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By Kalena Jordan in Featured

QuestionHi Kalena

I feel like I am stuck with my keyword research.

I am researching SEO keywords for an Australian business that specializes in tree removal and tree felling. The keywords I chose for them were “tree removal” and “tree lopper” however when I enter these into Keyword Discovery for Australia I get nothing (although “tree removal” comes up with quite a bit for global search.

These keywords best describe the business and although the tree removal operator prefers not to be called a tree lopper he is happy for me to use this term for search engine purposes.  Yet when entering these keywords into Google it seems a lot of competitor sites come up.  I am confused!  Can you help?

Louise

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Hello Louise

In my experience, most keyword research tools (such as Keyword Discovery or WordTracker) are highly inconsistent or downright inaccurate when it comes to regional search databases.

What I would do is to use the global database when choosing the best keywords to target and then see how they go in terms of bringing you traffic. You can tweak the keywords as you go based on the response and traffic you get. I would start broad e.g. “tree removal”, “tree felling” and then narrow your market based on the responses you receive e.g. “tree removal [city]“ or “tree felling services”.

Another way to measure your potential regional market is to set up a basic pay per click campaign using Google AdWords, targeting Australia only and targeting the keywords you wish to test. Then monitor the number of impressions that your keywords get. Note I said impressions and not clicks. Set the budget low or design your ads in a way you don’t necessarily attract clicks (so it’s a cheap and dirty experiment).

The number of impressions you get per week will give you a ballpark idea of how many Australian searchers are looking for those particular keywords in Google per week.

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Got a Reader Rescue question of your own? Send it to kjordan [ at ] sitepronews [ dot ] com and you might see it featured here.

By Jerry Bader in Featured

While you were social networking, Facebooking, and Twittering the most influential market demographic has moved on to the new Web. Call it Web 4.0 or whatever you like; the new Web is video-based. And we’re not talking about the homemade efforts you cranked out on your camcorder and laptop; we’re talking professional video. Yes, Martha, the bar has been raised, and if you want to compete you better get your act together. I’ve been preaching this sermon for years but it finally looks like the rest of the Web marketplace has finally caught up. If you don’t believe me, read Erick Hachenburg’s post ” Today’s Entertainment Drivers Are Watching Online Video” in MediaPost’s Blog ‘Online Video Insider” (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=133670&lfe=1).

Hachenburg writes:
” We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in which everything we know about content sites is changing. Just as television rose to rapid dominance in the traditional media world, online video is now rising to dominance in the digital media world. Increasingly, the Web is about video — not text, not pictures.

Video is an inherently powerful way to tell a story. This, of course, also makes it an effective way to communicate an advertising message. It’s about entertainment value and emotional appeal.

… The new 2010 Magid Media Futures study, conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, reveals some important insights into today’s Entertainment Drivers, consumer behavior and preferences in online video, and the reasons brand marketers should consider online video an important part of their media mix.
… So what does this all add up to for today’s marketers? An important shift in the way they connect with the influential consumers who define pop culture, and impact media consumption patterns across demographic groups. Today’s Entertainment Drivers consider online video a primary form of entertainment, making it an integral part of the marketing mix for brand advertisers.”

If you’re serious about turning your website into a new media success then it’s time to get serious about Web video content. It’s better to be slightly ahead of the curve than me-toing your way to Chapter 11

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

By Brian Krassenstein in Featured

WebmastersMuch has been written over the years about the subject of the use of the nofollow attribute by webmasters. What is “nofollow,” when should it be used, does it benefit the site using “nofollow,” are just some of the questions people ask.

Nofollow meta tags simply means that all outgoing links on a page are not followed by the search engines, in particular Google. These nofollowed links are literally given no link juice value by the search engines. The same thing can be had by nofollows on individual links on any given page.

Google advocate webmasters to use “nofollow” if they have paid links on their sites. If it is discovered a webmaster sells link space then Google can penalize that site because it is viewed as a form of cheating by sending the search engines, and visitors, to sites which may not otherwise deserve to get link juice. Unfortunately of course most people who pay for backlinks require that those links are followed to help their own Page Rank.

Dofollow links are viewed as a sign that the sites being linked to are trusted. In other words if you as a webmaster place a link on your site that isn’t nofollow you are giving it a ‘certain seal of approval’ and you trust that site’s content. This is one of the reasons why probably the vast majority of blog owners use nofollow on their blogs’ comments section. Spammers will be less likely to post a link to their poor-quality sites if they know that they won’t get any link juice, though of course that doesn’t prevent a visitor clicking the link and the second site getting a hit. The more certain way is for the blog owner to remove any comments which appear to be spam.

