Affiliate Marketing – Best Free Wordpress Poker Theme

You may not know this, but Google PageRank was developed by Larry Page of Stanford University when he and Sergey Brin were developing a new search engine. That search engine became Google, the most used search engine ever. PageRank is a patented method to measure page relevance and importance. The scale goes from 0 to 10, with 10 being best. It should not be confused with “high rankings” because it is a Google link analysis algorithm.

The equations used in the PageRank algorithm are kept secret, but there are a few things known about it that can help you increase your Google PageRank.

Traffic matters, so do what you can to get more visitors and more page views for your site.

A Google sitemap helps. A hastily or poorly made sitemap can hurt your PageRank.

Contents of the individual pages generate better PageRank karma when they are relevant. In other words, if your website is about women’s shoes, you should add pages about shoe outlets, shoe care products, shoe repair, etc. But a perfume page would be considered irrelevant.

The older the site, the better, but newer content helps out. So, an established site that is updated frequently is best.

Outbound links from your site to other highly ranked sites that are relevant – meaning they share at least one search term – helps your page out.

Links from sites with high Google PageRanks are very beneficial for your site.

Links from sites with domain extensions .org and .edu are helpful to your PageRank

Sites that show up in the top 10 results for local map searches for some reason are more likely to appear at the top of “regular” search results, too.

Don’t use link farms. If the algorithm finds out, it will hurt your PageRank.

Sites that use devious techniques including spamming links can not only hurt your PageRank, but can get you banned from Google searches.

Perhaps the most important thing is that the size of your site, and the density of high quality content will help you in the long term more than anything.

While you shouldn’t gear every word you put on your site toward maximizing your PageRank (particularly since nobody has found a way to do that), you should keep these principles in mind because even regardless of PageRank, they are signs of a high quality site.

Even though keyword research might be monotonous and dull, it is crucial in pulling off your SEO campaign.  Keyword research will assist you in placing your website among the others in the top spots of search engines.  Out of my 3 major SEO tips, the best one is keyword research.

Of course, other people might have different methods to finding the right keywords for their subject, just as I do, but no matter what I try, I simply keep returning to the free keyword research tool made by Google.  Google has put some great features into their tool, which has made it easier and more helpful.

SEO Tips

First of all, it is not as hard to write about topics, products, or service you like or want to know more about.  So, list the products and service that interest you the most; use the list to find the subject of your keywords.  Using a keyword tool will help you find the popular keywords and phrases search engine users type in.  For instance, let’s say you put in the word “skateboards.”  A keyword tool will tell you how many times the word “skateboard” was searched in a month.

After you receive your results from the keyword tool, you will see that it has probably been searched millions of times that month.  From there, you need to find your subtopic.  So, take the word “skateboard” and build a phrase around that: “skateboard trucks”, “top skateboard decks”, et cetera.   Doing that will lower the number of searches per month; however, you want to find a keyword phrase that has the right amount of monthly searches.  The range I have found that works the best: 500 to 100,000.  Anything more and anything less will not bring in the traffic you are seeking.  It does not matter if the most frequently searched phrase seems like the best one to use; trust me, it is not.  Yes, you need to find a popular keyword, but not one where you have to compete with millions of other websites.  The less competition, the easier you will get to the top spot on all of the search engines.

Now, I realize there is more information out there than what I have gone over in this guide, but you should now have a clearer idea of the right way and wrong way to go about the keyword research selection process.  It is very defeating to spend months and months of trying to reach the top, and then not get the traffic you need, and to lose against stiffer competition.

Content may be the most important aspect of blog publishing, but it is not the only aspect. Quality SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a vital part of increasing blog traffic. The best laid-out, highest quality content will not work all by itself; a blogger needs to use SEO as well. There are a few tips that really bring in the traffic; however, they are not widely known among the blogging community.

Strategic Keyword Placement

Search engines, such as Yahoo or Google, use automated web crawlers, also referred to as “spiders.” These spiders give all public websites and blogs a ranking and categorization by weeding through content to find sites with a good enough quality. This is how they strategically place and rank content. So, follow these procedures listed below.

1. Search engines always crawl, or notice, a website’s title tag. A title tag is seen as this: < title >. A title tag with keywords in it will get ranked very high on a search engine.

2. Search engines also crawl heading tags too. A heading tag is seen as this: < h2 >. If a blog has keywords in its title, it will get more hits.

3. Usually a search engine crawler will not pay attention to pictures displayed on a web page, but they will rank any keywords in the picture’s description in the tags. This SEO tip is best for posts with more graphics, such as on the subject of photography or traveling.

4. Another good idea is to put keywords in the text anchor, or the text that is “clickable.” This is why incoming and outgoing links are notice by search engine web crawlers. Any outgoing links, the links that go to your website, needs a keyword in your URL.

5. Also, you have to have just the right percentage of keyword density, this is the frequency keywords appear in a text. Since bloggers are completely in charge of keyword density, they should make certain their post’s keyword density is close to 3%. A higher percentage than that could cause a post to be so annoying to readers so that it is misconstrued as spam, but a percentage lower than 7% may not get the attention that you need from spiders.

6. Web crawlers also like synonyms of keywords, and variations of keywords will make a blog post seem more free-flowing, natural, and interesting. So, switch up your keyword synonyms in your article or post.

