Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization’
Monday, March 8, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Website Design |
Tags: cufon fonts, search engine optimization, seo, Website Design |
1 Comment
Until recently, there has been a major design limitation for website designers who care about creating a website optimized for the search engines. When you view a website on your computer, the browser can only use fonts located within your hard drive. So if a font is called and the computer doesn’t have it, the next font in the list of usable fonts is utilized. This can have disastrous effects on the look of a page as fonts different in sizes and spacing.
Historically, the way around this was to create an image of the word you wanted to use on your site in the font you liked the best. The only problem is that Google cannot read images. You could place alternative text for the image, but this doesn’t hold as much clout as say an <h1> tag to the search engines.
Well, now there is a solution that allows you to change the font on your website to anything you choose while maintaining the actual text in the code of your pages to realize all the benefits of Search Engine Optimization.
This solution is called Cufon and it utilizes JavaScript to quickly change the font on your site while the page is loading.
You can specify the exact text you want changed, whether just specific <h1, h2, etc> tags or <p> text.
Best of all, it’s free and very simple to use. I used it for the first time this morning and it took me about 10 minutes to integrate it into my website.
Here’s a quick rundown of the steps necessary to use Cufon on your website. You can use it on a WordPress site, or even a basic HTML website.
- Find a font you like and download it on Font Squirrel – http://www.fontsquirrel.com/
- Upload this file to the root folder of your website – http://cufon.shoqolate.com/js/cufon-yui.js
- Generate a JavaScript file of the font you downloaded – http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/
- Copy this code into the <head> section of your website
- Change ‘h1′ to whichever title or <p> text you would like to change to your new font. Change the “Vegur_300.font.js” file to the name of the font file you created in step 3.
- That should be it. Refresh your webpage and you should see the new font live on your site.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<script src="cufon-yui.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="Vegur_300.font.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
Cufon.replace('h1');
</script>
See, simple and fast. Your design capabilities just increased immensely.
Tags: cufon fonts, search engine optimization, seo, Website Design | Posted under Website Design | 1 Comment
Monday, December 14, 2009 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Marketing, Ranking #1 on Google |
Tags: google placement, google rank, search, search engine optimization |
No Comments
I received an email today asking how Google determines the position of paid ads. It is confusing because the highest bid does not necessarily receive the highest spot. Apparently, the ad’s rank is important too. The rank is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest of course, and is based on relevance. Relevance is determined by how well the ad matches the inquiry. Let’s look at some real data to see if we can figure it out. Look at the Google search below.
In this search, it appears that Joy of Socks (number 4) is the best programmed site, as it appears at the top of the free listings. See our other blogs on organic Google rankings to see how to achieve this position. Most people believe this is the best position to achieve. I almost never click on the paid ads.
Look at what each site actually bid and where they ended up. Funky Socks bid $8.80 and ended up in position 1. 
Bare Necessities bid the second most, $8.00, but was placed on the right hand side bar, not on the top. Even though they were a high bidder, their ad was not placed in the best locations. Why? Because of ad quality. Google decided that their ad’s quality was only a 6. Google evaluates the text in the ad AND the landing page. The landing pages must have good content and must load fast. Here, Bare Necessities needs to work on their homepage, and should not increase their bid. On the other hand, Wild Crazy compensates for a lower bid with a higher score on the quality of the homepage.
Tags: google placement, google rank, search, search engine optimization | Posted under Marketing, Ranking #1 on Google | No Comments
Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Bootstrapping, Website Design |
Tags: google adwords for research, keywords, search engine optimization |
5 Comments
The NY Times ran an article yesterday on how small businesses can use Google AdWords to advertise their business. They had some great things to say about localizing the ad campaign, selecting the correct keywords, and closely monitoring the results.
One thing they failed to write about was using Google AdWords for research purposes. When I hear Search Engine Optimization professionals speak about the use of Google AdWords, it usually is not in the vein of using it for advertising. Google Adwords is just as strong of a platform for doing your Keyword research as it is for advertising your small business.
