Web Developer

Use full for seeing attributes with HTML quickly and easily including meta tags, alt tags ect.

SEO for Firefox

This tool from SEO Book adds further information to Google and Yahoo search results by telling you how and why particular websites are ranking.

Among the information listed is Page Rank, links from .edu sites, links from Yahoo Directory, domain age, and more. A useful tool.
SEOpen

Over 20 different SEO metrics from back links on Yahoo and Google from archived pages, to whois to your checking robots.txt.
SeoQuake

Like SEO Book’s add-on, SeoQuake makes research easier by providing information such as Page Rank, number of links, links from social media sites etc. Users can have the SEO information they want to view displayed in a toolbar.

KGen

This keyword generator allows you to see which keywords are strong on any webpage you visit, Ideal for checking out what your competitors are doing.

Link Evaluator

This tool automatically follows the links on a web pages, assessing the response of each URL.

RankQuest SEO Toolbar

This performs most of the above SEO tasks in one toolbar. Includes keyword finder, link popularity tool, Page Rank, AdWords generator and more, with more than 30 SEO tools.

yExplore –

Allows easy right click access to Yahoo Site Explorer info.

What tools do you use?

Many B2B sites have a big bold and beautiful call to action placed well above the fold at the top of your screen. But most fail to sell the prospect on why they should sign up or take action. You need to entice the visitor by telling them exactly what is in it for them, build trust by giving them cold hard facts, include specific numbers and include testimonials from happy buyers. Don’t ever include other offers or ads on your landing page you don’t want to distract your audience nor do you want to lose trust by appearing scrappy or spammy.

You want your landing page to be streamlined and to capture the the prospect’s important information quickly. But be careful about asking your prospects too much too soon. If requesting lots of information care make your prospects nervous and scare them away. If your require detail information break your lead capture into sections capturing portions as you go. Start with minimal contact information such as a email address and name and ask for more details as you build the relationship.

Almost every landing page should include some photos with people that will connect with your prospects.

Photos improve conversion rates online because prospects relate to the people in the photo. When using photos, you can get more conversions using these techniques:
Try images of real people who resemble the average customer.
Make sure they portray a happy positive emotion.
Use images that are looking in the right direction at the call to action.
Don’t amputate! Prospects get agitated by photos that appear to amputate body parts.

Finally the most important part of developing a landing page is to test and test again. Only your vistors and prospects can tell you accurately what is the best combination on your landing page.

SEO Cheat Sheet

Remember when everyone who was anyone had a business card, and that was the common currency of business introductions?  While business cards haven’t gone away, you’ve probably heard – with increasing frequency – just check out my website at…. Another major trend for those who do carry business cards is to only include only a name and website address without any other details. Now more than ever, websites are being used as the main promotional vehicle for businesses.

Where to Start

Before you dive into creating your perfect website, give some careful thought to what you hope to accomplish. What are your goals for the site? Do you wish to sell products on your site or just provide information? Who is your target audience? What search terms do you want to be found for?

It’s also a good idea to look at your competitions sites and to make a list of features you find appealing. Also look outside your industry and make a list of sites that you like the reasons why.

Location, Location, Location

Everyone wants a great piece of real estate, both in the real world and the online world. Of course at this point, it seems all the good names are taken especially if you want a “.com” address.

Try to get a domain name that’s relatively short, easy to spell and relates to your business. Feel free to get creative. Start with a list of keywords you would like to incorporate and try variations while looking for a viable option. You can check availability and register a domain name with a registrar such as GoDaddy.com, Register.com or many others.

Gather up the pieces

By now you’re probably starting to get a pretty good idea of what you want and it’s a great time to start gathering up the pieces that you would like to include. I recommend creating a new folder either physical or digital that you can start collecting the pieces in. Include your logo, photos, colors, and any previous marketing materials you think might be helpful. Gathering more information now will make the design process easier later.

Also start jotting down thoughts about what you would like each individual page to say.

