Introduction
Who is more important to you as a webmaster: the visitor or the search engine?
Needless traffic may be important to websites that seek advertising revenue (well, they too need targeted traffic) but you need traffic that caters to your requirement. So for a successful website, both are important. Search engines send relevant visitors to your website and visitors do business with you. Both should be an important factor when you sit down and plan the architecture of your website. The misconception that lots of senseless traffic is good for business has been shattered.
Your website should read convincing both to your target visitors, and the search engines. In fact, you should treat search engines too as your visitors because if you optimize for your visitors, you automatically optimize for the search engines. Once you follow the steps listed below, there is a big chance that you’ll create a website optimized both for the search engines and your visitors.
Well-written content
Both visitors and search engines like well-written content. In fact every one of us appreciates an interesting read. There used to be a time when lots of crap took place to please search engines. Lots of keywords and phrases were stuffed needlessly into the web pages to make them rank higher. Scores of “doorway” pages were created to lead visitors to websites. They made search engines happy but confused the visitors, nullifying the advantage and ultimately, forcing the search engine companies to alter their search algorithms.
But what really matters is the quality content. If you have no content, or irrelevant content, what’s the use of getting hundreds of visitors daily? You need to have website content that is user-focussed; you need a web copy that talks to the visitors. The copy on your website needs to supply the information your visitors need to arrive at some decision. The content should be written in an interesting manner, in an absorbing manner. All the information that your visitor should get, should be there on your website, in a straight, non-cryptic language.
This re-affirms that professional content developers are as important as professional web developers, if not more. Badly written content can prove costlier than you can imagine.
Well-connected pages
All your pages should be accessible to both people and search engines. When the search engines visit your website, they should be able to jump from link to link. It should be like an inter-connected network where one can go anywhere from anywhere. Many web developers create a sitemap that contains links to all the pages on the website so that once the search engine finds that page it can go to all the links on the page.
Anyway, irrelevant pages have no business being on your website and relevant pages should be within one or two clicks away from your visitors (unless they are password-protected).
Less use of frills
Frills like Flash and DHTML look cool but if they don’t solve any purpose other than let you show-off how you can make geometric figures dance around the screen, you should avoid using them. The search engine crawlers like the plain-vanilla text. Showcase frills only if youre selling them (if youre a Flash designer or a graphic artist). A company selling organic manure doesn’t benefit much by having a Flash website that shows bags of manure appearing here and there like apparitions.
Use keywords sparingly
The search engine companies have finally realized that actual content is better than nonsensical repetition of keywords. Of course keywords are important, but not because they are “keywords”, but because they are needed there. For instance, if you sell organic manure, you have this phrase on your website because you need to specify what you sell (unless you belong to some underground organization that uses coded language to communicate).
There is no need for a keyword or a key-phrase to appear more than three or four times on your page. In fact on Google you spoil your ranking if you use keywords excessively. Let them appear at the top, somewhere in the middle, and then in the end. That does the trick. Weave around them a nice context.
There are people who do this as a profession and it really pays in the long run to hire a content writer who can write optimized content for you.
Update frequently
Both search engines and people like updated content.
If your visitors expect to see new content on your website whenever they come, they’ll come again and again, and they’ll come with greater frequency. Search engines too want to show content that is rapidly updated so that they can display the latest information. Make it a routine to put something new every second or third day, even if it is one paragraph.
Use clean HTML
Clean code loads quicker and gets crawled (this sounds creepy!) by the search engines faster. If the success of your website really matters to you and if you want to create your own web pages instead of hiring a professional web developer, you should spend at least a few days learning HTML. A search-engine friendly website doesn’t need much HTML to learn and it will show clean content to your visitors without unnecessarily increasing the load time. Avoid using graphical tools and use a text editor instead. It sounds daunting in the beginning but once your realize its benefit, you’ll be more than eager to write HTML rather than use a tool that produces lots of unnecessary junk code.
The efforts mentioned above take time to show result, but they are long lasting and they fetch you the desired results.
