![[Social Submit this]](http://www.socialsubmit.com/images/socialsubmit.png "[Social Submit this]")
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
How to get Traffic from Social Bookmarking sites
Sites like digg.com, reddit.com, stumbleupon.com etc can bring you a LOT of traffic. How about getting 20,000 and more visitors a day when your listing hits the front page?
Getting to the front page of these sites is not as difficult as it seems. I have been successful with digg and del.icio.us (and not so much with Reddit though the same steps should apply to it as well) multiple times and have thus compiled a list of steps that have helped me succeed:
1Pay attention to your Headlines
Many great articles go unnoticed on social bookmarking sites because their headline is not catchy enough. Your headline is the first (and very often the only) thing users will see from your article, so if you don't make the effort to provide a catchy headline, your chances of getting to the front page are small.
Here are some examples to start with :-
Original headline : The Two Types of Cognition
Modified Headline : Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence
Original headline: Neat way to organize and find anything in your purse instantly!
Modified Headline : How to Instantly Find Anything in Your Purse
Here is a good blog post that should help you with your headlines.
2Write a meaningful & short description
The headline is very important to draw attention but if you want to keep that attention, a meaningful description is vital. The description must be slightly provocative because this draws more attention but still, never use lies and false facts to provoke interest. For instance, if your write “This article will reveal to you the 10 sure ways to deal with stress once and forever and live like a king from now on.” visitors will hardly think that your story is true and facts-based.
You also might be tempted to use a long tell-it-all paragraph to describe your great masterpiece but have in mind that many users will not bother to read anything over 100-150 characters. Additionally, some of the social bookmarking sites limit descriptions, so you'd better think in advance how to describe your article as briefly as possible.
3Have a great first paragraph
This is a rule that is always true but for successful social bookmarking it is even more important. If you have successfully passed Level 1 (headlines) and Level 2 (description) in the Catch the User's Attraction game, don't let a bad first paragraph make them leave your site.
4Content is king
However, the first paragraph is not everything. Going further along the chain of drawing (and retaining) users' attention, we reach the Content is King Level. If your articles are just trash, bookmarking them is useless. You might cheat users once but don't count on repetitive visits. What is more, you can get your site banned from social bookmarking sites, when you persistently post junk.
5Make it easy for others to vote / bookmark your site
It is best when other people, not you, bookmark your site. Therefore, you must make your best to make it easier for them to do it. You can put a bookmarking button at the end of the article, so if users like your content, they can easily post it. If you are using a CMS, check if there is an extension that allows to add Digg, Del.icio.us, and other buttons but if you are using static HTML, you can always go to the social bookmarking site and copy the code that will add their button to your pages.
Here is a link that should help you add Links for Del.icio.us, Digg, and More to your pages.
6Know when to submit
The time when you submit can be crucial for your attempts to get to the front page. On most social bookmarking sites you have only 24 hours to get to the front page and stay there. So, if you post when most users (and especially your supporters) are still sleeping, you are wasting valuable time. By the time they get up, you might have gone to the tenth page. You'd better try it for yourself and see if it works for you but generally posting earlier than 10 a.m. US Central Time is not good. Many people say that they get more traffic around 3 p.m. US Central Time. Also, workdays are generally better in terms of traffic but the downside is that you have more competitors for the front page than on weekends.
7Submit to the right category
Sometimes a site might not work for you because there is no right category for you. Or because you don't submit to the right category – technology, health, whatever – but to categories like General, Miscellaneous, etc. where all unclassified stuff goes. And since these categories fill very fast, your chance to get noticed decreases.
8Build a top-profile
Not all users are equal on social bookmarking sites. If you are an old and respected user who has posted tons of interesting stuff, this increases the probability that what you submit will get noticed. Posting links to interesting articles on other sites is vital for building a top-profile. Additionally, it is suspicious, when your profile has links to only one site. Many social bookmarking sites frown when users submit their own content because this feels like self-promotion.
9Cooperate with other social bookmarkers
The Lonely Wolf is a suicidal strategy on sites like StubleUpon, Digg, Netscape. Many stories make it to the front page not only because they are great but because they are backed up by your network of friends. If in the first hours after your submittal you get at least 15 votes from your friends and supporters, it is more likely that other users will vote for you. 50 votes can get you to the top page of Digg.
10Submit in English
Linguistic diversity is great but the majority of users are from English-speaking countries and they don't understand exotic languages. So, for most of the social bookmarking sites submitting anything in a language different from English is not recommendable. The languages that are at an especial disadvantage are Chinese, Arabic, Slavic languages and all the other that use non-latin alphabet. German, Spanish, French are more understandable but still they are not English. If you really must submit your story (i.e. because you need the backlink), include an English translation at least of the title. But the best way to proceed with non-English stories is to post them on where they belong. Check this link for a list of non-English sites.
11Never submit old news
Submitting old news will not help you in becoming a respected user. Yesterday's news is history. But if you still need to submit old stuff, consider feature articles, howtos and similar pieces that are up-to-date for a long time.
12Check your facts
You must be flattered that users read your postings but you will hardly be flattered when users prove that you haven't got the facts right. In addition to sarcastic comments, you might also receive negative votes for your story, so if you want to avoid this, check you facts - or your readers will do it.
13Check you spelling
Some sites do not allow to edit your posts later, so if you misspell the title, the URL, or a keyword, it will stay this way forever.
14Not all topics do well
But sometimes even great content and submitting to the right category do not push you to the top. One possible reason could be that your stories are about unpopular topics. Many sites have topics that their users love and topics that don't sell that well. For instance, Apple sells well on Digg and The War in Iraq on Netscape. Negative stories - about George Bush, Microsoft, evil multinational companies, corruption and crime also have a chance to make it to the front page. You can't know these things in advance but some research on how many stories tagged with keywords like yours have made the front page in the last year or so can give you a clue.
15RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, affiliate marketing
RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, affiliate marketing are all areas in which the traffic from social bookmarking sites can help you a lot. Many people who come to your site and like it, will subscribe to RSS feeds and/or your newsletter. So, you need to put these in visible places and then you will be astonished at the number of new subscriptions you got on the day when you were on the front page of a major social bookmarking site.
16Do not use automated submitters
After some time of active social bookmarking, you will discover that you are spending hours on end posting links. Yes, this is a lot of time and using automated submitters might look like the solution but it isn't. Automated submitters often have malware in them or are used for stealing passwords, so unless you don't care about the fate of your profile and don't mind being banned, automated submitters are not the way to go.
17Respond to comments on your stories
Social bookmarking sites are not a newsgroup but interesting articles can trigger a pretty heated discussion with hundreds of comments. If your article gets comments, you must be proud. Always respond to commends on your stories and even better – post comments on other stories you find interesting. This is a way to make friends and to create a top-profile.
18Prepare your server for the expected traffic
This is hardly a point of minor importance but we take for granted that you are hosting your site on a reliable server that does not crash twice a day. But have in mind that your presence on the front page of a major social bookmarking site can drive you a lot traffic, which can cause your server to crash – literally!
I remember one of the times I was on the front page on Digg, I kept restarting Apache on my dedicated server because it was unable to cope with the massive traffic. I have many tools on my site and when the visitors tried them, this loaded the server additionally.
Well, for an articles site getting so much traffic is not so devastating but if you are hosting on a so-so server, you'd better migrate your site to a machine that can handle a lot of simultaneous hits. Also, check if your monthly traffic allowance is enough to handle 200-500,000 or even more visitors. It is very amateurish to attract a lot of visitors and not be able to serve them because your server crashed or you have exceeded your bandwidth!
19The snowball effect
But despite the differences in the likes of the different social bookmarking communities, there are striking similarities. You will soon discover that if a post is popular on one of the major sites, this usually drives it up on the other big and smaller sites. Usually it is Digg posts that become popular on StumbleUpon and Reddit but there are many other examples. To use this fact to your best advantage, you may want to concentrate your efforts on getting to the front page of the major players only and bet on the snowball effect to drive you to the top on other sites.
An additional benefit of the snowball effect is that if your posting is interesting and people start blogging about it, you can get tons of backlinks from their blogs. This happened to me and the result was that my PR jumped to 6 on the next update.
Some Good Reasons to Choose SEO as Your Career
Once SEO was not a separate profession - Web masters performed some basic SEO for the sites they managed and that was all. But as sites began to grow and make money, it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the Web master do it. The demand for good SEO experts is high and is constantly on the rise.
2A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career
There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from Blackwood Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many others.
3Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !
SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don't get depressed if you didn't pass - here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
4Only Web-Designing MAY NOT be enough
Many companies offer turn-key solutions that include Web design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can consider this possibility as well.
5Logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising
The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today's marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.
6Lots of Learning
For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration, SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will downgrade if you move to SEO. Don't worry so much - you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills packages.
7SEO is already recognized as a career
Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practitioners. Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.
Some Ugly Aspects of SEO
1Dependent on search engines
It is true that in any career there are many things that are outside of your control but for SEO this is a rule number one. Search engines frequently change their algorithms and what is worse – these changes are not made public, so even the greatest SEO gurus admit that they make a lot of educated guesses about how things work. It is very discouraging to make everything perfect and then to learn that due to a change in the algorithm, your sites dropped 100 positions down. But the worst part is that you need to communicate this to clients, who are not satisfied with their sinking ratings.
2No fixed rules
Probably this will change over time but for now the rule is that there are no rules – or at least not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that looks like a rule and still success is not coming. Currently you can't even rely on bringing a search engine to court because of the damages they have done to your business because search engines are not obliged to rank high sites that have made efforts to get optimized.
3Rapid changes in rankings
But even if you somehow manage to get to the top for a particular keyword, keeping the position requires constant efforts. Well, many other businesses are like that, so this is hardly a reason to complain – except when an angry customer starts shouting at you that this week their ratings are sinking and of course this is all your fault.
4SEO requires Patience
The SEO professional and customers both need to understand that SEO takes constant effort and time. It could take months to move ahead in the ratings, or to build tens of links. Additionally, if you stop optimizing for some time, most likely you will experience a considerable drop in ratings. You need lots of motivation and patience not to give up when things are not going your way.
5Black hat SEO
Black hat SEO is probably one of the biggest concerns for the would-be SEO practitioner. Fraud and unfair competition are present in any industry and those who are good and ethical suffer from this but black hat SEO is still pretty widespread. It is true that search engines penalize black hat practices but still black hat SEO is a major concern for the industry.
So, let's hope that by telling you about the pros and cons of choosing SEO as your career we have helped you make an informed decision about your future.
2A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career
There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from Blackwood Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many others.
3Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !
SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don't get depressed if you didn't pass - here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
4Only Web-Designing MAY NOT be enough
Many companies offer turn-key solutions that include Web design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can consider this possibility as well.
5Logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising
The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today's marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.
6Lots of Learning
For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration, SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will downgrade if you move to SEO. Don't worry so much - you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills packages.
7SEO is already recognized as a career
Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practitioners. Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.
Some Ugly Aspects of SEO
1Dependent on search engines
It is true that in any career there are many things that are outside of your control but for SEO this is a rule number one. Search engines frequently change their algorithms and what is worse – these changes are not made public, so even the greatest SEO gurus admit that they make a lot of educated guesses about how things work. It is very discouraging to make everything perfect and then to learn that due to a change in the algorithm, your sites dropped 100 positions down. But the worst part is that you need to communicate this to clients, who are not satisfied with their sinking ratings.
2No fixed rules
Probably this will change over time but for now the rule is that there are no rules – or at least not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that looks like a rule and still success is not coming. Currently you can't even rely on bringing a search engine to court because of the damages they have done to your business because search engines are not obliged to rank high sites that have made efforts to get optimized.
