What
is Search Engine Optimization?
·
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is
marketing on the web using the search engines to get top placement for your
website.
·
Just think of your domain and website as a piece of online real estate where
you jockey for the top positions to be seen by millions of internet users. You
are competing against thousands of other websites for that position. The higher
your website position; the more traffic to your website.
·
Simply, your goal for Search Engine
Optimization is to increase web visitor traffic to your website by placing high in
the results of searches using the optimized keywords describing the content of
your website.
Why
Optimize for the Search Engines?
·
In today’s
competitive online global market, search engine optimization is
critical to companies who want to expand
their reach to targeted customers and increase their overall sales.
·
A growing number of prospective customers search for
specific products online through the
major search engines. Online sales dramatically increased by 26% just last year
and are predicted to continue climbing.
· Market Rite Websites offers this free SEO info as an in depth strategy for your online marketing approach through your website. By applying these proven methods, and using the accompanying SEO Web Worksheet, you will increase your site’s visibility while also sending you highly targeted traffic.
·
Increasing your online visibility
and bringing more qualified prospects to your company’s website will lay the groundwork for better visitor sales
conversion and ensure the long-term success of all online marketing efforts.
How
do I Successfully Optimize for the Search Engines?
·
First and last, top placement is
achieved by studying your competition and out ranking them. By searching on your target
keywords, you will see the leading websites in the rankings. By using the
following methods, you can out rank the competition!
·
This workshop gives you access to
our online list of free SEO tools and resources used to optimize and improve
search engine results with effective methods used by top SEO experts. This workshop was compiled using free
online resources and created for the small internet business owners who want to
market their own websites. Feel free to link back to our workshop for future
reference. Although
new SEO methods and techniques are already online, this workshop provides a
solid, basic SEO resource for marketing your website right.
·
Once you know what keywords and
search engine marketing services worked for the competition, you can utilize
this information to do even better! Search Engine Optimization requires a lot of time and
effort in research to be effective. Knowing and implementing the keywords and
services used by your competition can greatly improve your results.
·
Then you can begin building website
popularity and
online business relationships through successful linking strategies.
·
Additonal paid advertising and
affiliate programs can
be utilized to further advertise your website.
·
By using a combination of several
on-page and off-page optimization strategies you can excel and outrank your
online competition to gain valuable market exposure.
Facts on search engines and how
they work
Background
on the top three search engines: Google, MSN, and Yahoo
Google is the King
of search engines with 48% of the internet’s search traffic. Yahoo comes in second with 28% and MSN
is third with 11%. These are the search engines we will target in our SEO
Marketing Strategy Workshop.
According to an article in Search Engine Watch, “
Facts on the King of Search: Google
·
Google provides search engine content to: AOL Search, Netscape,
Iwon
·
Provides paid advertising to: AOL Search, Netscape, Teoma, Ask Jeeves ,Iwon
·
Receives content from: Directory:
dmoz (Open Directory
Project). In our
step-by-step guide, we will discuss the quickest way to get into the Google
Empire.
·
Google uses
SPIDER BOTS on the web to maintain its
index.
·
These are computer robot programs that find the pages for inclusion into their directory
by following the links in the pages they already have in their database and have indexed. If the webpage has no links to other websites, Google will not find it.
Quick link building
strategies will be discussed in the step-by-step
SEO Strategies. Most large search engines operate several robots all the
time. Even so, the Web is so enormous that it can take six months for spiders
to cover it, creating a time lag of dead links and out of date websites in the
search engines.
General Info for Google SEO
·
Page Rank is Google's way of giving
specific value to your website popularity. The ranking system
considers the number of links other websites have to your website. Popularity
occurs when other websites place links on their website that are pointing to
your website. Generally, the more links you have pointing to your website, the
higher your Page Rank (PR) will be. Page Rank is one of the many factors that
Google takes into account when ranking websites.
·
They evaluate the
quality of inbound links (people
who link to you) and quality of outbound links (people who you link to) by
assigning a value to the number of quality (popularity) of your links.
·
Also, Google
analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the
location of each word. In order
to determine the relevance of search user results Google also analyzes the
content of neighboring web pages.
The Must Do List For Google
·
Optimize for webpage content by including relevant and
useful content and
information that an internet surfer would want to read and explore! There’s
plenty of spam out there and Google doesn’t like it. Duplicate content is
frowned on. Make sure each page has unique content.
·
Optimize for link relevance, quality and popularity: Several
factors that determines your rank on Google are the number of links that point
to your site, the quality (popularity) of the sites that link to your site, the
text in and around the links that link to your website.
