SEO Vs Design: Can My Site Look Good and Rank Well

admin    SEO Flash     Design, Good, Look, Rank, Site, Well

Do you have to sacrifice all of the creative and artistic elements of your web site to rank in the search engines? Later in this article I’ll show you a real case scenario and the design and SEO approach used.Thanks to the birth of professional search engine marketers the top ranks are saturated with the pages of companies that can pay for such insight. That said, it’s certainly possible to employ high ranking tactics in your own website. Actually, the most basic tactics can move you up from an 800 position to a 300. However, it’s the top of the scale where efforts seem almost inversely exponential or logarithmic, you put a ton in to see a tiny change in rank.How do you meld the ambitious overhauls required to attain significant ranking and NOT compromise the design of your site? DESIGN CAN’T BE IGNOREDIf you have an existing site, you’ve probably tied it into your existing promotional content. Even if you’ve allowed your website to cater to the more free form of the net, it should still be designed as a recognizable extension of your business.The reasons for doing so are valid, and can’t simply be ignored for the sake of achieving a first age position, can they? If your research into search optimization leaves you shuffling around thoughts of content, keyword saturated copy and varying link text, you are correctly understanding some of the basic pillars of search engine optimization. And, you aren’t alone if you have this disheartening thought-If I do all this SEO stuff and reach number one across the board, who would stay at my site because it’s so stale and boring I’m even embarrassed to send people there!There are two ways to successfully combine design and SEO. The first is to be a blue chip and/or Fortune 500 company with multi million dollar advertising and branding budgets to deliver your website address via television, radio, billboards, PR parties and giveaways with your logo.Since chances are that’s not you, and certainly not me, lets look at the second option. It begins with some research into your market, some thoughtful and creative planning, and a designer who is a search engine optimizer, and understands at least basic CSS and HTML programming techniques. Or a combination of people with these skills that can work very well together.DESIGN IS FOR BROCHURES, INSTANT RESULTS ARE FOR THE WEBThat’s not the whole truth, but it will help compare and contrast design and SEO. In reality, SEO needs the quantity and detail of supporting text that a brochure has, but good web design has to catch a viewer’s attention in 5 seconds. It’s pretty difficult to read and absorb the content of an entire brochure in less than 5 seconds.Search engines need rich, related, appropriate, changing and poignant content. And for them to rank you, all of that must be on your pages. But if it’s not well organized and broken down into bite size chunks, no one is going to bother learning about what you’re offering. CONSTRUCTION 101- ATTRACTIVE DESIGN AND SEOSadly, it’s very difficult to optimize a site without completely overhauling it. You’ll soon understand why. Design and SEO must be strongly rooted into every aspect of each other, possessing a true, symbiotic relationship. Lets look at a simplified example of this. Lets say you are optimizing a page for the keyword phrase, “pumpkin bread recipe.” From a design standpoint “Pumpkin Bread Recipe” would be the heading for the page, in a nice, readable font with the words perhaps an orange-brown color. And lets add a fine, green rule around it. There are many ways to create that simple, colored heading. However, there is only one way that is best for both design and SEO. That is to use Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. In addition, that line of code containing “Pumpkin Bread Recipe” needs to be as close to the top of the page as possible (which CSS also allows). To a viewer, the recipe text might be read more if it were located to the right of a photo of a buttered piece of pumpkin bread on a small plate next to a lightly steaming cup of coffee.SEO needs to read that ingredient list and baking instructions. Search engines now understand on a rudimentary level that the ingredients are indeed related to the optimized words- pumpkin bread recipe. Additionally, it would take many extra lines of code to make a table in this example if you didn’t use CSS. Search engines don’t like extra code. In fact, given enough times, that “extra” code will make the keyword phrases seem less important and hurt rank.Note: In the page code, a few thousand characters more than you need to get all of that content organized would normally just add to your page load time, and might be acceptable. But to a search engine, that