Make your Site Googleable

You can help make sure that your site turns up in search just when it should by taking advantage of these tips from Google's Search Quality Team.

1. Not sure if all your pages are being seen by Google?
   Search for your site's address after the command "site", like [site:fuchsiasoft.com].
   When you see your pages in the results, check your snippet content and page titles.
   Include information that matches the topic of a particular page.
   If anything is missing or you want more details, you can also use the Content Analysis tool in Webmaster Tools.
   
   
2. If you upload new pages or topics faster than Google crawls your site, make sure to submit a Google Sitemap and include a refresh rate.
   
   
3. Label your images appropriately. Users searching in Google Image Search will more easily find the image on your site.
   Don't miss out on potential traffic because of [001.jpg] instead of [NintendoWii.jpg].
   Image Search is one of the largest search properties out there, so you should take advantage of it.
   
   
4. Manage your SiteLinks. Your most valuable links may not be the ones that Google chooses as SiteLinks, so remember you can remove any that you don't think users will find useful.
   
   
5. Check for errors and keyword traffic in Webmaster Tools. See Google's diagnostics checklist.
   
   
6. Serve accurate HTTP status codes. If you've retired a page permanently, serve a 404. If you've simply relocated it, serve a 301.
   The more Google know about your old pages, the faster Google will find the next best page on your site for a given query.
   
   
7. Users and search engines like organic content. Make some of your own!
   
   
8. Read Google's recently released SEO Starter Guide.
   
   
9. Watch Google's Tutorials for Webmasters.
   
   
10. Find out what information Google has about your website in Webmaster Tools.
    
    
11. Get the latest updates from the Webmaster Central Blog.
    
    
12. Find answers to your questions in Google's Webmaster Help Center, or ask your questions in the Webmaster Help Group.

Original Source: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/12/light-up-your-site.html

Your Website from the Ground Up in 10 Steps

So, you have finally decided to build yourself a website, but really have no idea where to start. The following 10 steps will give you some insight into what you need to address when creating a search friendly website from the ground up.

While this article is not an exhaustive list of everything you need to know, it does touch base on many of the important aspects of creating a new website. 

Step 1 - Keyword Research
Even before you choose your domain name, you should put a little time into some keyword research. Research all the possible keywords that will fit your industry and the website you plan on building. Having a clear idea of what your end targets are will make the rest of your job much easier and help things to just fall into place. Take a look at Keyword Research for SEO, written earlier this summer, for more help on this.

Step 2 - Domain Selection
If you already have an established brick and mortar business and the website will be an extension of that business, using your company name as the domain name is in most cases the best idea. If your company name is either irrelevant, or simply unavailable, you may want to consider a domain that has your target phrase listed as part of the domain. 

A great example of this is if your site is focused geographically. Using the location as part of the domain when possible will give you a little extra juice with the search engines and help draw people to your site as they instantly can see the relevance in the domain.

Let's say that you are building a website focused on your home town, "Somewhere USA". A domain you may consider could be "Somewhere.com"; however, this would probably be already taken. Other options such as "SomewhereInfo.com" or "SomewhereGuide.com" may be good alternatives. The same goes for retail stores. "SomewhereCameras".com or "SomewhereBakery".com would also be good choices. 

Avoid excessive use of hyphens; sometimes it is appropriate to use one, but if you can help it, avoid more than that as it can appear messy and even spammy in some cases.
To check for available domains and to book them, click here

Step 3 - System Back End
If you plan on having a large scale website that will grow and change constantly then you may want to consider a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla. If you decide to go this route, you want to ensure that whichever CMS you choose is search engine friendly and offers items such as unique title tags, custom URL's, and full control over content, heading tags, image alt tags, etc. 

Starting a website using a non-friendly CMS is like buying a car without an engine. Sure it may look great, but it won't get you anywhere.

Step 4 - Site Structure & Navigation
This is really one of the most fundamental aspects of your site creation. If the structure of your site does not work well, then your site may be doomed from the very beginning.

Take a look back at your keyword research and brainstorm all the areas of your site that you may want to develop content for. In some cases you may find valuable keywords that would fit perfectly into a few pages of content for your site. If the phrase and the content would be a good match for the theme of your site, go ahead and note them as pages to create. Get a list, or flowchart, of all the content you plan on adding and sort those pages into relevant categories.

Be sure your site files are saved in a way that makes sense - this includes both the file name, and the complete path to the file. Save files, including similar content in a relevant subdirectory, with simple file names representing each. Let's take an example of an informational site dedicated to a specific geographic location. If you have a series of pages dedicated to recreation, you may save them as:

/recreation/parks.html 
/recreation/trails.html 
/recreation/beaches.html 

Keeping your URL structure clean and tidy can not only help with search engine rankings, but it will give a good visual impression to the site visitor as well. Often, using each of these categories as main points for your primary site navigation may make the most sense.

Also be sure to keep your site relatively flat, with as few layers as possible. Don't make the search engines follow a dozen links to get to the deepest levels of your site. Unless the site is literally tens of thousands of pages, there is no need to click more than 2 or 3 links to get to any deep content. The shorter the path to an internal page, the more credit by the search engines.

Step 5 - Navigation
When developing the end site, you also want to make sure that your site navigation is search engine friendly - this is critical if you ever want free organic listings.

If possible, use a text based form of navigation. You can use CSS to style the text links to fit into your graphical design. Text links are the best method, but image based navigation and even some forms of drop down menus are also search engine friendly.

If you choose to use image based navigation be sure to include image alt text relevant to the link to give something for Google to associate with the linked page. If you absolutely must use Flash, or any form of navigation not friendly for search engine spiders, be sure to supplement this with text based links on another location of the page.

Step 6 - Analytics
It isn't ever too early to start thinking about your stats. Before your site goes live you must have some form of accurate analytics in place so you can measure your site's traffic and progress.

There is an endless supply of analytics options out there to choose from. You can simply use the stats software that comes free with your web hosting, however, more often than not, they tend to be very basic with no flexibility. Advanced choices such as ClickTracks can give you rather in-depth statistics, but for a very small mom and pop operation it may be too expensive. Google Analytics, is a free option that can give you most, if not all the data you will need and does not require access to your raw log files.

