Make 2005 Your Best Year Ever Online!

This is the time of year when many business owners and managers decide to either "redesign" their business website or create a new one to gain more sales. The general thought seems to be that everybody is doing it so I must do the same to keep up. Keep in mind, this must be what the Dodo bird thinks before falling over the edge following his predecessors!

Slap happy Websites

Long gone are the days when 'build it and they will come' worked towards improving your bottom line. In this day and time there is much more competition along with more knowledgeable shoppers online. To gain the confidence of these savvy shoppers, a business website must effectively deal with their needs and expectations. To do less causes them to leave faster than you could ask "what happened?".

Would you only spend 30 minutes redesigning your print advertising?

Of course not! The reasons are obvious. Customers look to your printed materials (e.g. brochures, newspaper and magazine ads, billboards, etc.) to learn about your products and services. Their decisions based on this marketing help determine whether you are profitable or starve!

These printed pieces are designed to generate a response that causes people to perform a particular act such as: visit your location, call your phone, send a letter, etc. Taking the time to improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaign is a must to get ahead of the crowd.

First impressions: Shoppers are not dumb!

There has long been a trend by big business to treat customers as idiots. This sounds harsh but, when you look at the facts it is quite accurate. Take a look at American television advertising and notice how products are promoted. From talking animals to cartoons, many TV ads are little more than feel good along with here is our company or product name. Add to this the shopping cycles created by large retailers by their timely actions such as:

• Raising the majority of product prices just before Christmas while advertising just a few 'teasers' to get customers.


• Raising the price of roses just before Valentine's Day.


• Selling inferior products that are designed to break down in a short time causing the shopper to "need" another one in a short time span.

In my opinion, the repeated actions of these businesses has led to the 'web generation' performing much more research and being less tolerant of the 'retail babble'. These shoppers learn the details about their purchases and are much better prepared to invest the money into the products and services they desire. This has been very well demonstrated in the Real Estate markets around the United States.

Web Marketing: Niche versus 'Be All'

With so many businesses competing online, it is impossible to be everything to everybody (e.g. a 'Be All'). Specializing in a particular 'niche' gives the opportunity to be more in depth regarding knowledge, options and relationships to other products and services. Demonstrating this helps build customer confidence and loyalty both online and in person. Add honesty, integrity and diligence makes for a very competitive business!

Online searchers are specific

When people visit the web, it is no secret that the vast majority go to the major search engines like Google and Yahoo! to find the specific information he or she desires. Depending on which online research study you prefer, performing a search and then selecting a generic result link accounts for well over half of all visits generated from the search engines. Searches these days are often 2 and 3 word phrases (over 55% combined) causing the results to be very niche oriented. This is extremely important if you want to reach these searchers and convert their actions to sales!

Satisfy the Angels, Appease the Devils

There are generally two (2) major categories that shoppers can be classified.

1. Angels
   Customers who are more interested in the relationship between the business and the shopper. Angels generally boost profits and often become repeat customers.


2. Devils
   Customers who make a purchase, often return products, obtain coupons and
   pinch pennies to the point where they spend much more time than money. Devils are the type of customers who will return a product to get their money back only to buy the discounted open box later.

If you have been in business long, you may have many more characteristics for these 2 categories than stated above. In any case, having more angels than devils can be the significant factor in true profitability. With this in mind, it is easier to understand why marketing the lowest price results in higher numbers (e.g. visits, hits, etc.) as well as more devils. These devils turn around and kill your profits by the activities described above and can lead you to the 'poor farm' quickly!

The remainder of this article will help describe how to get more angels and fewer devils to improve your bottom line for you business website and your business overall.

Website Marketing without the SPAM

If you have spent any time sending and receiving email, you are probably well aware of the frustrations SPAM causes. The major search engines are just as aware of the frustrations online searchers feel due to the search engine spamming they received from webmasters and promoters over these past few years.

What is search engine spamming?

In the 'early days' of the internet and search engines, adding META tags (e.g. description, keywords, etc.) to each page caused the search engines to list you for the keyword phrases listed there. This was almost completely done away with by the major search engines when many webmasters tried to 'trick' the search engines by placing the same phrases multiple times in the tags as well as adding phrases that were not included elsewhere on the page nor even the entire website at all!

Many webmasters and designers incorrectly still believe this to be an effective technique with Google and Yahoo! when, in fact, this practice is virtually useless for them. Keyword phrases within META tags are still used by many lesser search engines and directories although not so much on the major search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - What it does and what it doesn't do

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique of improving the content (e.g. graphics, text, underlying code, etc.) to better your ranking for the search engines thus making it easier for online searchers to find your site. Often Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is used interchangeably with SEO. A better definition is that used within the SEMPO glossary:

Search Engine Marketing:
The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this be
improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a
combination of these and other search engine-related activities.

