Blogging and SEO work for yourself

I occasionally get a client who looks to me to do search engine optimization.

Although I am a fan of Optimization I fully don't understand it enough to confidently offer it as a solution for clients as of yet...

however, I think I am stumbling onto something that seems pretty interesting.

Of course I can do the keyword research add all the metatags, and set up the alt tags title pages and page names to help rank higher.

But there are two main things that need to happen to make a site rank well...

and thats links to your site from other sites...

and content...

these are two things that google just eats up...

So the three main services I think I can help customers with is...

1) Keyword research

2) Meta tags and html set up of these keywords

3) then the reporting, each week on tuesday I go through a series of analytic steps that I have been adapting for a few months now, and I report my finding for tracking purposes and see if the reports give suggestions, ie: web presenter to decrease bounce rate...

So i believe this is a valuable service I can offer clients.

Plus this is great because I can usually get more projects out of the same client because these suggestions are things I can actually design and develop for them...

Now it comes to the last two things that I can share my ideas about but can't actually see myself doing for anyone aside from myself and my own business...

4) Link Building

Now when it comes to link building I don't want to post here what that concept is as of yet, because I am kinda treating it as a "trade secret" telling only my closest friends and clients I have a dialogue with "hint hint nudge nudge"

fill out our get started form and we can then be in dialogue

5) Content

Writing content and tons of it so google recognizes it takes "passion"

Passion for graphic design is what I have, Passion for selling "widgets" I don't have, But;

The clients in need of SEO have passion about their "widgets" so it would be a no brainer for me to instruct them on how to create this content and ways we can combine their passion with my tools and techniques to improve their search engine positioning...

I am always a little weary when pitching SEO services to clients because it is such an unknown variable, but if they have patience and are willing to do a lot of work with me, I am confident we will create a wonderful strategy that will increase any companies positioning and business online...

you website should have flow

these are some things to consider for designing your website

http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com/flow-most-important-unit-of-a-designed-website/

Tips on why you should blog on your own URL

I thing there are some valid reasons here as to why you should blog on your own website. Particularly when it come to tracking...

However, I would like to try and "debate" some of the points a bit...

1) there are "stereo types" as to what platform your blog runs on, ie: this one is using "blogger"

whereas there may be a stereotype with the platform, there is also familiarity...

People regardless of their thoughts on the brand "blogger" its still a brand that someone is aware of, whereas when you host on your own site you have your own brand to solely rely on...

2) External URL, yes the url is different that nopun.com

but that is intentional. Traffic driven to my corporate site from this blog is a "side effect" not the actual goal to my blog writing.

I write blogs to increase the amount of content about graphic design and website design, to rank higher in search engines and try and come closer to the first page in an organic search engine placement.

In addition to relevant content and plenty of it search engine love "links" to your site

Hence the "external URL" for this blog and my insistence on posting comments on any and every blog I see that has relevant content to my cause...

But I do have to say I will most likely convert this blog to the nopun site for the branding a tracking purpose... (Once I have time)

Which is another reason why I have this blog in use, I didn't need to worry about "designing and branding this thing before using it"

Check out the 19 reasons why you should host your blog on your site;

http://www.leveltendesign.com/blog/neil/dont-get-owned-19-reasons-why-blogging-better-your-own-domain

Optimize your site as you build it!

I used to subscribe to the thought that you design your site then you optimize your site...

That one part of the project uses one side of your brain while the other uses the other side...

However, I am so pumped about SEO these days I decided to integrate the process while laying a design and I found it to be not so bad...

The point is when you lay a site out you need to add text to alt images and other SEO techniques anyway so why not use the desired keywords...

The trick is to know what keywords you will want to use before the design process...

This keyword research will take time so try and figure that stuff out as soon as possible...

Flash is OK for search engine optimization "SEO"

A smart design firm will know how you can make a site work well in search engine optimization along with adding flair using flash.

You can have best of both worlds

Don’t be Afraid to Spice up your Website with Flash

"Don’t let anyone talk you out of adding a Flash component to your website," says Crisafi.

Historically, he notes, sites heavy in Flash fared rather poorly when it came to search engine rankings. However, a good graphic design firm, with expertise in Flash video and animation, can actually utilize multimedia to increase search engine ranking and make your site more visually pleasing as well.

I'm not alone in this theory

http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/3866-1248965033-leading-web-design-firm-offers-advice-on-proper-seo-techniques.html

http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=23603&catid=391

Free web analytics

This is a tremendous breakdown of some of the most popular web stat websites available.

chekc it out.

I am particularly interested in

reinvigorate

&

going up

http://webdesignledger.com/tools/best-free-website-analytics-tools

the face behind the post

I am so pumped these days about posting comments online, and "participating" in conversations on the web that mean the most to you...

But I have to admit that having the default "avatar" the image that appears next to your name after you post is very impersonal...

I'd like people to know the face behind Noel Wiggins, nopun.com and the comments that I post, to let people know this is a real person engaging in the conversation.

I found this tool to be useful in creating such a thing.

it follows you around so when you post something it places your uploaded photo to the post instead of the default boring one...

http://en.gravatar.com/