SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.
While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.
Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Webmaster Tools and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
Most such proposals require users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about the self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications.
Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they'd recommend the firm you're considering.
References are a good start, but they don't tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time individuals it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google's spam guidelines.
Make sure you're protected legally.
Don't be afraid to request a refund if you're unsatisfied with your SEO's performance. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.
What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
owns shadow domains
puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
offers to sell keywords in the address bar
doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
Source :Google
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Guide To Selecting The Right Search Engine Optimisation Company
There is little doubt that search engine optimisation is a key component of modern business. Every business worth their weight employs some form of SEO to ensure they receive increased traffic.
Optimisation has become integral to attracting potential customers to websites; maximising web traffic is the name of the game. This involves making your company website more SEO friendly whilst also increasing the usability for customers.
With so many search engine optimisation services available on the market the choice can be daunting to say the least. All claim they will be able to provide results and increase traffic to your site. There are however certain factors to consider before picking a company. Here are a few of them.
Before looking for an optimisation company ensure you understand as much as you can about optimising search engine traffic. Researching the process of SEO is simple enough, there are plenty of articles and journals out there for you to read and expand your knowledge. Possessing knowledge of search engine optimisation will help you pick the right SEO company and avoid the ones that use unscrupulous 'black hat' methods. It also means you can be involved in the optimisation process with the company.
With so many optimisation services out there it is important to get quotes from a variety of businesses. The most expensive is not always the most efficient, look for those who have realistic prices for the services they offer. Also look how well the company has carried out optimisation on their own website; for a company that professes to carry out SEO as their primary business function; they should be no less than number five.
If your search engine optimisation company has guaranteed you number one ranking on a variety of engines; walk away. Nobody can guarantee these placements and any company that does is essentially dishonest. Google themselves have stated that it is impossible to guarantee number one spot for any particular search term.
As with utilising services such as plumbers and builders, receiving personal recommendations are crucial. Your search engine optimisation company should be happy to supply you with references of companies they have worked with and achieved successful results. If you receive a set of keywords and ranking information verify this yourself by searching the terms in different engines.
It is important to define what services your search engine optimisation company will provide. SEO should involve on and off page services. Find out exactly what the optimisers want to do; web analysis, keyword analysis, ranking reports and optimisation content writing should all be included as part of an efficient campaign. Linking should also provide a core part of the services and will lead to better rankings in the long run.
Optimisation is an ongoing process, algorithms and processes change regularly so optimisation is a constant task. Modifying a website is a priority in order for it to keep up with the latest methodology. SEO companies should be extremely well informed on search engine matters. A monthly plan of action should be followed and will help in maintaining rankings and keeping up to date with search trends.
Following this advice should lead to efficient search engine optimisation and finding the right company to carry out the task. Results however are rarely immediate, SEO is a process that takes time and a reputable company will focus on long term goals for increasing traffic. Playing the 'long game' is a vital part of SEO, the old adage of 'patience is a virtue' is definitely true in the optimisation industry. Rankings however will eventually come and improve the profits for your business.
Optimisation has become integral to attracting potential customers to websites; maximising web traffic is the name of the game. This involves making your company website more SEO friendly whilst also increasing the usability for customers.
With so many search engine optimisation services available on the market the choice can be daunting to say the least. All claim they will be able to provide results and increase traffic to your site. There are however certain factors to consider before picking a company. Here are a few of them.
Before looking for an optimisation company ensure you understand as much as you can about optimising search engine traffic. Researching the process of SEO is simple enough, there are plenty of articles and journals out there for you to read and expand your knowledge. Possessing knowledge of search engine optimisation will help you pick the right SEO company and avoid the ones that use unscrupulous 'black hat' methods. It also means you can be involved in the optimisation process with the company.
With so many optimisation services out there it is important to get quotes from a variety of businesses. The most expensive is not always the most efficient, look for those who have realistic prices for the services they offer. Also look how well the company has carried out optimisation on their own website; for a company that professes to carry out SEO as their primary business function; they should be no less than number five.
If your search engine optimisation company has guaranteed you number one ranking on a variety of engines; walk away. Nobody can guarantee these placements and any company that does is essentially dishonest. Google themselves have stated that it is impossible to guarantee number one spot for any particular search term.
As with utilising services such as plumbers and builders, receiving personal recommendations are crucial. Your search engine optimisation company should be happy to supply you with references of companies they have worked with and achieved successful results. If you receive a set of keywords and ranking information verify this yourself by searching the terms in different engines.
It is important to define what services your search engine optimisation company will provide. SEO should involve on and off page services. Find out exactly what the optimisers want to do; web analysis, keyword analysis, ranking reports and optimisation content writing should all be included as part of an efficient campaign. Linking should also provide a core part of the services and will lead to better rankings in the long run.
Optimisation is an ongoing process, algorithms and processes change regularly so optimisation is a constant task. Modifying a website is a priority in order for it to keep up with the latest methodology. SEO companies should be extremely well informed on search engine matters. A monthly plan of action should be followed and will help in maintaining rankings and keeping up to date with search trends.
Following this advice should lead to efficient search engine optimisation and finding the right company to carry out the task. Results however are rarely immediate, SEO is a process that takes time and a reputable company will focus on long term goals for increasing traffic. Playing the 'long game' is a vital part of SEO, the old adage of 'patience is a virtue' is definitely true in the optimisation industry. Rankings however will eventually come and improve the profits for your business.
Attracting More Traffic To Your Website
When it comes to search engine optimization many website owners find themselves struggling to compete. Building an online business can be challenging and search engine optimization is one of those challenges you will have to face in order to build a long term successful business on the internet.
With that said many folks like to make search engine optimization seem complicated. Sure it is challenging but when done correctly it can be very effective.
When it is done right it is very easy to get to the top of search engines and get the traffic you need in order for your business to thrive.
Search engine optimization basically means building your website in a way that enables search engines to understand the content correctly and as a consequence list your site in the top ten results for your chosen keywords.
So why is search engine optimization necessary and why should you do it?
The first thing to note is that a site without traffic will never make money. Secondly it 's not just about getting traffic to your site, its more about getting traffic that converts to sales.
When your site receives traffic from the search engines it is far more likely that these visitors will convert to sales. One of the biggest reasons for this is credibility.
When your company comes up on the first pages of Google it suggests that your site is a trusted source relevant to what that individual is searching for.
Plus when people use the search engines they are searching for something and use specific keywords to identify their needs. When you site pops up on the first page you are then considered to be a resource that will provide them with a solution.
On the other hand when you advertise you are putting yourself in front of the customer suggesting that you have what they need. In this case you are telling them and as you know human nature tends to take this information with a certain degree of skepticism.
As we all know none of us like been told what to do, and advertising is all about telling someone about your product or service. This is why advertised traffic does not convert as well as search engine traffic.
This is why search engine optimization is necessary because making money online is all about converting traffic to sales and should always be the focus of your attention.
Granted search engine optimization is time consuming and the landscape is forever changing. The good news is that you can outsource this task to companies that devote their time and expertise to getting websites on the first page of the search results. With that said you need to be careful.
There are many companies out there who will gladly take your money while promising you the moon and the stars. They then will tell you how they are going to submit your site to all sorts of directories and use various different software tools to accomplish this objective.
This sounds great in theory but it may actually do more harm than good. The search engines may think you are spamming them and as a result de-list your site.
So when it comes to using search engine optimization companies proceed with caution. Ask them how they are going to do it and make sure that they provide you with everything you need to both understand and achieve your objective.
To conclude search engine optimization is all about working smart not hard and if you are not optimizing your website you will reduce your sites capability of being profitable over the long term.
With that said many folks like to make search engine optimization seem complicated. Sure it is challenging but when done correctly it can be very effective.
When it is done right it is very easy to get to the top of search engines and get the traffic you need in order for your business to thrive.
Search engine optimization basically means building your website in a way that enables search engines to understand the content correctly and as a consequence list your site in the top ten results for your chosen keywords.
So why is search engine optimization necessary and why should you do it?
The first thing to note is that a site without traffic will never make money. Secondly it 's not just about getting traffic to your site, its more about getting traffic that converts to sales.
When your site receives traffic from the search engines it is far more likely that these visitors will convert to sales. One of the biggest reasons for this is credibility.
When your company comes up on the first pages of Google it suggests that your site is a trusted source relevant to what that individual is searching for.
Plus when people use the search engines they are searching for something and use specific keywords to identify their needs. When you site pops up on the first page you are then considered to be a resource that will provide them with a solution.
On the other hand when you advertise you are putting yourself in front of the customer suggesting that you have what they need. In this case you are telling them and as you know human nature tends to take this information with a certain degree of skepticism.
As we all know none of us like been told what to do, and advertising is all about telling someone about your product or service. This is why advertised traffic does not convert as well as search engine traffic.
This is why search engine optimization is necessary because making money online is all about converting traffic to sales and should always be the focus of your attention.
Granted search engine optimization is time consuming and the landscape is forever changing. The good news is that you can outsource this task to companies that devote their time and expertise to getting websites on the first page of the search results. With that said you need to be careful.
There are many companies out there who will gladly take your money while promising you the moon and the stars. They then will tell you how they are going to submit your site to all sorts of directories and use various different software tools to accomplish this objective.
This sounds great in theory but it may actually do more harm than good. The search engines may think you are spamming them and as a result de-list your site.
So when it comes to using search engine optimization companies proceed with caution. Ask them how they are going to do it and make sure that they provide you with everything you need to both understand and achieve your objective.
To conclude search engine optimization is all about working smart not hard and if you are not optimizing your website you will reduce your sites capability of being profitable over the long term.
The SEO Food Chain, Are You a Ranking Predator or Prey?
Just like a predator, the parallels between SEO, hunting keywords and hapless animals falling prey to the food chain while grazing wild in the safari are too common to be ignored. Despite the concept being a disturbing thought, the parallels, I must say are alarming.
Imagine briefly if you will, a sleek cheetah "with prey locked in their sights", the tail-bone drops, a poof of smoke erupts as the ground is flung aside with extreme force as a full sprint envelopes a fierce pace with only one thought in mind, "it 's mine". Sound familiar?, Just like a primal eye on the prize, "nothing else matters" instinct. SEO, the Top 10 and the safari share more in common than one might think.
If you are involved in competitive bouts for keywords in SEO, you may be familiar with the feeling. Many in fact live for it, instead of the hunt for the kill, it is the competition for the thrill. There is nothing like brushing off a few million competing pages (and competitors) to occupy the #1 position of Google, Yahoo and MSN. The hunt and emotion of bagging a series of competitive terms is nothing short of "being King or Queen of the Wild Wide Web" in it 's ever changing glory.
Taking the concept even further, just like a cunning feline stalks their prey (competitive keyword research), knowing it 's behaviors and habitat such as "the prey is known to frequent the water hole and travel in large herds". SEO translation, stalking (latent semantic) keyword roots, you can pick them off like fruit - "once you optimize the root phrase, you can bag them all". Now maybe it 's just me, but maybe search engine engineers are on to the whole juxtaposed animal totem analogy. Let us explore this a little bit further.
Just like a wild animal there are multiple keywords grazing about the jungle we call the web that are as ripe as low hanging fruit to a keyword carnivore. We are talking about "deer in the headlights" material here. Then every once in a great while you come across one wild keyword that holds the key to a spike in traffic you have never seen the likes of.
These "wild-cards" are known for their migratory patterns and have a way of working their way unnoticed into a myriad of searches and have tags such as (company, services, professional, best, leading, most, how to, the list goes on and on). Finding the right combination of modifiers (for your niche) and optimizing your site for keywords such as these are the fabric of untold fortunes. Many may momentarily ponder, why would we waste our time on acquiring such an obscure series of terms, Why, because you never know who will search for them or where your content will surface.
Now, certainly you have an idea of which decision makers you would prefer to have company with, but with so many roving eyes and visitors foraging and clicking about the world wild web, playing the law of averages is not such a bad idea.
For example, if I know (based on meticulous research) that certain adjectives or modifiers have the capability to double or triple every keyword and respective traffic that is already established in your keyword empire. What would preclude one from exercising another round of link building to anchor yet another flurry of rankings. Just think of the possibilities to go back and add another layer to your SEO defense as well as mount a new offense for sniping some new traffic-bearing terms.
If you have seen it once as an SEO you have seen it a million times, a company targets a narrow series of keywords, something changes in the market, the fickleness of how consumers search or how they find the site, an algorithm change or just the competition kicks it up a notch and all is lost from putting your eggs in one basket. There is something to learn from the safari, the food chain and the cheetah in this scenario.
You really don't want to be holding the short side of the stick when the search engines have sorted who gets the throne for the #1 spot. So before you engage the hunt, take the time to conduct a bit of research, think outside of your market (to draw in stragglers) and use commonly used modifiers (common phrases) to add new life and new flavor to your traffic. Since you never know who is coming to dine on your content.
Imagine briefly if you will, a sleek cheetah "with prey locked in their sights", the tail-bone drops, a poof of smoke erupts as the ground is flung aside with extreme force as a full sprint envelopes a fierce pace with only one thought in mind, "it 's mine". Sound familiar?, Just like a primal eye on the prize, "nothing else matters" instinct. SEO, the Top 10 and the safari share more in common than one might think.
If you are involved in competitive bouts for keywords in SEO, you may be familiar with the feeling. Many in fact live for it, instead of the hunt for the kill, it is the competition for the thrill. There is nothing like brushing off a few million competing pages (and competitors) to occupy the #1 position of Google, Yahoo and MSN. The hunt and emotion of bagging a series of competitive terms is nothing short of "being King or Queen of the Wild Wide Web" in it 's ever changing glory.
Taking the concept even further, just like a cunning feline stalks their prey (competitive keyword research), knowing it 's behaviors and habitat such as "the prey is known to frequent the water hole and travel in large herds". SEO translation, stalking (latent semantic) keyword roots, you can pick them off like fruit - "once you optimize the root phrase, you can bag them all". Now maybe it 's just me, but maybe search engine engineers are on to the whole juxtaposed animal totem analogy. Let us explore this a little bit further.
Just like a wild animal there are multiple keywords grazing about the jungle we call the web that are as ripe as low hanging fruit to a keyword carnivore. We are talking about "deer in the headlights" material here. Then every once in a great while you come across one wild keyword that holds the key to a spike in traffic you have never seen the likes of.
