05.24.13

On May 22, 2013, Google modified  it’s ranking algorithm and the change is called Penguin 2.0. As of today, May 24, 2013 there are still fluctuating search results which are being experienced across the Internet. In the event your rankings have changed from their normal positions, we expect things to stabilize within the next 2 weeks. During this period, Google is updating all it’s databases and also fixing any bugs that may be present in the algorithm change. After the update has been completely rolled out, Google will be giving more priority in the organic search results for the higher authority websites, or in layman’s terms: “important sites within a particular niche/industry.”

Below are some of the many things that we are doing for our clients in order to increase their Authority Score:

1. Content development (3rd party blogs, which link back to client’s website/URL)
2. Increased Social Tagging (Linkedin, Twitter, etc…)
3. Creation of micro-sites (one page free website such as www.weebly.com. A subdomain will look like palmettosoft.weebly.com)
4. Link Requests (creation of inbound links– done much less these days)
5. Collaborate the content on several social media sites along with the regular Blogging (Client writes… PalmettoSoft will publish the blog and share links on top social media sites so that sharing happens)
6. Postings the teasers (industry questions) with authority forums (create questions and answers with forums /review-style websites, ex. https://forums.digitalpoint.com/)
7. High page rank bookmarkings (social book markings with www.reddit.com type of website)
8. Commenting on the Authority Blogs (visiting Blogs and creating comments which are relevant to their topics)
9. Using Twitter to “popularize” the posts
10. Shorten the article URLs, and use them in promotion (services like https://bitly.com/ to shorten URLs and promote your links)
11. Guest postings (creating guest posts within 3rd authority Blog and naturally linking them back to your website)
12. Checking the “crawlability” of the links via Google Webmaster Tools and recommendations

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization  consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

05.17.13

What is Google Webmaster Tools?
If you own a website and want to learn more information about potential issues and/or user data, you can use Google Webmaster Tools, and it is a great resource. Google Webmaster Tools is a free service software that basically gives you the tools to ensure your site is easily crawled by Google and you are able to do “best practice” activities like uploading a sitemap, creating a list of any broken links the site has, etc… Google Webmaster Tools is a free account and you all you have to do is set it up.

First Step:
Visit Google and type in “Google Webmaster Tools.” On this page, there is a link for you to create an account. It is important to know you cannot use Google Webmaster Tools unless you have setup an account.

Second Step:
After you have created the account and signed in, you need to select the option for “adding a site.” When, completed, you then need to verify the same. It is very important to verify your website, otherwise, the data will not be gathered and nothing can be analyzed. The main reason for site verification is to prove ownership of the website. In the event you already have a Google Analytics account, verification can be done through this system with a few simple steps.

Other Ways to Verify:
There are other ways to verify your website such as uploading a file which can be scanned by Google, or adding some meta information/code to the main page of your site and a 3^rdoption is by manipulating your DNS configuration.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization  consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

05.10.13

What is a Blog?
A blog (or weblog) is basically a journal type entry on the Web. A person who publishes and/or maintains a blog is called a blogger. Over the last several years, the Internet has witnessed an explosion in blogging. As I write this blog post (wink), the vast majority of business and organization sites have integrated blogs and they are functioning much in the same manner.

Benefit #1: Continual Content Flow
Blogs serve as a way to continually talk about your business or service. In addition, you can link your blog posts to existing pages on your site (or other blog posts) as reference links. This helps in the navigation process and your site will read better.

Benefit #2: Search Engines Notice
Another benefit of your blog is increased search engine visibility. When all things are equal… if your website is routinely publishing content and your competitor is not; you will get noticed and visited more by the spiders (search ranking formula). Furthermore, you will want to turn on the “moderator controlled comments” feature of your blog software. By having conversation about your post, the search engines consider it a more important piece of content and will rank it higher in the search results.

Benefit #3: Social Media Integration
Blog posts can be used across the various social media sites. For example, your most recent blog post can be used as a Facebook and Google+ post. Basically, your blog can integrate with your social media efforts and link back to your site.

In closing, blogs are great for your website and should be updated at least once per week. By doing so, you add credibility to your website and the search engines will notice you more!

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization  consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

05.03.13

A link is sometimes called a URL, which means “uniform resource locator,” in other words, the address of a file or page. A broken link, which is also called a dead link, points to a file or page that either does not exist or does not exist in that location. The page might not be where you think it should be for various reasons. It could have been moved or you may not have permission to view it.

