Tag Archives: seo

My Personal Review of Dukeo.com

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dukeo logo

Here is my review of Dukeo.com.

Blog and content

Dukeo.com offers some pretty interesting and very informative posts on a lot of things.  Blogging, SEO, making money online and other topics.

These are real-life tips that everyone would appreciate, from beginners to advanced users. I found almost all content very informative and practical. Most of the blog posts were very detailed. Visitor engagement is also top-notch.

But, as with the overall navigation of the site, it is easy to get lost in all these information.

There is no easy way to see all these topics or categories that the blog covers.  You would be able to see a sampling of these topics by looking at the meta data after each blog post’s title.  But what if the site owner writes 20 different posts about blogging, this would effectively make you think that all blog posts only talk about blogging.  Also, what if you are not interested in blogging topics and are looking for SEO-related how-tos?

Oh wait, there is.  But you would have to find that link.  Guess where?  By clicking on the archives link found on the footer.

Further, looking at the Web page and other first level pages, it would be difficult to understand what the site is actually offering.  On the home page, you are asked to enter your details to get three guides, but you are not told what these guides are and how it will help you generate traffic, convert leads, and make money online as the headline boldly claims.  This very important explanation is found in the About page, which is one click away from the home page.

And oh by the way, the home page offers you the three guides (How to Make Money Online, SEO for Blogs and How to Generate Traffic from Pinterest), but on the succeeding pages, the offer is cut to two (How to Make Money Online and How to Make Money Online). This setup, again, is really confusing to many.

Because of the way the site is laid out, you will probably scroll down trying to look for that explanation and see the blog posts instead.  So by the time you get to the About page, you would have forgotten all about those guides mentioned in the home page (which by the way are not mentioned in the About page.)

Navigation

Probably, the biggest problem users would have with Dukeo.com is finding their way around the site.  The site does not have a sensible navigation system and you would find that you would be using the back button often.  That is if you do not have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find navigational links.

When you create landing pages, it makes sense that you do not confuse your potential customers by putting up a lot of links that would take them away from your offer.  The only clickable link on a landing page should be the call to action.  But this does not hold true for Dukeo.  Not everybody will be entering the site via its home page.  Some will enter the site through its newsletter sign up page, and those who do will not know that this site has a blog, for instance.

The site does not offer an easy way to see what it has to offer except for scattered links here and there and the aforementioned navigational bar at the bottom of the pages that would take a few Page Downs to see.  On some pages, the header and the footer are not even found.

But what aggravates things further is the lack of a search function.  If you have read something on this site before and you would want to look for that particular blog you have read, you will still need to go through the archives because there is no way for you to search for it.

The Low Down

Judging from the quality of the blog posts and the information we got from the blogs, it is very apparent that this site was set up to help people make money online.  But because of the poor navigation, lack of planning and lack of focus, people would find it difficult to understand just how this site works, what the products are and how you could benefit from it.  What’s more, reusing landing pages as part of the website makes you feel that you are visiting two different sites: one with header and footer and the other with a slightly different look.

Dukeo.com would benefit by taking a look at similar sites to see what they are doing right.  For example, ZZZProfits.com has a clear navigational bar that you could readily see without scrolling down.  This bar gives users an idea of the different sections of the site.  They also offer a free guide in exchange for your name and e-mail address, but they made it clear what you are going to learn from this guide.  A little planning would go a long way into making Dukeo.com a lot less painful and confusing.

The Hazards of Changing Domains and URLS

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 domain name and URL
You can cite plenty of reasons why you want to change the domain name of your website. It could be that the domain name contains a more generic keyword, and you hope to make it more personal by using the business name. It is also possible you want to institute a total makeover, and you begin by doing something into your URLs. Another plausible reason is you simply do not appreciate the domain anymore.

Changing URLs and domains is actually easier said than done. In fact, it carries several issues that you need to seriously consider before you try to do something about them.

The Downsides
Search engines, most especially Google, prefer aged domains. The fact that they have been around for years only means that the owner is a serious online businessman, is real, and has proven himself relevant to the keywords he has chosen. Old domain names also signify that the website is helpful and / or is applicable to several Internet users.

Old domains find it much easier to penetrate search engines, especially if there are new URLs created. They also tend to appear at the first, second, and third SERPs (search engine result page).

When you change your domain, there is a huge possibility you will no longer enjoy this privilege. Search engines are very blunt. If your domain is new, your website will be treated as a beginner entrant to the World Wide Web. It will take some time to have newer pages indexed. Most of the time, you may not even find your business URL in the top five page-search results.

If you are trying to increase your global reach, you know that this is going to be bad for you.

Another potential problem will be the links. Considering your old domain has been around for years, there could be multitudes of inbound links, which, unfortunately, you cannot carry over to your new URL. This can have a profound effect to your search engine rankings as links going to your website are significant to getting a good page rank.

