One of the biggest mistakes that newbie make when taking their first steps into Google AdWords is not tracking the results. But this does not only happen with Google AdWords but with all new types of marketing. The majority of people and companies do not track their results or do not track properly.
When people start tracking their marketing it is all too common that the wrong results are being monitored. For example if you start a new marketing campaign and notice that your website traffic increases by 50% this must be a positive result. Not quite. Just because your website gets more visitors does not mean that you get more money.
When monitoring your marketing it is vital that you monitor your profit, not your turnover or the number of visitors to your website. The only true representation of how successful your marketing has been is how much profit you have made.
There are many ways you can start tracking your marketing, if your customers phone you up to place an order or inquiry about your products. You can simply ask them, how did you find us? Which search engine did you use? What search term did you use?
Using this method you can generate good results although you always get some customers who was handed your info by someone else and some people just do not seem to remember how they found you.
If you are selling your products online using a e-commerce shopping cart or even a service like Paypal you can track every step a visitor makes all the way through to purchase. Google has their own monitoring tool called Google Analytics. This tool allows you to monitor every visitor into your website, you can see what traffic sources provide your visitors, and how many pages they visit, which page do the leave on.
Google Analytics has a powerful tool called Conversions, you can define what you class as a conversion for example this maybe the thank you page after someone has purchased one of your products, it may be the thank you page after someone has joined your mailing list or subscribed to your newsletter.
You can then take this a step further and create a sequence of conversions; this is often called a sales funnel. You may for example set up a conversion for when someone enters their name and email into your squeeze page. A second conversion may then exist on the page containing how to buy your product and finally and conversion at the end of a shopping cart.
Using this method you can see how many people get to your squeeze page, who then goes on to find out more and finally the percentage of visitors who go on to purchase one of your products.
When you are successfully tracking your marketing campaigns you will always know which keywords from which traffic sources are generating you the most profit. You can identify what does not work, ignore it and then concentrate on your marketing that gives you the best results.
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
What do you want your website to do
Create site stickiness through social networking. Keep it personal, relevant and interactive and they will come back for more.
Open API - Keep it open. Your site needs to be ready and able to connect to outside services.
Document Management - Streamline content and document management. Users need to quickly and intuitively find and add information.
Content Authors - Empower your content authors. Reduce IT bottlenecks by allowing business users to create and edit Web content and forms.
Taxonomy - Enhance your search through taxonomy. Search is the primary way users navigate. Get users where they want to go by how they think.
Web 2.0 Tools - Add powerful Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, forums, geo-mapping, rating systems and RSS feeds easily.
Source From SitePro News
Open API - Keep it open. Your site needs to be ready and able to connect to outside services.
Document Management - Streamline content and document management. Users need to quickly and intuitively find and add information.
Content Authors - Empower your content authors. Reduce IT bottlenecks by allowing business users to create and edit Web content and forms.
Taxonomy - Enhance your search through taxonomy. Search is the primary way users navigate. Get users where they want to go by how they think.
Web 2.0 Tools - Add powerful Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, forums, geo-mapping, rating systems and RSS feeds easily.
Source From SitePro News
Friday, March 27, 2009
How to Use Forums to Drive Laser Targeted Traffic to Your Site in 7 Steps (3)
jStep 7 - Provide a Step-By-Step Guide or Video Tutorial
If someone asks how to create an e-book, give them a progression of steps they can take. Or, make a Camtasia tutorial video showing them how. Now that you have got them to your site, you will want to "make them a proposal they can not refuse."
Provide a List of Resources and Websites
In addition to checklists, resource lists with website URLs make a great site for them to bookmark. Make sure you supply more than just links. Make it a huge info-page of information. A collection of resources, links to everything you have - articles, video, audio, your blog, other useful sites, tools, you name it.
Solve a Problem for People
If someone asks for help or asks a question, provide your experience and try to help them. But to maximize your odds of getting both the asker of the question and everyone else who reads the post to subscribe to your list, try to phrase your answer in one of the following two ways:
1. Give them tips, techniques, shortcuts, secrets, or anything that offers both the promise of exclusive information and fast results. A shortcut to success.
2. Whenever possible, supply them with specific results. Think about it. When you want to learn how to make income online, you go to someone who is making revenue online to guide you. This quickly establishes you as an authority in that area.
And by helping them, maybe - just maybe – they will click on the link in your signature to check out your website. If you direct them to a blog post or article you wrote to answer their question, they will be even more likely to investigate.
That is all there is to it but at the end of the day, it is a failure-proof way to drive serious traffic to your website using Forum Posts. Apply it and see your traffic soar through the roof.
Source From SitePro News
If someone asks how to create an e-book, give them a progression of steps they can take. Or, make a Camtasia tutorial video showing them how. Now that you have got them to your site, you will want to "make them a proposal they can not refuse."
Provide a List of Resources and Websites
In addition to checklists, resource lists with website URLs make a great site for them to bookmark. Make sure you supply more than just links. Make it a huge info-page of information. A collection of resources, links to everything you have - articles, video, audio, your blog, other useful sites, tools, you name it.
Solve a Problem for People
If someone asks for help or asks a question, provide your experience and try to help them. But to maximize your odds of getting both the asker of the question and everyone else who reads the post to subscribe to your list, try to phrase your answer in one of the following two ways:
1. Give them tips, techniques, shortcuts, secrets, or anything that offers both the promise of exclusive information and fast results. A shortcut to success.
2. Whenever possible, supply them with specific results. Think about it. When you want to learn how to make income online, you go to someone who is making revenue online to guide you. This quickly establishes you as an authority in that area.
And by helping them, maybe - just maybe – they will click on the link in your signature to check out your website. If you direct them to a blog post or article you wrote to answer their question, they will be even more likely to investigate.
That is all there is to it but at the end of the day, it is a failure-proof way to drive serious traffic to your website using Forum Posts. Apply it and see your traffic soar through the roof.
Source From SitePro News
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
How to Use Forums to Drive Laser Targeted Traffic to Your Site in 7 Steps (2)
Step 5 - Ask for a Critical Assessment
If you are the type that is not easily hurt by honest feedback even when it hurts, you can go to a forum and ask for a honest critique. You may think this will not make people sign up for your list, but I tell you, many people will end up subscribing to it. It is a more indirect and acceptable way to ask people to check out your site without blatant advertising.
Plus, the feedback they give you may help to make your squeeze page even more compelling. Ask them if it would persuade them to give it a try, assuming they were in your target market (of course, you already know they are by the forum you selected). And, if they say no, ask them why. You can get valuable information on what they want (and do not want) this way.
There are two types of forums where you should ask for critiques: the niche forum itself and a marketing forum. You will likely get more sign-ups from the niche forum and good advice to test out from the marketing forum (although you will get some opt-ins there as well).
Step 6 - Ask Your Target Market What They Want
Unknown to most people, this is one of the best ways to develop products and services. And most times, Forum members are ready to tell you what they will buy and give you ideas for articles, auto-responder content, your blog posts, whatever you need. People guess the products their target market will want and create them only to discover no one is interested in the product, but with this approach, you have real people telling you what product they want, how they want it and how much they are prepared to pay for it.
The way you would use this technique to get them to subscribe is to post something like, "what is your biggest question about loosing weight?" Or "what is the single most important thing you would like to know about building a business?"
