Why should I care about Social Media Optimization?
You should care about Social Media Optimization (SMO), because you care about your company's image. There's an old saying that goes something like, "A happy customer will tell one other person about his good experience. A disgruntled customer will tell ten people about his bad experience." Good or bad, that's powerful marketing. Social Media Optimization gives you the power to take an active role in managing your brand by interacting with your current and potential clients by discussing your products, their comments and concerns and continually promoting your brand.
Social Media Optimization Defined
In its most basic form, Social media optimization is any method used to raise your website's online visibility through meaningful communication. SMO opens a dialogue between you and your clients, using the power of popular opinion to fuel your marketing campaign. The open format strengthens your search engine optimization efforts by fostering a mutual connection with your clients through the myriad of online communities, also called social media sites. Current examples of SMO include:
* Creating profiles in social media communities such as MySpace, Facebook, and VIRB.
* Participating in and/or creating blogs.
* Disseminating your blogs or articles using RSS feeds.
* Creating and sharing content through community based sites like Flickr, YouTube, and more.
Not to incorporate unnecessary buzz words, but SMO is a very Web 2.0 approach to Search Engine Optimization. Of course, Web 2.0 merely refers to the perceived second generation of Web-based communities and hosted services - the social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies, which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. SMO allows you to become an active member of your online community, quite an important aspect of marketing your brand. Through participation, you establish yourself or your company as an industry leader and improve your online visibility.
As you can imagine, Social Media Optimization is most effective when the viral nature of the technique and its communities are utilized in a positive manner. Creating legitimate content, building relationships and instilling trust in your community is the very backbone of SMO. You may initiate the process, but effective SMO will take on a life all its own. A true forum is bred through the act of continual communication between your company and your online audience.
Of course, not everyone plays by the rules. In every aspect of life, you will find those who would cheat the system to receive short term gains. Like most schemes, the underbelly of SMO may seem attractive to anyone looking for a quick fix, but don't make that mistake. Just as it's true with SEO, erroneous SMO will backfire. Using questionable techniques will very likely yield the exact opposite results you were hoping to see.
SMO Etiquette
Legitimate SMO techniques are centered on sharing information and exposing your community to your interests. As such, you want to focus on promoting proper SMO etiquette. The MySpace super fríend, the guy or gal who adds anyone and everyone, would be a good example of improper Social Media Optimization. The whole concept behind Social Media is to create a community with similar interests for meaningful discussion and let the power of popular opinion grow your online visibility. Of course, you may belong to several different communities and you may even have some of the same friends in those different communities. That's perfectly fine. The idea is to remain active in your communities by adding friends and contributing relevant content. Adding friends in bulk, for no reason, is no way to optimize.
Communal sites like MySpace and Facebook, or even YouTube and Flickr to some extent, are indeed popularity contests. However, simply trying to catalog massive amounts of unrelated, uninterested "friends" is totally counterproductive. Let the high school kids worry about who's got the most friends. For the purpose of SMO, you should concern yourself with quality, not quantity.
Using unsavory SMO techniques is the Web 2.0 equivalent to spam. Unfortunately, we're all far too familiar with spam. Unsolicited bulk messaging and link heavy advertisements instead of useful comments are two of the more prevalent methods of Social Media spamming. However, Social Media spamming is even more atrocious than email spam, because the offending text is visible to everyone on the site. It doesn't hide in your inbox, so it can really dilute the appeal of the site. Your kindergarten teacher was on the right track. If you don't have something relevant to say, don't say anything at all.
Is SMO right for my firm?
There are many different types of Social Media sites currently available. To put it in perspective, think about all the different interests you have in life. Now, consider the possibility that there's at least one Social Media site for each of your interests. Of course, you're not the only person on the Internet, so it's a safe bet there are literally millíons of sites dedicated to countless interests around the globe. Believe it or not, there's a group out there looking for your company, product or service. You just have to make it available. Therefore, understanding how to submit to and maintain your content on each community is absolutely crucial when developing a successful SMO strategy.
A few examples of the different Social Media genres include:
• News - These sites allow users to submit news articles. Once an article is published, users can submit their comments and vote to promote the story and/or author.
Examples include: Digg, Propeller, Newsvine
• Media - These sites allow users to upload and share a variety of different media files. The overwhelming majority of these sites are dedicated mainly to photo and video files.
Examples include: YouTube, Flickr
• Wiki - These sites allow users to add and edit informational articles as determined by the individual users.
Examples include: Wikipedia, WikiHow, Million Dollar Wiki
• Networking - These sites allow users to create profiles and network with others according to similar traits, tastes, and interests.
Examples include: MySpace, Facebook, Virb
• Bookmarking - These sites allow users to compile public bookmark collections of sites they find interesting, informative, or helpful. The more a site is bookmarked, the higher the ranking.
Examples include: Stumble Upon, Technorat, Del.icio.us
When executed properly, Social Media Optimization can be quite a beneficial marketing tool. However, SMO may simply not be the right fít for your organization. Some questions you might like to consider before launching your SMO campaign are:
* Most SMO sites share very specific information. Would your products benefit from this type of content specific market?
* The audience for most Social Media sites is more of a young, tech savvy group. Would your company, product or service appeal to their fickle nature?
* Does your web site contain a blog, or similar media outlet, you can regularly update with relevant content?
* Given the fact that community based sites focus on individual profiles and commentary, are you comfortable with developing unique profiles across multiple sites?
In summary
Social Media Optimization has become a successful marketing tool for one simple reason. It works. The gap between old media and new has gotten smaller and smaller with the majority of the prominent television and print media outlets finally embracing the Internet by launching sites of their own. The different Social Media sites, like MySpace and Facebook, have exploded with profiles for everything from 8th graders discussing their favorite bands to full scale ad campaigns for Blockbuster movies.
If done correctly, SMO can expose your brand to markets you didn't think possible. Whether it's used alone to drive a campaign or in conjunction with your current interactive marketing strategy, Social Media Optimization offers you a significant advantage.
About The Author
Brian Easter is the CEO of NeboWeb. As CEO, Easter has led NeboWeb to explosive growth, attracting Fortune 500 clients and driving strategic partnerships which have fueled NeboWeb's expansion.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
All Websites Are International
Tip O'Neill, the late Speaker of The House of Representatives is often quoted as saying "All politics is local," meaning a politician that helps a constituent with a problem is likely to win that vote based on the personal assistance provided, irrespective of that politician's stance on the larger, more weighty, geo-political issues. What then of business, is all business local or international?
Shopping Is An Experience
The world has changed dramatically since the days when neighborhood shopping was the main option, and people relied on their local merchants for products and services. The world of commerce today seems to be divided between two competing scenarios: on the one hand, people are more mobile than ever before, and more willing to travel to buy what they want, even with wildly fluctuating energy costs; and on the other hand, people are busier than ever and use the Internet to seek out the companies, products, and services they want and need.
What seems to be consistent is the underlying need to feel something, to experience the process. The higher the value, the greater the psychological component to the buying experience. The same is true for products and services that are considered non-essential.
People Wonder Why They Can't Sell More Stuff
We all have our favorite stores and websites, where we know we will be looked-after with more than the ubiquitous and perfunctory, "have a nice day," but sadly that sense of service is all but lost in a misguided rush to pseudo efficiency. Brick and mortar stores with their part-time, minimum wage time-fillers whose only talent seems to be a vacant blank stare accompanied by "that's not my department" is bad enough. But what of websites that don't accept phone calls, or any other kind of inquiry other than a form email that you can be assured will be answered in a week or two, along with a request for more information that generally corresponds to the information you've already provided - that's what passes for website service today. And people wonder why they can't sell more stuff.
The Web Is An International Venue
The Web of course presents one additional wrinkle to the service issue, one that puts a premium on communicating your message effectively: the Web is an international venue. No matter what you do, or where you're located, you can be sure people from all parts of the world are visiting your website if you have something of value to say. This then puts a premium on your ability to articulate a coherent message, one that eliminates the need for visitors to phone Mumbai, Beijing, or Lickskillet, Ohio.
English speaking companies have a hard enough time communicating effectively, but what of non-English speaking companies trying to break into the North American market? You find websites in many different languages, catering to local markets, but if you're looking for North American exposure, you best deliver your message in the language of the Web, and like it or not, that language is English.
Words Have Meaning
Far be it from me to criticize CBS news anchor Katie Couric, who generally does a fine job, but when she refers to the Democrats winning the House, Senate, and Presidency as "single party rule" it raises the hackles on the back of my neck. Words have meaning and presentation has impact. But I am not just talking about proper grammar, syntax, and usage, something many of us stumble over at times, but what of idiom, metaphor, and voice; elements that are just as important in effective marketing communication as proper usage.
Years ago while visiting London, England I passed a store with the sign that read "Fags and Mags," a disconcerting message until I got acclimatized to the British slang. When it comes to marketing, you can get away with a lot, but even countries that speak the same language have different patois, slang, and cultural references.
One of the great advantages of being from Canada with its proximity to the USA, its historical ties to the British Commonwealth, and its multicultural population is that we understand these differences and can translate them into effective North American marketing campaigns.
Crafting Your Web Marketing Message
What do you sell? A seemingly simple question any business executive should be able to answer, but can they answer it accurately? Ask yourself: do you sell a product, a service, or a concept? Does a shoe store sell shoes, or comfort and status? Does an accountant sell auditing services, or legitimacy and security? Does a politician sell tax cuts, or a better future?
When it comes to marketing you have to think concepts; if you build your advertising around products or services rather than concepts you will never be able to develop an effective campaign, let alone an effective website presentation.
Take Target and Walmart for example: they both sell similar products for the most part, a problem many retailers and most distributors have but refuse to face. Target markets itself as the leader in low priced, designer-styled merchandise, a distinct marketing position compared to Walmart that markets itself as the low priced leader and the heck with design. Each company delivers a unique marketing concept, one targeting consumers interested in price alone, the other aimed at shoppers who want a little style with their bargains: two different concepts, two different brand positions, and two different marketing strategies.
We All Sell Concepts Not Products and Services
One way or another we all sell a concept no matter what the product or service. When a client approaches us with the question "why aren't we selling more stuff?" a quick review of their site usually provides the answer: their website is not articulating in any meaningful, memorable manner, the conceptual premium their product or service delivers.
Before you invest in a new website or Web marketing campaign, decide what concept you are actually delivering. That concept is the basis of your marketing strategy and it informs what you say and how you say it.
