Most of us have had the client from hell but we often don't like to talk about it. There is a Google Webmasters Help thread which takes us through one client from hell.
If you read through all 60 or so posts, you will see how hard this web designer is working to make this client happy. The designer tells us that the client was very happy with the design, and everything. But when the client didn't see their site in Google, soon after it was launched, the client was extremely displeased. The designer, who was not an SEO, came to Google Webmasters Help to help get the site listed.
The designer learned from professional SEOs and Googlers that the site was done fairly search engine friendly and that over time, the site will be indexed and ranked in Google. But it wasn't soon enough. The designer added more and more SEO changes, such as an XML sitemap, removed some flash, added some links - but it wasn't fast enough. The client then found the Google thread and threatened the designer that they would sue him. So the designer gave the client his deposit back and took down the web site.
Guess what? A day later, the web site showed up in the Google index, only to return an empty site. And now, I am sure it doesn't show up anymore.
We probably all had clients like this. If not, read the thread and you can learn lessons from this.
Forum discussion at Google Webmasters Help.
Article source: http://www.seroundtable.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Should you engage an In-House SEO Manager or Outsource?
During these tough economic times companies everywhere must make some difficult decisions when it comes to how they spend their money. The hiring of new employees is a very fragile and gentle topic for most businesses right now. There is no exception when it comes to SEO. Many companies always ask themselves whether they should hire an outsourced company or an in house SEO manager. Both have significant advantages and disadvantages.
In House Advantages:
There are many advantages to having an in house SEO manger. Some are the obvious like convenience to be able to speak with your SEO person regarding new projects at almost any given moment. You also know that this person is 100% onboard with your companies project at all times and you don’t have to compete for their time and attention with other companies. You can assure yourself that there will not be a conflict of interest with another client in the same industry.
In House Disadvantages:
Some of the disadvantages to hiring a full time SEO manager for your business are that to get someone that really knows what they are doing you will have to shell out a considerable amount of money for a yearly salary including benefits. Chances are in this economy a business can find a very reputable marketing firm for a fraction of what they would have to pay a full time employee. If you find the right firm it will cost you much less than having to hire a full time internet marketing manager.
Outsourcing SEO Efforts Advantages:
The costs of outsourcing SEO efforts would be much less leaving most businesses to be able to use that additional money trying to create new business in other ways. Also a business has the flexibility of trying out a different firm if the current one does not work out. If an in house SEO manager doesn’t work out the costs to let that employee go and rehire a new one are much higher.
Outsourcing SEO Efforts Disadvantages:
One of the biggest disadvantages to outsourcing your SEO efforts is that you are out of touch with your account manager handling your SEO. The ability to walk into their office and get a meeting together to brainstorm new ideas doesn’t really exist. That person might also be managing a handful of other clients as well so the amount of attention spent on your account is going to be much less than if you had an employee in house.
Article source: http://www.promotionworld.com
In House Advantages:
There are many advantages to having an in house SEO manger. Some are the obvious like convenience to be able to speak with your SEO person regarding new projects at almost any given moment. You also know that this person is 100% onboard with your companies project at all times and you don’t have to compete for their time and attention with other companies. You can assure yourself that there will not be a conflict of interest with another client in the same industry.
In House Disadvantages:
Some of the disadvantages to hiring a full time SEO manager for your business are that to get someone that really knows what they are doing you will have to shell out a considerable amount of money for a yearly salary including benefits. Chances are in this economy a business can find a very reputable marketing firm for a fraction of what they would have to pay a full time employee. If you find the right firm it will cost you much less than having to hire a full time internet marketing manager.
Outsourcing SEO Efforts Advantages:
The costs of outsourcing SEO efforts would be much less leaving most businesses to be able to use that additional money trying to create new business in other ways. Also a business has the flexibility of trying out a different firm if the current one does not work out. If an in house SEO manager doesn’t work out the costs to let that employee go and rehire a new one are much higher.
Outsourcing SEO Efforts Disadvantages:
One of the biggest disadvantages to outsourcing your SEO efforts is that you are out of touch with your account manager handling your SEO. The ability to walk into their office and get a meeting together to brainstorm new ideas doesn’t really exist. That person might also be managing a handful of other clients as well so the amount of attention spent on your account is going to be much less than if you had an employee in house.
Article source: http://www.promotionworld.com
Friday, May 22, 2009
How to Select SEO Services Company in India
In the last 2-3 years many new SEO companies have mushroomed in India, providing cost effective seo services to their customers. In this whole galaxy of seo companies some are authentic, while others are not. A novice owner of
the website has a little knowledge of the technical jargon involved in the SEO, and sometimes can get into trouble.
To choose any seo company/firm in India, you need to do a study the Credentials of SEO Company that you are interested in hiring By Checking Following:-
1. Check the Rankings of the SEO Company by searching for the Most Competitive Keywords like SEO India, Search Engine Optimization India, SEO Company India, Search Engine Optimization Company
India, Seo Services India, Search
Engine Optimization Services, India Seo Firm India, etc., If they aren’t there in top 5 for the above keywords they ain’t worth your time and money.
2. Check the Google Page Rank (Popularly Called PR) of the SEO Company’s website, Any SEO Company with a Google Page Rank < style="font-weight: bold;">SEO Certifications, Following are the two Certifications that hold the maximum weight age
o Google Qualified Adwords Company (Only 9 SEO Companies in India have this Certification)
o SEO Certification from seocertification.org holds a high value as well
If your SEO Company performs well in all the above tests, then please go ahead and hire them as they would be worthwhile.
