SEO is a combination of distinct processes designed to improve search engine placement for your website, but what does that really mean when you break it down to performance and performance benchmarks?
Do higher rankings always translate to higher sales conversion? The answer depends on how thorough your research was in determining the appropriate keywords and search behaviors of the target demographic best suited for your offering.
Read the rest of this entry »
SEO starts with a thorough analysis of the website to conclude which aspects of your site need optimization. Why let coding errors or poor site architecture impact rankings for the worse? With search engine algorithms changing daily, there are no guarantees that the immunity you have today (from a favorable pat on the back) will pass value tomorrow.
A typical website analysis SEO sweep would look for things like:
Link Optimization - Links leaving each page (even if pointed at other pages in the site) should all have something link worthy to communicate. A link that says “click here” is a candidate for a makeover to something more consistent with the topical theme of the site, such as click here for more information about “main keyword and qualifier” as the link instead. 50% of your link profile is up the the webmaster, make good use of internal links.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: analysis, SE Optimization, seo
Read the rest of this entry »I’m not sure whether or not to pay attention to all the negative news reports about the state of the economy. For the most part, I’ve discovered that virtual businesses don’t quite suffer the same economic highs and lows in the same way as the rest of the country (or the world). However, in the life span of every business, there is a “recession”, or a point in which there’s a downturn or a decline of income. Typically, this recession period is short and cyclical, which puts the service business owner on an income roller coaster at times, especially if the business owner hasn’t developed multiple streams of income.
Over the years, webmasters have been told that they should want to avoid Blackhat SEO techniques in connection with their own websites. In general, I agree with this statement. But, by obtaining a deeper understanding of Blackhat search engine optimization, one could actually learn a bit about how to better his or her own positioning in the search engine results.
White Hat vs. Black Hat Search Optimization
Whitehat and Blackhat SEO is a comparison that is a take-off from the old cowboy westerns, where the good guys always wore white hats and the bad guys always wore black hats. So, in theory, we can assume that Whitehat practitioners are the good guys of SEO, and Blackhat practitioners are the bad guys of the industry.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: black hat seo, SE Optimization, seo
The Internet is such an unknown commodity anything is possible. One of the most intriguing questions concerns the idea of a perpetual traffic machine. Create a website and design a system of automatic programs (both interior and exterior) that delivers content and backlinks to a site that updates itself automatically and keeps growing without any help from the creator. In the process you build a flow of traffic that never stops, even if the site is abandoned or not touched for a couple of years or never again.
Is such a perpetual traffic system really possible?
Before you conjure up pictures of HAL and creepy talking computers in distant space… realize that question may carry more weight than it would seem at first glance. But is it like its predecessor, the perpetual motion machine - just more an illusion than actual fact?
For curiosity’s sake if for nothing else, the idea of a perpetual traffic machine does require further investigation. Such a system would have special interest for millions of webmasters whose main task is acquiring traffic for their sites, not to mention the potential for monetary gain a PTM (rhymes with ATM) would produce. Some credence was given to the idea recently when Tinu Abayomi-Paul, a well-known online free traffic expert, produced with the help of Marlon Sanders an info-product entitled “The Evergreen Traffic Machine.”
Tinu’s story is very interesting. Tinu had built up a whole array of sites and optimized them successfully for countless keywords in all the major search engines. She had built up a steady flow of traffic, resulting in thousands of visitors “a day” to her sites. This in itself is not that extraordinary, but that’s not the full story.
Because of a personal illness she abandoned or left alone most of her sites for over a year or more - only to discover the traffic systems she had put into place didn’t just dry up, they still kept producing tons of traffic even though the sites weren’t being updated.
The traffic was still coming. The traffic was still fresh.
Tinu basically built her perpetual traffic system around three major areas: High Profile Article Marketing, Exact Keyword Focus and Blogging/RSS Feeds. Tinu’s system proves you can create a traffic system for a year or two, but the real question is will it still produce traffic five years from now? Fifty years from now? How about a hundred years?