Selling Concepts Is All About The Presentation
The recent US election is a great example of how to sell a concept. Putting all political bias aside look at the difference between how Obama approached his speeches and how McCain approached his. Of course both men talked about their policies and how they would handle different domestic and international situations.
McCain spoke to his constituency and delivered what they wanted to hear, but his words and presentation style fell far short of motivating the undecided or converting non-believers. Accusing a fellow Senator and Harvard Law alumni, with red baiting language like "redistributing the wealth" was obvious code language that failed the sniff test to all but his staunch backers.
Compare McCain's efforts to motivate through distrust and fear to Obama's message of hope, with his "Yes We Can" catchphrase echoing the American 'can do' spirit and traditional approach to solving problems. Not only did Obama say the right words to motivate his audience, he delivered his message with the motivational rhythm and cadence of an inspirational preacher.
Whether you're selling a political agenda or carbonated sugar water, you must learn to communicate your marketing concept in a way that people will understand, remember, and act upon.
Concepts Are Universal
The Web is an international venue. If you have something of value to say or sell, you will attract an international audience. Foreign companies that want to access the USA market must learn to speak "American" or hire a marketing communication company that does. American companies that want to grow beyond their local markets must learn to think concepts, the universal language of sales.
Shopping Is An Experience
The world has changed dramatically since the days when neighborhood shopping was the main option, and people relied on their local merchants for products and services. The world of commerce today seems to be divided between two competing scenarios: on the one hand, people are more mobile than ever before, and more willing to travel to buy what they want, even with wildly fluctuating energy costs; and on the other hand, people are busier than ever and use the Internet to seek out the companies, products, and services they want and need.
What seems to be consistent is the underlying need to feel something, to experience the process. The higher the value, the greater the psychological component to the buying experience. The same is true for products and services that are considered non-essential.
People Wonder Why They Can't Sell More Stuff
We all have our favorite stores and websites, where we know we will be looked-after with more than the ubiquitous and perfunctory, "have a nice day," but sadly that sense of service is all but lost in a misguided rush to pseudo efficiency. Brick and mortar stores with their part-time, minimum wage time-fillers whose only talent seems to be a vacant blank stare accompanied by "that's not my department" is bad enough. But what of websites that don't accept phone calls, or any other kind of inquiry other than a form email that you can be assured will be answered in a week or two, along with a request for more information that generally corresponds to the information you've already provided - that's what passes for website service today. And people wonder why they can't sell more stuff.
The Web Is An International Venue
The Web of course presents one additional wrinkle to the service issue, one that puts a premium on communicating your message effectively: the Web is an international venue. No matter what you do, or where you're located, you can be sure people from all parts of the world are visiting your website if you have something of value to say. This then puts a premium on your ability to articulate a coherent message, one that eliminates the need for visitors to phone Mumbai, Beijing, or Lickskillet, Ohio.
English speaking companies have a hard enough time communicating effectively, but what of non-English speaking companies trying to break into the North American market? You find websites in many different languages, catering to local markets, but if you're looking for North American exposure, you best deliver your message in the language of the Web, and like it or not, that language is English.
Words Have Meaning
Far be it from me to criticize CBS news anchor Katie Couric, who generally does a fine job, but when she refers to the Democrats winning the House, Senate, and Presidency as "single party rule" it raises the hackles on the back of my neck. Words have meaning and presentation has impact. But I am not just talking about proper grammar, syntax, and usage, something many of us stumble over at times, but what of idiom, metaphor, and voice; elements that are just as important in effective marketing communication as proper usage.
Years ago while visiting London, England I passed a store with the sign that read "Fags and Mags," a disconcerting message until I got acclimatized to the British slang. When it comes to marketing, you can get away with a lot, but even countries that speak the same language have different patois, slang, and cultural references.
One of the great advantages of being from Canada with its proximity to the USA, its historical ties to the British Commonwealth, and its multicultural population is that we understand these differences and can translate them into effective North American marketing campaigns.
Crafting Your Web Marketing Message
What do you sell? A seemingly simple question any business executive should be able to answer, but can they answer it accurately? Ask yourself: do you sell a product, a service, or a concept? Does a shoe store sell shoes, or comfort and status? Does an accountant sell auditing services, or legitimacy and security? Does a politician sell tax cuts, or a better future?
When it comes to marketing you have to think concepts; if you build your advertising around products or services rather than concepts you will never be able to develop an effective campaign, let alone an effective website presentation.
Take Target and Walmart for example: they both sell similar products for the most part, a problem many retailers and most distributors have but refuse to face. Target markets itself as the leader in low priced, designer-styled merchandise, a distinct marketing position compared to Walmart that markets itself as the low priced leader and the heck with design. Each company delivers a unique marketing concept, one targeting consumers interested in price alone, the other aimed at shoppers who want a little style with their bargains: two different concepts, two different brand positions, and two different marketing strategies.
We All Sell Concepts Not Products and Services
One way or another we all sell a concept no matter what the product or service. When a client approaches us with the question "why aren't we selling more stuff?" a quick review of their site usually provides the answer: their website is not articulating in any meaningful, memorable manner, the conceptual premium their product or service delivers.
Before you invest in a new website or Web marketing campaign, decide what concept you are actually delivering. That concept is the basis of your marketing strategy and it informs what you say and how you say it.
Selling Concepts Is All About The Presentation
The recent US election is a great example of how to sell a concept. Putting all political bias aside look at the difference between how Obama approached his speeches and how McCain approached his. Of course both men talked about their policies and how they would handle different domestic and international situations.
McCain spoke to his constituency and delivered what they wanted to hear, but his words and presentation style fell far short of motivating the undecided or converting non-believers. Accusing a fellow Senator and Harvard Law alumni, with red baiting language like "redistributing the wealth" was obvious code language that failed the sniff test to all but his staunch backers.
Compare McCain's efforts to motivate through distrust and fear to Obama's message of hope, with his "Yes We Can" catchphrase echoing the American 'can do' spirit and traditional approach to solving problems. Not only did Obama say the right words to motivate his audience, he delivered his message with the motivational rhythm and cadence of an inspirational preacher.
Whether you're selling a political agenda or carbonated sugar water, you must learn to communicate your marketing concept in a way that people will understand, remember, and act upon.
Concepts Are Universal
The Web is an international venue. If you have something of value to say or sell, you will attract an international audience. Foreign companies that want to access the USA market must learn to speak "American" or hire a marketing communication company that does. American companies that want to grow beyond their local markets must learn to think concepts, the universal language of sales.
Official Google statement: the effects of outbound links on your website
Last month, Google published an official statement about linking out to other websites. Some webmasters still think that linking to other websites might have a negative effect on their Google rankings. That is not the case.
Google
Links to other websites can have a positive effect on your website if you link to the right websites. Here's a summary of Google's statements:
The good side of outbound links
Relevant links to other websites can help your website visitors. For example, you could provide your readers in-depth information about similar topics or you could offer your readers your commentary on existing resources.
Outbound links can also help your credibility. Links to the right websites show that you have done your research and that you have expertise in the subject manner. Good links to other websites can make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics.
A very positive effect on links to other websites is that they help you to build relationships with other domain experts. If you send visitors to another website then that website might send visitors to your website in return.
The bad side of outbound links
Links to other websites can have a negative effect on your website if you don't monitor to which websites you link. According to Google, unmonitored (especially user-generated) links and undisclosed paid advertising outbound links can reduce your website's credibility.
If your website allows user comments or other user created contents, then you should make sure that these comments are moderated and/or you should add the rel="nofollow" attribute to user generated links.
Google doesn't like paid links. If you accept money for outbound links, you should also add the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link.
Google recommends not to have more than 100 links per web page. Too many links on one page confuse your website visitors.
Should you worry about the PageRank of the linked website?
Google makes it very clear that you shouldn't worry about the PageRank of a website as long as you are linking to a website you believe your website visitors will enjoy.
It doesn't matter if the linked website has a lower PageRank than your website as long as the website is somehow related to your site. According to Google, webmasters should consider outbound links as a common sense way to provide more value to their users, not as a complicated formula.
If you link to good websites, outbound links will have a positive effect on your site. IBP's link builder helps you to find good related websites, it helps you to build relationships with other websites and it also helps you to increase the number of inbound links to your website.
Links to other websites can have a positive effect on your website if you link to the right websites. Here's a summary of Google's statements:
The good side of outbound links
Relevant links to other websites can help your website visitors. For example, you could provide your readers in-depth information about similar topics or you could offer your readers your commentary on existing resources.
Outbound links can also help your credibility. Links to the right websites show that you have done your research and that you have expertise in the subject manner. Good links to other websites can make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics.
A very positive effect on links to other websites is that they help you to build relationships with other domain experts. If you send visitors to another website then that website might send visitors to your website in return.
The bad side of outbound links
Links to other websites can have a negative effect on your website if you don't monitor to which websites you link. According to Google, unmonitored (especially user-generated) links and undisclosed paid advertising outbound links can reduce your website's credibility.
If your website allows user comments or other user created contents, then you should make sure that these comments are moderated and/or you should add the rel="nofollow" attribute to user generated links.
Google doesn't like paid links. If you accept money for outbound links, you should also add the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link.
Google recommends not to have more than 100 links per web page. Too many links on one page confuse your website visitors.
Should you worry about the PageRank of the linked website?
Google makes it very clear that you shouldn't worry about the PageRank of a website as long as you are linking to a website you believe your website visitors will enjoy.
It doesn't matter if the linked website has a lower PageRank than your website as long as the website is somehow related to your site. According to Google, webmasters should consider outbound links as a common sense way to provide more value to their users, not as a complicated formula.
If you link to good websites, outbound links will have a positive effect on your site. IBP's link builder helps you to find good related websites, it helps you to build relationships with other websites and it also helps you to increase the number of inbound links to your website.
Search Engine Optimization And Search Engine Crawlers
There is a lot to learn when it comes to online or internet marketing and search engine optimization. That is why a lot of people hire SEO consultants to worry about their internet marketing for them.
However, if you do not want to have to pay SEO experts to help you with the marketing of your website, then you may want to think about doing it yourself! It's not that hard, it just takes some reading on the internet from trusted sources. Really, most of the SEO services that are provided online are built around one thing, and that is search engine crawlers.
Today we are going to talk more about search engine crawlers, and what they do. Soon you will find out that pretty much everything that you do, as far as search engine optimization goes, is to make these little crawlers happy. It is no longer as easy as a quick search engine submission and your website becomes popular.
As you may be able to guess by the name, these search engine crawlers are little bots that roam around the internet looking for new websites and ranking them based on an algorithm. When they come across a new website, they rank it in different ways, taking many things in to consideration. These ranks help to determine where the site is going to end up in a search done on a search engine.
