Smart File Names For High Rankings

One of the simplest methods to improve your search engine optimization is to look at the way you name your files.

Keywords in file names are a good thing. Don't call your webpages names like "services.html" or "products.html" actually use your keywords. Here is an example for you.

Let's say you sell tennis balls online and you have three brands available, Slazenger, Wimbledon and Wilson and your webstore is at www.bigballsintennis.com.

A mistake would be to call your sales page something like this

www.bigballsintennis.com/product1.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/product2.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/product3.html

This just tells search engines that you sell products! What you want to do is use the keywords for the main search terms you want that page to show up for in search engines. Something like this would be better.

www.bigballsintennis.com/slazenger-tennis-balls.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/wimbledon-tennis-balls.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls.html

Note that it would also be a good idea to have a tennis balls homepage that links to all those pages but focuses on the keyword tennis balls only. Something like:

www.bigballsintennis.com/tennis-balls.html

Conduct Keyword Research

Now remember you probably face a bit of competition for the keywords "tennis balls" since globally you might have a few competitors also selling online. You should conduct some keyword research first and determine which phrases you want to work towards optimizing for.

You might notice there is little competition for Slazenger and work towards optimising for sales of that brand. Maybe your research shows that most people are using the phrase "tennis ball shop" so you should optimize for those keywords. Or you might consider working towards a local geographical niche, like "tennis balls Bahamas" or your home town or state.

Remember you don't have to get things right the first time. Do some keyword research, choose some keywords and then test to see how high up you can get your pages to rank for certain key phrases. If those phrases don't bring in traffic keep testing until you find a combination that works. Remember though that file names are only a small part of the overall SEO process and if you only optimize your file names and not the on-page copy, the incoming links, your internal site structure etc. etc, your efforts in file name design will have little impact.

How To Structure Long File Names

Dashes make for better file naming - at least that's what research in Google has demonstrated.

When I say dashes it's like this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls.html

as opposed to this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson_tennis_balls.html

I have been structuring my files with dashes for a long time now. I made this decision not only for SEO purposes but for human navigation too. Many people don't know what an underscore is and even have trouble finding it on their keyboard. Dashes look clearer on screen and act as a good divider for keywords.

The only thing to be careful with is to not go over board with file names. Don't do this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/the-best-cheapest-most-impressive-wilson-tennis-balls-you-will-find-online.html

Clearly this is just silly. You are diluting your keywords, creating a page that is next to impossible to remember or type in manually and are certainly not helping your search engine optimization.

By Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Are you interested in online marketing, Internet business, blogs and podcasts? Are you sick of "gurus" trying to sell you the latest get rich quick online deal?

Get educated, it's the key to real online wealth.

Download and read quality how-to articles and listen to podcast audio files in mp3 - Visit my blog: Entrepreneur's Journey.

[tags]seo, search engine optimization, optimisation, online marketing, internet business, yaro, starak[/tags]

Directories For SEO

If you are looking for ways to promote your website, then web directories should definitely be considered a big part of your promotional plan. Web directories provide web visitors with a one-stop destination on the web to find the information they are looking for. Further, in using web directories, you can increase the visibility of your website and derive myriad benefits offered by web directories.

Let's take a look at the benefits that webmasters derive from web directories:

1. Some webmasters might wonder why they should bother to submït to web directories when 80% of all website traffïc comes from search engines. The answer is simple when you consider the following: what about the other 20%? When you are attempting to maximize the traffïc that comes to your website, every little bit of promotion helps and web directories can help you gain a big chuck of that 20% of web traffïc you have been missing out on.

2. Did you know that a key factor in the ranking algorithm of search engines is link popularity? By using web directories you will be creating more links that point directly to your site and the raising your ranking in various search engines across the Internet. Further, everyone knows that a higher search engine ranking is equivalent to easier accessibility and easier accessibility equals more traffïc for your website.

3. The first way to increase your link popularity is to include keywords in your hyperlinks. When you submït to web directories, the links you submït should not only lead to your site, but also should possess themed keywords within the links. The themed keywords will not only make your site easier to find, it will also increase the rating of your links in various search engines — again getting more, frëe web traffïc for you.

4. Links that are created within web directories are votes for a site, and they use your keywords within your hyperlinks to associate your link with certain key phrases. As such, the keywords you select are extremely important because they determine how often your links will be pulled up whenever a key phrase is associated with your created links. Therefore, it is a good idea to research the most popular keywords associated with your website theme before submïtting your website to various web directories: the most popular keywords can make all of the difference in the world.

5. If you are submïtting to various web directories, there are a few things that you need to consider. First, for a directory to be valuable, the pages you submït your listings to must, at minimum, be listed in various search engines. For instance, if you submït your links to a web directory that doesn't appear in any search engines, chances are web visitors will not only have difficulty finding your website, but they will also have extreme difficulty finding the web directory you have listed your site in. In such cases, the listing in the web directory is a fruitless endeavor. Conversely, if you list your web site in several popular web directories and you utilize keywords in your hyperlink and a short website description, you greatly increase the visibility and accessibility of your website.

6. The second consideration you must keep in mind when submïtting to web directories is that when you are submïtting your hyperlinks, you will derive the most benefit from submïtting to directory pages that have a comparable theme to your website. For instance, if you have a website that is based on credït cards you will find that you get more web traffïc from a web directory page that focuses on credït cards. Thus, when searching for web directories, look for web directories with topics that parallel the central focus of your website.

7. Here's a quick tip for you that can help you derive the most benefit from listing your hyperlink in web directories: watch out for Google Adwords because these are a good indicator of how Google at least categorizes the page. In other words, if you mirror your hyperlinks and descriptions to appear much like those seen in Google ads, you will more than likely increase your search engine ranking as well as your listing in various web directories.

