Typically, websites are made in a very linear fashion. There is always an entry point, which is typically a home page or landing page. This is followed by a handful of single pages, all in a very clearly set row, defined by either a horizontal, or vertical navigation bar. Simple, right?

There are certainly websites that exist in an almost organic, very dynamic fashion. These include news websites (Canoe.ca, NYTimes.com, etc.), and user-driven websites (Facebook.com, Reddit.com, etc.). Search engines have been making a shift to user-generated content for years, and not just because it’s fresh and more frequently updated, but in part because of the linking structures that are built into the website architecture.

Let’s face it, most small to medium sized businesses have what are called ‘defensive’ websites. These are websites that exist purely because they want to put the URL on their business cards. These sites are also built in the most linear, straightforward way possible. Below is a depiction of one of these websites:

On these websites there exist a handful of pages, with some content here and there. The only way to access any page on the website is always done through the navigation bar… which I HOPE are not images… but that’s for another day. This, my friends, is a typical corporate website. Go look for yourself, and you will see.

One of the most effective ways of increasing the ‘importance’ of a website is by inner linking words and phrases found within the content, to other relevant pages within the website. You might ask “Why does it matter… these aren’t as good as getting links from other websites, so why bother?”. While not as valuable as a backlink from another high traffic website, inner linking has been proven to be a very effective method of increasing search rankings. It’s also making changes to your own website which you have full control over, so why wouldn’t you do it?

It’s a very simple process, but it should be done in a way that it assists the visitor. The end result will be a more connected website with highlighted content for Google and other search engines to pinpoint for future search queries. An example of an inner-linked website can be found below:

Not only are the pages connected through the website’s navigation, but since relevant keywords have also been linked, it will create a much more connected and intertwined system, boosting the authority and importance of not just specific pages, but the website as a whole. This will, in turn, increase the likelihood of pages showing up in search engine results.

Here are some other related articles that you might find interesting:

• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Think Your Website Is Too Old To Optimize? Think Again!

So, your new website is done and it’s online. Now, you just sit back and wait for visitors, right? ….Wrong! You need to get out there and promote the heck out of it, using one or many of the ever expanding number of options available. Promotion is just as important as design, development and content, combined. Can you imagine if Ford built a great new car, but decided not to tell anyone? I’m pretty sure that sales would not be too stellar.

Speaking of promotion, two of the most effective methods of promoting any website, are by building organic search (Google, Bing, etc.) and by gaining website referrals (i.e. Site B has a link to Site A). It can be just as difficult to climb the search ranks as it is to generate a new referral, but thankfully the two methods feed off of each other in many ways. So how on earth do these things called Backlinks come in?

How Do Backlinks Effect Organic Search?

Google takes hundreds of factors into consideration when they decide who ranks high on their organic search rankings, and for what keywords. Some factors carry more weight than others, including content, url structure, page load speed and of course… backlinks! Imagine if Site A and Site B feature very similar content and have been established for roughly the same amount of time. Site has 20 backlinks from smaller, relatively insignificant blogs and forum posts. Site B on the other hand, has 50 backlinks, some of them from established online news publications, and a couple of popular blogs. It doesn’t require much thought to determine that Site B will carry more weight, thus helping to boost its ranking.

Ok I Understand, But How Do I Actually Get Backlinks?

Most websites are not likely going to go out of their way to provide you with a link, unless of course you give them a reason to. Perhaps you have some great content, or perhaps you feature a niche product or service. Or perhaps you’re an industry leader and people just want to be associated with you. There’s also the tried and tested method of asking nicely! You would be surprised to see how generous many business owners, blog writers or forum posters are, if you simply ask. Often, they may ask for you to reciprocate, which depending on your type of business and website, may not be possible, but that’s up for you to decide. Regardless of the method, having links from other websites is one of the single most powerful contributing factors for determining a website’s placement within search rankings.

Some Websites Charge For Backlinks, Are They Legit?

As a general rule of thumb, if you need to pay for anything outside of your monthly SEO fees, it’s not necessary or worse, it could hurt your rankings in the long run. Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t truly beneficial services out there. Website link farms have given paid backlinks a very bad name, by flooding pages with hundreds of links, rendering yours (that you could have paid $100 or more for) almost useless.

Look for websites directly dealing with your industry, that feature only a handful of highly relevant links. Also, sponsorships are a good way to drive relevant traffic (if you have the ad budget for it). These typically consist of a banner located in a static area of a website. They can be costly, but the returns can be significant especially for a brand awareness campaign.

