Bill Ross - Raleigh Search Engine Optimization -

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A Technical Analysis and Crawl Audit Is Imperative Before SEO Starts
2007-10-28 16:14:00
It is imperative to do a full technical analysis and website crawl audit before you start your search engine optimization campaigns. We have worked with many clients who have done extensive search engine optimization campaigns and spent thousands of dollars to do meta data rewrites, copy optimization and link building campaigns with other SEO firms and still are nowhere to be found in the search
More About: Technical , Analysis , Technical Analysis , Audit , Crawl

Back To SEO Basics To Get The Best Rankings
2007-10-23 00:52:00
As a search marketer I listen to many SEO podcasts and read many articles about SEO and organic rankings and whats "HOT" and whats "NOT" or quick ways to get ranked well. I say the hell with all that uncertainty and fluctuation. If you design a search engine friendly site that follows all the basics of SEO your organic rankings will come. This is the foundation of SEO Web Design. Top 5 Positive
More About: Back , Basics

Grasping The SEO Monster
2007-10-19 23:51:00
Most traditional marketing firms struggled to embrace interactive marketing like my 90 year grandfather who still wrecks his golf cart once a year would struggle with a Porsche. But even the most cutting edge SEO firms have trouble grasping SEO. Treating SEO like a media buy. In the past marketing agencies bought “media” – radio spots, TV ads and some had even ventured into Google Adwords. It
More About: Monster , Mons

Pictures From Our Time Spent Downtown
2007-10-14 00:26:00
April and I spent some time in downtown Chicago this past weekend enjoying the beautiful weather.
More About: Pictures , Time , Downtown

Keyword Themes and Consumer Silos
2007-10-11 14:46:00
Consistency throughout the search engine optimization structure of an ecommerce site with both internal linking and keywords will help you capture the organic rankings you deserve.There was a great article about internal linking and how to engineer the anchor text from SEOmoz which expresses my thoughts exactly about how to structure internal linking. Below is a short cut from that article."In the example, we have a website that wants to build search-targeted pages for 4 unique keyword terms:* Wind* Wind Power* Wind Energy* Wind TurbinesIn order to effectively communicate to the engines (and to users) which page is targeting each particular keyword, I've used anchor text from the generic "wind" page to each of the more specific subpages and, likewise, linked back to the generic "wind" page from those subpages with the singular anchor text phrase "wind."Proper internal link engineering is a great way to help your rankings, and pairs itself up with what I am going to talk about, whic...
More About: Consumer , Themes , Keyword

Time In Downtown Chicago
2007-10-08 22:06:00
April and I spent some time in downtown Chicago this past weekend enjoying the beautiful weather.
More About: Time , Downtown

Why Be Ranked On Your Company Name or Website Address?
2007-10-07 17:01:00
I hear it a lot from companies that they do not need to do SEO because they have great rankings. But when I ask them what primary, secondary keywords and keyword themes they are ranked on, the only thing they seem to be ranked on are their company name or company URL. It's great that you can be ranked on your company name or website address, but all that tells me is your site is not Search engine optimized and you are missing the opportunity to gain business from people searching for your services or products. When does being ranked on your URL or Name good? 1. If your URL or company name is your primary keyword for the products or service you offer. Ex) If your main product is tennis shoes and your URL is tennisshoes.com2. If you are McDonald's or Pepsi and your company has a strong brand to where people would specifically be looking for your URL or company name by typing it into Google, MSN or Yahoo's search bar. But they again if they know your website address they would just ...
More About: Website , Company , Address

30th B-Day -Trip To The Mountains In Asheville
2007-10-02 17:52:00
I took some time off for my 30th this past week and took a trip out to the mountains in Asheville , NC with April to celebrate. Below are some pictures from our trip.The Peak Of Mt Mitchell in Asheville,NCThe 1 hour drive up the winding narrow roads of Mt Mitchell in Asheville,NCIt took us less time to get down off Mt Mitchell in Asheville,NCAmazing views from the mountain sideApril and I at the Biltmore EstateBiltmore EstateAmazing views from the mountain sideApril and I at Mt Mitchell Asheville,NC
More About: Mountains , Trip , Ville , Mount

