Guide to make money online!

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination—your website—you need to provide them with effective signs that direct them right to your site by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the “Open Sesame!” of the Internet. Find the exactly right words, and presto! Hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or overused, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site—or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive—decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven’t followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It’s hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers’ understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By “quality visitors” I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn’t enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword “automobile companies.” However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword “automobile body shops” would rank lower on the popularity scale than “automobile companies,” but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase.

Let’s look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between “Seattle job listings” and “Seattle IT recruiters” which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties.

You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to your site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work—and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business’ rewards.

Here are several fixes you can do that will make your video readable by the search engines. Search engine crawlers read html very well, but not your video.

At the present time, Google’s freshbot crawler cannot read inside a video. You will need to help that little freshbot.

Consider these factors:

1. Make sure that you tag your video with keyword tags. Keyword tags is what you type into the search box to find what you need. The keywords might be “how to”, “video”, “strawberry rhubarb”, “baking”, “pie” if you did a video on how to make a strawberry rhubarb pie. You would not use the quotes around the keywords, however.

2. You have to give the search engines enough of a description to help them to determine what is in the video. Keywords must be used in this text. The crawlers can read html code extremely well, so tell them what the video says. Do a good job of summarizing the content of the video in a paragraph or more. It wouldn’t hurt if you printed out the text that you used to record the video, assuming that you didn’t free-wheel it. Surround your video with the text which is keyword rich.

3. Inbound links to your videos: Be sure to use keywords in your anchor text.

4. The title of your video is very important. Do some research. Look for a keyword phrase that has a small number of searches per day…about 3,000 to 5,000 searches per day. If you use those keywords in your title, you will probably rank very well.

5. Submit your video to Digg and Mixx which are social sites. Make sure that you check the box that says that this is a video.

6. Submit your video to RSS feeds. A good one to use is rssfeedsubmit. There are many others to choose from. Simply type in “rss feeds” into your search box. A number of choices will show up.

7. Another trick you need to do is add your full URL in the description area of your video. Make sure that you precede your description with your full URL when you type in your keyword rich description in to the video sharing site. Your full URL includes the http:// This allows people to go directly to your site if they find that they liked your video and want to see more of what you have to offer.

Video optimization has become more and more important as video becomes mainstream. You need to change the way you publish your video if you want to experience the full, search engine optimization, (SEO), effect of your video production. Consider what the web crawlers can read and adapt your publication accordingly.

In the paid search world, one of the most overlooked elements of campaign success is geo-targeting. For national advertisers, PPC geo-targeting is an absolute must; however, few are utilizing this tool to its full potential.

Unlike traditional media (such as TV or print) or display advertising online, paid search gives you (the advertiser) plenty of controls to reach your audience based upon their location. Furthermore, you have continuous control of these markets and campaigns. Paid search is not like a billboard run or TV spot that’s purchased months in advance (campaigns that are not easy to change once flight dates have been established). As a paid search advertiser, you have the control to make changes at any point.

While having controls over campaign changes gives paid search an advantage over traditional media, the ability to get granular with PPC geo-targeting is very valuable. With paid search, you’re able to reach a customer internationally, in specific countries, in specific states, in a certain city or DMA (Designated Market Area), or by coordinates around a particular point. This type of targeting capability is simply unavailable through traditional media avenues. The unparalleled quality of PPC geo-targeting options ensures more targeted and effective use of media dollars, eliminating media waste.

The Searching Efficiency of PPC Geo-Targeting

PPC geo-targeting lets you target two types of searchers: (1) the searcher who is within a given location looking for a general keyword and (2) the searcher who is searching with a geographic location included in the search query. For example, Jane is looking for a pet clothing boutique in Los Angeles. She may visit Google and search for “pet clothing stores.” In this search, she may see plenty of paid search ads, but what are the chances she’ll find an advertiser in Los Angeles?

Frustrated, Jane continues her search and tries searching for “los angeles pet clothing stores.” In this case, the search results are little more useful for Jane and she moves forward with her research.

This example demonstrates that to fully capitalize on search behavior, advertisers must be present during both types of searches; a search query with geographic location and a search query without geographic location. Your potential customers are searching this way, and you must ensure they can find your website through both avenues by testing general keywords with and without geographic locations.

All Markets Are Not Created Equally

PPC geo-targeting is also extremely useful for testing new and unique promotions per market. In many cases, many national paid search advertisers will roll out a new promo, new landing page, or new version of the website throughout the entire nation. However, by using the PPC geo-targeting capabilities of the search engines, the same advertiser could test only a couple of markets for performance, gauge results, then roll out to the entire nation. In this scenario, you are not crippling yourself in the event your new initiative doesn’t generate the results you anticipate. You can test first, learn, adapt, and execute initiatives that will generate proven results.

PPC geo-targeting is also beneficial for advertisers who provide services and sales, but perhaps not both to each market. For example, a computer parts shop sells product through its website nationally, but only provides services and performs repairs in its home city. In this case, the store can create multiple paid search campaigns, one set that targets sales, while the other set of campaigns target service, repairs, and installation.

Although trying PPC campaigns in test markets before rolling them out nationwide is extremely valuable, it’s also important to note that every market is not created equally. This is a common mistake that many of our clients’ previous SEM agencies make. How a keyword, ad, or landing page performs in Los Angeles isn’t exactly how it will perform in Atlanta. Yet, a majority of paid search advertisers have no way of knowing exactly how each market is performing on the media side, or with regards to conversion, sales, revenue, and ROI. Usually, an advertiser will make overall campaign changes to a poorly performing nationally targeted campaign, when in fact it’s only a couple of “rogue” markets that are negatively influencing results.

The Nitty-Gritty of Paid Search Success

To truly get this granular, an advertiser would need to geo-target and create unique campaigns per market. In this scenario, you can treat each market to its own ad copy, making the ad more targeted and qualified to the searcher. You can create a geo-specific landing page that aligns with your ad copy and resonates with your visitors. And, ultimately, you have greater cost controls over each individual market.

Some challenges associated with PPC geo-targeting usually involve campaign management. In the situation where an advertiser builds out a massive list of geo-targeted keywords, the management of this extensive list can certainly become a challenge. Think about all the different cities, counties, and zip codes you could associate with general keywords. Needless to say, building an extensive list like this will make the campaign management process a bit more challenging. Thankfully, there are campaign management tools and applications out there (ideal for your PPC geo-targeting needs) to help mitigate this issue.

So as you’re developing or having your SEM agency work on your campaign, keep in mind that there is an entire world outside of general keywords. This includes an extensive opportunity to find geo-targeted keywords for inclusion in your campaign. Also, where it makes sense, think of creating unique campaigns per top market. While a bit more management and time is required initially to learn the ins and outs of PPC geo-targeting tactics, the measurement capabilities and performance of creating geo-targeted campaigns are vital to any organization’s paid search success.

So you’ve put together a spectacular website, and you’re ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn’t know, there are a few essential requirements that every site needs to include in order to be successful.

Let’s review, shall we:

1. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer:

Now, I’m not a Lawyer and don’t claim to be one, but these two documents should be standard issue for every site you have. People want to know how you’re going to use their personal information, and a “privacy policy” does just that.

In today’s litigious society you’ll also need to include a disclaimer/terms of use page. This protects you and spells out to your visitors what they’re agreeing to by using your website. If you don’t know where to start in generating these documents, you’ll find plenty of help online.