Ways Linking Helps Ranking

All blogs should have quality links, especially links from websites that are similar. Sites that deal with similar content and subject matter are considered competitors. So, if you can get your competitor to put up your link on his or her site, you will have boosted your ranking and your reputation. Consider it to be a major victory.

And, the longer a link has been established, the better liked it is by search engines. It is thought to be endorsed by the website posting the link, and it shows organic link building. However, take great care to ensure none of your incoming links are broken. If there are links that do not work, or that go to a site that no longer exists, your blog will fall in the rankings.

Search Engine Rankings

Each search engine has its own algorithm it applies to rankings and indexing. This is very important, although most SEO strategies center on the methods of keywords and linking because they are both common with most search engines. For example, Google uses sitemaps when indexing any website, including blogs. Another procedure is to use the robots.txt file. This is just another way search engines decide whether to index a website or ignore it. The robots.txt file should be used methodically to ban or allow parts of your site to be seen by search engines.

I make my income by boosting rankings on search engines, and believe me, there are tons of faulty information about SEO. There is a road to achieving high rankings, and it is within your reach. Rankings are not a fabricated myth. Just like any other thing you conquer in life, there is a path you take to get there.

Through my collaboration with several hundred small to medium sized websites, I learned that the high ranking sites have several common denominators. What do they have in common? Well, I am going to tell you exactly what they share with each other. My guide will explain what keeps a website on the top of Google’s list, and what causes a website to sink.

First of all, there are the anchor texts that go to the outside links of your website. Most search engines, including Google, use these anchor texts to figure out the subject of your website, and to decide what ranking to put your site in. Check out the other websites that have links to yours, so you can see if the link is using keywords from your own anchor text. If there is only a URL to link to your website, request that they update. You need your link to be side by side with your keywords.

The second tip to remember is to use your keywords in your title tag and your meta tags. Yes, meta tags still effect search engine rankings. Although meta tags do not carry a lot of weight in reference to your rank, they are a useful tool for page categorization. They also assist search engines by showing them what they will find when they crawl your pages.

The third strategy: link popularity. Website owners and marketers constantly talk about the effectiveness of link popularity. Even though it does not do as much Page Rank, it is still an important method to keep in mind. Both of these concepts take several points into consideration when concluding the value of your web page from an outside point of view. Remember, the amount and value of your links that deliver people to your web page is of the utmost importance.

The variety of domains that lead to your website. This is the next tip. It is not just the links you have going to your website, but that the links are spread out among a wide array of websites. This tells search engines that your website is popular; therefore, the search engine will give it a higher ranking in search results. So, direct most of your attention to spreading out your incoming links.

Now, for the very last strategy, using keywords in a root domain. Sure, you can utilize sub-domains and dedicated pages to put keywords in your URL, but having keywords inside your root domain is the best way to improve your website ranking.

Everything I have laid out for you in this guide is crucial in getting top search engine rankings. Not a single point should be put aside in your quest to climbing the search engine ladder. Also, keep researching so you can stay current with the ever changing SEO trends. Taking a SEO class will aid you in developing your skills as a search engine optimization expert.

The Bing search engine by Microsoft is changing the face of SEO as we know it. Since Bing has been introduced to the public, website owners do not have to manually submit their sites to search engines, and they do not have to look to other places in order to be indexed by the search engines. Of course, the biggest question on the minds of marketers is how they can now get their websites top rankings on Bing’s search engine. The following Bing SEO tips will assist any marketer looking to get recognized by Bing.

Take a look at the basic structure of your website. The first thing to do to increase rankings on Bing is to ensure your title relates to the subject of your site, and you also have to link out. While marketers who use other search engines, like Google, avoid linking out, this is not a concern when using Bing. This search engine also prefers domain names that have been registered longer. So, try and purchase an established domain name. There is another difference between Bing and the other major search engines: the number of words in your text. Most search engines could care less how many words you put in your text, but Bing does. Try and include at the minimum 350 per site page.

There is also the issue of HTML codes. The HTML codes you use on your site should be well-formed. All of the paired tags should be closed, and each link should open to the correlating page; otherwise, the MSNBot cannot index your website as it should. This will prevent visitors from accessing your webpage, and that is the last thing any marketer wants. So, visit the W3C Markup Validation Service and the HTTP Compression or Conditional Get Test tool for additional information on HTML code validation. And, if you need to do some research about searching for broken links, go to Webmaster Center’s Crawl Issue’s Help topic.

More tips. Don’t forget, when moving a web page, you need to make sure the original URL is redirected to the new page. Tell your visitors whether this redirection is permanent or not. Check your list of prohibited web crawlers to see if MSNBot is on the list. You do not want this. Help on this subject can be found in the Control section that shows the indexing of your pages. Robots.txt will tell MSNBot and other crawlers to index your site.

Also, your URL’s should not be complex or changed a lot. Simple URL’s are easy to index, and visitors will not forget your address. Making sure your URL fits this criteria will ensure a link destination from other sites. One thing to be aware of: malicious software. Bing will disable and see your page as Malware if the links on your page meet one of the following criteria: the link leads to malware, it is a third party sites, or if any of them have harmful content. Harmful content can include corrupted documents, corrupted pictures, and damaging JavaScript and ActiveX controls.

As you have now learned, quality and quantity really do matter if you want plenty of links going to your website. And, always check to see if your keywords and your content match each other.

There are too many WordPress blogs all over the internet to even count; however, the number of articles that are search engine optimized are very few. This article details 7 ways to make a WordPress blog more friendly to search engines.

