Our clients increasingly ask us to help improve their website traffic and pay per click results using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) techniques. These techniques can require considerable time to master and not inconsiderable expense to implement.

One way we can help is by sharing the latest information and tips about current SEO and SEM techniques. Recently, we explored some tips from Google and received an email newsletter from PPCSummit containing information that we would like to share with you. Most of this information is written in plain English that even we can understand, so we feel it's worth passing along to our clients. We've summarized these articles below and provided links to the original material for your reading pleasure.

One more tip: Consider running ads in craigslist. Most craigslist ads are free, craigslist offers local classifieds and forums throughout the world, and Google indexes craigslist ads! >> more about craigslist

Google Webmaster Guidelines

This article from Google provides essential guidelines for: Website Design and Content, Technical Tools (for webmasters), and Quality. Implementing these guidelines will help Google do a better job of finding, indexing, and ranking your website. Among the most important are the Quality guidelines, which, if violated, can cause your site to be removed from or penalized in Google's index. >> read the article

Facebook Advertising (You May Want To Try It)

Facebook has nearly 200 million users, of which more than 100 million log on to Facebook at least daily. This article introduces Facebook Advertising, an increasingly effective way to reach Facebook's targeted audiences (which typically make impulse buys) and to increase brand awareness. The article provides helpful ad creation tips that apply to Facebook marketing as well as other contextual advertising such as Google Adsense. >> read the article

How to Train Your Visitors to Improve Your Conversions

Your website's landing page should treat visitors like untrained dogs that need clear guidance to get them to do something, such as buy your product or contact your company. The article explains how to find the competition's successful landing pages on the Internet and how to design landing pages for your own site that get more conversions. The acronym MORE ? which stands for Marketing Effectiveness; Offer Clarity; Readability of the Page; and Engagement with the Visitor ? is used to illustrate key points. The article also stresses the importance of testing and measuring the results. >> read the article

Five Ways to Maximize Your Pay Per Click Conversion Rates

Companies using Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture know that every click from a sponsored search costs money that can add up quickly. This article explains five ways to communicate your message so that more visitors will turn into leads for your products or services. (Many of these tips will improve your website overall, whether you use PPC or not.)

1. Clearly understand your target market and the 2-3 messages you want to convey.

2. Make the landing page relevant to the link the user clicked.

3. Make the site design usable and readable, with a clear structure and easy navigation.

4. Include several ways to contact you.

5. Test your ads at least once a month.

>> read the article

Using Social Media to Discover Better Keywords

Social media enables companies to learn what's being said about their products and services in real time. This article discusses social media tools that can help you uncover keywords that can improve your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign results and search engine page rankings. Tools mentioned include TwitterSearch, Collecta, Facebook Lexicon, and Delicious Tags; these can supplement more traditional methods for discovering keywords such as Google's Keyword Tool, WordTracker, and Keyword Discovery. >> read the article

"Killer Insider SEO Tips": How to Create Targeted Web Traffic in a Week

Need tips for getting targeted traffic to your website and converting that traffic to leads? This article includes four mostly free ways to begin, including:

1. Keyword research.

2. Using social media and building links. (Google's page ranking algorithm currently relies heavily on high-quality links!)

3. Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to build content-rich, keyword-rich copy and search-friendly websites.

4. Evaluating your competition.

>> read the article

Precision Computing Arts / Fastwebdev welcomes these new clients:

• Decorative Concrete & Design (website makeover, Frank Watson)
• Diva Matters Ministry (new website - coming soon, Dee Richardson)
• Rininger Lock and Supply (website update and shopping cart integration, Glenn Younger)

We're also pleased to have done website makeovers for these existing clients:

• FridgeFreeze (John Roemer)
• VaccineRefrigerator (John Roemer)
• Laurel Ridge Sport Horses (Laura Robertson; coming soon)

Many thanks to our new clients and our loyal long-time clients who have kept us busy with interesting projects. We are grateful to be a part of YOUR business and look forward to working with you in the future.

Our web hosting service has made it easier than ever to sign up for trial sites. So if you have any friends, colleagues, or family members who want to set up their own websites, please tell them about our free 10-day trial sites. They can sign up right from our home page at http://pcartsonline.com.

New accounts can sign up in either of two ways:

• START button - For those who want to design their own site. The START button will take them through the design selection and account setup process.
• Quick signup - doesn't require selection of a design. This is handy for people who are planning to have us custom design their websites.

Questions? Feel free to contact us.

Our web hosting service has added some great new "Cool Tools" features. Customers who are hosted with Precision Computing Arts / Fastwebdev can use these new features to enhance their websites.

Not hosted with us? Contact us to see whether a website makeover or conversion to our user-maintainable system is right for you!

System Update: 4.14d - [05/29/2009] Summary of Features

Design

• text/style preview on the color selection page
• new backgrounds
• color scheme generator updated - text/style preview & an option to set the background color
• text & styles - pre-defined text styles optimized for dark/light backgrounds
• footer style - option to customize the footer text/links and the footer menu
• new designs in the design library

Page 22 of Costco's June 2009 Costco Connection newsletter features a good introduction about using social networking to generate buzz about your business. In a bad economy, social networking can get the word out about your business and generally does not cost you a dime -- just your time!

Here's a direct link to the article: http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/200906/?pg=24&pm=2&u1=friend

Customers who are using a web hosting system provided by Precision Computing Arts / Fastwebdev will be happy to know about two new features:

• Multi-Column Layouts for your interactive forms.
• Default Product Layouts for your shopping cart.

These features are described briefly below. If you need more help, please contact us (normal hourly consulting rates apply).

ENJOY!

Multi-Column Forms
You can now set up multi-column forms using the form builder. Follow these steps:

1. Create a new form or edit an existing form.
2. Click the the "column" field type icon (see example below).
   
3. Enter a name for the column in the Label field of the Form Field Properties box and click Save.
4. Move the field Up or Down to where the new column should begin.
5. Save your changes.

To clear the columns and create a new row in your form, add the "column" field type and select the "clear column set" option in the Form Field Properties box.

You can see an example of a multi-column form on our Interactive Examples page.

Default Product Layouts
The new default layout feature makes it easier to manage your ecommerce product layouts. To take advantage of this feature, choose the default layout when creating (or editing) your products and categories.

To change the look of the default layout, simply go to the general store settings page and change the default layout. The appearance of all the categories and products that use default layouts will update instantly!

Before this update, you would need to edit each individual product/category to change its layout. You still can choose specific layouts for individual categories/products as needed.

To set up default product overview and product details layouts, follow these steps:

1. Go to the General Store Settings section of your main store page.
2. Set up the default product overview layout (for category pages).
3. Set up the default product details layout.
4. Save your changes.

To ensure that your categories and products use the default layouts, select the default layout when creating or changing the category properties or products. The default layout icon is shown below: