Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization that even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
19. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.
26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.
29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.
31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!
37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
38. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.
39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.
44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.
48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.
52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.
53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.
54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
SEO TIPS to get your page noticed on the web
Choosing A Good Domain Name
Internet Marketing Strategy
An Internet Marketing Strategy has many parts:
- Blog site-Business Blogging
- Website Optimization
- Keyword Research & Optimized Content
- Online Newsletters
- E-Postcards
- Social Media
- Optimized Online Press Releases
- Web Metrics & Analytics
- Online Media Room
- RSS Feeds & Content Syndication
Which of the 5 Deadly Sins is Your Website Committing?
5 Deadly Sins of Building a Website 1. No Relevant Keywords on the Home Page One of the most important criteria that the search engines use to rank your website is keyword density, especially on your home page. The keywords on your home page inform the engines that your site is a relevant search result. For example, if your website is called Better Sex for Women, you would ensure that the exact phrase is used at least three times on your home page. The rest of your pages should also be sprinkled with this particular keyword phrase, as well as other keywords that revolve around your site concept. So how do you know which keywords are relevant? Just put yourself in the shoes of information seekers. If they are searching for information on female sexuality, what words or phrases would they type into the search engine? It is also a good idea to use programs such as Word Tracker and Overture to help you identify the most important keywords in your niche. Remember that search engines are getting smarter by the day. It's not in your best interests to dump a bunch of keywords on a page and hope for the best. Learn to write elegant copy and keep it real. Building a website is about pleasing both the search engines and your human visitors. 2. No Attention-Grabbing Headlines It doesn't matter how good the copy on your website is if you don't get the click. You only get the click if your headlines are relevant to the site visitor's search and if those headlines stand out from the crowd. Make your headlines specific to attract attention. It's also a good idea to raise the information seeker's curiosity. Put yourself in your visitors' shoes. What is it that they would really like to get an answer to? Promise to deliver that answer in your copy. 3. No Attempt to Build Credibility The fastest way to lose a sale on your website is to neglect building a relationship with your visitors. It's important to gain their trust and the fastest way to do it is by building credibility. How? Use written and videotaped testimonials, case studies and statistics to prove to your visitors that your are worthy of their trust. Include as much detail as possible in your testimonials - even photos of the people who provided them. You don't want to leave any room for doubt. 4. They Do Not Tell People What They Sell If your website marketing is not up to scratch, it may be because you don't pinpoint exactly what you're selling on your home page in ten words or less. This is about packaging what you're selling correctly and uniquely. This may be stating the obvious, but your visitors are real people. They are busy, preoccupied, lazy, upset, or any of the other myriad things that real people can be at any particular time. Make it easy for them to find the solution to their problems. Make it your mission to communicate well. 5. No Relevant Offer This brings me to my last point. When building a website you want to differentiate yourself from the rest. Do this by making your visitors an offer they can't refuse. How? Provide them with something that is interesting, relevant and useful. Offer a free report, CD or an invitation to a seminar. Surprise them! Give them more than they expect. That's the best way to ensure your visitors will be back. Any time you invest in differentiating yourself from your competitors is time well spent. Explore your site as if you're seeing it for the first time. What works? What don't you like? Ask family and friends for their opinions. Don't get overwhelmed with trying to change everything at once. When building a website, it's the tortoise that wins the race.
Building a website is an exciting process and a good site is key to a thriving online business. Developing your own website isn't complicated, but there are some unique protocols that must be followed. The five deadly sins that online business owners make when creating their own websites can easily be avoided.
Introduction to Digital Marketing
Step 1 - Identify keywords
Stephen Covey in his book 7 habits of highly effective people, taught us that we should begin with the end in mind. This is just as relevant to the digital marketing. You need to consider what terms someone will use when they looking for your business. These terms are called a keywords. Keywords will form the foundation of all of the future activities that will be performing on digital marketing. The objective of digital marketing is to improve and increase your brand exposure and improve and increase sales.
So let's discuss a real life example. I am a believer in the value of open source software and I have a website that educates the public on the savings open source software can generate for small and medium businesses. So what key words should we choose for these new website? The obvious starting point would be open source software. Then there are specific types of open source software that people would look for; Opensource CRM, Opensource alternative for Microsoft word and you would continue through the list.
When you have identified your keywords, you have a starting point to work with the remainder of the additional steps. Remember you will always be updating changing and expanding your keywords.
