So, you are the marketing manager of your firm, and you've finally decided to pull the trigger and hire the search engine optimization company that you've been talking to for months. The budget has been cleared, the SEO firm is ready to start, and it should be just a matter of time before you start seeing a huge uptick in business. Right?
Not so fast.
An experienced search engine optimization company will tell you that an ill-planned campaign can be a non-starter from day one. This usually happens when there is no clear understanding of what will be required of the client to make the project run smoothly.
What follows is a list of just a few of the things that your search engine optimization company will need from you in order for the company to get its job done as effectively and quickly as possible. It's a good idea to consider these things before you sign the contract - because a stalled campaign will cost you money, even if it is just lost opportunity cost.
Access to and Control of Your Website
You may be ready to do whatever it takes to take the steps necessary for a successful SEO campaign. Your IT team, on the other hand, may have ultimate control of the website. This only makes sense - an internal IT team that controls the website knows the ins and outs and doesn't want anyone jeopardizing the functionality of the site. However, an SEO campaign will usually require extensive changes to the site - and you don't want to hit a brick wall when you bring recommended changes to the IT staff or ask them to give your search engine optimization company access to the testbed. Make sure that you have an understanding with them before you sign on with a firm, lest you suffer delays and internal strife.
Additionally, it is important that you can get access to either the log files of your website or to the current reporting platform. Before a search engine optimization company begins work on your site, you want to be sure that you have a baseline of current search referred traffic. Without this, you'll have nothing to brag about later - and no way to hold your firm accountable if results do not turn out as planned.
For more on achieving buy-in from different departments within your organization before embarking on an SEO campaign, please see this article.
Control of Your Website Copy
If internal politics are such that you have to consult with every department in your organization in order to get website copy changed, it's imperative that you make sure you have this process streamlined before you bring in your search engine optimization company.
There are many reasons why several departments may be involved in the content of your website. For example, mortgage brokers, medical offices, and investment firms (to name but a few) will almost certainly need to run copy changes through the legal department before they go live on your website. If your company sells complicated software, for example, the copy may need to be run by the developers to be verified for accuracy.
No matter how your internal politics work, make sure you are on the same page with all the people who will be involved in the copy approval process before you start the project.
Awareness of Current Code Limitations
Your prospective search engine optimization company should be able to look at how your website is constructed and let you know if there are limitations that may impede your ability to implement recommendations that can help your search engine optimization efforts.
For example, there are many CMS (Content Management Systems) that will not allow changes to be made that are beneficial to search engines. While many of the new systems are "SEO friendly," many of the older ones are not. Updating your CMS to one that allows changes to be made for maximum SEO benefit may incur additional costs. If your search engine optimization company has been around for a while, they should be able to steer you in the right direction and, indeed, help you and your IT team to switch to a more SEO friendly platform.
Change like this can sometimes be difficult - another reason why you must be committed to SEO and achieve the buy-in from your IT team before you embark on a campaign.
Time
The largest commodity that most marketing managers do not have is time. Frequently, there are innumerable campaigns running at once, and outsourcing SEO to a search engine optimization company may make you feel that it is done and off your plate. Alas, this is rarely the case. A good search engine optimization company will take the requisite time to learn as much about your business as it possibly can, but the fact remains that nobody knows your business as well as you do.
This means that you will have to be involved in the SEO process. If you can't dedicate an hour a week to offering feedback, approving changes, and making sure that the work being done is consistent with your overall message, there will be large delays in the project.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/67934
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Top 10 SEO tips for small businesses
Search Engine Optimisation is a science that takes many years to learn and master, additionally the technology involved is continually developing and changing. Therefore, it isn’t something that everyone can do however, there are certainly a few things you can do to help get your website ranked higher in Search Engines.
With online presence becoming increasingly competitive it is vitally important to get your website highly ranked. The top ten tips below from Adam Price, MD of SEO Sitebuilder.com outline the key factors you should examine closely to ensure an effective online presence.
1. Content is King!
It is in the search engines best interests to highly rank websites that people will actually like and gain benefit from. Therefore you need to ensure that your website provides valid information for the visitors. Generally a 5 page website would not be classed as an information resource and the search engines will be looking for more, so make sure you provide enough content to make it worth while for people to visit.
2. Keep on topic!
If you are selling garden furniture on your website keep on this theme – the easiest way to remember it is – ‘1 website – 1 theme, 1 page – 1 topic’ Don’t try to promote all your different businesses on one website. This will dilute the power of your keyphrases and content.
3. Don’t try to fool them!
The search engines are becoming extremely intelligent and are fully aware of all the rogue techniques that can be used to try and fool them. You need to avoid using hidden text as if the search engines spot any trickery you will be marked down and sometimes even blacklisted.
4. Choose an SEO partner wisely!
I’m afraid to say but there are many ‘cowboys’ in this industry that will try to convince you that they know what they are doing when really they don’t have a clue. The best way check SEO companies is to ask to see results… what have they done for other companies? Can they prove what they say they can do? Here’s a tip, make sure they tell you what domain you should find BEFORE they show you any results!
5. Search Engine friendly design
Stay away from using ‘Flash’ navigation, in fact avoid creating your entire site in flash. This is because flash makes its impossible for the spiders that the search engines send out to find out what your site is about. Many web development companies are still using tables to layout a website. This is an old technique now and is not search engine friendly.
You should have your website developed using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Try and avoid Javascript Navigation. Although these can be used to produce attractive fly out menus with lovely rollovers and colours which look very nice on your website, the trouble is that the spiders can’t understand the content within Javascript. As this is where all your page links are, you need to avoid Javascript in order to be found.
6. Back Links
Getting other people to link to your website is fantastic but bear in mind, they have to be relevant. The Search Engines will be able to recognise if the links are irrelevant and can take a view that you maybe using some form of link farm service which is frowned upon.
7. Duplicate Content
Make sure that you do not have the same content on any of your pages within your website or even the same as another website. This is frowned upon by the search engines and can even result in your website being moved to what’s call the supplemental listings, which essentially is a secondary database.
8. Site Maps
Site Maps are a fantastic way for spiders to be able to collect as much information about your website as possible. Provide a Google site map as this will be directly related to Google’s own specification.
9. Alt Tags & Title Tags
These are a fantastic way to get more valid information about your website in to the search engines. Alt Tags are the little tool tips of text that appear when you hover your mouse pointer over an image. The Title Tag will be the little tool tips of text that appear when you hover your mouse pointer over any text links on the page.
10. Bullet Points!
Use bullet points to emphasise selected pieces of text. However don’t use them without providing supporting information otherwise this could be seen as key word stuffing.
You can use the SEO tips above to try and improve your rankings but you must bear in mind the way your website has been developed. Just imagine you are building a house, if you don’t get the foundations right at the beginning it doesn’t matter what you put in to it, it could still be unsafe and not built correctly.
Source:http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/promotion/7_6/top-ten-seo-tips.shtml
With online presence becoming increasingly competitive it is vitally important to get your website highly ranked. The top ten tips below from Adam Price, MD of SEO Sitebuilder.com outline the key factors you should examine closely to ensure an effective online presence.
1. Content is King!
It is in the search engines best interests to highly rank websites that people will actually like and gain benefit from. Therefore you need to ensure that your website provides valid information for the visitors. Generally a 5 page website would not be classed as an information resource and the search engines will be looking for more, so make sure you provide enough content to make it worth while for people to visit.
2. Keep on topic!
If you are selling garden furniture on your website keep on this theme – the easiest way to remember it is – ‘1 website – 1 theme, 1 page – 1 topic’ Don’t try to promote all your different businesses on one website. This will dilute the power of your keyphrases and content.
3. Don’t try to fool them!
The search engines are becoming extremely intelligent and are fully aware of all the rogue techniques that can be used to try and fool them. You need to avoid using hidden text as if the search engines spot any trickery you will be marked down and sometimes even blacklisted.
4. Choose an SEO partner wisely!
I’m afraid to say but there are many ‘cowboys’ in this industry that will try to convince you that they know what they are doing when really they don’t have a clue. The best way check SEO companies is to ask to see results… what have they done for other companies? Can they prove what they say they can do? Here’s a tip, make sure they tell you what domain you should find BEFORE they show you any results!
5. Search Engine friendly design
Stay away from using ‘Flash’ navigation, in fact avoid creating your entire site in flash. This is because flash makes its impossible for the spiders that the search engines send out to find out what your site is about. Many web development companies are still using tables to layout a website. This is an old technique now and is not search engine friendly.
You should have your website developed using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Try and avoid Javascript Navigation. Although these can be used to produce attractive fly out menus with lovely rollovers and colours which look very nice on your website, the trouble is that the spiders can’t understand the content within Javascript. As this is where all your page links are, you need to avoid Javascript in order to be found.
6. Back Links
Getting other people to link to your website is fantastic but bear in mind, they have to be relevant. The Search Engines will be able to recognise if the links are irrelevant and can take a view that you maybe using some form of link farm service which is frowned upon.
7. Duplicate Content
Make sure that you do not have the same content on any of your pages within your website or even the same as another website. This is frowned upon by the search engines and can even result in your website being moved to what’s call the supplemental listings, which essentially is a secondary database.
8. Site Maps
Site Maps are a fantastic way for spiders to be able to collect as much information about your website as possible. Provide a Google site map as this will be directly related to Google’s own specification.
9. Alt Tags & Title Tags
These are a fantastic way to get more valid information about your website in to the search engines. Alt Tags are the little tool tips of text that appear when you hover your mouse pointer over an image. The Title Tag will be the little tool tips of text that appear when you hover your mouse pointer over any text links on the page.
10. Bullet Points!
Use bullet points to emphasise selected pieces of text. However don’t use them without providing supporting information otherwise this could be seen as key word stuffing.
You can use the SEO tips above to try and improve your rankings but you must bear in mind the way your website has been developed. Just imagine you are building a house, if you don’t get the foundations right at the beginning it doesn’t matter what you put in to it, it could still be unsafe and not built correctly.
Source:http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/promotion/7_6/top-ten-seo-tips.shtml
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Search engine competition to get aggressive
Martin Byrne has a simple Internet test for Canadian banks: The search engine guru suggests typing "savings accounts, Canada" into a search engine and see what comes up.
If you're expecting to see Canada's major financial institutions appear on the first page, you'll be disappointed.
TD Canada Trust is the only one of the majors that appears in the top 10. Aggressive cyberbank ING Direct is at the top of the search listings -- winner of that particular search-engine optimization contest. And HSBCdirect.ca occupies the top paid listing, giving it winning points for paid placement.
Winning the online search game is a growing competition, and one that is expected to result in more than $1 billion being spent on search-engine marketing (SEM) in Canada by 2010.
And it is a fast-moving competition. What tops the list one minute might be deposed by a contender the next.
It has spawned a whole new category of marketing, with British Columbia enjoying high status in the new and growing generation of SEM specialists.
Byrne, the national director of Yahoo Search Marketing Canada, was in Vancouver recently as part of a Yahoo team hosting and taking part in events focusing on this lucrative and growing segment. It's a field in which Canadian businesses are lagging behind their U.S. counterparts.
"Compared to all the other major developed economies [Yahoo is] in, Canada has been the slowest to adopt search marketing," said Byrne.
SEM promotes websites by pushing them up to the top of the search engine results, through a variety of means that can include search engine optimization (SEO) -- which is getting search engines to choose your site as the most relevant and freshest for any particular search request -- to paid placement.
There are a number of popular search engines, led of course by Google, which, according to Hitwise.com, accounted for 66.44 per cent of all U.S. searches for the four weeks ending Feb. 23. Google was followed by Yahoo! Search at 20.59 per cent, MSN Search at 6.95 per cent, and Ask.com at 4.16 per cent.
In 2007, $410 million was spent in Canada on search-engine marketing, and that number is expected to climb to more than $1 billion by 2010. U.S. companies spend a much higher proportion of their online budgets on search marketing. North American-wide advertisers spent $9.4 billion US in 2006, representing a 750-per-cent increase over 2002.
It's an important pipeline to potential buyers and customers. According to Yahoo research, 43 per cent of consumers rate the Internet as the best source for price comparisons, and 37 per cent turn to it most often in their consumer research. The Internet ties with word-of-mouth as being seen as the most reliable source of information for 24 per cent of users.
Among Canadians online:
- 78 per cent use search engines to research purchases;
- 27 per cent of those Web surfers end up making online purchases;
- 45 per cent of those searching online for product information end up buying offline;
- in 2007, Canadian consumers spent $10.5 billion in online purchases, and that number is projected to climb to nearly double for 2008.
The message for businesses, says Byrne, is that regardless of whether they cater to customers offline or on, search engines play an important role in promoting their products or services.
"We help them understand the role search engines play in their business, whether they are actively managing it or not," he said. "The reality is there are 85 million search queries a day in Canada, and we take people through the amount of influence search engines have on people's consumer decisions, on their buying decisions.
"What we are finding is that search engines have more influence in terms of offline consumer decision-making than they do in terms of online purchasing decisions."
Byrne said British Columbia's entrepreneurial spirit is pushing the province to the forefront of the sector, with businesses here developing expertise that has gained international attention.
source:http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=3fc37cab-4dae-4544-b18d-91128b1b5a88&p=2
If you're expecting to see Canada's major financial institutions appear on the first page, you'll be disappointed.
TD Canada Trust is the only one of the majors that appears in the top 10. Aggressive cyberbank ING Direct is at the top of the search listings -- winner of that particular search-engine optimization contest. And HSBCdirect.ca occupies the top paid listing, giving it winning points for paid placement.
Winning the online search game is a growing competition, and one that is expected to result in more than $1 billion being spent on search-engine marketing (SEM) in Canada by 2010.
And it is a fast-moving competition. What tops the list one minute might be deposed by a contender the next.
It has spawned a whole new category of marketing, with British Columbia enjoying high status in the new and growing generation of SEM specialists.
Byrne, the national director of Yahoo Search Marketing Canada, was in Vancouver recently as part of a Yahoo team hosting and taking part in events focusing on this lucrative and growing segment. It's a field in which Canadian businesses are lagging behind their U.S. counterparts.
"Compared to all the other major developed economies [Yahoo is] in, Canada has been the slowest to adopt search marketing," said Byrne.
SEM promotes websites by pushing them up to the top of the search engine results, through a variety of means that can include search engine optimization (SEO) -- which is getting search engines to choose your site as the most relevant and freshest for any particular search request -- to paid placement.
There are a number of popular search engines, led of course by Google, which, according to Hitwise.com, accounted for 66.44 per cent of all U.S. searches for the four weeks ending Feb. 23. Google was followed by Yahoo! Search at 20.59 per cent, MSN Search at 6.95 per cent, and Ask.com at 4.16 per cent.
In 2007, $410 million was spent in Canada on search-engine marketing, and that number is expected to climb to more than $1 billion by 2010. U.S. companies spend a much higher proportion of their online budgets on search marketing. North American-wide advertisers spent $9.4 billion US in 2006, representing a 750-per-cent increase over 2002.
It's an important pipeline to potential buyers and customers. According to Yahoo research, 43 per cent of consumers rate the Internet as the best source for price comparisons, and 37 per cent turn to it most often in their consumer research. The Internet ties with word-of-mouth as being seen as the most reliable source of information for 24 per cent of users.
Among Canadians online:
- 78 per cent use search engines to research purchases;
- 27 per cent of those Web surfers end up making online purchases;
- 45 per cent of those searching online for product information end up buying offline;
- in 2007, Canadian consumers spent $10.5 billion in online purchases, and that number is projected to climb to nearly double for 2008.
The message for businesses, says Byrne, is that regardless of whether they cater to customers offline or on, search engines play an important role in promoting their products or services.
"We help them understand the role search engines play in their business, whether they are actively managing it or not," he said. "The reality is there are 85 million search queries a day in Canada, and we take people through the amount of influence search engines have on people's consumer decisions, on their buying decisions.
"What we are finding is that search engines have more influence in terms of offline consumer decision-making than they do in terms of online purchasing decisions."
