Top Rankings Maintenance For Google

Over the many years of marketing online, one point has been driven home to me time and again, you must not only get those top rankings in Google for your chosen keyword phrases – but you must maintain them. In other words, you must not only get those top rankings but you must keep them at the top.

Rankings maintenance, link maintenance… call it what you will, for most competitive keywords in Google, if you want to stay at the top you will have to constantly build quality links to your featured web page. Now, there are exceptions, if your domain contains exactly the keyword phrase then this ranking factor alone will probably keep you at the top of the pile.

However, in most cases, my own experiences have shown, if you don’t regularly add links pointing to your promoted web page it will fall off the first page in Google. For very lucrative keywords, this can prove very costly.

One of the easiest ways to build quality one-way links to your web pages is to write keyworded articles and submit them to the many free online article directories. This alone will usually keep your top rankings in Google – I have been doing this for over 7 or 8 years and have consistently kept my listings at the top of Google. If I don’t regularly write these articles, my rankings will fall off the first page in Google.

But article marketing has lost some of its muster in recent years, mainly because of the growng importance of social bookmarking sites in search engine rankings. Obviously, another marketing strategy is to constantly build links to your promoted pages/content through these social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

Most times this is as simple as making it easy for your visitors to bookmark your content. Providing handy bookmark logos and icons will make it easier for your visitors to bookmark your content for you – in the process they’re building valuable one-way links to your web pages and boosting your rankings in the search engines.

Another avenue is YouTube videos… lately I have noticed just getting an active video which receives many comments and good ratings will raise your rankings in Google or rather Google will list your video at the top of their search results which means more targeted traffic to your site or page.
The viral nature of these videos will also help in your link building efforts, since webmasters will often feature the video and also mention/link to your site in the process.

Same goes for Twitter, constantly getting tweets will also keep your page or site in the limelight. Of course, some subtle bribery goes a long way, just offering a free ebook or course if someone tweets your content is a simple, yet very effective way of getting your content noticed more, especially with the search engines.

Another effective tactic is regularly adding keyword related content or pages to your sites and linking back to your promoted page. Don’t overdo this, just naturally add content to your sites as you would normally do and in the process you’re building links to your page, helping you stay at the top in Google.

Regardless of how you go about it, constantly adding links and maintaining your top rankings in Google is a major part of your online marketing. While all this may seem obvious to the professional online marketer, many beginning webmasters and marketers believe once they reach the top in Google, they can sit and relax. They can but after a little while if they don’t maintain and build further links, in most cases these top rankings will soon disappear.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Maintaining Your Top Rankings In Google

Only half joking when I say Google’s new search engine will be YouTube, because there are many strange things happening in Googleland. As a professional search engine marketer I have to keep my eyes glued to what is happening with Google, the most dominant search engine in the North American marketplace, if not the world.

Since my livelihood depends achieving high rankings in the search engines, you more or less become conditioned to jump every time one of them makes a move, especially Google. Recent changes within Google with the Caffeine and the May Updates (we won’t even mention the WonderWheel) had a few of my profitable keyword rankings in Google jumping all over the place.

Well, things have calmed down and everything has fallen back into place and traffic to most of my sites are up. However, even before the dust has settled on those changes, Google is on the move again. There are rumors that Google is developing a Facebook killer, its own social networking site that could compete with Facebook.

Can this be true?

Only Google knows for sure but there are some other concrete changes which already have been made by Google which keeps one wondering. For example, Google has moved the enormous list of YouTube users into its Google Accounts system. You can no longer log into your YouTube account with your old username and password, users must switch and log in through their Google Account.

This is somewhat curious because ever since Google bought it in 2006 for $1.65 billion, YouTube has kept its own brand. Why consolidate it with Google Accounts? Could this move have something to do with the endless stream of data and content which is flowing into YouTube every second? More importantly, does this change now make the handling or manipulation of this data easier for Google to incorporate into its search engine rankings?

This has to be questioned because there are other recent changes within YouTube which are also curious. Users can no longer rate videos on a five star system but must now use a thumbs up for like or a thumbs down for dislike. A much more “Black and White” rating system which is more in line with the one used at Facebook.

Forget the Bing/Yahoo union which has already begun, Facebook is becoming Google’s biggest competitor when it comes to online search. Facebook is showing the traffic and numbers which can make a one-trick pony like Google more than a little jumpy. Google has to compete with Facebook, not only for the attention of the majority of web users, but also now when it comes to online search.

