Help Visitors & Search Engines Discover All the Content on Your Site
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Site Map on August 31, 2010
A site map helps both human visitors to your site and search engines bots (or crawlers) sent out by Google, Yahoo, Bing and all the others to index your site.
There are three types of site maps.
- User-Friendly Site Map: Located on your website, it’s accessible to all human and bot visitors to make navigation simpler.
- Xml: This one is standardized specifically for search engines, making your website searchable to web crawlers from Bing, Yahoo, Google, etc. This site map can be submitted directly to search engines and. must be updated manually.
- The Marion Dynamic Site Map: Developed uniquely by Marion, this site map helps the SEO process, consequently impacting your ranking among search engines. It’s called dynamic because it updates automatically as you add or delete pages from your website. While xml site maps only provide search engines with the URL, the Dynamic Map contains URLs, clickable page titles with keywords in them, description tag text, and h-tag text. This allows SEO analyst to view all important SEO elements all at once.
Additionally, you will be able to quickly identify SEO weaknesses for continuous improvement on your site.
View our own Dynamic Sitemap aiding us in search engine optimization.
To further optimize your website and increase your online traffic, view Marion’s SEO Services
.
Our Prescription is a Marion Subscription
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, RSS Feed, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design on August 25, 2010
To stay current with the Marion blog, become a subscriber to our RSS Feed.
This is achieved through just a few easy steps.
- Go to the Marion Blog (Look at that, you’re already here. Good job!)
- Click the orange RSS icon on the right side of the screen where it reads “Subscribe to the Marion RSS Feed.”
- If you have,
- Internet Explorer (IE): Choose the personal account or preferred browser (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, etc.) through which you want to receive blog updates or simply add our feed to your IE Favorites.
- Mozilla: Choose the personal account or preferred browser (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, etc.) through which you want to receive blog updates or simply bookmark our feed, choosing “Live Bookmark.”
- Click “Subscribe Now.”
Voila! You’re now a Marion Subscriber and you didn’t even break a sweat.
Don’t even know what a RSS Feed is? Click here to learn more.
…And if you like our blog, you’ll love our services. Marion’s custom web design services include blog design and development and even content development. Find out what Marion can do for you.
Why Marion for Custom Web Design
Posted by admin in Brand Building, Mobile Marketing, Web Design on August 24, 2010
While we could write you a list of answers with more entries than a phone book, allow us to summarize..
Marion goes beyond web design. We are a fully integrated agency able to offer businesses a full array of advertising and marketing services on the web, in print, broadcast, social media and video. Marion has the tools and skills to create a total brand experience for your customers. (See more on Graphic Design Services and Brand Consultancy.)
We also stay ahead of the curve, keeping you ahead of the competition. Marion now offers Mobile Web Design so you can have a version of your regular site formatted specifically for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Naturally, we provide a full range of the services you’d expect from your web developers, including:
- Original custom designs – no templates
- Full-time and in-house staff of:
- Web Content Developers
- SEO Specialists
- Web Designers
- Web Developers
- Internet Marketing Specialists
- Internet Brand Consultants
- Brand positioning for clear, persuasive messaging
- User-friendly site structure and flat navigation
- Innovative Interactive Applications
- Lead capture backend
- Single Source for:
- Photography
- Video
- Flash
- Custom illustration
- On-going Internet marketing support
- Increased VOLUME & QUALITY of traffic to your site
- Proven success in making businesses grow through their websites (references available upon request)
For more proof, see our custom web designs for yourself.
Got Traffic, but No Action
Posted by admin in Internet marketing, Web Design on August 12, 2010
So your website is up and running with more traffic than a Houston freeway. So why are sales or sales leads (aka conversions) so low? Unfortunately, no matter how great your site is, without the proper persuasive content or even eye-candy (great graphics and images), your website is no more than a corridor to the competition.
No need to fear, Google is hear. Google has created an exciting remedy to solve your conversion issues by using Google Website Optimizer . This tool employs A/B Testing and Multivariate testing to evaluate what design and layout will best generate conversions for a desired action (i.e. make a purchase or complete a contact form).
A/B Testing compares two or more variations of your webpage against each other. Multivariate testing evaluates hundreds of alterations including differences in copy, graphics, headlines, and designs simultaneously to see which will produce optimal results.
Google Website Optimizer is a handy tool and best of all, it’s free! You may notice all those high-speed travelers start to take the scenic route through your website and even park for awhile.
As part of our custom website design process, Marion can do this optimization testing for you to transform your website into an online powerhouse.
Shortcuts for Search Simplicity
Posted by admin in Search Engine Optimization on August 6, 2010
There are wonderful shortcuts available on Google to make searching easier. One of those methods we particularly enjoy is the use of Google’s advanced operators, commonly called ‘shortcuts’. As we mentioned earlier with the ‘related:yoursite.com’ shortcut, these operators can have an impact on your search engine marketing efforts.
