Door Hangers, Printable Raffle Tickets and Security Paper

I just finished doing some SEO work for a new client, Zapco. Zapco is a manufacturer of high quality die-cut paper products. Zapco specializes in Door Hangers, Printable Raffle Tickets, Security Paper, Mailers, Post Cards, Rotary File Cards, Table Tents, Tags, Business Cards, Club Cards, Name Cards, Buttons, Easels and other die-cut products. Zapco's blog is located at doorhanger.blogspot.com.

SimpleViewer - Website SlideShow

I was doing a little research for a client the other day when I stumbled across Airtight Interactive's SimpleViewer slideshow application (airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/). I downloaded the free version and found it to be a first rate slideshow viewer. My client loved it and its already been installed on their website.

I highly recommend SimpleViewer. If you know some basic HTML you should have no problem deciphering the XML gallery page where your picture list is loaded. There are demos at the SimpleViewer site and I just put one on my website for clients to see:

View SimpleViewer slideshow demo

Google search results and secondary web page listings.

I just received an interesting question from my other website, AustinArticles.com (need backlinks to your website in Austin?).

Here's the question:

When I type "Gina Henry" in Google, our website is the top hit, but the linked page is a secondary page and not the main page I want visitors to first go to? What do I do?

This is actually a pretty common occurence - you can read my answer at "ask the webmaster".

Online Articles and Information from Austin, Texas Businesses

As a web designer part of my job is performing SEO (search engine optimization) on my clients' websites, and one of the ways to improve search engine rankings is to have a lot of links to your website from other websites (inbound links). The problem is finding other websites that will link to yours, ideally without a reciprocal link.

That's what this website is for - a place for Austin, Texas businesses to post informative articles that include links back to their websites.

There are plenty of other article websites out there but I know of none that are dedicated to Austin, Texas businesses. If you are an Austin, Texas business it's absolutely free to post articles, and each article can have up to two links back to your website.

I am just starting out and need lots of content, so please SEND ME AN ARTICLE!

Texas Hill Country Land, Property and Real Estate for Sale

I just completed some SEO work for La Cancion.

La Cancion features Hill Country land and real estate for sale, located near Boerne and just 45 minutes from San Antonio. Your are invited you to come and explore this enchanting Texas Hill Country property.

Utilities, Excavation and Sitework Contractors in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Texas

New website launch: CCI - Commercial Consolidated Inc.

http://www.texascci.com/

Utilities, Excavation and Sitework Contractors in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Texas

SEO Experiment

Above is a graphic image of the article I just posted to my other blog at

I didn't mention the name or URL of the other blog because I don't want to taint the experiment. For more information about this experiment, read the post just prior to this one. Stay tuned for results.

UPDATE: THIS POST CAME UP #1 ON GOOGLE FOR THE SEARCH PHRASE "parley baer web design" WITHIN 24 HOURS OF POSTING. SO MUCH FOR MY BLOGGER FAVORITISM THEORY. STILL AMAZED BY THE RAPID INDEXING OF BLOGS.

Who is Howard McNear and What is His Relevance to Web Design in Austin, Texas?

After seeing how fast Google indexed my last blog post regarding web articles, I've decided to conduct an experiment.

If you're a fan of the Andy Griffith Show, you are sure to remember the town barber, Floyd Lawson, who was portrayed by veteran character actor, Howard McNear.


Howard McNear as Floyd Lawson

Howard McNear has absolutely nothing to do with web design in Austin, Texas; my experiment is to see how fast Google will index this blog post.

It is now 10:03 p.m. Central Standard Time. I'll be searching on the phrase "Howard McNear Web Design" to find out if and when Google has indexed this article. Stay tuned for results.

UPDATE: Monday, September 24, 8:53 a.m.

This blog is the NUMBER ONE RESULT for a Google search on "Howard McNear Web Design"!!!

I am absolutely amazed at how fast Google indexed this blog post. Ever since Google bought Blogger, I've speculated that Blogger posts get preferential treatment. My next experiment will be to add an identical post (except for the name of the obscure actor) to my WordPress blog. How long will it take to get indexed by Google? Stay tuned.

Steve Cook - Published Author

A common SEO technique is to write and publish articles on the internet. Of course these articles will contain your tier-one keywords, as well as links back to your website.

