All sites on the web stand to gain something by implementing SEO strategies. Whether it be rankings, traffic, exposure, sales, or any other benefit of optimization, nearly all sites can improve their web presence using SEO tactics. Putting a dollar amount on these benefits, however, can sometimes be tricky. For an ecommerce site, it might be pretty straight forward as to the worth of SEO- if online sales increase, then SEO is working. For an informational site or free directory, SEO’s worth cannot be determined by dollars earned. Instead, we have to look at things like traffic, search engine rankings, amount of new visitors, time on site, bounce rate, and several other areas to determine the worth of SEO to those sites.

Knowing a client’s ultimate goal is an important aspect of carrying out a successful SEO campaign. Driving tons and tons of traffic may be nice, but if none of those visits convert into sales for an online retailer, than there is no real benefit to the client. A brand new site, on the other hand, may do backflips over the huge influx of visitors and increased rankings because it helps get them established on the web.

In the SEO industry, the value of our work is determined mainly by the clients we serve. Obviously, mybrandnewsite.com stands to gain much more from SEO than, say, Google. The end result that each client is looking for also plays a part in determining what SEO is worth. There isn’t a solid, fool proof way to determine the true value of SEO for every website because every website is different. But, if SEO can bring some sort of significant benefit to your site that you were lacking before, be it sales, visits, or rankings, then SEO is worth every penny…or visitor…or contact…or…

Command Line Interface (CLI)

The command line interface or shell, depending on the operating system (OS), is a text input program allowing you to enter text-based commands that control the OS.  The CLI is great for web developers because it allows us to, among other things, quickly search or modify a large number of files, run and administer programs, perform automatic updates and patches, etc. all at the control of our fingertips (no point and click necessary).  Here is what a typical command line looks like:

So all you really do is type in text commands and receive text output, seems pretty simple right?  Don’t let it’s simple interface fool you as this tool could be considered the most powerful tool of them all.

I really can’t stress enough how important the command line is - most all computer geeks worth the glasses on their heads know and love this tool.  You can even build shell “scripts” (files containing multiple shell commands) to perform complex, automated tasks - making your life very easy.  There are even whole books written on the command line interface, so unfortunately I won’t be able to do it much justice right now.

SSH (Secure Shell)

If you’re any web developer worth a hoot, you’ll know what ssh is - a network protocol which allows data to be exchanged between two points in a secure fashion.  You’ll need this to remotely and securely login via a shell and administer your web server or web apps.  SSH is a nice upgrade from the old, insecure telnet days.

A really nice and easy SSH tool I use all the time is Putty for windows, just download it, run it, enter your target host and away you go!  If you’re on a Mac or Linux box, you can just open up your pre-existing shell program and use the “ssh” command to start logging in to a remote host.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP is pretty standard stuff in web development but is worth mentioning for new or aspiring web developers.  FTP is the protocol used to transfer files over the internet, period.  So when you transfer a new site or app you just built from your stagging server to your production, FTP is often used to do this.  A nice FTP client I use is firefox’s FireFTP pluggin, runs right in the web browser.

Subversion (SVN)

I’ve recently discover this wonderful, open source, code versioning control program.  I don’t know why but I really like the name too: Subversion allows you to track what changes where made to which files over time.  This can be a great way to develop on a test machine and then automatically migrate changes to a live, production machine so that customers experience instant updates (rather than seeing buggy web pages or error messages as you hack away).  You can also track which of your employees made which changes to which files, kind of nice when you want to know who screwed up and where.

Most linux installations have a form of subversion installed and is a pretty standard way to manage code/file changes.  The nice thing about subversion is that it’s not limited to tracking just programming code changes, you can manage any type of changes to any type of file.  I’ve also used perforce at my last employer before starting my business, although perforce is not open source and requires a license to run.

FireFox’s Web Developer Tool Bar extension

FireFox is a popular, open source web browser that is gaining market share - it’s a really good browser, mostly because of the many extensions that are available for the product.  One of these great extensions is the Web Developer Toolbar.

If you’re dealing with CSS then you will really want to have this tool.

