Long-time search engine expert Chris "silver" Smith contracted to provide a competitive advantage for the client market plunged despite
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) December 4, 2008 - KeyRelevance, a Dallas-based search engine marketing agency, has identified the micro-trend in online marketing during the economic recession: lean company will return to the search engine more aggressive campaign to stave off revenue shortfalls and to increase market share. Position themselves to address these nails in the search marketing interest, KeyRelevance have signed veteran on the staff of online marketing and local search optimization teacher, Chris "Silver" Smith, as their new Director of Strategy Optimization.
More companies realize that the key to the rank higher in search results are in the know "secret sauce" of how search engine algorithms that utilize the functions and knowledge through practice called "search engine optimization" or SEO. " Smith is a special optimization experts listed in the vagaries in the "search mixed" results, also known under the Google service mark as a "Universal Search". Blended search is a relatively new innovation where the major search engines have been injecting their content to keyword search results from their vertical search results, such as video search, image search, local search and shopping search. Ranking keywords in the search results now often requires a number of ranking in this specific vertical search simultaneously, and Smith's expertise in this area will be a strategic benefit to the client KeyRelevance.
Smith's previous head to the Department of Advanced Technology at Verizon Superpages.com where he worked for ten years, with a focus on search engine optimization, analysis, mapping, local search, and mobile applications.
"I am thrilled to join Chris Smith has been with us. I have known Chris for several years and always enjoyed the understanding of local and blended search engine optimization," said President KeyRelevance Christine Churchill. "Chris's many years of experience in the local search engine to give him a deep understanding of all aspects of online marketing. At the time of economic recession, the market should be more innovative and cutting edge to produce a positive return. Chris has the right set of skills and knowledge of promoting universal search client to provide superior competitive when times are tough. His talent is among the major asset, and I believe Chris will do great things for clients as part of the KeyRelevance team. "
Chris Smith has been active in the search industry for many years, and has been quoted in various publications including USAToday. After leaving Superpages, Chris worked in NetConcepts where he consulted with some of the top Internet Retailers and Fortune 500 companies. He regularly speaks at industry conferences including the main search Search Engine Strategies and Search Marketing Expo. Chris is also a regular columnist at Search Engine Land.
After joining the company, Chris said, "I am very pleased to be able to join KeyRelevance. Not only that the company has a very good reputation in the industry to ethical integrity coupled with a history of interesting thoughts on search marketing, but they 've really dedicated themselves is to provide high quality customer service and attention to detail that they bring to the success of buyers.'s overall business philosophy in KeyRelevance is in line with my own, and I am delighted to be working with them. "
About KeyRelevance, LLC:
KeyRelevance is a full service search engine marketing company based in Dallas, Texas that offers search engine optimization consulting, pay per click management, social media marketing, blog optimization, conversion and usability enhancements, analysis, and online public relations. KeyRelevance staff that is experienced by the property and equipment technology to help clients achieve their goals online marketing. For more information on KeyRelevance search marketing services visit www.keyrelevance.com, or call them at 1-972-429-1222.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings
By Jason O'Connor (c) 2008
If you own or run a website and are not following these six tactics for properly linking your website together then you're losing Google traffic as you read this. First some definitions. Internal linking is the links on your website that point to other pages within your same website. External linking is when you link to another website. Tactics are specific things to do to achieve desired results, or any mode of procedure for gaining advantage or success.
There are things you can do when developing or refining your internal linking structure. If you carry out the following tactics, you're going to achieve two things. One, you'll make your website better from a user's perspective. Two, you'll rank better in Google. And it's no coincidence that Google rewards you for doing things that make the website user's experience easier and better. In fact, the most important thing I can recommend is that you create, design and link your website together in a way that benefits the visitor first. Your visitors are most important, not Google rankings.
Your Vote Counts!
One last thing before I get to the tactics. Have you heard that links from other websites that point back to your website are essential in getting top search engine rankings, especially with Google? It's true. These links vary in their effectiveness and value depending on the website from which they're coming. But did you also know that internal links often can have similar effectiveness and value as external links? So bear this in mind as you read on.
1) Add links in your navigation or footer as text links to all your important pages and main sections.
This is a very easy and an extremely effective tactic that not all sites do, and even fewer do for maximum results. This is the first thing I look for when reviewing a website for a client. Unfortunately, sometimes artsy Web designers add cool buttons, which are images, to all the main sections of the site, but neglect to include text links as well. Or a programmer decides to make the website's navigation a dynamic drop down menu in DHTML or JavaScript but forgets to include text links to the same pages represented in the menus. Search engines cannot follow image links or links created in JavaScript, they can only follow simple text links, so be sure you add them to your site as well.
So if you want search engines to visit and index (or record) ALL your website's pages, be sure there are text links pointing to all the main sections of your site and to all your important pages.
2) Make use of the rel="nofollow" HTML tag.
This is fairly simple. Google created this tag which tells them NOT to count the link in their search engine ranking algorithm when used on a link. There's debate that maybe Google does count them a little, or will some day in the future. But for now, this tag does greatly decrease a link's value in Google's eyes.
Therefore, consider using this tag on some of your links within your site. For example, let's say you have a homepage and then create two inner pages, and that's the extent of the site. Let's further say that you add a link to both pages on your homepage. If your homepage has some external links pointing to it, then it has some value in regards to Google's ranking system. When you link to each of your two new pages within your site from your homepage, each page gets only 50% of the value the homepage has. (This is all measured in Page Rank). Let's then say that your first inner page is the one you want to rank well in Google, but you don't care if your second inner page even gets found by Google or ranked. You could add the nofollow tag to the second link on your homepage, thereby giving the first inner page 100% of the homepage's value.
Think of the implications. Imagine if you had a website with hundreds or thousands of pages and used the nofollow tag throughout. To understand how to implement this tag, see the two links in HTML below, one without it and one with it correctly included.
Your Website
Your Website
Finally, if you have pages such as a privacy page, terms page, checkout pages or contact pages that you don't care if they rank well in Google, be sure to use the nofollow tag when creating internal links to these pages.
3) Use descriptive & different phrases to point to the same inner page.
The words that are in the text of a link (also known as the anchor text) affect your search engine rankings. For example, the anchor text in the two links above is "Your Website". If enough of these links that were on quality and valuable sites, including your website's inner pages, pointed to the same page, it would eventually rank well in Google when someone searches for the phrase "your website".
