SEO Hosting

February 9th, 2010 No Comments

Sure, you’ve heard of optimizing your website’s content, but what about optimizing your host? “SEO Hosts” boast that they can boost your business’s online presence in the following ways:

  • Multiple Class IP addresses
  • A Dedicated IP Address

What is an IP Address?

An Internet Protocol address is a number that identifies each device (computers, printers, routers, etc.) on a computer network.  They are set by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

An IP address looks like 12.34.567.890 and in the format AA.BB.CCC.DDD., so that if the address is 12.34.567.890, the 567 is in the C place. When as SEO host provides you with multiple Class C IP’s, they have different numbers in the C set.  Otherwise, when you are delivered multiple IP’s, it is all the same A.B.C class, but with a different D.

A Domain Name System (DNS), allows the IP address to be translated to words – your domain name. Thus, 12.23.567.890 gets translated into “www.yourwebsite.com” or you@yourwebsite.com.

Multiple IP Addresses: The Claim

Some SEO hosts will say that owning multiple IP addresses will effectively allow you to list your website in multiple places in the search engine marketplace.  The theory is that by keeping a client’s domains listed as separate web properties, search engines will give better search rankings.  The spider will see that one property links to another from a different Class C IP range. (Class C is the class of most mid-to-small business domains).  To the search engine, each site from a different Class C IP will appear to be unconnected to other sites within the network.

The Reality: The quality of your inbound links is very important in SEO.  However, if you try to boost your rank by linking between multiple websites you own, this can actually hurt your ranking.  If the sites appear to be on the same IP block, the spider may read it as spam.

You can check if you are hosting multiple sites in the same IP range here (http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/class-c-checker.php).

Dedicated IP Address: The Claim

If your website is the only domain linked to an IP address, some experts say that it is a factor considered by search engines and that it helps servers find your domain.

The Reality:

There is debate in the SEO industry about how much having a dedicated IP address can help, and in my opinion, it won’t help much.   Some experts say that because you have no control over who you share an IP address with, you run the risk of sharing with a spam or adult site, thereby raising a search engine red flag.

This claim doesn’t seem very reliable, since the majority of sites on the Web are hosted on a shared IP. Search engines are able to ban anything on a domain name and will likely do that rather than block an entire IP neighborhood.  Finally, because there is a limited number of IPs in the current form called IPv4.  Search engines will not punish them.

Author: Ilene Rosenblum, @ilenerosenblum

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SEO – Staying Fresh

February 2nd, 2010 No Comments

Website content is a lot like produce at the market.  The fresher the better, and, if you’re providing the same exact thing as the competition, whether it’s granny smith apples or information about buying a car, you need to stand out as being the highest quality or offer a different taste.  If your material is old and rotting, no one will want to look at it for long.

Imagine yourself at a farmer’s market.  Each stand is selling apples.  How do you pick from one vendor and not another?  Do you go to the first stand, closest to the entrance, or do you look for the best quality produce?  Is customer service important to you, sending you to the vendor that you have a personal relationship with?

Using SEO properly will get you that prime real estate at the entrance to the Internet marketplace, but both Google and your customers will figure out pretty quickly if you are selling something phony or if the quality of your goods is sub par.  Keeping content updated but with irrelevant or outdated search terms for your ranking class will not help for long.  Traffic will go elsewhere.

Social networking is where you can score points with the customers looking for the best service.  Maintain a relationship with your customers by letting them know what is going on with your company. Regularly updating a blog (which also boosts your SEO) and your social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is a great way to do this.  Depending on the nature of your business, this is where you can add the personal touch. Zappos and JetBlue  are well known for regularly updating social media networks with company information and irreverent comments or uplifting quotes.  Let your unique style grab their attention.

Think carefully about how staying fresh fits into your overall company image and business plan.  Are you targeting a specific niche, like organic tomatoes?  Or do your customers like you because of the variety that you offer?  Be sure that you’re constantly rotating in new stock, but don’t lose sight of what the customers are coming to you for in the first place.

By: Ilene Rosenblum

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What SEO Can and Can’t Do – And Why the Content is Essential

January 24th, 2010 No Comments

SEO - Website ContentSEO essential in order to be competitive in many markets, but there is a limit to what it can do. First of all, as I’ve written earlier, you need to be realistic about who you are competing against. Even the best SEO cannot make your site outrank every competitor.

SEO cannot make users stay on the page longer. However, having a low “bounce rate,” or the percentage of users who come to a page and quickly go somewhere else, will boost your rankings. This can be achieved by creating an easy-to-navigate and frequently updated site. Keep users interested, and they’ll stay longer. Sites like Facebook have low bounce rates because users fill out forms, interact and give feedback. This improves the site’s ranking.

SEO cannot directly make you more money. Good SEO will drive more relevant traffic to your site. However, the quality of the content drives conversion. This is a measure of the number of potential customers that go on to buy. In the context of a website, it is usually the percentage of visitors that make a purchase. A store that gets a lot of customers in the door only to leave moments later because of the clutter or poor customers service is not as successful as a store that gets fewer customers that are able to see the merchandise and are interested in buying.

SEO cannot guarantee ranking results or visitor counts. No company can guarantee organic listings, or it wouldn’t be organic, right? Something that is hot today is not tomorrow. Trends change by the nanosecond.