Planning your site

It’s important to keep the site’s organization as simple as possible, even if your business is complex. Your website should provide access to everything your customers or potential customers need without overwhelming the visitor.

Start by creating a site map that defines which pages you will actually need and how they fit together. This will drive the navigation that you build into the site’s design. Then sketch out what you think you want the site to look like, start thinking about color and other design considerations.

You’ll also want to start giving some thought to how you plan to use the site. Will you be changing the content frequently? Will you be adding new products on a regular basis? How will your visitors contact you? ect. You will also want to give some thought to how your will find your site. Unfortunately the saying “Build it and they will come” isn’t always true. If you want to be found in the search engines for a list of specific keywords add that to your plan as well.

Plan to Action

Now that you have a clear concept of what you want/need, the look and feel of your site, and how users will interact with it we’re ready to put your plan into action.

One option is to have a professional web developer put your site together for you. This option will provide you with the most flexibility with the site functionality and design. This is probably the best option for you if you have no prior experience in creating websites and acronyms like SEO, HTML, CSS, and CMS are completely foreign. This is also a good option if you just don’t have the time to develop the site yourself. Before choosing a web developer make sure that they can meet all of the requirements you outlined in your plan.

Another option is to use a website building tool that allows you to customize a template and build your site yourself. These range from free to a small one time fee to an ongoing monthly fee. Most domain registrars will have a solution that will help you get up and running. But beware these do limit the amount of flexibility you have with your site in the future.

Going Live

After your site is created you’ll need a place to put it. A full service web-design firm can help you get a hosted account and publish your site. Otherwise you’ll need to perform these steps yourself. You’ll also need a place to host your website. Look for a hosting service that guarantees reliability, offers competitive pricing, and the features you need often this can be done through your domain name registrar as well. Beware of free hosting solutions that display ads on your site or limited functionality.

Once your site is uploaded it’s time to go to market, and start promoting your site. Hopefully your site was created with optimization for the search engines in mind and you will start generating traffic almost immediately. If you haven’t already you’ll want to install a web analytics tool to measure the performance of your website.

In a few days of going live check and see how you’re doing in the rankings for specific phrases like you company name. Be patient but if you can’t find your site anywhere in the major search engines there may be a problem with your site.

The presence of the internet is no longer limited to a desktop computer in your office or home or a bulky laptop. Internet enable phones, PDAs, netbooks, and even portable music devices are giving consumers access to more information than ever before. By the time a consumer is ready to buy they are much further along the sales process and they have had very little direct interaction with you or your company.

The dynamics of marketing has changed and marketers now have an opportunity to reach seekers of information rather than pushing information on to everyone. It also means that having an active web presence is more important than ever.

Here are some tips to build your online presence

Tip #1 – On Site Search Engine Optimization

Almost anyone can create a website these days. But don’t stop at just having an attractive looking site, make sure you can be found in the search engines. Here are some of the basics:

1) Page Title (in the top bar of your browser) is very important in telling search engines what your site is about

2) URLor website address can contain keywords that will be picked up by search engines

3) Headings with H1, H2, H3 HTML tags are seen by search engines as more important than other text on your site

4) Page text is also somewhat important, especially bold text

5) Description – a brief description of what your site is about when you are listed in search engine results, for the reader’s (not search engine’s) benefit

6) Keywords – designated in your site’s HTML code, keywords give search engines a general idea about the content of your site

7) Links – Each link from another site counts as a “vote” with the search engine.

Tip #2 – Start a Blog

Blogging is a great way to get more traffic from you target audience. Search engines like the fresh content and a blog is an easy way to ad fresh content to your site regularly. People also like to interact with people, a blog is a great place to demonstrate your corporate culture and humanize your brand. Blogging will also allow you to engage your customers in conversation and build brand loyalty.

Tip #3 – Use Web Forms

Once you’ve generated some traffic through your website and SEO efforts, start capturing who your visitors are and asking them for their permission to send them more information about your product and services.

