Over the years, quite a few clients have told me that search engines hate them. When search engines hate you, your web site is nowhere to be seen in the first 30 search engine result pages and has very low search engine referral traffic. This means that you are losing out on many newsletter subscribers and customers.
When I help my clients fix their relationship with the search engines, I often discover that the underlying problems are very similar. Review the list of typical problems below and see whether your site can use an SEO relationship expert:
- The web site contains too many ads and links to other web sites. Sometimes business owners get overly excited about the multitude of fine products and services on various other sites. In fact, that they want to tell their web site visitors about these products and services. Every single one of them (exactly 1,293 as of 5 pm yesterday).
Resist the temptation. While other web sites may indeed offer excellent resources, your web site should be all about you and your business. You may link to other web sites and products, but do so judiciously. Carefully weave relevant resources into the overall content of each web page.
Having links to a few products and resources that appeal to your target market is fine, but having 30 links on every page is too much.
- The web site has no real content. I have reviewed many solopreneur web sites that consist of just 3-4 pages. These include a Front page, a Newsletter page, an About Us page and a Contact page. Each page contains 5-6 sentences that haven't been changed since the web site was created three years ago.
Search engines like fresh content, and they like content that changes on a regular basis. It is not enough to have a few pages with a few sentences on each page on your web site. You need to add new content and update your web site on a regular basis.
A few ways to update your web site include updating your existing pages with fresh and relevant content, adding keyword-rich articles, and starting a blog on your web site. All of these will generate new content, something that both web site visitors and search engines love.
- The web site has no incoming web site links. Many major search engines evaluate your web site's popularity by counting the number of links that point to your site. The more popular your web site is, the better rankings it gets on search engines. And if your web site has no incoming links, search engines will not consider it a popular web site. Consequently, your search engine rankings will suffer.
You can get incoming links to your web site by syndicating your articles on other web sites and in article directories, by exchanging links with other web sites, and by including a link back to your web site in your signature, when networking online.
Follow the suggestions in this article to get additional search engine traffic to your web site. This will translate into more newsletter subscribers and clients.
About the Author
Get More Search Engine Traffic To Your Web Site! Biana Babinsky is the online business coach, expert and author who can teach you how to get thousands of qualified customers to your web site. Get her Step by Step Search Engine Optimization Special Report at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zseo and get more customers to your web site!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
7 Free Search Engine Resources You Should be Using Now
Ask any business person who's website is at the top of the search engines if his/her site is making money, and the answer is almost always "yes".
An example is Glenn Canady, the author of "Gorilla Marketing" who employed only one of these strategies, and it made him over $1 million dollars.
The fact is, search engines can get you an enormous amount of traffic, and it's traffic to your sites that's free. However, in order to ethically and effectively market in the search engines, you need to use strategies that actually work.
Below are three different ways to effectively, and ethically, raise your rankings in the search engines. I've included seven different resources that you can use that will help you implement these strategies, and do it quickly and easily so that you can begin to see an increase in your traffic almost immediately.
1. Optimize your site.
To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you need to make sure that you are marketing using the right keywords. This means optimizing your site to make sure that the keywords you have on your site are the keywords that your site is actually optimized for.
There are two tools that you can use to help you with search engine optimization:
a. Search Engine Optimization Fast Start Ebook - http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-book.php - will teach you simple and effective techniques for optimmizing your site. This ebook is now in its 4th edition, is completely up to date, and is one of the best ebooks I've seen on search engine optimization.
b. Web CEO - http://www.smallbusinesshowto.com/search-engine-optimization-software.html - This is a complete search engine optimization suite that offers 10 different tools to help you optimize your site for the search engines. It offers the most comprehensive, and step by step, set of instructions I've ever seen with any software package. According to the instructions, you can get started in one hour. The free version of this software will work for most, and it also includes a $97 search engine optimization course as part of the package.
2. Develop a linking strategy.
One factor that influences how well you are ranked in the search engines is linking. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.
For each link that you have pointing back to you, that's another opportunity for your potential customer to find you. With credibility being such a big problem on the internet, to have someone recommend you increases your chance of making the sale.
