1. Page Titles — each page should have its own unique Title that included your targeted keywords for that page.

2. Meta Description & Keywords — each page should have its own unique Meta Description and Keywords the include your targeted keywords for that page.

3. Use a domain rewrite to make your URLs search engine friendly.

4. Each image used on the site should have an Alt Tag completed.

5. Include an HTML sitemap that is linked to from your footer. Reference each page on your site from it.

6. Create an XML sitemap for submission to Google.

7. Create a site footer with relevant footer navigation.

8. Make sure you are using 301 redirects for all non www. domains that redirect to your www.domain.com.

9. Avoid duplicate content as a whole on your site, but especially don’t forget about it on your blog. Get rid of your archives duplicate content issues.

10. Emphasize your pages targeted keywords in an “H” tag.

11. Avoid “click here” links. Instead link up relevant keywords on that page.

12. Register your domain for 5 years or longer.

13. Remove or fix any and all broken internal and external links.

14. Make sure your robots.txt file is correct. Don’t make the mistake of including a /.

15. Name images on the page after your targeted keywords for that page.

16. Keep your directory structure as simple as possible and as high level as possible. Try to keep as many pages as you can in your root directory.

17. Use hyphens in your URL instead of underscores.

18. Make sure you have good relevant content on each page.

19. Add internal links from different pieces of content on your site.

20. Make sure your source code is valid and fix anything that has errors.

There you have it!

Top Tips For Blog Posting and Reasons to Back Up Your Blog:

1. Most importantly make sure your post is worth reading. You want you readers to enjoy reading your posts and find them helpful so they’ll return and read you again.

2. Make sure your posts are related to the subject of your website or blog. If you have a website about money management or household budgeting software, then make sure to talk about that subject every now an then in your posts.

3. To make your posts SEO friendly make sure to include your main target keyword for the post in the title if at all possible. The title of your post is the most important piece of data to a crawler and hopefully it will help serve as link bait for other bloggers.

4. Make sure to use that main keyword and few others you are targeting in the content of your post and link those keywords up to another relevant page in your site or to a client’s site.

5. Try to make the post at least 400 words long…engines love content.

6. Try to use some kind of media in your post…either a picture or a video to make it more visually stimulating.

7. Make sure your content is unique, don’t copy it from your site or others.

8. Present solutions to your customers problems to help them love you.

9. Make sure to back up your blog. Not just blowing smoke here. If you have ever lost your blog content, it’s devastating. I’m actually running a full back up right now myself while I’m typing this. You can do it manually or use a company like Bloggled.

10. Last and not least, post regularly…not occasionally like me. Try to post 5 times a week.

There you have it. Hopefully these tips help you improve your blogging and helps your customer enjoy reading you more.

“Look out Facebook and MySpace, a brand new social utility website designed specifically for bloggers is set to go live by the end of October, 2008.  Bloggled.com is the perfect one-stop-shop for Bloggers, both novice and professionals alike.  Bloggled.com will build upon the existing capabilities of blog-hosting sites such as Blogger and Blogspot by providing free hosting to the blogger and permanently backing-up the user’s blog as a part of a free subscription for bloggled.com users.  Most bloggers are unaware that one of the risk of blogging for free with the mainstream  hosting providers is that if your blog were accidently erased or if in the unlikely event hosting was ever interrupted or lost there would be no way to recover your blog.  This in some cases would be a major emotional or financial loss to the blogger considering the fact that many families use their blog(s) as virtual journals, diaries and scrapbooks.  Not to mention the fact that professional bloggers who are accustomed to making money on the internet through selling advertising space would be temporarily “Out of Business” with all of their prior content lost.  (Posts, comments, pictures, etc.)

In addition to being able to back up their blog, users will have advanced editing capabilities, similar to digital scrapbooking to format and edit their blog in an extremely user-friendly fashion.   Subscribers will also receive as part of their subscription free blogging tips, monthly newsletter updating the latest and greatest in the blogging world and access to a bloach (Blog Coach) to help them make their blog look and fell exactly how they want.  Many beginning bloggers, especially those who aren’t computer savvy, struggle making the layout of their blog (posts, pictures, font, color, etc.) look exactly how they would like.  Our Bloach’s will work with them through short online tutorial videos and chat to help them layout their blog exactly how they would like.  There will also be discounts on products and services offered from bloggled.com and the ability to share ideas, templates and editing capabilities.  Bloggers from all fields (sports, religion, politics, cooking, decorating, businesses, etc.) will be easily able to find each other through search features built into their profile in order collaborate, bounce ideas of each other and share with one another not only what they are blogging about, but why.