• DMA Privacy Policy Generator http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG/
• OECD Privacy Statement Generator http://tinyurl.com/5plgpc
• Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator http://www.serprank.com/privacy-policy-generator/index.php
• Privacy Policy Generator http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/
• Free Site Disclaimer http://www.easyriver.com/free_disclaimer.htm

This is not legal advice, and if you need help in this department, consult with a local attorney.

2. Contact Us Information:

I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve been to that fail to include a way to contact the owner. If you can’t include a phone number, at the very least have an email address or a “contact us” form. By providing this information, you’ll make your visitors feel more comfortable knowing there’s a way to reach you should the need arise.

If you need a form and don’t know how to create your own, try one of these free form services.

• Bravenet: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/emailfwd/
• Freedback: http://freedback.com/
• Email Me: http://www.emailmeform.com/

3. Search Box/Site Map:

If your site is rather large, you’ll also want to include a way to search, or have what is called a “site map”. There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest being to use Google’s free service at- http://www.google.com/sitesearch/

or try PicoSearch: http://www.picosearch.com/

A site map sounds technical, but it’s just one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Another resource - FreeFind: http://www.freefind.com/

4. Google Analytics/Tracking System:

Once your site is up and running you’ll want to keep your eye on traffic. Who’s visiting your website, what pages are the most popular, where is the traffic coming from. All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good analytics program.

There are several ways to add a thorough tracking system to your site, but the easiest and one that won’t cost you a dime is Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ Once registered, you can add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. You’ll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and you’re done.

5. Newsletter Sign Up/RSS Feed:

There’s an old saying that people won’t buy from you the very first time they come to your website, so you need a way to stay in touch with them to bring them back again and again. By offering a newsletter, also known as an ezine, you’ll be building a list of possible prospects which is invaluable to any site owner.

You’ll find a multitude of free and low cost newsletter services online. It’s up to you, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you don’t want to pay anything, my favorite free services are:

FreeAutoBot: http://www.FreeAutoBot.com Yahoo Groups: http://www.yahoo.com/groups

You can also offer an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. This makes it easy for others to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is… FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

6. Consistent Navigation:

This might sound like a no brainer, but many folks get it wrong. No matter what type of menu system you decide upon, make sure it stays the same across the board on all pages of your site.

Your job is to guide your visitors through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they need to go.

For more see:

• Eye on Web: http://tinyurl.com/dyh9fm
• Web Page Mistakes: http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/

7. Search Engine Optimized Copy:

At first glance you might not think this is so important, but trust me it is. You want your pages to rank well with the search engines and there are a few steps you can take to ensure this happens.

Each page of your website should be optimized for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Weave the keywords into your titles and into the body of each page. You can also include them in your image titles, alt tags, even in the names you give your pages. Look at each page individually and decide what it’s about, then optimize accordingly.

For help see:

• MarketLeap: http://tinyurl.com/ce8ffd
• CopyBlogger: http://www.copyblogger.com/seo-copywriting/

8. Social Media Share Button:

With the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, you’d be foolish not to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

You’ll find many free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a “share button” to your web pages so that visitors can instantly share them with their friends.

To generate your own buttons see:

• AddThis: http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php
• TwitThis: http://www.TwitThis.com

9. Meta Tags:

Some may tell you that meta tags are dead. Don’t listen. Meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page. Many search engines will read them to pull a description to include in their search results.

Again, each page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description tags.

For help see:

• Submit Express: http://www.submitexpress.com/metatag.html
• Submit Corner: http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

10. Copyright Notice:

Sounds simple but forgotten by many. All pages should include a copyright notice. If you don’t want to have to update it manually every year, find a simple Javascript that will automatically do it for you. You’ll find one such script at:

• Uncle Jims: http://jdstiles.com/java/copyright.html

11. Trust Seals/Testimonials:

I grouped these two items together as they both instil trust and confidence in your visitors. Remember, when someone comes to your website, they don’t know who you are and if you’re selling something, they may not feel comfortable giving out their credit card information. To help them feel more “warm and fuzzy”, include trust seals for any organizations you belong to:

For example:

• iCop: http://i-cop.org/
• BBB: http://www.bbb.org/us/Business-Accreditation/
• Honest E Online: http://www.honesteonline.com/index.html

Also, if you have testimonials from happy customers, or ezine subscribers, weave them into your site copy. People always love to hear that others have had a happy experience with your products/services. Make sure you get permission first from the testimonial writers before placing them on your website.

So there you have it -my short list of what every site needs to succeed online. Now that you’re armed with this information, get out the magnifying glasses and take a close look at your own website to see what may be missing.

Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn’t going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google’s rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you’re a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google’s favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It’s one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies… or even search engines. Are Google’s days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled “New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google” the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can’t; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google’s dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing’s results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There’s a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: “Beware Google: Microsoft’s New Search Engine Isn’t Half-bad.” Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you’re not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google’s success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings… competition for Google’s first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What’s a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics… Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here’s why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records… video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it’s a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the “show options” link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the “Wonder Wheel” as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google’s search results.

Google’s Achilles’ Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google’s demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won’t go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a “David vs Goliath” scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

Search for a list of SEO factors and you’ll find that most feature at least 50.

That’s 50+ elements of your website that influence your ability to rank in search engines. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

Some SEO Consultants will tell you that ranking in search engines is about applying a precise formula to these 50+ elements - about using “special proprietary techniques” fine-tuned to search algorithms to boost your website above the competition.

Not exactly.

There are actually more like 200+ signals that search engines use when ranking websites.

Imagine trying to reverse-engineer something like that? Sounds impossible, right?

That’s because it is.

The good news: it doesn’t matter.

You don’t need to be a computer engineer to rank well in search engines. Relieving, isn’t it?

The truth is that everything boils down to three factors:

1. Search-friendly pages
2. Relevant content
3. A trusted website

All of those other factors and elements of SEO? They all fit into one of these three basic categories.

You don’t need to be a search scientist to understand the basics of what’s going on with these three factors and improve them for your website.

1) Search-friendly pages

Essentially, this first factor has to do with the technical aspects of how your website and pages work.

Search engines use crawlers (or “bots”) to browse the web by following links. As they browse, these crawlers scan the content they see and store it in databases. These databases form search engine’s web index - and when a user comes along and enters a search phrase the index is scanned for pages that match.

The basic idea: you want to make sure your pages, and the content that fills them, are visible to search engine crawlers.

There are a few things you should know about crawlers:

• They don’t support JavaScript - so that rollover menu, those drop-down links, etc, might not be visible to search engine crawlers.
• They don’t support Flash (mostly) - while there have been a few developments in this regard recently, Flash websites still aren’t too search engine friendly.

• They can’t “see” - sometimes designers use images instead of HTML text (usually because they want to use a certain font that isn’t web-safe), and search engine crawlers can’t read or index this text. Crawlers can only read code - and if your content isn’t found there it’s essentially invisible to search engines.
• They skimp on resources - it takes a lot of energy and time (and money) to crawl the web (there are a lot of pages out there) so crawlers are usually programmed to be conservative with how far they’ll dive into a page. If your web pages take a long time to load or feature a tremendous amount of content crawlers might leave without scanning/indexing everything.

There are some other things crawlers can’t/won’t do. To get a sense of what they can see on your own website try SEO-Browser.com. This tool allows you to enter the address of a web page and see it as search crawlers see it.

