Category Archives: Web Development

Astounding Facebook Stats

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Happy Birthday Facebook! On February 4, 2010 Facebook officially turned 6 years old. Facebook is used world-wide and has become the platform for internet networking with over 400 million users and more than 900 employees.

Quick Facebook facts:

1. The average user spends about 55 minutes a day on Facebook- this is equal to over 8% of their day.

2. Facebook is now able to be viewed in 65 different languages.

3. 30% of Facebook users are from/in Europe.

4. Every day 35 million users update their status and 20 million become fans of pages. (There are 1.6 million fan pages, by the way).

5. Of the 1.6 million fan pages, 700,000 are local businesses.

6. 2.5 billion Photos are uploaded every month by users.

7. Each month 3.5 million events are created.

Did we mention that now users don’t have to wait until they get home to log onto Facebook? The Facebook mobile application is supported by three phones: Blackberry, iPhone, and the new Android. Facebook mobile has 100 million monthly users and is still growing.

Facebook is dominating the networking game on all levels; especially for marketers. People can directly advertise to their target market via Facebook using pay per click. You can use Facebook as a tool that will post your ad on the pages of those people you select to target- a marketers dream come true. No wonder Facebook is a billion dollar company.

WebitMD knows the value and importance of marketing via social networks like Facebook. It is crucial that businesses, especially local businesses, take advantage of getting their name out to members of their community and using Facebook pages to reach people is the fastest way. WebiMD specialized in social media marketing among the other services we offer.

Information provided by: mashable.com
Written by: Samantha J Stephan

5 Free/Inexpensive SEO Tools For Your Website

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Looking for some free tools to help you improve your website’s SEO? Get familiar with the following 5 tools that can help improve your website’s visibility online and increase your conversions!

1. SEO Analyzer: You submit your website’s URL into this SEO Analyzer and it will provide you some feedback regarding your SEO and conversion strategies. It actually gives your website a rating on a point scale between 1-100 on how you are currently optimizing your website for search engines and optimization. It also gives you a report on every aspect of your website, including inline styles, obsolete HTML, and download time. For being a free tool, it is worth taking a look at!

2. Website Grader: This free tool is one like that of the SEO Analyzer. Instead of giving you a grade on a point scale between 1-100, it actually gives you a letter grade. Website Grader provides a great deal of information in a short amount of time and tells you all you need to know about optimizing your site, making your SEO efforts easier, and in less time. This tool also tells you how many del.ici.ous bookmarks you have, as well as grading both on-site and off-site SEO.

3. AWStats: This tool is also free and is mostly helpful when researching who is visiting your site, what search engines visitors use, and when visitors are actually showing up on your site. This is more of a log analyzer than an analytics tool but still provides free and useful information.

4. Crazy Egg: The basic version of this tool is free, but can also be upgraded if you pay a little extra. Crazy Egg allows you to see what visitors do when they get to your website, as in where there mouse is actually moving and what they are clicking on. It even has a heatmap to show you the exact mouse movements made by your visitors! Very easy to use and great free information!

5. Mint: Mint is a tool that provides great information regarding unique referrers, popular pages, and number of visits. This tool is around $30 dollars, which is not bad when the pay-off will hopefully be increased site traffic.

One should of course use web analytics tools first to receive most of their information like Google Analystics and Google Webmaster Tools. However, yo should be using the free and inexpensive tools that are available out there to find out more information about what your website is doing right, wrong, and to find out more information your analytics tools don’t tell you. In this economy, any beneficial information you can receive on a tight budget can only help your website grow, so get out there and start utilizing these tools!

Information Provided By: Moe Tamani
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Is SEO Dying?

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It was bound to happen- some person writing about the death of SEO. There are a few reasons for this speculation, try searching for “is seo dead.”

Reasons why people think SEO is dying are as follows:

First, people do not really know what SEO is. Even among marketers, people continue to believe that SEO is the “process of tricking search engines to rank a site for search queries for which it isn’t one of the better matches. With this viewpoint, it’s easy to see why people would want to conclude that SEO is a dying medium. Google and Microsoft make billions of dollars in revenue from their search engines, and protecting that revenue stream is a critical activity for them.”

If people are not using SEO correctly, they will ruin the search engine system. This is why Google has invested so much in WebSpam. When consumers receive poor search results they become dissatisfied and turn to different search engines.