As one the first flagship products, Bloggled.com will provide its users with the first web-based software to convert their blog into a book.  Users can decide on sizes, hardbound or softbound, color or black & white along with multiple “digital scrapbooking” editing tools.   Users will be able to click and drag pictures from their blog, as well as comments, posts, and virtually anything else they want.  Users can then format their book to look and feel anyway they please through the assortment of editing tools offered.   Books will then be shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep.   Customers at that point can either keep the book as a family scrapbook or gift it to relatives and friends, especially those who may be older in age and not accustomed to using the internet on a daily or weekly basis.  Professional bloggers also will benefit from converting their blog into a book in order to generate additional revenue streams through book sales.  Bloggers will have the ability to interact and share with one another their ideas, templates and advice, as well as find new Blogbuddies which they can add to their network.   Finally, for the professional blogger - coaching packages will be available ranging from tuition of a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending upon the number of coaching sessions and value of the material shared.  More and more individuals are in the business of making money from their blog and our top internet/blog experts will be there to show them how to maximize their blog’s earning potential.   With over 120,000 new blogs a day being started on the internet, Bloggled will be the premier community for all of them to host their blog, edit their blog, convert their blog, and receive additional blogging education and skills.  You can visit Bloggled.com now for a preview and trailer of what’s to come later this fall.”

You would be hard pressed to harm or kill an animal with an airsoft gun, but the concern is that these guns often look so real that cops cannot tell if you are  holding a real gun or a toy gun.  This might lead officers to shooting an innocent teen playing shoot-out in the alley with his friends.  This also is a concern for concealed carry permit carriers in the state of Utah as any flack pointed at gun owners can lead to more stringent laws related to gun ownership and conceal carry laws.

I spoke with Mike Steck, a local Utah Concealed Carry Permit Instructor, recently about this issue and he commented “concerns with airsoft guns looking so real can provide ammunition to anti-gun enthusiasts, leading to a potential push for stiffer concealed carry laws.”  He also stressed that fact that “while an airsoft gun cannot kill an animal or human, it’s crucial that everyone treats all guns with respect and it’s crucial that children learn this at a young age even if all they are playing with is a toy.”  He suggested anyone serious about handling guns should always take a Hunter’s Safety or Utah Concealed Carry Class.

So, here is my viral idea.  If you are a concealed carry instructor you could do all kinds of posts related to the look of airsoft guns being so similar to real guns and could show the top 10 airsoft guns that look just like real guns.  You could show the real gun and the airsoft gun right next to each other and have people choose which is real and which is a toy.  Then you could have the answers below for people to see how they did.  Titles could be something like: Real Gun or Fake Gun, You Decide, or Are U.S. Soldiers Carrying Real Guns or Fake Guns, or Top Ten Airsoft Guns That Look Like Real Soldier Guns.  You would have all kinds of PTSD soldiers reading your post and commenting all night long on how they carry real guns and “can show you it” later if you want.  You would also get many moms reading your post and taking away their kids’ airsoft guns…so all and all you would have lots of fans.

The reality is that SEO isn’t a magical potion that only a select few can perform or understand, rather anyone can do SEO but the level of success will depend on your desire to do it well, the time you have to dedicate to learning and performing the trade, and the effort you put forth in making SEO work for you through you and your network.  I basically said, if you want to take your focus away from your successful business to try and do this on your own, that is fine with me.  In the end I think they realized it was much better to hire a professional SEO to do it for them.  I’m not sure if they will hire me or not, but I at least think they realized that they are going to need some help on it.

There was no were else in my career that taught me this fact more than while I was working at Prosper Learning.  While at Prosper Learning I literally worked with 1000’s of small ecommerce start ups and these business owners basically had two choices…they could either learn SEO and do it on their own, or hire it out to a professional.  Most of them, due to lack of funds, decided to try and learn SEO and do it on their own only to fail in the end because they didn’t have the desire, time, or put forth the effort to really do it well.   We’ll see what happens with this satellite tv company, but I hope they find someone to help them reach their goals and honestly, I hope it’s me.

Anyway, he had money in his wallet and in his savings account, but he had not been writing down his transaction history and to get the merit badge you must keep that record.  So here is the idea…for a company that specializes in home budget software or home budgeting software you could show a group of scouts that used your household budgeting software to help them get their personal finance merit badge and title the post something like, 8 Scouts Use “Company Name” Personal Finance Software to Get Their Personal Finance Merit Badge or Get Your Personal Finance Merit Badge by Using Our Home Budget Software for Free if You Are a Boy Scout.

This merit badge is by far one of the most difficult badges for any scout to receive because they have to apply themselves for a period of 90 days to keep that record and in the last 4 years I have only seen 2 scouts do it.  My brother is working to get his Eagle Scout Award right now and before he turns 18 (has 10 months left) and the last merit badge he has to get is, you guessed it, his personal finance badge.

There you have it!