The pluggin allows you to view CSS styles of a web page in real time, so you know which piece of code is causing which styling to appear on the page.  You can even edit CSS code to have changes appear to your page in real time.

IE 7’s CSS Tool Bar Plugin

To be honest, I really don’t like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser all that much, but since the majority of internet users are on it, we as web developers need to take it into consideration.  The browser is notorious for not following web standards and trying to re-invent the wheel when it comes to interpreting web page code - that means code that displays a certain way on all other browsers might not display the same way on IE, making things difficult for web developers.

Go ahead and download the IE CSS extension, it’ll shed light on those pesky IE CSS bugs.  Another tip that has helped me a lot is to utilize CSS conditional comments in your web page code to import IE specific style sheets whenever an IE browser accesses your web page.

Photoshop

I’ve been using Adobe’s Photoshop since the late 1990’s, around 10 years now (has it been that long?), and must say that I can’t live without this one.  Photoshop is available on windows or mac, while linux has it’s own open source version call Gimp.

One of the single most useful tasks I can do with Photoshop is check to see how many pixels wide something is on a web page.  So if I’m modifying a banner ad or looking to fit a new image onto a page and make everything look exactly right and in place, I can take a screen shot (print screen) of the current web page, import the image into Photoshop, highlight the area of interest and check to see how many pixels I have.

I’ve also designed countless logo concepts and modified countless more images to fit my perceptions.

I’m only scratching the surface of Adobe’s wonderful program, read more about it when you get chance.

Dreamweaver

Even though I’ currently looking for a replacement program, I use Adobe’s Dreamweaver almost every day to modify web page code.  It’s a pretty easy way to open up files via the FTP protocol and just do some straight code edits, or download a complete file set, perform local edits and then upload changes to a remote host.

A lot of experience web developers will cringe at the sound of “Dreamweaver” because sometimes the program can create extra, hidden, unwanted code in your files (which I am still unsure of why).  Not to mention Dreamweaver’s FTP saving featuring is painfully slow….wait….wait…….wait…FTP error occurred…. try again…. wait….wait……success.  Seriously, an FTP file transfer doesn’t take much overhead to run and Dreamweaver has some obvious problems to solve before we see an excellent product - but for now it will have to do.

I’m actually on a trend right now to avoid Dreamweaver and jump into more command line editing or CMS editing if I can as those would be cleaner ways to modify code.

Drupal

The Drupal framework is a very powerful and customizable open source content management system.  In laymen’s terms that means it’s like an instant website in a box that you can customize to your liking.  Drupal has many different software modules with the purpose of extending it’s functionality. - so you could bolt on a newsletter module, or an image upload module, or an e-commerce module to sell products, etc.  You can even create your own custom modules.  There are other CMS frameworks out there for web development purposes but none so far that I’ve seen which have such an easy hook system for custom module programming.

Recently, here at Best Rank, we’ve been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to send ourselves and/or our employees to the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in San Jose this month. I’m even thinking about attending the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East event in October. Part of this decision process is to evaluate whether or not sending myself or an employee was really valuable to our company and could we see a positive return on investment (ROI) from this activity.

For those of you not aware of these conferences, I’ll tell you that they aren’t cheap. The admission cost alone, for a full-conference pass, is roughly $1795 (for SES) and $1195 (for SMX) if you purchase before a certain date, more if you procrastinate. Plus there’s the cost of travel, accommodations, and food. Oh…and let’s not forget the opportunity cost of attending a conference vs. doing your normal work routine; it’s inevitable that you will miss some work and either have to give it to someone else or let it slip and then catch-up later.

So, what’s the value of these conferences? Is it worth me spending ~$3000-4000 per attendee? If I send myself and 2 employees, can I make up the ~$10-12k in expenses?

Let’s look at the positive aspects of search marketing conferences for a minute. What kind of value can a search marketer get out of attending a conference?

Networking

Networking with search marketing colleagues/peers and potential clients can be invaluable. You never know when you’re going to make the right connection at the right time. Not only do these events attract the most well-known professionals in our industry, but they also attract your more under-the-radar search marketers…who can prove to be very valuable connections. Rand Fishkin, over at SEOmoz, wrote a good post about the benefits of search marketing conferences. Check out what he has to say about Community Building, Meeting People, and Securing Relationships.