3Rapid changes in rankings
But even if you somehow manage to get to the top for a particular keyword, keeping the position requires constant efforts. Well, many other businesses are like that, so this is hardly a reason to complain – except when an angry customer starts shouting at you that this week their ratings are sinking and of course this is all your fault.
4SEO requires Patience
The SEO professional and customers both need to understand that SEO takes constant effort and time. It could take months to move ahead in the ratings, or to build tens of links. Additionally, if you stop optimizing for some time, most likely you will experience a considerable drop in ratings. You need lots of motivation and patience not to give up when things are not going your way.
5Black hat SEO
Black hat SEO is probably one of the biggest concerns for the would-be SEO practitioner. Fraud and unfair competition are present in any industry and those who are good and ethical suffer from this but black hat SEO is still pretty widespread. It is true that search engines penalize black hat practices but still black hat SEO is a major concern for the industry.
So, let's hope that by telling you about the pros and cons of choosing SEO as your career we have helped you make an informed decision about your future.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Adapt or die
Like in life, in business in order to survive you must adapt and modify. In these times things change at such a rapid pace it seems tomorrows technology is here before we’ve had a chance to learn today’s technology. What used to be a simple chain of supply and demand has instead become an information war. Whoever can learn the most the quickest and apply it wins. On the internet there are many ways you can advertise your business. Only one is sustainable however and this is called Search Engine Optimization. This means that you make a website as relevant to your industry as possible in the hopes that when someone searches for your product or service they can find it and more specifically find you with ease.
There are several reasons why an internet business needs to optimize their website to appear highly in any major search engine. First and foremost, you need traffic to your website, without traffic nobody will buy your product. So then how does one attain traffic to a website? Well you must market your website so that you can reach your target customers. There are several ways to do this. You can pay for advertising on major websites or search engines. You can send out mass e-mails. Or you can be one of the first results a user sees on any given keyword in a search engine. If you use mass e-mails this is usually a turn off as it is seen as an unwanted solicitation a.k.a. spam. If you pay for ads this can be effective but has much larger opportunities for malicious manipulation and also is statistically less effective than traditional search results.
Search engine optimization then stands alone as the most effective and trustworthy form of internet marketing. Search engine companies have highly intelligent think tanks that create algorithms or a set of well defined instructions. These algorithms determine how web sites are categorized and which ones come up in the top of any search result.
These often are changed or modified so there is no foolproof way to ensure that your website is going to be the first website to appear in a search engine. However, as any experienced SEO expert will tell you there are many methods that can positively influence your rankings.
In the world of search engines content is king, because search engines give you the most relevant website according to your search. If you truly want to be successful with your internet business, you must invest into search engine optimization. Making your website theme oriented and not overly stuffed with keywords is important. When considering SEO for your website, there are a few myths to dispel. Most important of all is that SEO is not a magic bean that will boost your business to the top of the internet and there are NO guarantees. In addition like any investment true SEO takes time. Don’t expect to throw a few thousand dollars haphazardly into SEO and expect your site to be a runaway success. Creating quality isn’t easy. Also there are fluctuations; at first you may be ranked at #1 and then suddenly drop or you may also start off of the radar and eventually work your way up to #1. Developing a content rich website with value and relevancy is the way to achieve high rankings.
As you begin to consider all these complications and minute details take time to consider your business and your goals. If you’re willing to invest in yourself and your future, then purchasing SEO services is an absolute must. When you’re ready to pursue SEO services look for those with a proven track record and fair prices. Be wary of an extravagantly designed website with no references or SEO case studies. Also mind the pricing, if it is exceptionally low, you’re probably going to get what you pay for and that’s poor service. In the same regard if it is exceptionally high, that companies’ services are likely overpriced and results may not yield better than other companies. For example if you're searching for Utah search engine optimization you will find many companies however some on the top 10 aren't the best companies to use. With some tact, careful planning and common sense you can find the right SEO firm for you.
There are several reasons why an internet business needs to optimize their website to appear highly in any major search engine. First and foremost, you need traffic to your website, without traffic nobody will buy your product. So then how does one attain traffic to a website? Well you must market your website so that you can reach your target customers. There are several ways to do this. You can pay for advertising on major websites or search engines. You can send out mass e-mails. Or you can be one of the first results a user sees on any given keyword in a search engine. If you use mass e-mails this is usually a turn off as it is seen as an unwanted solicitation a.k.a. spam. If you pay for ads this can be effective but has much larger opportunities for malicious manipulation and also is statistically less effective than traditional search results.
Search engine optimization then stands alone as the most effective and trustworthy form of internet marketing. Search engine companies have highly intelligent think tanks that create algorithms or a set of well defined instructions. These algorithms determine how web sites are categorized and which ones come up in the top of any search result.
These often are changed or modified so there is no foolproof way to ensure that your website is going to be the first website to appear in a search engine. However, as any experienced SEO expert will tell you there are many methods that can positively influence your rankings.
In the world of search engines content is king, because search engines give you the most relevant website according to your search. If you truly want to be successful with your internet business, you must invest into search engine optimization. Making your website theme oriented and not overly stuffed with keywords is important. When considering SEO for your website, there are a few myths to dispel. Most important of all is that SEO is not a magic bean that will boost your business to the top of the internet and there are NO guarantees. In addition like any investment true SEO takes time. Don’t expect to throw a few thousand dollars haphazardly into SEO and expect your site to be a runaway success. Creating quality isn’t easy. Also there are fluctuations; at first you may be ranked at #1 and then suddenly drop or you may also start off of the radar and eventually work your way up to #1. Developing a content rich website with value and relevancy is the way to achieve high rankings.