1. Every blog you publish will have its very own permanent URL, called a permalink. So, you need to make certain your permalinks are arranged for SEO. The default setting on WordPress’ setting for permalinks is not the best; but, this can be changed simply and quickly. First, go to your WordPress dashboard and find the Permalinks menu. Choose the Permalinks menu and go to Settings. Click on settings. Once you are in settings, you can customize your settings using “yourdomainname.com/category/postname, instead of a number. Having your category and title in your URL is just more appealing than just some numbers.

2. Install a plug-in, such as All in One SEO Pack. If you use this plug-in, the home page and posts on your blogs can have a custom title, a meta description, and keyword tags.

3. Your blog should be optimized for a long keyword phrase that has lower competition. All you have to do is take a little time to research first. Google AdWords Keywords is an excellent source. There you can find keyword phrase and competition level criteria you need. The perfect phrase should several hundred searches per month instead of several thousand per month. Make sure to never use the same keyword in more than one blog post. The keyword phrase should appear in the post’s title and only 2 or 3 times in the post itself.

4. Social bookmarking should be used to bookmark each post. Digg or StumbleUpon are two great bookmarking services. OnlyWire and SocialMarker are good too, and they let bloggers list their site to more than one bookmarking service at once. If you want more traffic and a backlink that goes to your posting, and we all do, then utilizing a social bookmarking website will help you accomplish this.

5. It is a given that your home page will get the most hits out of any other pages on your website. This is why home page optimization is crucial. Use Google AdWords to find 1 or 2 keywords to use that relate to your subject on your home page. Shoot for keywords that will get several thousand searches a month. This will put you in the same league as your competition. The keywords that you pick should be placed in the following areas: your tag TITLE, meta discription, and, in your blog’s home page content.

6. Put the Google XML Sitemap on your computer. Now, this plug-in will not increase your rankings, but it will put all of your posts and pages in the search engine’s index. This plug-in from Google will provide you a sitemap.

7. Building links that go back to your blog will definitely boost your rankings on the search engines. Neglecting to make links is the fastest way to slow down the traffic to your website. There are many different ways to build links: article marketing, submitting to directories, posting on forums, making comments on other blogs, providing press releases, exchanging links, and social bookmarking.

Article marketing is an effective way to drive internet traffic to a specific website. It allows a marketing professional to build back links to his or her website. Back links are one of the keys to a site’s ranking highly in search engine results. They are also a way to improve a site’s Google PageRank. Though it may sound like a chore, writing articles for marketing purposes is one of the best possible ways of promoting your affiliate services and products.

Article marketing is popular for a reason: When done right, it drives traffic to a targeted Web site. It also allows a marketer to build back links to his or her Web site which, in turn, helps boost a Web site’s page rank. In an increasingly competitive online marketplace, you cannot afford not to write articles as a means of promoting your affiliate products and/or services.

The best articles for promotional purposes are those that contain commonly searched keywords and key phrases. This is true whether the articles are going on your own website, into an article directory, or on a blog. You can research what the best keywords are by using Google’s AdWorks, or tools like Word Tracker.

Choosing your keywords wisely is one of the most important SEO techniques. Ideally you want commonly searched words and phrases for which there is not a lot of competition. If you can do this, you can bring your search engine rankings up quickly, enhancing traffic flow to your site.

“Keyword stuffing” is something you definitely want to avoid. You may have seen sites on the Internet where keywords are simply crammed into text so much that nothing makes any sense. The major search engines are learning to sniff this out and penalize it. The content is most important, and the keyword density is second most important. If your articles are simply repositories for meaningless keyword phrases, nobody’s going to read them. Good content is the key to driving traffic to your website.

It is recommended that you write your articles in a somewhat casual, conversational manner. You don’t want your articles to intimidate people with jargon or with too formal a style. You want people to read your articles, enjoy them, and be moved to visit your website (and hopefully purchase one of the products or services you are marketing). You can’t do this with low quality articles.

These are not all the SEO tips that affiliates need, but they are the basics. Consistency and commitment will make a huge difference in whether you succeed as an affiliate. You should set a goal for writing a certain number of articles each week, and then stick to it. If you keep on doing it, writing informative, readable articles that lead to your site, then your traffic and your commissions will grow steadily.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to increase traffic to a particular website. SEO does this by improving a site’s search engine rank through strategic use of appropriate keywords and key phrases. Descriptive keywords and good site content can increase a site’s search engine ranking.

If you want to improve your site’s search engine ranking, you should use appropriate keywords and key phrases placed throughout your site’s content. When you do this well, your search engine rank rises, and you are able to vastly improve your marketing on the internet. The different factors that combine to get your site higher in the search engine rankings also help your affiliate marketing plans. Building traffic is the key to getting your site and its products and services into the hands of your customers.

Another way to build traffic to your site is to make sure to build relevant links that will help your search engine ranking improve. Quality back links (links from other sites to yours)are great ways to increase your Google PageRank, too. It is OK to ask sites that you admire if you can link to them, and if they would consider putting in a link to your site. Often, they are flattered by your request and are happy to do so. A strong network of links and back links will help your site’s traffic to grow. But avoid link farms and paid back link schemes.
When you build links with other sites, you build a symbiotic relationship that allows the linked sites to benefit. In other words, each site is helping other sites by marketing them subtly through a web of links. A well linked site will help you attract more visitors, and more links, which will in turn attract more visitors in an upward spiral. It is often wise to link to sites that are similar to yours. If you get that site to give you a back link, you’ll be helping each other out. While it may seem counterintuitive to link to sites that might compete with yours, it is often helpful. People looking for a certain product or service will often compare several sites’ offerings before making a decision.

While linking to other affiliate sites generates traffic to your site, it also helps potential customers by sharing useful web resources that they may not have known about before. The same is true of affiliate sites that link to your site. By linking to other quality affiliate sites, you not only increase your standing in search engine rankings, but you help other sites increase their standings as well. Potential customers will appreciate being able to explore the subject further through the links that affiliate sites offer.

The construction of a web of high quality links to and from your site will help your site’s Google PageRank to increase, and will help your site’s search engine standing to increase. High search engine ranking is the key to getting the traffic you need to your site and succeeding in your e-business.

If you not only want to promote your website, but also make money online – then you should consider how to combine SEO with blogging to provide combination for success that can’t be topped.

When you have a website or blog, you may have a focus purely on delivering information to a target audience. However, with the right search engine optimization and an understanding of how to apply it to your blog, you can also increase traffic and get a more targeted audience. Improving your traffic flow is important whether your aim is purely to inform or if you wish to use your blog and website as an extra or sole income source, which is where good design and SEO helps.

So t get to the heart of things and find out what really works and what doesn’t. If you are eager to improve the traffic to your site, then let’s begin by looking at what the latest and greatest solutions are to achieve that goal.

THE SEO FAST TRACK

How to begin managing your site’s SEO. Basically, when you create a site that is attractive to the search engines, then you have a better chance of being listed by them. To be completely realistic about this, the daddy of the search engines is Google, so if you have followed the necessary steps to rank well there, then you’ll rank well across all the rest too. Carefully select the best keyword or keyword phrase for each page on your site and carefully build each page around that word. This should include the home page and you should only aim optimize any one page for one keyword if you want to succeed.

Don’t worry about including Meta tags. This is the SEO fast track, if you have time to complete the Meta tags, great – if not, then leave it. The most essential tags for your site are the title tags and these are the ones that need to contain your page keyword. Don’t rely solely on the keyword, but integrate it in the title and you will really see it make a difference to your ranking. To include your keyword in the title if it is ‘Creating Blogs’ the look at a title such as:

Creating Blogs and Using SEO For Fast Cash

As titles go, this is a good length and you have included your target keyword phrase ‘creating blogs’ to ‘label’ your web page. Once you have done this – you then need to make sure the first heading on the page also includes the phrase ‘Creating Blogs’. This time just use the phrase and make it a H1 html tag. Ultimately, the ‘purity’ of the site html is not important, the main concern should be that it is clear to Google – so carefully select appropriate H1 and Title tags.

Always tag graphics on the site, even those such as the payment graphics Clickbank offers. Using alt tags appropriately will make a significant impact on your SEO and page ranking. Reinforce the information in your title and H1 tags with alt tags such as: < img= . . . alt=”creating blogs Image 1”>. This will drive home that the page is about ‘creating blogs’.

Include the keyword phrase in the first 100 characters of the body html, for example:

“Creating Blogs”

“Creating blogs and carrying out webpage SEO will achieve quality results for your site over and over again. If you are blogging for cash, then this will be a highly effective way of perfecting your money making online. What you need to do is strike a balance between the site visitors and search engine, working the two together to create one solid money-producing site that you will work for you on autopilot – freeing your time to begin your next money-making strategy.”

Can you see how this is working? The keyword phrase is used in the heading, then repeated within the first 100 characters. Using the keyword immediately following the title and the rest of the page title also in the first sentence is a great way to highlight your target words. The search engine crawlers love this and right away you are making it clear precisely what your site is about.

If you continue working down the page and following this while maintaining natural and well written content, you’ll not only get the search engines crawling all over your site; you’ll have something worthwhile to show the masses of visitors this will drive your way when they get there. Look at perhaps including similar headings like “Creating Blogs and SEO” for H2 tags that further build upon the theme of creating blogs while developing further the concept of combining blogs and web pages for maximum benefit.

DEVELOP AN INTERNAL LINKING STRATEGY

Once you have completed the selection of keywords and placed them on your individual pages, then the next thing to work on is the inclusion of the other different words you need to optimize on other pages on you site. Select the appropriate keywords or phrases and then you need to start using these for internal linking of your pages to further boost your ranking for the target words. Make sure this strategy is of benefit to visitors, as site usability is also important once you get traffic to your site from the higher search engine ranking these steps will help you achieve.

Internal linking should get the search engine spider to ‘dig deeper’ and visit more of your site, but linking a greater number of pages and moving the spider through them one by one. This means more pages will be indexed and a larger number of keywords and phrases will be linked to your website. Once you have done this, you can be sure that you will rank more highly and receive more targeted traffic for the phrases you have identified as being most relevant for your site, as well as your products and services.

SUCCESSFUL BLOGGING

Create a high quality blog and you have the perfect opportunity to build your site success by demonstrating your expertise and knowledge in your field. Aim to optimize your blog for different keywords to those on your website and avoid them being in competition. Updating your blog regularly and having links to your website will keep the search engines spiders reviewing both, so you can achieve better results and drive more traffic via the combination of the two mediums.

