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The majority of Internet marketers believe that the success is in getting the website ranked high for one or two primary keywords, and they put all the efforts to achieve this goal. This works, but not always.

If your market niche is too popular on the Internet and you have many competitors, it’s very difficult to rank well for 1-2 best keywords. And even if you do this, your success is less likely to be long-lived. Expenses are maximal, output is minimal. Thus, it simply doesn’t worth your effort and time.

Sometimes to achieve better results and convert your website visitors into customers, you need to think outside of the box, be original and unique. No, I don’t mean you need to create a totally new product. You can have one of the products of the kind but approach its marketing and promotion from a different angle.

One of the secrets for a stable success is to rank for long tail keywords (keyword phrases consisting in four, five or more words). It’s much easier to rank for long tail keywords because they are more specific and are not as trite as primary one or two keywords.

Let me show you an example in order you could better understand what I am talking about. Our company sells G-Lock EasyMail software. The first keywords that come into my mind and that I might want to rank for are “email software”, or “email sender”, or “bulk sender” or the like. But there is an incredible number of email senders on the Internet. And if most of email software owners think like me, it will be extremely hard to be in top ten search results for any of those clichés. Thus, I will follow a bit different way. I will look after long tail keywords. To promote my email sender software, I may want to rank for such phrases like:

• Email marketing software solution
• Email sending and tracking solution
• Bulk email marketing services
• Software for permission-based email marketing
• Create and send HTML email newsletter
• Download bulk email marketing software

Got the idea?

Now make a list of long tail keywords relevant to your niche. Write both the singular and plural versions of each keyword phrase if applicable, for example: Bulk email marketing service - Bulk email marketing services, Email marketing software solution - Email marketing software solutions.

Write an article containing 500-1000 words and be sure to link one long tail keyword phrase to your website. You can include a link to your website with a long tail keyword phrase as the anchor text either in the article content or in the Resource box.

When the article is ready, submit it to article directories. Then write a new article, optimize it for another long tail keyword phrase and submit it to directories. Write as many articles as the number of long tail keywords phrases (relevant to your market niche) you can imagine. If you don’t feel like a good writer, you can hire someone to write articles for you.

Together with article submission, you can use directory submission to rank for long tail keywords. When you submit a website to a directory, you need to provide a title that will be then used as the anchor text for your website URL. Just enter one of your long tail keyword phrases in the Title field and it will be linked to your site.

The key is to get ranked for many long tail keyword phrases. You won’t generate much traffic from just one phrase. But if you rank for dozens of long tail keyword sets, the overall traffic can be high and can bring you many new customers.

Yes, copying/pasting a new long tail keyword phrase as the title in each directory can be a tedious and time-consuming work. But now we have a great time-saving solution - Fast Directory Submitter.

With this semi-automatic directory submission tool you can fill in the website profile form only once and enter as many titles (using long tail keywords) and descriptions as you want. When submitting your website to directories, Fast Directory Submitter will automatically fill in the submission form rotating your titles and descriptions from directory to directory. You just need to verify the suggested category, enter the verification code if required by the directory and click Submit button to go to the next directory.

Thus, your website will be submitted using different long tail keyword phrases. When your listings are approved, you will get hundreds of links to your website. After Google indexes those links, you’ll be on the top positions in the search results for long tail keywords.

The article author Julia Gulevich is a technical expert associated with the development of blog commenting software - Fast Blog Finder. You can find a lot more valuable information about how to increase your site popularity by building quality one-way links here: One Way Link Building Tips

Tags: directory submission, free traffic secret, long tail keywords

Many service business owners, once they become busy working with current clients, no longer make the time to market their businesses. It’s only when business has dropped off (and the well is starting to run dry) that they frantically begin marketing their businesses again, anxious to fill in the gaps. When they speak to prospective clients, the prospects can hear the desperation in their voice and are thus unlikely to hire them. Frustrated by rejection, the business owner is off again, desperately seeking more clients. Does this describe your marketing pattern? If so, you’re not alone.

More than 50% of service business owners experience this feast or famine scenario. What if you could create an environment so that the well never ran dry and would permit you to continuously market and promote your business? There is another way to keep yourself supplied with an eagerly waiting list of prospects with whom you can work when you have the time and space in your business. Often referred to as “drip marketing,” this strategy is defined by a deliberate, planned and sequenced system of deploying marketing messages over a period of time. In many cases, drip marketing is conducted through direct mail, but the Internet entrepreneur can create her own drip marketing campaign as well.

