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SEO, Search Engine Optimization, marketing online

SEO tips, SEO guide, SEO tactics, SERP

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The Three SEO Factors That Really Matter

Monday, 8. June 2009, 14:22:24

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Search for a list of SEO factors and you’ll find that most feature at least 50.

That’s 50+ elements of your website that influence your ability to rank in search engines. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

Some SEO Consultants will tell you that ranking in search engines is about applying a precise formula to these 50+ elements - about using “special proprietary techniques” fine-tuned to search algorithms to boost your website above the competition.

Not exactly.

There are actually more like 200+ signals that search engines use when ranking websites.

Imagine trying to reverse-engineer something like that? Sounds impossible, right?

That’s because it is.

The good news: it doesn’t matter.

You don’t need to be a computer engineer to rank well in search engines. Relieving, isn’t it?

The truth is that everything boils down to three factors:

1. Search-friendly pages
2. Relevant content
3. A trusted website

All of those other factors and elements of SEO? They all fit into one of these three basic categories.

You don’t need to be a search scientist to understand the basics of what’s going on with these three factors and improve them for your website.
1) Search-friendly pages

Essentially, this first factor has to do with the technical aspects of how your website and pages work.

Search engines use crawlers (or “bots”) to browse the web by following links. As they browse, these crawlers scan the content they see and store it in databases. These databases form search engine’s web index - and when a user comes along and enters a search phrase the index is scanned for pages that match.

The basic idea: you want to make sure your pages, and the content that fills them, are visible to search engine crawlers.

There are a few things you should know about crawlers:

* They don’t support JavaScript - so that rollover menu, those drop-down links, etc, might not be visible to search engine crawlers.
* They don’t support Flash (mostly) - while there have been a few developments in this regard recently, Flash websites still aren’t too search engine friendly.

* They can’t “see” - sometimes designers use images instead of HTML text (usually because they want to use a certain font that isn’t web-safe), and search engine crawlers can’t read or index this text. Crawlers can only read code - and if your content isn’t found there it’s essentially invisible to search engines.
* They skimp on resources - it takes a lot of energy and time (and money) to crawl the web (there are a lot of pages out there) so crawlers are usually programmed to be conservative with how far they’ll dive into a page. If your web pages take a long time to load or feature a tremendous amount of content crawlers might leave without scanning/indexing everything.

There are some other things crawlers can’t/won’t do. To get a sense of what they can see on your own website try SEO-Browser.com. This tool allows you to enter the address of a web page and see it as search crawlers see it.

The bottom line: you might have the best content in the world, but if crawlers can’t see it you won’t rank for relevant keywords.
2) Relevant content

This factor is all about the words on your pages.

As we discussed above the visible content on your pages is stored and searched every time someone uses a search engine. If the keyword or phrase entered doesn’t occur on your page you probably won’t show up.

There are a few key places where you’ll want to use the right language on your pages:

* Title tags
* Headlines
* Body copy
* Anchor text (links pointing to internal pages)

As you browse the web you’ll probably notice that lots of webmasters have gotten a bit, shall we say, “overzealous” with optimizing their content. Title tags stuffed to the brim with dozens of keyword variations is common. Sometimes even the body copy itself is stuffed with keywords in an attempt to boost rankings.

You might be tempted to do this yourself to try and enhance your chances of ranking for a given keyword.

Don’t do it. Please.

Why not? Try reading a page that’s been stuffed with keywords this way. It’s an awful experience, right? Certainly enough to stop your reading flow and send you to another website, isn’t it?

Don’t sacrifice your user’s reading experience in the aim of ranking for a given keyword. It’s not worth it. All of the traffic in the world won’t mean a thing if the users who land at your pages are turned off and leave. Your competitors are just a few painless clicks away.

To learn about what keywords people use when they search for your products/services/info try Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool - enter either your website address or a keyword and this tool will return a list of related keywords including numbers on how many people search for them.

The bottom line: it’s rare to rank for a keyword that doesn’t occur on your pages so use the language your users do when they search. Don’t overdo it and stuff keywords, though, because you’ll annoy your visitors (and search engines don’t like it either - they might flag you as SPAM).
3) A trusted website

When you’ve got 1) search-friendly pages and 2) relevant content it’s still not time to sit back and let the search traffic pour in.

The truth is that most of your competitors will have looked into these factors already - they’re kind of the “low hanging fruit” of SEO, because they’re not usually terribly difficult to work out.

Trust is what sets you apart. It is by far the most important of the three factors.

Before Google came onto the scene using PageRank (a measurement of link popularity) to rank websites search engines generally based their rankings on the first two factors we’ve discussed.

What was the problem with that approach?

Webmasters are greedy. We can’t help ourselves. We love traffic.

Keyword stuffing was rampant, and rarely did webmasters stick to the honest truth about what their website was relevant to. The result: search results littered with SPAM, porn and just about anything with very little relevance.

