According to Matt Cutts of Google, “Great content has to be the foundation of any good site, because mediocre content tends not to attract exceptional links by itself. And if you’re trying to get exceptional links on really really crappy content, you’re going to be pushing uphill.” “You want to have a well-rounded site, and one of the best ways to do that is to have fantastic, interesting, useful content, great resources, great information, and then that naturally attracts the links. And then search engines want to reflect the fact that the web thinks that you are interesting or important or helpful.” So, with that in mind, let’s start with the most important factor in getting to the top of the search engines…

Offer Quality Content

Creating compelling, useful content is more important than anything else. Don’t believe me? Check out Google’s Official Guide to SEO. If you have something worth reading, your visitors will find it worth sharing. They may Email the article to others, Tweet about it, share it on Facebook, on their own site or other places. It is this honest word-of-mouth sharing that builds your online reputation – both with Google and with users.

Think about the words a user might use to search for your content. A long-time customer of a service or product like yours might know just wha to search for (home care for seniors), whereas someone new to this subject might look for “elder care” or “respite help”. Use variations of these keywords throughout your content.

Keep it well written and easy to read. Avoid sloppiness, misspellings and grammatical errors. Also, avoid embedding important text in images. Not only will search engines fail to read it, but users may want to copy and past the text for their own use and they will not be able to!

Keep it organized. Using Categories is a good way to do this.

Keep it fresh! Add new content as often as you can. Don’t merely copy existing content and republish.

Write for your users, not the search engines. If your website is designed to meet the needs of your users, you will go far! Avoid “keyword stuffing” or including many and unnecessary keywords in an attempt to rank higher. If it would be annoying or read awkwardly for the reader, don’t do it.

Some Technical Considerations

Titles should be brief and descriptive, accurately describing the page’s content; they should be unique to each page.

Descriptions should be a sentence or two, expanding on the contents of the page, but not repeating the page title. Use Google’s Content Analysis to check for descriptions that are too short, too long or duplicated too many times on your site.

Use Simple URLs with descriptive categories and filenames to keep your site organized and help the search engines navigate your site. If you were searching for an air filter for your car, which URL would you rather click on, “http://www.bobsthingsonline.com/ssde123/123125/sff3/00012923.html” or “http://bobsthingsonline.com/auto-parts/air-filters.html”? Long URLs are confusing and may intimidate someone who would otherwise like to link to your site. Also, if someone links to your site using the URL rather than custom anchor text, having relevant words in your URL will provide more information to uses and search engines finding that link. Some Content Management Systems, such as WordPress, make it easy to create user-friendly URLs. For more information, see Google Webmaster Central’s article on URL structure.

Using Intuitive Navigation helps visitors find what they want and helps search engines determine the importance you attach to certain content. Before you create your site, think about how you will organize it, keeping in mind convenience for the visitors. If you have many articles on a topic, consider creating a directory page with links to each.

Some users may remove part of a URL, hoping to find more related content. For example, if they see the URL: “http://southbend.myhomecareblog.com/2011/03/sharing-the-responsibility” they may want to see the archives for March 2011 and remove the article title, leaving “http://southbend.myhomecareblog.com/2011/03″. If they do, what will they find? Hopefully just what they are looking for!

Give users and search engines a sitemap, but don’t make them share! A site map for visitors is a simple page that shows the structure of your site, usually in a hierarchical listing. It is intended for use by people who are having problems locating a page on your site, or if they simply want to see everything you have published. An XML Sitemap makes it easier for Google to find all the pages on your site.. If your site is a blog with an RSS feed, you can simply use the feed URL as the sitemap address when submitting. More information on Google Sitemaps

Avoid “Mystery Meat” Navigation. Some site creators, in an attempt to be unique, use images and flash in navigation. While this can look nice (or not), some users do not have the patience for this and would prefer a simple way to get where they need to go! Navigation that uses text is more accessible.

Have a helpful “Page Not Found” page like this one. This allows visitors another way to find what they were looking for in the first place and conveys the idea that you value them.

Anchor text is simply the clicakble text that users see as a result of a link. Like this. That is, by the way, a prime example of what NOT to do with anchor text. The text in your anchor should tell users and Google something about the page to which you are linking. For example, “Click here for Starbuck’s Menu” or “Go to http://starbucksmenu.com/here.html to see Starbuck’s menu.” are nowhere near as helpful as “Starbuck’s Menu“.

Optimize images by providing a descriptive (but brief) filename and be sure to always add the “alt” attribute. If the image cannot be displayed for some reason, the contents of the alt tag will provide information about the image to the visitor. Also, Google Image Search will be better able to understand your images if you use “alt” tags and descriptive filenames.

Headings provide structure to users and they also give the search engines clues about what is on your page.

