When we audit a Web site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) there are some basic things that we always look for. The following components must be taken into consideration: URL Structure, Site Map, Title Tags, Site Code, Content, and Back Links. All of these are interrelated and should be optimized together. (more…)

Bing, like it or not, is making big advancements in the search engine world. Not only are numbers showing that its ads are more effective than competitors in generating clicks and impressions, but their philosophy as to what the role of a search engine is continues to shake cages industry-wide. (more…)

2009 was, by most accounts, a year of severe business challenges and adjustments. Through that however have come significant shifts in business and consumer preferences, practices and technology that will continue to impact marketing trends in 2010. (more…)

Google custom search is a Google application that allows you to create a customized search engine for your own Web site.  In celebration of the feature’s one year anniversary, Google has added several new features to its Custom Search application—Custom Search Themes, Structured Custom Search and Custom Search Wikipedia skin—creating new SEO opportunities for Web masters. (more…)

There has been some recent pushback in the blogosphere regarding Google’s universal search, which returns results to queries beyond simple Web sites – including videos, images, maps and local business listings. What’s all the buzz about? Google real estate is becoming increasingly more crowded as the search giant continues to expand monetization opportunities and it is causing some marketers frustration. (more…)

After recent back-to-back announcements, Google disclosed plans to incorporate Twitter into their search results and Microsoft unveiled intentions of featuring both Twitter and Facebook in Bing results. Google will be integrating Tweets into their search results while Bing, at least currently, is using a subpage for searching tweets. This will enable Web browsers to view tweets relevant to their queries in the search engines, creating a more robust search experience. (more…)

An effective SEO content strategy enables the search engines to identify the keywords your Web site is relevant to and should rank for. Therefore, it is extremely important to execute proven tactics to help the engines recognize and rank your site for your targeted keywords.  There are various steps, outlined below, that you should follow when optimizing content for the search engines. (more…)

The single most important thing you can do to increase natural search rankings is establishing as many high value incoming links to your site as possible through a link building campaign.  Given the fact that search engines measure a site’s popularity by the quantity and quality of links that lead back to the Web site, link building is not only an excellent way to drive traffic but it is a critical factor towards improving search engine ranking. (more…)

When building out your Web site, it is particularly important to be sure the code is correct and well-formed. As discussed in the Introduction to URLs blog post, correctly structured code ensures Web pages can be indexed properly by search engines, which is vital to ranking at the top of the natural results.  For this reason, it is imperative to ensure your code structure is correctly developed to compliment and improve your SEO campaign. (more…)

Typically, the deeper a page is on your site, the more difficult it is for the search engine spiders to find and index the page.  The following example illustrates a URL that the engines would have a difficult time indexing: (more…)