Archive for August 8th, 2008

Like Classic Paintings SEO is a Combination of Efforts

Friday, August 8th, 2008
by Robert Kelsey

I’ll repeat that … Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an art form, it’s not a programming language or coding method. I like to think of SEO as an orchestra. The drum, tuba, clarinet and all the rest of the instruments may sound nice when played by themselves, but sound really GREAT when they all play together in an orchestrated manner. SEO is much the same … there are certain pieces of the puzzle that you work to improve on, and when they all come together, you have an optimized website.

If you were to ask me what to do first, I would probably say that your should learn something about SEO and optimization before you build your site. Since you probably already have a site, this is a moot subject. What you will need to do is learn the SEO techniques and then apply them to your site by making changes to it.

It will be of great benefit to you if you learn some good solid SEO skills before you start making changes to your site. If you simply start making changes you will not know why your listings may change, if they do. An often made mistake is keyword stuffing or over using important techniques like H1 tags and so on.

Something to avoid is overuse of your keywords. It happens all the time too. People just don’t understand the history behind the spider spamming and think that more is better. 50 keywords on your page will probably get you banned for that keyword. Five on the page may well get you listed high for it. Algorithms are always changing and there really is no one keyword density for any given page. This is something that has roots in all the other facets of your page, everything else that is there, and where any given keyword appears, whether it’s in heading tags, or just text. Get lots of inbound links.

SEO is common sense, but it is even more than that. It is understanding how different html tags works together, and how the search engines will perceive that. It is a lot of trial and error which will, in the end, lead you to good solid and proper optimization techniques. All of this will lead you to better search engine rankings.

The one thing that will make your business profitable is getting listings on the top of the results pages. This is called “above the fold”, the part of the search engines results page (SERP) that displays WITHOUT scrolling.

You will get 99% of your traffic from Google, MSN and Yahoo! No doubt about that. You need to optimize your site for these engines. By this I mean take each page of your site and optimize each part of the page for these engines.

The main items that you will want to work on to get optimized are the title tag, the meta description tag, the meta keywords tag, code attributes like alt=, title=, summary=, H1 and H2 tags, and possibly the H3 tag, keyword density, navigation and/or ease of navigation and anchor text and internal linking are all among the main things to work on for on-site optimization.

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Website Traffic: Not All Visitors are Equal

Friday, August 8th, 2008
by Jill Brennan

People talk incessantly about - gaining more website traffic - but they rarely mention that a site really needs targeted website traffic. The only way to have a successful site is to court targeted website traffic — or people who keep coming back to your site, visiting one page after another.

Targeted website traffic includes people who are actually interested in what your site offers. They have been -targeted- for that very reason. For example, when you look at a book ad on Amazon.com, they show you books other people bought who also liked the one you were looking at. That’s because it is reasonable to assume that if you’re interested in the first one, you’ll be interested in others like it. They are targeting a fantasy fan for their fantasy books, instead of trying to sell them to random people. That is what you need to do as well.

Targeted website traffic by no means guarantees traffic. Targeting only increases your chances of hitting the right audience. You don’t want to randomly lure people to your site and hope for the best. That’s a waste of time.

Internet loiterers, while harmless, do nothing for sales. You might have a hundred people visit your site, but only ten of them actually buy anything.

The starting point for building traffic is to look at the keywords that you’re using on your site and then see what keywords visitors are using to search. Words are the starting point for any internet search. If someone wanted to find soft dice they could hang from the rear view mirro in their car then they will type related words into a search engine.

This is why you’ll often hear internet marketers talking about ‘getting inside the head of the prospect’. What would they type into a search engine in order to find fuzzy dice? Would it be “car dice”, “furry dice”, “soft hanging dice”? Or some other variation that you’ve never thought of? Picking the right keywords is about improving your chances of success.

So what else are you selling along with your fuzzy hanging rearview mirror car dice? You can’t get targeted website traffic if you don’t know who you’re targeting, so figure out just what kind of site you have. Should car dice should be sold at a car accessories site, a weird gifts site, or a kitsch site? They should be sold on a site that has other merchandise that will appeal to the fuzzy dice people-like fuzzy steering wheel covers, or even animal print clothing, if it’s a retro shop. That approach will get you more website traffic.

Nobody can give you guaranteed traffic. Internet traffic is like the stock market — you can make predictions, but you can’t always know for sure whether the risk will pay off. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t significantly improve your odds of getting more website traffic by going after targeted website traffic. Go after the people who want what you have and, believe me, you will see some results.

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Inbound Links -Why Search Engines Love Them

Friday, August 8th, 2008
by Derek Gehl

Relevant, respected websites that link to yours — without having links back to them — are search engine gold. This kind of link lets the search engines know your site is worth linking to, and it offers the kind of information that searchers are looking for when they type in your keywords.

One way You can get this type of inbound link is by approaching website owners and asking for a link, or by sending them articles (with a link to your site) that would be interesting to their audiences. But before you do, here’s a list of what to look for.

Great inbound links…

- Come from relevant sites. If your site is about dog training, don’t go after a link from a site that sells piano lessons.