Author Bio:
Amrit Hallan is a freelance copywriter, copy editor and a writer. He also optimizes web page content for higher Search Engine ranking. Read his weekly essays and articles by subscribing to amritscolumn-subscribe@topica.com For Copywriting and Copy Editing Services, visit: http://www.amrithallan.com.
21 ways to expand your subscriber list
1. Keep your subscription form easy to find on every web page. Preferably, add it on your navigational bar. If the form is to large for the bar or page, add a hyperlink and send them to a popup or a separate page so that the previous page on your site doesn’t disappear. It is easy for them to return.
2. Not only must the form be easy to see, it also needs to be easy to read. Label each field. I’ve seen a few where I didn’t know what to enter. Be kind to computer readers suffering from dry eyes, make the font large and easy to read.
3. Do you write your own ezine articles? Add a “please subscribe here line to your byline. Begin the line with a benefit they get from subscribing and then add a few invitational words along with a URL hyperlink. Example: “Learn more about this topic. Subscribe to [name of your ezine] by visiting….”
4. Generally, people are impulse buyers. So, give them that impulse. Give away a free ebook. Instead of letting them see that the ebook is free. Regularly charge for the eBook. Six dollars is a good price, just explain them that it is a limited special offer.
They will perceive it even more valuable when there is a price connected to it. An example of the wording could go like, “Normally this ebook sells for $6 at [your web site URL or even a middle man ebook site].” Always give them a reason why you are giving it to them free. Make the reason believable.
5. Do you belong to networking groups, or attend other events? Invite everyone you meet if they would like to register for your ezine. Give them a story about the free, but not so free, ebook offer. Always, make this offer limited. In fact, have a list of these free but-not-free ebooks, written either by you, affiliates, or from resale right products. Move them around. Put one on the calendar for January through December and then repeat them the next year. Then in the third year, change it. Also, share with them how easy it is to opt-out if they don’t like the ezine and they can keep the ebook.
6. Don’t stop at networking groups, contact trade or professional organizations you do or don’t belong to that have a high percentage of your type of readers. Ask for the membership list. Look for the people you have identified as your gatekeepers (people that know lots of others in your target market). For accountants, it’s lawyers and bankers. Call them and introduce yourself. Ask if they could recommend your ezine to a few of their friends. You can also attend their networking events and ask, ask, ask.
7. Instead, or in addition to, calling the gatekeepers you have identified on the membership lists, you can send them a letter of introduction — a direct mail piece. The piece can ask them (a call to action) to visit your web site for more information on your newsletter and/or receive a copy of the free but-not-free ebook.
8. Share the wealth. Exchange recommendations to each other’s newsletter. Be prepared for these so that it doesn’t cost you valuable time when you are working on a deadline. If you work with a virtual assistant, let them respond to these opportunities. Prepare three or four examples and offer the exchanger their choice to use one that they feel is appropriate for their audience. Ask them for a reciprocal and equal announcement.
9. Make comments and include your byline at the end. Comments can be product review on Amazon, ezines you enjoy, or local newspapers. Give suggestions, share your stories on how it helped you, ask questions, or give ideas that emerged from your reading. Blogs are also good places to comment on as well.
10. It takes 7 times before people start to trust. Present them 7 opportunities to have two-way conversations with you. Not one-way conversations (you write, they read). Provide the two-way with surveys, questions, contests, games, things that they need to ask for are just a few. If you are offering a contest, send them a testimonial from the winner. If you can, create an opportunity for many winners. It spreads the hope.
11. Use a conversational writing tone. It makes a connection. Yet, don’t get lax on the grammar and spelling. Use personal pronouns (I, me, you and your). Limit the percentage of I’s to half or less of the yous.
12. Spread the knowledge even further by asking your readership to forward a copy of your ezine to family members, friends, colleagues, or co-workers. Create a “please forward this ezine to” line or two. Give them an incentive, offer a free but-not-free item. This can be challenging to design.
13. Do you give presentations with slides or a projection system? Add a paragraph about your ezine and how to get it on the test slide. A test slide is the slide you leave up there when they are seating themselves. Leave it displayed until a few minutes before your presentation and then turn it off. By turning it off, it creates a “loss feeling” and they will pay attention to it the next time you turn it on.
