How to create a link code in Blogger

Creating a user / search engine friendly link code in Blogger is easy.

Balancing SEO & User Friendly – It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.

Search Engine Optimization strategies bring awareness to your Web site. Understanding your target audience and conveying a message that resonates with visitors is the key to great SEO.

GrokDotCom published this amazing story that illustrates the difference between conveying information and communicating a message that resonates with your target audience. When you know who you are speaking to, Search Engine Optimization becomes more effective.

Smart 404 Error Page Saves the Day

Google Analytics was reporting a client’s Error page as the 3rd hottest page on the Web site. Obviously there was a problem but the biggest mystery was that although visitors were getting a 404 Page Not Found Error, through the Google Analytics Navigation Summary I could see that visitors encountering the 404 Error were continuing to find content on the Web site from that page.

After performing some investigation, I found that the 404 Error Page was populated with a sitemap of the entire Web site, including a list of URL’s by product. Visitors were redirected, so to speak, from a serious issue.

The root cause of the problem was resolved by identifying a URL that was renamed. A 301 URL level redirect implemented via .htaccess redirected the old filename to the intended new URL. The problem was fixed immediatly. It took 2-3 weeks for Google to cache the new URL information but the redirect worked as intended.

Use 404 Error Pages for more than just reporting an error. Be creative and take the opportunity to fix a fubar gracefully.

Cupcake Mortgage Refi Experience

Driving down the road headed to fill out paperwork for my mortgage refinance with Trinity Title of Texas, an Austin title company, I began to think about the fact that I had never met the mortgage broker, Joshua Borders. Joshua was from Treaty Oak Mortgage, an Austin mortgage company. We talked via phone a few times, exchanged emails and now I was headed to sign paperwork for a very big transaction.

I was a bit confused about the directions and called for help. A lovely voice guided me right to the parking lot where there were several spaces dedicated for Trininty Title of Texas customers. I parked and made it on time to my appointment. The office was nice but nothing specifically stood out until I was greeted and taken to an office. On the table was a scrumptious chocolate dessert with real shaved chocolate on top and fresh strawberries to compliment. I was asked if I would like coffee or something to drink. And my coffee was brought in a lovely tea cup with saucer. There was a floral napkin on the table which made me feel like every detail was taken care of and that I would enjoy this very much.

I didn’t hesitate and enjoyed my dessert and coffee while I chatted with a Annette Castellanos, an Escrow Associate with Trinity Title, about my closing and their customer service process. What caught my attention was that her first response to me was that they understood that the process of going through a mortgage refinance could be a rather impersonal experience. That’s exactly how I felt when I was driving to my appointment. They have a person dedicated to creating this unique experience to personalize each closing.

Right down to the paperwork did I get a different sense of the experience of working with Trinity Title. The size of the folder and the design where all my copies were unique among other companies I’ve worked with in the past.

The question is, would I recommend using Trinity Title of Texas? Is chocolate and coffee enough to convert me? I had worked with another broker that had dragged his feet and potentially made me lose out on a better interest rate. I was recommended to go with Joshua Borders with Treaty Oak Mortgage. He was quick and he understood that I wanted to get the best rate. I never really had much conversation with him but I was pleased with the efficiency and the paperwork signing was simply the icing on the cake.

How would I translate this experience on the Web? Either written or video testimonials are a great way to illustrate added value. This blog post is another great way to get the word out as well as provide Search Engines information that is well optimized to index. Notice I’ve used keyword phrases for my anchor text high and to the left of my post. Search Engines will like the anchors and both companies I’ve mentioned will get backlinks which are also valuable.

Is “poopy” a bad word? How do Search Engines see it?

My 5 year old daughter recently asked me if the word “poopy” was bad? I came up with this response; “words are not bad, it’s the way that people use them that makes them bad.” The best example I could come up with was that if you called someone a “poopy head” that was bad. But if you told mommy that you had to go “poopy”, well, that was just reality. So what’s my point?

Humans understand the meaning of words and more appropriately, strings of words through semantics. Semantics simply convey the intended meaning of language. Humans process information through messages conveyed based on experience, body language, inflection, and other factors. Search engines cannot. The word “poopy” means little to a search engine without supporting words or phrases. It is simply a word. If a human hears that word, depending on their experience, language spoken, age, parental status, etc., the meaning begins to take shape immediatly. Add supporting words or phrases and the meaning becomes fine-tuned. The same concept applies to Search Engines.