Byrne said British Columbia's entrepreneurial spirit is pushing the province to the forefront of the sector, with businesses here developing expertise that has gained international attention.
source:http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=3fc37cab-4dae-4544-b18d-91128b1b5a88&p=2
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Link Building is a continuous process
In Search Engine Optimization, off page factors have become related to rankings and its importance is increasing day by day. Link popularity is now the back bone for any solid website which can now make or break websites in the search engines. On the basis of this the link building process carries special importance in web promotion tactics of NDDW.
Link popularity is determined by the number and quality of links pointing to your website. Still one of the crucial aspects of SEO has been link popularity because search engines do not want artificially created or useless links. So it is not that easy to build link popularity in genuine manner according to the present scenario. Link farms and huge link exchange programs have now the thing of the past. Those who will try such strategies will easily find themselves booted out of search engines. Infact search engines likes links from authoritative sites or links from the site that share the same theme and focus as your website. NDDW performs the link building operations in a genuine and authorized way keeping in view the search engine algorithms and guidelines.
The benefits nowadays from getting an authoritative site to link to you are getting additional visibility apart from the link popularity. Web masters are generally contacted for link building and this brings reciprocal links. But much better methods of generating one way links from high traffic websites have also come into existence. These are submission of websites into internet directories, write interesting articles and distributing all over internet, but it becomes beneficial only when they have link to your website.
At NDDW all these different methods of creating link popularity are implemented to smooth enhance the operations of link process for a website. So here the link building may be slow but it is a smooth and ongoing process.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70357&Itemid=82
Link popularity is determined by the number and quality of links pointing to your website. Still one of the crucial aspects of SEO has been link popularity because search engines do not want artificially created or useless links. So it is not that easy to build link popularity in genuine manner according to the present scenario. Link farms and huge link exchange programs have now the thing of the past. Those who will try such strategies will easily find themselves booted out of search engines. Infact search engines likes links from authoritative sites or links from the site that share the same theme and focus as your website. NDDW performs the link building operations in a genuine and authorized way keeping in view the search engine algorithms and guidelines.
The benefits nowadays from getting an authoritative site to link to you are getting additional visibility apart from the link popularity. Web masters are generally contacted for link building and this brings reciprocal links. But much better methods of generating one way links from high traffic websites have also come into existence. These are submission of websites into internet directories, write interesting articles and distributing all over internet, but it becomes beneficial only when they have link to your website.
At NDDW all these different methods of creating link popularity are implemented to smooth enhance the operations of link process for a website. So here the link building may be slow but it is a smooth and ongoing process.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70357&Itemid=82
Study Rates PPC Search Providers
AXcess News has completed a study of pay-per-click advertising agencies which was conducted to find out just how well they perform.
The reporting period ran a span of eight weeks in which a host of PPC search providers were rated for Support; Reporting; Accuracy in deliverable clicks; and Quality of visitors.
Tech beat reporter Dave Porter said, "We found alarming differences across those per-per-click (PPC) advertising agencies."
In a tech feature story released Sunday evening, titled, "When Pay-Per-Click Goes Per-Clunk" Porter noted that "In all fairness, there were many differences between the PPC providers reporting capabilities and so we took that into consideration in rating them."
During the course of the Study, Google Analytics' Urchin software was used in combination with tracking codes to monitor each PPC search provider for accuracy of deliverable clicks.
In Dave's story, each PPC search provider was rated using a simple grading system of "A" for excellent to "F" for failure. The report itself is being made available free of charge to anyone who requests a copy. A link can be found in that news article.
The study was not funded by any third-party and no marketing scheme to promote advertising is involved. AXcess News is a broad news publisher online and one of the largest independent pure web news publishers in North America with a network stretching across 92 major market cities in the United States, 16 in Canada through affiliate Source Press and an additional 16 in the United Kingdom through European affiliate EU News Network Ltd. whose combined headlines reach in excess of three million readers per day.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76738&Itemid=9
The reporting period ran a span of eight weeks in which a host of PPC search providers were rated for Support; Reporting; Accuracy in deliverable clicks; and Quality of visitors.
Tech beat reporter Dave Porter said, "We found alarming differences across those per-per-click (PPC) advertising agencies."
In a tech feature story released Sunday evening, titled, "When Pay-Per-Click Goes Per-Clunk" Porter noted that "In all fairness, there were many differences between the PPC providers reporting capabilities and so we took that into consideration in rating them."
During the course of the Study, Google Analytics' Urchin software was used in combination with tracking codes to monitor each PPC search provider for accuracy of deliverable clicks.
In Dave's story, each PPC search provider was rated using a simple grading system of "A" for excellent to "F" for failure. The report itself is being made available free of charge to anyone who requests a copy. A link can be found in that news article.
The study was not funded by any third-party and no marketing scheme to promote advertising is involved. AXcess News is a broad news publisher online and one of the largest independent pure web news publishers in North America with a network stretching across 92 major market cities in the United States, 16 in Canada through affiliate Source Press and an additional 16 in the United Kingdom through European affiliate EU News Network Ltd. whose combined headlines reach in excess of three million readers per day.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76738&Itemid=9
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Relating social media to other online strategies
Online success depends on something very important – it requires a multi-tactic approach. I like to consider online strategies as a solution made up of three important web marketing pillars that each work together to achieve strategic objectives, namely a corporate or brand website, ROI-driven web marketing and influence-focused social media.
Before I explain, let's identify some typical strategic objectives:
* Generate traffic and and links
* Improve search engine rankings for targeted key phrases
* Build awareness amongst your target market
* Increase your subscriber base or generate a lead
* Build trust amongst your customers
* Sell a product
* Help users move through the sales cycle
* Build influence in the market place
* Support your crisis management communications strategy
* Learn new things about customers
* Identify relevant online networks
Different strategies address different objectives
As we can tell, most of these objectives are relevant to most businesses; however, it's important to understand that different online strategies address different objectives. As an example, social media may be great to build influence or learn new things about customers but would need the support of search engine optimization (SEO) to sell a product or generate a lead. It's not to say that social media cold not address these objectives; having the two working in a combined fashion just makes it all the more successful.
So back to the three important web marketing pillars…
The foundation to any online strategy should be a corporate website. It's what some would call the starting point for customers who are interested in your company – for instance, where they get their news about your company and your product and service offerings. Pay a lot of attention to this because, if anything else, this is the most important online real estate you will own. It's what pulls everything together and what supports all your other strategies.
The second important online pillar is what I call “traditional digital media”. Examples of this includes affiliate marketing, response-driven advertising, pay per click, search engine optimisation and WebPR, to name some. When used properly, these strategies offer a very targeted, ROI-driven manner of reaching out to consumers and drawling them closer to a predetermined goal.
The third – yes, third – pillar is social media. I put this one last because well-executed social media needs the support of some of the above in order to be more effective than its isolated application. Unlike the other two pillars, the social media arm of the online strategy is about leveraging relationships and networks for the purposes of engaging in open dialogue with and amongst target markets, to create influence within the market and to discover new business-relevant information and trends.
Source:http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/21944.html
Before I explain, let's identify some typical strategic objectives:
* Generate traffic and and links
* Improve search engine rankings for targeted key phrases
* Build awareness amongst your target market
* Increase your subscriber base or generate a lead
* Build trust amongst your customers
* Sell a product
* Help users move through the sales cycle
* Build influence in the market place
* Support your crisis management communications strategy
* Learn new things about customers
* Identify relevant online networks
Different strategies address different objectives
As we can tell, most of these objectives are relevant to most businesses; however, it's important to understand that different online strategies address different objectives. As an example, social media may be great to build influence or learn new things about customers but would need the support of search engine optimization (SEO) to sell a product or generate a lead. It's not to say that social media cold not address these objectives; having the two working in a combined fashion just makes it all the more successful.
So back to the three important web marketing pillars…
The foundation to any online strategy should be a corporate website. It's what some would call the starting point for customers who are interested in your company – for instance, where they get their news about your company and your product and service offerings. Pay a lot of attention to this because, if anything else, this is the most important online real estate you will own. It's what pulls everything together and what supports all your other strategies.
The second important online pillar is what I call “traditional digital media”. Examples of this includes affiliate marketing, response-driven advertising, pay per click, search engine optimisation and WebPR, to name some. When used properly, these strategies offer a very targeted, ROI-driven manner of reaching out to consumers and drawling them closer to a predetermined goal.
The third – yes, third – pillar is social media. I put this one last because well-executed social media needs the support of some of the above in order to be more effective than its isolated application. Unlike the other two pillars, the social media arm of the online strategy is about leveraging relationships and networks for the purposes of engaging in open dialogue with and amongst target markets, to create influence within the market and to discover new business-relevant information and trends.
Source:http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/21944.html
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Running Successful PPC Campaigns: Attracting The Right Click
Creating and refining successful PPC campaigns requires the ability to think and act like the average web surfer. It requires taking time to understand your ideal customer as well as the wrong visitor (the guy who just cost you a $2.00 click). It's worth the effort to figure out how to attract the former and dissuade the latter.
Outlined here are 7 tips to attract the right kind of clicks to your pay-per-click campaign, clicks that make you happy to spend those marketing dollars.
1. Study the website as if you were a visitor
* Click through each page
* Click on each link
* Look at pages in several different browsers
* View the source code for keyword ideas
2. Think through how searchers will search for your products (ID cards, photo id cards, nametags, ID badges) and separate out these intuitive keywords into their own ad groups
* ID card systems
* ID badge systems
3. Understand your policies
* Does "Same Day Ship" relate to lanyards as well as nameplates?
* How does the low price guarantee work?
4. Check Google Images for search terms that generate traffic, but that don't make sense such as "Cobra Lanyards" & "Dress Lanyards" or even the ubiquitous "Honda Lanyards"
* Understanding the search term (and whether you sell it) allows you to take appropriate action
5. Walk through all conversions to the point of the Thank You/confirmation page
* Is there "friction"? (anything that causes the user to become frustrated, fatigued or confused about the buying process)
* Are there broken pages?
* Is there too much on the landing page that might distract a potential buyer and make him/her bounce off the page?
6. Study your competition
* Understand what they sell
* Understand your image(s) of difference
* Write ad copy that echoes how the competition is advertising as well as ad copy that is uniquely yours
* Run testing to see which ad copy converts the best
7. Screen potential clickers with the use of qualifying adjectives
* "Premium"
* "Quality"
* "100 minimum"
This process assumes the presence of search marketing analytics. Utilizing good search marketing analytics in an intelligent fashion can give you control over the money spent on pay per click ads. If you don't have visibility into your campaigns then get in and strap yourself down, it could be a bumpy road!
source:http://www.straightupsearch.com/archives/2008/02/running_success.html
Outlined here are 7 tips to attract the right kind of clicks to your pay-per-click campaign, clicks that make you happy to spend those marketing dollars.
1. Study the website as if you were a visitor
* Click through each page
* Click on each link
* Look at pages in several different browsers
* View the source code for keyword ideas
2. Think through how searchers will search for your products (ID cards, photo id cards, nametags, ID badges) and separate out these intuitive keywords into their own ad groups
* ID card systems
* ID badge systems
3. Understand your policies
* Does "Same Day Ship" relate to lanyards as well as nameplates?
* How does the low price guarantee work?
4. Check Google Images for search terms that generate traffic, but that don't make sense such as "Cobra Lanyards" & "Dress Lanyards" or even the ubiquitous "Honda Lanyards"
* Understanding the search term (and whether you sell it) allows you to take appropriate action
5. Walk through all conversions to the point of the Thank You/confirmation page
* Is there "friction"? (anything that causes the user to become frustrated, fatigued or confused about the buying process)
* Are there broken pages?
* Is there too much on the landing page that might distract a potential buyer and make him/her bounce off the page?
6. Study your competition
* Understand what they sell
* Understand your image(s) of difference
* Write ad copy that echoes how the competition is advertising as well as ad copy that is uniquely yours
* Run testing to see which ad copy converts the best
7. Screen potential clickers with the use of qualifying adjectives
* "Premium"
* "Quality"
* "100 minimum"
This process assumes the presence of search marketing analytics. Utilizing good search marketing analytics in an intelligent fashion can give you control over the money spent on pay per click ads. If you don't have visibility into your campaigns then get in and strap yourself down, it could be a bumpy road!
source:http://www.straightupsearch.com/archives/2008/02/running_success.html
Monday, February 4, 2008
10 Search Engines You Don't Know About
Go beyond Google and get vertical. These specialized search sites will help you find the business information you need -- fast
We've got some big news for you. Brace yourself. There are search options beyond Google -- and we're not talking about Yahoo! and MSN. Vertical search is on the rise, and whether you're looking for business products, services or information, or a new place to advertise, vertical search sites can benefit your company. Market research firm Outsell predicts that the vertical search market will reach $1 billion by 2009. While Google gets around 65 percent of search traffic today, it doesn't mean it's always the best place for your search.
"When we speak about an alternative search engine, we're speaking about something that's extremely industry-specific, very niche," says Jason Prescott, the owner of vertical search engine TopTenWholesale.com. "It's pin-pointing, accurate and only going to be for that topic you're searching for, [rather than] having to scour through the billions of search results you'll get on a mainstream, tier-one search engine."
The same logic applies when determining where to spend your search engine marketing dollars. If you sell a general consumer product, Google may be your best bet. But if you're looking for highly targeted business purchasers, it may be wise to go vertical. "[You get] a much more relevant user, a much higher conversion and a much better return on your investment," says Prescott. "User traffic might be a little less, but the visitor is highly more qualified."
Here are 10 vertical search engines we've identified as useful to any business owner. Be sure to research your own industry, however, for more specific verticals that can hone your searches or boost your advertising ROI for business customers.
* TopTenWholesale.com: One of the biggest hurdles for new retailers is finding wholesale merchandise to sell. Prescott aims to place all those product sellers in one place so that when you search for shoes, you receive wholesale results, not Zappos.com. The site also offers news, a blog, directory listings, forums and classifieds, fulfilling Prescott's goal to create not just a wholesale search site, but a wholesale portal.
* ThomasNet.com: ThomasRegister has been a leader in the business information field for more than 100 years, and ThomasNet.com is the place to go if you're in the market for industrial and manufacturing goods and services. This robust site allows you to search by product/service, company name, brand name, industrial websites or CAD models. You can narrow your search by U.S. state or Canadian province. Browse by category, download 2D and 3D CAD models of mechanical parts, and even download a search plug-in for your Firefox browser.
* FindLaw.com: Both FindLaw.com and Lawyers.com serve the same primary functions: They allow users to search for attorneys by location and specialty. But FindLaw has an easier-to-use interface, making its extra information quicker to find, such as the free form examples, free full-text books and legal dictionary. Both have general search functionality, message boards and blogs, but again FindLaw.com wins us over with its small business section.
* USA.gov: The government has a labyrinthine web of sites, and if you're looking for information, it's easy to get lost. This all-things-U.S.-government portal/search engine has a tab specifically for businesses and nonprofits, and you can browse by topic. By far, the most helpful area in the business tab is Get It Done Online, an area with links to business necessities that, yes, you can take care of online.
* IT.com: Rather than offering a plain vanilla directory or just one basic search bar, IT.com provides several tech-oriented search options. This includes product and service categories (enterprise networking, open source, product development) or industry solutions (government, SMB, financial markets). The interface takes non-tech folks into consideration as well; each search choice has a roll-over with an explanation of the terminology. In the main search bar, you can choose to search for news, companies, white papers or webcasts.
* Zibb.com: Reed Business is one of the leading vertical publishers with more than 200 business titles. Zibb.com is the company's new online venture, a vertical search service for business that offers not only websites and blogs in the results, but also Reed Business content. This site has a strong UK bent to its information, but it's one to keep an eye on because of its strong news element along with the typical search results and directory listings.
