Avoiding Duplicate Content

Most web site owners know that duplicate content can hurt their rankings. But often they don’t know what to do about this issue. First, it might be helpful to understand how duplicate content is generated.

For those who don’t know, duplicate content is any content that appears online in more than one place with a different URL. Search engines find it difficult to decide which one is more relevant. They often have no method of determining which one is the original. Therefore, in order to give users the best search experience, they only show one version instead of all of them.

All of this results in the site owner being penalized with lower rankings and slower traffic numbers. Search engines also have trouble knowing which content to rank for query results. They cannot determine whether or not they should include the various versions or not. Finally, they have no way of deciding whether to direct the link metrics to a single page or to several different pages.

Causes of Duplicate Content

There are several reasons why you may have duplicate content out there in cyberspace. One of the most common is “printer-friendly” versions. Printer friendly versions of your content might be helpful for site visitors. No one likes having to print out huge colorful banners just to get their favorite recipe. But unfortunately, when you create a printer friendly version of a page, the search engines will index them and then show two copies of the same content.

Facts about URL Parameters

This occurs when a website owner assigns several URL’s that point to the same page. Search engines like Google strive to crawl websites as efficiently as possible. When they find several copies of the same content, it causes their process to become less effective. How do they know which page is best? Normally, what happens is that they group the URL’s into clusters, consolidating properties from the duplicate into one URL that will provide users with better search results.

Sometimes, web sites will give different session ID’s to each site visitor. This creates multiple URL’s that point to the same page. However, the session ID parameters used to track visitors on a site do not cause a problem. A retail store might create several URL’s that point to the same furniture ad. To combat this, Google has created a parameter handling tool designed to provide them with information on how to handle URLs containing specific parameters.

SEO Best Practice

Google recommends that anytime content can be found at multiple URLs, it should be canonicalized for search engines using the parameter handling tool or a 301 redirect to the correct URL.

For pages that you do not want the search engines to index, use the Meta Robots tag, “noindex, follow”. Pages marked like this will be crawled but they will not be included in search engine directories. This method is commonly used when a webmaster is having pagination issues.

Adaptivity Pro offers expert Utah SEO services to businesses throughout the U.S.  No matter what issues you may be experiencing with your site, the professionals at Adaptivity Pro can fix it. Rank higher with excellent, well-written meta titles and descriptions! Adaptivity Pro of Utah also builds high end web sites and prides itself on being a number one UT web design firm. You can choose the level of service that best suits your business. Let our experts build and maintain your site for you. We can also provide professionally written content as well as interesting blog posts that can be posted weekly or as often as you like.

Adaptivity Pro partners with companies to help them increase their sales with a great web site that will consistently rank well. For professional Salt Lake City SEO, choose Adaptivity Pro.

Posted in SEO Copywriting | No Comments »

Facts About URL’s

URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator” and this is a method of identifying a web site and page for both visitors and search engines. The URL of any web page should be descriptive and brief.

URL’s should be as easy for human visitors to understand as search engines. Most sites these days have multiple pages with the home page URL simply identified by the site name. As you add pages to the site, they should briefly describe each page.

For example, web site structure includes multiple levels of files and navigation. Folders and sub-folders can be called by simple names that quickly tell a visitor what to expect. When you see this URL:

www.adaptivitypro.com/about-company

You can easily tell that this URL points to an About Us page on the Adaptivity Pro website. Besides being clear and easy to understand, a URL should always be shorter than 2083 characters. This is a requirement for Internet Explorer. Hyphens should be used to separate words in a URL.

It is highly recommended that a URL use words whenever possible to indicate what it is. The human visitors as well as search engines prefer that practice over the use of a string of numbers to indicate a location or substance. You can quickly see from the example below how much easier one URL is to read and understand than the other:

http://www.adaptivitypro.com/utah-pay-per-click/

www.lampsplus.com/product/2060711

The first one is simple and to the point but you would need to click on the second one in order to see what the URL points to.

Rank Higher

Pages that use URLs with keywords often rank higher. When a Google Bot crawls the Adaptivity Pro page, it examines the content on the page to see if this content and URL, meta description and meta titles all match. If they do, then the page can often rank well. For great search engine rankings, it’s important that all on-page SEO factors align.

