Optimize 4 Engines - SEO Blog

New Web-based SEO Software

2010-01-14T15:40:00.001-08:00

Gridlock - SEO News: Sheer SEO: Web-based Rank Reports

I have been using Sheer SEO's web-based seo software for a while now and I have to say it is a lifesaver. I have been searching for the best ranking software for a long, long time now and it's all just really slow, sluggish applications that take forever to set up. Sheer SEO's rank reports are done without you even logging in, all you need to do to see them is login. You can also have a professional account that will allow you to set up sub-accounts for your clients if you are an seo professional. They will have their own login and password and they can login to see their rank reports any time they feel like it. Best of all, it's fast and you don't need to open a whole new ram-heavy application to check rankings. Definitely worth checking out!

seo, seo ranking, ranking report, ranking, seo software, software, site, website, seo

For Developers and Designers: Find Projects With Builditwith.me

2009-12-28T06:47:00.001-08:00

Builditwith.me connects designers with developers easily. If you are a designer, sign up and post your first idea. Fill out a little information about it and wait for a developer to contact you and you can get started. This site is perfect for someone who has a lot of ideas but doesn't know how to develop them. Post your ideas for web apps, mobile apps, Mac apps, Windows apps, and more. Check it out: Builditwith.me

builditwith.me, new site, developers, projects, ideas, designers, seo

TypeKit: Fonts for your Website

2009-12-18T08:59:00.001-08:00

T ypekit is an awesome tool for adding fonts to your website. It's easy to navigate with tags, they continue to add new fonts, you can apply CSS styles to the fonts, the site promises 100% uptime utilizing servers all over the world and these are just a few of the great features Typekit offers. Definitely worth checking out.

Follow Typekit on Twitter: @typekit

typekit, fonts, web design, web development

WebPageTest: Test Your Web Site's Speed

2009-12-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

Webpagetest.org - Stuff like this seems to be popping up in every corner of the web due to Google's increasing obsession with rewarding speedy sites. This web site will allow you to check out the speed of your own web site in different locations, browsers, connections, bandwidths with all sorts of different settings. This doesn't just help with your presence on Google, it also helps with your web site's overall user experience. Definitely check out this site.

website, web site, web page, test, performance test, site speed, seo

MooShell

2009-12-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

MooShell is a new website that allows you to test HTML, CSS and javascript elements for your web site. Check it out: Mooshell.net

Technorati Tags: mooshell, mootools, html, css, javascript, new site, website, seo, search engine marketing, web design, web development

Tips For Web Accessibility

2009-12-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Must-read from Six Revisions about Web Accessibility:

One of the most overlooked aspects in designing a website that we often brush off is web accessibility. There’s a misconception that web accessibility requires sacrifices to aesthetics, or that it’s not worth the effort.

But, with a growing number of ways that users access the web, creating highly-accessible and universal designs that can be viewed in as many ways as possible is critical to the success of a website.

And here’s the good news: it isn’t as hard as you think.

Most web accessibility guidelines already go hand-in-hand with website development practices. In this article, we’ll explore 10 quick and easy ways to improve your site’s accessibility.

Read the rest: 10 Simple Web Accessibility Tips You Can Do Today

Technorati Tags: web accessibility, web design, design, web development, seo

Twitter Most Popular Word of 2009

2009-12-01T14:19:00.001-08:00

Still think Twitter is a passing fad and there's no reason your company should have a Twitter account? Twitter Declared Most Popular English Word of 2009

Technorati Tags: twitter, marketing, seo, social networking, social media

DIY: Email Forms on Your Web Site

2009-11-25T10:11:00.001-08:00

EmailMeForm is a great way to create and completely customize your own contact forms for your web site without knowing a thing about programming scripts. It's free and requires only copy and paste skills. This is a great way to save money building your web site yourself while still being able to offer the same features as other web sites.

Technorati Tags: do it yourself, diy, email forms, forms, script, html, web design, web site

New Analytics Platform

2009-11-24T13:59:00.001-08:00

Makeuseof.com has posted an article about a new analytics platform called Reinvigorate and it looks miles ahead of Google Analytics. Check it out:

To accommodate the ever-increasing desire for startups and corporations to reach out to their audience and discover more about them, site analytics tools are evolving to showcase much more about the types of people that visit their online properties and how they interact with their content – and each other.

