Think Big Sites

SEO mistakes that make you look silly

1. Refusal to woo your Title Tag

Every page on your website should be sporting a unique Title tag. One that is descriptive of the content on the page, is engaging enough to entice a click, and that uses anchor text you wouldn’t mind if people used when linking to you.

Remember that your Title tag is what a user will see when they stumble across your content in the search results, how it’s listed in their bookmarks, what shows up in real-time search when tweeted, and, often, what someone will use when linking to your site. In other words, it’s important so you better make sure you’re spending time massaging it.

If you’re not and you’re just throwing your company name or some other useless term in there, well, go find someone who looks willing to kick you in the shin and ask them to do so because you deserve it. Also, don’t be afraid to create a unique Title tag for posts and articles you write. It’s a good way to tackle both the user and the search engines’ needs.
2. Marrying awful URLs

Like a husband who just sits on the couch all day, bad URLs hold you back and are a complete turn off. During the Top Shelf SEO panel at this year’s PubCon Vegas, Stephan Spencer quoted stats that found short URLs get clicked on twice as often as long ones. He went on to say that long URLs act as a deterrent to clicking, drawing attention away from a listing and passing the attention off to the one below it (ie a competitor).

All of that illustrates the power and importance of tweaking things to make sure you’re getting an optimal URL. If you’re using WordPress, make sure you’re tweaking your Permalink settings and not using the default option which makes your URL strings about as sexy as the New England Patriots played last night.
3. Navigation you need a Master’s Degree to use

Unless you have a really, really good reason for doing so, please stay away from Flash navigation’s (or, God forbid, putting the whole site in Flash).

I’ve seen too many small business owners accidentally create sites that the search engines simply cannot see and have no clue are there.And even if you ignore the fact that it’s a huge obstacle for the spiders, create a Flash navigation and you almost guarantee that your users will hate you.

You will develop an audience of people who would like nothing more than to strangle you with your own Flash nav. So plan out a good web design.
4. Befriending the wrong keywords

It doesn’t matter how many articles are published on keyword research tactics or even advanced tactics, businesses (especially larger ones) are still going to waste their time chasing terms and traffic that simply won’t convert. Because they’re all about the ego and thinking they know better than their customers. But they’re wrong.

You should be using a toolbox of solutions to help you target the right keywords for your business. That means relying on organic seo, and keyword research search tools like Wordtracker, Wordstream and SEO Book; tools offered by the search engines like Google Insights for Search, Bing Search Suggestions, Twitter Trending options; and, of course, your own analytics to give you insight into what terms are actually converting for you.
5. Spitting in your neighbor’s face

We are far beyond the point where it is okay for you to ignore local search. Even if you’re not a pizzeria located on the corner of Main Street, you need to be localizing your content and doing your part to show up in these different indexes.

You can start by including local-specific keywords in your site content and using your full address on the header or footer of your site, but you can’t stop there. You need to follow our list of the 4 things SMB owners must do in 2011 or Die, because that’s how important local search has become.

Claim your listings in the search engines local platforms and third-party data providers, complete your Google Places profile; become familiar with tools like Facebook Places, Yelp for Business, Foursquare, Twitter Places, etc; and create a strategy for soliciting reviews, managing reviews, and responding to negative reviews.

Good search engine optimization includes paying attention to local SEO. There’s no getting around it.
6. Botching your internal linking

Every time I watch a site link internally with anchor text winners like “here,” “post,” or “ hey, lookie lookie,” part of my soul dies.

With all the effort we put into link building and trying to lovingly manipulate people into not only linking to us, but linking to us with preferred anchor text, it makes no sense that we wouldn’t take advantage of the links that are within our control.

Whenever you’re linking to a page on your own site, whether it’s from a blog post, your home page, a service page, whatever, make sure you’re using optimized anchor text. Otherwise, you just look silly.
7. Not using analytics

Performing search engine optimization without the insight of analytics is like navigating an unfamiliar environment in the dark. Don’t be too surprised when you wind up walking into a wall or bashing your knee on a desk that came out of nowhere.

