Aidan Taylor Web Marketing & SEO Services

Creating a Google-Friendly Blog

John-Scott Dixon — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:29:28 +0000

Here's a short and sweet list of things you could do to improve your WordPress blog for Google consumption (assumes your motivation is for blog marketing):

Do you have a Google+ account? If not, stop here and go create one. Your Google+ account is the key to the new concept of "authorship" (introduced by Google in June of last year as rel author). This is where, if you set it up correctly, Google will attribute your contributions. This is where they will bestow topical authority to you.
Have you altered your blog to either link your name to an Author page within your blog/website or directly reference your Google+ account? To do this, I had to edit the "Single Post" file for my theme, replacing the php code for author with a link to my Google+ page. The code I inserted looks like this: by +John-Scott Dixon. You probably should make a change to the main index page or whatever your theme calls the page that contains summaries of your most recent blog posts.
If you've created a blog for SEO purposes - please tell me you upgraded the theme - nothing says SPAM quite like the default WordPress Themes: Twenty Eleven and Twenty Ten.
Install WordPress SEO by Joost de Valk (good dude, got to hangout with him at BlueGlass in LA a few weeks ago). This plugin has a Sitemap XML component - just check the box to enable. It's also the best SEO plugin in my opinion (and we've used nearly all of them).
Add Google Analytics tracking to your blog - Joost makes a great plugin for GA as well - Google Analytics for WordPress.
Verify your blog with Google Webmaster Tools - this will require accessing the DNS manager for your blog's domain - simple procedure (just create a new TXT entry with your unique GWT code (they walk you through the process - I promise it's super easy).
Add your sitemap to GWT - if you go to the enabled WordPress SEO plugin - it has a button to show you your sitemap XML file - you'll need this. This is a dynamic sitemap, so as content gets added to your blog - the plugin will automatically update the file and ping Google.
I recommend adding the "Twitter Facebook Social Share" plugin as well - however, I would only show Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Also, I make it available on the home, posts, and pages only. You'll see what I'm talking about when you configure the plugin. Again, it's super easy.

That's it (for now). Get it done.

Small Business Guide to Email

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:44:18 +0000

I worked with Brinkster and Cloud Magazine to create this infoguide - and I think it would be helpful to the SMB (small and medium-sized businesses) that we serve as well.

What Could Kill The iPhone

John-Scott Dixon — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:24:46 +0000

Have you heard of Google's Project Glass? This represents another leap forward in our technological evolution - possible only because of the interactivity built over the last 5 years or so.

Watch the video below for a view into the future. While I'd wear them in a heartbeat, my nearly 14-year-old daughter said "no way"!

Let me hear your thoughts.

SEO Simplified

John-Scott Dixon — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:44:37 +0000

For as long as I've been doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), at the beginning of each relationship, clients tend to focus on a few really big, killer keywords for their industry. They'll say things like "why aren't we attacking those keywords?" or "the traffic is too low for these other, less used keywords." And, early in my career, I'd panic. I'd start to question myself. Was I steering them wrong by going after a larger number of long-tail keywords, which individually have less traffic potential? Hell no!

Each time I'd calm myself, knowing that I was helping them build a strong net that we could cast wide. I knew we'd bring in far more visitors with this approach than spending more effort, time, and money trying to win on the really popular keywords. The fact is the majority of traffic for any keyword will go to those in the Top 5 of a Google search result. So, getting 100 keywords into the top 5, will often bring considerably more traffic than getting two or three ultra-competitive keywords on the bottom of page one or on page two of the results. The other important fact is that people rarely conclude their research with their first click. They usually go back and refine their search with additional words. So, those long-tail keywords we focus on are typically searched by those getting closer to a purchase, and that's what this is all about!

Moving a WordPress Website?

John-Scott Dixon — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:21:21 +0000

I needed to move a WordPress site to another server the other day to improve performance, so I thought I'd write down the steps in case others might find it helpful. Here are some simple instructions, please follow at your own risk (there's no lifeguard on duty).