Article source: http://www.pr-inside.com
the website has a little knowledge of the technical jargon involved in the SEO, and sometimes can get into trouble.
To choose any seo company/firm in India, you need to do a study the Credentials of SEO Company that you are interested in hiring By Checking Following:-
1. Check the Rankings of the SEO Company by searching for the Most Competitive Keywords like SEO India, Search Engine Optimization India, SEO Company India, Search Engine Optimization Company
India, Seo Services India, Search
Engine Optimization Services, India Seo Firm India, etc., If they aren’t there in top 5 for the above keywords they ain’t worth your time and money.
2. Check the Google Page Rank (Popularly Called PR) of the SEO Company’s website, Any SEO Company with a Google Page Rank < style="font-weight: bold;">SEO Certifications, Following are the two Certifications that hold the maximum weight age
o Google Qualified Adwords Company (Only 9 SEO Companies in India have this Certification)
o SEO Certification from seocertification.org holds a high value as well
If your SEO Company performs well in all the above tests, then please go ahead and hire them as they would be worthwhile.
Article source: http://www.pr-inside.com
How to Apply a Blog Hub Strategy in Your Small Business Marketing
Blogs are all the rage right now, and rightly so.
They are very versatile and easy to manage, compared to a big Website.
They offer a place for people to comment and share insights.
And they look good! Well, most of them anyway...
But perhaps most important, for a small business owner, is the blog's potential for making money.
In the lines that follow, I outline the basic strategy for creating a Blog Hub, which can then become the center of your small business's online marketing efforts.
A VISITOR-FRIENDLY SPACE ON THE WEB
Blogs are some of the most visitor-friendly places on the Web.
Why?
Because they are non-threatening.
When people think of a blog, they don't think about getting a sales pitch.
They think about receiving information.
Your blog's first and foremost job is to gather folks together (think of your blog as a virtual meeting place for the people you reach out to in your business) and provide them lots of information, along with an opportunity to interact with you and other visitors through comments.
That's what they expect when they come, and you don't want to let them down, right?
Moreover, along with the great information you provide, people will (thanks to the Blog Hub Strategy) look for an opportunity to take the next step and do business with you.
THE BLOG HUB STRATEGY AND YOUR "FEEDER SPOKES"
So once you have a blog in place, you need to start to get visitors to it, so it won't just be a ghost town. Remember, the search engines will take some time to find you, so if you just rely on your content to get search engine attention and visitors, you might have to wait awhile.
With your blog positioned as the center or "hub" of your online marketing efforts. however, you can start feeding your own traffic in.
And you do this by adding "spokes" in the way of feeder sources that bring you visitors.
These feeder spokes are such things as links from your social networks, links from your article bio boxes, links from forum posts, links from other blogs, links from your other websites, etc.
Your blog is the starting point for people to really get to know you personally, since it's the part of your social media sphere that offers you the best opportunity to not only establish your identity as a businessperson, but also to show off your expertise.
MAKING YOUR BLOG "STICKY"
A blog with high quality content is what used to be and still occasionally is referred to as a "sticky site."
This means that people will bookmark you and come back at regular intervals, most commonly when you post new content. Having good content is an integral part of a Blog Hub Strategy, since your content is why people come visit you in the first place.
Plus each time someone comes back, your relationship with them is cemented further. That's why you absolutely MUST post regularly to your blog if you want to use it as any kind of a sales and marketing funnel. By posting regularly to your blog, you feed your visitors' hunger for information. The Web is an information medium, after all. People are starving for good information on tons of topics.
You then need a way to follow up with people. This is normally done through email, rather than through your RSS feed. Utilizing the Blog Hub Strategy as a marketing tool means using your blog to make money, and the best way to make money from your readers is to follow up with them by email at regular intervals with more great content and an occasional irresistible offer just for them.
You also need to implement monetization features on the blog itself. These features include things like paid advertising, links to sales pages for affiliate offers, reseller offers, and products or services you provide personally.
Try not to do any heavy selling within the parameters of your blog itself.
IN A NUTSHELL...
Here then is a quick rundown of the 4 central tenets of the Blog Hub Strategy from a marketing perspective:
1) Send visitors to your blog via social networks, links in directories, links in your article bio boxes, links from your other websites, and anyplace else you can think of.
2) Post plenty of solid, informative content on your blog that will demonstrate your expertise in your business field and that will also help people. Don't feel like you are "giving away the farm." You can never give away too much. Giving away valuable information will only endear you to people more, despite what some naysayers might say.
3) Have a way to capture visitors' email addresses so you can follow up with them by email with your offers, updates, general news, and just to keep in touch.
4) Monetize by selling advertising and by having links in sidebars to sales pages where people can click through to and thus have the opportunity to purchase from you. Try not to do any heavy selling within your blog posts.
The Blog Hub Strategy is a formidable marketing weapon and is not being used to its full potential by most bloggers, which is why many of them are not making much money.
It is a highly effective and profitable strategy!
Article source: http://www.seo-marketing-articles.com
They are very versatile and easy to manage, compared to a big Website.
They offer a place for people to comment and share insights.
And they look good! Well, most of them anyway...
But perhaps most important, for a small business owner, is the blog's potential for making money.
In the lines that follow, I outline the basic strategy for creating a Blog Hub, which can then become the center of your small business's online marketing efforts.
A VISITOR-FRIENDLY SPACE ON THE WEB
Blogs are some of the most visitor-friendly places on the Web.
Why?
Because they are non-threatening.
When people think of a blog, they don't think about getting a sales pitch.
They think about receiving information.
