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A Beginner’s Guide To Online Merchant Accounts

By Lena Crossan in Featured

It’s probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of Internet business. While others make it seem so scary, truly, there’s nothing to fear. Getting an online merchant account can be one of the easiest steps in setting up your ecommerce business, if you know what to look for and what to avoid.

It used to be - in order to get a merchant account - you had to fill out mounds of paperwork at a stodgy old bank, then try and convince the branch manager that small businesses deserved merchant accounts, too. If you were an Internet-based business, the uphill battle was even steeper. Today, however, site owners have many other options including merchant account providers, independent sales organizations and more. Because the marketplace has opened so widely, getting an online merchant account is quite a simple process.

THE APPLICATION

Tip: You should never pay an application fee.

This is an old-school practice many institutions used to use to bring in a little extra cash. While applying for an online merchant account these days still requires an application to be completed, account providers stopped charging application fees long ago.

You’ll be expected to provide the basic information (company name, principle’s name, address, phone, fax, type of ownership, website address, etc.). You may also be asked for information such as estimated average credit card transaction, estimated monthly sales volume, federal tax ID number or Social Security number, bank account number, routing number and other financial information. This is typical in order to allow the online merchant account provider to assess your qualification for the service, and to determine your credit rating.

Warning: Never fill out an unsecured online application. Look in the address bar for a URL that begins with https:// to be sure your information remains safe.

THE FEES

Tip: Calculate a set number of fictitious monthly charges (for example, 50 charges at $55.00 each) using the fees each merchant account provider you’re considering charges. This way you can compare apples to apples.

Merchant account providers make money by charging for the use of the service. Certain flat and percentage-based fees are imposed on everyone who transacts business via credit card online. Let’s look at the fees you can expect and find out what each one represents.

1. Discount Rate - The percentage of each sale due to the merchant account provider.
2. Transaction Fee - A flat-rate amount charged for each transaction you process.
3. Statement Fee - A flat-rate amount charge for generating monthly statements of your account.
4. Monthly Minimum - A fee collected if your monthly sales don’t exceed this amount.
5. Annual Fee - As the name implies, this fee is charged annually for use of the online merchant account.
6. Set Up Fee - A flat-rate fee charged for setting up your new merchant account.

Warning: Many merchant account providers require no contract at all. Others offer discounts for committing to a long-term contract. If the provider you’re applying with requires a lengthy contract without offering a discount, reconsider.

LOOK FOR FLEXIBILITY

Watch for flexibility in online merchant account providers. You’ll want to work with someone who allows you to use their shopping cart or your own or to use their Internet gateway or your own. Being forced into using everything the provider offers can get complicated and expensive. The same goes for flexibility in service. You want a merchant account provider who will be there if you have questions or need advice.

THE PROCESS

Once your application has been approved, you’ll be ready to accept credit cards online! Your customers can process their orders via your site and make purchases immediately. How does it work? Once the customer enters their credit card information, that data is whisked over to the processing center.

The processing center requests authorization from the issuing bank of the credit card. When everything is approved, the sale goes through. It all happens in real time at the blink of an eye!

Just remember:

1. never pay an application fee
2. make sure online merchant account applications are secure
3. use a set number of sample transactions to compare various merchant providers
4. look for flexibility

Before you know it, you’ll be raking in sale after sale on your website thanks to the benefits of online merchant accounts.

Author:  Lena Crossan is Marketing Manager of GoEmerchant.com that has offered affordable award-winning ecommerce services since 1995. Discover their proven, innovative online merchant account and other solutions today at http://www.GoEmerchant.com.

The Best Way To Get Steady And Free Traffic

By Mohammad Latif in Featured

There are three major goals to achieve when you write content. Of course you need to incorporate those magic keywords that brings the almighty Google to its knees, but you cannot forget that someone will ‘actually’ read the content once you have it posted. This is necessary, of course, to start drawing in regular readers.

Traffic is not difficult to obtain if you strive consistently along on the following three main objectives in order to squeeze the most out of content or article. Getting these traffic results for free may sound difficult especially for people who are uncertain where to start.

There are always alternatives such as Google Adwords. The obvious problem here is that this kind of SEO strategy is not free. Additionally, since the introduction of Google Slap, a page needs to be created around the keyword to get good placement. Google Slap refers to the penalty that Google charges Adwords users whose pages have little content and it can add up quickly.

Now since this is some what necessary anyway, won’t it be more practical to write relevant content and have it ranked high with Google? Isn’t it better to achieve these results without have to pay through the nose for it?

Why not create a quality content page instead of using Adwords? If done right, your content can help you gain ranking with Google which in turn will increase your websites traffic. Free traffic is the goal, and we are going to show you how to do it.

The 3 Content Objectives…

Boost Your Ranking With Keywords

The best article in the world will not get read if no one can find it. In order to increase your website traffic, you need a solid SEO strategy that you can follow step by step. Some people like to start with keywords with little or no competition to more easily achieve a top ranking. Then they use the ‘halo effect’ to go for top rankings with similar keywords. Whatever your strategy is, you must always be sure to keep it in mind when you outline your articles.

Many people like to use the main keyword once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph, with four or five similar keywords throughout the article. You have to be careful with this, because if the keywords are too similar you will sound redundant to the reader. Besides, keyword stuffing can be a detriment to your ranking with Google.

Once you decide on your keywords, you need to infuse your article with them without making it stand out awkwardly. This may be difficult to do so you might want to consider hiring a content writer. You need to make sure that you do not get so caught up in the keywords that the writing ceases to flow smoothly. Awkward placement of keywords can be a big turn off to people who spend a lot of time reading blogs or content.

One of the best ways to keep things on track is by using keyword variations. For example…

Keyword - porsche boxster
Variations - porsche 911, porsche car, used porsche boxster, porsche boxster for sale, porsche

As you can see there are 5 variation keywords and the main keyword, giving you a total of 6 options.

In the main body of the text you can use the main keyword one to three times, and then use the variables about another 1 or 2 times.

The primary aim is to optimize the page for a top ranking using the keyword ‘porsche boxster’. Now since your main aim is to optimize this keyword, the variations are considered secondary priorities. You really do not have to make much effort to optimize them because your keyword is already set. The benefit is that you do not have to focus a lot on the variations, but they may help you with your ranking..

What you will also need to understand is that these strategies will not work for every keyword you use. The effect varies, so you will need to be able to adjust your game plan.

Provide ‘Quality’ Content That Sticks

Remember the main reason why you want a good ranking with the search engines. You want to attract visitors and you’ll want them to stay for a while. One thing you should consider is that Google takes into account the amount of time people spend on your site.