8. In order to be successfully listed in any web directory, you will need to conform to the terms and conditions of the directory. Typically, web directories list a series of specific listing regulatïons that you must adhere to and it would pay for you to adhere to them. In addition, to improve the chances of your listing being accepted you should try to avoid promotional language and you should choose a category that is as close to your website theme as possible.

9. Webmasters have much to look forward to in terms of web directory posting. In fact, the next generation of web directories are nöw appearing that allow business card type pages. Not only do webmasters get the opportunïty to post a short description of their website, but they are also afforded the opportunïty to display their logo and contact information as well. Such offerings prove to be particularly appealing because eye catching logos and easy contact information will make a Webmaster's website that much more appealing.

10. In the end, web directories are a valuable part of your web promotional program and should not be overlooked in terms of their value. Along with the use of search engines, and article databases, a Webmaster can be pleasantly surprised at the frëe advertising available on the Internet. Finally, the increase in web traffïc that webmasters reap can be truly astonishing indeed.

If you want to skip the failing actions and get a personal tour of REAL PEOPLE making REAL PROFITS on the Internet, then go to...

http://advancedinternetwealth.50webs.com/index.html6.htm

... and take advantage of the invaluable tips and tricks that these Internet successes reveal so that you can start applying them to your business today.

[tags]internet business internet home business internet home based business business from home honest inte[/tags]

SES NYC A Bustling Conglomeration

Coursing through the carpeted hallways of the Hilton NYC convention center, thousands of people from every demographic were either entering or exiting the various lecture halls. This was not to say that the traffic at the booths was small, but the numbers of people who were there just to gather information was dizzying. The 2006 Search Engine Strategies Convention in New York City was everything an attendee or sponsor could hope for. Kicked off by a keynote speech given by Ask.com's Barry Diller, it's been awhile since rumor circulated concerning the possible sale of Ask.com. However, when Diller says: "search will be everywhere," in regards to the future, it may be assumed that the seasoned media vet has no plans to retire his jersey in the near future. More players mean more competition. This bodes very well for the niche players, too. The torch of search innovation will be carried forward by the "have-nots;" companies still hungry to improve search in order to attract new users, because the game is far from over.

I walked the convention as a representative of a niche player, ConductSearch.com. And like any search specialist, I'm excited to see Ask.com focusing efforts on the quality of the search process, as opposed to merely scheming to retain a massive user base, like Google or Yahoo. There's nothing wrong with Google's applications, but is its focus to improve and continue revolutionizing search, or to preserve its own dominance? Is amazing map technology advancing the search process or does it keep us talking about Google?

Diller, in keeping the focus on search instead of shares, is pointing Ask.com in the right direction - one that benefits end users. Perhaps they are looking to attract the discriminating web surfer before reeling in every Internet user. You may not have heard of many sponsors and exhibitors at the SES, but be sure that most believe, like Diller, that search is just getting started.

Search is evolving and everyone, like Ask.com, seems to be focused on performance. In fact, the countless exhibitors at the conference each had their own search implementations that better the process. Great ideas were everywhere. It's a good thing the conference was well stocked with accompanying literature, because I could never have remembered it all. A simple case of information overload perhaps, but still indicative of the innovation that's flooding the search industry. Everybody seems to have some new proprietary innovation; everyone wants to build the Next Big Thing.

One thing to note about the evolution of Ask.com is its link to bloglines, the feed aggregator. XML feeds are vital to search engines, particularly to ones that want to stand out in terms of higher performance for their users. Ask.com is not gunning for tops in aggregate search (yet), but is instead refining the search base it already has. And the functionality of XML feeds plays right into this development.

We love to see any search engine focus on performance; since ConductSearch.com's particular technological search innovation is the world's first real-time, self-updating fraud protection system. The key word? Reliability. We're helping search engines, big or small, improve their product.

Let's go back a couple of years. Do you remember when search was a pain in the neck? Weeding through spam and bogus or misdirected results was like trying to watch television through static. (Does anyone remember static?) All that spam and word cramming tended to ruin the search experience. Google is largely credited with the vast improvement in results, and shares credit with Overture for developing the model for today's search advertising. And, while this has been a joy for the user (ie. better results, increased faith in the search process); it's not without its occasional drawbacks, like the scourge of click fraud.

Click-fraud has proliferated in the new age of search- further proof that search needs improving. Users at their computers are largely unaware of the risks or dangers– only advertisers get hurt, which means easy money for crooks, and it doesn't hurt the big engines. And even then, advertisers might not figure it out – click-fraud is an almost untraceable crime. Ironically, it's shadowy crime in a measurable arena.

The gradual effects, however, are corrosive. Once an advertiser feels they've been taken, the mistrust that develops as a result can spook them from making future online campaigns. Everyone, eventually, gets hurt: advertisers, users, engines.

Trust is an essential element in any business model and ConductSearch.com's technology serves to build trust by sniffing out fraudulent bot-clicks. Thusly, we're a just another niche tackling a larger problem to enhance the overall search process. If smaller companies don't tackle stuff like this, who will? After all, it doesn't cost the search engines any money.

The road towards better search should serve us well, just as the growing use of search, estimated to increase an additional 26% this year alone, will too. There are doubters; some legitimate (a Google executive claimed last week that search is not an infinite resource, and it made headlines!), some laughable. One clown media commentator, who shall remain unnamed, thinks that search (and blogs) is actually dying out because many users have found their favorite sites and will not continue to explore the internet in the future. Astounding. His implication is that people have discovered all they need from the Internet, as in, the bus has stopped folks, now get off. I don't think so.

