I often hear new business owners seeking a way to check their brand name availability on the social networks. With the high activity of social media it is important to check your potential branding. Here are two easy tools that will check the social networks for any name you may be considering.

User Name Check

and

NameChk

When you are thinking of a new product or new business you should run them through these easy tools and see if they are already in use. If they aren’t in use then go sign up and retain the names for when you are ready to use them…or they be gone before you get the chance.

When you are running a website it’s important to understand and utilize SEO. This stands for search engine optimization. Great Erin, what the heck does that mean?

SEO has two forms, both equally important. The first form is on page SEO, while the second being off page SEO. Both forms require keyword research before hand to insure the best results.

On Page SEO

On page SEO page optimization has many areas where you can work with. Lets start with your home page. If you have a page that says ‘Enter Site Here’ (known as a static page) you should really consider removing it. This will hurt your search engine ranks tremendously. Your home page should be packed full of quality content and a standard navigation. Include your keywords, place them strategically, and using HTML coding to emphasis these words (such as the H1 tag). Using title, description, and keyword meta tags are important for your page formatting. Paying close attention to the page or post URL, including the keyword or keyword phrase within it. For your URLs do not use underscores, rather use dashes. The search engines can read and understand these completely with no restrictions. Another factor that will boost your site is the internal links you provide. Using the ALT tag with your images 1 or twice on a page will gain you some ranking points in the search engines too.

Off Page SEO
Is a bit simpler. This refers to the number of inbound links, also called backlinks, to your site. Utilizing anchor text will boost these rankings even more.The higher the authority of the page you are posting your link to the better value of the backlink. Targeting sites with a page rank of three or higher is a good rule of thumb to go by.

You have full control over the on page SEO so be sure to take advantage of this. Off page SEO is up to you to obtain, don’t hesitate!