The first thing that you have to do for these crawlers is to get noticed by them, and that is the hardest part of SEO, or at least that is what SEO consultants want you to think! The truth of the matter is, you can get your website noticed by simply visiting different popular search engines and adding your URL to their submission forms.
You also must get links from other web sites pointing to your web site to obtain link popularity and credibility with the search engines. This way the crawlers will know where your site is at, and find it a lot quicker. They will also consider it a relevant source of information if other sites link to you.
After that, it's all about marketing your web site on the internet through search engine optimization techniques. These little crawlers are programmed to look for certain things on your web site, these are things that SEO experts study and have an understanding for.
Using the services of SEO Consultants to help in your marketing, however they can be very costly, so you should hire a service provider that is talented and can provide a portfolio to ensure you get quality work.
Before hiring someone to work on your web site you should make sure they use ethical search optimization and marketing tactics and also make sure that they can provide results.
The first thing that crawlers look for is, of course, keywords.
Keywords in your web sites content and keywords in the links pointing to your site. When it comes to search engine optimization, use keywords wisely. Don't over-saturate your web site with keywords because you can get docked as a spammer. These keywords have to be worked into the web page and not just listed there. You should integrate them in to your content, page titles, meta tags and URL. Also, it will help the marketing of your web site if you work them into the titles of your web page as well.
Also make sure that your main page headings are bigger than that of your normal font so the crawlers can easily pick out what the main focus of your page is.
SEO consultants also worry about how many links there are out there that point back to your website. The more links, the better. However they must also be quality links from popular sites that are credible with the search engines. That is why SEO experts are always looking for different places where they can post links to your website. While crawlers are looking around, if they come across links to your website, then that helps to boost your ranking online.
As you can see, SEO services are very helpful, but if you can learn how to do online marketing by yourself, you don't need to hire anyone.
However, if you do not want to have to pay SEO experts to help you with the marketing of your website, then you may want to think about doing it yourself! It's not that hard, it just takes some reading on the internet from trusted sources. Really, most of the SEO services that are provided online are built around one thing, and that is search engine crawlers.
Today we are going to talk more about search engine crawlers, and what they do. Soon you will find out that pretty much everything that you do, as far as search engine optimization goes, is to make these little crawlers happy. It is no longer as easy as a quick search engine submission and your website becomes popular.
As you may be able to guess by the name, these search engine crawlers are little bots that roam around the internet looking for new websites and ranking them based on an algorithm. When they come across a new website, they rank it in different ways, taking many things in to consideration. These ranks help to determine where the site is going to end up in a search done on a search engine.
The first thing that you have to do for these crawlers is to get noticed by them, and that is the hardest part of SEO, or at least that is what SEO consultants want you to think! The truth of the matter is, you can get your website noticed by simply visiting different popular search engines and adding your URL to their submission forms.
You also must get links from other web sites pointing to your web site to obtain link popularity and credibility with the search engines. This way the crawlers will know where your site is at, and find it a lot quicker. They will also consider it a relevant source of information if other sites link to you.
After that, it's all about marketing your web site on the internet through search engine optimization techniques. These little crawlers are programmed to look for certain things on your web site, these are things that SEO experts study and have an understanding for.
Using the services of SEO Consultants to help in your marketing, however they can be very costly, so you should hire a service provider that is talented and can provide a portfolio to ensure you get quality work.
Before hiring someone to work on your web site you should make sure they use ethical search optimization and marketing tactics and also make sure that they can provide results.
The first thing that crawlers look for is, of course, keywords.
Keywords in your web sites content and keywords in the links pointing to your site. When it comes to search engine optimization, use keywords wisely. Don't over-saturate your web site with keywords because you can get docked as a spammer. These keywords have to be worked into the web page and not just listed there. You should integrate them in to your content, page titles, meta tags and URL. Also, it will help the marketing of your web site if you work them into the titles of your web page as well.
Also make sure that your main page headings are bigger than that of your normal font so the crawlers can easily pick out what the main focus of your page is.
SEO consultants also worry about how many links there are out there that point back to your website. The more links, the better. However they must also be quality links from popular sites that are credible with the search engines. That is why SEO experts are always looking for different places where they can post links to your website. While crawlers are looking around, if they come across links to your website, then that helps to boost your ranking online.
As you can see, SEO services are very helpful, but if you can learn how to do online marketing by yourself, you don't need to hire anyone.
The New SEO - Let's Get Real
Once upon a time, onsite optimization was the most crucial factor in search engine ranking. Webmasters and SEO experts spent ample time ensuring keywords were used in all relevant tags, and that the keyword concentration on each page was just right (usually 5-7%). Then came all the spamming and keyword stuffing, as webmasters and SEO experts fought viciously to usurp one another in the ranks. Search engines took notice, and adjusted their scoring algorithms accordingly. Onsite optimization lost its footing.
Nowadays, onsite optimization is becoming less and less significant, overshadowed by the all powerful offsite optimization. Where keyword concentration was once god, now links have become the mighty ruler of the search engines. The fact of the matter is, onsite optimization counts for almost nothing these days (I did say "almost"). So why are webmasters and SEO experts still spewing all this nonsense about the importance of building great content. I really wish it were about building great content. The sad truth, however, is it's all about the links.
Search engines want you to believe that ranking well is all about building a great website with great content. Build a site for your users, keep your users happy, and you will do just fine in their eyes. After all, isn't this the main principle behind organic search results; let's keep it real, honest, and user-friendly. Boy, I wish that were so. What I don't understand is why all these so-called experts and webmasters are spouting the same foolish nonsense all over the Internet. Perhaps it's because they don't want us to work on improving our own rankings as their ridiculous articles are improving theirs.
It's almost like these experts and webmasters are afraid that if they tell it like it is, somehow Google will find out what they're saying and drop their site a few points. Gee, but I thought the results on the left side were purely organic. Besides, if it were that easy, I would just start posting all kinds of articles and claim they were written by my competition. Sure there are some "must haves" for onsite optimization, but any web owner could learn these in an afternoon. The reality, however, is that all the great content and onsite optimization in the world will only get you to the starting line. Links is how you run the race.
The best way to acquire these necessary links, the experts say, is to once again build great content. It's the old "if you build it they will come (and link to it)" line. This is nearly ludicrous. First of all, how would people even find your "great content" if you're on page 50? Because no matter how great your content is, and no matter how much onsite SEO you do, you'll never get closer than page 50 without back links (unless you're vying for a top position with a keyword or phrase that gets searched less than 100 times a month).
Now even if a few people do find your site, what makes you think that these people have their own websites? Most Internet users do not have their own websites, and even if they do, they probably do not know enough html to properly add a link in their own code. They especially wouldn't know that they are supposed to use your "keywords" in the anchor text (many webmasters don't even know to do this).
Now, let's pretend that a few knowledgeable webmasters do find your site and really enjoy the content. This does not mean they are going to go through the trouble of creating a link on their site to yours. This takes time, effort and energy. Why would they do this unless they have some incentive (but if you give them incentive, doesn't that undermine its organic nature)?
Nevertheless, if you do everything right, eventually people will link to your site. This is true. However, it will likely take you about 2 years to acquire enough relevant, high PR back links with proper keyword anchor text to move you up just one point in the PR scale. That will possibly move you to page 49 in the search results. Congratulatíons, only a few dozen more years to go. (The only alternative you have now is to pay for results on the right side of the screen, and that my fríend gets expensive.)
The fact is, you could hire a SEO company and pay them millions for onsite optimization of your PR 2 site. Then, you could spend months creating unique and user-friendly content that perfectly integrates all your keywords and phrases in a symphony of optimized perfection. Then, when you're nearly on top for some obscure keyword phrase, along comes some PR 5 website that just coincidently adds an extra page to their site that just happens to have your key phrase spliced throughout the title tag. Guess what? You just got beat. Even though they haven't done one thing to optimize their site or page for these keywords, and even though there is zero "quality content" on this add-on url, it just usurped you in the ranks.
Now I know what you're thinking. If acquiring links is so incredibly important, then why don't I just spend my time doing this? Well, this is easier said then done. I've just recently been told that reciprocal link exchanges, directory listings, and 3way link exchanges no longer account for very much in the eyes of the search engine gods (although this is still up for debate). Writing letters to relevant high PR sites is almost a ludicrous task, in that only maybe 1 in ten ever even respond to your pathetic, though eloquently written e-mails. The ones who do usually have some wonderful explanation of why you should look into paid advertising on their site instead. And of course, paid links and link farms will possibly get you banned completely from the search engines (which is about the worst thing that could ever possibly happen), though I'm not sure how they distinguish between an add and paid link, a directory and a link farm. Nevertheless, it's enough to keep your head spinning.
So what's my conclusion? I guess your witnessing it right now. I'm writing articles. It's a lot better that spending hours trading links that never seem to help, or adding links from partners who never exchange the favour. I know there are a lot more ways to acquire back links, so I guess I'm now opening it up to responses. This, after all, is the million-dollar question. If you can succeed at the link game, you will be rich beyond your wildest imaginations. Just look at Plentyoffish.com, and other sites that rank in the top five for well sought after keywords. I for one wouldn't mind finding myself in their position.
About The Author
Jack Strawman is the cofounder of the popular new website Late Night Chat, Dating and Hook Up at UStillUp.com, a totally free late night chat, dating and social networking site for late night fun.
Nowadays, onsite optimization is becoming less and less significant, overshadowed by the all powerful offsite optimization. Where keyword concentration was once god, now links have become the mighty ruler of the search engines. The fact of the matter is, onsite optimization counts for almost nothing these days (I did say "almost"). So why are webmasters and SEO experts still spewing all this nonsense about the importance of building great content. I really wish it were about building great content. The sad truth, however, is it's all about the links.
Search engines want you to believe that ranking well is all about building a great website with great content. Build a site for your users, keep your users happy, and you will do just fine in their eyes. After all, isn't this the main principle behind organic search results; let's keep it real, honest, and user-friendly. Boy, I wish that were so. What I don't understand is why all these so-called experts and webmasters are spouting the same foolish nonsense all over the Internet. Perhaps it's because they don't want us to work on improving our own rankings as their ridiculous articles are improving theirs.
It's almost like these experts and webmasters are afraid that if they tell it like it is, somehow Google will find out what they're saying and drop their site a few points. Gee, but I thought the results on the left side were purely organic. Besides, if it were that easy, I would just start posting all kinds of articles and claim they were written by my competition. Sure there are some "must haves" for onsite optimization, but any web owner could learn these in an afternoon. The reality, however, is that all the great content and onsite optimization in the world will only get you to the starting line. Links is how you run the race.