The bottom line: you might have the best content in the world, but if crawlers can’t see it you won’t rank for relevant keywords.

2) Relevant content

This factor is all about the words on your pages.

As we discussed above the visible content on your pages is stored and searched every time someone uses a search engine. If the keyword or phrase entered doesn’t occur on your page you probably won’t show up.

There are a few key places where you’ll want to use the right language on your pages:

• Title tags
• Headlines
• Body copy
• Anchor text (links pointing to internal pages)

As you browse the web you’ll probably notice that lots of webmasters have gotten a bit, shall we say, “overzealous” with optimizing their content. Title tags stuffed to the brim with dozens of keyword variations is common. Sometimes even the body copy itself is stuffed with keywords in an attempt to boost rankings.

You might be tempted to do this yourself to try and enhance your chances of ranking for a given keyword.

Don’t do it. Please.

Why not? Try reading a page that’s been stuffed with keywords this way. It’s an awful experience, right? Certainly enough to stop your reading flow and send you to another website, isn’t it?

Don’t sacrifice your user’s reading experience in the aim of ranking for a given keyword. It’s not worth it. All of the traffic in the world won’t mean a thing if the users who land at your pages are turned off and leave. Your competitors are just a few painless clicks away.

To learn about what keywords people use when they search for your products/services/info try Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool - enter either your website address or a keyword and this tool will return a list of related keywords including numbers on how many people search for them.

The bottom line: it’s rare to rank for a keyword that doesn’t occur on your pages so use the language your users do when they search. Don’t overdo it and stuff keywords, though, because you’ll annoy your visitors (and search engines don’t like it either - they might flag you as SPAM).

3) A trusted website

When you’ve got 1) search-friendly pages and 2) relevant content it’s still not time to sit back and let the search traffic pour in.

The truth is that most of your competitors will have looked into these factors already - they’re kind of the “low hanging fruit” of SEO, because they’re not usually terribly difficult to work out.

Trust is what sets you apart. It is by far the most important of the three factors.

Before Google came onto the scene using PageRank (a measurement of link popularity) to rank websites search engines generally based their rankings on the first two factors we’ve discussed.

What was the problem with that approach?

Webmasters are greedy. We can’t help ourselves. We love traffic.

Keyword stuffing was rampant, and rarely did webmasters stick to the honest truth about what their website was relevant to. The result: search results littered with SPAM, porn and just about anything with very little relevance.

The reason links were a better signal to Google was simple - it’s harder to game. While you can control the content/keywords on your own website it’s a lot harder to control it on someone else’s. It’s pretty tough to get someone to link to you against their will.

The model simply worked - Google’s results were better. The other search engines quickly caught on and looked to signals of trust for sorting through the SPAM.

Some signals that search engines use to determine whether they can trust your website:

• Inbound links - quality is more important than quantity here - that’s why those “500 directory links for $49.95″ deals are worthless. The easiest links to get are the least valuable/powerful. A single link from Google.com, for example, would outweigh tens of thousands of weaker links - that’s how much quality matters.
• Website age - if your website is new there’s not much you can do about it without a Delorian and a working flux capacitor (”Marty, the website is in place - now we gotta go back to the future!”). A website that’s been around for a while is simply more trusted by search engines.
• Who you link to - it’s not just about inbound links. Search engines also look at what websites you link to from your pages. If you’re linking out to SPAMMY websites selling Viagra, online poker or similar SPAM-saturated topics they might consider you part of that “bad neighborhood” and penalize your website. Be careful who you vouch for.

There are other signals involved, but if you’ve got these three trust factors working in your favor you’re very likely to dominate the competition.

The bottom line: search engines don’t like getting burned by ranking SPAMMY websites. They want to know they can trust your website. Once you’ve got your on-page factors right (#1 and #2 above) you’ll need to build trust signals before your website will rank competitively.

To many online marketers, getting a #1 listing on Google for your target keyword phrases is “heaven.” It does lead to many times more traffic than being even #2 or #3. If you’re not on the first page of Google, you may as well forget getting any significant traffic in many niches. At least you should plan on generating your traffic via other channels since few searchers look past the first page of search engine results.

Google the terms “joint venture expert” or “land for $100″ and you’ll see that I rank #1 for both terms and have for a VERY long time.

Yes, people do search on those terms, regardless of what you might think, and they both generate substantial incomes for me, but they are not my most profitable keywords. They are just keywords that I will use to prove to you that I have a clue about how to get top Google listings. You really shouldn’t listen to “experts” who can’t back up with they teach with proof.

Next, I invite you to try to reverse engineer what I did. Actually, I’ll share much of my secret process with you. Not all of what I do is very obvious.

Here are the things that I do:

1) I target specific, long-tail, buying keywords. It’s easier to rank for 3-5 word phrases, and people entering those phrases into the search engines are looking for something very specific. This is the traffic that you want to attract.

2) I use article marketing extensively to generate massive backlinks. All things being equal, the one with the most backlinks from relevant quality sites WINS.

3) I use video marketing, submitting to top video sharing sites using titles and descriptions optimized for my keywords.

4) I use pod casting, submitting my audios to numerous podcast directories, as well as offering them from numerous websites. People who hear your audio message, and click through to your site, arrive pre-sold on your and ready to follow your recommendations.

My pod cast submissions are also keyword optimized!

5) I use my keywords in anchor text on my blogs, and in article directories where allowed.

6) I generate a LOT of content, and repurpose that content regularly. I publicize that content on social networking sites, on other resource sites that allow me to publicize my content, and even in press releases.

For example, I post announcements of my updated content often to IMNewsWatch.com, TeleseminarNation.com and leading industry forums.

7) I use automation. If I had to hand submit all of my content I would only be able to distribute 1/10th as much. All things being equal, he who submits the most quality content wins.

I adhere to the rules and terms of service at the article, video, podcasts, and press release sharing sites. It does no good to get great rankings, only to be banned a few weeks or months later (having all of your content removed, and your work go to waste). I use 100% whitehat tactics.

9) I generate quality content. I does no good to throw garbage at the search engines. You’ll only attract non-responsive traffic (wasting bandwidth and giving you useless website traffic conversion statistics), and you’ll also eventually experience backlash. Write primarily for humans, but keeping good SEO in mind. The simplest way to do that is to use your primary keywords in your titles and descriptions, when creating and uploading content. Also be sure to use your primary keywords throughout your content.

10) I create external links to some of my content posted on sites OTHER THAN my primary sites. Linking to content that then links to your primary sites increases the relevance of external links from that content pointing to your primary sites. That helps the content on your primary sites rank higher longer. SEO experts call that “adding link juice!” If you don’t do this, you’ll often rank high for given keywords only for a few days, and then quickly drop in ranking. Adding “link juice” helps the ranking “stick.”

There you have it - how I get and maintain #1 Google rankings for tons of keywords that my buying customers search on regularly at Google. Model what I do, and you’ll get similar results.

The rage to milk money from Adsense continues into 2009. While there are many different ways to do this, it’s no secret Google is keeping a watchful eye on spam sites which automatically generate pages consistently on a daily basis.

Every now and then, Adsense ‘experts’ would introduce a ‘fresh’ new way of generating pages which Google “has not caught on yet”, be it article, directory or backlink generators.

