Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How A Site Climbs The Search Engine Ladder

From my experience (since no one knows what search engine algorithms are) here is a "ranking pattern" I have seen. This happened not once but on more than one website.


By the way: Algorithms are techniques that search engine spiders use to determine which sites rank Number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, and so on. They keep most of these techniques secret.

This thing can happen to you too, and here I am going to help you understand what is happening so you will remain relaxed and calm when it happens to you.

By ranking pattern I mean the way you will see your website rank from nowhere to page 10 up till the number one position.

If you do seo the right way more or less you will see a "pattern" like the following.

A brand new site first gets indexed.

Then it goes to page 70 or 60. (After few days and remains there for some time too) It plays around on those two pages, sometimes on page 60 and then on page 70, back to page 60.


Then it goes to page 6-7 instantly. (A big leap from page 60 to page 6 but after some time too - it remains there for a while too) It plays around on those two pages, sometimes on page 6 and then on page 7, back to page 6.

Then it goes to page 3-4 (Sometimes on page 3, then drops to page 4 and back to page 3 - plays around on those two pages for some time, but mostly on page 4)

Then for a day or two the site is nowhere. (WOW). This is when Google is evaluating (analyzing) your website to see if it really merits another push upwards in rankings.

And all the while during this process if you been doing seo the right way, then yes, you will jump up again.

So after my site is nowhere, then suddenly (sometimes it happened after 1-2 days only) site is page 2.

Then from page 2 to page 1, and plays a bit on those two pages. Sometimes on page 2 and then back to page 1. Then starts pushing forward on page 1 up till the Number One position.


But this patter you will not see it if you do not do SEO the right way. In my opinion if you keep getting backlinks regularly and steadily, some 15-30 everyday you will see more or less that pattern.

If you are new to SEO, you may loose motivation or simple worry if you see your rankings not constantly improving.

This blog post should really make you understand something you cannot without experience.

If your site is page 5 and you check tomorrow and it is page 6, it's something in the "pattern" I talked above. It is normal.

You will move further up but only if you keep doing SEO and not start worrying or go to forums and waste time deliberating (arguing), etc on this thing.

Keep it up... discover more of how to do SEO the right way. That should be your goal, because if you do it the right way... you do not have to worry about anything.


As you can see from the pattern I created above, it even disappeared completely for a day or two. Did I worry? No, no. I just checked if I am still doing things right - and then just kept doing them.

I know that at that time it is simple a matter of time!

In fact Google does sometimes remove websites from the search results - just for the purpose of checking them (their, backlinks, site age, etc)


Article source ; http://seoarticles4u.com

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tips To Improve Search Engine Ranking Position

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the site optimization process to improve search engine ranking position. SEO is among the best way to get traffic. SEO only show the significant impacts when the site is ranked at top position of search engine result.

Search engine ranking position has many factors. Different factor have different impact. Each factor is allocated certain percentage of total percentage. The search engine algorithm is continuously improved from time to time may cause change in the search engine ranking position factors and the percentages. The factors that significant today may not be significant tomorrow.

First significant factor is site popularity. Site popularity here refers to incoming link. This factor has its own factor such as incoming link number, anchor text, category, location, relevancy, popularity, traffic, page rank, page level, format, link per page, surround text, age, creation rate and creation method. High site popularity will improve search engine ranking position. This is off page factor. This needs much effort to optimize it.

Second most significant factor is site keyword. Site keyword here refers to keyword density and placement. This factor has its own factor such as keyword in density, domain, title tag, header tag, description tag, keyword tag, sub domain, sub directory, internal link, format, homepage, file name, sub header tag, alt tag and footer. High site relevancy will improve search engine ranking position. This is on page factor. This needs less effort to optimize it.

Third most significant factor is site content. Site content here refers to content quality. This factor has its own factor such as content originality, freshness, size, structure and age. High site content quality will improve search engine ranking position. This is on page factor. This needs continuously effort to optimize it.

The really SEO factors actually are only known by who design the search engine. Different keyword has different competition needs different optimization factors. The factors that success for certain keywords may not success for other keywords. Successful factors shall not be concluded as best factors for any condition. Unsuccessful factors shall not be concluded as bad factors for any condition.

Article source ; http://seoarticles4u.com


Sunday, October 26, 2008

Design SEO

This section focus on how to design the webpage to appear the same to both the Search Engine and the users. The key to Design SEO is to Keep It Simple (KIS). A page with complicated design elements and pictures will not help much in SEO. The following explains how the webpage design affects the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

1.Optimize page size
This not only helps Search Engine to have an easier time indexing your site but also helps you to save valuable resources. Keeping everthing (text and images) under 15KB is perfect. Click the above link to learn techniques on how to skimp down the page size.

2. Navigation menu for Search Engine
Not only users need to have an easy to use navigation menu for your site but Search Engine also needs the information of inter-linking in your site. Avoid fanciful dynamic JavaScript menu because Search Engine does not understand them and the links will be left out eventually. Using textlinks for navigation is always preferred. Click the above link to learn more about the placement of navigation menu for the best results.

3.Avoid Frames
There are several problems for Search Engine to index your page if the page is made up of frames. Search Engine index single pages, therefore, each framed page is indexed seperately. Click on the above link to learn some techniques to overcome this problem. One advise: Avoid frames if you are going for SEO.

4.Keep it Simple and Valid
All in all, Search Engine loves simple webpage with rich content. Always validate your webpage so that Search Engine will not encounter errors along the way. We never know what will the spiders do when they encounter problems.. do they ignore and proceed? Or worst, give up..

5. Optimize Flash embedded sites
Flash movies are getting more popular nowadays because of their visual and audio effects. User always like to see graphics and images but this is not the case for Search Engine. Search Engines do no have the ability to extract 100% of the Flash content so your potential customers may not even know about your site when they are doing a search. Click the above link to learn about how to optimize your Flash movies for the Search Engines.

6. The Power of robots.txt File
The robots.txt file is a text file that contain instructions to Search Engine not to index certain part of the website. This file can be easily coded in Notepad (PC) or SimpleText (Mac).
Robots.txt is especially useful when you do not want Search Engine to index your pages which are currently under construction. Click on the link above to learn on how to use this text file to your advantage.

This section focus on how to design the webpage to appear the same to both the Search Engine and the users. The key to Design SEO is to Keep It Simple (KIS). A page with complicated design elements and pictures will not help much in SEO. The following explains how the webpage design affects the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

1. Optimize page size
This not only helps Search Engine to have an easier time indexing your site but also helps you to save valuable resources. Keeping everthing (text and images) under 15KB is perfect. Click the above link to learn techniques on how to skimp down the page size.

2. Navigation menu for Search Engine
Not only users need to have an easy to use navigation menu for your site but Search Engine also needs the information of inter-linking in your site. Avoid fanciful dynamic JavaScript menu because Search Engine does not understand them and the links will be left out eventually. Using textlinks for navigation is always preferred. Click the above link to learn more about the placement of navigation menu for the best results.

3. Avoid Frames
There are several problems for Search Engine to index your page if the page is made up of frames. Search Engine index single pages, therefore, each framed page is indexed seperately. Click on the above link to learn some techniques to overcome this problem. One advise: Avoid frames if you are going for SEO.