Granted, Facebook is still in its infancy when it comes to search, but its “Like” rating system and search box must have Google paying attention. Keep in mind, Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol doesn’t rely upon keywords but lets users rate the webpages which are most popular or liked. This grass roots consumer or user ranking system will grow in importance as the general surfing public becomes more aware of just how “fake” or “manufactured” organic results are in the major search engines, including Google.

Link buying and selling, keyword positioning, fake software generated content… all are making it hard for search engines to return valid organic results to web users. One obvious solution is to draw more of your organic results from real live voting users who actually rate the content or webpage. These kinds of ratings are much more harder to manipulate by the big multi-national companies who have suddenly realized the pure economic generating power of getting top rankings for lucrative keywords in the search engines.

One would expect the importance of old style backlinks to be replaced by more valuable social bookmarks, such as how many Diggs, Tweets, Facebook and YouTube Likes… will determine what rankings a piece of content receives in the search engines of the very near future. And in the process, one would also expect the already massive corruption of organic search results, to become much more democratic and truly reflect how web users rate content on the web.

Most savvy webmasters have already made it easy for their visitors to bookmark and rate their content by displaying handy social bookmark logos and buttons on their sites. This is probably a wise route to take as the search engines, especially Google, will probably place more emphasis and value on user generated ratings supplied by such sites as Facebook and YouTube.

….
All views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author Titus Hoskins, who is a full-time online marketer. To find out more about him and his sites, just Google his name.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Google’s New Search Engine: YouTube!

Google Is Now Following You On Twitter

Imagine getting that message in your email box. What kind
of reaction would you have?

Would you sing for joy or hit the Twitter Block button
faster than Tom Cruise can jump upon a couch?

Well, for a very select few people, that email from Twitter
arrived this week… Google has opened a Twitter account and
made its first entry on “8:34 PM Feb 25th from web”.

“I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110
01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011
01111001 00001010″

Roughly translated means “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

And Google already has 35,000 followers – bet that number
will reach a million soon.

You can follow Google on Twitter Here:

http://twitter.com/google

Who’s Google following you’re asking? Mostly Googlers and
big-wigs… Biz Stone and Evan Williams – founders of Twitter.
Search engine experts… keep watching that inbox, you never
know, Google could have you in its cross-hairs!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Google Is Now Following You On Twitter

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

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

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

1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.

6. Focus your money on your high-performers.

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

You can learn more here:

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

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

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

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

Slap Yourself Silly!

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

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

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

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

You Must Establish A Good Credit History

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Google’s Adwords Top Tactics For Tough Times

Google Analytics has just gotten better. Google has
introduced Event Tracking to its free premier website
analysis tool – Google Anayltics.

If I had to pick one website analysis tool that has helped
me the most in my 10 years of online marketing it would
have to be Google Analytics. Hands down, this has been
the most valuable marketing tool I have used to improve
my sites and to increase my ROI and conversions.

Perhaps, the most surprising of all, Google gives you
this valuable website analysis tool for free.

Google Analytics

Being a former teacher, I know “knowledge = money” in
most situations and online marketing is certainly no
exception to that rule. The more knowledge you have about
your site, the more successful your site will become.

You really have to know your site inside and out; if you
want it to succeed on the web. Where your visitors are
coming from? Where your visitors go on your site? How long
do they stay on a certain page? What content on your site
converts the best? The questions are endless…

Now Google has introduced Event Tracking within their
Analytics program. I was fortunately enough to get Event
Tracking for my main site profile – www.bizwaremagic.com -
it was like Christmas coming early for me and there is
a Santa!

Why am I so happy about getting this event tracking
on my site? I guess you really have to understand
what Google is actually offering here to know the
reason for my excitement.

Basically, what is Event Tracking?

Here’s Google’s simple explanation:

“Event Tracking allows you to track interactions with
Web 2.0 style content such as Flash, AJAX, Adobe Air,
Silverlight, social networking apps, etc. It essentially
allows you to track interactions beyond just pageviews.”

Event Tracking will use a new “ga.js tracking code”
and you can use this tracking code to record any
user interactions with your website elements – such
as a menu system that uses Flash. This is done
by attaching a particular UI element to any event you
want to track. These tracked events will be displayed
as EVENTS in your Analytics reporting interface.

