Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Choose Correct Filenames

There are a lot of important factors to worry about when optimizing a web site. Besides page titles, organized content, and submitting a site’s URL to search engines, you must also choose correct file names. Google and Yahoo (search engines) spiders use file names to index pages that have been submitted.

All pages that are included in a web site exist in different filenames. Files are normally written in certain formats. Depending on the style that works best for a web site, all of the formats will get the job done. These filename formats are listed below:

HTML
ASP
PHP
Other web programming languages

Search engine optimization professionals highly suggest that when you create pages, give the file a name that is relevant to a certain topic or keyword. Previous to writing a page of content, make sure that the file names are related.
If you are writing an HTML web page about Charlotte web design, and you are trying to rank highly for the search term “Charlotte Web Design”, think about naming the HTML file charlottewebdesign.html or charlotte-web-design.html.

Creating file names that have relevance to the page’s content is also very important for organizational reasons. Both search engines and web site visitors tend to associate the name of a page with the content in which it contains. The style of title naming is much more effective than a more conventional naming style, such as page1.html or page2.html.

Additional Tip: Keep URL lengths as short as possible. It is easier for visitors to remember URLs that aren’t too long.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Re-Indexing Your Site

Indexing a web site should not be looked at as a onetime occurrence. Web search engines are known to occasionally reindex pages. It may sound scary but being reindexed is a great way to make sure that the proper information is being listed in specific search engines.

Indexing is the process of collecting and storing data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, use indexers (spiders, crawlers, and robots) to gather information about your web site in order to be listed.

An initial index is conducted after the first time a web site’s URL is submitted. From time to time, the search engines will reindex sites. By indexing pages, the engines can verify that the pages still exist and update the database reference to the page if necessary.

If a page does not exist anymore, search engines will remove the references from their listings. Finding and removing used pages is not a quick process. If a site is busy, down, or isn’t responding to a request, the search engine simply marks the web page and moves on. Be very cautious because once a web page can’t be found on several occasions, the web page is removed from the database.

It is very important to understand what indexing and search engines are really about. Doing so will save you a lot time and energy when hoping to achieve high search engine result listings. Visit the top search engines to read more about their services.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, April 26, 2010

Search Engine Fundamentals

Before designing a web site for your local Charlotte Pet Sitting company or your small sandwich shop, it is best to learn as much as possible about search engines and the perks of search engine optimization. Understanding exactly what search engines are and how they work will help your web site receive high search engine listings.

According to Wikipedia.org, a web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also provide information for open directories and other databases.

Think of a search engine as one big application that works together to find and retrieve information. The three applications within a web search engine are:

Indexer – locates and indexes pages for inclusion in a database; also known as spiders, crawlers, and robots.
Database – stores the index references to web pages
Query Interface – handles the queries submitted by users

Creating a web site won’t automatically get you listed in search engine results. To assist search engines, you must first register your web site with them. Another way to be found is by linking with other sites and pages.
Top Web Search Engines

Google
Yahoo
MSN/Bing

After a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, has found your site, it uses the links within your pages to find additional pages as well. The crawlers or robots follow these links in order to navigate around the site. The information is then stored into its database for search results.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Friday, April 23, 2010

Fixing Error Pages

File not found! The typical errors servers report are meaningless to most of your visitors, but it is your responsibility to fix them. There are different ways to make sure that these problems do not occur. Errors, such as a 404 – File Not Found, are typical in the Internet world. Take advantage of free URL analyzers in order to avoid these mistakes.

The Error 404 Page or File Not Found is an error page that is displayed whenever a visitor asks for a page that’s not available on your site. The reason for this is that there may be a link on your site that was wrong or the page might have been recently removed from the site.

Before you can fix any problems or errors, you must first know where the errors are occurring. The best way to make this determination is to go through each page of your site and to test each link. Testing each link will make certain that they all work.

If you have a rather large web site, there are free tools available on the Internet to help automate this task. A great recommendation is Link Validation Spider (www.dead-links.com). Link Validation allows you to enter the main URL for your web site. Its crawlers will then crawl through your site and report any 404 Page or File Not Found errors that it discovers.

