A combination of good search engine optimization and website content can transform your website into a sales tool. Combining the website content necessary to increase return visits and the SEO to get the initial visitor goes hand-in-hand. Combine that with a visually pleasing and fast loading website, and your website will achieve the results you desire.
“I don’t have the time to up-date my website everyday”, is the comment I hear from customers on a daily basis.
The small business owner has many items on their agenda on a daily basis. Understanding that adding new content or providing the content to their website management firm should be at the top of their list. The potential for new customer acquisitions and repeat customers from an updated website with good content is priceless.
Would you operate your retail location and never have:
· “New” specials in your store?
· Add new products to the shelf?
· Speak to the customers that come into your store?
Of course you would. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have any customers after a few years. The same is true for your website.
Most small business are very comfortable with hiring in-store help, but are reluctant to pay for quality website updates and content. If you truly want to succeed in the online world you’ll need to make the financial effort necessary to do so.
How much should you update your website each day? A minimum of 200 new words a day on your website will do amazing things to your website traffic and content. The viewers will appreciate it, and will come back more often. Search engines will reward you for the updated content, and will move your website higher in the rankings for multiple keyword/phrases.
Some options on how it could be easier for you to add content to your website are:
Take 15 – 20 minutes each day to sit down in a quiet area to write something relevant to go on the website. If you upload it yourself great. If not send it to your website developer or SEO. I’m sure they would be very happy to upload your website each day. They should understand the importance of content and changes to your website on a daily basis.
Find a website that provides free info for your industry. Add that content to the website. Make sure you add the appropriate bylines and links to the articles author.
Have one of your trusted employees (or rotate the writing with your employees) write out the articles. It can be something they do as part of their daily routine. Most employees will enjoy it. It will also allow them to take more ownership into the website and business.
Free newsfeeds are available for most industries. It won’t always provide the most relevant information, but it will allow a viewer to read “new” information if they come back to your website and won’t take much time for you except for the initial set-up.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Content Content Content
Friday, June 10, 2005
Top 10 Search Engine Positioning Mistakes
Top 10 Search Engine Positioning Mistakes
By Sumantra Roy
When it comes to web site search engine positioning, there are certain common mistakes that I see people making over and over again. Here's a list of the 10 most common mistakes that I see people making. By avoiding these mistakes, you can avoid a lot of anguish and frustration in the long run.
1) Optimizing your site for the wrong keywords
The first step in any search engine optimization campaign is to choose the keywords for which you should optimize your site. If you initially choose the wrong keywords, all the time and effort that you devote in trying to get your site a high ranking will go down the drain. If you choose keywords which no one search for, or if you choose keywords which won't bring in targeted traffic to your site, what good will the top rankings do?
2) Putting too many keywords in the Meta Keywords tag
I often see sites which have hundreds of keywords listed in the Meta Keywords tag, in the hope that by listing the keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, they will be able to get a high ranking for those keywords. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to popular opinion, the Meta Keywords tag has almost completely lost its importance as far as search engine positioning is concerned. Hence, just by listing keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, you will never be able to get a high ranking. To get a high ranking for those keywords, you need to put the keywords in the actual body content of your site.
3) Repeating the same keyword too many times
Another common mistake that people make is to endlessly repeat their target keywords in the body of their pages and in their Meta Keywords tags. Because so many people have used this tactic in the past (and continue to use it), the search engines keep a sharp lookout for this, and may penalize a site which repeats keywords in this fashion. Sure, you do need to repeat the keywords a number of times. But, the way you place the keywords in your pages needs to make grammatical sense. Simply repeating the keywords endlessly no longer works. Furthermore, a particular keyword should ideally not be present more than thrice in your Meta Keywords tag.
4) Creating lots of similar doorway pages
Another myth prevalent among people is that since the algorithm of each search engine is different, they need to create different pages for different search engines. While this is great in theory, it is counter-productive in practice. If you use this tactic, you will soon end up with hundreds of pages, which can quickly become an administrative nightmare. Also, just imagine the amount of time you will need to spend constantly updating the pages in response to the changes that the search engines make to their algorithms. Furthermore, although the pages are meant for different engines, they will actually end up being pretty similar to each other. The search engines are often able to detect when a site has created such similar pages, and may penalize or even ban this site from their index. Hence, instead of creating different pages for different search engines, create one page which is optimized for one keyword for all the search engines.
