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Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Comparing Current and Past Analytic Data: Practical SEO Guide

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Comparing Current and Past Analytic Data: Practical SEO Guide daily-golden-nugget-1292-48
The data reported by Google Analytics is really helpful for every website owner to look at. By default, the reports provide really insightful data over the last 30 days of activity for users, sessions, pageviews, and bounce rates, but that's only a small piece of what GA can do for you.

The big benefit of GA is being able to produce a report for any time frame in the past and compare it to any other time frame in the past. You can compare the last 30 days t...
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AT: 07/07/2015 08:02:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Discover Server Health and Hacking Attempts in Web Server error_log Files

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Discover Server Health and Hacking Attempts in Web Server error_log Files daily-golden-nugget-1238-2In this third and final edition in my series on web server logs, I'll explain what an error_log is and the important information you can find within. My previous two Nuggets explaining your web server's access_log can be found here and VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/22/2015 06:40:08 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Log File Referrals and What to Watch Out For When Reading Them

Log File Referrals and What to Watch Out For When Reading Them daily-golden-nugget-1237-47In yesterday's Nugget, I explained web server log files and how they could be used to read the IP address information for your website visitors.

In today's Daily Golden Nugget, I'm continuing the log file conversation with a more detailed look at referrals.

Here's the same example I showed you yesterday:
66.240.78.1...
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AT: 04/21/2015 09:07:06 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, April 20, 2015

Website Log Files Contain Personally Identifiable Informatio

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Website Log Files Contain Personally Identifiable Informatio daily-golden-nugget-1236-66
Since the dawn of computer networks, every server has recorded logs of all communications activities. You might be surprised to find out that email servers keep logs of every email sent, who they came from, and who they were sent to. Many large organizations even save copies of those emails.

When it comes to sharing files, all FTP servers and all file sharing services, like Dropbox, keep track of what files were uploaded and downloaded.

Then, of course...
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AT: 04/20/2015 11:29:40 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, April 16, 2015

4 Important SEO Points Every Business Owner Should Know

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4 Important SEO Points Every Business Owner Should Know daily-golden-nugget-1234-61
I usually commemorate special numeric milestones when writing these Daily Golden Nugget. Most notably are the Google Maps updates every 100th Nugget, but there have been fun ones like 404 and 410 too.

This is Daily Golden Nugget Number 1234, and it's also #ThrowbackThursday...
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AT: 04/16/2015 09:48:16 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 29, 2015

Don't Waste Time Waiting For Your Website Reports to Change

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Dont Waste Time Waiting For Your Website Reports to Change daily-golden-nugget-1179-74
The word "organic" is used to indicate something happening naturally in its environment, without outside influence that is deemed to be artificial or controlled. A quick look at the organic page on Wikipedia and you'll see that there are 28 different phrases for organic used in the English language.

All of the phrases refer to some type of natural growth or living thing that is grown according to certain standards. Orga...
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AT: 01/29/2015 09:23:17 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 15, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Data from Google Image Search

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2014 Holiday Keyword Data from Google Image Search daily-golden-nugget-1169-47
Google Image search has really started to mature. Not just in its ability to find and surface images, but also with the way that people are using it.

In fact, if you look at this Nugget from last week, you'll see that 75% of the search impressions are generated through Google Image Search and 57% of actual organic visitors come from Google Image Search too.

The image searc...
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AT: 01/15/2015 09:39:38 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Repairs, Watches, & Services

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2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Repairs, Watches, & Services daily-golden-nugget-1168-52
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll provide some research based information about mobile keyword search data collected during the 2014 Holiday Season.

Cross reference your own sales figures and website analytics against this data, and use it to improve your future marketing. The findings here should be useful to you all year long, but especially as you start planning your website content and marketing for the 2015 Holiday Season.

My analysis today will focus on a ...
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AT: 01/14/2015 08:21:04 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, January 12, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Jewelers, Jewelry, and Jewelry Stores

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2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Jewelers, Jewelry, and Jewelry Stores daily-golden-nugget-1166-83
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm exploring keyword data collected between November 1 and December 31, 2014 from many retail jeweler websites.

I collected a large amount of keyword data from people using Google's desktop search, mobile search, and image search. The mobile search data is very interesting. Last week, I presented th...
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AT: 01/12/2015 10:02:43 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 08, 2015

2014 Holiday Diamond and Engagement Ring Mobile Search Report

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2014 Holiday Diamond and Engagement Ring Mobile Search Report daily-golden-nugget-1164-16
When using Google Webmaster Tools, you can view which search queries will trigger your website to appear in search results. In the past when we SEO guys would spew the phrase "search queries" it was just a fancy name for saying "keywords." In fact, you can say "search queries," and "keywords," and "search phrases" and mean the same thing.

Regardless what you called it, all you wanted to do was put the right words on your website that correspond to what people search for in the dif...
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AT: 01/08/2015 09:54:29 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 07, 2015

November and December 2014 Web Keyword Data for Retail Jewelers

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November and December 2014 Web Keyword Data for Retail Jewelers daily-golden-nugget-1163-36
Throughout 2014, Google made several advancements in their search engine and gave us some new reports in Google Webmaster Tools to see the results of those advancements.

Specifically, from within Webmaster Tools you can easily see when your website appeared in web search results, images search results, and mobile search results. During the first quarter of 2014, I started noticing retail jewelry websites appearing in image results more than ever before, and the Webmaster Tools ...
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AT: 01/07/2015 12:27:16 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Prenuptial Agreements With Your Online Agency - Part 2

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Prenuptial Agreements With Your Online Agency - Part 2 daily-golden-nugget-1147-82
Managing the online identity for your business is time consuming. Although you might have found the best agency to build your website and help your marketing online, the relationship you have with them probably won't last forever.

Eventually, you will have to divorce your marketing agency.

This is the conclusion of the Daily Golden Nugget I began yesterday detailing how your agency should be setting up your business accounts and what you need to do to guarantee you always have login acce...
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AT: 12/16/2014 08:12:22 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, December 15, 2014

Prenuptial Agreements With Your Online Agency - Part 1

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Prenuptial Agreements With Your Online Agency - Part 1 daily-golden-nugget-1146-88
Jewelers are in the business of helping couples get to the moment when they profess their love and vow "til death do us part."

Few relationships are intended to last forever, or even a lifetime, but when you get into bed with a business partner, you are rarely thinking about the day when you will break up. When you're in business for yourself, you should be making forward steps to improve your business, but also prepare yourself to different possible future outcomes.

Even though a busines...
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AT: 12/15/2014 12:13:23 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, November 13, 2014

Using Google Analytics Segmenting To Analyze Local Social Network Traffic

by J. Thomas Jewelers
Using Google Analytics Segmenting To Analyze Local Social Network Traffic daily-golden-nugget-1124-66
Do you know where your best customers come from?

Have you ever even really thought about that question?

If your business is 100% e-commerce, then it would be easy to run a few reports in Google Analytics and figure out which Acquisition/Channel brings the most visitors. You could also use the Conversions/Attribution to see when people first discovered you and what eventually turned them into buyers.

Retail stores have a more difficult time kn...
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AT: 11/13/2014 10:10:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Setting the Preferred Domain for Your Website

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Setting the Preferred Domain for Your Website daily-golden-nugget-1083-29
For today's Daily Nugget, I'm answering a direct question that came in from one of my readers. Did you know you can send me questions? Submit them through the contact form on the jWAG site, or send them to me through Google+ or Facebook.

The answer to this question is a little technical, but this brings together a few different topics.

Here's the question:
My nephew's been enjoying his SEO...
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AT: 09/17/2014 07:26:36 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 08, 2014

Robots.txt and Meta Robots - A Beginner's Guide

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Robots.txt and Meta Robots - A Beginners Guide daily-golden-nugget-1076-91
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm going to cover a topic that's security related. I'll split it into a non-technical discussion at the beginning and then the technical stuff at the end. Website owners can read the non techie stuff and forward the rest to their web programmer.

The topic is the robots.txt file and meta robots tags.

Basic Explanation ...

Every website must have a robots.txt file in order for Google and Bing to read your website. You shou...
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AT: 09/08/2014 11:12:36 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, August 21, 2014

Why Did Organic Traffic Drop After Launching A New Site?

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Why Did Organic Traffic Drop After Launching A New Site? 3941-daily-golden-nugget-1064
The Scenario:

The day has finally come when you've decided to upgrade your website to the latest and greatest content management system and website design. It's a big decision to make that leap considering how much time it will take and the cost to do it. It might be months before the new site is live.

