Posts Tagged ‘Blog Hints’
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
 Hey everyone, Josh here from the Internet Beacon. We’re a Search Engine Optimization(SEO) firm located in Finksburg, MD. What we do, SEO, is a form of Internet Marketing. Much like traditional advertising, SEO is all about getting your name out there. In this case, we’re working to get your website in front of customers through search engines like Google and Yahoo. For more information, check out our SEO Answers page and our blog post on SEO.
This week, I’d like to talk about making your website SEO friendly.
Avoid the Photo Album
Unless, of course, you’re hosting a photo album. What I mean here is that while graphics and picture can add a lot to your website, be careful when using them in place of text. Search engines like Google don’t pick up what is inside the image. If it is an important piece of information for your site (i.e. a keyword, area of focus), try using text to represent it. This way you don’t miss out on getting noticed.
Make Sense
I’ve talked about this before, but making sure your content makes sense goes a long way towards successful SEO. A part of our work involves making sure things like keyword density are where they should be. If instead of three solid paragraphs of information, say company history, you have ten two sentence groupings, it will be harder to work with your site. This could involve a large amount of proposed rewrites, which takes more time.
Know Your Site
Using keywords is an important part of SEO. However, you must use the right keywords. If your site is about selling your organic fruit directly to customers, then words like “banana” and “kiwi” will likely come up a lot. However, if you sell bulldog themed neckties, odds are these do not fit. This is important. Part of how your site is ranked is based on the text, so make sure it is relevant.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you next week.
-Josh
Internet Beacon
SEO Baltimore
SEO Maryland
Tags: Blog Hints, friendly, seo
Posted in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
 Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Internet Beacon’s blog. My name is Josh. We’re an internet marketing firm located in Finksburg, MD. We specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO means that we work with you and your website to increase its popularity online with search engines like Google and Yahoo. For more information, please check out our SEO Answers page and our previous blog post on SEO. This week, I’d like to talk about increasing traffic to your blog.
Putting Down Roots
A blog is essentially a journal that’s posted online for everyone to see. Blogs are often a part of a community of other bloggers. To this end, informal communities tend to spring up around blogs that associate with a common theme or idea. Use this to your advantage. Leave intelligent comments on blogs with similar topics to your own. However, exercise caution here. You don’t want to go around spamming other people with links to your site. You will quickly become ignored. Rather, simply join into the online conversation. Most sites will offer you a chance to leave a name and website, so use that as your point of contact.
Stick to the Plan
Anyone who has ever worked on a project will tell you that one of the most dangerous things is Scope Creep. Scope creep means that, in addition to the original goal of the project, there are now more things added to the “to do” list. This is a danger to blogs as well. What started as a great way to share your ideas on kangaroo raising has now branched out into stock tips and personal rants. It can happen to anyone, so make sure that you keep your posts on task.
Meeting the Neighbors
Along the lines of getting involved in a community, get to know the people running the other blogs in your area of expertise. Most people relish friendly competition, and this can turn into a pleasant business relationship. For example, there are many SEO Blogs online. Some of the authors of these blogs get together to exchange information, swap stories, etc a few times a year. If other bloggers notice that you are contributing in a recognizable, positive way, you may find yourself in a much better position than when you started.
Well, that’s all for this week. Thanks for stopping by, folks. We’ll see you back next week.
-Josh
Internet Beacon
Baltimore SEO
Maryland SEO
Tags: Blog Hints, blogs, list, www
Posted in Blog Hints, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Welcome to the Internet Beacon blog. My name is Josh. The Internet Beacon is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm located in Finksburg, MD. SEO is a form of Internet Marketing. What we do is work with you to get your website among the top ranked results for select keywords related to your business. For a more detailed explanation, check out our SEO Answers page and our blog post on SEO.
Today I’d like to talk about avoiding SEO companies that promise the world. What I mean by this is someone who will tell you that they can get your website on the top ten results on Google inside of a week or two; or that they know the “secret” of SEO. The truth is SEO takes a lot of time and work if done properly. If not, you may have just thrown hundreds of dollars away. Here are three things to watch out for when choosing an SEO company.
1) The Promise
You’ve met with the young, fashionable director of SEO at “Marketing, Inc Corporation International” about doing SEO for your small business. He threw around a lot of cool buzzwords and told you that, for a small fee, your site will be the most popular location on the Internet. For the most part, this is obviously an attempt to get your money. Let me say this clearly, it is not possible to become, overnight, the hottest thing on the Internet. Thank this guy for his time and move on.
