SEO Tips to Improve Your Rankings

Posted August 20, 2009, under Articles, SEO
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I would like to share with you a few tips to make your site SEO friendly and to score better with no minimum SEO skills on your end. Positioning on search engines can rely exclusively but not wholly to a few critical factors known as onsite (internal SEO) and offsite (external SEO). Internal SEO can be all the content your website contains from navigation building, text, images, layout, structure and more) Below are a few factors that can help your site to score better with no minimum SEO skills on your end.

Keyword selection and research

Take all the time available to research for all your keywords and phrases to use for your SEO campaign; keywords that best describes your area of business, products/services you are trying to promote.

Amount of text per page

Search Engines love pages with a broad content. A website with a long text content and information is in a good chance to get a better ranking than a competitor website with poor content. It is best advised that you can increase your content and text up to 2000 words per page. Write as much as you can about your business, services and use at least 3-4 times the keywords that you are targeting.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a combination of the number of times a keyword or a phrase appears on your page. The more times the keyword is repeated on your page, the more will its density will be. In a 100 word content, a keyword that repeats 6 times counts 6% in density. The less the density is means that search engine will ignore the term in a search on the particular keyword or phrase. It is best advised to keep your keyword density between 5-7%. Anything over can flag as spam, best known as keyword stuffing

Title and “Alt” Tags in images

When it comes to images used in your website, search engines do not have the ability to read images so it is very important to keep a clear and descriptive title on all your images used in your website, typically in a one sentence of 20-30 characters if possible.

Use text for navigation

As i previously said, search engines do not have the ability to read image content to your website. If your navigation menu consists of images for any reason, search engines will not be able to index the text used on images and it’s links. It is best advised to build your navigation with text links instead of pictures.

Use a Breadcrumb Trail (Internal Navigation) for every page created

Breadcrumb Trail is a navigation aid that gives users a way to keep track of their location within a website. Using Breadcrumb trails on all pages is a clearcut, standardized way of backtracking from any page, back to the homepage or reversed. You follow the breadcrumb trail back home, so to speak. This is a great way of “explaining” your site structure to Google and other search engines. A breadcrumb Trail helps to keep your website well organized and structured to search engines

Choose a keyword rich domain to use for your website

Choosing a keyword rich domain related to your targeted keywords can be another significant and important tip to achieve better rankings on search engines. Search engines tend to trigger keywords used in your metatags (keywords,description,title) but also in your domain used for your website as well. Go and search for a term or keyword in Google or any other search engine and you will notice that some of your results are triggered exclusively on their domains used rather than their description and titles instead.

Header Tags

Header tags are heading tags in HTML that search engines pay critical attention to them. There are 6 predifined headings, ranging from to which tells a visitor and search engines the topic of the web page. It is best advised that you highlight your main titles and assign a header tag on each giving priority to your main title where H1 and H2 are the strongest and most significant header tags to use in SEO. It is also recommended that you use keywords in your headings for maximum visibility and exposure of your primary targeted keywords.

Avoid Hidden Text

Hidden text is when a text has a similar color to your background color and in result it is invisible to humans to see but visible to search spiders to read. Due to an increase use of hidden text by spammers to increase and boost their keyword triggers on a search, all major engines changed their policy when it comes to hidden text crawls. Consequently, the use of hidden text may result in banning your site from any search engine and should be avoided.

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The Reverse Engineering of a Super Tag Ink

Posted July 23, 2009, under Caffeinated Content, Fun Stuff, My Stuff
6 comments

I just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on while you’re waiting for the latest and greatest.

As the post title says, I was involved in the reverse engineering of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century: the Super Tag Ink.

For those that aren’t privy to what exactly the Super Tag Ink is, it’s one of those things that the department stores put on their clothes so nobody tries to run off with them.  Yeah, one of THOSE things.  If you’re a shoplifter, chances are you’re very familiar with these things and should be involved in this project–I’ll gladly give up my position.

Anyway, my wife bought one of the kids an outfit in TJ Max (hah, one outfit?  I don’t think so–let’s take it one step further.  Shopping spree on J’s card!).  Unfortunately, the checkout clerk neglected to remove the tag on this particular outfit.  A few weeks later, I’m trying to dress the kid to send to daycare and I stumble across this hunk of plastic.  Sorry, no photos.  I didn’t decide to take pictures until after the reverse-engineering.  I can’t exactly hold a camera and do complicated important stuff like that, can I?  NO!