SEO is not specifically link building although good SEO does include proper text and coding tags for internal linking. To carry your website to the next level of search engine rankings, it is better to look into Link Building and Link Popularity.

Link Building (e.g. increase number of inbound links pointing to your website) involves trading links with other websites (reciprocal linking or 3 way linking) as well as 1 way linking (ex. publish an article on other websites with links back to your own) leading to improved Link Popularity. Considering how much relevance search engines give to link building along with the value of the page where each of those links exist, it is little wonder how popular link trading has become.

Understand that link building only addresses bringing visitors to your website. It does not include converting those visitors to sales nor keeping those visitors at your site for an extended period of time. At H2 SEO we like to relate this similar to bringing people to the doorstep of a business. It's up to the webmaster to convert sales, or in our example up to the store personnel to transact the business.

Earlier I mentioned about the value of the page with the inbound link exists. This value can be measured as related to the Google search engine via Google PageRank (PR). An example of Google PR can be viewed by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/. Some professional SEO's insist the toolbar lags a bit behind the "true PR" of the page. Understand the PR is page by page of the website. Just because the "home page" has a high PR value does not mean subordinate pages will have similar.

Website Design and Hosting play a significant role once a visitor reaches your site. If inbound links bring people to your doorstep, site design and hosting give them the impression on whether to stay or click away. Professionalism in your website says a great deal about who you are and what type of business you are to those online. Don't underestimate the importance of quality including look, feel and especially spelling. Typographical errors become quite annoying to those reading your site and say a lot about who and what you are.

Hosting can easily determine the speed and uptime of your website. Poor hosting can cause a great design to become invisible to online searchers. Cheap hosting may seem like a great deal at the time of purchase but, when people don't stay or even visit you because of site downtime and/or other hosting problems, is it worth it?

Great content leads to action. Having the right copy which can invoke visitors to take action is a primary key for any business website. Think about it. Having great link popularity which brings visitors along with awesome graphics and animation may seem really great at first. Without the visitor taking action such as filling out a form or purchasing something, all of your investment of time and money could go completely down the proverbial drain. Spend the time to get the right text on your website and it may pay back great dividends.

Automated content can include RSS newsfeeds, weather stickys, and various other tools to keep people visiting your site to learn the latest news and more. Keeping these people coming back gives you more and more opportunities to show them why it is important to do business with you. Not bad for free investments and usually low maintenance. Even when some of these are not free, consider the direct and indirect impact each online tool has towards your overall online business objectives. You might be surprised what can drive your visitors to take the exact actions you desire!

As you can see, there are many factors involved in online business and SEO these days. Factoring in that the major search engines are constantly evolving to handle the needs of their customers, you quickly realize the value of professional SEO services. For more info please feel free to visit or call on H2 SEO anytime.

SEO - cached for 2005

SEO - cached for 2005

As the new year approaches, many of us take time to reflect on the preceding year to remember our successes as well as tasks we could have performed better. Maybe you want to do better with health and fitness (my wife would sure like for me to do better!). Maybe you would like to improve business relationships with clients or staff. Either way, we often feel the need to learn from the past and improve for the future.

For you, does this include your online presence? If so, this article is especially written just for you!

I have read and written numerous articles regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Link Popularity Building with the focus on why it's important to hire a SEO professional to perform these tasks for the success of your online business website. Even if you chose not to hire a dedicated SEO, I have tried to give useful information on what to look for and how to begin SEO promotion of your own site. This article is intended to continue that tradition focused on how to design the site specifically for being cached within the major search engines like Google (see Google's statement on cached links) and Yahoo!.

Many think of search engine optimization as what to do to your website so search engines will possibly index it for the site to show up within search results. This is only a part of the reason!

Another reason centers on what happens once the site is indexed and cached. There are many on page elements of a website that may no longer function once a website page has been cached within a search engine. Some include:

• relative path URL links (e.g. files, pages and graphics)
• time sensitive page/file includes
• X and Y on page position specific placements (e.g. fixed position)

These items and many others can cause your page content not to function properly in the cached version which could exist on one or more search engines for quite some time.

Please don't misunderstand me. There are ways to prevent search engines from caching your website pages and this may be of value to many of you. I will go into more detail about how and why you might want to do this in a future article. Please forgive me, I digress.

For this article, my intention is to bring to mind the realities of getting what you wanted in the first place! That is, attention from the primary search engines which result in indexing and caching your website pages. Generally, the more they do this the better your chances of being ranked higher and found easily by those wanting your products and/or services online.

I urge you to spend time reviewing the cached pages of your website in the major search engines by:

1. Go to Google or Yahoo! then type "site:" plus your URL without the quotes (e.g. site:www.h2-seo.com) and click Enter
2. then click the link "cached" under and towards the bottom right of the page description.