If you do opt for an option such as ClickTracks, check with your host to ensure that you will have the raw log files you require. StepForth can also help you with your statistical analysis and offers a number of inexpensive ClickTracks service packages. 

Step 7 - Content Creation
Now is the time to get that new, fresh content posted to your site with the SEO in mind. Make sure that the content you write reflects your industry and target keywords. You don't need to flood the content with your target keywords, but make sure they are in there a few times. When it makes sense to do so, also include some acronyms to help Google establish the overall relevance. 

If you perform a search in Google for "~keyword", any words that Google bolds in the search results will be acronyms that Google deems relevant. Include some of these where possible.

Step 8 - Basic SEO
Ensure that ALL pages of your site include unique <title> and Meta Description tags. This is one of the core fundamental aspects of an optimized size and it does play a significant role in your search rankings. Make sure that these tags are not only unique but are accurate representations of each page. Also be sure to place your target phrase in heading as well as image alt tags where applicable.

Step 9 - Initial Promotion / Launch
Now that you have your new site all up and ready to go, you want to give it that kick start to help drive some traffic. It will be a while before the search engines fully index your site and even longer before you start to see organic rankings for your target search phrases. It is important to start off right away to get the ball rolling.

Start off by issuing a press release to announce the launch of your new business website. Press releases are a great way to get some traffic and a rather valuable first link into your site. Submitting your press release using a company such as PRWeb will get your link in the engine's path and should help your site to be initially indexed by Google right away.

Next submit your site to some relevant directories starting with DMOZ. It can take months, even years, to have your site listed in DMOZ, so it is important to get it submitted right away. Consider submitting to other industry relevant directories. For some information on how to select the right directories take a look at Building Links with Directory Submissions. 

Work on getting as many links from relevant industry websites as possible. The more links you can get from reputable sources, the better the overall performance of your site. 

Step 10 - Ongoing Promotion
Once you have completed the site, the content looks great, and all appears finished, you've still got work to do. For long term success, especially for a brand new site, you need to continually promote your site. You should always be looking at ways to build your inbound links and your relevant content.

Consider creating accounts with various social media platforms to help promote your site. These can not only give you a link back to your site, but they can help you drive traffic and raise awareness about your business and product.

A site that is always growing, and always getting new links, has the best chance of getting a stable top 10 listing in Google.

About The Author
Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott's articles and those of the veteran StepForth team atnews.stepforth.com or contact us at StepForth.com, Tel - 250-385-1190, TollFree - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198

 

Selling Online

1. Define your USP - your Unique Selling Proposition. Why should I buy this, from you, today, instead of anything and everything else on the Internet?
What do you uniquely guarantee? If you have a good USP, not only will a good bit of your statement fit in a Google ad, the ad will almost write itself.
It may be VERY helpful to do some keyword-based market research (i.e. Livingston method) - this makes defining your USP color-by-numbers.

2. Find a steady and reliable source of traffic, people who are looking for a solution to the problem you solve. This by no means has to be Google AdWords.
According to Chris Cardell who is one of the best-known marketing consultants in the UK, said,
"Most of the online successes I have seen built their business on Google AdWords - not SEO, not social media, not YouTube videos, not blogging, not affiliate ventures. Google ads bring steady, reliable traffic day in and day out. It allows you to perfect your sales process, scientifically."
To which we could add, the ability to go into a competitive market and buy clicks and get interested customers to your site - who then spend money - that's what separates the men from the boys.
If you can't do that, you're playing on the sidelines. If you can...
No one can stop you.

3. Build a sales funnel. Where the sales process matches the buying process.
If it's a quick, impulse buy then it's a quick, impulse sale. If it's a process of decisions and relationships, then it's got a lot of steps. Break it down.

4. Test and track. Once the funnel is built, test the pieces of the funnel.
Break it into pieces and make the pieces work. Split test landing pages and sales pages A/B, the same way you test Google ads.

5. Define your product so as to accommodate a range of buying appetites. Have something not only for the curious guy who wants to stick his toe in the water, but also something for the serious aficionado.

6. Expand your Strategy. Once your sales funnel is performing admirably, incorporate Perry Marshall's "Expanding Universe Theory" -

1. Google AdWords
2. Search Engine Optimization
3. Other PPC's like Yahoo and MSN etc etc.
4. Email promotions
5. Affiliates
6. Press Releases
7. Direct Mail
8. Print Advertising

....as you go from one item on the list to the next and the next,
your traffic expands exponentially. And so do your sales. You go from being merely a player to being a market dominator.

This process is linear. It's straightforward. It's color-by-numbers.
It's predictable. If you've got a USP that your market loves, you go through the steps and you get the results.

Source:
Perry Marshall's newsletter

More about Search Engine Optimization

Most of the time when we pitch to a new client we are asked for SEO guarantees. "Your competition has guaranteed top results and submission to 100,000 Search Engines and Directories". We go all out educating clients that Search Engine Optimization is all about smart work and not just adding random keywords and submitting to every directory possible. I'm writing this article to reach out to the SEO buyers and help them distinguish the crooks from the genuine SEO cos. I've compiled my Search marketing experience over the years in this article. I hope this helps you in selecting your Search Marketing initiative.

There are No Rank Guarantees.
Search Engines alone control their indexing and ranking algorithm. Do not try to trick Search Engines. The only way to improve your search engine rank is by playing by the rules. And the rule is very simple: make it logical. Web content is primarily for the site visitor and not crawlers.
If your Search Engine Optimizer sold you magic "Top rank on Google in 10 days flat". Forget it. There are no short cuts. Top ranking in Search Engine Natural Results will take time. Hard work is imperative especially in developing the content on your website and the links to your site.

Ranking is Not the End, It's the Means.
Ask yourself what will a top search engine rank get you? Most businesses are interested in increasing sales on a website or at the least driving qualified traffic. Ranking for the right keywords (keywords used by your target audience) is important. There are SEOs who will try to show case results for keywords that occur only on your website. Beware such gimmicks.

Know Your Competition.
"Rank" is relative position and more so in the Search Engines' natural results. How well you do in the search engine results is a function of how much hard work you have done in relation to your competition. Analyze your competition's keywords, links, keyword density and spread, but be sure not to copy your competition.