If you allow comments on your site, make sure your CMS is set to “nofollow” links in comments. If you have links to “spammy” sites on your website, that can affect your own reputation with the search engines. If you want to reference a website, but don’t want to pass your reputation on to it, use nofollow in the link. Here’s what the code would look like: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.example.com/">Anchor Text</a>. Why would you want to do that? Well, what if you had a legitimate complaint against a site and you wanted to warn others of it? You want to tell them where the site is, but you don’t want the search engines to think you are endorsing it or passing your reputation on to it.

Promote your Website Responsibly

While your site (assuming you have quality content) will gain backlinks (that is, other sites linking to yours) over time, there are some things you can do to promote your site, especially if it is brand new. Some recommendations:

• Make announcements of new services and products on your blog. Others who follow your site or RSS feed will be notified.
• Make sure your URL is on business cards, letterhead, posters, print ads, newsletters, etc.
• For local businesses, make sure your Google Places listing is up to date and as complete as possible, be sure you address is clearly visible in plain text on your site (and that it matches your Google Places address exactly). Use Google maps to embed a map on your about page.
• Use Social Media and concentrate on interaction (or, “engagement”).
• Communicate with other related sites. Comment on their blog posts, “like” them on Facebook. Aim for a constructive, lively interaction, rather than just a quick way to get backlinks.

Keep Track of your Traffic

Use Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and/or Bing Webmaster Tools to help you analyze your website and identify areas that could be improved for better search engine exposure. Use them to see any crawling errors, notify the SE of a sitemap file, analyze and generate robots.txt files, identify issues with description and meta tags and much more.

Use Google Analytics to see what kind of traffic your site is getting, what content is most popular, what keywords are driving visitors and where these visitors originate.

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replace this:
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

with that:
<?php foreach (array_reverse($comments) as $comment) : ?>

Searched quite a while before I found that answer on the WordPress forum.

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With a few steps, you can have it all!!!!

Start by installing 3 plugins: Autofields, Twitter Friendly Links and FT FacePress II.  More information here.

Now, log in to your Twitter and Facebook accounts and go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter and choose the page you want to link with Twitter and choose which kinds of updates you want to appear on your Twitter feed.

To add your Twitter account (with Tweets) to LinkedIn,

To add your Twitter account to LinkedIn: On LinkedIn visit “Edit My Profile” and click “Add Twitter account” next to the Twitter field. Twitter will ask you to verify your account name and password. Once the account is verified, you’ll be asked how you’d like to share your tweets on LinkedIn (share all tweets, to share only tweets that contain #in or #li, or not to share tweets at all). You can change these settings at any time be clicking “Edit” next to your Twitter account name.

That’s it!  Now all your posts (unless you choose otherwise) will appear on your Facebook page status, your Twitter feed and your LinkedIn profile!

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If you’re finding that you have blog traffic, but few visitor comments, try Facebook Comments for WordPress. This plugin inserts an easy-to-use Facebook form that allows any visitor logged in to their Facebook account to “like” your page with one click, or comment without providing any other information. It also allows visitors to log in to Facebook from your blog post instantly.

Take away one of the obstacles to posting comments on your blog by using Facebook Comments for WordPress. No need to register, no need to enter name and Email address. Just comment, and they’re done!

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1. Install Twitter Friendly Links plugin and activate. Go to Settings>Twitter Friendly links and check all the boxes under the heading Compatibility. Save.
2. Install autofields plugin and activate
   1. Go to Settings>autofields, choose only Auto Insert Excerpt  and save.
3. Install FacePress II
4. Activate FacePress II
5. Go to Settings>FacePress II Admin Options
6. Enter your Facebook PROFILE personalized upload email address (NOTE: SKIP TO STEP 5 IF YOU ONLY WANT BLOG UPDATES TO POST TO YOUR PAGE, NOT YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE):
   1. To find the “personalized upload email address” that Facebook associates with your PROFILE, click Account / Account Settings / Mobile / Go to Facebook Mobile. Look for the section labeled “Upload via Email”. Your profile’s personalized upload email address will be listed in this section.
7. Enter Your Facebook PAGE personalized upload email address:
   1. To find the “personalized upload email address” that Facebook associates with your PAGE, click “Edit Page” under your page’s image. Then click “Edit” in the “Mobile” section. Facebook will then display the personalized upload email address for your page in the “Mobile” section.
8. For Post Format, enter:   %TITLE% %URL% %EXCERPT%
9. Check the “Use Shortened URLs?” box
10. Leave everything else as-is, unless you want to manually publish posts to your Facebook status.  To force manual publishing, click the box for “Default to NOT publish to facebook:”.

Note: If you create a post that you do NOT want to publish to Facebook, scroll down the post edit page and find FacePress II Post Options and click the box for “Do NOT publish this Post to Facebook:”

That’s It!  Thanks, Alan!

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Not sure how? Follow these simple steps:

Yahoo!