Until this week, I'd never gotten around to posting anything. I Googled "publish web articles" and came across EzineArticles.com. I registered as a member and posted my first article, a re-hashing of an earlier post on this blog ("Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results in the Eyes of the Consumer "). The article was accepted and published (huge surprise).

Furthermore, I received an email from the publisher notifying me that I had earned "Expert Author" status. Boy, will my folks be proud!

Anyway, I tagged the links back to my site so I'll be able to track any hits that might come from my articles.

Read the article

View my Expert Author Bio

UPDATE - Sunday, Sept. 23:

I posted this article on Thursday and as of today Google has already indexed it and it's appearing on page one of the results for the search phrase "Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results".

Widening the Search Engine Spotlight

I've achieved excellent SEO (search engine optimization) results by focusing my efforts on tightly defined search phrases, the top two being "web design austin texas" and "website design austin texas". Obviously the narrower your search phrase, the less competition you have to deal with.

What's much harder to do is achieve high rankings for just "web design", without any further qualifiers. You are now competing world wide with everyone who is optimizing on "web design". Further, all my efforts are focused on Google, because generally if you do well there, you will do well on MSN and Yahoo.

I track all visits to my website that come from search engines and I'm able to tell what search engine the visitor used and what search phrase was entered. Sometimes I can tell how my site was ranked just from looking at the data I receive. Other times I have go to the appropriate search engine and manually type in the search phrase that was used.

After receiving a visit that originated from the search phrase "website redesign", I entered that phrase in to MSN search and my website, http://www.austexwebsites.com/, appeared on page one of the results.

"website redesign" is not a tier one search phrase for me, but I'd still like to know what's making my site show up on page one for that phrase. Right now it's the last result on the page and could be gone at any time. I plan to watch this closely and I'll report back if I learn anything more.

My Hero

When I started this blog about a year ago, my whole purpose was to influence search engines to rank my web design firm in Austin, Texas higher. I've never understood why anyone would want a "real" blog. I don't see the appeal of reading the boring postings of ordinary everyday people, and I can't for the life of me imagine anyone wanting to read mine (as stated in an earlier post on this blog, my target audience consists of search engine robots).

Well now the unthinkable has happened! I came across an article that is so compelling that I have finally strayed from my SEO (search engine optimization) mission and posted something non-web-related. At the risk of becoming another inane blogger, I hereby submit to you, dear reader, this post:

As a kid growing up in Austin, Texas I quickly realized that normal athletic endeavors led to perspiration and exhaustion. As I matured into my teen years and my intellect began to evolve, I discovered indoor sports - pool, bowling, shuffleboard, darts, pinball, etc. What a revelation! Not only could I now pursue these worthwhile athletic avenues, I could do it in the comfort of air conditioning! By that time I had a pretty serious smoking habit, so the proximity to ash trays was helpful. I also discovered the performance enhancing effects of alcohol.


When John Daly exploded on to the PGA tour by winning the 1991 PGA Championship, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. Over the years he has never let me down and it was with great satisfaction that I read of Fox Sports decision to name Daly the worst-conditioned athlete in all of sports.


The ever inspirational John Daly

Over the past several years I have gradually relinquished most of my bad habits. I no longer smoke. I've lost 60 pounds over the last 3 years. I exercise regularly and drink less.

I sure do miss my vices. Thank goodness I can still live vicariously through my hero. Keep fighting the good fight John.

Read the article: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7128994?MSNHPHCP&GT1=10437

Google Austin Texas

A long time ago I programmed my website to send me an email anytime it received a hit from anyone who had been referred by a search engine. The email gives me the date of the search, the searcher's IP address, the search engine used, and the search phrase used.

Being able to identify what keywords are being used to find a website is very helpful in my SEO efforts. Today I got a hit that resulted from the search prhase "Google Austin Texas". I checked my Google ranking for that phrase and my web page titled "SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin, Texas" appears on page one of the Google listings.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin, Texas

Recently I had the opportunity to speak about web design in front of a group of business people. A lot of the questions I got had to do with SEO - Search Engine Optimization. One question in particular was "How do I find a good SEO firm in Austin?"

I have a pat answer for that question: Type "SEO Austin Texas" into the Google search bar. In my opinion any SEO firm that comes up on page one of that search probably knows what they are doing.