Use Search Engine Friendly Design.
A search and visitor friendly design is a must for any successful website. Your website should be compelling enough for repeat visits by search engines and potential customers. Make sure you have search engine friendly URLs and avoid those long URLs with query strings.

Select Keywords that are Worthy.
You must research your keywords before targeting. There are tools that give you a good idea of a keyword's search potential for example. It is important to know the number of searches for a keyword in the last month, last 6 months and last year. You should also find out the number of web pages that are targeting the keyword. It is advisable to start a campaign with keywords with moderate competition and a high number of searches.

Write Great Content.
Even if your website site is technically perfect for search engine robots, it won't do you any good unless you also fill it with great content. Great means it has contextual and editorial value. Great content brings repeat visits and increases the chance of conversion. Great content is factual and appeals to your target audience. Your web page should have your desired action embedded in the content and you must ensure that the content is fresh. Keep adding and editing content regularly.

Use Good Hyper Linking Strategy.
Hyperlinks make your content accessible and contextual. You must hyperlink in the right context within the website and to other websites. Good links are appreciated by the Search Engines and by visitors. No one likes to be taken to a mall selling "Macintosh" when shopping for "apples".

Write Relevant and Original Meta Content.
Meta content is like a business card. Just as your business card tells who you are and what you do, Meta content tells the search engines the relevance and context of a web page. Resist the temptation to include everything in the Meta content, but make it detailed. Confused? The idea is to include only what is relevant to the page in the Meta Content but to include everything that is relevant.

Acquire Relevant Links.
The links you acquire are the roads to your web page for search engine bots and visitors. Good links improve your webpage's equity on the World Wide Web and bad links make a dent in your equity and credibility. Be selective in reciprocal linking. Both reciprocal and one way links work, if you are prudent in selecting the links. Submit your website to the relevant sections in relevant directories.

Consult Experts, If You Need To.
If you have the competence, there are two ways to learn - learning from your mistakes and learning from others' experience. You can choose either. If you have the time and can wait for the online dollars, do it yourself. If you want to get started now, it may be useful to consult the experts.

About The Author
The author is an expert in Search Marketing with over 10 years Online Marketing experience. He heads www.rankuno.com, the specialist in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization. RankUno empowers its clients around the world with high ROI online marketing programs. He may be reached at bhaskar@rankuno.com.

Dominate Google Rankings

The reason Google is the most successful search engine in the world is because they provide the best search results; pages ranked by tangible value. That tangible value is a combination  of content and links, with links being the more important factor (they assume any pages linking  in will only link to good content or risk their own ranking.)

Here are a few tips that will help you take full advantage of Google's love of linking...

1.) Link Deep and with Relevance
So why is deeper better and what's this about relevance? Google figured out that a link to a homepage is only good if that homepage has the information the visitor needs. If a person clicks a link for "amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe" and ends up on the home page, which has nothing of the sort, Google discounts it as a wasted link. On the other hand, if the link leads to the page containing info on the "Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe," even five levels deep, the link has huge value to the visitor and to Google.

Want some proof? You already have it if you've ever used Google's AdWords pay per click service. They will not even accept PAID links to pages that are not the most relevant for their visitors, regardless of what you are willing to pay per click. Now that's saying something!

2.) Use Absolute Links Internally
It sounds complicated but it's not. Absolute links are those with a fixed full URL. There's another kind, called "relative" links that skip the first part of the domain and remain "relative" to the file structure. Let's take a look at the difference...

Here's the absolute link to the Google Ads page from Google's homepage: "http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/"

Here's what it might look like as a relative link: "./intl/en/ads/"

Long story short; absolute links help your SEO efforts and relative links don't.

3.) Use Keywords in Anchor Text
Use relevant keywords in your link anchor text (that is the text within the hyperlink.) Forget about "Click Here" like you see on so many sites. Not only does that not help your ranking, it actually lowers the relevancy of your real keywords because Google believes that if a word is important enough it will likely be used as part of a link to get the visitor where they want to go.

4.) Follow the 1% Solution
Make no more than 1% of your page text into links (both outbound and internal.) That is, if you have 500 words on the page there should be no more than 5 text links total. And don't overuse the same keyword text for the links. So if you have three mentions each of three different keywords, try to use each just once in a link. Then use similar text for any remaining links.

Example: If "chocolate chip cookies" is your main keyword phrase you might use "chocolate chip cookies" as the anchor text for one link and then "my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe" for another link.

It's also a good idea to use 10 Links Max per page whether you have 1,000 words or 10,000 words on that page.

5.) Add a Link Failsafe
This is really simple and almost nobody does it. Links get broken more often than we like. Sometimes it's because we moved a page and sometimes it has nothing to do with anything we consciously did (especially with blogs.) The solution is to create a custom 404 page (Page Not Found) that looks just like any other page on your site and has a simple note like "We're sorry we cannot find the page you are looking for. However, if you love cookies of all kinds we think you'll find exactly what you want by clicking on one of the following links..."
Then of course you have a navigation system for them to follow.

6.) Get the Best Links Possible
This is extremely important yet often overlooked because it can be such a difficult and time consuming job. If you take nothing else away from this article, please take this... Finding the best possible inbound links is the single most important thing you can do to make the number one spot on Google.

Here are three tips to help minimize your time and effort while giving you results SEO experts charge an arm and a leg for.

A.) Get listed in directories.
Submit your site to the top directories like Jayde.com and DMOZ.org. Once they link to your site you will have great relevant inbound links and some instant credibility with Google.

Here are some great free directories in order of value, starting with the best... dmoz.org, jayde.com, webworldindex.com, turnpike.net, and directoryvault.com. Yahoo is important but charges $299 for commercial site inclusion.

B.) Use "Special Commands" to do the legwork for you.
The best linked sites can easily be found with a simple search command called "allinanchor:" Here's how to use it. Go to Google and type in "allinanchor:keyword goes here" (no quotes and no space after the colon.) Now hit Enter and you'll see the sites that have the highest relevancy for keywords used in anchor text. Look for any that you know are competitors and outrank your site.

