Best SEO Web Design Blog by Todd Donald

Its been months since my last blog post... When I began this blog I really planned on making it the biggest supporting source of website traffic and leads for my web design biz... That's what everyone should do right? Isn't blogging the be all and end all of marketing initiatives these days?

As you can tell, I along with many, many others probably don't keep up with our blog as much as we should.

The Question of "Is Blogging and Social Networking Necessary for All Businesses?", is really rooted in your business and what you have to socialize about and whether or not you have time to socialize...

Take for example, a lawyer client of mine. He has a huge blog and because of that blog, he gets all sorts of search traffic to it. All Sorts being the operative phrase. When it comes to selling goods or services online, or marketing your brick and mortar business with a website, its best to have highly focused, valuable search originated traffic, (something that blogs rarely offer). In other words, you want people visiting your website who might actually need or want what you offer. For this lawyer client, his blog is an asset and has become part of his regular offering, but someone like a lawyer is sitting on a goldmine of information, that people are searching for answers on. They may not be customers per say, but with a few Google Ads a site that provides gobs of free info can generate a nice little stream of extra revenue, not to mention the inherently high page rank of an established blog can really help boost your business website if you link out to it.

Most companies DO NOT need a blog however... The truth is, that blogs are a pain in the butt to maintain and the traffic they receive is so broad that it rarely helps sell local regional or geographic products and services. If you like to write and have the time to blog then I encourage it, but keep in mind that a blog helps your marketing indirectly. If writing a nice blog article turns into some healthy article or topic for your business website, its obvious that the creative energy can channel into the workplace too, but again for most small businesses having a blog is overkill. You have to ask yourself and be honest: Do I really have that much to say and would anyone care to read it? Does a blog help my business? Does the time invested maintaining a blog fit my business model and resources?

If you're like most small businesses, chances are you have better things to do than blog. Perhaps if you absolutely are sold on the idea of social network marketing, instead of full tilt blogging, you could maintain a FaceBook profile. Its much more fun and you'll benefit by sharing the "personal" side of your business. When it comes time to broadcast a customer appreciation event or special offer, you have a built in audience, but until then its all just casual talk between friends which is cool.

To Blog or not to blog... That is the question ;-)

Signing off ~

SEO Software Review

2009-11-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

I spent a little time conducting an SEO Software Review, for those considering using seo software, I researched a couple of really popular seo software programs. You can view at my site: SEO SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Step 9 How To Create Editable Regions, Structure Site and Name Pages

2009-09-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Okay... So in my last blog post in this series, I covered the basics of importing a template and creating a website. Essentially what I did, as a recap to the beginning of the article, is that I researched the business I am creating my sample for, I researched any trademarks or companies that do the same thing locally. I selected a good domain name to use and registered it, then I selected a good hosting plan, setup the hosting remotely and then locally created a website, (or more specifically a directory on my PC), and browsed designs and finally imported a nice design to work with.

Now I am getting into the fun part, which is the actual "assembly" of the website. While some feel that websites are more "art" than anything else, (and some are), my view of them is much more mechanical. Since my background is in mechanical assembly, field service and automotive repair, I tend to look at the process of building a website as just that... I am "building" it from start to finish. I follow and teach along very a methodical path, so that my site designs work well, do their job and are relatively simple to maintain.

To begin with, I will briefly describe some of the essential requirements that I use in Dreamweaver, which is "editable regions". While not everyone will use Dreamweaver to build their site, many "template" style sites work the same, so these concepts will apply, even if not specifically to your software. I always encourage the use of templates. Without a template, your site is built by hand manually, one page at a time and that's the same way it needs to be updated. The benefits of using a template are that one change on the template changes everything globally throughout the site. In addition, the site looks the same from page to page. The main idea with templates is this: A) You have some parts of the site which you can change on each individual page and B) You have other parts which can only be changed from the main template and those changes apply across all pages. No matter whether your site will be 5 pages or 500 pages, I recommend starting from a template.

*** NEXT CUSTOMIZE THE TEMPLATE ***

In the html code we have some stuff that looks like this:

SEO TIP:
What we want to do, is make sure that we can edit the "Description" and "Keywords" meta tags on every new page we create from this template, so we want to make them "editable". We do this by moving them from above the template tag !-- TemplateBeginEditable-- to just below the already editable title Small Studio > Enthusiastic Web Company title string. Now the code should look like:

All of this is the document "Head". Lets modify the part of the head that will not be "edited". Here is what we will change:

For example: meta name="Author" content="Todd Donald Best SEO Web Design (bestseowebdesign.com) using a template by Luka Cvrk (www.solucija.com)" /. Everything else looks fine.