4. Keep It Simple and Valid (KISV)
All in all, Search Engine loves simple webpage with rich content. Always validate your webpage so that Search Engine will not encounter errors along the way. We never know what will the spiders do when they encounter problems.. do they ignore and proceed? Or worst, give up..

5. Optimize Flash embedded sites
Flash movies are getting more popular nowadays because of their visual and audio effects. User always like to see graphics and images but this is not the case for Search Engine. Search Engines do no have the ability to extract 100% of the Flash content so your potential customers may not even know about your site when they are doing a search. Click the above link to learn about how to optimize your Flash movies for the Search Engines.

6. The Power of robots.txt File
The robots.txt file is a text file that contain instructions to Search Engine not to index certain part of the website. This file can be easily coded in Notepad (PC) or SimpleText (Mac).
Robots.txt is especially useful when you do not want Search Engine to index your pages which are currently under construction. Click on the link above to learn on how to use this text file to your advantage.


Article source : www.useseo.com

The Importance of Sitemaps for Search Engines

OK I screwed up. My site shows up on Google, I run a few adwords and it's doing OK, I monitor the results. All it needed was a few tweaks, a nice upgrade and pretty features. I spent quite a time doing the necessary. I uploaded the site and waited for the world to pay it's respects to my genius.

THEN I FELL OFF GOOGLE!

I couldn't understand it at first, I don't do paid links, I don't hide text or links, I don't cloak or use 'affiliates'. I am white hat! Fortunately Google provides Webmaster tools www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ and a quick look there showed what Google thought about my site.

Firstly I had upgraded my site and left the old sitemap there. The crawler had a look at the sitemap, couldn't find most of the links it contained and decided my site was junk. You can make a new sitemap and wait for the bots to return.

Secondly, to give my pages a theme, I had created a master page and saved as a fresh page after I'd inserted content. Google didn't take kindly to that - I had the same Meta descriptions in all the pages. I had the same titles for all the pages...duuuhhhh.

So I re-edited the pages and the crawler will return, life will resume.

It's quite frightening the power that Google (which is something like 90% of the search market) possesses, it can turn off leads practically at will. It at least strives to be democratic and meritocratic (& useful) rather than a tyrant, let us all hope that it keeps that ethos.

I would heartily recommend the webmaster tools, Google is trying to help.

Article source ;http://seoarticles4u.com

Great SEO - You Can Do It Yourself

Everywhere you look on the internet there are companies and individuals telling you that you need a "professional" to handle your SEO or you won't get the results that you want. They say they have all the tools, the experience, they guarantee you these top positions, they give point after point about how hard it is to achieve good rankings on the search engines. Well, I'm here to tell you that you can do it yourself and get some great results!

Why pay someone hundreds or even thousands of dollars to do your SEO. Many methods to achieve good SEO can be done for free. There are many great software programs out there that are free or inexpensive that can help you tremendously by automating many of the tasks that will help you get those coveted top spots on the major search engines. I will share some tips and information that will get you on your way to SEO success.

First thing to know is there is not just one avenue that will lead you to your goal. It is a multi faceted approach with each part having weight. Each area should be explored and addressed in order for you to get the results you want.

I start with keywords, because this should be addressed even before you start building your site. The keywords of phrases that you choose will define your site and give you help and direction with all of the other components of SEO. Think about what your website is about. Start big and work backwards. Define the broadest category your site fits into. Then define smaller and smaller parameters. The smaller the area you define the better your chances of success are. For instance your website may have to do with cars. That's pretty huge. How about vintage cars. That's smaller. How about American Vintage Cars, smaller still. You can see where I'm going. Using a tool like Keyword Elite or something of that caliber can help a great deal.

Submitting your site to social bookmark sites is another way to get good incoming links to your website. Having links incoming from credible websites is noticed by the search engines. Once again there are programs that will help you to accomplish what seems like a daunting task. Trust me the effort is well worth it. The effort you give to each of these areas will pay off with great search engine placement.

There is an area that many people don't even think about. It is something that has really taken over the internet. That is videos. People love to watch videos. Proof of that is the meteoric rise of sites like YouTube.com and others like it. While it is nice to watch a well produced video, the production quality is not crucial. You can create them using Camtasia, or other programs that do not even require that you have a camera. Put your ideas on video, don't forget to include your URL and submit them to multiple video sites. This is almost becoming a necessity due to the popularity of videos on the internet.

The next area is content. While it is important that keywords are included in your content, it is also important that the content is original and is helpful to your visitors. Your content must contain information that will help your visitors to learn about what it is they are looking for. Many people choose to use articles from free article sites because they think it is just too much work to create their own articles. This is a big mistake. One of the main things the search engines look for is original content. Not only does it matter to the search engines, it matter to your visitors. Remember, they are looking at lots of other sites, and if they find content on yours that they can get anywhere, guess what? Yep, they aren't sticking around. You need to offer fresh content to your visitors in order to insure you will keep them coming back for more.

RSS Feeds are another area you want to look into. Feeds are all the rage. This is a great way to get your new content out to people. There are services and programs all over the internet that will help you to create and take care of feeds you create. Keeping new information flowing through your feed also lets the search engines know your site is growing with original content and that gets big brownie points in the world of SEO.

Sitemaps are another area you must address. Once again the benefits are two fold. A good sitemap lets search engines easily search your site and check out the content and it also allows your visitors to find exactly what they are looking for without having to go page to page in your site. The quicker people can get the information, the better. Your visitors will be appreciative that you have made it easier to find stuff on your site and will remember that for the future.

These are really the major way you can boost your ranking on the search engines. You must be balanced in your approach, and not leave any of them out if you are serious about having your site rank well on the search engines. I hope these ideas have been helpful. I know from personal experience that you can achieve good positioning if you set your mind to it and not only consider the benefit to you from having good placement, but also consider the benefit to your visitors and how you can make you site better for them


Article source ;http://seoarticles4u.com

Write for Humans, Design for Search Engines


Search engine is all about content and every SEO gurus have been trying very hard to optimize their pages just for the search engine and often forgetting that the end user is actually the human reader. It is of paramount importance that a page has to be written for humans and designed for search engines in terms of SEO.

There is nothing more important than creating unique content for a site. In SEO, allocating keywords in the title, header and bold HTML tags not only helps the reader to identify the topic of a page easily but it also aids in optimization since search engine takes into consideration of the keywords in these tags.

Many writers are concerned about the perfect keyword density for the maximum benefit of SEO. Unfortunately, there are no hard figures for a perfect keyword percentage. The most important factor when creating content is to make it readable and unique. As long as the content is readable, there is no need to follow a set percentage of keyword density.

Designing a page to facilitate the indexing by the search engine bots is another important factor to consider next to content creation. A page with rich content without indexed by the search engine bots is equivalent to no content at all. To help the search engines to find the page, the navigation system and sitemap plays important roles here. It is advisable to have text links navigation so that bots can spider all the internal pages smoothly. Avoid using JavaScript and Flash made navigation system because most bots will ignore them but designer can always include a set of text links at the bottom of the page where these kinds of navigation system are used to overcome this issue.

Some search engines place great emphasis on the content near the top of a page. Therefore, it is advisable to design the layout in such a way that the content appears before other parts of the page. One example is to use the content first CSS template; it allows the navigation to appear on the left of a page followed by the content but the content is the first to appear in the codes. This method helps search engine bots to identify the important content of a page and index them since they are placed near the top of a page. Another easy work around is to employ a right side navigation menu.

