Blogging 101

It is very fortunate for the businesses that are beginning to understand the importance of blogging. The overall idea of blogging makes a lot of sense when you look at it from a marketing and advertising point-of-view. Submitting articles or blogs helps link a company’s web site, encourage potential clients to seek more information regarding them, and gives a business the chance to reach people around the world.

By definition, a blog is a type of web site that includes recurring entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics and video. Most blogs display entries in reverse-chronological order (with the most recent being the first). Often used as a verb, the word “blog” also means to maintain or add content to an actual blog.

A lot of companies prefer to use blogs because it allows them to meet their customers more directly. Unlike flyers or electronic messages, a blog is more interactive and can be visited more frequently.

Search engine optimization professionals recommend that a company post a new blog each day or weekly. Customers and clients like to see updates; it makes them believe that you are serious about your business.

Below is a list of CODANK Charlotte Web Design recommended blog sites:

• Articlesland.com
• Articlesbase.com
• Hubpages.com
• Blogspot.com
• Digg.com
• Technorati.com
• Onlinemarketingconnect.com
• Getyourcontent.com
• Articleblast.com
• Merchantcircle.com
• Populate.net
• Articlepress.com
• Goarticles.com
• Articledashboard.com

About CODANK Web Design

CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.

For more information, visit us at www.codank.com

Where Do Online Users Search?

The World Wide Web has granted users the opportunity to find basically any and every type of web site that is online. Accurately, there are thousands of search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing, which provide the ability to search the Web.

The greater part of online searched are carried out at a small number of search web sites. A great question to ask is, how do the most popular sites rank? The answer depends on how you measure popularity. The term can be measured based the following criteria:

• Total amount of searches conducted
• Total amount of time visitors spend searching at the site
• Total number of site guests
• Audience reach (percentage of site visitors)

All of the above measurements tend to provide slightly different rankings. Below is a list of the Internet’s most popular search sites. The results are based on one month of searches during August of 2007. The study was conducted by Nielson/NetRatings. Roughly 8 billion searches in the U.S. were recorded. The results include:

• Google.com – 53.6%
• Yahoo.com – 19.9%
• MSN.com – 12.9%
• AOL.com – 5.6%
• Ask.com – 1.7%
• My Web Search – 0.9%
• BellSouth Search – 0.5%
• Comcast Search – 0.4%
• My Way – 0.4%
• SBC Yellow Pages Search – 0.4%

Be advised that this is a list of search sites, not search systems. In some cases, the sites own their own systems. Google supplies its own search results, however AOL does not. My Web Search is a metasearch engine receiving results from Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com.

About CODANK Web Design

CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.

For more information, visit us at www.codank.com

Have You Registered Your Business Yet?

It is a small business or entrepreneurs main goal in business it to reach their target audience. Not only is it important to have the top search engines to list their websites, it is also valuable for a business to appear in local search results as well.

It is common for a business to be listed within local search results even if the actual business does not submit their own company information. This happens when major search engines collect data from a variety of sources. As a result, a business description may appear in the local listings.

Search engines such as Google, Bing/MSN, and Yahoo give businesses the option of submitting information regarding their company directly to them. Doing so is a great way to increase the possibility of being found during a local search and expanding the amount of information that is viewed.

Submitting specific information to Google, Bing/MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines is very important. Each engine requires different data, but most of them ask for the same basic information. Below is a list of the typical elements submitted to a local search engine:

• Description of company
• Street address
• Phone and fax numbers
• Year of establishment
• Link to your company website
• Operating hours
• Brands which are sold by you
• Payment methods accepted by your company
• Languages spoken by company

Visit the different search engines listed below to learn more about their local listings.

• Yahoo Local Listings – www.listings.local.yahoo.com
• Google Local Search – www.google.com/local
• MSN Local Search – https://llc.local.live.com/BusinessSearch.aspx
• Ask Local – http://city.ask.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

Free vs. Paid Directories

When trying to determine to go with free or paid directory listings, a company should be clear of their specific needs as a business. Whether which one is better – free or paid – has been an ongoing debate between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals for quite some time. They also fuss about free e-mail versus paid and free website hosting versus paid web hosting.

Below are two lists that include available free and paid directories:

Available Free Directories
• Dmoz.com
• Jayde.com
• Somuch.com
• Webworldindex.com
• Linkcentre.com
• ExactSeek.com

Available Paid Directories
• Yahoo Directory
• Directory Journal
• Best of the Web (BOTW)
• GoGuides.org
• Botlink.org
• Directoryscape.com

The purpose of a directory is to link one site to other websites by categorizing those links. Directories are not the same as search engines and do not provide lists of web pages based on keywords. Instead, a directory lists websites by categories and subcategories.

