Entries from January 2007

SEO Content at SES Chicago

January 31, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Heather Lloyd-Martin sits down with Mike McDonald from webpronews.com to discuss the benefits and compromise of content in your search engine optimization campaign.

Google PageRank Update

January 29, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

I bought the Alibi domain name in 2002. Back then it was just a place for me to display my design school portfolio work. All the text was in images and the whole page was images. It wasn’t until 2004 that I really put any sort of effort into optimizing the site for anything. Once I started to really develop Alibi, everything else in my life started taking off. I started a company focusing on website design and development with a long time friend, John King. The last 18 months, Wildfire Productions has sprouted and kept us extremely busy. All of my time was devoted to Wildfire and once again, Alibi had to be put off to the side.

I’ve had some time the last few months and I decided that Alibi was going to be my main focus. I redesigned the site and re-wrote the content. This time around I focused on a specific niche instead of just random design and development. I put a little effort into implementing an effective viral marketing campaign, and now look at us…we have a PR4. The previous PR has gone from 1 to an occasional 2, but now it’s on!

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Blogging for Marketing

January 25, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Using a blog as a marketing tool is a very effective way to provide your customers with information and services. Often, companies receive more new clients from their blog exposure than article distribution, conference networking, or their existing website. Top Rank Blog recently posted a list of some of the better “Lessons Learned About Blogging.”

Out of the 25 items on the list, I was really looking forward to finding a few that I could debate, but after reading the list many times I have to say that I agree with Lee.

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The Bielmann Train Never Stops

January 24, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

The Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2006 is going on right now in Aspen, Colorado and guess who has three images in contention in the international action and adventure sports photography competitions? That’s right, Brian Bielmann.

For many of my clients, I try to do a decent amount of free advertising after they launch their websites. This is assuming that they need my help. Fortunately for Brian, he never stays out of the limelight for long. Brian just recently launched Your Surf Shot and Brian Bielmann Wedding Photography to display and sell some of his photography. That is, the photos that aren’t immediately snagged by editors from around the globe. Between being featured in multiple international publications like National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Journal, The NY Times, and not to mention nearly every Transworld Surf magazine published for the last 10 years, it’s going to be hard to sell Brian on many of my new viral marketing campaigns when he does such a great job of promoting himself.

Congratulations Brian, Good Luck at the Quest!!

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Yahoo Updates Its Index

January 23, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Last Friday on the Yahoo Search blog, Priyank Garg announced that they are updating their index.

“We are in the process of rolling out some changes to our search results. As usual, you may be seeing some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index throughout this process. This update began last night and should be complete very soon.”

Have your sites been affected?

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What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?

January 18, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Search engines are constantly evolving and those who market themselves on search engines must adapt with the changes to be successful. Often in the search community there is a new technique or hack that people are convinced will help them rocket to the top of the rankings, but the fact is there is no one sure fire way.

Reading a recent post at Search Engine Watch, I came across an article titled, “What Are SEO Best Practices?” Author Eric Enge breaks down SEO in an easy to understand four-step process:

  • Subject-Matter Expertise
  • Information Architecture
  • Technical Implementation
  • Marketing

To get the full story, check out SearchDay. I also offer many quick references and tips that can help with SEO DOs and DON’Ts.

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All Bloggers Must Login

January 16, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

I consider myself to be technically inclined for the most part. I’ve been designing and developing websites for the last 10 years. I consistently preach about usability and the other day I was contemplating making all my users have to login to my blog before they can post any comments.

One important issue when developing sites for people who are not 100% tech savvy is that you have to make things easy. The second that users are confused, they lose interest and leave your site. A lot of times on blogs, the administrator or creator makes you login before you can post your comments. Now this is a good idea in theory, but even for me it’s a pain. You have to login, create a username and password, get the password emailed to you, login again and then you can finally post your comment. Yeah, it only took four steps…but I forgot what I was going to say. I think this is a deal breaker.

Yes, there are issues with spam and users not seeing their comments posted immediately, but I think these are minor issues. Maybe you have to monitor your blog a bit more frequently, but that’s how you develop a community, by staying involved. Setup your spam filter to catch all the Viagra ads and nonsense and adjust your settings so that your blog notifies you when you have comments awaiting moderation. These are the keys that will set you free.

You have to think about your audience when you are developing websites. Typically I am developing sites for people who have no Internet presence or very little know how when it comes to computers. The last thing they are going to do is follow through with a four step process just to ask a question. In fact most companies aren’t developing websites for the tech savvy, but yet they continue to put up these walls, making it harder for people to interact. So I say do away with mandatory logins and set your information free.

If you have strong beliefs on why users should login before they comment, I would like to hear about them.

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Session Timed Out

January 9, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

2006 was a very busy year for me. Alibi Productions has been my home for design and development work ever since I was a student. I began my first blog on drewstauffer.com back in March of ‘06 and then shortly after, I put a blog on Alibi Productions. After those projects were up and running, I put a blog on my other company website that focuses on website development, Wildfire Productions. Wildfire has been extremely busy this past year and with many new clients, it has demanded most of my time.

I try to be as active as possible but Alibi got lost in the mix with all the other blogs and development. When I was redesigning Alibi, I noticed that I had been absent and hadn’t posted anything for 5 straight months. That’s no bueno. Now that Alibi is back and running in full stride, I am going to give it a great deal of attention.

Alibi is now focused solely on website promotions and marketing strategies, offering free tips and useful resources. If you are looking for development and design solutions, check in with Wildfire. From now on Alibi will be updated on a weekly basis so ya’ll come on back now, ya hear.

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