Archive for category Search Engine Optimization
RSS Feeds are Simply Great for Syndication
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, Search Engine Optimization on June 25th, 2010
A goal that marketers have when building their websites is to keep customers and prospects informed with the latest news about their business and keep them coming back for more. One online tool that helps is an RSS feed. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever is interested.
RSS feeds solve problems for people who regularly use the web by allowing them to easily stay informed by having the latest content get taken from the sites they are interested in. People save time by not having to visit each site individually. An RSS feed is a great addition to blogs for people on the go and many blogging tools have built-in RSS feed features. Users can subscribe to a feed by clicking on the ‘Subscribe’ link on the feed’s page. To view the subscribed feeds, users can choose to use their browser’s ‘Favorites’ tab or their iGoogle or My Yahoo accounts.
The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing. RSS feeds provide many features and benefits for both the publishers and viewers of the feed including.
- Individuals opt-in to feeds for sites of interest and control the flow of information that they receive.
- RSS does not burden the publisher with maintaining opt-in lists or following strict privacy guidelines.
- You have direct access to your subscribers and guaranteed delivery of your content
- RSS feeds can improve your internal content syndication for corporate communications and provide information to remote employees and sales teams
- Publishers are able to create keyword-rich content. Syndicating your content builds up inbound links and positively affects your search engine rankings
For more information on RSS feeds and how Marion can help you with them and other internet marketing tools, please email or call 713-623-6444.
Floating on Top of an Ocean of Search Results
Posted by admin in Search Engine Optimization on June 17th, 2010
Yesterday your company’s website appeared at the top of the first page of Google’s search result. Now it’s lower down or on a different page. Your company has done everything to maximize its SEO potential and the page ranking has dropped. The trick to solving this problem is keeping up with Google’s frequent changes.
A recent article published in Internet Retailing explains the ever-changing page-ranking system:
- Google is continually modifying their search algorithm which changes the rules of the game quickly. The site is now making results more personalized and local.
- Up to 50% of the variables used to rank pages involve linking, up from about 25% to 30% in 2008.
- Google has recently put emphasis on real-time search results that incorporate feeds from social media and include video results.
The article also provides some helpful tips for your site to keep your site at the top:
- Create a blog that offers details about products. The idea is to persuade bloggers and informational web sites to link back to your site. Google urges natural links—operators of other sites should be legitimately attracted to the content.
- One way to boost your profile is by gaining prominence on social networks appropriate for your business. Last year, Google began offering real-time search results that include blog posts and tweets.
- Post videos on your site that cover topics related to your products or services such as product demonstrations and instructions, and tips and advice. Because of the relative small number of video compared to text across the web, providing videos is 50 times more likely to move a site to the first page of search results than adding a page of text.
Although the exact number difficult is to measure, the number of new sites published each day is huge – some days’ new sites totals amount in the 100,000s (source). Because of this, companies are upgrading their sites and implementing better SEO strategies, including keeping up with Google’s search improvements.
You can read the entire article at Internet Retailing.
At The Marion Group, our customers rank consistently high on searches on Google. Let us do the same for you. Call us at 713.623.6444 or email us info2@marion.com.
Have You Tried Google’s Latest Marketing Tool?
Posted by admin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on June 2nd, 2010
Google is still remains a power player in the SEO and analytics game. Its newest effort, Google Insights for Search, is a new marketing tool that was set up to help marketers learn more about web search behavior. By typing in certain keywords, browsers can see many different statistics that have been searched for through Google, based on search volume pattern. Specific categories can be focused on and looked for as broad searches or broken down into much more specific searches, using the filtering process. This filtering process allows for marketers to look into four different search categories: web, image, news, and product search.
A key function that can be very helpful to marketers is the seasonality function. This function allows for companies to know when specific terms are being browsed for during the year, such as looking at t-shirts in 2009, 2008, and 2007. A drop box can be accessed to look all the way back to 2004 through to the present. If a specific year isn’t your option, then the past 7, 30, or 90 days can also be accessed.
Another helpful function of the website is the geographic distribution. Countries all over the world can be located. If a certain country is too broad, then the handy filtering process can pinpoint a certain region or city. Another thing to keep in mind, when it comes to looking at the geographical areas, is that a comparison of two different areas can be looked at, to see how they are either similar or different. For instance, if the United States is chosen, it will break down each state and rate it from a high to low search volume. Once a state in selected, a list of applicable cities will be given which will allow for an even more in-depth look.
When looking for the most frequently used keywords on the rise, there is a list at the bottom of the screen that gives that information. When a user researches the term energy drinks, Insight displays the terms involving energy drinks that are being used the most frequently and which terms are on the rise. This is an important marketing tool, in that a marketer can build a website with relevant keywords for SEO.
Google Insights focuses on providing insights into specific search patterns in the market. The filtering process allows for many different options to break down and analyze these results. Is Insight the site for you?
What’s the difference: Web vs. Internet
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized, Web Design on February 3rd, 2010
Ever used the terms “Web” and “Internet” interchangeably? Like “Surf the Web” or “Browse the internet”? Most of us have. But the truth is that the Web and Internet are different.