·
Optimize with clean code structure and no cheating. Do not use webpage building
programs like Frontpage, which is not compatible with Netscape browsers. Make
sure your website code can be displayed properly by all the web browsers like
Firefox, Netscape, and Internet Explorer.
·
Tips from
Google: "Basically,
Google's position is that we prefer no hidden links, no hidden text, no automatic
tools used for positioning, and no cloaking. We prefer that Googlebot get the
exact same page that users see. In general, you can assume that we're as
conservative as possible. We don't like hidden links/text in
divs/layers/iframes/css, or links that are inconspicuous or punctuation, for
example. Similarly, we don't like cloaking or sneaky redirects in any form,
whether it be user agent/ip-based, or redirects through javascript, meta
refreshes, 301/302's, or 100% frames."
Google will blacklist websites
who use underhanded techniques to get more traffic.
·
Optimize with on-page techniques: Google
looks for the keywords in the title, metatags, content, and the text links
within your site.
·
Optimize the right type of website: There
are some technical website design elements that make it hard for the search
engines to index the content in the
webpage, no matter how well you optimize and submit them, because they can’t follow the code. Fortunately, these technical design elements can
be combined with SEO friendly HTML to work together before you submit your
website. The most common coding that
spider bots don’t see or spider: Sites that use Frames.
Sites that use Dynamic URLs./
Sites that use Flash/ Sites that
use Image Maps for navigation/
Sites that use Javascript for
navigation.
General
Info for Yahoo SEO
·
Yahoo
receives search engine content primarily from itself. Yahoo is the
leader in amount of traffic, overall advertising, and household and business
user reach on a global scale. Over 237 million
unique users in 25 countries and 13 languages.
·
Yahoo owns the paid advertising program in the
Overture Network. This is the second best online advertising program after Google
Adwords.
·
The main Yahoo Index results are compiled spidering
the web or participating in the Yahoo Paid Inclusion Program.
·
Directory: Yahoo’s main business directory employs
human editors.
·
Yahoo has both a human-edited directory and a spider
based index.
·
The Paid Yahoo! Directory is organized by placing
related websites into subject categories. Sites are evaluated by Yahoo! editors, who visit and
evaluate user suggestions and decide where the sites belong. To get express
inclusion, you should use their Business Express plan. It costs $299 every
year, but your site will get reviewed within 7 days. This does not guarantee
that your site will get into the Yahoo Directory.
General Info for MSN SEO
·
MSN staffs a team of editors that monitors the most
current popular searches being performed and they hand-pick sites that are most
relevant.
·
Some listings
compiled by human editors, while most results in index are provided by their
own index. They
have discontinued the index relationship with Yahoo, but continue their
Overture paid listing program.
·
Microsoft is the
best in local computer search: They control desktop search with their MS operating systems that find
documents on a local computer or across a network. This local searching
capability is an advantage and may later lead to a larger control of the search
market if they continue to add new indexing and search engine capabilities.
The Must Do’s For Yahoo and
MSN
·
Optimize with clean
code: Yahoo and
MSN place a strong emphasis on clean code. According to many SEO experts, the
MSN Search spider downgrades the ranking of sites that have badly written code. Make sure
you have a “clean” web design, or employ a good web developer who knows how to
create SEO friendly websites.
·
Optimize keyword placement on the
webpage: Yahoo and MSN
rank websites with on-page optimization higher and consider these factors more
than Google does. Although they also consider off-page factors such as link
popularity, they give far greater weight to certain on-page factors, such as
keyword placement, than does Google. Now that we know what the search engines
are looking for, we can start the process of on-page optimization….
Step
by Step Proven Methods for Long Term SEO Success
Identify Your Market and Initial
Keywords
After understanding how search
engines work, and the various factors that influence website ranking in search
results, we want to apply this knowledge while researching the competition and
keywords for our website. Before you start, it is important to identify your
target product and target audience in order to sell your product and convey
your message with the right keywords.
Identify
your product
·
What is your product or
service?
·
What are your primary
selling points? (Built-in characteristics of product itself)
·
Primary Benefits? (What buyer
gets from using the product or service)
Identify
your target market and audience
·
Demographics: (Age, sex,
education, income, occupation)
·
Psychographics:
(Lifestyle, attitude, personality traits)
·
Specific regional or
local market area
·
Specific target groups
or business organizations
·
Specific industry
related markets
Create your first list of relevant keywords and phrases
Consider the following when
choosing keywords:
·
How will your target audience
most likely type in a search for your product or service? Quickly list the phrases you would use to search for
your product or service.
Find your competition and beat them
at their game!
