Last week I discussed the best tactics for achieving rankings in Yahoo, the web’s number 2 most popular search engine. Now it is time to pick on the third most used search property – MSN, which has 6.6% of the search market (src: Hitwise) and is currently found at www.live.com. MSN’s ranking algorithm has its own nuances which will be noted in this article but in many cases the rules of optimization may be the same as Yahoo’s in which case I will occasionally duplicate information from my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article or source it for more information.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION
Except for the following elements, optimizing for MSN is identical to optimizing for Yahoo.
Fresh Content is King: I suppose technically this is not an element of ‘optimization’, however, this article would not be worth its salt if I didn’t express how highly MSN regards fresh content. If your site is in a competitive marketplace and you are finding it difficult to get a leg up on your competitors in MSN then write original content in order to build up your site and reputation. MSN appears to elevate websites that regularly update their content and a blog is a great way to post this content for others to read and favour you with links. If you would like some information on how to get a blog up and running from start to finish then I suggest reading Blogs 101.
Themed structure: this topic is identical to that of my Yahoo article, however, it is vital enough to mention it again. Construct your website using a themed structure where core site topics (themes) have their own unique section of the website to themselves. When the search engine spiders index the content within this section they will be given absolute clarity as to what the section is about. For more information see the example within the Yahoo Optimization article.
Basic optimization principles hold true: take out your SEO basics handbook and follow the rules when optimizing fo
r MSN and you have done the best you can. Specifically focus on inline links (links to pages within sentences) and the use of heading tags to fortify rankings at MSN.
Navigation: pages with text navigation which lends itself to simpler and more relevant indexing are performing well.
WEB SITE SUBMISSION
Unlike Google and Yahoo, MSN does not yet have a fully operational Webmaster Central for webmasters to submit sitemaps and to acquire insight into their website profile on MSN; it is currently in private beta so it is not available yet. That said I feel that submitting a website sitemap is extremely important. Fortunately there are two known ways to get your sitemap submitted to MSN:
Option 1) The best method for submitting your sitemap is by adding a sitemap reference in your Robots.txt file using the following format:
Sitemap: http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
Option 2) A back-door strategy can be used to submit your sitemap to MSN through the news aggregation service called Moreover. To submit your sitemap substitute the bolded text with your own information in the following URL:
http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
LINK BUILDING
MSN places a great deal of weight on incoming links and does not appear to apply as many filters to the links that Google or Yahoo do. As a result, ethical or not, many link building strategies such as reciprocal link building and paid links appear to pay dividends.
It is also noteworthy that MSN’s spider is very active so any incoming links that you receive will often be spidered within a week. Furthermore, MSN’s link filtering systems are not as bogged down as the other search engines (less traffic perhaps?) so incoming links appear to affect rankings faster which tends to help when tweaking a campaign and measuring the value of links.
CONCLUSION
As you can see there is little to report on the intricacies of optimizing for MSN because, quite frankly, MSN is fairly predictable and by the book; write good original content, optimize it well using the techniques outlined in the Yahoo optimization tutorial and ensure to submit your sitemap to MSN. If you combine those elements with a solid link building campaign then you are sure to move into a ranking where you can continue to tweak your optimization until you reach the top
http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1716/1/How-to-Optimize-for-MSN/Page1.html
Monday, October 8, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Website Promotion On A Tight Budget!
