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Volume 9 Welcomes First Stop Health

Volume 9, Inc. is pleased to announce its new partnership with First Stop Health, LLC – a health concierge service that provides its members with 24/7 access to physicians and patient advocates, online medical record keeping, and a trove of detailed health and medical advice.

A resource for both individuals and families, First Stop Health offers indispensable tool s for patients and for anyone navigating the ins and outs of the health care system , whether they are making decisions about their insurance coverage or trying to find the right physician.
As a new service, First Stop Health has partnered with Volume 9 for SEO support as its website is readied for a beta and, later, full launch.  Volume 9 is excited to begin the first chapter of a valuable new business relationship and deliver sterling results to First Stop Health!

For more information on First Stop Health and the around-the-clock access to dedicated health care professionals it offers, visit fshealth.com.

Top 25 SEO Best Practices

There are 100s of factors that Google uses to determine where a site should appear in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Over the years, having worked on hundreds of websites, we have boiled these down to 25 core elements that have the greatest effect on rankings. Website analysis for SEO is broken into three categories including the technical health, use of keywords & content and the trust & authority of the website.

Technical

It is important to create a website that is inviting to search crawlers to make all of the important pages on the site accessible. Here are some of the key elements:

• Canonical Issues - Technically creating duplicate content by allowing www and non-www versions of the website, upper case and lower case URLs and root file usage.
• Search Friendly URLs – Ensuring the url structure is easy to read by humans, keyword focused and descriptive but not too long.
• Website Performance – A fast performing site that loads quickly creates a better user experience and can lead to better rankings. Improving performance through code and image optimization, compression and caching will go a long want to increase speeds.
• Website Hierarchy – Websites are perceived as both a single property and a collection of individual website pages. Search engines crawl websites and must determine the inner page hierarchy along with what sections and pages of your website are most important.

Content

The content that is created on a website is one of the most important factors to winning top ranking. Identifying targeted keywords sets the stage for driving relevant traffic that is most likely to convert. Once a keyword set is established, the website needs to be optimized to support the keywords. Here are a few elements we analyze when evaluating a website:

• Navigation - A navigation menu plays an important role in optimizing your content for SEO as your main navigation is often the first thing read-able by both visitors and search engine robots.
• Unique Content - Search engines place high value on pages that have both substantive and unique content. Each page’s content should be specific and relevant to that page’s topic as well as add enough information for a user to understand what the page is about.
• Content Freshness - One of the newer ranking factors is content freshness and Google states that this ranking factor impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and places more emphasis on returning fresher web content for certain queries.
• Keyword Targeting - A page’s targeted keywords should be placed throughout the body text a minimum of 2 to 3 times without appearing spammy or “keyword stuffed”.
• Title Tags – The title tag is considered the most important on-page optimization element (behind content) and should have the most important keyword targeted by the page as close to the start of the tag as possible.
• Internal Anchor Text - For search engine indexing, internal links are especially important because they give hints on how information is related. Wikipedia style internal links that link to special keyword specific pages boost the relevancy and internal popularity of a given website.

Authority & Trust

Even websites that are the most technically sound and have the best content will not rank if Google does not trust the site. Trust and authority is built by the web community, passing trust from one website to another through links. The more links a site has and the higher quality of those links, the more likely that website will rank for the targeted keywords.

• Domain Authority -  Domain Authority predicts how well a web page will rank on a domain. The higher the Domain Authority, the greater the potential for an individual page on that domain to rank well.
• Link Sources – It is important to get links from a variety of sources without putting too much emphasis on one particular source. Link sourcing could include general categories like News (Press Releases), Directories (Website, Articles, Blogs), Blogs, Videos, Social Networks, Forums etc.
• Link Quality -  Search engines use link popularity data to help determine if and when a website should rank for a given search query.
• Social Signals - Bing and Google have both confirmed that links shared through Twitter and Facebook have a direct impact on rankings (in addition to the positive second-order effects they may have on the link graph).

It takes a lot of effort and a long term commitment to gain visibility on Google. But, when using proven techniques, it is possible to increase rankings, traffic and sales on your website with the right team behind you.