Now take the URL for any of these and use this command "link:www.theirdomain.extension" (again with no quotes and no space after the colon.) This will show you all the sites linking in as well as internal pages linking back in.

In short, these two special commands give you an inside look at exactly how the competition does what it does with the results they get. This is huge!

C.) Use good SEO software whenever possible.
If you can afford to spend one or two hundred dollars to save huge amounts of time and get professional results, it's well worth it. Like many SEO professionals whose livelihood depends on results, I've been using SEO software to get top search engine placement for years. The best ones not only help you identify great link partners but will even help you contact them and make sure they don't cheat you in any way.

If possible, get a tool that also does rank checking and reporting. Once you begin you'll want to check rankings every so often and an automated tool will save you a ton of time. Oddly enough I bought SEO Elite primarily for rank checking then discovered it was worth its weight in gold as linking tool as well. So whatever tool you use, get as much out of it as you can.

About Author:
Mike Small is the founder of the free SEO (search engine optimization) site SEOpartner.com and author of numerous search engine optimization books and whitepapers including the SEO Notebook.

Improve your Search Engine Position with Sitemaps

A sitemap is a little-known secret to enhancing your Web site's position in the search engine listings. No, it's not a killer secret that will draw in thousands of new visitors overnight, but it is an important addition to your toolset, and not hard to implement. This article will tell you why you need a sitemap, and how to create one and submit it to the search engines.

The term "sitemap" can refer to two different things. Many large, complex Web sites provide a visual sitemap that visitors can use for quick navigation, if they already know roughly where they want to go. If your site is large or complex, you should provide one of these sitemaps for your visitors.

But this article is about the other kind of sitemap: The kind that is made for the search engines, like Google, to use in indexing your site. There are several forms that these sitemaps can take, but we'll get to that a little later.

First of all, let's consider why you even need a sitemap. Google and the other search engines will index your site even if you don't have a sitemap. However, there are four main advantages to having a sitemap:

1. If your site uses non-HTML links, such as Macromedia Flash menus or JavaScript menus, the search engines will not be able to follow these links, and so they will not find all of your pages. A code-driven site must use a sitemap.

2. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are more important, and which are less important. This prevents the less important pages from competing with your own pages in the listings.

3. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are updated more frequently than others. This enables the search engines to ignore your static pages, increasing the likelihood that they will have the most current data on your most dynamic pages.

4. A sitemap enables you to tell the search engines when you have added or updated your site's content. To some extent, this puts you in control of making the search engines aware of your latest content. Of course, it doesn't force the search engines to do your bidding, but it tends to make it easier for users to find your new pages more quickly.

So, what is a sitemap?
As mentioned above, there are many possible forms of sitemaps, but we'll concentrate on the most useful kind, the XML sitemap format created and promulgated by sitemaps.org. This protocol, currently known as "Sitemap 0.90," is maintained and endorsed jointly by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask, so you know it is pretty much a universal standard.

An XML sitemap consists of a list of pages on your Web site, and standard information about each page. Here is an example:

< url >

< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Index.htm< /loc >

< lastmod >2008-04-07< /lastmod >

< changefreq >never

< priority >0.3

< /url >

...

< url >

< loc >http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Services.htm< /loc >

< lastmod >2008-04-07

< changefreq >weekly

< priority >0.8

< /url >

...

Don't worry about the technical details of formatting the XML. We'll talk about tools that will create this for you in a moment.

There are three things to notice about each entry:

1. LastMod. Tell the search engines the last date (and time) you changed this page. That will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.

2. ChangeFreq. In case you're not updating your sitemap all the time, this will give the search engines a clue as to how often they ought to check each page.

3. Priority. This tells the search engines the relative importance of this page, compared to all the other pages in your site.

In assigning a value for "Priority," on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, determine which pages are most important and which are least important within your site. We're not telling the search engines that this "Services" page is in the 80th percentile of all pages on the Web, but it is far more important than the "Index" page within this site. That's where we want our visitors to end up.

It's easy to identify pages within your site which are lowest priority. Some examples:

- Privacy Policy - "Contact us" - "About us"

Please don't misunderstand this. It's not that your "Privacy Policy" page is unimportant and so you might as well not have one. It's that your "Privacy Policy" is important enough to take for granted: Your visitors will find it when they need it. But for search engine purposes, you'd rather direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.


So, how do you create a sitemap?
There are a number of software tools that will create a sitemap by reading your site's content. You will have to adjust the results, especially the "Priority" settings, but most of these do a pretty good job. Search the Web for "sitemap generator," or for any of the following specific free tools:

- SitemapDoc - XML-Sitemaps - AuditMyPC Google Sitemap Generator

And once you have your sitemap, what do you do with it?

There are three things to do, in sequence:
1. Place the sitemap file into the root directory of your Web server, alongside your main "index" file. And each time you update it, place the new copy there.

2. Notify the major search engines of your new sitemap file each time you update it. For Google, this means to submit it from within "Webmaster Tools." For other major search engines, search on that search engine for "submit sitemap," and you'll probably find where to enter the URL of your sitemap file.

3. Place a reference to the sitemap file in your robots.txt file, as "Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com/sitemap.xml". This will make sure that any search engine will find it, even those that you did not submit it to directly. You only need to do this once, unless you change the name or location of your sitemap file.

Once you have your sitemap created and submitted, don't forget to maintain it. Each time you add a page to your Web site, add it to your sitemap. Each time you update a page on your Web site, update its "lastmod" setting in your sitemap. Try adjusting the "priority" of your pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time you modify your sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines.

About the Author: Charles J. Bonner is the founder and principal project manager of www.FreeLanceSubmit.com. For a complete list of resources for creating and using sitemaps, visit http://www.FreeLanceSubmit.com/ArticleBuildASitemap.htm.

Improve Landing Page Performance

Undertaking any new advertising campaign should also entail the optimization of your landing pages. These pages need to be set up primarily to convert the visitors that your advertising generates. No matter the method of marketing or advertising you use, even offline advertising, you should have a clear understanding of the visitors that it will produce.

- What keywords, if any, led a visitor to your page?
- Are your visitors looking for information or products?
- Where are your visitors likely to be from?

