Search Engine Optimization

Writen by Thomas OKeefe

When Yahoo went live in 1994 it was purely a directory of websites. Until the late 1990s Yahoo’s directory was still the most popular way to find information on the web however with the massive amount of new pages being added daily it was becoming extremely inadequate.

Then along came Google which indexed the massive amounts of new pages being added to the internet. So now instead of praying that Yahoo will include your site in their directory the focus has now shifted to search engine optimization – the art of enhancing your website to increase your listing on search engines for various keywords.

To get a greater feel for how Google and Yahoo index the internet I’ve included a few simple tips on how to optimize your site for maximum traffic in an effort to understand how information is indexed.

Check your Title Tags and your Description Tags

For search engine optimization your website’s title and description tags are essential for free traffic.

The Title tags should be short, to the point and different for each page on your site. Creating unique titles for each of your pages will enable the search engines to direct traffic to not only your main page but also to these back pages. Allowing searches to be directed to these pages will result in visitors finding exactly what their looking for without getting lost via your homepage. The fewer clicks a visitor has to perform to get the information they need the more satisfied they’ll be with your site.

Please Note: Resist the urge to create long winded Title tags. Numerous keywords or phrases will dilute their effectiveness and quality.

The description tag should be more descriptive and also repeat the main phrase of your Title tag – in this case “market research.” It is also very important for this term to appear in the body of your website for that particular page.

Both the Title tags and the Description tags appear in search results for Google (and other search engines) and have become far more important these days than the tag. Do not limit your title tag to just your firm’s name since chances are it’s not one of the more popular search terms on the internet. However for branding purposes it’s a good idea to start your Title tag with your firm/site name.

Keyword Ranking Tool

To view the popularity of any word on the internet I recommend using Overture’s (Yahoo) Keyword Selector Tool at http://inventory.overture.com.

Please Note: The most popular terms will not always send the most amount of free traffic since they are highly competitive terms.

Include Keywords in the Body of your Website

Search engines such as Google index every word (and link) on your site so it’s very important to include descriptive keywords and phrases in the body of your site. In the case above the phrase “market research” from the Title and Description tag should also be listed in the body of your page. Unique descriptions, words or phrases are especially important to include on your site since they are less competitive and will drive a targeted audience to your site – however they’ll probably send less traffic.

Add a Site Map

Search engines index the web by moving from link to link and therefore giving them a map to your site is extremely important. A site map should contain the Title of every page on your site and links to those pages. This will ensure that every page on your site has been indexed.

To view an example of a site map please visit Research Connect’s at:
http://www.researchconnect.com/site_map.asp

Please Note: Don’t forget to create a link to your site map from the main page of your website. The search engines need to be able to find the map before they can follow it.

Submit your Site to Google

Once your Meta Tags have been updated, your keywords have been added and your site map has been created it’s a very good idea to submit your site to Google. You can do this by visiting http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

It may take a few weeks to a month for the Googlebot to visit your site but please remain patient and don’t submit your site again for a number of months. The Googlebot will eventually get to your site. Pages that have a page rank of 5 or greater automatically get updated on a more frequent basis.

Please Note: Don’t over submit your site to Google and only submit the main URL. Over submitting will not expedite your listing and could potentially be harmful.

There are other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) that you can submit your site to but Google is king. For example, on any given day ResearchConnect.com receives approximately 700 visitors from Google whereas the other search engines send under 10 each.

Increase your Google Page Rank

Google ranks every page on a scale from 0 to 10. To view the page rank for any site on the internet download Google’s toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/.

One way this PR is determined is by the quality and quantity of websites that link to your site. If your site has a PR of 1 and a similar site with a PR of 7 links to your site then that increases the quality of your site in Google’s eyes. The higher your PR the better your placement will be on their site and thus the more traffic you’ll receive.

To increase your PR scour the internet for websites and search engines that will link to your site all while paying attention to their PR. I would stay clear of sites and search engines that require you to pay for that link. The only site that you might want to consider paying for is Yahoo but please note that none of these links will send you a lot of direct traffic. What they’ll do for you is increase your site’s quality in the eyes of Google and thus lead to more traffic via their search engine.

Please Note: Google consistently keeps people on their toes and no one is truly able to figure out how they rank websites. These suggestions will definitely help over time but are not the only criteria Google uses for ranking websites.

** O'Keefe works with new and established websites to maximize the amount of free traffic they receive from search engines such as Google.

For an evaluation of your site please contact O'Keefe at 617-947-8071 or via tom[at]tomokeefe.com.

Tom O'Keefe is an internet business consultant and the founder of Research Connect, Inc., a market research database. O'Keefe works with small businesses and start-ups to help develop an affordable and effective online strategy to maximize traffic and exposure via search engine optimization, internet marketing and web development.

For a website evaluation of your site please contact O'Keefe at 617-947-8071 or via tom[at]tomokeefe.com.

Research Connect is an integrated market research database and research service which connects leading researchers and consultants with the corporate and investment community.

Search Engine Optimization 101: The Very Basics - Make Money Online

Writen by Holly Mann

Raising your website's position on the Search Engines is increasingly important as thousands of new websites are created each day and many may be in competition with yours. The more sites added to the World Wide Web, the more expensive advertising costs will be. Don't get trapped into spending hundreds of dollars per day, per week or per month for advertising.

The purpose of optimizing your website is so that Search Engines can easily search your site, navigate throughout and categorize it. As well as creating a graphically appealing informative site for your visitors, you need to concentrate on building a strong keyword-based theme throughout the site.

Search Engines are large databases of Web sites that are automatically generated. These Internet search engines use a software robot or spider that seeks out and indexes Web sites. Yahoo, Google, MSN, Excite, AltaVista, AskJeeves are some of the popular Search Engines. To produce accurate search results, search engines must keep their ranking algorithms (formulas) secret.

Search engine optimization begins with choosing keywords and key phrases. This is an important first-step and goes hand-in-hand with developing your website theme and choosing a domain name. Before choosing your key phrases, you should check out your competing websites. You cannot optimize your website to reach its highest position without understanding exactly how your competitor’s websites reached theirs. Your website should have a clear theme. And your keywords must describe the theme of your site, as well as help your website reach the highest results when queried on the search engines. This is so important for two reasons. One, is because Pay-Per-Click Advertising can be extremely costly. Two, is because the majority of the people who are looking for a product or information on the search engines do NOT click on the sponsored ads. Instead, they click on the freely placed non sponsored websites. Your goal should be to reach the top 10-15 placements in the non sponsored websites.

Before choosing a domain name for your website or company, think about the keywords you may be targeting. While you may think you have a great domain name now, it may not include your important keywords in the URL. Sites with the keyword in the domain tend to rank higher than domains without the keywords.

The next step is to gather material for your website and put it all together so it is graphically appealing, not only for site visitors but for search engines as well. This step may take quite a lot of time, and is usually ongoing, as it is important to continually add, edit and update your site. Every piece of text you add to your website should be supporting the site's overall theme.

Now it is of paramount importance to spread the word about your website and create high-quality optimized links to and from your website to help increase your website’s page rank.

Holly Mann is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served as a Journalist and Photographer. She is now A Successful Entrepreneur and sells a Make Money Online Ebook that has helped thousands of people change the way they do business online. http://www.ThankYouRichJerk.com/cheaperbook.htm

http://www.MannCoDesigns.com
http://www.EHostingInfo.com

Search Engine Optimization 101 - A Straightforward Introduction to SEO

Writen by Craig Richey

If you have ever searched for a product, chances are you have used one of the three most popular search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN account for over 84% of all internet searches and provide thousands of search results that, more often than not, go unexplored. Getting listed as close to the top of the search results can be a tricky business but the process of getting you there is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

A highly complex and secretive series of algorithms hidden from public view make it extremely difficult to determine exactly what search engines are looking for, but assessing certain characteristics from sites that rank in the first few pages can be done with reasonable accuracy. By using key strategies like the domain name, keywords, meta tags, indexed pages, internal and external links, page-link alignment and ranking—SEO can significantly help your website respectively place among the top pages.

Domain Name

The domain name is the unique identifier for your website, e.g., ‘my-site.com’ is the URL and ‘my-site’ is the domain name. Studies have shown that containing keywords in your site’s URL can boost your search engine ranking. This boost is most significant when your site is very new and has not yet established a good page rank. As your site grows and becomes more efficiently structured and linked, the URL becomes less important. There is also, growing evidence that website URLs will become less important in the future.