The reason links were a better signal to Google was simple - it’s harder to game. While you can control the content/keywords on your own website it’s a lot harder to control it on someone else’s. It’s pretty tough to get someone to link to you against their will.

The model simply worked - Google’s results were better. The other search engines quickly caught on and looked to signals of trust for sorting through the SPAM.

Some signals that search engines use to determine whether they can trust your website:

* Inbound links - quality is more important than quantity here - that’s why those “500 directory links for $49.95″ deals are worthless. The easiest links to get are the least valuable/powerful. A single link from Google.com, for example, would outweigh tens of thousands of weaker links - that’s how much quality matters.
* Website age - if your website is new there’s not much you can do about it without a Delorian and a working flux capacitor (”Marty, the website is in place - now we gotta go back to the future!”). A website that’s been around for a while is simply more trusted by search engines.
* Who you link to - it’s not just about inbound links. Search engines also look at what websites you link to from your pages. If you’re linking out to SPAMMY websites selling Viagra, online poker or similar SPAM-saturated topics they might consider you part of that “bad neighborhood” and penalize your website. Be careful who you vouch for.

There are other signals involved, but if you’ve got these three trust factors working in your favor you’re very likely to dominate the competition.

The bottom line: search engines don’t like getting burned by ranking SPAMMY websites. They want to know they can trust your website. Once you’ve got your on-page factors right (#1 and #2 above) you’ll need to build trust signals before your website will rank competitively.

About the Author:
Mike Tekula is the Director of Marketing of Unstuck Digital - an Internet Marketing company that provides SEO Consulting and other custom-tailored services.

6 comments

3 Reasons To Have Your Article Published On Smaller Websites

Wednesday, 8. July 2009, 16:44:48

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The main reason why website owners love article marketing is because it’s an effective way to build long term traffic to a website.

Here’s how that works:

When you do article marketing, you’re writing articles on the general topic of your website, and then submitting the articles to article directories and other online publishers.

When website owners need content they will look at article directories and select articles that they’d like to re-publish on their website. Each time your article is picked up for re-publication, your resource box (including a link back to your website) is also published.

So, as more and more publishers pick up your article, you build more and more links.

Pretty much every person who’s doing article marketing knows the power of building links and also that the links contribute to an elevated search engine ranking, but a question that I get repeatedly is this:

“What would be the benefit of having my article published on smaller websites? I mean, those websites don’t have authority in Google’s eyes–why bother with them?”

I would answer that there is definitely benefit to having your article published on websites of all sizes–big, medium and small websites.

The big websites are the ones that attract the most attention–everyone wants a link from a website that is seen as an authority in Google’s eyes. But there are a few reasons why you should solicit publication on lesser known websites too:

1) Yes, one way that article marketing builds traffic is by increasing your search engine ranking for your keyword terms, but don’t forget that traffic is also driven to a website through your articles themselves.

For example, a potential customer might find your website in one of the following ways:

*By doing a Google search for your keyword terms, and then finding your article or your website listed in the results.

*By stumbling across your article and then clicking the link in your resource box that leads to your website.

The first way is indirect traffic–a potential customer has to do a search for your keyword terms, and then your article or your website appears high up in the search engine rankings.

The second way is direct traffic–the person visits a favorite directory or otherwise stumbles upon your article, and then just clicks from your article through to your website.

A link from the bigger websites will aid your cause if you’re trying to rise up in the search engine rankings. A link from an authority site can help boost Google’s estimation of your article and in turn help your website jump up in the rankings.

But a link from any size website (even small ones) can help you build direct traffic. Direct traffic is independent of Google and search engine rankings–if a reader happens to see your article on a website, they can go directly to your website from your resource box.

For this reason, it is a good idea to have your article published on as many sites as possible. The more website’s that pick up your article for publication, the more opportunities for your potential customers to see your article (and then click through to your website).

2) Imagine this–even a newbie website that has only 50 visitors a day creates 50 chances for your article to come before the eyes of potential customers.

Would you turn down the opportunity to speak to 50 potential customers if you had the chance?

I think not.

Then why pass up the opportunity to have your article published on as many websites as possible–small, medium and mega-sized sites?

3) What is a small site today is not necessarily a small site tomorrow.

Websites grow and change in their authority and ranking (thankfully!). Instead of discarding the idea of getting a link from a lesser known site, why not go for that link now, when the site is still in its infancy, and then ride the escalator up with their increasing success?

There is merit to receiving backlinks from online publishers regardless of size. Yes, the mega size sites offer more benefits, but that doesn’t mean that links from other sites are worthless.

If you think about it, it’s kind of like comparing mega bookstores with independent bookstores–this is Amazon vs The Corner Bookstore. When an author has a book that she wants people to buy, she will make certain that her book is available on Amazon, but she will also take an interest in the smaller bookstores.

As an article marketer, your article is your book, and it’s your job to market it. Don’t you want it appearing in as many “bookstores” as possible?

