by: Mike Seddon
Are you thinking of using Google Adwords for the first time or have you recently tried it and gave up because you didn’t get the results you had hoped for? There are many people who give up using Google Adwords because they are not getting the traffic they wanted or it’s costing them more money that they can afford or both! A lot of people think that to be successful with Google Adwords you either have to be lucky or practicing some black art. However the good news is that Google Adwords does work and you can make it work for you. By simply following the following steps, you will have a well performing Google Adwords campaign which will bring the right type of visitors to your website. Many advertisers do not follow these basic rules and they get there advertising all wrong. So just by making sure you follow these basic steps you will already be ahead of your competition. Understand the link between keywords, your ads and your website. This is the golden rule for Adwords. Google is all about relevancy. Google wants to be sure that when one of its customers searches for something that they find websites that are relevant to that search. So you need to make sure that your list of keywords in your adgroup work well with the ads you have set for that adgroup AND that the page you send visitors to when they click on you ad also has relevancy to the list of keywords. Keep this rule at the front of your mind when you set up your campaigns. Avoid Broad Searches When you set up your keywords for Google Adwords, the default setting is Broad Match. What this means is that Google will match your keywords against a search if your words are present in the search regardless of the order of the words, whether they appear together, are plurals, etc. As an example if you use the term used shoes as a broad match then the following searches in Google would match to your keywords used shoes used shoes shop used horse shoes shoes used in modern dance new and not used shoes As you can see this can give quite a few matches that may not be relevant to your website. You should avoid broad searches and target you keywords with phrased and exact matches. A phrased match is one where the keywords will only match if they are used in the exact sequence of your keyword. You enter a phrased keyword by putting curly brackets {} around your keyword. So for our example, if I used {used shoes} then used shoes used shoes shop would match but used horse shoes shoes used in modern dance new and not used shoes would not. An exact match is one where the keywords will match only if that exact phrase is entered and no other words are used for the search. You enter an exact keyword by putting a square bracket [] around your keyword. So for our example, if I used [used shoes] then used shoes would match but used shoes shop used horse shoes shoes used in modern dance new and not used shoes would not. Avoid using the Content network. You can set up your campaigns so that you ads appear on both Google’s search network and its content network. The content network consists of websites that allow Google ads to appear. I recommend turning off the content option when you set up your campaign because you ad may not always appear on websites that a very relevant to the ad you are running. Only advertise to locations that it makes sense to. When you set up your campaigns you can select which countries you want your adverts to appear to. So for example, if you sell a product in the USA that you would not ship outside then there is little point for your ad to appear to people in Europe or China for example. Pick the times you want your adverts to appear You can select what time of day you want your ads to appear. So if you are trying to advertise to UK buyers who are surfing during the evening, then those are the times you should be setting your ads to appear. Organise your ad groups and campaigns One campaign with one adgroup and one massive list of keywords is doomed. This is the one single mistake that many first time users of Google Adwords make. Before you start using Adwords, I strongly recommend you sit down with pen and paper to plan out your campaign and adgroup structure. What works best does tend to vary based on what you are trying to sell. However as a guide for each campaign you should aim for no more than four or five adgroups each with ten to twenty good keywords. This will give you a set of campaigns which are easy to maintain and the keywords in each adgroup can be targeted effectively. This is only a guideline though. I’ve actually had an adgroup with only one keyword and it performed wonderfully. Use Landing Pages So many people make the serious mistake of sending their visitors to their home page when they click on their ads. You really want to send then directly to the page that is relevant to the ad you are running. So for example, if you have an online clothes shop then for any adverts you are running for men’s gloves, you really want to send them directly to the page for men’s gloves. So, don’t use your home page unless it makes sense. Send your visitors to land on a page that is relevant to the advert they clicked on. If you don’t have a page that is relevant to the advert, then why are you running that advert! Use more that one Advert and TEST! Always, always have more than one advert running for an adgroup. This allows you to see which advert is getting the best clicks through rate. You can then change the lower performing adverts and try to beat your best one. You will soon find that you have some very effective adverts. However to test properly, you need to set the adverts to rotate evenly. This is set in the campaign settings. In the ad serving option under the advanced settings, make sure you select the radio button for Rotate: Show ads more evenly.
