Reader's Favorite Nuggets
Recent Hits All Time Matt's Favorites
Recent Reader's Favorites

Our Nugget List
Filter Gold Nuggets By Tag: " Search Engine Optimization"
Friday, August 12, 2016

Arnold's Fine Jewelry #FridayFlopFix Website Review

by
Arnolds Fine Jewelry FridayFlopFix Website Review daily-golden-nugget-1517-40In this edition of the #FridayFlopFix review, I'm venturing over to Pasadena, CA in search of a jewelry store. These are the results I saw when using Google Chrome while in incognito mode. I searched for "jewelry stores pasadena ca."

Arnolds Fine Jewelry FridayFlopFix Website Review 1517-jewelry-stores-pasadena-ca-serp-48VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/12/2016 11:54:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 07, 2016

SEO Micromanaging Can Lead to Over-Optimization

by
SEO Micromanaging Can Lead to Over-Optimization daily-golden-nugget-1424-94
For this edition of #ThrowbackThursday, I'm only jumping back about a year to a topic that has come up several times over the last 12 months: Website Over-Optimization.

In January 2015 I wrote a piece about getting ranked as number 1 in Google. In it, I bashed all those companies that send random solicitations claiming they can jump your website ranking to first place in Google. Coincidentally, this morning...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 01/07/2016 12:19:33 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 08, 2015

How to Edit Page Titles and Meta Descriptions in Weebly

by
How to Edit Page Titles and Meta Descriptions in Weebly daily-golden-nugget-1337-98
Last month, while presenting my e-commerce seminar at the RJO conference, I was asked my opinion of the do it yourself website Weebly, and if it was good for search engine optimization (SEO). Weebly is a simple website system that you can learn really fast and build a simple website in an evening. It's a solution for those on a very tight budget, but it's easy to quickly grow out of it when it comes time for a higher level of tracking needed to help grow your business.
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/08/2015 11:31:32 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 03, 2015

Google Website Optimizer is Now Google Experiments #TBT

by
Google Website Optimizer is Now Google Experiments TBT daily-golden-nugget-1334-68
In this edition of #ThrowbackThursday, I need to jump back to my discussion about Google Website Optimizer in September 2011. In 2012, Google closed down their Website Optimizer standalone product and merged its features into Google Analytics. They now call it Experiments instead of Website Optimizer.

The old Optimizer was designed to handle A/B testing, which is when ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/03/2015 06:39:03 AM   0 COMMENTS
Saturday, August 08, 2015

Should You Trust Random SEO Email Solicitations?

by
Should You Trust Random SEO Email Solicitations? daily-golden-nugget-1316-12
I was recently asked if I could help evaluate an SEO agency based on their email solicitation. SEO, or search engine optimization, changes so quickly it's difficult to know if an agency will be providing the most up to date services.

Here's the email I was asked to evaluate:







Reminder-SEO starts from just @99 USD per month
Hi,
First of all thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read and consider this, We are of...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/08/2015 08:35:35 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, July 06, 2015

Product Page Titles: Practical SEO Guide

by
Product Page Titles: Practical SEO Guide daily-golden-nugget-1291-53
As I quickly approach my 1300th Daily Golden Nugget, I find myself pondering my existence. What else could I possibly write about that I haven't already?

Truthfully, a lot, but I'm also realizing that's I've never created a series of simple examples or how-to's for typical search engine optimization tasks. So, starting today, I'm going to work through several days (however many it might take) to show you how to tie together simple SEO procedures.

I'll tie together information from free tool...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 07/06/2015 12:49:58 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Improve Your Ranking By Lowering Your Website's Data Center Carbon Footprint

by
Improve Your Ranking By Lowering the Your Websites Data Center Carbon Footprint daily-golden-nugget-1218-68
No matter your field of study, you have more opportunity to uncover something interesting when you have more data to analyze.

Google Has Mega Data


Google thrives on data, but they also spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out how to read a website and decipher what they find on every site. Websites are nothing more than large text files until you build an understanding of how the words relate tog...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 03/25/2015 02:07:35 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, March 12, 2015

Hidden Text On Your Website Can Sometimes Be Used For Good

by
Hidden Text On Your Website Can Sometimes Be Used For Good daily-golden-nugget-1209-99
In this edition of #ThrowbackThursday, I'm jumping back to May 2, 2011 the Daily Golden Nugget on hidden text on a web page that is not considered Black Hat SEO.

