Friday, July 16, 2010

What is a RSS Feed?

Rich Site Summary, also referred to as RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document is also referred to as a feed, web feed, or channel. It includes full or condensed text, publishing dates, and authorship.

Web feeds help publishers by letting them automatically syndicate content. This is beneficial to readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from preferred websites or to combine feeds from many sites into one place.

Why Use RSS

RSS is the simple solution for people who use the web on the regular. It allows these users to easily stay informed by recovering the latest content from the sites which they are most interested in. People who use RSS save time by not having to visit each site separately. Because you don’t have to commit to any newsletter nor provide personal information, your privacy is ensured. Sites such as Yahoo News and Google News offer RSS feeds.

RSS is shaping up to be a very popular and useful means for communicating. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.

Commonly Mentioned Uses

•Notification of the arrival of new products in a store
•Listing and notifying you of newsletter issues, including email newsletters
•Weather and other alerts of changing conditions
•Notification of additions of new items to a database, or new members to a group

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, July 15, 2010

Are You Using Effective Keyword Marketing?

When you have decided to use keyword marketing to optimize your company’s web site, there is a chance that you may run into a few problems. Regardless of your best efforts, it is probable that the keywords and phrases you have selected are not producing the results you expected – traffic is not flowing in like it should. On the other hand, specific words that have worked in the beginning can just stop working for you. You can tell when this occurs because the numbers associated with your keywords and phrases decrease without warning.

There are many factors that can transpire and cause certain keywords to quit being as effective as they were in the earlier period. It isn’t always your fault, but you should always try to develop concepts, test, and implement new keywords for you PPC programs and for your web site.

Keyword Tips:

•Combine and analyze the results
•Create a keyword list
•Pick your keywords and use them on your web site

Trying to come up with the perfect combination of keywords and phrases to drive in traffic to your site is one of the biggest challenges of SEO. It is not something that you just jump into one day and then expect to be successful. It’s better to start off slow and build your way to greater success.

Brainstorming and asking potential visitors what they look for when searching the Internet is one way to build a winning keyword strategy. You can also include all of the suggested words and phrases by keywords suggestion and search engine tools. Make sure that the words are relevant to the content of your web site or else it will affect your site ranking.

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, July 14, 2010

Keyword Density

The importance of keyword density varies from one search engine optimization professional to another. The term is difficult to measure. Overall, it is a great way to determine the number of times that keywords appear on the page, versus the amount of words on an actual web page.

Keyword density example:

Shine (a diamond jeweler) has a single web page that contains 2,000 words of text. Their prime keyword, diamond, appears on that page 14 times. 14/2000 = 0.007%

Please keep in mind that a keyword is normally a single word, not a keyword phrase which may consist of more than one word.

Many search engine optimization professionals are indifferent with the importance of a keyword density percentage. Some argue that it should be around five to seven percent, while others say that it should be much higher or even lower.

Even though there is no common ground as to what a keyword density should be, web site designers and copywriters should still be aware of how often they use a specific keyword. Too much keyword density can be looked at as keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing is defined as an unethical search engine optimization (seo) technique. This occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content – repetition of words. Google and other search engines do not give good rankings to pages that use this type of technique. To many it is called SEO Spam.

Analyzing the keyword density of competitors is possible simply by viewing the source code on their page.

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, July 13, 2010

Heuristics 101

A web site should always be designed for the customer (first) and then for search engines. A company should never create a site simply to rank number one in search results. Keeping the client in mind means that the web site needs to be user-friendly – none of them should have to know much about anything in order to navigate your site.

According to Search Engine Optimization Bible by Jerri L. Ledford, Jacob Nielson created a list of ten items that when included in web site design would make a site more usable for individuals. He coined this list heuristics. This term means the ability recognize a pattern and being able to solve a problem or come to a conclusion quickly and efficiently. You can do so by using what you already know about that particular pattern.

Using heuristics is not always the most accurate way to solve a problem. It is important in search engine optimization (SEO) because it permits variations in the way that users search for specific keywords and phrases.

The heuristics list is stated below:

System status – the user should always know what is going on through feedback from the system. It should be provided in a timely manner.

User control and freedom – provided the ability to undo and redo an action due to a mistake. It is best to have back and forward buttons in a web browser.

Error prevention – design your web site with the prevention of errors in mind.

