Wednesday, June 27, 2007

SEO - Five SEO Do's

Whether your web site is big or small there are five basic things that are must do’s when it comes to search engine optimizing your website. The first key thing is to take the time to do a careful search of all of your keywords and key phrases and make sure that they really do relate to what you are selling. Use a good program like Wordtracker or hire someone to do professional keyword research as not knowing your keywords is like driving blind in the dark. Make sure you write a short descriptive title tag of what each page of your site is all about before you submit it to the search engines. This information can also help the users that are searching for you locate you easily.
” Avoid the temptation of creating title tags that are longer than 30 characters maximum, since they might have a dilution effect in your rankings of certain search engines. Make sure that the main text on your web page is the same as the keywords contained in your title tag. This is so that the search engines have something to hook into when they search your site. Try and repeat these keywords two to three times in the main body of the text without sounding repetitive it. Add a sitemap to you r site as that assists both the search engines and users in assessing your pages. It also helps Google properly index your site.
Another tip is to make sure that your site is enrolled in some kind of link popularity program. Increasing the number of links that point to your site will boost you in the results pages. You should only link to sites that have similar themes to your site, and stay away from bad “neighborhoods” or from so-called link farms or FFA sites. Chris Angus is a SEO and website promoter, he can be contacted at sales(at)brilliantseo.com Car Insurance Mobility Scooters Windows Witney

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Organic Link Building Methods, and search engine optimization Techniques

Organic links are natural links to your website, and by us achieving organic natural links which preferably are contextual links these can be the best links to get to your website, which granted there is a lot of variables, and loop holes to this, but for the big majority of achieving organic links are typically the best links to get because the search engines love these type of links, and put more weight to your website.

When we achieve organic links that means we have achieved them naturally, and when we achieve them naturally that means we have offered good content to our viewers, or our viewers have linked us for a particular reason rather it was good service, or good content one way or another we achieved a organic link.

Some other ways of achieving organic natural links is to write articles to numerous popular article websites, and by doing this it will create more "exposure" to your website, I have learned that if you submit quality articles to quality directories like ezine, webpronews, and popular directories only, this can create a link bait effect.

I would suggest submitting articles, and look over your site, and get advice from others to see what they think of your site, the idea is to get people to bookmark your website, and keep coming back right? Well if that is your idea then stick with it cause thats the natural organic method, and i would say by far this is the best marketing technique available on the web.

Remember the web is like New York City, but way bigger! Aaron wall which is a very representable search engine marketer reminded me of this one day, and I figured I would bring it up again, but if you would like to learn more about me check out Custom website Design and seo tools

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Top 10 SEO Strategies to Implement

1. Identify the main competitive keywords (4 or 5 for organic, 200 to 400 for PPC). These can be found via Wordtracker, which offers one day worth of detailed keyword information for $8. Look at keywords from log files.

2. Create a website title that grabs user’s attention. Most successful use important keywords and should be descriptive, and provocative.

3. Add in a description of our website before the company name in the Page Title Syntax which is descriptive of what exactly we are.

4. Include H1, H2 heading tags. Search engines often look for clues in headings and subheads and we can include keywords here. Easily done by performing a global search and replace.

5. Remove frames from websites. Without <> tag indexing spider may not know where to go. We should use SSIs for menus instead. Indexing spiders also can’t read navigation systems built with JavaScript and Flash

6. Start to employ the use of links. Google has started to weigh the use of links heavily when determining rank. Link your site from industry hubs, and others which are highly rated in Google and Yahoo search results. Request reciprocal links with other websites.

7. Get listed in directories. Some like www.dmoz.com and others are free while Yahoo charges $299/year but is worth it and gets fast results.

8. Enhance our current website by giving away an article, submitting press releases, offer award logos, start a blog, develop a free service, and build an online forum for users to converse.

9. Setup an A/B testing service so that changes to our website can be tested to see if the conversion rate goes up or down depending on what specific changes we make. Several companies offer this for $20/month.

10. Utilize PPC advertising on both Google and Yahoo. Set up day parting time schedules and test specific keywords to see what conversion rate we’re getting.

Jeff Lawrence is the owner of Sonicko Consulting. This article may be reused provided that the full content is published. Sonicko focuses on web analytics and Google Analytics in particular. They provide Google Analytics installation and implementation, training, and support among other services. Based out of Los Angeles, CA you can reach them at their website: http://www.sonicko.com


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SEO Basics That Everyone Should Know

An idea formulated in your mind and you acted on it. You started a company and soon you created a website. How do you go about promoting the website to generate traffic to come to your website? You need to engage in search engine optimization (seo) to cleanly help generate traffic to your website. Clean seo revolves around making changes to your website to better help google and yahoo in particular index your site, and get into the top spots for specific keywords. The first step in seo is to add yourself to every known search engine available. This includes google, yahoo, dmoz, and every other search engine you can get into. submitting to more sites than those is fine, but don't expect a lot of hits. You can do this first because it sometimes takes weeks or even months for the bots of the various search engines to come around to index your website. The next is to create accounts for google sitemaps and yahoo explorer. Both of these are places where you will need to create a sitemap of your website. A sitemap is a simple xml or txt file that lists all the available pages on your website. It helps the bot going around to your site index it properly. once you have done that you need to work on your site.

You need to make sure that the keywords that you're trying to obtain are really worth your time. Trying to get a #1 spot for the keyword "clothing" probably isn't worth your time and effort. Instead you should use a keyword selector tool like overture's. It will let you type in a specific keyword like "clothing" and then see alternatives that people are searching for. Once you find out the keywords that you're interested in head over to your web files and start editing your files. You need to insert the < name="keywords" content="purple hats, velvet hats"> on every page. You can adjust the keywords depending on the product and what you're specifically trying to target. Once you have completed this you need to do the same for your title and description. no one is probably going to search for your specific company name, so you need to create a catchy title and description that garners genuine interest in your website. Avoid putting your company name at the front of the title; instead put it at th end. For your description describe what your company does in a unique way. avoid descriptions that focus on, "cheap clothes here." Instead appear professional in your description, while utilizing the space to wisely describe what you have to offer.