Improve Your Quality Score. Lower quality ads require higher minimum CPC bids, so it’s always good idea to do a little quality score sculpting. So test different keyword match types can help lower your impressions, increase your click through rate, improve quality score. In Google, try testing multiple match types. In Yahoo, adjust advanced match settings.

1)  Make sure you keywords are broken down into adgroups that only contain keywords that are very similar.

2) Make your ad text relevant to the keywords in the group, and create a specific, compelling call to action by preparing the searcher for the end conversion, such as “Buy keyword today and save 20%.”

Eliminate irrelevant traffic. When you’re paying per click, you want only relevant traffic. Many campaigns are hindered by irrelevant traffic. You can often reduce irrelevant traffic drastically in just few quick steps that will ensure that your ad doesn’t come up in search results under irrelevant terms.

1)  Identifying negative keywords. The best way to find negative keywords is to look at your search query report and create a list of negative keywords. Then decide if they should be at the applied at the campaign level or the adgroup level.

2)  Make match type adjustments. Change your match type from broad to phrase or exact match. Start with your keywords that have the most spend and impressions.

Optimize ad copy. To keep out unqualified traffic, you have to be specific. Remember you only want to drive quality traffic and not just clicks. If the majority of your traffic is irrelevant, it doesn’t help you. Including a call to action can be an excellent tool. Be sure to create a specific, compelling call to action by preparing the searcher for the end conversion, such as “Buy widgets today and save 20%.”

Improve your landing pages. Have consistency between your ad and the landing page. This can be one of the easiest fixes, but it is often overlooked by search managers. Make your shopping cart easy to use and goals easy to achieve. Remember you lose people after each and every click.

Test. Don’t forget to test! Test offers, calls-to-action, forms, design, landing pages, new ideas-everything.

Most small business owners immediately think of press releases when they think of publicity. However, I use press releases as a SEO link building tool.  Please note that all of these sites do review your releases for SPAM so your press release must still be useful information.

Here is a list of 40 websites that allow free (or did) press-release posting:

1. 1888 Press Release
2. ASPTheStreet
3. BizEurope
4. Click Press.com
5. CubicleSpace.com
6. Dime-co.com
7. eBoom
8. eCommwire.com
9. Express Press Release
10. EZ.Press
11. FastPitch
12. Free-News-Release
13. Free-Press-Release.com
14. Free-Press-Release-Center.info, http://www.free-press-release.info
15. i-newswire.com
16. Kazor.com
17. LooselyCoupled.com
18. Male Bits
19. Newsreleaser
20. PR.com
21. PR9.net
22. PRCompass
23. Press Method
24. Press Releases Blog Spot
25. Press.ArriveNet.com
26. Press-Base
27. Pressbox UK
28. Press-World
29. PR-GB
30. PRInside
31. PRLeap
32. PRlog.org
33. PRNewsNow
34. PRNuke.com
35. PRZoom
36. SBWire
37. UK PRWire
38. US PR Wire
39. Web2Newswire
40. PressReleasePoint.com

Also, there are many niche sites and blogs that may cater to your target audience. Look for various industry websites that offer free, press-release posting. Also check inexpensive posting sites such as PRWeb.

Search engines use two broad factors to determine which pages get ranked.

1. Relevance

The degree to which the content of the documents returned in a search matched the user’s query intention and terms. The relevance of a document increases if the terms or phrase queried by the user occurs multiple times and shows up in the title of the work or in important headlines or sub headers.

2. Popularity

The relative importance, measured via citation (the act of one work referencing another, as often occurs in academic and business documents) of a given document that matches the user’s query. The popularity of a given document increases with every other document that references it.

With the basics in mind here are 5 tactical SEO tips that will get you found.

1. Choose the right page titles

Your page title is probably the most important on-page SEO factor. Choose your titles closely it should contain your target keywords and be relevant to the content on the page. Also make sure it is specific enough if the competition is out of your league for general phrase target a more specific phrase.