The ultimate purpose of SEO is to make sure that the designated content appears in search engine according to the specific searches. Making the content readable and designing the page for easy indexing should always be the first priority for webmasters when SEO comes into play.


Article source ;http://seoarticles4u.com

Linking the Google Way


It is true that the more incoming links a site has, the higher it will rank in terms of its relevant keywords. This is especially true for the Search Engine Giant, Google. Besides inbound links, cross-links and outbound links also help in Search Engine Optimization as these forms the crucial part of the linking strategy.

Of all the three different types of linking strategies, inbound links are the important and should be evaluated carefully so as to optimize a site. Google takes into consideration the weight of every incoming links and allocate some Page Rank to the receiving page. Therefore, to make a page seems important to Google, it is advised to have more quality sites linking to our pages.

Anchor text is another critical factor when obtaining inbound links from the other sites. Anchor texts with ‘click here’ will not help much for Google in determining our page relevancy. Instead, you should always encourage incoming links to contain keywords that you are targeting. For example, a SEO site may have incoming anchor texts like 'SEO Tools' or 'SEO Articles'.

Google is capable of determining whether both linking pages are relevant. They consider links that are content-related as Natural Links. This is reasonable, as it makes no sense in linking an online casino with a government hospital site. Google will reduce the ranking of those pages that contain unnatural links eventually.

Having a well-structured linking system within a site is also important as it allows Google bots to access every page of our site. These cross-links have several advantages to a site because it can distribute Page Rank and help the search engine to determine the pages’ relevancy by looking at their anchor text.

Although cross-links are very beneficial to a site, we must always remember to keep the total amount of links on a page to fewer than 100 as advised by the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Pages with more than 100 of links may cause Google to classify them as Links Farm.

It may seems that outbound links do not have any effect on our site ranking as it directs the visitors away from our site but this linking strategy will help in building up our reputation. It is important especially for a content site to provide as much information as possible to the visitors.

Outbound links will not cause the page’s Page Rank to leak out. Therefore, sharing of other important sites and resources will benefit the site in the long run.

A site without links is like an isolated data center. In order to make our sites known to more users, links are important and should be carefully implemented throughout the whole site and eventually, the Internet.

Article source ;http://www.useseo.com/linking-the-google-way.php

5 Essential SEO Techniques

Search Engine Optimization is becoming a more and more complicated area especially with the recent updates and data refresh done on the search engines' index. However, the basic concept for good ranking does not change. The following illustrates five most important SEO techniques as summarized from the Google Webmaster Guidelines that all webmasters should follow.

The first step into SEO is to create a site that allows the bots from the search engines to crawl. A web page is as good as offline if it does not appear in the search engine's index. It is advised to use clean and static urls for a page rather than lengthy url with complicated parameters.

It is stated clearly in the Google Webmaster Guidelines that they do not index urls with session ids. In addition, they will not index pages that require user authentication as the bots visit pages like a general user. Search engines also cannot guarantee that they will index all the dynamic urls. Therefore, in order to facilitate the search engines in crawling all the pages, static urls are always preferred.

The second technique is to create a site that holds unique and fresh content. Search engines like to index fresh content. A frequently updated site will find the bots returning to visit at a shorter interval. Adding unique content regularly will also help other users to find the site more easily as these pages will add on to the respective domain’s search index in the search engine database.

Third technique is equally important as it ensures that search engines can crawl every page in a site successfully. Having a text link navigation system is highly recommended for SEO purposes as it is almost guaranteed that the bots will visit all the pages via the text links. Avoid using JavaScript and Flash navigation system, as the bots will ignore them. Implement a Google Sitemap is also recommended, as this will help the search engines to find any pages that may be missed during the crawl.

After implementing a search engine friendly navigation system, the Webmaster should focus on the keywords allocation and place the targeted keywords in appropriate places. Of the entire HTML markup, the most important tags to take note are the title and the headers. It is advised to have a different title for every page and to adopt a proper hierarchy of headers so that search engines know what are the content that the pages are focusing.

The final step towards a good search engine ranking is to attract organic links. Organic links are natural links from content related pages. Google only takes into account of these natural links when ranking and indexing pages as stated in their guidelines. Although linking from the unrelated pages does not hurt its rankings, they will not help either

article source : http://www.useseo.com/essential-seo-techniques.php

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Blogging For Website Traffic

Nowadays, it seems that everyone and his cousin have taken to blogging. This form of online self-expression has slowly but steadily taken over the World Wide Web to become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent years. Some people use blogs as their personal journals, some may see them as an outlet for their creative work, and others may just want their own personal place in cyberspace to share thoughts and ideas.

Now, a quick question for the Internet businessman. If you have a blog, can you use it to boost your site's exposure and drive more traffic to it? A blog is great for sharing ideas and posting about things you like or don't like, but can a blog help your online business succeed?

The answer is a definite YES. Your blog can do wonders for your website, but it all depends on the way you utilize its potential power. I'm going to teach you a tried and proven method that has been effective for other website owners, and this method is applicable for any type of blog. You will just need a lot of creativity and some time to make it work.

First thing you have to keep in mind is that most blogs on the Web have a community feel to them. You may think that your blog is your own, since you're the one who installed and developed it. And you may be right. But your blog is also connected to other blogs on the same site. You may also be connected to other blogs that are using the same blogging software as you. This situation guarantees that sooner or later, a person will land on your blog and be able to see all that you have to say. This can also mean that your blog is now getting free advertising within the blogging community. I don't think you need me to tell you how beneficial this can be for your site's traffic.

However, you do have to keep in mind what you're posting as your blog's content. If all you're doing is making posts that promote your products or your business, then you're dead. Believe me, that is not the recommended way to use your blog. Have you seen the Internet lately? It's already overflowing with loads of advertisements for products and services. Be different. Your visitors need a good reason to keep coming back to your blog. Use it to give expert and knowledgeable information about your line of work to your readers. If you're selling a product on your site, talk about it on your blog, and don't just post a measly advertising blurb.

Let's say you're selling power tools on your website. You can write reviews and other useful posts about the kinds of tools you have on your site. What you're doing is providing some insight for your potential customers about the tools you're selling. These blog posts will then be able to generate confidence in your readers and encourage them to actually buy the products.

Another advantage of having a blog is that it makes it easier for interested buyers to get access to the seller (that's you). Usually, readers of a particular blog post are allowed to leave comments on what they've just read. For example, you've just finished a review for the new Ajax power drill. Whenever a reader comes across it and has a question regarding that product, he or she can easily leave a comment. You can then see the questions and post your answers. See? You can now connect with your readers and potential customers personally. This make you much more approachable, as compared to the faceless entity behind the impersonal commercial website.

In addition, your readers will also have the option of subscribing to your blog feeds via RSS or to your newsletters, so they can be immediately notified about any new posts you make. If you have established a reputable standing in your niche, a long list of eager readers will soon be waiting for your next post, and lots more will be coming to your website.

Inexpensive Tips For Getting Website Traffic

You can get a lot of website traffic without having to spend a lot of money. If you want to develop a busy and profitable website for your online business, there are a lot of techniques for getting website traffic without it being expensive. Some of these cheap website traffic techniques include article directories, SEO, blog posting and even forum posting.

