1. Build a "101 list". These get Dugg all the time, and often become "authority documents". People can't resist linking to these (hint, hint).
2. Create 10 easy tips to help you [insert topic here] articles. Again, these are exceptionally easy to link to.
3. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic (see Mr Ploppy for inspiration).
4. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.
5. Create a list of gurus/experts. If you impress the people listed well enough, or find a way to make your project look somewhat official, the gurus may end up linking to your site or saying thanks. (Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an "authority".)
Developing Authority & Being Easy to Link At
6. Make your content easy to understand so many people can understand and spread your message. (It's an accessibility thing.)
7. Put some effort in to minimize grammatical or spelling errors, especially if you need authoritative people like librarians to link to your site.
8. Have an easily accessible privacy policy and about section so your site seems more trustworthy. Including a picture of yourself may also help build your authority.
PPC as a Link Building Tool
9. Buy relevant traffic with a pay per click campaign. Relevant traffic will get your site more visitors and brand exposure. When people come to your site, regardless of the channel in which they found it, there is a possibility that they will link to you.
News & Syndication
10. Syndicate an article at EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, etc. The great thing about good article sites is that their article pages actually rank highly and send highly qualified traffic.
11. Submit an article to industry news site. Have an SEO site? Write an article and submit to WebProNews. Have a site about BLANK? Submit to BLANKinformationalsite.com.
12. Syndicate a press release. Take the time to make it GOOD (compelling, newsworthy). Email it to some handpicked journalists and bloggers. Personalize the email message. For good measure, submit it to PRWeb, PRLeap, etc.
13. Track who picks up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.
14. Trade articles with other webmasters.
15. Email a few friends when you have important relevant news asking them for their feedback and/or if they would mind referencing it if they find your information useful.
16. Write about, and link to, companies with "in the news" pages. They link back to stories and blog posts which cover their developments. This is obviously easiest if you have a news section or blog. Do a Google search for [your industry + "in the news"].
17. Perform surveys and studies that make people feel important. If you can make other people feel important they will help do your marketing for you for free. Salary.com did a study on how underpaid mothers were, and they got many high quality links.
Directories, Meme Trackers & Social Bookmarking
18. This tip is an oldie but goodie: submit your site to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions.
19. Submit your site to paid directories. Another oldie. Just remember that quality matters.
20. Create your own topical directory about your field of interest. Obviously link to your own site, deeplinking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.
21. Tag related sites on sites like Del.icio.us. If people find the sites you tag to be interesting, emotionally engaging, or timely they may follow the trail back to your site.
22. If you create something that is of great quality make sure you ask a few friends to tag it for you. If your site gets on the front page of Digg or on the Del.icio.us popular list, hundreds more bloggers will see your site, and potentially link to it.
23. Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading. If you write about popular spreading ideas with plenty of original content (and link to some of the original resources), your site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.
Local & Business Links
24. Join the Better Business Bureau.
25. Get a link from your local chamber of commerce.
26. Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources. (Easier in some countries than in others.)
27. List your site at the local library's Web site.
28. See if your manufacturers or retailers or other business partners might be willing to link to your site.
29. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field. Leverage these relationships online and off, by recommending each other via links and distributing each other's business cards.
30. Launch an affiliate program. Most of the links you pick up will not have SEO value, but the added exposure will almost always lead to additional "normal" links.
Easy Free Links
31. Depending on your category and offer, you will find Craigslist to be a cheap or free classified service.
32. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources.
33. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.
34. If you run a fairly reputable company, create a page about it in the Wikipedia or in topic specific wikis. If it is hard to list your site directly, try to add links to other pages that link to your site.
35. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a topical Squidoo page, which you can use to look like an industry expert. Link to expert documents and popular useful tools in your fields, and also create a link back to your site.
36. Submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your site. You can also submit other content and have some of its link authority flow back to your profile page.
37. If you publish an RSS feed and your content is useful and regularly updated, some people will syndicate your RSS content (and some of those will provide links… unfortunately, some will not).
38. Most forums allow members to leave signature links or personal profile links. If you make quality contributions some people will follow these links and potentially read your site, link at your site, and/or buy your products.
Have a Big Heart for Reviews
39. Most brands are not well established online, so if your site has much authority, your review related content often ranks well.
40. Review relevant products on Amazon.com. We have seen this draw in direct customer enquiries and secondary links.
41. Create product lists on Amazon.com that review top products and also mention your background (LINK!).
42. Review related sites on Alexa to draw in related traffic streams.
43. Review products and services on shopping search engines like ePinions to help build your authority.
44. If you buy a product or service you really like and are good at leaving testimonials, many of those turn into links. Two testimonial writing tips — make them believable, and be specific where possible.
Blogs & the Blogosphere
45. Start a blog. Not just for the sake of having one. Post regularly and post great content. Good execution is what gets the links.
46. Link to other blogs from your blog. Outbound links are one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. Many bloggers also track who is linking to them or where their traffic comes from, so linking to them is an easy way to get noticed by some of them.
47. Comment on other blogs. Most of these comments will not provide much direct search engine value, but if your comments are useful, insightful, and relevant they can drive direct traffic. They also help make the other bloggers become aware of you, and they may start reading your blog and/or linking to it.
48. Technorati tag pages rank well in Yahoo! and MSN, and to a lesser extent in Google. Even if your blog is fairly new you can have your posts featured on the Technorati tag pages by tagging your posts with relevant tags.
49. If you create a blog make sure you list it in a few of the best blog directories.
Design as a Linking Element
50. Web 2.0-ify your site. People love to link to anything with AJAX. Even in the narrowest of niches, there is some kind of useful functionality you can build with AJAX.
51. Validate and 508 your site. This (indirect) method makes your site more trustworthy and linkable, especially from governmental sites or design-oriented communities. There are even a few authoritative directories of standards-compliant sites.
52. Order a beautiful CSS redesign. A nice design can get links from sites like CSS Vault.
Hire Help
53. Hire a publicist. Good old fashioned 'PR' (not PageRank) can still work wonders. Andy Hagans now offers a link baiting publicity service.
54. Hire a consultant. Yes, you can outsource link building. Just make sure to go with someone good. We recommend WeBuildPages, Debra Mastaler and, ahem, Andy Hagans.
Link Trading
55. Swap some links. What?! Did we really just recommend reciprocal link building? Yes, on a small scale, and with relevant partners that will send you traffic. Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks.
56. In case you didn't get the memo — when swapping links, try to get links from within the content of relevant content pages. Do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. Only seek link exchanges that you would consider pursuing even if search engines did not exist. Instead of thinking just about your topic when exchanging links, think about demographic audience sets.
Buying Sites, Renting Links & Advertisements
57. Rent some high quality links from a broker. Text Link Ads is the most reputable firm in this niche.
58. Rent some high quality links directly from Web sites. Sometimes the most powerful rented links come direct from sites not actively renting links.
59. Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors. This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart.
60. Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.
61. Many search algorithms seem biased toward older established sites. It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.
Use the Courts (Proceed with Caution)
62. Sue Google.
63. Get sued by a company people hate. When Aaron was sued by Traffic Power, he got hundreds or thousands of links, including links from sites like Wired and The Wall Street Journal.
Freebies & Giveaways
64. Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of editorial quality links. Enough said.
65. Build a tool collection. Original and useful tools (and collections of tools) get a lot of link love. What do you think ranking for mortgage calculator is worth?
66. Create and release open source site design templates for content management systems like Wordpress. Don't forget the "Designed by example.com" bit in the footer!
67. Offer free samples in exchange for feedback.
68. Release a Firefox extension. Make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.
Conferences & Social Interaction
69. It is easy to take pictures of important events and tell narratives about why they are important. Pictures of (drunk?) "celebrities" in your industry make great link bait.
70. Leverage new real world relationships into linking relationships. If you go to SEO related conferences, people like Tim Mayer, Matt Cutts, and Danny Sullivan are readily accessible. Similarly, in other industries, people who would normally seem inaccessible are exceptionally accessible at trade conferences. It is much easier to seem "real" in person. Once you create social relationships in person, it is easy to extend that onto the web.
71. Engaging, useful, and interesting interviews are an easy way to create original content. And they spread like wildfire.
30 Bad Ways to Build Links
Here are a few link buiding methods that may destroy your brand or get your site banned/penalized/filtered from major search engines, or both.
Directories
72. Submit your site to 200 cheesy paid directories (averaging $15 a pop) that send zero traffic and sell offtopic run-of-site links.
Forum Spam
73. List 100 Web sites in your signature file.
74. Exclusively post only when you can add links to your sites in the post area.
75. Post nothing but "me too" posts to build your post count. Use in combination with a link-rich signature file.
76. Ask questions about who provides the best [WIDGET], where [WIDGET] is an item that you sell. From the same IP address create another forum account and answer your own question raving about how great your own site is.
77. As a new member to various forums, ask the same question at 20 different forums on the same day.
78. Post on forum threads that are years outdated exclusively to link to your semi-related website.
79. Sign up for profiles on forums you never intend on commenting on.
Blog Spam
80. Instead of signing blog comments with your real name, sign them with spammy keywords.
81. Start marketing your own site hard on your first blog comment. Add no value to the comment section. Mention nothing other than you recently posted on the same subject at _____ and everyone should read it. Carpet bomb dozens of blogs with this message.
82. Say nothing unique or relevant to the post at hand. Make them assume an automated bot hit their comments.
83. Better yet, use automated bots to hit their comments. List at least 30 links in each post. Try to see if you can hit any servers hard enough to make them crash.