Another free tool that is very similar to Link Validation is called Link Valet (www.htmlhelp.com/tools/valet). Once you have entered your URL, it will search your site for any errors and then present you with a report.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Mobile Internet and SEO

Recently, mobile Internet has reached an enormous amount of consumers. According to Nielsen Research, more than 40 million users have taken advantage of this opportunity to always stay connected even if they are away from a computer. With the sudden increase in smart phone sales, this may be a phase that will never die down.

Studies have shown that approximately 84.8 percent of iPhone users and 58.2 percent of smart phone users access news and information from their mobile devices. Also, according to mMetrics, at least 58.6 percent of iPhone users and 37 percent of smart phone users visited a search engine on their phones.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo are encouraging web sites to submit a mobile site to be spidered by their mobile crawlers. This will help with search engine optimization efforts and always increase viewer visits. Prior to submitting a mobile site, webmasters should make sure that the code is 100 percent XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) compatible. Mobile crawlers find it more difficult to read invalid codes than do other traditional site crawlers.

Mobile Web Tips (provided by The Truth About Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Lieb)

Include major keywords in the title tags
Include keywords in H1s and body
Include keyword-rich anchor text for internal and inbound links
Make sure that keywords are short and simple (Ex: instead of “Pizzeria”, use “Pizza”
Create mobile only pages
Create a mobile/traditional hybrid
Use dynamic mobile pages
Optimize the site so that it looks good on a variety of mobile devices

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Page Titles 101

Page titles play a very important role in Search Engine Optimization. Search engine crawlers examine them first when going through the evaluation process. When a web site is being ranked for search results purposes, page titles are one of the top factors measured.

A page title is what describes the content included on a web page. They need to be assigned to every single page to better help your search engine optimization rankings. It is located in the top left corner of your web browser. Some are short while others tend to be a bit longer.

Example Page Titles

CODANK Charlotte Web Design
CMSenabled | Content Management System
Page Titles – Google Search – Windows Internet Explorer
Charlotte Pet Sitter Services
Marriage Counseling | Christian Marriage Counseling | Couples Counseling

Below are a few important factors to consider when creating your page titles:

Keep titles to 50 characters or less, including spaces. Certain search engines will only index up to 50 characters while others might index up to 150. Yet, sustaining shorter page titles will keep you in search engine results.

It is best not to use your company name in the page title. A better alternative is to use a descriptive keyword or phrase. Using keywords will help to explain exactly what is on the page. It also helps guarantee that your search engine rankings are precise.

Don’t repeat phrases and keywords in your title tags. Repetition may come across as SEO spam when a search engine crawler is examining a site, so avoid repeating certain words if possible. Never duplicate keywords in order to obtain a crawler’s attention. Doing so could result in your site being excluded from search engine listing.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Using Links on a Website

The Internet is becoming a very crowded place because of so many different businesses and entrepreneurs who are hoping to build an online presence. The first thought when creating a web site may be to give it the best design out of the other sites. The importance of actually providing viewers with online content, as well as links on their pages, is what every web site should focus on.

A link is defined as an element of an electronic source of information that branches users from one web site to the next.

Types of Links

Incoming
Outgoing
Internal

An internal link is a navigational link that leads viewers from one page to another on the same web site. The opposite of that is an external link. An external link guides a visitor to other sites outside of the current one.

Whether incoming, outgoing, or internal, all links should be relevant to the content which is on the page. It is best to also have them lead to other web sites that include related subjects. For example, if a bicycle repair company has external links that lead to a real estate company, little significance is gained from this connect because they have nothing in common.

Linking Tips

Avoid creating pages that contain only links
Link with sites that include related information
Use keyword anchor text
Conduct research before linking to another site

Include internal links to help your viewers better navigate around your site
Try to monitor your links for proficient linking. When your content changes, be sure to modify links. To eliminate stress, try investing in analysis software.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, April 19, 2010

Stay Away From 'Bad Neighbors'

Similar to the real world, search engines will judge you for the company that you keep. The “neighborhood” in which your web site resides can affect your search engine rankings either positively or negatively. Webmasters should be careful when linking a specific web site to other sites.