Next, we will want to create a few more "editable regions" and later those regions which are not editable will be modified.

For this, we will select the area we want to change for each new page and make it an "editable region" by using the menu command Insert > Template Object > Editable Region.

SEO TIP:
When naming the editable regions within the template I reuse a primary key phrase, in this case "wheaton carpet cleaning"... Now my prmary site and the primary key phrase will be "wheaton carpet cleaner", but since I want to also be seen for the term "wheaton carpet cleaning", I use that phrase too.

We can create as many editable regions as we want, but in this example to keep it simple, I chose only three. One for the page title, another for the page topic and lastly the page content. All other areas I will leave alone for now because I will want to put stuff in there later which I want to be seen on every page I create and that I can change site-wide simply by making one change to the template.

One last thing I want to do is get rid of the bit of code that makes up the "Search" box. For this site we will not need a search box, or if I do add one I may use a Google Search box which will earn me revenue from my Google adsense account.

*** CREATE SITE STRUCTURE AND PAGE NAMES ***

Now comes the more "SEO" part of the design work, which is essentially the structure of the site, including the page names, or "document" names I choose... For example, in the site I am building right now, my client is a "carpet cleaner" and he services "Wheaton, IL", therefore this is by far the most important key phrase I go after. All of the keywords and key phrases I have selected for this web project are:

carpet
carpet cleaner
carpet cleaners
carpet cleaning
carpet cleaning service
carpet cleaning services
cleaning
cleaning service
cleaning services
dupage
dupage county
illinios
wheaton

I have 13 key phrases and I can safely target about 3 - 5 key phrases successfully per page, so I have room for a couple of more. To round this out to a full 15 key phrases, I will include the clients name as well. This may not be critical for a carpet cleaner, but it would be if you were someone which was known even somewhat famously, or if you were estabshing a site which incorporated your actual business or company name. Additionally I will be swapping the words around, to form variations in syntax. So... Wheaton carpet cleaner, can also be referred to as carpet cleaner Wheaton, etc.

SEO TIP: Trying to shot-gun too many key phrases into one page, is SEO Suicide. Limit the number of primary ideas, (and therefore key phrases), to only a handful for the best results.

The most important page is always the "home page" or "index.html".

My index page will emphasize the term "Wheaton Carpet Cleaner".

PAGE 1 = "index.html"
SEO Tip: You cannot rename an index page... It is always just plain "index".
KEY PHRASES: "carpet cleaner", "carpet cleaners", "wheaton carpet cleaner", "wheaton carpet cleaners", "wheaton Illinois", "carpet cleaner wheaton", "carpet cleaners wheaton", "carpet cleaner wheaton illinois", "wheaton illinois carpet cleaners".

Traditionally, websites contain some pretty basic information that most people expect to find and therefore should be included. I will build a page that talks "about" the business or owner, then one which describes the "services" they provide. Also I will have a page for people to "contact" the business and finally a page for reciprocal links. The last page on links is a significant part of our SEO work, but is fairly involved, so I will save that lesson for a little later. Next I will need to build four additional pages as follows:

PAGE 2 = "about-wheaton-carpet-cleaners.html"
SEO Tip: Notice I have already started to incorporate my next most important key phrase "carpet cleaners". In addition, page names must always be lower case and have dashes in between words.
KEY PHRASES: "carpet cleaners", "wheaton", "wheaton carpet cleaners", "carpet cleaners wheaton".

PAGE 3 = "wheaton-carpet-cleaning-services.html"
SEO Tip: Again I have incorporated another key search phrase.
KEY PHRASES: "carpet cleaning", "carpet cleaning services", "carpet cleaning services wheaton illinois", "carpet cleaning services illinois", "carpet cleaning services wheaton".

PAGE 4 = "contact-zed-lawrence-carpet-cleaners-wheaton-illinois.html"
SEO Tip: Once again I have incorporated a major search phrase.
KEY PHRASES: "zed", "zed lawrence", "carpet cleaners wheaton", "zed carpet cleaning", "zeds carpet cleaning", "zed lawrence wheaton", "carpet cleaners wheaton illinois".

PAGE 5 = "zeds-carpet-cleaning-dupage-county-links.html"
SEO Tip: And finally I have wrapped up my phrases in naming the links page, so that Zed can add all his local business clients websites as well as any reciprocal links he may build.
KEY PHRASES: "zeds carpet cleaning", "carpet cleaning links", "zeds links", "dupage county", "dupage county links", "add link", "add url".

