Tuesday, October 28, 2008

SEO Mistakes

One of the most common SEO mistakes is over use of keywords. Keyword usage is very important on your pages and in your tags, but going overboard could be called keyword stuffing. Keyword repetition that is not supported by surrounding content will lead to a decreased ranking by Google. For more information on Minnesota website design or MN SEO contact us today.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Getting good ranking: the basics

Websites are more than plentiful these days and just because you have one does not mean that you are ever going to get found. In fact I just talked to a woman this week and she said "Oh my site is very good, I come up on the first spot in search results." Which was true if you typed in red Robin realty St. Paul. But I pointed out to her that if you typed in St Paul Realty, her site did not come up in the first one hundred results. The issue is that her potential customers were not typing in the name of her business they are looking for a broader search term. She is out of the loop, and not going to get any leads from the site she spent so much money on.

One thing that everyone should know is that the realty industry has quite a bit of competition, but it is totally doable. The other frustrating thing about Search engine optimization is that the rules are always changing. The good news is that if you know what those changes are you can avoid wasting time with ones that dont.

Here are the things that you web designer should do:

  • Make sure that your pages actually have your keywords on the pages.
  • Incorporate Key words into Title Tags: It is not even worth your time to mess with Keyword or Description tag. However, the description tag will be listed at times so don,t worry about the content but make it good. Title Tag: limit your tag to fifty characters with spaces.
  • Internal Linking: Make sure all your pages link to each other.
  • External Linking: Create links on other sites that link back to yours using Keyword text.. For example I will Link to my site using text Minnesota SEO

Dont get me wrong there are many components to SEO that I have not mentioned, but these will get you pointed in the right direction. Please drop a response if you have questions.

St Paul Windows DLP Lamps Minneapolis Windows MN web Design

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

online visability and boosting online business

From my experience one out of every two web designers has no earthly idea how to get a new or existing site ranked. Why? Typically because search engines change up the way they do things or the web designer just may not care. Most web designers feel they are artists. But what they don't know is that they are fooling themselves and doing the client a disservice by not helping them optimize their sites. Online "postcards" simply don't work anymore.

So what is the answer. First of all start thinking of the web for what it is. Search engines are not magic. They operate on mathematical equations that look at what is actually on a site and then classify it. So if your site is about blue hats and there is not any mention of blue hats in the text of the home page, then you have a problem. By the way, having a picture of a blue hat doesn't count.

The list of things that will be addressed is probably lengthy, but don't be discouraged. Improving rank is one of the most cost effective ways to boost business.

If you are having trouble getting top ranking or any ranking for your site, the fix is usually relatively easy. The difficulty lies in the level of competition you have. My suggestion is that you call a reputable SEO firm and have them do an analysis. Just make sure that you demand references. Many SEO firms use illegitimate techniques or are outright snake oil salesmen. Make sure that they have performed the services successfully for a number of other clients. For instance, my firm has over 35 clients that we have successfully helped to get to the first results page. Usually the top. We also provide a full list of references that potential customers can call on. So, good luck with your quest for increased profits through better page rank and call if you need help. 651-414-9638.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Minnesota SEO tactics

All links are not created equally. Some links can even harm your site. We strongly suggest that you hire a MN SEO consultant before taking on new site enhancement projects. But if you must proceed on your own here are some pointers.

Only link to sites that appear "non spammish" this includes sites that have over 100 links per page. Do not bother linking to sites that have poor page rank. It is better to just pay for quality links rather than waste time on linking to poor quality sites. Do not place out bound links on your site unless absolutely necessary and safe. externally linking to a spam site can get you blacklisted from google.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

New Day-New Medium

The reality is that we live in a very different business world than we did ten years ago. Companies now have the opportunity to create and display a message, without having to go through a middleman. The Internet has long ago vanquished yellow pages and most any other advertising medium. We live in a world where marketers are held accountable because of their accessibility to their audience. If they fail, there are no excuses to be had.

The internet is a fast changing medium, some of the old ideas still work, but one has to be willing to learn the new. I have personally found it fun, exiting and challenging to keep up with new ways to communicate to an audience. for more information on mn internet marketing or MN SEO, please contact me at: 651-414-9638

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Minnesota web design

Minnesota web design is often done by individuals that have a associates degree in web design at best. Rocket 55, is a group of sales and marketing professionals that understand how to use the web to benefit our clients. The internet is our medium of expression and we are only measured by our end results. For more information on web design in minnesota, contact steven ayres at rocket 55 web marketing and design.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

MN Search Enginine Optimization

MN web design is often done simply for the sake of aesthetics. The problem is that there are millions of web sites floating around out there. So how does a new web site get found? Is it luck or do you have an online marketing plan? We reccomend contacting a company like ours in order to help you to come up with a plan to increase web traffic. MN SEO

Thursday, August 28, 2008

What should my MN Web Site do?

Before you go out and hire a web design company take a close look at what your website should do. Defining your exact needs will help you avoid costly mistakes in the construction of your new site. Here are some examples of topics that business sites should convey in order to land more customers.

