Very new ideas for the old internet

Search Engine Optimization For Dummies.

If you have a website of your own you should know that you don’t get traffic by letting your website just sit where it is. You need to point visitors to your website somehow. There are a myriad of different methods internet marketers use to get people to come to a website. These include and are not limited to, paying to get an ad on another website, pay-per-click advertising, and advertising on an ezine, or an online newsletter with many subscribers. These are all very effective ways to get traffic to your site. The strategies you need to use to make these work well have been discussed over and over again. They are also very expensive in most cases. What I want to discuss is a free way to get tons of targeted traffic.

What I am referring to is search engine optimization (SEO). This is when you change some things about your site to get them as high as you can on a search engine. Have you ever used a search engine? That’s a foolish question because these are used by everyone. When you do use Google or yahoo to find information or products what do you click on? You probably click on the first one on the list. This is because most likely this is the best site of the certain keyword you are searching for. One way to get your site rated highly on a search engine page is to have a content rich site with your own high quality content.

If you search some key words and scroll down to some of the bottom sites on the page you can see when you click on some that there content is not really that good, but they are still ranked 9 or 10 out of thousands of websites for that topic. This is because some people take advantage of the “search engine system”. This is the system followed that chooses where you site will rank on a search engine. The goal of every search engine is to try and catalog every single site on the World Wide Web. Unfortunately this cant be done so they can only get some websites added to there “catalog”. They usually focus on the content rich sites.

There is a way to manipulate search engines to help raise your page rank. These methods are not easy to administer and they are amazingly time consuming. Some include changing the hltm or css coding of your website and your Meta tags. Search engines categorize your website in a key word. One way to help your page rank is by repeating a key word over and over again in a certain content page. If you “overstuff” a page with a certain word you will be penalized so I would advise against that. If you’re not a coder or a professional page designer you will not be able to use the Meta tag changing. If you do know how to manipulate code then you probably already know about using the key word in them.

In internet marketing there is a way to automating everything. Of course someone had to come along and create software to automate search engine optimization. I use software for everything; it’s a way to be more efficient and free up your time for more important things, or other aspects of your website. If you automate search engine optimization then you can worry about your content, format, product quality, or many other aspects of internet marketing. Automation is a way to get your work done with less work. It can be looked as like a sort of an exchange. You trade the work you have to do for a small dollar price. Of course it also does the work better, in some cases, then you could. In these cases it actually creates income.

SEO is a way of getting free targeted traffic to your site. If you want your site ranked high ona search engine page, all you need is a website with a lot of good content to keep people coming back and haing each page packed with key words, but not too much. The recommended amount is 7% or 7 per100 words. This may seem like it is easy enough but it is actually hard to make a quality article with repeated words. To make it easy for yourself I recommend you invest in automation of the process. SEO can be done manually and is the best free choice for getting targeted traffic to your site.

Tags: engine, free, money, optimization, search, site, strategies, targeted, traffic, web, website

Search Engine Optimization – A different perspective

The best source of qualified, targeted traffic is search engine traffic. But millions are still unaware of this fact. The most baffling part is even people involved in an online business are unknown to this fact. Some would say, there would be no SEO companies if most knew it. That’s a truth too.

Where does a website go wrong in being search engine friendly ?  The answer to this is that it goes wrong as soon as it is started by a web designer. The lack of knowledge or complete illiteracy of SEO on the part of most web designers is the key problem. The second step where the website owners go wrong is the choice of an experienced and skillful seo expert. Tracking down someone good is not that difficult. The key to finding someone with reasonable skill is clear communication. When you interact with someone, you will find out the expertise level, the experience, search engine parameters and algorithm knowledge and also some references. These should be enough to verify YOUR seo expert. A couple of minor but sometimes reflective aspects are – mode of payments and his own website rankings. While varied mode of payments reflect an established company or individual, his own website ranking should provide a lot of insight in to his seo skills.

Search engine optimization at the inception of the website or designing of the website is the best way to go about. There are a lot of optimization companies which offer web designing and development. A lot of people actually opt to get a site designed by a seo company in order to make it search engine friendly right from the start. Why not all ?

Tags: search engine optimization, seo

Reasons To Ignore Toolbar Pagerank Updates

There seems to be this hysteria around Google and its Toolbar updates.  Maybe it relates to webmasters and web designers thinking that once Google make this fabled toolbar update that their website will magically jump up in the SERP’s.  Well I cannot say this clearly enough but if this is what you believe then you will be sadly disappointed.  Google just don’t work this way.

