SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners

admin    Google Optimization     Beginners, Design, Engine, Optimization, Search, Secrets, Tips

SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners

SEO web design is a skill that can be learned, though most search engine optimization for beginners courses dwell too much on linking strategy as opposed to web site design per se. There are many ways for most normal people to get an improved search engine ranking, and secure a high search engine listing, and while linking is important, good on-site SEO is also necessary.

Although it might not seem like it, getting a good listing on Google or any of the other search engines is not as difficult as many like to claim. There are rules to follow, and if you play the game properly then the outcome should be in your favour. The tips provided in this article are not really secrets as such; although many people offer to divulge marvelous secrets to you, all they are giving you is stuff that people have been using for years.

So you won’t get any secrets here. I have nothing hidden away that I don’t want anybody to know, and if I had I wouldn’t tell you about it! Would you? If you had some secrets that were so valuable that they were making you money, would you give them away free in an article like this one? Of course you wouldn’t!

So here are my not-so-secret tips on getting a good listing in Google and improving your search engine ranking. You likely know a fair bit about meta tags, and have been informed that most are not used by search engines. Well let me tell you something. If you ‘Google’ Article Services you will finds my website right at the top in the #1 position for that keyword. Check the description that Google provides right under the title: that is exactly as it is in the ‘Description’ tag that I have on the site. So don’t let anybody tell you that Google don’t use the Description tag, because they do. So do Ask and MSN (now Live Search), and Yahoo also uses it, but not the whole thing exactly as written.

The Keyword tag is another matter. Google aren’t interested in what you tell them the keywords are: they decide the relevance of the page themselves from the text and Alt tags on the page. Google no longer need keyword repetition to understand what you are writing about: they have the LSI algorithm now, that will determine the meaning of your page from the character strings it contains. The algorithm is programmed to calculate a relevance factor from the vocabulary you use in relation to the rest of the vocabulary on the page. However, back to SEO web design, and some search engine optimization tips for beginners.

In addition to the Description meta tag, the HTML tags you should use are:

1. The Keywords meta tag. Although little used it only takes a second to put in, and does no harm. There is evidence that some search engines might use it. The rest of the meta tags are pointless.

2. The TITLE tag. This is the title of your web page, and should contain the primary keyword for the page. Each page should be written round one primary keyword that relates to the subject of your website or niche.

For example, if your niche is costume jewelry, the primary keyword for your home page would be ‘costume jewelry’. You could then have a number of ’silos’ with a main page title each. The title of one main silo page could be ’simulated diamonds’ and the first page title of that silo could be ‘garnets’. All of these are the primary keywords for their respective pages. Another silo could be ‘colored gem stones’, with that as the primary keyword for the main silo page, and that for your first sub-page in that silo could be ‘citrine’. And so on.

Each page must have one primary keyword, and it should be included in the Title tag for that page. The Title tag does not appear in the body of the article, but in the HTML between the two HEAD tags in your html.

3. The H tag. These are heading tags, with H1 being the most important. The heading for each main section in your page should be contained within H1 tags, and many pages have only the one set of such tags. Subheadings, containing secondary keywords, should be contained within H2 tags, and so on. Thus, in the example above, the heading or your garnets silo could be could be ‘Garnets in Costume Jewelry’ in H1 tags.

After an introduction to garnets, you could then have an H2 heading containing ‘The Source of Garnets: Where Garnets Come From’, then another passage of text headed ‘How Garnets are Cut for Costume Jewelry’, again held in H2 tags.
4. The ALT attribute. Use ‘Alt = ‘ within the Img tags of your images and graphics. This lets the search engines know what the graphic is about: search engines do not read graphics, and the Alt attribute offers you the chance to use your graphics meaningfully with respect to SEO web design.

TEXT FORMATTING

That’s all you have to worry about regarding the HTML tags. You text formatting can be used to emphasize to search engines what the important text on your page is. Thus, if you use bold text, underscoring or italics, they indicate the important words and phrases. Thus, use the STRONG and U html tags in your heading.

WRITE NATURALLY

Don’t worry too much about your keyword density (KD), other than having to much. Too high a KD could harm you if Google thinks you are making unnecessary use of them. Write naturally for human readers, and not robots. If your text reads well and makes it clear what the subject of the passage is about, then you will be fine. In my writing I ignore the concept of KD altogether. I use my keywords as indicated above, and also in the first and last 100 characters on the page (or at least in the last paragraph somewhere).

Good SEO web design is not keyword fixated, but contains good contextually related vocabulary that the LSI algorithm can use to target the relevance of the page to the search term being used by somebody using the search engine to find information. That’s all a keyword is: a term used by somebody looking for information. If you cannot work without a target KD, then I would go for a max of 1% with plenty associated vocabulary, synonyms. Related terms, etc.