Therefore, be sure to make the anchor text in all your internal links the phrases you want the pages to be found for in Google. If you have a page that sells "blue widgets", make the anchor text in links on other pages within your website that point to this page "blue widgets". Do it like this:
Blue Widgets
Going back to the number 1 tactic above, you would be far better off making the anchor text in all your footer links as descriptive as possible. If you want to rank well in Google for "affordable blue widgets" then use this in your links that point to this page:
Affordable Blue Widgets
Finally, vary your anchor text when pointing to the same page within your website. For instance, on some of your pages you could link to your Blue Widgets page with the anchor text of "blue widgets", then on other pages link to it using "affordable blue widgets" and then maybe use "widgets that are blue". This allows you to get the page ranked for multiple terms and helps the user since you're being descriptive and making your anchor text better match the content of the page it's on.
4) Make links in your content.
If you have text on your site, make some of the words within the text, links that point to other pages within your website. For instance, if you have an article about blue widgets, or a page that describes how great your blue widgets are, make the first or second occurrence of the phrase "blue widgets" in the text a link that points to your Blue Widgets page.
5) The Home link solution.
If your website is typical, you'll probably have a link on every page that points back to your homepage. And you should because this helps users. By doing this, you're supplying a lot of link value to the homepage since it is getting all these internal links pointing back to it. Since in the number three tactic I recommended that you make your anchor text the same as what you want to rank for, the word "home" does you no good. I'll assume that you're not trying to get your homepage ranked for the word "home", so make the anchor text what you do want it to get ranked for.
The other option is to add the nofollow tag to all your 'Home' links, thereby canceling out the word "home" altogether.
6) Make important pages at most 2 folders deep with your site and at most two clicks away from your homepage.
The farther away a page is, the worse it ranks. So if you put a page in a folder that is five folders deep within your website folder structure, Google will likely consider that page not as important as a page only one folder deep. Also, make the pages in your website that are most important to get ranked two or less clicks away from the homepage. This is good for users and allows Google to index these pages more quickly.
By following these top six internal linking tactics, you'll be far ahead of the competition, you'll rank better in Google and you'll be making your website visitors' lives easier.
About The Author
Jason O'Connor is the owner of Oak Web Works, LLC, an Internet strategy firm that specializes in helping businesses make monëy with their business websites. From Web design and programming to strategic Web marketing, providing free resources for Web professionals and regularly publishing The Net Gazette, Oak Web Works is a center for online strategy.
If you own or run a website and are not following these six tactics for properly linking your website together then you're losing Google traffic as you read this. First some definitions. Internal linking is the links on your website that point to other pages within your same website. External linking is when you link to another website. Tactics are specific things to do to achieve desired results, or any mode of procedure for gaining advantage or success.
There are things you can do when developing or refining your internal linking structure. If you carry out the following tactics, you're going to achieve two things. One, you'll make your website better from a user's perspective. Two, you'll rank better in Google. And it's no coincidence that Google rewards you for doing things that make the website user's experience easier and better. In fact, the most important thing I can recommend is that you create, design and link your website together in a way that benefits the visitor first. Your visitors are most important, not Google rankings.
Your Vote Counts!
One last thing before I get to the tactics. Have you heard that links from other websites that point back to your website are essential in getting top search engine rankings, especially with Google? It's true. These links vary in their effectiveness and value depending on the website from which they're coming. But did you also know that internal links often can have similar effectiveness and value as external links? So bear this in mind as you read on.
1) Add links in your navigation or footer as text links to all your important pages and main sections.
This is a very easy and an extremely effective tactic that not all sites do, and even fewer do for maximum results. This is the first thing I look for when reviewing a website for a client. Unfortunately, sometimes artsy Web designers add cool buttons, which are images, to all the main sections of the site, but neglect to include text links as well. Or a programmer decides to make the website's navigation a dynamic drop down menu in DHTML or JavaScript but forgets to include text links to the same pages represented in the menus. Search engines cannot follow image links or links created in JavaScript, they can only follow simple text links, so be sure you add them to your site as well.
So if you want search engines to visit and index (or record) ALL your website's pages, be sure there are text links pointing to all the main sections of your site and to all your important pages.
2) Make use of the rel="nofollow" HTML tag.
This is fairly simple. Google created this tag which tells them NOT to count the link in their search engine ranking algorithm when used on a link. There's debate that maybe Google does count them a little, or will some day in the future. But for now, this tag does greatly decrease a link's value in Google's eyes.
Therefore, consider using this tag on some of your links within your site. For example, let's say you have a homepage and then create two inner pages, and that's the extent of the site. Let's further say that you add a link to both pages on your homepage. If your homepage has some external links pointing to it, then it has some value in regards to Google's ranking system. When you link to each of your two new pages within your site from your homepage, each page gets only 50% of the value the homepage has. (This is all measured in Page Rank). Let's then say that your first inner page is the one you want to rank well in Google, but you don't care if your second inner page even gets found by Google or ranked. You could add the nofollow tag to the second link on your homepage, thereby giving the first inner page 100% of the homepage's value.
Think of the implications. Imagine if you had a website with hundreds or thousands of pages and used the nofollow tag throughout. To understand how to implement this tag, see the two links in HTML below, one without it and one with it correctly included.
Your Website
Your Website
Finally, if you have pages such as a privacy page, terms page, checkout pages or contact pages that you don't care if they rank well in Google, be sure to use the nofollow tag when creating internal links to these pages.
3) Use descriptive & different phrases to point to the same inner page.
The words that are in the text of a link (also known as the anchor text) affect your search engine rankings. For example, the anchor text in the two links above is "Your Website". If enough of these links that were on quality and valuable sites, including your website's inner pages, pointed to the same page, it would eventually rank well in Google when someone searches for the phrase "your website".
