What is keyword density and what effect does it have on your search engine rank? And better yet, how do you know if you've got too many or too few of your keywords on your web site?
Keyword density refers to the number of times your target keywords appear on your web site.
Keyword density is important because search engines use keyword density to decide what your site is all about based on the kinds of words found on your site.
For example, if you want your web site to rank well for the keywords "stop foreclosure" then you should have the phrase "stop foreclosure" located in several places throughout your site. This way search engines can take a glance at your site and know that it has something to do with "stop foreclosure".
If your keywords do not appear on your web site enough, search engines won't list you for those words.
If your keywords appear too often on your web site, search engines consider this "keyword spam" and they will penalize you for it with a lower ranking.
What does Google think your site's keywords are?
Interested in what kind of keywords Google thinks your site is good for? Go to the Google Keyword Tool, click on the "Website content" radio button, enter your web address, and click "Get keyword ideas".
Google will then go and check your site and give you the keywords it things your site is geared towards.
The top keywords for your site will show up under "Showing keywords grouped by these terms:" (don't worry about the numbers in parentheses).
If your target keywords don't appear on the list Google gives you, this basically means that Google isn't finding those keywords on your site enough to believe you should be considered for them.
Appropriate density?
It's hard to give you an appropriate keyword density range. As usual, your competition can give you a clue.
The best way to figure out the best density for your site is to look at those who already rank well for those keywords.
Here's how to do that.
Type your keywords into a search engine and see which sites pop up.
I'd recommend looking at the keyword density of the top 10 sites for your keywords by comparing them all at http://www.keyworddensity.com or some similar keyword density checker.
This site will tell you the keyword density of all your competitors, and where those keywords are located.
Pay attention to what areas your competitors have placed their keywords in and try to match them. Whatever the average keyword density is on those sites, you can bet it's pretty close to what search engines are looking for.
Conclusion
Keyword density isn't something you have to worry about too much. You just want to be aware of two things:
#1) Make sure your keywords are included on your site (sometimes we just forget to include them)
#2) Don't overdo it--if you've included your keywords so often it reads funny to your human visitors, you want to scale back to where everything reads naturally and flows well.
12 Ways to Explode Your Business Online:
Watch the mind-blowing "12 Ways" video here: http://www.InternetMarketingForBusinessOwners.com
Learn step-by-step how the pros effectively market their web sites and massively Increase Website Traffic through 12 special tutorials by renowned internet marketer Jarom Adair.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jarom_Adair
Monday, June 8, 2009
Why It's Vitally Important to Trust Your Search Engine Marketing Company in a Down Economy
It's a fact of life in business that when there's an economic downturn, the first thing that's usually cut is available marketing spend, typically an unfortunate byproduct of accounting's inability to justify costs without hard data in place. While the argument has been made numerous times over the years in books and articles that cutting budgets in a down economy is one of the worst moves you can make, I won't rehash this old (but still valid) argument. Instead, I'd specifically like to address why cutting your search engine marketing budget in a down economy is a bad move, and why it's equally important to place your trust in your search engine marketing company during a down turn.
It's probably true for most businesses that there are fewer people actively searching for their products and services due to the economic climate. Companies reasonably approach this situation thinking, "Why should we pay the same amount in marketing that we've traditionally been paying when our current target market has shrunk?" This is a rational concern, but it doesn't always lead to rational decisions - and it's at this point when it becomes appropriate to break down the differences between push and pull marketing.
"Pushing" Your Message Out: The Traditional Method
With push marketing (by modern definition), you are essentially "pushing" your message out to various venues, such as billboards, magazine ads, direct mail, and radio and TV spots, trying to target your ideal customer. You're spending money to reach mass audiences in the hopes that some percentage of them are looking for your products or services at just the time your message reaches them. Of course, if sales in your particular market have dropped by, say, 25%, you can expect that your push marketing results will probably correlate to the industry decline.
"Pulling" Your Market In: The Value of Search Engine Marketing
Enter the modern definition of pull marketing, such as the services that your search engine marketing company provides. With pull marketing, you are able to target a potential customer at the exact time he or she is seeking your products and services regardless of any declines in the marketplace. If your search engine marketing company is running a PPC program on your behalf, you should remain adequately represented in search engine results pages. If there are fewer people searching for the keyphrases upon which you bid, your costs for pay-per-click may decrease, but at least, in this case, it is a market-driven decrease based upon solid information rather than a decision passed down from someone far removed from marketing.
Another argument can be made for search engine optimization. Although the budget you allocate for a search engine marketing company and its services may be fixed, it's likely that many of your competitors have lost their budgets, opening up the playing field and potentially allowing you to garner more of the business that's still out there.
Establishing Long-Term Success with Hard Data
This takes us to another area especially important to businesses where long-term relationships are crucial to long-term success. In a down economy, people cut marketing budgets (including the crucial, but often overlooked online marketing efforts performed by their search engine marketing company), leaving a prime opportunity for you to use pull marketing tactics to gain market share while your competitors are left trying to "ride out the storm." As previously mentioned, fewer of your competitors will be paying for ongoing SEO efforts or even allotting revenue for PPC campaigns, which opens up more potential search engine real estate for your company in the organic and PPC arenas and, quite possibly, lowers your per-click cost in PPC.
With push marketing, it's difficult to attribute a direct ROI correlation. It can be tried - companies will use vanity phone numbers or URLs on a variety of different online advertisements or offline flyers, but nothing compares to the ROI metrics that can be provided by your search engine marketing company. Frankly, you can get as granular as you want with data - how much a lead costs, the exact amount of revenue generated by individual campaigns, all the way down to the exact amount of profit you made from particular keyphrases on the Google AdWords campaign between 4 and 5 PM on March 05. The bottom line is that it's hard to argue with this data, and while many marketing pros are understandably in job preservation mode, it's obviously valuable to be able to point to undeniable metrics that demonstrate success.
Don't Cut Marketing; Build on Existing Efforts
Ever since the marketing department made its debut in the modern business world, it has seemed to be the first to get downsized or even axed during trying economic times. Of course, I feel that any marketing that has traditionally worked for a company should not be eliminated during a downturn. However, if budgets must be revised, I recommend you focus your remaining efforts on pull marketing, gaining market share, and concentrating on the metrics (acquired with the assistance of your search engine marketing company) to prove your ROI.
Scott Buresh is the founder of Medium Blue, an Atlanta search engine optimization company. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including MarketingProfs, ZDNet, SiteProNews, WebProNews, DarwinMag, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue has local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters, and was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. To see how we can help you achieve your online marketing goals, please contact us.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Buresh
It's probably true for most businesses that there are fewer people actively searching for their products and services due to the economic climate. Companies reasonably approach this situation thinking, "Why should we pay the same amount in marketing that we've traditionally been paying when our current target market has shrunk?" This is a rational concern, but it doesn't always lead to rational decisions - and it's at this point when it becomes appropriate to break down the differences between push and pull marketing.
"Pushing" Your Message Out: The Traditional Method
With push marketing (by modern definition), you are essentially "pushing" your message out to various venues, such as billboards, magazine ads, direct mail, and radio and TV spots, trying to target your ideal customer. You're spending money to reach mass audiences in the hopes that some percentage of them are looking for your products or services at just the time your message reaches them. Of course, if sales in your particular market have dropped by, say, 25%, you can expect that your push marketing results will probably correlate to the industry decline.
