Archive for June, 2008

SEO Link Building With Web Content Secrets

June 30, 2008 at 7:08 am · Filed under Promotingtips, seotips ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s the timeless question: how do you get other sites to link to you? The most commonly discussed ways are reciprocal linking (swapping links) and buying links. Yet there’s another important tool for building links that should be a part of your toolbox: distributing content in exchange for one-way inbound links.

Comparison with Other Linking Methods

• Reciprocal Linking: The big advantage of content distribution over swapping links is that the links built are one-way, and therefore presumably more valuable. Of course, reciprocal links still have value, but relying primarily on them might hamper your SEO efforts.

• Indirect Reciprocal Links: I link my site A to your site, so you link your site to my site B. The problems are that this can be a lot of work, and also, Google can detect indirect links if you do it more than once with the same group of sites, which might make your linking arrangements look like a link farm.

• Paid Links: The problem with paid links is 1) the costs add up; 2) search engines are getting better and better at discounting paid links. According to Matt Cutts’ blog, “I wouldn’t be surprised if search engines begin to take stronger action against link buying in the near future…link-selling sites can lose their ability to give reputation (e.g. PageRank and anchortext).”

Kinds of Content to Distribute

• Articles: This is the essential kind of content distribution, to the point that many people consider content distribution simple as “article marketing.” However, you’re missing out on a few other sources of links if you only do articles.

• News blurbs: A lot of news-style sites will only reprint pieces of a couple of paragraphs. The good news is that often enough the whole point of these news blurbs is to include links to other sites, in a sort of “look what we’ve found” kind of way, a la Slashdot.org

• Press Releases: There are some sites that aggressively reprint press releases. A press release is like an article, only in a very specific press release format, and frankly that’s not that enjoyable to read. I don’t know why some sites are so head-over-heels over press releases, but, hey, that’s their business. The good news is that even if you can’t write and don’t want to hire a writer, press releases (at least basic ones) are pretty easy to do.

• Tools, games and other webware: Sites with popular tools, software, Flash games and other webware often let other sites use it in exchange for a link. The big potential downside is technical support.

• Images: Images, especially charts and photographs, are important forms of content on the web. If you have great images on your site and people ask you to use them on their sites, require a backlink in exchange. The problem with images is that they are so easily stolen. Stolen words can be uncovered with a web search. You could try to watermark images with a copyright symbol, URL, and the link requirement. But in the process you’d make the image much less desirable.

• Web Design Templates: These have been freely distributed for a long time. Yet they are even more easily stolen than images. Also, if you embed a link in the footer of a web template, what you’ll get back are sitewide links, which are often thought to be filtered out in search engines.

Maximizing Content Distribution

Links’Effectiveness: Anchor Text

You need optimized anchor text to rank high for any competitive keyword. That means you need your target keyword in the anchor text, and very importantly, variants of the target keyword (too many links with the exact same anchor text may be filtered). The problem is that some sites by default don’t let you choose the anchor text of the link to your site. So you need to: 1) look for sites that do reprint content with optimized anchor text; 2) specifically ask for your target anchor text to be used. Also, do keep in mind that a true natural linking structure will require you to have a number of links that are not anchor-text-optimized, typically with the URL as the anchor text.

How to Find Sites

Finding sites to submit content is the biggest challenge. You can start by asking around to any other webmasters you already have a relationship with. Next, web-search. The classic method is “submit article” + [keyword]. Most of the sites you find this way won’t be good candidates, which is why this can be a bit labor-intensive. I use offshore labor for this step, as well as a program that will sort and store all the search results into a spreadsheet; otherwise it might not be worth it. Then again, the same would be true for finding reciprocal linking partners.

Ethical Issues & Best Practices

Golden rule: remember that there’s a human being who has to approve your article for submission.

• Read and adhere to all submission guidelines.

• Avoid automation. There’s almost always some detail of submission that requires a human eye: a multitude of html formatting requirements, changing site themes, etc.

• Don’t submit by email unless specifically instructed. Using a contact form prevents possible sp@m accusations.

• Only approach websites that request content submissions.

• Don’t misrepresent reprint content as original.

• Don’t submit the same content too often. After about two hundred reprints, a lot of people will be seeing the same thing over and over again and possibly complaining.