Therefore, be sure to make the anchor text in all your internal links the phrases you want the pages to be found for in Google. If you have a page that sells "blue widgets", make the anchor text in links on other pages within your website that point to this page "blue widgets". Do it like this:
Blue Widgets
Going back to the number 1 tactic above, you would be far better off making the anchor text in all your footer links as descriptive as possible. If you want to rank well in Google for "affordable blue widgets" then use this in your links that point to this page:
Affordable Blue Widgets
Finally, vary your anchor text when pointing to the same page within your website. For instance, on some of your pages you could link to your Blue Widgets page with the anchor text of "blue widgets", then on other pages link to it using "affordable blue widgets" and then maybe use "widgets that are blue". This allows you to get the page ranked for multiple terms and helps the user since you're being descriptive and making your anchor text better match the content of the page it's on.
4) Make links in your content.
If you have text on your site, make some of the words within the text, links that point to other pages within your website. For instance, if you have an article about blue widgets, or a page that describes how great your blue widgets are, make the first or second occurrence of the phrase "blue widgets" in the text a link that points to your Blue Widgets page.
5) The Home link solution.
If your website is typical, you'll probably have a link on every page that points back to your homepage. And you should because this helps users. By doing this, you're supplying a lot of link value to the homepage since it is getting all these internal links pointing back to it. Since in the number three tactic I recommended that you make your anchor text the same as what you want to rank for, the word "home" does you no good. I'll assume that you're not trying to get your homepage ranked for the word "home", so make the anchor text what you do want it to get ranked for.
The other option is to add the nofollow tag to all your 'Home' links, thereby canceling out the word "home" altogether.
6) Make important pages at most 2 folders deep with your site and at most two clicks away from your homepage.
The farther away a page is, the worse it ranks. So if you put a page in a folder that is five folders deep within your website folder structure, Google will likely consider that page not as important as a page only one folder deep. Also, make the pages in your website that are most important to get ranked two or less clicks away from the homepage. This is good for users and allows Google to index these pages more quickly.
By following these top six internal linking tactics, you'll be far ahead of the competition, you'll rank better in Google and you'll be making your website visitors' lives easier.
About The Author
Jason O'Connor is the owner of Oak Web Works, LLC, an Internet strategy firm that specializes in helping businesses make monëy with their business websites. From Web design and programming to strategic Web marketing, providing free resources for Web professionals and regularly publishing The Net Gazette, Oak Web Works is a center for online strategy.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Exploring the Search Engine Path Less Traveled
By: Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers
The vast majority of internet users will use a search engine occasionally, if not frequently. Search engines are routinely included in browsers, no matter if you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.
It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we've come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results.
Your Vote Counts!
As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet?
We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we're familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it's fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.
New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it's just on a trial basis.
However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren't getting the attention they deserve. Let's go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the "Big Three" of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you've paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.
This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the líst the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com were touted as the destination search engine? It's all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.
Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
Get the Number 1 Position on Google!
The results from a meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.
However, Dogpile does receive criticism for its compiled search results page. The sponsored results are mixed in with the "real" results, which can be confusing if you're not paying attention. It's also hard to believe that the search results are in any particular order of relevance when broken up with those sponsored results.
Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you'll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines didn't pull.
To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, "foreclosure", and type that in to different search engines, we'll see different results.
Not surprisingly, Fastsearch had no results on "foreclosure." Though it is one of the top search engines, its focus is on business and information technology. So it's really not going to be relevant for anything beyond those topics.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
All of the other search engines (five of them!) had one or more sponsored results at the top of the page. Dogpile.com, as I previously warned you, had the most sponsored ads - an astounding 10 sponsored ads on the first results page. Plus, they're all mixed in with the other results, with just a note at the bottom to let you know it's an ad or otherwise paid for result.
The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!
Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they're seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.
Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we've mentioned.
But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it "is" sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There's a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!
About The Author
Trey Pennewell is a ghost writer, who regularly writes articles for clients of: thephantomwriters.com . Trey understands that the secret to successful article marketing campaigns is to write articles that publishers want to publish and readers want to read. We hope you enjoyed this article today.
The vast majority of internet users will use a search engine occasionally, if not frequently. Search engines are routinely included in browsers, no matter if you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.
It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we've come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results.
Your Vote Counts!
As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet?
We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we're familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it's fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.
New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it's just on a trial basis.
However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren't getting the attention they deserve. Let's go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the "Big Three" of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you've paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.
This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the líst the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com were touted as the destination search engine? It's all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.
Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
Get the Number 1 Position on Google!
The results from a meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.
However, Dogpile does receive criticism for its compiled search results page. The sponsored results are mixed in with the "real" results, which can be confusing if you're not paying attention. It's also hard to believe that the search results are in any particular order of relevance when broken up with those sponsored results.
Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you'll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines didn't pull.
To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, "foreclosure", and type that in to different search engines, we'll see different results.
Not surprisingly, Fastsearch had no results on "foreclosure." Though it is one of the top search engines, its focus is on business and information technology. So it's really not going to be relevant for anything beyond those topics.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
All of the other search engines (five of them!) had one or more sponsored results at the top of the page. Dogpile.com, as I previously warned you, had the most sponsored ads - an astounding 10 sponsored ads on the first results page. Plus, they're all mixed in with the other results, with just a note at the bottom to let you know it's an ad or otherwise paid for result.
The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!
Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they're seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.
Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we've mentioned.
But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it "is" sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There's a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!
About The Author
Trey Pennewell is a ghost writer, who regularly writes articles for clients of: thephantomwriters.com . Trey understands that the secret to successful article marketing campaigns is to write articles that publishers want to publish and readers want to read. We hope you enjoyed this article today.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Don't Spend a Fortune on SEO. Be Your Own SEO Guru!
By Scott Jason (c) 2008
SEO has been around for almost as long as search engines have. And for good reason. Everyone wants free advertising. But a lot has changed over the past thirteen years and with SEO gurus charging upwards of $1,000 per month, to small startups, just for maintenance you really can't call it "free advertising" anymore.
Why is SEO so expensive? Because it's worth it. Back in the day, you could get top ranking for just about any search term you wanted just by using tricks like keyword stuffing, invisible text and cloaking. Try any of that today and Google will kick you to the curb.
A Social Community for Webmasters!
Another thing that makes optimizing your site tougher than ever is competition. In 1998 when I got into SEO, there were a couple hundred million pages indexed on Google. Now there are billions upon billions! In fact, I can't remember the last time I ran a search for anything that had less than 300,000 results found. Beating out a few thousand pages by loading your page and META tags with keywords was easy a decade ago. Today you really need to know your stuff, or at least use a tool or service that can guide you.
