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Grab your free copy of Lucid SEO
Thursday, November 01, 2007
I got an e-mail this morning from David Congreave (he's not a friend, I'm on his mailing list) and in it he talked about a new product launch - Lucid SEO. Now, if you subscribe to a lot of Internet Marketing e-mails, you'll be able to recognise the hype from far far away. I've never had this from David's e-mails - he sends a couple out a month, and comes across as very genuine - you know he's actually tried and tested products he recommends.
LucidSEO doesn't launch until 20th November, but there is a free report that you can grab. I did, and it isn't full of fluff or affiliate links - just a few pages of common sense that puts SEO (search engine optimisation) in a whole new light for the average webmaster.
Grab it while it's still available.
Labels: seo
Wordtracker coupon code - 15% discount
WordTracker currently have an offer running for a whopping 15% discount off their annual subscription price.
Follow this link here, then enter codeus-annual-15.
If you don't know what WordTracker is and you want to build a successful money making website, I suggest you have a look. By using keywords and keyphrases that people are searching for, you are guaranteeing that your website is more likely to be found - WordTracker does all the hard work for you when you tell it what you want to research.
You can optimise your website content, utilise the keywords for your PPC (pay per click) campaign or research new niche ideas and know before you start whether you'll be successful or not.
My site could use higher placement?!!
Friday, September 28, 2007
According to a SPAM e-mail I received today:
"Your web site could use higher placement on the top directories like Google or Yahoo!
We are offering to review your site for no charge in order to show you how a higher position could improve your web traffic. Email us at sashton@gmail.com today and we will create your free site report. Please include your URL(s) and the best way to contact you with results."
Well, that's amazing! Firstly, I seem to be doing okay without the higher placement - obviously I'm not going to turn down appearing on the first page of Google, but it's not essential. Secondly, a higher placement could improve my traffic, but I think providing useful content is the best method and one I will always advocate - there's no point in being on the front page if people don't like the content of your site.
Then, I do find it worrying that someone is trying to offer higher positions in the Google directory - directories don't have ranking positions, and if you want to be in the Yahoo! directory, there is the small matter of the $299 fee. Perhaps this so-called SEO expert means Google or Yahoo! search engine.
And finally, they did manage to contact me to make the offer so asking for more contact details so they can provide me with a free report...I think not. If you're going to spam someone with an e-mail like this, don't send it to web designers and SEO professionals!
Search Engine Marketing Hints
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Search Engine Marketing Hints is a blog-style website aimed at killing off some of the myths and hype in promoting a website. Currently on the frontpage is information showing what constitutes a good link to your site, and why google may only show a few backlinks. The information seems to be straightforward white-hat advice.
Just for the uninitiated, white-hat strategies are those considered safe to follow and remain within search engine guidelines whereas black-hat are very risky and could get your site banned from Google, MSN and Yahoo! etc...If something is described as 'grey-hat' it should also be avoided unless you like taking risks!
There are different sections on the site with useful advice e.g. SEO tools and PPC tools which review different programs and suggest where to get more information from. There are affiliate links but this is only fair when someone spends the time to put a site like this together.
15 minute SEO checklist
Monday, July 16, 2007
Whether you're just developing a new website or have been running one for a while, the free 15 minute SEO checklist will certainly help you.
It is a weighted checklist of all the different factors that can make the difference to your search engine rankings.
Positive, negative and neutral factors are all considered and the list is split into various sections - keywords, links, metatags, content, visual factors and domains.
The list is skewed towards Google, but can affect your rankings in MSN, Yahoo! and other search engines.
If you don't understand any of the terms used, there is a reference tutorial to explain everything in more detail.
Free Directory Submitter Review
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Reciprocal links are an easy way to get links in to your website, are valued less than one-way links by the search engines. Websites with higher numbers of quality one way incoming links are typically the sites that rank the highest in the search engine results.
Website Directory Submission is a very popular and easy way to get quality, one way links to your website, and there are several submission programs available. I've just downloaded 'Directory Submitter', another product by Brad Callen.
It comes in two flavours - free and paid-for. The free version has over 300 directories and the paid for version over 1700, all free to submit to.
The program is very straightforward and you can be submitting in less than a minute. Unlike some software, it's not fully automated, but I see this as a positive issue for several reasons:
1) If you suddenly had 300 backlinks appear to your site, the search engines would be a little suspicious. Better to have five more links a day than 300 at once.
2) It allows you to finetune which category your site is placed under and reduces the risk of your site being rejected or put in the wrong category. The more relevant the page on which your site is listed, the more likely the search engines are to 'count' your site.
There are two steps to submitting your site to a directory with this software - firstly, you need to setup a project for each different site you want to submit. This takes a minute, or if you want to take advantage of using varying titles (anchor text), description and keywords, to look more natural to the search engines, it may take you a minute or two longer.
Once your project is saved, click on the name of a directory from the adjacent list, navigate to the category for which you want to submit and you'll see your details already filled in. Just give them a quick check, fill in the category and 'captcha' if needed and click 'submit'. Repeat for each directory in the list.
The software keeps a record of the date that you submitted to each site, so you can keep track of where you are in the list.
To have a look at the software, and to evaluate it for free (and it's free forever unless you upgrade - no nag links or shareware), see Directory Submitter.