These "wild-cards" are known for their migratory patterns and have a way of working their way unnoticed into a myriad of searches and have tags such as (company, services, professional, best, leading, most, how to, the list goes on and on). Finding the right combination of modifiers (for your niche) and optimizing your site for keywords such as these are the fabric of untold fortunes. Many may momentarily ponder, why would we waste our time on acquiring such an obscure series of terms, Why, because you never know who will search for them or where your content will surface.
Now, certainly you have an idea of which decision makers you would prefer to have company with, but with so many roving eyes and visitors foraging and clicking about the world wild web, playing the law of averages is not such a bad idea.
For example, if I know (based on meticulous research) that certain adjectives or modifiers have the capability to double or triple every keyword and respective traffic that is already established in your keyword empire. What would preclude one from exercising another round of link building to anchor yet another flurry of rankings. Just think of the possibilities to go back and add another layer to your SEO defense as well as mount a new offense for sniping some new traffic-bearing terms.
If you have seen it once as an SEO you have seen it a million times, a company targets a narrow series of keywords, something changes in the market, the fickleness of how consumers search or how they find the site, an algorithm change or just the competition kicks it up a notch and all is lost from putting your eggs in one basket. There is something to learn from the safari, the food chain and the cheetah in this scenario.
You really don't want to be holding the short side of the stick when the search engines have sorted who gets the throne for the #1 spot. So before you engage the hunt, take the time to conduct a bit of research, think outside of your market (to draw in stragglers) and use commonly used modifiers (common phrases) to add new life and new flavor to your traffic. Since you never know who is coming to dine on your content.
A Look At Search Engine Optimisation Methods
Search engine optimisation is currently becoming a very lucrative industry for those who have the skills to carry out optimisation effectively. Put simply, the process involves maximising the traffic that goes to a website from search engine channels. This maximising of traffic increases a websites ranking in the eyes of the search engine and hence makes you a more popular choice by users who are more likely to choose sites at the top of the list of results.
The factors you must consider when undertaking search engine optimisation are; the keywords that you use, for instance these are the words that are most likely to be entered into a search engine when looking for your type of product. The title of your page is important as this is the first thing the search engine reads of your site, hence relevance is extremely important.
The description of your site is the second piece of information a search engine reads and once again has to be relevant. The text on your site is also important in terms of relevance and worth for a search engine to rank it highly. Links to your site from other sites will also help increase the popularity of your site.
When in the process of search engine optimisation selecting your keywords carefully is imperative. Obviously you must find keywords that people are likely to type into search engines. These keywords must be placed within the page to achieve high rankings; it is worth remembering however that phrases rather than single words make for better search engine optimisation. This is because more people tend to search using phrases rather than single words. These keywords should be included on all of the pages and it may even be worth including misspellings if these words are hard to spell.
It is also worth including these keywords and phrases in the title tag, the majority of search engines place high regard on the titles as these are the first piece of information they read when calculating rankings. The most important keywords should be included on the tags on your homepage while internal pages should have the less popular search terms in place. The title for each page should also be unique as most search engine spiders will place importance on the unique information on each site.
The description once again should include keywords in an easily readable sentence. As human users rather than spiders will read this information making it legible is important to increase traffic. The same can be said for content, while spiders will pick up on content, it is the human user who will find the content most useful. This content should be truly unique and well written as duplication is a big mistake when undertaking optimisation. A minimum of two hundred words per page is a helpful guideline to follow as the amount of content on a site is also important.
Linking from other sites is of vital importance and will increase your search engine rankings. This form of optimisation will help in two ways, while it increases your rankings and relative popularity as a site, it should also increase traffic through these links. A blog can also help increase the popularity of your site.
Some methods of optimisation and website design will however harm your rankings. These include placing complicated Flash displays and dynamic URLs that make your site harder to read for search engine spiders. Also by including keywords in your tags that have no relation to the information present will also harm your rankings by disregarding relevance principles.
Search engine optimisation is a complicated process and this article has just scratched the surface of the methods used in the industry. By pursuing these strategies you are optimising in an ethical or 'white hat' way, at all costs you should avoid following strategies of 'black hat' SEO. 'Black hat' methods will ultimately harm your rankings as search engines pick up on the unscrupulous methods employed. It is always worth employing an SEO company that will pursue ethical forms of optimisation for true rankings and increased traffic over an extended period of time.
The factors you must consider when undertaking search engine optimisation are; the keywords that you use, for instance these are the words that are most likely to be entered into a search engine when looking for your type of product. The title of your page is important as this is the first thing the search engine reads of your site, hence relevance is extremely important.
The description of your site is the second piece of information a search engine reads and once again has to be relevant. The text on your site is also important in terms of relevance and worth for a search engine to rank it highly. Links to your site from other sites will also help increase the popularity of your site.
When in the process of search engine optimisation selecting your keywords carefully is imperative. Obviously you must find keywords that people are likely to type into search engines. These keywords must be placed within the page to achieve high rankings; it is worth remembering however that phrases rather than single words make for better search engine optimisation. This is because more people tend to search using phrases rather than single words. These keywords should be included on all of the pages and it may even be worth including misspellings if these words are hard to spell.
It is also worth including these keywords and phrases in the title tag, the majority of search engines place high regard on the titles as these are the first piece of information they read when calculating rankings. The most important keywords should be included on the tags on your homepage while internal pages should have the less popular search terms in place. The title for each page should also be unique as most search engine spiders will place importance on the unique information on each site.
The description once again should include keywords in an easily readable sentence. As human users rather than spiders will read this information making it legible is important to increase traffic. The same can be said for content, while spiders will pick up on content, it is the human user who will find the content most useful. This content should be truly unique and well written as duplication is a big mistake when undertaking optimisation. A minimum of two hundred words per page is a helpful guideline to follow as the amount of content on a site is also important.
Linking from other sites is of vital importance and will increase your search engine rankings. This form of optimisation will help in two ways, while it increases your rankings and relative popularity as a site, it should also increase traffic through these links. A blog can also help increase the popularity of your site.
Some methods of optimisation and website design will however harm your rankings. These include placing complicated Flash displays and dynamic URLs that make your site harder to read for search engine spiders. Also by including keywords in your tags that have no relation to the information present will also harm your rankings by disregarding relevance principles.
Search engine optimisation is a complicated process and this article has just scratched the surface of the methods used in the industry. By pursuing these strategies you are optimising in an ethical or 'white hat' way, at all costs you should avoid following strategies of 'black hat' SEO. 'Black hat' methods will ultimately harm your rankings as search engines pick up on the unscrupulous methods employed. It is always worth employing an SEO company that will pursue ethical forms of optimisation for true rankings and increased traffic over an extended period of time.
When Push Comes to Shove!
How much traffic and potential revenue are you losing each month to your online competition? It really doesn't get any more simple than that.
All idioms and cliches aside, when friendly competition escalates into an all out hostile takeover for a competitive keyword and push comes to shove in search engines, the winner boils down to the one who employs the most comprehensive and engaging SEO Strategy.
In many ways, just like a healthy game of chess, SEO similarly has multiple elements in common. Particularly the tactical strategies that occur behind the scenes which all depend on a delicate balance of intricacies that if rushed or forced to mature before their time, can leave you vulnerable to penalties and mistakes.
A strong opening (in the rankings) can be neutralized if your competitor sacked to many pieces and then makes a mistake (in the end game) and as a result has to concede to checkmate.
SEO, Like a Good Game of Chess, Requires a Solid Strategy
Just like a fundamental chess strategy is making sure that each piece is working in tandem with others (the knight protect the bishops, the rooks protect the knights, the queen is augmenting a pawn who has 2 major pieces pinned down). Think of your pages, your links and your marketing and advertising in this fashion, each must work in tandem with the other in order to have the most impact and minimize risk.
For example, I have seen numerous instances where making the slightest change to a title, removing a pivotal keyword from a page or some otherwise seemingly random event that may at the time have seemed insignificant, unravel the most decorated page in a site which resulting in the page plummeting 20 to 30 positions upon re-indexing.
Similarly if links were passing juice and then were lost, there goes the foundation for a high ranking position. With so many pitfalls possible, there is a reason why SEO 's insist on (1) backing up data and (2) tracking their results and tactics and (3) making changes slowly over time just in case something breaks (or works better than expected).
Looking below the surface (is like thinking 6 moves ahead)
Sometimes the effects of any change occur subtly outside of the range of visible cause and effect correlations and until you truly understand which components are functioning in unison, you have to be careful not to upset the natural balance of your site and it 's relationship to search engine algorithms.
There is enough change as a result PHD 's beta testing of new search engine algorithms. So make sure your not delving into short-term fixes (on a whim) when you should be concerned about long-term goals. Strategy is not an afterthought, since search results do not just magically appear in the top 10, somebody, somewhere (either through a singular or concerted effort) have invested time in nurturing the site to get it to where it is now.
As battles are fought on a daily basis for millions of keywords, you can be on top of the world for months in the top 10 search engine results and then rest on your laurels and be passed by a cunning competitor with a completely unique optimization strategy.
Determining what that strategy is and how to counter it (by building links, creating more content or just waiting) is the key. The last thing you want to do is invoking a penalty for excessive over-optimization, which can occur if you act to fast, build links to aggressively or break the search engine guidelines.
Know When your Strategy is Working and When to Retaliate
Once you hit the top 30 or top 20 results for a keyword for example, you should slow the pace of link building (at least in exact match) for those terms.
In the beginning what may have taken 50 links per month (tactfully created) may only require 6-10 links to maintain and defend a flanking attack from the competition.
Finding a viable solution to augment market share is one of the deciding factors that will determine technique that with prevail (such as adding 5 new social bookmarks to the page each month from different sources) or building links to those links instead of your pages directly.
Sometimes the best action is not to act, but knowing when, how and why is what distinguishes those who constantly hover in the upper echelon of extremely competitive terms (like a laser beam) vs. those who diffuse their efforts (like a flashlight).
So the next time you start obsessing over keywords as they rise and fall in the sea of the rhythmic ebb and tide of search. Just remember, do you set the tone and act or are you reacting to a false alarm or a trap. Just like a faint, a fake or a deliberate gesture designed to captivate your attention, sometimes you have to look for the subtler motives of how and why your competition is taking the steps they are.
Just like a good game of chess, the opening move can determine the outcome of the end game, you just have to be patient enough to assess the circumstances before making snap judgments so you can determine which path is the most likely candidate for success.
Defending the Castle - Your Traffic Bearing-Keywords
Once you acquire a competitive term, you have to maintain it, take that by 10, 20, 30, hundreds or thousands of keyword combinations and it is a tall order for any individual or group to administer. For example, I may write 5 pages of content, just to augment 1 page in the rankings.
Naturally, to a novice they look at the smoke and mirrors, but the true result of the optimization occurs in 3-4 months (and does not always leave such a clear trail regarding the origin of the link juice).
Know your Enemy by Assessing their Strategy
Everything leaves a trail, but just how committed are you to finding it? An initial assessment of the competition would include factors such as:
1) How many links are pointed at the home page proportionately to other pages in the site?
2) Is there a theme in the footer links to determine a footprint of global link density for specific key terms?
3) Are the h1 tags consistent with the title?
4) How many links are on the page?
5) Are the links optimized? (with keywords or click here non-SEO link structures).
5) How many pages are in the site?
6) Are there sub folders?
7) If so, are they interlinked or do they use a unique form of capping internal links through the use of no-follow? Are the sub folders keyword rich, etc.?
It 's not any one component you are looking for, but rather a combination of components that can determine which SEO technique or ranking strategy a site is using to prominently acquire a higher ranking position (compared to others in the same niche). For this reason, you must constantly experiment to determine which optimization strategies when coupled yield favorable results.
This is the true basis of SEO, which is not being afraid of change and figuring out how to fix something when it 's broken, instead of never taking a chance on a new technique.
The Value of Adding Layers to your Offense - Optimizing Adjectives & Modifiers
In closing, another thing worth noting is the use of strategic modifiers to increase traffic. With all the focus on trying to keep up with the Joneses and targeting the two word (most competitive phrases in your niche), so many companies often overlook optimizing the phrases that could yield the highest returns.
Did you know you can increase website traffic exponentially from just adding a few unique modifiers by adding words like; rates, pricing, new, leading, top or the word best) to your keyword repetior. The great thing about modifiers is, so many overlook them when optimizing a site.
Other money phrases (keywords that are used when consumer are ready to purchase) for consideration are (affordable, deals, rates, pricing, packages) that can draw leads to your business like flies to honey. Save yourself about 2 years of trying to figure out why you have traffic but sales are slouching, just think like your consumer and put the content on your pages you would expect to see if you were in a problem solutions based scenario and trying to cut the fat quick.
What it really boils down to is this, if you have keywords that yield results, then you defend them, if you have keywords that are just for vanity, either let them go or see if there is a way to bridge the gap and tie them in to other keywords that have traffic.
With so many ways to make an impact online, you could potentially call checkmate and force your competitors to recede from the throne of the top 5 positions above the fold using local search, press releases, guest blogging, article marketing, performing an internal link audit or optimized site redesign, re-optimizing your existing pages with fresh content, building links, creating a contest or viral marketing campaign, you just have to take your time, plan your moves carefully and make sure that each strategy supports the next.
All idioms and cliches aside, when friendly competition escalates into an all out hostile takeover for a competitive keyword and push comes to shove in search engines, the winner boils down to the one who employs the most comprehensive and engaging SEO Strategy.
In many ways, just like a healthy game of chess, SEO similarly has multiple elements in common. Particularly the tactical strategies that occur behind the scenes which all depend on a delicate balance of intricacies that if rushed or forced to mature before their time, can leave you vulnerable to penalties and mistakes.
A strong opening (in the rankings) can be neutralized if your competitor sacked to many pieces and then makes a mistake (in the end game) and as a result has to concede to checkmate.
SEO, Like a Good Game of Chess, Requires a Solid Strategy
Just like a fundamental chess strategy is making sure that each piece is working in tandem with others (the knight protect the bishops, the rooks protect the knights, the queen is augmenting a pawn who has 2 major pieces pinned down). Think of your pages, your links and your marketing and advertising in this fashion, each must work in tandem with the other in order to have the most impact and minimize risk.
For example, I have seen numerous instances where making the slightest change to a title, removing a pivotal keyword from a page or some otherwise seemingly random event that may at the time have seemed insignificant, unravel the most decorated page in a site which resulting in the page plummeting 20 to 30 positions upon re-indexing.