Adaptivity Pro is a professional Utah SEO specialist that assists businesses by optimizing content and all on-page SEO factors to help your site rank higher.  With excellent, well-written meta titles and descriptions, you can be ahead of the competition. AdaptivityPro also works with businesses who are looking for any type of internet marketing such as PPC.  Looking for a high end web site? We are a number one UT web design firm and we let you choose the level of service that best suits your business.

For years, Adaptivity Pro has been helping companies to increase their sales with exceptional web sites that are expertly maintained with fresh content.Our sites often appear on the first page of SERP’s and we understand the principals involved in attaining that number one position. For professional Salt Lake City search engine optimization, choose Adaptivity Pro.

Posted in Utah SEO | No Comments »

Utilizing Meta Descriptions for Stronger SEO

Web sites owners are very keen on using every means possible to increase their page rankings with the search engines. It seems that every new SEO technique that comes along is quickly incorporated into their own Best Practices. Some of these are gimmicky things that come on the scene and then leave just as quickly. Meta descriptions is one of those techniques that has hung around for the long haul though.

Writing great Meta Descriptions is an excellent tool for increasing your site visits because that is the description that people initially read on the SERP. Both Google Bots and humans look at your meta description to determine whether or not they want to click on it. The bots are mostly checking to see if the description found there is an adequate explanation of what your web page is all about. The human visitors are reading it in order to determine if they are interested in your product or service.

You can make you meta descriptions as long as you like but search engines truncate snippets over 160 characters so most people stay at or below that number when writing their page descriptions. The 160 characters does include spaces and punctuation so it’s important to write something catchy and accurate in as few words as possible. Most web site owners do not possess professional copywriting skills and will often hire a pro to write their meta descriptions in order to ensure they’re done right.

Below is an example of a great meta description that will most likely generate site visitors and then one that is written by an amateur. As a savvy internet shopper, decide for yourself which one you would click on. The search term is “investing”.

Good:

Fidelity Investments offers investing advice to help you wisely invest your money in stocks, mutual funds, bonds and ETF’s. Get free stock quotes!

Bad:

We can help you with your investments today. View industry data on analysis and informational guides. Attend our conference on proven strategies.

What makes the first meta description good is that it incorporates some primary keywords like investments, investing, money, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and ETF’s. It also offers something free.

The second description wastes the first 6 words of the description. Those first words should be powerful and hit a home run every time. In many cases, it’s wise to include your company, product or brand name right at the beginning. The second description actually only includes one keyword and it never mentions the company name at all.

Searchers will click on the first meta description at least 22 times more often than the second one. The first site has a good chance of making it to the first page of SERP’s but the second one will be found on page 9.

In your zeal to write good ad copy that the search engines will love, don’t forget about your human visitors. They need to know if your web page contains the facts, info or products they are searching for.

Adaptivity Pro is a professional Utah SEO specialist that can help your site to rank higher by providing you with excellent, well-written meta titles and descriptions. Adaptivity Pro of Utah also builds high end web sites and we are the number one UT web design firm. Our company allows you to choose the level of service that best suits your business. We can build and maintain your site, providing professionally written content as well as fresh content weekly in the way of interesting blog posts.

Adaptivity Pro partners with web site owners to assist them in increasing their sales. We have a long list of satisfied customers who rave about our service. Our sites often appear on the first page of SERP’s and we understand the principals involved in attaining that number one position. For professional Salt Lake City search engine optimization, choose Adaptivity Pro. We partner with our clients for a successful future.

Posted in SEO Copywriting | No Comments »

Helping Increase Search Engine Optimization

Introduction to Internal Links

Internal Links are keywords and/or phrases that are hyperlinked within the domain, e.g., a document on a domain links to another page or tab within the same domain.

A keyword within the document text is the anchor for the hyperlink. For example, using the phrase “Utah Search Engine Optimization” could easily have “Utah” (the keyword) as the anchor. This can be linked to an “About Us” page within the domain’s site.

Internal Links are valuable resources for the following reasons:

• Internal Links allow the reader to jump to certain website sections without scrolling through a lengthy document.
• Internal Links help broaden exposure and increase a website’s ranking power on search engines through promoting links that point internally within a domain.

