» SEO

Seattle Web Hosting Companies

Online Marketing Advisors — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:50:59 +0000

If you have ever visited our Seattle Web Hosting page in the past then you may have noticed that the web hosting companies which were listed was not related to the Seattle area. Clearly this didn’t make any sense, so we have changed the page to include only web hosting companies which are in or around the Seattle area. We have posted the sites which we feel will provide your business with the best possible service and at prices that will not break the bank.

Choosing a web hosting company among numerous vendors all claiming to be the best can be tough and there are alot of things that you need to look into before you make your selection. The best thing to do is to narrow down your search to a local web hosting company. The reason for this is quite simple, websites hosted on local servers pass and transfer data faster when it passes a shorter distance. It is also believed that websites which are hosted locally also rank better in the search engines for local search terms.

No matter what your needs are in terms of a web hosting service the Seattle Web Hosting Companies which we have listed can help get your website setup online in no time. But like everything else make sure you do your research on each company before you sign up, the last thing you want to do is go with a company who really has no clue about what is going on and whose customer service is just sloppy. We don’t think you will have these kind of problems if you sign up with one of the companies we have listed but it is still a good idea to do so anyway.

You can view our picks for web hosting services in Seattle by visiting our Seattle Web Hosting page. If you are a web hosting company here in the Seattle area and would to get listed on the page then just drop us line, we can’t promise that we will list your site but we will review it and if things look good it will be added.

As always thanks for reading and check back soon.

Search Engine Optimization 301 Redirects

Online Marketing Advisors — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:35:32 +0000

<p style="text-align: justify;">Let’s start off by explaining what a 301 redirect is and then get into how using them can help your search engine optimization efforts. A basic definition of a 301 redirect is “A Web server function where an old URL can be redirected to a new one. 301 Redirect is a “permanent” redirect status indicating that the resource has moved permanently”.

There are a few different ways that a 301 redirect can be done, I won’t get into all of them here, just a few to give an idea of how these things work. One way is to use the old method of the “Meta Refresh”. A meta refresh can be placed in the statement of your source code on a blank page with the old file name, which then automatically redirects visitors to the new page. The problem is that this is a technique often used by spammers to trick search engines, it is highly recommended that you avoid using this form of redirect unless extremely necessary. Besides it doesn’t help your site in any way with regards to search engine rankings or passing page rank.

The correct way to do a 301 redirect is to add the correct code your .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains specific instructions for certain requests, including security, redirection issues and how to handle certain errors.

One of the main reasons websites apply a 301 redirect is because they may want to redirect old web pages to the new pages or an old web site to the new web site and the only way to keep the same search engine rankings is to use the 301 redirect. It will also pass on the page rank from your old site to your new site.

Lately search engines have been taking longer to pick up 301 redirects and because of this websites can drop in ranking pretty fast if the search engines do not find the redirects fast enough. A good way to keep this from happening is to make sure that once you have added the redirects you go out and find a few quality links and point them at the old site or page so that the search engines can see that this page is now redirecting to a different location. A good place to get fresh links is to sign up for either an SEO Forum or one of your favorite blogs where you are allowed to post comments and link to your website. Once the search engines have made the switch you will then want to go and change all of the links which point to the old site or page and replace it with the new url.

If you apply the correct methods when writing your redirects then you should have no problem with the search engine optimization side of things. Make sure to test your redirects to see if they are set up correctly. If you don’t have time or access to create a 301 redirect then I recommend that you at least set up a custom error page. There will be no search engine value but at least you can keep the visitors on your site by directing them to either your home page or any other page in your site.

If you are using wordpress to but don’t have access the .htacess file then I would recommend using the “301 Redirection Plugin” from Urban Giraffe. As always, thanks for reading.

