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New Miami Wedding Videographers’ Website for Scott Wolfson

Marc — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:13:51 +0000

Scott Wolfson Films in Miami is a great videographer doing event video from weddings to bar/bat mitzvahs. Scott’s professional news and broadcast video experience allows him to create standout wedding video for Miami and South Florida couples.

Old site screen capture

Because of low traffic and search engine rankings Scott emailed me. He had determined that his BluDomain website was not working for his businesses’ internet marketing. At the time we began working to improve Scott’s web presence was a standard BluDomain Flash site and a WordPress.com based blog. Each were using different domain name URLs causing linkback dilution, and there was even a masked third domain URL causing even more linkback dilution and confusion.

The first step of the project was to bring his old WordPress.com blog into his primary domain and begin create a new WordPress based splash/landing page. And coalesce the multiple domain names to only scottwolfsonfilms.com while creating 301 redirects for each of the other two domains and all the indexed/linked content of those two domains to their corresponding content at scottwolfsonfilms.com.

Miami Wedding Video Scott Wolfson

Next we sought to find a better way to display video, than what was provided in his BluDomain template. At this point we decided that the entire site would become WordPress. Scott’s Miami wedding videos are beautiful and it is important to share them in an attractive way. The BluDomain template maximum video display was only about 400 pixel wide and was only available to devices using Flash, so no iPads or iPhones. We decided to utilize the new self-hosted WordPress elements of his website to present his wedding and event video examples using HTML5 techniques. We wanted more than just the common video embedded video in a webpage. What we decided to use was a lightbox effect that expands the video and floats in over a darker background giving the Scott’s wedding and event video an almost theatrical appearance. And the video display size is automatically responsive to the visitor’s screen size. Here is a sample - http://scottwolfsonfilms.com/jamie-davids-wedding/

For the final design and implementation step Scott wanted to come up with a new look that would use his familiar logo and at the same time SEO very well. Scott reached out to graphic designer Danielle Figel who presented a new header design and many other details. These elements were then incorporated into a new WordPress splash/landing home page that includes strong SEO, call to action and contact information.

Since Scott can now use his new site for search marketing and reaching potential new clients for Miami area wedding and event videography his is steady adding new posts and pages content written with his key marketing phrases and sharing examples of his work.

If you would like to know more about any elements of Scott’s site or have other questions please comment, email or call.

Best WordPress SEO permalink structure for blogs and sites is now made simple

Marc — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:32:54 +0000

For SEO and site visitor engagement the URLs of your pages and posts can make a big difference. Fortunately new code in WordPress 3.3 allows more freedom in setting the URL link for your content with no negative performance or response time impact for the choice you make. Now your WordPress based site can have both user and search engine friendly permalink URLs with no penalty.

Prior to WordPress 3.3 setting the optimal URL for SEO and site visitors could cause your site to respond more slowly. This was as a result of a performance penalty related to “verbose rewrite rules” within WordPress which dictated increased database calls for URLs which included only the title or “postname”. Yet for visitor engagement and SEO slower site performance was often the result of an choosing SEO preferred option.

WordPress has a Settings option for what are called “permalinks“, meaning that the URL composition for the page or post can be modified or selected site wide. This is how WordPress describes the feature; “By default WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them, however WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URL structure for your permalinks and archives. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and forward-compatibility of your links.”

Using a URL page/post descriptive keyword structure improves engagementfrom site visitors, who will be more inclined to visit descriptive URLs, and search engines which will be able to index and retrieve keywords from the URL when they match search terms. This can help a lot with SEO and your site visitor conversion. Google and other search engines have made it so your permalinks are a basic part of a search engine user’s decision making process. The URL permalink appears as part of your search snippet on search result pages. Using redundant terms from categories in your permalink URL option could make your site appear spammy. While using a date in the permalink could make your content seem dated. Both cause unneeded length and useless terms in your URL. Fortunately those compromises are no longer needed.

WordPress permalink performance considerations are now resolved.

Up until WordPress 3.3, there was a quite serious performance issue when you have a lot of pages when you use just the postname, that is solved in WordPress 3.3. We can now use a simple permalink URL having only the domain and postname. This means shorter undated URLs with less redundant terms and more relative keyword content are possible with no performance issues. There are no more excuses to not use just the postname.