How do you do research using Google AdWords?
Start by using Google’s Keyword Tool to research keywords for your market. You can see here the average # of searches per month as well as the competition level for that keyword. After deciding on the best Keywords for your company, set a budget and place these Keywords into your Google AdWords campaign and look at the results of what attracts the most clicks to your site.
Now, do Search Engine Optimization within your website design. Optimize the best performing Keywords in your Meta Tags, on-page text, and with links pointing to your site using those words.
By optimizing your site for those Keywords, the goal is to attract free visitors to your site who will buy your good or service. This is opposed to Google AdWords where you pay if they click the link.
And hey, if you got business from AdWords while doing this research, and there is a return on investment, keep the ads going. But the goal is to produce natural search results based upon the information gleaned from your Google AdWords research.
Tags: google adwords for research, keywords, search engine optimization | Posted under Bootstrapping, Website Design | 5 Comments
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts, Uncategorized |
Tags: fixing ruined online reputation, search engine optimization |
1 Comment
Have you fallen victim to malicious news about your company or you yourself on the Internet? When you type in your name, are the top 10 Google results negative? Is this causing you pain in your job search or with your potential clients?
Believe it or not, you have some level of control to fix this without trying to get the websites containing the news to remove their content.
First of all, assuming that the charges are false, start a blog, in your name or your company’s name, and give your side of the story.
Secondly, if you don’t have the URL (www.yourname.com) for your own name, purchase that and invest some money in designing a website for that URL.
Third, sign up for LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
By now, you have at least 5 websites or pages up under your name that will likely show up on the first page of a Google search. What have you done? You have likely removed 5 Google results that you don’t control with 5 Google results that you do control.
Now, it’s your turn to be a bit creative and find 5 more results. Some random ideas that I have seen show up in search results are free press releases (prlog.com), writing a book review, and a video on YouTube.
If you don’t define yourself online, someone else will. Take the initiative and start making it happen. But remember to be careful as well. There is enough storage these days to archive and save everything you ever put online. Every tweet, photo, and blog. Ask yourself if you want your grandchildren to see something before you put it up online.
I attribute a lot of these thoughts to Ross Goldberg. “Own your online reputation.”
Tags: fixing ruined online reputation, search engine optimization | Posted under Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Website Design |
Tags: above the fold, entrepreneurs, search engine optimization, Website Design |
7 Comments
Above the Fold
I recently attended a 3-day conference dealing with Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, and Website Design techniques. One thing that struck me the most was how much the professionals concentrated on what was above the fold of a website.
What does above the fold mean? When you look at the front page of a newspaper, whatever is show on the top fold, as in, what is seen at a newsstand, is referred to as above the fold. For websites, this is what shows on the computer screen without the user moving down the home page.
So, why is this important? Because you have about 3 seconds to capture a web user’s attention. That’s the average time someone spends on your site before they ‘bounce’ and go elsewhere. That’s the average of course, unless they see something they like.
The professionals at this conference concentrated on the website ‘above the fold’ because the main point and call to action for your business must be in that area.
What are the other implications of this?
- People don’t have time to read extensive text copy in 3 seconds. Have images, or short quips above the fold that entice someone to click to the page that contains more information.
- The function of your business must be apparent to someone in 3 seconds. Also, remember that more and more people in the future will be looking at your site on their small-screened mobile device.
- What is your call to action? Are you trying to sell something? Are you trying to gather emails? Are these options available in your ‘above the fold’ area?
When these professionals were working with site designers, the professionals would ask where such and such was on the website. The designer would say – “well, if you click here and scroll down and then click there…..” If you are saying that and having to justify where your most important information lies on your website, that should tell you something.
Keep your most important information short, have your call to action clear, and keep the design clean, all above the fold.
Tags: above the fold, entrepreneurs, search engine optimization, Website Design | Posted under Website Design | 7 Comments
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