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Personalized Search and Your SEO Firm

Wednesday, 8. July 2009, 16:43:04

When looking at Google, one is struck by the somewhat Orwellian nature of entering a search term and being watched by Big Brother in a dispassionate, detached yet interested manner. When looking at the patterns people use in searching, it does come close to that totalitarian character from the George Orwell novel, 1984, but that is the truth of our times. Google is neither good nor evil. It just IS, and with that realization, people should adapt to the new SEO frontiers and how to not only deal with but capitalize on the wealth of information that search engines collect.

Let’s drop the Big Brother analogy, because when we started looking for things on the Internet, that became just another part of our paradigm shift towards the belief that anything we searched for on the Net was just out of our reach in the search results. Collecting data and disseminating it is a fact of life. As a business, one should rapidly get used to the idea and seek constructive, professional ways to harness this power. Because, in this case knowledge is truly power, and if you or a company that you hire can get a handle on the niche you want to control and dominate to deliver your sales message or well-placed, online advertising, then you’re ready to watch your sales double, quadruple and more.

The true value an SEO expert on staff or a firm that understands the value of search engine optimization can transform your company. The concept is really very simple: put your company, product or service in the traffic or search results of people who are looking for your product or service. That’s it. Success on the Internet.

When you look at it that way, it doesn’t appear to be so hard to conquer. What you may fail to realize is that there are millions of companies and businesses out there that have already realized this fact and have gone on to seek their fortune in that realm. You will need an edge, something that most of your competitors lack.

This is where the basic principle of personalized search comes into play. You see, whether you’re a millionaire or Joe-Nobody surfing the Net, every time you query Google or any other search engine for information, that query data is stored in a database. It is then tabulated, and cross-tabulated with other things you and others have searched for. On a personal level, the search engines build a profile of your search habits over time. Like artificial intelligence, the search engines long to understand you, your interests and habits. As you search and surf, you will begin to see an eerie thing happen - more and more relevant search results will begin to pop up as you type.

Before you run screaming back into the dark ages, this is a good thing. For example, if you’ve shown an interest in fishing while our neighbor searches for musical instruments. When you search for “bass”, the search engine will begin to return fishing results, while your neighbor who searches for the exact same term, “bass” will get back musical instruments that are relevant to him - bass fiddles, bass drums, etc. This is personalized search results.

Now that you understand the concept, let’s talk about how you can use it in your business in order increase sales in your business. These personalized search results, you need to either learn or hire an SEO firm that is familiar with this major shift in how search engine optimization is going. Google is currently testing the waters with this form of personalization, and you need to be signed up with one of their services in order to get this kind of personalization. Theses services include: Adwords, Google Toolbar, Gmail and the like. Through these various forums, Google is learning about you and your preferences.

When you search through Google, it places a cookie which is a unique identifier on your machine. It doesn’t do anything, but identify you as a user of their service. No biggie, right? It will be just as easy for them to use this technology to collect user data in order to personalize your search. Right now, they’re waiting to see if there’s screaming in the streets from users who abhor any kind of data collection. More than likely, it will go by unnoticed by most. As a business, you need to be on the cutting edge of this new technology and have either an expert or a firm working towards utilizing this major upgrade in order to take you to the next level of the Internet.

Truly good search engine optimization firms are already preparing for this major shift, using things like “clean” machines for data collection and in how they report on Google’s ranking of data to their clients. Clean machines are one’s that have had no Google programs or cookies dropped on it. This will be a baseline machine with results for the client that are delivered as a snapshot of what they user would see if their machine was Google-less.

First, the good news. Account holders with the search engine giant will probably not be deluged with certain products based on their profiles, but their entire surfing and querying history will be reviewed and results will be skewed toward the user’s industry.

Then, there’s the bad news. Search engine optimization firms will have a rough time trying to demonstrate these results because the client will more than likely be using a Google program on personal machines, so the results won’t match with the SEO firm.

What all this means is that the company needs to establish a level of trust in the professional skills of the firm they choose. In return, the SEO firm needs to take the time to explain in detail how the new search engine results work showing how these results can appear totally different from machine to machine and why this happens. As well, the firm needs to have the technical skill to be able to delve into the client’s machine, look at the current cookies onboard and explain how this is affecting what results they’re getting.

When setting up a campaign, companies will have to take more into account when starting out. Having a good SEO firm onboard will simplify this latest level of complexity quite a bit. Being able to utilize personal search results and consumer profiles is just a step away, and it takes a high-level of skill to deal with it effectively.

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How to Get More Website Traffic & Convert Visitors into Buyers in Just 3 Steps

Wednesday, 8. July 2009, 16:41:44

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The sheer number of e-commerce websites that exist today is enough to overwhelm any consumer and make the Internet marketing challenge for business owners seem insurmountable. Bob Regnarus, also known as “The Leads King,” has made a successful business out of helping business owners drive more traffic to their websites and inspire visitors to buy once they get there.