Keywords

While keywords are a more traditional form of search engine optimization, they are regarded as a significant consideration amongst the top three search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN look at the location and frequency of keywords within your pages’ text. Simply having a high percentage of keywords will not increase your ranking but having your keywords in the right location can be far more effective. For example, words in the page title and header text can be more effective than in the body of your website. However, this is not to take away from the significance of adding keywords in the actual text on the page. Remember, never sacrifice the quality of your content for your customers to achieve page ranking.

Another factor to consider when adding keywords is the type of words you should use. For example, the words ‘gift basket’ are searched almost 500,000 times a month but the words ‘food gift basket’ are searched 300,000 times a month. Gift basket companies that use ‘gift basket’ have greater competition than those companies that use ‘food gift basket’. Surprisingly, adding more descriptive words like ‘food’ or ‘Paris’ or ‘baby’ have the potential to move your site up the page because there is less competition and fewer search results.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are another way for search engines to find and learn about your website, provide information about your page, how current the information is, what the page is about and which keywords represent the page’s content.

Typically, search engines display your site’s meta tags under your page title in the search results, and a well-written meta tag can help convince customers to choose your website from the list of search results. Meta tags should be included in all of your web pages; if left blank, the search engines simply pull search result descriptions from the top of your web page. While the SEO benefits of meta tags are discounted compared to a few years ago, including relevant quality meta tags should increase your search engine rankings. When writing your meta tags, you should consider these points:

• Use meta tags with care, do not repeat keywords

• Do not include words that are not present on your pages

• Focus on creating an enticing website description

Indexed Pages

An indexed page is a page that has been “spidered” or searched by a search engine. Search engine spiders travel around the internet by following hyperlinks and build a searchable index of content as they go. Search results are the product of indexed pages that have been copied and “cached”, or stored by search engines. The more indexed pages you have, the greater the likelihood of being indexed and appearing in search results. In addition to your homepage, it is possible to optimize other pages of your site using nich้ keywords. For multi-page sites, a site map can be an efficient way of insuring all of your pages are found and indexed by search engine spiders.

Internal and External Linking

The benefits of linking are not quite as black and white as outbound = bad and inbound = good. The name and quality of inbound and outbound links can determine your site’s reputation and can provide a substantial boost in search engine ranking. Quality inbound links can allow your site to significantly increase its search engine ranking. It is preferable that inbound links point to the pages you wish to optimize and provide a logical navigation path; this typically means linking to your site’s homepage.

A link connecting to your page from a different domain name that is hosted on a different IP address is considered an external link. External linking can provide significant opportunity but can also be risky when it comes to your site’s search engine ranking. Having too many outbound links can decrease your sites overall ranking. As well, search engines consider outgoing links to be under your control, so if you link to penalized sites, e.g., link-farms, you can be penalized by search engines.

While search engines continually try to gather the most accurate search results as possible, recently there has been a shift towards assigning external links a significantly higher ranking than internal links. The shift in external versus internal is based on the idea that internal links can be controlled and manipulated by webmasters, whereas external links are from an unrelated IP address and much harder to control. As interesting as this development is, outgoing links continue to play a much smaller role in your site’s search engine ranking.

Page-Link Alignment

To make matters more challenging, simply having links structured properly does not result in success. The link text needs to be in alignment with the text found on the linked page. The text found on the page is considered to represent the topic of the page and the link text represents the reputation of that page. Confused yet? Wait, there is more. Properly aligning the topic and reputation is considered one of the easiest ways of creating a top ranked website. Achieved by insuring that the name of the link pointing to your site is not simply ‘Click Here’, instead it contains your site’s keywords. An example of a link-page alignment modification recently done by Giftporto.com was to change the ‘Home’ link found on all pages to the more keyword rich ‘Gift Basket Home’.

PageRank (PR)

Throughout the article, I have been referring to ranking or Page Rank without really defining the significance of it, well here goes. The PageRank is a measurement of how important a search engine like Google thinks your site is. Over the past few years, the importance of a website’s page rank has increased as the importance of site’s text and domain names have decreased.

PageRank, created by Google founders, is determined by the number of inbound links to your website and the quality of the sites providing those links. Google has decided that important pages usually have more inbound links and therefore measures these links on a scale of 0 to 10. The theory, as defined by Google itself, is that high quality sites receive a higher PageRank based on visitors and traffic to your site. PageRank is a “vote” by all the other pages on the internet. In theory, how much that link increases a site's PageRank is calculated by using the following formula:

PR page A= (Importance of page B) x (# of links to A from B) / (# of links on B page)

Any page that has a link can be considered a site and you are allowed to vote for other pages (sites) you control, therefore, how you structure the link network within your site can increase the PageRank of your homepage or any particular page you wish to focus on.

The structure of your internal links is helpful in providing certain optimized pages. By using different linking structures, the PageRank can be shifted to sites that are more important. In most cases, a website wants its homepage to have the highest PageRank allowing it to appear in the search engine results. To achieve this, the homepage should be the center of your website’s linking network. An example would be to have all product pages link to catalogue pages, and then have all catalogue pages link to the home page. Simply having a Gift Basket Home link on all pages should help shift PageRank to the homepage. As the trend towards assigning a higher value to links continues, internal linking structure should be designed around user navigation as well as search engine optimization.

Successfully optimizing your website is an incredibly diverse and ever changing process. From mathematical calculations of algorithms to keywords and PageRank, the benefits of learning the SEO process and incorporating them into your website can be highly rewarding.

Craig Richey is a an employee and in-house SEO specialist for Portolynx.com and he is currently working on the optimization of Giftporto.com

Search Engine Optimisation: Why Not a Flash Website?

Writen by David Touri

Yeah why not! They look good and can be very creative with a lot of visual effects. But the truth is they are not very search engine friendly. For those who have just spent a lot of bucks on creating a flash masterpiece, no need to panic, there are a few ways to help improve your website’s search engine visibility.

To give you a quick rundown as to why flash websites are not favoured by search engines, they are seen as a one page image file with no text based content. You will notice that when you navigate through a flash website, the URL address will always remain the same. So here you have a website with no text based content, is a one page image file and has no internal link structure, translating into a search engine’s enemy.

Unless you have an extremely popular name within your industry or have an enormous amount of relevant incoming links, then you will get away with having a flash website for the obvious keyword phrases i.e. company name. Who would fall into this category? An example would be Coca Cola, ever heard of them? So for those who fall into the other category, and that would be about 90% of us, fortunately there are alternatives to help boost your rankings.

There are three suitable methods that I would recommend. The first method is by far the easiest and cost efficient. It involves optimising your Title and Meta tags for the single page to the best of your ability and then including optimised text information beneath the flash image. Some may see this as a form of spam, but given the scenario, I would recommend this method provided that the text is written accordingly and avoids keyword stuffing.

The second method can be quite costly and might not be favoured given the fact that you have spent a lot of cash on your flash website. It involves developing a second site designed in HTML. When a visitor visits your site, they would be presented with two links, one to your flash site and one to your HTML site. That way search engine crawlers will access all the content and pages via the HTML website.

The third method is by far the most preferred. It works by developing an HTML website with your flash images embedded on the page, and all content is written in text based form. This allows you to have multiple HTML pages which will give you more Title and Meta tags to work with, as well as keyword rich content to write for each page.

To sum up, depending on your time and budget constraints, there are ways to help you avoid the search engine pitfalls of having a flash website. Any of the methods I have discussed, along with a strong incoming link structure, will help you get that extra exposure in the search engines. If are thinking of designing a flash website, make sure you look at implementing a search engine friendly strategy to avoid complications in the future.

About the Author: David Touri works for SEO Sydney, the SEO Consultants. He has worked on various projects and offers search engine optimisation in Australia.

Search Engine Optimisation - Why And How To Do It

Writen by Justine Curtis

In the following article I will give you some basic guidelines to follow in order to help get your web site ranked at the top of popular organic search engines. More detailed information can be found in our DIY Internet Marketing Guide “Start at the Beginning” Click here for an excerpt: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html

What Is Optimisation?

Search engine optimisation is the process of creating or modifying a web site so that it encompasses the design, background coding, text copy, and link-building elements search engines check through when indexing your web site. Through the process of optimisation, you can develop or alter a web site so that the search engines will move your web site towards the top of the results generated for your particular, relevant searches. This means people who are actually searching for what you have to sell will click to your web site, as it will be listed above those of your competitors.