As you begin to consider all these complications and minute details take time to consider your business and your goals. If you’re willing to invest in yourself and your future, then purchasing SEO services is an absolute must. When you’re ready to pursue SEO services look for those with a proven track record and fair prices. Be wary of an extravagantly designed website with no references or SEO case studies. Also mind the pricing, if it is exceptionally low, you’re probably going to get what you pay for and that’s poor service. In the same regard if it is exceptionally high, that companies’ services are likely overpriced and results may not yield better than other companies. For example if you're searching for Utah search engine optimization you will find many companies however some on the top 10 aren't the best companies to use. With some tact, careful planning and common sense you can find the right SEO firm for you.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Some Good Reasons to Choose SEO as Your Career
1 High demand for SEO services
Once SEO was not a separate profession - Web masters performed some basic SEO for the sites they managed and that was all. But as sites began to grow and make money, it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the Web master do it. The demand for good SEO experts is high and is constantly on the rise.
2 A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career
There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from Blackwood Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many others.
3 Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !
SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don't get depressed if you didn't pass - here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
4 Only Web-Designing MAY NOT be enough
Many companies offer turn-key solutions that include Web design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can consider this possibility as well.
5 Logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising
The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today's marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.
6 Lots of Learning
For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration, SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will downgrade if you move to SEO. Don't worry so much - you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills packages.
7 SEO is already recognized as a career
Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practitioners. Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.
Once SEO was not a separate profession - Web masters performed some basic SEO for the sites they managed and that was all. But as sites began to grow and make money, it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the Web master do it. The demand for good SEO experts is high and is constantly on the rise.
2 A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career
There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from Blackwood Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many others.
3 Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !
SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don't get depressed if you didn't pass - here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
4 Only Web-Designing MAY NOT be enough
Many companies offer turn-key solutions that include Web design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can consider this possibility as well.
5 Logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising
The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today's marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.
6 Lots of Learning
For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration, SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will downgrade if you move to SEO. Don't worry so much - you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills packages.
7 SEO is already recognized as a career
Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practitioners. Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.
Top 10 SEO Mistakes
1 Targetting the wrong keywords
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.
2 Ignoring the Title tag
Leaving the tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your tag shows in the search results as your page title.
3 A Flash website without a html alternative
Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.
4 JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.
5 Lack of consistency and maintenance
Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.
6 Concentrating too much on meta tags
A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.
7 Using only Images for Headings
Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet or consider this approach: http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/replace_text.
8 Ignoring URLs
Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.
9 Backlink spamming
It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks
10 Lack of keywords in the content
Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.
2 Ignoring the Title tag
Leaving the tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your tag shows in the search results as your page title.
3 A Flash website without a html alternative
Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.
4 JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.
5 Lack of consistency and maintenance
Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.
6 Concentrating too much on meta tags
A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.
7 Using only Images for Headings
Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet or consider this approach: http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/replace_text.
8 Ignoring URLs
Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.
9 Backlink spamming
It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks
10 Lack of keywords in the content
Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
SEO Keyword Tags
When it comes to search engine optimization, keyword tags are practically important. For one, SEO keyword tags are one of the reasons that can propel or pull your website down to the bottom list in a certain key phrase. Therefore, it is very much needed that a webmaster or any SEO specialist can learn its importance in a website.
A lot of SEO professionals nowadays would argue that SEO keyword tags are really no longer needed, with the presence of so many Flash sites. Nevertheless, it should be noted that these tags, along with other meta tags, are the very first information that the spider can notice every time it crawls your site. If title tags serves as your site's caption, then your SEO keyword tags give the overall scope of the information contained in your website.
When it comes to the relevancy of the website to a certain searched key phrase, SEO keyword tags also come in handy. Remember, these tags are actually hidden from the visitors; they are only made for the different search engine spiders to crawl. SEO keyword tags are used to measure the keyword density of the site, which then evaluates the relevancy of the site's content to the overall theme of the webpage.
For example, your site is all about sleeping disorders. If you have a keyword tag “sleep apnea,” Google’s spider will eventually check the site’s content for such phrase and measure its density. If the density is high, then you will probably find your site among the top list should anyone should search for the term “sleep apnea.”
Sometimes the logic of SEO keyword tags may be hard to comprehend, and oftentimes neglected. Yet, always keep in mind that in the world of SEO, everything related to search engine rankings counts, even these few words.
why outsourcing SEO is a good option for such business
Outsourcing has taken the business world by storm. And why not undertake this process for any business when one can only have many advantages after undertaking this process for their business. For those who are involved with online business, they know what it takes to catch the attention of search engines and this is why they are very particular about the SEO or search engine optimization strategy that they undertake for their business. However, we also know that anyone who is in the field of online marketing is not an individual who has knowledge about all the nuances related to SEO. This is one of the major reasons why outsourcing SEO is a good option for such business undertakings.
SEO is the work of a specialist and you cannot thrust such an important task of your business to just any individual. Outsourcing SEO will provide you with many options and one of them is that you will be able to hire the services of trained professionals to help you in your SEO work. If you have an online business site, undoubtedly you will want to promote this site on the web and outsourcing SEO is one of the most affordable means to do this for your site. If you have not undertaken outsourcing SEO services for your company, chances are there you will not be able to hire the services of trainer professionals as their services are quite expensive.
Outsourcing SEO can take care of many aspects related to your business and one of the most crucial things is that the process can help you in freeing up the internal resources of your business. When you undertake outsourcing SEO for your business, you will hand over the working of your company to a third party and this is the reason why you must decide carefully if you really want to undertake this process and how beneficial this will be for you. then prerogative lies in your hand as since you are the business owner you are in the best potion to decide if outsourcing SEO will be beneficial for your business or not.
Another reason why you must get highly trained professionals to do the work is that it is very important to study the existing market. And if you do not have expertise in this area, there is no way that the campaign can turn out to be successful. SEO requires different things to be done and finding out what strategies will best suit a business is also the work of an expert. Just make sure that the firm from which you are hiring the outsourcing SEO services has the experience of handling this work if you want to succeed in this venture.
Outsourcing SEO has been successfully undertaken by several businesses and there is no reason why you cannot implement this for your business. The purpose of all business is to earn profit and if a business process like outsourcing SEO can help out these businesses then there is no reason not to undertake this.
Friday, May 8, 2009
SEO The Old School Way
There's been a lot of changes in search engine optimization at least over the past 9 years that I've been doing it. Back in 1999 keyword stuffing was considered, if not white hat, then a reasonably grayish-white way to get a web page to the top of the rankings. Back then, you would come across many websites where the tops of the pages (above the fold as they say) were for the visitors of the site and keywords stuffed at the bottom of the page were for the search engines.
But, over time a consensus among webmasters, SEOs and the search engines emerged that this method was not preferable. What developed as preferable over time was writing complete sentences for the visitors of the website without any regard to the search engines. But, for a while the search engines lagged in rewarding this behavior ahead of the keyword stuffing behavior.
It was only after this reward system took hold, and the ranking algorithms became savvy to this trick and delivered a consistent reward-punishment system to shall we say, good pages versus bad pages, that webmasters and SEOs had a playbook in which to follow. Of course, many years ago, much of this was unspoken.
There was no Matt Cutts from Google or Google Guy giving SEOs hints here and there of what behaviors were considered white hat, black hat, gray hat or snow cone hat. Before the days of Matt Cutts, SEOs had to guess and talk to each other on message boards to compare, confabulate and surmise what was going on with the latest algorithm change or anomaly (of course this still goes on today).
But, just as the search engine algorithms evolved so have the black hat SEOs who have kept one step ahead of the search engines (or tried to) and have become even more sophisticated at gaming the system. Cloaking, sophisticated redirects for siphoning Page Rank (PR) or cheating link partners have abounded.
An entire industry has evolved around buying and selling text links for the purposes of passing PR from one site to the next. The buyers want to buy enough PR to get their websites up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and those doing the selling are happy to make a profit doing just that.
But, even throughout all the efforts to game the search engines, old school SEO hasn't changed that much over time. The basics of keyword research, on-page optimization, link-building and tracking results, which is the core of SEO has stayed the core.
Sure, there are new wrinkles as to exactly how to do this core of white hat search engine optimization. Within the past couple of years, blogs and social media have both come on strong and evolved. Old school SEOs have had to be flexible and adapt to new market conditions and even embrace the new online media.
But, when one gets lost in the new and shiny techniques (which is easy to do) it is important to pull back a while, gain some perspective and realize that old school SEO will still get a website where it needs to be. And, as trust is important in any business relationship, clients can rest assured that their white hat won't get their website dumped at the drop of a hat for using black hat techniques that the search engines have caught wind of and penalized.
Old school SEO still rocks and there is no reason to believe that this will change anytime soon
But, over time a consensus among webmasters, SEOs and the search engines emerged that this method was not preferable. What developed as preferable over time was writing complete sentences for the visitors of the website without any regard to the search engines. But, for a while the search engines lagged in rewarding this behavior ahead of the keyword stuffing behavior.
It was only after this reward system took hold, and the ranking algorithms became savvy to this trick and delivered a consistent reward-punishment system to shall we say, good pages versus bad pages, that webmasters and SEOs had a playbook in which to follow. Of course, many years ago, much of this was unspoken.
There was no Matt Cutts from Google or Google Guy giving SEOs hints here and there of what behaviors were considered white hat, black hat, gray hat or snow cone hat. Before the days of Matt Cutts, SEOs had to guess and talk to each other on message boards to compare, confabulate and surmise what was going on with the latest algorithm change or anomaly (of course this still goes on today).
But, just as the search engine algorithms evolved so have the black hat SEOs who have kept one step ahead of the search engines (or tried to) and have become even more sophisticated at gaming the system. Cloaking, sophisticated redirects for siphoning Page Rank (PR) or cheating link partners have abounded.
An entire industry has evolved around buying and selling text links for the purposes of passing PR from one site to the next. The buyers want to buy enough PR to get their websites up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and those doing the selling are happy to make a profit doing just that.
But, even throughout all the efforts to game the search engines, old school SEO hasn't changed that much over time. The basics of keyword research, on-page optimization, link-building and tracking results, which is the core of SEO has stayed the core.
Sure, there are new wrinkles as to exactly how to do this core of white hat search engine optimization. Within the past couple of years, blogs and social media have both come on strong and evolved. Old school SEOs have had to be flexible and adapt to new market conditions and even embrace the new online media.
But, when one gets lost in the new and shiny techniques (which is easy to do) it is important to pull back a while, gain some perspective and realize that old school SEO will still get a website where it needs to be. And, as trust is important in any business relationship, clients can rest assured that their white hat won't get their website dumped at the drop of a hat for using black hat techniques that the search engines have caught wind of and penalized.
Old school SEO still rocks and there is no reason to believe that this will change anytime soon
Friday, May 1, 2009
Number One Strategy to Boost Your SEO
Your Web Page Title, often referred to as your page Title Tag, is a very important factor to consider when optimizing your website to achieve high Google rankings. Get your Page Title Tags right and it is really going to help you get that 1st Page Google ranking.
What website designers usually do is just put your company name in the Web page title tags.
That is fine if you are just optimizing your website for your company name, but lets face it, most people do not know what your company name is, so by having just your company name in your webpage title it is not really doing you much good.
What you really want to do is to include your keywords in your pages titles, because that is what most people will be searching for.
The Title Text usually appears in the Blue Bar at the top of every web page.
Putting your Keywords in your Page Title is of utmost importance.
Imagine you are in a Library searching for a book on Internet Marketing, you will be faced with hundreds of books on Internet Marketing, what do you do next?
You would probably look at the titles printed on the spines of the books until you see the one that looks relevant to what you are searching for, you then look inside the book to see if it matches exactly what you need.