84. Send pings to everyone talking about a subject. In your aggregation post, state nothing of interest. Only state that other people are talking about the topic.
85. Don't even link to any of the sites you are pinging. Send them pings from posts that do not even reference them.
Garbage Link Exchanges
86. Send out link exchange requests mentioning PageRank.
87. Send link exchange emails which look like an automated bot sent them (little or no customization, no personal names, etc.).
88. Send link exchange requests to Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Tim Converse, Google, and Yahoo!.
89. Get links from nearly-hidden sections of websites listing hundreds or thousands of off topic sites.
Spam People in Person
90. Go to webmaster conferences and rave about how rich you are, and how your affiliates make millions doing nothing.
91. Instead of asking people what their name is, ask what their URL is. As soon as you get their URL ask if they have linked to your site yet and if not, why not.
Be Persistant
92. Send a webmaster an alert to every post you make on your website.
93. Send a webmaster an email every single day asking for them to link to your website.
94. Send references to your site to the same webmaster from dozens of different email accounts (you sly dog).
95. If the above do not work to get you a free link, offer them $1 for their time. Increase your offer by a dollar each day until they give in.
Getting Links by Being a Jerk
96. Emulate the RIAA. When in doubt, file a lawsuit against a 12-year-old girl. (Failing that, obtain bad press by any means necessary.)
97. Steal content published by well known names. Strip out any attribution. Aggregate many popular channels and just wait for them to start talking about you.
98. Send thousands of fake referrals at every top ranking Web site, guaranteeing larger boobs, a 14-inch penis (is that length or girth?), or millions of dollars in free, unclaimed money.
99. Wear your URL on your t-shirt. Walk or drive your car while talking on a cell phone or reading a book. When you run into other people say "excuse you, jerk".
100. Spill coffee on people or find creative ways to insult people to coax them into linking at your site.
101. Sue other webmasters for deep linking to your site. Well, this is more "hilariously dumb" than it is a "bad linking practice".
Sunday, March 8, 2009
How to promote your website
Here are a number of ways that you can attract people to your website:
1. Put your website URL (for example, www.ElbelConsultingServices.com) on your business cards, letterhead, envelopes and invoices. Leave off the "http://" part. It's ok to capitalize letters.
2. Place your website on all marketing and advertising material.
3. Email an announcement to customers, supporters, and friends (but avoid sending bulk spam). ECS offers quality email campaign management.
4. Send out a press release, possibly using a service like PR WebDirect. For search engine visibility of your site, avoid using many keywords related to your site in order to keep the archived press release from competing with your site. (ECS is experienced at writing newsworthy and relevant press releases).
5. Announce your website on your voice mail.
6. Place it in your email signature.
7. Include it on your checks.
8. List it in trade association and organization directories.
9. Add your site to your Yellow Pages listing to increase credibility and direct people to your website.
10. List with your local Chamber of Commerce.
11. List with the Better Business Bureau.
12. Fax your clients about your new site.
13. Tell friends, family, and others at work about your website.
14. Distribute flyers and business cards.
15. Take out bus stop advertising.
16. Send out a postal mailing to customers and supporters telling them about your website.
17. Promote your website in trade journals and newsletters.
18. Wear a T-shirt or jacket with your website on it.
19. Go to conferences, trade associations and conventions with your website on your name tag.
20. Wear a scrolling LED name tag badge. Two sources are Hand Held Items and Think Geek.
21. Take out an ad in the local paper to promote your company or organization and your website.
22. Get an inexpensive DIY Neon Sign Kit.
23. Take out a CraigsList ad.
24. Take out an eBay classifieds ad.
25. Conduct an advertising campaign.
26. Encourage others to link to your website. This can include customers, suppliers, advertisers, supporters, friends, etc.
27. Mutually exchange links with organizations and similar businesses who do not compete with you.
28. Make sure your webmaster makes your website search engine friendly. See How do I get high search engine visibility.
29. Make sure your webmaster submits your website to the main search engines and directories (but don't fall for services that claim to submit your site to thousands of search engines).
30. Add a "tell a friend" form to your website.
31. Consider paid placement with website directories, such as DMOZ and Yahoo.
32. Consider pay per click (PPC) search engine advertising, such as with Google AdWords.
33. Write product reviews at Amazon and on shopping sites. Be sure to include a link to your website.
34. Write articles and make eZine posts with useful content that links to your website. Include keywords related to your website. This will help generate interested and qualified traffic to your website. eZines include: GoArticles, eZineArticles, iSnare and others - see the eZine directory and the Web-source eZine directory.
35. Write forum and blog posts with useful content that links back to your website. See the article: Back To Basics: The Right and Wrong Reasons for Blogging.
36. Create a blog, keep it current with quality content, and promote it on blog directories.
37. Write a subject matter expert page at squidoo.
38. Promote your site on various social media such as twitter - see this overview.
39. Engage in "social marketing". Here is a collection of social marketing examples. Also see Back to Basics: The Right and Wrong Reasons for Using Social Media for Business.
40. Evaluate list builders such as GetSubscribers or ListJoe (but don't send spam email).
41. Place your website on your license plate frame. Place your website on your car with magnetic stickers.
42. Place it on your company-owned cars and trucks.
43. Tag similar sites on social sites such as digg, del.icio.us and others.
44. Put a relevant poll on your website to increase interest and traffic.
45. Place a contest on your website to generate interest and links.
46. Update your site frequently in order to attract return visits.
1. Put your website URL (for example, www.ElbelConsultingServices.com) on your business cards, letterhead, envelopes and invoices. Leave off the "http://" part. It's ok to capitalize letters.
2. Place your website on all marketing and advertising material.
3. Email an announcement to customers, supporters, and friends (but avoid sending bulk spam). ECS offers quality email campaign management.
4. Send out a press release, possibly using a service like PR WebDirect. For search engine visibility of your site, avoid using many keywords related to your site in order to keep the archived press release from competing with your site. (ECS is experienced at writing newsworthy and relevant press releases).
5. Announce your website on your voice mail.
6. Place it in your email signature.
7. Include it on your checks.
8. List it in trade association and organization directories.
9. Add your site to your Yellow Pages listing to increase credibility and direct people to your website.
10. List with your local Chamber of Commerce.
11. List with the Better Business Bureau.
12. Fax your clients about your new site.
13. Tell friends, family, and others at work about your website.
14. Distribute flyers and business cards.
15. Take out bus stop advertising.
16. Send out a postal mailing to customers and supporters telling them about your website.
17. Promote your website in trade journals and newsletters.
18. Wear a T-shirt or jacket with your website on it.
19. Go to conferences, trade associations and conventions with your website on your name tag.
20. Wear a scrolling LED name tag badge. Two sources are Hand Held Items and Think Geek.
21. Take out an ad in the local paper to promote your company or organization and your website.
22. Get an inexpensive DIY Neon Sign Kit.
23. Take out a CraigsList ad.
24. Take out an eBay classifieds ad.
25. Conduct an advertising campaign.
26. Encourage others to link to your website. This can include customers, suppliers, advertisers, supporters, friends, etc.
27. Mutually exchange links with organizations and similar businesses who do not compete with you.
28. Make sure your webmaster makes your website search engine friendly. See How do I get high search engine visibility.
29. Make sure your webmaster submits your website to the main search engines and directories (but don't fall for services that claim to submit your site to thousands of search engines).
30. Add a "tell a friend" form to your website.
31. Consider paid placement with website directories, such as DMOZ and Yahoo.
32. Consider pay per click (PPC) search engine advertising, such as with Google AdWords.
33. Write product reviews at Amazon and on shopping sites. Be sure to include a link to your website.
34. Write articles and make eZine posts with useful content that links to your website. Include keywords related to your website. This will help generate interested and qualified traffic to your website. eZines include: GoArticles, eZineArticles, iSnare and others - see the eZine directory and the Web-source eZine directory.
35. Write forum and blog posts with useful content that links back to your website. See the article: Back To Basics: The Right and Wrong Reasons for Blogging.
36. Create a blog, keep it current with quality content, and promote it on blog directories.
37. Write a subject matter expert page at squidoo.
38. Promote your site on various social media such as twitter - see this overview.
39. Engage in "social marketing". Here is a collection of social marketing examples. Also see Back to Basics: The Right and Wrong Reasons for Using Social Media for Business.
40. Evaluate list builders such as GetSubscribers or ListJoe (but don't send spam email).
41. Place your website on your license plate frame. Place your website on your car with magnetic stickers.
42. Place it on your company-owned cars and trucks.
43. Tag similar sites on social sites such as digg, del.icio.us and others.
44. Put a relevant poll on your website to increase interest and traffic.
45. Place a contest on your website to generate interest and links.
46. Update your site frequently in order to attract return visits.
Common SEO Terms
Anchor Text - Anchor text is the name you give your link. If i was to link to ozzu i would say "Ozzu Webmaster Forum " The "Ozzu Webmaster Forum" is the anchor text of the link. The anchor text should contain your main targeted keywords.
SERP - Search Engine Results Page. The page or pages that a search engine displays after a search query for a certain search term or phrase.
SEO - acronym for “search engine optimisation”. Search engine optimisation is a process of crafting a site's content so that the site gets high rankings in the various search engines (both the site and individual pages), and includes tailoring on-page text (such as headlines and subtitles) as well as choosing the proper keywords for a page's meta tags.
