I wanted to shed some light on a small SEO tip that many people overlook. Although most people are aware that they should be doing this, I’ve noticed that surprisingly few people take the time to make sure they practice it when handling SEO on a website. I’ve even noticed a lot of people that offer Internet marketing and SEO consulting with this issue on their own site.

So what’s the tip?

Simply use an alt tag for the image you are using as a logo in your header.

Sounds simple enough, but lets look at why this is important:

Internal links are extremely valuable

Good site structure and proper internal linking can be the difference between a first page ranking and a first place ranking. For many websites, every page is linked to from every page from within the site navigation. However, for websites that target keywords with deep pages or blog posts that may not get links from the main navigation, it’s important that you work in links to these posts from other pages and posts on your site.

For example, on this site, I have a post about Google Places SEO, or optimizing your website to rank in the A to G listings within Google for local keyword searches. Once this post gets pushes off my front page, it won’t have a direct link from my homepage. So what I should do is make sure I work in some links to the post whenever I mention Google Places SEO.

It’s important to remember that Google ranks web pages not websites. Nicely anchored links from other pages on your domain are just as valuable as links from outside your domain.

Only the first link to a specific URL counts from any one page

This might sound a bit confusing so I’ll use an example.

You’ll notice that I linked to that blog post about Google Places SEO above. That link will pass Pagerank and anchor text and will tell Google that essentially, that page is about “Google Places SEO.” However, many people think that if you send another link to the same page that it will send double the link juice and value. This is wrong. Stop wasting your time.

If I were to send this link to the same page, Google won’t care. The first link is what matters – especially when it comes to anchor text.

It’s not going to hurt you if you have multiple links going to the same URL, but you must remember that anchor text only passes through the first link.

Optimizing the alt tag in your logo

Now that we know that internal links are important and that the first link is what matters, we can quickly see why optimizing the logo’s alt tag is important. Your logo is usually the first link on every page that points to your homepage.

The alt tag acts as the anchor text when linking with an image. This means that you are likely sending dozens or even hundreds of high quality links to your homepage from within your website without using optimized anchor text. Even if you have another optimized link to your homepage in your navigation bar or sidebar it won’t matter because your first link has no anchor text or alt tag.

Follow this one simple tip and I guarantee an increase in rankings. This is what pushed my business website to the first page in Google Canada for the term Internet marketing.

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

This is an increasingly popular topic in the local business SEO industry. For many local search terms, Google will display 7 local results above the regular 10 organic results. This is what is referred to as the Google Maps A to G listing. I have included a screen shot of this that you can see.

Being included in this listing is equally if not more important as having high organic results for local keywords. The reason for this is because it is displayed about the organic results in most cases. If you are wondering how to get your business on Google Maps, you’ll first need to make sure you exist within the system.

How to add your business and website to Google Maps

Adding your business website to Google Maps is as simple as creating a Google Places listing. This process can take up to a couple weeks so I suggest you do it sooner than later when launching a new website or business. The reason for the delay is because Google will send you a PIN that you will need to enter to verify your business and address.

Once you have created the Google Places account and completed the verification process, your website will start appearing in Google Maps. However, it doesn’t end here. There are ways that you can increase your changes of being listed in the A to G listings.

Optimizing your Google Maps and Google Places listing

When it comes to Google Places SEO there are a few things that really help boost your ranking in the A to G listing. Most of these things can be done quite quickly on your own and will help with whatever local SEO initiative you are running.

Get links from local business directories

The more Google associates your website with the specific town or city that you compete in, the more likely you are to show up in the local business listings. One of the great ways to do this is to get listings from local business directories, such as a city listing of businesses or the local chamber of commerce directory.

Cite your address on other websites

Wherever possible, include your address when you link back to your website. For example if the local directories allow you to include a description, be sure to add you address as well. This way Google will associate your business and website with the address and you are more likely to be shown on the A to G list. You don’t need to use the address as the anchor text, just try to include it wherever possible if it looks natural.