time can really add up. It wont read through page after page, site after site, billionth after billionth character of unimportant code to find the relevant text. Therefore, the less code, the better your chances. Moral- Less code, more content.SEO USUALLY MEANS REDOIn the previous pumpkin example, CSS will eliminate the need for almost any extra code at all, and provide the means to place the text to the right of the photo.Now, imagine that someone had already created this page, but done so using other programming methods. The page could very well be W3C compliant, well programmed and got the job done. However, without designing and programming for optimization as in the above illustration, the end result would have no significant rank compared to others that do. You can be sure that there exist at least 30 web sites built to rank for the keywords “pumpkin bread recipe”. Note- why did I use the number 30? It’s safe to assume if you’re not on the first three results pages of a search, you’re not being seen.While this is a simple example, hopefully you understand that it would be impossible to optimize this simple page without redoing it. This isn’t always the case, but extrapolate this into detailed, multiple pages in an entire website and the issue is greatly magnified.AESTHETIC IMPORTANCE VS. TRAFFICEveryone has an idea of what they want their site to look like. The pretty factor- splash pages, cool flash and graphics must now be justified as to their importance to the bottom line. If you want/need to establish an online presence, you will have to make some compromises in these areas.Understand exactly the role your site should play in your company marketing. Ask- What is the goal of your website and who is its audience? Is it for existing clients to see? Is it to reach new clients? To venture into yet untapped market segments?Ask- How strongly do your other marketing efforts promote your site?Ask- Is your website an extension of your existing collateral that must reflect the same graphical look?Ask- Is your website meant to assist to your sales force or is it your sales force?Chances are you wont have any single answers. That’s ok. It will give you some meat for your designer/SEO to digest and develop a solution for you.REAL CASE OF DESIGN BALANCED WITH SEO AND SALABILITYIf you sell jewelry solely online, you must have a catalog of exceptional photography and detailed, high-resolution close up images. But, you must be optimized and rank well if you want to sell any of that jewelry.If such a company approached me with this project, my recommendation would be this: If you sell a product, people have to see that product. Lots of good images. The site should be slick and sheik and easy to navigate. The home page has to capture the buyer’s attention. If it’s very expensive jewelry, the site should have a lot of class and elegance. If it’s home made jewelry, the site shouldn’t look home made.However, as you have no store front, if the online community can’t find you, you’re business will fail. So I’d have a very optimized home page with some discussion of the quality of your product, the history of your company, etc. This is also great sales copy. Ad a few special catalog pieces with descriptions below some smartly placed gifs, jpegs and readable type graphics built out of CSS and you’ve got a cool to look at, content rich, well optimized layout.I’d make the link to your catalog very obvious and prominent. Note the catalog is not the homepage. I’d also include subsequent well written, in depth pages about the history of some specific pieces. Load them with targeted keywords and a few images. Again, make your catalog link very prominent. In doing so you’re creating relevant content for search engines AND providing additional pages that can rank.The catalog can be database driven, simple and changeable, and you have the foundation to build your search rank.PLANNING YOUR SITEIf your designer is not a search engine optimizer, hire one to work with your designer from the initial development stage of your site. If you would like a visible presence that is not dependant on traditional marketing efforts to get your name around, then you will have to optimize.However, with advances in html and css, text itself can be a very flexible and attractive design element with endless possibilities. Site optimization consists of some rigid, unbendable rules. It can be intertwined successfully with very creative and attractive design. If your Designer and SEO aren’t the same person or company, make sure they have the same, close working relationship.If you want/need to establish an online presence you will have to make some compromises. But how many? How much do you have to sacrifice in the aesthetics of your site to be seen? Examine the problem and read a real world case solution.

