It’s great to have so many wonderful tools to build sturdy marketing campaigns and evaluate the results, but they should never detract our attention on our end-user, the customer. Here is a bit of advice that was common knowledge before the internet, but is often forgotten now: Know your target market.
It sounds like obvious advice, but many online marketers fail to grasp this principle. They’re too often consumed with mass amounts of data produced from keyword generators and analytics. Business owners often fail in getting down to the level of their customers. I’m talking about asking questions of your target market. (Selecting your target market is a huge task in itself. I’ll cover that in a later post).
A great place to learn about your target market is in your own immediate and extended family. Is any member of your family in your target market? Below is an interesting and fun test that you can do to improve your SEO and capture the interest in your target market. In effect it is a way to create a simple focus group from your family. Jennifer Laycock from Search Engine Guide introduced the Mom Test to improve conversion and usability for website users. For help in explanation, I’ll pretend we’re running a website, selling shoes to women in the baby boomer generation. One obvious market audience member in my family would be mom. For this specific example, I’m naming my test after mom as well.
My “MOM” Search Test
First, I would sit Mom down at the computer and invite her to look for some shoes that she’d like to buy. Here is the key to the test: be quiet and watch closely to see what she does:
• What search engine does she use?
• What keywords does she use to search?
• How does she navigate the SERP (Search engine result page)? Does she simply choose the #1 result?
• How quickly does she bounce back to the SERP?
• What other searches does she perform?
• Does she click on any of the paid-search ads?
• I’d then ask her to check out her favorite social site for a few minutes (yes, mom does have a Facebook account). Does she click on any of the ads there? What groups is she apart of?
Of course, because this is only one person, you can’t generalize your entire marketing strategy from this test alone. However, the point of this test is to help you find some interesting information that you never realized about your target market. It may spark some ideas that you would want to further research. It can even confirm that you are on the right path.
For this example test, I’d personally, find a few more moms and repeat the test if possible. I’d then go to my keyword tools and analytics reports to make better SEO predictions.
So next time you start keyword research, first try a test like this. You will receive insights that will make your keyword research and other SEO efforts much more valuable and knowledge-based.
A lot of web pages will find an SEO sitemap useful in improving their performance. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, the process that aims to create or revise Internet sites so that it can be better found by search engines. The objective of SEO campaigns is to have websites appear in the top listing or first results page of search engines.
Internet search engines, such as Google, maintain a very large database of Web pages and available files. To do this, they devise a program called a web crawler, or spider. This software automatically and continuously surfs and hunts content in the Web. Pages that the spider finds are retrieved and indexed according to text content, giving more weight to titles and paragraph headers. Spiders never stop navigating the web from page to page, to index the relevant content of the Internet. Besides looking at the text of titles and headers, some programs are able to identify default tags and keep a library of these page keywords or key phrases in the index.
When a user connects to the Internet types a query, which is automatically interpreted as keywords, the search engine scans the saved index and creates a list of web pages that is most appropriate to what the user is searching for.
SEO will use all the combined techniques of keyword analysis, smart code, good content literature, link popularity study and website organization to place the subject web page as high as possible in the list of search results in search engines. Web pages displayed on the top of results pages are assumed to get the most attention, and therefore, opportunity for earnings for web businesses and pages with sponsor links.
Search engines usually return a list of results ranking pages according to the number of Internet sites linked to them. Results can be classified as organic, or sponsored links. Sponsored links are shown prominently because their creators or agents paid the search engine. Sponsored links are the main source of income of search engines. “Organic” search results are the lists of actual results from the engines index and are directly related to the keyword typed in the request.
One of the more effective techniques of SEO is the creation of a well-organized site map in a website. Since the site’s main page and other content are directly linked to a site map, spiders can more easily move through the website, identify the key words of the content, and index these for a search engine. This is where the SEO sitemap helps the website creator or administrator.
Site maps are usually pages filled with links. These are shown as tables or lists, although lists are generally more effective. Writing code for SEO sitemaps is very easy and simple to format and maintain. These are ideally basic HTML pages with default tags, logical titles and keywords scattered in the Meta description. Introduction areas can contain more of the keywords. The site should have a main heading for every directory.