Do not forget to ask if they are willing to pay for solutions to their problems and have them give you an indication of how much they would be willing to pay.
Let them know you have already answered 10 questions (your 10 step mini-course loaded in your auto-responder), for example. Then they will be more likely to sign-up. Make sure you point out that you will add to your mini-course with the answers to the questions they have provided, and that they will get answers to the existing questions in your mini-course PLUS the new ones when they subscribe.
To be continued..
If you are the type that is not easily hurt by honest feedback even when it hurts, you can go to a forum and ask for a honest critique. You may think this will not make people sign up for your list, but I tell you, many people will end up subscribing to it. It is a more indirect and acceptable way to ask people to check out your site without blatant advertising.
Plus, the feedback they give you may help to make your squeeze page even more compelling. Ask them if it would persuade them to give it a try, assuming they were in your target market (of course, you already know they are by the forum you selected). And, if they say no, ask them why. You can get valuable information on what they want (and do not want) this way.
There are two types of forums where you should ask for critiques: the niche forum itself and a marketing forum. You will likely get more sign-ups from the niche forum and good advice to test out from the marketing forum (although you will get some opt-ins there as well).
Step 6 - Ask Your Target Market What They Want
Unknown to most people, this is one of the best ways to develop products and services. And most times, Forum members are ready to tell you what they will buy and give you ideas for articles, auto-responder content, your blog posts, whatever you need. People guess the products their target market will want and create them only to discover no one is interested in the product, but with this approach, you have real people telling you what product they want, how they want it and how much they are prepared to pay for it.
The way you would use this technique to get them to subscribe is to post something like, "what is your biggest question about loosing weight?" Or "what is the single most important thing you would like to know about building a business?"
Do not forget to ask if they are willing to pay for solutions to their problems and have them give you an indication of how much they would be willing to pay.
Let them know you have already answered 10 questions (your 10 step mini-course loaded in your auto-responder), for example. Then they will be more likely to sign-up. Make sure you point out that you will add to your mini-course with the answers to the questions they have provided, and that they will get answers to the existing questions in your mini-course PLUS the new ones when they subscribe.
To be continued..
Saturday, March 21, 2009
SEO - Be Direct, Be Clear
If you are like most people, it is probably safe to say that you are often annoyed when sales people become pushy. And it does not matter if it is a car salesperson or someone blocking your way past a kiosk in the mall, these sales people have something in common, and that is persistence and the belief that they can persuade you to buy anything and/or everything.
If they talk fast enough or maybe if they fill your head with so many claims, they feel that you can be convinced.
Unfortunately, there are many sites on the Internet who feel the same way that if they inundate the friendly neighborhood visitor with claims and boasts and incomprehensible numbers and figures, they will persuade you that what they are offering is exactly what you need. And surely you would agree with them. once you have waded through all the claims.
Or, there is the other situation, the one in which you wander into the wrong store, either because the name was misleading or you just were not paying enough attention. The same thing happens online. SEO practices can get certain websites to the top of the ranking for a given keyword, even if the searcher's intent does not quite match up with the content of the site. The visitors who click on your site need to know they found the right place before they have the chance to beat a hasty retreat.
Given these experiences, it should be obvious that being direct and being clear is at least as important a part of SEO as keyword rich content writing or link recruitment. Well, to rephrase, it is important if you want to increase your conversion rate and not just the number of visitors.
Often SEO developers are focused on creating keyword relevant content and advertisers are focused on finding that great turn-of-phrase or magical call to action that will persuade a visitor to make a purchase. But the truth of the matter is that often it is the simple act of making your site clear that will do the most good for your business.
By clear and direct, this means that a potential customer will need to know immediately where they are, what they can do/buy there, and why they should choose you over the competition.
For example, an old SEO tactic (a bad tactic, it should be added) was to redirect visitors to a different page. But it does not have to be that dramatic, either. If a visitor clicked on a PPC ad that claimed there was a free download/membership/ whatever at the other end, yet when they get to the site there is no clear path to the freebie, this can lead a consumer to believe that they found the wrong place and they will try somewhere else.
Helping them understand what they can do on your site should happen next, and it should happen very quickly. Do not make them wade through lines of text before giving them an option to do something. That option should be available to them from the beginning, and they should know exactly what that option entails.
Finally, they need to see why you are the right choice instead of your competition. This does not mean bragging and talking yourself up. When you do that you have just reverted to the care salesman mentality again. And no one likes dealing with these personalities unless they absolutely have to. Clear comparisons and honest testimonials will go a lot further than hollow promises and claims.
Many times content writers feel like they need to answer the "why" before the "what" and the "where". This only leads to cumbersome dialog and weary customers. Proper content needs to quickly confirm where they are and what they can do. Do not try to present the solution before the problem. When you address these issues you can start to create a site that will interest your customers and help them choose to do business with you.
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
If they talk fast enough or maybe if they fill your head with so many claims, they feel that you can be convinced.
Unfortunately, there are many sites on the Internet who feel the same way that if they inundate the friendly neighborhood visitor with claims and boasts and incomprehensible numbers and figures, they will persuade you that what they are offering is exactly what you need. And surely you would agree with them. once you have waded through all the claims.
Or, there is the other situation, the one in which you wander into the wrong store, either because the name was misleading or you just were not paying enough attention. The same thing happens online. SEO practices can get certain websites to the top of the ranking for a given keyword, even if the searcher's intent does not quite match up with the content of the site. The visitors who click on your site need to know they found the right place before they have the chance to beat a hasty retreat.
Given these experiences, it should be obvious that being direct and being clear is at least as important a part of SEO as keyword rich content writing or link recruitment. Well, to rephrase, it is important if you want to increase your conversion rate and not just the number of visitors.
Often SEO developers are focused on creating keyword relevant content and advertisers are focused on finding that great turn-of-phrase or magical call to action that will persuade a visitor to make a purchase. But the truth of the matter is that often it is the simple act of making your site clear that will do the most good for your business.
By clear and direct, this means that a potential customer will need to know immediately where they are, what they can do/buy there, and why they should choose you over the competition.
For example, an old SEO tactic (a bad tactic, it should be added) was to redirect visitors to a different page. But it does not have to be that dramatic, either. If a visitor clicked on a PPC ad that claimed there was a free download/membership/ whatever at the other end, yet when they get to the site there is no clear path to the freebie, this can lead a consumer to believe that they found the wrong place and they will try somewhere else.
Helping them understand what they can do on your site should happen next, and it should happen very quickly. Do not make them wade through lines of text before giving them an option to do something. That option should be available to them from the beginning, and they should know exactly what that option entails.
Finally, they need to see why you are the right choice instead of your competition. This does not mean bragging and talking yourself up. When you do that you have just reverted to the care salesman mentality again. And no one likes dealing with these personalities unless they absolutely have to. Clear comparisons and honest testimonials will go a lot further than hollow promises and claims.
Many times content writers feel like they need to answer the "why" before the "what" and the "where". This only leads to cumbersome dialog and weary customers. Proper content needs to quickly confirm where they are and what they can do. Do not try to present the solution before the problem. When you address these issues you can start to create a site that will interest your customers and help them choose to do business with you.
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The 3 Types of Website Traffic
Where does traffic come from? It is about the issue where we all get stuck in during rush hour. Website traffic is essential, if you have no traffic to your website you are not going to get anyone buying your products or reading your articles. Traffic is one of the key components of your website and is available in these three forms.
