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| Tuesday, July 7, 2009

SEO Myth: Your top ten search engine ranking can be guaranteed
The Truth: Some SEO firms will advertise a "guarantee" to have you listed in the top ten rankings. No one other than the search engines themselves can guarantee any ranking. Don't believe it. Trust their results for other clients and make your decision from actual client successes, not empty promises and guarantees.

SEO Myth: In-House SEO Is Cheaper
The Truth: SEO professionals can get higher rankings faster because Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is complex, technical and has a steep learning curve. We also place a team at your disposal, including a copywriters, developers and SEO specialists and unless you have a room full of marketing staff dedicated to SEO it is hard to keep up. How much is 10, 15, 20 hours a month worth to you in a dollar amount? SEO professionals make you money by saving you that time and effort, at a cost you can afford.

SEO Myth: Search Engine Leads Are Worth Less Than Other Leads
The Truth: Search Engine leads are the probably the most qualified leads, because they come from people searching for the exact products and services which the search engines have you indexed. They are looking for you, not the other way around. Keep in mind you must be targeting the right keywords, but that is the job of your SEO firm, to help you choose the right keywords.

SEO Myth: Websites are optimized while they are being developed.
The Truth: A small percentage of designers and developers actually optimize pages for the search engines while they are building. Most search engine optimization is done after the fact, if at all. As many as 60% of all sites are not properly optimized to rank high in the search engines, so anything you do to optimize your site puts it ahead of your competitors who don't.

SEO Myth: Simply inserting keywords in the keyword meta tag will help list your site for that keyword
The Truth: Most major search engines do not spider or index the keyword meta tag and those that do, if the keyword is not also in the copy of the same page, it's considered spam which could lower your rankings, not raise it. At best the keyword tag is used by directories when submitting your site.

SEO Myth: The more times you repeat the keyword in the page, the higher it will rank.
The Truth: This is a little tricky since each algorithm uses different factors for ranking. A keyword density of 3 to 15% is recommended for tweaking the page for higher placement (depending on the individual search engine). Combined with other optimization efforts and tweaks, the proper keyword density will get listed higher. A keyword density that is too high will get listed lower or penalized.

SEO Myth: Hidden links or text in a page can get your page ranked higher.
The Truth: Keyword stuffing and hidden links in the page can get your site penalized or banned if detected. It is considered spamming by some engines. Most people think it's not worth the risk.

SEO Myth: The more reciprocal links to other sites you have, the higher your Google page rank goes.

The Truth: Outbound links to related and unrelated sites are factored into page rank. Unreciprocated links count higher than reciprocated links. The more quality inbound links to your site, the higher the PR, but nobody knows exactly how Google factors their PR and their algorithm is constantly adjusted. A million links to and from unrelated sites could drop your PR and if your site is found linking to obvious FFA or link farms, your site could be penalized as being 'guilty by association'.

SEO Myth: You don't need to update your site to keep your rankings.
The Truth: By routine maintenance (removing outdated material, fixing broken links, queries, etc.) and updating your pages regularly, you are signaling the bots and crawlers to come back and re-crawl your site for changes to their listings. To maintain high standings, you need to keep at it and tweak the pages for better results if necessary. If neglected, your standings could easily slip out of the top rankings as new competing sites get indexed and optimized.

SEO Myth: You can achieve higher rankings on a keyword without changing the code or content of the pages in your site.
The Truth: Not likely for long. Any elevated results will be temporary. If you want to steadily improve your ranking, you must make changes to your site that help the search engines spider it. You might temporarily raise your ranking by running regular queries and reports on search engines for your keywords but steady results are dependent on your willingness to optimize and tweak the code and content of your pages. A simple thing like fixing broken links can contribute to elevating your listings. It's one of the most overlooked search engine tweaks. Search engines will not continue to spider a site when it runs into a number of broken links.

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| Sunday, April 5, 2009

Hopefully you will have read the fascinating story of search-advantage and how they have used Ecademy to boost their search engine ranking by linking.

This story alone proves the success sites are having with boosting their Search Engine positioning using links. However, once you have built your Ecademy link, what next? What else can you do to build quality inbound links?

The keywords here are quality and inbound. Preferably one way links, so they link to you and you don't have to link back. This kind of link is seen more as an endorsement rather than a two way link which is seen more as a commercial transaction.

So how do you get one way quality inbound links?