One such evolution in site analytics comes from a startup called Reinvigorate. Where Google has reigned supreme in delivering detailed statistics about site usage and traffic with their free analytics service, it’s fallen short on delivery of that information in real-time. Let’s take a look at the way Reinvigorate can be utilized to achieve a clearer picture of visitor behavior, and how it might work towards achieving the goal of increased awareness between website owners and their users.

Read the rest of this article here: Reinvigorate: Real-Time Analytics That Pick Up Where Google Leaves Off

Technorati Tags: analytics, reinvigorate, seo, traffic, marketing, search engine optimization

Photo Galleries with Wordpress

2009-10-15T10:35:00.001-07:00

It’s the day after D-Day. The bride and groom have left for their honeymoon, everybody has gone back to their respective hometowns, the noise and cheers have turned into silence, the trash have been thrown out, and the living room has been redecorated back to what it was before.

You – the house photographer – sits alone in front of your computer. All the images that you shot at the event have been edited and saved inside the hard disk. All you have to do now is share copies with your relatives. You still remember the horrible smiles that the uncles and aunts gave you while saying “send us copies…or else!” Your body trembles at the thought of failing to fulfil their request.

The Cool DIY Way Of Sharing Images

Considering the huge number of family members and the many parts of the world in which they live in, printing the photos and sending the copies to them is not the perfect answer. You don’t have the time, the energy or the funds. Burning the images onto CDs will still cost you your spare time, the blank disks and the postage.

You think about uploading the images to the web and then start looking for an online photo sharing service. But then it struck you. You remember that you have an idle Wordpress blog. Instead of leaving it untouched, why not build a photo gallery web site?

Read more: Build A Cool Photo Gallery Website from Wordpress

Technorati Tags: wordpress, photo, photo album, photo gallery, seo, search engine optimization, web design

6 FREE Tools To Get The Best Keywords For Your Site

2009-09-03T11:46:00.001-07:00

Great list of keyword research tools:

3: Google Suggest

Google Suggest also offers a nice way to research keywords. When you start typing a word in the Google suggest box, it starts showing the related most popular search queries in a drop down menu. Therefore you can immediately come to know about the related keywords / sentences for a particular search query. Even Google Toolbar has this feature but it doesn’t show the number of search results for the keywords.

Read the full article : 6 FREE Tools To Get The Best Keywords For Your Site

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, keyword research, keyword suggest, google, keyword

10 Reasons Not to Host with Large Hosting Companies

2009-08-27T06:48:00.001-07:00

If your a seasoned veteran when it comes to dealing with web hosting then you probably already know everything you need to about what makes a good hosting company. For me there a few things that really make it or break it though, so here are my top 10 reasons to go with a smaller company rather than one of the hosting giants!

1. I'm a believer in supporting the smaller companies, especially in these tough economic times. After all they are what used to keep everybody in business and making money. In many ways it's the giants that have hurt our economy.

2. The small companies tend to be more upfront with what they are offering, as apposed to preying on people who aren't experts only to find out that they have to pay extra for this and that, ie. Godaddy charging for email addresses and SMTP relays, while Canadian Web Hosting offers unlimited free email addresses.

3. Customer service. I prefer to not have to call my hosting company ever to be honest, because generally if I'm calling them it's because of an emergency that can't wait for a support ticket to be responded to. Smaller companies are better at having a human answer the phone and not sticking you on hold for a long time.

4. When you go to the hosting company's web site, I've found that the larger companies tend to have a lot of ads, and banners that can be very distracting and confusing even to the experienced users.

5. Abuse. I know that many companies are more lenient than others, and on the web so much of what is considered abuse is relative. I'm not condoning things like spamming, for example, but I think that if something a customer does blurs lines of the hosting companies policies they should deal with it by contacting the customer and evaluating what it is that they are doing. Many larger companies will simply just shut down a paying customers web site, without notice or explanation because a "red light" went off somewhere.

6. Smaller companies tend to be more ahead of the times than larger ones, at least when it comes to offering new services and technology.

7. Flexibility. There have been times that I have needed to change my hosting plan, or even cancel and transfer file hosting in the midst of my hosting plan. I have never had a problem doing so when using a smaller hosting company, where as the giants fight you tooth and nail.

