Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Top 10 Reasons to Create Micro Websites for your Business

Hello all,

Business exposure is so crucial nowadays, especially in todays economy. I see so many businesses cram soo much information on their websites with the intention of exposing all of their products and services to their customers. With their online marketing and advertising budgets lower than before, it has become crucial for businesses to sell as much as possible to each web visitor all the time.

They also have the intention of becoming optimized and listed for all their web services on Google and other search engines. But, since their website is so full of different information and services, it is hard for them to become specialized in a specific service or product... hence, they have a low page rank and do not appear on the 1st page of their product keyword searches! This is huge dilemma and alot of businesses do not know what to do. They cannot afford to remove information, they have no time to redesign their site... and their budget is small. What can they do?

Creating micro websites is the answer! A micro website is a mini website that is specific to a product or service. You have 10 products? The key here is creating 10 mini websites (3-4 pages) that are keyword dense and specific to theis product/service, with a powerful keyword based URL. The goal? Get optimized and listed faster for this product/service keyword, thus having another "branch" in your online marketing tree of offerings.

Here are the top 10 reasons this will work:
  1. You can keep it specific to a keyword phrase only! You do not have to worry about Google or another search engine not knowing about what your site is about. The content and keywords will be very specific and direct.
  2. You can buy a keyword based URL for your product or service. As you all may know, your URL is the most powerful SEO tool in search engine optimization. Adding your keyword to your domain name can work wonders.
  3. You can show your company specialization for this particular product or service. As you know, many web visitors do not take the time to really familiarize themselves with your different offerings. A micro website gives you the chance to show off your expertise and uniqueness of your company as it relates to the product or service.
  4. A micro website will get you ranked faster. Creating a micro website that is specific to a keyword phrase gives you up to a 40% faster optimization rate, thus getting you ranked higher much faster than your main website would.
  5. Saves you money in online advertising. As you know, SEO takes alot of time. A micro website can save you tons of money in the long run since it can get listed faster than your main website.
  6. Gives your company more exposure. Imagine having your micro websites appear for all of your products or services, along with your main website? This is called web dominance. Why not give it a try?
  7. Are affordable. Micro websites cost considerably less than adding the amount of pages to your website, both in design and advertising costs. Why not save money and get more exposure on the internet with another website?
  8. Great regional strategy. Does your business have multiple locations? Are your services offered in different areas? Micro websites can also help you target geo specific customers with the same keyword strategy!
  9. Create backlinks to your website to boost it's page rank. Micro websites can also boost your main website traffic and ranking too. Linking your micro websites to your main website will give your main site considerable web traffic, thus boosting its page rank and backlinks considerably.
  10. It works. Thousands of internet savvy businesses have been implementing micro websites to their online busness model. Try typing in a city based keyword, check Google local listings, and see how many websites are the same company. This gives companies who implement it more exposure, better SEO results, and a competitive advantage... all the while saving them tons of money. Try it!

If you would like my company, www.RGPacific.com, to work with you to implement this strategy, please give me a call at 323-314-2127. We are located in Los Angeles and offer the best and most affordable web design, development, and internet marketing services.

Please do not hesitate to post some questions!

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Truth about the "Keyword" Meta Tag

Hello everyone,

As an Online Marketing Consultant, I constantly get asked questions about SEO and the importance of meta tags. More specifically, the Keyword tag, seemingly the most important meta tag to many people, whom feel it is the key to SEO success. "Why isn't my website achieving a high ranking?" they ask me. "Well", I tell them, "Where you do you want to rank?" And the answer is almost always... Google!

To all you keyword tag fanatics... some sad news... Google does not use the keyword tag, and actually no meta tag for that matter, anymore. Other search engines though, like Yahoo and MSN, still take it into account. But, due to "keyword spamming" in the early days of Search Index Alogorithms, it has less relevance now than it ever has. The "description" tag and "title" tag actually have more merit than any other tag.

Ultimately, content is king with Google. A keyword is more relevant if it is dominant on your web page content and info. Keyword Density on each page is ultimately what is going to get you good ranking attention on your website. That being said, I do not reccommend getting rid of the keyword tags at all. Remember that when your website gets indexed by the search engine bots, they scroll down all the code and words on each webpage. Since they begin at the top of the page, all the way down to the bottom, Your title tag and other tags serve as an intro paragraph to the theme of your web page. Being uniform, concise, and offering relevant keyword density and content is the best method to get your site indexed well for the set of keywords you like.

But remember, keep your keywords very limited per page. I usually tell clients to keep it down to 2-3 keywords or phases per page. You want to be clear on the theme each page has, and trying to add and do too much can hinder the importance and relevance of content. Keep it simple but informative, and you should be good.

Now, go out and do it!!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

How to Improve your Page Rank on Google

Hey Gang,

I assume your thinking about improving your page rank.. who isn't right? Why search the web for articles or buy expensive software when you can easily do it yourself!
Just use Google's Webmaster Tool's- a free tool that can work wonders for your SEO and Page Rank goals. Because, ultimately, who knows more about how to improve your PR than Google?