Incidentally, one of the WordPress plugins is called “Nofollow Case by Case.” Since by default WordPress blogs are nofollow on comments what this plugin does is override the default to make some, or if desired, all, comments dofollow. I do know of a few blogs where this plugin has been installed, though it must be said it does tend to get a lot of few-word “thanks for the post” kind of comments. Having said that, it is currently PR3, and ranked high up in the search engines, so Google must be reasonably happy with it.

As a form of reward, Google themselves suggest either automatically, or manually removing the nofollow attribute on links posted by members or users who a blog or forum owner believes makes consistently high-quality posts. Again though, if a forum uses dofollow for all of its comments, even though some posts may be of very poor value, that doesn’t necessarily mean Google penalizes the forum. One forum I know of is a PR3, and very popular with the search engines.

What I do find strange is when I read advice that you should make all your outgoing links on a conventional site, or blog, nofollow. If you are linking to an “authority” site which you believe is of value to your readers and worth directing them to, are you really saying that you don’t trust that site?

And finally, the nofollow attribute can be used even with internal links. If you link to a page on your site which has little importance as far as the search engines are concerned, but is one that you want your visitors to see, don’t give it any link juice by making it nofollow.


Brian is an econ major, and manages the Drunk Punishment site.

By Janelle Elizabeth in Featured

Among the traffic methods that captured my interest was by Gideon Shalwick. Gideon can show you a method that could get you extra traffic to your site by posting your videos in YouTube. That is just an amazing method.

It is easier for me to use videos rather than writing sales letters. It looks more real and gives an interactive experience to the viewer than just words on a page.

What kind of marketing ideas would make your video be unique?

Gideon Shalwick helps his clients make videos and use YouTube to get them tons of traffic to their video or website. Not just traffic but he also helps them monetize it. Posting videos online has a growing potential and you can earn a decent income from it.

Would you believe that there are videos who get millions of views and there is no link provided?

You can actually use videos to earn recurring income. One of them is YouTube. It’s easy to sign up with YouTube’s partner program and serve Adsense Ads on your channel page.

With the right techniques in place, you can earn about $20 – $50 a day with this partner program.

Another simple technique to start with is to make a video of your review about a product and have your affiliate link in the description box.

You can also put your own site if you want to let your viewers do an extra step.

What kind of videos users love on YouTube? If you focus on sales pitches on your videos, this will turn people off and instantly click away.

Give more value to your videos.

A downside in using YouTube is that you have less control over your videos as they can suspend you at any point in time when you do not follow their terms of service or user agreement.

You can even lose all your videos and channel page.

The only thing you need to focus on is getting people to visit your site and use videos as a means to get bonus traffic.

If you become really good at making videos, you can even do it as a service for people who do not have an idea how to do a good one.

It is so simple to create your own video production with a decent camera and some software. You do not have to spend too much for high end equipment.

Companies would go after you if you master the skill of getting pages to show up in Google’s first page.

How to make your videos truly unique: Show your face – Viewers respond better when they can see you.

It allows you to build rapport and a bond with the people. It captures their attention easily and builds trust. Many people do not like talking to an automated voice.

When making an instructional video, you might want to switch from showing yourself and your screen alternately so that your audience will feel that you are there with them and not fall asleep.

Time to remove your fear of being in front of the camera! Some people get scared or shy showing themselves in front of the camera.

Do not worry, Gideon shares some techniques to overcome that obstacle.

Create Interview videos of yourself and someone else – You do not actually have to look at the camera and pretend you are just having a conversation.

Do a Pretend Interview – you can do an interview video on your own where the questions will come from yourself and focus on an object.

Practice makes perfect – Just keep doing it and you will find yourself improving every day. You will get used to it.

Your fear will be removed in no time.

Gideon has written a comprehensive guide to get you started and get you actual results. You can get it here at Rapid Video Marketing.


Using videos online can give you billions of bonus traffic to your site. Just imagine the many possibilities you could do with this incredible traffic. Get started and get the actual results with Rapid Video Marketing by Gideon Shalwick. http://www.buywithbonus.com/video/how-to-get-billions-of-bonus-traffic-to-your-site-using-videos/

By Enzo F. Cesario in Featured

brand storyNo one with any degree of sanity can safely dismiss the impact of Twitter. Everyone of note is using it, as are about half the people who aren’t of note. Most of the latter category are either watching the people who are of note, or doing their best to become one of them. Other social media services may have equal popularity, but none has changed the fundamental way people communicate as much as this little service that forces them to compress their thoughts into 140 characters or less.

Follow Me!

