By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Let’s say that you’ve decided to start an e-commerce site, selling pet products online.  Your shop has been online for a few months now, and you are still struggling to get noticed by online shoppers.  This is a fairly common feeling among new e-commerce businesses, and when it comes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often overlooked as a solution.  This is perhaps because the average person feels that SEO is too complicated for them to participate in, or they feel lost trying to find a proper SEO solutions company to complete the task for them.  However, I would like to argue that there are many easy fixes in SEO that can be completed in just a few minutes and that do not require highly technical skill or understanding of SEO principles.

Try these steps in our SEO Makeover to help your site get a quick boost of traffic:

1.  Keyword Research:

Before beginning to build and market your website, you should have done a quick keyword research to see what key terms and phrases you should focus on in your marketing strategy.  If you have not done this already, do it now!  Simply visit a keyword research tool like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  This will allow you to put in keyword that you think would work for your site and niche (e.g. pet products, pet food, discount pet products, etc).  The tool will then rank those keywords according to search volume and will even give you suggested synonyms to use for your site.

Here’s something to keep in mind when researching keywords: the top keywords in a niche are extremely difficult to tap into.  For example, with the pet store example, you should not focus all your energy on marketing the phrase “pet products,” because this will be dominated by companies with much more time and resources available than you to market these words, for example Petco and PetSmart.  The lessen here is to market key words and phrases that are relevant, relatively popular, and that can apply uniquely to your site, for example, designer doggie clothes, (if that’s what you would like to sell, of course!)

2.  Title and Meta Tags:

The meta and title tags of your website dictate how a search engine will catalog your page.  Therefore, you will need to use the keywords that you just researched to describe your different web pages and blog posts.  There are many tools that can help you with this, but it depends on what type of server is hosting your site and if you are using a platform like Wordpress.  Simply look in your hosting account for the option to change the title tags and meta tags of your website.  This is the next step in getting your site out there for the world to see!

3.  Free Website Submission:

When a website is new, it can take time for search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo to notice that they exist.  This is also true when a website is redesigned dramatically-the search engine loses all information that was previously indexed on the page.  In order to alleviate the time it takes for Google to index your site, you should use a free website submission service to get the ball rolling.  This is just like it sounds: the free website submission will submit your website URL to hundreds of search engines and indexing services.  Try our free website submission tool now to get started!

Hopefully this post has been helpful in teaching those who may have been intimidated by the complexity of SEO in the past to be able to improve their search engine rankings by themselves.  Be sure to check back in the future for more tips and tricks!

The photo of the tools is from Flickr and is the copyright of ELF cosmetics.

By Robert Lockard

In September, Google introduced a new way for its customers to buy and sell online display ads. It’s called the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and it allows Internet marketers to find a variety of Web pages to advertise on and quickly make a bid. This speeds up the process for both advertisers and publishers looking for ad revenue.

I heard about this development in a Wall Street Journal article, entitled “Google Unveils Market for Display Ads.”

Google has literally thousands of partner websites scattered across the Web that display its online ads. However, Google has never been very good at display advertising. It bought DoubleClick back in 2007 for $3.1 billion and has been trying to come up with a good way to jump into this part of the paid-search market. This appears to be its big move.

This isn’t the first online-advertising exchange service. Actually, other major search engines, like Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have had them for some time, though none of them has been able to make them particularly big or useful, yet. Maybe Google will find a way to make this exchange service popular and profitable.

Google’s move comes with plenty of risks. What if few ad publishers and advertisers sign on to the service? Who would want to participate in a service that no one else is using? Internet marketers are looking for ways to reach the right audience in simpler ways.

Surprisingly, Google is far behind other search engines in the display-ad market. Google is definitely the king of PPC with about a 70-percent share of the industry’s total revenue, but it only received 1.3 percent of all display-ad views. Yahoo is actually the leader in display ads.

Apparently, Internet marketers who want to target a specific audience with simple Internet ads turn to Google. But if they want something more dynamic, appealing to customers’ emotions more than their intellect, they are more likely to turn to Yahoo or TV advertisements.

This is a complete version of the blog post on the eHarbor Blog: “Google tries to expand into new PPC forum.”

The photo of the fiery wok is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of liber.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Eight seconds.
No, I’m not talking about bull riding or that 1994 movie with Luke Perry.  I’m talking about the amount of time you have to convince visitors to your website or blog to stay visitors on your website or blog.

For blogging, this is especially important.  If you want your visitors to turn into readers, and your readers to turn into regular readers, your web design needs to be user friendly and interesting.  To give your blog a quick makeover today, try out some of these free Wordpress blog themes.  These are just some of my favorites that I’ve come across recently.  Your readers will thank you

Business Themes

Desk Mess Theme

Coffee Desk Theme

Trendy Themes

Decayed Theme

Dark Splash Theme

Magazine Themes

Daily32 Theme

Turnout Mag Theme

Some Others

Imprezz Theme

Ahisma Theme

Another thing to remember is that clear web design can also help your site get ranked better in search engines like Google and Bing!  If you are having trouble getting your blog ranked, try visiting our SEO blog to read helpful articles on how you can optimize your web page.  You can also visit our free search engine submission to get your blog listed in over 100 search engines and directories!

By Robert Lockard

Google could soon change the rules of keyword Internet marketing with the debut of its new Google Caffeine search engine. Right now, Google is not doing a good job of searching through social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. So the company is working on a new version of its popular search engine that will add them to the mix and shake up other sites’ rankings for certain keywords.

The online marketing firm 360i released a study a little while back in a blog entry on Digital Connections, entitled, “6 Things to Expect if Google Decaf Gets a ‘Caffeine’ Boost.” In the post, SEO Group Director Mike Dobbs and SEO Analyst Martha Mukangara noted some pretty surprising findings.

They included 40 retail keywords in their study of the differences between the first three pages of regular Google search results and Google Caffeine search results. The 40 keywords are made up of 10 major brand names (keywords), 10 retail head terms (single keywords), 10 retail torso terms (two-word phrases), and 10 retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases).

They pointed out six ways the new search engine will dramatically affect online marketers’ strategies. For instance, 15 percent of all first-page rankings were different for the 40 keywords used in the study. Amazingly, the single keywords and two-word phrases saw 50 percent of their first-page results change with the new search engine.

The reason for this big change is the fact that Google Caffeine is focusing more on keyword relevance and it’s steering away from blogs and wikis in favor of social media, video, music, photo and other sites previously outside of its search capability.

Since single keywords are so general, they will face more competition from these new sites being allowed to vie for top ranking. Longer phrases, with four or more keywords, will benefit from the new system because they will be drawn from a smaller pool with a focus on how relevant they are to the searcher’s needs.

All of these changes could have serious consequences for ecommerce marketers. At the end of the article, the study’s authors give the following advice to them:

Marketers will need to keep a close eye on their own set of keywords and determine how results change if a switch-over does takes place… [I]f your keywords shift in rank, you will need to refresh your strategy and focus in on any results drop-offs, or take advantage of subsequent wins.

What an interesting topic. Be sure to keep coming back to the Submit Solution SEO Blog for the latest updates on Google and Bing, as well as other major search-engine trends.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog entry, “Internet marketers brace for Google Caffeine changes.” The photo of the upside-down YouTube page is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of engineroomblog.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines are usually what comes to mind when one thinks of Pay-Per-Click ads.  However, there is another huge market for PPC ads that is often overlooked by online businesses: Facebook.  That’s right, Facebook ads are offered in the PPC format, allowing online businesses to take their targeted marketing to the next level.

Facebook paid-ads work much the same way that PPC ads in Google and Bing work.  However, the subtle differences between the two methods of paid search may make all the difference to some industries.

Here are some of the specs on Facebook PPC ads:

->  BIG Market Share: Facebook is big.  Okay, Facebook is huge.  It’s probably the biggest time-waster known to mankind.  And it’s still growing!  The point here is, Facebook hosts a monstrous aggregate of young and old, educated and uneducated people alike.   Most target markets would be greatly available on Facebook.  However, there are some that would more profitable than others.  For example, an ad for handmade jewelry like you see above would be fairly successful on Facebook, because it is targeted towards mostly educated, middle to upper-class women.  If the ad were to be targeted to mostly uneducated or lower class women, research shows that Myspace would be the more appropriate place to advertise.

->  Not as Powerful: Let’s face it — no matter how big Facebook gets, it can never trump that search engine giant, Google.  While you’re reading this, you may be thinking, “Wait a sec! Didn’t she just tell us that Facebook ads can give us access to a big market share?”  It is important to realize that while Facebook is indeed growing, it is still a social networking site that not accessible to anyone (because it requires login credentials), while Google is the most popular search engine in the land.  Another thing to consider is that your Facebook ads will not be visible in search engine results!

After reading this article, you should have a pretty good idea about whether or not Facebook ads will work for your business.  If you’re not ready to make the leap into Facebook paid ads, you can always just focus on your free Facebook pages or even add Facebook Connect to your website or blog.  Once you see how those campaigns work out, you can have a better idea about where to take your next step.

By Robert Lockard

Is Facebook dying? That’s the topic of an astonishing New York Times article, entitled “Facebook Exodus.” Author Virginia Heffernan starts by pointing out:

The exodus is not evident from the site’s overall numbers. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the United States in July. But while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing – some of them ostentatiously.