1. Pay For It.
You can buy traffic typically using what is known as Pay Per Click advertising. The major names in this market are Google and their AdWords program and Yahoo Network Sponsored Search. There are many smaller companies around also but they all follow the same premise.
You create your account, grab a bunch of keywords and create your adverts. You can define the amount you want to spend per click or per day, what geographical areas you want your adverts to appear in and even what time they should appear.
When someone types one of your keywords into for example Google your advert will be displayed down the right hand side of the natural search results. If the searcher then chooses to click on your advert and gets forwarded to your website you will get charged for that click.
The price you pay for each individual click depends on a variety of conditions such as how many other people are competing on that keyword. The more competition the more it costs to be higher up the ranks. The position you want to occupy. The percentage of people who click on your advert, the list goes on.
Pay Per Click advertising can be very successful but has a steep learning curve, it is essential that you do lots of research into your chosen Pay Per Click vendor and in the niche you are in.
2. Borrow It.
This option is not for everyone, but in certain niches it can be effective. The first method of borrowing traffic is what is called link exchange. This is where you put links to another website on your site and they put links back to you on theirs. This can be beneficial as you can get traffic from a more successful website reasonably quickly. However this traffic is not always targeted.
The second option in the affiliate marketing world is called a joint venture or a JP. This is essentially where you would contact another marketer or company who had products that complements yours. If they are interested they may send a mailing out to their list or put an entry in their blog alerting their visitors about you and your relevant products.
The key things to remember about borrowing traffic are that you have to give something in return. This can make it tricky when targeting very successful websites.
3. Create It.
Creating your own traffic is one of the best ways to start bringing people into your website. There are literally hundreds of ways to start creating your traffic. Articles are a great way of generating traffic. You can write your articles about your chosen niche, offering advice, definitions, explanations, news, reviews just to name a few. Once you have created your articles you can put them on your website or blog as content. You can also upload them to article directories or even assemble a few of them into a white paper or e-book to give away to visitors.
Video is currently the big thing on the Internet world. Everywhere you look there are videos for everything. 50% of all web traffic is video and YouTube alone receives 12.5% of all the traffic out there. YouTube has made it possible for anyone to upload their videos for the whole world to see. Just as you can create an article about anything you can do the same thing with video. The best option is to do both: Create it in print and create it in video.
Wish you all the best of success.
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
1. Pay For It.
You can buy traffic typically using what is known as Pay Per Click advertising. The major names in this market are Google and their AdWords program and Yahoo Network Sponsored Search. There are many smaller companies around also but they all follow the same premise.
You create your account, grab a bunch of keywords and create your adverts. You can define the amount you want to spend per click or per day, what geographical areas you want your adverts to appear in and even what time they should appear.
When someone types one of your keywords into for example Google your advert will be displayed down the right hand side of the natural search results. If the searcher then chooses to click on your advert and gets forwarded to your website you will get charged for that click.
The price you pay for each individual click depends on a variety of conditions such as how many other people are competing on that keyword. The more competition the more it costs to be higher up the ranks. The position you want to occupy. The percentage of people who click on your advert, the list goes on.
Pay Per Click advertising can be very successful but has a steep learning curve, it is essential that you do lots of research into your chosen Pay Per Click vendor and in the niche you are in.
2. Borrow It.
This option is not for everyone, but in certain niches it can be effective. The first method of borrowing traffic is what is called link exchange. This is where you put links to another website on your site and they put links back to you on theirs. This can be beneficial as you can get traffic from a more successful website reasonably quickly. However this traffic is not always targeted.
The second option in the affiliate marketing world is called a joint venture or a JP. This is essentially where you would contact another marketer or company who had products that complements yours. If they are interested they may send a mailing out to their list or put an entry in their blog alerting their visitors about you and your relevant products.
The key things to remember about borrowing traffic are that you have to give something in return. This can make it tricky when targeting very successful websites.
3. Create It.
Creating your own traffic is one of the best ways to start bringing people into your website. There are literally hundreds of ways to start creating your traffic. Articles are a great way of generating traffic. You can write your articles about your chosen niche, offering advice, definitions, explanations, news, reviews just to name a few. Once you have created your articles you can put them on your website or blog as content. You can also upload them to article directories or even assemble a few of them into a white paper or e-book to give away to visitors.
Video is currently the big thing on the Internet world. Everywhere you look there are videos for everything. 50% of all web traffic is video and YouTube alone receives 12.5% of all the traffic out there. YouTube has made it possible for anyone to upload their videos for the whole world to see. Just as you can create an article about anything you can do the same thing with video. The best option is to do both: Create it in print and create it in video.
Wish you all the best of success.
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Your Website from the Ground Up in 10 Steps (3)
Step 6 - Analytics
It is not ever too early to start thinking about your stats. Before your site goes live you must have some form of accurate analytics in place so you can measure your site's traffic and progress.
There is an endless supply of analytics options out there to choose from. You can simply use the stats software that comes free with your web hosting, however, more often than not, they tend to be very basic with no flexibility. Advanced choices such as ClickTracks can give you rather in-depth statistics, but for a very small mom and pop operation it may be too expensive. Google Analytics, is a free option that can give you most, if not all the data you will need and does not require access to your raw log files.
If you do opt for an option such as ClickTracks, check with your host to ensure that you will have the raw log files you require. StepForth can also help you with your statistical analysis.
Step 7 - Content Creation
Now is the time to get that new, fresh content posted to your site with the SEO in mind. Make sure that the content you write reflects your industry and target keywords. You do not need to flood the content with your target keywords, but make sure they are in there a few times. When it makes sense to do so, also include some acronyms to help Google establish the overall relevance.
If you perform a search in Google for "~keyword", any words that Google bolds in the search results will be acronyms that Google deems relevant. Include some of these where possible.
Step 8 - Basic SEO
<title> and Meta Description tags. This is one of the core fundamental aspects of an optimized size and it does play a significant role in your search rankings. Make sure that these tags are not only unique but are accurate representations of each page. Also be sure to place your target phrase in heading as well as image alt tags where applicable.Ensure that ALL pages of your site include unique
Step 9 - Initial Promotion / Launch
Now that you have your new site all up and ready to go, you want to give it that kick start to help drive some traffic. It will be a while before the search engines fully index your site and even longer before you start to see organic rankings for your target search phrases. It is important to start off right away to get the ball rolling.
Start off by issuing a press release to announce the launch of your new business website. Press releases are a great way to get some traffic and a rather valuable first link into your site. Submitting your press release using a company such as PRWeb will get your link in the engine's path and should help your site to be initially indexed by Google right away.
Next submit your site to some relevant directories starting with DMOZ. It can take months, even years, to have your site listed in DMOZ, so it is important to get it submitted right away. Consider submitting to other industry relevant directories. For some information on how to select the right directories take a look at Building Links with Directory Submissions.
Work on getting as many links from relevant industry websites as possible. The more links you can get from reputable sources, the better the overall performance of your site.
Step 10 - Ongoing Promotion
Once you have completed the site, the content looks great, and all appears finished, you are still got work to do. For long term success, especially for a brand new site, you need to continually promote your site. You should always be looking at ways to build your inbound links and your relevant content.
