Creating a Target Keywords List

The use of appropriate key words is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. Selecting and targeting pertinent key words and phrases is crucial for building web traffic and getting the audience you want for your web pages. Like any other type of advertisement, your key words must be carefully chosen to ensure that you achieve both high page rankings and relevant traffic. Achieving high page ranks is useless if the traffic it brings you is not the right audience. For this reason, many experts believe that the target key word list used for a site can mean either success or failure for a web site or online business.



It is no longer enough to simply choose a relevant domain name for an online business or web site. Choosing the right key words for the site is now equally if not more important. The majority of people who visit a site get there by using a search engine. They will type in two or three words that describe what they’re looking for, scan the resulting list generated and pick one that seems relevant until they get the answer or product they need. This is where target key words are utilized. Key words are what enable people to find your site; choosing the right key words for your site will ensure the right people find you.



With this in mind, identifying your target audience is the first step in creating relevant key words and phrases. Again, this is not dissimilar to targeting television advertisements. Consider location when you are developing your target market. For example, if you own a used car dealership in Hayward, California, any traffic you get from outside a very specific area is virtually useless to you. Similarly, if you operate an online business that does not ship outside the USA, generating traffic from other countries will not help you make sales. By adding key words that are specific to your location as well as your product, you will better hone into your target audience, improve your rankings, and achieve a better conversion rate, which will help increase your site’s page ranking, in turn.



Keyword competition should also be taken into consideration when developing a site’s key word list. Going back to the used car dealership example, let’s say a potential customer types in the word “cars” into a search engine. They’ll never find what they need, because it’s far too general—generating around 500,000,000 different sites to choose from. Typing in “used cars” generates almost 70,000,000. That’s still too many to deal with effectively. Using “used cars Hayward” generates almost 900,000 hits, and narrowing the focus even further by using the zip code rather than the city name reduces it to less than 25,000.



Choosing key words for your web site works the same way. If your key words are too general, your target audience will never find your site, because the search terms generate so many web sites that it is impossible to look through them all. However, if you go too far in the opposite direction and use too many key words, or key words which are too specific, you risk losing business as well. The best key word phrases are no more than three words in length.



So how do you choose the right key words? The first step is brainstorming with colleagues, friends or an SEO professional, to come up with a list of 20 or more appropriate key words. The Google Keyword Tool is an excellent place to research key words. By entering key words into this tool it will give you an idea of the popularity of certain words and offers you alternative key words and phrases.



Once you have a good list of terms, you may want to refine it to call out the strongest terms that have the best potential for sales or traffic conversion. There are several good online research tools available, which can help you decide which words will be most effective for you. Some good examples are WordTracker and Keyword Discovery. These sites may charge a fee for using their database. After reviewing the terms, eliminate the key words that rank poorly or are very unpopular, then prioritize the remaining terms according to search popularity. These terms will become the keywords you will want to focus your initial SEO campaign on.



Always remember that when it comes to key words, you are focusing on optimizing your traffic rather than maximizing it. Setting up the right keyword list for optimization is the cornerstone to a successful web site.



~Ben Anton, 2007

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Little SEO Secret about Headlines

Folks are concentrating so much on using keywords and keyword phrases that they have forgotten something much more important and without which keywords can be virtually useless.

Lets illustrate this with a common scenario that we all go through fairly frequently. You enter a keyword phrase at your favorite search engine and the first page of the results comes through. What do you do next? Do you go to the first site listed or do you scroll down the listed sites. Most people do the latter, but what would they be looking for? The answer is simple, the headline or article title that looks the most relevant to what they are looking for.

Now let us assume that the site that comes up right at the top, at number one has a boring uninspiring headline and the site that is number 10 at the very bottom of the first page has a hot enticing title. What will happen? But of course No 10 will end up getting all the traffic while number one will be starved of hits. That is how important headlines are. So without a good headline all the good SEO work that you put in will not yield the expected results, even if you do end up right at the top of results for popular keyword searches.

Why SEO Will Hardly Work Without Powerful Headlines In fact, SEO will hardly work without excellent headlines and titles to your articles. One of the key aspects about SEO is the accumulation of back links pointing to your site. Search engines favor this happening in a natural way rather than you having to purchase links. For this to happen, your article on the web page will need to get very high traffic so that when a fraction of these visitors link to your article, you will quickly end up with thousands or even tens of thousands of links pointing to your site.