When I returned to my office I decided to try my own suggestion and was very pleasantly surprised when my website page titled "SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin" appeared on PAGE ONE! I still don't profess to be an SEO expert but I'm getting some excellent results.

As of today Austex Websites, specializing in web design in Austin, comes up on Google page one for the following queries:

adwords example
austin design firm
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Basket Weaving Classes in Austin, Texas

There's a page about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on my website (Austex Websites - Web Design in Austin, Texas) where I use the phrase "basket weaving" as a keyword example. I explain how the search process works from the prospective of a fictional Basket Weaving School.

Whenever my website gets a hit generated from a search engine, I can view the actual words the user used that generated the listing. Imagine my surprise when I had a visitor last week who used the search phrase "basket weaving class austin texas".
Just for grins, I performed a Google search using "basket weaving class austin texas" and my website was the number 1 listing! I doubt that being the number 1 listing for "basket weaving class austin texas" is going to help my business any, but it's still fun to be number 1!

Ms. Dewey and Web Design in Austin, Texas

I just stumbled across a clever new Microsoft search engine called Ms. Dewey.

Ms. Dewey is a sassy lass who handles your search phrase, then displays results after a short quip or two.

Ms. Dewey is powered by MSN Search, where Austex Websites performs well on a number of search phrases. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Austex is the number one result (at least for today) for the search phrases "website design austin texas" and "web design austin texas".

Web Design and MySpace

www.myspace.com/austexwebsites

Another free opportunity to create inbound links to my website. I was pleasantly surprised to see that myspace.com allows HTML code, so it was easy to create links to Austex Websites - a web design firm in Austin, Texas.

3D Animation

An important aspect of web design is the ability to create compelling graphics. Adding sound and a third dimension puts icing on the cake!

And Baby Makes Three

One of my favorite lines from Barney Fife. Barney explains why the crime rate in Mayberry, North Carolina is so low. This is in the "fun" area of Austex Websites. Another attempt to drive traffic of any kind to my web design firm.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization, Global Warming and Amazon.com

I recently did a Google search on my name using the search phrase "steve cook austin texas". The number one result was a link to an Amazon.com review I had written on Michael Crichton's "State of Fear".

Well, this looked like a perfect opportunity to try some SEO tactics, so I altered my review to include web design keywords. I also wrote a review on the Tiger Woods 2005 PC golf game. I then created a new account with Amazon titled "Web Design Austin Texas" and I plan to start writing reviews galore under that name. You have to buy something under the new name before Amazon will let you write a review, so I won't be posting anything until the next time I need something from Amazon.

The second Google result for "steve cook austin texas" was a link to this blog!

Web Design Austin Texas NUMBER ONE!

WOW! On Sunday, May 06, 2007 I posted an entry on this blog titled "State of the Search Engine Optimization Report" (scroll down 2 posts to read it). The main goal of the post was to raise Austex Website's Google ranking for the search phrase "web design austin texas". At the time of the post, Austex Websites appeared on page 2 of a Goolge search on that phrase.

As of today "web design austin texas" in on PAGE 1!!!! Additionally, "austin texas web design" appears on page one as well.

Update on My Hollywood Friends

Jorel says "My little Kal-el".
I'm constantly amazed at what Google deems important enough to put on page 1 of their search results. Back in February, I created some web pages that were tied to URLs of TV and movie characters (see 5 posts down this page).

As of today, here are their rankings on Google:

Pal	Page
Emilio Barzini	1
Elly May Clampett	2
Pete Clemenza	1
Vito Corleone	*
Lucy Mancini	2
Fred G. Sanford	2
Lamont Sanford	*
Virgil Sollozzo	1
Gloria Stivic	1
Michael Stivic	*
Bruno Tattaglia	1
Sal Tessio	1
Salvatore Tessio	1
Grady Wilson	2
Jack Woltz	2

* not recorded if result was lower than Google page 2

UPDATE: AUGUST 18, 2007

I've decided to see if I can sell any of these - they are now parked at a domain-for-sale website. I've included links back to Austex Websites.

State of the Search Engine Optimization Report

I just ran a check on some of the most common search phrases that resulted in hits to my Web Design website, Austex Websites (web design is a search phrase that I'm trying to promote).