Design and SEO Make Site Look Good and Rank Well!

admin    SEO Flash     Design, Good, Look, Rank, Site, Well

Do you have to sacrifice all of the creative and artistic elements of your web site to rank in the search engines? Later in this article I’ll show you a real case scenario and the design and SEO approach used.Thanks to the birth of professional search engine marketers the top ranks are saturated with the pages of companies that can pay for such insight. That said, it’s certainly possible to employ high ranking tactics in your own website. Actually, the most basic tactics can move you up from an 800 position to a 300. However, it’s the top of the scale where efforts seem almost inversely exponential or logarithmic, you put a ton in to see a tiny change in rank.How do you meld the ambitious overhauls required to attain significant ranking and NOT compromise the design of your site? DESIGN CAN’T BE IGNOREDif you have an existing site, you’ve probably tied it into your existing promotional content. Even if you’ve allowed your website to cater to the more free form of the net, it should still be designed as a recognizable extension of your business.The reasons for doing so are valid, and can’t simply be ignored for the sake of achieving a first age position, can they? If your research into search optimization leaves you shuffling around thoughts of content, keyword saturated copy and varying link text, you correctly understand some of the basic pillars of search engine optimization. And, you aren’t alone if you have this disheartening thought-If I do all this SEO stuff and reach number one across the board, who would stay at my site because it’s so stale and boring I’m even embarrassed to send people there!There are two ways to successfully combine design and SEO. The first is to be a blue chip and/or Fortune 500 company with multi million dollar advertising and branding budgets to deliver your website address via television, radio, billboards, PR parties and giveaways with your logo.Since chances are that’s not you, and certainly not me, lets look at the second option. It begins with some research into your market, some thoughtful and creative planning, and a designer who is a search engine optimizer, and understands at least basic CSS and HTML programming techniques. Or a combination of people with these skills that can work very well together.DESIGN IS FOR BROCHURES, INSTANT RESULTS ARE FOR THE WEBthat’s not the whole truth, but it will help compare and contrast design and SEO. In reality, SEO needs the quantity and detail of supporting text that a brochure has, but good web design has to catch a viewer’s attention in 5 seconds. It’s pretty difficult to read and absorb the content of an entire brochure in less than 5 seconds.Search engines need rich, related, appropriate, changing and poignant content. And for them to rank you, all of that must be on your pages. But if it’s not well organized and broken down into bite size chunks, no one is going to bother learning about what you’re offering. CONSTRUCTION 101- ATTRACTIVE DESIGN AND SEOsadly, it’s very difficult to optimize a site without completely overhauling it. You’ll soon understand why. Design and SEO must be strongly rooted into every aspect of each other, possessing a true, symbiotic relationship. Lets look at a simplified example of this. Lets say you are optimizing a page for the keyword phrase, “pumpkin bread recipe.” From a design standpoint “Pumpkin Bread Recipe” would be the heading for the page, in a nice, readable font with the words perhaps an orange-brown color. And lets add a fine, green rule around it. There are many ways to create that simple, colored heading. However, there is only one way that is best for both design and SEO. That is to use Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. In addition, that line of code containing “Pumpkin Bread Recipe” needs to be as close to the top of the page as possible (which CSS also allows). To a viewer, the recipe text might be read more if it were located to the right of a photo of a buttered piece of pumpkin bread on a small plate next to a lightly steaming cup of coffee.SEO needs to read that ingredient list and baking instructions. Search engines now understand on a rudimentary level that the ingredients are indeed related to the optimized words- pumpkin bread recipe. Additionally, it would take many extra lines of code to make a table in this example if you didn’t use CSS. Search engines don’t like extra code. In fact, given enough times, that “extra” code will make the keyword phrases seem less important and hurt rank.Note: In the page code, a few thousand characters more than you need to get all of that content organized would normally just add to your page load time, and might be acceptable. But to a search engine, that time can really add up. It wont read through page after page, site after site, billionth after billionth character of unimportant code to find the relevant text. Therefore, the less code, the better your chances. Moral- Less code, more content.SEO USUALLY MEANS REDOIn the previous pumpkin example, CSS will eliminate the need for almost any extra code at all, and provide the means to place the text to the right of the photo.Now, imagine that someone had already created this page, but done so using other programming methods. The page could very well be W3C compliant, well programmed and got the job done. However, without designing and programming for optimization as in the above illustration, the end result would have no significant rank compared to others that do. You can be sure that there exist at least 30 web sites built to rank for the keywords “pumpkin bread recipe”. Note- why did I use the number 30? It’s safe to assume if you’re not on the first three results pages of a search, you’re not being seen.While this is a simple example, hopefully you understand that it would be impossible to optimize this simple page without redoing it. This isn’t always the case, but extrapolate this into detailed, multiple pages in an entire website and the issue is greatly magnified.AESTHETIC IMPORTANCE VS. TRAFFICeveryone has an idea of what they want their site to look like. The pretty factor- splash pages, cool flash and graphics must now be justified as to their importance to the bottom line. If you want/need to establish an online presence, you will have to make some compromises in these areas.Understand exactly the role your site should play in your company marketing. Ask- What is the goal of your website and who is its audience? Is it for existing clients to see? Is it to reach new clients? To venture into yet untapped market segments?Ask- How strongly do your other marketing efforts promote your site?Ask- Is your website an extension of your existing collateral that must reflect the same graphical look?Ask- Is your website meant to assist to your sales force or is it your sales force?Chances are you wont have any single answers. That’s ok. It will give you some meat for your designer/SEO to digest and develop a solution for you.REAL CASE OF DESIGN BALANCED WITH SEO AND SALABILITYif you sell jewelry solely online, you must have a catalog of exceptional photography and detailed, high-resolution close up images. But, you must be optimized and rank well if you want to sell any of that jewelry.If such a company approached me with this project, my recommendation would be this: If you sell a product, people have to see that product. Lots of good images. The site should be slick and sheik and easy to navigate. The home page has to capture the buyer’s attention. If it’s very expensive jewelry, the site should have a lot of class and elegance. If it’s home made jewelry, the site shouldn’t look home made.However, as you have no store front, if the online community can’t find you, you’re business will fail. So I’d have a very optimized home page with some discussion of the quality of your product, the history of your company, etc. This is also great sales copy. Ad a few special catalog pieces with descriptions below some smartly placed gifs, jpegs and readable type graphics built out of CSS and you’ve got a cool to look at, content rich, and well optimized layout.I’d make the link to your catalog very obvious and prominent. Note the catalog is not the homepage. I’d also include subsequent well written, in depth pages about the history of some specific pieces. Load them with targeted keywords and a few images. Again, make your catalog link very prominent. In doing so you’re creating relevant content for search engines AND providing additional pages that can rank.The catalog can be database driven, simple and changeable, and you have the foundation to build your search rank.PLANNING YOUR SITEif your designer is not a search engine optimizer, hire one to work with your designer from the initial development stage of your site. If you would like a visible presence that is not dependant on traditional marketing efforts to get your name around, then you will have to optimize.However, with advances in html and css, text itself can be a very flexible and attractive design element with endless possibilities. Site optimization consists of some rigid, unbendable rules. It can be intertwined successfully with very creative and attractive design. If your Designer and SEO aren’t the same person or company, make sure they have the same, close working relationship.If you want/need to establish an online presence you will have to make some compromises. But how many? How much do you have to sacrifice in the aesthetics of your site to be seen? Examine the problem and read a real world case solution.