I haven't mentioned Black Hat SEO in a while, so let me briefly explain what that is. Google ranking algorithm was less complicated prior to 2012, and many people figured out simple ways to exploit that simplicit...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 03/12/2015 09:37:42 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Fix Mobile Usability Issues Found On Your Website

by
Fix Mobile Usability Issues Found On Your Website daily-golden-nugget-1208-55
Search engine optimization was once a game of pure guesswork. SEO specialists would simply watch their own efforts of what worked and what didn't work, then simply follow the same steps over and over again.

Companies like MOZ.com and SearchEngineLand.com have communities of users always trying to figure out which supposed SEO techniques work, and which don't. Search Engine Land even published their of VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 03/11/2015 09:44:00 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Maybe You Need More Conversions Rather Than More Visitor Traffic

by
Maybe You Need More Conversions Rather Than More Visitor Traffic daily-golden-nugget-1178-29
So it turns out that your home page is good at attracting visitors, but not turning them into customers. It's a fact that the most visited pages of your website are really bad at convincing people to stay, or to go further towards turning into customers.

Good calls to action are what drive people further into your website. Without them, your website just flounders. Sadly...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 01/28/2015 08:05:01 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 22, 2015

How Can I Get Number 1 Ranking on Google?

by
How Can I Get Number 1 Ranking on Google? daily-golden-nugget-1174-76
It astounds me that people still offer first place Google ranking service. Every day I still receive at least one spam email which offers me to get first place ranking on Google if I hire them to improve the SEO of any of the domain names I manage.

I started writing these Daily Golden Nuggets more than four years ago and even before then, Google posted warnings saying how first place ranking could not be achieved by simply hiring someone. Their warning is VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 01/22/2015 01:09:10 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Evaluating an Unsolicited SEO Proposal

by
Evaluating an Unsolicited SEO Proposal daily-golden-nugget-1122-72
Your website's contact form is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you can protect yourself from unwanted mass email spam by hiding your email address, but it's a curse because you still get unsolicited offers of all kinds.

The typical unsolicited emails can come from random jewelry vendors, especially those trying to offer you a new source for diamonds and gemstones. You'll also get a lot of unsolicited emails from people offering you different online marketing services.

Since I own more than a dozen ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 11/11/2014 10:18:34 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Social Signal Ranking Factors

by
Social Signal Ranking Factors daily-golden-nugget-1118-29
If you ever get into a conversation with a search engine optimization professional (aka SEO), they usually bring up the topic of how Google ranks your website and that there are "more than 200 different signals" that Google uses for their ranking algorithm. It's Google's standard message that they are using more than 200 signals, but they've been saying the same thing for more than 10 years now.

Surly they must be using more than 200 signals now, but they'll never admit it.

From time to time, I'm able to measure the effects of certain t...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 11/05/2014 12:22:33 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, September 19, 2014

Berning's Fine Jewelry Website Review

by
Bernings Fine Jewelry Website Review daily-golden-nugget-1085-32
Welcome to the Friday retail jewelry store website review. For this week's review, I'm searching for "jewelers Tempe, Arizona" using Google Chrome in incognito mode.

If this is the first time you're reading my reviews, then let me explain that I review a different random retail store website every Friday. These are sites have no relation to me or the website agency services my company provides. These are just straight forward, cursory reviews of what a website looks like, how it functions, some SEO analys...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/19/2014 11:06:04 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Setting the Preferred Domain for Your Website

by
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...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/17/2014 07:26:36 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 15, 2014

Optimizing Images for Google Image Search in 2014 - Important Image SEO Steps

by
Optimizing Images for Google Image Search in 2014 - Important Image SEO Steps daily-golden-nugget-1081-61
When Google Image Search was redesigned in January 2013, it introduced a modern way of looking at images across the web. Images were presented larger, with the ability to view just the image or jump to the website where the image was found.

I remember having a lot of trouble understanding the redesigned user interface for Image Search, but after a few months I finally got used to it.

