Choosing keywords wisely is the first and most important part of any SEO campaign. It can mean the difference between 100 visitors to your site and 1,000. Business owners know their products and services inside and out and can forget what it’s like for an average consumer trying to find their service. An example we like to use is of a gentleman who owned a manufactured housing business. He didn’t like the phrase “mobile home.” But guess what the common person searching for his services called it? A little bit of research shows that there are an average of 36 times more searches on Google daily for “mobile home” versus “manufactured home.”

This happens more often than not. Business owners become too close their products and technical terms. It’s always a good idea to ask around and brainstorm with people who aren’t so familiar with your business. Ask them what words they would type into Google to find your company. Then do some research, or let us do it for you, to see which of those words are being searched for the most. You don’t want to miss out on valuable traffic from the most popular keywords.

The myth that SEO is snake oil is one that is prevalent among people who don’t fully understand it. SEO is an industry that is still very new and not generally understood. It can appear to be magic when a site shows up on the front page of Google that wasn’t there last week. Even though we don’t know the search engines’ exact algorithms for ranking pages, there are straight-forward methods for increasing a web site’s chances of ranking well.

The first, and most important, aspect is recognizing the best keywords for your market. This is true even off-line. Using the best words to catch people’s attention in Yellow Pages ads, billboards, etc. is important to get the best response. These keywords can make or break the amount of traffic to your web site. Doing some simple research will reveal which keywords are best for your site.

Next, including those keywords on your site lets Google know that is what your site is about. Google doesn’t understand context, it only reads what is on your site. You can think of this as putting up signs in your store to guide people to certain items – “women’s clothes, automotive supplies, shoes, etc.” Of course, if you overdo it, and repeat your keywords too many times, you will annoy people who will move on to another web site.

Finally, you want to create more ways for people to find your site by building links to it. There are hundreds of ways to accomplish this. Google views sites that have more links to them as more important. When you build links to your site, you are essentially putting up signs to help people find you easier. The easier it is for people, and Google, to find you, the higher you will appear in the search engine rankings.

That’s really what SEO is about. None of this is magic or snake oil. It boils down to recognizing what people are looking for and making sure the search engines know that’s what your site is about.

Changing colors in a design can dramatically change the mood or impression the user gets. Bright colors may make you feel happy or remind you of children, dark colors could be ominous or moody. Normally I will ask clients what feeling or mood they want to promote through their design. Sometimes, the word “classy” comes up.

A great way to make a design appear classy is to add gray. Gray is not a color people normally think of using because it seems drab, but take a look at a few examples and you’ll see it’s not at all boring.

Apple.com

Mercedes-Benz

Chanel

Color Theory is a very deep and extensive topic, but there are a few rules you can follow to evoke certain feelings easily. Creating a classy design is as easy as keeping it simple, and using gray instead of a brighter color.

Too often, I want to find more information about a local company, but can’t find their web site. This is aggravating to me, because I do most things online. If I want to find out information about a product, service, company, etc. I turn to Google. But this is difficult when it comes to finding local companies and services online.

Between 2007 and 2008, the number of people who said their primary source for local business information is search engines pulled ahead to outnumber the print directory (Yellow Pages). It’s clear the usage of the Yellow Pages is declining and use of the internet is rising. How many local businesses, that rely on the Yellow Pages for advertising, are being left behind? One study says that 44% of small businesses don’t have a web site. This number is incredibly high to me, and makes me wonder how much business these companies are missing out on.

Excuses about the cost being too high, or that their customers aren’t online aren’t valid anymore. For example, the 70-75 age group is the fastest growing age group on the internet. It isn’t difficult to have a web site designed anymore, and more competition in the market has pushed the costs lower. So what are small business owners waiting for? Now is the time to establish a presence online and take advantage of the increasing local search traffic.

The world of Search is changing at an ever increasing pace. With services like Facebook and Twitter offering access to information as it happens, search engines are feeling the pressure to provide the freshest results for searchers. For the past few months, Google has been working on a technology upgrade to provide the fastest results. Many people, such as Ben at Mashable, have done tests between the old and new versions of Google. It’s obvious the new Google is much faster. There is also an emphasis on the newest/most recently updated results. For example, results from social media sites are ranking higher because they are frequently updated.

What does this mean for you? This means it is becoming so much more important to update your website on a regular basis. Search engines want to make sure your site is the most relevant result it can provide to searchers. Changing some content, or adding what’s new can help. Having a blog on your site is also a great way to keep adding content and to keep it fresh. Of course, all of this content must be on topic and relevant to the traffic you’re trying to pull to your site.

Search engines want to provide the most relevant information in as little time as possible. Hopefully their push for higher speeds won’t detract from their relevancy. As a website owner, you can work to provide fast and relevant content for searchers to find.

We decided to start fresh with our new blog. All of the great content from the old blog is still available, though! Many of the posts are from 2007, but are still very relevant. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Chasing Your Longtail

The Value of SEO in Your Marketing Budget

All I Really Need to Know (about SEO) I Learned in Kindergarden

Check back for more new content soon!

Thanks for stopping by. We are working on updating the blog and will have it up and running soon.