Learning the Tricks of the Trade

We get so engulfed in our every day work that it’s tough to keep up with reading and continuing education. Going to a conference and attending educational sessions is a good way to force yourself to learn the latest and greatest. Some of the most useful tools and tricks that we currently use were gleaned from sessions we attended at last year’s SES events. Staying up to date with the latest trends, tips, tools, and tactics (the 4 T’s) will keep your business valuable and on the cutting edge of search.

Speaking

I normally take every opportunity that I can get to speak in front of an audience. While I haven’t had the opportunity to speak at a search marketing conference yet, I do know that speaking can be a significant boon to your business. Best Rank is regularly asked to speak at local business and networking events; every time that we speak we always get a fresh new set of hot leads to follow-up with. After every session at search marketing conferences I see the speakers getting swarmed by people. I imagine many of these people turn into quality leads. Speaking in front of a large audience automatically gives you credibility (deserved or not) in the eyes of the audience. They assume that, since you’re in front of a large group of people, you must be an expert…thus able to handle their project. I would encourage anyone to take advantage of speaking opportunities and of the assumptions that audience members make about you, the speaker.

So, how do all these positives translate into an ROI for my investment dollars? The real answer is that I don’t know. If I were to go to SMX East in October, and if I were to make one good connection (client), then I can justify spending the money. However, there is no guarantee that I will get a new client simply by attending this event.

But, what about the educational aspects? If I go to this event and learn some great new tactics, that I turn around and apply to my client’s campaigns, then maybe my client’s site gets an extra boost in traffic and they decide to expand the campaign, thus more money in my pocket.

I have to echo the same sentiment from Carsten Cumbrowski, who wrote a post about this topic over at Reve News (click here for the post). She states that:

“The single most important reason for me to attend real-life conferences is to do something that cannot be replaced by the best communication technology available: human interaction, meeting people face-to-face and getting to know strangers across different verticals that you would not have “bumped into” otherwise.”

Carsten is right!! While I can’t directly tie an ROI to meeting people, it’s obvious that making the right connections at these conferences can significantly outweigh any direct costs involved in the effort. I’ve made connections at search conferences that are worth 5x more than I’ve paid to be there. Plus, I’ve implemented strategies that I’ve learned at search conferences into client campaigns; campaigns that I’ve gotten great results for and ultimately expanded.

I’m probably not going to SES in San Jose this year…but I’ll most likely be at SMX East in October. Hopefully I’ll make some great connections and be able to positively impact my company’s bottom line. Happy conferencing!!

Here’s another good article about the value of search conferences.

When launching a new website or blog, you have a variety of outlets to market yourself. The possibilities are endless, but there are common strategies to successfully promote yourself online.  You can add yourself to directories, submit your URL to search engines, start a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign, engage in affiliate marketing, or hire an seo company; there are many online resources to help boost your web real estate.

If you are looking to get an immediate influx of visitors, rss subscriptions or feedback from people online, one of the most efficient methods is through social media networks.  In this post I will be comparing the two of the most popular Social Bookmarking Sites on the web to date: Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com, and analyze the quality of their visitors.  Both networks have become extremely popular in the last 3 years with an estimated 2.7 million registered users on Digg.com and 5 millon registered users on StumbleUpon.com.

Here at Best Rank we’ve released several stories that have become popular on Digg and StumbleUpon.  In this post I’ve included analytic statistics to show you the difference in user characteristics across both social networks.  The following traffic estimations vary for each popular story, and are dependent on the amount of diggs, time on Digg.com’s front page and quality of article.

Below is a screenshot of one our site’s analytics data, showing a traffic spike, from an article hitting the Digg front page.

Digg Positives

• Drive 1,000 – 50,000+ unique referrals within 1 week.
• 2.7 million registered users

Digg Negatives

• Average time on site was only 8 seconds per visit.
• Users only browsed 1.06 pages per visit.
• Bounce rate was very high at 96.76%.
• If you’re story doesn’t become popular relatively soon (around 24 hours) after submission, chances are that your story will never see large traffic volumes.