Website Promotion On A Tight Budget! by Denny Karas
Nowadays, website promotion can be a daunting, time consuming and quite expensive affair. What can the average webmaster do to get targeted traffic to their site without having to go broke? Well, if the answer was so evident we would all be considered webmaster "Gurus"! Before you embark on any website promotion campaign you need to be clear on what you are selling or offering as a service.Start by having a clear vision of the type of visitor you wish to attract to your site because these visitors are your potential customers and you only get 1 chance to impress them. In the website promotion game quality traffic is the key to your success. Therefore, you need to stay away from autosurf and manual traffic exchanges. All you will do is waste your time by clicking or leaving your computer running in order to get visitors to your site who are completely worthless. Yes, you will notice that your stat counter will be on fire but how many of those visitors will be actualy interested in your website! Most probably a very small percentage. No need to get discouraged because there are ways of being able to attract targeted traffic to your site and staying on budget.Before you get out that credit card, let's understand a bit more where website traffic originates from. Close to 70% of all traffic worldwide comes from search engines, with the most popular being Google ( of course), Yahoo, Msn and many others. Therefore, you need to get search engine traffic to your site in order to have any sort of success online. That is the plain truth!!! You need to remember that an online business is just like any other business venture, if you don't advertise the right way you are destined to fail. Ok, how do we go about getting targeted search engine traffic to your site. Well, below we will look at the 2 most effective methods any webmaster can apply at the moment.1) PPC ( Pay per click) You begin by setting up an advertising campaign by briefly describing what your site is all about. There will be a link on this ad linking to your website. You will be asked to deposit money in order to get your campaign off the ground, in most cases by credit card. I suggest that you begin with $20.00. At the beginning you need to start slow and then when you get the hang of it you can start using a larger budget. Now comes the most important part. How to choose your keywords or keyword phrases in order to get the right visitor to your site. For example, if you're selling jewelry you don't want someone that is looking to buy an airline ticket stumbling on your site. By using the example before, you can use "cheap jewelry" or "cheap diamonds" as possible keywors.Basically, your keywords need to match the content of your site and that is the key to getting targeted traffic. To see which keyword phrases are popular I suggest you visit www.overture.com (Yahoo) and use their keyword search tool online. When you type in a keyword or keyword phrase you will be able to see how many searches were done the previous month. This will give you a better idea as to which keywords you should choose. Ok, you have your keywords what next? When you choose your keywords with the various PPC providers (displayed below), you will notice a bid amount attached to each keyword. The bid amount tells you how much you need spend per click in order to be in the top position for that specific keyword. You can bid a bit lower of course but you need to keep in mind that if your ad appears in the 1st page of the specific search, then you're likely to receive more traffic. You need to calculate your budget wisely in accordance to your keywords. Some keywords might cost $0.15 and others $2.00. Therefore, calculate how much each click will cost and choose wisely.Most PPC providers offer assistance throughout the advertising set-up process. Below I have compiled a list of a few PPC providers. I suggest you begin the lesser known of the group and when you feel more comfortable move up to the top ones. - adwords.google.com - overture.com - adcenter.microsoft.com (recommended and offer a sign up bonus) - mamma.com - clicksor. com - goclick.com (recommended and offer a sign up bonus) - adbrite.com2) Paid Inclusion The paid inclusion concept is similar to PPC, whereas you set up an advertising campaign and you choose the keywords to match your site content but with a twist. Instead of having to bid for keywords and paying a per click fee as mentioned above, you pay a flat fee for 1 keyword and you have your ad displayed for a few months or 1 whole year depending on how much you're willing to pay. Obviously, this is much more cost effective than PPC but you will receive less traffic because this type of service does not place your ad on the msot popular search engines like Google or Yahoo. However, it doesn't mean that you will not be receiving targeted traffic. Of course, you can choose to pay for more than 1 keyword and have your chances of getting more traffic increased. Normally, 1 keyword will cost anywhere from $12.00-$15.00 for 3 months and $30.00-$50.00 for 1 year. One thing is for sure this type of service helps those with a very tight budget. The most popular of the paid inclusion companies is www.exactseek.com and I highly recommend them as I've being using their services for a few years now.If all this seems very confusing you can always try using the services of SEO professionals. They can help you with your PPC and paid inclusion campaigns. They normally charge a small fee but at least you will have experts assisting you at all times. My recommendation is www.engineseeker.com.Best of luck to all!!
