Search Engine & Social Media Optimization
Search Engine and Social Media Optimization (SEO & SMO)
Not so long ago, search engines relied heavily on fields in the page header that show additional information about a page, like attributes for the topic on a page. The page title is visible to the user but meta tags or meta data were not displayed and could hold keywords, page descriptions, author information, etc. These fields worked well and a search engine crawlers could quickly identify what the page content was about without really looking at the page. These tags soon turned into a tool for developers to try to trick crawlers. Overloading these fields was a common practice and crawlers had to get better. As crawler programs improved, the content on the page became more important. Additional fields like page headings, sub-headings and even keywords within the content of a page are how crawlers rank your page. Crawler programs continue to improve every day so the best advice for any web content manager is to create the best content you can for every page on your site.
Evolution of Search Engines
Every year, Google implements over 500 improvements to its search algorithms; almost two changes every day. This is a rapidly changing and fluid environment. As a person who owns a business or manages a website, how do you keep up with the changes?
Get Into Social Media
Social media is a platform that has grown enormously since it began and all projections show that it will continue to explode. There is even speculation that communicating via social media will some day replace e-mail for many users. It only makes sense as users gravitate to social media platforms, search engine influences will follow that migration because that is where the users are spending more and more time.
A good way to keep your website relevant is to embrace the social media aspect of SEO and let web visitors help you share your story. It all starts with engaging, well written content that users will find relevant and interesting. Social media is all about interesting things that are happening now. Things happen inside your business every day that are important to customers, associates, peers, competitors, etc. Create a plan for social media, including interactive blog articles; social media pages such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook; even multimedia avenues like YouTube; and let the socializing begin. Then watch your organic search results improve.
Document Actions
What is Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0?
As the Internet gained popularity, the World Wide Web was born - changing the way we live and how we do business. In the beginning, the web was mainly a means of one-way communication. HTML pages were published and users came to see what was being offered. As the technology evolved and true ingenuity took hold of this revolutionary media platform, the web became more interactive. This shift towards an interactive model is the foundation of Web 2.0.
Users no longer merely visited websites; they became active participants in the content of websites. Web designers stopped creating static pages and began creating dynamic applications that enabled users to openly interact with each other. This allowed everyone to become part of the website experience. Web 2.0 provided new ways for people to interact with one another on the internet through social media, blogs, wikis, video sharing, and the like.
Shifting to an application-based web required standardization. As interactivity increased, applications had to find methods to interact with each other, which forced many standards to be created and adapted. The web became a development platform.
Document Actions
Mobile Web
Mobile Web
According to industry analysts and mobile usage statistics:
- Over 70% of the world's population has a mobile phone
- Of the 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones
- In 2011, more than 50% of all “local” searches are done from a mobile device
- By the end of 2014, mobile access to the web is estimated to surpass desktop access
With a typical website refresh cycle of every 4 years for most businesses, now is the time to get ahead of the game and be prepared for the mobile shift.
At Aktion WebWorks, we have been incorporating a technology called responsive design into our site development that eliminates the need to build apps or create (and maintain) a second set of web pages built specifically for mobile browsers. Instead, responsive design sites are one-size-fits-all.
Responsive design not only offers a more effective means of insuring sites will display properly no matter where a visitor accesses it from, it is also far more efficient to maintain, as the content all comes from the same source.
How does it work? Responsive design sites incorporate the use of triggers that control how the page is displayed based on browser waidth. When a wide desktop browser is used to access a page, it will show the full width design, but as the browser width is reduced or if the page is accessed using a mobile device, the page changes format including column layout, navigation and content locations to accommodate the narrower display size.
Document Actions
Content Management
Why Content Management?
Presently, websites are commonly built as "static pages" – stand-alone displays of interesting content and eye-catching imagery that will unfortunately lose relevancy with time. Despite their immeidate functionality, pages created this way often present challenges down the road. "Static pages" are not easy to access and require either special software, a knowledge of HTML programming language, or a call to the developer to make modifications – making maintenance and minor changes difficult and often expensive.
There is an alternative to the "static page" model, which is gaining traction in the website development marketplace, known as CMS (content management system).
A CMS based site allows a business to meet marketing objectives and maximize marketing budgets, using the latest W3C Web Technology to create a best in class marketing website -- both now and for the future of the site. A CMS website gives you the freedom to:
- Create and edit your own content, including the addition of images or additional content pages, using a secure, user-friendly browser interface
- Periodically update the look and feel of your website, without having to change any content.
- Offer secure site access to both Intranet (logged in) and Extranet (not-logged in) users utilizing robust tools built into the CMS.
- Add dynamic features into the website, such as events and calendars, blogs, syndicated content, videos, social media, virtual spokespeople, excellent search visibility, and much more.
- Insure outstanding Search Engine Visibility with a CMS tool that provides 100% valid XHTML and CSS that consistently ranked high in search results.
- Be prepared for web innovations by choosing a tool that is built to support proven technologies as well as emerging ones, such responsive design, HTML 5 and mobile apps.
A content management system will give you the benefit of using the latest W3C Web Technology to create a best in class marketing website. Implementing a Content Management System will give you enormous benefits and maximize your budget, both now and for your future requirements.