Here are 6 secrets you can use to create your online drip marketing campaign and keep prospects in your pipeline:

1. Client attraction device. The best way to get prospects into your marketing funnel is to give away something that would compel them to part with their name and email address and join your list. Often called an “ethical bribe”, your client attraction device must answer a pressing problem experienced by your target market. You can format this information into an ebook, special report, ecourse, audio recording, video, or some combination of all of these.
2. Newsletter: Whether you choose to publish a hard copy newsletter that’s directly mailed to your prospects or an email newsletter that is emailed on a regular schedule to your list, your newsletter is the best “stay in touch” device that you have. Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise.
3. Blog. Business blogging has become more popular than ever. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediate get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader, Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. You need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.
4. Article marketing. One of the best ways to generate traffic to your site or to your blog is to regular write and publish high quality articles that demonstrate your expertise. In addition to placing these articles on your website and blog, you’ll want to get them distributed throughout the Internet on high traffic article directories. Ezine publishers, reporters, print media editors, and bloggers all frequent article directories in search of quality content to present to their readers.
5. Social networking. If you don’t yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board. Business owners are getting prospects on their lists and making sales every day to people they met exclusively through social networking. Best of all, these strategies are free of charge!
6. Public speaking/teleclasses. What better way to wow prospects than for them to hear you speak at an organizational meeting or on a teleclass? Speaking locally to groups comprised of your target market or holding teleclasses are very effective ways to build your list and increase the number of prospective clients. Design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your list.

Don’t become overwhelmed and try all of these strategies at once. Pick one that you find appealing and work at it for 3 months. If you discover that you don’t enjoy it or that it’s not working for you, try another one. Continue to slowly add more drip marketing strategies until the process is firmly ingrained in your day-to-day business practices. Ultimately, you’ll create a list of prospects who are ready, waiting, and eager to hire you.

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Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com

Tags: online marketing, SE Tactics

Yes, that’s right - not every approach to search engine optimization will work as well as others. There are things that work; and other things that don’t work. In order to be a successful optimizer, you have to learn what works and then actually do it - again and again.

As most search engine optimization experts will tell you, there’s basically one important rule of thumb when it comes to optimization. Other than that rule of thumb, everything else boils down to technical details that are subject to change over time.

So what’s that rule of thumb? Basically, try to create a site that is visitor-friendly - i.e. one that provides useful content for people interested in your particular niche. In general, search engines try to create algorithms that find and reward sites that are visitor-friendly and relevant. If yours fits these criteria, you’re probably on the right track.

How can you do this? One basic approach is to try not to over-think things. Instead, focus on creating content that will be useful to your visitors; and try to tightly-focus your site around some particular niche, so that you appeal to a certain crowd.

Another approach - which is the polar opposite - involves starting with the niche-finding process. Rather than starting with a site idea or a product, start by performing keyword research to see what products and services people want to buy (i.e. niches for which there are a lot of searches, but few sites available).

Once you’ve performed this keyword research and have selected a niche, you can then go to work creating sites that will perform well. From here, you will have to start paying attention to some technical details.

The first thing you will want to target is your site template. You should try to use your target keywords in your title tags, header tags, and meta tags. Try not to over-use keywords, as that can get you penalized, but if you can use the right keywords reasonably often, then you’ll notice an improvement in your site’s ranking positions over time.

The next thing you will want to do is target your site content. Without rich, relevant site content, you cannot expect to rank highly in search engines. For this reason, you will want to consider purchasing a batch of high-quality, keyword-optimized articles (350 to 500 words in length). This will buoy your rankings over time, as search engines spider these articles and update their rankings.

The last thing you will want to do is start looking for linking partners. Try to find people who have relevant, but non-competing sites; and ask them if they are interested in exchanging links. By exchanging links, you can both increase the perceived values of your sites (in the eyes of Google, Yahoo, etc.)

And there you have it: a step-by-step template for search engine optimization. All you have to do is optimize tags, optimize content, pursue a solid linking strategy; and, above all else, try to make your site visitor-friendly. If you follow these steps, you’ll find that you’ll not only rank well now, but you’ll continue to rank well after algorithm changes.