A lot of SEO professionals VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/15/2014 06:29:20 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 01, 2014

Upgrading Your Website Without Losing Organic Ranking

by
Upgrading Your Website Without Losing Organic Ranking 1154-daily-golden-nugget-1071
Two weeks ago I wrote a Nugget about the potential decline of your website's ranking when you launch a new website. The scenario proposed in that Nugget assumed you transferred all your existing content and SEO settings to the new website, but you changed your URL structure, causing the decline. Preventing that decline requires the setup of 301 redirects so ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/01/2014 12:49:32 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, August 28, 2014

Off-Site SEO for Retail Jewelers

by
Off-Site SEO for Retail Jewelers 2145-daily-golden-nugget-1069
This week I've been explaining the differences between Technical SEO,On-Site SEO, and Off-Site SEO.

While the technical aspects of search engine optimization include a lot of analysis and analytical thinking, the on-site optimization requires a creative flair for writing, photography, and customer satisfaction that...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/28/2014 09:24:10 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, August 27, 2014

On-Site SEO for Retail Jewelers

by
On-Site SEO for Retail Jewelers 3669-daily-golden-nugget-1068
In yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget, I began a discussion about the differences between Technical SEO, On-Site SEO, and Off-Site SEO, and I detailed several very important, but sometimes boring aspects of what I refer to as the technical side of SEO.

Technical SEO is certainly something that computer scientists and programmers do best. Even though the technical SEO procedures are important, I don't often not...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/27/2014 10:42:26 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Technical SEO, On-Site SEO, and Off-Site SEO

by
Technical SEO, On-Site SEO, and Off-Site SEO 4166-daily-golden-nugget-1067
In its simplest terms, search engine optimization is the process of doing something for your website that will help it to rank higher in search engines. Google maintains its dominance over the entire search engine industry because it keeps its users happy.

Users... Those are the everyday people of this world, like you and me, who keep returning to Google because it offers the best search results no matter which device you use. Google pays attention to what we all look for, how we use ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/26/2014 09:12:26 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, August 25, 2014

Understanding Uptime Availability and How Google Reports It

by
Understanding Uptime Availability and How Google Reports It 1092-daily-golden-nugget-1066
According to Wikipedia, uptime "is a measure of the time a machine, typically a computer, has been working and available."

Interestingly enough, the Wikipedia page only explains Uptime in relation to the physical computer servers that run just about everything in the world now, but not about websites.

Last week I mentioned uptime in my Nugget about VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/25/2014 12:47:46 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Reading Your SEO Reports: Google Webmaster Tools

by
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...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/13/2014 09:21:22 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, August 11, 2014

Proven Results of On-Site Blogging

by
Proven Results of On-Site Blogging 8461-daily-golden-nugget-1056
The other day, I presented some historical data showing why it's bad to have an offsite blog instead of a blog on your website.

I'm going to continue this on-site/off-site discussion today with a presentation of measured results for when you do have a blog on your site.

The data I'm presenting today is part of the ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/11/2014 09:23:45 AM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, August 01, 2014

Hood River Jewelers Website Review

by
Hood River Jewelers Website Review 2536-daily-golden-nugget-1050
This is the Friday edition of the Daily Golden Nugget where I randomly choose a jewelry store's website to review.

This week I found my review candidate by searching for "jewelers in hood river Oregon" and choosing the top listing shown here:

Hood River Jewelers Website Review 311-1050-serp

This is a case where a jew...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 08/01/2014 09:25:14 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, July 10, 2014

Basic SEO: Keywords for Jewelers

by
Basic SEO: Keywords for Jewelers 1938-daily-golden-nugget-1034
This short post is part of my "Grains of SEO Gold" series covering basic SEO topics and how to apply them.

Today's SEO Topic: Keywords

Once upon a time, if you wanted your website to rank for a particular keyword, you would simply include that word on your web pages a specific numbers of times in order to get top ranking in the search results.

For many years, it was a competition of keyword density between different websites that wanted to rank higher.

Those web pages with high repetitive...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 07/10/2014 11:46:27 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Basic SEO: Meta Robots Tag

by
Basic SEO: Meta Robots Tag 9213-daily-golden-nugget-1033
This short post is part of my "Grains of SEO Gold" series covering basic SEO topics and how to apply them.