While these software are very good at what they do, you can’t solely depend on them for long-term success. It’s a natural tendency that automatically generated content just doesn’t look like quality pages with highly informative, up-to-date content, but it’s my personal observation.

Most run-of-the-mill, ads-on-topfold Adsense sites lack substantial sections and deeper structures to be interesting enough to make visitors think they should come back to check them out more often. While generating as many pages as possible is crucial to get them indexed and thereby build substantial presence in search results, these types of pages should only complement principal content that reflects what your site stands for and the selling point it serves to maximize its overall value. There used to be a question that goes, “Is building Adsense sites a business?” My answer is: Adsense is secondary.

Of course, like you I do want Adsense to be my primary source of income. The secret is in emphasizing content and value, not Adsense ads. You may have felt resigned to say, “Does that mean more work?” Not really. Here’s another secret inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein: You can’t solve your Adsense income challenge at the same level of thinking.

Truth is: I have build a good number of Adsense sites, but my main Internet Marketing site which I treat as my core business earns more than some of them despite my intention not to make it Adsense-focused, all the more so when it has absolutely nothing to do with high-paying keywords and the tremendous amount of time that goes into keyword research…which leads to the next secret: create a site with a subject or niche you know you can continually express and expand on instead of getting stuck with a ‘lucrative’ keyword you may run out of ideas on in the long term.

This is as good as saying Adsense is not just a keyword value game; it is still the classic “How do I get and retain traffic” game, and traffic is not some scoreline, but real people with genuine interest.

eHow.com is an incredible example. It’s a free site that shows people how to do a lot of different things. The best way to explain the site is just for you to go have a quick look now. They have hundreds, possibly thousands of pages of content on all sorts of subjects and the way they get traffic to their site is through the search engines.

Every page on the site has an Adsense box on it and that’s how it makes money. They also have a Alexa traffic ranking of around 2000 which is great.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense to write or purchase that much content by yourself. eHow.com succeeds in getting its visitors involved in content contribution. There’s also a wikiHow to get contributors involved in constant update of a common topic or article.

For a start, here are suggestions on the type of sections you can integrate into a site:

1. Lead capture page with freebies or incentives
2. Article directory
3. A ‘Contact Us’ page
4. An ‘About Us’ page
5. Forum: The challenge lies in the time and effort needed to build up momentum to encourage forum participants to write in
6. An archive section of some kind, for selected articles for example
7. Blog/podcast pages
8. Reciprocal link directory
9. Sitemap

It doesn’t take much to think of these standard sections. Even a products section makes your site look good besides providing another source of income, and then you replicate these sections site after site, niche after niche.

4th secret: Only sites with a general theme can afford to be massive-looking. Examples: Entrepreneur.com and Dogomania.com. Then you break the theme down into specifics like gathering them under an umbrella: dog training, dog hygiene, dog naming, dog psychology, doggy habits etc. Accurate targeting of Adsense ads depends on specific subjects as reflected on page. One thing to note is it is better that specific sections are inter-linked in some ways. If you run a site on everything about cancer, because “colon cancer” and “breast cancer” are not intrinsically related, visitors interested in one section may not want to take a first glance at another.

5th secret about content: write from a ‘consumer’ perspective instead of the ‘opportunist’ or “how to make money” perspective. What is it your visitors are looking to buy? Ads normally target and appeal directly to consumers. It’s pointless to put up content about how to make money with car accessories when there are hardly ads on “how to make money”. Stick to introducing car accessories and let the ads do the selling. If an accessory or equipment catch visitors’ attention and they click on the ads, you got Adsense dollars.

That’s about all the ideas I have at this moment. You should be confident now and maybe have some more new ideas I haven’t thought of. For sure, Adsense is a major income source you should seriously explore and make it big if you haven’t done so. This is one of those money machines that will make you money-on-demand pretty much for the life of Google.

Article marketing continues to be a proven method for generating traffic to our websites and developing good search placement, even after all of these years. I have been reading articles online since 1995, and I continue to read a few dozen articles per week on subjects that are dear to my heart.

Some Claim That Article Marketing Does Not Work

Now and again, I will read a thread in a forum somewhere where somebody claims that article marketing does not work.

Some article-marketing critics will admit that they have only distributed only one or two articles. Well yeah, I can see why article marketing did not work for them - because they did not work at making article marketing profitable for them.

Article marketing is like any other method of advertising. If you don’t make a real investment in it, then you cannot reap great rewards from it.

The Marketing Rule Of Seven

Advertising professionals speak of the “Marketing Rule Of Seven,” which suggests that a consumer must see your marketing message at least seven times before they start to pay attention to your message. The pros also suggest that once seven exposures have been achieved, the consumer will make a subtle, subconscious connection to the advertiser. Recognition brings rewards, in that after seven exposures to an advertisement, consumers will start to feel as if they know enough about the advertiser to trust their sales message.

If television, radio and print advertisers understand that a company’s sales message must be seen or heard at least seven times, then why would you - the Internet marketer - think that you can write a single article and see the full benefit of the medium?

Successful Article Marketing Requires A Commitment To The Reader

All commerce on the Internet is driven by information, such as written sales messages and information about products and services. Some websites also benefit from generic information concerning topics that their potential clients will be interested in reading. For example, if a website sells plumbing supplies, the consumer may find the availability of information about how to remove the old fittings and how to install the new plumbing equipment, as an essential element of their purchase decision.

Article marketing when done correctly will not be a boring, blathering of search engine optimized keywords related to a product or service line.

Article marketing, when done well, will provide information that will be of real interest to the person most likely to buy what you are selling.

For example:

• If you are selling auction services, give the reader tips to help them make more money from the sale of their goods in the auction environment or how a buyer can find a good deal.
• If you are selling auto warranties, tell the reader how to uncover the best value in an auto warranty plan and what features to seek.
• If you are selling resume services, give the reader advice on how to write their own resume.

Article marketing when used well can help a company establish itself as an expert in the field, and it can help show a reader why hiring the author’s service might be better than a do-it-yourself project. As an example, with the resume advice article, once the reader sees how comprehensive your knowledge is and how detailed a resume should be, the reader may just decide that using your resume writing service will be much more productive than the do-it-yourself resume.

Just Like Lawyers, Writers Specialize Too

Beyond the cost of labor, content development is usually the second most expensive expenditure made by the online vendor. It is important to note that just as there are lawyers who specialize in one area of law, there are also ghostwriters who specialize in certain types of content creation.

People who write sales copy are referred to as “copywriters.” Copywriters are people who understand the nuances of how to make people buy what you are selling.

They understand that replacing a single word in the sales copy could mean the difference between lukewarm sales numbers and red-hot sales numbers, and they know which words to change.

Some professional copywriters have a proven track record of writing sales copy that has generated millions of dollars in sales - people such as Frank Kern, Dan Lok, and Joe Vitale. These guys know the value of their copywriting skills, and they charge accordingly. If you ask them to write sales copy for you, don’t be surprised when they quote you a price in the range of $5-20 per written word.

Other writers might specialize in writing books, brochures, and articles. Some writers specialize in the smaller word counts, like the folks who write greeting cards and book jackets.

Finding The Best Writer For Your Needs

The kid down the street who writes part-time for the newspaper may or may not be the best person to write your online articles for you. One reason is that people who write for offline publications seldom appreciate the importance of keywords in an article for search engine marketing purposes.