The best way to acquire these necessary links, the experts say, is to once again build great content. It's the old "if you build it they will come (and link to it)" line. This is nearly ludicrous. First of all, how would people even find your "great content" if you're on page 50? Because no matter how great your content is, and no matter how much onsite SEO you do, you'll never get closer than page 50 without back links (unless you're vying for a top position with a keyword or phrase that gets searched less than 100 times a month).
Now even if a few people do find your site, what makes you think that these people have their own websites? Most Internet users do not have their own websites, and even if they do, they probably do not know enough html to properly add a link in their own code. They especially wouldn't know that they are supposed to use your "keywords" in the anchor text (many webmasters don't even know to do this).
Now, let's pretend that a few knowledgeable webmasters do find your site and really enjoy the content. This does not mean they are going to go through the trouble of creating a link on their site to yours. This takes time, effort and energy. Why would they do this unless they have some incentive (but if you give them incentive, doesn't that undermine its organic nature)?
Nevertheless, if you do everything right, eventually people will link to your site. This is true. However, it will likely take you about 2 years to acquire enough relevant, high PR back links with proper keyword anchor text to move you up just one point in the PR scale. That will possibly move you to page 49 in the search results. Congratulatíons, only a few dozen more years to go. (The only alternative you have now is to pay for results on the right side of the screen, and that my fríend gets expensive.)
The fact is, you could hire a SEO company and pay them millions for onsite optimization of your PR 2 site. Then, you could spend months creating unique and user-friendly content that perfectly integrates all your keywords and phrases in a symphony of optimized perfection. Then, when you're nearly on top for some obscure keyword phrase, along comes some PR 5 website that just coincidently adds an extra page to their site that just happens to have your key phrase spliced throughout the title tag. Guess what? You just got beat. Even though they haven't done one thing to optimize their site or page for these keywords, and even though there is zero "quality content" on this add-on url, it just usurped you in the ranks.
Now I know what you're thinking. If acquiring links is so incredibly important, then why don't I just spend my time doing this? Well, this is easier said then done. I've just recently been told that reciprocal link exchanges, directory listings, and 3way link exchanges no longer account for very much in the eyes of the search engine gods (although this is still up for debate). Writing letters to relevant high PR sites is almost a ludicrous task, in that only maybe 1 in ten ever even respond to your pathetic, though eloquently written e-mails. The ones who do usually have some wonderful explanation of why you should look into paid advertising on their site instead. And of course, paid links and link farms will possibly get you banned completely from the search engines (which is about the worst thing that could ever possibly happen), though I'm not sure how they distinguish between an add and paid link, a directory and a link farm. Nevertheless, it's enough to keep your head spinning.
So what's my conclusion? I guess your witnessing it right now. I'm writing articles. It's a lot better that spending hours trading links that never seem to help, or adding links from partners who never exchange the favour. I know there are a lot more ways to acquire back links, so I guess I'm now opening it up to responses. This, after all, is the million-dollar question. If you can succeed at the link game, you will be rich beyond your wildest imaginations. Just look at Plentyoffish.com, and other sites that rank in the top five for well sought after keywords. I for one wouldn't mind finding myself in their position.
About The Author
Jack Strawman is the cofounder of the popular new website Late Night Chat, Dating and Hook Up at UStillUp.com, a totally free late night chat, dating and social networking site for late night fun.
The Secrets to Keywords - Expanding Your List
The Primary objective of a business website is to attract potential buyers and convert them into paying customers. Relevant keywords allow you to fulfil this primary objective. They help you attract relevant traffic that want to buy the types of products you have to offer, however, the more relevant keywords that you rank well for, the more business you will do. By effectively expanding your keyword lists, you expand the potential market for your business.
There are two fundamental ways of expanding your keyword lists:
* Long tail keywords that give you depth and allow you to dominate a particular market - so, moving from 'chocolate' to 'chocolate gifts' to 'corporate chocolate gifts'. These long tailed keywords tend to have a smaller advertiser competition, therefore you get a better PPC price, also, you dominate that specific niche market.
* Related keywords that allow you to broaden the range of market sectors that you can target. So, if you're selling gourmet chocolate, you may find opportunities in related keywords such as 'truffles', 'fudge' or 'luxury foods'. Related keywords can make you aware of markets that you might now have considered. So in building your online business, you need to make sure you have an effective sales process in place. Do that and you will have real benefit from expanding your keyword lists.
You need to convert people who arrive at your website into paying customers. If you don't do that, then it doesn't matter how extensive you keyword research is, or how effective your optimization efforts are in drawing new visitors to your website. If you can't convert a visitor into a customer then your efforts will be doomed to failure.
Only when you have got an effective sales process can you get the real benefit from expanding your keyword lists. And when you have that sales process in place, like any business you will want to expand. You could add new product lines, associated products and other ways to expand your potential income from each of the customers you attract.
However, before you embark on the path of product development you need to be sure that you are getting maximum return from what you have already. Let's suppose you've got a website that performs well - you get 100,000 unique visitors per month and you have a conversion rate of 3%. That equates to 3,000 paying customers per month. Not a bad business situation to be in.
Now look at your log files. From these you see that 30% of your traffic comes from search engines. Dig a little deeper and you find that 80% of this comes from around 20 good keywords. Here's a quick calculation of what this means:
* 30% of your traffic comes from search engines so that's 30,000 unique visitors per month. 80% of these come from your top 20 keywords - that's 24,000 per month.
* With a conversion rate of 3%, those 20 keywords bring you 720 paying customers every month. Now, if you could find another 20 keywords that perform just as well, then you could add another 720 customers, giving you a total of 3,720 customers per month - an increase of 24%.
And if you could achieve this growth once, could you do it again? Of course, the answer to that depends on the potential in your marketplace but the underlying principle is that good keywords will bring additional revenue to your website and you really can't get too many of them.
There are two fundamental ways of expanding your keyword lists:
* Long tail keywords that give you depth and allow you to dominate a particular market - so, moving from 'chocolate' to 'chocolate gifts' to 'corporate chocolate gifts'. These long tailed keywords tend to have a smaller advertiser competition, therefore you get a better PPC price, also, you dominate that specific niche market.
* Related keywords that allow you to broaden the range of market sectors that you can target. So, if you're selling gourmet chocolate, you may find opportunities in related keywords such as 'truffles', 'fudge' or 'luxury foods'. Related keywords can make you aware of markets that you might now have considered. So in building your online business, you need to make sure you have an effective sales process in place. Do that and you will have real benefit from expanding your keyword lists.
You need to convert people who arrive at your website into paying customers. If you don't do that, then it doesn't matter how extensive you keyword research is, or how effective your optimization efforts are in drawing new visitors to your website. If you can't convert a visitor into a customer then your efforts will be doomed to failure.
Only when you have got an effective sales process can you get the real benefit from expanding your keyword lists. And when you have that sales process in place, like any business you will want to expand. You could add new product lines, associated products and other ways to expand your potential income from each of the customers you attract.
However, before you embark on the path of product development you need to be sure that you are getting maximum return from what you have already. Let's suppose you've got a website that performs well - you get 100,000 unique visitors per month and you have a conversion rate of 3%. That equates to 3,000 paying customers per month. Not a bad business situation to be in.
Now look at your log files. From these you see that 30% of your traffic comes from search engines. Dig a little deeper and you find that 80% of this comes from around 20 good keywords. Here's a quick calculation of what this means:
* 30% of your traffic comes from search engines so that's 30,000 unique visitors per month. 80% of these come from your top 20 keywords - that's 24,000 per month.
* With a conversion rate of 3%, those 20 keywords bring you 720 paying customers every month. Now, if you could find another 20 keywords that perform just as well, then you could add another 720 customers, giving you a total of 3,720 customers per month - an increase of 24%.
And if you could achieve this growth once, could you do it again? Of course, the answer to that depends on the potential in your marketplace but the underlying principle is that good keywords will bring additional revenue to your website and you really can't get too many of them.
Is your competition beating you with SEO?
You have optimized your website for winning keywords, are mid-way with your link building campaign, and have been going absolutely crazy creating fresh SEO friendly content that pleases the users and search engines.
You are obviously very serious about your online business, and yet you cannot seem to cross the Rank # 12, Page 2 barrier of Google search listing for your primary keywords.
A series of questions arise from the imaginary situation above:
1. Why is my ranking for the particular keyword not going up?
2. Am I missing out on any SEO strategies?
3. Maybe I am not building enough links? How much will be enough?
4. Do I have to improve my content quality?
5. The search engine has changed their algorithm (…again)
6. Others are using illegal SEO techniques
Now while one could go over the questions in your head, read up on latest search engine algorithms, contact a SEO expert, or blindly start buying links out of desperation, there is an easier way to find your answers.
Simply ask why are the other 10 websites ranking before your website?
Now that does not mean that the above questions 1 to 6 are not relevant, but simply put, one of the easiest ways to boost your search rankings is to study the top 5 to ten websites for your keyword and then apply what working for them into your own strategies.
Now I am not asking you to copy the competition or have a strategy that just involves beating the competition at the ranking game. It never works. What is needed is a better balance between your company's SEO strategies and of those of your competitors.
Like in any business strategy, you have to know your competitors, study what strategies they are using, and then apply the best of those strategies to your own game plan.
In the same way, in defining the SEO path ahead for your website you must analyze your competition. What are they doing to rank in the top 10 that you are not doing? After all those websites are listed on the top for a reason, and they are applying SEO strategies that the search engine in particular seems to like.
Now while finding the answers to those questions in the real business world may be difficult, in the online world all you have to do is to right-click and view the source of the page.
The below simple steps will open up a world of information to you.
1. Does the domain name contain the keyword? If the link is a sub domain then does the sub domain contain the keyword?
2. In what Meta tags, title, etc has the competition placed their keywords?
3. Does the link name contain the keyword? eg. www.seo-optimization-experts.com/mumbai-seo-expert.html
4. How many keywords are listed in the keyword tag i.e. is the page focused around one or two keywords, or is it a jumble of keywords listed out.
5. Is the title and description captivating enough? How has the keyword/s been placed in the title and description and at what position?
6. Is the page graphic intensive? Is the site using a lot flash or active server pages? Search engines cannot understand graphics, only the text it can read on the page. Make sure there is a good balance between the graphics and content.
7. How long is the body text? Writing 400 to 600 words is normally fine.
8. Has the keyword (keyword weight) been used appropriately in the body content? Ideally the first 25 words of content should be keyword rich, and the keyword should appear after every 100 words in remaining content.