The real question: how long will such a system work without fresh input of unique content like the viral articles and blog posts now feeding it? This question is even more tantalizing when you consider it is now possible to create fresh content on your sites with RSS feeds, blog comments and user contributed content.
What’s more intriguing is the fact that all aspects of a website can be automated, including payment for all renewals: domain, hosting, autoresponders… as well as the collection of revenues such as affiliate commissions and advertising fees.
Are we at the stage where the Internet will be filled with these automated human-less web sites drawing traffic/visitors and slowly building and expanding on their own for eternity? Many cynics would argue this is already the case with the majority of sites on the web.
In case you like that idea and want to fully embrace this brave new automated perpetual Internet, here are a few tips to create your own eternal traffic machine:
In summary, the argument for the existence of the PTM mainly relies upon the quality of your content or site. Is it unique enough to draw in new visitors? Does your topic have universal appeal that people never tire of? Does it solve or offer advice on a common human problem? Will or does it have a viral “word of mouth” element to it?
As we move to a more and more automated world, all the automated programs and hardware are in place for the creation of such perpetual traffic machines.
Computers, autoresponders, content management software, RSS feeds, viral marketing, direct deposit, automatic payments… and the list goes on. If we haven’t already created the perpetual traffic machine - we are getting tangibly close to doing just that.
Tags: increase traffic, SE Optimization, seo
If you are a small business, SEO can open doors to competitive keywords, lucrative markets and competitive verticals. However, to take your place, you’ll need to chip away one page at a time building quality content and authority along the way until you reach the threshold.
Employing a solid content development strategy (persistently waged in tandem with link building over time) is the key to acquiring even the most competitive keywords.You have more control over your own rankings than you may think. In case you are pondering a new topic to develop, for new ideas on popular topics, you can use Google Trends
(to hunt for keyword gold), see what is suggested as a related search, or see which keywords appear in the auto-suggest in search engines, use keyword research tool to cross-reference keywords that have high search volume. Once you establish your list of buzz words, tactfully weave them into your site content through using articles, blog posts or new pages.
The true competition for SEO is creating relevance within your own site instead of being concerned about fighting for search engine positioning with other businesses. Relevance and relevance score is the new bottom line.
The underlying purpose of Google’s search engine algorithm is to reward quality content. The pages imbued with trust and quality are the pages flush with hordes of relevant traffic from search engines. The logic behind the algorithm is simple, the happier we are, the more we consume, the more we consume the happier every business in the umbrella thrives from commerce.
Instead of looking at your site as a static online business card, transform it into an interactive brand statement instead. By using your site to make your brand statement or give back the web with great content, your site will serve as a resource for others. By establishing authority in your niche, you are employing one of the most fundamental search engine optimization strategies as a base (becoming a thought and market leader). Why react to trends when you can influence them? If you push beyond the reactions of others, you will find something unique. It is from that level you must function.
This tactic when combined with traditional search engine optimization techniques such as link building and social media is just like picking the low hanging fruit until the tree falls over as a result of effective on page and off page SEO.
Why rely on one page alone when you can create several relevant pages?
Each page with strong internal links and strong external links can rank competitively for multiple keywords. Just as the old saying goes, “don’t put your eggs in one basket”, the same applies for keywords and the number of pages you create to reinforce a theme.
Adding fresh content consistently to your site ensures that your pages (a) fend off competition and (b) appear as a the most relevant result as a consequence of topical relevance.
If you are looking for things you have control over, the rate and quality of the content you publish is the first and foremost step for building authority for your site and your business.
Three concepts to communicate here are:
1) Add New Content Using Semantic Synonyms for Main Keywords
2) Encourage Word Stemming through Building Anchor Text Links with Diversity
3) and Managing Your Keywords Bloom Rate to Expedite Authority
Semantic Synonyms - Writing on topic content and using overlapping keywords and key phrases to cement relevance for your site. Use site architecture and content to influence how your content is accessed from humans and spiders alike.
Word Stemming - Word stemming is the process of ranking for a series of semantically related phrases. This phenomenon occurs in tandem to the proper ratio of on page linking and occurrence of key terms augmented by external links from other pages.
