W3C Validation and SEO

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Nathan

When I was in school, I learned that having my websites’ code be 100% W3C standards compliant wasn’t just something to brag about, it was something to be ashamed of failing at. It’s an attitude that I’ve maintained while working at Longevity Graphics, which has lead to some pretty frustrating days. Some of our clients’ sites use CMS’s such as WordPress, Drupal, or Perch that have their own code structure that is not compliant with W3C standards. Even social media applications such as the Facebook ‘like’ button and Google Plus buttons don’t validate!

It got me wondering whether validation is truly crucial. Specifically, I wondered how important W3C validation is for SEO. I did some research, and while I found some contrasting views, W3C validation does not seem to be an important factor for SEO – with some caveats.

Out of curiosity, I used the W3C validator to check Google’s home page for errors. The result was 36 errors and 2 warnings. It shouldn’t be surprising, however, as Matt Cutts himself has said explicitly that W3C validation does not offer a ‘boost’ to the ranking of any site (see Matt Cutts’ explanation here). If you don’t want to watch the video, I can paraphrase: Google cares more about loading times, browser compatibility, usability, and content than validation for the sake of validation. This should be enough to end any debate, but there are a few things to bear in mind even if 100% W3C validation is not a factor in itself for SEO.

The first thing to remember is that many of the factors that W3C validation is based on are also important to SEO. For instance, the use of alt tags on images is mandatory for validation and it’s also important to use relevant keywords in alt tags for SEO. So while W3C validation is not directly beneficial to SEO, there are a lot of overlapping standards. Having clean code should also help to increase load time, which is a ranking factor for Google. Improving load time will enhance the crawlability of the site (especially important for large, deep sites such as online stores with dozens or hundreds of product pages). Smaller files and cleaner code will help you to reduce the fatigue of search engines while crawling your site, so they will be less likely to time out and not index deeply nested pages.

The bottom line is that the W3C validation points out a lot of issues that, when fixed, help to keep the code clean and easier for crawlers to index. A couple of validation errors on a page is not the end of the world. However, we should take as many steps as possible to increase the crawlability of the site to ensure that all content is being indexed.

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Grey Hats Off for Google’s Penguin Update

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Nathan

Have you noticed your site’s rankings drop considerably in the last few weeks? It might have been a result of Google’s latest search engine update, Penguin.

Launched on April 24th, Google Penguin is entirely about promoting white-hat practices and upholding the standards of Google’s quality guidelines, and has little to do with directly improving search results. The Penguin update has been specifically designed to penalize and de-rank sites that have boosted ranking through grey-hat means. What is grey-hat, you ask?

Simply speaking, grey-hat techniques are any SEO techniques that are intended to boost ranking for a site without regard for user experience. These techniques include keyword stuffing and link schemes, which have been all too common in the past. If you’ve had your site’s ranking fall drastically as a result of Penguin, chances are high that you or your SEO person used one of these techniques.

According to Matt Cutts, the Penguin update is intended to reward those sites that have made use of white-hat SEO techniques. White-hat SEO is complicit with Google’s quality guidelines and includes doing things such as making sites load faster, writing informative and unique content, and improving usability. These are judged to be white-hat because they benefit the user as well as the search engines; they focus on building the quality of the site rather than on boosting its rankings.

The bottom line is, grey-hat techniques will not get you results as they once did – they will, in fact, be harmful to your rankings if implemented. Thankfully, there are SEO specialists like Longevity Graphics who hold fast to Google’s quality guidelines and pay close attention to what works and what doesn’t. The Penguin update is about promoting quality on the web, and that’s something we have always believed in.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Key Words, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization, SEO | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Embedding WordPress RSS Feeds on an .ASP Website

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Lindsay

Wordpress RSS FeedEmbedding WordPress RSS Feeds on an .ASP Website should be simple, RIGHT?

That’s what I thought too. I searched through WordPress forums, Google SERP’s, Webmaster Forums, Feed readers/burners software… No luck!