- Look natural. If people were linking to your website randomly, they wouldn’t all use the same anchor text, and they wouldn’t all link to you in the same week. So when you give out the links you want people to use, vary the anchor text and build them up gradually over time.

- Aren’t lost among dozens of other links. You don’t want the page your link is on to have more than two dozen outbound links… the fewer the better (unless the link is from a directory).

- Are placed in a good position on the site. Try to get your link in a natural position — usually within some text in the main body area. The search engines may discredit links found in the footer, right-hand side, or other areas where advertising usually goes.

Don’t stress about getting your link on the homepage. Deep links within a strong complementary website are still great.

- Are found on sites that are indexed regularly. Check the Google cache date of the page the link would come from and make sure it’s recent.

- Are on sites that have been around for a while. The search engines assume that an older site is more credible - and usually have a higher page rank

- Are on sites with high Google PageRank. Links from high PageRank sites, will get you higher rankings in search listings. However, if you find a website that would be a great partner but the PageRank is 3 or lower, they are still worthwhile

Collecting inbound links is one of the most powerful strategies for getting high rankings in the search results. It’s worth spending time on.

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Black Diamond Engagement Ring

Friday, August 8th, 2008
by Alice Sy

There are many kinds of diamonds to choose for your loved one, especially for an engagement ring. You can actually choose different designs, shapes, sizes and colors.

Colorless diamonds are popular choices for engagement rings. A man can choose to give his bride-to-be a pink or yellow diamond engagement ring; which is preferred by a lot of women. So giving a black diamond engagement ring is not really a popular choice.

Unlike traditional colors of diamond engagement rings, a black diamond engagement ring is “unique” if not an eccentric kind of ring to choose for a loved one.

There a probably a few women who would have a taste or penchant for this very odd color of engagement ring because often the color of black is associated with evil, darkness or even witchcraft. So it would be surprising if not scary to be given a ring especially a black diamond engagement ring.

But unknown to people, black diamonds are popular stone choices for male jewelries especially for Europeans. Usually black diamonds are included in wedding rings and bracelets. They are often combined with more lustrous or more colorful diamonds and other precious stones to enhance the brilliance of the colored gems or highlight the black diamond itself.

Men who offer to give a black diamond engagement ring also choose rings that are set in platinum or titanium to enhance the color of the black diamond or combine it with stones the color of their choice and have the design custom made to make it extra special.

The appearance of black diamonds may be in hues of green, gray or midnight black. The color can range from being dense or translucent in hue.

When buying a black diamond engagement ring, you need to go to an accredited jeweler because some people trick sellers by adding color to fancy stones and make it appear a true black diamond. You can ask for papers proving that you are getting the real deal.

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The Top Article Marketing Secrets, Tips and Techniques

Friday, August 8th, 2008
by Mike Spencer

One of the most enticing benefits of using article marketing in your online business, is that it is completely free of charge, and is a method anyone can use to get free traffic to their site. The purpose is for people to find your article, read it and then follow the link to your site from the blog or other place they read it. Many places accept articles without any charge but they should be sites with a good page rank; within a relatively short period you should start to experience more visitors at your site.

For the best response, a website or blog for example that is well visited each day is the best place to submit it; it shouldn’t be too long before your site starts to receive traffic from this. Acceptance of content at sites like this is a little like a ‘thumbs up’ to you as well and can be of great benefit; trust is probably more important on the Internet because most people are faceless.

Article marketing carried out this way (i.e. more than once) will get people to look upon you as an author whose work they will seek out because the content is good. This is why it is so important to show people that you know what you are talking about so they trust the content you provide in the area you write about.

Although it can take a while, this traffic from people that trust you will help your own search engine ranking; this can help improve your organic visitors as your positioning on Google improves. The more websites that link to yours, the more traffic you will achieve; more importantly, none of this traffic actually costs anything at all!

With article marketing, a number of links to other sites can be inserted into it and providing there aren’t too many you will not be penalized. Your article must have good content if you want it placed in many websites because this in turn will link back to your own website which of course will increase the website ranking.

It is not unusual for Google and other search engines to take months before they start to list a website. Although you cannot rush the search engines directly, submitting more articles and using the authority sites will help enormously.

The content on your website is what brings the search engines and hence visitors so therefore part of your article marketing campaign should be to continually add fresh content to your website. Don’t forget that many visitors to your site are not visiting to buy something. The more truthful you are about what you are doing, the more visitors will appreciate it providing the information you supply is relevant to their search.

This is the perfect opportunity to start pointing out the benefits of the product or service to the visitor. This approach is often overlooked and as a consequence visitors do not always understand what is being done. This helps with preventing the dreaded refund request that happen on occasion.

If you want visitors to your websites then you must continue your article marketing this way; regularly submitting articles is necessary and should not be viewed as something you only have to do once. An additional benefit from writing quality articles is that other website owners will either link to your site or use your articles on their own site; don’t forget, your article will contain information that people are searching for. Never underestimate how easy it is to increase your site traffic at no cost; with relevant, quality unique articles, visitors will keep returning.

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