Every page of a Web site has the potential to found by a user performing a search online. Keywords and more importantly, keyword phrases, are strategically placed by SEO professionals in key places on a Web page. It is critical to perform thorough keyword research, make proper keyword selection, determine relevance, and make good decisions about prominence and placement of those keyword phrases.

I guarantee your Web site will improve in Search Engine ranking position if you put effort into selecting good keywords and use those keyword phrases in strategic places on every Web page. If all other obstacles are identified and removed, you will see great results.

Web hosting tool hoses SEO 301 Redirect strategy

I don’t trust GUI’s and this is why. A simple URL 301 redirect was botched by PowWeb’s URL Redirect tool. I had an issue with an error page being among the top content viewed and found an problem with a URL name change conflicting with a PPC campaign landing page target. I knew what had to be done.

PowWeb has a handy set of control panel tools that allow .htaccess editing. The .htaccess editor has a URL Redirect tool that defines the from path as http://… and the to path also as http://… in it’s instructions.

The non-working redirect was defined by the tool as:
Redirect http://www.domain.com/home.html  http://www.domain.com

After going through various resources, I found this lovely note that saved my sanity:

“Notes: Don’t add “http://www” to the first part of the
statement – place the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space
between these elements:”

PowWeb also has a very nice direct .htaccess editor that allowed me to modify the .htaccess file so I manually changed the redirect to the following:

Redirect 301 /home.html  http://www.domain.com

There was no designation for a 301 Redirect so I had to modify the .htaccess file manually. It worked… Check your redirects here – http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/.

Luckily I have FTP access to the Web server but that is not always the case. In using the editor, I found there were actually 3 .htaccess files on the server. I had to ensure I was modifying the correct one and my next phone call to PowWeb will be about having 3 .htaccess files on the server.

Pay close attention to your redirects. Check them. Then check them again.

 

Converting users to customers. Take the “we-we” challenge…

What you say on your Web site is critical in conveying a message to a potential customer or client. Writing pursasive text is as much an art as a science.

We do this. We do that. It is typical to write content in “we-we” talk. Web site owners focus on what “we do” instead of the benefits to the intended audience.

Take the we-we challege, made popular by the author of “It’s the Customer Stupid”, Bryan Eisenberg, and see if your Web site passes the test.

Converting users to customers is an entire practice  worthy of exploring much further than this post. In order to write pursasive text that appeals to both users and search engines, you need to:

• Target your audience
• Perform thorough keyword research
• Write your message for your target audience using pursuasive text and include good keyword phrases
• Format and place keywords and keyword phrases in strategic places on your Web pages
• Determine your keyword density – the percentage of times a keyword and keyword phrase is used on a single Web page compared to the total number of words (exclusions exist)
• Measure and fine-tune

Piece of cake…

What does your Web site say to Search Engines?

Every page of your Web site has the potential to be a landing page for a user seeking your services or products. Users don’t exclusively enter your Web site through the homepage. Keyword phrase optimization of every key page of your Web site is critical to increase the chances that one of your Web pages will be returned in a search.

Let’s check your keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage a keyword or keyword phrase is repeated in comparison to the total number of words on a page. Stop words like “and”, “or” and “but” are excluded from the total. This excercise does not take into account the depth of analysis performed to improve keyword “phrase” density of a Web site but it does provide a peek into a potential problem. Don’t get caught up in “we-we” talk and make sure to convey the right message about what your company offers to both users and Search Engines.

Explore your homepage keyword phrase density by following this quick and easy excercise:

1. Go to http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html - accept all default values
2. Enter your homepage URL in the fist field at the top as http://www.yourdomain.com
3. Click Submit
4. The report created gives a wealth of knowledge about your homepage. Scroll to the section showing single, 2,3 and 4 keyword phrases
5. The most popular searches are between 2 and 4 keyword phrases. You will see the most repeated phrases at the top of this section of the report. If you are a land surveying provider and you do not see the keyword phrase “land surveying” or “land surveyor” in your list, chances are you are not telling search engines or users enough about the services you provide.

Talk to your online marketing representative about the copy on your Web site.  Make sure that good keyword research is performed before making changes to your Web site copy and don’t get caught up in “we-we” talk.