Saturday, November 7, 2009

Using Your Online Marketing Blog to Promote Your Business

One of the very best ways you can promote your business these days is through the use of an online marketing blog, designed to direct readers and potential customers to your business by developing relationship, gaining trust, and being in general a useful resource for those looking for what you have to offer. What are some of the ways you can use your blog to promote your business? Let's take a quick look.

Perhaps the best way is to create a blog that visitors determine to be an authority in your market or niche. These types of sites are returned to again and again, bookmarked, (thus providing you with all-important backlinks) and are where the modern consumer is getting much of their information all the way through the buying process.

If you've created the kind of blog that is trustworthy, not attempting to sell your visitors every second, and offers genuinely useful information, you'll soon find that not only will you be gaining in popularity, but you'll be doing less and less to gain that notoriety. Your customers and visitors will be doing it for you. Such is the way of the Social Web. People talk, text, Tweet and otherwise spread the word. Just make sure they're talking about you and your blog!

Your blog should be a great place to dispense free nuggets of information that will be is use to your readers. However, be sure that the ultimate carrot lies awaits them at your main business site. In all cases direct your interested visitors to your business through the use of giveaways, contests, special offers, coupons, sales, limited time promotions and more. People love to feel as though they're getting tremendous value for their time and money. Make sure you strive to offer both!

Make sure you optimize your marketing blog so it will rank in the search engines as well. Make sure you're always on the lookout for linking opportunities, and utilizing other SEO methods to make sure your blog is found within the first few pages of the search results. Write and distribute new and fresh content all the time and try to get it syndicated, thus improving your blogs reach. Have guest bloggers contribute and do the same on blogs related to yours.
Make your blog as interactive as possible. Talk to your visitors, and learn from them. Conduct polls, ask lots of questions; this is a quick and cheap way to conduct market research from some of the most targeted people you can find.

Don't inundate your blog with ads, as this will confuse the purpose of your blog. An exception to this might be high-paid contextual advertising, but be aware that generally anything that takes the visitor away from your blog, unless they're going to your main site, is not a good thing.
Using an online marketing blog as a tool to help promote your business is a great idea, and one that will bear fruit for years to come. All it costs you is time, and this will be returned to you many times over!

by Mike McCoy on 2009-11-04
About the Author
Search engine marketing is the most powerful way to drive traffic on the web. With Content Syndication you can control your internet brand. For more info on reputation management go to
http://www.directhorizon.com/
Article Source:
Goarticles
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

"What's the point of having a website if nobody can find you?"
One thing that is overlooked by a great many companies is that if your website cannot be found, by the major search engines, then it is never going to be found by your potential customers online.
This is where SEO comes in. It is the practice used to improve a websites position or ranking within the Search Engines, such as Goggle, Yahoo, Bing etc.
SEO can be split into two categories - Onsite & Offsite. You cannot expect to achieve success unless you perform both of these techniques.

Onsite Search Engine Optimisation
For Google and the other search engines to consider your website relevant for specified search terms it is important that the content is optimised with specific keywords in mind. This is known as Onsite SEO.
It consists of making sure you have set up your website with the correct Meta page titles, Meta tags, page headings, image 'ALT' tags, filenames and content. All of these need to include your keywords or key-phrases which you want your site to be found in the search engines for.
It is also important that you website navigation and folder structures are correct in order for the search engine 'Spiders' or 'Crawlers' to find all of the pages on your website. To aid effective crawling, sitemaps need to be created that list the hierarchy of your website and all of its pages.
Finally, it is also important that the websites programming code is optimized and structured in the best possible way. Well structured website coding will ensure that the most important parts of your page are read first when being crawled.
Due to the nature of how search engines crawl your website it can take up to a month for any changes made to your website to be updated by the Search Engines .

