When it comes to SEO, businesses often focus on meta data, keywords, and anchor text, but companies should also consider web page loading speeds when optimizing their sites. As the most popular search engine in the world, Google has a lot of influence over how companies run their websites. You’ve probably heard something about Google’s Panda and Penguin search ranking algorithms and how to please them, but how does your page’s load time affect your ranking? Aside from making life easier for your page’s visitors, a faster load time may eventually lead to a higher spot on search engine results. According to the [...]

Flash is something that is always debated when it comes to its use on websites. Some people LOVE it. Some of your clients might request it because it looks “cool.” While it definitely has some good capabilities and its place on the internet, I urge you to stray away from it when creating your website. Here are some of my reasons why: It is bad for your website’s SEO A fully flash website doesn’t create unique urls for individual pages on the site. When a website is made completely in flash, the URL will be indexed as www.yourwebsite.com. Search engines are [...]

By now it’s pretty clear that Pinterest can bring in big bucks for your business. As a strong driver of referral traffic to retail sites, Pinterest proves to be a good investment for companies. The key is to make your Pinterest profile stand out, and your Pins are what you need to focus on. Brought to you by Pinnable Business, today’s infographic is all about optimizing your Pins for success on Pinterest. Pinterest is for the most part a majorly image-based social site, so pinning great photos and content is crucial to your business’s success on the website. Check out [...]

It’s clear that an emphasis on the visual has changed the way Internet users interact and share information in today’s digital world–video should not be overlooked. Just like any other aspect of a business’s online campaign, videos should be optimized to ensure maximum searchability. YouTube is the most popular video-hosting website, today. It’s also the second largest search engine in the world. Overall, YouTube gets over 4 billion views per day, so if your business is on YouTube you have the potential to reach a very large audience. The key is getting your content found among the vast YouTube archives. [...]

You probably know about Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, but what about the Venice update? A few months ago, Google rolled out Venice, which focused largely on local search. Although it’s a bit under the radar, the Venice update is extremely important for local business owners because search queries no longer depend on the searcher for location specific words – it uses the searcher’s IP address to deliver location-based results. There’s no better time to focus on local SEO than now!   What exactly is the Venice update? Released in February, the Venice update changed how Google users search. [...]

SEO is a very talked-about topic, but do you understand the language? SEO might fly right over your head if you don’t know what the important terms mean and how to use each one in your online strategy. Here is a glossary of 10 SEO terms you should know with tips on using each one in your optimization game plan. Alt Attribute The “alt” or alternate attribute is your way to tell Google what each image is on your site. The alt text is a description of the image (or its context on the page) and appears on the page when [...]

Lolz cats may seem like the most important animal of the web, but Panda and Penguin can stop you right in your tracks. These two Google algorithms have cut down hundreds of websites and put them on the lowest pages of Google Search. Panda used to be the algorithm that websites feared, but since Penguin’s release on April 24, 2012, websites have to worry about both. Yet, how do you know which one has limited your web results? They both seem to have the same end result, but knowing which one is stopping you can help you fix the problem [...]

It’s Friday, folks! Today’s infographic is all about content marketing. Content creation is essential to optimizing your business site for search engines. Whether it be through your business’s blog, posting videos, or hosting webinars, content gets your name out there. Sharing it is easy, too! Check out this infographic on how content creation drives SEO for your business. [Click photo to enlarge] Are you having trouble coming up with content? Try our FREE Content Creation Kit!

I get it. Writing, and especially writing a lot, can be a real chore for some most people. Even those of us who like to write and who write fairly easily can be quickly overwhelmed by the massive amounts of content that is now required to keep up a good blog. Unfortunately, when our inbound marketing agency tells potential clients, “Yes, you have to have a blog,” we are met with looks of disgust, moments of silence, and small whimpers. It doesn’t have to be this bad, and even if you are a terrible writer or have a company full [...]

It’s Friday! Today’s infographic shows how social media and search marketing compare to each other in garnering different results. However, best practices show that they should be used together–it’s not an either/or in a well-planned marketing strategy. Pretty interesting to see in this infographic that search was the big winner for local businesses. Although they both have their own strengths and uses, social media and search marketing are becoming even more intertwined with the addition of search + your world, which was added to the Google algorithm in January 2012. Businesses usually have two separate strategies for implementing them, but [...]