Even with the killer SEO software products available today, it's still not easy. The fact that finding the right tool will make the difference between dominating Google, Yahoo and MSN and just so so results puts pressure on you early in the game. And that's difficult because not only can using the wrong product be a waste of money and time, it can also damage your site in a way that takes years to undue.
So, no matter how you optimize your work just remember this...you are not competing against the search engines or Websites. You're competing against the search engine ranking of individual Web pages. Too many people focus on beating search engines or whole sites, but that's not your competition. Search engines rank pages; not sites.
Here are three ways to optimize your sites on a budget. All three are excellent methods but will vary greatly in time investment, cost and return on investment. For most entrepreneurs however, these are the best ways to put your optimization efforts on the fast track.
1.) Use an SEO How To Book (Average Cost $20 to $40)
If you have some time before you need to see results, this is a great and inexpensive way to go. Even if you use another method, I still recommend getting hold of a good SEO book for reference. Just be sure to check the copyright! I don't buy anything that is more than a year old. Here are two of the best I've read in 2008 but there are many to choose from, just go to Amazon.com and search for "search engine optimization" in the Books category.
Your Vote Counts!
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing (Visual Blueprint) by Kristopher B. Jones ($30 new or buy used on Amazon)
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies (For Dummies Computer/Tech)) by Peter Kent ($30 new or buy used on Amazon)
If you have a Barnes and Noble bookstore around, they typically stock both titles.
2.) Use an SEO Software Package (Average Cost $150 to $600)
If you are just starting out you might want to invest a couple hundred dollars in a good Website analysis SEO tool and if you can swing it, get a linking tool too.
A Website analysis tool will check your pages from the inside out, compare exactly what you have to your top competitors and give you detailed instructions on how to beat the competition.
In 1998 I started using WebPosition Gold. It was great at doing ranking reports but their suggestions on how to optimize my pages didn't yield very good results. And, of course, now that Google has banned them, I avoid using it.
One tool that has worked really well for me for both Website optimization suggestions and link building can be found at iBusinessPR0M0TER.com. They've been around a long time and are used by the big companies like eBay who rely on top ranking for their very existence.
At about $250 it's on the low end of the cost scale and offers a "Top 10 ranking or your monëy back" guarantëe, so they have some incentive to get you results.
3.) Attend an SEO Seminar (Average Cost $400 to $1,500)
The cost is all over the place on this one; quality too. Your best bet here is to contact SEO specialists in your area and see if they hold seminars or if you could do a training consult.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
I recommend staying local because their reputation will be important to them and it's nice to build a relationship with someone close by for when you have questions or something changes in the optimization world (which is pretty often.)
The universal search on Google.com for finding local talent in your area is to run a search on "SEO training" followed by your city name or the largest local city.
One of these three options is likely to do the trick. Most SEO experts use all three as much as possible. Best of luck!
About The Author
After 9 years in the trade Scott Jason founded BestSEOcopywriting.com in 2006. Two years later he has helped dozens of client as an SEO copywriter. His successes include top rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
SEO has been around for almost as long as search engines have. And for good reason. Everyone wants free advertising. But a lot has changed over the past thirteen years and with SEO gurus charging upwards of $1,000 per month, to small startups, just for maintenance you really can't call it "free advertising" anymore.
Why is SEO so expensive? Because it's worth it. Back in the day, you could get top ranking for just about any search term you wanted just by using tricks like keyword stuffing, invisible text and cloaking. Try any of that today and Google will kick you to the curb.
A Social Community for Webmasters!
Another thing that makes optimizing your site tougher than ever is competition. In 1998 when I got into SEO, there were a couple hundred million pages indexed on Google. Now there are billions upon billions! In fact, I can't remember the last time I ran a search for anything that had less than 300,000 results found. Beating out a few thousand pages by loading your page and META tags with keywords was easy a decade ago. Today you really need to know your stuff, or at least use a tool or service that can guide you.
Even with the killer SEO software products available today, it's still not easy. The fact that finding the right tool will make the difference between dominating Google, Yahoo and MSN and just so so results puts pressure on you early in the game. And that's difficult because not only can using the wrong product be a waste of money and time, it can also damage your site in a way that takes years to undue.
So, no matter how you optimize your work just remember this...you are not competing against the search engines or Websites. You're competing against the search engine ranking of individual Web pages. Too many people focus on beating search engines or whole sites, but that's not your competition. Search engines rank pages; not sites.
Here are three ways to optimize your sites on a budget. All three are excellent methods but will vary greatly in time investment, cost and return on investment. For most entrepreneurs however, these are the best ways to put your optimization efforts on the fast track.
1.) Use an SEO How To Book (Average Cost $20 to $40)
If you have some time before you need to see results, this is a great and inexpensive way to go. Even if you use another method, I still recommend getting hold of a good SEO book for reference. Just be sure to check the copyright! I don't buy anything that is more than a year old. Here are two of the best I've read in 2008 but there are many to choose from, just go to Amazon.com and search for "search engine optimization" in the Books category.
Your Vote Counts!
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing (Visual Blueprint) by Kristopher B. Jones ($30 new or buy used on Amazon)
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies (For Dummies Computer/Tech)) by Peter Kent ($30 new or buy used on Amazon)
If you have a Barnes and Noble bookstore around, they typically stock both titles.
2.) Use an SEO Software Package (Average Cost $150 to $600)
If you are just starting out you might want to invest a couple hundred dollars in a good Website analysis SEO tool and if you can swing it, get a linking tool too.
A Website analysis tool will check your pages from the inside out, compare exactly what you have to your top competitors and give you detailed instructions on how to beat the competition.
In 1998 I started using WebPosition Gold. It was great at doing ranking reports but their suggestions on how to optimize my pages didn't yield very good results. And, of course, now that Google has banned them, I avoid using it.
One tool that has worked really well for me for both Website optimization suggestions and link building can be found at iBusinessPR0M0TER.com. They've been around a long time and are used by the big companies like eBay who rely on top ranking for their very existence.
At about $250 it's on the low end of the cost scale and offers a "Top 10 ranking or your monëy back" guarantëe, so they have some incentive to get you results.
