SEO Advice on your Website - #seopodcast 154

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name's Chris Burris with E-WebStyle. Charles Lewis, internet marketing. I was digging it. I had a lot of extra hand gestures today. That's new. You are listening to the most popular SEO podcast on iTunes, where we have a mantra. And we'll get to that mantra in just a second. Yeah. This is podcast number 154. You are listening to the most, I already said that. Previous podcast, Yeah, I can't do two things at once. There we go. So the previous podcast, we have a tip. And the tip from the previous podcast is your web design is paramount for converting your web traffic. Focus first on usability, then CTAs, and then USPs. Yeah, that was a great tip. And it actually kind of goes into some of the content we'll talk about today. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure that once you apply all these efforts to get traffic to your site, that your site actually turns that traffic into business. So one of the things that we say is, that sets us apart. One, we do this podcast. So we're recognized internationally. And two, we do both components, the website and the actual internet marketing, which, you know, if you've got a pretty website, I've said this about three times this week, if you've got a pretty website and you've got a company that's driving lots of traffic to the website and you're not getting business, who do you complain to? You have a pretty website. Yeah. You're getting lots of traffic. So what's to complain? Well, we're not worried about whether the customer is complaining or not. We want the customer to sign that next contract. And we know that they're not going to if they're not getting a positive ROI. Yeah. So if they're getting lots of traffic to a pretty website and it's not closing, we redo the website. I'm not suggesting we make it ugly. I'm just saying that

we redo the website. Yeah, definitely. So remember, we are your friendly local neighborhood top position snatchers. Yes. Where our mantra is, Don't be a douche. Don't be a douche. Not a good look. Not a good look at all. And if you're by some sort of device right now, go ahead and tweet Facebook, whatever, we tend to tell you to tweet. And Charles will tell you with a tweet. Get on your device and hashtag SEOpodcast154. We're breezing through these things. Hashtag SEOpodcast154. Make sure you tag us at eWebStyle. That way we can retweet it, check it out, figure out who you are, and start networking and building that relationship. But yeah, do that right now. Like not right now, but right now. Right now. We're going to wait. No, we're not. Next, we have our algorithm cataclysm. Ooh, that was good. Yeah, we need like a ground shaking. Yeah, rumbling. So the algorithm cataclysm today is, I was told, Penguin 1.1. Yeah, Penguin 1.1. What they did was, everybody know the Penguin update that happened recently, and that update was strictly to focus on WebStamp. Well, what they did was, inside the algorithm, the algorithm has modules. And so the Penguin 1.1 update was a data update inside one of those modules that went back to Google's regular terms with other, what did it say? Other secret signals that affected how search results are displayed. Secret signals, that's the KFC of search engine. Yes, so let's get to a little bit of news. We've got, I thought this was cool. Flipboard arrives to Android. I don't know if you've ever messed with the iPad. There's an app called Flipboard. It's really cool. It ties into your Facebook. Okay, I've seen somebody using it. Your Facebook and Twitter and any kind of news feeds that you like, it turns them into basically a publication, which is a really well-done thing. And now it's on Android. If you're on our Facebook page, by the way, let's just cover this right now. You can get

