Longtail – A Beginners Guide to Search Engine Marketing

The “Longtail” is based on statistical phenomena where less common events can cumulatively become more significant than high frequency events. In a business this would mean the top 20 selling items in a shop might collectively make £1000 in revenue but the other less popular items cumulatively make £1500.

This can be applied in the world of PPC too. At the moment you might have 50 well performing keywords if you were to increase your keyword list to 1000 you could benefit from the longtail. Each keyword might only earn a small fraction of your top performing keywords but in total they can be more lucrative.

There are four great reasons why it’s worth advertising on the longtail

Cheaper – PPC advertising is built around the auction model. The more desirable the keyword is the more people are willing to pay for it. As PPC has become more competitive obvious keywords have in many sectors become prohibitively expensive. Advertisers are less likely to advertise on longtail phrases they are cheaper. This means you can afford more clicks.

More specific – If you were the owner of a hotel, it might make sense to advertise on the keyword hotel. But what if the searcher is looking for a hotel in a different city, or in different price bracket? By mining the longtail you can bring traffic to your site that is more likely to be happy with your content. As you pay for every click it’s in your interests to make sure every click is worth its cost.

Less Competitive – When anyone searches on a generic phrase they are greeted by a large number of organic and paid results. In this kind of environment your ad copy has to work much harder to draw attention. With less competition it’s easier to stand out and get searchers to click.

More Likely to Convert – Normally the longer a search term is the more likely the search is to convert into a sale. This is because longer terms tend to show that the user is further along the buying process, they may have done some research & have a clear idea of what they are looking for. Would you rather have a visit from a searcher looking for a “car” or “BMW 3 series 100,000 miles Brighton”?

There are main benefits of understanding the possibilities of the longtail. We can learn a lot from the statistical phenomena which can help every business’s bottom line.

Kelvin T. Newman is a search marketing specialits at Site Visibility Ltd. A leading Brighton SEO Firm. Offering creative SEM & SEO.

You can read more about Linkbait & the Longtail at the Site Visibility Blog

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Search Engine Optimization – Off-Page Optimization

If you have ever wondered how important off-page optimization is, then ask yourself this question. Why do major companies put their brands on tee shirts, coffee mugs, and other items? Because, it is effective brand advertisement! The more the message is seen, the more likely it is that customers will buy their products.

The same principle applies to off-page optimization for websites. However, instead of using tee-shirts, mugs, etc, the SEO typically uses links included on other websites to do the branding. This technique accomplishes two functions. First, it opens additional ports through which potential customers can come to your website. Second, the major search engines use the links from other sites to help establish the popularity of the site being linked to. They then use this popularity to help determine the ranking for that site.

To really evaluate the importance of this off-page optimization, consider the effort and money that Google, Yahoo, and other companies put into getting a link to their sites from other websites. Google’s AdSence ads are seen on websites all over the world. So are Ebay ads. Why? The answer is branding and search engine optimization.

There are a number of ways to get your site linked from other websites. Affiliate programs, free directories, link exchanges and partnerships with other relevant websites. Whichever option that you choose to use, be careful to make sure that the linking site is relevant to yours. Search engines do evaluate the relevancy. You will also want to be mindful of the sites that carry your link. If those sites are not in sync with the moral, ethical, and philosophical standards that you set, then your reputation could be at risk.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Ray

Search Engine Optimization - On-Page Techniques

Achieving top search engine rankings is critical to the success of any web site. It has been widely reported that a web site must be ranked within the first three pages of search engine listings in order to generate enough site visits to become successful. Competition for these tops rankings is stiff, and only those sites that make good use of on-page SEO techniques stand a chance of achieving the coveted rankings.

Let’s examine a few of these on-page techniques for a better understanding of their role and how they may or may not impact a web site’s page ranking. The first technique is the effective use of content on the page. The content should include your keywords and phrases, but should be used in a way that makes sense, and that appears natural to both the visitor and the search engine algorithm. Search engine algorithms are sensitive to the over use of keywords, and may penalize a web site with a lower ranking if it suspects the site of deliberately doing this.

Unethical use of on-page techniques may lower a site’s ranking, or even lead to the site being banned by the search engine. Hiding repetitive keywords by giving the text and background the same color is one example of the unethical use of an on-page technique.

In my opinion a great deal of time and effort should be given to these techniques. They can make or break a web site. Used properly they can lead to higher rankings, used improperly, or unethically, they can lower a site’s ranking

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Search Engine Optimization, Step Two: Create (or Refine) Your Meta Description

A Meta Description's overall purpose is to provide a brief explanation of a site and most importantly, to name the major items being sold. It can help rankings in search engines in providing more relevance to a site by giving spiders an accurate summary of its place on the net. As the words imply, a Meta Title names a site while a Meta Description describes the page to search engines and directories. In general, the Description can be considered a lengthened extension of the Title.

