Finding Hidden Opportunities On Your Website

Have you wondered how search engines pick which sites are displayed in search results? Or more specifically, which text from a site they will display in search results? And these terms that we’ve heard before [page title, metatags & keywords]… what do they mean and how do the puzzle pieces fit together?

[#1] The Page Title is the text that appears at the very top of your browser window [not the URL or address that you type in, above that]. It is the most prominent piece of information displayed in the search results. There is typically a 40-60 character limit to what you can include, and your title should be pleasantly readable, not awkwardly stuffed with keywords.

[#2] The HTML Page Name, aka the File Name, should be comprised of words that actually describe the contents or function of the page. [Hint: keywords work really well]. This is another opportunity to distinguish your company from the competition. Think of how many pages there are out there called “services.html” or “contactus.html” and how you can use the page name to focus on and attract the people looking for your services by being more specific. [example: “nj-graphic-design.html”].

[#3]  There are several types of metatags:

A Meta Description Tag is metadata coded into a web page that describes the content of the page. This text should also be concise, yet pleasantly readable as it may be featured prominently in the results. Meta Keywords Tags are metadata that contain keywords related to the content of the web page. Search engines use these keywords to determine relevance. It is recommended that in addition to your targeted keywords, you include some that are not on your “short list.” Also add your company name and common alternate spellings, regardless of whether they are correct. If people misspell your company name or a product you sell when they type in the search request, you want them to find you anyway.

Metatags are not evident on the web page, but can be seen by selecting “view source” from the browser menu. To maximize your SEO opportunities, each landing page of your site should have a unique metatag description and keywords targeted specifically to the content of that page.

Also coded into a web page, Alt Tags are “alternative” descriptive text coded into an image to describe the image in the event that it cannot be viewed. An example: when a browser is set to display only text, as is common on mobile devices. Alt Tag text may also appear when your cursor hovers over an image, but is typically not seen otherwise.

Did you realize that there is so much happening behind the scenes of your website? And while this data may be “out of sight” to you, search engines and web crawlers are attracted to them like moths are to light. Graphic Matter’s web design team will help you uncover the hidden opportunities on your site. Call us and begin optimizing your site for greater search engine visibility.

Get Pushy With Your Marketing: The Difference Between SEO & SEM

We’ve established that SEO [Search Engine Optimization] can effectively pull traffic to your website through the use of strategically planted “seeds” within your site. Search engines continually send out “spiders” or web crawlers, looking for those keywords that you’ve carefully embedded within your site as metatags, alt tags, page titles, page names and links – each of which is seen and recognized differently by the spiders.

Search Engine Marketing [SEM] pushes traffic to your website. SEM refers to the practice of increasing traffic to your website through the use of paid placements [advertisements, pay-per-click listings] and external directories [trade and business membership listings – Chamber of Commerce and similar networks, for example]. Blogs and social media are essential tools in today’s marketing world.

Search engines like links – both incoming and outgoing. Links from your site to other sites, articles, and resources are easy to add to your site, but the search engines know that. Incoming links carry a little more weight with the crawlers, but finding those opportunities might present more of a challenge.

There’s good news here: you can create your own incoming link opportunity with a blog or e-newsletter for your business. The beauty of these media formats is that they work double time for your business. Done correctly, they will literally push traffic to your site: the reader reads and then clicks – beautiful! But they’re also virtually pushing traffic via the search engines. Not only is your link from your blog to your website [incoming link] attractive to the crawlers, but so is the content of your blog. Search engines love fresh, keyword-rich content, so keep feeding them with regular blog posts [like this one].

Lastly, don’t discount the importance any Internet mention of your business: Has your business been in the news recently? Has it been recognized by a trade organization or received an award? There may be a listing [incoming link] as a result, and if you make mention of it on your site you can create a reciprocating [outgoing] link.

Ready to get pushy with your marketing? Call us, we’d love to help!

Organic Marketing? Really?

In the Internet marketing world, there’s a lot you don’t have control over. However, Search Engine Optimization [SEO] and Search Engine Marketing [SEM] offer you a surprising bit of influence to draw the customers right to your virtual doorstep. To do this you need to identify these things:

Who are the customers you really want?

The ones who want you, of course! They’re the ones most likely to purchase your services or products.

How do they search for and find you?

Putting yourself in the role of your customer, generate a list of words and phrases you would use to search for your products or services. Layering these terms deep within your site will provide a path for the search engines and web crawlers to find you organically. Think of these keywords and keyword phrases as the “seeds” you will plant with the hope of a bountiful harvest [of purchasing customers, of course].

Are you ready to go organic? Graphic Matter can help you to find the hidden marketing opportunities in each and every page of your site. Give us a call – you may be surprised at the potential you have on your website right now!