An online “neighborhood” is defined as an intricate system of links. The links are similar to the roads, streets, highways, and pathways that we all have traveled on. And just as living next to a run-down house or having noisy neighbors would reflect badly on your own real estate values, online connections to bad neighbors has much the same effect on search engine rankings.

A bad web neighborhood is any site that practices unethical tactics to try to increase its site’s rankings or mislead its visitors.

In regards to search engine optimization, Google has advised web sites to “avoid links to web spammers or ‘bad neighborhoods’ on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”

Unethical practices used by bad neighbors are listed below:

Link farms
Cloaking
Spamming
Installing viruses or spyware
Doorway pages
Hidden text and links
Copyright violators
Keyword stuffing
Machine generated pages
Breaking similar guidelines

Linking to a web site that does at least one of the above practices will find you guilty, at least in part by association. To avoid linking with a ‘bad neighbor’, conduct a search engine check to see how the search engines regard the property.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Friday, April 16, 2010

HTML & Site Tagging 101

There are many ways to increase the chances of a web site appearing on the result pages of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. One of those methods is by using site tags. Pay-Per-Click campaigns and keywords are important, but the actual HTML tag that a web site includes is what search engine crawlers collect a majority of a site’s information.

Well-written content is vital for an effective search engine optimization plan. The content that is added to a web site is associated with the user interface portion, while HTML is the crawler-facing portion. The tagging that manages a web page is what effects a business’s search engine optimization ranking. No visitor is capable of seeing the HTML’s, but if they are not present, they would never be able to view the page.

According to Wikipedia.org, a tag is a keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). A tag helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.

Title tags are said to be the most important SEO tag for any web site. Placing the right keywords in a title tag can increase its effectiveness. Search engine spiders and crawlers use title tags for determining the web page topic. A proper HTML tag can inform search engines a substantial amount of information about a web site.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Web Branding & Design Tips

Establishing an online presence for your company can be very beneficial. Having a web site is very important, but actually creating a complete web brand is just as imperative. Developing a unique web brand is the perfect opportunity to stand out from the rest of the Internet world.

Web branding is a means of identifying a business’s web site by providing an image association. It is very similar to a company, such as Pepsi, running ads in newspapers, magazines, and commercials on television. Most brands come in the form of a symbol. The symbol is used for representation, while the brand is meant to package all of the associations with the company.

Your brand should draw potential customers in and encourage them to want to learn more. Whether it’s catchy phrases, bright logo designs, or imagery, it should be something in which people will show an interest in.

CODANK Charlotte Web Design has provided a few web branding and web design tips below. Read them carefully and plan accordingly.

Uniqueness - Differentiate your web page and brand from your competitors. If you don’t, it won’t really be memorable!
Color - Choosing the right color is very important. Color stimulates emotions and carried with it subconscious associations to numerous things and characteristics.
Clean Layout Design - A clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances a site's looks. Try to keep the focus on your content. Use fonts that will be available on all computers to prevent any errors.
Optimum Load Time - Make sure your load time is low.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Don’t Lose Count

Keeping a record of how well your web site performs is the best way to make improvements from time to time. Tracking the number of visitors you receive is probably one of the most important pieces of information that you will need to have. There are many ways to count online visitors.

A visit is described as a collection of hits or page views that a person has requested from a web site. So, you are counting the number of people who have stopped by your page over a certain period of time. The period of time varies from site to site. A webmaster may choose to break visits up by minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months.

Below is a list of question that can help a web site save the correct data when evaluating visitors:

What was the average number of page views per visitor?
What domain classes and geographic areas are represented?
What was the average number of hits per visitor?
What was the total number of visitors for this time period?
What was the length of the average visit?
What was the average duration of a page view?

Once these questions have been answered, it is then time to break down who is visiting your web site and why. Doing so will help you better promote your web site and make it a better place to visit.

Length of the average visit: Indicator of if people are actually reading pages on a site or simply browsing.
Average number of views per visitor: The more pages people view, the more interested they are in your site.
Busiest hours of the day: The time of the day when most people visit a site. This can help you plan daily updates, promotion campaigns, and advertising.
Duration of page view: Another indicator of is people are browsing or in fact reading the content. Ask yourself, “are my pages highly textual, highly graphical, or both?”