Thus, if you are writing a 400 word article on the keyword ‘losing weight’, use these words four times, not twelve (1% not 3%)

None of these are web design secrets, and I doubt if there are any such secrets left any more. I suppose the only thing even approaching a secret here is that my description meta tag is copied exactly by Google in the listing for my #1 placed website. That allows you to determine how Google users see the description of your site in the listing.

I have several more SEO web design tips to offer, but these will be the subject of another article. In the meantime if you implement these search engine optimization tips for beginners, then you should soon see an improvement in your website’s search engine ranking.

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Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners – The Road to Success

admin    Google Optimization     Affiliate, Beginners, Marketing, Road, Success, Tips

Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners – The Road to Success

Affiliate marketing is very popular and also it is very effective way to make money online. It’s popular because it is easy to understand and its running cost is very affordable.

In order to become successful affiliate, you need to know the strategies of super affiliates. You no need to reinvent the wheel. Just be a little creative and follow the super affiliates.

Here are the top 5 affiliate marketing tips that will help you to become a super affiliate.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 1 – Hide your affiliate links

People don’t like unfamiliar ugly affiliate links. You need to hide them. There are several methods to hide an affiliate link. And one of the best methods is domain forwarding. For this, you need to buy your own domain name. After that, you can forward it to your affiliate link. It’s very simple any everyone can do it.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 2 – Writing articles for many purposes

Write quality articles and submit them to article directories. Also, submit these articles to related blogs on your niche. Every blogger needs content for his visitors, so normally most bloggers will publish your article with your resource box. It is an extra benefit of article writing. You will get traffic from article directories and other high trafficked related blogs. It will also help you to increase your page rank on Google.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 3 – Narrow your niche market and decrease your competition

As a beginner it would be good for you to narrow your niche, because it will decrease your competition. And it will be a good strategy for you. Also it will attract more visitors form search engines.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 4 – See what your competitor is doing

Know the strategies that used by your competitors. In affiliate marketing industry, you should to know what other affiliates are doing in your niche market. And after that you need to do a little better from your competitors. It is winning strategy. So, follow these steps:

Pick up some keywords that are closely related to your affiliate product.
Take Google Search for each keywords and see what Google brings up.
See top ranked websites on those keywords.
Pick up some sites that are purely devoted to sell affiliate products.
Take a note how they are making money and how they are approaching to buy the products.
And the final step is to put the URLs of those top ranked affiliate website on SEMRush.com. And know the keywords and SEO strategies that are used by those sites.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 5 – Increase your knowledge on your niche

The better you understand you niche, the more money you will make. Think about these questions…

Who is my targeted audience?
What are the things they are trying to find?
How can I reach to my audience?
What are the best methods to approach them to buy my affiliate products?

Another thing you must do is to read at least one book every week on your niche. Internet is full of information, you just need to spend a little time on Google and you will have several free ebooks on your niche.

So, these are the top 5 affiliate marketing tips for beginners to start making some real money online. Hope, you have enjoyed the article. But affiliate marketing tips are not completed here.

2Checkout Based Affiliate Programs On Shop2CO: Tips and Tutorial For Beginners

admin    Google Optimization     2Checkout, Affiliate, based, Beginners, Programs, Shop2CO, Tips, Tutorial

2Checkout Based Affiliate Programs On Shop2CO: Tips and Tutorial For Beginners

Thinking around using Shop2CO? Eager option. If you necessary to delude eBooks, whether as an affiliate or vendor, Shop2CO should be your product one deciding. Shop2CO affiliate network using 2Checkout for payments. Handle both intangible and tangible products – while ClickBank restricts itself to digital products, 2Checkout can handle both digital and physically shipped products.

These are advantages of Shop2CO over Clickbank”

No commission stealing difficulty. Every Shop2CO affiliates moldiness start their 2Checkout account upon entrance. Should an affiliate try to buy from his affiliate link, the method faculty automatically calculate the commission, making vendor get 100% vantage.

No inactivity for payment. All payments are remunerated via 2Checkout account. A hassle-free way to greet payment, for non-US affiliates.

Zero commencement toll for vendor. This is another present why Shop2CO is a risk-free way to appendage payments and affiliates.  

Tips to use and designate Shop2CO products

Indicate for both 2Checkout and Shop2CO account. Different Clickbank where you meet status an email code, Shop2CO requires you to screw a 2Checkout account.  

Investigate for markets with soaring condition. Without decorous explore, all your toil shortly will be lost. There are numerous ways to fulfil activity explore. However, I strongly propose that you stoppage Shop2CO activity prime for line.  

Get the applicable keywords to the market using Google Keyword Tool. You won’t be fit to industry online without this way. Google Keyword Agency is ease the advisable in my judgement, not only because it has the largest keyword database, but also because it is footloose. Cite, place only for long-tail seek damage, disregardless your interchange strategy is pay-per-click, investigate engine optimization, article marketing or video marketing.

