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Greetings ForeFrontians!
Welcome to the inaugural edition of our eNewsletter.
What can you expect to find here? Lots o' cool stuff, such as helpful geek tips, interesting links, and shameless self-promotion.
For this issue, we've chosen to focus on the one area that we get the most questions about - search engine optimization (SEO). Fulfill your inner geek and read on...
Have a subject you'd like for us to feature? Be sure to contact us and let us know.
Search Engine Optimization:
A very basic overview
Simply put, search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of tweaking a site so that it comes up as high as possible in the search engines.
MUCH easier said than done. There are many factors at work here - and the trickiest part about it is that the search engines won't reveal their "secret formula", which changes on a regular basis anyway.
So how is it done? Well, speaking very generally, you have two options:
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click listings are the results that show up on the right (and also possibly the top) of the page, usually with a heading that says "sponsored results". Here's the fun thing - it doesn't cost anyone a dime just to show up there. They only get charged if someone actually clicks on the listing (hence, "Pay Per Click"). How much per click? Depends on the term and how popular it is; they can range anywhere from a nickel to $20 or more. You get to determine your monthly budget - once you hit it, your ads don't show up again until the next month.
Organic Listings
Organic listings are the regular, non-sponsored search results. Since it is estimated that more than 80% of people ignore the sponsored listings, high organic listings are significantly more important (and lucrative) to obtain.
Obviously, everyone wants their site to come up first in the organic listings. What's the trick? Here's a quick list of the work that usually needs to be done:
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Research the appropriate keywords (terms that people might use to find your site)
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Tweak the site code, making sure it's up to par. The search engines get grumpy about bad code, and there is also code that you can include that helps the engines learn more about your site.
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Careful rewriting of the text on the site. The search engines have "robots" that comb through and read the text on your site to determine what its all about. It's very Big Brother-ish.
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Review the entire site for anything that makes the robots cranky, like duplicate content or techniques that they might interpret as malicious manipulation of the system (again, Big Brother).
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Find lots of high-quality, relevant backlinks - websites that link back to your site.
By no means is this a complete list; the list goes on and on. It can be very time consuming, which is probably why it's such an overlooked option. But the payoff can be HUGE - you could literally bury your business (good problem to have, eh?).
Want to learn more? We have a more in-depth article available; just send us a request and we'll be happy to send it over. In addition, one of the ForeFront gang (the always verbose Scott Kasun) will be conducting a seminar for the Columbus chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Association (NARI) on April 9th which will include a healthy dose of SEO concepts.
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Latest site launch:
We just launched the all new site for the Ohio Coalition for Adult Protective Services. OCAPS is an outstanding group and is the membership organization for Ohio professionals involved in the fight against elder abuse.
The site features a full content management system so they can update the entire website without us, but we do hope they will call from time to time just to say howdy...
View the site
(www.ocapsohio.org)
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Reminder:
Our phone numbers have changed and we will be killing off the 543-1330 number soon. Please make sure you have updated your records to reflect the changes!
office: 614-886-4000
fax: 614-568-7230
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www.forefrontweb.com
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In this issue:
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Geek speak 101:
FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Officially, it's a software protocol for exchanging information between computers.
In our business, it's common to hear someone (with a propeller hat, typically) say they are going to "FTP it up to the site". What they mean is that they are going to use an FTP program to transfer a file from their computer to the server that hosts a website.
Try that out on your friends and see how impressed they are.
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