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A Dream Wedding by Sharon Replaces Their Old Bludomain Flash Website with a New WordPress Site

July 12, 2010 by Marc 2 Comments

Well known San Diego wedding planner Sharon Cole of A Dream Wedding by Sharon contacted me regarding improving her search engine marketing and internet presence. For a number of years she had been using a Bludomain website but recently found that with increasing competition, her website traffic and leads had become almost nil. This is in spite of her being an area ABC leader and the all the awards and news paper articles and links she had developed over the years in business in San Diego.

In looking into her site’s presence, we discovered that her website was virtually not present in Google’s index. Even Google searching with her business name and city the site was not found. The reason for this is because the inherently low “indexability” of a Bludomain site combined with no changes to the site in years. Effectively the search engine calculated that the site was just not relevant for what people may be searching. You see, most Bludomain websites really only have two actual pages, the splash page and the rest of the Flash website. The website itself is functionally just one page of Flash content with different actions. When we discussed all this the plan became multi-faceted and clear.

Sharon and Maria (her office manager) improved the legacy splash page text content and began using Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics to begin to “wake” up the site. I helped Maria install WordPress on the Bludomain hosting account and behind the scenes started to create an all new WordPress based website for A Dream Wedding by Sharon. A little progress, Sharon’s legacy site returned to Google’s index, though very far down in the listings.

But the Bludomain hosting account was very troublesome for WordPress. The blog was always a struggle with loading plugins and having errors. Bludomain’s hosting setup is often not a very friendly enviroment for WordPress, more so with WP 3.0. So the new WP based website would be based on a non-Bludomain server. (When the time came to choose whether the legacy Bludomain site would be kept, moved or dropped it was decided, after Bludomain quoted $80 to move it for what was effectively 2 indexed pages, that the site would be allowed to “fade away” and the savings used elsewhere.)

It’s done, and Sharon feels the new site is a great fresh look for her San Diego wedding planning business, and not like a typical blog site. And it succeeds in Google, search marketing and social media marketing. The new site already has well over 90 pages in Google index, is moving up in search placement and search traffic and best of all the site traffic has increased almost 10 fold. Plus it is easy to add new information, pages and posts to it to tailor internet marketing to the interest of today’s bride to be. When Sharon adds new content to the site it automatically Tweets the news and posts content to Facebook. And, not to forget that the new site is also viewable in iPhones and other mobile devices where her Bludomain site was not.

Please visit and take a look at A Dream Wedding by Sharon’s new web/blogsite. If you have questions about Bludomain SEO, internet marketing or WordPress based web/blog sites please send me an email.

Filed Under: BluDomain, Featured, Portfolio, Websites Tagged With: BluDomain, Facebook, Flash, Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engines, search marketing, search optimization, social media, twitter, web/blogsites, Websites, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

Measurements – Four Favorite WordPress Stat/Analytics Plugins for your Site’s Dashboard

July 12, 2010 by Marc Leave a Comment

One of the treats with a WordPress based website is how easy it is to measure results of your posts and other marketing activity. What gets measured gets done and the plugins discussed in this post can help.

Of course you can get all this from Google Analytics, and if your hosting company provides the server host logs, in programs like AWStats, Webalizer and Analog those too. But you have to login in to those services. I think it is great as long as your are in the Admin area of your WordPress based website to see how your site traffic is while you are right there … writing a post, approving comments or otherwise updating the site.

Below are four WordPress stat plugins that I like. Not sure which one I like better, they all provide a little bit different view of your site traffic and depth. They are all current (as of this post date) work well with WP 3.0 and fortunately they all seem compatible with one another.

WordPress.com Stats

If you have activated Akismet (and you should) you should also install and activate WordPress.com Stats. It uses the same API key that you use in Akismet. WordPress.com Stats provides an excellent data set for quick review with nice “drill-down” functionality. All the data is processed in WordPress’ servers so this plugin will not slow down your site or load your server. Very fast. Ultra easy to setup.

Analytics360

This plugin was developed by Alex King for MailChimp. (Alex is also the author of the indispensible Twitter Tools plugin.) Analytics360 allows you to pull your Google Analytics data into your WordPress dashboard for easy review TOGETHER with your MailChimp data. In one panel you can see how your posts and email are driving site traffic. Trends in site traffic and list growth. And your site’s top traffic sources.

This plugin does require Google Analytics (also free) and will work with or without MailChimp, but the basic MailChimp account is free and allows you a list of up to 500 addresses and 3000 sent emails per month. If you don’t already have Google Analytics tracking in your site, Google Analyticator is a very simple to use plugin that makes placing the Google Analytics script easy.

Clicky

I am liking Clicky more and more; it has very easy to read, useful interface and uses your real time site data. Joost de Valk (a true WordPress SEO master) created a new Clicky plugin to take advantage of the many new statistical features offered by Clicky. The basic Clicky stat account is free and provides some unique views of your website traffic. It is simple and quick to setup a Clicky account and then install and enable the Clicky plugin.

Woopra Analytics

“Woopra is the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application.” And I find that somehow the Woopra’s WordPress plugin stat reporting interface is fun to use (“fun” and “stats” don’t normally go together) and again provides some unique perspectives into your site visitors and traffic. Like all the other plugins listed here you will need an account for the data tracker, but the basic Woopra account is free and simple to setup. Just visit the Woopra website and sign up. Then place the script in your site’s footer, activate the plugin and you are good to go.

May you have great measurements! If you have any questions just email me. All four of the tools are running on this site.

Filed Under: Business Planning, Internet Marketing, Tools and Tips, WordPress Tagged With: Internet Marketing, search marketing, search optimization, statistics, trends, Websites

Selecting a Domain Name for SEO and Search Marketing Maximization

July 11, 2010 by Marc Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Search Engines, SEO, Tools and Tips Tagged With: Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engines, search marketing, search optimization, SEM, SEO, tweets, Websites

Free Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization

July 10, 2010 by Marc Leave a Comment

It has become pretty clear to almost everyone that online search has eclipsed yellow pages advertising as having the best value and greatest results. Even for local business. Thirty years ago it was not unusual to see business paying $3,000 per month for a full-page front section local yellow pages advertisement, even in a town of only 200,000 residents.

Today Google can have similar value but at a very much lower cost, free. Even if you pay someone to build your site, the payback can be as quick as 3-4 months from increased business. I have a client, Dennis Grimes, that wrote that his businesses’ new website cost payback happened in just the first week. And the best part of good structural and content SEO is that it continues to provide dividends, for almost no expense, long after the website goes live.

But, the main purpose of this post is to point out that not only is Google the new yellow pages, and organic search is meaningful yet free advertising if done correctly. And that you can do it yourself in many cases. Google has a great do-it-yourself guide, and it’s free, titled “Google’s Search Engine Optimization
Starter Guide” which you can download from this link (pdf). It is an excellent resource, understandable to the website novice and useful for the experienced as well.

Mihaela Lica at SitePoint.com provids a good discussion of the three most important on-page SEO opportunities identified in the Google guide in her post “On-page SEO – The Google Way. They are simple and inherently present in every website. And often under utilized in many websites, even I have found WordPress based websites. They are:

Most importantly, create a unique, accurate page title that communicates the content of each page. How many times do you see a website where the main page is simply titled “Home” or “somedomain.com”. I see even sites provided by professionals with this error. And the page title is arguably the single most important SEO related element. Lately now, I normally like to have the page title also set in <H1> header tags, making it even more useful in SEO.
Make use of the “description” meta tag to accurately and uniquely accurately each page’s content using 160 characters. In the sites I create there is now a separate field for entering the page description for any page and post.
Improve the structure of your URLs to reflect your page content and be “friendly” to the site visitor. avoid having links with just numbers and symbols. Use words separated by hyphens. This is the purpose of WordPress’ pretty permalinks function. It also one of the nice benefits of Facebook’s custom usernames for profiles and pages.

Just using these three elements on multiple pages in your website can make a big difference in many cases. It may not be possible to do in some Flash based websites, but you should be able to accomplish it in most others. If you have any questions about your website or your businesses’ search marketing opportunities send me an email.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, SEO Tagged With: Google, Internet Marketing, marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engines, search marketing, search optimization, SEM, SEO, Websites

HVAC professional’s new website helps slam him with new business.

July 2, 2010 by Marc 3 Comments

When I do a website for a client there are effectively three customers I consider; the website owner, search engines and the prospective customer of the website owner’s goods/services. For success, all three need to “like” the website.

When Dennis Grimes asked me if I thought I could create a website that would increase his air-conditioning and heating service business I looked on that as an opportunity to learn something. Dennis related that his existing website seemed to get little traffic and sent him little business. I said I would look into it and explore if there were ways I could to see to improve the site and hopefully sales.

Beginning with a review of his website I first noted the keywords I thought would be relevant to what his potential market would use to search were not sufficiently present. Second, I reviewed the sites of his competition and taking note of how they “communicated” to potential customers and the text content marketing keywords. And finally I worked to establish for Dennis what I thought would be competitive in respect to our similar area business and their internet search presence, while having a marketing approach that would differentiate Dennis and appeal to prospective customers, with sufficient keyword content to maximize free organic search for site traffic. And put it all into a website.

As Dennis is a sole proprietor, what evolved was to present Dennis in as a professional, with high value and experience. The person you would naturally prefer to choose to service your air conditioning, if you knew him.

I asked Dennis to provide me time to discuss what he does and his approach with clients as well as some photos. Also re-wrote the text of his old website for SEO and put it together with a new site design layout and graphics. All on an easy to use WordPress platform, allowing Dennis to easily keep the site up to date, even using his iPad in a cafe.

The finished site has been operational now for almost a month and seems to be a great success in all three dimensions; Dennis likes the site and feels it represents his business well, the search engines seem to love the site it consistently presents in the top five search results for all the targeted search marketing and keyword phrases, and the amount of business derived from the site meets or exceeds Dennis’ expectations. All for the one-time cost of just about 3-4 months of typical yellow pages advertising. I invite you to take a look at Dennis Grimes’ new website. And remember that a site needs to address and “work” in all three dimensions; presentation, competition and results. If you would like your website to work harder and smarter for you, send me an email.

Filed Under: News, Portfolio, Websites Tagged With: air-conditioning, heating, HVAC, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, SEM, SEO, tradesman, web/blogsites, Websites, WordPress

New Kertesz replacement upgrade with complete WordPress 3.0 and up goodness – Get It Now!

July 1, 2010 by Marc Leave a Comment

The theme upgrade for Kertesz and Kertesz II site owners is now available! As is my policy for compatibility, security and to make sure that my clients have every possibility of getting the best results for their site, the theme upgrade files are no charge.

To receive the theme upgrade files all you need to do is fill out the upgrade request form in the sidebar to the right. I will then send you an email asking if you want to install the theme files or if you prefer that I do it and at the same time I will review your site and upgrade and enhance it version of WP and associated plugins as needed. The charge for the site “tune-up”, theme install and its initial setup is just $25.00. In either option you will receive instructions and support in making the new theme represent your design and site.

The new Kertesz is a break from the old. In fact I have chosen to upgrade, really replace Kertesz with an entirely new theme code base and structure. The site layout and the style sheet will be familiar, but because of the amazing functions and features now possible in WordPress I have chosen to upgrade my clients from the theme I had prepared … to a full premium parent/child theme structure published by one of the very leading WordPress theme companies. It is not just an upgrade of the old, it is a replament with the new. Besides being even easier to use, the Kertesz replacement offers these advantages

Parent/child theme structure means easier upgrades and future WP new feature compatibility without losing your theme customizations.
One click theme upgrades. Now you can upgrade the theme functions just like you upgrade plugins. This will help make sure your site is able to use the latest WP enhancements and remain secure.
Built-in exclusive custom widgets and plugins for everything from sharing tweaks to showing off your latest posts.
Lots of easy to use configuration panels to make change and configure menus, page layouts, add Google scripts, etc., without coding. For example, with just a click you can select different side bar arrangement for every page.
Built-in SEO tools and features.

Similar to Apple’s move from OS 9 to the Linux based OS 10 this is a significant change. All your existing site pages and posts will move naturally into the new theme but you will need to change your main page slider and revise the main page content. Plus set the color codes and header image in the new style sheet to your design preference.

I have recently put together the four sites below using the new Kertesz replacement I love the new more refined styling and easier to use features. Here are some recent sites I have created with the new Kertesz replacement:

To get your site’s new Kertesz replacement upgrade, just complete the form on the right sidebar.

Filed Under: Announcements, Featured, News, Portfolio, WordPress Tagged With: A Dream Wedding by Sharon, BluDomain, JayCyns Photography, JAYS Photography, S W Lund Photo, search engine optimization, web/blogsites, Websites, WordPress

Is Flash soon to be the new Betamax?

June 30, 2010 by Marc Leave a Comment

Some people are choosing to view the discussion around Flash and iPhones/iPads as Apple versus Adobe. I think a better perspective simply centers on open web standards, improving technology and what is best for content distribution/use.

Many consumer electronics and internet features taken for granted today, were adopted and advanced by the porn industry. The success of VHS over Betamax was felt to be due in part to porn video being widely available on VHS, but rare on Beta. Not too long ago PC World had a feature article on 12 ways that the adult entertainment industry changed the internet. Among the top three positive innovations is listed the early use and improvement of streaming content or video. And following some patent infringement lawsuits in the early 2000′s, adult online content providers adopted Flash in a very big and almost universal way. It was a good way for them to distribute content in a widely accessable format. That was then.

This week one the largest producers of online porn says his firm is leaving Flash and adopting the HTML5 video standard ASAP. In a recent discussion with ConceivablyTech, Ali Joone of Digital Playground had this to say about his company’s view of the future of Flash and HTML5

Not surprisingly, while many of us are still trying to figure out which way we should go, Joone has already a clear direction for his company: “HTML 5 is the future,” he said. For Joone, it is a simple matter of exposure why HTML 5 will win over Flash.

More than two years ago, he began offering content for the iPhone. Since Apple does not allow pornographic content in its App Store and since Safari does not run Flash, DP began taking the HTML 5 route. DP’s HTML 5 streams for mobile devices have been available for more than a year now. Joone said that he is following the Flash integration in Android, but he indicated that it is rather irrelevant to him whether Android will support Flash or not: “Mobile browsers run HTML 5 very well. Flash brings everything to a crawl and has an impact on battery life. With HTML 5, there is no reason to show our content in Flash.”

DP is still publishing content in Flash online, since desktop browsers, especially IE8, aren’t ready for HTML 5 yet. “We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML 5,” Joone said. He noted that he was grateful for what Flash has delivered, but said that it was “just a matter of time” until Flash disappears. “It’s the next passing of the torch.”

As the “format wars” have shown from 78′s to 8 tracks to Beta to Laser Disks to HD DVD, … content rules. If there is no compelling content reason to install Flash I expect that in the future fewer and fewer PC and similar devices will install a proprietary closed software add-on to view Flash content or websites. Just a thought to consider when investing your time and money in a website format, what do you think will be the future of Flash. Which did you think would win; Beta or VHS, HD DVD or BluRay?

Filed Under: BluDomain, Featured, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Flash, HTML5, Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, website marketing, Websites

The Joy of a WordPress Based Website

January 18, 2010 by Marc 1 Comment

example

One of my newer photography website clients (and a former Flash website owner) gets a lot business from Facebook. This morning he sent me an email with this link to the Facebook Developers Wiki asking if there was a way to automatically include the Facebook Share button on his website pages and posts. If you visit that link, it will give you a snippet of code that you manually place into each page/post, some instructions on where to place the code and it also tells you how to modify the code to change to the look of the Facebook Share box.

With WordPress there is an easier option than learning the code and manually placing the code in each page or post. There is a plugin that will do it automatically. All you need to do is install the Facebook Share WordPress plugin. The plugin is also documented in the Facebook Developers Wiki.

Part of the “joy” of a WordPress based website is the huge open source code community you become part of when you use WordPress. A community of people who are constantly creating new ways to enhance the basic WordPress code to make it one of the best website platforms available particularly for business marketing/networking. (Like the people who created and shared the Facebook Share plugin.) And it makes it especially easy for non-programmers to enhance their own website in almost any way wanted.

Unlike most Flash websites and other closed source platforms, you can make as many changes as you want to your website and not violate any copyrights. Yet, you can also use WordPress to even enhance most Flash websites and others.

If you have any question about enhancing WordPress, a WordPress website or adding WordPress to your current website send me an email.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Social Networks Tagged With: Facebook, Internet Marketing, SMM, SMO, social media, social media marketing, Social Networks, web/blogsites, website marketing, Websites, WordPress

Three Websites Walk into a Bar… to meet a prospective client

December 27, 2009 by Marc Leave a Comment

The bar must have WiFi. Now stop me if you have heard this one before … but three websites each from different photographers (or any service or product that the prospect was searching for) meet a prospective client. Each may present only one page to try and make a sale.

One website shows the prospective client a photo and plays a song.

Another website shares with the prospective client her five most recent blog posts, all on different varied topics.

The last website presents the prospective client a targeted page explaining what they have to offer the prospective client, showing their work and why the prospect would be making a good decision to chose them.

Which website do you think made the sale? My vote also goes to the last one, the one presenting what they do and why they should be chosen. All in a comprehensive approach using text, graphics and media in an up to date, regularly updated and subscribable mode.

Because of the popularity of Flash based websites, a surprisingly high percentage of the competition takes the first approach. Out of frustration with Flash websites or poorly designed static websites many people are trying the second, making their blog the landing page. Experiencing more “meetings”, but not as many leads as they hoped.

And some are gaining a competitive advantage by utilizing the third website’s approach. A website based in WordPress, with a well crafted dynamic landing page designed to make an effective 30 second sales presentation to site visitors and search engine. While the rest of the site includes a traditional blog and attractive galleries together with all the rest that today’s website needs.

Now think about your website, which approach does yours take? Does your website give you the competitive advantage when it “meets” a prospect on line? And does it easily gain high search engine results at low cost?

There are many problem websites out there. Here is a website which just reviews and critiques websites with different problems, problemwebsites.com. Unfortunately some of these problem websites are fairly recent and look to have been expensive. Sadly, it is not uncommon. Some of the most popular photographers’ website templates from companies such as Bludomain, Photobiz, Showit Sites and others share the initial presentation limitations and search marketing problems of Flash.

But, that does allow wise marketers an opportunity to gain a significant competitive advantage. If you would like more information, have a question or would like to know how I might make over your website to gain a real marketing advantage just send me an email with the form on the right.

Filed Under: BluDomain, Internet Marketing, Sales, Wedding Marketing Tagged With: blogsite, blogsites, BluDomain, search engine optimization, search marketing, search optimization, SEM, SEO, social media, Social Networks, twitter, web/blogsites, website marketing, Websites, Wedding Marketing, WordPress

My Favorite Twenty Plugins for Using WordPress as a Website Content Management System

December 26, 2009 by Marc 3 Comments

Recently I was talking with Kerry at Camera Dojo and he asked what my choice plugins were when using WordPress as the content management system (CMS) for a total website. Below, in no particular order, is the “default” plug-in pack that I install when I begin setting up a WordPress based website and why. Some of these are common and will be used on almost any WordPress install, others are almost unique to the needs of using WordPress as a website CMS.

WP Memory Usage Marvelous simple plugin that shows the active hosting PHP version, memory limit and current memory usage on the Dashboard. A current WordPress web/blogsite needs 64MB and PHP5 to operate well, this plugin will tell you easily what are the settings for the hosting. This is info you need early so it is one of the first I activate.

Reveal IDs for WP Admin Adds the entry ID back into the administration panel of posts, pages, categories etc. Needed for things like excluding a category from a dynamic menu, etc.

All in One SEO Allows you to fine tune Titles and Descriptions for every page and post.

Image Friendly SEO Just to make sure that every image has a proper Title and Alt attribute, even if the site administrator forgets.

WP Super Cache With what seems to be Google’s increasing emphasis in 2010 on page load speed and to enhance your site visitor’s experience this plugin is more valuable than ever.

WordPress.com Stats A very nice companion to Akismet (they both use your WordPress.com API key). It shows useful site visitor stats on your Dashboard providing a quick source of timely metrics for your site.

WordPress DB Backup The database is where most of the content and access for a WordPress site resides. Backup early and often, even more so while building the site.

Twitter Friendly Links Have your Tweets show a backlink to your website’s URL not to bit.ly or some other third party service.

Twitter Tools Integrates your WordPress website with your Twitter account.

Page Links To Allows you to use pages or posts as navigational links to non-WordPress site sections or off-site resources.

Redirect Parent to First Child Use the parent page just for site organization. This plugin will automatically redirect the parent page to its first currently published child page

PHP Code Widget Similar to the standard text box widget, but it will also allow PHP code to function

Widget Logic With a full site I usually don’t want every widget appearing on every page. This plugin adds a conditional statement field to every widget that you can use to control on what pages the widget appears.

My Page Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your page navifation

My Category Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your category navigation

Google Analytics for WordPress If you want to be a successful internet marketer you will use Google Analytics, this plugin makes it easy to add Analytics to WordPress sites.

Google XML Sitemaps A must have! Automatically builds a compliant site map and notifies Google, Bing etc of the maps location on your server.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) Excellent for building interior links. It gives you a list of linked posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site

Sociable or Sexy Bookmarks Encourage your site visitors to share your site content across the web. I use either one depending upon the site’s target market.

cforms II My favorite contact form tool.

When I published this post these plugins were current and mostly behaved well with each other. As time passes that may change. If you have questions, please feel free to send me an email.