Whenever I go somewhere and talk about my work the question that gets asked first and most often is “how do I get to the top of the Google search results page?” Many times I’ll foolishly attempt a quick answer, which almost always leads to many more questions.
Well, who better to ask these questions to than Google? On their blog last fall Google published an SEO Started Guide. It covers pretty much every question that a newbie as well as veteran web promoter will ask regarding promoting their site on Google.
Lately I’ve been passing this link on to everyone who’s interested.
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
The Art of Hand Shadows is just what it says. I’ve had quite a bit of fun learning these and I think that I don’t need to look at the pictures any more.
I’ll be trying them out for my niece and nephew soon.
It looks like the CircuitCity.com name has been sold for $14M. I just read about it on the SEOBook website.
Here’s the thing, if I were to sell recommendations on my blog posts here and provide links to my sponsors products (and not use nofollow) Google wouldn’t like it very much and would probably penalize my site. In fact, that was the whole reason given for the nofollow link attribute in the first place.
I don’t think that I would sell undisclosed advertising or recommendations here on this site, but I’m trying to understand why a giant company can buy and sell their page rank and I can’t. Seems like a double standard on Google’s part to me.
On second thought,…
I probably would sell out for $14 Million.
(sorry, I went away for a second, but I’m back now)
A little while ago I noticed on Twitter a post by a local SEO company that was trying to get Pittsburgh to #1 on Google for the term “best city in the world”. I realized that this was more about them than Pittsburgh, but I was a hometown boy who likes his city and thought I might add a link and help them out. Some also said that they should have picked a more appropriate search term, but I thought it was fine.
I checked back occasionally and this past Saturday the City of Pittsburgh website was on the 12th page. That’s pretty good considering they were not anywhere a week or so ago. Visit Pittsburgh was on the foruth page and the thing that really caught my eye was my blog post was on the first page!
Today the City site is on the first page of Google (#2, congrats Eyeflow) a respectable fourth page on Yahoo and still not anywhere on Bing. My post is still right up there, too and it got me thinking. I just wrote a quick blurb to try to help my city out, not even thinking about what it would do for my site. I’ve had quite a few visitors come through for that term.
I know that the search term “best city in the world” is probably not going to bring me any new business, I would much rather be found for “best web designer” or even “best web designer Pittsburgh”, but who knows?. The point here is that the best way to promote yourself in the search engines is to constantly add new content to your site. Some will say (rightfully so) that you need good outside links pointing to your site, but the best way to get those is to give them something that they want to link to.
Write about your business, tell anecdotes about your customers, give advice and make sure that if you are sending a newsletter that they all are available as a page on your site. This is called the long tail of search, having your site found for things other than your primary keywords. Especially with a new site you will be much more likely to find yourself at the top of a less popular search term, but perhaps one of these terms can land you a great customer!
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
My Pittsburgh Penguins just won The Stanley Cup. It was a wonderful up and down ride. Almost as good as a roller coaster.
The NHL has a great page on their site called The Stanley Cup Journals that lets you follow the voyages of the cup, both this year and past years. So in honor of the Pittsburgh Penguins Championship
I recently read a blog post that talked about how long it took for a customer to tune out the message that they should have a blog on their site. The writer then gave some very important reasons why it’s good for any business owner to have a relevant blog on their site. There comments were all well taken and things that I have written about before.
While that’s all well and good there are also reasons, some of them good, to not have a blog. Here’s my reply.
I agree with most of your advice about blogging, but it’s certainly not for everyone.
Many businesses these days won’t put in the time to write good content on a regular basis and will give up long before they have an opportunity to build any kind of a community. You probably know as well as I do that a blog that’s stale and not updated often or at all is far worse than not having one at all.
Lastly I have worked for and with many business owners who would rather have bamboo under their fingernails than let a visitor make a negative comment about THEIR business on THEIR site. They can’t imagine allowing and publicly answering a legitimate complaint can be good for them.
I believe that creating and constantly updating your social media is the right way to go, but this thinking is far more common.
What Do You Think?
I was reading a blog called Internet Marketing for the Newbie and one of their posts called Website Marketing For New Webmasters
They offered some pretty good advice for any webmaster, not just the new ones. One of my favorite tips was that you should write your site thinking about what your human visitors are interested in, not the search engines. That is so true, as I’ve written before What Good Are 1,000,000 Visitors If They Don’t Like Your Content?
I do recommend that you have a look at this post and feel free to post you comments here.
I have a page on my site with some of my favorite site designs that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of designs that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these site designs, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of the sites are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called Pickupalooza
This is a very simple site to help people find pickup games and activities in their area. It’s just here in Pittsburgh for now, but it’s a great idea and I think will catch on all over.
The site is very simple, but it looks great as well. It’s simple, clean, easy to navigate and understand. What more would you want?
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Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
You have to watch this, it’s one of the coolest videos that I’ve seen in a long time.
I’m sitting here today trying to work and all I can think about is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Those of you that know me know that I’m a big hockey fan. I gone to Penguin games as long as there has been the Pittsburgh Penguins. My father even took me to see a few of the old AHL Pittsburgh Hornets games.
I love the sports in this town and I am a big Steeler fan. I was there selling peanuts at “The Immaculate Reception” and I’ve really enjoyed every Superbowl, but I live and breathe hockey. I’ve skated most all of my life and I still play ice hockey to this day (it’s an old folks league 40 years and over). There is nothing better than Stanley Cup Playoff time for us hockey nuts, at least as long as your team is still in it. Last year and this are some of the best that I can remember, even with the disappointment of last year’s finals.
The last time they won their cups the team was so dominant that I really had no doubt that they couldn’t lose. Last year when I saw them play the Red Wings I knew that they were overmatched, but this year the two are just so even, since the Pens adapted the Wings style in February with their new coach, that it’s a shame that one has to lose. It’s made this series that much more fun and exciting to watch.
Now it’s come down to a Game 7 and I can’t keep my mind on work. GOOOOOOO Pens