To learn more about how V9 can use our established 25 SEO Best Practices to evaluate your website, contact us today.

Volume 9′s Growth Prompts Move to Larger Office

We’re Moooving!

The search engine marketing team at Volume 9, Inc. is thrilled to announce that due to our company’s growth and success, we have outgrown our current space in the art district on Santa Fe. While our address is changing, our superior client service, exceptional knowledge of search engine marketing and commitment to providing clients the individualized attention they deserve will all remain the same.

As much as we love our Santa Fe location, we have outgrown the office and must move to a larger space that can more comfortably accommodate our ever-growing Internet marketing team. This long overdue move is scheduled for late April, but preparation for this exciting change of location has been ongoing for the last several months.   Our new location is three times larger than our digs on Santa Fe, so we are fully prepared to bring on even more great employees and valued clients for many years to come.

Our new address is:

Volume 9, Inc
1660 S Albion Street, Suite #800
Denver, CO 80222
303-995-5228

The Processes and Results of a Successful SEO Site Audit

Here at Volume 9, one of the first things we do on most sites is the SEO site audit. The SEO audit can have tremendous value in terms of documenting the current state of SEO, outlining a strategy for improving SEO and providing initial results.  We hope this blog helps give more insight into what you can expect from the audit process and some of the anticipated results.

Why is an SEO Audit Important?
Before any SEO work can begin on a website, it is important to first understand where the site currently stands with regard to SEO and organic search marketing. It is no good making a slew of site changes or updates without first understanding the strategy and plan behind these decisions. The site audit is a great way to understand the current status of the site, illustrate weaknesses and opportunities, and outline the road-map for upcoming work and tasks which will help drive SEO success.

What Work Can I Expect From The Audit?
There are dozens of different tasks and processes in a typical SEO site audit. While no two audits are the same, we typically follow the same basic steps over the 45-60 day period:

• Orientation and Kick-Off: This is our chance to learn as much about your site, goals, and unique business model as possible. Our SEO approach is all about understanding the strategy and background. This step is our way of ensuring we start off on the right foot!
• Site Analysis & SEO Methodology: During this phase, we will introduce your team to our methods and how we “think” about SEO. We take the time to train you on SEO best practices, discuss the content of the site and targeted Keywords, and also analyze your top search competitors. We will also train your team on our SEO reporting tool, the Eduki Dashboard.
• Recommendations: Now it’s time to pull all of the analysis and strategy together. Our team of SEO experts will generate a list of 25 recommendations based on SEO best practices. This will include recommendations on all areas of the site including a technical analysis, on-site content reviews, a link building plan, and an analysis of the competitive landscape.
• SEO Road Map: Of course, recommendations are no good without a plan in place to implement them. We design the SEO audit & recommendations to lead right into a set of tangible and actionable items to help improve the site.

Results
Typically we see some great results coming right out of the audit. SEO absolutely takes time, but clients almost always see a big bump in rankings once things like recommended page titles and content edits are implemented.

Once the link building efforts and even MORE optimized content is added to the site, the SEO success only continues to grow. In fact, our average client sees a YoY growth of 40% in organic search traffic.

Traffic growth starts with Rankings improvements. Here’s a snapshot of a client who went through our audit process and then engaged in our SEO program for 6 months. They saw 68 new #1 rankings and 144 new Top 10 rankings. Not too shabby!

Urban Mattress Partners with Volume 9 for Internet Marketing

Volume 9 is excited to announce a new partnership with Urban Mattress – a locally owned and family operated business devoted to helping customers find the best mattress for their needs at a price that’s affordable.

With mattress stores in the Denver area (Boulder, Aurora, Glendale, Park Meadows, and Cherry Creek) and Austin, Urban Mattress prides itself on offering the most competitive pricing on great brands such as Tempur-Pedic, Urban Organics, EcoSeries, and much more.

Urban Mattress has partnered with Volume 9 to help expand their brand awareness and strong reputation through online marketing.  Since completion of the website review, Urban Mattress has already seen drastic improvements in organic rankings and become more visible on page 1 of Google! Some of these search terms include “Organic Mattress” (#8 rank), “Denver Mattress” (#4 rank), and “Mattress Store” (#5 rank).