Note this article for example. Our purpose is to show you how you can use article marketing as a successful marketing tool for your business. We also want to show how the articles should appeal both to the reader and the search engine algorithms.

With these thoughts in mind, when you are finished reading this article, read it a second time to see how many variations on the following SEO keyword phrases can be found in this article: article marketing, search engine marketing, keywords, advertising, content creation, writers and copywriting. Of course, copywriting is not the kind of writing we do, but people who do not understand the specialization of writing skills might type “copywriting” or “copywriters” into their favorite search engine to find someone who writes informational articles.

One never knows precisely what the public will use as their search keywords when they go to the search engine to find information. That is the very reason why a good online article writer must strive to showcase a range of similar keywords within the context of an article.

Your Article Marketing Strategies Influence Your Overall Success

We know that some people tell you that the only reason to write an article is to get a link back to your website. What most of these people don’t tell you is that most websites that accept reprint articles do so, only after a human has reviewed or at least scanned the article.

An article that does not read well will never be published on a top-tier website. Yes, some websites may accept a poorly written article, but more sites will only accept well-written articles.

A reader who is not impressed with your article will seldom reach your resource box, so the link back in the resource box can only give value to your website from the search engines - maybe. The search engines generally only give value to articles on good websites or those placements that have lots of links pointing to the article within the website. Bad articles don’t get published on good websites, and they do not attract links.

As the Marketing Rule Of Seven should indicate, multiple articles generate a long-term wave of new links and potential visitors to your website.

Consistency is also important to a successful article marketing campaign, in that releasing weekly articles will enable your readers to see your marketing message regularly.

Finally, the smart use of a variety of related keyword phrases will strengthen the ability of your article to appeal to the search engines and the people who use them.

If you can balance the needs of your article’s audience against your need for search optimized content, then you can benefit handsomely from your article marketing campaigns.

Do you have a WordPress blog? If so, one of the best ways to increase the traffic to your blog is by applying search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. In this article we will go over 7 simple things that you can to do increase your traffic from the search engines.

1. Make sure that your permalinks are set up optimally for SEO - whenever you publish a blog post it will have a permanent URL known as a “permalink”. By default the WordPress permalink setting is not optimal but you can easily edit this by clicking on the Settings->Permalinks menu in the WordPress dashboard and then use a custom setting http://yourdomainname.com/category/postname. This will mean that your blog post category and title will appear in the URL rather than a number.
2. Install the All in One SEO Pack (or a another similar plugin) - the All in One SEO Pack plugin allows you to add a custom title, meta description and keyword tags for your home page and blog posts.
3. Optimize each blog post for a low competition long tail keyword phrase - before you make a blog post take some time to do a little keyword research. Visit the Google Adwords Keyword tool and use this to find a long tail keyword phrase that has a low amount of competition. Ideally this phrase will have just a few hundred monthly searches rather than a few thousand monthly searches. Use a different keyword phrase for every blog post that you make and put the keyword phrase in the blog post title and 2-3 times throughout the post.
4. Use Social Bookmarking services to bookmark each blog post - whenever you post to your blog use a social bookmarking service e.g. Digg or StumbleUpon. There are also services such as OnlyWire and SocialMarker that will let you submit your site to multiple bookmarking services at the same time. Social bookmarking can get you additional traffic to your blog and give you a backlink to your blog post.
5. Optimize the home page of your blog - it is normal for the home page of your blog to get more traffic then any of the other pages. You can increase the number of visitors even more by optimizing your home page. Choose one or two keyword phrases for the home page of your website using the free Google Adwords Keyword tool. If possible try to choose prases that are not too competitive, but still have a good few thousand monthly searches. Ensure that you include these keyword phrases are mentioned in the TITLE tag, meta description and throughout the permanent content of your blog home page.
6. Install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin - this won’t increase your search engine rank, but having a sitemap will help to ensure that the search engines index all the posts and pages of your blog. You can use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to create a sitemap for your blog.
7. Build links to your blog - building links back to your website is the surest way to improve your ranking in the search engines. If you ignore this it will be very difficult to get a good level of visitors from the search engines. You can build links using article marketing, directory submission, forum posting, commenting on other blogs, press releases, link exchange and social bookmarking.

A website for any business aims at attracting web traffic and the goal of that website is to get visitors interested enough to stay and be converted to a customer. To succeed in this goal, your website and each page therein must be created to flow together.

It must gel to retain the attention of visitors and make them want to explore. To create this want in your web visitors you have to make it as easy as possible for them to find the specifics they are looking for. If visitors become fixated on a single element on your webpage this spells trouble.

Global grapevine

If they cannot easily find what they want, this will frustrate them. The last thing you need is for your website to be remembered negatively. If your traffic likes your website, they will talk about it. The Internet is a global gossip-monger and good gossip will bring more traffic to your site. Gossip, word-of-mouth and the bloggers can spread the word faster than wildfire. Placement of content is critically important.

Visitors must be able to see certain elements at first glance; therefore your page must be designed in such a way that visitors immediately spot the basics. Remembered that no matter how much effort you put into your contents, optimisation strategies and marketing, if visitors cannot navigate easily, they will leave.

Navigate traffic into customers

Easy and functional navigation is the glue that holds all your efforts together. Easy and logical navigation can be set up in several ways. You may opt for a permanent navigational toolbar or have navigation links at the side, bottom or at the top of the page. All of these work well as long as the criteria of easy navigation is adhered to. Your navigation must literally be simple enough for a child to use.

It does not matter who your web traffic is or whether they are highly educated, young or old. Navigation must be simplistic; your business depends on this. Keep in mind that people who use the Internet have experienced the good and the bad of navigation, they know how easy it should be and they demand this.

Effort is worthwhile

If all the elements on your page gel it becomes very easy for visitors to see exactly what you have to offer. They relax, become comfortable and will linger. They will spend time looking at other products as well that catches their eye. This means they will be far more interested to click through your website and this is exactly what you want them to do. This is page optimisation other than keywords and textual content and cannot be neglected.

This is when all that time and effort you spent in designing a perfect page that gels really start paying dividends. You are in business to make money; the internet is the most competitive market on earth so no business can afford to alienate potential customers. Your website is your only window to showcase your products and services. It is in your own hands whether you blow it or gain the customers that means success.

When you are involved in an internet marketing business, it is necessary to learn get enough traffic for your site. Most website owners are having a difficulty gaining and maintaining their traffic, and if you're one of them, it's time to pay attention to the tips below, find out which one works best for you, and start earning megabucks from your increased traffic.

A well optimized article is a good way to increase traffic for an internet marketing business. Article marketing is a form of link building that has grown popular to grab more traffic. All you have to do is to first find out which keywords are very popular, write articles about it and optimize your site through SEO or search engine optimization. As internet surfers look for those keywords using the search engines of Yahoo or Google, your website will belong to the listed websites falling under the same keyword and may be visited by those doing the search. Keep in mind to use only the right keywords and to continuously write articles for your keywords.


What to Avoid When Writing Articles

Limit the number of your keywords in the body of your article and do not overdo it. Most internet marketing business owners often make the mistake of writing the keywords in almost every line of every sentence of their article in the hopes of getting a higher page rank from search engines. But these search engines actually have rules and if you exceed their keyword use limit, that page could be removed from the ranking.

