SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In order to rank high in the search engines, your website needs to follow some basic SEO rules to make sure your website turns visitors that want to find you. Below are some of the most common ways to make sure your website appears for the keywords your clients will be searching to find you.

Here is Forward Motion Studios web design basic SEO tips -

• Start with your website Title and Description tags. It is effective to use similar text in the “title” and “description” tags, and to place keywords prominently in these tags. Do not use “sitename.com”, “New Page 1″, or “Welcome to my site” in the “title” tag, because they should be named a particular keyword. Also, try not to use words such as “and”, “or”, or “the” in these tags.




• Search engines evaluate keyword prominence, keyword weight, and keyword density when determining a site’s ranking. All three are calculated individually for the page, the title tag, the description tag, as well as other areas on a page. Keyword prominence means how close the keyword is to the beginning of your page. Keyword weight refers to how many times a particular keyword or phrase can be found on the page. Keyword density is the ratio of the keyword to the other words on the page. You do not want the keyword weight or density to be too high, as this can appear to the search engine as “keyword stuffing” and most search engines penalize sites that stuff their keywords.




• Place your navigational links at the right or at the bottom, but not on the left, of the page. When the search engines “read” your site, they read from the top left to the bottom right. Search engines place an emphasis on the first 100 words or text on the site. You do not want these words to be navigational links or Javascript. Ideally, you want to have your heading tags with your keywords in the beginning of your page. This being said, placing your links/JavaScript on the right or bottom of your page ensures the search engine spiders get to the text first, giving more weight to what’s important on your page.




• Place alt tags on all of your images. Search engine spiders cannot “read” pictures or images. The only way a spider knows what an image is about is by reading the alt tag. This is also another chance to place more of your keywords in your HTML, improving your page’s keyword weight/density. Alt tags are easy to make and they can make a big difference in your sites keyword ranking. A simple alt tag looks like this: alt=”put your keyword phrase here.” Search engines separately calculate keyword prominence, density, and weight in alt tags as well, so optimize your tags.




• Place your keywords at the bottom of your page. Just as search engines place more weight on the first words of your page, they also do the same to the last words. The general thinking is this, if your site is about a certain subject, then the main points, or keywords, should, appear at the beginning, be spread throughout the page, and be prominent at the conclusion. But if you have all of your navigational links and JavaScript at the bottom, your relevant page text could end well before the HTML does. An easy way to have your keywords at the bottom of your page is to include them in the copyright information. For example, if you have a dog food website, you could have something like this at the very Search engines are not (as of this writing), penalizing sites using this technique, and it wouldn’t really make much sense for them to do so.




• Anchor text is the actual linking text on a site. It is what the user clicks on to navigate to that particular site or page. If a search engine finds many links to your site using the term “dog food”, then the search engine concludes your site is about “dog food”. This is overlooked quite often, but it seems to have a very large impact on your search engine rankings for a particular keyword. Your anchor text needs to be the keyword or phrase you are trying to target. Try to avoid anchor text such as “Click Here” or “yoursite.com”




• Also, if you’re running a reciprocal link campaign, be sure to use variations of your text. If an engine notices every link to your site is identical, it could place less weight on these links or potentially penalize your site. This is because search engines generally give more weight to “naturally occurring” links, and less to “reciprocal link exchange campaigns”. Using different, but relevant anchor text can dramatically affect your targeted keyword rankings, by making your links appear more natural.

Effective SEO may seem difficult at first, but as you have read above, little tricks that require little or no programming knowledge, can make a huge impact on your website’s keyword ranking. If you don’t understand how to successfully apply these strategies, then your customers will go to your competitors instead. We can help you apply a basic SEO strategy to your website.

Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can help you determine how effective your SEO is on your website.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studiosâ„¢ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts. You can catch their Tweets at twitter/forwardmotion and connect with them on Facebook at facebook.com/forwardmotionstudios.

In the following video, Sean Nelson of SONARconnects gives 5 solid ways you should be using LinkedIn to grow your business -

Sean offers 5 ways to thrive on LinkedIn -

1. You have to have a purpose for being on LinkedIn and define it.
2. Make sure to create an optimized profile.
3. Expand your LinkedIn reach through groups.
4. Build credibility by answering questions.
5. Communicate your message.

If you are not getting the results from your social media efforts to grow your business, or you are not sure if LinkedIn is right for your business, we can help. Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can help you determine how effective social media can be for your business.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studiosâ„¢ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts. You can catch their Tweets at twitter/forwardmotion and connect with them on Facebook at facebook.com/forwardmotionstudios.

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When we often talk about making money from a website or blog, people automatically assume it’s an e-commerce site we are referring to – it can be – but it’s doesn’t have to. There are many ways to make money online which doesn’t include an e-comerce product- based website.

During this economy, building multiple passive income streams is a great way to secure added revenue yourself and your business for the future. You never know what’s around the corner and having different income streams gives you a hedge against unforeseen setbacks.

What are some of the ways you can make money online?

1. “How to” ebooks.
Ebooks are a great way to make a residual source of income off the topics that you know. They don’t have to be huge or cost a lot of money.