9. Is the content interesting to you as the reader? Does the content follow a theme? Is the content relevant to what keyword the page has been optimized for?
10. What is the page rank of the page (You can check page rank of any website by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com.
11. Which is the first place in the source code the keyword appears?
12. Has the keyword been used appropriately in headline tags and link text?
13. Does the site use java script, tables, frames, dynamic content, CMS etc?
14. Is the page focused around a theme?
15. How many inbound links are there to the page? You can check the link popularity of the page on www.marketleap.com? Visit the sites that have given the link. What is their page rank? What is the link text that describes the link to the website? Has the keyword been used in the link text?
16. How many pages does the site have?
17. Does the site have a good site map that lists all the content pages, videos on the site that search engine spiders can crawly easily?
18. Are there any 404 errors on the website?
19. What is the domain name extension e.g. .com,. net, .edu, .co.in
20. How long has that domain name been in existence? Search engines rank those sites better that have been around for a while, or those that plan to be around for a while?
21. How many directories has that page/website been submitted to?
22. Has the site used any spamming or illegal SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, duplicate content and other such spam techniques? If yes you can inform the search engine of the same but do so with caution. For Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
Please note that sometimes you will find no reasons why the competitors' website is ranked above yours. And that's ok. I have experienced many cases of certain sites which go against the search engines guidelines (set by search engines themselves), and yet they rank above meticulously optimized pages.
Search engines are constantly trying to remove badly optimized or spam pages which offer little or no value to the users. Our intent here is not to focus on the missing pieces/loopholes of search engines algorithms or isolated instances of sites that don't deserve it and yet are ranking high, but to work within the framework and guidelines for the long haul.
By mapping out the answers to the above questions (preferable on a spread sheet), you will find the overall patterns of what is working for those sites and why, and then figure out ways to modify your SEO strategies to improve your rankings.
About the Author: Nevil Darukhanawala - SEO Expert http://seo-optimization-experts.com/seoblog.html Zen of SEO Now what has search engine optimization and search marketing got to do with spirituality? Am sure the Big Search Engines will be laughing all the way to the very end...
You are obviously very serious about your online business, and yet you cannot seem to cross the Rank # 12, Page 2 barrier of Google search listing for your primary keywords.
A series of questions arise from the imaginary situation above:
1. Why is my ranking for the particular keyword not going up?
2. Am I missing out on any SEO strategies?
3. Maybe I am not building enough links? How much will be enough?
4. Do I have to improve my content quality?
5. The search engine has changed their algorithm (…again)
6. Others are using illegal SEO techniques
Now while one could go over the questions in your head, read up on latest search engine algorithms, contact a SEO expert, or blindly start buying links out of desperation, there is an easier way to find your answers.
Simply ask why are the other 10 websites ranking before your website?
Now that does not mean that the above questions 1 to 6 are not relevant, but simply put, one of the easiest ways to boost your search rankings is to study the top 5 to ten websites for your keyword and then apply what working for them into your own strategies.
Now I am not asking you to copy the competition or have a strategy that just involves beating the competition at the ranking game. It never works. What is needed is a better balance between your company's SEO strategies and of those of your competitors.
Like in any business strategy, you have to know your competitors, study what strategies they are using, and then apply the best of those strategies to your own game plan.
In the same way, in defining the SEO path ahead for your website you must analyze your competition. What are they doing to rank in the top 10 that you are not doing? After all those websites are listed on the top for a reason, and they are applying SEO strategies that the search engine in particular seems to like.
Now while finding the answers to those questions in the real business world may be difficult, in the online world all you have to do is to right-click and view the source of the page.
The below simple steps will open up a world of information to you.
1. Does the domain name contain the keyword? If the link is a sub domain then does the sub domain contain the keyword?
2. In what Meta tags, title, etc has the competition placed their keywords?
3. Does the link name contain the keyword? eg. www.seo-optimization-experts.com/mumbai-seo-expert.html
4. How many keywords are listed in the keyword tag i.e. is the page focused around one or two keywords, or is it a jumble of keywords listed out.
5. Is the title and description captivating enough? How has the keyword/s been placed in the title and description and at what position?
6. Is the page graphic intensive? Is the site using a lot flash or active server pages? Search engines cannot understand graphics, only the text it can read on the page. Make sure there is a good balance between the graphics and content.
7. How long is the body text? Writing 400 to 600 words is normally fine.
8. Has the keyword (keyword weight) been used appropriately in the body content? Ideally the first 25 words of content should be keyword rich, and the keyword should appear after every 100 words in remaining content.
9. Is the content interesting to you as the reader? Does the content follow a theme? Is the content relevant to what keyword the page has been optimized for?
10. What is the page rank of the page (You can check page rank of any website by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com.
11. Which is the first place in the source code the keyword appears?
12. Has the keyword been used appropriately in headline tags and link text?
13. Does the site use java script, tables, frames, dynamic content, CMS etc?
14. Is the page focused around a theme?
15. How many inbound links are there to the page? You can check the link popularity of the page on www.marketleap.com? Visit the sites that have given the link. What is their page rank? What is the link text that describes the link to the website? Has the keyword been used in the link text?
16. How many pages does the site have?
17. Does the site have a good site map that lists all the content pages, videos on the site that search engine spiders can crawly easily?
18. Are there any 404 errors on the website?
19. What is the domain name extension e.g. .com,. net, .edu, .co.in
20. How long has that domain name been in existence? Search engines rank those sites better that have been around for a while, or those that plan to be around for a while?
21. How many directories has that page/website been submitted to?
22. Has the site used any spamming or illegal SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, duplicate content and other such spam techniques? If yes you can inform the search engine of the same but do so with caution. For Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
Please note that sometimes you will find no reasons why the competitors' website is ranked above yours. And that's ok. I have experienced many cases of certain sites which go against the search engines guidelines (set by search engines themselves), and yet they rank above meticulously optimized pages.
Search engines are constantly trying to remove badly optimized or spam pages which offer little or no value to the users. Our intent here is not to focus on the missing pieces/loopholes of search engines algorithms or isolated instances of sites that don't deserve it and yet are ranking high, but to work within the framework and guidelines for the long haul.
By mapping out the answers to the above questions (preferable on a spread sheet), you will find the overall patterns of what is working for those sites and why, and then figure out ways to modify your SEO strategies to improve your rankings.
About the Author: Nevil Darukhanawala - SEO Expert http://seo-optimization-experts.com/seoblog.html Zen of SEO Now what has search engine optimization and search marketing got to do with spirituality? Am sure the Big Search Engines will be laughing all the way to the very end...
Using Good SEO Will Create Traffic to Your Website
To make your web site really pay off, it has to get good web traffic, which means simply that a lot of people are coming to your web site. By checking your web stats you can quickly observe how many visitors your web site is getting and even how many people stay long enough to browse the website.
Programs such as Awstats, a web analyzing program found on most Linux based servers will reveal how those web visitors came to you. Did they click through from a search engine? If so, what keyword brought them to you? Or, did they come from a particular website that links to yours? Your stats will reveal all.
Of great interest to most webmasters is the keywords used by visitors who find your site through the search engines. In the past few years a new science called "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) has evolved into a business model that specializes in making sure your web site gets a strong flow of business from people who look for your niche of goods and services using Google, Yahoo or one of the other big search engines.
The key to great traffic from a search engine is your "search engine ranking". That all sounds very complicated but it isn't. When you search for something on the Internet, Google (or your favorite search engine) comes back with lots of web sites for you to consider. The ones it comes back with first are called the first page. And usually there are dozens of pages of web sites that the search engine shows you.
Well, experts tell us that the majority of web shoppers use a web site shown on that first page of links that the search engine returns. So if your web site is among that first one or two pages, you have a good search engine ranking and you will see more customers than a business that is way down on page 54 where customers never go. One of the primary ways to get on that first page is by using good SEO.
SEO is the science of working with search engines so your web site gets a good ranking. SEO is also a fairly complicated science because it involves how your web site is programmed, the kind of text you have on each page and a good SEO expert has specialized tools and software to monitor your SEO on a daily basis to see how you are doing.
So how do we go about improving our web site's SEO? If you go talk to your web programmers, they will be aware of the terms we learned here today but they may not be equipped to do a professional job of improving your SEO. That is why most businesses that do well at improving SEO for their web sites do so using a professional outsourcing company that specializes in this kind of thing. There are good reasons for you to outsource this function as well.
A SEO company will have those specialized tools and software resources to do the job right. They understand how search engines work and they can prepare specific suggestions to your web team to improve your search engine ranking. And they can employ internet traffic specialists who have that expertise to take your web site from where it is and turn it into a successful money maker for you.
By learning the terminology and what SEO is as we have started to talk about today, you are on your way to finding a good SEO contractor who can help your web site find success and get lots of profitable traffic. Use good common sense in finding a SEO company and check references and employ someone who can really do the job. It will cost you a bit to get the best expertise there is to improve your SEO. But when you see the flood of business and sales that come from the effort, you will know you made a wise investment in using them.
You will also want to make sure the articles you purchase from private label sites or ghostwriter services are optimized for your site's keywords as well. If you purchase a set of private label articles, for example, on the subject of weight loss it will be a good idea to re-write them using your own site's keywords.
If, on the other hand, you are outsourcing custom articles to a ghostwriter you can specify the articles be "SEO" ready for your chosen keywords upon delivery. This will ensure your articles will rank well in the search engines. These are just a few ways that using good SEO will create traffic to your website.
Programs such as Awstats, a web analyzing program found on most Linux based servers will reveal how those web visitors came to you. Did they click through from a search engine? If so, what keyword brought them to you? Or, did they come from a particular website that links to yours? Your stats will reveal all.
Of great interest to most webmasters is the keywords used by visitors who find your site through the search engines. In the past few years a new science called "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) has evolved into a business model that specializes in making sure your web site gets a strong flow of business from people who look for your niche of goods and services using Google, Yahoo or one of the other big search engines.
The key to great traffic from a search engine is your "search engine ranking". That all sounds very complicated but it isn't. When you search for something on the Internet, Google (or your favorite search engine) comes back with lots of web sites for you to consider. The ones it comes back with first are called the first page. And usually there are dozens of pages of web sites that the search engine shows you.
Well, experts tell us that the majority of web shoppers use a web site shown on that first page of links that the search engine returns. So if your web site is among that first one or two pages, you have a good search engine ranking and you will see more customers than a business that is way down on page 54 where customers never go. One of the primary ways to get on that first page is by using good SEO.