Steps
to research your Keyword competitors
1. Keyword
Data MinerTool: Find your competition
for the most popular search terms: Using your
initial keywords and
phrases, find their search engine popularity by using this tool listed on
SEO Web Worksheet. List of free online
tools and resources for our visitors.
2. Make sure you copy and paste all top search
engine keyword results and metatag research into a notepad or word document.
3. SEO Word Tool: Use this tool
to find out how much competition you will have for each popular keyword from
step 1. Choose the top 20 keywords and phrases.
4. Google IT! Look for your competition directly on Google. You want to find the top ranking websites for each
researched keyword, or keyword phrase.
5. View the top 4 competition metatags: Click on VIEW at the top of
Internet Explorer and click on Source. Study the titles, keywords, and descriptions to find
out their message, use of keywords, and phrases. Copy these metatags and print
them out with your keyword research.
6. Use your printed research to Highlight the most relevant and popular
keywords and keyphrases . Highlight
titles, descriptions and keywords in the top competition’s metatags also. This
will give you ideas for your title and description.
7. Now compile a “polished” list of keywords and phrases using the
most relevant and popular search terms with you specific geographical and
product names. Use the top popular 10 keywords and phrases to find the top 10
competitor websites.
8. Keyword Top 10 Site Info Tool: Find the top 10 competitor
websites for each researched keyword. Copy and paste
the top 4 competitor’s metatags with their title, description and keywords.
9. Copy the URL of each website on top of your competition’s metatags. You will
later collect the inbound links the competition has and contact the
competition’s link partners about exchanging links with them.
10. THE FIRST 20 KEYWORDS AND PHRASES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT. Note: You
can use more, but many search engines and directories only pick up a certain
number of characters.
11. Combine the competitor keywords with your most popular keywords to
create a keyword portfolio for each webpage you are optimizing.
12. 15 minute SEO On-Page Optimization: Study this
quick guide before finalizing your metatags. This free online guide also gives
you specific quidelines for on-page keyword placement and other techniques to
use within your website.
13. Now we will plug these optimized keywords into your website page and
create your metatags and content using the following On-Page Optimization Steps.
Steps For On-Page
Optimization
Many SEO experts agree that
on-page optimization is not as important to website ranking in the search
engines as is off-page link building and website promotion. Yet, the proper use
and placement of keywords will help ensure the search engines find your
specific product or service and rank your website higher than un-optimized
websites for those top keywords.
1. Select the Title: Study the top
competition’s metatag titles and add your own top researched keywords in your
title. Use only your top keywords or phrases with a maximum of 10
words.
2. Combine keywords into phrases. Take out all the “ands”, etc. or small unneeded words to create a concise description of your product and service. You can use the dash or the vertical line to replace unnecessary words.
3. Make sure to also include these top keywords in the beginning of the title. Here’s an example for Computer Guys Live. The goal was to optimize for the business name while including the top key phrases computer repair, online computer repair, and pc tech support.
<meta name="title" content=" Computer Guys Live-Secure Online Computer
Repair-SOHO PC Tech Support ">
4. Select the Description: Keep the description to the point and include top keywords and selling points. Repeat your top keyword phrases while including specific selling points for your product or service. Include name brand and contact info for those searching quickly for a specific product or service.
<meta
name="description" content="Computer
Guys Live staffs American based online technicians who securely repair your
computer. We offer affordable, fast solutions to many of your computer problems
for both home and business clients. Consult now with experienced techs. Call
866-300-8181.">
5. Select the Keywords: Combine your researched keywords and phrases. Place the most important 20 keywords in front because many directories and search engines will only index a certain number of characters. Separate each keyword with a comma and a space. Keep them all on a single line with no breaks in each of your metatags.
<meta name="keywords"
content="online computer repair, IT
services, PC tech support, computer service, computer problem, PC help, PC
repair, PC support, IT support, computer help, remote support, computer guys,
online support, online help, laptop support, pop-up help, virus help,
computerguyslive.com, network help, computer support online, computer, repair,
online, free pc checkup, spyware, scan, virus, recovery, network, wireless
setup, data backup, antivirus software, pc, remote PC repair, PC help, internet
help, free computer checkup, best price, computer repair, computer support,
tuneup, small business, tech support">
Steps For On-Page
Optimization Continued
6. Purchase a domain name with the top keywords in the URL. Use the Domain Lookup Tools to check out domain suggestions. Also name the web pages of your website with the products and service keywords. Example: http://computerguyslive.com/wireless/cannot-connect.html.