The combination is, ranking for multiple phrases instead of just one. So if two or more of your optimized keywords appear in a search query, the likelihood of your page being returned as a relevant result is amplified through saturating the combinations of the keywords. More about word stemming and keyword modifiers (supporting keyword variations) here.
Keyword Bloom Rate - draws a parallel with managing the rate in which a keyword gains and loses popularity and rankings.
It is awareness of the rise and fall (of keywords) that provides insight, but more importantly, it is timely introduction of link building with specific anchor text and fresh content that can supplementing rankings indefinitely.
Knowing when and how to freshen up your site and with which key phrases is crucial to maintain rankings. A more in depth discussion is available from a post entitled tilling keywords from the past to plant future growth. Foresight, planning and strategic execution never worked so well together.
The gist is, it is better to build relevance over time through layering your content. By managing the bloom rate for your new content you essentially control how often certain segments of your site are augmented, for which terms and add additional link weight to your site (if you inter-link your pages with strategic keywords). Building links for your website from within while crafting compelling content and authority for your website is a superb foundation for a long-term link building 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: SE Optimization, SEO Opens Doors to Lucrative Markets, SEO Opens Doors with Quality Content Development
It is time to look at those SEO questions from the folks who need help and guidance. Let’s take a read of some of the Dear SEO Drama Queen email, which floods her box every day.
Dear SEO Drama Queen: I want a number one ranking for my web site. The keywords are clothes, sneakers and hats. I read so much out there on how important it is to be on Google. Can you promise me a #1 ranking for my 3 keywords? Thanks, BA
Greetings BA: Of course I can guarantee #1 rankings on Google for those very generic keywords that compete against millions of other sites. AN SEO who couldn’t isn’t worth their wait in gold. It’s easy. First, I need you to purchase about 100,000 shares of Google stock. Once you are a major holder, we can then bribe Google to either place you on top or we will sell their stock to Yahoo. Let me know when you have made the purchase. Best, SEO Drama Queen
Dear SEO Drama Queen: I contacted an SEO company and they stated their fees are $300 a month for 6 months. They stated they needed to access my site, make changes to code, write content, and help me decide on keyword phrases, build link shares and on and on. I think this is a rip-off as I have seen SEO for $25 a month and they do not need to work on my site or have me make changes; they just submit the site to 1000’s of engines. Should I go with the less expensive company? Thanks, ST
Greetings ST: Cheaper is always better. Why should actually do anything to your web site. Do not use your valuable time on making your site better when you can have someone do everything for $25 bucks. I mean, why should you suffer, it is only your business, so do not put in the effort if someone can do it cheap. Let’s face it, your $25 bucks pays for them to spend a minute of time placing your URL in an auto program and pressing a button. Sure, it’s 1000’s of engines no one sees, and sure, just because Yahoo, MSN and Google need you to manually place in a code before accepting, and sure, even though your site doesn’t even need to be submitted in most cases, why pay for an expert when you can go cheap and get the site submitted. Heck, save the $25 bucks, let the engines find you on their own and go to the movies instead. Best, SEO Drama Queen
Dear SEO Drama Queen: I wanted to make fast money online. I joined a program that builds my site and even provides me with products to sell, submits my site and stated the money would be coming in. I selected mattresses, even though I know nothing about them, but they promised I could make $1000 a month with just a few sales. I paid their fee, went into the online builder and selected my site template, pressed some buttons and now have a site. But I cannot be found at all….even when I search by my domain name. HELP! ZK
Dear ZK: Oh my! You mean they lied to you? Shame on them. You take the time to select a product you know nothing about, pick a web template you believe looks good and expect the money to be rolling in. Heck, they even promised to submit the site to the engines. Sure, maybe the site is not designed to be search engine friendly. Sure, your site is held deep in their subdirectories with all the other ‘want to get rich quick’ clients; sure, you never need to do another thing to promote the site….and yet you still cannot be found. I am shocked, appalled even. But surely, they would not lie to you. Maybe you should buy more sites from them for other products you know nothing about and maybe one day, you will get found and make a sale. Best, SEO Drama Queen