Search is simply getting better one application and innovation at a time. Seeing so many exhibitors at SES makes me suspect that the best innovation is coming from upstart online companies, who wish to make names for themselves by providing a better product. Almost any conference attendee would predict a continuation in search improvement, but few are going to sit on the sidelines to watch others do it. Change is up to us, the innovators, and not those who look to preserve an existing user base.

Jeff Conduct
Director of Marketing
http://www.conductsearch.com
marketing@conductsearch.com

[tags]SEO, search, improvement[/tags]

An SEO Checklist

Would you like a checklist of the important steps to take in optimizing a web site? Well, here it is:

1. Use a keyword research tool to find profitable phrases (i.e. those that are actually being searched for).

2. Build each page optimized for a single keyword phrase. Also sprinkle in some secondary keywords relevant to the main keyword.

3. Link your web site together so that all pages are only a couple of clicks away from the homepage.

4. Use text links instead of fancy graphics or buttons to link to your pages.

5. When you add a link to a page where the main keyword phrase for that page is "blue widgets", make sure the links to that page include the phrase "blue widgets".

6. Build a sitemap.

7. Add articles / Content to your web site and add links from these articles to your important pages.

8. Get quality link partners.

Once you have completed these 8 steps, repeat steps 7 & 8 over and over again. I would say that 80% of your time on a new site should be steps 7 and 8. Add content & find link partners. A great way of getting links into your site is writing and publishing articles on article submission sites. When webmasters take up your article and publish it on their site, you get an incoming link to yours.

As your site climbs in the search engine rankings, you can decide when you are happy with your rankings and reduce the amount of time spent on 7 & 8.

*********************************************************
Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO internet marketing newsletter, offering subscribers up-to-date information on all aspects of internet marketing. His search engine optimization website offers unique, no BS information, for free.
*********************************************************

[tags]search engine optimization[/tags]

What Do Your Links Tell The Search Engines How To Tell Them What Counts

There is a lot of confusing information on the web - "secret techniques", tag writing, and of course the complicated algorithms the search engine optimization specialists swear by. Just like content building, list building, and website development take a long time, so does complete website SEO. However, there are a few things you can do, today, to get the most out of the current links your website has. Here's a quick checklist to go over to tweak your links for better search engine results. Next time the spyders crawl by, you'll be able to see the difference in your link popularity and ranking.

What do your outgoing links say?

If you have a resources section in your website that lists your link partners, it's time to go over them. Search engines look at the words you use to describe links. This is great in one way - if your links are relevant to your website's content, then those keywords are applied, on a small scale, to your own website.

What to tweak:

· If you have any links that say "Click Here" or titled as the company's name, change them to keyworded titles. (For example, if you list Google.com as a resource, change the title to "search engine")

· If you have any companies that are totally unrelated to your website's topic, tell the search engines not to go there. How can you do this? Use the "no-follow" tag. Before: < a href="http://www.site.com/page.html">Visit My Page

After: < a href="http://www.site.com/page.html" rel="nofollow">Visit My Page

What do your inbound links say?

Search engines always look at the keywords that point to your website, just as they look at the words that point out. Make sure that your link partners use your keywords in the clickable part of the links. If you can, take some time checking out the text they use and shoot them an email asking for a brief rewording of the link titles. (Of course, as their link partner, you should offer to do the same.)

In the future, when listing your website, make sure you concentrate on your keywords when exchanging links.

Tell the search engines you're legit - by getting listed in DMOZ.org

Many webmasters, for whatever reason, ignore one of the largest human-edited directories on the web. It's a shame, really, since DMOZ.org is the really the only important directory on the internet. DMOZ is free to list in. Because it is human-edited, it can take a decent amount of time to list your site. It's worth it, though - thousands of international search engines and directories place DMOZ's directory on their site, including Google's directory. It may take a while to get listed and for the syndicated directories to update, but once it happens, your link popularity will skyrocket. Take some time, follow their directions, and wait politely. You'll be glad you did.

It's important to recognize that link-building is an ongoing effort. If you simply add one link a day to various sites, you're building popularity for the future. Just make sure that you use honest descriptions and relevant keywords when exchanging links. Choose link partners that are willing to do the same.

Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor... You Can Do It Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com

[tags]link building, seo, link popularity, search engine submission, google dance, getting your site liste[/tags]

How To Use Keywords To Improve Your Ranking In Search Engines

The importance of keywords

Keywords or key phrases you choose will determine how your site is positioned in the search engines. It is always better to have lots of pages each focusing on a small group of keywords. This will give them more relevance to each individual page.

For example if your site is about shoes you may have lots of different types of shoes.

Your index page should have a menu leading into each of the different categories of shoes.

You might have a page for sandals, one for platform shoes as well as stilettos, court shoes and flat heel shoes.

Choosing keywords

First you have to think like your customer. What would they type into a search engine if they wanted to find the products you are selling.

Use phrases as well as single words. Often someone looking for a product or service will type in several words. For example a customer may want to buy a shoe with stiletto heels. They may type in "stiletto heel shoe", "black stiletto" "stiletto heel","stiletto high heel" or "high heel shoe"

brainstorming keywords.

Start by thinking of as many keywords associated with your site as you can. To make it easier there is a free tool for this which can be found at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

It will give you the number of times this word has been searched for in the last month. This will also give you a guide to the popularity of the keyword.

Try looking for similar sites to your own and viewing the source code. This will give you ideas for keywords that your competitors are using. Viewing the source code is easy, just right click the mouse somewhere on the page and click on view source.

A good idea is to open a file in wordpad or other text editor and call it "keywords" then if you find words or phrases relevant to your site copy and paste them into your file. You can then view them offline and even print the page out to study it. This can give you ideas for keywords you may not have thought of.

When you have made a list of keywords relevant to each page you will then need to check the supply and demand if you want an edge over your competitor.

