Atilus Internet Marketing & Web Development

Before going into detail about how you can optimize your website for search engines I would like to quickly explain what search engine optimization is and why it is so important.

Right now the web is dominated by three major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN (live).

What is a Search Engine?

A search engine can be thought of as the largest storefront of all time. But, it dispenses EVERYTHING (all information on the web). You walk up to the counter (visit Google.com) and ask the magical clerk anything (type in your search), you hit “go” and off he runs back into the largest warehouse of all time to find you exactly what you need. In a matter of milliseconds he’s back with a list of the things he thinks you need. Essentially this is how a search engine works.

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17 Apr | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO, Web Basics.

What Are Standards?

The “standards” are a set of guidelines set aside by the W3C (world wide web consortium) that detail how certain technologies are to be implemented. They dictate the format and use of code to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms, software, devices (TV, PC, Cellphone, Windows, Mac). Web browsers used to abide by their own set of individual web rules (and some still do). You had to write different code in different ways across different browsers to achieve the same affect across multiple browsers/platforms. Rather than just writing one set of code, this multiple-code multiple-platform format was very frustrating as designers and web developers had to essentially create sseparate websites for every instance.

Why You Should Care?

Standards Website Save You Money

Current modern standards help save you money. When a web design company says they develop websites to standards using XHTML & CSS it means the site can (usually) be created quicker - and will absolutely lead to easier site wide updates (design or content). The separation of the different layers of a website means that every component can be accessed quickly leading to very fast updates.

Standards-Based Websites Make You Money

More often than not the goals you’ve set for your website is to have your visitors DO something. Do you want your visitors to sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product, or contact you regarding your service? Sure, but before they can do something, they must first find your site. How do people find your website? With Search Engines! A standards-based website will give you a HUGE advantage over your competition. Proponents of standards-based XHTML & CSS websites often neglect this big fact.

With proper coding your web design company takes out any road blocks in the search engine process, meaning your site can do well in the search engines. When you do well in the search engines it means people can find your website, contact you for your services or purchase your products. Unoptimized, non-standards websites often have images, and old code that impede the search engines’ ability to get to your content.

25 Sep | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under FAQs, WVO, Web Design.

Just moments after posting my revealing expose on Matt Cutts’ true identity it seems the pressure and outting were just too much for him:

Matt Cutts is the poster boy of Google and the search engine optimization (SEO) community. Thousands of webmasters follow every single word on this blog. Rumor has it that he is going to leave Google.

I’m sorry… don’t quit.

07 Jul | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO, Web Design.

I was trolling around the net tonight… looking at video footage of Matt Cutts and Rand Fishkin (two SEO experts) as I usually do every Friday night (not for SEO advice, but for hair and goatee trimming ideas) when I realized Matt Cutts & Rand Fishkin’s dirty little secret.

They’re one and the same:

Matt Cutts IS Rand Fishkin:

I had suspected for sometime. Rand has too much intimate knowledge about search. There’s only two ways to get that kind of info, sleep with someone at Google… or BE someone at Google. It seems every day Rand dawns a fat suit or some kind of prosthetic, trims his goatee and slicks his hair back in order to transform into Matt Cutts.

07 Jul | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO, Web Design.

I was using Google’s video search yesterday and stumbled upon some of Matt Cutts’s videos. For those of you unfamiliar with Matt Cutts, Matt works for Google handling search engine optimization issues, answering many common questions on his blog as well as his videos.

Basically Matt Cutts is the gate keeper for how sites get ranked on Google search.

Although some of the videos are now nearly a year old, they are still very relevant, with a lot of helpful, straightforward information.

In one of the most interesting videos Matt reveals the top four biggest search ranking factors. From top to bottom here they are:

• Crawlability
• Sitemap
• Good Content
• Marketing

Crawlability

Crawlability refers to the ability for a search engine to read the content on your website and get through it, navigating to each page. Crawlability may not seem like it should be an issue dozens of years after the birth of the internet, but according to Matt it is still a major problem, with many sites being un-crawlable. This is definitely something we’ve witnessed with many web designers opting to create websites entirely with photos, embedding text, links, etc. in unreadable photo files - it may look nice, but to a search engine it is valueless.

Sitemap

Sitemaps are pages that reference every other page, much like a book’s index or table of contents. It is just one place for a user (or search engine) to visit in order to find everything on a site, or quickly find just one thing. Having a sitemap referenced on every page is a great search booster and very user-friendly addition to any site.

Good Content

Good content is a major factor in determining a sites value. Besides some rumors that Google has hired librarians, english professors, and is using its book scanning project to learn more about the flow and style of correct human generated text, good content is essential in attracting visitors, getting those visitors to return, and getting others to link to your site.

Marketing

Spread the word about your site, write good content (see above) and start spreading the word. You are only limited by your imagination in the number of ways you can market your site on or off line. Create plans to write articles and back them up with a supplemental print and e-newsletter. Attend local events with pamphlets on your website, include your website at the bottom of each email you or your colleagues send out. You must actively market your site.

13 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Enewsletter, Internet Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO.

Social Media is doing to the SEO (search engine optimization) and Blog communities what Quicken’s Willmaker has done to Estate Planning Attorneys.

Say What? We’ll come back to this in a second.

According to Mr. Randfish, one of the world’s foremost SEOs (search engine optimizers), in order to be successful on the web three things are required:

• Keyword Selection
• Search Optimized and Friendly Web Site
• Links

So you have your keywords selected, you have a nice new site, and now you need links.

How do you get links?

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29 Mar | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO, Web Design.

I get a lot of questions about SEO or search engine optimization. A lot of people and companies want their web site at the top of the search engines, and so, by association, they think SEO will do it for them, and to some extent it will. But, SEO is a blanket term, with a number of newly evolving ideas and techniques that is a bit of a misnomer. Instead of focusing solely on a ranking in a search result, which is still very powerful and one of the best ways to gain consistent quality traffic, SEO is quickly involving creative marketing and PR techniques to gain viral traffic using various social media and social book marking outlets.

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15 Mar | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Blogging, Design, Pay Per Click, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, WVO.