To attract this traffic, a key component of your content will be the headline. Many stories have been told about headlines making the difference between a few hundred copies of a supermarket tabloid sold and a couple of millions. Online headlines are even more critical because many times it is all that somebody sees before they make a decision on whether or not to click on a link that will lead to you and your article.

Why Good Headlines Without Keywords Still Work Many times webmasters have been greatly hindered in their work of creating suitable article titles by the need to use exact keyword phrases. The result has been awkward headlines that hardly inspire readership. Yet those who have realized that it is possible to leave out a keyword phrase from your headline or to modify it slightly and still succeed in SEO have greatly benefited.

The truth is that while it is true that your keyword phrase as early as possible in a headline will help a great deal in terms of SEO, it is in fact not the only consideration that leading search engines take into account when deciding how your site will be ranked in search engine results. More important are the number of relevant back links pointing to your site. This means that an excellent headline that will attract readership and ultimately back links to a site is much more important than a poor headline with the exact keyword phrase slotted in at the beginning of the headline.

What Is A Good Headline? A good article title or headline has to be relevant to start with. Never forget that headlines are supposed to flag down your target readership and not everybody. This is perhaps the most common mistake people make when creating headlines. And this is where the webmaster thinks to create a headline that has as general an appeal as possible. Actually a headline that seeks to attract everybody quite often ends up attracting nobody.
Excellent Headlines Are the Fuel That Will Drive Your SEO Campaign Always remember that without good targeted headlines your SEO effort will most probably come to nothing. It is therefore a good investment to spend your time studying the art of creating good headlines for your SEO content.

By http://www.goarticles.com/

SEO Guide to Choosing a Good Website Host

There are many factors we look at when choosing a host. There are literally thousands of providers in the World and there are many, many considerations to take into account. I like to take a systematic approach and narrow down my field of possible hosting provider candidates before I even look at prices. I write down a list of criteria that I must place on choosing an appropriate website host and these form my requirements base.

1. I look at the required target audience and their geographic location - where does you target market live? And I seek to answer the question; do I want to rank more highly in a regional index rather than an International Index? For example, let’s say you sell blue widgets and you are based in Melbourne, Australia. Through your website you only ship to addresses within Australia. In this situation you would ideally want to be listed more prominently in the Australian regional search indexes - like google.com.au

Why do we need to consider this? The reason is simple, the search engines will rank you more highly in a regional index if you use a hosting provider based in region or country in question. So, this is our first factor

2. Dedicated IP Addresses or Shared. When it comes to search engine optimization this can have an impact so I like to mention it as early as possible in choosing candidates for website hosting provider. Some SEO professionals believe that not having a dedicated IP can have a detrimental affect in Google rankings but from my experience it sometimes does and it sometimes doesn’t. I have had some sites come in with high PR rankings on shared IP’s and others when I shifted to a new IP the PR of the site jumped, so this is still a bit of a mystery when it comes to Google rankings. My advice from a logical SEO perspective is that you never know with whom you are sharing an IP address; they could be running a porn site or a warez site, so logic says get the dedicated IP if you can.

3. Requirements of the coding and database for my website. As an example you might be using a Joomla website and with this comes certain requirements - we need PHP, a MySQL database, a web server (HTTP), sendmail (if you want to get/end email), and some kind of file transfer access (FTP or SFTP). These might seem like fairly common requirements but there are additional items you might want to consider in this segment like the operating system of the host, Linux or windows or what other services they have running on the server, Perl CGI-BIN access, SSI, .htaccess, telnet or SSH crontabs. This item covers all dependencies your website has on services and software to make it perform correctly on the web server.

4. Reliability, Speed and Uptime Guarantee. There is nothing that can hurt your business more than your website visitors coming to your web site only to find that it’s inaccessible. You lose a lot of credibility and possibly even sales through your website being down. You should consider removing a candidate web host if they do not provide you with at least 99.9% uptime. Many web hosts will provide guarantees like this and you should seek to find them. Many web hosts have redundant back-up systems for Internet access that are used when the main connection fails for some reason. Do your research and find out how many redundant connections they have to ensure less chance of the website being unavailable. Website "Redundancy" means if any of the normal Internet connections are interrupted then an alternate Internet connection will be used.

5. Customer Support. One of the most frequent complaints that people make about website hosts is the lack of customer and technical support. From my experience it does not matter if you are an expert or a novice in web hosting, you still need a web host with a good customer support system. Many web hosts offer email, online chat and phone support while others are available only via email. In most cases, email support is adequate, but you should be cautious if a potential web host has no phone number available in case of an emergency.