My first thought was to just leave it attached–what’s the harm?  In fact, it might deter some would-be child thieves…or not.  Deciding it would probably be a bit uncomfortable to the lad, my wife suggested I take i over to TJ Max and have them remove it.  Calmly, I replied with something to the effect of furthering scientific studies of ink tags or some silly tripe like that.  Basically, I just wanted to break it.

Not thinking of the risks of bodily-harm involved, I promptly got out the needle-nose pliers, a big knife and some hedge clippers (no idea why I have hedge clippers living in NYC where there are no hedges, but hey, they got the job done).  At first, my goal was to simply get the thing off the outfit.  It’d be too hard to cover up the evidence, and my wife would say something like, “I told you…!” or “Why don’t you ever listen to me?!”

After a bit of plastic surgery, I had the thing in bits and safely separated from the clothing.  No more danger of getting ink on anything but myself and the floor.  Here’s how it looked after I finally had a free hand to pick up the camera:

Reverse-Engineered Supertag Ink
Reverse-Engineered Super Tag Ink

Sure I could have been gentle, but then this thing quite possible reanimated into a Super Tag zombie or something.  Total decapitation and dismemberment is what I was aiming for.  The next step will be to separate the parts amongst several TJ Max’s to spread the word…but I digress.

Really, I suppose I’m a bit dissapointed that this thing is no marvel of modern engineering.  A simple clutch mechanism holds the pin in, and a completely separate container holds the ink and an RFID tag (just in case it escapes, I guess).  One thing I found a bit silly was the rubber ink condom holding the glass vial:

Ink Condom - To protect the ink vial from some sort of ink vial STD?
The Ink Condom – To protect the ink vial from some sort of ink vial STD?
Hmmmm...
Hmmmm…
Dangerous Business...
Dangerous Business…

I suppose maybe it protects TJ Max from lawsuits would-be shoplifters impaling themselves with glass shards while trying to remove the tag. Ahh, what a country.

Anyway, there really isn’t too much more to talk about.  It’s a simple device with one or two neat little features, but nothing to write home about!

That being said–Caffeinated Content 3.38b, today or tomorrow. :)

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From the Heart…

Posted April 28, 2009, under Caffeinated Content, My Stuff
33 comments

CAUTION: This post is probably might be oozing a little more than people are used to from my blog…

Anyway, last year, June 17, 2008, to be exact, my wife and I were gifted with a baby boy. As an added surprise, he was born with Down Syndrome. Immediately, we were hit with the full range of emotions, the usual happy giddyness that comes with having a child, the anger and frustration about not knowing about the diagnosis beforehand (a whole saga in itself), the worry about what the future will hold for him.

To this day, ten months later, I look at what is perhaps the sweetest little boy in the world and I still tear up while trying to put the “what ifs” out of my mind.

Dane

Here is an essay I recently stumbled across that sums up my thoughts and feelings quite well. The author is/was a Sesame Street writer with a son with Down Syndrome:

Welcome to Holland

by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome To Holland”.

“Holland?!?” you say, “What do you mean “Holland”??? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills…Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned”.

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.

© 1987, by Emily Perl Kingsley

Health-wise, we’ve been lucky so far…through countless specialist appointments, he has been cleared of most issues associated with Down Syndrome. His heart and kidneys are good. He’s got little glasses to correct for far-sighted vision, and hopefully get rid of his eye-crossing. Through the New York State funded early-intervention program (which has been a bureaucratic horror show–it’s just now getting better), we have a handful of different therapists working with him at the house. It’s a rare day when there isn’t a therapist around for an hour or so. Even at 10 months of age, our intent is to give him the best shot at normalcy as we can.

Anyway, even so young, he has a personality that just begs to be mushed up, and he’s perfectly happy to let even perfect strangers cuddle and hold him, offering up tons of smiles and baby talk and wet, slobbery baby kisses. While he’s awake, it’s impossible to ignore him–not because he’s crying (a very rare occasion), but because he’s so cutely irresistible. Thus, the only time I seem to get work done these days is when he’s asleep.