Match between the system and the real world – all systems should speak the language of the user in mind. Do not get too technical when it comes to keywords and phrases.

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, July 12, 2010

Tips for Web Branding

Investing in an online website is possibly one of the best decisions a company could ever make. Establishing an online presence is just as important as the overall web branding. Creating a web brand is an excellent way to stay a step further than your competitors.

Branding can come in the form of a slogan, symbol, name, or color combination. Web branding is not that much different from what you may see in a newspaper, local magazine, or on television. When using a slogan, symbol, name or color combination as a brand, you are packaging all of the associations, experiences, and characteristics into an abstract construct.

A company’s online brand should be just as eye-catching as their print brand. Whether it’s a logo, phrases, or imagery, the brand should consist of an idea in which will intrigue potential clients.

Below are a few web branding tips provided by CODANK Charlotte Web Design. We advise you to take into consideration each tip before launching your online brand.

Consistency – Make your brand memorable. Make sure to be consistent in your web design when you’re building it. Keep consistent colors, visuals and typography.

Uniqueness – Differentiate your web page and brand from your competitors. If you don’t, it won’t really be memorable!

Color Combination– Choosing the right color is very important. Color stimulates emotions and carried with it subconscious associations to numerous things and characteristics.

Position and Size – Position your logo in the upper left area of the webpage – that is the area most people look to see what site they’re on.

Character – Give your brand character. You can do this by introducing it with a little personality; something that your audience can associate their selves with.

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, July 9, 2010

Online Communication Software

Social sites such as Facebook, eBay, and Amazon.com are helping the growing number of people who use computer-mediated communication. This is true because these web sites would not be able to function without software systems that allow their users to interact and share data.

Both interactive and communication tools make up a social software application. Interactive tools are necessary for mediated interactions between two or more users. These types of tools focus on establishing and maintaining a connection among viewers, lessening the mechanics of conversation and talk. Communication tools typically carry out the storing, capturing, and presentation of messages (written, audio and video).

Types of Online Communication Tools

•Instant Messaging – communication with another person in real time.
•Blogs – (web logs) online journals for a particular person.
•Forums – electronic bulletin boards
•Text Chat – normally associated with chat rooms; communication with many people at once, publicly.

Online communication can take place both at work and at home. Many businesses choose to use communication software for internal use. Below are a few examples of both business and social online communication software products and services:

•AIM Pro
•Google Wave
•HUD
•MSN Messenger
•IBM Lotus Sametime
•AOL Instant Messenger

Recently developed social software called Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. The software is receiving great reviews.

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, July 8, 2010

Potential Linking Partners

Similar to other analysis that your company uses to grow as an online business, evaluating potential linking partners is no different. Before deciding to backlink with another web site, you must determine if the link is of good quality (along with other important qualities).

A link partnership is defined as a mutual link between two web sites. The link is typically done to ensure mutual traffic. Search engine optimization professionals recommend that the two web sites which are linking to one another should contain related content.

A top factor that should not be overlooked is the age of the domain in which a company would like to acquire a link from. Google prefers older domains over ones that have recently been registered. Acquiring a link to a web site that was registered in 1994 has a greater effect on a company’s organic rankings than a link from a domain that was registered this past month.

A second factor is PageRank. Linking to web sites with low PageRanks should be avoided at all cost. A PageRank value can be any number from 0 to 10 based on a calculation of the quantity and quality of backlinks. The higher the number and quality of backlinks, the higher the PageRank can be.

Search engines suggest attaining as many links as possible from educational and governmental establishments. These web sites are less likely to link to low quality pages than a typical .com or .net domain.

Try to focus on obtaining links from pages that already rank well for the keywords and phrases in which your web site is targeting. Some of their authority can be passed on to your own 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

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Why Value Project Management

A lot of companies are beginning to adopt the project management concept. Even if you are comfortable with the way your business is operating, there is always room for improvement. While you may not like constraints, the competitive environment which you are in entails a more disciplined approach to gaining market share or even surviving.

According to Just Enough Project Management by Curtis R. Cook, there are also other specific reasons to why companies should use project management. These reasons are as follows:

It identifies a point of contact and accountability for the total success of the project

By placing one person in charge, workers know who to go to with questions during design, development, production, test, and deployment. They are given authority and liability throughout the entire project.

It focuses on meeting the needs and expectations of customers

A project manager is authorized to understand the requirements needed to fully satisfy potential and current customers.

