Olympic SEO Blog

Best of the Web Discount

ballparkbob — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:06:51 +0000

Submitting to directories was once something that SEO experts did for clients, but that was when all links were created equal.

No more. Links need to come from authority sites that carry significant link juice or link love.

Also, it is no longer possible to avoid the arduous task of generating links through normal organic means by purchasing links. Google has significantly discounted the purchasing of links.

Moreover, most directory links are useless. When it was all about quantity, and not quality of links, directories were an easy place to go to find valueable links. Hence, directories seemed to spring up everywhere providing easy links to ambitious sites.

So, what directory links are still valuable? Certainly, the one that immediately comes to mind is DMOZ. Love them or hate them (most hate them), DMOZ is an important place to get a link. Next, is Yahoo. If you are optimizing your site for only Google, you are missing a quarter of the US traffic you could be getting from Yahoo. Don’t ignore Yahoo. For $299 per year, you can obtain a directory listing in Yahoo that will pay off, even in rival Google’s SERP listings.

There are some valueable links that you can still purchase. One is from Best of the Web. Best of the Web has been around almost as long as the internet has been popular; it was started in 1994. And, all SEO experts will tell you that Best of the Web is a site that you need to purchase a listing on.

Best of the Web Discount Code - CLICKZ15

The great thing about Best of the Web is it offers a discount promo code. Usually, these discount promo codes are only good for one month, but Olympic SEO and the Get Clickz blog offer one that is good in every month. Just go to this article that offers the Best of the Web Discount Code and link over to Best of the Web and you will find the discount code. This Best of the Web Promo Code is worth 15% off on your Best of the Web purchase.

Or, simply go to Best of the Web and enter CLICKZ15 at checkout for the Best of the Web discount.

Importance of First Page Results

ballparkbob — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:07:21 +0000

Just how important is it to get first page results on Google?

71% of all organic search engine users click on only the Top 5 listings. 87% of all organic search engine users never go beyond the first page!

One company reported a 337% gain in traffic after getting listed on the first page. Conversions for the e-commerce site increased by 142%.

So, if you are buried on page 7, you better get some help with your search engine optimization.

Make the Best Color Choice for Your Web Site

ballparkbob — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:22:41 +0000

Choosing the right color scheme for your new website might be the most important single decision you will make in the start-up phase of your new web site.

But, how do you make sure that the colors you choose are right for your web site?

Don’t Choose The Colors that you Prefer

The best advice is to not determine the colors based on what you like. It doesn’t really matter. This is especially important if you are not part of the demographic group that you targeting.

You want to choose colors based on what sells the most or what keeps the visitors at your web site the longest and allows them to leave with a positive perception of the web site.

Overview of Web Site Colors

Let’s take a look at the rainbow of color possibilities you have for your web site.

Red

Red is the most powerful color available. It is associated with energy, aggressiveness, passion, and danger. It is friendly and attractive. Red enhances metabolism and raises blood pressure.

Red is often used on web sites that:

Promote increased energy and enthusiasm.

Are for children.

Red is great if used as an accent color to stimulate visitors to “buy now” or “click here.”

Orange

Orange is a powerful color that is the most undesirable to women. It offers happiness, courage, and success. It is funny and bold. Orange combines the energy of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Orange increases blood supply to the brain and stimulates thought.

Orange is best used on web sites that:

Wish to increase appetite (food products).

Stimulate enthusiasm.

Promote positive thinking.

Wish to increase creativity.

Offer relief from boredom (games).

Have a youthful audience.

Promote toys.

Yellow

Yellow is sunshine, joy, creativity, cheerfulness, and intelligence. It also is symbolic of cowardice so it is not an ideal color choice for men. It is also a highly communicative color.

Pure yellow puts more strain on your eye than any other color. Therefore, it is recommended that yellow be used sparingly. If used too much on a site, it may fatigue the visitor and cause them to leave sooner. That being said, yellow is often the color that the eye will gravitate to first. Hence, it is a great color to use in banners or for “can’t miss” text.

Yellow is best used on web sites that:

Appeal to children.

Promote leisure products.

Promote improved memory.

Promote relief from personality disorders like depression.

Do not need to appeal to men.

Green

Green reminds the user of nature. It is symbolic of prosperity, wealth and safety. It is flexible and harmonious. Green is the most restful color to the human eye.

Green is best used on web sites that:

Propose change (Surprisingly, the primary color of Barack Obama’s web site is blue.)

Give new ideas.

Offer protection.

Promise financial success.

Are for a nature group.

Blue

Blue is the color of the sea and the sky and is the most conservative choice you have for a web site color. When in doubt, choose blue and you won’t go wrong. Blue conveys trust, loyalty, confidence, and intelligence. Studies show that the color blue relaxes the nervous system and increases productivity.

Blue is best used on web sites that:

Appeal to a wide demographic of age and sex.

