WordPress - The Number One Blog

by damientown on November 10, 2012

WordPress – The Only Choice If You Are Serious About Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) & Fresh Content

My WordPress Blog at About Town Marketing is now live!  It’s taken me 3 months to read every book and online article dedicated to setting up and promoting my WordPress blog.  Finally I think I am in a great place to share my journey in exchange for some new ideas, comments and followers to my social media channels.  A summary of my key findings is below and I would be happy to answer any questions you have through my social media networks and please help me by following these as well and in return I will follow your social media channels.

Blog1 300x116 Wordpress The Number One Blog

WordPress Blogs and Google have a symbiotic relationship that drives great search engine optimisation (SEO) and gets your content found

Why Choose WordPress?

WordPress and Google have a symbiotic relationship that drives great search engine optimisation (SEO) and gets your content found – this is why I went with WordPress as opposed to other blogging platforms.

What Did I Learn About WordPress Blogs?

I have now incorporated a WordPress blog into my website and installed a number of plugins to improve performance, look, feel and functionality.  The theme is Thesis which Google seems to like for search engine optimisation (SEO) and I have also installed Daniel Tans SEO Pressor which I highly recommend.  The best read I found was from Amazon, “Word Press Power Guide – Blog Your Way to Success” by Lambert Klein.  The best $3.99 I have ever spent on an e book!

11 Must Have WordPress Plugins

I have currently installed 28 plugins to my WordPress blog and here are 11 plugins I couldn’t live without:

1.    www.seopressor.com
2.    www.socialmetricspro.com
3.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/****
4.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/****
5.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/
6.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/****
7.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/calais-auto-tagger/****
8.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sketch-bookmarks/****
9.    www.littlehandytips.com/plugins/custom-about-author
10.    www.crowdfavorite.com/wordpress/plugins/twitter-tools/
11.    www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/

Other Useful Information to Get The Most Out Of WordPress

I trust you enjoyed reading this article and I look forward to stimulating some discussions about blogs, wordpress blogs, plugins, seo and content.

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What Is On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

by damientown on November 10, 2012

Introduction to On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often described in two ways, on page and off page.  On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is made of up 200 or more elements on a website or webpage that search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others rely on to promote your page before your competitors in order to give their customers the best possible and relevant search results.

bigstock Search Engine Optimization Abs 32365670 150x150 What Is On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The Importance of Keywords In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

On page search engine optimisation (SEO) is not about picking a keyword and or phrase and repeating it on as many pages as possible.  By littering your website and webpages with keywords will NOT get your website found on search engines.  If the density exceeds 5% then you will actually be penalised!

To get your website on the first page of search engines you must do some keyword research or hire an expert at search engine optimisation (SEO) to understand what keywords and phrases (other than your business name) that internet users enter into search engines to search for information.   Google provides a great keyword tool to commence your research.

Word of warning – if you are performing some searches to test for your websites search engine optimisation (SEO) effectiveness you must switch on private browsing to ensure that you do not receive biased results that might be driven by your cache or previous browsing sessions.  We here this all too often, “We don’t need a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy because our website comes up on the first page of Google”.  We also recommend that you don’t search for your business name – instead use a keyword or phrase that your customers might use.

So on page search engine optimisation (SEO) is not just about keywords and there are over 200 factors.  Some of these will be explained in the next section.

What Are the Most Important Ingredients to On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engines like Google have over 200 ingredients that influence on page search engine optimisation (SEO).   For these purpose of this article we will list what we consider to be the most important based on our extensive research and experience.

  1. Dedicate one keyword for every webpage and make sure you conduct extensive keyword research
  2. Make sure that the keyword appears in the URL
  3. Select a heavily trafficked keyword and use that in the domain name
  4. Use keywords in the title tags but do not exceed 60 characters
  5. Use keywords in the meta description and limit the description to 200 characters
  6. Keep the keyword density to between 2 and 5%
  7. Use H1, H2 and H3 tags that include the keyword
  8. Include images and videos that have the keyword in the alt text
  9. Use inbound links with anchor text that uses the keywords
  10. Use outbound links with anchor text that uses the keywords and ensure the outbound links are to credible sites
  11. Continue to improve the content of all pages on a website
  12. Do not copy or plagiarise other peoples content.  Be original and write your own content or you will be heavily penalised!