SEO is the science of working with search engines so your web site gets a good ranking. SEO is also a fairly complicated science because it involves how your web site is programmed, the kind of text you have on each page and a good SEO expert has specialized tools and software to monitor your SEO on a daily basis to see how you are doing.
So how do we go about improving our web site's SEO? If you go talk to your web programmers, they will be aware of the terms we learned here today but they may not be equipped to do a professional job of improving your SEO. That is why most businesses that do well at improving SEO for their web sites do so using a professional outsourcing company that specializes in this kind of thing. There are good reasons for you to outsource this function as well.
A SEO company will have those specialized tools and software resources to do the job right. They understand how search engines work and they can prepare specific suggestions to your web team to improve your search engine ranking. And they can employ internet traffic specialists who have that expertise to take your web site from where it is and turn it into a successful money maker for you.
By learning the terminology and what SEO is as we have started to talk about today, you are on your way to finding a good SEO contractor who can help your web site find success and get lots of profitable traffic. Use good common sense in finding a SEO company and check references and employ someone who can really do the job. It will cost you a bit to get the best expertise there is to improve your SEO. But when you see the flood of business and sales that come from the effort, you will know you made a wise investment in using them.
You will also want to make sure the articles you purchase from private label sites or ghostwriter services are optimized for your site's keywords as well. If you purchase a set of private label articles, for example, on the subject of weight loss it will be a good idea to re-write them using your own site's keywords.
If, on the other hand, you are outsourcing custom articles to a ghostwriter you can specify the articles be "SEO" ready for your chosen keywords upon delivery. This will ensure your articles will rank well in the search engines. These are just a few ways that using good SEO will create traffic to your website.
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing is still a complete mystery to a large majority of Internet users. For many users, internet marketing is seen as some foreign area of the web, populated with silly get-rich-quick schemes and unsavory characters ready to rip off the innocent and uninformed consumer at the click of a mouse.
In reality, Internet marketing is populated mainly with hard working professionals promoting and selling high quality brand products by many of the world's Top 500 companies.
Worldwide there are now over a billion Internet users, representing one large global consumer base or marketplace. The total amount of goods sold online has been steadily increasing each year as the Internet gains in both popularity and familiarity. Studies have shown people shop online because of lower prices, a wider selection of products, easier comparison shopping, and many just prefer not having to travel to stores to make a purchase.
Still Internet marketing has gotten a raw deal.
If you mention to any group of professionals that you're an Internet Marketer and that you work full time on the Internet... you will receive some very skeptical looks and more than one arched eyebrow of disbelief.
Regardless of this lingering skepticism, Internet marketing has become a viable alternative for many disgruntled professionals dissatisfied with their working hours or conditions. It has become a viable alternative for many people from all walks of life. From the college student to the bored housewife to the retired doctor... all are enjoying a part time or full time income from the comfort of their homes.
And since the Internet is now practically available to everyone, anywhere in the world - Internet marketing is a level playing field. There are many forms of Internet marketing. There are many online business models you can follow. There are countless ways to earn a good honest income from the Internet. Which path you take will be largely determined by research, work habits, and the time you are willing to put forth.
Here's a quick rundown of the most popular forms of Internet Marketing:
1. The Brick and Mortar Store Online. Most major companies and retail stores have created online versions of their brick and mortar businesses. Even if consumers don't buy online, many use these sites for gathering product information before buying in the real world. A factor many savvy businesses are exploiting in their overall marketing strategies.
2. Online Services. Many service industries have moved online, everything from travel to banking to dating! Again, the Internet can be a profitable extension for any service company.
3. Internet Gurus... Internet marketing has a whole history of pioneers who have forged the methods and techniques of marketing online - opt-in lists, mini-sites, article marketing, pay-per-click advertising, joint ventures... a brief history populated with such names as John Reese, Marlon Sanders, Ralph Wilson, Yanik Silver, Corey Rudl, Ken Evoy and countless others.
A whole new industry has grown around 'How-to' market online, info products, workshops and web seminars - teaching people how to market on the Internet. A marketer creating his own product can prove very productive - as seen by John Reese's 2004 launch of Traffic Secrets, which earned over a million dollars in one day. (Without a penny of paid advertising!)
4. Online Advertising and Pay-Per-Click advertising such as those offered by Google Adwords and others, presents another viable marketing route. Keywords (the exact words typed into a search engine) fuel a large portion of the web's activity. Keyword marketing has become a major driving force behind most of the economic transactions on the web. This is a very lucrative sector for those Internet marketers who know exactly what they're doing.
Then there is the whole section of SEO experts and consultants who command high prices for positioning companies or products in the top positions on the major search engines. Acquiring organic Top 10 search results will greatly determine the profitability of your online product or company.
5. Affiliate Marketing. One of the least understood, yet one of the most profitable forms of Internet marketing is affiliate marketing. An online marketer can join any affiliate program and promote its products or services on the Internet. You market the products, find customers for the company and receive a commission for each sale you make from your marketing efforts. These commissions can run anywhere from 2% to over 75%. One affiliate click can earn you anywhere from a few cents to several hundred dollars.
Major third party affiliate programs or companies such as Commission Junction, Clickbank, LinkShare, Amazon, Shareasale... act as a brokerage or go-between, representing thousands of Top Brand companies such as Sony, Apple, Dell... to online affiliate marketers. Marketers can join a program such as Commission Junction or LinkShare and be able to promote and market hundred of top quality products or services online. They can consolidate their affiliate marketing through these third party programs.
Perhaps the most common business model for the majority of online marketers is the last example, or a combination of advertising and affiliate sales. Many work-from-home professionals have adopted this business model. They have created a site or sites on the topic that interests them and of which they have or have gained some expert knowledge.
Once these sites become established and gather a large amount of targeted web traffic each day, making a nice income can only be a matter of putting the Google Adsense code on their pages and placing a few appropriate affiliate links on their sites.
The more traffic these marketers deliver to their sites, the more income they earn. The more unique content they create, the more income they earn. The more web sites they design, the more income they earn.
What many people outside of the web marketing field fail to realize is that the Internet is a 24/7/365 business. The Internet is always on and working for you. It is automatically producing income for you 24 hours of the day - while you're sleeping, while you're enjoying a nice meal with friends, or even while you're on vacation.
Internet marketing can provide you with a lifestyle that is totally liberating - you can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be your own boss, set your own hours and work from the comfort of your own home. Plus your whole online Internet business can be automated so it basically runs itself.
Internet marketing is totally flexible. You can adjust your workload to suit your own work habits. Internet marketing is scalable, once you have learned how to make your first dollar; it is only a simple matter of repeating and scaling up what you did to earn that dollar. Computers and the Internet make it just as easy to handle a thousand sales as it is to handle one sale.
As Internet marketing becomes better known, it will gradually earn more and more respect. It will become a well recognized profession that many will aspire to and follow as a life long career. Mainly because Internet marketing will give you the freedom rarely seen in any other profession.
It offers you mobility, a high standard of living, and a working environment that can't be beat. It gives you the freedom to follow your own interests and hobbies; all the while turning those interests into viable revenue streams that supports the lifestyle of your own choosing.
When it is all said and done, earning a living just doesn't get any better than this.
About The Author
Daniel Scyphers, has been working with internet marketing for six years now, and is steadily making a good income each month with the Independent Profit Center System. http://profitforbeginners.com
In reality, Internet marketing is populated mainly with hard working professionals promoting and selling high quality brand products by many of the world's Top 500 companies.
Worldwide there are now over a billion Internet users, representing one large global consumer base or marketplace. The total amount of goods sold online has been steadily increasing each year as the Internet gains in both popularity and familiarity. Studies have shown people shop online because of lower prices, a wider selection of products, easier comparison shopping, and many just prefer not having to travel to stores to make a purchase.
Still Internet marketing has gotten a raw deal.
If you mention to any group of professionals that you're an Internet Marketer and that you work full time on the Internet... you will receive some very skeptical looks and more than one arched eyebrow of disbelief.
Regardless of this lingering skepticism, Internet marketing has become a viable alternative for many disgruntled professionals dissatisfied with their working hours or conditions. It has become a viable alternative for many people from all walks of life. From the college student to the bored housewife to the retired doctor... all are enjoying a part time or full time income from the comfort of their homes.
And since the Internet is now practically available to everyone, anywhere in the world - Internet marketing is a level playing field. There are many forms of Internet marketing. There are many online business models you can follow. There are countless ways to earn a good honest income from the Internet. Which path you take will be largely determined by research, work habits, and the time you are willing to put forth.
Here's a quick rundown of the most popular forms of Internet Marketing:
1. The Brick and Mortar Store Online. Most major companies and retail stores have created online versions of their brick and mortar businesses. Even if consumers don't buy online, many use these sites for gathering product information before buying in the real world. A factor many savvy businesses are exploiting in their overall marketing strategies.
2. Online Services. Many service industries have moved online, everything from travel to banking to dating! Again, the Internet can be a profitable extension for any service company.
3. Internet Gurus... Internet marketing has a whole history of pioneers who have forged the methods and techniques of marketing online - opt-in lists, mini-sites, article marketing, pay-per-click advertising, joint ventures... a brief history populated with such names as John Reese, Marlon Sanders, Ralph Wilson, Yanik Silver, Corey Rudl, Ken Evoy and countless others.
A whole new industry has grown around 'How-to' market online, info products, workshops and web seminars - teaching people how to market on the Internet. A marketer creating his own product can prove very productive - as seen by John Reese's 2004 launch of Traffic Secrets, which earned over a million dollars in one day. (Without a penny of paid advertising!)
4. Online Advertising and Pay-Per-Click advertising such as those offered by Google Adwords and others, presents another viable marketing route. Keywords (the exact words typed into a search engine) fuel a large portion of the web's activity. Keyword marketing has become a major driving force behind most of the economic transactions on the web. This is a very lucrative sector for those Internet marketers who know exactly what they're doing.
Then there is the whole section of SEO experts and consultants who command high prices for positioning companies or products in the top positions on the major search engines. Acquiring organic Top 10 search results will greatly determine the profitability of your online product or company.
5. Affiliate Marketing. One of the least understood, yet one of the most profitable forms of Internet marketing is affiliate marketing. An online marketer can join any affiliate program and promote its products or services on the Internet. You market the products, find customers for the company and receive a commission for each sale you make from your marketing efforts. These commissions can run anywhere from 2% to over 75%. One affiliate click can earn you anywhere from a few cents to several hundred dollars.