Once you have that you have the absolute basics down. you will now want to focus on creating content to drive customers to your site. Can you write an article that is unique to the industry that you're in? Do you offer a blog? Do you have some insight that others would find interesting? What you're trying to do here is drive customers to your website, and then link to your website on their own. Google and Yahoo in particular find that reciprocal linking is a good way to track the effectiveness of a website. If 10k people are linked to a website then obviously there is something there that is worth seeing. You will subsequently move up in the search results for those various websites. For more detailed help about seo suggestions see self-seo which offers a wide variety of tools and articles. If you have any further questions that we haven't clearly addressed, or just need some advise feel free to email us at info@sonicko.com or visit us at http://www.sonicko.com

Jeff Lawrence is the owner of Sonicko Consulting. This article may be reused provided that the full content is published. Sonicko focuses on web analytics and Google Analytics in particular. They provide Google Analytics installation and implementation, training, and support among other services. Based out of Los Angeles, CA you can reach them at their website: http://www.sonicko.com

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Some Common Search Engine Positioning Mistakes

Search Engine Positioning is the art of optimizing your web site so that it gets into a high position on the search engine results page whenever someone searches for keywords that relate to your products and services.

However, some people make basic mistakes while designing their web site and as a result, never make it to the top. Even if they work hard on it! Or may be waste a lot of money on useless tools and services.

Do you make these mistakes too?

1. Designing a Frames-based web site

This one is the biggest loser of them all. Frames may make the job of maintaining a very big and complicated web site easy but search engine absolutely hate them. Most of the search engines cannot find out their way easily through them and end up indexing only the home page.

Now imagine this. One of your internal pages has been reported by the search engines and the user has clicked on it. What a mess! The page looks orphan without the outer frame and the navigation.

Lose your frames right away. You will start getting positive improvements the moment you redesign your site without frames.

2. Having an all-Flash or graphic-only home page

This is another classic mistake. Many designers design web site home pages like brochures. A beautiful cover which has to be opened to read. But on the Internet every click takes away some prospects. Did they click your ENTER button or the Back button?

You see, search engines need content to index. If you don't have content on the home page but only a Flash movie or a big animated graphic, how will the search engine know what you deal in. And why will it give you a high enough ranking?

3. Not having a good title

What's your title, Sir?

A good title is an absolute must for getting a good search engine position and the most vital thing -- the click-through. With the title, you are always walking a tightrope. You need a title with your most important keyword near the beginning but it should still appeal to the human reading the results.

Don't, don't stuff it with the keywords. How does this look to you --

Search engine position, search engine positioning, search engine ranking

If you saw this in the search engine results, will you click on this or you will prefer-

Top 10 Search engine positioning mistakes!

4. Hosting your site with a FREE host

It takes away all your credibility. You want to do business from your web site. Right? And you can't even afford a decent web hosting package. How do you expect your prospect to trust you?

Most of the search engines do not spider web sites hosted on the free hosts. Even if they do, they rank them quite low. How many geocities web sites have you seen in the top 10?

Also, will you be comfortable buying your merchandise from someone who can't even afford a small shop? And web site hosting is much cheaper!

Do you want your visitor to look at your message or look at the pop-up that your free web host popped over your site?

Go get a good web hosting package right away.

5. Putting all links on Javascript

Google and many other search engines don't read and process JavaScript. So if you have all your links on JavaScript only, Google is blind to them.

You must have at least one text-based link to all the pages that you want to link to. And the anchor text (the visible text on the site) should contain your important keywords, not "Click here".

6. Stuffing lots of keywords in the keywords tag

Do you have a keywords tag that lists all the words related to your product in a big long series? This is a certain recipe to invite negative points.

While many search engines have already started to ignore keywords tag precisely because of this misuse, you should have the keywords tag for the search engines that still use them. It also serves as a reminder of the keywords that you are optimizing for.

However, put only the 2-3 most important keywords in there. Here's a quick test - don't put any term in the keywords tag if it does not appear at least once on the body copy.

7. Not having any outgoing links

Do you know why the Internet is called the Web? Because the web sites link to each other. If you are only having incoming links but don't have any outbound links, it is not appreciated by the search engines as it violates the web-like structure of the Web.

Because some people try to conserve PageRank (a proprietary index used by Google to measure link popularity), they avoid having any outbound links. This is one big myth. You can get very good points if you have some outbound links with keyword-rich anchor text and preferably keyword-rich target URL also.

Of course, you should not turn your web page into a link-farm. There should be a few good links amidst some good content.

8. Insisting on session variables and cookies to show information

Session variables are used extensively by ecommerce-enabled sites. This is to trace the path used by the visitor. Shopping cart and various other applications also benefit by using session variables. However it should be possible to visit the various information related and sales pages without needing to have session variables.

Since you can't put cookies on the search engine spiders, they can't index your pages properly if the navigation requires cookies and session variables.

9. Regularly submitting your site to the search engines

"We will submit your site to the top 250,000 search engines every month for only $29.95." Who has not seen these ads or received Spam with similar messages?

And which are those 250,000 search engines? There are only about 8-10 top search engines worth bothering about. And a handful of directories.

With most of the search engines, you only need to submit once to get spidered and then they will keep your listing fresh by crawling your site at regular intervals. All you need to do is to keep adding fresh content to your site and the search engines will absolutely love you. In fact, Google prefers to locate you through a link and not through the URL submission page.

For some sites like DMOZ, if you resubmit while you are waiting to be indexed, you entry is pushed to the end of the queue. So you can resubmit regularly and never get indexed

10. Optimizing for more than 2 or 3 search terms

It is virtually impossible to optimize a page for more than 2-3 keywords without diluting everything. Don't try to work on more than 3 phrases on one page. Split.

Get similar phrases together and work on those in this page. Take 2 or 3 out of the other phrases and develop a new page with entirely new copy. Remember, you cannot just copy the same page and squeeze these new phrases in there. It will look very funny to the visitor.

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How to Choose a Good SEO Consultant

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This may have been correct in the business paradigm of the 19th and 20th century, but in the new paradigm of the Internet, it no longer holds true - especially if you substitute ‘house’ with ‘website’. Over 88% of Americans who shop online use Search Engines to conduct research on what they are buying (Source: SEMPO) and the three large search engines have over 80% of the market between them (Source: Search Engine Watch). This means that you must achieve good ranking in one or all of these search engines in order to reach your target customers. Because search engine optimization (SEO) is better left to an expert, this means you must choose a SEO consultant to enhance your web presence and maximize site usability, thus increasing your profits.

You would choose a SEO company the same way you would assess any company you were going to purchase a service from. Find out how long they've been in business, and see if they'll tell you exactly how it is they do their work. Ask them about their previous work and clients and check if you can use these clients as references.