Second, other people believe that social media will soon replace SEO. “These people argue that inbound links are an elitist system of voting for Web sites (you have to own a Web site to vote), and that social media will provide a much broader array of signals, because anyone with an Internet connection can sign up for a social media service and start making their opinions known. Further, they argue, more people will rely on social media for opinions on things because people love to learn from the experience of others.”

Social media sites have not been adopted broadly across the population, making the data lumpy and inconsistent- and it is easily spammed. In creating an account, no real investment is needed; all you have to do is sign up and begin posting your opinions and thoughts.

Authority is another issue here. We can assume those with tens of thousands of followers on Twitter have some authority on a topic, but the most they can offer is their own opinions. “Someone with a Web site has made a significant investment in building that site, and here the stamp of authority is likewise relatively easy to measure. However, it’s much more meaningful to receive an authoritative link than an authoritative Tweet.”

So is SEO dying?

“Not a chance. Defined properly, but still somewhat narrowly, SEO is the practice of helping publishers bring new traffic and customers to their Web site, by building and promoting high quality Web sites using technology that the search engines can parse. That need isn’t going away anytime soon.”

Make the most out of available opportunities. For example, Microsoft’s Bing. SEO can and will evolve with the changing times. The advent of universal search resulted in some changes, and created new opportunities for SEOs. The rising prominence of local search did as well. Increasing personalization will create yet more opportunities.

“For the SEO professional, staying abreast of the changing market environment is part of the price of being in this business. While change is constant, publishers use SEO as a means for obtaining new customers from search engines. As long as search is around, there will be a need for people who know how to make that happen.”

Information provided by: searchenginewatch.com
Written by: Samantha J Stephan

Women Responding to Brands via Social Web on the Rise!

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According to the new edition of the SheSpeaks “Annual Social Media Study”, social networking profile penetration of women climbed from 58% in 2008 to 86% in 2009.

Along with this increase, there was also an increase in brand-related activities on social media sites of female internet users. The study shows that 80% of female users said that they had become a fan of a product or a brand on one of their social media networking profiles. In additon, 72% of female users had learned about a new product or brand, or joined a group about one.

Twitter has become the least-likely alternative to finding out about products or services via social networking sites compared to the rest, the study also demonstrates.

Also, according to the study:
One half of female internet users had bought a product because of a social media network, adding to the overall growth of purchasing with the influence of social networking sites and blogs over the last year.
Women have also been more receptive to social network advertising, where 2% in 2008 said that they look at the banner ads and click-through them which has increased to 9% in 2009.

Women seem to be responding to social network advertising and brand awareness more-so now than ever, so it is important to target them as best as possible. According to Aliza Freud, the founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, “Last year our members were going online primarily to research purchases, but now they are looking to social media to help them research, guide and facilitate every kind of transaction, from social exchanges to purchases. Women have become more comfortable using social media, and for marketers, the overall growth and habitual use of social media represents opportunities to reach and engage women of all ages, and influence their purchase decisions.”

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Does Your Website Make Sense?

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It is surprising that even today website owners haven’t discovered how to make their sites user friendly. People like aesthetically pleasing sites that cater to them: the customer.

Here is a short checklist of dos and don’ts for anyone working on the internet to sell their product or service.

  • In the space “above the fold,” state what the site is aiming to achieve. The area above the fold is the section that is seen without scrolling down. This space should be used to tell the consumer what you do exactly. Why does your site exist? This should be clear to the audience in one quick glance. “You can’t solve someone’s problem if they can’t even figure out what it is that you do.”
  • Use large fonts and plenty of white space. “This is a no brainer. You want your website to be read by as many people as possible so don’t use tiny fonts, don’t use clever fonts, just keep it simple, double spaced and big. You wouldn’t whisper your sales pitch to a potential customer in real life, so don’t do it online.”
  • Keep it simple- not too fancy. Text comes first to graphics; the words on the page are primary. “Graphics should only be used to enhance the presentation of text and never hinder or distract the visitor from what they are supposed to do at your website – read it!”
  • Use headings, bolds, and lists. Unfortunately, people today are getting lazier and lazier. People don’t want to read your five paragraph essay on your product or service. They want to see bullet points, lists of benefits and get information as quickly and painlessly as possible.
  • If you aren’t as technologically advances graphic wise as you’d like to be, just use one nice text-based page. “You can have tremendous success online by using a webpage that is just a simple letter format. Follow the rules above and tell your story using just words. If you can’t do website design yourself or can’t afford it, you can keep things simple and still have a very effective message. It won’t be pretty, but like I said, pretty doesn’t sell – the words do.”