How Does Optimisation Work?

There are three fundamental elements to the search engine optimisation: background coding, text copy and link popularity.

Background coding is the manipulation of your HTML code so that it is “clean”, uncluttered, positioned correctly, and easily accessible to the search engine spiders and crawlers. You need to be sure that the most important information to the spiders is located near the top of the page where it can be quickly and easily found and positioned thus, the spiders will consider that it is more relevant than information nearer the bottom of the page. You also need to ensure that java scripts and other such coding are moved out of the spiders' way.

Text copy relates to the text on your site. Professional search engine copywriters are able to write in such a way as to include your primary key phrases in strategic places so that you get the most "points" from the engines and also appeal enough to your customers to persuade them to purchase your product or service.

Link popularity deals with how many sites have links that point back to your web site and the quality of those web sites with regard to relevance. The theory is, that if others in your field think highly enough of your web site to link to it, your web site, and the products or services it offers, must be of good quality.

When you have a good combination of all three primary elements, you stand a much better chance of ranking high within these engines.

A Couple of Myths Exploded…

Isn’t It All About the META Tags?

A long, long time ago, in a land far away…it used to be! When the Internet was first founded, virtually all you had to do to get high rankings was to stick a load of key phrases into your keyword tag and boom, lots of targeted traffic flooding to your web site. Now, however, the engines are smarter. They pay no attention to the keyword tags and very little attention to the description tag. The only tag that carries much weight anymore is the title tag and it is extremely important.

Isn’t it All About stuffing Your Pages Full of Key Phrases?

No! Not only does key phrase stuffing (as it is attractively known) put you at risk of spamming the search engines, it makes your text copy look and sound horrible to your human site visitors. What good are high search engine rankings if your web site text puts off and doesn't convert those visitors into paying customers? You need to maintain the balance between natural language and key phrase use.

How can you get the balance right? Read the detailed information in our DIY Internet Marketing Guides “Start at the Beginning” excerpt available here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html and also “Writing Text That Sells” excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_3.html

How to Optimise Your Web Site.

Set your goals.

The first thing to consider when embarking on a new search engine optimisation campaign is to establish the goals for the site and the optimisation in general. For instance, is the goal to drive more targeted traffic to the site, to get people to sign up for a newsletter, to get someone to make a purchase online, or is it to entice people to call or fill out a form requesting more information? Usually, the goals will be a combination of things. Very often different pages within the site will have different goals, and these need to be kept in mind throughout the SEO process.

Identify Your Key Phrases.

With the end goals in mind, the next step is to compile a key phrase list. Brainstorm the phrases you feel are important to your business and also make sure you go through the existing pages or your web site and add to the list any phrases that appear naturally within the copy. With list in hand, it's time for some heavy-duty keyword research. You can use a free suggestion tool such as those provided by Overture or Google or pay for time limited access to WordTracker.

WordTracker - http://www.wordtracker.com

Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Google AdWords - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox

More often than not, you'll find that phrases that you thought were important are not actually searched for by real people. The key phrase suggestion tools above will give you alternate suggestions to test.

You will now be armed with a list of actually searched for, highly targeted, relevant keyword phrases. Weed out any irrelevant phrases from the list and rank the relevant ones in order of importance for your business. Then decide which 2 or 3 phrases to focus on within the copy of each page of the web site. The home page of the site should usually focus on the main 2 or 3 phrases that encompass the general theme of the site. Inner pages should each focus on 2 or 3 more specific phrases. If your pages already have some text copy to work with, take a look at the existing words on each page and see which 2 or 3 keyword phrases in your short list will fit best with the current copy. If pages of the site don't have much copy to begin with, or if there is no specific focus on any given page, a rewrite from scratch will be necessary.

Write the Text Copy.

Now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of writing the text copy for your pages. If you're starting from scratch, be sure you keep in mind which phrases need to be used, what the goals of the site are, and who the target market is as this information will affect how you write the copy. If you're lucky enough to have some existing copy, the next step will be to work in the necessary keywords whilst maintaining the flow and rhythm of the text. Once your copy is finished you should have a number of pages focusing on 2 or 3 key phrases each.
Edit the HTML Code.

Optimising the HTML code includes creating Title tags, Meta description tags, Meta keyword tags, hyperlinks, and possibly headings and image alt attributes. All of these are factors in helping the search engine spiders to properly classify your site, with some being more important than others. There is too much detail to go into in this newsletter but more information can be found in our DIY Internet Marketing Guide “Start at the Beginning” Click here for an excerpt: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html

Upload and Submit.

Once you have completed all the steps above upload your new pages to your server and if this is a new web site, submit them to the search engines. If you are updating an old site that is listed (all-be-it badly) in the search engines, it is not necessary to resubmit it.

Also don’t forget to perform your directory submissions or directory change requests. Make sure you submit to directories only when your web site is complete as this aids the directory editor categorise your site more easily, and they'll be less likely to edit your submitted description.

Link Building.

Now it is time to begin your link-building campaign in earnest. Link building can be started in a quick burst, but should also be an ongoing process. You should always be on the lookout for sites that are a good fit with yours and contact them about exchanging links. For more info on link popularity and its effect on search engine rankings, please read our guide “Start at the Beginning” Click here for an excerpt: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html

Wait and See.

All that’s left to do now is wait for your organic listings to begin listing. If you've paid for inclusion with the search engines and directories that offer this service, you should start to see results within two weeks. If the initial rankings aren't as high as you'd like them to be, don’t panic. Concentrate on your link building and your efforts will be rewarded over time. Try not to make any major changes to the web site its-self for at least 3 to 6 months.

Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for all those free, targeted, highly motivated customers!

For a complete guide to marketing on the Internet, including:

ท The General Principles of Internet Marketing

ท Start at the Beginning

ท Writing Text that Sells

ท Building Online Relationships

ท Maximising Your Pay Per Click Campaign

ท Measuring Success

Why not purchase the whole series of downloadable guides for the discounted price of ฃ64.95. Click for more information:
http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/promo_ebooks.html

Justine Curtis

Enable UK

Internet Marketing Information and Resources

Make your web site work harder!

Web: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk

Email: info@enable-uk.co.uk

Article from Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter, a monthly publication of Enable-UK

Copyright ฉ 2004 Enable-UK.

Search Engine Optimisation Tips for Life Coaches and Other People Working in Coaching

Writen by Hannah McNamara

That's the question on everyone's lips:
How do I get my website on page 1 of the search results?
But what if I know nothing about SEO?

There are two ways to achieve this:

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

Natural Listings

What's the difference? Open up a new browser and go to www.google.com, then type life coaching into the search box and hit 'Search the Web'.

Near the top of the screen, you'll see a light blue box with about three search results. Now look in the top right hand corner of that box and you'll see that it says 'Sponsored Links'.

Cast your eyes to the right hand panel of the page. What do you see right at the top? 'Sponsored Links'. This is PPC advertising. I'll explain how it works in a minute.

The rest of what you see on the screen is called Natural Listings. These are the sites that Google ranks as important - the ones that out of approximately 18.7 million sites, Google think you'll be most interested in.

How do the search engines work out which ones you're looking for?

There are lots of different ways that they work it out, but here are the two that you'll have the most control over:

Keywords

Links

Let's talk about Keywords first.

Essentially, these are the words that describe what the site's about. So if your site is all about telephone-based career coaching for women returning to work after a baby, you'd include very different keywords from a site that was about face-to-face small business coaching for accountants in Preston.

People are getting more savvy when it comes to searching for information on the internet and they are being more and more specific about the keywords they search for. And that's one of the reasons that I keep telling you about the importance of having a niche.

You know what, the only people I know who search for terms like 'coaching' or 'life coaching' are......coaches or people who want to train as coaches.

And if you go down the PPC route for top search engine positionings on these search terms, you'll just be paying for other coaches to visit your site. Typically, you need to pay over ฃ1 per click to rank highly on Google's PPC advertising - called Google Adwords - for these terms, so this could be an expensive exercise.

If you try to compete on generic search terms, you'll struggle unless you've got the budget to invest in good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) support.

Your clients are more likely to search for more specific things like 'career coach Manchester', 'marketing advice for personal trainers' or 'Executive Coach Sales Director'.

It's much easier to niche your site and compete on the more targeted keywords.

For example, go to www.google.co.uk and put in 'career coach manchester' and see what happens.