What all this means is that you can now go beyond
tracking simple pageviews in Analytics to tracking
just about any user activity on your site:

You can track:

Page gadgets
File downloads
Any Flash-driven element,
like a Flash website, or a Flash Movie player
Embedded AJAX page elements
Load times for data

From a marketing perspective this will better
facilitate all tracking of your marketing funnel,
letting you better track your potential customer
in all aspects/interactions on your site. You can
now fine-tune your website tracking to improve your
customer/visitor’s experience on your site.

No matter if your main goal is to make a profit with
your site or whether you simply want to make your
site a more pleasant experience for your visitor
- Event Tracking will give you the “knowledge” to
improve that visitor’s experience.

And that as they say is “priceless.”
You can find out more about Event Tracking here:

Event Tracker Overview

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Event Tracking Now In Google Analytics

Google is celebrating its 10th anniversary
this year. Happy Birthday Google!

One way Google is celebrating this event is
thru funding 10 million dollars for the idea
that can help the most people. An idea that
could have the most impact on our world.

It’s an ingenious way to celebrate Google and
what it stands for… a birthday gift to everyone.

You can find out more about Google Impact Project
here: 10 to the 100

Google Has Already Impacted Many People

Like a lot of webmasters and marketers out there,
I am very grateful to Google. Mainly because
Google has been very good to me and has made
my online livelihood possible with organic
rankings, Adsense revenue, Adwords…

Maybe I could have done it without Google,
but it would have been a much more difficult job.
And it’s very hard to imagine a world without
Google.

It’s also hard to believe Google has only been around
for 10 years… it has made all the difference to
my online marketing. I have used Google and Google
Tools every day for the last six or seven years.

And it seems Google is only getting stronger and
better. The new Google Chrome browser will only
add to the long list of Google’s helpful offerings
to the public.

With this thought in mind, here is my (biased)
list of the most 10 useful marketing tools Google
has produced.

10 Most Valuable Free Google Marketing Tools

Google has become the dominant search engine on
the Internet. It would be hard to imagine a web
without Google. For that matter, it would now be
hard to imagine a world without Google. As frightening
as that may seem to many people, it is none the
less true.

For better or worst, Google has permeated into almost
every aspect of our everyday life. Being Googled is
now a common expression and an act carried out by
millions of users around the world each day. New
Google products and services are coming on stream
at a staggering pace, further increasing Google’s
impact on our lives.

Despite this dominating presence, many people still
don’t realize Google offers some excellent free marketing
tools for marketers and webmasters. Marketing tools which
can prove extremely valuable to any webmaster or marketer
trying to promote their sites or products online. Useful
tools that will make your promotions easier and much more
profitable.

Don’t be fooled by the ‘free’ label, these marketing tools
might be free but there are also valuable. One even wonders
why Google would be giving away these tools and services for
free? It probably makes good business sense in the long
run, by providing these free tools Google is fostering a
lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand
name in the process. Good PR is good business.

Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of
Google’s good-will and snapping up these professionally run
services and marketing tools. Here’s a quick run-down of
the 10 most valuable free Google Internet marketing tools:

1. Google Analytics

Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google.
It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the
webmaster. Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot
of your web site. Google Analytics analyzes your traffic,
where it comes from and what it does once it enters your site.
You can monitor up to three sites for free.

Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your
marketing funnel, it tracks all the steps leading up to your
sales or checkout page. Vital information for raising
your conversion rate and ROI.

You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in
demand service from Google.

Google Analytics

2. Google Sitemaps

Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place
newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index.
This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages
are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable
service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their
information on the web quickly.

Google Sitemaps

3. Google Alerts

Be notified when someone or another site lists your site
or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your
online activities. Great way to monitor all your online
business interests and products.

Google Alerts

4. Google Froogle

Froogle is Google’s price directory! It simply lists all
the cheapest prices for different products on the web.
For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products,
it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your
site’s content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.

Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to
list or display products on your site. Froogle will
spider your site and display your prices and products
to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say,
is priceless.

Google Froogle

5. Google Checkout

Not exactly free but for those marketers who use AdWords
- for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for free.
You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad
and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google
brand name has built up.

Over time marketers may find this tool to be very
effective and valuable.

Google Checkout

6. Google eBlogger

Blogging has become vitally important to the health and
functioning of your web site. No site should be without
at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal)
on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffic
and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple free
blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog
files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog
has that all important Google Blog Search bar.