This will show you what others will see if they go to your cached website pages. Notice the differences between this version and your original page. This exercise will make it easier to understand what the search engines see and rely on regarding your content. I find many times this can be an eye opening experience for my clients!

A long time ago, someone said "Knowledge is Power". If this is true then learning how to improve your online presence can give you the power to do much more throughout the world.

Here's wishing you the best New Year and the best for your online presence in 2005!

Latest from Google

Have you seen the latest from Google?

Recently, I located some new items from the Google camps that I believe a number of people will be interested in. If you are into learning more about how to promote your site or want to better understand where Google is heading, read on...

Google Suggest (beta)
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Google Suggest Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html

It is interesting this new interface brings to searching. One thing to keep in mind is that the number of links (e.g. shown quantity as you type a phrase) does not directly relate to the number of searches performed for a phrase. When thinking in terms of Search Engine Optimization - SEO, keep in mind your focus is not how many other sites there are but, rather how many searches are performed looking for your type of products and/or services. If people don't search for it, you may never be found!

As always, take a look for yourself and realize that knowledge is power. Learn, ask questions and find a better way for you!

For Webmasters And Those Who Maintain Websites

For Webmasters And Those Who Maintain Websites

As many of you already realize, competition for website designers and those who maintain business websites is quite stiff. Just perform any search for terms related to web design or development and you may be overwhelmed with the results. Of course, there is a wide range of experience levels and expertise by those performing these services.

Our focus in this article centers on what a website designer can do to help the business website attract more prequalified leads and rise higher in the major search engines like Google and Yahoo!. If you are a person who develops and/or maintains business websites, I suggest reading further.

First, we have published earlier articles detailing the need for the right keyword phrases and terms on the pages of your website. This is a critical factor in obtaining higher search engine rankings. Having the right phrase(s) properly stated in the title tag of each page, which is specific to just that page, is probably the most important element of on page search engine optimization (SEO) there is!

Second, having the proper phrase(s) in the Header tags (e.g. h1, h2, h3, etc.) is the next most important element of on page SEO. Please understand this does not mean to make every word or even every other word a header tag. As with most anything in this world, it takes a bit of common sense. Realize that people will be reading the content of your site and it must make sense to them and be appealing or they will click away in record time!

Third, an often overlooked element of a business website is one that can be the easiest to correct. This involves the navigation. Yes, people prefer the drop down menus, button highlights, and other "high quality" looks good web designers use these days. The search engines couldn't care less!

For improvement of your search engine rankings, I would strongly suggest adding plain text links somewhere on each page with the targeted keywords and keyword phrases as the links. The primary search engines pick up on these and potentially can elevate your rankings, especially for lesser contested phrases.

Doing these things can help you rise in the search engines. Of course, working with a professional SEO can do wonders for your online presence and bring a better Return On Investment (ROI) than most any other form of marketing.

Tired of Big Crowd Shopping?

Tired of Big Crowd Shopping?

There are many of us who get more than overwhelmed doing our holiday shopping in the malls and Wal-marts® of the world. Fighting for parking spaces, not finding that "perfect gift", and waiting (for what seems like hours) in checkout lines only exasperates us. There must be a better way!

May I suggest 2 better ways?

1) Visit the smaller antique and gift shops on the streets of small towns and villages such as Sneads Ferry and Topsail Island along the North Carolina waterway. Parking is much better and, unlike many downtowns these days, free parking! The isles are less crowded with frantic shoppers allowing you a much more pleasurable experience. There is even one antiques shop that offers free coffee to their visitors as well as a free North Carolina map. Where else do you get that level of customer service?

Interested in purchasing a Topsail Island Vacation Rental for some friends, relatives or yourself? Maybe you are part of a group holding silent auctions or raffles and need that special gift. This is a great time to stop by and speak with the fine staff of Kathy S. Parker Real Estate to get that perfect time at the beach reserved for the upcoming tourist season.

2) If time is a critical factor, or you don't want to make the trip, how about shopping right where you are right now? Online!

Don't know what to get? How about something from the following ideas list?

• Antique Clocks
• Antique Jewelry
• Barometers
• Costume Jewelry
• Dreamsicles Figurines
• Dresden Figurines
• Fenton Glass
• Flow Blue
• Fostoria
• Heisey Glass
• Homer Laughlin
• Hull Pottery
• Krieger Watches
• Made in Japan
• McCoy Pottery
• Nautical Jewelry
• Occupied Japan
• Nippon
• Noritake
• Seth Thomas Clocks
• Steuben Glass
• Steven Douglas Jewelry
• Tide Clocks
• Tide Watches
• Waterford Crystal

As you can see, there is so much to choose from without the hustle and bustle of the craziness that goes with holiday shopping in the larger downtowns and malls. Take a walk on the quieter side this season.