You will already know the demand of each keyword the next thing you need to do is to take a sheet of paper or use a spreadsheet on the computer and make 3 columns naming them keyword, supply, and demand.

In the first column list the keywords that have the highest demand. Then in the supply column type how many times it has been searched for.

Lastly in http://www.Altavista.com or http://www.Google.com type in your keyword surrounded by quotation marks like this "stiletto shoes" and see how many sites come up. They will list the number of sites with that keyword in it.

Go through your list, and see how many have a large demand and lower supply. Of course the idea is to have as many large demand and low supply keywords as possible.

Optimise your site by creating theme based,keyword focused pages for each category of shoes or whatever it is that you are selling.

This will greatly increase your chances of getting a higher ranking in the search engines.

Just concentrate on a couple of keywords in each page.

The title meta tag

The title tag is THE most important part of your webpage. It must appeal to the search engines and also the visitor to your site. The title of your page is used as the link to your site by the search engines and is visible to the reader.

Use your most important keywords in the title. Make the title between 15-20 words in length.

The title must be compelling for people to want to click through to your site.

Don't ever make the mistake of leaving the title tag blank.

Not a good idea if you want an edge over your competition!!

Every page on your site must have a keyword focused title.

The description meta tag

The description tag is also very important and some search engines display it as a summary of your site. Use some important keywords here but don't repeat them more than 3 or 4 times as it could be seen as spamming.

Keyword tag.

This tag is not as important to search engines as it once was, but you should still use it to list your keywords.

The alt tag

This tag is used to describe images and is useful to the visually impaired.

If an image takes a long time to load the alt tag will appear first.

Add keywords to this tag as part of the description.

The main body of text

Place emphasis on your keywords in the first paragraph of the main text, and repeat them several times in the rest of the page. As each page is theme based the keywords will be relevant,and will appear naturally in the body of the text.

You will greatly increase your chances of getting your site in the top positions of search engines if you follow these ideas.

You must however regularly register all your pages with each of the main search engines to make sure the pages are still there as they can suddenly disappear, or drop down from a number 1 position to number 201!!

Normally about once a month is enough.

You can use a site submitter to make this a lot easier.

A good one that I use is http://selfpromotion.com or another one is http://www.submit-it.com

About The Author

Kathy is an artist and webdesigner for small businesses. She has designed sites for other artists to showcase their work, and has her own online business. Kathy has written several articles on promoting an online business. Visit her site at http://www.healthandbeautytowealth.co.uk.

healthytowealth@aol.com

[tags]seo,search engine optimization,search engine ranking,search engine placement,site promotion,keywords[/tags]

A SEO Choice For Content Management System (CMS)

There are three main 'tiers' to search engine optimization: the internal, the external, and the all-too-important website content itself. While the internal and external factors have everything to do with server issues and link popularity plus, the content portion of a website is a large piece of the SEO pie. To add to the mix, all too often this important content needs to be placed into the hands of end users within the company, and therefore they must opt for a system to keep their website up to date. This article addresses this content management system dilemma from an SEO point of view.

I was originally contacted by a community college that needed a solution that would allow their different departments to update their website via web-based methods. More importantly, it must be SIMPLE TO USE as most of these updaters or "users" had very little knowledge of computers. Many had little or no experience with Microsoft Word, so simplicity was a MUST.

The second dilemma was a little harder. Knowing that I was an SEO specialist, they needed me to either design or find a Content Management System that would allow their site to be SEO compliant. It was important that their current and potential students be able to find their site using search engines, both quickly and easily.

Prior to the start of this project, they had someone in-house do a little bit of research. The Savvy software was recommended as a solution to the end user problem, but they needed me to review the software for search engine compliancy. I took one afternoon and spent some time on the phone with the company, asking detailed questions about the software and how it's built.

I found that this company had done their SEO homework prior to building this software. They did a remarkable job handling the often overlooked, yet extremely important SEO compliancy issues. They addressed many issues that most CMS's do not.

Savvy is software you can install on your own web server or host.

Owning the software allows you to choose your own web host – one that is not listed on a spam list. If your site is hosted on a computer that also hosts known spammers, your website is often also penalized for spam since it resolves near the same IP address of the spammer. With the ability to install the software on the host of your choice, you have the option to choose a "clean" server. In addition, if you are required to use the host of the software, your domain name is being pointed, or redirected to your site. However, if the redirect is not programmed a particular way, it can be considered a type of spam for which Google penalizes. Make sure you have control over your software and your web host server.

Page names are SEO compatible.

Search engines frown upon urls such as www.reneescomputerhelp.com/page.asp?ID=23451fjdlks34565. Savvy creates pages with names like this: www.reneescomputerhelp.com/seo/index.cfm which is completely search engine friendly and avoids complicated parameters that search engines tend to avoid or deny spidering altogether.

Templates can be built with SEO in mind, so that every page created using these templates is search engine friendly.

By strategic use of CSS or tables (if one must), the layout of the template code can become search engine optimized – meaning any page created with this "SEO Template" is also search engine compliant. For example:

One of Google's 106+ algorithmic variables is the analyzation of the first 200 words of the body. Many times web developers unwittingly design the site so that other things, like navigation for instance, precedes the body copy, and therefore it is considered by Google to be the first 200 words of the content. If this occurs over several pages within the website, it begins to look to Google like every page is the same since the first 200 words of every page are the same.

Savvy gives the webmaster power to design "SEO Templates." The next step is to teach the end user to adequately write the content to be search engine optimized. During Savvy end user training, I usually include a 30 minute session on the requirements needed for their content to be 'likable' by the Google mathematical algorithm. There are several simple steps that an end user can usually follow without complication of any sort. It's also made easier in that the WYSIWYG editor in Savvy compliments the need for these steps by utilizing well-thought-out editing tools.