Offsite Search Engine Optimisation
Once the content of your website has been optimized, the next stage - and arguably the most important - is Offsite SEO. This activity constitutes the largest proportion of any effective campaign.
Offsite SEO is the process of building strong, quality links to your website. The way Google ranks a website is by looking at other websites who have a link pointing back to your site. In effect, the quality of such links are interpreted as a vote in favour of your website.
Depending on the quality of the website, linking to you, and how relevant that site is deemed to be, in relation to your search term, the more weight that vote has in your favour. This can be further enhanced by using keywords in the 'anchor' text linking to your site.
Offsite techniques include using online directories, submitting article & press releases, blog writing and social networking: All designed to gain links back to your website.

So...
There are many factors which Google (and other search engines) take into account when deciding how to rank a website for a particular search term. The Google Algorithm is a closely guarded secret and is forever changing in order to stay one step ahead of everyone.
Here are just some of the factors which are taken into consideration by Google when ranking a website: Keywords in domain name, KW in title tag, KW in header tags, KW in website text, KW in internal links pointing to page, domain age & date of registration, links pointing to domain, quality of links pointing to domain, link age, anchor text of links, page content/keywords.
Unfortunately SEO cannot achieve immediate success. It takes a lot of time and effort to achieve long lasting results, and nobody can guarantee number one positions. But with the correct strategy, a well thought out campaign could lead to a significant increase in visitors and revenue to your website.

by Mark Meader on 2009-11-03
About the Author
Mark Meader is a web designer for Bromley Web Design, specialising in design and Search Engine Optimisation for new & small businesses in London & Kent (UK)

Article Source: Goarticles
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The Absolute basics of SEO

Search engine optimization is the process of maximizing the ranking of you site in search engine listings. The most important factors to consider to achieve a high ranking are: the keywords you use, your title, your description, the text of your site, and the links others provide to your site.

To begin selecting keywords, consider what words and phrases the people you are trying to reach will be searching on. When placing keywords in your keyword tag, it is best to use phases rather than single words. Almost all single words are in very widespread use, thus will not tend to produce high rankings. Keyword phrases can be better tailored to your business. Also, since phrase searches produce fewer results, people are more likely to search on them. It is also a good idea to produce a list of keyword phrases for every page of your site. If you must include difficult to spell words, it is a good idea to include some common misspellings of these words as well.

The title is just as important, if not more important, than your keywords. Most search engines place the highest level of importance on the words found in the title when calculating the ranking. You should place your most important keyword phrases first in your title, as some search engines limit the number of characters you can use. Make your title a readable sentence, as this is the first text that will appear for your listing on the results page. One thing you should avoid doing is simply listing keywords. This could be regarded by the search engine as keyword spamming, and may lower your search ranking, or even get your listing removed from the site. As with keywords, it is a good idea to give each page a unique title.

In your description you should once again make use of your best keyword phrases. In this case, you can use more of them, since search engines will give you typically around 1024 characters for the description, while they will give you only around 50 to 80 for the title. Again, place your keywords as close to the beginning of your description as makes sense.

In the text of your site you should make use of, yes, you've guessed it, your keyword phrases. Also include any text you have used in other tags, such as meta tags, alt tags, and headings. Having a lot of content helps as well. A minimum of 200 words per page is recommended. Having many pages of content also increases your rankings.

Having many other sites link to you is another good way to increase your search rankings. Both the links themselves and the increase traffic which results will help. Also, having bloggers link to your site is a good idea.

Although these practices will boost your rankings, there are certain design elements that can interfere with your search rankings. These include frames, dynamic URLs, Flash, using image maps for navigation, and using javascripts for navigation. Also, there are certain practices that search engines regard as spamming, and these practices will get you permanently removed from the site. These include using keywords in your meta tags that do not relate to the content of your page, using multiple instances of the same tag, and listing keywords in the text of your site.

This is just the briefest introduction to search engine optimization. One book available on this topic is Search Engine Visibility, by Shari Thurow. Software packages that can assist you with SEO tasks include Bruce Clay's SEOToolSET and Web CEO's Web CEO. If you prefer to have someone else do your SEO for you, Marinerblue is ready to help you for free with your .ws domain.

