For so many new webmasters and internet marketers, the idea of generating traffic is just unbearable. To some, creating a product, designing a website, adding eye popping graphics, and creating awesome sales copy is considered child’s play to generating targeted web site traffic. Why? Because some people simply don’t know where to begin and are buried under a mountain of information. It’s not actually their fault. There are so many people and guides that give information, advice, and tips that it can be hard to narrow down the choices. Basically, they just can’t seem to get out of the learning curve.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn new techniques and discover new methods. However, there is a big difference between proactive learning and passive learning. With proactive learning, you will take the knowledge you have, and the knowledge you continue to get, and you’ll start trying to generate free web site traffic. On the other hand, passive learning basically means that you sit on all that traffic information, advice, and tips until a miracle happens and everything just falls into place for your website. Newsflash: It doesn’t happen that way!
Instead of just waiting and “absorbing” the information, like so many people claim to do, you should just get out there and start driving traffic to your website. Don’t worry about what technique you should use or which one you shouldn’t use; just start. Pick the traffic generating technique that you think is the easiest and begin using it asap. Do not think about what might happen, simply think about what needs to be done to increase your website traffic.
If you are new to internet marketing you may not be familiar with Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO. Many newbie’s to internet marketing turn to paid traffic, or traffic exchange schemes to promote their new site. Those methods are at best not very effective, and at worst extremely time consuming and expensive.
Free traffic from the search engines is the best traffic. If you use proper SEO and build a good site the search engines will send you more traffic than you dreamed of, here are some tips to help with your SEO.
Build a content rich website
Building a site that has original keyword rich content is the first step. If your site is rarely updated with new content there is little reason for the search engines to visit. It is important to constantly add new content to your site, search engines are constantly looking for something new and they aren’t easily fooled. If you simply copy content that is already all over the internet, or use a cookie cutter web page, you will not get traffic from search engines.
Know your keywords
This is probably the single most important step in building your website. Keywords and phrases are basically the terms people enter as search criteria. If you have a site selling widgets try to think of all the terms people would use when looking for your particular type of widget. There are tools available to make this easier Keyword Discovery offers a free tool to research keywords, as does Google. Research keywords and phrases with less competition at first, and then build up to the more popular keywords once you have some momentum.
Once you choose your keywords use them on your site. Use your keywords in your sites URL, home page title, alt image tags and strategically throughout your pages. Keep your keyword concentration around 3 to 5% on your site. Too much, or too little and your SEO will suffer. It comes down to this, a search is absolutely alway about content.
Develop quality one way links
One way links pointing to your site are a very important part of SEO. Search engines use links to rank your site. Your linking strategy is very important. Every link counts as a vote in favor of your site. The higher the PageRank of the site pointing to you, the more the link counts. PageRank is important in determining wher your site is listed in the search engine results. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a bad one-way link pointing to your site. Your SEO will not be negatively affected by a link pointi
The technique of generating traffic to your website from search engines is called SEO. SEO is simply the method of optimizing your website to achieve a higher rank in the search results. The main reason for doing this is to land in the top 10.
There are different ways to accomplish this goal, some more effective than the other. one way to appear higher in the ranks is by using what is known as Pay Per Click advertising. All of the major search engines will allow you to place an advertisement on their results page. By doing this you are targeting the keywords used in the search. By outspending the competition your add appears at the top of the search results. This method can become very expensive and is not as effective as natural search results.
Searchers have come to trust natural search results over Pay Per Click advertising. Most people now understand that the sponsored links are advertisements. As a result they don’t always use the advertised links, and in surveys have indicated that they prefer natural search results by five to one.
Natural SEO is an Ongoing Process
To Optimize your website requires that you hit a constantly moving target. One of the most important aspects of this is to choose the right keywords to optimize. Keywords are the terms people search for when looking for information on the Internet.
Search engines are constantly changing their methods to determine their results. The search engines want to keep their methods a secret, and we as webmasters want to know exactly how to improve our ranking. While the codes are constantly changing, there’s also a wealth of knowledge available if you know where to look.