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Website-Promotion-On-A-Tight-Budget---/32696
Nowadays, website promotion can be a daunting, time consuming and quite expensive affair. What can the average webmaster do to get targeted traffic to their site without having to go broke? Well, if the answer was so evident we would all be considered webmaster "Gurus"! Before you embark on any website promotion campaign you need to be clear on what you are selling or offering as a service.Start by having a clear vision of the type of visitor you wish to attract to your site because these visitors are your potential customers and you only get 1 chance to impress them. In the website promotion game quality traffic is the key to your success. Therefore, you need to stay away from autosurf and manual traffic exchanges. All you will do is waste your time by clicking or leaving your computer running in order to get visitors to your site who are completely worthless. Yes, you will notice that your stat counter will be on fire but how many of those visitors will be actualy interested in your website! Most probably a very small percentage. No need to get discouraged because there are ways of being able to attract targeted traffic to your site and staying on budget.Before you get out that credit card, let's understand a bit more where website traffic originates from. Close to 70% of all traffic worldwide comes from search engines, with the most popular being Google ( of course), Yahoo, Msn and many others. Therefore, you need to get search engine traffic to your site in order to have any sort of success online. That is the plain truth!!! You need to remember that an online business is just like any other business venture, if you don't advertise the right way you are destined to fail. Ok, how do we go about getting targeted search engine traffic to your site. Well, below we will look at the 2 most effective methods any webmaster can apply at the moment.1) PPC ( Pay per click) You begin by setting up an advertising campaign by briefly describing what your site is all about. There will be a link on this ad linking to your website. You will be asked to deposit money in order to get your campaign off the ground, in most cases by credit card. I suggest that you begin with $20.00. At the beginning you need to start slow and then when you get the hang of it you can start using a larger budget. Now comes the most important part. How to choose your keywords or keyword phrases in order to get the right visitor to your site. For example, if you're selling jewelry you don't want someone that is looking to buy an airline ticket stumbling on your site. By using the example before, you can use "cheap jewelry" or "cheap diamonds" as possible keywors.Basically, your keywords need to match the content of your site and that is the key to getting targeted traffic. To see which keyword phrases are popular I suggest you visit www.overture.com (Yahoo) and use their keyword search tool online. When you type in a keyword or keyword phrase you will be able to see how many searches were done the previous month. This will give you a better idea as to which keywords you should choose. Ok, you have your keywords what next? When you choose your keywords with the various PPC providers (displayed below), you will notice a bid amount attached to each keyword. The bid amount tells you how much you need spend per click in order to be in the top position for that specific keyword. You can bid a bit lower of course but you need to keep in mind that if your ad appears in the 1st page of the specific search, then you're likely to receive more traffic. You need to calculate your budget wisely in accordance to your keywords. Some keywords might cost $0.15 and others $2.00. Therefore, calculate how much each click will cost and choose wisely.Most PPC providers offer assistance throughout the advertising set-up process. Below I have compiled a list of a few PPC providers. I suggest you begin the lesser known of the group and when you feel more comfortable move up to the top ones. - adwords.google.com - overture.com - adcenter.microsoft.com (recommended and offer a sign up bonus) - mamma.com - clicksor. com - goclick.com (recommended and offer a sign up bonus) - adbrite.com2) Paid Inclusion The paid inclusion concept is similar to PPC, whereas you set up an advertising campaign and you choose the keywords to match your site content but with a twist. Instead of having to bid for keywords and paying a per click fee as mentioned above, you pay a flat fee for 1 keyword and you have your ad displayed for a few months or 1 whole year depending on how much you're willing to pay. Obviously, this is much more cost effective than PPC but you will receive less traffic because this type of service does not place your ad on the msot popular search engines like Google or Yahoo. However, it doesn't mean that you will not be receiving targeted traffic. Of course, you can choose to pay for more than 1 keyword and have your chances of getting more traffic increased. Normally, 1 keyword will cost anywhere from $12.00-$15.00 for 3 months and $30.00-$50.00 for 1 year. One thing is for sure this type of service helps those with a very tight budget. The most popular of the paid inclusion companies is www.exactseek.com and I highly recommend them as I've being using their services for a few years now.If all this seems very confusing you can always try using the services of SEO professionals. They can help you with your PPC and paid inclusion campaigns. They normally charge a small fee but at least you will have experts assisting you at all times. My recommendation is www.engineseeker.com.Best of luck to all!!
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Website-Promotion-On-A-Tight-Budget---/32696
Wezp Web Directory Services – great service and good value for money!
Having your website listed in a web directory could bring in more visibility, more traffic and enhanced sales. Even though search engines have taken over the world of websites, web directories still serve as powerful media to get your website indexed.
One such web directory is Wezp. It is comprehensive and holistic, covering a range of topics. So if you’re an entrepreneur who wishes to place his company on the Internet radar, you can get your organization listed in their Business Directory section. No matter how niche your vertical you will find almost everything under the sun in Wezp. From categories like accounting, Arts and Entertainment, hardware, machinery and even work at home – you can certainly find a suitable category for your own website.
Submission to Wezp Web directory is extremely easy. The best thing about it is that it is SEO friendly, which means, as soon as you submit your website to their directory, your site will get picked up by popular search engines like google,yahoo. You can then watch the traffic flow in to your site! Especially if your website deals with shopping, you will find great value in posting your website in their web directory. Their Shopping Directory section lists down everything from computers and electronic gadgets to even clothing. So you’ll never miss customers coming to your website!
