Websites with extreme SEO search marketing resultz, Resultz Digital!» Internet Marketing

Improve your BluDomain SEO with our no-risk WordPress BluDomain Setup

Marc — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:06:19 +0000

We wanted to blog post about our new WordPress BluDomain Setup package. For just $197.00 it is only the cost of a couple of BluDomain options, but can fill almost all site SEO and marketing needs. From your blog to SEO maximized Splash page to HTML and smartphone/tablet options (even iPhone/iPad), shopping carts, video, galleries and more. Adding WordPress, in the right way, to your BluDomain site offers maximum flexibility and SEO. It takes us just one day and there is no risk.

Derived from our four years of experience working with BluDomain users and an equal period of in-depth WordPress development it is the best setup and configuration possible and one that can grow as WordPress and BluDomain continue to develop. We uniquely know BluDomain and WordPress.

This is some of what is included in our WordPress BluDomain Setup Package:

Complete WordPress Installation on your BluDomain hosting
Free StudioPress Genesis Premium parent and child theme. Including the same theme we most often use when making optimal BluDomain splash pages or you can choose any other StudioPress theme as an alternative option
Optimize your Blog for Search Engines and tips to increase your Search Engine Ranking Position
Optimal URL configuration for SEO. No symbols, unnecessary or redundant terms
Making Your Blog Spam resistant
Automate Daily Backups for safety
Setup a Professional Email and WP based Contact Form
Setup FeedBurner account to handle your RSS Subscribers
Setup Email Subscription Option and Embed it in your Blog
Free Support via Email
And we install plugins that your blog/website really needs and may suggest some that might help for your specific niche. Including plugins for Social Media linking, attractive image slideshows and galleries, Facebook Tabs, your own short Twitter URLs, automatic sitemap generation and many more. By using all of these you will be off to a better start.

Send us an email or call now to get started! We will reply asking for the info we need to get started.

Risk Free! No up-front payment, pay when we are done. And if we are not finished within 24 business hours of the receipt of your site info … it is FREE!

An easy way to increase your WordPress site’s speed and potentially your site’s Google rank. Smushit for WP!

Marc — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:27:43 +0000

For the almost two years now Google has used site speed as a factor in your site’s search results position.

If you want to know more about that here are some links:

An informational post from Matt Cutts explaining Google’s rationale for using site speed as a factor.
A detailed article from Google Webmastercentral on using site speed in search ranking.
More from Search Engine Land on site speed as a search ranking factor.

But most important is just this, install Smushit on your WordPress site. It is easy with the WP Smushit Plugin from the free WordPress repository. WP Smushit should be part of every WP site that uses photos and images. Using Yahoo’s service, it lossless-ly reduces the size of images files making your site load faster by;

optimizing JPEG compression
converting certain GIFs to indexed PNGs
stripping the un-used colours from indexed images

It does this to both your existing images and new images you upload. Making the file size of images smaller causes your site to load faster, improving visitor experience and potentially increasing your Google search ranking.

After you install the plugin, go to your media library and have it smush all the images already there, which, depending on how many you have, can take some time. After the initial smushing, it will perform the optimization for you automatically upon each upload.

Getting on the first page of search results is often the result of many small differences and improvements. WP Smushit is an easy way to gain a helpful improvement.

IBM estimates 15% of site visits to retail sites in November are from smartphones and tablets

Marc — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:49:29 +0000

I mentioned this earlier as part of a long post, but it is very worthy of standing alone. IBM Coremetrics estimates that 15% of consumer retail site visits are using mobile devices in November 2011. This is a very recent, November 4th 2011, article and includes a trending graph showing the amazing growth of retail visits from mobile devices.

Please use the link above to read the entire, very worthwhile, article. But if you are rushed here are a couple of its nuggets:

Online Shopping Growth: Total online sales in November will experience impressive growth of 12-15 percent over the same period in 2010.
Mobile Traffic and Sales: Record numbers of consumers will shift their shopping from the PC to their mobile device this holiday season. In October nearly 11 percent of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 4.2 percent in October 2010. Additionally, mobile sales continue to increase, reaching a high of 9.6 percent in October 2011, up from 3.4 percent in October 2010.

ps – Keep in mind that a major share of these visitors do not have Flash enabled smartphones and tablets..