These nifty shortcuts can be sorted into groups by their functions including:
- Restricting the search
- Specializing information queries
- Restricting to sites where query words appear
- Restricting to Google Groups, News, and Froogle
A few of our favorites include:
- site: – searches only one website or domain
- define: – Provides definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web
- link: – Find linked pages that point to a URL. This comes in quite handy to see who’s linking your website!
- movie: – Find reviews and show times for a particular movie
- weather: – Shows the weather for a given location
The entire list of advanced operators for Google is located here. Take a look around. You may find an easier way to search.
If you need help understanding how search engines work, please contact Marion at 713-623-6444 or info2@marion.com.
Optimizing your PDFs for Search Engines
Posted by admin in Search Engine Optimization on August 6, 2010
Did you know that search engine optimization extends to PDF files? Though this is a little known fact, it can be done.
PDF files are searched or ‘crawled’ similarly to web pages. Users can add Meta tags, such as title, keywords, and a description, opening the file in either Adobe Editor or Pagemaker and going to File –> Properties when it’s being created.
Proof of the benefits of optimizing a PDF is evident with Marion and our Brand Building Process Chart PDF. The all-text PDF ranks first when a user searches ‘brand building process’ on Google. The first place ranking was achieved by adding keywords to the file’s properties and integrating the right keywords into the content of the file.
Here are some more tips to help you optimize your PDF:
- Create the PDF correctly! Don’t create PDFs using images. The spiders cannot read the text from image files. The PDF should only be created with a text-based program to make the file text-based and can be crawled.
- When publishing a PDF, link it from some page that gets crawled regularly. You need to lead the crawler along so it finds the new content as quickly as possible. Don’t just post the PDF and then cross your fingers that it gets crawled.
- Make the file name search engine friendly. Like all other files on your site, naming is important! It’s always a good idea to use a keyword when naming the file, such as keyword1-keyword2.pdf.
For more information on SEO for PDF files or how Marion can help you with search engine optimization, contact us at 713-623-6444 or info2@marion.com
Great Displays Naturally Make Sense
Posted by admin in graphic design on July 29, 2010
Marion has designed an impressive trade show display for Rhizogen and their Better Naturally line of products.
Our talented production and design team worked closely with the company to create custom designed graphics for the display.
The 10’ backlit mirage booth that we created includes:
- Four backlit graphic panes
- Two backlit rounded end panes
- Backlighting for all panels
The purpose of the trade show display is to help promote the benefits the products have on the ecosystem. Unlike synthetic fertilizers, Better Naturally includes beneficial microbes, Mycorrhizal fungi and humates to nourish your soil’s natural ecosystem.
Better Naturally products are made by Rhizogen, a leading supplier of organic, biological fertilizers to the crop, turf, garden, nursery and orchard markets. Rhizogen is all about working with the natural ecosystem to promote soil health. When the soil is in balance with nature, the grass is greener, the flowers are more vibrant and the vegetables are tastier.
Marion can help you create your next trade show display. Call us at 713.623.6444 or email at info2@marion.com.
The Building Blocks to a Better Brand
Posted by admin in Brand Building, Brand Positioning on July 27, 2010
Click to open PDF
During a meeting with a client, we noticed our Brand Building Process chart displayed on the wall of his office. Seeing this was wonderful enough, but it also reinforced the importance of brand building and marketing plan execution, for both Marion and our clients.
To the point, when you type the phrase ‘brand building process’ into Google, you notice that our brand building chart appears first. This result shows two things: Marion’s brand building and internet marketing prowess. The chart shows our brand strategy methodology and the Google listing shows our ability to achieve high rankings using our Internet marketing skills.
Marion offers a portfolio of brand building services to foreign and domestic companies seeking to optimize their brand management practices and develop powerful brand building methodologies.
For assistance with the brand building process and our brand consultancy services, please call Marion at 713-623-6444 or email us at info2@marion.com.
Brochures Can Transport Your Business
Posted by admin in Brochure Design on July 26, 2010
Marion provided brochure design services for Lee TranServices, a transportation compliance and risk management company based in Lufkin, TX.
The capabilities brochure is four pages plus a cover and measures 9x12”. To complete the project, Marion needed to design and edit artwork and acquire stock photography. The brochure design process also included content edits, working closely with the client, and electronic production.
Lee TranServices, Inc. is the nation’s largest, privately held, full service provider whose mission is to provide only Transportation Compliance and Risk Management services. For over 25 years, Lee TranServices has focused exclusively upon providing custom regulatory compliance and risk management solutions for private motor carrier fleets as well as for-hire fleets, with a personal and hands-on approach.
For more information on our brochure design services and how we can help create them for your company, please contact The Marion Group at 713-623-6444 or email us at info2@marion.com.
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