If you’re like me then checklists are an essential part of life. They make me more productive, more efficient, and more likely to get things done. I use checklists for everything, including performing SEO. After all, there’s a lot that goes into search engine optimization. With a checklist, I can be sure that nothing slips through the cracks.
Ask yourself this question: How many potential customers leave your website without filling out your contact form? The answer is usually “lots” or “way too many”. This is a common problem with websites. Your SEO company does a great job driving traffic to your website, and your visitors start showing interest in your services by viewing a few pages and staying on your website for a minute or two. Then they get to your contact page and see the contact form. But instead of filling out that form, they “bounce” from your website. Why is that?
Last night I attended “SEO for Startups: Best Practices”, an SEO event organized by Stella Fayman and Tim Jahn of Entrepreneurs Unplugged. I must say the event was pretty damn good. The Chopin Theatre was the perfect venue. I loved the decor and the atmosphere. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I had never been in that theatre before having lived and worked about a block away for 2 years.
It’s been 10+ years since I built a website for my first client and I’m not ashamed to say that back then I was a terrible web designer. I was terrible for many years and for many different reasons. In fact, everything you’ll see below, I was guilty of. However, I eventually learned how to perfect the web designing process the hard way, through determination, research and lots of experience. Today, I think it’s safe to say I’m a very good web designer. If you don’t believe me, ask Inc Magazine, Crain’s Business, CBS, ABC, and NBC. Because they’ve all asked for my opinion and advice multiple times on this subject.
Whether you are building your personal brand or just feeding your ego, this article is perfect for you. Below, I’ve put together 5 simple ways you can become a more recognizable thought leader and build the value of your personal brand. But, don’t send your web developer or SEO team this post just yet, these are all things you can do yourself, and with limited or no html experience. If you do these 5 simple things, you will connect with more people online, get more followers, and you may even get recognized at your next tweet up, meet up, or conference.
This Super Simple Sitemap Guideline for your website contains or links to everything you need to know about creating a sitemap for your website. Rest assured, it follows all protocols rules and regulations according to major search engines like Google. Save this guideline, share it with others, and re-visit it any time you need to create a sitemap for a website.
You are wasting your time writing content no one will read. As obvious as my advice sounds, people continue to stuff web pages with text. There’s this fear that we might leave something out someone needs. And using big words makes us look intelligent, right? Not so much. You will not impress your visitors with long paragraphs or big words. More often than not you will confuse and deter.
Setting your preferred domain is a simple SEO tip that every website owner should know, and every SEO should know how to do. Following this simple tip can even double the power of your link building efforts. However, not following this SEO tip could cut those efforts in half.
I have a confession to make. As an SEO team lead, who’s been practicing for 3 years, it’s difficult to admit that I’ve been misinterpreting a metric. Although I don’t believe that any of the strategies I’ve recommended have been off-base or ill advised, I wish I would’ve had the insight I have now. That metric that I’ve misunderstood is bounce rate.
Not all SEO terminology is easy to decipher. Even a veteran in the industry can be confused by the language. So, let’s figure out what rich snippets and schemas are all about and how you can best utilize them.