• Keyword Stuffing – The content on your website should read very naturally.  Loading your content with keywords will put you on the fast track to a high bounce rate.  On a side note, stay far, far away from content spinners.  A “spun” version of the first sentence of this article might look like this: “As we advance into the fresh era of looking machine perfection…”.  This is a dead give away that you are trying to cheat the system.  Plus, no one will read content like that!
• Doorway Pages – These are pages that are stuffed with keywords that attract searches and then forward the visitor to a completely different page.  A bad idea for obvious reasons.
• Hidden Text – Search engine optimizers who dabble in black hat SEO have gotten pretty creative.  Hidden text is one of the tools in their arsenals. This tactic includes adding text that is the same color as the background of the page, so the reader cannot see it, only the search engines.  It could include stuffed keywords or links.  Another big no-no.
• Buying Links – This is highly controversial since there are some links you have to pay for that are really good, like the Better Business Bureau.  In general, stay away from any situation that seems shady.  No paid link is worth potentially getting crushed or even banned by Google.  Directories (in most, but not all, cases) will soon be a thing of the past.  Invest that money in a writer who produces content that will draw attention organically.

One common misconception is that hiring an SEO professional to work on your website is a bad thing.  This is absolutely not the case.  In fact, if you don’t have an SEO expert working on your site, you are definitely missing traffic, leads and clients.  There are many SEO tactics that are considered “white hat”.  These include proper on-page optimization, dynamic sitemaps and getting links for guest blog posts and press releases.  The architecture of your site, the quality of your code and the speed of your website are also major factors.  You can see why you would want to hire someone that really knows what they are doing.

For more information on building a website that will rank highly in search results and get you more clients, give us a call at 888-886-0939.

Everyone is always eager to buy up as many domains as they can with hopes of one day conquering the world, but then the question always arises: “what am I going to do with all of them?”

Optimistic hopes of having ten different websites with different URL’s to capture more and more traffic (and cases) usually quickly vanish when you take into consideration the time necessary to maintain multiple websites: the initial website design, content, design tweaks after the site is launched, monthly SEO, etc. You can always just forward the domains to one primary URL, but if it’s not setup correctly, it could really hurt you in the long run.

So, here are five tips that you can use when trying to decide what to do with those extra domains that you have laying around:

1. Forwarding/Redirecting

This is usually the most popular way to put those extra domains to good use.

A lot of times, we advise clients of ours to use a primary domain that is keyword-rich since Google and other search engines seem to be putting so much emphasis on the importance of keywords in URLs these days.

However, these website domains tend to be extra long. Take http://www.lawfirmandattorney-internet-marketing.com for example. Obviously, we only had search engine optimization in mind when we chose this domain, and if I had a dollar for every time I had to spend five minutes spelling this out in person or over the phone, I could retire before I’m forty.

So having a domain name that is shorter and easier to put on business cards and commercials, easier to tell potential clients and friends without having to spell out ten words, and just easier to remember usually comes in handy.

Would you rather tell your clients to visit:

http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com

or

http://www.murphyandfoster.com?

Okay, maybe that first domain is a little overboard, but you get the point.

The easiest way to do this is to forward or redirect the shorter domain to your primary domain, so that you can still capitalize on the SEO “juice” of the keyword-rich domain and still not lose your voice after telling people your website address. So, the question is: what’s the best way to do this?

2. 301 Redirects And Why They’re Awesome

There are two different reasons why you may want to utilize a 301 redirect:

1) Your website is just about to launch, and you have one or two domains that you’d like to point to your primary website (similar to the example above), or

2) You have an old website that wasn’t all that great, and a new website that is just about to launch. Even though your old website is “old and busted”, it still gets a few decent search engine rankings and you don’t want to lose them. Whether your new website is using the same domain as the old one or not, using a 301 redirect to make sure you keep your existing search engine rankings is the best way to do so. Even Google says so.

So, what is a 301 redirect?

Without getting too technical, it basically tells search engine spiders and web browsers that a website or web page has been permanently moved to a new domain, and that the search engines should transfer any “link juice” and search engine rankings to the new website or web page, and browsers should visit the new website or web page instead of the old one.

In terms of setting up a 301 redirect, your webmaster should know how to, or you can read this useful guide on how to do it yourself. But, be careful, you need to know what you’re doing.

Which leads us to tip number 3:

3. Are You Sure That Your Redirect/Forward Is Set Up Correctly?

If your redirect or forward isn’t set up correctly, there is a chance that you could be inadvertently running two different websites with different domains with the same content, which would cause Google and other search engines to view both websites as copycats of each other. This results in: You guessed it, a duplicate content penalty.

Google has publicly stated that there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty, which I find amusing seeing as I’ve seen two websites over the past two months dropped to page six of Google for search terms that they were ranked on page one for simply because the webmaster didn’t know that their forwarding wasn’t set up correctly.

