Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization’

Want The Bang for The Buck?

May 4th, 2010

No Need to Be Left in The Dark

When is the best time to start a business? Perhaps you have an idea, but in this economy are you crazy for getting started now? Or are you running a small business and having difficulty attracting new customers and wondering when things are going to get better?

I can’t imagine starting or managing a small business anywhere else except this great country. To wax a bit historic and patriotic, when the framers of the Constitution worked tirelessly at the Constitutional Convention in the spring and summer of 1787, they knew the power and potential of having a free market. They wanted all to have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. The framers stuck to these free market principles:

  • The freedom to try
  • The freedom to buy
  • The freedom to sell
  • The freedom to fail

At Boostability, we’re rooting for the small business, the dreamer, the visionary. We created a do-it-yourself (DIY) online marketing package that will get your business noticed without much impact on your budget. We’re not about that failure part.

I posted an article a few months ago about how customers aren’t referring to phone books much to find businesses. Instead, they’re going to their trusty search engine and looking at the results that pop up on the first page. The winning business is the one that has done the work to get their site noticed. Recent polls suggest that 90% of online searchers don’t click past the first page. Where does your website rank?

There are many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies out there that would like to get you on that first page, and if you have the budget for that kind of monthly spend, this may well suit you. However, to the small business owner just getting started and being meticulous about every dollar spent, an SEO agency may be out of range.

Enter Boostability’s DIY SEO work-flow product. Our team of developers and SEO experts have been in the business for over six years and we know what it takes to get a business noticed on the web. When we started developing our automated work-flow application, we had the small business owner in mind. The spending for SEO has increased significantly in the last few years and is expected to rise sharply still. Small businesses are catching on but, simply put, if the money is not there, does that mean the small business owner is out of luck? We think otherwise.

There is a place for a small business owner to follow along as an SEO consultant would and perform the functions necessary to get noticed on the web. Boostability’s DIY SEO automated work-flow application is accessible online for a low monthly cost and will walk a user through all the important steps to build a website’s presence.

The process may only take a few hours a week and then, with regular attention, in a few months you may see your website show up at the top of the list. If you’d like to learn more about this easy-to-follow product, visit us at http://www.boostability.com/SEO-Software or give us a call at 1-800-261-1537.

–JK

Are there SEO best practices by Google?

June 22nd, 2009

Local Business trying to do their own Local Online Marketing are asking themselves the same questions. What are SEO best practices?  What can I do to improve my Search Engine Visibility on Google?

Although Google doesn’t publish a best practice guide, they do have a resource called “Webmaster tools”.   Within the help section there are a few notable sections ( Webmaster tools checklist and Webmaster Guidelines ) and a PDF document called Search Engine Optimization starter guide is available.

Before Google released these resources I think they really frowned upon companies helping other companies rank on their search engine.  They viewed it as cheating the system.  Granted there are SEO companies that do try to “beat the system”, but there are many that just help companies follow best practices.

Google should really embrace these types of companies, because they are helping search engines become more relevant.  I’ve recently read some articles claiming to be discriminated by Google because of what they do.   I can’t see why any search engine would do this as long as they are following their rules.   Are they unreasonable?  Maybe, but they are just trying to keep people from abusing the system.

At Boostability, we try to follow what we think would be Google best practices.   What are their best practices?  From their published document Webmaster Guidelines.  Here is a brief summary.

  • Website needs to be in a easy readable format for the search engines.
  • Structure needs to be easily followable for crawler.
  • Format content in a way the search engine can tell what the site is about.
  • Never buy or trade links.
  • Don’t spam with automated submit programs.
  • Automated queries checking ranking is a no no.

There you go, my top 6. :-)   Just a joke on my 1001 tips blog entry.