Turn the system on with the test slide displayed and then switch to the next slide. The next slide can explain how they can get your free but-not-for-free product and the directions on how to receive it. Return to this same slide at the end of your presentation,
14. At this same presentation, pass around a clipboard asking them if they want to register for ezine. Start passing at the beginning or even before you start. Use a short piece, different colored paper, with a note about the free but-not-free item. Give them three incentives to register at that time.
15. Send out a press release every time you have a new free but-not-free item available. Send whenever you have new context, new article published, or whenever anything else occurs. Since press releases require special writing, you might want to delegate this, especially if you are challenged with writing from another perspective. If you choose to learn the lingo, you can learn the how-tos with a Google search: Search example: “press release” and “how to”. Leave in the quote marks. Don’t be nervous about sending out too many, some are always missed. http://www.prweb.com/ is a great place to post your press releases.
16. Locate web sites that give out awards for outstanding ezines. Apply and keep applying. Keep tweaking. Look at previous winners and model. When you do win one, post it everywhere on your site and on every issue of your ezine for a year. Also, send out a press release when you do. If they create a press release as well, ask to use that one. Make copies of theirs and give it out at networking events.
Remember, you can’t win the lotto unless you play. So, get in the game, and apply.
Try: http://emailuniverse.com/bestezines/ or search on Google with: “ezine award”.
17. I’m frequently asked, “How much information should I ask for?” My recommendation is to KISS your subscriber form — “keep it short and simple.” Ask for the e-mail address and/or their first name. If you ask for their first name, tell them why. Example: We like to personalize our correspondence with our subscribers.”
18. Set up section for past issues of your e-newsletters. I recommend just listing their main topic or name of the article and not by date. People don’t like to read things that they consider “old news”. If you use a pdf format to deliver past issues there are pros and cons. The pro is pdf files are smaller to store and send. The con is that you loose the opportunity for tagging the item for search engine listing.
19. After you post your articles in the ezine, expand or submit as is to multi-media web sites. Possibility: http://www.goarticles.com. Locations where publishers and editors will pick up the article. Normally, there are no fees paid, just opportunity for visibility. When published send out a press release. Link their site, not yours, in the press release, Send them a copy of the release.
20. Readers are tired of not getting any value and are dropping off lists fast, faster than ever. To keep them there you MUST provide valuable information (their perception not yours). The 25/75% rule (you give them 25% and sell them the remaining 75%) is acceptable. After reading thousands of ezines, I found many publishers don’t come close to providing that percentage.
21. Add an invitation to all your automatic e-mail signatures. Also, mention the free but-not-free item of the month. Include an expiration date for that free but-not- free offer. Change the e-mail signatures weekly to maintain interest.
Author Bio:
Catherine Franz is a marketing industry veteran, a Certified Business Coach, Certified Teleclass Leader and Trainer, speaker, and author. Three ezines and a blog are available for writers, marketers and other topics at: http://www.AbundanceCenter.com.
Search Engine Friendliness
A good looking and user friendly website is an extremely important asset to your success on the Internet. However without traffic, even a well designed site will not produce results for you. The best websites are those that are both attractive and easy to use by your human users, and at the same time, convenient for the search engine robots that are trying to find and collect data from your site.
Oftentimes a site that may look good to your eye has some design flaws that impair its search engine friendliness. Here are a few things to look for when designing new sites or optimizing an existing site.
Your first line of text
1. Where does your first line of text begin? You may think, “that’s easy, the first line of text is right at the top?” If you view your web page using Notepad or the html view of popular editors you may be surprised to find that the first line of your actual searchable text may be pushed down, 100 lines or more, by long strings of java script and by the html code that defines your tables.
The higher your text appears in this html view of the site, the easier it is for the robot to find it and put it in the search engine data base. You can save space in your html code by copying your java script and placing it in an external file uploaded to your server. Instead of having 50 lines of java script commands in your html code, there will only be one line pointing to the separate file with the java script.
Similarly if you simplify your table structure, your searchable text will become more prominent. The left-hand navigation bar, for example, with its separate graphic elements each in its own row, may be a place where you can economize on your code by merging the rows into one cell.
Graphic-Predominance
2. Is your website graphics-predominant, at the expense of searchable text? If your site begins with a splash page, such as a lovely page-filling picture of the ocean and no text except, “enter here”, then you are wasting a big opportunity. Search engines consider your main page, the one you reach when you land at www.yourcompany.com, to be the most important page. Your main text with its important keywords should be on your first page. If you already have splash page, you should consider scrapping it altogether, or at least adding a paragraph with a powerful capsule description of your activity.
If your site has a flash-only first page then the text message on that page is not visible, except for what you are able to put in your title and description tags. Search engine robots cannot read the text message that has been put in the form of a flash movie.
If you want to use flash, and also do well in search engine rankings it is better to make a hybrid page where the flash is surrounded by a normal html page with text. The text around the flash movie should be optimized so that the page ranks well in search engine queries for your important keywords.
Important text as graphics?
3. Have you unknowingly rendered important text as a graphic? If your site is about “wireless widgets made in California” then you would want some prominent text near the top of the page with these words. You may already have it but the text has been changed into a beautiful gif or jpg graphic either by your designer or by your html editing program. Search engines will not give that nice-looking graphic the same importance as it would text written as an H1 or H2 header. Some popular html editors render entire paragraphs as gif graphic images. All the text that appears in the image becomes almost invisible to the search engines. I say almost invisible because you can always put an alt text for any graphic, however this alt text is not weighed as heavily as normal text set as bold or in headers. So, check your pages and make sure that your text is normal text and not an image.
Link structure
4. Can Search Engines Follow Your Site’s Link structure? If your site employs a drop-down menu that is run with java script, then search engines may find your main page, but they won’t follow the links to your interior pages. Similarly if your navigation area is an image map, a graphic with “hot spots” that link to your various internal pages then the search engines cannot and will not find the other pages of your site. To get maximum traffic it is imperative to have as many of your pages as possible indexed in the big search engines. You can accomplish this by adding a text-based navigation area at the bottom of your pages or a site-map page with text links to all your interior pages.
If you pay attention to these design considerations, you can greatly improve your site’s chances of getting a top ranking in search engine queries for your most important keywords.
Author Bio:
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He has been promoting web sites since 1995 and now runs A1-Optimization a company that provides low-cost search engine optimization and submission services. He can be reached at support@a1-optimization.com
Free Ezine Advertising That Works!
When I say free ezine advertising, I’m not talking about the free ezine ads that some publishers offer, this technique is FAR more powerful than that.
One of the best ways to get free traffic to your site, is to write articles for ezines.
Now before you shudder and click away, it isn’t that hard to write a good article.
If you’ve got a bout of writers block, just search for info related to the subject you want to write about, then re-write it in YOUR OWN words and style, do not copy.
Your article needs to be around 500 – 700 words, with short paragraphs, 5 or 6 sentences.
DON’T try and disguise an advert as an article and forget about putting in your affiliate links, publishers will delete it straight away, if you want to use this approach to promote an affiliate program, you should really get your own domain as it looks more professional.
Once you have put your masterpiece together, leave it a day, then come back to it and re-read it, you’ll be surprised what other nuggets of info pop out after a nights sleep, and how many errors seem to jump out at you.
When you’re sure your article is ready, run it through a spell checker and format it to 55 – 60 characters per line so the publisher can just cut-n-paste into their ezine.
Don’t forget to put your resource box at the bottom of the article! This is what’s going to get you a ton of free traffic to your site after all.
Believe me folks, just one half decent article can get you alot of free traffic, I remember one article I wrote was published in a ezine that had a circulation of 500,000, if I wanted to pay for advertising in this particular ezine it would have cost me over $400!
Not only does this technique save you money, it also gives you credability, and alot of ezines turn your articles into web pages that will remain there for years to come.
Get published, get credibility, get free traffic for years to come! I think that’s worth a little effort don’t you?
Author:
Neil Moran
The first 5 SEO tips
From the obvious to the “Hey-I-never-thought-of-that-great-idea-before”, here are 10 of the top 52 tips on how to optimize your website for its turbo-charge rocket ride up the search engine rankings.
1. Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.
2. Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?
3. Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.
4. First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won’t follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/web-site-monitoring.asp .
5. Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?
5 more SEO tips
6. Article exchanges. You’ve heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else’s article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)
7. Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.
8. Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.
9. Not anchor text. Don’t overdo the anchor text. You don’t want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation – something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, “Gumbo Pudding Pop”
occasionally, “Get gumbo pudding pops” as well, “Gumbo-flavored pudding pops” some other times, etc.
10. Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It’s called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of http://www.lastminutevillas.net is like a mini-site map?
There you have it: 10 of the 52 Top SEO Tips, a free tip sheet that comes with Don’t Get Banned By the Search Engines:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/SEO.html
There is a lot more to search engine optimization, and there are always more details when looking at an individual site. But these tips should help any website significantly improve its rankings.
Author Bio:
David Leonhardt of the Happy Guy is an online and offline publicity specialist who believes in getting in front of the ball, rather than chasing it downhill. To get your website optimized, email him at info@thehappyguy.com. Pick up a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines or of Get In The News.
Top Ten Reasons to Write Articles to Publicize your Business
If you have spent time and money down the drain waiting for “word of mouth” to kick in, or multiple hours on networking meetings, you may want to investigate this number one way to publicize your service. Beginners welcome. And, once you learn the skills, you can delegate it all to your office assistant.
Here’s the Top Ten Reasons:
1. It’s totally free.
Once you subscribe to 5-10 opt-in ezines such as aabusiness-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, aainet-subscribe@egroups.com, or free-content-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, you can start submitting your professionally edited articles that relate to your service or products. For a list of many more ePublishers in all categories, check out the “How to Market your Business Online” eBook.
You will get many emails from other authors too, so make your articles’ email a separate one from your business account. This number one free publicity will bring many targeted visitors to your site where you present a link to information about your coaching services.
2. You can reach from 10,000 to 500,000 of your targeted audience each day that you submit an article.
These people subscribe to the opt-in ezines and surf the top sites in their fields to get free information. When your articles get published, you will be at the top of well-known online small business people who provide a great service.
Remember Bill Gates prediction: After 2000, you either take your business Online, or you won’t have one.
3. You will spend far less time promoting Online than more traditional ways.
When you spend your time each week writing a short article from 300-800 words (about an hour for each), you can then delegate the submissions to your low-cost office computer assistant. Total time promoting? Less than six hours a week.
This is the best money I spend because after the initial submissions, my assistant’s time to submit to ezines is less than 10 minutes per time. And that’s to 60 plus opt-in ezines. Submitting to Web sites takes more time, maybe 10-15 minutes for each site. We have a list of 20 plus top Web sites who want my particular information. We submit two articles at a time to save time, and many sites carry up to 100 of my articles. The more, the merrier, because these not only put you in the top ten sites through the search engines, but bring you many new potential clients.
4. Submitting articles is 7 times as effective as any other promotion because when you submit many articles, you become known as an expert.
You may start with just two or three, but each week after creating a new one with a different angle or audience, this outstanding viral marketing technique will bring many new opportunities because many of the people who read them will contact you to publish on their site. See how the good word spreads?
Submitting articles is part of the “Big Three Marketing Machine.”
A special report that illustrates how you can succeed far more than you dreamed of by coordinating your sales-driven Web site, your articles, and your service and products.
5. You can raise your own ezine subscribers from 10-25 every time you submit an article to multiple opt-in ezines.
If you submit four or five articles a month to 15 ezines, each with about 1000 subscribers, you will reach 60,000 readers.
The beauty of this benefit is that your ezine and articles work as a team, both catapulting your eventual sales successes. When you put your free offer for your ezine in your signature file that accompanies each article you send out, online lookers become online buyers eventually.
After reading six or seven of your ezines, your targeted audience who came to you through these articles, trusts you more, believes in you, and finally becomes a client or customer.
This list could go on, because as one person sees your articles, they make offers you can’t refuse. Writing and submitting articles is the friendliest way I know of promoting Online. When you are ready, give it a chance. Part two of this article is available at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-120.shtml.