Response times to support questions can vary greatly. Some web hosts may take only a few minutes to get back to you while others take days or even longer. It's important to find out what support any web host candidate provides. Searching on the Internet for references can often be of assistance in this regard.

6. Data Transfer - Traffic/Bandwidth. This is often referred to as "bandwidth", which is the amount of data that can be transferred from or to your website. Basically look for a service which provides a good amount of traffic when compared to other services available. Also when choosing your website host you should ensure that the plan you are on can be expanded so that any foreseen increases in traffic can be accommodated accordingly.

7. Disk space. Again, take into consideration other hosting providers and find a service which provides a good amount of storage space in comparison. You might want to take into account any foreseen increases in storage space required also and factor the ability to be able to change the plan to accommodate these needs.

8. Price. This is always a huge consideration after all you could get a dedicated server for about $200 per month but for the most part this is not required for a new business website. The normal business website is not going to have 5000 visitors per day when it first starts up. Of course there are exceptions and if you are expecting this much traffic then you should get the dedicated server straight away. If however you are like most normal businesses and looking to gain a web presence then I would advise you to get a shared server with a dedicated IP. For something like this the prices can vary from $5 per month to $100 per month. Often you get what you pay for, so you should look at what services they provide for the money and weigh these up against the benefits. Often there are extra's that are suitable for your particular needs, like Joomla support or content input or specialized hosting services.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Internet marketing services- Patience for Long Term Ranking Results

If you keep a check on the online world, you must have come across the very famous word, Internet marketing services or more popularly known as SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. Born in 1995, SEO has come a long way since then and now you can find numerous companies offering Internet marketing services in UK. If we go by the trend, UK is the hottest destination for Internet marketing. Maximum companies or websites across the globe are turning towards the UK for getting their website optimised and to enjoy higher search engine rankings. Search engine marketing in UK has witnessed radical changes and marvellous improvements. The top website marketing company in UK claims to fetch you higher search engine rankings within a few months.
Internet marketing is a slow yet interesting process. It involves patience, research, knowledge, and innovation. Website marketing is basically divided into two parts; those are Organic SEO and In-Organic SEO. It is widely known that Organic SEO usually takes time to come into effect. Whereas, In-Organic SEO shows results faster and swifter. The only difference between the two is cost and flow of process.
Any UK based company offering Internet marketing services, will tell you before hand about the actual timing of your search engine optimisation campaign. Also you can see results in the search engine listings. A long and planned Internet marketing service is completely based on search engine marketing and it takes time. In short, patience is the name of the game. Try to go for the competitive website marketing company in UK, as they are the ones who will not just guide you but take your online business to new heights by boosting your business and increasing traffic to your website. They will even guide you in selecting the best search engine marketing techniques like Paid Inclusion and/or PPC services, traditional SEO, bidding, and many more.
Before beginning with your Internet marketing campaign, try to figure out optimisation time frame. Your website marketing plan is blindly dependent on a number of factors. This will streamline your Internet marketing process and you can enjoy higher rankings and more profound business. Website marketing companies offering Internet marketing services in UK even encourage you to go for Paid Inclusion or PPC bidding. This is proved that PPC shows fast and sooner results than traditional SEO. But it too has got its own limitations. You have to shell out heavy cash on regular basis and there is no guarantee that visitors will come to you instantly.

Some of the popular search engine marketing companies in UK work and offer SEO services differently. The biggest reason to use organic SEO instead of in-organic SEO is that it is a low-cost method to promote your website. Thus, we can say that practice patience while going for your SEO campaign with the chosen website marketing company UK. It may take some time to show results but it will be worth the long term results you reap. For more information about Search Engine Optimisation services, visit::
http://www.brickblue.co.uk/

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Role of On Page Optimization in SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of enhancing the visibility of a website on search engine listings. It refers to a list of marketing tools required to arrange a website in order to increase its rankings in the context of the result of pages of search engines and directories.

There are two main types of factors in search engine optimization:

1. On page Optimization
2. Off Page Optimization

On Page Optimization:

On Page Optimization is a technique by means of which your web page gets a high ranking on various Search engines like yahoo, google MCN etc. On page factors are directly related to the content and structure of the website.