About The Author
Mike Seddon is the founder of KKSmarts. Their free Website Promotion Guides help many businesses to get the most out of their websites. The KKSmarts forum contains many free guides in written, audio and video format. They have guides on all things including how to do pay per click, how to optimise your website and many more. For more info: Http://www.kksmarts.com/
SEO Software Exposed
by: Paul Krenke
If you are new to the internet, I bet you have countless inquiries about Search Engine Optimization and how it works. Search Engine Optimization is a technique used to attain top results in the search engines anytime anyone is searching for your business or merchandise. Plenty of people spend tons of time on search engine optimization. They do this in order to build up the search engine ranking for their web pages, so that they can have the benefit of natural search traffic. Anytime you’re discovering SEO or struggling to discover what on earth your SEO Agent is doing to your site, it might seem somewhat intimidating, noticeably when it’s your first internet marketing campaign. Sadly, the Information superhighway is populated by dozens of dishonest webmasters searching to maximize their link popularity by faking out the search engines. Consider this; you get what you pay for. In the case of SEO Elite, you are certain to get higher than 10,000 times what you pay for. Now if you're not faithful concerning achieving top search engine rankings then SEO Elite is not for you. SEO Elite genuinely does pay for itself. That's why SEO experts, webmasters as well as astute Internet publicists are obtaining this search engine ranking optimization program like crazy. In fact, since word is getting out about SEO Elite 4.0, let me warn you, you don't want a rival using it against you. Because they might use SEO Elite Version 4.0 to neutralize your linking structure by presently turning out with one that's frequently more adept than yours. And so, you continuously stay behind their web page. And, you don't want that to happen to you. The developer of this SEO software is so sure of the increased behavior that this astonishing tool brings to any site that he's quick to place the entire risk on his shoulders. So now you can place your order safely and knowing that utterly nothing can go wrong. And if it does, you'll get your money back. Some of SEO Elite’s Benefits: Examine a visual detail of your rankings in the search engines over time. Over 60 pre-populated articles directories for you to submit your web site to. Automatic document submission allows you to submit an endless number of articles to document directories with some mouse clicks. Automated document submission allows you to submit an unrestricted total of articles to article directories within a couple of mouse clicks. Positively submit your site to link directories using SEO Elite's automated link directory tool. See which web content your links are currently on, and definitely how much those links are in point of fact supporting you. SEO Elite Features (just a few of many): Determine how any page ranks at the top of the Search Engines. As well as that works for the heavyweight search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, Altavista and Alltheweb. As a result, the keys to dominate top-10 listings are yours in just seconds with SEO Elite Version 4.0. Analyzes and compares major search commands on Google to the "regular" Google search rankings like "allinanchor, allintext, plus allintitle". This may possibly help you fathom which part you ought to better raise; whether it could be your anchor text surrounding your links, the quantity of times the keyword could be discovered in your text, or the number of times your keyword may well be found in the title of each webpage. Shows instantly which partners are still bonding back to you. This attribute single-handedly slashes your workload time in half or more! No need to manually follow-up with each and every linking partner. I have found that SEO Elite users are some of the most successful people working online. While SEO Elite Version 4.0 offers more features than any other Search Engine Optimization Software product available today, it's not the features that the users are most proud of; it’s the results that they achieve time and time again. Great SEO Elite Reviews: "SEO Elite has helped me to rank #1 for the phrase "business practices", "I am now ranked #1 in Google for the term, only bracelets!", "Took client's site to a page 1 ranking for many of their selected keywords!", "I have first page Google rankings for keywords with over 2 BILLION competitors!"
