Collective Clicks Internet Marketing Blog

Know Before You Go – Tips For Designing A Great Website

Sarah — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:57:39 +0000

Website design tips

1. Content – This is what drives people to return to your site. Content is what the site is made of. It should be useful, relevant and accessible.

2. Usability – Don’t frustrate your visitors by having a site that is difficult to navigate, unreliable or hard to interact with. Users have come to expect easy-to-use websites. Make sure you’re one of them.

3. Appearance – Your website is an important platform for your company’s branding. Make sure the style and appearance is consistent with your company, consistent throughout the site, and consistent with the image you wish to project to visitors.

4. Visibility – SEO, SEO, SEO. Get your website seen on search engines. If you’ve got a million-dollar storefront that no one sees, does it really exist?

5. Purpose – Your website’s purpose wraps all of these design tips in to one specific goal. Every design aspect should ultimately align with your goals.

Technorati Tags: web marketing, website design, website design tips

Modern Writers Should Know SEO

Matthew — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:40:25 +0000

It is important for present-day writers to understand SEO because it makes their content that much more valuable to both customers and companies hosting their work. With so many fish in the sea of the internet, it’s best to swim closest to the surface if you want to be noticed. SEO ensures that you’ll be jumping from the water when potential clients go trolling past on their fishing boats. A writer wants to reach a wide audience, who all possess enough interest to hopefully read at least one of their articles. SEO could help the writer pop up on multiple searches about a single topic, which may generate consistent readership, and high-frequency visitation.

Technorati Tags: readership, SEO, visit, writer

Tags: readership, SEO, visit, writer

Website Design Pitfalls – Five Things To Avoid

Sarah — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:12:50 +0000

Website design mistakes

* Focus only on performance – Would you rather read a technical manual with tiny font and no pictures, or a how-to book with illustrations, examples and applicable information? Your website is the same way. If you strictly focus on the performance of the website, chances are no one’s coming back.

* Focus on style – Like a barbie doll with great looks but nothing between the ears, your website carries no significance if it’s all fluff and tricks. Strike the balance between style and content, performance and crowd-pleasing in order to really draw in and retain an audience.

* Create a website that is exclusive – Sure, country clubs are cool. They’re exclusive, and not everyone gets to play. But do you really want to be able to say the same of your website? Who knows how many paying customer’s you’re turning away by not being compatible with all web browsers, by limiting the use by people with disabilities? Unless you want to limit your bottom line, you’re better off unlimiting your website.

* Fly blind – Blind dates are fun, and a little scary. It’s like a romantic grab bag. Websites, however, are much more costly than dating mishaps. Not only a waste of time and money, but of missed opportunities. Websites should be well thought out, meticulously planned, and closely monitored throughout their creation.

* Don’t care – If you don’t care about your website, neither will visitors. Take pride in the creation of your website. Don’t do it just because it’s a trend or your 20-year-old niece told you to. Do it because you understand the importance of creating a strong web presence, know the power of a well-built website, and believe in the ability of your site to drive the success of your company.

Technorati Tags: web marketing, website design, website design pitfalls, website design tips

Tags: web marketing, website design, website design pitfalls, website design tips

Google Ad-words and SEO

Matthew — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:36:30 +0000

In February of 2002, the relaunch of google ad-words fixed the overpriced, and inefficient, keywords to make it easier for companies to target, and reach a greater number of customers. This was significant in the world of keywords because it essentially proved their usefulness to the web entrepreneur, showing true evidence for the power of the meticulously chosen words on the virtual page. In January of 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin began collaborating on a search engine that had the unique ability to analyze the “back links” that pointed to any specific website. Backrub, which was the name of their search engine, was important to search engine optimization (SEO) because it was the precursor to Google. Without Google, the use of keywords would not be so finely tuned as it is today.

Technorati Tags: ad-word, Google, keyword, search, SEO

Tags: ad-word, Google, keyword, search, SEO

SEO – why it’s important for businesses today?

