Website Development – Page 4

Alt text stands for “alternate text”. It was created to give users “alternate” information if for one reason or another they couldn’t view an image. So if a visitor has a slow connection, there’s an error in the image source, or they are visually impaired (requiring the use of a screen reader), they’ll still be able to see or hear the alternative text (as long as it’s being used). It also gives search engine crawlers the ability to index images properly.

Example of an Alt Tag: <img src=”hamburger.jpg” alt=”hamburger with dripping BBQ sauce on a bun with bacon, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes.”>

Alternative text is on the list of on-page seo factors that contribute to ranking increases in Google and Bing.

Alt Text Best Practices

Be Specific – when creating alt text for an image be as specific as possible to convey what the image is all about. Do you think the alt text for the image above should be hamburger? I think we can do better than that. How about alt=”hamburger with dripping BBQ sauce on a bun with bacon, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes.”
Be Concise – screen readers stop at about 125 characters. Keeping it under that limit is recommended.
Be Thorough – all of your images should have alt text. Don’t limit their use to photos. Alt text should be added to buttons and other design elements to describe their function.
Be Sure to Add Keywords – if an image on your page is relevant to the keywords you are targeting on the page, don’t be afraid to add them. Alt text gives you another opportunity to let search engines know that images on your page are relevant to a particular search query. Don’t stuff keywords. One descriptive phrase will do.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is the visible text that is used to link one website to another or to point a user toward a specific file. Most search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, and Bing) use anchor text, as well as other factors, to determine the relevancy of a website when ranking it for a specific keyword. An example of anchor text would be -> Google is Great. “Google is Great” is the anchor text with http://www.google.com being the underlying URL.

April 18, 2017Kevin Ladd No commentsFAQ, Off-Page SEO, SEO FAQ

What is black hat SEO?

Black Hat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an ideology followed by certain webmasters to help them increase exposure for a specific website or product. The techniques used to accomplish this exposure is what typically comes into question. In many cases, whether they know it or not, they violate one or more search engine guidelines. These tactics may benefit the webmaster for a short time before the bottom falls out and they are either severely penalized or permanently banned. Examples of black hat SEO may include:

Keyword Stuffing
Site/Page Cloaking
Doorway Pages
Spam Emails
Invisible Text
Forum/Blog Spam
Duplicate Content
Social Media Spam

Black hat SEO is by no means illegal, except for maybe spam emails and certain copyright violations. The majority of webmasters that practice black hat SEO don’t even know it. In many cases, they just don’t know enough about how a search engine works or have failed to read the terms of service (TOS). The ones that do know are ultimately risking the integrity of their website or product. Black hat SEO, in a nutshell, wastes an unbelievable amount of time and resources for webmasters, visitors, and internet service providers alike. But, until the search engines figure out a good way to stop it from being profitable, it will continue to exist and prosper.

April 18, 2017Kevin Ladd No commentsFAQ, General SEO, SEO FAQ

Rank for Local

Rank for Local is a Digital Marketing Agency located in Phoenix, AZ. We provide Responsive Website Design, Local SEO Services, Lead Generation, Google Adwords Management, and more. If you are looking for a SEO service to help your Local Small Business grow, we can help. We have helped many small and large brands generate new businesses double and even triple their profits! Give us a call and find out how we can help your business.

What is PPC?

The term PPC is an acronym that stands for pay-per-click. It is a type of search engine marketing (SEM) where advertisers bid for ad placement in search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Ads will appear alongside organic results at the top, bottom, and sometimes to the right of most SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). Every time an ad is clicked the advertiser is charged a fee based on real-time bidding as well as several other factors as determined by the search engine. The advantage to this type of advertising is that the advertiser is only charged when their ad is clicked regardless of the number of impressions (times seen by searchers).

Identifying a pay per click campaign can sometimes be tricky since most search engines offer pay-per-click ads in several forms and in some cases the ads are hard to spot.

If you search the web you’re bound to run into several types of paid advertising. The most popular type of PPC ad is the text ad. Other types of ads include: shopping, display, and local search.

Text Ads

Google Adwords (Google’s PPC platform) offers 3-4 paid ads text ads at the top and bottom of their search results page. They are clearly marked with a green “ad” icon. See below. The advertiser with the highest ad rank (Bid + Quality Score) will win the top spot on the page every time the keywords they bid on are searched.

Bing Ads (Microsoft’s PPC platform) offers paid text ads at the top, bottom, and right side of the SERP. They are marked with an “ad” icon but it’s not as easy to spot. See below.

Shopping Ads

In addition to text ads, Google and Bing also offer PPC shopping ads. Shopping ads are not keyword based, but rather utilize a catalog of products with specific product groupings. The catalog is typically uploaded in CSV format with the advertisers latest products and pricing. Shopping ads let searchers see an image of the advertisers product, in addition to the title, current price, and short description.

Google displays their shopping ads at the top or right of a SERP. See below.

Bing Ads also offers a similar shopping experience. They also display their shopping ads at the top or right of a SERP. See below.

Display Ads

Google offers several forms of pay-per-click advertising. Google display ads give you the ability to showcase your ads (text or image ads) across their entire display network. According to Google, “this digital network spans over 2 million websites that reach over 90% of people online”. Their display network utilizes not only Google properties like YouTube and Gmail but a massive network of partner sites that earn revenue using the Adsense platform.

Ads in Google’s display network will typically showcase a blue AdChoices arrow in the top right corner of the ad.

There are several display ad sizes, the most popular are listed below.

leaderboard (728×90)
banner (468×60)
skyscraper (120×600)
wide skyscraper (160×600)
small square (200×200)
square (250×250)
medium rectangle (300×250)
large rectangle (336×280)
half page (300×600)
mobile banner (320×50)
large leaderboard (970×90)

There are several ways to target your display ads. They can be keyword based or use interest targeting. You can also display ads to previous visitors to your site (AKA remarketing or retargeting).

Local Search Ads

Local search ads with Google can target specific locations and feature specific business locations. Just like Google’s other PPC ads, when people search for businesses near them via Google.com or Google Maps (Ex. plumber in Orlando, FL), they may see local search ads featuring business locations. Google’s local ads are displayed in purple.

Conclusion

Pay-per-click advertising has become the most popular type of digital advertising for one reason. It works. Here’s why.

You only pay when someone is generally interested in your ad and clicks.
You can get your ads up and running in minutes.
With specific goals in place you can easily measure results.
You can set a specific budget.
And most importantly, it’s scalable. If a small campaign works and is driving revenue, there is a pretty good chance you’ll be able to increase your budget while maintaining the same percentage of success.