Thanks to Jon for letting me post to his blog…I am much more responsible when I am held accountable to someone else.  So when Jon asked me to be a guest blogger, I jumped at the opportunity…ok, last month I jumped at the opportunity.  But I DID jump.

The purpose of this “guest blogging” by Tweeter: NotesFromKris. aka Kristina McInerny, is to impart my vast source of knowledge on website SEO.  It’s actually just a ploy on Jon’s part to get free advice for his own website.  It worked!

Let’s start small…

Let’s talk about images…

Search Engines (Google, Ask, MSN, Jeeves, etc) cannot “SEE” images; all they see is text.   For images on your website, you need to be concerned with the following:

• file names
• alt property
• title property

Your filename needs to have hyphens between key words, no spaces, norunons (ha!), and it must consist of KEYWORDS.  Keywords are a whole other discussion for advanced users.  For this discussion and all future blogs, we will use an anti-gravity chair as our example product/marketing/web-site focus.

An anti-gravity chair defies gravity.  It is built for those who sit on their butts alot.  It is comfy and ergonomic.  We’ll assume that your optimized keywords are the following:

• anti-gravity
• comfortable chair
• floor vibration
• custom chairs
• comfort sitting
• sore back
• ergonomic chair

(Questions I asked myself in coming up with these:  what problem are you trying to combat with this chair; what would people search for?)

So, before uploading your image, name it “comfortable-anti-gravity-custom-chair.jpg”.

IF you have control over your content and IF you know how to update your image properties, add the ‘ALT’ property to the “img” tag (or select image properties from your content management system; CMS).  If you don’t have access to your website and don’t know how to update the source code, why are you reading this?

ALT stands for alternate; additional text that describes the photo, originally added for the browsers that didn’t display images or back ‘in the day’ when internet connectivity was slower than honey on a cold Northern day.  Nowadays, internet is fast we don’t have to worry about turning off images.  The ALT property is ADA compliant for the visually impaired.

So.. your html tag will look like this:

<img src=”/images/comfortable-anti-gravity-custom-chair.jpg” alt=”Black Anti-Gravity Chair to support your back and provide ergonomic support”>

Search engines can dig deeper into indexing your site with this.

The TITLE property is what displays when you mouse over an image…I believe there are some differences among browsers about which one (ALT or TITLE) appears on mouse-over.  If the image is not available, ALT text will display, but if you don’t have a TITLE property, I believe that the ALT shows up upon mouse-over.

So.. your html tag will look like this:

<img src=”/images/comfortable-anti-gravity-custom-chair.jpg” alt=”Black Anti-Gravity Chair to support your back and provide ergonomic support” title=”Support a Healthy Back with the Anti-Gravity chair for ergonomic support.”>

Yes I like the word ergonomic.

Yes, your designer (assuming custom design) should be providing you with images that have seo-friendly file names.  Yes, you should be paying them to do this extra bit of work.  Yes, every little bit helps.  Yes, the html provided to you should be optimized.  Yes, you can do this later, but the earlier in the process you start this, the more likely:

1. you will actually DO it
2. it will be cheaper

Search Engine Optimization is a big puzzle.  You can usually make out what a puzzle is going to look like with most of the pieces, but the more the pieces, the more clear the puzzle picture for the search engines.

Talk to the wing!

This post is third in a series about the Live Web, Tiwtter, and your business.

The new “Live Web” applications, such as Twitter, can be a great source of news and ideas, as well as an outlet for your business ongoings, new developments, marketing, and advertising.

But – be warned – if you overdo it, you will be outed.

I’m on twitter (@jcolier), as are most internet users that want to be involved in this latest live technology.  The way it works is that you follow people to see their “tweets”, or entries, and people follow you to see what you have to say.

But don’t take advantage of peoples patience or tolerance – or you’ll be dropped.

I was following one news source (I won’t mention who it is).  The well-known business outlet would post 4 – 5 posts in a row, about every 10 – 15 minutes.  I try to at least read what everyone posts, and since I follow some quality people who post some very interesting news and links to sites, I end up reading further as to what they suggest.

By getting an influx of postings from one particular source not only bumps the other postings down the list, and eventually off my visible page, but also keeps me from getting into any depth any interesting articles that come my way.  I gave it a couple days, but eventually decided to stop following that source.

So – some general rules which your readers will appreciate you following:

• Keep your posts short and to the point (you only have 140 characters to post anyway)
• Always leave about 10-15 characters under the maximum so other people can re-tweet you (therefore, keep your post to the 120-125 mark).
• Make sure your post is succinct and to the point – people will only take a second or two to decide whether to follow through on information you post.
• Limit your post to once or twice an hour, unless you have something VERY important to pass along.
• Make sure you respond to people who send direct tweets to you – it’s considerate.
• Remember that people who join twitter are not only there to read information, but also to be heard by others.  Everyone wants their 1 – 2 seconds of fame.
• Check out the blog twitip for more information and tips on twittering.

It’s true that the internet is a very crowded place, but there is room for everyone.  Don’t try to hog it all for yourself!  Play by the rules, be fair, and be considerate, and you will be taken much more seriously on the new “Live Web”.

Do you have experience with “over-twitters”?  Post a comment and share with the world!

This social media thing is getting the best of me.  It is getting very crowded, and quite chaotic.

For example – if you go to the bottom of this posting, and click the “Share This” button and expand it downward, you’ll see more than 100 social media sites on which to share this post.  That is far too many to keep up with!

So it ends up that there are a few popular ones, but I still know people that read from an wide assortment of them.  As a blogger, I can’t possibly share or post a link to my blog to all of those sites, which is what a blogger should do.  The more sites you get your post onto, the more it will be shared, and the more people will come and look at it and post comments.

I don’t see the list getting any smaller any time soon.  The sharing sites are free to use, you just have to sign up and post what you like.  Eventually, if it hasn’t already, income streams will have to be generated by the people who host the sites.  With the volume some of those sites get, funding them can quickly get out of control.

Social media is great – it’s the latest tool for internet users to spread news, facts, important stories – even new business news and developments.

I believe once an income stream business format can be deveolped for social media sites, we might see some combining of the sites under “umbrella” companies.  Some of the lesser-used sites might go by the wayside.

What is the blogging community to do?  Have a plug-in that takes your post or news and automatically sends that to hundreds of social media sites?  Hire a public relations firm to do the grunt work of posting news and information on an hourly basis?

What are your thoughts on the number of social media sites out there?  Post a comment and let the world know. Who knows – maybe your thoughts will make it to a few of the sharing sites.

Add some comments!

Whether you know it or not, one of the criteria Google uses on ranking blogs is the number of comments shown on blogging sites.  This holds true for personal or business blog sites.

Having more comments lends to the assumption of more readership, and more site visits.  This results in a higher page ranking, since your site becomes more popular, as evident by more interaction with bloggers, who leave comments.

Thus the question “how do I get people to comment on my blogs?”

The first action is to get more people to visit your site.

One way to get more readers is to comment on other peoples blog sites.  Yes, it is true – sometimes you have to give in order to receive.  That pretty much holds true to everything in life!

Commenting on other peoples blog sites has a few benefits – it gets your name out there, it gets your website out in the public, and intelligent comments draw people to see who you are, and what you write about.  I find that many of my first time visitors to my site come from sites that I frequently comment on.  So include in your day an hour of reading other blogs, and commenting on them. Blog writers appreciate comments as well as you!

The next action is to get people who read your blogs to leave comments.

This can be accomplished mainly by what you write about, and how you write it.  Writing about opinionated issues usually brings comments.  Writing about issues that make people thing brings comments as well.  Don’t be afraid to throw out some “hot” topics every now and then as well.

Another way to get people to comment is simply to ask!  Make the last sentence of your blog a “call to action”, such as “Tell me what you think about the upcoming election”, or “Leave a comment and tell me how many rabbits you see in your neighborhood”.  Whatever your topic is, as people to leave a comment with their opinions or observations.

The trick is to get people involved with your writing, and get them motivated enough to take the time to put down their thoughts.

And now my “call to action” for you – how often do you comment on other peoples sites, and does it help you draw people to your site?  Leave a comment and let the world know.

Immediate Advertising?

This is the second in a series on the Live Web and your business.

It’s coming… yet another marketing path to push your business to the next level.

I’ve been posting about the latest branch of the internet – the “Live Web”, as brought to us by the application Twitter and other immediate information applications.

I told you in my last post how this will help your business – so here it is.

I was driving home last night, and, while sitting in traffic, was noticing the many billboards that crowd the sides of the highway.  I don’t typically look at billboards – with most advertising media, they are pretty much invisible to most people.  There is so much of it, we get advertising overload, and ignore the bulk of it.

But last year, one company put up one of the first digital billboards around Atlanta.  It is pretty much just another billboard – but it is NEW, and it stands out.  I can’t tell if I notice it more because of the brightness of it, the changing images, or the random pictures they put up there to fill in the gaps between paying advertisers.  Some of the images are very nice!

Last night, one specific ad caught my attention.  It read “Today only, 99 cent doughnuts!”

Wow.  I love doughnuts.  That was not what sparked my interest, though.  It was the Live Advertising.  With digital media, you can update your advertising on-the-fly.  Incredible, if you think about it.

Imagine sending out an ad on a platform such as Twitter:

• “50 cent coffee for the next half hour at Jon’s Java Hut!”
• “Buy one get one free until noon at Betty’s Bakery Palace!”
• “Free dog grooming for the first 10 customers at The Dog House!”

Do you get the idea?  Immediate advertising, immediate feedback, immediate customers.

Get your entrepreneurial thoughts running full speed on this one – and get ready for it.

What type of advertising can you see working on this Live Web platform?  Comment and let me know!

Instant Gratification!

Twitter – the latest internet phenomenon – is quickly shaping the internet of today.

Twitter started out as a social site, as a way for people to keep in touch with each other.  As more and more people used it, it has morphed into something much more – it has been dubbed the “live web”.

What is the “live web”?

As people have less time do to more things (although that is debatable, due to the rapid increase in unemployment), and shorter attention spans (thanks, television) – people get what they want, when they want it.

Twitter is the epitome of instant information.

It’s live, if you will.  Get it as it’s happening.  Twitter has been used for announcing emergencies, to give play-by-play information from speakers, even instant thoughts or musings from the floor of the US Congress.

Twitter has even brought on a flurry of secondary add-ons and programs, each with their own following and venture capital influx of money.  Call it a offshoot of the internet boom, a branch of the internet tree.

What is interesting is the the founders of Twitter, whether they meant to or not, have created a new market.  They have succeeded in creating a new need where there was not one before.  People did not realize they need instant information, but now that they can get it faster, no one can live without it.

And does this new instant internet tie into your business?  Oh, you better believe it.  So stay tuned – there is much more on this coming up.

Are you on twitter?  How much do you rely on it?  Post a comment, and let me know.