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Tags: optimize, SE Tactics, search engine traffic

With recession and (ROI) return on investment staring each other face to face, being brutally honest about the profit and return on your search engine optimization or online marketing campaign has never been so important.

For those who may not have noticed, various industries typically replete with activity in the market-place are coming to a screeching halt as result of inflation and the value of the dollar plummeting on a global scale. The trend for consumers to spend less on impulse items, auxiliary products or services and more on bare essentials continues to escalate as a result of a weakened economic state.Online sales are just one region taking the hit as the sales cycle and the consumers within this cycle are looking for greater value at the fair price. Needless to say, due diligence has taken on an entirely new definition as the business with the best offer, sale or SEO promotion gain the favor of the masses. To appease such value-conscious times, refining your content to represent the most compelling and tactful value proposition is necessary to supplement slouching sales and traffic (less money equates to less spending).

Despite this economic recession, observing the latest trends in competitive verticals while forecasting demand to convert new prospects into customers has become as much of an art as a science.

Incentives and promotions for cross-market exposure are just one example of businesses with larger budgets attempting to infuse and find the ideal hybrid shopper and capitalize on the vulnerability of other markets. Sign up for Product A (from one market) and receive a free 30 day trial period, or get 15% off your favorite movie, etc. from Industry B. In summary, the emotional triggers that incline consumers to purchase are evolving as well as those who are crafting the offer.

This is because tactics that may have worked 6 months or a year ago online or promotional methods based on years of success and stability from traditional offline channels no longer hold their sway over the masses as value is subjugated to the rules of survival of the fittest.

Is it the fact that A) the market is evolving, B) that money is tighter, C) the fact that online consumers are savvier than ever or D) a combination of all of the above? Typically, those with larger budgets (like publicly traded companies) wield the spoils of a collective advertising and marketing campaign piggybacking promotions on industries with less favorable returns (much like trickle-down economics).

This is not to suggest that smaller more nimble companies do not stand a chance, it is merely that the scalability of an advertising campaign designed to optimize 1000 keywords for example vs. a smaller company who may only have the budget to target 10 leaves a margin of opportunity and exposure that unfortunately provides advantages that the smaller firm may not be able to grasp due to budgetary constraints.

Now is the time to take advantage of narrow-casting instead of generalized broadcasting your message to reach the audience with the most likelihood for conversion.

Business is business and opportunity and expression determine the course of action for websites that need to produce a profit to survive. While being a highly trafficked site may be great for the ego, having a highly trafficked site that sells thousands of products, generates dozens of sales leads a day or has viral appeal to social networks is even more better.

In summary, make sure you identify your audience, growth is nice but stability amidst crisis is even better. Looking for greener grass instead of tending the yard you have can leave your marketing plan depleted and out of focus. It’s better to have 10% of something than 90% of nothing, so make sure before you extend your scope of the market to reach new prospects, you reap the equity of the authority and presence you have developed in your primary niche.

Healthy margins are the bottom line, so if you have them, then this message is not nearly as crucial as it is to those who are feeling the impact of a languishing economic crisis in their industry. SEO is a valid solution, but also being aware of the trends and circumstances that impact everyone in an economy can shed some light on why some periods are more fruitful than others. The key is not to get flustered and diversify your tactics to spread the risk and reward for your online campaign.

Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

Tags: online marketing, roi, SE Tactics, seo

SEO is the foundation of your marketing campaign - at least it should be. Aside from any other marketing that you participate in, you should also make sure your site is ranked in the top of the engines so you can tap into the millions (actually over 400 million) searches performed daily.

So, how do you pick an SEO Firm? It is a very important decision.

I was talking to a man recently who told me the problem was he didn’t even know what questions to ask, let alone how to evaluate the answers.

Here is some guidance on what to ask and what to expect in response.

Do you have any initial or set up fees? How much and what are they for? Are there ongoing fees and how much are they?

They should be able to outline all fees and tell you exactly what is included. Different firms price things differently. If they require full payment up front, that may concern me. Most firms will require some payment up front, and that is to be expected. You need to look at what they are proposing, make sure it is clear to you and make sure you are OK with it.

Is monthly maintenance necessary?