Similarly if links were passing juice and then were lost, there goes the foundation for a high ranking position. With so many pitfalls possible, there is a reason why SEO 's insist on (1) backing up data and (2) tracking their results and tactics and (3) making changes slowly over time just in case something breaks (or works better than expected).
Looking below the surface (is like thinking 6 moves ahead)
Sometimes the effects of any change occur subtly outside of the range of visible cause and effect correlations and until you truly understand which components are functioning in unison, you have to be careful not to upset the natural balance of your site and it 's relationship to search engine algorithms.
There is enough change as a result PHD 's beta testing of new search engine algorithms. So make sure your not delving into short-term fixes (on a whim) when you should be concerned about long-term goals. Strategy is not an afterthought, since search results do not just magically appear in the top 10, somebody, somewhere (either through a singular or concerted effort) have invested time in nurturing the site to get it to where it is now.
As battles are fought on a daily basis for millions of keywords, you can be on top of the world for months in the top 10 search engine results and then rest on your laurels and be passed by a cunning competitor with a completely unique optimization strategy.
Determining what that strategy is and how to counter it (by building links, creating more content or just waiting) is the key. The last thing you want to do is invoking a penalty for excessive over-optimization, which can occur if you act to fast, build links to aggressively or break the search engine guidelines.
Know When your Strategy is Working and When to Retaliate
Once you hit the top 30 or top 20 results for a keyword for example, you should slow the pace of link building (at least in exact match) for those terms.
In the beginning what may have taken 50 links per month (tactfully created) may only require 6-10 links to maintain and defend a flanking attack from the competition.
Finding a viable solution to augment market share is one of the deciding factors that will determine technique that with prevail (such as adding 5 new social bookmarks to the page each month from different sources) or building links to those links instead of your pages directly.
Sometimes the best action is not to act, but knowing when, how and why is what distinguishes those who constantly hover in the upper echelon of extremely competitive terms (like a laser beam) vs. those who diffuse their efforts (like a flashlight).
So the next time you start obsessing over keywords as they rise and fall in the sea of the rhythmic ebb and tide of search. Just remember, do you set the tone and act or are you reacting to a false alarm or a trap. Just like a faint, a fake or a deliberate gesture designed to captivate your attention, sometimes you have to look for the subtler motives of how and why your competition is taking the steps they are.
Just like a good game of chess, the opening move can determine the outcome of the end game, you just have to be patient enough to assess the circumstances before making snap judgments so you can determine which path is the most likely candidate for success.
Defending the Castle - Your Traffic Bearing-Keywords
Once you acquire a competitive term, you have to maintain it, take that by 10, 20, 30, hundreds or thousands of keyword combinations and it is a tall order for any individual or group to administer. For example, I may write 5 pages of content, just to augment 1 page in the rankings.
Naturally, to a novice they look at the smoke and mirrors, but the true result of the optimization occurs in 3-4 months (and does not always leave such a clear trail regarding the origin of the link juice).
Know your Enemy by Assessing their Strategy
Everything leaves a trail, but just how committed are you to finding it? An initial assessment of the competition would include factors such as:
1) How many links are pointed at the home page proportionately to other pages in the site?
2) Is there a theme in the footer links to determine a footprint of global link density for specific key terms?
3) Are the h1 tags consistent with the title?
4) How many links are on the page?
5) Are the links optimized? (with keywords or click here non-SEO link structures).
5) How many pages are in the site?
6) Are there sub folders?
7) If so, are they interlinked or do they use a unique form of capping internal links through the use of no-follow? Are the sub folders keyword rich, etc.?
It 's not any one component you are looking for, but rather a combination of components that can determine which SEO technique or ranking strategy a site is using to prominently acquire a higher ranking position (compared to others in the same niche). For this reason, you must constantly experiment to determine which optimization strategies when coupled yield favorable results.
This is the true basis of SEO, which is not being afraid of change and figuring out how to fix something when it 's broken, instead of never taking a chance on a new technique.
The Value of Adding Layers to your Offense - Optimizing Adjectives & Modifiers
In closing, another thing worth noting is the use of strategic modifiers to increase traffic. With all the focus on trying to keep up with the Joneses and targeting the two word (most competitive phrases in your niche), so many companies often overlook optimizing the phrases that could yield the highest returns.
Did you know you can increase website traffic exponentially from just adding a few unique modifiers by adding words like; rates, pricing, new, leading, top or the word best) to your keyword repetior. The great thing about modifiers is, so many overlook them when optimizing a site.
Other money phrases (keywords that are used when consumer are ready to purchase) for consideration are (affordable, deals, rates, pricing, packages) that can draw leads to your business like flies to honey. Save yourself about 2 years of trying to figure out why you have traffic but sales are slouching, just think like your consumer and put the content on your pages you would expect to see if you were in a problem solutions based scenario and trying to cut the fat quick.
What it really boils down to is this, if you have keywords that yield results, then you defend them, if you have keywords that are just for vanity, either let them go or see if there is a way to bridge the gap and tie them in to other keywords that have traffic.
With so many ways to make an impact online, you could potentially call checkmate and force your competitors to recede from the throne of the top 5 positions above the fold using local search, press releases, guest blogging, article marketing, performing an internal link audit or optimized site redesign, re-optimizing your existing pages with fresh content, building links, creating a contest or viral marketing campaign, you just have to take your time, plan your moves carefully and make sure that each strategy supports the next.
SEO Pricing Models - Finding the Best Bang for Your Buck!
Getting the highest ROI (return on investment) for your marketing efforts is the ultimate goal of internet marketing. But with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) pricing models all across the board, it may be like trying to find a needle in the haystack.
The Search for Competitive SEO Rates
The search begins (for most businesses) by locating a qualified SEO company that specializes in the types of services you require. Some SEO firms specialize in PPC others prefer Organic SEO, while other firms are more versed in custom SEO Web Design or link building services.
Even after you refine your choices, is your business ready to embrace SEO or the changes that may be required in order to polish your value proposition and step up your collaborated marketing efforts?
Sometimes you have to let go (of an older site or an older approach that has seen better days) and work with a medium that is more pliable, modern and efficient for acquiring long-term benefits in search engines.
Otherwise, the approach of putting lipstick on a pig is an unlikely combination for producing viable increases in conversion (as customers are less likely to fall for the facade). Even with traffic, if your site has poor navigation a bad color scheme or is screaming "hey I'm from 1999", then no amount of SEO is going to make things right.
Much in the same light, if you want to tune/optimize your site for top 10 positioning, honing your websites programming platform and writing some fresh content is a starting point for optimization, but it is a pivotal milestone at best. SEO is a holistic process involving hundreds of layers of coordinated components (for those who dominate the top 10) and cutting corners just keeps your pages that much further away from reaching the top.
An objective analysis using a problem / solution based approach can help to shed light on this matter.
1. The Challenge - The company or individual is starting fresh with limited content or web presence, has no clue about content or relevance yet wants to rank in the top 10. This is definitely the most difficult starting point for SEO.
In this scenario - Your looking at 6 months (minimum) to make an organic impact in a larger playing field and more importantly, you will have to work harder to play catch up by augmenting your site with content (articles, offers, promotions or links). Not to mention you will need to receive endorsement from the various piers in your industry in order to establish trust in the eyes of search engines and get a real lift into the top 10. By far the most costly endeavor (be prepared to spend 20-30K to truly compete in a competitive market 5-10K to establish moderate keywords over 6 months).
2. The Challenge- Website exists but has sparse content or hasn't changed it in ages (challenging, but with an infusion of content rankings can be developed).
In this scenario - just working with the existing content is a plus, you can tweak the code, optimize the internal links as well as add a blog and start developing inroads with search engines and new potential clients using social media, RSS feeds and viral marketing to kick up exposure for your brand.
3. The Challenge - The company is active online, has a website and uses PPC advertising (at least they are in the ballpark and understand the art of the deal and how to hone your pitch and make adjustments to fine tune conversion).
In this scenario - The company has a great start, has a degree of online branding and visibility in place. For starters the website will require a bit of polishing through a content development strategy (x amount of posts or articles per week), some targeted SEO copy writing to pull it all together (5-10K well spent could bolster the organic rankings you seek).
4. The Challenge - The company has an understanding of internet marketing, has honed content that is experiencing marginal results but needs direction and traffic (the ideal SEO client).
In this scenario - The suggestion would be to start fresh, create an all out assault using a new site, a giveaway or promotion, a full scale link building campaign and 6-8 months of targeting a series of a high flying traffic bearing phrases to grow into (expect to spend up to 40K to get the exposure, but what you stand to yield by comparison is well worth it).
Starting fresh (with a new site) allows you to clearly identify competitive keywords and factor them into the site architecture, so even when the site is in between links flowing in from external sources, the age factor alone from it 's own dynamic internal links can push it up the ladder.
Just like traditional marketing, exposure is one of the metrics used to determine if the campaign is yielding a high degree of relevant traffic, generating solid leads or conversion for your efforts.
Price is commensurate to exposure, but only as long as the visibility can be leveraged and the results have the ability to warrant the cost. With prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to up to $50,000 dollars for an SEO campaign (from a large SEO firm). What matters the most is determining where you are (in your marketing stance), where you want to be (the end result desired) and what your budget is to set the stage for hitting the search engines running using a small business SEO campaign.
Most typical SEO / Client relationships start like this. The prospect (who has marginal visibility for a narrow range of keywords) wants to extend visibility for their site and funnel additional / relevant traffic by adding competitive traffic bearing terms to their pages.
Nine times out of 10, this impulse was inspired as a result of an emerging competitor dominating the top 10.
So, with the "why should they get all of the pie incentive" the prospect starts screening SEO companies to assess the benefit to cost ratio and potential return on investment. Unlike their corporate counterparts who may have millions to allocate for marketing or internet marketing, a more realistic budget for most businesses is $15-30,000 per year, granted that they can double or triple their return on investment.
However, you have to weigh the pros and the cons and understand that the long term investment of time, energy and optimization take time to mature and to fully appreciate the impact it can have on a local and national level takes patience (no matter how much you spend).
SEO is not always the ultimate solution, not all traffic converts, so sure you could have a top 10 position for a less competitive phrase and just break even, or you could go through the natural stages of adding a strategic array of traffic bearing keywords until your site gains enough authority to finally hits the top 10 like the big dogs (for multiple terms) so you can recover your investment.
So as long as you understand it is all about visibility and pairing your produces or services with those who have a need for it, as long as your value proposition is polished tried and true you chances of success are far greater than just waiting for traffic to beat a path to your door.
But before considering SEO, I encourage small business owners to consider an objective analysis of their motives for wanting to compete, but also for creating a game plan that is realistic for their stage of the game. One model suggests allocating 10% of your total revenues is a fair percentage to dedicate to internet marketing, for others up to 20% is the norm.
Aside from being ready to handle the influx of new traffic and leads you should (a) have a product that is worthy, (b) have invested in a professional and compelling website that encourages engagement and sales conversion, and (c) above all else has an alternate method to augment sales aside from strictly using online promotion.
This way, in all fairness you give optimization the ability to systematically increase traffic and exposure the way it was designed (over time).
It requires multiple rounds of SEO in the beginning (to jump start a campaign) as well as a maintenance factor to ensure your rankings don't slip as a result of competition, changes to algorithms, or market conditions.
So, when considering a time line, it is always better to work on 3-6 month blocks to track your results after all the dust to settles so you can gauge just what steps are required for the next quarter.
There will be exceptions (if you sell e-books or gadgets for example) but the bottom line is if you have the margin and you are experiencing a slow season, then SEO is a perfect way to augment visibility in your niche that if performed properly is one of the most cost effective advertising mediums in existence.
My suggestion is, for anyone interested in optimization to educate themselves about the basics, the more information you have, the more informed your SEO company can involve you covering all of the steps along the way.
A good SEO company can perform keyword research, competitive analysis, perform some reconnaissance to determine which phrases have traction for your competitors and emulate a strategy for you.
But the real value in SEO is to establish authority for your site, so that instead of the old, "let 's build some links", mentality, you can accomplish more by adding one page to your site that would have taken months of SEO work from a nuts and bolts worker bee mentality.
When you optimize a keyword for a website, you are in fact targeting the type of consumer who would type those keywords in a search box, so by the very nature of the phrases, you can determine to a great extent the motives of the visitors that frequent your pages. Another important lesson is, be where your at, but make sure you aim high enough for the main root phrases and climb that ladder over time.
Although many may find it discouraging that many SEO companies will not reveal their SEO rates online. Mainly because the shock value for those with the Mc Donald 's mentality walking into a five star restaurant (with the four dollar burger mentality) similarly may have the same alarming reaction when they get the bill.
If you can see the value in SEO, then at some point, you will inevitably have to put your money where your mouth is, learn how to do it yourself (which is not always the best use of resources and time) or just skip the whole SEO thing and be happy where you rank.
The statement that you get what you pay for is merely one side of the equation. Just because you pay $50,000 for SEO services doesn't mean that you could not have received the same results for $20,000 respectively.
But in all seriousness, how many small businesses have that kind of capital to invest? The answer, the ones who performed some due diligence, found their stride, identified a market and used SEO as a means to reach a larger more targeted audience. That is the value of competitive SEO and competitive SEO rates.
The Search for Competitive SEO Rates
The search begins (for most businesses) by locating a qualified SEO company that specializes in the types of services you require. Some SEO firms specialize in PPC others prefer Organic SEO, while other firms are more versed in custom SEO Web Design or link building services.
Even after you refine your choices, is your business ready to embrace SEO or the changes that may be required in order to polish your value proposition and step up your collaborated marketing efforts?
Sometimes you have to let go (of an older site or an older approach that has seen better days) and work with a medium that is more pliable, modern and efficient for acquiring long-term benefits in search engines.
Otherwise, the approach of putting lipstick on a pig is an unlikely combination for producing viable increases in conversion (as customers are less likely to fall for the facade). Even with traffic, if your site has poor navigation a bad color scheme or is screaming "hey I'm from 1999", then no amount of SEO is going to make things right.
Much in the same light, if you want to tune/optimize your site for top 10 positioning, honing your websites programming platform and writing some fresh content is a starting point for optimization, but it is a pivotal milestone at best. SEO is a holistic process involving hundreds of layers of coordinated components (for those who dominate the top 10) and cutting corners just keeps your pages that much further away from reaching the top.
An objective analysis using a problem / solution based approach can help to shed light on this matter.
1. The Challenge - The company or individual is starting fresh with limited content or web presence, has no clue about content or relevance yet wants to rank in the top 10. This is definitely the most difficult starting point for SEO.