I see many, many articles, posts and blog comments by interested onlookers and self-declared SEO experts about the upcoming, and according to some people, well overdue, toolbar pagerank update.  I have one quote I would like to share with you, from Matt Cutts who is one of the head Google Search Engineers, “Toolbar Pagerank updates are a non-event at Google”.  The main reason Matt says this is because pagerank is updated constantly and the toolbar pagerank is only a snapshot of the real pagerank.  So this being the case once the snapshot of the real page rank is taken and assigned to the toolbar database it will have no affect on how Google actually view or rank the website in the SERP’s.  Fretting and stressing about where the toolbar pagerank update has gone is pointless because your web page already has a pagerank assigned to it, you just can’t see a little green bar.  It’s just so teasing by Google isn’t it!!

So, what should we do now that we have decided that checking your toolbar pagerank and those terribly inaccurate pagerank predictors is a waste of our time?

Well, find some good articles on SEO.  Read them.  Find more.  Read them.  Absorb as much information as you can about SEO and online marketing.  Read about the website language your website is coded in.  A common language nowadays is PHP.  Research keywords and how to find good keyword phrases.  Take a proactive approach and make some modifications to your site that you now know are correct SEO techniques.

If you have already got web pages in the SERP’s then look for where you have 2 pages with 1 indented and maybe make some small modifications to the page that is the indented result and experiment with it a little.  Keep a diary of your changes so that if you need to trace back to what changes you made you can.  If they get a positive result then you can apply the exact same changes across other pages or if they are negative in the SERP’s then you can start again from where you were before.

Give at least a week or two in-between making changes so that you can know exactly what affect your change had in the SERP’s.  Make only one change per page so that you can monitor that particular change vs. SERP’s rankings.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Melbourne, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, search engine optimization, SEM, seo, Web Marketing, website marketing

Affiliate Marketers Will Never Make a Dime Using Google Adwords

Most people start off their affiliate marketing business by getting traffic from google adwords. I know, because that’s how I started. If your anything like me, you purchased Google Cash or another pay per click ebook and you set up your first campaign. Later on after many campaigns you found out that it was a lot harder than you originally thought.

Here’s why! Pay per click advertising works well for businesses that can count on repeat business. As an affiliate you usually don’t have that luxury. Your relying on one purchase per customer and then you’ll probably never see that customer again. A good E-business on the other hand knows that with every person that becomes a customer they can rely on x number of purchases from that customer. This also allows them to bid significantly higher than affiliates because they can make their profits from the back-end.. A business that can rely on a minimum of four purchases per customer for example, can burn up their profits on the first and second purchases and still make profits on the third and fourth purchase.

The last reason affiliates have a hard time is because conversion rates for a typical pay per click campaign average less than 1%. Its hard to make a profit with that kind of conversion rate. I’m not saying its impossible, but affiliate marketers utilizing pay per click advertising for their traffic are definitely fighting an uphill battle.

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, google adwords, pay per click advertising

One Way Links is the best SEO strategy.

There are two very popular methods for getting permanent one way links that will send traffic to your website.  They include:

1) Writing Articles – How this works is that you write an article, at the bottom or in the content, you place a link to your website. Then, you submit the article to an article submission service that will make your content available for free or for a cost.  The user of you content must then put the entire article on their site, with your link. And, you have one more permanent one way link to your website for every person who uses your content.

2) Submitting to Directories – Submitting your website URL to web directories is a very time consuming and boring process, where you give the title and description of the site, in addition to the URL for your site.  The directory will then add your site and give you another incoming link.  Directory submission is a good technique for getting permanent one way links.

Because the two ways that are most often used to increase the number of incoming links are both time consuming and boring, it is better to ask for the help of a professional who knows what to do to get you permanent one way links.

Using someone who has experience writing articles and submitting to directories in order to build one way links is better than doing this submissions yourself. Why? Because first you don’t have long hours to waste and second you could generate bad incoming links if you d not submit your articles or directory listings in the right way.

Tags: build link popularity, buy one way link, increase link popularity, link popularity, One way links, permanent one way links

Link Popularity and Search Engines

Link popularity has become increasingly important among the search engines. Because link popularity goes hand in hand with search engine optimization, it is important for any company with a web presence to build a link development strategy.

Many online marketing specialists believe that link popularity is simply obtaining as many links as possible. However, the quality of the link holds more “weight” than the quantity of links. You will get better results in the search engines if you have link popularity from sites that have considerable traffic.

To develop popularity for your web site, you should submit your site to the most visited directories. Yahoo (of course), LookSmart, About.com, and Open Directory are examples of major directories. Also, to further develop link popularity, you should consider sites/directories that are very industry specific, such as healthatoz.com for a health-related site.

