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Click to view SBOCTeam's profile sboc SBOCTeam 328 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
30. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:01 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
SJCarpentry is asking:

Here' s my question

http://watsonandcochran.com/

we spent a decent amount on our website, but pretty much only get current customers to visit.

How do we get more traffic?
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Click to view SeoGuy's profile EXPERT SeoGuy 18 posts since
Mar 18, 2008
31. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:16 PM
in response to: SBOCTeam
I took a quick look at your site. The first thing that jumps out is that the entire site is constructed in Flash. This is a comon SEO obstacle and presents a big challenge to search engines as they can't really understand the content contained in the Flash file.

For example, the text on the welcome page is invisible to search engines. Because they can't understand the content on the site, they won't return the site in any related searches. So in the eyes of the engines, your site barely exists.

We recommend that any Flsah site have an alternative HTML version. This not only helps with SEO, it also fulfills ADA (American's With Disabilities Act) requirements.
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Click to view SBOCTeam's profile sboc SBOCTeam 328 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
32. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:18 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
simon07 asked:

How do images get searched?

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Click to view SeoGuy's profile EXPERT SeoGuy 18 posts since
Mar 18, 2008
33. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:29 PM
in response to: SBOCTeam

Images are evaluated as part of the on page code. To get visibility for images:

~Use targeted keywords when you name the image in your database. Instead of a generic naming convention like img001.gif, img002.gif, etc. use keywords that describe the image speedboat.gif, cargopants.gif, whiteorchid.jpeg, etc.

~Use targeted keywords within the Image ALT Text tag. This provides additional opportunities to tell the engines what the image is about.
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Click to view SBOCTeam's profile sboc SBOCTeam 328 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
34. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:32 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
Matt, can't thank you enough for your great answers.

MetroGal wants to know:

As a consumer that is trying to search the web, how can I be smarter about identifying the most relevant websites for me?
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Click to view SeoGuy's profile EXPERT SeoGuy 18 posts since
Mar 18, 2008
35. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:45 PM
in response to: SBOCTeam
That is a great question.

At its most basic, natural search results should be the most relevant to your query. The algorithm tries to match the best webpage to the keyword entered. If they fail to deliver on this, people will stop using the engines and they would soon be out of business.

Paid search listing can be purchased by the keyword, so the relevance is not as tight.

Before clicking on a site, read the description that appears below the listing. This will tell you what the page is about. Also look for the bold keywords in the results and descriptions. If your keyword appears many times, its a safe bet that the page is a good match.
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Click to view SBOCTeam's profile sboc SBOCTeam 328 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
36. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 4:49 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
clnshirtz is asking:

I would like the expert to look at the 'site' we have http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=1003232

1 and tell me a few things:

1. Is there anything we should do on the current site to improve traffic?
2. If we had our own site, would they expect our traffic to go up much (we get 500 visits a month)
3. Does putting coupons and specials on your site increase the hits you get?
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Click to view SeoGuy's profile EXPERT SeoGuy 18 posts since
Mar 18, 2008
37. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 5:02 PM
in response to: SBOCTeam

Clnshirtz, if this business listing is your only web presence, I'm not sure what Yahoo would allow you to do to drive more traffic.

You mention you get 500 visits a month from the page, but how much business do you get? Are you tracking sales back to the page? If those 500 visits are converting to customers, I wouldn't change anything. If 500 people are looking at your page and going somewhere else, I'd recommend building your own site and taking charge of this channel. The end result you want is shirts on the hanger, not visits to a web page.
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Click to view SBOCTeam's profile sboc SBOCTeam 328 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
38. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 6:02 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
Matt, on behalf of the SBOC Team and the members of the Small Business Online Community, we wanted to say we appreciated your time today and your professional responses to user questions.

Community members, while our session with Matt has now concluded, please feel free to discuss today's session and the questions answered. Again, if you'd like more information about Matt and iCrossing, visit: http://www.icrossing.com

Thanks again,
The SBOC Team
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Click to view blesstech's profile Start-up blesstech 2 posts since
Jun 2, 2008
39. Re: Event June 2nd: Search Engine Optimization Jun 2, 2008 7:21 PM
in response to: CommunityTeam
Can you please visit www.alquranacademy.com and suggest how we can improve our keywords and meta tags?

If meta tags or key words are long, it means key words towards the end will be ignored by Search Engines?

Is it recomended to have unique keyword/meta tags for each page on website (we have only unique titels)?

Is revising keywords and meta tags content too often helps or hampers SEO?

How is site map helpful for SEO?

How having multiple domain names (pointing to same site) can help in getting more visits and more hits in SEO?

Please respond.
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Click to view SeoGuy's profile EXPERT SeoGuy 18 posts since
Mar 18, 2008
40. Re: Event June 2nd: Search Engine Optimization Jun 16, 2008 12:46 AM
in response to: blesstech

That is quite a list of questions. I will do my best to answer them all:

Search engines will only index a certain amount of content from the page titles and meta tags. Try to keep them between 150-250 characters. The actual limits vary by engine. Keywords at the end of exceeding long titles and tags will be ignored. SEO best practices recommend targeting 2-3 keywords per page.

Ideally, you want your <meta keyword> tag to include the same unique keywords as in the title. When on page elements like page title, meta tags, on page content and header tags all support the same keywords, the page is considered more relevant by the engines, The more relevant the page, the higher in the results the page will be displayed.

Revising keywords and meta data will help SEO if you follow best practices.

A site map helps SEO as spiders look for a sitemap to begin their crawl. It looks like Google is indexing all the pages of your site (6 pages), so a sitemap wouldn't provide much help. It is very helpful for larger sites.

Having multiple domains pointing to the same site can actualy hinder SEO efforts and reduce the vistis from SEO. It depends on how you have the domains set up.

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Click to view mthomas's profile Start-up mthomas 1 posts since
Jul 12, 2008
41. Re: Live Now: Search Engine Optimization Jul 12, 2008 6:06 AM
in response to: SeoGuy

Hi,

While on online keyword research tools, I have used both Keyword Discovery and Word Tracker, and have got varying results. I have been looking for improved results wit respect to the time for refreshed data. Our marketing guy was recently mentioning about the ispionage.com solution, and how they refresh it on a daily basis. I found that they have a free trial as well. But as I am trying to get reviews on this keyword research solution by visiting forums and groups, there seems to be very less mention of the ispionage service around. Any thoughts?
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Click to view traff20's profile Start-up traff20 1 posts since
Jul 28, 2008
42. Re: Event June 2nd: Search Engine Optimization Aug 3, 2008 11:27 AM
in response to: CommunityTeam
Hi,

The SEO optimization is difficulty for everyone. But it's was need for every small business running correctly,
I mean building traffic is another important component for every small business.


Great solution will be helping other to grow.

Thanks
http://www.squidoo.com/busy_lens

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