Below is a screenshot of an article that hit the Buzz.StumbleUpon.com section of StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon Positives:

• Drive 1,000 – 30,000+ unique referrals within 1 week.
• Inbound traffic was more spread out than Digg: not all in one day.
• Average time on site is higher at 1:36 seconds per visit.
• Users read 1.73 pages per visit.
• Bounce rate was lower than Digg’s at 39.41%.
• 5 millon registered users
• If your story never hits the “buzz” section, the article can still become popular and receive large amounts of traffic if users begin to “review” or “thumb up” your content.

StumbleUpon Negatives

• Traffic is fairly generic and not as themed or targeted as places like Digg who seem to revolve around tech and politics.

Conclusion

Digg has been known to send a substantially higher number of visitors in a shorter amount of time per popular story than StumbleUpon, while StumbleUpon’s traffic seems to have a longer attention span than Digg’s.  Recent studies have also shown that the traffic on Digg.com has been steadily decreasing per popular story.  As seen in the screenshot above, StumbleUpon has a higher average time on site, higher number of pages visited per user, and lower bounce rate: these factors point to the conclusion that the quality of traffic can be considered superior on StumbleUpon vs Digg, especially if you’re looking to help build your brand.  As a search marketing consultant I would recommend building your profile on StumbleUpon just as much, if not more so, than Digg because of the potential for higher quality traffic.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

As of March 2008, Google has acquired a total of 51 companies. These acquisitions include high-profile companies like AOL, YouTube, and DoubleCLick, which Google purchased for $3.1 billion. Google also owns well over 500 domain names, with that number growing everyday.

Aside from the numbers, Google’s internet reach is exemplified by the wide array of products and services they offer. From web applications to business solutions to advertising networks, Google has positioned itself into as many profitable niches as possible. Today, the list of products and services offered by Google includes Gmail, Google News, Google Product Search, Google Goups, Google Maps, Google Video, Google Checkout, Google Apps, Google Earth, and Google Labs, just to name a few.

Perhaps the most well-know (and most profitable) Google service is Adwords, which allows advertisers on the web to reach a highly-targeted segment of potential customers at a fraction of traditional media costs.

Because of it’s affordability and ease of use, thousands of business owners and webmasters have chosen to make Adwords their main advertising vehicle. Google has also established an ad-serving network, called Adsense, in which website owners can allow other Adwords ads to be shown on their site. Because of the widespread use of Adwords, it is not uncommon for a website owner to make a living entirely from Adsense revenue.

The widespread use of search engines, and specifically Google, has also given rise to an entire industry dedicated to improving a website’s search rankings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become less a commodity and more a necessity for businesses looking to establish their presence on the web. A major goal of SEO companies is to increase the rankings of a client’s website for certain keywords. Because Google is the most widely used search engine on the web, increasing organic exposure on Google has become a main focus of the search engine optimization industry.

It isn’t hard to see that Google is a major force on the internet landscape. When your company name becomes a verb (”Google” was added to Webster’s Dictionary in 2006), you must be doing something right. And they show no signs of stopping. Google has recently begun to expand into television and radio advertising. They have also been developing mobile services software called Android, which is an open platform allowing users of any cell phone type to access a range of features including the web, messaging, storage, and media support.

Any way you look at it, Google’s influence on the web is far reaching to say the least. With growth and revenue continuing to increase, that influence is only going to become greater.

Why did Google release search volume numbers?

As more and more companies get better at tracking and reporting search volume numbers and user behavior (compete.com, keyworddiscovery.com) Google realizes that edging in on those markets’ value will help pull people ever closer to the “Google” brand. I mean, Google has the actual search numbers for the lion’s share of the market and wants to capture more mindshare, so what better way to keep us loyal? What’s interesting is that they have not yet updated their Keyword Traffic Estimator Tool to reflect actual search volume numbers.

But what does this mean?

