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 Studios™ 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.

Sometimes we come across videos which adequately encapsulate what we are constantly helping our web clients understand.

This biweekly video comes to us from Amy Posner, copywriter about understanding your target market –

If you are not sure how to write compelling web content or you are not sure what is the top problem you are solving for your customers, 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 Internet marketing plan.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studios™ 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.

Unique Visitors
A unique visitor is an individual person who views your website within a specified time period. Each person visiting your site is counted only once during this time period.

Hits
When visitors visit any page in a website, the page they land on counts as one hit. In fact, every page they click on counts as a “hit”.

Number of visits
This is the number of times that your website has been visited. Compare it with the number of unique visitors, and you will get an idea of the number of people who are returning to your website.

Referring URLS
The website address where your visitor was before they came to your website. It is good to pay attention to where your visitors come from, either by search engines, email addresses and websites so you can determine if your marketing efforts are paying off.

Duration of Visit
How long people are staying on your website. If they are not staying long you may need to review your content.

Page impressions
How many people are visiting each page. You may find people are only visiting your home page and not going any further into your site.

Exit Page
The last page requested by a site visitor – the page least persuasive in keeping visitors at your website.

Keywords
The words visitors are using to find your website.

Understanding your website statistics is important part of your overall Internet marketing strategy. They can alert you to which web pages on your website are more popular than others and which ones need some attention – or aren’t important; where your visitors are coming from; what keywords are being used from your content and if you need to consider re-writing your content to include more keyword phrases.

If you are not sure how to access your website statistics or what they mean, or do you even have them installed? Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can help you with your web analytics and how effective your web pages are to your Internet marketing plan.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studios™ 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.

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 Studios™ 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.

One of the most frequent questions we get.

“Why doesn’t my printed piece match what I have on my screen (my office printer, my friends iPhone, etc.)?”

Using color in print can be frustrating. Every printing device operates differently. These differences can cause the printed document to look different from one printing device to another.

To address this issue, the printing industry uses Pantone colors. “The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another” (wikipedia).

But viewing these same colors on the Internet, or on your own computer screen is a whole different ballgame.

Unlike print media where you are controlling where your materials print, computer screen colors are completely dependent on the settings on each individual computer.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a Pantone color matching system when viewing on-screen/online. It is impossible to take Pantone color and include it in a web design. Even if it looks right on your screen it won’t on others.

Why?

Because everyone has different computers and monitors. There’s LCD screens and traditional tube monitors. There’s the color settings on each machine and they can be set to 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 millions of colors. Then there’s the quality of video card, along the quality of the monitor.

There’s all the different operating systems, and last but not least, there are all the different viewing browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Flock, Chrome, Safari to name a few). Add in devices like iphones with their own operating systems and viewing screens and you have a 100 different ways to view color.

And, there’s more -

Monitors emit color as RGB (red, green, blue) light and are capable of displaying only a limited range of the visible spectrum. Monitors emit light, while inked paper absorbs, or reflects it.

We use color management systems for calibrating monitors, scanners, printers, and digital cameras so they all “talk the same color.”

When was the last time you tested your monitor colors or changed them from the factory defaults?

Having trouble seeing your website in the right colors? Call us at 707-578-1390 today and we can recommend some inexpensive color calibration tools.

Our continued success to you,

About Forward Motion Studios -
Forward Motion Studios™ 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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