Sandbox Theory - http://www.ozzu.com/google-forum/sandbox-effect-t24751.html
Google Dance - The name "Google Dance" has often been used to describe the index update of the Google search engine. Google's index update occurred on average once per month. During an index update there was significant movement in search results and Google showed new backward links for pages. However, in mid-2003 Google started to update it's index continuously. It appears that, still, there has to be an update of the complete index once in a while and during this time new backward links are shown. But, because of the continuous update, the effects on search results seem to be rather insignificant.
More info can be found HERE
Back links – Back links are simply the term used when discussing other sites that link to your website. To find your website's back links use the following syntax in the search box of your favourite search engine: link:http://www.yoursiteurl.com
Out going links – Outgoing links are links that you have on your website that link to another site. So if I placed a link on my website to http://www.ozzu.com, that would be a outgoing link.
DMOZ – DMOZ is a open directory project. When you submit your site to DMOZ you will have to wait anywhere from 1 week to 5 months (or longer) for it to get approved by a editor. Getting listed on DMOZ can increase the traffic to your site and improve your page rank (this depends on the page rank of the category that you are in and I linking to you.
PR - PR (PageRank) relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
Meta Tags – A meta tag is an element of HTML that often describes the contents of a Web page, and is placed near the beginning of the page's source code. Search engines use information provided in a meta tags to index pages by subject.
Indexed – If you website has been indexed then that means that it will show up in the search results. A good way to see if your site has been indexed is to type “url: http://www.yourdomain.ext” The pages that show up in your results have been indexed.
Alt Text – If you do a link exchange with someone then it is recommended by all the webmasters that you add alt text to your link. Alt text is the text that appears in a box when you put your mouse over it. Search engines can read this text.
Spider – A software program that "crawls" the Web, searching and indexing Web pages to create a database that can be easily searched by a search engine.
Googlebot – Please visit http://www.google.com/bot.html for more information on what the googlebot is.
Keyword Density – A property of the text in a web page which indicates how close together the keywords appear. Some search engines use this property for Positioning. Analysers are available which allow comparisons between pages. Pages can then be produced with the similar keyword densities to those found in high ranking pages.
SERP - Search Engine Results Page. The page or pages that a search engine displays after a search query for a certain search term or phrase.
SEO - acronym for “search engine optimisation”. Search engine optimisation is a process of crafting a site's content so that the site gets high rankings in the various search engines (both the site and individual pages), and includes tailoring on-page text (such as headlines and subtitles) as well as choosing the proper keywords for a page's meta tags.
Sandbox Theory - http://www.ozzu.com/google-forum/sandbox-effect-t24751.html
Google Dance - The name "Google Dance" has often been used to describe the index update of the Google search engine. Google's index update occurred on average once per month. During an index update there was significant movement in search results and Google showed new backward links for pages. However, in mid-2003 Google started to update it's index continuously. It appears that, still, there has to be an update of the complete index once in a while and during this time new backward links are shown. But, because of the continuous update, the effects on search results seem to be rather insignificant.
More info can be found HERE
Back links – Back links are simply the term used when discussing other sites that link to your website. To find your website's back links use the following syntax in the search box of your favourite search engine: link:http://www.yoursiteurl.com
Out going links – Outgoing links are links that you have on your website that link to another site. So if I placed a link on my website to http://www.ozzu.com, that would be a outgoing link.
DMOZ – DMOZ is a open directory project. When you submit your site to DMOZ you will have to wait anywhere from 1 week to 5 months (or longer) for it to get approved by a editor. Getting listed on DMOZ can increase the traffic to your site and improve your page rank (this depends on the page rank of the category that you are in and I linking to you.
PR - PR (PageRank) relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
Meta Tags – A meta tag is an element of HTML that often describes the contents of a Web page, and is placed near the beginning of the page's source code. Search engines use information provided in a meta tags to index pages by subject.
Indexed – If you website has been indexed then that means that it will show up in the search results. A good way to see if your site has been indexed is to type “url: http://www.yourdomain.ext” The pages that show up in your results have been indexed.
Alt Text – If you do a link exchange with someone then it is recommended by all the webmasters that you add alt text to your link. Alt text is the text that appears in a box when you put your mouse over it. Search engines can read this text.
Spider – A software program that "crawls" the Web, searching and indexing Web pages to create a database that can be easily searched by a search engine.
Googlebot – Please visit http://www.google.com/bot.html for more information on what the googlebot is.
Keyword Density – A property of the text in a web page which indicates how close together the keywords appear. Some search engines use this property for Positioning. Analysers are available which allow comparisons between pages. Pages can then be produced with the similar keyword densities to those found in high ranking pages.
SEO SEM strategy to enhance our websites ranking in major search engines
Search engine:
1. Page title tags: This is the page information that you see in the blue bar of your browser in the upper left-hand corner when you visit a website. For best SEO, use your top 2 keywords in your title tag. The best way to do that is separated with a bar, as illustrated in this example: Internet Marketing Web Marketing.
2. Domain name: If at all possible, use one primary keyword in your domain name. You will have a slight edge over your competition by doing so. If you already have a domain that you have used for some time, include a keyword in the name of files for your website pages. Example: http://www.yoursite.com/internet-marketing.htm if your keyword is Internet marketing.
3. Meta tags: These are descriptions on a web page that are not seen by most visitors except when looking at the page source code in their browser. While the keyword and description metatags used to be the primary way that search engines indexed sites, that is no longer the case. However, you shouldn't ignore them entirely, as it is still worthwhile to include them as a part of your page description. For optimal SEO, your meta description and keyword tags should be no more than 150 characters each.
4. Header tags: Header tags are the HTML code that indicate a headline, like H1, H2 and H3 and show up as bolded headlines in your page content. The first 3 header tags are the only ones you need to be concerned about, and the primary header tag, H1, is the most important. Use your primary keyword one time in the H1 tag, 2-3 times in your H2 tags, and multiple times in your H3 tags.
Universal Log File Analyzer - Take a Test Drive for 30 Days!
5. Alt image tag: The alt tag typically describes an image in a floating text window when you put your mouse over the image if the image isn't able to be displayed. The best use of any tag is to use your keywords in your image descriptions.
6. Content formatting: Search engines pay attention to formatted content, as in when text is bolded, italicized, and underlined. Make sure that you are bolding your keywords in the content of your website.
7. Keyword density: Keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears on a web page. Rather than trying to focus on the number of times a keyword appears in the content of your page, aim for a more natural density by keeping your keyword phrases in mind as you write the copy for your page. Optimally, keyword density should be between 2% - 7%. There are a number of keyword density checkers available online to assist you with determining the keyword density of a page.
8. Anchor text: Anchor text refer to links on a page that connect your visitor to other pages. So, rather than telling someone to "click here" in the content of your page, include a keyword in your anchor text, as in "click here for dog training tips."
9. Inbound links: Reciprocal link exchange (you link to my site and I'll link to yours) used to be a great way to attract the attention of search engines to your site. Now, search engines pay attention only to the quality and popularity of the site providing you with an inbound link that is not a reciprocal link. One of the best ways to get quality inbound links back to your site is to submit articles to high traffic article directories and submit press releases to paid press release services.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
A second way to gain high quality inbound links is by listing your site in search engine-friendly directories in which humans review the listings. Google and other search engines place more credibility in the directories in which the listings are reviewed by real people than they do other kinds of directories. Consequently, these links are weighted more heavily and favorably in the inbound link evaluation process.
10. New content: Content is still king, so one way to increase your page rank for a search term is to write high quality articles containing one or two of your keywords in the title and posting those regularly (weekly is best) to your site. Search engines are always seeking good, fresh, content, so your goal should be to make your site into an information-rich resource for your industry.
11. Site maps: There are sitemaps that help a visitor navigate a site, and sitemaps that are expressly designed for the search engines.
The two are not the same. To enhance your site, submit an xml sitemap to Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer. I use XML Sitemaps to build search engine-friendly sitemaps on my sites.
Search engine optimization strategy is not as difficult as it appears. Take some time to do some keyword research for your site, and then spend another 15 minutes a day employing a few of these strategies until you have a well-optimized site. Why pay for visitors through pay-per-click advertising if you don't have to?
ranking in major search engines
We can use following SEO (Search Engine Optimization) & SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy to enhance our websites ranking in major search engines to increase visitors: -
1. Keyword Analysis: Keywords provided by you are highly generalized. We won't get targeted customer from these keywords. We will be analyzing keywords, which will generate genuine traffic. Keyword analysis includes analysis of those terms & phrases, which are searched by users to find specific information or on internet. It also includes the analysis of the competition for those keywords on the internet.
2. Inclusion of Title Tag: Inclusion of title tag on a webpage helps a user or search engine crawler to understand the theme of a website.
3. Inclusion of Meta Tags like Keyword tag, description tag: Meta tag helps search engines to determine as well as give the clear picture of what your website is about. Most of search engine uses META tags as one component of their ranking formulas. The description tag is used by search engines to display important site information on the search results page. It helps to describe the page.
4. Inclusion of Header tags: - Header tags are given importance by the search engines since they can differentiate our main keywords from rest of the content.
5. Page Renaming: We can use keywords in the web pages URL.
6. Inclusion of Sitemaps: HTML Sitemap helps visitor to navigate through the website easily whereas XML sitemap (recommended by Google) helps Google to identify and index number of pages on our website.