I’ve not been able to figure out exactly the reason why, but the bottom line has been that I’ve had better results when linking a blog that is optimized for different keywords to my website. The biggest advantage that I’ve found with blog articles is that unlike articles submitted to directories, you can pretty much advertise what you want on your blog and create affiliate links and other tools that will drive more traffic to your site. One of the greatest benefits of maintaining a blog alongside a regular website is that you can promote one via the other without the fear of losing anything, as they both come under your control. With well placed links and careful strategies, it is nearly impossible to have a loss as you are simply linking two sites that belong to you.

Make sure you also send a ping for your blog to all the sites you have the blog registered with, as this too will boost the traffic you receive, generating a lot more visitors than SEO alone. Best of all, blogs cost nothing, so why not use them?

IN CONCLUSION

If you want to succeed, even the implementation of these few basic SEO tips will put you on track for greater success and a higher search engine ranking. These simple elements will boost the results you get and push your webpage higher up the list on Google and also other search engines. You can take advantage of having a blog to promote your website and to increase traffic flow to both sites. Plus if you get involved with the wider blogging community, you can further boost the results you obtain. With careful planning and implementation of SEO and a quality blog, online success can be yours much sooner than you may have thought.

Put the work in and blogs and Web 2.0 can work for you. Work smart and you’ll secure the success you desire fast.

Many new users and even those with more experience of the net will make mistakes when they are starting out in the process of boosting their site so that it ranks more highly in the search engines. The biggest mistake many of us make is listening to unfounded advice, going with the latest rumours circulating online or simply going with our instincts to our detriment. Have you ever fallen in the trap of making changes to site layout, content or backlinks only to fall in the ranks without being able to identify exactly why you were ’supposed’ to change in the first place?

The fact is, there can be many reasons why your site falls in the ranks or doesn’t achieve the success you expected from some new initiative you have undertaken. There may be things that are in your control and also things you cannot be able to manage. When the search engine changes the algorithms it uses to rank sites or when the competition changes in your field. While there will always be things beyond your control, I’d like to focus here on how to manage those things that you can do – showing you some SEO tips that you may not even know about.

Have you been in the habit of freshening the appearance and content on your website frequently? If you are and you don’t give SEO any thought in this process – then this could be one of the main reasons your site is falling in the ranks.

If you have changed any of the titles of your pages or changed the name of some important directories then you will most likely see this cause a drop in your search engine rank. The most important thing if you have made mistakes in the past is ultimately how to avoid repeating them in future.

When Dealing With Google, Yahoo and MSN – Ignorance is no excuse

While you may break the ‘rules’ with the search engines unwittingly, the bottom line is that this won’t save you from being penalised. If you want to avoid this however, here are the top 5 SEO mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.

1.) Site Layout, Page Design and Usability: Be careful when you design your website that you don’t go over the top using too many fancy visual layouts and elaborate graphics that will reduce your textual content. If you do redesign your site, then make sure that you are careful in your selection and quantity of images used. Also exercise caution with embedding content and navigational links in images on the site. The content and visible links are what the search engines will use when they index your site. As a guideline, the average web page should contain at least 200 to 300 words. Use your keywords naturally in the text (without stuffing them in too much), and include navigational links that use the target keywords – especially with your internal linking.

2.) Choose Navigation Text Carefully: While using instructions such as “Click Here” will make it very clear for site visitors, then fact is that if a search engine visits your site, they will identify this as the most important words or phrase, even above your target words and phrases. The easiest way to avoid this is to use short keyword phrases that guide both site visitors and the search engines to other pages with targeted words. If your target words are “red rose bushes” for example, then you want the visitors to identify that is what you are about, so use the term “red rose bushes” in your hyper links. In the end, you want to rank for the term “red rose bushes” in order to reach your target audience – no one looking for your products is going to find you if your site just ranks for the term “Click Here”.

3.) SEO and Site Usability: If you use titles on your pages that are not focussed on your key phrases, then you will rank for the titles used, but you won’t do yourself any favours with respect to ranking for your key phrases. Clearly, this is not the result you are after. If you are reviewing your web site, then go through page by page and make sure that you have selected a meaningful, keyword rich title that will help boost your ranking for that phrase. Take some time when working on this section of your site to be sure that you have optimized the meta tags for your target keywords also. This is no longer believed to be an important aspect of the SEO for your site, it still pays to do this as it is a further chance to be sure that you have clearly identified your keywords and are ready to use them to stand apart from your competition. You should also take into consideration that this tag is the description that often appears in the search engine results that people will view in the search result pages.

4.) Work on Getting Quality Incoming Links: The popularity of your site is assessed when search engines decide where to position your site. Your goal needs to be to target relevant sites and have incoming links from keyword text. Don’t be tempted to take the easy option and use these to boost the number of links coming into your site regardless of content and keyword focus. The two major problems with this are that firstly, you are likely to be hosting all your sites on the one server, making it easily recognisable that you have linked your own sites. This is easy enough to trace, because the IP class will be easily recognisable to the search engines and this will alert spam triggers, resulting in your site being penalised. The second problem with creating links between your own sites is that you may have to use a broad range of keywords to achieve your result – which will reduce the value of the linking gains. Be careful not to use the same anchor text on a large number of incoming links, as this too can be something that alerts the search engines of suspicious activity. Remember that the web is an organic and naturally growing body, with its influences coming from a vast range of sources. People will do their own thing online, hence inbound links will arise from a variety of sources using their own anchor text wordings. If you are involved in activities such as link exchanges, using paid links or sourcing links from related website – be cautious of an unnaturally repetitive use of keywords for the anchor text as this will set off search engine spam alerts.