Any SEO Firm that knows what they are talking about should tell you that maintenance and monitoring of rankings is required to ensure you don’t start losing rankings. If they tell you that you will lose rankings as soon as you leave them, they are lying—or more accurately they are just guessing. They don’t really know for sure. However experience shows us that rankings do tend to maintain until the next major algorithm shift and then if no one is maintaining them for you, they may begin to drop. SEO is not the kind of thing you do once and then you are done. To maintain and hopefully even increase your rankings, you need to have someone continually working on your behalf. Alternatively, you could learn to handle some of the maintenance items yourself. But the key is to realize that someone needs to monitor your rankings and work on your in order to hold on to your top rankings and grow them. Don’t forget the engines themselves reported that approximately 25% of searches each month are never before seen phrases. So, at the very least you’ll want to monitor what new phrases are popping up and make sure you are getting exposure for them.

How long is my term of service?

Typically you should hear anywhere from 3—12 months. Anything less than 3 months isn’t long enough to see any matured results. Six months seems to be the industry standard middle ground. With six months you aren’t locked in too long, but it does allow time for the campaign to mature.

Do you offer a Guarantee?

Contrary to popular belief, guarantees aren’t all bad. You just have to make sure you aren’t being promised something that no one can actually deliver.

- Top rankings in less than 30 days? Not likely.

- Guaranteed amount of site visitors or conversions? With regular SEO and no other services no SEO Firm can guarantee the precise number of visitors or the conversion rates.

- If you are told you will get rankings on a precise keyword within a precise amount of time, that just isn’t possible unless they are doing PPC or have magic fairy dust.

The kind of guarantee that is safe is the kind where the company states they don’t control the engines and can’t predict exact timeframes but they will not stop working until they have delivered what they promised (ex: 20 rankings within the top 20 for 6 months—so they may have to work 8 or 9 months of real time to deliver the full 6 months of “guaranteed” time.) This offers you protection but it also honest and lets you know that the Firm does not control the engines.

Do I own the work you do for me? Where does it reside?

The answers should be: yes you own the work (once it is paid for in full) and it resides on your server. If they are hosting content on another server or another domain, you want to think twice before getting involved.

Do you provide regular reports and how often are they provided?

You should be provided reports once a month to show the results and your site’s rankings.

When will I start seeing results?

That is a question that varies from site to site. Your site’s history and competitiveness of the industry are big factors and the SEO firm should try to answer honestly considering what they know about your site. Any blanket statement is just a guess. They could also tell you their average time for other clients and that is a good indicator of what you could expect.

What engines do you submit to?

This could change as things in the industry change. Basically you’ll want to look at the list of engines they give you and make sure you have heard of them all. Most Firms focus on the Big 3 (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) and then about 6 or so other engines.

What about past results?

Do you provide references and testimonials? The answer should be YES! They should be happy to show off past results.

What techniques do you use to optimize my site?

An ethical SEO Firm will focus on content and on-page optimization as the foundation. They should also look at whether you are in need of links and may include linking as part of their strategy. More people tend to get links on their own, but they don’t focus on the on-page portion, so maybe all you need is the on-page work. The SEO Firm should evaluate that and let you know what your specific needs are.

They shouldn’t hide any text or code on your site, and they should be willing to explain every step of their process and not want to hide any information from you.

If they tell you they have a special relationship with Google, or proprietary techniques that should be a warning sign to you.

Do I have access to anyone on your staff, so I receive personalized service and can ask questions at anytime?

The answer should be yes. SEO can be confusing and you need a Firm that will work FOR you and WITH you.

Any SEO Firm that is worth working with should be happy to spend time going over each of these questions with you. Selecting an SEO Firm can feel intimidating but if you use these questions as a guide and follow your instincts, you should be fine.

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Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

Tags: marketing online, SE Tactics, seo firm, social media

The importance of evaluating the effects of SEO over time using analytics is imperative for your optimization efforts.

For example, it is a well known fact that the modifier “How To” is a great hook. Both for the reader and for search engines. This was inspired by a post I wrote approximately 9 months ago entitled “How to Optimize New Web Pages”, shortly thereafter it hit the #1 spot and remained to this day.That’s great, if that were the case “all of the time”, but in reality, you have to go back and reassess each of your contributing keywords to ensure that they are properly nourished and don’t just drop out of sight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: keywords

It is no secret that to gain a competitive edge, you need competitive SEO for your business to thrive. How many times have you went to sleep singing praises about securing a new high ranking position only to wake up in the morning to see it vanish into thin air?