1. Log in to your Yahoo Email account.
2. Go to options (on the right hand side of the screen when you’re looking at your inbox)
3. Choose more options
4. Select signature.
5. Enter the information you want, such as your name, title, website URL and phone number.
6. With your mouse, select the URL you entered.
7. Hit the button that looks like a globe with a chain on it.
8. When the box pops up, enter your URL in this format: http://www.yourdomainhere.com.
9. Add whatever else you want, formatting it as you like.
10. Select the “Show a signature on all outgoing messages” and save changes.

Outlook

1. Go to Tools
2. Select Options
3. Choose Mail Format
4. Click on Signatures.
5. Add a New Signature.
6. Enter the information you want, such as your name, title, website URL and phone number.
7. With your mouse, select the URL you entered.
8. Hit the button that looks like a globe with a chain on it.
9. When the box pops up, enter your URL in this format: http://www.yourdomainhere.com.
10. Add whatever else you want, formatting it as you like.
11. Click “OK”.

That’s it!

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There is no cost, no obligation. Just let me know when you’ve landed your dream job so I can remove your page. Good Luck!

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Unless your company manages to become the next Nike, you will most likely need to keep your business name in your logo. Rarely will someone see your logo out of context, so don’t worry about saying everything there is to say about your business in your logo.  That said, you do want the typeface and any graphic element, to appear stable and trustworthy.  Perhaps you also want it to look modern, fun, or hip. You don’t need to use a literal representation of your product or service.  Consider that McDonald’s iconic golden arches are at least as effective as Sherwin William’s paint can logo.  While you wouldn’t want to change your logo on a regular basis, some of the most famous have evolved over the years.

Keep in mind that a logo cannot be a photograph (read on about simplicity) or clip art. Even royalty-free clip art is usually not licensed for logo use.  Also, consider that thousands of people have access to this same image.  Make your logo unique!  It must be in vector format which means it can be sized up or down without losing image quality.

Keep your logo to just one or two elements and your fonts to one or two. Save drop shadows and gradients for later. You can always add those in for select applications.

This (fictional) logo illustrates some of the worst in bad logo design.  The image was found in Microsoft’s Clip Art Gallery.  The font is difficult to read and uses a blurry drop shadow.  The Logo depends on the black background for the graphic and white or transparent for the text and the original graphic was a .bmp file, which means that resizing it will be a nightmare!

Make sure your logo will work in black and white and on any background color. Make sure that vibrant color is not the only interesting element to your logo.  Keeping the design simple will save you money in printing, as well.

When thinking about a logo for your business, consider:

• What kind of font would be best – simple, modern, strong, artistic? Should it be capitalized, all caps or all lowercase?
• What image do you want to present – classy, upscale, dependable, friendly, affordable, artsy?
• Who is your target audience?

Do-It-Yourself logo creation sites abound.  If you truly have no budget for a professionally designed logo, you might be tempted to try one.  Just keep in mind how easy it is.  That means anyone can do it.  Which also means that your logo is not going to be unique.

It’s important for your logo designer to get to know your business and what ideas you may already have before beginning the design process.  Expect a lot of back and forth with sketches, options and revisions to get just the right look.  If you have sketches, by all means, share them with your designer, but be open to feedback and suggestions.  Expect a good logo to take some time from concept to completion.  I try to get mine done within 10 business days, but a lot depends on the quality of communication with the customer.  Try to set aside some time to see the project through.

How much do logos cost?

That is a tough question, similar to “how much do websites cost”!  The answer is that it depends on many factors, but the logos I design usually run around $300.  You’ll get all the files you could ever need to use your logo online and in print.

Ready to talk about your logo design?  Call 830.822.6589 or use my contact form.  I look forward to working with you!

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It’s pretty funny, but I if you have an idea for a great business and just no idea what to call it, this could give you some inspiration. Besides, it’s fun! Maybe I’ll rename On Target to Yakimia…..or maybe not. Oh, and since you KNOW you’re going to have a website, find out if it’s available (whois.com) and try to keep it short.

While you’re at it, why not create a random mission statement, just for fun. Oh, and need a little meaningless text for marketing? Can’t go wrong here.

Still not getting anywhere? Call me at 830.822.6589 and we can do a little brainstorming. It’s amazing how well that works despite how cliche it sounds!

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It doesn’t cost anything to be featured.  Groupon makes its money by collecting a portion of what you make selling your Groupon deal, anywhere from 30% to 50%.  If there is not enough interest in your offer, no one is charged and the deal is off.  However, with Groupon’s expert marketing and extensive reach, I have to wonder if that has EVER happened!

There are several similar sites offering local coupon deals for Austin and/or San Antonio:

• SocialBuy
• BuyWithMe
• DealOn
• Adility
• Localiter
• LivingSocial
• Twongo

Happy bargain-hunting and if you have a great business-to-consumer product or service, consider getting yourself featured  Let me know if I can help!

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