Line by transmitting articles prototypal. Article marketing is great shaper of traffic. Not exclusive because it is escaped, but also because it’s fixed. Dissimilar SEO or blogging where you condition to act for months, in few housing, years to see lead. There are tonnes of article directories online, but for signaling I highly praise either Ezine Articles or HubPages. These two are top article directories, with higher page order and goodish honour on Google’s eye.

Channelise interchange using Google AdWords. To succeed online, you need both discharge and postpaid traffic. Why? Healthy, because apiece traffic strategies has its rule. If you are using unhampered marketing equivalent article or SEO, there’s no secure your article module rest on the eldest page of Google explore lead. By using AdWords, at lowest you can surmount this difficulty.

Advantage your own journal. Lose creating a website. A diary is a amend secondary to websites, not exclusive because it can be setup and run in minutes but also because Google loves blogs. See engines loves diary because the playscript is operation engine couthy and most blogs are ever up-to-date, with original content. Advantageous, readers can occupation comments, portion their thoughts which would create change, quality knowledge. If you are on low budget, you can make a slaveless diary at Blogger. Yet, I strongly encourage you to indicate your own demesne and throng your journal. Create a WordPress journal. Not only because WordPress blogs are
glorious, but also it has various reciprocal features similar widgets, SEO and spam filtrate.

Browse for incidental facility. Assembly marketing is actually an progressive reciprocation strategy. It is not a requirement. Still, if you bed to confabulation with a forgather with akin stake as yours, why not try installation marketing? Make sure you register the marketplace rules. Both mart allows strain, any don’t.

Grow your transmittal inclination. If you don’t change a mailing move, you don’t own your concern. On the internet, if you don’t feature a mailing recite, you testament always depend on Google for reciprocation and customers. Should Google dropped your website ranking from the prototypal page, all your traffic and customers will be spent long. By having email recite, you will e’er bang a possibleness buyers for period.

Whatever advice and warning

Don’t collect too galore interchange strategies at formerly. For the no. six months, set on explore engine reciprocation exclusive, whether unimprisoned or profitable. It will support any experience larn and see homogenous income from one reciprocation author.

Don’t transition into over populated markets same internet marketing, operation engine optimization, AdSense and accomplish money online. There are lots writer little competing niches out there equal pet niches and horticulture with lots of reciprocation and money to be made. So why shift into crowded niches?

Take, discover and ready learning. Internet marketing, is not a peltate business. It’s conscionable suchlike your day job or retail commerce. It takes geezerhood of reading to acquire and be a salutary theologiser, operator, teacher, scientist or whatever your day job is. The similar goes for online playing. The solon you see, the author change you had, the solon money you’ll
make.

10 Tips to Help Beginners Become More Comfortable with the Internet

admin    Google Optimization     Become, Beginners, Comfortable, Help, internet, more, Tips

10 Tips to Help Beginners Become More Comfortable with the Internet

Today (free of charge, zero money down, no shipping and handling) I’m providing you with a list of tips that, when followed, will cause your aura to radiate “INTERNET EXPERT” like a big, bright neon sign.

I suggest at least a modest attempt at making the following practices somewhat automatic for you. At the least, devotion to these practices will keep others’ eye-rolls, snickers, and impatient sighs at bay. At the most, you may find yourself being carried about on your co-workers shoulders all day, caught in an outpouring of endearing stares, listening to shouts and cheers of respect somewhere along the lines of “Hear hear for the Internet Expert!”

TIP #1: Never ever use the terms “AOL” and “Internet” as if they were completely interchangeable.
Example no-no: Someone asks if your company has a website. You reply, “Oh yeah! We’re totally on AOL!” Big awful buzzer sound here. AOL is NOT the Internet; AOL is simply one of many browsers that allows you to maneuver about the Internet. It is also a company that likes to put holographic CDs covered with infomercial-like promotions in post offices in attempts of persuading more people into using their services.

TIP #2: Click correctly.
When you’re surfing about the Internet, you likely get from place to place using hyperlinks (a.k.a. “links”). You should be aware that links require nothing more than a single click from the left button on your mouse. Double (or triple . . . or quadruple) clicking and right-clicking on links when you simply want to be taken to a different location are a few of the primary causes of those behind-your-back eyerolls you may not know people have been sending your way. Remember this: With links on the Internet, “one-click, that’s it.”

TIP #3: Remember that search engines are for searching, not for typing in complete URLs.
This means that you do NOT need to head over to Google or Yahoo Search or any other search engine to reach the specific website you already know you want to visit. Instead of typing “www.google.com” into your address bar and then typing in the URL of the site you want to visit in the search box. . . just SKIP going to Google and type the URL of the site you want to visit in the address bar instead!

TIP #4: Understand the term “download” and know how to pull files off the Internet onto your computer when you need/would like them. If you are unclear about the term ‘downloading’, take a look at the simple explanation offered right here.