Major third party affiliate programs or companies such as Commission Junction, Clickbank, LinkShare, Amazon, Shareasale... act as a brokerage or go-between, representing thousands of Top Brand companies such as Sony, Apple, Dell... to online affiliate marketers. Marketers can join a program such as Commission Junction or LinkShare and be able to promote and market hundred of top quality products or services online. They can consolidate their affiliate marketing through these third party programs.
Perhaps the most common business model for the majority of online marketers is the last example, or a combination of advertising and affiliate sales. Many work-from-home professionals have adopted this business model. They have created a site or sites on the topic that interests them and of which they have or have gained some expert knowledge.
Once these sites become established and gather a large amount of targeted web traffic each day, making a nice income can only be a matter of putting the Google Adsense code on their pages and placing a few appropriate affiliate links on their sites.
The more traffic these marketers deliver to their sites, the more income they earn. The more unique content they create, the more income they earn. The more web sites they design, the more income they earn.
What many people outside of the web marketing field fail to realize is that the Internet is a 24/7/365 business. The Internet is always on and working for you. It is automatically producing income for you 24 hours of the day - while you're sleeping, while you're enjoying a nice meal with friends, or even while you're on vacation.
Internet marketing can provide you with a lifestyle that is totally liberating - you can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be your own boss, set your own hours and work from the comfort of your own home. Plus your whole online Internet business can be automated so it basically runs itself.
Internet marketing is totally flexible. You can adjust your workload to suit your own work habits. Internet marketing is scalable, once you have learned how to make your first dollar; it is only a simple matter of repeating and scaling up what you did to earn that dollar. Computers and the Internet make it just as easy to handle a thousand sales as it is to handle one sale.
As Internet marketing becomes better known, it will gradually earn more and more respect. It will become a well recognized profession that many will aspire to and follow as a life long career. Mainly because Internet marketing will give you the freedom rarely seen in any other profession.
It offers you mobility, a high standard of living, and a working environment that can't be beat. It gives you the freedom to follow your own interests and hobbies; all the while turning those interests into viable revenue streams that supports the lifestyle of your own choosing.
When it is all said and done, earning a living just doesn't get any better than this.
About The Author
Daniel Scyphers, has been working with internet marketing for six years now, and is steadily making a good income each month with the Independent Profit Center System. http://profitforbeginners.com
Facebook in 15 Minutes a Day: Start unlimited business
I've often said that social networking can take up your entire day, if you allow it. You sit down at your desk in the morning, and you see several Facebook event invites and friend requests. As you log into your account, someone's Facebook status update catches your eye, and before you know it, 3 hours have passed while you're reading and responding to social networking messages. How can you possibly get any work done in your business or for your clients at this rate?
Facebook doesn't have to be a time hog. As a matter of fact, you can actually handle most of your Facebook tasks in as little as 15 minutes per day. Here's what I do when I log into my account each morning (thanks for wonderful training I've received from Facebook guru Mari Smith for these great tips):
1. Update your status. This is the first section that you'll see on your homepage when you log into Facebook. While you can do this from your Facebook account, I prefer to update my status in Ping.fm, as this service will update my status in all of my social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace. However, if you're using only Facebook for social networking, then go ahead and use the status update there.
2. Review your news feeds. This is the first tab on the right on your home page. In this review, you're seeking stories on which you can share your expertise and on which you can comment. Some of your comments may be personal in nature, but this is a great opportuníty to showcase your experience in your field and industry.
3. Review news feeds of your friends. This feature is available from the home page as the down arrow on the far right of the home page tabs and permits you to view the feeds of your Friends Lists. Friend Lists allow you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. I've got my lists created by industry, i.e. Coaches, Virtual Assistants, Marketing Professionals, People to Watch, etc. Pick one líst and comment on those feeds just as you would yours.
If you have no Friends Lists, here's how to create them: Click Friends at the top of any Facebook page. From the following page, click "Make a new líst" on the left. After typing in the title of your list, you can add friends to your líst by typing your friend's name into the "Add to List" field. You can also click "Select Multiple Friends" to the right of the field, which will allow you to select many friends from your entire líst. After making your selections, click "Save List" to store your changes.
4. Review status updates. Take a quick moment to breeze through the status updates of your friends, and click on those on which you feel compelled to comment. Many people feed their blog posts into their status updates, so this is a great way to get out and comment on the blogs of others without having to search out relevant blog posts. In this case, I comment on the blog itself rather than the Facebook status update. I usually only go through one page of these to ensure I remain within my time constraints.
5. Acknowledge birthdays. These are listed under Events and Birthdays on the right side of your homepage. When you click on the birthday person's name, you'll be sent to their wall, where you can write your personalized birthday greeting (make more effort that just simply saying "Happy Birthday!"). I also take this opportuníty to find out a bit more about the friends on my list by clicking the "Info" tab on their home page and quickly scanning their profile. This helps me start to put names and faces together and get better acquainted with my network of friends, And, I take this opportuníty to add people to Friends List as appropriate.
6. Review friend requests. Add friends as you see fit, or according to any guidelines you have set for yourself. Facebook guru Mari Smith suggests setting up a "Friending Request Policy" in which you write down the conditions under which you'll accept friends (i.e. picture must be on profile, have to have other friends in common, have to have submitted a personal note with the friend request, etc.) and to help you in your decision-making.
7. Respond to event invitations. Your friends will be sending a myriad of invites to various events (most of my invites are to teleclasses), so take a few moments to scroll through those and see if any are of interest to you, or if you have further questions about them.
8. Respond to group invitations. Most of these I ignore, but occasionally I'll join a private group, usually related to a program in which I'm enrolled. Or, if it's a group run by someone with whom I want to connect or from whom I want to learn, I'll accept the invite to the group. If I have time, I'll also visit one of the groups to see what's going on and respond to any messages here.
9. Add friends. Facebook does an amazíng job of suggesting people I actually know to add to my friends líst in their "People You May Know" section on my home page. If I happen to see such a suggestion, I send out a request to add that person as a friend. When requesting to add a friend, I ALWAYS send a personalize request, letting them know how I know about them.
10. Review notifications. The notifications icon is on the lower right side of your home page and lists what's going on in your account (friend requests accepted, notes on your wall, etc.). This is a good prompt for you to write on someone's wall when they accept your friend request or to respond to posts on your wall.
11. Eyeball your profile. Make sure your profile appears as it should, and take the opportuníty to catch up on anything you may have missed with your other steps.
12. Check your inbox. Many of the emails in your inbox are duplications of event and group invites or group emails. When I look at this, I'm seeking out any personal 1:1 emails that I might have received from someone on my líst. I've discovered that many people I want to contact respond better to their Facebook emails than through emails sent to them (or an assistant) via their website, so I often email them through Facebook, instead.
If you devote 15 minutes per day, or at least 15 minutes 3 times a week, to updating Facebook, you'll begin to see results from your social networking before you know it!
About The Author
Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketíng Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Follow Donna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/donnagunter
Facebook doesn't have to be a time hog. As a matter of fact, you can actually handle most of your Facebook tasks in as little as 15 minutes per day. Here's what I do when I log into my account each morning (thanks for wonderful training I've received from Facebook guru Mari Smith for these great tips):
1. Update your status. This is the first section that you'll see on your homepage when you log into Facebook. While you can do this from your Facebook account, I prefer to update my status in Ping.fm, as this service will update my status in all of my social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace. However, if you're using only Facebook for social networking, then go ahead and use the status update there.
2. Review your news feeds. This is the first tab on the right on your home page. In this review, you're seeking stories on which you can share your expertise and on which you can comment. Some of your comments may be personal in nature, but this is a great opportuníty to showcase your experience in your field and industry.
3. Review news feeds of your friends. This feature is available from the home page as the down arrow on the far right of the home page tabs and permits you to view the feeds of your Friends Lists. Friend Lists allow you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. I've got my lists created by industry, i.e. Coaches, Virtual Assistants, Marketing Professionals, People to Watch, etc. Pick one líst and comment on those feeds just as you would yours.
If you have no Friends Lists, here's how to create them: Click Friends at the top of any Facebook page. From the following page, click "Make a new líst" on the left. After typing in the title of your list, you can add friends to your líst by typing your friend's name into the "Add to List" field. You can also click "Select Multiple Friends" to the right of the field, which will allow you to select many friends from your entire líst. After making your selections, click "Save List" to store your changes.
4. Review status updates. Take a quick moment to breeze through the status updates of your friends, and click on those on which you feel compelled to comment. Many people feed their blog posts into their status updates, so this is a great way to get out and comment on the blogs of others without having to search out relevant blog posts. In this case, I comment on the blog itself rather than the Facebook status update. I usually only go through one page of these to ensure I remain within my time constraints.
5. Acknowledge birthdays. These are listed under Events and Birthdays on the right side of your homepage. When you click on the birthday person's name, you'll be sent to their wall, where you can write your personalized birthday greeting (make more effort that just simply saying "Happy Birthday!"). I also take this opportuníty to find out a bit more about the friends on my list by clicking the "Info" tab on their home page and quickly scanning their profile. This helps me start to put names and faces together and get better acquainted with my network of friends, And, I take this opportuníty to add people to Friends List as appropriate.
6. Review friend requests. Add friends as you see fit, or according to any guidelines you have set for yourself. Facebook guru Mari Smith suggests setting up a "Friending Request Policy" in which you write down the conditions under which you'll accept friends (i.e. picture must be on profile, have to have other friends in common, have to have submitted a personal note with the friend request, etc.) and to help you in your decision-making.
7. Respond to event invitations. Your friends will be sending a myriad of invites to various events (most of my invites are to teleclasses), so take a few moments to scroll through those and see if any are of interest to you, or if you have further questions about them.
8. Respond to group invitations. Most of these I ignore, but occasionally I'll join a private group, usually related to a program in which I'm enrolled. Or, if it's a group run by someone with whom I want to connect or from whom I want to learn, I'll accept the invite to the group. If I have time, I'll also visit one of the groups to see what's going on and respond to any messages here.
9. Add friends. Facebook does an amazíng job of suggesting people I actually know to add to my friends líst in their "People You May Know" section on my home page. If I happen to see such a suggestion, I send out a request to add that person as a friend. When requesting to add a friend, I ALWAYS send a personalize request, letting them know how I know about them.
10. Review notifications. The notifications icon is on the lower right side of your home page and lists what's going on in your account (friend requests accepted, notes on your wall, etc.). This is a good prompt for you to write on someone's wall when they accept your friend request or to respond to posts on your wall.
11. Eyeball your profile. Make sure your profile appears as it should, and take the opportuníty to catch up on anything you may have missed with your other steps.