Rather than competing with almost 19 million sites, there are now only 241,000 sites containing those keywords, so it shouldn't be too hard to get your site higher up the rankings.

When you're putting your keywords into your site, you need to put them as early on in your page as you can. So for 'Career Coach Manchester' it should be in your page title, your first headline (h1) and in the content of your first paragraph. Then keep using the keywords throughout the site.

If you get the right keywords, the search engines will see the site as relevant to the search. But how do you get them to think that your site is important enough to rank highly?

Your links.

The more relevant inbound links you can get to your site, the better. This is where other people's sites include your URL (e.g. www.yourwebsite.com) and description on their website.

In the search engines' eyes if other sites link to yours, then they must think it's a good site. So if lots of sites are telling their visitors about your site, it's more likely to be an important website.

The easiest way to get inbound links is through reciprocal linking. That's where you agree to swap links with another site - you'll put a link to their site on your website if they agree to do the same for you.

Or you can get your site listed on online directories - some are free and some are paid for. Usually this is on a reciprocal basis as well. If you want to be listed on their directory, you need to link back to their site.

Something to be aware of is that if a highly-ranked site links to yours, your site is regarded more highly than if the link came from a lower-ranked site.

How do you tell if a page is ranked highly?

Download the Google Toolbar, which will give you the Google Page Rank (PR) for each site you visit.

For example, www.marketinghelpforcoaches.com is ranked 4/10 by Google which is quite high for a coaching website. (Google's own page about their Toolbar is also ranked at 4/10).

OK, finally, PPC advertising.

Does advertising work? Offline, the results can be patchy, but online, if you know what you're doing, it's ideal. Why? Because it's very targeted and you only pay when you get results.

Pay Per Click works on a bidding system, so you specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay each time someone clicks on your advert and you also specify your daily budget, i.e. what's the maximum you want to spend each day so that your spending doesn't get out of control.

The two main providers of PPC are Google Adwords and Overture.

They both work in the same way, but Google is a lot faster - you can have your advert up and running in about 15 minutes once your account is set up. Google is probably the best place to test your keywords and the effectiveness of your advert before rolling it out on Overture as well to pick up search engines like Lycos, Yahoo and MSN.

To explain the inner workings of these advertising methods is beyond the scope of this article. The best thing to do is to go in and have a play around as both have good help and tutorial functions.

Hannah McNamara helps life coaches, business coaches and executive coaches to be more successful. She combines her 15 years Sales & Marketing experience with coaching techniques to make Marketing fun. Coaches can sign up for her FREE Marketing mini-course (delivered by e-mail) by visiting
http://www.marketinghelpforcoaches.com

Turn your speakers up!

Search Engine Optimisation: SEO Start Up, Landing your First Clients

Writen by Ilan Touri

Starting a search engine optimisation business from scratch can be an extremely overwhelming and daunting task, especially if it is your first time. Establishing contacts and connections can also be extremely time consuming if you have no prior marketing and sales knowledge.

Below is a useful guide to help you get your first clients and to get your SEO / SEM business off the ground. Before I begin, please keep in mind that “word-of-mouth” is king, get the word out, talk and mention your business to whomever, whenever and wherever. Remember, the more exposure you offer your business, the more chances you will have landing that first deal.

Search engine optimisation marketing and offline selling tips:


1. Target your market and know your customers, i.e. do some background research. It helps to initially concentrate on one industry, e.g. travel websites, and know the terms, your clients, their line of work and their competition.


2. Localise yourself, concentrate on a local area. Try not to tackle too much at first, focus and concentrate on local businesses and gain their trust. Remember “you are a local” and share similarities.


3. Meet with them, form a partnership and more personal relationships.


4. Assess your advertising options (depending on your budget), consider using the following advertising tools:

a. Local newspapers – place a catchy add.

b. T-shirts - they create great advertising on the street or wherever you go. Also, choose an eye catching slogan.

c. Business cards – choose an appealing and aesthetically pleasing design, trust me professionalism and great design go a long way.

d. Billboard and brochure advertising for those that have the financial means.

e. Taxi advertising: Taxis can be seen all over town by motorists, many of who may happen to be company executives looking to increase their online sales.

f. Radio is also not a bad way of reaching out to people, however this can be costly.

5. Join your local chamber of commerce, meet business people and discuss your SEO business. Offer them a FREE brief website analysis / proposal on their website and show them how you can increase their online traffic and sales.


6. Referrals, referrals, referrals and partnerships. Speak to web design / web development and ISP companies, form partnerships, offer them commission if they refer companies to you.


7. Last but not least: There is nothing like cold calling. Go straight to your source, bypass the marketing manager, do not collect $200, and head straight for the decision maker. Again, as in tip #5, offer a FREE SEO website analysis.

Follow these steps and you can be sure that you’ll be on your way, just stick to your guns and persevere. Deals and contracts may not rush in overnight, however you can be sure sales and new clients will come about in a short period of time. Best of luck!

About the Author: Ilan Touri works for SEO Sydney, a team of search engine optimisation specialists. He has worked on many projects and offers search engine marketing services to companies in Australia. For further information, please contact SEO Sydney.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is Dead!

Writen by Damon Lightley

Dealing with the aftermath of Google update Jagger

OK I know I’m not the first to announce this but let’s face it boys and girls SEO (search engine optimisation) as we currently know it is dead. It’s time to ditch those antiquated techniques that all SEOs cling on to and focus your online marketing efforts on 'online brand optimisation' – OBO for short!

So what’s the difference between SEO and OBO?

Think about the searcher not the search engine!

From a strategic perspective online brand optimisation (OBO) is all about optimising your site and online marketing efforts for the searcher, the end-user that seeks out your site via whatever means he or she chooses. Whether it is via a search engine, a content portal or even a forum. Your goal is to deliver what you’ve promised and help that searcher fulfil his or her online goal. If you don’t do that then you’ve failed in achieving your key online objective.

Ranking’itis!

SEO for most seasoned optimisers is about getting to the top of Google. The vast majority of SEOs become obsessed with checking their rankings in the SERPS (search engine results pages) on a daily basis and even across every possible Google data centre (DC). Checking rankings soon becomes an addiction for many SEOs and believe you me I know, I have been there. But I did come to my senses and I’ve realised that there is more to life than being no 1 in Google for a plethora of key phrases. I’ve also realised that in today’s search environment you can’t rely on the search engine to always deliver you targeted prospects that convert.

You may have read about the multitude of search marketers that have recently been hit badly by the Google ‘Jagger’ update. For many, their site has completely dropped out of the rankings and as a result they are now in an extremely vulnerable position. They solely relied on Google to drive visitors to their site and with no new prospects coming in; their business is starting to feel the strain of being dumped into the harsh terrain that I like to call the ‘Google Desert!’ As we all know no one ventures out onto page 127 of the search results!

Build a brand (a bit of a no-brainer!)

So what can they do to help rectify this? The best solution for many of them will be to clean up their site, create new compelling content, get rid of any unrelated link partners and focus their strategy on building a respected brand, not on building top positions in search sites. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that good search engine visibility isn’t an important element of any online marketing campaign. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be the only one and it should not drive your overall strategy, it should just simply support it.

For your organic search engine market efforts to work they need to be interlinked with other non-search related activity. Search engines like Google are complex beasts and they analyse your site in so many different ways. They not only look at what content you have and who you link with but there is also evidence to suggest they measure other off-site factors such as how many mentions your site gets on other authority sites, how people interact with your site when they land on it and so on.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you want to do well in Google you need to build a strong online brand and that involves promoting your site using a multitude of online and offline channels not just search. Like I said everything is interlinked and if you have a site with a strong brand behind it then it will make its way to the top of Google.

Don’t get banished to the online desert

Building your business model around a search engine is very risky and not a smart thing to do. Why? Because you have no control over the search engine. If you solely rely on the search engine to provide you with leads and customers then you’re doing far worse than putting all your eggs in the one basket – you’ll end up in the online desert with tumbleweed blowing through your site. Remember search engines don’t owe you anything; they don’t care how great your site looks. What they do care about is what your target audience think and we all know that weak brands never make it to the top!

Damon Lightley is a search engine marketing consultant at Site Visibility Ltd. Site Visibility is a UK based search engine marketing company
that helps clients increase online customer acquisition and retention using search engine optimisation, pay per click and online marketing campaign measurement techniques.

http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk

Search Engine Optimisation Research

Writen by Andrew Seidel

If you are taking the time to research Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), it is very important that you are researching the right information. There are a couple of steps you can take to ensure the information you are researching is credible. The following are two points for you to look at:

Verify the age of the articles you are researching - Like much to do with the internet, Search Engine Optimisation is an industry that constantly evolves. The age of an article can play a large part in the credibility of the information you are reading; factors that were important a year ago in SEO, today have very little weight and are not worth devoting as much time and energy to. Link pages are one of these factors. (Discussion article on link building coming shortly) In some cases SEO techniques that were very effective in the past do not work at all anymore, or in some cases can even go as far as getting you banned from search engines altogether.

The next thing to ensure is that the article is written by a credible source. This can be difficult to establish at times, but often the best way is to talk to experts in the SEO field, or read articles written by various experts to see if there is a common element to what you are reading.

As the search engine companies keep secret most of the exact algorithms they use to list websites, much of what is written and the techniques used are through both experience as well as experimentation. Most SEO
techniques can be applied to a website regardless of the industry or type of website, but as each website is different, the end result of two different websites where the same SEO techniques have been applied will be as well.

Content plays a major factor in this. Content is, and will most likely always remain an important factor in helping to gain strong search engine optimisation rankings, as the content of a website will usually provide a clear understanding to the search engines of what your website is about.

It is really important that if you are employing SEO to your website that the methods you do use. If you do use the wrong methods, you can be banned from search engines altogether which will mean you will often need to start from scratch. This can take many months of hard work, and lost business. If you are unsure, it is best if you use a professional Search Engine Optimisation company to optimise your website.

Note: Many Search Engine Optimisation companies are not using current and up-to-date techniques when it comes to search engine optimisation. If you have been doing your research, make sure that you ask key questions to test an SEO company's knowledge. If you don't feel comfortable with the answers provided you are best looking at a different company.

Andrew Seidel - SEO Specialist and Search Engine Marketing Consultant in Sydney, Australia.

Search Engine Optimisation: One Link is Better than Ten

Writen by David Touri

That can’t be right! Shouldn’t ten links be better than one? It is usually the case where more is better. However, when it comes to gaining links, having more links isn’t necessarily better than having a few good links. In fact, having too many irrelevant links could possibly harm your website’s visibility within the search engines.

These days, search engines are placing more emphasis on incoming links to a website when evaluating rank. The reason being is because they are difficult to obtain from trusted sources (a "by the book" website such as the Dmoz directory) and it is a good way to partially eliminate the group of people who abuse the "on the page" factors of optimisation (page spamming). How is this so? Well, if you have someone who is abusing the "on the page" factors and they have no trusted links to their page (they will most likely not get any at all due to spam) then there is no chance of them getting a good listing. However, people have worked out ways in getting a large number of links, through link farms and other tactics, regardless of the quality of their website. As the search engines are aware of this, it brings us to the topic of how one link can be better than ten.

Obtaining one link from a trusted source can be very difficult in the sense that they do not issue links to just about anyone. If you have a good website with relevant information, then you will get them. It is for this reason one link from a trusted source can better a multiple of links from other websites. As a trusted source website is "trusted" by search engines, it will also trust the websites it links to. If you have ten links from your best friends, it will help you in some sense, but no where near as much as the one link from a source like Dmoz, unless one of your friends has a very reputable website amongst the search engines.

Having too many irrelevant links could harm your website’s visibility in the search engines. What is meant by this is having links from websites that have no relation to yours. An example of this would be a site about cars linking to another site about medicine (unless the sites are reputable and have a good reason for the link i.e. there is a relationship made between cars and medicine). Search engines will pick up on this sort of link and will give it no weight in boosting your visibility. Obtain many of these irrelevant links, then it could be seen as spam (like a link farm tactic) and that will lower the popularity of your website within search engines.

The key here is to focus on quality and not quantity. Gaining a few good / relevant links will take you much further than a lot of irrelevant links. To get these quality links, start off by placing your website in directories, but be sure to avoid any "on the page" spamming as this will not get you accepted. Once search engines have acknowledged a presence of relevant links, follow up on it and research some ways to obtain more. As time passes, you will notice that your website’s performance will increase, as the links age, provided you have carried out search engine optimisation. Avoid obtaining the irrelevant links even though it may be tempting to see fast results. It will only be a matter of time before a search engine realises the spam tactic, and as the saying goes "fast rise, fast fall".

About the author: David Touri works for SEO Sydney, who aims to improve search engine placement with search engine placement services for websites in Australia and overseas. He is currently working on the Loaded Technologies website, who specialise in ecommerce website development.

Search Engine Optimisation: How Accurate are Keyword Tools?

Writen by David Touri

In search engine optimisation, it is a crucial element to select the right keywords when optimising a website. The obvious reason being, if you have keywords with no search volume, you will not receive any traffic. Secondly, if you have keywords that are too competitive, you will find it very difficult (almost impossible) to win high ranks. So how do we find the in between balance for both obstacles? This is where keyword tools would come into place, but how accurate are they?

To start, the main keyword research tools that are found on the market today are Wordtracker, Overture Keyword Tool and Trellian Keyword Discovery. Now I bet many of you are pulling your hair out over which keywords are going to be suitable for optimisation. What makes it probably even more stressful is the varying results between the three different keyword tools i.e. one keyword tool may show a particular keyword to be very good, while another tool may suggest a whole different result for the same keyword. Well stop stressing right now! The truth is that we don’t really know how accurate these keyword tools are and we should only use their search volume figures as an indication as to whether a keyword is popular amongst search engine users.

Let’s say a keyword phrase, “dog products”, has a search volume of 5,000 searches per month on the Overture Keyword Tool. To make an assumption that “dog products” is a good keyword for optimisation, based ONLY on the Overture figure, would be a very bad assumption. However, it gives us a rough idea of the search volume for that particular keyword. The next step would be to use Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery to see if a similar amount of search volume is present for “dog products” (remember to convert searches for each tool to a common time frame i.e. monthly or daily). If we have a very low search volume in BOTH Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery, then I would be very skeptical about using “dog products” for optimisation. The whole idea is to get at least two of the three keyword tools to reflect reasonable / high search volumes before considering that keyword to be suitable for optimisation. If you have all three keyword tools returning reasonable / high search volumes for “dog products”, then the chances are that this keyword is reasonable / high in search volume and definitely worth considering for optimisation.

Once a good set of keywords have been agreed upon through the use of the keyword tools, you should then focus on the keywords that have a low / reasonable amount of competing web pages. There is no point trying to compete for a keyword that has 1,000,000 web pages in competition for it. If you are good at SEO then you could achieve high ranks for that keyword, but it would require a lot of time and investment which could be spent on better things. The lower the competition is, then the more chance of achieving higher ranks.

To recap, there is no indication to say that keyword tools are 100% accurate. Whilst the reseller of the tool may suggest otherwise, I highly doubt it. The results should be taken like a “grain of salt” as they are only useful to give you an idea as to what the search volume might be like for a particular keyword (high, moderate or low). With each tool obtaining its results using different algorithms, in some cases their results will not support each other. Provided you use two of the keyword tools to investigate the search volume for keywords, you should be able to make a good decision as to whether a keyword might be worth optimising for. With that in mind, it would also be wise to use your common sense to determine if a keyword is one that YOU would actually use in a search. Otherwise, what would be the point of optimisation in the first place?

About the author: David Touri works for SEO Sydney, who aims to improve search engine placement with a search engine marketing service for websites in Australia and overseas. He is currently working on the Loaded Technologies website, who specialise in ecommerce website development.

Search Engine Optimisation - Getting Targeted Traffic

Writen by Malcolm Cooper

Getting SEO right is an art and it's based on theory and best practice. The search engines don't publish their algorithms so getting it right is like finding the exact formula for Coca Cola.

SEO is about getting free TARGETED traffic. That is folks who are looking for what you've got and finding your site (or eBay store) high in the SE listings, ideally in the top 10.

Here are some basic principles that apply today (they might not apply tomorrow because the SE's don't announce what algorithm they are currently using).

TARGET

Choose it wisely. Think this through before doing anything else. There are 4.7 million results delivered by Google for the word "scrapbook" but only 1.7 million for "scrapbooking" so the latter term has less competition. It's tempting to try to optimise for the big one, "scrapbook" but there are two good reasons not to. Firstly, if you do work hard on that word against fierce competition for some years you might get to the top (might). But how many customers do you want? You might create a monster that you can't handle. Secondly all those currently targeting that word haven't done their homework. "Scrapbooking" has fewer results (less competition) but is searched on more than "scrapbook". The smart operators are targeting "scrapbooking".