I don’t know if anyone remembers a year and a half ago while I was still advertising on the Warrior Forum practically giving away Caffeinated Content as a WSO, I would take 10% of my sales and donate them to various charities. One of the most rewarding charities involved providing needy children with Christmas gifts and has become an annual family thing, now. In the name of Caffeinated Content, I’ve also donated a tidy sum to Autism Speaks. Now, though, I think it’s appropriate to direct a portion of future sales to one of the major Down Syndrome organizations. So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next indefinite period of time. :)

Strangely enough, even with all these words, this post just seems unfinished. I guess if I figure out why, I’ll revise it. :)

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PHP Script Security Revisited

Posted April 15, 2009, under Caffeinated Content, My Stuff
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So back in the day when I first started building Caffeinated Content for WordPress, it occured to me that I should include some sort of registration scheme so I could protect my interests.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve walked on both sides of the tracks.  I whole-heartedly believe in a try before you buy software system (though demo videos largely fill this void in certain niches).  I hate large software companies that put out a new and improved version of their software every year or so and charge hundreds of dollars for the upgrade (Adobe, I’m looking at you).  These days, though, now that I’ve been out scraping by in the real world for a decade or so, if I use something, I’ll pay for it.

In terms of Caffeinated Content piracy, I’m thinking of dropping the registration requirement.  In other words, if you have the script, you will be able to run it without it calling home to tell me what’s going on.  This’ll remove the single largest support request I get… but also affords me no way to attempt to keep people honest.

I’ve also resigned myself to the fact that if it’s written in PHP and given to a 3rd party, there is no good way to secure it.  All PHP securing methods are largely innefectual and broken by nature…

Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

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Whew! Spying on Anyone’s Google Adwords?

Posted February 4, 2009, under Fun Stuff, Reviews
11 comments

Everyone should know by now that I don’t take product recommendations light-heartedly.  Well, unless it’s my own product, but that’s another story…  It’s just not something that’s happened more than a handful of times here on Kansieo.com–this is a place for my personal diversions, not a big ol’ money-making affiliate site, and really, I’d like to keep it that way.

That being said, this is not something I’m doing for a profit…this is a free product I’m recommending.  You may have heard of it through the buzz over the past couple of days.

It’s called PPC Web Spy by Brad Callen.  I had basically ignored the emails and chalked them up to the usual tripe that gets sent around, but then, while talking to a friend, he told me that I absolutely NEEDED to take a look at it right away.

So I did.

Woah!

Not only is this absolutely wonderful and amongst the best keyword tools I’ve used, but…

It’s genuinely FREE!

For any search results you run in Google, it’ll literally SPY on the Adwords results quickly providing a list of keywords and a bunch of other stuff.  If you’re into arbitrage, let nothing get in your way to get this now.  Heck, if you’re into any sort of internet marketing, this will pay for itself instantly–hah, because yes, it’s free!

Sure, it’s been done before–but never in a free bit of software!

Anyway, if you haven’t already, you can download it here now: http://kansieo.com/likes/ppcwebspy/

Not sure how long that link will stay up, so you might want to take a look at it right away!

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Back From Lake Tahoe

Posted January 27, 2009, under Fun Stuff, My Stuff, SEO, Wordze
5 comments

I’m back from Lake Tahoe in one piece!  All I can say is that I nearly wept when I pulled out of the hotel parking lot on my way back to the Reno airport.  The entire area is simply breathtakingly beautiful.  Here’s a picture from the summit of Heavenly ski resort looking over at the lake…taken from my G1, surprisingly good picture from a camera phone.  Yes, those are my skiboards in the foreground.

Lake Tahoe on skiboards

Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe (I can't tell if the lake is tilting or if it's just the way I'm holding the camera...)

Unfortunately, they hadn’t received fresh snow for almost a month, but conditions were good nonetheless.  I guess the grooming team is able to push snow where it needs it most.  Anyway…you definitely can’t beat the 45F temperature at nearly 10,000′.