A higher score in Google’s PageRank of popular websites does not automatically constitute success in SEO. It is possible some of these “shortcuts” or “black hat” schemes may appear to work in the short term, but they can’t last for very long.

Like any project that yields real results, it requires a big investment of time and money, and if an “expert” tells you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. SEO takes time and requires patience.

You cannot do SEO once and expect great results to continue. A car requires constant maintenance, workout routine needs to be rearranged to continue to yield results and break plateaus, and your SEO campaign requires regular attention. Good SEO is ongoing, requiring a commitment to adding content.

By: Ilene Rosenblum

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SEO Coaching – Website Content

January 24th, 2010 No Comments

Website content incorporating SEO is part of a larger overall picture that has to be kept in mind.  To start, answer the following questions:

  • Is the site being created or recreated from scratch?   Or does content need to be rewritten on an existing site?
  • If it’s an existing site, what is or isn’t working?
  • Who is your target audience?  Are there multiple markets?

If you’re working with an SEO professional and are responsible only for the content development, he or she can help you identify which sites outrank yours and which ones you should target.

SEO is a game of keeping up with the Joneses that forces each site to create the most engaging content.  Some of the competition will be significantly better than you at this, and that’s okay.  I wouldn’t tell a yellow belt karate student to fight a black belt.  I’d tell him to try to become the yellow belt champ.

Keep in mind your time and money budget and the scope of your audience and you’ll be able to hone in on a realistic goal.  A small shoe store in Northern California should not aim to be the top hit for “shoes,” or not even necessarily “shoes, Northern California,” but they may be able to claim the top spot for “designer shoes in Northern California”.

SEO forces you to think outside the box.  Maybe you always figured that visitors to your site were looking for one thing in particular, but you might be able to corner a related market.  This would push up your site hits and links, and eventually that could make you even more attractive to your main audience.

For example, a computer retailer in San Diego might conduct some SEO research and find that “computer repair” is a really popular search term, and so is “computer repair San Diego”.  In fact, it’s so popular that it’s a market they couldn’t enter without breaking the budget.  They might find, though, that “office relocation” is a less popular, though related, search term, and with a little work, they could be the top hit for that query.

After a while, the site moves up in the rank of Google and other search engine hits.  As that happens, more users click on it and link to it.  The site becomes more established, more valuable online real estate.  It may then be ready to compete on the level of more popular keyword search terms.

What does this mean for the content writer?  You have to rewrite the site content, or maybe even restructure it to accommodate the new keywords.  Consider making the new keywords a drop-down menu, or the topic of an article or blog post on the site and refer to it often.

By: Ilene Rosenblum

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Bize – Business Social Networking

December 30th, 2009 No Comments

Bize.com a Business Social Networking site based on the open-source social networking software Dolphin offers FREE social media optimization and SEO benefits:

  • Add your business website and get a free direct link  to increase link popularity.
  • Meet business owners, professional singles and grow your network.
  • Login with your Facebook account.
  • Upload Videos, Music, Files (almost anything) and record video messages online!
  • SEF (Search Engine Friendly URL)  Profile – view sample profile
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Social Media Optimization

December 27th, 2009 1 Comment

Are you looking to start your own social networking site? Are you interested in social media,  Website optimization, online marketing, SEO, SEM, SMO?

In2website founder Marco Nahmias and guests provide tips on Social Networking software, Jomsocial for Joomla, Mingle for WordPress, Dolphin, Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Twitter Tools, SEO methods all to increase website traffic and make it happen!

Social Media

Social Media

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Website Optimization

December 27th, 2009 16 Comments
  1. Consider content. A website must be rich in content in order to attract and retain visitors. Never copy and paste material from another website into your own. Keywords should fit seamlessly into the new and existing content on your site.
  2. Build traffic using links. Your site will benefit immensely from including links to other relevant sites. You can become part of a broader network by receiving traffic from links placed on other sites to your website and by adding traffic to partner sites by including their links on your page.
  3. Remember that less is more. You should never resort to spamming to promote your site. Search engines will notice, and your site will suffer the consequences. The site content should not include keywords too many times—it’s quality (not quantity) that counts here. Choose the best keywords to include in your web content using tools like WordTracker and Google Keyword Tool.
  4. Avoid duplicated multi-site content. Copying your site to another domain (referred to as multi-domain parking) can damage your site rankings.
  5. Create a XML Sitemap. Using a sitemap will help search engines to find individual pages on your site more quickly. In turn, this will result in higher traffic volume.
  6. Stay away from link farms. Companies that offer multi-links to your site are usually scams. You’re better off creating traffic using your own methods.
  7. Beef up the content with press releases and news sections. Add informative articles to your site can increase the likelihood that someone will visit your page. Online surfers who are just looking for information might stumble on one of the articles and then stick around to see what your site has to offer.
  8. Use title Tags. Your title should be optimized along with the rest of your website. Make sure that the title is less than 66 characters and is relevant to the site content. You should also include keyword tags at the start of your title, but do not repeat them.
  9. Use meta-tags. Meta-tags, or hidden codes, play a major role in search engine optimization. The two most important types are keywords and descriptions. Meta-tags should be short and relevant to the site content. The description should be less than 150 characters, and the keyword should not be repeated more than three times. The meta-tag should be different on each individual page in order to increase site traffic.
  10. Anchors away. Avoid overuse of anchors in the text. Vary your inbound links so that they don’t look like they were automated. Search engines flag this type of behavior.
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