SERP stands for search engine results page, which is the webpage that appears after you type a keyword or phrase into a search box on Google, Yahoo or Bing. Most SERPs consist of two elements – organic search results and text advertisements. Organic search results are achieved through various search engine optimization (SEO) techniques on your website with ranking determined by the search engine. Text advertisements are pay-per-click (PPC) ads targeting specific keywords that you purchase from a search engine. SERP marketing combines these the two elements of SEO and PPC to achieve the best results when trying to attract potential customers via the search engines.

In the image below, you can see a Google SERP and where the basic elements reside. There are two PPC areas shown in red, one to the right and one above the organic results, shown in green. These can vary depending upon the search term and the search engine involved.

Organic Search Results with SEO

Everyone wants to be in the top 10 spots on a SERP. Who wouldn’t? According to a leaked AOL search database report, about 90% of all search engine users will usually click on one of the top 10 results on the first results page. Only 10% of users will move on to subsequent pages. The report indicates that users will typically choose the first result given about 42% of the time while the tenth result only receives about 3% of the clicks. In total, the top 5 spots receive over 73% of the total clicks. Obviously, the effectiveness of a top 10 search ranking cannot be ignored.

Getting high rankings in organic search results is not an easy task, but once you’re there, the benefits can be enormous. The only legitimate way to achieve these high search rankings is with appropriate search engine optimization techniques. SEO is a tricky business and it can take a great deal of time and effort to achieve the desired results. Getting your website organically listed on a SERP is extremely desirable.

Advertising with PPC

The other method of getting on a SERP is with pay-per-click advertising. All of the major search engines offer PPC tools – Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter for Bing. How PPC works is that you pick specific keywords for your ad, write your ad and then bid against other advertisers for placement on the SERPs. The ad is displayed alongside the organic search results and search engine users have the opportunity to click on your ad, taking them to your website.

Unlike organic search results, PPC does cost money – and if you’re not careful, it can cost a lot of money. For some extremely popular keywords, a bid can cost you $5 per click or more when there are several websites competing against you. If you have it in your advertising budget to spend that much, then go for it. However, most website owners can’t afford click rates that high and one mistake can easily wipe out an entire marketing budget for the year in a single day.

For most PPC advertisers, I recommend a “choose your battles wisely” approach to pay-per-click. If every advertiser is bidding on a specific keyword, try an alternate keyword at a lower rate. The results may surprise you. While you may not get as many clicks as the more expensive keyword, you won’t be spending as much money on PPC ads as the other guys.

SEO + PPC = SERP Marketing

If you want to get the best possible SERP results for your website, you need to combine search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. While either one can be effective as a standalone products, think about what they can do together. The goal of SERP marketing is to create the perfect blend of SEO and PPC in one convenient package so you may achieve the maximum return on your investment.

An Innocent Looking Link

This morning, I was searching Google for some information on the typical dimensions for an elevator. So, as most of you do, I loaded up Firefox, typed my search terms into Google and was presented with a long series of links on the subject. I clicked on the first link presented on the search engine results page and then it happened – I was redirected to a badware site. Obviously the website I was trying to access had been compromised and was serving up some bad stuff. The webpage proceeded to load several thing in my web browser and finally came up with something that looked like this:

At first glance, you might think that this is a standard Windows XP window that is relaying some very important information about your computer. It appears to go through a super-fast scan of your hard drive and then comes up with a results list of infections that includes Banker.MGB, Trojan.DownLoad.37236, Win32.HLLM.Netsky.35328, Trojan.GootKit, and Nuwar.GDM. Those all sound and look pretty scare when you see that they have high or even critical threat levels.

But there are several problems with this window and I was able to spot the badware rather easily:

• The image shown is for Windows XP – I’m running Windows 7.
• I have six drives connected to my PC – this scan only shows one.
• I never requested a scan – the browser was redirected.

Just these few things should be enough to set off the warning bells in your head. Badware is tricky and they will do anything to get you to download their software.

Don’t Load the Badware!

The fact is that the results shown on the screen are there to scare you. I cannot stress this next statement enough:

Whatever you do, don’t load the badware!