5) Using Hidden Text
Hidden text is text with the same color as the background color of your page. For example, if the background color of your page is white and you have added some white text to that page, that is considered as hidden text. Many webmasters, in order to get high rankings in the search engines, try to make their pages as keyword rich as possible. However, there is a limit to the number of keywords you can repeat in a page without making it sound odd to your human visitors. Thus, in order to ensure that the human visitors to a page don't perceive the text to be odd, but that the page is still keyword rich, many webmasters add text (containing the keywords) with the same color as the background color. This ensures that while the search engines can see the keywords, the human visitors cannot. The search engines have long since caught up with this technique, and ignore or penalize the pages which contain such text. They may also penalize the entire site if even one of the pages in that site contain such hidden text.
However, the problem with this is that the search engines may often end up penalizing sites which did not intend to use hidden text. For instance, suppose you have a page with a white background and a table in that page with a black background. Further suppose that you have added some white text in that table. This text will, in fact, be visible to your human visitors, i.e. this shouldn't be called hidden text. However, the search engines can interpret this to be hidden text because they may often ignore the fact that the background of the table is black. Hence, in order to ensure that your site is not penalized because of this, you should go through all the pages in your site and see whether you have inadvertently made any such mistake.
6) Creating Pages Containing Only Graphics
The search engines only understand text - they don't understand graphics. Hence, if your site contains lots of graphics but little text, it is unlikely to get a high ranking in the search engines. For improving your rankings, you need to replace the graphics by keyword rich text for the search engine spiders to feed on.
7) Not using the NOFRAMES tag in case your site uses frames
Many search engines don't understand frames. For sites which have used frames, these search engines only consider what is present in the NOFRAMES tag. Yet, many webmasters make the mistake of adding something like this to the NOFRAMES tag: "This site uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them". For the search engines which don't understand frames, this is all the text that they ever get to see in this site, which means that the chances of this site getting a good ranking in these search engines are non-existent. Hence, if your site uses frames, you need to add a lot of keyword rich text to the NOFRAMES tag.
8) Using Page Cloaking
Page cloaking is a technique used to deliver different web pages under different circumstances. People generally use page cloaking for two reasons: i) in order to hide the source code of their search engine optimized pages from their competitors and ii) in order to prevent human visitors from having to see a page which looks good to the search engines but does not necessarily look good to humans. The problem with this is that when a site uses cloaking, it prevents the search engines from being able to spider the same page that their users are going to see. And if the search engines can't do this, they can no longer be confident of providing relevant results to their users. Thus, if a search engine discovers that a site has used cloaking, it will probably ban the site forever from their index. Hence, my advice is that you should not even think about using cloaking in your site.
9) Using Automatic Submission Tools
In order to save time, many people use an automatic submission software or service to submit their sites to the major search engines. It is true that submitting your site manually to the search engines takes a lot of time and that an automatic submission tool can help you save a lot of time. However, the search engines don't like automatic submission tools and may ignore your pages if you use them. In my opinion, the major search engines are simply too important for you not to spend the time to submit your site manually to them.
10) Submitting too many pages per day
People often make the mistake of submitting too many pages per day to the search engines. This often results in the search engines simply ignoring many of the pages which have been submitted from that site. Ideally, you should submit no more than 1 page per day to the search engines. While many search engines accept more than 1 page per day from a particular domain, there are some which only accept 1 page per day. Hence, by limiting yourself to a maximum of one page per day, you ensure that you stay within the limits of all the search engines.
11) Devoting too much time to search engine positioning
Yes - I lied. There's another common mistake that people make when it comes to search engine optimization - they spend too much time over it. Sure, search engine placement is the most cost effective way of driving traffic to your site and you do need to spend some time every day learning how the search engines work and in optimizing your site for the search engines. However, you must remember that search engine optimization is a means to an end for you - it's not the end in itself. The end is to increase the sales of your products and services. Hence, apart from trying to improve your site's position in the search engines, you also need to spend time on all the other factors which determine the success or the failure of your web site - the quality of the products and services that you are selling, the quality of your customer service, and so on. You may have excellent rankings in the search engines, but if the quality of your products and services are poor, or if your customer service leaves a lot to be desired, those high rankings aren't going to do much good.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Update Your Content Daily
How many websites do you come across that have been developed, look great, have good content and are then left alone? These types of stagnant websites have all the appeal of a 3 month old news paper. This is true for the human visitor and also for the search engine spider. The solution is easy – update you website content daily.
Why daily? Search engine spiders and site visitors alike find new content relevant and compelling. It keeps them coming back for more! Having new content makes your site continually interesting and offers the user a new experience every time they visit.