I’ve written about Facebook several times in the eHarbor Blog, usually noting its strength and rapid growth. Along with Twitter, it is leading the social-media revolution – or fad – that could change search engines and other aspects of the Internet or just peter out. This article grabbed my attention and demanded I discuss it.

You should definitely check out the New York Times article because it tells five stories about individuals who left Facebook for a variety of reasons. They are all quite compelling. One felt his privacy was violated by Facebook, and another felt she was wasting too much time on the website.

The feelings of privacy violation are completely understandable, and perhaps even unavoidable. Facebook is a social network so its information is not meant to be completely private. Perhaps people’s concerns are just the result of their own carelessness in posting too much information or not studying the rules to keep it hidden. Or maybe it’s a combination of shifting, hidden or hard-to-understand rules, as well as people’s decisions not to read the fine print.

Heffernan notes, “As Facebook endeavors to be the Web’s headquarters – to compete with Google, in other words, and to make money from the information it gathers – it’s inevitable that some people would come to view it as Big Brother.”

The part of the article that really took my breath away was when a prolific Facebook poster said the site felt dead to her a few months ago, even though it was still experiencing explosive growth. That struck me as incredibly odd. She noted the novelty of finding people on Facebook is wearing off, and I suddenly started looking at Facebook in a whole new light. Maybe Facebook’s services never really had a future, but they were just a fun diversion – a flash in the pan.

The last paragraph in the New York Times article sums it all up nicely:

Is Facebook doomed to someday become an online ghost town, run by zombie users who never update their pages and packs of marketers picking at the corpses of social circles they once hoped to exploit? Sad, if so. Though maybe fated, like the demise of a college clique.

This blog entry is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post, “Is Facebook Dying?” The photo of the ghost town near Telluride, Colo. is from Flickr, and it is courtesy of Rob Lee.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

It is too often the case that when starting a paid search marketing campaign, people tend to lose sight of the main point.  What’s the main point, you ask?  To get people to click, right?  Wrong.

Yes, it’s true that Pay-Per-Click ads provide quality leads most of the time.  However, no matter how interested the “clicker” is in your products, services or niche, if your site is poorly designed or organized, your marketing would have been in vain.  There is no point marketing a site that is difficult to use, messy, or otherwise messed up!

Make sure that your PPC ads are really being effective by testing your site for usability, attractiveness, etc.  There are hundreds of free and low-cost tools for this purpose!

Here are some online tools to test the quality of your site:

1. Five Second Test: With this nifty tools, website owners can upload a screen-shot of their landing page which will then be viewed by users for five seconds.  There are two different versions of the service, one where the viewers view your photo, then list everything they can remember from it.  The second is a click test, where the viewers click on the areas they find most prominent or interesting.  This tool can really help you test how first-time viewers are seeing your landing page.  Then you can cater the page around those findings to make your ads more effective!

2.  Website Grader: Website Grader is a simple and effective website tester tool.  Once your site is entered in, Grader will measure your site’s marketing power through SEO statistics, traffic and marketing strategies.  Once finished, they will even give you tips to improve the areas where you may be lacking.  This is a great tool for those “less-expert” of us in the field of development and marketing.

3.  Google Analytics: Without fail, Google Analytics has proven to be one of the most powerful marketing research tools.  Easy enough for beginning users, but with tons of extras and plugins for experts, it suits most online marketing levels.  On top of all this, it’s free!

To capitalize on all of your internet marketing campaigns, use free tools like these to see how people are viewing your site.  This will greatly increase the productivity of your PPC ads, SEO strategies and social media marketing.

By Robert Lockard

The other day, I had an image in my mind of a strange object and I wanted to find a picture of it online. The only problem was I didn’t have a clue what it was called. The image in my head was of a scene in “Superman II” when General Zod’s henchman Non is in the Oval Office and he’s staring intently at something. It’s five metal balls tied to strings in a row and the ones on either end keep hitting the four still balls, causing the ball on the other end to bounce away and come back again.

Maybe you already know what I’m talking about.

I turned to one of my coworkers here at eHarbor, Inc. and asked her to help me. She could picture it, as well, but she couldn’t put her finger on the name. I tried searching for “metal ball attached to strings hitting each other” on Google, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. Luckily, my resourceful coworker found it on Amazon.com, I believe. I could now put a name to an image – Newton’s cradle!

This story illustrates my need for a visual search engine and not simply a text-based one. Luckily, Microsoft and Google are both heading in that direction. I read about their efforts in a CNN article entitled, “Microsoft, Google expand search-engine tools.”

None of the Bing Visual Search galleries look like they would help me find Newton’s cradle because they mostly include people, entertainment and electronics. But it’s new, so I’m willing to cut Microsoft some slack. I’m sure they will get better as they get a feel for what people are (literally) looking for.

Microsoft is still trying hard to break Google’s domination of the search-engine market. The CNN article cited a comScore study showing that, in June, about 65 percent of online searches were done through Google, while just 8.4 percent were done through Bing.

