South Florida Web Marketing Blog

I know people want to get their websites into the search engines, but you have to think before you start this subbmission process.

The Website Optimization process can take a few days to do correctly, but it is well worth the  effort.

1. Look at the web content – what does your message say? Is it clear? Can it be easily followed?
2. Was the web page optimized? Titles,  Descriptions, Meta Tags, Properly Selected Keywords, Keyword Density, Images, etc.
3. Is the web page as close to W3C compliance?
4. Is your menu easy to follow?

Optimize your  web pages before submitting them to search engines. Taking the time to set the foundation for your marketing will make all the difference in being found in the search engines.

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I am always faced with the task of  explaining what Web Marketing is – for website owners looking for help with marketing their websites.

Most of the time, I hear that all they want is to be on the top of the results in the search engines, but they do not realize how to get there.

The first thing I have to do is to carefully review their websites and list my observations.  I can then draft an e-mail letting them know what I see and what I feel they need to gain the rankings they want. Sometimes the ranking expectations cannot match the fierce competition, which forces more expensive means to market a website, but other methods can be developed to pull portions of a larger market.

Most of the time,  my honest e-mail will help the client understand what is involved and how I approach  web based marketing. This is how I approach reviewing a website:

• I examine the website to locate the strengths and weaknesses.
• An outline is created of what I need to do:
  - Keyword Analysis
  - Determine how many web pages require Optimization
  - Checking the code on each web page and fixing errors
  - Optimizing each web page with the selected keyword phrases
  - Submissions to the search Engines and Directories
  - On going Link Building
  - Setting up blogs, newsletters and/or forums
  - Pay Per Click campaigns
  - Monthly Web Site Reporting – Visitors, Web Page Rankings, Keywords Used, Landing pages, Demographics, etc.
  - Plus any other processes I feel will enhance their rankings
• A complete marketing plan is developed with the understanding that the client can modify the plan to suite their budget needs.
• The estimated expectations are explained.
• I also explain that there are no guarantees for Natural Optimization – Since the Search Engines can change the algorithms at any time – thus changing the rankings.
• There are reasonable expectations with pay Per Click Marketing, but it can be expensive and must be measured carefully to determine ROI. If the cost outweighs the return, then it is not profitable to do.

The hardest aspect of Marketing, is explaining the process and using the time test ways to increase a web site’s visibility. You also need to be open to new ideas and changes in the market place, like video, social networking and new technology.

I spend the time marketing for my clients, because I know my clients cannot take the time to market for themselves and run their businesses at the same time. You need to have someone in your corner you can trust to do the things that have to be done to produce targeted traffic, yet look for new opportunities to market your website in a profitable way.

Lee Smith
Search Engine Marketing Technician
Contact page

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The title is important!

In the eyes of the search engines – having the same title on all your web pages is like having One web page for your whole web site. The title is a short description of that web page. It provides a short phrase telling the search engine bots what the focus of the page is. This information is part of the process to index the content of your website in to the vast search engine database of information. It’s like getting listed in the yellow pages under one listing when you could be listen in 10 areas!

Having all the pages with the same title does not help your marketing.

How does this happen?

It is actually normal for any web designer to create a template of the web page and reuse it for every page in the website. Then every page will look different to the web site owner but the header information will be exactly the same which the web site owner will not notice. The header is part of what the search engine look at to index your web site.

Unless you have request optimization when ordering your website, it is not usually part of web site construction.  As a web designer myself, I can respect the fact that web designers do not know. Most web designers do not optimize websites, because it just like building the website. It takes a good deal of time and training – normally it’s something that will effect the price to the purchaser and many web designers will leave  off.  This comes back to the consumer requesting a website and asking for your best price.  Would you pay $150-200 per page or $75-$100? The true difference can be found long term.

When you submit your website to the search engines, the website that is optimized, stands a very good chance of being found, compared to the site with no optimization. When you see the results of a search measure in the tens of thousands, where do you want to be? Without optimization, you are not going to be found in the top 20 unless you plan to use pay per click or spend heavy advertising dollars.

Optimizing a website is not easy

Part of optimizing a web page is creating titles for each web page. You just cannot just slap some new words in title. You want to carefully select a keyword phrase that will best describe the page and something that visitors may use to find you. It takes time to carefully craft an optimization that will provide a successful marketing campaign.

Training , experience and knowledge can make all the difference in creating a sound web site optimization plan and with that in place – you can then stand a chance to be found.

Understanding the web marketing process is the first step to success!

Lee

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People toss the term SEO around like it’s a something that everyone knows, but most people do not understand it.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Optimization is a combination of techniques used to create a better web page suitable for the major search engines. By having a web page that is organized in a fashion that is acceptable to the search engines,  the search engines will rank the web page correctly when someone is looking for that keyword phrase in a query.