Your content can include news about your company, your products, and your industry. Focus on keywords within all your written content but make sure it is used sparingly and is well balanced. Your new content should be unique – i.e. not copied from another source on the web. This way you will avoid any possibility of duplicate content penalties.Aim to write around 200 words of new content on a daily basis. Once you get into the habit of writing every day you will find it gets easier and easier. Search engine forums and information sites continually refer to the fact that ‘content is king.’ This is so true. It is arguably the most effective way to get your site highly ranked. This result for you is a constant stream of repeat visitors who are interested in you information and who constantly return to find out what’s new.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Press Release Power
From a search marketing perspective, this is one of the best ways of killing two birds with one stone. Besides getting exposure for your site, you are also creating web saturation. By having the possibility of your release getting picked up by multiple media outlets, you quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service, and ultimately, traffic to your site.
Being that the Internet has grown to being a social environment with the ultimate goal of personalization for each user, how can anyone get their message out?
With blogs, RSS readers and news aggregators becoming more popular, the user is becoming more selective to what they want to see. This is something every marketer should embrace.
Now, instead of spending thousands to blast an add that may only be relevant to 10 percent of your audience, you can now selectively target your audience and deliver your message.
Since the majority of us do not have Google's bankroll, we are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your site. This is where one can get onto a level playing field with the big spenders.
To demonstrate the power of the press release, take a moment to review some stats on a campaign that was conducted in early December.
PR Service: PRWeb.com
Price: $80.00 USD
(Note: - you can submit free press releases, but you won't have access to any tracking stats, and you lose some services.)
For the above mentioned fee, the $80.00 includes:
Properly Optimized, RSS/XML Feed, Next Day Distribution, ability to attach files, featured, listing appears on: Google News, Overture, eMediaWire, Yahoo News, Excite News, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Inktomi, MSN News, Lycos News, AskJeeves News, Feedster and Topix News
Quite the bang for your buck, eh?
The Press Release in question was for a free service, and it was geared for Christmas use, so keep that in mind as you review the information.
Reads: 88,380
(This number indicates how many times the press release was accessed from the PRWeb site and other distribution points where they have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists that have received the release through email.)
Estimated Pickup: 3,908
(This number estimates the number of times the press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not indicate how many times the story appeared in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest in the release.)
Now how many places on the Internet can give you those type of numbers for getting traffic to your site?
To try and get an accurate number for a "typical" Press Release, another release was submitted in March of 2005, for a new paid-for service.
Reads: 80,375
Estimated Pickup: 1,362
Still pretty impressive, even if it's just to get some traffic, or brand name exposure.
If you're serious about your business, $80.00 is easily worth the investment for this type of return.
-To your online success! This article was written by Paul Bliss, owner of www.SEOforGoogle.com
For more articles like this visit Premier Spot iMarketing.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Google Patent Application - Seo Highlights
The recent patent application filed by Google details numerous items the search engine uses to rank web pages. The specific application is summarized as:“A method for scoring a document, comprising: identifying a document; obtaining one or more types of history data associated with the document; and generating a score for the document based on the one or more types of history data.”The patent application sheds significant light for those pursuing search engine optimization with Google. Patent applications can be difficult to understand, so following are highlights that you should consider for your SEO efforts.Update Your SiteUpdating your site is important when it comes to maximizing your rankings on Google. In addition to the manipulation of keyword density and meta tags, the patent application reveals that Google places significant value on how often your content is updated. The more often you update, the timely and relevant your site will appear to Google. In turn, this leads to higher rankings.To appease mighty Google, consider the following plan of action:
1. Update pages frequently
2. Add new pages to your site
3. Interlink the new pages with others on your site, and
4. Add new pages on a weekly basis instead of all at once.
When Google returns to the site, you want to make sure that there is new content. The high rankings of blog sites are evidence of this approach. Google’s Looking at Your DomainIn a new twist, Google claims that it analyzes the number of years of domain registration as part of the ranking process. The application suggests that domains that are registered for longer periods of time are given more value because such a commitment shows the site is not a fly-by-night jump page. It is recommended that you extend all domain registrations for as long as possible as part of your search engine optimization efforts. It is difficult to tell how much the registration process impacts the ranking process, but every little bit helps. Google claims that it also digs deeper into domain names to evaluate the legitimacy of the site. Factors in the evaluation include the web host and the “who is” information. According to the patent application, Google maintains a database of hosts that facilitate spamming of the Google search engine. While such hosts are not detailed in the application, pray to God that you are not using one. You should evaluate your host if your optimization efforts are not producing results.If your search engine optimization efforts for Google are failing, the patent application may provide answers. Talk about a perfect E-book!
