SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Three
During step one I talked about how to find the best phrases to be found for in the search engines. Step two discussed how to use these phrases on your website in order to attract Google, Yahoo etc. Now in step three we will be looking at how to use these same phrases to boost your rankings further by doing a thing called link-building.
Link-building is an extremely important aspect of SEO. Done well, it will boost your search engine results massively and done badly it will get you ignored and even penalised.
A back-link is where your website is mentioned on somebody else’s website and they have provided a hyperlink back to your website from their own.
A useful back-link is where the link is on the actual words you want to be found for i.e. ‘accountants in bristol’ rather than ‘click here’.
Every page on every website has a Google page rank. The page rank is the measure of importance that Google place on that page rated from 0 – 10. The higher the number the more important the page and all the better to get a link from.
If the website has a similar theme to your own then this also counts heavily. For instance, if you get a link from a blog that discusses finance and tax affairs to your website for an accountant in Bristol then this counts more heavily than from a blog discussing Rugby.
Links can be requested from other webmasters in return for a link from your site. Social bookmarking, article and blogging sites are also excellent.
Very important to your SEO success is that the links are established over a period of time and not instantly. Many services exist offering instant links in return for very little money. These services are unlikely to bring you much success and may also cost you by getting your site downgraded if they are supplying multiple links from a ‘link farm’.
A link farm is hundreds and thousands of websites all hosted on the same server with the sole purpose of providing links in return for money.
If it looks too good to be true then it probably is!
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Two
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Two
During step one I discussed how to do some basic research on what terms your website should be search engine optimised for. Part two covers how to use those terms in your actual website in order to attract the search engines.
The main thing to remember is that the search engines do not employ people to critique your website. Instead they send their software robots to look at the site and capture the information needed to rank your website.
The best way to look at a search engine is that they are detectives looking for clues. The more clues you leave, the more likely they are to come up with the correct answers.
So what are these clues and where can you leave them? The clues are the phrases that you have decided you want to be found for and you can leave them all over the place including words, images and in the code.
The first three places are in the URL of the website, the description that shows when you come up in the search results and in the page title at the top of the page that is showing.
The URL is a great place to start and if you can get what you do in the URL then do so. If you have a taxi firm in Hull then you are far better naming your website ‘hull-taxis.co.uk’ than ‘fredstaxies.co.uk’.
The Page Title should have the two or three main phrases you are trying to optimise for. Do not go over nine words and do not repeat yourself. Using our Hull taxi example, a good page title might be “Hull Taxis – Hull Taxi Firm –Cabs in Hull”
The Meta description (the one that shows in the search results) would use the same words again that you want to be found for. Try to keep this down to two sentences along the lines of “Hull Taxis. Comfort and punctuality assured by this Hull Taxi Firm. For the best cabs in Hull ring xxxxxxxx”
On the page you should also mention these words and in particular as close to the beginning of the first paragraph as possible.
If you have an image of one of your taxis, get your webmaster to label it as one of your keywords such as ‘Hull Taxis’. Do the same with you other images but do not repeat the same term and always label honestly. Do not try to be too clever with the search engines as this can be counterproductive in the extreme.
If you get stuck with some of my terms such as Meta description, just Google it and you will find its simple enough to understand.
In my next article I will be covering the importance to search engine optimisation of link-building.
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
During step one I discussed how to do some basic research on what terms your website should be search engine optimised for. Part two covers how to use those terms in your actual website in order to attract the search engines.
The main thing to remember is that the search engines do not employ people to critique your website. Instead they send their software robots to look at the site and capture the information needed to rank your website.
The best way to look at a search engine is that they are detectives looking for clues. The more clues you leave, the more likely they are to come up with the correct answers.
So what are these clues and where can you leave them? The clues are the phrases that you have decided you want to be found for and you can leave them all over the place including words, images and in the code.
The first three places are in the URL of the website, the description that shows when you come up in the search results and in the page title at the top of the page that is showing.
The URL is a great place to start and if you can get what you do in the URL then do so. If you have a taxi firm in Hull then you are far better naming your website ‘hull-taxis.co.uk’ than ‘fredstaxies.co.uk’.
The Page Title should have the two or three main phrases you are trying to optimise for. Do not go over nine words and do not repeat yourself. Using our Hull taxi example, a good page title might be “Hull Taxis – Hull Taxi Firm –Cabs in Hull”
The Meta description (the one that shows in the search results) would use the same words again that you want to be found for. Try to keep this down to two sentences along the lines of “Hull Taxis. Comfort and punctuality assured by this Hull Taxi Firm. For the best cabs in Hull ring xxxxxxxx”
On the page you should also mention these words and in particular as close to the beginning of the first paragraph as possible.
If you have an image of one of your taxis, get your webmaster to label it as one of your keywords such as ‘Hull Taxis’. Do the same with you other images but do not repeat the same term and always label honestly. Do not try to be too clever with the search engines as this can be counterproductive in the extreme.
If you get stuck with some of my terms such as Meta description, just Google it and you will find its simple enough to understand.
In my next article I will be covering the importance to search engine optimisation of link-building.
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part One
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part One
Getting your website found by the search engines is not as difficult as you might think. All you need to do is to follow these simple steps and you are on your way to search engine success.
In order to know what terms you want to be found for it is useful to know what volume of searches there are for that term. A good free tool to use is the Google Keyword Tool
This tool will give you an idea of what volumes are being searched for and what the alternative search terms might be. Quite often it is sensible to avoid the main terms and go for the secondary ones that have slightly less traffic but an awful lot less competition.