3.) Attend an SEO Seminar (Average Cost $400 to $1,500)
The cost is all over the place on this one; quality too. Your best bet here is to contact SEO specialists in your area and see if they hold seminars or if you could do a training consult.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!
I recommend staying local because their reputation will be important to them and it's nice to build a relationship with someone close by for when you have questions or something changes in the optimization world (which is pretty often.)
The universal search on Google.com for finding local talent in your area is to run a search on "SEO training" followed by your city name or the largest local city.
One of these three options is likely to do the trick. Most SEO experts use all three as much as possible. Best of luck!
About The Author
After 9 years in the trade Scott Jason founded BestSEOcopywriting.com in 2006. Two years later he has helped dozens of client as an SEO copywriter. His successes include top rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tips
Conduct an Internet search for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips and you'll quickly find a great many sites that are eager to pass along SEO tips but violate some of the Universal SEO Truths that they endorse. Ironically, these sites rank well for the keyphrase "search engine optimization tips", but the SEO tips that you seek are:
1. Buried in dense blocks of text which make them difficult to find.
2. Featured on sites so unappealing to the eye that you don't care whether the content is good or not.
3. Bracketed by distracting ads that encourage you to Buy Their SEO Book!
Please bear in mind that achieving success through search engine optimization is highly dependent on a wide range of factors and any ethical Internet marketing consultant will tell you that up front. Some rules will apply to your website and some will not. But even when everything is done correctly, ranking well doesn't happen overnight as some sites lead you to believe. It takes time but if you're willing to be patient, search engine optimization will help you and your business achieve its goals.
Additional Search Engine Optimization Tips
1. Know Your Target Audience – Before any code or content is written for the site, think about your target audience and keep them in mind at every stage of site development. Consider age, gender, and especially, think about the things that will make your target audience want to visit your site often.
2. Build a Clean, User-Friendly Site – Web users have very short attention spans and the decision to linger at your site or clíck the Back button is made in a few seconds. Build a site that's easy on the eyes and structure it so that information can be found quickly and easily. Use bulleted lists, subheads, bold important text but don't overdo it, and use clean, intuitive page layouts. Avoid building pages with frames, .PDF's, and Flash. By the time these pages have loaded, your viewer is probably long gone.
3. Well-Written Content – Make sure the content on your site is well-written, gets right to the point, and doesn't insult the intelligence of your readers with wild claims and hyperbole. Good content encourages readers to explore the other pages of your site and creates high-quality inbound links.
4. Let Keywords and Keyphrases Occur Naturally – Both search engines and readers alike will notice obvious keyword stuffing immediately and your credibility will suffer. Let the words and phrases that you want to optimize occur naturally in the content without overdoing it.
5. Use Short, Relevant URLs – Give your page URLs good file names which include the keywords optimized for that page and definitely avoid query strings. Try to limit page titles to relevant words separated by hyphens. For example, instead of ".com/seo" try ".com/search-engine-optimization-tips" or ".com/seo-tips. "
6. Good Meta Descriptions – Keep meta descriptions between 200-250 characters and make them relevant to the page and informative. Good meta descriptions raise confidence that the page will contain the information that web users seek therefore making it more selectable.
7. Quality Inbound and Outbound Links – The quality of your inbound and outbound links far outweigh quantity for SEO purposes. Link farming is frowned upon by search engines and readers alike. If someone clicks on an outbound link from your site, make sure that it takes them somewhere interesting and informative or they're not likely to clíck on another.
8. Limit Keywords and Keyphrases – Feature two or three optimized keywords and phrases on each page and again, make them occur naturally in the content. If you want to rank well for other terms, simply build other pages optimized for those terms.
9. Update the Content Regularly – Add new content to your site on a regular basis. It gives your site visitors something new to read and the search engines will be inclined to index your site more frequently.
10. Avoid Unethical SEO Methods – Link farming, duplicated content, cloaking, spamdexing, and other attempts to fool search engine crawlers will get your site penalized and buried where no one can find it. Search engine algorithms are increasingly sophisticated and Black Hat SEO methods will destroy any possibility for ranking well.
These are just a few search engine optimization tips for you to consider that will help your site rank well and there are many, many more. For a more thorough understanding of how these strategies and others work together to bring positive results, explore the other pages of this site and contact an experienced Internet marketing expert. The guidance and counsel of an ethical search engine marketing consultant is the best SEO tip of all.
About The Author
Brick Marketing offers full service Website Marketing services such as: Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Clíck Management, Social Marketing, Blog Services, Affiliate Program Management and more. Telephone 877-295-0620 or visit Brick Marketing Search Engine Optimization Services .
1. Buried in dense blocks of text which make them difficult to find.
2. Featured on sites so unappealing to the eye that you don't care whether the content is good or not.
3. Bracketed by distracting ads that encourage you to Buy Their SEO Book!
Please bear in mind that achieving success through search engine optimization is highly dependent on a wide range of factors and any ethical Internet marketing consultant will tell you that up front. Some rules will apply to your website and some will not. But even when everything is done correctly, ranking well doesn't happen overnight as some sites lead you to believe. It takes time but if you're willing to be patient, search engine optimization will help you and your business achieve its goals.
Additional Search Engine Optimization Tips
1. Know Your Target Audience – Before any code or content is written for the site, think about your target audience and keep them in mind at every stage of site development. Consider age, gender, and especially, think about the things that will make your target audience want to visit your site often.
2. Build a Clean, User-Friendly Site – Web users have very short attention spans and the decision to linger at your site or clíck the Back button is made in a few seconds. Build a site that's easy on the eyes and structure it so that information can be found quickly and easily. Use bulleted lists, subheads, bold important text but don't overdo it, and use clean, intuitive page layouts. Avoid building pages with frames, .PDF's, and Flash. By the time these pages have loaded, your viewer is probably long gone.
3. Well-Written Content – Make sure the content on your site is well-written, gets right to the point, and doesn't insult the intelligence of your readers with wild claims and hyperbole. Good content encourages readers to explore the other pages of your site and creates high-quality inbound links.
4. Let Keywords and Keyphrases Occur Naturally – Both search engines and readers alike will notice obvious keyword stuffing immediately and your credibility will suffer. Let the words and phrases that you want to optimize occur naturally in the content without overdoing it.
