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Search Engine Optimization

Google Web Fonts, Will They Change the World?

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

The constant battle over fonts on a web site, is there a solution in sight? Clients always want to have beautiful fonts on their web sites, the only way we have had to do that and assure that “everyone” can see them has been to use images. The issue with images of course is that they have to be downloaded, have to be worked into your layout and they don’t get the same SEO (search engine optimization). Now Google has a beta solution for us.

So what is the big deal about fonts. Presently a web site can only display a font that is installed on your computer. So to make sure that everyone sees the same exact thing on every computer (more or less – lets not go into different browsers and different versions of different browsers…) web designers end up using a short list of fonts that all computers (both Macs and PCs) have pre-installed.

Unfortunately, clients are not satisfied with the limited amount of fonts that are presently available. There are some work arounds to this such as Font Burner, which has a WordPress plugin – but it is only compatible up to WordPress version 2.8, while WordPress is up to version 3.0.3; or hardcore code, which Internet Explorer and 64-bit Windows machines don’t render correctly – so these are not a perfect fix.

Now enter stage left – Google Web Fonts. Yes Google. They have approximately 38 fonts (with a smattering of variants) that reside on Google’s servers and you can use their API to make your text beautiful. And as of last week they work on most mobile devices including Android, iPhone and iPad. There is even a WordPress plugin (compatible up to version 3.0.3) for Google Fonts that has had over 12,449 downloads! Is it the answer to our web designer prayers? The jury is still out on that (it is still in beta), but it does look exciting! We’re looking at using it on our site…check back soon to see….

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Posted in Design, General, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Technology | No Comments »

Google Instant Saving Seconds and Changing SEO Forever

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Those of us working with SEO had to come to grips with the fact that every “searcher” gets slightly different results (due to their search history) making our jobs slightly harder, but now Google is psychic. In an effort to save 2 seconds per search, you no longer have to type in a word or phrase before Google will present you the results.

And while the day Google Instant was introduced A was for AOL, now it is for Amazon! So… do we know have to try to optimized for a letter (gosh instead of putting our effort into cookies, we should focus on “c”!)? I realize that some people will start adding letters into their keywords, but I don’t suggest this as Google does not look at keywords in determining its web search rank, so this will not help you and it will only confuse the other search engines.

And how is that going to work out for Google AdWords, not so well it seems. As I looked through the alphabet (one letter at a time) only a few letters had AdWords. So is Google Instant a revenue “killer” for Google AdWords? Only time will tell.

So how is Google Instant really changing SEO? For the moment this will not change how we optimize pages. Content is still king. And I truly believe that with good content, good use of social media, good backlinks and all the tricks in our toolkit that we will continue to allow our clients to be easily found in search engines, include Google.

I think it will make a difference in long tail keywords. Many of the long tail searches are based on three and four word search terms. I am no longer sure people will type that many words in before Goggle Instant gives them a result they are happy with, or at least willing to click on. I will be evaluating long tail searches to see if my theory holds true.

The things I can tell you: it is more important now to have good page titles and meta descriptions. Google still uses this information and more importantly, it was what searchers read to determine which of the search results they will click on. Register in your local search engines sites such as Google Places, Local Yahoo and Local Bing. Claim “your” page on review sites such as Yelp! and ask your clients to add reviews to all of these (Google Places, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp! all have places where you client’s can review your business. The more reviews you have the higher you can rank in the search results!).

Happy searching and remember anything you want on Google, you can find in an Instant!

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Posted in General, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Technology | 1 Comment »

Web Site Design for Beginners – Part 3

Friday, August 27th, 2010

The third and final post in this series, Web Site Design for Beginners, is now up on Edmee Roche’s (@edmeeroche) She’s Gone Blogging site.

This blog post covers one of the most important decision you will have to make: what type of web site you are going to develop: informational or e-commerce. Will your site be static, or will it be built with a Content Management System (CMS) so you can easily update the content. If you have an e-commerce site do you want to host your e-commerce site or do you want to use a hosted solution.