* VerticalSearch.com: VerticalSearch gets super meta as a vertical search engine for vertical sites. The homepage offers pre-determined categories, but you also can choose your own keywords. Results pages offer feeds of headlines and research papers, and you can choose to pull an RSS feed from any search that you choose.
* SearchFinance.com: This site bills itself as the "search engine for financial executives," making it quite the portal for corporate finance. While search is front-and-center, there are a ton of browsing options: blogs, podcasts, events, webcasts, magazines and alerts. Search results are particularly impressive. Directory matches pop up first, but you can also scroll over the results sources for more information on a particular company and choose to remove any "commercial" sources from your results.
* Yahoo! Local: This site is the most consumer-oriented of the bunch, but a recent redesign with a focus on vertical categories makes it worth a look. Yahoo! Local has broken out of the restaurants-and-nightclubs city guide mold to offer a number of business categories like health and beauty, automotive, and real estate--useful information whether you're looking for professional service vendors in your neighborhood, a new bistro to take a client to, or a local advertising solution for your business.
* Melissa Data: This is a slight fudge on our part as this site is more of a new customer enticement for data service provider Melissa Data than true vertical search, but there are so many free search options, it may become a favorite on your bookmarks. You can search for basic demographic and market data, maps and mailing information, statistics or specific data like SIC codes. There's a daily limit to your number of "lookups," so unless you subscribe, you'll have to curb your information appetite.
Source:http://www.bmighty.com/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205918774
We've got some big news for you. Brace yourself. There are search options beyond Google -- and we're not talking about Yahoo! and MSN. Vertical search is on the rise, and whether you're looking for business products, services or information, or a new place to advertise, vertical search sites can benefit your company. Market research firm Outsell predicts that the vertical search market will reach $1 billion by 2009. While Google gets around 65 percent of search traffic today, it doesn't mean it's always the best place for your search.
"When we speak about an alternative search engine, we're speaking about something that's extremely industry-specific, very niche," says Jason Prescott, the owner of vertical search engine TopTenWholesale.com. "It's pin-pointing, accurate and only going to be for that topic you're searching for, [rather than] having to scour through the billions of search results you'll get on a mainstream, tier-one search engine."
The same logic applies when determining where to spend your search engine marketing dollars. If you sell a general consumer product, Google may be your best bet. But if you're looking for highly targeted business purchasers, it may be wise to go vertical. "[You get] a much more relevant user, a much higher conversion and a much better return on your investment," says Prescott. "User traffic might be a little less, but the visitor is highly more qualified."
Here are 10 vertical search engines we've identified as useful to any business owner. Be sure to research your own industry, however, for more specific verticals that can hone your searches or boost your advertising ROI for business customers.
* TopTenWholesale.com: One of the biggest hurdles for new retailers is finding wholesale merchandise to sell. Prescott aims to place all those product sellers in one place so that when you search for shoes, you receive wholesale results, not Zappos.com. The site also offers news, a blog, directory listings, forums and classifieds, fulfilling Prescott's goal to create not just a wholesale search site, but a wholesale portal.
* ThomasNet.com: ThomasRegister has been a leader in the business information field for more than 100 years, and ThomasNet.com is the place to go if you're in the market for industrial and manufacturing goods and services. This robust site allows you to search by product/service, company name, brand name, industrial websites or CAD models. You can narrow your search by U.S. state or Canadian province. Browse by category, download 2D and 3D CAD models of mechanical parts, and even download a search plug-in for your Firefox browser.
* FindLaw.com: Both FindLaw.com and Lawyers.com serve the same primary functions: They allow users to search for attorneys by location and specialty. But FindLaw has an easier-to-use interface, making its extra information quicker to find, such as the free form examples, free full-text books and legal dictionary. Both have general search functionality, message boards and blogs, but again FindLaw.com wins us over with its small business section.
* USA.gov: The government has a labyrinthine web of sites, and if you're looking for information, it's easy to get lost. This all-things-U.S.-government portal/search engine has a tab specifically for businesses and nonprofits, and you can browse by topic. By far, the most helpful area in the business tab is Get It Done Online, an area with links to business necessities that, yes, you can take care of online.
* IT.com: Rather than offering a plain vanilla directory or just one basic search bar, IT.com provides several tech-oriented search options. This includes product and service categories (enterprise networking, open source, product development) or industry solutions (government, SMB, financial markets). The interface takes non-tech folks into consideration as well; each search choice has a roll-over with an explanation of the terminology. In the main search bar, you can choose to search for news, companies, white papers or webcasts.
* Zibb.com: Reed Business is one of the leading vertical publishers with more than 200 business titles. Zibb.com is the company's new online venture, a vertical search service for business that offers not only websites and blogs in the results, but also Reed Business content. This site has a strong UK bent to its information, but it's one to keep an eye on because of its strong news element along with the typical search results and directory listings.
* VerticalSearch.com: VerticalSearch gets super meta as a vertical search engine for vertical sites. The homepage offers pre-determined categories, but you also can choose your own keywords. Results pages offer feeds of headlines and research papers, and you can choose to pull an RSS feed from any search that you choose.
* SearchFinance.com: This site bills itself as the "search engine for financial executives," making it quite the portal for corporate finance. While search is front-and-center, there are a ton of browsing options: blogs, podcasts, events, webcasts, magazines and alerts. Search results are particularly impressive. Directory matches pop up first, but you can also scroll over the results sources for more information on a particular company and choose to remove any "commercial" sources from your results.
* Yahoo! Local: This site is the most consumer-oriented of the bunch, but a recent redesign with a focus on vertical categories makes it worth a look. Yahoo! Local has broken out of the restaurants-and-nightclubs city guide mold to offer a number of business categories like health and beauty, automotive, and real estate--useful information whether you're looking for professional service vendors in your neighborhood, a new bistro to take a client to, or a local advertising solution for your business.
* Melissa Data: This is a slight fudge on our part as this site is more of a new customer enticement for data service provider Melissa Data than true vertical search, but there are so many free search options, it may become a favorite on your bookmarks. You can search for basic demographic and market data, maps and mailing information, statistics or specific data like SIC codes. There's a daily limit to your number of "lookups," so unless you subscribe, you'll have to curb your information appetite.
Source:http://www.bmighty.com/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205918774
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Search Engine Optimization Best Practice Helps Ecommerce Store to Increase Sales by 780%
Using desme’s strategic online marketing expertise, Bradley’s Military Mall achieved a remarkable increase in sales of 780%. The recently launched army surplus ecommerce website accomplished this feat through their revitalized online presence and marketing campaign, both developed by desme.
Eighty-four days after implementation, the website has seen vast improvements in conversion rates and an increase in overall sales. Bill McKinney, the owner of Bradley’s, commented on these achievements, “Bradley’s web page actually experienced a whopping 780% growth rate since desme developed our new ecommerce website. This phenomenal, outlandish figure is usually only found in fairy tales, but it’s an accurate figure.”
desme was contacted by Bradley’s Military in January of 2007. After the initial exchange of information and a few helpful meetings, both companies came to an agreement for a redesign of the old website and the implementation of an intense online-marketing campaign. The first step was for desme to develop a brand new ecommerce website using the advanced ASP.NET technology on an MS SQL server.
desme’s website usability team conducted a complete target market survey to identify the user trends of Bradley’s intended audience. Based on these findings, desme’s graphics team put together a new layout for the ecommerce website. Once graphics were completed, desme’s technology team leader, Ashraf Alam (a Microsoft MVP for .NET technology), built a strong architectural backbone for the ecommerce solution. In less than ninety days the entire technology had been developed, including a fully integrated custom shopping cart.
While the website development was going on, a team of desme search engine optimization experts put together a complete keyword study. Working side by side with the developers, their work ensured the new website was fully optimized and that search engines could index the website content properly.
The website was launched in October of 2007. Within days the company started to see great results. With the old website, Bradley’s received about 3.4% online orders for all of their mail orders. In less than ninety days, the total online sales increased to over 780%. This increase currently makes up about 27% of all the mail orders. desme CEO Enam Noor says, “We feel very confident about this systematic improvement, and expect to see total online sales exceeding 50% of their total mail orders.”
desme’s view of a successful online marketing campaign includes the use of best practices, as well as a combination of increased site visibility and improved conversion rates through enhanced website usability. Using a systematic implementation of these principles, desme has achieved quantifiable results.
source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/Website_Marketing/SEO/prweb670163.htm
Eighty-four days after implementation, the website has seen vast improvements in conversion rates and an increase in overall sales. Bill McKinney, the owner of Bradley’s, commented on these achievements, “Bradley’s web page actually experienced a whopping 780% growth rate since desme developed our new ecommerce website. This phenomenal, outlandish figure is usually only found in fairy tales, but it’s an accurate figure.”
desme was contacted by Bradley’s Military in January of 2007. After the initial exchange of information and a few helpful meetings, both companies came to an agreement for a redesign of the old website and the implementation of an intense online-marketing campaign. The first step was for desme to develop a brand new ecommerce website using the advanced ASP.NET technology on an MS SQL server.
desme’s website usability team conducted a complete target market survey to identify the user trends of Bradley’s intended audience. Based on these findings, desme’s graphics team put together a new layout for the ecommerce website. Once graphics were completed, desme’s technology team leader, Ashraf Alam (a Microsoft MVP for .NET technology), built a strong architectural backbone for the ecommerce solution. In less than ninety days the entire technology had been developed, including a fully integrated custom shopping cart.
While the website development was going on, a team of desme search engine optimization experts put together a complete keyword study. Working side by side with the developers, their work ensured the new website was fully optimized and that search engines could index the website content properly.
The website was launched in October of 2007. Within days the company started to see great results. With the old website, Bradley’s received about 3.4% online orders for all of their mail orders. In less than ninety days, the total online sales increased to over 780%. This increase currently makes up about 27% of all the mail orders. desme CEO Enam Noor says, “We feel very confident about this systematic improvement, and expect to see total online sales exceeding 50% of their total mail orders.”
desme’s view of a successful online marketing campaign includes the use of best practices, as well as a combination of increased site visibility and improved conversion rates through enhanced website usability. Using a systematic implementation of these principles, desme has achieved quantifiable results.
source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/Website_Marketing/SEO/prweb670163.htm
Freight Broker Hits Top 10 on Search Engines
In addition to search engine optimization (SEO) the company's internet marketing program also includes a monthly email newsletter, frequent direct email campaigns, link exchange program, online directories as well as some pay-per-click advertising. The company has tracked over $500,000 in revenue in 2007 directly back to their internet marketing efforts. "Internet marketing has always been an important part of our marketing program. Our new site and the search engine rankings really highlight the fact that we are a technology driven freight management company," said Dennis Brown, the company's CEO.
The company expects the traffic to their site and the revenue linked to it to grow significantly in 2008. Recently, the company received an inquiry from a shipper which resulted in over $47,000 in new business since December 2007. In addition, the success of the company's freight broker agent program has been fueled by online marketing with over 100 inquiries per month being submitted through the company's website.
About Logistic Dynamics, Inc.
Logistic Dynamics, Inc. is a Buffalo, New York, based third party logistics provider that specializes in transportation management services including full truckload, less than truckload and rail. Their mission is to provide innovative, practical and top-quality logistic services that offer our customers a competitive advantage.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64193&Itemid=9
The company expects the traffic to their site and the revenue linked to it to grow significantly in 2008. Recently, the company received an inquiry from a shipper which resulted in over $47,000 in new business since December 2007. In addition, the success of the company's freight broker agent program has been fueled by online marketing with over 100 inquiries per month being submitted through the company's website.
About Logistic Dynamics, Inc.
Logistic Dynamics, Inc. is a Buffalo, New York, based third party logistics provider that specializes in transportation management services including full truckload, less than truckload and rail. Their mission is to provide innovative, practical and top-quality logistic services that offer our customers a competitive advantage.
source:http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64193&Itemid=9
Online Reputation Management To Keep Your Nose Clean?
Techdirt is reporting that as a response to all the hoopla about people being able to Google for information on potential employees (or lovers) a new market has opened up in "online reputation management". This seems to be the ultimate realization of those dubious firms who promised to scrub your records clean from a few years back.
"From the description in the article, it sounds like this involves a combination of search engine optimization, plus legal bullying of anyone who says something you don't like. If anything, that sounds like a recipe for more trouble, but you can see how it would appeal to those who are unhappy with how they're perceived online. Obviously, it's no fun to have something bad about you exposed online, but efforts to suppress that information have a decent likelihood of backfiring and serving to highlight that information. I wonder if these online reputation managers have malpractice insurance for when that happens
source:http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/01/1618215
"From the description in the article, it sounds like this involves a combination of search engine optimization, plus legal bullying of anyone who says something you don't like. If anything, that sounds like a recipe for more trouble, but you can see how it would appeal to those who are unhappy with how they're perceived online. Obviously, it's no fun to have something bad about you exposed online, but efforts to suppress that information have a decent likelihood of backfiring and serving to highlight that information. I wonder if these online reputation managers have malpractice insurance for when that happens
source:http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/01/1618215
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Unethical SEO techniques 'are punishable'
Although search engine optimisation (SEO) is constantly changing, there are a number of techniques which are constantly viewed as against the rules, it has been claimed.
Barry Hurd, president of Social Media Systems, reports that "unscrupulous" SEO methods will result in punishment from the big search engines.
"Making sure that your company is aware of certain basic standards and not accidentally infringing on discouraged techniques is essential to making sure your online brand is a flourishing asset that is building value," he said.
Dishonest- or "black hat"- techniques include hiding a wealth of irrelevant keywords on webpages or page cloaking - showing search engines visually unappealing but maximised keyword pages that it would not intend for consumers.
Submitting identical content on different pages and providing multiple pages with a particular phrase for SEO is also frowned upon, alongside misspelling common words, brands or websites in order to appear when a web user submits a typo to a search engine.
Leading search engine Google has also publicly penalised websites which pay for reciprocal links, branding them unethical.
Source:http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/searchmarketing/18445052/Unethical-SEO-techniques-are-punishable
Barry Hurd, president of Social Media Systems, reports that "unscrupulous" SEO methods will result in punishment from the big search engines.
"Making sure that your company is aware of certain basic standards and not accidentally infringing on discouraged techniques is essential to making sure your online brand is a flourishing asset that is building value," he said.
Dishonest- or "black hat"- techniques include hiding a wealth of irrelevant keywords on webpages or page cloaking - showing search engines visually unappealing but maximised keyword pages that it would not intend for consumers.
Submitting identical content on different pages and providing multiple pages with a particular phrase for SEO is also frowned upon, alongside misspelling common words, brands or websites in order to appear when a web user submits a typo to a search engine.
Leading search engine Google has also publicly penalised websites which pay for reciprocal links, branding them unethical.
Source:http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/searchmarketing/18445052/Unethical-SEO-techniques-are-punishable
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Get to grips" with SEO
Firms who have been living on a different planet and have yet to optimise their website need to get up to speed, it has been claimed.
In an article for BizReport.com, freelance marketing consultant Helen Leggatt commented that 2008 is the year to use search engine optimisation (SEO) as a marketing tool.
Ms Leggatt said that pay-per-click adverts can be effective, but that 80 per cent of searchers use natural search results as a way of finding a product or a service.
She recommended that it should be a company's main aim to appear in the top five listed websites, or at least on the first page of search results.
"One thing remains certain - internet marketing is still the fastest, most measurable and direct means of marketing and it is here to stay," she commented.
Florida newspaper the Herald Tribune recently recommended that firms use natural search over paid as pay-per-clicks often attract spammers and competitors rather than potential customers.
source:http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/searchmarketing/18439599/
In an article for BizReport.com, freelance marketing consultant Helen Leggatt commented that 2008 is the year to use search engine optimisation (SEO) as a marketing tool.
Ms Leggatt said that pay-per-click adverts can be effective, but that 80 per cent of searchers use natural search results as a way of finding a product or a service.
She recommended that it should be a company's main aim to appear in the top five listed websites, or at least on the first page of search results.
"One thing remains certain - internet marketing is still the fastest, most measurable and direct means of marketing and it is here to stay," she commented.