Step 2 - Structure website
Now that you have your key words you have the ability to structure your website such that those keywords can easily be found by the search engines and by users. In the structure of your website you need to make sure that these keywords a strategically placed in the site to maximize the visibility and prominence of those pages to the search engines. There are many uncles out there that explain methods of emphasizing keywords in your web pages. It is sufficient to say in this article that you need to include the words with enough frequency and placement to inform the search engine that the page is important on that particular word.
Step 3 - Generate links
There are two types of links that are important: internal links contained within your website and external links. Considering the internal winds should be part of structuring your website keywords should very prominent and should they went between the appropriate pages. It is essential to understand that full of these actions should be part of an overall objective to provide quality, relevant and informative content on your website to web site users.
External links are also an essential in identifying to the search engines that your website has information that he is useful to the public. Search engines use external links as part of their algorithm to determine the popularity and the relevance of a website. If lots of people setup links from their web site to your site because it provides useful information, the search engine will place you a higher in the search results.
Step 4 - Directory and search engine submissions
Now that you have identified the keywords structure your site with those keywords and have appropriate internal and external links to your site, you need to let the world know. One of the most effective ways to publicise is through submissions to directories and search engines. Depending on where you live, search engines make out a significant amount of traffic to a website. Clearly you can still get traffic through word of mouth and through links from other sites but if you neglect search engines and directories then you are missing a significant opportunity. The major search engines that most people use are Google and Yahoo and there are other regional and industry specific directories and search engines that you should consider.
Step 5 - Internet public relations activities
There's a greater level of skill and subtlety in performing your on-line public relations. It is important you understand the behaviors of your customers and potential customers to determine the appropriateness and targeted nature of your public relations activities. For example, if your potential customers are in a younger demographic you may want to develop some public relations initiatives related to the hosting information on Youtube. If they are in the fifties demographic this might not be as appropriate.
About the author.
Adam Hodgson is an expert in new business creation and specifically for power of the internet to generate new business. He has started, grown and sold many businesses and the foundation for the success of these businesses has been his knowledge and experience in effective digital marketing.
5 Steps To Start an Internet Business
Starting an Internet business is not rocket science, but you do need to know what you're doing in order to succeed. Specifically, you have to identify a need and fill it; secure a location to house your business; open your business; advertise and drive customers to it; and then start counting your money. Let's take a look at each one of these aspects of starting an internet business a little closer.
Identifying a Need and Filling It. The only reliable way to establish the viability of an online business is to do research...and lots of it. And one way to do that is to use Google's keyword search tool, which will show you what internet users are searching for when they use the internet.
Once you have that information you can determine if it's a product or service that you want to provide, which you can do any number of ways. You can create the product or service from scratch, join affiliate programs that offer the products and services and offer them as an affiliate marketer, or buy master resell rights of existing products and sell them as if they're your own.
Securing a Location. In "how start internet business" this means that you'll be building a website and establishing a hosting account, thus paving the way for internet surfers to find you. And the way they'll find you is through the abundance of search engine optimized web site content pages on your web site. When you provide lots of good, quality, useful information (content) the search engines will reward you by sending lots of "free" traffic to it, which can result in you making a lot of sales.
Opening Your Store. After building a great web site with lots of excellent content you'll then be ready to open up for business. Another way to say it is you'll be ready it to the internet. While many web site designers complicate this aspect of "how start internet business" to stay in business it often times comes down to a simple act of clicking a link that says "publish."
Advertising. When it comes to the advertising part of "how to start internet business" you'll have many options. You've probably heard about running ads on Google, but there are many other search engines where you can advertise for as little as 1 cent per ad, and you only pay that penny when someone clicks on them.
Additionally, there are other effective forms of advertising, including blogging, article marketing, direct mail marketing, email marketing, using sequential autoresponders, pod casting, viral marketing and on and on. However, you'll find that the most cost effective form of advertising is your web site. If you build a good one that is search engine optimized you can generate lots of free traffic. Again, why pay for something when you can get it for free.
Counting Your Money. After you do all of the grunt work you can then look forward to the ultimate reward of getting your first sale, then many thereafter.
As I started out saying, "how start internet business" is not rocket science, but knowing a little about the tools and resources you need to be successful goes a long way towards determining whether you'll be still reading articles like this one a year from now, or counting money from one or more of web sites that you create between now and then.
