April 2012 - Mike Coleman

SEO, (or search engine optimization, to increase their chances of being found in the search engines, but there is a lot of confusion as to how Google reads a web page.

If you read what Google has to say about the topic, it is relatively simple. When you do a search, Google reads thetag first. This is the line above the URL of your web page.

The second thing Google does is read the meta description tag located in thearea of your HTML. The meta description is a brief description of what your page is about. Google has said they no longer read the meta keywords tag, but they do still read the meta description tag.

Then the search engine will check the images fortags. This tag contains a decription of the image. Google cannot read images but they read the ALT tag instead.

The other things that can impact your Google ranking are your keywords and your navigation. Think about how someone would find your site. What keywords would they use? And use these words on your page. Make sure you check your keyword density. You want to keep it around 2% – 5%. This means for every 100 words of copy, you want to use your keywords 2 – 5 times.

The navigation should be very well planned and you want the user to click as few times as possible to get to the page they are looking for. Generally 2 – 3 clicks from the main navigation bar.

Another thing you can do to help your search results is to create great content. Remember to write for humans first and then write for the search engines. Your content should make sense and clearly describe what the page is about.

Backlinks are a huge factor in how your page ranks in the search results and social media is playing more of a role. But that is a topic for a future article.

If you do all of these things, you should start seeing your search engine rankings improve. Of course, this is an extremely simplified version of the big picture for SEO, but it will give you a good start.

What I just gave you is the tip of the iceberg. It takes constant research to keep up with the latest SEO strategies because Google and Bing are constantly changing their algorithm. There are new things to learn about SEO almost everyday, so it takes a considerable time commitment.

Keyword research and all the other tasks attached to improving your SEO are very time consuming and require very intense research to do properly. But with a little patience and a lot of time, you will see results.

Focusing On Your Work

April 17, 2012 — Leave a comment

Should you focus on results or focus on the worK? Both answers are correct but …

You can be much happier focusing on the work than on the results. Because sometimes you do not have much control over the results. And this can lead to frustration, overwhelm, anxiety, and stress.

But if you get up every morning and focus on the work you have to do without stressing over what may happen or what the results may be, you have the opportunity to be a much happier person.

If you focus on the work you have to do, the results will come.

That is why it’s so important to love what you do for a living. If you are doing what you love to do, then you should have no problem focusing on the work you have to do. You will be able to get up every morning and focus on the tasks that will give you the results you are seeking.

And loving what you do does not mean you love everything you do in your work. There will always be tasks in any entrepreneurial pursuit that you do not like to do, tasks you procrastinate on, or tasks you let someone else do.

The big mistake a lot of people make is thinking every part of their business should be smooth sailing or that they should enjoy everything they do in their business. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you are doing work that matters, it will still be difficult sometimes. But the rewards you receive will be much greater than any sacrifice you make or temporary setback you have to endure.

So, focus on the work (not the results), love what you do, do work that matters, and be happy.

In business building, entrepreneur, goals

Google Video Analytics On YouTube

April 10, 2012 — Leave a comment

You (or your webmaster) are probably using Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your website. Like everything else, you have to know your numbers and Google Analytics is a great tool for letting you know how well your website is performing.

There are also an Analytics tool in YouTube that will show you how well your videos are performing?

Here is how you can check the stats on your YouTube videos:

1. Login to your YouTube account.

2. In the top right side of the page after you login, click on the tiny arrow on the right side of the button that contains your channel name.

3. From the drop-down menu, select ‘Video Manager’.

4. On the next screen, you will see a black horizontal navigation bar. Select ‘Analytics’ and this will take you to the Analytics screen.

On the Analytics screen, you will see a list of options in the left column. You can get a lot of information on how well your video is performing, demographics, where they are finding your video, and much more.

One of the most useful tools on the page is the ‘Audience Retention’ option located in the left column.

By clicking this option, you will learn how long someone watches your video before they leave the page. Of course the goal is for them to stay for the entire video, but as you will see when you start checking this, that is not always the case.

When your Audeince Retention page first comes up, you will see what looks like an error message. To see your stats for a video, you need to click inside the empty ‘Content’ box.

This will provide you with a list of your videos. Just select the video you want to check and your stats will display. This will give you some insight on user behavior and help you tweak your videos so they will be more effective for you in the future.

In business, Featured, Google, internet marketing, internet marketing nashville, LinkedIn, marketing nashville

Are You Working In The Cloud?

April 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

Whether using iCloud for my Mac devices or using Microsoft’s SkyDrive to create a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation, these are great tools to keep track of important information in your business. and they are available to everyone on the Cloud.

Most people have several devices to keep up with, such as an iPhone, iPad, laptop. And keeping all these devices in sync is almost impossible without using iCloud.

iCloud allows you to enter your information on any device and it automatically updates all your other devices almost immediately. It works with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and allows you to keep your calendar synced. Im sure you’ve seen the Mac commercials, so you get the idea. It works. And you get 5GB of free storage.

Microsoft’s SkyDrive is another tool you can use to keep all your data in the cloud. The additional advantage of SkyDrive is you have access to free versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint that you can use within SkyDrive to create a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation. You can then share it or download it to your computer.

Amazon also has their version of the cloud. I currently use iCloud and SkyDrive but haven’t yet experienced Amazon’s Cloud. They also give you 5GB of free storage.

There are several advantages to using the cloud. It offers a cost-effective way to get more storage and allows you the flexibility of being able to share your documents, spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, pictures, etc. with anyone regardless of your location.

Cloud storage also allows you to easily scale up or down depending on your storage needs.

So check out these great free tools and welcome to the 21st century.

In business, entrepreneur, marketing tools, small business marketing, time management