The first step to landing page optimization is getting to know the resulting visitors. With paid search and even organic search you should have a good level of knowledge of the keywords that those visitors have used to visit your site. Consider whether the keywords and your campaign in general is geographically targeted, whether it will lead to visitors that want more information or are ready to start the buying process, and their general demographics. The more information you can determine about your new visitors, the more effective your landing page can be.

- Have you included the most relevant keywords in your page?
- Are the images relevant to the topic your visitors want?
- Are ALL of your page elements relevant?

The landing page should be optimized so that it is relevant to these visitors. Page relevancy is always a popular topic. The more relevant a page is to its visitors, the more targeted those visitors will be, and the more targeted a visit is, the more likely they will convert and perform your desired action. Including keywords is a part of page relevancy but generally matching all of the page content to the needs of your visitors is vital.

- Why did a visitor choose to visit your site?
- What did you promise or infer in your advertisement?
- Do your visitors want information or do they want to buy straight away?

If you promise information in the advertising link then you should provide that information. In contrast, if an advertisement implies that your visitor will be taken to a purchase page, then that is where they should be taken. Most searches are done by surfers looking for information on a topic - this may or may not lead to an immediate purchase. By providing the information that a visitor is looking for it provides you with the opportunity to increase brand awareness, and even make an immediate sale.

- What makes your product better than your competitors' products?
- Why should visitors use your website rather than the next one?
- What do you have to offer that no other service, or very few services, also offer?

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is what makes you stand out from your competition. It's the reason that your visitors should choose you over any other site. It's also one of the most powerful conversion tools you have available to you. Many websites do not include their USP because they have yet to identify it - virtually every website and every company has a USP and promoting it early or prominently in the content of your site will help to increase conversion rates.

- Does the first paragraph of content include a summary?
- Have you got all of the important information on the page before the fold?
- Have you used an appropriate web content writing format?

Reading from a computer screen is very different to reading from paper based media. We can't read as quickly, we digest less information, and we comprehend fewer facts and less information. As such, it is good practice to write differently for the Internet than we would for a magazine or other publication. The very first paragraph needs to be a concise and informative summary of the rest of the page. Sentences and paragraphs should be shorter in length and, therefore, simpler in their reading. Headlines and titles, as well as other formatting, should be well employed in the relevant areas.

- Have you removed any unnecessary links?
- Is advertising kept to less visible sections of the page?
- Have you moved distracting page elements below the fold?

The more external links that appear at or near the top of the page, the more likely that your visitors will leave your site. Similarly, distracting advertisements that aren't a part of your CTA (Call To Action) need to be placed somewhere less distracting, along with other potential diversions. While these page elements all have a place on websites, they shouldn't detract from a well optimized landing page.

- What do you want your visitors to do next?
- What will your visitors want to do next?
- Have you clearly defined and implemented your CTA?

The Call To Action, or CTA, is the online vehicle that will drive your visitors to take the next step in the process. What this step is will differ according to various factors. If you sell your own products then the next step for your visitors could be to make the purchase. Alternatively, the desired action could be to sign up for a free newsletter, click an affiliate link, or download a free ebook. Identify what it is that you want your visitors to do next as well as what you believe they will want to do next. Once you've identified your CTA you need to implement it on your page so that visitors recognize what they are expected to do.

- Do you have any special offers, reductions, or discounts?
- Do you have any promotional giveaways or other incentives to offer?
- Have you pushed these incentives above the fold?

Incentives are a great way to persuade undecided visitors to take the plunge and move on to the next step. Either have a creative ad made that is relevant to the incentive, or at the very least ensure that it is mentioned in or around the first paragraph of your page. It should also be considered one of your USPs so it is a critical part of optimizing your landing pages.

- Is there any way you can make improvements?
- Are you tracking results?
- Are you prepared to make changes according to those results?

Your landing page is all about getting results. This means you need a powerful analytic package so that you can track the performance of these pages. You should have this software installed on your site anyway, in order that you can track the results of the advertising campaign itself, determine your most successful and least successful pages, and gather important data. Make small changes in a bid to improve page performance, and ascertain the success of those changes before making any others. Keep monitoring and optimizing until you get the best possible results.

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About the Author: The landing page is as important as the advertising itself. Poor landing page performance essentially means wasted advertising revenue while optimized pages can mean excellent sales levels and highly profitable marketing campaigns. Matt Jackson, of WebWiseWords, creates compelling web site content, and also specializes in a range of other web site content writing services.

What is the deal with Meta Tags?

Search Engine Optimizers often have two different views when it comes to meta tags. One this is unanimous meta tags have definitely been devalued for use in most major search engines but you will find they are still being used as the description often times when your site is listed in the search results.

Meta tags were started back in the early 90's when the Internet was just getting its brand new legs and they were used to help the search engines organize the growing number of web pages. This was an easy way to get your site indexed and listed high.

Soon after unethical webmasters started to abuse the meta tag by either spamming the page full of keywords or sometimes even made different websites appear in the results for a completely different keyword. Gambling sites would stuff their meta tags with more commonly used phrases in order to bring their sites to the first page and trick the search engine and moreover the user.

Now obviously, most search engines have discontinued the use of meta tags for organizing their search results. Algorithms have become much more technologically advanced and they use a number of other methods for indexing and sorting. The big question is if they are no longer viewed as a helpful tag, why do some SEO's still use them?

Meta tags come in a multitude of different names and uses, so which ones do you use? There are four that I often find myself using when I am optimizing a site. They are as follows:

Meta Robots:
This tag is still widely supported and it simply tells the search bots to either follow the URL through or you can ask them not to index certain parts of your site for aspects that may not be relevant to your actual site.

Meta Description:
My favorite tag. This is your first impression, if you don't have this tag search engines will just tag clips of your index page including the keyword that was being searched for by the surfer. First impressions often is the difference between a sale or no sale.

Meta Keywords:
A controversial meta tag, some use it, some don't. I still thinks it holds a bit of value if you keep it simple. Don't add more than 20 or so keywords, as I think it does increase your on-page keyword density.

Meta Content Type:
This is recommended because you may find that if you do not have this tag it could cause display problems.

Now, most search engines don't use the meta tags as they did in the early nineties, but as I explained you can still use them for a variety of other reasons. There is of course a number of opinions on this matter: Some SEO firms are strong believers in the meta tag and other firms are strongly against it.

In conclusion, my opinion is that meta tags can be used for a number of alternative reasons and still offer you a great place to sell your stuff.

I always will recommend the use of at least a small number of Meta Tags, and if used correctly they will greatly improve your chances of more sales and higher rankings.

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About the Author: Carrie Haggerty has been working in SEO and Internet marketing for the past 3 years. She has started her own SEO Firm and also her own SEO article website.

Web Site Conversion

Do you even know if your web site converts? Well, believe it or not web site conversion is about taking analytics and the statistic or information from your files and programs, then using them to help your visitors find what they are looking for on your web site. It guides them to do certain things while they are on your site. Like a navigational system.

Things like buying your products or reading information you might have listed on your web site for instance. Or to get them to sign up for email newsletters the opportunities are endless obviously.

Internet web site conversion simply put, allows you to show your visitors all about your web site, what its about, products and information, then in turn asks them to give you information to send them special offers or newsletters via email or regular mail. In a big way, you find out exactly what it is your customers are looking for and what it is they would like to see on your web site. Products, information, sales, whatever the case might be.

By getting your site to convert and give reasonable style with measurable return on your investing in your website it's the best way you could possibly operate your business online.

By using website conversion nine out of ten web site clients see at least double digit growth using the conversion platform. This is definitely a good standard for the web site if it is just starting out and beginning to grow.

Web site conversion isn't difficult though you might not understand it, some people will use different companies on the Internet to help them with the web site conversion for a fee, which is perfectly normal. They often times explain how the web site conversion is going to work and how in the long term view of things benefit your web site as you start to see the growth and the generation of visitors to your web site. As well as returning visitors to your web site.

They encourage the probability of introducing new products or information on your web site for those returning visitors as well as the generated traffic that has never been to your web site. Either way both are an investment.

Web site conversion simplifies all the different areas you might not be familiar with starting out with a new web site and these companies can provide you with information or perhaps even help you on your web site conversion and all that pertains to getting that task accomplished.

However, for some people they are content with the generation of traffic they are already receiving through the use of Internet advertisements, and banners, but the web site conversion isn't really about this, its more on the selling power of your web site and the returning customers that will come back to your web site.

More web sites are doing the web site conversion with the help of different companies simply because of the turn out they see on other web sites. These web sites and affiliates know the program and how it operates, if you are unsure do a bit of research as well as talk to those who know about web site conversion.

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About the Author: Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on web site conversion checkout his recommended websites.

Turning Internet Browsers Into Customers

Many marketing experts struggle with the concept of on-site conversion. After executing on a well developed marketing plan, and generating traffic to a landing page or website, the next step is to turn your prospects into customers.
Improving your online conversion rate can be accomplished in a number of ways.

Generate targeted traffic.
An important strategy for enhancing on site conversions begins even before you make changes to your website or webpage. Attracting the right people to your website is paramount for increasing conversions at a lower cost. Begin by evaluating your lead sources and determine the alignment of your prospects with your product.

One way to accumulate this information is with a survey that pops-up or pops-under as browsers leave your site. Often times, reducing or retargeting spend to the segments that perform the best can have a very positive impact on ROI.

You can also determine what traffic is best aligned with your market by carefully analyzing your Google Adwords campaigns. With the proper conversion tracking in place, it's easy to determine which keywords are generating sales, versus clicks alone. Focus on expanding your top converting keywords and driving truly interested prospects to your landing page.

Improving landing page performance

Once you've begun to attract the right prospects, you need to focus on converting them. The fastest way to improve conversion is through testing various landing pages. If you have the technology to rotate landing pages, testing multiple pages within a fixed amount of time, then you can learn quickly what page has the highest conversion rate. If you are limited to testing one page at a time, run each landing page for a week and measure the results. Your data won't be as accurate but can certainly send you down the right path.

Another method for improving on-site conversions is with the help of an automated touch program. With this technique, you can use an auto-responder that gives individuals an opportunity to reconnect with your business.

One example would be an abandoned shopping cart campaign. If users begin the purchase process (and have given you their email) but fail to complete the process, an auto-responder can be used to send and email message within minutes or hours, inviting them back to complete the purchase. You can use email best practices to enhance conversion, and touch individuals numerous times to move them through the purchase decision process.

In addition to targeting those who have started a purchase, you can also use an auto-responder for those who sign up for valuable information from your website. Perhaps they sign up for your newsletter, free lessons, or whitepaper. Once an individual has registered, the auto responder goes to work, sending appropriate emails at set intervals. The result is communication with a prospect that was previously unavailable to you. Work on improving conversion of your automated touch program by testing creative and timing of messages.

Using the techniques of better targeting, improving landing page conversion rates, and auto-responders can significantly enhance the performance of your online marketing campaigns. Plan your programs carefully and measure performance along the way, making appropriate enhancements. Over time, your results become automatic.

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About the Author: Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert who has been featured on The TODAY Show and Bloomberg Radio. Discover how to improve search engine rankings at http://www.webmastersbookofsecrets.com.

Signals vs. Noise in Marketing

Every audio geek knows about "signal to noise ratio": How much noise and hiss is in the background that's damaging the purity of your music.

Well, online marketers have their own version of signals and noise:

A moaner lurks in every crowd:
We ALL have defects, make mistakes, screw up orders and all that. We all get our fair share of complaints. But you've gotta protect yourself from the Psychic Vampires.

Example:

There was a student who has cracked the code on a medical problem that the "experts" in her industry consider unsolvable. She doesn't have the usual academic credentials but she does well know how to cure this problem.

And.... even though deep down she knows what she can do for others, she felt the need to prove herself by offering free advice via email to visitors to her website, to "prove" to visitors that she's for real. She said it was consuming all her time.

The advice is to, stop answering all those randomly-fired emails and - as quick as possible - get to where she would ONLY give her precious time to paying customers. The tire kickers ain't gonna respect the free advice anyway. They'll just suck up all her time.

Sincere questions from paying customers - that's the Signal. Accusations and complaints from people who want you to solve their problems for free, that's the Noise.