In this scenario - Your looking at 6 months (minimum) to make an organic impact in a larger playing field and more importantly, you will have to work harder to play catch up by augmenting your site with content (articles, offers, promotions or links). Not to mention you will need to receive endorsement from the various piers in your industry in order to establish trust in the eyes of search engines and get a real lift into the top 10. By far the most costly endeavor (be prepared to spend 20-30K to truly compete in a competitive market 5-10K to establish moderate keywords over 6 months).
2. The Challenge- Website exists but has sparse content or hasn't changed it in ages (challenging, but with an infusion of content rankings can be developed).
In this scenario - just working with the existing content is a plus, you can tweak the code, optimize the internal links as well as add a blog and start developing inroads with search engines and new potential clients using social media, RSS feeds and viral marketing to kick up exposure for your brand.
3. The Challenge - The company is active online, has a website and uses PPC advertising (at least they are in the ballpark and understand the art of the deal and how to hone your pitch and make adjustments to fine tune conversion).
In this scenario - The company has a great start, has a degree of online branding and visibility in place. For starters the website will require a bit of polishing through a content development strategy (x amount of posts or articles per week), some targeted SEO copy writing to pull it all together (5-10K well spent could bolster the organic rankings you seek).
4. The Challenge - The company has an understanding of internet marketing, has honed content that is experiencing marginal results but needs direction and traffic (the ideal SEO client).
In this scenario - The suggestion would be to start fresh, create an all out assault using a new site, a giveaway or promotion, a full scale link building campaign and 6-8 months of targeting a series of a high flying traffic bearing phrases to grow into (expect to spend up to 40K to get the exposure, but what you stand to yield by comparison is well worth it).
Starting fresh (with a new site) allows you to clearly identify competitive keywords and factor them into the site architecture, so even when the site is in between links flowing in from external sources, the age factor alone from it 's own dynamic internal links can push it up the ladder.
Just like traditional marketing, exposure is one of the metrics used to determine if the campaign is yielding a high degree of relevant traffic, generating solid leads or conversion for your efforts.
Price is commensurate to exposure, but only as long as the visibility can be leveraged and the results have the ability to warrant the cost. With prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to up to $50,000 dollars for an SEO campaign (from a large SEO firm). What matters the most is determining where you are (in your marketing stance), where you want to be (the end result desired) and what your budget is to set the stage for hitting the search engines running using a small business SEO campaign.
Most typical SEO / Client relationships start like this. The prospect (who has marginal visibility for a narrow range of keywords) wants to extend visibility for their site and funnel additional / relevant traffic by adding competitive traffic bearing terms to their pages.
Nine times out of 10, this impulse was inspired as a result of an emerging competitor dominating the top 10.
So, with the "why should they get all of the pie incentive" the prospect starts screening SEO companies to assess the benefit to cost ratio and potential return on investment. Unlike their corporate counterparts who may have millions to allocate for marketing or internet marketing, a more realistic budget for most businesses is $15-30,000 per year, granted that they can double or triple their return on investment.
However, you have to weigh the pros and the cons and understand that the long term investment of time, energy and optimization take time to mature and to fully appreciate the impact it can have on a local and national level takes patience (no matter how much you spend).
SEO is not always the ultimate solution, not all traffic converts, so sure you could have a top 10 position for a less competitive phrase and just break even, or you could go through the natural stages of adding a strategic array of traffic bearing keywords until your site gains enough authority to finally hits the top 10 like the big dogs (for multiple terms) so you can recover your investment.
So as long as you understand it is all about visibility and pairing your produces or services with those who have a need for it, as long as your value proposition is polished tried and true you chances of success are far greater than just waiting for traffic to beat a path to your door.
But before considering SEO, I encourage small business owners to consider an objective analysis of their motives for wanting to compete, but also for creating a game plan that is realistic for their stage of the game. One model suggests allocating 10% of your total revenues is a fair percentage to dedicate to internet marketing, for others up to 20% is the norm.
Aside from being ready to handle the influx of new traffic and leads you should (a) have a product that is worthy, (b) have invested in a professional and compelling website that encourages engagement and sales conversion, and (c) above all else has an alternate method to augment sales aside from strictly using online promotion.
This way, in all fairness you give optimization the ability to systematically increase traffic and exposure the way it was designed (over time).
It requires multiple rounds of SEO in the beginning (to jump start a campaign) as well as a maintenance factor to ensure your rankings don't slip as a result of competition, changes to algorithms, or market conditions.
So, when considering a time line, it is always better to work on 3-6 month blocks to track your results after all the dust to settles so you can gauge just what steps are required for the next quarter.
There will be exceptions (if you sell e-books or gadgets for example) but the bottom line is if you have the margin and you are experiencing a slow season, then SEO is a perfect way to augment visibility in your niche that if performed properly is one of the most cost effective advertising mediums in existence.
My suggestion is, for anyone interested in optimization to educate themselves about the basics, the more information you have, the more informed your SEO company can involve you covering all of the steps along the way.
A good SEO company can perform keyword research, competitive analysis, perform some reconnaissance to determine which phrases have traction for your competitors and emulate a strategy for you.
But the real value in SEO is to establish authority for your site, so that instead of the old, "let 's build some links", mentality, you can accomplish more by adding one page to your site that would have taken months of SEO work from a nuts and bolts worker bee mentality.
When you optimize a keyword for a website, you are in fact targeting the type of consumer who would type those keywords in a search box, so by the very nature of the phrases, you can determine to a great extent the motives of the visitors that frequent your pages. Another important lesson is, be where your at, but make sure you aim high enough for the main root phrases and climb that ladder over time.
Although many may find it discouraging that many SEO companies will not reveal their SEO rates online. Mainly because the shock value for those with the Mc Donald 's mentality walking into a five star restaurant (with the four dollar burger mentality) similarly may have the same alarming reaction when they get the bill.
If you can see the value in SEO, then at some point, you will inevitably have to put your money where your mouth is, learn how to do it yourself (which is not always the best use of resources and time) or just skip the whole SEO thing and be happy where you rank.
The statement that you get what you pay for is merely one side of the equation. Just because you pay $50,000 for SEO services doesn't mean that you could not have received the same results for $20,000 respectively.
But in all seriousness, how many small businesses have that kind of capital to invest? The answer, the ones who performed some due diligence, found their stride, identified a market and used SEO as a means to reach a larger more targeted audience. That is the value of competitive SEO and competitive SEO rates.
Five Methods Of Search Engine Optimisation
The process of search engine optimisation can be time consuming and laborious, it is easy to go down the wrong path and pursue strategies that will have little worth in real terms. Inefficient optimisation strategies may even harm your search engine rankings rather than improve them. The best course of action is to keep it simple and by utilising these hints you should, in time, see better search engine rakings.
The first thing to watch is the keyword density on your site; it is tempting to cram your webpage full of keywords in the misconception that it will lead to better search engine rankings. Optimisation companies will tell you to stick to a keyword density of around ten to fifteen percent. The figure of density can be surmised thus; if your webpage has one hundred words upon it, and your keyword is laptop, the content should not use the word laptop more than fifteen times. Search engines see high keyword density as a somewhat 's pammy' approach that will not bring results.
Most optimisation companies will stress the importance of building links to your website. Building an array of links may take time but is an essential part of the search engine optimisation process. Without links your website will experience low rankings and hence less traffic enquiring about your services or products. Care must be taking when constructing links however; there is little point in creating a mass of links that have no correlation to the website.
Relevance is a key principle when creating links and hence linking to other sites of a similar ilk is advisable. If you have a huge amount of links that are completely irrelevant, the search engine technicians will eventually pick up on this and the effect on your page rankings will certainly be detrimental.
The use of headings is an efficient form of search engine optimisation that is becoming increasingly popular. Headings in the past have been put in bold type to make them more noticeable for human users, this however may have a detrimental effect upon rankings and hence new uses for headings have become apparent. Headers that are labelled H1, H2, H3 and so on not only act to catch the customers eye but through effective design they can become more visible to search engine spiders by making the website seem more relevant in terms of the various heading titles.
Naturally it is the H1 header that is the most important in terms of visibility to search engines as this is the fist thing they will read on entering a site. Subsequently it is tempting to place more than one H1 heading in order to keep the search engine spider interested. This however is not a valuable search engine technique as it may make the webpage look 's pammy' and harm rankings. It is possible though to place more than one H2 and 3 headers on a page although it is usually advisable to make it to H6 before repeating numbers to once again avoid looking 's pammy'.
An important aspect of optimisation is the loading time of your website. If your page loads extremely slowly it is unlikely that customers will hang around to see your products and offers. Grabbing their attention quickly is essential in generating more sales and hence greater profits. Slow loading times can be the result of having too many images on your site as well as complex flash displays. Code at this stage can be important as excessive amounts of code such as JavaScript can increase the loading time.
The most important of all however is creating unique content for your website, there are many sites out there that will happily copy other WebPages and use their content. This is fundamentally plagiarism and in the industry referred to as duplication. A search engine will not rank you much higher if your website is full of duplicated content, especially when compared to the benefits of unique content. Thankfully many search engine optimisation firms can undertake this written work for you.
By keeping it simple and following these hints it is likely that your rankings will improve dramatically, although these strategies may seem possible to do yourself it is usually worth hiring professionals who can undertake them for you. After all getting truly expert advice on methods and techniques of search engine optimisation is a highly valuable asset.
The first thing to watch is the keyword density on your site; it is tempting to cram your webpage full of keywords in the misconception that it will lead to better search engine rankings. Optimisation companies will tell you to stick to a keyword density of around ten to fifteen percent. The figure of density can be surmised thus; if your webpage has one hundred words upon it, and your keyword is laptop, the content should not use the word laptop more than fifteen times. Search engines see high keyword density as a somewhat 's pammy' approach that will not bring results.
Most optimisation companies will stress the importance of building links to your website. Building an array of links may take time but is an essential part of the search engine optimisation process. Without links your website will experience low rankings and hence less traffic enquiring about your services or products. Care must be taking when constructing links however; there is little point in creating a mass of links that have no correlation to the website.
Relevance is a key principle when creating links and hence linking to other sites of a similar ilk is advisable. If you have a huge amount of links that are completely irrelevant, the search engine technicians will eventually pick up on this and the effect on your page rankings will certainly be detrimental.
The use of headings is an efficient form of search engine optimisation that is becoming increasingly popular. Headings in the past have been put in bold type to make them more noticeable for human users, this however may have a detrimental effect upon rankings and hence new uses for headings have become apparent. Headers that are labelled H1, H2, H3 and so on not only act to catch the customers eye but through effective design they can become more visible to search engine spiders by making the website seem more relevant in terms of the various heading titles.
Naturally it is the H1 header that is the most important in terms of visibility to search engines as this is the fist thing they will read on entering a site. Subsequently it is tempting to place more than one H1 heading in order to keep the search engine spider interested. This however is not a valuable search engine technique as it may make the webpage look 's pammy' and harm rankings. It is possible though to place more than one H2 and 3 headers on a page although it is usually advisable to make it to H6 before repeating numbers to once again avoid looking 's pammy'.
An important aspect of optimisation is the loading time of your website. If your page loads extremely slowly it is unlikely that customers will hang around to see your products and offers. Grabbing their attention quickly is essential in generating more sales and hence greater profits. Slow loading times can be the result of having too many images on your site as well as complex flash displays. Code at this stage can be important as excessive amounts of code such as JavaScript can increase the loading time.
The most important of all however is creating unique content for your website, there are many sites out there that will happily copy other WebPages and use their content. This is fundamentally plagiarism and in the industry referred to as duplication. A search engine will not rank you much higher if your website is full of duplicated content, especially when compared to the benefits of unique content. Thankfully many search engine optimisation firms can undertake this written work for you.
By keeping it simple and following these hints it is likely that your rankings will improve dramatically, although these strategies may seem possible to do yourself it is usually worth hiring professionals who can undertake them for you. After all getting truly expert advice on methods and techniques of search engine optimisation is a highly valuable asset.
Short Visit Syndrome. Are You Missing Sales Because of a High Bounce Rate?
Heads would roll. At the very least, you'd want to know why so many people were disengaging. Chances are it 's happening to you right now, every day. Your sales team isn't the problem; it 's your most visible and active company representative; the website.There 's an easy to measure, but often overlooked number that can tell you a great deal about the effectiveness of your website. The 'bounce rate' (sometimes referred to as abandonment rate) is the percentage of visitors that leave your website without viewing a 2nd page.
The percentage itself is not really important. Every website, every audience and every industry is different. Even the most sophisticated websites can easily have 50 percent of visitors bailing early. What is important is what you're doing to reduce this number. Why? Because there is no cheaper way to repair the spout that feeds your pipeline. While it may take months to test and correct your sales process, telemarketing or direct mail efforts, the Web allows for rapid and cost-effective testing. You can positively change your short visit rate in a few days, even a few hours.
The Impact
If visitors to your site don't stick around, they can't request more information, take the demo, sign up for the newsletter or do any of the things the site was designed to make them do. It took considerable time and money to bring these visitors to your site--each time one leaves, you're squandering your general marketing and advertising efforts and dollars. Worse, those visitors leaving are likely seeking information or a solution elsewhere on the web. You're helping create demand for your competition.
The Cause
A high bounce rate is usually a combination of two things--the wrong people coming and your site 's inability to engage the visitor. This is particularly true when it comes to traffic from search engines. Because these visitors are looking for something specific (and usually in a hurry), it 's only logical that they would quickly bail if the site doesn't satisfy their needs.
What To Do About It
Luckily, we're dealing with the web, where the data is rich and the adjustments are easy. The first step is to see where you are. Ask your webmaster or web marketing person to report on the percentage of both all visitors, and search visitors that are leaving within 10 seconds. If they can't get this information for you, enlist some help or get a simple web traffic analysis tool, as this is basic data every company should capture.
Once you get these numbers, don't flip out. It 's just a baseline, a starting point from which to improve. Ask yourself, "what might be causing these people to leave?". Visit your site in your prospect 's shoes. Might it be the non-differentiating or overly technical message? Maybe the site just doesn't look very professional. Perhaps the majority of your prospects simply don't like the color red. Most likely,it 's the lack of any compelling reason to stay. If you don't have something to grab visitors' attention and get them clicking for more, you can continue to expect poor retention rates.