Check their methodology. Don’t expect exact specifics, but ensure they are offering more than just ‘submission services’ and ‘meta-tag optimization’. Look for their ability to perform on-page optimization, to improve site architecture, to research good keywords, and to optimize content, and to do link building. SEO doesn’t use a “magic bullet” and it takes a variety of techniques to improve search engine placement. If they have a blog, read a few of their posts and see if their techniques make sense or come across as being “tricky”.

Make sure that the SEO consultant has thorough, up-to-date knowledge and understanding of the major search engines and their algorithms. These algorithms are ever changing and improving so the consultant should be able to show that he/she keeps up with the ever changing markets by belonging to various forums, discussion groups and peer organizations.

Look at their affiliations. Do they belong to the Better Business Bureau (BBB)? Do they belong to any of the search engine marketing or online advertising trade associations? Who are their clients? Are their clients reputable? You can usually get a good indication of a company’s reputation by seeing who they align themselves with or who they don’t.

Another overlooked factor to check is this: Do they rank naturally for SEO related keywords? If they cannot even rank their website for even one reasonably competitive keyword phrase, this should set off some alarm bells. After all, how can a SEO company do something for you that they can’t even perform for themselves?

Search engine optimization is not a ‘once-off’ magic pill to get you to the top of the rankings, and beware SEO consultants who offer this. Ensure that your SEO consultant not only can increase your ranking but can keep you there with a maintenance program. Check to see what the long-term strategy is going to be employed on your behalf.

Finally, enquire about their business methods. Do they subscribe to the Best Practices for the SEO/Search Engine Marketing Industry? Are they using white hat or black hat SEO techniques? All these are questions are important considerations for choosing the right SEO for your business.

About the Author:
Anthony Yap is the principal SEO expert for a SEO company that specializes in getting websites ranked in the top ten of the search engine results. For businesses wanting to gain the edge over their competitors online, see our internet marketing consulting program at http://www.searchmarketingroi.com/Internet_Marketing_Consulting.html For other services, visit http://www.searchmarketingroi.com For the latest SEO tips, see his blog at http://www.anthony-yap.com

Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks

Everyone knows that search engine optimization is the game to play these days. After all, it seems as though it's the only thing that everyone talks about anymore. But how do you go about properly optimizing your website? Do you really need to spend a bundle of money for special tools and consultants?

The answer is no - as long as you have a little bit of time and willingness to learn. In this article, we'll take a look at some simple steps you can take that have been proven to greatly improve the ranking of websites within search engine results.

But first, I'll define search engine optimization, according to Dictionary.com, so that we start on the same page: [search engine optimization is] the process of choosing targeted keywords and keyword phrases related to a Web site so the site will rank high when those terms are part of a Web search; abbr. SEO. A good basic definition - you will see in a moment, however, that SEO does go above and beyond mere keywords.

So let's get started from the ground up.

Website Structure

We'll start at the very basis - your website's structure. This pertains to the way your site is put together, and every other aspect of SEO builds upon this. I'll start with the basic website/web page elements you do not want to have, and I'll also explain why:

>Re-directs - Re-directs refer to pages that are blank and just point to another page. Many search engines run into trouble when they try to add re-direct pages to their databases, so this is something you want to stay away from. Many re-direct pages are not indexed, and if you are using a re-direct for your homepage, there goes any chance you may have had of any part of your website landing in search results.

> Frames - Frames consist of essentially two separate web pages being displayed as one. Frames are usually used so that, for instance, a constant navigation menu can be displayed in a panel on the left side of the screen, while the rest of the screen changes each time a link in the navigation panel is clicked. This can make a website look snazzy, but search engines just can't process frames, and you'll end up with the same problems as if you tried to use re-directs. It is best to stay away from frames. The good news is that you can emulate the function of frames pretty easily, through the use of simple HTML - the only difference is that you'll have to include the navigation menu code on each page, but it is worth doing this to have your website indexed.

> Image maps - Image maps are images that have had separate links added to them. To illustrate, suppose you have created an image with three areas of text on it: 'Home' 'Help' and 'Links'. By "mapping" that image, you can create three separate links around each area of text, without having to break the image into three smaller images. Image maps are usually used for navigation menus, but here is where the problem comes in: search engines cannot follow the links in a navigation menu. (Aren't you starting to get tired of all the problems these navigation menus cause?) There is an easy work-around, though, if you really want to use image maps - just include the links as text links somewhere else on each page that has an image map. Search engines will be able to follow these text links and index the rest of your site.

> Macromedia Flash - You either have a love or hate relationship with Flash, but the bottom line is it chokes up search engines too. If you don't have to use it, please, don't. (Not only for your sake, but for the sake of us who have gotten just a little bit tired of those tacky Flash headers on every website now!)

> CGI, PHP, and all that stuff - CGI, PHP, and other web programming and scripting languages are very powerful and can contribute a great deal to a website's functionality. But dynamic web pages are just one more thing that search engines can't digest. Oftentimes, there may be no getting around using scripting in a website, but use it sparingly, and if you're using it for the sole reason of looking impressive when HTML would do the job just fine, by all means, switch to HTML!

So now you have a basic understanding of the technologies and areas to avoid when building - or re-designing - your website. A properly structured website facilitates the easier "crawling" of "spiders" through it so that it receives a higher search engine results ranking.

We'll now move on to the content of your website, an often-overlooked aspect of search engine optimization.

Website Content

The content your website contains is very important. All the search engine crawling in the world won't do you any good if the search engine "spiders" don't find any useful content on your site. Oftentimes, you won't see search engine optimization programs cover your website's content, but this is a very important point that I think should not be left out.

Your website should consist of a good amount of relevant, explanatory content, containing your keywords (which we'll talk about in a few moments) and several good supporting images (we'll get to those in a second as well).

Upon hearing that more text is better, many webmasters make the mistake of adding un-decipherable jibberish to their sites. This is also something we'll discuss under the Keywords & META Tags section, but for now I will say that this is a big no-no. Search engines can tell when you're trying to fool them, and if they consider your site to have committed a large offense, they may even permanently blacklist your domain from their results database. So it is extremely important that the content on your website makes sense.

One good idea is to include articles on your website. Search engines greatly prefer content that changes often, and what better way to have changing content than to continuously post articles on your site. Not only will you be perceived as an expert in your field, you'll also make the search engines happy.

I think that's as far as I'll go with content - much of what will be discussed in the next section applies here as well, so keep reading!