To find out how competitive a search term is, simply Google it with speech marks at either side i.e “accountants in Bristol” and make a note of how many results are shown for websites using that particular term. Obviously, the fewer the better providing there is a reasonable search volume.
The smart move is to optimise the website for the geography you cover and/or for some specific features of your product. So you will find a lot more success optimising for “accountants in Bristol” than you will for “accountants”. Similarly, you will do better for “hardwood conservatories” than you will for “conservatories”.
You may already have spotted that “hardwood conservatories in Bristol” would be a perfectly good term to optimise for. The volume of traffic might not be great but it will be very well qualified. Do not make the mistake of confusing the amount of traffic with the quality of traffic.
In the following two articles I will go on to explain what to do with your newly decided keyword phrases in order to get found by the search engines.
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Leedswebsite features news, advice, free tools and paid SEO services
Getting your website found by the search engines is not as difficult as you might think. All you need to do is to follow these simple steps and you are on your way to search engine success.
In order to know what terms you want to be found for it is useful to know what volume of searches there are for that term. A good free tool to use is the Google Keyword Tool
This tool will give you an idea of what volumes are being searched for and what the alternative search terms might be. Quite often it is sensible to avoid the main terms and go for the secondary ones that have slightly less traffic but an awful lot less competition.
To find out how competitive a search term is, simply Google it with speech marks at either side i.e “accountants in Bristol” and make a note of how many results are shown for websites using that particular term. Obviously, the fewer the better providing there is a reasonable search volume.
The smart move is to optimise the website for the geography you cover and/or for some specific features of your product. So you will find a lot more success optimising for “accountants in Bristol” than you will for “accountants”. Similarly, you will do better for “hardwood conservatories” than you will for “conservatories”.
You may already have spotted that “hardwood conservatories in Bristol” would be a perfectly good term to optimise for. The volume of traffic might not be great but it will be very well qualified. Do not make the mistake of confusing the amount of traffic with the quality of traffic.
In the following two articles I will go on to explain what to do with your newly decided keyword phrases in order to get found by the search engines.
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Leedswebsite features news, advice, free tools and paid SEO services
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Whats in a Name
Everything, when it comes to getting your website found by the search engines is the answer.
The biggest mistake you can make when putting your website together is to pick a name that has nothing to do with what you are selling. The reason for this is that the search engines do not send people to decide what your website is about, they send software ‘spiders’ to look for clues.
You can leave these clues all over the place i.e. in the page titles, meta descriptions, written text and photographic images. All of this will stand you in good stead but nothing is as important as the name of your website.
Most of my readers will have a business that only covers a particular geography. In this instance you have a fabulous opportunity to get high up the rankings. Let’s say you have a cattery and you are based in Glasgow. Which of these three URL’s would get the search engines hammering at your door?
glasgow-cattery.co.uk
comfycat.co.uk
purrrfect.co.uk
The answer of course is glasgow-cattery as it is the only one that gives the search engines the confidence that their searchers will find what they are looking for.
You may not like the hyphen in the name but this is the way you differentiate words in a URL.
The choice is yours of course. You can call your website what you like and it may be a fabulously catchy name or you can call it what it is and lose the fabulously catchy name. My choice would always be the one that got the traffic and not the one that looked great.
The biggest mistake you can make when putting your website together is to pick a name that has nothing to do with what you are selling. The reason for this is that the search engines do not send people to decide what your website is about, they send software ‘spiders’ to look for clues.
You can leave these clues all over the place i.e. in the page titles, meta descriptions, written text and photographic images. All of this will stand you in good stead but nothing is as important as the name of your website.
Most of my readers will have a business that only covers a particular geography. In this instance you have a fabulous opportunity to get high up the rankings. Let’s say you have a cattery and you are based in Glasgow. Which of these three URL’s would get the search engines hammering at your door?
glasgow-cattery.co.uk
comfycat.co.uk
purrrfect.co.uk
The answer of course is glasgow-cattery as it is the only one that gives the search engines the confidence that their searchers will find what they are looking for.
You may not like the hyphen in the name but this is the way you differentiate words in a URL.
The choice is yours of course. You can call your website what you like and it may be a fabulously catchy name or you can call it what it is and lose the fabulously catchy name. My choice would always be the one that got the traffic and not the one that looked great.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Link Building – Don’t Waste Your Money.
Link Building – Don’t Waste Your Money.
Now, I am not suggesting that link building is a total waste of money, but I am saying that without your website being set up correctly, it will not have the maximum effect you seek.
What I mean by having your website set up correctly, is that you have researched and decided what the keyword phrases are that you want to be found for.
Once you have the keywords decided, it is time to reflect them in your website. A failure to do this will cost you in the rankings and reduce your potential traffic.
Basically you need to make sure that your keyword phrases appear in the page title, meta description, page headline, image tags and text.
With regard to keyword use in the text of your document, there are a few simple rules to follow. The first is to get your keyword phrases as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph on the page. The first time they appear, you should put them in bold to show the search engines that they are important words.
The search engines also look at the keyword density on the page. Keyword density is the proportion of times a keyword appears on the page in proportion to other words. This is usually expressed as a percentage and the percentage you should go for is 3% to 4% and no more.
Do all of the above and your link building efforts will have more effect than otherwise.
seo services
Now, I am not suggesting that link building is a total waste of money, but I am saying that without your website being set up correctly, it will not have the maximum effect you seek.
What I mean by having your website set up correctly, is that you have researched and decided what the keyword phrases are that you want to be found for.
Once you have the keywords decided, it is time to reflect them in your website. A failure to do this will cost you in the rankings and reduce your potential traffic.
Basically you need to make sure that your keyword phrases appear in the page title, meta description, page headline, image tags and text.