So there you have it. Backlinks are helpful in a variety of ways, but most importantly, they ultimately help drive more targeted, relevant visitors to your website. So instead of sitting back waiting for viewers, get out there and secure those backlinks!

A common concern from business owners is that in order to climb the ever changing Google rankings, they will need to update their aging website, potentially spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. This may not necessarily be the case, and in fact, optimizing an existing website may be easier than you think.

While there are hundreds of factors that Google uses when determining a website’s search ranking, a lot of them are under your control. A lot of Content Management Systems (CMS) have made this process incredibly easy, sometimes even automatic, but by no means does it mean that older websites cannot be optimized. The process may require more manual adjustments, but the underlying effect can still be pushed to search engines.

Do you have access to your code?

Regardless of whether your website was developed in-house, or by another agency, you should have access to the website code, whether it’s via FTP or a control panel.  This access is critical in order to manipulate or adjust the code for Search Engine Optimization purposes.

Whether you decide to hire an SEO agency to do this work for you, or do it yourself, changes in rankings will not happen overnight. In fact, they could take weeks or even months to have a real impact. Optimizing a website however, is the first step in building a powerful online sales tool. Not only does optimizing a website help search engines effectively crawl, scan and index the pages and content contained within, but it also helps visitors and potential customers find what they need more easily. This will ultimately create more sales conversions.

Quick optimization tips

• Make sure every page has a descriptive, concise Page Title. This is what users see first when they are sorting through the hundreds of search results.
• Write informative, unique META Descriptions. These are the second part of a search result that users see when viewing search results. If you do not have a Description, you leave it up to Google to determine what it will say, which can have negative effects.
• Give all of your images ALT tags. Think about it… does prodshot126.jpg mean anything to you? No, of course not. Google sees the same thing, so renaming the image to 3-iron-golf-club.jpg instead all of a sudden gives the image value and meaning. Can’t change the name of the image? By adding an ALT tag to the image, you provide a similar value.
• Do you have links to other websites? Add this code to the links (rel=”nofollow”). Not only will the links remain, allowing your visitors access to the same valuable resources, but you will retain all page authority (the importance of the specific page in Google’s eyes).
• Content Content CONTENT! If your site is a week old or a decade old, you will always have the ability to change content. There is a gap between what makes sense to humans and what makes sense to robots. Trying to bridge that gap will pay dividends, as users will be informed with quality content, and search engines will be convinced that your website is providing content relevant to visitor search queries.

Just by implementing these few steps, your website will become much more search engine friendly. No matter how old your website is, it will still output HTML. The techniques used above are very basic, however they are also very important and powerful. Also, nothing is ever final so feel free to tweak and change content. As mentioned earlier though, be patient as organic SEO (in case you couldn’t tell, these are basic SEO tactics) can take time. Good luck!

So, unless you’ve been completely disconnected for the last few weeks, you will have likely heard about Google+. This is Google’s latest attempt at breaking through in the very competitive and rapidly expanding social media realm. It’s not their first attempt mind you, but we won’t go into too much detail about Wave, Buzz and their other… let’s call them.. experiments.

They have quite a lot more invested in this project though, and have gone as far as planning to rename the incredibly popular Picasa and Blogger websites to Google Photos and Google Blogs, respectively. Last time we looked this change hadn’t gone through, but it’s planned to happen during the public launch of Google+, since it is still in invite-only beta stage.

Getting an invite however, is as easy as asking one of the over 20 million current users (as of July 19th, 2011)  for one of their unlimited invites. I had approximately 50 coworkers, family members and friends up and running within a few days. NOTE : In fact, leave a comment on this blog post and I would be happy to extend an invite.

After 10 days of frequent use, I have had a great deal of fun using Google+ but it’s not perfect. Here are some of my Pros/Cons.

Great features of Google+ 

• Integration With Other Google Tools.
  When you  want to share a video on Facebook, you need to either have the link ready, or upload the actual video to Facebook. With Google+ it not only features the option to add a video link, but you can also search and post directly from Youtube, or add videos from your cellphone (provided you are using the Instant Upload feature).
  
• That Amazing Notifications Bar.
  The updated toolbar that is present in nearly every Google tool has deep integration of Google+ Notifications. Not only can you check your Google+ notifications while reading your Gmail, but you can comment or +1 the comments without having to visit the Google+ site itself.

  

• Already A Google user? You’re Ready To Go.
  I have been a Google user (or… Google super nerd, Google Poster Boy, etc., depending on who you ask) for as long as I can remember. My phone is running Android, I have been using Gmail forever, my Contacts have been stored on Google’s servers since I got my phone, my Calendars, both personal and professional are, well…. you get the picture. Anyways, upon setting up my Google+ account, I was greeted with a list of contacts taken from my Google Contacts, making it very easy to invite everyone. My Picasa photos were automatically linked up to share, and I can only imagine what else will be enabled in the coming months.
• The Mobile App Might Be Basic, But It’s Already Great
  Last time I checked, mobile usage is growing. Having an app to compliment the great online service seemed obvious and Google doesn’t disappoint. Nearly everything you can do on the browser version can be done on the Google+ mobile app. In fact, the ability to have photos, videos and chats are makes even more sense on a mobile device, while you’re out and about.

Room For Improvement 

While not so much technical aspects of the service itself, there are potential roadblocks that could severely hinder any possibility for future success of Google+.

• Where is everyone?
  At last count, I had 75 people in my circles, however it seems as if only 3 people are actually using it. Don’t get me wrong, I am completely thrilled with every word they type (Hopefully they are reading this), but it would be nice to see a more engaged group. I’m sure this is something that will happen over time but it puts a damper on an otherwise very solid platform.
• The big blue elephant in the room.
  With Facebook amazingly continuing to increase its userbase to now over 700 million, it seems that nothing can possibly get in its way. Google doesn’t just have a hill to climb, it has to find a way to catch up with a speeding train with no signs of slowing down.
• No Business Support (Yet.)
  There is an ‘entity’ request form available for businesses, but until then there is no sign of how the business accounts will appear to the public. One of the issues I’ve found with Facebook is the occasional business account that posts dozens of times a day, cluttering the news feed (my apologies if you feel that way about us!). Keeping business accounts separate is a great idea.

Sure, everyone has seen them. Those funny URLs that don’t seem to make any sense. They show up in Twitter posts mostly, or even on your Facebook wall from time to time. Even Google and Youtube have joined the bandwagon. What I’m talking about, are shortened URLs. The way they work, is instead of using a standard (and long) URL such as http://www.glacier-digital.com/Internet-Marketing/Search-Engine-Optimization.html, shortening services can be used to get them down to a much more manageable, digestible size such as : http://bit.ly/ka1Qci. The reason they were originally created isn’t entirely clear, but (and this is just a theory) it seems awfully suspicious that they were introduced around the time Twitter began it’s quick ascent to the the upper elite of the social media realm. Short URLs feel right at home within those precious 140 characters.

Getting the URLs down to more manageable levels is all well and good, but there’s another reason that interests me a bit more. And this is definitely more up the alley of all the SEOs and SEMs out there. So I apologize if I get a bit nerdy when looking at charts like the one below.



The thing is, with URL shorteners, and depending on the service you are using the shorten them, you can track an abundant amount of data you might not have been able to before. This can include QR Codes scans, Video links, and basically any other type of URL. There is also the ability to install browser plugins, or use the service directly in management applications such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, allowing you to automatically shorten and track all links pasted into the tools.

Give it a try, as I mentioned, even Google is in on it. Shorten a link with Goo.gl

Or, if you want to stick around for a while, read some of our other relevant posts :

• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Why Being #1 On Google Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be

Released to the public in early 2010, Buzz was Google’s first true attempt at entering the social media realm.

It integrated a number of different services into one stream. These services included Twitter and Flickr as well as well as the range of Google products such as YouTube, Blogger, Reader, Latitude, Picasa and others. It had a lot of potential, and seemed like a great way for Google to get their foot in the door. I mean, why wouldn’t it work?

You may have noticed I’m referring to Buzz in the past tense. This is because in my eyes, and in the eyes of many others… it’s dead. There were even reports of it being dead right out of the gate.

The reasons it died so quickly? Well for starters, at the time of its release privacy was a bigger concern than ever before. Facebook had a similar issue which as you may remember, caused the massive user exodus (well, that was the plan anyways). However in Google’s case, they managed to display user contacts publicly, without consent from the user. This was later fixed, but not before major damage was done.

Also, it never really had an identity of its own. Launched as an extension of sorts to the incredibly popular Gmail, it never seemed like it could stand on its own two legs as a social media platform. Getting all of your friends to setup ANOTHER new account also didn’t help. Sure, you could integrate your existing Google account with Buzz, but it still wasn’t easy enough for quick adoption.