By Matt Canham
27 Feb 2007
About the Author
Matt Canham is a SEO/web copywriter and information product marketer. He runs http://ws-domains.marinerblue.com
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/5986/1.html
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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Drive Traffic to Your Website With Backlinks.

Traffic is the life blood of any web site. In this article we will look at ways to attract and drive traffic to your web site.


Backlinks are defined as links that point to your site on other site. They are one of the most important aspects to consider when optimizing your site for traffic. The more backlinks your site has, the higher it will rank with search engines. And, the more backlinks you have out there, the more people are bound to see your site. Thankfully, there are lots of great ways to obtain backlinks.

One way is to utilize forums and message boards, especially those that relate to your site in some way. You will find that on these forums and message boards, you can use a signature. Make sure to read the policies of the site, and if they allow advertisements in the sig line, then by all means take advantage of this. By including your link in your sig line, then making a good number of regular, quality posts (no spam!) you will get more backlinks pointing to your site.

Another way to get backlinks is through link trading. Link trading is where you exchange links with another webmaster. This is especially effective if the sites you are trading with have a high Page Rank. One way to find websites to trade with is to visit webmaster forums. Many of these types of forums have a special section devoted to link trading. You can also search for sites that you feel are of good quality, then email the webmaster and request a link trade. Some webmasters will be happy to trade with you, some won't. In some cases, you can even purchase links on quality sites.

Then there's the directory route, another great way to get links. There are hundreds of different web directories out there where you can submit your site. Some of them cost money to list your site, while some of them are free. DMOZ is probably the best example of a free quality directory. Getting your site listed on directories can take time, especially if the directory is large, so be prepared to wait a few weeks.

Listing on directories serves several purposes. First, it allows people searching the directory a way to find your site. Second, it builds the quantity of quality backlinks you have.

Now, let's talk more about those free article directories, one of the best ways to get backlinks to your website. There are probably hundreds of these sites out there, and you can submit to them all. The key is to write articles that relate to the topic of your site in some way. Then at the bottom of each article, you're given a space to include a short bio and the link to your site.

When webmasters come to these free article directories seeking free content, it's possible they'll use your article. So not only are you getting the backlink from the free article site, you're getting backlinks from all the sites that are using your free articles. These backlinks will improve your Page Rank, and people who read the articles may click your link and end up at your site.



by Steve
on Dec 22, 2006
About the author:
Steve Renner,
Internet Marketing Expert, has amassed 250,000 Affiliates worldwide and generated over $60 Million in sales online. Steve is the Marketing Director for The Affiliate Community Your #1 Online Source for Internet Marketing Training and Resources. Sign up today, and get $1,000 in Training and Resources Free!
ArticleSource: ArticlesAlley.com
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Keyword Density – How Much is Too Much?

Before indulging in a discussion of how much density of keywords should a webpage ideally contain, it is necessary to take a look at what a keyword is? A keyword is a word that the user searches for when using the search engine. Keywords are the function of the search engines. The ratio of the keyword to the total number of words appearing on the webpage is known as the keyword density. One of the most critical aspects of search engine optimization, it can be used as a factor in determining whether a web page is relevant for a specified keyword or keyword phrase. Almost all the search engine algorithms give importance, in varying degrees, to the number of times a keyword appears on a web page. Each search engine is marked by a different calculation of keywords. While some allow a large keyword density on the webpage, others like Google place a limit on it. In order to avoid search spamming through keyword stuffing, search engines also implement measures other than keyword density.

Ideal keyword density.

There is much talk about the ideal keyword density of a web page. The bottomline here is that there is no thumb rule regarding the ideal keyword density in a website, mainly because the search engines change their algorithms frequently. Also, different search engines allow a different keyword density. So, while a more than 2% keyword density is considered spamming by Google, MSN and Yahoo allow a liberal 5% keyword density in a web page. While some search engines attach more importance to keywords in your title, meta tags and web copy, Google - the most important search engine, searches for keywords in your web page text.