The Internet is a huge network of networks- it connects computers together, so that they can communicate and trade information. If a computer is connected to the Internet, it can exchange information with any other computers that are also connected.
The Web (aka World Wide Web) is just one way of accessing the Internet. The Web is an information-sharing application that is built on top of the Internet. The Web cannot work unless the Internet is connected. Simply put, the Web runs on top of the Internet the way a train runs on tracks.
When you are shopping on Amazon or watching videos on YouTube, you are using the Web. However, when you send an email, you are using the Internet, not the Web. The Web is by far the largest and most widely used subnetwork of the internet.
Here, at Marion, we provide a wide range of Internet and Web marketing services. For the Web, we can increase traffic to your page through our Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. For the Internet, Marion can create and broadcast e-newsletters, so that you can stay in constant contact with your customers. Check out our full range of online marketing services or contact us today at (713)-623-6444.
Google Still King of Search in December 2009
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, Search Engine Optimization on February 1st, 2010
Experian Hitwise announced that Google accounted for an amazing 72.25% of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Jan. 2, 2010. Trailing far behind, Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask.com received a mere 14.83%, 8.92% and 2.54% respectively. Trailing even further behind, the remaining 66 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.48% of U.S. searches.
Searches of one word comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 24.34% of all queries.
View the rest of article.
At The Marion Group, our customers rank consistently high on searches on Google. Let us do the same for you. Call us at 713.623.6444 or email us info2@marion.com.
The Marion Group Breaks Ground with Traditional & Interactive Catalog Design
Posted by admin in Catalog Design, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design on December 14th, 2009
The Marion Group breaks ground by providing traditional and interactive catalog design and production services for Total Safety, a leading global provider of integrated industrial safety solutions and services. This combination of start-to-finish services is a rarity among advertising, graphic design and marketing firms.
Traditional Catalog Design: The Printed Book
Earlier this year, The Marion Group helped produce Total Safety’s first printed catalog in 10 years. We were responsible for the overall project coordination, as well as the content development including writing, editing, gathering product images, proofing and communicating with suppliers on behalf of Total Safety for the book (It won an award too!).
We also provided graphic design services that included the development the page template and cover design to reflect Total Safety’s graphic standards and brand identity. We produced the page layouts and electronic production of the catalog. To complete the project, Marion also handled the printing of the catalog.
Interactive Catalog Design: The Online Catalog
A few months after the release of the printed catalog, Marion launched an all-new E-Catalog for Total Safety by transitioning the print catalog into an online catalog that allows their customers to:
- Browse safety products from the nation’s top manufacturers
- View product details & images to learn more information
- Request a quote online for rent or purchase
The Marion Group provided custom web design services for Total Safety including:
- Database design
- Custom front end design
- Content management system that allows Total Safety to update the E-Catalog as needed
- Data entry & integration
- Shopping cart
- Robust search capabilities
- Search engine optimization for all the product pages
For more information on the services The Marion Group can provide your company, call us at 713.623.6444 or email us at info2@marion.com.
Reliance on Google PageRank – A Thing of the Past?
Posted by admin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized, Web Design on October 27th, 2009
Search Engine Optimizers have always relied on Google PageRank to determine the strength of websites on search engines; however, Google is trying to wean us off its use. To do this, Google removed the PageRank values from the Crawl stats section of Google Webmaster Tools.
Google PageRank stats range from (Lowest) 1 – 10 (Highest).
Google Toolbar PageRank
Google has always implied that PageRank is not the end all be all but no one seemed to listen. Now that it’s no longer there, Google is hoping the temptation to utilize these figures dissipates.
Still, the PageRank value is not completely obsolete. The Google toolbar and other third party applications currently provide access to this information, so technically this only affects those that utilize Google Webmaster Tools to closely monitor their sites.
It seems the moral of this Google update is, when analyzing the value of your website do not rely on only one metric.
Remember, when SEO has you confused, contact Marion to get you headed in the right direction.
Yahoo! and Microsoft Hand in Hand
Posted by admin in Search Engine Optimization on July 29th, 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo! announced today (Wednesday, July 29th) that an agreement has been made to integrate Yahoo! Search engine technology with Microsoft’s new search engine (excuse me, “decision engine”) known as Bing.
The ten-year partnership will deal exclusively with search and search advertising. The two groups will apparently remain independent in certain sectors like news sites and electronic mail services
The partnership is intended to create a new “number 2” in an effort to strike a blow at Google (never really mentioned by name in Steve Ballmer’s video below), the behemoth of search and paid ad revenues.
Fickle Yahoo! has changed search partners before.
1995-Yahoo! directory first to “catalog the web”
1998-Yahoo! uses Alta-Vista and Inktomi for web search
2000-Yahoo! uses Google for web search
2004-Yahoo! kicks Google out, buys Inktomi and develops its own search engine
2009-Yahoo!and Microsoft agree to collaborate on a web search and ad partnership “Bing go!”
Because Marion follows standard SEO practices (cleverly executed) our rankings on Bing remain as strong as they were on MSN.com, if not just a little bit better. And instead of optimizing separately for Google, Yahoo and Bing, we only need to optimize for Google and Bing now.
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