If you have multiple domains forwarding or redirecting to one URL, here is what you should look for to make sure everything is set up properly:

1. When you type in the domain name that should be redirecting to the primary domain, does the primary domain come up in the browser bar or does the redirecting domain?

In other words, using the example above, where

http://www.murphyandfoster.com

should be redirecting to

http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com

When you type in http://www.murphyandfoster.com in your browser’s address field, does

http://www.murphyandfoster.com

or

http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com

load?

If all is done correctly, http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com should come up in your browser’s address bar, and you should never see http://www.murphyandfoster.com.

If you go to http://www.murphyandfoster.com and http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.comand each domain loads in the browser bar, you probably have a problem.

Here’s another example:

Tom Kiley, a client of ours, has a Boston motorcycle blog. The URL is injuredbikerlaw.com.

Tom had a domain that he bought a few years ago, loudpipessavelives.com, that he wanted to redirect to the Loud Pipes Save Lives page of his blog.

So, when I type in http://www.loudpipessavelives.com in my browser bar

It is setup so that it redirects to his Loud Pipes Saves Lives page, and the URL that is www.loudpipessavelives.com is referring to shows in my browser bar

Which is exactly what we want.

If Loudpipessaveslives.com and his blog page each loaded with different URLs, Google is likely seeing that as two different web pages with the same content, which is a huge no-no.

So again, if you’re able to launch the same website or web page with two different URL’s, and both URL’s show up in your browser bar, it’s likely that you have a problem.

You can also use a website called CopyScape to see if you have website pages that are being looked at as duplicates by the search engines.

4. I Think My Forwarding Is Wrong, What Should I Do?

If you are able to load the same website or web page with two different URL’s and they don’t seem to be forwarding correctly, it’s very likely that you will see a drop in rankings once Google and other search engines realize what’s happening.

You should always contact your webmaster to make sure they’re 100% certain that your forwarding is set up correctly and they can reassure you of it, otherwise you’ll probably wake up one morning and your traffic and search engine rankings have plummeted.

If you have reason to believe that you have already been penalized for a redirecting issue, make sure you or your webmaster do whatever you can to rectify the situation, and then send Google a request for reconsideration. in Webmaster Tools. This can take some time though, so be patient and provide Google with as much technical information as possible when explaining what went wrong.

5. Okay, I’ve Read Enough About Redirecting. I Just Want To Launch Different Websites and/or Blogs for Each Domain That I Have

Easy there, tiger. This sounds like a great idea and is definitely the best way to go, but like we mentioned in the opening paragraph, are you ready to spend the time and/or money necessary to make each site successful?

Let’s say you have six different domains, and you want a website on two of them and a blog on the other four.

Okay, sounds good. Are you going to come up with unique and informative content for each one on your own, or pay someone else to do it? And I’m not just talking about the initial content, I’m talking about updates on a regular basis.

Design and hosting costs aside, the time and money associated with properly maintaining six different websites can be pretty high. A lot of clients underestimate how much time is necessary to maintain one website let alone six.

So you decide to try it on your own, and a few months later, after you run out of time and ideas trying to post content yourself regularly for six different sites, you think about outsourcing your content efforts.

If the average blog post costs an industry average of $25-$30, and you want two pieces of content posted to each site per week (which is still low seeing how newer search engine algorithms are putting more emphasis on content), that’s up to $360 per week, or $1400 per month, not even counting the time you spend reading the content to make sure it’s accurate, the time you spend monitoring your websites’ traffic through analytics programs, and the time necessary to maintain effective search engine marketing and link building efforts (which is pretty much mandatory these days, especially if you’re in a competitive market).

Oh yeah I forgot, you’re supposed to be practicing law on top of all of this.

Just be sure to realize that having multiple websites isn’t as easy as paying a design company a one-time fee and expect it to be off and running in the first three months and the cases to be rolling in. Properly marketing and maintaining a website can be a full-time job, and doing the same for six websites? I hope you have some help.

So, there are five tips that you should think about when you’re trying to decide what to do with all of your unused domains.

All of this, of course, is related to your overall web marketing strategy, which is extremely important to online lead generation. If you’re still unsure of what you should do, or even whether or not your forwarding or redirecting is set up properly, shoot shoot us an email and we’ll be more than happy to take a look.

My clients and co-workers (myself included, actually) tell me all of the time how hard it is to budget time to get off of the PC/Mac and actually EXERCISE.

Afterall, do you ever think about how much more motivated and how great of a mood you are in after a fulfilling workout?

Most of our clients are stuck in a law office for up to 12 hours a day, and when you add in court appearances and client visits, their time is VERY hard to manage.

