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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Information
Easy Web Tips
How can you be found on the web?
How to Choose Keywords to Theme Your Pages and Boost Your Traffic
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is in the choice of keywords for a new site, specifically secondary keywords.. These are the words or phrases that you use when writing your content to help theme the page so that the search engines know what your page is about. These secondary keywords also help to bring in more traffic, because they add more depth to your page, meaning that your page is found for a lot more phrases than just the primary phrase you page is built around.
Keyword Research And Overture
Many of us who build websites get in the habit of using the Overture "Keyword Suggestion Tool" to do keyword research. It's convenient, and one of the few remaining such tools that is free. Be careful, though, because there are four problems you may run into with it.
Adding Content To Your Site Every Day
If you have been a webmaster for more than a week, you've surely heard the saying "Content Is King". And it really is true! This article will explain why the regular addition of fresh content to your website is so crucial and explain several ways to do it easily and inexpensively (even free).
Hiring An SEO Constultant - 10 Reasons Why You Should
It crosses every webmaster?s mind anytime they see an ad or an email for search engine marketing. Many small business owners wonder what they?re missing by not doing it. So should you hire a consultant? Search engine traffic make up at least 85% of all traffic to a website. So of course, search engine optimization is very important. But what, if any, will be the consequences of doing it yourself? Would it be beneficial to a website owner to hire a professional SEO consultant, or just plod along and hope that they are doing it right? This is a valid dilemma to face, and I will show you why it should be an easy decision. There are ten reasons why hiring them would be to your benefit.
Forget SEO ? It?s All About Conversion!
Which SEO hat do you wear? Is it white or black? Or perhaps it?s a subtle shade of gray. Well, wherever you are on this spectrum, if you are like 99% of the SEO-fixated webmasters out there, you are doing all you can to get visitors to your site. Where you used to optimize your keywords meta tags, you now worry about anchor text and XML site maps.
So, you finesse your site, schmooze the algorithm du jour and begin to climb the slippery search engine rankings pole. But this is where you have to leave your SEO tricks behind and start thinking conversion.
Whoa there! Conversion? That?s all about making sales on shopping sites. My site?s a forum! I don?t sell anything. What has conversion got to do with me?
Everything, my friend. Everything?.
SERP Conversion
You want visitors to come your site, right? That?s why you climb greasy SERP pole, after all. (And why you lay awake at night wondering when the next Florida, Hilltop or Bourbon algorithm earthquake is going to hit.) But what does it matter if you reach the peak, but no one clicks through to your site anyway?
The fact is that you have to convert prospective visitors even before they arrive. You have to pique their interest, tweak their curiosity and make sure they click your link and not the other guy?s. And all you have to use are words. No technical tricks will help you now ? your only tools are plain ol? words.
The SERPs will show words from two of three places. Two of these you can control and one you can?t:
1.Your title tag.
2.Your meta description tag.
3.A directory description.
(For example, Google is known to use DMOZ descriptions in their SERPs, and Yahoo uses their directory descriptions in theirs.)
Now, there?s not much you can do about how Yahoo or DMOZ editors describe your site, so don?t worry about number 3. But do what you can do: Place your value propositions clearly in 1 and 2, and use them to lure searchers into your website.
So you have to convert people before they even get to your site. But that?s not all?. You want them to stay, right?
Flash Conversion
No, this has nothing to do with being blinded by bright lights on the road to Damascus. Nor am I telling you to go and make a 100% animated website.
This ?flash? is that split second, that tiny window of opportunity that opens up when a searcher arrives at your site and decides whether they have actually found what they are looking for? or not.
Typically, you?ll have a couple of seconds to persuade the new visitor to stay and hang out. That?s all you get. It?s the ultimate in speed-dating. So, how do you wow your ?date?? Do you show him a page of scraped ?content? interspersed with Adsense ads? Not if you want this to be a lasting relationship.
Follow these tips and be sure to impress your ?date?:
1. Have a clear theme
Ranking high for ?blue widgets?? Then be sure your visible title, copy and images are clearly focused on them.
2. Have a clean design
Imagine you are taking a first date to a movie. Do you pick her up wearing your pajamas in a dirty, trash-filled car? Or do you clean the car, wash your face and dress to impress? Of course you want to impress her, so you make sure you look (and smell) good.
It?s the same with your site: Clean design, a nice text size and pages that don?t scroll from here to eternity are going to float your first-time visitor-date?s boat.
3. Write clearly and focus on your ?date?
Waffle on about yourself and your date will get bored. She wants you to be interested in her. And in terms of your site, that means giving her what she wants to know as quickly and succinctly as possible. This comes down to your ability to write and communicate. So, if you are like Steve Martin in ?Roxanne?, make sure you get a someone else (a copywriter) to compose the lines to wow your ?date? for you.