To help you develop an effective strategy, I recommend that you read "Linking Matters" - http://www.linkingmatters.com/. This ebook shows you how to develop an effective linking strategy for your site, and do it very quickly.
3. Develop a content strategy.
The truth is, "Content is King". Most people online are looking for information. The more information that you provide for your customers, and the more valuable it is, the more likely you will make the sale.
Below are three different ways to develop content for your site.
The first and most effective strategy are articles.
Articles actually work for you in several ways.
a. Brands you as an expert so that customers come to you.
b. Provides valuable content to your potential customers.
c. Builds a relationship between you and your potential customers.
d. Creates a viral marketing strategy for your site.
e. Builds a linking strategy for you every time a webmaster publishes one of your articles.
No other strategy that I have employed has brought me more business than this one.
To find sites that accept articles, go here: http://www.jogena.com. This is one of the sites that I use because it's one of the oldest, and most reputable sites online for finding information on ezines. Unfortunately, there's no search, but everything is done by category, and the information is comprehensive, so you will locate rather quickly what you are looking for.
However, if the thought of writing your own content gives you nightmares, there's a way around this.
You can use public domain information. Public domain information is information that is free to use because it's in the public arena, or the copyright has expired.
To help you easily locate this information, I recommend that you download the public domain toolbar. You can get it at the Public Domain Forum - http://www.publicdomainforum.com/forum. You have to register for an account to get the toolbar, but both the forum account and the toolbar are free. The toolbar is a very comprehensive resource of public domain sources.
The third content strategy you need to consider is blogging.
What a blog does is allows you to create search engine friendly content on your topic of interest. Combine this with an RSS feed, which the search engines love, and you have a winning strategy.
Not only will it help you build content for the search engines, but it can also help you raise your traffic and sales.
Here is a comprehensive ecourse that you can take that will drastically reduce your learning curve, as well as provide you with the resources you need to implement this strategy.
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/blogging-course.htm
Finally, to keep abreast of what's happening with search engines, you need to subscribe to Search Engine Watch - http://www.searchenginewatch.com. This site offers tons of resources, news, and a newsletter on search engine optimization.
Apply one, or all, of these search engine resources to your search engine strategy, and you can expect a major increase in your traffic and sales to your site.
About the Author
Jinger Jarrett is a writer and internet marketer living in Alpharetta, GA. You can get all of her best free internet marketing resources, including freeware to help you market on the forums when you visit her site at http://www.askjinger.com
An example is Glenn Canady, the author of "Gorilla Marketing" who employed only one of these strategies, and it made him over $1 million dollars.
The fact is, search engines can get you an enormous amount of traffic, and it's traffic to your sites that's free. However, in order to ethically and effectively market in the search engines, you need to use strategies that actually work.
Below are three different ways to effectively, and ethically, raise your rankings in the search engines. I've included seven different resources that you can use that will help you implement these strategies, and do it quickly and easily so that you can begin to see an increase in your traffic almost immediately.
1. Optimize your site.
To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you need to make sure that you are marketing using the right keywords. This means optimizing your site to make sure that the keywords you have on your site are the keywords that your site is actually optimized for.
There are two tools that you can use to help you with search engine optimization:
a. Search Engine Optimization Fast Start Ebook - http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-book.php - will teach you simple and effective techniques for optimmizing your site. This ebook is now in its 4th edition, is completely up to date, and is one of the best ebooks I've seen on search engine optimization.
b. Web CEO - http://www.smallbusinesshowto.com/search-engine-optimization-software.html - This is a complete search engine optimization suite that offers 10 different tools to help you optimize your site for the search engines. It offers the most comprehensive, and step by step, set of instructions I've ever seen with any software package. According to the instructions, you can get started in one hour. The free version of this software will work for most, and it also includes a $97 search engine optimization course as part of the package.
2. Develop a linking strategy.
One factor that influences how well you are ranked in the search engines is linking. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.
For each link that you have pointing back to you, that's another opportunity for your potential customer to find you. With credibility being such a big problem on the internet, to have someone recommend you increases your chance of making the sale.
