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    Denver Web Design

    Speed is Everything

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    Page loading speed has great importance with Google these days. From mobile visitors to Googlebots, every visitor will appreciate a speedy experience. Here are some ideas to keep in mind: 1. Rise of mobile The importance of mobile can be seen in Google’s announcements the last few years. Mobile users are more impatient than ever, and Google provided stats last week regarding just how impatient mobile users are: – The average mobile page takes 22 seconds to load, but 53% of users leave after 3 seconds! – Even mobile landing pages in AdWords were found to take 10 seconds loading time. There are many easy changes available for sites to make, as the answer isn’t always in purchasing a faster web server. Google’s own analysis found that simply compressing images and text can be a “game changer”—30% of pages could save more than 250KB that way. 2. Ranking factor A few years back, Google made page speed a small ranking factor – or at least they were finally explicit about it being a ranking factor. Since page speed issues aren’t given the exposure of crawl errors and other items in Google Search Console, it can be easy to put them on the “long list” of items to fix. Its addition as a ranking factor is a great signal that this needs to be prioritized. 3. Bounce rate Nice try, loading up your site with images that take forever to load. Unfortunately, that doesn’t increase the duration of site visits. It just makes people angry. According to Google’s analysis, every second of loading time, from 1 to 7 seconds, increases the chance of a bounce by 113%! Many SEOs believe that “engagement metrics” such as bounce rate could also be a ranking factor. And it makes sense: When Google sees a rise in organic bounce rate, they know human visitors are judging the content. How could Google not take this data into account? 4. Crawl rate In one recent test, increasing page speed across a site dramatically increased the site’s crawl budget. Slower sites can be overwhelmed by crawl activity. But if you ever feel the need to put a crawl delay in your robots.txt, take that as a warning sign. After all, even reasonably fast sites can often need more crawl budget. Tools and Fixes Luckily there are remedies. Some can be quite easy, such as adding compression to your web server. Others might require a trip to Photoshop for your site’s images. However, some items will not be worth fixing. Try to concentrate on the easiest tasks first. Run an analysis of your site through these two tools and see what you need to fix: Google’s newest tool: Test how mobile-friendly your site is. GTmetrix.com features include a “waterfall” showing which page items load at which stage, history, monitoring, and more. Good luck and enjoy optimizing the speed of your site!

    9 ways Google is discovering the invisible web

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    There are many parts of the web that Googlebot has not been able to access, but Google has been working to shrink that. Google wants to find content, and while many webmasters do not make it easy, Googlebot finds a way. 1. Crawling flash! Adobe announced today that they have released technology and information to Google and Yahoo enabling them to crawl flash files. It may take the search engines some time before they are able to integrate and implement these abilities, but a time is coming where rich media is less of a liability. I wonder if MSN/Live was left out to prevent them from reverse engineering Flash for their new silverlight competitor? At any rate, MSN is still working on accessing text links, so let’s not swamp them. 2. Crawling forms Googlebot recently started filling out forms on the web in an attempt to discover content hidden behind jump menus and other forms. See our previous article if you’d like to keep Google out of your forms. 3. Working with Government entities to make information more accessible A year or so ago, Google started providing training to government agencies to assist them in getting their information onto the web. I’m assuming much of the information has been hidden by URLs with large amounts of parameters. 4. Crawling JavaScript Many menus and other dynamic navigation features have been created in JavaScript, and googlebot has started crawling those as well. Instead of relying on webmasters to provide search friendly navigation, Google is finally getting to access sites created by neophyte webmasters that haven’t been paying attention. 5. Google’s patent to read text in images Google also knows many newbie webmasters use text buttons for navigation. By attempting to read text in images, the Googlebot will once again be able to open up previously inaccessible areas of a site. 6. Inbound links Of course, Googlebot has always been great at following inbound links to new content. Much of the invisible web has been discovered just through humans linking to a previously unknown resource. 7. Submission Of course, you can always submit a page location of currently invisible content to Google. This is usually the slowest way, especially compared to inbound links. 8. Google toolbar visits, analytics Recently, many Denver SEO professionals have noticed links being indexed that have not been submitted. The only plausible explanation was that Google has been mining it’s toolbar and analytics for information about new URLs. Be careful – Google is watching and sees all! 9. Sitemap.xml files The somewhat new stemap.xml protocol is very helpful for webmasters and googlebots alike in getting formerly invisible content into google’s hands.

