New eBook Released! (Fan Page Exclusive)

searchrovrdemo on April 28, 2011

LimeCuda just released our first eBook *drumroll*… The Internet Demystified: 8 Essentials to Getting Your Business Online.

A lot of time was spent on this to make very helpful for someone who wants to take a more “Do It Yourself” approach when starting their businesses’ web presence.

The Internet Demystified takes you through the first few steps of starting a website.

limecuda-facebook

To download it just become a fan of our Facebook Fan Page.  (you can always un-fan after you have the eBook)

Enjoy!

Is Buying Links an Effective SEO Strategy?

searchrovrdemo on April 12, 2011

Our clients often pass us emails from people offering to sell them links. But is link buying an effective and ethical SEO strategy?

Yes and No.

Links drive the web. Google will grant your site trust/authority based on not only the quantity of links pointing to you, but also on the quality. (See PageRank)

Quality of a link to your website depends not only on what links are pointing to the site that is linking to you but also on the relevancy of that site to yours.

If I run a blog on cooking techniques, one link from Martha Stewart is worth several thousand times more than if I have 300 links from sites in some irrelevant industry like classic muscle cars. Unless I am trying to rank for keywords in the muscle car industry but if I am trying to rank for terms in the cooking niche then links from sites already within that niche have far greater power.

pagerank linking

So the bought links may help if they are in the right niches but keep in mind that Google has stated publicly that they do not approve of this practice.

There was recently a very high-profile case of JCPenny getting penalized by Google (also Overstock.com and Forbes) for buying links featured in the NYT.

There are not many effective and safe shortcuts in SEO, while a link vendor may have 1000s of websites that could link to you, they are most likely not high-quality and are also most likely in irrelevant industries. If your site suddenly has several hundred links pointing to them from off-topic sites, then that looks very suspicious to Google. Their algorithm is way too smart to game in a safe way. At best this is gray-hat SEO but I would argue it is black-hat. LimeCuda keeps squeaky clean and white-hat 🙂 If you are looking for the sneaky, under-handed, shortcut SEO then I have a few dozen emails I get daily from those companies I can send you.

Here is what it all boils down to…

Best and safest way to rank well: get people to link to you naturally because you have an awesome product/service or helpful content that gives value.

The Purpose of a Website or: Why Your Site Might Fail

searchrovrdemo on February 16, 2011

Fair warning, this is a philosophical post.

It’s also a very important post that could have consequences if you have not also philosophized about your site’s purpose. 🙂

When we chat with new clients to get to know them, their business and what the web project entails, we are often struck by how many have not asked themselves,

“Why do I have a website?!?!?”

This seems like a stupidly simple question but it is not.

Often this question has very different answers depending on the business and their industry.

It could be…

  • As an online brochure
  • To allow customers to interface with them online
  • Showcase products
  • Highlight expertise

…And a myriad of other possibilities. But in the end, the reason for a website is probably not dissimilar to the purpose of a business (from Peter Drucker)…

To find and keep customers

If we apply that to a business’s web presence then your web efforts need to help you find and keep customers. Or from an Inbound Marketing perspective, help your customers find you!

Ask yourself:

  • Is my site findable to my audience?
  • Am I able to monitor site traffic from that audience?
  • What is the goal I have for that audience? (the conversion question) [hint: could be sending you a message, picking up the phone, subscribing…]

The answers to these questions will guide what your site looks like, what functionality it needs to have, and what tools like blogging and social media you really need.  Don’t get online just because it is fashionable. Have a purpose and a goal for it to help your business.

Ancient Chinese Web Proverb: “If you have no goals, results, or plan for your site…they are sure to be answered”.