Bob was selected to offer his web marketing expertise in “Start Your Own Information Marketing Business,” a new book from the Information Marketing Association. This new book is an essential how-to guide for anyone interested in starting an information marketing business, and features insight from 12 of the biggest names in the industry. In it, Bob shares his secrets for maximizing online sales through search engine optimization and more.
Here is the Leads King’s 3 Basic Phases to Getting More Website Traffic and Sales Now

1. Understand What You Really Need from Your Website

Determining what your website can and cannot do is the first phase. Setting the right expectations for a site can help businesses invest their time and effort into marketing to target customers. The point is to avoid wasting time on people who will never become customers.

Remember your website should be a lead generation tool. So, you want to focus on targeted leads that are a perfect match for the products and services you provide. Make sure you build an opt-in option on your website’s landing page. This is where you make an offer in order to collect contact information from visitors. You might offer free, valuable information such as access to a newsletter or a complimentary lesson or session. This is important to your strategy for making building your list and starting a customer relationship that leads to more sales.

2. Build an Attractive Site With Your Objective in Mind

The second phase of a web traffic campaign is to build or alter a website so it fits the new strategy for generating sales leads and attracting target customers. An attractive website is easy to understand, and is interesting and engaging. It does not mean you should spend money on expensive graphic design or Flash animation - in fact Bob strongly advises you not to waste your money on elements that will not directly help you increase your website sales conversions. Instead, focus on communicating to visitors what your business offers and why they should be interested.

3. Drive Additional Traffic Through Advertising, SEO and Promotion

The third phase of the campaign is to make it easy for potential customers to find your website through search-engine optimization (SEO), article marketing, pay-per-click advertising and other advanced promotional tools.

Investing in online advertising is crucial to promoting your website, but there are also many low-cost strategies. Effective SEO tactics include creating external links, regular website updates and keyword saturation. Other little known channels for driving website traffic include promoting sites through blogs, articles and press releases. According to Bob you don’t have to be a technological wizard or a marketing genius to improve your search engine ranking and generate traffic to your website.

Follow Bob’s step-by-step directions and you will get more website traffic and sales. To learn more about SEO opportunities and discover how to create effective advertising campaigns with search engines look for more advice from Bob in Start Your Own Information Marketing Business. This information marketing how-to guide is available in bookstores now.

(Robert Skrob)

1 comment

Google’s Adwords Top Tactics For Tough Times

Tuesday, 30. June 2009, 15:05:43

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Like anyone who’s using Google Adwords in their
online marketing, I received Google’s small booklet
in the mail entitled “Google’s Adwords Top
Tactics For Tough Times.”

In it Google lays out 6 Adwords Tactics for tough times…
helpful tips to help their Adwords users get
through these hard times and keep using Adwords
in the process.

These tactics include: (quoting directly from the
mail-out)

1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.

2. Use Value-related keywords.

3. Ensure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.

4. Don’t waste money on irrelevant clicks.

5. Make it easy for customers to buy.

6. Focus your money on your high-performers.

These are all good tactics for the tough times ahead…
I especially like the emphasis on low-prices and savings.
Everyone will be looking for bargains in these rough times,
by focusing your marketing on fulfilling that need will
make your campaigns more profitable.

You can learn more here:

http://www.google.com/adwords/tactics2008

Now I am first to admit I am not a PPC expert, the majority
of my marketing is done thru SEO with first page listings
in organic search (mainly Google) for my keywords. So take
everything that follows with a large grain of salt.

My main beef with Google Adwords, they won’t send you
enough traffic. If you’re in a competitive niche market,
the big players will obviously outbid you… no matter
how good or bad your landing pages are. I know that
your quality score is supposed to lower your costs and
if your ads have high CTR click-thru-rates, your Adwords
costs should come down even more and you get more traffic.

Still, it’s difficult to make a profit especially for
an affiliate marketer who only gets a percentage of the
sale and not the full sale price. I counter this by picking
affiliate products that give you residual income, make one
sale and get paid for years or the life of that client.
Even with using this tactic, Google Adwords is very risky
for the online affiliate marketer - you better know what
you’re doing or you can waste a lot of money.

Slap Yourself Silly!

Actually, that statement is not really true because it
has been my experience that Google Adwords simply won’t
deliver the traffic you want. Unless you want to make
outrageous high bids on keywords and slap yourself silly;
Google won’t give you the traffic. Unlike Yahoo Marketing
which will supply you with traffic to meet at least 60% to 80%
of your daily PPC budget - no such luck with Google Adwords.

They simply won’t give me the impressions, let alone
the traffic! Again, I am speaking from my own experience
here, and it is wrong to make a general consensus just
based on one person’s findings. I believe the main
reason is because the competition is so stiff and
Google traffic is so highly prized. Get a high
conversion rate and throw in this quality traffic
from Google and you can print your own money.

In several proven profitable campaigns, I would like
to spend 3 or 4 hunderd dollars a day but Google simply
won’t deliver the traffic at my bid levels… you have
to raise your bids so high, you can’t make a profit.
These are not minimum bids and my ads are placed
in the second or third spot on the right hand side
in Google Search. Even if you have first page placement
in Google’s organic SERPs for the same site and keywords
you’re bidding on - it’s still difficult to get the traffic.