Austex Websites appeared on PAGE ONE of Google results for the following seach phrases:

austin design firms
austin texas design firm
austin texas website design
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P.S. Kudos to says-it.com, a really neat website where I created the curved text on the S.E.O. seal above.

UPDATE: As of Sunday, May 06, 2007 the search phrase "web design austin texas" is on PAGE 1 of GOOGLE!

Sling Blade Soundsand other Website Fun

I used to have a page on my personal website devoted to the "Sounds of Sling Blade". This page contained .wav files of my favorite short quips from the film's central character Karl Childers, played by Billy Bob Thornton.

The Sling Blade Sounds page used to get lots of hits from web searches on Sling Blade related keywords, and was very popular. I've decided to post it on my business website - again, my theory is that any traffic driven to my web design website is welcome. The link to the Sling Blade sounds page is located on a "Fun" page of Austex Websites, and will be joined by other goodies.

One of the basic principles of good web design is to provide useful content - things of value - to your visitors. Although most, if not all, of the Fun page postings will have nothing to do with website development, they will be entertaining.

SUNDAY APRIL 22 - UPDATE: I just ran some web searches to see where the Sling Blade page was showing and it's already showing on page 1 of MSN search (search phrase: sling blade sounds) and page 2 of Google (search phrase: slingblade sounds). That's just 3 days from the original post date! I'm amazed at how fast Google indexed this. Does Google crawl blogs at a higher rate than other sites?

THURSDAY MAY 3 - UPDATE: Both Austex Websites and this blog (websitedesignaustintexas.blogspot.com) are now showing on page 1 of Google for the search phrase "sling blade wav files".

Web Site vs. Website

I recently ran a check on the term "website design" using Overture's Keyword Selector Tool. The number one related keyword phrase, was "web site design" with 211,457 February searches.

I use the word "website" in most of my SEO, but the popularity of "web site" is pretty compelling. I've actually changed the spelling on my home page and my site map to include both versions. I also added a "Web Site Design Austin Texas" keyword line above the heading, since search engines seem to place more importance on words that appear earlier in the page.

The Google Search Distance Anomoly

As of today, Austex Websites comes up on page 1, 7th listing, when searching for "website design austin texas" on Google ... if you're in the right place!

My office is in 78759. Recently I was at a client's office in 78758. At my office in 78759 I get the above Google results. When I'm at my client's office in 78758, Austex Websites is nowhere to be found in the first 5 pages of results!

I have no clue what's up with this but I've tested it for a couple of weeks now and keep getting the same results.

Some help from my Hollywood friends.

John Marley as Hollywood producer Jack Woltz in "The Godfather"

What do the following names have in common?

Barzini, Emilio Clampett, Elly May Clemenza, Pete Corleone, Vito Jefferson, Louise Mancini, Lucy Sanford, Fred G. Sanford, Lamont

Sollozzo, Virgil Stivic, Gloria Stivic, Michael Tattaglia, Bruno Tessio, Sal Tessio, Salvatore Wilson, Grady Woltz, Jack

Besides the fact that they are all fictional characters from TV and film, each one is also a domain name owned by Austex Websites!

In my never-endinq SEO quest to have this website show up prominently on search engines, I've taken to experimenting with different methods of accomplishing that feat. I also like the idea of owning domain names of fictional characters.Each of these characters has his/her own page on austexwebsites.com, and my goal is to lure unwitting searchers, then expose them to as much website design propaganda as possible!

Now what are the chances that someone searching for Fred G. Sanford will just happen to be in the market for a new website? Probably nil, but the fact that more search results pages are linking to my website can't hurt it's ranking.

Who knows? Maybe some bigshot Hollywood writer/director/producer/creator might want to buy one someday!

ellymayclampett.com
peteclemenza.com
vitocorleone.com
louisejefferson.com
lucymancini.com
fredgsanford.com
lamontsanford.com
virgilsollozzo.com
gloriastivic.com
michaelstivic.com
saltessio.com
salvatoretessio.com
gradywilson.com
jackwoltz.com

UPDATE: AUGUST 18, 2007

I've decided to see if I can sell any of these - they are now parked at a domain-for-sale website. I've included links back to Austex Websites.