Florida newspaper the Herald Tribune recently recommended that firms use natural search over paid as pay-per-clicks often attract spammers and competitors rather than potential customers.
source:http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/searchmarketing/18439599/
Top 11 Money-Wasting AdWords Mistakes
In my daily interaction with search engine marketing clients, I come across bad habits that businesses and individuals continually repeat.
I see a very high percentage of website owners with little to no understanding of how to build a search engine-friendly site. That's typically my first encounter. The cash drain isn't as apparent then as during my second encounter: pay per click, specifically Google AdWords.
This column assumes that you're fairly new to Google AdWords. If you want to educate yourself further, the 10 to 20 hours you can spend at the Google AdWords Learning Center is well worth it. You also can take the certification exam if you meet their requirements. You need to manage at least one AdWords account and keep at least $1,000 "spend" for 90 days to be allowed to take the exam.
For more information, review the following websites:
adwords.google.com/support
adwords.blogspot.com
groups.google.com/group/adwords-help
They contain additional tips, as well as real-world comments from professionals and others in the field.
Once you've familiarized yourself with AdWords and are ready to set up a campaign, be sure to avoid these top 11 money-wasting mistakes.
1. Not turning off the content network.
When first setting up a campaign, turn off the content network. This option is "on" by default, and you're lucky if it works for you in the first run. It's a form of contextual advertising and tries to position your ads on sites like About.com, The New York Times, Food Network and others.
You typically will see high impressions in your system, but often low CTR--click-through-rates, as determined by impressions to clicks--and low-quality clicks. These aren't serious buyers; they're wasting your dollars and time.
2. Using too many keywords.
When creating new campaigns and ad groups, many people begin by entering every keyword under the sun. Don't. Targeting is key; think about your niche and the categories within it. You can use tools like the Wordtracker Free Suggestion Tool to determine which keywords to begin with. Then, when you have a list together, refer to tip No. 6 below.
3. Ignoring the competition.
Analyze your competitors. One way is to use the Google Keyword Tool. Select "site-related keywords" and enter the competitor's website to pull keyword groups from their pages. Also, check their sites for an overall impression and for content. Do some more digging at SpyFu.com to find more on rankings and competitive PPC spending. Look at the search results pages after entering their top keywords in Google, review their ads, think about text and prepare for tip No. 4.
4. Not including keywords in the ad text.
Use keywords in the title of the ad, but also in the ad copy. So many ad copywriters forget to include the keyword phrase in the actual body of the ad text. Write clearly and provide relevant content for both users and the Google AdBot. Create a matching, relevant landing page to satisfy users and obtain a higher Google Quality Score.
5. Sending visitors to your homepage.
Most PPC accounts I come across send traffic and visitors to their homepage. But there's simply too much information there, and visitors may leave your site. Read my blog entry on money-making landing page tips and test the pages for content. Realize that narrow-casting is better than broad-casting in almost every case.
6. Using too many broad keywords.
Creating ad campaigns and ad groups with tightly matched keywords is necessary, but most folks don't do it. You should place only a few keywords into each ad group and add more groups to accommodate new "themed" keywords. Google maxes out at 100 ad groups per account; I believe they'll raise this at some point.
7. Using broad match.
When you set up Google AdWords for the first time and input a keyword, the default type is broad match. While broad match can work for you, I always recommend using phrase and exact match types to start and track the performance from there.
AdWords also has a negative match type, which is overlooked most of the time. Examples of match types are:
Broad: leather jacket (any order, any word, not as targeted, more clicks)
Phrase: "leather jacket" (this order, words before and after, more targeted, OK clicks)
Exact: [leather jacket] (this order, no other words, highly targeted, least clicks)
Negative: - pink (this would not show ads for "pink leather jacket")
Yahoo! Search Marketing includes match types as well. Make sure you understand them and where they're different. Begin with the standard match type, which is not the default.
8. Using the default "optimize" option.
The default setup for AdWords is to let Google "optimize" your ads for you. It's better to select the "rotate" option, so you can test your ad performance in a much cleaner manner.
9. Not tracking ads and keywords.
If keywords and ads aren't performing, you're wasting money. You can use the free Google Analytics tool to help you track activity. Keywords should also be tested and tracked with misspellings, plurals and stemming(-ing) options.
10. Not properly testing ads.
A/B testing has been around in the advertising world for decades, and the concept is the same online. Write at least two ads within an ad group, and AdWords will rotate them automatically for you. This will reveal the winning ads based on performance. As you continue, pause the loser and write a new and better one; try to outperform the winner again. Don't change it immediately, though; let it run for a while to get some trending data.
11. Not applying the "conversion code."
Be sure to apply the "conversion code," which is a simple JavaScript set that goes into your landing page or thank you page. This information will show up in a column on your AdWords dashboard when you log in, and is a quick way to check for lead counts and important for tracking return on spend.
The Perfect Google AdWords Model
Now that you've read the tips above, here's how to set up a high-quality campaign.
Set up campaigns using keywords + geo (geographic) targets; content network turned off.
Set up campaigns using keywords + geo targets using Google's own internal selections (regions, territories); content network turned off.
Set up a separate, content network only (Google Search/Network is not checked). Only do this after you have tested the first two items for performance.
Create a new "placement targeted campaign" and use "section targeting" to avoid exposing your ads to "run of site" matching. When you research your keywords, find the top searched phrases and type them into Google. Click on each of the top resulting five to eight listings, and check to see if they have Google ads. If they do, use placement and section targeting to drive traffic with a highly targeted, cost-savings approach.
Create "exact" and "phrase" campaigns to start, and create ad groups with one to four keywords, tightly matched.
Create two ads within each group.
Show ads more evenly (campaign settings) and select "rotate" option.
Google is the most advanced, most used search engine, and the AdWords advertising platform, can generate business for you. The company also has expanded into audio, print, mobile and pay-per-action models. However, make sure to test for performance before scaling out to these additional services. If you're into advanced landing page testing, you can try the new Website Optimizer (video) options, which use advanced page and elements optimization.
These tips have helped me a lot, and although I spent a fair share of my own money to discover them, you can apply these tactics immediately and start saving money. You'll also receive more quality clicks and better tracking for yourself and clients.
Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/141728/top_11_moneywasting_adwords_mistakes.html
I see a very high percentage of website owners with little to no understanding of how to build a search engine-friendly site. That's typically my first encounter. The cash drain isn't as apparent then as during my second encounter: pay per click, specifically Google AdWords.
This column assumes that you're fairly new to Google AdWords. If you want to educate yourself further, the 10 to 20 hours you can spend at the Google AdWords Learning Center is well worth it. You also can take the certification exam if you meet their requirements. You need to manage at least one AdWords account and keep at least $1,000 "spend" for 90 days to be allowed to take the exam.
For more information, review the following websites:
adwords.google.com/support
adwords.blogspot.com
groups.google.com/group/adwords-help
They contain additional tips, as well as real-world comments from professionals and others in the field.
Once you've familiarized yourself with AdWords and are ready to set up a campaign, be sure to avoid these top 11 money-wasting mistakes.
1. Not turning off the content network.
When first setting up a campaign, turn off the content network. This option is "on" by default, and you're lucky if it works for you in the first run. It's a form of contextual advertising and tries to position your ads on sites like About.com, The New York Times, Food Network and others.
You typically will see high impressions in your system, but often low CTR--click-through-rates, as determined by impressions to clicks--and low-quality clicks. These aren't serious buyers; they're wasting your dollars and time.
2. Using too many keywords.
When creating new campaigns and ad groups, many people begin by entering every keyword under the sun. Don't. Targeting is key; think about your niche and the categories within it. You can use tools like the Wordtracker Free Suggestion Tool to determine which keywords to begin with. Then, when you have a list together, refer to tip No. 6 below.
3. Ignoring the competition.
Analyze your competitors. One way is to use the Google Keyword Tool. Select "site-related keywords" and enter the competitor's website to pull keyword groups from their pages. Also, check their sites for an overall impression and for content. Do some more digging at SpyFu.com to find more on rankings and competitive PPC spending. Look at the search results pages after entering their top keywords in Google, review their ads, think about text and prepare for tip No. 4.
4. Not including keywords in the ad text.
Use keywords in the title of the ad, but also in the ad copy. So many ad copywriters forget to include the keyword phrase in the actual body of the ad text. Write clearly and provide relevant content for both users and the Google AdBot. Create a matching, relevant landing page to satisfy users and obtain a higher Google Quality Score.
5. Sending visitors to your homepage.
Most PPC accounts I come across send traffic and visitors to their homepage. But there's simply too much information there, and visitors may leave your site. Read my blog entry on money-making landing page tips and test the pages for content. Realize that narrow-casting is better than broad-casting in almost every case.
6. Using too many broad keywords.
Creating ad campaigns and ad groups with tightly matched keywords is necessary, but most folks don't do it. You should place only a few keywords into each ad group and add more groups to accommodate new "themed" keywords. Google maxes out at 100 ad groups per account; I believe they'll raise this at some point.
7. Using broad match.
When you set up Google AdWords for the first time and input a keyword, the default type is broad match. While broad match can work for you, I always recommend using phrase and exact match types to start and track the performance from there.
AdWords also has a negative match type, which is overlooked most of the time. Examples of match types are:
Broad: leather jacket (any order, any word, not as targeted, more clicks)
Phrase: "leather jacket" (this order, words before and after, more targeted, OK clicks)
Exact: [leather jacket] (this order, no other words, highly targeted, least clicks)
Negative: - pink (this would not show ads for "pink leather jacket")
Yahoo! Search Marketing includes match types as well. Make sure you understand them and where they're different. Begin with the standard match type, which is not the default.
8. Using the default "optimize" option.
The default setup for AdWords is to let Google "optimize" your ads for you. It's better to select the "rotate" option, so you can test your ad performance in a much cleaner manner.
9. Not tracking ads and keywords.
If keywords and ads aren't performing, you're wasting money. You can use the free Google Analytics tool to help you track activity. Keywords should also be tested and tracked with misspellings, plurals and stemming(-ing) options.
10. Not properly testing ads.
A/B testing has been around in the advertising world for decades, and the concept is the same online. Write at least two ads within an ad group, and AdWords will rotate them automatically for you. This will reveal the winning ads based on performance. As you continue, pause the loser and write a new and better one; try to outperform the winner again. Don't change it immediately, though; let it run for a while to get some trending data.
11. Not applying the "conversion code."
Be sure to apply the "conversion code," which is a simple JavaScript set that goes into your landing page or thank you page. This information will show up in a column on your AdWords dashboard when you log in, and is a quick way to check for lead counts and important for tracking return on spend.
The Perfect Google AdWords Model
Now that you've read the tips above, here's how to set up a high-quality campaign.
Set up campaigns using keywords + geo (geographic) targets; content network turned off.
Set up campaigns using keywords + geo targets using Google's own internal selections (regions, territories); content network turned off.
Set up a separate, content network only (Google Search/Network is not checked). Only do this after you have tested the first two items for performance.
Create a new "placement targeted campaign" and use "section targeting" to avoid exposing your ads to "run of site" matching. When you research your keywords, find the top searched phrases and type them into Google. Click on each of the top resulting five to eight listings, and check to see if they have Google ads. If they do, use placement and section targeting to drive traffic with a highly targeted, cost-savings approach.
Create "exact" and "phrase" campaigns to start, and create ad groups with one to four keywords, tightly matched.
Create two ads within each group.
Show ads more evenly (campaign settings) and select "rotate" option.
Google is the most advanced, most used search engine, and the AdWords advertising platform, can generate business for you. The company also has expanded into audio, print, mobile and pay-per-action models. However, make sure to test for performance before scaling out to these additional services. If you're into advanced landing page testing, you can try the new Website Optimizer (video) options, which use advanced page and elements optimization.
These tips have helped me a lot, and although I spent a fair share of my own money to discover them, you can apply these tactics immediately and start saving money. You'll also receive more quality clicks and better tracking for yourself and clients.
Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/141728/top_11_moneywasting_adwords_mistakes.html
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Affiliate marketing experiences dramatic growth
Affiliate marketing is experiencing dramatic growth in the UK, according to figures out today from E-consultancy1. The findings are echoed by the UK’s largest independent affiliate network, buy.at, which has seen turnover increase by seventy per cent.
Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at explains, ‘Performance marketing has grown as marketers increase their knowledge of new marketing channels and demand greater efficiencies from their online activity. Search engine marketing has arguably reached its peak but affiliate marketing is still in a high-growth phase with 78 per cent of merchants planning to increase their spend. Merchants and their agencies are gaining expertise and becoming increasingly strategic in their use of the affiliate channel. We have seen investment increase by approximately 70 per cent on our network over the past year with brands such as John Lewis, M&S, Egg, Virgin Media and British Telecom adopting our innovative technology, such as dynamic product feeds to affiliates, combining different affiliate segments to maximise CPA and improving their tracking and analysis of the results. This represents a huge opportunity for both affiliates and marketers that understand the channel and appreciate the benefits of true pay-for-performance advertising.’
Today’s report from E-consultancy follows research sponsored by buy.at2 which discovered that 78 per cent of merchants had increased their spend on affiliate marketing between September 2005 and September 2007 and the same percentage planned to increase it further in the next two years. 75 per cent of gaming companies said they had increased spend since 2005 followed by 71 per cent of travel companies, 68 per cent of financial services companies, 64 per cent of telcoes and 62 per cent of retailers.
85 per cent of the UK agencies surveyed by E-consultancy3 confirmed that they now manage more affiliate marketing for clients than they did two years ago with the channel representing 20 per cent of turnover. 92 per cent of agencies expected to be managing more affiliate marketing in two years’ time, and 90 per cent of them see affiliate marketing is a way of growing their agency or differentiating it.
One reason for growth is because the channel is the most cost-effective channel for driving customer acquisition. The research2 found that 95% of UK advertisers (merchants) said that it is ‘very cost-effective’ or ‘quite cost-effective’ for acquiring customers. Paid search was seen as the second most cost-effective followed by email marketing with these marketing channels viewed as ‘very cost-effective’ or ‘quite cost-effective’ by 90% and 82% of merchants respectively.
Affiliate marketing was also revealed as a highly effective channel for driving volume with three quarters of respondents (73%) saying that it drove either ‘high volume’ or ‘medium volume’. The travel industry was found to be making the most successful use of affiliate marketing.
A total of 239 UK merchants completed the survey in September 2007. Half of the respondents who were aware of their company’s turnover said it was in excess of £50 million per year. 100 agencies completed the Affiliate Marketing Agency Survey.
Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at concludes, ‘Affiliate marketing has proved itself as a particularly cost-effective way to drive a volume of customer acquisition which has resulted in increased investment in the channel. We have had a particularly successful year at buy.at with new customer wins including Match.com, dial-a-phone, Seatwave, O2 and BT. We have also developed new partnerships with Atlas and Doubleclick, launched new technology, acquired a lead generation company, recruited industry experts such as Louise Green from OMG and expanded our network into the US. We expect this growth to continue even faster in 2008 as technology and account management become more sophisticated and affiliate marketing becomes an increasingly strategic marketing channel for UK businesses.’
sourcehttp://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=36443&hilite=
Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at explains, ‘Performance marketing has grown as marketers increase their knowledge of new marketing channels and demand greater efficiencies from their online activity. Search engine marketing has arguably reached its peak but affiliate marketing is still in a high-growth phase with 78 per cent of merchants planning to increase their spend. Merchants and their agencies are gaining expertise and becoming increasingly strategic in their use of the affiliate channel. We have seen investment increase by approximately 70 per cent on our network over the past year with brands such as John Lewis, M&S, Egg, Virgin Media and British Telecom adopting our innovative technology, such as dynamic product feeds to affiliates, combining different affiliate segments to maximise CPA and improving their tracking and analysis of the results. This represents a huge opportunity for both affiliates and marketers that understand the channel and appreciate the benefits of true pay-for-performance advertising.’