I know you have to pick niche markets and campaigns
that are not so competitive that you can make a profit.
But I am not so sure… I believe Google Adwords are
way too strict regarding who they do business with.
Maybe Google is used to handling clients with budgets of
3 or 4 thousand a day and can’t be bothered with the small
guys.

You Must Establish A Good Credit History

Google Adwords also uses something called a proven track
record or history… unless you can establish this good credit
history, forget about getting large amounts of traffic from
Google. It’s much like SERPs where you have to prove yourself
before they will consistently list your site. The old
SandBox issue.

To be fair, you really have to view this situation from Google’s
standing… they give out all this traffic on a “pay-later”
basis, they have to make sure any traffic delivered will
be paid for by the receiver. It could all boil down to
a simple business procedure. Again, I am no expert at
Adwords.

However, I am hoping in these harsh economic times, Google
will have to become more open and give more impressions
and traffic to the smaller fry. Obviously, by sending out
the booklet, Google must be concerned with a drop in business
in these uncertain times. Maybe their numbers have already
dropped, maybe not. Only Google knows.

Better yet, if times get very dire, competition just might go
down and this will open up new opportunities for the small
marketers out there, including in Google Adwords. Now that’s
one tactic I hope Google will adopt. There are probably thousands,
if not millions of other small marketers ready to take up the
slack, Google would just have to work harder dealing with many
more advertisers rather than centering all their efforts on
the large corporate clients with huge pockets who I am now
assuming get the majority of Adwords traffic.

In any case, it sure would be nice to have more PPC traffic
from Google. Give me the traffic first, and I’ll worry about
the other Adwords Tactics later, after I get the traffic
flowing.

That’s my response to this Google Adwords Mail-out.
http://www.google.com/adwords/tactics2008

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How To Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

Tuesday, 30. June 2009, 15:04:13

Better yet, they will recommend you to other people that could generate more business for you and your site.

As more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. This is a list where in website visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and such that could keep them updated about your site or the niche of your site. These promotional materials are sent via e-mail to the members of the list in different time intervals.

When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs. Email is free and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you are having. There is also the chance that they can be forwarded to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site.

Of course you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected. Make sure that they are satisfied with your opt-in marketing strategies and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogs. Here are some tips that can help you build a list of eager subscribers.

Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about. For example; if you are selling car parts, put some pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door possibly that can fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

Try to research what people are looking for, these way, you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you will be their bearer of new tidings. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them because they new you always have fresh and new things to share with them.

Write good articles that can be very informational but light at the same time. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you will be putting on your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

Are you wary about this because you don’t like writing? No problem, there are many professional and experienced article writers that can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing and can provide the need that you have for your newsletters, the money that you pay for your articles are going to be met by the many sign-ups and the potential profit from the sales that you will get.

Create and send an E-book to your customers about anything that is related to your business or site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people.

Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site. If you want, you can always get some people to write it for you just like your articles. Your investment once again will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.

Add e-coupons in your newsletters that will help them avail to special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

If your subscribers can get benefits from your newsletters, they will be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your mailing list with mails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.

1 comment

7 Deadly Search Engine Sins

Tuesday, 30. June 2009, 14:57:54

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Are you fed up waiting for your website to reach the top of Google? Or are you getting far less visitors than you would like from Google? If this sounds like you, read on and find out whether you are committing any of these search engine sins!

Sin 1 - Keyword Ignorance

One of the most common mistakes that people make when building a website is to completely disregard keyword research. The result of this is that you could end up building a website around keywords that nobody actually searches on or you could build a site using the most competitive keywords on the internet and have to wait forever to see any results.

At a minimum you should pay a quick visit to the free Google Adwords Keyword tool and type in a few keyword ideas. Take a look at the results and be sure that the keywords you pick have a good number of searches per month. Also type your keywords into Google and make sure that you feel confident about beating the competition and getting your site on to the first page of results.

Sin 2 - Keyword Spamming & Hidden Text

Mentioning your keywords hundreds of times throughout your web page or making big lists of keywords with a font color that is the same as the background color is not going to help your search engine rank. Neither is adding keywords that have nothing to do with the content of your page.

Remember that you are writing primarily for your visitors, not the search engines. You do want to mention your keywords in specific places such as the TITLE tag, H1 tag, alt text and throughout your copy, but don’t overdo it. If it doesn’t sound right when you read it back, you have probably gone too far.

Sin 3 - Only Optimizing the Home Page

Many people will spend all their time concentrating on optimizing the home page. The home page is often the most important page on your website with the most visitors, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect the rest of your website.

Choose different keywords for each page on your website and for each blog post you make. This will allow you to “multiply” your search engine traffic. Even if you choose less popular, less competitive keywords this can have a dramatic impact on your traffic if you have lots of optimized pages on your site.

