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The first thing clients say to me when requesting SEO is invariably centered around rankings. "I want to be position so and so, for such and such a keyword." And I am certain that this is a situation familiar to many of you providing SEO services. However, search isn't always about ranking. And rankings aren't an overnight success story - they take time to achieve. In the meantime there need to be other indicators of success. There are a range of metrics possible to use to act as such indicators, many of which are key to gauging small business SEM success. Ranking high for "xyz" may deliver huge volume of visitors, but not sales. On the other hand, capturing niche rankings for "uvwxyz" and "abcdefg" may deliver less traffic, but actually better sales, not to mention may be easier to achieve in a shorter lead time.

good "checklist" for website planning - a great start to a web strategy

In order to create the perfect Website, firstly you need to have a Website Planning document. Before you can start the process of Website Planning you need to know two key things: · What do you want your Website to say? · Who do you want your Website to say it to? Once you can answer these questions you are ready to proceed and begin "Website Planning".

Awesome Greasemonkey scripts to make you more productive with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a fantastic tool as it is - and it's always improving, but there are a lot of people out there that have created tools to make it even better. In an effort to make everyone aware of these fantastic and easy-to-use tools, I've compiled a list of the ones we use everyday. If we missed one, or if you've got a great tool that we should add to the list, please let us know! We're always looking for ways to make Google Analytics easier to install and use. I hope you find them as useful as I do, and a big thank you goes out to each of the people responsible for these fantastic time-saving tools.

There are some great scripts on that page. I'll be checking out several of them for sure. Thanks for the link!

You typically have to create some number of social interactions to leave the trail of signals of quality to make Google want to trust a site enough to put it in front of a large traffic stream, especially if you are starting a brand new site and are trying to operate within Google's guidelines. As Bob Massa says "search engines follow people."

There are two points in this post that I want to emphasize... First off SEO is an ongoing process. There isn't a magic trick that pushes your site to the top of rankings. It takes work.. Rinse & Repeat. Analyze & Tweak. Secondly there is a great point that if you hire an SEO expert you will get your site in front of the thousand other relevant people in your niche. This is very hard and takes a lot of work. So, you should create Outposts. Creating outposts is part of a content marketing strategy where you distribute your content among various networks to build up multiple sources of traffic... Great quote from Bob Massa explains it perfect!

A recent addition to the Google Local Business Center enables companies to link directly to coupons listed on Google Maps. Links can go to all coupons or individual ones.

A recent addition to the Google Local Business Center enables companies to link directly to coupons listed on Google Maps. Links can go to all coupons or individual ones.

From time to time you'll probably want to send a website visitor who tries to access a page that has moved, been deleted, etc to a brand spanking new page of which quite possibly will have the content they were looking for. In this article I'll introduce you to the 301 re-direct, show you how to create one, and you'll see why sometimes just depending on the 404 page isn't practical. I'll also show you various methods to create one by using PHP, ASP, and HTML.

Situation: You run a social media program at a corporation, and you need to measure to improve your program, but more importantly to show to your bosses that this 'new media' program is worth it's weight. Challenges: You see the immediate value of a community program but your management is unconvinced. Furthermore, the brand police and the traditional hard-liners don't like your 'open-thinking' type of revolt. There may be other challenges too: lots of activity but few people, or you simply don't know where to start. Goals Deliver a report that demonstrates the value of a social media program as well as helps you improve the program over time.

Great overview on how to measure the social media aspect of your business's web strategy...

Let's say you're a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker. You want to get up to speed on the social media activity in your market, as fast as you can. Or perhaps you want to sell things to candlestick makers online, or you're a journalist writing a story about blogging butchers, or maybe you've got some kind of weird baking fetish or academic interest. Is there any way to ramp up your knowledge of these fields, fast, other than the "Google and wander" method? We think there is. Below you'll find step-by-step instructions, with screen shots, for the process we use when we want to get smart about a new field in a hurry.

Great rundown on what keyword research means and 7 tips on how to increase traffic using effective keyword techniques. Great ideas for the SEM aspect of your web strategy

Keywords are phrases for which you would want your blog to be found in search engine results. Keywords help your blog get recognized by search engines, and as a result, help your potential customers find your blog. Your keywords are what you would expect your target audience to search for to find your blog content. Keyword research means researching the phrases that are going to be used by your potential customer to find your blog in a search engine. Keyword research should result in a set of keyword phrases that you should target in your blog content.

Free landing page templates - but most importantly a quick overview on what a landing page is and why you need to use them.