So I went to Lake Tahoe with a pinched nerve in my neck that radiated across my shoulder and down my left arm.  I’ve been dealing with it since just after Christmas, trying to do what I can, but sitting seems to aggravate it most.  No over the counter pain relief helped at all.  About a week before my departure, I went to a local chiropractor in hopes of relieving some of the pain before my trip–after all, I can’t imagine a ski trip without skiing would be very much fun…    Anyway, he was able to take some of the pressure off of the nerve, providing some relief…unfortunately, apparently my shoulder muscles are all out of whack, seemingly pulling in the opposite direction they’re supposed to.  Well, it’s a good thing my Lake Tahoe hotel (Harrah’s) had a nice spa with some awesome massage therapists who were able to relax those uncooperative muscles to make them at least semi-usable.  So it was ski during the day, massage in the afternoon, eat a small dinner (tough at Harrah’s awesome Forest Buffet) and then crash before having a chance to spend any money at the casino…probably a good thing!

Now that I’m back, I went to the chiropractor this morning, and he did some adjusting and deep tissue stuff…overall I’m feeling better.  It’s not terrible pain for the most part, it’s just always there, and it makes doing stuff with my left arm difficult.  Not to mention it gets worse as I sit longer.

So that’s that.  I’m going to try and rip through the pile of support tickets I have before it becomes too aggravated, if it feels like I’m ignoring you, I’m not…just ask my family. ;)

Oh yeah, I’ve got some cool stuff to show for my time away.  It wasn’t all playtime, honest!

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Sanity break…Lake Tahoe

Posted January 13, 2009, under Fun Stuff, My Stuff
5 comments

All work and no play make for a grumpy Jason.

Friday, I’ll be flying out of here (Shittown, USA.  AKA NYC) to Lake Tahoe for a few days of skiing and a few nights of work.  Since I’m going alone, leaving the family at home, you can expect a new release of Caffeinated Content to show up soon upon my return to this uncivilized city of corrupt stockbrokers and government officials.  For some reason, my wife isn’t nearly as excited about my trip as I am…oh well. ;)

I’m excited to take my skiboards out on a real mountain–yes, that’s right, I said skiboards.  If you like to ski, these puppies will up your game phenomonally.  Heck, if you’ve never skied before, a pair of these will have you rockin’ the intermediate hills in a day.

If anyone happens to be in the area, hit me up.  I’ll buy your Heavenly lift ticket ($82, first couple of people to email me get in) and we can talk shop on the lift.  You’re responsible for your own equipment (as well as your own well-being), though, so this is not an offer for unseasoned skiers/boarders.

Heavenly Ski Resort

Heavenly Ski Resort

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That Darn Caffeinated Content Update!

Posted January 2, 2009, under Caffeinated Content
3 comments

Finally, it’s here!  There are a couple of major issues that this update will fix, including the recent issue of articles not being posted with titles (as a Christmas gift, articlesbase.com changed their return html…thanks ArticlesBase! ;) .  Images weren’t being
posted properly in WP27 – fixed.  First few characters of text files being cut off – fixed.  Intermittant connection issues – fixed.  Bunch of other things – fixed.

Also, if you were one of the unlucky ones to see Caffeinated Content appear to work and then get hit with an empty blog, I’ve figured it out… unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do from Caffeinated Content’s end to fix it at this point.  It’s a problem with MySQL/WordPress–see http://robsnotebook.com/wordpress-mysql-gone-away for details and fixes.  I’ll see if there is any possibility for including some sort of fix on my end, but I doubt it.  As a side note, this fix will also apply to those having problems selecting categories.

Anyway, because of the amount of material in this update, it has NOT been properly tested, but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible.  It’ll most likely work with all versions of WordPress 2.3 and beyond.  It should be considered a beta, but necessary update.  If there are any problems, shoot me an email at kansieo (at) gmail (dot) com.

This update will be available for download at the kansieo.com members area or via a E-junkie download link that’ll be sent out shortly.

Now…speaking of problems… My support desk is messed up.  I’m going to try to get it back into shape tomorrow, but if not I’ll be auditioning new software… if you have suggestions, let me know.

Oh, and yes, I do realize this is an almost direct copy of my newsletter mailing, thanks for noticing. ;)

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SEO Main Man: The Keyword

Posted December 14, 2008, under Articles, SEO
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Having the right keywords in your website is the most essential element of search engine optimization. Properly selected keywords direct internet searchers to your website, thus helping to increase ranking and traffic. Keywords are also the key elements in website content writing. In other words, the absence of these keywords will directly affect the website’s content.