This is very similar to how Google works. First of all someone searches a keyword on Google e.g. Golf Balls. Google looks at all the web pages in its database that have the words 'Golf Balls' in the Page Titles (or as in our analogy - spines). If the web pages do not have the words Golf Balls in the Page Titles then it would be a major problem. You need to make it as easy as possible for Google to find your pages.
There are other factors Google uses, but you want to make your site as obvious as possible to Google when someone is searching for what you offer.
So, by putting your keywords in the Page Title the site stands a very good chance of getting listed when that term is searched.
What website designers usually do is just put your company name in the Web page title tags.
That is fine if you are just optimizing your website for your company name, but lets face it, most people do not know what your company name is, so by having just your company name in your webpage title it is not really doing you much good.
What you really want to do is to include your keywords in your pages titles, because that is what most people will be searching for.
The Title Text usually appears in the Blue Bar at the top of every web page.
Putting your Keywords in your Page Title is of utmost importance.
Imagine you are in a Library searching for a book on Internet Marketing, you will be faced with hundreds of books on Internet Marketing, what do you do next?
You would probably look at the titles printed on the spines of the books until you see the one that looks relevant to what you are searching for, you then look inside the book to see if it matches exactly what you need.
This is very similar to how Google works. First of all someone searches a keyword on Google e.g. Golf Balls. Google looks at all the web pages in its database that have the words 'Golf Balls' in the Page Titles (or as in our analogy - spines). If the web pages do not have the words Golf Balls in the Page Titles then it would be a major problem. You need to make it as easy as possible for Google to find your pages.
There are other factors Google uses, but you want to make your site as obvious as possible to Google when someone is searching for what you offer.
So, by putting your keywords in the Page Title the site stands a very good chance of getting listed when that term is searched.
SEO Expert That's Right For You
Having been in the business of Internet marketing and SEO or search engine optimization in Mumbai for the past few years, I have often been asked if SEO or search engine optimization is applicable and realistic for small businesses, home businesses and budding entrepreneurs.
Whether it's applicable for a garage enterprise, a local business or a large corporate is not the real question to be answered. The real question here is - Can the prospect of targeting billions of Internet users world-wide searching daily for news, entertainment, businesses, products and services be avoided by any smart businessmen?
Answering this part was easy, but what gets tricky is how to go about choosing a SEO or search engine optimization expert and building an Internet marketing strategy that's right for your business.
The issue is that even businesses that are aware of the benefits of SEO or search engine optimization and Internet marketing are not sure which way is the right way to go. And I don't blame them. After all there are so many misleading guarantees flying around, SEO or search engine optimization gurus and experts who claim they have found the secret key to driving traffic and business, and the stories of websites who claim to be generating thousands of hits without raising a finger does not lessen the pressure to get it right.
So in this confusing marketplace, how is one to go about choosing a SEO professional right for your business?
There are no shortcuts in life. It's the same way if you want to hire a SEO or search engine optimization professional and come up with a winning SEO or search engine optimization strategy that works for you, then its best that you understand whatsoever you can about the ground realities of search engine optimization.
No I am not asking you to all to become SEO or search engine optimization experts and spend your days and (probably) nights identifying the right keywords, optimizing the pages, creating compelling content, building quality links, checking and tweaking for rankings, analyzing analytics reports, analyzing competitors strategies, keeping up with search engine algorithms, and promoting your website across social networking and social bookmarking sites, blogs, RSS feeds and article submission sites. After all then I would be out of business.
There are many things the SEO or search engine optimization expert, or a SEO or search engine optimization company will not tell you. It's not that they are liars; they just don't feel you will be able to understand if told the naked truth. After all no one wants to be a wet blanket and destroy your dreams of achieving top rankings, and making your millions.
I hope to shed light on some of the blocks in your mind, before you go ahead and identify a SEO or search engine optimization expert that's right for you.
SEO or search engine optimization is for technology buffs
Whether it's applicable for a garage enterprise, a local business or a large corporate is not the real question to be answered. The real question here is - Can the prospect of targeting billions of Internet users world-wide searching daily for news, entertainment, businesses, products and services be avoided by any smart businessmen?
Answering this part was easy, but what gets tricky is how to go about choosing a SEO or search engine optimization expert and building an Internet marketing strategy that's right for your business.
The issue is that even businesses that are aware of the benefits of SEO or search engine optimization and Internet marketing are not sure which way is the right way to go. And I don't blame them. After all there are so many misleading guarantees flying around, SEO or search engine optimization gurus and experts who claim they have found the secret key to driving traffic and business, and the stories of websites who claim to be generating thousands of hits without raising a finger does not lessen the pressure to get it right.
So in this confusing marketplace, how is one to go about choosing a SEO professional right for your business?
There are no shortcuts in life. It's the same way if you want to hire a SEO or search engine optimization professional and come up with a winning SEO or search engine optimization strategy that works for you, then its best that you understand whatsoever you can about the ground realities of search engine optimization.
No I am not asking you to all to become SEO or search engine optimization experts and spend your days and (probably) nights identifying the right keywords, optimizing the pages, creating compelling content, building quality links, checking and tweaking for rankings, analyzing analytics reports, analyzing competitors strategies, keeping up with search engine algorithms, and promoting your website across social networking and social bookmarking sites, blogs, RSS feeds and article submission sites. After all then I would be out of business.
There are many things the SEO or search engine optimization expert, or a SEO or search engine optimization company will not tell you. It's not that they are liars; they just don't feel you will be able to understand if told the naked truth. After all no one wants to be a wet blanket and destroy your dreams of achieving top rankings, and making your millions.
I hope to shed light on some of the blocks in your mind, before you go ahead and identify a SEO or search engine optimization expert that's right for you.
SEO or search engine optimization is for technology buffs
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Basic Mantras Of SEO
SEO has taken the world of copywriting by storm. It is distinguished from its more used cousin, copywriting, by its ability to be picked up and ranked by search engines prowling the internet! The more effective your writing the better will be its ranking. Simple.