About The Author
Paul Krenke is a Search Engine Marketing Professional and owner of http://www.semelite.com. Get more SEO Elite Reviews at http://www.seoelite.com/testimonials.htm
I Got To No. 1 on Google At No Cost
by: Ralph Morton
After many years of buying into everything in sight I finally got the message. For years I have been told, get a list, well I tried and failed miserably. Seemed I got a few and as fast as I got them they disappeared. Many of you know what I mean. Then someone did me a favor I was told to write articles and get sites linking to mine. I didn’t think much of that idea as I thought I had no talent for writing. However after 3 years or so with no results I was desperate. Well, 10 weeks ago I decided I would give it a go. Didn't think I could do it, but I wrote one article about Toxins, then I wrote another and another, to date I have 20. Even though I say it myself, they are not too bad. I next sent the Articles to 150 directories manually. I know there is software out there that works great, unfortunately it never worked for me. Anyway, as can imagine it was a lot of work. I kept at it, and I found most of the directories linked back to my site and I began to get hits. By the way I did this without spending one red cent. I had made a decision that no money would be spent for anything. During the years I had spent enough. I wanted to prove it could be done without spending. I guess I could have put this together as an ebook and charged the usual $47.00 for it, that seems to be the regular number. I decided against that, as I had made a vow I would not spend any more money, and I didn’t want others to spend. It is quite an achievement to get to No 1 on Google and spending nothing. Oh, that’s a lie, I did spend $1.50 on a Article submitter on eBay, unfortunately it didn’t work. That is something I should mention here, these Article submitters are available for $47.00 (there’s that number again) all over the internet, however you can get them for $1.50 on eBay. The guy told me the one I bought from him worked on his computer, so it could be a good deal. You really need a submitter for it is a lot of work, believe me. After you have sent all your articles to the directories, you receive links back to your site, as you well know linking is one of the most important factors to get your site listed high on the search engines. The 100 or so links coming back to my site from the articles were not enough to do the full job, so I had to come up with a software to do the job for me. Free of course…. I found http://www.linkshighway.net/main/ This did a great job for me, easy to use, it got 70 extra links in the matter of a couple of hours. Really it is easy as pie. I get more than that, I had 14 requests to link to me, yesterday so it continually builds. Then I saw somewhere, the more links to your site the better, these guys were talking in thousands. Iv’e still some work to do. As I said, about 4 weeks ago I started to get hits to my site and I have kept records of them, as I wanted to see how they grew. Once again it was easy going, simple. I now had 20 articles out there to 150 directories and had 200 sites linking back to my site. Now the next thing was to have a web site that was friendly to the search engines. I will continue with this posting in a couple of days as I have something that really is pressing. Before I leave I have to show you this, here are the results of the last few keywords that are truly working, I will give you the reason in a couple days why they work. ISAGENIX home business... 4th out of 366,000 Hong Kong 3rd out of 24,600 are you sure it works 1st out of 42,800 Natural Cleanse 1st out of 86,500 facts 2nd out of 29,200 join our team 1st out of 43,900 liver cleanse 3rd out of 15,900 Leader 3rd out of 38,700 proof 1st out of 16,900 cleanse 6th out of 104,000 Colon Cleanse 5th out of 37,900 Natural colon cleanse 4th out of 22,600 Work at home 4th out of 218,000 Isagenix 29th out of 695,000 How to use the 9 day plan 2nd out of 37,000 I built my web site keyword sensitive to the word Isagenix as that is the program I am in. Before each keyword I placed the word Isagenix, Viz. Isagenix Hong Kong. If anyone would like a copy of the Article Directories that I used, email me at noviorbis@telus.net Visit my site, there is nothing posh about iit at all, but it is doing it's job. http://thisisyourbusiness.net
About The Author
Ralph Morton is the Author of many Articles showing how toxins are destroying our systems. Ralph also shows by the use of the ISAGENIX Natural Cleanse our whole body shows an amazing recovery. Surprisingly, by the use of either an ISAGENIX 9 day cleanse or an Isagenix 30 day cleanse, we find, not only do our internal organs, such as our colon, and liver function better but the body begins to shed fat. After a regular routine of using ISAGENIX some people have lost up to 200lbs and beyond. Please view our videos at http://www.theteam.isagenix.com/tours.dhtml?inv=0 Also please visit http://thisisyourbusiness.net To have an Isagenix Home Business visit http://www.theteam.isagenix.com/signup.dhtml?inv=0
Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog
by: Caroline Melberg
If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think. The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog: 1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword 2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning 3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword 4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts 5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword 6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases 7. Be sure to ping the directories 8. Include tags for all of your blog entries 9. Use categories effectively 10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text. You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group. Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines. There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free. Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page. The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.
About The Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.
