Are you guilty of tunnel vision and ignoring another important metric?

Bounce rate is a critical website analytic

All the really good SEO companies in Houston also pay close attention to a website’s bounce rate in the monthly analytics. It’s one of the many analytic tools SEO experts use to improve your chances of conversion.

A website’s bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who find your webpage and immediately give you a hello-goodbye. They arrive and leave within seconds. In other words, as far as your visitor is concerned, the party’s over.

For those of you left-brainers fixated on calculations, just divide the number of visitors who viewed only one page by your total number of visitors.

What Causes Bounce Rate?

According to Google, there are many causes for a high bounce rate, including

• Your site is only one page
• You site loads slowly
• All your pages do not have tracking code
• Your webpages might not be optimized so that they correlate
• You are using the wrong keywords on each webpage
• Your landing page is not appealing or user friendly
• User behavior such as bookmarking for later leisurely exploring or finding your phone number and then leaving

In other words, bounce rate can be caused by mechanical errors such as:

• coding
• wrong keywords
• a slow-loading site

or by the human factors of

• writing style
• user preference and habit including individual intuition or reading and information gathering styles

Bounce Rate’s Importance

Your website’s bounce rate can be important. If your visitors are interested, a low bounce rate means that they stick around and explore your website. Your site is relevant to their search. High bounce rates can mean that you were irrelevant to what they were looking for and they were disappointed.

High conversion rates are generally associated with low bounce rates.

Although your site’s bounce rate can reflect customer engagement, there’s a caveat. If you have a high number of visitors who come to your site, find what they are looking for within a few seconds, and then leave, your site will have a high bounce rate. Also, the “acceptable” bounce rate will vary between industries or the type of page that is viewed. If a visitor follows a link on your page, and the link doesn’t open in a separate window, following the link bounces your visitor.

Fixing High Bounce Rates

“Fixing” high bounce rates requires determining the source of the problem. If the problem is mechanical, you might need a site redesign, minor code adjustment, or a host with a faster server (usually a hosting plan upgrade).

Human factors are a little more difficult. SEO companies will start by reviewing content for appropriate quality content, linking, and keyword usage. There’s not much that you can do about bounce rates due to visitor habits such as bookmarking, quick scanning for information, finding it and then leaving, or broad keyword searches when the visitor is looking for a particular topic.

So don’t go bouncing a long when you look at your website’s analytics. Figure out why your bounce rate is high. If it’s something mechanical with your site, fix it. If the visitor is finding exactly what he or she needs, there’s no reason to worry about your bounce rate. If your phone is ringing or you are getting more emails than you can handle from your contact us forms, you really don’t need to worry about your site’s bounce rate, do you?

The post Don’t Bounce (Rate) Along in Website Analytics appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

The idea behind the implementation is to foster new options for consumers and competition. The types of domains that stand a chance for acceptance range from cities, to brands, to categories. For example, a brand such as IBM may have a .ibm to its credit.

What does this mean for SEO, particularly Houston SEO, and what varieties of domains stand a chance for being approved? Although it may be possible for a .seo to be a future gTLD type, it is extremely unlikely that any single company will be allowed to control the domain. Domains are moderated by groups with no invested interest in the industry. Houston Internet marketing may have a new city-based .hou tag to look forward to, however, provided someone applies for the domain.

Remember that search engines do apply favor. New gTLDs may prequalify for additional authority and relevancy that will probably be obtained through peer regulation and the rigorous application process. Some domains, such as government or education domains, currently carry more authority than others since the domains are only available to non-commercial entities publishing reliable information. It is likely that some of the new domains may mirror these qualities. On the other hand, some gTLDs may be open to wholesale ban if they address sensitive national or cultural issues.

Some sites may want to obtain a new gTLD relevant to the industry and migrate their current site over to the domain – their customer base would naturally follow.  The former site could then be used to develop new industry specific tools. However the new domains affect the industry, it will certainly be interesting to watch it unfold in Houston web marketing. Contact our Houston SEO Service, Directory One, at (713-465-0051) for more information.

The post Houston Web Marketing for a New .HOU gTLD? appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

SEO Website Updating

When you or your web team make updates and changes to your business website, can you be certain that those changes and web updates will not harm your Google search engine ranking or results page positioning status?

If you or your staff are not devoted followers of the more than 300 changes the Google web team makes to their algorithms each year, identifying which business websites provide excellent exposure online, then you are most certainly risking affecting your profits and business stability every time you make a website change.

The words in the content on your web pages, the structure of your website and how readable it is for search engine spiders, little things like sitemaps and robot text files, the words you choose to link in your web pages, how many links you have in your website on specific pages, whether you have internal links or external links, the load speed of your web pages and the priority these pages are listed in are only a few examples of details that are often adjusted when website changes are made, which can affect whether you show up on page 1, 2, or 3 of Google and whether you do not show up to approximately 90% of the Internet searchers.