Your blog's first and foremost job is to gather folks together (think of your blog as a virtual meeting place for the people you reach out to in your business) and provide them lots of information, along with an opportunity to interact with you and other visitors through comments.
That's what they expect when they come, and you don't want to let them down, right?
Moreover, along with the great information you provide, people will (thanks to the Blog Hub Strategy) look for an opportunity to take the next step and do business with you.
THE BLOG HUB STRATEGY AND YOUR "FEEDER SPOKES"
So once you have a blog in place, you need to start to get visitors to it, so it won't just be a ghost town. Remember, the search engines will take some time to find you, so if you just rely on your content to get search engine attention and visitors, you might have to wait awhile.
With your blog positioned as the center or "hub" of your online marketing efforts. however, you can start feeding your own traffic in.
And you do this by adding "spokes" in the way of feeder sources that bring you visitors.
These feeder spokes are such things as links from your social networks, links from your article bio boxes, links from forum posts, links from other blogs, links from your other websites, etc.
Your blog is the starting point for people to really get to know you personally, since it's the part of your social media sphere that offers you the best opportunity to not only establish your identity as a businessperson, but also to show off your expertise.
MAKING YOUR BLOG "STICKY"
A blog with high quality content is what used to be and still occasionally is referred to as a "sticky site."
This means that people will bookmark you and come back at regular intervals, most commonly when you post new content. Having good content is an integral part of a Blog Hub Strategy, since your content is why people come visit you in the first place.
Plus each time someone comes back, your relationship with them is cemented further. That's why you absolutely MUST post regularly to your blog if you want to use it as any kind of a sales and marketing funnel. By posting regularly to your blog, you feed your visitors' hunger for information. The Web is an information medium, after all. People are starving for good information on tons of topics.
You then need a way to follow up with people. This is normally done through email, rather than through your RSS feed. Utilizing the Blog Hub Strategy as a marketing tool means using your blog to make money, and the best way to make money from your readers is to follow up with them by email at regular intervals with more great content and an occasional irresistible offer just for them.
You also need to implement monetization features on the blog itself. These features include things like paid advertising, links to sales pages for affiliate offers, reseller offers, and products or services you provide personally.
Try not to do any heavy selling within the parameters of your blog itself.
IN A NUTSHELL...
Here then is a quick rundown of the 4 central tenets of the Blog Hub Strategy from a marketing perspective:
1) Send visitors to your blog via social networks, links in directories, links in your article bio boxes, links from your other websites, and anyplace else you can think of.
2) Post plenty of solid, informative content on your blog that will demonstrate your expertise in your business field and that will also help people. Don't feel like you are "giving away the farm." You can never give away too much. Giving away valuable information will only endear you to people more, despite what some naysayers might say.
3) Have a way to capture visitors' email addresses so you can follow up with them by email with your offers, updates, general news, and just to keep in touch.
4) Monetize by selling advertising and by having links in sidebars to sales pages where people can click through to and thus have the opportunity to purchase from you. Try not to do any heavy selling within your blog posts.
The Blog Hub Strategy is a formidable marketing weapon and is not being used to its full potential by most bloggers, which is why many of them are not making much money.
It is a highly effective and profitable strategy!
Article source: http://www.seo-marketing-articles.com
Sunday, May 17, 2009
How SEO Plays a Essential Role in Improving BusinessHow SEO Plays a Essential Role in Improving Business
Search engine optimization refers to the process of enhancing the content of a website so that it improves better visibility in search engines. The visibility of a website is measured by a terms called page rank. Google, the world’s most famous search engine, has defined an algorithm, PageRank that rates a website using scale of 1 through 10, and 10 is considered as the best PR. In the beginning all website are given PR 0 and as they gain more visibility, their page range is also enhanced. Meeting all these criteria via organic practices refers to search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization plays a crucial role in enhancing a business. Majority of the traffic generated on a website is due to search engines. When a user enters a keyword
in the search column of a search engine browser, the search engine displays a huge host of the websites that befit the relevant keyword. The position of site in the search engine page result is, therefore the most essential. Most users are likely to visit the topmost pages listed in the search engines. To achieve the highest level, the website should have adopted proper SEO methods.
SEO is the fundamental principle of Internet marketing. The entire internet marketing techniques focus on optimizing the websites more for the search engines than for users. The most common SEO strategies include link building, content creation and optimizing, keyword research, Meta description, social media optimization, et al.
Keyword research refers to find website relevant keywords with the average traffic. Meta description means to make short description of keywords in order to make your website search engines friendly. Content creation and optimization refers to using keyword rich content and circulating them to various resources that are capable of creating inbound traffic. Link building is another renowned method adopted to form creative links to a website. In SMO, the website is optimized for various social bookmarking websites like stumbleupon.com, digg.com, twitter.com, etc.
Each of these methods have their own effect on page rang of the website. By adopting such organic methods, the PR of the website can be gradually improved. Ultimately all these will show up in the progress of the business.
Search engine optimization plays a crucial role in enhancing a business. Majority of the traffic generated on a website is due to search engines. When a user enters a keyword
in the search column of a search engine browser, the search engine displays a huge host of the websites that befit the relevant keyword. The position of site in the search engine page result is, therefore the most essential. Most users are likely to visit the topmost pages listed in the search engines. To achieve the highest level, the website should have adopted proper SEO methods.
SEO is the fundamental principle of Internet marketing. The entire internet marketing techniques focus on optimizing the websites more for the search engines than for users. The most common SEO strategies include link building, content creation and optimizing, keyword research, Meta description, social media optimization, et al.