A landing page is a special page created for the express purpose of "converting" website visitors - to get those visitors to take some action such as filling out a lead form or subscribing to a newsletter. If, for instance, you were running an ad campaign to generate leads online, you would point the ad to your landing page, rather than to your home page where the visitor might get lost or frustrated.

There's something very straight-forward about Google's branding. It doesn't complicate the experience with flowery user design or site mascots. It offers exactly the type of experience you'd expect to receive from a company that showcases its name in mostly primary colors. However, when Google announced today's additions to the "Google Services for Websites" suite, it took us a minute to remember what the company blog post was referencing. In a world where even browser names conjure images of animals or finely tuned cars, the company's simply named "Google Services for Websites" is extremely useful but often easy to forget.

There's something very straight-forward about Google's branding. It doesn't complicate the experience with flowery user design or site mascots. It offers exactly the type of experience you'd expect to receive from a company that showcases its name in mostly primary colors. However, when Google announced today's additions to the "Google Services for Websites" suite, it took us a minute to remember what the company blog post was referencing. In a world where even browser names conjure images of animals or finely tuned cars, the company's simply named "Google Services for Websites" is extremely useful but often easy to forget.

If you run an ecommerce site or have clients that do so, this is a great resource for analyzing and configuring your landing pages based on the motivation of the customer.

Today I want to look at motivation from a different angle. I want you to choose a landing page that is top priority for you to optimize. For example, your most profitable product with the highest abandonment rate. I want to get you thinking about which customer motivations are most likely to match your business, your products, your typical customer and your landing page presentation.

Great social media strategies for resaurants

The financial crisis is likely to hit the fine dining industry very hard. Already there have been reports of exclusive London restaurants slashing their prices in order to maintain a steady flow of clientele and therefore subsequent cashflow. Competing on price, however, is never a wise, or usually profitable, strategy, so dining establishments need to look for alternate ways to bring in the customers. One easy way is to develop a social media strategy to connect with your customers and create a community of regular diners.

In it's simplest form Word of Mouth (WoM) Marketing is tapping into the conversations that occur between people to sell your product. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WoMMA) defines it as: Word of mouth marketing: Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. Effective WoM strategies cultivate and amplify these conversations, understanding that they are the most powerful way to convince a consumer to buy your product.

14 killer tools to help you evaluate the user experience of your website.Excellent tools to help you figure out who your audience is, what they are doing, and most importantly - why they are leaving your website.

Here's a big problem with web design: If you want to make your website better at turning visitors into customers (or subscribers), you need to understand why most of your visitors are leaving! But those people come and go without trace! How do you know what they wanted? How do you know what would have persuaded them to take action? If you owned a real-life bricks-and-mortar store, this would be easy: You'd hear their objections. You'd be able to ask questions. You'd hear what they muttered as they headed for the door. Capturing the voice-of-the-customer is more difficult with the web, but it can be done. Here are 14 free tools to get you started!

For years the Public Relations industry has ironically one of the worst reputations -esp since they are hired to look after the reputations of their own clients. Things only got worse as some brands got punk'd; the introduction of self-publishing tools that allowed anyone to connect to each other using social technologies, causing a shift in power. We've already talked to death about the risks and the changes that are happening to this industry, yet I'm hoping to elevate the viewpoint out of the gutter and focus on the larger opportunities -and risks at the industry level.

f you've ever been involved with planning website improvements, you know how hard it can be to decide what action to take. You've heard great potential lies in social media, adding product reviews to your site and search engine optimization (SEO) but which is the best to pursue? Luckily, estimating and measuring performance improvements is easy when you look at the numbers. Today, Big Picture Web brings you a special website planning worksheet that's sure to empower you to correctly select the big ticket items on your next web project.

Great tips on using twitter for social media marketing

Follow these ten basic strategies for improving your marketing effort on Twitter and you will notice a big difference in how much traffic Twitter can bring to your business. Marketing on Twitter is not difficult, but there are some basic rules that you need to follow if you want to be successful in such an endeavor. Whether you are selling a product or a service, or just trying to gain attention for your web presence, Twitter is an advantageous way to attract interest in who you are and what your company is all about.

A great guide on trying to get more user interaction with your blog or website. Comments are the first and easiest way to start a discussion... Discussions with your community are KEY to an effective web strategy.

But even when your blog software hands you all your commenting capabilities, there are other things you can and should do to get people to comment. So here it is: the 7 step guide to getting more comments.