Whether you want to believe it or not, most people doing a search on the web are more sophisticated than you might think. When they visit your site, they are looking for relevant and intelligent content, so you can be sure that if you are lacking in this area, they will quickly leave.

Audience awareness is crucial to retain the interest level of your visitors. You will need to immediately grab their attention and then keep it. You can use humor, empathy, or just solid information to keep the reader on your site. You will need to take great care that your writing is interesting and well written because a visitor who is bored will not stay long.

They can be driven away by a lack of relevant content, poor grammar, or by an article that is sluggish and boring. Always walk away from your article before proof reading. Come back and re-read it with fresh eyes to spare your readers or any poor writing.

Build Up A Call To Action For Instant Results

There are many catch phrases and writing structures that are supposed to bring a reader to take action and many web users have caught on to these. They glean what they want from the site, ignore the sales pitch, and move on. You need to capture them early in the article and slowly build up to the call to action. A sales blip at the end of the article is very easy to avoid, but an article supporting legitimate reasons for taking action will naturally direct the reader to follow your lead.

Take care when you decide how to write an article so that you do more than provide a backdrop for your keywords. An SEO article is your platform to generate free traffic and on many occasions, an absurd amount if done correctly. Bring the visitor to your site, draw them in, make them read, and prompt them to take action with a well written article.

There are practically thousands of people doing this and making a good living. Don’t focus all your attention to the keyword. Instead, try concentrating on what the reader will find useful and write content with keywords at the back on your mind. As at the end of the day, a reader will take action and pay for what you have on the page, not Google!

Author:  Mohammad Latif: In order to generate free traffic, writing an effective content page requires you to pay attention to the rules, but also to keep it attractive for the readers. It’s not difficult as it may seem. Learn more at Google Snatch http://www.GoogleSnatch.com

How to Optimize for Ask

By Ross Dunn in Featured

Ask’s portion of the search market is a mere 4.3% (src. Hitwise) so it is understandable that optimizing for Ask is a low priority in the eyes of many webmasters. That said, despite the company’s rather infamous advertising campaigns Ask has some incredible and unique features that I believe will slowly but surely steal search share from its more popular brethren. Consequently, it seems appropriate to provide some tips on how to optimize for Ask without sacrificing rankings on the other search engines. To that end the following instructions are supplementary to the recommendations provided in my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article

ASK OVERVIEW
Ask differs from the other search engines because it has fully rolled-out universal search. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term universal search is the integration of results from a variety of sources (i.e. images, video, local information, news, blogs, etc.) into a single results page. Although Google has implemented universal search to some extent Ask is the first search engine to leap head-first into these complex waters and they have done a great job of it. Since universal search is slowly going to be rolled-out across Google, MSN and Yahoo, Ask is a great place to prepare for the competitive world of universal search. The areas I will cover are images, blogs and feeds, local search and mobile.

ASK IMAGE OPTIMIZATION
Just how do you get an image to show up within Ask.com’s universal search results? The key is to remove any doubt of the image’s relevance to the keyword you are trying to achieve rankings for.

1. Alt tags need to be created and must clearly represent the topic of the picture while utilizing the target keyword.
2. The content nearby the image should be relevant to the picture and for best results should include the keyword used to describe the picture in the Alt tag.
3. The filename of the picture should utilize the keyword.

ASK’S LOCAL SEARCH: ASKCITY
AskCity is Ask’s local portal where various maps and locally themed content (such as event news, theatre tickets, etc.) can be readily found. AskCity was launched in December 2006 as a far superior upgrade over Ask Local and it remains a solid leader in the growing and highly competitive local search marketplace. Fortunately having a presence at AskCity only requires that your business is added to their database if it is not already there.
How to Submit Your Business to AskCity

Submit your business information to askcitybusiness@help.ask.com with the subject line “Ask City Feedback – Business”. Ensure the following information is added to the email:

• Business name and complete address
• Phone number
• The category your business best fits
• The website URL
• A contact person’s email address

According to Ask the turnaround time is no more than 28 days.
Tip! You might notice that your business profile (once it is online) has a rating system attached to it; shown as a five star system. If you wish to influence your rating then I suggest sending your happy customers to CitySearch, Yelp.com, and Insiderpages where these results are drawn from. Once they are there have them find your listing and provide a positive review of your business.

MAXIMIZING VISIBILITY IN ASK BLOGS & FEEDS
Ask is the proud owner of Bloglines which is one of the foremost news aggregation tools on the web and happens to be the database behind Ask Blogs and Feeds. To ensure that your blogs and feeds are included in this system I suggest creating an account at Bloglines and be sure to include your feed within the profile.
In order to have any chance of influencing your position within Ask Blogs and Feeds you need to be aware of a couple things. First, the order of results within Ask’s Blogs and Feeds is determined by a combination of Ask’s ExpertRank algorithm (their intensive search engine algorithm) and Blogline’s vast 12 million plus blog database. Ask uses this combination to create the first order of results which is dictated by relevance; not by date which is the most common first viewing at Ask’s competitors. Consequently, it is important that you pay close attention to the relevance of the keyword density in your title, body and links within each post you write on your blog. By keeping your ideal keyword ranking in mind while writing your posts you will have a better chance of obtaining a ranking based on relevance.

Secondly, aside from ordering results by relevance and date (noted as “most recent”), Ask also offers a sorting by popularity. I can only postulate how this works but it makes good sense that a popularity ranking is derived from a mingling of Ask’s monitoring of the stickiness of certain articles (how long users stayed at an article before returning) and how many times a feed and/or a post is accessed within the multitude of user accounts at Bloglines. Considering these factors it stands to reason that creating a sticky blog post is the clearest and most obvious first requirement. The second requirement would be to get active in the Bloglines community and try to spread the word about your quality blog(s) throughout your community. The more people that add your blog feed to their Bloglines profile and interact with it, the better chance you have of achieving a top spot when results are ordered by popularity.

ABOUT ASK MOBILE
Ask Mobile utilizes ExpertRank and appears to be based on Ask’s standard website database. This may seem odd at first. After all, how can Ask provide mobile users with full size websites? The trick lies in their use of Skweezer technology that squeezes normally unwieldy websites into more digestible one column sites for mobile users. It may seem that there is nothing that can be done then to influence mobile rankings at Ask. Not true, the answer lies within the fact that Ask Mobile is focused on providing local results to cell users while they are on the go. With that in mind it makes sense that you improve your website’s odds of being found by ensuring it has a comprehensive listing in AskCity.