Among these methods, one of the most practical and most effective is submitting articles to article directories. These articles should contain a link or two back to your own site, which can help you increase your site traffic from readers who may be interested in seeing more of what you’re offering. There are already several excellent article directories available for your submissions. As long as your articles remain in the directories you submitted them to, this method will be one of the best and cheapest ways to pull in traffic.

Using SEO, or search engine optimization, is another inexpensive yet very effective way for getting traffic to your website. By using proper search engine optimization, your articles and your website’s overall content will become more search engine friendly, as well as your website. Include your keyword in the domain name of the website that hosts your articles. Also include keywords in the first paragraphs of your pages, as well as the title of the page itself. These SEO techniques will help your site get better exposure with search engines, and your articles will rank higher on search results.

Blogging is now becoming more popular than ever before, and you should take full advantage of it. More and more online businessmen are using blogs to promote their products and services, and it just makes perfect sense to follow suit. There are several good blogging sites on the Internet that allow people to sign up and create a blogging account with them for free, such as Blogger or Wordpress. Create your blog and link your home page to it. Updating your blog regularly will allow it to become more relevant to search engines, and as a result, it will help to drive more traffic to your site. It would help a lot if your articles and posts contain the appropriate keywords.

Another inexpensive website traffic technique that you can use is to join and participate in forums. Finding a forum that is related to your website’s content is even better. You can then easily post discussions, answers, and even start threads that can be useful to other forum members. You can pull in traffic by making entertaining or informative posts, since you’ll develop a reputation for being an authority on certain subjects. And don’t forget to have a link to your site in your signature file or your member profile.

See? You can get a lot of website traffic without spending a lot of money, just by following these techniques. Remember, effective usage of relevant keywords in your posts and articles, proper SEO methods, article submissions, blogging, and forum posting can all become invaluable but inexpensive tools for driving traffic to your website.

What Are Pay Per Click Reports?

A pay per click report will inform you of how many visitors you have had to your website, what keyword they used to get there, and some monitor how long they were there. These reports can be daily, weekly, or monthly. There are free pay per click services however they do not give you all the information that you can get from a paid service.

Companies mainly use a monthly report on the traffic to their websites. In order to utilize the pay per click service to it’s utmost ability, they must report data from web marketing as well as other crucial information. This will allow the user to examine their marketing strategies to decide if they are working.

Some pay per click companies put a tracking code in your website to monitor sales. How many customers have signed in and what they are interested in is also tracked. Most will prepare a report that is easy to understand. It will contain information about the sales generated by the people using pay per click, visitor breakdown, and anything else they think is of particular interest to the website owner.

The benefits of using pay per click are invaluable to companies that want to use their website to generate more income for the company. With so many people having access to the internet, it is the number one way that customers seek and find the company that they want to use for their needs. These reports will allow you to see how well your company is doing by how many internet visitors you have each day.

One of the benefits of using a pay per click report is the tracking of keyword use. When advertising your business, keywords are used to direct traffic to your website. When you use pay per click the reports you get will show which keywords worked the best and which ones you need to replace. A good keyword will have more hits on it and the keywords with the least hits means you need to find another. By doing this you will know the difference.

The reports can show you how to optimise your initial web site page to get more visitors. There are certain items that people look for when going to a web page. With the reports from pay per click, the ones that work the best will be suggested so you can get the most from your website.

Pay per click reports can help you to know for sure how many people have logged into your website. It is the best way to be aware of just how well your advertising is doing. You could advertise in the newspaper, on a billboard, or by direct mail but how are you going to know the number of people who have seen your advertisement? Plain and simply, you are not.

By using pay per click you will know the exact number of visits to your website. This report will become an important tool to help you make the most of your web page and give you the knowledge you need to optimise the site you use for generating income.

Your Checklist To Search Engine Optimisation Reports

The most important online marketing strategies that can help you be successful with optimizing your business on the web include building a plan, blogging, an email list, press releases, and much more. Be sure to have these items on your checklist and you will have an excellent and productive website for your business.

The first and most important strategy for optimizing your search engine for your website is to create a plan for your site and your business. You should determine all of the most important things. What are your goals for accomplishments with your site and who is your audience going to be? That is, what types of people do you believe will be interested in your products and what people do you believe you need to target that will continue to come back for more. You need to make a decision how you are going to make your website better than others, how it will stand out from the rest and grab the attention. All of these answers to these questions should be the base of your web plan to optimizing your website and they should be at the top of your checklist.

The next thing that you need to do for optimization of your website is to create a marketing plan that will work and get the word out about your business and your site. This includes writing press releases and getting them out to every contact that you have in the media. You should also post the press releases online to every place that will allow you to. In addition to writing press releases for your website, you should write extensive articles about your website, your company, your products, and more. These articles should contain important keywords that will take people back to your site. You should also include your website and company information in all of the articles including contact information if people have questions.

Creating a blog should also be on your checklist for total optimization. This is the one way you can have the keywords that you need for your site to be pulled up in search engines and remain at the top. You should start relevant conversations, add posts, and useful data to your blog and keep people coming back for more. If you are talking about a subject that is important to people they will discuss issues with you, in return, adding more keywords to your site. You should also get on other blogs across the Internet and talk about your website and your products in other blogs. This is good advertising for you also.

You should build a mailing list for optimizing your site. This can be done by determining who your audience is. Your email list may be created over time as people enter in their information and if they request to be on the list. It is important to respond to requests through email and to let the people that do come back know that you care about them as a customer. The best thing about email is that it is free and extremely helpful for your business.

Another way you can optimize your site is by offering incentives to people who visit your site. You can offer free stuff, discounts, and more. People often search the web just for free items and by doing this you are generating more traffic to your website.

There are many points you should add to your checklist when you are concerned about optimizing your website on the Internet for your business.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

7 Surefire Ways To Increase Your Traffic Starting Yesterday

Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate all of these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating traffic.

So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating traffic.

If you already have a site and you want think that you're not getting the traffic that you're supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines
Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire way to increase your traffic. You could see for yourself the success this search engine advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies. Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites
With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3) Use Viral Marketing Viral marketing
allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or if ever low costs only. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content
Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site
Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities
Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.
If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

In the mean time, Good Luck on your journey to success…

Let's Design A Website That Sells

Would you buy meat from a grocery store that left the bad meat in with the good meat or wasn't clean? Would you buy a car from a sales lot that had totaled automobiles on the front lot? I wouldn't and neither would you. Your website is your grocery store; your car lot. You must have an atmosphere that is pleasing to buyers. One that tells that buyer that you are not an amateur, but instead a trained, seasoned professional. Your site is a direct reflection of your product and that is why that having a well designed website can make or break your sales.

The first thing to keep in mind when designing your website, is "surfability". Take a few minutes a look around at several web pages. What makes them appealing? Were there some that you closed out of immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research. Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they have a goal in mind. They are either seeking information or shopping for a product. Give the person what they want without having to search for it. Be sure that all the information on your site is relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that they need your product to solve their problem.

Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It should be an avenue by which the customer can shop your site. It should be easy to view and load very quickly. This is your first impression and we all know that first impressions can either close the deal or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to have links that are easily viewable by the reader that will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables are often a great choice when deciding on a way to design the main page of your site. Your main page should load very quickly, chances are if it takes the page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, the customer will click away to save time, hoping to find the information or product elsewhere. To increase the loading speed of your main page you should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. Too many banners or special effects can cause a page to load slowly as well.

To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you should stick to mild colors. If your site is a content site where the user will be doing a lot of reading, it is best to stick to black and white. Color can be added when using tables, as a way to brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall look of the page professional and appealing to the audience that will be visiting most often. Since screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may also choose to set the tables in your web page to span a percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet users will not use the same browser as you, and therefore you should be sure that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers through which to look at your page.

Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your website is a way to make money. The appearance of the site, if designed properly, can be an excellent marketing strategy for your product or service.

Top Five Reasons to do a Website Redesign

Small business owners need to monitor whether their investment in a website is providing a good return. Are your products and services easy to buy? If they aren't, you are wasting time and money and probably doing more harm than good.

Ask yourself the following five questions to see whether it's time for a redesign:

Has the size of the site grown substantially?If your site continues to grow and change like most business sites, you need to evaluate whether it's still meeting your objectives. As you add new products and services you need to re-organize your information. In addition, you should consider adding multimedia information (audio, video) to sharpen your message.

Is some of the content outdated or unnecessary?
Does your website have up-to-date content? Someone should be revising spec sheets, changing promotion dates and adding new material weekly. If your website appears static, it looks like you're not a serious business.

Is the most important content buried below?
Here's where you need to do an "easy to buy" audit. By that I mean you need to evaluate how easy it is to find information and actually buy your products. This sounds like common sense, but we've all purchased online and know that it can sometimes be frustrating.

Are you using the latest technology, instead of hard-coding?
If you created your website more than 18 months ago, you are probably due for a technology update. This is also true if you started with a very basic site and "hard-coded" everything. Ask your webmaster whether he has some suggestions. You can be sure he will.

Does the home page design suit your current business objectives?
Does your website communicate the depth and breadth of your current business? If you have changed the focus of your services, added new products or want to communicate a different face to your visitors, consider a redesign for your overall website.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

What is Professional SEO?

There is a great debate in SEO today. It's about the nature of SEO – what it is, and what it is supposed to do.

At its basic level, SEO is simply about getting website pages listed on search engines.

At a commercial level, SEO is about hitting a specific consumer base, through the targeted use of keyword placement on search engines to promote selected pages.

There is a surprising gulf between these two – and it's polarising the industry.

The distinction is not simply one of aim, but of method.

On the one hand is something known as "Content SEO". This is a broad tool. Good content invites people to link to it. More than that, good content can catch a whole net of low traffic terms, that in number can create very significant traffic.

On the other hand, there is "Link-building" SEO. Used properly this is a precision tool, because you can use anchor text to spectacular effect to hit competitive keywords, so that the traffic from the search engines to the site is very targeted.

Hopefully, you can already see the difference. If not, here's an analogy:

Two fishermen both go to sea, both aiming to catch tuna. One of them has a big net, and simply trawls a big net around the ocean. The other fisherman has a smaller fishing net, but sails straight to the tuna fishing grounds. Which of them is most likely to be most successful in their aims?

The trouble is, sometimes the fisherman with the big net has gotten luckly. And sail back to port and reveal their triumph to all the other fishermen. So all the other fishermen go out to sea in their little boats and large nets, aimlessly trawling the oceans, figuring that they're doing good tuna fishing.

The fisherman with the smaller net might not even tell anyone about his success if he can help it. After all, why tell everyone else where the best tuna fishing can be had?

Funnily enough, when the fisherman mentions that he knows where the fishing grounds are, and that you can't catch the really big tuna without going to these places, some of the other fishermen laugh and scoff, because there's another fisherman around with a really big net who says that trawling the oceasn worked for him.

The position of those fishermen should be obvious by analogy, but - surprisingly - is still seriously contested within the industry by people who became successful over the years by have trawling their big aimless nets.

Another problem is that many webmasters will rate the success of their website by their traffic numbers. That's all well and good in a non-commercial environment, but as soon as you are looking to make sales, you have to start worrying about conversion rates. And that means you aim for targeted traffic. There's little point in boasting about having one thousand unique visitors a day if your conversion rate is 0.05%, when another webmaster selling the same product has only 100 unique visitors a day but a conversion rate of 1.5%.

"Content SEO" can play a very great and significant role in an overall SEO strategy. In fact, used properly it's like sailing to the tuna grounds with an even bigger net. By itself, though, "Content SEO" is of only very limited use in a commercial environment.

In marketing terms, its sitting back and waiting for sales to happen, rather than going out directly to your customer base with an offer.

 

SEO and Website Design Methods to Follow

Search engine optimization is the most passionately challenged theme. SEO is a central module that permits you to publicize straightforwardly to your potential customers. SEO is all about receiving the sites with top privileges on the major search engines with the core intension to strike the definite consumers. You can publicize the website by utilizing different tackles, procedures and search engine optimization approaches. These procedures and techniques cover-up all the factors that can help us to generate higher page ranks. It's time consuming process not as easy as it looks and not even difficult if done with the right approach.

Keywords Phrase: You know very well that millions of websites are there on the one theme and how much tricky it is to take out your site at the topmost position. SEO companies work with keywords to make the high ranks at specific keywords. Even if your site got the high ranks on specific keywords but if nobody is searching for those keywords then what is the fun of having those top ranks. The result would definitely be zero, because your aim is to target the visitors. The content of your site should not be stuffed with the keywords. The keywords should be in a definite proportion and placed in a planned approach, excessive use of keywords may wind up engulfing your market.

Link Framing: One another SEO tool that is significant in Search engine ranking is link framing or link building that can enhance your web ranking constantly and efficiently. Link Framing includes number of sites of the similar type to be hyperlinked with each other to get more traffic for each site and increased SEO rankings. If you are able to acquire links that are optimized for keywords and are booming inside content then it will surly take your website rankings at new heights.

Content: Content is the ruler of a web and good content has a great impact from all point of views, it increases the SEO ranking, attract the targeted consumers and make your site much appealing. Content is the main factor which can bring visitors on your site continually and this thing is very important in SEO that once you got good ranking, then there is need to maintain that level. This is possible if your site has the potential to magnetize visitors and hold them. Content with the unique and revealing features definitely invites people and can generate incredibly meaningful traffic.

Article Submissions: Article submission is good technique to get amplified traffic to your site. Perfectly-composed articles have excellent probability to get accepted in major submission sites and if your article is liked by the readers then they will definitely check out the resources by which the article is being written.

Meta Information: Many search engines give importance to the tags consisting of the TITLE tag, Meta Description tag and Meta Keyword tag. Title tag should be written strictly according to your web page theme, the title should comprehensively reveal the subject matter. Unexpectedly at present META tags bear a little credence in all of the standard search engines. But still some search engines gives the added preferences to the META tags which are placed with the relevant information and proper keywords demonstrating the web page. 