So, what can you do then? You can make the most out of your keywords and description by using Meta tags. Webbots often utilize the very first 200 characters of a websites body for the description. The description is the "teaser" of your page which can be seen in search engine results page, and more often this determines if the one doing the search may want to visit your site or not. You may also list down your keywords in the meta tags to make your site come up in the results.

Other Options to Increase Traffic

Your internet marketing business may also get more traffic as you submit your URL to major web directories. This helps improve the number of links going to your site which can convert to sales. You may also obtain a link from major search engines. You can also give out your URL when leaving meaningful comments in complementary blogs, forums, discussion groups, and etc. If readers find your comment interesting, then he could link to your site and increase traffic.

Convince those who own a complementary site to provide a link to your site. This is a way of sharing with the traffic that their site gets. Let's say for example your internet marketing business deals on beach resorts, you may collaborate with travel companies to have them place a link for you. You may complement the link they give by also linking to them. Links convert to traffic and clicks for your site, which can contribute to your rank in the search engines.

Do affiliate marketing. This is the best way to get free links and ads for your site that is free of charge and at no risk at all.

Promoting your site by spreading it through word of mouth to your friends and their circle of friends is also effective. Do not forget to place your URL on those business cards and letter heads.

Despite all the preaching by SEO consultants, the untold articles and journals about the whole world of search engine optimisation, too many people still think you can add SEO afterwards. People spend inordinate amounts of money on the most lavish and expensive web design they can afford and when the launch comes nearer, they want an optimiser to get their website ready quickly so that it will rank well in the search results pages.

When this scenario happens as it happens around the world each day, SEO consultants want to leap off bridges. This may sound melodramatic, but it is fact. Businesses spend months and large amounts of money and then they are furious when an SEO consultant tells them they can’t launch. Then, when told it is now going to take time and huge effort to optimise the website that will involve significant expenditure, website owners do not like to hear that at all.

Do not build backwards

Anyone who still thinks Search Engine Optimisation can be added as an afterthought once the website has been designed is buying a heap of very expensive trouble. When designing a website from scratch as well as redesigning a website, the optimiser must be part of the team from the start. Think about this logically. You get a professional architect to draw up the plans for your new home and start building.

Then when the walls and floors are in place you realise you forgot to make provision for electricity cables and the plumbing needed for that smart bathroom. Yes, anything is possible, but you are going to have to tear that nearly completed house down. That is going to be the only way to make changes. Now swop house for website and the principles are exactly the same. You are going to have to reconstruct your website, it is going to be time-consuming and expensive to rectify and include optimisation.

Emergencies do crop up

The message being conveyed here is yes, it is possible to rectify mistakes after the fact, but it is far more cost and time effective to do it right from the start. Bringing in the SEO for a new websitewe should never be an after the fact decision, it should be part from the word go.

Do it right from the start

Yes, it is possible to optimize a website that is already constructed, this is not impossible. If a website is not ranking well enough in the search engines it is possible to overhaul the website. It is possible to optimise it strategically to boost ranking. It can happen that due to competitors or changing keywords that websites need extra optimisation. If business finds itself in this position, the expense and time to have their website re-optimised is worthwhile. With SEO on-board from the beginning, the whole layout of the website will be determined and shaped through Search Engine Optimisation practices. This will impact on website copy, the number of pages, design, coding and development. Launching a successful website is collaboration.

It is not necessary to know the ins and outs of how Google works and how Article Marketing influences search engine listings to see positive results from your article submissions.

You can progress and see the benefits if you write articles on the topic of your website, submit articles consistently, and craft strong titles and resource boxes.

However, you must know that Article Marketing is inextricably linked with SEO, and when you’re feeling up to it there are some more advanced things you can do to with your articles that will capitalize on the SEO benefits of Article Marketing.

How Do Google and Article Marketing Interconnect?

When you have a website, all marketing tools are employed with the end goal of driving traffic to that website. The traffic can come from multiple sources, but the primary traffic hubs are search engines such as Google.

Link Building is something that website owners undertake to increase their search engine ranking. When I say ’search engine ranking’ I mean where the website shows up in search results when someone Googles the website’s keywords. By building links from other websites going back to your own website, your can get a higher search engine rank. An increased search engine ranking for your major keywords can of course build traffic dramatically for the long-term.

This is where Article Marketing steps in–it is a tried and true tool for building links and driving traffic to a website over the long term. By being aware of how SEO interacts with Article Marketing, you can leverage your articles more effectively and fine tune your results. You can also develop realistic expectations, which will help you keep your motivation and momentum going.

This collection of resources is for anyone who wants to maximize their success with their article submissions. The first section “Getting Started” is for everyone–even if you don’t know anything about SEO or Google or the internet. Just read the resources under that section, and if you like you can save the rest for when you’re ready to bite off a little bit more.

The other sections are for folks who are ready to spread their wings and start learning about keywords, link building, basic SEO, and how search engines work. I hope you find these resources helpful!

One of the most common areas of confusion is exactly how Article Marketing works to drive traffic to a website. The answer probably has more levels than you would think, and a better understanding of how Article Marketing works can help you know what to expect.

Recently I received this question from a reader:

“I have asked several “experts” this question and not been convinced of the answers. My question is in relation to the tactic of using article marketing to drive traffic. If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories? If keyword searches in article directories do not display information in the market niche can one assume that this format in not applicable to the niche?”

Those are some great questions–let’s go through them one by one…

“If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories?”

Yes, there is–Although people may find your articles on an article directory, Article Marketing drives traffic to a website primarily through an increase in search engine ranking for your website’s keywords.

An increased search engine rank can build traffic dramatically for the long term.

For example, if a person does a search on Google, Yahoo or any other search engine for the keyword terms associated with your website, and if your website comes up high in the rankings (say #1 or #2 or somewhere in the top 10, which would put it on the front page of results listings), then you will receive more traffic to your website than if your site appeared lower in the rankings.

Put yourself in the position of a search engine customer–when you do a search for something on Google and other SEs, you tend to just look at the first page of results–rarely would anyone go through 5 or 10 pages of results.

If you get past the 2nd page and you still haven’t found the info you’re looking for, most people will simply figure that they need to use different search terms. They will start over typing different words into Google’s search box.

So, any website that shows up on the first page of results in Google or any other search engine will have a marked advantage in getting more traffic.

This is why people do article marketing–by consistently submitting articles on the topic of your website, you build links to your website and also are able to create a library of niche specific content that is linking back to your site (each time your article is republished, your resource box will be also, and that is how you build the links).

So, let’s go back to your question–”If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories?”

Yes, because even if your target market is not doing searches on a particular article directory, they are most certainly doing search engine searches (on Google, Yahoo, etc).

Your article marketing campaign is meant to elevate your search engine rankings for your keyword terms, thereby sending you more traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc.

If keyword searches in article directories do not display information in the market niche can one assume that this format in not applicable to the niche?

I hope I’m understanding your question correctly, and please correct me if I’m not–but if you’re asking what I think you’re asking the answer would be “no”, because again the place where your target market would be doing keyword searches would be in search engines like Google. Whenever someone does a search for a keyword term in Google there will always be a result–your object is to have your website rank highly in the results in Google.

On the article directory itself, you will submit your article to the category that best matches your topic. Most article directories will have an assortment of general categories, and you would pick the one that matches most closely (for example, if your topic was ‘dogs’, you would choose the ‘pets’ category).

I wouldn’t worry so much about how things are arranged on the article directory itself.

The article directory is not the end of the line–it’s just the beginning.

