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Top 5 Fatal SEO Mistakes

June 30, 2008/in SEO/by Michael David

As SEO pros, we are often called upon to review websites for searchability, ease of use, readibility, and more. Amazingly, we see the same common errors over and over–on thousands of sites. This article is devoted to the most heinous, most fatal, and most avoidable SEO mistakes–and how to avoid them.

1. Don’t Use Flash Intros

A Flash intro is an animated introductory graphic produced with Adobe’s flash standard. Flash intros can be visually stunning–but they are search engine death. Truly, a flash intro is one of the most damaging decisions a website owner can make. One can just imagine the web designer pitching a flash intro in 2001, “a Flash intro will dazzle your clients, and they’ll be so impressed that they will click through and visit your site.”

Nonsense.

The problem is obvious: the search engines don’t read flash. Of course, some argue that the search engines are improving their ability to read flash; nevertheless, they aren’t there yet. A further problem is that a Flash animation takes time to complete–some web designers actually place the Flash intro *before* the actual content that the reader is seeking. It is an untenable proposition that a customer should be and can be expected to wait for the content they are seeking.

A home page should ideally be “search engine candy”–and it is quite easy to do. A home page should be written with lean, standards-compliant code, and should be rich with keywords and information. A home page will always enjoy a higher pagerank than any other page on your site, so your best opportunity to rank highly for key terms is with your home page.

2.a. Don’t Title Your Home Page “Home”

A <title> tag is coded tag that is used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings (it’s very important for search engine placement, as well as click-throughs from search engine results pages). Many uninformed web designers and DIY designers apply the <title> tag “home” to the homepage of a site. Some of the free hosting services set the title tag to “home” by default.

Unless your customers are searching for the term “home”–they aren’t going to find you if your title tag is improperly set.

2.b. Don’t Title Your Home Page the Name of Your Business

Similarly, you should not set your title tag to be solely the name of your business; the title tag should draw on key terms your customers are searching for. The title tag carries great weight–so it’s search engine gold–don’t waste it on a phrase (your business name or phone number) that you’ll rank for anyway.

The theory goes like this: if someone already knows the name of your business, they will find you anyway–you don’t need to draw that person to your website. Conversely, a new customer doesn’t know you–they only know that they need, say, a carpet cleaner in Austin, TX.

Think for a moment, what will that customer’s search phrase be? If they don’t know your name, they’ll search for “austin carpet cleaning”, or some variant of that phrase.

A Very Bad Title Tag:

And so, a bad title tag is the following (this one’s real):
Carpet Mills Of America – Home

A Very Good Title Tag:

And a great title tag is the following (again, it’s real):
Austin Carpet Cleaning – Steam Cleaning, No Soap Or Odor, Fast Drying!

This second title tag above ranks #1 in Google for the phrase “Austin Carpet Cleaning,” while the poorly written title tag does not rank at all except for “Carpet Mills of America “–but so what? Carpet Mills of America could rank for that term anyway without wasting the ever-valuable title tag.

The good tag above has another notable feature: it doesn’t even include the name of the business! Well, they don’t need it in the title tag. This company is enjoying high conversion rates, high Google rankings, and high click-throughs for the most important and popular keyword phrase in their market. So, why would they need the name of their business in their title tag?

Your title tag should be based upon the keywords that generate the greatest number of searches thereby generating the greatest number of visitors. Your company name should certainly be included in the main body of your text, just not in the title tag.

3. Don’t Use Java Menus

Java is a scripting/programming language used in website development. Java is often used to create interactive menus that change colors, or drop down or expand when clicked.

The trouble with Java menus is, again, that search engines don’t read them–it’s like having an invisible navigation structure. Navigation menus are the “roads” by which a search engine crawls to all your pages. A search engine will rank your pages based upon those navigation routes.

4. Don’t Forget Text

It surprises us that despite the obvious importance of searchability on the internet, designers still design pages with heavy graphic components and eschew more reliable text-based components. Again, search engines can’t read pictures, although they can read image tags. A navigation menu based on a graphic is invisible to search engines. Search engines love to read text. Text gives the search engines a context and a set of words by which a search engine can classify–and then serve up to clients–a website. Text is the most powerful tool and should be used over graphics, java, and Flash whenever possible.