One of the most useful features of Twitter is the ‘follow’ function. Following someone on Twitter means his or her posts automatically go to your homepage. You can further customize this by creating lists, which will affect which time-line various users will appear in.

However, remember that your homepage is visible to everyone who has the link, whether they’re following you or not. Just having your link lets them see who you’re following, and who’s following you in particular. In the effort to establish a proper awareness of a brand, the company one keeps is exceedingly important. As a result, learning to manage both the following and followed by functions on your Twitter account is extremely important to a web branding effort.

Whom to Follow

Choosing whom to follow can seem like a simple task, and at the heart of things it genuinely is. For a private account, you follow who strikes your interests and leave it at that. For a brand-driven account, however, a bit of selectivity is important.

First, choose accounts that sync with the key interests of your brand. One of the keys to good brand management is focus.
Everyone your account follows will have their messages displayed, so it pays to make sure those messages are bringing up information that reminds people about what you want them to think of.

Second, it is vital that you choose accounts that post actively. Twitter is a short message service, not a traditional blog. The content is too minimal for you to rely on slow posters, so before you put someone on follow make sure they are inclined to post on a regular basis. Content is still everything, after all.

Third, limit the accounts your brand is following based on your audience. Following two hundred others might keep your feed going very steadily, but it also means your audience could miss important messages in the scroll-over. Be selective; don’t jam the channel with so many data – no matter how vital – that it all becomes noise. Force yourself to choose only the most relevant options. The emphasis on quality over quantity will prove invaluable in the highly critical realms of the web.

When NOT to Follow

It might sound a bit mercenary, but it is important to be relentlessly critical of the feeds you are following. The web is a judgmental place, and despite the stereotypical depictions in the media it is also a place with an exceptionally long memory. As a case in point, during Ron Paul’s most recent presidential campaign, articles from a magazine he edited years ago were brought into evidence. The web is like this with everything.

If someone your feed is following posts something that goes against your brand image, block them. It can be as innocuous as a difference of opinion, or as outrageous as a racially insensitive remark, but be assured someone somewhere has a record. Post about it, and put up a notification as to your decision. Cover your bases, instead of giving the benefit of the doubt.

Presenting the Picture

Of course, there are occasions when you might want to follow someone whose image contradicts your own. There is no hard and fast rule, after all. Remember, for example, that you can compose lists that display users in managed groups. This is a valuable tool that can create the all-important context necessary for good brand management and promotion.

For example, consider a brand that promotes environmental awareness and social activism. It might be odd to see them following a blog from a petrol company, but the list they put this company in makes all the difference. This list might be, for speculation purposes, a watchdog collection of all the major industrial concerns in an area. When the companies promote a new initiative or claim they’re helping the local environment in their tweets, the watchdogs can post a Twitter link to a news article linking them to dangerous practices, and so forth.

So despite the above rule of caution in association, it is equally important to remember that no rule is ironclad. Do what the situation warrants, adapting your techniques to the moment available.

Policing the Audience

The composite of who follows your feed says as much about your group as the composite of whom you’re following. A little pruning is often in order. Yes, sometimes the following list can be so large as to make it difficult to manage. Stephen Fry, a famous English comedian, has 1.5 million people following his account.

Still, pay at least some attention to the ‘followed by’ feed. Randomly select one or two every day to see what they’re saying. This is a great way to get aware of what kind of perception you have in the web community, and to do something about it, if need be. Additionally, if you happen to come across a troublemaker you’d rather not have associated with your account, well, so much the better.


Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to www.BrandSplat.com or visit our blog at www.iBrandCasting.com

By Forrest Yingling in Featured

Many folks today do not realize just how powerful viral marketing is and how much potential it has.  Viral marketing revolves around creating an intense buzz on the Internet. It is a truly powerful concept that causes viral campaigns to spread pandemically around the Internet with a rapid intensity.  If used properly, it can be a very successful marketing technique for your business.

One thing that we can all be sure of is that viral marketing works and it works very well.  In this age of high-speed communications – when a message or video can travel around the world multiple times in a matter of minutes or even seconds – advertisers have to learn to use that to their advantage.  Viral marketing is not just for the big fish either.  A viral marketing campaign does not have to be expensive or expansive and can be utilized by businesses of any size.  The campaign need only be creative, catch the attention of its audience and spread around the Internet like wildfire thanks to people referring others to the campaign.

This referral process has become even easier nowadays with services like RSS Feeds, social bookmarking, AddThis or ShareThis, Twitter’s “retweet” function and Facebook’s “like” and “share” buttons.  You no longer even have to forward an email or send a message, a user of a social network like Facebook or Twitter can simply click on a “Share” link and send the viral marketing material to all of their friends, fans or followers.