8. Fees and charges. This one always gets me. You pay for your hosting and maybe even buy a few domains through the same company, then the the big companies decide that they get to charge you a fee to activate your domain, or add a domain to your hosting account. Why don't they just start charging per second anyone is on your web site?

9. I sort of covered this before with customer service, but if you are unsure as to what you need or want, call a smaller company and talk to them. They will offer advice that will work for your business because they want you to be a customer for life, not just so they meet their quarterly quota.

10. Price. The big guys will claim to have affordable hosting, but there is always something hidden. The small guys can sell hosting for less because they are not employing an army and don't have nearly as much overhead.

In short, there really is nothing redeeming about these large companies that offer "cheap" hosting. It ends up being less affordable and more of a headache in the long run.

Technorati Tags: hosting, web hosting, web site, domain name registraion, domain name, domain, budget, affordable, seo, search engine optimization

5 Social Networking Sites You Have No Excuse Not To Be On

2009-08-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Social marketing can be a full time job all in itself. With new networks popping up almost daily it seems, how do you know where to begin, or what networks are the most important?

In our experience with our own business as well as those of our clients, these are the most productive social media web sites that a business owner can belong to:

1. Twitter - An absolute must for the business owner trying to gain targeted traffic to his or her web site. I wrote a more detailed article about how to take Twitter a few steps further in conjunction with your blog a few weeks back.

2. Facebook - Still one of the most visited web sites on the internet, and it's not really showing any signs of going away anytime soon. Facebook has become a phenomenon within circles of friends, with many people sharing entire relationships solely on Facebook.

3. Digg - Digg can be sort of like the lottery. It can be difficult to get an article Dugg hundreds or thousands of times, but if it does? Look out!

4. Identi.ca - What, you say? Yes. Identi.ca is a lesser known open source version of Twitter, but the bonus is: links on Identi.ca tend to hold some weight as backlinks.

5. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is *the* social network for business professionals. You can showcase your knowledge there with Answers, you can connect with other businesses and potential customers and you can recommend other products and services in your network.

If you don't have a lot of time to manage 99 Social Networks, at least make sure you're on these!

If you still don't have time for these, many Seo companies offer social marketing management services, freeing up your time to run your business. These Services can be quite time consuming for business owners, and often having someone else handle your social marketing is necessary.

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, marketing, social media, social networks, twitter, facebook, linkedin, digg, identi.ca

More about Social Media Marketing

2009-08-19T22:37:00.001-07:00

I realize we've been discussing this a lot on this blog lately, and rightly so. I'm not saying that social marketing is the only way to bring traffic to your web site. Heck, I'm not even saying it's the best way! Truth be told, what's going on right now with social networking, and other social media web sites may or may not last, but better get in on it while the gettin' is good! Here's an interesting article I "stumbled upon" and thought I would share.

Social media is all the rage these days, especially Facebook and Twitter, with everyone trying to figure out how make money from the latest technology phenomenon. Michelle Gabriel has managed the feat. She describes herself as a “solo-preneur,” a business of one, who specializes in making connections between people who are passionate about living their dreams. A business’ passion is key to making social media work as a marketing tool.

Sometimes she shows them how to make the connections with social media and sometimes she does the connecting for her clients. Either way, she has built a tidy little business based in McKenzie Towne that she uses as a platform to explore the global opportunities social media presents to business people everywhere.

Traditional media (TV, newspapers, radio) connects one source to many recipients. Or perhaps a few recipients, such as when the family gathers around the television to watch the nightly news. But none of the traditional media have the power to revolutionize society and business quite like social media.

VIDEO: SOCIAL MEDIA GURU SHARES BUSINESS MARKETING SECRETS : S.E. Calgary News

Technorati Tags: social, media, marketing, networking

21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

2009-08-19T07:25:00.001-07:00

This is a fantastic list of SEO tips:

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

Read the rest: Seru-seruan: 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, web development, web marketing

230 Link Bait Ideas

2009-08-15T11:12:00.001-07:00

A great resource from Portent Interactive:

Generating great link bait ideas is hard work. When link bait works it’s magical. Watching the page views, unique visitors and server load all go up at the same time is like watching the wheels spin on a slot machine right before it lands on 777. The difference is that a slot machine depends wholly on chance. With link bait, you have to earn your luck.