Tip!If locally based results are extremely attractive to you then I also suggest adding your physical address information within the footer of every page so that Ask and other locally focused search engines have a better chance of associating your website with a region.

SITEMAPS ARE CRITICAL
Ask’s spider is the least active of the big 4 search by far. When reviewing client spider reports I see Ask visiting websites 50% less or more than MSN, Yahoo and Google. In fact on many websites that have not yet added a sitemap or have less than ideal site structures Ask often does not even index pages deep within their website(s). As a result, submitting a sitemap to Ask is critical if you want your deep content to be properly indexed.

1. First create a sitemap. On StepForth’s recommended SEO tools page we noted our favourite tool currently: Vigos Google Sitemap Generator. Download this free utility and have it spider your website. Once it is complete set whatever custom data you want (info is provided within the program) and then generate the sitemap.xml file. Place this file within the root of your website and move to step 2.
2. To submit your sitemap to Ask you have two options: add a link to the sitemap into your Robots.txt file or simply inject your sitemap.xml address into the following URL and then visit it:

   http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml

   Of the two options I strongly recommend going the route of adding the sitemap auto discovery link to your robots.txt file because this is now an agreed method of submitting a sitemap amongst the major search engines. Just place the following code on its own line within your robots.txt file:

   SITEMAP: http://www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml

USING ASK AS A RESEARCH TOOL
Ask has a helpful resource included in its universal search layout called “narrow your search”. Try typing in your keyphrase in Ask and then take a look at the narrow your search section of the page. There you will see popular searches that are relevant to your keyphrase. Record this information when conducting keyword research because it is a valuable glimpse into what Ask’s ExpertRank algorithm considers closely relevant and it may also show what users are actually searching for.

OTHER INFORMATION
There are a few personality traits that you should be aware of when working with Ask that are quite unique:

1. Ask does not currently support the “nofollow” tag which could mean that any link leaving your website is considered a vote of confidence for the destination site.
2. Ask utilizes a site/content preview window for each listing it presents; represented by a binocular icon. Since users may use this tool to get a glimpse of your site before visiting it is more important than ever to ensure the content above the fold (that appears first without scrolling) is enticing to users and relevant to their search.

CONCLUSION
I am solidly impressed by the technology at Ask and its successful foray into the realms of universal search. In fact, my research for this article has moved Ask from a bystander in my set of daily search tools to the forefront. I highly recommend utilizing Ask for your search needs and to keep an eye out for future technology additions to this solid search engine. In my opinion Ask is cutting edge enough that we can expect many search engines will be copying their successful implementations in the future.
Now… if only Ask could get the positive attention it deserves. If I were them I would start by creating a stronger connection with webmasters to interact with them and build awareness. That would be far more effective than the ad campaigns they are currently flooding the airwaves with.

Are you an Ask fan? If so, what do you think they need to do to improve their visibility? Post your thoughts by commenting on this article and perhaps Jim Lanzone and his crew will get a helpful tip or two.

Author:  Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc. Celebrating 10 Years of Web Marketing Excellence

The Case Against Outsourced SEO

By Adam McFarland in Featured

About a week ago I got a phone call from a college buddy of mine named Paul who runs a soon-to-launch online business.  Here’s how the conversation went:

Paul: “We want to hire your company to do the SEO for us.  Whatever the price is, we can afford it.”

Me: “Tell me a little more about your company and exactly what you expect to achieve from search.”

Paul: “We want to rank #1 in Google for EVERYTHING in our industry, and I know you can do it for us.”

Me:  “I’d be happy to consult with your team to make sure you understand the principles of SEO and get off on the right foot, but I think you’re better off doing the work yourself.” 

He was perplexed.  Why wouldn’t we want to take on his SEO work?  It has nothing to do with him or his company.  It has everything to do with the misunderstood nature of what it takes to consistently rank high in natural search. The absolute best companies I’ve worked with make every decision with SEO in mind.  Everyone in their organization – from management to programmers to marketing – is thinking about the search impact of their decisions.  For that reason it makes sense to hire a consultant or to learn it yourself, but not to hire an outside firm to outsource your entire SEO campaign to.

Most of the time when companies outsource SEO they do it with the mentality of “here you go, you handle it and we expect results.”  They view it as an entirely separate entity and not as a core value that needs to be instilled in their organization to be successful.  That’s why outsourced SEO just doesn’t work: your organization still makes decisions the old way. 

How will this programming change impact our search results?  Can we build link-building into our marketing campaign?  What adjustments can we make so that both are working in harmony to achieve our objectives as a company and rank as high as we can? There is no incentive to learn about search if someone else is handling it for you, and consequently you probably won’t be asking these important questions when making a critical business decision. 

Paul was still a bit confused with that answer.  So let’s take a closer look at some of the key components necessary for SEO success and what needs to take place for them to be accomplished:

Keyword Research – this entails researching how frequently phrases relevant to your site are searched.  I like to use the SEO-Book tool or the free version of Wordtracker.  Keyword research is important because it will impact your site structure, title tags (widely regarded as the most influential factor in how high you rank), and will help identify opportunities in your industry (if a term is searched a lot but there aren’t a lot of good results, you may have just identified a great expansion opportunity for your company).  This is best done by either a consultant or the internal head of your SEO campaign, which should be someone in upper-management.  

On-Site Optimization and Site Structure – this is what most people think of when they think of SEO.  What changes should be made to your site so that search engine spiders have the best chance of crawling it, understanding the content, and ranking you accordingly.  Most often, this involves changes to Title/META tags, cleaning up source code so that it’s proper HTML, moving CSS and Javascript to external files, adding sitemaps, modifying internal linking structure and anchor text, and several other standard changes that eliminate all potential crawling and indexing issues.  This is best done by your programmer(s) so that they understand the importance of the changes and make them part of their routine in the future.  These changes can be suggested by a consultant, but will only really be successful if programmers are on board.

Link building – this is probably the second most common task associated with SEO.  By now you already know that you need one-way incoming links from relevant sites with applicable anchor text to rank high.  Many outsourced SEO firms will either engage in elaborate link exchanges or purchase paid links for you: both of which are obsolete in terms of having any positive impact in your rankings, and now can potentially penalize you.  The best one-way link building techniques – press releases, content syndication, blogging, product syndication, viral videos, etc – all require a LOT of input from you to be successful.  Most of the time they should be integrated into your existing marketing plan to have the highest chance to thrive.  For example, most companies already issue press releases when they have newsworthy announcements so it’s a natural extension to email the release to online news sites and blogs, and to use an online distribution service.  I think successful link building is best done by your marketing department as part of your overall marketing strategy.  It’s fine to have a consultant help put the plan together, but the actual implementation of the plan should be done by you.