5.) Changes to Site Structure and Design: One thing to be careful of when making changes in your site structure is to be cautious of leaving page and directory names or orphaned pages listed with search engines. If you are changing web page names and directory names, then do so with great care. The older or more established the web pages are – the more potential for harm there is if you are not careful about how you remove or change web page URLs. There are a few straightforward steps you can take to get search engines indexing your new web pages within days, if not hours, with powerful new crawler agents. Essentially, after the new URL and its location has been registered by the search engines, this will continue to exist in the search engine database forever if you don’t rename or remove the page. Should you delete or rename a web page, then the search engine will remove that page from the index, which can include removing link popularity or Google Page Rank data. Losing this information means the benefits of this page are lost and its role boosting your website is forfeited, meaning a negative impact on site ranking and link popularity. If it is at all possible, aim to leave the URL of your page in place and rewrite the content for your page. The best option if you must delete or rename the web page is to use a “301 Permanent Redirect” to the new URL to preserve as much as possible of the past data for search engine ranking purposes.

If you are unsure of precisely what is meant by the term “organic SEO” (search engine optimization), then you should know firstly that this is usually a broad term that describes almost any of the unpaid, naturally generated results that any website has gained from in particular engines. The most in depth search engine optimization consultants however, usually read more in the word “organic”. Such consultants will generally research and apply strategies that are designed to increase a sites ranking by boosting the “natural” search engine results.

When looking at SEO, there are two approaches for boosting search engine ranking. The first is known as “White Hat” SEO, which focuses primarily on content-based activities that are don’t violate search engines’ terms of service. The other approach is the “Black Hat” SEO approach, whereby a company or web master will use different technologies to drive the sites rank higher in the search engines. While both approaches can be applied, and both can achieve high rankings, you will generally find that SEO companies and consultants that are involved in ‘White Hat’ SEO feel the “Black Hat” approach doesn’t truly adhere to “organic SEO” practices.

You’ll often here the expression “content is king” when discussing SEO. While there is no doubt that there is some validity in this statement, there are also countless studies that have demonstrate that quality content is far more important. People primarily seek information when using search engines, therefore elaborate sites that provide lots of whizz-bang add-ins are not necessarily the ones that will rank the highest. Those who are adhering strictly to the principles of “organic SEO” will understand this and may very well decline working with businesses who do not want to improve content to boost their site ranking. Other firms that are less concerned about sticking with the terms of service of search engines will often happily use technical loopholes, allowing sites to contain little content to use technology that will ‘trick’ the engine into seeing content it wouldn’t otherwise find. In terms of using technology to boost search engine rankings, there are acceptable practices such as the correct implementation of relevant page titles and meta tags, which adhere to the search engines rules. There are however, a number of less acceptable technologies that may be applied, including cloaking, redirects, multiple sites, keyword stuffing, the adding of hidden links and countless other techniques. A reputable “organic SEO” company will not be willing to implement these strategies.

One of the most critical things for any website to improve their ranking in the search engines is to increase the number of incoming links. This often at the heart of a successful “organic SEO” campaign and consultants practicing true “organic SEO” will work on increasing these by methods that are acceptable to search engines. Those search engine optimization companies that practice “artificial SEO” methods will look at how to rapidly increase the number of incoming links using automated methods and adding little extra value to the site they are trying to push up the ranks. Examples of techniques used to do this include reciprocal linking schemes, link farms, purchasing text links and other linking ‘tricks’. These forms of link building are focused on fast solutions, and have little to do with creating great websites that draw others in and increase the desire of owners of other sites to link without a reciprocal link, without payment, or without asking please.

If you engage a quality SEO company or consultant, they will strive to keep your site up to date and get you listed in the most industry specific directories for your sites subject matter or area of industry. By applying genuine “organic SEO” techniques they will develop your site into a series of pages that have true value to visitors and potential customers. All quality consultants will automatically make sure your site gets listed major directories, such as the Yahoo Directory, the Open Directory Project, and Business.com. You’ll find a dramatic contrast between “organic SEO” and “artificial SEO.” I believe that the former is going to be much more beneficial in the long run, not least of all because the application of “Black Hat” methods could potentially see your site being ‘delisted’ and removed from the search engine all together.

The other thing you should know about SEO is that search engines regularly alter their algorithms and they do this for particular reasons. Firstly, they do this to improve the service and the way in which they generate results based upon regular assessment of user trends. Secondly, the algorithms are changed to find new and improved ways to sifting out the sites that have achieved artificially high ranks. Updates of the algorithms tend to create a lot of debate and often lead to many unfounded rumours within the SEO community. It is often the “artificial SEO” companies that are the most worried by such changes as their methods are the most likely to be impacted upon by such changes, particularly if the changes result in clients’ sites being taken out of the engines altogether. If you have a look on forums that are widely used by the many “artificial SEO” consultants and companies, you’ll notice such changes see a spike in the rumour mill and regularly this change will cause consultants practicing “artificial SEO” threatening to sue over recent changes.