To be really honest, it is a fairly simple process yet will take time and you will want it to take time. Having no links one day and have 2,000 links the next does not look natural to any search engine and could flag your site as a bit spammy. Use the four techniques below to drive links to your site slowly. Make sure you do all four techniques, as in this way, you will be building a huge array of links for different sources. Some of these sources will take on a life of their own and you will start to get links automatically.

Technique 1

One of the best ways to get quick inbound links and traffic is to write and submit articles to Article Directory sites. There are lots of sites which are set up just to collect content. They allow visitors to copy the content and use it on their own websites.

You will add a resource box at the bottom of each article and it is here that you will be able to add links directly to your site. Normally you can have two links so use one for the home page and one for a product page. Keep them relevant to your business.

There are literally hundreds of article databases on the web where you can submit articles too. There are even tools to do this automatically for you.

Technique 2

Press Releases are a great way of getting inbound one way links for Newswires and it may also get picked up by Google News. You will not only get inbound links but real traffic directly from the stories you publish.

The best place to start submitting Press Releases is to PRWeb.

Technique 3

Submitting your site to Web Directories. These are a great way of building inbound links. Some charge a fee and some are free. For fee paying links, pay to be listed in the Yahoo! Directory. You can easily find hundreds of directories relevant to your site by searching Google. All the links for Web Directories will link to your home page but still mix up the link text. This works better than anything else and shows you are building links naturally.

Technique 4

Finally, you can buy inbound text links. Now while this sounds like the easier option, do not solely rely on this source of links - you still need to implement the other techniques to really make it work. They vary in price and are usually charged on a monthly basis. Make sure any links you do buy are only from topic related sites. Having links in from sites outside your industry will not do you any favours. You can find other Link sellers on Google if you search for Link Brokers.

In summary, these techniques are easy to implement into your marketing strategy and there are many ways to outsource all of this work.

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| Wednesday, February 18, 2009

There are of course many factors that go into your online success; everything from lead generation to having the proper advertising system in place. However there is one element which you will find indispensable to your online success and that is web site search engine optimization commonly referred to as SEO.

SEO refers to the process of constructing your website in such a way that it is looked at favorably by search engines like MSN, The Google and Yahoo. This in turn leads to higher rankings, more internet traffic and free advertising for your website. What makes seo optimization so important is the fact that over 80% of your site traffic will arrive via the search engines. For this reason alone, having a good web site seo strategy in place is essential.

There are a variety of factors you need to consider when putting together your strategy but these three standout in particular:

1. Keyword Prominence

Where do your keyword search terms show up first? Usually the closer your keywords appear to the top of the page, the more prominence search engines give them. This is because they crawl the html code of your site before the content. Putting keyword search terms into places such as your title can give you a distinct advantage over other webmasters who only use keywords in their content. The trick is not to overdo it by stuffing too many keywords (or worst keyword search terms that have no relation to your web content) into the head tags of your html code.

2. Inbound Link

Back in the day, it was vital to get reciprocal links to your website. Search engines placed a lot of importance on who you were linking to and vice versa. Not anymore. Instead of link exchange, search engines are placing more value on inbound links commonly referred to as backlinks. In essence, search engines view this as a kind of referral system. One site is recommending another without having to reciprocate.

To make backlinks really work, you must get them from sites which already rank well in the search engines. All of this does not mean reciprocal links are of no value. A quality link exchange is still looked upon favorably by the search engines and you should definitely use this technique for your website. But concentrate on getting those inbound links first and foremost.

3. Web Site Content

While search engines do value your keyword prominence and amount of backlinks to your site it still comes down to what's on your webpage. The internet is at the dawning of a video revolution but that only means more information will be required. Content is king and will be for a long time.

Write as many unique and quality articles as possible and place them on your website. If you want to, you can outsource this process or just visit the article directories and find content related to your niche and use it on your website. Be sure to read the term and conditions in regards to using other people's articles. Grow your web content slowly, so it looks more natural to the search engines. Update the information frequently.

The importance of web site search engine optimization cannot be overstated. A site that is ranked favorably can bring in tons of free internet traffic. Evaluate your keyword prominence; focus on getting good inbound links while concentrating on providing useful web site content and the search engines will start bringing more and more internet traffic to your website.

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| Monday, February 2, 2009

When you have an Internet business, you need to prepare a quality website. This is actually quite easy to do, and this article will explore 5 methods that the experts use to build a search engine friendly website.

"Search engine optimization" is a term that you want to become very familiar with. Your website will be continually optimized by the search engines, based on what you do with your site. When you create your website, you will want to pay attention to things like keyword phrases, design and layout.