That being said, I was talking to a good friend of mine, Washington, DC personal trainer Josef Brandenburg, at the Glazer Kennedy conference in Chicago over the weekend and he game me some good tips on how to maximize your workout with a minimum amount of time.

• “What you need is a short program that you can do on Monday that will still be burning body-fat come Tuesday.  That’s how you get the body you want at your desk.  That is NOT a pie in the sky wish.  I do this with my clients all the time, and its something you can do too.”

• “With regular exercise like jogging, you only get paid once (and poorly).  If you go jogging for an hour, you get one hour of benefit and no more.  You will burn a few extra calories, and a little bit of extra fat.  BUT when you’re done with your jog your body will just get hungrier and eventually force you to replace those calories.  The net result is almost nothing.”

• “Recent research in the Journal of Obesity shows that men who did 6 hours of aerobic exercise for an entire YEAR dropped only 6.5lbs of fat (less than 4 for women).  20 pounds will cost you 18 hours per week for a year!”

• What to do instead: Metabolic resistance training (MRT).  MRT is an intense resistance workout where you alternate an upper and a lower body exercise that each work a lot of muscle at once. So, a bicep curl would be out since you work only one muscle, but a chin-up (assisted) would be a great upper body choice.  You would alternate that with a lower body exercise like a squat.  The intense nature of MRT gives you a HUGE ROE.

• Research shows that this kind of a workout causes your body to switch over to burning your own stored fat for the next 24 to 36 hours.  In addition to burning away your fat, you will also build some muscle that will make you look a lot better at the beach whether you’re a man or a woman. Plus you’ll get the cardio workout of your life.

Josef went on to tell me that he was over 50 lbs overweight before trying this exercise. He had tried everything from running ever day to every extreme diet on television and nothing had worked. After he dropped 50 pounds using this workout, he said he’s been able to keep the weight off and has curbed his appetite (and became a full-time personal trainer in the process)!

Twitter, Facebook, Google analytics, blogs…. all of this is great, but just be aware of how much time you’re spending Tweeting and how much time you’re budgeting for yourself. If you’re like me, you’re not one of those guys who stand around in the gym talking in between reps because you just don’t have the time, but with Josef’s tips you can maximize those precious few minutes and see some better results in your daily energy level.

Be sure to come check us out at the Infusioncon conference in Arizona on March 10-12. We’ll have a booth set up and will be offering a free website analysis for anyone in attendance.

• How is your website doing with search engines?
• How can you maximize your website’s lead generation efforts?
• How strong is your sites content development?
• Do you have a strong call to action?
• Would a blog help?
• And more

You can follow or contact George Murphy on Twitter if you have any questions or comments leading up to the conference.

•    Be sure there are no page errors- Test all links. If there are news story links or videos embedded in your content, be sure the stories and videos still exist on the net. On occasion these links expire and you do not want to link to content that does not appear.
•    Test e-mail capture to ensure it is working properly- If prospects are filling out data to request information and it is not being collected, those are lost opportunities. Even worse, if they receive an error and the information is erased, they will most likely not take the time to fill out the form a second time.
•    Update images- Images that look old or outdated can give a bad first impression. Try to use newer unique images that reflect the brand of your company and portray a clear message without words.
•    Make sure you content is updated- Out-dated content or seeing in your footer that your last update was a year ago will send a negative message. If you provide rates, phone numbers or an address, visitors might be skeptical if that information is still accurate.
•    Provide interesting blog posts relevant to those who will read- If updating your blog is where you spend most of your energy, post content that has an interesting hook and that others will want to read and share. Find newsworthy topics, post a question to solicit feedback or provide an original perspective. Remember: Always keep your target audience in mind.
•    Check that your navigation is functioning- Click through your navigation and fix any links that do not redirect your users to where they expect. Sometimes simple changes on the backend will switch page links and cause confusion.

It is a good idea to check your site at least once a month and click through as if you searched, landed and wanted more information. Internet users have a short attention span and if your site is their first impression of your business, you want it to be a satisfying, educational and flawless experience.

More business people and executives and wondering where are the numbers and what they mean when determining social media return on investment (ROI). Companies agree money should be spent on social media, but do not understand how to determine effectiveness and how to allocate a budget for these efforts.

The answer is, there is no set answer.

ROI is different for each industry because companies have their own social media objectives and reasons for implementing a campaign. ROI can still be considered and loosely measured, but more similar to the way a PR campaign is measured and not a solid marketing campaign where it is simply a numbers game.

A way to determine ROI metrics, is to create the campaign and benchmark metrics with objectives in mind. Track progress through numbers and questions throughout and with at the end with a specific time frame in mind.

