Local Links for Local SEO

If you are trying to position your website for keywords that include your location, e.g. "website design Ottawa" or "search engine optimization Ottawa" then you should focus on getting back links from the websites in your region: city, province/state, country. In that order of priority. And of course, if you can get a related plus high PR website (PR4+) from your locale to link to you - this is a great bonus. One such link is worth as much as 100simple links (roughly).

For our recent clients, link text examples would be:

• Remai Landscape - "landscaping Ottawa"
• Specials Todat - "Ottawa restaurants"
• Ryan Lamontagne - "financial services Ottawa"

Checking Your Back Links

Google recently announced that the prviously available operator "link" will no longer work on their search. Here is what it is. You go to Google and in the search bar, type the following without any extra spaces:

link:www.yoursite.com

Here is what Google shows for the "link" operator for Joomla Bliss: 2 back links, as of today April 20, 2010

Many people have long before that noticed that this operator does not produce true results. But now, the results are truly "random", to quote Google.

Compare these results with Google Webmaster Central report, which shows 108 back links.

And now lets compare this with Yahoo Site Explorer which shows 631 back links

Now lets also check with Website Grader, another popular website diagnostics tool: 522 inbound links

Lets also run a quick check via http://www.backlinkcheck.com/ - and we get 680 back links.

Lessons Learned

1. The link operator on Google is, indeed, obsolete
2. Google does not tell you the truth about your back links, even if you use Google Webmaster Central
3. All link checker tools give you slightly different results
4. Yahoo Site Explorer seem to be showing the right number of links.

And we can also conclude (which was previously know to many SEOs) that links to your home page are of higher value than to all other pages.

The site analyzed is Joomla Bliss. It is devoted to website design Ottawa.

For SEO questions, contact me via my SEO Ottawa website.

How to Select the Right Template for Your New Website

When selecting a template for the new website, the most important factor to consider is modularity, i.e. how module is the template's grid and how many slots it has available.

Note that you don't need to use all of those slots, but is it best to have an option. In practice, most website owners end up "un-checking" 80% of the existing slots and using very simple layouts. It is is much easier to un-check than to slice the template's HTML to add a new slot. So when selecting a template for your future website, select the most "cluttered" one, i.e. whose grid offers the largest number of slots.

Pay attention on how the slots are arranged, are they all of equal size, symmetrically situation one below the other? In some cases, you might want to opt for slots of different sizes - when you fill those slots with content (i.e. modules), your site will look more sophisticated.

I always recommend to my clients to select a template with a 3-column layout: one large column for the main body and two narrow columns on the sides. You can always NOT use one of the columns, if you are so in love with a 2-column design. But if you ever want to showcase a product or service offering, you will have an option of putting this information on the unused column and leaving it there alone, to make it more noticeable and draw attention to it.

Having a 3-column layout is also better for SEO, simply because the more words and links with your keywords you put on a page, the better it is for your ranking (as long as you have fewer than 100 links per page, roughly).

If you need help with selecting the right template, contact me via this blog or via our website design Ottawa office at Joomla Bliss.

How to Select a Web Design Firm

Ottawa seems to have more web design companies per capita than any other city. So how do you chose which website design firm in Ottawa to select? Here are a few things for you to consider:

1) Does a web design company offer a full web design turn-key solution? Can they also market your website?
2) Does a web design company offer a contract? An official contract does not need to be a long document, even a one-pager is better than no contract at all
3) What is their response rate? Web design turn around? Ask for a written confirmation.
4) Does your web design company charge a reasonable rate? Do not lock yourself into a per-hour contract
5) Does your web design company offer training and support?
6) Does your web design company offer a friendly customer-oriented service?
7) Does your web design company have the right in-house expertise or do they outsource a lot of their services?
8) What professional memberships does your websited design shop have?
9) How long have they been in business?
10) Does your web design firm create website content?

For web design Ottawa services, check out Joomla Bliss. Here is a link for Ottawa SEO.