TIP #5: Use an Internet browser that’s not older than your average kindergartner.
I’ll tell you right now: if you’re using something along the lines of Netscape 1.0 (born 1994) or Internet Explorer 2.0 (born 1996)—you’re seriously not appearing Internet Savvy. To be completely honest, even the use of AOL or Internet Explorer 5 to navigate the web won’t help your image (or your overall Internet experience) all that much either. To appear savvy, consider downloading and using something a bit more recent, such as Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 3.

TIP #6: When someone’s surfing the Internet with you and they ask you to “open up a new window,” do NOT furrow your brow and say “huh??”.
This will most definitely not make you appear Internet savvy. Instead simply reply (in an oh-so-suave tone, of course) “Why, of course!”. Then either hold down the “Ctrl” and then the “N” keys on your keyboard OR click on the “File” menu button at the top of the browser screen, then click on “Open New Window.” Many people find that having more than one browser window open at once is extremely handy for viewing multiple websites simultaneously. Try it out.

TIP #8: Whenever a friend or coworker asks a question that no one in the near vicinity can answer, calmly say “Oh I know that.”
Then excuse yourself for just a moment, run to your computer, hop on the Internet, access Google (or your favorite search engine), look up the answer, and return to the questioning party with an eloquent, detailed explanation. Simply being aware that the Internet is home to a mind-boggling amount of information about pretty much everything instantly makes you appear more savvy in general to those around you. It may also encourage you to search the Internet with more regularity, which in turn boosts your true Internet savvy—not simply the appearance of it.

TIP #9: DO NOT click on flashing advertisements that: a) claim you’re the sites 1,000,000th visitor, b) ask you what your favorite color is and show you 4 or 5 circles or hearts or something of the sort, c) state that you were randomly chosen from all site visitors to win 0, etc. etc. etc.
People who are Internet savvy know that those type of advertisements are nothing more than tremendous wastes of time.

TIP #10: For heaven’s sake: always remember that the Internet does not bite.
So don’t act like it does—especially when you’re in the company of others. Doing so will not make you appear Internet savvy.

And that, my friends, is a list of tips that should help you on your way. If you don’t actually become Internet-savvy, well then, I suppose at the very least . . . you can at least appear it. Have fun!

Search Engine Optimization Guide for Beginners – Image and Headings

admin    Google Optimization     Beginners, Engine, Guide, Headings, Image, Optimization, Search

Search Engine Optimization Guide for Beginners – Image and Headings

In this article we will explore some lesser known tips of search engine optimization for Google. Optimization for Headings and Images is an aspect that is overlooked many times or over done by a SEO newbie.

Headings tags are used to define page organizational structure. Properly written header tags inform site visitors and helps them navigate through your web pages. Effective header tags can even increase your site ranking on search engines like Google. Heading tags are not to be confused with the HEAD section of a web page. Header tags are present in the body section where as the HEAD section is for TITLE and META tags.

Page headings are created with the <h x > tag, in which x is a number between 1 and 5. Mostly, headings are used for displaying a larger size of the default font. There are five levels of heading, each smaller then the previous. Header tags give the site visitor a visual cue that the text is important or has been used to define the hierarchical structure of a webpage.

For best result for user as well as search engines, a SEO consultant should place main keywords in h1 tags. But H1 tags should be used sparingly in a webpage. A SEO consultant should study the page structure and divide it according to the main point and sub points. Header tags should always be used where they will aid in defining the structure of the web page. A standard use of header tags should be adopted across the website.

Everybody must be aware of images in a webpage. Image tag has “alt” attribute which can be used effectively for search engine optimization. Alt attribute allows specifying alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed due to some problem. It maybe possible that, that image has been moved to some other location and web page has not been updated. In this case the visitor will at least be aware of what the image was about. Many times, people use browsers that don’t display images or images are blocked as in cases of emails. Alt if used properly can increase usability of a webpage. If an image is used as a link, then the alt text for that image is treated as anchor text of a text link.

For best SEO results, images should have descriptive names which include your keywords. Likewise, alt text should also have keywords so that your webpage may rank higher for that keyword. It’s a small factor but a factor worth exploring.

These factors help search engines understand and gather more data about your website. While SEO consultants should follow the above mentioned guidelines, they should not go overboard. Extremely lengthy filenames can be counter-intuitive. Similarly, alt tags should not be stuffed with keywords and long paragraph.
This practice can be considered by search engines as an attempt to spam them for higher rankings and hence be penalized.

Looking for a sophisticated approach to strengthening your brand using SEO? contact Enovabiz Solutions today!
Dallas SEO Company / Arizona SEO Consultants

Author: Aniruddha Badola

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Using Social Media for Business – Beginner’s Guide

admin    Social Media     Beginners, business, Guide, Media, Social, Using

On the topic of social media applications, there seem to be three types of people: the super users, the avoiders, and the people that say, “I know I need to, but which ones and why?” Most business people probably fall into the last group: the ocean of people who lie between the early-adopter ?-geeks and those mind-boggling creatures who only check their email once a week or so. Yes, there’s potential there for good things to happen…if you’re actively using the right applications.

