Denver Web Design & Denver SEO - The Katz Web Design Blog

Starting in WordPress 2.6, they’ve added captions to images that are automatically generated and use the Shortcode API to make it happen.  One side effect is that All in One SEO Pack isn’t set up to strip the caption from the automatically generated META tags, so you may end up with in your description.

Thanks to a WordPress Trac entry, I got the right regular expression to strip all shortcode in All in One plugin. (more…)

I am pleased to introduce DenverSEO.info, a web page that goes over the basics of search engine optimization: what is SEO, how can you do SEO yourself, and Denver-specific SEO.  Many of Katz Web Design’s clients are unclear as to what search engine optimization is, so I hope this page gets them started with their own optimization.

The web page was constructed using Google Pages, which was very simple to set up, but unfortunately, they don’t allow you to point your domain there properly, so I’ve hosted it on the KWD server.

Because this domain is a .info, it’s very informative (with little self-promotion), and I hope that users will find it to be helpful.  Leave feedback below!

Only pay for great optimization results

One of Katz Web Design’s Denver web design clients wanted an option for performance-based SEO (Search Engine Optimization), rather than a monthly set price, so I created a package.  

Here’s the gist of our SEO package:

• Pay only $5.00 an hour for optimization
• Targeted keywords are given a value based mainly on the competition’s SEO strength (content optimization, inbound links, age of site, etc.)
• Monthly payment per keyword are based on SEO click-through statistics  (eg: the #1 result gets 42% of all clicks) and SEO difficulty
• Minimum 3 month contract, or by the month with a 15% premium 

(more…)

So I’ve been working on creating great content for everyone out there, which happens to include Google.  Well, it turns out that the Denver Web Design & Denver SEO Blog has been given a PageRank (their system of measuring the quality of a website) of 5/10…which is great.

I enjoy blogging for many reasons other than SEO, but it’s always nice when there’s a great reward, including good PageRank from Google.

I recently purchased some domains for SEO, and I wanted to do some research about best practices for using multiple domains on the same content.

The good news?  Google does not punish duplicate content; they just sort it out themselves. (more…)

Image by annaOMline

Gettin’ Me Some Domains for Search Engine Optimization

Since Katz Web Design is going to be more active in Denver search engine optimization, I finally registered some domain names that I’ve been eyeing. Since domains are important for S.E.O. and KWD doesn’t have any SEO domain names, it was a ripe time to buy.

Bought

• denverseocompany (.com and .net)
• denverseo (.info)
• seodenver (.biz and .info)

Want to sell

There are also a few domains I’d like to sell, since I didn’t end up using them; I was the president of a chapter of Colorado Business Leads for a while, and I had planned to make a member directory website as an added benefit, but (no surprise) I was too busy.

• madeindenver.net
• lakewoodbusinessleads.com
• denverbusinessleads.com
• jeffcobusinessleads.com

If anyone’s interested in these domains, make an offer.

Much search engine optimization revolves around guessing how users will search to find your site. When you’re optimizing for organic (non-paid) search results, you may be surprised to find out how much word order impacts the search ranking.

Optimize your website for organic search with varying keyword order

If you search the major search engines, you will find that the order of your keywords makes a huge difference on where your website ranks. (more…)

Westside Business Builders is a networking group based in Golden, Colorado. Their website provides general information about the group, and it serves as a member directory. Katz Web Design is a member of the group.

The membership committee asked Katz Web Design to prepare a proposal for the WSBB website, and this Wednesday, the group voted to have KWD redesign the website to improve appearance and functionality.

(more…)

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one of my first clients in Lakewood, Colorado is now ranked top 5 for their primary keyword/key phrases:

SEO results for New Choices Plus

At the time of writing this article, here is their ranking in Google:

• Denver lavage: 3
• Denver colon hydrotherapy: 1
• Denver colon cleanse: 4
• Denver colon: 3

It’s pretty cool that even before I was “doing SEO” that KWD websites perform well in search.  It got me to thinking of some pretty fun domain names!

I just finished meeting with a client who told me that she had met with multiple other designers, and that I was the only one who provided any ideas for marketing her website. It’s pretty unbelievable.

She has a new product that is not yet launched — very under wraps — and wants to spread the word once the product goes live. Other web designers only discussed her website. I talked about a web presence.

It’s hard for me to imagine doing what I do in Katz Web Design and NOT knowing about Squidoo or Flickr and finding ways to integrate a community of users into your website.  If people want exposure, they know they need a website.  But that’s not all.  They need to be properly situated online, and that means SEO.

A man called yesterday wanting to have his Denver IT Services website optimized.  He had called multiple search engine optimization specialists in Denver, and each one had given him the same proposal: spend thousands of dollars per month, and take a long time.

Check out what the SEO companies said

He had been told the following by multiple companies:

In order to get your website ranked well, it will take 6 months to a year, and will cost $1,000.00 per month.

- Random Denver SEO companies

That means he will have paid $6,000 to $12,000 to have his site ranked well in search engines. I was taken aback; spending that much money each month on SEO is ridiculous for many reasons, but here are a few: (more…)

Are you having the exposure blues?