The first component of the viral marketing process is the actual creative material itself.  Will you use a picture, article, video or text?  Something as simple as the headline of a news article can be viral on the Internet.  If you can think of a creative way to promote your products or services that will strike a chord with people and make them laugh, cry, feel inspired or any other emotion then they will want to share what they have seen, read or heard with their friends, family, co-workers, neighbors or any others in their social circle.  Then the web of content sharing has begun and it’s “gone viral.”  It is truly amazing how fast something can go viral online and spread throughout the world in a matter of minutes.

After you create the viral campaign then you must “seed” it by planting it at strategic places on the Internet.  There must be a distribution network to get your campaign to the masses so you need to figure out what online mediums will work best for spreading your marketing to the masses.  Perhaps you start with making a video, uploading it to YouTube and sharing it with your Facebook friends, your newsletter mailing list and any other contacts you might have.  Then you can use social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. for a further reach.

If you strategically and intelligently use viral marketing techniques in your e-commerce business then you should find them an effective promotional tool.  Viral marketing is a tremendous way to build a ton of links in a little amount of time.  This is great SEO practice for your business and can help you climb up the SERP (search engine results page) in o time!


Forrest Yingling is the Marketing Director for WebNet Hosting, a Premier Partner Miva Merchant Web Host since 2004.  WebNet Hosting provides reliable, fully PCI Compliant Hosting and e-commerce solutions at the industry’s most affordable prices.

By Bradley Hess in Featured

content writingCreating excellent content is a key element of optimizing your online presence, but once you have created fantastic information you need to disseminate it. You may be one fantastic source of information, but if nobody hears you, does it matter? Make sure that you aren’t leaving out the step that will get you heard. We have compiled a list of the 5 best practices for content distribution:

1. Blogger Connections: You aren’t the only blogger out there. This may seem like a bad thing sometimes when there are so many other blogs to read. How will your blog get read if there are so many others that have equally great content? The trick is to get your content on blogs that are already being read. There are many wonderful blogs that get a lot of their content from guest bloggers. You can submit articles that you have already published on your own blog or create something new that you think the particular blogger would like for their blog. They may even have a request for a specific kind of content they would like from those interested in guest blogging.

By Daljeet Sidhu in Featured

webdesign3Every business aspires to showcase itself on the internet. Website development is a tedious process that could be stressful at times. Below are some tips to get web development projects finished on time and within a planned budget. To know about suggestions that could prove helpful in development of new website as well as improvement of an existing one, read on.

Careful Groundwork

A thorough groundwork is a necessity for successful web site development. Crucial considerations include the number of pages that the website should have, or what should the graphics look like, etc should be taken in advance.

These choices can be classified into two types. Ones that include issues associated to the customers and the ones that include issues related to the company whose site is to be developed.

The audience related decisions include the identification of the target users, ways to inform them about the site, their areas of interest, ways to make them interact with the site, the kind of content that would drive them to the site on a regular basis, and so on.

Decisions related to the company include the purpose of the website, whether it is to educate the user or to sell something, to entertain or to offer services; where the web content would be sourced from, how frequently would the site be updated, and the yardsticks for performance measurement.

A successful website development project must include the above mentioned pointers during its initial stages. These prove to be immensely useful during the later parts of the project. Based on this, the developers may devise further strategies that may include introduction of interactive formats on the website such as blogs, live chats, videos, forums, animation, databases interfaces or registration forms.

Customized Web Design Templates

Most web designing companies generally offer attractive web templates. These can be used on an as-it-is basis in creating affordable websites quickly and easily. If they choose, the clients are able to pick the basic website design along with modest modifications that might include font sizes, color schemes, etc. However, these templates present low flexibility with only a slight scope for modification. Quite often the photos or the logos need to be carefully created keeping in mind the height to width ration and resolution.

These templates however, are of great help to novice designers due to their easy-to-use modules and guide them step by step. If yours is a sophisticated project, it is very important to invest in custom web design for better results.

Custom web designs offer far more opportunities to website developers than template designs. Design firms that are well versed with these find it easier to unleash their potential while at the same time, keeping into consideration the all-round requirements of the clients. The website should be able to deliver the basic purpose of its creation. In order to increase traffic to the site, it should be simple, user-friendly and appealing.

A Perfect Blend of Attractiveness and Ease of Use

A website must be easy to use and attractive in terms of both, designs and technology. For this purpose, expertise of talented web designers must be sought during its creation or up gradation. A website must be pleasing to look at, easy to use and must have the necessary keywords and meta tags for optimization for search engines. A proper amalgamation of beauty, ease of use and search engine optimization is a prerequisite for an effective website.