That's just an example. Consider too that many people search with phrases, not just single words, so you might target "scrapbooking tutorials". You might get into the top 10 for such a phrase and get solid, targeted traffic that wants what you've got. How about getting to the top for the term "post extenders" or "Sue Dreamer"? Your traffic will be buyers and you want sales, not just traffic for the sake of traffic.
So where to get the best keyword data. Thankfully there is one simple answer, www.wordtracker.com. Best in the world and a must when choosing keywords.

PAGES NOT SITES

Search engines index web pages, not web sites. You might like to think that your visitors will all come through your home page. This is not the case. Every single page of your site is an SEO opportunity. You can, and should, therefore have a different title, description, keywords and target content for every page to maximise your traffic. Optimise every page of your site where possible. Some dynamic sites make it impossible so if this is the case add standard pages that you can optimise.

SEARCH ENGINE SPAMMING

Don't. You can get penalised or banned by the SE's. Things like keyword stuffing, white on white text, doorway pages etc., otherwise known as "Black Hat" techniques are for the highly skilled and dodgy operators only. Some make it work short term and usually have multiple sites so when one gets dropped they have others. Unless you want to build and run 10 or 20 sites and work 25 hours a day on them stay away from black hat techniques.
All the search engines want to do is deliver the best and most relevant sites to their users. Be the best and most relevant and you'll crack it.

META TAGS

If you don't know what meta tags are click view >> source on any site and you'll see the meta tags near the top of the site code.

TITLE

The most important thing you do is the page title. Similar principle to titles when selling on eBay, your title is critical to your search relevance. It must also be attractive to your audience. It should be between 6 and 12 words. Don't simply repeat your keyword 12 times, it doesn't work and can get you penalised.

DESCRIPTION

I believe this is almost as important as you title. Google uses it. It must contain your keyword(s) or phrases and it must read well and be attractive to users. Optimum length is between 12 and 24 words. It should contain the keyword or phrase that you have targeted in the title.

KEYWORDS

Of little use these days but do it anyway. There should be 7 to 48 words and again included the keyword(s) or phrases that you have in title and description.

HEADER TAGS

In page content coding tags are used to create larger, bolder headings. These are in the form

<h1>Header Text</h1>

They are numbered 1 to 4 usually and H1 tags carry the most weight. These tags help the SE spiders to further determine relevance so should include your target keyword(s) or phrases for that page corresponding to title, description, keyword meta tags above. Bold text also carries weight but don't overdo it. Your site still has to attractive to visitors.

CONTENT

This should be good, honest, relevant content, well written. There are many theories about keyword density percentages etc. but the fact is if you write good relevant content about say, post extenders then you will be using those words and phrases and if you are writing well for the human user that will be good enough. Make sure that there is plenty of it too. For content pages around 500 to 600 words is good. If you have more than that break it down into more pages and more SE opportunities.

VALID CODE

Search engines like well built sites that are easy to navigate. The SE spiders will be using your internal links to get around your site so simple and easy navigation is important. Also check your code is good by going here http://validator.w3.org/ and here http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

BACKLINKS

I wish this wasn't important but it is. I've seen some very poor sites do very, very well by virtue of the number of backlinks that they have. So, what is a backlink, what makes a good one and how do you get them?
A backlink is when another site links to you. Google sees this as a "vote" for your site, it counts these votes and this figure forms an important part of your search engine ranking.

A link for the sake of a link is of little value. A link from a relevant and highly ranked site however is gold dust. A link from www.ampalian.com to a scrapbooking site is of little value but a link from www.scrapbookstashers.com to a scrapbooking site is fantastic. A good reason to be a sponsor on such a site!

Getting links from relevant sites is often a case of just asking nicely. If you're serious about seo you need to be asking 5 or 10 relevant sites per day to link to you. They'll no doubt want a link from you in return, that's OK. I can't emphasise too much how important this is. Backlinks are a must.
In addition you need to be listed in as many directories as you can find. Then you must submit your site to the open directory project. Follow the instructions to the letter, submit and forget it. It can take many months to get approved and listed. http://dmoz.org/

There are lots of other directories to submit your site to. Here's another:

http://www.greatstuff.co.uk

Submit articles and tutorials etc. containing your web address to sites that will take them. Lots of content hungry sites will. Start off with these:

http://ezinearticles.com/

http://www.buzzle.com/

And remember. Ask other relevant sites to exchange links with you. IT'S CRITICAL.

If you don't already use the Google Toolbar you should. This will tell you how many backlinks Google sees to you. There may well be more than it says at any given time because it only updates every six weeks or so but it is an essential guide to how you are doing with your linking campaign. Click the "I" button on the toolbar. Make sure the page rank indicator is enabled too. This will give you some idea who you want to get links from, the longer the green bar shows on relevant sites the better. It's not perfect and it's always way out of date so just use as an indication.

http://toolbar.google.com/

DOMAIN

When choosing a domain it's worth trying to get your main keyword in it. It's not the be all and end all but it helps a little so you may as well if you can.

For domain purchase I strongly recommend

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/affiliate.cgi?id=AF109422

If you have an eBay shop you can buy a nice and simple domain name here and direct it to your eBay store. This will make link building and directory submission easier as well as passing the name around verbally and in advertising and on stationery.

Don't submit your site to the search engines, it's a pointless waste of time. If you do everything else here they'll all find you very quickly anyway.

Do however use Google Site Maps here https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
and do use Froogle:
https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/uk/

PATIENCE

Keep doing all of the above. It's a continuous process. Then apply the one element of SEO that can't be influenced. PATIENCE. It will all take time and it will take longer than you want it to but it will work. Just keep at it.

TOOLS

http://www.instantposition.com/seodoctor/home.cfm

http://sitereportcard.com/

I hope this all help and wish you success.

Malcolm Cooper is a UK web designer based in Gloucestershire. Malcolm also owns and operates one of the largest online jewellry stores in the UK and applies that knowledge and experience in providing web services to other small and medium sized businesses.

malcolmcooper.com

ampalian.com

Search Engine Optimisation Copywriting - the Top Ten Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Writen by Pete Wise

In the last few years, search engine optimisation copywriting in the UK and around the world has changed beyond recognition, as has the way sites are optimised by their design, coding and links. However, the biggest changes have been with SEO copywriting. Some of the same old mistakes are being made, and with all the changes to the ways search engines rank sites, fresh pitfalls are appearing. This article looks at some of the most common mistakes and omissions in SEO copywriting – and how to avoid them.

1. Too much time on the look, not enough on the content. If, like me, you’re in the business of SEO copywriting, this is a perennial bugbear. The content of your website is more important than its design, and it’s going to be even more key in the future. Search engines rank websites for what’s in them. You’re almost certainly paying your site design people a great deal of money – but you’re wasting it if your copy is an afterthought and few people visit your website. Invest time and money in copywriting. Better still, talk to your copywriter while the site is being designed, rather than ask him or her to fill in the empty spaces afterwards.

2. Lack of keywords. Keyword selection is the most critical single factor in search engine optimisation. Yet all too often businesses ignore it. If you’re a blue chip company it rarely matters – people are going to come to your site anyway. But any small or mid-size company ignores it at their peril. If your site isn’t optimised in the way it’s written (not just in the way it’s coded) then you’re losing out on customers – big time.

3. Optimising keywords that no-one is searching for. Your company may pride itself on its great service, but it’s pointless to optimise ‘great service’ or anything along those lines, as no-one will be searching for it. (In fact it can be positively counter-productive, as some search engines treat ‘service’ as a stop word and mark down accordingly.) You can find a free search engine query tool at www.overture.com, or you can pay for a more detailed and comprehensive one at www.wordtracker.com. These will tell you which terms have been searched for recently and how often.

4. Optimising keywords that everyone is searching for. You need to be specific in what you optimise. If you’re selling jewelry (or ‘jewellery’, as it’s spelled in the UK), then it’s no use simply optimising for the word ‘jewelry’. Be more specific. Even phrases like ‘antique jewelry’ or ‘beaded jewelry’ are searched for many thousands of times a month. Find out what people are searching for and see what you’re up against by going to a couple of search engines and entering those terms. If your competitors are all optimising for a specific term, it’s probably best to avoid it if you can find an alternative that will still bring in the traffic.

