What you can do to increase your SEO rankings
Did you know you have an essential role to play in your search engine rankings?
The tips below apply whether you just had your site optimized for search engines and want some “next steps,” or you simply want some “DIY” SEO optimization ideas.
There are two essential things for you to do to ensure your website climbs its way up the search engine rankings and stays there.
- Links, Links, Links: We have taken care of the “on-page” factors by optimizing your meta tags and content. The other half of the equation is having websites linking to yours! Without both, you will have limited success. Here are some tips for getting links.
- Send individually addressed emails to your colleagues, friends, vendors, and clients. Let them know about your newly optimized site, and ask them if they would link to your site.
- Tell them what you would like the link to say. This is extremely important. Let’s say one of your top keywords is “Denver ski shop.” When you ask your friends to link to your site, say: “The words used in the link itself are important to search engines because indicates what my site is about. So please use the phrase ‘Denver ski shop’ as the link to my site http://www.example.com.”
- As a general rule, avoid link farms and paid links. Natural links from colleagues and clients are more…well, natural. Search engines are always tweaking their results to reward real, natural, quality links.
- Content, Content, Content: Create a page for each of your top few SEO terms. If “green car widgets” is one of your important terms, create a new page with an article all about your widgets. Be sure to put “green car widgets” at the beginning of the page title (the words that appear at the top of the browser). Also, mix your other related SEO keywords into the content of the page! After you have created the article, link to it from different places where the term “green car widgets” appears: the sitemap, content text, and SEO text. For an example on how to create and link to internal content, go to www.eye9design.com.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
It usually takes time for Search Engines to move you up in their rankings, especially if you have a new site and few links from other sites. In the mean time, consider using Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing from Google, Yahoo, or MSN (the ads that appear on the right hand side of the page). While your goal is eventually to have your listings in the organic results (the main content area), strategic PPC campaigns with well written ads can drive relevant traffic to your website.
Contact us today about supplementing your search engine strategy with PPC advertising.
eye9 Design is a Colorado SEO company providing SEO optimization services to our clients in Denver, Colorado and around the world.
Finally…flexibility in the ecommerce website and graphic design process
Flexibility. Adaptation. “Rolling with the punches.”
We begin every project with a website questionnaire. We supply you with a time line for completion, and guide you in what input we need from you. Years of project management have helped us create a smooth process for turning out incredible web work.
That same experience tells us that there will always be curve balls, and often from the client. That is ok with us! We are used to it, and plan for it. Hear what Peter Breese of Billygoose.com said about our work.
A truly positive experience; eye9 delivered a functional site with all the bells and whistles. Not only did eye9 tolerate my ever changing vision, but they made every effort to incorporate all of the elements I thew at them.
As the design and development process progresses, it often reveals our clients’ preferences. The layout, colors, fonts, or navigation you thought you like now seem…unappealing. We work with you to accommodate your changing needs…often without any additional charge. Where a change in scope is required, we clearly articulate your options so as to choose the most strategic and cost effective option.
Flexibility. What you would expect from an elite Denver graphic and web page design firm.
CMS - the freedom to manage your own website
Over the past several years, we have observed a strong trend towards using content management systems in website design and ecommerce development. Increasingly, clients ask for the ability to manage their own website.
First of all, what is a CMS?
CMS stands for Content Management System. As the name indicates, it is a back end tool (invisible to the website visitor) that allows you to update text, pictures, and links without any knowledge of HTML. Some CMS systems even allow you to add audio, video, and PayPal buttons.
Why use a CMS?
If you frequently update your site with news, product information, product pricing, pictures, or other information, a CMS makes sense. It also makes “cents!” Having a CMS allows you to update your content, and focus your budget towards filling holes in your web strategy. For example, have you considered how much potential business you are losing by not having a search engine optimized site? Or, for ecommerce websites, adding expanded product profiles and user interface improvements (like picture zoom in/out) can increase your sales.
Can a CMS work with any website?
There is a CMS for every major website language.
- HTML: we recommend Contribute, Adobe’s (formerly Macromedia) best selling editor. It is simple for us to integrate with any HTML website, and is unmatched in ease of use. Features include the ability to include PDF’s in your web pages, add audio/video files, include PayPal buttons, and more.
- Example of Contribute in use: Zahr & Associates
- PHP and PHP eCommerce: we recommend Mambo, an open source CMS. It is widely used and widely documented, which allows us to adapt it for just about any need. Mambo is our CMS of choice for eCommerce web site design.
- Example of Mambo in use: Billygoose.com
Implementing a CMS
Whether you already have a website, or are just about to get going, a CMS is an important tool to consider. It gives you freedom in managing your own website, and allows you to redirect budget dollars towards essential improvements of your website.