Here are several ideas to optimize your website so that your business and the search engines will both benefit.

1. First, the amount of time that your domain name has been registered makes a difference. When your domain name passes over the 2 year mark in age, the engines will like this.

Search engines like to see domains that have been around for a while and have withstood the test of time.

2. Niche marketing is a favorite term these days and it is an important consideration when designing your search engine friendly website. You will want to focus on a niche market with targeted visitors.

3. You need to pick keyword phrases that coincide with your site's theme. In doing so, you will rank higher for those keywords and your site will be more search engine friendly.

Find out what keyword phrases your potential visitors are searching for and build a keyword list based on this. You will need to build a large keyword list that you can add onto. You will need these keywords as you continue to add pages to your site.

4. Keep your target market in the back of your mind when you are creating your website. Your site will follow a general theme and this theme should be consistent from page to page.

If a person moves between pages on your website, they should feel like they are on the same site. You want to make sure that things like font style, font size and background color are the same throughout your entire website.

5. Professional Internet marketers will create an SEO friendly website that has good and unique content. This is what the engines love. A website that contains original quality content will consistently rank high with the search engines.

Remember also that you can always create unique content by adding your own affiliate links, PPC text links and banners.

This is 5 ways that the pros will use to build an SEO friendly website. Follow these 5 methods and your website will generate lots of income for you.

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| Thursday, January 1, 2009

SEO Tip #1: Make Google Alerts Your Personal Online Spy

Google Alerts is a great way to let the world's biggest search engine be your personal online spy. This takes search engine optimization insider info to whole new level. Here's an excerpt straight from Google....

"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"

As you probably guessed, it's the second one we care about most, "keeping current on a competitor or industry."

Here's how it works... Each time Google finds a reference to the query or topic you request you will be sent an email with the details. This is like having an online spy to make sure competitors are not using your protected keywords (trademarked names, company names, etc.) It's also an instant identifier to know when your site or product is mentioned in a news story or even when a topic is hot so you can take advantage of the situation. It's the easiest way in the world to stop competitors' dirty tricks and identify trends that you can take instant advantage of.

It's fast, free and works every minute of every day. Let Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) do your most time consuming legwork while you reap the rewards!

SEO Tip #2: Optimize Your 404 Page and Always Be Found

"Error 404: Page Not Found" is a blessing that most Webmasters curse. Why? Getting a visitor on any page of your site is fantastic! Don't blow the opportunity. Not only can you make your "404" page a valuable sales tool, you can use the following search engine optimization techniques to attract customers in droves.

A.) Use your main keyword in your title, add a "pipe" (usually above the Enter key) and then use your secondary keyword. Here's as example for an SEO site "SEO - Search Engine Optimization Tips"

B.) Add some keyword rich content using one to two keywords for the page. If you have less than 250 words on the page, just use one keyword and use it no more than three times total. Bold the first use and italicize the second or third use. Keep in mind this is an "inactive" page so simply tell the visitor what your site is about and whet their appetite with a good description. Something like this works well... "Thank you for visiting SEO (bold) Group, Inc.

We are sorry you landed on a missing page but don't worry, if you're looking for the very best search engine optimizations tips (bold), you're at the right place..." This will go on for a couple paragraphs or as long as you'd like then end it with something to the effect of "Please Click Here (link) to visit our site map or click any link to the left."

C.) Add your site's standard navigation system (bar, column, etc.) as mentioned above.

D.) Make the look and feel of the customized 404 page match your main site as closely as possible with a template, matched palette, cascading style sheets, etc.

E.) Create a link to the site map page if available, and make the link easy to find. You want your visitor off the 404 page and into your main content as quickly as possible.

Setting up a custom 404 page link usually takes less than five minutes on most major Web hosting companies like Godaddy.com. But whatever it takes, it's worth the effort.

SEO Tip #3: Get (Even More) Serious About Linking

I saved the most important for last. If you want to do well on any search engine, especially Google, linking is THE single MOST important thing you can do. It's that simple.

Here are the five things you MUST do to make your site #1 on Google:

A.) Find the highest page rank sites linking to your site AND your competitors' sites.

B.) Run monthly link campaigns and snatch up the best of the above identified Web sites.

C.) Run regular checks on what pages are still linking back to your site. Alsomake sure they did not move you from a high page rank page to a lower one (don't get cheated!)

D.) Eliminate any penalized sites you link to; ASAP!

