If you want traffic from search engines, you know that you need to optimize your page for your target keywords. But where on the page should you place your keywords?

Imagine your target keywords are seeds: will you throw them in the air and hope they grow wherever they fall, or will you place them precisely where they’ll get the most sunlight (and capture the most attention)?

When you look at the big picture, popular search engines like Google have been so successful because they are able to determine the most relevant websites for the keywords queried, while penalizing sites using spammy tactics. This has led to a more satisfactory search experience for users, and a more challenging experience for web marketers and developers.

Forget The Keyword Tag and Keyword Stuffing

For example, the once-meaningful keyword meta tag has been relegated to the “obsolete” corner for its heavy abuse by SEOs hoping to gain an edge by keyword stuffing. The same can be said for description tags and pages bursting at the seams with repeated keywords. The goal of search engines is to deliver the most relevant content to their users, and that should be your goal as well. Rather than trying to trick search engines into ranking your site higher, which often works against your rankings, focus on delivering more appropriate keywords in well-placed areas of your site code. Here are five important areas to focus keywords on:

Title Tag

The title tag, which shows up as the title in search results and on the browser window, is the most important place to place your keywords. There are several ingredients that should go into a well-optimized title tag:

• A title tag should be about 65-70 characters or less, so use each character well. Choose several keywords that correspond with the content on the page, but don’t overload the title with a nonsensical combination of words—remember, it still has to be appealing for a user to click on it in the search results.
• Put your most important keyword(s) at the beginning of the title tag.
• Customize the title tag on each page to help avoid duplicate content filters. Consider this an opportunity to get more keywords in—just make sure the title accurately corresponds with the content.

URL

Don’t overlook this fundamental element of each web page. While it helps users make sense of what they will find on the page, it does the same for search engine bots. Use the URL to include keywords from the page, making sure to keep it concise and readable. Users find links with readable, descriptive terms more trustworthy, so there’s no reason not to name your directory files and folders logically with keywords.

H1 Tag

SEOs have considered h1 important for years. With the advent of HTML5 and its new semantics, mass confusion has ensued about whether search engines will understand the new structure. Whereas before websites were generally discouraged from using multiple h1 tags, the new semantic markup encourages h1 tags at the head of multiple sections.

As it turns out, search engines won’t be penalizing you for using multiple h1 tags, and apparently never have. Google engineer Matt Cutts said in a 2009 video, “Use (the h1 tag) where it makes sense and more sparingly, but you can have it multiple times.” That doesn’t mean the tag should be abused, however—there are still safeguards in place to penalize sites using spammy tactics, such as using h1 tags for large amounts of body text. To learn more about this topic, check out What Potential Impact Can HTML5 Have on SEO?

Body Text

Of course, it would only make sense that your body text should contain keywords. If your site is legitimate and you’re targeting the right audience, it should be easy to naturally weave keywords into the copy. But how many keywords are needed to affect SEO?

SEOmoz recommends that writers aim for for 2-3 keywords on a typical page, and 4-5 on pages with more copy. If more keywords appear naturally as it is written, it won’t hurt anything, but don’t add more for the sake of SEO; anything above those limits won’t affect rankings much, if at all. In a nutshell, relevance and quality reign supreme over keyword density, so make sure the keywords flow well with the text and don’t sacrifice quality for more keywords.

Image Name and Alt Attribute

Images are sometimes the forgotten child of SEO, but they too can bring valuable search traffic—even some traffic that regular text can’t reach. How many times have you searched for an image and ended up on the website that hosts the image? People often search for images alone, so it’s worth your time to optimize yours with keywords.

First, make sure the images are given logical, readable names—with keywords, if appropriate. For example, cupcake.jpg is better than img-00012.jpg. Next, don’t skimp on your alt tags; they are required for better usability in case your image can’t be seen, and they tell search engines what the image is. My advice is to write whatever you would want a user to know if the image didn’t load, ideally using some keywords.

Finally, ensure the image is in the right context—this is perhaps the most important feature that search engines look for. In short, place the keyword-optimized image close to keyword-optimized paragraph and header tags, and you’re on your way to turning up in an image search.

Resources:

• SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO
• SixRevisions—What Potential Impact Can HTML5 Have on SEO?
• Google Webmaster Blog: Dynamic URLs vs. Static URLs
• Matt Cutts Video: More Than One H1 on a Page: Good or Bad?

A new study by research firm comScore says 64.2 million U.S. citizens use their mobile devices for social networking, with more than half of them doing so “almost every day.”