Most badware gets onto a computer through a user-initiated response. That means that the user actually allows the badware to get onto their computer system, usually by downloading the badware or clicking a button that they shouldn’t. Many websites infected with badware trick the user into downloading the software and once you get it on your computer, its usually very difficult to get rid of it.

When you try to navigate away from the badware website, you may see boxes like those shown below. Whatever you do, don’t click on the “Save File” or “OK” buttons. I don’t even trust the “Cancel” button, so I always click the X in the upper right corner just to be sure. In the first box, the infected website is trying to download something called packupdate107_2124.exe. While that may sound official, it most certainly is not.

Escaping the Badware

If you have been redirected to a website infected with badware, there are several things that you can do to prevent the badware from installing on your computer. Most of the time, the infected website will try to “lock” you in with an impossible loop of clicks that won’t allow you to leave. Short of simply unplugging the computer from the wall, there are some steps you can take to break the loop and keep the badware from downloading onto your computer:

1. In Firefox, go to the File menu and click “Work Offline.” This will prevent Firefox from reloading the websites you currently have open, including the badware site.
2. We need to forcibly quite Firefox, so press CTRL+ALT+DELETE on your keyboard to bring up the task manager.
3. Find the instance of Firefox running in the list, click on it once to highlight it.
4. Click the “End Task” button and a confirmation window will appear.
5. Click the “End Now” button and Firefox will be shut down.

Once you’ve shut down Firefox, you have effectively prevented the badware from downloading. Now you have to prevent Firefox from reloading the same window and taking you back to the website where the badware is located. When you restart Firefox, the “Well, this is embarrassing” screen will appear with a list of tabs you had open at the time Firefox was shut down. You have two choices: you can either unselect the badware site or you start a new session and remove it from the restart list or you can start a new browsing session. I prefer to start a new session, so I recommend that you click the “Start New Session” button.

Removing Badware

If you made a mistake and you actually downloaded the badware thinking that you had a virus when you really didn’t, then you may have a bigger problem. If you have antivirus software on your computer, hopefully it will catch it. If it doesn’t then there are several programs available to help you get rid of the badware. I recommend the following programs to help prevent badware and remove it from your computer:

• AVG Free Antivirus
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Malwarebytes
• ZoneAlarm Firewall
• CCleaner

If none of these programs work to get rid of the badware, then I recommend that you consult your local computer expert and they will be able to assist you.

A bad website is a poor reflection of an organization and it could be greatly hurting them on several levels. Research has shown that most people will research a product or service online before actually making a purchase. Many potential employees will research a potential employers before applying for a job. Donors wanting to make contributions to non-profit groups will often research potential donees long before making a donation. Most people now use the internet to make their travel plans to historic sites, museums, and tourist attractions.

I spend a lot of time in the online world. After all, I work here. In my time, I’ve seen my share of bad websites with varying degrees of badness. Some are just so bad that you can’t even attempt to view them. I can understand personal websites since those are usually created by an amateur and I overlook the coding mistakes, poor graphics, and lack of navigation. But I have an entirely different opinion about websites for businesses, non-profits, and other organizations.

A commercial website should be treated as a mainstream component in any business or marketing plan, but I feel like many groups treat their websites like red-headed stepchildren. There is no excuse for bad web design these days – there are thousands of good designers in the world who will gladly offer their website design services – usually at a very affordable rate. Businesses and groups of all sizes cannot afford to neglect their websites. Forcing visitors to view ugly websites is cruel and unusual punishment and should be against the Geneva Convention. The online community deserves better and I am on a mission to make the internet a beautiful place to visit.

The Battle with Off-Shore Designers

Why is it that when some local businesses decide to buy website design services that they go off-shore? I would say that 90% of the time, price has something to do with it. Off-shore web designers are usually so cheap that no domestic web designer can possibly compete on the basis of price. However, the quality of service you receive from these off-shore web designers is usually less than stellar and once the project is complete, getting service after the sale is almost impossible.