It improves performance in time, cost, and technical areas

If a project managers only purpose is to complete a task, then he or she has no other choice but to get it done accordingly. Finishing a project in due time is easier for experienced individuals.

It reinforces project teams and improves morale

Constrained environments mostly create an immediate performance challenge. The outcome normally helps project teams work together a lot better than functional teams.

It manages risks

During project planning, the team is able to brainstorm any possible negative impacts (lack of resources, bad weather, indecisive customers, etc.) and then give responses before performance begins. This will result in fewer surprises and disasters that threaten project completion.

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, July 6, 2010

Steps to Managing Multiple Projects

Juggling multiple projects can be a hassle for both a company and its project manager. A highly trained and skilled manager should be able to organize a proper plan to help reduce the stress of many projects. Below are five easy steps that will assist in managing overload and overlapping tasks. The steps are provided by Just Enough Project Management by Curtis R. Cook.

Five Steps to Coping with Project Overload

Step One: Compile a list of all your projects – In addition to listing your current projects, it is also best to complete a project task worksheet for each project. Make sure that it is clear as to which phase or step you are currently in.

Step Two: Distinguish the next step for each project – looking at next steps can lessen a surplus to a manageable size. Occasionally, the work that we have not begun becomes (in our minds) a huge responsibility.

Step Three: Identify the “quick hits” – Ask yourself this question, out of all of your tasks, what are the 20 percent that would give you an immediate substantial boost in gaining control of your overload?

Will a small amount of time keep the project moving forward?

Is the project almost complete?

Are you delayed because you need a decision or lack clarity?

If you answer all of these questions with a yes, be sure to place these tasks at the top of the list.

Step Four: Prioritize the remainder of the steps – After choosing your “quick hits”, now is important to see if there are any remaining steps you can get rid of or wait until later to complete.

Step Five: Schedule each task weekly, and be able to display your workload

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, July 2, 2010

Changing URLs

There are many ways to make your web site rank a lot better in search engines. One place to start is by modifying your URL structure and making it more search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. Doing this incorrectly can cost you your present rankings and it could take months to make a complete recovery.

According to Wikipedia, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. An URL example is:

http://www.example.com

Before actually changing your entire URL structure, it is best to make sure that it is worth doing. Below are a few tips and information needed to make a decision. Sticking to this checklist will help to reduce your ranking drops.

Change from a dynamic URL structure to a static URL structure
Creating a static URL that is descriptive and search engine optimization friendly will help you in the long run. It will also give you one URL for each product or page on your web site.

Make all URLs more search engine optimization friendly
Do not create any URLs that aren’t able to explain what each page is all about. Below is an example of a bad URL:

http://www.example.com/store/prod1.html

We recommend that you use appropriate keywords and phrases in your URL to improve its SEO efforts. This will also make them more user-friendly for visitors.

Use 301 redirects in place of old URLs
Once you have changed your URLs, be sure to put 301s in place to redirect all of the old URLs to the new URLs.

Update internal links
All internal links should point to the new URLs. This will eliminate any confusion and will add to your internal link value. Placing 301 redirects isn’t going to solve this issue.

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, July 1, 2010

Video Optimization

All of the content that is posted on your web site needs to be found by potential visitors. There is no way that they’re going to find you if your content is not optimized. Similar to written content (or text), the video files you decide to use should be optimized as well to get traffic to your web site.

More and more users are getting broadband access, which means that video usage is continuing to grow. Even though video optimization is in the early stages, it is still very important. Search engine crawlers cannot look inside a video to tell what the content is. As a result, they depend on other page factors to determine what the video is about. These factors include:

•Meta data
•Filenames
•Inbound links
•Anchor text

There are three different types of video optimization scenarios:

•Hosting the video on your own site
•Submitting an RSS or MRSS feed to a third party site
•Uploading a video to another site

Below are some video optimization tips for businesses that are in the early stage. Be sure to read over all of the information to ensure proper optimization of your videos.

•Create videos that present a clear message about your brand.
•Choose a preferred format, such as .mov, .avi, or .wmv.
•Use keywords in the filename, URL, and the link text of the file.
•Allowing visitors to rate and comment on your video will help draw in attention from search engine crawlers.
•Take advantage of thumbnails – visitors like to watch snippets so they can decide if they want to watch the full clip.
•Keep the length of the video to 5 minutes or less.

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