Google eBlogger

7. Google Toolbar – Enterprise Version

Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar
for your company or business. Integrates countless
features with all your employees or corporate
network. These could include a common customer
database, company calendar, financial news…

Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on
a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of
your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of
your competitor’s pages. You can use the toolbar to get
the PR of each page you’re visiting. Extremely helpful
information for webmasters and marketers to know when
forming online linking or business arrangements.

Google Toolbar

8. Google Groups

Every marketer knows the important of having a large
contact list of people with a similar interest. Social
networking will play an ever increasing role in your
success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity
of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.

Google groups is another form of social and business
networking that every marketer should be aware of and
pursuing.

Google Groups

9. Google Adsense

One simple way to monetize your web content is to
use Google Adsense. Just place the Adsense code
on your site and receive a check from Google each
month. For webmasters who are not really into
online marketing (does such creatures exist?) Adsense
can be a painless way to earn extra income from
your site.

For professional marketers using the Adsense system can
supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the
keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the
marketer informed on what keywords are being bid
on and how much advertisers are willing to pay.

Adsense also has an excellent real-time tracking
system you can use to keep track of all your
important web pages.

Google Adsense

10. Google Docs

A recent addition to Google’s stable of free products.
Google Docs (Writely.com) is a full featured online writing
editor with spellcheck and great collaborating features.
It also lets you publish your content directly to your blogs.
One feature that may be of interest to marketers, it lets
your save files in the popular download format of PDF.

Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four
or five years time – the written word is still king on the
net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells
your content or products. Writely will help you write better.

Google Docs

Honorable Mention – Google Trends

This Google program will let you search popular trends,
important for marketers searching for the latest hot
product to promote. You can also break down these trends
by different regions.

Google Trends

Final Note

Please take note that signing up for a Google account will
usually help you in obtaining most of these free services or
programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for
individually. But be assured, all these free Google marketing
tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your
marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer
run their online business more efficiently.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

10 Most Useful Free Google Marketing Tools

Canonicalization was a big topic a few years back,
which had concerned webmasters worried they were dividing
or diluting their Google PageRank. Should you still use
it or not? Read to find out…

URL Canonicalization – Should You Do It?

Canonicalization was a big topic a few years back, at
least in SEO circles, which had concerned webmasters
worried they were dividing or diluting their Google PageRank.
Was their site’s PR and Link Popularity being messed up by
the old (www.yoursite.com vs. yoursite.com) argument – search
engines were reading those URLs as separate domains although
they were pointing to the same site and content.

Basically, canonicalization was a somewhat strange word
attached to this discussion and process of directing all
your PR/links to one URL – most webmasters prefer the
www.yoursite.com model, although it doesn’t matter as
long as you pick one and stick to it in all your link
building and site construction. Wikipedia uses the words
URL normalization as a way to “determine if two
syntactically different URLs are equivalent.”

Since, unfortunately, we sometimes don’t have control
over how other sites link back to us… many webmasters,
including myself, found they have a lot of backlinks and
PR pointing back to their site’s URL in many formats.
This was not only confusing to the search engines but
the main concern was PageRank dilution. Was this causing
a lower PR rating in that all-important Google Index and
ranking system?

Important question with serious outcomes for those
professional webmasters earning a full-time living
from the web where missteps can prove very costly.

Enter Matt Cutts stage left!

Most readers of this blog will know Matt Cutts is a
Google spokesperson on many SEO issues and canonicalization
is no different. He posted a very informative blog post
on the subject here: Matt Cutts SEO Advice On Url Canonicalization

In a nutshell, if I can be so bold as to summarize such
an enlightened one:

For those webmasters who want all their “ducks in a row”
they should use one style of writing their URL and consistently
sticking to it on all their pages and links. Now if you pick
www.yoursite.com as your “preferred root page” – then you should
make sure you do a permanent (301) redirect for yoursite.com to
the preferred www.yoursite.com.

Matt Cutts points you to Michael Nguyen for how to do redirects
in Apache: Cleaning-Up-Canonical-Urls-With-Redirects/

And to Beyond Ink for 301 redirect in several other platforms.

Matt Cutts also suggests if you want to be extra safe,
you should use the Google’s webmaster console in Webmaster’s
Tools to specify your preferred root page of your domain
either www.yoursite.com or yoursite.com.

Check with the sites listed above to find the full instructions
on how to properly do “.htaccess redirects.” But a simple way
to do this is to add the following code to your site’s .htaccess file:

You’re basically telling the search engines to “rewrite”
or “redirect” all your yoursite.com links to www.yoursite.com;
the [NC] tells them your url is not case sensitive.