STAY TUNED... MY NEXT BLOG POST IN THIS SERIES WILL COVER FILLING IN META TAGS TITLE - DESCRIPTION - KEY WORDS

Latest Website Project "Chicago Wrap"

2009-09-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

My latest website project, is http://chicagowrap.com a website for a sign and banner company in Chicago, IL.

http://chicagowrap.com

Step 8 How To Import Website Template into Dreamweaver

2009-09-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

In my last blog post I went over some basic instructions for "creating a new site" in your website building software, using Dreamweaver as an example. The term "creating site", can be a little confusing. As discussed in that post, there are two places you have a website. You have one on your PC's hard drive, (that is called LOCAL SITE), and you have one on your web hosting server, (that is the REMOTE SITE). The act of opening, modifying and publishing your site changes so the whole World can see, goes something like this:

It begins when you open your website building software, (in my case Dreamweaver). In many cases, this will be a "LOCAL APPLICATION", (in other words, it resides on your computer). Next, you will use the website building software to "OPEN DOCUMENT". This electronic document can be just a single html page, or an entire site. In my last blog post I showed how to "CREATE SITE", which in Dreamweaver, means that we used the software to create a new directory, (file folder), where all the website's pages will be stored locally. The software does its magic behind the scenes keeping track of what pages belong in that site. Additionally we setup parameters that allowed us to connect to our web host, (I use BEST DOMAINS HOSTING).

Much to some people's dismay, the website building software does not literally "create a website". While some online website building software will actually create a website, a program like Dreamweaver does not. In Dreamweaver, the act of creating a site is nothing more than having it make a directory and attach its own code and notes to make sure that it keeps track of all the pages in the site you build.

Once your LOCAL SITE is open, you can build the site, modify the site, etc and finally "PUBLISH SITE", which is when you physically upload your local copy of the site, to your REMOTE SERVER, (in this case the web host).

In previous blog posts I also mentioned selecting a good website template for using for an SEO website. In this blog post I will briefly explain how to IMPORT TEMPLATE into Dreamweaver. While not everyone uses Dreamweaver, (its a professional application), the concept can apply to most any website building programs that use templates.

*** IMPORT TEMPLATE INTO DREAMWEAVER ***

File > Explore >

Locate the zip file of the template and right click and choose

"Extract".

Next > Browse to the new site folder you just created i.e.;

"wheatoncarpetcleaner.com" and choose Open > Next > Finish

Close the explorer window and then use menu at top of Dreamweaver for

View > Refresh and you will see the extracted template in your site's

directory now.

*** SAVE THE DESIGN AS A DREAMWEAVER TEMPLATE ***

From the menu bar, choose File > Save As Template

I choose a name I will remember easily for the template i.e.; "WCC"

then click Okay and "update Links" and you're done...

STAY TUNED... My next blog post will cover how to customize the template and make editable regions and meta tags.

Step 7 How To Create a New Website, Setup Hosting and Connect to Server

2009-09-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

In my last blog post in my series of How To Build and SEO Website, I discussed choosing a hosting plan, (I recommended BEST DOMAINS HOSTING), and in this post, I will cover just the basics of creating a new website and connecting to your host server. Step 7 "How To Create a New Website, Setup Hosting and Connect to Server" will be very generalized because every host and every website building software is different, so there is no way I can accurately cover this subject in detail. Suffice to say that I will outline the basics, but it will be up to you to figure out how to do these things with whatever software or host you decide on.

After you have purchased a hosting plan, you will need to "setup hosting". This is usually a matter of logging into your new host's control panel and assigning a domain name "URL" to the hosting plan. It is what is referred to as a "hosted domain". Your host provides you with a block of space on a server. That server has what is called a "Server IP Address". This number is a series of numbers with dots in-between and is very similar to the street address of your house. In other words the IP Address is the location where someone can find the electronic documents that you create and store there in a "Public Folder". The "domain name" that you use is similar to the address on your house, which tells the pizza guy or house guests which house on that street is yours. The house guest in this case, is a search engine. The search engine needs to know A) your server IP Address and B) Specifically where on that server your website resides.

*** SETUP HOSTING ***

Since I recommend BEST DOMAINS HOSTING as a hosting service and domain registrar, this is how easy it is to setup hosting after logging in:

Hosting Account Management > Add Domain > Wheatoncarpetcleaner.com > Create Folder: /WHEATONCARPETCLEANER

I use Dreamweaver web building software. I also use a variety of other online WYSIWYG web editors if that's what my my client has, but I primarily work with Dreamweaver. This is how to create a new site in Dreamweaver and will be very similar to other software as well.