A simple list layout helps reduce unnecessary tags that might “hide” your keywords. Some spiders give more weight to the following, than text in the normal body of the webpage: heading text, content within link elements, text nearer the top of the page and the text written for a link. Therefore, writing the keywords and links in these areas could somehow move up the web page’s ranking. This goes for SEO sitemaps as well.
Web sites should be designed consistently, so navigation models should follow the flow of the site map. Therefore, the first section in the site map should be the first link in the navigation bar.
In an SEO Sitemap, and most pages, the headings contain title attributes where more key phrases in the site map can be added. Keywords are generally well chosen and written in the body of a webpage. However, in an SEO site map with little text, key words should be added as much as possible. As much as possible, web links should follow web page titles, and must undergo SEO during coding. Care must be exercised not to cram the page with keywords and links, or the page will be interpreted as blatant spamming and not receive any traffic at all.
There is no way to guarantee that a website will be shown in the topmost ranking of “organic” search results for an extended period of time. However, smart and responsible SEO sitemap techniques can be used to place the website high up in the search position. Regular monitoring and adjustment of the SEO Sitemap and search results would ensure that a website is kept near the top ranking and receiving lots of web user traffic.
In the present day world most businesses want to spread their business through out the world wide web and therefore it becomes essential to follow some SEO strategies. Most business concerns wanting to spread their business world wide are quite concerned about Search Engine Optimization. Most Internet traffic is gained through search engines therefore Search Engine Optimization is a must for all of the business concern. One who fails to do that and is unaware aware of the working methods of the search engines is going to loose business. Period. Let us think of a simple thing if we need to gather some knowledge of some product or some special subject, where shall we search for? It is obvious the search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN, or other such search engines. Whenever we supply our search criteria to these search engines we are provided a list of various websites, which provide the answer to our search query.
Therefore if we want to purchase some product online we also do the same thing by simply typing the need on the search engine. Therefore the business concerns it become essential to gain a good ranking or if possible the top ranking on the search engines so that as soon as the question is typed for searching their page appears on the very first row of the search engine results. And this is what Search Engine Optimization opt for, to gather the largest number of traffic to the targeted webpage or website.
Now the question is how is it possible to get the top ranking through the Search Engine Optimization? This is quite a tough question to be answered. The fact is that this is the very secret of search engine optimization. Moreover in a nutshell it can only be said that this is to examine and understand the working procedure of the search engines and to act accordingly. In fact there are a lot of SEO companies who are engaged in this very respect. And that is what they are paid for. They engage several SEO experts, SEO consultants, and SEO software to examine and judge the working procedure of the search engines so that they can provide their client the desired rank on the search engine pages. But along with that it is also to be said that practically no SEO Company can guarantee the top rank for any company.
Now let us see in brief a small glance of the working process of the search engines: It is that they keep a regular eye on your site and index new topics on your site. They also measure the quality and popularity of your site by the number and types of links on the site by other websites. There are also some other perimeters depending on the site topics, quality and popularity before allotting a rank for the particular site. Therefore it can easily be seen that you need to be up-to-date all the time along with providing all the criteria for the search engine to gain the top rank. And only then you shall be able to have the maximum number of Internet traffic on your site to get the maximum profit out of your business.
Link Popularity is one of key area to increase your site page ranking and search ranking. Incoming links are just like votes in election for your website however there is point as we have to emphases on quality links rather quantity. Valuable links are like 100 of poor links equals to 1 quality link. In this article, I would like to explain how differentiate quality links and how to get them which will effect and improve and strengthen your website ranking.
Mistakes in Link Building
It is never too late to focus on the right direction to get qualified incoming links. Here is few mistakes those may follow by SEOs, Link Builder or website owner and webmasters.
1- Focus on Quantity than Quality: It is the quality of incoming links that will bring your website at 1st page so always you should look for qualified incoming links rather quantity. 2- Link Exchange or Reciprocal Links: Link exchange or reciprocal links should be avoided. 3- Ignorance of Check and Balance for Links: If you don’t check and balance your listings periodically, you may lose your hard gain incoming links 4- Purchase Bulk Links: Search engines become very intelligent these days, you can’t make them fool by purchasing bulk links, because search engine check your incoming links frequency as well with time 5- Paid Links: Paid links can be very healthy but if they are used as a part of the strategy, if you have no idea of how many paid links you are going to have, that can upset your link building campaign.
