Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Five Ways to Choose the Right Keywords and Have Your Website Hopping

Choosing the right keywords can really increase your website traffic by increasing your search engine ranking and by encouraging visitors to stay on your site and return to your site. Choosing the wrong keywords, though, can be disastrous. There are five simple ways to choose your keywords wisely and improve your web traffic.

The first, and perhaps the easiest, way to choose the right keywords for your website is to brainstorm ideas with regard to your individual goods and services. Sometimes simply the name of your goods or services will work as an excellent keyword. For example, if you offer writing services, consider “technical writing” as you keyword. Creating a page around “writing” may not get you the customers you deserve. Think specifically about what you offer and create a page to advertise it. Within this, though, you must remember to stay away from general keywords. The competition for these keywords is rather stiff.

Thousands of sites are optimized for words like “computers,” and doing the same thing with yours can simply make it redundant and hard for customers to find. Moreover, customers are more search savvy than you are giving them credit for. If a customer wants to find information on something specific, he or she will search for something specific.

For example, they may want to know about flea treatments for their cat, but instead of searching for “fleas” or “cat,” they may search for something more specific like a product name or type of treatment. If you feel you must use a general keyword, try taking a keyword and adding a more specific term to it. For example, if your key word is “cat,” try adding more specific terms like “behavior” or “specialist” to that for site optimization. With these general terms, you might also consider adding regional terms.

If you service a particular area of the country, you may have some regional terminology that will help customers find you. Names of nearby cities or towns can help as can terms that your customers know and respect. For example, if you run a sandwich shop in New Orleans, you might want to optimize for the term “muffuletta.”

The second way to choose the right keywords for your website is to use a service like Google Keyword Sandbox or Overture Term Suggestion Tool. This way to choose your keywords can be a bit time consuming, but in the end, it is certainly worth it. Start with either service, and you'll end up with a huge list of possibilities. Once you've finished with that service, pick another and try running the same search. See what keywords you have in common with the two lists.

The third way to choose the right keywords for your website is to check your server log files. When someone visits your site from a search engine, the words they used to find your site are recorded in your server log files. Analyzing the actual files, though, can take some work. You can use various methods to examine those files depending on your server operating system. It can sometimes be best to use a software program to extract the information if you are not technically inclined.

The fourth way to choose the right keywords for your website is to use a keyword counter service. These analyze your web page and compare them with other, similar web sites. They offer you a density percentage report and the top words for the two pages based on their analysis. Keyword counter services are available all over the internet in both free and costly forms. Choosing the right service for you will simply be a matter of reading the reviews.

The final way to choose the right keywords for your website is to review sites that have both similar missions and products with regard to yours. It is important to notice sites that have rankings within the top ten on any given search engine. The point here isn't to copy the site; it is to figure out which keywords they are using to draw in potential customers.

Choosing the right keywords can be both a difficult and a long process. However, if you pick the right terms, you won't regret it based on your increased web traffic.

How Search Engines Work - SEO | Search Engine Optimization



"Many people wonder how search engines really work. Although the details are complex, this article aims to give you some insight into the process without getting too technical. Read on…

Most search engines have three parts: a crawler, an index, and a search interface. Let’s look at each part individually, to get a better understanding of them. Each part has its own role to play in the process, with all the parts working together to make searches possible."

Friday, June 23, 2006

A Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing

A Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing

This is the cyberspace era of all times, so far. Many people have so much dependence on the web and artificial intelligence, which needs any more know-it-alls or geniuses. Almost everyone today has access to a computer or owns one. Everyone is surfing the web all the time all over the world. You don’t need to even leave your home to go shopping anymore. It is all right there for you on cyberspace.

These crafty machines are just about capable of anything. Most homes and/or businesses run the Internet these days. For most people there would be no point to even owning a computer with out it. The World Wide Web enables us to be connected to others all over the world at any given time. You have products and services at your immediate disposal 24/7. It doesn’t get more convenient than that. There are so many people out there with creative new businesses that have the stuff you all need that it is crazy. There really isn’t much the web can’t do for a person these days.

You can go to an online chat server and speak with anyone you want at any time. You can send a person mail that takes seconds to get to them, no matter where they are. Then you have the vast sea of documents and websites. This allows people to have access to a multitude of information that one just can’t find at a library. The Internet is its own personal hall of fame. It offers so much to everyone all the time. It makes life so much easier for so many people. Now it has even become a work and income source for so many people as well. So now with all the Internet’s glory, affiliate marketing was born.