5. Don’t Target the Wrong Keywords

A potential customer searching for a business will use a search phrase–if you know what that search phrase is, you can have that customer. If you don’t know that search phrase, the customer goes to someone else. Obviously, you want to know what people are searching for. Collectively, there will be thousands of searches (depending on the size of the marketplace, of course). The businesses that win on the web are the ones that target the most popular search phrases, the high-volume phrases.

If you are a local business, you have a good start because the name of your town is likely part of the search phrase (like with “Austin Carpet Cleaners”). If your high-volume phrases are obvious, you are in luck. If they aren’t, you’ll need to do some research on search volume.

Best of luck,

TP

Google’s Free 411 Directory Assistance Service

June 2, 2008/in SEO/by Michael David

(Legacy Article)

Google discontinued its Free 411 directory assistance service in November of 2010. We’ve left the post up as it projected many of Google’s current initiatives.

In April of 2008, Google quietly launched its computer automated free 411 directory assistance product, GOOG-411 (Available at 800-GOOG-411).

The system is entirely computer-automated. Surprisingly, the voice recognition is very accurate. What does Goog-411 offer? Directory assistance of business telephones anywhere in America with one definite difference: the service is entirely free.

The wireless carriers charge between $1.25 and $1.50 for each directory assistance call. Even low cost providers like “Easy411” charge $.65 per call.

The impact of this sea change takes a little imagination to appreciate.

First of all, GOOG-411 is linked to Google Local, which is linked to Google’s search results. This increases the power and range of Google’s data, makes listings in Google more important than ever, and will increase the number of searches by billions in a year. This change also further devalues traditional “yellow pages” and similar outlets–they just became hyper-irrelevant instead of simply irrelevant.

Second, Google has been hinting for some time that it intends to enter into the telephone service provider business. If Google’s tremendous ownership of the search engine market and pay-per-click advertising market is any indication of their likelihood of success, let’s just say I would not want to be AT&T right now. Google’s directory assistance service seems like a natural first step into telephone service.

Third, the cellular provider’s free ride in the 411 market is over–this is the most obvious change. Americans paid $7.9 billion in 411 charges in 2006, according to an industry analyst. Verizon can get $1.50 for a 411 call because they have captive phone customers. Once those customers put GOOG-411 in their speed dial, Verizon and thier ilk can kiss those billions in revenue goodbye.

If Google can keep GOOG-411 free, they will own the directory assistance market far more easily than they won the search engine market.

These are big changes, they are coming hard, and they are coming fast. Nevertheless, hardly anyone has noticed, except a few tech-savvy magazines and bloggers.

Phone companies: Beware, the end may be near.

The Death of Print Advertising

May 27, 2008/in SEO/by Michael David

One of our clients, Garage and Storage Plus , came to us concerned about the high cost of print advertising in connection with the advertising of their garage makeover business. Traditionally, home services business would advertise with either the yellow pages, local flyers, and home mailers.

Some of these print campaigns can cost $1000 a month (for a home mailer), or $500 to $2000 per month for a generously-sized yellow pages ad.

We discussed with our client our philosophy that print advertising for the home services business is dead.

First of all, home services companies serve homeowners. Homeowners have computers and know how a search works. Thus, homeowners can easily find what they are looking for with a google search. That’s where optimization comes in–a company site, optimized once, will rain targeted clients forever.

The traditional yellow pages companies know that their old business model is suffering. Television ads promote the yellow pages’ online offerings–but it’s likely too little, too late. Google’s Local service is simply too powerful to ignore–and it’s free. Why anyone would pursue a paid yellow pages ad is a mystery to us.

With our client Garage and Storage Plus, we recommended that they funnel a portion (that’s right, just a fraction) of their advertising budget into an optimization plan and a google local listing. Now, Garage and Storage Plus enjoys premium placement for the key search phrases in its industry. They have since been able to reduce their advertising budget to a trickle…

SEO Testimonials

June 25, 2007/by Michael David

We Wrote the Book on SEO
(Literally)

SEO * PPC * REMARKETING * ANALYTICS * WEB * DIGITAL MARKETING * eCOMMERCE * WORDPRESS

Learn About Our Free Consultations

Testimonials from Our SEO Customers

Featured Testimonial from INC500 Company SPIbelt

We use TastyPlacement to optimize our website, www.SPIbelt.com. We sell a Small Personal Item belt called the SPIbelt, and sell fitness DVDs. A few weeks after TastyPlacement went to work, our Google rankings rose considerably, and we currently enjoy a Number 1 ranking in Google for the phrase “Running Belts”, a highly competitive term–and a good place to be!