Several online users believe that free directories have a greater advantage and equate to better quality sites over those that require payment. In truth, many free directories tend to be very strict about listings that are included in their results. Paid directories can be just as careless about the review process as any other directory.

Top Online Directories
• Yahoo Directory – dir.yahoo.com
• SearchSight – www.searchsight.com
• Open Directory Project – www.dmoz.org
• Google Directory – directory.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

Common SEO Mistakes

If you are not familiar with search engine optimization, properly optimizing your web site may become somewhat of a hassle. Many companies and entrepreneurs fail to understand the importance of thoroughly planning in hopes of drawing in traffic. Inexperienced individuals easily make decisions which tend to damage their search engine optimization plan.

According to Wikipedia.org, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid search results.

Similar to other methods and procedures, SEO is governed by rules and regulations. These rules are typically administered by search engines which include: Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN/Bing, etc.

Below are common mistakes made during search engine optimization by many companies and websites.

• Wrong Keywords – be sure to select keywords and phrases which have relevance to your web site.
• Use of Crawler Unfriendly Methods – search engines deal better with HTML text rather than Flash files
• Images instead of Headings – search engines need to read actual content; refrain from posting nothing but images
• Backlink Spamming – quality backlinks are much better than just having numerous backlinks
• JavaScript Menus – crawlers cannot read JavaScript menus; try using a sitemap instead.
• Ignoring URLs – place keywords in an URL; helps with SEO
• Poor Site Promotion – marketing goes beyond just launching a site; try inbound links
• Ignoring Title Tags – a title tag is important because it shows in the search results as your page title
• Thin Content Pages – little to no content is present on the page
• Poor Content Management System – a CMS should be crawler-friendly in order to be beneficial

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

Message Boards

Catching the attention of online users are message boards. The use of message boards can be quite powerful if they are utilized in the proper way. Message boards tend to attract a large amount of traffic, which brings in visitors who are looking to converse.

A message board is also referred to as an Internet forum, online discussion site, and bulletin board system (BBS). Tree-like directories are found within the message board in a place known as a forum or thread. Users then are able to post content inside the threads. Most message boards require membership while some allow for non-registered members to post. Forums are normally organized, driven and updated by a group identified as members, and governed by a moderator.

Members of a message board often share a common bond or social interest. Topics and discussions vary within each forum.

Examples of Online Message Board Sites

• Yahoo
• AOL
• Ancestry.com
• iVillage.com

Eventually, sustaining a message board can help create hundreds of pages with many thousands of keywords used by members – which is good when trying to build a site’s search engine optimization (SEO) ranking.

Message board systems are inexpensive and often free. They are easy to set up and are creative ways to increase a website’s content.

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

Website Content Do's and Don'ts

When preparing written content for you business’s web site, be sure to use the following guidelines (provided by The Truth About Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Lieb) to help you create well-organized copy that is intended for both your audience as well as search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, etc.):

Use proper keywords and phrases – Prior to writing any content, make sure you have thoroughly researched the keywords and phrases that are appropriate for your web site and viewers. The words should match what your target audience is typing in search query boxes when they are searching for information, products, or services.

Place keywords and phrases high on the page – Not all search engine crawlers spider their way to the bottom of a page, so use your keywords and phrases towards the beginning of a web page.

Be descriptive – Try not to refer to yourself as “our team”. Instead, say CODANK Charlotte Web Design. Use the term wherever possible.

Use phrases instead of single keywords – Not all searchers type single-word queries, so you should use phrases whenever appropriate. “Minority Business Loans” is more relevant to a searcher than “loans.”

Don’t use text as a graphic – Search engines can not read images. They only read text. When placing graphics on a page, be sure to use proper naming and tagging of the file.

Provide a physical location – Viewers and search engines need more information than “our office.” Try to incorporate a complete physical address, postal code, and phone number with area code.

Check your spelling – Do not rely on your viewers to correct your mistakes. Take the time to go through all of your pages in order to detect any errors. You do not want the “did you mean..?” message to appear at the top of search results pages!

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

Don't Make These Common SEO Mistakes

Properly targeting your key audience and hoping to draw them in to your web site is one of the main purposes of search engine optimization (also known as SEO). The biggest challenges in search engine optimization centers around businesses not understanding the importance of this concept. SEO can be demanding at times if you are not familiar with its practices.

According to Wikipedia.org, search engine optimization (SEO) is defined as the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or web page from search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. This can be done via natural or unpaid search results.