With regard to keyword use in the text of your document, there are a few simple rules to follow. The first is to get your keyword phrases as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph on the page. The first time they appear, you should put them in bold to show the search engines that they are important words.
The search engines also look at the keyword density on the page. Keyword density is the proportion of times a keyword appears on the page in proportion to other words. This is usually expressed as a percentage and the percentage you should go for is 3% to 4% and no more.
Do all of the above and your link building efforts will have more effect than otherwise.
seo services
Monday, 26 January 2009
Paid or Organic Traffic?
The question is a bit of a cheat because you will probably pay some money out to get a high organic listing by buying software or employing a SEO company to help you initially.
A more revealing question might be “do you prefer to pay money out for a lasting result or for a quick fix?”
I am what you might call a poacher turned gamekeeper when it comes to this question. Starting out on PPC and becoming a Google Advertising Professional before learning and opening up my own SEO business.
The reason I believe that companies should choose organic SEO over PPC is that the return on investment is far better. Whilst the cost of PPC soars ever higher as Google bolsters its revenues, SEO is as inexpensive as ever. If you know how, you can climb the results pages without spending a penny.
When you stop paying for PPC the traffic stops. With SEO, you are building a lasting legacy that drives traffic long after your activity stops. Not only that, it is well known that searchers trust and prefer the organic results over the sponsored listings.
Some companies choose to run both side by side but my preference would be to run PPC, only until the work you are doing on Organic SEO is paying off with search position and visitors.
SEO Leeds
A more revealing question might be “do you prefer to pay money out for a lasting result or for a quick fix?”
I am what you might call a poacher turned gamekeeper when it comes to this question. Starting out on PPC and becoming a Google Advertising Professional before learning and opening up my own SEO business.
The reason I believe that companies should choose organic SEO over PPC is that the return on investment is far better. Whilst the cost of PPC soars ever higher as Google bolsters its revenues, SEO is as inexpensive as ever. If you know how, you can climb the results pages without spending a penny.
When you stop paying for PPC the traffic stops. With SEO, you are building a lasting legacy that drives traffic long after your activity stops. Not only that, it is well known that searchers trust and prefer the organic results over the sponsored listings.
Some companies choose to run both side by side but my preference would be to run PPC, only until the work you are doing on Organic SEO is paying off with search position and visitors.
SEO Leeds
Very Basic SEO-Part One
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and describes the variety of techniques you can use to get your website found.
The first thing to know is that the search engine to impress is Google because they have more than 50% of the market. Crack Google and you will almost certainly crack Yahoo, MSN and its other competitors also.
The next thing to get your head around is that Google does not send people to assess where your website turns up in the search results; it sends its ‘software robots to see what’s what.
Because of this, we have to make our websites very ‘readable’ by the search engines and you have to make it crystal clear what it is that your website does.
You do this by choosing the words that you want your website to be found for. These words are called keywords and Google kindly helps you find the correct ones with their free to use Google Keyword Tool.
Let’s say that one of your keyword phrases is ‘Car Hire in Edinburgh’. You would (if you didn’t have a website yet) call your website car-hire-edinburgh.com and use the words Car Hire in Edinburgh’ liberally throughout the site in the page title, Meta description, image tags and page text. This is all Google needs to start to find you for the right words when people search. Obviously it is more complicated than I have said but you can Google all the terms and find out what they mean and what to do.
Next you have to get plenty of links from other websites to your own using the very same keywords as the hyperlink. This is called ‘anchor text linking’ and again easy to Google and find articles about. Link building is a subject on its own and I will cover it in my next article - Very Basic SEO-Part Two.
SEO Leeds
The first thing to know is that the search engine to impress is Google because they have more than 50% of the market. Crack Google and you will almost certainly crack Yahoo, MSN and its other competitors also.
The next thing to get your head around is that Google does not send people to assess where your website turns up in the search results; it sends its ‘software robots to see what’s what.
Because of this, we have to make our websites very ‘readable’ by the search engines and you have to make it crystal clear what it is that your website does.
You do this by choosing the words that you want your website to be found for. These words are called keywords and Google kindly helps you find the correct ones with their free to use Google Keyword Tool.
Let’s say that one of your keyword phrases is ‘Car Hire in Edinburgh’. You would (if you didn’t have a website yet) call your website car-hire-edinburgh.com and use the words Car Hire in Edinburgh’ liberally throughout the site in the page title, Meta description, image tags and page text. This is all Google needs to start to find you for the right words when people search. Obviously it is more complicated than I have said but you can Google all the terms and find out what they mean and what to do.
Next you have to get plenty of links from other websites to your own using the very same keywords as the hyperlink. This is called ‘anchor text linking’ and again easy to Google and find articles about. Link building is a subject on its own and I will cover it in my next article - Very Basic SEO-Part Two.
SEO Leeds
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
paying a blogger for a review
Should you pay a blogger to write reviews for you? The reason there is a question at all about this is the attitude of our friends at Google. Google have a stated policy of not giving your website any credit in SEO terms for links that you paid for.
Now this on its own is a moot point as evidence abounds that a paid link in the right place i.e. in the Yahoo directory will get you noticed big time by Google.
The reason that paid blog reviews are thriving is the simple fact that Google find it very hard to ascertain whether a blogger is doing it for money or not. A sure give away however is if the blog is covering lots of different subjects. Stick to those with a constant theme.
If you do decide to go ahead then the usual rules apply to get the maximum SEO value from your investment. Those rules are that you need a blog that is a complementary subject to your own. The blog review should be from a page with a reasonable PR and not just a site with a reasonable PR.