Wish to relax the viewer.

Offer new information.

Are for businesses.

Have an international audience.

Are related to cleanliness (water purifiers, cleaners)

Promote precision high-tech products.

Offer diet products (blue suppresses appetite).

Avoid using blue for any small text or thin line diagrams on a web site. Small blue print is difficult for the eye to perceive.

Purple

Purple offers a web site a sense of sophistication, dignity, sensitivity, and romance. It is admired and intuitive.

Purple is best used on web sites that:

Offer spiritual fulfillment (religion).

Want you to use your imagination.

Offer a calming effect (some vacations).

Target pre-adolescent children.

Target women (especially light purple).

White

White is associated with cleanliness, simplicity, and youth. It’s hard to imagine a business-oriented web site without any white on it.

White is best used on a web site that:

Requires significant reading of text

Is high-tech, but wants to appear to be easy to use.

Promotes a charitable organization.

Sells medical products.

Sells diet foods or dairy products.

Black

Black is authoritative, reliable, and constant.

Black is best used on a web site that:

Is formal (banking)

Is authoritative (legal)

Sells art or photography products (it will make the pictures stand out).

Choose Colors that Your Visitors Can Actually See

This seems like simple advice, but web browsers don’t have an unlimited amount of colors available to them. Web browsers can show 256 different colors; of those colors, 216 are common on all major web browsers.

If you don’t use one of the 216 colors, the browser has to attempt to mix the color that it does not support. This is known as “dithering” and the results are often less than satisfactory.

More Color Tips

Take a look at a white web site with black print. It’s the easiest to read, and its very business-like, but there’s certainly nothing attractive or exciting about it. Start by thinking about putting a dark font on a light background.

In addition to white, another safe background choice is gray.

Extremely bright colors such as greens, reds, yellows, or blues will cause eye fatigue and chase visitors away prematurely.

Avoid mixing blue and yellow or blue and red.

It is best to limit a site to five color choices. Certainly, there should be no more than seven for a larger site. Use the same color shades consistently throughout the web site.

When using a dull color such as gray or black, make it pop by adding a bright color like orange for an outstanding effect.

When in doubt, use white for the background.

The younger your audience is, the more vivid colors you should use.

Men prefer blue and orange to red and yellow. Women prefer red and yellow versus blue and orange.

Another good color for a male-oriented site is brown. Brown promotes masculine qualities.

Color-blindness is prevalent in men. In fact, one in twelve men have some form of color deficient vision. If your web site is aimed at men, make sure your color scheme is simple and clear.

Women are far more likely than men to respond both positively or negatively to a web site based on its color. Women prefer softer pastel colors. Women are more likely to view contrasting colors negatively.

Colors mean different things internationally. White signifies bad luck in China, Japan, and India. Purple is associated with prostitution in Arabic cultures. Dark green, while symbolic of money in the United States, does not have the same appeal in foreign countries where money is multi-colored. The safest color that appears to not have any negative connotation in any country is blue.

Gold is another good choice for a web site color. Gold evokes feeling of prestige and quality.

Choose the Right Colors

The goal of your web site is to connect with your visitors. It really doesn’t matter what you like or what your significant other likes. What matters is what colors your audience likes. Your color scheme must be carefully selected, because choosing the wrong color scheme can adversely affect your visitor’s experience and decrease your sales.

By choosing the right colors that your audience desires, you can invoke increased feelings of a positive reaction to your web site and actually increase sales.

Your color selection is the single most important first impression that your site will give your visitors. Make a great first impression by using the best possible color scheme for your target audience.

Research for this article was done while creating a new web site for a mobile marketing site for Advanced Telecom Services.

First Page Listings on Google are Critical

ballparkbob — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:45:05 +0000

We all know how important it is to have your web site listed on the first page of Google, but just how important is it?

The trend seems to be moving more and more to limited search by consumers. Perhaps this is because Google and the other search engines continue to improve its search process or maybe its just because our lives keep getting busier.

According to a April, 2008 study by Jupiter Research, 27% of all searchers limit themselves to the first three listings on the first page of Google. This is up from just 16% in 2002.

An even greater percentage of searchers limited themselves to just the first page of the search engine results. In 2002, 32% of searchers looked at just the first page; in 2008, 41% of searchers looked at just the first page of the Google listings.

Correspondingly, the percentage of searches who look at the first two pages has fallen to 17% and just 7% make it to the third page of the Google listings.

The study obviously brings up the need to get on the first page of the search engines. Learning how to optimize your web site for Google is an important part of generating greater e-commerce.

Philly SEO Firm

ballparkbob — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:45:12 +0000

Olympic Internet uses search engine optimization and other forms of internet marketing to drive traffic to its web sites. Olympic Internet also has significant background in the emerging fields of mobile marketing which the New York Times described as: “the most powerful advertising medium of all time.”