A little about it

Page Rank or PR - It's The Holy Grail of webmasters.
I've searched the web and have read many articles describing what the method of Page Rank is and how to use some sort of gadget to improve it instantly. Some of them give clues how to increase this value. It is interesting to me that, for many people, this indicator seems to be a little artificial. Everyone aims for PR10, which means maximum page rank exposure, but few know the real reason. If a website has good content, it will eventually be displayed on top of the searches for interesting keywords even if it has poor page rank!

Useful clues
All articles, blogs and Google tips leads me to the conclusion that the content of your website is the most important factor. Don't try to cheat web crawlers or don’t rely only on exchange links with other websites. If the site is interesting, and content is relevenat, its PR will improve sooner or later. Yes, I know that everybody prefers sooner, but you should do it right from the start.


Some recommendations:

Attain as much external links on the website as you can, on a consistant basis. If people find something interesting on our website, they will link to it.

Create many subpages. Websites with useful content will grow either by content from author, company or community.

Existence in catalogs. Add your website to internet catalogs either related to business or technology. For technology, a good example is to at least attain an absolute minimum with, for example, www.dmoz.org and dir.yahoo.com. Even Google admits that it uses them.

Google Webmaster Tools
Just login to your Google account (or create one if you don't have one). In the section "My Services", follow the link Webmaster Tools. Insert url of your website and press OK.

Verification
Once you create the account, the first step is to verify that you are the owner of the website. There are two approaches. The first is adding a Meta Tag on your home page or, 2, uploading a file with a given random id inside the page root directory. It’s quick and easy - just follow the information’s on the screen!

Diagnostics
After the verification process, we can start exploring information that Google has gathered about your website. This tab allows you to check if, for example, your robots.txt file is correct, and how often the site is crawled.

Statistics
This tab shows search statistics that are related to your website. I allows you to see which pages were crawled by googlebot, what their page rank is, and which of them have the biggest value. Page analysis shows the keywords that Google has indexed. It also shows words used in external sites to link to the site.

Links
This tab is, I think, the most interesting of all. It provides a listing of all urls used in external websites , and much more related to links- even internal links too. Each link is described by number of pages that use it. You can also view details and find the paths to links that are not valid or can't be crawled by Google.

Now you know the page rank principles! After reading this blog post, hopefully you have a better understanding of PR. Since Google is constantly becoming more popular and important for businesses looking to expand their visibility online, knowing these kinds of methods, and understanding them, are king.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Online Press Releases and SEO

SEO is a hot tool that many companies are trying to take advantage of, and ofcourse, the competition is fierce. In that, Google is the goldmine that many companies want to maximize exposure on. Google attracts over 75% of web searches worldwide.

How can you take advantage of this powerful search engine? Well, aside from basic SEO setup and techniques on your website, popularity is king. Google wants to know how popular your website is and measures this on its online visibility. That is, how many websites link in to your site, and how many websites mention your site URL. The latter is achieved by many smart online marketers using online press releases.

Online press releases allow you the power to link an article back to your website by entering your URL throughout the press release. It is wise to include the full URL instead of just your name.com (ex. http://www.rgpacific.com). When you send out your press release, your goal is to have as many sites, directories, and blogs pick up your press release and publish it. Alas, you will have several dozen, even hundreds, of links to your site that can tell Google your website is creating a buzz!

The best online PR service is PRWeb.com, since it gives you the most exposure depending on the price you are willing to spend. It can get quite pricey, but even the minmum package gets you on blogs and permanently online. Your article will be published on yahoo and aol, but only for a limited time, so do not assume Yahoo News will have an article on your site forever! Some people think that it does and even post a review link on their site, and after a few weeks the link is dead. Don't feel that embarassment! The worst thing you can do is tout your website with dead links!

If your budget is small or you want to feel out how Online PR works, there are several PR sites that post your press release for free. Some are freePR.com, pr.com, Prlog.org, and others. Doing a quick Google search can lead you to them if you want to use others. Be careful though, and be smart in what you publish. Alot of PR wires review each press release, and a few are charging for the use of URL's since the practice is becoming quite popular. Also, your press release must contain some kind of content and purpose. Use it to review a new feature, service, or product of your company. Remember, the goal is for someone to post the press release permanently, and to do so they need a reason to. Just making press releases for the heck of it eventually becomes repetitive and can lead to minimal impact on your website SEO plan.

For more info about online press releases, feel free to post questions here and I can get back to you when I can. Visit my website www.rgpacific.com if you need more advanced services. Remember, your article copy, or content, is vital for online success. Always have a plan!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

How to Drive Traffic to your Website

In my experience as a web marketing consultant to small businesses, the most asked question is always this: How the heck do I get visitors to my website without spending a fortune? Stemming from this question, which boggles the mind of every business owner who hears about the internet, there seems to be a lot of questions out there about what the internet can really do for a business. This is the main reason I am writing this article.