Features of On Page Optimization:

Title Tag: This is an area in a web page where the text is placed that shows the title of the website on the very top of the web browser window. Search engines use title tags to make a link in search results.

Meta tag description: A Meta Tag Description is a part of web page coding that gives the basic description about the website. This should focus on the website because Meta tag description plays a very important role in web page ranking.

Meta Tag Keywords: Meta Tag Keywords play the similar role as meta tag description for highlighting the importance of a website.

Keyword Density: A particular percentage of keywords used on a web page are called keyword density. A keyword must be used in a web page from 2% to 8 % for good page ranking. This technique is the backbone of Search Engine Optimization.

URL Structure: If you want your website to rank well then your URL of website must be related to the context of the website.

Benefits of On Page Search Engine Optimization:

When creating or updating a commercial website it should be taken into consideration that the products are made more attractive for the viewers. At the same time it must be taken into account that the ability o gain more exposure with a broader target audience has its own benefits. Most websites need to reach out to a larger target audience in order to enhance their business. On Page Optimization allows a higher page ranking and based on a specific keyword or phrases they enter. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched.

Most searchers only use first page displayed websites on their searches because this is where the pages with higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. This makes it even more vital that each website comprehends the significance and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.

An understanding of Search Engine Optimization provides the website a higher ranking in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer then this strategy that should be implemented immediately.

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Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Free Traffic For Your Website

You may need to increase website traffic on a tight budget. Starting a web site can strain your pocket book as you pay the necessary expenses. Free traffic may be the very thing you need right now. It may seem too good to be true, but it is not. Your investment may not be monetary, but it will require some of your chief assets; your time, energy, and creativity.
* Links

Linking with other sites is a great way to increase web traffic. Contact similar sites of a size that is compatible with your site. Ask the site owner if they are willing to post your link and offer to post theirs on your site. You will both increase your web traffic and boost your search engine rankings. There are automated methods of link swapping, but I would advise caution when using them. You need to be aware of your web presence. Also, the routing of the link can impact its effectiveness.

If you are a writer, you have a great tool for drawing links to your site. By providing content for other sites, you can link back to your own site and increase internet traffic to your site.

Do not hesitate to contact local directory websites, trade associations, or any other web site that may link to your site.

* SEO

This is not always a 'free' method. You can put a lot of money into an SEO strategy. However, by supplying your site with quality content containing keywords, posting a keyword enhanced blog, and increasing links with other sites, you can boost your rankings and find more and more visitors arriving at your web site.

A strategy that cooperates with the search engines and caters to the visitors on your site will provide you with a solid foundation that can give you business growth for years to come.

* Pump Paws

Good, old networking can still pay off. Of course, it has taken on a new feel since you may meet a lot of your contacts through forums. Regardless of whether you are doing business in person, or chatting online, use the opportunity to network. Infiltrate your local and your online community and get to know your competition as well as your clients or buyers. The online community may not have an 'old boy network', but it is a great place to meet people, learn about what is new, and get the news out about your web site.

Free traffic may not be free in the true sense of the word, in that you still need to invest time and energy. As an entrepreneur, you may feel that your time is too valuable for some of these methods, but the pay off can be HUGE. Put together a strategy and chip away at it as you can. Over time you will see that you have built a thriving business.

By : http://www.goarticles.com/

Keywords Or Relevancy?

The function of keywords is to attract the search engine's attention. Once attracted, the search engine lists the site that contains the keyword. This system opened up avenues for search engine abuse by web masters. Because of a search engine's heavy dependence on keywords, anybody could write "sex, xxx, porn" and other strong keywords even though the website contains nothing of the sort. As a result of this abuse, the reputations of search engines all over the web begun to suffer. Surfers got re-directed to websites that had no relevance to their query.
To stop the abuse and enhance their accuracy and reputation, search engines devised an algorithm method where web crawlers not only looked at the keywords, but also at the contents that goes along with them. With this new method of indexing, web masters and internet marketers were finally forced to perform honest work. They stopped using words like "sex, xxx" and porn" where there was none and begun writing relevant articles that give accurate descriptions of their website or products.

As a result of this new indexing system, the industry of search engine optimization (SEO) article writing was born. SEO article writers are required to write meaningful articles that thoroughly describe the product or website. Aside from using correct and appropriate writing methods, they also have to reserve slots within the article for the seeding of keywords.