Consider creating accounts with various social media platforms to help promote your site. These can not only give you a link back to your site, but they can help you drive traffic and raise awareness about your business and product. A site that is always growing, and always getting new links, has the best chance of getting a stable top 10 listing in Google.
Source From SitePro News
It is not ever too early to start thinking about your stats. Before your site goes live you must have some form of accurate analytics in place so you can measure your site's traffic and progress.
There is an endless supply of analytics options out there to choose from. You can simply use the stats software that comes free with your web hosting, however, more often than not, they tend to be very basic with no flexibility. Advanced choices such as ClickTracks can give you rather in-depth statistics, but for a very small mom and pop operation it may be too expensive. Google Analytics, is a free option that can give you most, if not all the data you will need and does not require access to your raw log files.
If you do opt for an option such as ClickTracks, check with your host to ensure that you will have the raw log files you require. StepForth can also help you with your statistical analysis.
Step 7 - Content Creation
Now is the time to get that new, fresh content posted to your site with the SEO in mind. Make sure that the content you write reflects your industry and target keywords. You do not need to flood the content with your target keywords, but make sure they are in there a few times. When it makes sense to do so, also include some acronyms to help Google establish the overall relevance.
If you perform a search in Google for "~keyword", any words that Google bolds in the search results will be acronyms that Google deems relevant. Include some of these where possible.
Step 8 - Basic SEO
<title> and Meta Description tags. This is one of the core fundamental aspects of an optimized size and it does play a significant role in your search rankings. Make sure that these tags are not only unique but are accurate representations of each page. Also be sure to place your target phrase in heading as well as image alt tags where applicable.Ensure that ALL pages of your site include unique
Step 9 - Initial Promotion / Launch
Now that you have your new site all up and ready to go, you want to give it that kick start to help drive some traffic. It will be a while before the search engines fully index your site and even longer before you start to see organic rankings for your target search phrases. It is important to start off right away to get the ball rolling.
Start off by issuing a press release to announce the launch of your new business website. Press releases are a great way to get some traffic and a rather valuable first link into your site. Submitting your press release using a company such as PRWeb will get your link in the engine's path and should help your site to be initially indexed by Google right away.
Next submit your site to some relevant directories starting with DMOZ. It can take months, even years, to have your site listed in DMOZ, so it is important to get it submitted right away. Consider submitting to other industry relevant directories. For some information on how to select the right directories take a look at Building Links with Directory Submissions.
Work on getting as many links from relevant industry websites as possible. The more links you can get from reputable sources, the better the overall performance of your site.
Step 10 - Ongoing Promotion
Once you have completed the site, the content looks great, and all appears finished, you are still got work to do. For long term success, especially for a brand new site, you need to continually promote your site. You should always be looking at ways to build your inbound links and your relevant content.
Consider creating accounts with various social media platforms to help promote your site. These can not only give you a link back to your site, but they can help you drive traffic and raise awareness about your business and product. A site that is always growing, and always getting new links, has the best chance of getting a stable top 10 listing in Google.
Source From SitePro News
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Your Website from the Ground Up in 10 Steps (2)
Step 3 - System Back End
If you plan on having a large scale website that will grow and change constantly then you may want to consider a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla. If you decide to go this route, you want to ensure that whichever CMS you choose is search engine friendly and offer items such as unique title tags, custom URL's, and full control over content, heading tags, image alt tags, etc.
Starting a website using a non-friendly CMS is like buying a car without an engine. Sure it may look great, but it will not get you anywhere.
Step 4 - Site Structure & Navigation
This is really one of the most fundamental aspects of your site creation. If the structure of your site does not work well, then your site may be doomed from the very beginning.
Take a look back at your keyword research and brainstorm all the areas of your site that you may want to develop content for. In some cases you may find valuable keywords that would fit perfectly into a few pages of content for your site. If the phrase and the content would be a good match for the theme of your site, go ahead and note them as pages to create. Get a list, or flowchart, of all the content you plan on adding and sort those pages into relevant categories.
Be sure your site files are saved in a way that makes sense - this includes both the file name, and the complete path to the file. Save files, including similar content in a relevant subdirectory, with simple file names representing each. Let us take an example of an informational site dedicated to a specific geographic location. If you have a series of pages dedicated to recreation, you may save them as:
/recreation/parks.html
/recreation/trails.html
/recreation/beaches.html
Keeping your URL structure clean and tidy can not only help with search engine rankings, but it will give a good visual impression to the site visitor as well. Often, using each of these categories as main points for your primary site navigation may make the most sense.
Also be sure to keep your site relatively flat, with as few layers as possible. Do not make the search engines follow a dozen links to get to the deepest levels of your site. Unless the site is literally tens of thousands of pages, there is no need to click more than 2 or 3 links to get to any deep content. The shorter the path to an internal page, the more credit by the search engines.
Step 5 - Navigation
When developing the end site, you also want to make sure that your site navigation is search engine friendly - this is critical if you ever want free organic listings.
If possible, use a text based form of navigation. You can use CSS to style the text links to fit into your graphical design. Text links are the best method, but image based navigation and even some forms of drop down menus are also search engine friendly.
If you choose to use image based navigation be sure to include image alt text relevant to the link to give something for Google to associate with the linked page. If you absolutely must use Flash, or any form of navigation not friendly for search engine spiders, be sure to supplement this with text based links on another location of the page.
To be continued..
If you plan on having a large scale website that will grow and change constantly then you may want to consider a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla. If you decide to go this route, you want to ensure that whichever CMS you choose is search engine friendly and offer items such as unique title tags, custom URL's, and full control over content, heading tags, image alt tags, etc.
Starting a website using a non-friendly CMS is like buying a car without an engine. Sure it may look great, but it will not get you anywhere.
Step 4 - Site Structure & Navigation
This is really one of the most fundamental aspects of your site creation. If the structure of your site does not work well, then your site may be doomed from the very beginning.
Take a look back at your keyword research and brainstorm all the areas of your site that you may want to develop content for. In some cases you may find valuable keywords that would fit perfectly into a few pages of content for your site. If the phrase and the content would be a good match for the theme of your site, go ahead and note them as pages to create. Get a list, or flowchart, of all the content you plan on adding and sort those pages into relevant categories.
Be sure your site files are saved in a way that makes sense - this includes both the file name, and the complete path to the file. Save files, including similar content in a relevant subdirectory, with simple file names representing each. Let us take an example of an informational site dedicated to a specific geographic location. If you have a series of pages dedicated to recreation, you may save them as:
/recreation/parks.html
/recreation/trails.html
/recreation/beaches.html
Keeping your URL structure clean and tidy can not only help with search engine rankings, but it will give a good visual impression to the site visitor as well. Often, using each of these categories as main points for your primary site navigation may make the most sense.
Also be sure to keep your site relatively flat, with as few layers as possible. Do not make the search engines follow a dozen links to get to the deepest levels of your site. Unless the site is literally tens of thousands of pages, there is no need to click more than 2 or 3 links to get to any deep content. The shorter the path to an internal page, the more credit by the search engines.
Step 5 - Navigation
When developing the end site, you also want to make sure that your site navigation is search engine friendly - this is critical if you ever want free organic listings.
If possible, use a text based form of navigation. You can use CSS to style the text links to fit into your graphical design. Text links are the best method, but image based navigation and even some forms of drop down menus are also search engine friendly.