To help me create compelling ideas I created this poster - 230 Link Bait Ideas. I stuck it on my wall, printed in tabloid format, 11 inches by 17 inches, but it looks good in your PDF viewer too.

Download 230-link-bait-ideas.pdf : 230 Link Bait Ideas | Portent Interactive, Seattle, WA

Technorati Tags: seo, link bait, link development, search engine optimization

How To Build a Web Site

2009-08-11T08:41:00.001-07:00

How to Build A Website uncovers the best techniques, tools, tips and training on the web to establish and grow your online business whether you're starting out or are already an experienced internet marketer. See their 4-Part Case Study on how the big players do SEO!

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, web design, web development, web site

21 Twitter Tips

2009-08-10T21:16:00.001-07:00

Even Canada's own tax payer supported national network, the CBC, is plugging the capabilities of twitter and it's users. Are there no boundaries anymore?

You've heard about Twitter — that curious, strangely addictive social-networking technology that facilitates torrents of truncated messages among millions of users. You might even know your hashtags from your re-tweets. But how can you make money with it?

Forbes canvassed scads of businesses and pricey social-networking gurus looking for honest answers. Admittedly, we were skeptical. After all, how much can you accomplish in 140 characters or less?

Turns out there are myriad ways Twitter can have an impact, and not just as a marginal marketing tool. Indeed, we found 21 clever ways to use Twitter — for everything from boosting sales and scouting talent, to conducting market research and raising capital. Chances are, there will be many more.

21 top twitter tips

Technorati Tags: cbc, twitter

10 Great Mac Apps for Web Developers

2009-08-06T09:20:00.001-07:00

10 Essential Software Apps For Web Development on a Mac

Whether Macs are the best computers for web development is up for debate, but one thing can be agreed upon – there are some great software apps for web development on a Mac.

Here’s a list of 10 essential software apps for web development on a Mac.

10. TextWrangler is a multipurpose text editor that works for editing code and plain text documents. It can even open files from (and save them to) remote FTP and SFTP servers.

9. Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator. It is the first open source program to adopt Spiro curves. You can also go through their clip art collection and find dozens of images made with Inkscape that are free to use or modify.

Technorati Tags: mac, web development, apple, software, apps

Online Branding for the Future

2009-07-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

Always a popular debate in the web marketing world, but branding is certainly an important part of your online presence. I came across this pretty good article that touches on branding and the ways to make the most of what the internet has to offer in the web 2.0 world.

I've recently discussed some of the fundamentals of SEO that haven't changed for some time. Now let's touch upon the "new" realities of SEO and what you need to do to build your brand online.

Why Branding?

Well, you may have heard it mentioned that Google wants to rank brand Web sites. It isn't so much that Google only wants to rank big brands. But they do like all of the signals that these big brands carry.

Big brands, more often than not, have very deep/informational Web sites and have their share of other Web sites linking to them. These are two very important "signals" of the authority of these Web sites.

So, to dig into this deeper, I consult with Wikipedia (a "big brand"):

People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management.

Brand Promotion Online -- Signals for Today's SEO - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

How to Deal with Blogger's Block

2009-07-13T18:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a great article about Blogger's Block. Very helpful!

1. Read other blogs with opposing view points to yours and write as though you are responding to it.

2. Expand on one of the questions in your frequently asked questions.

3. Go to an answer writing site like Yahoo! Answers and find a relevant question to answer.

Read More: Search Engine Optimization News - Gridlock by Abalone Designs Inc.

Technorati Tags: blogger, blogging, blogger's block, seo, search engine optimization

Feature SEO Firm: Ad Stream

2009-07-13T09:45:00.001-07:00

Ad Stream is a small professional marketing company with more than ten years of experience. Our aim is to increase your position when it comes to organic search results. We guarantee visibility on Yahoo, Google, MSN, and ASK – the top four search engines. This means that your customers will be able to find you quickly and easily.