As far as search engines are concerned, they index your website by scanning the top of your website first. Be sure to have descriptive literature of about 250++ words as this is what the search engines look for. Within that 250++ word article, embed your keywords in it without breaking the smooth flow of the article. Try to avoid grammar deficiencies because of keyword seeding. Your article needs to be as correct as it can be for the search engine to understand what your website is saying and what relevance it has to a searcher's query.

You can try the old method but you will not get as good results as you will with the honest way. Furthermore, attempting to mislead a search engine can lead to a bottom placement in search rankings. Aside from being given low priority in searches, search engines also have the option of removing your website from their index. If this unfortunate development happens to your website, you've already lost your business

The internet is evolving. Just as it took centuries for the laws of the United States to reach maturity, the internet is hurrying along at light-speeds to protect everyone who decides to visit it. If you try to disrupt the flow of one of its economies, various individuals and corporations that own a stake in the internet will immediately smother you and the tools you use for disturbing a relatively peaceful environment.

As honesty seems to be the best policy for now, SEO article writing is the way to go. Do not compromise your articles for the sake of keyword density. After all, when your customers get to your website and read a poorly written article, your esteem in their eyes will immediately plummet. It wouldn't be a surprise if they decide to transfer to another website with better services and a higher degree of usefulness and accuracy.

Being an SEO writer myself, I can only say that what I wrote above is all true. I've surfed hundreds of sites pertaining to SEO writing tips and suggestions. I never saw anyone suggesting a higher priority for keywords over relevance. My own opinion is that keyword seeding and article composition should both be done with great care.

Terry Detty finds that his Internet Marketing Company and Internet Marketing Blog are a couple of his passions in life. In addition to marketing, he enjoys reading, writing and occasionally goes out for a walk in the great outdoors. Terry's latest interest is a Bulk Email Marketing program he's been using quite often.

By : http://www.goarticles.com/

21 essential SEO techniques

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.

19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.

20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.

21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
source:searchengineland.com

Role of SEO in Online Marketing

Online marketing, also known as Internet marketing, is simply the marketing of products and service offerings via the Internet. With the explosion of Internet onto the scene, almost every home is connected to your product or service through online marketing. You may have a great service or the perfect product and a fantastic website but that will not ensure visitors to your site. So it’s important to get the Internet marketing right.
Online marketing comes in various forms – banner ads, email marketing, paid inclusions, pay per click, affiliate advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). The growth of online marketing has been fueled largely by the expansion of the Internet audience and the convenience a customer can be offered in terms of purchasing online. With the large audience out there, you will want to get as many visitors as possible to your site. This brings us into the realm of SEO, since this is becoming one of the main avenues for an online business to try to increase virtual footfalls to the site.

Let’s first talk about SEO – what is it? Put simply, it is the use of an algorithm to improve a sites search engine rankings or hits. This is done by an Internet marketer to try to improve the quantity as well as the quality of visitors to their website. The concept of improved quality is also important here – it is essential to direct the right traffic, people searching for the product or service that you offer or something similar, rather than simply a random selection of people looking for something else. Ideally, your SEO strategy should work with your target market in mind and work towards attracting this target market to the site. Relevance is key, since people looking for a web-hosted tax planning software will not buy wedding invitations, even if driven to the website and will be disappointed.

SEO is important because it covers most of the key areas that marketers need to address while selling and advertising online – it generates awareness, it leads to acquisition of customers and conversion of visitors to customers, and optimizes the marketing efforts to target buyers.

The value of increased, relevant traffic to the site will most likely guarantee increased sales. SEO marketing offers information about your product offering when the interest from visitors is high and, once directed to your site, the visitor can be converted to a buyer immediately. Most companies build out their online marketing strategies keeping SEO in mind. This is essential to the success of a marketing plan, since a good SEO plan can be supported by a pertinent emailing marketing campaign and other PR programs.

Thus, the role of SEO is so vital to a successful online marketing campaign that it can be considered a separate tactic in itself but it is best to make it a well-planned segment of an organized strategy. Consider this: an inappropriately planned SEO may result in wasted resources, optimizing factors that do not link back to the correct target audience in the midst of a highly competitive and growing online marketplace. While many SEO experts and marketers may dispute the process to successful SEO (some say page linking, some keyword basics, others copywriting and so on), one thing most people agree on is constructing an SEO that is closely connected with your marketing strategy so that each supports the other.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Flash SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Optimizing your site for flash can be very difficult in this article I will show you a few things you do to increase your ranking in the major search engines.

