Edmonton Web Design & SEO Secrets Revealed

If you've ever built a website or tried internet marketing you'll know just how hard it is to get top ranking hits. Perhaps you tried blogging for years with no success in adwords etc, and just don't know what you're doing wrong. What most people don't realize is that if a site isn't submitted to the web properly, and built right you'll never get the kind of exposure you're looking for. In the following I'll reveal how I've consecutively ranked my clients in the top 3 spots in the categories of their choosing in just under a month of their site listing, and custom site design.

The first rule of SEO is that unique content is king every bit as much as diversifying your key words which will increase your visibility.

The second rule is that if your site isn't built right and Lynx can't see it then you're probably not going to be very successful because that means the search engines can't see it either with their metacrawlers.

A site has to be W3C compliant so that you're visible online to cross browsers from Firefox to most commonly Internet Explorer. As an IT professional I can genuinely tell you that most people do not do their updates, and their browsers are likely not all up to date so you need to keep that in mind when building a site. You also have to factor in that people have screens from a 60" home theater for viewing sites to a 1" cellphone screen so insuring your site is as versatile as possible is quite important. If you don't feel comfortable building a site then please save yourself the pain, and get yourself a designer because in no time if it's done right it should pay it self off if you follow these rules.

When designing a site one should first think about why they're building it, and what their target audience or market is genuinely looking for. Once you've established your key words, and what you think your audience will be searching for make a list of what you feel are the most important words. It's important not to sound redundant as that's just going to drive your bounce rate through the roof to the point where nobody will come back to your site. First impressions are crucial to success and a name can make or break a business. So make sure your site gets the message across with in the first 2-5 seconds of them visiting or consider a redesign. Usability is a huge factor in turning your liability site into an asset.

Don't try to fool Google or your visitors because you'll only be cheating yourself in the end.

At one point you could fill your site with key words in nonsensical sentences but Google has since put an end to that with the new Google algorithm that even detects when you have words blacked out in the background. Instead build content rich, unique full sentences that you know people will want to read because that's what's going to make the difference. If you have to depend on costly pay per click campaigns you're doing it all wrong because for one that's going to cost thousands. You want as much prequalified organic search traffic as possible from good sources such as Google and Bing  because if you mislead users with your wording then you've just wasted both their time, and yours. I can't emphasize how important it is to search for those niche words that you know your clients would be interested in but you know will not be the most popular searched... believe me when I say they will boost your ranking. Ask us about our SEO Blueprint.

Diversifying yourself into unique niche areas is one of the best ways to be successful in business, and on the web.

When it comes to setting up the site make sure you're one doing it with W3C compliance in mind, and two the target audience in mind. The site layout, and aesthetics should be media rich reflecting web 2.0 content because lets face it those text based sites just don't cut it anymore. Rich photography from either stock photography, your own camera (if you're a good photographher or with photoshop), can be enough to put you over the competition design wise, and that's often all it takes to win someone's attention.

When it comes to logo design it should be easily read, and people should know all about your business just from looking at it.

A good font that most Fortune 500 companies use is Helvetica. The reason for this is that it's easy to read, and well lets face it the style is just aesthetically pleasing to the point where they've literally made movies about the font style. I'm not saying you have to go with it but if you want to be easily noticed it's a good way to go.

Once you've established your written article, content, and media it's time to put the site together. Insure your site is designed with cross browser, and size compliance in mind so all can enjoy it equally. Tagging each part of your page such as size, and description with metatags can be the make or break part of your design. If you really want to increase your traffic then insure all items including pictures etc are properly tagged so people searching for images can find you with ease for added exposure, and potential sales.

A sitemap is one of the most important parts of a site so that one users can find things, and two the search engines know where to look.

If you don't have a sitemap on your site already it's time to set one up. Sitemaps are what search engines and most people look to when they want to find something. If you don't put that up then you're going to lose a ton of traffic, and will probably fail. Update your sitemap every time you update your site contents so Google knows that new material is there, and to re-index the site for new content.

Once your site is up it's just as important to be consistent in your content posting. If the content stops then guess what, so do your visitors. Depending on your industry writing in a blog once a week should be enough to secure you a spot in top ranking if not the top.

Affiliate marketing can make or break a site.

Like any business to business (B2B) transaction, networking with the right sites can either bring your site rank up dramatically or two drop you off the face of the earth almost instantly. I once experienced an almost immediate 2 page ranking drop just because a marketing site had indexed my site with out my authorization. Google does not usually approve of these sites as I believe they're in contention if not in direct competition with each other. It's best to partner up with businesses or sites that compliment your target audience especially since your page rank climbs when sites of the same general type link back to you. This way you can dramatically increase your traffic, and increase your service offering with far more content from affiliate sites.

A ton of domains with links to yours that have no page rank, and not relative content do not really improve your page rank. You improve your page rank by the amount of quality recognized sites with pertinent, relative information to your sites audience and written content on the page.

Remember the fastest form of marketing is word of mouth so go viral marketing with quality content. Go out there and tell everyone you know about your site, and keep consistently posting. You'll be shocked at how fast a site can grow.

If you find that you require help and would like professional advice on web development, web design, internet marketing , ecommerce or SEO please don't hesitate to contact me at Making 8 Inc. or by phone at (780) 761-1088 for custom hand coded solutions to your target market. We offer white glove service with top rank results, strong aesthetic design, and the business intelligence to help you close sales while broadening your target market 24/7 365 while you sleep. We're currently looking for long term clients that are non competitive to each other so reserve your spot today for best results they won't last long.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you even it's just a comment or question.

Adam J. Humphreys

Some scripting languages I work in include: HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, LAMP
Some of the mediums I use in website integration etc: Wordpress, TYPOlight, Drupal, Magento Commerce, Open ERP

Fedora 10 is Released

Check out the freshly released Fedora 10 Linux distrobution at http://www.fedoraproject.org

I can genuinely say after using Fedora for just about a year now the community is extremely supportive, and it's a very solid OS (Operating System). I can't see myself honestly moving back to windows ever again other than to give clients a desk top. I think if I was forced to switch I would use the Mac OS which is BSD based. What this means is that most of the best rated operating systems are built around the original Unix distrobution when computers first came out.

Microsoft continually tries to rebuild the wheel by cramming new forced features in but they run all the time so it takes the efficiency of the system down tremendously. The problem with Windows is that it is not as customizable as the add on parts, and simple check mark compilations such of linux distrobutions like Fedora. Seriously folks once you've tried Fedora you'll never want to use anything else. It might take a little learning curve at first but you'll never have to worry about viruses again. Your computer will run lightning fast, and you'll suddenly have twice the resources to do variable tasks.

I can genuinely say that it's been well over a month, and a half since I last restarted my desktop computer with it still running amazingly well. How many Microsoft Windows users do you know of that can say that? Since I started running this OS my career has excelled, and I have enjoyed many learning experiences that I would not otherwise have.

An OS should improve software not slow it down...