Houston SEO Firm: Minimize Your Risk

The risk is very real, but when you use the services of web technology and SEO experts at Directory One, one of the oldest SEO firms in Houston, you can relax with the knowledge that these little changes that can make huge financial differences to your company will be handled effectively as your business website is continuously optimized and updated to maintain your opportunity for long-term success via proper management of the tools available to your company through Internet marketing and website development.

Please call 713-465-0051 to speak with the skilled professionals at Directory One who will be happy to provide you with a website analysis and discuss your business goals for lasting growth in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace.

The post Search Engine Optimization: The Evolution of the Business Website appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

Internet searchers are more active than ever now and the proof is in the pudding or rather, pocketbooks of businesses who have been promoting themselves online. Call Directory One today at 713-465-0051 so that you too can benefit from the tremendous growth of Internet usage that has occurred in our modern times.

Just this very past week all time record sales were hit online with more than $900 Million in sales occuring on just one single day, December 15, 2009. This marks a 21% percent rise from the same day last year.  That’s right. You did not read that wrong. A 21% increase in online sales from last year to the year 2009 is correct. Over $900 Million in sales in ONE DAY online.

Did your business get to take part in any of that Internet action?

Internet Becomes Increasingly Important with Unbelievable Speed

Most business owners five, ten and twenty years ago would never have believed that the Internet would take off in popularity on the level that it has, but the Internet age is upon us folks and the importance of Internet advertising and optimized website development cannot be stressed enough as a crucial part of success in today’s business marketplace.

It is becoming increasingly true that if your business is not listed online and is not easily found through strategic search engine positioning services such as supplied by the technical experts at Directory One, then your business is becoming more and more of a phantom and your competitors are ruling your market.

Remember the old adage, “Location, Location, Location?” There is a new meaning to that phrase, which describes what is most important in business. That is no longer “physical” location. It is now the Internet and the position that your company holds in search engine result listings.

If you do not hold a prominent online spot, it is time to call Directory One. We will assist you with:

• Optimized Website Design (Build and Updates)
• Strategic Internet Marketing
• Diversified Marketing Strategies
• Key Phrase Analysis and Targeted Marketing Services
• Video Marketing Online
• Houston Internet Business Services
• And More!

Houston SEO Services

Call 713-465-0051 today and discuss your current online status and get in on the action. The Internet searchers are more active than ever now. The consistent and incredible rise in Internet popularity leaves companies in today’s world little choice but to hire the Internet business marketing specialists who will make sure that your company is available, prominently positioned and ready to call out to the millions of consumers online.

The Houston SEO services provided by Directory One are your best choice in online business marketing to take your well deserved place alongside the many companies benefiting from this increase in Internet popularity. Take advantage of the Internet age by giving us a call today!

Additional Houston SEO Services:

Website Analysis

New Google Algorithm

User Friendly Web Design

Houston Internet Advertising: Pay Per Click

Online Business Marketing

The post Internet Searchers: More Active Than Ever! appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

Website Analysis: Make sure that your business is getting the bang for your buck! You may have a business website already, but do you know how well it is performing for you? Call the website experts in Houston at Directory One at 713-465-0051 to get this question answered today!

You should know exactly how many visitors you are receiving, where they are coming from and how long they are staying on your site…..as a minimum….

Maybe you already know all of this and you don’t understand why these numbers are so low! Maybe you have searched on the key phrases that seem like someone would type into a Google search engine when they are looking to purchase your products or services and you can’t seem to find your business website anywhere. Why is this??

Around every corner you will hear one person or another claiming that they know what they are doing with websites and search engine optimization. Maybe they use articles. Maybe they use maps. Maybe they use videos.

Here at Directory One, we not only stay on top of ALL of the best practices for successful, long-term SEO and business website development, but we have been doing it for over 20 years successfully…helping businesses to grow, increase their profits and succeed in the competitive business directory and online marketplace.

What’s Wrong with My Website?

If you are certain that you know what key phrases people are typing in to look for your services and you are certain that there is a large market of buyers out there who want what you sell, then you have no choice left but to ask yourself, “What’s Wrong with My Website?”

It’s time to end the guessing game. Stop asking your employees to figure it out and give the experts in the business website and SEO industry a call today! At Directory One, we would be more than happy to perform a website analysis for your company and provide you with a detailed listing of exactly what you need to do to start showing up at the top of Internet searches.

Did you know that the Google algorithms look for about 150 different things when determining which website out of millions in each category should go on those ever important first 3 pages? Are you in the top 30, top 20 or top 10 search results that are just about the only search results than anyone is even going to look at when they are surfing the web??