This is an online strategy that promotes websites on the net. This scheme allows a person, called an affiliate, to make money by simply linking other people’s website to his or her own. It is truly a way to really make some good income from home. By creating a web page and linking others who are willing to pay you for helping them drum up business could and has proven to be lucrative.

The affiliate promotes a merchants site with a link on his or her own web page. The merchant’s products and services are promoted through the link. When a customer clicks on a link and makes a purchase the merchant gives the affiliate a commission. This is because that visitor found the link from the affiliate. The merchant and the affiliate will agree prior to the link being posted what the actual commission will be for a particular sale.

The affiliate needs to make sure that the product and services he or she is promoting have to do with each other. You want to have a targeted audience and be able to promote these products and services on the affiliate site. If an affiliate has several types of businesses to promote, they need to have their own sites independent on each other. This will keep things organized and only get the visitors who will generate sales. Make sure that all the pages you have are themed and easy to find on the popular search engines. You want to make sure that you are attracting potential buyers who are specifically looking for what your merchant or merchants’ offer.

To get this type of business going strong, one need the right tools to be successful. This will require the normal tracking software, follow-up manager, the websites, and so much more. It isn’t a quick buck like many people think it is. There is also a lot of free training for affiliates out there and can truly help with financial growth. The same online businesses that offer free training will be linked to your site so the money will come in faster.

There is a lot of room for growth with this type of business set up. Affiliate marketing can make anyone plenty of money if they do it right. This will be due to continual marketing efforts. The money will be assured to come in at the right time. Just hook up with the best feedback companies and you will be happy all the way to the bank.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

SEO Sitemaps Give Websites a Boost

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 and A9, 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.

Monday, June 12, 2006

A Beginner’s Checklist to Promoting an Online Business

The Internet is full of get rich quick schemes that promise to make you millions in online marketing success. Most of these schemes just end up costing you millions. Even the legitimate online marketing tools will hype up your potential. They will tell you what is possible but don’t let you know this takes sometimes up to a year to see. There is no secret that will bring you to the ultimate business success overnight.

As an independent business owner, you will need to be responsible for trying and testing various methods that work for you. This will take time to build and develop a solid and effective base that will produce any good results. What works for one business may not work for yours. This is very much a game of trial and error. There are a few free techniques you can and should look into. These will help you build a successful online marketing business.

Make and use your own personalized opt-in list of targeted and interested prospects. Give them a free newsletter with great and interesting content. Your reader will offer you feedback. They will tell you what they want to see and they will get to know you better and have trust in you. Once you have some credibility with the audience, you are going to be providing for the products and services will be taken more seriously.

Even your recommendations will go a long way once you have their trust. Join and participate with a discussion board or forum. You can easily establish yourself as a helpful person who is always willing to help. The members will come to know and trust you and discuss you with others and new people. This type of respect can go a long way in marketing. You will also be able to link your website to your signature for everyone to see. Think of every post as a marketing tool.

Find all the high targeted and popular search engines and directories for your specific market. Work to get listed on them and get a rating. There are tons of these sites out there for your marketing pleasure. You want to build your link popularity so your rating will increase and you will be listed as a good ranking site. You can link to other businesses like your own to be able to share traffic for targeted visitors and buyers.

You want to generate as much traffic you can. The more hits you get the better your rating is. Find a great editor and offer to give him and her your product for free. In turn ask for a review and/or an endorsement for your site and his or hers. These types of endorsements out beat any other type of ads. An editor is a known and trusted source, so people will believe what is said. You will want to get some testimonials as well. It is great that you like what you are selling, but it means more if the people you have sold it to like it. This will show potential buyers that your customers have been happy with what you provided them and will do business with you again. Testimonials will help you turn potential buyers into actual buyers.

Follow up with your prospects using auto responders. This will dramatically increase your profits because it shows you care about your visitors, list members, and customers. They will also save you tons of time in having to respond to so many people manually. To get some extra exposure for free do an ad swap with another editor who caters to your market. There are plenty of others interested in the ad swap of space deal. Join a web ring so you can link to other sites like yours and make an online community.

This will definitely generate a lot more traffic. Another great and popular marketing strategy is coupons or gift certificates. This will entice visitors to purchase now while the deal is on instead of waiting and taking the chance. Use a program that lets your visitors send your URL to their friends. Word of mouth is always the best advertising strategy. Display interesting and relevant articles on you site frequently to keep your visitor engaged and interested. These are a few helpful hints out of hundreds. It isn’t an over night success but with time and effort you can be a marketing whiz on the web.