Archive for the 'SEO' Category

Increase Web Site Traffic - How with SEO

Monday, April 28th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Do you need to find a way to increase web site traffic? Have you used any search engine optimization on your website? Before you do any expensive web advertising or build an expensive new site try using some simple search engine optimization on your website to increase your web site traffic. Search engine optimization is the best way to increase web site traffic and increase your position on the search engine results pages. Getting into a higher place on the search engine results pages means more hits to your website and more customers.

In order to get your site high up on that search engine results page and increase web site traffic you need to use search engine optimization on your website. Search engine optimization can often be more effective than web advertising for increasing website traffic. Now you’re probably wondering how you can practically implement search engine optimization on your site to increase web site traffic. There are two ways that you increase the search engine optimization on your site.

If you have an existing site that has a lot of good content on it already you can have that content rewritten to add in some search engine optimized keywords and key phrases or you can write all new content and completely change the content that you have on the site. Even if you already have a lot of content on the site sometimes it’s a good idea to put in all new search engine optimized content just to freshen up the site a little and draw new visitor. You can write the search engine optimized content yourself or you can hire writers that are experienced in creating search engine marketing and search engine optimized content to increase web site traffic. Hiring a professional SEO copy writer is a good idea if you want to see an immediate increase in web site traffic because a professional copy writer will be able to create content for your site very quickly.

When you’re trying to build a website that is competitive in your market and will draw a lot of web traffic from the very beginning it’s a good idea to hire professional SEO writers who can make sure that the content on your site will get it listed on the high in search engine. If your site doesn’t make it on the first page of the SERP chances are good that you won’t see any increase in web traffic. Your site needs to be on the first page of the SERP in order to increase web site traffic.

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Search Engine Marketing - You still need HTML Meta Tags

Monday, April 28th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

If you start to panic when you see “HTML” and think that using HTML Meta tags is something that will be too difficult for you don’t panic. Using these tags is a big part of search engine marketing and is very important when it comes to using search engine optimization to help your website get more traffic. These tags are words, usually the same keywords or key phrases that you are using throughout your website in an effort to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to increase the number of people who find your website.

The difference between Meta tags and the keywords and key phrases scattered throughout the rest of your website is that the these tags are tucked into the HTML coding of your site. No one that visits your site will see these keywords or key phrases. The tags are put into the HTML code of the website so that the spiders or bots that the search engines send out will find your website. The spiders that the search engines use to index and rank web pages will find those tags by following a long series of other words and phrases on other websites. Using Meta tags is important to search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Some search engines will assign a rank to a website based on how many times the keywords or key phrases appear and also where the keywords and key phrases appear on a website. So it’s important to put them at the top of your website so that search engine bots will rank your site higher than other sites.

Even if you are not experienced at creating HTML code or working with HTML code you can put Meta tags for search engine marketing and search engine optimization purposes on your website by yourself. Instead of looking at the normal view of your website you need to look at the source code. Once you are in the source code you can enter in the HTML Meta keywords and key phrases that you want to use. If you are using a website design software the software will usually prompt you to enter some tags and then you can just input the same keywords or key phrases that you have used on the rest of the site.

Search engine marketing and search engine optimization are really the best way to drive traffic to your website so even if you don’t know that much about HTML or don’t feel comfortable with HTML it’s important that you learn how to use these tags because having the keywords and key phrases that are featured on your site as Meta tags can bring in a lot of traffic for your website. The best ways to make your website so popular with consumers that it starts to make a lot of money for you is to use tried and true methods like proper placement of HTML Meta tags, search engine optimization on the website and search engine marketing tools to increase your rank on search engine results pages.

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Search Engine Marketing - What is Social Marketing?

Monday, April 28th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Social marketing is a new form of advertising that is just starting to become popular. Often social marketing is a favorite of small businesses because it is virtually free although in order to use it to drive traffic to a website the company still needs to use traditional search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. It is build around the idea of link strategies and using personal networking to drive website traffic. Before the widespread use of social networking sites social marketing really wasn’t a viable option for most mainstream businesses but now the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook has made social networking and social marketing very popular. Link strategies that are often used in social marketing involve creating free accounts on these popular social networking sites and then using search engine marketing techniques to increase traffic and network with others who interested in the same topics or with customers. Using search engine optimization to create search engine marketing content on your social networking profile pages can help get your profile listed in search engine results pages and you can use search engine marketing articles to help gain readers and friends across the net.