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design


CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

How Redirect Pages Can Affect Your Site

It is very important for web site designers and their customers to pay close attention to how they use redirect pages. Using these types of pages incorrectly can affect a web sites search engine rankings. Not all redirect pages are harmful.

A redirect pages purpose is to send online visitors to another page for any given reason. The two different types of redirect pages include: temporary and permanent. A web designer may choose to use any of the two, but whichever one that they choose will have critical consequences within their site ranking.

Common redirect pages:

301 Redirect: A 301 redirect is categorized as a permanent redirect page. This type of page appears when users are redirected from one site to another. The original page that is no longer accessible will be removed within a few weeks or days when 301 redirects are used.

404 Error Pages: A 404 error page is used to redirect visitors to a page that displays an error message. The message is usually, “This page is no longer available. Please check the URL and try again or use the refresh button on your browser.”

302 Redirect: A 302 redirect is classified as a temporary redirect page. This page is displayed to users as they are redirected from one web site to another. The original page is usually temporary unavailable.

Designing custom redirect pages as a way to improve search engine optimization on a web site is not a good idea. If search engine crawlers find it difficult to read important content correctly, this could cause low rankings within search engines.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, April 12, 2010

Common SEO Mistakes

A variety of small to large companies often seem to experience the same obstacles when going through their search engine optimization phase. Business-to-business marketers tend to fall behind in terms of methods and adoption of new marketing tools.

More and more marketers are beginning to take advantage of the high quantity and quality of business-to-business leads that often come from actually setting a search engine optimization plan. Innovative SEO programs have been made available to help companies prosper.

Unfortunately, there has been a mix of common mistakes that a lot of companies have made over time. Below is a list of the top common mistakes and different ways for new businesses to avoid them.

Content cannot be reached by search engines – your web site will perform poorly in search results if their crawlers are not able to conduct a thorough search. These crawlers need to be able to locate all of the links and content in order to index any web site. To avoid this mistake, be sure not to use complex URLs, use a 301 redirect to direct visitors from old pages to new pages, provide a navigational method.

No updated content – providing not only visitors but search crawlers with new and updated content is a great way to achieve high search rankings. Visitors need to know that you are serious about giving them current content.

Using keywords that aren’t customer-friendly – what a potential customer might type into a search box, such as Google or Yahoo, is what helps you and your web site be found. You should use these keywords and phrases to better optimize your site. Do not only use words that you think are correct. Conduct thorough research in order to locate the correct terms.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Friday, April 9, 2010

Web Hosting Service

Establishing an online presence for a small or large business is very important when looking to reach a significant amount of potential consumers. Deciding to create a web site and then hiring a web designer isn’t quite the first step you should be worried about.

The road to your finished product (web site) starts almost immediately once you decide on a hosting option. You can do this by researching multiple web hosting services. A web hosting service is defined as a type of Internet hosting service that allows businesses and individuals the ability to have a web site via the World Wide Web.

A web host is in charge of providing you with a space on their server, which may be leased or owned. They should also provide Internet connectivity for severs that they may not have ownership of.

Types of Web Hosting Services

Grid Hosting
Shared Web Hosting Service
Managed Hosting Service
Reseller Web Hosting
Home Server

Companies are also allowed to use their own hosting service through an ISP (Internet Service Provider). For additional information, it is best to contact your service provider and learn more about setting web sites up.

Web hosting services vary in prices. Because there are different types of host, hosting options usually range from free to considerably expensive.

Top Web Hosting Providers of 2010 (ranked by the best price-value ratio)

Inmotion
iPage
JustHost
WebHostingPad
FatCow
GreenGeeks
Bluehost
Hostmonster
GoDaddy
Yahoo

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Thursday, April 8, 2010

A New Professional Cleaning Service Lending a Hand to the Charlotte Area

With a respect for busy families, weekly travelers, and local businesses, Bucket ‘n’ Broom Residential and Commercial Cleaning Service is here to provide a helpful hand. Today is the day that you stop letting those tiresome cleaning responsibilities get in the way of you enjoying your free time.