You may find that getting into the holiday spirit is much easier this way!

Support Our Troops

Support Our Troops

Sometimes living in a small town really has its advantages. Take for instance the small town of Sneads Ferry North Carolina. This little piece of heaven is located just South of Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and approximately 40 minutes North of Wilmington along the North Carolina coast.

The people here are mostly fishermen, military (e.g. Marines), civil servants and other government employees. There is a strong sense of national pride here that you don't often find in larger cities. The people often don't agree with the politicians but, nearly all respect the courage and commitment of our military troops in their daily duties protecting our freedoms.

Just yesterday I noticed a yellow ribbon magnet on the side of a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) that said "Keep Daddy Safe". I'm rather sure the family has their opinions about the various wars and conflicts our world has at the moment but, more important to them is the person out there doing the job. This is the person who cannot let down for fear of losing his life so you and I can be safer during these holidays along with every other day.

That is a rather sobering thought.

I ask each and everyone of you who read this to stop and think during this holiday season about the many freedoms we often take for granted in the United States (and others who have been freed and/or protected by our military men and women). Please remember them in your prayers, thoughts or whatever methods you use.

When you see a SUV or other item with a "Support Our Troops" ribbon, please take the time to appreciate what so many have given up for each and everyone of us.

Support Our Troops

If Diving Is Your Game - BottomTime Is The Name!

If Diving Is Your Game - Bottom Time Is The Name!

H2 SEO is pleased to announce its newest Wilmington SEO website marketing client, Bottom Time with their stores Scuba Tech in Holly Ridge North Carolina and Bottom Time in Wilmington North Carolina along with the dive charter services of Jolly Rogers Charters.

The fine folks of Bottom Time work extremely hard to make your wreck diving adventures more pleasurable no matter whether you are into: florida wreck diving, the graveyard of the atlantic or just diving into the wreck. If you need scuba tanks, scuba equipment repair, scuba classes, or prefer to become a dive master (or divemaster), then the staff of Scuba Tech and Bottom Time have just what you need!

Don't be concerned if you're not an expert! The staff of Bottom Time will walk you through everything you need to become an open water diver and learn salt water fish identification for your underwater photography entry level adventures.

When you decide you are ready to scuba North Carolina waters or you want rescue diver training, begin research diving or maybe even Jacksonville diving, visit Bottom Time. They have the trained staff and experience to get you prepared to excel!

SCUBA Tech (Headquarters)

1306 NC Hwy 172

Holly Ridge, NC 28445

Phone: 910-329-1666

Toll Free: 877-WRENCHES

Fax: 910-329-1157

Bottom Time Wilmington

6014 Wrightsville Ave.

Wilmington, NC 28403

Phone: 910-397-0181

Toll Free: 800-NITROX-1

Fax: 910-397-0187

Topsail Gifts for the Holidays!

What better place to be than by the ocean?

During the holidays there are many who enjoy giving and receiving gifts. If you happen to be one of those or maybe you prefer to pick up that extra special something just for you...then please read on.

During this time of year the folks of Topsail Gift Basket along with Tide and Weather want to bring out the seafarer in all of us for the holidays. No, I'm not talking about scrubbing the deck or cleaning off the barnacles (although they could always use a hand with those). I'm talking about those wonderful reminders of a simpler place and time. Those trinkets and precious gems that signify the sun, surf and sand to us and those we care about.

Whether you prefer barometers, nautical jewelry, tide clocks or tide watches, they probably have exactly what you want. If name brands are more to your liking, then how about Steven Douglas Jewelry like or even Krieger Watches like ?

If you enjoy the beach, the surf or the ocean, then you owe it to yourself to check out Topsail Gift Basket and Tide and Weather. The staff are great to deal with and the atmosphere is wonderful both in person and online.

You will be glad you did!

Barometers -

Sea Witch Antiques Gears Up For The Holidays

Sea Witch Antiques is gearing up for the holidays in "downtown" Sneads Ferry North Carolina by: adding Christmas lights both inside and outside of the store, placing wreaths on the walls and even adding some trees inside.

More importantly, the addition of lots of name brand merchandise has given the store a whole new appearance. This new appearance includes famous glassware names like: Fostoria, Fenton Glass, and Heisey Glass. Add the pottery products with names like: Weller, Van Briggle, and Hull Pottery along with Salt Glaze and you just begin to get an idea of the vast array available.

A recent WOW within the Sea Witch is the influx of top of the line Dresden, Dreamsicles, Made in Japan and many other high quality name brand antique and collectible figurines throughout the store. Don't be surprised when you see that the vast majority of these are virtually unblemished even though they are so fragile!