Do You Have Categorized and Simplified Database?
In link building campaign, your database is your key to success; it is the backbone of your overall link building strategy. If you have a poor database, which is not categorized and simplified, you can’t be comfortable from your link building strategy.
Try to have categorized and simplified database, make a master database with following mentioned fields.
Important Fields for Master Database for any Link Building Campaign
1. URL
2. Direct Link (Direct Link of Submission or Registration)
3. Industry Type (Show Biz, Construction, Telecommunication…)
4. Link Type (One Way, Reciprocal, Paid)
5. Link Style (Anchor link, Title Hyper Link, URL Link, Vote Link)
6. Link Period (1 Year or Life time)
7. PageRank (1, 2, 3…10)
8. Title Limit (Characters Limit)
9. Description Limit (Characters Limit)
10. Keywords Limit (Characters Limit)
Insertion & Update Your Master Database!
Your master database (structure) is ready, now You need to make it valuable by inserting data to it, it requires an on-going updates. Don’t let anything go away as it can be used for your current asa for new projects
Search Engine Marketing is the hottest new career to sweep the employment sector. There are literally more jobs available than there are marketers to fill them, hence the high salaries. Traditionally, SEO/SEM has had a long, steep learning curve, so there is currently a large supply/demand gap.
The growth of the industry has underscored the need for faster, more flexible training options. The demand for trained SEO/SEM staff has accelerated the launch of online training programs in the past three years. The spread of misinformation and the growth of dodgy SEO practices have also highlighted a need for best-practice industry certification.
Advantages of a Career in SEM
Here are the major advantages of having a career in search engine marketing:
1. The search industry is hot, hot, HOT!
2. SEO considered one of four jobs on the cutting edge
3. The pay is (usually) fantastic
4. You can learn it all online
5. You can be your own boss
6. Search marketing has the WOW factor
7. The demand is strong and growing
8. The industry is hip and groovy
9. The skills are portable and global
10. Job satisfaction is high
SEM Training Options
If you decide to start that career in search engine marketing, you have numerous training options open to you:
- Do It Yourself (DIY)
- E-books and online manuals
- Books and offline manuals
- Conferences and seminars
- In-person training
- Online courses
Let’s go through these training options one by one.
Do It Yourself (DIY)
You could try to learn search engine marketing on your own, by conducting your own research, reading widely in webmaster forums and honing your skills on your own sites via trial and error.
The advantages of learning SEM on your own are:
- You can set your own timeframe
- It’s generally inexpensive
- You have the satisfaction of acquiring skills on your own
The disadvantages of learning SEM on your own are:
- There is a very long lead time
- You will be faced with conflicting and unreliable information sources
- There is only a limited ability to network with peers
- Research is time-consuming
- You won’t know what works and what doesn’t until you trial it
- You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired
E-books and Online Manuals
There are plenty of e-books and manuals about search engine marketing available online.
The advantages of learning SEM via e-books and manuals are:
- They are generally inexpensive
- They are readily available
The disadvantages of learning SEM via e-books and manuals are:
- They are generally considered lower quality than training
- There is no interaction with your peers
- You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired
As with online versions, there are just as many physical books, CDs and offline training manuals available to persons wanting to learn search engine marketing.
The advantages of learning SEM via books and offline manuals are:
- They are usually inexpensive
- They are readily available
The advantages of learning SEM via books and offline manuals are:
- The information dates quickly
- There is no interaction with your peers
- You’ll have no proof of skills acquired
Examples of SEM books and offline manuals include:
As search engine marketing has grown as an industry, so too have the number of conferences and events dedicated to it.
The advantages of learning SEM via conferences and seminars are:
- They offer cutting edge information
- They often provide access to search engine staff
- They give you the ability to network with peers
The disadvantages of learning SEM via conferences and seminars are:
- You must travel to the venue
- They generally provide no training material
- They can be more expensive than other options
- You’ll have no record or proof of skills acquired
Just as the number of conferences relating to search engine marketing has grown, so too has the demand for in-house training in SEO and SEM subjects.