Sin 4 - Not knowing your Competition

Before you go ahead and optimize a page on your website for a particular keyword phrase you should take a look at the websites that you are competing with.

Enter your keywords into Google without the quotes and take a look at the web pages on the first two pages of results. Most people don’t go past page 2 of the results when they are searching, so you need to be able to compete with the sites on the first two pages.

Are these sites big multinational companies? Do they have high page ranks or thousands of backlinks? If so, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t compete with them, but you should at least have an understanding of where your site is in comparison to these sites and make an educated guess about whether or not you can compete with them.

Sin 5 - Bad Linking

It pays to be careful about who you link to. Linking to “bad neighborhoods” i.e. sites that have been penalized by the search engines could have a detrimental effect on your own ranking. Similarly, selling text links on your website is also looked upon as bad by Google.

You should also be careful about how many links you have on a single page. The Google webmaster guidelines state that you shouldn’t have more than 100 links on a single web page.

Sin 6 - Poor Navigation

Having a site with a poor navigation structure or using exclusively javascript menus could result in your website not getting fully indexed by the search engines.

Search engines can’t read javascript, so be sure that if you do have a javascript menu, supplement it with a text based menu. You should also make sure that visitors and search engines can easily find all the pages on your website. One way to do this is to generate a site map.

Sin 7 - Forgetting about Off Site Optimization

Finally, one of the things that you cannot afford to forget about is off site optimization. This means getting lots of backlinks from related, good quality websites and using your keywords and variations of your keywords in the anchor text. Building backlinks is the best way to increase your position in the search engine ranks and you should aim to grow your backlinks steadily over time.

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Learning How to Make Money Online

Wednesday, 10. June 2009, 10:42:30

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When you begin learning how to make money online you must first have goal. Without a clear goal in mind you will find it difficult to set targets, and without targets you will find it more difficult to make money. That is why all businesses have a gaol and set regular targets that are the subject of business plans.

It has often been said that a failure to plan is a plan to failure, and nothing could be truer. As a simple goal, decide how much money you want to make in your first year. You could be silly and decide on a million dollars, but you are unlikely to achieve that, so be realistic: say $75,000 in your first year.

You can then break that down into monthly amounts, starting small and increasing each month, which will give you the basis of your targets. You should then plan how to meet these monthly targets. That is a good sound basis of a strong business.

However, you now have the problem of how you are going to make that money. There is a large number of ways in which you can make money online, some of the most popular being|:

1. Creating your own product or service.

Perhaps you have a skill or specialized knowledge that others will pay for. You might be a children’s entertainer or a hypnotherapist. Perhaps you can write en eBook about breeding dogs, or make a video series on maintaining your own car.

I know of one person that made a fortune by making series of short videos of how to carry out simple household maintenance tasks, such as changing an electrical plug, changing a tap or faucet washer, and even putting in a new sink and laying a carpet. A simple idea, yet something that had a massive customer base. Think of all those women living alone, or even guys that don’t know why a screwdriver has a flat end.

Think of what you are good at, or what you have knowledge of, and work out a way of packaging that knowledge or these skills in a way that would sell. I am a good writer, and make money online writing articles to help others to promote their websites.

2. Sell somebody else’s product

If you are unable to produce a product of your own, then sell somebody else’s. Everybody trying to learn how to make money online has heard of affiliate marketing, even if they don’t recognise the word. Affiliate marketing is selling a product for somebody else in return for a commission.

If that product can be delivered electronically - by email or downloaded - then that commission could be 50% or higher, since there is no replacement cost. Unlike a tub of vitamins, an eBook or software application doesn’t have to be produced again once it has been sold, so the vast majority of the selling price is profit. You can therefore be paid more for selling it. 50% is about minimum for such items, and some go as high as 75% or even 80%.

3. Others

Among other ways of making money online are multi-level marketing (MLM), where you recruit others to sell products for you, you receiving a commission on their sales, buying on eBay, and selling the same items for more than you paid for them, buying items in bulk when they are in high supply, and selling at a high price when they are scarce (e.g. certain toys at Christmas time), and many others.

Each of these ways of making money online has one thing in common: you have to learn how to go about it and how to promote whatever it is that you are doing. Even your eBay business has to be promoted by means of your ‘product description’.

Most businesses need a web presence, either as a traditional website or some other presence on the web such as a Squidoo lens or participation in social networking. They might also need software, and knowledge of how to use it, and knowledge of how to attract traffic - potential customers. Without customers, your business will fail.

This is where most people begin to fail. In fact 99 people out of every 100 that try to earn a living online fail. They fail for one of 4 reasons:

1. Lack of Planning

They did not have a clear objective in mind and did not plan properly. The started their business on shaky ground and looked on it as a hobby. They fell into one of the main traps of working at home: worked part-time, and took time off whenever they felt like it rather than set out the daily tasks needed to meet their targets and work until they were completed.

2. Lack of focus: Information Overload

They did not focus, and jumped from one program to another. They had too much information, and were unable to give any one method of making money online the time to work for them. They tried too much at one time and so failed in everything.