7. Make sure to also include these top keywords in the beginning of your page content and at the end. Sprinkle the top keywords and secondary keywords throughout your page content. Google’s spider bots read pages from top left to bottom right and will pick up the first and last words on the website. (3-7 % keyword density for major keywords is best, 1-2% for minor keywords. Use the keyword density checker to analyze competitor keyword placement and density.)
8. Place top keywords in the headings for each paragraph. Many websites do not use the <H1> header tags </H1>, but you can underline <u>Online Computer Repair</u>) and bold <b>PC Tech Support</b> the important keywords to emphasize their importance to the search engines. Using larger font sizes also increases the importance to SE’s.
9. Place your keywords in anchor text links. Use inbound anchor links and deep links to your other web pages. Google follows deep text links to inner web pages on your site and inbound text links coming from websites with similar themes and content. Consider the keywords around these links also. For example: Check out our affordable online computer repair prices and see why we beat our competition. The goal is to use the top keywords in these text links and use relevant content around these links because Google looks for quality inbound links and the content surrounding the links.
10. Place your keywords in the image tags. Name your pictures
using the keywords and also include the keywords in your ALT image tags. Example:<img
src="http://www.savetheinternet.com/images/savethenet_image.jpg"
WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="200" ALT="Save the Internet: Click
here"/>
11. Don’t forget the content when adding your keywords.
·
NOTE: Google places websites with
quality content on the top of the rankings:
Give your visitors relevant and readable information pertaining to your
products and services. Make the content useful and change the information to
keep it fresh. Visitors will bookmark your site and come back again. Your
website then becomes a favorite part of the visitor’s internet resources and
“part of their internet neighborhood.”
Thus, your website real estate starts gaining in value and equity with a
rise in the search engine rankings.
“Black Hat” don’ts
of On-Page Optimization
Here’s the DONTS, or BLACKHAT techniques that will get you banned from Google. Also make
sure to check out Don’t Get Banned from Google. The following on-page techniques
may get your website banned from Google. (ie. Taken out of their index, or
blacklisted)
· Don’t place hidden text in your website using your background. Google bots can see hidden text and Google will ban websites for this technique.
· Don’t stuff your title, alt tags, or metatags with keywords. Google does not like spam. Google ranks content as far more important Google than metatags and does not like the keyword repeated too many times.
· Don’t link to bad neighborhoods or use spam links, redirects, or doorway pages that have duplicate content.
1. Bad Neighborhoods: Certain websites are blacklisted, or rated low and contain improper or unrelated content. Steer away from linking to websites of poor quality and use the quality link checker to see how the linking website ranks with Google.
2. Anchor Text Links: Don’t sell text links that link to poor quality websites, and don’t create other websites that have duplicate content linking to your website.
3. Doorway Pages: Your other websites can have their own original content and link to your website. That builds a network of websites and works great to create traffic to all your websites. Just don’t use duplicates content on your pages.
4. Don’t use a redirect on the index or home page. Google will eventually downgrade that website. Make sure visitors arrive on your homepage and stay on your homepage.
Off-page optimization and
importance
Off-page optimization is the most effective and
important strategy for increasing your website traffic. This includes link and relationship building
through competitor research and niche marketing research. Google considers your link quality by using the following criteria:
1. The quality of websites linking to you and how they
link to you.
2. What type of websites linking to you, the relevance
to your content.
3. How many websites link to
your website.
4. Google page rank of the website linking to you.
5. The
page title of the website linking to you
6. The anchor text used in the links that link to your site.
7. The number and type of links linking to the website
that's linking to you.
8. The number of outbound links on the website that is linking to you
9. The
total number of links on the website that is linking to you
10. Whether or not the websites linking to you are ranked
high in Google and are an authority website in your field.
How To Get Indexed In Google,
Yahoo, and MSN Fast!
Quality
links are important, so how do we build quality links while getting indexed
quickly in the major search engines? It
normally takes several weeks to several months for new websites to get indexed
in the major search engines with traditional submission methods. Remember that
the search engine spiders follow links on websites to index new websites. So we
will first explain the techniques to getting quick, quality inbound links to
your website by submitting a press release or submitting your written articles.
·
Fast Search Engine Inclusion: Submit your press release and articles to the top websites where you can submit them
for free or pay for the services. After submission, many websites
will publish your press release or article, with the link to your site, within
days. This publicity technique gets you
quick quality inbound links that the search engines will follow to your
website. They will then add your new website to their index quicker than the
normal submission process.
·
Sample Press Release Info: Check out
sample press release formats and the press release generator on this website to
write your own press release for submission. Consider the following techniques
when writing press releases:
·
Free Press Release Submission: This
same website has a very good list of the top free websites to submit your Press
Release.
