I came across (what I think is) a great resource this week that I would like to share with everyone.  If you are into “tagging” or “social bookmarking” at all — including sites like del.icio.us, digg, reddit etc. then you will love the new twist on this tagging site.

http://www.stylehive.com/ a digg looking site with features of tagging, and social bookmarking allows you to post images and ecommerce shopping items.  This could be great news for those who love these kind of sites but have not figured out how to use them properly to promote their retail sites.

My take on it so far — I would best describe it as a brand new web2.0 that was created for shopping websites (ecommerce), but allows you to bookmark images of products and include meta information.  (great SEO feature)  Most others talking about this site describe it as a perfect site for the shopping obsessed. 

I’d love to hear any feedback from anyone who has used this and has experience with it.

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When talking about getting traffic to your website (or making money with it) it does not always have to be in terms of search results (SEO or SEM) on a major engine.  I am very interested in joint ventures, as I have been down visiting my old town (for my daughters spring break, and Easter with family) and set up a few more myself. 

Let me explain.   I often get a good response from people that have not seen my for a while when they ask me what I do for a living.   Marketing, business consulting, internet marketing, and of course search engine optimization.  Take your pick, I do all of the above but the response I get is, “Oh you can help get me on top of Google.”  Yea, something like that! 

People are amazed at the possibilities that are out there (to make money) when they have been sheltered into marketing an offline business.  They do not realize the potential of what the internet can bring to them.  This is not thier fault, they just have not experienced what us internet marketing people have!  I am always amazed at the marketing “gurus”  I chat with (almost on a daily basis) whose jaws (often I have to pick up) drop to the floor when they realize what can be done online.  These guys are millionaires (many times over) yet they are looking at me like I am some kind of jedi master!  They have mastered what they do, but are clueless when it comes to anything marketing online!  (Again, this is good news for us SEO’s)

This is where I come in.  Now like anyone,  I got bills to pay so its important that I get mine. (and you should not feel bad for getting yours!)  I do want to give back and help these businesses, and people that have helped me out through the years.  (But its going to cost, and I am not going to feel bad about it)  Even if the cost for them is setting up a joint venture with me.  In talking with a Radio station owner I use to work for I realized real quick in our conversation that I could get free publicitiy to my sites for a little bit of work on my part with thier websites.  I also found out talking to a good buddy of mine that is president of a Fixed Assets company that we could scratch each others back.

The bottom line is to not be afraid to talk to people and set up these relationships.  They have services you need and you have information they need.  It could end up being profitable for all parties when its all said and done.  (And that is my point with setting up Joint Ventures)

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Here is a run down of a few things I covered in a conference call I did tonight on SEO 101 and onsite optimization.  I know alot of this stuff is basic, but its good to go over the basics and understand them first and build from there.

• Keyword Research/Analysis

When I am narrowing down keywords to go after I use two websites,  Google and Yahoo  I use the Yahoo keyword selector tool to help me know if people are actually looking for the product/information I am providing.  I then go to Google to make sure that I have a chance in actually getting a ranking.  Remember on Google to narrow down the sites that are going after certain keyword phrases you need to type allinanchor: infront of the keyword or phrase.  No space before or after the colon.  This is a good tool to help us find the right keywords to go after. 

• Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Meta Keywords

Every “Title Tag” should be different, and the rules generally accepted by search engines are no more then 7 words long using your major keyword phrase for the page you are on.  Write in sentence form with correct English.

Meta Description should be about 25-30 words long using the top 10 keyword or phrases.  The description is usually a couple of sentences and should be written in good English.

Meta Keywords is the area most people get tempted to spam or keyword stuff.  Please limit the keywords you use on any page to only they keywords you are going after.  Normally no more then 10-15 per page is best.  Also hiding your keywords in a div-table can get you black-listed.  (I know I’d send it to MC - remember he wants your spam)

Other tags that are important: 

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Google launched its Beta Version of “Google Base” In Google’s words: “Google Base is a place where you can post all types of content and have it show up on Google.”  I am wondering if this is Googles way of getting into things such as social bookmarking or tagging, or maybe this is thier own little “digg” site?   I am also thinking it could be like the linked in site (because you can post your own services and basically pimp your game on Google and create a network of people.) 

Whatever it will end up becoming, you know that its something we need to be doing to help us get more exposure, better rankings, more traffic and of course more sales.

I would be interested if anyone could comment on this and let me know what you would or will use this service for?

One final thought is since it will let you post real estate listings, is it turning into a FREE MLS?  Could it be competition for craigslist as well?  Who knows, but I have been playing with it for a few days now and love it.  I really would love to hear others feedback regarding it though!