Sometimes I find it helpful with my clients to look at this problem from a traditional point of view. What if this was a tradeshow booth? How could we get people to stay at the booth longer? The key here is to work together with your sales and marketing folks (notice we left the IT department out) to brainstorm and come to a consensus as to what you suspect the single biggest problem might be. Once you decide, have your webmaster make the necessary changes and measure the difference. If you don't get a whole lot of visits, it may take a long time to come to a conclusion. This is where doing a quick pay-per-click advertising campaign can come in real handy if for nothing else than to get some inexpensive market research.
You've Got Nothing to Lose Except Business
It 's easy to dismiss this entire problem; after all, you probably didn't know you had a problem. And you can always add more sales reps and send out more mailers. However, the "problem" could actually be an opportunity in disguise' if you take these first steps. You may be surprised how enthusiastic your web team and senior management are about wanting to improve in this area. It is fun, challenging and, unlike many other aspects of business, an effort that provides rapid and rich feedback. Hold contests! Give the person or team that comes up with the most dramatic improvement the corner office! He or she just made your company more efficient and profitable.
Short-visit syndrome is something most executives don't like to mention, let alone talk about. Fortunately, confronting the issue head on and doing things to remedy it is far less painful than you think and the results are well worth the effort.
The percentage itself is not really important. Every website, every audience and every industry is different. Even the most sophisticated websites can easily have 50 percent of visitors bailing early. What is important is what you're doing to reduce this number. Why? Because there is no cheaper way to repair the spout that feeds your pipeline. While it may take months to test and correct your sales process, telemarketing or direct mail efforts, the Web allows for rapid and cost-effective testing. You can positively change your short visit rate in a few days, even a few hours.
The Impact
If visitors to your site don't stick around, they can't request more information, take the demo, sign up for the newsletter or do any of the things the site was designed to make them do. It took considerable time and money to bring these visitors to your site--each time one leaves, you're squandering your general marketing and advertising efforts and dollars. Worse, those visitors leaving are likely seeking information or a solution elsewhere on the web. You're helping create demand for your competition.
The Cause
A high bounce rate is usually a combination of two things--the wrong people coming and your site 's inability to engage the visitor. This is particularly true when it comes to traffic from search engines. Because these visitors are looking for something specific (and usually in a hurry), it 's only logical that they would quickly bail if the site doesn't satisfy their needs.
What To Do About It
Luckily, we're dealing with the web, where the data is rich and the adjustments are easy. The first step is to see where you are. Ask your webmaster or web marketing person to report on the percentage of both all visitors, and search visitors that are leaving within 10 seconds. If they can't get this information for you, enlist some help or get a simple web traffic analysis tool, as this is basic data every company should capture.
Once you get these numbers, don't flip out. It 's just a baseline, a starting point from which to improve. Ask yourself, "what might be causing these people to leave?". Visit your site in your prospect 's shoes. Might it be the non-differentiating or overly technical message? Maybe the site just doesn't look very professional. Perhaps the majority of your prospects simply don't like the color red. Most likely,it 's the lack of any compelling reason to stay. If you don't have something to grab visitors' attention and get them clicking for more, you can continue to expect poor retention rates.
Sometimes I find it helpful with my clients to look at this problem from a traditional point of view. What if this was a tradeshow booth? How could we get people to stay at the booth longer? The key here is to work together with your sales and marketing folks (notice we left the IT department out) to brainstorm and come to a consensus as to what you suspect the single biggest problem might be. Once you decide, have your webmaster make the necessary changes and measure the difference. If you don't get a whole lot of visits, it may take a long time to come to a conclusion. This is where doing a quick pay-per-click advertising campaign can come in real handy if for nothing else than to get some inexpensive market research.
You've Got Nothing to Lose Except Business
It 's easy to dismiss this entire problem; after all, you probably didn't know you had a problem. And you can always add more sales reps and send out more mailers. However, the "problem" could actually be an opportunity in disguise' if you take these first steps. You may be surprised how enthusiastic your web team and senior management are about wanting to improve in this area. It is fun, challenging and, unlike many other aspects of business, an effort that provides rapid and rich feedback. Hold contests! Give the person or team that comes up with the most dramatic improvement the corner office! He or she just made your company more efficient and profitable.
Short-visit syndrome is something most executives don't like to mention, let alone talk about. Fortunately, confronting the issue head on and doing things to remedy it is far less painful than you think and the results are well worth the effort.
Five Critical On-Page Factors Which Must Be Manipulated for High Search Engine Rankings
Following are five critical elements that must be properly manipulated to optimize a web page to rank highly in search engines for a particular keyword. Optimizing these elements is a process known as "on-site" or "on-page" optimization. On-page factors are those factors that you can control - the way your web pages are coded, how you write your copy, etc. To be successful in online marketing, you have to balance writing sales copy that will have a strong influence on your prospects and doing the things that will result in search engine rankings. The best approach is to start out writing for the humans who will be reading your web content, and then tweak it for the search engines.
1. Title tag
The title tag is the single most important element to optimize. Tthe most important keyword or phrase should be the first words in the title. Try to keep the title length to around 8 to 10 words. While you need to write the title for search engines by emphasizing the correct keywords and minimizing length, you also need to keep in mind that the text needs to compel a person who sees the page title in a page of search results to click on the link to check out your web site.
2. Header tag
Header tags are viewed as markers of important content. We recommend placing a header (H1) tag above the main content of the body of your web page. Your most important keywords should be at or near the beginning of the header tag.
3. Keyword density
Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or phrase appears in an area of a web page divided by the total number of words in that area. For instance, if the word "investment" appears three times in the body section of a web page, and there are a total of 200 words, then the keyword density would 1.5% (3 / 200).
Keyword density must be measured carefully. If it is too low, you will lose out on relevancy for the search phrase. If it is too high, the search engines might think you are trying to spam your way into their indexes, and you will be penalized. A good target to shoot for might be 3 - 5%. We recommend not going much above 5%. 10% is probably too high. For a more accurate analysis of what your keyword density should be, you should compare the keyword density in the body (and other sections) of your web pages to web pages that already rank high for a particular search phrase. This is a good strategy in general - mimic, and then improve upon, what sites are doing that already rank highly for your desired search phrases.
You should measure your keyword density separately in different parts of your web page - the body, the title, header tags, alt tags, etc. Each of these will be considered separately in ranking your site. You can calculate keyword density manually by counting the words, or you can use any number of software or online tools.
4. Keyword prominence
Keyword prominence is how near the beginning of an area of a web page the keyword appears. For instance, if the keyword is the first word in the body text of a web page, then the keyword prominence is 100%. The closer to the beginning of a section (thus, the higher the keyword prominence) the more relevant the web page is considered for that keyword. We highly recommend that you place your most important keywords at the very beginning of your page title and as near the beginning of the body copy as possible.
5. Keyword frequency
Keyword frequency is the total number of times that a keyword or phrase appears in an area of a web page. For the title, we recommend a keyword frequency of one or two at the most. Any more than that, and you might be accused of keyword stuffing the title tag. For the body copy, use the keyword as many times as you can, but use keyword density as the measure of when to stop. As a rule of thumb, you want to get keyword frequency as high as you can while keeping keyword density around 5%.
If you carefully scrutinize your web pages for these five elements, the result will be web pages which are well-optimized (on-site) for your keywords.
1. Title tag
The title tag is the single most important element to optimize. Tthe most important keyword or phrase should be the first words in the title. Try to keep the title length to around 8 to 10 words. While you need to write the title for search engines by emphasizing the correct keywords and minimizing length, you also need to keep in mind that the text needs to compel a person who sees the page title in a page of search results to click on the link to check out your web site.
2. Header tag
Header tags are viewed as markers of important content. We recommend placing a header (H1) tag above the main content of the body of your web page. Your most important keywords should be at or near the beginning of the header tag.
3. Keyword density
Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or phrase appears in an area of a web page divided by the total number of words in that area. For instance, if the word "investment" appears three times in the body section of a web page, and there are a total of 200 words, then the keyword density would 1.5% (3 / 200).
Keyword density must be measured carefully. If it is too low, you will lose out on relevancy for the search phrase. If it is too high, the search engines might think you are trying to spam your way into their indexes, and you will be penalized. A good target to shoot for might be 3 - 5%. We recommend not going much above 5%. 10% is probably too high. For a more accurate analysis of what your keyword density should be, you should compare the keyword density in the body (and other sections) of your web pages to web pages that already rank high for a particular search phrase. This is a good strategy in general - mimic, and then improve upon, what sites are doing that already rank highly for your desired search phrases.
You should measure your keyword density separately in different parts of your web page - the body, the title, header tags, alt tags, etc. Each of these will be considered separately in ranking your site. You can calculate keyword density manually by counting the words, or you can use any number of software or online tools.
4. Keyword prominence
Keyword prominence is how near the beginning of an area of a web page the keyword appears. For instance, if the keyword is the first word in the body text of a web page, then the keyword prominence is 100%. The closer to the beginning of a section (thus, the higher the keyword prominence) the more relevant the web page is considered for that keyword. We highly recommend that you place your most important keywords at the very beginning of your page title and as near the beginning of the body copy as possible.
5. Keyword frequency
Keyword frequency is the total number of times that a keyword or phrase appears in an area of a web page. For the title, we recommend a keyword frequency of one or two at the most. Any more than that, and you might be accused of keyword stuffing the title tag. For the body copy, use the keyword as many times as you can, but use keyword density as the measure of when to stop. As a rule of thumb, you want to get keyword frequency as high as you can while keeping keyword density around 5%.
If you carefully scrutinize your web pages for these five elements, the result will be web pages which are well-optimized (on-site) for your keywords.
Why You Need to Use Search Engine Optimization
E-commerce can be cutthroat. By arming yourself with the knowledge and the tools to make your site above the rest, you'll be able to count yourself amongst the success stories. If you don't stay on top of things, it is easy to get passed by and trampled in the wake of everyone else 's success.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that is bandied about quite a bit today in the e-commerce circles. Search engines are the most frequently used tool on the internet. People use them daily to find the sites they need to visit to get the products and information they need.
The majority of people who use search engines only look at the top ten results on the first page. If you can make it on the first page, especially in the top three, is a measure of success in search engine optimization. When you rank high, you will get more click throughs. This makes more traffic for your site, which will affect your bottom line in a positive way.
It is very important to your success to improve your ranking, or if you are in the top three, to hang on to it. Every day, rankings can change, so it is imperative that you do all you can to keep improving your site every day.
You may be asking what search engine optimization is and why do you need to use it. You need to use it to
improve your traffic so you can be more profitable.
That 's an easy one.
Search engine optimization will help you benefit from a high traffic flow. If you only sell to 10 or 20 percent of your traffic and you get a hundred or more hits per day, you're doing fairly well. If you only get ten or twenty hits, you're only getting possibly a sale or two per day, if that.
So, search engine optimization uses tools and methods to make your site rank top in the search engine results, which will make you one of the more frequently chosen sites to visit. If you can get yourself on the first page of results, or even better, in the top half, you will be amazed at how many people suddenly are aware of your site and what you offer. You will have more traffic that could lead to a more profitable business.
To do search engine optimization properly requires a lot of work. You'll need to change some aspects of your site or add others to get full benefits from search engine optimization. This will include researching what keywords are popular in your niche market.
You may find you need to rewrite your content so you can get the right keyword phrases in your site, keeping it light and informative. There are a lot of rules and guidelines to follow to make your site appropriate for search engine optimization.
You'll need to get link exchanges going and page transfers with other sites. The more inbound and outbound traffic that is generated by your site, the better you will rank in the search engines.
Search for some online tips on optimizing your site. There are plenty to be found. Read as many articles as you can. Join an email list or two. Do whatever you can to learn more about how to optimize your site and put it into practice. This will all help you get those top rankings so you can generate more site traffic. This will require some time and effort on your part, but you'll be amazed at the results.
If you have the funds, you can hire others to help you optimize your site. Other sites can help you track keyword phrases for a price. If you want new content and you don't want to write it yourself, you can also hire writers to provide you with quality content.
Start now and see how much you benefit with search engine optimization. You'll be amazed at how much more traffic and business you get on your site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that is bandied about quite a bit today in the e-commerce circles. Search engines are the most frequently used tool on the internet. People use them daily to find the sites they need to visit to get the products and information they need.
The majority of people who use search engines only look at the top ten results on the first page. If you can make it on the first page, especially in the top three, is a measure of success in search engine optimization. When you rank high, you will get more click throughs. This makes more traffic for your site, which will affect your bottom line in a positive way.
It is very important to your success to improve your ranking, or if you are in the top three, to hang on to it. Every day, rankings can change, so it is imperative that you do all you can to keep improving your site every day.
You may be asking what search engine optimization is and why do you need to use it. You need to use it to
improve your traffic so you can be more profitable.
That 's an easy one.
Search engine optimization will help you benefit from a high traffic flow. If you only sell to 10 or 20 percent of your traffic and you get a hundred or more hits per day, you're doing fairly well. If you only get ten or twenty hits, you're only getting possibly a sale or two per day, if that.
So, search engine optimization uses tools and methods to make your site rank top in the search engine results, which will make you one of the more frequently chosen sites to visit. If you can get yourself on the first page of results, or even better, in the top half, you will be amazed at how many people suddenly are aware of your site and what you offer. You will have more traffic that could lead to a more profitable business.
To do search engine optimization properly requires a lot of work. You'll need to change some aspects of your site or add others to get full benefits from search engine optimization. This will include researching what keywords are popular in your niche market.
You may find you need to rewrite your content so you can get the right keyword phrases in your site, keeping it light and informative. There are a lot of rules and guidelines to follow to make your site appropriate for search engine optimization.
You'll need to get link exchanges going and page transfers with other sites. The more inbound and outbound traffic that is generated by your site, the better you will rank in the search engines.
Search for some online tips on optimizing your site. There are plenty to be found. Read as many articles as you can. Join an email list or two. Do whatever you can to learn more about how to optimize your site and put it into practice. This will all help you get those top rankings so you can generate more site traffic. This will require some time and effort on your part, but you'll be amazed at the results.
If you have the funds, you can hire others to help you optimize your site. Other sites can help you track keyword phrases for a price. If you want new content and you don't want to write it yourself, you can also hire writers to provide you with quality content.
Start now and see how much you benefit with search engine optimization. You'll be amazed at how much more traffic and business you get on your site.
Search Engine Optimisation Techniques And Your Business
Search engine optimisation is becoming an increasingly important part of any worthwhile business plan. Those who do not factor in the process of optimisation will not see good search engine rankings and will subsequently suffer when it comes to attracting business.