Access your domain manager and add an A Record to your DNS settings - I recommend ‘temp’. So, if your domain is example.com, you’ll add temp.example.com. To complete this step, you’ll need to know the IP address of the new server.
Associate the new ‘temp’ version of your domain with the new server (may have to wait an hour or so for propagation to occur).
Install WordPress on the new server to the ‘temp’ version of your domain
Make a backup copy of your database (a SQL file)
Upload the SQL file to the _db_backups folder on the new server (at the root level)
Restore the database associated with the ‘temp’ version of your domain
you may need to open your wp-config.php file and change the database references to match the newly restored database.

define('DB_NAME', 'your database name here');

/** MySQL database username */

define('DB_USER', 'your database name here');

/** MySQL database password */

define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your database password here');

/** MySQL hostname */

define('DB_HOST', 'your database hostname here - it’s usually longer than the username');

Try your site at temp.example.com - if it works proceed. If not, you may have to call your hosting provider for assistance.
Login to the DNS manager for your domain and change the A Record for the primary domain (example.com) to point the ‘@’ record to the new IP address.
Delete the ‘temp’ record.
Login to the Hosting Admin for your old server and remove example.com from the associated domains
login to the Hosting Admin for the new server (you may have to wait an hour or so to do this step) and associate example.com with the server. That’s it - wait for your domain change to propogate - you may see weird stuff for a couple of hours - be patient.

Honor Thy Father

John-Scott Dixon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:21:34 +0000

I've been involved in the Internet/Web business since 1994, so it is with some embarrassment when I tell you, my father's first website was launched in November 2011. Unbelievable right!

Well, I was feeling pretty bad about it until I was able to find a rationalization. The website I put together for my Dad's ophthalmology practice was created using a WordPress theme. In my opinion, WordPress themes were still amateur looking two or three years ago, but today they rival websites designed by professionals. The alternative was to have a website built from scratch or maybe on a platform like Expression Engine. In fact, at Aidan Taylor we built a ton of those types of websites, and our clients paid $20,000 to $40,000 on average. Also, we paid our developers and designers to get it done. It wasn't something I could just do on my own.

The bottom line: up until recently, it was just too expensive for most physicians, where the ROI of a website was unknown.

Now for a quick SEO tip using my Dad's practice as an example. Like I said, he's an eye surgeon. The majority of his surgery involves cataracts (when your natural lens gets cloudy leaving you with reduced or complete loss of vision). My Dad is also located in Joplin, Missouri. So, the best keywords for my Dad's practice include "Joplin", "Cataract", "Cataracts", and "Surgery". Since this is a brand new website without an existing domain, my Dad had the luxury of securing a domain name (web address) that contained these keywords: JoplinCataractSurgery.com. Notice how it has several keyword phrases "Joplin Cataract", "Joplin Cataracts", "Cataract Surgery", and "Joplin Cataract Surgery".

This is like my old standby example: if you search Google for "credit cards", the number one natural result is "creditcards.com", followed by Visa, Mastercard, and the rest of them. The reason CreditCards.com wins is largely the fact that the exact search query is contained in the domain. I do want to point out that a large majority of my colleagues at SEOmoz believe that exact keyword match domains will decrease in effectiveness going forward.

Now, new people are more likely to find my Dad because of SEO performance - and this domain is really going to help. However, to those who already know him, his practice is called "Dixon Eye Center". So, we just forwarded the domain DixonEyeCenter.com to JoplinCataractSurgery.com.

Dad - I should have got it done sooner!

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WTF is Microdata?

John-Scott Dixon — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:16:40 +0000

Have you heard of microdata? It's really just a way to label content to describe the specific type of information contained - like product reviews, description, brand, event, etc. For example, an event has the following properties: venue, starting time, name, and category.

Microdata uses simple attributes in HTML tags to assign brief and descriptive names to items and properties. Google developed this standard with their competitors, Bing and Yahoo, in an effort to create a standard, rather than proprietary structures. The standard is maintained at Schema.org.

This is important because it will allow the search engines to better classify information. Here's a quick example: Today, if a person searches for the keyword "Tacoma vehicle", they'll get results for both trucks by Toyota and a city in Washington. Microdata would enable search engines to only provide those results for Tacoma Trucks, increasing relevancy.

