Web Design and Development

Computers Internet Connections Are Lost Easily

October 22, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image by MikeSchinkel via Flickr

For those who are new to computers, and who have no idea why computers internet connections are easily lost, SEO & search engine marketing are probably a little far out, in terms of blog topics. Before you can begin to market your brand online like a seasoned pro, there are a few basics that you must learn. Basic computer skills, coupled with basic internet skills, work together as a solid foundation for further learning, but do not necessarily qualify you for SEO & search engine marketing tactics. Not yet, anyway. With a little luck, and lots of hard work, you can be cruising the online highways and byways of popularity in no time!

Check your skill level by quizzing yourself. Pick random parts of your computer, and try to identify their purposes, names, and possible upgrades. Also, having your grandchildren or neighbors quiz you about current computer affairs is a great way to build your knowledge and find your wedge into the marketplace. Try creating simple documents in Word, and writing a few blog articles. When you feel you are ready to access the entire world (through the internet, at least) check all of your computers internet connections to make sure the speeds are adequate for uploading linkbait, large images, and your birthday photographs.

If your computers internet connections are slower than you would like, then you should troubleshoot that issue before attempting to move large files. Once you’ve done this, and you’re online, you’re in luck: there are endless articles and videos online for you to peruse and study. Of course, if you’re reading this online, then you already know that! However, if a helpful friend printed this article for you, then you may still have a few steps until you discover the world wide web for yourself! Good luck with your internet pursuits, and your SEO & search engine marketing ventures.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: Business, Internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Promotion, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, World Wide Web

Search Engine Ratings and SEO

October 21, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via CrunchBase

If you’ve been wondering why your submitted website hasn’t yet appeared on the front page of Yahoo!, then there’s news for you: it takes hard work and luck to find your business on that front page, or at the very least, an untapped niche of the marketplace! What are you to do if your business is quite common, like a cookie shop in Salt Lake City, Utah? There are several things you can do for yourself, using your own computers internet connections, your brain, and a thorough understanding of the internet and viral marketing. If you had to ask yourself, “What is viral marketing?” then this might be an uphill battle!

First of all, what are you trying to sell? Do you understand what your product is, and what its perceived value is to outsiders? Does your website have a consistent theme, high quality graphics, a well designed layout, and good value for readers? If you answered yes to all of those questions, then you’re in good shape to rate well on popular search engines. SEO & search engine marketing is about having great, quality, original content to offer to readers and shoppers. Once you have that content, the second facet (that is equally important) is pushing your merchandise and content in a way that makes it visible to your intended audience. How do you do that?

Find the blogs, the message boards, and the popular web sites that are read by your intended audience and customers. What would someone who wants your goods most likely be shopping for in tandem with your product? Write comments, blogs, and messages on those sites, always with a clever comment and a useful tip. In each comment, attach your auto-signature which includes your web site’s link. Eventually, you will be considered an authority, and those who enjoy your witticisms will follow your link, and comment on your shop while they’re browsing!

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: Internet marketing, Promotion, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine, Website, Yahoo

SEO & Search Engine Marketing Nerds: How to Date Them

October 20, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Before you attempt to date an SEO & search engine marketing nerd, there are a few things you need to know! This person, whether male or female, knows things about the world. That’s not intended to be elusive: he or she will actually know things, about everything, always. For each cute tidbit of trivia you drop, you will be inundated with much more current trivia, each bit being filled in by useless but fascinating peripheral data, and ending with a snarky laugh. There’s no winning with an SEO & search engine marketing guru. This person will always know more than you do about the world; from Yoda to the Creme de la Mer sweepstakes in London, your guru will be tuned in to the marketplace at large.

If you can accept being the second brightest person in a pair, then there are other factors for you to consider, first. Does your SEO & search engine marketing geek text you from across the couch? Does he or she email you links to info graphics of movies that haven’t even been announced on IMDb, yet? This person’s on fire. If it’s a guy, he’s already assessed you, made an algorithm determining your value/cost ratio, and made the subtle move to get you to make the first move. If your nerd is female, you’re in even more trouble: she’s cyber-stalked you for months, planned your meeting, and subsequently convinced you that this attraction was your idea.

