Improve the visibility of your LinkedIn content with search engines as well as within the LinkedIn community.

Increase the exposure of your LinkedIn updates.

Possibly help to increase rankings of the web content you link to in LinkedIn updates.

You’ll Learn About…

How to Setup a LinkedIn Company Page and Associate Your Employees With It.

Have Your Employees Optimize Their Public Profiles. Having your employees optimize their profiles helps make the content on their profile more visible to others within the LinkedIn community and with search engines.

Have Your Employees Share Your Updates On Their Profiles. When you have important updates to share ask some or all of your employees to post the update on their LinkedIn Profiles.

For example when you want to announce that helpful video you put up on YouTube or that great how-to article that was just published ask your employees to Share the Update on their profiles. This can get your update in front of thousands of people on LinkedIn who may in turn share it, bookmark it, Like it, link to it, etc.

Having a company profile with associated employees each with optimized profiles who are active with a number of connections can increase the visibly of your content both on LinkedIn and with search engines and give you a effective online networking tool to communicate with hundreds or thousands of connections.

Sharing updates with these connections should help increase awareness of your messages and the web content you link to in your updates and possibly increase the rankings of that content as your connections share, bookmark/like, and link to your content.

Read How To Use LinkedIn To Improve Organic Visibility

The post How To Use LinkedIn To Improve Organic Visibility appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

After years of declining use Google pulled the plug on the Google Directory.

The Google Directory was based on the Open Directory Project (OPD),  a volunteer, human edited directory of the web that has been used as the underlying database for numerous web directories for years. Unfortunately OPD has struggled in recent years to keep up with the increased number of updates and submissions.

We liked the Google Directory because you could browse the listings in a category in PageRank order, meaning that the online magazines at the top of a listing, for example, had the highest PageRank. With Google’s Directory gone you can search for and browse through categories in OPD, but only in alphabetical order.

I haven’t checked to see if Google is still displaying the OPD site description as the description in some of its search results or not. In some cases Google may display the description for a site from the Google directory as the listing snippet (this usually only happens for home pages). However checking Google’s webmaster help pages I still see the following mentioned in pages that were updated since the Google Directory was taken down

“…the title from the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org), can appear in Google search results.”

For more information on this and how to stop Google from displaying the OPD title see http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35624#2

The post No More Google Directory appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

In this Part 2 article on Search Engine Land I’ll outline some relatively simple ways to improve conversions once people enter your web site from any traffic sources including….

Don’t Send Visitors Away From The Page Too Early

Did They Miss Any Important Messages?

What Do You Want Them To Do next?

How To Measure Changes With Google Analytics

Test Calls To Action

Simple Highlighting Changes Can Make A Huge Difference

Test Adding Forms On The Page

Loose The Form Verification If Possible

Read “How To Increase Organic Keyword Conversions. Part 2”

The post How To Increase Organic Keyword Conversions. Part 2 appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

Here’s a video of Matt Cutts from Google answering a question about what SEO tactics to focus on for 2011. It was meant for large corporations but applies to most web sites.

In the video Matt covers a few tactics including…

Check your site speed.

First and foremost site speed is an important usability factor that affects your conversion rates, but as Matt says it’s also a “slight” factor in rankings

Get Started – See Google’s Webmaster Tools / Labs / Site performance for a Performance overview of your site and a Page Speed tool you can add on to Firefox

Get Control of Your CMS

Matt talks about the importance of having control of your Content Management System.

See for “How To Improve Organic Search Results With A Simple Site Audit” for more on CMS issues that affect SEO.

Internal Links Consistency

Matt discuses the importance of checking your internal links for 404’s for example,  but more importantly chekcing the site’s linking structure;  a strong ranking signal.

See 9 Step SEO Checkup Using Google Webmaster Tools , the “Gain Insight Into Link Strategy” section to help get started on internal linikng.

Participate In Social Media To Help Increase Incoming Links

Matt talks about participating in social media because if can help increase the number of high quality incoming links which helps improve your site’s rankings.

Start learning about Link Building here Link Building Basics: What is Link Popularity?

Read between the lines. Would Matt Cutts suggest social media marketing as one of the most important of three or four SEO tactics because of the affect it can have on incoming links? Or would Google like to prod us along on social media marketing for other reasons such as the realization in light of the Panda update that they need social signals to help evaluate what are high quality sites as well as the soon to be released Google +1 social bookmaking/recommendation button?