Be extremely careful about changing your .htaccess file;
if you’re unsure of what you’re doing – get your webhost
to do it for you or leave it alone.

Mainly because there is a big question – should you use
canonicalization at all? Should you redirect your URLs
to one perferred www.yoursite.com?

As a webmaster with many profitable Google Keywords,
I thought long and hard on this issue. You don’t want
to mess with something that’s working for you – why
change it?

It was also extremely puzzling why Matt Cutts, who
discussed this whole canonicalization issue in detail,
does NOT redirect his site: www.mattcutts.com like he’s
suggesting other webmasters should do if they want to
“make sure that all their webmaster ducks are in a row.”

You can check this out for yourself by testing the
following URLs:

http://www.mattcutts.com

http://mattcutts.com/

The http://mattcutts.com/stays the same when you type
it into your browser. No canonicalization.

Matt Cutts said he may use canonicalization at a later
date but is there really a need? If you do a Google search
you will find only 384 listings (not necessarily live
links) for “http://mattcutts.com/” and 13,000 for
“http://www.mattcutts.com/”.

Likewise, 453 for “http://mattcutts.com/blog”
and 45,400 for “http://www.mattcutts.com/blog”

Yahoo! gives different results but we won’t go there!

In any case, results for a PageRank check doesn’t show
any difference in URL formats:

http://www.mattcutts.com/ PR6
http://mattcutts.com/ PR6

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog PR7
http://mattcutts.com/blog PR7

You should probably check your own site to see how many
links are pointing to the different URLs of your site.
If there’s a large number you might want to consider
canonicalization.

For me it is not a matter of PageRank, but I have several high
ranked keywords in Google which are bouncing from the 1st and
2nd spots – most of my competitors are not using canonical URLs
so I want to test to see if using it will give my home pages a
slight advantage. No test, no glory.

I am gradually switching all my domains to “redirect” to the
www versions. There is no marked difference (one way or the
other) yet in my other keyword/PR rankings but it’s probably
too early to tell. Will keep you posted on the outcomes of
these URL canonicalizations…

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

URL Canonicalization – Should You Do It?

Let’s face it, we all want higher
rankings for our targeted keywords.
So here are 5 Free SEO Tools you can
use to help you achieve those rankings…

5 Free Must Have SEO Tools

Unless you go the PPC route and pay for your
traffic, SEO or Search Engine Optimization will
play a major role in the success or failure of
your website. Therefore, it’s in your best interest
as a webmaster to learn everything you can about
SEO and use the right SEO tools to achieve an
advantage over your competition.

Needless to say, SEO or getting high rankings
for your keywords is extremely competitive,
especially for popular lucrative keyword phrases
which bring in the big bucks. You must be at the
top of your game if you want to compete.

One important factor in winning the SEO battle
is using the right SEO software or tools. Major
online companies use expensive software, hire
SEO firms and have whole departments devoted
entirely to search engine marketing – so you
know your work is cut out for you.

You’re probably asking yourself how can the little
guy compete against such stiff competition? Well,
it is not as difficult as you might think or believe.
For starters, you can use some simple SEO tools
which will help give you a slight advantage if you
use them properly.

Surprisingly, all of these SEO tools are free and
any webmaster can take advantage of them in their
ongoing SEO endeavors. I believe all webmasters must
learn and master SEO in order to succeed online or
get someone else to do it for them.

Over the years I have built up a passable knowledge
of SEO due mainly from running 9 or 10 sites and working
as a full-time online affiliate marketer. My livelihood
depends on me achieving high rankings for my lucrative
keywords in the search engines, mainly in Google. Also the
daily running of two websites on Internet Marketing Tools
has played a small part as well!

Along the way I have used countless SEO tactics and
tools to try to increase my keyword rankings. Here’s
a short list of my most helpful Free SEO tools that
I use on a daily basis in the running of my websites:

1. SEO Book Keyword Research Tool

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

This tells how many searches are made each day
for my targeted keywords. Invaluable information
to have for Search Engine Marketing and for choosing
your keywords. Most experts suggest you go for the
mid to low range keywords if you’re just starting out
and targeting long tail keywords (three or four words)
yields the best returns.

2. Detecting Online Commercial Intention

http://adlab.msn.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx

This MSN tool tells me the probability (percentage)
someone clicking my chosen keywords is likely to buy.
Another great tool for picking keywords if you’re trying
to earn revenue from your sites. Higher the percentage,
the more likely you will make a sale or earn revenue.