SEO & search engine marketing geniuses know what they’re doing. They know more about psychology than psychologists, more about Capitalism than Obama, and more about aesthetics than a philosopher. If you have a thing for an SEO pro, then you’d better be ready to be analyzed, implemented, and to turn out great results in less than a day, or be discarded for second-page results.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: FAQs Help and Tutorials, London, Promotion, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine, Yoda

Viral Marketing or SEO & Search Engine Marketing: Which Works?

October 20, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Though many people in these similar fields of viral marketing and search engine optimization and search engine marketing would agree that they are related to social sciences, there is little else they share. The main influence of SEO & search engine marketing, really, is to influence people. Also, to influence the bots that reach out their tentacle-like arms to search in every site on the web, creating ratings systems and indexes, SEO & search engine marketing tacticians will implement the bots’ very own algorithms against them. With a little reverse engineering, and a little ingenuity, SEO firms have been very successful at placing their clients on the front pages of every well known search engine on the internet.

Other functions of good SEO professionals include, competitive analyses, page optimization, keyword placement and density optimization, and link building. With all of these factors working for a client, their page indubitably does well.

Though extremely fascinating, many would argue that SEO & search engine marketing are far less effective than viral marketing. Viral analysts and viral marketers are more focused on one-hit-wonders and flashes of genius, rather than long term results and brand building. Although consistent viral marketing can condition repeat users to recognize a company’s brand, it is not the ultimate goal of going viral. The power of linkbait is such that a page’s credibility, in terms of bot ratings, can double in a day of good Digging, or in two days of Redditor review.

To go viral is a coveted and exciting experience for linkbait editors and creators, for the designers who work week after week on infographic after infographic, hoping to hit the front page of a social media site. Viral marketers seek to build networks and create a buzz, to heat up a page for a day or a week, in order to help its ratings and industry reports. The difference between viral marketing and SEO, though, is that viral marketing is the instant gratification, whereas SEO is the long term relationship-builder.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: Marketing, Promotion, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, Viral marketing, Web Design and Development, Web page, Web search engine

If SEO Influences Everything Online, What Could Happen?

October 12, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via CrunchBase

Though there are a plethora of good reasons for implementing SEO & search engine marketing tactics, as well as viral marketing and analyses, there are also downsides that consumers must consider. At the rate that SEO sites are trending, and the way that they’re front paging on social media sites like Digg, it leaves little room for quiet, mom ‘n pop type sites that have little or no resources for SEO firms. For those who enjoy the diversity that small, boutique web sites offer to the internet, this could be a concern.

Although every site could benefit from a multi-thousand dollar SEO firm makeover, including viral marketing strategies as well as long term methods, there are ways for smaller companies to produce link bait in order to stay competitive, too. With careful research of the market (such as reading Digg’s front page daily, and watching what’s popular on StumbleUpon) and quality content production, anyone can create a blog on their site that will popularize it, even if the products are difficult to sell. For example, if your granny makes boutique dog collars that are worth $2,000 each in a town of 5,000 in Vermont, it’s unlikely that her neighbors will patronize her site for purchases. In order to get her into the right market, she or you would need to research what kind of people do make those purchases, and find the blogs they read. By posting funny articles, such as “Top 10 People Your Dog Disapproves of You Dating,” you can incorporate the theme of your site into interesting content that will appeal more broadly.