Search Engine Optimisation – Myths, Risks and Pitfalls

From my experience, people who try to increase the flow of organic traffic to their websites domain will at some point attempt a whole bunch of “optimisation techniques” without knowing if any of it really has had, or is having, any effect at all. Some of the SEO techniques I have seen people attempt are, whilst quite useless, based on a good idea. Other methods continually amaze me. Perhaps people that try such things have heard spurious rumours of how to get their site into Google’s top ten listings from certain forums. Incidentally they are probably at such a point of desperation that they are willing to try anything to gain just ten more visits. 

I am regularly inundated with the same questions such as: Is it worth submitting my site to 300 search engines? Will I get penalised for cross linking my sites? Should I pay to have high ranking sites link to mine? And what exactly does Google page rank do, if anything!? 

Questions such as these have driven me into despair and consequently writing this article during which i will attempt to explain definitively the more common SEO myths, risks and pitfalls. In this article we will examine some of the more common beliefs. 

Before we get to the list it is worth noting that I have not written it in a particular order and at times I have explained the topic the myth concerns before answering the question. 

Link Building 

Q)Will the more links that point to my website increase my sites placement in search engines? 

It will help your website as far as the major search engines are concerned. The most popular search engines use the number of links aimed towards a website as an important factor in determining the sites placement. They look for your link to be coming from sites with; high traffic, quality content and a high page rank, amongst other things. Do no cross link, do not spam your address in forums and on social networks and do not put it on irrelevant sites, or even those that seem slightly dodgy. Take your time, aim for directories that are related to your website, aim for directories with page rank 3+ or aim for blogs or similar sites that are relevant to your content. 

Q)Is it worth me buying a place on a high ranking directory? 

So the idea with this is that, say, a directory has a Google page rank of 7 and is very popular. Any site on it will be getting a big rub off via a higher spot on search engine rankings. However the catch is the directory charges £50 a month for your listing. Is it worth it when there are so many free directories out there? 

Personally I think it is worth it, as long as the site holds its high rank and doesn't have thousands of listings competing with yours on it. The added bonus with pay for listings is that they usually review and include your site very quickly (24hours), which by itself may be worth paying for. And if you could buy 10 spots on decent directories your site will most likely become highly ranked on search engine results. 

There are problems with this though. Firstly, it is said to be against Google’s terms of service – paying to get a higher listing on Google’s organic results. (Google want their results to show the best and most relevant websites, not those with the most money behind them) They are however, unlikely to be too bothered even if they do find out. 

The next problem is the cost. For a small company or personal website it is too expensive to pay monthly for many directories to list them, and possibly not worth it. Lastly, it is not guaranteed to help your website. It should, but does not always. I have paid for listings before and noticed very little difference, whilst other times it has made a huge contribution to my sites ranking. So it may be a risk, but it can pay off extremely well. 

Q)Will submitting a video about my site or product to places such as Youtube be of benefit to me? 

A recent link building trend has been to submit a short video describing the webmasters site or the service it provides, to as many video submission sites as possible. The theory behind this being that search engines give more weight in their results to pages with videos. So if your site or product has a video on Youtube, when that product is searched for on the web that video will often come up in the top ten results. If this video has a link to your site in it, under it or as nearby as you can put it, it should be good news for you and your site. People find the video as it is ranked so highly in the results, watch the video, like what they see and then visit your site to perhaps purchase what they saw. 

Does it work? At the time of writing, yes it does and it is probably worth doing. Make a video, even if it is just text, sound or a power point presentation, and then submit it to as many video and social networking sites as possible. People will find it and it will hopefully persuade them to visit your site. The only real problem with this being that the search engines will not like all of the “video spam” now being posted on the internet and are likely to change (lower) the priority of videos in their results. 

Google Page Rank 

Q)Will having a higher Google page rank increase the number of visitors to my site? 

Before we can answer that we will have to look at what exactly Google page rank is. Google page rank is a spurious form of measurement for site popularity that the company introduced fairly recently. It is unknown to everyone, except possibly Google, how exactly it ranks sites. It is assumed however that its ranks depend upon on a mixture of traffic a site receives, external links pointing towards it and the content it contains. New websites may not have a page rank for many months. It is also possible to have a very successful website with thousands of visitors and sales and still not being ranked highly, if at all. This is because Google only ranks pages once every few months, probably around once every four-five months. So if you start your website and straight off advertise heavily you might recieve a high volume of traffic but it may still take months for Google to look at your site and rank it accordingly. Also, as a sites rank is dependent on more than just traffic l! 

evels, in that scenario your site may still be ranked lowly once it is eventually seen. 

To see a websites Google page rank you can download the Google toolbar and then once it is installed right click on it and select show page rank. 

So back to the myth – Does having a higher Google page rank mean more visits to your site? Well, yes and no. No, because it alone doesn't actually have any effect on search placement, and as such won’t increase traffic. Yes, because indirectly it will benefit your site. If you have a high page rank Google will prioritise your site and check back often to see if anything has changed, such as content, giving you a good chance to increase your standing with the search engine. Another benefit is that both people and sites are more willing to trust websites that have a high Google rank. For example, if you are submitting your site to directories you will want to submit it to a high Google rank directory as Google will check them more regularly and take more notice of them and their content (which will be your link). So indirectly, a high Google rank should mean more visits for your site. 

Buying in Traffic 

Q)Is it worth me buying 10000 hits for £££/$$$? 

OK, we have all seen the adverts in our email promising thousands of targeted visits for an amazingly cheap cost. And at one point or another we have all been depressed enough to be tempted by them. But just say no. 

The idea is, for say 100 pounds (or 200 dollars), a traffic company will direct ten thousand or so visitors to your site who are actually interested in your content. It sounds great and some companies will actually provide what they say as far as traffic to your site is concerned. However I have never found one where the traffic is actually targeted and people even bother to look around my sites. Often it turns out to be a robot that is obviously not going to look or buy anything from me. If not it may be that thousands of unfortunate people have had a dozen pop up windows attack them as they bravely try to fight them off. I may be generalising slightly with this, but usually the people that are directed or redirected to your website will want nothing more than to close it down. 

It could possibly work for you if your site instantly captures people and most of your money is made off advertising that these people quickly click on before closing you down. However do not attempt to use bought traffic whilst using Google Adsense on your site as it is against their rules and your account might be terminated without warning. Another possible benefit is that some search engines rank sites based on incoming traffic, thus 10000 more hits by anybody may actually boost your rankings. However, this is unlikely to fool search engines such as Google or Yahoo!. 

Cross Linking 

Q)What is Cross Linking? 

Cross linking is a webmaster practice whereby a person owns many domains, uploads an identical site to each and then heavily links each domain to the others. For example, person A registers lotsofhits,com, but is not getting enough traffic. To fool the search engines into thinking it is a popular website he registers a hundred more domains, so each will have different web addresses but all have the duplicate page content of lotsofhits,com, and all of them link to one another. This in theory should boost the pages rank, as Google, along with other search engines, determine the importance of a site based on links from outside websites pointing to it(along with a few other things). It would also mean that there are a hundred more sites on the web that sell the same product as lotsofhits, com that could all possibly be found. 

Q)Will Cross Linking my site(s) be penalised by search engines? 

This is not a myth - search engines often penalise or even temporarily ban sites that Cross Link. If Google detect completely duplicate content on even just two sites that link to each other, then they will at least lower your page and result rankings, if not ban both sites. 

Q)I heard cross linking is fine as long as the sites do not have completely duplicate content. Is there any truth in this? 