Even more important, it can help your search engine ranking if your site is reviewed by a directory that is associated with a search engine. To be accepted into a major directory, we recommend that your site have content that can show credibility in your field. A tips page, links page, or a “how-to” page can showcase your credibility on your product or service.

For example, we can almost always tell when a new client site is added to Yahoo by looking at an Google ranking. Oftentimes, we will obtain a top 30 ranking for a client, then suddenly the site will move to a #1 position. Sure enough, when we go into Yahoo, we will see that the client site has been added. That’s one of the reasons that we think a listing in Yahoo is essential.

Obtaining links from other web sites is not enough to obtain long-term results on both the search engines and directories. People have to actually click on those links to your web site and browse your web site. AND they need to return to your web site when they see the quality content, products, and/or services that you offer, i.e. the usability of your web site. That is the definition of “popularity” according to the major search engines and directories. Other terms for it are “click” popularity or “click-through” popularity.

Therefore, both link popularity and click-through popularity are essential for obtaining optimal search engine placement.

Remember, a search engine position is not permanent since the search engine companies change their algorithms all of the time. Being listed in directories and other sites can significantly drive traffic and sales, particularly if your site is listed in specialized directories (health, financial, and travel, for example).

To check your link popularity in some search engines:

For AltaVista, in the search query field, type in:

link:domainname.com

For Inktomi’s services, in the search query field, type in:

Linkdomain:domainname.com

For FAST Search, in the search query field, type in your domain name:

link.all:www.domainname.com

For Google, in the search query field, type in your domain name:

link:www.domainname.com

Link development serves multiple purposes. It can drive traffic and sales to your web site and it can also help your search engine rankings.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is an indicator of the number of times the selected keyword appears in the web page. But mind you, keywords shouldn’t be over used, but should be just sufficient enough to appear at important places.

If you repeat your keywords with every other word on every line, then your site will probably be rejected as an artificial site or spam site.

Keyword density is always expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page.

Suppose you have 100 words on your webpage (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword for five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page. So here it is 5 divided by 100 = .05. Because keyword density is a percentage of the total word count on the page, multiply the above by 100, that is 0.05 x 100 = 5%

The accepted standard for a keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.

Remember, that this rule applies to every page on your site. It also applies to not just to one keyword but also a set of keywords that relates to a different product or service. The keyword density should always be between 3% and 5%.

Simple steps to check the density:

1. Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect.

2. Go to the ‘Edit’ menu and click ‘Select All’. Now go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Word Count’. Write down the total number of words in the page.

3. Now select the ‘Find’ function on the ‘Edit’ menu. Go to the ‘Replace’ tab and type in the keyword you want to find. ‘Replace’ that word with the same word, so you don’t change the text.

4.0 When you complete the replace function, the system will provide a count of the words you replaced. That gives the number of times you have used the keyword in that page.

5. Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density.

Tags: keyword density

Increase your website Traffic

Anyone who owns a website wants it to be extremely popular with high amounts of traffic that converts to new business. This is the always the case whether its a local service like Andrew Hill Salon, a big company like WH Smith or a national charity such as the PCRF (Prostate Cancer Research Foundation). By developing websites everyday, we have a vast understanding of not only design, accessibility and usability for a website but more importantly, search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation is a very competitive area with every web site wanting to come on the first page for particular key phrases. Companies want the number 1 spot in Google as well as Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista – the major players in the search engine world.

Animation Technologies focus their web site optimisation both on-site and off-site optimisation on the search engine Google, the reason being, 72.8% of online users use Google as their primary search engine. It is also the case that if you get website optimisation right in Google – gaining a high page rank – it is often the case that the other search engines will follow, even though each one has its own unique algorithm for ranking web sites.

To increase your website traffic takes not only excellent search engine optimisation but also a number of other factors which make up your website on the whole.

Learn about usability – Having a great looking website is useless if users cannot use the website and view the content.

Invest in a good design – Design is not the be all and end all of a website, it is one key aspect that will make a first impression on the user, so quality is important gaining the visitors trust.

Keep it up to date – Your website needs to look fresh, new and great. If the website has outdated news, broken links or hideous graphic animations, this will all deter users.

Topical News – A news feed/blog is a great way of not only keeping new and returning customers up to date about your industry/service, company information and popular news stories.

Create a useful website – Relevant content is king when it comes to increasing your traffic. Your website will not only be telling users about your company but tips that actually help users, thus users referring others to the website.

Manage your reputation – Responding to your readers comments is key to establishing your company as one that cares about what people say about you.

Make Accessible – Many web design companys focus purely on design, in partiuclar flash websites which may jump around the page or make all sorts of noises however, blind and deaf people still need to be able to use it. If they cannot use your website then you will not get their custom – thats potential business your ignoring.