If you choose to use image based navigation be sure to include image alt text relevant to the link to give something for Google to associate with the linked page. If you absolutely must use Flash, or any form of navigation not friendly for search engine spiders, be sure to supplement this with text based links on another location of the page.
To be continued..
Friday, March 13, 2009
Your Website from the Ground Up in 10 Steps
So, you have finally decided to build yourself a website, but really have no idea where to start. The following 10 steps will give you some insight into what you need to address when creating a search friendly website from the ground up.
While this article is not an exhaustive list of everything you need to know, it does touch base on many of the important aspects of creating a new website.
Step 1 - Keyword Research
Even before you choose your domain name, you should put a little time into some keyword research. Research all the possible keywords that will fit your industry and the website you plan on building. Having a clear idea of what your end targets are will make the rest of your job much easier and help things to just fall into place. Take a look at Keyword Research for SEO, for more help on this.
Step 2 - Domain Selection
If you already have an established brick and mortar business and the website will be an extension of that business, using your company name as the domain name is in most cases the best idea. If your company name is either irrelevant, or simply unavailable, you may want to consider a domain that has your target phrase listed as part of the domain.
A great example of this is if your site is focused geographically. Using the location as part of the domain when possible will give you a little extra juice with the search engines and help draw people to your site as they instantly can see the relevance in the domain.
Let us say that you are building a website focused on your home town, "Somewhere USA". A domain you may consider could be "Somewhere.com"; however, this would probably be already taken. Other options such as "SomewhereInfo.com" or "SomewhereGuide.com" may be good alternatives. The same goes for retail stores. "SomewhereCameras".com or "SomewhereBakery".com would also be good choices.
Avoid excessive use of hyphens; sometimes it is appropriate to use one, but if you can help it, avoid more than that as it can appear messy and even spammy in some cases.
To be continued..
While this article is not an exhaustive list of everything you need to know, it does touch base on many of the important aspects of creating a new website.
Step 1 - Keyword Research
Even before you choose your domain name, you should put a little time into some keyword research. Research all the possible keywords that will fit your industry and the website you plan on building. Having a clear idea of what your end targets are will make the rest of your job much easier and help things to just fall into place. Take a look at Keyword Research for SEO, for more help on this.
Step 2 - Domain Selection
If you already have an established brick and mortar business and the website will be an extension of that business, using your company name as the domain name is in most cases the best idea. If your company name is either irrelevant, or simply unavailable, you may want to consider a domain that has your target phrase listed as part of the domain.
A great example of this is if your site is focused geographically. Using the location as part of the domain when possible will give you a little extra juice with the search engines and help draw people to your site as they instantly can see the relevance in the domain.
Let us say that you are building a website focused on your home town, "Somewhere USA". A domain you may consider could be "Somewhere.com"; however, this would probably be already taken. Other options such as "SomewhereInfo.com" or "SomewhereGuide.com" may be good alternatives. The same goes for retail stores. "SomewhereCameras".com or "SomewhereBakery".com would also be good choices.
Avoid excessive use of hyphens; sometimes it is appropriate to use one, but if you can help it, avoid more than that as it can appear messy and even spammy in some cases.
To be continued..
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
10 Quick Tips for Making Your Large Graphics Load Faster
There is nothing worse then having to sit and wait while the images are loading on your webpages. Your visitors expect nothing less when they land on your site. You have only got a couple of seconds before they hit that back button and they are gone. A faster site that will give them the information they want instantly.
Here are 10 quick tips for decreasing the load time on your graphics.
1. Use Height and Width (Size) Attributes.
Example: width="144" height="259"
Every time a browser loads a webpage it looks for the the height and width attributes (size) of each image in your html code so it knows how to lay out the text and the graphics on that page. This all takes place instantly behind the scenes. When the proper attributes are used, the browser loads the text before the graphics. This is good and it is faster this way. If you do not use the attributes, it causes a delay waiting for the browser to download the images first and then lay out the text. The browser has to play catch-up. It ca not load text onto the screen until it has figured out the exact size of the graphics. Make sure to use attributes on all your graphics, even those little tiny ones, like buttons and bullets.
2. Size Your Image Correctly
Lets say you are trying to place an image with a file size of 30k and height & width attributes of 300 pixels wide by 400 pixels high in a spot on your webpage that is designed to hold an image sized at 200 pixels wide by 300 pixels high. To accomplish this you have changed the height & width attributes in your html code to 200 x 300.You may think that since the image will be displayed at the lower size (200x300), the file size will be smaller and the image will load faster.
Not true. Regardless of what size attributes you use, that file size is still 30k and it will load at the same speed any other 30k image does.
Use an image editor to change the size of the image to the correct dimensions first. Then use the correct size attributes in your html. By resizing the image before you plug it into your html code, the file size will be smaller and the browser will load it quicker.
3. Animations
Animations are attention getters, but they quickly become annoying. They also slow down the loading of your page. Limit the number of animated graphics on your page and set your animation at a specific number of repetitions rather than allowing them to loop endlessly.
4. Use the Correct Image Format
If your image is simple with a small number of colors try converting it to a gif format. Good choices for this are clipart, bullets, buttons, charts and such. A word to the wise. Not all images are suited for the gif format. Complex images, photos or those with enhancements such as reflections and drop shadows do not display well in this format. The jpg format is suitable for complex images with lots of color variations. A good example of this is a photograph.
The png format can be used for either. The high end png format (png-24) produces a beautiful transparent image and maintains any enhancements you have included. The file sizes are generally higher so if you are at all concerned about load time, you may not want to consider the png format unless you have the software and skills to slice your images. (See Tip #5)
5. Slice Those Images
Image slicing is a technique used to breakdown a large image into smaller pieces to make it load faster. I use the image slice feature in Photoshop but there are also many options available to do this if you do not use Photoshop.
Search for "Image Splitter" - without quotes in your favorite search engine for list of resources for slicing images.
To be continued..
Here are 10 quick tips for decreasing the load time on your graphics.
1. Use Height and Width (Size) Attributes.
Example: width="144" height="259"
Every time a browser loads a webpage it looks for the the height and width attributes (size) of each image in your html code so it knows how to lay out the text and the graphics on that page. This all takes place instantly behind the scenes. When the proper attributes are used, the browser loads the text before the graphics. This is good and it is faster this way. If you do not use the attributes, it causes a delay waiting for the browser to download the images first and then lay out the text. The browser has to play catch-up. It ca not load text onto the screen until it has figured out the exact size of the graphics. Make sure to use attributes on all your graphics, even those little tiny ones, like buttons and bullets.
2. Size Your Image Correctly
Lets say you are trying to place an image with a file size of 30k and height & width attributes of 300 pixels wide by 400 pixels high in a spot on your webpage that is designed to hold an image sized at 200 pixels wide by 300 pixels high. To accomplish this you have changed the height & width attributes in your html code to 200 x 300.You may think that since the image will be displayed at the lower size (200x300), the file size will be smaller and the image will load faster.
Not true. Regardless of what size attributes you use, that file size is still 30k and it will load at the same speed any other 30k image does.
Use an image editor to change the size of the image to the correct dimensions first. Then use the correct size attributes in your html. By resizing the image before you plug it into your html code, the file size will be smaller and the browser will load it quicker.
3. Animations
Animations are attention getters, but they quickly become annoying. They also slow down the loading of your page. Limit the number of animated graphics on your page and set your animation at a specific number of repetitions rather than allowing them to loop endlessly.