There are two things you need to remember with regards to hosting and building a site. You are now dealing with two physical locations for storage of your site; LOCAL and REMOTE. The "local server", means your PC. The "remote server" means the one that is at your hosting company.

*** CREATE SITE IN DREAMWEAVER *** (this is done locally on your PC). In this example I am using the website Wheaton Carpet Cleaner, which I recently made just for this article.

Open Dreamweaver > Show Local and Remote Sites > Site > Manage Sites > New

Site Name: wheatoncarpetcleaner.com
URL: http://wheatoncarpetcleaner.com
Type: FTP
IP ADDRESS: ###.###.###.###
Username: whatever
Password: 1234567

"TEST"

Upon successful domain host setup, the following message appears: "Macromedia connected to your web server successfully".

Click Okay > Next > Done > Done

*** IMPORT TEMPLATE INTO DREAMWEAVER *** In an earlier post I had discussed finding a design to use and about the availability of "templates" which can help you jump start a project if you find one that suits your needs. If you do choose a template, you would have "downloaded" the template somewhere on your PC. It will be in a ".zip file", so you'll need to extract the contents into a new folder. After the template is extracted you can move it into the web building software.

File > Explore >

Locate the zip file of the template and right click and choose "Extract".

Next > Browse to the new site folder you just created i.e.; "wheatoncarpetcleaner.com" and choose Open > Next > Finish

Close the explorer window and then use menu at top of Dreamweaver for View > Refresh and you will see the extracted template in your site's directory now.

When it comes to "templates" this subject can be sort of confusing at first. The main thing we think of when considering a "template" is the one which you spent all that time trying to find and finally downloaded. Now you have moved the template into your website building software. The confusing thing is, that it is not actually a template anymore. Its simply a web page, or "html document". Once you have it in the software, (in this case Dreamweaver), you will then need to "save as template", which tells the software to make a copy of the html document that will only be used to recreate pages over and over. Additionally, any changes to the template are applied to any pages created from the template page. Cool huh? That means that you can build a site no matter how big, from 1 page to 1 million pages and just changing the template will change every page in the site.

*** SAVE THE DESIGN AS A DREAMWEAVER TEMPLATE ***

From the menu bar, choose File > Save As Template

I choose a name I will remember easily for the template i.e.; "WCC" then click Okay and "update Links" and you're done... Ready to start making new pages based on the template.

STAY TUNED... In the next article I will discuss creating new pages based on the template and naming them properly for SEO.

MOC-1 Kid Kwic Website

2009-09-21T08:08:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick site I put together using GoDaddy Website Tonight: http://moc-1.com

Moc-1 "Aint Too Late "

2009-09-20T11:20:00.001-07:00

My Nephew Brandon...

Step 6 How to Choose the Right Hosting for Your SEO Website

2009-09-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

In my last blog post, I explained how important the design of a SEO website is, so that it shows up in search engines. In this blog post, which will continue my series on How to Build SEO sites, I will cover the aspect of Web Hosting.

I always recommend a High Quality Web Host, based in the USA with 24x7x365 telephone customer support like: BEST DOMAINS HOSTING

When choosing a web host, stay away from "free hosting", or "cheap hosting". The reason is that many of the free web hosting companies or cheap web hosting companies, have their servers outside the United States. Even if the servers are not outside the US, they will typically provide you with shared hosting supported by ads, or shared server space with other websites. This is no good for SEO sites, for a few reasons:

Firstly, if the server resides outside the USA, the search engines can tell and therefore your site is less likely to be considered for geographic searches that someone may perform here in the United States. If you offer a geographically based service or have a business that serves a certain area, I recommend that you keep your hosting company nearby or at least in the same Country. Secondly, ad space supported free hosting plans will litter your web page with ads from whomever they choose. If you have an auto repair garage in St Louis, do you really want ads on your page for Penis Enlargement or Diet Pills? Also, when your web hosting is "shared" it means that your website resides on a server with an IP Address that could be shared with other sites, (a shared server is sort of like an apartment complex for websites). So, the search engines can tell that your website, (lets say hypothetically the garage in St Louis again), "lives" in the same neighborhood as Bobbi Jo's Wedding photography and the Adult Dating Site... When someone types in a search phrase of "auto repair st louis", it is unlikely that your site will have much credibility in terms of Relevance to auto repair because its on the same server as a photographer and dating site.