If you are looking for greater detail relating to on page search engine optimisation (SEO) we recommend reading this document from Google, Starters Guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

 

 

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A Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

by damientown on November 4, 2012

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

seo4 150x150 A Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

A Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Strategy will get your website found online

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the term / acronym used to describe a series of actions that are taken to improve the visibility of a website or webpage on search engines.  It has been estimated that there are more than 30 popular search engines and the most commonly used is Google which dominates the market with 80% of searches or the equivalent of one billion searches every day.  Put simply SEO or search engine optimisation is when you type a keyword or phrase into a search engine and the results are listed from 1 to thousands and each page contains 10 – 13 results on average.  80% of search engine users don’t look at the second page of results so the goal of search engine optimisation (SEO) is to be on the first page of results and as high up the page as possible.

Why Can’t I Find My Website on Search Engines

Building, designing and launching a website is relatively easy but the hardest thing about the process is being found through search engines, especially when a new website goes live.  We estimate that 90% of websites have not been optimised for search engines and their owners do not have a formal search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.  Try typing in a keyword or phrase that your customers might use to find you and see where you rank.  Careful; to be unbiased you must switch on private browsing and don’t search for your business name – instead use a keyword or phrase that your customers might use.   The reason for using private browsing is that some search engines remember what you have searched before and return favourable results based on your search history.  This is one of the most common mistakes made by website owners and they assume they do not need a search engine optimisation strategy (SEO) when in fact the opposite is the case.

Website owners must realise that building or hosting a website does not mean it will be found on search engines like Google.  The process is far more complicated, time consuming, strategic and requires a long term financial investment.   We refer to this as an investment because once you’re on the front page of search engines and you have a great website then your sales will increase significantly and provide you with a return on your search engine optimisation (SEO) investment.

Key Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Terms

There are two key terms often used to describe components of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  They are often referred to as;

  • organic (unpaid) versus paid (pay per click advertising) search engine optimisation (SEO)

  • on page versus off page search engine optimisation (SEO)

Each of these can then be further subdivided into more detail and will be described in further detail in our next posts.

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20 Reasons Why You Need to Use Email Marketing

by Damien Town on October 6, 2012

Would you like to be able to send a message to thousands of your customers using the internet in less than 30 seconds and know that more than 50% of them will read the message and do what you tell them to do?   Email marketing is now easy to setup and cost effective.  In our opinion here are reasons why you should convert to email marketing today:

Email Marketing2 150x150 20 Reasons Why You Need to Use Email Marketing

  1. Your emails get opened
  2. Customers are more likely to respond to calls to action
  3. Easier to keep in contact with customers
  4. Increases participation rates of customers
  5. Improves brand awareness
  6. Near instant delivery
  7. Drives website traffic
  8. Generally a one-person operation to publish and distribute an email newsletter
  9. Readers can click on resource links, leading to instant direct response sales
  10. Cost effective
  11. Minimal information is required from your reader to send and deliver your newsletter
  12. Email newsletters are easy to forward to other people
  13. Looks professional and follows brand architecture
  14. Great metrics and analysing tools available
  15. Unsubscribe functions are a courtesy to your customers
  16. Email newsletters are easy to personalize to your businesses content
  17. Creates opportunities to cross promote other marketing channels such as social media networks
  18. It’s a modern way to communicate with your customers
  19. Makes you look professional and tech savvy
  20. Customers are more likely to refer their friends to you

 

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10 Reasons Why You Should Choose a Sydney Website Designer?

by Damien Town on October 3, 2012

If you are based in Sydney then:

  1. Choosing a Website Designer based in Sydney means they’re always available to meet you in person at the beginning of your project, any time throughout the project, and after the project. They’re there to support you.
  2. Living in Sydney,  they’re are culturally aware of the local environments
  3. If you need to change the direction of the project, or suggest new ideas, they’re in Sydney, and there to support you
  4. Being located in Sydney means they can meet you at your office, or you can meet at theirs
  5. It’s cost effective and for the cost of a local call, you can speak to them for hours on end
  6. They usually have their own server, which means they can host your website locally, and provide you with an assurance that you have unparalleled support in Sydney
  7. Their businesses hours are similar to yours, meaning they’re contactable when required
  8. A majority of their customers are based in Sydney and they pride their service giving you or network of contacts
  9. They often introduce their customers to another and build long lasting, mutually beneficial alliances
  10. They are based locally and easy to find should something go wrong

 

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