The advantages of learning SEM via in-person training are:
- It generally includes step-by-step instructions
- Training material is usually provided
- Verification of subjects studied is provided
- You have the ability to network with your peers
- Some form of certification is generally given
- University credits are sometimes available
- Certification may be recognized by potential employers
The disadvantages of learning SEM via in-person training are:
- You must travel to the venue
- The information can date quickly
- It can be more expensive than other options
It’s not always viable or affordable for webmasters to attend conferences or training sessions at a venue other than their home or workplace. For these reasons, the demand for online training in search engine marketing subjects has skyrocketed.
The advantages of learning SEM via online training courses are:
- Courses are available 24/7 from any location worldwide
- Training materials are provided
- They are usually cheaper than venue-based options
- They generally include step-by-step instructions
- Courses are self-paced and interactive
- Certification is provided
- A knowledge benchmark is required to qualify for certification
- Verification of subjects studied is provided
- The lesson materials are updated regularly
- University credits are sometimes available
- Certification is usually recognized by potential employers
- Training institutions can assist graduates with employment
The disadvantages of learning SEM via online training courses are:
- They can be more expensive than other options
- There is only a limited ability to network with peers
Providers of online training courses in search engine marketing include:
Search Engine College – http://www.searchenginecollege.com/affiliates/jrox.php?id=291_1_aaid_2
Benefits of Industry Certification
When it comes to industry certification, there are various schools of thought in the SEM industry. Some suggest certification is simply not necessary, others state that SEO/SEM has no official industry standards, so any certification is meaningless, still others insist that certification is becoming increasingly important to potential employers and persons seeking careers in SEO and SEM.
If you’re skeptical about the value of industry certification, ask yourself these questions: Will you be looking to hire search marketing staff over the next 12 months? Would you prefer to hire search marketing staff that hold industry certification? Will you be seeking a job in the search industry over the next 12 months? Do you think holding industry certification would give you an edge over applicants applying for the same jobs?
Here are some advantages to having industry certification in search engine marketing:
For Staff:
- Proof of subjects studied and skills acquired
- Ability to promote certification on web site / CV
- An edge over other applicants when applying for SEO/SEM jobs.
For Employers:
- Ability to hire based on a proven skill set (e.g. ability to set up a Yahoo! SEM campaign quickly).
- Ability to impress clients with certified status of staff.
- Reassurance that search engine-approved methods are used.
- Less on-the-job training is required.
To Sum Up
Everyone has a different learning style, so don’t assume one method will work for you. Don’t rely on a single source of training for your search engine marketing needs. Attend conferences, purchase books, take a course, network in forums and DIY when you can to acquire a broader knowledge base.
Finally, remember that training should always be supported by hands-on SEO/SEM experience so get those hands dirty!
About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena manages Search Engine College – http://www.searchenginecollege.com/affiliates/jrox.php?id=291_1_aaid_2
- an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses
and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and
other Search Engine Marketing subjects.
Ok, we all know backlinks are a huge part of determining your site worth to most search engines. Each backlink to your site is a vote for it. Backlinks are the building blocks of SEO itself. We’ll look into what should be on your mind as you are acquiring backlinks.
The first intuition is to see how many you can get. That’s just one piece of the whole backlink pie. Search engines like Google have been around some time and have a lot of brilliant minds working for them. A higher quality backlink is worth more towards higher search engine rankings.
Some things to consider about backlinks:
1. Age affects all backlinks. Google specifically weighs a backlink more with age. Backlinks gain in weight over time until after around 6 months they reach their full weight. Basically, it means that the effort you do building backlinks will be worth more and more.
2. Anchor text is hugely important. The words on the backlink itself from the other site also play into it appears the other site views your site. When the keywords you are optimizing for are used, the link gains a much higher quality. The thing to watch out for here is that the text is varying. Google picks up on when all of you backlinks have the same exact text.
3. Getting backlinks from sites with the same theme as yours will benefit you much more than non-relevant sites. This makes sense since a link to your health food site from a car site about old Mustangs isn’t going to do much for a visitor, so it won’t for Google either.
4. The better the reputation or Page Rank of a site that links to you, the higher quality it is. Fairly obvious. If CNN or Slashdot linked to you, that one backlink would likely outweigh all your other backlinks together.