Another concern about SEO & search engine marketing is that web sites will become solely commercial driven. Though this may be true, it might not be bad. Sites that are specialized around the interests of a viewer would sell relevant products that the viewer would most likely be interested in. Though it can become overwhelming if it is implemented badly, good SEO & search engine tactics will never place keywords and links too densely for a reader to enjoy the content.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: Internet marketing, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, StumbleUpon, Vermont, Web Design and Development, Web search engine, Website

Search Engines: Finding What You Need

October 11, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image by Visual Legacy via Flickr

For some people, search engines never seem to work the way that they should. You might enter a few words, in a combination that makes perfect sense to you, and find the results are less than ideal. For example, if all you want to do is find a cheesy pizza on a Friday night, and you happen to enter that into a search engine, you could find a restaurant called the Cheesy Pizza that’s 200 miles from your home, or a recipe for cheese pizza to be made at home. It doesn’t make sense to the average user why, sometimes, these engines seem intuitive and capable, and other times they miss the mark by 200 miles.

SEO & search engine marketing have a lot to do with the results you get when you search using popular search engines. If you want to find a cheesy pizza near your home, then you have to enter the information into the search engine in a way that its algorithm knows how to interpret. Search engines honestly do want to give you the most useful information possible, so that you will continue to patronize their service, rather than a competitors. How do search engines interpret what “cheesy pizza buffalo” means to you, and how to help you as quickly as possible?

If you are searching for something something a little more complex than your Friday night snack, you might want to phrase it as a question. For instance, if you need to find out how to update drivers on your laptop, you might want to include the model number of what driver you are looking for.

With Google’s new instant results, you’ll find each letter you enter changes the pathway of where Google intends to direct you. It even offers suggestions in a drop-down menu of things you might be typing. Google’s search engine uses automatic bots to search every web page that’s linked on the entire internet. It sounds impossible, but it’s true. Suspicious pages are reviewed by humans, but these programs are pretty effective. When they are flawed, you can find that “cheesy pizza buffalo” will lead you to porn, a princess with an eating disorder, and the latest disgusting flavor in fad bubble gum. Usually, though, these bots will take to you restaurants in Buffalo that serve pizza, or, pizzas with buffalo sauce on them.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: FAQs Help and Tutorials, Google, Promotion, search, search engine, Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine

“Computers Internet” as Grandma Says

September 27, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image by wjr via Flickr

Your grandma doesn’t know much about “those computers internet,” but she does know what they look like, and perhaps how much they cost. Grandmas who can use computers, and several computers internet service providers, are amazing and rare.

It’s difficult to have excellent SEO & search engine marketing if you don’t know the basics of service providers and servers. Actually, few people, young and old, understand all that there is to know about several computers internet service providers. A quick online tutorial is the best tool for brushing up before beginning to learn about search engine/SEO tactics.

Let’s assume that your grandma is fabulous, but computer illiterate. You love her and want her cheesecake business to succeed, so you create a site for her on what she calls “the hat box of computers internet.” In order for that cheesecake website to get the traffic it needs for the right consumers to see it, requires a lot of time, industry, and advertising. How can you afford, time wise and financially, to support your grandma?

First, create a smarmy blog for granny, and upload an excellent thumbnail picture of her, or of one of her cheesecakes. Post on message boards and social media outlets on behalf of granny, always including an auto-signature that lists a link to granny’s business. When granny becomes an authority on baking at Martha Stewart’s blog, people will begin to wander onto her page to find out what else she has to offer.

Once you get people onto the cheesecake website, the images of cheesecake should be able to sell themselves at almost any price. Make sure they are bright, clear, and taken of excellent slices of cheesecake, and of granny. Place granny’s contact information clearly at the top or bottom of the page, and wait for your nomination for Best Grand Kid of the Year.

Filed Under: Internet, Website Tagged With: Martha Stewart, Web Design and Development, Web search engine

A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engines

September 17, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

How Do Search Engines Work?

There are four functions of a search engine, including building an index of sites, calculating each sites relevancy and quality before ranking them, crawling to sites to make links, and processing results for users based upon their keywords. Whew. That seems really complicated, but in fact, it makes a lot of sense.

First, the search engine determines which web site submissions are legitimate, and which are spam, before it begins crawling.