Tags: Advertising, marketing, search engine optimisation, Website Promotion

How is Directory Submission helpful in Search engine optimization?

What is directory submission? How does it help in the web site promotion? Many think directory submission is similar to the data entry jobs and they assume it to be very simple and easy. Sites like yahoo, Google etc have huge web directories similar to the phone directory we use. These directories are store houses of relevant information about business concerns and web sites all over the world. Thus for promoting a web site its details are submitted to the directory in exchange for a small fee.

Again this directory submission can either be done manually or implemented through automated services. When someone submits his web site to a directory human editors have to go through them to check quality and other guidelines. With millions of web sites coming in daily it is not easy or it is very stressful to go through them and check for quality. So automated directory submissions was invented to check for the submission guidelines. The advantage of this automated submission is that it is easy and less time consuming. It automatically checks and submits without delay.

But what really matters is whether the web directories can accept automated directory submission as they are very strict about the guidelines. Moreover if the category to which the submission is made is not chosen properly then it loses its purpose. You cannot expect an automotive service to analyze which category your submission is best suited don’t you? Thus though the time factor favors automated directory submission it still has a long way to go to outbid manual services.

Any product or service hitting the public market needs to be advertised. There are various ways and means through which this advertisement can reach the general public. The print media, roadside banners, brochures, graphic boards etc are some of the familiar marketing techniques followed. Created a professional website to promote the business is the new and trendy marketing tool undertaken today to expose a business. Imperative features like the SEO, SEM, directory submission, link building etc help to increase the search result when someone searches in the search engine.

The web site payout along with the catchy content and tags should be competent to bring in customer traffic. And to enable this many factors are concerned imperative like the SEO, SEM, directory submission, link building etc. any business concern which takes off as a fresher must give away a press release and do the Online Directories and Search Engine Submissions. Press Release is nothing but a public relation announcement about the new business prospects. The information provided should be 100% original and no false or exaggerated content should be focused on. This is the main door which opens up to the public who will trust what they see or read from this press release. This can also be done during a course of a business when they roll out a new product or have introduced or opened a new store.

Tags: online directory submission, Press Release distribution, search engine optimization, SEO packages, SEO Services, Website Promotion

Google is quickly changing

With the big buzz of Novembers fall within Google comes a newly indexed data-base…

Did Google do something bad to our great placements? No I don’t think so and here’s why.

While people are screaming for help and wondering what went wrong, I’ve noticed a MASSIVE shift in page ranking.

If you look at top placements at the moment, according to Scroogle, most of the ecommerce search terms got hit really hard. A lot of the top 100 placements were vanishing and quickly.

Now on the other hand, less impressive and especially smaller ranking sites have been bumped up top. I firmly believe this is all because of Google’s “refreshing” their memory and possibly starting to take on web site ID’s with 5 characters plus.

What I mean by that is the ability for Google to index more than 3.2 Billion web sites. Adding another character to the already large 4Id’s dedicated to each site indexed will allow Google to add a whole other list of sites within their data-base.

Now I could be wrong on that one but here’s another phenomenon going on. I’ve been talking to other ecommerce web sites and helping them gain better rankings. It’s been a while since they’ve had their Page Rank change within their site. Working real hard as I instructed, they have followed all the rules and attempted to boost their page ranks.

Up until now, nothing has changed and people are loosing their ranks within Google since Novembers algorithm change.

Around a week ago I’ve been getting calls left right and center about page ranks boosting like I’ve never seen.

The previous scare before this November change went something like this. Google stopped indexing more than 3 levels within your site. Ex. www.yoursite.com/level1/level2/level3

I affirm to you this: its pure baloney, more sites now have better PR ratings within their entire site than ever before. I believe that Google is rewarding most great resources online before taking on more listings within their index.

As towards se placements, I also took a major hit for my better search engine placements but a couple of days ago that started to all change. It almost seems as though Google wanted to take out the top placement companies in order to thoroughly crawl through all their information before letting them get back in the game.

I say this because one of my top placements was sitting at #1 for a long time. Since this November change, it immediately dropped to #181 and didn’t move one single number for over 3 weeks. To my knowledge, that’s a little strange. All of a sudden, my site stats recorded Google browsing through all my 600+ pages and presto, my site is back in the game, just like that.

In Conclusion:

It seems to me that we’re all just lined up to sign an application for better search engine placements. The question isn’t if your site will get back in shape, it’s a question of when your number will be called.

Have a little faith and a little patience and you too will rise again! Just keep doing what you’ve been doing all along and don’t worry about falling down. The ones who get back up are always the ones on top in the end.

Best of luck to you!

Tags: google changes, google search engine strategy, seo