SEO Unplugged

It seems like everyone is tossing the acronym SEO into marketing conversations.
And yet there are a lot of us hearing it that still don’t know what it means – and are afraid to ask.

Here’s what you really need to know:
Search Engine Optimization [SEO] is a multi-faceted process for improving a website’s ranking in the search engines.
Search Engine Optimization is THE essential tool for connecting you [via your website] with your target audience.

Why should you care?
Higher rankings = more [quality] traffic to your website = more potential conversions [purchasing customers].
That’s why everyone wants to be Google’s #1 listing.

How can you be in that #1 spot – or at least closer to it?
By methodically “aligning” the key messages on your website, from the inside out.

For most industries, there’s a huge amount of competition for the #1 spot, and it’s dependent upon which keyword phrases you select. The good news is that placing on the first page in the search results is an attainable and notable accomplishment that will yield a marked increase in traffic to your website. Still confused about SEO? Call Graphic Matter to demystify SEO and begin your rise to the first page.

Who Will Read Your Blog?

Now that you have clearly defined the purpose of your blog, you need to identify who your audience is going to be. In the same way that you focus on who will be using your products and/or services, you need to figure out for whom you are writing this blog. This will dictate the content of your posts as well as the tone in which you write them, two elements which will influence how you are perceived by your readers. Your objective may be to demonstrate the expertise of your niche to prospective partners, or to create an interactive relationship with clients, or even to motivate your internal staff. No matter what objective you decide to focus on, each one will require a different approach to both what you write and how you present it.

In order to help you define who your target audience will be, ask yourself these questions:

1) Are you writing this blog to inform existing customers about the full range of your products and/or services?

2) Are  you trying to reach new customers or markets and introduce them to your products or services?

3) Are you using your blog to demonstrate your expertise in a certain area?

4) Are you using your blog to promote better or more efficient customer service?

These are just a few of the questions that you can ask yourself in order to define your market.

For more details or help with identifying your audience/target market, contact the team at Graphic Matter!

How I Love to Follow A Blog, Let Me Count the Ways! Part 2 – Configure Your Email Application to Accept RSS Feeds

In our last blog post we discussed two quick and easy ways you can follow a blog. While either of them will work just fine, they do put you in the position of seeking out updates yourself. Wouldn’t you prefer to have the information come right to you? In this post we will show you how to configure your email application to receive blog posts directly into a folder in your email. How great is that?

Configuring your email application to accept RSS feeds will allow you to effortlessly keep up with your favorite blogs. Each time an update is published to a blog you follow, it will also be automatically sent to the RSS feed folder in your email application. You will know immediately when the blog is updated and it will be there for you to read when you are ready. Although each email application is slightly different, the basic concept and process is the same: Open your email application and look for an RSS link [or email inbox] like this one pictured below.

Click on it and follow the instructions provided by your email application. It’s so simple, and will save you time each day, and allow you to effortlessly keep up with the blog posts as they happen—without going to multiple sites.

Did you find this tip helpful? Share your feedback in the comments section of our blog – we’d love to hear from you!

Next week is part 3 of our series, How I Love to Follow A Blog, Let Me Count the Ways: How to set-up a Feed Reader Page in your internet browser. See you next post!

How I Love to Follow A Blog, Let Me Count the Ways! Part 1

Now that you are reading our blog, or any other blog for that matter, you are going to want to know when there is a new post to read on that blog. So how do you know when there is a new post on your favorite blog? In our previous post, 4 Fabulous Ways to Follow Our 2¢, we identified 4 different ways to follow our blog. In this post we are going to explain how to set an internet browser bookmark and how to subscribe to and RSS feed.

1) Internet Browser Bookmarks:

Simply bookmark your favorite blog or blogs in your browser (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer etc) by using the Bookmark Tab in the menu bar. This will add the blog address in your bookmarks panel and make it easy for you to get back to that blog. You can pick one day a week to check out each blog to see what’s new and what’s been posted. This is an easy, low tech way to mark the blogs you like, however, it is somewhat cumbersome and it puts the burden on you to remember to go back and check those sites regularly for any new posts.

2) Subscribe to an RSS feed:

Before we tell you how to subscribe to an RSS feed, let’s make sure we define what an RSS feed is. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. But what does that mean? I spent some time poking around the Web for the most complete, yet simple, description of RSS to share with you. Seth Godin describes RSS as this: “ RSS is just a little peep, a signal, a ping that comes from a favorite blogger site, telling your computer that it has been updated.”

Most blogs have a little orange button that say RSS and look like this:

Subscribing to an RSS feed is simple and easy, you just click on the orange RSS icon on the blog you are interested in and add that RSS feed to your internet toolbar. This will put a notification in your browser tool bar that this blog has a new posting, and a link to read the post.

Next week read about how to configure your email application to accept RSS feeds in Part 2 of How I Love to Follow a Blog, Let Me Count the Ways!