Business Directories: The Place To List Your Local Small Business When Looking For Local Customers
by: Caroline Melberg
One of the oldest and most effective ways to market yourself online is through local small business directory listings. Small business Internet marketing requires starting with a listing of your small business in the major general directories then listing them in niche and industry-specific directories appropriate to your small business. It is a time consuming process to list your small business in the right directories, but a necessary one to ensure good rankings for your website. The most essential directory for your small business to be listed in is DMOZ, also called the Open Directory Project. All the major search engines, and most of the minor ones, rely on DMOZ, located at www.dmoz.org, for information on websites. Google gets information on every website it crawls from DMOZ. You should also list your small business in Google Local and Yahoo Local. All you need to do to get listed with Google is to go to Google, click on the Local link and find the "add your business link." For Yahoo, go to Yahoo, click on "Directory," then click on "Submit Your Site" at the bottom of the page. You can find other directories online by using Google or Yahoo. Type in "directory of directories" and you'll get a list of small business directories, both paid and free, listed by state, industry, niche, and other categorizations. I recommend that you list in every directory that applies to your business. Here is a short list of local small business directory opportunities to help you attract local customers for your business: http://www.dmoz.org http://dir.yahoo.com http://www.joeant.com http://www.jayde.com http://www.avivadirectory.com http://www.goguides.com http://www.botw.org Some directories, like the Yahoo directory, charge, but it is well worth what you pay to be listed. Once you are included in Yahoo's small business directory, you can bet your website will be indexed in the search engine as well. There are three primary considerations for your small business when listing in directories online: The directory's PageRank The directory's age Is your small business category available? PageRank is important for SEO purposes. Internet marketing pros all recommend getting inbound links from websites with high PR. A website with a PR higher than yours will benefit you with valuable inbound links that will give you a boost in the search engines as well. The age of the directory makes it more valuable because you know that if the directory has been around for more than two years then it will likely be around next year. You can get information on PageRank and the age of various directories at http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/web-directories.html. Don't waste your time trying to get listed in a directory that doesn't offer a category you'll fit into. Be sure to browse the categories at any small business directories you consider before you list your business. Two great sources for finding web directories for your small business Internet marketing efforts are www.dir-search.com and www.best-web-directories.com. The Best Web Directories website is perhaps the most comprehensive website for finding business directories online. If you want to find local customers through small business directories then I recommend these two resources for finding the best places online that list small business directories for your Internet marketing efforts. One thing you'll need to keep in mind – all directories are different. Nevertheless, you should write your business directory listing before you submit to any directories. Your local small business directory listing shouldn't be too long, but it should include all the pertinent information: Your business name, your name, address, phone number, website address, e-mail address, and a short description of your business. In your business directory listing, be sure to use the best keyword two or three times to make your small business listing optimized for the search engines. To find industry-specific or niche directories, go to DMOZ or one of the other general directories and search for your industry by keyword. Then do a keyword search at Google and Yahoo along with the keyword "directory." This should return a good listing of directories for your industry or niche. One other source for listing your local small business is the local chamber of commerce's website. When you join your local chamber, they should list your website on theirs for free. The traffic you can get from this one source can be well worth joining the local chamber, and almost all of the traffic will be local customers looking for your type of business. The Yellow Pages online and www.merchantcircle.com are two other sources to consider for local small business Internet marketing. More and more people are looking online for small businesses to do business with and relying less on print publications like the Yellow Pages. That's just one more reason to look for local small business directories to be listed in.
About The Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.