This type of marketing isn’t just limited to using sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to socially market your blog as well. Many companies these days prefer having blogs to having traditional websites because blogs are much more accessible to people and make people feel like they have a personal connection with the company. Blogging is hugely popular. Many popular blog sites are free so you can set up a free blog to be the front page of your web page and you can put links throughout the blog that lead to other pages on your web page so that your readers can find your other search engine marketing articles and information or buy your products. The best link strategies for blogs involve taking the time to form alliances with other bloggers. Blogging networks have huge followings and many times if you join a blog network or go to the blogs of people who share your interest or sell complementary products you can leave comments on that person’s blog that link back to your own site.

Even though that type of advertising can be a little time consuming it’s a great way to use search engine marketing to reach your target audience for free. Blogging communities also usually link to one another’s blogs which means that you can use your networking contacts to help you publicize your website. Social marketing can be tricky though because it’s more than just using search engine marketing, link strategies and SEO. There are a lot of social networking etiquette rules that need to be observed and if you don’t follow protocol you could be ostracized. When you’re using social networking you should never just post links to your website on other people’s blogs, that’s considered spamming. Take the time to read other blogs and leave relevant comments. Usually then you will be allowed to post a link to your own website.

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Search Engine Marketing: How Search Engines Work

Sunday, April 27th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Have you ever wondered how exactly search engine marketing works or how search engine optimization can help your business? Search engine marketing relies on the basic principles of search engine optimization. Search engine optimization makes it possible for a search engine’s spider to find your web page and add it to the search engine results page whenever someone does a search for a word or phrase that shows up on your website.

Search engine marketing uses search engine optimized content to make your website easier for the spiders to find and for people who are searching the web to find. A search engine uses thousands of little bots called spiders to index the millions of web pages that are on the Internet. These spiders start at the most well known websites and work backwards following links and searching for common words and phrases. Every page that the spiders come across with those particular words on them is indexed and saved. Those pages are the ones that show up in the search engine results page when someone uses Google or another search engine to look for websites on a particular topic. The place where each site shows up in the search engine results page ranking is based on the content of the site, how many times particular words and phrases appear on the site and the relevance of the site to those search times. That is why search engine marketing depends so heavily on search engine optimization.

If you want your website to show up higher on the search engine results page then you use to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques in order to get the spiders to notice your site and put your site higher on the search engine results page. People who are using a search engine to look for websites will rarely click to the second search engine results page. It’s crucial that your site be on the first page of the search engine results page or people will probably not find your site. Using search engine marketing and search engine optimization is the best way to do that.

The number one rule to remember when you are planning out search engine marketing strategies or trying to figure out how use search engine optimization effectively on your website is that your website should have 100% original content. The spiders will place your site higher on the search engine results page if the content that is on your site is original. When websites duplicate copy the spiders pick up on the repeated phrases and language and will sometimes not index a site at all if the spider determines that the content is too similar to the content on another site.

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing is more than just taking one word or phrase and repeating it a certain number of times. The content on the site has to be fresh and engaging and also contain the keywords or key phrases that will bring traffic to the website.

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Increase Web Site Traffic - Discover How with Video Marketing

Sunday, April 27th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Have you thought about using internet video marketing to increase web site traffic? Internet video marketing is a very trendy form of web advertising right now and many companies are using a combination of search engine optimization and internet video marketing to increase traffic and increase their customer base. These days customers want more than just a slick ad. If you want to draw customers to your website the best way is to combine some web advertising with a fun and informational internet video marketing campaign. You should still use search engine optimization on your site to makes sure that your site gets shown on the front page of the search engine results pages and you might want consider buying some paid search web advertising too but once you have lured customers onto your site pitch your product with some new internet video marketing.

Information videos are a big hit on the web, so post a short information video about your product or show someone using your product or you can even post someone giving a video review of your product. With sites out there like YouTube you don’t even have to host the video on your site. Using YouTube is a fabulous and free way to start an Internet video marketing campaign that can be more effective than any other type of web advertising to increase web site traffic because YouTube videos are so easy to share with people. If you post a funny or unique video related to your product the people who see that video and like it can instantly post it on their own websites or their profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace that are seen by millions of people everyday. They can also email it to friends and family and submit it to sites like Digg or Current where thousands more people will see it.