Why Flash Has a Problem:

The problem flash has with search engines is the current search engine spiders which crawl the web to find and index new sites cannot read flash files. I don’t believe flash will ever be read by search engines as it would just be to easy to abuse with Actionscript to hide text then you have layers etc. which all could be used to abuse there search engine ranking and for this reason I don’t think search engines will index flash sites for the foreseeable future.

What are the options for full flash sites:

HTML:
Start over with html this is by far the best option. HTML is what search engines love to see and I doubt flash will ever be properly indexed by search engines where as HTML always will be.

Cloaking:

Cloaking is where you show the search engines something different than you show the user. For example when a user clicks your website a flash file is displayed which is your website. Where as when Google bot visits the site a html document would be displayed containing relevant text to your website containing relevant h1, h2, and h3 tags as well as better title and description tags. Many technologies can cloak such as PHP, htaccess, ASP and many more server side languages.

Keeping Flash Without Cloaking:

Things you can do to help without cloaking or changing your site to pure html. First off title tag your title tag should target your specific keyword or keywords try not to go for to many keywords. Title tags are very important and you should spend some time looking into the best possible title tag for your site. Remember not to make your title tag too big. The description tag is another very important tag this should contain a relative description to your page mentioning your desired keyword twice. Make sure not to over do your keyword relevancy if it looks like spam no one will click your link in the SERP'S(SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGES). If possible you can also include a title above your .swf file using h1 or h2 tags. This way the search engines will at least get some relevant content. In the same way some company or product information in the body tag under the flash file can also help give the SE's(SEARCH ENGINES) relevant content.

HTML Sites As Well As Flash:

I don’t like these kinds of sites and they really won’t work very well. Google mainly rank on IBL's(IN-BOUND LINKS) SO you have the choice of either sending all your links to the HTML version of your site and just ranking for the html version or link to your flash file and rank for both the flash and the HTML version. However neither pages would rank as highly as if your IBL's linked to the html site.I’m my own opinion I would always change the site to pure HTML flash is an amazing application and in my own opinion should be used for web based applications. I would never make full flash websites they have poor SEO as well as poor accessibility.

Ranking

The search engines will rank on the follow things:

Title, description and H tags.Relevant content.
Links pointing to your website.
The links pointing to your sites anchor text.
These things must be done correctly to rank in the top of your industry.
Anchor text and links are currently the two biggest ranking factors on Google.

The Sandbox
The Google sandbox prevents sites from ranking in the Search Engine Results for around 6-15 months if your site was not in Google's index previous to 15 months ago and you have more relevant anchor text than your competition then your site is more than likely in the sandbox.

Ways To Check Your Links

To check your links go to Yahoo or MSN and type linkdomain:youwebsitesname.com this will give you’re a guide to how many sites are linking to your site. Another good way to check is to go to Google and type allinanchor:Keywordyourtargetinghere this will show you the sites with the most relevant anchor text for your keywords.

I hope this article helps with your flash site I will be writing more specific flash SEO articles in the future so stay tuned.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com/

Beware of \"common sense\" search engine optimization!

When it comes to search engine optimization, there are a lot of myths and rumors floating around about what does and does not work. A lot of this "knowledge" appears valid, because it sounds like it should be true, but beware!

Much of the information floating around about the right way to optimize for the search engines (especially Google) is very, very wrong. A lot of it is based on assumptions: "Google must be smart enough to consider [erroneous conclusion here]…" or "I BELIEVE Google [additional erroneous information here] …"

Some of it is based on old truths. For example, search engines used to have a harder time indexing script-based sites (i.e. PHP instead of plain HTML), and so those sites didn't do as well in the index. But that was a long, long time ago (in web years anyway). The engines have long since been ranking script-based sites in among plain HTML with no problems — but the rumor is still heard even today.

Be careful what you believe about SEO. If you're reading an article or forum post about a particular method or technique, make sure it's backed up with actual data, evidence, and examples before running out and starting to apply it to your site. What you'll find in most cases is that the supposed "facts" aren't actually being demonstrated or backed up with proof and examples.

Let me give you two BIG myths as examples, and show you actual proof that they are, in fact, bogus (at least right now).

1. The Themed-Link Myth

This is one of my favorite myths. Everyone assumes that Google simply must be smart enough to know whether your links are coming from sites that have the same (or related) theme, and therefore links from sites with the same theme are the only way to rank for your keywords.

Pure myth.