5. The physical location of a backlink on the page can also be a noteable factor for search engines. Google in particular lends more weight to links the higher towards the top of the page. If there is surrounding content the links appear more natural so they are valued higher.
Reciprocal links are always the hot topic when talking SEO. The truth is, reciprocal links are still alive and going well. Reciprocal links between websites with similar themes is natural and expected. Though I have read many many times of claims that reciprocal linking is dead, rest assured that quality reciprocal links are not going away anytime soon. Google for instance has its sights set on backlinks that were bought, and from link farms where 5 minutes after paying some money you have thousands of sites pointing to yours.
While there are many other factors such as the age of your website and how much content is on your website, those will be left to another article.
Backlinks are indeed the cornerstone of getting a website established on the Internet. Without enough backlinks visitors won’t know your site exists, and search engines will put little weight to your website resulting in a further loss of potential traffic, which could make or break your site. The key is to go out knowing what backlinks you want and spend enough time to make your site known. Properly setup, your backlinks will keep your site popular with visitors for a long time to come.
Does anyone else find it surprising that so many site owners are reluctant to provide outgoing links on their website. Somehow they have come to believe that providing relevant outgoing links from their site can be harmful to their results in the search engines.
When you send your visitors to a relevant resource, this is not a bad thing. This is a good thing.
Relevant sites does NOT mean competitive sites.
Definitions of Relevant on the Web:
Having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue; “the scientist corresponds with colleagues in order to learn about matters relevant to her own research” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Evidence or information that has enough value to prove something significant to a case.http://www.attorneykennugent.com/library/r.html
If you write an article and would like to provide evidence of what you are saying, you should provide your resources within the article. Those MUST be credible resources. For example, if I write an article about website credibility, the site I point to in order to back up what I am saying must be an EXPERT on the topic, such as the Stanford Guidelines for Website Credibility. This method (used properly) gives your pages MORE value, not less. It also adds to the relevance of your page to the topic.
Incoming and outgoing links are not just about making pages filled with links. It is something that can be blended into your website in multiple ways, as it pertains to the specific page.
Think about the common interests of your target visitors and you will have no trouble deciding if a link is relevant to your site.
Wolfram Alpha is a search service being released this month that some feel is a Google killer. The jury is still out, however,it does hint at the possible future direction of search services. Wolfram Alpha hasn’t been launched as of yet. The major difference between Wolfram Alpha and existing search services is that it answers questions, as opposed to returning a list of pages.
Last weekend, Wolfram Alpha, unveiled a new “computational knowledge engine” based on the work of Stephen Wolfram. Some have dubbed Alpha a “Google killer,” but, in reality, it is very different from the standard search engines that we are all familiar with today.
Here is a public demo Wolfram gave earlier this week.
The following post is just a few thoughts about On-the-Page Optimization …
… and an attempt at a checklist.
Links vs On Page SEO
When optimizing a page for competitive terms, the bulk of the ranking algorithm will be based upon link analysis and site authority. Effective link building has no limit to how much it can help your rankings for competitive keywords you are targeting. Good on page optimization helps you rank for a wide array of less competitive keywords.
Keyword Density (KD) is Overrated
Some people think that more is better, and more is better, and more is better. This is not true with on-the-page keyword density. The algorithms for grading page copy are based on a bell curve. Some pages will have near-perfect term weights. But after some point, added placement of certain words does not make a page any more relevant; in fact, it can make a page become less relevant and appear more likely to be spam.
Why Focusing on Keyword Density is a Waste of Time
About half of all search queries are unique. Many of the searches that bring visitors to your site are for keyword phrases you never would have guessed. If a site is not well-established, most search traffic will be for long, multiword search phrases.
When webmasters start thinking about keyword density, many of them tend to remove descriptive modifiers and other semantically-related terms. Since some of those terms will no longer appear on the page, the “optimized” page no longer ranks well for many queries it once ranked for.
People write, search, and use language in similar ways. Thus, if you write naturally, you are going to be far better optimized for long-tail searches than some person who wastes time on keyword density will be.
If the content sounds like it was designed for engines instead of people, then less people are going to want to read it or link to it. Time spent tweaking keyword density would usually be better spent creating additional useful original content.