8. Robots file: It helps search engine crawler to understand which pages to index, we can also use it to restrict robots from indexing certain confidential data (if any).
9. Image Optimization: Search Engine crawler can't read images it understands only text. Alt tags, which are also, know as alternate tags provide text to images where we can incorporate our Keywords.
10. Directory Submission: It will help us to get traffic and one way links for our website. One-way link means getting our site link on various directories without giving link back. It gives more weightage to our website.
11. Link Building: - Link exchange is an important part of search engine marketing which helps to enhance our search engine ranking, increase traffic and to increase Page rank of our website.
12. Inclusion of Articles: Inclusion of articles which are related to our website and services will help bringing in visitors on our.
13. Forums Submission: It will help us to get one-way links. It also message boards, discussion boards, where different user can discuss about its product.
14. Blog Submission: It will help us in commenting on different issues related to installation, maintenance of various power services. And through this many people will come to know about the services provided by our website.
15. Changes is Website Design: Since, search engine crawler gives more important to the content appearing on the top left of the website. We will be making little bit of changes in website design. By placing the relevant keyword on top left of the pages instead of website address.
16. Table Trick
17. Content optimization, bold, italic tag
1. Page title tags: This is the page information that you see in the blue bar of your browser in the upper left-hand corner when you visit a website. For best SEO, use your top 2 keywords in your title tag. The best way to do that is separated with a bar, as illustrated in this example: Internet Marketing Web Marketing.
2. Domain name: If at all possible, use one primary keyword in your domain name. You will have a slight edge over your competition by doing so. If you already have a domain that you have used for some time, include a keyword in the name of files for your website pages. Example: http://www.yoursite.com/internet-marketing.htm if your keyword is Internet marketing.
3. Meta tags: These are descriptions on a web page that are not seen by most visitors except when looking at the page source code in their browser. While the keyword and description metatags used to be the primary way that search engines indexed sites, that is no longer the case. However, you shouldn't ignore them entirely, as it is still worthwhile to include them as a part of your page description. For optimal SEO, your meta description and keyword tags should be no more than 150 characters each.
4. Header tags: Header tags are the HTML code that indicate a headline, like H1, H2 and H3 and show up as bolded headlines in your page content. The first 3 header tags are the only ones you need to be concerned about, and the primary header tag, H1, is the most important. Use your primary keyword one time in the H1 tag, 2-3 times in your H2 tags, and multiple times in your H3 tags.
Universal Log File Analyzer - Take a Test Drive for 30 Days!
5. Alt image tag: The alt tag typically describes an image in a floating text window when you put your mouse over the image if the image isn't able to be displayed. The best use of any tag is to use your keywords in your image descriptions.
6. Content formatting: Search engines pay attention to formatted content, as in when text is bolded, italicized, and underlined. Make sure that you are bolding your keywords in the content of your website.
7. Keyword density: Keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears on a web page. Rather than trying to focus on the number of times a keyword appears in the content of your page, aim for a more natural density by keeping your keyword phrases in mind as you write the copy for your page. Optimally, keyword density should be between 2% - 7%. There are a number of keyword density checkers available online to assist you with determining the keyword density of a page.
8. Anchor text: Anchor text refer to links on a page that connect your visitor to other pages. So, rather than telling someone to "click here" in the content of your page, include a keyword in your anchor text, as in "click here for dog training tips."
9. Inbound links: Reciprocal link exchange (you link to my site and I'll link to yours) used to be a great way to attract the attention of search engines to your site. Now, search engines pay attention only to the quality and popularity of the site providing you with an inbound link that is not a reciprocal link. One of the best ways to get quality inbound links back to your site is to submit articles to high traffic article directories and submit press releases to paid press release services.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
A second way to gain high quality inbound links is by listing your site in search engine-friendly directories in which humans review the listings. Google and other search engines place more credibility in the directories in which the listings are reviewed by real people than they do other kinds of directories. Consequently, these links are weighted more heavily and favorably in the inbound link evaluation process.
10. New content: Content is still king, so one way to increase your page rank for a search term is to write high quality articles containing one or two of your keywords in the title and posting those regularly (weekly is best) to your site. Search engines are always seeking good, fresh, content, so your goal should be to make your site into an information-rich resource for your industry.
11. Site maps: There are sitemaps that help a visitor navigate a site, and sitemaps that are expressly designed for the search engines.
The two are not the same. To enhance your site, submit an xml sitemap to Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer. I use XML Sitemaps to build search engine-friendly sitemaps on my sites.
Search engine optimization strategy is not as difficult as it appears. Take some time to do some keyword research for your site, and then spend another 15 minutes a day employing a few of these strategies until you have a well-optimized site. Why pay for visitors through pay-per-click advertising if you don't have to?
ranking in major search engines
We can use following SEO (Search Engine Optimization) & SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy to enhance our websites ranking in major search engines to increase visitors: -
1. Keyword Analysis: Keywords provided by you are highly generalized. We won't get targeted customer from these keywords. We will be analyzing keywords, which will generate genuine traffic. Keyword analysis includes analysis of those terms & phrases, which are searched by users to find specific information or on internet. It also includes the analysis of the competition for those keywords on the internet.
2. Inclusion of Title Tag: Inclusion of title tag on a webpage helps a user or search engine crawler to understand the theme of a website.
3. Inclusion of Meta Tags like Keyword tag, description tag: Meta tag helps search engines to determine as well as give the clear picture of what your website is about. Most of search engine uses META tags as one component of their ranking formulas. The description tag is used by search engines to display important site information on the search results page. It helps to describe the page.
4. Inclusion of Header tags: - Header tags are given importance by the search engines since they can differentiate our main keywords from rest of the content.
5. Page Renaming: We can use keywords in the web pages URL.
6. Inclusion of Sitemaps: HTML Sitemap helps visitor to navigate through the website easily whereas XML sitemap (recommended by Google) helps Google to identify and index number of pages on our website.
8. Robots file: It helps search engine crawler to understand which pages to index, we can also use it to restrict robots from indexing certain confidential data (if any).
9. Image Optimization: Search Engine crawler can't read images it understands only text. Alt tags, which are also, know as alternate tags provide text to images where we can incorporate our Keywords.
10. Directory Submission: It will help us to get traffic and one way links for our website. One-way link means getting our site link on various directories without giving link back. It gives more weightage to our website.
11. Link Building: - Link exchange is an important part of search engine marketing which helps to enhance our search engine ranking, increase traffic and to increase Page rank of our website.
12. Inclusion of Articles: Inclusion of articles which are related to our website and services will help bringing in visitors on our.
13. Forums Submission: It will help us to get one-way links. It also message boards, discussion boards, where different user can discuss about its product.
14. Blog Submission: It will help us in commenting on different issues related to installation, maintenance of various power services. And through this many people will come to know about the services provided by our website.
15. Changes is Website Design: Since, search engine crawler gives more important to the content appearing on the top left of the website. We will be making little bit of changes in website design. By placing the relevant keyword on top left of the pages instead of website address.
16. Table Trick
17. Content optimization, bold, italic tag
55 Quick SEO Tips
55 Quick SEO Tips
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site.
And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Check for canonicalization issues - www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.seo-sem-tips.com is your preference, then http://seo-sem-tips.com should redirect to it.
12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.seo-sem-tips.com and internal links go to http://www.seo-sem-tips.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
19. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.
26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.
29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.
31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!
37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
38. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.
39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.
44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.
48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
51. Add viral components to your web site or blog - reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.
52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.
53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.
54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site.
And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Check for canonicalization issues - www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.seo-sem-tips.com is your preference, then http://seo-sem-tips.com should redirect to it.
12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.seo-sem-tips.com and internal links go to http://www.seo-sem-tips.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
19. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.
26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.
29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.
31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!
37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
38. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.
39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.
44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.
48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
51. Add viral components to your web site or blog - reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.
52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.
53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.
54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
Robots Text File - robots.txt
Robots Text File - robots.txt
The robots.txt file is a set of instructions for visiting robots (spiders) that index the content of your web site pages. For those spiders that obey the file, it provides a map for what they can, and cannot index. The file must reside in the root directory of your web. The URL path (web address) of your robots.txt file should look like this.
/robots.txt
The Robots text file open in Notepad might look like this:
screen shot robots.txt file This is a screen shot of an empty robots.txt file Example of robots.txt File
Screen Shot - Robots Text File
Definition of the above robots.txt file:
User-agent: *
The asterisk (*) or wildcard represents a special value and means any robot.
Disallow:
The Disallow: line without a / (forward slash) tells the robots that they can index the entire site.
Any empty value, indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least one Disallow field needs to be present in a record without the / (forward slash) as shown above.
The presence of an empty "/robots.txt" file has no explicit associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e. all robots will consider themselves welcome.
The Disallow: line without the trailing slash (/) tells all robots to index everything. If you have a line that looks like this:
Disallow: /private/
It tells the robot that it cannot index the contents of that /private/ directory.
Summarizing the Robots Exclusion Protocol - robots.txt file
To allow all robots complete access:
User-agent: *
Disallow:
screen shot robots.txt fileThis is a screen shot of an empty robots.txt file Example of robots.txt File
Screen Shot - Robots Text File
To exclude all robots from the server:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
To exclude all robots from parts of a server:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/
To exclude a single robot from the server:
User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /
To exclude a single robot from parts of a server:
User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/
Note: The asterisk (*) or wildcard in the User-agent field is a special value meaning "any Robot" and therefore is the only one needed until you fully understand how to set up different User-agents.