One of the great things about Wezp is that you can have targeted keywords that describe your website the best. This is usually not possible in traditional search engines, because most of the common keywords are already taken away. Submitting your website to a web directory such as theirs will serve to place your website at a much better page ranking on search engines. You can view the latest websites that have been posted on their directory, along with the page ranking for each. Thus you can constantly monitor the relative search engine friendliness your site has achieved. For every website submitted that enjoys good page ranking, Wezp Web directory provides details on the number of indexed pages, the backlinks as well as the page ranking the site enjoys.
If you are a Travel Agency or someone that deals with travel, you can list your website in Travel Directory. With categories ranging from Airlines, Holidays, Hotels as well as Weather and Travel Guides, you can find a suitable niche to list your site in. Visit them for more details at: http://www.wezp.com.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Wezp-Web-Directory-Services---great-service-and-good-value-for-money-/32792
One such web directory is Wezp. It is comprehensive and holistic, covering a range of topics. So if you’re an entrepreneur who wishes to place his company on the Internet radar, you can get your organization listed in their Business Directory section. No matter how niche your vertical you will find almost everything under the sun in Wezp. From categories like accounting, Arts and Entertainment, hardware, machinery and even work at home – you can certainly find a suitable category for your own website.
Submission to Wezp Web directory is extremely easy. The best thing about it is that it is SEO friendly, which means, as soon as you submit your website to their directory, your site will get picked up by popular search engines like google,yahoo. You can then watch the traffic flow in to your site! Especially if your website deals with shopping, you will find great value in posting your website in their web directory. Their Shopping Directory section lists down everything from computers and electronic gadgets to even clothing. So you’ll never miss customers coming to your website!
One of the great things about Wezp is that you can have targeted keywords that describe your website the best. This is usually not possible in traditional search engines, because most of the common keywords are already taken away. Submitting your website to a web directory such as theirs will serve to place your website at a much better page ranking on search engines. You can view the latest websites that have been posted on their directory, along with the page ranking for each. Thus you can constantly monitor the relative search engine friendliness your site has achieved. For every website submitted that enjoys good page ranking, Wezp Web directory provides details on the number of indexed pages, the backlinks as well as the page ranking the site enjoys.
If you are a Travel Agency or someone that deals with travel, you can list your website in Travel Directory. With categories ranging from Airlines, Holidays, Hotels as well as Weather and Travel Guides, you can find a suitable niche to list your site in. Visit them for more details at: http://www.wezp.com.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Wezp-Web-Directory-Services---great-service-and-good-value-for-money-/32792
Hiring An SEO Company Versus In-House SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is very much a buzz phrase. Often companies looking to learn more about what SEO are baffled at how this new field of marketing can gain them an edge. Well it has been proven time and time again that it definitely can gain an edge over your competition. The problem a business has to assess is whether they should employ a specialist SEO Company or use existing resources within their respective IT Departments or Do It Yourself. This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of each.
In-house & Do It Yourself
Advantages: You have complete control. You can change things instantly. You will learn about the inner working of your website and also learn more about the Internet and how search engines work.
Disadvantages: It is a specialized field and attempting to do it delays the inevitable and allows your competition to gain an edge on you; also you may end up with more problems in the future by getting it wrong. You will need to have an intimate knowledge of your website, how it works, HTML and possibly any scripting languages that the website uses, like PHP. Also, you will need to buy some commercial tools to use, like WordTracker, WebPosition and SEO Elite. WordTracker allows you to effectively research Keywords, WebPosition allows you to track your websites ranking in the search results for given keyword phrases and SEO Elite allows you to track all links to your website. Purchasing these three necessary pieces of software will cost you around USD$900. Also, you will need to have a lot of time to read about SEO, take online courses, like StomperNet, listen to podcasts, like MrSEO podcast and read as much SEO material as you possibly can. For the StomperNet course you are looking at about USD$3000 and miscellaneous of books is likely to run up to another USD$1000. Total for In-house DIY, roughly USD$1500 to USD$4900. Not being experienced enough to know when and what to change. Not knowing how to link build effectively. Not having any time to study and learn enough to make the correct changes and modifications to your website - estimated at about 200 hours of study, learning and analyzing. As SEO takes time to see any results in the search engines it is important to not only learn the required knowledge to implement SEO but also give yourself the time to make tweaks and ongoing analysis. So to setup and configure an average website with 10 static pages it will take you probably 2 days and ongoing link building will be many, many countless days. Also, you need to take your time so that you do not overdo your SEO, spamming and stuffing keywords into pages as this can be as detrimental as not doing anything to the website in the first place.