SEO writing helps in optimizing the web sites chances of being rated highly by search engines through a combination of keywords, tags, headings etc. Search engines generally give high rankings to pages with original, content rather than those simply filled with the key words. It is a very fine balance between what is too little and what is more. Over-usage of keywords and repeated use of a word simply to get high search engine ranking can completely ruin any chances of being rated as the search engine will block the site and not show it at all.
Presenting the 5 basic mantra of SEO :-
1. Chose your Keywords or Phrases wisely- First and foremost rule of good web copywriting or SEO writing is to select such phrases and words that will automatically get the attention of search spiders. Avoid very difficult, complicated phrases and obscure words.Be simple and realistic.
Once the keywords and phrase has been identified, it is now the time to write the content with the keywords in mind. Do not try to excessively fill in the keywords just for the sake of keyword density, rather go with the flow of the idea and see that the keywords or phrases are there. Generally, the unsaid rule is to have 3% of the text as the keyword or phrase, anything more will debar your site from the search engine ranking completely.
2. Know your target reader - You really can't do justice to the task of SEO copywriting if you are now well aware of whom you are addressing. Therefore, it is very important that you know your target audience before you even commence writing , so that your words are directed at them and are persuasive, compelling and specially meets their requirements.
Knowing your targeted reader makes SEO writing sharp, incisive and effective!
3. Headlines make all the difference - Anybody in the print media knows that if the headlines are catchy the chances are that the article will be read. the sane is true for SEO writing as well. Surfers on the net usually do not spend more than 30 seconds in deciding whether they will stay on the site or not and headlines provide the necessary impetus for him to stay and read on. Catchy, compelling headlines also attract search engines and give high ranking. An insider's tip is that - making bold headlines in tags and catches search spiders faster and brings them to your site.
4. Distribute the keywords evenly through the site - Let the key word be evenly distributed all the rough the site and there are no pockets of high concentration of the keywords. Focus on two or three keywords and let them flow in naturally. Do not try to bring in keywords where not required just to increase SEO word concentration.
5. Beware of writing too many words- Around 240 to 250 words are enough for one page, enchant your visitors not merely by words but the quality of your words, incorporate prominent and attractive sentences and words.
SEO writing helps in optimizing the web sites chances of being rated highly by search engines through a combination of keywords, tags, headings etc. Search engines generally give high rankings to pages with original, content rather than those simply filled with the key words. It is a very fine balance between what is too little and what is more. Over-usage of keywords and repeated use of a word simply to get high search engine ranking can completely ruin any chances of being rated as the search engine will block the site and not show it at all.
Presenting the 5 basic mantra of SEO :-
1. Chose your Keywords or Phrases wisely- First and foremost rule of good web copywriting or SEO writing is to select such phrases and words that will automatically get the attention of search spiders. Avoid very difficult, complicated phrases and obscure words.Be simple and realistic.
Once the keywords and phrase has been identified, it is now the time to write the content with the keywords in mind. Do not try to excessively fill in the keywords just for the sake of keyword density, rather go with the flow of the idea and see that the keywords or phrases are there. Generally, the unsaid rule is to have 3% of the text as the keyword or phrase, anything more will debar your site from the search engine ranking completely.
2. Know your target reader - You really can't do justice to the task of SEO copywriting if you are now well aware of whom you are addressing. Therefore, it is very important that you know your target audience before you even commence writing , so that your words are directed at them and are persuasive, compelling and specially meets their requirements.
Knowing your targeted reader makes SEO writing sharp, incisive and effective!
3. Headlines make all the difference - Anybody in the print media knows that if the headlines are catchy the chances are that the article will be read. the sane is true for SEO writing as well. Surfers on the net usually do not spend more than 30 seconds in deciding whether they will stay on the site or not and headlines provide the necessary impetus for him to stay and read on. Catchy, compelling headlines also attract search engines and give high ranking. An insider's tip is that - making bold headlines in tags and catches search spiders faster and brings them to your site.
4. Distribute the keywords evenly through the site - Let the key word be evenly distributed all the rough the site and there are no pockets of high concentration of the keywords. Focus on two or three keywords and let them flow in naturally. Do not try to bring in keywords where not required just to increase SEO word concentration.
5. Beware of writing too many words- Around 240 to 250 words are enough for one page, enchant your visitors not merely by words but the quality of your words, incorporate prominent and attractive sentences and words.
Friday, April 24, 2009
SEO is Important to Business growth
What is SEO?
Wikipedia.org (SEO) defines SEO as "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, and industry-specificvertical search engines."
Why does this matter to my business?
SEO greatly increases your visibility on the Internet. Google is the #1 undisputed resource for searching for want you want on the Internet. In fact, up to 80% of web searches are originated by Google. Imagine a well optimized website can receive hundreds of thousands of more hits than a website that is not optimized. Now, attach a pair of eyeballs to those google searches and you can see that every "hit" on your site is a potential sale. If they don't buy direct from the website, they will pick up the phone and call your business.
Additionally, SEO is one of the most underutilized tools a business has. SEO can be easy, free, and very effective if done the right way. In certain markets, SEO can be achieved with relative ease as many businesses fail to create websites that are search engine friendly. I've seen countless websites that cost thousands of dollars to produce rank substandard with google in categories they should own. We are no longer living in a local world. Most businesses are able to operate globally for cheap. Your customer base is only as big as your search engine optimization strategy.
Buyers beware, SEO is riddled with countless scams and overvalued products. I suggest you do a google search on SEO and read up thoroughly on the subject before you attempt to implement some strategies, and don't spend any money unless you are absolutely sure of what you are getting.
*****
Friday, April 3, 2009
Better Search Engine Ranking
RSS is the latest craze in online publishing. But what exactly is RSS?
RSS or Rich Site Syndication is a file format similar to XML, and is used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that can be universally understood.
RSS allows publishers to "syndicate" their content through the distribution of lists of hyperlinks.