Savvy's editing tools make it easy to teach end users not only to update their pages, but how to make them search engine compliant, and in some cases, even search engine optimized.

Headings, bold type, alternative text for images and more, all play an important role in search engine compliancy. With Savvy's editing tools in the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, a 30 minute session on search engine optimization can teach the end user how to appropriately apply these features within their text to make their pages at least search engine compliant and at other times optimized. Remember, compliant means that search engines will 'eat' it, but 'optimized' mean it's the search engine's 'favorite food.'

Savvy gives you power over your meta data.

The most important meta tag in a web page is its Title tag. When creating a new page, Savvy gives you the opportunity to write not only the Title tag, but the Description and Keywords as well. The User Manager in Savvy controls the rights given to end users as to whether they are allowed to edit the meta data or not. It would be best that only those trained in SEO write the meta data. Remember one thing though: Content on your page is KING and always will be, but the next most important is the page's Title Tag. Most other CMS's assign page titles for you and leave you with no control over this important SEO issue.

Savvy's navigational features render text links.

"Anchor text" is an important factor in search engine optimization. Anchor text, the text used in a link to a particular page, is not only relevant from external links, but also from within your site. Structuring your site so that your key phrases are used in anchor texts to point to your most important landing pages is one of the keys of good SEO navigation. Savvy's navigation, using CSS (cascading style sheets) to control the look and feel, renders text links that are easily spidered by search engines and gives the end user power to control the anchor text and therefore, the overall structure of the site for search engine optimization.

After careful review of Savvy, I determined that it was an excellent solution to resolve the need for a content management system as well as the need for SEO compliancy / optimization. I've used Savvy now for several web clients and all clients can be found on Google easily by typing a portion of their company name. You may even find the specific pages for a department if you type the company name and its department. Too often a website can't be found for even its company name, but Savvy has set up their CMS to win in the area of SEO; even if you're looking to optimize your site for keywords and phrases other than your company name. Savvy allows for well-developed sites that Google can spider and give their searchers the relevant results they need from you. Savvy makes both the client and Google happy.

Renee Wasula - Certified SEO Analyst
http://www.reneescomputerhelp.com
renee@reneescomputerhelp.com

[tags]SEO, SEO Content Management System, SEO CMS, Search Engine Optimization[/tags]

It's All Very Well Having A Website That Gets Lots Of Traffic, But Sales Are Its Life Blood

You have optimised your website, found the keywords that get lots of traffic and don't have much competition. All the keywords are added to your site (Title, Meta tags etc) and you have done some excellent flowing writing with your keywords peppering your homepage.

Great, you now have a website, it is fairly well optimised, you are getting lots of traffic and guess what there is still something else needed in the mix.

You need to juggle all of the above with excellent copywriting.

What is copywriting? Well it's the text that appears on your website, the bits that sell. And yes that's mainly what websites are for, they are your representative, they sell you places that you wouldn't have dreamed of looking or find people you just wouldn't have talked to.

For starters whatever is above the 'fold' of your page i.e. before you start scrolling is THE most critical area, you literally have about 8 seconds to grab the 'surfers' attention before they're gone to the next site.

What is said to your visitor when they arrive at your site is just as or even more important than getting them there in the first place! What would you prefer, 1,000 visitors a day with 2 sales or 100 visitors a day with 2 sales? Personally I would prefer the 100 visitors, at least then I would know my copy was working and could easily ramp up the visits.

So, what makes for great copywriting and a great landing page? There is lots of information out there and I can recommend a few people, just search for them on the web; Chris Cardell and Alan Forest Smith (Orange Beetle)

Some of the main fundamentals:

• Tell your customers the benefits of your service & what problem it is going to solve in their lives

• Talk about your customer (don't talk about you, your company etc blah, blah, blah). Everyone likes talking about themselves, your customers are no different. Include YOU and YOUR as much as you can in your copy.

• Start building a relationship with your customer, give something away for free, ask them to join your mailing list in exchange for something free.

• Break the text up and use bullets (bullets draw attention to areas of text)

• If you can, give your product away on a 30 day trail, with customers agreeing to return or pay on xxxx date.

• You need to write with some level of energy and passion.

• Test and Measure EVERYTHING

Well there are a few bits to start with. And remember test and measure, once you have got your new page up, ruthlessly test all the results and tweak your copy until you have something that just reels them in.

You can get something called Google analytics that measures all your traffic and where people go, where they leave your site etc and it's free. You will need to apply and there may be a waiting list, but well worth it.

Wishing you all the sales you deserve. Neil Swift

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and any changes you make to your website are done at your own risk. Neil Swift cannot be held responsible for any outcomes, unless you make millions and you want to say thanks…=) You may use this article for anything you want as long as no changes are made to any part including this footer.

Enjoy life and prosper. Regards Neil Swift owner of http://www.canvasimagery.co.uk Canvas Art and Photos on Canvas, http://www.makeamoneytree.co.uk Froogle Resource Guide,

[tags]sales,seo,optimised,copywriting,landing page,visitors,conversion,conversion rates[/tags]

An Introduction Primer To SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

It can be defined as the process by which a site's rankings in the search engines are increased for the keywords it is optimized for. Good SEO keeps both the user and the search engine in mind. Things that look beautiful on your site may have a negative influence on your site's ranking. Good content ensures return visits. Keyword enriched content ensures that people will find your site.

How many people do you know who actually look at the fourth or tenth page of a search engine's results page? Most people only look at the first ten to twenty search results. SEO can get your site ranked in the first bundle of results.