Hiring an SEO Company
Advantages : You don’t have to use internal staff resources or alter the focus of your business. Hiring a specialized online marketing and SEO Company will mean you have instant access to experts in the field who have a wealth of knowledge and resources. An SEO Company will know the lay of the land without you having to learn what they already know to expert levels. The Online Marketing Company will be your best partner in working towards achieving your online Internet marketing objectives.
Disadvantages: Using an Expert SEO Company will cost you money. It is important to realize that even though you have hired a firm to implement your Search Engine Optimisation you will still need to work in consultation with them in order to market your website online correctly - explaining your internet marketing goals, objectives, deadlines and budgets. Do your research, look at the SEO Firm and its portfolio, case studies and history of successes, ensure it is a reputable firm and don't be scared to ask questions.
What to Look for in an SEO Company
A decent and reliable SEO company will have a good reputation and a strong presence within the Online Marketing and SEO industry. When you start, I suggest searching in Google for "Online Marketing" or "SEO" within your country or region. Look at the potential SEO firm’s websites, their portfolios and take some notes. Give them a call and see if you can arrange a meeting at their office and in person to discuss details and gather more information. Discuss your situation and how you can best achieve your goals. Take note of their professional nature, their history, case studies and vision for your online presence and also ensure that you are happy with the professional and personal relationship you have with the company representatives as this will be an ongoing one.
While the advantages and disadvantages of optimizing your own website and employing an SEO Company are diverse I think it important to point out that no matter how good you think you are an SEO firm will always be better at SEO. So if you really want to see results, you have very little time then hiring an SEO company is the only way to go. If you have time and some website expertise then you may be willing to put in the time and try doing it yourself. My only thought on this is that you wouldn't hire a plumber to fix a problem with your car.
When all is said and done, good Search Engine Optimisation will get your website results. It is important to make sure you are making the right decisions in your online marketing as this may well be the lifeblood of your business and is certainly an effective way to promote your business and generate sales leads.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Hiring-An-SEO-Company-Versus-In-House-SEO/33014
In-house & Do It Yourself
Advantages: You have complete control. You can change things instantly. You will learn about the inner working of your website and also learn more about the Internet and how search engines work.
Disadvantages: It is a specialized field and attempting to do it delays the inevitable and allows your competition to gain an edge on you; also you may end up with more problems in the future by getting it wrong. You will need to have an intimate knowledge of your website, how it works, HTML and possibly any scripting languages that the website uses, like PHP. Also, you will need to buy some commercial tools to use, like WordTracker, WebPosition and SEO Elite. WordTracker allows you to effectively research Keywords, WebPosition allows you to track your websites ranking in the search results for given keyword phrases and SEO Elite allows you to track all links to your website. Purchasing these three necessary pieces of software will cost you around USD$900. Also, you will need to have a lot of time to read about SEO, take online courses, like StomperNet, listen to podcasts, like MrSEO podcast and read as much SEO material as you possibly can. For the StomperNet course you are looking at about USD$3000 and miscellaneous of books is likely to run up to another USD$1000. Total for In-house DIY, roughly USD$1500 to USD$4900. Not being experienced enough to know when and what to change. Not knowing how to link build effectively. Not having any time to study and learn enough to make the correct changes and modifications to your website - estimated at about 200 hours of study, learning and analyzing. As SEO takes time to see any results in the search engines it is important to not only learn the required knowledge to implement SEO but also give yourself the time to make tweaks and ongoing analysis. So to setup and configure an average website with 10 static pages it will take you probably 2 days and ongoing link building will be many, many countless days. Also, you need to take your time so that you do not overdo your SEO, spamming and stuffing keywords into pages as this can be as detrimental as not doing anything to the website in the first place.
Hiring an SEO Company
Advantages : You don’t have to use internal staff resources or alter the focus of your business. Hiring a specialized online marketing and SEO Company will mean you have instant access to experts in the field who have a wealth of knowledge and resources. An SEO Company will know the lay of the land without you having to learn what they already know to expert levels. The Online Marketing Company will be your best partner in working towards achieving your online Internet marketing objectives.