Analytics – this involves the measurement and tracking of your sites’ SEO and marketing campaign.  Previously, this could be tedious for small sites and I might have recommended outsourcing.  But with the new version of Google Analytics, a properly configured account will tell you everything you need to know about where every single sale on your site came from.  Your programmer or consultant should be able to set it up for you and configure the reports to track only the most important metrics for your organization.  I also like to track incoming links and search engine rankings for a site (two things that Analytics does not track), but those can easily be tracked with the Marketleap Link Checker and Digital Point Keyword Tracker.

In the end, whether you decide to hire a consultant or tackle SEO internally with the vast information available online, you still need to make SEO part of your organizations objectives for it to be a success:  something that outsourcing usually doesn’t do.

Author:  Adam McFarland is the co-founder of Faceup-Sites and the author of the Faceup Web Marketing Book: The Perfect Combination of SEO, SEM, and other tactics to maximize results without breaking the bank.  Faceup-Sites specializes in helping businesses develop highly customizable sites that are easy to update, visually pleasing, and search engine friendly at a fraction of the cost of what most developers charge.

The SEO Keys That Unlock Google Success

By Kevin Gibbs in Featured

Using the Internet to its highest potential when it comes to indexing and promoting your website is vital to your business. No matter whether you provide a service or a product, getting the word out about it is your primary goal.

Google, being the world’s most popular search engine, is naturally going to be one of the places you want to submit your website URL to, and Google offers free submission opportunities. However, merely submitting your website isn’t the answer to instant rankings and visitors. It takes hard work, patience and search engine optimization know-how to achieve a top ranking with Google. The easier your website is to find by Google spiders, the more chance you’ll have of reaching better positions in the Google ranking index.

Google is the most popular search engine in the world today, and earning a top ranking there is definitely a feather in anyone’s cap. Taking advantage of several different options will help you to obtain your goals. Determination is the key when it comes to achieving high rankings in Google, and it’s not an endeavor for the weak of heart.

One of the most important things a Webmaster or web business can do to enhance rankings is to write and distribute articles relating to your topic, service or product to article directories throughout the web. Embedding links to your article, called back links, will get your website noticed by Google spiders, but don’t overdo it. Try to limit your back links to one per article. Articles should be written well, grammatically correct and include keywords or keyword phrases that relate to your product or service. (These keywords should also be listed in the Meta Tags used to design your website as well).

When writing SEO Google content, keep in mind the following factors for success, not only in obtaining ranking with Google, but with the success of your content in its ability to do what you have designed it to do; inform and get people back to your site. When searching through Google’s ranked pages, certain factors become immediately apparent. The most successful written content has these things in common:

1. Content is comprised of paragraphs that are fairly brief, with between 3 to 5 sentences each. White space around paragraphs and content allows for easy reading and addresses short attention spans when it comes to reading on the Internet.
2. Proper grammar and spelling is used in the content. As always, make sure that you proofread your work before submitting to article directories and banks. Make sure that use of punctuation, quotations, and sentence structure and flow are correct and proofed. If you are aware of your own shortcomings in the writing department, have someone else proof your material. Content that is poorly written is more damaging to your reputation and that of your website than no content at all.
3. Many articles submitted to Google, and other search engines, are written with bulleted lists, such as this. This serves to break up large areas of text as well as to provide precise information related to a specific topic.
4. Most highly ranked pages on the Internet are updated regularly, and by regularly, that means ideally about once a week, or at least twice a month.
5. Sentence structure is varied, which means that short and long sentences are mixed together.
6. Keyword density is over-rated these days, but using keywords in your content is desired.

However, don’t stuff articles with keywords when their usage doesn’t add flow to the text or is too obvious. Make sure that the keywords you are using make sense within the overall focus of your article.

Choosing the wrong keywords, or choosing highly used and common keywords or phrases won’t help you much, so it pays to be knowledgeable about how to go about determining how popular or unpopular particular keywords are before you even start writing. Keyword stuffing, or overusing certain keywords in any given article, will only defeat your purpose, as search engine spiders, especially those launched by Google, seem to know every trick out there.

Bottom line: have a professional look over your text before you launch your website. Be aware also that having someone write SEO content for you doesn’t mean they will do it correctly, either. Good SEO writing means more than focusing on keyword density, placement and catchy article titles. Good SEO content should contain useful, correctly structured sentences with proper grammar and spelling.

Google itself offers a terse explanation of how to get your website content highly ranked: Good content. It’s so simple that most people don’t believe it’s true. A website owner can sit down and research keywords, keyword density and Google algorithm factors until they’re blue in the face, and it won’t make a difference if the words don’t make sense or the spelling is so atrocious that visitors will take one look, laugh and click away.

Submitting articles to article directories and providing free articles, with your website back link in them, of course, is a great way to get noticed, but keep in mind that sometimes dozens of articles or more must be written and submitted before you’re going to get noticed. This doesn’t mean just writing about anything, it means carefully choosing and selecting appropriate keywords that will get your content noticed by search engine spiders and thereby bring you the results you’re looking for.

Website HTML coding and proper use of Meta tags is essential in creating Google SEO results, and as with anything worth doing, takes time, patience and determination to learn. There are no easy shortcuts when it comes to creating SEO content that will fly with Google and gain you a coveted page ranking.

Take advantage of the opportunity to submit your articles to free directory listings, especially at Google, as well as writing numerous, free articles for submission purposes as well as properly using back links will get you started on your way to success.

Utilizing Google tools and accessing their news, site directory, helpful hints and forum boards will help hopeful Webmasters achieve their goals when it comes to obtaining a long and enduring, and hopefully beneficial relationship with Google, whose influence reaches to the far corners of the globe.

Author:  Kevin Gibbs is the founder of www.articlestamp.com (http://www.articlestamp.com/) a successful article directory that provides users the opportunity to improve their traffic performance. Contact Kevin at kevin@articlestamp.com for more info or questions on article writing.

12 Reasons Your Website Is Failing

By Willie Crawford in Featured

Most Saturdays, I conduct a free networking and brainstorming call, where we critique and give makeovers to 2-3 websites. On the weeks that we don’t review websites, the calls are generally “open discussion” of Internet marketing issues.

These calls are just another tool in my very effective marketing arsenal, and you can join them by registering at: http://WillieCrawford.com/free-brainstorming-calls.html

During most weeks, I get dozens of joint venture proposals, and several potential new clients who want me to evaluate the potential of a project that they’re working on.

Many of the joint ventures that I turn down, and many of the clients that I reject, are for the same reason. Their websites are so poorly written that I know that the websites won’t convert. I rarely do outside copywriting, but I often suggest revamping their websites before they move forward.

With the sites reviewed on my calls, and with the sites I look at for other reasons, I notice many of the same mistakes. Here are 12 of the most common:

1) The Site Has No Focus.
A website should be designed with its primary purpose in mind. You should have ONE thing that you’d really like most visitors to your page to do. Almost everything on that page should lead the visitors toward deciding to take that primary action. Nothing on the page should distract them and “lead them off down other trails.”

Common primary actions that you’ll want your visitor to take are to join your list, buy your product, download a free trial version, or join an online community. Make sure that you know what you want your visitors to focus on, and get rid of the other distractions. It’s been proven that if you give your visitors too many choices, or confuse them, they will simply choose to leave!

2) The Site Has No Email Capture Mechanism.
Most honest copywriters will tell you that in most Internet marketing type niches, a 1-2% response rate to a sales letter is VERY respectable. You’ve worked very hard to get visitors to your site, and if you completely ignore the 98% who don’t buy you’re not going to be in business very long.

Incorporate a form into your website that gets them into an autoresponder so that you can follow-up with them. Offer them a free report, access to an MP3 on the topic, or access to an exclusive community. Get them to opt-in, and then you can follow up with them on their topic of interest.

Your opt-in form can be set up “in-line” as a part of the webpage, and even take them back to the point on the webpage where they were reading before they stopped to opt-in. You can also have an exit popup, or pop- under, that offers them a freebie as they’re leaving your site. Once they’ve decided to leave, you’ll probably NEVER see them again unless you have a way to invite them back. An autoresponder is the perfect way to do this automatically.

3) The Owner is “Hiding Behind the Website.”
Web surfers are skeptical and distrusting. You need to let them know that there is a real person behind the site. Give them contact information, show them your photo, and even let them hear you. You can easily add audio or video to your website, and allow it to “touch” your visitor on such a deeper level. When people hear your voice or see you talking, and get to watch your body language, you communicate so much more effectively than just the written word.

To add audio to your website, all you need is a microphone plugged into your computer. To add video to your website, all you really need is a webcam plugged into your computer. There are services that will take this audio or video, allow you to edit it with a few clicks of your mouse, and then stream it from their servers or upload it to your server.

A totally amazing service that I use is called Audio Acrobat. I use it to have customers, subscribers, etc., call in and leave testimonials. I use it to record some teleseminars, interviews, product recommendations, and for dozens of other purpose. I do record video from my webcam to this service too. You can also upload video recorded on a regular video camera to this service, and then stream it from their website.

As I said, I LOVE Audio Acrobat. If you want to check it out, you can get a free 30-day trial from here: http://williec.audioacrobat.com/ It’s where I have dozens of testimonial lines, dozens of audios, and a few videos. It’s also how I save on my web hosting bandwidth

4) The Owner of the Site Offers No Credentials.
The very first question I ask when reading a magazine article, watching a television show, or reading a web page, is “What makes this person qualified to teach ME this topic.” Most web surfers don’t trust you, and believe that most Internet sites are out to rip them off. You need to show them that your experience and training makes you qualified to teach them the topic. In addition to formal credentials a professional looking website also shows that you are a serious business person. Don’t skimp on your website’s design!

5) Not Offering Proof of Statements.
It’s natural for you to say how great you and your product are. That means nothing to potential customers. Get others to share how your product improved their lives. Use media interviews, and statements by officials in professional organizations, to provide third-party validation.

Testimonials with photos, audio, or video, are very powerful. Testimonials with just a set of initials, or with just a first name, have NO credibility.

6) Offering the Wrong Payment Options.
The majority of Internet users prefer to pay via credit card. If your product allows you to do it, and still make a satisfactory profit, consider taking orders through an answering service or call center, via fax, via snail mail, and through third party processors such as Paypal as well. Evaluate each of these options and decide which of these make sense for you. As an aside, I once considered even offering my customers the option to order C.O.D (cash on delivery). My local postmaster strongly suggested that I NOT do that and also pointed out that it’s almost never done these days. He convinced me that it was more trouble than it was worth.

7) Using the Wrong or Too Many Fonts.
When you use different sizes and colors of letters on your webpage you need to have a real reason. When you highlight or underline text on your webpage you need to have a logical reason.

As your site visitor reads your webpage, he will subconsciously ask himself why you emphasized a certain word or sentence on the page. If you had no logical reason, you pull him out of your message as his mind “wrestles with the why.”

Your page should be structured such that a “skimmer” could just read the headlines and sub headlines and get the message. He should be able to read just the highlighted text and get the gist of your webpage. He should be able to just go to the bottom of the page, read the “P.S.” where you’ve restated your offer, and order without being forced to read the rest of the page… if he’s in a hurry.

Using Header Graphics that Distract from the Message.
Your header graphic should spell out or emphasize the main benefit of your product. It should be simple enough that the visitor is not forced to waste time trying to decipher its meaning.

Sometimes, it’s better not to even have a header graphic. This is something you should test. You want to get your visitor reading the text on your page and discovering how your product can help him, as soon as practical. This is what will sell him… not cute or fancy graphics.

9) Not Focusing on Benefits Rather than Features.
Don’t tell your visitor how great the product is, tell him how it will improve his life. Your testimonials should also provide concrete, and very specific, examples of how it improved someone else’s life.

10) Focusing on “I” Rather than “You!”
Look at your webpage and make sure that it talks about the customer and his problem more than it talks about you, your company, and your products. Your customers don’t really care about you. They care about how you can help them! Read through your copy and make sure that it answers that question. Make sure that you’re not talking about yourself too much, and that when you do talk about yourself, it’s answering the question of how you can help the reader.

11) Not Emphasizing the Guarantee.
When a customer purchases with a credit card, or through certain third-party processors, the guarantee is implied anyway. So, why not make your guarantee a selling point? If a customer goes to Visa or MasterCard and states that they are unhappy with their purchase from you, they will get their money back in most cases… and you’ll pay an extra fee for the “chargeback.” If a customer goes to Clickbank or Paypal with a complaint, they will end up issuing a refund in many cases.

Make it easy on yourself by offering and honoring a guarantee. It will increase your conversion rate, and unless your product is total JUNK, it won’t increase your refund rate.