The number of applications and communities is overwhelming. Many of the most popular ones, like MySpace and YouTube, aren’t going to be all that helpful for professional interaction. That’s not true for every industry, though, so it’s worth asking around and seeing what your communities are using. If your colleagues, contacts, and customers are all using some other method of connecting, by all means go participate there. The point of this is for you to be able to make useful, meaningful connections and interact.

LinkedIn is a simple, useful tool for any professional. This is the business networking equivalent of being listed in the phone book. It doesn’t require very much attention and can provide a great deal of benefit. Spending half an hour building your profile lets you put your CV out there, easily find your network of contacts, and be visible for the sort of notice you want to receive. If you want to do more, there are great community features. People can recommend you and your work. You can ask questions through LinkedIn Answers and get answers from people who actually know what they’re talking about. If you need to hire someone or are looking for a job, it’s an ideal place to put out feelers. You won’t get clobbered with email from LinkedIn

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Home Page > Business > Using Social Media for Business – Beginner’s Guide

Using Social Media for Business – Beginner’s Guide

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Posted: Apr 17, 2008 |
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<br /> <h1>Using Social Media for Business – Beginner’s Guide</h1> <p> </p> <p><strong>By: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/john-rasco/38794" title="John Rasco's Articles">John Rasco</a></strong></p> <p> <br /> <!--articlecontent--> </p> <p><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Specializing in marketing technology-based companies since 1987, and active in Internet marketing since 1992, John Rasco’s skills as a marketer, team leader and strategist are key to successful client engagements. Founder of <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.refreshweb.com">RefreshWeb</a>, a national <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.refreshweb.com/b2b_web_marketing.php">B2B Internet marketing agency</a>, John has an entrepreneurial gene, a creative bent and a passion for challenging projects.</p> <p class="tracker">(ArticlesBase SC #389108)</p> <p> </p> <p>Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/">http://www.articlesbase.com/</a> – <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/using-social-media-for-business-beginners-guide-389108.html" title="Using Social Media for Business - Beginner's Guide">Using Social Media for Business – Beginner’s Guide</a></p> <p> <br />

On the topic of social media applications, there seem to be three types of people: the super users, the avoiders, and the people that say, “I know I need to, but which ones and why?” Most business people probably fall into the last group: the ocean of people who lie between the early-adopter ?-geeks and those mind-boggling creatures who only check their email once a week or so. Yes, there’s potential there for good things to happen…if you’re actively using the right applications.

The number of applications and communities is overwhelming. Many of the most popular ones, like MySpace and YouTube, aren’t going to be all that helpful for professional interaction. That’s not true for every industry, though, so it’s worth asking around and seeing what your communities are using. If your colleagues, contacts, and customers are all using some other method of connecting, by all means go participate there. The point of this is for you to be able to make useful, meaningful connections and interact.

LinkedIn is a simple, useful tool for any professional. This is the business networking equivalent of being listed in the phone book. It doesn’t require very much attention and can provide a great deal of benefit. Spending half an hour building your profile lets you put your CV out there, easily find your network of contacts, and be visible for the sort of notice you want to receive. If you want to do more, there are great community features. People can recommend you and your work. You can ask questions through LinkedIn Answers and get answers from people who actually know what they’re talking about. If you need to hire someone or are looking for a job, it’s an ideal place to put out feelers. You won’t get clobbered with email from LinkedIn

Internet Marketing Beginner’s Guide – Vol.2 Get Training Part 4

admin    Google     Beginners, Guide, internet, Marketing, Part, Training, Vol.2

So far we have covered two free ways of going about obtaining internet marketing information that you can use to train yourself, or preferably supplement a more structured training method.  Here we will continue in this vein and explore another free source of information. 

Unless today is the first day you have ever seen a computer you probably use this tool every day.  It is the gateway to the internet and if it isn’t already it will quickly become the most used icon on your desktop.

Google
Google is like your all access pass to the never ending chaos that is the internet.  You cannot even use the internet or access any of its information without Google’s help.  Of course there are other web browsers, the most prominent being Yahoo, but Google has quickly become the undisputed champ of search engines and they won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

There is tons to be said about using Google as a marketing tool.  From SEO, to Adwords, to Adsense, to Google Slap, to Feedburner, to Blogger, Google has their fingers in a lot of stuff.  But for the purpose of this article we are just going to be exploring how to utilize Google as a method of seeking out relevant information for training purposes.

Pros
As you start to become more familiar with internet marketing jargon Google will quickly become your best friend.  At times the internet can actually seem like a small place if you do not really know what you are looking for.  Typing in several generic terms that are relatively the same such as internet marketing, online business, work at home, will yield relatively the same results and may leave you discouraged about ever finding information you can use.