Labels: linking, resources, seo
Guest article: The Best and Easiest Google-Friendly Change to Your Web Site
Sunday, April 15, 2007
No matter who you are or how much you pay for web site advertising, free search engine traffic is probably responsible for a big part of your business. So why make your web site so hard for search engines to figure out?
Luckily, it seems like in the recent years people have paid attention to SEO, moved their sites over to CSS, abolished "table" and "font" HTML tags, started using the H1 tag around their titles... and in general, moved the main content of their site as close to the top of the HTML document as it can go.
"But Robert," you tell me, "I have a bunch of fancy JavaScript and CSS at the top of my site that I don't want to get rid of."
That's ok, you can keep it. Just stash it away in another file. By that I mean... if you were lazy and included your CSS right in the HTML document like this:
<style type="text/css">
<!-- CSS code in here -->
</style>
Copy all that text out and delete it from the HTML page.
Remove the "style" tags and the "<!--" and "-->" stuff. Open a new text file, paste the text from the clipboard in, save the file as "layout.css" then save and upload to your web server.
Now, back on your HTML page, place HTML code like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.example.com/layout.css">
When someone loads your page in a browser that tells them to look to the URL http://www.example.com/layout.css for the CSS info. But when the search engines crawl your site they will see a nice, clean, simple layout.
You can do the same thing with JavaScript. Say these are your "script" tags:
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
JavaScript code in here
-->
</script>
Do the same thing, copy the JavaScript code but NOT the "script" tags themselves or the "<!--" or "--)". Erase the original from the HTML page. Paste the stuff you copied into a new text file and call it something like: "functions.js"
Upload functions.js and in the spot you had your JavaScript code use this:
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.example.com/functions.js"></script>
One important thing to remember is that NO JavaScript code can be placed between the "script" tags if you use the "src" parameter like that.
So remember: use H1 tags, use meta description tags, and use CSS, but make sure you include your JavaScript and CSS stylesheets in separate files otherwise there's no point.
Article by Robert Plank
http://www.AffiliateBattlePlan.com
Guest Article: Think Global Act Global
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Think Global Act Global: Writing for Your Online Market
When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?
I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won't embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let's just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
Now the owner of this site was complaining loudly in a webmaster forum that his pay-per-click campaign was having no luck converting sales from overseas visitors, particularly in the UK and Australia. He had spent a long time developing and tweaking a landing page for the campaign and he couldn't work out why hardly anyone outside the U.S. was buying. I took a look at his landing page and could see the problems straight away:
1) He used the American English spelling "jewelry" throughout the page without considering that persons who use British English spell it "jewellery".
2) He provided a toll-free phone number for persons in the U.S. to call, but did not provide any contact phone number for persons located outside the U.S.
3) He used the word "national" throughout the page, immediately isolating anyone outside the U.S.
4) He promoted "free shipping throughout the U.S." but did not specify shipping costs for persons outside the U.S.
The owner of this site had not even considered that persons outside the U.S. might search for keywords in anything other than American English. It didn't even occur to him that there may be an alternative spelling of his main keyword and he didn't think about the logistics for purchasers outside his country. No wonder the page wasn't converting outside the U.S.! He had made the classic mistake of isolating a large chunk of his audience by sending everyone to a one-size-fits-some page.
What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas. He could then have set up a unique PPC campaign targeting only UK/Australian searchers with regional keywords and ads leading to the British English landing page.
I see similar problems occur quite often in the online travel industry where you not only have to deal with regional spelling options, but also regional jargon. Think about the word "accommodation". Apart from the fact the word is commonly misspelled, it is used most often in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe places to stay while traveling. In the U.S., the words "accommodations" and "lodging" are more commonly used. Same goes for "holiday" and "vacation", with the latter being more common in the U.S. The word "traveling" itself is spelled "travelling" in British English! So you can imagine the minefield of problems webmasters must face promoting their travel sites online to a worldwide audience.
I don't mean to single out a particular country, but Americans seem to find it especially difficult to step outside their regional mindset. I am always receiving emails from the U.S. with helpful suggestions for fixing my "spelling mistakes".
The funniest email exchange I ever had in relation to this was from an American web designer. She had seen our Australian-based web site (with a .com.au domain) and emailed me to tell me it was "full of errors" and that if I wanted to present a professional business to site visitors, I should correct them. So condescending! I asked her to elaborate and she pointed me to these words she felt were spelled incorrectly:
optimisation
counselling
organised
enrolment
colour
catalogue
favourite
centre
Resisting the urge to use a few offensive words I'm sure she would recognize, I tactfully explained that our site was only targeting the Australian market and that we use British English spelling in Australia. Her response? Perhaps if we wanted to be taken seriously by an international audience, we should consider using the "more proper" American English. Flabbergasted, I pointed out the fact that American English was a derivative of British English and was not widely used outside her own country. Wikipedia has more about the differences between the two here. And let's not forget that although it is the most common language used on the web, English is used by less than 30 percent of the world's total Internet users.
The point of this story is that you absolutely have to think outside your market if you are going to advertise on the web. As ignorant as she was, my email friend did make me realize that many of her compatriots might also think our site was full of errors. American English is more common on the web and I've since learned to cater to that trend. I try to remember that in all writing I do for the web now, whether it's in my daily blog, the syndicated articles I write regularly or web page content.