·
NOTE:
For additional content on your website, permanently include the press releases
on added web pages. Link to those web pages from your index page.
·
Press releases
are a good way of announcing your new website. Take time to research a few
specific niche press release sites that can distribute your PR to websites in
your field. This will help you get links from complementary websites. Google
likes links that pertain to your website content.
There
are many advantages to submitting articles online that include increasing your inbound
links. Writing articles also can establish you as an expert on your topic and
give your website an added credibility in your field while bringing targeted
traffic.
Just one article can give your
website hundreds of inbound links and a lot of online exposure in the your
field. Before you
start marketing your articles online, read the article marketing tips
on the SEO Web Worksheet and remember to follow these general guidelines:
·
Keep
the article informative and entertaining. Give the reader
valuable information relevant to your subject. Try not to blatantly advertise
your product or website. Many article directories won’t accept advertising.
·
Place
links to inner web pages on your website in anchor text links within the
article. This will create deep links to other parts of your
website and increase traffic to your inner pages.
·
Note:
Article Directories love lists so write the article as a step by step guide in
your subject. Keep the size between 400-700 words.
·
Make sure
to include several links within the author resource box to get the links back
to your website. This is the key to free advertising and getting
indexed quickly in the search engines. Here is an example from Ezine Articles:
About The Author:
Christopher M. Knight
invites you to submit your best articles for massive exposure to the
high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ directory. When
you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up
by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links
intact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit
your article, setup a membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit/
Copyright 2005 -
Christopher M. Knight. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may
reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit
the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.
·
Avoid
Duplicate Content: Google will not count all the inbound links
from your article if each article has the same content. The other search engines like Yahoo and MSN will count all the
links. To avoid duplicate content, you
can rewrite several versions of the article and submit them to the top 5-10
Article submission sites. You can also publish the article on your website or a
blog first, then submit a different version to article directories.
·
Make sure to spell check your
article and have
another person look it over before you publish.
Article Publishing Tips
·
Target
top article directories when publishing your articles in order to get quality
links. Submit versions of your edited article to top 15 article submission sites.
·
Use the Isnare submission service to quickly submit
to several directories at once.
·
Research and submit to themed
article directories that are related to the niche that your article addresses. For example, if you write about
computer repair, you would be looking for directories and websites that accept
content on computers.
·
Use
articles as a link building incentive: Offer your article to related websites
as content for their site. If your article is entertaining,
informative, and interesting, most websites will publish it on their websites.
Or they may just give you a reference link, which points to your site. Those
links build up fast when submitting articles and press releases. These two
marketing methods will also guarantee fast indexing in the search engines for
your new startup website.
Search
for the competition and Email them
When you build
links you are building your own business relationships and business reputation
online for the long term SEO. Your online
virtual real estate equity will rise as your links multiply and you build
quality online link relationships.
Your page ranking with Google will also
rise, giving your website possible exposure to millions of internet surfers and
website visitors.
Finding out who links to you
competitors and e-mailing them for link exchanges, can help you quickly build
your link popularity. Websites which link to your competitors are far more
likely to be relevant to your field, interested in your site and willing to link
to your site. By taking the time to visit and contact these sites, you will
gain links and relationships that can be very lucrative for your business.
The Search
for Top Competitor’s Link Partners
Successful link building
requires consistency of effort and a lot of time! There
are many link building services and software to use that cut down on the time
it takes to find potential link partners and send emails to automate the
process of link exchange. The tools, services, and software listed in the SEO Web Worksheet are very successful
with certain link building steps that we will explore.
1. Automate link building: Web CEO, Linkmachine, or SEO Elite Software can automate finding and e-mailing potential link
partners and building link pages.
·
Web CEO is
free software with great tools for analyzing the links and researching your
competition. The paid version allows you to send out reports via email and
track traffic stats on your website.
·
SEO Elite has a trial version and the
paid version is great at analyzing the competition’s inbound links using
certain keywords.
2. Keyword
Top 10 Site Info: Use your top 5 keywords and phrases to research the links of your
competition. This tool shows the top websites for each keyword
and gives the inbound links for Google, Yahoo, and the link quality of the top
websites. Follow these links to review the websites and compile a list of URL’s,
or web addresses for each website you want to send e-mails for link exchange.
Keep this URL list on a notepad document for later use.
3. Link Popularity Check: Paste the domains of your top competition
into this tool and find the inbound links to each website on Google, Yahoo,
MSN, and other search engines. This tool shows the inbound
links for each top website researched in Step 2. Check these links to review
the websites and compile a list of
URL’s, or web addresses, and the contact e-mail address for each website.