Promote your Google Places page on your website to get reviews

Have a link to your Google Places page on your website. You should be able to find the URL in your Google Places account – it will be in the following format: http://maps.google.ca/maps/place?cid=#########. It is also very beneficial to encourage customers and visitors to leave their reviews of your business on your page.

Follow good organic SEO practices for your website

The higher your website ranks in the organic search results for local keywords, the more likely your site will be included in the Google Maps list. Promote your website to get back links and make sure your on page content is optimized well and the listings will follow.

As always, remember to be patient. Good things don’t happen over night.

Seriously. You are losing business by not picking up your phone. It blows my mind the amount of people that are willing to spend an entire day optimizing their website so it loads a half second faster to try to lower their bounce rate, but avoid picking up the phone when a client or potential client is calling.

I get it – we live in a text/IM/email world now and very few people actually pick up the phone to call someone anymore. Heck, I rarely call a store to ask for their business hours, instead I’ll spend 5 minutes trying to navigate their crappy website to find if they are open or not. It’s not the most convenient thing, but it gets me out of making a phone call, right?

If you run any sort of business you should be so pumped when the phone rings. Phone calls = money. I’ve worked with companies that have paid me per phone call that I can generate from their website – do you know how pissed I’d be if they weren’t picking up their cell because they didn’t recognize the number? Many business owners get this, but there are a surprising number of them that don’t. Know how I know? I used to be one of them.

Why people don’t answer their phones

You’ve been there. Looking down at your caller ID and wondering, who the heck is that? Or thinking, I really don’t want to talk to them right now. I bet there are few people who haven’t experienced that on multiple occasions.

It’s my opinion that for the most part people don’t answer their phones because they are afraid. What if it’s an unwanted phone call? What if it’s an awkward phone call? What if I don’t have the solution? What if they yell at me? Who cares, answer your phone. I’m willing to bet that 99% of the time it’s a great conversation.

Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from answering your phone and making more money.

You don’t have to waste the day on the phone, just pick it up

I’m not saying spend the entire day on the phone – there are definitely more effective and efficient ways of getting things done. A prime example of this happens to me and my business quite often. We don’t typically offer tech support via the phone. That is, we don’t breath in your ear while we fix your issue and give you second-by-second updates of what we’re doing. It’s way more efficient for us to handle support via email whenever possible. That said, we answer the call, take the info and follow up when the issue or request is fixed or completed.

If you want to be successful, answer your phone. It’s that simple.

Every phone call is a potential sale. It’s an opportunity to connect with someone again, to touch base, schedule a meeting or cup of coffee to catch up. It’s a chance to strengthen a relationship or start a new one. Every phone call is more money in your pocket – stop throwing it away.

I remember my phone ringing on a Friday evening while I was waiting to board a plane to go to Toronto back in March. I didn’t recognize the number (or the area code for that matter), was two beer in at the airport bar, and had every reason not to answer. I picked it up and talked for 6 minutes and I’ve been earning $30 per month from that person since March. Six minutes, and two quick check-up emails for $240, so far.

If you don’t answer your phone, I’m going to call someone else and they will. Then I’ll be doing business with them instead of you.

Choosing the right keywords to target on your website or blog post is likely the most important aspect of any Search engine optimization initiative. I believe this process is what divides traditional blogs from business-oriented websites. The reason for this is because the keywords you choose are the foundation of your work and everything else from optimization to promotion will be built upon the keywords.

Why is keyword research important?

The major reason to do proper keyword research while you are building or optimizing a website is so you learn how your customers are searching for your products and services online. You can stop the guess work and learn the exact keywords they are using to find you – they may be different than you thought. Having this information allows you to better tailor your content to attract these searchers without having to pay for them.

Using the Google Keyword Tool

There are a lot of paid keyword research tools out there that do an excellent job at finding you excellent keywords. For the sake of this lesson, I wanted to assume that most local businesses wanted to operate on an extremely tight budget when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (read: no budget).

The best place to start your keyword research is with the Google Keyword Tool. This tool gives you a variety of information on keywords such as global and local search volumes and the cost to advertisers.