2) The Secret
The website you’ve discovered has finally “found the secret to SEO”. They can’t tell you how, but they have mastered this process. All they need is your money and they will make your site an Internet phenomenon. This is a lie. There is no secret to SEO. It is a process like anything else. Good SEO takes time and, only after that time, will results begin to surface.
3) The Quick Fix (That Lasts!)
Some SEO providers will tell you that all you need is their one time service to meet your SEO needs. After that, your site will never need updating to hold it’s place in the top ten. Again, this is false. A good SEO provider will be honest with you and let you know that, like most other services, it requires maintenance. An SEO company that tells you a quick fix can keep your site popular forever is lying to you. They are either willfully false or ignorant. Neither are characteristics you want in a business partner.
That’s all for this week. Hopefully you know a little more about how SEO works and can begin looking for a company to assist you. As always, feel free to check out our website for more information!
-Josh
InternetBeacon.com
Baltimore SEO
Maryland SEO
Tags: Blog Hints, internet, search engine optimization, seo, site, time, website
Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | No Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
 Hey, everyone. It’s Josh from the Internet Beacon, again. We’re a Search Engine Optimization firm located in Finksburg, MD. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means that we work hard so that prospective clients and sales leads find your website before others. For a more detailed look at what we do, check out our page of SEO Answers here and a blog post here.
This week I’d like to talk to you about social networks. We’ve talked before about Facebook and how to use it for personal reasons. Now, let’s talk about how to use them to your business’ advantage. As most of you probably know, members of Facebook can be fans of various things. A great way to increase your business’ online presence is to set up a fan page for your company.
A “Fan Page” means that you create a page similar to a profile that talks about your company and provides links and information you think your clientele and leads would like to know. This is a great tool for keeping people up to date on corporate events or changes to the business. For example, you could announce that you’re giving away coupon codes to the first 20 people to send you a private message through Facebook. Or, a better example, might be to announce a raffle. All that is required is to be a fan and post something on the company’s wall. This will encourage participation on the community’s behalf as well as spread the word about your business!
From here, users of Facebook will be able to create a link to your company’s page from their personal page. This means that when their friends see what they are up to, they’ll notice that “John Smith is now a fan of The Internet Beacon”. Coincidentally, this is a step we have also taken. You can be our fan here. One thing to note here is that you can get a custom URL for your business, i.e. www.Facebook.com/YourBusiness once you’ve reached 25 fans. That’s all you need to get your business a permanent link in the Facebook hierarchy.
That’s all for this week. Hopefully you can take a look at Facebook and see where you can put it to work for you. Be sure to check back next week for more tips and advice!
-Josh
Internet Beacon
Baltimore SEO
Maryland SEO
Tags: Blog Hints, Facebook, fan, internet, internetbeacon, search engine optimization, seo, social networks
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
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Three Ways to curb Spam on Your Blog
Friday, March 12th, 2010A blog is a great way to get your particular message out to people around the world. Whether you are sharing recipes, business strategies, or trading baseball cards, a blog can become a hub of activity. Naturally, there are people drawn to these places to take advantage of the amount of activity. These people are called spammers. You can tell who they are because they don’t usually add to the conversation, but rather promote their own site. Keeping these people off of your blog will go a long way towards building its legitimacy. Here are three ways to do that.
1) CAPTCHA Them.
First, please forgive the play on words. Okay, a CAPTCHA is a tool for many
blogs and other sites which requires the user to enter the text they see in an image that looks slightly garbled of distorted. We’ve all seen them. CAPTCHA is used to prevent automated software from just scanning a website and filling in their information. This is a classic method for spammers. The best part of this is that implementation is free and has very little impact on the end user. It is readily available for Wordpress as an add-on called “SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam 2.2.9”. It’s free so go out and grab it if Wordpress is powering your blog.
2) Papers Please
Another way to ensure that the comments left on your blog are legitimate is to require users to register themselves. This is an almost surefire way to make sure that comments left are legitimate. The biggest downside here is that many users may not wish to set up an account just to comment on a blog. Because of this, registration may be a better idea once your blog is established.
3) Everything in Moderation
The best way to make sure that no one posts something you don’t like is to require moderator approval of all comments. There are two sides to this. On one hand, you will absolute control over anything posted on your site. Nothing will get past you/whomever you place in charge of this duty. On the other hands, you are looking at an inordinate amount of time required to sift through a multitude of entries. Also, users may be less inclined to post if they feel they may be censored for no reason.
Well, that’s all for this week. We covered some basic steps for protecting your blog from spammers and unwanted ads. Check back next week for more!
-Josh
Internet Beacon
Baltimore SEO
Maryland SEO
Tags: Blog Hints, captcha, comments, internet, marketing, seo, spammers
Posted in Blog Hints, Internet Marketing, Web Development | No Comments »