Writing Your Meta Description
When forming your Description, use common sense, logic and a touch of creative writing. If you haven't done so already, create your Meta Title first. Once you have the keywords and text used there, you can use that information to help in writing your Description.

The text amount should not surpass 150 words. It is meant to be a short rundown of your site, so keep it concise and to the point.

Most importantly- include major keywords in your description. There is more room in the Description tag, so include more keywords. Make certain they are specific, relevant and pertinent to the major items you sale. Always place your top keywords first within the text.

Avoid spam. Repeating keywords (more than 5 times) in your Meta Description may be viewed negatively by search engine spiders.

The Description is used as the summary in some search engine listings. So while keeping the text as relevant as possible, also make it inviting to potential customers. If a search engine uses a Meta Description and you don't have one, it will pull random text from your page. This can confuse visitors and may result in a lost visit to your site. Make sure you have Descriptions that educate, rather than confuse.

Include Meta Descriptions in all areas of your site. It is important for a site's homepage, as well as each Product and Category page. For these specific pages, try to keep the Description at about 50 words, roughly 2-3 sentences long.

Once you are finished writing, check your text from an outside perspective. Make sure it describes your site's overall purpose, products and entices you to go inside.

Stacie completed the Texas Creative program, receiving a degree in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and is now happily employed with Volusion, Inc.

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Search Engine Optimization – Article Marketing And Its Impact On SEO

Article marketing may be one of the greatest search engine optimization techniques in use today. The process is easy to use, and can increase natural traffic to your website while increasing your site’s search engine ranking.

Here’s how it works. Search engines are always looking for those websites that have fresh, relevant content. They are also looking for a website’s popularity. A site’s popularity is measured by the number of other sites that have links back to it. Webmasters and SEO specialist capitalize on this by submitting as many articles as possible to ezines or article directories.

If the articles are well written, and if they contain relevant, content rich material with a few back links to the originating website, then they may very well be picked up by webmasters and SEO specialist who are looking for new content for their websites.

When the articles are used, the using sites generally credit the author by including his/her contact information and a link back to his/her site. This of course increases the numbers of sites linking back to the originating site, which increases the search engine ranking. It also provides greater exposure of the originating site’s URL. This increases the natural traffic back to the originating site.

For article marketing to be really successfully, one must write numerous, content relevant articles weekly, and submit them to as many ezines and article directories as possible.

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Improving Your Search Engine Ranking

In today's world of internet, it doesn't matter much whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, you need to have a strong online presence. If not, you would be loosing heavily to your competitors. However, having a website only is not going to do a lot of good to your business. You should be able to generate quality traffic to your website, you have to convert that traffic as consumers for your business and you have to make them loyal for a long time. Then only, the online presence is going to add to your business.

Research tells that more than seventy five percent of web traffic comes from search engines like Google, MSN and so on. So, it is very important for your website to have higher rankings on these search engines for the keywords with which your potential customers search on the internet for information. Hence, improving search engine ranking is very important for your business. And also, maintaining that search engine raking for at least the chosen keywords is also very important.

There are lots of things that have to be done by any web master if he wants to have a very good search engine ranking. First the content should be quality content and you should be updating it quite regularly. You should have keyword rich content. You should first do a lot of research in finding out keywords which your prospective customers will be using while searching on the internet. Then you have to get content accordingly. This can immensely help in improving search engine ranking. But, never use content which is only focusing on keywords and have no substance. You have to strike a good balance between the both.

Google uses Page rank concept to rank the websites. Hence, you should have quality links that are referring to your website. This can be done by getting loads and loads of reciprocal links. You should do a lot of research to find the companies which will be interested in participating in the reciprocal link programs of yours. Even though, this consumes a lot of time, as a web master you should do it to improve search engine ranking.

It's not a better idea to concentrate only on tier-1 search engines. Try and get into top ten rankings of other search engines also. For example, if your site is a career site then it is advisable to get good ranking on search engines which are mainly dedicated for job portals like bixee.com in INDIA. This helps quite a lot in improving your search engine ranking.

Copyright (c) 2006 Darren Dunner

Darren Dunner is the author of this article. Find more information on the subject at http://www.the-content-writers.com/

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Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is more a process of logic and common sense than the world of search engine optimization strategy specialists would like us to do believe.

Whilst it has been believed for the longest possible time that we have absolutely no control over the search engines, and that only those with mystical powers can control its ebb and flow, we have in recent times learned that this is in fact not true.

Search engines have exactly the same goals that we as website owners have, and that is to present its users with the most relevant contextual information.

The entire process of search engine optimization is in fact far less about tricking the search engines, but rather actually making a website user-friendly and relevant to people who are looking for what you have to offer.

Search engine optimization as an Internet marketing strategy is in fact just as relevant for getting your website listed in the organic search engine rankings, as it is for pay per click advertising, and other fundamental marketing basics.