I’ve bid on some web design projects only to be underbid by an off-shore designer by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For a project that may take a designer 30-40 hours to complete, an off-shore designer will bid only $100. But, it has to make you wonder what the client is getting.

So how does a domestic web designer compete with an off-shore designer? It’s quite simple really – offer superior website design services that the off-shore designers can’t possibly match. Off-shore designers are typically interested in one thing – pushing as many websites through their system as possible. This doesn’t leave much room for quality service as you would expect from a domestic company.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Another problem faced by local web designers is the often unwarranted perception that bigger is better. Many potential clients seem to think that they’ll receive better service from a huge design house New York City than their local company. This isn’t always the case. In addition, these large design firms often charge New York City prices, resulting in clients overpaying for the services that they do receive.

Buying from a local web designer has a number of advantages. A client will usually receive more personalized service from someone locally rather than someone on a few states away. The level of service is often tailored to the specific needs of the business since a local web designer may often times be a customer of the business in question. Many web designers often feel that they have a personal interest in the success of a website they design for a local client. I know that I have often gone that “extra mile” when dealing with local clients simply for the fact that these people are often my friends and family.

Buying from a local web designer also helps the local economy. When someone buys local, about $73 out of every $100 stays in the community. In contrast, buying from a web designer hundreds of miles away will easily result in $0 staying in the local economy. If a client wants to support their local economy, then buying local is definitely the way to go.

Another problem faced by many small businesses is what I would call the big box mentality. If someone purchases a bicycle from a big box store like Wal-Mart, is it actually better than one bought from the local bike shop downtown? Probably not – and the level of service the customer receives from the small shop downtown is probably going to be much better. The big box mentality is the same for almost any type of business – including web design. Overcoming the often ill-conceived notion that bigger is better is a tough obstacle to hurdle, but it can be done.

Website Design Priced Right

In my area, I try to keep my prices low to match the local economy. Could I charge the same rates as a web designer in New York City? I could, but I won’t. The reason is simple – the majority of small businesses in my local area can’t afford to pay a designer upwards of $200 or more per hour for my services. Are the services I offer worth $200 per hour? Sure they are – in the right area, just not here. Since the bread-and-butter of my business is with local companies, I want to make sure I cater to their every need – including the price.

Having a low price often creates its own problems. One question I have been often asked is, “Why are your prices so low?” When a client is used to seeing inflated prices for website design services, they’ll often have this misconceived notion that they’re not getting the same level of service. This simply isn’t true, and I’m often forced to explain myself to them. After I explain the circumstances that I’m not out to extort them for every dime in their bank account, they usually very understanding and we share a good laugh. After all, one of the fundamental principles of the Apheus business philosophy is the sharing of knowledge.

A Quick Rant

I feel like an artist because I am one, it’s just that my paint brush and canvas are are in the digital world. Web design isn’t something that everybody can do (although when you see some of the sites out there on the web, you would think so). A few words of wisdom to the many would-be web designers out there – please don’t.

If someone really wants to work at it and learn how to design, that’s fine. I encourage everyone to learn as much as they can and to keep learning. Just don’t announce to the world that your God’s gift to the internet when you’re still publishing websites with flashing text, bordered frames, and goofy little animated GIFs. I could list several websites that fall into this category, but i won’t since some of those same websites belong to lawyers.

The Website Makeover

I often look at my own websites and ask myself how I can improve their appearance, functionality, load times, navigation, etc. A few weeks ago, I decided to redesign my Apheus.com website – the main portal for my website design business. I guess you could say that I’m a restless designer – I’m never satisfied and new ideas are constantly popping into my head. As a web designer, this obviously comes naturally. At the end of the day, I have to force myself to settle on one design and stick with it.

One of the most popular services I offer is the website makeover. This is where I take an existing website and give it a total makeover from top to bottom. I hate to say this, but if you’ve ever seen one of those makeovers on an afternoon talk show, then you’ll know what I’m talking about. My own websites are not immune – as styles change, I make changes to keep up with the trends (so long as they make sense). Some changes are subtle, but most of the time I’ll just jump in head first and do a total redesign.