to our Facebook page at facebook.com slash e-webstyle. Our Twitter page is twitter.com slash e-webstyle. Our YouTube page is youtube.com slash e-webstyle. And you can email us at, My kids at e-webstyle.com. That was good. Yeah, like that one. It's called harmonizing. Harmonizing. Alone. On our Facebook page, we run contests, caption contests, write a caption for this entertaining photo, and we post jokes. And there was a joke recently. It's a programming joke. I thought it. Right? And I saw the image, and the image that you see on our wall isn't the whole image. There's actually the image plus a joke under it, so you've got to click that image. And the image doesn't match the joke anyway, but that's, anyway. It's a good joke. Go check it out. I thought this was interesting. Language is always really interesting to me. Google has backed an initiative, the Endangered Language Project. And I read a little bit of this article. They're projecting that, not Google. I think linguists in general are projecting that 50% of today's languages will be extinct by 2100. Why does that just seem weird to say, the year 2100? Yeah. That seems, like, extremely far off. Yeah. And, you know, evolution of language is something that has always fascinated. I thought that was cool. How much do you think it costs to charge your iPad every year? How much does it cost to charge your iPad? Every year. Every year. For a full 12 months. Annual iPad charging cost. Yeah. See how they worked? Mm-hmm. It's called keyword, you know. Yeah. Let's see. I have no clue. Are you keyword stuffing our podcast? I have no clue how much it would cost. A buck 36. It was not the number that I would have come up with. Yeah, I was going to say 50, 150, yeah, no. $1.35, $1.36. $1.36, yeah. How did they get that number? Well, I think you can measure the amount of energy that goes in and out every time you charge it and how long it lasts

and all that stuff. Now, I bet that doesn't take into account the fact that you have your charger plugged in all the time and that thing's always warm, so that thing's always draining electricity. So, I'm sure they don't take that into account. We have a review. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Didn't know we had a sound for our reviews, did you? Yeah, that's new. Great tips, great delivery. This is from Adriana. I work as an SEO specialist. So, as soon as I read that, I was like, okay, here it comes. I know, right? And I listen to three SEO podcasts. By the way, we'd like to know what the other ones are. We'll check them out. All of them give actionable information. He might, I won't. I don't have any kind of time. All of them give actionable information and tips. That's all of our. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Oh, yeah, okay. All of the podcasts give actionable information and tips I can use, including the eWebStyle podcast. But, the eWebStyle podcast gives this valuable information in a delivery style that is way more engaging than the others. Thank you for making my time on the Stairmaster that much bearable. Stairmaster. Oh, yeah. What's her name? The name is Adriana. Adriana. Punch in the face to you, Adriana. Man, I don't even hit chicks, but punch in the face is a good punch in the face. Yeah. Thank you for listening. Thank you for tuning in. Yeah. Man, somebody, man, I don't know who I was tweeting with. They recommended we get the sound effect for that. Oh, okay. Yeah, then we have a, now we got a soundboard and we'll get there someday, maybe. Maybe. Who told me that? On our Facebook page, Robert Mansour, he said this. Hi, Chris and Charles, I love the show and listen all the time. However, I do agree with a recent critique insofar as Charles is indeed harder to hear than Chris. It seems the balance isn't right. His voice is about 30% less volume

than Chris, so I have to keep raising the volume to hear Charles and then lower it when Chris starts screaming. He didn't say that. It just seems to be the microphone as farther from Chris and therefore we hear him better. I'm going to fix that right now. If you're watching, I just slid the microphone 30% closer to Charles. Yeah, that probably was like extremely loud. Yeah. That was perfect. We'll put it a little closer. Actually, I have noticed that your deep voice and my relatively high-pitched voice, there's a little contrast there. Okay, so maybe I should talk louder. Yeah. Use that booming voice. We also have Samantha Heinke. Hello, I am doing catch-up on your awesome podcast. Curious, what happened to Podcast 101 on YouTube? I haven't responded to her yet. I glanced at YouTube today. I couldn't even find Podcast 101, which may be the question. So let me know what you're experiencing. Maybe I can find it. That's her experience. Yeah. And we don't have all of our podcasts on YouTube yet, just so you know. Yeah, Samantha, go to Ustream. All of them are on Ustream. If you're checking this one out, they're all there. They're listed. The title has the podcast number in it, and at least that way you can check out 101 while we figure out the YouTube issue. What happened to 101? We posted this on our Facebook page nearly, and the quote is, nearly a quarter of the web's top 10,000 websites have Facebook integration. All Facebook, all Facebook.com. I think that's where the stats came from. And Dave Givens made a comment. It says, I think the headline figure sounds quite low. To be in the top 10,000 sites, you're going to need some massive form of branding and building your brand. And I'm surprised. Yeah. He did read an article that found that 49% have some form of link to the network. That's more the number I was thinking. I was even thinking even 49% would be low. If you're top 10,000 website, you at