For instance, is your objective simply to increase site traffic? If so, you can use Google Analytics to analyze site traffic and measure weekly or monthly to determine success. If you want to track site visibility and SEO ranking, then you can use other Internet tools to determine the number of incoming links you are receiving through blog posts or other sites linking to your site/blog. Also, if you have a twitter or Facebook account, you can track your “friends” or “followers” for quantity and engagement. If you have 800 twitter followers, are you actively engaging in conversation with them and are you providing valuable information to encourage communication?

Or are your objectives to penetrate new markets and reach people that previously did not know you existed/had a voice? In that case, you need to determine your reputation and branding success through opinions. You could possibly do some Internet research and human analysis to determine if those efforts proved a success.

Since social media does not have set standards for ROI, the entire campaign including goals, objectives, benchmarks and expectations need to be set in the beginning and tracked throughout to prove or disprove final success. Be sure the final goal and expectations are aligned and that they stay aligned throughout the run of the campaign. If they stray, adjustments need to be considered based on final goals and implemented tactics.

Here are a few tips to keep your blog active:
1.    Set aside a specific time dedicated to writing blog posts and stick to it. Decide if you want to blog everyday, twice a week or maybe just new posts on Wednesdays. Once you decide, stay consistent and live up to the expectations you set.
2.    Provide interesting content that visitors and subscribers will find to be valuable. Start a list of potential blog topics and add to it as you come across information online and/or questions that will be relevant to your visitors. Check out current events, popular blogs or news articles and add your perspective if you are stuck for an idea. If you keep a list, this will cut down your brainstorming time when you realize you need to post.
3.    Invite guest bloggers. If you are stuck for content or want to provide other points of view, ask an industry leader, friend or client to submit a topic for a blog post and feature their writing. This will add variety to your posts and peak interest.
4.    Be careful with self-promotion. Although your blog is a way to self-promote, visitors want more than just a business plug or a reiteration of something else on your site. It is acceptable to mention contact details in a post, but be aware of adding a pitch and call to action unless it flows and fits with the content.
5.   If you find that you want to feature a blog, but tried to maintain and hit a few roadblocks, you can always ask someone to help or hire someone to alleviate some of the responsibilities.

Blogging is a great way to provide information and open your platform to feedback so you should not pass on using the outlet because you need help, seek the answers and get writing.

So what are some smarter decisions?

The second part of the advice is to focus on the lesser expensive methods that yield a high return and really focus on directing a target audience to explore your site and service. One way that is continuing to prove its effectiveness is using SEO.

During these times, the Internet is growing in popularity by consumers who want to save time and effort when searching for a service. Having an optimized site with the most effective keywords will drive quality targeted traffic to your site, get your message in front of the right people and help create visibility in the market. When placing an expensive ad on a high traffic site, you are not guaranteed who will see your ad, who will click and if people are truly interested in your service. Instead, use targeted keywords to optimize your site. When deciding keywords and effectively using them for optimization, a person who is searching and uses your keywords will see your service and you are then providing a solution to an existing need and therefore, your traffic is of higher quality and has a proven interest.

SEO can also be tracked using Google Analytics, which shows where visitors are coming from, which pages are most visited and the effectiveness of keywords. Using these analytics, you can decide which keywords are proving most effective and focus on using them to keep the quality traffic flowing. This can also help organize your marketing budget.

SEO is cost effective and can take the place of other expensive, lengthy marketing and advertising campaigns that will yield similar results in increased traffic—such as e-mail marketing blasts and paying for ad impressions. One challenge to keep in mind is that a site must be optimized and continually offering updated content to be effective.

You can work on SEO in-house, or hire an agency that will most likely provide more than just an SEO service at a reasonable cost. Because SEO is an art and science and constantly evolving, it might be most effective to hire a professional to assist and implement the services.

Tags are basically keywords. They are words and phrases used to categorize blog posts. If your blog post is about attorney blogging, you want to include the following tags: blogging, attorney, attorney blogging, lawyers. This categorizes your topics, but without the structure of specific categories, and determines where your blog post should be “filed” on the Internet. Technorati, a blog searching site, features a page with the top 100 external tags.

There are internal and external tags. Internal tags help bloggers organize their posts within their site and help with internal linking, good for search engines. External tags are the ones Technorati, Del.icio.us and other social sharing sites track and bloggers use for visibility.

Tags help blog search queries and readers determine content and relevance as to what they are looking to read about. An example of how it influences searches is if you write a post about twitter and add twitter as a tag, http://twitter.alltop.com will add your post to its page. Without the tag, the post would not be recognized and posted on this third-party site, which drives traffic to the post.

Tags are also used for bookmarking. When blog surfers search for a blog on a specific topic, they can click the associated tags on the blog and find sites that are tagged with the same word. Users can also find the bookmarked Web site if they enter the tag which you categorized the post.

Using tags properly and determining the right tags plays an important role in directing users to your site. Bookmarking and tagging allow users to easily search, save and share sites of interest and generate traffic.