Whether you choose a static site, a CMS driven site, an e-commerce site you host or a hosted solution, don’t forget Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I cover all this and more!

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Posted in Design, General, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

June 30, 2010 – Social Media Day

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Wow, we have our own day. Mashable has announced that today is Social Media Day. The first question is, will anyone notice. It is very prominent on the Mashable site (first thing you see), so then I went to Facebook. Facebook has the ability to sent a message to everyone. I expected to see something announcing to the almost 500 million members that this was a very special day, a day celebrating what Facebook has helped shape – social networks. Alas, no global message, Facebook let the moment pass.

So I went to Twitter and checked my stream, and lots of social media, but not a lot of Social Media Day. Hmmm, how could Social Media Day go unnoticed. I checked CNN (online of course) They even link to Mashable and The Wall Street Journal (checking the technology sections of course). Then I went old school, I “Googled” Social Media Day and no major news media outlet (sorry KCTV Kansas City) came up, only Mashable.

So does this mean social media doesn’t work? No, it means social media doesn’t work in a vacuum. It is what I tell my clients. You want to be on Facebook, because if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. You want to be on Twitter, because you want to have the opportunity to meet people, influence people, show people that you are smart, funny, engaging, etc. – pick your adjective that best describes you. You also want to be on Twitter so that you can know what people are saying about you and your company and your product. You can’t respond if you are not a part of the conversation. You need to have a LinkedIn profile so other professionals can find you and know who you are and what you do. You want to have a YouTube channel so they can see you in action (keep checking back, I am editing our video!).

So why did my Google search yield only Mashable links (okay and KCTC), because Mashable forgot that the traditional media, and other social media outlets still look to old fashioned ways to be kept up-to-date: press releases, phone calls, personal interviews. Social Media works, you just need to use it in conjunction with more traditional forms of media if you want to be sure to get wall-to-wall coverage of your very first Social Media Day. Maybe next year, we will be everywhere!

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Posted in General, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Technology | 2 Comments »

Welcome to our New ribit Web Site

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Yes, we are the cobbler’s child. At least every five years we totally redo our web site. Trash the old one and start over from scratch.

This time we decided to leave the old content management system we used (short tutorial – a content management system is a database driven system that allows us to build you a web site where the content of the pages is separate from the design and structure of the web site. This allows us to be able to give the web site owner a user name and password that will allow them to update the content on the pages without changing the design or structure of the web site, using a content editor that is “similar” to editing in your basic word document editing software package.) and switch to WordPress.

WordPress offered a lot of advantages, ease of use being first and foremost. WordPress also has a huge community building Plugins, small applications that add functionality to the “base” program. You want more SEO (search engine optimization – what you need to get higher in the Google rankings) than you get out of the “box” from WordPress, there is a plugin for that. You want a Captcha field (those annoying squiggly letters that automated programs can’t generate to “steal” the form) to go with your contact form, there is a plugin for that. You want it, someone has probably already made a plugin for it.

So why didn’t we “switch” sooner. We at ribit pride ourselves on not only creating sites that work, that incorporate the SEO you need, that connect you to the Social Media, that have a blog, but we create sites that have unique designs that reflect the owner of the web site – that will help them reach their marketing goals and objects. Whenever we looked at WordPress sites, well, they looked like WordPress sites.

The challenge for us was how to make a WordPress site that doesn’t look like a WordPress site. This is what we came up with, different frog paintings on each page, the blog (okay the blog looks like a WordPress blog), a portfolio that is very clean and highlights just a smattering of our work.

We are going to be added to the site in the coming weeks, keep coming back to see how the site progresses. And welcome to our new site!

Posted in Design, General, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media | 10 Comments »

SEO, What Can You Do To Increase Your Ranking?