12) Not Using a P.S.
Many busy surfers will jump right to the end of your webpage and read the P.S.(s). If they were somewhat pre-sold before they arrived at your page, many will go ahead and purchase at that time. Use the P.S.(s) to restate your offer, emphasize the guarantee, showcase your bonuses, and to emphasize any scarcity factor in the offer.

The bottom line is that, if your sales page is horrific, it’s pointless to drive traffic to the site. Fix the page before you do anything else, or you’re just wasting time and frustrating yourself.

A well-written webpage is so pivotal to the sales process that many professional copywriters will often rewrite bad sales letters. When they discover great products that they KNOW would sell if the products’ owners just had better copy, they will often rewrite bad sales letters, pre-sell the products, and then send the “ready-to-buy” customers directly to the order form.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming, recognized the value in revamping bad sales letters so much that he went as far as to set up a membership site, offering members rewritten sales letters for Clickbank products in hot niches. You can check out what Dr. Mike has done, and join his site, if he hasn’t already closed memberships, at: http://FixingTerribleWebpages.com Tell him that I sent you.

Fix the 12 common errors covered above and your website will be more effective than 99% of direct sales websites out there. Don’t fix these mistakes, and your sales won’t increase, but at-least now you will understand why.

Author:  Willie Crawford has been teaching Internet marketing for over 9 years. Take advantage of his uncanny insights and unusual candor by subscribing to his free, information- packed newsletter. Also visit his top-rated blog. Do both at: http://WillieCrawford.com/ezine.html

Who Else Wants to Know How-To Write an Effective Advertisement?

By Bill Platt in Featured

Webmasters struggle everyday with the question of how they should advertise their website. There are so many advertising venues; it is hard to know which is the right venue or the right combination of advertising venues.

The answer to this question is actually simple. The right venues are the ones that allow you to earn enough sales from the placement of your advertisement to make a profit. Your advertisement should earn more money for you than it cost for you to buy the advertisement.

Choose Your Words Carefully

“If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind – give it more thought.” — Dennis Roth

With advertising of any type, you must learn to choose your words carefully.

Most online advertising is in the form of a classified ad. With a newspaper, you can choose any size of advertisement to communicate your message to readers. The newspaper charges you based on the number of words in your classified ad.

Online, you don’t get the option of buying additional words. Instead, you buy an ad, and the publisher tells you how many words or characters you are allowed to use in your advertisement.

Here is how the different search advertising options break down:

ExactSeek.com through the ISEDN.org network:
Headline Length: 30 characters
Description: 100 characters

Google Adwords through Google.com:
Headline Length: 25 characters
Description first line: 35 characters
Description second line: 35 characters

Overture.com through the Yahoo network:
Headline Length: 40 characters
Description: 190 characters

As you can see from these numbers, you generally do not have that much space to tell your story so you need to select words that best tell your story, using as few words as possible.

Most products or services cannot be sold in just a few words so your goal should be to get people to your website and let your website do the selling.

On your website, you can tell your story in the way it needs to be told. Your website can also answer all of the questions that the reader might have about your products or services.

Choosing The Right Formula For Your Advertising

In your own mind, you might think that people need to know all of your credentials. But, advertising should not be viewed as a “brag fest”. People do not care what you have done; they only care about what you can do for them.

So tell them how you can help them and give them a reason to visit your website for more information.

If you understand why your customers buy your products and services, then you can answer their questions and help them solve any problem they might have.

If you can solve their problems, they will buy what you are selling.

Pre-Qualify Your Visitors

If you are engaged in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, you definitely need to pre-qualify your visitors in your advertising. Why pay for people to visit your website if they are not likely to buy what you are selling?

If you are engaged in selling wholesale products to retailers, why would you want to pay for visitors people whose sole intention is to buy one of what you are selling at retail prices? You wouldn’t, would you?

Provide enough detail in your advertisement to help people make an informed judgment as to whether you can actually help them accomplish what they want to accomplish.

Give your prospect enough information to skip your advertisement, if he or she will not benefit from your offer.

Even if you are using other types of advertising like pay-for- inclusion, you will still want to pre-qualify your visitors, because if you don’t, it will skew your website conversion numbers. Too many unqualified visitors to your website might give you the erroneous idea that your sales copy is not performing as well as it should.

Use Power Words In Your Advertising

“Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words.” —
Aprocrypha

Copywriters are always talking about “power words” or “power phrases”. These are word combinations that influence the reader to take an action.

One example of using power words in your copy is to substitute the word “children” for the word “kids”. Parents are more influenced by the reference to children than they are by the reference to kids.

“Guaranteed” is another power word. It gives your reader an added incentive to buy what you are selling. Prospects take comfort in the idea that if they discover later that they have made a bad decision, they can always get their money back.

“Proven” is another power word. It tells your reader that you can back up what you are saying with “proof”. Your prospect can see “scientific” or empirical “evidence” that you are telling the “truth”. These are more power words for the person who is paying attention.

Power words attract attention, spur reader curiosity and compel readers to take the action that you want them to take.

Pay More Attention To Your Headline

The 25 to 40 characters that are available to you for your headline are the most important part of your advertisement, hands down.

On most websites, the headline is in bold print. The truth is your prospect will not see your description at all, if their attention is not captured first by your headline.

“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” — William Penn

Test and Track Your Results

If you do not take the time or effort to track your advertising, you will never know what is, or is not, working for you.

Set up different landing pages for your ads to determine which ads are producing results and which ads are failing to deliver on their promise.

This one step will save you more money than you can imagine. It will allow you to dump the dogs and build upon your successes.

Shades Of Gray

Ad tracking will enable you to pinpoint the effect of the slightest changes in wording and presentation.

Changing one word in your headline or description could make the difference between selling one unit and selling 500 units, but without a tracking system that might never be apparent.

Let’s compare two headlines:

* Read Our Wealth Tips,

* Read Our Wealth Secrets.

Which of these two headlines is more compelling to you?

Do you see how much of a difference one word can make in your copy?

Play around with your copy to find text that is more likely to compel your reader to visit your website.

The words you use in your copy can make all of the difference in the world.

Stand Above Your Competition

The PPC advertising companies are going to hate me for telling you this, but you don’t need top placement in their search advertising results, if your ad is written better than the ads of your competitors.

The company with the most compelling headline is going to draw the attention of the reader. It’s not uncommon for the advertisement in position five or six to get the click because of a compelling headline and an attention grabbing description.

Fortunately for you, most of your competitors probably do not understand how to write an effective advertisement. This will allow you to quickly jump to the head of the class without spending more money for those higher spots in the PPC bidding process.