Over-optimizing a Page Makes a Page Likely to be Flagged as Spam
Some places try to optimize content so aggressively that the copy reads like rubbish. Traffic means nothing if people do not talk about your business or convert on your offers. Obviously, that is no good. But it gets even worse than that…some pages that are over-optimized don’t even get traffic.
Imagine a page that starts its page title, meta description, first header, first paragraph, and second paragraph all with the same word or phrase. Does that sound like natural quality information? Or perhaps more like someone trying to game the relevancy algorithms? If it looks and smells like spam then it is likely to get filtered out of the search results.
Natural On Page SEO
You have to mix it up. Sure, make the page title relevant, but don’t forget to
mix up your phrase order
use a few subheaders that are not keyword rich
use modifiers and related terms in some of your subheaders and throughout the page copy
The more your writing sounds like it was crafted for humans instead of bots, generally the better it will rank. Search engines want to rank high-quality information. Think news articles more than optimized pages. If your content looks more like a newspaper article than a piece of obviously SEOed text, you are on the right track.
Each search engine has its own algorithms, and they do not all align with one another. Thus, the most effective way to improve your rankings on all search engines will be via link building, but proper page structure and on-the-page optimization play important roles in gaining targeted traffic, especially for non-competitive keyword phrases or in search engines that rely heavily on page content.
Page Specific Relevant Content
Almost every page is going to have navigation and design elements. For search engines, the portions of the page that matter most, and that you have the most control over, are the textual content parts. Make sure that every page that you want to rank has enough page specific content on it that a search engine can tell that the page is focused on that topic. If a page consists mostly of repetitive sitewide navigation or illegible images it is hard for search engines to trust it or know what it is about.
You can create this kind of content by adding manufacturer details, editorial reviews, customer product feedback, product comparisons, and lists of recommended similar or compatible parts.
Use Keywords in Headings
Use keywords in headings and subheadings throughout the page—this heading should capture the person’s attention and tell them they are in the right place. Think of these headings like you would a heading in a newspaper; a classic, straight SEO approach might be
<h1>Optimize Web Pages – Learn SEO Copywriting</h1>
You may wish to use something with a call to action as well. That would appear more like
<h1>Learn SEO Copywriting Techniques that Drive Killer Converting Search Engine Traffic </h1>.
Heading tags go from H1 to H6, with the biggest tags being the smallest number (i.e., h1 renders the biggest font). You can change how the text appears with CSS. I usually try to get some of my primary and secondary keyword phrases and similar phrases in my page heading as well as in many subheadings.
I recommend using a single H1 tag on each page. I also try to use many H2 or H3 tags to break up the page copy and help structure the data.
Break the Page Into Pieces
h1 (consisting of primary keywords and a modifier or call to action) Only use one h1 tag per page and do not bold or emphasize it. It probably works best if it is different than your page title – different phrase order, singular vs plural, and substitute synonyms where it makes sense.
Examples of subheadings can be as follows:
h2 (similar subtopic idea with some related keyword phrases in it)
paragraph blah blah blah
h2 (another subtopic with some semantically related words)
paragraph blah blah
paragraph blah blah blah
h2 (Many subtopics do not have the same keywords as the page title and main heading. If you are writing for conversion, not all of them will, which is also good for SEO. If your page title and your headings contain the exact same keyword phrase it may look like an attempt to manipulate search relevancy. Mix it up. Keep it natural looking.)
h2 (Don’t forget to change word order and use plural and singular versions)
unordered list
paragraph blah blah
h2 (another subtopic focused on another niche)
paragraph blah blah blah
paragraph blah blah blah
Usually the subheadings will focus on a keyword phrase that is slightly more specific than the main heading.
The next example set is going to contain a bit of self-promotion, but that is not really the intent. It is hard for me to think of structuring content without thinking about a topic, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to tell people to copy any of my pages or client sites.
