Monday, November 17th, 2008

Denison, in Grayson County Texas, is often associated with its nearby neighbor, Sherman. But Denison is its own town.

The population of Denison is only a little better than 22,000, at least according to the 2000 census. Still, that’s plenty enough people to target your search marketing efforts for local geographic SEO. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry. It’s not a big secret. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is a necessary component to marketing online because you are essentially targeting your content to the search engines so that you ensure a better ranking for the terms that you want to attract more business for.

Residents of Denison looking for your type of services will input certain search terms in order to find you. What are the best terms to use to help them do so? That’s what SEO does. It helps you identify those important key terms and use them to maximum effectiveness for better search rankings. If you are targeting your business online for Denison traffic then try Texas SEO.

If This Is Austin, I Just Called To Say I Love SEO

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Country music artist Blake Shelton sings a song called “If This Is Austin”. It goes something like this:

If it’s Friday night I’m at the ballgame
And first thing Saturday, if it don’t rain
I’m headed out to the lake
And I’ll be gone, all weekend long
But I’ll call you back when I get home
On Sunday afternoon
And P.S. If this is Austin, I still love you

That’s just one verse out of a few. It’s a compelling song if you like country music. Well, I’m no Blake Shelton, but if this is Austin, I still love SEO. And I’d love to tell you how important it is for your website plans.

If you run a business in Austin, Texas and you want to succeed online then you’ll need to learn a little something about SEO. That’s what I’m here for. What can I teach you that will help you succeed, Austin?

Get the fundamentals of Austin SEO.

San Angelo SEO: How To Rank Your Website Well

Friday, November 7th, 2008

San Angelo is the place to go for a lot of good things:

  • Great climate
  • Lots of fun
  • Cool people
  • Real SEO

OK, you might have to look long and hard in San Angelo for a real SEO firm that can help you rank well for your key terms. But outside of San Angelo, but still in Texas, is Texas SEO - located in McAllen.

San Angelo SEO involves helping small businesses like your rank well for key terms associated with San Angelo. If you have a local business and you want to optimize your website for maximum performance in the search engines then it helps to have a company who knows how to help you get your site indexed and ranked in a short time. If you pick the right company, your San Angelo SEO will be pristine and simple. You’ll rank well.

Waco SEO: Even Branch Davidians Know To Defend Their Turf

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Waco, Texas is a great little town. There are enough businesses in Waco that a good SEO company with a solid track record should not have to worry about the ATF or somebody else knocking their doors down. And you don’t have to be a cult leader to know that things can be rough out there. Good SEO, in Waco or anywhere else, is about defending your turf. And it’s not just the Branch Davidians who have learned that lesson either.

Truly, your industry is competitive. Your competitors are developing their strategy for online success, which likely includes a plan for attaining the highest search engine rankings. They’re improving their SEO results. Why aren’t you?

Good SEO is more than just a good offense. It also involves a little defense. And when you seek to rise in the rankings for your key terms against the competition, you must realize that the competition is out there doing the same thing. What is your planning for winning at SEO in Waco, Texas?

Can You Respect An SEO Company That Doesn’t Rank For Its Own Key Terms?

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

An SEO company should rank for its key terms, right? Should you do business with one that doesn’t?

If you Google Texas SEO you’ll see that this blog has the No.3 spot below the sponsored listings. A little further down you’ll see our Blog Catalog listing as well. Still further, in position No. 9, you’ll see the Texas SEO website. Three out of ten ain’t bad, eh?

That’s the kind of respect that your SEO company should be earning. If your SEO company isn’t ranking for its key terms, do you really think they’ll be able to rank your site for your key terms? If you are a Texas-based company looking for real SEO results then try TexasSEO.net; optimize and rise.

Should You Buy Links For Your Texas Brand?

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Aaron Wall is recommending that companies with a brand name buy links, but Google says buying links is bad and discourages. Who should you believe?

I’ve always believed that webmasters have a right to do whatever they feel will make them more competitive and improve their websites for their visitors. But I also believe that Google has a right to do whatever it feels it necessary to improve its website and company to make it more profitable and to give its customers, searchers, better service. Hopefully, best practices and best results will meet where these two intersect. But that’s not always the case.

It does seem to be the case that there is a lot of search spam that still goes unfiltered. Is Aaron Wall right when he says:

The key to understanding the above is to appreciate that not only do the large brands have more money and more exposure, but they are less likely to be policed if they do the same thing that a smaller webmaster does. It is why a billion dollar company’s affiliate program passes PageRank and my affiliate links do not.