The New Apheus Design

The newest Apheus website is an example of a total website makeover. I stepped away from the dark background that I’ve used since almost the beginning and decided to go with a white background in the  main content areas. Since Apheus’ new eco-friendly ApheGreen website hosting service will be launched soon, I decided to go with an more natural look with blue skys and green grass. One of my original concepts even had dirt with grass roots in the footer background. But I opted not to go to that extreme. The turning point was when I thought about adding a worm burrowing its way through the dirt. OK, I won’t lie – I put the worm in there. Thankfully, I was able to reel myself in before I settled on the final design.

The latest incarnation (I’m now on the 9th version) is built on the Concrete5 CMS platform. I will continue to praise Concrete5 for its simplicity and features. I integrated a couple of add-ons from the Concrete5 Marketplace and I’m happy with the results. If you would like your own website built using what I consider to be the best content management system, Apheus has an affordable Concrete5 Design Pack just for you.

I was so confident in my design and my faith in Concrete5 is strong enough that I decided to switch over to the new design just a few hours before I left on vacation without a great deal of testing. So far, so good – I haven’t noticed any errors and my 301 redirects are working just fine. I’m really happy with the new Apheus website and I know that several people have made comments in that regard. Is it time to start working on version 10? Probably not for awhile, but the last version only lasted 7 months, so you never know!

My Next Website Makeover Project

I’ve decided that I need to make the Apheus family of websites more consistent in their designs – all matching the main Apheus website. In trying to form a brand image for the company, I think this is very important. The next website makeover I’m going to tackle is the redesign of this blog. It shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish since WordPress is so nice to work with – maybe not as easy as Concrete5, but I’m sure I’ll manage!

I look back over the last few months at some of the items that I’ve added here in my home office and I reflect on the various degrees of installation. I bought a Brother HL-2170W laser printer about six months ago. This is a printer that connects to my wireless network and doesn’t require a huge warm-up time like my big HP Color LaserJet 8550N. I wanted this particular laser printer because I could place it anywhere in the house and print from any of my computers. Great convenience, great price. The problem was properly setting it up for my network (which ironically required the use of a USB cable). It took me what seemed like forever to get the printer setup on my network. The problem was that even though the HL-2170W was designed as a wireless printer, the manufacturer really didn’t provide a set of clear instructions on how to actually configure all of the settings. After a great deal of research on the internet, I was able to figure out what I needed to do and it was actually pretty simple.

In contrast, I just recently purchased an HP Deskjet F2480 all-in-one printer, scanner, and copier and the installation was much easier – which I completely attribute to the ease of USB. And this got me thinking – USB has to be one of the nicest pieces of technology out there that actually works. Looking around here at my desk, I see a host of USB devices: an external hard drive, a drawing tablet, a wireless keyboard and mouse (connected via USB), a flash drive, a flash card reader, and the aforementioned printers. All of these items connect to my computer system through the wonder that is USB. By this time, you have be thinking, “Bob, you’re a nerd.” That may be a very accurate statement since I’m sitting here typing out the praises of USB, but you have to admit that it really has simplified things over the last 15 years.

Even though there are external connection technologies that have emerged that are faster (such as FireWire), for some reason USB continues to remain the most popular. Perhaps people just hate to change, but maybe its because the big technology companies actually got something right. There are billions of USB devices sold annually and I don’t see that number going down anytime soon. USB is easy enough for just about anybody to understand – you just plug it in and it works. It’s nothing like the SCSI chains I can remember building years ago.

I think USB will continue to evolve as it already has and it will be a mainstay for computer users for years to come. Call me a nerd if you want, but I love USB!

The Properties menu gives you access to all kinds of important details about various elements on a webpage. For example, if you right click on image and choose “Properties” you can view the ALT text of the image, its file location, image dimensions, and more.

As a web designer, I use the Properties menu quite frequently to examine various webpage elements. Fortunately, somebody came up with a handy add-on that puts the Properties menu back in the right-click menu.