Another point to remember is that you need to offer a hyperlink to your website using the keyword you want to be found for and not the often used ‘click here’.
Among the better websites willing to introduce you to bloggers are Payperpost, Blogvertise and Reviewme.
The amount of money you pay will depend on the PR of the blog concerned. Expect to pay $1 for a PR1 site and up to $40 for a PR6 blog. Typically the blogger will weave three keyword hyperlinks into the review for you.
www.your-seo-services.co.uk
Now this on its own is a moot point as evidence abounds that a paid link in the right place i.e. in the Yahoo directory will get you noticed big time by Google.
The reason that paid blog reviews are thriving is the simple fact that Google find it very hard to ascertain whether a blogger is doing it for money or not. A sure give away however is if the blog is covering lots of different subjects. Stick to those with a constant theme.
If you do decide to go ahead then the usual rules apply to get the maximum SEO value from your investment. Those rules are that you need a blog that is a complementary subject to your own. The blog review should be from a page with a reasonable PR and not just a site with a reasonable PR.
Another point to remember is that you need to offer a hyperlink to your website using the keyword you want to be found for and not the often used ‘click here’.
Among the better websites willing to introduce you to bloggers are Payperpost, Blogvertise and Reviewme.
The amount of money you pay will depend on the PR of the blog concerned. Expect to pay $1 for a PR1 site and up to $40 for a PR6 blog. Typically the blogger will weave three keyword hyperlinks into the review for you.
www.your-seo-services.co.uk
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Link Building Ideas – Four and Five
Link Building Ideas – Four and Five
In my last article I talked about some of the real basics of link building for SEO, covering directories and the multitude of ways you can use new content with articles and blogs etc.
This time around I would like to cover another couple of ideas that you might like but are not discussed as much as directories and articles.
The first is to give something away in return for a good solid link from an established and high PR website. What is it you give away? It’s a screensaver with a funky picture or something to do with your business. The truth is it does not matter whether it’s ever downloaded at all because the point is that it’s available at all.
I usually go to elance.com and find myself a freelancer who does this sort of work for money. They will usually do everything that needs doing for $50 -$100 including submission to software directories for you. These directories have mostly been around a long time and have credibility and reputation with the search engines. They are excellent sources for links.
My next suggestion is that you pay a blog owner to write a review about your site incorporating anchor text links in the review. Just Google the words ‘paid blog reviews’ and you will find lots of sites offering to introduce you to professional bloggers. SEO LeedsThese guys charge depending on the PR of the page your review will appear on. Typically you might pay $1 - $5 for a good review from a reasonable site.
The reason blogs are important to SEO is that they are seen as an authority by the search engines. They are perceived as being non commercial, non sales-like and owned in the main by normal people with hobbies and interests. They are therefore a great source of original and non commercial content. Blogs are great for SEO, however you use them.
In my last article I talked about some of the real basics of link building for SEO, covering directories and the multitude of ways you can use new content with articles and blogs etc.
This time around I would like to cover another couple of ideas that you might like but are not discussed as much as directories and articles.
The first is to give something away in return for a good solid link from an established and high PR website. What is it you give away? It’s a screensaver with a funky picture or something to do with your business. The truth is it does not matter whether it’s ever downloaded at all because the point is that it’s available at all.
I usually go to elance.com and find myself a freelancer who does this sort of work for money. They will usually do everything that needs doing for $50 -$100 including submission to software directories for you. These directories have mostly been around a long time and have credibility and reputation with the search engines. They are excellent sources for links.
My next suggestion is that you pay a blog owner to write a review about your site incorporating anchor text links in the review. Just Google the words ‘paid blog reviews’ and you will find lots of sites offering to introduce you to professional bloggers. SEO LeedsThese guys charge depending on the PR of the page your review will appear on. Typically you might pay $1 - $5 for a good review from a reasonable site.
The reason blogs are important to SEO is that they are seen as an authority by the search engines. They are perceived as being non commercial, non sales-like and owned in the main by normal people with hobbies and interests. They are therefore a great source of original and non commercial content. Blogs are great for SEO, however you use them.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Link Building Ideas – One to Three
Link Building Ideas – One to Three
Here are my first three link building ideas designed to get traffic to your website. Most you can do yourself, some you need to spend a few dollars to get the right software and some you might decide to pay someone to do to save time.
Link building is fundamental to your websites success. You need a mix of volume and quality to get seen.
I am assuming that you have researched what words you want to be found for and you know what an anchor text link is (its where you offer a hyperlink from a keyword term and not just the words ‘click here’).
1. Submit your website to web directories. There are thousands of these, some good and most awful. Regardless you need to submit manually or get someone to do it for you. Choose an actual category and not just the generic ‘top level’. You will never get traffic from these but you will get lots of basic links. Volume Links
2. Article writing (like this one) can be a great source of links and will definitely drive traffic as well. Personally I write an article and put it on my website first followed by recreating it on a blogger blog (Google’s Platform) with links back to pages on my website embedded in it. I then go to pingomatic.com and use their free service to alert the blog aggregators and through them to the search engines, that I have new content.
3. There is a very good piece of software called ‘article post robot’ which allows you to send your article out to hundreds of other article sites automatically. The clever part is that you can set up multiple versions of the same article and this in turn helps you with the ‘duplicate content’ problem where your stuff is discounted because of too much duplication.
Please check out my link building ideas article – Four and Five, for the really clever stuff!
SEO TRAINING
SEO Training
SEO FRIENDLY WEB DESIGN
SEO Web Design
Here are my first three link building ideas designed to get traffic to your website. Most you can do yourself, some you need to spend a few dollars to get the right software and some you might decide to pay someone to do to save time.
