Web Marketing

SEO and You

Getting a website optimized for search engines isn't too difficult it just requires patience and a knowledge of the subject, but it does depend on how it's done. There are three types of SEO tricks, White Hat, Grey Hat and Black Hat.

Black Hat techniques are when you try to trick the search engine into giving you good results. An example would be hiding text on a page by using the same colour.

Grey Hat techniques are when you do something that's not approved by the search engine, but it isn't completely unethical. An example would be Tweeting every page on your website.

And finally White Hat techniques are when you do something that is approved by the search engine without any trickery. I will always use these methods and try to avoid grey hat methods and completely not use black hat methods. An example would be any of the following:

> Meta Tags (Description, Keywords and Author)

> Short Keyword Phrase

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an important tool as it provides us with how people get there from where (example: referalls , directs, and geographical regions) and when they came as well.

To the right I have placed images of my analytics for the months of September 2012 to now (December 13 2012). It tells me how many people were new (49) and returning (33) as well as the sources that they all came from.

Now these images only show a small portion of what Google Analytics does to support SEO and a website altogether. Google Analytics also shows you what keywords or searches people use to find you. So if you have the keywords "happy blue whale" but people are finding you with "delightful whale", you should either increase the presence of your keywords or changing it to suit what people are searching more.

Social Media

Whether you like it or not, social media plays one of the biggest parts for SEO and website/product advertisement. If you look at the popular internet meme, success kid, it started with the kid's mother taking a picture and posting it to Flickr, where soon it spread like wildfire over the internet. The point here is that Social Media is a power that needs to utilized if you want a better chance of having high ranks on any search engine.

Now you may be wondering, "Ok, but how do you use this awesome power?" Thing is it relies not only on being posted on the social media, but it also relies on it being seen and/or shared by people who have similar interests. For example, for my SEO Test Website I used Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Squidoo, Wikipedia, YouTube and countless other websites to share my website, all of which provided most of my traffic for my site. Now it's important to not always come off too desperate, when I posted on forums and other sites I posted my feedback with the article I read as well as a link to my site so people could read more.

All this sharing on other websites make backlinks (links that direct to your site) for your website. It's not in most people's nature (especially web developers/designers) to basically be begging for people to come to the website, but as long as you don't come off desperate and you post on sites that have people with similar interests it'll be fine.

Other Web Marketing Techniques

While everything mentioned above is important, it only scratches the surface of everything that can be done.

> Google Adwords

Paying a certain amount of money per month to display ads based on what people search. You show up on the very top of the page and on the side until your budget runs dry.

> Email Campaigns

Creating newsletters for your members/customers so they know what you're up to is a great way to keep them coming back for your sales or updates. It goes directly to that person and they can come back at anytime.

> Website Titles

Make sure your website directs to your particular geographic region(s) as well adding needed keywords and secondary keywords.

Projects

Xenophobic Czar

  • Use of Social Media marketing
  • Use of SEO Keywords and Copy Writing
  • Use of Title Keywords
  • Ranked First Page

WaveriderMp3

  • Use of Social Media marketing
  • Use of Email Marketing
  • Use of Wordpress
  • Design of Advertisements

PHP Catalog

  • Creating/Updating/Deleting/Reading from a Database
  • Searching from Database
  • jQuery based applications (jPlayer)

About Me

Currently I'm a student here at NAIT, graduating in April 2013. Here at NAIT I've learned the essentials of Web Development, Design, and Marketing. I have learned:
  • SEO Techniques
  • HTML/HTML5
  • CSS/CSS3
  • JavaScript/jQuery
  • PHP
  • C#
  • Basic Design Elements (Contrast, Repitition, Alignment and Proximity)
all skills that can be used to create your website the way you both need and want it. I have also learned to work with people and individually and to complete my work better within a specified timeframe. I'm a professional in my field because of the way I've learned to interact with people and the skills that I have developed to ensure that every one of my clients gets the website they want with as little hassle as possible.