When a website enters into Google’s URL database, it is for the registered domain. Pages linking within the page are not viewable by Google’s crawling, or spider, structure. Unless the homepage hyperlinks subsequent pages, Google is not able to see them. If a domain has several internal pages, such as “UT Web Design” or “Utah SEO” these can be linked to the homepage. Instead of Google only seeing one site, they would see the homepage in addition to the two aforementioned pages.

Large online retailers provide excellent examples for hyperlinking categories to subcategories, increasing the search engine ratings for each page. For example, a large online pet retailer has a homepage. Once a reader is on the homepage, there are several categories at the top – food, toys, pet grooming services, etc. If a reader clicks on the “food” category, several subcategories appear – dogs, cats, small animals, birds and fish. When clicking on the “dogs” category, several brands of pet food appear. This is a first-rate way to utilize Internal Links to their utmost potential.

<Insert a diagram that reflects the above example>

Link Structure

A link’s structure is unique. For example, using Adaptivity Pro as an example, below is how a hyperlink should appear for their “Online Marketing” page.

<a href=http://www.adaptivitypro.com> Utah Internet Marketing </a>

The beginning reference of “<a” denotes the beginning of the link tag. The subsequent “href=http://www.adaptivitypro.com>” is the link referral location. “Utah Internet Marketing” reflects the anchor’s link and “</a>” is the closure of the link tag.

Link tags can be text, objects or even images.  Crawlable search engines recognize this form of link and automatically add the link to the engine’s database, allowing Internal Links to be indexed and referenced with a site.

No Link Juice

Often time’s hyperlinking within Internal Links is referred to as creating link juice. Just as important, is understanding what does not create juice.

• Forms – Spiders will not register or read forms that require submittal.
• Internal Search Boxes – Spiders will not perform content searches.
• Links to Pages – Search engines allow roughly 150 links per page. While this number is somewhat flexible, it is inadvisable to exceed this medium. Over saturating with too many hyperlinks may prohibit spiders from searching further.
• Un-Parseable Javascript – It is best to use HTML when adding Internal Links and not use Javascript.
• Flash, Java or Plug-Ins – The links embedded within these programs are inaccessible to spiders.
• I-Frames and Frames – This complex structure enables spiders, but unless excellent someone has excellent technical skills related to these products, it is advisable to avoid them and use basic HTML.
• Robots.txt or Meta Robots – This allows a domain owner to restrict spider access to certain pages.

Posted in Link Building Strategies | No Comments »

Keywords for Maximizing Search Engine Optimization

Introduction to Title Tags

In HTML documents, the opening Title or <HEAD> section is the primary word string used by search engines.

The Title contains primary and secondary keywords and is no more than 70 characters in length. Brief descriptions of the article are important as the Title Tag describes the document’s text. The title appears in the browser, on the search results page and on external links and/or websites. Targeting specific Search Engine Optimization (SEO) words in the Title helps distinguish documents, increasing web traffic.

For example, if writing a document about Search Engine Optimization for Salt Lake City companies, it would be best to structure the Title according to the following format:

<HEAD>

<TITLE> Utah Search Engine Optimization </TITLE>

</HEAD>

The Title “Utah Search Engine Optimization” would appear in the browser, as this is the official Title of the document. This will also be the default Title when a reader bookmarks the site in a browser.

Title Elements

• Precision is Key – The Title Element should reflect a precise summary of the document. A Title rich in keywords helps increase search engine results. Confirming a keyword-focused Title is simple and the results are constructive to the task – ensuring that SEO-focused content reflects within the document.
• Length – If the Title exceeds 70 characters, search results will cut it off by indicating so with an ellipsis – “…”
• Keyword Placement – The closer keywords are to the beginning of a Title, the higher ranking the document receives with search engines and the more likely readers are to click on the Title. In the aforementioned example of “Utah Search Engine Optimization,” the keyword is focusing on “Utah” which is why it receives strategic placement at the beginning of the Title.
• Boost Branding – If marketing a popular, specific brand, it is best that this keyword reflects at the beginning of a Title.
• Never Underestimate the Importance of Readability – Always remember that even if a search engine pulls the Title as relevant, if the readability of the Title is severely compromised, this will reduce the likelihood that the document will be read by human eyes. Ensure that the Title is concise, yet makes sense to a reader.