OK, so let?s say you have successfully wooed your first-time visitor date. He?s here and he has decided to stick around. You?re going steady, getting to know each other a little more. That?s all you want, isn?t it?
No, it isn?t! You want to pop the question, of course!
Getting hitched
You?ve made all this effort and spent money on getting your ?date? this far, so you want to get the most out of your investment, right? You want to hear those sweet words, ?I do?:
I do? want to click your Adsense ads. I do? want to become a forum member. I do? want to buy that cool digital thingy.
So how do you turn a whirlwind romance into a successful proposal? Try these ideas for size:
Have clear navigation
You want to make your date dizzy with excitement, not frustration! Make sure you have clear, consistent, well-labeled navigation and make your visitor-date?s time with you a pleasure, and not a reason to reach for the Advil.
Have a clear proposition
What do you want your visitor to do? Buy something? Sign up for something? Join something? Whatever the point of your site is, it does have a point, right? So don?t beat about the bush, and don?t hold back waiting for the right moment: Make your ?proposal?, and make it clear and direct.
Happily Ever After?
You thought that was the end of the story? Wait a minute, it?s not over yet! I thought you were in this for a long-term relationship, not a one night stand?
I know, you were thinking that having made all that effort while you were dating, you could ease off now that you?re ?married?. But don?t you know that the real rewards start here?
So what are the secrets of a long, blissful relationship with your visitors?
1. Feed them!
You convinced him to come visit once. But how often will he come back if all you give him are the same old leftovers? Cook him up something juicy and delicious, and have him salivating for more:
Enliven your content with new, relevant pages and, not only will you set the search engine robots drooling, but you will also find you have a hoard of visitors coming back for seconds. And in this age of fast-(visitor)-food creation tools called blogs, there?s really no excuse anymore.
2. Shower them with gifts
Everyone likes a gift - and not just on birthdays, anniversaries and at Christmas:
Money talks, and if you are selling anything through your site, then discounts and other offers to previous visitors and customers will draw them back like magnets. Throw in tempting freebies as well and you will have a potent marketing mix.
3. Send them ?love? letters
Anyone who has been in a long-distance relationship (like my wife and I were for a year and a half), knows that if you can?t be together, the next best thing is a letter or email. For your website, this means an interesting ezine that is light on sales pitch and rich in information.
4. Start a family!
Not literally! But you can create a ?family? atmosphere by adding a forum where your visitors can interact with each other ? not just with you and your site. People are social animals, so use a forum to keep them coming back.
OK, so perhaps I overstated it a little in my title. SEO is not dead, so don?t forget about it quite yet. Just remember that it will only get you so far: If you want to actually achieve anything with your site, then you need to focus on conversion like a laser.
Googles Good-Writing Filter
I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really rank web pages based primarily on arcane technical criteria such as keyword density, link text, or even PageRank?
Keyword Demand Isnt Enough
I get half of the world traffic for the term "dirtbagging," on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can't ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider, though. Here are some others.
7 Search Engine Resources You Should Be Using Now
Ask any business person who's website is at the top of the
search engines if his/her site is making money, and the answer
is almost always "yes".
PageRank and How It Gets Assigned
We know that each and every website page is assigned a Google Page rank, based upon a mathematical algorithm. Pages rank on a scale of 0 (zero) the lowest, and 10 (ten) the highest. Linking between websites both internally and externally pass a value or Page Rank.
Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast!
Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is applied by Google and possibly other search engines when content found on your website is largely the same as what is found elsewhere on your site or on other websites across the internet.
Google, Adsense, SEO, and How It All Works
Google uses an algorithm to determine the search engine results (SERPS). The algorithm is based upon certain factors that include keyword density, Meta Tags, anchor tags, image tags, back links, etc etc etc.
Top 2 Ways To Get Higher Rankings in Major Search Engines
Top 10 search engine rankings. Everybody wants it but a few achieve it. Search engines have always been an important source of traffic for many marketers. Achieving high search engine rankings should be one of your goals because it can be profitable in the long run.
From Corpora to Matching
Making effective use of the Internet is increasingly about creating better and more intelligent applications and search engines. Here is a brief introduction into how search engines work:
Get a Number One Google Ranking With This Simple Technique
You probably do this already - complete regular searches in Google for your key phrases and see how high you rank. It's well known that the first three results are far and away the sites that get the most clicks. If you can get one of the top three results in your key terms then you will have more targeted visitors coming to your site. If you can get the first result, well that is even better. Of course all your competitors want to do the same.
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