Now we are ready to send emails for link exchange to the chosen high quality
websites that we researched.
4. E-mail potential link partners: Use the Email sample to create a link
exchange template email to start writing your emails. Here’s
some tips to remember when writing to websites:
·
Be
confident in your writing style. Sell your website and approach
each potential link exchange partner with respect and a complement for a
certain aspect of their website. Try different approaches and go with the most
successful. Remember that large
established websites may not have link exchanges but many will include one-way paid
links in their resource directories to your website. Research is important
so you don’t waste time emailing the websites that are way above link
exchanges.
·
Include
a good sales pitch that offers the address to the reciprocal link and the value
of linking to your website. Place their link on your site first
before emailing them and make sure you include the link in a relevant category
on your links page.
·
Roboform: This software tool can be used
to quickly fill out link exchange forms on websites. Many
websites will use an automatic link exchange service and they want you to use
their online forms for quick link exchanges. Setup this free program to quickly
fill in your website information with a click of the mouse.
·
Avoid
linking to low quality websites by visiting each one and checking them out
manually. This can save you a lot of headaches later,
especially if they have malware and virus downloaders on them. Remember
that your links are a vote for that website, so your business reputation is at
stake. You most certainly don’t want to give your visitors spam or a virus
infection on their computer.
·
Consider
giving your visitors a “mini” links resource directory that’s relevant to your
niche market. Link Machine and other software can be used to
create your mini directory. A good collection of great resource links in your
field will bring the visitors back in the future. Note: These links should open
in a new window so your website is always open and inviting!!!
Submission to the “Top Dog” Search Engines
While
your link building campaign is a constant effort, building your website
presence with the top search engines requires a few specific steps that will
ensure your website is indexed properly and that all your web pages are
included in each search engine. Follow these steps to list your site both
locally and regionally.
1. For top
exposure, make sure to submit to each major search engine by hand and use the local
search engines too.
2. Setup
the Roboform software to quickly fill in the website information for Google,
Yahoo, and MSN.
3. Create a
Google account and sign in to list your website on Google Local Maps. You will need to list a physical address
to use the local directory but it is well worth it as far as getting exposure
for your business and website.
4. Create a
Google sitemap by using the Google
Sitemap Generator. Copy and paste the code into a
notepad document and save it as googlesitemap.xml. Note: the code must be pasted all the
way at the top of the document without any spaces on the left.
5. Sign in
to the Google Webmaster Center using
your Google account.
6. Claim
ownership of your website by adding a Google webpage to your root directory on
your website. Note: This requires you to upload a verification page via ftp-file
transfer protocol- to your website. Your SEO specialist, website developer or
website designer can do this for you.
7. Submit
your Google sitemap after claiming ownership of website. This will ensure that Google indexes all
of your web pages. Make sure to have different page titles and content for each
webpage you submit in the sitemap.
8. Submit
your site to the Open Directory Project: Athough Google also uses this directory,
don’t expect to get into it easily.
9. Create a Yahoo account: Then
create a ROR sitemap to submit both your website and
your ror.xml sitemap to Yahoo
Site Explorer. Sitemaps require a reference in the
metatags to be found so follow the instructions of the sitemap generator tool.
10. List
your website with Yahoo Local: A physical address is again
required. Yahoo gives your
business a great local listing page that allows you to upload photos of your
products and services.
11. List your site with MSN and the MSN
Submit business listings. Now you are ready to submit your
site to niche directories and the SEO Friendly Search Engine Lists
12. Remember that it might take 2-8 weeks to have
your website indexed in the major search engines. Although if you use the
Google’s webmaster section and Yahoo’s Site explorer, indexing may occur within
a couple of weeks!
Submission to the “Top Dog” Web
Directories
Submission to web directories
requires a lot of time and research to target niche specific markets that will
get your website high visibility in your field and get you targeted prospects.
To help you get started, here is information about listing in free and paid
directories:
·
Top paid directories: To further increase your internet
exposure, you want to look at this top paid directory list. Choose the paid directories that
fit into your budget. Many charge a one-time fee for inclusion. The exception
is Yahoo who charges a $299 annual fee for its commercial listings in the Yahoo Business Directory. This expense is well worth the
cost considering the national and global reach of Yahoo!.
·
Paid
directory listings are affordable compared to authority and niche websites that
provide valuable content to the visitors. While many directories
charge one time fees for inclusion, authority or “Big Daddy” sites get very
expensive by charging monthly for text links. These niche websites with a page
rank greater than 5 or 6, use text links as a source of income. So for less
money, paid directories are the way to get link popularity.