To help you develop an effective strategy, I recommend that you read "Linking Matters" - http://www.linkingmatters.com/. This ebook shows you how to develop an effective linking strategy for your site, and do it very quickly.
3. Develop a content strategy.
The truth is, "Content is King". Most people online are looking for information. The more information that you provide for your customers, and the more valuable it is, the more likely you will make the sale.
Below are three different ways to develop content for your site.
The first and most effective strategy are articles.
Articles actually work for you in several ways.
a. Brands you as an expert so that customers come to you.
b. Provides valuable content to your potential customers.
c. Builds a relationship between you and your potential customers.
d. Creates a viral marketing strategy for your site.
e. Builds a linking strategy for you every time a webmaster publishes one of your articles.
No other strategy that I have employed has brought me more business than this one.
To find sites that accept articles, go here: http://www.jogena.com. This is one of the sites that I use because it's one of the oldest, and most reputable sites online for finding information on ezines. Unfortunately, there's no search, but everything is done by category, and the information is comprehensive, so you will locate rather quickly what you are looking for.
However, if the thought of writing your own content gives you nightmares, there's a way around this.
You can use public domain information. Public domain information is information that is free to use because it's in the public arena, or the copyright has expired.
To help you easily locate this information, I recommend that you download the public domain toolbar. You can get it at the Public Domain Forum - http://www.publicdomainforum.com/forum. You have to register for an account to get the toolbar, but both the forum account and the toolbar are free. The toolbar is a very comprehensive resource of public domain sources.
The third content strategy you need to consider is blogging.
What a blog does is allows you to create search engine friendly content on your topic of interest. Combine this with an RSS feed, which the search engines love, and you have a winning strategy.
Not only will it help you build content for the search engines, but it can also help you raise your traffic and sales.
Here is a comprehensive ecourse that you can take that will drastically reduce your learning curve, as well as provide you with the resources you need to implement this strategy.
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/blogging-course.htm
Finally, to keep abreast of what's happening with search engines, you need to subscribe to Search Engine Watch - http://www.searchenginewatch.com. This site offers tons of resources, news, and a newsletter on search engine optimization.
Apply one, or all, of these search engine resources to your search engine strategy, and you can expect a major increase in your traffic and sales to your site.
About the Author
Jinger Jarrett is a writer and internet marketer living in Alpharetta, GA. You can get all of her best free internet marketing resources, including freeware to help you market on the forums when you visit her site at http://www.askjinger.com
Why Your Website's Search Engine Rankings Are Important
I recently spoke to someone who operates a website that sells motorcycle parts and asked her how good her search engine ranking is. She told me that search engine ranking is not a concern for her because she operates a very niche market and that those who are actively seeking the parts that she sells "know where to look". She seems quite content with the number of visitors that she is getting to her site and the amount of sales that she is making each month. I attempted to explain to her that she could dramatically improve her website ranking and thus her sales if she were to employ some keyword optimized articles, like those we create for our clients, to improve her search engine ranking results. She did not seem to care about this and did not want to spend any money on getting keyword articles to improve her search engine ranking because again, those that are seeking what she sells "know where to look."
If the above true story sounds like a conversation that you might have with a person like myself, then there are a number of things that you need to reconsider. Let's review my conversation mentioned above to show the importance of search engine rankings.
First of all, she is convinced that the people seeking her product can find her website. This may be true if the customer spends a great deal of time surfing through multiple sites and has a monumental amount of patience. It is true that word of mouth probably does send her the majority of her customer base and this is fine if she does not want any more customers. Her search engine ranking is so far down on the list that for all practical purposes, her website does not exist to those who type, "motorcycle parts" into google or yahoo. I encouraged her to think about the lack of patience that she has when searching for things on the Internet and how that transfers to those searching for her products. I am just as guilty as anyone in this, if I am searching for something on the Internet, I will likely stop reading the 400,000 results after about the first 20-30 websites. If the item I am looking for is not in those first 20-30 results, I will most often type in a different search phrase such as "motorcycle accessories" vs. "motorcycle parts". This concept was lost on her as well.