"Pulling" Your Market In: The Value of Search Engine Marketing
Enter the modern definition of pull marketing, such as the services that your search engine marketing company provides. With pull marketing, you are able to target a potential customer at the exact time he or she is seeking your products and services regardless of any declines in the marketplace. If your search engine marketing company is running a PPC program on your behalf, you should remain adequately represented in search engine results pages. If there are fewer people searching for the keyphrases upon which you bid, your costs for pay-per-click may decrease, but at least, in this case, it is a market-driven decrease based upon solid information rather than a decision passed down from someone far removed from marketing.
Another argument can be made for search engine optimization. Although the budget you allocate for a search engine marketing company and its services may be fixed, it's likely that many of your competitors have lost their budgets, opening up the playing field and potentially allowing you to garner more of the business that's still out there.
Establishing Long-Term Success with Hard Data
This takes us to another area especially important to businesses where long-term relationships are crucial to long-term success. In a down economy, people cut marketing budgets (including the crucial, but often overlooked online marketing efforts performed by their search engine marketing company), leaving a prime opportunity for you to use pull marketing tactics to gain market share while your competitors are left trying to "ride out the storm." As previously mentioned, fewer of your competitors will be paying for ongoing SEO efforts or even allotting revenue for PPC campaigns, which opens up more potential search engine real estate for your company in the organic and PPC arenas and, quite possibly, lowers your per-click cost in PPC.
With push marketing, it's difficult to attribute a direct ROI correlation. It can be tried - companies will use vanity phone numbers or URLs on a variety of different online advertisements or offline flyers, but nothing compares to the ROI metrics that can be provided by your search engine marketing company. Frankly, you can get as granular as you want with data - how much a lead costs, the exact amount of revenue generated by individual campaigns, all the way down to the exact amount of profit you made from particular keyphrases on the Google AdWords campaign between 4 and 5 PM on March 05. The bottom line is that it's hard to argue with this data, and while many marketing pros are understandably in job preservation mode, it's obviously valuable to be able to point to undeniable metrics that demonstrate success.
Don't Cut Marketing; Build on Existing Efforts
Ever since the marketing department made its debut in the modern business world, it has seemed to be the first to get downsized or even axed during trying economic times. Of course, I feel that any marketing that has traditionally worked for a company should not be eliminated during a downturn. However, if budgets must be revised, I recommend you focus your remaining efforts on pull marketing, gaining market share, and concentrating on the metrics (acquired with the assistance of your search engine marketing company) to prove your ROI.
Scott Buresh is the founder of Medium Blue, an Atlanta search engine optimization company. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including MarketingProfs, ZDNet, SiteProNews, WebProNews, DarwinMag, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue has local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters, and was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. To see how we can help you achieve your online marketing goals, please contact us.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Buresh
SEO Companies Get Your Local Business Up and Running
The internet has become the ultimate tool for people to use in any given situation. If someone is looking for a restaurant in their town, they use the internet. If someone is looking for a store that sells specialized shoelaces, the use the internet. This means that business owners need to put their business online in order to get more customers and better publicity.
One of the best ways to get a business high traffic online is to hire an SEO company to help with exposure and advertising. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it helps businesses and websites get higher listings on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. For example, someone may type "clothing boutique in provo, ut" into their search engine. Websites that have the highest rates on those search engines will appear at the top of the search results. SEO companies work to make it so that your website and your business will come up on the first page of the results.
You may be wondering if you could just do this yourself to save some money. Although in theory you could do this type of promoting yourself, the fact is that it would take a lot of time and it may never even happen at all. SEO companies are experts on how to get your website out there and seen by as many people as possible. They utilize specific tools that help your site get the best ratings on those search engines.
If you are looking to better promote your local business, find an SEO company to help you out along the way.
OrangeSoda is a leader in local SEO and will provide businesses with top notch SEO services. Jonathan Wickham is a freelance writer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Wickham
One of the best ways to get a business high traffic online is to hire an SEO company to help with exposure and advertising. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it helps businesses and websites get higher listings on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. For example, someone may type "clothing boutique in provo, ut" into their search engine. Websites that have the highest rates on those search engines will appear at the top of the search results. SEO companies work to make it so that your website and your business will come up on the first page of the results.
You may be wondering if you could just do this yourself to save some money. Although in theory you could do this type of promoting yourself, the fact is that it would take a lot of time and it may never even happen at all. SEO companies are experts on how to get your website out there and seen by as many people as possible. They utilize specific tools that help your site get the best ratings on those search engines.
If you are looking to better promote your local business, find an SEO company to help you out along the way.
OrangeSoda is a leader in local SEO and will provide businesses with top notch SEO services. Jonathan Wickham is a freelance writer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Wickham
Free Website SEO and Traffic For Beginners
This do-it-yourself quick-start guide will help beginning website owners set up their own SEO and increase their website traffic quickly and for free. No history or elaborate explanations will be found here. This article explains a simple, easy to implement, generic way of doing a specific SEO plan yourself. This step-by-step guide will show you how to set up some good, safe, white hat SEO/Traffic on your new or existing website with the least amount of effort in combination with the easiest-to-use free online resources.
Let's begin:
1. FIND YOUR KEYWORDS
a. Are you a local business/service or more global?
i. Local examples will be demoed with the following example business:
Mr. Kung Fu's Karate School in Seattle, WA, USA.
ii. Non-Local examples will be demoed with the following example business:
Susie Smith's Arts & Crafts Blog
b. Time to think like a potential customer. What word phrase would you expect someone to type into a search engine (like Google) and have your website come up listed on the first page of results?
i. Local businesses owners, be sure to include geographic words. For example, Mr. Kung Fu might use: 'Seattle Karate' or 'Seattle Martial Arts'. He might also use a specific suburb of Seattle instead (like 'Redmond' or 'Duvall').
ii. Non-Local businesses owners, like Susie Smith, might use: 'home arts and crafts', 'home decorations', or 'arts and crafts ideas'.
c. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to help you find the best keyword phrases for you. Pay attention to LOCAL and GLOBAL search volumes that best represent your market. WARNING: The more popular your keyword phrase is, the more competition you will probably have. If it's too popular, you probably won't make the first page of any search engine results. Try to use more specific keyword phrases whose search volume is below 40,000 a month.
d. Pick the TOP SIX best keyword phrases for you. Write them down in order of importance. Keep the list handy - you will use them later on in this article.
2. PUT IN YOUR WEBSITE TITLE
a. Find the HTML tags at the top of each of your HTML pages in the HEADER section. Your title will go between these two tags.
b. Enter in your TOP THREE keyword phrases (in order) here separated by the 'pipe' character ( | ) and save it. Redundant words only need be used once here. See the example below how the words 'Seattle' and 'Home' are only used once but apply to other keyword phrases:
1) Mr. Kung Fu: Seattle Karate | Martial Arts | Self Defense
2) Susie Smith: Home Arts And Crafts | Decorations| Ideas
3. PUT IN YOUR WEBSITE KEYWORDS & DESCRIPTION
a. For HTML Websites - Find the HTML tags and at the top of each of your HTML pages in the HEADER section. Your keywords and website description will go between these two tags respectively.
b. Type your SIX keyword phrases into the keyword section. Separate each phrase with a comma. Here it's OK to have redundant words in your phrases. For example:
1) Mr. Kung Fu would type: Seattle karate, Seattle martial arts, Seattle self defense, etc.