The industry is full of opinions on the best way to go about optimisation and also how different techniques may in fact harm your chances of increasing your rankings in search engine listings. For the lay reader it is a challenge to understand what methods to pursue, often, going to a SEO specialist is the most advisable course of action. Here are some tips for those about to undertake SEO for their website.
Ensuring you commit yourself wholeheartedly is essential. The optimisation process is not simply a one-off action that can be left alone once the process has been performed. As search engine algorithms change frequently, techniques must be adapted and changed often; optimisation is an ongoing process and it is important to realise this from the outset. It is also worth remembering that optimisation results will not be instant, results will take time no matter how large your budget for SEO.
When utilising an optimisation company it is worth investigating them thoroughly. Find out the tactics they use specifically and for risks that may be apparent with these tactics. A part of the optimisation process will be learning as much as you can about the industry as a whole, being more informed and knowledgeable will make the process less painless.
Building a great website is key to achieving good search engine rankings, a question you must ask yourself if you want to be in the top ten for your chosen subject is; is my site really one of the best in the world? By making you site great, search engine rankings will improve automatically. Part of making your site great is to include a site map in your website. This will help the search engine spiders index your site and the various information contained in it.
Make your URLs search engine friendly by including information in them that is relevant to your page as this will once again improve your rankings and is a key element in the optimisation process. Another major optimisation technique involves a great deal of keyword research to find the most used phrases for your chosen industry. As well as relevant URLs it is also important to make unique and relevant Meta titles and descriptions for each page to make your site more visible.
It is easy to forget the importance of the human user in the optimisation process with such a large emphasis placed upon attracting search engines. This however is rarely advisable and you should always pursue a course of action that makes your site as user friendly as possible. While the search engines may attract visitors to your site, the quality of the content and applications will turn visitors into customers. Filling your site with detailed product descriptions and well written information will entice more people to purchase your products or services.
When building links it is important to remember that the quality and relevance of these links is vital. Linking to trusted sites will improve search engine rankings while linking to poor sites may in fact be detrimental to your other optimisation efforts.
By following these tips you will be on your way to ranking success. Increasing traffic to your site is the name of the game but it is worth remembering that the traditional attributes of good service and clear information is essential in converting traffic into sales. A coaxial approach is needed to achieve greater profits through online sales. SEO is only a small part of this, providing good customer service is of added importance if you want your online business efforts to succeed.
The industry is full of opinions on the best way to go about optimisation and also how different techniques may in fact harm your chances of increasing your rankings in search engine listings. For the lay reader it is a challenge to understand what methods to pursue, often, going to a SEO specialist is the most advisable course of action. Here are some tips for those about to undertake SEO for their website.
Ensuring you commit yourself wholeheartedly is essential. The optimisation process is not simply a one-off action that can be left alone once the process has been performed. As search engine algorithms change frequently, techniques must be adapted and changed often; optimisation is an ongoing process and it is important to realise this from the outset. It is also worth remembering that optimisation results will not be instant, results will take time no matter how large your budget for SEO.
When utilising an optimisation company it is worth investigating them thoroughly. Find out the tactics they use specifically and for risks that may be apparent with these tactics. A part of the optimisation process will be learning as much as you can about the industry as a whole, being more informed and knowledgeable will make the process less painless.
Building a great website is key to achieving good search engine rankings, a question you must ask yourself if you want to be in the top ten for your chosen subject is; is my site really one of the best in the world? By making you site great, search engine rankings will improve automatically. Part of making your site great is to include a site map in your website. This will help the search engine spiders index your site and the various information contained in it.
Make your URLs search engine friendly by including information in them that is relevant to your page as this will once again improve your rankings and is a key element in the optimisation process. Another major optimisation technique involves a great deal of keyword research to find the most used phrases for your chosen industry. As well as relevant URLs it is also important to make unique and relevant Meta titles and descriptions for each page to make your site more visible.
It is easy to forget the importance of the human user in the optimisation process with such a large emphasis placed upon attracting search engines. This however is rarely advisable and you should always pursue a course of action that makes your site as user friendly as possible. While the search engines may attract visitors to your site, the quality of the content and applications will turn visitors into customers. Filling your site with detailed product descriptions and well written information will entice more people to purchase your products or services.
When building links it is important to remember that the quality and relevance of these links is vital. Linking to trusted sites will improve search engine rankings while linking to poor sites may in fact be detrimental to your other optimisation efforts.
By following these tips you will be on your way to ranking success. Increasing traffic to your site is the name of the game but it is worth remembering that the traditional attributes of good service and clear information is essential in converting traffic into sales. A coaxial approach is needed to achieve greater profits through online sales. SEO is only a small part of this, providing good customer service is of added importance if you want your online business efforts to succeed.
Simple Website Tips to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings
Websites these days are an essential part of doing business. Every business should have one - they are as essential as a phone for business success.
But, when people look for you on the web, can they find you? When people are looking for your product or service, they generally don't enter the name of your company or your name into a search engine. They type in what they are looking for.
So they won't type in Mary Jones Premium Furniture, they will type in "leather lounge suites + Sydney".
It is not much use having a website if you are buried on page 250 of Google. Most people will look at maybe the top 5 results from a search engine - that is ideally where you need to be for your search terms.
I use the term Google although there are lots of other search engines as it is the main search engine people use.
Where you appear in search engines like Google is the result of a complex combination of information - but it is one which you have control over.
Here are my top 10 simple website tips to increase your search engine rankings.
1. Delete your flash front page. Flash is a type of coding that creates animated pages. Flash front pages are pretty, but will totally stuff your rankings on the search engines. The reason is search engines look at the front page of your website as the most important page in the whole site. They expect to find information about what the site is about and what it contains. Without words, the search engine spiders can't work out what the site is about. If you have a flash front page then delete it. You will see an almost instantaneous jump in your rankings.
2. Page titles are important. What you call each page is important. If you title your page "Home" you lose rank. Title your page with the most important words about your site. It doesn't even have to be a full sentence Leather Lounges | Lounge Suites | Lounges Sydney is more effective.
3. Clear keywords count. Know what business you are in and work out the words people who are looking for your product or service key in to find you. There are loads of tools both free and paid to help you do this. Keywords are put into what is called "metatags" at the top of your page. You don't see them unless you view the source code. Google is very secretive about whether they look at the keywords in the metatags - but some search engines still use them. Just make sure you use your words throughout your page and in your copy as well. Don't overdo it though otherwise you could fall foul of keyword abuse penalties.
4. Different keywords on each page. Each page on your website is different. You need to use the keywords that are relevant to each pages contents. If you use the same words throughout the site, you are costing search positions.
5. Avoid duplicate content. If the search engine thinks you have the same thing on different pages it won't index those duplicate pages. When it calculates whether or not you are duplicating content the spiders look at everything including your page template, pictures, format as well as words. Make sure each page is sufficiently different to avoid the duplicate content penalty.
6. Pictures have hidden messages. Each picture or graphic on your page needs to have an "alt" tag put in to help vision impaired people read your site (or to describe the content if someone has turned off all photos in their browser). You can use this to add in another keyword. So a photo on my site for example isn't just a "man" it is a "business development consultant".
7. Keep it fresh. Search engines like content that is fresh and updated regularly. Websites should never be set and forget - work out how you can add content in regularly. I have a blog and my newsletters. (I also constantly fiddle with bits of the site - sort of an occupational hazard!)
8. Inbound links. High quality inbound links are important. These can be links from higher ranking websites or blogs than you. The easiest way to do this is through articles and submitting them throughout online ezines. You can also comment on other 's blogs and include a link back to your site or social bookmark your site.
9. Important stuff at the top. Google has a nasty habit of stopping at about 3 levels down which means your home page, the next page down and then the page below that. If you have good stuff buried down in your website it may not be found.
10. Keep your navigation clear. Google spiders want to see a logical flow of pages throughout your site. If it can't follow the flow it can't index your pages. Keep your navigation path clear and logical.
Improving your rankings can be as simple as following these 10 steps.
But, when people look for you on the web, can they find you? When people are looking for your product or service, they generally don't enter the name of your company or your name into a search engine. They type in what they are looking for.
So they won't type in Mary Jones Premium Furniture, they will type in "leather lounge suites + Sydney".
It is not much use having a website if you are buried on page 250 of Google. Most people will look at maybe the top 5 results from a search engine - that is ideally where you need to be for your search terms.
I use the term Google although there are lots of other search engines as it is the main search engine people use.
Where you appear in search engines like Google is the result of a complex combination of information - but it is one which you have control over.
Here are my top 10 simple website tips to increase your search engine rankings.
1. Delete your flash front page. Flash is a type of coding that creates animated pages. Flash front pages are pretty, but will totally stuff your rankings on the search engines. The reason is search engines look at the front page of your website as the most important page in the whole site. They expect to find information about what the site is about and what it contains. Without words, the search engine spiders can't work out what the site is about. If you have a flash front page then delete it. You will see an almost instantaneous jump in your rankings.
2. Page titles are important. What you call each page is important. If you title your page "Home" you lose rank. Title your page with the most important words about your site. It doesn't even have to be a full sentence Leather Lounges | Lounge Suites | Lounges Sydney is more effective.
3. Clear keywords count. Know what business you are in and work out the words people who are looking for your product or service key in to find you. There are loads of tools both free and paid to help you do this. Keywords are put into what is called "metatags" at the top of your page. You don't see them unless you view the source code. Google is very secretive about whether they look at the keywords in the metatags - but some search engines still use them. Just make sure you use your words throughout your page and in your copy as well. Don't overdo it though otherwise you could fall foul of keyword abuse penalties.
4. Different keywords on each page. Each page on your website is different. You need to use the keywords that are relevant to each pages contents. If you use the same words throughout the site, you are costing search positions.
5. Avoid duplicate content. If the search engine thinks you have the same thing on different pages it won't index those duplicate pages. When it calculates whether or not you are duplicating content the spiders look at everything including your page template, pictures, format as well as words. Make sure each page is sufficiently different to avoid the duplicate content penalty.
6. Pictures have hidden messages. Each picture or graphic on your page needs to have an "alt" tag put in to help vision impaired people read your site (or to describe the content if someone has turned off all photos in their browser). You can use this to add in another keyword. So a photo on my site for example isn't just a "man" it is a "business development consultant".
7. Keep it fresh. Search engines like content that is fresh and updated regularly. Websites should never be set and forget - work out how you can add content in regularly. I have a blog and my newsletters. (I also constantly fiddle with bits of the site - sort of an occupational hazard!)
8. Inbound links. High quality inbound links are important. These can be links from higher ranking websites or blogs than you. The easiest way to do this is through articles and submitting them throughout online ezines. You can also comment on other 's blogs and include a link back to your site or social bookmark your site.
9. Important stuff at the top. Google has a nasty habit of stopping at about 3 levels down which means your home page, the next page down and then the page below that. If you have good stuff buried down in your website it may not be found.
10. Keep your navigation clear. Google spiders want to see a logical flow of pages throughout your site. If it can't follow the flow it can't index your pages. Keep your navigation path clear and logical.
Improving your rankings can be as simple as following these 10 steps.
Improved Search Engine Rankings
Chances are, if you're unhappy with where your website currently sits within the search engines, you've attempted to research different ideas as to how to improve that search engine ranking. But, like most individuals who also want to improve where their website sits in the search engines, you most likely came across information that was difficult to understand and filled with jargon to boot.
It can sometimes make someone feel as if they need a degree in rocket science just to improve where their website sits in the search engines and so they subsequently give up on the whole process.
You can take the time you need and devour all kinds of information online about how to optimize your web pages in order to get those higher rankings or you can simply take a look at a few simple items on your web pages, make some small improvements and most likely will then see higher rankings as a result.
The very first thing you need to look at is the title of your web page. Does it contain keywords or key phrases that relate to the overall topic of your website? Or does it say something like "Welcome to Company Name"? The title of your home page as well as any additional pages within your entire website need to have the keyword you are focusing on contained within your title tag.
Next, be sure that your web pages contain content. Not simply images or fancy, flashy graphics but real honest-to-goodness text and information for your site visitors. Long gone are the days when your website is nothing more than a brochure. Today you need relevant and helpful information for your visitors and it needs to be in a format that the search engines can read well; in other words, in plain text.
This does not mean that your pages have to be plain - far from it, as a matter of fact, images help to convey your message even better. What you do need to avoid however, is a web page wrought with graphics. Keep the graphics simple and to the point but be sure that text takes precedence.
Next, be sure that you have a header on each individual web page on your site and be absolutely certain that it contains the keywords you are focusing on for that particular page. Think of each web page like a page in a newspaper. Each story has a strong headline, usually larger than the rest of the text on the page and written to entice you, as the reader to read the rest of the story. Your web page is no different. If you're savvy enough to take a look at the actual HTML code on your page, then be sure your heading is contained with "h1" tags. If you aren't sure, have your webmaster take a look and then have them make the changes accordingly.
Next, you must be absolutely certain that the text you do have on your web pages contain the keywords you are focused on for that page. For example, if you run a flower shop online and have a web page dedicated to red roses, red roses would be your keyword and then throughout your article you would make reference to the term red roses and variations thereof. It is very important that you use variations of your keyword throughout your page. If in doubt as to what words would be related, I highly suggest that you make use of a thesaurus or any of the many online tools that can pull these phrases for you.
Lastly, while you might be considering hiring a search engine optimization company to do all of your work for you, at costs of sometimes thousands of dollars a month, do some footwork yourself, implement some of these ideas and see if that doesn't help your overall web site rankings.
It can sometimes make someone feel as if they need a degree in rocket science just to improve where their website sits in the search engines and so they subsequently give up on the whole process.
You can take the time you need and devour all kinds of information online about how to optimize your web pages in order to get those higher rankings or you can simply take a look at a few simple items on your web pages, make some small improvements and most likely will then see higher rankings as a result.
The very first thing you need to look at is the title of your web page. Does it contain keywords or key phrases that relate to the overall topic of your website? Or does it say something like "Welcome to Company Name"? The title of your home page as well as any additional pages within your entire website need to have the keyword you are focusing on contained within your title tag.
Next, be sure that your web pages contain content. Not simply images or fancy, flashy graphics but real honest-to-goodness text and information for your site visitors. Long gone are the days when your website is nothing more than a brochure. Today you need relevant and helpful information for your visitors and it needs to be in a format that the search engines can read well; in other words, in plain text.