Today’s report from E-consultancy follows research sponsored by buy.at2 which discovered that 78 per cent of merchants had increased their spend on affiliate marketing between September 2005 and September 2007 and the same percentage planned to increase it further in the next two years. 75 per cent of gaming companies said they had increased spend since 2005 followed by 71 per cent of travel companies, 68 per cent of financial services companies, 64 per cent of telcoes and 62 per cent of retailers.
85 per cent of the UK agencies surveyed by E-consultancy3 confirmed that they now manage more affiliate marketing for clients than they did two years ago with the channel representing 20 per cent of turnover. 92 per cent of agencies expected to be managing more affiliate marketing in two years’ time, and 90 per cent of them see affiliate marketing is a way of growing their agency or differentiating it.
One reason for growth is because the channel is the most cost-effective channel for driving customer acquisition. The research2 found that 95% of UK advertisers (merchants) said that it is ‘very cost-effective’ or ‘quite cost-effective’ for acquiring customers. Paid search was seen as the second most cost-effective followed by email marketing with these marketing channels viewed as ‘very cost-effective’ or ‘quite cost-effective’ by 90% and 82% of merchants respectively.
Affiliate marketing was also revealed as a highly effective channel for driving volume with three quarters of respondents (73%) saying that it drove either ‘high volume’ or ‘medium volume’. The travel industry was found to be making the most successful use of affiliate marketing.
A total of 239 UK merchants completed the survey in September 2007. Half of the respondents who were aware of their company’s turnover said it was in excess of £50 million per year. 100 agencies completed the Affiliate Marketing Agency Survey.
Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at concludes, ‘Affiliate marketing has proved itself as a particularly cost-effective way to drive a volume of customer acquisition which has resulted in increased investment in the channel. We have had a particularly successful year at buy.at with new customer wins including Match.com, dial-a-phone, Seatwave, O2 and BT. We have also developed new partnerships with Atlas and Doubleclick, launched new technology, acquired a lead generation company, recruited industry experts such as Louise Green from OMG and expanded our network into the US. We expect this growth to continue even faster in 2008 as technology and account management become more sophisticated and affiliate marketing becomes an increasingly strategic marketing channel for UK businesses.’
sourcehttp://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=36443&hilite=
Monday, January 21, 2008
Affiliate marketing in UK drives more than £3bn in sales in 2007
The UK market for affiliate marketing grew by an estimated 45% in 2007, taking the total value of online sales generated by this channel in 2007 to more than £3 billion.
According to a research published in E-consultancy's Affiliate Marketing Networks Buyer's Guide, the £3.13 billion total for 2007, compared to £2.16 billion in 2006, illustrates the healthy state of this digital sector which will continue to grow strongly during 2008. The company added that sectors such as retail, travel and financial services continue to be the bedrock of affiliate marketing, with both Blue Chips and SMEs ramping up their investment.
E-consultancy's Head of Research Linus Gregoriadis said: "Affiliate marketing continues to gain momentum because the performance-based model is so popular with advertisers. When the biggest consumer-facing brands in these industries do not have a well-defined affiliate strategy, it now tends to be an exception rather than the rule."
He added: "The whole industry is getting more professional and 2007 was definitely a big year for affiliate marketing. The channel has become much more strategic and boardrooms are starting to take notice. Media agencies are becoming increasingly involved in this sector as a consequence of its increased profile."
According to the research, commissions and fees paid out to affiliate networks (covering payments for both networks and affiliates) amounted to £186 million in 2007, up 40% from £133 million in 2006 (and compared to £83 million in 2005).
The growth of affiliate marketing reflects the buoyant nature of online retail in the UK. According to the IMRG, the UK's online retailers generated around £46.6 billion in sales last year.
Source:http://www.m-travel.com/news/2008/01/affiliate-marke.html
According to a research published in E-consultancy's Affiliate Marketing Networks Buyer's Guide, the £3.13 billion total for 2007, compared to £2.16 billion in 2006, illustrates the healthy state of this digital sector which will continue to grow strongly during 2008. The company added that sectors such as retail, travel and financial services continue to be the bedrock of affiliate marketing, with both Blue Chips and SMEs ramping up their investment.
E-consultancy's Head of Research Linus Gregoriadis said: "Affiliate marketing continues to gain momentum because the performance-based model is so popular with advertisers. When the biggest consumer-facing brands in these industries do not have a well-defined affiliate strategy, it now tends to be an exception rather than the rule."
He added: "The whole industry is getting more professional and 2007 was definitely a big year for affiliate marketing. The channel has become much more strategic and boardrooms are starting to take notice. Media agencies are becoming increasingly involved in this sector as a consequence of its increased profile."
According to the research, commissions and fees paid out to affiliate networks (covering payments for both networks and affiliates) amounted to £186 million in 2007, up 40% from £133 million in 2006 (and compared to £83 million in 2005).
The growth of affiliate marketing reflects the buoyant nature of online retail in the UK. According to the IMRG, the UK's online retailers generated around £46.6 billion in sales last year.
Source:http://www.m-travel.com/news/2008/01/affiliate-marke.html
Thursday, January 17, 2008
What is a Feed and RSS?
Recently I was wondering how many of the website users are familiar with subscribing to "Feeds" and understand what "RSS" really is all about. I don't often bring you technical advice because it is not the nature of the site, but I believe that this is a useful and time-saving technology that people should understand the basics.
So I've decided to do a short and informative little post about this technology and how it can make your life a little bit simpler.
Quick Introduction to RSS
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a technology that allows a website to announce and share it's updates to a large audience. The "Feed" is a document containing the update information which is shared out. So when you are subscribing to a website's "feed" you are asking it to inform you of updates.
This is not quite the same as an e-mail subscription which sends you a message directly. RSS is a passive technology which you must ask the website for this update file. It sounds a bit complicated but once you get in to the swing of things it becomes a real time saver.
How do I use a Feed
There are several ways to use feeds to your advantage. You can integrate them in to your homepage, such as Yahoo or Google. You can subscribe to "Live Bookmarks" if you are using Firefox web browser, and you can also use a web-based news reader application.
Adding a Feed to my Homepage
Most websites have a little orange icon which is the internationally known image for RSS. The large image on this article is one example, and there is another example on the right side of the page which is much smaller.
By clicking on that icon you can add the feed to your homepage or news reader application.
Adding Feeds with Chicklets
Chicklets are simple graphics that help the user add the feed to their homepage or reader. They must be created and provided by the website owner.
Live Bookmarks in Firefox
Firefox is a very popular web browser that gives you a lot more functionality than Internet Explorer. One of it's many popular features is the Live bookmarks. A "Live Bookmark" a kind of website subscription that automatically downloads links to the latest articles from your favourite websites.
To add a live bookmark simply click on the "Bookmarks" menu at the top of your screen and then select "Subscribe to this Page"
Now when you open your bookmarks you will have a folder containing links to all the latest articles from that website, which is dynamically updated.
News Reader Programs
Probably one of the most common programs for reader the news is Google's News Reader. It is quite an easy application to use and it allows you to keep track of many websites all in one place. It automatically scans all the websites you add for updates and then presents only the latest articles for your review. It's my personal favourite option and the one I use daily.
There are many other options such as BlogLines, NetVibes and NewsGator available, but I find Google makes the process incredibly simple and easy to use.
Source:http://www.masonictravels.com/2008/01/what-is-feed-and-rss.html
So I've decided to do a short and informative little post about this technology and how it can make your life a little bit simpler.
Quick Introduction to RSS
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a technology that allows a website to announce and share it's updates to a large audience. The "Feed" is a document containing the update information which is shared out. So when you are subscribing to a website's "feed" you are asking it to inform you of updates.
This is not quite the same as an e-mail subscription which sends you a message directly. RSS is a passive technology which you must ask the website for this update file. It sounds a bit complicated but once you get in to the swing of things it becomes a real time saver.
How do I use a Feed
There are several ways to use feeds to your advantage. You can integrate them in to your homepage, such as Yahoo or Google. You can subscribe to "Live Bookmarks" if you are using Firefox web browser, and you can also use a web-based news reader application.
Adding a Feed to my Homepage
Most websites have a little orange icon which is the internationally known image for RSS. The large image on this article is one example, and there is another example on the right side of the page which is much smaller.
By clicking on that icon you can add the feed to your homepage or news reader application.
Adding Feeds with Chicklets
Chicklets are simple graphics that help the user add the feed to their homepage or reader. They must be created and provided by the website owner.
Live Bookmarks in Firefox
Firefox is a very popular web browser that gives you a lot more functionality than Internet Explorer. One of it's many popular features is the Live bookmarks. A "Live Bookmark" a kind of website subscription that automatically downloads links to the latest articles from your favourite websites.
To add a live bookmark simply click on the "Bookmarks" menu at the top of your screen and then select "Subscribe to this Page"
Now when you open your bookmarks you will have a folder containing links to all the latest articles from that website, which is dynamically updated.
News Reader Programs
Probably one of the most common programs for reader the news is Google's News Reader. It is quite an easy application to use and it allows you to keep track of many websites all in one place. It automatically scans all the websites you add for updates and then presents only the latest articles for your review. It's my personal favourite option and the one I use daily.
There are many other options such as BlogLines, NetVibes and NewsGator available, but I find Google makes the process incredibly simple and easy to use.
Source:http://www.masonictravels.com/2008/01/what-is-feed-and-rss.html
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Search Engine Optimization is a Continuous Process
Many of us must have heard the saying 'Plan your work and work your plan', and that the one who actually believes and works on it succeeds in the rat race of proving his or her worth. This certainly stands true for the corporate world which is continuously upgrading itself with the latest technology and where every organization faces new competition in every aspect of the business world. Marketing is an integral part of all these aspects. No business enterprise can survive without marketing and promotion of its products and services. The main reason for this promotion is the fact that 'out of sight is out of mind'. This is why, it is essential to maintain the visibility of the business enterprise in the eyes of the potential customers.
With the Internet coming up with new conveniences and benefits, both for customers and for business enterprises, it has become a perfect marketplace in the present-day scenario. Along with many benefits such as the potential to find customers worldwide, it also has many drawbacks to it. The challenge involved in online marketing is to combat the competitors from all over the world. The internet has meant that restrictions of geographical boundaries do not hold true anymore. This is where the visibility of the website comes into question. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process that rates the website based on various factors and delineates their rankings. Business organizations therefore have to recognize these factors that affect their rankings with search engines and make the required amendments in their websites accordingly. Once a website has achieved a higher ranking, one can say that the business organization is almost halfway through on the path of success. We can say that diverting traffic to a website by way of higher SEO ranking via search engine optimization is a key to reaching the zenith of success.
The better your research, the more improved your website's ranking. The main aim of search engines is to satisfy Internet users by providing them the exact information that they were looking for. They want content that is not only relevant, but also upgraded according to the latest developments. This is the reason why search engine optimization is also known to be an ongoing process. That is to say, providing the relevant information and achieving a higher ranking once is not enough. The website has to be continuously updated to maintain that high position with the search engines.
The content of the website holds the most important position when it comes to improving search engine rankings. 'Content is king' is a phrase that each one of us, who is acquainted with the workings of SEO, must have heard. This is primarily because this is the basic requirement of the user. The content should always be relevant and easily comprehensible. Plagiarized content is not required at all. Ensure that you do not stray from the topic or repeat points. The keywords that will be used should fit in well with the flow of the text. Enlighten Internet users with your knowledge and impress them with your interesting writing style and do not bother about the consequences after that. It is necessary to make the content rich in keywords. Though one should also be cautious not to exceed the ideal keyword density, otherwise it may draw the suspicion of spam towards the site and may lead to the site being banned.
There is a need to conduct constant and extensive research to find the keywords that potential users are expected to submit in the search engines. The keywords chosen should be such that it best describes the crux of the entire website. Also, the keywords selected should draw fewer competitive website results, but it should not be so unique that a general user would not even think of that keyword while searching. Technically speaking, it is advisable to go for keywords that draw less than 5000 competitive websites, but is searched at an average of 1000 times per month. Do not forget to incorporate the selected keyword in the header tag, keyword tag, title and in the description tag, including a few times in the actual content of the website.
Apart from the content and keywords, there are some other factors that greatly influence the rankings of a website on the search engines. Interlinking is a method of promotion that mentions the link of your website to the visitors of another site that has the same theme, and vice versa. This could be a reference link for the users of that website. Uploading numerous articles related to the theme of the website is another standard component included in SEO strategies to enhance the rankings with search engines. These articles can also be submitted with famous article directories that will drive more traffic to the site as the hyperlink of the website can be mentioned in the resource box at the end of the article. At times, the site map of a website can also be of great help in achieving a higher ranking. As the site map lists all the content mentioned on the website, when the SEOs trace the required keyword on the sitemap, they simply index it with the search engines. This enhances the ranking of the website.
However, there are many SEO consultants who claim to provide top rankings with search engines within a few days and they undoubtedly, prove themselves right in claiming that. But, one should remain alert not to be carried away by such claims as there are two techniques of SEO that gives higher rankings - white hat and the black hat SEO technique. While white hat makes use of ethical techniques, black hat employs unfair strategies to achieve the top position with the search engines in a matter of a few days. The latter technique is the one that is also employed by SEO consultants who claim a quick higher SEO ranking. For long term benefit, one should always look forward to white hat techniques to avoid any inconveniences such as spamming and other related things. Hence, we can say that SEO serves a two way purpose by providing the user with the required information, and business organizations their soaring profits.
Source:http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/080116searchengineoptimization.html
With the Internet coming up with new conveniences and benefits, both for customers and for business enterprises, it has become a perfect marketplace in the present-day scenario. Along with many benefits such as the potential to find customers worldwide, it also has many drawbacks to it. The challenge involved in online marketing is to combat the competitors from all over the world. The internet has meant that restrictions of geographical boundaries do not hold true anymore. This is where the visibility of the website comes into question. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process that rates the website based on various factors and delineates their rankings. Business organizations therefore have to recognize these factors that affect their rankings with search engines and make the required amendments in their websites accordingly. Once a website has achieved a higher ranking, one can say that the business organization is almost halfway through on the path of success. We can say that diverting traffic to a website by way of higher SEO ranking via search engine optimization is a key to reaching the zenith of success.
The better your research, the more improved your website's ranking. The main aim of search engines is to satisfy Internet users by providing them the exact information that they were looking for. They want content that is not only relevant, but also upgraded according to the latest developments. This is the reason why search engine optimization is also known to be an ongoing process. That is to say, providing the relevant information and achieving a higher ranking once is not enough. The website has to be continuously updated to maintain that high position with the search engines.
The content of the website holds the most important position when it comes to improving search engine rankings. 'Content is king' is a phrase that each one of us, who is acquainted with the workings of SEO, must have heard. This is primarily because this is the basic requirement of the user. The content should always be relevant and easily comprehensible. Plagiarized content is not required at all. Ensure that you do not stray from the topic or repeat points. The keywords that will be used should fit in well with the flow of the text. Enlighten Internet users with your knowledge and impress them with your interesting writing style and do not bother about the consequences after that. It is necessary to make the content rich in keywords. Though one should also be cautious not to exceed the ideal keyword density, otherwise it may draw the suspicion of spam towards the site and may lead to the site being banned.
There is a need to conduct constant and extensive research to find the keywords that potential users are expected to submit in the search engines. The keywords chosen should be such that it best describes the crux of the entire website. Also, the keywords selected should draw fewer competitive website results, but it should not be so unique that a general user would not even think of that keyword while searching. Technically speaking, it is advisable to go for keywords that draw less than 5000 competitive websites, but is searched at an average of 1000 times per month. Do not forget to incorporate the selected keyword in the header tag, keyword tag, title and in the description tag, including a few times in the actual content of the website.