Web Testing:
There was guy who was making sales via online. He'd been making 2, 3, maybe 4 sales per day on his website and every day he would change his sales letter and either keep it or change it again the next day depending on whether sales were good or bad the day before.

Not only that... he didn't keep copies of each version along the way. Not even the original that had been working OK. So he woke up one day with a website that didn't work, and no way to get the old one back.

His test could not possibly produce good answers because he wasn't waiting long enough for the signal to separate from the noise; he wasn't even split testing at all. It was an Internet Marketing version of poorly managed Day Trading.

When you test, you gotta give enough time for the results to be solid. And ALWAYS keep copies of what you tested and the results.
Operating the Machine vs. Talking to the Customer:
It's fun to lurk in your cave, watch the traffic go by and hear the "cha-ching" as sales come in. But if that's ALL you do, you're invariably missing key parts of the story. At least for a time you should go out of your ways to take phone calls from, and if at all possible, physically visit your customers. Sometimes your entire picture of who that customer is and what they want changes dramatically.

Oh, and on a related note: It's a lot easier to make an automated business work when you make the manual labor version work first.

Can you sell it in person? Can you sell it on the phone? There's no clearer signal than when you talk to a real human being in real time. THEN you can automate it on the web.

Original Source: Perry Marshall

8 Methods Of Adding More Content To Your Site

Content is king and your content site is your kingdom. When the adage "content is king" was first coined, the web was, in many respects, a simpler place for Webmasters. Creating a website with ten to twenty pages of keyword rich content would generate excellent search engine results and a mass of traffic as a result. Note that keyword rich has now been replaced by keyword optimized – a subtle difference, but a difference nevertheless.

However, the web evolved (difficult to imagine that it's only now considered web 2.0). With the evolution of the web came a much greater demand from web users. Where the static content site was once the epitome of everything good about the Internet, that is less true of the most recent incarnation of the World Wide Web. Your website visitors demand more, but are you able to provide it? We look at various methods of including more content on your website.

  More Pages

OK, we'll deal with the most obvious method first. Add more pages. It's simple and it might be considered old school to many, but it still has a place. The more pages of content you have, the more information you can provide and the more keywords you can target. The math is simple and the technique is devastatingly simple.

Try to add new pages for new topics and, if a particular topic looks like being too verbose, split the page down into several parts. Hosting plans usually allow for a lot of disk space so you should have no problems with space limitations in this respect. Content Management Systems are often included as part of a hosting control panel, again making it much easier to add more pages to your website.

  Add An Article Directory

This is a similar approach to adding more pages in many respects except that it allows for a slightly different structure. An article directory is an excellent way to provide visitors more information on the topic of your site. Articles can be categorized, and include deep links to the appropriate pages of your site.

Articles are very marketable, in the sense that if they are well written, other websites may be inclined to link to the article or even republish it in full with all links to your site left in place. If you simply want to add more content, and use the resulting pages as online real estate, then you could consider accepting article submissions from other authors and Webmasters. You receive free content while the authors receive exposure.

News Section

News items related to your industry or even your business can be a good excuse to regularly add content. As a general rule they will contain what will turn out to be reasonable long tail search results and you can optimize the pages. Good news or press releases may be picked up by other industry news sites providing you with more exposure as well as genuinely useful content for your site.

Let's not overlook that it's always good to brag. Modesty will not win you customers, so if your business or website achieves something big then brag about it. Inform your customers how they too can benefit and the advantages that your news gives to them.

  Forums

Some believe that the forum is becoming outdated by more modern web 2.0 applications and portals. While this may be true, the forum can still be used to your advantage although only in the appropriate circumstances. Forums provide a means for people to communicate with one another, and if you can create a vibrant and lively forum, you will instantly attract regular visitors.

The forum can also be used to direct your website visitors. If there's a particularly hot topic, then link to it from one of your pages. If somebody (even you) posts a particularly beneficial post, then link to it from one or more of your pages. Conversely, you can also point forum readers to the main pages of your site. It is possible, with certain forum applications, to replace all instances of a word with a link to one of your pages – a quick way to flow traffic into your main site.

  Blogs

Who hasn't heard of blogs, right? They caused a huge debate when first introduced. Early bloggers claimed they would be the future of the Internet while more skeptical marketers and Webmasters decided their popularity would dwindle eventually. The former certainly came true and it seems there are blogs everywhere, within every industry, and on every conceivable topic.

Blogs have been turned into books, books into blogs. Blogs have even been turned into TV series and, again, vice versa. If you're not blogging then you're not communicating because a blog really does provide a superb way of communicating with your visitors and your customers. And, you guessed it, it allows you to add a lot of good content to your site and will usually draw good search engine traffic for your efforts.

  Frequently Asked Questions

An old favorite of the Internet marketer. The FAQ page serves a number of purposes, but primarily it is used to prevent an excessive number of telephone calls and emails with simple questions. An FAQ page can also be used to highlight some of the main benefits of your service or product. For example, if you sell trainers, and deliver them the next day, one of your questions could be:

"Q - How long before my Nike trainers are delivered?"

"A - We provide next day delivery on all orders placed before 2pm"

That's a very simplistic view, but it can help to sell your product. Also ensure that you include some of your more important keywords through the questions and answers.

  Knowledgebase

A knowledgebase is essentially the next step up from an FAQ page. Instead of having a single page with all of your questions and answers you would create an article or short article that concentrates on one question or one tutorial. Once you have built up a good number of these you have an excellent point of resource, a good way to attract visitors, and a method of keeping unnecessary customer communications to a minimum.

  Feeds

RSS and XML feeds are not new, but they are good for adding content to your site. Look for other sites within your industry that provide feeds and embed them into a page or several of the pages of your site. This can help with SEO because the better feeds update regularly and the search engine spiders believe your site content updates regularly.

These are just some of the more basic but effective methods of adding more and more content to your website. Anything that enables you to add more words has the ability to help improve traffic and conversions, and provide your customers with an invaluable resource that they will hopefully return to time and time again.

If you don't already have a blog, then get one. At least one. You can combine a blog with other methods of adding content. For instance, you can add other people's articles, or your own articles to the pages of your blog. Alternatively, you can use a blog as the news section of your website. They are easy to design and typically very easy to establish and integrate into your website.