Start Small and Take Care With Your Advertising Budget

When you are testing new advertising copy, you should start small. You don’t want to spend $1 a click in a pay-per-click advertising venue, using an advertisement that hasn’t been tested or proven successful. To do otherwise is a waste of valuable resources.

Google Adwords ( http://adwords.google.com ) and Yahoo’s Overture( http://www.overture.com ) systems both require you to start your bidding at five cents a click.

At http://www.7search.com , you can buy advertising for as little as one cent per click.

At http://www.ExactSeek.com, the founding member of the ISEDN
(http://www.ISEDN.org), you can build an ad around a specific keyword phrase for as little as $12 per quarter or $36 per year. Your ad is then displayed through more than 200 ISEDN member websites.

After You Have Mastered The Art Of Advertising

After you have mastered the art and science of advertising, you will learn the most important lesson of all.

All venues can produce exceptional results, if you have written a compelling and effective advertisement.

When you write effective advertising copy, you will be able to convert anyone’s traffic into sales.

Author:  Bill Platt is the owner of http://thePhantomWriters.com He has been ghost writing articles for clients since 1999. And he has been providing his article distribution service since 2001. Bill can be reached by phone from 9:30am to 6pm CST, Monday through Friday at: (405) 780-7327. If you would like to learn more using article marketing to promote your online business, Bill’s website is a treasure trove of information. You may now register at his site to receive daily, weekly or monthly summaries of the articles he distributes for his clients.

Blogging 101: Eight Mistakes That Are Killing Your Blog

By Tony D. Baker in Featured

The first year of keeping a blog is always the hardest. You’re just getting into the game and you haven’t quite learned all the ins and outs of playing just yet. While that’s understandable, if you’re making too many mistakes with your blog, you’ll never have a chance to get it off the ground. Here are eight common blogging mistakes, and steps you can take to avoid them.

1) Ignoring reader comments

You don’t have to respond to every single comment (especially if there are several), but if somebody makes an interesting point or asks a question, answer it. Commenting back encourages readers to start a dialogue and lets them know that you’re listening to what they have to say. Ignoring them sends off the statement that you don’t care about your readers’ thoughts on what you’ve written, and they’ll stop reading.

2) Straying off topic

It’s easier than you’d think to start a blog post with one idea in mind, only to drift away from that to a completely different idea by the end. However, while that rambling might work under some conditions, it’s not good for a blog. People aren’t going to want to read a blog post that wanders around eight different topics like a lazy river. Keep your posts simple and to the point, and you’ll keep more readers.

3) No countermeasure for spam

Spam has infested emails, MySpace, Facebook, forums and blog comments, and nothing will bring your blog down faster than looking in the comments to see that they’re all from somebody in Nigeria who needs to move $1.5 million to the U.S. A spam countermeasure is as simple as a verification box, where people enter a series of letters before they post. Or, you could ask a simple question, like “Is fire hot or cold?” Just do something to ensure that the person posting is actually a person.

4) Looking just like everybody else

You’ve got your blog on your site, right? So why does it look exactly like every single blog found on Blogger, Blogspot or Livejournal?

Using the exact same templates that come with every blog is boring. You don’t look special; you look like everybody else. A unique blog design that matches your website will keep brand consistency for your users. Plus, it will showcase your personality and taste, not the taste of the template designers. For a good example, take a look at this blog: http://www.sleepingtiger.org/blog/

For more ideas on how to spice up your blog, check out this excellent article at David Meerman Scott’s blog: http://www.webinknow.com/2006/09/pimp_out_your_b.html

5) Poor grammar and punctuation

You probably don’t worry too much about grammar, spelling and punctuation when you’re chatting online, but those mistakes in a blog can be a death sentence. Blogs with lousy grammar and punctuation and frequent misspellings come across as unprofessional, and that’s not the image that you want for your business. Edit your blogs and check them for grammtical errors before you ever post.

6) Stale or grandiose writing

Blogs are supposed to provide personal, human insight into your company. They shouldn’t read like bland corporate gibberish, nor should you use so many five-dollar words that your readers would have to hit a dictionary just to understand your post. The former makes your stuff boring; the latter makes it condescending, and either way, people won’t want to read it. Keep your writing simple and lively.

7) Personal attacks

Controversial ideas or topics are good for blogs, as they can spark discussion and attract a lot of attention. However, while controversy is good, stooping to personal attacks is not. You’re writing a professional blog, not picking a grade school fight. Personal attacks will reflect badly on both you and your company, so refrain from it.

Long absences

It’s all right if you can’t post every day. However, letting 10 days, two weeks, or even a month pass without updating is a big blogging no-no. A lack of updates indicates that your blog is on its way out, and readers will quit checking back. Even if you just link to an article or a video that you thought was worth sharing, make an effort to post frequently.

By avoiding these common blogging mistakes, you can keep your blog helpful, interesting, insightful and professional. Take steps to correct your mistakes now and you can make sure that your blog and readers will be around for a long time to come.

Author:  President and founder of Xeal Inc., Tony D. Baker is Oklahoma’s leading Internet marketing expert with more than 10 years of Internet marketing experience. You can catch Tony on the Xeal Radio Show on Sunday nights on 1170 KFAQ Tulsa. Sign up for a free 25-point website evaluation and pick up crucial tips at Xeal’s free Thursday webinar at http://www.xeal.com/webinar.

How I Became #1 on Google and You Can Too!

By Michael Small in Featured

How great would it be to make your website #1 on Google? Trust me, it’s an amazing feeling that words really can’t describe. I can help you experience that feeling, if you have about 15 minutes.

As a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, I’ve had the privilege of helping hundreds get to where they need to be on the world’s best search engines. Now I’d like to help you do the same by sharing the simple three-step process that I personally use to get my client’s site on top of Google, Yahoo and tons of others. It’s very simple to duplicate the process and results usually show sooner than most people expect. Anyway, here goes…

Step 1: How to Find the Best Keywords

Google gets more searches than any other search engine so let’s peek into their database, shall we? Check out https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in any keyword or phrase you can think of that you believe your target audience is looking for. Not only will it give you tons of data on that and related keywords, it will also provide “Additional Keywords to Consider”, which is a section at the bottom of the page.