Because of this, keyword research is the most important step in developing your website. It is important to understand the words and phrases your targeted visitors will use when trying to find your product or service. On the internet there are many tools available to do this research, some free, and some with charges associated with them. When choosing keywords try to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. What words or phrases would you use if you were interested in finding your product or service? Most likely your target audience will use the same key words and phrases.
10 Quick Tips to Improve Your Site’s SEO
1. Select the best keywords.
2. Put your main keyword in your URL.
3. Use the main keyword in alt image tags.
4. Put your keyword in the title on your home page. 5. Create original keyword rich content.
6. Get incoming links using your main keywords is anchor text.
7. Look at the keywords in your content, keyword concentration should be between 3 and 5%.
8. Link back to internal pages on your site using your selected keywords as anchor text.
9. Bold, italicize, or underline one or two keywords per page.
10. make a site map.
These steps are not the only things you can do to improve your ranking, but they will get you started in the right direction. By analyzing and tweaking your website you will improve in the search engine rankings.
Keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process. Some see immediate improvement, but some of the improvement may be small at first, so keep implementing the techniques for long term improvement. SEO is a cat and mouse game, you can’t make changes once and then never look back. When updating your website, apply these SEO Tips, and you will reap the benefit.
One of the most important aspects is good content. No matter how often the search engines change their methods, they will always be looking for new content. So keep adding to your website with useful keyword rich content. By doing this the search engines will keep returning, and so will your visitors.
Rob Emmerson is a leading SEO expert and has written many informative books and articles on the subject. To find out more ways to effectively use SEO to generate free traffic to your site visit http://www.theseosecretrevealed.com
For so many new webmasters and internet marketers, the idea of generating traffic is just unbearable. To some, creating a product, designing a website, adding eye popping graphics, and creating awesome sales copy is considered child’s play to generating targeted web site traffic. Why? Because some people simply don’t know where to begin and are buried under a mountain of information. It’s not actually their fault. There are so many people and guides that give information, advice, and tips that it can be hard to narrow down the choices. Basically, they just can’t seem to get out of the learning curve.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn new techniques and discover new methods. However, there is a big difference between proactive learning and passive learning. With proactive learning, you will take the knowledge you have, and the knowledge you continue to get, and you’ll start trying to generate free web site traffic. On the other hand, passive learning basically means that you sit on all that traffic information, advice, and tips until a miracle happens and everything just falls into place for your website. Newsflash: It doesn’t happen that way!
Instead of just waiting and “absorbing” the information, like so many people claim to do, you should just get out there and start driving traffic to your website. Don’t worry about what technique you should use or which one you shouldn’t use; just start. Pick the traffic generating technique that you think is the easiest and begin using it asap. Do not think about what might happen, simply think about what needs to be done to increase your website traffic.
Sometimes we think SEOs have lost the plot. Not all SEOs, mind you, but many, especially the newbies. It’s like they don’t understand the reason for doing the SEO things that they know they need to do. We think many walk around with a checklist of SEO-type duties and set off to do them, yet they have no clue as to why.
“Title tags: check!”
“Meta tags: check!”
“Links: check!”
“All done! Yay, that was easy!”
But without knowing the ultimate reason for doing the things they do, they don’t get it done correctly. You don’t create titles for titles’ sake. You don’t get links for links’ sake. Everything that we teach people to do in SEO has a purpose, and that purpose is not to make the search engines think our site is better than it is. The purpose is to actually make the site better than it is.
The search engines place weight on certain factors in their ranking algorithm for a reason. They didn’t just pull these factors out of thin air. We can just see the Google engineers now: “So how about we make the last word on the page be the most important factor in determining the relevancy of the page. Yeah, that’s the ticket!”
There’s no doubt that if they did make the last word a key factor in determining relevance, some smart reverse-engineer-algo-chaser would figure it out in no time. Because that’s what they do. They don’t look at the whys, they just look at the whats. Even more interesting would be watching as the algo-chaser told her algo-chasing friends, and the word spread to the SEO community as a whole.
