Aardvark – How does SEO promote a website?
What is SEO and how does it help to promote a web site. Where do we go to find SEO’s?
- Ashok G. M / Tacoma, WA
SEO is the process of
1) Researching and Selecting keywords that your potential customers would use to find what you offer
2) Optimizing your website(s) to show up when these keywords are searched
3) Measuring the results of these efforts and being on a path of continuous development.
It is, IMO, the most cost-effective way to promote a website and earn free traffic from search engines. Visitors resulting from SEO are looking for what you offer and have already chosen your site out of the set produced on a search engine results page (SERP). Once one your website, it is the job of your design, language and usability that will earn you their business.
You can find SEO services:
1) In search engines, they better get themselves ranked, at least in their area
2) In the Phone book
3) On a BBB listing, looking for SEO Companies with great BBB ratings.
4) In SEO directories, but keep in mind that those listings are paid so you will mainly find companies with more money than smaller, local SEO companies. Buy Local!
Hope this helps!
Aardvark- Optimizing images for Google image search
Is the filename or alt tag more important, for a good ranking in the search engines of a picture, particularly in Google Images?
- Luca C. M / Bologna, Italy
Why not do both! Here’s what I’d recommend:
1) Give the image a good filename, not more than 50 characters, but include your keyword
2) Give a human readable keyword-inclusive alt tag
3) Surround your image with a contextual paragraph discussing your keyword.
I believe that the surrounding text is really the kicker, it gives the image’s alt and filename context and that’s what the search engines need to try and determine meaning and relevancy, and award you with a good ranking in Google images.
Aardvark- Increase Adwords Quality Score
How can we increase the quality score of keywords in google adwords?
- Kapil D. M / Delhi, India
2 primary ways to do this:
1) Improve the page that your ad leads to
2) Improve the structure and specificity of your ad groups and ad details
To address the landing page, make sure that the keywords you are bidding on are discussed in the text of the page. Follow basic optimization practices as well as building sub-pages for this landing page to discuss secondary, related keywords. This makes the landing page a more valuable experience to the user, which means they will have a “good experience” following their use of Google. This is probably Google’s primary consideration.
To address the structure of your adwords campaign, you want to try to:
1) Break down your keyword list into groups of 2-3 phrases
2) Make an ad group for each phrase group
3) With these more specific ad groups, make an ad for each of the 2-3 keywords in the group
This means that each ad is specifically optimized for a given keyword.
Now what follows is that, depending on how fractured your audience/keywords are, you should consider creating multiple landing pages and related subpages, such that the landing page is geared for an ad group or set of ad groups.
By aligning your ad group with your ads and with the landing page you link it to, you are working on ensuring that a visitor to google who sees your ad and clicks on it, reaches a page that offers them something valuable (information) and gives them the opportunity to learn or purchase. Doesn’t that sounds like a high quality advertisement? 
Aardvark – Business Key Word Search Rankings
How do you have your business come up under search engine key word searches?
- Amy H. 28 / F / Boston, MA
Depending on where you are in the process, here’s a quick overview:
1 ) Determine reasonable keyword placement goals
2 ) Make sure your homepage title tag, meta description and meta keywords have your primary keywords featured prominently. Add your primary keyword to image alt tags. (basic optimization)
3 ) Use your website architecture to highlight the homepage for this phrase
4 ) Make sure your primary keywords are present in your homepage text
5 ) Follow the same basic optimization practice on other pages of your website for secondary keywords related to your primary keywords.
6 ) Create an HTML sitemap listing the pages of your website
7 ) While you wait for the search engines to spider your optimized website, find related websites in your industry and contact them to see if they’ll link to your website.
8 ) Find industry directories, and submit your website to them.
With the above advice, you are addressing on-page and off-page factors, making sure your website discusses the keywords you want to rank for, and increasing your inbound links. These are the broad, critical factors that directly affect your websites ranking in search engines.
For more info, visit: www.SpiderGourmet.com. I hope this helps!
Aardvark – ads impression and CTR
Is there any offical tools to calculate the sites visit or ads impression and CTR
- Bevis C. F / Los Angeles, CA
Click through rate is a measure of impressions to clicks, so when measuring it on your own website it depends on what you set as your goals for your visitors. When measuring it on advertising, i.e. adwords, only the advertising website can tell you the impressions your ad received and the number of clicks on your ad.
Aardvark Question – Tip for Web Design
I’m new to web design and looking to have a website built for my business. I heard its essential to develop a good structure and architecture – any tips or recources you’ve found useful on planning and ‘wireframing’ for a new a website?
Alan M., Nottingham, U.K.
When considering architecture, there’s technical:
1) Server type, recommend Linux/Apache/PHP
2) Domains, recommend GoDaddy, but you can work with any registrar
Then for wireframing, consider the layout of your homepage. Focus on this at first, becuase once you have a homepage design you approve, it’s relatively simple to cast an “inner” page design from it so that your website has a consistent feel as visitors navigate.
Aardvark Question – How do I get a Website?
I am a doctor and want a website, how do I get this created and marketed? – Brian, Chicago,IL
Hi Brian,
The quickest, cheapest way to get started is to:
1) identify the primary keyword for which you want to be visible.
2) Purchase domain with that keyword in it, and hosting for your website (~$75/yr for both at Godaddy)
3) Setup Wordpress on your new hosting, pick a free wordpress theme and get that uploaded. Make sure you give your new blog the same name as your keyword-focused domain.
4) Add content to your blog about your chosen keywords
5) Do a Google local business submission
Then give it about 1-2 weeks for the website to get spidered and see where you rank. Apply SEO principles as necessary.
Feel free to give me a call to talk through this, I am EST so either right now or tomorrow morning. Once you’re setup, the advantage to Wordpress is that you can do most, if not all, of the management yourself.
All the best!