Aspects of SEO: Content

The web is indexed with keywords. The user types in a keyword string, exact phrase or a single keyword to find a relevant page. Information specialists make use of advanced searching techniques to find deep web content such as information imbedded in databases or dictionaries, but the average user thinks of the first thing associated with his query and types it in. That is why broad keywords on your site will not generate enough traffic because many thousands of pages have that exact keyword. You need specific keywords and keyword phrases.

There must be enough content on the page. Too little information guarantees that the keywords cannot be repeated enough without keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is where there are too many of the same keyword on a page. Search engines will rank your page lower if they see your page as stuffed.

Keyword density must be balanced with their relation to the rest of the page. This means that your main keywords must appear in certain areas of the page. They must preferably stand out from the rest of the text. There are a number of ways to do this but it is a new topic.

SEO: Meta Tags

There cannot be enough emphasis on Meta tags. Meta tags are in the invisible part of your page. It forms part of the source code. This is where the Title, Description, and Keywords, are placed for the search engines. Most engines will not be able to find your site if a Meta Tag is not present. This area is very important because this is where you place your main keywords and the description of your site. Once again, the relation to the title, description and content becomes important. Don't stuff this area with long descriptions since the search engines will throw your page out if the description is too long, or the keywords repeated three or more times. Keep a balance.

You must write a robot.txt file for the spiders to exclude certain parts of your page. The reason is that most of them cannot read Java, and CGI scripts. There are a number of extensions to pages that will lead to exclusion from search engines.

Other SEO factors that also influence the way your page will indexed:

- ALT, TITLE, and AUTHOR tags.

- Number and quality of links to your site.

- Links from your site.

- Sitemap for search engines.

- Names of links to your other pages.

- Color and total number of links

These are just a few of the online and offline factors that influence your ranking. SEO is needed to make your page visible on the Internet where you have to compete with other sites.

eKzact Solutions Inc. http://www.eKzact.com - Learn more about SEO at the eKzact Website, this is one of 9 articles on SEO.

"We Put Small Business Online" Helping small business to jump start their online success, profit and growth. We make putting your business online affordable!

[tags]SEO, search engine optimization[/tags]

Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

Lets face it. Search Engines rule the World Wide Web today. Anytime you want to look up some information or a product you want to buy, you put the relevant keyword in the search field of a major SE like Google. And Violá! The efficient little engine throws up pages and pages of website URLs which carry your keyword.

SEO has become the most popular and the most effective strategy for increasing website traffic today. It gives you more exposure, pulls in more qualified visitors and helps you substantially increase your income. So, if you are a home based business owner with a serious web presence you would know the importance of attracting quality traffic to your website. Among all the strategies and tactics you can employ to attract focused web traffic to your site, optimising your website to get in top SE rankings is the most important. However to keep your rankings that way you have to be on top of what is happening in the SE industry. To understand how search engines work, spend some time at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,316408,00.html

Here are some great ways to optimize your site to get to the top of the SE rankings and stay that way:

1. Reciprocal links: Fish out relevant (but non-competing) websites that complement your services and products and ask them to link to your site. It's a big hit with search engines to see a large number of sites linked to yours. However more important than quantity is the quality of the linked sites. Search engines look at how relevant the links are, that is, how much the content of the linking site has in common with the content on your site. The more relevant, the better. SE s also gauge the importance of these sites; their online presence and the number of hits they get. In a nutshell SE s believe that company matters!

2. Keyword is the king:however much the SE industry changes its rules, algorithms, indexing methods…. the right keyword is still the most important reason they will pick up your site to put on their top result pages. So keyword inclusion and placement is very important. The best places to place your chosen keywords are:
   • Domain name: Putting your keyword in your domain name is both most obvious and the most important. But take care to put it in the root of the URL, not in the stem…that could SE s angry and do you more harm than good.
   • Title tags: in the title tags of your source code
   • Meta description: In the Meta description of your site.
   • Meta keyword tags

3. CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT: Create content rich information pages to get traffic coming your way. A word of caution…unless these pages contain information of some value to the potential visitors SE s may not pick them up. Search engines hate "pointer pages" that have no content and exist only to add to the number of links pointing to a site.

4. Online Directories: Almost all major portals have industry specific directories. Submit your website's URL to directories like Yahoo and About.com as well as smaller directories. This will increase your chances of getting a boost in your SE rankings.

5. Go Forth and Multiply: Create your own community of sites that point to each other. A good idea would be to have different sites if you sell different types of products and services. You can also concentrate on using specific keyword phrases on each site. The more content rich sites that point to your site the better. So that's another great way to boost your search engine ranking.

Now lets look at some of the most common mistakes that can prove to be the undoing of your website.

- The number 1 mistake is not putting enough CONTENT. Your website must have keyword –rich content that adds value to the visitors' info search. Without meaningful content your visitors can click out just as easily only to never come back again.

- Using frames is a technique that makes the Webmaster's life easy but can easily prove to be a major put off for SE s. SE s may find it difficult to move around in frames and will fail to include all of the pages in their list. These missed out pages will never show up to the people who are looking for them and defeat the whole purpose of your exercise.

- Enclosing text in graphics is another technique used by web designers to give the website an even, uniform look for every visitor. Unfortunately, SE s cannot differentiate between a photo in a graphic and text in a graphic. Hence they will overlook it. There you go again! Beat this problem by putting the real information in plain text that search engines can recognize.

Being visible the Internet is the first step to being found on the Internet.

So take advantage of these proven success tips and avoid the traps that will make your rankings fall down in the SE abyss. What you'll be left with is a great website ranking bringing in focused qualified visitors to help you boost your sales.