Browser

The Title of the document always appears at the top of the browsing software. Typically, this feature makes the reader feel the article is safe and from a reputable source, though it has little impact on a reader’s visible attention span.

Search Engine Results

When a reader searches for a term, for example, “Salt Lake City Search Engine Optimization” the matching word phrases will either be highlighted or appear in bold. For example, the document “Utah Search Engine Optimization” would appear as “Utah Search Engine Optimization” as these search phrases are identical.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

SEARCH ENGINE INFORMATION

Search engines are tools that have been created to help people who are looking for information or services. To make sure that these searchers find what they are looking for, search engines are programmed so that the web sites with the most useful content will get ranked with more priority.

Search engines do not simply take a page that is loaded with the proper keywords and rank them. There is a definite process that search engines use to decide where a page should appear within its rankings. Some of the major factors include: keywords, incoming links, popularity (based on traffic), proper grammar in the copy, age of the site, and more.

When a search engine analyzes a website, it determines whether or not this page is going to be helpful for a searcher based on complicated algorithms. These algorithms are designed to evaluate a web site and to determine whether or not a searcher will be able to find what they are looking for. If the search engine feels that the site isn’t as good as another, it will rank with lower priority. These algorithms are constantly being tweaked and adjusted to improve the effectiveness of the search engines.

Search engines are designed for the benefit of searchers, not the businesses trying to rank. For this reason it is important to pay close attention to the layout of your site, well-written text, and an easy to use navigation for your pages. If a web site has grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and confusing text, the search engine will notice the flaws. This is one of the many reasons that SEO is about a lot more than just simply repeating your targeted keywords throughout your website.

Incoming links are necessary for achieving solid rankings. Incoming links tell search engines that a web site contains content that is worth linking to by another party. If a search engine sees a site with many incoming links (that aren’t from spam sources, but are from similar industries) it will be more likely to rank the site higher.

Fluctuation in rankings is normal with any major search engine. Rankings on search engines will climb and fall as a normal part of fluctuation. As the search engine algorithms are constantly changing, certain pages will rise and fall in the rankings. The overall goal in search engine optimization is to drive more traffic to the website and increase the overall number of conversions. While rankings are a nice way to gain new traffic, they are much less important than the traffic itself.

Borad keywords are much harder to rank for than specific or regional keywords.  Broad keywords are better left for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. If a new web site is going to offer computer tech support, it would be best to avoid choosing keywords that are generic. By choosing “PC tech support” as one of their keywords, this company is choosing to compete with literally millions of other web sites for rankings. Since most search engines only display ten rankings on their first page, achieving a first page rank is extremely unlikely, especially for a website that is newer and less-established. This company would be better suited choosing a keyword that highlights a specific product or service to optimize, such as “Utah PC tech support.” By choosing a specific keyword, a company can eliminate much of the competition for rankings while also finding their target audience easier.

Rankings take time to achieve. There is no method or trick to get a website ranked on the first page of a major search engine overnight. Search engines need time to index web sites and the process can take on average 90 days (in some cases longer). While it is possible that solid rankings will start appearing before 90 days, the majority of ranking growth will occur afterwards. A linking campaign is helpful for gaining rankings faster.

A well-optimized site will not only rank well on search engines, but it will also be mostly transparent. When a searcher arrives to a web site through a search engine, the last thing they want is to be confronted with a site that is unprofessional. A proper Utah SEO campaign should never interfere with the appeal of a web site. The average search engine user will judge a web site in less than ten seconds. Salt Lake City SEO can only help drive customers to a web site; once the customer arrives, the site must be appealing enough to maintain the customer’s interest long enough to gain a sale or conversion.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Internship Program

Title
Copywriter

Description
There’s more to being a copywriter for Adaptivity Pro than just writing. The copywriters main role is to write articles that talk about the clients service and/or product’s that help with internet marketing.  Copywriters will be trained to write content for websites, title tags and descriptions, and press releases. There may be other writing assignments depending on the client and what they need done to succeed. Copywriters will receive training and a good experience in writing and internet marketing.