Keywords & META Tags

Keywords are yet another integral part of your search engine optimization campaign. For starters, you need to sit down with a sheet of paper (and don't forget your good old thinking cap!) and think of keywords that pertain to your business. (For the record, keywords can be both single words and phrases - just make sure they're not too long!) Think of what your website does, and develop keywords that you would use to describe your website and its content. It does not matter how many keywords you come up with, although it is best to have no less than five (and the less you have, the more targeted your search engine marketing can be).

After you've developed your list of keywords, there are a few things you're going to want to do with them. First, sprinkle them within the pages of your site. Anywhere you have text on your website, include these keywords. It is best to have at least three per page (of each one), as the search engines likely will not pay attention to them otherwise. Keep these tips in mind when inserting your keywords:

> Do not repeat a keyword over and over.

> Do not repeat a keyword over and over (or even just once) and make it the same color as your website's background.

> Do not include your keywords all together as jibberish that no normal human can understand.

The second thing you're going to want to do is to include these keywords in the descriptive sentences you will use in the ALT tags for the images you have on your site. Again, follow the rules in bold above that can be applied to ALT tags.

Third, add these keywords to your META tags. There are three elements to the META tags that you will be using: Title, Description, and Keywords. For the Title and Description META tags, follow the rules in the bold text above - and be sure to include your company name in these two tags, if it is not already one of your keywords. For the Keywords META tag, you can go to town adding your keywords, one right after the other! Separate them with a comma, and do not include the same keyword more than once! Doing so (as well as violating any of the bolded 'Do not' points above) can also get your domain name permanently blacklisted.

Inbound Links

Another great search engine optimization technique that is often overlooked is incoming links. Every link you have coming into your website raises the "awareness" of your site in the search engine's minds. If the links come from websites with high Google PageRank ratings, that is even better (in Google's eyes, anyway - this doesn't apply to MSN, Yahoo!, etc.).

How do you go about getting links to your website? One of the easiest ways is to add your site to as many industry-related online directories as you can find. A couple of other quick and easy methods include posting ads at Craigslist and other free classifieds sites, and swapping your links with similar (competing or not - this is up to you!) sites.

Remember, the more inbound links you have, the higher your Google PageRank, as well as your position in the search results of Google, MSN, and the others.

Outbound Links

Did you know that outbound links are just as important as inbound links? Perhaps the search engines don't care for traffic hogs, but whatever their reason, websites containing links leaving their sites consistently rank higher in search engine results than those that do not.

So who do you link to? Remember that you can swap links with other related sites and you can both benefit. You can also link to complementary websites that visitors to yours may be interested in (but that don't in any way compete with you). The main idea for getting both inbound and outbound links is to be aggressive, as well as innovative in your approach.

Conclusion

This is by no means an exhaustive guide. But I can't keep rambling on and on either. You need time to go perform the tasks we've discussed here today, so that your site can be on its way to the top of the search engine results.

So stay tuned for further search engine optimization articles here at HostReview.com. I'll be posting more search engine optimization techniques very soon!

About the Author
Daniel J. Briere is the CEO of GlobalWebBrands Web Hosting, an international Web hosting company.

Search Engine Marketing For Your Company

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) For ANY Company Marketing On The Internet Is Absolutely Essential !

There is a lot involved with Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Marketing and Optimizing your company across the world wide web can be daunting, even for those companies with a great deal of experience. Researching the search engines and finding good quality niche markets for your company are essential to your future search engine marketing success.

The good news is that by taking things slowly and methodically, it is fairly simple to learn. And once learned, search engine marketing can provide an effective method of driving highly targeted visitors to your web site.

The following is our simple guide to Search Engine Marketing . Although it is meant for novices, it can be very useful for more advanced search engine marketers as a reference source. Each section provides a brief overview of the basics followed by resources for further research..

Take it one step at a time and you'll soon understand the basics of Search Engine Marketing Your Company Via The Internet . Search Engine Marketing allows even the smallest company to compete in the internet marketing arena against mega million dollar budgets!

Keywords & Search Terms

The first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and key phrases that will be used by an SEM marketing company to market your web site to the internet.

The importance of keywords and search terms. Search Engine Marketing Tools that will help you find your best keywords. (We Use Keyword Elite ) Search term lists useful for spotting marketing trends. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The second step addresses how to make basic web site design changes that will make your site more search engine friendly and turbo charge your internet marketing What does search engine marketing (SEM) involve?

Domain Names - Having keywords in your domain name can make a difference!

The Title Tag - Very Important !

Meta Description - A Search Engine Marketing Tool ! Meta Keyword Tags - Not as important as it once used to be but sometimes necessary ! Copywriting - Writing good SEM content is essential to high rankings ! ALT Tags - Be careful, search engines are notoriously picky ! Site Map - Sometimes essential, sometimes not !

Dealing with FLASH - A search engine marketing nightmare waiting to happen ! File formats - Useful under certain marketing circumstances Framed sites & pages - How the search engines see your pages Search Engine Submission

After you've gone through the search engine optimization process, it's time to get your site listed in the various search engines and directories. Without this step your customers will never find you and your seo marketing strategy never gets off the ground.

About the Author
David 'Goldie' Edwards is a search engine optimizer and website designer working from his UK office. His site http://www.seo-services-company.co.uk gives clients the opportunity to further enhance their SEO and Website Design Skills.

TIPS ON HOW TO INCREASE LINK POPULARITY

This is HOW TO INCREASE LINK POPULARITY

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You're probably wondering what is popular about a link? Well, in a word - alot.

Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.

Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

So HOW TO INCREASE LINK POPULARITY?

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to submit articles to relevant popular indexed sites.

For example. If your website is based on "playing golf". Submit articles that are mini reports detailing golf tips. These article must be worth reading and of good quality otherwise your site will not stand a chance at getting a good ranking.

Submit many different articles related to golf all building your link back to your site and increasing your seo. This will increase traffic to your site and will increase income ranging from adsense to affiliate sales.

Also, research your niche and contact other key player websites and ask can you swap links with them. These links will build up over time and will also increase your seo.

Getting a good ranking takes alot of work but it is alot easier than expected.

About the Author
Stuart McIntosh is a dedicated to search engine optimisation. I f you would like to read more tips on "HOW TO INCREASE LINK POPULARITY?" please do so here http://seosecretstrategies.blogspot.com/

The 6 Requirements for Any Traffic Generating Solution

Hello, this is Carrie Castro. One word comes to mind when I think of trying to get traffic to my site: Migraine. We all have to go though this hair-pulling process in order to make any money online. Come on, if no one comes to your site, then who will buy your products??? Nobody, that's who!