For more information check out these websites:

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol127/optimization.htm
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764567586.html

==========================================

Wanna Learn the Secret of Creating Passive Income Online
From a man who made $3,244,842.32 from the Internet in Only 27
months? => http://www.the1andonly.biz

Presented by:
Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities

[tags]SEO, Search Engine, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketiing, Tarffic, Linking[/tags]

How Directories Help Search Engines

At the beginning of the web era, users would go to directories to find sites relevant to their interests. In fact, Yahoo!, the web's number one destination, started as a directory. Nowadays, most users rely on search engines, not directories, to find what they're looking for.

When search engines started to become popular, they relied on web pages' 'keyword metatags' to determine the topic and relevance of the page (the keyword metatag is a section within a web page's HTML code where webmasters can insert words that are relevant to the page's content). Webmasters discovered that by stuffing their meta tags with popular search terms repeated hundreds of times, they could propel their pages to the top of the search results.

Search engines caught up to the abuse and decided to ignore the meta tags and rely instead on web page copy. Webmasters then started to overstuff their page copy with popular search terms, often writing them in the same color as the web page's background, so that they could be detected by search engines while being invisible to users.

Again, search engines discovered the trick and decided that the best way to rank a web page's content and its topical relevance was to rely on inbound links from other pages. The rationale behind this is that it is much more difficult to influence other people to link to you than it is to manipulate your own web page elements. In fact, inbound links are the foundation of Google's Pagerank™ algorithm.

There are several ways to get inbound links, among them writing articles that include your bylines with a link to your page, exchanging links, and listing your site in directories.

Listing your sites in good directories is probably the best way to get quality links that are highly valued by the search engines. Since directories rely on human editors who enforce strict criteria to list a site, and since directories organize the information in highly focused categories, they are an invaluable resource for search engines to measure the quality and the relevance of a web page.

In summary, directories are important not because they generate significant traffic (they don't), but because they are given great importance by the search engines to qualify and rank web pages, and to determine their topical relevance.

You should definitely list your site with quality directories if you want to increase your chances of success with the search engines.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez: http://www.theinternetdigest.net. For more search engine tips go to: http://www.accordmarketing.com/seotips/

[tags]sEO, marketing, search, engine, submissions[/tags]

21 Search Engine Terms Every Web Marketer Should Know Part 1

1. Search Engine - Is a database of web sites that is ranked according to the computerized criteria that the programmers decide upon called an algorithm. Various search engines determine ranking on their own different factors of importance or relevancy. For the last few years the Google search engine was the most popular search engine supplying the search results for Yahoo and to a lesser extent MSN and AOL. This all changed recently after Yahoo purchased different search engine companies and developed its own search engine. Soon MSN will enter this market with its own search engine algorithm.

Searchers input keyword queries into search boxes and are given results from the databases of the search engines in accordance with the ranking algorithm from whatever search engine they are using.

In other words, search engines index sites it feels will be of value to its customers, which are Internet surfers searching for information.

The most important concept to grasp with a search engine, is that it uses an automated computerized system to find and rank the sites within its database of web sites.

2. Internet Directory - An Internet directory is a large listing of categorized web sites - however the concept that should be understood with the Internet directories, is that they actually have editors that decide what goes into the directory. Remember an Internet directory is decided and managed by human editors, while in contrast, a search engine is ranked by a computerized algorithm or system. Directories are important to get links from because, they will raise your rankings in the Google algorithm (which is based on PageRank™ or links from other sites to a great extent).

3. SEO - Search Engine Optimization From the Tao of Search Engine Promotion represents the Ying or Female Principle in that it is more fluid and receptive to the algorithms of the search engines, which of course you - do not control. SEO promotion is using known conventions and in some cases deconstructing the algorithms of the developers of the search engines and working with them. In other words it is like Judo where you use the momentum and power of the search engines to build your business. You will have to be constantly vigilant, in order to try to stay abreast of the latest developments in SEO promotion.

4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising with the search engines is bidding for particular keyword phrases or search terms used most frequently by Internet users related to information on certain niches and sectors. Overture was the first great pay-per-click advertising sales channel for the search engines. It presently represents Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Alta Vista, Hot Bot, and related partners allowing advertisers to bid on particular keywords. Google presently runs its own PPC Search Engine advertising branch called Google's Adwords Select. Since PPC advertising is so expensive use it in moderation by setting daily and monthly budgets (otherwise for high volume searched keywords you could go broke).

After setting budgets, which you do in the Overture and Google advertising interfaces, use PPC to test your conversion rates for subscribers, sales, etc., and constantly monitor it and fine-tune it. You want to increase your conversation rates. This is critical because as we alluded to the expense of PPC in earlier in this article the typical major ad agency or corporate brand only spends $5 - $15 dollars to reach a thousand people (CPM). Although they may go higher for a responsive direct mail lists like $100 or $150 to reach a thousand people. In PPC advertising small business are usually paying at least 35 cents on the dollar (for any word with any real competition) to reach a thousand people or $350 dollars. I have seen and experienced people paying $2.50 a click or $2250 dollars to reach a thousand people.

The true expense of PPC is never discussed by experts in that industry. Any small business using PPC should have an outstanding product ready for prime time, to see any return in investment. Alternately, they should only use it for limited testing or to get a product quickly to market on-line. Given the expense of PPC some small business people might be better off buying classified direct response advertising in a niche publication or obtaining ad space in ezines.

Another point to discuss in PPC is how the major companies hurt their advertisers (stab them in the back) by using pop-up blockers, which hurts the advertisers ability to collect email addresses on the front end, and with spam filters block even legitimate marketers ability to reach opt-in subscribers on the back end. Google is more of a front end pop-up blocker, AOL is more of an email blocker, while Yahoo is both. There are better ways to stop email and web site spam. What is important is that small business, if it is not careful with PPC could be paying AOL, Google, and Yahoo/Overture to put them out of business.