Requirements
- At least a sophomore.
- Good internet research skills
- Computer with Microsoft Word
- Good writing skills
- Resume with writing samples

Schedule
Copywriters will be required to work a minimum of 10 hours per week but can work up to 30 hours per week in many cases. They can work morning, noon or night since the position is flexible with their schedule. They can work from home and will have regular training meetings and training calls.

Pay Rate
- Writers will be paid $8-$10 per hour DOE
- Contract position
- Paid once per month

To Apply
To apply for this position please call 801-512-2006. You can visit our website at http://www.adaptivitypro.com

Copywriters can either do an Internship or apply for a part-time job. There’s also a possibility of an internship turning into a part-time job or part-time job turning into a full-time job.

Posted in Misc. | No Comments »

Small Business SEO Tips

Every small business needs its own website. This is a great way to let the world know what your business is all about. With today’s technology, it is often even possible for your small business to draw in clients from all over the world. For instance, if your online store sells office furniture, Obagi skin cream or rents self storage units, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be able to sell your goods and services to someone in Miami as well as Dallas.

But how will potential customers find your website with so many out there? That’s the question many small business owners are asking themselves. One of the big answers is SEO, but there’s a lot more to SEO than just optimizing your text. Though many small businesses are currently having their website content rewritten to include valuable keywords for their site, that’s only the beginning.

Your business may be able to sell to consumers all over the world, but the first clients you should market to are local. It’s important to do a good job of optimizing for local searches. You can do a lot of the leg work yourself and you really should do this so that you know a little something about how keywords and search engine optimizing work. Below are a few great tips to help you get going in the right direction:

1. Sit down with pin and paper and do some brain storming. What are the words or phrases that a user might type into their browser when searching for your business?

Example: Let’s say your business sells sports trading pins in Utah. A user might type:

• Trading pins Utah
• Sports trading pins
• Baseball trading pins

1. Sign up on Google Adwords. There you’ll find a wealth of information about how keywords work and how to generate your own list. Wordtracker is another good tool that allows you to generate keyword lists, but there is a monthly charge for this service.
2. Type in the keywords you’ve come up with for your site and see who’s on that first page of the results. Study their META titles and descriptions. Sometimes people rewrite the content on their site but neglect to optimize their META titles and descriptions.
3. Stay up to date on how SEO works and any changes Google or others might make that could affect your site.
4. Hire professional copywriters to rewrite your text, titles and descriptions. Don’t try to do this yourself. Having professionally written content is key to looking like an expert to the world.

If you find that you just don’t have time to do all the research and stay on top of changing times, then you might consider hiring a Utah SEO expert like Adaptivity Pro. At Adaptivity Pro, we will optimize your site, titles and descriptions and even tweak your coding to ensure that your website ranks high with all search engines. Our customer’s websites traditionally rank very high on the SERP’s. Being on the first page of the SERP’s equates to more sales and bigger sales.

You’ve got a business to run and may not have time to post fresh content to your site each week. Adaptivity Pro works with a team of professional copywriters who give you interesting, well-written articles each week for your blog. This is a great way to draw in new visitors. Adaptivity Pro also gives you amazing high-end Utah web design. Let us help you grow your business to the next level. We offer friendly customer service and affordable rates.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

How to Use Anchor Text to Improve Site Rankings

Most of us see anchor text in just about everything we read online nowadays. It is that visible text on a page of content that has the hyperlink hooked to it. In the best case scenario, the anchor text will link to a page that is completely relevant to the text itself.

For instance, if you wanted to link the words, “Unity Sand”, ideally you would link them to a page on a web site that sells wedding sand. If you wanted to link, kitchen remodel Utah, then you would link it to the kitchen remodeling page of a Utah construction website.

Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, examine this text in order to determine what the subject of the linked-to document is. This makes it extremely important for your hyperlink to be an accurate description of the page it goes to.

Let’s say you want to write an article about mountain bike trips and you want to place some links in the article that will send users to your web site on mountain biking tours. The most effective way to do this is pick a page on your site…for instance, the page on White Rim mountain biking. Next, write a sentence or paragraph in the article that says something about mountain biking and link those words to the page.

As a bonus, the term “mountain bike trips” is on your list of keywords, so it will be doubly effective here.