Kevin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:30:35 +0000

The internet’s prominence in the world makes SEO a vital and necessary tool for today’s businesses for many reasons. For one, a person’s ability to access information on the internet is limited only by the availability of a computer. Sites like Google and Yahoo provide search results from all over the world to anyone who uses them. By not using good SEO techniques, businesses limit their ability to reach the maximum amount of people they can. Similarly, businesses that don’t use SEO are likely to be overshadowed by competing businesses, as the internet is one of the primary outlets through which businesses reach consumers. A business must use SEO because their competitors are likely using it as well; if they neglect SEO, they essentially neglect their business.

Technorati Tags: search engines, SEO, seo strategies

Tags: search engines, SEO, seo strategies

Marketing and Blogging in SEO history

Kevin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:14:47 +0000

On January 8^th, 2002, Marketingprofs.com posted an article entitled, “Search Engine Marketing: Can You Afford Not To?” The article discusses how most marketing strategists neglect SEO in their plans, and how only 24 percent of e-businesses receive a majority of their traffic from search engines. This article is notable because it demonstrates a keen awareness of the power SEO and how underutilizing it may result in lost business. Another article written on November 14^th, 2006 on Businessweek.com talks about blogging as an SEO tool. The article highlights AOL’s Ted Leonsis and how by posting frequently, linking to other sites, and mentioning celebrities he made his blog the second search result in search engines, right after his corporate biography. The article demonstrates how blogging is an easy and informal way of good SEO, and how individuals and businesses can gain great search engine visibility through blogs.

Technorati Tags: blogging, SEO, SEO blogs, SEO history, SEO marketing

Tags: blogging, SEO, SEO blogs, SEO history, SEO marketing

SEO good for Charitable Organizations

Kevin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:10:58 +0000

Charitable organizations could greatly benefit from SEO. Because charitable organizations rely heavily on donations from individuals, they must be able to reach as many people as possible over the internet. By using SEO, they would be able to increase their search engine presence and likely reach donors who would otherwise be unaware of the organization. Through SEO, organizations would appear through searches not necessarily pertaining to the organization or even charity. Instead, they could utilize corporate sponsors or searches related to the charitable cause to generate their search engine presence. SEO would also help lesser known charities achieve more public recognition over well known charities, thus increasing their donations.

Technorati Tags: benefits of SEO, charities, SEO, SEO for charities

Tags: benefits of SEO, charities, SEO, SEO for charities

SEO for Music Companies

Kevin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:08:00 +0000

A business I would like to create would be a music management company. One SEO method I would use would be a company blog. Though the blog would report on news happening for the company or its bands, it would also feature posts on events happening to bands outside of the company or in the music world in general. Each post would feature links to relevant sites, such as band websites or news articles. By doing this, I can expand the blog’s searchable material and create a higher degree of interconnectivity on the internet. Because the blog is directly connected to the music management company, this increases the company’s web presence, thus attracting more potential bands and consumers.

Technorati Tags: SEO, SEO benefits, SEO blogs, SEO for music companies, SEO for music industry

Tags: SEO, SEO benefits, SEO blogs, SEO for music companies, SEO for music industry

The Importance of SEO for Writers

Kevin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:01:40 +0000

It’s important for writers to understand SEO because it directly affects the presence of their material. A writer who understands SEO increases his work’s search engine presence. With a higher search engine presence, a writer can increase his site traffic, which leads to a higher degree of success for his material. If the writer is employed to write for a company, SEO increases the value of the writer, as higher site traffic for him also means higher site traffic for the company he is hired by. SEO also increases the potential geographic spread of the writer’s material. With SEO, his presence could expand outside the most logical or immediate geographic search options, thus leading to a greater international audience.

Technorati Tags: increase search engine results, SEO, SEO benefits, SEO for writers

Tags: increase search engine results, SEO, SEO benefits, SEO for writers

SEO As An Invaluable Tool

Joanne — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:56:59 +0000

One reason is that you want people to find you. Being as that there are millions of web pages you have to stand out and understanding SEO is very important you the success of a business. Choose the right keywords or keyword phrase, think outside of yourself as to what a person might type in to find your business. Look at similar web pages to get an idea of what they use.

Another is that you can track your marketing results scientifically. You can research how your site is searched and make adjustments as needed to find the best possible design that gets you the most traffic.

Technorati Tags: SEO, seo techniques, seo tips

Tags: SEO, seo techniques, seo tips