Using the GKT isn’t that difficult, but I have made a quick 4-5 minute video to help you better understand what to look for and how we use it to determine the best keywords for our clients. This video is the same process we use to start any keyword research.

Note: click the expand button on the bottom right to get the video in a larger screen.

How many keywords should I target?

This really depends on how much content your website has, how many pages and articles you may be creating, and much more. To keep things simple, we recommend 2 core keywords for your main home page. Most of the time, these are city keyword and keyword city (eg. Halifax web design and web design halifax).

For your product and service pages, you may want to target a service-specific or product-specific keyword such as buy keyword in city or just buy keyword (eg. buy fishing rod in Halifax).

Every blog post you write on your website, should also be somewhat targeted toward a keyword. Even if that keyword only has a dozen or so searches per month, it is beneficial to capture those visitors with your blog post and have the opportunity to convert them with your website. Without proper keyword research, they wouldn’t have found your site in the first place.

Need some help?

Our Web design package includes basic on-going SEO optimization and promotion. If you currently have our service, simply send us an email and we’ll be happy to give you a hand. If you’re not currently a subscriber, we will still offer a free keyword and competitive analysis on your website free of charge. Just contact us through the contact form above.

Local SEO is quite a bit different than most search engine optimization initiatives. It involves a few additional things to consider, as well

Identify The Best Keywords

Doing proper keyword research and identifying the best performing keywords is extremely important when it comes to local search engine optimization. Both companies and consultants can waste a lot of time if this step is taken care of before any work is started.

I have a video outlining the best way to identify keywords for local businesses. Follow these steps to make sure you are starting at the right spot.

Get Your Website on The Map

The local search engine maps, that is. Both Google and Bing-powered search engines have a local Maps listing with most of their local keyword results. The starting point for this is to get listed on Google Maps by creating a Google Places account. This will take a couple weeks since you will need to wait for a verification PIN to be sent via snail mail, so the sooner you start on this the better.

Getting on the list can often be more valuable than having a number one spot on Google. These are the coveted “A to G” where Google returns 6 Maps results. The reason these are so sought after is because they are not necessarily the top ranked results for the organic search, but they are displayed above the rest of the results. This means your website and business has a chance to getting a top ranked Google Map result in addition to your organic result, which will double your exposure on the first page.

Research Your Competition

One of the main reasons why local seo services are typically less expensive than if you were competing for a global keyword is that local search terms are are typically – although not always – less competitive than their root keyword. If less people in your market are using local search engine optimization techniques, your hard work will have a quicker and greater return.

The best place to start is by seeing who has the top results in the search engines. Once you know who is ranking, take some time and use free tools to check where they are getting their links and promoting their site. Is there a local business directory site that is proving most of their value? Get your site listed as well. Many local links can be duplicated relatively easy and then you can typically outrank most sites with a little extra hard work.

Track Your Results

It’s important to know where you started with your local seo service as far as rankings and traffic goes. Make sure you have Google Analytics and Google Web Master Tools. These are two excellent free tools for tracking your traffic and rankings.

Test and Optimize Your Conversions

An increase in targeted traffic is only good if you convert that traffic into value for your business. Most of the time this is done through converting the traffic into leads and sales. Test your site’s layout and call to actions to see what works the best to get your visitors to stick around. This is one of the most important steps in local SEO that is often overlooked.

When it comes to local traffic, it is very important that it is easy for them to contact you – have your phone number easily accessible on the website and make sure it’s easy for them to connect with you if need be. One of the things I noticed that really works is to add a live chat option to your website so you have the chance to connect with visitors in real time while they browse your site.

I have co-owned and operated a web hosting company for the past seven years. Seven years. It still boggles my mind every time I say that. We have worked with hundreds of clients mainly within Halifax Nova Scotia, but also across the Country and World. It has been and continues to be a great learning experience in so many ways.

Recently, we launched a Halifax web design initiative to trial a new set of packages we are offering. These plans were developed in partnership with some of our resellers after a lot of feedback from our existing hosting clients. We identified some pretty major issues with how the web design and development industry operates today and are very confident that our new web design packages will solve them.