3. SeoQuake for Mozilla Firefox

http://www.seoquake.com

This is an addon for Firefox and gives you
invaluable SEO information on any site you’re
viewing. All the important info is here:
Google PageRank, Number of Links, Traffic Rank,
Whois, Keyword Density, NoFollow links… used
in conjunction with Firefox this tool will prove
invaluable.

4. Google Alerts

http://www.google.com/alerts

This is a great SEO tool if you use it to track
and build your links. Just create Google Alerts
for all your major keyword phrases and Google will
keep you updated on current links being formed/indexed
on your keywords. Also great for tracking articles,
urls, competitors… and staying up-to-date in your
niche.

5. WordPress

http://www.wordpress.com

This free blogging software lets you place very
SEO friendly blogs on your sites. Social media,
blogging, tags, RSS feeds… are becoming increasingly
important for online success so you must get your
sites into this whole mix in order to compete.
WordPress is a valuable SEO tool for improving
your keyword rankings. Blogger and Bloglines
are other blogging alternatives you can use.

I use many more SEO tools but these are the top five.
Try some of these handy tools and see if they can
improve your own keyword rankings like they did mine.
No harm in trying and you may be pleasantly surprised
at the results.

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PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

5 Free Must Have SEO Tools

Building backlinks is an essential, yet tedious
job for most webmasters. Here are a few tools
and tips to make that job just a little bit easier…

I am a member of many online forums. Most of these
forums have to do with online marketing and site
promotion. Recently, I came across a post on Ken
Evoy’s SBI forum that truly caught my attention.

It basically described how to use Google Alerts
to build your backlinks. Now for those not familiar
with Google Alerts a little explanation is probably
needed.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free program run by Google
that allows you to keep track of any topic on
the web. You select your “keywords” or “urls”
and Google will alert you via email whenever
links/content containing your selected topics
appear anywhere on the web.

It is an excellent way to keep informed about
your own domain or name. It is also perfect for
keeping up-to-date on the latest information in
your market niche or niches. It’s also a great
way to find out what other people are saying
about you or your site.

For example: if you have a site on “antique cars”
then you would create a Google Alert for those
keywords. Google will alert you by email whenever
a new link/content related to those keywords
appears on the web.

This is a great way to stay informed in your niche,
but it is also a valuable source of potential
linking partners. Many of those links are blogs
that will allow comments with a link back to your
site.

Google Alerts will probably send you 10-20 links
each day, depending on the popularity of your
chosen keywords. Just go to these blogs/links
and see if you can leave a comment with some
valuable additional information on what’s been
discussed.

Don’t Spam

Please Note: Don’t spam; there are intelligent
people behind most of these blogs, and they will
recognize keyword spam when they see it. Your
main goal should be getting targeted traffic back
to your site and any link PR should be secondary.
Always put the reader or viewer first, especially
if it’s on someone else’s site. Don’t talk about
your site or your marketing – just join the conversation
and add your comments/opinions/suggestions…

Enhance their site and they will reward you with
traffic and a link. But you still have to keep
your own interests in the equation! You have to
make sure you get your targeted keywords in the
anchor text.

Keyword Market

First, if you’ve done your homework, your main
keywords should already be in your domain name
or url. Another way is to add your “keywords” +
“guide” to your sig or signature. Such as:
Name, Your Antique Cars Guide. If you’re an
expert in your particular niche, many webmasters
will kindly welcome your comments and links.

Since your main goal is the traffic, many
webmasters don’t worry if there is a “no follow”
attribute attached to the link. But if you are
concerned about this – one way is to look at
the source code to see if it has the “no follow”
tag. I usually copy the whole source code of
the page to my text editor and then do a simple
“no follow” search.

No Follow

There is also a great little free comment tool
called “Comment Kahuna” co-created by Jason
Potash which will search blogs and tell you if
they have the “no-follow” attribute or not, it
will also give you the PageRank of each blog post.
If you’re going to use blogs as a source of
your backlinks, I suggest you try Comment
Kahuna – it will make the task much easier
and it’s free.

Actually, while the “no-follow” issue may be
a concern for some webmasters, the savvy ones
will realize these are links/sites Google is
actively indexing and spidering, otherwise you
wouldn’t get the alert in the first place. You
must get your links into this whole mix of related,
relevant sites to help raise your own rankings.
Also remember the other search engines may not
even consider the “no-follow” tag.