Online
Publicity and Marketing Approaches
Blogging For Links and Popularity
Blogs are definitely in
business nowadays. The business of blogging has exploded within the last 5
years and most internet business websites have a blog. One of the most,
versatile, interactive, and easy tools to incorporate into your marketing plan
online, blogs can help establish your business credentials in your field, and
give you a platform to generate sales links and fresh content. Here are some
examples and ways you can use blogs to build a reputation and market your
product or service.
·
Blogs can be quickly created using a free Blogger
account, a Blogger template, and relevantarticles pertaining to your field.
·
The purpose is to provide a publishing platform for
fresh quality and relevant content that can be further circulated freely
online by Feedburner’s
excellent syndication services. Blogs help establish your online reputation in your field, while
providing an initial publishing platform for articles that can be later
submitted to top article directories.
·
As a direct result of blog and article
distribution, your company can quickly received hundreds of new links and
greater internet exposure.
·
Note: To setup a commercial blog at your website
URL that sells products and advertising directly on the weblog, there are
several good blog publishing programs and resources listed on the Web Worksheet.
· There are so many uses and positive aspects to using a business blog that it is hard not to get into the craze. The following lists more ideas and important tips for blogging:
·
Blogs
allow communication on a personal level which makes the people
in the business “human” to the public and allows the visitor to understand the
views and goals of the company.
·
Blogs
can be educational and a valuable resource for your clients.
Make sure to add links in your blog to other pages on your main website and
give the visitor’s resource links to other websites. USE LINKS because good
content blogs that are syndicated can spread like wildfire online. They become
their own entity and continue to grow without a lot of intervention.
·
Blogs
can be interactive by allowing you to post comments
and get feedback from your visitors and customers. You can receive comments on
a new product or service, share ideas, announce industry news, conduct a
survey, showcase the newest products or service, test the product or service,
etc.
·
Blogs
allow for quick changes by anyone, without having to know html coding. Blogs are LIVE (RSS) Really Simple
Syndication Feeds. The new blog posts are
automatically picked up by Feed Burner and syndicated to various RSS feed
readers online.
·
The
blogger can quickly and easily post new photos, links, articles, product
specials, and relevant content which can
immediately be seen by that blog’s subscribers through feed readers, emails,
and on the blog itself. Your blog can
become a very important and powerful marketing tool that grows quickly with the
right exposure.
Get that Blog Out and Seen Quickly
·
For
maximum Blog exposure: Once
you have created your new blog, submit it to the websites on the Submit to RSS
Directory list in the Web Worksheet.
·
For Fast
Top SE Inclusion, make sure to create a Yahoo account and add the address of your blog to My Yahoo! Page.
·
Turn
on the pinging option that checks your blog for the latest posts.
This will get your blog indexed quickly. Also create a Google and MSN account to setup Google’s Homepage, and My MSN. Your blog’s web address
can then be added by clicking on “Add
Content”, then clicking on “Create
Section”.
·
Use
the Social Bookmark Generator and create links
to copy and paste into your blog template so visitors can easily bookmark your
blog using their favorite book mark service.
·
Use
the RSS
button Maker to add buttons to your
weblog that allow the visitor to easily include your RSS Feed in their favorite
RSS Reader. All
the 3 top SE’s use their own RSS readers on the personalized MY Yahoo, MY MSN,
and Google Homepages to view and your own RSS feeds.
Affiliate Programs can Generate Sales
The Best Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay Per Click advertisements appear at the very top of the search
engine’s results page and on the far right side of the page. They are called Sponsored Links. When a PPC ad appears it is called an ad impression.
Advertisers pay only when a visitor
clicks on the PPC ad, the number of impressions depends on the popularity of
the keywords used to promote the advertising. The PPC keywords work just like the
keywords in the metatags, except that you can put in as many words as you want
to pay for.
Marketing with PPC advertising can be used to
economically test a new website, ad campaigns, products, index pages etc. Many companies use PPC
because of the lower costs and greater exposure. Compared to banner advertising
and other online ads, the costs are cheaper. PPC is a great advertising tool for
instant traffic and top SE rankings for that keyword.
To get top placement as a new website, these are
the best advertising options for fast promotion. Additionally, both top two PPC
engines have easy setup and services to help track the conversion rates of your
ads.
·
The only draw backs of AdWords and Yahoo are the
costs, and the need to get 3rd party software to track click fraud.
·
COSTS: CPC or cost-per-click can start
at $3-$4 for competitive keywords,
and go to $10 per click for the most competitive keywords.
