WebitMD has launched our sister site in New York this morning. The website is www.NYCSEO.net
This is the first of a few websites that we plan to launch in 2010. Happy holiday to all and see you after the new year.
-The WebitMD Team
Archive for December, 2009
Launched our sister site in New York!
Sunday, December 27th, 2009Happy Holidays from WebitMD! See you in 2010
Monday, December 21st, 2009The 2009 year encompassed enormous growth, for WebitMD. The success of our agency has been driven by the success of our client’s websites. 2010 will encompass new local search optimization services, advanced phone call tracking, updated SEO strategies, and the WebitMD expansion into New York, Miami, and Houston. The WebitMD team is looking forward to this exciting opportunity!
The WebitMD offices will be closed from December 23, 2010 until January 3, 2010. Our project management team will be available during this period; they can be reached at Support@WebitMD.com.
From all of us here at the WebitMD team, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to servicing you in 2010.
What is the Google Honeymoon?
Monday, December 21st, 2009When a new website is initially released on the internet, Google may give it a high rank in the Google search index. Usually this is between 24 and 48 hours after production. On average, the page will rank particularly high, then it will drop back to whatever is normal for the website.
One theory, calling this period the “honeymoon,” suggests that Google initially ranks new pages high, so that it can collect data on how relevant the page is for particular keywords. “If during the honeymoon your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.”
It is always exciting to see your website rank well on Google’s search index, but keep in mind that once a few weeks have passed, the site may drop back to its real position.
Information Provided by: Entrepreneurs-journey.com
Written by: Samantha J. Stephan
What is PageRank?
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Curiosity about getting your page to the top of the Google search is not rocket science; in fact, Google even offers a PageRank tool that can be downloaded for free. If you are running a website or Internet business then PageRank is a vital tool to measure how much traffic you are really getting.
Google is known for providing the best results on internet searches. This is because of PageRank’s ability to determine the value of a website for any given search term or keyword phrase. “This value is determined by how websites link together with the more popular (and theoretically better) sites receiving more links. It’s these incoming links that help the site have a high PageRank value and thus display higher up in search results.”
Here is a brief description of PageRank, written by the Google team:
“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.”
An important key note to understand is that it is a combination of variables that determine how well your site performs on Google. These are the most important variables to worry about:
- Incoming links to your site.
- The relevancy (to your site’s theme) of the pages linking to your site and the PageRank of these pages.
- The keywords that other sites use to link to your site.
- The keywords on your website in particular in places like page titles and headlines.
Not all of the above points are controllable, but some are, like keywords in headlines. The bottom line to PageRank is that all these variables listed determine how high your site shows up in the search engine results. Therefore it is important to utilize this information for your competitive advantage- no matter how tech-savvy you are.
Information Provided By: Entrepreneurs-journey.com
Written By: Samantha J. Stephan
How To Get a New Site Listed in Search Engines
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009It may be a shock to Internet-newcomers, but getting a brand new site picked up by search engines is NOT easy. Search engine discovery is based on several aspects of web design, site age, and Internet knowledge. Experienced Internet users are able to link their new sites to their older sites so that Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search can discover them quickly. What do you do to get a site indexed if you don’t have any existing sites established?
How Search Engines Work
Understanding the mechanics behind search engines is crucial knowledge to have in today’s world. “In order for your website to show up in a search result your pages must exist in the search engine’s index. Each search engine has an absolutely massive index and it’s constantly updated every minute of every day. The search engines have what are called bots or crawlers or spiders, basically computers that ‘pretend’ to be browsers surfing the web devouring content like hungry monsters. Their job is to make sure the search engines have the most up to date index of web pages possible so that when a person uses a search engine they get the most relevant response available.”
Now the goal is to get the spider to crawl your page. How do you accomplish that goal?
Directories
Submitting your site to a directory is a great way to get links heading your way. Directories exist to simply list websites, usually broken down by category. All you need to do is fill out a form and depending on whether submissions are manually or automatically approved, your link will show up in the directory with a period of time, usually 24 hours.
The problem with directories is they are essentially link farms, no content and lots of outbound links. Consequently they usually have very little clout in the search engines and since your link is sitting in amongst possibly thousands of other links the little search engine spiders may never find your site.
Leave a Thought on a Blog, Forum, or Bulletin Board
This strategy is good, but delicate. You would never want to just leave your website name on a comment just for that purpose- you need to put down some contributing information as well. If your website is listed alone in a comment it is considered SPAM. This is because people will most likely end up deleting your comment, even if you think the link to your site is valuable.
“The best way to go about this is to have a signature file (most forums have a function for this) that allows a few lines of self-promotion to be included at the end of your posts. Enter the community, get involved in the discussion and contribute. Now obviously you will have more knowledge to draw from if you pick communities based on topics you are familiar with and preferably are relevant to your site. Not only do you improve your chance of search engine spiders finding your site, you might get some real humans clicking your signature and visiting your site as a bonus (this is in fact a good general online marketing strategy to get more traffic to your site).”
Beware of the NoFollow tag default set on blogs. This tag will not let the Google spider crawl your content.
Another alternative is to start your own blog. This does require more work, but if your content is good then other bloggers may post their links to you. Then, you can build a network around yourself allowing the Google spider to crawl right onto your site. When writing your own blog, you also have the option of linking pages from your website- for example “About Us” can be linked to your name and go to the About Us page on your website.