Do you write articles that few people read? It may be because they aren’t finding your article! Writing on your blog is not enough when you’re starting out. It’s important to spread the word.

Doing a little legwork after you write an article makes a large difference in the traffic you will get.

When you write a blog post, what happens?

Depending on the blogging platform you use (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type to name a few), when you write a post, a few things happen:

Upon posting:

• Your sitemap will get updated
• Search engines and other websites will be notified of the update
• Your RSS feed will be updated
• Gremlins dance a jig around a cauldron of boiling yam juice and frog eyes

These processes will notify the search engines, but in order to increase your website’s exposure, there are a some websites you should submit your article to. After writing an article, take 5 more minutes and submit your site to bookmarking websites.

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Today, a business associate asked me “I know about blogging, and it seems like a waste of time. Why is blogging worth the time?” I was able to reply with some very convincing arguments — and in a way, I reminded myself about the value of blogging.

1. Blogging establishes you as an expert in your field
2. Search engine traffic dramatically increases
3. Blogging is basically free marketing for your business: the only cost is your time.
4. Blogging forces you to write about your life and your business

Oh, you’re amazing? I had no idea.

If you don’t have a blog, and all you have is a website, then you may or may not know what you’re talking about. Your website could have good content, great images, convincing arguments for action, and simple navigation. Your website may be amazing, but in the end, without a blog, who knows if you are amazing?

If you don’t share your experience, it’s as if you have none. Blogging about a broad array of topics gives you authority on a subject; it shows that you know what you’re talking about. You can even write about not knowing something and be an authority!

Search engine traffic, anyone?

It’s called SEO, and if you don’t have a blog, you’re not doing too much of it! The reason why blogs are great for search optimization because they are written a natural way on a broad variety of subjects. The more you write in a blog, the broader your website’s relevance. By writing helpful content — and writing often — your website becomes a much larger presence in searches, across a wide spectrum of keywords. Blogging = traffic, it’s that simple.

Hello, my name is Mr. Free Exposure. I’m a friend of Blogging.

Yeah, blogging is free. The F word. And, if you look above, it brings in traffic. Traffic means potential leads/users/clients/sales. So, if you’re following the logic, you get free business.

The person I was speaking with looked skeptical. Time isn’t free, right? Well, I know that I don’t work every second of the 8 9 hour day. I do some browsing here, some slacking there. It’s only natural! While you’re not working, you might as well be blogging about working. You get to take a break from work, AND you build your business at the same time.

Explain yourself.

It’s often helpful to write about your business. Writing allows you to elaborate on various aspects of your life and business. It’s contemplative. When you share with others, you learn about yourself and your own process. The more you write about who you are and what you do, the better you know yourself.

Some topics you can blog about that make you think:

• What do you do?
  • Are there ways to do it better?
  • Who else is exploring how to improve your industry?
  • What do you like about your job?
  • What is the most challenging aspect of your business?
  • Do you have any funny stories about your job?
• Who are you?
  • How do you spend your free time?
  • How do your hobbies reflect on your life?
  • Have you read any good books recently?
  • Any books about your industry?
  • What’s your favorite local restaurant?
  • What do you want to achieve this year?
  • Have you traveled recently?

When I think SEO, I think of Google. Why? Is it because Google’s PageRank system determines better websites? Is it because Google’s advertising options are superior? It’s as simple as this: Google gets better results than any other search engine.

The major search engines often don’t agree

Optimizing websites for search is frustrating sometimes. The biggest search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. The frustrating part of optimization is the variation between the search engines. The variations in ranking can be huge. I will use Katz Web Design’s ranking information to show some examples:

So you see, there’s a crazy variation between the search engines that can be frustrating. My statistics show, however, that even a bad ranking in Google is better than a good ranking on any other search engine.

92% of my organic keyword search traffic comes from Google

A vast majority of my traffic to my website comes from Google. What about my some of my clients?

These clients have similar ranking placement on Google, MSN, and Yahoo! for many of their keywords. You can see that even so, Google still sends an average of 69.4% more visitors to these websites. Optimizing for other search engines doesn’t have the same return on investment as optimizing for Google does. Google remains king.

What’s your experience with optimizing for various keywords across the search engines?

I am a Denver web designer, and lots of what I do is advise my clients on how to improve their ranking. I do what I can to optimize the code using tried and true SEO techniques. But in the end, it comes down to this: are you willing to work for search engine placement?

2 months later, a look at the results

On January 24 of this year, I set a goal to improve Katz Web Design’s ranking in Google, especially for the terms “Denver Web Design,” and “Denver Web Designers.” I had my blog for 2 days at the time. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• Denver Web Designers - from 41 to 18
• Denver Web Designer - from 29 to 11
• Denver Web Design - from 30 to 11 10

These results have been achieved mostly by writing in this blog. The Katz Web Design site is currently a one-page placeholder with very little content on it. Imagine what will happen when I move this blog over to the KWD site soon.