How to Become a Twitter Super Star
.png)
Some people just while away their time and do nothing fruitful. It is of essence that you do not take to spamming, because instead of attracting more business, people would start running away from you. Hence, use Twitter to build your business, so that you do not lose out good business in the long run.
If you want to be become a Twitter rock star, ensure you follow these tips:
Design your personalized profile and market your brand:
Posting your photograph on the site so as to enable people to interact and communicate with YOU is important. The profile has to be explanatory and informative and should provide details regarding you as a person, your goal, how different you are from the common person and your experiences. Twitter helps you get connected with people and people are not necessarily looking out for business opportunities. Also ensure the landing page is linked to your personal profile. It is important for people to know you well so that they can connect with you.
Providing Value:
People do not respect spammers; hence avoid spamming on every single tweet. Ensure to provide something of real value. This can be done by tweeting articles, jokes, random thoughts and videos. It helps in projecting yourself as a real person and not as someone who only spasm for advertisement of their products or service.
Pay attention to professionals
The Twitter professionals do not engage in spamming. They provide valuable information that is information and knowledgeable and also keeps the followers entertained in the best possible way. They are able to create their self image of who they are.
Building targeted follower list
If you are keen that your tweets are visible by people who matter the most to you, then you need to build your targeted follower list. If you have sent something about cooking, it should reach followers who are interested in cooking and not any other sports lovers. The search feature in Twitter has to be used for identifying individuals with similar interests and likings.
Be humble and not snobbish
When you are humble, you would always chance upon individuals who provide value. Even if you have a handful of people of your tastes and liking, it is worth it. If people turn out to be spammers, it is best to ignore them and not keep track of them. Follow the thumb rule that if someone fails to post his photograph, it means they are not going to be of any value to you.
Keep track of interesting people:
Follow people who are interesting and you provide you with valuable content. You could also get to know them more personally.
How to Create a Website That Generates Business
A website meant for business must satisfy dual qualities .successful marketing of the products and services and securing useful leads & queries to sustain the business. The website, at the same time, must be informative and promote good quality of products and services. It should be kept in mind that for doing business, potential customers have to be drawn and not those visitors who will give the site a pass at the very first visit.
The basic thing to learn regarding web-based business is that there are already people out there who use the internet extensively to search for the products and services being offered. Therefore it is useful to think from their perspective and to understand whether the correct words and features are being used to frame the website. The need for keyword researchers and well equipped designers becomes important for this matter.
The success of a website also depends on the position of useful links guiding visitors to similar websites. Various Coding standards can be used to for this purpose and there is a need to make the whole presentation compatible with various search engines. Pay-per-click campaign is also a useful tool for any business website. Generally this includes a bidding process and a lot depends on the market of the products or services the site deals with. However pay per click is the most useful option for short term and not so useful for the long run.
Finally there is urgent need to turn the traffic into successful conversions for generating considerable amount of revenue. For this matter the website should be presented in a manner that speaks for itself as far as credibility is concerned. The product details, Reviews, testimony etc. should all be placed in properly. The 'Home Page' and the 'Contact Us' page need special care as these are the useful sections for the customers. The information essential for conversion should be specially highlighted and so as to direct attraction straight to those sections.
Throughout the website the company's position, credibility, product efficiency etc. should be presented in a concise manner. Above all web -based business is as much about the marketing strategy as the actual quality of the products and serviced. Without the fulfillment of the standard the success of the business is sure to be narrow. There has to be parity between the marketing standard and the quality and usability of the product.
7 Simple Ways That You Can Promote Your Website
At times, website promotion can seem confusingly complicated. There seem to be so many, sure-fire new ways to get thousands of hits to your site. Whilst some of these methods work, most just waste your time.
So welcome back to the basics of website promotion - seven simple, effective, ways to promote your site. Learn about a new promotion strategy, or just remind yourself of an 'old favourite'.
1. Submit Your Site to Search Engines and Directories
Submit your site to all the major search engines and directories. Right now, that means getting a link from sites already listed at search engines Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. If you're going to submit to these search engines, then submit your site map. The search engines explain how.
As for submitting to directories, Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) are important. You can also find other directories at Strongestlinks.com
2. Use a Signature File
A signature file (sigfile) is a block of text that can be added to the end of each e-mail message you send (or forum post you make). Write compelling copy and offer benefits for visiting your website in your sigfile. And set up your email client or forum profile such that each time you post (or email) a message the sigfile gets added automatically.