In short, as SEO gets more competitive, having more and more linking methods at your disposal gets more and more important. Don’t overlook this important tool.

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SEO Marketing Tips For Websites

June 26, 2008 at 10:38 am · Filed under Promotingtips, seotips ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Search engines are a way to get traffic. So if you own an online business or any e-commerce sites, you will surely need to optimize your website for search engines to get visitors and more sales. Search Engine Optimization Services (SEO) services will increase website traffic by placing your address in search engine result pages top rankings whenever an Internet user enters a keyword specific to your site into an engine’s search bar. This method of website promotion can increase your customer base many fold within months.

Marketing plans can feel like a pain in the neck (not to mention other body parts). Small business owners, and others without a boss to impose a due date, often find themselves “too busy” to complete a marketing plan or update the existing one.

Here are a few SEO marketing tips to help you get on track:

1) Get as many high quality relevant links as you can! I can’t stress this enough. It is all about links people. But not just any link. You want to spend as much time as you can getting links from sites that are relevant, and also already well respected in the search engines.

2) Utilize web 2.0. There are many “social’ sites out there, and getting your website listed on them can be done easily, and for free. This really does make a difference. These sites include places like myspace, social bookmarking sites, digg, etc.

3) Study your visitors: Try to find out what the people that come to your site are looking for. Encourage interaction with them. This can be done with a forum, polls, contests, etc.

4) Study your competition: See what they are doing, and do it better.

Good luck!

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Easy, No-Cost Tips for Promoting Your Website

June 23, 2008 at 11:07 am · Filed under Promotingtips, seotips ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you think creatively and plan to save your advertising dollars, you can promote your site very effectively on the cheap end. Some methods will generate quick results while others will slowly grow to a steady increase in traffic.

Forum Posts

Forum posts work much like Yahoo Answers which is actually a type of forum. When you post in a forum you get to not only list the forum post, but you also get a personal profile with a signature. Usually you can list your URL in the signature tab and any posts you make will also be inbound links to your site. Also, when you post in a forum you are adding credibility to your reputation. Building credibility and a link to your site are two instant bonuses.

Fresh Content

Article marketing is becoming a very lucrative business. Many new search engine algorithms have changed to now look at the amount and quality of site content. In order to generate site content you could spend lots of time writing page after page of new information, but if you are like many you don’t have the extra time to spend on this aspect of marketing. There are several sites which offer fresh content on a variety of subjects and will allow you to use the information provided you include the author’s tagline intact. Offering this fresh information will give your readers a reason to come back and it will give them something to tell their friends about, thus increasing your traffic.

Opt-in lists

An opt-in list is the perfect tool for capturing important content needed to target your readers with sales and promotions. Anyone who is on your opt-in list has given approval to let you contact them with information about our products and services. You can use your opt-in list to promote new products that you will add to your site and to draw attention to your site’s offerings. When members of your list find something they like they will be more likely to pass that info on to their friends and after all, “word-of-mouth” is the most effective and most inexpensive form of marketing available to anyone.

These are just a few of the many ways to promote your site for free. If you think creatively and plan to save your advertising dollars, you can promote your site very effectively on the cheap end. Some methods will generate quick results while others will slowly grow to a steady increase in traffic.

You will need to track the overall effectiveness of each method for your own situation so that you do not spend too much time on a particular method that doesn’t work for you. SEO should always be your first step in the process and if possible, should be considered in the site design stages.

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SEO-Title and Meta Description Tag Optimization

June 21, 2008 at 12:02 pm · Filed under Promotingtips, seotips ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title Tag and Meta Tags are the author-generated source codes that are positioned in the <Head> segment of your HTML document. Apart from the Title Tag, other information inserted is not visible to the person surfing your web page, but is visible only to the search engine crawlers. Title and Meta Description Tags are especially important as they can be used to influence the ranking of your site (to a certain extent) and the way it appears in some search results. There are several Meta Tags like Meta Description Tag, Meta Keywords Tag and more, but out of the existing Tags the most important and popular ones are the Title Tag and the Meta Description Tag. Though the Title Tag does not belong to the Meta Tag family (click for more information on Meta Tags), yet from the Search Engine Optimization point of view, the Title Tag is the most significant tag on your web site, followed by the Meta Description Tag.