4. Use the Correct Image Format
If your image is simple with a small number of colors try converting it to a gif format. Good choices for this are clipart, bullets, buttons, charts and such. A word to the wise. Not all images are suited for the gif format. Complex images, photos or those with enhancements such as reflections and drop shadows do not display well in this format. The jpg format is suitable for complex images with lots of color variations. A good example of this is a photograph.
The png format can be used for either. The high end png format (png-24) produces a beautiful transparent image and maintains any enhancements you have included. The file sizes are generally higher so if you are at all concerned about load time, you may not want to consider the png format unless you have the software and skills to slice your images. (See Tip #5)
5. Slice Those Images
Image slicing is a technique used to breakdown a large image into smaller pieces to make it load faster. I use the image slice feature in Photoshop but there are also many options available to do this if you do not use Photoshop.
Search for "Image Splitter" - without quotes in your favorite search engine for list of resources for slicing images.
To be continued..
Monday, March 9, 2009
10 Quick Tips for Making Your Large Graphics Load Faster (2)
6. Limit the Number of Graphics you Place on Each Page.
If your pages are loading too slowly, consider removing some of the images. Keep only those that absolutely necessary.
7. Use Thumbnails
Use a java script to display a thumbnail and load the larger image only when the reader rolls their mouse over the thumbnail. I use this technique when I have a lot of images I want to put on one page, but the page would be too big if I included them all at normal size.
I got this script from Dynamic Drive. As long as you keep their copyright notice in the html code you can use their scripts for free.
8. Browser Cache
Graphics and text are stored in what is called cache on your hard drive. This makes it easier and quicker to load files that are displayed in your browser. It loads them from the cache rather than over the net each and every time, if it is available.
To improve your visitors’ experience, take advantage of their browser cache. The best way to do this is by not putting identical images in more than one folder, subfolder or directory on your server. If the browser always calls the image from the same folder, it loads much quicker.
9. Optimize Your Images
Optimizing your images is a great way to reduce the load time. I generally optimize images I make for my clients to about 60%. I have found this to be the magic number that reduces the file to a reasonable size yet does not compromise the quality of the image.
I caution you on optimizing further. Greater percentages of optimization may leave your images blotchy with speckled blocks of color. It will often make your colors look washed-out and you may lose some of the fine details.
10. Progressive Optimization
A sneaky little trick I have learned is to select progressive settings when you are optimizing your images. This does not really make your images load faster; however, they do load first at a very low resolution and continue to load progressively, with more detail, until they are fully loaded.
Your visitor at least has something to view and content to read while the loading process finishes up. This technique works with JPG, JPEG, PNG and GIF 89 file types.
In Conclusion
As we progress into the Internet future there will come a time when our connection speeds are so fast the speed at which webpages load will not be an issue. News information and graphics will flash across your screen at record breaking speeds. We will get there. Maybe not in the next few years but eventually we will. History has already taught us that the technology is here. It is only a matter of time before we see it.
But until that happens how quickly our webpages load is something we need to take responsibility for.
Source From SitePro News
If your pages are loading too slowly, consider removing some of the images. Keep only those that absolutely necessary.
7. Use Thumbnails
Use a java script to display a thumbnail and load the larger image only when the reader rolls their mouse over the thumbnail. I use this technique when I have a lot of images I want to put on one page, but the page would be too big if I included them all at normal size.
I got this script from Dynamic Drive. As long as you keep their copyright notice in the html code you can use their scripts for free.
8. Browser Cache
Graphics and text are stored in what is called cache on your hard drive. This makes it easier and quicker to load files that are displayed in your browser. It loads them from the cache rather than over the net each and every time, if it is available.
To improve your visitors’ experience, take advantage of their browser cache. The best way to do this is by not putting identical images in more than one folder, subfolder or directory on your server. If the browser always calls the image from the same folder, it loads much quicker.
9. Optimize Your Images
Optimizing your images is a great way to reduce the load time. I generally optimize images I make for my clients to about 60%. I have found this to be the magic number that reduces the file to a reasonable size yet does not compromise the quality of the image.
I caution you on optimizing further. Greater percentages of optimization may leave your images blotchy with speckled blocks of color. It will often make your colors look washed-out and you may lose some of the fine details.
10. Progressive Optimization
A sneaky little trick I have learned is to select progressive settings when you are optimizing your images. This does not really make your images load faster; however, they do load first at a very low resolution and continue to load progressively, with more detail, until they are fully loaded.
Your visitor at least has something to view and content to read while the loading process finishes up. This technique works with JPG, JPEG, PNG and GIF 89 file types.
In Conclusion
As we progress into the Internet future there will come a time when our connection speeds are so fast the speed at which webpages load will not be an issue. News information and graphics will flash across your screen at record breaking speeds. We will get there. Maybe not in the next few years but eventually we will. History has already taught us that the technology is here. It is only a matter of time before we see it.
But until that happens how quickly our webpages load is something we need to take responsibility for.
Source From SitePro News
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Using Internal Linking To Get Better Search Engine Exposure (2)
When you link from your home page, you can do one of two things.
Link to the information page only from the home page. Link to both pages but use the no follow tag to the checkout page. In that way, if someone arrives who is already sold on your product, they can go directly to your checkout page and buy the product. However, if it is an uninformed visitor, they can click through to your information/sales page or they click on the indexed Google or Yahoo link that has been picked up by the spider.
Two things happen with scenario #2. You give the customer/visitor the option. Because, the search engine is applying SEO love to one page and not two, the page rank passed will not be 25% and 25% for each page, but 0% for the checkout page and 50% for the information page which needs it. You maintain the search engine indexing and page rank for those pages that are important.
This is just one thing that needs to be considered when setting up your website. Professional SEO firms use this algorithm in order to get specific pages on your website to rank higher and return results in the search engine results pages that are much higher than other pages like your checkout pages which you do not care about.
Number 2 - Add extra links in your navigation area or footer area that link to important pages and main sections on your website. This extremely easy tactic is often overlooked by many websites, but it does return very good results for deep linking, and most SEO firms will review your footer links when they take you on as a candidate in order to utilize that other form of deep linking.
The reason for this is that so many people forget to do it, and many Web designers add really cool buttons, images and all kinds of funky image stuff that do nothing to improve your page rank or your results in a search engines. You should remember that search engines ca not follow image links or links created in Javascript. So, you want to add simple text links that the robots can follow to index your website more fully.
These are only two of the tactics that are covered when you hire a professional, savvy SEO firm to optimize your web layout and linking structure.
Source From SitePro News
Link to the information page only from the home page. Link to both pages but use the no follow tag to the checkout page. In that way, if someone arrives who is already sold on your product, they can go directly to your checkout page and buy the product. However, if it is an uninformed visitor, they can click through to your information/sales page or they click on the indexed Google or Yahoo link that has been picked up by the spider.
Two things happen with scenario #2. You give the customer/visitor the option. Because, the search engine is applying SEO love to one page and not two, the page rank passed will not be 25% and 25% for each page, but 0% for the checkout page and 50% for the information page which needs it. You maintain the search engine indexing and page rank for those pages that are important.
This is just one thing that needs to be considered when setting up your website. Professional SEO firms use this algorithm in order to get specific pages on your website to rank higher and return results in the search engine results pages that are much higher than other pages like your checkout pages which you do not care about.
