Jonathan's Web Marketing Blog

This is exciting news. We already have a lasik surgeon directory website, but this second website will allow us to exert even more linking leverage for our clients. We will also allow doctors who are not yet ready to invest in search engine optimization to test the web marketing water by purchasing a listing from us.

We plan on significantly beefing up the search engine placement for ALasikSurgeonNearYou.com, and will continue to add new content to it on a regular basis.

So, go check it out, and if you're an ophthalmologist and you're interested in a listing and/or website design and search engine optimization, please feel free to give me a call.

Labels: For Ophthalmologists

When I first started working with them, many of my clients had misconceptions about the importance of links. Here are some common, but incorrect theories about links:

1. I should link to as many people as I can.
2. Links are the most important part of web marketing.
3. I don't want to link to other websites.
4. I should exchange links with people whenever possible.

Here is the truth regarding these misconceptions:

1. I should link to as many people as I can.

Actually, linking to other websites isn't bad, but you shouldn't go overboard. Just link naturally, whenever it might help the people visiting your site. If you're a plastic surgeon who is a member of the ASAPS, why not link to the association so that the visitors can learn more about it?

The trouble with having too many out-bound links is that if the search engines see more links going out of your site than going into your site, the logical assumption is that your site doesn't have much to offer. Links send visitors to other sites. If you are sending all of your visitors to other websites, then what reason do the search engines have to send visitors to your site in the first place?

2. Links are the most important part of web marketing.

Links are one of more than 200 criteria that search engines use to evaluate a website. Granted, linking is one of the top three criteria, but a good web marketing campaign is a well-balanced campaign. If you fixate on linking at the expense of the other criteria, your web marketing will be out of balance and someone with a more well-rounded campaign will pull past your site in the search engine listings.

3. I don't want to link to other websites.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "surfing the web"? The search engines play a pivotal role in web surfing, and don't want to serve up results that impede surfing by hording traffic. Search engines see websites that aren't willing to link to other sites as selfish, so linking outward is actually beneficial to search engines. The key is balance.

4. I should exchange links with people whenever possible.

The same rules apply here. Go ahead and exchange links if it makes sense, but don't go out of your way to find people who will exchange links with you, and don't agree to exchange links with just anyone who offers to do so - even if they say that they have already posted a link to you. Go ahead and let them link to you if they want, but don't feel obligated to return the favor. I usually encourage my clients to just ignore link exchange requests. The higher that your site ranks in the search engine results, the more requests that you'll receive. People will want to ride on your coattails. Don't let them. You're working hard for your results.

If you have any other questions about link popularity and linking strategies, please feel free to email me or call me at 800-916-3886.

Labels: Link Popularity

Our recent open house was a lot of fun, and we raised a handsome sum for the Jeffco Action Center. Here are some pics!

Labels: The Page 1 Team

We found out today that our website design for Colling, Gilbert, Wright, & Carter won an Honoree award from the Webbys.

Labels: The Page 1 Team, Web Design

People visiting your website usually have a question about one of your services. They are hungry for information. The trouble is that some people are hungrier than others. So, how do you avoid "over feeding" one person while also avoiding "starving" the other person? The answer is to layer the information. Use multiple pages of information that will allow the visitor to dig as deep as they want to.

So, if you're a plastic surgeon that wants to market to potential breast augmentation patients online, you should address all aspects of breast augmentation by structuring your information in layers:

Top level: Breast Augmentation - general, "at a glance", information that links to sub pages below:

Second Level - Breast Augmentation Options
---Third Level - Breast implant shapes and textures
---Third Level - Incision options and implant placement
---Third Level - The risks of breast augmentation
---Third Level - "Is breast augmentation right for me? Am I a candidate?"

You don't have to add all of these pages at one time, and in fact, adding them gradually with show the search engines that your website is growing all the time. Good pages to start with are the top level general page, an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page, and a before and after gallery page.

It's important to note that since the search engines choose which pages will show up on the search engines, we have to be careful to present the information in such a way that navigating to the other pages is easy, and that the visitor can easily understand what to do if they get dropped into a page that is a third level, and they just want top level information. Don't make the visitor think. It has to be easy to navigate around your site.

The added bonus to layered, deep content is that it gives your search engine optimization specialist multiple pages of content to work with, thereby making your search engine placement more successful.

I used plastic surgeons as an example in this post, but this concept applies to any type of website.

Labels: Content, Content Freshness, For Attorneys, For Dentists, For Ophthalmologists, For Plastic Surgeons, Optimization, Visitor Conversion

Here are some pictures that my friend, Dr. Owen Combe took at LVI. They are of the Internet cafe (coming soon) that we are sponsoring at LVI. It should be really nice to have a place to quickly stop in and check email between classes.

Labels: For Dentists

Most people understand that search engine optimization has something to do with keywords, but few people understand the importance of a website's content and structure when embarking on a search engine marketing campaign.

Your website must have the content to support search engine optimization. Because the search engines are interested in serving up only the most relevant web pages for any given search, a single page of content that lists out your services is not going to present itself as an information resource. Each service that you offer should be presented with a minimum of one page of quality content. Services or practice areas that you consider to be more important than others in your practice should have several pages.

Having these pages of content allows the optimizer working on your site to focus the search engine optimization on one or two terms per page instead of optimizing each page for all of the keywords that you would like to target.

Labels: Content, Optimization