If you want to Disallow: a particular file within the directory, your Disallow: line might look like this one:
Disallow: /private/top-secret-stuff.htm
Keep in mind that using the above example excludes that specified page (top-secret-stuff.htm) but will not exclude the entire /private/ directory.
You should validate your robots.txt file. Enter the full URI to the robots.txt file on your server. The robots.txt file always resides at the root level of your web.
The robots.txt file is a set of instructions for visiting robots (spiders) that index the content of your web site pages. For those spiders that obey the file, it provides a map for what they can, and cannot index. The file must reside in the root directory of your web. The URL path (web address) of your robots.txt file should look like this.
/robots.txt
The Robots text file open in Notepad might look like this:
screen shot robots.txt file This is a screen shot of an empty robots.txt file Example of robots.txt File
Screen Shot - Robots Text File
Definition of the above robots.txt file:
User-agent: *
The asterisk (*) or wildcard represents a special value and means any robot.
Disallow:
The Disallow: line without a / (forward slash) tells the robots that they can index the entire site.
Any empty value, indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least one Disallow field needs to be present in a record without the / (forward slash) as shown above.
The presence of an empty "/robots.txt" file has no explicit associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e. all robots will consider themselves welcome.
The Disallow: line without the trailing slash (/) tells all robots to index everything. If you have a line that looks like this:
Disallow: /private/
It tells the robot that it cannot index the contents of that /private/ directory.
Summarizing the Robots Exclusion Protocol - robots.txt file
To allow all robots complete access:
User-agent: *
Disallow:
screen shot robots.txt fileThis is a screen shot of an empty robots.txt file Example of robots.txt File
Screen Shot - Robots Text File
To exclude all robots from the server:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
To exclude all robots from parts of a server:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/
To exclude a single robot from the server:
User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /
To exclude a single robot from parts of a server:
User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/
Note: The asterisk (*) or wildcard in the User-agent field is a special value meaning "any Robot" and therefore is the only one needed until you fully understand how to set up different User-agents.
If you want to Disallow: a particular file within the directory, your Disallow: line might look like this one:
Disallow: /private/top-secret-stuff.htm
Keep in mind that using the above example excludes that specified page (top-secret-stuff.htm) but will not exclude the entire /private/ directory.
You should validate your robots.txt file. Enter the full URI to the robots.txt file on your server. The robots.txt file always resides at the root level of your web.
Top 10 SEO Tips
Top 10 SEO Tips
#1: Find the Best Keywords
#2: Discover Your Competitors
• Competitor rank in the Search Engines
• Number of incoming links
• What keywords are in the title of linking page
• % of links containing keywords in the link text
• The PageRank of linking pages
• The Alexa traffic ranking information
#3: Optimize Your Title
The Title and META tags should be different on every page of your website if you wish for most search engines to store and list them in the search results.
This one excercise could make or break your SEO campaign. Click-Through Rate (CTR) plays an instrumental role in how relevant Google thinks your website is.
#4: Optimize Your META Tags
keep it under 150 characters and to not repeat your keywords more than 3 times. It may be a coincidence, but I've also noticed ranking improvements when I put my keywords at the beginning of the description. Here's the syntax:
if you repeat your keywords more than 3 times it can be a pretty good indication to the search engine that you are trying to spam their search results.
#5: Use Headings
Headings play an important role in organizing information, so be sure to include at least H1-H3 when assembling your page. Using cascading style Sheets (CSS), I was able to make my h1 at the top of this page more appealing. Here's a piece of code you can pop into your heading:
Since a page full of headings would look just plain silly, my SEO tip would be to fill in the blank space with paragraphs, ordered and unordered lists, images, and other content. Try to get at least 400+ words on each page.
#6: Use Title and ALT Attributes
we add a title attribute and include our keywords.
Using the Title Attribute is an direct method of telling the search engines about the relevance of the link. It's also a W3C standard for making your page accessible to disabled people. In other words, blind folks can navigate through your website using a special browser that reads Title and ALT attributes. The syntax is:
SEO Software
The ALT Attribute is used for the same reasons as the Title Attribute, but is specifically for describing an image to the search engine and to the visually disabled. Here's how you would use ALT in an IMG tag:
#7: Nomenclatures
It's not confirmed, but many SEO's have experienced improvement in ranking by renaming images and media.
do your best to insure the content has the keywords in the filename (as well as a Title or ALT attribute).
#8: Create a Site Map Page
a site map page comes in. Since every page on the website will be linked to the sitemap, it allows webcrawlers (and users) to quickly and easily find content.
#9:Include a robots.txt File
By far the easiest top 10 SEO tips you will ever do as it relates to search engine optimization is include a robots.txt file at the root of your website. Open up a text editor, such as Notepad and type "User-agent: *". Then save the file as robots.txt and upload it to your root directory on your domain. This one command will tell any spider that hits your website to "please feel free to crawl every page of my website".
Here's one of my best top 10 SEO tips: Because the search engine analyzes everything it indexes to determine what your website is all about, it might be a good idea to block folders and files that have nothing to do with the content we want to be analyzed. You can disallow unrelated files to be read by adding "Disallow: /folder_name/" or "Disallow: /filename.html". Here is an example of the robots.txt file on this site:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /folder_name
Disallow: /filename.html
#10: Install a sitemap.xml for Google
#1: Find the Best Keywords
#2: Discover Your Competitors
• Competitor rank in the Search Engines
• Number of incoming links
• What keywords are in the title of linking page
• % of links containing keywords in the link text
• The PageRank of linking pages
• The Alexa traffic ranking information
#3: Optimize Your Title
The Title and META tags should be different on every page of your website if you wish for most search engines to store and list them in the search results.
This one excercise could make or break your SEO campaign. Click-Through Rate (CTR) plays an instrumental role in how relevant Google thinks your website is.
#4: Optimize Your META Tags
keep it under 150 characters and to not repeat your keywords more than 3 times. It may be a coincidence, but I've also noticed ranking improvements when I put my keywords at the beginning of the description. Here's the syntax:
if you repeat your keywords more than 3 times it can be a pretty good indication to the search engine that you are trying to spam their search results.
#5: Use Headings
Headings play an important role in organizing information, so be sure to include at least H1-H3 when assembling your page. Using cascading style Sheets (CSS), I was able to make my h1 at the top of this page more appealing. Here's a piece of code you can pop into your heading:
Since a page full of headings would look just plain silly, my SEO tip would be to fill in the blank space with paragraphs, ordered and unordered lists, images, and other content. Try to get at least 400+ words on each page.
#6: Use Title and ALT Attributes
we add a title attribute and include our keywords.
Using the Title Attribute is an direct method of telling the search engines about the relevance of the link. It's also a W3C standard for making your page accessible to disabled people. In other words, blind folks can navigate through your website using a special browser that reads Title and ALT attributes. The syntax is:
SEO Software
The ALT Attribute is used for the same reasons as the Title Attribute, but is specifically for describing an image to the search engine and to the visually disabled. Here's how you would use ALT in an IMG tag:
#7: Nomenclatures
It's not confirmed, but many SEO's have experienced improvement in ranking by renaming images and media.
do your best to insure the content has the keywords in the filename (as well as a Title or ALT attribute).
#8: Create a Site Map Page
a site map page comes in. Since every page on the website will be linked to the sitemap, it allows webcrawlers (and users) to quickly and easily find content.
#9:Include a robots.txt File
By far the easiest top 10 SEO tips you will ever do as it relates to search engine optimization is include a robots.txt file at the root of your website. Open up a text editor, such as Notepad and type "User-agent: *". Then save the file as robots.txt and upload it to your root directory on your domain. This one command will tell any spider that hits your website to "please feel free to crawl every page of my website".
Here's one of my best top 10 SEO tips: Because the search engine analyzes everything it indexes to determine what your website is all about, it might be a good idea to block folders and files that have nothing to do with the content we want to be analyzed. You can disallow unrelated files to be read by adding "Disallow: /folder_name/" or "Disallow: /filename.html". Here is an example of the robots.txt file on this site:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /folder_name
Disallow: /filename.html
#10: Install a sitemap.xml for Google
What is RSS?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.
What problem does RSS solve?
Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.
Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and can get overwhelming, and are often mistaken for spam.
RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily, and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.
What information does RSS provide?
RSS provides very basic information to do its notification. It is made up of a list of items presented in order from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual information being described. Sometimes this description is the full information you want to read (such as the content of a weblog post) and sometimes it is just a summary.
For example, the RSS information for headlines on a local news website could contain the following information:
Item 1:
Title: Sidewalk contract awarded
Description: The city awarded the sidewalk contract to Smith Associates. This hotly contested deal is worth $1.2 million.
Link: http://www.gardencitynews.com/contractawards/sidewalk.htm
Item 2:
Title: Governor to visit
Description: The governor is scheduled to visit the city on July 1st. This is the first visit since the election two years ago. The mayor is planning a big reception.
Link: http://www.gardencitynews.com/news/2004/06/gov-visit.htm
The RSS information is placed into a single file on a website in a manner similar to normal web pages. However, the information is coded in the XML computer language for use by a program (the RSS aggregator) and not by a person like a normal web page.
How do I find out if a website has an RSS feed?
It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to "RSS", or sometimes by displaying an orange button with the letters "XML" or "RSS". RSS feeds are also often found via a "Syndicate This" link. Text "RSS" links sometimes (there are lots of variations) point to a web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided and how to find them. The buttons are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.