2. Sell advertising on your site or blog
Often bloggers and website owners think the advertising has to come from the large resellers like Amazon or Google, but they don’t. They can come from a vendor you work closely with, a local business who can benefit from a mutual relationship.

3 Write sponsored posts on your blog.
Companies like PayPerPost.com, Bloggerwave.com, Smorty.com, LoudLaunch.com, Blogitive.com, SponsoredReviews.com, BlogsVertise.com, and Contextual.v7n.com pay you to blog if your site meets their criteria.

4. Referral Networking.
A network of businesses that offer services or products related to your business. Offer and receive commissions every time you refer someone to them from your website and they refer someone to yours – where it culminates in a sale.

5. Cross sell on other websites.
If you have products you can cross sell them through websites such as EBay, Amazon or Etsy and drive more traffic to your own website product page.

6. Live Webinars.
You can host live webinars based on your expertise and sell these webinars.

7. Be a consultant
There is an area of expertise you hold that you can charge people who would like to learn what you know.

8. Run a members only section of your website
Members is access to ask you consulting questions, some one on one time, maybe access to your webinars for free, or a mega discount on your ebooks, or special discounts to your services.

Look around you. What are the kinds of thing your clients or customers are in need of that you aren’t providing right now. There’s hidden money in that information

To answer the question of how to make money online is a combination of what you feel capable of handling, what level of expertise is needed to make them work, and how motivated you are to make them happen. This list is just the tip of the iceberg when you begin to open your mind to the many ways you can make money online.

Your website and blog traffic obviously plays a huge part in the financial success of some of the items on this list – but not all. Find your niche, and sell, sell sell.

Looking for in depth training on this subject?

We’re having a class!

Are you looking for ways to created new streams of income?

Would you like to make money from blogging?

This workshop will teach you how to: . . .

• Find direct advertisers for your blog
• Using all outlets to market your blog
• The best ad networks to join
• How to find a sponsor for your blog
• What to look for in affiliate marketing

What do you need a blog for?

1. Sell Your Book
2. Sell Your Services
3. Enhance Your Business
4. Break into Writing
5. Express Yourself

Get answers to questions like…

• How do I write better headlines?
• How do I promote my blog with Facebook & Twitter?
• How do I get more people to read my blog?
• How do I get people to comment on my posts?
• What’s the fastest way to come up with keywords?
• How do I get advertisers?
• What about YouTube & Linked-in?
• What’s an RSS feed?
• How do I get people to read more than just one post?

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The more a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive. This helps give a web site web presence.

The term “SEO” refers to “search engine optimization”.

When a website is search engine friendly it is because it has been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

Here are some of the terms which can help you understand SEO -

1. Affiliate Marketing
A means of revenue sharing which allows merchants to enlist website owners to use their websites as a type of outside sales force where the affiliate websites earns a referral fee, based on click-throughs to the merchant site based on a set criteria.

2. Alt Tag
ALT tags filled with keywords which properly describe your site and image can help keyword frequency better search rankings. ALT tags also make websites more accessible to visually impaired people using text readers.

3. Backlinks
These are the number of inbound links to a website from other websites, which is one indication of the popularity of the website.

4. CTR
Called a “click-through-rate”, it’s a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. The rate is determined by dividing the “number of users who clicked on an ad” by the “number of times the ad was delivered” (known as impressions). For example, if a web ad was delivered 200 times and two people clicked on it, then the CTR would be 4%.

5. Keywords
A word or phrase that targeted prospects are likely to search for to find a website.

6. Long Tail Keywords
A combination of highly searched keyword phrases that generates relevant phrases. Long tail in keywords can provide a significant amount of traffic to a website.

7. PPC
PPC means “Pay-per-click” where advertisers pay a website owner when their ad is clicked on.

8. Google PageRank
A system where Google ranks website pages based on a scale of 1 to 10. Higher page rank usually means higher placement on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

9. Google Trends
A search that reflects what keywords people are searching for on a daily basis used to determine keywords and article marketing.

10. Rank
How well a website appears in search engine results. Rank and position affect your click-through rates and conversion rates for website landing pages.

If you are not getting the results in search engines you need for your website to be a success, we can help. Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can help you with your web content and help you determine how effective your web pages are to your website marketing plan.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studiosâ„¢ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts. You can catch their Tweets at twitter/forwardmotion and connect with them on Facebook at facebook.com/forwardmotionstudios.

If you haven’t spent time with Google Trends then you have to take the time to dive in and begin analyzing conversations at a global scale.

In this video, Tippingpoint Labs quickly shows you how tracking the evolution of a conversation can actually help you position your company in search -

If you’re not using Google Trends and watching the way keywords appear and disappear, then you are not taking advantage of your market, where your market is moving, and how your customers might be referring to your business in ways you didn’t even know.

Are you trending today?

Having trouble understanding how to use Google Trends for search? Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can design your website with content that will help you get found in search – and involved in the Internet conversation.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studiosâ„¢ is a Santa Rosa Web Design company that builds, hosts and supports custom websites for businesses. This includes simple, brochure-like web pages to highly complex, software and database-driven eCommerce websites with B2B shopping carts. You can catch their Tweets at twitter/forwardmotion.

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