Disadvantages: Using an Expert SEO Company will cost you money. It is important to realize that even though you have hired a firm to implement your Search Engine Optimisation you will still need to work in consultation with them in order to market your website online correctly - explaining your internet marketing goals, objectives, deadlines and budgets. Do your research, look at the SEO Firm and its portfolio, case studies and history of successes, ensure it is a reputable firm and don't be scared to ask questions.
What to Look for in an SEO Company
A decent and reliable SEO company will have a good reputation and a strong presence within the Online Marketing and SEO industry. When you start, I suggest searching in Google for "Online Marketing" or "SEO" within your country or region. Look at the potential SEO firm’s websites, their portfolios and take some notes. Give them a call and see if you can arrange a meeting at their office and in person to discuss details and gather more information. Discuss your situation and how you can best achieve your goals. Take note of their professional nature, their history, case studies and vision for your online presence and also ensure that you are happy with the professional and personal relationship you have with the company representatives as this will be an ongoing one.
While the advantages and disadvantages of optimizing your own website and employing an SEO Company are diverse I think it important to point out that no matter how good you think you are an SEO firm will always be better at SEO. So if you really want to see results, you have very little time then hiring an SEO company is the only way to go. If you have time and some website expertise then you may be willing to put in the time and try doing it yourself. My only thought on this is that you wouldn't hire a plumber to fix a problem with your car.
When all is said and done, good Search Engine Optimisation will get your website results. It is important to make sure you are making the right decisions in your online marketing as this may well be the lifeblood of your business and is certainly an effective way to promote your business and generate sales leads.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Hiring-An-SEO-Company-Versus-In-House-SEO/33014
SEO Guide to Choosing A Good Title For Your Homepage
If you have read anything about Search Engine Optimisation then you will already know how vital having a good and unique title on your web pages can be. It is by far the most heavily weighted element on your web page and overall your home page is given the greatest weighting so it is even more important to choose a very good title for your website homepage. In this article we explore how to choose a good title using SEO techniques to identify relevant keywords and phrases and how to string them together to form the best title possible.
What we are trying to achieve in this article is finding a title that describes the overall theme of the website, incorporates your main product or services and also is able to sell in a few short words; as this will be seen as the title in the search engine results pages. From an online marketing view point it is also important to consider company and product branding; it may be important to include the brand in the title of the page also. From a pure SEO perspective it is more important to have the product or service present as this what is more relevant to the search a person would do in a search engine.
Okay let’s consider how we identify keywords and phrases that are the most relevant to your product or service.
For these next tasks I always have a couple of firefox windows open and also a spreadsheet.
1. Open "Overture Inventory" keyword volume checker website in a browser. Type in the product or service and push enter. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
2. Open "WordTracker" website in a browser, and either using the free trial or account, login to the website. Using the WordTracker wizard tool type in the same product or service you typed in step 1. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
3. Open "Google Adwords" website in a browser. Locate tools->keyword tool and enter the same keyword we used in the previous 2 steps. Check the "Use synonyms" checkbox. Copy the results into selected keywords and click on the "Estimate Search Traffic" button. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
4. Looking at the spreadsheet and we have three separate sections of data. Now go through each of the sets of data and weed out any unrelated phrases or phrases by deleting them.
5. Now sort the three sections by their individual search volume. Looking down through each of the lists, highlight the terms that are the most relevant and have the highest search volume. Aim to finish each list with about 10 keyword phrases.
6. Using the lists of keyword Phrases we are now going to start forming a sentence. We are aiming to have 4-11 word title. If the title is shorter then more relevance and weight is placed on the words contained within it. If it is longer then as we progress to the right less and less weight is given to each word so it is important to put your most important keywords to the left of the title.
Google also uses "spanning" on titles. Spanning is where words within a string can be skipped but are still considered relevant because the remaining words tie in with the search query. It is important to understand this technique before we begin. For example, the title on a webpage is "Web Site Design Melbourne", someone searches in Google on "Web Design Melbourne" and the website would come up in the results because Google skipped the word "Site" in the title and still recognized that the web page was relevant to what was searched on. Using the leftward rule and spanning were looking to piece together a title that covers off as many of the possible high search volume terms as possible while keeping the title short and relevant.