STAY TUNED... IN MY NEXT POST I WILL DISCUSS HOW TO CREATE A WEBSITE AND CONNECT IT TO YOUR HOST

Step 5 How to Choose a Web Design or Website Template for SEO Web Site

2009-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

In my last blog article in this series I covered the details behind choosing the key words and key phrase you need for an SEO website and then finding and registering a good domain name to use with your SEO website.

In this article: "Step 5 How to Choose Website Design for SEO Web Site", I will cover the process of finding a good design to use when building an SEO website.

As I explained in the previous posts, I am using a real website as my example when writing these articles. As you know from the last post, I have already selected a domain name and launched the site http://wheatoncarpetcleaner.com for a Carpet Cleaner in Wheaton, IL.

Already this site is at number one on Microsoft's Bing.com for my primary key phrase: Wheaton Carpet Cleaner

And number one on Google.com for my primary key phrase: Wheaton Carpet Cleaner

It is important to remember that the reasons for creating a search engine optimized website are often different than the ideas people have in mind for their website. A search engine optimized website is designed to be found online and help market your business passively when people searching online find it. It is a professional looking site that can be found easily, loads quickly and is visible on a multitude of Internet browsers, Internet connections and monitor resolutions and sizes. It can serve as a dual purpose company site also, however sometimes I have found that people who want a site, often want a site which has a design or elements in it that make for a terrible choice for it showing up online or converting web visitors to clients. When I build sites, they are opttimzed not only for search engines, but so anyone online can see them and not have issues. For example, you may have a customer with a broadband connection and all the latest plug-ins and updates downloaded and installed... But you may also have a customer with an older PC looking at your site from their work using IE6 on a 15" CRT and no speakers... They might have a firewall too. For these reasons and many more, your primary website should be very basic and accessible. Your primary site will not have Flash, or background music, or complicated elements.

Typically the way I start any SEO web design project, is that after I have my Key Phrases and domain name figured out I then search for a deesign that will suit my needs. I'll start broswing through website templates at a premium template provider first, like: BEST WEBSITE TEMPLATES

In this instance, I was looking for "carpet cleaning" related layouts. All I found was general cleaning service templates, which means way too much modifying.

I then move onto free template providers to see what is available. FOr this project, I used a Free Website Template by Solucija. The template I found was a really nice simple template named "small studio". Solucija is a great place to find website templates that work best for SEO sites, because they are CSS and follow the latest web design standards supported by the majority of browsers.

I checked several other free template sites, but found that the design "Small Studio" would work great for this project, so I downloaded it.

The next step in this series will be to setup a hosting account where I can publish the site to a server.

STAY TUNED!

Final Cut: From Boy to Man - Live, Love and Laugh

2009-09-19T07:50:00.001-07:00

Videos are a very popular way of telling people about yourself, your life, your business, your company, your products or services. Todd Donald Web Design creates videos on your behalf, then search engine optimizes them, tags them with key phrases and submits them to video search engines like YouTube.

Step 4 How To Use Domain Name and Key Phrases For Building SEO Sites

2009-09-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog post, (Step 3 Choosing The Right Domain Name, Keywords and Key Phrases), I discussed primarily the importance of targeting which key word and phrase to use and researching your desired words to make sure that they are not trademarked, or in use.

In this post: Step 4 How To Use Domain Name and Key Phrases For SEO, I will begin to cover the more detailed steps to use the key phrases and keywords when selecting a domain name and creating a website.

Throughout this series I will be using a real site that I just built as an example. I created the site for a friend of mine named Zed who performs carpet cleaning in Wheaton, IL. The site I will be referring to is Wheaton Carpet Cleaner and the final published site is pictured here:

With this particular site design I already had some idea of the key phrases I wanted to use, so I began by looking at uspto.gov for any possible trademark name infringements. The trademark searches I performed were based on the most popular key phrases I wanted based on a search on google's keyword tool for popular search phrases that have to do with "carpet cleaning" + "wheaton".

I added these words to the list:
carpet
carpet cleaner
carpet cleaners
carpet cleaning
carpet cleaning service
carpet cleaning services
cleaning
cleaning service
cleaning services
dupage
dupage county
illinios
wheaton

Next, I performed a domain name search using the same key phrases.