About The Author
WebWiseWords crafts various forms of web content. If you are looking for anything from article writing to blog writing, then visit the WebWiseWords site today.

Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools

Anyone working in Search Engine Marketing knows that this industry travels at warp speed. If you're trying to market your web site or the web sites of your clients via search engines, chances are your time is limited - severely limited.

To squeeze as much into my schedule as possible without resorting to self-cloning, my daily routine involves the use of a range of time-saving tools and software. I use such tools on a daily basis and I truly don't know how I'd function without them. I'm not the only one. I've talked to other SEM experts and they also rely on various tools to help them through their hectic schedules.

Here is a líst of 20 must-have tools used by busy SEM professionals:

  1. Freshbooks Invoicing and Timesheets
Freshbooks is an online estimating, invoicing, project management and time tracking service that gives your business a professional image, no matter how small. I use it to invoice all my clients online and it can even be set up to automatically bill and debit the credít cards of recurring clients every month. It also has built in staff timesheets and project management tools for online collaboration.

  Price: Free for 3 clients or less

  

2. XML Sitemaps Generator
The XML Sitemap Generator trawls through all levels of your site to generate an XML sitemap. It also gives you a running count of pages, provides a text-based URL líst and a HTML sitemap you can import straight into your site. The online version of the generator is free for sites of less than 500 pages, but there's also a low-cost script-based version for large sites that can be set up to automatically index your site, upload an updated XML file to your server and ping Google and Yahoo when done.

  Price: Free for sites of 500 pages or less

  3. Proposal Kit
ProposalKit takes the chore out of creating and tailoring client estimates and proposal contracts. With over 200 pre-designed self-guiding templates ready to fill in the blanks with your company, project/product/service and client information, ProposalKit has already half completed your proposal for you.

  Price: From USD 47.00

  4. ClickTracks
As far as site analytics goes, the depth and accuracy of data provided by ClickTracks just can't be beaten, in my opinion. The visual analysis ClickTracks provides is probably its best known feature, with statistical data overlaying actual screenshots of your web site pages. The ability to flag individual visitors or groups of visitors based on unique identifiers (such as all persons who visited page x or all persons who bought product d) provides a level of analysis that other analytical packages can't compete with.

  Price: From USD 79.00 per month

5. AWeber
AWeber is a multiple auto responder and mailing líst management service rolled into one. Members can send an unlimited number of campaigns, follow up messages, and newsletters to an unlimited number of approved opt-ín lists. For newsletter purposes, a wide range of templates are provided, as are free training guides and videos to help you create campaigns.

  Price: From USD 19.95 per month

  6. JROX
JROX Affilíate Manager software (JAM) is a super powerful affilíate program that includes follow up email tools, email broadcasting, custom URLs and the ability to create up to 10 affilíate downlink levels. It offers affiliates groovy 3d Flash-based graphs and charts displaying their referrals and commissions and an organized marketing tools area for storage of banners, links and promotional materials.

  Price: Free for 50 affiliates or less

  7. Keyword Discovery
Keyword Discovery is an advanced keyword research and search term suggestion tool produced by Trellian.

  Price: From USD 69.95 per month

 

8. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is free web-based site metrics / analytics software hosted by Google. After you include tracking code on all selected pages of your site, Google collects data regarding visitor activity and then you are able to log into an Analytics interface and view site activity and produce reports.

  Price: $0

9) Backlinkwatch.com
Type your URL into Backlink Watch and get complete detailed information about the quality and quantity of backward links pointing to your website. It will show you anchor text, Google Toolbar PageRank, total outbound links on that page and nofollow flag for each of your inbound links available.

  Price: $0

  10) Jim Boykin's tools
A collection of 17 free SEO tools developed by Jim Boykin and his staff, including a cache analyzer, Backlink checker, keyword density tool and multiple inbound and outbound link checking tools.

  Price: $0

  11) Google Webmaster Central
Google Webmaster Central is Google's one-stop shop for webmaster resources. It contains answers to common questíons about Google crawling and indexing and guidelines for webmasters to follow when publishing their content. It also provides statistics, diagnostics and management of Google's indexing of your website, including Sitemap submission and reporting.

  Price: $0

  12) Yahoo! Site Explorer
Yahoo! Site Explorer is Yahoo's version of Google Webmaster Tools. It allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search, view the most popular pages from any site, view a comprehensive site map and find pages that link to that site or any page.

  Price: $0

  13) Ranks.nl
Ranks.nl is a keyword density and page prominence indicator. Type in a URL and target keywords to determine the page density and prominence for certain keywords within the page text and/or HTML tags.

  Price: $0

  14) Rex Swain's Tools
Rex Swain is an independent software developer who has uploaded a range of his custom server tools and demos to his web site. Tools include an RGB color sampler, HTTP Cookie Demo, a HTML sampler and an email form demo.

  Price: $0

  15) SearchStatus for Firefox
SearchStatus is a toolbar extension for Firefox and Mozilla that allows you to see how any and every website in the world is performing in the search engines.

  Price: $0

  16) Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is probably the world's most popular spreadsheet application. Apart from its powerful formulas for financial reporting, Excel charts and spreadsheets are great for site analytics analysis and sharing, sitemap creation, SEO/PPC campaign reporting and tracking link building campaigns.

  Price: Bundled with MS Office from USD 180.00

  17) Google Reader
Google Reader is a RSS and XML feed reader that constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content and presents them to you in one interface. It also allows you to share sites/pages of interest with others.

  Price: $0

  18) Blogger
Blogger is a popular online blog provider and templating service owned by Google, where you can quickly set up a blog of your own to post thoughts, interact with people, and more.

  Price: $0

  19) The Lynx Viewer
The Lynx Viewer developed by YellowPipe allows webmasters to see what their pages will look like when viewed with Lynx, a text-mode web browser. This view is very similar to how search engine robots see your site.

  Price: $0

  20) Basecamp


Basecamp is an online collaboration and project management service designed for staff and clients to manage internal and client projects from multiple locations.

  Price: Free for 1 project

So there you have it - 20 of the most popular time-saving tools to help you with your search engine marketing efforts.

 

About The Author

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena is Director of Studies at Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.