It is simple it you are working in PHP but ASP is a little more difficult. I found a bunch of javascript scripts but that completely defeats the SEO value of the blog feeds.

I came across this resource that made it super simple and wanted to share this in case anyone else runs into this same issue:

http://bytescout.com/?q=/products/developer/rss2htmlpro/how_to_display_rss_using_asp.html

Worked like a charm and easy to implement. Hope this helps someone else.

Lindsay Viscount
Owner/Creative Director
www.LongevityGraphics.com

Posted in ASP Coding, Search Engine Optimization, SEO | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What is Google Page Rank and how you can use it to gain more traffic to your website.

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Lindsay

Google Page RankWhat is Google PageRank?

PageRank is the algorithm used by the Google search engine. It is based on the premise, prevalent in the world of academia, that the importance of a research paper can be judged by the number of citations the paper has from other research papers. Google has simply transferred this premise to its web equivalent: the importance of a web page can be judged by the number of hyperlinks pointing to it from other web pages.

What affects Page Rank?

Simply put, the PageRank of a web page is therefore calculated as a sum of the PageRanks of all pages linking to it (its incoming links), divided by the number of links on each of those pages (its outgoing links).

Is Page Rank important?

It is a common belief that page rank isn’t important anymore. I, however, find it hard to believe that Google would assign a page rank system that isn’t used for something. It is true that websites with low page rank can rank high with in the search results pages for targeted keywords. There are many different algorithms at play to determine this.

So what is page rank for and how can we leverage it?

Generally, page rank of a website can be used as a starting point to determine where it is at in regards to domain authority. Where page rank plays a big role in SEO is determining better external link backs to your website. Having higher page rank domains pointing to your website, help to establish more authority within the eyes of the SERPs.

To learn more about leveraging page rank and how developing an extensive link building strategy can improve your website’s results and increase your traffic to your website, contact one of our internet marketing specialists today.

info@longevitygraphics.com

Lindsay Viscount
Owner/Creative Director
www.LongevityGraphics.com

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Instagram Your Business

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Carolyn

In the last post “Pinterest…Pin Your Interests” emphasized on the importance of being visually stimulated. Once again we are going to continue to emphasize how important images are to every business, because we all know we like being visually stimulated.

This time, I am calling out all Iphone and Android owners to download Instagram if you have not already. Instagram has over 27 million users and have been purchased for 1 billion from Facebook. Instagram is a downloadable app and a social network that allows the users to take pictures, edit photos with different filters, and share it through Instagram. You can also share your pictures through Facebook or Twitter. Instagram works similar to Twitter, where you can use hash tags (#) so people can find your photos. In order to create conversations with people you can always use the ‘@username’ to directly create a conversation with someone.

So what makes photos such an important tool for marketing? Photos can be utilized within story telling. Story telling is the foundational strategy to developing and strengthening your brand. If you can tell a great story about your business through text, you can also create a story through images. Since taking photos are easy and instant, it is easier to share it with many people. HubSpot simply states it as “a great way for people to experience brands in a different way, and it elicits emotions that may not have been experienced through text alone.” Some big companies that are using Instagram to build their brand are: Starbucks, RedBull, Marc Jacobs, Tiffany & Co etc. When the big companies are using it, you know there is value to Instagram.

Instagram may or may not be your desired way to market your business, but depending on your business it can be very handy.

Ways to Instagram your Business:

1.)    Day in the life of your company: Fans and customers are always curious what you do at work. They want to know what it’s like to work where you work.

2.)    Company News: You can promote and advertise new blog posts, services and events on Instagram by taking a pictures of your new blog, or already made campaigns.

3.)    Contests: There are fun ways to create contests on Instagram. You can always ask your fans to take a picture with your product and use a hash tag (#) on Instagram to get fans to participate in your contest.

4.)    Events: If you create a hash tag (#) with your event.  This can encourage people to take pictures and use that hash tag to spread the event pictures around.