The danger of changing WordPress permalink URLs on an established site

Now before you change the permalink URLs of an existing site consider the potential search and SEO impact. Despite how easy it is to change permalinks in Admin, it is complex and can have a dramatic negative impact on your site if you’re not careful. After all you do not want to present a site with many multiple “404 page not found” results to your visitors. There are two steps in changing your WordPress permalink structure.

The first is simple, go to Settings -> Permalinks and select “Post name”.
The second step is to redirect your old permalinks to your new ones. To do that, you have to add redirects to your .htaccess file. Fortunately Joost de Valk has created an excellent webpage-based tool to address the potential negative impact from changing the permalink URL for sites which already have external links to content on other sites and in search engines. It automatically generates the redirect for you based on your domain and your old permalink structure which you can then include in your site’s .htaccess file.

If you make the change to your .htaccess file please test it by looking up your content on your site in a search engine and clicking through to that post/page on your site.

For more information about URLs and SEO read this article from Search Engine Journal, “URLs and SEO: Various Strategies for URL File Names“.

And if you have any problem feel free to email or call.

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.

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.

The wholeness of Google+ has the spirit of the moment.

Marc — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:18:25 +0000

Or said another way, Google+’s gestalt is the zeitgeist! I think that small business marketers using the web will find competitive advantage through early adoption of Google+. Seems, over the last few months, for there to be a malaise regarding Facebook and since the June 28th’s “release” of Google+ a lot of excitement and evangelism. The “wholeness” approach to Google’s making the web a social network versus using a site as a social network, like Facebook, is new. Although small it is growing exponentially, Google+ is estimated to have now, as of this week, reached 9 million users (according to Search Engine Watch). And perhaps even more telling as to the general spirit swelling around Google+ are the pwns animated gifs like these -

So what can you do now to begin learning and gaining in Google+? Two quick suggestions:

If you haven’t already, sign up for a personal profile Google+ at the Google+ home page. There is also a good Google+ FAQ on that page. I am finding, right now in the limited Beta, that after 10pm PDT is most likely to be successful in signing up.
Add a Google+1 button to your business website. If you have a WordPress based website it is as easy as installing a plugin. I like this one - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-plus-one/. If you haven’t adopted WordPress for your website platform, or want to do it “old school” here is the Google+ code link – http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

Optimizing Google Places for Local Search Marketing Results

Marc — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:34:16 +0000

Local search is critical to most of my clients’ businesses. That is how people find many, if not most, of the goods and services they buy. Face it we have used it for years with directories and yellow pages, that is a form of local search. It is easy and appropriate to think of search engine driven local search as the new yellow pages and replacing all kinds of directories. Today’s market uses online search with computers and smart phones. Not so much anymore … phone books.

One of the most quickly effective and productive tactics to boost your local search engine marketing is to improve your Google Places page. This is the listing of a few business with a map locating them that appears at the beginning of many search results initial page. All it takes is time and effort properly applied, to frequently be one of those few businesses when people are searching for what you offer.

If you have not already verified (and captured) your Google Places page do it as soon as you can.

First step, if you not have already done it is to “verify” the Goole Places page for your business. Or if you’re a brand new business you may even need to start the Google Places page for your business.

Here is how you do it. (from this excellent 31 page pdf guide, “Ranking in Google Places” by SEOFactor)

We need to first see if your business is already listed in Google Places. If it is, we need to make sure there aren’t any problems like duplicate listings or incorrect information.

Finding Your Business.

Searching for a Google Places page is simple enough. Simply go to http://maps.google.com and search for the name of your business.

It’s a good idea to search for more than just the business name though. Try your street address and phone number. Also, go ahead and try a few “common” searches one of your customers might make. If you still don’t see any listings for your business, it’s probably not in there.

Google will also do a search for you when you first begin the claiming process, and if they find similar listings they will let you know.

What if You Find Your Business?

If you find a listing for your business, then there are a few things we need to look at. Take a look at all of the information on the listing’s Place page and note any corrections that need to be made. Also, see if there are more listings, and make a note of those as well.

When you’re looking at the Place page, you should see a link in the upper-right corner (almost the exact middle of the screen). The link will either say “Business owner?” or “Owner-verified listing.”

If your listing has the “Business owner?” link, then nobody has claimed ownership of this Place page yet. However, if the page you are looking at has the “Owner-verified listing” link, then somebody claimed that listing. Don’t worry too much. This could just mean that someone in your company has already claimed the listing. Ask around the office to make sure.

If your business was claimed, but not by anyone in your organization, then it means that someone claimed the listing, and not likely for honorable reasons. Take a closer look at the listing, and you may notice that the phone number or website address is incorrect.

No matter. Whether your business has a listing or not, you will soon be taking ownership.

If you didn’t find your listing, then you’ll need to add it to Google directly. Simply go to
http://google.com/places and you will be met with a login screen. If you don’t already have a Google account login, then you’ll have to create a new account.

If you found a listing during your initial search, you just have to click the “Business owner?” link, and the process will continue as normal.

Above are just the first steps in making Google Place provide a competitive advantage for you. For detailed instructions on completing the process and making as good a listing as is possible you should download the guide linked above, or contact me to make your Google Places page as strong as possible and significantly increase your search impressions. I recently increased a clients Google Places search impressions for their product in the Denver area from an average of 300 impressions per month to over 9,000 impressions per month in just two weeks time. If you don’t have the time it is worth the small amount of money to pay an experienced expert for this optimization service. I do this service for each of my website clients.

A final tip. This is not mentioned in the guide but one thing I have found recently that will significantly help boost your placement in Google Places is to offer a special or coupon. There is a link in the Google Places edit screen for the information and duration of the coupon special. Make it timely, relevant to your marketing keywords,of modest duration say 30-60 days and describe if with your marketing keywords. Then change and add new specials every 30-60 days. If you have question about this send me an email.

Bonus – here is another good link that will help you understand Google Places best practices and even a little information about optimizing Yelp for better placement and local marketing of your business.

Whois privacy may hurt your SEO and search marketing

Marc — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:39:25 +0000

Whois privacy, something that many domain name registrars like GoDaddy will try to sell you, but that you probably don’t need, and don’t want As much as domain name registrars will encourage you to make your registration information private and buy their upsell add-on annual fee, I have another view. Unless you have a compelling reason other than spam, I recommend not to do it. Compelling reasons could include a “no outside employment” agreement or perceived social acceptability of your site’s products/offering

As for spam, face it, if you are doing business on the internet with a website you will get spam. There are ways to reduce and fight spam, but be cautious about using domain name privacy to do so.

How might having your domain registration details private hurt? Well it turns out spam and scam websites often do have the registration privacy in-place. (you can reason why) While most legitimate sites don’t. Whois privacy can present a certain type of site profile.

And it is interesting when Matt Cutts (Google anti-spam team leader) was reviewing sites for SEO effectiveness and he had this to say about a HiFi store website:

The HiFi store was fine, but this was another example where someone had 40+ other sites. Having lots of sites isn’t bad, but I’ve mentioned the risk that not all the sites get as much attention as they should. In this case, 1-2 of the sites were stuff like cheap-cheap-(something-related-to-telephone-calling).com. Rather than any real content, most of the pages were pay-per-click (PPC) parked pages, and when I checked the whois on them, they all had “whois privacy protection service” on them. That’s relatively unusual. Having lots of sites isn’t automatically bad, and having PPC sites isn’t automatically bad, and having whois privacy turned on isn’t automatically bad, but once you get several of these factors all together, you’re often talking about a very different type of webmaster than the fellow who just has a single site or so.

More directly Jon Glick, former key member of the Yahoo! search team said this about using Whois domain registration privacy:

This is one more potential “flag” that can earn you points to a spam audit. It works well for spammers who are attempting to keep the engines from finding all their sites in one swoop. Those guys are in the business of disposable domains; if you’re not it’s better to avoid this tactic.

So this is one area where you can save money and perhaps help enhance your SEO. Particularly if you put that savings towards a longer domain name registration period.

Selecting a Domain Name for SEO and Search Marketing Maximization

Marc — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:47:20 +0000

Later this week I am working with two different clients to select new domain names for websites that have been up for about a year. Both are small businesses.

In one case the domain name seems huge. It is 30 characters before adding any of the http:// or .com which is another 11. All together, that’s almost 1/3 of a Tweet just to text the domain name!

The other business has a pretty useful domain name. Their name follows good small business practice of using at least one keyword in the domain name, it is fairly short and is also a .com. But new state regulations are soon to make the keyword used obsolete.