Daljeet Sidhu is at TradeSeam B2B Marketplace. Web design quotes. Great website design blog

By Frank Breinling in Featured

bloggingSetting up a blog on Blogger is quite easy. The first thing you want to do is to set up a Google account for the blog. You can do this by going to Blogger.com and then following the link in the resources section.

It takes about 2 or 3 minutes to set up a Google account. If you already have a Google account you can use it if you wish.

After you have set up your Google account you should go back to Blogger.com and sign-in using your Google account username and password. Your username is typically the e-mail address you used when creating the account.

You can set up your account so it remembers your username and password. Only do this if you are on a non-shared computer.

Look for the “Create a blog” option on the dashboard of Blogger. The dashboard is the page you go to every time you log onto your Blogger account. You can manage several blogs from the same dashboard if they were all created with the same Google account.

You will be asked to name your blog. You want to create an easy to remember, easy to find name that makes it clear what your blog is about. Try not to have a blog name that is too long. It will be the first part of the web address of your blog. For example if you name your blog “Teds Tidbits” your URL will be: tedstidbits@blogspot.com.

The next thing you need to do is to choose your template. Blogger has a number of templates to choose from. You do not have to agonize over which template to use because you can change the template at any time.

Write your first official blog post using the template Blogger provided. Feel free to add a picture, etc. Once you submit that first blog posting you will be able to view your new blog, edit the posting, etc.

At this point you can personalize your blog so it stands out. Many different aspects of the blog can be changed, moved around, etc. Click on the “Layout” option and start to make your blog stand out from the other blogs out there. You can undo virtually anything that you do so do not be shy to experiment with different layouts for your blog.

Once you finish your layout you are done. I wish you Happy blogging!


Frank Breinling is a recognized expert in Affiliate Marketing. Here you can grab his FREE Report about Affiliate Marketing Ideas http://breinling.com , his newest Project about Social Bookmarking you can find here, http://cashyourwebsite.com

By Martin Sejas in Featured

SEO tacticsAny website owner wants their website to be ranking well for those keywords which will mean that targeted visitors arrive on their website and possibly turn into customers or clients.

A website’s ranking on search engines (especially Google) is quite important when you take into account the following important statistics:

- 90% of users don’t go past the Page 1 of Google
- 42% of users click on the website on position 1, 12.5% on position 2 and only 8% on position 3

What does this all mean?

This means that if your website is not on Page 1 of Google and in the top 3 positions, then you are effectively missing out on more than 60% of potential visitors (and customers for that matter).

If your website isn’t currently in a good position on the search engines, don’t panic! There are many things you can do to move its rankings up. Below is a list of website ranking factors from the most important:

URL

If you want to rank for a certain keyword, it’s absolutely vital that you have that keyword in your domain name. If you feel tempted to use your company or brand name instead, keep in mind that the goal of ranking at number 1 for your main keyword will only get much harder if you do so.

Domain Age

If you register a brand new domain name, you are going to be starting from scratch. However, a start is a start and as the months and years go by, your website will benefit immensely from this factor. On the other hand, you can get a head start by purchasing an expired domain name which does not currently have an owner. Just make sure that it hasn’t been banned by the search engines before purchasing.

Title Tag

Having the keyword in the title tag of your home page is a MUST. There are many websites which still use their brand name or company name in their title tag which make ranking for target keywords even harder. This is a ranking factor that is applicable to all pages on your website.

Page Structure

Optimize each page on your website for just 1 keyword. Every page on your website should only be optimized for one keyword. Any more and ranking for your target keywords will be that much difficult. Your home page should target the main keyword while other pages should target related, long tailed keywords.

Keyword Density

It’s important that you mention the keyword you are targeting on the relevant page. A good density to aim for is 3% which means that your target keyword only makes up 3% of the text on the page. Any more and your page could be seen as being spammy.

Backlinks

You’re probably wondering why backlinks is at the bottom of the list when it is an important factor in getting website rankings. The reason why I put it down there is to emphasize getting your website set up right first before getting backlinks. Getting hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to a website which is incorrectly optimized will diminish the value of each link in getting rankings.

On the subject of backlinks, it’s important that you get them from a variety of sources while using a variety of anchor text.

The key to a successful website in terms of getting targeted traffic and customers is all in this article. Read it many times over if you have to. Simply get these website ranking factors right and you will have a immensely successful website before you know it.


Martin Sejas provides an Internet marketing consulting service for people who want to establish an online presence for their business or dramatically improve their current online presence today. You can register for a free consultation today. www.internetmarketingadvice.com.au

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