So do some social media touch ups and use Instagram to strengthen your brand! Have fun Instagraming!

Posted in Facebook Marketing, Instagram, Internet Marketing, Other, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

BNI Dynamo – Networking Group of Excellence

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Lindsay
BNI Dynamo Networking Group of Excellence

Laura Leoni, Director of BNI BC

BNI Dynamo cleans up at the BNI Awards Of Excellence on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012.

One of the largest BNI Networking Groups in the Tri-Cities area, BNI Dynamo was awarded a Notable Networking Award to Preet Pall of The Bronson Group.

5 year honorable mentions for Preet Pall and Erica Cusumano of Dominion Lending Center, and a 10 year honorable mention to Paul Hendriks of Knowledge First Financial.

 

BNI (Business Network International) is a business and professional networking organization that offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly to gain new business by the passing and receiving of referrals. With chapters throughout Canada and more than 5,000 chapters worldwide, BNI is the largest professional business networking organization.

BNI Dynamo meets every Wednesday in Port Moody at the Old Mill Boathouse from 11:45am – 1:30pm.  Last year BNI Dynamo passed referrals that lead to over $400,000 in closed business.

We are currently looking for these professions to join our group:

  • Accountant
  • Bookkeeper
  • Graphic Designer
  • Business Coach
  • Physiotherapist
  • Landscaper
  • Cleaning Service
  • Mechanic
  • Traditional Chinese Medicalist
  • Photographer

If you are interested in checking out one of our meetings please contact Lindsay for more information. 778-229-5383

 

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Pinterest…Pin Your Interests

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Carolyn

If you are all about visuals, Pinterest is the social media site to be on. It is a large social media platform that gathers everyone’s interests in one place. This is the perfect place to be if you want to know the current and up and coming trends. Their mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.”

Pinterest is beautifully organized by its pin-board/grid type layout which makes it visually stimulating.

Pinterest home page

It is easy to use and allows you to share your hobbies, interest, events and more. Pinterest provides you with a ‘pin it’ button to add to your bookmarks. This allows you to ‘pin’ any image, blog, or website directly onto Pinterest. You can also create different categories that suit your interests, plus you also have the option to share your ‘pins’ on Twitter or Facebook.  Another cool and handy thing about Pinterest is that the images are a direct link to the original source.

Pin Board Categories

My experience with Pinterest has been more than awesome. I must say I’m pretty much addicted to it because I can find everything that I like on one site. What’s even better is that people are very active and supportive on Pinterest. My first ‘pin’ ended up getting more than 140 repins within less than an hour, 84 likes with more than 30 follows, in one day. I must say, it’s pretty liberating to see that people ‘repin,’ like and follow you because they also have the same interest.

Here are a few reason why you should use Pinterest?

  1. Most people use it on a personal level. It is an archive for all your interests. It’s also a really good source for inspiration.
  2. Businesses are now getting a hold of Pinterest and its social media marketing and SEO value
  • It’s great for crowd sourcing – encouraging your fans to create pins revolving around your products/brand
  • Great to promote certain giveaways or contests
  • Ability to drive traffic to your website by adding keywords and links in your description
  • By adding ‘pin it’ buttons on your website allows Pinterest users to automatically pin your website onto their Pinterest pin boards.

So, I suggest you get yourself started with Pinterest, explore and connect with people who are interested in the same things as you. For businesses, I suggest you to experiment with different strategies that can drive in new customers or traffic to your website. Pinterest allows room for you to be creative with your branding approach. Until next time, Go and PIN your INTEREST.

Posted in Events, Facebook Marketing, Key Words, Other, Pinterest, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Strong Brand = Strong Social Media

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Carolyn

Maintaining your brand is important for every company. There are many social media platforms out there that give you the ability to connect with your target audience/customers. Your engagement is important to produce happy, stimulated, loyal and engaged customers.