If you are to look closely at the sites that remain highly ranked during the times when algorithms change, you’ll see that with few exceptions, these sites offer genuine value for visitors, and are usually viewed and a valuable resource in that industry. The “Organic SEO” companies will have little to worry about as changes are introduced. These companies are not going to be running around trying to frantically redoing SEO work to try to quickly restore rankings for clients that have been lost due to the dependency on technical loopholes. When these loopholes are removed the “organic SEO” firms will have little to worry about and as long as they continue improving content on the sites they manage, they will be able to continue strengthening their clients’ site rankings.

It is not unusual to hear words to the effect that “we’re not trying to create a resource, we’re trying to sell products” when advised to apply “organic SEO.” Remember that when trying to sell products, you will reach prospects at different points in the buying process. In this case you may find that creating a resource means you educate the customer and move them forward in this process. Therefore it is short-sighted to only be focussed on reaching those prospects who are ready to buy. If your prospect sees your website as a resource from which they learn more about your industry and products, then when they make their decision they are more likely to come to you to actually buy those products, having built trust in your knowledge and expertise.

The thing about building solid “organic SEO” through quality content is that it makes your site more valuable not only as a sales tool, but by dramatically increasing your search engine ranking; which is after all the goal of SEO. Improving your site content to achieve better results via “organic SEO” can deliver you the best results whether you are targeting those just looking or those who are ready to buy. You’ll be easier to find when people are buying and you’ll build a degree of loyalty that will boost your results with those who are still deciding about whether they want to buy.

The other thing to remember if you use an “organic SEO” firm is that they tend to follow the lead of the search engine. The major search engines will routinely carry out studies that analyse closely what the users are looking for when placing search queries. The search engines themselves have a strong interest in getting this right and therefore many “organic SEO” firms will aim to benefit from this. A SEO company with an “organic SEO” focus will consider what they can take from these studies in order to learn how to improve their practises and why some sites remain successful in the search engines over periods of time. By taking this approach the SEO company that follows “organic SEO” practises makes their customers’ websites better both for the search engines, but also for the user. This is because they learn from search engine studies what is seen as being consistently useful for the site’s visitors. “Artificial SEO” consultants on the other hand place little value on these studies – spending more time focussing on ‘quick-fixes’ to boost rank than long term gains and the end user. Far more of their energy is put into uncovering technical loopholes that they can use to their advantage to replace the loopholes that have been closed.

Taking the approach of using “artificial SEO” can mean levels success in the search engines can go up and down. By far the bigger issue with this however is that the success of the site relies on whatever current loophole exists in the search engine rankings. If the aim of SEO is to boost your rank, then “artificial” SEO might get you quickly to the top, but in the long run it is just a bandaid solution. If you haven’t built a site that offers some real value to the user when they get there, then you’ve defeated the true purpose of a good search engine ranking. Sure, you’ll have loads of visitors, but you may well find that your visitors quickly move on to another site when they find your site to be lacking in substance. The benefit of quality content is understood by “organic SEO” consultancies who take on board the (often expensive) research the search engine conducted to understand what types of content users want from their queries.

Those SEO companies that are truly focussed on “organic SEO” practices will approach SEO in a manner that is true to the word ‘organic’. They will create a quality website that demonstrates characteristics of an organism – growing and developing through time to build upon what is offered to users. An organic website will have more beneficial content and extended growth and success while securing a place at the top of the search engine results. This will be an organism that thrives for a long period, while the artificial machine created sites fade out.

Search engines are used by 90% of all online users to research products, services, find out information and look for things of interest.

If you have a website, then it makes getting ranked highly in the search engines an important step to take. If you aren’t sure what Search Engine Optimization or SEO is all about, then these 12 points should help you to understand it better, as well as giving you an idea of the philosophy, approach and methodology of SEO and the industry surrounding this.

Search engines are used by 90% of all online users to research products, services, find out information and look for things of interest.

If you have a website, then it makes getting ranked highly in the search engines an important step to take. If you aren’t sure what Search Engine Optimization or SEO is all about, then these 12 points should help you to understand it better, as well as giving you an idea of the philosophy, approach and methodology of SEO and the industry surrounding this.

Content, content and more content

Quite simply – high quality, professional, copywriting that is SEO focussed is one of the most crucial factors of your SEO campaign. All search engines allocate sites a rank and index them based on content placed upon each site page. Once you have a good understanding of the conventions of SEO and you have done some thorough research you can target a particular market more effectively and propel your site to the top of the “SERP’s” (Search Engine Result Pages) – using search engine approved methods to get you in front of your target audience.

Analyze Web Logs

While there are many who suggest that SEO is more of an art than a science, there are undoubtedly steps you can take to achieve success. If you take a scientific approach and methodically track the results of your efforts, this process of checking and then checking again, will help you to achieve success through an analysis of the sites logs. It really doesn’t matter how carefully you have put together your strategy for success, without measuring your results and closely analysing what is going on with your site, then you can’t be 100% certain who your site visitors are and what they’re doing on your site. Don’t be alarmed at this however, as there are a number of specialized software programs and tool out there that make this analysis easy to manage.

Ranking on Google, or any other search engine cannot be guaranteed

Such a guarantee is almost impossible to live up to – so if you’re getting SEO assistance be wary of those who make such promise. Chances are they are going to deliver a number one rank for such an obscure phrase (like, “left-handed, nickel plated asparagus peelers”) that are simply irrelevant or unlikely to ever be searched for. The other option is they simply have no intention of standing by their guarantee. They might even have some sort of ‘insider position’ at Google – but they’re not going to keep it long once someone finds out what they’re up to! Or it might simply be that they plan to take your money and then split – leaving you with nothing to show for a hefty outlay of money.