Keyword research refers to find website relevant keywords with the average traffic. Meta description means to make short description of keywords in order to make your website search engines friendly. Content creation and optimization refers to using keyword rich content and circulating them to various resources that are capable of creating inbound traffic. Link building is another renowned method adopted to form creative links to a website. In SMO, the website is optimized for various social bookmarking websites like stumbleupon.com, digg.com, twitter.com, etc.
Each of these methods have their own effect on page rang of the website. By adopting such organic methods, the PR of the website can be gradually improved. Ultimately all these will show up in the progress of the business.
Article source: http://www.articlesbase.com
Saturday, May 16, 2009
10 Easy Steps for Improving Web Traffic
1. Top 5 five SEO mistakes you should avoid in your webpage
2. Five things you should never forget in your SEO plan
3. Techniques to get more traffic with a high quality content
4. Why you shouldn’t forget Yahoo and MSN?
5. Getting a huge web traffic and SEO trends for 2009
6. Increasing your Google Adsense CTR
7. Become a web traffic master
8. Useful SEO tips to make your blog famous
9. Most significant ways how Pay-Per-Click can positively impact your business
10. Getting more traffic is not an alternative if you want survive in 2009
2. Five things you should never forget in your SEO plan
3. Techniques to get more traffic with a high quality content
4. Why you shouldn’t forget Yahoo and MSN?
5. Getting a huge web traffic and SEO trends for 2009
6. Increasing your Google Adsense CTR
7. Become a web traffic master
8. Useful SEO tips to make your blog famous
9. Most significant ways how Pay-Per-Click can positively impact your business
10. Getting more traffic is not an alternative if you want survive in 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Search Engine Marketing(SEM) and Positioning Explained
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves utilizing a combination of site submissions and paid search engine listings to help ensure your site reaches your customers who are using search engines to make buying decisions.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the method of increasing your site’s visibility in the search engines for the most important keywords and phrases that are relevant to your firm.
- Keyword research and development involves writing search engine friendly copy, content, articles, meta tag optimization, linking strategy and implementation, website submission and analyzing results.
What are Pay Per Click & Pay For Inclusion programs?
- Pay-per-click (PPC) involves paying for your website to have a prominent position on the relevant search results page of a specific search engine. For each visitor that clicks on your link you are charged a specific fee or Pay-Per-Click rate. With PPC you only pay for the actual results.
- Pay-for-inclusions (PFI) involves paying to get your site listed on a certain search engine. It doesn't guarantee high rankings. You still need optimzation to get high rankings. PFI gives you an opportunity to gain a top position but without a good SEO strategy, it’s effectiveness is limited.
The benefits of search engine marketing & search engine optimization
- Search Engines outperform all other forms of media in driving visitors to sites. Over 85% of web users state that search engines are the primary method to find specific sites.
- Traffic from search engines is the most valuable kind of traffic as it is comprised of qualified visitors actively looking for a product, service or solution.
- Search engines work for you non-stop, 24/7.
Why you need search engine marketing?
- Over 92% of users don’t look further than the first 2 pages of search results and most will not even look past the first 10 results.
- More than 30% of users believe companies found in the top search results are a major firm in their specific category. SEM raises your online profile and builds brand awareness.
- SEM has been proven to yield the highest Return On Investment in terms of generating more traffic, leads and sales to your site than any other marketing channel
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Complete SEO Guide Reviews
As someone who makes a living off of affiliate marketing and SEO, I think that one can objectively say that CompleteSeoGuide is currently selling the most complete SEO guide available on the internet. In its 400+ pages of organized information, I think that there is definitely something to be learned for everyone - beginners all the way to "gurus." The information is organized very well and can be learned even by readers who do not yet have much experience in the world of Search Engine Optimization.
Who is going to be helped by the Complete Seo Guide?
Anyone who is currently having trouble getting traffic to their website due to the popularity of their keywords will gain very useful tips. Moreover, there are many webmasters who operate in "popular keyword territory" and are currently relying on PPC for their traffic who will find that re-arranging their budget and focusing on SEO/SERPS will have much stronger short-term and long-term effects for their website than what PPC will be able to accomplish for them. For those of you working with keywords that are not popular, you will also learn how to easily rank in the top ranking on Google, MSN, and Yahoo.
In terms of the writing style of the e-book, there were times that I found the information in the Complete SEO Guide to be a little repetitive, and for the writing style to be a little drawn out. In terms of clarity of the information being given over though, I was very impressed with the lucidity and clearness of the e-book given the complexity of the topic being dealt with. In other words, the author has great talent in explaining complicated concepts in very easy terms which means that implementing his ideas can be very simple.
Recently, I have seen the Google Page Rank of 2 of my several affiliate marketing blogs jump from PR3 to PR5 over the course of just a few months. I am not certain that I can point to a specific technique which led to this “promotion”, but there is a very good chance that it was from one of the new ideas implanted in brain by the minds behind CompleteSeoGuide I’ll admit that these blogs are in fields where there is little competition and therefore is not earning me an insane amount of money (well, not yet) but Page Rank is not connected at all to competition and I’m sure it is just a matter of time till the page ranks of all my blogs can reach PR5. After reading the comprehensive guide, I re-wrote many articles on my websites and have already begun to harvest the profits. Currently, one affiliate marketing real-estate blog that I manage has had its traffic double from 250 visitors a day to 450 visitors a day causing my profits to almost double at an increase of 43% from last month. All in all, I feel that I can fairly point to the Complete SEO Guide as the roots of some of my recent success.