4. Alternate spellings and endings. Think laterally, think creatively, think how others would spell or term something. Are you going to optimise for ‘jewelry’ or ‘jewellery’ – or both? How about ‘website’ or ‘web site’? – both versions are common. And so on. Don’t try and cover all the bases – but do try and check them against what’s being searched for and how many times and in what context you’ll find that keyword on the internet. That way you’re more likely to make the best choices.

5. Keyword density. The general rule of thumb is to try and get them in headings or subheads, and early on in the copy. Two to five times overall on a page, with an absolute maximum of three different keywords per page is what to aim for. Some pundits recommend keyword density of up to 5%. This is almost certainly too much, and some search engines will actually penalise you for it.

6. Clumsy use of keywords. Beware of your copy becoming awkward if you try and repeat your keywords too often:

If you’re looking for wonderful widgets, this is the best place for wonderful widgets. Our wonderful widgets are better than any other wonderful widgets you’ve heard of…”

Copy like that puts off anyone reading your website. And nowadays, when keywords are crowded in like that, it’s putting off the search engines as well.

7. The amount of text. Opinions vary as to exactly how long a page should be. Your homepage should be no longer than around 250 - 300 words, but you can easily double that if needs be for other pages. All pages should have clear headings, subheads, and short paragraphs. A page could be as little as 100 words. What it won’t be, if it’s optimised correctly, is a single paragraph of 30 -50 words.

8. Missing the extras. Text links within your site and anchor text pointing to it are important elements of search engine optimisation copywriting. Text links between pages in your site make it easier for search engine spiders to travel across the whole site. You should therefore always look to include them within your site, unless your site is too complex for it to be practicable, in which case your site needs a hierarchical structure. Anchor text is the visible text in a hyperlink – as in the following:

“Effective search engine optimisation copywriting is essential for getting the most out of your website.”

Of course, the anchor text that helps your site up the rankings is actually on a hyperlink from an outside site – but good anchor text is text that’s written in the right way, with the correct keyword. So get your copywriter to suggest anchor text with which outside sites can link to yours.

9. Doorway pages that aren’t proper pages. Doorway pages are – or were – simply pages within your site that were optimised so that very often they were the first pages that visitors reached. However, the phrase ‘doorway page’ nowadays tends to refer a page that has very little to do with a site, but is merely optimised for a couple of key phrases and aims to immediately redirect the visitor to the site proper. There’s nothing wrong with optimising several pages on your site – in fact it’s generally an excellent idea, as it allows you to cover many keywords. Just make sure that each optimised page has original content, is a genuine part of your site, and is shown on your sitemap.

10. Resting on your laurels. This is perhaps the most common failing of all. A properly optimised site should get you up near the top of the rankings. But you’ll need to keep working on it if you want to stay there. Every day around 7 million items – documents, pages whatever – are added to the internet. Your competitors are going to be choosing keywords and optimising websites of their own. One way to develop and keep high rankings is with relevant links. Another is by adding original content, such as articles or newsletters – so keep your copywriter busy.

Peter Wise is an advertising copywriter, website copywriter and SEO copywriter based in London, UK. He also writes direct mail, brochures, newsletter articles and press releases. You can reach him at +44 (0) 7767 687524. For further information, please visit http://ideaswise.com/.

Search Engine Optimisation: Black Hat or White Hat SEO?

Writen by David Touri

If you are looking around for a search engine optimisation company to carry out some SEO work on your website, then make sure you choose the right colour hat. There are a large number of companies that adopt a fast and unethical approach to SEO, known as black hat SEO, while there are a smaller number or companies that implement ethical SEO work, known as white hat SEO. The key to choosing the right colour, which is obviously the white, is as follows…

Before you even think of taking on a search engine optimisation company, the first thing is to shop around and see what is out on the market. The same principles would apply if you were to buy a new computer. You would look at a few models, prices and what each model has to offer. If an SEO company was to offer a service that would guarantee you top ranks, there is a very good chance they are wearing a black hat. No SEO company can guarantee top ranks since they have no direct control over the search engines and their ranking algorithms. They can however mention that top ranks are highly achievable due to their previous success with other clients.

Be sure to look at a companies’ portfolio page (if they have one on their website or simply ask them) and carry out some research on their clients. This can be done by looking at the client’s website performance within the search engines for the selected keywords they have been optimised for. Another good idea would be to write a courtesy email to the client asking for a reference on the SEO company they have used to optimise their website.

The most important giveaway on a black hat SEO company is the way they would describe their services. If a company cannot go into detail on how they carry out their work (meaning they are very vague), and this involves justifying each step of their work, then it would be best to avoid their services. A proper SEO firm will be more than happy to explain their services in detail and justify their reasons for using such techniques. If you cannot quiet understand the techniques they use then be sure to do some research on the internet and read SEO articles that explain each technique. If you find that their work fits along the lines of your research and that it is all ethical, then they are a company you should put on your list.

A last point to mention, a company should stress the phrase ‘patience is the key to success with SEO’. If a company claims that they can achieve results very fast, then it is time to start running. In theory, SEO that is carried out correctly on a website will take time until the results start to show (most cases 3 to 6 months but could be longer).

Would you like to know what could happen to your website if you hire a black hat SEO company, regardless of how big or small your website is in terms of brand recognition? An example would be the story of the BMW German website. They hired a black hat SEO firm to carry out some work on their website and that resulted in their site being banned from the Google ranks. So it is best to do your research on SEO by reading articles such as this one and question a companies approach on search engine optimisation. This will ensure that you have selected the clean white hat and that your website will not be tarnished from the black.

About the Author: David Touri works for SEO Sydney Search Engine Marketing, the SEO Consultants. He has worked on various projects and offers search engine optimisation in Australia.

Search Engine Optimisation?

Writen by Jim Trivolette

Everybody wants on the search engine optimization bandwagon. By now you have probably read about the many tricks and techniques, you probably have even read many things about what I will be writing about here.

Many have been doing this for years but many that are just starting out would not dare even think it: Misspelled and miss-typed keywords. There I said it. Not only common misspellings but also the way other countries spell the same word, for example, I say “search engine optimization” they may say “search engine optimisation”. The term “search engine optimsation” not only get misspelled words, it will also get any one looking for search engine optimisation over in the U.K. as that is the common spelling for them.

I read an article a while back where a guy misspelled bass fishing as bash fishing and actually found results so he got the bright idea to purchase the domain name www.bashfishing.com in hopes to pick up the traffic of all those that make the miss-type.

I know you want to true to capitalize on this common error that many people do, but you may not want to misspell stuff on your site because even if you are trying to get the misspellers of the world it still does not look professional. Article publications could probably help you send out your favorite misspelled words. Lets say I want to promote the keyword search engine optimisation, I have already included it in this article 4 times.

There are still rules that you need to go by if you wish to try getting into the market of misspelled keywords. The #1 rule to use it do not and I repeat DO NOT make a domain using a misspelling of a big well know website. The search engines will know you are just trying to catch the left over traffic and will penalize you in the rankings if not out right ban you.

Use a good program and see what your most common misspelled keywords are and try to put some focus on the best one and see what happens. You may just make a sell. Untill next time happy searching.

About the Author

Jim Trivolette works as office manager and search engine optimization specialist for http://www.blackwoodproductions.com "The last year showed us some awesome changes on the net I can’t wait to see what happens this year!" -jmt

Google Adwords Guide I

Writen by Christoph Puetz

You probably have already heard about the new marketing tool from Google.com on the Internet. Their advertising service is called “Adwords” and allows you use Google.com for marketing. Your ads will be displayed on Google’s website when people initiate a search. Your ads can also be displayed very targeted among many thousand websites that partner with Google in a program called “Google AdSense”. Adwords is the Google.com version of a pay-per-click advertising model. That means users click on your ad and will be redirected to your website or a specific URL that you have selected when creating your ad campaign.

What do you need to know about Adwords? Adwords is a way to spend a lot of money on advertising very very fast. BUT – Adwords is also a way to spend marketing money very selective to a targeted audience. Adwords can be very expensive for the advertiser if not properly planned and tested.

When you setup a Google Adwords ad campaign, you choose certain keywords for which your ad will appear on search results on Google.com. You also specify the maximum amount of money that you are willing to pay for each click. Remember - the Google Adwords program is a PPC (Pay per Click) model and you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad and hence visits your website.