So, after step 6 you should have formed a title. Implement it on your website and monitor how your website ranks for those keyword phrase terms. Keep track of this and it can be helpful when you are learning to experiment, move words around, reconstruct, shorten, lengthen, mix it up a bit and see how it all works. It is important to wait a long enough period of time between changes to ensure you are seeing some kind of reaction, otherwise you could be constantly making changes and not know whether it was the most recent change or the last one. Be patient, learn and track your websites rankings for keyword terms.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/SEO-Guide-to-Choosing-A-Good-Title-For-Your-Homepage/33020
What we are trying to achieve in this article is finding a title that describes the overall theme of the website, incorporates your main product or services and also is able to sell in a few short words; as this will be seen as the title in the search engine results pages. From an online marketing view point it is also important to consider company and product branding; it may be important to include the brand in the title of the page also. From a pure SEO perspective it is more important to have the product or service present as this what is more relevant to the search a person would do in a search engine.
Okay let’s consider how we identify keywords and phrases that are the most relevant to your product or service.
For these next tasks I always have a couple of firefox windows open and also a spreadsheet.
1. Open "Overture Inventory" keyword volume checker website in a browser. Type in the product or service and push enter. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
2. Open "WordTracker" website in a browser, and either using the free trial or account, login to the website. Using the WordTracker wizard tool type in the same product or service you typed in step 1. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
3. Open "Google Adwords" website in a browser. Locate tools->keyword tool and enter the same keyword we used in the previous 2 steps. Check the "Use synonyms" checkbox. Copy the results into selected keywords and click on the "Estimate Search Traffic" button. Copy the results into the spreadsheet.
4. Looking at the spreadsheet and we have three separate sections of data. Now go through each of the sets of data and weed out any unrelated phrases or phrases by deleting them.
5. Now sort the three sections by their individual search volume. Looking down through each of the lists, highlight the terms that are the most relevant and have the highest search volume. Aim to finish each list with about 10 keyword phrases.
6. Using the lists of keyword Phrases we are now going to start forming a sentence. We are aiming to have 4-11 word title. If the title is shorter then more relevance and weight is placed on the words contained within it. If it is longer then as we progress to the right less and less weight is given to each word so it is important to put your most important keywords to the left of the title.
Google also uses "spanning" on titles. Spanning is where words within a string can be skipped but are still considered relevant because the remaining words tie in with the search query. It is important to understand this technique before we begin. For example, the title on a webpage is "Web Site Design Melbourne", someone searches in Google on "Web Design Melbourne" and the website would come up in the results because Google skipped the word "Site" in the title and still recognized that the web page was relevant to what was searched on. Using the leftward rule and spanning were looking to piece together a title that covers off as many of the possible high search volume terms as possible while keeping the title short and relevant.
So, after step 6 you should have formed a title. Implement it on your website and monitor how your website ranks for those keyword phrase terms. Keep track of this and it can be helpful when you are learning to experiment, move words around, reconstruct, shorten, lengthen, mix it up a bit and see how it all works. It is important to wait a long enough period of time between changes to ensure you are seeing some kind of reaction, otherwise you could be constantly making changes and not know whether it was the most recent change or the last one. Be patient, learn and track your websites rankings for keyword terms.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/SEO-Guide-to-Choosing-A-Good-Title-For-Your-Homepage/33020
How to use a Free Url redirect service to enhance your web site/blog reach
If your website has a long URL (web address) as a result of being hosted on a free web host, these free services provide you with either a free subdomain name or at least a shorter URL that you can publicize on your website. When visitors enter that shorter URL, they will be redirected to your actual website. Unless specified otherwise here, you may assume that the free services impose some sort of advertising on your site, whether a popup window, banner frame, text link requirement, or otherwise. Note also that some of the services listed below provide DNS services as well, and allow the subdomain name you sign up for to be directed to an IP address.
In general, URL redirection services are meant for people who host on free web hosts or on their own ISPs. Where possible, particularly if you want a permanent URL for your site that does not disappear, you should get your own domain name. It's so cheap that, unless you have no income at all, you can even get one for your personal web site, etc. You may also want to read my article Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name. A step by step guide can be found in the article How to Register Your Own Domain Name.
Explanation of Some Terms Used in URL Forwarding
"Path forwarding" means that if your visitor enters a filename together with the shorter URL (like www.whatever.com/somename.html) they will be redirected correctly to the somename.html on your actual URL. This is not automatic for all free web redirection services.