Whenever you design or write for a web site that has an international audience, make sure you address each market. It pays to undertake detailed keyword research into your markets you are targeting so you can capture the correct regional jargon and spelling that people are searching for. Remember it's not enough to think global, you've got to act global too.
About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.
Emma's note: I read Kalena's Search Engine Advice column regularly. Despite being aimed at 'newbies' it's a good reminder of some of the basic search engine optimisation principles.
Linking Strategies - straight from the experts
Friday, March 16, 2007
I came across a blog post today that poses questions to five link development experts and shows their answers. Some of the information is slightly contradictory but is a fascinating insight into how the experts go about gathering links to their own and their clients' sites.
The experts are:
- Eric Ward (URL Wire)
- Rand Fishkin (SEOMoz)
- Roger Montti (Best of the Web)
- Todd Malicoat (Stuntdubl, SEO Class)
- Rae Hoffman (Sugarrae, SEO Class)
And the questions asked?
- What are the factors you would take into account before buying a link from a directly contacted site (not a link broker or seller)?
- In sectors where links are particularly tough to come by (retail, B2B in boring industries, etc.), what are content tactics you?ve taken to appeal to relevant sites in those industries (specific examples would rock)?
- What is the current climate with paid links, and how can I navigate the paid links landscape so that I come out smelling like a rose on the other side?
- Automating the link acquisition process: How far do you recommend going with it? What are the benefits and pitfalls of automation?
- Name 5 specific techniques (queries, tools, process, or starting points) you would use to get links for a statewide real estate agent.
- What are the top 3 over-rated and under-rated criteria for determining how valuable an individual link will potentially be to your site?s search engine rankings?
- If you were in control of the search engine algorithm at Google, what are the top three changes you would make specific to how Google values/counts links?
- What?s the most common mistake you see people making in their link building activities?
- How do you think that nofollow links and redirected links are treated by the various search engines and do you see any value in obtaining these types of links?
- So many people complain about competitors who are ranking solely on reciprocal links. Do you believe reciprocal links still works as a complete strategy or do you believe age, trust and grandfathering (for lack of a better word) are taken into account? How important do you feel age is to a link?
Labels: internet, searchengines, seo
Don't get your site thrown out the Search Engines
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Altering your website to increase its rankings in the search engine results is known as SEO or search engine optimisation. By doing this, you will increase the number of visitors to your site, which in turn will hopefully increase your website's revenue. The major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) all publish do's and don'ts for websites - failing to acknowledge these on your site could easily result in it being banned.
Whether you pay someone to do your SEO, or do it youself, ensure that your site adheres to the webmaster guidelines and doesn't engage in any black hat practices. These will get your site banned from the search engines, and once thrown out, it's difficult to get back in. Adhering to white hat practices and providing quality content is the best advice for getting high rankings.
Quick ways to get banned include keyword stuffing (using the same phrases or words repeatedly) or hiding text by having lots of keywords in the same colour as the background. The former renders your page unreadable, which defeats the purpose of having visitors to your site whilst the latter has been used by webmasters to get visitors there on false pretences - they think they're viewing a page on one topic and arrive to see something completely different.
Links from high quality or high ranking sites are much more important in helping your site rankings than just trying to get hundreds of links. Although this may take time, acquiring higher quality links really will help your site in the long run. To find higher authority sites, use Google's pagerank as a guide. The higher the pagerank out of 10, the harder it will be to get a link, but the more value it will pass to your site.
Don't be tempted into buying hundreds of links at a time - it's better to get a few links a week at a constant pace than getting a lot sporadically. And when you do link, ensure that you get links to both your homepage and other pages on your site. Link exchanges can be a good thing, but ensure that you are listed with similar sites rather than just a random selection.
Don't be tempted to fool Google or the other search engines - they will find you out. Practices they may not like and not mentioned above include meta tag stuffing, cloaking, duplicate content and multiple submissions. Meta tags can be useful to your site despite not all search engines using them, but don't be tempted to stuff them full of more keywords and phrases.
Cloaking is where you show one page to the search engines and another to your site's visitors - again it gets them there through false pretences. Having the same website on several different domains sounds like a good idea, but the search engines do penalise duplicate content, whether by dropping you from the results or putting you on the 350th page of results which amounts to the same thing. Finally, if your site is linked to properly, the search engines will find your site without you having to submit your site to them. Submit only once then exercise patience until your site appears.
Google Webmaster Guidelines - http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines - http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html
MSN Guidelines for successful indexing - http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm
Also see Google webmaster guidelines in plain English
Labels: searchengines, seo, webdesign
Google webmaster guidelines in plain English
Monday, February 05, 2007
If you are confused as to what the Google Webmaster Guidelines mean, you could do a lot worse than going to feedthebot.com. This is a very clearly laid out website, which uses CSS and keeps images to a minimum which results in fast-loading effective site.
Each of the guidelines has its own page - first the guideline is laid out, followed by definitions of any terms used and followed by further explanation and examples. Diagrams are used where necessary.
Definitely one to add to your bookmarks!
Labels: searchengines, seo, webdesign
3 steps to search engine traffic
Saturday, December 30, 2006
If your website needs more visitors, a useful article named "3 steps to search engine traffic" really does help you understand how to increase search engine traffic. The three steps go through the process of choosing your keywords, creating a page for each keyword and then obtaining backlinks to that page. The only thing I think the article missed mentioning explicitly is keyword density - just remember when writing a page or article to write it for you web visitors, not the search engines. Keeping your keyword to less than 8% of the page should ensure that your site is readable.
Search Engine / Online Marketing
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
I recently posted about SEO / SEM (search engine optimisation / marketing) and what to look for when choosing a someone to do it for you. But what else can you do to ensure you get your money's worth?
- Make sure that a link building service offers one-way links not reciprocal ones, and that the links are either contextual (links embedded in text) or if they are in a list, in a tightly themed list with no more than about 15 external links on that page. A variety of sources for your links are important, and so is the speed at which you accumulate links - don't grab 100 links on one day and then for months.
- Don't allow anyone to guarantee you top rankings - this cannot be guaranteed by anyone unless they use underhand black-hat techniques that will get you thrown out of the search engine listings.
- Ignore services that offer to submit your site to 100,000 search engines - think quality not quantity. There are only a handful of good quality search engines and many of these 100,000 sites are really link farms which will damage your site's online reputation.
DiscountClick appear to offer quality services without making false promises if you want to pay someone to improve your site's visibility in the search engines.
Why you should listen to Matt Cutts
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Anyone that owns a website and is responsible for the content should check Matt Cutt's blog occasionally.
He's also known as 'Google Guy' and regularly posts really useful information on how to stay on the right side of Google.
As someone who works within the GooglePlex, he really knows what he's talking about so you are wise to take note.
A good summary on some of his earlier posts can be found at SEO EggHead.
Pearls of wisdom include:
- Use dashes rather than underscores in URLs
- Don't use hidden, or nearly-hidden text
- Use user-friendly URLs
- Use the nofollow tag
More google info can also be found at their webmaster central blog.
Labels: blogging, searchengines, seo
Sitemaps: Google, MSN and Yahoo unite
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Sitemaps are the easiest way for webmasters to tell search engines about the content of their website. A sitemap can either be for site visitors' benefit, in which case an HTML or similar file is created or for the search engines in which case an XML needs to be made. This XML file contains information about each page on the site - the URL, how important the page is relative to the other site pages, when the page was last updated and how often it usually changes.
By providing this information, search engines are able to crawl your site more effectively. There are still no guarantees that your pages will be included though!
A new protocol "Sitemap 0.90" standardises the way that sitemap information is presented, so rather than having sitemap.xml for Google, URLlist.txt for Yahoo! etc... search engines will support the one format. Google, Yahoo! and MSN have all agreed to support this protocol.
I still recommend GSiteCrawler for creating your sitemap - it's simple to use and even automates uploading your newly created sitemap to your website and pinging Google Sitemaps!
Labels: linking, searchengines, seo
Another Google Page Rank update
Monday, October 09, 2006
So, it looks like there's recently been another Google PageRank update. And fewer people seem to care, which I see as a positive sign. PageRank is only one aspect of how well your website can be found or ranked, and I feel that having a well-designed site, that meets with coding and legal requirements, and appeals to site visitors by providing content written for them is more important than scrabbling for PageRank.
However, PageRank can be a useful indicator of a site's authority - the higher the number out of 10, the more important Google views it. To see your live pagerank, see http://livepr.raketforskning.com/ which shows your current pagerank at 199 Google Datacentres.
Labels: searchengines, seo
Article Dashboard Directory Site List
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
There are hundreds of article directories out there, and it's very useful to have a current list. So here is one at LittleFish Web Hosting!
If you would like free article submission software that will automatically setup accounts with all these directories, just click the link and save the zip file! Please note that this is a PHP script that requires a MySQL database. There are instructions included, but if you would rather have LittleFish install it, we charge just £5. If for any reason the script installation fails, we'll even refund the money. Can't say fairer than that!
Search engine optimisation advice for beginners
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Search engine optimisation is a minefield. Someone will tell you one thing, someone else another.
The over-riding message is to read and apply the webmaster advice that the different search engines offer and most importantly - make your website for VISITORS.
There's nothing worse than trying to read an article that has been written for the search engines - it makes little sense to the human eye and makes you pick a different website quick.
I like reading 'Ask Kalena' for a common sense approach - as well as saying what I've said above, her blog answers beginner SEO questions, recent topics have included "Should I set up a forum on my site for SEO purposes?" and "Why does our site show different Google ranks in different locations?"
Labels: seo
How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Following on from my post yesterday on social bookmarking, tagging and pinging, I came across this excellent article which explains the concepts in context:
How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques (To Boost Your Site's Ranking, Traffic and Sales)
If you're just heard the phrase 'Tag and Ping' and scratching your head in puzzlement - this article may be worth your time. Not that Tag and Ping is some magic marketing formula that will deliver untold riches. It won't.
It is just one more marketing tool professional online marketers are using to give their site or sites a competitive edge over their competition. It will help put your site on the Internet map and if done right, Tag and Ping will deliver plenty of very
targeted traffic to your sales pages. It will boost your rankings and increase your sales.
Tag and Ping is one of those simple, yet relatively unknown marketing techniques savvy Internet Marketers have been using and trying to keep quiet for years. To truly understand how Tag and Ping works, you will have to know some basic background information on keywords, blogging, tags, and how all these can work in sync to deliver traffic, links and sales to your site.
What are Blogs?
Most web users will know a blog is an online journal where bloggers post their daily or hourly entries (their opinions, views, info, links) on any subject that interests them. The most popular blogging systems are Blogger.com (owned by Google), Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves), LiveJournal, and many professional marketers use the free WordPress software which they can host on their own websites.
Each blog has its own RSS feed - RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication although its original acronym stood for Rich Site Summary. These RSS feeds broadcasts the information in the blog posts to all concerned parties - those who have subscribed and use an RSS reader or aggregator. Or more commonly, subscribers use the FireFox browser, Google Desktop, or MyYahoo to access their favorite RSS feeds. The next version of Windows will have RSS embedded into its operating system.
What are Tags?
Tags are really another name for keywords. Most surfers will know keywords are the exact words Internet users type into search engines to find what they're looking on the world wide web. Tags work in the same way and are a form of social bookmarking, a way of classifying and accessing all that content in all those countless blogs.
Many major blogging directories such as Technorati use tags to serve up the information to its patrons. One simple technique to create a tag in Technocrati:
<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Laptops" rel="tag">Laptops</a>
Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.
What The Heck Is A Ping?
A ping is a simple way to notify the different search engines to let them know that your blog has been updated. You call up or ping your blog post.
You bookmark or place an entry in any one of the countless blogging sites such as Technorati, Furl, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Flickr --- you go to these sites and click your blog or tag to inform them you have updated your blog. Many blogging systems will automatically ping your blog updates.
Or you can do this manually, for example Technorati's ping form is here http://www.technorati.com/ping
Simple Way to Ping
If this is still confusing to you, one simple way to ping your tags/blogs is to use a site like: http://pingomatic.com/ and it will automatically ping your blog in many of the most popular blogging services.
Enter The Online Professional Marketers and It All Hits the Fan
Of course, online marketers have long discovered that the whole blogging system - blogs, rss, tags, pinging - is an excellent marketing vehicle. One great marketing system delivering targeted traffic to their products and services.
It really is a corruption or commercialization of blogging and this surely wasn't the idea the original designers of blogs had in mind. But the whole blogging system is so lucrative, many professional marketers (the author is pleading the fifth!) are using blogging systems like WordPress to create mainly marketing sites that may have little resemblance to a real blog. It just uses the backbone structure of blogs, RSS, Tags to give their sites a slight competitive edge in a very competitive world.
As we saw with the 'comment spam' there is a great likelihood that Tag and Ping will be misused and further antagonize the blogging purists. So if you are going to use Tag and Ping make sure you're creating valuable, usable content - then most sites will want to link to your site anyway. Content is still king no matter what tricks the professional marketers want to use. Always will be!
Using a Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Technique With Technorati
To explain further the whole idea of Tag and Ping. Lets just walk through a marketing system you can quickly create using Technorati - one of the most popular blogging services.
First, sign your blog up with Technorati. This is quite a simple procedure. Just upload a photo, doesn't have to be of you - your site's logo will do. Register your profile with your 20 or so tags relating to your blog. Make sure these are keywords you're marketing with your blog. Then you have to place the Technorati code on your blog for a link back.
Next, you must understand that Technorati creates a landing page for each tag in their system. This page is made up of four parts:
* Flickr Photos
* Recent blog posts tagged with that keyword or phrase
* Who's Blogging About sidebar which links to any profiles of blogs that those same keywords or phrase in their profile
* Links from Furl for the same tag
So to take full advantage and to use this marketing technique you have to sign up with both Flickr and Furl. Your aim is to get your links in all four spots on this Technorati landing page for your tag or keyword.
When signing up for Flickr, many marketers use their site's name for their Flickr username - just use a dash instead of a dot in your site's url. You can use a photo of the product they're promoting to get a link from Flickr in the top spot on the Technorati landing page. Pick your tags and description for the product.
Set up a Furl account and download the Toolbar - bookmark a few sites to get the hang of how its done.
Now You're Really To Put Everything Together To Tag and Ping
1.) You can start with the Flickr photos at top of the Technorati page.
Just post a photo or cover image into your Flickr account, making sure you tag it and use a catchy headline in your description. Link it to your landing or affiliate page url.
<a href="http://www.marketingtoolguide.com">Don't buy another
marketing tool until your check out this site.</a>
2.) Next, make the first of your blog posts on your particular subject or product to your blog, making sure you tag it with your keywords and then ping Technorati. Make all your posts good content, reviews, product information or free downloads. Your entry will appear on the top of the list for that tag shortly in Technorati.
3.) Furl your blog post and your landing/affiliate page with your tags to make sure your entry/post is listed the bottom section of the Technorati page for your tag.
To work this system, add another blog post every few hours, Tag and Ping, plus Furl your posts. For better results you can sign up for countless other social bookmarking sites and bookmark your pages. Here are just a few good ones: del.icio.us, blinklist, moreover, icerocket, weblogs...
Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl
This is just one Tag and Ping method - professional marketers have countless systems and sites working many variations on this relatively new marketing technique. But the information given above should get you started on your own Tag and Ping marketing system.
Remember, blogging and RSS are the wave of the future, make sure you're geared up to take advantage of all they have to offer. You must have at least one blog on your site. Use WordPress if you can - Blogger will do in a pinch!