Not to be outdone, the clocks product line of Sea Witch Antiques consists of the major players: Seth Thomas Clocks, New Haven Clock Co., and United which show just how devoted the owners of Sea Witch are to maintaining the high quality and personal service their customers have come to know and love.

Where else do you get a free cup of coffee and a North Carolina map to make it easier to find other places to visit?

Of course the china and dinnerware section has: Flow Blue, Nippon, Occupied Japan, Noritake, Hummel Plates, and Homer Laughlin. This is the higher standard set by both Jean and Dean Hudson of Sea Witch Antiques. This standard, along with great customer service, has brought repeat customers back again and again.

Maybe this is why their customers say "No One Does It Like The Witch!".

When you decide to do your shopping for the holiday season, give Sea Witch Antiques a look. You will be glad you did!

Money for Nothing and Your Web for Free...

There is a song that was out on the pop charts for quite a while I believe was called 'Money For Nothing and Your Chicks For Free'. It rather exemplified the concept of performing very little to get paid a lot.

I bring this up because I recalled the tune after performing a bit of research for my business regarding web designers and their variety of services and prices.

Like most studies, I found there where:

• some less than adequate so called Webmasters,
• some average web designers and,
• some excellent web designing professionals.

In doing the research, I started to see a pattern that was quite appalling.

Having the proper tools to do most any job is a necessity. The same is true for web designing. Having automation tools, templates and examples to reuse makes the project go faster and can save the customers money when used effectively. I have absolutely no problem with this practice.

The concern came when I learned that several web designers only have one way of building a website and it is only learned by the consumer when he/she wants a modification. At this point, it is scrap the existing site and start over! You have got to be kidding!

On top of this, the site has virtually no promotion to cause people to visit it. It is somewhat expected that 'Build It And They Will Come'. There are still multiple web designers stating this to potential clients and some even believe it themselves!

When pressed about getting visitors, the general answer is 'Pay Per Click' is the only promotion that works. I was absolutely amazed that this mentality still exist.

Let's put it another way... by reading this blog you are using the internet. Think about how you find websites. Do you search via a search engine? Google? Yahoo!?

When you search, do you click on the advertisements or the 'generic listings'?

In my experience, the vast majority of people avoid the advertisements unless something is very difficult to find or the ad is so compelling they can't resist.

Being a data person, I usually try to keep the law of averages on my side and go with the majority. In this case the generic listings. When you build or rebuild your next business website, please think about how you use the internet and determine what would cause you to find the site. This should go a long way towards getting others to visit yours.

Also, check into the customer recommendations first hand of a web designer before allowing them to build or rebuild yours. If I can't get a good reference when spending the money it takes for a good website, I go elsewhere. Considering this is your first impression with potential clients, I would suggest you do the same!

Retailers Need to Prepare for Christmas

Retailers Need to Prepare for Christmas by having their websites designed/redesigned with the right information on each page and each page properly listed with the major search engines. (see prior article on Christmas Retail 2003)

When you stop and think about it, it only makes sense to be fully prepared considering how many consumers now buy online. The problem is that many business owners, including retailers, procrastinate and don't get started in time. With the pace of Google updates (and other search engines), it can take two full update cycles before the new Incoming BackLinks (IBLs) and PageRank (PR) updates get recognized and displayed. For Google, this can take a full 8 - 12 weeks or more!

Time is running out and many online retailers will contact Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Marketing professionals with impossible deadlines to prepare for the upcoming retail season. Unfortunately, it will result in less than satisfactory sales due to the lack of forthought, planning and time.

If you are in need of online Christmas sales during the 2004 season, contact your web designer or Website Marketing professional today! Delaying now can cost you considerably later.

Google starting to index Flash Web Sites!

Many web designers and search engine optimization experts around the world realize that Google is the most used search engine in the world. They also realize that getting to the top rankings in Google is very important to people finding their products and services. It has also been recognized that Google has been getting much better at reading and indexing a number of different types of content on the web besides plain .htm and .html type files.

So it is with great interest when we now have learned that Google has developed the ability to scan and index Flash by Macromedia multimedia files!

In the past, many sites had to perform work arounds to enable better Search Engine Optimization and "fit in" their Flash content. This many soon become a thing of the past as Google gets better scanning and indexing Flash content. For more info...

H2 Takes North Carolina by Storm

The management of H2 SEO, LLC had decided to make the move from Ashland Virginia to Sneads Ferry North Carolina placing the business along the North Carolina coastline near Topsail Island, Jacksonville and Wilmington.

Considering we already had an excellent base of clients in the Topsail Island/Topsail Beach region, we wanted to make the move a positive experience by building a stronger following of North Carolina based businesses utilizing our services. What we hadn't counted on was Tropical Storms Bonnie and Charlie.