Everyone would soon be placing keyword phrases as the last words on their page. Except they would be doing it only because somebody told them to. Even though it defied all reason as to why it should boost rankings. The average SEO wouldn’t have the wherewithal to test it to know for sure that it worked. They would simply do it because others said it worked. Certainly, if it actually were a factor then it would help to boost rankings, and more and more people would jump on the bandwagon, because they would assume that those words at the end of the page were the crowning glory.
Why the last word on the page isn’t an SEO factor
Of course, Google engineers would never have that conversation, nor would they ever make the last words on the page a huge factor in determining relevancy. Why? Because it doesn’t make any sense. Relevancy formulas are not based on whims (although it’s sometimes hard to tell when looking at Yahoo results!). Algorithms are determined by what the average person who knows nothing about SEO would naturally do on their website when putting it together.
That’s right, the “average person.” Not what an SEO would do. Not what some automated software would do. But what cousin Joe would do when slapping up his website for his local harmonica-cleaning business. Joe simply fires up his website design software and is prompted to type in a title for his home page. He thinks for a few minutes. “Well, let’s see, it’s going to be about my harmonica cleaning Read the rest of this entry »
In the SEO world, so much talk revolves around inbound links. It seems the main focus is always on inbounds, how to get them, how to keep them, and how to attract links from “authority” sites.
While inbound linking is crucial to SEO, many people neglect, or outright ignore another crucial part of SEO: page optimization.
In this article, I’ll give a few tips, and a high level look at what page optimization is all about. I’ll explain some of the meaning behind it, and hopefully you’ll find something you’ve missed on your own site.
Title Tag
You can write a whole article about the title tag. In fact, later on I will. A good title tag serves two purposes. Foremost, it entices users to click on your page. Most search engines use your title tag as the inbound link. Secondly, it is a valuable part of the search engine algorithm. This means two things. Make your title enticing, and use keywords in it.
Extra tip: Use a different title tag for every page on your site.
Meta Tags
Fellow SEOs, start up your flamethrowers! Meta tags are not dead. They certainly aren’t as relevant as they were in 1998, but they are still used. In fact, google uses the description tag quite a bit. If you don’t want google to choose for you, put the desired text in the tag. Meta tags don’t hold a lot of weight these days, in fact i somewhat doubt the keyword tag holds any weight at all. But it only takes about a minute to add them, so why not? Make metatags, and optimize them for your content, and the sales pitch you want shown in the listing.
Extra Tip: Use different meta tag data for every page on your site.
Use a single, relevant H1 tag describing your content.
Pretty self explanatory. Use an H1 tag only once per page and make sure it states what that page is about. Spiders read H1s an factor them into the ranking. Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve probably heard the standard advice about keywords.. “Find lots of keywords that are relevant to whatever you’re selling, get lots of traffic, and you’ll make lots of sales”. Sounds sensible, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, it’s rarely that simple.
To make it clear why that is, let’s start with an extreme example. For a site selling horses, the phrase “horse pictures” is clearly relevant. In many ways, it looks like an ideal phrase. It gets quite a lot of searches. There is very little competition in organic listings. You can get very prominent positions for this phrase cheaply on most pay-per-click search engines. But you are very unlikely to ever sell a horse using the phrase “horse pictures.”
Why doesn’t the phrase “horse pictures” generate sales? Because the people who type this phrase into the search engines are either the parents of children who want to look at pictures of horses or the children themselves. In almost every case they have no interest in buying a horse. Worse yet, they have no place to put a horse if they did purchase one. The most persuasive sales copy in the world couldn’t sell these people horses.
The phrase “horse pictures” connects you with the wrong person. Many other phrases connect you with the right person, but at a time when they are in the wrong mindset. If you have the right person in the wrong mindset, you will probably fail if you try to bully them into buying. But you can often make sales by leading them into the desired mindset.