Just make sure you're using some Ping and Tag marketing techniques to harvest all those links, traffic and sales for your site. This is one marketing technique you should now be using. Just remember to Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl - Rinse and Repeat!
About the author
The author operates numerous sites on the web, his first was a general Internet Marketing site http://www.bizwaremagic.com. And his latest site is Marketing Tool Guide where you can find all the latest helpful and effective marketing tools, including Free Internet Marketing manuals. Internet Marketing Tools can be found at: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com. Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins.
Labels: blogging, internet, seo
3 Surefire Techniques to Get More Traffic Than You Can Handle
Monday, August 21, 2006
Gone are the days of cheap banner ad and pop up traffic. It is becoming increasingly harder to develop good traffic sources, and even more traffic and more highly targeted traffic is needed as web searching becomes faster. It is not unfathomable to click through 20 or 30 or even 50 websites in 20 minutes, searching for exactly what you are looking for. As more people get hi-speed internet, I believe it will be even more difficult to keep a customer on your site. Only the very best will survive--are you ready?
Today I will cover some of the best techniques that are currently available and how to maximize your return on each, and literally generate more traffic than you can handle.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): PPC is extremely popular today among internet marketers because it circumvents the search engine optimization process. You literally buy your way to the top of the list when you buy PPC. Two keys here: 1) You must be highly targeted. If you only sell specialized hunting equipment for elk hunting, you cannot afford to buy "hunting" or "fishing" as keywords. You must buy "elk hunting". You won't get as many clicks, but they should cost you less and they will convert at a much higher rate than the general terms. 2) Do not bid your way to the very top of the list. You will pay too much for the spot. You see, the first spot gets a lot of clicks from "happy clickers"--they click in to your site, and if it isn't exactly what they want or doesn't load fast enough, they click right back out--leaving you with the bill for their click. But if you bid the 3rd or 5th spot, it is less expensive, and the people clicking on those ads are more likely to be genuinely reading your ad to see if it is what they want.
Article Writing and Submission: Article writing and submission creates some of the most highly targeted traffic possible, as long as you write specifically to your purchasing web site audience. One thing that is incredibly powerful with this is the emotional connection a reader develops with the style of writing in the article. Therefore, it is important that the copywriter for your web site also be the writer for your articles, if at all possible. The style of writing is one of the things that prompts a reader to click through to your web site, and if the style remains the same, you are more likely to create a customer out of the click.
Ezine Advertising: One of the keys with ezine advertising is targeted ezines. The more tightly targeted the topic of the ezine, and the more highly correlated that topic is with your web site, the higher the chance that you will be productive using that ezine. Another key with ezine advertising is testing and tracking. You must track every source. Create a spreadsheet and put in each of the sources, the price you paid for the ad, and the number of leads or sales you generate. If you do not do this, you will likely fail at ezine advertising. Some ezines will make you a lot of money, and others nothing, but if you do not know which, you might simply break even, or worse yet, lose money.
About the Author Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and has developed the online manual, 15 Steps to Internet Success. To download your complimentary copy today, click here: Secrets of Internet Success
Labels: seo
Free search engine optimisation tools
Sunday, August 13, 2006
SEO Chat has an amazing range of tools to help you optimise and analyse your website. What's more - they're free to use and tools are constantly being added. Explanations of each tool can be found on its page:
- Adsense Calculator
- Google AdSense Preview
- Advanced Meta Tag Generator
- Alexa Rank Comparison Tool
- Class C Checker
- Code to Text Ratio
- CPM Calculator
- Domain Age Check
- Domain Typo Generator
- Future PageRank
- Google Dance
- Keyword Suggestions For Google
- Multiple Datacenter Google Search
- Google vs Yahoo
- Indexed Pages
- Keyword Cloud
- Keyword Density
- Keyword Difficulty Check
- Keyword Optimizer
- Multiple Datacenter Keyword Position Check
- Keyword Typo Generator
- Link Popularity
- Link Price Calculator
- Meta Analyzer
- Meta Tag Generator
- Multiple Datacenter Link Popularity Check
- Keyword Suggestions For Overture
- Page Size
- PageRank Lookup
- PageRank Search
- Robots.txt Generator
- ROI Calculator
- Search Engine Keyword Position
- Graphical Search Engine Comparison
- Site Link Analyzer
- Spider Simulator
- URL Redirect Check
- URL Rewriting
...is there any other tool you could possibly want?
Labels: resources, searchengines, seo, webdesign
More web directories to submit to
Thursday, April 20, 2006
http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/top-web-directories.html:
Top Web Directories - rated by Inbound Link Quality.
http://info.vilesilencer.com/main.php?rock=submission-tips.php:
SEO Friendly free directory list
Where to submit your website to
Friday, March 24, 2006
Following up my post about how to generate and submit sitemaps to Google and Yahoo!, I was asked where to submit your sites in general. I wholeheartedly recommend the list below, and of course, there are many more places - just don't fall for the "Submit Your Site to 80,000 Search Engines". Firstly ask whether there really are that many search engines and secondly, if so, what sort of quality are they and finally, do you want to be associated with them?
Google
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Yahoo! (Registration required)
http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
MSN
http://search.msn.co.uk/docs/submit.aspx
http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
ExactSeek Family (E-mail address required)
http://www.exactseek.com/add.html
About.com
See http://a-zlist.about.com/ and contact the guide directly. Tends to be non-commercial sites only.