·
Third party software can be used to track visitor
clicks on these PPC engines, but Yahoo and Google won’t track click through fraud
themselves. If you
have a very competitive market, you may want to consider paying for tracking
programs that count the number of clicks from the same computer and report
those to the PPC engines, who then give advertising credits. Click fraud is estimated be as high as 15%
for certain competitive keywords.
Info
on the top PPC engines Yahoo and Google
·
A big advantage with Google Adwords is automated so
your ads go live right after you publish them. No waiting for approvals like Yahoo PPC.
·
AdWords other advantage is that it uses a formula to calculate your PPC ad position which is
calculated by multiplying your bid amount by your ad's click-through
rate (CTR).
Thus the better performing ads are rewarded and spam ads are not.
·
Both Google AdWords and Overture do not charge your
maximum bid amount, they
charge one penny over the competitor’s bid so
·
AdWords competitior bids are not visible-Yahoo
shows the competition’s bids and places the top bidder’s ads higher on the
page–Google reduces the threat of
bidding wars because bidders can’t see the competition’s bids.
·
Yahoo! Search Marketing acquired the Overture
network,
which is the second largest PPC engine. It has human editors so approval of ads
may take a couple of days. Although
human editing does help ensure good quality ads you may wait a couple of days
for approval.
·
All Yahoo bids are open to the public so all
advertisers see what a particular keyword costs. This can lead to bidding wars and the competition
outbidding by one penny to gain a higher ranking. It does allow the advertisers
to see the cost of their ads for a certain position.
Software that incorporates PPC web tracking into
their programs
·
Software to track PPC campaigns-The web worksheet lists paid
software that can track several PPC campaigns at once. Web CEO’s paid version also tracks PPC ads and other website stats. Many PPC
services that setup and track PPC campaigns for clients will offer click
through fraud protection.
1. Click-Through-Rate(CTR) =Total number of PPC Click-Throughs/Total
number of ad impressions
2. Conversion Rate=(Total number of sales from PPC Clicks/Total Number of
PPC Clicks)x100=Conversion Rate %
3. Adwords analytics will track these stats and the Yahoo PPC ads
performance.
Steps for Google PPC ad creation: Read the Google Adwords blog info for instructions
on how to setup the PPC campaigns. Research the top performing keywords within your target
market. Make the ad enticing and filled with top keywords. Launch ad variations to see which
ads and keywords perform better over time. Add as many variations of the top
keywords and think in terms of your customer searching for your product or
service when creating and targeting your ads. Both Google and Yahoo offer local
and regional ad targeting for specific geographical areas.
.ADSENSE Passive
Income Possibilities
For those who want to make money by putting Google
ads on their own websites, Adsense may be for you. Google created an advertising
platform for websites to display the Google ads and receive money for the
click-throughs from their sites to the advertisers.
The AdSense advertising is like Adwords in that the
advertiser bids on certain keyword ad positions. The ads are displayed on Adsense websites that are
optimized for that search term. Google pays the website for each click-through
originating from that site. So what makes a successful adsense website?
Building
Positive Relationships with Newsletters
Another way to keep building your online marketing
reach is to send email newsletters. Invite the visitor to subscribe to the
latest edition of the newsletter with helpful articles and information
pertaining your field. These newsletters can help your website build
credentials and quality relationships to showcase your newest product or
service. They also build a valuable contact list for future promotion of
special offers or services.
Tracking
your website visitors with stat counters
Because of stiff competition these days, keeping track of
your website stats has never been more important. There are many free tracking programs
online that allow you to place code on each page and see the daily visitor
counts and pages that each visitor viewed. Make sure to keep your stats private
so the competition can’t see your visitors also. Listed here are several of the important stats each website should
keep track of and why:
Market
Rite’s Unique SEO/Web Marketing Approach
When followed, these SEO and marketing methods will
increase your page ranking and overall visitor traffic to your website.
Remember that a good SEO/web marketing campaign takes continual effort and
money to stay on top of your competitors. Unfortunately, many companies cannot
afford both the time it takes to market their websites, and the many SEO
companies who charge exorbitant rates for limited services. That’s where we
come in…
At Market Rite Websites, SEO/SEM is what we
do. We tailor our SEO packages and web services to the individual website for
maximum success. Our comprehensive services can include both on-page SEO optimization
and web marketing management of PPC campaigns. We can also build the marketing
campaign from the ground up and SEO optimize your pages for top ranking against
the competition. Contact Market Rite Websites
for your online SEO consultation today!
This free online SEO workshop was researched,
compiled and written by our experienced SEO consultant, Cara Wadsworth as a
guide to help small online internet businesses market their own websites. Feel free to bookmark Market Rite Websites for future SEO
reference and we hope your website gets marketed right!!