Press Releases
“This technique is easy enough to implement but faces the same issues as directories because so many people make use of it you may get lost in the crowd. You can go to a site like PRWeb, submit your press release about the news of your new website launch and they will publish it for journalists to make use of. A good press release may even circulate all over the Internet but at worst you will be at least published on PRWeb (there are others PR sites out there – try a search for “press release distribution” or similar).”
Google Sitemaps
Google provides a sitemap submission system that gives you the tools to directly communicate with Google to let the search engine know when your site updates and ensures your entire site is indexed.
Link Love and Paying for Links
“Link love is a relatively easy thing to be on the receiving end of. You have probably heard of the favor bank, the social currency of our world. You can open an account with almost anyone by making a deposit by simply doing them a favor. Maybe you’re really good at graphic design so you can create a logo, or perhaps you’re an accountant so you can offer tax advice. You can then make a withdrawal by asking for a link to your website. Favor currency flows quite freely and can easily be accrued by doing good deeds.”
Conclusion
Getting a brand new site indexed and listed on search engines is just the beginning of Search Engine Optimization. Trying to raise your site from the very bottom of the index to the top result for key terms is a long process but this step should not concern you. Some things you just have to learn as you go.
Information Provided by: Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Written by: Samantha J. Stephan
File Naming Structure in URLs for SEO
Thursday, December 10th, 2009One of the simplest ways you can improve your search engine optimization is to actually see what you named your files on your website or blog posts. You want to send your visitors to the pages of what they are actually searching for on your site and by offering keywords in the links to those pages; it will not only help them find it, but also offer more keywords for SEO.
Here is an example:
A tennis ball company offers these current links to sell their Slazenger, Wimbledon, and Wilson tennis balls in their online store:
www.bigballsintennis.com/product1
www.bigballsintennis.com/product2
www.bigballsintennis.com/product3
This is only telling the search engines that you sell products, not tennis balls. Use keywords for those specific products so that these items are more visible to your customers
Here is what they should look like:
www.bigballsintennis.com/slazenger-tennis-balls
www.bigballsintennis.com/wimbledon-tennis-balls
www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls
Information Provided by: www.entrepreneurs-journey.com
Written by: Kent Seiders
Don’t pay for cheap Backlinks!! They will only hurt you
Monday, December 7th, 2009A great way to improve your search engine optimization with Google and other major search engines is to build quality back links to your site. One strategy in obtaining more back links is to submit press releases to the World Wide Web through online PR distribution companies like PRWeb.
Companies like PRWeb, submit your press releases to industry leading editors, journalists, bloggers, and web publishers for syndication. If any of these writers repost your information they can end up being fed into some of today’s most popular social media networking sites that contain many members of your target audience. So, using timely press releases is an important aspect in your online marketing campaigns which can lead traffic to your site as well as creating those back links to your site that you need.
However, you can’t bribe or pay PRWeb to give you quality links to your site because that would not only diminish their reputation with many of its loyal readers but will also have many stiff penalties in the Google index. PRWeb offers these tips when submitting your press releases in order for you to gain quality back links with out having to pay for them.
Tips for Successful Press Releases:
1. Pay attention to the Details. Today’s great press releases are a synthesis between content, multimedia, and search engine optimized text. Make your press releases informative, interactive, and aesthetically pleasing to the readers eye.
2. Write for people, not for Search Engines. The most important thing about your press release is the person who is reading it. If you do not have a compelling headline, people won’t click through to read it. If your content is using words that people don’t understand they will stop reading it.
3. Don’t just write, Create! Add features to your press release that take advantage of what the internet can offer you. Add in text that blends with imagery, add audio fi appropriate, or even add a video to make things more interesting.
4. Optimize your release for the Web. Keep your press releases up to standard for SEO. Utilize text links, alt tags, title tags, and everything else search engines can read to help people find your content.
So when it comes down to it, don’t rely on paying for back links for your site because chances are you won’t find links for sale. You need to rely on quality links that come to your site through your content!
Blog Post Written by: Kent Seiders
Small Business Increase Internet Marketing Budgets
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Increasingly additional business owners, large and small alike, are acquiring more knowledge on the world of online advertising along with the importance of web presence.
According to a new study by an online advertising company, WebVisible Inc., small businesses have spent 91% more on search marketing in this year’s third quarter than they did in the same period last year.
WebVisible’s report, “2009 Q3 State of Small Business Online Advertising,” tracked a sample of their business clients falling in the small – and midsize range. “It found the average search spending by small businesses in the third quarter was $1,658. At the higher end, 15% of small businesses spent between $2,000 and $2,999 in the third quarter on search marketing.”
The study also published the search engines that small businesses are utilizing. Google came in at 60.4%, which is about 15% less than typical spending statistics for the market overall. Yahoo picked up some of that slack, coming in at 26.2%. The remainder goes to Bing with 10.5%.
Internet Marketing’s importance in today’s society has become vital. WebitMD recognizes the need for businesses to utilize the internet as a tool for advertising and hopes to encourage all business owners to seize this opportunity.
Information Provided By:
Written by: Samantha J. Stephan