If you put in the right amount of effort into your site and you fulfill the commitment to yourself and your website by reading this e-book, I think that you will see the organic traffic to your site increase pleasantly both in quantity and quality. My changes to page titles, meta tags, articles writing, promotion, permalinks, and link development have led to my personal growth in organic traffic and there is no reason why they won’t work for you as well.
As always, I welcome comments on all of my articles and encourage readers to share their opinions with me and the rest of the online community.
Article source : http://www.evancarmichael.com
Who is going to be helped by the Complete Seo Guide?
Anyone who is currently having trouble getting traffic to their website due to the popularity of their keywords will gain very useful tips. Moreover, there are many webmasters who operate in "popular keyword territory" and are currently relying on PPC for their traffic who will find that re-arranging their budget and focusing on SEO/SERPS will have much stronger short-term and long-term effects for their website than what PPC will be able to accomplish for them. For those of you working with keywords that are not popular, you will also learn how to easily rank in the top ranking on Google, MSN, and Yahoo.
In terms of the writing style of the e-book, there were times that I found the information in the Complete SEO Guide to be a little repetitive, and for the writing style to be a little drawn out. In terms of clarity of the information being given over though, I was very impressed with the lucidity and clearness of the e-book given the complexity of the topic being dealt with. In other words, the author has great talent in explaining complicated concepts in very easy terms which means that implementing his ideas can be very simple.
Recently, I have seen the Google Page Rank of 2 of my several affiliate marketing blogs jump from PR3 to PR5 over the course of just a few months. I am not certain that I can point to a specific technique which led to this “promotion”, but there is a very good chance that it was from one of the new ideas implanted in brain by the minds behind CompleteSeoGuide I’ll admit that these blogs are in fields where there is little competition and therefore is not earning me an insane amount of money (well, not yet) but Page Rank is not connected at all to competition and I’m sure it is just a matter of time till the page ranks of all my blogs can reach PR5. After reading the comprehensive guide, I re-wrote many articles on my websites and have already begun to harvest the profits. Currently, one affiliate marketing real-estate blog that I manage has had its traffic double from 250 visitors a day to 450 visitors a day causing my profits to almost double at an increase of 43% from last month. All in all, I feel that I can fairly point to the Complete SEO Guide as the roots of some of my recent success.
If you put in the right amount of effort into your site and you fulfill the commitment to yourself and your website by reading this e-book, I think that you will see the organic traffic to your site increase pleasantly both in quantity and quality. My changes to page titles, meta tags, articles writing, promotion, permalinks, and link development have led to my personal growth in organic traffic and there is no reason why they won’t work for you as well.
As always, I welcome comments on all of my articles and encourage readers to share their opinions with me and the rest of the online community.
Article source : http://www.evancarmichael.com
Sunday, May 10, 2009
SEO Optimization Techniques
Search Engine Optimisation aims to improve web site ranking and generate high return on Investment. In order to have the 'just-right' approach to SEO, the need arises for the 'just-right' technique.
Search engine optimization techniques are differentiated based on being 'black hat' or 'white hat'. As most deceptive things are termed 'black', so is the unethical, unacceptable and improper SEO technique. As opposed to the 'white hat’, which is, a technique employed for SEO within the acceptable and guided framework of search engines, a 'black hat' is aimed at improving ranking by manipulation.
White Hat targets users and not search engines as creates relevant content for users. It ensures that the content is easily accessible to the crawler and is indexed by the search engine in the same manner as is seen by user. A white hat technique conforms to search engine guidelines and does not trick the algorithm to make ends meet. It is also referred to as 'organic' or 'natural' SEO technique.
Black Hat technique involves improving ranks working outside search engine guidelines and aiming to trick the algorithm into generating results. It uses 'Cloaking' which is a technique where a page is presented differently to the user and search engine, depending on the request. 'Keyword stuffing' is also black hat where long lists of keywords and nothing else is done on the web site. 'Invisible text' is where keywords in white text is put on white background to attract crawlers. Also, 'doorway pages' where a 'fake' page never visible to user is put to trick search engines into indexing them.
Search Engines review the web site contents manually or by algorithms and if 'black hat' techniques are used for SEO, these websites may be banned or their rankings would be reduced. A penalty might also result.
A well accepted and effective SEO strategy therefore needs to be clearly a 'white hat' as though 'black hat' techniques bring about immediate short-term high ranking but upon search engine scrutiny bans or penalties makes it a risk NOT worth taking for.
Let us help you wear a white hat and develop the 'just-right' SEO strategy.
Article source : http://www.searchengineoptimisation.eu
Search engine optimization techniques are differentiated based on being 'black hat' or 'white hat'. As most deceptive things are termed 'black', so is the unethical, unacceptable and improper SEO technique. As opposed to the 'white hat’, which is, a technique employed for SEO within the acceptable and guided framework of search engines, a 'black hat' is aimed at improving ranking by manipulation.
White Hat targets users and not search engines as creates relevant content for users. It ensures that the content is easily accessible to the crawler and is indexed by the search engine in the same manner as is seen by user. A white hat technique conforms to search engine guidelines and does not trick the algorithm to make ends meet. It is also referred to as 'organic' or 'natural' SEO technique.
Black Hat technique involves improving ranks working outside search engine guidelines and aiming to trick the algorithm into generating results. It uses 'Cloaking' which is a technique where a page is presented differently to the user and search engine, depending on the request. 'Keyword stuffing' is also black hat where long lists of keywords and nothing else is done on the web site. 'Invisible text' is where keywords in white text is put on white background to attract crawlers. Also, 'doorway pages' where a 'fake' page never visible to user is put to trick search engines into indexing them.