Don't feel bad, it's not like it's an impossible task; it's a difficult task, but not an impossible one. The problem is that most of us are just beginning or still haven't figured out the tricks of the trade when it comes to online marketing. I know I'm still learning and making mistakes, but that's life and I keep going. But today I found a break from my traffic dilemma:

The Brand New SEO Elite Software V4.0 http://www.CarrieCastro.com/Recommends/SEOElite.htm

But I won't talk about that yet, I want to tell you something a little birdie told about traffic generation that you might find very profitable and timesaving.

I know that we all want to be out shopping or fishing or watching TV rather then being stuck in front of a computer trying to convince people to go and check out your site. And even if they do, they probably won't buy anything their first time there. Our first rule of Traffic Generating is:

#1 It has to be hands-free. All you have to do is set it up and walk away. Enjoy your life. That's the thing I try to find most in this industry, some freedom.

Next, what's the point in buying into a solution that you don't even profit from? That's why:

#2 You MUST be able to profit form the process...It think that one is a given, but it is still very important.

#3 "Don't Make Me Think" is vital and humane requirement. We got enough to worry about in our lives...like LIVING. Why put another thing on the list when you don't have to?

I think this next one is one that most of us might not think of immediately because it's not a common perk to find in most traffic generating solutions.

#4 It should be a ONE-TIME investment. I know, I know; your asking, "where can I find that?" but I'll get to that in a minute. Just keep your pants on. ; P

#5 It has to pay for itself, preferably in a few hours after purchase. We all hope to find everything that worked like that. And last but not least. The most obvious, I think.

#6 It must WORK! Why spend any money at all for something that doesn't even do what it promises, if not better.

Now that you know the 6 requirements for ANY traffic generating solution, I am going to tell you the prime example that helped formulate theses rules. This is a program that has transformed countless of websites to reach the pinnacle of search engine superiority in their field.

SEO Elite Software by Bill Callen is an amazing upon amazing program that I was thrilled to hear about. It fulfills all 6 requirements for any traffic generating solution and it has done more for its users than most SEO companies.

Okay, before I continue, let me explain just what SEO Elite is exactly. It is a program that tells how to optimize your website to have search engines fall in love with you; thus, making it easier for targeted consumers to find you on search engines. You can be at the top of the list for any keyword you want on Google, Yahoo, MSN searches and much more. As long as the keyword pertains to your website content of course. You don't want a guy looking for fishing equipment on your page when you have a dog breeding website!

You can find hundreds of link partners by searching the top websites in your field and find their link partners and then ask to be linked with them. Basically you can link yourself on all the best trafficked sites relating to your site content. And your know what that means???

Their traffic can turn into YOUR traffic!

You're starting to see the big picture, aren't you? keep going, it gets better. You can check your site ranking in all the biggest search engines and SEO Elite will tell you where and how you can improve it. The higher on the list the better chance you have of being clicked on.

So here is the formula:

High Targeted Search Engine Ranking + Links to Other High-Ranked Sites =

MORE TARGETED HITS = MORE PROFITS!!!

That is what we, as webmasters, ultimately want. I know that's what I want. I can honestly say that SEO Elite can either save you or hurt you. It's your choice because, if you get this program for yourself, you can smash your competition in any niche imaginable and make sales up the whazoo. Or you can pass on this opportunity and have your competitors get the upper hand and bury you in the pages of Google, Yahoo and MSN search pages. Don't cause yourself the pain.

I am personally on my way on getting this now too, but I just had to take the time to spread the word because I feel it's better to share the wealth. I'm not a greedy person which some might say doesn't make me cut out for business, but who cares. At least I'm here and I can share all this great info with you.

Now, enough with the mushy stuff; this product is a real find and with all the bonuses and free updates for life...Yes, I said FREE Updates for LIFE! This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don't miss out on it!

You can find SEO Elite on: http://www.CarrieCastro.com/Recommends/SEOElite.htm

Best Wishes, Carrie Castro

P.S. You can find other great informative and money-saving articles like this on my resource site at: http://www.CarrieCastro.com

About the Author
Carrie Castro has been in the internet marketing business since 2006. She owns a free resource site that contains this article along with many others at:http://www.CarrieCastro.com.

Link Building Service successfully builds up your business

Link building explained in simple term means spreading word about your business on the web. On the web, the more you are visible the more popular your business will be. To become popular on the World Wide Web, you will have to make use of different strategies. The number of links that you create through link building on the web will enable search engines to give your site higher rankings. Link building service is one of the components of search engine optimization service that one can use for popularizing their business on the web.

Link building is one aspect of search engine optimization that can turn out to be the crucial factor for either the success or the failure of a search engine optimization campaign. Not everyone would be interested in doing link building manually as this is a time consuming and tiring job. But this is an important aspect of search engine optimization and needs to be done at every cost. What you can do is get an outsider company also called a third party to do the link building work for you.

There are several companies and firms that provide link building services to clients based on their requirements. Getting link building services from outside will be a great boon for your business. You may not be aware of this, but doing link building dedicatedly can work wonders to your online business. To get hold of good companies that provide link building service is not a difficult task at all, if you know how to go about it.

Word of the mouth is as good as recommending something to another person. So talk around and find out if any one you know whether it is family, friends or neighbors. If they have used link building services earlier, they will surely guide you in getting the work done in the best possible manner. You can approach the company which has done the work for them and find out if they will be able to do the work for you or not.

Remember every business is different and thus promotion means are also different. So do not think that just because a particular link building strategy has worked for your friend does not mean that this will work for you as well. Talk with the professionals who will provide link building service to you and find out which strategy will best suit your business.

Hiring link building services from a third party will benefit your business in many ways. First, you will get professional services for your business. All link building service providing companies give customized services to clients. So you can have a talk with the professionals and tell them exactly what type of link building services you require for your business.

Link Building Service has been preferred by several companies because this is one method in online marketing that can be done without investing a huge sum. Link building does not need one to be technically very highly qualified. An individual with basic computer knowledge can do the work for you and this is the reason why link building service offered by companies will not cost you a fortune.