Link building is fundamental to your websites success. You need a mix of volume and quality to get seen.
I am assuming that you have researched what words you want to be found for and you know what an anchor text link is (its where you offer a hyperlink from a keyword term and not just the words ‘click here’).
1. Submit your website to web directories. There are thousands of these, some good and most awful. Regardless you need to submit manually or get someone to do it for you. Choose an actual category and not just the generic ‘top level’. You will never get traffic from these but you will get lots of basic links. Volume Links
2. Article writing (like this one) can be a great source of links and will definitely drive traffic as well. Personally I write an article and put it on my website first followed by recreating it on a blogger blog (Google’s Platform) with links back to pages on my website embedded in it. I then go to pingomatic.com and use their free service to alert the blog aggregators and through them to the search engines, that I have new content.
3. There is a very good piece of software called ‘article post robot’ which allows you to send your article out to hundreds of other article sites automatically. The clever part is that you can set up multiple versions of the same article and this in turn helps you with the ‘duplicate content’ problem where your stuff is discounted because of too much duplication.
Please check out my link building ideas article – Four and Five, for the really clever stuff!
SEO TRAINING
SEO Training
SEO FRIENDLY WEB DESIGN
SEO Web Design
Thursday, 15 January 2009
SEO Stripped Bare
SEO is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration. There are definitely no quick fixes when it comes to getting found by Google although it may be possible to get promoted by Yahoo!
The first place to start with SEO when you have a website is with keyword research. It is possible to do this using the Google Keyword Tool which is free. You are aiming to discover what phrases people are searching for which are perhaps not the most competitive but still have lots of daily searches.
You find out how competitive a term is by Googling it and seeing how many competing pages come up for it. The more pages the more difficult it will be. Also by downloading the 'Firefox' browser and then the 'SEO extension' you will find lots of useful clues to what your possibilities are.
Now you have the terms you want to be found for, it is time to use them on your website. Before you do, it would be wise to consider whether your business is local, national or international. It is easier to compete for 'conservatories Birmingham' than 'conservatories' alone.
Now you need to weave these keywords into your site including your page titles and Meta descriptions. If you do not know what these terms mean then just ask your webmaster for help.
Write 200-300 words for your homepage trying to get the main keyword towards the front of the first paragraph. Bold out the main terms just once to emphasize their importance to the search engines.
Get your webmaster to label any images on the page. Describe them accurately but try to use your keyword terms as well.
Now is the time for phase two which is 'link building'. A link from another site to your own is a vote of confidence in the search engines eyes. These links can be got from directories, blogs and article writing like this one. Plenty of companies will do this for you if you do not have time.
Key to success is the use of anchor text and getting links from pages that have a high page rank already. Anchor text is where you use your actual keywords to link through rather than 'click here' which are useless for SEO purposes.
This article is a bare outline but all the terms can be Googled or you can visit my
SEO Servicessite for lots more detailed advice.
Oh yes! I forgot Yahoo and my tip for doing well. Simple, buy a $299 advert with them and you will probably do much better than by not having one.
The first place to start with SEO when you have a website is with keyword research. It is possible to do this using the Google Keyword Tool which is free. You are aiming to discover what phrases people are searching for which are perhaps not the most competitive but still have lots of daily searches.
You find out how competitive a term is by Googling it and seeing how many competing pages come up for it. The more pages the more difficult it will be. Also by downloading the 'Firefox' browser and then the 'SEO extension' you will find lots of useful clues to what your possibilities are.
Now you have the terms you want to be found for, it is time to use them on your website. Before you do, it would be wise to consider whether your business is local, national or international. It is easier to compete for 'conservatories Birmingham' than 'conservatories' alone.
Now you need to weave these keywords into your site including your page titles and Meta descriptions. If you do not know what these terms mean then just ask your webmaster for help.
Write 200-300 words for your homepage trying to get the main keyword towards the front of the first paragraph. Bold out the main terms just once to emphasize their importance to the search engines.
Get your webmaster to label any images on the page. Describe them accurately but try to use your keyword terms as well.
Now is the time for phase two which is 'link building'. A link from another site to your own is a vote of confidence in the search engines eyes. These links can be got from directories, blogs and article writing like this one. Plenty of companies will do this for you if you do not have time.
Key to success is the use of anchor text and getting links from pages that have a high page rank already. Anchor text is where you use your actual keywords to link through rather than 'click here' which are useless for SEO purposes.
This article is a bare outline but all the terms can be Googled or you can visit my
SEO Servicessite for lots more detailed advice.
Oh yes! I forgot Yahoo and my tip for doing well. Simple, buy a $299 advert with them and you will probably do much better than by not having one.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Tools to monitor your website
Tools to monitor your website
You can’t just put your website on the net with right keywords and all the right touches and expect your traffic and ranking will remain constant. As the web is an ever changing landscape, you have to keep track of your own web results like what is happening with the competition and also the best and highest ranked sites. There are many useful tools to help you find out what exactly is happening.