As an SEO, you’re responsible for more than just traffic, you’re responsible for money and for conversions. That means you really need to understand the activity on your site, what terms actually convert for you, and your traffic hubs.

The more information you know about your site and user behavior, the better you can optimize it for searchers. And the more money you’ll make. But you can’t improve anything if you’re walking around in the dark. Grab a flashlight.
via our friends @businessinsider

4 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

As you begin to look at your site for ways to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you’ll find advice that is all over the board in terms of what you should and shouldn’t do.  The reason opinions differ to such a great degree is because SEO is part art and part science.  The science part is pretty widely accepted, but the art portion can be left up to interpretation.  Today we’re going to focus a bit on the science piece of the picture and provide you with four common mistakes to avoid when trying to get the most out of your SEO efforts.

 

1. Incorrect Page Titles - Because search engine crawlers begin by looking at your page’s title, this is an important factor in making your website SEO ready.  The title tells the crawlers (and your page’s visitors) what your page is all about.  Also, when you do get your page listed in search results, it is your title that will catch the attention of searchers.  The key to making the most out of your page titles is to be clear about the page contents and be sure to use keywords that are relevant to that page.  Whatever you do, give each page a unique title based on its content.  Giving every page of your website the same title is another common mistake.

 

2. Not Enough Relevant Text - We’ve all seen some amazing Flash websites, some of which you can often find on award-winning web design lists.  Have you ever wondered why you never come across these sites in search results but usually only on these lists?  It’s because search engines aren’t looking for how fancy your site is.  They are looking for relevant text.  If you’re more concerned with flash and glitz than describing (in text form) your products and services, you’ll struggle to improve your SEO results.

 

3. Poor Keyword Selection - You might think that it’s obvious which keywords you should use, given your site’s subject matter.  While it might seem to you like this is a no-brainer, not everyone searches the way you do.  It’s important to conduct a lot of research into which keywords and keyword phrases your target market is actually using to find what you’re offering on your website.  Optimize your website content around these words and phrases, even if they end up being ones you didn’t expect to find.  Making assumptions about which keywords are the right ones is a big mistake.

 

4. Excessive Keyword Usage - It is a common misconception that all you need to do to get high rankings on search engines is to load up your pages with keywords.  This might have been true in the Internet’s infancy, but it is most certainly not the case today.  The days of putting a huge block of keywords at the bottom of the page in the same color as the background and getting a good ranking are long gone.  Not only will this not work, you’re likely to get blacklisted and not show up in search results at all.  While you need to make sure your pages contain relevant keywords, you can accomplish this by simply providing good content that accurately describes your site’s products or services.

 

Again, Search Engine Optimization is an art and a science.  There is a lot more to it than what’s listed above, to be sure.  But avoiding these common pitfalls will help you as you begin to make your site more attractive to the search engines.

5 Ways to “UN-Market” Your Way to Success on Twitter

At first glance, it may seem like people on Twitter and other social media networks are having way too much fun to be “marketing.”  And really, how much marketing can you actually do in 140 characters or less?  But the thing about Twitter is the people who are the most effective are typically the ones who are having the most fun.  They aren’t the ones who are broadcasting their message; they’re the ones who are asking questions, offering advice, talking about sports, discussing lunch plans, and treating their “followers” more like friends.  They’re interacting with the community, and building a name for themselves at the same time.

This strategy is a new kind of reverse marketing.  Build a following, stay in the spotlight, and the people will come to you.  It’s brilliant, and it’s totally working.  Here are five things you can do to “un-market” your business on Twitter, too.

1.    Seek out new people to tweet every single day.  Make it a goal to contact a specific number (10, 15, 20) of new people daily.  Find people who are talking about the things that interest you, and don’t be shy about hitting reply.  Remember, you don’t have to start a conversation in order to have a conversation.  Most users will be as open to making connections as you are.  (Tip: If you’re having a hard time finding conversations to join, try using the Twitter search function.)

2.    Post questions a couple times a day.  You may not always get a response (especially at first), but by posing questions to the community, it will show that you’re interested in what they have to say.  When you do get a response, don’t forget to reply promptly. Every interaction between you and your followers has the potential to spark a connection, and continuing the conversation is as important as initiating. 