Most of the time, marketers consider keyword research only as a secondary element in search engine optimization process. They focus more on submitting websites in different bookmarking sites. Although this step is appropriate, the absence of proper keywords in each article and content will nullify its main objective, which is to be searched.

Track Back: SEO Rebirth

During the early years, keyword research seemed to be a difficult step in search engine optimization. Start-up business owners could not afford to purchase costly keyword tools available on the market. This resulted in choosing common yet overrated phrases of low search volume. Because of some companies’ failure to optimize clients’ websites, many of them went out of business, leaving bigger companies on operation and business dominance.

When Google launched Google AdWords, the competition between companies became tighter. Free keyword tools sprang up everywhere, which enabled firms to generate high quality SEO. The business became more popular and in-demand. It opened the business for everyone, that even an individual could open a self-operated firm. Because of internet market’s fast growth, different SEO Reseller Programs were born. According to internet marketing historians, this was SEO’s rebirth and defining moment.

The Tool

A good keyword tool, whether bought for a fee or given for free, will increase profit rate and decrease research time. It is the only answer to find a profitable niche. With a reliable keyword tool beside you, effective content and article writing for optimization is highly possible. With proper keywords in your website, every SEO process such as link building and submission will fall on the right track.

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SEO and SEM Checklist: Its The Simple Things That Count

Posted November 30, 2008, under Articles, SEO
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SEO/SEM Tasks. Strategies & Checklist

Article Marketing

• Submit to major sites (examples)
1) Buzzle
2) Ezine
3) Suite 101
4) Idea Marketers
5) Go Articles
6) ArticlesBase

• Add to hubs and wikis
• Social Bookmark (examples)
1) Folkd
2) Delicious
3) Digg
4) Stumble Upon
5) Reddit

• Blog
• If good enough..add to site as content

Press Releases

• Submit to major outlets
• Social Bookmark
• Local

Blog Posts

• Write Post
• Participate in your niche. Network with forums, comments, etc
• Submit to blog directories

Affiliates

• Newsletters
• Directories
• Coupon Sites
• Contact bloggers
• New promotions and graphics

Link Building

• Directories
• Find ads that pass seo value
• Contact sites
• Contact bloggers with giveaways, trials, and exclusive promotions
• Viral videos
• Local links and associations (yelp, yellow pages, chamber of commerce, etc)
• Charity or sponsorships
• Check and steal competitors links
• Always look for new potential links with search engine link searches
• Look for guest blogging and comment section opportunities
• Employee blogs, distributors, past donations, and current partners

Conversion Rate Optimization

• 5 second test
• Focus groups and polls
• Variations of sites tested on adwords optimizer

Social Media

• Facebook posts and ads
• Connect and update on networks like Linked In, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc
• Promotions
• Participate in relevant online forums
• Social bookmarking

Analytics

• Identify weak pages
• Traffic analysis for PPC and SEO
• Any site issues
• Conversion funnels
• Best selling products

PPC

• Monitor and optimize
• Test: Try new ads, text, and landing pages weekly
• Test low bid strategies vs higher position strategies
• Use analytics to tweak

SEO

• Keep up with statistics (# links, PR, SERP Rank, Traffic, etc)
• Use analytics to alter and improve
• Check keyword trends
• Research new keywords
• Monitor competition
• Keep adding fresh content
• Update existing content to maximize its usefulness
• Local and mobile
• Read SEO blogs and attend conferences

Business Development

• Stay on the lookout for new ideas, trends, and strategies
• Stay up on competitors prices and adjust accordingly
• Implement promotions
• Fix and improve site functionality
• Outside partnerships
• New products and new verticals
• International sites, content, and SEO
• Be on the lookout for new tech programs, outsourced services, & marketing deals

Content Management

• Fix old and implement new content (faqs, descriptions, resources, etc)
• Look for new ways to update layout for best SEO and user experience
• Fix any broken links, products, or any other issues
• Keep site graphics fresh
• Copyrighting for various advertisements, marketing materials, etc

These are a few of the simplest, must do steps in order to market and optimize your retail website or blog. There are many other things you can do, but this will help get you started.

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