RSS is a method that uses XML to distribute web content on one web site, to many other web sites. RSS allows fast browsing for news and updates.
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
• HTML / XHTML
• XML / XML Namespaces
What is RSS?
• RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication
• RSS allows you to syndicate your site content
• RSS defines an easy way to share and view headlines and content
• RSS files can be automatically updated
• RSS allows personalized views for different sites
• RSS is written in XML
Why use RSS?
RSS was designed to show selected data.
Without RSS, users will have to check your site daily for new updates. This may be too time-consuming for many users. With an RSS feed (RSS is often called a News feed or RSS feed) they can check your site faster using an RSS aggregator (a site or program that gathers and sorts out RSS feeds).
Since RSS data is small and fast-loading, it can easily be used with services like cell phones or PDA's.
Web-rings with similar information can easily share data on their web sites to make them better and more useful.
Who should use RSS?
Webmasters who seldom update their web sites do not need RSS!
RSS is useful for web sites that are updated frequently, like:
• News sites - Lists news with title, date and descriptions
• Companies - Lists news and new products
• Calendars - Lists upcoming events and important days
• Site changes - Lists changed pages or new pages
The Future of RSS RSS is going to be everywhere!
Thousands of sites use RSS and more people understand its usefulness every day.
With RSS, information on the internet becomes easier to find, and web developers can spread their information more easily to special interest groups.
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.
What problem does RSS solve?
Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.
Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from multiple websites they are usually disorganized and can get overwhelming, and are often mistaken for spam.
RSS is a better way to be notified of new and changed content. Notifications of changes to multiple websites are handled easily, and the results are presented to you well organized and distinct from email.
What information does RSS provide?
RSS provides very basic information to do its notification. It is made up of a list of items presented in order from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual information being described. Sometimes this description is the full information you want to read (such as the content of a weblog post) and sometimes it is just a summary.
For example, the RSS information for headlines on a local news website could contain the following information:
Item 1:
Title: Sidewalk contract awarded
Description: The city awarded the sidewalk contract to Smith Associates. This hotly contested deal is worth $1.2 million.
Link: http://www.gardencitynews.com/contractawards/sidewalk.htm
Item 2:
Title: Governor to visit
Description: The governor is scheduled to visit the city on July 1st. This is the first visit since the election two years ago. The mayor is planning a big reception.
Link: http://www.gardencitynews.com/news/2004/06/gov-visit.htm
The RSS information is placed into a single file on a website in a manner similar to normal web pages. However, the information is coded in the XML computer language for use by a program (the RSS aggregator) and not by a person like a normal web page.
How do I find out if a website has an RSS feed?
It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to "RSS", or sometimes by displaying an orange button with the letters "XML" or "RSS". RSS feeds are also often found via a "Syndicate This" link. Text "RSS" links sometimes (there are lots of variations) point to a web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided and how to find them. The buttons are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.
RSS is a method that uses XML to distribute web content on one web site, to many other web sites. RSS allows fast browsing for news and updates.
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
• HTML / XHTML
• XML / XML Namespaces
What is RSS?
• RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication
• RSS allows you to syndicate your site content
• RSS defines an easy way to share and view headlines and content
• RSS files can be automatically updated
• RSS allows personalized views for different sites
• RSS is written in XML
Why use RSS?
RSS was designed to show selected data.
Without RSS, users will have to check your site daily for new updates. This may be too time-consuming for many users. With an RSS feed (RSS is often called a News feed or RSS feed) they can check your site faster using an RSS aggregator (a site or program that gathers and sorts out RSS feeds).
Since RSS data is small and fast-loading, it can easily be used with services like cell phones or PDA's.
Web-rings with similar information can easily share data on their web sites to make them better and more useful.
Who should use RSS?
Webmasters who seldom update their web sites do not need RSS!
RSS is useful for web sites that are updated frequently, like:
• News sites - Lists news with title, date and descriptions
• Companies - Lists news and new products
• Calendars - Lists upcoming events and important days
• Site changes - Lists changed pages or new pages
The Future of RSS RSS is going to be everywhere!
Thousands of sites use RSS and more people understand its usefulness every day.
With RSS, information on the internet becomes easier to find, and web developers can spread their information more easily to special interest groups.
What Are Hits?
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What Are Hits?
A hit is a request for one file from a web server. For example, if you request (i.e. visit) a single web page which contains only text, the web server will send you that page as a file. This process is called a hit.
1 File Request = 1 Hit
In the early days of the Internet, hits were a reasonable way of tracking how many pages were viewed. Each page was one file, so hits equalled page views (more or less).
The problem is that in today's Internet, each page is typically made up of multiple files. Each time you request a page you receive a whole bunch of responses — each of which counts as a separate hit.
1 Page Request = Multiple Hits
It is quite common for one visitor to generate dozens or even hundreds of hits during a single visit.
Clearly hits are a gross exaggeration of the number of visits, but it gets worse. Because websites are designed so differently, there is no common baseline for determining how many hits an average visitor generates. If a website uses 25 icons in their navigation menu, it will generate a lot more hits than a site which uses a single image file. This makes hits absolutely useless when it comes to reporting traffic volume.
Hits
Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'. The requests can be for anything... html pages, graphic images, audio files, cgi scripts, etc... Each valid line in the server log is counted as a hit. This number represents the total number of requests that were made to the server during the specified report period. E.g. Accessing a page with 3 images on it will count as 4 hits (1 for the html page and 1 for each image).
Files
Some requests made to the server, require that the server then send something back to the requesting client, such as a html page or graphic image. When this happens, it is considered a 'file' and the files total is incremented. The relationship between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'.
Pages
Pages are, literally just pages. Generally, any HTML document, or anything that generates an HTML document, would be considered a page. This does not include graphic images, audio clips, etc... This number represents the number of 'pages' requested only, not images or anything else included in the document featured on the page.
Visits
Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address (site), the amount of time since a previous request by the address is calculated (if any). If the time difference is greater than a pre-configured 'visit timeout' value (or has never made a request before), it is considered a 'new visit', and this total is incremented (both for the site, and the IP address).
Sites
Each request made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address. The 'sites' number shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server during the reporting time period. This DOES NOT mean the number of unique individual users (real people) that visited, which is impossible to determine using just logs and the HTTP protocol (however, this number might be about as close as you will get).
KBytes
The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB, which was sent out by the server during the specified reporting period. This value is generated directly from the log file, so it is up to the web server to produce accurate numbers in the logs. In general, this should be a fairly accurate representation of the amount of outgoing traffic the server had. (Note: A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes)
Top Entry and Exit Pages
The Top Entry and Exit Pages give rough estimates of what URL's are used to enter your site, and what the last pages viewed are. Because of limitations in the HTTP protocol, log rotations, etc... This number should be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual numbers, however will give a good indication of the overall trend in where users come into, and exit, your site.
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing
Analytics
Learn how looking at the ways people find and use your web site can give you valuable insight into your marketing campaigns, your page content and your products.
Blogging
Blogs are simple programs that allow web site owners to quickly and easily publish new content to their web site.
Brand Building
With social media and search engines driving a huge percentage of the traffic to a web site, it's essential to make sure you're building your brand and convincing people to come looking for YOU.
Content and Copywriting
Getting people to come to your web site is only half the battle. Once they've arrived, you need to be certain you're serving up fresh, engaging content.
Conversions
Traffic is not your friend. Conversions are your friend. This collection of articles shares practical advice you can use in your marketing campaigns and on your web site to make sure you are driving leads, sales and sign-ups.
Google AdSense
Google AdWords
Keywords
Keywords are the words or phrases people type into the search engines to find the web sites they're looking for. Learn how to identify the best keywords for your site and how to integrate them into your title tags, headlines and page copy to improve rankings.
Link Building
There's no denying the power of links in terms of online marketing. Search engines use links as a way to determine how valuable and relevant your site is and people use links to move from one site to another. Building quality links from relevant sources can go a long way toward improving your search rankings, but it can also drive tons of targeted traffic.
Local Search
With paper Yellow Pages quickly getting buried in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, local search is being an essential part of any online marketing campaign. Learn which sites searchers are turning to for listings and reviews and find out how you can put your best foot forward on them.
Online PR
Public relations isn't just for big companies anymore. The web has taken conversation global which means one angry customer can do major damage to your brand. Of course that also means one very happy customer can launch your brand into the stratosphere. Learn the nuances of online public relations through the articles in this category.
Online Reputation Management
Companies worry someone might say something bad about them online. What they should be worried about is that someone might say something bad about them online without them ever knowing it. Learn how to track the conversation about your company, your products and even yourself. Get practical tips and advice on heading off, or recovering from a crisis.
Other
A collection of articles and posts that do not fall into any particular online marketing category.
Paid Search Advertising (PPC)
Purchasing keyword triggered advertising on major search engines or content sites can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your web site. These articles explore the various paid search advertising options and offer up tips for maximizing the value of your ad dollar.
Puppy Picks
Search Engine Marketing
This category covers high level search marketing concepts. These articles and posts tend to focus on the overall value of search marketing tactics and the need to integrate several forms of online marketing to build stronger results.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the practice of increasing your rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results of a search engine. The posts in this category offer up tips and advice for making sure your site is search engine friendly and for increasing your rankings through changes in links, content and keyword focus.