Author Bio:
Judy Cullins: 20-year author, speaker, book coach Helps entrepreneurs manifest their book and web dreams www.bookcoaching.com eBk: “Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online” To receive FREE “The Book Coach Says…” or Business Tip of the Month go to www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml Ph:619/466/0622
The New & Improved Yahoo
On February 18th, Yahoo implemented serious changes to its search directory, in an effort to better compete against Google and, to a lesser degree, MSN.
Since the 18th, I’ve carried out extensive testing with Yahoo and, so far, I like the new features implemented on their search property. I think the changes represent some positive improvements, both in the quality of the results and in their relevancy. Using a ‘spider robot’ that crawls the whole Web, in a similar fashion that Google does it, we need to change Yahoo’s category from search directory to a real search engine.
If you would like a peek ‘under the hood’, Yahoo has a new crawler known as Yahoo Slurp, similar to the Inktomi Slurp bot many webmasters have been seeing in their logs over the past few months. Yahoo Slurp works very much like GoogleBot (Google’s crawler). Yahoo Slurp is designed to follow every text link found in a website.
Some of the changes implemented
Among the positive changes I have noticed in Yahoo:
• For sites with direct RSS feeds, a link to the feed URL is now available with this new implementation. If required, you can even add the RSS feed to your My Yahoo page with a click of the mouse.
• Like Google, a cached version of each Web page is now available.
• AltaVista and AllTheWeb continue to use separate search functionality, using an independent search index. (Note: All the Web and AltaVista are both owned by Yahoo).
Note that a customizable and uncluttered (read no ads) entry point to Yahoo’s various search databases has been available for some time at www.search.yahoo.com.
I’ve also observed that Yahoo seems to be analysing similar page content and features as Inktomi does, despite the results being displayed today are somewhat different. Important criteria such as keyword frequency, keyword density and features such as keyword-rich title tags and key phrase placement appear to be important factors in Yahoo’s current algorithm.
We have also seen some sporadic Google results popping up from time to time. This is very likely a temporary measure to ensure search-continuity, as Yahoo engineers continue to develop and continuously improve their search algorithm.
Recommendations to site owners
Remember that all search engines crawlers, including Slurp, are incapable of following hyper links imbedded in a frame, in an image or graphic, and certainly not in a site that was created using Flash technology as its only means of presenting information.
As I wrote about the importance of usability in one of my articles two weeks ago, by making certain that your site is search engine-friendly, it will usually rank higher in the search engines, including the new Yahoo.
If any of you missed that article, you can follow this link to read it: usability & SEO.
If you want your site to rank high in any search engine, and if your site includes frames, remember that the correct use of the tag is very important. For more on how to optimize a site using frames, just follow this link: optimizing framed sites
For sites that are database-driven, Yahoo Slurp will try its best to follow dynamic links, but as a precaution, Yahoo is advising site owners and webmasters to place static pages with text links directed to certain parts of their sites that have any kind of dynamic content. For more on the correct way to optimize dynamic links, go to: optimize dynamic links.
Finally, just like Google, the description meta tag is a critical aspect in Yahoo’s algorithm. For maximum benefits, site owners and webmasters are encouraged to write keywords in their title tags, descriptions tags and body copy for each individual page in their sites. As always, quality and relevancy always yields the best dividends.
Stay on-topic for maximum efficiency in the results pages. Remember that Yahoo, as well as most of the major search engines always look at the ‘theme’ of any individual page, and will use its algorithm to determine what the topic is about that page. If the keywords used in the title tag reflect the same keywords used in the body of the copy, it will usually grant a higher ranking for that page than if the page happens to be inconsistent with the proper placement of its main keywords or key phrases.
Conclusion
Yahoo, as any other search engine, is only interested in one thing: quality and relevant results for its users. If your website delivers that information in a consistent and clean manner, it should do well in the search results pages. All recommended SEO techniques and procedures that have been taught for the past two to three years still hold, both in the case of Yahoo and the others.