The article directory is the hub from which publishers will find your article and then republish it on their sites (thereby building even more links to your site).

So, when you submit an article to a directory, you are not just building one link–you are placing your article on the free market in a location that is a hive of activity.

Lots of publishers use free reprint articles on their sites, and they go to various article directories (or do a search on Google) looking for articles that are on the topic of their particular website. So, putting an article on a directory is not the end result–the article directory is a means to an end.

It’s basically like placing a product of yours in a busy store where everyone can see it. The store gets traffic from many places–some of the traffic is just people stopping by spur of the moment, but other traffic comes from more targeted sources–from an ad the store placed in the newspaper or on TV.

So, bringing it back to Article Marketing–the article directory is the store, and the article is like your product.

You will get people looking at your article simply because they came to the directory and were searching on the directory for certain types of articles, but you will also get people who came to your article via a search on Google.

The proper term for the process is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a combination of two major components. First, you must learn how to tweak your web pages so that the search bots find your content to be search engine friendly. Once you have set up a search friendly site, the next component is to build back links. But before diving straight into SEO, you must first know which keywords to target.

Choosing Your Target Keyword Phrase.

Many new Internet Marketers make the mistake of choosing the wrong keywords to target. So what makes a keyword inappropriate?

Your ideal keyword phrase should be around three to four keywords. - If you are targeting a word like “music”, you may find that you may not be able to rank for anything. That is because the keyword itself is too general. Whether you are looking for someone to sign up as a member, download a song, or buy something from you, you want to be sure that you are matching the right offer to the right audience. In other words, you are looking for targeted traffic. So instead of choosing a keyword like “music”, a keyword phrase like “local music bands” would be a much better choice.

Use a keyword research tool to make sure that the keyword will bring you traffic. - If you are targeting an obscure keyword that nobody ever uses, you may just be wasting your time and resources. Google offers a free keyword tool that will give you a good idea on which keyword phrase to choose. The tool reveals estimated search traffic, as well as the level of competition.

But don’t be over-reliant on keyword tools to help you find keywords. As a business owner, you should be very familiar with the market. Know who your target customers are. That will help you find and locate valuable keywords that no one else would’ve thought of.

Choose keywords with a fair amount of competition. - Some marketers believe strongly that keywords with little competition are easier to rank. Therefore, it makes sense to target those keywords. But if you are setting up an online business, you want to be in an active market. In other words, the best keywords are those with a fair amount of competition, but are not overly saturated. A fair amount of competition is a good indicator of the value of a keyword phrase. You stand a much greater chance of success if you target those keywords.

Setting Up a Search Engine Friendly Website.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a geek to learn how to tweak your sites. Most content management systems are SEO friendly, and the best part is, most of them are free. The popular ones include Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and DotNetNuke. Your web pages will be search friendly when they are hosted on these systems. But if you really want to learn the basics, make sure that you implement the following.

If you are tweaking your site manually, there are two important things that you must implement. First, always make sure that your target keyword phrases are included in the title tags. Use them in your META keyword and description tags as well. Next, use a search engine friendly file name such as “your-keyword-phrase.html”. You can easily rename your html files using any text editor.

Manual tweaks can be implemented easily if you have a small site. But if you are thinking of growing the website into a huge site, you should consider using a content management system (CMS). If you are using a CMS, be careful not to overload the site by installing too many unnecessary plug-ins. Remember that your primary goal is to make it easy for the search bots to find your web pages, and to determine the overall theme of the content. By installing too many unnecessary bells and whistles, you are making it more difficult for the search bots to do their job. For that reason, you often find that hassle free templates tend to work better than fanciful ones. Don’t overcomplicate things. The golden principle here is to keep things simple.

When you are satisfied with the design and content, it’s now time to let the world know about your site.

Link Building with Articles.

There are many ways you can build back links to your site. You can post entries on blogs, submit links to Web 2.0 properties, submit URLs to a bunch of web directories, or write and distribute press releases and/or articles. You can use a combination of these methods if you have the time and resources, or you can keep your focus on just one - such as article marketing.

Article marketing is one of the easiest methods to get well established websites to link to you. These are authority sites that have been around for years, and you can get hundreds (maybe even thousands) of one way back links from these sites. One way back links means links that point to your sites, but you don’t need to reciprocate and link back to the external sites.

Every article you write allows you to include two to three simple text links at the bottom of the article. Here is when things get interesting.

In the “eyes” of the search engines, every link from an external site to your website is counted as a vote. In other words, the more back links you have pointing to your site, the better your site will rank. Of course, these can’t be any back links. They have to be links from authority sites and relevant web pages.

Now you already know that there are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet that are recognized as authority sites by the search engines. All you have to do is to create relevant content, put your links at the end of the articles, and submit them to the article directories. When they are approved, your articles get published online, and you get a bunch of high quality links pointing to your site.

What you really need to know here is that you must be careful about what you include as the anchor texts for your links. Anchor texts are words that you place within the HTML link tags. For instance, instead of having your links as “Click here”, make sure that you create links that say, “Your Keyword Phrase”.

This is how the search engines determine the theme and relevancy of the content on your website. The assumption here is that if there are a thousand links from external sites “saying” that your site is about “green aliens”, then perhaps your site is really about “green aliens”.

Write on topic, and include your target keywords as anchor texts. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to Expect After Your Articles Have Been Published.

If you website is brand new, don’t expect to see miracles overnight. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks for a new website to pick up speed. If you have done everything right (choose the right keywords, optimize your site, and pick the right anchor texts), then your site will appear in the search index in about three weeks. Initially, it will appear in page 5 or 6 in the search results. That is a very good sign.

In another two week’s time, your website will move up to page 3 or 4. Don’t rest on your laurels and stop writing and distributing articles. Keep up with your link building campaigns. If you have chosen the right keywords, you should be able to rank in about 6 weeks. For highly competitive keywords, it may take longer.

Your goal is to at least get your site to rank on page 1 on the major search engines. Once it emerges on page 1 of the search results, you will be receiving a steady stream of highly targeted traffic from the search engines. Do your part by serving your visitors well by publishing valuable content or offering killer products. You will soon be enjoying the handsome rewards.

This month’s column was going to be about Facebook. I had about half of it written before I stumbled upon something unexpected that changed my mind, and the content below.

I’ll start from the beginning. I’m in the early stages of gut renovating my apartment. I’m very handy, and can do most of the work myself, including rough carpentry, drywall, and finishing work. I can even do moderate plumbing and electric. The former I am actually quite comfortable with, the greatest risk being flooding my downstairs neighbors (they are very nice people, and I’m sure they’d understand).

Electric work carries considerably greater risks, like fire, and death. The latter is a pretty big risk. My last electrician offered advice on this topic, and told me that if you grab a live wire with one hand you’ll be fine, as the electricity will complete the circuit through your hand. It’s when you grab it with both hands that you’re in trouble, as then the electricity completes the circuit through your chest. I found his theory intriguing but controversial. Regardless, I can’t do either plumbing or electric work in the city of New York, as building codes prohibit it. So I’m in need of a good plumber and electrician.

Though they must exist, I know implicitly that there is no way to find a good plumber or electrician in New York City. It simply can’t be done. I can find a plumber, any plumber, no problem. My Google query for “New York City Plumbers,” for example, returned 14,700,000 results. (How is that even possible)? But finding a good plumber, one who will show up on time and provide an estimate with fewer than five digits, can’t be done.