What is a Title Tag?
The Title Tag is an HTML code that shows the words that appear in the Title bar at the top of your web browser . These words do not appear anywhere else on your web page. For instance, the Title Tag of this page appears as ‘ Meta Tag Optimization : Title and Meta Description Tag Optimization ‘ at the top bar of your web browser. This is because these words were entered into the Title Tag of the web site’s HTML code. Usually, the Title Tag is the first element in the <Head> area of your site, followed by the Meta Description and the Meta Keywords Tags. Before, we discuss the Title Tag in greater detail; lets see how it looks in your web site’s HTML code:

<Head>

<Title> Meta Tag Optimization: Title and Meta Description Tag Optimization</Title>

</Head>

Why is the Title Tag Important from Search Engine Optimization perspective ?
Title Tag is an important Tag amongst other SEO related options, as it not only communicates the theme of your web page to the human visitors but is also considered very important by the Search Engine crawlers. Title Tag is not a Meta Tag, but nevertheless it is the most important of all Tags. Almost all crawler based search engines use the Title Tag to gather information about your web site. The search engines use the words or the content of the Title Tag during the ranking process to analyze the relevance of your web page. Major search engines like Google, Yahoo, AOL, AltaVista, and AlltheWeb use your web page’s Title Tag to evaluate its relevance. Title Tag is the hyperlinked text title that is displayed in the search engine results page (SERP). The users, in turn, click on this hyperlink to go to your web site.

The Title Tag is also used as the text when you ‘bookmark’ a page or add a certain web page to your ‘favorites’ list in your browser.

A carefully constructed Title Tag is very important for your page’s ranking with the search engines.

Of late, a large number of articles have been written with differing views and opinions regarding the relevance and benefits of various Meta Tags. Most experts, however, agree that the Title Tag is a significant tool in any search engine optimization campaign.

Working with the Title Tag
Since the Title Tag plays a vital role in determining your site’s ranking in the SERP, you need to pay a lot of attention to the words that appear in the Title Tag and the order in which they appear. You need to develop a crisply worded Title Tag that includes your most relevant keyword phrases and performs the function of announcing the summary of your web page’s content.

Title Tag and Keywords
Amongst all the places you can use your important keyword phrases, the usage of keywords in the Title Tag gives the highest weight.

While using your keyword phrases in the Title Tag, it is important to be highly focused. You should use the same keywords not just in your Title Tag, but also in your page content and the Meta Description Tag of your web page. If the keywords you intend using in your Title Tag do not appear anywhere else in your page’s content, then avoid using them in your page title as the weight of the keywords in the Title Tag gets diluted.

It is essential to sequence your keyword phrases correctly in your Title Tag. The order in which they appear is of great importance. Having your most important keyword phrase towards the beginning of the Title Tag helps display your title in bold in the SERP (search engines result pages).

Other Do’s and Don’ts

  • Consider using both singular and plural forms of the important words in your Title Tag. For instance, you may use both ‘loan’ and ‘loans’ while making the Title Tag. Google is still experimenting with Stemming (interchange of singular and plural terms); however, it is fluctuating in its deployment frequently. A word of Caution: Do not overdo it.
  • Title Tag length : Google usually reads about 90 characters of your Title Tag. Therefore, a Title Tag of about 80-90 characters is good enough.
  • Do not use keywords repeatedly as the density of your keywords does not matter in your Title Tag.
  • The sequence in which keywords appear in your Title Tag is important. Try using natural phrases for your Title Tag, which read better and will likely conform to your Keyword Phrases.
  • Avoid using the same Title Tag throughout your site. Try using a unique Title Tag for each web page and use keyword Phrases that holds theme relevance to that page. You also get to leverage more keyword phrases if you individualize the Title Tag in all pages.
  • Most search engines are not case sensitive ; therefore, you can write your Title Tag in a way that looks most visually appealing.
  • Title Tag should ideally read like a phrase that makes some grammatical sense, not just a collection of keywords. This is all the more important as the Title Tag usually appears as the text when you ‘bookmark’ or add a page to your ‘favorites’ list. Therefore, it should make sense when a person reads it later. For instance, if you want to include the keywords Home Loans, fast clearance, No credit check in your Title Tag, you can write a Title Tag that reads:

Home Loans: fast clearance with no credit check.