1. A tool which you can use to test your own website links or other websites for broken links:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
2. With this tool you can check search engines for the number of back links to your URL i.e. other web pages linking to your site:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/backlinks/
3. It sometimes becomes important to know where the servers of your hosting company are physically located. Because, some search engines like Google have the ability to filter search results based on their physical location called geotargeting. This could be used to determine why your site is showing in only a certain country. This link can also be used to research the country location of a particular competitor’s website:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/website-country/
4. In order to track the location of the visitor or a customer to your website:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/geovisitors/
5. In order to check the Yahoo! web ranking of your’s or your competitor’s website use :
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/
6. Here is a link to check the web ranking of a website using a Mac or Apple computer:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/pagerank-mac/
7. You need a Google AdSense account for using this. This link provides you with charts and reports which will help you analyze traffic, clicks, and results from your AdSense advertising
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-charts/
8. If you have an AdSense account, you can analyze your website address or another website address to see what Google ads will be displayed when the customer selects certain website names or keywords:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/
9. This link will take you to a cooperative advertising network where you can join to display and
share your ads with other website owners:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/
10. You can add the Search Functionality on your website which uses Google. This works only if your site is listed in the Google Index.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/search/
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
You can’t just put your website on the net with right keywords and all the right touches and expect your traffic and ranking will remain constant. As the web is an ever changing landscape, you have to keep track of your own web results like what is happening with the competition and also the best and highest ranked sites. There are many useful tools to help you find out what exactly is happening.
1. A tool which you can use to test your own website links or other websites for broken links:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
2. With this tool you can check search engines for the number of back links to your URL i.e. other web pages linking to your site:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/backlinks/
3. It sometimes becomes important to know where the servers of your hosting company are physically located. Because, some search engines like Google have the ability to filter search results based on their physical location called geotargeting. This could be used to determine why your site is showing in only a certain country. This link can also be used to research the country location of a particular competitor’s website:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/website-country/
4. In order to track the location of the visitor or a customer to your website:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/geovisitors/
5. In order to check the Yahoo! web ranking of your’s or your competitor’s website use :
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/
6. Here is a link to check the web ranking of a website using a Mac or Apple computer:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/pagerank-mac/
7. You need a Google AdSense account for using this. This link provides you with charts and reports which will help you analyze traffic, clicks, and results from your AdSense advertising
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-charts/
8. If you have an AdSense account, you can analyze your website address or another website address to see what Google ads will be displayed when the customer selects certain website names or keywords:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/
9. This link will take you to a cooperative advertising network where you can join to display and
share your ads with other website owners:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/
10. You can add the Search Functionality on your website which uses Google. This works only if your site is listed in the Google Index.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/search/
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic
Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic
It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.
• Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
• Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
• Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
• Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
• Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
• Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
• Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
• Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
• Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
• Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
• Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
• When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.
• When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
• Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
•
• SEO LEEDS
• SEO Leeds
•
• LEEDS SEO
• Leeds SEO
•
• SEO SERVICES
• SEO Services
It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.
• Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
• Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
• Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
• Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
• Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
• Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
• Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
• Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
• Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
• Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
• Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
• When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.
• When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
• Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
•
• SEO LEEDS
• SEO Leeds
•
• LEEDS SEO
• Leeds SEO
•
• SEO SERVICES
• SEO Services
The Importance of Search Engines
The Importance of Search Engines
It is the search engines that finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When a topic is typed for search, nearly instantly, the search engine will sift through the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match your topic. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Remember that a prospective customer will probably only look at the first 2-3 listings in the search results. So it does matter where your website appears in the search engine ranking.
Further, they all use one of the top 6-7 search engines and these search engines attract more visitors to websites than anything else. So finally it all depends on which search engines the customers use and how they rank your site.
It is the Keywords that play an important role than any expensive online or offline advertising of your website.
It is found by surveys that a when customers want to find a website for information or to buy a product or service, they find their site in one of the following ways:
• The first option is they find their site through a search engine.
• Secondly they find their site by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested.
• Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or reading in an article.
Thus it’s obvious the the most popular way to find a site, by search engine, represents more than 90% of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people looking for a website will use methods other than search engines.
All search engines employ a ranking algorithm and one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm is to check the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Don’t forget that algorithms also give weightage to link population (number of web pages linking to your site). When performed by a qualified, experienced search engine optimization consultant, your site for high search engine rankings really does work, unless you have a lot of money and can afford to pay the expert. With better knowledge of search engines and how they work, you can also do it on your own.
It is the search engines that finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When a topic is typed for search, nearly instantly, the search engine will sift through the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match your topic. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Remember that a prospective customer will probably only look at the first 2-3 listings in the search results. So it does matter where your website appears in the search engine ranking.
Further, they all use one of the top 6-7 search engines and these search engines attract more visitors to websites than anything else. So finally it all depends on which search engines the customers use and how they rank your site.
It is the Keywords that play an important role than any expensive online or offline advertising of your website.
It is found by surveys that a when customers want to find a website for information or to buy a product or service, they find their site in one of the following ways:
• The first option is they find their site through a search engine.
• Secondly they find their site by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested.
• Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or reading in an article.
Thus it’s obvious the the most popular way to find a site, by search engine, represents more than 90% of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people looking for a website will use methods other than search engines.
All search engines employ a ranking algorithm and one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm is to check the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Don’t forget that algorithms also give weightage to link population (number of web pages linking to your site). When performed by a qualified, experienced search engine optimization consultant, your site for high search engine rankings really does work, unless you have a lot of money and can afford to pay the expert. With better knowledge of search engines and how they work, you can also do it on your own.
referrer logs
The Importance of Referrer Logs
Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.
By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software, like these:
FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/
LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp
SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/
The log file is available on your web server which can be download into your computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.
Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/
Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/
Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net
You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you don’t have the right tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.
In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client used for searching.
As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don't send the right referrer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target site itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user's last visited site.
Since the referrer can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.
By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software, like these:
FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/
LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp
SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/
The log file is available on your web server which can be download into your computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.
Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/
Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/
Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net
You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you don’t have the right tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.
In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client used for searching.
As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don't send the right referrer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target site itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user's last visited site.
Since the referrer can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
getting repeat website business
1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.
2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.