Here’s a tip worth knowing; Try to use specific keyword phrases whenever possible. Let’s say you have a web-page that deals with floral delivery. Instead of “flowers”, which has 233,000,000 competing pages on Google, try “send flowers”, which has 1/10th the number of competing pages. Better still, think like people speak (I.E./ I’m sending flowers to my mom.) As it turns out, a lot more people are searching for “sending flowers” than are searching “send flowers” and – here’s the best part – “sending flowers” has less than 1% of the competing web-pages as the search term we started with, “flowers”. Now that’s impressive! You have an advantage over about 99.5% of your competitors with just that single tip. Ready for more?

Step 2: How to Get Killer a Domain Name the Search Engines LOVE

If you already have a domain name with a hosted website, you can skip this part. However it’s worth a look if you don’t mind spending a few extra bucks and doubling your search engine real estate.

Most search engines will give you major bonus points if you have your main keyword or keyword phrase in your domain name. It’s even better if words in the phrase are each separated by a dash (-). Let’s try to find a good one for our main keyword phrase “sending flowers.”

If you go to http://www.DomainsBot.com and type in your keywords, you’ll get plenty of choices. I’ll cut to the chase and select “sending-flowers.biz.” A “.com” would have been better, but “.biz” is fine.

By the way, Google and a few other big search engines also consider when your domain name expires. The longer your domain name is “guaranteed” the better. I have found that a five year registration term, or longer, works great.

And don’t forget - If you setup this site and it ranks well, but you want your company’s name as the domain, you can always just redirect that domain name and point it to this site. That way, when people type in your business domain name it will go to the right place. It’s like getting two for one, which is always nice.

Step 3: How to Pick the Host with the Most

Where you host your Web site can make a huge difference. Choose your web hosting company very carefully. Here are some tips:

1. Avoid free hosting. Most search engines don’t think that serious sites (i.e. those worth top ranking) would be hosted on freebies.
2. Consider getting a private static IP address. Your hosting company should provide you with this number and you should be able to contact your site directly with it. Some of the major search engines don’t like ever-changing (dynamic) IP addresses because of problems they’ve had in the past.
3. Steer clear of companies that host banned Web sites, such as those owned by spammers. Search engines might penalize or even ban your web for being associated with such sites. Try to find a hosting company with a “family friendly” policy, like Godaddy.com.

Step 4: How to Get Great Links and Monitor Your Site

Having quality inbound links can account for more than 75% of you search engine optimization success. Getting these links is the crucial step that will get you over the top. Next you need to monitor your progress and your site’s status (how search engine really see it). This will tell you not just where you are – but where you are likely to be. In the old days, we used to do all link work and monitoring by hand – and it took a long time (I averaged about 16 hours per week – per site!) My advice to you is to find a good SEO tool and let it do the work for you. If you get the right product, it’s the best money you’ll ever spend.

I promised I’d show you how I have attained so many #1 placements on Google, Yahoo and more, so here are the two best products I’ve used, with my Top Pick on top:

#1 Pick: SEO Elite http://www.SeoEliteWeb.com (free trial offered) Cost = $167 (lifetime free upgrades and no annual fees) Results: 121 top 5 rankings on Google in three weeks – Mostly 1’s and 2’s. Top Features: Finds best link partners; Automates link process; Provides 100% Site Monitoring Comments: I bought it 2005 and have used every upgrade – never spending another dime. I retired my other three programs after using this for the first three months.

#2 Pick: WebPosition http://www.webposition.com (free trial offered) Cost = $149 SE or $389 Pro (plus $99 per year in subscription fees for either) Results: 44 top 5 rankings in Google in eight weeks – Mostly 3’s and 4’s. Top Features: 100% Site Monitoring; Great reporting; Site Critic Please Note: No automated linking capabilities. Comments: I purchased the professional version and found it most useful for reporting (but still did linking manually)

Step 5: How to get submitted to major search engines fast and free

I use the Submit Express free submission service all the time. It’s great. They’ll submit your site to 40 search engines instantly, at no cost - http://www.submitexpress.com/.

Now you’re ready! Just follow the steps and you can do this with no problem. I’ve been doing it for years and have helped hundreds do the same. Good luck!

Author:  Former Information Technology manager for Harvard University, Michael Small is the founder of free search engine optimization site http://www.SEOpartner.com and author of several well-known search engine optimization books including the SEO Notebook – http://www.theSeoNotebook.com

Deep Linking Strategies For SEO

By Seomul Davis in Featured

Linking is one of the prime areas of any SEO campaign and is considered a key concept that can drive targeted traffic to your website if done the right way. The good news is that Linking is effective and the bad news is that there are many aspects of linking that have undergone severe changes over the years.

One of the good aspects is that one single linking tip can put you way ahead of your competition especially where most webmasters think that all you need is a reciprocal link directory for gaining link popularity in some of the top search engines like Google or Yahoo. If you have already gone through the Google page rank update then you are aware of the fact that directories with hundreds of links are not happening any more. It is being treated as a negative tactic.

There was a time when content was supreme and then it shifted to design and other elements and it has come full circle back to content. Hence more and more people have started to focus their efforts in content. Let us look at a different perspective, maybe an example.

Hypothetically, you have a website with 500 pages of resourceful content. If you want to publish articles on multiple categories then the page number can go higher up. Now on the other hand if you have a website with 30 pages, you can expect it to grow to 500 if you keep publishing articles. Now each of the articles as well as the resource pages is live links to your web site. There are two ways by which you can get links to your website in a given situation and they are:

You can get a link for your home page as a part of an exchange for a link to one of relevant article pages on the site with whom you are doing the exchange.

The second option is deep linking. In deep linking, you will get a link straight to the particular page on your web site, which you are going to link them to. The question is how will it benefit you?

So let us look at the various benefits of deep linking:

1. This will make webmasters excited regarding linking with you/your site simply because you will be putting them on your web site and not on any low rank, low traffic website where people might not visit.
2. This will give a signal to other webmasters that you have studied their website carefully and completely and hence know where their link will fit on your website. It is any day better than a simple swapping of web site links. There is a more meaningful result associated with deep linking.
3. You will start to build link popularity directly on to the pages that are within your web site.
4. You will have the leverage and hence you will be in a position to ask for better links from different web sites. This means that there will be no dumping of links. You will also have the advantage of asking for links of importance from various webmasters.
5. Your links page will grow in value because it will not be crammed with links, it will now have only useful or relevant links.
6. These links will help to direct meaningful or targeted traffic to your website, which in the long-run will generate revenue and provide opportunity for many more traffic spikes.

These benefits are enough to keep your website ahead of competition and will not impact your Google page rank severely even when the next page rank upgrade is released.

Author:  Seomul Davis is a senior SEO Services expert with SEO 1 Services, a Dallas SEO Company.