You can no longer feed your blog to your Facebook page

Marc — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:47:57 +0000

If you are having problems with your blog posts automatically feeding (or not feeding) into the Notes section of your Facebook business page it is because Facebook discontinued that function effective the end of September 2011. Here is the reference from Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=277347965620183#Why-can-I-no-longer-import-posts-from-my-website-to-my-Page%27s-notes?

Facebook’s explanation is that:

“We want you to connect with your fans in the most effective ways possible. That’s why as of September 30th you’ll no longer be able to automatically import posts from your website to your Page notes. The best way to get people to interact with your content is to give them insight into the links you share on your Wall by adding personal comments and responding to feedback from fans.

We’re focused on creating even better tools for Pages. Look for announcements soon.”

The end of Flash? It is for Flash Mobile on smartphones and tablets.

Marc — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:04:47 +0000

Earlier this month Adobe announced in an email to developers that it was ending Flash Mobile. Kevin Lynch, Adobe CTO, explained the strategy as follows:

We believe that HTML5 is a significant catalyst for growth for Adobe. And it’s a multi-year vector of innovation for most of our products. HTML5 is great for Adobe and great for the industry.

The key phrase I just used, and I people to make sure we all recognize this, is that most of our products – absolutely HTML5 is going to result in the substrate of the web undergoing a major overhaul – but it’s much bigger than just web pages. It’s the foundation of how content is going to be delivered in the years ahead.

Web, video, publishing, gaming are all going to increasingly rely on HTML5 across PCs, phones, TVs, and tablets. That is the foundation that we’re building toward and that’s the foundation we’re going to take a leadership position in.

A couple of days later Flash developer Mike Chambers expanded on the reasons for ending Flash Mobile and the future of Flash in general. He noted that:

Finally, given the growth of HTML5 on both mobile and desktop browsers, we decided to more evenly balance our resources dedicate between Flash and HTML5.

Halting development on the Flash Player for mobile devices frees up resources for HTML5 development (tooling, frameworks, browsers).

So the future at Adobe calls for less Flash and more HTML5. Contemplating Adobe’s increasing investment in HTML5 development tools and at the same time terminating Flash for mobile devices and what it means regarding Flash overall brings to mind the following quote from Winston Churchill; “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Can it be that in a few months or a couple of years that as Flash Mobile went, so will Flash? To learn more regarding the problems and performance of flash on mobile devices read this analysis by GigaOm on why Flash Mobile did not work out.

Give it some thought when you make an investment in your website. With site visits by mobile devices quickly climbing towards 15% to 20% of the total site visits, according to IBM, it is a very important marketing consideration. For your website and marketing it seems that “to Flash or not to Flash” is the question. With Adobe putting its money on HTML5 for its future shouldn’t you?

It seems time to revisit some of the basic issues. Do you remember April 2010 and Steve Jobs’ thoughts on Flash? particularly concerning security, reliability and performance?

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

In retrospect Steve Jobs had reasoned answers, before hardly any of us had even thought of the question.

A great way to present and showcase videos with a lightbox effect in WordPress

Marc — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:50:51 +0000

There are many attractive options for easily showcasing images in WordPress, but often there is a need to showcase a video. This is particularly true for videographers wanting to present their work in the most attractive format possible but is also needed for many other business. Wether a Realtor showing a listing’s video walk-through or a wedding photographer’s photo montage or any other type of business or service, you need to be able to impress, focus and keep the viewer’s attention on the video to improve your sales.It is well recognized, video works for sharing your work, but most want to elevate our presentation above the ubiquitous YouTube player.

In the past, it has often not been easy to set up for video and there are not a lot of options. But, after trying a number of plugins and options I have found an easy, reliable and low-cost method for presenting video in a lightbox type overlay giving it an almost theater type presentation. Usable on both Vimeo and YouTube hosted videos, and it works for iPad and other non-flash enabled devices.

Below is an example of how a video displays in the lightbox using a video tour of luxury home listing -

Here is how you can set it up for your WordPress based website.

1) First you will need to install and activate the Floatbox Plus plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.