Dear SEO Drama Queen: After much reading and searching, I found an SEO company that has a good standing in the SEO world. They were expensive, but promised to deliver. I paid the fees and the process began. But, I was expected to work on the site as well. I was expected to provide keyword rich content or actually pay them to write content for my site. I was expected to even make my site easier to read by engines, change navigation schemes and work on marketing lingo and something they called ’site stickiness’ Why am I paying them when I feel like I do all the work. This must be wrong and I am getting ripped off? I have seen other SEO companies that promise top rankings. They say I do not need to make any changes and they will add 100’s of pages to my site. What should I do? Worried, LM
Dear LM: Get your money back now. How dare this SEO Company expect you to actually work with them on making your site more SEO ready? I mean it is your site, you should have some say in it, and if you do not want to make changes that will help the SEO achieve their goals…well then do not. Go with that other SEO Company. Let them add 100’s of hidden pages to the site. That way, in 3-6 months when Google realizes what has been done, any rankings achieved will be dropped…but do not worry, you will have 3-6 months of great placements and make lots of money. Then you can remove those bad pages, send an apology letter to Google and repeat the process again. I am sure that will be just perfect. Do not follow that other SEO Company as they expect you to work with them in a team effort, and as we know, there is no ‘I” in team Best, SEO Drama Queen.
Tags: SE Optimization, seo
Are you sick and tired of hearing about keywords, keyword optimization, keyword stuffing, keyword ratio and more? Why all the hype about keywords? What do they really do for a business?
Keywords are important plain and simple. They are the words customers, potential customers and website visitors might use in a search engine to find your information.
For example, a person researching cell phones might use the following keywords typed into Google, Yahoo, Metacrawler or any number of the available search engines.
- Cell phones - Wireless phones - Cell phone planes - Prepaid cell phone - Best cell phone - Cellphone - Cell phone deals - Cell phone reviews
When choosing keywords for a business the first step is to consider what terms people will use to find you. To accomplish this, a three step approach is often recommended.
1. Brainstorm ideas. Sitting down with a pen and paper to brainstorm keywords may seem silly at first however brainstorming is a successful strategy. The more a person is able to think outside of the box and put themselves in their prospects’ shoes, the more productive the brainstorming exercise will be. Challenge yourself to come up with 50 potential keywords. Remember that people often misspell keywords, like the ‘cellphone’ example used in the list above.
2. Consult with associates, friends and family, current customers. Step two is to start asking around. Ask people what keywords they would use to find information on your business topic. Friends, family and associates are generally the best place to go however if a business has a close relationship with their customers, then asking a few key customers may be beneficial.
3. Research using keyword popularity tools. This third step is where business owners often skip right to. However if you don’t attack a keyword popularity tool with a plan, you can end up with thousands of potential options ‘ a real mess. Instead, take a look at keywords that you are confident in and comfortable with and then use the keyword tools to tell you how often those keywords are used. This will help business owners determine what their primary keywords are and what keywords to use in their content or on secondary website pages.
Here are a few free keyword tools:
a. https://adwords.google.com/select/ Keyword Tool
b. https://www.wordtracker.com/trial/ Free trial
c. inventory.overture.com/
d. http://keywordspy.com Free Trial
That leads us right into a very frequently asked question…where are keywords used? Several places actually…The primary place keywords need to be used is the home page or index page of a business website. This is the page people land on when they come to a website. Maybe it has sales copy, maybe it tells a bit about the company’s products or services, or maybe it offers informational copy. The general rule of thumb is to focus on one or two primary keywords. Place them in the headline, first and last paragraph and then naturally scattered throughout the copy. Keyword stuffing or jamming your copy full of you keywords makes the copy read like a phone book and the search engines don’t like it.