Kim Overton
Founder & Owner SPIbelt[dot]com

From Jay Baker, Sales Manager at KineticoTX.com

“Thank God for the internet……Y’all have done a great job of keeping us in front of the customer and helping us grow our business!”

From Joe at Self Storage Directory [dot com]:

I don’t write too many recomendations, but I’m very glad to write this one. Michael has been helping me build and write code for one of my websites. He’s easy to work with and he knows his stuff! That he understands the subtleties of creating web pages with HTML and CSS is impressive, but his real skill is building search engine optimization into the foundation of a website. I can say confidently that he has created metatags for my pages that very few programmers would even think of, or that very few SEO experts would know how to accomplish….

From Rob at CustomGarageWorks of Texas:

I run a garage makeover business in Dallas. We had a good looking website before, but we didn’t rank very well in the search engines. Michael and TastyPlacement brought us rankings, internet presence, and our phone started ringing almost immediately. Our business is stronger because of the efforts of TastyPlacement, and we recommend them.

Rob

From Jamie at J. Claypool Associates:

Boys!!!!!!! I am so excited. I just got my first call from a doc in California who is coming to Texas!!! It worked Yeah!! Thank you guys it Works!!!!!!!!

-J

From Matt Davis of MonsterRax overhead garage racks:

“We trust our SEO to TastyPlacement exclusively. We had a prior campaign deliver lukewarm results, but when Michael and his team took over, we achieved superior rankings that increased the traffic. Our national brand, MonsterRax overhead garage storage racks, benefits greatly from the continued efforts of TastyPlacement. We recommend them highly.”

-Matt Davis
MonsterRax (Davis Bacon Material Handling)

From Dan at RFS Capital:

Dear TastyPlacment:

TastyPlacement’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was exactly what my company was looking for. We needed to establish a presence in the market place. Our main goal was to gain recognition by increasing our rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. TastyPlacement pushed us to the top of all the major search engine rankings for a wide range of key terms in a very short period of time. TastyPlacement took the initiative to understand our industry and then developed a strategy that produced results. Thank you TastyPlacement for exceeding our expectations and for directly attributing to the profitability of our company.

Dan H.
www.RFSCap.com

From Nathan at Garage and Storage Plus:

Dear TastyPlacement,

I am affiliated with GSP as a licensee in the Las Vegas, NV area. I recently had Michael optimize the website for garage racks specifically for the Las Vegas area. I now currently rank #1 in Google for Las Vegas garage racks and other various key words for this product becasue of Michael’s efforts! I also hold a #1 Google ranking for other various key words for the other products and services I offer. I had Michael start this just under a month ago. I have already received 7 phone calls since. 5 of those calls were for garage racks. I have installs scheduled for 3 of those 5 and I have follow up estimate appointments for the other 2. If you do not have an internet presence or would like to improve your internet presence I would highly recommend you use a person of Michael’s caliber and talent. I would have been satisfied just showing up on the first page of Google, so I was shocked to to say the least when I found myself ranking #1 not just in garage racks but also various key word combinations for garage racks as well as my other products and services. Thanks Mike!

Nathan O.
www.GarageAndStoragePlus.com

From Andy at RFS Capital:

Dear Tastyplacement:

Tastyplacement rocks!  Michael, you have blown my mind with your SEO knowledge and implementation skills.   Last week, I wasn’t able to find our website on the internet.  After a few ‘waves of your magic wand’, we are in first position on Google???  How you did it, I will never comprehend.  Now I am concerned that we will not have the staff in place to answer the phones which will be ringing off the hook!  Great work & I would recommend your service, expertise and professionalism to all of my business associates (as long as they don’t steal our business)!  Thank you for the great work.

Andy W.

Yes, I’d Like to Learn More About Your Service With a Consultation

Contact TastyPlacement

May 11, 2007/by Michael David

New Customers, Click this Enormous Green Button:


Yes, I’d Like to Learn More About Your Service With a Consultation

Existing Customers…

Email anyone, or just call the office at (512) 535-2492

Meetings & Mail:

TastyPlacement
4150 Freidrich Ln Ste C
Austin TX 78744

Vendors…

We like to hear from vendors, but never through new customer contact forms. Please email support[at]tastyplacement.com

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