Some things are just straight out overkill!

The bottom line is that you don’t have to be listed on 50,000 different search engines. Take a good hard look at any consultancy that wants to list you in this many different places, because you want to consider if there is any genuine benefit in this. If there is a search engine that gets 8 hits a day and specialises in searches for green absinthe fairies then do you really need to be listed with them? The reality is that around 85% of the search engine traffic out there comes from just one of the four major search engines. Those four in turn account for more than 90% of all traffic. With that many results coming from just one search engine – then you’re better off working with someone that can get your site found by the major players, either through links from an established website or, even better, from a quality directory.

Pay-Per-Click is not the same as SEO

The difference between strategic SEO campaigns and PPC is that the former when implemented effectively creates results that, whilst slower, are longer lasting and continue to generate traffic and even increase the amount generated over time. With the correct optimization of a site there is only a need for a little fine-tuning from time to time – usually related to changes in the business rather than changes in the search engines. In terms of cost versus ROI, SEO continues to create results long after the consultant has been paid. PPC is undoubtedly one way of creating traffic and sales, but it is by no means the only way. The bottom line is that pay-per-click campaigns still bring in relatively low conversion rates and they cease to be effective as soon as the “pay” part of the equation is over with.

SEO is not witchcraft, black magic or hocus pocus

There are no secret societies, special ceremonies or other rituals that will create results once you are ‘initiated’ into the inner circle. Nor are there any “classified” practices that a reputable SEO consultant daren’t reveal to a ‘mere mortal’, under oath or to their nearest and dearest! The net was built in a spirit of cooperation and ease of access for everyone, free from ‘dark secrets’ that dare not be revealed. SEO equally is an open process that can be learned and if you have contracted a reputable SEO consultancy, then it is not unreasonable to expect a full list of how and why they are spending your money and the benefit of these things. If you feel the person you have hired is being overly secretive or generally unwillingness to explain why things are – then you should question why. There are some technical points that might require further clarification by the SEO expert, but if they are worth the money you are paying, then they’ll do this and help you understand the complete situation and explain why they are billing you for particular things.

DIY for site SEO

Yes, it is possible to carry out your own SEO! If you aren’t sure exactly how to put together the right strategies, then you might find an SEO firm to develop a plan for you. However, you may want to do the actual implementing of the plan yourself. Whether you have your own in-house team to manage this or implement these strategies on your own time; having clear goals and aims for your business and website will mean you build upon the SEO firms website analysis, keyword research and guidance on how to achieve a high page ranking. Once these things are in place, you can put the elements in place that are outlined in the SEO consultants strategy and using the recommendations of the experts. Doing this can save you on average 30 to 40%.

Carrying out phased SEO implementation

Another alternative for increasing web traffic and hence sales and service requests, you may opt for a lower initial investment through phased implementation of SEO. Large businesses might have thousands available to spend each month on SEO, but for smaller businesses this is a way of increasing sales and leads without a large upfront outlay of money. If you secure a reputable SEO firm to develop a solid strategy for you, then this is a way to create a solid result by phasing in the different elements recommended. Taking the advice of an expert will save you money, so you can avoid the expensive mistakes you might make going with a trial and error approach. Instead you can implement suitable strategies, as your time and budget allows without wasting any of your financial resources.

Always remember that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”

This age old saying is particularly true when dealing with SEO. The other saying you might remember is ’slow and steady wins the race’. You will fare better if you aim for a steady movement up through the ranks by implementing well developed and carefully planned SEO strategies over a period of time; rather than going flat out for a rapid rise followed by a big crash. Look at making solid and lasting gains and you will find this more rewarding. Competition online is fierce, so stay on course for a long term outcome – because everyone wants to make it to the top, so you need to be savvy in your planning to get there.

One more thing to think about

If you are not up to date on the latest with SEO, it pays to be careful about taking shortcuts. The search engines will look poorly upon any unethical practices to boost your website. That means taking shortcuts could only mean a shortcut to the bottom of the ranks, possibly compromising the existence of your website, business and even your reputation through these unwitting acts. As with most things, ignorance is no excuse, so you’ll bear responsibility for the actions of the SEO company or consultant you use. Be clear about the steps they are taking and if you do have any doubts, then don’t be afraid to question why – to allow unethical actions could cost you your business.

Not all incoming links hold the same weight

While having links will boost your rank and help the search engine bots find your business faster, remember that there is more than just the link that is considered. The search engines are today increasingly looking at the relevance incoming links from sites in the same field and the subject matter and page rank of the site that links to yours. Google was the first to start looking at low ranking and irrelevant incoming links, and many feel the days of simply grabbing a ton of links irrespective of relevance are over. Soc called link farms, free-for-all link schemes, automated link accumulation software and other fad options that don’t involve the consideration of the relevance of the links and the websites sourced from is now going to do you more harm than good.

Beyond the facts and figures

For the SEO process to work as it should, the consultant should know more than just the analytics and figures that relate to the process. They should also have a solid grasp of the ethos and vision of the company they are working with. This is why the connection between any online business and SEO must become a close relationship – in order for the true spirit of the business to come out. If a SEO consultant is serious about getting substantial results for their customers, they should be using every hour of their time while on the project to understand the clients business almost as well as their client does. This is the only way they can truly position the business where it fits best and will be of most benefit for the client by drawing in more interested clients.