Also the ideal keyword density changes with the type of keywords. When the keyword is highly competitive, the website owner should focus on not more than one word per page. Pages with low competitive keywords should ideally focus upon two or three keywords per page. More often than not, search terms comprise of moderately competitive keywords. Such keywords must be used on the home page, and must be linked with internal supporting pages.

Ideal keyword density is more of a range than a figure. A 1% - 7% keyword density is what any web page should aim for. A 1% keyword density is achieved by inserting a keyword once in every 100 words of text, and so on. But a keyword used once in every thousand words would mean a watered down keyword density, which, in turn, will mar the chances of your website figuring high in the search engine result pages.

Keyword optimization.

For a search engine to rank your web site highly, focus on one or two keywords per page. This will allow the spiders to be convinced of the relevance of your page content to the keyword. Keeping a one-keyword-per-page policy is the best bet. Writing a minimum of 250 words creates enough content to naturally include a good keyword density.

All this stuff about keyword density is effective in search engine optimization only for keywords that are less than highly competitive. Fiercely competitive keyword terms such as ‘Search Engine Optimization’ cannot assure a good ranking with search engines, even with keyword density as high as 60%. This goes on to show that search engines place more importance on other elements such as inbound links or anchor texts. To improve search engine ranking, your keyword density must not be too high or too low.

Another view.

While many search engine optimizers swear by this aspect of search engine optimization to improve rankings, many others are quick to refute this theory, pointing out the importance of writing for the visitors instead of search engines. Citing the rankings of web pages with a keyword density as high as 20% alongside the same of web pages with a keyword density of 2%, these experts prove their point. A good ranking, according to them, is the consequence of relevant content focusing on the theme of your website, which is anyways bound to include the keyword. Losing visitors can be attributed to forced write ups that are deliberately keyword stuffed. The use of similar words instead of the same keyword again and again will increase your article’s credibility. The search engines too, have started focusing more on semantic connection between words instead of simply relying on keyword density, in their endeavor to curb spamming.

Conclusion

While it cannot be denied that keyword density is one of the aspects of search engine optimization, it is definitely not the only factor. Losing your sleep over achieving the exact keyword density in your web pages won’t help your rankings much. Writing meaningful, relevant content, without bothering about the keyword density, is the key to good ranking.


By: Kavya Chakravarti 09/01/2007
About the Auther:
Kavya Chakravarti, a search engine optimizer and
web design and development expert, consults clients about various SEO techniques. A thorough follower of SEO trends, she devices plans to improve their page ranking in search engine indices through white hat SEO.
Article Source: Articlesbase
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What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are one of the most important aspects you need to consider when you're trying to build a higher ranking in the search engines. The search engines can perhaps find and index your site without backlinks, but without backing backlinks the search engines will never suggest your site to any of their visitors. Backlinks are essential for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because they help to judge the popularity and importance of the website based on their backlinks to other sites. Search engines use a number of standard criteria to rate sites on the web and backlinking is high on the list. Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website.

Backlinks are really just links to your site from another website. These links will direct users to your site whenever they click on it. Backlinks are not as of important as keyword sphere in MSN's point of perspective. Backlinks are basically incoming links to a particular website or web page. The more the number of backlinks a website or a web page possess, the more popular or important the website is.

Search engines consider one link on your site as one vote for you. Thus, with increased number of links, you get high number of votes and with more number of votes, your site rises in importance. Search engines, particularly Google use the number of incoming links as one measurement of the importance or ranking of the page. Other search engines tend to place less emphasis on the backlinks and more on other factors such as page content. Search engines can recognize quality link when they see one.

