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 What is a redirect?A redirect is an instruction to browsers and robots (crawlers for the search engines that remember and rank your pages) that tells them to visit a new page instead of the one they landed on or requested. Also, the end user who types the replaced URL in the browser gets redirected to the new page without ever seeing the old page or one of those nasty “404 Page Not Found” error messages. What types of redirects are there? There are two types of redirects – 301 and 302 redirects.
Why should you use redirects? Here’s some sample scenarios that can happen if you don't use redirects:
So when should you use redirects?
How to redirect a web page The difficult way via the .htaccess file on a server (Unix). OK, I may have lost some of you now! I have been down this path myself for a few sites. This method is for techie webmasters and not necessarily for people that want to just design sites. You have to do the following steps:
The easy way with the Sitemasher content management system. I am going to plug Sitemasher, because I work there and I really like how our product developers exposed an easy way for me to define redirects – thanks guys! I don’t have to worry about coding now, nor do I have to deal with server uploads (FTPing).
2. Click Advanced SEO - Redirects.  3. Define your redirect by selecting or naming your old source page (1), selecting the type of redirect (2), and selecting or naming your new target page (3)
And voila, simple, done - go for coffee! Want to share examples on how you have used redirects and why it helped you? Feel free to share your comments below.  Recently I've been very intrigued with twitter. It has been my source of interaction for the most part - I work on the computer day and night (ya I know I should get out more!). And I also use my iPhone to tweet while watching television. For those who don’t know, Twitter is a micro-blogging application that allows you to send updates (aka “tweets”) to the Twitter website and your twitter friends, similar to the Facebook status (with a limit of 140 character input). You can find and interact with people with similar interests. You can follow them, and others can follow you. It’s an instant-messaging-meets-social-media-networking tool.
Below is my compiled list of every term, shorthand and tool that I researched on the net (after being disappointed with http://twittonary.com/ – they can use my list below if they give credit!). I am sure many new tools are still being developed and I may have missed many that will be in Warren and Deb’s handbook (feel free to comment on the post if you know of any I missed- I am sure there's more! ) I colored coded my list by: Terms ( orange ), shorthands ( green ) and tools ( purple ) all in alphabetical order.
My Sources:
Did I miss any terms, shorthand or twitter tools? Feel free to comment on the post and add to the list - I am sure there are still lot's more - share away!  A few weeks ago I attended BlogWord Expo in Vegas. It was jammed packed with tons of social media sessions. One session I attended was: "Twitter: Building the Connections that Drive Traffic". The panel included Stowe Boyd (www.stoweboyd.com/), Laura Fitton (www.pistachioconsulting.com/), Tony Hiesh (http://www.zappos.com/), Lucretia Pruitt (www.geekmommy.net/) and Erin Kotecki Vest (www.queenofspainblog.com/)They all brought different perspectives to the table on how micro-blogging (IE twitter) can benefit building connections with customers, markets, and other social media users and to drive traffic to your website. This post includes general do's and don’ts for those trying to figure out how to get into the conversation stream and use it as an effective communication tool. Examples of Twitter users who are setting the standard for their industries – what they do that others don’t. Crafting your personal brand on Twitter and other micro publishing platforms and avoiding the most common pitfalls.
Did I miss a twitter tip that you want to share? Feel free to comment on this post! Oh ya Rafeal, reminded me in a post below - my twitter is http://www.twitter.com/shannonyellandif you'd like to follow me!  Just last week, I attended Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas. I think the conference could have been called “Social Media World” instead because it was a great event to understand social media overall (i.e., micro blogging, external blog commenting, social media interaction, social media tagging, video and much more).One of the many seminars I attended was “Search Engine Optimization, SEM & New Media” with Brian Clark (from http://www.copyblogger.com/), Michael Gray (from http://atlaswebservice.com/) and Leed Odden (from http://www.toprankblog.com/) and Stephan Spencer (from http://www.netconcepts.com/). They all had some great tips on how to optimize your blog or website. I particularly liked their list of keyword tools. Keyword tools help you decide what to focus on to label your website meta data and use within your content. Using relevant keywords will help your website show up in the search engine results pages letting your customers find you. When you start your keyword research, try to anticipate what people are going to type in the search box, answer a question or solve a problem. The keyword tools will come up with many more iterations for you based upon your first hunch. Here’s the list of the keyword tools (can vary in depth of features, price and uses) that the panel shared with us:
Using the keyword tools above, you can implement your final choices into your website pages or blog post to optimize and raise your chances to be found on the web more. Here are some tips on best practices the panel shared with us:
Did I miss a keyword research tool that you favor over the ones mentioned above? Or want to share your take on this topic - feel free to comment on this post!  Last weekend I attended the Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas. It was a great event to gain an understanding of social media, such as micro blogging, external blog commenting, social media interaction, social media tagging, video, and much more.One of the many seminars I attended was “Generating Traffic Through Social Media: 5 Strategies” by Don Crowther (from http://www.stompernet.com/). He was the most exciting presenter of the three days! Crowther explained how social media (or “social marketing” as Crowther calls it) has led to a major change in generating website traffic. Essentially, it’s the DNA of Web 2.0. It’s no longer about trying to drive traffic via your sales brochures, optimizing your website pages to show up on the search engines, or even paying for banner advertising. Crowther stated that “It’s a fact that by using social media you can have instant rankings, huge traffic, and Google rules”. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get into Google – social media now makes it possible to get multiple entries in Google that you can control. You can possibly get between eight and ten spots in the first results page just by using different social media strategies. (Google usually likes to index only one or two of your website pages for each keyword.) Additionally, you will receive the joint benefits of search engine placement and traffic from the social networking sites. Here are five strategies that you can incorporate today:
Did I miss an insight? Or want to share your take on this topic? Feel free to comment on this post.  Just last weekend, I attended Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas (poor me!). I think the conference could have been called “Social Media World” instead. It was a great event to understand social media overall (i.e., micro blogging, external blog commenting, social media interaction, social media tagging, video and much more).One of the many seminars I attended was “How to Seduce Your Tribe and Create Raving Fans” presented by Deborah Micek (http://www.tribalseduction.com/) – she was a ball of fire and passion! Micek explained her revolutionary way of marketing without selling. It is all based on her theory on tribal seduction via online interactions. Most marketers and businesses do it backwards and she explained the best practises to focus on while scraping conventional marketing approaches. It’s a 180 degree mind shift from “me to” marketing the herd (old school mass production underestimating the buyer) to tribe mentality (new school down to earth style).
Micek stated “People buy who are you and what you sell” - it’s a soft sell.
Follow C.H.A.R.M tips to get your brand on twitter and you will be on your way to reaching out to your tribe and potential customers:
Think about tactics that are applicable to your brand that can help you to engage with your existing followers or gain new ones:
Did I miss an insight? Or want to share your take on this topic - feel free to comment on this post!  When your website is SEO friendly, search engines can visit, read, find, and remember all of the pages within your site. This enables them to know what you are about and to list your pages in relevant search results pages – preferably the first!I find, however, that website owners will often ask me about search engine optimization (SEO) after their website has been built. This is because they are not seeing the desired results when their new site goes live (such as site visitors or site visitors that convert), and only realize after the fact that their site was not optimized correctly when built. To be effective, SEO is something that you must consider before designing and building your website. Otherwise, you’ll be left with nothing but a great looking site without significant visitor numbers. I believe a truly SEO-friendly site is dependent on the following two things:
These two elements go hand in hand and should be taken seriously. I like how Stephan Spencer explains it in “Search Friendly CMS does not Equal Search Optimized One”. Some people sell the platform as the be-all and end-all solution, but you need a human element involved that understands optimization, plans the site, and implements the best practices to compliment the platform and fully optimize your site for the search engine results pages. Disclaimer: Not to be biased, but I presently work at Sitemasher as the online marketing manager, so I give feedback and recommendations to our product development department on what is required for an SEO-friendly platform. These recommendations are from my experiences with regards to the code output and site infrastructure. (Sitemasher is a software as a service (SaaS) website builder with a build-in content management solution.) Believe me, I’ve been through the pain of building websites where I’ve chosen the wrong platform (there weren’t many choices in 2000!) and I had to deal with work-arounds or hire a programmer to do custom 301 redirects (one of many painful tactics to make your site seo-friendly). So I thought I’d share some tips on what features to look for in a website platform. Understanding the website platform should be your first consideration for your SEO-friendly website requirements. 10 features to look for in a search engine friendly platform
Final tip to take home: If you found a CMS or web platform that is SEO-friendly, but is not familiar with all of the SEO best practices, don’t start designing and building your site just yet. Contact an SEO firm beforehand, as they will help and consult with you on planning the site structure, and naming pages for SEO with strong and relevant keywords, so you can integrate it within your site build. Every little detail in the initial planning stages can have great results in your SEO efforts! If you want to share similar experiences on this topic, I encourage you to leave a comment!  