Search Engines review the web site contents manually or by algorithms and if 'black hat' techniques are used for SEO, these websites may be banned or their rankings would be reduced. A penalty might also result.
A well accepted and effective SEO strategy therefore needs to be clearly a 'white hat' as though 'black hat' techniques bring about immediate short-term high ranking but upon search engine scrutiny bans or penalties makes it a risk NOT worth taking for.
Let us help you wear a white hat and develop the 'just-right' SEO strategy.
Article source : http://www.searchengineoptimisation.eu
Thursday, May 7, 2009
SEO and Social Media
When establishing a presence on the internet, what is more important? Search engine optimization or social media?
When writing I try to keep in mind that not every understands the jargon, so by the way,
Search engine optimization - the science of having your site come up higher as a result when people search of terms related to you business. This is easy if your site is about “antique thimbles from the renaissance period” and harder if your site is about “sex”. Usually referred to as SEO or SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Social media - the art of using networking tools on the internet to listen to and reach out to your current and potential customers. This includes blogging, microblogging, videos, photos, and social networking.
It is one of those huge questions: if you are trying to create a web presence, where do you start?
Do you start with the science or the art? Or do you do it on the cheap and mash it all together?
Jason Falls questions that method, telling “Why You Shouldn’t Trust Social Media to a SEO Consultant”
I understand his perspective that there’s a gap between the science and the art and those who get the science may not get the art and vice versa.
However, some took offense in the comments, saying that an SEO consultant may have the capacity to drive a social media campaign as well. I know that I plan on learning more about SEO myself in the future so I can be more useful on both sides of the fence.
Both are equally important, SEO gets your site seen by people looking for what you have to offer and there is so much competition on the internet that any edge is valuable, however social media gets you exposure in the industry and from customers who didn’t know you had what they wanted. It’s closer to traditional marketing but fused with networking and word of mouth.
There’s also SMO, or social media optimization, the idea that the word of mouth and publicity to social media will get you the links needed to move your site up the ranks, but many SEO consultants would say that it is not enough and doesn’t cover all that they could provide.
I suppose one takes a risk with choosing one over the other or mashing the two together, but at least you know your options.
Article source: http://sloan.ucr.edu
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Google SEO Basics Inforamtion for Beginners
Introduction
As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated by many as the number one search engine in the world. We personally know that our websites get about 90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.
Getting indexed by Google can be a pain, but getting highly placed rankings for specific keywords seems to be the nut that not many web developers without SEO (search engine optimization) experience or seo training can crack.
Today we’re going to give you an informative primer on the basics of search engine optimization techniques -- many of which we use everyday to optimize our websites and stay ahead of our competitors.
4 Steps to Better Rankings
We personally believe in the "practice what you preach" approach to all things business related -- especially SEO. So, before we continue, here's a sample of keywords and Google rankings for some of our websites:
Website Keywords Google Ranking
Activekb.com Knowledgebase software #2 of 4,980,000
DevEdit.com Online HTML editor #3 of 9,080,000
MyFreeTemplates.com Free Dreamweaver Templates #4 of 93,600
Step 1. Choosing The Right Keywords
Choosing the right keywords to base your site optimization around is an important first step. General or generic keywords are usually not the best approach, and sometimes it's better to be a little more specific and focus on niche keywords relating to your product or service.
For example, let's talk about www.devedit.com -- DevEdit is our WYSIWYG HTML editing component that drops into browser-based applications.
The problem is, there are a LOT of WYSIWYG HTML editors, but how can we get DevEdit to appear in Google's top 10 rankings? Well, let's see. Trying to optimize for the keyword "HTML" alone would be a tough task, as it's too general. There are HTML editors, HTML tutorials, HTML articles, etc.
We need to be more specific, which means:
1. Targeting a more suitable market that is looking for a content editing solution
2. Competing with fewer websites targeting the same keywords
3. Optimizing for keywords that people actually use when performing searches
Targeting a suitable market will depend on your website, as well as the products and services you offer. Try to be specific with your keywords, and remember that people no longer use single keyword search phrases - the average search phrase contains 3-5 related words.
For example, if you're optimizing for a web development site and you're located in Sydney, Australia, use keywords such as "web development Sydney" or "web development services Australia".
To find out how many websites are competing with your keywords -- either intentionally or not -- simply do a search on Google and note down how many results are returned. In our case, for "online html editor", we're competing with 9,080,000 sites. The more sites that are competing for your keywords, the harder it will be to get on the front page.
Alternatively, to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords you want to optimize your site for, use the Overture search suggestion tool. It's not exact, and doesn't measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.
The Overture search suggestion tool will also provide you with a list of similar keywords, based on the keywords you enter. This can be a great way to find other keywords to optimize your site for.
As a rough guideline, try to optimize every page on your site for a different search phrase. Each search phrase should contain 2 to 3 highly targeted keywords.
Step 2. Your URL and Title Tag
Two of the most determining factors in Google's ranking are your domain name and title tag. For example, a domain name such as:
http://www.web-development-sydney.com will generally get ranked higher than http://www.companyname.com, assuming that they had identical keywords and page content.
For some of us, keywords in the domain name look too unprofessional, and we've already registered our domain, so it’s too late to change. An alternative -- and also a useful tactic -- is to add your keywords into the names of your pages, such as
http://www.companyname.com/web-development-services.html
Your title tag is equally as important as your domain name. Using keywords in your title tag can improve your Google ranking significantly. Trying to achieve a balance of professionalism with keyword density in the title tag however is sometimes a little more difficult.