Google only updates PR every three months at best and during this time millions of new web pages are born that start off without any PR at all. When assessing your backlinks and you come across a page that appears to have a PR0 that has linked to you remember to check the PR of the home page because the subpage may have been created after the last Page Rank update and consequently won't show any numbers on the green PR bar. Google also gives new websites a waiting period of three to four months before giving it any kind of Page Rank. This is referred to as the "sandbox effect". Google search engine gives a lot of weight to backlinks that your site receives and the keywords that are used as anchor text in that link. Thats why Google's Page Rank exists, to collect the votes (links) for your site and give a score (the Page Rank score).

Links from other sites would need to be something that is relevant to you site. The absolute best type of links are backlinks or one way links to your website. Linking to suspicious places is something else that you must avoid. While it is true that search engines do not punish you if you have backlinks from such places because it is supposed that you have no control over what bad guys link to, if you enter a link exchange program with the so called bad neighbors and you link to them, this can be disastrous to your SEO efforts. Link building (otherwise known as backlinks) are critical to driving guaranteed website traffic to you. Suddenly, you can get great surges in traffic and hopefully in revenue, if you have monetised your site.

By: Jonathan Marino
On Aug 1st, 2008
About the Author:
Jonathan Marino an internet marketer and founder of
http://www.marketing.cblinkus.com/ - a new internet marketing concepts newsletter to discover the REAL strategies and Insider Tips.
Article Source: Articlesbase
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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Internet Directories - Tips For Submitting

Internet directories are a collection of descriptions and links to websites across the web. These websites are indexed into categories with sub-categories and sub-sub categories that can go many levels beneath the first general grouping. Your goal with directory submissions it to get your website listed with the right anchor text heading and the right description into the most exact category to in which your website belongs.

Although most directories do not provide a significant amount of traffic to your website the links from these can be valuable in improving the indexing and ranking of your site on major search engines.

Directory submissions provide links to your site. Permanent one way links are a vital SEO tool.
The value of these links is dependant in part upon how you handle the submission process. The value is also determined by the value the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo place on the directory itself.

Here are some tips to help you get the most from your directory submissions.
Research and find the best anchor text for your link.

Most directories allow you to provide them with a hyperlink containing keywords describing your site. This is called the anchor text. It's a good idea to do a little research before choosing your anchor text. You want it to correctly describe what you have to offer while at the same time incorporating keywords visitors would actually type in to find you. Keep your anchor text under 40 characters. This should be acceptable to most of the directories.

How is your description?
Write a short description of your website to place in your directory listing. Write it as if you are telling someone else about this great site you've found. Make your website sound interesting but make sure you don't make your description sound like an ad. Your description should be no longer than 250 characters. This way it will fit within the requirements of just about all the directories.

Have available several anchor texts and descriptions.
Your links from directories will appear much more natural if they are not all the same. Mix it up a little. Before starting the submission process have three or four different anchor texts and descriptions available to use for submissions.

Pick the right category.
From DMOZ or Yahoo down to the smallest directory you will want to take great care in finding the correct category in which to place your listing. If you don't search through and get the exactly right one for that particular directory chances are you website won't get listed there at all. Editors of these directories are so busy they don't have time to correct your mistakes. Also, the correct category for your listing coupled with the right anchor text in your hyperlink give the search engines more clues on how to index your site. The better your site is indexed the more likely it will be that it will come up on the first page of a user's keyword phrase search.
Are you submitting to enough directories?

Submit to all the free directories you can find. Even if they show no page rank it won't hurt your website to be listed there. If you get one visitor or one sale or one link permanent, indexed link for each ten directory submissions you make you are doing great.

by Meridith Berkin
on 2009-10-28
About the Author:
Meridith Berk is one of the founders of UltimateSitePromotion.com one of the oldest and most respected Search Engine Optimizing and Pay Per Click Management firms on the Internet. To find out more about
how to optimize your site you can visit her site at http://ultimatesitepromotion.com/
Article Source:
Goarticles
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