These SEO Mistakes Are Damaging Your Website

No one likes to make mistakes. Especially when they could cost you business. And chances are if you’re concerned about fixing something that could potentially cost you business, you’re probably not the type of person to read a blog post intro. So let’s get into it.

 

Keyword stuffing

The biggest, fattest DO-NOT-DO-THIS on the list: keyword stuffing.

Keyword is exactly what it sounds like: stuffing a bunch of random keywords into places they don’t belong, bogging down your content so it’s barely readable for any actual human.

This mistake sits at the top of the list, because algorithms are much smarter than they used to be — and much smarter than keyword stuffers give them credit for. Search engines know when you’re trying to play them.

 

Forgetting to change title tags and meta descriptions

Individual title tags and meta descriptions should be present on every single public page of your website. Title tags are a page’s message to the world, and meta descriptions are the explanation of exactly what a reader will find on that page.

If you use the auto-generated title tags and meta descriptions, you risk not accurately representing what is on your website, which will likely result in less views and clicks.

 

Not consistently updating your website

Miss Google values a fresh, clean, accurate website. Consistently updating your website is key to remaining relevant to search engines, and offers the added bonus of keeping all of your content current and correct.

 

Not using Google to your advantage

When people talk about SEO, they often mention how we need to do everything in our power to show up in a Google search… but people rarely mention all the ways Miss Google can actually help us do exactly that.

Aside from explicitly outlining everything we need to know about her algorithm, Google has a number of practices inside the Google Marketing Platform place to help us optimize our sites for SEO.

 

 

This Halloween, Don’t Be Scared By So-Called “Digital Experts.”

As web development professionals, clients often seek our guidance when solicited with digital marketing and web design services that seem too good to be true. Businesses are promised packages that deliver first page search engine results, pay per click campaigns generating massive ROI and more social media “likes and shares” than they can dream of. You name it, the list of promises goes on and on.

Let the web experts at JB Systems help you conquer your fears of the digital marketing world.Let’s be honest, although technology plays a crucial role in our lives, it can be intimidating. If you’re running a business, you often don’t have time to be on top of “the next big thing” each time it rolls around. You trust your vendors and partners to provide you with honest direction and to understand the role technology plays in your business. Perhaps you’ve been pitched marketing packages by fast talking, high pressures sales folks signaling doomsday if you don’t sign up for their digital services. We have seen (and been told about) several examples of these partnerships going awry. After the contract is signed, you’re unable to cancel, continue to be billed for months and can’t get a hold of anyone in customer service. Not cool.

At JB Systems, we prefer to do business a bit different; entirely different, in fact. Our commitment to our clients means we’re always available to offer advice on what web, marketing and other digital services might be the best fit for your business. Additionally, our proposals are always transparent, straightforward, and easy to understand so you know exactly what you’re paying for. Give us a call and setup an appointment for a complimentary website review and/or to discuss any of our services. We won’t lock you into a multi-year contract, highjack your domain or send you invoices for additional services you didn’t agree to. It’s all part of our promise at #TeamJB to make the web simple.

Did You Know? JB Systems Offers The Following Services:

• Monthly SEO Programs
• Pay-Per-Click & Ad Remarketing Services
• Content Strategy/Preparation with Emphasis On SEO Analysis/Mapping
• Photography
• Video
• Email Campaign & Drip Messaging
• Social Media Management
• Website Maintenance Programs
• Print Collateral & Marketing Materials
• …and course, website design, development, training and more!

We’re proud of our 15 years of business and the hard-working foundation to which our company is built on. We thank you for your business and hope to continue to partner with you as “we’re never done.” Please click here for any additional questions on how we may be of service to you.

SEO 101- Understanding Bounce and Exit Rates

SEO 101- Understanding Bounce and Exit Rates

We all know that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays an important role in making your website stand out from your competition. Understanding more than that, though, is often difficult. After spending time going over Google Analytics, sometimes people don’t know what they’re looking at. The terminology, charts, and numbers don’t always make sense– it’s enough to make your head spin! (more…)

Another Security Breach in the World of WordPress

wp_security_141210275505_640x360According to Search Engine Journal, see it HERE, over 100,000 WordPress sites have been infected due to a Russian malware attack called SoakSoak. Now, to be fair, this isn’t an attack on the WordPress site itself, rather a plugin for the site called RevSlider that is used in many of the WordPress themes. But you already know enough not to use plugins – right? Unfortunately, this plugin is buried so deep in some of the most popular WordPress templates, users wouldn’t know they are using them.
The not-so-much-talked-about issue is that over 11,000 of these sites have been blacklisted by Google already. So what does this mean for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

In a previous post, we had discussed the security vulnerabilities in plug-in based template sites and the latest malware attack is a perfect example. The problem: many of these plug-ins are not easy to update and leaves not just the plug-in but the whole website in jeopardy. Each plug-in (and there are literally hundreds) can be developed by a different business or individual who is responsible for monitoring security threats and creating fixes. If your website “solution” relies on 4 different plugins (not uncommon) that translates into a lot of potential issues (more…)

What happens when Google updates its algorithm?

What happens when Google updates its algorithm?

Over the last several years, Google has updated their algorithm that determines how your website ranks on their search results pages. What we’ve learned through all of these updates is that Google is trying to provide the most relevant results to what you’re searching for. The definition of relevance, however, has evolved over time.

Relevance in Search Engines

Relevance used to mean that you had the most backlinks and popularity among other sites. Then people started using money to gain popularity, trying to beat the system. Google’s response: Google Panda Update.

Relevance used to mean that your site had a dense amount of specific keywords in it. Then people started hiding text and stuffing keywords wherever they could to trick Google into ranking them first. Google’s response: Google Penguin Update.

Well, today, Google has pretty much manhandled every trick in the book and the only way to have long-term success in search engine marketing is (more…)

You’ve got a great website. Now what?

Written by: Erin Trowbridge, Director of Marketing at JB Systems, LLC

Recently, the Chippewa Valley Business Report wrote about something near and dear to our hearts: the online marketing world. I wanted to take just a minute to focus on a couple of ideas they mentioned, and explain why they’re important. And of course, we can help you out with any of this on your site.

Landing Pages and Microsites

Landing pages allow you to easily track where your website traffic is coming from so that you know what marketing efforts are working…and which are not. Think of your marketing activities – whether it’s advertising, trade shows, direct mail, or another offline channel. How do you know if they were effective? Landing pages are specifically targeted to exactly what the ad or direct mail piece is talking about so that the customer isn’t at all confused. This makes it more likely that they will keep clicking through and eventually buy or contact you.

Microsites are exactly what they sound like – small sites within or added to your site that are specifically targeted to one product, program, service, etc. This is what Net Health Shops does for their various product lines. They allow you to provide a few pages of ultra-specific content to your customers who you don’t want distracted by other things on your website.

“No unsupervised thinking” - MarketingExperiments.com

Both landing pages and microsites are extremely effective for getting the customers to do what you want them to do on your website. Studies have shown that by being blatantly obvious about what you want customers to do and how to do it will increase your conversion rates in a huge way. And isn’t that what we all want – for our website visitors to convert into qualified leads, subscribers, customers, or donors?

Search Engine Optimization, Organic Search, and Paid Search

Although this may just sound like a collection of buzz words and trendy online jibberish, these are things that your company really should be considering in your marketing plans for 2010. If built and marketed the right way, your website can actually generate revenue or leads that turn into revenue, instead of just being another expense.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process by which you make small, but significant changes to the content of your website (seen and unseen by visitors) in order to be listed higher on the search results page of Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search engines. Why, you might ask, do I need to be ranked high in search engines?

Reason #1: Location, Location, Location. If no one could find your business, how long do you think you’d last? Same goes for your website.

Reason #2: We are spoiled. Well, maybe not spoiled, but busy – and because of that, we expect that everything should be right there, right now. We expect that the best results will be at the top. Would you go to page two or three when you can get the best on page one?

Reason #3: We don’t listen. It’s not that we don’t listen to things that we care about, but your advertising is not one of those things. We’ve been bombarded by advertising most of our lives and it has gotten to a point where most people just tune it out. Although using a variety of advertising channels is a good move for most companies, they won’t always remember your web address in that ad. If the ad was effective, they will, however, remember the ad’s message and maybe your company name or what kind of product/service was being advertised. That’s what they’ll put into the search engine. If you’re near the top and they heard/saw your ad, it’s pretty likely that they’ll click through to your site.

We have implemented our SEO+ program for several of our clients and they’ve seen some great results. Google uses about 100 different variables to determine your placement, so it’s not something that happens overnight and it’s not something that most small business owners have time for. SEO is an ongoing process; our program is 12 months and we meet with you every other month to talk about your rankings. We also review your analytics with you so that you really understand what’s happening on your site.

“Ok…I get the organic search stuff, but what about paid search?”

Paid search (also called CPC, PPC or pay-per-click advertising) means that you’re actually buying advertising on the search results page. Those ads are triggered by whatever keyword is typed in. You bid on keywords that are relevant to whatever you’re advertising, and the best placement goes to the highest bidder. When someone clicks on your ad, you get charged whatever your bid was to be to win that placement. The more relevant the target page is to the keyword typed in, the better placement your ad will have. I will caution you though: paid search is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of monitoring, bid modifications, and budget control. This is easily done by using the ‘daily budget’ function, but if that’s not used, you can rack up a hefty bill in no time.

There’s a lot more in-depth I could go, but for the sake of your precious time…here’s a link to tell you a little more about how our Search Engine Marketing program works.

Let us know if you have comments or questions about this kind of stuff. We’ve made these kinds of things work really well for several of our clients already and we’d love to share those successes with you. Comment on this post or send me an email!

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