If you are determined to Cross Link the safest way would be to own two or three domains that link to each other but each of which have completely unique content and link to other sites as well as one another. It is hardly worth creating two or more unique sites for the sole purpose of cross linking and I would not recommend doing so anyway. 

SEO Software 

Q.Is it true that there is no point in doing any manual search engine optimisation or search/site submissions when you can buy software that will do it all for you? 

There is a little truth behind this, but not much. Whilst certain software might make for an excellent tool in assisting your SEO campaign, in the end there you will find there is no substitute for hard work. For example you can download a program that will submit your site automatically to 10000 search engines or put a link to you web page on 50 other sites. The problems there being: only four major search engines exist and between them they take over 80% of all search engine traffic. Those search engines will find your site automatically and rank it according to, amongst other things, relevant and unique content – making the 10000 search engine submission promise redundant (even if it were true). 

There are good tools available that will track your visitors (Google analytics), tell you how your site could be made more search engine friendly and software that even tracks how each of your keywords are ranked in major search engines. However, if you are purchasing such software, try to find a trustworthy independent review first so that you are sure you are not getting ripped off. Also try to make sure that any software you use does not go against Google’s terms of service. 

So, whilst certain software can and will be useful to you, there is no replacement for hard work and unique content and regular updates. The search engine rankings should then take care of themselves. 

7 Easy Business Optimization Solutions for Your Web Site

7 Easy Business Optimization Solutions You Can Apply to Your Web Site Today 

Finding affordable business optimization solutions for your Web site can some time be a challenge. Many of the Web site owners I talk to on a daily bases are small business owners that have a limited budget when it comes to advertising and even smaller when they talk about their Web site. One general consensus is that they all know they need to beef up their Internet presence but they all believe the only way to do that is by hiring a company who specialized in Internet Marketing or Search Engine Optimization. What many don’t realize is that with a little time and effort they can apply some basic optimization solutions to their site themselves and usually for free if they are dedicated to making their Web site succeed. 

Being a small business owner myself I know how hard it is to juggle advertising dollars and get the most advertising for my money is important. I am going to share with you a few tips on how you can have a sucsesful on-line presence by just putting a little time and effort into your site. 

#1 - For Your Visitor 

Lets start by taking a good look at your Web site. We all look at our site so many times often we overlook the obvious. Pick up the phone or drop an email to some of your most loyal customers and ask them what they would want to see on your site to help them be better informed about your product or services. Ask them their thoughts and comments on your site. Ask them to give you their honest opinion. Do they see anything that they could suggest to make it better for potential customers? Is there any specific information they fell would benefit a new visitor? It is amazing how getting the prospective of your customer will often open some windows you may have never thought of before and the greatest thing is it does not cost a dime. 

Another great way to see how your visitors are using your site you may want to apply some click tracking software to your Web site so you can see how people are navigating through your site. It may be a real eye opener to how you have your pages set up. It will tell you just where and what your visitors are clicking on. Visit http://www.Crazyegg.com and apply a small piece of code to your Web site and start tracking your visitor’s clicks you’ll be surprised at what you discover. 

#2 – For Your Visitor 

While you are taking a look at your Web site have you given your customers easy access to your contact information on each and every page? Many Web site owners overlook this important aspect. You need to make it easy for potential customers to contact you. You want them to be able to find a way to contact you on each and every page and not just on a contact page. You’re working with split seconds every time someone lands on your page. Make it easy for them tell them exactly what you want them to do. Rather then just saying Call Now! Give them specific instructions. 

For Example: 

Go pick up your phone and call us now to hear more about this special rate. Time is limited so call now at 800-555-1234 

Buy today to take advantage of free shipping ... delivered right to your front door in 48 hours! 

Little things that you may not think are important usually are the things that result in making a sale or not. One important factor in advertising is trying to find ways to make what you say different then everyone else. Those that stand out in a crowd are usually the ones that are making the sale. 

What can you do to make your information different? Think of your competitors and what they are doing then you do the complete opposite. 

These are just a couple of Web design and layout tips to help with your business optimization solutions that will mostly benefit your visitor. Now lets concentrate on a few that the search engines will favor 


#3 – For Your Visitor & Search Engines 

You only have 3 seconds to capture someone’s attention so start your business optimization solutions right at your title tag. Go to your home page and make a mental note of your title tag (look in the upper left hand corner of your browser the words listed there are what it says in your title tag.) Now go do a search using your most relevant keyword phrase (what you want your visitors to find you on when doing a search) and look at the results that come up. 

Look at the title of each result on the first couple pages. How compelling are they? Do they intrigue you to click on them by reading what is listed there? People are looking for instant gratification and they will read the results and normally will click on those that compel them to do so. For example let’s take a look at these results for coffeehouse: 

Out of the following results which would you be more inclined to click on? 

• Depot Coffee House 
• Discover a Cup of Europe at Eurotazza® Coffeehouse 
• DJ’s Coffeehouse 
• Coffeehouse – Savor the Flavor of Brazilian Coffee 

By addressing the instant reaction of your potential visitor you’re compelling them to click on your ad by writing a good title but you’re also creating a keyword rich 
title tag that the search engines will favor. 

The first impression most Internet users get of your company is the way you describe your site so use your title tag as the most part of your Web site. 


#4 – For the Search Engines 

Is your Web site compliant? A quick check of your HTML code will reveal if your site is complying with the W3C. I would recommend running your site through http://validator.w3.org/to test your website for compliance issues with W3C. 

Here is a short definition of what W3C compliance is; 
The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and basically, since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created. 
• Compliance help insure accessibility 
• Compliance helps insure that your website is accessible from a number of different devices; from different browsers to the growing number of surfers using PDA?s and cellular phones. 
• Compliance will also help insure that regardless of the browser, resolution, device, etc. that your website will look and function in the same or at least a very similar fashion. 

Being compliant doesn’t necessary benefit you in terms of SEO at this point, however many of the processes you go through to get compliant code will automatically improve your “on page” factors and it will rule out a lot of crawling/indexing issues. 

#5 – For Your Visitor 

Pre-qualification of your visitors is one of the biggest problems many companies make when developing a Web site. Say your Web site is about “cell phones” and you’ve set up your site only for the keyword phrase “cell phones.” Do you know the competing pages for the terms “cell phones” is over 246 million? 

Even as a Professional SEO I know it’s going to be pretty hard to compete with those kinds of numbers. Let’s say we break the keyword phrase “cell phones” down to the lowest and most detailed search giving your visitors exactly what they are looking for. 

If I was working on this site I would be working on pages that are more concentrated around detailed keyword phrases. 

• cell phone – competing pages – 246,000,000 
• cell phone ring tones - competing pages 494,000 
• custom cell phone ring tones – competing pages 225,000 
• make custom cell phone ring tones – competing pages 177,000 
• make free ring tones – competing pages – 31,700 
• star trek ring tones – competing pages – 5,110 
• family guy ring tones – competing pages - 1,950 
• like to make my own ring tones – competing pages – 3 

By spending just a little research time I was able to find some valuable keyword phrases that could be used to open additional windows into a cell phone site. The key is opening as many windows into your site as possible. Once you have given your visitor exactly what they’re looking for you have already earned their creditability and they most likely will spend additional time on your site looking at what else you have to offer. 