How to Build a Search Engine Friendly Website

One of the easiest ways to build a search engine friendly (SEF) website is to hire a professional web designer. If that’s not in your budget, then you might want to follow some of these key points:

Include Page Titles

One of the most annoyingly simple mistakes I often see are webpages without titles. Titles are super easy and every page should have one. They should also be descriptive to the content of the page and shouldn’t be used as a means of keyword stuffing (although you should definitely include some keywords). On a static HTML webpage, the page title will be placed between the head tags.

Include Meta Tags

The importance of meta tags has been topic of speculation and disagreement for many years. There are several types of meta tags, but for the purpose of this blog post, I’m only going to discuss two: description and keyword meta tags. Meta tags appear in between the head tags.

The description meta tag is a few lines of descriptive text that helps explain the contents of a particular webpage. Don’t go overboard with the description meta tag – keep it simple and to the point – don’t put the bulk of your content in a meta tag. A couple of sentences should suffice. In my opinion, the description meta tag is the more important of the two. If written well, this is the text that will appear in Google search results (Google reserves the right to change the text that appears in their search results). It should contain a few relevant keywords related to the webpage – but don’t try to stuff keywords in here! If you do, you’ll be penalized.

The keyword meta tag is less valuable than it used to be. Google has said that they completely ignore the text in the keywords meta tag. This is because a lot of people abuse this meta tag to stuff irrelevant keywords into a webpage. Even so, I still use keyword meta tags and use them properly. I list various keywords and key phrases that help describe the content of the page. Keep keywords to a minimum and you should be fine.

Clean HTML Code

Keeping your website’s HTML code clean is very important. A website must be able to be as easily read by a search engine spider as it should human eyes. Many websites now use strictly CSS designs to help improve load times and create a consistent look. Clean code can help make your website search engine friendly by eliminating lots of the garbage normally associated with old design techniques. Search engines can’t read javascript, so making drop-down menus with CSS is the preferred method. W3C compliant code is always good, but isn’t necessarily a requirement. Most browsers will still read a webpage even if the code is broken (although the end results may not be what you had expected). I use the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar Add-on to check most of the websites I design. I’m always looking for three green checks – passing Standards Compliance Mode, No CSS Errors, and No Javascript Errors. Of course, utilizing a program such a Dreamweaver will help eliminate many errors before you ever publish your website. Clean code also helps eliminate cross-browser errors, which are those that only appear when using specific browsers. For example, I test the websites I design in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome. I also test my websites using multiple computers with different operating systems. Of course you could also use a service like BrowserShots to perform a similar task.

Search Engine Friendly URL’s

Like title tags, making search engine friendly URL’s is a pretty simple task when designing static webpages. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the “address” for your webpage on the internet. SEF URL’s should be easily read by both humans and computers. For example, a webpage named page1.html isn’t as descriptive as a one named search-engine-friendly.html. I like to call search engine friendly URL’s by another name – pretty URL’s. Whenever possible, URL’s should be created so that they match the content of the webpage. When using multiple words in a URL, I always prefer to use a dash (-) in between the words. Several years ago, the underscore (_) was a popular way of separating words, but this method has given way to the dash.

When saving documents for use on the internet, especially webpages, avoid using document names that include spaces or include special characters. These special characters get converted into ISO URL encoding strings. So if I were to name an HTML document search engine friendly.html without the dashes, it would appear in the address bar of the browser as search%20engine%20friendly.html. It’s not as pretty as a simple dash and can be harder for people to read. Again, it is very important that the name of the document match the content of the page! If you name a page “computers.htm” and the page talks about car repair, then you’ve missed the boat as far as search engines are concerned.

If you’re using a content management system (CMS) or ecommerce software, it may be a little more difficult to manage your URL’s. However, most dynamic website software now includes functionality to implement search engine friendly URL’s. While this may not come standard with the software, there are usually add-ons or features you can add to improve the readability of your URL’s.