My Domain name search resulted in these possible domains that were available at the time:
wheatoncarpetcleaner.com
zedscarpetcleaning.com
cleanzed.com
zedlawrence.com
carpetcleanerzed.com

Next I used a simple broad search at Google search for a better idea of which domain to use, based on my chances for competing on Google for similar search phrase. When performing this type of search I look at a couple of things, the number of relevant results and whether or not there are sponsored ads that populate at the top and sides for that key phrase:

wheaton carpet cleaner = 37,600 results + sponsored and local ads.

zeds carpet cleaning = 6,680 no sponsored, no local, several other zcc.

cleanzed = combinations clean = 220 mil, clean zed 1/2 mil, cleanzed mispelled + no sponsored or local.

zed lawrence = 1/2 million results mainly people, no sponsored or local.

carpet cleaner = 18mil+ sponsored, plus local, plus big competition + zed = 7700, no local, lots of Zeds.

SEO Tip: Clearly the term "carpet cleaner" is by far the most popular with the most results and sponsored pay per click ads that people are bidding on. For maximum traffic and visibility I want to use that term as a goal to set my sights on. If my SEO works it will pay off, but it will be the most competitive phrase as well, making it more dificult to have success. When starting out you may find it much easier to choose less popular search phrases for niche' markets.

THE CORRECT DOMAIN IS: wheatoncarpetcleaner.com because it suits my needs and targets the primary key phrase which is relevant and has the opportunity to grab a good portion of search traffic. In addition it will compete head to head with the sponsored ads that people are paying for to show up for the same key phrase.

Initially I wanted to add a second domain that included a perhaps even better phrase with "cleaning" but http://wheatoncarpetcleaning.com/ is owned already but no site resides there and it gets a page error 404.

ONE FINAL CHECK AT USPTO AND GOOGLE:

Google = only other services using the term in Title (if TM'd Zed could legally get them removed).

USPTO.gov = "No TESS records were found to match the criteria of your query."

With that bit of research behind me, on 9/12/09 I Registered http://wheatoncarpetcleaner.com/.

Stay tuned. IN MY NEXT POST I will get into the *** NEXT STEP *** FIND A DESIGN to use.

Amazing new 17 year old rapper Brandon!!!!

2009-09-14T06:35:00.001-07:00

This is my Nephew Brandon Abshear Rapping...

Step 3: Choosing The Right Domain Name, Keywords and Key Phrases

2009-09-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

If you read my "Step 2" in this series of self articles, you have a pretty good idea of how search engines use TEXT to catalog site contents and how they regurgitate that text if and when someone is searching for text that is similar. That is why someone who types in "blogs" into Google, will be quickly presented with tons of relevant results for that term... Because the sites they list as "matches" to your search all have the word "blogs" in them. Its a TEXT THING. So... Moving right along:

By now you may have started to do a little research and thought of some really great key phrases, key words and domain names to use right? Whoa... Not so fast! First, you need to see if anyone has Trademarked the terms you are trying to target and make sure nobody has a company registered with the same verbiage as your domain, or you could be unfortunate enough to be sued for trademark infringement or domain squatting. I myself have been a victim due to a phrase I used when I built a website for someone and I found myself in a Federal Court in a million dollar lawsuit.

BEFORE YOU SELECT A DOMAIN NAME, COMPANY NAME OR PUBLISH ANYTHING ONLINE, CHECK FIRST WITH THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE!!! You can search their database for key phrase terms that you are considering using by going to: TESS USPTO TRADEMARK SEARCH When you land at the site, look at the links on the left and choose "Trademarks" > # 3 Search TM database
(TESS).

Next, (after you have made sure the domain name, search phrases, or any other textual content you'll want to use is not trademarked), you'll want to do a few manual searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing to make sure you are not going to make the mistake of picking terms that are the same as local business names, especially if they are similar businesses to yours. If you do decide to risk the chance of using a name or term that is even coincidental, you better file for a TM or "Service Mark" with a Trademark and Patent Attorney ASAP. *** Just because a company uses the same key phrases or terms as you want does not mean you can't use them too. You just have to make sure that you are not infringing... For example, if you own a Widget company in Cleveland don't pick the domain name "clevelandwidgetcompany", if there already is a company named Cleveland Widget Company Inc. You can choose clevelandwidgets dot com or something else well suited to your business, just don't duplicate a company name if they do the same thing as you and you both service the same geographic markets.

Once you have established some level of comfort that neither your domain name, or any company name, search phrases and other textual content you'll be publishing will not infringe on anyone else's protected stuff, you can register a domain name and buy some hosting. Its important to realize that NOBODY OWNS DOMAIN NAMES... You don't "buy" a domain name, you simply register to use it. When choosing a domain registrar and web host, you'll want a company that has great customer service, affordable prices and stellar quality. I recommend BEST DOMAINS HOSTING, which is my personal reseller site for GoDaddy services.

