Why Inbound Marketing is Essential for your Business

Posted on November 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment

The web is changing all the time and even more rapidly than ever before. Although design is important, content truly is “king”, which is a saying that goes back to the roots of proper web design in the early 1990′s. These days, content is not just “king”, it is essential.

The days of loading up a website with juicy keywords is over. Recent search algorithm changes by Google, weeded out some of the “keyword stuffers” in favor of content rich, authentic websites. This also means that websites that are heavy on images and videos, rather than text will also have a tough time competing.

If your website is a bit thin on good, meaningful text then now is the time to get the job done. If you cannot write your own copy, contact us and we’ll do the web copywriting for you. If you want the search engines to take notice and keep you in the ball game, this is what you must do.

Content Marketing

People go to websites to solve problems. If a website offers compelling advanced content for download it will capture many more leads than if it just had a contact form. Relying on contact forms to generate leads is no different than someone crossing their fingers and hoping a prospect found their brochure they call a website interesting enough to give them a call.

via Web Design Companies That Endure Will Be Inbound Marketing Agencies.

Filed Under: News, Promote Your Website, Search Engines Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Accuracy of Google Analytics…or not

Posted on November 9, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Usually one of the first things a new client will ask me about is adding Google Analytics tracking to their website. There seems to be a lot of hype about Google Analytics which doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best website statistics program to use. It’s free, so like anything else, you get what you pay for. As a matter of fact, I compared Google Analytics results head to head with the actual web server statistics from one of my client’s websites and the sever logs reported twice the amount of visitors than what Google served up. So what gives? An excerpt from an article below explains in a bit more detail:

From a mathematician’s perspective it’s not that good at all. All professional web analysts know that Google Analytics significantly underestimates traffic in the overwhelming majority of cases. Anyone who has ever compared the stats from their web server with the stats from Google Analytics knows that the two sets of numbers rarely match up.

There are several reasons why, but the most significant factor is that the GA tracking code only fires if the person loading the page has Javascript enabled. That means that search engine crawlers and other automated web crawlers don’t get picked up, which is great- for the most part, web analytics is only concerned with the activities of real people- but it also means that anyone browsing with Javascript disabled will be completely invisible.

After my own research into this, I have come to the conclusion that although Google Analytics is still a useful tool, I would not rely on it entirely for accuracy. I would, as always, tend to believe my actual website server log statistics first. Any good web hosting company will provide access to your website server statistics so why not play it safe and compare your actual server statistics with what Google provides?

Filed Under: News, Promote Your Website, Search Engines, Your Website Tagged With: , ,

What Google has to say about all those SEO “Experts”

Posted on November 9, 2011 · Leave a Comment

It seems like every day, our company which is a web design agency and offers it’s own SEO services gets calls and e-mails from so-called search engine optimization experts offering to “improve your SEO and get you a top page ranking in Google, blah, blah, blah“. Our customers are also bombarded by this junk but unfortunately most of them are unaware that most of these SEO experts are scammers (or at the very least spammers).  Most of the offending companies originate from India, totally ignoring the United States “no call list” laws and regulations. However, some companies are right here in the USA and call and email their shady offerings too. I find it particularly hilarious, and apparently Google does too as you will see below, that they do not “research” your website at all. You’re simply receiving automated spam messages, designed to trick you into believing that they actually evaluated your website, which they clearly have not done.

The following is what Google itself had to say about all of the above. SEO isn’t all that difficult. Google provides a great SEO document here that explains the core process.

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site’s presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. Here are some things to consider:

  • Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

    “Dear google.com,
    I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

    Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

  • No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
Filed Under: Promote Your Website, Search Engines, Your Website Tagged With: , ,