In addition to this, major tech blogs have removed Buzz entirely from their social media efforts, receiving almost no complaints. The service has simply failed to find a footing in the already overcrowded ‘sharing’ market.

The one remaining light in the otherwise dark abyss that is Google Buzz (yikes, that sounds harsh…) is its integration with Google Maps on mobile devices. I found the interface to be very intuitive and couldn’t believe it when I saw others using it nearby. Used solely as a Google Maps and Google Latitude extension, I truly believe Buzz could catch on. But Google needs to figure out where it fits in their master plan.

I applaud Google for trying new things, and even if they fail, they manage to create something new or put their own unique spin on an existing idea. We saw it before with Wave, and now with Buzz. There are always elements of their new tools that can be implemented within other services, so I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Read some of our related posts :

• “Say No To Spam!” – Regards, Google
• Is Mobile Marketing Important?

As you may have heard, Google recently received a bit of flack for ‘allowing’ spam to rear its ugly head into a handful of search phrases. In one case, a surprisingly large number of vague search terms that were all returning JC Penney as the number one (or very high) result. Terms such as ‘furniture’ or ‘home decor’. Quite a few people noticed something fishy was going on, so an investigation was shortly underway.

This isn’t specific to JC Penney, as a large number of other websites have partaken in similar tactics, and a few years ago BMW was caught red handed (or, as an SEO might say… black-handed…. *ahem*… ok sorry, that was bad).

What has happened to make this possible, is that websites known as “link farms”, which feature highly irrelevant content, have been used to generate seemingly genuine links to a specific website. These links appear to be highly relevant to the destination website, for example: a link may appears as Deals On Shoes, which when clicked, would link to www.Sears.com. However, this link is often surrounded by highly irrelevant text offering nothing of value to visitors, and only serving the purpose of artificially increasing the domain authority for www.Sears.com. If 500 very weak websites link to one website, they can artificially increase the website’s value to search engines, whereas only 10 very high quality, incredibly relevant websites offering links could theoretically produce a similar result (however, are VERY difficult to attain, this the reason some search firms might tend to shy away from it).

Google, who are always striving to provide the most relevant and highest quality search results for its users, has taken a hard stance against these link farms and as of March 8th, have eliminated more than 1 million of them from their search index. This has caused a very large stir in a number of search results and has effected some legitimate search results, both positively and negatively. While it is indeed an uphill battle, it is one that must be done, as hundreds of thousands of websites will, over time, hopefully be rewarded for offering more relevant, quality information for web users worldwide.

B2B SEO requirements are quite different versus B2C SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is changing the way companies market their products. According to Vanessa Fox, author of “Marketing in the Age of Google”, Search Marketing (which didn’t exist 10 years ago) is dramatically impacting traditional methods of advertising, brand awareness, and new customer acquisition causing many companies pain and discomfort. The companies that understand this new form of marketing will have competitive advantage over their ‘laggard’ competitors who continue with the status quo who still may rely on yellow pages, outdated websites, and traditional advertising for awareness.

One of the key growth areas for the Internet is B2B (Business to Business). It is popular misconception to think that SEO is just for companies marketing in the B2C sector. SEO for B2B is extremely important and is gaining considerable traction and attention in online business circles.

Differences

Typically in the B2C sector, the sales cycle for purchasing a product (electronic device) is relatively short – anywhere from three minutes to three hours. The decision process is relatively simple – online search, cost, availability, looks great – therefore I need it! – click on the shopping cart and the product is billed and shipped.

However, companies that market to other companies encounter more complex purchase attributes namely:

1. Engagement of Multiple Decision Makers
2. Longer Buying Cycles
3. Corporate Reputations
4. Research on Capabilities, other product lines
5. Case Studies – reliance on 3rd party research assessments
6. Demonstrations (ie. video clips on new manufacturing process)
7. Tradeshow Attendance

Typically the prospective B2B customer is looking for alternatives and is driven more by “risk avoidance” than price, when selecting new vendors.

It is important for companies who operate in a B2B environment to fully understand their prospective customer base. Companies need to know what these prospects will be searching for and make the necessary adjustments in their SEO keyword search and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising programs.

The buying process is longer; however, when a new customer is acquired the return can be in the millions of dollars.

In summary, companies who compete in a B2B marketplace (huge) – need to consider a sound B2B SEO coverage program to ensure their online digital footprint is attracting new customers and retaining their existing customers.

You’ve heard it all before. “We can promise you will rank #1 on Google in a week!” or, even better is “If you don’t rank #1 on Google, you don’t pay!”.