Why Blogging and SEO Work Well Together

admin    SEO Video     Blogging, Together, Well, Work

Blogging is becoming one of the most popular ways to market a company, brand, personality or product on the Web. Why? Because search engines love content, and there is no better way to create and manage content on the Web than a blog. According to Technorati, there are over 60 million blogs on the Web, with over 100,000 being created every day. A lot of people have caught on to blogging, and there is plenty of room for more.
What is a Blog?
The word ‘blog’ is a slang compilation of two words; ‘web’ and ‘log’, or ‘weblog’. Initially established as a way to publish computer log files, the original pioneers of blogging began publishing more and more interesting content. Today, bloggers post news, commentary, and even real time descriptions of events using blog software.
Think of a blog as an ‘online journal’. ‘Posts’, as they are called, are short articles that are listed on your blog site in chronological order. Visiting a blog, you will notice that the most recent article is presented at the top, and earlier stories are listed below, or in an archive.
Blog software is available all over the Internet. Some of the more popular sources are Wordpress and Blogger. Our favorite is Wordpress because it is an ‘open source’ application that can be installed on your own server and customized.
A custom blog allows you to have more control over the look of the interface, and event to incorporate the blog into your existing site. This is of particular interest to companies who want to use blogging as a way to communicate with customers and keep fresh content at the forefront of their site; a great search engine strategy.
Blogging and SEO: Why is it such a Good Idea?
Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, scour the Web looking for new content to index. In particular, they are looking for content that is ‘keyword rich’; content that is full of relevant keywords. When content is keyword rich, it provides relevance for the site and allows a search engine to properly categorize your blog site into a particular market.
Keywords can be anything from the name of your product, to the name of your company, or the type of services you offer. Refining keywords with geographic specificity is a popular way to climb to the top of a search page in your particular region, even though you may be competing with a lot of sites on a national level. (For instance; ‘lawn care’ gets over 5.5 million hits, while ‘utah lawn care’ gets a more reasonable 1.2 million. The more times you can use a keyword in each post, the better.)
Websites that regularly update keyword rich content are considered ‘alive and active’ by the leading search engines, and are given priority over sites that are considered ‘dormant’ or ’stagnant’. If your site has not changed in over 60 days, you are in danger of being considered ’stagnant’, and falling out of favor with the search engines.
Search engines gain popularity with users based on their ability to direct people to relevant sites that are alive and active with current content. How often do you want to visit a site that hasn’t changed in over a year? The search engines feel the same way, and are reluctant to refer a site that hasn’t been updated for a while.
Again; a blog is a great way to add content management to your existing site, and is a terrific way to get started on the Web with a basic web presence that can become a very effective marketing tool.
What Else Can a Blog Do?
Aside from writing content, you can do a lot of creative, and even productive things with a blog.
Blog systems provide the ability to upload files and attach them to your posts (articles). Having this ability means you can add your own graphics to each article, dressing them up with photos of people, places and products. You can also add full motion video, slide shows, and even link to You Tube or other streaming video hosting services.
Podcasting has become popular, and is a fun way to add audio to your articles. You can include music, sounds or interviews; virtually anything you can record can be added to your blog as an audio file.
One of the most common things to add to an article is a file such as a PDF or even a Word document. Linking files to your articles allows your readers to download those files, which can be anything from a photo, instructions, or a form to slides, video and audio.
There are also advanced marketing functions you can perform with a blog. By incorporating a subscription function, you can collect leads from your blog, and communicate with your audience via an automated email system. Each time you post a new article, your subscribers will automatically receive an email notification. Instant newsletter.
Getting Started
Blogging can be done in a number of ways; there are free options out there that allow you plenty of space to write all you can at no cost. If you are interested in creating a custom site, with your own graphics, extensions, and management options, you will want to establish a custom blog on your own domain.
If you already have a domain (such as www. yourname. com), it is best to establish your blog on a ’sub-domain’. Your Web guy will know how to do this. Name your sub-domain with a keyword for the best search engine optimization (such as widget. yourname. com).
If you are the technical type, or you have someone who takes care of your Web systems; take a look at wordpress. org and download a copy of their latest open source blog software. Once installed you are ready to go.