Most small to mid-size business owners do not have the resources to launch glitzy media campaigns with banner ads on ESPN, CNN, or AOL. On the contrary, most of them are on tight budgets and look to the internet as a viable alternative to regular print advertising, which gives them no solid results. Unfortunately, they are not aware of many low cost methods and techniques other than banner ads that they can afford with their marketing budget. The internet promises so much, but to many business owners who know little about it, achieving success means either hiring a full time web developer or outsourcing the work to someone else. Ultimately, a business owner is promised no more than what he or she knows. Internet Marketing consists of a series of different options, methods, and trends. The goal for a online marketer is to explore the different types of online marketing that exists so that you can have the tools and knowledge at your disposal that you need in order to either make an informed decision about outsourcing your work, understanding what it can do for you business, and if you can ideally do it yourself. Whether you know HTML, own a website currently, or are planning on developing one, finding the right business model is the key!

The benefits of online marketing are endless. It is a new marketing channel that is quickly becoming a necessity for all types of business. As a consultant, I have worked with niche market clients such as Home Repair, Law, Restoration, Landscaping, and more. Every industry sees an advantage with marketing online, and with good reason. The internet gives you not just the opportunity to sell your product or service to the world, but the ability to track and retain information from every marketing method you implement. It is a revolutionary product that allows you to choose your audience, as precisely as possible, and can increase your Rate of Return (ROI) to a higher rate that TV and Print can never match. This is the reason why so many companies are going online, and why Google, Yahoo, and other web companies have become such a powerful presence in everyday life. The internet has become a medium, and any company looking for longevity and growth needs to utilize the internet in order to gain or match their competitors in every market.

Later on I will give you a background into the most popular and common online marketing techniques. I will also show you how they are used, how they work, and what impact they can have on your business. You can use this blog as a reference point to your everyday business routine and will hopefully serve as a milestone in your quest to creating a more profitable business utilizing the methods you will learn in this book. Please keep in touch! and remember… The more you know about internet marketing, the easier it will be for you to find business online.

Ray Galan
www.rgpacific.com

Monday, March 17, 2008

The Power of Google Local Business Ad Center

Hello my friends,

Hope business is going well for you all. Now, I do understand that marketing on the internet is both a breathtaking and new experience for many experienced business owners and entrepreneurs. It can only take days for your marketing budget to skyrocket, with no results or ways to generate business on a nearby horizon. Programs like banner advertising, which is really expensive, gives you no real proven success. Google Adwords is a positive tool, but depending on your market, is really expensive. And, ofcourse, there is good ol' SEO. Problem with SEO is it can take months, if not years, for your site to rank high in your market, and thats if your are efficient, and sometimes, even lucky.

Well, there is an answer! Google has had a little secret for smart marketers that gives them first page exposure almost instantly. For businesses in the retail, restaurant, and service sectors, Google Local Business Ad Center can help tremendously. With this feature, you can list your business location and website for free, even multiple locations, and it can instantly place you in the first page of local searches that meet your criteria, in your area! Lets say you own a chinese restaurant in santa monica, ca. With the Google Local Ad Center, web surfers anywhere in the vicinity who search for chinese food can find you on the first page search, under "local results", which are right smack on the top of the search findings index page!
And if you are a smart marketer and take advantage of its other features like "ratings", a higher satisfaction rating by google users means even more exposure to your site listing and a better chance of you staying on the first page, and better business referrals.

The Google Local Business Ad Center is free, and trust me, its efficient. For my line of work, which is Internet Marketing and Web Design, competition is fierce. Especially in Los Angeles. But this tool allows me to help my SEO and search visibility instantly.

There are tricks to get multiple listings using this feature, but a gentleman never tells! Im sure you can figure out its advantages and uses.

Getting the ad approved is easy. When you create a new listing, verification is instant! It calls your business number directly so that you can verify it by phone. Once you verify, its automatically uploaded and usually takes 48 hours, at the most, to appear in the search listings. Remember to add as many categories as possible for your listings to appear, usually 5 is the max so take advantage. The more exposure, the better.

Let me know if this works for you, and trust me, free is always great!! Take advantage of it right away. Yahoo is offering a similar feature, but you have to pay to take advantage of all the widgets that come with it. But trust me, Yahoo is years away from being as effective as this lil' tool Google has.

Go out there and use it, and make your site visible now!!!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

RG Pacific welcomes you to our SEO and Web Design & Development blog!

Hello my friends! Thanks so much for stopping by to our new blog. My name is Ray Galan and I am the owner of RG Pacific, a web marketing and development company in Los Angeles.
I have extensive knowledge in web development as well as marketing, so feel free to ask questions about any topics I cover or maybe certain questions you have regarding your journey in the World Wide Web business arena. My friends, I feel the internet is so interwined now with new trends such as Viral Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Web 2.0. So it is my goal to teach you survival methods to keep you ahead of the curve and possible roadblocks that block our path to better business online!