What to Include in your Title Tag ?

You could put the product or service you are offering in the Title Tag, instead of your firm or company name. This is because most users when searching for, information search for specific products or services, not company names. Also note that search engines read about 80-90 characters in your Title Tag. This is prime Real Estate for your important keywords. If you strongly feel like putting your company or domain name in your Title Tag, then, do so at the end. Wasting several characters by inserting your site name does you little good.

In a nutshell, the basic ingredients of a good Title Tag are :

  • It should announce the summary of your web page content.
  • It should read like a crisply worded sales pitch that is enticing enough to make the users click on your entry when it is displayed in SERP.
  • It should include your most important keyword phrases or search terms.
  • The sequencing of the keywords should make logical sense.
  • Each page of your website should have different and customized Title Tag relevant to the context of that page.

The Title and Meta Description Tags are very important aspects of your search engine optimization campaign. This exercise begins with carrying out a thorough Keyword Phrase research. Keyword phrase research forms the most essential and important aspect of any SEO initiative. After selecting your most relevant keyword phrases and writing a keyword rich copy for your web page, you can now work these important search terms into your Title and Meta Description Tags. Read our detailed Article on Keyword Phrase Research .

The Title and Meta Description Tags are very important aspects of your search engine optimization campaign. This exercise begins with carrying out a thorough Keyword.

Phrase research. Keyword phrase research forms the most essential and important aspect of any SEO initiative. After selecting your most relevant keyword phrases and writing a keyword rich copy for your web page, you can now work these important search terms into your Title and Meta Description Tags. Read our detailed article on Keyword Phrase Research.

What is Meta Description Tag?

The Meta Description Tag is a part of HTML code that allows you to give a short and concise summary of your web page content. The words placed in this Meta Tag, are often used in the search engines result pages (SERP), just below the Title Tag as a brief description of your page. In the Search Engine Results Pages, after reading the Title, a user usually studies the description of the page and decides whether she wants to visit your site or not.

Some Search Engines prefer to ignore your Meta Description Tag and build the description summary on the basis of the search term for the SERP on the fly. They usually pick up parts of the text on your page wherever the search terms appear. The only exceptions are the Flash, Frame or All Image sites that have no content, and some high importance websites, where the search term is not found in the text. In such a case, Google picks up your entire Meta Description Tag and displays it.

This is the way Meta Description Tag appears in your site’s HTML code:

<Head>

<Meta name=”description” content=”Meta Tag Optimization: Title Tag Optimization and Meta Description Tag Optimization. Tips about how to optimize your most important Tags.”>

</Head>

Importance of Meta Description Tag
All search engines do not give very high prominence to the Meta Description Tag and may generate a description on the fly while listing your web page in SERP. However, in some search engines, a good Meta Description Tag might help a page to rank higher for your targeted search terms. This holds true for Flash, Frame or All Image sites that have no content as well as some high importance websites, where the search term is not found in the text. In such cases, some search engines pick up the exact Meta Description Tag and display it in its SERP, just below the Title Tag. Hence, it is important to write a crisp and enticing Meta Description Tag that includes your important keyword phrases and manages to interest your user, thus making her click on your entry.

Working with Meta Description Tag
Keyword Phrases and Meta Description Tag: Include your most relevant and important keyword phrases in your page’s Meta Description Tag. As in the case of Title Tag, focus on the same keyword phrases as you used in your page’s Title Tag and body text. Fewer and highly targeted search phrases can boost your web page’s relevance in the search engines results. Hence, stress should be on writing a brief yet informative description for your web page.

The Meta Description Tag of your web page should not read like a collection of keywords, but should be written as an informative and interesting summary of your web page.

Do’s and Don’ts of a good Meta Description Tag :

  • Excessive keyword repetition should be avoided. Instead, pay attention to the sequence in which your keywords appear. Your most important terms should be placed in the beginning.
  • Make sure each page on your web site has a different and a unique Meta Description Tag using the keyword phrases that are relevant to that web page.
  • A Meta Description Tag of 25-30 words should do fine.
  • The most important keyword phrases should, ideally be placed at the beginning of your Meta Description Tag, which increases your chances of better Search Engine Rankings.

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