Going back to our example of a web development company earlier, a good title tag would be:
"Company name provides professional affordable web development services in Sydney Australia."
Usually, the closer to the front of your title tag the keywords are placed, the better.
Step 3. H1 Tags and Keyword Density
tags seem to have been depreciated by stylesheets these days, and are not used as often as they used to be.
The Google ranking algorithm dictates that if you're using a tag, then the text in between this tag must be more important than the content on the rest of the page. Here's a quick example:
Google sees this tag as more important
By default, H1 tags aren't the prettiest in terms of formatting, so using a CSS style to override the default look is usually a good idea:
H1 { color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px }
Sprinkling keywords throughout your page content can also improve your sites keyword density. Keyword density simply means the ratio of optimized keywords to the rest of the content on your page. It is usually expressed as a percentage, and should be between 7% and 10% for each page on your site.
Don't overdo the keyword density, however, but don't overlook it either. A good example would be:
Before:
* Company name provides web design and site management services to our clients.
After:
* Company name provides web development services to the Sydney region in Australia
Notice how we use the keywords more efficiently the second time around?
Step 4. Links, Links and More Links
And this leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back-links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as your website must be good if so many other sites are linking back to it.
If you run a web development company, then adding a simple link to the bottom of each of your client's websites, such as:
< a href="http://www.yoursite.com">Web development by Company Name</a>
... (With your clients permission of course) can help boost your back links, which will help boost your ranking position in searches.
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories is also an important step to increase the number of sites linking back to yours. Do remember however, that setting up back links takes time. I would recommend emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links (keeping in mind that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive) e.g. - If you sell chocolate, partnering with a company that sells Roses may just be a good idea. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a good 100 or so sites happily linking back to yours!
Conclusion
Google can be one tough search engine to crack. Hopefully, however, in this article we’ve provided you with enough basic tips to get started optimizing both yours and your clients website.
Article source : http://www.interspire.com
As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated by many as the number one search engine in the world. We personally know that our websites get about 90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.
Getting indexed by Google can be a pain, but getting highly placed rankings for specific keywords seems to be the nut that not many web developers without SEO (search engine optimization) experience or seo training can crack.
Today we’re going to give you an informative primer on the basics of search engine optimization techniques -- many of which we use everyday to optimize our websites and stay ahead of our competitors.
4 Steps to Better Rankings
We personally believe in the "practice what you preach" approach to all things business related -- especially SEO. So, before we continue, here's a sample of keywords and Google rankings for some of our websites:
Website Keywords Google Ranking
Activekb.com Knowledgebase software #2 of 4,980,000
DevEdit.com Online HTML editor #3 of 9,080,000
MyFreeTemplates.com Free Dreamweaver Templates #4 of 93,600
Step 1. Choosing The Right Keywords
Choosing the right keywords to base your site optimization around is an important first step. General or generic keywords are usually not the best approach, and sometimes it's better to be a little more specific and focus on niche keywords relating to your product or service.
For example, let's talk about www.devedit.com -- DevEdit is our WYSIWYG HTML editing component that drops into browser-based applications.
The problem is, there are a LOT of WYSIWYG HTML editors, but how can we get DevEdit to appear in Google's top 10 rankings? Well, let's see. Trying to optimize for the keyword "HTML" alone would be a tough task, as it's too general. There are HTML editors, HTML tutorials, HTML articles, etc.
We need to be more specific, which means:
1. Targeting a more suitable market that is looking for a content editing solution
2. Competing with fewer websites targeting the same keywords
3. Optimizing for keywords that people actually use when performing searches
Targeting a suitable market will depend on your website, as well as the products and services you offer. Try to be specific with your keywords, and remember that people no longer use single keyword search phrases - the average search phrase contains 3-5 related words.
For example, if you're optimizing for a web development site and you're located in Sydney, Australia, use keywords such as "web development Sydney" or "web development services Australia".
To find out how many websites are competing with your keywords -- either intentionally or not -- simply do a search on Google and note down how many results are returned. In our case, for "online html editor", we're competing with 9,080,000 sites. The more sites that are competing for your keywords, the harder it will be to get on the front page.
Alternatively, to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords you want to optimize your site for, use the Overture search suggestion tool. It's not exact, and doesn't measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.
The Overture search suggestion tool will also provide you with a list of similar keywords, based on the keywords you enter. This can be a great way to find other keywords to optimize your site for.
As a rough guideline, try to optimize every page on your site for a different search phrase. Each search phrase should contain 2 to 3 highly targeted keywords.
Step 2. Your URL and Title Tag
Two of the most determining factors in Google's ranking are your domain name and title tag. For example, a domain name such as:
http://www.web-development-sydney.com will generally get ranked higher than http://www.companyname.com, assuming that they had identical keywords and page content.
For some of us, keywords in the domain name look too unprofessional, and we've already registered our domain, so it’s too late to change. An alternative -- and also a useful tactic -- is to add your keywords into the names of your pages, such as
http://www.companyname.com/web-development-services.html
Your title tag is equally as important as your domain name. Using keywords in your title tag can improve your Google ranking significantly. Trying to achieve a balance of professionalism with keyword density in the title tag however is sometimes a little more difficult.
Going back to our example of a web development company earlier, a good title tag would be:
Usually, the closer to the front of your title tag the keywords are placed, the better.
Step 3. H1 Tags and Keyword Density
tags seem to have been depreciated by stylesheets these days, and are not used as often as they used to be.