When the google bots crawl your page they will determine that your web page on White Rim mountain biking is a relevant site for the link “mountain biking”. If they find that numerous sites believe a particular page is relevant to a set of terms, then the rankings for that page improve even more.

Warning: If the page is NOT relevant to mountain biking, then this can hurt your rankings. It’s very important to make sure it does seem relevant to both human visitors and search engine bots.

Your anchor text should give the reader an appropriate description of the content found at the link’s destination. Web site owners once used the words “click here” or something similar in their text. However, sites are moving away from that practice and using specific terms. Check out the two samples below:

Good:

“My business phone system works well and is affordable.”

The words “business phone system” link to a specific page on a web site that offers economical phone systems for small business.

Bad:

“We just got new chopper sunglasses for the whole bike club.”

The words “chopper sunglasses” link to a page on the company return policy.

In the above example, it would be much better to link the words “chopper sunglasses” to that specific web page. The more sites that believe the page is appropriate to the link, the higher the page will rank.

Remember that anchor text holds significant weight with search engines. It does affect your page and/or site rankings. It’s important to use anchor text correctly though or it can actually hurt your site rankings.

Adaptivity Pro provides expert advice on Utah SEO, as well as exceptional UT web design services to businesses throughout America. For Salt Lake City SEO services that beat out all the rest, choose Adaptivity Pro. Every customer receives friendly customer service and personal attention.

Adaptivity Pro builds and maintains high-end websites that rank well with search engines. We are Utah Search Engine Optimization specialists.

Posted in SEO Copywriting | No Comments »

Designing a Website for Ease of Use, Some Tips

Whenever you are creating a new website, design and ease of use are essential. If the design is not functional and not easy enough to use, visitors will become easily impatient and will be discouraged from returning to your website. Here are a few Salt Lake City web design tips for making a website that is both attractive and simple to use.

1. Use different colors. You can use colors to highlight certain sections of your website, like your navigation bar or any other page with specific information. A bold red or blue color, for example, will quickly compel a viewer’s eye. Choose appropriate colors that are not brash and unprofessional, and think about harmony. Over-using colors that are non-complementary will not create a pleasant viewing experience and can drive visitors away.
2. Concentrate your design on the goal. An effective Utah web design will be complementary to the basic goals of the site. If the purpose of the site is to provide information, then your design should emphasize content matter and ease of navigation. If the purpose of the site is to sell a product, then your design should highlight product displays and make searching for products as simple as possible. Think about function; if, for example, your checkout process is particularly complicated, your prospective buyer may get frustrated and simply abandon the purchase. Designing your website with the right marketing features will help generate traffic and may increase your overall return on investment (ROI).
3. Use a consistent design theme. A website with two much going on, with formatting and design style that changes from page to page, will look unprofessional and surely turn visitors away. Choose a consistent design across your website, no matter how little pages it may have. If your website does require different design elements, then think about how you can tie those elements together, so that there is still a commonality. A header or sidebar that remains the same on each page, for example, can help to make transitions between pages smoother. To avoid your visitors from having a discordant experience on your website, make transitions as smooth as possible.
4. Choose simple buttons and links. Website buttons that are too big, flashing, strangely colored or oddly positioned can make for a very unpleasant user experience. Links that are much too long or multiple links that are side by side can be very distracting and confusing. Select simple button designs that are not too alternative or unusual, and limit linking to one or two words rather than an entire line or string of words.
5. Provide a sitemap. A sitemap can be particularly useful, especially if the site is large with many pages. A sitemap provides new visitors with a straightforward snapshot view of all the pages and sections of your site, much like an index. Even familiar visitors to your website can benefit from a sitemap, allowing them to quickly notice new pages and sections of the site.
6. Make sections of your site easily accessible. Make the links and pages on your website as clean and organized as possible. With a format that does not cause confusion, the sections of your site will be easier to access. On each page, keep a header, footer, or sidebar that always has the same links that lead to the main pages of your site, such as the home page or contact page. This format helps to make accessing your information clear and simple.

Designing a website that is both appealing and simple to use can be a challenge, but the outcomes are well worth the work you put in. With a useful SLC web design, you will generate more traffic, a higher ROI, and reap greater benefits from your marketing campaigns.

Posted in Utah Web Design | No Comments »