3. You can allow customers to 'opt in' to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to 'opt in' to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.
4. Add a link to your primary page with a script 'Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites'.
5. Add a link 'Recommend this site to a Friend' so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, "Thought you might be interested in this", just by clicking on it.
6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a 'Contact Us' link on each page.
7. Create a 'Our Policies' page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.
8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site.
8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.
9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to 'opt out' of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.
3. You can allow customers to 'opt in' to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to 'opt in' to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.
4. Add a link to your primary page with a script 'Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites'.
5. Add a link 'Recommend this site to a Friend' so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, "Thought you might be interested in this", just by clicking on it.
6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a 'Contact Us' link on each page.
7. Create a 'Our Policies' page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.
8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site.
8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.
9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to 'opt out' of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES
SEO Services
Monday, 12 January 2009
Page Titles
First, let's start off with the 'why bother' question. You should bother because of the way that search engines work. Google and the rest of the gang do not send humans to assess your website, they send a software 'robot' to see what's going on. Unless you make it blatantly obvious what you do for a living, the search engines will pass you by and your business is unlikely to thrive.
It is highly recommended that you use keywords in page titles itself. This page title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. This is a big clue to the search engines and customers alike!
The text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how highly a search engine may decide to rank your web page.
If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website should be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will help draw fresh traffic to your site.
The combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most prospective customers do not bother with the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth bothering with.
So, while you want your businesses name in the title of the home page, it is probably a complete waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. You should consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.
Dedicating the first three positions for keywords in your title avoiding words like 'and', 'at' and the like is absolutely crucial in search engine optimization.
If you are a small firm starting up or the owner of a website not doing too well, then I have another tip for you. Call your website what it does for a living in the Url. Believe me a website called www.aberdeen-taxis will be a magnet for search engines compared to www.bertsmithtaxis
Remember to put a hyphen between the words. Although it looks clunky, it is the only way to separate the words for the search engines.
SEO TRAINING
SEO Training
SEO FRIENDLY WEB DESIGN
SEO Company
It is highly recommended that you use keywords in page titles itself. This page title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. This is a big clue to the search engines and customers alike!
The text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how highly a search engine may decide to rank your web page.
If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website should be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will help draw fresh traffic to your site.
The combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most prospective customers do not bother with the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth bothering with.
So, while you want your businesses name in the title of the home page, it is probably a complete waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. You should consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.
Dedicating the first three positions for keywords in your title avoiding words like 'and', 'at' and the like is absolutely crucial in search engine optimization.
If you are a small firm starting up or the owner of a website not doing too well, then I have another tip for you. Call your website what it does for a living in the Url. Believe me a website called www.aberdeen-taxis will be a magnet for search engines compared to www.bertsmithtaxis
Remember to put a hyphen between the words. Although it looks clunky, it is the only way to separate the words for the search engines.
SEO TRAINING
SEO Training
SEO FRIENDLY WEB DESIGN
SEO Company
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Chicken Soup SEO
Chicken Soup SEO
OK, I admit that I am lazy, but lazy has its virtues when it comes to SEO. My Mother taught me this without ever venturing near a computer her entire life. She taught me this through the fact we were poor and therefore nothing went to waste.
Sunday lunch of Roast Chicken and vegetables became a meal of left over’s on Monday and a nourishing Chicken Soup on Tuesday.
This article will start life as an article appearing on my website to boost my content and please the search engines. Following on from this, it will become a article on my blog.
When it’s on my website and my blog, I will then ‘ping’ the blog aggregators and RSS feed directories to let them know about my new content. The search engines come running and follow my anchor text links back to whatever page I am promoting. The service I use is www.pingomatic.com.
Not happy with this, I then use a tool called Article Post Robot to spin the articles with new titles etc. After this little bit of work is done I then send the newly spun article to the top thirty article directory sites for inclusion and even more links.
I then store the article for a few months and come back to it with a view of reworking it or picking up a theme within it. Maybe the word isn’t lazy. Maybe the word is smart. You decide.
It’s not Chicken Soup but my Mum would be proud!
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
OK, I admit that I am lazy, but lazy has its virtues when it comes to SEO. My Mother taught me this without ever venturing near a computer her entire life. She taught me this through the fact we were poor and therefore nothing went to waste.
Sunday lunch of Roast Chicken and vegetables became a meal of left over’s on Monday and a nourishing Chicken Soup on Tuesday.
This article will start life as an article appearing on my website to boost my content and please the search engines. Following on from this, it will become a article on my blog.
When it’s on my website and my blog, I will then ‘ping’ the blog aggregators and RSS feed directories to let them know about my new content. The search engines come running and follow my anchor text links back to whatever page I am promoting. The service I use is www.pingomatic.com.
Not happy with this, I then use a tool called Article Post Robot to spin the articles with new titles etc. After this little bit of work is done I then send the newly spun article to the top thirty article directory sites for inclusion and even more links.
I then store the article for a few months and come back to it with a view of reworking it or picking up a theme within it. Maybe the word isn’t lazy. Maybe the word is smart. You decide.
It’s not Chicken Soup but my Mum would be proud!
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Article Marketing: How to Get Read
Article Marketing: How to Get Read
Do you use article marketing sites such as this one to promote yourself, your subject or your business? Then the ability to write to attractive headlines is as an important a subject as you need to tackle. If someone reading through a list of possible topics is intrigued by your headline, then they may click on it in to find out what you are writing about.
What I am talking about here is the ability to write a headline and description which is attractive to both search engines and humans alike. Because the search engines will probably send the largest proportion of visitors to your website, let’s start there.