Number 2 - Add extra links in your navigation area or footer area that link to important pages and main sections on your website. This extremely easy tactic is often overlooked by many websites, but it does return very good results for deep linking, and most SEO firms will review your footer links when they take you on as a candidate in order to utilize that other form of deep linking.
The reason for this is that so many people forget to do it, and many Web designers add really cool buttons, images and all kinds of funky image stuff that do nothing to improve your page rank or your results in a search engines. You should remember that search engines ca not follow image links or links created in Javascript. So, you want to add simple text links that the robots can follow to index your website more fully.
These are only two of the tactics that are covered when you hire a professional, savvy SEO firm to optimize your web layout and linking structure.
Source From SitePro News
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Using Internal Linking To Get Better Search Engine Exposure
Anyone who runs a website should be aware of a few basic search engines linking tactics. Used properly you can interlink your website so that Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines will rate you higher in both page rank and search engine results for your keyword/key phrase niche terms. If you are unaware of what internal linking means, here is a basic overview.
Internal linking involves the links on your website that point to other pages on your website. Internal linking is very important because it allows the search engine spiders, those automated bots that scour the Internet looking for information, to find all of the pages on your website. In comparison, external linking are links that are on your website which link out to other websites, and there are specific tactics for those as well. In this article, however, we are going to cover a few simple tactics and strategies to get your internal linking up to speed.
When you are developing your website, you will tend to put a whole lot of pages of similar information tailored to a specific niche or subject that you want to convey to your visitors. You probably will have information, news, how-to articles, tips and sales pages, where visitors informed can buy your products or services. Your internal linking structure will not only benefit your visitors, but it will help you rank better with the search engines as well.
Having a good navigation system makes Google and Yahoo happy, and in turn, they will reward you because you are doing things to improve the visitors' website experience. So, for example, if you have an internal linking structure that is seamless, intuitive and allows your visitors to quickly find what they are looking for, search engines will give you more page rank, index more of your web pages and return higher search results for user queries.
You have taken the time to help your website visitors have an excellent customer experience. As a result, your tactics and strategies should be geared towards giving arriving visitors not only the information that they seek, but have it presented in a way that they, and search engine bots, will love.
There are a few basic tactics, you can use that will improve your internal linking structure right off the bat.
Number one - use the rel="nofollow" HTML tag for pages that you do not want to pass rank to Google. For example, let us say you had a three-page site. Now, we all know that most people have more than three pages for an entire website; however, this will make it easier to follow.
The first page is your home page which gets 100% of the search engine ranking and love. The second page is an information or information/sales page, with the third being a checkout page. If you do not use the nofollow tag on one of the pages, both pages will be passed half of 50% each for the link from the home page. So, they will each get 25% of the ranking and love passed through from the spiders. The search engine spiders will naturally give your home page the best page rank and index it first. Say, you want to link to the information/sales page and make sure that a lot of people find it, because the information page is what will sell your product or service. For ranking and indexing purposes, you consider the checkout page as useless, so you do not care if the search engines find it or not. In fact, you would prefer it if they did not index it all.
To be continued..
Internal linking involves the links on your website that point to other pages on your website. Internal linking is very important because it allows the search engine spiders, those automated bots that scour the Internet looking for information, to find all of the pages on your website. In comparison, external linking are links that are on your website which link out to other websites, and there are specific tactics for those as well. In this article, however, we are going to cover a few simple tactics and strategies to get your internal linking up to speed.
When you are developing your website, you will tend to put a whole lot of pages of similar information tailored to a specific niche or subject that you want to convey to your visitors. You probably will have information, news, how-to articles, tips and sales pages, where visitors informed can buy your products or services. Your internal linking structure will not only benefit your visitors, but it will help you rank better with the search engines as well.
Having a good navigation system makes Google and Yahoo happy, and in turn, they will reward you because you are doing things to improve the visitors' website experience. So, for example, if you have an internal linking structure that is seamless, intuitive and allows your visitors to quickly find what they are looking for, search engines will give you more page rank, index more of your web pages and return higher search results for user queries.
You have taken the time to help your website visitors have an excellent customer experience. As a result, your tactics and strategies should be geared towards giving arriving visitors not only the information that they seek, but have it presented in a way that they, and search engine bots, will love.
There are a few basic tactics, you can use that will improve your internal linking structure right off the bat.
Number one - use the rel="nofollow" HTML tag for pages that you do not want to pass rank to Google. For example, let us say you had a three-page site. Now, we all know that most people have more than three pages for an entire website; however, this will make it easier to follow.
The first page is your home page which gets 100% of the search engine ranking and love. The second page is an information or information/sales page, with the third being a checkout page. If you do not use the nofollow tag on one of the pages, both pages will be passed half of 50% each for the link from the home page. So, they will each get 25% of the ranking and love passed through from the spiders. The search engine spiders will naturally give your home page the best page rank and index it first. Say, you want to link to the information/sales page and make sure that a lot of people find it, because the information page is what will sell your product or service. For ranking and indexing purposes, you consider the checkout page as useless, so you do not care if the search engines find it or not. In fact, you would prefer it if they did not index it all.
To be continued..
Monday, March 2, 2009
Luxury Real Estate @ Wilmington, NC
Since many years ago, the concept of buying real estate is about more than just finding a place to call home but it is one type of investment. Investing in real estate has become increasingly popular over many years and has become a common investment vehicle. Although the real estate market has plenty of opportunities for making big gains, buying and owning real estate is a lot more complicated than investing in stocks and bonds.
To find a featured house, real estate property, you probably need to have a trustable Website and brokers that really experiences on it. If you are searching for the real estate in Wilmington then I would recommend Wilmington, NC Luxury Real Estate. There are lot of featured house and real estate property, suitable for living or for investment purpose.
For more information, please visit to their Website.
To find a featured house, real estate property, you probably need to have a trustable Website and brokers that really experiences on it. If you are searching for the real estate in Wilmington then I would recommend Wilmington, NC Luxury Real Estate. There are lot of featured house and real estate property, suitable for living or for investment purpose.
For more information, please visit to their Website.
What Corporates should know about Online Marketing (2)
Tips when hiring SEO experts:
- Whenever using a company in order to improve your SEO, always check out the Google Rank of their website. Since SEO is not that well known in management circles, there is a lot of companies that will try to sell SEO skills while there own SEO are terrible.
- Also try to get some form of guarantee. It is very rare that marketing companies ever give guarantees about the effects of their efforts, but if they actually do, you know they are serious about their skills.
- Try to get clear benchmarks to calculate the results of the SEO campaign. For example monitor the number of visitors that your website receives that came from natural search engine queries during and after the time of your campaign. (If your marketing team do not know how to get these figures, do not use them.)
- Make sure your SEO team have a clean record. Sometimes SEO companies may get desperate in order to get results and might step over the moral line by trying to fool search engines with unnatural 'black hat' methods. When caught out, these websites are usually banned from search engines and will not show in any search result. To look into any company's track record simply Google them. Disgruntles clients tend to write their bad experience in public forums that will normally be listed in Google's search results just below the company's own website.
Good luck with your marketing campaign!
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
- Whenever using a company in order to improve your SEO, always check out the Google Rank of their website. Since SEO is not that well known in management circles, there is a lot of companies that will try to sell SEO skills while there own SEO are terrible.