Apart from the content and keywords, there are some other factors that greatly influence the rankings of a website on the search engines. Interlinking is a method of promotion that mentions the link of your website to the visitors of another site that has the same theme, and vice versa. This could be a reference link for the users of that website. Uploading numerous articles related to the theme of the website is another standard component included in SEO strategies to enhance the rankings with search engines. These articles can also be submitted with famous article directories that will drive more traffic to the site as the hyperlink of the website can be mentioned in the resource box at the end of the article. At times, the site map of a website can also be of great help in achieving a higher ranking. As the site map lists all the content mentioned on the website, when the SEOs trace the required keyword on the sitemap, they simply index it with the search engines. This enhances the ranking of the website.
However, there are many SEO consultants who claim to provide top rankings with search engines within a few days and they undoubtedly, prove themselves right in claiming that. But, one should remain alert not to be carried away by such claims as there are two techniques of SEO that gives higher rankings - white hat and the black hat SEO technique. While white hat makes use of ethical techniques, black hat employs unfair strategies to achieve the top position with the search engines in a matter of a few days. The latter technique is the one that is also employed by SEO consultants who claim a quick higher SEO ranking. For long term benefit, one should always look forward to white hat techniques to avoid any inconveniences such as spamming and other related things. Hence, we can say that SEO serves a two way purpose by providing the user with the required information, and business organizations their soaring profits.
Source:http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/080116searchengineoptimization.html
Why You Should Reveal SEO Secrets To Clients
When you buy search services, some agencies merely provide a general overview of their SEO methodology without revealing any details. They claim this relieves the client from being bogged down in the minutiae of implementation. In reality though, these firms are simply trying to keep their intellectual property under wraps and create a dependence for their implementation services. With a little help though, well trained in-house teams are fully capable of implementing search strategies on their own. So why should a search marketing firm, which has spent considerable time and money developing proven methods, risk losing a client by empowering them with proprietary knowledge and skills?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is mission critical in today's business environment, and many organizations conduct SEO in-house because of the immediacy and convenience of having all hands on deck from the various departments involved in SEO planning and implementation. However, seasoned SEO technicians are hard to come by and many firms (with or without experienced people) find it beneficial to leverage expert consultants that provide on-site search training for in-house personnel.
This creates a need for search agencies that are willing to engage their clients in the details of SEO. Transparent firms educate clients on proven SEO strategies, customize a tactical-level roadmap and provide detailed documentation and training on their processes. Furthermore, they encourage the client to rely on objective analytics as proof of success. In the end, knowledge transfer and accountability empower the client and make the agency a strategic business partner.
The reciprocal benefits of knowledge transfer
First, search engine marketing tactics evolve on a daily basis, so companies will always need experts to help them create and implement successful programs. By engaging in knowledge-transfer, an interactive agency specializing in search articulates the need for its clients to embrace SEO as an ongoing discipline within their marketing department. Clients who adopt a knowledge-transfer mindset will profit from the insights afforded, enjoying the benefits of a long-term search marketing partnership. What’s more, savvy agencies will continue to supplement their SEO knowledge as the knowledge-transfer process becomes reciprocal and they start learning from their clients. Active clients can provide additional eyes and ears to industry changes and trends, as well as practical insights into the effectiveness of advanced SEO tactics.
SEO success begins with documented methodology
An experienced agency develops the client partnership by explaining how to conduct and analyze an SEO Diagnostic Audit. While most firms don't document or disclose SEO tactics in a document, a forward-thinking agency does this to build the foundation for a strategic plan to improve the client's search rankings. But knowledge transfer shouldn’t stop with an Audit. The client should also learn the philosophies and processes behind keyword research, page selection, content development and optimization, link building, and social media marketing.
By acting on the Diagnostic Audit findings, the client can identify obstacles that are hindering their efforts to achieve top search rankings. With this framework, the agency can credibly exhibit to the client how its recommended solutions will lead to improved search visibility. The client, in turn, can more quickly accept the recommended changes without doubt or hesitation. Moreover, with continued training, the client can start to optimize technical and editorial elements on their own and begin to outperform their competitors in search engine result pages.
Measurement is critical
Without a benchmark or continued analysis, it is virtually impossible to determine the effectiveness of an SEO campaign. As such, it is more important than ever for your in-house team to understand and use Web analytics to get the most from your search investment. As the need to master SEO search metrics becomes critical to success, Web analytics tools are becoming more sophisticated and accurate. At the same time, they are also becoming more difficult to understand and use. Again, search training services can hone your in-house team's skills, while providing documented methodology.
Looking ahead in 2008
Clients that are search savvy tend to recognize additional opportunities to accomplish business objectives through search. Because search strategies are so broad and deep in scope, an increase in general SEO knowledge leads to a greater need for niche expertise and consulting. As such, interactive agencies that have a knowledge-transfer philosophy, as well as capabilities beyond search, have a distinct opportunity to help their clients benefit nicely from search trends in 2008. For example, agencies that take the time to educate their clients about blended search, and the strategies used to optimize for it, can extend their usefulness beyond search to include: content development (i.e. text, videos, images), content optimization (i.e. landing page testing and targeting), content promotion (i.e. Internet PR and advertising), and technical development (i.e. widgets, USG platforms, custom applications). This creates a strategic partnership in which both the client and the agency can continue to create value for each other over the long term.
Paul J. Bruemmer has provided search engine marketing expertise and in-house consulting services to prominent American businesses since 1995. As Director of Search Marketing at Red Door Interactive, he is responsible for the strategic implementation of search engine marketing activities within Red Door's Internet Presence Management (IPM) services. John Faris, who co-authored this article, is Senior Search Analyst at Red Door Interactive. He helps plan, implement, test, measure, and optimize traffic acquisition strategies for Red Door’s clients. Faris is also tasked with training in-house SEO teams. The In House column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.
Source:http://searchengineland.com/080116-122346.php
Search engine optimization (SEO) is mission critical in today's business environment, and many organizations conduct SEO in-house because of the immediacy and convenience of having all hands on deck from the various departments involved in SEO planning and implementation. However, seasoned SEO technicians are hard to come by and many firms (with or without experienced people) find it beneficial to leverage expert consultants that provide on-site search training for in-house personnel.
This creates a need for search agencies that are willing to engage their clients in the details of SEO. Transparent firms educate clients on proven SEO strategies, customize a tactical-level roadmap and provide detailed documentation and training on their processes. Furthermore, they encourage the client to rely on objective analytics as proof of success. In the end, knowledge transfer and accountability empower the client and make the agency a strategic business partner.
The reciprocal benefits of knowledge transfer
First, search engine marketing tactics evolve on a daily basis, so companies will always need experts to help them create and implement successful programs. By engaging in knowledge-transfer, an interactive agency specializing in search articulates the need for its clients to embrace SEO as an ongoing discipline within their marketing department. Clients who adopt a knowledge-transfer mindset will profit from the insights afforded, enjoying the benefits of a long-term search marketing partnership. What’s more, savvy agencies will continue to supplement their SEO knowledge as the knowledge-transfer process becomes reciprocal and they start learning from their clients. Active clients can provide additional eyes and ears to industry changes and trends, as well as practical insights into the effectiveness of advanced SEO tactics.
SEO success begins with documented methodology
An experienced agency develops the client partnership by explaining how to conduct and analyze an SEO Diagnostic Audit. While most firms don't document or disclose SEO tactics in a document, a forward-thinking agency does this to build the foundation for a strategic plan to improve the client's search rankings. But knowledge transfer shouldn’t stop with an Audit. The client should also learn the philosophies and processes behind keyword research, page selection, content development and optimization, link building, and social media marketing.
By acting on the Diagnostic Audit findings, the client can identify obstacles that are hindering their efforts to achieve top search rankings. With this framework, the agency can credibly exhibit to the client how its recommended solutions will lead to improved search visibility. The client, in turn, can more quickly accept the recommended changes without doubt or hesitation. Moreover, with continued training, the client can start to optimize technical and editorial elements on their own and begin to outperform their competitors in search engine result pages.
Measurement is critical
Without a benchmark or continued analysis, it is virtually impossible to determine the effectiveness of an SEO campaign. As such, it is more important than ever for your in-house team to understand and use Web analytics to get the most from your search investment. As the need to master SEO search metrics becomes critical to success, Web analytics tools are becoming more sophisticated and accurate. At the same time, they are also becoming more difficult to understand and use. Again, search training services can hone your in-house team's skills, while providing documented methodology.
Looking ahead in 2008
Clients that are search savvy tend to recognize additional opportunities to accomplish business objectives through search. Because search strategies are so broad and deep in scope, an increase in general SEO knowledge leads to a greater need for niche expertise and consulting. As such, interactive agencies that have a knowledge-transfer philosophy, as well as capabilities beyond search, have a distinct opportunity to help their clients benefit nicely from search trends in 2008. For example, agencies that take the time to educate their clients about blended search, and the strategies used to optimize for it, can extend their usefulness beyond search to include: content development (i.e. text, videos, images), content optimization (i.e. landing page testing and targeting), content promotion (i.e. Internet PR and advertising), and technical development (i.e. widgets, USG platforms, custom applications). This creates a strategic partnership in which both the client and the agency can continue to create value for each other over the long term.
Paul J. Bruemmer has provided search engine marketing expertise and in-house consulting services to prominent American businesses since 1995. As Director of Search Marketing at Red Door Interactive, he is responsible for the strategic implementation of search engine marketing activities within Red Door's Internet Presence Management (IPM) services. John Faris, who co-authored this article, is Senior Search Analyst at Red Door Interactive. He helps plan, implement, test, measure, and optimize traffic acquisition strategies for Red Door’s clients. Faris is also tasked with training in-house SEO teams. The In House column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.
Source:http://searchengineland.com/080116-122346.php
Monday, January 14, 2008
Update on Organic SEO and PPC
Organic SEO and Pay Per Click Advertising
In the search industry we’ve all heard and read each of those terms quite frequently. We’ve each ran across those who believe their way is the only way, and then there are others who don’t express their opinions as strongly, but still prefer one way over the other. And lastly, there are those who use both methods.
This video/article does not contain any breaking information about either organic or pay per click, but you should still read/watch it because it will give you a couple of up-to-date perspectives from some very respectable people in the industry.
WebProNews spoke with David Szetela about why his company, Clix Marketing, only uses pay per click advertising.
I also had an interesting conversation with Matt Bailey about his exclusive use of organic SEO for SiteLogic clients. Matt describes organic SEO as being similar to art, and goes on to explain pay per click as a science.
David and Matt also point out the large role that social networking plays in both organic and PPC.
Organically, social networks are a great way to build your online reputation and get your name known. David mentioned that Google now has site-targeted advertising and Facebook also launched their own pay-per-click advertising service within their site.
Still have questions about organic SEO and Pay Per Click? Catch the full story in the WebProNews video that includes sound clips from David Szetela and Matt Bailey as well as a host of other information.
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/14/update-on-organic-seo-and-ppc
In the search industry we’ve all heard and read each of those terms quite frequently. We’ve each ran across those who believe their way is the only way, and then there are others who don’t express their opinions as strongly, but still prefer one way over the other. And lastly, there are those who use both methods.
This video/article does not contain any breaking information about either organic or pay per click, but you should still read/watch it because it will give you a couple of up-to-date perspectives from some very respectable people in the industry.
WebProNews spoke with David Szetela about why his company, Clix Marketing, only uses pay per click advertising.
I also had an interesting conversation with Matt Bailey about his exclusive use of organic SEO for SiteLogic clients. Matt describes organic SEO as being similar to art, and goes on to explain pay per click as a science.
David and Matt also point out the large role that social networking plays in both organic and PPC.
Organically, social networks are a great way to build your online reputation and get your name known. David mentioned that Google now has site-targeted advertising and Facebook also launched their own pay-per-click advertising service within their site.
Still have questions about organic SEO and Pay Per Click? Catch the full story in the WebProNews video that includes sound clips from David Szetela and Matt Bailey as well as a host of other information.
Source:http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/01/14/update-on-organic-seo-and-ppc
5 Ways to Keep Your SEO Resolution for 2008
Leveraging social media in 2008 will be a transformative process in the real estate industry. It is not rocket science. It does not hurt. It begins just like your decision to quit eating fast food or your promise to visit the gym twice a week.
As you try to grow healthy, realize that pay-per-click ads and costly lead generation systems are the French fries of the fast-food real estate world. You pay a premium for them, the quality is all over the board, and a lot of times you get the fries that have been sitting under a warmer for hours.
To help your business “get fit,” you have to take control of the problem.
Here are a few simple steps:
1. Join the conversation: At least once a week, visit your online community and interact.
2. Educate yourself: Pick up a book or visit a blog at least once a month and read about the subject.
3. Be realistic: Social media is not a “get fit quick” program. It takes effort and commitment. Write down realistic business goals and consult with a professional who can help you reach them.
4. Stand out from the crowd: Look at problems from an out-of-the-box viewpoint.
5. Budget appropriately: A lot of the best stuff on the Web is free. Yet $5 will not rain success down onto your business. Budget your time and money appropriately. Committing to a serious long-term plan for the year is a way to connect all of your business goals together and prevent yourself from falling into wasting money on fast-food options. Being healthy starts today.
Source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-14/5-ways-to-keep-your-seo-resolution-for-2008/
As you try to grow healthy, realize that pay-per-click ads and costly lead generation systems are the French fries of the fast-food real estate world. You pay a premium for them, the quality is all over the board, and a lot of times you get the fries that have been sitting under a warmer for hours.
To help your business “get fit,” you have to take control of the problem.
Here are a few simple steps:
1. Join the conversation: At least once a week, visit your online community and interact.
2. Educate yourself: Pick up a book or visit a blog at least once a month and read about the subject.
3. Be realistic: Social media is not a “get fit quick” program. It takes effort and commitment. Write down realistic business goals and consult with a professional who can help you reach them.
4. Stand out from the crowd: Look at problems from an out-of-the-box viewpoint.
5. Budget appropriately: A lot of the best stuff on the Web is free. Yet $5 will not rain success down onto your business. Budget your time and money appropriately. Committing to a serious long-term plan for the year is a way to connect all of your business goals together and prevent yourself from falling into wasting money on fast-food options. Being healthy starts today.
Source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-14/5-ways-to-keep-your-seo-resolution-for-2008/
Search Engine Optimization 2008: Silence of the Lambs
Search engine optimizers, or SEOs: experts in the art and science of SEO or search engine optimization.
So are we hearing the Silence of the Lambs in response to SES London chair Mike Grehan's ClickZ Experts column "The Diminishing Value of the SEO Shop ." Claims SEO is stuck in a time warp and not keeping up with the search engines themselves. Does that make Mike the Hannibal Lecter of Search?
Whether universal search is a rocky horror picture show for SEOs remains to be seen. Do you think Mike means simply "Meta Tag" SEO?
My take: SEO isn't dead. It's growing faster than any analyst firm is reporting. I'll tell you why soon.
But is SEO as a service really losing value?
If so, what does that mean for in-house SEOs?
Source:http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080114-153536
So are we hearing the Silence of the Lambs in response to SES London chair Mike Grehan's ClickZ Experts column "The Diminishing Value of the SEO Shop ." Claims SEO is stuck in a time warp and not keeping up with the search engines themselves. Does that make Mike the Hannibal Lecter of Search?
Whether universal search is a rocky horror picture show for SEOs remains to be seen. Do you think Mike means simply "Meta Tag" SEO?
My take: SEO isn't dead. It's growing faster than any analyst firm is reporting. I'll tell you why soon.
But is SEO as a service really losing value?
If so, what does that mean for in-house SEOs?
Source:http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080114-153536
Sunday, January 13, 2008
What Is All of This SEO? Search Engine Fundamentals
Do you need a basic introduction about search engine optimization (SEO)? This article is an introduction to being able to understand conversations about SEO, Spyders, Black Hat, and a variety of buzz words used by online marketers.
Why is everyone so eager to be on search engines?
In 2007, advertisers spent billions of dollars on search engine marketing. Projections for search engine marketing efforts are slated at over $12 billion dollars by 2010, with some statistics going as high as $25 billion. The online market place is constantly shifting and evolving, producing large amounts of targeted traffic for various types of businesses that know how to convert visitors into clients.