One of the oldest and most effective ways to market yourself online is through local small business directory listings. Small business Internet marketing requires starting with a listing of your small business in the major general directories then listing them in niche and industry-specific directories appropriate to your small business. It is a time consuming process to list your small business in the right directories, but a necessary one to ensure good rankings for your website. The most essential directory for your small business to be listed in is DMOZ, also called the Open Directory Project. All the major search engines, and most of the minor ones, rely on DMOZ, located at www.dmoz.org, for information on websites. Google gets information on every website it crawls from DMOZ. You should also list your small business in Google Local and Yahoo Local. All you need to do to get listed with Google is to go to Google, click on the Local link and find the "add your business link." For Yahoo, go to Yahoo, click on "Directory," then click on "Submit Your Site" at the bottom of the page. You can find other directories online by using Google or Yahoo. Type in "directory of directories" and you'll get a list of small business directories, both paid and free, listed by state, industry, niche, and other categorizations. I recommend that you list in every directory that applies to your business. Here is a short list of local small business directory opportunities to help you attract local customers for your business: http://www.dmoz.org http://dir.yahoo.com http://www.joeant.com http://www.jayde.com http://www.avivadirectory.com http://www.goguides.com http://www.botw.org Some directories, like the Yahoo directory, charge, but it is well worth what you pay to be listed. Once you are included in Yahoo's small business directory, you can bet your website will be indexed in the search engine as well. There are three primary considerations for your small business when listing in directories online: The directory's PageRank The directory's age Is your small business category available? PageRank is important for SEO purposes. Internet marketing pros all recommend getting inbound links from websites with high PR. A website with a PR higher than yours will benefit you with valuable inbound links that will give you a boost in the search engines as well. The age of the directory makes it more valuable because you know that if the directory has been around for more than two years then it will likely be around next year. You can get information on PageRank and the age of various directories at http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/web-directories.html. Don't waste your time trying to get listed in a directory that doesn't offer a category you'll fit into. Be sure to browse the categories at any small business directories you consider before you list your business. Two great sources for finding web directories for your small business Internet marketing efforts are www.dir-search.com and www.best-web-directories.com. The Best Web Directories website is perhaps the most comprehensive website for finding business directories online. If you want to find local customers through small business directories then I recommend these two resources for finding the best places online that list small business directories for your Internet marketing efforts. One thing you'll need to keep in mind – all directories are different. Nevertheless, you should write your business directory listing before you submit to any directories. Your local small business directory listing shouldn't be too long, but it should include all the pertinent information: Your business name, your name, address, phone number, website address, e-mail address, and a short description of your business. In your business directory listing, be sure to use the best keyword two or three times to make your small business listing optimized for the search engines. To find industry-specific or niche directories, go to DMOZ or one of the other general directories and search for your industry by keyword. Then do a keyword search at Google and Yahoo along with the keyword "directory." This should return a good listing of directories for your industry or niche. One other source for listing your local small business is the local chamber of commerce's website. When you join your local chamber, they should list your website on theirs for free. The traffic you can get from this one source can be well worth joining the local chamber, and almost all of the traffic will be local customers looking for your type of business. The Yellow Pages online and www.merchantcircle.com are two other sources to consider for local small business Internet marketing. More and more people are looking online for small businesses to do business with and relying less on print publications like the Yellow Pages. That's just one more reason to look for local small business directories to be listed in.
About The Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.
The How And Why Of Buying Traffic For Your Website
by: Cliff Posey Jr
Need more traffic on your website? You may want to consider buying it. When you buy traffic, you are almost guaranteed to get traffic. Many of the services that dedicate their businesses to building traffic for other websites offer a guaranteed number of visitors on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, making this one of these easiest and fastest ways to get traffic on your website. If you have never heard of buying traffic before, or if you want to learn more about how it works, here are some frequently asked questions in regards to traffic buying that can help. What Kind of Businesses Buy Traffic? Buying web traffic is not necessarily a new Internet marketing concept. In fact, there are many online businesses that have been doing it for years. Though many of these companies are established already, they are not the only types of businesses who use such services. Sometimes the only way that a new, unknown site can get traffic to their website is by buying it. Competing with large sites is tough, and sometimes, search engine optimization techniques aren't enough to boost a new site's rankings in the search engines. Where Can You Get Traffic? There are many online services that sell website traffic. To find a sampling, simply type buy traffic or get traffic into any Internet search engine. You will be faced with so many different options that you will have a hard time choosing which service to go with. If you are looking for referrals, consider visiting forums that have members who are online business owners or web developers. Many of the people who post in these forums may have already used one or two traffic building companies. In most cases, they will be able to offer you information on their experiences. If you are unable to get a referral, don't base your decision on cost alone. There may or may not be a difference between a traffic building service that offers 10,000 visitors per month for $20.00 and one that offers 10,000 for $30.00. Always inquire about services, as well as costs. Good questions to ask include: How do you bring traffic to my website? Do you ever use spamming techniques? What type of traffic will be targeted: specific countries, specific languages, etc? Can you guarantee that I will get traffic? Will you provide me with stats? Do you offer customer support? How much will you charge me if I want to buy traffic? Why is your service better than others? Where Do Visitors Come From? When you buy traffic, most of the visitors you get will be from banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, and layers ads. The ads are placed all around the net. When a web visitor clicks on the ad, they will be taken directly to your website. Is Traffic Guaranteed? This is a tough question to answer because it depends on the service that you use to buy traffic. Some services guarantee that you will get traffic and others do not. Even if they do guarantee traffic, they cannot guarantee sales. They cannot even guarantee that when you get traffic, it will stay on your site for more than one second. This is very important to remember when deciding whether or not to buy traffic. Whatever you decide to do, make sure to track your traffic, your sales, and your overall results. Once you have analyzed everything, you will be able to easily determine if buying traffic to get traffic is in your best interests.