Google may, in fact, know whether or not the links are coming from websites of a similar theme. It may, in fact, add more weight to these links. But to claim that you must get links from similarly-themed sites in order to rank is pure mythology. Here are some examples that disprove the claim:

Site: submitexpress.com
Keywords: search engine optimization
Rank: #3 in Google

The phrase "search engine optimization" is probably one of the most difficult phrases to rank for. After all, all of the best search engine marketers want to hold the top positions for those keywords in order to sell their services. Submitexpress.com is doing very well in this regard, ranking #3 for the phrase (as of this writing). Number one is held by Wikipedia, and number two by Google itself.

If you go to Google and take a look at the backlinks pointing to submitexpress.com (using the link: command), you'll notice that very, very few of those links have anything to do with search engine optimization or marketing at all. The exception are links shown from the domain itself, and that's almost it. So if it's such a fact that you have to have links from similarly-themed sites in order to rank for your keywords, how does this site manage to pull off such a huge feat?

Simple: you don't have to have links from sites of the same theme — you just need a lot of links with your keywords in them!

Site: www.younevercall.com
Keywords: free cell phone
Rank: #1 in Google

Yes, this site ranks #1 in Google for the very competitive phrase "free cell phone". But almost none of its backlinks come from sites or pages having anything to do with cell phones, or phones, or communications in general (go to Google and see for yourself–but be warned, some of the links are from adult sites).

So again, another site ranking for a competitive set of keywords that somehow manages to do it without "themed links". How is this possible if you can only rank well with themed links?

And again, it's simple: you don't have to have links from sites of the same theme — you just need a lot of links with your keywords in them!

Here are a couple more examples that rank very well for difficult keywords despite almost all of their links coming from off-theme sites, in case you want to explore further (but I won't go into detail about these):

Site: www.hoodia-dietpills.com
Keywords: hoodia
Rank: #3 in Google

Site: www.affiliatescout.com
Keywords: affiliate programs
Rank: #1 in Google

Does this mean that Google won't put more emphasis on theme-related links in the future? No, it doesn't. They might, they might not. But whether they aren't quite as "smart" as people think they are, or they've just chosen not to do it (for whatever reason), it is still quite possible to rank for very difficult keywords with all of your links coming from off-theme sites.

One point that has proven to make a real difference: Google is discounting reciprocal links more than it used to. They still matter, just not nearly as much. One-way links appear to be the way to go.

2. The Themed-Content Myth

Another "common sense" notion about Google is that all of the content on your site should revolve around the same theme, otherwise it won't rank well for the keywords you want to because your theme will get "too diluted".

Pure mythology.

The number one biggest proof against this notion is Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia.org covers almost 2 million very diverse topics (as of this writing), and yet ranks incredibly well for a huge array of keywords. In fact, there are few informational searches you can do on Google these days that Wikipedia doesn't rank well for.

As one example, take "internet marketing", for which Wikipedia ranks #1 in Google. There are a few related pages around the subject (about 426 as of now), but Google has 3,220,000 pages indexed for Wikipedia — of which the vast majority have nothing to do with internet marketing.

How is this possible if everything on the site has to be theme-related in order to rank well for the keywords?

Simple: the notion that all content on a site must be of the same theme is a myth.

But Wikipedia is seen as a kind of deity among websites. Are there any "lesser" examples? Yes. Here are a few of them:

Site: www.bandddesigns.com/energy/
Keywords: energy drinks
Rank: #2 in Google

The "energy" subfolder of bandddesigns.com has a few hundred pages devoted to energy drinks, for sure, but if you do a site:bandddesigns.com command at Google, you'll see that the site has 4,320 pages indexed on a very diverse set of subject matter that has nothing to do with energy drinks (or health in general). Despite this, it ranks #2 in Google (just under Wikipedia, which again, is not all about energy drinks).

So do you have to have 100% related content on a site? The facts say no.

Well, then, how is this site ranking for "energy drinks"? Check its backlinks (especially at Yahoo) and you'll see that the site has a lot of backlinks. That's what's getting it the ranking — not how "on theme" it is.

Even now, with all of Google's "smarts", it's all about the links.

Site: www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
Keywords: baby names
Rank: #3 in Google

According to Google, creativebits.org has 3,460 pages related to "business cards". That's about 20% of its 16,300 indexed pages. So, is this site about business? Or maybe finance or investment or small businesses or something that's related to "business cards" in some way? Nope.