Build and integrate your site in the most logical way, make it search engine-friendly and create great content are three of the best ways to significantly improve your rankings. If you can add new content every day, your site will be perceived as one that is well maintained. Search engines prefer sites that consistently feature fresh and new content, when compared to other websites that don’t change much and are somewhat dated.
Here’s a tip of the hat to Yahoo for a job well done!
Author Name: Serge Thibodeau
Company: Rank For Sales
Email: info@rankforsales.com
How to find good keyword phrases
Finding good keywords is a never ending quest, so here’s a couple of links and an example on how to use them to find good keyword phrases.
If you’re trying to optimize a page for a popular keyword that has alot of competition, take a close look at the related keyword phrases.
Let’s say you wanted to optimize your page for the keyword marketing, that was searched for over 240,000 times on Overture alone in the last month, there are nearly 42,000,000 competing websites on Google, the keyword marketing is FAR too general, sure if you got ranked #1 (very doubtful!) you’ll get alot of traffic, but it won’t be targeted traffic.
Be more specific, target keyword PHRASES.
Let’s try internet marketing which was searched for nearly 80,000 times on Overture and has 550,000 competing sites on Google, that’s far better, not brilliant, but at least you’re more targeted now.
Now, under the keywords internet marketing over at Overture, people also searched using these phrases:
79764 internet marketing
6087 internet marketing online
4635 internet marketing strategy
2733 strategic internet marketing
2603 internet marketing consultant
2384 internet marketing consulting
2378 internet marketing service
2355 internet marketing tool
1929 internet marketing company
1855 internet web site marketing
1631 internet marketing san diego
1429 internet marketing solution
1327 internet marketing research
1183 aggressive internet marketing
1178 internet marketing plan
1165 internet marketing business
1058 internet marketing ebook
1026 internet marketing email
There’s a whole lot more but I think you get the picture…
OK, the keywords marketing, and marketing online are obviously going to have their fair share of competition, however, using the tools above point you in the right direction on how you should build your pages and show you the specific keyword phrases people are using and allow you to check the competition for those keywords.
Let’s go one step further and see what other keyword phrases we can find from our example, take internet marketing strategy for instance, here are the other keyword phrases people used:
622 corporate internet marketing strategy
451 developing internet marketing software strategy
191 hosting and internet marketing strategy
66 internet marketing strategy uk
65 marketing strategy internet strategy
65 internet marketing strategy tactic
55 colorado internet marketing strategy
50 boulder internet marketing strategy
47 vancouver internet marketing strategy
46 ebook internet marketing strategy
33 internet marketing strategy edinburgh
33 internet marketing strategy ireland
31 city internet marketing strategy twin
28 minnesota internet marketing strategy
28 internet marketing strategy plan
27 charlotte internet marketing strategy
Now the above list has really narrowed it down, OK, they’re not very popular search terms, however, if you were to weave these phrases into your pages, meta tags and links etc, you will dramatically increase the chances of your webpage getting found than you would if you had just concentrated on the keyword marketing that we originally used in this example on your site.
Here’s some links to help you find your phrases:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
www.wordtracker.com
At the wordtracker site, click on “trial”.
http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx
www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html
Use ranks.nl to check your keyword density.
Author:
Neil Moran
Success Guaranteed With Your Opt In List
Some time ago I was thinking about the best and most foolproof way to earn great income on internet. I came to conclusion that success in internet marketing can be reached with my own opt in list. That is why I wrote this article.
In my search for ways to build my own successful opt in list I came to several conclusions how to build an opt in list that buys. In this article I will reveal you four ways to add subscribers to your opt in list and profit from them(guaranteed) Read on…
The 4 ways to build your opt in list that I’m writing about you’ll be able to use in your own opt in list building efforts. Read this article carefully because it may show you a way to profit from internet like you never thought you can before.
Here are the four ways how you can build your opt in list:
1) Buying or renting a list of subscribers for your opt in list.
You can buy subscribers for your opt in list or you can rent a list of emails for one mailing. This is the fastest method to build your opt in list.
2) Signing up for co-registration services.
