Thursday, March 13, 2008

Truth about MyTypes Vipin Singh and MyTypes.com

So why should I care, mainly because his lies end up as #6 on search results pages. I guess, I taught him something about SEO, which he has learned. I can’t reward his dumb behavior by paying him before we pay any of our other company debts. We are super excited of paying debt to 5 different parties, and making a huge dent in our debt. Things are going really well here, and we are excited about the future prospects of MyTypes.com.

Reputation Management is starting to become a big part of SEO, and blogging. We started to see this trend a few years ago, but didn’t care to talk about it in our SEO blogs or do any kind of work on it. So in reputation management, and in staying positive, we just have to remember, that we can’t get caught in people’s negative energy. About a year and 3 months ago, someone said malicious things about us, on his websites. He is a notorious web and SEO person, we stayed positive and actually got clients out of it. I plan to chalk this experience up again as way to help me grow professionally.

For reputation management, when writing blogs to SEO yourself, I recommend staying above the negative chatter. Also, use the name of your company a couple of times, or your name a couple of times. The title of the post will help to create a Search Engine Friendly URL, which is one of the most important SEO factors. We have been making the connection and leading to b2b and business to business marketing from an SEO perspective. And, also in the process of creating a small business resource center as well as business social networking site. We are currently working on the branding and design lay outs. Here is our SEO blog from the Blog Templates and blogging coach section, where I write every day. But, you already knew that:-).

Photoshop vs. Illustrator, the Alt ego of web designers

Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Which one is better for web designers, I am sure comes up a lot. Read the above resource, of the two amazing tools, it’s a great explanation. 837737___photographer_from_sxchu_photo-blog.jpgI have had web designers and technical people answer this question for me, but after reading that source, it finally makes sense. A lot of you maybe web designers trying to learn about SEO, others maybe marketing people. I am not a web designer, I work with our tech web designer Keith all the time. He takes care of all our tech issues, and I have been asking him for the last few days the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator. I love design, and I am thinking about getting in to web design, to develop some pages for our b2b marketplace and business social networking site. It’s funny, I have been wanting to get in to some sort of a web programming or something technical. And it’s clear to me, I am going to get in to Illustrator and maybe Photoshop later, for web design and blog templates for Wordpress Themes. I am excited about my first project being a real one for our b2b social networking. So what does all of this have to do with SEO, well web designers need to learn SEO and employ that in their web design and technical Meta Tags etc. 356757_11588561from_sxchu_photo-blog.jpg

They too often don’t think about SEO until after a marketing or advertising executive tells them that they can’t see their own website on Google. This is too common of a theme, this is where our SEO blog templates are such as great tool for web designers. Use our base and SEO guide to make sure your Wordpress Themes are SEO’ed. Also as a tip for today, don’t forget about Alt Tags, they are great tool for SEOing your site, but you have to use proper keywords in your Alt Tags. Alt tags, as most designers know, are used to describe pictures or images, even text especially within links. But web designers in my opinion often don’t link enough for SEO, and especially good web designers don’t use proper keywords for SEOing their site. Why is that? Could be that designers as a whole have Alt egos? I think so, designers and probably web designers on the lesser end are a unique bunch. I have said for years, that good or great web designers are harder to find, than actually technical people. I am probably suited to be a web designer more than I want to admit. And, that my friends is not speaking highly of my personality traits, which proves the Alt Ego scenario? 812489_turkish_stalls_from_sxchu_photo-blog.jpg

As a bonus for you, I am going to include another blog below today. Especially, as I had to go off topic from our usual b2b and marketplace topics of such as things as Barter, and online businesses, and tying them to SEO. I had to get to the basics of web design, and actually designer alt ego’s. Enclosed is a blog by our previous blogging coach, can I repeat we miss her great writing. I added the photos, just to add more color, photos Jazz up your blog as usual. I only wish I could write as well, enjoy:

Long Tail Searches and SEO

You’ve probably heard the phrase “long tail” before, especially in regard to business and marketing. Essentially, the long tail is the tail end of a demand curve - there may be lots of people who buy the latest #1 single, but there are many more people buying all sorts of different, obscure albums - the total number of the people buying the varied music is much greater than the people buying the #1 hit. The long tail is part of the reason why companies like Amazon are so successful - they offer tons of different niche items. The inter-connectedness and global scope of the web has made the long tail and catering to niche markets a viable business strategy. 964976_beautiful_girl_from_sxchu_photo-blog.jpg

However, the long tail is also relevant to SEO. Very significant percentage of searches are “long tail searches”, that consist longer, more specific queries that naturally tend to yield fewer results. For instance, if you’re looking for a newly built condo in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood, wouldn’t you type “Chicago condominiums South Loop real estate new construction” or something similar into the search box? After, you’re much likely to find what you’re looking for that way than by just using “Chicago real estate”. Long tail searchers are looking for something very specific. This post on Search Engine Watch’s blog has excellent visuals illustrating long tail searches.

So how does this apply to your blog? Think about your niche and your own unique skills and characteristics. Narrow down your keywords - instead of only using “Chicago real estate agent”, make sure to write about the particular neighborhoods and types of properties you specialize in, for example. Or if you’re any kind of retailer (chances are if you’re an online retailer, you’re already very familiar with niche markets and the long tail), write constant posts about your products. Try to create the most detailed descriptions possible, and aim to be your readers’ source for the latest information about new products in your niche.

Targeting the long tail may end up benefiting you more in the long run - after all, long tail searchers tend to be looking for very specific information, and if you fit into their desired niche, they are that much more likely to bookmark your blog and/or become clients or customers someday.

**A little note from this best of all SEO Consultants blogging here, Moi the main writer here, Vipin Singh. Just kidding, I am the only one blogging here who works as a SEO Consultant right, therefore, I am I give my self all this great credit for my failures as well:-). Long tail kewyord phrases are also a great tool for SEO each individual keyword within the phrases. 967042_meditation_from-sxchu_photo-blog.jpgFor example if we SEO for the Keyword “Silver Cross Rings“, we end up SEOing each keyword, “Silver” and “Cross” and “Rings”. And, we end up SEOing for each combination of keywords such as Silver Cross, Silver Rings, Cross Rings, Cross Ring. Don’t forget that all the major keywords which include our focus keywords such as “Silver Jewelry”, they benefit because the word “Silver” is being used in our “Silver Cross Rings“. Does this makes sense, I don’t think it’s too complicated, but most people don’t think of this Long tail SEO stuff. That is why so many Long tail keyword searches are used very often by all smart SEO Consultants, especially yours truly. This also includes writing contextually when blogging, and linking to appropriate keywords. We have done the same with our Barter, B2b marketing, and Online Marketplace for B2b and small business marketing strategies. As long as the topics are all related, go ahead and use them together.