A full 38.2 million people use social networks on their phones or tablets on a “near daily” basis, according to the report. What exactly are they doing? Reading updates from friends, the study says, with 84.6% of mobile social networkers checking out “posts from people known personally.” Posting status updates was the second most popular activity, with 73.6% of users partaking. It’s important to note comScore counts reading blogs as social networking.

While the study found users are most likely to read posts from friends, it also says people are increasingly using their social networks to interact with brands and organizations. Almost 58% of U.S. users read posts from companies or brands, and about 32% are said to be likely to click on ads while social networking.

The overall number of people experiencing social networks through their phones or tablets is surging. That 64 million figure is up 77% from the year before, and daily users are up 88%. That growth is tied directly to smartphone adoption, which comScore says is up to 41.8% of the phone-owning audience — up from 27% just a year ago.

The top app that people use to get their social on is Facebook. On both iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) as well as Android, Facebook is the top social-networking app on mobile. Twitter is a distant second, much lower in the ranks than Facebook and even placing behind the social game Words With Friends on both platforms. (The list of top apps on iOS and Android is below.)

Although mobile social networking is rising rapidly, it’s not the reason people buy a smartphone. The study says a particular phone’s social-networking abilities was far down the list of factors in a purchase decision, the No. 1 being the network quality of the mobile service provider. The phone’s operating system and overall app selection also rank highly.

How often do you get social on your smartphone or tablet? Do you think the comScore study accurately reflects how people use social media on mobile devices? Let us know in the comments.

More About: android, ComScore, Facebook, iOS, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, Social Media, social networking, social networks, Twitter

I’ve been pretty obsessed with veils lately. Well, actually, I’ve been pretty obsessed with veils since getting engaged. I knew I wanted a lace-edged mantilla veil before I knew what kind of dress I wanted. And after trying on 150 wedding dresses, I knew I wanted a cathedral length veil. I want to be draped in yards of soft Alencon lace, framing my face. As traditional as it looks, it’s my favorite style of veil.

Waist length Mantilla Veil / Image via PoshVeils

Just to remind you, my dress comes with a cathedral length mantilla veil. Lucky me. The lace is the same lace that is used on the dress, and it really finishes off the whole look. I love how it drapes around the shoulders and frames the dress.

Personal Photos

I LOVE my veil. But, I really want to wear a veil for the reception, too. And because I’m going to bustle the train of the dress, I thought maybe I could bustle the veil, too. I had read about it on a few sites, but the overall consensus is that the tulle will most likely rip, and my veil will be destroyed. Okay. Plan B time.

I plan on getting a fingertip length mantilla veil for the reception. Since my veil came with my dress, I didn’t really realize how expensive these veils are! When I was trying on 150 wedding dresses, the cathedral length veils I tried on were just plain tulle and were typically an astronomical $700 +. I mean, they are super pretty, but is it worth the price? A fingertip length mantilla veil would cost at least $500 in a bridal salon.

Two Tier Spanish Mantilla / Image via AlisaBrides

Right now, I’m considering DIY-ing a mantilla veil, similar to other bees before me. Mrs. Sunbeam (and Mrs. DG) made a beautiful waist length lace-edged veil. Mrs. Spring Roll DIYed a very cute short mantilla veil. I’m not afraid to put the time in to hand sew the lace, but I’m worried about the lace matching my dress! Does anyone have any DIY mantilla tips? I don’t want to mess it up.

While we’re on the topic of veils, there was a post on the Weddingbee LGBTQ board a few weeks ago about queer brides wearing veils. The consensus was that it shouldn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, queer - you should wear a veil if you want to! I wholeheartedly agree. I love veils. I want to wear one for as long as I’m allowed to! Which in reality, is one day. But, Fiancee Eagle thinks that a Spanish mantilla may be a bit much. She thinks I’ll look “very Catholic,” and is worried I’ll get annoyed with my reception veil. I think even a little annoyance will be worth feeling like a bride and getting some awesome photos. Plus, its like having a second dress! The dress really will look different with a shorter veil.

Are you wearing a veil? Why or why not? Anyone have any DIY veil tips?

The thought of finding a photographer from across the country without being able to meet in person seemed very daunting. Especially because when you Google “Southern California Wedding photographers,” you get a million pages…

I searched on WeddingWire, Project Wedding, and some others. After reading reviews and looking at websites I started a list of photographers whose work caught my eye.