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A great way to get more targeted traffic to your website is through implementing a local search campaign.  What is local search?  If you are a website selling product in Arizona, then how nice would it be to come up on top of the search engines for all the people that type in your keyword or phrase in Arizona? 

How to do this?

Its actually not as hard as one may think.  There are things you can do to your meta tags and title tags to include certain local areas through keyword phrases.  You can also find some great sites to list with such as Yellowbook, or sites like www.uscity.net that focus on bringing you local traffic.

When you are creating information pages, create some that will focus on local search words.  For example rather then optimizing for “mattress”, try optimizing for “Phoenix mattress” or “mattress in Phoenix” (if you live in Phoenix)   Use these words in the title tag, meta tag description, meta tag keywords and everything else….  This is a great way to add content to your site as well as giving the search engines some local pages to help get you better rankings, and better found.

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Something I have been thinking about for a long time came about in a conversation I had with a relative from my wifes side during Easter Dinner this afternoon.  It hit me so strong I had to come and write about it.

As I always do,  I have to explain to every relative (at every get together) what an SEO is and what exactly I DO for a living.  Well the comment was made today about good customer service being the key on websites, and it made me think.  The exact comment was, “No matter what kind of rankings you have, you can be on top of Google for all your major words, but if you don’t have good customer service people will figure it out and your website will not make it very long.”  This is absolutly correct.  I recently sold a adjustable air mattress off one of my sites to a friend of my brother.  My brother had told me that his friend experienced such good customer service through the whole process of buying online that he is going to refer us to as many people as he knows.  (He also made the comment we had better customer service, and follow up then his company–which is a major company compared to mine.)  This will get me more traffic then the search engines could ever provide as well as a more solid lead ready to give me money.

BUT,  if I had not gone through the process of setting up a website that converts (an SEO friendly one) as well as an easy site that customers could easily browse through then I would not have that happy customer that will “refer as many people as he can to me.”

So, Good content, good information, good customer service is not all about SEO, but going back to the comment earlier its an essential key into having a successful online business.  Think about it.  Why do people use search engines?  For information.  If you provide the right information they will come to you (and come back to you) and be a loyal customer for life.  Even if they can only buy one thing from you every 10 years, think about the people they can refer to you!

Its kinda funny how this all ties in together (maybe it does not and I am to tired-long day here with the family)  so keep all this in mind when running an internet business.  If it needs to be revamped then revamp it.  If you are doing somethings correct and others wrong then its not to late to fix it, just do it.  

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Just a quick post to let you all know to check back to see when the latest post will be as I will be away for a while for Easter.  Feel free to submit any questions you have for me (SEO Related) use this email:  matsiltala (at) gmail.com

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The search engines don’t rank web sites, they rank web pages. Surprisingly not a lot of web site owners understand this principle and how it relates to basic site structure. Understanding how search engines work is the first step to understanding how your web site should be laid out. I have been addressing this a lot lately so I wanted to post about it.

First the search engines rank web pages, that means that each page of your site can be optimized and ranked for a different set of keywords. When I say each page of your site I mean that loosely, I have seen sites that try to rank their contact us, and privacy policies pages before, for words totally un-related to contacting someone or privacy. This is unnecessary, besides wouldn’t you rather have a searcher land on your site through a page created for sales and not a bunch of legal jargon.

You are allowed two pages of your site to be listed for the same keyword, you have probably seen this in the search results where it will show a page and then indent the next listing if it is from the same site. If this is true then why do people optimize their META Tags and content for more than two pages of their site? I think a lot of site owners try to optimize all their pages for the same big keywords trying hope one of them gets ranked high.

A search engines business is to bring back the most relevant results for your search query. And they look at all kinds of different aspects of a web page (not site) in order to generate the best results in the top ten.

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A great way to get the search engines to give you better rankings is by making sure you are inter-linking your website pages with anchored text. 

What is anchor text?  Anchor text is when you make a keyword or phrase a hyper-link (clickable)  For example, in this blog if I want to refer to the main page of my website rather then saying “click here” and linking that phrase up to your homepage, you woud use a keyword or phrase that better suits the page you are sending people to.  My homepage on this blog is mostly about an internet business directory so you see how I have that phrase as a hyper-link?  This is anchor text and it helps the search engines get a better idea what your site is about and how to better rank you. 

So when creating pages on your website think about how you will tie them all together and make sure you inter-link them with the phrases that relate to your site and each page using this anchored text.

There does become a point where you can have to much anchor text (for the search engines as well as the people viewing your site) so make sure you don’t turn your website into a spammy looking anchored text fest.  I try to make sure I have no more then 20 links on really quality content pages.  So if you have pages with less content reduce the amount of anchored text. 

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Major search engines and news orginizations are starting to post job positions and openings for SEO’s. This is good news for an industry who is often labeled as the bad sheep by the major search engines.

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