12. Check your inbox. Many of the emails in your inbox are duplications of event and group invites or group emails. When I look at this, I'm seeking out any personal 1:1 emails that I might have received from someone on my líst. I've discovered that many people I want to contact respond better to their Facebook emails than through emails sent to them (or an assistant) via their website, so I often email them through Facebook, instead.
If you devote 15 minutes per day, or at least 15 minutes 3 times a week, to updating Facebook, you'll begin to see results from your social networking before you know it!
About The Author
Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketíng Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Follow Donna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/donnagunter
SEO Intervention: Stop Driving Yourself Crazy and Start Getting Results!
Do you drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with the latest SEO trends? If so, Stop! Please. You have enough to worry about already. Quit running yourself ragged or spending a fortune trying to keep up with the latest and greatest SEO tricks and tips. The truth is search engine optimization has not changed nearly as much as experts (trying to sell you something) might want you to think.
To be perfectly honest getting to the top of Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine is largely dependent on the quality of your Web pages. There's no magic formula you must follow to the letter but there are a number of simple things you can better understand and do to help get you to the top of ANY search engine. It's a lot easier than most people think.
First and most importantly, remember that search engines only care about your Web pages, NOT the whole site. If you end up with enough high ranking PAGES from a single site on Google, you can become a what it considers to be an "authority site" which can automatically double your top ten rankings. Here's what I mean...
If you do a search on http://www.Google.com and search for "SEO partner" (without the quotes) you will see that number one looks like a normal return while number two is indented. You have just witnessed an authority site's usurping of an extra top spot. There is a good chance that the indented one was actually number six or even fifteen. But since it is from an authority site it got to cut the line and push everybody else's listings down one.
Secondly, the biggest and most important search engines use something called a natural text algorithm. This means they can tell when you are writing text that is intended more for search engine spiders than for actual people, and they will ding you for it. So to keep quality high, simply write your page text as if you were describing your goods or services to a good friend. Let the words flow and don't get hung up on things like keyword density and ideal placement. We've got a great technique for that coming up next.
Keyword density is an outdated concept for the most part. As long as you don't spam the text by having your keyword blatantly repeated or inserted in areas that don't make sense, you will be OK. If having a guideline helps, plan to use each keyword about five or six times on each page and no more than twice in a single paragraph.
Keyword proximity is another concept that is a bit outdated but still somewhat valid. What that means is you should be aware of where your keywords go but you do not need to follow a strict formula of placing them in exact locations. Just be strategic. Put them where they make the most sense in context. Don't force them to into one location just because it is the first sentence of the third paragraph or whatever. It helps the reader and the search engine if you can mention your main keyword toward the beginning of the page text and toward the end, but this is not a hard and fast rule. It's just a suggestion.
As for the number of keywords you optimize a single page for, do what makes sense for the page length. If the page is really long and you have room for several keywords to be featured with good natural ext, go for it. As a rule of thumb I try to limit each page to about three keywords but that's just because it helps me stay better organized and does not confuse the readers by splitting their focus too much. The other reason is because I really want it featured prominently in the page title.
Speaking of the title, this is one of the few META tags we care about and it's a pretty big deal. Use the title as your chance to show off your keywords. After all, this is what your visitors searched for. Don't feel that a page title needs to be clever and captivating like a book title. In fact this is probably the easiest part. Just take your keywords, in order of importance, and separate them with a comma or pipe (the vertical key over the enter key.) That's it! Just remember most search engines will only count the first 64 letters.
So if you did a page on search engine optimization tips with the following keywords: "SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Tips" your title could be just that. Or you can use my favorite and it would look like this "SEO | Search Engine Optimization | SEO Tips."
And by the way, when Google sees "SEO Tips" it is counting the word SEO and Tips as individual words so the title text "SEO, SEO Tips" has the word SEO repeated. Just two instances of one keyword so close is not really SPAM but it's good to be aware of.
I mentioned that the Title tag is one of the few META tags we care about. Another is the Description tag. No magic here. Just be sure to write it naturally and include a couple of your keywords if they fít in well. And you can make this as long as you like but most search engines don't use more than the first 250 characters. Most importantly, think of the Description as your big chance to get people interested enough to visit your page. This is sales copy first.
Once someone lands on your page they will be looking for a little guidance. Give it to them with Headings (H1, H2, etc.) Think of a heading as an on page title using a similar keyword strategy, just not as cut and dry. Here it is a good idea to have not only your keyword but also some descriptive supporting text. Something like "SEO Tips That Really Work" is a good example. We have our SEO Tips keyword and reinforce it with a statement that the information they are about to read actually works. Too simple? Yes. It really is.
While headings are your first visual cue to the reader, links are the ones that really draw them in. Make sure your on page links stand out and contain relevant anchor text (clickable keywords.)
If you really want to get the most out of your online real estate, consider dedicating one page to each major keyword and linking to it from the anchor text on another page. For example, the words SEO Tips would be great anchor text to a page titled "SEO Tips | Search Engine Optimization Strategies."
The final piece of this SEO puzzle is linking. Quality inbound links will account for most of your success on Google and several other top search engines. You need to get the highest quality links possible and build optimal reciprocal linking partnerships. This is HUGE!
You can do it all manually or use an inexpensive SEO software tool like the one found at SE0elite.com. I've done it both ways and find that good software saves me about 10 to 15 hours each week, per site. But either way, manually or with a tool, focus your efforts on linking as much as possible. While onsite optimization is a one tíme (or at least limited) thing, linking should be part of your weekly routine.
Good luck!
About The Author
With 10 years experience under his SEO belt, Scott Jason started BestSEOcopywriting.com in 2006. Since then he has helped dozens of client as an SEO copywriter and specialist with hundreds of top rankings to his credít on Google, MSN and Yahoo.
To be perfectly honest getting to the top of Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine is largely dependent on the quality of your Web pages. There's no magic formula you must follow to the letter but there are a number of simple things you can better understand and do to help get you to the top of ANY search engine. It's a lot easier than most people think.
First and most importantly, remember that search engines only care about your Web pages, NOT the whole site. If you end up with enough high ranking PAGES from a single site on Google, you can become a what it considers to be an "authority site" which can automatically double your top ten rankings. Here's what I mean...
If you do a search on http://www.Google.com and search for "SEO partner" (without the quotes) you will see that number one looks like a normal return while number two is indented. You have just witnessed an authority site's usurping of an extra top spot. There is a good chance that the indented one was actually number six or even fifteen. But since it is from an authority site it got to cut the line and push everybody else's listings down one.
Secondly, the biggest and most important search engines use something called a natural text algorithm. This means they can tell when you are writing text that is intended more for search engine spiders than for actual people, and they will ding you for it. So to keep quality high, simply write your page text as if you were describing your goods or services to a good friend. Let the words flow and don't get hung up on things like keyword density and ideal placement. We've got a great technique for that coming up next.
Keyword density is an outdated concept for the most part. As long as you don't spam the text by having your keyword blatantly repeated or inserted in areas that don't make sense, you will be OK. If having a guideline helps, plan to use each keyword about five or six times on each page and no more than twice in a single paragraph.
Keyword proximity is another concept that is a bit outdated but still somewhat valid. What that means is you should be aware of where your keywords go but you do not need to follow a strict formula of placing them in exact locations. Just be strategic. Put them where they make the most sense in context. Don't force them to into one location just because it is the first sentence of the third paragraph or whatever. It helps the reader and the search engine if you can mention your main keyword toward the beginning of the page text and toward the end, but this is not a hard and fast rule. It's just a suggestion.
As for the number of keywords you optimize a single page for, do what makes sense for the page length. If the page is really long and you have room for several keywords to be featured with good natural ext, go for it. As a rule of thumb I try to limit each page to about three keywords but that's just because it helps me stay better organized and does not confuse the readers by splitting their focus too much. The other reason is because I really want it featured prominently in the page title.
Speaking of the title, this is one of the few META tags we care about and it's a pretty big deal. Use the title as your chance to show off your keywords. After all, this is what your visitors searched for. Don't feel that a page title needs to be clever and captivating like a book title. In fact this is probably the easiest part. Just take your keywords, in order of importance, and separate them with a comma or pipe (the vertical key over the enter key.) That's it! Just remember most search engines will only count the first 64 letters.
So if you did a page on search engine optimization tips with the following keywords: "SEO, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Tips" your title could be just that. Or you can use my favorite and it would look like this "SEO | Search Engine Optimization | SEO Tips."
And by the way, when Google sees "SEO Tips" it is counting the word SEO and Tips as individual words so the title text "SEO, SEO Tips" has the word SEO repeated. Just two instances of one keyword so close is not really SPAM but it's good to be aware of.
I mentioned that the Title tag is one of the few META tags we care about. Another is the Description tag. No magic here. Just be sure to write it naturally and include a couple of your keywords if they fít in well. And you can make this as long as you like but most search engines don't use more than the first 250 characters. Most importantly, think of the Description as your big chance to get people interested enough to visit your page. This is sales copy first.
Once someone lands on your page they will be looking for a little guidance. Give it to them with Headings (H1, H2, etc.) Think of a heading as an on page title using a similar keyword strategy, just not as cut and dry. Here it is a good idea to have not only your keyword but also some descriptive supporting text. Something like "SEO Tips That Really Work" is a good example. We have our SEO Tips keyword and reinforce it with a statement that the information they are about to read actually works. Too simple? Yes. It really is.
While headings are your first visual cue to the reader, links are the ones that really draw them in. Make sure your on page links stand out and contain relevant anchor text (clickable keywords.)
If you really want to get the most out of your online real estate, consider dedicating one page to each major keyword and linking to it from the anchor text on another page. For example, the words SEO Tips would be great anchor text to a page titled "SEO Tips | Search Engine Optimization Strategies."
The final piece of this SEO puzzle is linking. Quality inbound links will account for most of your success on Google and several other top search engines. You need to get the highest quality links possible and build optimal reciprocal linking partnerships. This is HUGE!
You can do it all manually or use an inexpensive SEO software tool like the one found at SE0elite.com. I've done it both ways and find that good software saves me about 10 to 15 hours each week, per site. But either way, manually or with a tool, focus your efforts on linking as much as possible. While onsite optimization is a one tíme (or at least limited) thing, linking should be part of your weekly routine.
Good luck!
About The Author
With 10 years experience under his SEO belt, Scott Jason started BestSEOcopywriting.com in 2006. Since then he has helped dozens of client as an SEO copywriter and specialist with hundreds of top rankings to his credít on Google, MSN and Yahoo.
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