A great start to a newly formed business relationship, and we are looking forward to continually driving valuable results for Urban Mattress!

If you are in the market for a new mattress, be sure to check out Urban Mattress and visit their store. A friendly face will be there to greet you and help you make the best decision when it comes to choosing a mattress.

Google Algorithm Changes Looming

More algorithm news out of Google, this time straight from SXSW in Austin Texas. Google is indicating they will penalize sites that are over-optimized (think Panda continued). While the measureable impact of this change is yet to be seen, Volume 9 has always coached clients to first write relevant, unique and user friendly content that speaks to your users and also make sure it is readable by search engines. A second caveat would be to expand your reach by creating content, social media or even targeted websites & blogs that offer additional resources to your customers while staying relevant to your business.

We’ll be watching this update closely and keeping you up to speed in our social spaces as well.

Google Shifts to Semantic Search – What it Could Mean for SEO

The Wall Street Journal published an article today about looming changes to the Google Search Engine. While nothing has changed today, it could mean big changes to the way your website content is indexed and used by Google.

Here’s our expert opinion from CEO & Founder, Chuck Aikens:

Google’s shift towards Semantic Search should change the type of content that websites produce as Google is estimating that it can answer up to 20% of the requests presented by the searcher.  This means potential traffic drops for websites that have produced content answering the most basic queries (e.g. distance between Denver and Las Vegas) which also means that websites should focus on producing content that supports searches for more complicated or complex concepts.  Content development and marketing is becoming a more important process for traffic generation as we move through 2012.

Connect With Volume 9 on Facebook & Google+

Want to stay connected to all the latest SEO, PPC and general Internet Marketing news? Connect with us on Facebook and join our Google Plus Circle. It’s easy! Just follow these links:

1. Like us at Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/volume9inc
2. Plus One us On Google – gplus.to/volume9
3. Follow us on Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/volume9/

Or sign up to receive emails when we post blogs (upper left corner of this page)

We’ll be keeping our social profiles updated with the latest inbound marketing news as well as giving you to the minute opinions on algorithm changes and industry thoughts. You’ll also be able to find out what’s happening at Volume 9 or just learn a little more about the company personality.

Thanks for your continued support in 2012 and see you in the social circle!

Get SEO Results – Average V9 Client Sees 40% Organic Traffic Growth

If Volume 9 had a mantra it would be Results, Results, Results. Our clients hire us to drive end results for their business through SEO, PPC and Internet Marketing. They are looking for more leads, more phone calls and more sales to help their businesses grow each year.

The first step to seeing more leads from your SEO efforts is to improve your qualified traffic. If the total traffic from organic search goes up, your leads from ‘free’ traffic should follow.

We took a look at all clients who had been with V9 for at least one year as of January 2012. Comparing their organic traffic in January of 2012 to January of 2011, our clients saw an average of 40% year over year traffic gains from organic search.

We’re proud of that number and believe it comes from identifying a solid keyword targeting strategy for clients from the start. Our keyword research process starts from day one of our engagement when we begin to identify the very best keyword targets that will drive new visits when you gain page one rankings.

Want to get better SEO results and see your organic traffic grow this year? Please contact us to learn more.

Braconier Plumbing Partners With Volume 9

Braconier Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Company has been serving Denver/Front Range
consumers and businesses, both large and small, for their plumbing, heating and cooling needs since 1906.

Braconier has partnered with Volume 9 to help further establish their strong Denver plumbing  reputation through online marketing efforts. Upon completion of a Website SEO Audit with Volume 9, Braconier.com saw immediate results including a quick vault to 1st page ranking status for “Englewood Plumber” and “Denver Heating and Cooling”.

Braconier proudly holds an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau as they continually serve a great base of loyal customers and win over new customers with their professional expertise and service.
Whether you are a homeowner, building owner, or general contractor, be sure to check out Braconier at www.braconier.com and find out for yourself why they are the leading Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Company in the Denver/Front Range area.