One of the first things I look at when I visit any site is the title tag.  And, yes, I realize I’m in the minority.  Most people, including developers, don’t realize the impact of the title tag outside of the code.  The search engines apply a lot of weight to keywords used in tags.  Because of this, everyone who has a website should follow this rule of thumb:

Effectively use title tags to your advantage.

This means you need to purposely title your pages in a consistent, relevant & keyword-rich manner.  This can typically be accomplished in the following template as a guideline:

[Keyword you want to rank for] – [Page description] – [Site name].  Feel free to replace the hyphens with pipes or whatever. That’s simply aesthetics.  Here is why I recommend this set up:

1. Words closest to the front get a heavier weight, so know & use the keywords you want to rank for.

2. Page description section can still be seen in a search results page so the user knows what they are clicking

3. Site name just for good measure.  This can be excluded for the purpose in #4.

4. Too many words dilute the overall affectiveness of the tag.  Don’t cram everything into the title.  only the core terms.

5. Avoid simple terms like “Welcome!” or “Home”.  These tell the user nothing about that page.  Give them the information they need pre-click.

If you lack the ability to customize title tags, talk to your developers or look into your CMS and figure out a way to gain this ability.  Title tags are often cast aside by developers without knowing the incredible power they have over how the site ranks.

In a rare moment where the plumber is fixing his own pipes, Google has taken a step back and performed an SEO audit on their own product offering.  They don’t give a typical ABCDF grading scale, but if they did, it wouldn’t be great.  Common sense best practices became mistakes, corners were cut & mistakes were admitted.

Watch the video here:

Google shows class in finding their mistakes, admitting to them and putting a plan of action in place to correct them and make sure they don’t happen again.   But if you need any SEO advice, I know a great guy who can help you out.

With the iPad finally recently dropping and the ensuing blogosphere explosion surrounding it over the past couple months, my take on the iPad still stands from when it was first launched.  WARNING: It’s not polarizing.

Here is my advice:

The iPad is a tool.  If you have a use for the tool and want it, get it.  If you don’t, don’t get it and don’t complain about the people who do.

That is all.  Return to your regularly scheduled lives.

I recently wrote an article that was published by the good people at Network Management Group, Inc.  In the midst of tax season, audits are always on people’s minds, and usually in a negative way.  Use this impending audit mindset in a positive way.  Audit your website.  Take a few moments to do some basic steps to view the state of your web presence.  If you don’t like what you see, make some changes discussed here on the site.

Audit Your Website today.

Anyone in business is familiar with some iteration of the 80/20 rule: 20% of people account for 80% of the work. This type of breakdown is common in a variety of forms and is a good rule of thumb.

This breakdown has become real in the search world. Google now accounts for 80% of all search volume. The remaining 20% is Yahoo, Bing, AOL and a few niche engines.

Yahoo has lost users, but they have gone to Google and not Bing (despite the $100,000,000 advertising launch).

Bottom line: if you want to capture 80% of your audience, you need to ensure you have a presence on Google.

If you have a website, there is a good chance you’ve gotten “The SEO Sell”. This is usually a random email that claims your site does not rank for a term, and (coincidentally), the person who sent you the email can correct that. This information can often send CEOs or CMOs into a frenzy.

Even as the President of a Search Engine Marketing firm, I still receive them:

Dear Website Owner,

75% of WEB SURFERS searching the Internet will never find your site unless you’re located on the first page of Yahoo, Google and MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 7 times more WEB traffic to your online business by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?

Please reply to my email and I will be delighted to supply you further information.

This email may look familiar to many of you, and I have seen the same one many times. I hope if you are reading this site, you know not to fall for this scam. There are some red flags in this email, and potentially others that come into your inbox.