least, I would imagine you at least have a link to your Facebook page or to someone's Facebook page. Probably your own. 10,000 seems a little low. Yeah. Well, no, 50% out of the 10,000 top websites have Facebook. That seems low, right? Yeah, that's even lower than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. There's 5,000. Yeah. So. Yeah, we don't believe it. We posted it. It's just an article. Don't kill the messenger. Dave Givens, he seems like a tough guy. Yeah, so our tip from last podcast talked about things you can do to improve your website. We call it CIVO here, Search Engine Visitor Optimization. The industry term for it is conversion optimization. I like CIVO better. And so the article today I pulled from a guy named Stoney. This was a search engine journal. 10 Easy Peasy Conversion Optimization Tips That Make Visitors Happy. And so I immediately, the title caught me. So first off, go punch in the face for the title. It actually does say Easy Peasy. Yeah. He was not ad-libbing. And so as I began reading the tips, what made me want to discuss this article with you is because these are things that we usually judge during a webinar. Right. You know, are the phone numbers visible? Things like that. And so the first one says, make your phone number visible. I know you don't want to handle customer calls all day, especially with issues that can be resolved by viewing the website. But if your number isn't prominently displayed on your site, you're potentially losing customers. Most people won't call, but there's confidence, which is the point I'm getting to. There's confidence that increases when they know that they can call. And so one of the things we try to do here is make sure that the phone number not only is prominent, but that that phone number has the appropriate call to action to go with it. Yeah. If it's, you know, call now for a free consultation, phone number, or, you know, contact us today for information about blah, blah,

blah, phone number. Right. Or call this number to get access to whatever the offer is, phone number. And so that way people may not want to call, but they know they can, and therefore they're more prone to probably convert. I agree with that 100%. I like to see the phone number. And I'm the kind who's like, I want to save them money. I like to kind of do my own research anyway. So I'm going to see if that information is available. Usually by the time I pick up a phone, I actually need, like, I need tier three support for something. Because that's, you know, that's the concept of hiding the phone number is we don't want people to call if they could find answers on the website. And, you know, or get service, you know, find answers for their service. And, yeah, by the time I call, yeah, I'm either ready to order and was frustrated that I wasn't able to place an order. Or I need, like, tier 12 support. Tier 12. Yeah. That's a, I forgot the word. I'm going to say it later when it comes to me. Number two. Actually, it's an apostle. Tier 12. That actually works, doesn't it? Answer emails and phone calls. I'm surprised by how often prospective clients tell me that their company was the only one who followed up with them. This is huge. I had a meeting, a potential client yesterday. Actually went there. Great dude, does security off on the north side of Houston. Actually, they provide unarmed and armed security guards. Right. Top flight security. And so, that's come out of my Friday reference. That's not actually them. So, but anyway, one of his things was, well, Charles, one of the reasons you're here is because I contacted five different companies and you're the only one who actually called me back and emailed and then showed up. Yeah. So, yeah, respond. I mean, the easiest way to get the customer is to respond to the client. So. The easiest way not to get