Serving the downtown Charlotte area, as well as Ballantyne, Dilworth, SouthEnd, and other local areas, Bucket ‘n’ Broom Residential and Commercial Cleaning Service has promised to work hard to build trust in their professional cleaning assistance. Each cleaning plan is customizable to better fit every family, home, and commercial space.

Detailed residential or commercial cleaning usually consists of:
• Dusting
• Trash Removal
• Glass Cleaning
• Vacuuming
• Sanitizing Appliances
• Floor Cleaning
• Pet Area Cleaning
• Recycling Program
• Restock Supplies
• Bedroom Cleaning
• Bathroom Cleaning
• Living Area Cleaning

All residential and commercial cleaning maids are efficiently trained to provide proper cleaning in a timely manner. The Charlotte based business’s main objective is not only to respect you but to also show that same respect to your home or company office. All cleaning service maids arrive on time, follow the cleaning plan that you designed, and are not allowed to partake in any extracurricular activities (smoking or eating) while on the job.

Bucket ‘n’ Broom Residential and Commercial Cleaning Service also offers franchise opportunities for individuals looking to market a well-liked brand and service. Their residential and commercial cleaning company will also be servicing other cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, D.C., Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, and New York as they continue to grow.

To learn more about Bucket ‘n’ Broom Charlotte Cleaning Service, visit www.bucketnbroom.com

How Social Media Can Help Your Company

Your approach to your web site or company’s social media strategy requires a very different method than some of the more traditional marketing that you may be used to. The tasks are separate from the tasks that you use during your search engine optimization plan.

Social media is defined as a form of interactive marketing used through social media, social sites, online communities, and community web sites to promote a business, product, or idea.

Using social media to your advantage can be very beneficial for a company or entrepreneur. Companies such as CNN and Chevrolet have joined one of the biggest media sites around – Twitter – in an effort to reach a larger target market.

Social Media Websites

Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Ning.com
Tagged.com
Hi5.com
LiveJournal.com

Search Engine Optimization by Jerri L. Ledford has listed a few guidelines that will help you optimize your social media efforts. These specific guidelines include:

Participate – After joining a social community, it is best to actually participate by leaving comments or posting articles/blogs. You have to be willing to participate in order to be recognized.
Tagging – Do not make it difficult for your visitors to add your blog or web site to their content feed. Include a RSS (Rich Site Summary) button to make it easy for them.
Be Authentic – Don’t try to cheat your audience. Be real in your identity and what you have to offer.
Choose your social media sites wisely – Conduct thorough research before signing up for any social media site.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Indexing 101

Registering your web site with search engines such as Google and Yahoo lets them know that your web site actually exists. Numerous search engines take an initial look at your site immediately after you submit it and verify that the address you submitted is valid. After that, the specific search engine schedules your web site for indexing.

Because most web sites include more than just one page, search engines use the URL you submit to find other pages at your site. When submitting your web site to be indexed, you are required to give the search engine the URL to your home page in this form:

http://www.codank.com/

Google and Yahoo, as well as other search engines, use this page as the starting point for all of the other pages at your web site. Each link found on the homepage is searched and indexed. Eventually, the indexer will crawl through every page on your web sites.

A number of days might pass before your web site is actually indexed. Your waiting time depends on the accumulation of new sites waiting to be entered into the database and the effectiveness of the indexer.

Depending on the web site and owner, there may be a few pages that need to be excluded from your site indexing. There are a few ways that you can control what pages are indexed and what pages aren’t indexed. The first alternative is to use a robot exclusion file. This file is a plain-text placed in the top-level directory for your web server. You place this tag in the HEAD section of a web page can then specify which links to follow.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Installing the Google Toolbar

Going through your search engine optimization plan for your web site can be challenging at times. A great tool to install to help you out is Google’s toolbar. This particular toolbar is an add-on for both the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.