This does not mean that your pages have to be plain - far from it, as a matter of fact, images help to convey your message even better. What you do need to avoid however, is a web page wrought with graphics. Keep the graphics simple and to the point but be sure that text takes precedence.
Next, be sure that you have a header on each individual web page on your site and be absolutely certain that it contains the keywords you are focusing on for that particular page. Think of each web page like a page in a newspaper. Each story has a strong headline, usually larger than the rest of the text on the page and written to entice you, as the reader to read the rest of the story. Your web page is no different. If you're savvy enough to take a look at the actual HTML code on your page, then be sure your heading is contained with "h1" tags. If you aren't sure, have your webmaster take a look and then have them make the changes accordingly.
Next, you must be absolutely certain that the text you do have on your web pages contain the keywords you are focused on for that page. For example, if you run a flower shop online and have a web page dedicated to red roses, red roses would be your keyword and then throughout your article you would make reference to the term red roses and variations thereof. It is very important that you use variations of your keyword throughout your page. If in doubt as to what words would be related, I highly suggest that you make use of a thesaurus or any of the many online tools that can pull these phrases for you.
Lastly, while you might be considering hiring a search engine optimization company to do all of your work for you, at costs of sometimes thousands of dollars a month, do some footwork yourself, implement some of these ideas and see if that doesn't help your overall web site rankings.
Ten Things You Should Know About Search Engine Optimization
Studies have shown that e-mail is the most popular Internet application, followed by search. With the profusion of websites that deal with the similar topic, the competition to get to the top of search engine ranking is very intense. After all, the higher your website is ranked the more traffic you are likely to get; and higher traffic ultimately translates to higher income.
The techniques used for achieving high search engine ranking are called search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO. Because SEO is still in its infancy, there is still a lot of trial and error in finding the perfect strategy. There are however, a few techniques that are popularly used by website owners to help enhance search visibility and achieve a higher search ranking for their websites.
Here a few factors to take into consideration when deciding on a strategy to improve your search engine ranking:
1. All major search engines including Google have their own different search algorithms for ranking web pages. It is almost impossible to get to know what these secret algorithms are and even if you did, it would be impossible to satisfy them all.
2. Do a fair bit of research before choosing your keywords. Using the keywords as your major competitors may be an exercise in futility as they obviously have more resources and have already established themselves. Employ tools such as Wordtracker which is excellent for helping with keyword research.
3. Focusing on increasing your traffic is more financially rewarding than working to simply increasing your search engine rankings. You may succeed in getting a higher ranking with some ambiguous keyword, but that definitely does not guarantee traffic.
4. Don't get taken in by SEO firms that offer to submit your site to different search engines. Search engines have their own spiders that crawl the internet, following different links that take them from one site to the next. They do not require any site to be submitted.
5. Remember that what counts with links is that they should be from related sites. Getting links from sites that are not related to yours are detrimental to your site ranking and should not be sought after.
6. Avoid seeking links from Link farms. Cottoning on to the fact that several websites were using link farms to increase the number of links to their site, major search engines now penalise those websites that get large number of links using artificial means.
7. Create your content for your users. Developing gateway pages that are crammed with keywords is sure to have a detrimental effect on the quality of your content. And content that does not meet certain standards is not going to entice your readers to come back for more.
8. Text links fare better than images, primarily because search engines are incapable of determining the contents by scanning the images. Instead, your site will be assessed by the words that are present in the source code.
9. Search engine crawlers are also incapable of indexing Flash. This means static HTML text usually fare better than sites that are flash based and should be used whenever possible.
10. It often takes time to climb to the top. A lot of patience combined with following some of the basic rules of search engine rankings is sure to pay off in the end. Don't be deterred by rumours of Google sandbox, where new sites are barred from achieving a high ranking for several months. These are just baseless rumours and nobody has proven whether or not it really exists.
The techniques used for achieving high search engine ranking are called search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO. Because SEO is still in its infancy, there is still a lot of trial and error in finding the perfect strategy. There are however, a few techniques that are popularly used by website owners to help enhance search visibility and achieve a higher search ranking for their websites.
Here a few factors to take into consideration when deciding on a strategy to improve your search engine ranking:
1. All major search engines including Google have their own different search algorithms for ranking web pages. It is almost impossible to get to know what these secret algorithms are and even if you did, it would be impossible to satisfy them all.
2. Do a fair bit of research before choosing your keywords. Using the keywords as your major competitors may be an exercise in futility as they obviously have more resources and have already established themselves. Employ tools such as Wordtracker which is excellent for helping with keyword research.
3. Focusing on increasing your traffic is more financially rewarding than working to simply increasing your search engine rankings. You may succeed in getting a higher ranking with some ambiguous keyword, but that definitely does not guarantee traffic.
4. Don't get taken in by SEO firms that offer to submit your site to different search engines. Search engines have their own spiders that crawl the internet, following different links that take them from one site to the next. They do not require any site to be submitted.
5. Remember that what counts with links is that they should be from related sites. Getting links from sites that are not related to yours are detrimental to your site ranking and should not be sought after.
6. Avoid seeking links from Link farms. Cottoning on to the fact that several websites were using link farms to increase the number of links to their site, major search engines now penalise those websites that get large number of links using artificial means.
7. Create your content for your users. Developing gateway pages that are crammed with keywords is sure to have a detrimental effect on the quality of your content. And content that does not meet certain standards is not going to entice your readers to come back for more.
8. Text links fare better than images, primarily because search engines are incapable of determining the contents by scanning the images. Instead, your site will be assessed by the words that are present in the source code.
9. Search engine crawlers are also incapable of indexing Flash. This means static HTML text usually fare better than sites that are flash based and should be used whenever possible.
10. It often takes time to climb to the top. A lot of patience combined with following some of the basic rules of search engine rankings is sure to pay off in the end. Don't be deterred by rumours of Google sandbox, where new sites are barred from achieving a high ranking for several months. These are just baseless rumours and nobody has proven whether or not it really exists.
A Resource Box Can Drive Traffic To Your Site
For the most part, people who go to the internet are looking for the same thing: information. Information about gaming, recreation or business, really any subject at all that the internet has to offer. Almost anything you want to learn about can be found online. This can be a golden opportunity for your website or web based business to reach customers and readers from all over the world.
In recent years, the workings of search engines have become known to more and more people. With this has come Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. A lot of site owners are aware of the benefits articles can offer to them in terms of driving more traffic to their sites. There are even sites now containing nothing but articles, most of which contain will links back to the authors own sites, which will of course be related somehow to the content of the article.
These kind of sites can contain articles on a wide range of topics. At the end of each article, the reader can find a resource box which will contain, among other things, link to the site which submitted the article. The article of course, almost always has something to do with the submitting site. For instance, an article about toaster ovens would usually be submitted by someone in the business of selling appliances.
Along with a link, a resource box will usually list the author, along with a brief biography and possibly a short description of the site which submitted the article. If the article has enticed the reader, the resource box will allow them to pay a visit the originating site (perhaps yours) and learn more.
The resource box has to catch the reader 's eye just as the article itself does. Having just the right wording in that resource box, including well chosen keywords could get a reader to visit your site.
So what are the benefits of having an exceptional resource box to follow your article submission? Articles are often placed on others' sites because those site owners need to have more content for their sites. This however, thanks to the links in the resource boxes, can be very beneficial to both parties. After all, any reader you can get to your site is a potential customer.
Well then, what are some good things to have in a resource box for your articles then? Simply put, the right, strategically selected keywords. Do some research on popular keywords in web searches and use them. There are quite a few resources online to help you determine what keywords to use; this will provide you with the greatest benefit to be gained from keywords: traffic.
Get creative with your resource box. There 's not a lot of room, but if you make the most of it, you have more chances to get traffic to your site. Think of it as another chance to get a reader interested.
Use keywords that are related to your site 's topic; this will lead to traffic that will be more likely to stay on your site and be interested in your product or service, if you are selling one. You'll build trust and credibility in these potential customers by providing well written, informative articles.
Don't dismiss the resource box as a another way of driving traffic to your website. You do not want a resource box that readers will just pass on by; be creative and offer a little information along with your link. Make readers think. Remember, if you want more visitors to your site, you must take every opportunity to maximize traffic.
In recent years, the workings of search engines have become known to more and more people. With this has come Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. A lot of site owners are aware of the benefits articles can offer to them in terms of driving more traffic to their sites. There are even sites now containing nothing but articles, most of which contain will links back to the authors own sites, which will of course be related somehow to the content of the article.
These kind of sites can contain articles on a wide range of topics. At the end of each article, the reader can find a resource box which will contain, among other things, link to the site which submitted the article. The article of course, almost always has something to do with the submitting site. For instance, an article about toaster ovens would usually be submitted by someone in the business of selling appliances.
Along with a link, a resource box will usually list the author, along with a brief biography and possibly a short description of the site which submitted the article. If the article has enticed the reader, the resource box will allow them to pay a visit the originating site (perhaps yours) and learn more.
The resource box has to catch the reader 's eye just as the article itself does. Having just the right wording in that resource box, including well chosen keywords could get a reader to visit your site.
So what are the benefits of having an exceptional resource box to follow your article submission? Articles are often placed on others' sites because those site owners need to have more content for their sites. This however, thanks to the links in the resource boxes, can be very beneficial to both parties. After all, any reader you can get to your site is a potential customer.
Well then, what are some good things to have in a resource box for your articles then? Simply put, the right, strategically selected keywords. Do some research on popular keywords in web searches and use them. There are quite a few resources online to help you determine what keywords to use; this will provide you with the greatest benefit to be gained from keywords: traffic.
Get creative with your resource box. There 's not a lot of room, but if you make the most of it, you have more chances to get traffic to your site. Think of it as another chance to get a reader interested.
Use keywords that are related to your site 's topic; this will lead to traffic that will be more likely to stay on your site and be interested in your product or service, if you are selling one. You'll build trust and credibility in these potential customers by providing well written, informative articles.
Don't dismiss the resource box as a another way of driving traffic to your website. You do not want a resource box that readers will just pass on by; be creative and offer a little information along with your link. Make readers think. Remember, if you want more visitors to your site, you must take every opportunity to maximize traffic.
SEO Basics - Starting With Search Engine Optimization Basics
SEO basics start with the composition of the words on your pages and what intrinsic value they offer your audience. The first prerequisite of SEO is understanding the basic correlation of content composition and the impact that content has on rankings respecitively.
Relevance is the underlying criteria that search engines reward, if your content is specific, informative and manages to acquire click through traffic, then your pages have the trappings of becoming popular which is a component to acquiring a top 10 ranking.
Aside from the title tag, (the main tag you use to describe the content of the page) and the links that endorse your content through back links (links from other sites)and the copy (which is completely under your control). There are fundamental guidelines you can adhere to that will assist you in keeping your content on topic to elevate topical relevance.
What are Search Engines?
Search engines are a cataloging system that are essentially transparent in their composition. Search engines are expected to glean information and organize data from thousands of unique industries, compile that data and then, based on the fetch command you issue as a result of you entering a boolean query in the search box are then expected to retrieve the most relevant result.
Understanding the premise of how search engines function rather than struggling to adapt and muscle your way up the SERPs (search engine result pages) is far easier instead.
Through appeasing the laws of their construction (the mathematical algorithm, teamed up with it 's ability to gain contextual artificial intelligence like phrase rank algorithm, search engines have the ability interpret the context of your pages.
Your focal point is simply to provide the ideal (relevant) result according to their ranking criteria. Which falls into three categories.
These three measuring sticks search engines use to assess content in addition to semantic synonyms and related phrases are called allinanchor, allintitle and allintext.
Talk about green widgets enough on your page, they know your page is about green widgets (allintext), placing it in the title is also a great way to signal the plane (allintitle) or get enough links from other pages that say your site is about green widgets and even if it is or not, it can potentially rank for that or related phrases (allinanchor).
That in a nutshell is how SEO basics play out according the the search engine spiders (the little programs that scour the web looking for new or exciting information to report back to the index).
The next part of SEO basics will cover how to ensure that your content is spider friendly or how to invite search engine spiders to skim, index and rank your content.
In closing, the gist is (1) make your titles unique (2) keep your writing style focused and use key words (words containing the phrases you want to rank for) as well as develop as many on topic links from other sites to cement your position in the search engine result pages.
Just writing about it on your site is not enough, unless you sites has hundreds of thousands of strong links pointing at in, in which case it can rank on the title tag alone. That is called website authority and is yet another topic we will be covering in the future.
The most relevant search result is the one that makes it to the top 10. There are no secrets involved, just logical relevance, but popularity counts so don't just write dry content.
The whole exercise of SEO is to get traffic from people. Since people pay the bills and not spiders, make sure you have something worth saying and they will take notice and pass it along.
Otherwise, you are only helping your competition by leaving your guests hungry or thirsty for more topical information about your subject. In which case, they will simply return to the search engine and click the next result in the list. So, the bottom line is user engagement aside from topical relevance and traffic.
Relevance is the underlying criteria that search engines reward, if your content is specific, informative and manages to acquire click through traffic, then your pages have the trappings of becoming popular which is a component to acquiring a top 10 ranking.
Aside from the title tag, (the main tag you use to describe the content of the page) and the links that endorse your content through back links (links from other sites)and the copy (which is completely under your control). There are fundamental guidelines you can adhere to that will assist you in keeping your content on topic to elevate topical relevance.
What are Search Engines?
Search engines are a cataloging system that are essentially transparent in their composition. Search engines are expected to glean information and organize data from thousands of unique industries, compile that data and then, based on the fetch command you issue as a result of you entering a boolean query in the search box are then expected to retrieve the most relevant result.
Understanding the premise of how search engines function rather than struggling to adapt and muscle your way up the SERPs (search engine result pages) is far easier instead.
Through appeasing the laws of their construction (the mathematical algorithm, teamed up with it 's ability to gain contextual artificial intelligence like phrase rank algorithm, search engines have the ability interpret the context of your pages.
Your focal point is simply to provide the ideal (relevant) result according to their ranking criteria. Which falls into three categories.
These three measuring sticks search engines use to assess content in addition to semantic synonyms and related phrases are called allinanchor, allintitle and allintext.
Talk about green widgets enough on your page, they know your page is about green widgets (allintext), placing it in the title is also a great way to signal the plane (allintitle) or get enough links from other pages that say your site is about green widgets and even if it is or not, it can potentially rank for that or related phrases (allinanchor).