2. Be smart about URLs

Avoid long elaborate URL’s with extraneous characters. While Google has reached a point where they can index massive URL strings, it is best to avoid them if at all possible. For dynamic use mod rewrites to clean up the URL to make it search engine and user friendly.

A website’s URLs are one of its most important, programmatic-level elements, both for search engines and users. Engines reward short, static, clean URLs containing important keywords and, not surprisingly, users appreciate these very same attributes.

3. Leverage your PR program

If you have a public relations program at your company, there are two things you need to do for SEO. First, you should optimize all of your press releases. This basically means adding links into your press releases that lead back to your Web site. Second, as you get coverage of your company in online publications, make sure that there is link within the article back to your company. You would be surprised how many journalists do not automatically link to companies they write about.

For bonus points, for your links in press releases and media coverage, use hyperlinked text with keywords relevant to your business as the link, not just the URL. The search engines key off of these keywords for added clues about the topic of your Web site.

Including your links through services such as PRWeb, can help you get 100s of targeted links overnight. Also check out my list of Forty Free Press Release sites.

4. Use Social Media

Don’t be scared of social media. The trick is to think of it just as an online version of all the business cocktail parties you have attended over the years. And just like at a cocktail party, with social media you should never enter the conversation with a sales pitch. But social media is an excellent way to promote your interesting blog articles or other content, because other bloggers and writers might write about your company and link back to your content. Find online communities, groups, blogs, and networks where your audience hangs out, and start listening and asking questions

5. Create Great Content

The usability of content itself is often overlooked, but its importance cannot be overstated. The descriptive nature of headlines, the accuracy of information and the quality of content all factor highly into a site’s likelihood to retain visitors and gain links.

Why Should a Search Engine Rank Your Site Above all the others in its Field?

If you cannot answer this question clearly and precisely, the task of ranking higher will be exponentially more difficult. Search engines attempt to rank the very best sites with the most relevant content first in their results, and until your site’s content is the best in its field, you will always struggle against the engines rather than bringing them to your doorstep.

It is in content quality that a site’s true potential shows through, and although search engines cannot measure the likelihood that users will enjoy a site, the vote via links system operates as a proxy for identifying the best content in a market. With great content, therefore, come great links and, ultimately, high rankings. Deliver the content that users need, and the search engines will reward your site.

Content quality, however, like professional design, is not always dictated by strict rules and guidelines. What passes for “best of class” in one sector may be below average in another market. The competitiveness and interests of your peers and competitors in a space often determine what kind of content is necessary to rank.

Remember you can’t just buy a web analytic service, read some reports and expect to improve the performance of your website. Effective Web analytics requires that you constantly analyze and, more importantly act on the information you discover.

Choosing and implementing a analytics solution can be anything but simple.

Free Analytics Tools

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the most popular anlaytics tool out there. Google Anlaytics allows you to track and cmare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaingns, referalls, paid links and keyword performance. It is also relatively simple to implement and has a very easy to use interface.

Microsoft Analytics
Beta version avaliable to adCenter Users only right now. Microsoft’s adCenter Analytics promises to deliver a better picture of your web visitors engagement from click to conversion.

Yahoo IndexTools
Yahoo’s acquired Tensa kft’s IndexTools in April 2008. The robust technology of IndexTools provides several features not found in the other “free” analytics solutions including real-time segmentation of visitors, advanced campaign management, and live cost analysis.

Open Source Analytics Tools

Analog
Analog is a free log file analysis software program first released in April of 1995. This program is similar to Webalizer of AWStats. It provides simple reporting primarly via bar charts and lists.

AWStats
AWStats is a free open source web analytics reporting tool, that works well for analyzing websites, streaming media, mail, and FTP servers. AWstats uses server log files to produce HTML reports. Data is visually presented with bar graphs and tables. Static reports can be created via a command line interface, and on-demand reports can be do through a CGI interface.

Webalizer
Webalizer provides fast, detailed analysis of log files. It allows easy configuriable usage reports in HTML format. ONe of it’s major advantages is the speed and that it will accept