3. Post to a Newsgroup (or Forum) Discussion
Somewhere online there's a newsgroup or forum involved in discussions relevant to your site. You can find a great variety of newsgroups at Google Groups, which allows you to search all of the Usenet newsgroups for a particular term or phrase.
Post a message to a suitable newsgroup using Outlook Express (or other newsreader software), or via Google's newsgroup site, or via the forum itself. Do follow the newsgroup/forum guidelines - but it is usually okay to use a signature file with each of your posts.
4. Run an Affiliate Program
Affiliate programs are a win-win opportunity for you and your potential partners (affiliates or associates). Apart from the instant sales force you develop, which tries to generate leads or sales for your business, you can often create lots of links back to your site. And your affiliates gain from adding products or services to sell on their site.
5. Publish an E-Zine or Newsletter
An e-zine (or newsletter) allows you to stay in touch with your visitors. You can educate your visitors with how-to articles (and so build trust in your website and your business); you can let them know about new offers; or you can just inform them about site-improvements.
Readers of your newsletter can become regular visitors to your site, and good customers too. And running a newsletter can cost little or nothing.
6. Run a Competition
Competitions are a great way of promoting your website, and finding out more about your site's visitors in the process. Offer a prize related to your website, and get people to fill out an entry form (or even subscribe to your newsletter).
When it comes time to announce the winners, send an e-mail to everyone with the winners name, and add items of interest about your services and opportunities too.
Even better, there are sites that will actually promote your online competition, giving your site even more exposure.
7. Write a Press Release
Press releases (news releases) are one of the most effective ways of generating interest in your site. If written well, they can produce startling amounts of attention, which can usually be converted into visitors to your website.
There are sites that give advice on how to write a press release, and sites that will compose and distribute your press release for you too.
Website Domain Names -- the Ins and Outs of Picking and Choosing
I have discovered that even though domain names have been around since the beginning of interaction on the Internet, there is still a great deal of confusion surrounding them. How do I pick the right one? Can I have more than one? Where do I find out if the name I want is available? How much do they cost? These are a few of the questions I answer in this article.
Pick a domain name that has the following attributes:
It relates to your name, your company name, or your product. If you are a solo-preneur, your name is a good choice. What if www.SpencerBeazer.com is already taken? Some suggest www.TheSpencerBeazer.com. I also think that using .info or .biz or even .net will work.
My company name has been Americas Computer Genius since 1999, so when I purchased my first domain name in 1999 and found that www.Americascomputergenius.com was already taken, I chose the .net ending and since then have registered the .biz ending for my business site. I don’t feel that it has hurt me in any way. If anything, it separates me from the norm.
Use your website’s title, topic, product and/or keywords.
Don’t be too cute, clever, or obtuse. It will either rob you of credibility or confuse surfers.
Misspelled names. Now that domain names are so reasonably priced, I know some top website gurus who suggest buying several variations of the spelling of your name or topic and then pointing them to the correctly spelled website.
Once you have picked a name, you need to first make sure it is available, and then register for it. Below are the steps:
I suggest going to an accredited registrar. Check out several, because there is a wide range of prices.
Usually, there is a box where you can input your choice(s).
If the name is available, you can follow through by ordering it. Back in 1999, domain names cost $35 per year. Now they range from $6.95 to $9.95 a year. Caveat: don’t order all of the extras that are offered. In my opinion, they are not necessary.
If the name isn’t available, you will be given other available idea names or the name with other endings.
You can also check the WHOIS directory to see to whom a name is registered and for how long (when we register a name, we are only renting it).
Once the name is paid for and registered, you will have an account that lists your domain name(s). I now keep all of the ones I register right in an account which gives me:
Free parking.
Free pointing. For example, I point my information site names to the home pages of those sites, which are included under the umbrella of my main information site.
The opportunity to change the DNS endings so the domain name is hosted at its own IP address.
Be patient. To have changes in the files and on the Internet take effect sometimes takes as long as 72 hours.
Final warning: If you have or once you have a domain name, your post office address will be listed in WHOIS. Therefore, you may receive a mailing(s) that looks like a bill for renewal, or just a bill. Read the small print. If you pay it, you will be registering your name with another registrar -- and often for a lot more than you have already paid.
