Directories for Links or Traffic?

November 21, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Easy inbound links…ahh if only they were really that easy, or are they? We’ve all seen those ads that promise manual submissions to hundreds of directories for some fee. But then again, most of us know that the majority of traffic from search engines comes from the 4 big ones, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.

So is it a wise investment in your marketing plan to purchase this service? I guess it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. I can’t see actually obtaining that much traffic from an obscure search engine that no one has heard of, but the chances of Google seeing your listing in their directory and giving you credit for a link is a lot better.

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Is Your Website Getting Indexed?

November 14, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

How often do you check to see what pages are indexed by each search engine? If you’re not checking on a regular basis you could be in for a surprise. Yes, Google is the dominant search engine, but Yahoo, MSN and Ask are still going to bring you a decent amount of traffic.

We recently re-organized an older site and re-wrote all the content to optimize it for a new set of specific keywords. After 301 re-directing the old pages and submitting the XML sitemaps to Google, I gave it some time to see what pages were going to get indexed.

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Next Generation Warfighter from Milliken Military

November 8, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Milliken Military produces some of the world’s most technologically advanced fabrics. I recently got a chance to work with Milliken on their new website and SEO campaign, and I must say that it gave me so much more respect for the men and women who fight for our country every day.

Some of the materials that Milliken focuses on include: flame-resistant clothing, extreme cold and wet weather gear, high performance combat uniform materials, baselayers and knits, and dress uniform materials.

If you have the time I highly recommend checking out the site and learning about all the technologies that go into the clothing and material that helps protect this country.

Technorati Tags: Milliken Military, SEO campaign, warfighter

Targeted, Personalized Email Marketing - How to Market to Your Clients

November 7, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Personalized and targeted email marketing is one of the easiest ways to promote yourself to your existing clients. Repeat business is always easier to obtain than new business. With existing clients you don’t have to waste numerous man hours convincing them that your services are worth it, but how to do market to your existing clients?

Reach out to your existing clients with a targeted email that’s personalized to them and their business marketing needs. By letting your clients know what’s going on with your business, you’re keeping them up to date with the latest trends.
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Organic SEO - Now is the Time

November 1, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Organic SEO consists of optimizing websites naturally with good keyword research, developing with web standard code, and letting the search engines do their work. Implementing an effective viral marketing campaign to obtain easy inbound links is also a great way to boost your rankings, but once again you want it to occur naturally, hence the organic SEO.

In case you haven’t been paying attention to any Internet news lately, Google is trying to scare people from buying links solely for the purpose of manipulating their rankings. Honestly I don’t really have a problem with this because I have never really gotten into buying links. I mainly practice organic and on-site SEO which I feel benefits my clients the most since many of them are smaller companies that do not have thousands of dollars to devote to an ongoing SEO campaign.

Start today developing your website with quality on-site SEO and you won’t have to worry about chasing algorithms or the latest trends in Internet marketing. Organic SEO is and continues to be a cost effective way to dominate the SERPs.

Technorati Tags: on-site SEO, search engine optimization, organic SEO

Blog Posts That Get Attention

October 30, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Over the next couple of months I am going to run a few experiments. Currently when I post anything, it’s usually fairly extensive. I figure if I’m going to take the time to write something then it needs to get my complete attention. I have over 30 blogs in my RSS reader and I’ve noticed that a lot of big names in the industry post a lot of short posts.

Problogger and SEO book are some great examples of posts that are extremely short but definitely get the attention of their readers and develop some great conversations between users.

Currently I have 69 RSS subscribers according to my feed burner account and I want to see if posting shorter articles, more often will bump up my subscriber count.

What do you think? Would you rather read a short post that provides quick info, or would you rather read a lengthy post that may or may not help you out?

13 Easy Steps to On-Site SEO and How to Implement Them

October 18, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Developing a strong website that’s easy for the search engines to catalog and index is all about following a few simple steps. Site structure can be your best friend when it comes to getting high search engine rankings and once you have established that perfect site structure your website can continue to grow and adapt with the search engines.

There are many sites out there that list which on-site SEO elements are most important and what aspects you need to pay more attention to but this list will explain what each element is and how to use and implement them to your advantage. This list also offers ways to keep the on-site SEO user-friendly to maximize your results.

It doesn’t matter if you’re developing websites for a mom and pop local plumber or a multi-million dollar agency that will have thousands of dynamic pages, the same 13 steps to on-site SEO will need to be applied to each.
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UPDATED: Why I Read Marketing Pilgrim

September 20, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Every morning when I get to work I have roughly the same routine. I check all my various email accounts then I log into Newsgator to check out all my feeds.

Since my feeds are setup up alphabetically I see: A List Apart, Aaron Wall, Andy Beal and Andy Beard right at the top. I have 36 feeds that I try and keep up on, but if I don’t have a lot of time I always read Marketing Pilgrim, Andy Beard, Copyblogger, Top Rank, SEOmoz Search Engine Roundtable and SEL.

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BlogRush Frenzy

September 17, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Driving traffic to your blog is one of the most sought after skills for any Internet marketer. Blog Rush has introduced a new widget that will allow you to increase your traffic by simply adding their widget to your blog.

BlogRush is a free widget that’s designed to promote websites encouraged around a 10 tier referral program. Just like any pyramid marketing scheme, the earlier you get in, the more traffic you can generate, so go check it out.

There have been many discussions about whether BlogRush will be harnessed by real Internet marketers or spammers. What do you think? Is this a good idea, or possibly too good to be true?

I am certainly going to be trying it out to see what kind of traffic they can produce. I will definitely keep everyone informed with the progress.

Alibi Makes the Power 150

August 30, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Ad Age 2007 has been a pretty successful year here at Alibi. First we were added to the BIGLIST of Best Blogs on the Net by Lee Odden, Andy Beal asked me to be a contributing editor at Marketing Pilgrim, and now I am proud to announce that we have been added to the Power 150 over at Advertising Age.