Labels: linking, searchengines, seo
Reciprocal Linking
Monday, March 13, 2006
According to their website,
"Link Choices is an international link exchange that can help increase search engine rankings for your website. It's based on a comprehensive link directory and a nifty bit of software that allows you to manage your links once you've got them."
All links are manually approved by an editor at Link Choices, which reduces the number of 'spammy' sites and inappropriate content - a feature that many link exchange programs do not have. In addition, it's free to join.
Find Link Choices at www.link-choices.com and if you are one of the first 1000 people to join, get a free download of their software!
6 free high quality SEO tools
Sunday, January 15, 2006
SEO (search engine optimisation) is always going to be a hot topic for any webmaster, especially where online sales are concerned. The problem is, especially when you are starting out, that there are many different tools offered, and they all cost an arm and a leg. HOWEVER, I have used the following free SEO tools, written and given away by Shawn Pringle, and recommend them (please note that descriptions are condensed descriptions from Shawn's website):
- Link fetcher
- Link Fetcher goes out and automatically fills in reciprocal link forms for you, and creates link pages based on your specifications. Saves you a ton of time and gets you as many links as you need/want.
- Barrier To Entry Analyzer
- Well, this wicked app takes your keyword(s) and does a custom analysis to see if it is a competitive keyword or not. It tells you how many searches per month that keyword gets, and tells you how many other sites are actively optimizing their pages for this exact keyword. If they are optimizing their content for it then they are your competition.
- Authority Site Finder
- An "Authority Site" is simply a site that the search engines feel is an authority on a subject, with loads of relevant content and lots of one-way links pointing to it. This tool finds these sites based on your keywords, and tells you which top 15 results for that keyword have links from these authorities.
- On-Site Analyzer
- It looks at the top 10 pages for your keyword and tells you all about their on-site optimization. No other tool goes into this much detail. You have to try it to see what I mean. It does a lot of analysis, and quickly too. It gives you a chart comparing every aspect of your site to each of the top 10 pages for that phrase.
- True Backlink Counter
- Ever noticed that Google reports different backlinks for a site than Yahoo and MSN? They all show different backlinks, so how do you really know how many backlinks a site has? Answer: use this tool.
- Rank Finder
- Ever wonder where your site sits in the rankings? Plop in your keywords, or just put in your URL(s) and have the program find your keywords and your rankings itself.
Website Traffic Is Not The Key To Success
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Website traffic is deemed the single most important factor when it comes to the success of a website but that statement needs to be qualified. Although it's true that a constant stream of traffic is the lifeblood of a website, the quality of the traffic is far more important than the quantity.
Of course, any amount of website traffic is better than no traffic at all but even if you have the most perfect website, your site is doomed to fail if you are not getting visitors that are looking for the products or information you have available on your site.
It's easy to get caught up in a numbers game. It's exciting to see the number of visitors to your site climb from a few a day to a few hundred a day. On the surface, this looks like exactly what you want but if your visitors are looking for something other than what you are offering, for the most part, your website traffic is wasted.
You could have a great website design, compelling copy, the lowest prices and fantastic specials but all your efforts will be useless unless your website is drawing traffic that is interested in what you are providing or promoting.
What you need are visitors specifically interested in your product or service -- you need 'targeted traffic'.
Don't think of targeted traffic as a sub-category of website traffic because they really are two separate entities. If you're marketing plan is designed to drive as much website traffic as possible to your site, no matter what kind of traffic it is, then you're not making effective use of your time and you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
The web is a very different venue than a shopping mall. A shopping mall relies on unfocused traffic, wondering from store to store, not looking for anything in particular but willing to spend it's money on an impulse.
Believe it or not, people surfing the web will leave a website after viewing it for only about 2 seconds. They're looking for specific items or information and if they don't quickly find what they are looking for on your site, they'll click out of your site and go to one of the other millions of sites on the web.
That's why most of the successful websites are tightly focused on their 'niche' and their marketing plan is focused on driving people to their site that are looking for what they offer - they understand the importance of 'targeted traffic'.
Of course, targeted traffic and a website focused on a particular 'niche' go hand and hand. Think about your website. Does it really lend itself to a specific product or service, or is it so broad that it tends to confuse potential customers?
Here are a few tips to help you prepare your website for targeted traffic:
Design your website to promote one particular product or service as your main item.
Determine the type of people that will be interested in your product or service and adjust your website to be attractive to them.
Establish the items or services that are 'closely' related to what you're promoting on your website. If you think that they would be interesting to your visitors, offer those items on your website as well.
Keep a constant flow of free content, that your visitors will find useful, on your website and add new content and information often. Invite your visitors back to your site to see the new material you're constantly adding.
Keep in mind, a website that's focused on a particular 'niche' item or service lends itself to targeted traffic simply because there is something specific to target and the more targeted traffic your site receives, the more productive your site will be.
There are many conventional and many not so conventional ways to drive targeted traffic to your website but we'll explore them in other articles.
The purpose of this article is to point out the difference between website traffic and targeted traffic. More isn't always better and if you focus your marketing on 'targeted traffic' you'll quickly find that the hits your getting on your website aren't just empty numbers - they'll be potential customers and, more importantly, sales.
About The Author
Mike Burke is the author of numerous articles and has an affection for website marketing. Learn how to drive tons of targeted traffic to your site without spending a dime on advertising.
