Watching the Competition

Another reason we love www.alexa.com is all the competitive analysis we can glean from the site. For those of you that don’t know, Alexa is a ranking site based solely on traffic. The more traffic you have, the higher the ranking (1 being the best).

So naturally, this would be the place to look and see what other sites are doing to help boost their traffic. Enter in one of your keywords and see what pops up. Find a popular site (ranking closest to 1) and click on site info. From you here you can find

• Sites linking in – that may also be willing to link to you.
• Related links – Other websites you may not have known about. New competition?
• Company info – The site, the contacts, etc.
• Wayback Machine - which provides insights into when the launched a new page, or updated there look or how long they’ve been around – as you know Google gives older pages more credibility.

You may be surprised what a little surfing can do. How long have they been in the business? Who do they partner with? What are their strengths and weaknesses? This information can help you anticipate your competition's next moves.

80 Degrees in November

Dogpatch, San Francisco

Top Ten SEO Basics

“Search Engine Optimization" or “SEO” is all about getting your web site and its many pages found by search engines and “ranking” well when searchers conduct search queries using words or phrases.

1. Keywords - These are words or phrases that describe the content of your page. The more targeted the phrase, the greater the likelihood of your target audience finds you in organic search results (the one you didn’t have to pay for).

2. Title Tag – Should contain keywords or phrases to let the search engines know what the page is about. Every page should have a unique title. A good SEO rule of thumb is the title should contain no more than ten highly relevant keywords.

3. H1 Tag – When we bold something in writing it is to bring attention to it. Using H1 tags has the same effect to search engines. Use sparingly, just like we don’t like someone typing in all caps (the Internet equivalent of shouting) is you bold everything then there is no distinction between regular verbiage and keywords.

4. Alt Tag – Name you pictures already!! Since crawlers can‘t “see” pictures, we need to tell them what they are by naming them.

5. Anchor Text – The text in our links tell the crawler what the linked page is about. Use unique keyword rich verbiage versus “click here” or “shop today.” Unless of course, you want to rank high for the phrase “click here.”

6. In Bound Links – Search engines consider these a “vote” for your site. Encourage inbound links by providing quality content. Other link developing strategies include article submission and posting comments on websites. Make sure your comments add value to the discussion otherwise you’re just another link spammer.

7. Local Search – First of all it’s free. Second, it targets your local customers. Lastly, it provides you another inbound link.

8. Keyword Density – Since your keywords indicate what your page is about, then it would be natural to expect them in the text. Crawlers like 4-8% keyword density. If your keywords don’t appear in the text, then they are probably not the right keywords.

9. Content is King – Who cares if you optimize your site only to have people leave right away (called bounce rate). The idea is to create compelling content that either compels your visitors to do something (Oh, I don’t know –buy your product?) or to return to learn more.

10. If it’s too good to be true – it will get you banned on Google. Avoid link farms, keyword stuffing or any other black hat techniques that promise to get you higher rankings – think of them as the “get rich quick” schemes of SEO.

• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• Yahoo! Webmaster Guidelines

Reality Check

Business Book Club

This month we will be reading Guy Kawasaki's "Reality Check"

In Silicon Valley slang, a “bozo explosion” is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, “If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don’t make sense” . . . it’s time for a reality check.

For nearly three decades, Kawasaki has earned a stellar reputation as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and irreverent pundit. His 2004 bestseller, The Art of the Start, has become the most acclaimed bible for small business. And his blog is consistently one of the fifty most popular in the world.

Now, Kawasaki has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in handy book form. From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices. He explains, for instance:

• How to get a standing ovation
• The art of schmoozing
• How to create a community
• The top ten lies of entrepreneurs
• Everything you wanted to know about getting a job in Silicon Valley but didn’t know who to ask

Provocative, useful, and very funny, this “no bull shiitake” book will show you why readers around the world love Guy Kawasaki.

We will discuss in on12/15 at 6pm EST (3pm PST) on FITbiz

FITbiz Tools

It’s raining . . .

The rains have returned to California, and that’s a good thing. After months of wild fires and low water tables, the rains are a welcome site. And for the skiers out there, a wet season promises a good base at the summit.

One of my past times is gardening. With a busy schedule, watering often becomes a chore. The return of the rains means Mother Nature has taken over for awhile. And all the undone chores in the yard don’t matter because – well, it’s raining.

Rainy days are great for slowing down, contemplating life or simply reading a good book on the couch. Sure, come February or March I’ll be jonesing for a little warmer, dry weather but for now the rain is enough.

When we look at the economy, it’ pretty safe to say the rains have come. We could think of it like a little kid whose baseball game just got rained out or we could take advantage of the rain. If business is slow - top, take a deep breath and take a good look around -consider what you have been putting off because you’ve been so busy. Maybe now is the time to update your business plan, implement new software or even consider the direction your business needs to go. Take advantage of this time to work on your business.

And for now, just enjoy the gentle patter of the raindrops on the roof . . .

Want to know what Google sees?

SEO Tip - Hit Ctrl-A when viewing a site. The areas in white are text, and thus readable by a search bot. Everything else is invisible in Google’s view. So, if your front page is all flash and graphics there is nothing to search.

Also we tell the search bots what is on our site by using H1 tags and anchor text (the words you use in the link). Many of us use links like "click here" or "buy now" erroneously tell the search engine that the page we are linking to is about the keyword "click here." You links should be about the keywords on the linked page - for instance "sf booking services" instead of "click here."

On the Cheap?

Last Saturday, I headed over to the 1^st annual BiztechDay conference. Because who needs to sleep in on a Saturday?

The event touted over 500 attendees, mostly small business owners looking to leverage technology and a slew of service providers. The keynotes reminded us all of the state of the economy – uh thanks? We’re in a “Five Class Rapid, a Financial Earthquake . . .” and a few other bad analogies in case anyone was sleeping through the 24-hour news cycle.

The main keynote of the morning, Tim Feriss was pushing a new book “Four Hour Workweek” despite this his address was hopeful as he pointed out the advantages of being a small business in the current turmoil.

• Talent will be cheaper, as there will be more unemployment.
• Service providers will be cheaper as they try to remain competitive.
• Hiring small businesses as consultants will be cheaper than staffing a full time position.
  

His recommendations were to leverage sites like elance.com to secure talent for projects. To learn more “Four Hour Workweek”

Most attendees were business owners looking for free or low cost solutions to stretch tight marketing and operating budgets. Social Networking remains a buzz among the tech set as a means to leverage low cost of free solutions to network.

We have set a free Ning.com network called FITbiz to allow business owners to network, exchange business lead, chat and more.

Overall, the conference offered some interesting technologies (many of which we may be already using – blogs, networks, newsletters) that will allow small businesses to leverage technology without spending a lot of cash.