I’ve talked about the race between Microsoft and Google to develop a stronghold over a variety of online and software industries before. You can read about it in my blog entry, “Google-Microsoft face-off good for ecommerce.” Their rivalry is bringing great innovations like these visual search engines. I’ll hopefully talk more about Google’s Fast Flip in a forthcoming blog entry. For now, I’ll say adieu.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog entry, “Finding Superman image on Google no easy feat.” The photo of Newton’s cradle is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of ƒяαиcєscα яσsє.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

We’ve all experienced this before.  I’m typing in “iPod Touch” in a search engine, but accidentally spell out “iPod Tuch.”  I immediately realize my mistake as I see the popular question, “Did you mean: iPod Touch?”, encouraging me to search for the correct terms.  However, many of the listings that pull up are relevant, so I don’t redo the search with the correct spelling.  Then I see the paid search ad on the side with the incorrect search query inserted in.  I can’t help feeling annoyed

PPC ads like I just described implement what’s called a DKI or Dynamic Keyword Insertion technique.  These ads automatically insert search keywords into a paid ad.  This form is popular because, if used correctly, it can produce very specific results that will generate quality traffic.

However, the use of DKI in PPC ads can result in annoyance, as in my situation, mistrust or even generic and weak ad content.  I am going to outline some of the pros and cons of using dynamic keyword insertion in your paid search ads.  Then you can see for yourself if this method is right for you!

PRO:  Customized Ads

Sometimes, DKI can greatly increase your traffic.  For example, when searching for foreclosed homes in Provo, UT, I came across this specified landing page.  It seems like this page would be exactly what someone would be looking for with their search.

CON:  Incoherence

However, with the same site, I found I could type in anything for the name of a city in Utah where I would like to find foreclosures.  The result?  You get the picture.  Obviously, there is no place called Crappy, UT.  With DKI, by allowing any search term at all to be included in your ad or landing page, you run the risk of becoming incoherent and purposefully spam-like to the public eye.

CON:  Generic and Misspelled Ads
When you create a PPC ad using DKI, your wording will need to be deliberately vague, so that multiple terms can be inserted without changing the meaning of the ad.  The problem with this is that the ad will be weak.  Even if the ad does include the specific word that was searched for, there is little likelihood that it will be strong enough content wise to draw a quality click.

All-in-all, pay-per-click ads using DKI appear desperate and can even resemble spam.  If you choose to use this technique in your paid ad, do so carefully and choose only key words that both fit your ad and are relevant to the service or product you are advertising.  Stay tuned for more posts on social media, SEO, web design and PPC!

By Robert Lockard

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entry, “How to improve your SEO through links.” I’m talking about what I learned at Webmarketing123’s August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.” Without further ado, I’ll return to where I left off.

Unless a website is cached or saved by search engines on a regular basis, the links found on it won’t count toward the search engine optimization of the sites it links to. That explains why Google can’t keep up with Twitter and other social-media sites, as I discussed in an earlier eHarbor Blog entry. It’s trying to take a snapshot of websites that change multiple times every second. Search engines will have to get creative to solve that problem in their methodology.

Returning to caches, I learned a cool trick at the Webinar that I would like to share. If you want to know if a Web page is cached by Google, all you have to do is type “cache:www.thesitename.com” into a Google search and it will tell you. Sites that are cached by Google can be useful in generating SEO because they are actually read by Google. You shouldn’t waste your time trying to get links on sites that offer no real SEO value. This is a good way to test them.

The big question is how do you get inbound links? After you’ve gone through and added great content that is relevant to your keywords, you can start using the following sources to get inbound links:

- Directories

- Paid Listings

- Article Syndications

- Blogs

- News Releases

By using a diversity of methods to obtain inbound links, you make your site look better to search engines. If you focus too much on any one source of links, search engines can dock you. Don’t add links too fast. That also looks bad to search engines. Spread your growth across a period of time instead of trying to do it all in one quick surge.

You should be aware that some sites are better than others, when it comes to getting links from them. Here are some criteria to keep in mind when selecting which sites to try to get inbound links from:

- Domain Authority – How long the website has existed.

- Rank – Where the website stands on Google, Bing and Yahoo searches for targeted keywords.

- Spam – How professional or “spammy” the site looks.

- Other Links – If the site contains links to other respectable sources in your industry.

- Similar Content – How the site’s content compares to your own. The closer the better.

That’s pretty much what I learned at this informative Webinar. I highly recommend you check out Webmarketing123’s free Webinars. And I also recommend you keep coming back to the Submit Solution SEO Blog for frequent updates on Internet marketing and ecommerce strategies.

This is a complete version of the post on the eHarbor Blog: “How to get inbound links.” The photo of the fingers touching light is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of littledan77.