You know them, those tiny URLs people use in their social media posts. And you click them - sometimes taking you where you thought you should go and other times - SURPRISE - not safe for work or worse!
LinkPeelr and LongUrl are your solution to safely accessing shortened sites when they crop up anywhere from your emails to your Twitter feeds. By simply pasting the shortened link into their search bar, either site will tell you if you’re headed for a virus-laden disaster or that adorable new kitten picture your friend promised.
LinkPeelr has an add-on for Google Chrome and LongUrl concocted an add-on for Mozilla Firefox, showing you the true location every time you hover your mouse over a shortened link. Save yourself the link surprises and use these tools!
There is so much information out there that we would like to share with you to help your web project succeed, that we decided it would be best if we blogged it. This blog is our 2008-2012 archive. You can keep up to date on web news, resources, SEO and marketing trends, new technology, print and color trends and sometimes something just for fun at our NEW blog at yourplanb.com/thebuzz !
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Can Your Clients Find You on a Social Network?
We ask you - can your clients find you on a social network? There are hundreds of soc nets out there that focus on everything from tweens to movies to crafts (and more!). We focused our Top 5 on a wide net for most businesses...
Top 5 social networks to consider for your website marketing:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn
4. Meetup
5. Foursquare
Now that you know where you should be, setup your account and are ready to be more social, here is a quick reminder about Social Media Etiquette from Chris Brogan.
See you online!
Top 5 social networks to consider for your website marketing:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn
4. Meetup
5. Foursquare
Now that you know where you should be, setup your account and are ready to be more social, here is a quick reminder about Social Media Etiquette from Chris Brogan.
See you online!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Top 5 SEO DON'TS
So last week we told you our Top 5 SEO Tips. This week we narrowed down our list of bad SEO behavior...
Try to avoid the following (and if you do you will be rewarded with your site floating up the search responses!)
1. Flash!
Full flash websites can actually be amazing to look at — their own bit of interactive artwork. But unfortunately the search engines don’t get along well with Flash. Although there is talk of possible advancement in this area, for the most part the rule of thumb is that search engines cannot read Flash.
2. Splash!
Equally as SEO “pointless” are splash pages. Once very popular, the splash page should no longer be an important feature of any site. While splash pages used to serve as an introduction into a website (often with a flash animation), it is no longer seen as helpful, and often times might actually annoy visitors. Nowadays "skip to content" can mean close window and move on to a different website!
3. Don't try to fool the search engines
There are many SEO outfits out there selling various 'black hat' and 'grey hat’ SEO techniques. They will use a range of spammy and dodgy techniques to build your ranking up in a short space of time. These techniques might work for a while - for a week or a month - but the search engines quickly wise up to them. At best, you'll be knocked off your perch at the top of the search rankings; at worst you'll get banned for a period of time by the search engine. Don't be tempted!
4. Hiring Someone Who Promises a #1 Search Engine Ranking
There is no guarantee that you’ll be #1. While you can control certain variables to help you get ranked, such as keywords, some inbound links and optimizing your website for crawlers, there’s a lot you cannot control. For instance, inbound links of competing websites and pages, and the strength and popularity of a competitor’s site are just a few variables that you (or anyone you hire) cannot manipulate. There are countless variables used to determine page rankings that we just don’t know about, so no one can guarantee or promise high rankings.
5. Bait and Switch
You’ve probably heard of the old “bait and switch” routine used in the auto sales business. Well there’s a similar method being used online to drive traffic to websites. Some site owners think they can lure visitors in with keywords that are totally unrelated to their website, and then convert the visitors over to buyers or ad clickers once they arrive. Avoid this method like the plague. It will eventually cause the search engines to kick your site off for good, and visitors will dislike your site as well once they realize it’s not what they’re seeking. Use only those keywords and phrases that are relevant to your website’s theme for the best long-term results.
As always we are here to help. Give us a call to brainstorm your SEO goals and put together an online marketing plan that meets goals!
Try to avoid the following (and if you do you will be rewarded with your site floating up the search responses!)
1. Flash!
Full flash websites can actually be amazing to look at — their own bit of interactive artwork. But unfortunately the search engines don’t get along well with Flash. Although there is talk of possible advancement in this area, for the most part the rule of thumb is that search engines cannot read Flash.
2. Splash!
Equally as SEO “pointless” are splash pages. Once very popular, the splash page should no longer be an important feature of any site. While splash pages used to serve as an introduction into a website (often with a flash animation), it is no longer seen as helpful, and often times might actually annoy visitors. Nowadays "skip to content" can mean close window and move on to a different website!
3. Don't try to fool the search engines
There are many SEO outfits out there selling various 'black hat' and 'grey hat’ SEO techniques. They will use a range of spammy and dodgy techniques to build your ranking up in a short space of time. These techniques might work for a while - for a week or a month - but the search engines quickly wise up to them. At best, you'll be knocked off your perch at the top of the search rankings; at worst you'll get banned for a period of time by the search engine. Don't be tempted!