The search engines are blind to what you do in as much as they do not send a human being to read your work. They actually send a software robot and it plus a lot of mathematical formulae will decide where your article shows up.
So here is what you do and I am assuming that you already know about keyword research and the role it can play in web promotion. Always put your targeted keyword phrase to the start of the article and never at the back. If you look at this piece of work then my headline could have been – How to Get Read on Article Marketing sites. Because my keyword phrase was Article Marketing I flipped the words around to put those first.
The next thing to note is that you need to understand what people will and will not click on given a choice. The essence of the internet is brevity: people want information and they want it quick. Therefore a headline that promises brevity can be appealing.
Take for example the idea of sharing your thoughts on how to achieve a clear complexion. You may have many ways to describe this but honestly which one of these alternatives would please the search engines and the human viewer?
The Fundamentals for a Clear Complexion
Or
Clear Complexions, The Five Top Tips
No contest here; the second headline would succeed far more than the first with both humans and robots alike.
People are used to and absolutely love reading lists. You may consider offering them a link occasionally from a item on the list through to further information which expands on the point and perhaps gives you a better chance to sell your product or service!
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO Services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Company website features news, advice, free tools and SEO services aimed at helping businesses succeed online.
Do you use article marketing sites such as this one to promote yourself, your subject or your business? Then the ability to write to attractive headlines is as an important a subject as you need to tackle. If someone reading through a list of possible topics is intrigued by your headline, then they may click on it in to find out what you are writing about.
What I am talking about here is the ability to write a headline and description which is attractive to both search engines and humans alike. Because the search engines will probably send the largest proportion of visitors to your website, let’s start there.
The search engines are blind to what you do in as much as they do not send a human being to read your work. They actually send a software robot and it plus a lot of mathematical formulae will decide where your article shows up.
So here is what you do and I am assuming that you already know about keyword research and the role it can play in web promotion. Always put your targeted keyword phrase to the start of the article and never at the back. If you look at this piece of work then my headline could have been – How to Get Read on Article Marketing sites. Because my keyword phrase was Article Marketing I flipped the words around to put those first.
The next thing to note is that you need to understand what people will and will not click on given a choice. The essence of the internet is brevity: people want information and they want it quick. Therefore a headline that promises brevity can be appealing.
Take for example the idea of sharing your thoughts on how to achieve a clear complexion. You may have many ways to describe this but honestly which one of these alternatives would please the search engines and the human viewer?
The Fundamentals for a Clear Complexion
Or
Clear Complexions, The Five Top Tips
No contest here; the second headline would succeed far more than the first with both humans and robots alike.
People are used to and absolutely love reading lists. You may consider offering them a link occasionally from a item on the list through to further information which expands on the point and perhaps gives you a better chance to sell your product or service!
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO Services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Company website features news, advice, free tools and SEO services aimed at helping businesses succeed online.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Three Tips for Avoiding the Bounce!
Three Tips for Avoiding the Bounce!
First of all, what is the bounce? It is the percentage number of visitors who leave your website after just visiting the landing page they descended on. Obviously, the lower the bounce rate the better for the success of your business. To find out your bounce rate for free, just implement Google analytics on your site and this plus other useful information i.e. where your traffic is coming from will be at your fingertips.
So what can you do to stop those precious visitors drifting away as fast as they arrived? Here are a few tips to set you on the right path.
Use your search term in your headline
If you are using pay per click advertising or you are bringing visitors via anchor text links in articles etc, they expect to see what they clicked on. Don’t let them down; say it loud and say it proud ‘this is what this page is about’.
Write for humans not marketing executives
Most of us are hit with hundreds if not thousands of advertising messages every day. Please refrain from sounding like a advert on your website. ‘Roll up, Roll up and get your zits removed in a day’ is nowhere near as nice as ‘here are three ways I found to a better complexion’.
FFB
In sales and marketing parlance this stands for Features, Functions and Benefits. Or if you like ‘what it is, what it does and what problem it solves for the user’. No prizes for guessing which one to write about; it begins with a letter B.
You do not need a thousand words to get people to hang around and buy or explore. What you need is to think about what you are advertising and whether your landing page is in sync with the message. If it is then well done and if it is not then change it is my advice.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES LEEDS
SEO Services Leeds
First of all, what is the bounce? It is the percentage number of visitors who leave your website after just visiting the landing page they descended on. Obviously, the lower the bounce rate the better for the success of your business. To find out your bounce rate for free, just implement Google analytics on your site and this plus other useful information i.e. where your traffic is coming from will be at your fingertips.
So what can you do to stop those precious visitors drifting away as fast as they arrived? Here are a few tips to set you on the right path.
Use your search term in your headline
If you are using pay per click advertising or you are bringing visitors via anchor text links in articles etc, they expect to see what they clicked on. Don’t let them down; say it loud and say it proud ‘this is what this page is about’.
Write for humans not marketing executives
Most of us are hit with hundreds if not thousands of advertising messages every day. Please refrain from sounding like a advert on your website. ‘Roll up, Roll up and get your zits removed in a day’ is nowhere near as nice as ‘here are three ways I found to a better complexion’.
FFB
In sales and marketing parlance this stands for Features, Functions and Benefits. Or if you like ‘what it is, what it does and what problem it solves for the user’. No prizes for guessing which one to write about; it begins with a letter B.
You do not need a thousand words to get people to hang around and buy or explore. What you need is to think about what you are advertising and whether your landing page is in sync with the message. If it is then well done and if it is not then change it is my advice.
SEO LEEDS
SEO Leeds
LEEDS SEO
Leeds SEO
SEO SERVICES LEEDS
SEO Services Leeds
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