Mobile traffic is increasingly important, and  most wordpress themes are not optimized for mobile users.  You want a fairly simple and cheap way to create a better user experience for these users.

WPtouch does a decent job of identifying mobile users, automatically switching the theme, and creating a readable layout for them. However, it primarily shows the single page of content, and navigation is not simple.

And if your site is trying to generate phone calls (especially when your visitor is literally holding a phone in their hand), you need to get your call to action and phone number displayed on every page. But if on your desktop theme, the phone number and call to action is in the header or in the sidebar, that content doesn’t show up in WPtouch.

Prominent Call to Action for Mobile Visitors

Here is what we did to get around the Call to Action problem, using some of the functionality in the WPtouch Pro WPtouch Pro version. We used the Custom Ads and Custom Footer features to display phone numbers prominently on every page.

Once you’ve installed WPTouch Pro, go to the  ’WPtouch Pro’, menu on the left in your WP admin panel. Click that to begin.

Go to the General tab.

Then enter and save your footer CTA with phone number like so:

Next, switch over to the Advertising & Stats tab and choose Custom from the drop down menu; then enter your header CTA and phone number.

Choose where you want it to appear, and save.

For a custom look, create a custom css file and place it in the root folder of your domain.

Then go to the General > Global General > Advanced section and point WPTouch to your custom css file.

If you don’t do this, it won’t display your custom styles. Also, when WPTouch is upgraded, your styles will be carried over as well.

You’re done!

Take a look at your site on any mobile phone browser, like an iPhone or Droid.

It should look something like this (minus the scroll bars- these final screenshots were done by displaying the mobile version on my desktop using WPTouch’s Developer Mode- and in this case using Chrome):

Adding Extra Call to Actions in WPTouch Pro Mobile WordPress Theme is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

A number of years ago, picking up domains that had expired was a useful strategy. You could occasionally find some gems that had backlink value. That strategy died when google supposedly started zero-ing out any pagerank equity in a domain that expired and was registered by a different owner.

Are Dropped Domains Useless? is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

There is a worthwhile discussion with some law professors about sexting laws in a podcast here.

Sexting Laws is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

Reasons to Build Multiple Legal Sites

Question of the Week – One Site or Two Sites? is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

Autism and related Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) is a condition that has affected several members of my family. It impacts the brain’s cues for social interaction and emotional development.

What causes it remains a mystery, but it is very common, affecting 1 in 166 children, and perhaps even more according to some studies. The explosion in cases in the last decades is almost certainly the result of aggressive diagnosis. The cause is unknown, but it could be a combination of environmental and genetic factors.

Though there is no cure for autism spectrum disorder, children who are diagnosed early can be helped significantly with early intervention. I have witnessed this firsthand, and owe a tremendous amount to a number of early intervention therapists.

Autism Speaks is the leading organization fighting for autism research.

Here is a list of famous people who may have been autistic to some degree.

Thanks to purposeinc for continually promoting many important causes in the internet marketing community.

Autism Speaks is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

The topic of domain names for a site is always a topic of current interest . Last year I wrote about the challenges in assessing the value of a domain name.

The basics of website names are always true. Domains with solid keywords relevant to your business are always a good idea, especially if you are going to build a high quality site around it.

However, it has been difficult to find good keyword dot com domains in recent years. Almost any domain name with a few common words is owned by someone. In the past, domainers even have programs that mechanically purchase domain names with strings of common words, just for the speculation value.

But the domain collector/speculator market is changing. The value of a parked or redirected domain, in general, is less than it once was. Parked domains are not bringing in the revenue they once were, as the economy and the PPC ad market have dropped off considerably. (So my domain collector friends tell me, anyway.)

In this new tougher market, many people who would buy domains just to hold onto them and see if they appreciate are letting annual registrations expire to save the fees on unwanted domain properties. So if you are a site developer, the market for dropped domains is as good as it’s been in some time.

I recently picked up kansascitycriminaldefenselawyer.com after someone decided not to renew it. It’s a long domain, which means it isn’t great for branding purposes – it’s difficult to share with someone and get them to remember it. However, it has excellent keywords, and no dreaded dashes! It will make a good site for search engine results & traffic in that market.

Finding Expired Domains

There are many sites that do this, but I’ve had good luck using snapnames.com. They have a very useful feature where you can set alerts on keywords so that you are emailed when any domains with those keywords are coming available.

Again, you can put a lot of time into these efforts if you are so inclined. I generally don’t devote much time to these treasure hunts, myself. But you can definitely get lucky, and pick up domains that used to be live sites, quite possibly with live links to them. I have a friend who even found a domain that still had an active PPC campaign. The former owner was still spending money buying traffic for a domain they no longer owned!

The bottom line is, in this economy, it is a good time to be looking for bargains. You can definitely domains that can be built into profitable sites in your niche, and can bring in revenue well into the future.

Domains Re-Revisted is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

I am a big fan of identifying SEO and internet marketing scams.

It is staggering how many bad SEO companies there are out there. I suppose it isn’t surprising since the demand for SEO services is so high, given the excellent ROI opportunities that are possible when it is done right.

It is true that the techniques can be arcane, the results not instantaneous, and there are difficulties in measuring direct cause and effect. I think there is a market for honest SEO services brokers, to match the needs of clients with quality SEO companies.

In any case, here are a couple of scam alerts I’ve come across recently from some very smart people.

• Wil Reynolds of ThinkSeer does a nice takedown analysis of a video optimization scam.
• Eric Ward, a top old school ethical link builder, flags these guys as his “shitty service of the day”.

SEO Scams and Ripoffs is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

Over at GetLawyerLeads.com, I wrote a post commenting on an interesting and worthwhile article on lawyer site SEO at law.com.
In a separate post, I break down a paid lawyer directory listing offer, and whether it lives up to the value it suggests.

New SEO and Online Lawyer Marketing Posts is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

Traveling from Seattle to Boston last week, I was thinking about the airline’s attempt to up-sell me on an alternate, “faster” route home. It was actually impressive, and had most of the tricky pieces in place for a successful program. Almost, but not quite.

The details: Flying from Seattle to Boston via a change in Cleveland on a red-eye.
Enthusiasm level of flyer: very low.
Opportunity: At the automatic check in, they scanned my itinerary, and said they had an alternate flight that would get me to Boston sooner. Was I interested? Yes.
Details: Alternate flight would route me through Newark.
Benefit: I arrive in Boston 20 minutes sooner.
Cost: $50 to change flight.
Result: Continental fails to make a compelling bid for my $50.

Again, I was sort of impressed that they had compiled this info at the right place where if the offer were good enough, I would have agreed. Imagine the same scenario with just one or two extra details:

Opportunity: Continental tells me that my flight to Cleveland is 99% full. Alternate route through Newark is 50% full. Maybe they even go the extra step and give me an opportunity to lock out that middle seat next to me, or even a whole row.
Result: They have my $50 in a heartbeat. Maybe $100.

No doubt these opportunities will arrive someday, maybe very soon. The future belongs to marketing that provides immediate benefits and customer information transparency to make those decisions.

What Would Seth Say?

Marketing Upsell Analysis: Continential Airlines is a post from: High Steppin' Searches

Why can’t I rank #1, or on the first page for “keyword x”? An excellent question. The answer is – you probably can if you throw enough time and money at it. But that amount may be far more than you should be willing to spend.

A place to start is to objectively analyze the content of your site, compared with the top ranked sites.

• Is your site as comprehensive, helpful, and valuable to the searcher as those other sites?
• If not, why do you think you deserve to be a top ranked site?

Google and the other search engines have clearly stated their goals are to provide a quality search experience for it’s users. Searches are questions – your site should provide the answers.

Of course, this system is far from perfect. We all know that there are many sites with top rankings that are not good sites. They are spammy, scammy, and content free. Some people can game the system get traffic and rankings for those sites. (Many people mistakenly believe this is what SEO is). However,

1. that person isn’t you, and;
2. if you are running a real business, that shouldn’t be your goal.

In most cases, getting a crappy site ranked for good phrases, and getting lots of traffic is, at best, a short term proposition. If you can pull off the slash and burn, and make money at it, then best of luck to you.

But for almost everyone reading this site, that isn’t a realistic proposition, and shouldn’t be your objective.

If you are running a real business, and plan to be around for a while, your goal should be to build quality, sustainable, defensible site for the long term. Your web site is your front door, and the first impression for many of your future customers.

I Do Have a Quality Site. Now What?

If you have a great site that is a great resource for searchers, with quality content and useful information, then the good news is that a) getting rankings and traffic is much easier, and b) you are hopefully in a position to take advantage of that traffic and convert it into business. Employing SEO/SEM, link building, and blogging will help you get the traffic and business you deserve.

Should I Rank? (SEO Magic, part 2) is a post from: High Steppin' Searches