Setting up shop on the internet without hiring a skilled SEO team is a lot like setting up shop in the middle of a ghost town – you might be open for business, but who will find you? Even if you happen to sell the best product on the face of the earth, what good is your product if nobody knows about it? Most of our customers see a 10%-40% increase in traffic within the first month of signing up with Ad Stream – that’s a lot of new business revenue.

We want to connect with small and medium sized business owners, which is why we offer complete SEO packages at inexpensive prices. Every time you contact us, you can expect to speak with one of our team members directly – no waiting games. Every time you have a question, you can expect a clear answer – no confusing terms to try and understand. Whatever your SEO needs, we are confident that you’ll love the results you get when you make Ad Stream your SEO team.

Technorati Tags: seo, seo firm, search engine optimization

Will Twitter Try to Profit?

2009-07-09T08:35:00.001-07:00

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — It turns out the media elite aren't so different from a lot of less affluent folks: They think Twitter is a great communications tool, but can't figure out how the online messaging service is going to make money.

The recurring doubts about Twitter's moneymaking potential cropped up again Wednesday as an exclusive media summit hosted by investment banker Allen & Co. got under way at the posh Sun Valley resort.

One of the first sessions focused on how to capitalize on digital media. Twitter quickly became a focal point of the discussion because it has emerged as one of the Internet's fastest-growing services this year.

But Twitter hasn't attempted to profit from its popularity yet, leaving everyone guessing about how the 3-year-old startup intends to pay its bills after it exhausts its $55 million venture capital.

The participants on the panel moderated by media writer Ken Auletta of The New Yorker magazine predicted Twitter Inc. will face major challenges when the San Francisco-based company finally tries to generate revenue. Reporters were barred from the session — like all other meetings at the media summit — but Auletta confirmed the tenor of the Twitter talk afterward.

The Associated Press: Top media execs wonder how Twitter will make money

One of our Great SEO Partners

2009-07-04T07:59:00.001-07:00

Advanced Promotion provides targeted search engine services covering both SEO and SEP options for your site. The setup package they offer for the SEO program includes all the essential ingredients to get a search engine campaign started and optimized. This includes coding maximization, content consultation and submission. Whether you have content already on the site and needs tweaking or you are starting from scratch, they can help target the content to the keywords that will drive business. This service includes a guarantee of the top 30 for specific keyword phrases. As a part of the package, they will research the optimal phrases and make suggestions or modifications to the content in order to fine-tune your site prior to submission. A very unique feature of their particular SEO service is that they allow you to supply additional phrases as a part of the order no extra charge. This serves to increase the odds of success for overall top placements and also increase your odds of getting more phrases placed within the top 30 than you have specifically purchased, a win win situation! Once the phrases have placed on the engines, they also offer a maintenance package that not only attempts to keep the positions in the top 30, but also serves to boost up positions where possible. A monthly tracking report is supplied that details engines, phrases and positions.

Their SEP service drives targeted traffic from the three biggest search engines in the world. This service takes all the pain out of getting set-up properly and optimally on Yahoo, Google and MSN's cost per click programs. Within this program they offer the following services:
#1 research an optimal listing of keyword phrases & concepts that are market specific to your site and site prospects
#2 optimize the bids for your keywords thus minimizing the total cost per click
#3 optimize the creative ad presentation thus maximizing your keyword placement/exposure
#4 maximize the content of the ads on a ongoing basis and expand the campaign
#5 track performance

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, promotion, targeted traffic

Bing Continues to Grow

2009-06-18T07:43:00.001-07:00

In its second week since launch, Microsoft’s new Bing search engine has continued its steady growth, according to comScore. Bing is up about 3 percentage points in both average daily penetration among US searchers and their total share of search results pages (which indicates the percentage of all actual searches, though is not an exact measure), compared to the week prior to launch. Bing now has 16.7% searcher penetration and a 12.1% share of search results pages among all US workday searches. Those numbers are also both up compared to its first week in the wild.

Microsoft has been on an advertising blitz since their new search engine’s launch, spending a reported $80 to $100 million on a campaign to push Bing. That has, at times, ranged from clever to downright bizarre. But the early numbers indicate that Microsoft’s advertising push is at least driving a measurable number of curious searchers to Bing.

Read More: Bing Keeps Growing: Has Microsoft Finally Cracked Search?

Technorati Tags: bing, search, seo, microsoft, search engine optimization