About the Author
Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,Affiliated Marketing,Link building services and Social media optimization.To get his expert advice for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Do's and Dont's on SEO

webmaster know, search engine optimization is a tedious job and process for a long term goal. Creating or optimizing site to rank high is a challenge. Different and thousands of questions left unanswered like how can one maintain the rank on search engines. As for thoughts on seo do's and dont's here are some points to consider. DO's on SEO 1.Natural Link Buil-Up. Creating links on natural way means having links to your site on a long term not in a thousand link on a snap or a blink in of an eye. 2. Creating a search engine friendly url or links. This clearly indicates good points where search engine bots can easily crawl your site without those long url or session id attached to the page being optimized. 3. Quality backlinks or related backlinks. Meaning if your site is about food, webmaster should have links pointing to their site that is related or close to related on food topic. 4. Avoid linking to sites you think and considered to be spam sites. 5. On links pointing to your site. Be sure that your site is on the page where links are enough and cannot be more than 100 site on one page. 6. Links signature should be the keyword you want your site to be optimized. 7. On the issue of keyword.

A varying keywords also helps on site optimization. Not just a single word for keyword but a phrase help. Say you want your site to be optimize for word "actress", you can try combination that have actress on it, taking an example like, "site for actress" or the like. 8. Be sure that sitemap is accessible on your site on both grounds. From search engine bots view and human view. Site should be accessible by bots meaning bots can crawl your site without a blockage unless you want your site not to be crawled. Human readable sitemap helps on visitors navigation to your site. 9.Utilize the power of article submission. 10. A descriptive title of your site or pages that meets the quality guidelines of search engine like title not greater than 30 characters. 11.On content. A fresh and relevant content is basically a must have on a site. Sites not updated for a long time make it look like dead on human view and on search engine view. 12. On site description. Be constructive on your site description. Having your keyword on your site description repetitively can hurt your site on search engines.

DONT's on SEO

1. Building links in a glance. Too early links like a thousand links in a short span of time can put your site on the sandbox of penalized. 2. Avoiding link farms. 3. Redirect site to other pages can also hurt site integrity. 4. Hidden text to fool search engines to rank high is also being pick up by bots thus considering your site out of their quality guidelines 5. Avoid submitting your site using automatic submission service. 6. DONT SPAM.

You can check my site here ituloy angsulong

About the Author
I have in the internet for some reasons. ituloy angsulong this is my entry to Ituloy Angsulong seo contest in cooperation with Article Submission and ituloy angsulong.

Search Engine Marketing - An All-Inclusive Service - ePurple Media's Perspective

Age old Marketing Concepts of reaching the potential customer, communicating and striking a deal in the most interesting manner hold true in today's Online Business too, though the traditional means of sales promotion have evolved in-to new ones. Here we will explore what are these new marketing methodologies and how can one adapt oneself to the upcoming marketing challenges.

Search Engine Marketing is an umbrella term which covers various aspects of Online Marketing. Better design and development of the site, theme based Promotion of the brand, conceptualising and synthesising each element of developing your website are crucial aspects of Optimising it for Search Engines. Search Engine Optimisation is not limited to just keywords, it is more about developing a quality product which comes up in top rankings of the Search Engine. A site measuring up to the criterion of promising and relevant content useful for the person who might be inquisitive about a particular product or who may be looking for some information will appear in top listings even if it is not sponsored.

Having perfected a website to meet various design and development criterion, one is ready to launch it for the world to see. It is always better to get your website developed by professionals like ePurple Media who will provide all the essentials of Website Design and Development under one roof. Apart from saving through economies of scale you will get a uniformly developed website. Outsourcing different elements like content, graphics etc. of your website to different developers is taking the risk of getting an end product which may look like patch work!

The second aspect of Search Engine Marketing Services(after creating an excellent website) is to make it popular. Given the limited time and resources at hand, one may invest in making the site more visible by sponsoring the link. The key strength lies in doing the ground work of developing a product worth promoting and locating the target audience who would plug in certain Keywords or keyphrases which would lead them to your site. Whether it is affiliate marketing where merchants join Affiliates Networks, that bring sales and charge a commission for every sales you get through them or a Pay Per Click model or Paid Search, an integral element would be pay for performance. Interestingly, one pays only for actual sales made or for the number of people actually referred to you who may be potential customers. This makes this kind of Marketing Pro-Merchant and a low-risk venture as Merchants just have to share a part of the pie only if there are actual results achieved by the Marketing Professionals.

About the Author
The author is a business writer with expertise in Online Marketing Services, and has written authoritative articles on different Mareting Services. You can visit his webiste, where you will find a great deal of free information onOnline Marketing Solution, Website Promotion Services, Affiliate Marketing Network etc .

Sales Force Automation System - A System to Save Time and Money!

Sales Force Automation System - A System to Save Time and Money!. Sales Force Automation is a part of a company's CRM (customer relationship management) system; A system which automatically records all the stages in a sales process known as a Sales Force Automation System (SFA). A contact management system of SFA tracks all contact that has been made customer wise, the purpose of the contact, and any follow up that might be required. The contact management system ensures that sales efforts won't be duplicated eliminating the risk of annoying customers. The sales lead tracking system of SFA lists potential customers through paid phone lists, or customers of related products. Many more elements of SFA system can include sales forecasting, order management and product knowledge to make your business more effective and profitable.

Goal of Sales Force Automation System The sales force automation system is developed to streamline the entire sales process to make businesses more efficient, improve customer interactions, increase overall customer satisfaction, and save time and money. Sales force automation system is used by all the major industries as per their requirements and it means different things to different people. Mostly, Sales force automation includes all the technologies, techniques, and strategies on which successful sales are built. It's just like an activity that improves communications and productivity and brings you together with your customers.

Advantages of Sales Force Automation System The sales force automation(SFA) system has so many of advantages for different-different people. It's very helpful for sales and marketing professionals' including sales personnel, sales managers and marketing managers in improving their productivity and saving their time, by that the sales staff will use their time more efficiently and more effectively. Successful sales force automation (SFA) strategy helps minimise administrative work and cut down on operational costs while optimising productivity and enhancing customer-focused processes and SFA systems could increase customer satisfaction if they are used with wisdom.

For further information please visit us at: www.olivecanada.ca

http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/133948.html

Pay-Per-Click VS Search Engine Optimization

There are heaps of Websites that are being found through search engine. Traffic for one's site can be done if there is search engine visibility. But what type of search engines to be use?

There are two categories of search engines. And these are the natural search engine optimization and the pay-per-click search engine. . Natural search engine is a search engine that bases its rankings or a ranking algorithm. And this algorithm engages an amount of criteria and parameters, all connecting to the content of the site, the site's size, the amount of links to the site.