The is nothing more disenheartening than this experience (if you rely too heavily on a narrow group of keywords or phrases). To maintain a competitive advantage in the SERPs (search engine result pages) and reach the top unscathed, training and diversity should be part of your SEO regiment.They say that competition to brings out the best in us, as a martial artist for the past 29 years, the analogies between SEO and martial arts have various characteristics in common. Survival in the SERPs and gaining a competitive edge is a full-time responsibility, so if you cannot commit, it is better to find an SEO company that can. SEO and martial arts are like tea, you have to keep them warm.

Fundamentals such as:

• Knowing your limitations of your technique
• Having impeccable timing to block and overcome the advances of your opponents (through scaling content or links).
• and Knowing how to look for the weakness in the armor of the opponent (overconfidence, over-commitment to a weaker of outdated technique or not enough depth to see the bigger picture).

These basic steps will provide security and stability amidst the numerous bouts that will ensue as a result of your competition. The impending fear or rather concern of a knock out (from your position) while you are engaging your opponents teaches you how to move with stealth and how to block the attacks (on your position) from your competitors as you gain relevance and momentum in your niche.

For some competitors, their weakness is stance (site structure) or poor tags, for others, it is relying too heavily on one technique (link building without content or content without relevance). The fact remains, if your pages are in the top 10, then you have a target painted on your back from all of the pages beneath you, who are relentless in their assault to reach the goal (claiming your spot). So you need to stay busy unless you want to start at the back of the line.

It is no secret that search engine optimization is competitive. Some keywords are so competitive in fact, that weeks or months can pass to bring them up steadily in the rankings (either through links, relevance of trust).

Once you do, there is no guarantee that they will stick (unless you continue to monitor and refine your SEO technique). The moral of the story, stay nimble, diversify your methods (since everything leaves a trail) and never give up until you overcome your objective and master the obstacles standing between you and your goal.

Because if you do, you might as well step aside while one of your competitors steps over your position to claim your keywords and your spot as you sit on the sidelines trying to maintain your composure.

Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

Tags: competitive seo

There are literally thousands of internet forums. They are a wonderful place to advertise your business. Best of all, online forums bring free advertising to your business; what is better than free advertising?

Online forums are simply a way to exchange ideas and offer information to others.

There are two main reasons to participate in forums:

1) To answer other people’s questions/comments

2) To post your own original questions/comments.

One of your goals is to promote your expertise in your particular industry. Remember, people are attracted to leaders and if you come to the forums with a leadership mentality ‘ people will begin to seek out your advice and counsel.

How to Participate in a Forum

Simply click on a link at the bottom of this page to log into an online forum.

- Create your free account (including username and password; keep the same username, password and signature for all the forums that you belong to)

- Create your signature file (an ad placed at the end of each of your forum posts). This signature file is of the upmost importance! It advertises your business to everyone that is in these forums. The more posts that you make on online forums, the more people will potentially be exposed to your website (through your signature file).

Here are 10 sample signature files that you can use for your home-based business:

Finally….an Honest AND Lucrative Home-Based Business Are You Ready to Make $5,000 a Week?

Dreams CAN Come True! Take Part in a 7-Trillion Dollar Industry! Don’t Let Another Day Pass You By… You Deserve Prosperity! It’s Time to Change Your Life! EVERYONE Loves to Travel. Tired of Living Paycheck to Paycheck? It’s Time to Plug Into Success!

You then “hide” your URL inside of the signature file. This can be done by clicking on the button that says “link” and then typing your URL inside of this pop-up box.

Remember, some people will help you out a great deal; others will be negative and difficult. Don’t let the negative people depress you. Keep your focus always positive! Don’t get into fights or “yell” at people online. You want your posts to always remain positive and helpful, no matter what!

RULES FOR FORUM POSTING:

- You can post in any forum that is interesting to you. Although the “Main Discussion” areas will have the most activity, experiment and get to know the people in the different online communities. You will find that they offer an enormous amount of support and free tips. They will, in essence, become your friends as you travel through your online adventures!