View Matt’s Video

Learn How eVision Can Help You
Get More Business From The Internet

The post Google’s Matt Cutts on 3 SEO Tactics To Focus On In 2011 appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

For a couple of years Google has often inserted a sample of local search results from Google Maps within the main search results on google.com such as the “7-pack” of local results in the screen shot below:

A: “7-pack” of local results from Google Maps within the main search results of google.com.
B: Beginning of the traditional organic results

New “Blended” Local Results

More and more Google has been “blending” local search results within the “traditional” organic listings such as in the screen shot below (Can I call something that hasn’t even been in existence for 20 years “traditional?). Often there will be two or three traditional organic results followed by seven local results. More traditional organic results follow below the local results. The map of the local results now appears in the top right corner of the page.

B: The first of the traditional organic results.
A: The local results from Google Maps now being “Blended” within the main search results of google.com.

Effects of New Local Results

If local search results are important to your organization then Google’s new blended local results have made it even more important to optimize your local listing(s):

Your Traditional Organic Results May Have Been Pushed Further Down Within The Search Results
The new blended local results take much more vertical space. They include quite a bit more information and often include images. This pushes the traditional results that follow below the local results much further down within the results. If you had a traditional organic listing(s) ranking well that listing may now be getting pushed much further down among the search results.

In addition, in the past many people would scan the pack of local results or scan the traditional organic results or both. Now that the local results are blended with the traditional organic results, they appear for many, I suspect, as one long list of results. So if you had a traditional organic listing in say position 4 it many now have in effect been pushed down to position 11.

Less People May Click To View Additional Local Results Within Google Maps
In the past there was a large text link to see more local results that was prominently displayed above the pack of local listings and another text link to see more local results below the pack (See the first screen shot above). Now there’s just the smaller text link at the bottom of the local results. I expect less people will click through to see more local results in Google Maps now.

The new blended local results have made it more important than ever to try to get a local result at the top of the search results within the listings Google displays on google.com

What you should do

Do some searches on Google’s main search page, google.com, on what you believe are some of your important search terms (keyword phrases) with and without the city/town, state names. If you see local results mixed in among the search results like in the above screen shots then you should work on improving your local search results to ideally get your listing to appear on google.com

Video Overview

Watch a 9 minute video overview about the imporatnce of Google Maps SEO since blended search resutls emerged. this is a video snippet from our “Get More Business from Your Web Site seminar

For More Info

Video on how to check for your local search listings (from 2009 but still a good visual overview)

Learn How eVision Can Help With
Google Local Search Optimization

The post Optimizing for Local Search Even More Important With Google’s New Blended Local Search Results appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

Links were placed on thousands of web sites using deceptive anchor text (the text phrases that are used within a link to a web site) in an attempt to get JC Penny’s web pages to rank higher. And it worked very well. J.C. Penny had top rankings for hundreds of keywords during the holidays.

However, the practice of buying text links or placing deceptive links in order to influence rankings is against Google’s terms and conditions, as well as most search engines.

J.C. Penny has now been penalized by Google. They recently fired their SEO company.

Read the full article on the New York Times

Related Info:

How to Hire an SEO. Tips from Google and Others

The post J.C. Penny Caught Red Handed by Google Doing Link Spam: Led Astray By their SEO? appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

• Using photos and text to establish yourself as an expert.
• Showing people what to buy with buyers guides that help shoppers understand what product they need.
• Telling shoppers why they should buy from you.

Read “How to Optimize Your Online Ecommerce Store,  Rob Snell”

Also see “Increase ecommerce conversions 2-4x and improve search marketing results by helping shoppers decide what to buy” an article with many examples from Rob Snell’s web site and examples from the Crutchfield electronics site. Crutchfield has also done a great job establishing themselves as experts in their field while helping shoppers learn what to buy.

The post How to Optimize Your Online Ecommerce Store, with Rob Snell appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

She explains what Link Popularity is (covering Link quantity, Link quality, Anchor Text and Relevance) and why Link Building and referral site development is such an important activity for improving organic search rankings, building targeted traffic and building brand awareness. 