Internet video marketing can increase your web site traffic almost instantly once you post the right video. The best part of video marketing is that except for the cost of producing the video it’s all free. You can increase your web site traffic by thousands all for the cost of the video. And some videos are so low tech they can be made with a small digital camera or even a camera phone. Using an Internet video marketing campaign along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing is the best way to advertise your website and increase your web site traffic. Forget about expensive web advertising that doesn’t work.

You can use the free social networking and marketing tools on the Internet to increase web site traffic and take your business to the next level and double or triple the number of hits that you get on your website everyday. A few words of caution though - when you’re producing internet videos don’t make them too high tech or over produced. Keep in mind that some people will be viewing the video on a slow internet connection. Make a video that will load quickly and play fast so that people can view it even if they don’t have a high speed Internet connection or offer two versions of the video with one optimized for high speed connections and one optimized for slower connections.

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Search Engine Marketing: Timing of SEO in the Web Design Process

Saturday, April 26th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

If you’re just starting to build your website now is the best time to start planning your search engine optimization and search engine marketing strategy. The best time to introduce the SEO planning of a website is when the site design is ready and the site is ready to be launched but there is no content yet for the site. Just before the site launches is the time to bring in an SEO consultant to provide some SEO services. After the design of the website is done an SEO consultant can give you suggestions about what keywords and key phrases you need to add into the site HTML as Meta tags and where those tags should go. Once the site is tagged and the design and navigation has been tested it’s time to add in content. Having SEO content on your site from the start will give your web site a big advantage over older websites that might already have a bit of a following but haven’t had any SEO services by a professional SEO consultant.

For a new site where that site ends up on the search engine results pages can be critical to its success. In order for the site to get a high ranking on the search engine results pages it’s imperative that a professional and experienced SEO consultant creates search engine optimized content that is ready to be part of a broad search engine marketing campaign. It just makes more sense to get all your ducks in a row before you launch the site doesn’t it? Bring in an SEO consultant when you’re ready to start putting content on the site so that when the site launches your site will be instantly indexed by the search engine spiders and can start drawing traffic from search engines immediately.

If you have an existing site that is due for an overhaul or a design revamping then you should also consult a professional SEO consultant before the site is redone so that you will have a good idea of what SEO services that you need. Cosmetic work on the site is important so that your site doesn’t look outdated but changing up the content on the site will be very important. Most of the traffic that websites get comes from searches done by people who use Google or another search engine to look for website dealing with a particular topic.

You want your site to be at the top of or at least near the top every search that is done by a search engine for the topic that your site is about. In order to achieve that you need an SEO professional to write great search engine optimized content before the site launches. If your existing site has had the same content on it for more than six months you should get an SEO professional to write new content. Changing the content is a great search engine marketing strategy to draw new web site traffic and improve your search engine ranking.

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Search Engine Marketing: How Search Engines Rank Web Pages

Saturday, April 26th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Getting your webpage ranked as high as possible on a search engine results page is one of the goals of search engine marketing and using search engine optimization on your website. But do you know how the search engine actually ranks and indexes web pages? Most search engines use a complicated process to index and rank the web pages that the search engine spiders find when they are scanning the web. Using search engine optimization and putting articles written with search engine marketing in mind will get the search engine spiders to your site but once the search engine spiders find your site they have to index your site and then assign your site a ranking within the thousands of other sites that contain information on the same topic that your site has.

Different search engines use different methods to assign a weight or rank to each web page that the search engine’s spiders find so using different methods of search engine marketing and using different percentages of search engine optimization is a good idea. If you do several different types of search engine marketing and utilize more than one kind of search engine optimization tool then it’s more likely that a search engine spider will find your web page and assign it a higher weight or rank.

One of the ways that search engine spiders determine the weight or rank of a particular web page is to index the number of times that a particular word or key phrase appears on a site. The search engine spider will assign a weight or rank to the web page based on how many times that word or key phrase appears within the web page. This is a very common method of assigning rank to web pages that is used by a lot of the most popular search engines so it’s important to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to make sure that those search engine spiders give your site a high ranking or weight.

