Monday, March 17, 2008

Budgeting: Better Road to Success - Part 1

When I travel I like to look at a map or at least the itinerary of the trip and my destination. When I review the details or at least the general travel information of the trip I get a better feel for what is going to happen. In many cases the plans will get changed or be adjusted due to bad weather or other situations.

A trip for business or pleasure generally goes better if a map or plan is followed. Just taking off hoping to get somewhere usually is a waste of time and money.

The same holds true in your business. Planning is always better than no plan especially when financial objectives are at play.

Over the next postings I will discuss business budgeting using the experiences of clients, both good and bad. Budgeting is most helpful when clouds are on the horizon, yet sunny days also require budgeting as well. Stay tuned...

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Part 3: How Search Engines Work

By better understanding how search engines work, you can make subtle changes to your site to increase the chance that people will find you when they do a relevant search online. The science (and art) of figuring out how to improve search engine rankings by bettering your web site is called “Search Engine Optimization”, or SEO for short.

Thankfully, many SEO experts publish practical tips on increasing your search engine rankings. Here are some of them:

  • Plan Ahead. What keywords do you think people will use to find what you offer? Come up with a list, with the most important keywords at the top.

  • Use Keywords In Your Text. After you come up with your list, use those keywords on your web pages in the text of the web page. Search engines assume the text towards the top or front of the page is more important than the bottom of the page, so put your important keywords first.

  • Bold, Italicize, and Highlight important phrases. Search engines assume that if you've made a phrase bold, italicized, or big, then it must be more important than the rest of the text. Make sure your keywords are in there.

  • Use Descriptive Links. A link that says Click Here is not as helpful to humans or search engines as a link that says Learn More About Our Products. When appropriate, use keywords in the links.

  • Get A Keyword Analysis Audit. SEO experts invest in special software tools, reports, and programs and can give you a detailed roadmap of what to do to increase your search engine rankings. Warning: There are many SEO scams out there. You probably get SPAM e-mail from some of them. Stay away from “experts” that guarantee placement. Stick with companies you trust. See below for our recommendation.

Dan Purcell of Danemco LLC provided this content. Check it out at www.danemcoweb.com

Monday, March 3, 2008

Part 2: How Search Engines Work

Step 1: The Spider Crawls the Web
The “spider” is like a robot web browser. It visits your web site link by link and remembers the text, photos, etc. on the web site. The spider gives the information it found to the engine.


Step 2: The Engine Crunches the Spider's Data
The engine takes what the spider found and organizes it. Understanding how the engine organizes this data is the key to bettering your search engine rankings. The result of the “crunching” is something called an Index. Search engines change its process from time to time– that's why nobody can claim to “guarantee” placement. Competing search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, have a different methodology as to how their engines work.


Step 3: Users “Query” the Search Engine
We ask the search engine a question by specifying keywords or phrases. The Engine looks up which pages best fit the query in its index, and sorts them by relevance. The more accurate and reliable the search engine, the more people will trust it and return to use it.


Content provided by Dan Purcell of Danemco LLC www.danemcoweb.com