3. Lack of Perseverance

They gave up to soon. It takes time to build up a successful online business. Except for a very fortunate few, there is no ‘get rich quick scheme’. Making money online is hard work, and those that persevere tend to succeed. Most don’t!

4. Lack of Knowledge

This is the least reason for failure. There is no need for lack of knowledge in the internet age - everything you need to know is out there, yet many people try to do it themselves without getting the information they need. Learn from the work of others: do not reinvent the wheel. Trite, I know, but true nevertheless.

Use whatever training courses are available out there. It could be expensive, I know, but there are ways to learn all you need to know without spending a lot of money.

It is important that you do not fail for any one of the above reasons because they are all avoidable. It is a shame that so many dreams are shattered for a lack of planning, focus, commitment and perseverance, and a lack of knowledge. All are avoidable.

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Why Forward Linking is as Important as Backlinks

Wednesday, 10. June 2009, 10:38:30

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Obviously the obsession for most is off page SEO (building or getting links from other websites)…Well, I have a little secret for you, authority trumps it all. An authority site can rank using less backlinks, pages or keywords that any other type of website; so, doesn’t this indicate where you should apply your focus?

With so many ranking factors that can impact your position, who you link to (forward-linking or up-linking from your website) is often overlooked as a viable way to expedite the authority process.

By definition an authority site is a popular website frequented often by the virtue of the content/information or experience it provides. Considering the potential to create real value by providing a product, unique angle, news, cool tools, widgets or a service that is phenomenal, that website can be deemed an authority.

One way that they make the initial impact is (a) to do something worthy of being linked to or (b) by linking to enough authority sites that it tips the scales of relevance in the site providing the forward links. In essence, linking to authority sites can expedite the process for your website developing authority. What you do with it after that is up to you.

The reason why linking out is important is, authority sites often link to other authority sites and they is how they preserve the purity of the link graph online. The mark or seal of approval a site gets when it gets a heavy link from a real player can do one of two things immediately.

First, it can toggle a barrage of traffic, which also indicates that your website is a target from a referrer (with authority). Can you see how Google and other search engines might measure this in tandem with popularity?

The second thing it provides is a solid backlink to your website if they provided a do follow link. If you were to appear in a local newspaper, a national story or anything syndicated (even if it is an RSS feed) you can expect for someone, somewhere to latch on to the content and (1) reference it (2) scrape or reproduce it or (3) hopefully just provide a link back (as their way of saying thanks)…

Even if it is scraped, Google and other search engines are smart enough to know who the original source was, so eventually, your site will get credit for starting the ripple effect across the web.

Just like a grappling hook, if you link to the #1 website that ranks for that keyword you are targeting, have relevant titles, strong internal links and additional backlinks pointing at your page, the synergy can provide search engines with a robust array of information to feed their algorithm.

Considering that most would never uplink (since they feel that is supporting the competition) which is what keeps most websites stuck in a certain plateau. Authority sites are generous (if the quality is present), yet other sites that greedily horde the link flow within their own website, only isolates themselves from the rest of the web.

If you are isolated and emanating another signal entirely than what search engines have identified as the prime cluster of websites returning relevant hits for the main keywords for any given root phrase, can you see how this would leave your pages out in the cold.

Shameless self promotion can only catapult your rankings so far, and if your website is always a destination and never a path to another more relevant or equally relevant source for additional information, then you will never attract the type or quality of editorial links that other authority sites get by default (as a result of providing visitors with a range of options).

Linking out by providing in-depth mash ups, top 10 or top 20 lists and consolidating an array of resources on your pages for others is (a) the right thing to do from time to time as well as (b) that value of hub status can come back and reward your site with the ability to rank for the keywords you intend on with a fraction of the effort.

Wikipedia is in my summation, the grandest authority site to date. It has user generated content, is self moderated and constantly provides information and traffic to all of the links it assumes, devours and emulates.

As a result, there is hardly a search phrase you can enter without cross-referencing some shingle in Wikipedia. The reason is (a) the depth of content on multiple topics (b) tons of deep links to each page from a variety of IP addresses and types of sites and (3) the fact that they link out (even though its nofollowed) to so many other types of websites.

Take some time and start looking at the backlinks from some authority sites in Yahoo to get an idea of what really strong links really look like (link:google.com link:Wikipedia.org, link:cnn.com), you will note that there are similarities of co-occurrence; and that a like links to a like (authority sites to other authority sites). Also, take a look at where they link to using MSN’s linkfromdomain:google.com | linkfromdomain:Wikipedia.org | linkfromdomain:cnn.com

SEO is full of minute details with a multidimensional array of granular layers to explore, fine-tune and create, so, instead of thinking of attacking a ranking of an authority site, look behind the site and see who is propping it up. Perhaps you can either get a link from an editorial sponsoring “authority site” of scale the tipping point needed to push past that page by concentrating your websites ranking factor.