This is also an indicator that your company is paying attention. A website containing microdata is likely to be viewed by Google as more sophisticated, and possibly more believable than competitive sites without it. That means that when Google attempts to provide the most relevant search results, you're in a better position to ascend to the top of the list!

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SEO: It’s a Cinderella Story

John-Scott Dixon — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:27:45 +0000

Not all keywords are equal, and those with great potential should be given every opportunity to shine!

One of the most important things we can pay attention to is the ability of your high-ranking keywords to deliver traffic. The first step is to get as many targeted keywords ranked on the first page of Google as possible (with the Top 5 being the ultimate goal). However, just because a keyword with great traffic potential reaches page one, it doesn't always result in traffic. Sometimes, we have to adjust the landing page for a particular keyword to increase traffic flow.

It's like Cinderella! First, we have to get her to the Ball, but if she's dressed in rags with dirt on her face, she's not likely to get asked to dance by the Prince. She has to be dressed, cleaned up and looking good to attract his attention.

To carry out this metaphor, getting each keyword on page one is like getting them to the Ball. Having compelling Title and META Description Tags (optional pieces of HTML code) for each landing page is like getting your keywords cleaned up and dressed for the Ball. Those tags are what Google shows to people searching for your keywords. They make up the Google "Result" - like creating an advertisement for your keyword. Each qualified prospect is a Prince. When they click through, it's like asking your keyword to dance. And, we want lots of dancing.

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20-Point Pilot’s Checklist for Sending a MailChimp Campaign

John-Scott Dixon — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:33:10 +0000

“Pilot’s Checklist” for MailChimp MailChimp like any other email marketing system, while not difficult, has some complexity that can become dangerous when part of a routine. That’s why pilots have a checklist. It’s to make sure the pilot actually checks everything before hopping in and taking off. Sending an email campaign is like taking off. If you forgot to check something, it’s too late once push the send button. So, to help out those and myself who use MailChimp (or any other email marketing system), I thought I’d provide a 20-point checklist for email marketing management:

Check Form Data for your list to make sure all non-recipient facing segment questions are hidden (otherwise these will be exposed when they click the “update subscription preferences link in the standard MailChimp footer)
Create the appropriate list segment to ensure relevance
Create a unique campaign name that will help you remember what it was about in the future
Check the reply-to-email - is this the correct email address (the typical issue is sending a campaign to a large list with a personal email for replies - not good)
If target segment is greater than 500, create an A|B Split campaign (2 versions of the subject - one with most opens wins) - 20% for 24 hours is recommended
Check Merge Tags - (for first name, use *|TITLE:FNAME|* to ensure Title Case (first letter capitalized)
Check “add Google Analytics tracking to all URLs”
Determine whether campaign should be communicated socially (e.g. general announcements are good candidates for Twitter)
Select best template (if creating from scratch - be sure to save to templates for future use and time savings)
Make sure “Monkey Rewards” are set appropriately
Spell Check HTML version of message
Check Header Message (the short message above the header and body)
Check Social Media Links for accuracy
Send Test to yourself and stakeholders
Get acceptance from other stakeholders
Check that HTML version has been copied to Text-Only version
Re-read your HTML email one more time looking for grammatical errors and opportunities to improve. If any changes are made, I recommend re-reading again until no changes are made.
Re-check the list - are these the appropriate people to receive this message. Have you forgotten any one? Are there people who should not receive this message?
Re-read subject lines
Send your campaign

I hope this saves you some day!

John-Scott Dixon+

If you want to learn more about pushing the limits of MailChimp - read this post

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When a Company gets TOO Big (like Google)

John-Scott Dixon — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:58:40 +0000

This cracked me up so I had to share. For the past several months, I've been using Google Chrome - which I really like (read as FAST). And, whenever I need something that doesn't work on Chrome, I launch Firefox. Well today, I decided to add the Google Toolbar (http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie/index.html) to Google Chrome (useful for our SEO audit). Seems logical, right? Here's the response I got:

I couldn't believe my eyes - "We're sorry, but Google Toolbar is only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox". How does that ever happen? Well, I'll tell you how - it happens when a company gets too big. The real question is how does a big company keep itself coordinated and smart? Any ideas out there?