5. Use Short, Relevant URLs – Give your page URLs good file names which include the keywords optimized for that page and definitely avoid query strings. Try to limit page titles to relevant words separated by hyphens. For example, instead of ".com/seo" try ".com/search-engine-optimization-tips" or ".com/seo-tips. "
6. Good Meta Descriptions – Keep meta descriptions between 200-250 characters and make them relevant to the page and informative. Good meta descriptions raise confidence that the page will contain the information that web users seek therefore making it more selectable.
7. Quality Inbound and Outbound Links – The quality of your inbound and outbound links far outweigh quantity for SEO purposes. Link farming is frowned upon by search engines and readers alike. If someone clicks on an outbound link from your site, make sure that it takes them somewhere interesting and informative or they're not likely to clíck on another.
8. Limit Keywords and Keyphrases – Feature two or three optimized keywords and phrases on each page and again, make them occur naturally in the content. If you want to rank well for other terms, simply build other pages optimized for those terms.
9. Update the Content Regularly – Add new content to your site on a regular basis. It gives your site visitors something new to read and the search engines will be inclined to index your site more frequently.
10. Avoid Unethical SEO Methods – Link farming, duplicated content, cloaking, spamdexing, and other attempts to fool search engine crawlers will get your site penalized and buried where no one can find it. Search engine algorithms are increasingly sophisticated and Black Hat SEO methods will destroy any possibility for ranking well.
These are just a few search engine optimization tips for you to consider that will help your site rank well and there are many, many more. For a more thorough understanding of how these strategies and others work together to bring positive results, explore the other pages of this site and contact an experienced Internet marketing expert. The guidance and counsel of an ethical search engine marketing consultant is the best SEO tip of all.
About The Author
Brick Marketing offers full service Website Marketing services such as: Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Clíck Management, Social Marketing, Blog Services, Affiliate Program Management and more. Telephone 877-295-0620 or visit Brick Marketing Search Engine Optimization Services .
The Search Landscape Reflected In Paid Results
It's important to note that the writing of this article occurred on July 17, 2008. I mention this only to insure that you can put it into context and also so that those who read this article in a day or week or month from now aren't confused by my noting of Q2 reports and references to "today".
Any of you who have read some of my past articles or who have visited Beanstalk's services pages will know - I'm not a PPC guy. Quite honestly, it's not in my primary skill set and it's something I would definitely prefer to leave to the experts. Now that said, following Google and it's health (which is tied directly to AdWords and AdSense) is something I'm keenly interested in. To this end, recent changes in Google's paid search display and ranking systems will have huge impacts on advertisers and, more important for the purpose of this article, on Google itself.
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A couple weeks ago a friend of mine, Richard Stokes from AdGooroo sent me a PDF entitled, "Search Engine Advertiser Update - Q208" . With this document they outline the changing trends in the paid search marketplace and many of the stats are surprising. If you're a PPC manager they're obviously directly important. For those of us in the organic optimization world they are still both interesting and important. They're interesting for reasons which will become clear below and they're important because anything that affects the economic health of the search engines affects the search landscape both inside and outside of the paid search realm.
Paid Search Market Share
What could be more important to the engines than their percentage of the paid search arena. Does Google really care about being the dominant search engine as far as organic search goes? Let me put this a different way, if Google was standing in front of their shareholders - would they prefer to announce that they held 80% of all worldwide searches and reported revenues of $7.8 billíon dollars for the quarter OR would they rather stand up and say they hold 20% of all worldwide searches and reported revenues of $8.7 billíon dollars? Organic results drive traffic which in turn results in clicks on paid ads. From a business standpoint that's the only reason that organic search even matters.
So which engine has the healthiest paid search environment? According to AdGooroo, Q2 results show a different world than one might guess (which is why I noted that it is interesting).
Over the past twelve months advertiser growth (or lack thereof) breaks down as follows:
Google: -8.5%
Yahoo!: +9.8%
MSN: -6.7%
Advertiser counts have also changed (i.e. the number of advertisers on the engine). Yahoo! leads in this area as well with a growth of 0.03%. Google dropped by 6.4% and MSN dropped by almost 20% (good thing they have their OS revenue to fall back on).
And A Drop In Ads
To go even further, Google has increased the importance of quality which has resulted in a reduction of nearly 40% in the number of ads that appear on a results page. 6 months ago ~6.5 ads appeared per page whereas now that number is closer to 4. This has the potential to significantly help or significantly hinder Google's revenue.
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As Richard Stokes points out and I completely concur, this places Google in an environment where one of two things will happen:
1. Advertisers will realize that their clicks are converting much higher, search marketers will spend more time and resources creating more and more relevant ads and landing pages and advertisers will be willing to bid more as the conversions improve, or
2. The competition for the top spots will be reduced and so too will the average bid prices.
Google's Q2 Report
And what inspired the writing of this article was actually the release of Google's Q2 report earlier today. After reading it I immediately had to contact Richard and let him know that the results confirmed some of the predictions noted in his work. He writes:
"... the auction-based bidding system makes this a double-edged sword. As the number of advertisers declines, so does the competitive pressure for higher bid prices. If advertisers don't step up to the plate and bid more aggressively for placement, then it's possible that search revenues could stagnate."
Google revenues were up only 3% over Q1 of this year and revenue from paid clicks was down by 1%. This is the first time in Google's history post-IPO that I can remember them showing reductions in revenue in one quarter over the previous. It appears that this new paid search model in not quite as effective at pulling in money as the old.
Now, to be fair, the new system of requiring higher quality scores and better ads and landing pages is new - only a few months old at this point and so there are likely still bugs to be worked out, but Wall Street did not react favorably to the announcements today and I suspect that the situation isn't going to look better for Google at the close of day tomorrow (though what do I know about stocks).
What Does This Mean?
So what does this mean? This means that Google has a lot of work to do and those in the paid search space need to pay close attention (even closer than normal) as shareholders don't like to see losses and Google is going to need to make moves to recover and show significant gains by the time their Q3 reports come out.
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One might guess that this also means that Yahoo! is gaining ground (which is true) but it's definitely a case of too little too late. Also earlier today (it was a busy day in search) Yahoo! released a letter to its shareholders that on one hand referred to the alliance between Microsoft and Carl Icahn as a destroyer of shareholder value for Yahoo! and then went on to say that they would be willing to sell the company to Microsoft at $33/share (which is what Microsoft has offered previously and which is more than $10 above their current market value).