In the United States a 71-year-old presidential candidate has made YouTube part of his campaign strategy. His competitor achieved YouTube stardom last year with a renegade music video created by supporters rather than political operatives.If Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have turned to YouTube a crucial part of their market outreach - what about you? Shouldn’t YouTube be part of your branding strategy? It’s easy to overlook YouTube as a quirky entertainment phenomenon. But make no mistake about it, web video is radically changing the landscape for marketers of all kinds: corporate, not-for-profit, causes & activists, and political campaign teams alike. Right now most marketers and communicators are still absorbing the astounding reality that you can video broadcast whatever you like, whenever you like, to a mass audience for a pretty reasonable sum of money. This is a mind-boggling reality. This power is almost dizzying. No offence to the TV networks out there, but we really don’t need you like we used to. But...be forewearned...this ability to broadcast brings with it enormous responsibility. You don’t want to contribute to that unfortunate, desperate mass of video content that is bypassed for being boring or pointless. That’s why the secret of success in this YouTube era is to focus in on great storytelling. Use the people on your team who understand how to weave a compelling tale (in writing and on video). And listen when they tell you: “No we can’t do that, it’s too schmaltzy.” Or, “I really don’t think we have a story here.” Or, “If we want people to understand, we have to use words and images they relate to.” (Plug: You can also hire a firm that helps with YouTube marketing services and storytelling services like Soya Marketing in Vancouver, BC.) If you start and end with honest-to-goodness storytelling and a strong journalistic style, YouTube can and should be a central part of any brand strategy. P.S. A final note: Malcolm Gladwell is using YouTube too (indirectly and directly) and we’re pretty sure he knows a thing or two about how to tip the marketing see-saw. *By the way, your 17 year old has now been sitting at his computer for 22 hours straight now. He is no doubt downloading both a skit from Saturday Night Live and a short lesson on how to apply for and complete his MBA all on YouTube. Oh yes. This is the way of the future. This blog post is written by a guest blogger and friend of Seed the Web: Deborah Collins, Partner Soya: The New Marketing & PR Offering YouTube Marketing Services & Brand Storytelling http://www.soyamarketing.com/  You may or may not have noticed, but when you do a search on the top search engines, different kinds of results are creeping in all the time. Search results pages now display content that is beyond text links. These results contain a mix of web pages, video thumbnails, images, maps and local directory listings. This is an emerging trend and called “Blended” or “Universal” or some experts are coining it as “Search 3.0.” You can use this to your advantage by understanding how these results are considered and how you can present your company to have multiple results on these search results pages. You can also offer a richer and more interactive experience to your potential customers and possibly increase click-throughs to your site.I attended a great webinar "Blended Search One Year Later" with Chris Sherman from Search Marketing Now. During the webinar he posted an interesting poll to the attendees and it was: “Over the past six months have you noticed your company’s images, videos, or press releases appearing on the main search results pages of the major search engines?” Half of the attendees said yes, 34% said no and 15% said not sure. Sherman explained the stages/versions of search that we have seen to date:
How to take advantage of universal search and show up multiple times on a results page:
News – How to optimize for blended search:
For more details read my blog post on “How to Optimize News Releases for SEO and Tips”. Local Business Listings – How to optimize for blended search:
Video - How to optimize for blended search:
Do you have a specific question about online marketing? Send an e-mail to shannon@sitemasher.com , and we'll try to post a blog on the topic in the future (and possibly do the research for you, if we don't know.) If you want to share similar experiences on this topic, I encourage you to leave a comment! I really like how simple and yet descriptive Matt Cutts from Google explains optimizing images in the video below. I wish everything about SEO was as simple to explain as the alt tag! For those of you who don't know - Matt is the head guy who understands how Google reads your site and ranks it for the results - he knows the inside variables that make your website search engine friendly. Matt will never hand over the full recipe to success in Google though (as it can open up black hats to cheat the system), but his tips will help you!
Optimizing Images - why? When you optimize images within your pages with relevant keywords, your website pages are more likely to show higher in the ranks on search engine results pages. The higher your links show up on the results page, the more site traffic you will receive. The kicker is, that you must use relevant keyword terms to what your site and images are all about and terms that potential site visitors or customers would use to search for you. To complement your overall search engine marketing efforts, you should already be naming the alt tag for every single image on your site. Also to take it further - Matt recommends that you name the image names with keywords that make sense (not "img1234.jpg"). Which I highly recommend as well- it wouldn't hurt!  Traditional public relations (PR) is being completely redefined as a result of the Internet.One subset of PR is news release distribution. A news release, media release, press release, or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media to announce something deemed to have news value. Typically, it is mailed, faxed, or sent by e-mail to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and television networks (source: Wikipedia: News Release). It used to be a traditional tactic within the marketing department (in-house or outsourced), but it was expensive, and for the most part ignored by smaller companies. Some companies simply couldn’t afford to hire PR firms to help them with releases, and they couldn’t afford the expensive distribution. Isn't it funny how the world evolves over time? Now the distribution model has changed and is far less costly. Press releases are not only being pushed to journalists and media - they are also being served out on the Internet via blogs, news feeders, directories, and aggregators, thereby - tapping into an enormous audience and, in some cases, talking directly to the consumer or customer. Additionally journalists, media, and end users may have subscribed to particular key word feeds, which are more of a pull versus push. So what’s the big deal to a website owner? My favorite news distribution tool: Ten top tips for optimizing your press releases to increase search engine rankings and site traffic
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