3.    Choose alternative topics to tweet about.  Find five things you and your target audience may have in common, and then start conversations around those topics. The more common ground you can find, the better your chances of making connections.  Even though you’re not talking about business, you’ll still be making an impression. (tip: use a Twitter productivity tool like Hoot Suite and create keyword searches. This will give you a steady stream of content to choose from)

4.    Share links to valuable information. They don’t have to relate to your industry to be of interest to your followers.  This is similar to the concept introduced above.  Anytime you can add value to the experience of your followers, whether it’s relevant to your business or not, it will make you more valuable to them.

5.    Support your fellow tweeters. Often.  Retweeting the tweets of others is one of the highest forms of flattery on Twitter.  Use it early and use it often!  The more you retweet the tweets of others, the more you’ll be retweeted in return. 

That’s it.  These five things, if done correctly, should help you position yourself right in your followers’ line of sight.  As a result of consistent social media efforts, you’ll experience increased exposure, added credibility, and ultimately more interest from your connections in whatever you’re working on.  And that is how you’ll achieve un-marketing success.

7 Basic WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have

If you’re new to WordPress or new to blogging in general, then you may be wondering how to add functionality to your website without having a whole lot of technical know-how.  Enter WordPress plugins.

WordPress plugins are (typically free) 3^rd party applications that enhance your WordPress blog’s capabilities.  They are easy to find, easy to install, and easy to use.  Here are 7 basic plugins every WordPress blog should have.

Akismet - Likely the most important plugin to have installed on your site, Akismet keeps the comment and track-back spam comments to a minimum, which will save you a lot of time, hassle, and frustration in the long run.  It’s free for personal use, and as low as $5 per month for businesses.   

Contact Form - Every website, whether on the WordPress platform or not, should have a good contact form.  How else do you expect your site visitors to get in touch with you when they need to?  For beginners and experts alike, the Contact Form 7 plugin is a great choice.  It offers simplicity and flexibility, with several customizable options and additional features.  As a bonus, you can manage multiple contact forms for your site, all with one dashboard. 

Facebook Like button - The Facebook Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.

The Facebook Like Button plugin enables you to add the button to your blog with ease.  It’s simple and straightforward, and customizable to your preferences.

Share This - Similar to the Facebook Like button, the Share This button allows your readers to share your content with their social media networks, thereby increasing your socially-referred traffic.  However, the Share This button enables users to share the content on a variety of different social sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Google Buzz, Reddit, and others.

All in One SEO Pack - The All in One SEO Pack plugin is one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress. It offers an out-of-the-box solution for optimizing your WordPress site to receive search engine traffic.  Their plugin page also offers some good tips and insights on how to maximize your efforts.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin - The Yet Another Related Posts Plugin gives your readers a list of other posts and/or pages that are related to the one they are reading.  This introduces the reader to other relevant website content on your page, which encourages them to continue clicking and keeps them on your site longer.

WordPress Mobile Edition - With the increasing number of people who use their mobile devices to view websites comes an interesting challenge.  Find a way to display your regular-sized website on relatively small screen. WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that provides a great solution – it shows an interface designed specifically for the small screen when visitors come to your site on their mobile devices.

There you go.  Whether you’re trying to improve your blog’s SEO, functionality, or the overall look and feel of your web content, WordPress plugins are easy tools to help you accomplish what you want.

 

The Inside Scoop on Link Building for SEO

Link building is considered one of the most difficult things to achieve when creating a successful site with a minimal budget. It’s also considered one of the most vital parts of any SEO campaign. The idea is to get as many links to your site dispersed on the net as possible. Link building is important and can help to boost your organic SEO results.

When you really think about it, link building is also one of the most basic types of site development. It’s always the very first thing to do when putting forth efforts to get your website growing.  Just so we’re clear on what link building really means; it’s the act of receiving an external link to your site from a different website. This can benefit your site in several ways. If your link happens to be in any sort of high-traffic area on a popular website, the chances of people clicking your link are much, much higher. So link building is the process of gaining more and more inbound links to your own website.