Search Marketing Bootcamp
If you're new to search marketing, these entry level articles will help you get an idea of what goes into a search marketing campaign. You'll find step by step primers and simple explanations aimed at helping you dive into search marketing without fear of drowning.
Social Media
There's a conversation going on around you. Are you part of it? Social media sites focus on giving people a way to connect and share thoughts, ideas and creations. Smart companies are figuring out ways to contribute to and become part of this conversation. Learn how to join in without stepping on toes.
Universal Search
Search engines used to focus on delivering up a list of the best web pages for a search. These days, they're also integrating video, images, blog listings, product listings and more. Learn how universal search is changing up search engine optimization and how savvy marketers are taking advantage of it to increase their presence in search results.
Unleashed Conference
News and information from our Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference. Articles and video reviews and interviews are included.
Usability
Ever been to a site that made it difficult for you to find your way around? Tried to buy a product, but couldn't find the add to cart option? If so, you've experienced a usability problem. This collection of articles focuses on the need to build your web site around accepted standards so users can quickly and easily find their way around.
Vertical Search
Specialized search engines focus on serving up results for a specific topic or from a specific type of media. Vertical search engines may let you dig deep into video results or refine your search to sites focused on one industry. These engines serve as great sources of engaged traffic and learning how to increase your rankings on them can have a huge pay off.
Viral Marketing
Every now and then a little piece of marketing genius takes off with lightening speed and finds its way to half the computers on the Internet. These articles will give you insight into what makes some pieces fly while others flounder. They'll also help you learn how to find the best starting points to launch a viral campaign.
Search Engine Marketing Guide
There is a lot involved with search engine marketing. In fact, it can be a bit overwhelming, even for those with a great deal of experience. The good news is that by taking it one step at a time, it is not hard to learn. And once learned, search engine marketing can provide an effective method of driving highly targeted visitors to your web site.
The following is a simple guide to search engine marketing. Although it is meant for beginners, it can also be very useful for more advanced search engine marketers as a reference source. Each section provides a brief overview of the basics followed by resources for further study.
Take it one step at a time and you'll soon understand the basics of search engine marketing...
Keywords & Search TermsThe first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and keyphrases that will be used to market your web site.
On this page you will learn about:
* The importance of keywords and search terms.
* Tools that will help you find your best keywords.
* Search term lists useful for spotting general trends.
Search Engine Optimization Step two addresses how to make basic web site design changes that will make your site more search engine friendly.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
2. Domain names.
3. The Title Tag.
4. Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags.
5. Copywriting.
6. ALT Tags.
7. Site Map
8. Dealing with FLASH.
9. Dealing with dynamic pages.
10. File formats.
11. Framed sites & pages.
12. JavaScript.
13. What to avoid.
14. Getting professional SEO help.
15. Getting free help.
Search Engine SubmissionAfter you've gone through the search engine optimization process, it's time to get your site listed in the various search engines and directories.
On this page you will learn about:
1. How will the search engines find my site?
2. Submitting your site using a free submit form.
3. Submitting to directories.
4. Paying the search engines to index your site.
5. Services to avoid.
6. Services that can help.
Link PopularityLink popularity is a major factor when it comes to ranking well in search engines and drawing traffic to your site. In step four, you will learn how to increase the number of links to your site, how to get quality sites to link to yours, and the overall effect link popularity has on your rankings.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is link popularity?
2. Getting links to your site.
3. Checking Your Link Popularity
4. What not to do.
Paid InclusionIf you would rather not wait for the search engines to find and index your site on their own, you can pay to be indexed faster. With step five, you will learn if paid inclusion is a viable option for you.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is paid inclusion?
2. Will it help my site rank better?
3. What are the costs?
Pay Per Click Search EnginesPay per click search engines and pay per click advertising provides web site owners the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search results pages. Step six looks at this form of advertising.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is pay per click?
2. Which search engines allow pay per click advertising?
3. Important Considerations
4. Pay per click affiliate programs.
5. Pay per click information resources.
Log File and Traffic AnalysisYour site's log files contain a wealth of information about the effectiveness of your web site marketing programs. With your log files, you can learn how your visitors are finding your site, what search terms they are using to find it, and which are the best sources of traffic for your site.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is a log file?
2. Why is log file and traffic analysis important?
3. Services and tools that can help.
Google's PageRankAlthough Google's PageRank is but one factor Google uses to determine its search results, it is a popular topic. Step eight provides basic information to help you better understand the importance of PageRank.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is Google's PageRank?
2. How do I find the PageRank of a web page?
Analytics
Learn how looking at the ways people find and use your web site can give you valuable insight into your marketing campaigns, your page content and your products.
Blogging
Blogs are simple programs that allow web site owners to quickly and easily publish new content to their web site.
Brand Building
With social media and search engines driving a huge percentage of the traffic to a web site, it's essential to make sure you're building your brand and convincing people to come looking for YOU.
Content and Copywriting
Getting people to come to your web site is only half the battle. Once they've arrived, you need to be certain you're serving up fresh, engaging content.
Conversions
Traffic is not your friend. Conversions are your friend. This collection of articles shares practical advice you can use in your marketing campaigns and on your web site to make sure you are driving leads, sales and sign-ups.
Google AdSense
Google AdWords
Keywords
Keywords are the words or phrases people type into the search engines to find the web sites they're looking for. Learn how to identify the best keywords for your site and how to integrate them into your title tags, headlines and page copy to improve rankings.
Link Building
There's no denying the power of links in terms of online marketing. Search engines use links as a way to determine how valuable and relevant your site is and people use links to move from one site to another. Building quality links from relevant sources can go a long way toward improving your search rankings, but it can also drive tons of targeted traffic.
Local Search
With paper Yellow Pages quickly getting buried in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, local search is being an essential part of any online marketing campaign. Learn which sites searchers are turning to for listings and reviews and find out how you can put your best foot forward on them.
Online PR
Public relations isn't just for big companies anymore. The web has taken conversation global which means one angry customer can do major damage to your brand. Of course that also means one very happy customer can launch your brand into the stratosphere. Learn the nuances of online public relations through the articles in this category.
Online Reputation Management
Companies worry someone might say something bad about them online. What they should be worried about is that someone might say something bad about them online without them ever knowing it. Learn how to track the conversation about your company, your products and even yourself. Get practical tips and advice on heading off, or recovering from a crisis.
Other
A collection of articles and posts that do not fall into any particular online marketing category.
Paid Search Advertising (PPC)
Purchasing keyword triggered advertising on major search engines or content sites can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your web site. These articles explore the various paid search advertising options and offer up tips for maximizing the value of your ad dollar.
Puppy Picks
Search Engine Marketing
This category covers high level search marketing concepts. These articles and posts tend to focus on the overall value of search marketing tactics and the need to integrate several forms of online marketing to build stronger results.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the practice of increasing your rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results of a search engine. The posts in this category offer up tips and advice for making sure your site is search engine friendly and for increasing your rankings through changes in links, content and keyword focus.
Search Marketing Bootcamp
If you're new to search marketing, these entry level articles will help you get an idea of what goes into a search marketing campaign. You'll find step by step primers and simple explanations aimed at helping you dive into search marketing without fear of drowning.
Social Media
There's a conversation going on around you. Are you part of it? Social media sites focus on giving people a way to connect and share thoughts, ideas and creations. Smart companies are figuring out ways to contribute to and become part of this conversation. Learn how to join in without stepping on toes.
Universal Search
Search engines used to focus on delivering up a list of the best web pages for a search. These days, they're also integrating video, images, blog listings, product listings and more. Learn how universal search is changing up search engine optimization and how savvy marketers are taking advantage of it to increase their presence in search results.
Unleashed Conference
News and information from our Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference. Articles and video reviews and interviews are included.
Usability
Ever been to a site that made it difficult for you to find your way around? Tried to buy a product, but couldn't find the add to cart option? If so, you've experienced a usability problem. This collection of articles focuses on the need to build your web site around accepted standards so users can quickly and easily find their way around.
Vertical Search
Specialized search engines focus on serving up results for a specific topic or from a specific type of media. Vertical search engines may let you dig deep into video results or refine your search to sites focused on one industry. These engines serve as great sources of engaged traffic and learning how to increase your rankings on them can have a huge pay off.
Viral Marketing
Every now and then a little piece of marketing genius takes off with lightening speed and finds its way to half the computers on the Internet. These articles will give you insight into what makes some pieces fly while others flounder. They'll also help you learn how to find the best starting points to launch a viral campaign.
Search Engine Marketing Guide
There is a lot involved with search engine marketing. In fact, it can be a bit overwhelming, even for those with a great deal of experience. The good news is that by taking it one step at a time, it is not hard to learn. And once learned, search engine marketing can provide an effective method of driving highly targeted visitors to your web site.
The following is a simple guide to search engine marketing. Although it is meant for beginners, it can also be very useful for more advanced search engine marketers as a reference source. Each section provides a brief overview of the basics followed by resources for further study.
Take it one step at a time and you'll soon understand the basics of search engine marketing...
Keywords & Search TermsThe first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and keyphrases that will be used to market your web site.
On this page you will learn about:
* The importance of keywords and search terms.
* Tools that will help you find your best keywords.
* Search term lists useful for spotting general trends.
Search Engine Optimization Step two addresses how to make basic web site design changes that will make your site more search engine friendly.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
2. Domain names.
3. The Title Tag.
4. Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags.