One should hire search engine optimization specialist to optimize the website in order for it to obtain the top ranking. The objective here is for the website to appear on the first or second page of the search engines when the target user searches the keywords or keyword phrases.

And the advantage of the natural search engines is that you'll be ranking for free. But to achieve that, one has to give its time and effort to be in the top ranking.

There have been some recent studies that shown that natural search engine advertising has several distinct advantage than the pay-per-click advertising. Some studies have shown that the level of trust is higher in natural search engine than to the pay-per-click.

Let us move on to what is pay-per-click is, it is a search engine that bases its rankings on a bid for position kind of basis. One should bid for the price in order to be in that ranking for the particular search keyword or phrases. If you have the ability to bid high then the ranking will be greatly positioned of course.

Pay-per-click can enhance one site's ranking and traffic rapidly. It can punctually determine the ability of the site to convert visitors to make purchase. In both position and cost, it provides complete control of the search engine campaign.

But a lot of people do disapprove pay-per-click because of the costs concerned.

Now, as a lot of people turn to the Internet for necessary information they needed, many searchers are now aware of paid results as a Marketing tool. There is a study that showed that about 38 percent of users are aware of the difference between the paid and unpaid results, and about 54 percent are aware of the distinction on Google which is known as the most popular search engine.

Pay-per-click advertising is instant, but the natural search engine optimization takes about three months or more. In this case, pay-per-click is beneficial for those who wanted to promote in just a short period of time or maybe to those business which are seasonal who just have limited time for promotions.

Now, which ever type of search engine you will come up with, it s actually depends on your needs and budget. And it certainly takes planning. Planning and deciding about a certain budget will be a great help. Think of how much you're willing to pay just to outrank others, and how much you're willing to do just to promote your website.

What really important here is that, you could provide the greatest information and the best products and services to your clients.

About the Author
Article Author Eliza Maledevic from Jump2top.com, a SEO Company. Visit our websites at http://www.jump2top.com, http://www.7seo.com & http://seo.xon.us

Optimizing for MSN? Is It Worth the Effort?

Whenever you need to find something on the web, you "Google" it. Most of the web surfers do this, and the percentage of those who "Yahoo" or "MSN" for information is considerably lower.

Google has imposed itself as the "top-notch" search engine on the market, leaving little room for others. Little, but enough, some would say. Among the search engines, Microsoft's MSN comes third, after Google and Yahoo. So, how do you approach search engine optimization nowadays? Where should your site rank better?

Ideally, optimization for the web should satisfy all major search engines, but each and every one of them has its own likes and dislikes. Most of the SEO is done for Google, because what they advertise is quality, relevance and low spam content. Given that Google's brand is so strong, is MSN search engine optimization worth the effort?

MSN vs. Google

Opinions vary. Everybody knows that it's rather hard to get Google to rank your site high in the search results. Most of the search engine optimization techniques used nowadays are meant to be relevant almost exclusively for Google. Every webmaster is concerned with code structure, sitemaps, keyword density, anchor texts, links and so on. Google is rather hard to please, especially when it comes to newly created sites.

The much-feared "sandbox" is a side-product of Google, where the new pages end up until Google considers them mature enough to be ranked in the search results. It's a drawback, and there's not much anybody can do about it, because one of the things that are valued by Google is the age of a web page.

What about MSN? In this case, things tend to be a little smoother. MSN seems to really like new pages, and it has no sandbox. It doesn't use an "age filter" and classifies sites much faster.

Therefore, it is highly probable that the amount of results that a web user might get for a given search to be significantly higher than the one obtained from Google. Also, it appears that the search speed is higher with MSN than with Google. This may be because their index is considerably smaller than Google's.

Reports show that Google is already a saturated search engine. Its users see so many websites that they don't have the patience to spend much time on any given site, but still want to visit others as quickly as possible. On the other hand, it appears that MSN users are more likely to produce conversions (sales). This probability is 48% higher for MSN users than for any other Internet users.

This can be a factor that might influence the adoption of some MSN marketing strategies. The conversion ratio is paramount for any commercial website, and such indicators could most probably lead to actions meant to improve the MSN ranking for this type of sites.

MSN Optimization? How?

It is almost impossible to get it right from the start. Much of the SEO process is based on trial and error. There are no precise criteria for each search engine. Basically, what is good for one might be good (or better, or even worse) for the other.

Experts say that, in order to get as much MSN traffic as possible, it's enough to follow the basic guidelines with, of course, some adjustments that will differentiate your MSN marketing strategies from the ones you might use for Google ranking.

MSN is dedicated to satisfying the visitors. Therefore, MSN wants to make sure that they can offer web surfers a high probability of finding what they want on your site. A well-developed site, with many pages and homogenous content will rank much better than a smaller site with poorly organized content (supposing that these two sites apply the ranking factors in a similar manner).

Creating a good, easy-to-navigate sitemap will not only help the search engine's spiders crawl your site, but it will also add to its value for the visitors.

Microsoft's search engine has a great response to an increased keyword density (as opposed to Google, which is quite quick at identifying and penalizing sites that, according to its algorithm, are clearly spamming - and sometimes it is not far from the truth). This orientation towards quantity rather than quality makes MSN more spam oriented. But the criteria for choosing the right keywords for your site remain, basically, the same.

Therefore, the more back-links you have, the better. Bear in mind though that the quality of the links is a plus, as well as their relevance to the optimization aiming website. This will help spiders to completely index the website, thus leading to an improved visibility among search results. The logical approach is to focus on building high-quality links towards the site and its content, which will eventually help you rank well in other search engines too.

MSN will give credit to the new content and to the inbound links quite quickly. You should not forget about clean code. It is a major factor for site indexing, and even MSN, which is not as demanding as Google, will rank poorly sites with badly written code.

The TITLE tags are among the most important code elements which you can rely on if you want to improve your MSN traffic. They occupy a top position in the algorithm used by MSN. Consider it your exhibition room. When somebody is looking at the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), the first thing they see is the title of your page. In order to encourage a web user to click on it, it has to be as descriptive and as "appealing" as possible. But don't exaggerate; about 80 characters should be more than enough.

One of MSN's drawbacks is represented by its robots, used for page indexing, so keep them in mind. They have difficulties in indexing pages that contain frames, pictures, flash elements, Java script or dynamic URLs. If your site uses image or script based navigation, it is advisable to use text links as well, both within the content and at the bottom of the page. Text links are easier to follow and, more importantly, they give you the opportunity to link to your home page thanks to the anchor texts.