The Google ranking algorithm dictates that if you're using a tag, then the text in between this tag must be more important than the content on the rest of the page. Here's a quick example:
Google sees this tag as more important
... than this text
By default, H1 tags aren't the prettiest in terms of formatting, so using a CSS style to override the default look is usually a good idea:
H1 { color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px }
Sprinkling keywords throughout your page content can also improve your sites keyword density. Keyword density simply means the ratio of optimized keywords to the rest of the content on your page. It is usually expressed as a percentage, and should be between 7% and 10% for each page on your site.
Don't overdo the keyword density, however, but don't overlook it either. A good example would be:
Before:
* Company name provides web design and site management services to our clients.
After:
* Company name provides web development services to the Sydney region in Australia
Notice how we use the keywords more efficiently the second time around?
Step 4. Links, Links and More Links
And this leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back-links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as your website must be good if so many other sites are linking back to it.
If you run a web development company, then adding a simple link to the bottom of each of your client's websites, such as:
< a href="http://www.yoursite.com">Web development by Company Name</a>
... (With your clients permission of course) can help boost your back links, which will help boost your ranking position in searches.
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories is also an important step to increase the number of sites linking back to yours. Do remember however, that setting up back links takes time. I would recommend emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links (keeping in mind that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive) e.g. - If you sell chocolate, partnering with a company that sells Roses may just be a good idea. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a good 100 or so sites happily linking back to yours!
Conclusion
Google can be one tough search engine to crack. Hopefully, however, in this article we’ve provided you with enough basic tips to get started optimizing both yours and your clients website.
Article source : http://www.interspire.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
21 Important SEO Tips & Techniques
Small businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization. But if you read a variety of small businesses blogs and Web sites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.
This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 “don’ts.” Naturally, this week addresses the “Do’s”—things to make sure you include whether you’re hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.
Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do’s
1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.
5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.
9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.
12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.
13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.
15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.
16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.
17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.
18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.
20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.
21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
Article source: http://searchengineland.com
This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 “don’ts.” Naturally, this week addresses the “Do’s”—things to make sure you include whether you’re hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.
Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do’s
1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.
5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.
9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.
12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.
13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.
15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.
16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.
17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.
18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.
20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.
21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
Article source: http://searchengineland.com
Monday, May 4, 2009
SEO Mistakes that Reduce Web Page Ranking
The following are a list of SEO mistakes can ensure that your site maintains a low ranking with the search engines. Avoid at all costs.
* Specifying no title for your page
* Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page
* Complicated menu systems
Specifying no title for your page:
I cannot stress how important the title of a web page is. Failing to specify a descriptive, keyword optimized title will do untold damage to your ranking with the search engines. It is the equivalent to owning a shop and boarding up its windows. Ideally each page on your site should have a unique, content-specific title following the guidelines specified in the Title Tag Optimization article.
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Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page:
If your web page has plenty of nice-looking graphics and eye-popping Flash animation and not a lot of textual content it may indeed look nice but have you ever considered what how the search engines might see it. Search engines thrive on textual content, scavenging as much text as they can but unfortunately they cannot understand images or Flash animations like we can and so will find nothing of real value on your page. Try to balance your page so that the textual content is given priority and that any images or animations are used only when needed. Also it is a good idea to attach some text to an image by using its ALT tag as search engines use this text when determining rank.
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Complicated menu systems:
Search engines spiders that crawl through our pages are a relatively primitive bunch. They find in hard to navigate complicated menu systems implemented for example in JavaScript or as a Java applet. Just because it is easy for a human to navigate through the site never assume it will be as easy for a search engine spider. A menu system using simple textual links will be easier for a spider to understand and it will be able to successfully navigate your site. A lot of the time complicated menu systems can be replicated using textual links and CSS.
If you must use a complicated menu system be sure to provide a site map that is clearly accessible from the homepage of your site and contains only textual links to your pages. This ensures that even if the spider cannot understand your menu system that it will be able to find the pages on your site.
Article source: http://www.geocities.com
* Specifying no title for your page
* Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page
* Complicated menu systems
Specifying no title for your page:
I cannot stress how important the title of a web page is. Failing to specify a descriptive, keyword optimized title will do untold damage to your ranking with the search engines. It is the equivalent to owning a shop and boarding up its windows. Ideally each page on your site should have a unique, content-specific title following the guidelines specified in the Title Tag Optimization article.
back to top
Excessive use of images or Flash animation on a page:
If your web page has plenty of nice-looking graphics and eye-popping Flash animation and not a lot of textual content it may indeed look nice but have you ever considered what how the search engines might see it. Search engines thrive on textual content, scavenging as much text as they can but unfortunately they cannot understand images or Flash animations like we can and so will find nothing of real value on your page. Try to balance your page so that the textual content is given priority and that any images or animations are used only when needed. Also it is a good idea to attach some text to an image by using its ALT tag as search engines use this text when determining rank.
back to top
Complicated menu systems:
Search engines spiders that crawl through our pages are a relatively primitive bunch. They find in hard to navigate complicated menu systems implemented for example in JavaScript or as a Java applet. Just because it is easy for a human to navigate through the site never assume it will be as easy for a search engine spider. A menu system using simple textual links will be easier for a spider to understand and it will be able to successfully navigate your site. A lot of the time complicated menu systems can be replicated using textual links and CSS.
If you must use a complicated menu system be sure to provide a site map that is clearly accessible from the homepage of your site and contains only textual links to your pages. This ensures that even if the spider cannot understand your menu system that it will be able to find the pages on your site.
Article source: http://www.geocities.com
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