Information provided by: entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written by: Samantha J Stephan

Launched our sister site in New York!

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WebitMD has launched our sister site in New York this morning. The website is www.NYCSEO.net

This is the first of a few websites that we plan to launch in 2010. Happy holiday to all and see you after the new year.

-The WebitMD Team

What is the Google Honeymoon?

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When a new website is initially released on the internet, Google may give it a high rank in the Google search index. Usually this is between 24 and 48 hours after production. On average, the page will rank particularly high, then it will drop back to whatever is normal for the website.

One theory, calling this period the “honeymoon,” suggests that Google initially ranks new pages high, so that it can collect data on how relevant the page is for particular keywords. “If during the honeymoon your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.”

It is always exciting to see your website rank well on Google’s search index, but keep in mind that once a few weeks have passed, the site may drop back to its real position.

Information Provided by: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written by: Samantha J. Stephan

What is PageRank?

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Curiosity about getting your page to the top of the Google search is not rocket science; in fact, Google even offers a PageRank tool that can be downloaded for free. If you are running a website or Internet business then PageRank is a vital tool to measure how much traffic you are really getting.

Google is known for providing the best results on internet searches. This is because of PageRank’s ability to determine the value of a website for any given search term or keyword phrase. “This value is determined by how websites link together with the more popular (and theoretically better) sites receiving more links. It’s these incoming links that help the site have a high PageRank value and thus display higher up in search results.”

Here is a brief description of PageRank, written by the Google team:

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.”

An important key note to understand is that it is a combination of variables that determine how well your site performs on Google. These are the most important variables to worry about:

  • Incoming links to your site.
  • The relevancy (to your site’s theme) of the pages linking to your site and the PageRank of these pages.
  • The keywords that other sites use to link to your site.
  • The keywords on your website in particular in places like page titles and headlines.

Not all of the above points are controllable, but some are, like keywords in headlines. The bottom line to PageRank is that all these variables listed determine how high your site shows up in the search engine results. Therefore it is important to utilize this information for your competitive advantage- no matter how tech-savvy you are.

Information Provided By: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written By: Samantha J. Stephan

File Naming Structure in URLs for SEO

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One of the simplest ways you can improve your search engine optimization is to actually see what you named your files on your website or blog posts. You want to send your visitors to the pages of what they are actually searching for on your site and by offering keywords in the links to those pages; it will not only help them find it, but also offer more keywords for SEO.

Here is an example:
A tennis ball company offers these current links to sell their Slazenger, Wimbledon, and Wilson tennis balls in their online store:

www.bigballsintennis.com/product1
www.bigballsintennis.com/product2
www.bigballsintennis.com/product3

This is only telling the search engines that you sell products, not tennis balls. Use keywords for those specific products so that these items are more visible to your customers

Here is what they should look like:

www.bigballsintennis.com/slazenger-tennis-balls
www.bigballsintennis.com/wimbledon-tennis-balls
www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls

Information Provided by: www.entrepreneurs-journey.com
Written by: Kent Seiders

Small Business Increase Internet Marketing Budgets

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Increasingly additional business owners, large and small alike, are acquiring more knowledge on the world of online advertising along with the importance of web presence.

According to a new study by an online advertising company, WebVisible Inc., small businesses have spent 91% more on search marketing in this year’s third quarter than they did in the same period last year.

WebVisible’s report, “2009 Q3 State of Small Business Online Advertising,” tracked a sample of their business clients falling in the small – and midsize range. “It found the average search spending by small businesses in the third quarter was $1,658. At the higher end, 15% of small businesses spent between $2,000 and $2,999 in the third quarter on search marketing.”

The study also published the search engines that small businesses are utilizing. Google came in at 60.4%, which is about 15% less than typical spending statistics for the market overall. Yahoo picked up some of that slack, coming in at 26.2%. The remainder goes to Bing with 10.5%.

Internet Marketing’s importance in today’s society has become vital. WebitMD recognizes the need for businesses to utilize the internet as a tool for advertising and hopes to encourage all business owners to seize this opportunity.

Information Provided By:
Written by: Samantha J. Stephan