2) Next you need to download and install the Floatbox script. Obtain the script here (you need to pay a $20 license fee after you get it setup). To install the script you need to unzip it and then using your FTP client place the floatbox folder in the floatbox-plus folder so the path would look like this …wp-content/plugins/floatbox-plus/floatbox

3) Configure the Floatbox Plus plugin to your site and how you want the videos to display in the floatbox.

4) Insert your desired video into your page or post and save.

Here is a quick tutorial video covering some of the detailes for the steps above (placedwith standard playback just to show how much better videos look in floatbox). -

If you have any questions or problems please give me a call or use the email form at the right.

New website for custom woodworker and cabinet maker Don Ragland of Austin Texas

Marc — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:59:47 +0000

I enjoy creating websites for small business. These websites provide the business owner a competitive advantage and fairly quickly result in increased business. One of my most recent is a website for Austin, Texas based custom cabinet and furniture maker Don Ragland. Don is a successful craftsman and woodworker creating custom cabinets and furniture in Austin for over 20 years. His marketing was basically the yellow pages. But with dramatic reduction in use of yellow pages (search engines and smart phones have almost replaced yellow pages) and increase in cost of advertising Don had come to realize that he needed a good optimized website in order to be found and reach today’s prospective clients.

Because of the great business results a relative of Don’s has with one of my custom websites, Don asked me to create an effective website for marketing his upscale woodworking. Over a just two week period working with Don, and for much less cost than even a small yellow pages ad, you can now visit the website we created.

Online now for less than a week, we have already gotten the brand new site and domain name in the search indexes. All that is just the beginning of the SEO and search engine marketing that comes with the website.

If you would like to know about the cost and return on investment of my small business websites like Don’s, please call, send an email or leave a comment.

BluDomain mobile and improved SEO with WordPress

Marc — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:44:22 +0000

When WordPress is added to your BluDomain website, it not just a blog, it also covers the need for site visitors to have mobile and HTML versions. There are even options that can make your WordPress installation way more mobile friendly making sure that smart phone users will always be able to see and use your website. And the SEO advantages of WordPress are well respected, (heck … BluDomain even uses WordPress for the blog on their own website).

WordPress just works! If you like your BluDomain website, it can be even better and give you more reach and visitors with WordPress.

Here are some free plugin resources that can take a WordPress improved BluDomain website mobile -

WPtouch: A simple, powerful and elegant mobile theme for your website. WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application.
Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress is a plugin that allows you to mobilize your blog in minutes.

Not only is WordPress fully mobile, it even has free apps to make it easy to edit and update with mobile devices.

WordPress for iOS easily edit your WordPress website with iPhone/iPad.
WordPress for Android easily edit your W0rdPress site from Android smart phones and tablets

WordPress is the best Bludomain add-on. Let me help take your current BluDomain website to the next level of SEO, social networking and mobile accessibility. Just send me and email or leave a comment.

Target your website’s SEO to your target customers

Marc — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:23:28 +0000

Most SEO articles just deal with SEO and don’t focus on the real reason that should be driving any SEO effort .. your target customer. All your SEO efforts should initially be directed by an understanding of your target market and its different customer search personas. Then using that “ground work” to effectively attract the customers you want through well conceived SEO optimized content.

This is a great article “5 Steps to Building a Search Persona” by Erez Barak which works through how to develop a search persona that you can use for SEO efforts to increase your online sales. The article provides excellent how-to steps and examples. Put it in practice and it will help you increase traffic and sales.

If you have any questions or want assistance leave a comment or send an email. I am happy to help.

5 Great Custom Google Analytics Reports for your website – FREE

Marc — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:04:09 +0000

My Dad often said “what gets measured gets done”. And these five custom reports seem to “channel” that wisdom helping you understand your website traffic and set and meet goals. All particularly important if you are an online marketer or derive other revenue from your website. And the standard Google Analytics reports often don’t provide some of the data detail you need.

I will be brief, just do the following now. Get the details, why these are most useful, how to use the reports and install the reports in your Google Analytics account by going to this Search Engine Watch article by Greg Habermann “My Top 5 Most Used Custom Reports in Google Analytics“.

These are excellent well crafted reports for analyzing your site traffic and making well-reasoned changes to your site to increase your results and meet your goal.

This is one of my favorite articles of this month and if you have any questions please send me an email or leave a comment.