This is where I thought I would start writing about Facebook, and the opportunity Facebook has to corner the local search and services market. No one out there is doing this well — not the major engines, not the IYPs, not even the new(er) social search and recommendation engines like Yelp.

I was wrong about that last part, and I’ll return to this in a moment. The problem with local search is not in getting accurate listings, that’s easy. The challenge is in getting relevant reviews on those listings.

In order to do this, you need two key ingredients. The first is scale, as in a massive, active user base willing to inform objective business listing with subjective opinions. The second is relevance, as in some way to ensure the reviews you are reading are not written by shills, angry ex-lovers, or crazy people.

Facebook can address both of these challenges: It has a massive user base, and it’s networked, which provides all kinds of useful ways to vet the trustworthiness of a reviewer’s opinion. If Facebook jumped into the local search space I believe they could corner the market. But I think Yelp has actually beaten them to it.

I was going to put Yelp in my original column as an also-ran. My original thoughts were that Yelp did not have the scale to capture this opportunity. It was in digging around on Yelp looking for examples to prove my point that I realized I’d misjudged it. Yelp does have scale. Though not nearly that of Facebook, Yelp has almost 8 million monthly unique users (according to comScore), and has doubled its user base over the last year.

Yelp can scale content, too. I found a variety of listings for New York City plumbers and electricians (not 14.7 million, but enough) with ratings that looked plausible (i.e. not all five stars). And Yelp has a pool of users that seems, well, not crazy. That is, they seem to make rationale critiques and rate services appropriately (unlike some travel review sites that shall remain nameless). You can vet the reviewers’ quality by clicking on their profile, and their community is even self-policing, calling people out when they seem like phonies, and knocking them back in line when they stray from the site’s main purpose - real reviews about real services.

It was at this point that I realized I had to rework my column and develop a new conclusion. So I’ve revised my point of view. Facebook should not build its own socially powered local search engine; it should just buy Yelp. This combination makes both companies better. It would instantly propel Facebook into the local search space with the backing of an active reviewer base and a proven service model. And Facebook’s scale would rocket Yelp from niche to mainstream, making a good service even better by combining reviewer opinions with vetting via the social graph.

So Yelp, if Facebook calls you up on Tuesday and makes you an offer, you know who sent them. But I’m not greedy. In fact, in return for encouraging a nine-figure liquidity event in your favor, all I would ask is that you pay my plumbing and electric bills. You may think you’re getting off easy, but you haven’t seen these estimates.

One of the most often asked questions I get concerns whether an author should write articles for search engines or for actual human readers.

I recently received this question from a reader:

“What I really want to figure out is what type of content will bring the readers to my website and then convert them into buyers and also, do I really need to keep using different variations of saying the same thing over and over to please the search engine spiders?”

Good question–The answer is that ideally you would write content that is helpful to your target market, but that is also optimized to catch the attention of search engines.

Easier said than done, eh?

It can seem like a perpetual tightrope to walk–what do the search engines want to see -vs- what will appeal to my target market–, but I encourage you to relax and not over think things.

Article marketing is a work in progress, something we do continually over the lifetime of our websites and, as with any skill, we can improve our writing and naturally increase in our skill without the pressure to be the absolute best writer/article marketer on Day 1.

This is a process, and instead of getting bogged down in trying to do things perfectly (not really sure if there is a “perfect” way to do things anyway :-)), it’s helpful to focus on starting where you are and then improving over time.

I’d like to go over a few approaches you can take when you’re trying to meld the needs of your human readers with the desire to appeal to search engines.

Write an attention grabbing title.

Now, what is attention grabbing for a reader is not necessarily the most attention grabbing for a search engine, right?

Readers respond to imagery and emotion, and a search engine is looking for semantically related words to indicate what a particular webpage (or article) is about.

There are a few approaches you can take when trying to craft a great title:

*Be certain that your title reflects specifically what your article is about.

This means that you won’t just make your title be your keywords, but you’ll make your title be more engaging and more specific.

For example, if I were submitting an article, I would not simply make my title be “Article Marketing”. That may tell a search engine what my article is about (in a very general sense), but it isn’t very helpful or captivating for human readers.

Also, if your keywords include a geographic location, such as “New Jersey Personal Trainer”, you wouldn’t include anything about New Jersey in your title unless your article was specifically about personal trainers in New Jersey.

Does that make sense? Your article title must reflect what your article is about, and any promise you make in your title must be delivered upon in your article body.

A compromise…

Option #1:

Now, this won’t work for everyone, but depending on what your keywords are, you may have the option of having the best of both worlds by including your keywords in your article title and also having wording that appeals to people.

Let’s say my keywords are Article Marketing and my specific article is about how to write your first article–I can simply make a title like this:

Article Marketing: 7 Fast and Easy Steps to Writing Your First Article…Even If You’re Not A Writer!

You’ll notice that I included my keywords at the front of the title, and then used a colon (:) to lead into a more exciting headline.

Option #2:

Like I said–the above technique won’t work for everyone, as sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to include your keywords at the start of your article title. So, here’s another approach:

Write your article on the topic of your website (as usual).

Then try to create an article title (if and where possible) to match what people are searching for, using the Wordtracker tool to help.

For example, I might write an article about how using an outline can help you write an article faster.

Use long tail key phrases as article topics.

Long tail key phrases are the longer search terms that a search would type into Google to find information on a topic in your niche. Your main keyword phrases will usually be between 1-3 words long, but your long tail key phrases can be 4, 5, or 6 words long. Your main keywords target general topics, while the long tail keywords are very specific. Because the topic is so specific, it is easy to write an article about a long tail key phrase. Since the topic is so specific, it’s also easier to rank highly for that search term.

Manage your HTML resource box carefully.

With an HTML resource box, you are using a keyword or keyword phrase as anchor text for a link–this means that the keyword is hyperlinked and when a reader clicks the words that are linked, then they are taken to your site. Google and other search engines regard hyperlinked text as being more important, so using your keyword as the anchor text for a hyperlink is little SEO thing that you can do with your keywords to help Google associate those words with your article/website.

An important note–if you’re using keyword linking from the HTML resource box, do not focus on the same keyword phrase each time, but vary them a lot within your niche.

Why?

If you use one keyword over and over again in your HTML resource box, it can appear as if you’re trying to manipulate Google’s evaluations and Google doesn’t like that. By varying the keywords you use when you’re employing an HTML resource box, you can help Google get a good idea what your site is about by linking in semantically related key phrases in a non-manipulative way.

What does semantically related mean?

If your keyword phrase is ’sail boats’, semantically related phrases would be: ’sailing boats’, ‘how to sail a boat’, ’sail boat gear’, ‘learn about sail boats’–you get the idea.

This means writing naturally, and first and foremost keeping your human readers in mind. Your article should sound natural and not contrived (not say the same thing over and over), and

You can write for humans and search engines, but I think people run into trouble when they try to write only for search engines and forget about their human audience.

Remember, your articles are pieces of communication between you and your target readers–your goal is to create an article that effectively conveys useful information. If you follow the tips in this post, search engines will also pick up on the topic of your articles and they will be able to appropriately classify your article in their results listings.

If this sounds too overwhelming, start by focusing on your readers. Write for them and forget about Google for a bit. When you get more used to writing article, it will be easier for you to integrate some of these techniques.