Drive It - Convert It!

Web Marketing Blog and Podcast for the Small and Medium Sized Business

Archive for April, 2006

Drive It - Convert It! - #4 (podcast): Search Engine Optimization - Part 2 - On-Page Coding
Friday, April 28th, 2006

In Search Engine Optimization – Part 2 we discuss On-page Coding. What steps should we take in coding our website to gain in search engine rankings.

 
Click the “more” link below for a full transcript of the show.

 
Here is a summary:

 
(Note: In this podcast, on occasion I refer to the “Content” meta tag. That should be the “Description” meta tag. I guess my “Content is King” theme from Show #3 stayed with me a little too strongly. Sorry for any confusion.)

 
The code you use on your web pages was designed to tell users more about that page. Thus, it also tells search engines more about your page.  Over the past 5 years the importance of that code has diminished somewhat, but it is still a valuable tool for both the viewers of your page and for the search engine crawlers.

 
First it’s important to have an understanding of the web itself and how it works. I briefly discuss and explain the following:

 
1) What is the Internet
2) Web Page Technology
3) How crawlers crawl
4) HTML – the language of the web
5) Specific on-page coding

 
Within Item 5 – Specific on-page coding, I take a look at 7 items that can help you to higher rankings:

 
1) Title Tag
2) Alt Attributes
3) Headings tags (like an H1 tag)
4) Meta tag – Description
5) Meta tag – Keywords
6) Internal linking structure
7) Clean code

 
(see examples here)

 
This is not a tutorial but is meant to give you an understanding of the relative importance of on-page coding, it’s likely importance in the future, and some of the top areas to examine if you want to pursue your on-page coding in more detail.

 
If you’d like to get more into the details, there is one excellent resource at www.seomoz.org. I also recommend frequenting www.searchenginewatch.com and www.webmasterworld.com.

 
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Read a full transcript here …

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Drive It - Convert It! - #3 (podcast): Search Engine Optimization - Part 1
Friday, April 14th, 2006

In Search Engine Optimization – Part 1, we discuss Content Is King. How important is your content in search engine rankings and how do you adapt your content to get the best results.

 
Click below for a full transcript of the show.

 
Here is a summary:

 
Writing content is one of the most challenging aspects of producing a website. However, it’s extremely important from both a Web visitor perspective and from a search engine optimization perspective.

 
To effectively produce your content you need to plan, write the overview, focus, and refine.

 
Plan by architecting your website into logical categories and subcategories. Write in a similar style to that of a newspaper with the most important points first and then breaking down into further and further levels of detail. Focus each page on a central idea and incorporate targeted keywords and phrases.

 
Make further search engine specific refinements such as accessibility, elimination of pronouns, high use of adjectives, variation of keywords and strong use of relevant headings.

 
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Drive It - Convert It! - #2 (podcast): Target Markets
Friday, April 7th, 2006

 
Establishing the proper target market before you role out traffic-driving and conversion strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, Advertising, and landing page designs.

 
This podcast explores some examples of how your online target market may differ from your regular brick and mortar target. It also covers the effect of demographics, psychographics, and technographics on site design, search engine strategies and other web marketing vehicles.

 
Download it now - Drive It - Convert It! Podcast #2
 
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