This is another area where keyword articles come into play to improve search engine rankings. What EXACTLY does a person type into the search engines when looking for her motorcycle parts? One person will type in "motorcycle parts" while another types in "motorcycle accessories" and a third person may type in "motorbike parts" and a fourth types in "motorbike accessories". A fifth person might even type in "motorcycle carburetors", with or without the "s" on the end of "carburetor." Basically, there needs to be an article for each of these five terms to help direct search engine traffic to her site so that no matter what the potential customer types into the search engine, they are directed to her website. This concept was lost on her too.
The third idea that she did not consider was the basic financial concept of return on investment (ROI). Return on investment simply means that if you spend $100 on marketing and as a result of this investment, you increase profits by $1,000 then you would have a 900% ROI. This percentage is calculated after subtracting the initial $100 spent on the marketing campaign, then dividing the remnant by the $100 invested, and finally multiplying your result by 100 to get your ROI value.
{ROI = [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100}
So, would you like to make $900 by spending $100? I would. The woman that I spoke to failed to realize the potential return on her investment, because she did not want to invest her cash on hand into the future of her business. Most successful website operators have realized the importance of marketing and search engine rankings. They know that they need to be listed in the top 20-30 results if they want to get the clicks, and they know that keyword optimized articles help them to achieve these high rankings.
Decide where you want your website to be located in the search engine rankings. Do you want to make "some" money like the woman in my true story? Or, do you want to dramatically exceed your current profit margins by increasing your website traffic? Just as it was with her, it is up to you to decide if you want to make ends meet with your online business or if you want to really make some money by investing in your marketing.
About the Author
Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html
If the above true story sounds like a conversation that you might have with a person like myself, then there are a number of things that you need to reconsider. Let's review my conversation mentioned above to show the importance of search engine rankings.
First of all, she is convinced that the people seeking her product can find her website. This may be true if the customer spends a great deal of time surfing through multiple sites and has a monumental amount of patience. It is true that word of mouth probably does send her the majority of her customer base and this is fine if she does not want any more customers. Her search engine ranking is so far down on the list that for all practical purposes, her website does not exist to those who type, "motorcycle parts" into google or yahoo. I encouraged her to think about the lack of patience that she has when searching for things on the Internet and how that transfers to those searching for her products. I am just as guilty as anyone in this, if I am searching for something on the Internet, I will likely stop reading the 400,000 results after about the first 20-30 websites. If the item I am looking for is not in those first 20-30 results, I will most often type in a different search phrase such as "motorcycle accessories" vs. "motorcycle parts". This concept was lost on her as well.
This is another area where keyword articles come into play to improve search engine rankings. What EXACTLY does a person type into the search engines when looking for her motorcycle parts? One person will type in "motorcycle parts" while another types in "motorcycle accessories" and a third person may type in "motorbike parts" and a fourth types in "motorbike accessories". A fifth person might even type in "motorcycle carburetors", with or without the "s" on the end of "carburetor." Basically, there needs to be an article for each of these five terms to help direct search engine traffic to her site so that no matter what the potential customer types into the search engine, they are directed to her website. This concept was lost on her too.
The third idea that she did not consider was the basic financial concept of return on investment (ROI). Return on investment simply means that if you spend $100 on marketing and as a result of this investment, you increase profits by $1,000 then you would have a 900% ROI. This percentage is calculated after subtracting the initial $100 spent on the marketing campaign, then dividing the remnant by the $100 invested, and finally multiplying your result by 100 to get your ROI value.
{ROI = [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100}
So, would you like to make $900 by spending $100? I would. The woman that I spoke to failed to realize the potential return on her investment, because she did not want to invest her cash on hand into the future of her business. Most successful website operators have realized the importance of marketing and search engine rankings. They know that they need to be listed in the top 20-30 results if they want to get the clicks, and they know that keyword optimized articles help them to achieve these high rankings.
Decide where you want your website to be located in the search engine rankings. Do you want to make "some" money like the woman in my true story? Or, do you want to dramatically exceed your current profit margins by increasing your website traffic? Just as it was with her, it is up to you to decide if you want to make ends meet with your online business or if you want to really make some money by investing in your marketing.
About the Author
Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html
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