- Make sure that when you respond to posts you never blatantly advertise your business. BLATANT ADVERTISING IS HEAVILY FROWNED UPON! Instead, offer comments, suggestions, and questions. Remember, your advertising is in your sig file.

- In addition, your posts should always add fresh insight to the discussion. - If you decide to begin a new post, take the time to look back over the previous original posts to make sure that no one has posted on that topic before. If there is a similar post, join that discussion instead.

HOW TO POST YOUR REPLY:

- Click on the Title of the discussion that you would like to contribute to

- Click on “Reply to Topic”

- Type you reply in the new page

- Click “Preview” to look-over your post

- Click “New Reply”

Your job in forums is to establish new relationships with people. Once people begin to see you as a leader and an expert, they will be much more open to hearing about your business!

Jessica Swanson is an extremely successful entrepreneur, marketer and life coach who has achieved a high six-figure income. She has mentored hundreds of others to achieve the same results. You can visit her at http://www.unlimitedprosperityteam.com

Tags: forum marketing, SE Tactics

Putting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent. Now it’s a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality. Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Learn how you can start making a fantastic income working from home with your family and using your home computer.http://nehoma.com/grabri506.For more great tips, visit my blog at http://briggosaffiliatecashsecrets.blogspot.com Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link when you sign up at my website: http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/go/71487/23

Tags: generate traffic, SE Tactics

As technologies converge to more adequately serve their respective audience, it is no surprise that bundling services to facilitate customer loyalty is a common tactic for increasing brand loyalty. Some things just work better together such as SEO and website usability.

It is only a matter of time before search engine optimization evolves and starts to bundle on-page usability services for businesses to complement the off-page optimization process seamlessly. Getting traffic to your site is important, however making sure they easily grasp and engage your content is even more important.

Search Engine Optimization can benefit from implementing facets borrowed from web usability analysis such as identifying the mental model of the target audience. Similarly in SEO the focus is on keywords, whereas the focus should equally implement removing unnecessary steps that preclude users from reaching an optimal degree of satisfaction.

Until now, the process of SEO was rather one-dimensional in regard to embracing the prospect behind the search as the focus was contingent on keywords or key phrases instead of the user experience. Usability is the natural evolution of on-page search engine optimization and the science of user interaction.

The New SEO Model Places Equal Emphasis on User Retention

The new proposed holistic model of SEO and usability is all-encompassing and includes tactics for optimizing every facet of conversion process starting with the method a potential prospect may use to find the target site. Engagement metrics such as what they do when they get there (task analysis) and how satisfied they where when they depart inevitably impact the impression of your brand to the prospect and how likely it is to appeal to others from that genre.

This is the next logical step for online marketing services as advertising and branding are not as clear-cut and obvious online. Using analytics to capture search data, such as younger generations use search engines 50% more to find content than older demographic profiles, who have a higher propensity for using links by contrast to find content online.

Applying the information gathered from statistics on search behavior could preemptively impact how you choose to market your services to each respective audience. For example, if your target audience is 45-55 years old, then focusing on more contextual content (like reviews, press releases or news sources) and using links to promote your website could increase conversion and click through rates dynamically, instead of using PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising) and expecting that group of consumers to find or click your advertisements in search engines.

In essence, catering to the natural tendency of the prospect is the key to unlocking your sites hidden potential and funneling droves of traffic to your pages. By leveraging the continuity of their expectations known as population stereotypes (what prospects expect to see) and your ability to deliver solutions. You can position your value-proposition tactfully and naturally capture a larger percentage of a market segment. Not through random assumptions, but rather through factual data gathered from analytics, usability studies and statistics.

The Expansion of the Definition of Design

To reference the topic of design, components such as font selection, color choice and how intuitive your site navigation is structured inevitably impacts the emotional state of the reader. A site that is designed for a teenage user may not go over will with the 35 and up demographic, nor would large 16 point fonts and colors with high saturation appeal to the 20’s crowd (since it lacks aesthetic appeal).

This is the value of usability, knowing what, why and how to reach your audience by studying their habits, interests and known limitations. Adding an 8pt font on an elderly site which has users ranging from 60 years old and up would not facilitate a high degree of user engagement, but on the contrary discourage it. Ironically, many companies either through oversight or ignorance create inherent visual or functional roadblocks that inhibit users from experiencing their content due to disparity or cognitive incongruence.