That in a nutshell is how SEO basics play out according the the search engine spiders (the little programs that scour the web looking for new or exciting information to report back to the index).
The next part of SEO basics will cover how to ensure that your content is spider friendly or how to invite search engine spiders to skim, index and rank your content.
In closing, the gist is (1) make your titles unique (2) keep your writing style focused and use key words (words containing the phrases you want to rank for) as well as develop as many on topic links from other sites to cement your position in the search engine result pages.
Just writing about it on your site is not enough, unless you sites has hundreds of thousands of strong links pointing at in, in which case it can rank on the title tag alone. That is called website authority and is yet another topic we will be covering in the future.
The most relevant search result is the one that makes it to the top 10. There are no secrets involved, just logical relevance, but popularity counts so don't just write dry content.
The whole exercise of SEO is to get traffic from people. Since people pay the bills and not spiders, make sure you have something worth saying and they will take notice and pass it along.
Otherwise, you are only helping your competition by leaving your guests hungry or thirsty for more topical information about your subject. In which case, they will simply return to the search engine and click the next result in the list. So, the bottom line is user engagement aside from topical relevance and traffic.
Search Engine Optimisation, Now An Essential Part Of Modern Business
People use the internet for all manner of reasons; the most highly used application on the internet is email, while coming in second is the process of searching. Because of this, search engine optimisation has become an increasingly popular form of advertising for a wide variety of companies. As the majority of internet users regularly use search engines to find information on the internet, it is unsurprising that an entire industry has been built up around promoting sites to return better search results.
The current estimate is that there are four billion web pages on the internet that are open to public viewing. The chances of any customer finding your site over that of a competitor are unlikely unless a course of search engine optimisation is pursued. With so many pages on the internet available by the way of searching, this development can be viewed as a natural evolution of online marketing. Clearly optimisation is the way forward.
The process of search engine optimisation utilises expert knowledge on the ways in which search engines compile their directories and return results. Optimisation rather than manipulating the search engine programs instead helps them to find a site that is relevant to the search query. This assistance promotes the site that has been optimised but always attempts to maintain relevance to the search term.
The importance of search engine optimisation is plain to see. A recent survey found that that information sites and e-commerce websites received eighty-five percent of their traffic through search engine referrals. Seemingly, companies who pursue optimisation are making a far better investment than companies employing other means of online advertising.
It is believed that eighty percent of internet users use search engines to find websites. The search activity is clearly a large element in internet usage and as a company it would be foolish to ignore this trend and ignore the benefits that optimisation brings. If you want extra traffic to your website and subsequently more sales it is vital that optimisation is pursued. Without it, your company 's online marketing efforts will undoubtedly founder in what is a highly competitive marketplace.
Organic optimisation is believed by some to be the most beneficial. Paid links or banners, often referred to as 'pay per click' are believed to be less responsive than good organic listing positions. Searchers are more likely use results that have been returned naturally rather than the banners that adorn the top and sides of results pages. This does not however negate the benefits of paid optimisation as it can be beneficial in some industries.
As the main objective of a search engine is to provide targeted results the user is usually already looking for the types of products or services you provide. This is why visitor numbers are so important. Combine high levels of traffic with a well designed website and online business success will be forthcoming. Attracting customers is the name of the game, as most searchers will be actively willing to use your service or products; attracting traffic is the ultimate goal.
As the number of web pages constantly escalates, placing your company website at the top of search listings is never an accident; in order to achieve these kinds of results a concerted optimisation effort must be undertaken. This should of course be made in conjunction with other marketing efforts. It is believed that searchers do not go beyond the first three pages of results; hence if you are not in the top thirty, any benefits will be unlikely.
Because of these reasons search engine optimisation is a vital constituent of business success. As increasing numbers of companies pursue online business strategies it is essential that you should proceed with SEO. Without it your customers will be just as happy to use your competitors instead.
The current estimate is that there are four billion web pages on the internet that are open to public viewing. The chances of any customer finding your site over that of a competitor are unlikely unless a course of search engine optimisation is pursued. With so many pages on the internet available by the way of searching, this development can be viewed as a natural evolution of online marketing. Clearly optimisation is the way forward.
The process of search engine optimisation utilises expert knowledge on the ways in which search engines compile their directories and return results. Optimisation rather than manipulating the search engine programs instead helps them to find a site that is relevant to the search query. This assistance promotes the site that has been optimised but always attempts to maintain relevance to the search term.
The importance of search engine optimisation is plain to see. A recent survey found that that information sites and e-commerce websites received eighty-five percent of their traffic through search engine referrals. Seemingly, companies who pursue optimisation are making a far better investment than companies employing other means of online advertising.
It is believed that eighty percent of internet users use search engines to find websites. The search activity is clearly a large element in internet usage and as a company it would be foolish to ignore this trend and ignore the benefits that optimisation brings. If you want extra traffic to your website and subsequently more sales it is vital that optimisation is pursued. Without it, your company 's online marketing efforts will undoubtedly founder in what is a highly competitive marketplace.
Organic optimisation is believed by some to be the most beneficial. Paid links or banners, often referred to as 'pay per click' are believed to be less responsive than good organic listing positions. Searchers are more likely use results that have been returned naturally rather than the banners that adorn the top and sides of results pages. This does not however negate the benefits of paid optimisation as it can be beneficial in some industries.
As the main objective of a search engine is to provide targeted results the user is usually already looking for the types of products or services you provide. This is why visitor numbers are so important. Combine high levels of traffic with a well designed website and online business success will be forthcoming. Attracting customers is the name of the game, as most searchers will be actively willing to use your service or products; attracting traffic is the ultimate goal.
As the number of web pages constantly escalates, placing your company website at the top of search listings is never an accident; in order to achieve these kinds of results a concerted optimisation effort must be undertaken. This should of course be made in conjunction with other marketing efforts. It is believed that searchers do not go beyond the first three pages of results; hence if you are not in the top thirty, any benefits will be unlikely.
Because of these reasons search engine optimisation is a vital constituent of business success. As increasing numbers of companies pursue online business strategies it is essential that you should proceed with SEO. Without it your customers will be just as happy to use your competitors instead.
Increase Your Search Engine Ranking
A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue. There are many methods that you may employ to increase search engine rankings. They may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. But it is to your advantage to deal with them.
A majority of people looking for goods and services on
the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That 's what search engine optimization is about.
You can involve yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages. But better yet you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. You should first examine the title bar on your homepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage 's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, including you company name.
Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. Avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Also do not repeat keywords more than once in the title bar and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.
The next item to examine is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than fancy graphics. The text on your site should contain the most important keywords, the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.
You should try to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not possible because of your web page design, then try for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your
cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, you will need to change it or ask your webmaster to change it to HTML format for you in order to increase your search engine rankings.
Meta tags are really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it 's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. Meta tags usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this you will need to put them in or ask your webmaster to put them in. This
may not help your ranking at all, but every little thing you can do is a help.
Last, but by no means the least is the issue of link popularity. Link popularity is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search engine, it will show you what sites are linked to your site. If there are not many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.
Basically this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. This requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites boosts your search engine ranking. It also directs more quality traffic to your website.
Search engine rankings are extremely important for a
successful Internet marketing business. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can boost your rankings yourself. This is an important factor in Internet marketing. The higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.
A majority of people looking for goods and services on
the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That 's what search engine optimization is about.
You can involve yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages. But better yet you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. You should first examine the title bar on your homepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage 's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, including you company name.
Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. Avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Also do not repeat keywords more than once in the title bar and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.
The next item to examine is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than fancy graphics. The text on your site should contain the most important keywords, the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.
You should try to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not possible because of your web page design, then try for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your
cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, you will need to change it or ask your webmaster to change it to HTML format for you in order to increase your search engine rankings.
Meta tags are really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it 's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. Meta tags usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this you will need to put them in or ask your webmaster to put them in. This
may not help your ranking at all, but every little thing you can do is a help.
Last, but by no means the least is the issue of link popularity. Link popularity is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search engine, it will show you what sites are linked to your site. If there are not many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.
Basically this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. This requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites boosts your search engine ranking. It also directs more quality traffic to your website.
Search engine rankings are extremely important for a
successful Internet marketing business. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can boost your rankings yourself. This is an important factor in Internet marketing. The higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.
Say No To Illegal SEO Techniques
Search engine optimization spamming, substantially increases the possibilities that a website or page will appear at the top of results on search engines for a certain keyword.
Businesses that use illegal SEO techniques to control, raise and improve their search engine positions, are denying or removing the rights of ethical websites to be heard and seen. Regrettably, there are still many individuals who believe that "illegal SEO techniques" do no harm.
It is unethical and illegal for "spamming sites" to control search engines in order to gain high rankings in search engines at your website 's expense. You acquire your search engine position fairly so you deserve to be safeguarded from deceitful individuals who steal your visitors, publicity and income.
Remember that any effort so as to deceive search engines to achieve higher rankings is regarded as "SEO spam"; under no circumstances should you implement such methods in your marketing campaigns.
Never sacrifice your principles just so to reach your goals. There will be a great risk involved, such as your website can be penalized or worst, banned from top search engines and can stay banned for a long time.
Unethical and illegal SEO techniques:
1. "Keyword stuffing". This means employing the use of the same or exact "keywords" in your "META tags" or anywhere in your content repeatedly.
2. Hidden links and text. Search engines work by scanning pages for certain keywords which are submitted into a search request and display results where the exact keyword appears typically, on a "page".
Webmasters then insert some links or texts that are only readable by search engines but can not be seen by the human eye. You can, for instance put a white link or text with the appropriate keywords unto a certain web page with also a white background. Individuals can not detect it and will not even notice the difference; however "spiders" can read it and rank that site higher.
3. "Mirror websites" or "Sybil attack". These are several sites having identical contents but different "URL", all linking to one another, constructed for a very cruel objective.
4. "Doorway pages". Normally, these are pages of poor quality constructed to rank highly particularly for one or even more selected keywords. These do not affect your website visitors and only constructed for search engines.
These pages can contain the exact content of other sites but generally exhibits only a link going to the main page with no "navigation menu". They can at times dwell on the very same, however typically on other business' server.
5. Cloaking. Delivers many different web pages for search engines and visitors. Webmasters construct their servers so that it can identify "IP addresses" of spiders then provide them with content rich and optimized pages, at the same time displaying different web pages for individuals.
Cloaking can likewise redirect a web visitor to their home page.
6. "Link farms". Purposely to acquire link popularity, link farms are typically one page consisting of fifty up to one hundred or even more links to certain websites having no similarities with your website 's content.
Search engine "spammers" are aware of the fact that their pages' content are of poor quality and are useless to individuals that visit their site.
The unethical and illegal websites prompted Google (Google page rank) as well as other top search engines in improving search technology that now has faster, better and advanced spam filters that can detect illegal techniques then ban such websites from search engines forever.
Risks and dangers of Unethical and illegal SEO Techniques
SEO spamming can, in reality bring about high rankings. Do keep in mind however, that the effect is only temporary. Webmasters using illegal SEO techniques can benefit from their high search engine position for days, weeks, even months however once search engines discover webmasters using these illegal techniques, then they will be banned from search engine index for possibly a lifetime.
Even if one is not banned for a lifetime, it is difficult to be "re-indexed". One may need to start over and purchase a new "domain name". So then before using any illegal SEO techniques, think wisely and weigh if you are prepared to put your entire internet business in jeopardy just for months of obtaining a high rank in search engines.
Businesses that use illegal SEO techniques to control, raise and improve their search engine positions, are denying or removing the rights of ethical websites to be heard and seen. Regrettably, there are still many individuals who believe that "illegal SEO techniques" do no harm.
It is unethical and illegal for "spamming sites" to control search engines in order to gain high rankings in search engines at your website 's expense. You acquire your search engine position fairly so you deserve to be safeguarded from deceitful individuals who steal your visitors, publicity and income.
Remember that any effort so as to deceive search engines to achieve higher rankings is regarded as "SEO spam"; under no circumstances should you implement such methods in your marketing campaigns.
Never sacrifice your principles just so to reach your goals. There will be a great risk involved, such as your website can be penalized or worst, banned from top search engines and can stay banned for a long time.
Unethical and illegal SEO techniques:
1. "Keyword stuffing". This means employing the use of the same or exact "keywords" in your "META tags" or anywhere in your content repeatedly.
2. Hidden links and text. Search engines work by scanning pages for certain keywords which are submitted into a search request and display results where the exact keyword appears typically, on a "page".
Webmasters then insert some links or texts that are only readable by search engines but can not be seen by the human eye. You can, for instance put a white link or text with the appropriate keywords unto a certain web page with also a white background. Individuals can not detect it and will not even notice the difference; however "spiders" can read it and rank that site higher.
3. "Mirror websites" or "Sybil attack". These are several sites having identical contents but different "URL", all linking to one another, constructed for a very cruel objective.
4. "Doorway pages". Normally, these are pages of poor quality constructed to rank highly particularly for one or even more selected keywords. These do not affect your website visitors and only constructed for search engines.
These pages can contain the exact content of other sites but generally exhibits only a link going to the main page with no "navigation menu". They can at times dwell on the very same, however typically on other business' server.
5. Cloaking. Delivers many different web pages for search engines and visitors. Webmasters construct their servers so that it can identify "IP addresses" of spiders then provide them with content rich and optimized pages, at the same time displaying different web pages for individuals.
Cloaking can likewise redirect a web visitor to their home page.
6. "Link farms". Purposely to acquire link popularity, link farms are typically one page consisting of fifty up to one hundred or even more links to certain websites having no similarities with your website 's content.
Search engine "spammers" are aware of the fact that their pages' content are of poor quality and are useless to individuals that visit their site.
The unethical and illegal websites prompted Google (Google page rank) as well as other top search engines in improving search technology that now has faster, better and advanced spam filters that can detect illegal techniques then ban such websites from search engines forever.
Risks and dangers of Unethical and illegal SEO Techniques
SEO spamming can, in reality bring about high rankings. Do keep in mind however, that the effect is only temporary. Webmasters using illegal SEO techniques can benefit from their high search engine position for days, weeks, even months however once search engines discover webmasters using these illegal techniques, then they will be banned from search engine index for possibly a lifetime.
Even if one is not banned for a lifetime, it is difficult to be "re-indexed". One may need to start over and purchase a new "domain name". So then before using any illegal SEO techniques, think wisely and weigh if you are prepared to put your entire internet business in jeopardy just for months of obtaining a high rank in search engines.
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