With co-registration services other people build your opt in list for you. They usually cost $0.10 – $0.30 for a subscriber. With them you can expect 50 – 300 subscribers to your opt in list daily.
3) Build your list using articles.
Using articles is my favorite method to build my opt in list. You can write articles and give them to newsletter publishers to publish them. This way you gain instant exposure and have new subscribers sign up on your opt in list.
4) Using joint ventures to build your opt in list.
Joint ventures are an effective way to build your opt in list. When used right they can add hundreds of subscribers to your list daily.
The best part – they are 100% FREE.
Each of these points illustrate how you can build your opt in list.
There’s really not a way you can NOT earn money from your opt in list. If you build your opt in list and keep relationships with your subscribers your opt in list WILL bring you income.
The greatest way I have found to build relationships with subscribers is offering them a free course. There are lots of places you can find FREE prewritten courses which you can offer to your subscribers.
The prewritten courses that you can send to your subscribers contain in context links to affiliate program / programs you are affiliated with. You earn income when the person follows your in context affiliate link and buys from it.
What I wrote in this article reflects my experience with my opt in list. I hope you find this article worthwhile and learned something from it.
Remember, if you build your opt in list and are persistent there is really no way how you can not earn money on internet. Keep that in mind and also sign up for my list building course.
Author Name: Afilla
Company: Afilla
Author Bio:
If you liked this article and you are interested in building your own opt in list then the FREE opt in list building course in the website below is right for you: http://www.affila.com/course.htm Sign up Now!
Growing Your Website Business
A synopsis of Philippa Gamse’s Presentation to the National Speakers Association, Washington DC chapter on Saturday, January 10, 2004
Someone had asked Philippa why Websites are such a ‘pain’ in a pre-seminar question. Her opening reply was simple, yet powerful, “when you stop improving your site, you stop growing.” She believes that Websites are a work in progress much like a business plan or one’s own self-improvement. In fact, the first question you should ask yourself about your own Website is, “What does it really do for people?”
The second question is “Who is your audience?” You see, websites are really a lot like a business plan! If you are trying to attract prospective clients, then each individual page on your site should offer something of value to your audience. The number one way that Philippa adds value to her audience is through her articles. The best way to keep getting top listings with the most popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN, is to constantly change or add content. Her articles add value to her audience and are her number one search engine strategy. Maybe this is why she doesn’t cold-call. Her customers tell her that they have seen her name in multiple locations before they call her directly.
She said that we should think about the emotional connection that our website makes. How does your website represent you when you are not there? Unfortunately most websites are not a true reflection of what we do and who we are. The reality is that our websites need to become an expertise center. We need to show a clear benefit such as how our programs will increase the creativity and balance of a prospective customer. Every page should have a strategy, a way to increase our database and provide a call to action.
Philippa also believes that each web site should have a dynamite testimonial across the front of the homepage, because testimonials are the least-viewed section on every website! She recommends that we pull out our testimonials and sprinkle them throughout our site. And when we think of testimonials, we should be thinking about the substantive ways that we have helped our customers. If we attempt to be clear and specific about our program benefits, why not be clear and specific about their outcomes from real customers. She recommends that we have specific testimonials for specific programs. Talk about maximizing our congruency!
In order to get started, Philippa wants to know what we have done today to improve our website. Two days after her seminar, I added a question and answer section and submitted my site to a dozen search engines. My next step is to write another article. What are you going to do today to improve your web site, your business and even yourself? She encourages you to contact her about the changes you have made.
For more information on how to improve your website further, Philippa recommends that you download her tip sheet, “Twenty-Three Proven Tips and Ideas for On-Line Marketing” at http://www.cyberspeaker.com/tipsheet.html. Philippa can be contacted directly at her office in Santa Cruz, California at 831-465-0317 or pgamse@cyberspeaker.com. If she doesn’t get back to you immediately, it is due to her ongoing quest to find the best deli sandwich outside of New York City.
(c) 2004, Mark Sincevich. All rights in all media reserved.
Author Bio:
If you liked this article and you are interested in building your own opt in list then the FREE opt in list building course in the website below is right for you: http://www.affila.com/course.htm Sign up Now!