1) Generic “Website Owner” intro Personally, my bio is on my website. Any human that goes to my site can find my bio. This “person” is clearly a spider who crawled the site, found an email address and sent an automated email.
2) Generic First Paragraph It claims 75% of web surfers will never find my site unless i’m on the first page. This is an arbitrary percentage, but a claim of increasing traffic sevenfold is very specific. Other than this baseless claim, there are no other specific. So if I have 1 visitor, will they increase it to 7? Big deal…
3) No Transparency They claim to rank on the first page for “SEO Company”, but never say what their company is!! In fact, the company name is nowhere in the email.
4) No Set Up Fees For most sites, the set up is a long processes with a foundation in business goals, competitive research, reverse engineering rankings and creating page by page recommendations based on the findings. For a big site, this can take weeks. If there is no set up fee, that speaks volumes about the amount of work going into your site.
5) No Long Term Contracts An optimization program is about long-term success. An annual contract is usually necessary to maintain top results. 6) Guarantees Finally, and I’ll scream this from the rooftops, RESULTS SHOULD NEVER BE GUARANTEED. I’ll say it again: results should never be guaranteed. There are too many variables outside of the website owner’s hands to control. The only thing that should be guaranteed is your Search Partner’s experience, past results & methodology.

In conclusion, look for two big red flags that let you know something shady is going down:
1) Guarantees
2) Lack of Transparency

If you see these two, delete the email immediately. Don’t let the spammers win.

I feel late to the game, but almost a week after it debuted, I’ve set up my Google Buzz. My first thought is this: I’m a very passive social network user. I like hearing opinions and seeing links that my friends have shared. I rarely activly participate. You can check my Facebook status or see my retweet to original tweet ration and see that.

Secondly, I don’t use Google much outside of AdWords and Analytics. I rarely use my Gmail, and I only use Gtalk through iChat. Buzz is just another thing for me to passively check into, and knowing the people I follow now, it won’t be any new information.

I think I’m going to let Buzz pass me by, but like everything else, I’ll give it a shot. Maybe I’ll file it next to my Wave usage… as soon as I clean the dust off.

Nothing has been posted since before the holidays. Naturally, the holidays are busy, and when we got back, the whole family got sick. I didn’t get it nearly as bad as my wife and daughter; just a nagging cough and stuffy head. Nagging cough = no podcasts. However, I have been writing them. And when I can talk for 3 minutes without coughing, you will get a lot in a row.

This got the nerd in me thinking. We know when we are sick, but do we know when our website is sick? Do we know when it’s not operating 100%? Is something stopping your site from being the best it can be? There are symptoms doctors look for, and there are symptoms to look at for websites too. Here are a few symptoms that may suggest your website is sick (PROTIP- If you don’t have analytics, you’ll never even know if you are sick or healthy):

1) Bounce Rate: This is the ratio of visitors that view one page and then exit your site. A high bounce rate means users are not interested in your home page. Something is turning them off immediately. Benchmark performance, make a change & track the results. Later, rinse, repeat.

2) Time On Site: If users aren’t spending enough time on your site, make a change. Either navigation is bad, copy is bad, no clear direction on what they should do, or all of the above and many more not mentioned. If users are only spending seconds on your site, make a change and watch the results.

3) Pages Per Visit: Similiar to time on site. If you have 20 pages, but users are only viewing 2, you have a problem. View a path analysis & exit page report to see where uses are dropping off, and find a way to keep them on the site.

4) Exit Pages: Know the last page users were on before they left your site. If a high percentage of users leave from a page that you want them to stay on, make a change.

5) Geography: Notice a lot of visits from South America, but you don’t have a Spanish version of your site? Create a Spanish version.

6) New vs Return Visitors: If you have a site that thrives on repeat visitors (such as this one), it is important to see what percentage of users return to your site. If it’s incredibly low, create content that makes a user want to come back.

7) Position in Search Engines: This is a biggie. If your site can’t be found in search engines, the rest of these points are moot. Knowing where you rank & why is the first step to improving it. The Keyword report can show you what keywords users are searching for when they find you. If it’s not what you expect or want, make a change.

There you have it. These quick checks can help you determine the health of your website. Watch them all on your dashboard for an easy way to monitor your site’s performance.

If you have any questions on these, feel free to email justin@activatedbyrobots.com.

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