Launching your website into an international arena is not as simple as you might think. Even just buying the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) names, if you choose to go down that route, can be tricky if you don’t actually have a base in that country. And while the basic principle behind SEO may remain pretty similar from country to country, you’re going to have to put a lot of thought into turning your website international. If you’re looking into multilingual SEO, the first thing you need to decide is how you’re going to deal with translation and keyword research. You cannot simply run your site through a translation tool and assume it will get everything spot-on for you. And while you might think you’ve got the right keywords in the right place, once your international traffic arrives on your site they’re going to be able to tell straight away if it’s been poorly translated – in which case you’ve instantly – Read the full article
I publish this to you guys because in the time I have spent working for Lakeshore Branding, I have learned a lot in what is SEO. As I will be taking a drastic turn in my life and begin working for the man, there are a few important lessons I have learned. First, a quick background. After graduating from the University of Iowa, I helped a colleague start up a webhosting company, Host Duplex. Afterwards, I joined Lakeshore Branding as an SEO Hero (self modified title ) to expand my technical knowledge in the SEO industry and further develop my web development skills. Here are the lessons I have learned as an SEO Hero. 1.) You Don’t Know Jack! One of the many lessons I have learned through life is that real life experience is king. From research and different books, I had thought that I knew my fair share of how to optimize a website. It wasn’t until I began – Read the full article
About a year back we compiled a list of competitive intelligence tools and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Well its a new year now and we thought you deserved an updated list. We went through the old list and threw out a few services that are no longer useful and added a whole bunch of new ones for you to check out. Some of the sites are more convenient than others depending on your needs. Some are free and some our expensive. Some of them directly monitor competitors’ advertising efforts while others track social media channels. Some of them offer several services and others only one or two. Heck, some of them aren’t even meant to be competitive intelligence tools, but we think each has something beneficial to offer. It was by pure coincidence that it came out to be an even 40 tools so let us know if there’s more we need to – Read the full article
In my experience with Internet Marketing and SEO, I have come across a multitude of Internet marketing and SEO terms. A lot of these terms usually have very vague or technical definitions that leave you confused and frustrated. I know how you feel, trust me, I have been there. Fear not, I have compiled a list of internet marketing and SEO keywords in layman’s terms for you people that are new to SEO and internet marketing. 1. Anchor text , anchor link – When you are reading content, and a word is clickable and contains a link. 2. Backlink, back-link – a link from an outside website (outside source) that points back to a website. (i.e. all the links that connect back to your blog) 3. Broken link – a link that fails to connect to it’s intended destination 4. Cloaking – When a website presents one version of itself to the user and another version to the search engine. – Read the full article
It’s that time of the year once again: the time to make lists, review what has happened in the last twelve months, and look back at some of the year’s highlights. It’s no different here at Lakeshore Branding. As you probably know by now, we’re very passionate about all things online. And that’s why we work hard to bring you news, trends, tips, tricks, and the occasional top secrets on Internet marketing, social media, technology and apps, etc. So, as 2010 comes to a close and we herald the coming of a new year, we thought it would be a cool idea to check out Lakeshore Branding’s top 5 blog posts of 2010. 60 Awesome Small Business WordPress Themes This blog post was inspired by the small business owners who are dedicated to finding solutions to enhance their visibility online. And since we were getting a lot of questions about where they might find business-oriented WordPress themes, or how they – Read the full article
Google is not the only search engine in the world. In some large countries like Russia, it isn’t even the most popular. It has been estimated that only one fourth of the Internet’s 2 billion users speak English as their native language. Only one fourth! That means that if you are only optimizing your site for people who speak English then you may be missing out on 1.5 billion potential customers! Obviously if you want to expand your market globally, you have to start thinking about targeting local areas around the globe that search on the Internet in different languages. This means translating your site, among other things that will help SEO-wise, and you should do so because it has been proven that people searching on the web trust their native speaking tongue when it comes to making a purchase on the Internet. Where to Start You must first decide if you want to target by location or by language. – Read the full article
Did you know that 20 percent of all searches on the Internet are for specific locations or businesses? Search giant Google did, and that’s why they changed Google Local to Google Places and began to display – for every search query that may be locally or geographically influenced – the local information for businesses, maps, and directions in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Right now, Google displays seven Places results for every search, as well as a map on the right side of the SERP that shows exactly where these seven places are. Obviously, Google Places pages help customers search these maps for local information while finding businesses within their area that are relevant to their search. Meanwhile, for small businesses, mom-and-pops, stores, offices, and other organizations with a physical address, Google Places is a unique local search tool that can drive and direct those who are searching to those who have something to offer or sell. Leverage this – Read the full article
Article marketing is no doubt one of the quickest and easiest way to promote your website. But most webmasters don’t look into this method of promotion because they think that it is difficult and time-consuming. The fact is, article marketing is probably the cheapest and fastest way to get free targeted visitors to your blog or website. Step 1: Keyword Research To start off your article marketing campaign, effective keyword research is a must. If you are after a specific niche, then the keywords you are after are probably researched already. If you have no idea how to do keyword research, don’t be afraid, here is the perfect place to learn. Some tools to help you get started: Google Keyword Tool (One of the Must-Use of any online marketer) Micro Niche Finder (My personal favorite, because it tells you exactly whether the keyword is good or not) Market Samurai (Another pretty cool market research program, and a bunch of other functions) Make – Read the full article