4. Hiring Someone Who Promises a #1 Search Engine Ranking
There is no guarantee that you’ll be #1. While you can control certain variables to help you get ranked, such as keywords, some inbound links and optimizing your website for crawlers, there’s a lot you cannot control. For instance, inbound links of competing websites and pages, and the strength and popularity of a competitor’s site are just a few variables that you (or anyone you hire) cannot manipulate. There are countless variables used to determine page rankings that we just don’t know about, so no one can guarantee or promise high rankings.
5. Bait and Switch
You’ve probably heard of the old “bait and switch” routine used in the auto sales business. Well there’s a similar method being used online to drive traffic to websites. Some site owners think they can lure visitors in with keywords that are totally unrelated to their website, and then convert the visitors over to buyers or ad clickers once they arrive. Avoid this method like the plague. It will eventually cause the search engines to kick your site off for good, and visitors will dislike your site as well once they realize it’s not what they’re seeking. Use only those keywords and phrases that are relevant to your website’s theme for the best long-term results.
As always we are here to help. Give us a call to brainstorm your SEO goals and put together an online marketing plan that meets goals!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Top 5 SEO Tricks
There are many hints, tips and tricks out there, so the team here at Your Plan B Company narrowed the long list down to our Top 5 SEO tricks:
1. Content content content - add fresh content!
Even if your site is a lead generation site or an e-commerce site that doesn’t seem like there’s a need for regularly added content, you should always be adding as much fresh content as possible. In order to rank well for a given set of keywords, you must write about the topics relating to these keywords. The more often content is added, the more likely search spiders will increase the frequency at which they crawl your site. Being crawled more often can help a page rank higher for its targeted set of keywords.
2. Good Code - alt attributes on ALL images
Putting alt attributes on your images actually serves two purposes. In terms of SEO, putting a brief yet descriptive alt attribute along with your image, places additional relevant text to your source code that the search engines can see when indexing your site. The more relevant text on your page the better chance you have of achieving higher search engine rankings.
In addition, including image alt attributes help the visually impaired who access web sites using a screen reader. They can’t see the image, but with a descriptive alt attribute, they will be able to know what your image is and hopefully why it is there on the page.
3. Keywords really do help - check the keyword density
It is also important for you to use the important keywords in your content. Then you should also calculate the keyword density of each of the articles and it should be approximately close to 3%. Keywords help search engines to get an idea about what your website is about. You should make sure that the keyword density doesn’t exceed 8%. Otherwise your webpage may be regarded as spam by the search engines.
4. Site Maps are your friends - add a sitemap to your website
This makes it easier for the various search engine spiders to read and then index your web pages. As indexed web pages appear in the search engines, more people visit your website. And the higher you will float up in the searches.
5. Get more social - add your social media links!
Although technically not SEO, Social Media is such a growing factor in getting your web site noticed, that it’s an important element to include in your plan. Social media ranges from social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and many more. There is a lot of relationship building involved, but as you build your own networks and build quality content on your web site or blog, you’ll see traffic to your website increasing, as well.
And remember, SEO is a contiued task on your website maintenance checklist. Don't stop learning about searches and techniques because there is always something new on the technology horizon!
1. Content content content - add fresh content!
Even if your site is a lead generation site or an e-commerce site that doesn’t seem like there’s a need for regularly added content, you should always be adding as much fresh content as possible. In order to rank well for a given set of keywords, you must write about the topics relating to these keywords. The more often content is added, the more likely search spiders will increase the frequency at which they crawl your site. Being crawled more often can help a page rank higher for its targeted set of keywords.
2. Good Code - alt attributes on ALL images
Putting alt attributes on your images actually serves two purposes. In terms of SEO, putting a brief yet descriptive alt attribute along with your image, places additional relevant text to your source code that the search engines can see when indexing your site. The more relevant text on your page the better chance you have of achieving higher search engine rankings.
In addition, including image alt attributes help the visually impaired who access web sites using a screen reader. They can’t see the image, but with a descriptive alt attribute, they will be able to know what your image is and hopefully why it is there on the page.
3. Keywords really do help - check the keyword density
It is also important for you to use the important keywords in your content. Then you should also calculate the keyword density of each of the articles and it should be approximately close to 3%. Keywords help search engines to get an idea about what your website is about. You should make sure that the keyword density doesn’t exceed 8%. Otherwise your webpage may be regarded as spam by the search engines.
4. Site Maps are your friends - add a sitemap to your website
This makes it easier for the various search engine spiders to read and then index your web pages. As indexed web pages appear in the search engines, more people visit your website. And the higher you will float up in the searches.
5. Get more social - add your social media links!
Although technically not SEO, Social Media is such a growing factor in getting your web site noticed, that it’s an important element to include in your plan. Social media ranges from social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and many more. There is a lot of relationship building involved, but as you build your own networks and build quality content on your web site or blog, you’ll see traffic to your website increasing, as well.
And remember, SEO is a contiued task on your website maintenance checklist. Don't stop learning about searches and techniques because there is always something new on the technology horizon!
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