About The Author
Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.
Need more traffic on your website? You may want to consider buying it. When you buy traffic, you are almost guaranteed to get traffic. Many of the services that dedicate their businesses to building traffic for other websites offer a guaranteed number of visitors on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, making this one of these easiest and fastest ways to get traffic on your website. If you have never heard of buying traffic before, or if you want to learn more about how it works, here are some frequently asked questions in regards to traffic buying that can help. What Kind of Businesses Buy Traffic? Buying web traffic is not necessarily a new Internet marketing concept. In fact, there are many online businesses that have been doing it for years. Though many of these companies are established already, they are not the only types of businesses who use such services. Sometimes the only way that a new, unknown site can get traffic to their website is by buying it. Competing with large sites is tough, and sometimes, search engine optimization techniques aren't enough to boost a new site's rankings in the search engines. Where Can You Get Traffic? There are many online services that sell website traffic. To find a sampling, simply type buy traffic or get traffic into any Internet search engine. You will be faced with so many different options that you will have a hard time choosing which service to go with. If you are looking for referrals, consider visiting forums that have members who are online business owners or web developers. Many of the people who post in these forums may have already used one or two traffic building companies. In most cases, they will be able to offer you information on their experiences. If you are unable to get a referral, don't base your decision on cost alone. There may or may not be a difference between a traffic building service that offers 10,000 visitors per month for $20.00 and one that offers 10,000 for $30.00. Always inquire about services, as well as costs. Good questions to ask include: How do you bring traffic to my website? Do you ever use spamming techniques? What type of traffic will be targeted: specific countries, specific languages, etc? Can you guarantee that I will get traffic? Will you provide me with stats? Do you offer customer support? How much will you charge me if I want to buy traffic? Why is your service better than others? Where Do Visitors Come From? When you buy traffic, most of the visitors you get will be from banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, and layers ads. The ads are placed all around the net. When a web visitor clicks on the ad, they will be taken directly to your website. Is Traffic Guaranteed? This is a tough question to answer because it depends on the service that you use to buy traffic. Some services guarantee that you will get traffic and others do not. Even if they do guarantee traffic, they cannot guarantee sales. They cannot even guarantee that when you get traffic, it will stay on your site for more than one second. This is very important to remember when deciding whether or not to buy traffic. Whatever you decide to do, make sure to track your traffic, your sales, and your overall results. Once you have analyzed everything, you will be able to easily determine if buying traffic to get traffic is in your best interests.
About The Author
Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.
How To Avoid Web Traffic Disasters, Part 2
by: Michael Cheney
Disaster #2. Not Using Your Mirrors If you don’t use your mirrors in your car you have no way of knowing where traffic is coming from or where it’s going to and you will crash. It’s the same with your website. You have to use your ‘mirrors’ to check on where your traffic is coming and where it is going to on your website. It’s only when you start to monitor the traffic that’s coming into your website (and where it’s going once it gets there) that you can really start to improve on what you’ve got. For example, let’s just say you’re getting some good amounts of traffic and you know this because your website statistics tell you you’re getting 5,000 unique visitors a month. Great - this is at least a starting point in terms of the information you have at your fingertips but it’s nowhere near enough. You want to start looking at SPECIFICS. To give you a flavor here are some possible stats you want to get hold of; - Top referring websites that send you traffic - Top referring affiliates that send you traffic (if you have an affiliate program) - Average length of visit of people to your website - The most popular pages on your website - Paths that people take through your website - The most common exit pages for people on your website All these things can power up your arsenal so that you can make INFORMED decisions about how to get MORE traffic and get more bang for your buck from the traffic you are getting. "You obviously have to be careful here that you don’t fall victim to analysis paralysis." Too many stats and too much time spent poring over them can be a bad thing. But you should make a point of taking some time each month to take an ECG on your website’s performance. You NEED to know where you are getting traffic from so you can do more of the tactics that are working. And you NEED to know where people go once on your website so you can convert more of them into optins, sales, affiliates etc.