Today's SEO Topic: Meta Robots Tag

During a recent website review, I illustrated how duplicate content could be created on your website when using the services from an agency that specializes in creating websites for retail jewelry stores.

Specialty marketing agencies exist in every vertical market (ones to do with g...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 07/09/2014 09:14:51 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Basic SEO: Mobile Websites

by
Basic SEO: Mobile Websites 8756-daily-golden-nugget-1032
This short post is part of my "Grains of SEO Gold" series covering basic SEO topics and how to apply them.

Today's SEO Topic: Mobile Websites

There's no way around it any more. Your customers want a mobile website and Google is practically demanding that you give it to them.

Back in May 2014, I reported that 40% of users to jewelry websites are using mobile devices, 28% of which ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 07/08/2014 03:57:28 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, July 07, 2014

Basic SEO: Page Titles and Headers

by
Basic SEO: Page Titles and Headers 179-daily-golden-nugget-1031
Over the course of the next week or two, I'm going to supply you with a bunch of shorter Daily Golden Nuggets specifically explaining smaller SEO topics. Instead of calling them "nuggets," I should call them "Grains of SEO Gold."

Today's SEO Topic: Page Titles and Header Tags

It used to be that the website's Page Title was easily readable at the top of your web browser window, but now that most web browsers use tabs, it's very difficult to see what the page title says.

Even though it's difficu...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 07/07/2014 11:47:43 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, June 17, 2014

15 SEO and SEM Related Tidbits You Should Know About Blogging

by
15 SEO and SEM Related Tidbits You Should Know About Blogging 8726-daily-golden-nugget-1017
A lot has changed in the world of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) since I first started my daily blogging more than 1000 posts ago.

The most significant SEO changes over the last 4 years are related to Google Panda and Google Penguin, but there are dozens of other notable changes, and hundreds of subtle changes throughout the entire internet.

Although I'd love to write a "then and now" post about all the intern...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 06/17/2014 03:28:54 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, May 08, 2014

Latest Organic Search Engine Results

by
Latest Organic Search Engine Results 668-daily-golden-nugget-989
In yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget, I reviewed the most recent data for the device usage and browser usage with regard to jewelry websites. Today, I'm looking at the organic traffic that brings those users to a retail jeweler's website.

Google is the undisputed champion for search. They provide more than 84% of the organic search traffic referred to jewelry websites. I wanted t...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 05/08/2014 03:50:10 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

What's Better? SEO or SEM...

by
Whats Better? SEO or SEM... 8783-daily-golden-nugget-983

Everything you add to the Internet will either help or hurt you tomorrow. Every piece of content has a long shelf life.

Your marketing strategy today could be a onetime use, or it could add to the cumulative benefit you create to build your brand awareness.

Typical search engine marketing includes paid ads or paid strategies that only have a value while you're paying for them. That value goes away as soon as you stop paying for it.

This can clearly be seen in any large marketing company service, like Y...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/30/2014 03:22:54 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, October 08, 2013

SEO is Dead! Long Live SEM!

by
I've never been a fan of long term search engine optimization services where a small business is expected to pay large sums of money for some type of online work that's suppose to increase your website ranking. So much of the SEO industry was built on scams and false claims that it's hard for anyone to really trust someone who says they can do the job. SEO scam artists used to give you long lists of technical jargon to explain what they were going to do for you and most people blindly trusted them because they were "the experts."

My personal philosophy has always been one where the bulk of the basic SEO work is handled immediately and then the website owner is trained how to maintain it on their own without having to perpe...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/08/2013 06:16:36 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, February 04, 2013

Understanding Google Sitelinks

by
Understanding Google Sitelinks 1226-daily-golden-nugget-661The topic of "Sitelinks" has come up in casual conversation a lot recently in my daily work and I realize that I've never specifically written a Daily Golden Nugget about sitelinks, including what they are and the strategy I use to create them.

Let's start with the basic explanation of a sitelink: In the Google Search Results, sitelinks are the hyperlinks to subpages of your website that often appear below your main search result listing in order to help users navigate more quickly through your website.