It seems that one can't look at the stronger relative results in the paid search area that Yahoo! has achieved as a win when they seem to be backsliding on their initial position regarding the sale to Microsoft.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
For one thing, watch closely. Monitor resources such as AdGooroo's research library, and the Clix Marketing blog. Pay close attention as we're going to see a lot of changes to what's going on and these changes are likely going to have effects on both the paid and the organic results as Google strives to provide the better results they're targeting through paid search now but at the same time improve their revenue.
This may involve adjustments to the quality scoring (I can pretty much guarantee that one) and may involve adjusting how paid ads appear on the page with the organic results. All we can really do is watch, wait and adapt.
About The Author
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Dave has been active in the SEO industry since 2001 and provides SEO services to companies around the world. A special thanks goes out to Richard Stokes and his awesome keyword research tool and competition analysis system for the excellent data and forthcoming attitude.
Look Beyond Google: Meta-Search Engines Can Help Online Marketers
For businesses that market wholly or partially online, it may seem that three words are the only way to get more customers: search engine optimization (SEO). Typically, the search engines being referred to are: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. These three engines have almost become interchangeable with the phrase "do a search", so much so that the word "Google" has entered the English lexicon as "find information".
There are actually hundreds of search engines, not just the Big Three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) that many Internet users think of. By focusing only on the most well known search engines for your marketing online strategy, you may be missing out on as much as 30% of the billions of searches being done online every single day.
While not the oldest search engine on the internet, Google does have the reputation of being the granddaddy. However, it is worth investigating alternative search engines - niche engines, meta-search engines, and human-powered engines.
Niche search engines focus their searches on a particular subject matter, such as blogs or articles. Meta-search engines (DogPile, Widow) compile results from multiple search engines . Finally, human-powered search engines (Mahalo, DMOZ) are composed of directory pages with link and general information, put together by humans who search for the most relevant content. These alternative search engines tend to have pretty high page ranks, which give more credence to the fact that online marketers shouldn't overlook them.
There is also the fact that some Internet searchers do not want to use Google because of personal or political views. Because of Google's popularity, it can (incorrectly) be perceived as having a monopoly on the search engine market. That perception, combined with opposition to a seemingly growing "corporate world", turns off some potential customers and eliminates your potential to reach them, if you focus only on Google or other big search engines.
As part of SEO, using keywords to bring in consumers is all the rage. Businesses spend a great deal of time and money researching keywords, keyword density, and effects on page rankings in results lists. Guess what? It's not only a pain for the businesses to constantly be looking for which words may get them more hits and higher rankings; it's quickly becoming over done.
Consumers are fatigued with seeing keyword-loaded articles and websites tagged with anything that could possibly be related to their search terms. This online marketíng strategy may make sense in the short-term, but chances are good that by the time the strategy is perfected by your marketers, there will be a different trend altogether that needs to be learned. Marketing with the intent to only improve your page rankings, by any means necessary, is only a quick fix and could be quite expensive.
SEO tactics are starting to turn customers off. If SEO is the main priority of a marketing campaign and keyword-dense content was the impetus for the customer finding the website, this hurts the site's credibility with the consumer. Perhaps they'll buy from you once because you showed up at the top of the results page, but will they remember you next time or just do another search?
Another concern with search engines is the program spiders that crawl the Internet, looking for relevant pages for search results. Even the largest of the search engines can only cover a portion of the internet. According to Wikipedia, no search engine can search more than 16% of the net!
In addition, the spiders have a massive amount of searching to do, which can be a slow and taxing process on the sites they are crawling. By the time a spider finishes crawling the Internet, the information collected can be outdated - pages and links have either been deleted or new information added. Spiders are certainly not a perfect means of finding good results with one search engine.
Searching just one engine at a time is time-consuming and not very cost-efficient for searchers looking for the most appropriate information or businesses to suit their needs. Enter, meta-search engines. As mentioned earlier, meta-search engines compile results from multiple engines.
Among these, dogpile.com is probably the most well-known. The problem with dogpile, as I see it, is that it spits back the top 10 results from each of the Big Three engines. This results in a lot of sponsored results at the top of the result líst, followed by a mix of "normal" results and more sponsored results. The truth be known, I simply consider dogpile to be really annoying, so I avoid it.
In comparison, widow.com uses a different sort of math equation that sorts through search engine results for the most relevant information and ranks them in their results pages. In an unscientific but entertaining comparison I performed, I plugged in "celebrity gossip" to both dogpile.com and widow.com.
On dogpile.com, I felt like I had to search through commercials to find the content. The results on widow.com were much more relevant, giving me results with the desired content. Plus, I didn't have to look between the annoying sponsored results to find the information I wanted.
Utilizing meta-search engines can be very time-efficient and cost-effective for online marketers, especially when doing market research, even for keywords.
More importantly, if you can also rank in the meta-search and smaller niche search engines, you have a better chance of reaching the approximately 30% of searchers who do not use one of the Big Three engines, as their search tool of choice.
The niche audience may be smaller than the number of consumers you're exposed to on Google, but if you can gain an audience in the niche search engines, you are likely to find consumers intent on buying what you are selling. It's a good general marketing strategy to remember that "quantity exposure" does not always equate to "quality exposure". It's also a good general marketing strategy to not rely on only one advertising platform to help you reach your target audience.
About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers promote their online businesses since 2001, through thephantomwriters.com . By using article marketing to promote his business onlíne, he has always been able to generate lots of traffic from inside and outside of the search engines. In 2007, his website generated 125,000 visitors from non-search sources and 119,000 visitors from 59 search engines. Learn Bill's secrets - get his ebook: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html
There are actually hundreds of search engines, not just the Big Three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) that many Internet users think of. By focusing only on the most well known search engines for your marketing online strategy, you may be missing out on as much as 30% of the billions of searches being done online every single day.
While not the oldest search engine on the internet, Google does have the reputation of being the granddaddy. However, it is worth investigating alternative search engines - niche engines, meta-search engines, and human-powered engines.
Niche search engines focus their searches on a particular subject matter, such as blogs or articles. Meta-search engines (DogPile, Widow) compile results from multiple search engines . Finally, human-powered search engines (Mahalo, DMOZ) are composed of directory pages with link and general information, put together by humans who search for the most relevant content. These alternative search engines tend to have pretty high page ranks, which give more credence to the fact that online marketers shouldn't overlook them.
There is also the fact that some Internet searchers do not want to use Google because of personal or political views. Because of Google's popularity, it can (incorrectly) be perceived as having a monopoly on the search engine market. That perception, combined with opposition to a seemingly growing "corporate world", turns off some potential customers and eliminates your potential to reach them, if you focus only on Google or other big search engines.
As part of SEO, using keywords to bring in consumers is all the rage. Businesses spend a great deal of time and money researching keywords, keyword density, and effects on page rankings in results lists. Guess what? It's not only a pain for the businesses to constantly be looking for which words may get them more hits and higher rankings; it's quickly becoming over done.
Consumers are fatigued with seeing keyword-loaded articles and websites tagged with anything that could possibly be related to their search terms. This online marketíng strategy may make sense in the short-term, but chances are good that by the time the strategy is perfected by your marketers, there will be a different trend altogether that needs to be learned. Marketing with the intent to only improve your page rankings, by any means necessary, is only a quick fix and could be quite expensive.
SEO tactics are starting to turn customers off. If SEO is the main priority of a marketing campaign and keyword-dense content was the impetus for the customer finding the website, this hurts the site's credibility with the consumer. Perhaps they'll buy from you once because you showed up at the top of the results page, but will they remember you next time or just do another search?
Another concern with search engines is the program spiders that crawl the Internet, looking for relevant pages for search results. Even the largest of the search engines can only cover a portion of the internet. According to Wikipedia, no search engine can search more than 16% of the net!
In addition, the spiders have a massive amount of searching to do, which can be a slow and taxing process on the sites they are crawling. By the time a spider finishes crawling the Internet, the information collected can be outdated - pages and links have either been deleted or new information added. Spiders are certainly not a perfect means of finding good results with one search engine.
Searching just one engine at a time is time-consuming and not very cost-efficient for searchers looking for the most appropriate information or businesses to suit their needs. Enter, meta-search engines. As mentioned earlier, meta-search engines compile results from multiple engines.
Among these, dogpile.com is probably the most well-known. The problem with dogpile, as I see it, is that it spits back the top 10 results from each of the Big Three engines. This results in a lot of sponsored results at the top of the result líst, followed by a mix of "normal" results and more sponsored results. The truth be known, I simply consider dogpile to be really annoying, so I avoid it.
In comparison, widow.com uses a different sort of math equation that sorts through search engine results for the most relevant information and ranks them in their results pages. In an unscientific but entertaining comparison I performed, I plugged in "celebrity gossip" to both dogpile.com and widow.com.
On dogpile.com, I felt like I had to search through commercials to find the content. The results on widow.com were much more relevant, giving me results with the desired content. Plus, I didn't have to look between the annoying sponsored results to find the information I wanted.
Utilizing meta-search engines can be very time-efficient and cost-effective for online marketers, especially when doing market research, even for keywords.
More importantly, if you can also rank in the meta-search and smaller niche search engines, you have a better chance of reaching the approximately 30% of searchers who do not use one of the Big Three engines, as their search tool of choice.
The niche audience may be smaller than the number of consumers you're exposed to on Google, but if you can gain an audience in the niche search engines, you are likely to find consumers intent on buying what you are selling. It's a good general marketing strategy to remember that "quantity exposure" does not always equate to "quality exposure". It's also a good general marketing strategy to not rely on only one advertising platform to help you reach your target audience.
About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers promote their online businesses since 2001, through thephantomwriters.com . By using article marketing to promote his business onlíne, he has always been able to generate lots of traffic from inside and outside of the search engines. In 2007, his website generated 125,000 visitors from non-search sources and 119,000 visitors from 59 search engines. Learn Bill's secrets - get his ebook: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html
Search Engine Ranking: How to Improve your Search Engine Position
Your search engine ranking depends on a number of factors: assuming you get listed in the first place. If you have managed to get that listing then you can improve your search engine position by means of links back to your website and also by improving your content.
Significant improvements, however, will likely involve radical restructuring of your website, and would have been better thought out before building your site.
Many so-called SEO experts will attempt to make sure that all your meta tags are in place, even though they have little bearing any more on your search engine rank, be that on Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask.
They might even have a look at your internal linking, but once you have built your website it is too late for that. Your internal linking strategy should have been formulated prior to constructing your website. There are ways to design a site to be search engine friendly, and I use them all the time.
The very first two websites I tried these techniques on each reached page #1 on Google for their main keyword within less than a month. They were listed within two days due to other techniques I use, but their high listings were due to the site design. I then designed a third, and true to form, it reached page #1.
You want that success as well, and it is not difficult to achieve. However, it involves starting from the bottom up, although there is a lot that you can do with your existing website apart from just playing around with meta tags. I am not suggesting that you shouldn't make sure that you have meta descriptions and a title tag in your html, but they are nothing like as significant as the changes I make to my websites to improve their search engine ranking. Not even close!
There are a number of changes you can make to improve your search engine position, ranging from your internal linking to the way you lead the spiders around your site.
Just ask yourself one simple question: what determines your search engine rank on Google? How does Google calculate your search engine position? That's the first thing you have to learn if you want to improve yours. You have to know your enemy to beat him.
It's not only links, as many would have you believe, or I would never have achieved a Page 1 position so quickly. In fact of my two main websites, one is at ~1 and the other at #2 for their main keyword: the titles of their first page. I achieved that by using a silo structure in my website design, but not only that. Many people use silos without achieving high search engine ranking.
I added a little more, and made sure that the search engine spiders moved from one section of my home page to another, exactly as I wanted them to, before leaving for the next page at exactly the point I wanted it to.
It's not difficult, and you can do it too. In fact anybody can get a top search engine ranking, or improve their search engine position (everybody can't be top!), with just a little thought, and by using a couple of simple rules when designing their web pages.
One of these is by using a silo structure, and the other is by careful use of their html, and of their internal links.
About the Author: Peter Nisbet - If you want to learn how I achieve my high search engine ranking positions, visit SEOcious where I will show by means of screenshots of my html exactly what I do, and also how I lead search engine spiders as though they were on a lead.
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