2) Susie Smith would type: home arts and crafts, home decorations, arts and crafts ideas, etc.
d. Type 3-5 sentences into your website description section that describe your business/service. Try and insert the TOP THREE keyword phrases into your description content. Be sure to do so in a way that is readable and natural-looking, otherwise it will look like you are 'keyword stuffing'.
4. CREATING YOUR HOME PAGE (LANDING PAGE) CONTENT
a. Without diving too much into how to create an effective landing page design let's just focus on the SEO aspect of the landing page. Your landing page is your most important page, so we need to include your keyword phrases here in your content. Your top three keyword phrases should be included more than once. Insert your keyword phrase in a readable and natural-looking way to avoid looking like you are "keyword stuffing". Try and do so with the least amount of content you can. If you insert more of your keyword phrases than what I recommend, you run the risk of getting penalized, so don't do any more than what is listed here. Insert them the following way:
i. Your #1 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 4 different places.
ii. Your #2 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 3 different places.
iii. Your #3 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 2 different places.
iv. Your #4, #5, & #6 Keyword Phrase - insert once.
b. Content Ideas - You might find it hard to come up with enough content to insert your keyword phrases naturally. It is a delicate balancing act. If you create too much content, new users to your website will leave (nobody really wants to read all that stuff). But then again, you need some content for SEO purposes. Here are some valid content ideas that will help you get your SEO keyword phrases in without overfilling your landing page with useless babble.
i. Write a brief description of what your business/service does. When someone first comes to your website, you need to let them know right up front what you do and how you can help them with their needs. A general description of your business/products/services is useful to new visitors to your website as well as a great place to sprinkle in some SEO keyword phrases. Again, don't go overboard. Keep it simple.
ii. Insert a few images - Images are a great way to break up the monotony of large amounts of content as well as get a few keywords in. Every image you insert into your content area allows for a TITLE and an ALT tag description. Slap one of your keyword phrases in. Use the same phrase for both tags. Make the image a clickable anchor linking back to your landing page.
iii. Testimonials - Testimonials are great. Get a few from some of your clients/customers and add them to your landing page. "Tweak" them slightly to include your keyword phrases (if your client/customer doesn't mind). Try not to go overboard on these. Include too many and people will get bored and leave.
iv. Awards/Articles - Show off any awards and/or articles you may have about your business/service. Write in a few quotes from them into your content. 'Tweak' them to accommodate some of your keyword phrases. Be careful not to alter them too much... they are quotes after all. If you misquote an article, you might get some backlash from the writer. Make sure any changes you make are very subtle and don't alter the author's intended message.
5. PUT KEWORDS IN YOUR WEBSITE'S FOOTER
a. There are a thousand ways to implement internal links, but to keep things simple, just create three links in your website's footer using the TOP THREE keyword phrases to point back to your lading page. With most website builder tools, the footer is 'static' and will appear on every page, so these links will be on all your pages. Here is the keyword phrase that our examples might put in their footer. Remember, these would be set up as three separate links pointing back to the landing page:
1) Mr. Kung Fu: Seattle Karate | Seattle Martial Arts | Seattle Self Defense
2) Susie Smith: Home Arts And Crafts | Home Decorations| Arts And Crafts Ideas
6. ADDING YOUR WEBSITE TO FREE DIRECTORIES
a. Free directories are pretty much worthless. Don't waste your time. Some paid directories are worth it, but they are NOT free. This article is about FREE SEO. There is only one free directory that is worth submitting your URL to: DMOZ (dmoz.org/add.html). Be sure to drill down into the LOWEST category you think your website falls under, THEN click on the 'Suggest URL' link at the top. Unfortunately, they are so overloaded that it may take months before they list your website. But... if/when they do, it's very good SEO points for you!
7. EXTERNAL LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE
a. Links from other websites to your website is the best way to help with SEO. If you have any friends or acquaintances that have a quality website you trust, ask them if you can put a link to your website on theirs. Be sure to use one of your TOP THREE keyword phrases as the link phrase that points to your website landing page.
b. If you don't know of anyone who has a website, then don't worry about it. Skip down to the next step. DON'T GO LOOKING FOR LINK EXCHANGES WITH STRANGERS. If you go looking for websites you don't know to post your link on, you will probably hurt your SEO more than help it. Because you are a newbie to SEO, people will take advantage of you. SEO is a complex thing to learn and you probably don't have the time to master it. It's best you just avoid trying something like this all together.
8. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
a. There are hundreds of social bookmarking websites. For the sake of simplicity, we will only submit your website URL to 5 of the better ones. You will need to create an account on each of these (if you do not have one already). You might want to add their 'bookmark button' to your browser toolbar as well for future ease of use.
i. Digg ( digg.com )
ii. Del.icio.us ( delicious.com )
iii. StumbleUpon ( stumbleupon.com )
iv. Reddit ( reddit.com )
v. Propeller ( propeller.com )
b. Look for the 'submit link' or 'submit website' link/button once you are logged into each of these website. Submitting your website link to each of these will usually consists of providing the following information:
i. URL - The 'www' address that people type in the address bar of their browser to get to your website.
ii. Title - Your website's title.
iii. Description - A brief description of your website. You might want to use the same description you created earlier for your website's Description Meta Tag.
iv. Keywords - Use your SIX keyword phrases here, separated by a 'comma 'or a 'space'. Look at the label on the form, it should tell you how to separate word phrases.
9. JOIN LINKED-IN
a. There are thousands of social/professional networking groups/forums you can join, but to make things simple, we are just going to join this one: Link-In ( linkedin.com ). Create an account with them (if you have not done so already). Be sure to include a link to your website in your profile. Put as much valid information into your profile about your business/services as you can. The more professional you make your profile, the better.
b. Login and search for groups to join. This is what makes Linked-In such a great tool. Look for other groups of people that have the same business interests as you and join their groups. There will probably be lots of groups to pick from. Try and go with the ones that have the most relevance and/or members. Don't overdo it. To begin with, let's just stick to around 5 groups. If you feel you can handle more later, then you can join some more then. When searching for groups, try and think beyond just what your business focuses on. For example, Mr. Kung Fu would probably search for 'karate' groups or 'martial arts' groups first. But he might also want to look for 'small business' groups.
c. Wait for your group invitation to be accepted. Once you request to join a group, it might take hours or days before you get accepted. Be patient.
d. Look for friends and associates to link to. You can search for people you know and send requests to them to join your network of contacts. This is a great way to find old friends and business acquaintances. Tell them about your new website! Find out what groups they have joined. You might want to join the same groups!
e. Post an introduction of yourself to each group you get accepted to. As you get accepted into each group, go into the 'Discussions' page and add a discussion introducing yourself and what it is you do. Then ask for a website review of your new website and post a link to it (be sure to include the 'http://' at the beginning of your link - this will make it clickable). This is completely legit and a very acceptable thing to do. Just don't go overboard on your intro. Keep it to only a few sentences. Here is an example what Mr. Kung Fu might post as his first discussion:
Introduction and Website Review
Title:
Post: Hello, my name is Mr. Kung Fu and I just wanted to introduce myself. I own a small martial arts school in Seattle, WA. I have about 35 students and have been in business for about 14 years. I look forward to discussing martial arts and karate with everyone in the group. I just created my first website and would appreciate any feedback you could provide. Here is the link: http://..... Thanks!