Read Link Building Basics from SMX East

 For More Info

Is Link Building Important? Google & Bing Talk About Link Building

Offsite and reciprocal linking effects on search engine marketing. What we recommend regarding outbound links from a web site (offsite links) and the related area of reciprocal linking.

12 Steps to Building Incoming Links. In the WordTracker blog Ken McGaffin outlines 12 principles to follow to show quality web sites that you are worthy of their link.

Best Practices for Article Marketing. Why submitting articles to article submission sites is of little value unless they are high quality, useful articles.  How to find quality article submission sites.How to build & use an online media list.(A two part article)

More blogging tips – 25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Ratings, Lee Odden.

Learn How eVision Can Help With
Google Local Search Optimization

The post Link Building Basics: What is Link Popularity? appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

 …If you don’t keep your SEO abreast of website changes.

The Client Perspective: “There are lots of changes needed on our website for branding, marketing or technical reasons. We don’t want to run each and every one of them past our SEO consultant because they shouldn’t concern him or her.”

The SEO Perspective: Imagine this…You’re doing your daily/weekly/monthly review of Google Analytics for the client and notice a substantial drop in visitors for some specific keyword phrases. So you spot-check some Google searches, but that reveals no sign of their website in the search results. You pore through the website and find that the pages that used to bring in tons of targeted Google traffic are now missing altogether, combined with other pages, or buried so deeply in the website’s architecture that the search engines no longer find them important. SEO Fail.  

How to prevent this SEO failure: Include your SEO consultant on any discussions about changing *anything* on the website, no matter how trivial you think it might be. While the changes may be necessary for corporate reasons that are out of anyone’s control, at least give your SEO consultant a heads-up and the chance to present an alternative that won’t kill your targeted search engine traffic overnight. Don’t worry about bothering them with something you think is no big deal – if that’s all it is, that’s fine, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.  

…If you think your SEO can work independently and not need (a lot of) your help.

The Client Perspective: “I’m extremely busy running my business/department and don’t have time for SEO, which is why I decided to outsource it to an SEO consultant.”  

The SEO Perspective: While we’d love to be able to create an SEO strategy, research and choose keywords, make website architecture changes, write brand-new sales copy, come up with and write blog posts that showcase your expertise, open a Twitter account on your behalf and gain thousands of followers overnight – it doesn’t work that way. If you’re too busy to help – your SEO will undoubtedly fail.  

How to prevent this SEO failure: Expect to spend a minimum of a few hours a week working with your SEO consultant on various tasks, be it reviewing their work, educating them on what you do, writing expert blog post drafts, or socially networking online with others in your industry. You have to be involved. If you don’t have the time or can’t make the time, then don’t bother to hire an SEO because you’ll be tying their hands and not seeing the results you hoped for.  

…If you know enough SEO to be dangerous.

The Client Perspective: “I know SEO, I’ve done SEO in a previous job and I read all the SEO blogs. I just need some help with implementation.”  

The SEO Perspective: We love educated clients – really, we do. They are more apt to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. But you may not know as much SEO as you think. If you had a website in the 1990s and used some SEO software to create doorway pages to just the right keyword density – I’m sorry, but you don’t know SEO! We don’t want to hear how you read a blog post that said commas in the Meta keyword tag are the latest and greatest of SEO techniques and that “Inktomi” uses them so they must be important. This type of SEO “advice” is a sure trip to SEO Fail Land.  

How to prevent this SEO failure: Old SEO advice, and just plain bad SEO advice, is pervasive in our industry. Once you hire an SEO consultant, trust them to be up on current SEO techniques. It’s fine to ask their opinion on specific articles you may have read, but please respect their opinion on them and don’t go messing up their work based on what you *think* SEO is all about. Do keep reading and learning, and even attend a conference or two. But discuss what you’ve learned with your SEO to understand how it may (or may not) apply to your particular website and situation.  

There are plenty of other scenarios that can cause SEO failure, which I may write about in future articles. For now, here are two more prescriptions for SEO failure that I’ve previously written about:  

• SEO can’t save a sinking ship

• SEO recommendations don’t implement themselves

It’s clear that all of the above reasons for SEO failure are predicated on a lack of communication between the client and the SEO consultant. I hope that shedding some light on this will prevent future SEO failures. Both clients and consultants have a vested interest in the SEO success of your website and your business, and want to avoid SEO failure at all costs!  

