Orange County SEO™ Blog

Fix Those Broken Links with Creative Tips

Jon Cooper of SEO Book has some creative tips for how you can use blogrolls to fix broken links.

We are all aware of those pesky 404 error messages, but often we are not sure of an easy, global way to fix the problem. For very large websites, moving through each page searching for broken links is not a palatable option. Instead, try Jon’s tips for removing 404s from your website and find out how easy it can be to clean up your pages.

Orange County SEO has dozens of ways that you can perk up your web presence through the creative use of online marketing for small business strategies. Talk to us about website design and development and all your other marketing needs. Read More »

Escaping the Panda Havoc

The Panda is loose and creating havoc. On February 25, 2011, Google released its version of the anti-content-farm software that went on to take out legitimate websites, as well. Webmasters have been scrambling to fix problems associated with duplicate content and other issues raised by the Panda release.

However, Google provided guidance to those who have been caught in the Panda problem. Here is specific guidance on these issues for e-commerce websites, distilled from Google’s instructions.

If you are looking for the best link building services or help with fixing website problems, talk to Orange County SEO. We can help you identify and correct issues that have lowered your search engine rankings. Read More »

The SEO Break Down

Yes, it is true that in order to have a website that will work for you, you have to utilize smart SEO, excellent web design, local search marketing, link building, and social media marketing. In fact, there is so much that you need to do in order to have a successful website that it can start to feel overwhelming for the average do-it-yourselfer.

The reality is that a website doesn’t have to be DIY. Yes, website design has grown by leaps and bounds, making it easier than ever to create the site you want, but there are still so many things you need to know and take into consideration. The good news is that there are smart and professional web designers out there to help you, and the prices are only getting more reasonable. Working with skilled and trained professionals, like those at Orange County SEO, can help you create the perfect website that will help you to grow your business.

Saying that a website doesn’t have to be DIY really isn’t saying enough. If you want to have a professional web site, that uses the right keywords, that offers excellent SEO, and helps expand your business, you need professional web design help. That is all there is to it.

SEO is serious business and it is complicated. There are a lot of small factors that need to be taken into consideration when building a website. When it comes to getting the higher SEO rankings there is much to consider, Google alone has over 200 factors that play into how they rank your website. Here is a listing of just some of the pieces that your website needs to hold in order to get high rankings:

The above is a listing of the things that you want to have on your site, but there are also many violations and blocks that can hinder your site, push you down in the search engine rankings, and even get you banned from the search engine completely. Things to watch out for are issues like:

Keyword Stuffing
Only Paid Links
Spam
Cloaking

This might seem confusing, or like too much information, but the good news is that you don’t have to worry about all of these pieces when you work with professionals like you will find at Orange County SEO. Marketing your business online has never been more important than it is right now and you don’t have to do it alone.

What Exactly is SEO

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last five years, you’ve probably heard the term SEO thrown around a lot in reference to creating website traffic. SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website in order to bring traffic to you. When done properly, SEO should help your website to be in the top rankings for searches conducted using relevant search keywords. Of course, successful SEO isn’t as simple as it may seem.

You see, unless someone specifically knows the name of your business, they will not be typing “Frank’s Tires” into the search engine. They don’t have any idea “Frank’s Tires” is a business that they could call to fix their flat tire. This potential customer is going to use a keyword to help them locate quality websites connected to what they are searching for.

So, if customer X is looking for a flat tire repair service, they may search for “flat tire repair” with their location.
What all of this means is that you need your website to pop up when they search for those ‘keywords‘. You need to make sure that your website is deemed relevant to the average web surfer, which is a decision that the search engines make.

There are really four factors that make up essential SEO and each of these four categories can be broken down further into sub-categories. The four main categories that need you need to be aware of are: on-page ranking issues, off-page ranking issues, violations, and blocking. You cannot expect only to think about one or two of these categories. And there’s no single tried-and-true way to conquer the SEO pyramid.

Creating a successful SEO strategy requires a careful process of combining these factors, getting them to work together, and ensuring that they are high quality. If you have a thousand links on your site, this can boost your rankings, but if none of them actually work, this could count against you. When it comes to your website, you don’t want to make mistakes that could cost you business.

Working with a company that can create the perfect SEO combination is going to be important to helping you grow. You don’t have to look any further than Orange County SEO to find that perfect balance between good SEO and being a dependable resource online.

Best Link Building Strategy: Quality Content

Smart web marketers and SEO experts work hard to build a solid link building strategy. Without great link building, achieving higher rankings in major search engines is going to be tough. The problem is that there are plenty of ways to do link building wrong. This can cause your website to be flagged by major search engines and dropped out of their search results.

Where most people go wrong, is focusing too much on acquiring a high number of links. This might work in theory, but it rarely works in practice. Getting too many low quality links is actually what caused many sites to lose traffic after the last major Google update. This update is a reminder that it’s better acquiring high-quality, relevant links.
A popular link building strategy you may of about is link bait. Link bait is the process is creating quality content specifically to try and make that content go viral. It isn’t easy to make content that goes viral. More often than not, viral content happens randomly. There isn’t really a tried and true method for the process because it really comes down to knowing your target audience and what they want to share on the web.

But what is worse than creating something with link baiting in mind and having it not go anywhere is if you turn people away from your website because they feel you tried to trick them. If you have a regular blog connected to your website and try to link bait, your actual readers might get fed up with the schemes and stop being a regular reader. Always remember that you should always put users before search engines.

Instead of trying to trick people into going to your site or crossing your fingers and hoping your content goes viral, try to approach your website link process from a more professional standpoint. This all starts with a solid link building strategy. This might sound like a daunting task, but if you work with a reputable web design company who can help you with your online marketing and link building, it can simply be a matter of doing some research and getting the work done.

We help our clients create exactly what they need to be well represented on the Internet. You don’t have to try and figure out link building, SEO, internet marketing, and even local maps SEO; when you hire professionals to help you with your website development, you can trust that your needs will be fully taken care of, and it will be done without having to take up your valuable time.