• Google is slowly eating away at the value created by services like Keyword Discovery and WordTracker - if I had a stake in those types of companies I’d be shaking just a bit. 3rd party services never really had accurate search volume numbers but were the closest thing outside of actual analytics data that we had on search volume numbers. What they did provide, however, were relative numbers based on a sampling of total searches in order for us all to have a way to “project” keyword volumes using our own analytics as a base line. Keep in mind that Keyword Discovery and WordTracker’s data are not derived completely from Google but are a sample of the internet population as a whole. This might be more useful if Google weren’t so dominant…
• Basic keyword research can now be done with a lot more accuracy - Adsense allows you to drill down on broad, phrase and exact match where other services do not. If a keyword has a huge broad, or better, phrase match search volume then it’s a good bet that you’ve found a keyword with a long tail that your site can build into and take advantage of. If you see an exact match with a relatively high search volume then go buy yourself a domain with those keywords in it as you may find a lot of domain/direct traffic and that virtual real estate will start to act like it’s physical counter part in the years to come.

What third party keyword tools still have going for them

• Keyword Discovery, for example, mines long tail searches much better than the Adsense tool, so you can get a better picture of what people are searching for - while the Adsense tool still forces you to look at phrases between 1 and 4 keywords long. Google wants you to sign up so they can sell you on broad keyword advertisements.
• 3rd party keyword research tools have an array of features that Adsense doesn’t offer (keep in mind their data is based on samples). For example, Compete’s referral tool shows you which keywords are driving traffic to competing sites and lets you view a domains growth pattern. Seodigger gives you a quick snap shot of a site’s keyword ranking popularity - this can be good if you want to see if a competitor’s website content actually brings in any long tail traffic by looking at the size of the keyword list provided - or if they are just a bunch of fluff. Spyfu gives you the ability to see ads that competitors bid on - good for knowing what keywords the competition tends to cluster around, which might be a good bet for a profitable ppc campaign.

A couple of weeks ago Spot Runner contacted us by phone stating that the following post “Google TV vs. Spot Runner” contained inaccurate information about their company. They asked that we either remove the post or correct the inaccurate info.

We have corrected the inaccurate info in the original post and we are posting their official responses (below) to our previous statements. We have also provided a link from the original post pointing here for updates.

Here’s the exact response to our points that Spot Runner submitted to us in it’s entirety.  I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this info but I’d love to hear what you all have to say about their services.

The items marked in bold are the original descriptions written by Best Rank from our previous post. Directly below Best Rank’s description is Spot Runner’s revisions:

1. BestRank: Customers can select from a huge video library, Spot Runner charges a modest fee of around $500 to personalize your video.

1. Spot Runner customers can select from an extensive library of professional, high-quality ads which will then be customized with a customer’s images, messages and a new voiceover for as low as $499 depending on the level of customization. Spot Runner can also produce a completely custom ad from scratch, and can deploy the Spot Runner Production Network to any business in the United States to capture on-site footage of our clients’ businesses – such as images of their storefronts, customer testimonials, employees at work, product demonstrations and local landmarks. A customer can also use an ad they have created themselves.

2. BestRank: Spot Runner owns and controls your ads.

2. If a customer already has an ad, they can bring it to Spot Runner for placement and they retain ownership of the ad. When using a Spot Runner library ad, Spot Runner retains ownership of the template; however that ad is reserved for the customer’s exclusive use in the selected geographic area for the duration of their campaign and for a period afterwards.

3. BestRank: The minimum amount for a television schedule is $1000 per day

3. Spot Runner does not have established minimum buys. Based on its extensive experience in this space, Spot Runner works with clients to determine the minimum budget necessary for a campaign to be effective, especially relating to a client’s geographic target and campaign type.

4. BestRank: Spot Runner manages your ads according to your budget and preferences, you don’t have control on any negotiations.

4. Spot Runner’s media planning division works closely with a client to define their target audiences and locations to develop a media plan. Spot Runner then negotiates the buy on behalf of its clients.

