Marketing insights by one of Internet Marketing's top guru.
Small Biz TrendsJust started following this blog - the name says it all.
SEOMoz BlogInformation on the latest in the world of SEO.
Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik"If you can't measure it - you can't manage it." (Drucker). Avinash tells you how to measure everything on your website.
aimClear BlogAimed at people doing their SEO and online PR 'in house' - there is a wealth of information on all aspects of promoting your site.
MashableTHE blog to read for current information and trends in Social Medai.
Copy BloggerREAD THIS if you ever get stuck writing copy
TIMR Web Services
1412 Albatross Ave.
Comox, BC
[email protected]
250.218.5285
Google has confirmed that page load speed is one of the 200+ variables that contribute to the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). While there are a number of sites that will tell you how fast your site loads to your location, it would be nice to see how long it takes your site to reach your customers. In addition, once your site gets past a few pages, tracking the load speed of each page become a REAL PAIN.
Google Analytics Site Speed metric has changed that.
On Oct 27th Google announced a major change in local search results. The changes give more prominence to the Google Places results.
Like the old map search results, the Places results are placed near the top of the page. The map overlay has been enlarged and placed in the right column, previously reserved for Adwords (PPC). Surprisingly, the map overlays the PPC, so as you scroll down the page – the top PPC listings are hidden ‘behind’ the map.
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I have been visiting the UK for the last few weeks. It was a bit of a “whirl wind” tour “5 cities in 14 days”. There was so much to see that 14 days per city wouldn’t have been enough.
Among the items waiting for me when I got back was a request to do a SEO audit on a website that had recently been updated. One of the problems was so common that I thought I would pass it on.
I first checked the robots.txt file. This is the file that tells the robots (search engines) which pages pages you want them to exclude from their index. Google, and the other major search engines, take the robots.txt as gospel and obeys all the entries. Getting the robots.txt wrong is the quickest way to get your site ignored by the search engines.
Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that many, dare I say most, people claiming to be web designers either don’t know about or forget to check the robots.txt. In this case the txt was blocking the search engines from a directory that no longer existed – not a problem. And, pointing to the sitemap.xml file.
The sitemap.xml, or sitemap, is a complete listing of all the pages that you want the search engines to index. And, while the search engines have a method of submitting sitemaps, they can also ‘discover’ the sitemap if it is listed in the robots.txt.
IMHO, all websites should have a sitemap, with ONE BIG PRIVISO – IT MUST BE KEPT UPTO DATE!.
One of the key pieces of information provided by the sitemap is the last time a page was modified. The search engines use this as a short cut. If the page hasn’t been modified since the last time they indexed the site – there is no reason to check that page for new content. It saves the search engines time, and reduces your bandwidth usage. But, this works only – ONLY if the sitemap is upto date.
Sadly, it hadn’t been updated since 2009.
Fortunately, the major search engines were ignoring the “last modified” tag and viewing the new pages. They new content apperared to be indexed as the new description meta tags were appearing in the SERP. However, this is sub-optimal.
A current sitemap is the best way to ensure all your pages are at least being indexed. Don’t forget to update it when you do your next site update or add new content.
Have you ever tried to explain your job to someone. One of the hardest parts is remembering all those little items that have, over time, become second nature. The things you do or know without really thinking about them.
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Michael Regan – TIMR Web Services
Please Note:
The date has been changed to April 23rd
Event: Web Wisdom: A panel discussion on Marketing, SEO & Social Media
Courtenay BC
Space is limited so please pre-register. Contact Carolyn Touhey at (250) 335-2342 or email Michael Regan [email protected] to register or for more information.
Carolyn Touhey of SmartBiz and Pieter Vorster from Continual Palingenesis—Social Media Solutions will be joining me for this workshop.
The focus will continue to be on marketing, with an even stronger focus on adding Social Marketing to your marketing strategy.
Carolyn will be explaining how to integrate your web marketing into your overall marketing stragey. She will cover the basics that MUST be in place before you even start to think of a website.
In addition to covering the basics of SEO and website marketing, I will be discussing how to measure the results of your SEO. We will look at getting actionable measurements, ones that will let you improve your ROI, rather than a lot of data, from your analytics tools. As before the focus will be on Google Analytics, however, the ideas can be applied to any analytic tool.
In addition, I will be showing some of the new features of Google Analytics and some of the new tools Google has been developing to help the small business owner.
Pieter will be covering the role of Social Media in your marketing. Facebook. Twitter and other social network sites all have their own written and unwritten rules. Getting noticed takes more than starting your own account or even buying a few ads. Social Media takes a lot of time – is the ROI worth the time you will invest.
If you have a website or you are going to get a website and you think you need some search engine optimization (SEO).
You are probably right!
This video from SEOmoz (where SEO consultants go for help) will shed some light on how to first assess your needs and second give some insight into what to look for in hiring a consultant or outsourcing your SEO work.
OK – I know the people that should read this won’t but here it is anyway.
We get a LOT of requests for link exchanges. And, even though we don’t currently even have a ‘Link’ page, I do check a lot of them. You never know when something may be of value.
Here are some of the things that will get an email sent to the trash:
Exchanging links can bring traffic to your site. If you are asking for a link exchange, make sure it will add value to each site. For example, one of our client runs a resort. We regularly link them to local events and tourist attractions. These links benefit both sites.
Don’t exchange links just to get more links. It serves no purpose and sites that might bring you traffic will avoid you.
No matter what your age, getting presents over the holidays is nice. Google has given the SEO world a a picnic baskets full of gifts (I know – a mixed metaphor.)
The introduction of ‘Personalized Search’ to everyone searching on Google has made a top position on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) hard to to get – but easier to maintain. Personalized search has been available for people logged into their Google account since 2007. This video by Maile Oyhe covers some of the benefits of personalized search.
I will be conducting a workshop on "What Every Business Owner Should Know To Maximize Investment In A Website.". (And, no I didn’t pick the title.) With such a huge topic – I thought I had better write a resource list for the attendees. Then I thought – why not share it with everyone.
It is by no means complete – but it is a start. And, the blogs in particular will lead you to even more information.
Die Hard – The Keyword Myth
I was listening to a podcast interview with Vanessa Fox this morning. I don’t spend much time with podcasts. There must be hundreds of hour uploaded each day and all but a few are, in my opinion a waste of time. But, one of my clients had sent me the link and asked for my opinion.
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