Seattle Search Marketing Expo SMX Advanced

Online Marketing Advisors — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:48:32 +0000

I’m sure most of you have already heard about the Search Marketing Expo which is coming to Seattle tomorrow, so this is just a quick reminder in case you forgot to mark it on your calender. While tickets for the conference sessions have sold out, you can still attend many of the activities and Plus Sessions at SMX Advanced for FREE. I plan to stop by and at least check things out and maybe get to meet some new SEO gurus. I’ve never met Matt Cutts or any of the other big names just yet so maybe I’ll run into one and snag a few question from them.

If you want to attend the free sessions here is break down of what you will have access to.

Microsoft adCenter Desktop Lab Tuesday, June 8 – 1:45 pm See the full description here. Presented by Microsoft Advertising

Search & Social: Measuring & Driving Brand Effectiveness Tuesday, June 8 – 3:30 pm See the full description here. Presented by Covario

Bing Webmaster Tools at a Glance Wednesday, June 9 – 10:30 am See the full description here. Presented by Bing

De-mystifying Search Data Wednesday, June 9 – 1:30 pm See the full description here.

If you won’t be able to attend SMX Advanced this year then I recommend that you keep a close eye on Outspoken Media they will be covering the entire expo with live blogging so if you can’t attend the conference then this is the best place to see everything that is going on. Below is the schedule for the live blogging.

Day 1: Tuesday, June 8
Time	BCI Liveblog Coverage	Session Description
9:00 a.m.	How’s Your QSO? Quality Score Optimization For Pros	Session Description
11:00 a.m.	Twitter, Real Time Search & Real Time SEO	Session Description
1:45 p.m.	Pump Up Those Conversions!	Session Description
3:30 p.m.	The Ultimate Social Media Tools Session	Session Description
5:00 p.m.	You&A With Matt Cutts	Session Description
Day 2: Wednesday, June 9
Time	BCI Liveblog Coverage	Session Description
9:00 a.m.	Keynote: Q&A: Yusuf Mehdi, SVP, Online Audience Business, Microsoft	Session Description
10:30 a.m.	Location Services: The New Local Search	Session Description
1:30 p.m.	Search Marketing In The Facebook Zone	Session Description
3:00 p.m.	What You Don’t Know About YouTube	Session Description

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the expo.

Page Rank Update 6-3-2010

Online Marketing Advisors — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:16:38 +0000

Today seems to be the day, Google has rolled the Page Rank update in the Google toolbar and for the most part things have stayed the same over here. We saw an increase for one of our pages but this really isn’t an increase because that page has always had page rank but for some reason Google dropped it. Our Seattle SEO Forum went from N/A to PR0, nothing special about that but at least it is being recognized. Google backlinks have also been updated and we saw a little increase for that as well.

Well now that things have been updated it’s time to get back to work, we plan to get a little more aggressive over the next few updates, one thing we haven’t been doing lately is really trying to beef up the site, but everything is about timing. We have added a links but nothing major just yet so we plan to change that over the next few months. We have made some changes to the site which should help make this site a little stronger, of course Google always takes their time when it comes to giving you credit for the changes, but that’s ok, there really is no rush.

Anyway, we hope you saw a nice increase for your site this update, if not, just keep working at it. Here is some food for thought: Google’s Page Rank update is at least a month and a half behind so be careful if you are out there buying links, make sure you have things timed just right, if you do so then you could see a nice jump in Page Rank.

As always, thanks for reading, and may the serps be with you.

Edge Rank vs Search Engine Optimization

Online Marketing Advisors — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:18:10 +0000

Now here is something that I find to be pretty funny. It appears that a new term is trying to surface it’s way into the search engine marketing world. Alex Chang a member of Active Rain wrote a post about Edge Rank and how it will basically take over SEO through the power of Facebook. Here is a quick glance at what he believes is the next big thing:

You’ve probably never hear of “EdgeRank.” But if you’re serious about online marketing, you need to get your mind around it quickly. It’s more important than SEO and will make or break you on the most important place on the web: Facebook. Read the rest here http://activerain.com/blogsview/1656401/get-ready-to-care-about-edgerank-more-than-seo

Now while I think that Facebook has some value in terms of getting connected with others let’s be realistic here. Facebook cannot and will not ever replace search engine optimization, the reason is pretty obvious, unless Google falls off the face of the planet, or unless they only start to show search results from facebook, twitter and other networking sites then SEO will continue to be a must have for every website online if you want to get as much traffic as possible and sell your products.