the customer is don't respond. Don't respond. Yeah. So, respond to emails and phone calls. Number three says fix typos and grammatical errors. This is huge. I am a stickler for this because it immediately reduces the amount of confidence that I have in said company, whatever that company is. Because there's, especially for easy typos, like things that, frankly, WordPress would have underlined in red. And you must have skipped anyway. Yeah. You know, like, come on. So, right now we can imagine a very bad website with no phone number and lots of typos. Type errors. Typos. Where's typo come from, I wonder. Yeah. But apparently, it's a real word. Yeah. The typo doesn't get underlined in red. Yeah. So, show prices and shipping info. This is huge. I am a huge online shopper, which goes back to the phone number deal. Because if there isn't any prices, or if there's no prices, I'll go to a different site. But if there isn't any readily available shipping information, then, and I really want the product, I may make that phone call. If there's no phone number, then, yeah, now there's a bounce. Yeah. But, yeah, show prices, show shipping information. It went in at least two places. Once on the, well, maybe even three places. Once for sure on the product page. Price needs to be there. Description needs to be there. And shipping options should be, if not there, at least on a checkout page. Right. And then, of course, on your terms of service or privacy policies, some people tend to combine those pages. Shipping information and things like that should be listed there as well. People used to go in there to find that sort of information. One, two, three, or five. Number five, create an about us page. I do want to make some comment about pricing. I think it does depend on industry. Right? So, we don't have pricing on our website. We're a service. Our service is customized basically to every single customer. Our price range can be, you know, whatever, $750

to $10,000. So, that price range doesn't really help. In fact, it's more likely to scare away some clients who actually could be clients than it would be to set people at ease. So, I think it does depend on your industry. It depends on the industry. I think he was referring to e-com. To e-com. Yeah. Clearly with e-com. You can, again, imagine the worst site. No phone number, typos, no pricing. Why am I here? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not about to put my billing information in. But create an about us page. That goes without saying. People, especially in a situation like ours where the cost could be $10,000, right? Could be $5,000 monthly. And so, people need to know it's not just a quick purchase. It's more of an investment in your internet marketing campaign. And, therefore, people want to research, you know, who is Charles? What does he do? How long has he been there? So, all this information is on our SEO podcast page. Go there. You can check it out. You can see links to personal social profiles. And this information is readily available because we need to build that confidence in the user. And so, if your site is lacking in the about us page and you provide a service that incurs a cost to that client, then, you know, how do you expect them to know who you're looking for? And I'll also say this. About us has kind of become the standard. We met with a client. We met with one of our other clients the other day to finalize their site. And they wanted to change about us to partners. Right. And when I read the navigation that they gave me that they wanted to change to, I said, well, why? Yeah. Right? About us is what people are going to look for. And he had a great answer for that, which is why it's partners now. Why it's state partners. Well, he said, because most of our site visits come from people who we've sent to our site.

Right. And it's not a huge company. It's two people and we're partners. Right. Yeah. Okay. Enough said. You know, I recommend about us. But if you want partners, we'll put partners. Yeah. And that's kind of what we do. You know, we'll tell you where we think should go. And at the end of the day, it's your decision. Underline your links. I like this one. Some people make them bold. Some people make them italics or emphasis. But underline them. I mean, that's just kind of standard. People know if it's blue, it's underlined, I can click on it. So, yeah, underline your links. Especially if you want people to click on them to get to other pages in your site. I think some people kind of disguise their links because they're optimizing or whatnot. And they not necessarily want people to click on the link. They just need the link. Well, I feel like if you need the link, you should need people to click on it. If you don't want people to click on it, then you probably don't need that link. Right. That's really a panda update deal. You know, all these links and hidden links and all this other stuff that's kind of web spammy. Yeah, get rid of it. So, make them blue, underline them, keep it simple. And remember, linking to other pages is actually a good thing. Remember, the bottom line is if you're providing a good experience to the Google user, then Google's going to like you and rank you well. Number seven was create a custom 404 error page. I think this is huge because that way at least you know the site isn't down or that something wrong happened. Well, if they had a 404 or something wrong, it did happen. But at least you can take that page and give them information to go other places. To redirect them, yeah. You know, at least you go to a page that has the same looking feel as the site rather than a page that can't be displayed 404.

And now they're totally lost and definitely have a bounce. At least with a custom 404, your navigation's still there. They can still get at least back to the page they came from and still find what they're looking for on the site. So, yeah, do a custom 404 page. And this number eight goes, well, number nine goes to what you were saying a few minutes ago. Add links to your body content. You know, one of the articles he goes on to say about people who are engaged in your content, if they're reading the content and they're thoroughly kind of going through what you have to say, then include links to certain sections of your site that you mention in the content. For example, if you're talking about your partners or the team, put a link to your About Us page there. If you begin talking about your services, put a link to your services page there. If you close that article out with, you know, so contact me for blah, blah, blah, that should link to your contact page. And so that way the person who's reading the article, who's reading the post, can navigate through the site without being forced to go back to the navigation. From an SEO perspective, you would tend to want to make those links keyword rich. And now my recommendation is to tread softly. You know, it's good to have some keyword matching anchor text. And this is probably a whole other podcast in itself, but with Panda and with Penguin Updates, they're looking at that. If you have tons of anchor text, that's the same keyword. I think we talked about this on 152. Yeah, they're considering that kind of spammy. So, you know, where we used to stay away from click here, now click here kind of works again. It has some relevant value to the search engines, or at least to Google specifically. Number nine, fix broken links. Come on. Number ten, calls to action. And so, again, every page you're in sight needs to have at

least one call to action. You know, continue reading at the cart by now, view testimonials. Whatever your call is, I totally concur. You should have some sort of action on every page, regardless of what that action is. But you don't want to leave the user with a now-what-do-I-do situation. Get that end page, yeah. Yeah, you want to guide them to your eventual goal, which is that conversion. If it's a form submission, if it's a phone call, if it's a download, if it's a product purchase, or whatever it is, make sure you continuously guide them to that desired action on each page on your site. That was the top ten easy-peasy conversion optimization tips that make website visitors happy. Absolutely. And we call that CVO, Search Engine Visitor Optimization. What do you do with the visitor after they arrive on your website from a search engine? You got a blank stare. All right, got a blank stare. It is a blank stare. It's interesting, blank stare, because I use the Nexus phone by Samsung. And so, Google Android is releasing the new version, 4.1, and they leaked the name out on accident. And so now it's only going to be available, yeah, on accident. On accident. And so it's only going to be available for the Nexus Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean, okay. Yeah, it's going to be called Jelly Bean. And so they had, apparently they had people, they were selling unlocked versions through the Play Store. Right. And it was just supposed to be called 4.1, but the developer added the name Jelly Bean to it. And so now that gave everybody a hint on what was coming new. And so now they're just calling it Jelly Bean 4.1 because that's what it is. That's what it is, and so the Nexus is going to get that first? Yes, the Nexus is going to get it first. Cool. Yeah, the upgrades have been valuable for me, that's for sure. Fix little things here and there. Cool. Well, you have been listening to the most popular

SEO podcast on iTunes. Actually, also the most popular internet marketing podcast on iTunes. That is because of you, you, you, you. And you right there. And you right there in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe. No way that guy hit us on LinkedIn. I couldn't think of his name. I'll respond on those. He said he likes the podcast. It's LinkedIn review. I think that's the first. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. In fact, that is something that you can do to help us and support us in getting this information out to you. Go on to iTunes, create an account, and submit a review. Hit us up, podcast at e-webstyle.com, and let us know that you submitted a review, and we'll give you a punch in the face, also known as some link love. You could also go to e-webstyle.com slash seopodcast. Right below the videos, you can find our Google Places page, which will probably now take you to the Google Plus page. Go there and write a review. That really helps us do well, and we appreciate it. And if you're getting any value out of this podcast, great. Thank you. If you're not, send us an email. Hit us up on Facebook. Tell us what you would like to hear. Yeah. Or what you don't find valuable. You know, we take it off. And let us know if you could hear Chuck better this podcast than some of the previous ones. Yeah, I got to stand up straight and speak loud. Project. Yeah. Project. Mm-hmm. All right. Until next time, my name is Chris Perez. Charles Lewis. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.