What these companies don’t bother to tell you, is that they will get those ranks for keywords you don’t want, don’t need and didn’t ask for. Also, once your website receives those thousands of promised visitors, what will you do with them? Since they were most likely sent to your site via irrelevant or VERY vague keywords, you need to make sure they don’t hightail it.

At the end of the day, conversions are the only thing that matter

I cannot stress this enough. Time and time again, I’ll see a company throw thousands of dollars away on organic SEO or PPC campaigns, drawing all sorts of visitors to their (to put it bluntly) pretty crummy site.

What were they aiming to achieve, besides frustrating their visitors with their cumbersome navigation, poor usability, and complete lack of focus? Was there a goal set in place for the visitors? Probably not.

Converting a website visitor, whether they found your website through organic search, a paid ad, or simply word of mouth, is the most important factor for ANY website. Whether you want a new newsletter subscriber, to sell a product, to have a new member subscribe to a free/paid service, have a contact form filled out and submitted, or if you just want a very specific page to be viewed by as many eyeballs as possible, these are all clear objectives and are what drive a website to succeed.

1. Define The Goal(s) Of Your Website
   Surely you didn’t spend thousands of dollars just to have a page to display your address. Make use of the incredibly useful tool at your disposal and decide what you want out of your visitors and potential customers.
2. Track conversions as they occur, and adjust as necessary.
   This entire process would consist of a lot of wasted effort unless it was tracked effectively. Ensure that tools are put in place to accurately measure conversions, whether it’s done through Google Analytics, Call Tracking, or another service. Has it been a while and you haven’t seen much activity? Perhaps another measurement is in order.
3. Reap the rewards.
   If you begin to use your website as a marketing tool instead of a deadweight, you will begin to realize its potential. You will be able to focus efforts more effectively, while concentrating on what’s most important : your business.

I won’t even get into social media and the unlimited potential it brings to the table once you adopt this attitude. That’s for another week

Social Media is really nothing new. It’s been around as long as there has been something to sell, that’s needed someone to sell it.

Engaging with potential customers and giving them what they want, is much better than simply standing on a cliff yelling down at them, “Buy This! Buy This!”.

So where does television come in? Well, you may not have noticed, but for the many years that you were glued to your tv set watching The Cosby Show or Seinfeld re-runs, you were in fact watching hours upon hours of advertisements. These advertisements were not just thrown into the commercial breaks willy nilly. Market research was conducted, and in a way, aspects of social media were implemented to decide which ads would be shown during which shows, and at what times.

However, over the past few months, many people have slowly started to focus more on alternate means of receiving entertainment, which could mean big problems for television advertisers. This does however, offer huge potential for online, connected social media campaigns. The ability to tell friends what you are watching on your new device, or what you thought of last night’s episode of The Office while sitting on your couch, could give advertisers an incredible amount of data to use in order to deliver relevant, quality ads to viewers.

The alternatives I’m talking about are mainly comprised of what have been dubbed ‘set top boxes’, ‘video boxes’, ‘home media players’, etc. Everyone has no doubt heard of one or more of the devices, some of which are available, some have been announced and are releasing this year. They include, but are not limited to :

Apple TV

This is Apple’s take on online rentals, for your TV. Linking up to Netflix and iTunes is certainly a major plus for many, but with no internal storage, you are limited to renting or streaming. Also, Apple has a tendency for limiting what you are allowed to do with their devices, so unless you are willing to modify the box to accommodate your needs, you might want to look elsewhere. You can however, expect quality hardware and a user-friendly interface.

Boxee Box

The Boxee Box is a physical implentation of their long running media playback software, Boxee. Heavily integrated with the internet, it pulls information down for your media, and links up with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networking accounts. Its interface has proven to be a hit, as well as its compatibility with a range of video/audio formats.

Google TV

Not too much is known about Google TV yet, however the platform has an incredible amount of potential. In a similar fashion to their mobile OS – Android, Google is opting to integrate their software into hardware developed by other companies. The Logitech Revue will debut later this year, which will be powered by Google TV. Google has become a household name now, so it may ride that momentum into a lot of living rooms.

Believe it or not, the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3

It’s been a long time since gaming machines were used purely for video games. Internet connectivity, media playback, social network integration, and even web browsing (on the PS3) allow users to gulp up as much entertainment as they can on just one device, and allow social media campaigns to engage an entirely new, specific type of audience.

Others include : TiVO Premiere, Roku, WD Live Plus, etc.