Link-backs to your website aren’t the most important factor when determining your search ranking. You’ve got to have a well-optimized site in order to gain a higher ranking.  Link building is considered crucial in almost every SEO strategy though, and it will aid in improving your site’s ranking, increase web traffic, and ideally generate income.

One way of creating very useful back-links is to submit stories and articles, based on your website content, to different article directories.  Once the stories and articles are picked up by other sites, they can create even more links for you.  When working on building links, the content and relevance of stories and articles is crucial. 

Link building is not only a terrific tool to use for increasing link partners and search engine rankings, but it can also be used to create networks and help to establish profitable relationships with fellow webmasters.  The quality of link building makes a difference – meaning the quality of the websites that are linking back to you is important.  It’s pretty logical that having your link on a popular website with a lot of traffic gives you much better odds of people clicking on your link than if you only put your link on websites with very low traffic rates or that aren’t relevant to your site in any way.

How would you feel if only one of the many websites that you’ve linked to makes your entire link-building efforts completely ineffective?  This is, unfortunately, not an unrealistic occurrence. Identifying bad sites can be difficult to do, but it’s not impossible.  A person can do this manually, but there isn’t a need to.  There are different types of software that will help to identify bad links on your site.  You simply connect to the Internet, open the software, enter your site details, and then click the start button. It’s that easy and does all the work for you.

As mentioned previously, link building is but one aspect of search engine optimization.  Master this step though, and your search engine ranking will increase.  And remember, if you don’t have time to learn all this stuff or to get it done on a consistent basis, get in touch with Think BIG Sites.  SEO results are what we deliver!

Why Video Blog?

Video blogs have a lot of advantages over traditional written blogs.  Also known as vlogs, video blogs have been around for a long time.  One of the very earliest video blogs was run by Adam Kontras in 2000.  If that name sounds somewhat familiar to you, it might be because he later went on to host his own segment of The Early Show.  On his video blog, which generated massive web traffic to his site, Kontras spotlighted his relocation to Los Angeles and his efforts to make it in show business.  Running a video blog worked wonders for Mr. Kontras, but how do you know that it can work for you as well?  Below are a few reasons:

 

Build a community

You’ll find that using a video blog as a tool to get feedback from your ‘readers’ couldn’t be easier.  Simply ask them verbally to share their thoughts and ideas in the comments section below the video. Before you know it, you may have a little community built around your video blogs.  And when they share your best stuff with friends, your site traffic, and the community, will grow exponentially.

 

Sight and sound

Most people are bombarded with documents, emails, and other text-based forms of communication constantly.  Don’t be surprised if your readers are feeling a bit of text overload.  Providing them with a new and fun way to gather the information you’ve got for them very well may reenergize them and leave them feeling far less overwhelmed. Not only that, but they’ll also start to feel like they know you even better.

 

It’s a cinch!

Recording a quality and informative video is so easy with the latest developments in video production. The options are endless, really. By adding these video blogs to your current blog line-up, it’ll spice things up and have people craving more from you.  Not only that, but chances are that they’ll be thanking you for not having to read a lengthy blog post.

 

It’s efficient

Video blogging is something that can certainly be done quickly.  That fact alone makes it a perfect way for you to deliver information to your readers quickly, whenever the need arises.  A great example of this is a sales situation. You could use your video blog to inform your site visitors of sales, breaking news, and anything else that you think will be of great interest.  It’s as easy as taking your cell phone camera, web cam, or regular video camera and getting it done.  You’ll have all of your readers informed of a sale or some form of breaking news before your competitors even have a chance to do or say anything about it, themselves.

 

It adds more of a personal touch

Writing and talking obviously differ.  When we are reading, it’s possible for some of the text we’re reading to lose meaning along the way, because there are no facial expressions and voice fluctuations to support what’s being said. This is where a video blog is truly king.  Allowing your readers to see you and your passion for your business can be a very helpful tool.  With you sitting there looking them in the eye and talking to them, the chance of their attention drifting is reduced.  Allow them to see how truly passionate you are about your product and how it can help to improve their lives.