It is highly recommended to hire a professional search engine optimization professional if your company is not aware of the proper practices. Doing so will save you a lot of time and patience. The cost of an experienced SEO specialist varies, and it all depends on how successful you are aiming to become.

Below is a list of the top common mistakes made by companies during their search engine optimization. The items include:

•Wrong Keywords – Choose keywords and phrases that are related to your web site.
•Images instead of Headings – Search engines need to read actual content; try to avoid posting nothing but photos and images.
•Backlink Spamming – Quality backlinks are much better than just having numerous backlinks. Before backlinking to a web site, check to see how high or low their PageRank is.
•Ignoring Title Tags – A title tag is important because it shows in the search results as your page title. Add proper title tags when creating your web pages.

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

Checking on Your Website Listings

You may have recently submitted you new web site to the top search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing/MSN. It is now time to keep an eye on its progress within each search engine. Generally, you will want to know when it is listed and exactly who is linking to it.

There is a slight chance that your web site will not get listed on one or more search engines. This can be due to:

•A simple oversight
•URL was mistyped
•The search engine found some broken links or other related errors
•Engines have not crawled your web site yet

There are different ways to check on the status of your web site submission at various search engines. Because Yahoo and Google are the two most popular search engines, you will want to keep tabs on them first. But, don’t forget about Bing/MSN because it is quickly growing in popularity as well.

The easiest way to search for your page is to visit each search engine and enter the URL of your main page and other web pages that you wish to check on. For example, to see if Google search engine has listed any web pages for www.codank.com, you would enter the same exact URL into the search box. Also, be sure to check on your competitors in order to see if they are listed.

Being indexed does take some time. It is best to allow 4 to 6 weeks for your web site to appear in search engines before trying to resubmit.

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

Guidelines for Successful Indexing

Successfully indexing your web site to different search engines is very important because it is the only way that your potential visitors will be able to find you. Actually submitting your web site is simple, but having the search engine index you requires effort.

As a designer or webmaster, there are a few guidelines that will assist in successful indexing. CODANK Charlotte Web Design recommends following the guidelines below. They might help search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and other web crawlers, effectively index and rank your web site.

Recommendations and Guidelines for Indexing a Website

Fix any broken links. If you do not fix them accordingly, search engines might now be able to index your site effectively, therefore preventing visitors from reaching all of your web pages.
Use HTML codes that are well organized. Be sure to include proper tags that are closed and links open the correct web page.
Keep all URLs short and simple. Shorter URLs make it easier for search engines to crawl and also for visitors to remember. Tip: do not change URLs often.
Include keywords and phrases in your content that visitors might choose to search with.
Include at least one type of link on each web page.
Provide a sitemap that includes all of your web pages.
Only cover one topic on each page. All pages should be a reasonable size. Any size less than 150 KB is recommended.
Make each page no more than three clicks away from the home 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

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

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

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

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

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

The Importance of Blogging

Blogs are a great way to enhance search engine optimization strategies in today’s Internet world. Posting content to outside bloggers, as well as hosting and maintaining your very own blog, are tactful ways that all search engine optimization professionals should consider.

A web blog is described as a collection of text, images, and video that is usually updated in chronological order on a daily or weekly basis. The activity of updating the content is known as blogging.

It is said that blog platforms are built for search. By adding content, names, tags, keywords, and links to a blog are all ways to increase the chances of you being found. Visitors are able to find you through search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, or through other blog sites.

A majority of web blogs are free and easy-to-use. On the other hand, some web sites require you to pay a fee per post or just a flat fee.

Free Available Web Blogs

Technorati.com
ArticleWarehouse.com
ArticlesBase.com
Wordpress.com
Soulcast.com
Blog.com
Populate.com
OnlineMarketingConnect.com
GoArticles.com
ArticleLoft.com
ArticleZones.com

The following are a few ways in which blogs should be part of a company’s search engine optimization plan:

RSS – Rich Site Summary feeds syndicated content to search engines, as well as other web properties
Inbound links – Most bloggers tend to link to one another, as well as to news, social media, and websites. External blogs are a great source for inbound links. It is a possibility that a link can go to either your web site or to your very own blog.
Frequent updates – Keeping updated content is what attracts more search engine crawlers to your web site.
Internal links – Creating deep links within your content can help with visibility and awareness.

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

What is Keeping Your Site From Being Listed?

Registering with search engines can be a challenging task. You may find yourself registering your web site with a search engine only to find out a few days or weeks later that your site is nowhere to be found in the search engine’s database. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, have several reasons why not list a web site, but the main reason normally centers around the site’s URL.