As I review their websites and at look at their online business opportunity I have some ideas for new domains. So I go to Google so see how it is indexing domains and keywords in context. I also click through to potential competitors listed in the search listing to see how they use the keyword in their domain. A couple of observation I am really surprised how it seems that Google includes common abbreviations for the tested keyword in the returned search results. And how effective Google is parsing out at contextually almost any form of the keyword term from domains. Use the abbreviation as a keyword and Google even returns the full word as a keyword. Bing not so much. (Sometimes I worry that we are risking becoming a search marketing mono-culture.)

Searching for some other thoughts on selecting a small business domain name I came across these considerations/ideas.

Most small businesses do not have the money and good luck to create a new term and make it useful. Names like Xerox or Google or Bing take a lot of both. We only hear the ones that succeed or have big fails. There are a lot of others.
“.com” is still the most valuable TLD. The most common usage assumption is that a business domain name will end in “.com”. There is thought that .biz, .info and similar are not as well indexed as .com, .org and .net. I don’t know.
Hyphens or dashes are not needed to help the search engine parse out a keyword. But they do seem to help the search engine some parse out an abbreviation. (I may be wrong, but that is what I believe I am observing this weekend).
Two keywords are better than one.
Military and government websites use a lot of almost cryptic abbreviations and subdomains in their domain name. This may be a consideration if military/gov is connected to your target market.
Shorter domain names can be more useful than long ones.

Not sure how all this will impact the new domain names. In the end a domain name is personal influenced by a lot of factors. It is after all the domain name often becomes the name of the business for a large market segment. Here are the typical limitations for what a domain name can be -

Use only letters and numbers
Hyphens are ok, but not at the beginning or end.
No special characters, such as ! @ # $ % _ ^ & * ( ) ? are allowed
And “only” 63 characters from dot to dot.

If you want, the Wikipedia has all the domain name details

And I think this article from SEOmoz provides a great 12 point domain name picking run down. I use it often as a check list. You may not cover all 12, but have a reason for when you don’t.

Lastly if you find just the domain name you love and it is available, get it that minute! It is only about $15 or less to register most domain names and if you don’t get it when it is available, you may end up paying a lot more or never get it. For a little background on why that is, read these blog posts on domain name poaching or kiting.

Temporary Landing Page for SEO Jumpstart

Marc — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:57:58 +0000

It will often take a month or two or more after you get your domain name before you will have your final website. And it is not unusual for another month our two after that before your site is indexed. But as I have written before you can use that time to get your domain well indexed in search engines and even test some of your content.

Rather than let your hosting company leave up its standard “under construction” or “coming soon” default page or an image of your logo, put up a simple WordPress blog with just a post or two of your basic content and a little about your business and contact info. This will shorten the time until it is indexed and greatly improve your site’s search recognition.

TECH 5 temp landing page

Recently (today) I took some time and did just this for a friend and his new telecommunications company, TECH 5.

His logo was done and he asked if I could replace the standard Network Solutions “coming soon” page with his new logo. I went a little further, I installed WordPress, uploaded the Atahualpa theme and a few plugins (cforms, All-in-One SEO and Google XML Sitemaps). Then added the logo and some content (that they already had put together for the new business) and voila … a temporary landing page that announces the new business with some major SEO mojo.

Admittedly it is not as pretty as the finished website will be, but it puts all the needed info out there right now in an easy to modify format, SEO optimized and it will make sure that the final website, when it is done, will enjoy as strong as possible search results from its first day on the domain.

If you have any questions feel free to send an email or leave a comment.

“WordPress Takes Care of 80-90% of Search Engine Optimization” says Matt Cutts of Google

Marc — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:49:46 +0000

He also said that “WordPress is a fantastic piece of software“. So why should we care what Matt Cutts has to say? Well here is what the Wikipedia has to say about who is Matt Cutts:

Matt Cutts works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues. He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and cracking down on link spam. Cutts also advises the public on how to get better website visibility in Google.

In other words … if you want to learn how Google indexes and ranks your website, Matt is the go-to guy. Fortunately for all of us he is a good teacher. His blog is a good resource, but the video below is outstanding for a short lesson on how you may improve your website’s or blog’s search rank, easily, particularly if it is WordPress based. The total video is about 45 minutes long, but take your time and just watch a few minutes at a time. Matt gives great tips on everything from site basics to writing content for maximum SEO results throughout the presentation below. You will learn why I now build websites using only WordPress and how I work to maximize the internet marketing results for my website clients.

“Straight From Google What You Need To Know”, WordCamp San Francisco 2009