What is the main site about? The site's title tag says of itself:

"creativebits Apple oriented design community"

It's a blog about Mac-based graphics design software. So how does a site about Mac-oriented graphics software rank for the phrase "business cards"?

Links, of course! Take a look at the backlinks in Yahoo and you'll see it has thousands of them. And, incidentally, if you do take a look at those backlinks — they come from pages having nothing to do with business cards (or business in general).

So if a page of content devoted to a highly competitive phrase on a site whose theme is completely unrelated to the phrase itself ranks for that very competitive phrase, can it really be said that Google requires a site to be all about one theme?

So if a page of content devoted to a highly competitive phrase on a site whose theme is completely unrelated to the phrase itself ranks for that very competitive phrase, can it really be said that Google requires a site to be all about one theme?

Nope.

One thing that does seem to hold true, though, is that if you're going to have diverse themes on your site, you needto
separate them into their own subdomains or subfolders. That seems to help Google know that the "theme" of that
folder or subdomain is different, and to treat it independently.


Myths are Dangerous

All of these myths are dangerous, because they get people focusing on techniques and methods that simply aren't really effective.

That said, is it a bad thing to make sure that all of your links come from sites with similar themes? Or is it a bad thing to make sure the content on your site stays on theme? No, it's not bad. Going forward, Google may in fact take those things into account more.

But don't be surprised when you are out-ranked by sites whose content is not devoted to the theme, and whose links come from all over the map!

I've found that most of these kinds of SEO myths are propagated by people who are failing in their optimization attempts. They make blanket statements, backed up by vapor, out of frustration for their own failed attempts. "Google must require themed-backlinks because my sites isn't ranking well and I have a lot of links!" That kind of logic is faulty.

It makes much more sense to listen to the facts, facts like the ones I've presented here. Which sites are actually ranking well now, and what are they doing to achieve those rankings? Focus on what's working, not on the myths spread by people who can't seem to make it work.

So what's working? Getting a lot of one-way links pointed at your site containing your keywords. That's the short of it. There are some other things to keep in mind, like making sure the links grow slowly over time and don't all just suddenly appear on hundreds of sites, and making sure that you vary your link text so that it looks "natural". But the bottom line is, at least for the present, you need a lot of links.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Planning and starting an online business

You will find that the basics and logic of business remain the same, regardless of whether it is an online business or offline. The difference lies in the fact that, to run an online business successfully, you will need to know the fundamentals of any business and have an understanding of the dynamics that drive web-based businesses. Let’s break this up. To start a business, you will need to have:

• A great business idea
• A solid, realistic business plan, including the financing aspect
• Understand legal issues
• Understand accounting and taxation issues
• Construct a marketing strategy
• Create and maintain a customer base and plan customer service

To start an online business, you will also need to:
• Make sure your business idea works for an online business
• Decide whether or not you need to start a website
• If you do need a website, you will need the technical skill to know how to start, run and manage one
• Understand online marketing and advertising tactics and tools
• Find new and creative ways to drive traffic to your start up online business
• Understand dynamics of customer interaction for an online business

So start with your business idea – try to do a SWOT analysis, i.e. an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that face your concept. Be sure it will work as an online business by thinking – will people buy this product or service online and what value can I offer online that a customer does not get offline? Find out about legal issues surrounding your product or service before starting anything. Determine your start up’s business model – do you want to sell on eBay or start a site or extend your offline store?

Next, come up with a business plan – include all costs, all means of possible financing, how you will achieve the financing, logistics of how to procure the product and how to deliver it, and keep in mind that an online business needs to have realistic projections of future income, just like an offline one. Websites can be expensive to start and maintain. Make sure you really need one and account for the expenditure. Be sure that you find reliable service providers – such as the right web host and pay channels. Consider accounting and tax issues in your analysis and planning phase, so you will be realistic in your projections.

Build a comprehensive marketing strategy – understand the concepts of internet marketing like search engine optimization (SEO), online advertising, and other ways to increase traffic to your website. Finding a great name is important – something short and simple. Further, make a plan that includes effective and efficient customer service and builds a database or mailing list of customers. Remember that this is an ongoing process for any business and in the case of an online business, it is even more crucial to stay ahead of the game. An online business does not have face time with the customer so it’s important to maintain a healthy communication with all customers.

Keep the above pointers in mind and start planning your way to a successful online business.

Article Source : http://www.superfeature.com