10. JOIN YAHOO! ANSWERS
a. Join Yahoo! Answers ( answers.yahoo.com ) if you have not done so already. You will be answering people's questions that relate to your website/business.
b. Do an 'Advanced' search. Fill in each section of the advanced search as follows:
i. Keywords - Enter in keywords that relate to what your website/business is about. Make sure the 'Search for keyword match in' is set to 'Questions'.
ii. Category - Pick the category that relates to what your website/business is about. If you can't find a good category, just select 'All'.
iii. Filter - pick the one that fits your needs.
iv. Question Status - select 'Open Questions - Best answer has not been chosen'.
v. Date Submitted - Set to 'Anytime'.
c. Submit your search. If no results come back, keep modifying your keywords till you start getting results that you feel comfortable answering.
d. Answer 5-10 questions. In the form you fill out for the answer, there is a 'What's your source?' textbox. Put the URL to your website here. Make sure to include the 'http://' in your URL. This makes it 'clickable'. Don't worry about having the perfect answer (or even the correct answer for that matter!). All answers are just opinions for the most part.
11. WRITE AN ARTICLE
a. Article websites are a place where people provide information to others on how to do things. There are hundreds of article websites you can submit articles to. For the sake of simplicity, we will use just one: Ezine Articles ( ezinearticles.com ). Join this website if you have not done so already. Fill out all your PROFILE information. Upload a professional looking photo of yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.
b. In your Profile admin page, under the 'Profile Manager' menu, click on the 'Edit Author Resource Boxes'. Here is where you put links to your website and write a brief resource description about your website/company.
i. Watch the 'Learn How to Create the Perfect Resource Box' video on this page.
ii. Include your TOP TWO keyword phrases (no more than this) that link back to your website sprinkled in with your Resource description.
iii. You will have to write the links as ANCHOR CODE. In the following examples, I will use 'brackets' to indicate what keyword phrases would be converted to anchors linking back to their respective websites:
1. Mr. Kung Fu - Mr. Kung Fu is owner of a [Seattle Karate] school called 'Mr. Kung Fu's Martial Arts'. He has been in business teaching [Seattle Martial Arts] for over 14 years. He has a 5th Degree Black Belt in Kung Fu.
2. Susie Smith - Susie Smith is the owner of the [Home Arts And Crafts] website called 'Susie Smith's Online Crafts'. Her website is an excellent resource for [Home Decoration] ideas as well as other arts and crafts.
c. Now write an article relating to your website/business. It has to be at least 250 words long (that's not very long). You don't need to be an expert to submit an article. Most, if not all, articles are just people's opinions on how to do things. Write something that relates to what your website/business is about. For example:
i. Mr. Kung Fu might write about the 'Benefits of Martial Arts Training' or 'Top 5 Reasons to Get Your Children into Martial Arts'.
ii. Susie Smith might write about 'Family Fun Making Homemade Christmas Ornaments' or 'Top 5 Craft Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day'.
d. DO NOT put links to your website in your Article content. They will be removed from your article content or even worse, your article may not get published at all. Your links will be displayed in your 'Resources' section you completed earlier.
e. Submit your article and wait. It might be a few days before they approve it. Be patient.
12. CONVERT YOUR ARTICLE TO A BLOG POST
a. Many website builders have a Blog built into their websites. Other users will need to find a blogging website to join.
b. Copy your article content and paste it into your first blog post. Here you have more flexibility creating links, so you go ahead and 'tweak' your content to include the TOP TWO keyword phrase as anchors linking back to your website landing page.
13. MASS EMAIL EVERYONE
a. Send out a mass email to everyone in your email address book(s) announcing the opening of your new website with a link to it. Ask them to send it to other friends and/or family members they know of that might be interested in it. Word of mouth sometimes does wonders.
14. DONE! SIT BACK, RELAX, AND WAIT
a. It can take a few days for all of this info to get digested by search engines and users. Be patient and wait. If you did everything I listed here, your website will be well recognized by ALL search engines and you will start to see traffic flowing in. Be proud of yourself! You just did hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars worth of SEO work on your website... for FREE! Depending upon which SEO company you might use, everything you just did could easily cost someone a few thousand dollars.
b. SEO is an ongoing exercise, however. You cannot just do what I have listed here once and then be done with SEO forever. If you want your traffic to increase and grow, you will need to continue doing some things. Lucky for you, everything you need to continue growing your SEO is already set up! See the next section below on how to maintain your website's SEO.
MAINTAINING YOUR WEBSITE'S SEO
1. FOLLOW UP ON ITEM #7 (EXTERNAL LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE)
a. Always keep an eye open for external link opportunities from other websites or web services you know and trust. If a new opportunity arises where you can get a link to your website from one of them, implement it ASAP. Always be sure to use one of your TOP THREE keyword phrases as the text for the link to your website's landing page.
2. BLOG
a. Outside of external links to your website, blogging is the next best way to increase traffic & SEO to your website, especially if your Blog is part of your website. Try to post a blog entry at least once a week if you can, no less than once month. Write about broader subjects outside of your smaller website community. Post things that thousands (if not millions) of people might relate to in your industry or that they might be interested in knowing. Make sure it relates to your website. In your blog posts, work in ONE keyword phase of the SIX you created. Try and use the TOP THREE keywords most of the time... but not all of the time. Make that ONE keyword phase an anchor linking back to your website's landing page. Try and make it the only link in your post if you can, and place it near the top of the post. Make it look natural and not like you are 'keyword stuffing'.
3. SOCIAL BOOKMARK YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. If your blog post is something that might interest others outside of your local network, you should Social Bookmark it (see item #8 above). Instead of putting in your website landing page as the URL, put in the link to your blog post. Do this for all 5 social bookmark websites listed above. If you have more time to kill and want to expand your SEO, try using Social Marker ( socialmarker.com ) to submit your blog post URLs to 50+ social bookmarking websites.
4. USE LINKED-IN TO POST LINKS BACK TO YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. Login to Linked-In (see item #9) and post a new discussion in each of the groups you joined telling people to check out your new blog post. Make sure it is relevant to the group and something they might be interested in. If it is not, then don't post it. Also, don't forget to add the 'http://' to the beginning of your link to make sure it is clickable.
5. CONVERT YOUR NEW BLOG POST TO AN ARTICLE
a. This is a flip on what you did for item #12. Instead of converting your article to a blog post, you will do just the opposite: Convert your new blog post to an article. Login to your article website (see item #11) and submit your blog post to it. Again, be sure that it is relevant to something that people might want to read an article about. If it is not, then don't submit it. For instance, if Mr. Kung Fu posted a blog post about his team winning a local tournament in Seattle, you would NOT want to post this as an article. However, if Mr. Kung Fu wrote a blog post about 'How to prepare For a Karate Tournament' that would be something that would interest readers outside of his local community and he could post to an article website. Use good judgment to figure out if you should submit your post as an article.