Major problems with the web design industry

After surveying many of our customers based on their experiences with web designers, freelancers, and design firms we noticed consistent feedback concerning relationships and communication, ongoing support issues, and management, among others.

Support issues

Coming from a web hosting background we are familiar and efficient with handling support requests, as long as the customer knows to contact us. There seem to be too many parties involved in the process: a domain registrar, web host, project manager, and designer. The client is confused as to who to contact and when, often getting passed back and forth between the parties involved.

Relationships and communication: expect a service but get a product

This is definitely the biggest issue from all of our feedback. The client will pay for a new website, get a wonderful looking site, but often rarely or never hear from their designer again. The business is expecting a service, but often gets a one-off product (the website) without any service or support.

Once the designer gets paid, they rarely have a vested interest in their client and from what we are told, often fall out of touch.

Management of the website

This ties into the above issue of not having an ongoing relationship. The client will often have to reach out to others in order to get their website updated – which is an additional cost they were not expecting. They are often left with a great looking and expensive online business card.

How we plan on solving them

We have combined all the core services and features for getting a website and business established online and bundled them into an extremely convenient and affordable monthly package.

Our monthly model eliminates the up-front cost of getting an excellent looking website that stands in the way for so many businesses. We include domain registration, unlimited web hosting, around the clock technical support, monthly updates, and so much more.

We even went as far as to offer a monthly SEO initiative along with in-depth, one-hour monthly consultations where the client can ask anything surrounding Internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media, or anything else they can think of.

This way the client gets the convenience of having all services in one location, the absolute best bang for their buck, an ongoing relationship and a vested interested in their business doing well.

From time to time I will get asked how to get a website to be number on Google. I usually chuckle and think if only there was a secret equation or method that we could use to get a number one spot all the time. So here is the truth: there is no secret.

There are many search engine optimization companies out there and each bring their own unique skill set to the table. Unfortunately, some tend to promise results that they can not guarantee. Understand that you should not be working with a company that promises or guarantees a number one spot in Google or withholds what they are doing in their SEO initiatives to promote your website. You are spending good money and you should be kept in the loop every step of the way. Obviously there are some companies that deliver better results than others. However, this is usually due to experience, research and experimentation, common sense, and hard work. Not secrets.

I have given an overview of where you can start on your own in order to get more desirable Google search rankings.

Content

As far as your website goes, content is king. Great content will drive traffic to your site, brand you as an expert and leader, and build a community of customers, potential customers, and fans. There is nothing better for search engines than great unique content. But how do you get it?

Articles and blog posts are an excellent way to generate new content for a website. It is also very important to describe and write about your products and services. Tell your audience about them and why they are so great. Convince them with content. Be creative.

Inbound Links

This is increasingly becoming the most important aspect of having excellent rankings in Google and other search engines. Inbound links are an excellent way to give your website and content more credibility, and Google recognizes that. Where these links are coming from also plays a major role. The more authority the linking site has in your industry the more weight these links will carry.

Inbound links usually go hand in hand with great content, since why would someone want to link to poor content or product listings? Do you have a client base that are willing to write a review of your product or service as a thank you for your awesomeness? Maybe someone is willing to let you write a guest post or article, or interview you or your company. These are a couple great ways to get some quality inbound links.

Some links are great for search engine rankings, and some are great for driving traffic. It is the ones that do both that you really want.

Site Structure

Site structure includes things such as your directory, files, and permalink structure, as well as your internal linking and overall usability of your website. Make sure your website is not confusing for search engines or people.

Titles

Using proper page titles and header titles go a long way in increasing your search results. If you do not currently use header tags (such as h1, h2, etc.) you may want to consider implementing them in place of your current titles.

The Right Keywords

Getting good results in the wrong keywords is useless. There is no point spending time optimizing for keywords that have nothing to do with your business. There are some research tools such as Google Keyword Tool and Wordtracker that will help you decide what keywords you should be focusing on for your business.