Stay Tuned... In my next blog post I will start getting into the details of building a SEO website. I have already built the site and have documented the process, so I will be posting that step by step here on my Best SEO Web Design Blog.

Sneak Peak at Sample Site That Will Be Used For "How To Build SEO Site" Blog Article

2009-09-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

Take a sneak peak at the sample site that will be used for my "How To Build SEO Site" Blog Article (which is coming soon). Click Here > Wheaton Carpet Cleaner

Illinois Web Designer Directory Listing Approved

2009-09-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Illinois Web Designer Directory Listing Approved
Illinois Web Designer

Best SEO Web Design Website by Todd Donald Chicago, IL-based Web Designer, Promises to Make SEO Website Design Easy and Affordable

2009-09-12T10:57:00.001-07:00

Best SEO Web Design Website by Todd Donald Chicago, IL-based Web Designer, Promises to Make SEO Website Design Easy and Affordable

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Free SEO Press Release from PRWEB and LogoMaker ($200 value)

2009-09-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

BTW ~ I receive an email from Logomaker which is offering a Free SEO Press Release from PRWEB which is a $200 value. I just had to share this one! Enjoy: http://www.prweb.com/

Step 2: How to SEO using Keywords and Phrases

2009-09-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

In Step one, I talked you through figuring out what the 5 essential things are that you need to determine before building a search optimized website. Those 5 key elements are: WHAT, WHY, HOW, WHERE and To WHOM. By the time I have finished this necessary first step, I move onto the second step which is figuring out which of the key words and key phrases I will incorporate into my preliminary site design. Lets examine this more closely:

Before delving into Step 2, (where I discuss in general terms how to SEO a website using keywords and key phrases), I want to encourage you to subscribe to this blog using the link at the bottom of the blog, or follow me at Twitter or add me as a friend at MySpace, or Facebook. You'll find all these links to the right of this blog. This is important because in Step 3, I will begin to work on an actual website and document what I do and why, step by step, so that you can better see how this all actually works. By the end of this series of blog posts you will be able to actually jump on Google, Yahoo or Bing and see the end result.

Okay ~ Moving right along now into Step 2: How To SEO Website using Keywords and Keyphrases...

KEY WORDS and KEY PHRASES are the building blocks of SEO, (search engine optimization). This is because search engines operate on "textual content". A search engine is really nothing more than a very sophisticated software program. It is not infallible, nor is it anywhere close to being smart. It relies on TEXT to produce search results. When building a site, one needs to keep in mind that for all practical purposes, the ONLY thing that a search engine can read is written words. It spiders and crawls a website based on the words it finds on the pages and in the background code. Search engines do not understand metaphors, concepts, colors, images, movies, or flashy objects that look cool. They only care about words and phrases made up of letters. Since I am a USA based web designer, writing for English speaking readers, I will make this totally clear. When you design a search optimized or SEO website, the one thing you must concentrate on is KEY WORDS and KEY PHRASES. I will provide the following very recognizable chart for reference:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The above chart when used properly, will give tremendous results! To bring this point home, lets pretend that you are considering a website for your self and you are an entertainer, but more accurately you are a mobile disc jockey. Here are the key words you would use to describe your services:

DJ, or Disc Jockey and maybe the plural versions of that. You can throw a "mobile" in front of it if you want, but this is what people looking for you, will be looking for. It is therefore 100% crucial that you use the 26 letter chart above to use primarily the TEXT or WORDS that people will be using when they search for you on a search engine. So... You are not an "entertainer", or a "wedding specialist", or a "dance music facilitator"... You are a DJ, recognizable and searched for with common language, so that key word and the key phrase Disc Jockey should be the focus of your textual content and have a heavier density than other words and phrases. So does that mean you cannot refer to yourself a s a"Professional Night Club Act", simply because you are a DJ? Of course not, but you want to use terms like that sparingly perhaps in some carefully crafted ad copy within plain site.