Truly the day we moved our equipment and furniture to Sneads Ferry, the front of the storms were bearing down on North Carolina with heavy wind and rain. By the time the trucks rolled into Richlands, drivers couldn't see more than one car length ahead. After pulling off the road and waiting out the heaviest of the wind and rains, the caravan rolled into Sneads Ferry and began the task of setting up and preparing for business. From that day forward, business has been a crescendo as North Carolina businesses have continually welcomed us and placed their trust in H2 SEO to improve their positions on the Internet.

Yes, storms are a given along the North Carolina coast and the year of 2004 is not exception. What has changed is that H2 SEO, LLC is now the new North Carolina SEO giving businesses the opportunity to rise above the rest gaining higher search engine rankings and more traffic for their business web sites.

Want similar results for your business website? Contact Website Marketing of H2 SEO, LLC today to get the storm started online for your business!

H2 SEO is moving to Sneads Ferry North Carolina!

H2 SEO is moving to Sneads Ferry North Carolina!

Yes, H2 SEO is moving from their Country Club Hills of Hanover location in Ashland Virginia to Sneads Ferry which is mainland across the Intracoastal Waterway from Topsail Island.

By the way, if you are interested in a great home in Hanover County, check out the e-Commercial about our current home from our Realtor®

If you have looked at our H2 SEO website lately, you will quickly notice our facination with the water. This move will put us right on the Intracoastal waterway in the heart of shrimp country USA! We will be much closer to some of our clients including the Topsail Island Realtor Kathy S. Parker Real Estate and the North Carolina Antiques by Sea Witch Antiques.

Our clients will continue to receive the high level of service we have come to be known for while our new clients will find us easily accessible in our new Tarheel location. At any point, if you need to reach us before, during or after the move, please feel free to contact us via any of the methods on our Contact Us page.

Financial Stress Gets to the Best of Us!

Financial Stress Gets to the Best of Us!
 
You know how it is. You have the bills to pay, your regular job to do and an IPO (initial public offering) expecting shares to begin trading in the range of US$108 to $135 each. Let's see...that would amount to $36.3 billion market capitalization on the high end.
 
Oh, wait a minute! That's Google in that situation!
 
The problem is that someone let the ball drop when the Google search engine died in multiple parts of the world on the same Monday that Google, Inc. made the regulatory filing! Can we say oops!

According to initial reports from the BBC, the failure may be the result of a version of the MyDoom virus. Although not all Google servers are down, there are widespread "outages" reported across multiple Website Designer and SEO forums online. Is this a case of bad timing? Has this been a well thought out plan? Maybe time will tell... Or, maybe the folks at Google just need to read their email. I understand from all the s.p.a.m. I receive that Cialis and Viagra can get anything up!

What You Don't Know Can Be Holding You Back!

What You Don't Know Can Be Holding You Back!
 
Recently, I came across a post on one of the website designer forum threads where a person (I shall call a webmaster for clarity sake) stated he/she was not aware of the impact the website changes made over the year had on visitors. This person did not seem to know the measurable results of the work performed for a year!
 
Please understand that I don't say this to make anyone feel like I am putting them down. I make these statements here to show how blindly we can work towards a "goal" while not ever really knowing how it truly fits into the "big picture". With this in mind, I shall continue with the answers I gave this person and, hopefully, some of these can benefit you as well. I look forward to your comments!
 
The webmaster had the site on a web host whom I personally have had contact with recently. The host offers reporting tools that give detailed information (e.g. hits, view, visits, unique visitors, search engine visits, spiders, etc.) with the ability to vary beginning and ending dates for specific research results. This webmaster did not seem to know this before posting or had forgetten. Either way, the ongoing research to determine measurable results was not happening.
 
Another facet of this is the conversion rate of visits or unique visitors to sales was also being left out! This left the business "in the dark" regarding what creates sales from the website!
 
As you can see, having the details regarding what has happened can be used to "forecast" what can/should be done in the future to improve standing with clients who use the medium. I will not go in detailed analytics nor which method is best (at this time) but, suffice it to say it is critical to create a plan of action regarding how to measure the success of your website marketing and then track your results. Without this, all else is purely guess work!
 
I believe the webmaster has gained a "new life" regarding the results of the work performed and can now better determine what works, what doesn't and what to look at next!
 
 

How do I get to the top of the Search Engines?

How do I get to the top of the Search Engines?

I wish I had a dime for each time I was asked this question!

There are already posts on this blog regarding this misuse of Meta Tags, Google updates, etc. In this post we will focus on the KEY to getting your business web site to the top of the primary search engines. Yes, we will discuss the SECRET!

First, when we talk about search engines, the top of the line (currently) is Google. More traffic comes from Google to business web sites than any other search engine. Second place is Yahoo! and then some of the others. Do not forget a major directory (read here "not search engine") called the Open Directory Project or DMOZ as it is known on the web. For this article, we will focus on Google since we want to be top of the line.