- Also try to get some form of guarantee. It is very rare that marketing companies ever give guarantees about the effects of their efforts, but if they actually do, you know they are serious about their skills.
- Try to get clear benchmarks to calculate the results of the SEO campaign. For example monitor the number of visitors that your website receives that came from natural search engine queries during and after the time of your campaign. (If your marketing team do not know how to get these figures, do not use them.)
- Make sure your SEO team have a clean record. Sometimes SEO companies may get desperate in order to get results and might step over the moral line by trying to fool search engines with unnatural 'black hat' methods. When caught out, these websites are usually banned from search engines and will not show in any search result. To look into any company's track record simply Google them. Disgruntles clients tend to write their bad experience in public forums that will normally be listed in Google's search results just below the company's own website.
Good luck with your marketing campaign!
Source From Entireweb Newsletter
Discover Safe and Natural Beauty Products
Beaute de Maman is a popular one stop online store that offers health and beauty products for pregnant women with the mission to ensure the safe and effective remedies for the common problems women face in pregnancy such like prevention of pregnancy stretch marks; help treat acne which can be common occurrence during pregnancy. They also have a special facial scrub designed just for women during pregnancy. All the products were made with natural botanical and herbal ingredients, helps to moisturize and preserve the skin's elasticity and suppleness. It is absolutely safe for using their products.
Beaute de Maman is also the unique line of all-natural health and beauty products that are exclusively designed for the pregnant woman by an obstetrician. According to the news from the medicine website, Beaute de Maman is pleased to announce that its Facial Scrub and Face and Body Cream have been recognized by Pregnancy magazine as two of the “120 Best Products for Mom and Baby.”
For more information about Beaute de Maman, please visit to their website or you can place an order now from their website and you could get a free products shipping with $25 or above purchase of their natural beauty products.
Beaute de Maman is also the unique line of all-natural health and beauty products that are exclusively designed for the pregnant woman by an obstetrician. According to the news from the medicine website, Beaute de Maman is pleased to announce that its Facial Scrub and Face and Body Cream have been recognized by Pregnancy magazine as two of the “120 Best Products for Mom and Baby.”
For more information about Beaute de Maman, please visit to their website or you can place an order now from their website and you could get a free products shipping with $25 or above purchase of their natural beauty products.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
What Corporates should know about Online Marketing
The most important function of a website is to help a company to sell their services/products to new clients.
When potential new clients/tourists need to choose between two companies with whom they are not familiar, they are most likely to compare the websites. This is because a website is almost the only method for a person to actually see beforehand what he/she pays for. In general, more than 90% of these potential new client's decisions are decided upon the impression that is reflected from the website, regardless of the competence of these companies. The general truth is that most potential clients do not know how to technically compare companies, and therefore trust that the website's professionalism will reflect the expertise.
Therefore large amounts are invested in corporate website development. Unfortunately most companies tend to overlook the importance of building a trusted web presence. Without having a web presence with authority almost no new visitors will end up at your website. And since every company wants to expand, they need to focus on improving their web presence in order to increase the chance of getting new customers.
The best and most effective long term solution to increase your web presence is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is a highly specialized field that focus on improving the amount of trust the rest of the world will have in your website. The more trust you have, the more potential new clients will visit your website daily.
The amount of trust your website has, is most of the time determined by search engines (for example Google, Yahoo, etc.). This is because the search engines have the most advanced mathematical algorithms available today, hence the acronym, SEO. Of all these search engines, the world's most accepted benchmark of website trust is known as the Google rank (or page rank) of your website. Therefore, if you could increase your Google rank, your number of new visitors to your website will most certainly increase.
Google Rank of well known organizations' home page:
4/10: Pick n Pay, Steers, KWV, News 24
5/10: Anglo Gold, Checkers, Spur, Shoprite, Nedbank, Old Mutual
6/10: Anglo American, Absa, Stellenbosch University, Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, Mobil, Virgin, Standard Bank, Die Burger, Sasol
7/10: McDonald's, Ford, General Electric, Nike, Coke
8/10: General Motors
9/10: Microsoft, eBay, Amazon
10/10: Google, Facebook
Another reason why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is so important is because of the quality of the traffic (website visitors) you receive on your website. If somebody visits your website due to a search engine query, as opposed to other reasons (such as typing in the web address/clicking on a link from another website, etc), the new visitor will most likely already be looking for your services. For example, if someone types in the word "wine" in Google, they are probably looking for wine. So if your site comes up first on Google you can probably sell a bottle of wine if your offering is satisfactory. The contrary is that the person accidentally lands on your website, but has no immediate desire for the product or services.
Please note that it is possible to buy quality traffic, but this is expensive (depending on the product value and competition) and only effective in the immediate short term while it is active. SEO has a long term cumulative effect and is relatively inexpensive to maintain once a certain level of optimization is reached.
To be continued..
When potential new clients/tourists need to choose between two companies with whom they are not familiar, they are most likely to compare the websites. This is because a website is almost the only method for a person to actually see beforehand what he/she pays for. In general, more than 90% of these potential new client's decisions are decided upon the impression that is reflected from the website, regardless of the competence of these companies. The general truth is that most potential clients do not know how to technically compare companies, and therefore trust that the website's professionalism will reflect the expertise.
Therefore large amounts are invested in corporate website development. Unfortunately most companies tend to overlook the importance of building a trusted web presence. Without having a web presence with authority almost no new visitors will end up at your website. And since every company wants to expand, they need to focus on improving their web presence in order to increase the chance of getting new customers.
The best and most effective long term solution to increase your web presence is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is a highly specialized field that focus on improving the amount of trust the rest of the world will have in your website. The more trust you have, the more potential new clients will visit your website daily.
The amount of trust your website has, is most of the time determined by search engines (for example Google, Yahoo, etc.). This is because the search engines have the most advanced mathematical algorithms available today, hence the acronym, SEO. Of all these search engines, the world's most accepted benchmark of website trust is known as the Google rank (or page rank) of your website. Therefore, if you could increase your Google rank, your number of new visitors to your website will most certainly increase.
Google Rank of well known organizations' home page:
4/10: Pick n Pay, Steers, KWV, News 24
5/10: Anglo Gold, Checkers, Spur, Shoprite, Nedbank, Old Mutual
6/10: Anglo American, Absa, Stellenbosch University, Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, Mobil, Virgin, Standard Bank, Die Burger, Sasol
7/10: McDonald's, Ford, General Electric, Nike, Coke
8/10: General Motors
9/10: Microsoft, eBay, Amazon
10/10: Google, Facebook
Another reason why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is so important is because of the quality of the traffic (website visitors) you receive on your website. If somebody visits your website due to a search engine query, as opposed to other reasons (such as typing in the web address/clicking on a link from another website, etc), the new visitor will most likely already be looking for your services. For example, if someone types in the word "wine" in Google, they are probably looking for wine. So if your site comes up first on Google you can probably sell a bottle of wine if your offering is satisfactory. The contrary is that the person accidentally lands on your website, but has no immediate desire for the product or services.
Please note that it is possible to buy quality traffic, but this is expensive (depending on the product value and competition) and only effective in the immediate short term while it is active. SEO has a long term cumulative effect and is relatively inexpensive to maintain once a certain level of optimization is reached.
To be continued..
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