Common Sense and Hard Work

Common sense plays a large role in obtaining a number one spot on Google. Do not spam your website, do not stuff content with unnecessary keywords, and do not buy your links. Things like this will all come back to haunt you later. Search engine optimization takes a lot of hard work. Things will not always work out the way we wanted them to. You need to be able to understand why, isolate what is working and what is not, and fix the ones that are not.

So again, there is no secret as to how to be number one on Google, but hopefully these things can get you started in the right direction.

I have been asked many times what hosting package is the best fit for different types of websites and businesses. This is usually due to the fact that I co-own a Web hosting and Managed virtual private server company. Regardless, I thought I would write an unbiased, four-part blog post that covers choosing the right web hosting plan and company. The series will include the following posts:

Part 1: A look at shared web hosting
Part 2: A look at virtual private hosting
Part 3: A look at dedicated hosting
Part 4: What to look for when choosing a web hosting company and package.

A Look At Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is what most companies offer with their basic web hosting packages, and it is what the majority of websites are hosted on. What it means is that your website will share a server and a hosting environment with potentially many other websites.

The main benefit of shared hosting is its price. It is almost always cheaper than a virtual or dedicated solution. The reason for this is because the cost of the single server can be spread over many paying customers.

There are however several downsides to hosting on a shared environment. Firstly, the inability to tailor and configure it to your own needs can be frustrating. If you run a customized content management system, develop your own web-applications, or require a framework or programs installed that are not already installed on the shared server, chances are you won’t be able to get them – easily at least.

Some smaller shared hosting companies may be willing to tailor and personalize the environment to your needs the best they can (given security restraints of course) but for the most part, the big names will not allow it.

Another major downside of shared hosting is the fact that it is shared. I know our parents always taught us that sharing is good, but when it comes to our websites that is not necessarily the case.

There may be another website hosted on the same server as yours that was built by a 12-year-old wannabe developer who enjoys using many infinite loops in his code. The inefficiencies in their code will affect the performance of your website. Not fair. If the server is placed under a high load due another client – although that client is usually in violation of the terms of service and is removed from the server – there’s no real compensation that is going to happen for you.

The other end of that extreme is if you are hosted on the same server as a very popular website that happens to land on the front page of a popular community-based website such as digg.com. This will send a sudden increase in traffic and will cripple many shared servers. This is often referred to as the Slashdot effect.

Also understand that in most cases, if these things do happen to the server – usually it is not only your website that will be affected, but also your email.

I realize I have painted a pretty ugly picture of shared hosting here. Remember that these are the extremes. Most of the time a shared environment will be able to survive regular day-to-day hosting. However, you do need to keep in mind that it is in fact shared, and there are risks that are associated with that, even at the best of times.

What should you look for in a shared hosting plan?

Each shared hosting plan will include the following:

• Bandwidth – the amount of transfer that is allowed to and from your website
• Disk Space – the amount of physical space on the hard drive your website is allowed to use
• Sub-domains – unlimited sub-domains are typically included in shared hosting packages
• Multi-Domain Hosting – the ability to host more than one domain with your plan
• Dedicated IP Address – will you receive your own IP address with the hosting (usually at an extra cost)
• Operating System – an option of a Linux or Windows-based hosting server

Something to watch out for is the overselling of shared hosting. The offering of unlimited bandwidth and disk space is a very controversial topic amongst hosting companies. Mainly, because it is impossible to follow through on in most cases – and usually it is just covered up in the company’s terms of service stating that they “won’t limit your transfer or space unless you go over X amount.” You don’t want to have your website suspended because it is a high traffic site or because you require a lot of disk space after you’ve already signed up for the account.

So how do you know that shared hosting is the right solution?

If your website and email is not business-critical, you are not paying for traffic through affiliate networks, banners, or pay per click campaigns, and you do not rely on search engine rankings for a major source of your traffic, then shared web hosting would be an ideal fit.

In most cases even if your website and email are business critical, a shared web hosting package will still work for you. However, if you are investing money in driving visitors to your website through SEO initiatives or PPC campaigns, you may want to look into hosting your website on a dedicated or virtual hosting environment.

Check back for the next parts of this series.