Second, no matter how many people you get to visit your business website, if there is nothing on the page to hold interest then people will click away faster than you can blink. Having quality content on the page can not be over emphasized! Using graphics and Flash animation may look nice once loaded but, over doing these can significanly slow download and cause extreme frustration of your potential visitors (can we say click away?). Text is what people read and what search engines index. Text is what you should have in the proper places on your site (sounds like another post needed!).

Third, having content on the page only gets you started! Getting people to visit your site and Google to rank you highly requires Inbound Links (IBLs). The more competitive a keyword or keyphrase is, the more of these IBLs you will need. Also, quality IBls are generally considered those with a Google PageRank (PR) of 4 or better (4+). When you want to be the top Google Search Engine Rank Position (SERP) for your keyword or keyphrase, you will need to have more quantity and quality IBLs than the competition. Sounds simple!

Realize that there are hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of other people on this planet who realize the same thing! From professional Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs), professional website designers who have truly studied optimization and website marketing recently, to wannabe SEOs on the web there are a number of people striving to obtain the quantity and quality of IBLs for their particular website. This is exactly the reason you need to hire a professional SEO you can trust!

An ethical and professional SEO knows:

• when to trade links,
• when to purchase links,
• when to purchase Pay per Clicks (PPCs) and other pay per options,
• and, when to just ask properly which obtains the link for free!

There are even occassions when it is best to perform a three way (or more) back link trade to better the SERP standings of all!

The question to ask yourself is "Do I want to invest the time and resources to learn SEO and links?". If so, by all means, go after it! If you do master the processes and devote the time to maintaining your SERPs, you will have a number of visitors to your site on a regular basis.

On the other hand, if you have a business that already takes up your time and resources, hire a professional SEO! Think about how much effort and how long it takes to obtain 10,000+ Inbound Links with specific keywords/key phrases pointing to your business web site page by page. There is a reason why so many of the top web sites rely on professional Search Engine Optimization to obtain and maintain their SERPs!

For more about Search Engine Optimization, SERPs and Website Marketing please visit H2 SEO, LLC today!

Latest Google Update May Cause ReThinking of Link Promotion Campaigns

Latest Google Update May Cause ReThinking of Link Promotion Campaigns
 
Recently (approx. July 15-17th), Google updated the backlinks tracked for indexed websites. It seems they are now showing many more low ranking (PageRank less than 4) backlinks than they usually do. In addition, it seems, certain high ranking backlinks are not showing up in backlink search results using the advanced search option link:www.mywebsite.com.
 
As of posting this document, Google has only updated the backlinks while not modifying visible PageRank (PR) nor Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs). There has been much discussion regarding this "update" among the SEO community via online forums questioning whether Google is trying to look at relevancy more for high PR links.
 
Also, there is considerable discussion that Google seems to be trying to make link brokering less effective or at least more difficult to perform as a business. Considering the history of Google and web site backlinks, it seems only prudent to continue striving for more Inbound Links (IBLs) from a wide variety of C class IP addresses while keeping "theme" where practical. If we can maintain a perspective on PR values for specific pages, this would be ideal. If not, we must work with what we have (in my personal opinion).
 
Posturing Changes on the Forums
 
Considering the above mentioned changes by Google and the concerns expressed within the SEO and Web Designer online forums, there have been people trying to rent hundreds of links from varied IP addresses for a few dollars (or equivalent) each. This very well may become a more cost effective technique of link purchasing rather than buying a few higher PR (e.g. PR 4+) IBLs or even just sponsoring a single extreme web site.
 
As usual, time will tell...
 
 

Domain Name Dilemma: Do Dashes or Underscores Goose Google Rankings More?

Domain Name Dilemma: Do Dashes or Underscores Goose Google Rankings More?
Copyright 2003, John Gergye (originally posted online Nov. 2003)


It's a fact. When it comes to Google ranking you don't have to be a lot better to beat out the competition.

So let's take another dip into the "every little bit helps" pool.

Now believe it or not there are those who like to debate the merits of using dashes or underscores in domain names.

Some assert dashes are better.

Some have an ongoing love affair with underscores.

Others are certain there is no difference.

I agree you do get a bit of a bounce in Google if you do this right. But it's only marginal.

Still let's end this debate once and for all and PROVE which is better.

To sort this out we need to conduct a study. Using the Google search results to test if Google treats dashes or underscores the same or differently.

The guinea pig search term I picked is "affordable search engine placement".

There's nothing special about it. It's more or less your run-of-the-mill multi-word search term.

So let's get searching.

First, to set a benchmark I cast the broadest net possible by doing a simple search using

affordable search engine placement

Google returned these results:

Searched the web for affordable search engine placement.
Results 1 - 10 of about 78,600

That simply says there were 78,600 pages indexed by Google for
ANY of those keywords.