In 2006- Forrester Research released these basic statistics about search traffic:
- 93% of all Internet traffic is generated from Internet search engines
- 89% of them are first-time visitors
- 99% of Internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
- 97% of them never look beyond the top three results
- Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
- 65% of online revenue is generated from Web sites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
- 93% of global consumers use search engines to find Web sites
- 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic unpaid listings)
What is search engine optimization (SEO) and why is it important?
SEO is the process of analyzing elements on a site so that the code maximizes the combinations of keywords contained on the site when a search engine looks at it. While text elements are visible to a human eye, dozens of pieces of code within a site are also important to showing up for specific keywords: this includes structure, HTML code, directories, images and content on the site. The selection of the keywords a site shows up for is radically important to a business, as the competitiveness and importance of those keywords could potentially send thousands of viewers a day to a site.
What is search engine marketing (SEM) and why is it important?
SEM is the understanding of how a target site relates to other sites on the Web. Some SEO techniques allow a site to show up for relatively low competition keywords, but as the number of sites on a given keyword becomes more competitive, SEM allows a business to coordinate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites to increase the relevancy of how a search engine views it. SEM can also include pay per click (PPC) or unpaid organic results.
What is the primary difference between SEO and SEM?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily done with code work on a target site. It includes images, text, and information on the site.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is primarily done with work not on the site. It includes link-building, business partnerships, and other online marketing efforts.
What is the difference between Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic search results?
Most search engines have some form of PPC advertising that a business may purchase. You choose the word or phrase you wish to show up for, and when someone searches for that phrase your advertising and link shows up in the results. These systems are usually on a bid based system and typically show three to ten advertisers. When someone clicks on your link, you pay a per visitor price typically ranging from ten cents to ten dollars (some keywords near the $100 price point.) In Google, PPC results are typically the top 2 results labeled as “sponsored” and also include the right hand column.
Organic results are generated by the search engine attempting to provide the most relevant information based upon the search criteria of the user. Most SEO and SEM is focused on getting top placement in the organic section, as once the result is achieved no further cost is incurred on a per visitor basis.
What is a spider or a robot, and how is my site found?
When a site is originally created, most designers will do a simple submission to the main search engines. This causes the search engine to send an automated robot (also known as a spider) to examine the Web site. Depending on the search engine, that spider is looking for various clues to help categorize and rank the relevance of your site. (history note: the term spider was adopted as a nickname when the Internet became commonly known as the “Web”) These robots are looking for relevant and fresh information. When they find it, search engine spiders are instructed to analyze how often the information is refreshed and how relevant it is (often identified by how many times it is mentioned on other sites.)
What factors determine where a search engine will rank a Web site?
Most search engines use a process of automated mathematical analysis to determine what site has the most relevant content. There are a number of accepted best practices for reaching higher value on specific terms, ranging from keyword research, selection and relevance of link partners, meta-tags, element and heading tags, submission techniques, freshness of data, and overall online competitiveness of the keywords and industries. Social search engines vary in this regard- in that community members or staff act as the filter of relevant data, either voting or submitting data manually to the search and browsing areas of different social search networks.
How long does search engine optimization and marketing take?
Basic optimization work can be done immediately for most sites, which is a labor intensive chore of making sure the site is coded and labeled using best practice techniques. SEO work will not rank a site for competitive terms, but will provide a platform for long-term results over time depending on the material of the site.
Organic SEM usually takes 15 to 30 days to implement, and results are typically 30 to 90 days behind those efforts based on the competitiveness of the terms. That timeframe can be reduced by spending more effort, but as the time frame of the project is shortened, the pricing typically sky-rockets.
With a strategic team and specific goals, some terms can gain results within weeks by leveraging industry partnerships or using PPC campaigns for immediate impact. For most businesses, realistic search benefits should be seen at 90, 180, and 365 days.
How do you target traffic using search engine marketing?
Search engine traffic can be extremely targeted using specific keyword combinations. The more detailed the term, the more targeted the traffic. Many companies make the mistake of trying to reach extremely broad and competitive keyword results when they should be focusing on lower traffic but more highly defined keywords. Understanding the marketing 101 behind your product and services may also allow you to target like-minded terms that are not directly competitive with your business, but that attract the same demographic and target audience you are looking at reaching.
What is ethical search engine marketing? (a.k.a. what is black and white hat?)
There are many “best practice” strategies and techniques that search engines both appreciate and endorse, and ones that they actively discourage and ban. In the search engine world, White Hat describes only positive and encouraged efforts, while Black Hat describes manipulative and questionable techniques. Ethical search engine marketing utilizes only practices that are beneficial to the target site (white hat) and do not risk negative reactions (black hat) from the search engines. As a general rule, search engines appreciate using good code and relevant information to index, while they dislike techniques designed to manipulate, SPAM, or corrupt the search results.
Here are some known items that are either black hat, or discouraged by the search engines:
• Page cloaking
• Spamming of the submission process
• Automatically generated doorway pages
• False redirects to another page
• Keyword stuffing (too many keywords on a page)
• Irrelevant keywords
• Duplicate content on different pages or sites
• Misspelling of common words, or well-known brands/sites
• Unrelated link farms
• Data blogs with no unique content (also known as splogs)
• Malicious code design to trick the search engine
Can I do SEO for myself or can my Web developer do this for me?
Yes and no. There are many basic steps of SEO that a business owner can do for themselves. Many of these involve making sure the site is correctly coded under current standards and that it is submitted to the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Lycos, etc.) Beyond the basic steps of making sure the site has good foundation, experienced Web designers and developers can commonly take on the task of basic to intermediate search engine optimization. Expert level and competitive search marketing falls into a more general umbrella of online marketing that may involve SEO, SEM, online partnerships, business development, public relations, and online advertising expertise. Depending on the time frame, importance, and budget, choosing to learn certain SEO items or utilize an expert is a case by case basis. As with all projects, using a specialist may or may not make sense.
Source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-08/what-is-all-of-this-seo-search-engine-fundamentals/
Why is everyone so eager to be on search engines?
In 2007, advertisers spent billions of dollars on search engine marketing. Projections for search engine marketing efforts are slated at over $12 billion dollars by 2010, with some statistics going as high as $25 billion. The online market place is constantly shifting and evolving, producing large amounts of targeted traffic for various types of businesses that know how to convert visitors into clients.
In 2006- Forrester Research released these basic statistics about search traffic:
- 93% of all Internet traffic is generated from Internet search engines
- 89% of them are first-time visitors
- 99% of Internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
- 97% of them never look beyond the top three results
- Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
- 65% of online revenue is generated from Web sites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
- 93% of global consumers use search engines to find Web sites
- 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic unpaid listings)
What is search engine optimization (SEO) and why is it important?
SEO is the process of analyzing elements on a site so that the code maximizes the combinations of keywords contained on the site when a search engine looks at it. While text elements are visible to a human eye, dozens of pieces of code within a site are also important to showing up for specific keywords: this includes structure, HTML code, directories, images and content on the site. The selection of the keywords a site shows up for is radically important to a business, as the competitiveness and importance of those keywords could potentially send thousands of viewers a day to a site.
What is search engine marketing (SEM) and why is it important?
SEM is the understanding of how a target site relates to other sites on the Web. Some SEO techniques allow a site to show up for relatively low competition keywords, but as the number of sites on a given keyword becomes more competitive, SEM allows a business to coordinate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites to increase the relevancy of how a search engine views it. SEM can also include pay per click (PPC) or unpaid organic results.
What is the primary difference between SEO and SEM?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily done with code work on a target site. It includes images, text, and information on the site.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is primarily done with work not on the site. It includes link-building, business partnerships, and other online marketing efforts.
What is the difference between Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic search results?
Most search engines have some form of PPC advertising that a business may purchase. You choose the word or phrase you wish to show up for, and when someone searches for that phrase your advertising and link shows up in the results. These systems are usually on a bid based system and typically show three to ten advertisers. When someone clicks on your link, you pay a per visitor price typically ranging from ten cents to ten dollars (some keywords near the $100 price point.) In Google, PPC results are typically the top 2 results labeled as “sponsored” and also include the right hand column.
Organic results are generated by the search engine attempting to provide the most relevant information based upon the search criteria of the user. Most SEO and SEM is focused on getting top placement in the organic section, as once the result is achieved no further cost is incurred on a per visitor basis.
What is a spider or a robot, and how is my site found?
When a site is originally created, most designers will do a simple submission to the main search engines. This causes the search engine to send an automated robot (also known as a spider) to examine the Web site. Depending on the search engine, that spider is looking for various clues to help categorize and rank the relevance of your site. (history note: the term spider was adopted as a nickname when the Internet became commonly known as the “Web”) These robots are looking for relevant and fresh information. When they find it, search engine spiders are instructed to analyze how often the information is refreshed and how relevant it is (often identified by how many times it is mentioned on other sites.)
What factors determine where a search engine will rank a Web site?
Most search engines use a process of automated mathematical analysis to determine what site has the most relevant content. There are a number of accepted best practices for reaching higher value on specific terms, ranging from keyword research, selection and relevance of link partners, meta-tags, element and heading tags, submission techniques, freshness of data, and overall online competitiveness of the keywords and industries. Social search engines vary in this regard- in that community members or staff act as the filter of relevant data, either voting or submitting data manually to the search and browsing areas of different social search networks.
How long does search engine optimization and marketing take?
Basic optimization work can be done immediately for most sites, which is a labor intensive chore of making sure the site is coded and labeled using best practice techniques. SEO work will not rank a site for competitive terms, but will provide a platform for long-term results over time depending on the material of the site.
Organic SEM usually takes 15 to 30 days to implement, and results are typically 30 to 90 days behind those efforts based on the competitiveness of the terms. That timeframe can be reduced by spending more effort, but as the time frame of the project is shortened, the pricing typically sky-rockets.
With a strategic team and specific goals, some terms can gain results within weeks by leveraging industry partnerships or using PPC campaigns for immediate impact. For most businesses, realistic search benefits should be seen at 90, 180, and 365 days.
How do you target traffic using search engine marketing?
Search engine traffic can be extremely targeted using specific keyword combinations. The more detailed the term, the more targeted the traffic. Many companies make the mistake of trying to reach extremely broad and competitive keyword results when they should be focusing on lower traffic but more highly defined keywords. Understanding the marketing 101 behind your product and services may also allow you to target like-minded terms that are not directly competitive with your business, but that attract the same demographic and target audience you are looking at reaching.
What is ethical search engine marketing? (a.k.a. what is black and white hat?)
There are many “best practice” strategies and techniques that search engines both appreciate and endorse, and ones that they actively discourage and ban. In the search engine world, White Hat describes only positive and encouraged efforts, while Black Hat describes manipulative and questionable techniques. Ethical search engine marketing utilizes only practices that are beneficial to the target site (white hat) and do not risk negative reactions (black hat) from the search engines. As a general rule, search engines appreciate using good code and relevant information to index, while they dislike techniques designed to manipulate, SPAM, or corrupt the search results.
Here are some known items that are either black hat, or discouraged by the search engines:
• Page cloaking
• Spamming of the submission process
• Automatically generated doorway pages
• False redirects to another page
• Keyword stuffing (too many keywords on a page)
• Irrelevant keywords
• Duplicate content on different pages or sites
• Misspelling of common words, or well-known brands/sites
• Unrelated link farms
• Data blogs with no unique content (also known as splogs)
• Malicious code design to trick the search engine
Can I do SEO for myself or can my Web developer do this for me?
Yes and no. There are many basic steps of SEO that a business owner can do for themselves. Many of these involve making sure the site is correctly coded under current standards and that it is submitted to the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Lycos, etc.) Beyond the basic steps of making sure the site has good foundation, experienced Web designers and developers can commonly take on the task of basic to intermediate search engine optimization. Expert level and competitive search marketing falls into a more general umbrella of online marketing that may involve SEO, SEM, online partnerships, business development, public relations, and online advertising expertise. Depending on the time frame, importance, and budget, choosing to learn certain SEO items or utilize an expert is a case by case basis. As with all projects, using a specialist may or may not make sense.
Source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-08/what-is-all-of-this-seo-search-engine-fundamentals/
Friday, January 11, 2008
How To Remove URLs From Google?
Matt Cutts has a unique way to educate the "masses" through the videos. Last last year in December we got introduced to Amy Cutts, Matts' Cat through a video, see:
Matt Cutts, Video: How To Use ALT Attributes For Images. For all you videophiles out there, Matt has come up with another one.
If you've been confused about the best uses of robots.txt, nofollow, URL removal tool or want to know how to keep some of your pages off the web? Then this one from Matt, talks about the best ways to stop Google from crawling your content, and how to remove content from the Google index once it has been crawled.
Source:http://www.searchnewz.com/blog/talk/sn-6-20080111HowtoRemoveURLsfromGoogle.html
Matt Cutts, Video: How To Use ALT Attributes For Images. For all you videophiles out there, Matt has come up with another one.
If you've been confused about the best uses of robots.txt, nofollow, URL removal tool or want to know how to keep some of your pages off the web? Then this one from Matt, talks about the best ways to stop Google from crawling your content, and how to remove content from the Google index once it has been crawled.
Source:http://www.searchnewz.com/blog/talk/sn-6-20080111HowtoRemoveURLsfromGoogle.html
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
What Is All of This SEO? Search Engine Fundamentals
Do you need a basic introduction about search engine optimization (SEO)? This article is an introduction to being able to understand conversations about SEO, Spyders, Black Hat, and a variety of buzz words used by online marketers.
Why is everyone so eager to be on search engines?
In 2007, advertisers spent billions of dollars on search engine marketing. Projections for search engine marketing efforts are slated at over $12 billion dollars by 2010, with some statistics going as high as $25 billion. The online market place is constantly shifting and evolving, producing large amounts of targeted traffic for various types of businesses that know how to convert visitors into clients.
In 2006- Forrester Research released these basic statistics about search traffic:
- 93% of all Internet traffic is generated from Internet search engines
- 89% of them are first-time visitors
- 99% of Internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
- 97% of them never look beyond the top three results
- Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
- 65% of online revenue is generated from Web sites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
- 93% of global consumers use search engines to find Web sites
- 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic unpaid listings)
What is search engine optimization (SEO) and why is it important?
SEO is the process of analyzing elements on a site so that the code maximizes the combinations of keywords contained on the site when a search engine looks at it. While text elements are visible to a human eye, dozens of pieces of code within a site are also important to showing up for specific keywords: this includes structure, HTML code, directories, images and content on the site. The selection of the keywords a site shows up for is radically important to a business, as the competitiveness and importance of those keywords could potentially send thousands of viewers a day to a site.
What is search engine marketing (SEM) and why is it important?
SEM is the understanding of how a target site relates to other sites on the Web. Some SEO techniques allow a site to show up for relatively low competition keywords, but as the number of sites on a given keyword becomes more competitive, SEM allows a business to coordinate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites to increase the relevancy of how a search engine views it. SEM can also include pay per click (PPC) or unpaid organic results.
What is the primary difference between SEO and SEM?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily done with code work on a target site. It includes images, text, and information on the site.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is primarily done with work not on the site. It includes link-building, business partnerships, and other online marketing efforts.
What is the difference between Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic search results?
Most search engines have some form of PPC advertising that a business may purchase. You choose the word or phrase you wish to show up for, and when someone searches for that phrase your advertising and link shows up in the results. These systems are usually on a bid based system and typically show three to ten advertisers. When someone clicks on your link, you pay a per visitor price typically ranging from ten cents to ten dollars (some keywords near the $100 price point.) In Google, PPC results are typically the top 2 results labeled as “sponsored” and also include the right hand column.
Organic results are generated by the search engine attempting to provide the most relevant information based upon the search criteria of the user. Most SEO and SEM is focused on getting top placement in the organic section, as once the result is achieved no further cost is incurred on a per visitor basis.
What is a spider or a robot, and how is my site found?