    Upcoming Denver SEO Presentation: An Excellent Value

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    Hyper Dog Media is providing Search Engine Optimization tips at the Association of Strategic Marketing’s upcoming seminar. The full agenda includes information from experts in PPC (Pay Per Click), Web Analytics, and more: Proven Strategies for Improving Your Search Engine Marketing Are you optimizing your greatest asset? Website content is an essential part of online success. Help search engines see the relevance of your pages, articles, press releases and more. Learn to identify and target ranking opportunities with titles, headings, bolding and additional techniques. Also, HTML can be used to communicate the relevance of your website and content to search engines. You don’t need to be an HTML whiz either! Once you have the content, you must know how to maximize your search engine exposure. Find out how aggressive search engine submission may harm your ability to get into Google’s listings, as well as modern strategies on how to get your site indexed safely. Learn how to take an active role in getting pages indexed quickly in the major search engines as you add new content. Finally, links from other websites are an important source of traffic and search rankings. Several kinds of links will be discussed and you are sure to leave with new link building ideas! 5 reasons to attend! Translate the user experience to all online channels Learn about online measurement and analytics tools Use your SEM campaign to maximize your ROI Ensure you are paying for profitable clicks Discover 26 sources of links to target BONUS! Free manual with registration Hope to see you there!

    Web Development Roles in Internet Marketing Projects

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    It takes many different web development / programming skill sets for a successful internet marketing project. For any website to be successful on the web, it requires a combination of stunning web design, usability, web conversion, bulletproof web development, search engine optimization, and project management. A failure at any of these points can destroy the potential of any internet marketing project. The roles each require very specialized skills: Web Design Web designers are popping up everywhere these days, but it is still very hard to find website designers who have stunning artistic and layout skills and just enough web knowledge to make it all work. Implementing some designs on the web can be impossible. It’s important to have a web designer who understands the limits and potential of each web technology. Web designers must also know enough CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to create web friendly designs that will look great in any web browser. Usability Usability is very important to any website. Web site visitors must be able to understand the navigate the site. Most usability professionals are not great designers, but have a knack at understanding human behavior and expectations on web sites. Having a site that is highly usable encourages repeat visits – or “stickiness”. Conversion Web site conversion is a very important consideration: How do YOU want visitors to use the site? Web site visitors should be eased and encouraged to follow a “desired action” on your website. The action might be to purchase a product, send an email, sign up for a newsletter, or even pickup the phone. Having a great website is still pointless if it does not drive sales, lead capture, or some other desired action. Web Development Web developers are programmers. They create programs that allow interaction with human visitors, like shopping carts, RSS Feeds, image uploading and more. Web development requires a tremendous skill set that is always in need of expansion and updating. Web development languages like PHP, Perl, Flash Actionscript, and the many Java technologies require constant upkeep and training as they develop. Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization is a set of guidelines, technologies and procedures for ranking well in search engines. The first step is determining which keywords can drive quality traffic to the website. What are prospective visitors searching for? Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists research keywords and optimize the pages to show how relevant the site is to visiting search engines. Denver SEO Specialists are skilled at showing the natural relevance of pages and securing better search rankings. Since many search engines also weigh the amount and quality of links to a website, SEO firms will often create and request links from other websites. Social Media Optimization With the creation of social media websites like myspace, digg, facebook and friendster, websites have an opportunity to capture amazing amounts of targeted web visitors. With millions of searches starting on myspace, it has become an important opportunity for certain niches. There is a social media website for nearly every niche, however. Finding the correct niche full of prospective buyers can drive tremendous amounts of sales. Project Management Project management allows all of the other skill sets to shine. By communicating between clients and the other roles, the project manager helps balance the many roles in the project with the client’s needs. They also serve as the point of contact for many the many questions and deadlines involved in the project. In sum, any great web development project requires a diverse skill set. A balance between the roles is equally important, never sacrificing usability for design, or design for search engine optimization.

    Search Marketing Standard: Read it twice

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    I’m still getting two copies of Search Marketing Standard magazine, but I’m not reporting it. First off, it’s so good that I don’t want to possibly miss an issue by having anyone mess with my subscription. With other magazines, I’ve found that fulfillment centers sometimes get confused, and it’s usually months before I realize a certain issue isn’t coming. I just can’t risk it. Every article is good. Secondly, I’ll probably read through it twice. Might as well have a fresh crisp copy the second time. I wonder if I’ll even dog-ear the same pages? Here are four excellent resources for anyone interested in SEO, internet marketing, ecommerce, and the affiliate scene: 1. Search Marketing Standard. If you’ve thought the SEO world moves too fast for print, think again. 2. Practical Ecommerce. Not just for ecommerce store owners. Every web developer creating ecommerce websites should be in tune with the industry. 3. Revenue. Great for affiliate marketers, ecommerce merchants, or any company creating PPC(Pay Per Click) campaigns on Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing. 4. Internet Retailer. Especially important if you are helping larger companies with their SEO, SEM, PPC, and ROI! This publication is best at industry trends influencing larger retailers and online merchants. It is essential that web designers and web site developers start paying attention to the many facets that can make or break an online business. These publications can help get you serve your clients!