People have to realize that sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and so forth were made for sharing information and for hooking up with long lost buddies, not for buying products. Now you might have a friend or two in your network that might be interested in your product or service and there is a chance that will happen, but if you think that this is the best way to attract new buyers then I’m afraid you have been or are being led astray.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try Facebook as an advertising tool, it can bring traffic and a few sales but it should not be your bread and better for gaining new customers.

Just ask yourself this question: “Where is a potential customer most likely to go online to find a local dentist or any other product they might want to buy” .

Google
Yahoo
Bing
Facebook
Twitter
Myspace

I’m sure the answer to the question was a no brainer so that should tell you the power of search engine optimization and why it is more important for your business than any other form of marketing.

With that said, you may also be interested in a response post which was also posted on the Active Rain website. It makes an excellent point about search engine optimization and why you need it, you can view that post here: Counter Points To Facebook Featured Post.

As always, thanks for reading and come back soon.

$300 Forum Posting Contest

Online Marketing Advisors — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:18:01 +0000

Want to make some money while you learn SEO? Join the Seattle SEO Forum for your chance to win $200 or even $100 just for posting on the forum. Whether you are asking questions or giving out tips your post can count towards you winning some money. So sign up today, learn some SEO, meet new people, or share your advice.

But you must sign up before June 1st 2010 in order to grab your prize. Join the Seattle SEO Forum Today for more details. Thanks for reading and hope to see you there.

Does Every Business Need Search Engine Optimization

Online Marketing Advisors — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:49:57 +0000

One of the most frustrating things that I here from business owners is their business doesn’t need search engine optimization because they are already getting enough business as it is. Well that’s great, but that doesn’t mean that you should just scratch seo off your check list. Business might be doing good today but what will it be doing in the future. Although hard to believe, some businesses still focus on only word of mouth as a form of advertising and for the most part this works to bring in business. However, alot of companies are also going out of business because this is the only method they wish to use.

It is important for owners to realize that buyers these days are a little more savvy when it comes to buying products. Although nothing will ever replace a brick and mortar store most people nowadays prefer to do their shopping online. If your business can’t be found in search engines then your missing out on the chance to gain new customers. You can’t rely on the old methods forever, times are changing fast and so are the buyers. Those faithful customers you have now will not always be around so you need to find a way to gain new ones.

As a business you have to learn to adapt to the times, no matter what market you are in. For example, today there are 100′s maybe even thousands of newspaper companies that are going out of business, not because they suck at writing the news but mainly because there is just no need for a morning paper anymore. These days people are waking up in the morning grabbing their coffee and then heading straight for their computer to check emails and maybe read a few tweets. Walking out to grab the paper is just not something that is on most people minds, and why should it be? Pretty much any and everything a person needs can be found right online through their search bar.

That is why search engine optimization is so important for every business, as a company you need to be were the buyers are, and the buyers are online. Don’t use the excuse that search engine optimization cost to much, or that you’ve been ripped off before by other seo companies so your not going to spend anymore money on it. Is SEO expensive? Yes, but so is buying a car, or a house, food and clothes. Yet you buy these things because you need them in order to survive. Well the same rules apply for your business if you want it to survive. Let’s face it, if you want to succeed at running an online business then you are going to have to find a way to make search engine optimization fit into your budget. Don’t put it on the back burner because you think the cost is to high, if your car broke down and it needed to be fixed but would cost $750 to do it, what are you going to do, let it sit there? No, that is how you get work, you have no choice but to pay the money if you want to keep your job and put food on the table. You need to apply that same attitude to your business, if you are really serious about getting ahead with your company.