Visit us at http://www.starttheprofits.com
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To summarise - focus, refine and repeat! People are fed up of mass marketing, and as Mike mentioned, have a very short attention span when it comes to the Internet. The more relevant, and less 'spammy' your site, the better for your visitor and therefore the better for you.
Labels: seo
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
While Search Engine Optimisation and Advertising are specific tasks to engage, Search Engine Marketing is the key component that actually determines how you will optimise and advertise on the web. It is the research, analysis, strategy planning that will determine the execution methods. There is a distinct difference between SEM and SEO.
* SEO is the process of making changes to the HTML code of your web pages to be content rich in your specific niche and key phrase. This would include such tasks like modifications to your keywords, description, title tags, comment tags, alt descriptions, and title descriptions of anchors and the actual text of your web page.
* SEM on the other had is the process of integrating a variety of methods to insure the SEO work is successful. These methods will include research for your business, competitor analysis, link exchanges, articles, news, newsletters, audience analysis, and ultimately the method employed to generate traffic to your website.
It is the same distinction between the words "marketing" and "advertising".
* Marketing is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service.
* Advertising is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.
There are two words that are feared in the SEM world: Patience and Change!
You will need ongoing commitment to making search-engine ranking a long-term investment in your website. You will need to give it time and energy - it isn't a quick fix.
Considerations with search engine patience:
Search engines often change their ranking formula. Each search engine has its own algorithm (formula) to determine site ranking. META tag keywords are not a magic bullet to improve your ranking. Search engines can take many months to index new information, so patience...patience.
Search engine spiders can be extremely slow to index new information, so be patient! It may take months to see your changes affect your search engine ranking. Remember, a website is a dynamic marketing tool that you are building over time. Treat it well, give it a little love and attention, and your long-term rewards will be well worth your efforts!
If you thought nowadays search engine marketing can still be done by acquiring (and using) an auto-submission software, drop this thought immediately. This brings us to the other feared word, "change"! It is inevitable for technological changes to take effect with search engine algorithms. Websites drop rankings from 8 to zero over night. Because things keep changing, search engine marketers need to devote a good deal of time staying on top of the SEO industry and its trends. Watch your page ranking, your website statistics, your Alexa traffic ranking. All of these tools will allow you to find out if there are any significant changes occurring on the web.
Melih Oztalay is the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing providing businesses with turn key marketing solutions on the web. Please visit SmartFinds at www.hsfideas.com
Labels: seo
Guest article: Search engine optimisation (SEO): The basics
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
What is SEO & why is it important?
SEO is about making your website in such a way that it will appear higher in the search rankings. A website that's optimised for search engines can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.
- 42% to 86% of websites are found through search engines (source: Shari Thurow - Search Engine Visibility).
- There are 300 million searches carried out per day, every day (source: Shari Thurow - Search Engine Visibility)
Choose effective keyword phrases
Effective keyword phrases are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). Please read the article, How to find good keywords for more information.
Use these keyword phrases effectively
Now that you've found some great keyword phrases, you need to put them in the important places within each web page. Search engines give higher relevance to certain words and phrases within HTML documents so it's essential that you put your keyword phrases in the correct places.
The more confident a search engine is about the subject of your website, the higher your web pages will be in the search rankings. If you only place your keyword phrases in the META tags your website will not get a high ranking.
Some of the best places to put keyword phrases are:
- Page title tag
- In headings
- As links
- In bold text
- In the first 25 words on the page (this refers to the first 25 words of text placed in the HTML document, which is often navigation)
- In the file name (i.e. the URL)
- META tags
HTML pages must be easy for search engines to follow
Search engines scour the Internet looking for web pages to index, following links from one web page to the next. To ensure a search engine ranking, all pages on your website must be accessible to search engines. Some search engines have problems with:
- Links accessible solely through frames, image maps, or JavaScript
- Very long pages
- Very short pages
- Flash pages
- Long JavaScript (JavaScript should be placed in an external document)
- Dynamic URLs
If any of these describe pages on your website then your web pages will probably not achieve a high search engine ranking.
Have a high number of quality links into the website
Inbound links to a website play a significant part in determining its position in the search engines. Be aware though, it's not just the quantity, but also the quality and click-through-rate of links to your website which is of importance. To find out more about building up links to your website please read the article, Build up links to your website.
About the author
This article was written by Trenton Moss. Trenton's crazy about web accessibility and usability - so crazy that he went and started his own web accessibility and usability consultancy to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. He also knows an awful lot about the Disability Discrimination Act.
I hope you found this article useful - I always enjoy Trenton's articles for their simple and effective advice. Let me know what you think!
If you've got it...flaunt it!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Far too many small businesses have a website because they think they should. Not because they know how to use it. A website can be used for many purposes e.g. selling a service/product or providing information, but this is no good if people don't know the site exists.
When setting up a website, there is so much emphasis on SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine marketing) that it's easy to forget about offline promotion.
Make sure that you let people know that your site exists:
- Put your web address on all company literature
- What about on your company car/van?
- Never underestimate the power of word of mouth
- Use your web address in advertising, whether it's via the media or by giving away freebies e.g. mousemats to the local college
- Include your web address on your answer machine (after all, you are open 24/7 on the internet) or holding messages
Links
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