Video blogs are such useful tools to help spice up your site, inform your customers, and increase site traffic.  So what are you waiting for?  Grab that camera and get shooting!  You’ll be glad you did.

How FRIENDSHIP PAGES Work Friendship Pages contain public wall posts and comments between two friends, photos in which both are tagged, events they both RSVP'd for and more. You can see a friendship page if you are friends with one of the people and have permission to view both people's profiles. You can find a friendship page from links under relevant wall posts, under relationship stories, and under the main photo on a friend's profile page....Read more http://www.thinkbigsites.com/Newsletters/2010/November/index.html

The Inside Scoop on Link Building for SEO

Link building is considered one of the most difficult things to achieve when creating a successful site with a minimal budget. It’s also considered one of the most vital parts of any SEO campaign. The idea is to get as many links to your site dispersed on the net as possible. Link building is important and can help to boost your organic SEO results.

When you really think about it, link building is also one of the most basic types of site development. It’s always the very first thing to do when putting forth efforts to get your website growing.  Just so we’re clear on what link building really means; it’s the act of receiving an external link to your site from a different website. This can benefit your site in several ways. If your link happens to be in any sort of high-traffic area on a popular website, the chances of people clicking your link are much, much higher. So link building is the process of gaining more and more inbound links to your own website.

Link-backs to your website aren’t the most important factor when determining your search ranking. You’ve got to have a well-optimized site in order to gain a higher ranking.  Link building is considered crucial in almost every SEO strategy though, and it will aid in improving your site’s ranking, increase web traffic, and ideally generate income.

One way of creating very useful back-links is to submit stories and articles, based on your website content, to different article directories.  Once the stories and articles are picked up by other sites, they can create even more links for you.  When working on building links, the content and relevance of stories and articles is crucial. 

Link building is not only a terrific tool to use for increasing link partners and search engine rankings, but it can also be used to create networks and help to establish profitable relationships with fellow webmasters.  The quality of link building makes a difference – meaning the quality of the websites that are linking back to you is important.  It’s pretty logical that having your link on a popular website with a lot of traffic gives you much better odds of people clicking on your link than if you only put your link on websites with very low traffic rates or that aren’t relevant to your site in any way.

How would you feel if only one of the many websites that you’ve linked to makes your entire link-building efforts completely ineffective?  This is, unfortunately, not an unrealistic occurrence. Identifying bad sites can be difficult to do, but it’s not impossible.  A person can do this manually, but there isn’t a need to.  There are different types of software that will help to identify bad links on your site.  You simply connect to the Internet, open the software, enter your site details, and then click the start button. It’s that easy and does all the work for you.

As mentioned previously, link building is but one aspect of search engine optimization.  Master this step though, and your search engine ranking will increase.  And remember, if you don’t have time to learn all this stuff or to get it done on a consistent basis, get in touch with Think BIG Sites.  SEO results are what we deliver!

Why Your Website’s Home Page Design Matters

Think back to the last person you met in person. Do you recall what type of clothing they had on or if their hair was neatly combed or messy?  In the same way first impressions matter when it comes to clothing and our physical appearance, the first impression of a company’s website design can be just as impactful.  Having your web content positioned and structured properly on your homepage can provide a visitor with a feeling of comfort and being welcomed.  This is obviously important, because the longer a visitor stays on your site, the better.

Because the homepage is responsible for giving those “first impression” feelings, and it’s the most visible part of your site design, when information is properly displayed on your homepage, it can be responsible for people wanting to keep coming back. A homepage should have a certain level of simplicity to it and should never be cluttered with too much information. All that does is confuse your visitors and make things harder to read. The last thing you want to do is turn visitors off with complications and clutter.  So, the more simple and straight-forward your website design is, the better.

 

The Importance of Layout

Having a good page layout is incredibly important. Everything on your homepage should be very self explanatory and simple. Having a website that’s packed full of Flash elements or has way too many functions will slow your entire site down by taking longer to load.  Those who have slower Internet connections will be sitting there waiting for quite a while before a page that’s packed with graphics will load.  At that point, it’s a gamble whether or not the visitor will be patient enough to allow the entire page to load, or if they’ll simply give up and move on, potentially hurting your site traffic stats.