Example of a Liberal Use of Subheadings
Descriptive, reader-focused subheadings improve the usability of your website, both for search engines and people. If I wrote a page about applying for a job, the page title and headers might look something like this:
<title>Search Engine Optimization Guru Looks to Help 1 Lucky Client</title>
<h1>Online Search Engine Optimization Expert for Hire</h1>
<h2>Aaron Wall: Your SEO Expert</h2>
<h3>Author of SEO Book: A Well-Known Search Blog</h3>
content
<h3>Top Selling Marketing Book Author</h3>
content
<h2>History in the Search Community</h2>
<h3>Speaker at Search Engine Strategies & WebmasterWorld</h3>
content
<h3>Directory Editor at Major Directories</h3>
content
<h3>Moderator at Many Professional Webmaster Discussion Forums</h3>
content
<h2>Search Engine Ranking Achievements</h2>
<h3>Search Marketing ROI Results</h3>
content
<h3>Client Testimonials</h3>
content
Don’t Go Crazy
Headings help structure the information, but you shouldn’t overdo it. If you start doing things like placing all your content in an H1 tag, bolding the H1 tags, or bolding all occurrences of your keywords, then you are doing things that would give search engines a reason to discount your page. Thus, the combined effect will be more likely to hurt your rankings on multiple fronts, since your content may look less appealing to search engines and site visitors will be less likely to buy from it or link to it.
Place Your Keywords Where it Makes Sense
After the headings, the rest of the page copy is usually written with sales conversion in mind, and I do not pay too much attention to optimizing it for search engines other than adding in a modifier here or there and making sure that I have mixed up the phrase order of core keywords in some spots. Natural writing should cause you to use your keywords throughout the text.
If you are struggling to get your keywords into the page here are some ideas:
Place keywords in normal body content.
Place keywords in heading tags.
Place keywords in img alt tags.
When the word is part of a small statement making a specific point, you may bold it or italicize it.
You may also want to include your keywords a few times in bulleted lists.
When possible, place the keywords in links, and don’t forget navigation.
Don’t focus on just one core keyword over and over again. Mix in many variations.
The key focus of the page should be on readability. If the page does not make sense to human eyes, then it is no good for a search engine and it will not make sales. You want to use keywords, but not to the point where it sounds like you are writing for the search engine and not the user.
When in doubt, ignore the keywords, write your article for people, and then come back to it and make sure you covered all the important topics you wanted to cover.
Use Variation
Since latent semantic indexing-type algorithms may be able to detect unnatural copy that lacks related terms and will score hyper-focused repetitive unnatural text as being less relevant, it is important to use some mixture of terms and phrases (i.e., in some spots you want to use terms related to your keywords and not just your keywords).
If you took your core keyword out of the page copy and replaced it with blanks, would humans to be able to understand what the document was about? If they could, you are in great shape.
Be Creative
There are so many creative ways to mix in your keywords. Assuming we wanted to target eat cheddar, we could write the following:
Spread Your Keywords Throughout the Page
Some of the more recent algorithms may have the ability to look for natural language patterns. In natural language, the different words in a keyword phrase will appear spread apart from one another in some occurances. To boost your rankings in these algorithms, you will want to use the word eat in some spots and cheddar in other spots.
Often your keywords will appear next to each other naturally. Some words like peanut and butter often occur together, but in general, all of your occurrences of the keywords should not be together unless that is how they would appear in a newspaper article about your topic.
Keywords Near the Beginning of the Source Code
Keywords near the top of the page, and before your navigation, may be weighted more heavily and enhance your search engine rankings. Search engines care about the order the content appears in the page code more than on the screen.
Reorganizing the text can easily be accomplished by writing a sentence above your branding images or through using a floating DIV or another CSS technique. When using tables, some people use a blank cell technique to make the search engines see the body content before navigation. If search engines weight where the keywords are on the page, then they most likely use the order of the words in the actual page source code and not the visual display of the pages.
Microsoft did research into visual page segmentation, and Google hired some lead Firefox programmers away from Mozilla. As computer clock cycles get more efficient, if they can improve relevancy by looking closer at how words appear on displayed pages, they will factor that into their algorithms. But likely they have easier relevancy wins elsewhere.
Page Copy Length
Clarity and formatting are more important than shear length of copy. Rather than aiming for an arbitrary word limit or cut off, you should write pages of varying length based on the goals of the page. For example, if you want to make a page look comprehensive and use that idea as part of your marketing strategy it makes sense to make that page longer than it needs to be. If you are trying to quickly communicate an important idea it does not hurt to publish that page with less text on it.