Obviously, I have no insight into Aaron Wall’s affiliate program and why Google may not count his affiliate links as valuable as some big brand. But he does make a convincing argument that big brands can get away with more than the little guy. Still, here’s some food for thought:

If you engage in a tactic then you must be willing to pay the penalty if you are caught. If Google says paid links are bad and discounts those links then you’ve paid a lot of money and spent a lot of time building links that provide you with no benefit. Even if you get the benefit initially, because Google constantly tweaks its ranking algorithms, you may find yourself at some point in the future falling in the rankings without notice and it will seem unfair.

I won’t tell you whether you should buy links for your Texas brand, but I will say tread lightly and don’t do anything stupid.

Does Domain Registration Affect SEO?

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

How long is your Texas website’s domain registered for? If you answered “10 years” then you gave the right answer. If you said “1 year” then you aren’t very trustworthy. At least, that’s the way that Google sees it.

Google has determined that spammers prefer short registration terms because it gives them the ability to abandon sites that are detected quickly without losing a large investment. Remember, Google penalizes spam sites. If you are a spammer and your six-month-old site is detected as a spam site and it’s registered for 10 years then you’ve spent at least $100 to maintain a worthless website. No spammer wants that.

That’s why Google looks more favorably upon domains that have been registered for a longer period of time. You don’t have to register the domain for 10 years, although it helps. You can register for three years or five years. Whatever you feel comfortable with. But know this: If you register your domain for longer than one year, that tells Google you are serious about doing business online and you are not a spammer. They’ll answer you by trusting you more.

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing your business or website through the search engines. More accurately, it can be defined as seeking to influence search engine rankings through search engine optimization and paid search listings.

Paid listings can be just as effective as organic listings, but they are effective in a different way. First, you have an expense associated with any paid listings you add to your search engine marketing campaigns. There may or may not be an expense associated with any organic listings attained, depending on whether or not you pay an SEO to handle your marketing. Paid search listings can also influence your organic listings.

Only about 25% of searchers online will click on the paid search listings. The other 75% will click on the organic listings and those that do are usually more educated and in higher income brackets than paid search listing clickers. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use paid search listings as a part of your search engine marketing.

I’d say paid search listings are best used as an adjunct to your organic SEO efforts. You can use paid search for many useful applications and here are a few that I’d recommend:

  • Use paid search to refine your keyword list related to your Search engine marketing campaigns
  • Drive traffic to your website before it attains search listings
  • Target specific keywords that your search engine optimization doesn’t hit effectively
  • Find new keywords that work for your search engine marketing campaigns
  • Test landing page content to see if it converts
  • Increase the sales that you are making from your organic efforts

Because paid search adds expenses to your marketing budget, you need to first make sure your landing pages convert. Sometimes it is best to do that through organic efforts and sometimes you can actually use your paid search listings to test the landing pages. Either way, you must measure your ROI and make decisions about the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts based on your findings. It’s a lot of work, but the search engine marketing rewards are legion.

Texas SEO Is More Than
10-Gallon Keywords

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

There is more to SEO than merely keywords. That’s the starting place, of course, but the online marketplace is growing more and more competitive all the time. Texas-based businesses that want to compete online must begin with solid SEO tactics that position them with high rankings and solidify their standing long-term. How you approach that goals depends a great deal on your total knowledge and understanding of search engine best practices.

We at Texas SEO don’t claim to have any inside knowledge of search engine algorithms. We know no more than any other SEO company and any SEO company that claims to have the “inside scoop” is just fooling you. Don’t buy it.

But there are some best practices for SEO that are necessary to adhere to in order to get your Texas-based businesses respectable rankings. Among them are:

  • Well-optimized on-page content
  • Solid long-term link building plan
  • Internal link structure
  • An attractice and scaled website design
  • Lean site architecture
  • Photos and graphics that don’t detract from textual content benefits
  • Well-coordinated on-page and off-page elements

Good SEO begins on the web page, but it doesn’t end there. You must be able to approach SEO from multiple perspectives, beginning with the basics. Good keyword research before you begin designing your website will keep you on track and guide you toward a better website. By focusing on the most profitable keywords, or the ones that have the most potential, before moving on to the rest, you will establish a firm base for your website and keep it anchored in solid SEO best practices.

How’s Your Austin SEO Firm?

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Austin is known for a lot of things. But SEO? Do you know of a single Austin SEO firm that can help you rank your website for the right keywords and keep it ranked well for the best keywords?

SEO is not an exact science, but that doesn’t mean that you should trust your web design firm to do it for you. Some web design companies are great at it, but most are not. If you are planning to use a web design company to optimize your site for Austin, Texas and the surrounding area then you’d better ask some hard questions about skill, experience, and results.

Austin SEO is not about throwing the city’s name into your web content. It is about taking your content and massaging it properly for the right target audience.

The next time I step into Austin I’ll be sure to check out the state capital, Sixth Street, Barton Springs Pool, the Bob Bullock Museum, and you - if you want a real Austin SEO firm to help you get high rankings.