Add ALT Tags to Images

Search engine spiders can’t “read” images in the traditional sense. What our eyes see on the screen isn’t always what a search engine sees. Search engines can’t read text that has been included in an image, so its important to use text whenever you can. But, you have to make your website look good by using images. Where do you draw the line? I can remember when the internet didn’t have images – everything was black and white and was only text. Honestly, those old websites can still teach us something about the importance of text. I love the Web Developer Toolbar Add-on for Firefox. It allows me to disable all of the CSS styles on a page and hide the images. When you do that, you get to basically see the content of a webpage the way a search engine sees it. If a page is made up of all graphics, guess what? The search engine probably isn’t going to see much at all – which could really hurt you.

A good designer can achieve a balance between graphics and text to give your website an optimal appearance. Whenever an image is used on a webpage, it should always include an ALT tag. I prefer to call it a tag, really even though it is an attribute for an element in an HTML document. An ALT tag is alternative text for an element on a page. Every image should include an ALT tag. The ALT tag should accurately describe the image as a short word or phrase and should never be used to stuff keywords onto a page.

While we’re on the subject of images, make sure that your images are named accordingly as well. For example, an image named fish.gif is much more descriptive than an image named gr3.gif. While I’m not quite sure if this has any bearing on SEO or SEF preferences just yet, it is handy to name images appropriately. I would imagine that properly named graphics could only help and can never hurt.

Appropriate Use of Header Tags

Header tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.) are the tags titling important sections on a webpage. Every webpage should include one (and only one) H1 tag. This should be the first header tag on the page and all other header tags should follow below it using a common outline method. For example:

• Header 1
  • Header 2
    • Header 3
    • Header 3
  • Header 2
    • Header 3
    • Header 3
  • Header 2
    • Header 3
    • Header 3
      • Header 4
      • Header 4
    • Header 3

Now, you don’t have to go crazy and include dozens of header tags on a page, the example above just gives you a rough idea of how header tags should be utilized and the appropriate structure they should maintain. A header should be descriptive about the content it is heading. For example, at the top of this section on header tags, I’ve included an H3 tag called Appropriate Use of Header Tags. Include one or two keywords when writing a header tag, but never try to stuff keywords in a header tag.

Good Linking Techniques

One way to really shoot yourself in the foot is to always say “Click Here!” or “Read More” or something along those lines. While sometimes the phrase “click here” can be appropriate, its not very descriptive to search engines. When I’m talking about good linking techniques, what I’m really referring to is the text you use to wrap an href HTML tag around. For example, if I wanted to link to a webpage that talks about affordable website design, then I should make sure that the text at the heart of the link leading to that page reads “affordable website design” or something similar. It doesn’t have to be an exact match, but it should be appropriate and it is much more descriptive than simply saying “click here.”

In addition, every webpage on your website should be linked from at least one static link somewhere on the internet (preferably from your own website). If you design a webpage and nobody knows how to get to the page, then there’s no point in designing the page and putting up on your server – nobody will ever be able to find it! One of the easiest ways of making sure every webpage on your website can be found is to include your pages in a sitemap. The only exception to this rule would be for marketing purposes, such as a specific landing page designed for use with Google AdWords or something along those lines.

Final Thoughts on SEF

While these guidelines for building a search engine friendly website are a start towards search engine optimization, it is by no means a complete guide to SEO. Search engine optimization is a vast and complex subject that could fill volumes of text with various techniques, tools, and tricks. Making something search engine friendly helps build a strong foundation upon which SEO can be performed. Apheus can help build your search engine friendly website, just call us at 1-800-946-3079 and we’ll be more than happy to assist with all of your SEF website design needs.

I’m not the only person experiencing this problem. Many people I know personally that use AVG have had the same problem. A quick search of various AVG forums reveals that this is definitely not an isolated incident. The solution to the problem:

1. Completely uninstall AVG.
2. Download the latest version.
3. Install the new version.

I realize that the free version of AVG doesn’t come with any warranties, but come on! Since I updated to AVG 9, I’ve experienced several update issues. Back in the old days of version 7, we had trouble just getting the software to update itself automatically, now this? It doesn’t instill much confidence in an otherwise very good product. I’ll continue to use AVG and I will continue to recommend it to friends and family, but I will be keeping my eye out for another free antivirus program. Sorry, AVG…