To avoid being rejected by a search engine, there are a few things to take into consideration. The first is to make sure that your web site’s URL can be read or used. To avoid this problem, ensure that you type the entire URL to your web site. Be sure to use the proper cases since some can be case-sensitive.

For example, some web servers might consider the URLs www.example.com/HOME and www.example.com/home as being different web pages.

It is also a good idea to watch the language rules of the URL. Some search engines will not use a URL that includes reserved characters, such as:

= Equal Sign
$ Dollar Sign
? Question Mark

Additional reasons why a web site would not get indexed include:

The usage of frames
The usage of scripts
The usage of graphics-only pages
A Robots.txt file

Be sure to consult with a search engine optimization professional that is aware of proven techniques for improving your standing in the search engines. There are many methods that can help you get indexed and receive high rankings.

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

Correctly Structuring Your URLs

Structuring your web sites URL correctly is very important. Both search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, and search engine users take URL structure into consideration when they make decisions about your web site’s significance and authority.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is defined as a subset of the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource (web site) is available and the mechanism for retrieving it.

URL Examples

http://www.codank.com
http://www.codank.com/blogs/

The way that you structure your URL can affect both your rankings as well as the percentage of people who click your link, as known as click-through rate. Search engine optimization professionals suggest placing relevant keywords into page URLs. These relevant keywords should be associated with the written content seen on the page.

All URL structures should be organized and labeled appropriately. For example, if you are an art store, your web site’s urban art section should be located at www.example.com/urban, and your web site’s pastel paintings should be located at www.example.com/pastel.

Structuring your web site as stated above creates an easy, organized, user-friendly web site navigation system. Search engines can easily located your content-rich page and relate it back to its parent category. Users of search engines prefer to view clean, well-structured URLs when searching for a page.

Having a well thought out and organized URL structure can also open doors for other advertising campaigns. These campaigns can include paid search, or pay-per-click (PPC), advertising campaigns.

To learn more about structuring URLs correctly, be sure to read Search Engine Optimization by Kristopher B. Jones.

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

Write Content for Your Visitors, Not for Search Engines

When structuring a web site, it is best to write content geared to your visitors and just not for search engines. Google and Yahoo award high rankings to web sites that provide the most relevant and valuable information to their users. High ranking can be achieved by placing keywords and phrases into original, well-written content.

A web site owner’s search engine optimization (SEO) campaign goal should be to achieve top, organic rankings with the Internet’s most popular search engines. Content is not the only factor that search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, take into account when ranking a web site, but it is the most important.

Strive to obtain organic rankings for your web site by writing original content that has quality and also contains the keywords and phrases in which you want to rank for.

Tips on Writing Content (Provided by Search Engine Optimization by Kristopher B. Jones)

Write useful and informative content – make sure that your content is informative, to the point, and easy to read.
Keep content original, persuasive, and natural – search engines typically rank these types of sites the highest.
Structure your content with your reader in mind – it is important to outline and structure your content to as helpful as possible.
Avoid poor grammar – search engines tend to devalue sites with awkward sentences and many errors.
Using bold-type headings – provide bold headings to point out important parts of your content
Using call-to-action statements – provide readily accessible options.
Write with an original voice – write your content with a powerful voice
Write interesting content in a friendly tone – use the tone of your writing to capture your readers’ attention.

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

Basic Web Structure

The chances of search engines successfully locating and indexing your web site all lies within optimizing its basic structure. Search engine ranking algorithms, such as Google and Yahoo, analyze several on-site elements when trying to determine where a web page ranks for certain search terms and phrases. These factors normally include:

Web site content
Domain name
Browser capability
Web site structure
Navigational linking structure
Page accessibility
Credibility

There are several ways to efficiently optimize for the factors listed above. These things include: choosing reliable web hosting, choosing an appropriate domain name, optimizing your web site for all web browsers, creating logical site structure and navigational menus, generating a sitemap, and creating an About Us page and a privacy policy page.

A well laid out design and structure helps to improve any businesses or entrepreneur’s performance of their web site and also helps users to navigate it, allowing search engines to better find and index all of the written content which is included on the web site.

You should ask yourself the following questions during the web design process:

Is my site appealing to visitors?
Is my web site search engine friendly?

Web Site Structure Basics to Consider During Your SEO Process

Find a web host
Establish a domain name
Plan and design a web site structure
Optimize within multiple browsers
Design a sitemap
Create a contact us page
Create a privacy policy
Link within subject matter themes

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