MORE TO COME IN STEP 3, SO SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG OR FOLLOW ME AT TWITTER, FACEBOOK OR MYSPACE >>>>

Step 1: How To Build an SEO Website

2009-09-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

My last blog post covered the fundamentals of SEO (search engine optimization). This blog post will be the first in a series, designed to help you either understand how to build an SEO website, or you can use it as a guide when building your own SEO website, so lets get started:

When I start a brand new website for a client, I always begin by getting a really good idea of what it is specifically that I will try to tell the world about them. In other words, I must understand the five most important preliminary aspects of any website design project:

WHAT the client does, offers or sells, (do they make widgets or service widgets, etc).
WHY they do what they do, (customers need to know why you do what you do).
HOW they do what they do, (details of their products or services).
WHERE they operate at or sell goods or services, (what geographic areas).
TO WHOM do they sell their goods or services, (what industry or demographic).

When the five key elements are examined, it will set the precedence for all aspects of my SEO web design.

* Note: Without these five key elements figured out almost completely in advance, it is nearly impossible to build a search optimized website.

With our five key elements of What, Why, How, Where and To Whom decided upon, I begin the process of conducting a market analysis and determine how I am going to target that market. I do this by spending a considerable amount of time surfing the three major search engines, which are currently Google.com, Yahoo.com and Bing.com. I search for similar services, goods, or companies that offer those goods and services in various local markets. I pay special attention to what key phrases their sites appear for, as well as what similar search phrases are suggested by the search engines. Case in point: If you manufactured window shades, you may only be able to consider the obvious search phrases: "window shade", "window blinds", etc. When in fact there are many perceived variations: "roller shades", "window roller shades", "room darkening window shades", "solar window shades", "exterior window shades", "window treatments", etc. So by going through this exercise I am able to do several things. I am able to distinguish and narrow what the site's focus will be and also build a list of relevant key phrases and get to know any competitors online too.

This entire process takes anywhere from several minutes to several hours depending on the scope of your business and the five key elements. For example, building a website for a realtor in the Chicago area may prove to be exhausting because of the amount of competition, the number or relevant key phrases, the number of specific towns and regions, etc. By contrast, if building a site for a snow shoe repair shop in the middle of Wyoming, it would be much less work.

My next blog post Step 2, will concentrate on what exactly you do, once you have figured out the five key elements of your business and therefore the focus of your seo site.

What Does SEO Mean?

2009-09-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise, this weekend my wife asked me what was "SEO"? Hmmm... She knew I built websites, but she was under the impression this was new. "No of course its not new dear" I said. She asked me to explain it to her, pretending she was a client, which I did.

Since this new blog of mine is titled "Best SEO Web Design Blog", perhaps one of my first blog posts really ought to cover the basics like "what is SEO?"... For your entertainment, I will give you my personal definition of SEO:

SEO is short for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Lets pretend for a second that you are considering your very first website. Most likely something as foreign sounding as SEO is probably the last thing on your mind. Most newbie site owners think about domain names (the www)... or adding pictures, or videos or how cool the whole thing will be for people to visit, etc. Unfortunately most new website owners, or new website builders will inevitably learn the hard way that SEO should be the very FIRST thing they consider.

Why is search optimization important for your website? Well... Imagine this: According to the US Dept of Statistics, over 100,000 brand new websites are launched daily. Perhaps to your surprise, yours won't be the first or only website out there is cyberspace. Unless you plan on having more than the first and only 6 visitors to your site being your family and friends, you will need to be found on search engines. Much the same way people go to the library or a book store to find a book, they go to a search engine, (such as Google) to "find" what they are looking for. In order for your website to reach potential visitors, it MUST be found easily on search engines.

Okay so what is SEO? I still have not answered that question... What SEO is (search engine optimization), in a nut shell, is that practice of making a web page, or website easily accessible and easily indexable, by major search engines. It encompasses every fiber of the website. It starts with a thorough market analysis, or at least a popular key phrase search for similar products or services. It begins with the domain name and carries all the way through the entire web design. Everything should be considered to make the website "Search Engine Friendly", which is really just a simple way to make sure that the contents of your site are easily found and easily indexed by search engines so that they will be able to pop your site listing up as relevant the next time someone searches for something like what you offer.

Sound confusing? Its really not. Imagine the library or book store analogy again. Imagine that you are looking for a nice cookbook. How would you possibly find it if the library or book store just dumped all their books into a giant room in a pile? Imagine no shelves, no tags, no signs, no librarian or clerk to help you find it. That is the equivalent of the majority of websites built and uploaded. The World Wide Web is full of websites that nobody will ever visit, simply because they are not organized, tagged or indexed.

Search Engine Optimization helps search engines, to help people find sites.

First Blog Post

2009-09-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

First blog post on Best SEO Web Design Blog http://bestseowebdesign.blogspot.com/