Trackbacks

Likewise, creating trackbacks are another way
of linking relevant content. Keep in mind, a
trackback is simply an acknowledgement via a
ping signal that is sent from Site A (originator)
to Site B (receptor). Then the receptor often
places a link back to Site A showing its worthiness.

Again, I am mainly concerned with the quality
of the blog or link, rather than the linking
structure. I want the targeted traffic, and it
doesn’t really matter whether the link has
“no follow” because interested visitors only
see a link they can click for other helpful
information.

Other Linking Options

Since we are on the topic of link building,
another useful way to build backlinks is to
use Google Search or Google Blog search. Now
if you’re looking for niche-related blogs just
type in:

“(Keywords)” “powered by (blog scripts)”

For example, if you’re looking for some
“antique cars” related links on WordPress
blog, you would search for:

“antique cars” “powered by wordpress”

And Google would give you a whole list of sites
on antique cars.

Now if you want to find the links that will
allow comments, just repeat the Google search
with:

“antique cars” “powered by wordpress” “leave a comment”
-”no comments”

Remember the “-” means posts that have no
comments will not be displayed.

If you’re concerned with PageRank, Number of Backlinks,
Alexa Ranking… of particular posts you can download
and install the SEOQuake plugin. This handy SEO plugin
can be attached to your browser and will give you helpful
SEO information on the link or links you’re viewing.

Please Note: If you’re using SEOQuake in FireFox you have
the option in Preferences to tick a Line-through “nofollow”
and “noindex” links. Really handy tool to find those “nofollow”
links…

Used in conjunction with Google, it can sort thru all
these blog posts and give you the ones with the highest
PR? Highest traffic? Highest number of backlinks? The
more knowledge you have, the easier and more effective
your link building will become.

Just remember, finding quality backlinks is probably
the most tedious job for most webmasters. It takes
time and it takes patience. By using Google Alerts
you can have relevant keyword related links emailed
to you each day. Use this information to help build
your backlinks in relevant related niches. Do this
consistently over a period of time and your site will
get noticed and ranked higher.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How To Build Backlinks via Google Alerts

List building is one of the most vital elements of
any business – online or offline – mainly because
building a responsive customer/contact list simply
means money in the bank. It is a proven marketing
tactic that works.

List building can take on many forms and can be as
simple or as complicated as you want to make it.
Unfortunately, for most webmasters, it only means
slapping an opt-in form on their site to build a
simple subscriber list that allows them to send
out a weekly or monthly ezine/newsletter to entice
these subscribers back to their site or to buy a
recommended product.

For other webmasters and marketers, including myself,
list building can be taken to a whole new level. They
fully exploit list building for its many benefits and
rewards. For them, list building is a powerful and
effective marketing tool that simply delivers more
traffic and sales.
 

Some History

List building is close to my heart. It was the first
“serious marketing topic” I explored when I first
started marketing online. It was a very tangible
topic since my goal was to build a list of 1000
subscribers for my site’s newsletter. Just the
act of accomplishing that feat told me most of
what I needed to know about list building. And
it sparked my interest.

List building is now one of my targeted keywords;
so you know I make it a point to read and absorb
everything I can possibly get on the topic. It has
proven itself to be a very lucrative education,
as I now owe much of my online earnings directly
or indirectly to list building.

Building an Opt-in List Is Very Easy

I found building a list very easy to do. Here are
some of the most effective ways or things you can
do to build your list quickly:

1. Have an opt-in form on EVERY page of your website.
Make it double opt-in and remind subscribers that
they have to confirm their contact information.

2. Offer something FREE. Whether it be a free ebook,
ezine, tips, guides, software… just make sure you
entice your visitors to sign up or opt-in. I find
giving a visual, tangible image of your ezine or
guide will increase your conversion rate, so invest
in some good professional graphics.

3. Use simple psychology. People want to be a part
of a group; they want to be in the know… offering
secrets, private memberships and access to valuable
information will always draw in the most subscribers.

4. If you have your own product, doing joint ventures
with well-established marketers is the fastest way to
build your list. Don’t forget the squeeze page where
you collect the contact information; again offer a
special bonus to further entice people to opt-in to
your list.

5. Use pop-up or slide-in forms. I have found these
will greatly increase your sign-up rate. But don’t
rely only on gimmicks; offering useful, relevant
content on your pages will always help you garner
the most subscribers.