5. Copywriting.
6. ALT Tags.
7. Site Map
8. Dealing with FLASH.
9. Dealing with dynamic pages.
10. File formats.
11. Framed sites & pages.
12. JavaScript.
13. What to avoid.
14. Getting professional SEO help.
15. Getting free help.
Search Engine SubmissionAfter you've gone through the search engine optimization process, it's time to get your site listed in the various search engines and directories.
On this page you will learn about:
1. How will the search engines find my site?
2. Submitting your site using a free submit form.
3. Submitting to directories.
4. Paying the search engines to index your site.
5. Services to avoid.
6. Services that can help.
Link PopularityLink popularity is a major factor when it comes to ranking well in search engines and drawing traffic to your site. In step four, you will learn how to increase the number of links to your site, how to get quality sites to link to yours, and the overall effect link popularity has on your rankings.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is link popularity?
2. Getting links to your site.
3. Checking Your Link Popularity
4. What not to do.
Paid InclusionIf you would rather not wait for the search engines to find and index your site on their own, you can pay to be indexed faster. With step five, you will learn if paid inclusion is a viable option for you.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is paid inclusion?
2. Will it help my site rank better?
3. What are the costs?
Pay Per Click Search EnginesPay per click search engines and pay per click advertising provides web site owners the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search results pages. Step six looks at this form of advertising.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is pay per click?
2. Which search engines allow pay per click advertising?
3. Important Considerations
4. Pay per click affiliate programs.
5. Pay per click information resources.
Log File and Traffic AnalysisYour site's log files contain a wealth of information about the effectiveness of your web site marketing programs. With your log files, you can learn how your visitors are finding your site, what search terms they are using to find it, and which are the best sources of traffic for your site.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is a log file?
2. Why is log file and traffic analysis important?
3. Services and tools that can help.
Google's PageRankAlthough Google's PageRank is but one factor Google uses to determine its search results, it is a popular topic. Step eight provides basic information to help you better understand the importance of PageRank.
On this page you will learn about:
1. What is Google's PageRank?
2. How do I find the PageRank of a web page?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Google Advanced Operators
Google Advanced Operators, Search Advanced Operators
Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.
Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of operators is available on the Basics of Search page. Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page, but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.
Alternate query types
cache:
If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page.
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.
link:
The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.
related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar.
info:
The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.
Other information needs
define:
The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).
stocks:
If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.)
This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.
Query modifiers
site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.
allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word.
Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url.
Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word.
Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].
Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.
Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of operators is available on the Basics of Search page. Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page, but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.
Alternate query types
cache:
If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page.
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.
link:
The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.
related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar.
info:
The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.
Other information needs
define:
The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).
stocks:
If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.)
This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.
Query modifiers
site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.
allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word.
Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url.
Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word.
Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Landing Page
1). A simple page from site having a direct link with home page.
2). It would better to start at least 3-4 month the time of occasion (ranking).
3). There should be no java script and flash, frame on the page.
4). Page Renaming: use keywords in the web pages URL.
Keyword in the url supported by search engines, Page name (Occasion - festival name) should be coming in the url.
5).Use Headings
Headings plays an important role in organizing information, so be sure to include at least H1-H3 when assembling your page.
6).Use Title and ALT Attributes
Add a title attribute and include keywords. Using the Title Attribute is a direct method of telling the search engines about the relevance of the link.
7).Content optimization
Bold, Italic tag (Keywords)
8). Min 250 word s content (with keywords 7 to 10 times in the content)
Points to increase the ROI
5).Related name brands
For example, if we have selected the keyword 'hiking shoes,' make sure that our ad mentions hiking shoes or related name brands? Our landing page should be offering the name brands we mentioned, along with detailed information about this shoe type?"
6).Content
Keep it short and to the point. Paragraphs should be no longer than three lines, if they are used at all. One idea per paragraph is plenty of information fodder.
10).Reinforcing credibility
Testimonials, press, kitemarks, partners, visible customer support options. All these things convey trust and respectability. They ease the mind of the prospective buyer, who might not know your brand. Trust is very important.
11).Good use of images and colour
Presentation (eg: colours, graphics, icons) can play a big role in reinforcing purchase intent. Avoid clutter. White space and big fonts. Smart layout.
12).For a single page target only 2-3 keywords
2). It would better to start at least 3-4 month the time of occasion (ranking).
3). There should be no java script and flash, frame on the page.
4). Page Renaming: use keywords in the web pages URL.
Keyword in the url supported by search engines, Page name (Occasion - festival name) should be coming in the url.
5).Use Headings
Headings plays an important role in organizing information, so be sure to include at least H1-H3 when assembling your page.
6).Use Title and ALT Attributes
Add a title attribute and include keywords. Using the Title Attribute is a direct method of telling the search engines about the relevance of the link.
7).Content optimization
Bold, Italic tag (Keywords)
8). Min 250 word s content (with keywords 7 to 10 times in the content)
Points to increase the ROI
5).Related name brands
For example, if we have selected the keyword 'hiking shoes,' make sure that our ad mentions hiking shoes or related name brands? Our landing page should be offering the name brands we mentioned, along with detailed information about this shoe type?"
6).Content
Keep it short and to the point. Paragraphs should be no longer than three lines, if they are used at all. One idea per paragraph is plenty of information fodder.
10).Reinforcing credibility
Testimonials, press, kitemarks, partners, visible customer support options. All these things convey trust and respectability. They ease the mind of the prospective buyer, who might not know your brand. Trust is very important.
11).Good use of images and colour
Presentation (eg: colours, graphics, icons) can play a big role in reinforcing purchase intent. Avoid clutter. White space and big fonts. Smart layout.
12).For a single page target only 2-3 keywords
Monday, March 2, 2009
Quality landing page, to improving conversion rates:
Quality landing page, to improving conversion rates:
1. Brevity
Keep it short and to the point. Paragraphs should be no longer than three lines, if they are used at all. One idea per paragraph is plenty of information fodder.
2. Relevancy
In the case of PPC landing pages you need to match the offer to your text ad copy. Keywords should be highlighted or displayed prominently. Keep it relevant to that person's search query, because that's all they care about.
3. A direct approach
Bullet points work well online, to help communicate the benefits of a product or service. Keep in mind that people skim read on the web. Use bold text to reinforce key messages.
4. A clear call-to-action
That potentially means a big Buy Now button, above the fold...
5. Fact over fiction
Stick to the key facts and be transparent, especially when the landing page is related to an ad campaign. Do not hide the price. Avoid flowery prose. This ain't a press release. Product features, product features, product features.
6. Persuasion
Persuasion means removing any links that might distract, focusing the consumer's mind on the end goal: the checkout. This means writing compelling copy. Persuade visitors not to drop out by limiting their options - remove link navigation, for example. Prominently display delivery options and costs. Sell the goddamned product...
7. Clear scent trails
How easy is it for a novice web user to get from A to B? You need to encourage visitors to walk / run down that conversion path. Conducting usability testing on your landing page templates may also provide you with some answers.
8. Grammatical accuracy
Its important, innit? Because people dont like spelling misteaks and stuff like that. First impressions count.
9. Reinforcing credibility
Testimonials, press, kitemarks, partners, visible customer support options. All these things convey trust and respectability. They ease the mind of the prospective buyer, who might not know your brand. Trust is very important.
10. Good use of images and colour
Presentation (eg: colours, graphics, icons) can play a big role in reinforcing purchase intent. Avoid clutter. White space and big fonts. Smart layout.
11.Related name brands
For example, if you have selected the keyword 'hiking shoes,' have you made sure that your ad mentions hiking shoes or related name brands? Does your landing page actually offer the name brands you mentioned, along with detailed information about this shoe type?"
1. Brevity
Keep it short and to the point. Paragraphs should be no longer than three lines, if they are used at all. One idea per paragraph is plenty of information fodder.
2. Relevancy
In the case of PPC landing pages you need to match the offer to your text ad copy. Keywords should be highlighted or displayed prominently. Keep it relevant to that person's search query, because that's all they care about.
3. A direct approach
Bullet points work well online, to help communicate the benefits of a product or service. Keep in mind that people skim read on the web. Use bold text to reinforce key messages.
4. A clear call-to-action
That potentially means a big Buy Now button, above the fold...
5. Fact over fiction
Stick to the key facts and be transparent, especially when the landing page is related to an ad campaign. Do not hide the price. Avoid flowery prose. This ain't a press release. Product features, product features, product features.
6. Persuasion
Persuasion means removing any links that might distract, focusing the consumer's mind on the end goal: the checkout. This means writing compelling copy. Persuade visitors not to drop out by limiting their options - remove link navigation, for example. Prominently display delivery options and costs. Sell the goddamned product...
7. Clear scent trails
How easy is it for a novice web user to get from A to B? You need to encourage visitors to walk / run down that conversion path. Conducting usability testing on your landing page templates may also provide you with some answers.
8. Grammatical accuracy
Its important, innit? Because people dont like spelling misteaks and stuff like that. First impressions count.
9. Reinforcing credibility
Testimonials, press, kitemarks, partners, visible customer support options. All these things convey trust and respectability. They ease the mind of the prospective buyer, who might not know your brand. Trust is very important.
10. Good use of images and colour
Presentation (eg: colours, graphics, icons) can play a big role in reinforcing purchase intent. Avoid clutter. White space and big fonts. Smart layout.
11.Related name brands
For example, if you have selected the keyword 'hiking shoes,' have you made sure that your ad mentions hiking shoes or related name brands? Does your landing page actually offer the name brands you mentioned, along with detailed information about this shoe type?"
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