Creating redirects is also not easy. You may have to rely on the expertise of people who are into HTML coding and PHP programming. The most common remedial steps when applying redirects include the following:

  • First, you need to send special instructions to the search engines, which are called 301. This means when someone clicks on your old URL, he or she will be redirected to the new one.
  • Second, you have to manually inform your visitors to delete the old URLs in their bookmarks and use the newer ones.

These processes can be such a hassle. If the redirects are not done right, this can result to search engine and user issues. The latter may find themselves opening a page that reads “Content Not Found.” They may be forced to look for the information they need elsewhere, such as to your competitors. Dead links can also pull down the value of your webpages in search engines. Unless you can correct these inactive links, it will be difficult for you to gain a better page rank for your new domain.

If branding is your main reason of why you are changing your domain, you are better off with creating a blog and have it included among your webpages.

Who Says SEO Is Dead?

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Who Says SEO Is Dead

When it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO, you may have heard the criticism that any Web site could be number one if you pick a keyword that is obscure enough. There are also a lot of criticisms that say that SEO is not effective in putting your Web site in a higher search engine ranking and in bringing in sales and customers to your site; that everything is just based on pure luck.

What adds to the confusion are companies and services that claim to be able to put your site on the first page or top spot of any search engine for any keyword you specify and then they use black hat techniques composed of deceitful and underhanded tactics to put you on top only as long as you keep paying them. Once you have stopped paying, your rankings fall, sometimes it becomes worse off than when you started. What is more, these black hat techniques can prove to be a bane to your ranking because search engines are very dynamic and are constantly updated and be able to detect these sooner or later. There is always the possibility that your site would be banned for using these techniques.

Over the years, people have come out with pronouncements that SEO is dead. They claim that you cannot influence how your sites would be ranked by search engines with its algorithms being constantly updated. Additionally, they say that SEO companies are just guessing at how search engines rank sites because these algorithms are closely guarded secrets in the first place.

The truth of the matter is that SEO works. It is not dead. It is not an art, but a science. SEO companies and experts have made educated guesses and made changes to Web sites that have seen better rankings than when left alone. The process is very much like how scientists and academics have their own theories and they do experiments to test it out. SEO experts and scientists strive to prove causality between one process and its results.

Done right, SEO can help your site get good rankings on keywords that are used by your customers and potential buyers. What this entails is that, like other marketing initiatives, you should know who your customers are in order to find the keywords that would give you the most benefits. More than this, you should also know the various techniques of SEO and how to execute them. This includes learning how to implement white hat techniques like on page optimization, off-page SEO, link building, creating better content that is both SEO-friendly and natural sounding. Over and again, companies that implement these techniques have reaped rewards after rewards.

Critics could easily dismiss it as fluff and nothing but putting in a good word for a dying man. A look at how real world companies approach their SEO, however, proves another point. In June 2009, Forbes Magazine released its study of Ad Effectiveness. The Magazine found that:

  • SEO, along with e-mail and newsletter marketing remains to be the most popular form of e-marketing among senior marketing executives.
  • 48% of these executives said that SEO was most effective in generating sales and conversions.
  • 92% of marketing executives will keep their existing SEO budgets or increase it within the succeeding six months.

What these marketers are saying is that SEO is effecting at not only putting your site where your customers are, but it works so well that they are willing to bet their money and keep on spending for it.

Top 5 Businesses You Can Run from Home

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Tshirt Printing Machine

Tshirt Printing Machine

With the global economy in recession, more and more people are finding themselves unemployed as companies find themselves hard put to operate. Some business have gone bankrupt, while others have downsized their operations to avoid being in the same scenario.

Having a business nowadays is no longer a luxury as it used to be. It is no longer an option for those who want more control of their time and resources. For some, it has become a difficult reality, and it spells the difference between having food on the table or seeing your whole family hungry.

But what are the best home businesses that right now? Here are our top 5 picks for the best businesses you can run from home.

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What Is a Backlink?

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backlinks

Most ordinary Internet users have encountered a link. That blue thing that they see on blogs, Web sites, Facebook accounts, even on YouTube. Just about every page of the Web has it. And when these links point to your Web site, they are called your site’s backlinks.

Backlinks, or inbound links, are incoming links to a certain Web site or page that does not originate on that particular site. Put simply, it is a link from another site that points back to your own site. If you have a Web site, pray hard that you get a lot of backlinks, as they are the only way people will get to visit your site without you telling them personally that your site exists.

An even more important thing to consider when talking about backlinks is search engine optimization or SEO. Backlinks are one way to get a higher ranking on most search engines, provided that they occur naturally. Search engine spiders are now capable of counting the number of sites pointing to your own. And most search engines consider these backlinks in ranking your site according to a particular keyword.

If you are interested to see just how many Web sites or pages have backlinks pointing to your site, you can go to Google Search at Google.com and input link:www.yoursite.com. In just seconds, the search results would list the different Web sites or pages that do link to your site, and in the upper right hand portion of the screen, you’d see the total number of sites and pages that have backlinks to your site.