google Changes – Affecting Your Websites


Vanessa Fox from SearchEngineLand reports that “Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithims in 2009″.   So, whatever Google’s rules were on January 1, 2009 for ranking websites, they were quite different December 31, 2009!

What’s a site owner or SEO webmaster to do?

Well, stick with the basics for one and of course, keep adding and tweaking the site not only for the search engines but for the target audience as well.

Here’s a list of the basics that I follow when optimizing websites…

1) Keyword research is the key – assign 1 keyword phrase per website page and don’t forget to use the semantic phrases as well.

2) Make sure that keyword phrase is where it’s supposed to be.  Meta tags, header tags, bold, at the beginning, in the middle, at the end and within links.

3) Silo the website architecture and use breadcrumbs and smart menu navigation throughout.

4) Spread the word via articles, social media and social bookmarking.

5) Monitor each page of the website.  Find out what’s working, what’s not working and then make your changes.  Internet marketing is a constant tweaking process.  Don’t kid yourself to thinking that it’s a one time deal.

So, the lesson here is don’t get too caught up about the rankings of your website.  Look at the specific stats your website is telling you.  Fix the pages that aren’t working.  Change the keyword phrases that aren’t bringing in good traffic.    Believe me, you’ll get to the top!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
03 Apr 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business

What To Look For In Your Marketing Reports


Many website owners focus on their website traffic report as their Main Report of how the website is doing.  But the traffic report is really just the result of all that is being done on the website.  It doesn’t give you information on what needs to be done to get those great traffic reports.

As the owner of an Internet Marketing firm that focuses on small business websites, we WANT our clients to engage in the Internet marketing process.  But in order for them to do that, they must know what’s going on, they need the information in order to make the best decision.  That’s where our monthly marketing reports come to play.  So, let me share with you what we focus on.

Keywords Report

One factor many website owners forget about is the continuous change that is the Internet.  Here’s a little tip I can give you.  Go to Code Monitor and sign up.  It’s free.  Enter in a competitor’s website and just wait.  In your email you’ll receive a notice every time that competitor makes a change on his website.  If that competitor’s website is in the top 3 on a Google search result, I can pretty much guarantee that they are changing their website often.  At least once a week.

Our Keywords Report helps you to add new data to your website by giving you 3 new keyword phrases that your website can market.  The idea is to keep adding, changing and upgrading your website.

Competition Report

Knowing what your competition is doing (and what they’re not doing) is a key factor in Internet marketing.  But what do you need to know?  Well, you need to know how many pages their website is marketing, how large is their social media marketing, what kind of traffic is that website bringing them, how many incoming links do they have and what keywords are they getting traffic for?

But you also need to know who your competition is.  Don’t get caught up in the thought that the store down the street is your competition.  On the Internet, your competition are the websites that are coming up for the keyword phrases you are marketing.  So, go to Google, type in a keyword phrase your website is marketing and hopefully you’re in the top 3.  If you’re not, who are?  Those are your competitors.  Find out what they’re doing and you’ll have a better idea of how to plan your Internet marketing campaign.

Your Website Pages

A few months ago Google changed many of their ranking rules (algorithims) and basically, they’re placing more emphasis on individual pages.  So, this forced us to place more emphasis on individual pages.  Everything from the links in and out, the page speed, cache dates and much more.

In this report, we outline each individual website page along with information about the keyword phrases it’s marketing, how it’s doing as far as bringing in traffic, it’s cache date and soon we’ll be adding page speed information as well.  The point is to give the website owner the information they need to make a decision on if and what type of changes a website page may need.

Recommendations Report

There isn’t one single day that goes by that something new isn’t introduced for website owners.  It can be a new social media site, a new method of communicating with visitors, a new form of video or audio, etc.  Just check out Killer Start Ups – you’ll see how creative folks are getting!

This report is our way of letting our customers know what new technology they may find useful for their website.  We try to cover everything that is the latest in Internet marketing.  (Did you know that Facebook is growing faster than Google?)  We want our clients to know that.  It’s to their benefit to take advantage of this information.  And to be honest, if the client does well with their website marketing, then we do well.

If your SEO firm is not providing you with this kind of information, ask them if they can or just call us at Eckweb Designs, Inc. We will help you to succeed.


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
28 Mar 2010
internet marketing • seo • small business

Creating Websites That Work


It’s true that many website designers are not SEO webmasters and vice versa.  I never call myself a website designer.  Although I know how to take websites apart and put them back together.  Those skills do not make me a designer.

But, if you’re a website designer, there is no reason why you shouldn’t, or couldn’t create websites for your customers that can eventually be marketed on the Internet.  Not only will your customers reap the rewards of a website that works FOR them, but you will also reap the rewards of referrals from your customers as well as additional work from your customers!  Can’t get more win-win than that!

One of my favourite blogs, SEO Design Solutions came up with 10 tips on how to build a website with SEO in mind…

  1. Start with a theme (meaning your market and the top level keywords).
  2. Use Keyword Research to build that theme into the site navigation, internal links, tags and naming conventions.
  3. Determine what the tipping point is for the top 5 competitors and exceed them using time-released content.
  4. Leverage internal links to select preferred landing pages.
  5. Build a stable base of off page links from trusted sources first, and then ensure a fresh supply of relevant ongoing links.
  6. Build pages properly the first time “optimal” using a pliable CMS system which does all the SEO / heavy lifting by default.
  7. Use keyword research to integrate less competitive keywords (branches of the root phrase) into supporting posts, pages and off page content (then go back to point #3).
  8. Keep site architecture flat and make sure to link to a sitemap for that segment of the site (if you use categories).
  9. Make changes to older / trusted pages – If ranking priorities change, go back and edit and add additional links and content to leverage pages 4 months or older to link to new pages with supporting keywords.
  10. Measure the results and rinse and repeat.

Granted, some of these are the responsibility of the SEO webmaster, but as a designer you should be aware of what will be happening with the website you created.


eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »