The Ease of Promotions !

Well, a lot spoken on website promotions and a lot read on this topic but I rarely come across people who seem to follow them in totality.
Whatever maybe their reasons for not going on it 100%, the fact stays that some wonderful things are for free, believe me !
Allright let me number a few for you :)
1. Write authentic Articles which establish you first as a professional and the site you are working on as "serious" on its business. Ezine is another wonderful platform for you to have this strategy going great. Work on this diligently and you would have the great outcome very soon.
2. Link Exchanges which if relevant and well studied before approvals are a great way to promote a site.
3. Participate actively in forums and blogs but avoid spamming. Every word which you write there is worth a million hits (world wide!)...
4. Emails...emails? how can one promote a site with emails and avoid the unwanted "Spammer" tag?...Well put your site URL below your signatures in the office mails you send out and get your subordinates do the same with their mails too, [don't at any point work on site promotion through Emails]. Doing this correct just puts in the "importance" and "official" tag on the site and gets hits from the prospective visitors.
As it comes with experience, SEO is all about optimizing one's efforts and time to get results fast (but through the correct way) and here are no shortcuts in "clean" jobs :)

+1, Would You Like It !!

I recently came across this new feature Google is about to include. They are calling this "+1" while some people say this is inspired from Facebook "Like" button.
What this +1 is that a visitor on Google would see a +1 button along all the Google search results that one does. Now if one likes (or finds) a particular site/s relevant or useful or good they can hit the "+1" button and this gets displayed to all the Google Contacts one has. This also gets displayed to all other users running similar searches on Google.
In effect what this means is that a visitor's contacts get to know what/which particular site their contact found useful while to the other visitors on Google this could be just something like a guide or a user/visitor rating :)
There are similarities between Facebook "Like" button and Google "+1" where the friends get to know what one "liked/+1ed" but the similarities end here only (for now) ;)
Google is a search engine and Facebook is not. Google would display the "+1s" publicly (for obvious reasons) and Facebook does not.
There are also words going around that Facebook is progressing fast on their plans to have their own Search Engine but till the time this does not happen the "Like" and "+1" are distinct things for the simple reason that Google (i.e. Search Engine) is ever evolving and has to decide on "how" to consider visits/site hits based on Facebook "Like" button...for site ranks,listings etc...
This seems to have been the reason that Google understands well and has included its own "+1". This is more like let the people decide what they like !! :)

More details at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAyUNI3_V2c

Basics

Last week we had many designs for final delivery and this really kept us a lot occupied. There were clients asking for "their" way of layouts, there were clients asking for their preferred colors, there were also some who wanted their sites "on the lines" of some xyz site...
Many meetings and details and this kept us recalling the "primary" basic of design...the arrangement
I spent my time telling the team these basics:
1] Check out the size of the page and the sections in the page. Are they proportionate? Keep the size of the sections directly proportional to the importance and frequent usage the particular section might have.
2] Where you place what makes the entire difference (Just imagine your favorite site with all the placement haphazard !). Got it? :)
3] Where attention is to be drawn use bold and subtle colors. This helps give depth, sense and meaning to the page. Add sensible contrast and you have a great effect there.
3] What and where you want the visitor to look and to instill & maintain their interest in the page? Any answers? Well the best approach to this would be to understand what the site is all about and who are the visitors (target audience). The page "should" lead to instant sales i.e. business. The navigation should be user friendly and interesting.
The best designs don't necessarily have to be complex. With the clarity towards design basics you could create wonders with every design that you make !

Content, is this all?

I recently had a discussion with a friend and he was of the strong opinion that it is ultimately the content which dominates the traffic to a site. His point was that a good content has good keywords,references and probable intelligent inclusion of good and "healthy" links within the content itself.
I though disagree with my friend. I am of the opinion that no matter how much good the site content is, it cannot alone "make" the traffic come to a site, increase its rankings and popularity.
It is in fact the balanced combination of good SEO friendly titles, effective social networking, articles, blog & forum submissions and yes, the last (but not the least important) directory submissions.
Without a complete SEO strategy no matter how good the site content is, how much nice the site design you got, what extent of effective keywords you used, the site you have there has constant "want" for good and professional "parenting" i.e. result oriented SEO :)

Directory Listing, Is it really worth it?

All SEO guys know what Directory Listing is where all of them might have done Directory Listing at one time or the other :)
Though there are a lot "new & attractive" things in SEO now and SEO guys these days adopt a mixed strategy of the various techniques for their projects, the undercurrent (which I have observed at times)is that people start neglecting Directory Submission activities with more emphasis on the other techniques.
In my opinion Directory Listing is one of the most effective technique for getting the site the desired place in search results. Submissions in relevant and good PR pages works wonders as it shows the Spiders that the site "sits" good on the factual and advantage grounds in other sites too. This also enables getting good traffic and Search Engines always respect such sites. Directory Listing in sites having a "dofollow" attribute are really effective. Let me point out here that some good Directories giving paid link services are really helpful to a great extent. (The same is with Article Submission sites too!). At a considerably low cost your site link would show up in top slot in the particular Directory and the keywords being "sensitive" for such links, your site would be among the top listings in search results. Such Listings make the keywords important for Search Engines and this means a definite advantage as the keyword that you worked on is considered as "important" by Search Engines !
As they say, there is nothing like free lunch, the same goes with good SEO practices. Good Directory Submissions mean that they are relevant, clean and enjoy preference over the "free" ones !

SEO and Sales !

A recent Sales promotion campaign my friend did for his business left me wondering whether it was really worth it !
My friend had advertised heavily through print media and on net about the extension of his furnishing business. He had taken two shops adjacent to his own and had now one of the largest showrooms and services staff in the city.
Months of advertising and many discount coupons and then when he checked back after a month of the promotional activities (after the coupons expiry date) he found out that only 17% of the coupons were not claimed and yet his sales were somewhat same as before ! This clearly meant that though the coupons were redeemed by the customers and there were huge crowds the entire month, all had happened was that the majority existing customers had utilized the coupons in their regular purchases/services! He called me then to find out the reason for this.
As it came out very clearly, the promotion campaign and the tools which my friend had put into service were not effectively utilized. I found out that there were ads on his site and related sites too but the entire campaign lacked direction.
No "specific" terminology used, not a single instance of effective and researched words (Keywords) and phrases and not at all focused on the market segment and business type they wanted to target!!
In the name of sales promotion, the entire activity had clearly suggested that it was best if my friend had not thought of using it at all...what a waste of time and money and a sorry wastage of a wonderful chance of using the simplest SEO things for effective and practical results !!!
I hope other business people are not going the wrong way !

Do we use Keywords effectively?

Just came across a site and I must say I really wanted to contact the site manager to tell them about the mess they did on their keywords.

The site people had used misformed phrases, improper keywords and there were the tell tale signs of "over stuffing".
The proper way to use keyword/phrases is to use them in titles, sub-titles, bullets and in the beginning/end of paragraphs etc. Again, these should be used keeping the language factor in mind. Proper language with meaningful words go a long way in showing the "real" thing in site content. The same is true for articles etc.

Keyword stuffing means the site would be shifted back many pages when Google comes to know about it. This effectively kills all the SEO shortcuts people use but also kills all the previous good SEO efforts as well.

Links, How Many

We all look out for good links and the more and relevant they are the better it is to have them.
However people tend to overdo this technique and at times it leads to harming the site/s they were working on. There should be a limit (human limit) on the linking activities. For example if one site had 1000 links in three days then it spells like "overdone" in Google's language. Result, the obvious :( This is a typical feature with Link Farms which is considered a big no-no in SEO now. Search Engines penalize sites resorting to such things. Also, there are inbound and outbound links between which there should be a healthy balance.
Links and the practice of linking is crucial just like any other SEO technique and should be evaluated, checked before going ahead for Link exchanges. Relevancy and content should be looked into really seriously :)

Keywords, Do We Use Them?

Many write-ups and many opinions about the "Keywords" thing but the whole idea seems to evolve itself at a very impressive pace.
In fact this is true with all the aspects of SEO. There are umpteen changes and things happen and improve so fast because of SEO being a part of the I.T. world.
No matter what the changes, the basics of SEO remain the same and would always be like this (for a long period of time for now).
Taking the keywords for instance, it is always better to have the keywords in "good" usage in site (not misuse or overuse please!). Also, if you have a blog, use the keywords in the articles in all "relevant" ways and make it a practice to use them.
Again, the effectiveness of a keyword depends on its proper and practical selection and usage.
This ensures the efficacy of your keywords and makes your site keyword "reactive".
The basics remain the same, no matter what the changes in technology.

Watch Out For These !

Hi all !
SEO and its techniques form an essential part of "site identity". Most of us have experience on the techniques while there might be some new-comers in this arena.
Where the SEO techniques have a common aim and purpose in getting the site "there", the mismatch or casual approach to these techniques might work the opposite way.
Let's discuss some of the common errors people could and should avoid at all costs:
A] Avoid duplicate content: within the different pages of your site AND with other sites too. Needless to say that this kills majority SEO and might mark your site as a "copy".
B] Don't overuse your Keyword. This is similar to misuse. Over use of the keyword is taken as a deliberate (and intentional) SEO fixing action by the Search Engines.
C] Do you use ALT tags with images and keywords in your website? If not then please start doing this right away. This makes your site "spider friendly".
D] Avoid using Framesets. Printing & navigation is a problem and Search Engines cannot index them.
E] Make your site navigation navigable. This means your site has to be user-friendly and hence Search Engine friendly too.
We all at times come across sites which have been worked upon to such an extent that you might call them "overdone". Search Engines are getting smarter by the day and they have now started finding such sites which have been optimized recklessly. This is a big no-no.
SEO means making your site "seen" through workable and practical ways. There should be no rush or mindless "SEO-fixing".
If you find someone doing over-SEO then tell them that they might as well loose their current rankings too!

Way to a Good Design !

Hi folks, wishing you all a Very Happy New Year !.
Well,starting the new year with some design "basics"(as a matter of fact,these form a part of my new year resolutions too!)
Starting with these, point wise... :)
A) Fonts: The text is the thing which tells the visitor what our site is about. Style and the way they are arranged and put there makes all the difference. This is equally effective to attract or bore the visitor within first two minutes of their visiting the site.
B) Color: The meaning and harmony that you would put in your colors out there would make at least 50% of the difference. Imagine someone using glaring pink on a Hospital site!
Going further, color should be used in a symbolic manner, as "solid & concrete" personalities (no matter what the shade). This provides character to the site.
C) Images & Graphics: are similar to what you long to see in the marriage photo album of your best friend. Details missing and interest lost. Do not make them "event-less" or "over-detailed". Just be "there".
D) Navigation: How could you best make your site visitor friendly? Easy to understand layout, simple ways to reach the top/bottom of the pages. Well laid out format...no detail is ever enough in making your site "even more" visitor friendly.
E) Connect: How many visitors would find your site worth visiting is directly proportional to how many visitors understood what your site speaks/tells about itself. Just look at the public transport mediums of your town/city. They have signs/spaces for people to follow (going as far as helping physically disabled people too).
What I mean here is that your site should be really simple to "walk around" and detail the visitor what it is about & what things the visitor would find across the different corners (pages) etc. :)
Clearly, there is no end to refining and redefining the design
specifics as no single detail is independent when it comes to making a good website. Moreover, additions to these details is a natural and an essential aspect for the designs to depict today yesterday and tomorrow, all at the same time.