E.) Check your search engine ranking AND your competitor's for each of your keywords every week. Do this, at the minimum, for Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista.

Inside Tip: Keeping up can be a lot of work so a lot of SEO Consultants use SEO Elite to do all the most difficult and time consuming work.

One last thing to know is that Google was originally a college student's project created for the sole purpose of defining a Web site's value by the sites that link to it. Twelve years later this is still it's main job. Linking is EVERYTHING to Google.

These few SEO tips are the very best of the best so use them wisely. Best of luck!

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| Thursday, November 27, 2008

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that search engine optimization is a hit and miss proposition. It is a fine marketing art that anyone can learn and search engine optimization techniques. They are used to exponentially increase sales and membership conversions. To make a big profit on the Internet it is crucial that you try and maintain your site within the top ten page rankings in search engines and directories. Eighty percent of all web traffic comes from Internet searches done on these engines and directories.

To get your site within those top ten rankings you need to follow a progressive SEO strategy. The general approach is to include your search engine optimized language in the form of key words in your web page’s titles, descriptions and Meta tags. A meta-tag is a piece of HTML cod that is created specifically to help bring your web page to a search engine spider’s attention. The spiders and bots will notice these tags but they are not visible to people who view your site.

However to make life complicated there is some debate about whether or not you actually need to use meta-tags on your web pages. This is because there is a belief out there that the major search engines are changing the way they search pages as inserting meta-tags in your copy is considered to be an unfair advantage over sites that might be just as legitimate as yours. Still to be on the safe side the insertion of meta-tags into your copy should still probably be an essential component of your search engine positioning strategy.

Yet another strategy is to also put in as many links as you can to other websites as the search engine spiders love sites that contain lists of links to other sites and rank them higher in the search engine ranking pages. The higher your ranking is, the more money you will make as a web business as you will maximize the number of visitors to your web site.

| Monday, October 27, 2008

If you’ve been doing any kind of reading about link building, then you’ve probably seen people mentioning “nofollow” and “dofollow” links. These are very important terms to understand when you are trying to build great links back to your site in order to increase your search engine rankings. But, to the person who is new to all of this, it may be kind of confusing. I am going to help break it down for you.

When creating a link on a webpage using HTML, the standard code,

It includes the HTML tag, the URL the link will be going to, the text that will be shown on the webpage for that link, and the closing HTML tag.

You are able to add more HTML to the code above, in order to tell the search engine spiders whether or not you want them to follow the link when crawling your website. You may be thinking… “Why wouldn’t I want the search engine spiders to see all of the links on my site?” This is a very valid concern, which I will address further down. First, I am going to show you how to modify the HTML in order to tell the search engine spiders to crawl a link or not.

To tell the spiders to crawl a link, you don’t have to do anything. Simply using the format shown above, the search engine spiders will crawl the link provided.

To tell the spiders to NOT crawl a link, you need to add the following code to the HTML code above:

rel="nofollow"

It would then look like:

Basically, there is no true “dofollow”, it is just NOT using the “nofollow” tag.

Why does this matter?
When you are using different methods (hopefully from this site) in order to build links on other websites (to increase your search engine rankings), you need to determine if the websites you are attempting to get your site listed on use the “nofollow” tag or not. If they do, it may still be a good idea to try to get that link there, but it is generally regarded as not the best use of time since the search engines don’t follow that link and you don’t get any increase in search engine rankings from that link.

So, when you are looking for sites and blogs that you could leave your link on (through reciprocal links, commenting on a blog, directory submissions, buying links, etc) figure out if the links in the particular section of the site you are aiming for uses “nofollow” or not.

Why wouldn’t I want the search engine spiders to see all of the links on my site? (Or, Why would I use “nofollow”?)

There are many reasons you would want to use the “nofollow” tag, such as:
1) Paid Links: This is recommended by Google. Essentially, your sites page rank give a small amount of rank juice to the sites you link to (which helps their search engine ranking, which is the purpose of link building, to get that juice from others). If you have a paid link on your site, it’s essentially buying a higher rank in Google. They don’t like that.

2) Maybe in your blog’s comment section (if using most blog software, this is automatic). It is up to you if you want your commentators to get link juice back to their site. It is personal preference.

3) When linking to major, very popular sites. If you are linking to google.com, yahoo.com, digg.com (the front page), cnn.com, or whoever else, they are already popular, so you might as well use “nofollow” since your link won’t make or break them.

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to comment...

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