5. BestRank: Spot Runner controls when and where your ad will show. You can see where the ad was shown only after the ad was aired

5. Spot Runner relieves their customers of the complex issues of buying airtime themselves and provides every customer with the services of an expert media planning team. After working with the customer to define their targets and the goal of their campaign, Spot Runner’s media buying team places the ad buys accordingly. Customers are well aware of what channels their ad will be running on as well as the daypart.

6. BestRank: You are not allowed to control your ad on any shows

6. Customers work closely with Spot Runner to define the best channels to advertise on to reach their target consumer. Spot Runner can also negotiate advertising during specific programming.

7. BestRank: You can buy local and National, the company is going after National Advertisers

7. With Spot Runner you can purchase local, regional and national advertising. Spot Runner’s proprietary geo-targeting technology allows customers to target down to individual neighborhoods. Spot Runner focuses both on local and national advertisers.

8. BestRank: You are allowed to run political ads

8. Spot Runner recently launched its Political Advertising Program catering specifically to the needs of candidates and causes. With this program, Spot Runner aims to leverage the internet and new technologies to open the door for candidates and cause-related initiatives to run highly targeted ads on TV, radio and online.

9. BestRank: You do not have the ability choose specific TV programs

9. Spot Runner can negotiate advertising during specific programs.

10: BestRank: Spot Runner controls when and where your ads will show

10. Spot Runner builds an airtime schedule to reach a customer’s target consumer on the channels they watch in their area of operation, providing detailed reports after the ad airs so they can track their results and grow their business.

11. BestRank: Spot Runner cannot tell you when your ad will air ahead of time

11. Spot Runner provides clients with information on when and where their ads are going to air.

12. BestRank: Greater Broadcast with mostly cable providers which provide a bigger coverage. Dish Network and other direct broadcast combined reach less than 17% of U.S. households, according to Nielsen Media Research (source Spot Runner FAQ section).

12. Spot Runner’s reach includes national and local broadcast and cable networks, a significantly larger portion of U.S. households than what is reached by satellite direct broadcast alone which, all providers combined, reaches less than 17% of U.S. households. Not only does Spot Runner have a geographical reach throughout the U.S. but it also has the proprietary technology to geo-target down to individual neighborhoods.

We still believe that Google TV has a more friendly service, which is easier to integrate with other marketing efforts. But we apologize for any inaccuracies in the original post. Sorry Spot Runner, no hard feelings.

Adobe, who owns the popular flash technology, has announced that they are making it easier for Google and Yahoo to better index dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications that include the Shockwave Flash file (SWF) format. This new technology acts like a virtual user going through the runtime of each Flash application and translates it into something the search engines can better understand.

This all sounds great but when you cut through all the media fluff, you may come to the conclusion that…

Improved flash file indexing does not provide much help to webmasters

• Links within a flash file can now be followed by a web crawler but there is still no indication those links will ever pass link equity as HTML links normally do
• The improvement doesn’t give search engines the ability to index video flash files, i.e. you still need to submit to places like Youtube
• Javascript, in some cases, holds Google back from indexing flash files
• Images inside the flash files will not get indexed
• It’s not yet clear how to order and deliver text within a flash file, like you can with divs and CSS technology - this means search engines may still be taking your text out of context, which means lower than optimal rankings
• You can also tell Adobe’s announcement is a bunch of hype when many “search marketers” simply regurgitate the same press release information with no real purpose or added value other than hoping to skim some keyword traffic and look like they’re authoritative (we all know Adobe made the original press release, guys).

What to know before you act…

• I wouldn’t start designing flash based web sites - not for a long time.  With adobe’s announcement, it may be easier for flash based files and sites to get indexed, however, not all web browsers have flash installed by default - so Google, for example, isn’t likely to start including flash files into their web search results for popular searches.  More likely the case is that search engines will be able to discovery parts of the HTML based web that were never seen before, linked to only by the flash application’s previously un-followable links.
• Flash files in search results will still suck: When a flash file is indexed and then accessed via the search results, only the flash file is loaded into the browser and not the containing page - so you wouldn’t be able to get your message across, to a person, that normally appears on your web page in close proximity to the flash object.
  • Until search engines have a dedicated search vertical for searching through flash content only, I don’t see flash files ever becoming a popular target for HTML based web searches
  • Now there’s an idea… a vertical for searching flash
    

Search engines reap the benefits

I’d say improved flash indexing at this point is more of a shelf space increase activity for search engines to advertise their affiliates on, since it’s their goal to find new, relevant web pages and serve up potential ads.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Google and Yahoo payed some big bucks for Adobe to do this.  You might notice in Adobe’s press release that MSN has not been given the same level treatment as the other two big engines.  I wonder why?

