The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog
- 2009Sep16Everyone wants to use WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System)
More and more websites are using WordPress as a platform to build their entire site — and not just their blog. In our experience, WordPress can be a powerful ally in your online presence. It’s abilities reach far beyond Blogging and Websites themselves. You can use it to build full-scale Web Applications, Social Media Networks, and even Online Stores. With WordPress, and many great plugins like Pods, you are no longer subject to the restraints of built-in functionality. Did we mention it takes us less time to develop on this platform than many of the leading CMS platforms?
WordPress has many great features besides being extremely user-friendly. Here are some of our favorite features that come in handy:
Full standards compliance
Blog Posts and Comments
Pages
Custom Theming / Plugins to extend WordPress
RSS feeds
Spam protection
User management
Easy installation and upgrades
Built-in [...]- 2009Aug13Google Caffeine: A Comprehensive Analysis
Google has released a new version of Google which is being called Google Caffeine. Google officially calls this a “next-generation architecture for Google’s web search”. It’s being widely reported that this new version is faster than the older version. For most of us, though, we will not notice an increase in speed.Because most website owners would be interested, I have compiled a comprehensive list of what appears to have changed in the new Google Caffeine and have made a list. Since Google Caffeine is still rather new, this list is certainly subject to change as we go, so I will do my best to keep it updated as appropriate.
The new Google Caffeine’s search results URLs are different. Therefore, third party software analytics may be effected. For example, the search results pages now use # in the URL.
Some people are reporting that Google Caffeine seems to improve Wikipedia results. Personally, I think it depends on the actual search query.
Some .gov websites got lower rankings for core keywords. A search for “Barack Obama” shows a drastic change: I’m currently not seeing Whitehouse.gov in the top 10 search results on Google [...]- 2009Jun30How to Use WordPress as a CMS Content Management System
Scott Kingsley Clark recently spoke at the WordPress WordCamp Dallas 2009.
- 2009Jun26Can Twitter Search Rival Google Search? Even for Michael Jackson?
Yesterday, June 25, 2009, when the news broke that Michael Jackson had died, many people went online and went over to Twitter. We searched. And we searched for news about Michael Jackson. Soon, we began to see everyone talking about Michael Jackson’s untimely death on Twitter. But we also continue to see people gaming the Twitter search engine.
Mark Jackson (no, he’s not related to Michael Jackson) was recently interviewed about Twitter search.
- 2009Jun18WordPress Plugin Developer Scott Kingsley Clark to Speak at WordCamp Dallas 2009
Attendees to learn how to use WordPress as a Content Management System
Dallas, Texas — WordPress Plugin developer Scott Kingsley Clark of Vizion Interactive (www.VizionInteractive.com) will present “WordPress as a CMS: How to Unleash the Dragon” at the WordCamp Dallas 2009 conference to be held on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28, 2009 at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas.
Mr. Clark has been a strong proponent of utilizing WordPress as a content management system for many years. Along with his beliefs, Mr. Clark has been an active contributor in the WordPress community, providing many free, useful and helpful plug-ins for others who are using WordPress.
“Our company is honored to have Scott Kingsley Clark speaking at WordCamp. Scott will have the opportunity to provide his insight and experiences of using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) on a daily basis and share some of the Plugins that he has developed,” said Vizion Interactive President/CEO Mark Jackson.
This two-day event is designed for those with a passion for WordPress — users, designers, developers and anyone else who is interested in learning the latest about this ever growing [...]
- 2009Jun16New Strides in Local Search Marketing!
It was an early Christmas gift from Google for all of us local search marketing geeks out there. Thanks to folks at Google Local Business Center, local businesses now have the opportunity to dig deeper into the performance of their Google local listings via a listing performance dashboard.
While this may not be new to those who were able to first explore this offering beginning June 2nd, I just received access to it and I am extremely happy with it. I think that the information made available is insightful, actionable and paints a great picture for how your local listings are performing. Let’s also not forget that ultimately it is much easier than digging through Google Analytics for minimal local listing performance data.
To start off, the dashboard provides the same top-level data of impressions vs. clicks. To some, this may be seen as the most critical data to assess. This is the first indicator that your local business listing is not captivating or that you are marketing to the wrong audience. However, seeing this in the past as effective due to a high click-to-impression/action ratio may have been misleading for those who title [...]
- 2009Jun16Update on PageRank Sculpting, the NoFollow Tag, and Their Effects on Search Engine Optimization
If you have not been keeping up with the latest Search Engine Optimization developments when it comes to Google PageRank, PageRank Sculpting, and the NoFollow Tag, then this blog post is probably for you. And even if you have been attempting to keep up with it all, then let this blog post serve as an “overview” of what’s going on, and the changes that you may or may not need to make to your website to improve its search engine optimization.
- 2009Jun10Rushmore Drive Search Engine to Close
Just over a year ago, I wrote about Rushmore Drive a search engine that was launched in an attempt to deliver relevant search results to the black community. It apparently uses a “a dynamic layer of Black-targeted search results and user-generated content.”
Well, now one year and two months later there are reports that Rushmore Drive is closing, shutting its doors.
- 2009May27How to Follow Trends In Your Niche on Twitter
Everyone it seems is hanging out on Twitter and sharing their links and tweeting about not only the latest news and gossip, but they’re also talking about everything from aplusk to #unfollowdiddy.
It seems as though every few minutes there’s another “trending topic” on Twitter. So, how do you keep up with it all? How do you track your brand, your niche topic, your keywords, or even your own company name on Twitter?
There are several different resources available to follow and watch the trends on Twitter. Of course, there’s Twitter Search, but for many popular keyword phrases you just cannot get enough data to make it worthwhile. Some popular phrases, especially if they’re trending topics on Twitter, get mentioned several times a minute, leaving you to think that they’re hot topics right now but what about last week? Or even yesterday? As of this writing, Twitter only shows the top 10 trending topics. A lot more data exists out there, and luckily it’s pretty easy to get ahold of. One of my favorites right now is Twist, which will show you a lot more than the top [...]
- 2009May26How to Choose Alternative Link Text for Search Engine Optimization Purposes
If you’re having some trouble ranking well in the search engines for certain keyword phrases, it might be that you need to look at the anchor text links that are pointing to your website. Those anchors might be old and the “chain” might be rusty. You might need to update them, and even vary them a bit.
When it comes to organic search engine rankings in Google, one of the many factors that they consider is the “link text” or “anchor text” that is pointing to a web page. Anchor text is the “link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.” Google has, for many years now, looked at what other people say about you, or, more specifically, what other web sites say about your web page. So, when you’re trying to “rank well” in the search engines for a particular keyword or keyword phrase, something you can do is to try to get links to your website with certain “anchor text”.Over the years, we have seen an increase in people trying to buy links with specific anchor text in order to influence the search [...]
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