6. Social media sites, videos, blogs, forums… don’t
forget the new “Internet” is an excellent hunting
ground for building your list or lists. Make sure
you at least have a blog and RSS feed connected to
your site to help spread your content around the
web and gather subscribers.

7. Never forget that the web is the best “viral medium”
we have ever had. Always encourage your present subscribers
to help spread your message and content. If your ezine/content
is first rate, people will recommend it to their friends
and colleagues. Let your subscribers build your list for you.

Building a Responsive Loyal List Is the Hard Part

I have always found building a list is the easy part;
however, building a responsive list that’s loyal is
the real hard part. Keeping your subscribers interested
in your information and getting them to respond to your
“call to action” is the difficult part.

I have found only good, informative content will keep
your subscribers coming back for more. If you bombard
them with “product offers” week after week… they will
just unsubscribe from your list or simply stop reading.
So try to limit your offers to products that you have
tested and used.

Keep in mind that almost everyone is now operating a
list and your subscribers will probably be bombarded
with hundreds of offers when a major launch is done.
I personally ignore most of the major launches these
days, which takes you out of the marketing loop; but
everything has become so satiated lately with so many
well-known marketers jumping on the bandwagon, it is
turning many potential buyers off.

Instead, whenever I find any good free resource,
product or marketing tip – I pass it along to my
subscribers. Over time, this has a way of building
some good loyalty and good will, resulting in the
occasional sale when I do offer a product recommendation.

The Art of the Follow-up

Having said all the above, there is one aspect of
list building that has proven very effective and
very lucrative for me. It is a little different
from offering an ongoing ezine or newsletter and
has to do with the simple follow-up.

I call it micro-list building (for the lack of a
better word). I build hundreds of separate lists
dealing with the different niche products I market,
micro-marketing and micro-targeting to interested
prospects. These are follow-up emails (10-20 or more)
offering valuable information on the product being
promoted. These follow-up emails also usually contain
or offer special deals, bargains, bonus products and
coupons if the prospect buys from your link.

I use an unlimited Autoresponder system (Aweber),
which lets me have countless campaigns ongoing at
the same time. These follow-up campaigns do require
some “set-up” work since you have to write at least
7-10 emails for each campaign; but once they are in
place, you can forget about them.

Studies have shown that it usually takes 6 or 7
follow-ups before a prospect will buy. Having all
these lists of prospective buyers will increase your
traffic and sales. This is one major reason for you
to start building your lists today. If you’re like
me and make your living with online affiliate marketing,
list building is something you simply can’t afford not
to do. Your livelihood will depend upon it.

Cookie Your Lists

If your objective is to make money from your list
or lists – here is my number one proven strategy
for monetizing your list.

Your lists are simply a way of gathering prospective
buyers for the products you’re promoting. Your goal
is to get them to buy directly from you or thru your
affiliate link. One way of making more sales is to
“Cookie Your List” – most affiliate products will set
a cookie when a prospect arrives at their site from
your affiliate link – this means no matter when they
buy in the next couple of days or months you still
get credit for the sale.

I usually pick and promote affiliate products that
have a 90-day cookie or more. This cookie is very
important because if the prospect buys in the next
90 days… you receive credit for the sale. A special
few marketers and companies will even give you a
lifetime cookie.

One tactic I use is to promote 4 or 5 different but
related products in a niche market – pointing out
the benefits and disadvantages of each. You remain
neutral but your goal is get your list’s prospects
to visit each product’s site so that they can be
“cookied.” Then it doesn’t matter which affiliate
product they finally purchase since they are
“cookied” and you will get credit and the sale.

Let’s face it, when we’re in the right mindset to
buy a product… we usually do it within a few months
of considering the idea. That’s why the “cookie” is
so important to your overall sales. Combine this tactic
with your list building and you will greatly increase
your sales.

For me, the object of list building is to find those
prospective buyers when they’re ready to buy. Then give
them valuable, helpful information, along with bonus
gifts or special coupons/bargains to sweeten the deal.
And I make sure all the prospective buyers are “cookied”
with my affiliate IDs.

As I mentioned before, list building can be as simple
or as complex as you want to make it. The possibilities
are endless, but I would suggest anyone with a website
should have a rudimentary subscriber or membership list
just to build a sense of community and to take advantage
of repeat visitors. Anyone who is doing affiliate marketing
should definitely explore all the different avenues, like
the one above, to fully harvest all the rewards list building
will give them.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

List Building – Proven Strategies From The Trenches