Monday, September 14th, 2009

When trying to improve your search engine optimization there is a lot you can do to improve your standings. You can “pay” to move yourself up in the list by using pay-per-click ads, although this can get expensive as “the best words” in most categories are as expensive as $8.00 per click, yes eight dollars per click. And while you can limit your cost exposure by telling the search engines you only want to spend “x” dollars per month, when that amount is up, your ad is gone….

I personally think that for the average small company, pay-per-click is fraught with cost. There are other, more cost effective things you can do. If you have a web site, such as the one’s Ribit design’s, that is built with a content management system you will be able to easily update your site yourself. By making changes to your site on a regular basis the search engines tend to rank your site more highly.

Of course you can blog, this is adding a “change” to your site. If you use your blog to impart knowledge, you can also use it as a way to establish yourself as an industry expert. Also, you should work with your web developer to be sure that your site has the appropriate code for the search engines to read when they go through the web categorizing all the sites on the internet.

Have fun and happy typing!

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Posted in Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »

YouTube is a Viable Marketing Tool

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Using YouTube as a Marketing Tool requires having the ability to make a video. Today, that’s as easy as spending $149.00 for a Flip Video Camera. The Flip camera has made everyone a director and given everyone the ability to get “their” message out to the world.

Once you post a video on YouTube you get a YouTube channel, this also makes it easier for people to follow you on YouTube (yes, more followers). You can then embed the video on your web site and grow traffic to your web site by editing your video to include your web address at the end of the video. Just remember that once the video is on YouTube it is on YouTube, it can go viral which can be good (if your message is good) or it can be deadly, if you go on a rant. As Google would say, just “don’t be evil”.

Utilizing YouTube is just one more marketing tool in the social media toolbox. You can have fun with your topic, make it personal, or make it professional. If your lucky it will go viral and take your company to the next level. Maybe it will be as popular as the cat who plays piano!

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Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media | 3 Comments »

SEO vs. NSO

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Everyone’s web site should be optimized. That means that your site at a minimum, should have code on each page (not seen by mere mortals) that can be read by the spiders and bots that the various search engines use (Goggle, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) to determine where you will land within the millions of search results for the words or phrases that people might use to find your site. I help our clients in determining the best words, phrases and descriptions they should use for their businesses.

Search engines look to see that the words in your code (meta tags, meta descriptions) actually match the words on the pages of your site. In a perfect world you have different meta information on every page of your web site (this is more expensive, so not every client does this). You also need to have words on every page that match that code (not every client wants words on every page, some want their images to speak for them). This type of optimization is considered Natural Search Optimization (NSO), and while it is not free (someone has to code the information, as well as determine the applicable key words, phrases and descriptions), it is not as expensive as SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or paid search is very effective. You pay the various search engines to assure your placement on the front page, and often at the very top of the front page, of their search site. You, of course, pay for this privilege. Every time someone clicks on your link, you pay the search engine (there is no correlation between clicks and sales unfortunately). You can limit your monthly fees by capping what you will pay daily, when you reach your cap, your link ceases to be displayed. That means that you could be the number one link for the first two days of the month and after that your link will not be seen until the next month. While I find paid search is very effective in assuring your placement, it can become expensive depending upon the keywords or phrases you need to use to reach your target demographics.

Paid search does help your NSO, as more people click on your web site, your ranking goes up with the various search engines. In order to do SEO well, you have to monitor your keywords and phrases to see which are working, and which are not. You need to monitor your analytics to determine what is working and adjust accordingly. While SEO can bring instant results (i.e., you are at the top of the page, their is a cost involved), while NSO cost less, it could take months (or longer) to see results.

If your company’s sales are dependent upon being found on the web, SEO is a viable alternative. If your web site is a compliment to your existing marketing NSO might best for your company. Feel free to contact me about how we can help you determine whether SEO or NSO is the best option for your web site.

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Posted in Search Engine Optimization | 9 Comments »