6. ANSWER MORE 'YAHOO! ANSWERS' QUESTIONS.
a. Once a week try to answer 5 - 10 Yahoo Questions (see Item #10 above). Add a link back to your website's landing page in the 'What's your source?' text area. Be sure to always include the 'http://' at the beginning of the link to make it clickable.
7. PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE
a. Patience and persistence will bring you a wealth of SEO and traffic. If you do everything I have listed here at least once every two weeks (or more if you can), I assure you - you will be set within a year. The longer you do it, the more successful you will be! The hard part is being persistent and doing it as often as possible. If you keep it up, your website will thrive, I promise you!
Heath Huffman is the co-owner of Doodlekit - an online free website builder. He has been doing web design and development since 1995. He specializes in website design, Photoshop, W3C compliant HTML, XHTML and CSS. For more detailed information about Heath's website builder products and service, please visit his free website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heath_Huffman
Let's begin:
1. FIND YOUR KEYWORDS
a. Are you a local business/service or more global?
i. Local examples will be demoed with the following example business:
Mr. Kung Fu's Karate School in Seattle, WA, USA.
ii. Non-Local examples will be demoed with the following example business:
Susie Smith's Arts & Crafts Blog
b. Time to think like a potential customer. What word phrase would you expect someone to type into a search engine (like Google) and have your website come up listed on the first page of results?
i. Local businesses owners, be sure to include geographic words. For example, Mr. Kung Fu might use: 'Seattle Karate' or 'Seattle Martial Arts'. He might also use a specific suburb of Seattle instead (like 'Redmond' or 'Duvall').
ii. Non-Local businesses owners, like Susie Smith, might use: 'home arts and crafts', 'home decorations', or 'arts and crafts ideas'.
c. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to help you find the best keyword phrases for you. Pay attention to LOCAL and GLOBAL search volumes that best represent your market. WARNING: The more popular your keyword phrase is, the more competition you will probably have. If it's too popular, you probably won't make the first page of any search engine results. Try to use more specific keyword phrases whose search volume is below 40,000 a month.
d. Pick the TOP SIX best keyword phrases for you. Write them down in order of importance. Keep the list handy - you will use them later on in this article.
2. PUT IN YOUR WEBSITE TITLE
a. Find the HTML tags at the top of each of your HTML pages in the HEADER section. Your title will go between these two tags.
b. Enter in your TOP THREE keyword phrases (in order) here separated by the 'pipe' character ( | ) and save it. Redundant words only need be used once here. See the example below how the words 'Seattle' and 'Home' are only used once but apply to other keyword phrases:
1) Mr. Kung Fu: Seattle Karate | Martial Arts | Self Defense
2) Susie Smith: Home Arts And Crafts | Decorations| Ideas
3. PUT IN YOUR WEBSITE KEYWORDS & DESCRIPTION
a. For HTML Websites - Find the HTML tags and at the top of each of your HTML pages in the HEADER section. Your keywords and website description will go between these two tags respectively.
b. Type your SIX keyword phrases into the keyword section. Separate each phrase with a comma. Here it's OK to have redundant words in your phrases. For example:
1) Mr. Kung Fu would type: Seattle karate, Seattle martial arts, Seattle self defense, etc.
2) Susie Smith would type: home arts and crafts, home decorations, arts and crafts ideas, etc.
d. Type 3-5 sentences into your website description section that describe your business/service. Try and insert the TOP THREE keyword phrases into your description content. Be sure to do so in a way that is readable and natural-looking, otherwise it will look like you are 'keyword stuffing'.
4. CREATING YOUR HOME PAGE (LANDING PAGE) CONTENT
a. Without diving too much into how to create an effective landing page design let's just focus on the SEO aspect of the landing page. Your landing page is your most important page, so we need to include your keyword phrases here in your content. Your top three keyword phrases should be included more than once. Insert your keyword phrase in a readable and natural-looking way to avoid looking like you are "keyword stuffing". Try and do so with the least amount of content you can. If you insert more of your keyword phrases than what I recommend, you run the risk of getting penalized, so don't do any more than what is listed here. Insert them the following way:
i. Your #1 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 4 different places.
ii. Your #2 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 3 different places.
iii. Your #3 Keyword Phrase - insert it in 2 different places.
iv. Your #4, #5, & #6 Keyword Phrase - insert once.
b. Content Ideas - You might find it hard to come up with enough content to insert your keyword phrases naturally. It is a delicate balancing act. If you create too much content, new users to your website will leave (nobody really wants to read all that stuff). But then again, you need some content for SEO purposes. Here are some valid content ideas that will help you get your SEO keyword phrases in without overfilling your landing page with useless babble.
i. Write a brief description of what your business/service does. When someone first comes to your website, you need to let them know right up front what you do and how you can help them with their needs. A general description of your business/products/services is useful to new visitors to your website as well as a great place to sprinkle in some SEO keyword phrases. Again, don't go overboard. Keep it simple.
ii. Insert a few images - Images are a great way to break up the monotony of large amounts of content as well as get a few keywords in. Every image you insert into your content area allows for a TITLE and an ALT tag description. Slap one of your keyword phrases in. Use the same phrase for both tags. Make the image a clickable anchor linking back to your landing page.
iii. Testimonials - Testimonials are great. Get a few from some of your clients/customers and add them to your landing page. "Tweak" them slightly to include your keyword phrases (if your client/customer doesn't mind). Try not to go overboard on these. Include too many and people will get bored and leave.
iv. Awards/Articles - Show off any awards and/or articles you may have about your business/service. Write in a few quotes from them into your content. 'Tweak' them to accommodate some of your keyword phrases. Be careful not to alter them too much... they are quotes after all. If you misquote an article, you might get some backlash from the writer. Make sure any changes you make are very subtle and don't alter the author's intended message.
5. PUT KEWORDS IN YOUR WEBSITE'S FOOTER
a. There are a thousand ways to implement internal links, but to keep things simple, just create three links in your website's footer using the TOP THREE keyword phrases to point back to your lading page. With most website builder tools, the footer is 'static' and will appear on every page, so these links will be on all your pages. Here is the keyword phrase that our examples might put in their footer. Remember, these would be set up as three separate links pointing back to the landing page:
1) Mr. Kung Fu: Seattle Karate | Seattle Martial Arts | Seattle Self Defense
2) Susie Smith: Home Arts And Crafts | Home Decorations| Arts And Crafts Ideas
6. ADDING YOUR WEBSITE TO FREE DIRECTORIES
a. Free directories are pretty much worthless. Don't waste your time. Some paid directories are worth it, but they are NOT free. This article is about FREE SEO. There is only one free directory that is worth submitting your URL to: DMOZ (dmoz.org/add.html). Be sure to drill down into the LOWEST category you think your website falls under, THEN click on the 'Suggest URL' link at the top. Unfortunately, they are so overloaded that it may take months before they list your website. But... if/when they do, it's very good SEO points for you!
7. EXTERNAL LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE
a. Links from other websites to your website is the best way to help with SEO. If you have any friends or acquaintances that have a quality website you trust, ask them if you can put a link to your website on theirs. Be sure to use one of your TOP THREE keyword phrases as the link phrase that points to your website landing page.
b. If you don't know of anyone who has a website, then don't worry about it. Skip down to the next step. DON'T GO LOOKING FOR LINK EXCHANGES WITH STRANGERS. If you go looking for websites you don't know to post your link on, you will probably hurt your SEO more than help it. Because you are a newbie to SEO, people will take advantage of you. SEO is a complex thing to learn and you probably don't have the time to master it. It's best you just avoid trying something like this all together.
8. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
a. There are hundreds of social bookmarking websites. For the sake of simplicity, we will only submit your website URL to 5 of the better ones. You will need to create an account on each of these (if you do not have one already). You might want to add their 'bookmark button' to your browser toolbar as well for future ease of use.
i. Digg ( digg.com )
ii. Del.icio.us ( delicious.com )
iii. StumbleUpon ( stumbleupon.com )
iv. Reddit ( reddit.com )
v. Propeller ( propeller.com )
b. Look for the 'submit link' or 'submit website' link/button once you are logged into each of these website. Submitting your website link to each of these will usually consists of providing the following information:
i. URL - The 'www' address that people type in the address bar of their browser to get to your website.
ii. Title - Your website's title.
iii. Description - A brief description of your website. You might want to use the same description you created earlier for your website's Description Meta Tag.
iv. Keywords - Use your SIX keyword phrases here, separated by a 'comma 'or a 'space'. Look at the label on the form, it should tell you how to separate word phrases.
9. JOIN LINKED-IN
a. There are thousands of social/professional networking groups/forums you can join, but to make things simple, we are just going to join this one: Link-In ( linkedin.com ). Create an account with them (if you have not done so already). Be sure to include a link to your website in your profile. Put as much valid information into your profile about your business/services as you can. The more professional you make your profile, the better.
b. Login and search for groups to join. This is what makes Linked-In such a great tool. Look for other groups of people that have the same business interests as you and join their groups. There will probably be lots of groups to pick from. Try and go with the ones that have the most relevance and/or members. Don't overdo it. To begin with, let's just stick to around 5 groups. If you feel you can handle more later, then you can join some more then. When searching for groups, try and think beyond just what your business focuses on. For example, Mr. Kung Fu would probably search for 'karate' groups or 'martial arts' groups first. But he might also want to look for 'small business' groups.
c. Wait for your group invitation to be accepted. Once you request to join a group, it might take hours or days before you get accepted. Be patient.
d. Look for friends and associates to link to. You can search for people you know and send requests to them to join your network of contacts. This is a great way to find old friends and business acquaintances. Tell them about your new website! Find out what groups they have joined. You might want to join the same groups!
e. Post an introduction of yourself to each group you get accepted to. As you get accepted into each group, go into the 'Discussions' page and add a discussion introducing yourself and what it is you do. Then ask for a website review of your new website and post a link to it (be sure to include the 'http://' at the beginning of your link - this will make it clickable). This is completely legit and a very acceptable thing to do. Just don't go overboard on your intro. Keep it to only a few sentences. Here is an example what Mr. Kung Fu might post as his first discussion:
Introduction and Website Review
Title:
Post: Hello, my name is Mr. Kung Fu and I just wanted to introduce myself. I own a small martial arts school in Seattle, WA. I have about 35 students and have been in business for about 14 years. I look forward to discussing martial arts and karate with everyone in the group. I just created my first website and would appreciate any feedback you could provide. Here is the link: http://..... Thanks!
10. JOIN YAHOO! ANSWERS
a. Join Yahoo! Answers ( answers.yahoo.com ) if you have not done so already. You will be answering people's questions that relate to your website/business.
b. Do an 'Advanced' search. Fill in each section of the advanced search as follows:
i. Keywords - Enter in keywords that relate to what your website/business is about. Make sure the 'Search for keyword match in' is set to 'Questions'.
ii. Category - Pick the category that relates to what your website/business is about. If you can't find a good category, just select 'All'.
iii. Filter - pick the one that fits your needs.
iv. Question Status - select 'Open Questions - Best answer has not been chosen'.
v. Date Submitted - Set to 'Anytime'.
c. Submit your search. If no results come back, keep modifying your keywords till you start getting results that you feel comfortable answering.
d. Answer 5-10 questions. In the form you fill out for the answer, there is a 'What's your source?' textbox. Put the URL to your website here. Make sure to include the 'http://' in your URL. This makes it 'clickable'. Don't worry about having the perfect answer (or even the correct answer for that matter!). All answers are just opinions for the most part.
11. WRITE AN ARTICLE
a. Article websites are a place where people provide information to others on how to do things. There are hundreds of article websites you can submit articles to. For the sake of simplicity, we will use just one: Ezine Articles ( ezinearticles.com ). Join this website if you have not done so already. Fill out all your PROFILE information. Upload a professional looking photo of yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.
b. In your Profile admin page, under the 'Profile Manager' menu, click on the 'Edit Author Resource Boxes'. Here is where you put links to your website and write a brief resource description about your website/company.
i. Watch the 'Learn How to Create the Perfect Resource Box' video on this page.
ii. Include your TOP TWO keyword phrases (no more than this) that link back to your website sprinkled in with your Resource description.
iii. You will have to write the links as ANCHOR CODE. In the following examples, I will use 'brackets' to indicate what keyword phrases would be converted to anchors linking back to their respective websites:
1. Mr. Kung Fu - Mr. Kung Fu is owner of a [Seattle Karate] school called 'Mr. Kung Fu's Martial Arts'. He has been in business teaching [Seattle Martial Arts] for over 14 years. He has a 5th Degree Black Belt in Kung Fu.
2. Susie Smith - Susie Smith is the owner of the [Home Arts And Crafts] website called 'Susie Smith's Online Crafts'. Her website is an excellent resource for [Home Decoration] ideas as well as other arts and crafts.
c. Now write an article relating to your website/business. It has to be at least 250 words long (that's not very long). You don't need to be an expert to submit an article. Most, if not all, articles are just people's opinions on how to do things. Write something that relates to what your website/business is about. For example:
i. Mr. Kung Fu might write about the 'Benefits of Martial Arts Training' or 'Top 5 Reasons to Get Your Children into Martial Arts'.
ii. Susie Smith might write about 'Family Fun Making Homemade Christmas Ornaments' or 'Top 5 Craft Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day'.
d. DO NOT put links to your website in your Article content. They will be removed from your article content or even worse, your article may not get published at all. Your links will be displayed in your 'Resources' section you completed earlier.
e. Submit your article and wait. It might be a few days before they approve it. Be patient.
12. CONVERT YOUR ARTICLE TO A BLOG POST
a. Many website builders have a Blog built into their websites. Other users will need to find a blogging website to join.
b. Copy your article content and paste it into your first blog post. Here you have more flexibility creating links, so you go ahead and 'tweak' your content to include the TOP TWO keyword phrase as anchors linking back to your website landing page.
13. MASS EMAIL EVERYONE
a. Send out a mass email to everyone in your email address book(s) announcing the opening of your new website with a link to it. Ask them to send it to other friends and/or family members they know of that might be interested in it. Word of mouth sometimes does wonders.
14. DONE! SIT BACK, RELAX, AND WAIT
a. It can take a few days for all of this info to get digested by search engines and users. Be patient and wait. If you did everything I listed here, your website will be well recognized by ALL search engines and you will start to see traffic flowing in. Be proud of yourself! You just did hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars worth of SEO work on your website... for FREE! Depending upon which SEO company you might use, everything you just did could easily cost someone a few thousand dollars.
b. SEO is an ongoing exercise, however. You cannot just do what I have listed here once and then be done with SEO forever. If you want your traffic to increase and grow, you will need to continue doing some things. Lucky for you, everything you need to continue growing your SEO is already set up! See the next section below on how to maintain your website's SEO.