When a site is originally created, most designers will do a simple submission to the main search engines. This causes the search engine to send an automated robot (also known as a spider) to examine the Web site. Depending on the search engine, that spider is looking for various clues to help categorize and rank the relevance of your site. (history note: the term spider was adopted as a nickname when the Internet became commonly known as the “Web”) These robots are looking for relevant and fresh information. When they find it, search engine spiders are instructed to analyze how often the information is refreshed and how relevant it is (often identified by how many times it is mentioned on other sites.)
What factors determine where a search engine will rank a Web site?
Most search engines use a process of automated mathematical analysis to determine what site has the most relevant content. There are a number of accepted best practices for reaching higher value on specific terms, ranging from keyword research, selection and relevance of link partners, meta-tags, element and heading tags, submission techniques, freshness of data, and overall online competitiveness of the keywords and industries. Social search engines vary in this regard- in that community members or staff act as the filter of relevant data, either voting or submitting data manually to the search and browsing areas of different social search networks.
How long does search engine optimization and marketing take?
Basic optimization work can be done immediately for most sites, which is a labor intensive chore of making sure the site is coded and labeled using best practice techniques. SEO work will not rank a site for competitive terms, but will provide a platform for long-term results over time depending on the material of the site.
Organic SEM usually takes 15 to 30 days to implement, and results are typically 30 to 90 days behind those efforts based on the competitiveness of the terms. That timeframe can be reduced by spending more effort, but as the time frame of the project is shortened, the pricing typically sky-rockets.
With a strategic team and specific goals, some terms can gain results within weeks by leveraging industry partnerships or using PPC campaigns for immediate impact. For most businesses, realistic search benefits should be seen at 90, 180, and 365 days.
How do you target traffic using search engine marketing?
Search engine traffic can be extremely targeted using specific keyword combinations. The more detailed the term, the more targeted the traffic. Many companies make the mistake of trying to reach extremely broad and competitive keyword results when they should be focusing on lower traffic but more highly defined keywords. Understanding the marketing 101 behind your product and services may also allow you to target like-minded terms that are not directly competitive with your business, but that attract the same demographic and target audience you are looking at reaching.
What is ethical search engine marketing?
There are many “best practice” strategies and techniques that search engines both appreciate and endorse, and ones that they actively discourage and ban. In the search engine world, White Hat describes only positive and encouraged efforts, while Black Hat describes manipulative and questionable techniques. Ethical search engine marketing utilizes only practices that are beneficial to the target site (white hat) and do not risk negative reactions (black hat) from the search engines. As a general rule, search engines appreciate using good code and relevant information to index, while they dislike techniques designed to manipulate, SPAM, or corrupt the search results.
Here are some known items that are either black hat, or discouraged by the search engines:
• Page cloaking
• Spamming of the submission process
• Automatically generated doorway pages
• False redirects to another page
• Keyword stuffing (too many keywords on a page)
• Irrelevant keywords
• Duplicate content on different pages or sites
• Misspelling of common words, or well-known brands/sites
• Unrelated link farms
• Data blogs with no unique content (also known as splogs)
• Malicious code design to trick the search engine
Can I do SEO for myself or can my Web developer do this for me?
Yes and no. There are many basic steps of SEO that a business owner can do for themselves. Many of these involve making sure the site is correctly coded under current standards and that it is submitted to the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Lycos, etc.) Beyond the basic steps of making sure the site has good foundation, experienced Web designers and developers can commonly take on the task of basic to intermediate search engine optimization. Expert level and competitive search marketing falls into a more general umbrella of online marketing that may involve SEO, SEM, online partnerships, business development, public relations, and online advertising expertise. Depending on the time frame, importance, and budget, choosing to learn certain SEO items or utilize an expert is a case by case basis. As with all projects, using a specialist may or may not make sense.
To learn more about search engines and online marketing, see 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog.
About the author:
Barry Hurd is president of Social Media Systems, an online marketing and advertising consultant group working with search engine marketing and leveraging social media communities. He has over 15 years of entrepreneurial Internet and online marketing experience. As an author and prolific blogger, he has reached online audiences around the world. Since the mid-1990s, Barry has been involved in numerous efforts to bring forth technical innovation through online business models. Past projects have included NIKE, REI, TMP Worldwide, Monster.com, Verizon Superpages, Intuit, and RISMedia.
source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-08/what-is-all-of-this-seo-search-engine-fundamentals/
Why is everyone so eager to be on search engines?
In 2007, advertisers spent billions of dollars on search engine marketing. Projections for search engine marketing efforts are slated at over $12 billion dollars by 2010, with some statistics going as high as $25 billion. The online market place is constantly shifting and evolving, producing large amounts of targeted traffic for various types of businesses that know how to convert visitors into clients.
In 2006- Forrester Research released these basic statistics about search traffic:
- 93% of all Internet traffic is generated from Internet search engines
- 89% of them are first-time visitors
- 99% of Internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
- 97% of them never look beyond the top three results
- Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
- 65% of online revenue is generated from Web sites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
- 93% of global consumers use search engines to find Web sites
- 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic unpaid listings)
What is search engine optimization (SEO) and why is it important?
SEO is the process of analyzing elements on a site so that the code maximizes the combinations of keywords contained on the site when a search engine looks at it. While text elements are visible to a human eye, dozens of pieces of code within a site are also important to showing up for specific keywords: this includes structure, HTML code, directories, images and content on the site. The selection of the keywords a site shows up for is radically important to a business, as the competitiveness and importance of those keywords could potentially send thousands of viewers a day to a site.
What is search engine marketing (SEM) and why is it important?
SEM is the understanding of how a target site relates to other sites on the Web. Some SEO techniques allow a site to show up for relatively low competition keywords, but as the number of sites on a given keyword becomes more competitive, SEM allows a business to coordinate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites to increase the relevancy of how a search engine views it. SEM can also include pay per click (PPC) or unpaid organic results.
What is the primary difference between SEO and SEM?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily done with code work on a target site. It includes images, text, and information on the site.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is primarily done with work not on the site. It includes link-building, business partnerships, and other online marketing efforts.
What is the difference between Pay Per Click (PPC) and Organic search results?
Most search engines have some form of PPC advertising that a business may purchase. You choose the word or phrase you wish to show up for, and when someone searches for that phrase your advertising and link shows up in the results. These systems are usually on a bid based system and typically show three to ten advertisers. When someone clicks on your link, you pay a per visitor price typically ranging from ten cents to ten dollars (some keywords near the $100 price point.) In Google, PPC results are typically the top 2 results labeled as “sponsored” and also include the right hand column.
Organic results are generated by the search engine attempting to provide the most relevant information based upon the search criteria of the user. Most SEO and SEM is focused on getting top placement in the organic section, as once the result is achieved no further cost is incurred on a per visitor basis.
What is a spider or a robot, and how is my site found?
When a site is originally created, most designers will do a simple submission to the main search engines. This causes the search engine to send an automated robot (also known as a spider) to examine the Web site. Depending on the search engine, that spider is looking for various clues to help categorize and rank the relevance of your site. (history note: the term spider was adopted as a nickname when the Internet became commonly known as the “Web”) These robots are looking for relevant and fresh information. When they find it, search engine spiders are instructed to analyze how often the information is refreshed and how relevant it is (often identified by how many times it is mentioned on other sites.)
What factors determine where a search engine will rank a Web site?
Most search engines use a process of automated mathematical analysis to determine what site has the most relevant content. There are a number of accepted best practices for reaching higher value on specific terms, ranging from keyword research, selection and relevance of link partners, meta-tags, element and heading tags, submission techniques, freshness of data, and overall online competitiveness of the keywords and industries. Social search engines vary in this regard- in that community members or staff act as the filter of relevant data, either voting or submitting data manually to the search and browsing areas of different social search networks.
How long does search engine optimization and marketing take?
Basic optimization work can be done immediately for most sites, which is a labor intensive chore of making sure the site is coded and labeled using best practice techniques. SEO work will not rank a site for competitive terms, but will provide a platform for long-term results over time depending on the material of the site.
Organic SEM usually takes 15 to 30 days to implement, and results are typically 30 to 90 days behind those efforts based on the competitiveness of the terms. That timeframe can be reduced by spending more effort, but as the time frame of the project is shortened, the pricing typically sky-rockets.
With a strategic team and specific goals, some terms can gain results within weeks by leveraging industry partnerships or using PPC campaigns for immediate impact. For most businesses, realistic search benefits should be seen at 90, 180, and 365 days.
How do you target traffic using search engine marketing?
Search engine traffic can be extremely targeted using specific keyword combinations. The more detailed the term, the more targeted the traffic. Many companies make the mistake of trying to reach extremely broad and competitive keyword results when they should be focusing on lower traffic but more highly defined keywords. Understanding the marketing 101 behind your product and services may also allow you to target like-minded terms that are not directly competitive with your business, but that attract the same demographic and target audience you are looking at reaching.
What is ethical search engine marketing?
There are many “best practice” strategies and techniques that search engines both appreciate and endorse, and ones that they actively discourage and ban. In the search engine world, White Hat describes only positive and encouraged efforts, while Black Hat describes manipulative and questionable techniques. Ethical search engine marketing utilizes only practices that are beneficial to the target site (white hat) and do not risk negative reactions (black hat) from the search engines. As a general rule, search engines appreciate using good code and relevant information to index, while they dislike techniques designed to manipulate, SPAM, or corrupt the search results.
Here are some known items that are either black hat, or discouraged by the search engines:
• Page cloaking
• Spamming of the submission process
• Automatically generated doorway pages
• False redirects to another page
• Keyword stuffing (too many keywords on a page)
• Irrelevant keywords
• Duplicate content on different pages or sites
• Misspelling of common words, or well-known brands/sites
• Unrelated link farms
• Data blogs with no unique content (also known as splogs)
• Malicious code design to trick the search engine
Can I do SEO for myself or can my Web developer do this for me?
Yes and no. There are many basic steps of SEO that a business owner can do for themselves. Many of these involve making sure the site is correctly coded under current standards and that it is submitted to the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Lycos, etc.) Beyond the basic steps of making sure the site has good foundation, experienced Web designers and developers can commonly take on the task of basic to intermediate search engine optimization. Expert level and competitive search marketing falls into a more general umbrella of online marketing that may involve SEO, SEM, online partnerships, business development, public relations, and online advertising expertise. Depending on the time frame, importance, and budget, choosing to learn certain SEO items or utilize an expert is a case by case basis. As with all projects, using a specialist may or may not make sense.
To learn more about search engines and online marketing, see 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog.
About the author:
Barry Hurd is president of Social Media Systems, an online marketing and advertising consultant group working with search engine marketing and leveraging social media communities. He has over 15 years of entrepreneurial Internet and online marketing experience. As an author and prolific blogger, he has reached online audiences around the world. Since the mid-1990s, Barry has been involved in numerous efforts to bring forth technical innovation through online business models. Past projects have included NIKE, REI, TMP Worldwide, Monster.com, Verizon Superpages, Intuit, and RISMedia.
source:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-08/what-is-all-of-this-seo-search-engine-fundamentals/
Search Engine Marketing Firm launches “Small Business Accelerator Packages" as affordable advertising options for small business owners
Keniston Company, a Search Engine Marketing firm specializing in helping local businesses achieve exposure on the internet,is launching three Small Small Business Accelerator Packages , tailored to small and medium sized businesses that want to gain search engine exposure. “Any small business, from the local plumber to the insurance agent, or beauty salon stands to benefit from Local search engine marketing, but cost can be a barrier to entry,” says Keniston & Company CEO Denise Keniston, “that’s why we tailored these packages to the needs of small business people and subsequently priced them affordably.”
People are searching for every kind of business, right in your hometown, using the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Savvy local business owners know the importance of being on first page of a search engine query and they’re looking for ways to improve their Local search engine marketing.
The Keniston & Company Small Business Accelerator Packages combine three primary Search Engine Marketing Tactics, search engine friendly web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click advertising. “We’ve bundled these three services because one facet won’t be effective without the other,” says Keniston.
Stephen LaRoche, VP of the Biosolve Group/Westford Chemical Corporation sees a huge increase in website traffic and online conversions after signing up for the Accelerator Package. ”Keniston & Company is redesigned our website making it more search engine friendly, they already optimized it for our industry keywords, and created and manage a Pay Per Click Campaign that is second to none. I would recommend this program to any small business who wants to gain visibility on the internet.”
Denise Keniston, CEO Keniston & Company, if one of only a handful of individually nationally awarded the Google AdWords Certified Professional status by Google. She has successfully completed several courses from University 2020 including back linking course by expert Jerry West. Keniston is a member of Biltmore Who’s Who and currently works with dozens of clients across the globe.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/111188/
People are searching for every kind of business, right in your hometown, using the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Savvy local business owners know the importance of being on first page of a search engine query and they’re looking for ways to improve their Local search engine marketing.
The Keniston & Company Small Business Accelerator Packages combine three primary Search Engine Marketing Tactics, search engine friendly web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click advertising. “We’ve bundled these three services because one facet won’t be effective without the other,” says Keniston.
Stephen LaRoche, VP of the Biosolve Group/Westford Chemical Corporation sees a huge increase in website traffic and online conversions after signing up for the Accelerator Package. ”Keniston & Company is redesigned our website making it more search engine friendly, they already optimized it for our industry keywords, and created and manage a Pay Per Click Campaign that is second to none. I would recommend this program to any small business who wants to gain visibility on the internet.”
Denise Keniston, CEO Keniston & Company, if one of only a handful of individually nationally awarded the Google AdWords Certified Professional status by Google. She has successfully completed several courses from University 2020 including back linking course by expert Jerry West. Keniston is a member of Biltmore Who’s Who and currently works with dozens of clients across the globe.
source:http://www.prleap.com/pr/111188/
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Recent SEO Tips and Services to Optimize your website
These days the basic requirements to promote and optimize your website starts with the keyword basics. Keywords are still considered as the base. Finding good keywords that match with the domain name still matters. A search engine in the recent trend has started giving preference to the title tag. So it has become necessary to use your target keyword in
the title. Content must also consider the keywords and it should be relevant.
The basic requirement for ranking in search engine starts with all the pages having keyword rich good content and proper Meta tags like title. Keywords and description tags. This has created a great possibility for good ranking of the web page in search engine like Google, yahoo and msn.
While using images it has become necessary to write out the names and possibly a keyword description with the title. Developing the right keyword strategy related with the url of the images and pictures used has also been the point of consideration.
At NDDW we follow the certain SEO tips to promote your websites in the search engines. This begins from the booking of a relevant domain name for your website. In the next step we define a suitable navigation structure. Keyword analyses is done to search the best keywords that matches with the theme of your website. Then we optimize the site on right keywords. In the next step we define a content strategy for your website. We develop the content by writing articles as it is rightly said that content is the king. In the next phase we submit the website into search engines and get directory submissions done. In linking strategy we give emphasis to one way linking and three ways linking campaigns.
source:http://www.pr-inside.com/recent-seo-tips-and-services-to-r367512.htm
the title. Content must also consider the keywords and it should be relevant.
The basic requirement for ranking in search engine starts with all the pages having keyword rich good content and proper Meta tags like title. Keywords and description tags. This has created a great possibility for good ranking of the web page in search engine like Google, yahoo and msn.
While using images it has become necessary to write out the names and possibly a keyword description with the title. Developing the right keyword strategy related with the url of the images and pictures used has also been the point of consideration.
At NDDW we follow the certain SEO tips to promote your websites in the search engines. This begins from the booking of a relevant domain name for your website. In the next step we define a suitable navigation structure. Keyword analyses is done to search the best keywords that matches with the theme of your website. Then we optimize the site on right keywords. In the next step we define a content strategy for your website. We develop the content by writing articles as it is rightly said that content is the king. In the next phase we submit the website into search engines and get directory submissions done. In linking strategy we give emphasis to one way linking and three ways linking campaigns.
source:http://www.pr-inside.com/recent-seo-tips-and-services-to-r367512.htm
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