Take a look at your site. Do you have a separate page for each of your products or services? Are you breaking it down in the smallest lowest detailed search? 

Think of it this way …the search engines goals are to return the most relevant results to its users so break down your keyword phrases into the most detailed result and you are bringing very happy visitor to your site. 

#6 – For Web Site Exposure 

No one knows more about your product or service than you do so take your knowledge and put it down in writing. Nothing will give you more creditability then having a visitor reading something you have written about your industry. Still the power of the written word is priceless. 

There are a number of Web sites on the Internet you can submit your articles to along with posting them on your own Web site. Most Web site owners think their Web site is just a place just to list services and company info. What some forget is most Internet surfers do much research before deciding to hire someone for a service or buying a product. Normally when someone is searching for they are gathering as much information they can about the product first. If they’re coming to your Web site reading valuable information about your industry and products they are immediately going to feel you are an expert in your field. 

We are in a world laden with advertising so when writing about a particular product or service by-past the industry hype and stick to the facts. If your readers think you’re writing sales pitches they will instantly hit the back button. Give them detailed information or how to properly use your products something that will be of value to them. 

Here is my top list of article marketing Web sites that you can submit your articles and remember the most important place for them is on your own site. 

• www.BusinessKnowHow.com 
• www.ArticleDashboard.com 
• www.Buzzle.com 
• www.ArticleBiz.com 
• www.EzineArticles.com 
• www.ArticleCity.com 
• www.ArticleAlley.com 

I found a great resource to get your content indexed on Google within 24 hours. Check out http://www.scribd.com. Be sure to read the terms of service Scribd does not like anything that resembles advertising. 

#7 For YOU! 

Learn learn and learn some more! 

One of the best things you can do for your site is to learn as much about search engine optimization and internet marketing as you can. There are a number of free and affordable resources you can use to learn exactly what it takes to perform better in the search engines. 

To start with here is a list of Blogs you can subscribe to so you can keep up to date with the latest changes on the Internet: 

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/blog 
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ 
• http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/ 
• http://www.keiobservationdeck.com/ 
• http://www.sew-wrc.com/idea-motivator/ 

A couple Internet Marketing Newsletters to subscribe to: 

• http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/ 
• http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/ 

Affordable On-line Training: 

• http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/ 
• http://www.sew-wrc.com/ 

For a qualified SEO Training Center near you try: 

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com 

Sign up to receive FREE SEO Tips at: 

• http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/seo-tip.htm 

There’s no substitute for a little hard work and learning some small business optimization solutions starts right at your computer! 

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, Positioning, Promotions, and Submissions 

At yellow7.com we offer a service called search engine optimization, which is a high return marketing strategy. A process of conditioning a website for top search engine ranking. The marketing objective is to create new streams of traffic that are the most valuable leads available - those referred by search engines. 

More people discover websites from search engines than all other online promotion sources combined. Leads are highly qualified since they are derived by the visitor's actual need represented by the keywords used during the search engine process. Studies prove that this approach substantially increases revenue. Best of all, the return on investment is unmatched by any other website marketing strategy. 

In today's world of website promotion, a business needs an effective Internet marketing strategy via an aggressive search engine optimization and search engine positioning campaign and a quality, optimized website that targets and matches your business goals with online customer needs. 

Search engine optimization, also known as search engine placement, search engine positioning, search engine ranking or search engine marketing, can act as a 24/7 salesperson driving targeted search engine traffic to your marketing message. 

Search engine optimization will help you: 

* Increase traffic to your website 
* Create a gap between you and your competition 
* Develop fast and measurable returns on investment 
* Lower the costs of client acquisition 
* Broaden your market share 

An aggressive search engine stategy includes a look into all aspects available including: pay per click campaign management, manual directory & search engine submissions, rank position, keyword marketing research and search engine promotion. 

The Key To Creating Valuable Keywords

There are a few things your have to have in order to really pull people into your website. The number one thing you need to do is come up with a list of relevant keywords that will bring you and potential customers together. A couple of questions you need to get answers to are: What is the subject matter of your business? What are the sub-categories? The best way to decide these answers is to simply set down and start making a list. Don’t worry about thinking up the perfect words yet, just include everything you can think of that has to do with your subject. Let’s say my website is a coin collectors site. The subject matter for the site would be ‘collectors.’ Without stressing out about it, I would take a pen and paper and begin writing down anything I could think of that would work with it, for instance, coin, antique, hobby, and so on. The point is to make the list as long as you can. 

You may be looking at your list now thinking ‘Great, I have my keywords,’ Sorry, but not yet. You have created a list of keywords, but they are not the ones you will use on your site. It is at this crucial step that most sites blow it. What you have before you is a list of subjects, not keywords. To really take it to the next step and reach your target audience, you need to identify the keyword phrases your potential customers are searching for within these subjects. Don’t get frustrated, lucky for you it is a fairly easy process. 

Word Tracker is a program that will take you from frustrated and guessing to relaxed and the perfect keyword list. It is a program that allows you to analyze a subject matter to find out every phrase a potential client may be using in searches for that particular subject. So how does word tracker make your life easier? Simply put, it does the work for you, and it does it well. For $8 you can get access to the program for two days. Once you have tried it out you may want to invest in a year’s subscription. Whatever you may choose, you will find that the phrases and words that Word tracker comes up with will be a perfect for your subject matter. 

SEO - An overview

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process by which the quality and volume of traffic can be improved on a search engine on the Internet. Normally when we search for a particular piece of information or data on any top search engine ranking the results we get, are presented in a serial order by the particular search engine. This presentation of the results is derived from what is called the ‘Algorithmic’ basis and the results that figure at the top of the order are the ones that would be visited more often. 

A number of times the process of SEO could focus on searches that broadly range from ‘vertical search’ to ‘horizontal search’ or could be a very specific search. The process of SEO depends to a great extent on how the search engine has been designed to respond to specific searches. A search engine may have a particular set of search words or ‘Keywords’ that has been used by a very large number of visitors to a particular site on this search engine. In this case the designers of the search engine would invariably give a very high priority to this particular set of keywords that would display the website in a privileged position in the top three or top five results on the search engine. 

Now, although certain search engines do have somewhat different algorithms that are liable to change sometimes, it has been found that all engines more or less similarly appreciate the information that searchers look for, such as: 

Simple, clean and implicit search engine friendly web site design 

Carefully prepared, perceptive direction 

Descriptive and well-written text 

Tag content that that optimizes identification of relevant keywords 

Accurate links that extend the scope of the search 

It is true that good content that provides relevant information to the visitor to the site utilizing keyword phrases should be the objective of all contents that makes its way to the World Wide Web. Therefore a professional content writer and not SEO, is what is vital for that aspect of the job. In fact most people would rather be presented with information they require in clear, concise language, right on the main page of the site they are visiting. 

Normally a decent search engine strategy takes up to a year to work although it might also work with minimal effort for a long time although it might not perform well in the beginning. If the site does not provide the visitors with what they want then it might never perform at all. Therefore while designing a site, it is important to remember that for the site to be up on the World Wide Web it will first be read by search engines that are machines. On the other hand, any content designed specifically for machine-readability could turn off a real visitor who is not interested in how the pages appear to a machine. Hence SEO is basically a question of balance.