MAINTAINING YOUR WEBSITE'S SEO
1. FOLLOW UP ON ITEM #7 (EXTERNAL LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE)
a. Always keep an eye open for external link opportunities from other websites or web services you know and trust. If a new opportunity arises where you can get a link to your website from one of them, implement it ASAP. Always be sure to use one of your TOP THREE keyword phrases as the text for the link to your website's landing page.
2. BLOG
a. Outside of external links to your website, blogging is the next best way to increase traffic & SEO to your website, especially if your Blog is part of your website. Try to post a blog entry at least once a week if you can, no less than once month. Write about broader subjects outside of your smaller website community. Post things that thousands (if not millions) of people might relate to in your industry or that they might be interested in knowing. Make sure it relates to your website. In your blog posts, work in ONE keyword phase of the SIX you created. Try and use the TOP THREE keywords most of the time... but not all of the time. Make that ONE keyword phase an anchor linking back to your website's landing page. Try and make it the only link in your post if you can, and place it near the top of the post. Make it look natural and not like you are 'keyword stuffing'.
3. SOCIAL BOOKMARK YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. If your blog post is something that might interest others outside of your local network, you should Social Bookmark it (see item #8 above). Instead of putting in your website landing page as the URL, put in the link to your blog post. Do this for all 5 social bookmark websites listed above. If you have more time to kill and want to expand your SEO, try using Social Marker ( socialmarker.com ) to submit your blog post URLs to 50+ social bookmarking websites.
4. USE LINKED-IN TO POST LINKS BACK TO YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. Login to Linked-In (see item #9) and post a new discussion in each of the groups you joined telling people to check out your new blog post. Make sure it is relevant to the group and something they might be interested in. If it is not, then don't post it. Also, don't forget to add the 'http://' to the beginning of your link to make sure it is clickable.
5. CONVERT YOUR NEW BLOG POST TO AN ARTICLE
a. This is a flip on what you did for item #12. Instead of converting your article to a blog post, you will do just the opposite: Convert your new blog post to an article. Login to your article website (see item #11) and submit your blog post to it. Again, be sure that it is relevant to something that people might want to read an article about. If it is not, then don't submit it. For instance, if Mr. Kung Fu posted a blog post about his team winning a local tournament in Seattle, you would NOT want to post this as an article. However, if Mr. Kung Fu wrote a blog post about 'How to prepare For a Karate Tournament' that would be something that would interest readers outside of his local community and he could post to an article website. Use good judgment to figure out if you should submit your post as an article.
6. ANSWER MORE 'YAHOO! ANSWERS' QUESTIONS.
a. Once a week try to answer 5 - 10 Yahoo Questions (see Item #10 above). Add a link back to your website's landing page in the 'What's your source?' text area. Be sure to always include the 'http://' at the beginning of the link to make it clickable.
7. PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE
a. Patience and persistence will bring you a wealth of SEO and traffic. If you do everything I have listed here at least once every two weeks (or more if you can), I assure you - you will be set within a year. The longer you do it, the more successful you will be! The hard part is being persistent and doing it as often as possible. If you keep it up, your website will thrive, I promise you!
Heath Huffman is the co-owner of Doodlekit - an online free website builder. He has been doing web design and development since 1995. He specializes in website design, Photoshop, W3C compliant HTML, XHTML and CSS. For more detailed information about Heath's website builder products and service, please visit his free website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heath_Huffman
A/B Split Testing With Google Webpage Optimizer
If you have a website you probably know how important first impressions are when it comes to getting visitors to stay on your site and purchase your products or services. If your landing page, which is the first page visitors see when they land on your website, is not designed well you will loose a lot of sales because people will exit your site without giving it a chance. Proper landing page optimization will give your landing page the best possible chances for success in selling your product or service.
The best way to optimize your web page is to try out a few designs to see which design features convert the best. Tweaking individual features to find which combination's work the best is very time consuming, however, and you can still loose out on many sales while you are in the process of testing all your different design elements. Doing A/B split testing is the most efficient way to find the most successful design elements for your landing page and there are web page optimization programs that help to automate the process bringing you fast results so that you can get the most conversions possible.
A/B split testing is a simple concept and is easy to implement if you have the right tools. A/B split testing is simply the practice of taking two different versions of a landing page, an A version and a B version and comparing the conversions of each to see which design does the best. When you try to do A/B testing manually and compare two different versions of a page side by side it can be time consuming and you my not get accurate results if you do not ask enough people their opinion of if your changes are so small hat they are not easily noticeable. Changes that are not apparent within the first few seconds of viewing a page are usually not important enough to impact conversions.
A/B split testing preformed with a tool such as Google Website Optimizer is much easier than trying to do it yourself. Google will display both versions of your website and track the number of conversions each version gets. The number of URL clicks, purchases, phone calls or other action that you specify will be recorded for each version of your web page so you can see which one converts the best. A/B split testing programs such as Google Webpage Optimizer make landing page optimization easy and take the guess work out of finding the most effecting landing page design.
Google Webpage Optimizer also tracks statistics such as the amount of traffic each web page version receives, their browsing path, history, and more. Google also makes sure each visitor continues to see the same version of the page using tracking cookies. If you are looking for an easy way to figure out how to best optimize your landing page a software tool such as the Google Webpage Optimizer can make A/B split testing easy for you. It takes the guesswork out of finding the best landing page design by giving you the facts and statistic for different versions of your webpage.
Shawn Hickman is the Owner of SEO Pros Internet Marketing
To read more articles like this one, visit our Internet Marketing Article section of seopros.us.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Michael_Hickman
The best way to optimize your web page is to try out a few designs to see which design features convert the best. Tweaking individual features to find which combination's work the best is very time consuming, however, and you can still loose out on many sales while you are in the process of testing all your different design elements. Doing A/B split testing is the most efficient way to find the most successful design elements for your landing page and there are web page optimization programs that help to automate the process bringing you fast results so that you can get the most conversions possible.
A/B split testing is a simple concept and is easy to implement if you have the right tools. A/B split testing is simply the practice of taking two different versions of a landing page, an A version and a B version and comparing the conversions of each to see which design does the best. When you try to do A/B testing manually and compare two different versions of a page side by side it can be time consuming and you my not get accurate results if you do not ask enough people their opinion of if your changes are so small hat they are not easily noticeable. Changes that are not apparent within the first few seconds of viewing a page are usually not important enough to impact conversions.
A/B split testing preformed with a tool such as Google Website Optimizer is much easier than trying to do it yourself. Google will display both versions of your website and track the number of conversions each version gets. The number of URL clicks, purchases, phone calls or other action that you specify will be recorded for each version of your web page so you can see which one converts the best. A/B split testing programs such as Google Webpage Optimizer make landing page optimization easy and take the guess work out of finding the most effecting landing page design.
Google Webpage Optimizer also tracks statistics such as the amount of traffic each web page version receives, their browsing path, history, and more. Google also makes sure each visitor continues to see the same version of the page using tracking cookies. If you are looking for an easy way to figure out how to best optimize your landing page a software tool such as the Google Webpage Optimizer can make A/B split testing easy for you. It takes the guesswork out of finding the best landing page design by giving you the facts and statistic for different versions of your webpage.