 

The Heart of Your Page: Content

Once you have made a decision regarding the look and feel of your homepage, you will need to decide exactly what content you’d like to fill the layout in with.  When you get down to it, your visitors aren’t there to be wowed by the look of your flashy website. They are there for one thing, and one thing only – your content.  Great web content is the core of any good website. The pretty graphics which take forever to load are not what will keep visitors coming back time and time again. It is your content that’ll accomplish that goal.

The homepage of any website should contain information that will make it clear what the website is about and also explain the products and services you offer.  All of your information should be neatly organized into categories. The simplicity of this will make your page much easier to navigate and also easier to remember.  Briefly summarize your information on the homepage, and categorize it neatly into your layout.  This will make your site much easier to scan for any specific information that a visitor may be looking for.

 

Design and Layout

The design is such an important element to your website that it can either be your best friend or worst enemy.  And although the design is this important, the usability of the site’s design is even more crucial.  Navigating your website needs to be simple for any visitor to your website.  They should be able to know exactly what they want and where they want to go after a quick glance. All of your menu items (About Us, Contact Us, etc.) need to be obvious. There’s nothing worse than going to a website and having to search up and down for a menu which should be visible and obvious.

Follow these tips for your site’s homepage, and the web traffic you attract will stick around and keep coming back for more.  And in the end, that’s everything your web content and design are meant to do!

The Connection Between SEO and Social Media

When thinking of social media and SEO, an obvious connection may not jump to mind.  Social media helps to stimulate off-site interaction, and Search Engine Optimization’s function is to draw traffic to a particular website.  But social media absolutely does impact any SEO efforts – especially with link building.

Since self-promotion has been proven not to work well with social media, a challenge for marketers is generating content that is interesting enough to share with their social audience.  Once the content has been generated, it is shared, distributed, and discussed on various websites which results in links.  The more people you’ve got referencing your content, the more buzz your information will gain.  The buzz will end up driving consumers to search engines, and this is why Search Engine Optimization and social media should go hand-in-hand.

There are many different methods in which one can share their information on social media sites. Although the usage of a “Share this” button can be very effective, there are many other options that will effectively boost your search engine visibility.  Providing users and readers with code that they can use to share and post content for you is a terrific way to increase the reach of your site content. In addition, it can drastically increase the number of in-bound links to your website. One great idea is to run a contest or promotion and give the users tools that they can use to share their scores. If you’re a popular blogger, why not incorporate ways for fellow bloggers to link to your posts? Providing your readers with this option will build your credibility, because your consumers are marketing on your behalf.  Doing this can result in a community built completely of your supporters.

Never include tracking code in the links you share via social media. Doing so will prevent PageRank from being passed, thus no SEO value can be gained, and you always want to get credit for any links that you are securing. Also, when creating content headlines (articles, blogs, etc.), be certain that you are optimizing them with keywords.  If at all possible, optimizing page titles that are completely independent of each other will give you the greatest SEO value.

Social media is also a very good way to handle paid search campaigns. According to Media Post statistics, users who are connected with brands via social media are much more likely to begin searches with very specific terms. 

Social media can be quite a commitment.  It will take resources and time in order to keep a close eye on trending topics, user sentiment, and also to be an active participant, yourself.  Although it’s quite an investment, it is one that will definitely pay off. Thanks to social media, your brand will be kept in front of influencers and will also be able to provide search engines with a steady flow of new content to index.

Since the nature of social media is of a more personal nature, it can also provide very valuable customer insights.  Paying close attention to how your customers relate with you on a social level will help to provide even more insight to their search practices. For example, you’ll have a better idea of what search phrases they use in search queries. Marketers can be certain that they are using the proper keywords by continually refining and evaluating search the intent of consumers.

Remember that marketing is a comprehensive process is incredibly important. With traditional marketing, such as commercials, billboards, magazines, etc., your efforts impact brand awareness and retail traffic. With digital marketing, though, SEO and brand awareness can be impacted by social media marketing.  The most successful marketers out there take advantage of the benefits of a combined social media marketing and SEO strategy.