What is a top level domain name (tld)?

A top level domain name is the portion of a domain name that appears after the “.”, so for example: if you had “business.com” as your domain then the “com” would be your top level domain name.  Icaan is now making it so that new top level domains can exist on the internet like .coke or .water, etc.  The new tld’s are expected to be available for purchase sometime in 2009. 

Will .com’s become less valuable?

It now seems businesses have many new ways to market their ideas over the internet with an expanded top level space.  If you take into consideration that there are already many other alternatives to the .com top level domain, we already know and can conclude that the demand for “.com” domains hasn’t gone down as some of the largest domain resellers, places like godaddy and register.com, still recommend “.com” as a first choice before doing a domain name availability check.  As famous domainer Frank Schilling put it:

adding more skim milk to the mix will not stop the cream from rising, and that cream is .com

What does this mean for Search Marketing?

• More websites and business ideas will be going up
• More people utilizing and depending upon search to find what they need in the expanding fray of websites
• Potentially less domain traffic to the .com’s

In dealing with a template-based system such as Shopify, making SEO-friendly changes to your site can be a headache. The main problem in terms of SEO that many users report with Shopify is the difficulty in creating custom Title tags and Meta tags. We recently began optimizing a client’s site that was being hosted on Shopify.com and ran into some similar problems.

After scouring Shopify’s forums, piecing together bits of information, and tweaking the code, we came up with a relatively simple way to include custom tags on your Shopify site.

To create tags, you need to add conditionals to the “theme.liquid” file of your site (bold portion). Here is the technique that we used:

{% case page_title %}
{% when null %}
<title>{{shop.name}} - {{page_title}}</title>
{% when ‘Your Page Title’ %}
<title>Your Custom Title Here</title>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”Your Custom Keywords Here” />
<meta name=”description” content=”Your Custom Description Here” />
{% else %}
<title>{{shop.name}} | {{page_title}}</title>
{% assign maxwords = 20 %}
{% assign indexblog = ‘frontpage’ %}

{% case template %}
{% when ‘collection’ %}
<meta name=”description” content=”{{page_title}}{% if collection.description.size > 0 %}: {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content= “{{collection.title}}{% if collection.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ collection.tags | join: ‘, ‘ }}{% endif %}” />
{% when ‘product’ %}
<meta name=”description” content=”{{page_title}}{% if product.description.size > 0 %}: {{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”{{product.title}}{% if product.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ product.tags | join: ‘, ‘ }}{% endif %}”>
{% when ‘page’ %}
<meta name=”description” content=”{{page_title}}: {{page.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”{{page_title}}”>
{% when ‘blog’ %}
<meta name=”description” content=”{{page_title}}”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”{{page_title}}”>
{% else %}
<meta name=”description” content=”{{shop.name}}{% if blogs.[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content= “{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}{% if link.type == ‘collection_link’ %}{{link.title}} {% endif %}{% endfor %}” />
{% endcase %}

{% endcase %}

Use the bolded conditional statements above for each page that you wish to create customs tags for. For example, if your page was titled “Welcome”, your conditional might look something like this:

{% when ‘Welcome’ %}
<title>T-Shirt Printers | T-Shirt Customization</title>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”t-shirt printing, personalized t-shirts” />
<meta name=”description” content=”Create and customize your own t-shirt” />

This is just one of many ways to create title and meta tags for your Shopify site. There are also several other factors that go into making your Shopify site SEO friendly (internal linking, sitemap, url redirects, etc). Start by creating custom, keyword-focused title and meta tags, and your Shopify site will begin to climb the search engine rankings.