Protect Your Business Website Investment

It isn’t likely that it was particularly cheap for you to get your website built. Now, how much are you spending on having it maintained? If you are spending money on a website that isn’t generating results for you, every penny definitely counts!

Why waste your money and time on a business website for your Houston company that isn’t doing its job?

Give us a call to make sure that your business is getting the bang for your buck with your business website, which should be the foundation of and center of your business marketing universe. You can maximize your ROI (return on investment) today by giving Directory One a call.

Why Should I Optimize My Website?

A website analysis will help you to understand the details involved in optimizing your website. Many business owners are just now getting on-board with the online marketplace and having their business websites either built or updated. For some, it is difficult to completely understand the reason why a business website is necessary at all, and now they are being told they have to “optimize?”

A simple way of explaining the reasoning behind this would be to compare your website and the Internet to a large filing system. The Internet would be the building that contains millions of pieces of paper. Your website would be one of those pieces of paper.

You could just scratch out your company name and information and tell people why they should buy from you on a piece of paper (i.e. your business website.)

Then you could walk it over to the big building and just throw it into the stack of the millions of other pieces of paper.

That is what you are doing when you have a website built that is not optimized.

Now, consider that that same building also has an extremely large room with well-organized filing cabinets and some of the files are more easily accessed than others. Everything that starts with the letter “A” is the easiest to find.

Instead of just throwing your website onto the big pile of papers in the building, you decide to walk it over to the filing cabinets. (That’s what you are doing when you hire an SEO Company.)

Unfortunately, your business name starts with a “Z” and the filing cabinets with the “Z” assortment is situated down a very cramped hallway. The SEO Company you are using might attempt to help you to find a way to get your piece of paper titled so that it is a bit easier to reach in the filing cabinet system.

However, it will take an experienced Houston SEO Company like Directory One to tell you all the details involved in making sure that you get into the “A” filing cabinet, right up there in the front so that you don’t have to wonder at how much time your customers will actually spend perusing through the filing system before they ever even come across your piece of paper and the information that you put on it.

Now that you are in the front, you also want to make sure that the information on your piece of paper is fully developed (content development in Houston by Directory One) so that the customers who look at your page will actually feel motivated to give you a call and provide you with the opportunity to deliver your products and/or services to them.

This analogy could probably go on and on, but the fact remains that by calling Directory One to receive a website analysis for your company, you will be giving your business a real chance to succeed in today’s modern marketplace, the Internet.

We understand that you probably have many questions about how Houston Internet advertising can really help your business to grow and we are looking forward to discussing your opportunity for taking advantage of that business growth today!

Call 713-465-0051 and get your questions answered, get your specialized website analysis and make sure that your business is getting the bang for your buck when have a website built or when maintaining an already functioning website. There is no sense in throwing your money away on a company website that isn’t doing you any good. Nor is there any sense in ignoring the thousands and perhaps millions of customers who are looking for your products and services online right now.

Call Directory One today to avoid these pitfalls and start making more money from your company’s online presence now.

The post Website Analysis: Make Sure Your Business is Getting the Bang for Your Buck appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

Did you know that you can request a free, no-obligation, no strings attached, SEO Website Analysis from any page on the main Directory One website?

Similar to other SEO website evaluations, the Directory One SEO website analysis covers:

On-page SEO Factors

Site Architecture – CSS versus tables
URL Structure – Do you have properly formated urls that include keywords separated by dashes?
Homepage Content – Is your homepage text 250 to 400 words long and is it based on keyword research and your primary key phrase?
Homepage Design & Layout– Is your navigation text or graphics based? Does your site have really big graphics, large flash files, or frames?
Metatags – Page titles, descriptions, and keywords – Do you have them, and if so are the metatags you have any good?
Heading Tags – H1, H2, and H3 tags
Image Analysis and Alt Tags
Conversion Forms – Do you have one or more, and if so, do they work?
Blog – Do you have a blog and if so, is it properly set up and optimized?

Off-page SEO Factors

Domain Age – Can’t do anything to change this one. As they say in the NFL, you are what your record says you are.
Domain Expiration – Is your domain name registered for at least five, if not ten years?
Backlinks – How many do you have and are you in the major authority directories, such as dmoz, the Yahoo Directory and Business.com?
Articles & Press Releases – Do you have them and if so, have they been properly optimized and added to your site?
Videos – Do you have them on your site and if so, do you have your own channel and profile on YouTube?

The Directory One Competitive Advantage

Where Directory One differentiates itself from the competition is in the time we take to explain each of the SEO factors, analyze the results, and provide specific recommendations in the form of a custom SEO action plan for each individual site.

Any site of five or more pages that has it’s own unique URL may be submitted. In other words, we do not create reports for subdomains or websites that are part of another.

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