Optimization techniques include:

• Keyword Analysis
• W3C compliance
• Close examination of the underlying code that makes up a web page
• The web page loading times
• The careful placement of your targeted keyword phrases within the web pages
• The ability to take your web site and mold it to the formatted search engine requirements for the possibility high ranking results.
• Incoming link building pointing at your website

When all the elements are in place for your website, the search engines will be kind. So when someone types in the certain keyword phrase, you can see your web site appear in the first page of search engine results (SERP – Search Engine Results Page)

So why do you need SEO? To drive web traffic to your website.

• Traffic = Visitors and New Prospects.
• New Prospects = New Sales.
• New Sales = New Revenues.

You do not want just any web traffic, you want targeted web traffic. You want the type of vistors that want your products of services. This is a very important point. I could mention a celebrity, like Brittney Spears, on your website, but if you are selling mortgages, it will be a tough way to convert the traffic to what you are selling. You want to target people who are looking for mortgages, not making statements about celebrities.

Marketing a website requires a combination of abilities. Business experience, a deep understanding of the Internet, Proven Web Design Building, Search Engine Expertise, and Web Based Marketing Knowledge. We, at Smittysholdings.com, possess both the experience and knowledge to drive the right type of traffic to your website, not just for the moment, but for long term search engine placement.

It is so important to keep in mind, that any business requires ongoing marketing initiatives, whether it is a brick and mortar store or a website selling products or services. Your web site needs to be treated like an ongoing business concern, with the marketing effort seeking targeted traffic.

More and more people depend on the Internet to locate goods and services, so make your presence stand out. Take your place with other successful web businesses and contact us to find out how we can help you.

Lee Smith
South Florida Website Optimization & Marketing
Ft Lauderdale, Florida
(954) 423-2785

I talk to clients everyday to explain what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) entails and why you should hire someone like us to do it.  Optimization is the way to prepare your web pages to be interpreted by the search engines for keyword terms to help their visitors to locate what they are looking for.

When a website is submitted to a Search Engine, the search engine will schedule a scanning process to visit that website.  That scanning process is characterized by a search engine sending a piece of code called a bot or spider. The spider will read through every line of code and trace each hyperlink to each web page.

Once a site is scanned, the search engine will index all the information that it collected and place it in the enormous databases of accumulated information. It is this indexing that the optimization is most effective.  The indexing process will crunch your website information to provide your ranking results and of course, you want the highest ranking results for your website.

The 10 Reasons to Optimize with us:

1. Conducting a keyword analysis to locate the best fitting keyword phrases. Using the best keyword phrases will attract the right type of traffic.
2. We check your web page code for errors – This can cause browsers to view your content differently and affect some search engine spiders in a negative way – sometimes stoppng the spider in it’s tracks and not scanning your whole web site.
3. An optimized web site will provide better information for the search engines. Optimized pages makes your web pages far more effective and informative for the search engines.
4. You will avoid having duplicate titles & descriptions on each web page – each web page will have unique information. This is the web page information displayed by the search engines when someone gets a search engine result page (SERP).
5. Use the correct tags in the proper places that will help the ranking process.
6. An optimized web site will have a menu system that will be easy for the search engine spiders to read the whole website.
7. To have a sitemap for all the web pages on your website. This makes it easy for your visitors to locate a web page easily and the search engines to locate all your web pages
8. To insure that there are interconnecting hyperlinks of the keyword phrases between web pages.
9. We have over 10 years of Web Design experience & over 5 year of Web Optimization & Web Marketing.
10. Over 15 years in the Corporate world with superior skills in Marketing & Technology

When you optimize your website, you will have a site that can be found by customers searching the Search Engines to locate your products or services. Web site Optimization is an essential asset that any serious company must conduct and have as a cornerstone of their marketing effort.

Building a website is only half the battle – you need a marketing plan for that web site to make it a functioning asset.

• Proper Web Site Optimization = Ranking Results
• Ranking Results = Web Site Traffic
• Web Site Traffic = Sales, Inquires, and Revenue

There are three fundamental parts of SEO – (search engine optimization):

• Incoming Links (That's other web sites that link to you)

• Content - the words on the web pages that describe your products or services. (If you want to be found for your product or service, you have to mention that product or service on your website).

• Optimization – Correctly formatting the code for your pages contain the right keyword phrases in the correct places in the web page

If you want to be found for anything, you must focus your page descriptions to the product or services you wish to be found for. Some use the shotgun approach for being found, by stuffing keywords phrases all over the web page. In some instances adding hundreds of phrases with cities, colors, or variations of the keyword. This is the wrong approach to marketing. It's better to spend the time to create web pages for each keyword phrase.

Make sure the web page is easy to read for your visitors and that you have a call to action statement on each page. Something you want your visitor to do.

Good Luck