Then I had the brilliant idea to Google search “Padua Hills Theater wedding photographers,” which brought me to photographers who had actually worked at our venue. It was great to see the weddings they photographed at our venue. Some photographers found great locations for photos that really captured the beauty of the venue. Others really missed the mark and were immediately taken off the list. It was so helpful to compare photographers’ work by looking at their pictures taken at one specific location.

I then put together a list of the photographers I liked and sent them all a friendly inquiry. If they emailed me back within a day, they were already a favorite. If they told me their price up front they were also moved to the top of the list. I got a little annoyed with places that would respond and ask me to call them to get an estimate. If they did that they were off the list. I had no time to call them up and chat with them on the phone. Photographers also got removed from the list if they were too expensive. If their cheapest package was out of our budget range we had to remove them. After getting quotes I made a list of my favorites and showed their photos to Mr. Castle without telling him their prices. Fortunately, he liked the same studio I liked and the price was in our budget.

I thought before we booked them we should at least speak on the phone. We spoke with Erin from the studio; they are a husband and wife team, and she was so easy to talk to and very friendly. One of the issues that came up in our search was that a lot of packages included engagement pictures. Other photographers said that even if you didn’t want the engagement session, they would not subtract the cost out of the package. One photographer said we could substitute something else like a boudoir session or a trash-the-dress shoot, neither of which I’m interested in getting, and I didn’t want to pay for an engagement session when we might not have an opportunity in California to take one. Plus we already had a photographer take some engagement pictures in NYC, so I didn’t feel the need to get more taken in California.

When I told Erin we had already taken engagement pictures in New York she said, “We like doing the engagement sessions with you because it gives us a chance to get to know you and work together before the big day. But if you don’t want it or don’t have time we’ll just subtract it out of your final payment. And you can decide on that whenever you want.” With that I was sold. Maybe we will do another engagement session with them, but it’s nice to know if we don’t want to we don’t have to pay for it. It’s also nice that their pictures are amazing! They just happen to be one of our venue’s preferred vendors, AND their office is located on site at our venue. Since they shoot weddings there all the time, we know they’ll know the prime spots to capture our day.

I already posted some of their pictures in this post. But here are a few more!

I know I’ve already mentioned it, but our venue is so pretty at night!

All photos by Palos Studio

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when we picked our photographers. When we were starting the process of finding them, the sheer volume of search results made it seem like a nearly impossible task! But by narrowing our search and honing in on a great vendor with close ties to our venue, the internet turned from foe to friend and allowed us to view the portfolio of our prospective paparazzo without having to make the 2,500-mile journey to their office!

Did you feel relived when you picked your photographer?

Recently I’ve been on the search for cute bridesmaids’ dresses. I was going to tell you guys about it, but then I realized I haven’t even told you about these lovely ladies yet and their part in our wedding. I present to you the Woodpecker bridesmaids (P.S. - I really need a better nickname for myself/Mr. WP. )

personal pics

Choosing my bridal part was THE easiest part of wedding planning for me. From left to right, that’s Little Sis WP, Middle Sis WP, best friend Sam, and Future sister in law WP. A perfect little group! Originally, I wasn’t going to have a Maid of Honor because I didn’t want to choose between this fabulous group, but naturally, since Little Sis WP and I see each other so much, she became my right hand girl in wedding planning goodness and fell into the role. Plus, we decided that with 3 sisters, it will be easy for all of us to rotate MOH duties with each other.

I’ve never been a bridesmaid before, and neither have most of my bridesmaids, so this situation is very new to me. I checked out the Weddingbee wiki on bridesmaids, which led me to this comprehensive list by the Knot on bridesmaid duties.

I’d never sat down to think about it, but there’s a lot that goes into being a bridesmaid! I’ve heard horror stories from friends on times they had to be bridesmaids and crazy things that happened. Personally, I feel so awkward telling my bridesmaids they have to do/buy lots of things. In fact, I feel kind of weird asking for things at all! Recently, I felt terrible asking one of my girls to join me two days in a row dress shopping. I also wish we could pay for all of their dresses/hair/shoes, but unfortunately it’s not in our budget.

I’d say my most important wishes/expectations of my bridesmaids are to celebrate with me the day of the wedding, hit the dance floor on wedding day to get the party going, and at least try to calm me down when I inevitably freak out that I forgot something an hour before the wedding.

What about you guys? What are your expectations of your bridesmaids? Do you have any? Am I the only one that feels guilty about the process/planning?