Google claims to create ...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 02/04/2013 05:58:44 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Increase User Friendliness, Decrease Google Bounce Rate

by
The way you build your website directly effects how customers will respond to it. A product catalog site will not satisfy customers looking for custom design rings and a website with pages of information about designers will not satisfy customers looking to buy online.

Since Google is a machine, it doesn't exactly know what people are looking for when they search.

Someone searching for "Claude Thibaudeau Rings" might be looking for information or maybe a photo of the ring their friend was wearing; but they could also be searching for a place to buy a ring online.

Since Google doesn't actually know the intent of the searcher, it can only guesstimate results. The search results will return all answers with the best ranking for the phrase "Claude Thibaudeau Rings." Those results could be e-commerce sites, blog website...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/13/2011 02:00:18 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, April 11, 2011

Ride the Mobile Fad Wave Today

by
As mobile websites become increasingly popular, website owners are given more dynamic features that will work on a mobile device.

Early adopters of mobile websites were limited to simple 1 or 2 page sites with directions to the store or simply an address and telephone number. Web programmers are now learning how to provide mobile websites that are as interactive as their PC counterparts.

For the jewelry store, this means you can have your entire product catalog available on the mobile website. This also means you can have customer accounts and even mobile purchases. Setting up secure certificates for a mobile shopping cart is no different than the process for your PC website.

We've heard many jewelers say "I just don't want my product catalog online because I don't want anyone to price shop." Our answer to that is...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/11/2011 02:00:08 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, April 07, 2011

It's In the Clouds

by
One of the well known "no no's" of website search engine optimization is something called Keyword Stuffing.

Old search engines used to rank a website by the amount of times you had a phrase listed on the page. If you wanted to be listed for the old "right hand rings" you simply needed to use the phrase "right hand rings" on the page more times than your competitor.

The phrase "right hand rings" is difficult to say over and over, and that's why it's such a good example to today's Daily Golden Nugget, so let's continue with it.

The Diamond Promotion Service started using the phrase Right Hand Ring in 2005, so let's imagine it's 2005 and you are trying to sell to women that want to buy themselves an anytime gift. The common SEO strategy of that time was simply to bloat a web page with your target phrase more times tha...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/07/2011 02:00:59 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, April 04, 2011

Don’t Buy Your Friends

by
Organic. Organic. Organic!

That's the battle cry of the search engines. Everything should be organically driven on the internet. Of course, us saying "organic" today contradicts what we said on Friday. For the reason behind that you need to keep reading.

If the internet was not filled with businesses trying to make money, what would it be filled with? Take out all businesses from the internet and all you're left with are bloggers, news, government and social networks.

Without businesses driving the internet there wouldn't be a need for search engine optimization. There wouldn't be a need for all this online marketing education. Instead, the internet would just be driven by interesting tidbits of the lives we lead.

Maybe that would be boring? Maybe not?

The point is that if businesses were not the...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 04/04/2011 02:00:19 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, March 31, 2011

GOTCHA! Your Website Put You Out Of Business.

by
Technology has come a long way in 10 years.

In 2001, the internet bubble had already burst and some speculated that it would not last much longer. At that time, very few people had a website running with databases. The free PHP programming language that is so ubiquitous today was in its infancy back then. The few lucky websites with content management systems were mostly programmed in Pearl or expensive ASP and ColdFusion.

In 2001, if you wanted a website you had to find the smartest person you knew and pay them a lot of money to create one for you. Programmers also didn't make website management easy for you.

We've come a long way since Palm Pilots, clunky websites and search engines like MetaCrawler and AltaVista. Technology is a lot friendlier now, and even Grandma is able to send email, talk on her cell phone...
VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 03/31/2011 02:07:41 PM   0 COMMENTS
Sign Up For Emailed Daily Gold Nuggets

"...articles are easy to follow and seem to have information one can use right away."
-Ann, Gallery 4, Hamden CT


"...serious kudos to you. We love your straight talk, pertinent information and plain language. I don't know how many industries have something of jWAG's caliber available, but I learn from the emails every day. Really, really nice work, and very appreciated."
-Cheryl Herrick, Global Pathways Jewelry