Drive It – Convert It!

(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog.  In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site.  Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

Website promotion is great – turning visitors into customers – even better. An overview of web conversion strategies and tactics.
Suggested Tags: conversion web ecommerce internet online web marketing promotion seo search engine optimization advertising website design webdesign
Show Summary:
Ten tips to improve website conversions.
1) Define your target
2) Define your objective
3) Define the offer and call to action
4) Define a conversion
5) Match ads to offers to landing pages
6) Vary your approach
7) Test, test, test
8) Audit your conversion process
9) Have a good overall design
10) Build a tracking methodology
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(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog.  In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site.  Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

In Search Engine Optimization part 4 we discuss the ins and outs of getting links to your site to help you drive more traffic to your site – in other words – link building.
Show Summary:
Take-aways from this episode are:
1) What’s a link, what’s a backlink.
2) Why are links important (there’s a number of reasons)
3) How you can get links (and COULD doesn’t always mean SHOULD)
4) The future of linking
Shameless linking plug (add a bastioninternet.com/podcast/ link to your site – thank you very much!). Here’s the code to cut and paste:
To listen to a great <a href=”http://www.bastioninternet.com/podcast/”>Internet marketing podcast</a>, check out BastionInternet.com
Quick links:

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(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog.  In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site.  Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

In Search Engine Optimization part 3 we discuss how to determine the best keyword and keyword phrase targets. This will focus your site on the best terms to increase your rankings in the search engines.
Show Summary:
1) Why Keyword Phrases are important.
The search engines and searchers are all focused on them – at least for now.
2) How to determine what phrases you want to target
Look at the nouns and adjectives that describe your company. Modify and qualify with industry niches, geographic locations, and alternate phrasing.
3) Technical processes to determine which phrases and terms to target
A few methods to see which terms are going to give you the biggest bang with the least competition.
4) Ensuring your website is being developed and maintained to take advantage of keywords in search.
Make sure your site is heading in the right direction
Some quick links I refer to:
– Yahoo Search Marketing tools
My Odeo Channel (odeo/1bf9f36afb79290e)
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(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog.  In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site.  Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

In Search Engine Optimization – Part 2 we discuss On-page Coding. What steps should we take in coding our website to gain in search engine rankings.
Click the “more” link below for a full transcript of the show.
Here is a summary:
(Note: In this podcast, on occasion I refer to the “Content” meta tag. That should be the “Description” meta tag. I guess my “Content is King” theme from Show #3 stayed with me a little too strongly. Sorry for any confusion.)
The code you use on your web pages was designed to tell users more about that page. Thus, it also tells search engines more about your page.  Over the past 5 years the importance of that code has diminished somewhat, but it is still a valuable tool for both the viewers of your page and for the search engine crawlers.
First it’s important to have an understanding of the web itself and how it works. I briefly discuss and explain the following:
1) What is the Internet
2) Web Page Technology
3) How crawlers crawl
4) HTML – the language of the web
5) Specific on-page coding
Within Item 5 – Specific on-page coding, I take a look at 7 items that can help you to higher rankings:
1) Title Tag
2) Alt Attributes
3) Headings tags (like an H1 tag)
4) Meta tag – Description
5) Meta tag – Keywords
6) Internal linking structure
7) Clean code
(see examples here)
This is not a tutorial but is meant to give you an understanding of the relative importance of on-page coding, it’s likely importance in the future, and some of the top areas to examine if you want to pursue your on-page coding in more detail.
If you’d like to get more into the details, there is one excellent resource at www.seomoz.org. I also recommend frequenting www.searchenginewatch.com and www.webmasterworld.com.
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(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog.  In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site.  Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

In Search Engine Optimization – Part 1, we discuss Content Is King. How important is your content in search engine rankings and how do you adapt your content to get the best results.
Click below for a full transcript of the show.
Here is a summary:
Writing content is one of the most challenging aspects of producing a website. However, it’s extremely important from both a Web visitor perspective and from a search engine optimization perspective.
To effectively produce your content you need to plan, write the overview, focus, and refine.
Plan by architecting your website into logical categories and subcategories. Write in a similar style to that of a newspaper with the most important points first and then breaking down into further and further levels of detail. Focus each page on a central idea and incorporate targeted keywords and phrases.
Make further search engine specific refinements such as accessibility, elimination of pronouns, high use of adjectives, variation of keywords and strong use of relevant headings.
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