But once you know what to search for and you have some specific questions with specific key words Google begins to open up and share its secrets with you.  There is just so much quality information out there on the web.  As you learn about certain concepts, take what you’ve learned and start doing some targeted searches to find more information and fill in the holes.  Of course if you are involved in a quality training program you will want to get as much as you can from that source first and only search elsewhere when necessary, which if it’s good training, shouldn’t be too often.

Cons
Quality websites can sometimes be hard to come by.  It is not unusual to do a search and come back with hardly any results, non relevant results, or sketchy websites that you are hesitant to even click on. 

Always check the URL under the title and description of each search result.  You do not want to click on a site only to have viruses downloaded on your computer.  Sometimes there is nothing you can do about it.  The title and description sound like exactly what you are looking for but when you click the link you get redirected to somewhere you did not want to go, or worse are infected with malware. 

For this reason, if you are going to be doing a lot of searching on unfamiliar sites looking for new information, you should at least have a descent antivirus program installed like Webroot Antivirus or else only click on sites you recognize and trust.  In fact, that may be the best way to go even if you do have an antivirus program just to be safe.  You can usually tell when a site might be problematic by checking out the URL and description text, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Search Engine Optimization: 11 Basic SEO Strategies for Beginners

admin    Google     Basic, Beginners, Engine, Optimization, Search, Strategies

Copyright (c) 2008 OnlineBizU.com

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process getting your website ready to be found in organic webs searches. By organic searches, I’m referring to web searches that appear naturally as the result of a search for a particular keyword or phrase, rather than appearing in the sponsored links (pay-per-click advertising) section of a search page.

Frankly, for the first few years I was online, the thought of doing my own SEO made my eyes cross, and I was overwhelmed at where to start. I even toyed with the idea of hiring a specialist to do this for me, but never got around to it. However, over time, I slowly began to see a pattern emerging, and started to optimize some of my sites accordingly. One of the best days of my business was when I recently ranked #1 for a particularly competitive search term.

I’m not a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, nor do I play one on TV. However, even a new business owner who creates and updates her own websites can implement some very basic SEO strategies to make her website appear higher in the organic rankings on certain keyword searches.

Here are the 11 strategies that I regularly implement on my sites for better SEO positioning:

1. Page title tags. This is the page information that you see in the blue bar of your browser in the upper left-hand corner when you visit a website. For best SEO, use your top 2 keywords in your title tag. The best way to do that is separated with a bar, as illustrated in this example: Internet Marketing | Web Marketing.

2. Domain name: If at all possible, use one primary keyword in your domain name. You will have a slight edge over your competition by doing so. If you already have a domain that you have used for some time, include a keyword in the name of files for your website pages. Example: http://www.yoursite.com/internet-marketing.htm if your keyword is Internet marketing.

3. Meta tags. These are descriptions on a web page that are not seen by most visitors except when looking at the page source code in their browser. While the keyword and description metatags used to be the primary way that search engines indexed sites, that is no longer the case. However, you shouldn’t ignore them entirely, as it is still worthwhile to include them as a part of your page description. For optimal SEO, your meta description and keyword tags should be no more than 150 characters each.

4. Header tags. Header tags are the HTML code that indicates a headline, like H1, H2 and H3 and show up as bolded headlines in your page content. The first 3 header tags are the only ones you need to be concerned about, and the primary header tag, H1, is the most important. Use your primary keyword one time in the H1 tag, 2-3 times in your H2 tags, and multiple times in your H3 tags.

5. Alt image tag: The alt tag typically describes an image in a floating text window when you put your mouse over the image if the image isn’t able to be displayed. The best use of any tag is to use your keywords in your image descriptions.

6. Content formatting. Search engines pay attention to formatted content, as in when text is bolded, italicized, and underlined. Make sure that you are bolding your keywords in the content of your website.

7. Keyword density. Keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears on a web page. Rather than trying to focus on the number of times a keyword appears in the content of your page, aim for a more natural density by keeping your keyword phrases in mind as you write the copy for your page. Optimally, keyword density should be between 2% – 7%. There are a number of keyword density checkers available online to assist you with determining the keyword density of a page.

8. Anchor text. Anchor text refer to links on a page that connect your visitor to other pages. So, rather than telling someone to “click here” in the content of your page, include a keyword in your anchor text, as in “click here for dog training tips.”

9.. Inbound links. Reciprocal link exchange (you link to my site and I’ll link to yours) used to be a great way to attract the attention of search engines to your site. Now, search engines pay attention only to the quality and popularity of the site providing you with an inbound link that is not a reciprocal link. One of the best ways to get quality inbound links back to your site is to submit articles to high traffic article directories and submit press releases to paid press release services.

A second way to gain high quality inbound links is by listing your site in search engine-friendly directories in which humans review the listings. Google and other search engines place more credibility in the directories in which the listings are reviewed by real people than they do other kinds of directories. Consequently, these links are weighted more heavily and favorably in the inbound link evaluation process.

10. New content. Content is still king, so one way to increase your page rank for a search term is to write high quality articles containing one or two of your keywords in the title and posting those regularly (weekly is best) to your site. Search engines are always seeking good, fresh, content, so your goal should be to make your site into an information-rich resource for your industry.

11. Site maps. There are sitemaps that help a visitor navigate a site, and sitemaps that are expressly designed for the search engines. The two are not the same. To enhance your site, submit an xml sitemap to Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer. I use XML Sitemaps, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/, to build search engine-friendly sitemaps on my sites.

Search engine optimization strategy is not a difficult as it appears. Take some time to do some keyword research for your site, and then spend another 15 minutes a day employing a few of these strategies until you have a well-optimized site. Why pay for visitors through pay-per-click advertising if you don’t have to?

3 Must Have Twitter Tips for Beginners

admin    Twitter     Beginners, Must, Tips, Twitter

Twitter has become one of the most powerful free marketing and public relations tools on the internet. But how do you gain that elusive quality following? Especially in a niche market like photography? This article will provide you with three must have tips to boosting your credibility and building a quality Twitter network.

Twitter Tip #1: Craft Your Message

The most important part of crafting your message is knowing what it is. You should know why you want to use Twitter before you sign up. Otherwise, you may become discouraged as your profile sits with three followers.

Ask yourself the following questions before you sign up:

What would I like to accomplish on Twitter? Will my Twitter profile be professional or personal? Will my Twitter profile be straightforward, a little bit funny or full of sarcasm? How can I craft a message that builds my business? How much time do I have to devote to Twitter?

You want to discover your reason behind your interest in Twitter.

Limited Promotion

Don’t arrive on the scene like a hardcore salesman. Slow down. Many people make the mistake of instant marketing on Twitter. Never jump right in and start promoting. Twitter is an opportunity to build relationships. Don’t damage them by beating people over the head with your product. You may be online but people still don’t want to feel used.

Twitter is all about finding value in the expertise of others. It takes time to build good relationships — on or offline. Take the time to research people who may be interested in your niche. Follow people who already have a solid standing in your market. If you peruse their followers, you’ll find out what they’re talking about. And if you play it smart, you may be able to develop a targeted product offering.

Mastering the 140 Rule

140 characters is a very short writing form. Master the art of getting your message out succinctly. With so many people tweeting, it’s hard to wade through the trash and find good information. If you don’t want your information to be deemed trash, then start by building a trustworthy relationship and avoid spamming your followers. Don’t forget to offer help when you can.

Twitter Tip #2: Manage Your Network

Many people join Twitter and follow everyone that follows them. If you plan on using Twitter as a goldmine for marketing research, this is a bad strategy. While there are tools like Tweetdeck and Twitter lists that cut down the chatter, there’s nothing like good old fashioned discretion. Make sure you only follow people you are interested in hearing from. Have you ever noticed some tweeters have 10,000 followers and they’re only following 200? That’s a smart strategy. They only follow those individuals that interest them and add value to the constant stream of information they see daily.

While it may seem rude not to follow all of your followers, how will you manage 10,000 x 20 tweets x 24 hours x 7 days? Would you follow every Joe you met on the street? Then don’t follow everyone on Twitter. In addition, Twitter has rules that will only allow you to follow so many people. So make sure you manage your Twitter network like you manage your offline network — with discretion.

After you have found people you are interested in learning from, ease yourself into their conversations. Introduce yourself and find common ground. Don’t jump in on Jim’s conversation about his fifteenth anniversary gift. Do jump in on Jim’s conversation about healthy eating tips. Especially if this is your market. Leave the personal conversations between people who feel comfortable with each other.

The Photocritic blog has a great database full of must follow photographers. Check them out here.

Twitter Tip #3: Promotion in Intervals

The biggest turn off for many on Twitter is the constant stream of promotional Tweets. There’s nothing worse than someone who constantly toots their own horn. Remember, Twitter is about building trust by providing value. Manage your tweets consistently.Try sending promotional tweets with links to your product or blog once for every five or ten helpful tweets you send. Feel free to experiment with your own intervals. Twitter is a value based venue. Only those that provide valuable information consistently are successful in gaining a large targeted following.

Twitter will only be successful if you spend time building quality relationships. So, when you’re on Twitter, make sure you spend your time wisely. Don’t go in with a strictly promotional motive. Seek people in your niche you can learn from. Be careful who you follow and always remember to have fun!

7 Great Twitter Tools Backtype: If you run a Wordpress, blog this is a must have plugin to bring relevant information to your readers. Grouptweet: Send direct messages to groups you define. Snaptweet: Share your Flickr pictures on Twitter. Splitweet: Manage your brand. Period. Twaitter: Schedule your tweets. Tweetdeck: Download. Install. Manage. If you don’t have Tweetdeck, you’re missing the point. Twitpic: Share your photos on Twitter.

6 Important Tips for Beginners Search Engine Management (sem)

admin    SEM     Beginners, Engine, Important, Management, Search, Tips

Search Engine Management, or “SEM” is defined as the process of building and marketing a web site with the end goal of improving it’s position in the search engine results. This process includes a few key techniques:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of building a site that is “search engine friendly”. Pages that are optimized for search engines will provide content that is highly relevant to it’s targeted keywords and make it more appealing to both the search engines and the users.

Advertising or Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click advertising is used within the search engine’s results as a way for advertisers to get their website on the first page of the search results on a cost per click basis. This is done in 2 ways, with search results and with content results. The search results return PPC links for a specific search, and content results provide links within sites that contain content relevant to the advertiser’s website. You bid on the top spots against other advertisers.

Link Building:

Link building is used to improve both visibility and the apparent quality of your site to the search engines. Having a link to your site on sites that have content highly relevant to the content on your site gives the search engines the impression that your site is more important to that particular topic.

1. Choose the Right Domain Name

Any good website starts with a good domain name. Picking the right domain name that is both easy to remember and related to your site and top keywords is very important. It is also very common to chose a business or organization name for your domain. Your domain name should have a few key characteristics:

- Try to include one or more of your top 5 Top Keywords

- Make your domain unique

- Go for Dot-com domains if possible unless another extension suits your brand

- Make it Easy to Type

- Make it Easy to Remember

- Keep the Domain Name as Short as Possible

- Relate it to your product and/or brand

- Avoid Copyright Infringement

- Avoid Hyphens and Numbers

As you do your research (Point #2), you will find numerous blogs and sites that discuss choosing the right domain names.

2. Do Plenty of Expert Research Before Getting Started

In order to create effective sites for SEO and to get the most out of your PPC dollars, you will need to learn as much as you can about both topics prior to getting started.

The SEM experts online provide literally thousands of websites out there that can tell you all you need to know about SEO. You can learn a lot from what other people have put on the web for free, before moving onto other other avenues. What’s right for you may not be what’s right for others. Here are a few links to get you started.

seobook.com
webconfs.com

There are also several references that can be purchased online, but until you really know what you want, I would suggest that you should stick to the free stuff.

3. The Search Engines Themselves Provide a Wealth of Information

Google in particular provides a great deal of information from webmasters on their support site.

google.com/support/webmasters/

Reading through these pages will allow you to find some key dos and dont’s for search engine optimization. It also

introduces you to Google webmaster tools which has been provided for you to track your site’s performance with Google and offers helpful hints, specific to your site.

4. Build a Home Page That is Full of Your Top Keywords

One of the most important factors for search engine engine optimization is “Keyword Density”. Keyword density is defined as

the amount of times a keyword shows up in the text of your site or home page. This metric is used by the search engines to

rank your site’s relevance to the keywords input by the user. The more times your top keywords appear on your site, the more

relevant your site will seem to the search engines for those keywords. There are several tools on the web that will allow you to check your site’s keyword density. Here is a link to a simple one that I have used.

webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

5. Go Slow on Pay Per click Advertising

Over the past few years, the top PPC providers have changed the way they look at advertising. Google in particular has added a relevance factor into their algorithms that new gives you a quality score for each keyword you add to your campaign. This quality score takes into account the content of your landing page and the content of your advertisement. This has been done in the hopes that the user is provided with more relevant ads for their keywords. If your site is not highly relevant to the keywords you have chosen, or your advertisement does not appear to be relevant, your minimum bid is raised significantly. This can prove to be somewhat frustrating to the advertisers at first, but once you get going and learn how to manage your ads and bids, you will be able to create relevant ads and reasonable bids for your keywords.

It’s best to start slow with PPC advertising. Set yourself a budget and work within that budget. Try a few different landing pages and different ad content to see what happens. Don’t get caught up in it if you see a lack of clicks and keep increasing your bid to gain position on your competitors. You should have an idea of what each click will be worth to you; Stay within that range.

6. Link Building

There are several ways to go about link building for your site. Some of them, like paid links are not recommended and the search engines frown on this form of link building. You can use link exchanges to build links to your site, but building a huge cache of links on your site can turn out to be cumbersome and some say that the search engines don’t put as much weight on these types of links. The best way to build links is through providing relevant linkable content for your site viewers. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

- Create lists of top 5, top 10 or top 100 somethings that relate to your site content

- Perform surveys relating to your content

- Write and syndicate articles

- Create a blog

- Use Social Networks like Facebook and Myspace to promote your site

Hopefully these few beginners tips to SEM will start you on your way to #1 placement in the search engine results.