About The Author
Michael Cheney You can grab a a free 30-minute MP3 Audio "How To Get Traffic - Insider Secrets Revealed" and a free 40-page Ebook on how to get traffic just by going to http://www.michaelstrafficvideos.com
Search Engine Optimization for Small Business Success
by: Robert Moment
Whether you have an established large-scale business or whether you are a one-person start-up, it is important for your website to rank high in search engine queries for your important keywords and search phrases. If you are not ranked properly you will not get much traffic, and if you depend on Internet traffic, then this can mean failure for your business. One of the best ways to improve your ranking in the search engines is by applying the methods of search engine optimization to your website. Here is a guide to search engine optimization that can help you to get started in this important task: 1. Start with a clear and simple website design A good website design should be easy for your human visitors to enjoy and understand, and it should also be intelligible for the search engine robots that also visit your site. What looks good to the human eye may not look good to search engines. If your site is 100% flash then it may impress your visitors, but the search engines will not find text and will not be able to properly classify your site. Similarly a site designed with frames is also search engine unfriendly. Check with your web designer and make sure that the design you are getting is user-friendly and search engine friendly as well. 2. Focus each of your web pages around one or two distinct concepts A well-organized site will help you to get better search engine rankings. Suppose you have ten different products. It may be difficult to get number one rankings for all of these products from one single page of your site. However if you make sub-pages for each different product and optimize those pages to highlight the particular product or service on that page, then those sub-pages stand a good chance of coming up in search engine queries. Remember, people do not enter your website only via the main page; rather they often enter via the "back" and "side-doors." Prepare all the pages of your website properly and you will get more traffic. 3. Put your main keywords in the meta-tags of your web pages Once you have decided what will go on your web pages, then you have to optimize each page separately. Never use the same meta-tags for all the pages of your site. If your page is about "Riding Lawn Mowers," then put these words in the Title, Description and Keywords meta-tags of your website. The title tag is the most important of the three tags, and your keywords should be right at the front. Resist the temptation to put your company name first! If you are new, then no one knows about you and they are searching for Riding Lawn Mowers and not you. Do your branding elsewhere, not in the meta-tags 4. Put your keywords in the headlines and sub-headlines of your web page A search engine is trying to find out what your page is all about. If you want to know what a magazine article is all about, without even reading it, the first thing that you would do is scan the headlines. Search engines do the same thing. Put your most important keywords in a headline right at the top of the page. Mark the headline with an H1 tag (ask your web designer to help if you do not know what this is). Make sub-headlines using an H2 or H3 tag. Putting your keywords in headlines is a vital part of search engine optimization. 5. Place your keywords strategically in the text of your web page Write naturally and logically and you will succeed with your web page optimization. In the first paragraph mention your main concept, and then develop your ideas summarizing in the last paragraph what you have said on that page. Your keywords should appear in the beginning of the document, and they should be repeated at the end. As mentioned in point 4, they should also appear in headlines and sub-headlines. The keyword density should be between 2-5%. If you write 400 words then your keyword can be repeated 12 times without any problem. 6. Include your keywords in link text on your web pages When you link to other sections of your website you should pay attention to the clickable portion of the links. Instead of making a link that says "Click Here." Make a phrase that says click here for more information about "Riding Lawn Mowers." The clickable portion of the link should be your keywords and not click here! These are the main points that you need to take care of when optimizing your website. If your small business is Internet-based or in any way dependent on search engine traffic, then it is imperative to apply the best methods of search engine optimization to each and every web page of your site.
About The Author
Robert Moment is an innovative small business coach , speaker and author. Robert specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to start a small business that profits and grow. Visit http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com and sign-up for the FREE Small Business Coaching 7 day e-course.