Shawn Hickman is the Owner of SEO Pros Internet Marketing
To read more articles like this one, visit our Internet Marketing Article section of seopros.us.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Michael_Hickman
How to Recognize a Bad SEO Company
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.
Some unethical firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at Search Engine Optimization - either to optimize it on your own or if you're looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.
Be cautious of firms that say they will get thousands of links to your site.
It's not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you'll become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.
Be wary of firms that guarantee a high ranking on Google.
No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies offer a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, offer you other services instead, start to become unreachable or disappear.
Be cautious of firms that send "spammy" emails.
These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not listed in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?
Be wary of firms that are secretive or don't clearly explain what they are going to do.
Most reputable optimization firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.
Be wary of firms that say they will submit your site to thousands of top search engines and directories.
Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submit your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free-For-All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.
Be cautious of firms that say they can optimize and promote your site for a low, low monthly fee.
Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an expert. These would include conditions when you would require management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.
Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submitting of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.
Choose your SEO company and services carefully.
Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.
There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing brand casting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. http://www.brandsplat.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Enzo_F._Cesario
Some unethical firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at Search Engine Optimization - either to optimize it on your own or if you're looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.
Be cautious of firms that say they will get thousands of links to your site.
It's not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you'll become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.
Be wary of firms that guarantee a high ranking on Google.
No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies offer a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, offer you other services instead, start to become unreachable or disappear.
Be cautious of firms that send "spammy" emails.
These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not listed in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?
Be wary of firms that are secretive or don't clearly explain what they are going to do.
Most reputable optimization firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.
Be wary of firms that say they will submit your site to thousands of top search engines and directories.
Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submit your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free-For-All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.
Be cautious of firms that say they can optimize and promote your site for a low, low monthly fee.
Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an expert. These would include conditions when you would require management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.
Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submitting of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.
Choose your SEO company and services carefully.
Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.
There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing brand casting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. http://www.brandsplat.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Enzo_F._Cesario
Link Building - How Fast is Too Fast?
As one of the most important off-page SEO factors related to ranking, back links pointing to your site are generally weighted by number and relevance. The more links from authoritative and related sites/pages, the better ranking potential a site has. In addition, proper use of anchor text can also boost your ranking (remember the Google Bombing Story?). But today we'll discuss a different aspect of link building - what is the optimal rate (and speed!) for link building and will a site be punished if it gets too many links over a very short period? This deserves some discussion because many are still confused.
It's not a secret that search engines (at least Google) evaluate links also by it freshness and age. Other criteria include: -- Behavior of links including appearance and disappearance over time.
--- Increase, decrease and freshness of links as a trend.
Anchor text freshness and how it changes over time. So the common sense suggests that a gradual and steady link popularity approach is advised. But my hunch is that building a great number of links overnight will not necessarily trigger a red flag; all depends on the status of your site, how you build links and where they come from. I'll use a scenario to illustrate my point. Say, I have some, ah, very interesting photos of a well-known, ah, celebrity, which have never been seen before and are sure to create a huge buzz. So I put them on my website and they start viralling (my own word creation) around. Soon CNN and some other major news outlets get into the action and all major blog, social networking sites and forums are talking about these photos and linking to my site. Then, millions of visitors pour into for a peek and tens of thousands of more links are pointing to my site (Daydreaming stops here).
Will I get red-flagged by search engines for getting a huge number of links overnight? I don't think so. I am basing this opinion on the axiom that search engines are smart enough to recognize these links as coming from all kinds of sources (news, social networking, blogs, forums, images, and so on). After all, in this fictitious case study I did not launch a link campaign ; all those websites spontaneously linked to me. My site's popularity may have mushroomed quickly, but it did so naturally, not artificially.
Of course, the celebrity photo scenario is rare (lucky celebrity!). So, if you just launched a new site or are mainly using link farms (which, as we all know, are frowned upon by search engines) or directories to direct traffic to you, I'd suggest you slow down and get a tad more focused on quality and relevance of links to avoid warnings bells ringing all over California. Bottom line, though: how much is too much, and what's the recommended link building speed ? As so often in search engine optimization, expert opinions vary. However, a good SEO Consultant would agree that 5 - 10 new links per week are not excessive. And even this number has to be qualified: if all of a sudden 30 blue chip links point to my website, I very much doubt that the Googles of this world would suspect foul play, such as me having milked a link farm (pun fully intended), or slipping IBM or the US Government a few hundred bucks for a one-way link.
We should all be so lucky.
Ernie Schwarcz, Founder of http://www.seotrump.com
- Grew up in Vienna, Austria.
- Studied at the famous University of Vienna;
- Reluctantly discharged with a Masters in Economics, Business, Statistics ;
- Lives in Montreal, Canada.
- Independent SEO Consultant.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ernie_M_Schwarcz
It's not a secret that search engines (at least Google) evaluate links also by it freshness and age. Other criteria include: -- Behavior of links including appearance and disappearance over time.
--- Increase, decrease and freshness of links as a trend.
Anchor text freshness and how it changes over time. So the common sense suggests that a gradual and steady link popularity approach is advised. But my hunch is that building a great number of links overnight will not necessarily trigger a red flag; all depends on the status of your site, how you build links and where they come from. I'll use a scenario to illustrate my point. Say, I have some, ah, very interesting photos of a well-known, ah, celebrity, which have never been seen before and are sure to create a huge buzz. So I put them on my website and they start viralling (my own word creation) around. Soon CNN and some other major news outlets get into the action and all major blog, social networking sites and forums are talking about these photos and linking to my site. Then, millions of visitors pour into for a peek and tens of thousands of more links are pointing to my site (Daydreaming stops here).
Will I get red-flagged by search engines for getting a huge number of links overnight? I don't think so. I am basing this opinion on the axiom that search engines are smart enough to recognize these links as coming from all kinds of sources (news, social networking, blogs, forums, images, and so on). After all, in this fictitious case study I did not launch a link campaign ; all those websites spontaneously linked to me. My site's popularity may have mushroomed quickly, but it did so naturally, not artificially.
Of course, the celebrity photo scenario is rare (lucky celebrity!). So, if you just launched a new site or are mainly using link farms (which, as we all know, are frowned upon by search engines) or directories to direct traffic to you, I'd suggest you slow down and get a tad more focused on quality and relevance of links to avoid warnings bells ringing all over California. Bottom line, though: how much is too much, and what's the recommended link building speed ? As so often in search engine optimization, expert opinions vary. However, a good SEO Consultant would agree that 5 - 10 new links per week are not excessive. And even this number has to be qualified: if all of a sudden 30 blue chip links point to my website, I very much doubt that the Googles of this world would suspect foul play, such as me having milked a link farm (pun fully intended), or slipping IBM or the US Government a few hundred bucks for a one-way link.
We should all be so lucky.
Ernie Schwarcz, Founder of http://www.seotrump.com
- Grew up in Vienna, Austria.
- Studied at the famous University of Vienna;
- Reluctantly discharged with a Masters in Economics, Business, Statistics ;
- Lives in Montreal, Canada.
- Independent SEO Consultant.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ernie_M_Schwarcz
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