Next I searched on the same phrase only this time I separated the words by dashes like this:

affordable-search-engine-placement

Google turned up these results:

Searched the web for affordable-search-engine-placement.
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,160.

As you can see our term with dashes gave considerably fewer results than the one without.

Then I searched on the same words separated by underscores:

affordable_search_engine_placement

For this one Google didn't find much:

Searched the web for affordable_search_engine_placement.
Results 1 - 4 of about 6.

Whoa! Next to no pages with underscores, right?

Finally I searched for "affordable search engine placement"

Note the quotes. Using quotes limits the search results to one specific phrase. Just like you were doing an advanced search for that exact phrase.

In this case Google returned these results:

Searched the web for "affordable search engine placement".
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,160.

Huh, exactly the same number of pages as with the keyword phrase with dashes.

Okay so what do we got?

Let's see. The first search returns what you could say is a free for all of listings with any of the words in the keyword phrase. That's why there are so many search results.

SIDEBAR: Reality check time. This is how most search. In fact I saw a stat the said only 3% use the advanced search feature provided by Google. Yet the dramatically bigger number of resulting SERPS explains why it is harder to rank high sometimes. Reason being you are going up against a whole bunch more pages - some unrelated to what is being searched for. So it takes more juice, ie on-page optimization, internal links and maybe even in bound links to come out on top.

Now our study also showed the phrase with underscores (which Google treats as any other CHARACTER) produced negligible results. As in next to none.

While the keyword phrase with dashes and the exact phrase search turned up the same number of listings.

At this point you should be wondering "Why is that?"

Glad you asked. Even if you didn't let me explain. Oh and since this is important engage your brain NOW.

The reason for this apparent match of search results is Google uses the dash to separate the words in the phrase. Programmers call this a "delimiter". In essence Google sees it as a space
or separator between the words. Or in other words Google treats the dash as a spacer.

Yet Google does NOT treat the underscore as a delimiter. Again to Google it's just another character.

Which is proven by the search results. Had Google treated the dash and underscore alike the number of SERPs returned for

affordable_search_engine_placement

or

affordable-search-engine-placement

would be identical. But as you saw they are not. Not even close.

So to answer the original question of which is better dashes or underscores is obvious isn't it? You want to go with dashes in your domain names, folder names, files names etc.

That's because using dashes to separate the words will give you the biggest Google impact -whatever that impact may be. Since Google can parse the different words. While using underscores won't help one iota.

Look. This isn't theory or speculation. It's fact. And you can repeat the same searches with any keyword phrase you want and you'll get the same results.

In any case let's be real. Don't expect some kind of massive boost from this dash trick. Sure it can help at tad as part of an over all optimization scheme. But whether or not you use dashes in a domain, folder or file name is not going to be what gets you top Google listings. Content and links are.

Still this study settles the debate about dashes and underscores. Giving you yet another little thing you can do to rank well.



How much is more traffic worth to your business? Take John Gergye’s Search Engine Quiz and get a special report "Coming Out On Top" with 49 tools that make it easy to get more traffic. http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml

Meta Tags Are Dead!

A construct placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information which is not visible to browsers. The most common meta tags (and those most relevant to search engines) are KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION. The KEYWORDS tag allows the author to emphasize the importance of certain words and phrases used within the page. Some search engines will respond to this information - others will ignore it. The DESCRIPTION tag allows the author to control the text of the summary displayed when the page appears in the results of a search. Some search engines will ignore this information.
www.beyondink.com/glossary.html

Meta tags have been considered the "saving grace" of many websites over the past years. Having Keywords and Description tags was often given more consideration than much of the remaining page. Then the major search engines like Google and Yahoo! got wise!

Before the world of SEOs and web designers decide to hang me up by my toes, let me set a few things straight!

Google still uses the Description tag from time to time. Also, there are still many secondary search engines and directories that use and/or require both tags mentioned above. All in all, you still want to have these tags within each web page but, they no longer hold the prominence they once did.

Now you have to work for it!

In today's competitive online world, the Title tag is the most important on-page content there is! Bar none! No exception! Amen!

After the Title tag comes the Heading tags, emphasis tags (e.g. bold, strong, italics) and then the page content itself including the density of your keywords/key phrases throughout the page. It is best to have these keywords/key phrases as close to the top of the page content as practicle to make it easier for search engines to find and index.

Then comes the names of your pages themselves and the folder naming conventions of the site. Not the least of this side of optimization is the actual domain name itself!

As you can see, there are a number of things to consider which is why it's important to hire a Professional SEO when you want it done right.

Like when your business livelyhood is on the line!

This only touches the surface regarding on-page optimization. Then there is link popularity but...that is a whole other story.