You're going to have a lot of things to worry about during the process of setting up the new site. Difficult design issues, photography concerns, ...
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AT: 08/21/2014 01:42:51 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, August 14, 2014

Google Analytics: Understanding the Audience Overview Report

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Google Analytics: Understanding the Audience Overview Report 3564-daily-golden-nugget-1059
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm going to show you how to read one of the most popular reports in Google Analytics. In my opinion, retail jewelry store owners should know the basics of how good or bad their website is doing, and what might make it better.

When you first log into your Google Analytics account, you will be brought to your Audience Overview page, so let's start there. Here's a snapshot of one of my accounts:

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AT: 08/14/2014 10:21:55 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Reading Your SEO Reports: Google Webmaster Tools

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Reading Your SEO Reports: Google Webmaster Tools 9581-daily-golden-nugget-1058
Every online marketing company has their own version of reports. It's one of the requirements of any marketing or SEO service. You, as the website owner, want to know what they are doing and what you are paying for.

Some agencies provide their own really nice looking reports with charts and graphs, while others provide lists of pages and keywords with percentage increases and decreases. On many occasions I've found that agencies created reports using reporting software that t...
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AT: 08/13/2014 09:21:22 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Business Query Data and Other Valuable Insights Inside Google Places

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Business Query Data and Other Valuable Insights Inside Google Places 2020-daily-golden-nugget-997

Ever since Google started hiding keywords from their Analytics reports, it's been harder and harder for marketing professionals and business owners to figure out what keywords customers search for when they find your website.

Within Google Webmaster Tools, you can find the VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 05/20/2014 11:48:42 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 03, 2013

3 Important Things To Do Shortly After Launching a Jewelry Website

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3 Important Things To Do Shortly After Launching a Jewelry Website 627-daily-golden-nugget-834In Yesterday's Nugget, I gave you 5 important things to do on the day you launch your website and today I want to follow that up with what needs to be done shortly after your website is launched. Today's Daily Golden Nugget assumes that you have read and set up everything mentioned yesterday.

Make Sure Google Analytics is Tracking
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AT: 10/03/2013 05:19:12 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 02, 2013

5 Important Things To Do On the Day You Launch a Jewelry Website

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5 Important Things To Do On the Day You Launch a Jewelry Website 5894-daily-golden-nugget-833So the internet changes very often. It's downright scary how much time it takes to keep up with the nuances of how things work between social networking, content building, and organizing your website.

Although I keep up with the changes in the internet, I know it's not realistic for you to. This is my job and my responsibility, whereas you are running a jewelry store and need to pay attention to daily operations there. But that doesn't mean you should be a complete ...
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AT: 10/02/2013 05:04:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Protecting Yourself from Googlebot Created Duplicate Content

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Protecting Yourself from Googlebot Created Duplicate Content 3387-daily-golden-nugget-652Sometimes Google is sneaky.

In their quest to find all there is to find, Google will follow every link on your website inside out, upside down, and backwards until they've read all your web pages, online documents, and video files. But they don't just stop there.

The Google indexing process will also look at all the URLs that make your website work and it will experiment with different permutations just to see if they can expose hidden details about your website. From G...
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AT: 01/22/2013 05:58:11 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, July 28, 2011

Meta Descriptions are Your Online Jewelry Window Displays

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Increasing the popularity of your website now goes well beyond the basic search engine optimization techniques, but as Google's machine learning techniques have improved we've had to think way beyond the number of times a phrase is mentioned on a page, your page title, and whether you use the bold-tag on a page.

If you are new to the Daily Gold Nuggets and want to learn some of the basics of SEO, please refer to our online library from January through about May 2011 where we published many specific SEO strategies.

There are only so many times you can talk about the same common topics of SEO before we bore you to tears, but today we are going to once again revisit the topic of Meta Descriptions and give you an attack strategy for dealing with this tedious task.

What you will need to get this Nugget completed:
1. A w...
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AT: 07/28/2011 10:43:51 AM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, June 10, 2011

How to Get Engagement Rings Into Google's Image Search

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Some 37 Golden Nuggets ago we told you websites with absolutely clueless concepts of SEO might be able to rank higher than your own site. Google is trying hard to balance out the search results between random quality content and websites that try hard to be in the top 10.

Other than writing content and managing your on page and off page optimization factors, you could also try and place yourself into other areas of Google's search engine.

At the top right of Google's website you always see options for the different search types: Web, Images, Video, Maps, News and Shopping.