5. Pay Per Inclusion is paying to be included in the database of a search engine or Internet directory. Presently it is free to be included in the Google search engine. You just need a link to your site from a few other sites already in the Google database and your site will be spidered in many cases. Recently it has been announced Yahoo will charge a fee to update your new content into their search engine database. From what I understand if you are already listed in Yahoo its all well and good, but any new content that you put on your site will not be indexed.

6. Search Terms (AKA Keywords or Keyword Phrases) - Search terms and more specifically keyword phrases are words searchers put in a search box to find information on a particular product, service, or item. Keywords and Keyword phrases have different tiers. For instance the top tier keyword 'business' probably receives 500,000 searches a month. But it is so general that it would not be a good keyword for which to optimize your site. However, the second tier Keyword phrase 'small business' would have less searches, but it is more of a targeted search. The third tier keyword phrases are even more targeted and would be ideal for persons to optimize their sites for although there are less monthly searches for them.

7. Search Engine Algorithm - Algorithms are sets of rules according to which search engines rank web pages. Figuring out the algorithms is a major part of SEO. The thinking is that if you understand how they calculate relevance, you can make specific pages on your site super relevant for specific search terms. For free telecourses and more on algorithms and SEO in general, please check out http://www.searchengineplan.com.

About The Author

Kamau Austin, helps small and minority business make more money, by creating, search friendly web sites. He is the owner of http://www.Ebizbydesign.com, http://www.Einfonews.com, http://www.carolsartshows.com and the creator of the Free Search Engine Promotion Tele-course.

[tags]seo,search engine,web tracking,website ranking,web strategies,site promotion[/tags]

Impending Changes In The SEO World

The sky isn't falling chicken little, but your traffic may be in the near future.

There is no question that Google has been a dominating force. There is also no question that Microsoft has both the financial and the manpower resources to give them some serious competition and probably eventually get the upper hand again. As Google has grown to a size comparable to that of Microsoft, it has lost much of the "little guy trying harder" appeal that once helped to create a great deal of it's public support.

Many users don't really care which search engine they use as long as they are getting the results that they're looking for. In this area, Google is falling seriously behind. In an attempt to filter out more of the web sites using artificial means to improve their ranking, they have knocked a large number of legitimate web sites out of the SERPs and often prevented newer web sites from appearing to begin with. While I applaud their effort to combat the web sites using spam techniques to climb above legitimate web sites, I can say with out a doubt that unless they find a better way to do this they will begin loosing market share in a big way. There are several reasons, some of which are not so obvious:

• People want relevant and timely results. If Google continues to delay newer web sites and web pages from ranking for applicable terms, users will go elsewhere to find more up to date results.
• Many web site owners using Google AdSense will begin switching over to competing services from Yahoo and MSN — which they are likely getting traffic from. Since the ads are a source of revenue for these web site owners, they are going to deal with the search engines that are helping them make more money.
• Many web site owners will remove the Google site-search from their web sites since they aren't getting traffic from Google.
• Web savvy people are often asked for advice from those who are not as proficient with computers. It won't take too many bitter web site owners telling these people to use a competing search engine before Google starts to see the effects in their bottom line.
• Microsoft has been developing Windows Vista, in fact, the beta version has already been released. Microsoft will put a serious dent in Google's business with this because they have built a handy little search box right into the operating system.

For those of us that are forward thinking enough to prepare for this shift, the next six to eighteen months should be very rewarding. For everyone else (especially those relying entirely on traffic from Google) it will be somewhat like riding off the edge of a cliff in a Mini Cooper. So, what can be done to prepare?

• Diversify your internet marketing strategy. Search engine optimization should only be a fragment of your internet marketing. For starters, you could consider advertising on other relevant web sites, utilizing a pay-per-click campaign and publishing articles on other web sites.
• Plan for the adoption of new technology. Blogs are here to stay and RSS is taking hold. Stay on top of new and innovative ways to use technology to multiply the effectiveness of your search engine optimization campaign. You can get a general idea of what technologies to look at by staying up to date with the advances in operating systems, browsers and related software and hardware.
• Avoid using spam techniques to improve your ranking, such as hidden text, keyword stuffing, or link spamming. Most of these questionable techniques don't work and those that do don't work well & and you risk having your web site banned.
• Update your web site on a regular basis. A web site that is constantly growing is viewed by the search engines as more important, a side benefit is that by generating useful content other web site owners will have a reason to link to your web site.

Jeremy L. Knauff is the founder of Wildfire Marketing Group, an innovative guerilla marketing firm that specializes in helping smaller companies to compete with larger companies and win. article submission service & directory submission service at rcplinks.com.

[tags]seo, internet business, online business[/tags]

How To Gain Links And PageRank

There are only one way of getting PageRank and that is to get people linking to you. This could be very tricky since people wont know about your site unless there are some links to it. How would they find it?

So the first thing you have to do is to cheat a little and create some links for yourself. This could most easily be done by signing up to a forum and post an article about your site and ask for other peoples opinion or such.

Another way is to write an article and have it published on loads of other pages which are happy for any new original content (this is how I have done with this article).

A third way is to use social bookmarking which is sites that works the almost in the same way as your favorites in Internet Explorer except here everyone can see your favourites including Google. Some of these sites have a very high page rank and if you want to get a site spidered quickly this is undoubtedly the most effective way to get it done.

It could also be a good idea to submit your site to all the directories or at least as many as you can. To do this I advice you to use special tools which could do the job for you or at least help you to do it semi automatic.

For more ways to get links and PageRank visit GainingPageRank.com.

[tags]seo, page rank, pr, google, search engine optimization,how to gain pagerank,[/tags]