Secondary keywords can be used on subsequent website pages, articles, press releases, press releases, advertisements, blog posts and so on. Using the example from earlier a primary key word might be “cell phone” or “cell phones” and a secondary keyword might be “cell phone reviews”
Keyword hype is justified. They are a direct contributor to a company’s bottom line. Keywords help potential customers find the information, products, and services they’re looking for. They help people find your business. Taking the time to choose the right keywords, the most commonly used keywords, and then setting up your business to highlight those keywords will help drive traffic to your business website. The end result is more traffic and more profits.
Joan Finholt is a retired teacher and loves using the internet. She is co-owner of Bound and Determined books and yes, the domain name spelling is correct.http://www.boundanddetrmined.com
Tags: keyword marketing, SE Optimization
Taking advantage of organic keywords rock - showing up on page 1 on Google or Yahoo for key terms is a great way to build traffic and is the dream of many webmasters. Lets look at how you can use organic keywords coupled with a little PPC to generate your site some amazing search results.
So, what is ‘organic keywords’? Organic keywords are those that appear naturally on your web site and contribute to the search engine ranking of the page. By taking advantage of those keywords, you can improve your site rankings without putting out additional budget dollars. The problem, however, is that gaining organic ranking alone can take four to six months or longer. To help speed the time it takes to achieve good rankings, many organizations (or individuals) will use organic keywords in addition to some type of PPC or pay for inclusion service.
To take advantage of organic keywords, you first need to know what those keywords are. One way to find out is to us a web-site metric application, like the one that Google provides. Some of these services track the keywords that push users to your site. When viewing the reports associated with keywords, you can quickly see how your PPC keywords draw traffic, and also what keywords in which you’re not investing still draw traffic.
Another way to discover what could possibly be organic keywords is to consider the words that would be associated with your web site, product, or business name. For example, a writer might include various keywords about the area in which she specializes, but one keyword she won’t necessarily want to purchase is the word “writer,” which should be naturally occurring on the site.
The word won’t necessarily garner high traffic for you, but when that word is combined with more specific keywords, perhaps keywords that you acquire through a PPC service, the organic words can help to push traffic to your site. Going back to our writer example, if the writer specializes in writing about AJAX, the word writer might be an organic keyword, and AJAX might be a keyword that the writer bids for in a PPC service.
Now, when potential visitors use a search engine to search for AJAX writer, the writer’s site has a better chance of being listed higher in the results rankings. Of course, by using more specific terms related to AJAX in addition to “writer,” the chance is pretty good that the organic keyword combined with the PPC keywords will improve search rankings.
So when you come to consider organic keywords, think of words that you might not be willing to spend your budget on, but which could help improve your search rankings, either alone or when combined with keywords that you are willing to invest in.
Guest post by Andy MacDonald, author of The SEO & Marketing Tips for Webmasters Blog.
Tags: keywords, SE Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two of the most powerful and profitable things you can do for your online business. As Google celebrates its twelfth birthday there are Internet shoppers than ever, with more choices than ever. So let’s take a few minutes to see how you can beat the competition and dominate Google.
This article has three parts; Stats, Spying and Shortcuts. Each part can be used individually or grouped to provide quicker results. The following information is what the SEO and SEM experts know and gives you the inside scoop on the tools they use.
Part 1; Search Engine Stats: This will give you the latest intel on search engines. This is to help you make informed decisions on how to spend your SEO time and where to spend your SEM money (search engine marketing, which includes pay per click advertising.)
A.) Google gets nearly half of all US searches performed on the Internet so you can bet that’s at the top of our SEO to do list. Here are the exact numbers as provided by the “comScore for searchenginewatch.com” survey:
42.7% Google 28.0% Yahoo! 13.2% MSN 7.60% AOL 5.90% ASK 2.60% All Others Combined
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: SE Optimization
|
SPN Advocate Corner
Have a SEO problem? Issues with the major search engines? Need some input on your website? If we can't help you, we'll put you in touch with someone who can. Contact: webmaster@sitepronews.com |
|
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc. |
|||
ExactSeek |
SiteProNews |
MetaWebSearch |
GoArticles |
EzineHub |
ISEDN |
DropJack
NewWebDirectory.com | SEO-News | SEO-News Forums | Blog Search | FreeWebSubmission | SmartWebGadgets |
|||