How do you change someone’s mindset? It’s often easier than it sounds. Just figure out what the person wants and give them exactly that. Then immediately follow up by offering what you want them to buy.
Continuing with horses, here is an example. Imagine that most of your horses are sold to dressage enthusiasts. Let’s say that the big dressage event is called “Dressage 2005” (not a real Read the rest of this entry »
There are a lot of Anti-SEOs out there who love to write about what a scam SEO is, and how the service is evil and should be abolished. One of their key points is: SEO is cheating. They say by manipulating rankings, you’re being dishonest and beating out the competition by cheating.
This is an interesting dilemma, as they make a good point. I say that as an SEO myself. Sometimes really bad websites who have no business being in the top ten,often are. The reason is not because their site is so great, or because so many people go there, but because they had a great SEO. Often times, the more you pay, the better you get, and some people are willing to throw a lot of money at someone to get them the top rankings.
The argument is, from a competition standpoint, results rely on who has the best SEO. So if a bunch of poor quality sites manage to get the right SEO to help them, they will start burying the good sites that people actually want to go to. This seems unethical and unfair. This is the primary reason google and other large search engines put anti-seo measures in place, because it reflects poorly on the search engine when these useless sites are near the top.
The counter argument is simply a matter of who you hire. An ethical SEO will never tell you to “cheat” Read the rest of this entry »
it is the practice that cheats search engine, but namely the method with the SEO commonly used ace that ministry substation calls, the use of these methods, search those who reduce an user the experience, also create greater burden to whole network, we hope those SEO experts do not use a method, use these methods to should refusing more for the novice at the same time, once be indexed prop up discovery by search, the website that will make your hardship is built by search revive engine removes sb’s name from the rolls or fall authority.
1, key word load one’s writing with fancy phrases
Key word density ranks a algorithmic main factor as search engine, already was well-known, then some people can build a few pages, the sentence related to this key word is in the page, because added a few additional written languages, the key word density of whole page appears not tall, however such page does not have any meanings and value to the user. Even somebody around move key word produces essay of a few rubbish, such article is the load one’s writing with fancy phrases of word and sentence completely, make to the user one kind is harmed, if general situation is gone to by Baidu monitoring, can be versed in through the person discovery is met screen, however to Google, still do not have better idea to make do it seems that at present.
2, the catenary outside rubbish
Catenary serves as the algorithmic factor that has engine of a search outside, black hat of a few SEO can be in forum, in rich guest, the insanity in the allows an user to add content page of other increases exterior link, appeared then a lot of forum group hair tool, Bo Kequn builds a tool, the means that we think true SEO should not pass this kind of SPAM will operate search engine. Measurable advertisement is possible, if use software to come the word of SPAM, can meet only be fed up with by user and search engine.
3, bridge page
Page of so called bridge (Doorway Page) points to a few pages that read technically to search engine namely, SEO people the form such as the catenary outside passing key word load one’s writing with fancy phrases, rubbish, make the user comes to this page through searching engine, next this page installed the website that changes direction automatically to lead the user its to want to popularize truly to go up. This kind of means is labelled to punish an object Read the rest of this entry »
Content syndication and distribution online is getting a shot in the arm from social bookmarking. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content. Heidi Cohen, who teaches in New York University’s Masters Program in Direct and Interactive Marketing, says in her ClickZ column that what makes social bookmarking important to marketers is that it’s another cost-effective way to augment search marketing efforts, distribute content, and aid branding. Savvy marketers who want to take advantage of this new trend are often held back by the technical nature of social bookmarks. If you are a big corporation with a highly trained IT department, it should be no problem. But what if you are a small to medium business? Can you still apply these new social media tools to your web content? Luckily the explosion of consumer generated media has brought with it a slew of easy to use tools that make it really simple to add content yourself and encourage your readers to add and share content too. Some of these tools, like blog platforms, have the social bookmarking links built in.. But as Cohen points out, in her article, bookmarking is not just for bloggers. You should also add the bookmarking links to your press Read the rest of this entry »
