SEO

Am I Allowed to Use This?

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I Am NOT A Copyright Expert!

I repeat, I am NOT a copyright expert! Nor do I understand intellectual property law or trademark law. But I can tell you this – if you are ever in doubt about whether you should reuse, repurpose, rewrite, transcribe, copy, or “borrow” something that someone else created then don’t. There are plenty of attorneys that make their living practicing (and defending) copyright law so if you have a burning question about what is legal I’d advise you to find one. What I’m sharing below is my layman’s understanding of what I think you should be aware of. But it is by no means intended to be a definitive guide to copyright law. In other words, don’t rely on this article to tell you everything you need to know. Do your own research and check out the links mentioned in this article for more information. And of course – use common sense!

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Webmaster Guidelines & Google’s 1-Page SEO Guide

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My clients are always asking me what are the best ways to improve their rankings in the search engines. How to get on page 1 of Google. Sadly, there is no silver bullet. No trick or easy answer that will get you to the top. But there are some things you can do to help your chances.

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Tips for Choosing a Domain Name

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Choosing a domain name can be tough. Really tough. Everyone wants a short, accurate, memorable name that closely matches their actual business name, but that perfect combination may not always be available. And let’s not forget that you also want to get your domain with your preferred extension – .com or .net or .whatever. Most small businesses prefer .com, and for good reason. It is by far the most common with over 50% of all sites on the Internet using it. It’s also the one that people expect so it can be hard to swallow if you have to settle for something else. But it’s not the end of the world. Read on and you’ll see that even I learned this.

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Getting My Google Analytics Certification

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I’m very excited to announce that I am enrolled in a Google Analytics Certification Training course scheduled for the latter half of this week. Wednesday, June 12th thru Friday the 14th I’ll be attending class at Cardinal Path Training in New York City. As you might expect, I will have limited availability to phone, text, and email. Should you need me, email will be the best option, but please be patient.

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Follow the Principles of Journalism for Great Content Marketing [Infographic]

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The folks at AboutUs.com published a great infographic last month on content marketing. They took the age-old journalistic approach of asking the questions Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. This is a fun, easy-to-understand look at ways you can improve your own content marketing strategy. Be sure to read their blog post on the subject: Content Marketing: What Is It & Why Should I Do It?

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41 Website Visitors from the International Space Station!

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Wow! I can hardly believe it! I got quite a surprising treat this morning. So I woke up and, like most mornings, got a cup of coffee (black, no sugar) and promptly logged into my Google Analytics account to see how my site was doing. Analytics has a great tool called Real-Time that lets you see website visitors on your site in, you guessed it, real-time, by placing little orange dots on a map of the world. Well, wouldn’t you know it but 41 people were surfing my site from the International Space Station! How cool is that? See for yourself. Here’s a screen-grab of the map straight from my Analytics account.

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“So Now What?” – Creating Content for Your New Website

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OK, the first step is done. You contacted me a few months ago and we worked together to create a beautiful website that you and your visitors love. But the site’s been up for a while now and you’ve noticed that your visitor counts have either leveled off or are dropping. What gives? Is something wrong?

Well, ask yourself a question. When was the last time you added something to your site? Some fresh content. An update on your company. Some interesting industry news. Anything. Visitors to websites are like visitors to museums – if there’s never anything but the same old, dusty dinosaurs to see what’s the point in coming back. They want to see something new.

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The Perfect Website? [Infographic]

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Here it is. What you’ve all been waiting for. Everything you need to know to make your website “perfect”. All illustrated neatly on one simple infographic.

OK, maybe it’s not that simple. But there is some pretty good information and statistics here, though I’m not sure how long they’ll be accurate. One thing I love seeing is the trend toward larger monitors. Designing for small screens stinks! (Did someone say “mobile”?)

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What Do Flightless, Arctic Waterfowl Have to do with My Website?

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Opus the Penguin © Berkeley BreathedA lot! What am I talking about? Penguin! That’s the name of the latest Google algorithm update released last month – April 24th, to be exact. “Great,” you’re no doubt thinking. “Another update designed to punish my site and kick me out of the SERPs!” Well, that’s one way to look at it. But the truth is, if you weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place, you probably didn’t even know that the update had been released because your site was most likely not affected by it.

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How Does Google Search Work?

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Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, posts regular videos on his YouTube channel, Google Webmaster Central, for website owners to better understand how to build sites that Google will index well and offers advice on what not to do to ensure you don’t get dropped from the SERPs (search engine results pages). In his latest video he answers the ultimate question: how does Google work? Not easy to answer in under 8 minutes but somehow he manages. Watching this video is definately time well spent for any new website owner. Take a few minutes (or 7 minutes and 45 seconds) and you might learn a thing or two about how you can improve your content to get a little higher in the rankings.

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