If you don’t have a search engine optimization company working on your website then now is the time to start doing so. Stop wasting time thinking about whether or not if you need the service, if you have a website that is active online then you need the service no matter what your niche is. Keep in mind that the longer you wait the father behind you’ll be from your competitors once you do chose to make a move. So again, stop wasting time, if you don’t have a current seo company working with you then feel free to check out this Seattle Search Engine Optimization company to find out how to get the ball rolling to get your site in front of the buying market. Thanks for reading.

Seattle SEO Forum – Now Open

Online Marketing Advisors — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:25:59 +0000

We are proud to announce the release of our Seattle SEO Forum, it’s not much but we wanted to put something together for our local viewers and those in the Seattle area who want to learn more about SEO. So feel free to stop by and sign up, membership is free of course and the door is open to all those who wish to join. Naturally, no spam is allowed, but your are free to promote your products or services to other members provided that it is done in a respectable manner.

Although the forum is entitle Seattle SEO Forum you don’t have to be from Seattle in order to join. We chose that name because it is local and related to our niche in terms of Seattle Search Engine Optimization, plus the domain name was open so why not .

We would like to give special thanks to ST Software who pretty much designed the site, all we did was create the logo and the back ground and made a few other changes to the code to fit our needs. ST Software offers free and custom phpBB styles, forum customization services, website design, and programming services. Check these guys out if you are looking for some nice clean and professional looking designs for your forum.

We’d also like thank Phpbb-SEO for creating a cool plugin which allows us to create seo friendly urls for the forum. If you are tired of seeing those ugly looking urls in your forum then you might want to give this plugin a try. The best part about it is that it is free to download so go check it out.

As always thanks for reading, and we hope to see you as a member of the Seattle SEO Forum.

Page Rank Update 4-3-2010

Online Marketing Advisors — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:52:12 +0000

If your a page rank buff, then you might want to check your google toolbar as Google has just did a update for both Page Rank and Google backlinks. We’ve seen a increase for page rank for the Seattle Business Directory which has now gone from 0 to 3 so that’s good for us. A few articles have also been updated to 1 or 2′s, again nothing to special but at least a change was made.

My only complaint right now is that for some reason our contact and about us pages have not received any form of update which is weird because before we switched this site over those pages were always at least 1 pr point less than the homepage. I’ll need to look into this more to find out what the issue might be.

Anyway, Google page rank and backlinks has now been updated. Hope everyone is happy with the results.

Using Similar Pages To Find Links

Online Marketing Advisors — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:29:21 +0000

I haven’t talked to much about link building so I want to take this time to show you a fairly simple tactic for gaining some relevant links. Those of you who have been doing SEO for awhile will most likely already be familiar with this but I’m posting this for the newbies. As you may know google has a feature embedded into to the Google toolbar which allows you see web pages that are similar to your website. So for example, if your site is about “hair care products” then Google will most likely show sites in your niche which are also related to hair care products.

In order to see the pages that are similar to yours simply click on the drop down menu under Page Rank and select “Similar Pages” .

Once you click on it one of two things are going to happen, Google will either show you sites similar to yours or they will not. If they do then this is good news. Now that you have a list of websites related to your niche you can simply email these sites and ask for a possible link exchange.

Depending on the market you are in you might only get a list of sites which are nothing but your competitors, I know, it sucks, but if you do get these kind of results then what you can do is simply click on one of your competitors site and then run the same check. You’ll most likely find a few sites that you are not competing against but are still pretty much in the same market.

I have to admit that it might take awhile to find a few of those hidden gems, but if you look close enough you are sure to find a few that are willing to link to you or swap links. Well there you have it, see how easy that is to do. As always, thanks for reading, and may the serps be with you.