It has actually been around for a while, but with the advent of spam filters and online blogging, it is fast becoming the choice of ezine publishers who want to get their message across to their subscribers.
However, not much attention has been given to the advantages RSS provides for search engine optimization.
Why Search Engines Love RSS
Many SEO experts believe that sites optimized around themes,or niches, where all pages correspond to a particular subject or set of keywords, rank better in the search engines.
For example, if your website is designed to sell tennis rackets, your entire site content would be focused around tennis and tennis rackets.
Search engines like Google seem to prefer tightly-themed pages.
But where does RSS figure in all this?
RSS feeds, usually sourced from newsfeeds or blogs, often correspond to a particular theme or niche.
By using highly targeted RSS feeds, you can enhance your site's content without having to write a single line on your own.
It’s like having your own content writer - writing theme-based articles for you - for free!
How can RSS improve my Search Engine Rankings?
There are three powerful reasons why content from RSS Feeds is irresistible bait for search engine spiders.
1. RSS Feeds Provide Instant Themed Content
There are several publishers of RSS feeds that are specific to a particular theme.
Since the feed is highly targeted, it could contain several keywords that you want to rank highly for.
Adding these keywords to your pages helps Google tag your site as one with relevant content.
2. RSS Feeds Provide Fresh, Updated Content
RSS feeds from large publishers are updated at specific intervals. When the publisher adds a new article to the feed, the oldest article is dropped.
These changes are immediately effected on your pages with the RSS feed as well. So you have fresh relevant content for your visitors every hour or day.
3. RSS Feeds Result in More Frequent Spidering
One thing I never anticipated would happen as a result of adding an RSS feed to my site was that the Googlebot visited my site almost daily.
To the Googlebot, my page that had the RSS feed incorporated into it was as good as a page that was being updated daily, and in its judgement, was a page that was worth visiting daily.
What this means to you, is that you will have your site being indexed more frequently by the Googlebot and so any new pages that you add to your site will be picked up much faster than your competitors.
How does this benefit you as a marketer?
Well, for example, let's says a top Internet Marketer comes out with a new product that you review and write up a little article on, and that your competitors do the same.
Google generally tends to index pages at the start of the month and if you miss that update, you will probably need to wait till the next month to even see your entry in.
But, since your site has RSS feeds, it now gets indexed more frequently. So the chances of getting your page indexed quickly are much higher.
This gives you an advantage over the competition, as your review will show up sooner in the search results than theirs.
Imagine what an entire month's advantage could do to your affiliate sales!
Why Javascript Feeds Are Not Effective
Some sites offer javascript code that generates content sourced from RSS feeds for your site.
These are of absolutely no value in terms of search engine rankings, as the googlebot cannot read javascript and the content is not interpreted as part of your page.
What you need is code that parses the RSS feed and renders the feed as html content that's part of your page
RSS or Rich Site Syndication is a file format similar to XML, and is used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that can be universally understood.
RSS allows publishers to "syndicate" their content through the distribution of lists of hyperlinks.
It has actually been around for a while, but with the advent of spam filters and online blogging, it is fast becoming the choice of ezine publishers who want to get their message across to their subscribers.
However, not much attention has been given to the advantages RSS provides for search engine optimization.
Why Search Engines Love RSS
Many SEO experts believe that sites optimized around themes,or niches, where all pages correspond to a particular subject or set of keywords, rank better in the search engines.
For example, if your website is designed to sell tennis rackets, your entire site content would be focused around tennis and tennis rackets.
Search engines like Google seem to prefer tightly-themed pages.
But where does RSS figure in all this?
RSS feeds, usually sourced from newsfeeds or blogs, often correspond to a particular theme or niche.
By using highly targeted RSS feeds, you can enhance your site's content without having to write a single line on your own.
It’s like having your own content writer - writing theme-based articles for you - for free!
How can RSS improve my Search Engine Rankings?
There are three powerful reasons why content from RSS Feeds is irresistible bait for search engine spiders.
1. RSS Feeds Provide Instant Themed Content
There are several publishers of RSS feeds that are specific to a particular theme.
Since the feed is highly targeted, it could contain several keywords that you want to rank highly for.
Adding these keywords to your pages helps Google tag your site as one with relevant content.
2. RSS Feeds Provide Fresh, Updated Content
RSS feeds from large publishers are updated at specific intervals. When the publisher adds a new article to the feed, the oldest article is dropped.
These changes are immediately effected on your pages with the RSS feed as well. So you have fresh relevant content for your visitors every hour or day.
3. RSS Feeds Result in More Frequent Spidering
One thing I never anticipated would happen as a result of adding an RSS feed to my site was that the Googlebot visited my site almost daily.
To the Googlebot, my page that had the RSS feed incorporated into it was as good as a page that was being updated daily, and in its judgement, was a page that was worth visiting daily.
What this means to you, is that you will have your site being indexed more frequently by the Googlebot and so any new pages that you add to your site will be picked up much faster than your competitors.
How does this benefit you as a marketer?
Well, for example, let's says a top Internet Marketer comes out with a new product that you review and write up a little article on, and that your competitors do the same.
Google generally tends to index pages at the start of the month and if you miss that update, you will probably need to wait till the next month to even see your entry in.
But, since your site has RSS feeds, it now gets indexed more frequently. So the chances of getting your page indexed quickly are much higher.
This gives you an advantage over the competition, as your review will show up sooner in the search results than theirs.
Imagine what an entire month's advantage could do to your affiliate sales!
Why Javascript Feeds Are Not Effective
Some sites offer javascript code that generates content sourced from RSS feeds for your site.
These are of absolutely no value in terms of search engine rankings, as the googlebot cannot read javascript and the content is not interpreted as part of your page.
What you need is code that parses the RSS feed and renders the feed as html content that's part of your page
Monday, March 30, 2009
I Am providing you some SEO tools just try on your site
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