Even though the “nofollow” attribute was intended to stop the flow of link juice “something always gets through”. Trust is a ranking factor as well…and that is something that can wear down a nofolllow tag over time and seep into all of the sites embedded into its link graph (the sum total of all the internal and external links that site connects).

The takeaway here is (a) don’t be greedy (b) be careful where you point your links (better and more trusted neighborhoods are better than questionable ones) and (c) realize the long term value of building authority for your website, instead of just building links and you are one step closer to ranking for more keywords with less effort as your website scales the ladder of relevance on its way to the top of thousands of relevant and competitive keywords.
(Jeffrey Smith)

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The Road to Email Success Is Paved With Strategy

Wednesday, 10. June 2009, 10:12:05

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Another excellent Memorial Day weekend! Although I have to admit, I spent a little too much time thinking about email marketing (as I often do on long road trips in the minivan while my two kids are watching a movie and my wife is asleep in the passenger seat). On this particular trip I could not stop thinking about some excellent meetings my team and I have had with clients recently.

The overarching takeaway from all of these meetings is that email marketers seem to really be focusing on the strategy behind their programs. We’ve been spending more and more time with marketers on planning their digital programs — something too few email marketers are committed to. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of time spent reviewing email and campaign management technology (features) as opposed to the strategy that is meant to drive the use of that technology.

Consider my Memorial Day trek to Cincinnati to visit family. I was totally confident we would have a great weekend. Why, you ask? Simple: planning — a clear understanding of where we were starting, an agreed-upon vision for the trip and a concerted effort to get all the essentials lined up so that we could execute on the vision. Is your marketing team investing enough in the strategy behind your email programs? Here are a few questions to ask yourselves to be sure.

How do my programs compare to my competitors?

It is hard to get somewhere when you are unclear where you started. Just try to get directions from Yahoo Maps without entering a starting point. Email marketers need to look at four key areas to assess where their programs stand today (three internal and one external).

1. Data — where is it and how difficult is it to access?
2. Content — where is it and how rich is my content library?
3. Programs — what are all of the current email programs being delivered to consumers or other stakeholders?
4. Competition — do I understand what my competitors are doing? How does my competition use the email channel — what is their recipient experience around subscriptions, unsubscribe and transactional communications?

Do not take shortcuts on the competitive analysis; a clear understanding of how your programs stack up against your competition is the foundation for understanding where your email programs are today.

Do I have a program vision?

When my wife and I planned our trip, we spent the majority of our time discussing what we wanted the experience to be, what priorities we had for time with cousins and grandparent, and what a real “win” would be for the vacation, which boiled down to having the kids at the end of the trip kicking and screaming when we forced them to head back to Chicago. Email marketers should be committing the same focus to their strategic planning.

Once you have a firm understanding of how your business uses email and how that compares to the competition, it’s time to create a vision for what the email channel could be for your business. This vision needs to include specific success criteria so you can track progress towards your ultimate goal.

Here are a few examples of simple, trackable visions that we have seen clients develop in the last few months.

* Marketing will own all email communications to our consumers; specifically, in 2009, we will integrate marketing communications into our transactional email and drive (insert specific conversion metric, revenue, clicks, ad impressions, etc.) per week and per month. Transactional email deployment will transfer to marketing and be in production no later than Sept. 1.
* Marketing will increase conversion rates (click-through rates and purchases) by 35% across all email programs, solidifying competitive position and maximum leverage of the email channel.
* Marketing will make testing a core element of our programs, including performing spilt tests on all subject lines and offers.

Do I have a clear roadmap for executing the vision?

Unfortunately, most marketers start putting together a roadmap before they truly understand where they are or where they want to go. Picture the 20-page vendor RFPs that are all about the “how do I get there” without defining “where am I going?” While selecting the right partners and technology is critical, it is not as important as the first two steps.

One of the real pitfalls we see with email marketers looking to take their programs to the next level is the lack of executive buy-in. This is usually due to management’s limited understanding of the vision behind the email channel. Vision development is essential for communicating to the company the reasons behind additional investment in email marketing technology and resources. You would be surprised how quickly companies invest in programs backed by sound strategic vision.

At the end of the day, marketers should invest as much in strategic planning as they do in the execution of email. Many companies have internal expertise to rely on, while others turn to their solution providers for help. If it has been more than six months since you had a serious talk about email strategy, I suggest you and your team walk through an assessment of where you are today, your vision for the coming year and your plans to execute on the vision.

With the growing consumer sophistication, the addition of new online channels and the advent of the social web, email marketers cannot afford to be tactical, rather than strategic, for too long.

(Ryan Deutsch)

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  • Two nights Halong Bay cruise aboard Bhaya Legend

    Explore Ha Long Bay in style and exclusive privacy aboard Bhaya Legend – a new, luxury charter vessel featuring two plush cabins furnished in classic Eastern style. A truly memorable experience awaits you on your private charter cruise through delightful Ha Long Bay. Revel in the tranquility of t ...

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