 

When you begin to establish your social media presence, first thing first:

Community is important

  • Think about your community. Many big execs will always suggest keeping in touch with your community.
  • By knowing your community, you will know how to create an agenda that will be competitive and effective.
  • You can maintain your relationship with your customers by knowing what they want, what are the newest trends or what changes might be needed
  • Community is all about dialogue. Social media allows you to create dialogue through, sharing commenting, and discussing
  • A community needs authenticity. Social media users can notice inauthenticity. Create fun, meaningful conversations that will impact your customers

Second thing:

Content

  • Most important thing is to have fun and mean what you write. Don’t write something because you have to, but because you want to
  • Do not write something that isn’t relevant in your industry
  • Post relevant links. Readers are curious and always looking for new knowledge.
  • Incorporate fun contests that encourages participation

Some Social Media Sites to get your hands on:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
4Square
Instagram
Storify
Google +

There are other options, such as, SEO which will help expose your company, but imagine having both SEO and a strong social media presence together. Your brand and company will increasingly experience

For more check out: Check out 10 top Execs share their social media secrets

Posted in Facebook Marketing, Google+, Other, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Storify Your Social Media

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Carolyn

For all you social media addicts out there, Storify is another social media platform to add to your list. Storify is similar to Hoot Suite where you can organize all your social media, but Storify has one extra element than Hoot Suite. In Storify, you can create a story that will organize all of your social media platforms. How do you exactly create a story in Storify? Well, Storify is essentially like blogging but you have access to all your social media where you can implement certain Facebook comments, tweets, videos etc, into your blog directly.

The pros about Storify are:

-          You have all your content in one platform

-          You can develop a strong story and dialogue from your social media

-          Simple Editing tools similar to other blogging sites

-          Great for branding your company

The Cons:

-          There is a bit of lag time

-          It will take time to learn how to navigate
(but that’s not any different than learning   the new Facebook timeline)

If you love to write and your social media seems a bit cluttered or unorganized, then Storify will help. I believe having a strong story attached to your 140 tweet or your Facebook statuses will have a bigger impact to your readers and followers.

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Taking Advantage of Google Platforms within your Internet Marketing Campaign

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Lindsay

Longevity Graphics has been building websites and implementing internet marketing strategies since 2002. Our competitive advantage is the experience that we bring to the table, the extensive knowledge of Google Webmaster standards, ranking factors, conversion optimization, and the personalized customer service that we provide to all of our clients; big and small.

 

When working with our clients on an internet marketing campaign, we utilize many different platforms to get the best results for the unique needs of the client. 3 platforms that we almost always recommend include:

  • Google Adwords
  • Google Places
  • Google+

Google Adwords is a pay-per-click option that allows our clients to drive immediate targeted traffic to their websites. We can control the placement of the ads (whether you come up first, second, third or on the side), the cost of the clicks and the daily/monthly budget and target the ads geographically. This is a great platform to start receiving great results when implemented correctly. If you have tried implementing a Google Adwords campaign and failed to see results that were bringing you a return on your investment, it is worth speaking to an expert who knows how to optimize your campaign.

Google Places is a great way to target geographical search queries interested in working with a business with a specific geographical region. The benefit to Google Places is it’s FREE, the listings out rank organic results and your customers can add reviews to your listing which can help to promote the benefits of dealing with your company.

In the example below, you can see that The Last Door is coming up for the search querie “Recovery Centre For Men New Westminster” within the Google Places section of the search results page which is out ranking the organic search results.

Google+ is an interesting new platform that we are urging our clients to take advantage of. Google is starting to display Google + profiles within the search results pages (seen below). Not a lot of companies have started using this platform for marketing and you can really get a jump up on your competitors by utilizing this platform.

In conclusion, when developing an internet marketing strategy don’t forget to utilize these great Google platforms to help boost your exposure. Gaining targeted traffic in all areas of the internet will help to develop your brand, increase your leads and at the end of the day you will see an increase in your return on investment

Posted in Google Adwords, Google+, Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment