A new free web directory that might be worth submitting your site to:
While there isn’t much that differentiates them from sites like Yelp and other directories, it is still a free directory adding exposure to your website. What could it hurt?
Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
New Web Directory
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010Claim your Custom Facebook URL
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Here is short and sweet post for you to chew on. In Facebook we are all familiar with the crazy urls they assign your profile. They are long, full of numbers and just plain intimidating. Here is an example of Facebook urls vs. Twitter:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/moorewebx
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/Moore-Web-Exposure/102792494795
Finally, Facebook has come along and given us a way to change these long urls to something a little more managable and aesthetic. You can do this for both your personal profile and for your Facebook Page.
To start, make sure you are logged into your Facebook account. Once logged in click on the following link or simply type it into your browser.
http://www.facebook.com/username/
If logged in, this should take you to a page that gives you an option to create a shorter profile url. Follow the simple instructions and you are done!
Things to note: Once you change your url you are stuck with it so make sure you change it to something you will like forever. Also, in order to change your Facebook Page urls you must have at least 25 fans who “like” your page. If you don’t have 25 people who like your page you cannot change your url.
So now let’s look at my page’s new url compared to the old one:
Old url: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/Moore-Web-Exposure/102792494795
New url: http://www.facebook.com/moorewebexposure
Much Better! Comments or suggestions? By all means leave ‘em below.
Using Google Alerts to Monitor your Website
Friday, June 4th, 2010Google Alerts is an excellent free resource that in my opinion far to few people use. In short, it sends you alerts anytime your chosen search phrase is mentioned. Meaning, you can tell Google to alert you via email anytime your website is mentioned by another source.
To setup an alert visit: http://www.google.com/alerts
For a very good write with detailed instructions on how to use Google Alerts Check out this post in the SEOmoz blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-use-google-alerts-for-quick-and-easy-domain-alerts-10098
Excluding Dynamic IP Addresses in Google Analytics
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010How to exclude a dynamic IP address in Google Analytics
Are you using Google Analytics and worried about bloating your traffic results with internal visits? Have your ever looked at your Analytics stats and thought “wow, I havn’t even been marketing my site and I already have visitors!”? Well you may be artificially bloating your statistics with your own click-throughs. Here is a quick guide on how to block a dynamic IP address in Google Analytics.
Blocking your internal visits will give better Analytics results
First, you need to create a new blank page for your site. I tend to just call this page “cookie.html”. Next, in between the body tags insert the following code:
<body onLoad=”javascript:pageTracker._setVar(‘test_value’);”>
This alone, however will not do anything. You also need to make sure that you have your Google Analytics code on the page so now copy and paste that right below the code you just dumped in. (You can find your Google Analytics code by going to your Analytics dashboard and then clicking “Edit” next to your site. Next, where is says tracking in the top right click “check status” and you will find the code.)
Once you get the code on the page, upload it to your server. Now, we are going to go back into analytics and add a filter to your account that will tell Analytics to look for the cookie on each computer that has visited cookie.html.
On the dashboard in Analytics click on “Filter Manager” at the bottom of the page and then in the top right of the next page click “Add Filter”. Give your filter a name like “IP Exclude” and then do the follow:
- Click the “Custom Filter” Button
- Ensure that “Filter Type” says “Exclude”
- Filter Field needs to be changed to “User Defined”
- Type “Test_Value” where it says “Filter Pattern”
- Ensure case sensitive says “No”
- Click on the website profile(s) to add the filter to and then click “add”
- Make sure you save changes.
- That’s it!
Finally, go to your domain/cookie.html (or whatever your named the file). This will install the cookie on your local machine and tell Analytics not to count your visits to the site. You will need to visit this page from every machine you use for it to work. Where’s the “Easy Button” when you need it? You now have a filter setup on your analytics account that will prevent you from inflating your statistic and allow you to get a better read on your site’s traffic.
Sources:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55481
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55494
Free Oregon Specific Web Directories
Friday, March 5th, 2010He
re is a list of a few Oregon specific web directories that you should make sure your website appears under. These links can help you show up in search engines and help even more if your company is Oregon based. If anything, it is just another avenue to market yourself and get your name out there. Oh, and did I mention, these are free?
- http://oregon.bizhwy.com/
- http://www.pdxyz.com/
- http://portlandor.areaconnect.com/ads/newuser.htm
- http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/quickbpflow.do
- http://www.portlandataglance.com/survey.htm
- http://www.oregonsearch.net/cgi-bin/aore/listyoursite.cgi
- http://www.portlandbusinesslist.com/directory/add.asp?xAction=add
- http://www.portlandokay.com/AddURL.htm
- http://www.portland-oregon-business-directory.com
- http://www.discoverourtown.com/OR/Portland/Business-2166.html
- http://www.freeindex.com/oregon/
These directories either require a fee or a reciprocal link back to them from the home page. I usually stay away from any directory asking for a reciprocal link on my homepage but I thought I would list them anyhow.
- http://www.locald.com/
- http://www.portlandasap.com/free-listing.html
- http://www.portlandsearch.org/add-my-business.aspx
- http://www.localportland.com/
To find even more directories you can submit your website to just do a simple Google search. There are plenty out there and they can help your search engine rankings and more importantly drive traffic to your website.
**If I am missing any directories or you would like me to add one to the post just drop me an email or get in touch through the comments below.
Mrs. Robinson by The Lemonheads