Another reason for a broken link is that, the page might actually be where you think it is, but the link itself may have a mistake in it. If it’s on your site, check carefully to see that it’s correct. Even a tiny error will cause a link to break.

If a broken link shows up but you know it’s written properly and you know the page is there, a poor connection can sometimes be the cause. In this case, you can usually wait a few minutes and when you try again, the link will work.

When you follow a link that doesn’t work, you’re taken to a page with what is commonly called a “404 error.” Some 404 pages have been creatively designed while others are very simple. Either way, a 404 means the page you’ve expected to see is not there.

When your site has links that are broken, visitors may become irritated and lose patience when trying to navigate the site. To make sure you keep the visitors on your site longer and to make it more appealing and pleasant for them to return, ongoing site maintenance is necessary.

Fix all broken links as soon as you’re aware of it. Take some time each week to check every link on your site and repair each one as necessary.

If you find a dead link when you’re reading a site, you may want to contact the owner about it. Most sites have a contact form or an email address where you can leave a short note including the link that is broken.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

04.29.13

What is it?
Almost every person who uses the Internet on a routine basis has experience a 404 error page. It basically tells the surfer they have either misspelled a URL, or the link is broken. Either way, your browser is unable to load the desired web page, and the 404 is a standard method to let them know what happened.

They can be useful.
The most common reason for a 404 error is that somebody types a URL incorrectly. For example: desiredsite.com/things/whatilyke, yet it should bedesiredsite.com/things/whatilike. In this regard, the 404 error page lets them know they are on the correct site and it can also provide a link which directs the user back to your home page. This simple 404 page can in many times, stop somebody from leaving your site in frustration, and staying in an effort to further navigate your website.

You can make this page fun.
In the vast majority of the time, you tend to see the standard, sterile version of the page. However, sometimes you will see a light hearted joke and/or a cartoon like picture and this tends to help your customer be a bit more at ease. In addition, you can also add a second scaled down sitemap, which offers links into important areas of your site. Personally, I recommend having a bit of fun with the page and customizing it a bit.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

04.19.13

What are Canonical Issues?

Canonical issues can basically be defined as multiple URLs with the same content. They can negatively impact SEO because the search engines have not evolved (yet) to fully understand them. For example, the search engines cannot determine whether they are simple overlooked technical issues, an attempt to publish duplicate content (bad), or a truly poorly designed website that probably has a range of other issues as well. Regardless of the condition, they can cause problems in your search result rankings and need to be fixed.

Examples:
http://www.palmettosoft.com/ (World Wide Web version)
http://palmettosoft.com/ (non World Wide Web version)
http://palmettosoft.com.com/index.html
http://www.palmettosoft.com/home.php
http://www.palmettosoft.com/index.php
http://www.palmettosoft.com/default.php
etc… etc…

The above URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) could have the same content and the search engines can (and usually will) penalize your website for having duplicate content. For example, the search engines will typically see the http://www.palmettosoft.com/ and http://palmettosoft.com/ as two different websites with the same content. And, the aforementioned also happens to be the most common canonical issue found on the Internet.

How do I fix Canonical Issues?
You can solve this problem by using a 301 Redirect with a .htaccess file. Like most of my posts, I don’t get too technical because the exact specifics for doing this exercise can be found on thousands of sites across the web.

Moving Forward:
Canonical issues have been in existence for several years and should continue to cause issues in the near future. Think of fixing these problems as a way to help the search engines better understand your site. By doing so, they can better reward you with increased search visibility.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization  consultant located in the Florida and Greater Carolina areas.

04.11.13

Breadcrumb navigation is type of navigation featured on a page which allows the user to see where currently are; and where they previously were. The term is derived from the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel,” where the two main characters created a path laid down by breadcrumbs, so they could find their way back home. Basically, breadcrumb navigation allows user to retrace their previous steps in navigating a website.

There are 3 types of breadcrumb navigation. In this post, I will only mention them as you can do a search to find out more information: Path (most common), location (deeper content sites) and attribute (typical, E-Commerce).
One of the great benefits of using breadcrumb navigation is the user can always know exactly where they are in your website. In addition, if they want to jump to a higher navigation level, they can easily do so. Not only does this system assist in the ease of navigation for the user, it also quickly builds “website trust” that your site is professional and usable.

Saving Time
Another great benefit of breadcrumb navigation is the user sometimes gets “too far down the trail” and needs to reassess where they are. This navigation system allows the jump back to “another path” without having to completely start over again. If your website has many pages, this could literally save hours of lost time.

Lower Bounce Rates
Because breadcrumb navigation is so effective, your website’s bounce rate will be lowered as users can more easily find information and are ultimately happier. Happier users = a more successful website.
To learn more about breadcrumb navigation, please visit these resources:

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/breadcrumb-navigation-useful/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/17/breadcrumbs-in-web-design-examples-and-best-practices-2/

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization  consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.

04.04.13

Many people are under the false notion that simply having large numbers of links to their website will cause their website to be indexed higher in the search results. There is more to it than that and much of it centers around anchor text links.For this blog post, I am not going to discuss the Page Rank score of the referring website, but that matters as well.Instead, we will talk about anchor text linking and how it can impact search engine optimization.

Anchor Text, what is it?
Anchor text refers the words that make up a link (and when you place your mouse over the phrase, it turns into a pointing hand). For example, in the sentence, “SEO Service in Florida, South Carolina and Surrounding Areas” “SEO Service in Florida” is anchor text for the link.

Why is Anchor Text important?
Search engines index the Internet by traveling from link to link, and taking snapshots of content. Typically, the anchor text link reveals to the indexing spider (algorithm formula) “where” it is about to travel and what the page is about. For example, if 75 websites have “SEO Service in Florida” links that point to your page, the search engine is fairly confident your page is about that subject.

Be careful not to use the exact anchor text link, all the time.
Because the search algorithms are constantly evolving, they now look for negative trends occurring such as “the same anchor text” used for every link. I recommend not doing to aforementioned because you can ultimately be punished with reduced rankings; as a result. Rather than using 80 exact “SEO Florida” links, you can use a variety of phrases and combinations of the same phrase (i.e. SEO Company in Florida, Florida SEO, SEO Service Florida, etc…). By using a mixture of related anchor text links, the search engines will view your site as a more natural destination for website visitors, and your site will be rewarded with increased search result rankings.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.

04.01.13

Sometimes, there may be places on your website where you do not want the content to be indexed. A great tool to use for these areas is the robots.txt file in your website code. For example, you could have a unique customer specific section which is not password protected and this page is not found in your site’s navigation. While this area may not be sensitive information, you also don’t want the public to see it either. By using the robots.txt file, you essentially tell the engines: “do not index this page.” Another example would be a print targeted version of a web page which does not feature the normal graphics, rich media files and other heavy bandwidth type features. If the search engines were to index this page, a duplicate content penalty could be levied on your site as this page is basically a stripped down copy (for a printer device) of another. Once again, the robots.txt file will stop the search engines from indexing this page.

The placement of your robots.txt file is very important. The best place is your main directory file because this is the first place the search engines check. By telling them early, your chances of having them comply are exponentially greater than if you bury the file deep in your site.

For the highest security concerns, I recommend not using the robots.txt file. Instead, create a username and password protected area. This gives you a much greater chance of keeping the bad guys out and the good guys in!

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.

03.22.13

What are Sitemaps?
Sitemaps (XML code) are an important protocol feature that can be installed on a website by a developer. They allow the search engines and/or public to understand things like: When the site was last updated, how many pages are in the site, page relation to each other, etc… In addition, a most important function of the sitemap is that is gives the search engine an easy, quick and unimpeded way to index the pages of your site. Internet wide usage of sitemaps began around June 2005 when Google first introduced “Sitemaps 0.84.” Later in 2006, the other major engines recognized its usage and incorporated the protocol into their algorithms as well. To further promote wide usage, soon many state governments began using the sitemap and now it is used worldwide as one of the primary components of effective SEO.

How do I install one?
Creating a sitemap should never be a difficult exercise as there are many free software tools available on the web to help you accomplish your goal. Google, for example, recommends using http://xml-sitemaps.com. This resource has made sitemap creation simple by following four easy steps on their home page.

Where do I upload the Sitemap to?
You upload the sitemap to your server, and then submit the full URL to your sitemap. You never upload the sitemap to a particular search engine. Once your sitemap has been uploaded correctly, you will have a much greater chance of having your website indexed properly and in a timely manner.

About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.