It is very important to select the right keywords for your business ad. Going with too generic keywords that everyone will not be very effective and very expensive. Play a little bit with the Adwords keyword and campaign settings just to get a feeling how expensive the generic keywords for your business and industry are. You will realize soon that you need to be creative and careful with the usage of keywords.

Google recommends using different spelling variations and plural versions of your keywords to reach the best target audience. This is a good approach, as not every one of your potential new customers will search for a keyword in the same way as everyone else. Some people will use plural versions and others will use singular versions.

Exact matching of keywords in Google user queries requires you to place square brackets around your selected keywords. Example: [web hosting]. Your ad will now only show when users search exactly the phrase ‘web hosting’. Your ad will not show if other words are included in the search string or the words are entered in a different order.

Another keyword matching option is the phrase option. This is very similar to the exact matching of keywords in a search in the sense that the keywords must all be present and in the right order. However your ad will still show up in search results even if other words are present in the search. To make use of phrase matching you must include your keywords in quotes. Example: "web hosting".

Negative matching is the final option available for your Adwords advertisement. This option allows you to block your ad being shown if a certain word is present in the search query of the Google user. This allows you to reduce the number of possible clicks on your ad in non-relevant searches and therefore to keep your cost low. It also helps you to make sure that your ad is not shown to users who will not be interested in your products. If your keyword is 'web hosting' but your web hosting is based on the Linux operating system and not based on a Windows Operating System then by using negative matching you can choose to have your ad not shown for search queries with 'windows web hosting'. In this case 'windows' would be your negative keyword. You simply place a dash in front of your negative keyword to use this option. Example: -windows

Using the here described ways of selecting keywords will help you to be more successful with Google Adwords. Google also allows you be very specific for which geographic area your ads will be displayed. You go from global to country and even state or city specific settings. Especially local businesses now will have it much easier to use Google Adwords for their specific local markets.

Well, you got the idea how to be very specific how you select your keywords and combinations of keywords. But how do you actually select the right keywords? In order to get the most out of Adwords, you must have a list of great keyword and phrases. If your keyword list is not good enough, you will be punished with paying too much for your advertising. Write down the top search terms that you can think of. Ask friends and family how they would use Google to find your product (without searching for the business name itself).

A competitor of Google actually offers a free tool, which will allow you to find out how popular the keywords are that you selected. Find this free tool here and use it for your advantage:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Create a list of the most popular keywords. Now add words to the actual keywords. Use words that would describe your specific product or service. Now use these phrases or word combinations when setting up a Google Adwords campaign to find out how much you would have to pay per click to get your ad onto the first page on a Google search.

If the keywords selected by you are very expensive to use you should consider rewording or using different combinations. Maybe concentrate on a certain niche to find lower priced keyword options.

When testing new campaigns make sure that you limit your exposure by amount of money you want to spend per day as well as you should set a date / time limit. It’s easier to activate a campaign again if it works just fine for you. If you fail to set limits you might spend lots of money in a very short time – money you can’t get back. It is gone ….

Another way to save money on your Adwords advertising campaign is to wait for the end of the month. It’s funny, but many folks follow a plain rule to start their advertising in the beginning of the month. By the time the 25th of a month is there they have spend most of their money on their campaigns already. For you this means that the prices for many popular keywords might be more affordable for you.

If you are advertising specific products with your ads, link to the specific product page and not to your homepage. 95% of the people who click through to your website will not really be willing to start another search on your website to find the product mentioned in your ad.

Conclusion

Frequently revisit your campaigns and compare prices and results. The Internet is a fast changing environment. What works one day, might not necessarily work the next day. Keep track of everything – maybe create a spreadsheet.

This article can be published by anyone as long as a live back link to http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com is provided. (this note can be removed as long as a link from the author's resource box is provided)

Christoph Puetz is a successful small business owner (Net Services USA LLC) and international author.

Guides, Tutorials, and Articles for small businesses - http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com/

Google AdWords for Realtors

Writen by Michael Alves

Congratulations! You have the professional Real Estate web presence you have always wanted. Now that your business is online, Pay Per Click Advertising is the best possible online tool to let the world and your real estate clients know about your new real estate website.

If you’re not familiar with Pay Per Click marketing, you're in for a treat. When people search for products or services online, they search by using keywords or keyword phrases. If you were to do a search on Google for "real estate" or "homes for sale", you will see that the top spots in the search results are occupied by large nationwide real estate companies or companies that provide real estate services of some sort. These companies spend tens of thousands of dollars every month to maintain their high page rank in the search results. At first glance, you might be saying to yourself, yikes, how can my real estate website compete with that? Here's the good news. You don’t have to! Pay Per Click Advertising can put your ad right along side the big boys. The answer is simple. You don’t want your ad for your real estate website to come up in the search results for "real estate”. That’s too broad. You need to be more specific.

For example, you want your ad to be shown when someone searches "real estate in Glens Falls" or "homes for sale in Glens Falls" or "real estate listings in Glens Falls". If you’re a Realtor in Glens Falls, that's where you’re potential customers are looking. Your customers won't type in "real estate" when they do their search. They will type in "real estate in Glens Falls". The “natural” search results listings will most likely be dominated by the big companies, but guess what? Glance over to the right and you can see your ad for your real estate website right along side the big boys.

Why is Pay Per Click Advertising Important for My Real Estate Website? If you’re a Realtor, having a professional Real Estate web presence will be an essential part of your business. However, just having a website will not guarantee success. You need to market your website. If your clients don’t know you're there, you may as well have a lemonade stand in the middle of the desert. You might have the best lemonade in the world, but, if no one can find you, you’re not going to sell much lemonade.

Pay Per Click Advertising is the fastest, most cost effective way for you to start marketing your website. In real estate, one good listing, or, buyer can turn into thousands in commissions. Your website being seen is important, but being seen by the right people is even more important. Grab a piece of paper and jot down some of the keyword search terms a client in your area might use to search online for your real estate services. You might find putting together a list of fifteen or twenty keywords takes no time at all. If just five people in your area search each of your ten to fifteen keywords every day, that's fifty to seventy five potential clients that won't see your website. That's every day! Type one of your keyword search terms into Google, chances are, you will see some of your competitors websites listed.

Would you like to see your Pay Per Click ad, for your real estate website right next to the results for your competitor’s websites? Real Estate is a competitive business. You should be competing for those leads. That's why Pay Per Click advertising is important for your real estate website.

Mike Alves is the owner of http://www.Marketing4Leads.com
My business is unique, I market Realtors websites on Google. If you would like to get the edge on you're competition, I can help. Let Mike create a custom advertising campaign on Google for your Real Estate website.

Google Adwords For Beginners

Writen by Marsha James

Too many people are throwing up a website getting a Google Adwords account and expecting to get a swarm of traffic to the new website. They are then completely confused when this doesn't happen because everywhere they read said it was that simple. It is in a way, if you follow some simple rules.

1. Sit down and think of keywords that people will use to find your website.

2. Make a list of the keywords and also search for programs that will help you such as keyword generator in your adwords account.

3. Don't just add popular keywords to your campaign. If you had an electronics website and just put down the word computer that would get you 12,000 clicks but it would cost you $32,000 at a rate of over $2.90 per click and this is just per DAY. Instead try using phrases or specific items that your selling such as: computer case, computer hard drive, pentium 4 computers. By doing this you will get a much more targeted audience, and each person will have been looking for something specific that they just might find at your website.

4. Don't create a campaign of 2,000 keywords and phrases. Try a few campaigns each with 5-10 words and phrases.

5. Create a budget and stick to it. Find a daily limit that is right for you and don't raise it in a bidding war for the #1 rank spot.

6. If you have just thrown together a website and plan to get adwords for the traffic, don't. Adwords is advertised as the thing to do to get traffic, but it is rarely explained that to do this you will need to be spending $10 a word just trying to get on the first page of a search. Start a website, trade links, add your site to search engines, do whatever it takes to start making some traffic. Because if you have traffic FIRST can achieve a high rank and spend only pennies per word. That is because adwords was created in a way to stop big companies from strong holding the little guys. The more traffic you have the more it means that your a popular place to be so google rewards you by moving you up the ranks. The higher you are the more people will see your ad and hopefully bring you sales or visitors.

http://sitekreator.com/technews

http://allabouttraffic.blogspot.com/

http://homeincometalk.seo-blog.org/

Marsha James spent years researching and trying to find the right work at home business. There were mistakes, scams and headaches, but ultimately she found her way and now makes a living work from her home.

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