Just because analytics and research can identify patterns, trends or behavior modifications in a target group, does not mean that the scope of analysis alone is enough for your business to capitalize on it. With content and links patched together with rag-tag code and orphaned pages from poor navigation, sometimes starting fresh with a new site is the best solution.

The Benefits Website Redesign

This is where SEO comes in handy. Working from the data gleaned during analysis, a search engine optimization specialist can then implement themed site architecture, links and organic positioning strategies that when combined with usability task flow analysis create the perfect one-two knockout punch for increasing user engagement.

The objective of search engine optimization is to create the highest degree of thematic relevance to include your content in the top 10 results. The objective of usability is to allow users to execute tasks with the least amount of resistance. Optimization as a whole is realized through this synergy. However, what value does SEO have if your pages violate every known axiom that is conducive to a pleasant user experience?

In order to fully appreciate the range of human emotions and how they pertain to usability and click behavior, concepts such as the VIMM Model (Visual, Intellectual, Memory and Motor) requirements that determine visitor interaction must be taken into consideration.

Does your Design Send Users Packing?

If you introduce a radial button or drop down menu vs. a text field for capturing data, which forces you to enter a value from the keyboard. Then the time you take to remove your hand from the mouse and enter a value affects the overall user experience.

Multiply the effect across each facet of user based input and interaction required and contribute to creating user anxiety which can escalate a higher bounce rate from your pages. This is one minuscule example of usability and application and shows how introducing a simple motor function (such as scrolling) can hinder efficiency when it comes to using your prime website real estate.

Optimized usability sites are those that are self-evident (visually and intellectually) and do not require you to rely on memory (where is that button again), fine motor skills (clicking a 5 pixel target area) or having to perform a mental calculus operation to perform a simple task. Usability is about simplicity, much like optimization is about keeping only the essentials to streamline the theme of your content, links and code.

Keep Only What is Required to Fulfill the Needs of the User

I am not implying a stark minimalist website with one button, but moderation and function should be intimately connected. As a consequence of usability, user engagement can provide statistics based on trial, error and research to provide a basis for modifications to site architecture, navigation, the number of options presented or the structure of your content to satisfy the needs of the target audience.

The implication of design now supersedes previous facets primarily limited to navigation, images and graphic design. Now the term design implies the structure of the information such as the content, the semantic relationships between site architecture and the content, the information silos used to cluster the data to create relevance. Other factors such as contextual relevance determine if such taxonomy allows others to collectively grasp the information to endorse, interact or support it.

This convergence of search engine optimization, usability and analytics offer a distinct advantage over existing companies still employing a shot in the dark mentality when it comes to marketing.

Those who fail to integrate vital user information into a coherent plan of action only facilitate the void that separate the industry leaders from the clueless followers doomed to mimic their past out of the old if it isn’t broken don’t fix it school of thought.

Since it really boils down to objectivity, if a business is content with 1,000 visitors per month while their competition enjoys 100,000 then surely nothing is broken aside from the ambition of the management.

To say that there is always room for improvement is the starting point, but actually having the nerve to move beyond your comfort zone, or the comfort zone of your brand is another. AT&T for example, who we knew as the true blue traditional marketing targeted at adults (in the pre-cell phone era) has now integrated a new look and feel by adding a splash of orange to appeal to a youthful market (just look at the recent successful launch of the bundled ATT voice and data packages with the Apple IPhone).

Engage Your Audience or They Will Find a New Brand that Will

The point being, customers now have the power to embrace your business or ignore it like yesterdays news. Don’t believe it, ask the yellow pages who is still trying to recover as a result of brand stasis.

Moving forward denotes evolution, making intelligent choices that denote logical and emotional stability while creating content worthy of interaction. Such is the business model of the new millennium. This approach transcends colors, fonts, keywords or a call to action, but rather it incorporates a balance of all of the right elements to support a rich user experience.

This is one of many posts to follow over the next few weeks about the topic of SEO and usability and how they both complement branding and exposure. I recently completed The Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design from Human Factors International.

I must admit, the quantity and quality of the information was astounding. Anyone truly interested in learning more about this topic should visit their site and inquire. If and when a course is available, I highly encourage you to take part in their exclusive and in-depth grasp of usability as a whole and their ability to share it so succinctly with others.

Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.