I launched my first site in 2001 with a partner that I still do business with. It all started with us sitting around saying…we need to do something that let’s us be in control of our lives and gives us a chance to make a lot of money. We decided on the internet and launched our first site MyLDSMissionary.com which is still online and profitable today. From there I started working with a number of small business consulting firms and eventually decided to work full-time for a company named Prosper Learning. My experience there is what really gave me the push I needed to really dig deeply into online marketing and SEO and while working there I launched 5 additional ecommerce sites, most were successful, a few failed.

Prosper Learning is a company that coaches or mentors small business owners on how to launch, grow, and create a successful business. The specialize in mentoring in 5 major areas of business: Ecommerce, Real Estate, Personal Finance, Stock Investing, and General Entrepreneurship. While working at Prosper Learning I had the opportunity to mentor thousands of small online business owners through the concepts and process of building a website and marketing it. I got to rub shoulders with many extremely successful entrepreneurs including: Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, Anthony Robbins, David Bach, and many more. I also attended every convention you can imagine in the realm of online marketing and SEO including: SMX, Pubcon, SES, CJU, etc. I already knew what it took to build an launch a successful website before working there, but having the chance to hone my skills and work with thousands of businesses really gave me a unique look into ecommerce. Most small business owners rarely start and build more than 1 or maybe 2-3 business during their lifetime, but I had seen thousands of business launch. Of course not all succeeded, but I could see why they failed and learned from it.

After leaving Prosper Learning I have gone on to create my own SEO firm, Dream Systems Media and Utah SEO Firm along with my two partners and have continued to build and create profitable ecommerce businesses. I think my greatest moments of learning where watching a business that I had high hope for fail. It gave me a direct seat to see what should have been done better to make it work. I have been involved in ecommerce and online marketing now for 8 years and like to think I know how to do it well now.

So there you have it…how I got started in online marketing and SEO.

Here is how you fix that, call your web master, host, or who ever is taking care of your site and say, how do I access my web analytics? Once you have access log in and start reading the data. If your web master replies with, you don’t have any web analtyics software installed then get on it. Install a software and then give a few weeks and then start your data mining.

There are tons of applications you can use to track your online traffic. If you are looking in the arena of free then I would check out Google Analytics. Google Analytics is probably the best free analytics software on the market and it’s really easy to install and can be installed on just about any and every website out there. There data seems to be a little off to me every now and then, but it’s worth using.

If you have a little money to spend check out Mint and www.haveamint.com. This has to be installed server-side so no cookie cutter sites will work with it, but it’s a great program and looks sexy as well.

If you want the best of the best then Omniture is your answer. Omniture is the most accurate web analytics software on the market and is worth the price tag. Just make sure to use the data once it’s installed.

Hopefully, now you can answer yourself when asking that questions, why all this traffic and no sales!

Why are SEF URLs important?

Search engines prefer static URLs as compared to dynamic URL’s.  Static URLs are simply easier for engines to crawl and a static URL is completely read by the engine.  A dynamic URL would often appear like something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?pageid&=123456w&1212121212%search

or

http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?pageid&=123456w&3434343434%search

You get the idea.  When an engine reads that domain they are going to stop at the ? on every page on your site meaning they are reading every page as http://www.yoursite.com/index.php.  That is not a good thing because these URLs appears as duplicate URLs to the engines.  You want the engines to read your URLs as separate pages that are unique.  Engines much rather prefer a static domains structure such as the examples below:

http://www.yoursite.com/about-us.php

or

http://www.yoursite.com/seo-tools-and-resources.php

I hope this helps you better grasp the concept and importance of SEF URLs.

Title

Your title is the most important element of your page. You must include it and optimize it if you want to have a chance at ranking for the important keywords you are targeting for that given page. Your title should be about 3-5 keywords in length and can be limited to that only as there is no need to waste that valuable space with anything else. If you were targeting the financial budgeting arena on your page here is a sample of what your title might be:

Financial Budgeting Software | Home Budget Software | Home Finance Software | Personal Finance

That would be it. Don’t load it up with anything other than the words you are targeting and be specific.

Meta Description

Your meta description is still important to a point because many engines still use it to serve as your description in their engine. Therefore, you want to fill it out with regards to your targeted keywords for that page. It should be around 25-30 words in length. Another financially related example:

At “domain.com” we believe that home budget software and home finance software is vital to your personal finance success. Use our financial budgeting software to stay on track for retirement.

Meta Keywords

This section is the least important by far of these sections. Some will say, don’t bother filling it out, but I teach that you want to fill it out in the right way or it will hurt you a bit. Limit this section only to the keywords you are targeting for that page and keep it simple. Don’t fall victim to your desire to load this section up. Example for the page we have been using as an example:

financial budgeting software, home budget software, home finance software, personal finance

That is it. Don’t load it up anymore for this given page and you’ve done it right.

Conclusion

I hope this helps provide you with some concrete examples and guides to assist you with writing your page title and meta data.