The idea behind search engine optimization is that your website should present the information about your products and services in a clearly understandable "highlighted" manner which is obvious to people when they first arrive at your website.

Elements such as heading tags, emphasized text, and clear product or service descriptions is as much point of relevance to the search engines as it is to your visitors.

To completely demystify the whole concept of search engine optimization simply take an objective look at your website, and decide how relevant and easy your content is to identify in relation to your product or service.

Chances are that your website clearly identifies what it is that you're offering, search engine traffic will naturally follow suit. This is not to say that you should abandon all search engine optimization strategies, but rather take a less technical look at your adjectives.

Once you have identified your objectives, you will see that this is no different from the search engines, and so rather than working against the process you can work in tandem with those of the big players such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN to build a sustainable flow of organic search engine traffic.

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Justin Harrison is a Strategic Internet Marketing Consultant to some of the worlds largest internet companies, and specializes in Search Engine Optimization strategy development.

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Google Search Engine

Google is one of the popular search engines online. Millions of users' daily use Google search engines to find relevant information to their search, or to sift through products, online auctions and so on.

Google offers the communities free e-mail accounts, free web pages and various other free items, which draws users to the search engine. At Google, you can also sign up at various programs or visit Usenet, bulletin boards, news boards and so on. Google offers the community frees news, quotes and updates on stocks exchange. Many stockholders visit Google search engines to get quotes, updates in stock exchange, and to read charts. The stockholders have many options at Google, which allows them to buy/sell or trade with fewer risks.

Community boards are available through Google also. Community boards allow users from around the world to market crafts, arts, music, images, software and more. The community can also post information at the boards, find help, and communicate with other users online. Community boards offer great opportunities to users, since it provides them many resources to help them market, stay updated and more. At the boards, users can play games at some areas.

Google also providers Internet users access to millions of open directories. The directories allow webmasters, Internet marketers, Internet businesses and so on invaluable tools that help them to promote their business online.

Webmasters, Internet marketers, Internet businesses can search for incoming, outbound, inbound, or other links of relevancy at Google search engines. The links are often collected to promote business or websites. In addition, Webmasters, Internet marketers, Internet businesses can use open directories to submit articles. This is another way to promote businesses. Most of the open directories offer free listings for articles.

Google has also attracted millions of users worldwide with its innovative Techno Serve. This page allows small businesses options in creating jobs, promote the growth of the economy and develop the new world. The server provides you with business plans, seed capitals and so on to build businesses.

Google created the Google Grants programs also. This program offers business free marketing tools and links them to other resources. Nonprofit businesses if selected can use the sites.

One of the nicer options Google has given to the community is the "Make-a-Wish Foundation." The site opens room for grants to children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. Google also has a foundation to help people find support for disaster, epidemics, armed conflict and so on.

Google also provides the community free game sites. Users can go to the websites to play poker, chess, other card games, board games, pool, or whatever game they enjoy. Most of the games are free to users.

Martin Lukac, represents EnginePromoter.com, http://www.EnginePromoter.com a search engine marketing web-site for search engine optimization and website submission. Promote your website and get top rotating positions on over 250+ search engines, including a niche website submission. EnginePromoter.com also operates http://www.1AmericanFinancial.com and real estate portal http://www.RateEmpire.com

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Search Engine Robots

The Internet has come a long way from its inception back in the 1980’s. Not only has it become a powerful way to market products to the masses, it has had to build some technological muscle to keep up with its ever changing landscape. One such way this has happened is in search engine technology.

Anyone who has used the Internet has invariably used a search engine to find the information they required. And while the use of these portals is easy, the technology behind them is complex. Search engine sites utilize a little helper called a spider, robot or crawler to ensure that the content on a website is valid, up-to-date and worthy of a high placement on a search list.

Robots will revisit a website on a regular basis to see what changes have been made and include them in the search engine data. Sites that are changed frequently will receive visits that are more regular and thereby receive more updates in their search engine listing. A few steps can be taken to keep the robots happy and help your site remain at the top of search engine lists.

First, make sure the content on your site is up-to-date. If a site has remained unchanged for several months or even years, it might be seen as irrelevant material and receive a lower search engine placement. Second, consider the size of and number of hyphens in your URL. If a name has more than two hyphens, it raises suspicions about the content and could be deemed filterable SPAM.

Site redirects are also red flags for the search robots. While sites might need to do this on a temporary basis as they are making updates or modifications to their pages, it is important that these are only used for a very short period of time. Long-term redirects equal a site that is not valid in the mind of the robot. Finally, the more external links to your site, the higher regard it will have. External links build credibility and show that other sites consider you worthy to link up.

Search engine robots are a safeguard that keep us surfing smoothly on the World Wide Web. They ensure that the content we read is up-to-date and relevant. By keep their needs in mind when marketing your website, you will gain higher search engine rankings and higher traffic counts.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

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