"URL Cloaking", "Stealth / Cloaked URLs" or "Masked URLs" means that your visitors will not see your actual web address (URL) when they arrive on your site. This is typically accomplished by putting your website in a frame.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/How-to-use-a-Free-Url-redirect-service-to-enhance-your-web-site-blog-reach/30729
In general, URL redirection services are meant for people who host on free web hosts or on their own ISPs. Where possible, particularly if you want a permanent URL for your site that does not disappear, you should get your own domain name. It's so cheap that, unless you have no income at all, you can even get one for your personal web site, etc. You may also want to read my article Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name. A step by step guide can be found in the article How to Register Your Own Domain Name.
Explanation of Some Terms Used in URL Forwarding
"Path forwarding" means that if your visitor enters a filename together with the shorter URL (like www.whatever.com/somename.html) they will be redirected correctly to the somename.html on your actual URL. This is not automatic for all free web redirection services.
"URL Cloaking", "Stealth / Cloaked URLs" or "Masked URLs" means that your visitors will not see your actual web address (URL) when they arrive on your site. This is typically accomplished by putting your website in a frame.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/How-to-use-a-Free-Url-redirect-service-to-enhance-your-web-site-blog-reach/30729
Exploring Google Page Rank And Alexa Rank
So, you've heard a few things about SEO and now you are trying to learn some more about what SEO actually is and what your goals actually are. Well, your main two goals in SEO are to increase your websites position in the search engine results pages(SERP's) and increase website traffic. Google Pagerank represents how important your website is compared to all other websites and Alexa Rank is how many visitors your website gets in relation to all other websites on the Internet. You are aiming to get a high Google Pagerank (commonly refered to as PR) and a low Alexa Rank. What looking at these two measured elements does is give you some idea of how well, or how badly, your website is doing in comparison to all other websites. Lets explore these two rankings in a little more detail.
What is Google Page Rank?
The co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, describe Google Page Rank as a tool designed to rank a website that is listed in the Google search index. A Pagerank of a web page is given on a scale of 0-10. 0 is the lowest possible score for a website and conversely a 10 is the highest score possible. A high Pagerank is defined by the amount, importance(PageRank) and relevance of web pages that link to the web page in question. When a web page links to another web page, Google consider that to be a vote for the page in question and therefore of some importance. There is a formula associated to how PageRank is calculated but for the purposes of this article it is too indepth, but if you are interested in the theory behind PageRank (PR) then a quick search on Google will provide fruitful.
What is Alexa Rank?
The Alexa Rank is different to Google PR; Alexa rank websites based solely on traffic to the website. Alexa rank websites in descending order towards 0, where the most highly visited website on the Internet is given a rank of 0. At this point in time the top three ranked websites (most visitors) on Alexa are, 0 - Yahoo, 1 - Google and 2 - MySpace. According to Alexa these 3 websites get the most traffic on the Internet. Alexa Rankings vary from 1 to a billion. Every web site in the world is included in the Alexa Rank, so the scale on your Alexa ranking is constantly changing in relation to other websites on the Internet.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Exploring-Google-Page-Rank-And-Alexa-Rank/30999
What is Google Page Rank?
The co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, describe Google Page Rank as a tool designed to rank a website that is listed in the Google search index. A Pagerank of a web page is given on a scale of 0-10. 0 is the lowest possible score for a website and conversely a 10 is the highest score possible. A high Pagerank is defined by the amount, importance(PageRank) and relevance of web pages that link to the web page in question. When a web page links to another web page, Google consider that to be a vote for the page in question and therefore of some importance. There is a formula associated to how PageRank is calculated but for the purposes of this article it is too indepth, but if you are interested in the theory behind PageRank (PR) then a quick search on Google will provide fruitful.
What is Alexa Rank?
The Alexa Rank is different to Google PR; Alexa rank websites based solely on traffic to the website. Alexa rank websites in descending order towards 0, where the most highly visited website on the Internet is given a rank of 0. At this point in time the top three ranked websites (most visitors) on Alexa are, 0 - Yahoo, 1 - Google and 2 - MySpace. According to Alexa these 3 websites get the most traffic on the Internet. Alexa Rankings vary from 1 to a billion. Every web site in the world is included in the Alexa Rank, so the scale on your Alexa ranking is constantly changing in relation to other websites on the Internet.
http://www.articlefair.com/Article/Exploring-Google-Page-Rank-And-Alexa-Rank/30999
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