Well Entertainment AT and T Samsung Jack

admin    Adobe TV     Entertainment, Jack, Samsung, Well

Have the power of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 when on the move with the silver AT and T Samsung Jack. Stay productive with Microsoft Office Mobile and the Samsung Jack SGH-i637 smartphones QWERTY keyboard. Turbo Scroll (scroll page by page, line by line), mobile access to MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint provide you with an effective way to complete your tasks when away from your computer. Adobe Reader LE enables you to read PDF e-books when out and about.

The Samsung Jack Equipped with 2.4-inch 320 x 320 pixel 65k color screen, the  AT and T Samsung Jack provides a crisp view for your media. Connect at either 3G high data speed or via WiFi (802.11bg) and browse the web with Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) Mobile (HTML, XTML, WAP). View steaming Cellular Video (CV news, sports, weather, and entertainment), watch Mobile TV and stay informed and entertained. The AT and T Media Net and RSS Reader keep you up to speed with the latest developments.

Bid on eBay with eBay Wireless. View balances, transfer and pay bills with Mobile Banking. Research and get the info you need with WiFi Mobile. Have weather information with My-Cast Weather. Read your email and synchronize the Samsung Jack SGH-i637 with your PC (Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook). Have access to your personal and professional email accounts at all times with Xpress Mail (MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, Yahoo Mail, and AOL Windows Live). MS Direct Push keeps your inbox up to date. Instantly respond to AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo Instant Messages anytime anywhere. The Samsung Jack i637 features a 3.0 megapixel camera that doubles as a camcorder, Store JPEG images and 3GP video. Insert text, images and video and share your multimedia messages (SMS, EMS) with family and friends. Stream real-time or pre-recorded footage via Video Share to another compatible Video Share cell phone user and keep in touch. With support for AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, 3GP, MPEG, MP4, and M4A digital media format MS Windows Media Player lets you enjoy your favorite video and songs when on the go. Identify artists with Music ID and add to your media library with AT and T Music. Listen to streaming XM Radio and relax.

Cut the cords and listen to your music wirelessly in stereo. The Samsung Jack supports Bluetooth stereo speakers and headsets and provides an almost unlimited amount of options for hands free operation. Pair to either a professional or self installation Bluetooth car kit and drive safely.

The AT and T Samsung Jack has a microSD, microSD HC memory expansion slot that supports microSD , microSD HC cards with a maximum capacity of 16GB. You have all the space you need for your documents, e-books, images, video and music. File Explorer, Microsoft ActiveSync, Windows Mobile Device Center 6 for Windows Vista and USB connectivity help you to easily manage your data. Stay on track with your daily tasks with the Samsung Jack SGH-i637 smartphones organizer. Make the most of voice notes, calendar, tasks, alarm and stay on schedule. Download and add Java applications, ring tones, games, video, multimedia and more with AT and T Mall.

Get where you need to go without asking for directions. AT&T Navigator guides you with audible turn by turn directions, visual maps and more. Reach your destination without the hassle. Measuring at 4.4 (H) x 2.4 (W) x 0.5 (D), weighing 3.6 ounces, the AT and T Samsung Jack is easy to travel with. Quadband compatibility (GSM, GPRS 850 900 1800 1900 MHz) ensures you stay connected no matter where you may be. Powered by a 1480 mAh battery, the Samsung Jack provides 7 hours of talk time with 288 hours of standby time. For more details visit http://www.phoneandbeyond.com