Google Toolbar Features

Send To
Web History
Translate
SpellCheck
PageRank Display
AutoLink
Pop-Up Blocker (IE only)
Word find (IE only)
Browse by name (IE only)
Send with Gmail (Firefox only)
Bookmarks
New Tab Page
Quick Search Box (IE only)
Highlight Search Terms
Much more…

Google’s toolbar includes several features that have been proven useful during the search engine optimization stage. These features include PageRank (a tool to highlight a specific keyword on a page), and AutoFill (eliminate the time that it takes to type the same information over and over again).

The PageRank feature is a numerical value ranging from 1-10 that acts an indicator of the importance Google has assigned to the individual web page. It is available for any web site that you visit. If you are searching for linking partners, higher PageRank web sites are more attractive targets to invest in.

The Google Toolbar offers standard and custom installation options. The standard installation does not offer some of the same useful features as the custom installation includes. To read more about the different Google Toolbar features that are offered or to install this free tool, visit http://toolbar.google.com.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, April 5, 2010

Seodigger

A useful approach to generating keywords for your web site is to analyze where your competitors rank on the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, for keywords that you would like to rank for. There are many search engine optimization tools available to assist you with this goal.

A suggested tool to use is named Seodigger (www.seodigger.com). Seodigger is used to establish how well you rank for specific keywords opposed to your competition. The tool also allows a company to determine additional important aspects, including popularity and an approximate estimate of how much search volume each individual keyword obtains.

Seodigger is available for free. Nonregistered users have the ability to conduct up to five free domain searches every hour, while registered members are allowed up to ten domains per hour. Rankings are pulled from both Google.com and MSN.com.

Another great feature of Seodigger is a function called site-wide search. This feature gives registered members the opportunity to search for the top 20 rankings for every single page of a web site, as opposed to just searching the home page rankings. A valid email address is required to register.

Seodigger also provides you with important information regarding keyword popularity. Keeping track of your competitors’ keyword popularity is crucial because it can be used to determine the relative amount of traffic your competitor is receiving for a particular keyword placement.

New web sites should always invest in some sort of competitor analysis tool. Doing so can help you and your web site out in the long run by providing you with valuable information.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Friday, April 2, 2010

Affiliate Programs for Your Site

A great way to increase or draw in more traffic to your web site is by soliciting others to help bring in the traffic. One method of doing this is by establishing your very own affiliate program.

An affiliate program is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. These types of programs first made their appearance back in 1996 when Amazon.com began offering a commission-based sales program.

Affiliate programs not only help to sell products and services, but it also can assist in strengthening a web sites search engine rankings because of the links that each of the affiliates place on their web sites back to your web site.

Types of Affiliate Websites

Comparison shopping websites and directories
Coupon and rebate
Web blogs
E-mail list affiliates

There are several different types of affiliate programs available. Some, like Amazon.com’s, are commission based while others require you to pay a flat fee (eBay) whenever an affiliate brings in a new customer or a returning customer that makes a bid or purchase.

To create your own affiliate program, you are required to create a process for accepting and processing new affiliate applications, graphics and links, and develop a system for making payments based on results. If you need help getting started, you can visit AffiliateShop (www.affiliateshop.com). This service is not free though, but you can sign up and get your affiliate program started right away.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Outsourcing 101

It may be a good idea to decide on if you and your company will be outsourcing or in-housing professionals to carry out your search engine optimization plan. Your decision may not be an easy one. Your decision will fall solely on your marketing budget, your web site goals, and whether you plan to embark on organic search optimization or paid search advertising.

Every company’s situation and decision will be different depending on capital and the above aspects. It is best to consult with your entire staff before making a final decision. Search engine optimization is not just an IT function, nor does it fall solely on marketing. There are many factors to consider when looking to bring in an outside team or help build the team that you already have.

Since SEO is an ongoing process, the ability to update your content is a great way to stay on top of your SEO efforts. Your in-house is able to do this because they are familiar with your particular industry. Outsourcing may bring in inexperienced writers who are not able to provide accurate content.

If marketing, content, and IT are correctly in sync and have clearly defined goals, SEO can be effectively managed in-house. Even though costs will be lower than hiring an outside team, be aware of whether you can support the internal resources as well.

Ask yourself, will one individual be able to optimize multiple pages, write content and tags, build links, and run reports fast enough to stay competitive? If not, outsourcing may be a better choice.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com