Website Content and How It Impacts SEO
2007-09-21 06:02:00
What Is It You Want To Say And How Does That Translate To Rankings?Let’s talk unique web page content and SEO content strategy. A year ago I would have said go and write yourself all the content your little heart desires and you will get a good ranking and be fine in regards to SEO. But as mentioned in my Inbound Link Article, inbound links are valued very highly in reguards to SEO and ranking when marketing within Google, while content is valued more within MSN.So, web page content is very important in not only the search engines eyes but also in the perception and eyes of your viewer. The more well written, relevant, unique web page content you have, the more the visitors to your site will think of you as an expert in your field. The search engines look at the unique content in somewhat of the same way, and they will give a good ranking to the page because they feel it’s pertinent to what the person who searched for the information is actually looking for.So there are 2 parts ...
More About: Website , Content , Tent

Link Engineering For Best SEO Return
2007-09-21 05:55:00
How Do I Make All Those Inbound Link s Relevant, To Improve My Ranking?What is the best way to do an inbound link campaign and engineer the links for maximum SEO influence? Inbound links and inbound link strategies are a great way to get an improved ranking within Google for highly competitive keywords. With inbound links there are 3 attributes that you should implement to maximize the effectiveness when directing a link back to your site. 1. Do the inbound links contain the keyword that relates to the page it's linking to? For example, if the link is going to point back to a page on your site about tennis shoes, the link text should read something like "New Brand of Tennis Shoes", basically the words "tennis shoes" should be in the title of the text link. In essence what happens is the search engine reads the title of the text link, then follows the link back to your site and reads the title tag on the page it's linked to, and says "is this page what the title of the text link sai...
More About: Engineering , Return , Erin

McDonalds A Psycological Color Scheme
2007-09-18 15:58:00
Quick Thought:Did McDonald's Choose Red and Yellow From A Psychological Standpoint?When looking back on all the color choices over the years of businesses, most will either pick a dark blue or green, something that symbolizes strength and a solid foundation. Most would not think to pick two colors that so contrast one another and are really not great colors for a business, well until McDonald's came along that is.From a strict business standpoint red and yellow are unique and 98% of business won’t event attempt to use them in their color scheme when starting their marketing which makes them stand out and become more vibrant in the grand color scheme of the land. But still why would McDonald's choose these crazy contrasting colors for their golden arches and signage? Well the heart of the answer is not necessarily the uniqueness of the colors but more about the psychology of the two colors.When McDonald's was on the rise so were some of the great thinkers in cognitive and sub...
More About: Color , Mcdonalds , Logical , Chem , Logi

My Clients Will Just Remember My URL?
2007-09-07 05:51:00
My customers bookmark or remember my URL after they buy from me one time right?Not necessarily. Your customer does not bookmark or remember your URL until they have visited your site many times. You can drive them back to your site through email if the left behind their email address. You can also use your keyword marketing campaign to retain customers too. Chances are they will return to you using search engines.One key piece of information customers give you when they enter your site the first time is the keyword they came in on. I have a customer who sells running shoes and 50% of their traffic comes from the word �running shoes� however only 20% of sales originate from this term. Over 70% of their sales come from 3 and 4 keywords grouped together in a keyword phrases like Nike distance running shoes.So if you want to retain customers you must retain the keywords that encompass the original buying cycle. For example, in the case of the running shoe site, they utilize search t...
More About: Clients , Client

Want To Be Ranked On Your Company Name Or URL?
2007-09-07 05:37:00
I hear it a lot from companies that they “don’t need to do SEO” because they have great rankings. But when I ask them what primary and secondary keywords and themes they are ranked on the only thing they seem to be ranked on is their company name or company URL, and some aren’t even on either of those.That’s all fine and great that you can be ranked on your company name or on your company URL, but all that tells me a few things; First your site is not SEO’ed completely. Second, is that you have a website but you don’t understand completely how people use the search engines to find your business. Finally, and most importantly you’re missing the opportunity to gain business for people searching for your service or product because your site is not optimized for it.Lets first look why being ranked on your name or url could be good. 1. If your URL or company name is your exact primary keyword for the products or service you offer.Ex) If your main product is tennis shoes...
More About: Company