Then, the search engine bot, or spider, goes to your site and inspects the ease of access, clarity of information, quality of content, percent of junk and advertisements (which weighs heavily on SEO & search engine marketing), and then it compiles this information and gives your site a rating which allows the engine to easily place your site in the rankings for all similar sites.

Next, your site which has been rated and ranked will be indexed for users who are searching. People can search based on any keywords they would like, and the more specific they are, the more likely it is that your site will appear on the front page of the results for a given search engine.

Lastly, but most importantly, the search engine functions for users, producing results. Based upon their keyword choice, they could receive numerous results, or just a few if they are overly specific. As the average computer user has become more familiar with search engines, and improved in keyword writing, companies have needed to respond in kind by placing popular keywords on their sites specifically to lure the right audience to their sites. This, in part, is SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO & search engine marketing is a craft that is now its own major in some colleges.

Hopefully, if nothing more, this brief overview has helped you to understand the complex nature of search engine results, and SEO & search engine marketing.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO Tagged With: Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine

Which Results, When

September 16, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Most people do not understand why a search engine generates the results that they see before them. This simple guide will make you more knowledgeable about SEO & search engine marketing, as well as basic principles of search engine rankings.

Each time a person clicks ‘search,’ the search engine must quickly scour the entire body of knowledge that it has linked and indexed, determining which bits of information are most appropriate for the results page. More importantly for users, the search engine also automatically ranks the results based on relevancy to the keywords that were used, and is able to sort them based on user preferences such as ‘date published.’

To the crafty and clever search engine bots, ‘relevance’ is not merely a term meaning that the sites have your keywords splattered all over them, but also that they are quality sites. Only sites that are informative, well designed, well organized, timely, frequently visited, and that incorporate a minimal number of advertisements on the page are considered ‘relevant’ in results rankings.

Major search engines rely both on the crafty coding of engineers who have designed bots to search pages, and also on the current popularity of a site. The assumption is that if a site is visited frequently, and if users stay on the site for longer than the average visit, then it must be a high quality site. This practice has been successful in part, but engineers are still striving to improve the metrics that interpret quality, popularity, ease of access, and speed of the server. Several computers internet service providers have also began evaluating their results on similar principles.

The careful, mind-numbingly long algorithms that determine all of these factors for search engines have saved engineers millions upon trillions of hours of manual searching and evaluating. For more information on this particular facet of SEO & search engine marketing, visit SEOmoz.

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine

Computers Internet Service May Struggle with Large Infographics

September 1, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Though large info graphics are down-right impressive, they tend to consume a lot of bandwidth during the download. How are users going to enjoy your info graphics if they are too large to scroll in just one direction, or if they crash the server? Computers internet service and bandwidth are related, and it’s easy to understand that in general, there is a magic number that will work for almost everyone, and every computer. When creating graphics, you may use a background the size of Texas if that will make you happy, but what you need to do is optimize.

Before you start trimming your graphic away, leaving valuable information and heart-rendered drawings in the trash bin, try the “Save in Web Format” button if you are using Photoshop. This will pull up a box that will show you what your image will look like after it is optimized for web browsers. If the image looks good, click “Save” and then consider trimming the info graphic to be either horizontal or vertical, but not both.

Take your huge info graphic, and crop it down to one page in width. You can re-size your graphic a little to fill a screen, but aim for 12 inches wide if you want your info graphic to be a good piece of SEO & search engine marketing for your cause. Graphics that not only load quickly and clearly, but that adequately fill a page for easy reading, are most likely to be appreciated by their audience. If your info graphic is left cumbersome and awkward, then no one will vote for you, and your SEO & search engine marketing campaign will end with just a few computers internet service providers ever having clicked into your presentation! For the best results, view your info graphic on a small laptop and on a large PC, on a Mac and a standard PC. In doing this, you can be sure of what others are seeing.

Filed Under: Internet, Website Tagged With: Search engine optimization, Web Design and Development, Web search engine