No matter how long you make it, ensure you use sub-headers, short paragraphs, bulleted lists, graphics, and other goodies that help break up the text. Most people scan before they read.
Link Building or water boarding, which is the least amount of torture?
Anyone worth their salt in SEO has asked, “Is there a better way to build the back links you need to rank highly in Search Engines’? Before I tell you that water boarding is in fact an easier and softer way to torture let me tell you this; link building can pay off huge benefits. However, you will have to endure a bit of mind-boggling tedious tasks. Here are some ways to get going and some things to consider.
WEB DIRECTORIES
Web Directories are the obvious first step; at least here you don’t need to grovel to others to get linked. The following link is to the page we in fact go to. Listed are all the general directories on the internet in which you get a valid link for the search engines.
We only listed those directories that are free and which do not require a reciprocal link to be listed. We think we know what webmasters want; we are certainly open to being corrected here.
Please ladies and gentleman please excuse the sloppy page, we did not put this page up to display our design skills, we in fact put it up only for an in-house place for our people to use for, you guessed it, link building. This reference to this page is the first public reference to it, we trust it will help.
A word of caution about this subject, Outside of DMOZ and the Yahoo! Directory, the value of a single directory link is usually not very great. Directories add value after you list in a number of them, especially if you are listing in high-quality ones next to other sites that are in your same vertical. Additionally directories rarely provide much direct traffic. Typically the bulk of the value of a directory listing is in how search engines evaluate the links. Occasionally, you may find a niche directory that does provide good traffic—but most directories do not. Exchanging Reciprocal Links
Over the last few years, Google has given no weight or negative weight to low value link exchanges. Typically for most marketers the time wasted on link exchange programs would be better spent creating useful, original, link-worthy content. Let me stress this one point, CONTENT is still King and will get you link backs.
I spend a lot of time managing client expectations than anything. As fast and furious as the Internet can be immediate gratification just doesn’t exist here. When I was a young commodities trader an old timer once told me if I wanted excitement to “jump out of airplanes”, his point was to not act out my needs for excitement in the markets. The same advice holds true here, solid work with an eye on patience will pay off.
Link exchanging just doesn’t work the way it used to. Many people who created SEO software, or information products that sold themselves as experts, found that their Google rankings dropped because link exchanges are not all they were once cracked up to be. Some kept selling their bogus link exchange services even after they stopped offering value because they are greedy and are lacking in business ethics. Also, if you link to off-topic resources, quality sites might be less likely to link to your site. Don’t waste your time trading hundreds of links with low quality sites.
Smart Link Building
The following is easier said than done and if you hire some SEO company to do it for you can cost a princely sum. This is a definition of a Smart Link Building strategy as described by one of our tech people.
Are one-way to your site.
Are permanent.
Are embedded in text in the middle of the page.
Come from relevant pages.
Have variations on the anchor text.
Are from clean pages, no link to bad neighborhood.
Points to your home page as well as your internal pages with the right anchors.
Come from pages with texts only. No directories, link lists or any kind of FFA.
Does not have any kind of paid footprints around them or any patter.
Also gives you juice (Page Rank).
Does not have any kind of duplicate content.
Are hosted on different C-class IPs.
Are on pages with maximum only 10 links on them (only yours).
Also gives you some relevant traffic! (best sign of legit links.)
These are just a few ways to build links and if you are reading I am sure you know this is not an easy task. This can be sub-contracted, however, you need to stiff through mounds and mounds of scams on this very subject. The best way to start is try to get a referral from a past happy client. In our next post we will explore subjects like link buying or renting, link quality and some free link sources. Happy linking!
Link Popularity is one of key area to increase your site page ranking and search ranking. Incoming links are just like votes in election for your website however there is point as we have to emphases on quality links rather quantity. Valuable links are like 100 of poor links equals to 1 quality link. In this article, I would like to explain how differentiate quality links and how to get them which will effect and improve and strengthen your website ranking.
be based upon link analysis and site authority. Effective link building has no limit to how much it can help your rankings for competitive keywords you are targeting. Good on page optimization helps you rank for a wide array of less competitive keywords.