Another way that search engine spiders assign a weight or rank to a web page is to take note of where in the web page a particular keyword or key phrase is located. For search engines that use this kind of ranking system just using standard search engine marketing or traditional search engine optimization techniques might not be enough to get your website noticed by the search engine spiders. In order to draw the spiders of search engines that rank web pages based on the location of the keyword or key phrase on the page it’s necessary to use those words to tag your page. Tagging a page is putting that particular keyword or key phrase in the meta tags of your site, using them in the heading or home page of your site and using those words or phrases systematically through the rest of the site. If you think of your website as a tree in order to get the attention of spiders from the search engines that use this type of ranking system you have to have a particular key word or key phrase on every branch of the tree in order to get a higher ranking.

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Search Engine Marketing: What to Look for in an SEO Consultant

Saturday, April 26th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

When you want to add some search engine optimized content to your website it’s probably a good idea to hire a professional SEO consultant. A professional SEO consultant can help you decide what SEO services you need in order to overhaul your existing website to make it more search engine optimized and to implement some search engine marketing. A consultant can also tell you what percentage of SEO content you need to have on your site and what Meta tags to use.

If you have never used any search engine optimization on your site at all then you will definitely need to hire an experienced SEO consultant to make sure that your site gets a complete search engine optimization makeover. Many SEO consultants offer more SEO services than just content so if you already have a professional SEO writer you should ask that writer if he or she also does SEO consultations or provides other SEO services.

If you need to start looking for an SEO consultant here are some tips on selecting an SEO consultant. When you are considering an SEO consultant ask to see previous examples of any SEO content that person has written but also ask to see websites that the person has written for. After all, the point of hiring someone to provide SEO services is to get your website noticed isn’t it? So you need to see some of the websites that the SEO consultant has worked on in order to know for sure that the SEO consultant can deliver high quality SEO services. A good way to tell if a web site that the SEO consultant has worked on is really doing well in search engine rankings and drawing traffic is to look on the Alexa website. You can enter the name of the website or the website address and see the search engine ranking for that particular website over a period of months, weeks and days. If that site is doing well then the SEO consultant probably is experienced enough to provide quality SEO services but if the site is ranked very low or doesn’t get a lot of hits then you might want to look for another SEO consultant.

Another way that you can tell if the SEO consultant that you’re considering hiring is of high quality is by what his or her rates are. Someone who has high rates but a poor portfolio probably hasn’t been working as an SEO consultant for very long and might not have the skills that you need to increase your web site traffic. If the consultant’s rates are very low then he or she might be trying to build up a portfolio of work which shows inexperience. You should always be willing to pay a fair rate for SEO services just like you would be for any other professional services. Don’t expect to get great SEO services for next to nothing. This is your business and your business is important so it’s worth investing the money in a highly qualified SEO consultant.

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Three core Internet marketing strategies for small business…

Friday, April 25th, 2008
by Kenneth Doyle

Marketing your small business on the Internet does not need to be expensive, nor does it need to be complicated. However, there is still a lot of confusion (and the associated mis-information) about how to market a bricks and mortar business on the net. Most small businesses continue to ignore the Internet as a promotional medium thinking that it does not apply to them. They continue to do this at their own peril.

And, just like in the real world, there are many small business marketing options available to you.

For small businesses Internet marketing can be a surprisingly low-cost way of promoting your local small business. This promotion can be targeted locally, regionally or across the globe.

So, let’s hear these strategies I hear you say. And, how does one apply them?

In broad terms there are THREE main types of marketing strategies, which apply to small business Internet marketing, being…

1. PPC marketing (Pay per click marketing, e.g. Google Adwords), and… 2. Information link marketing (linked via content on a specific topic), and… 3. Educational search marketing (all involving original content that educates).

So, with these different approaches, what are the pros and cons?

1. PAID SEARCH MARKETING:

Paid search marketing is paid advertising. You pay for your ad to be placed before people searching on specific keyterms. The effectiveness of your PPC campaign is directly related to the keyterms you chose to use, as well as the sales path you set up on your landing page (where people land when they click on your PPC link).

The PROS: If correctly targeted, you get prospects looking at what you want to sell and/ or promote quickly.