The Web search is naturally the most popular. Video Search includes results from various video websites. Maps and News search results require in-depth conversations on their own.

That leaves Google Image search, and this search should be e...
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AT: 06/10/2011 10:40:59 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, March 10, 2011

Fresh Content Matters

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This is a simple idea: the more often you update your website, the better it will look in the search engines.

Google claims they attempt to re-read the entire internet every few days. The Google spider searches for new information all the time, and when it finds something new, it rushes to read every last page. This rush to read new content is visible in your Google Webmaster Tools when you publish several new pages on your site on the same day, or when you first launch a new product catalog.

Fresh content on Facebook and Twitter is also monitored constantly. In fact, Twitter is especially scrutinized and any tweets related to breaking news are shown in a special window on a SERP. This is part of Google's Buzz feature.

Most of the time the search engines will return the oldest websites that have demonstrated popularit...
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AT: 03/10/2011 10:12:24 AM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, February 11, 2011

Moving to a New Domain Name

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By far the .com domain name extension is the most popular. It was the first one way back in the early 90s and everyone fought over them.

Today (that's in 2011, for those reading this in the distant future) it seems like there are new dot extensions every few weeks. The .co extension is newly available and now you can even register a .asia extension, if you really wanted.

Many of our jewelry stores have difficulty acquiring the domain name that perfectly matches their store. But some stores find that another store with the same name already has the .com. In these cases, we always recommend selecting the .net or the .biz options.

Just the other day there was a discussion in our office about the validity of the .co domain extension. However, the point was brought up that human muscle (typing) memory would probably k...
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AT: 02/11/2011 01:41:30 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 29, 2010

SEO: Links Without nofollow

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In previous Daily Gold Nuggets, we've mentioned methods to get links from other businesses in your town or in neighboring towns. Building links to your site is very important and there is a huge variety of ways you can do so.

The important part to link building is making sure that the link to your website is not what we call a "nofollowed" link. A few years ago, the search engines came up with this "rel=nofollow" feature in order to prevent the huge comment spam that was building up on blog posts.

Many people were intentionally commenting on blog posts and including the link back to their website as a method of link building. The result was a huge amount of link spam and improper search results pages. The nofollow feature nullified and disqualified this type of spam and all those links, which quickly returned all search...
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AT: 12/29/2010 01:11:59 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 07, 2010

How much time does it take to do SEO?

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Search engine optimization is a labor intensive job; before you realize it, the process could suck hours of time away from you and there is no immediate gratification from the work either. But, in the long run, if your strategy is sound, there are big payoffs through increased traffic.

Through our current body of educational material, we've given you many different types of keyword research tools to use. We specifically mention Keyword Eye and Google Keywords on a regular basis.

Ever wonder how long it takes *us* to do keyword research? Here's our normal process and the amount of time it normally takes us for each step.

1. Figure out what you would like to be optimized for. Take a look at your QuickBooks sales report and determine inventory or jewelry brands to target. (25 minutes)

2. Look at the search r...
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AT: 10/07/2010 02:07:49 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Our Last Holiday Planning Trick

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This is the last in our series on holiday planning.

Each of the past 9 Daily Gold Nuggets gave you tips and strategies for marketing through November and December this year.

Each day we told you to write some new content and add new pages to your website. Photographs were equally important to include in each new page we suggested adding.

We also gave you ideas for changing your home page throughout the holiday season including who to target and when to target them.

It all sounds like a lot of work to do during your busiest time of the year. However, there's a trick to making it work smoothly.

Ready for the trick? Here it is...

Use your content management system to set up all the pages now. And we really do me ALL the pages, including the variations of your home page.

Make them live on ...
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AT: 09/28/2010 02:56:06 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, September 17, 2010

Holiday SEO Planning Starts Today

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It's September 17 and no doubt you already have your holiday inventory picked out.

Since you already know what your Holiday inventory will be, you need to post that information to your website immediately.

Here's why:

During our Live 2 Broadcast Event from August 13 - August 29, we set up a full jewelry website for demo and training. That website is still live at http://www.perosijewelers.com; the mobile version is available at http://demo.perosijewelers.com/mobile.

While broadcasting live, we added products, blog entries, and newsletters to that site. Then we used our Google Webmaster Tools account to submit a sitemap to Google on August 13, 2010 and again on August 18, 2010.

All search engines take at lea...
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AT: 09/17/2010 01:42:37 PM   0 COMMENTS
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