FREE SEMINAR: Wallingford Connecticut

Search Engine Marketing
for the Business Manager

How Can SEM Help My Business?

WHEN: 8:15 AM, Tuesday December 7, 2010 –
WHERE: Wallingford, CT  

You’ll Learn:  

• What is Search Engine Optimization?
• Local Search Optimization – Have you noticed the local results that are often displayed high up in the search results now (for example try searching on “lawyers milford ct”)? Getting your listing here can be huge!
• Overview of Social Media, Link Building and related online marketing to build awareness and business.
• What are those “Sponsored Listings” (PPC) in the search results and how can they help increase my business?
• How long does it take to see results?
• How to measure potential ROI.

Who Should Attend  

Ideal for Marketing Directors, Business Owners, Managing Directors and Other Key Decision Makers.  

Full Details & Registration >>

The post SEO Is Bound to Fail If… (by Jill Whalen) appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

A client just launched their redesigned web site and their ads unknowingly were resulting in many Page Not Found errors (404 errors). Most Adwords users may not realize that the Auto Tagging feature can result in “Page Not Found” errors that are not detected using the Ad Preview Tools within Adwords. 

If searchers receive a “Page Not Found” error when they click through from your ads most will just hit the Back button and return to the search results to click on a competitor’s ad (But only after you’ve been charged for the Clicks). Those few who take the time to continue on within your site may get frustrated trying to find what they were looking for since they will not be starting from an ideal landing page. This will significantly reduce your conversion rate –  wasting many dollars in Adwords Click charges and missed business opportunities. 

Here’s the Auto-tagging issue

Auto tagging is the default method for integrating Adwords data with Google Analytics. It’s turned on by default when you create a new Adwords Account 

With auto-tagging turned on, a unique ID parameter is added to the end of your Adwords destination URLs. For example: 

If your ad (or keyword) URL is http://domain.com/product/index.htm 

Then Adwords will append a parameter such as:

 …./index.htm/?gclid=COaGrdOLECreRY75QodSWZnJw  

On some dynamically driven web sites this can cause a hiccup resulting in a Page Not Found error. 

Unfortunately most adwords advertisers rely on the ad preview features within the adwords system. However the ad preview features do not append an auto tag parameter to the URL. So the landing page can appear to load ok in the preview when it fact it fails to load correctly from the actual ads. 

True, but unfortunate, Client Story – We started working with a new retail ecommerce client not long ago whose ads were resulting in Page Not Found errors possibly for many months before we tested for it (they had been running adwords for at least two years before we began working with them). After we had their IT fix the issue their conversion rate jumped almost significantly! That error probably cost them thousands of dollars in wasted Adwords click charges and much more in missed sales opportunities. 

 

Video Demonstration of the Auto-Tagging Issue (about 4 minutes)
  

How to test for issues with Auto-tagging  

• Append ?gclid=test or &gclid=test (if your destination URL already contains other parameters) to the end of your AdWords destination URL

Examples – 

http://www.domain.com/shop/index.asp?gclid=test 

http://www.domain.com/shop/category.asp?catid=1&gclid=test 

• Paste this modified URL into your browser’s address bar, and press Enter
   
• Check the results –

If the expected landing page loads and remains loaded with no problems then you should be ok. 

If the results are anything other than the expected landing page, such as a Page Not Found error, you have a problem.

You should consider turning off Auto-tagging at least temporality while you troubleshoot the issue.  For our clients once their web developers were made aware of the issue they were able to either fix the auto-tagging issue or switch to manual parameters (discussed in the Google help document in the For More Info section below. Google refers to this as tracking clicks manually by tagging links)

See the link in the For More Info section to Google’s help page for instructions on how to disable Auto-Tagging and for their troubleshooting guide. 

Request to Google – Please, if auto-tagging is turned on, then the ad preview features should add an auto-tag too!

More Info

Google’s Help page with a link to their troubleshooting guide
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55590

Learn more about Page Note Found errors (404 errors) in our Video/Text article

The post Using Adwords Auto-tagging? Searchers may see “Page Not Found” errors instead of your landing pages! appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.