The CONS: A) This is a specialist skill. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose a lot of money, fast! B) Hiring a PPC specialist can be expensive. C) You have to continue to run your PPC ads. D) Competition for commercial keyterms is fierce. This continually drives their cost up, and you only get to play as long as you continue to pay.

2. CONTEXT within CONTEXT LINK MARKETING:

This approach uses other people’s web site content as the platform for your advertising. The links are embedded inside the content on their web pages. This content is usually keyword focused. For example, let’s say that you sell wood heaters. When you engage in in-context link marketing your hyperlinks are placed within content on specific web site articles and/ or web pages about wood heaters.

The PROS: Embedded hyperlinks that are within topic-focused content are not (generally) regarded by the reader as commercial links. They are viewed as links to additional information on the topic. Thus, if you hyperlink from topic-focused content to more topic focused content that gently moves the prospect into your marketing funnel these links can be an extremely effective way to advertise your small business.

The CONS: A) Competition for commercial keyterms is fierce. This continually drives your costs up. And, you only get to play as long as you continue to pay. B) You have limited control over where these hyperlinks are placed, because it’s the In-Context advertising system that places these links in the participating publisher’s content for you. C) To get best results here one needs to utilize specific landing pages for the clickthroughs from your different ads. This is called the search path, and again it’s a specialist skill that’s needed to set up good search path landing pages.

3. NATURAL SEARCH MARKETING:

Natural search is where people go to the Internet, type a keyterm into a search engine, and the search engine returns a list of the most appropriate web page on the web with has that keyphrase in it. When done correctly this marketing method has significant benefits for small business marketing their bricks and mortar businesses on the web.

Note: Search marketing is different from SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) relates to the optimization of existing web sites to make them search engine friendly to the search engines.

The PROS: With natural search marketing, if your business is the creator of the keyword-focused content, you have a distinct marketing advantage on the web. Long term, these advantages will far out weight both the PPC and In-context marketing strategies, because you are building a web business or traffic portal which belongs to you. Your results with natural search marketing are in direct relationship to your own efforts. And, here’s an interesting twist, small businesses wanting to primarily market themselves locally or regionally have a distinct advantage using this natural search marketing methodology.

The CONS: A) Search marketing strategies take longer to mature than the other methods discussed, however the cost-effectiveness and long-term results are better. C) The commitment must be to the continual addition of fresh content to the keyword-focused, theme-related content systems developed. However, for any business owner who knows their business and loves it this is never an onerous task.

And so, to summarize… There is great divide between those business who understand the web and how to market on it and those who don’t. However, your opportunity to market your own small business on the web is now, while this confusion still exists in the marketplace.

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Search Engine Visibility - Making your website seo friendly

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
by JD Theis

With the penetration of internet in day to day life Search engines are almost a part of daily life. Looking for anything the first place to check is the search engine. Rightfully it was called the answer machine by usability guru Jakob Nelsen. Therefore it is very important to ensure that your website has excellent search engine visibility. When individuals are looking for a product, service etc. they generally do not have anything specific in mind, they use general words to search out what they want. In such a case if a website dose not has rank on the search engine on the keywords which are used more often they will just not be seen by people who matter. Search engine visibility is one of the most important ways to build your brand name and it will help you become a leader in your field. Any traffic will not do for your website it has to be qualified and one which matters to your business.

We have talked about search engine visibility but how do we achieve it. With millions of websites how does one manage to reach the top 10 in the search engines like Google, AltaVista, Hot Bot, AOL, MSN, Direct Hit, Fast, Yahoo etc. Answer is simple optimize your website. It is great if you can do it yourself or you have professional help who offer seo services. In case your website is not ranked say as the top 30 in the search on important keywords, there is very small chance of you being found by the searcher. Seo services assist your website to maximize traffic and reach the top of the search engines. You have the best chances of reaching the top rank if your website is properly optimized. This can generate millions of visits every day via the search engines which can convert into business.

A WordPress theme is exciting, functional and also affordable that will assist professional as well as companies to focus on their niche area instead of harassed over the theme to be used on their website. In the coming days it will become more popular and will be available for free and on payment also. This will facilitate the end user to accomplish professional look for their blogs and website with the use the WordPress theme as CMS! They will be used by seo service givers and achieve search engine visibility for your website.

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