So... Should We?

To make a long story short, MSN is more permissive than Google. Adopt the right tactics, and you can be riding the MSN wave in no time (as compared to Google, where you have to wait in the sandbox for a painfully large - for your business, mostly - amount of time). But there is the risk of dropping from that high position in the MSN ranking as quickly as you got there. This is because your MSN SEO tips can be overthrown by those newly arrived sites that MSN likes so much to welcome. Such an inconvenience can be quite easily avoided by keeping the content constantly fresh.

There can't be a "Yes" or "No" answer to the question above. Yet, there could be a "Why not?" MSN does what Google avoids, and likes what Google frowns upon or regards with suspicion. And then there's also Microsoft's potential marketing power that they can bring to the search engine business. So, the value of MSN should not be underestimated. Of course, it is a rather feeble match for Google now, but this situation can change dramatically overnight.

Similar situations have been seen before, and Microsoft has the financial power to make enough changes and adjustments relatively quickly so as to turn the tables in MSN's favor. Bottom line, if you have already optimized your site for Google, it can't hurt to do some MSN optimization as well.

About the Author
Read more free software marketing articles.

SEO Ranking Factors

Introducing SEO Ranking Factors

What will make me top? Or more precisely "What are the factors that determine my position in the natural listings for a specific key phrase and what is their relative importance?"

Wow! Those are the questions that everyone involved in SEO, from clients to agencies, wants and needs to know. So let's work through some answers.

Unfortunately, the number of people who can definitively answer these questions by concisely explaining the hundreds of factors, and the way they work with one another, is strictly limited to the engineers who work for the search engines.

However, through combining the experience of the authors, the review team and disclosure from the search engines and expert commentators, we have compiled a comprehensive list of the most important factors which determine position in the listings.

What determines ranking position in the natural listings? The position or ranking in the natural listings for a particular key phrase is dependent on a search engine's ranking algorithm.

For the search query entered into the search engine, the algorithm uses rules or heuristics to identify the most relevant pages, based on the page's text content and its context (which can be indicated by links from other pages and sites).

Each search engine has a different set of algorithms created by engineers who strive to produce the best relevance for its users.

However, the ranking of natural listings has evolved as a science over the past ten years, based on an even longer history of document indexing and retrieval history. As with all sciences, there are fundamental principles which apply. So to deliver relevance search engines tend to use common search engine ranking factors.

Enough with the science: get with the ranking factors...

We will soon enough. But before we do here's a word to the wise: understanding some of the most common ranking factors is straightforward. Keyword: 'straightforward'.

Over the past few years many bedroom cowboys and unethical agencies have raked in fees by pretending that SEO is about wearing a black hat, doing the search voodoo, etc. But there is no need for any smoke or mirrors. If your agency refuses to reveal its techniques to you then our advice would be to move on. Immediately!

Despite the mystique perpetuated about SEO it really isn't terribly difficult to grasp the concepts. The difficulty lies in managing your keywords and optimization over the long term. Not in understanding the ranking factors.

Who in my organization needs to know about this stuff? It is essential for your technology team / agencies to understand these ranking factors. It is also imperative that all content owners / authors / stakeholders understand how good quality content can improve search rankings. Authors need to know which key phrases to use, otherwise you won't have a joined up strategy.

Applying simple 'house style' rules can help generate visits from qualified visitors. In fact let's coin a phrase: 'house strategy'. You need to develop a 'house strategy guide' for your authors and editors.

So I can ditch my SEO agency, right? It depends, is the honest answer. You might be able to, but it is more likely that this guide will inform your search strategy, with you making the calls. But you will still need somebody to manage it (either in-house or outsourced). Ultimately this guide to search marketing is about increasing ROI and maximising rankings, not about saving costs.

There remains a great need for solid, ethical SEO agencies. Management and optimization is an ongoing task. The bigger your company / market / website, the bigger that task is going to be. High volume search-terms and intense competition means that applying specific optimization techniques is required to rank well. Ethical SEO agencies can help you with this.

The holy grail of SEO is to achieve a high, stable and long-term presence at the top of the SERPs for phrases which have both high volume and which convert well.

Agencies can also help by putting the brakes on your own enthusiasm, as over-optimization is a leading cause of search engine penalties. Equally, after reading this guide, you should be able to determine if your existing agency is over-egging the SEO cake, or feeding you unsound advice.

Remember that search engines also use ranking penalties for websites / pages. They employ filters within their algorithms that penalize websites for search engine spamming (such as over-optimization of a phrase or non-natural links from other sites ).

Now for the six key ranking factors...

1. Planning and strategy including setting performance targets.

2. Index inclusion and coverage.

3. On-page optimization.

4. Link-building (internal and external).

5. SEO process.

6. Conversion efficiency.

Of these six areas, those at the heart of search engine ranking are success factors 2, 3 and 4. Why? Well, if your pages are not included within the index then you cannot expect to gain any search engine referrals. Once included, results are dependent on the combination of on-page optimization and link-building.

When we talk about link-building we're mainly considering third party links, but a solid internal linking structure should be adopted within your own website/s. There are proven benefits.

The hundreds of factors used by the search engines to determine relevance can be simplified into the two most important factors which are essential for good ranking positions:

About the Author
Rajamanickam
WEBSITE DESIGN
Search Engine Optimization

Designing Your Web Site for SEO

When designing your web site with search engine optimization in mind, you must remember to leave plenty of room for keyword relevant content.

What is keyword relevant content you ask? Keyword relevant content is content that has keywords relevant to your companies business that people are searching for in the search engines spread through out it.

The search engines crawl web sites continuously looking for sites with the most relevance keyword content to index and place in the top positions. When you do a search for a product, you expect the most relevant results to show up and the only way search engines stay in business is by providing the best possible results available.

Go to your competitor's web site that is placing well for a particular keyword you are trying to place with. Count how many times you see that keyword listed throughout the web site. Most of the time you will see the sites with more keyword content doing better than sites with little to no content.

Also, make sure you use the same keywords in your metatags and page content. This will confirm the relevancy with the engines as they count your keywords in your title and description tags along with the keywords in your page content together.

Remember the most important rule about optimizing for your site. If your customers don't understand what you services are, then getting traffic to your web site is completely meaningless. Add enough content to make your site relevant to the search engines but make sure it makes since to your visitors, after all that is what your in business for.

Have fun and be original.

About the Author
By Shawn Hickman - Internet Marketing Manager source: Fresh Web Solutions