[ ] Establish a presence on the Web
[ ] Increase product and service sales
[ ] Generate new business leads
[ ] Increase the international presence of the organization
[ ] Generate requests for more information
[ ] Support other marketing, advertising and promotional campaigns
[ ] Provide customer service
[ ] Increase store or business traffic
[ ] Provide the latest information about new products/services, sales, special promotions, events
[ ] Build a database for email campaigns
[ ] Provide product usage direction
[ ] Survey new and existing customers
[ ] Recruit new employees

For more information on sound MN web design practices contact Steven Ayres at Rocket 55. www.rocket55.com Rocket 55 is a full service Minnesota web design firm.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Defining a new website

When embarking on the creation of a new website, we at Rocket 55 suggest that you define your site through the following questions.

Have you registered a domain name registered?: (e.g. www.yourcompany.com)
If you already have a URL, what is it?:
Which company hosts your existing Web site?:
Do you know how much they charge you for hosting each per year?:
How many pages are there in your current site?:
What are the objectives of your current site?:
How many visitors does your current site get?: (daily, weekly, monthly)
How long do they visit the site for?
Are there any features or functions of the current site that you would you like to keep?:
Which ones do you want to get rid of?:
Which products and site pages are most popular?:
Have you had any feedback about your current site ?
Who was your current site designed and developed by?:

If you have any questions regarding web design or are one of our many Minnesota web design customers please contact Steven Ayres at steven@rocket55.com

Tracking SEO Links

If you are going to create a linking campaign, you will need to track this activity. My suggestion is to start an excel file with the following fields. Site name, Appearance URL, Submission URL, Date of submission, URL of page you asked others to link to, Whether reciprocal link or payment is required and date the link was checked.

For more information please feel free to contact a member of Rocket 55 MN web designers.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

SEO Vs. SEM

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of sculpting your web page content and code to be as highly presentable and technically available on your niche keyword as possible. SEO specialists call upon a variety of tasks to modify linking structure, meta tags, and page content in order to help your website to help itself.

Think of SEO as a practice of altering your website in such a way that your most lucrative keywords stand out from the other content in your pages.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) calls upon a considerably wider-scope to drive traffic to your optimized website. While SEO helps your website to reach out to the search engines on its own merit, SEM calls on a variety of marketing methods to persuade the search engines to favor your domain. SEM methods include keyword research, competitor analysis, link building, content development, Pay Per Click advertising, affiliation, and more.

This blog is written by Steven Ayres from Rocket 55 Marketing + Design. We are a full service MN web design firm. We also specialize in MN SEO + MN SEM

Monday, August 25, 2008

MN Web Design

Search Engine Optimization is absolutely scalable to local or regional needs. Much of our work fits under the category of MN web design, with a strong emphasis on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Equiping a website with the needed elements for an effective localized SEM campaign takes skill and know how. For more information on conducting a Minnesota Search Engine Optimization campaign, contact Steven Ayres at Rocket 55. Rocket 55 does SEO and SEO for Minnesota based businesses.

Monday, August 18, 2008

SEO and Minnesota Businesses

Most Search Engine Optimization efforts are targeted at the wrong spectrum of potential customer. For instance, most of our SEO work targets Minnesota businesses, but that doesn't always mean that their keyword implementation should be limited to Minnesota consumers. Rocket 55 first identifies the geographical area that the company wants to target. Then we start our keyword list based on that area. An effective SEO campaign will not waste time and valuable marketing dollars bringing in traffic that is unnecessary. For instance, a local salon, is concerned with individuals within a ten mile radius and that is it. Conversely, some businesses may have products or services that they have traditionally sold to local markets that can now be offered nationally wide via the web. Just be aware that as the geographical range increases so does the price of SEO. This is due to the fact that as the area grows, so does the competition. The more the competition, the more effort it takes to get a site ranked.

I hope that this posting was helpful. Rocket 55 is a full service marketing and design firm. Specializing in Minnesota web design and Minnesota SEO.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Importance of SEO: MN Web Design done right

Incorrect MN web design: The vast majority of web sites are built by individuals who have zero formal education or experience with sales or marketing. Therefore it is no big surprise that most websites do not come up on search engines when you Google on their exact business type and location. This is largely caused by three things: lack of relevant content on the home page, misuse of tags and/or overuse of Flash or Javascript.

Correct MN web Design: Rocket 55 is a Minnesota website company that understands the importance of search engine ranking and search engine optimization. It is everything. If people aren't landing on your home page you basically have a digital postcards floating aimlessly in cyberspace. This is why Rocket 55 goes to such great efforts to get to know our customers products or services and then understand what keywords their customers are using to find them.

That is the basic minimum starting point for launching a successful Minnesota SEO project.
Defining the key words that need to be used to make the site successful. This can take research at times. At Rocket 55 we never know who our next client will be or what industry they will be from.

So one piece of advice we would give to companies that are starting to think about a new site is to do some research on their own. We urge companies to understand the basics of SEO and not hire a company doesn't have the ability to implement these types of efforts. For any information you can contact Rocket 55 for any of you MN web design or MN SEO needs. Steven@rocket55.com
 
My Zimbio
Top Stories