Creating Inbound Links Is About More Than Just PageRank
by: Bill Platt
Is Google PageRank (PR) the be-all, end-all of the internet marketing equation? I have wanted to discuss this topic for quite a long time. But, there is risk in discussing this topic. It is a lot like religion and politics. We are advised not to discuss religion or politics in mixed company, because people are willing to argue and sometimes kill, based solely on your disagreement with their religious or political beliefs. In a lot of ways, Google PR is a matter of religion to some internet marketers. And for me to discuss this topic openly is tantamount to telling someone that his or her religion is false religion. Many of my competitor's who read this article will run to their soapbox as soon as I am done, and they will pronounce to the heavens that I am an idiot. I will let you be your own judge. How I Draw My Conclusions I own one website that has so far served more than 100,000 unique visitors in the first nine months of 2006. The same site has served well over one million page views, since the beginning of 2006. I often use the statistics from this website to measure trends in the marketplace, since the unique visitors and page views are of a substantial level. The Importance of Google In The Internet Marketplace Just because I am questioning the value of Google's PR in the grand scheme of things, it does not mean I am questioning the domination of Google in the marketplace. The statistics on the previously mentioned website prove the dominance of Google against their competitors. Here is how my search engine referrals break down: * 37 Search Engines have sent me traffic. * 78.1% of visitors were sent from Google. * 18.4% came from Yahoo, Ask Jeeves/Ask, MSN * 1.5% arrived from AOL, Dogpile, Netscape, Earthlink, Altavista, Alexa. * 98.0% of all search engine referral traffic arrived from the Top Ten Referring Search Engines. So hands down, Google is the MOST important element for my search engine marketing. The Concept of Google PR Google has often said that their PR system is an integral part of their search algorithms. According to Google's own documentation, this is the definition of PR is as follows: "PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important.' " Since PR utilizes a count of the number of links pointing to a website as a measure of PR value, professional internet marketers are very interested in acquiring large numbers of inbound links for their websites. PageRank values also allow you to decide whom you might want to do a link exchange (if you do such things). The Pros and Cons of Buying PR Professional internet marketers are also interested in getting links on pages with an already large PR. With Google's definition of PR, this makes sense. PROS: * When you buy links on pages that already have a significant PR, then you can gain that value with much less work involved. * You can bulk up your own PR in very short order. CONS: * Most sites that sell links on their high PR pages only do so on a monthly or quarterly basis, so this expense will be an ongoing for as long as you want to hold onto that value. * Depending on the PR of the page where the link is being sold, the cost can be very high. Many webmasters decide how much they will charge for advertising on their website, according to the PR assigned to their website. * The powers-that-be at Google warns us away from buying text links to increase our own PR. They warn us by example, pointing to the SearchKing devaluation in Google, as the result of SearchKing's paid linking scheme: http://news.com.com/Judge+dismisses+suit+against+Google/2100-1032 _3-1011740.html * The Google power broker Matt Cutts stated matter-of-factly that we should not "participate in link schemes designed to increase (our) site's ranking or PR," as stated in the Google quality guidel! ines. He went on to say that Google "does consider buying text links for PR purposes to be outside our Google's quality guidelines." Read the full story in context here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-PR/ If you continue reading the comments on Matt's blog about the text links and PR, take a moment to search out the comment on the subject from Dan Thies (http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/). Dan asked Matt at the end of his post to define the "algorithm for determining intent" of the person placing the link. Bravo Dan. Google Toolbar Role In PR Monitoring Just like any discussion of paid links and PR, people tend to get fired up. Just the other day, I read a different thread on Google PR. In that thread at http://forums.Site-Reference.com, someone said that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that shows up in the toolbar. ( PR value is only exported to the Toolbar at regular intervals. According to the "Page Rank Update and Export List History" page, the PR information was last exported to the Google Toolbar on September 28, 2006: http://www.seocompany.ca/PR/page-rank-update-list.html ) The poster I mentioned above had stated that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that buyers use to observe the trust factor attached to a website. He said that when people view the PR, then they would be assured that the company from whom they are about to purchase from is a reputable company. I had to disagree. The only people who have the Google Toolbar installed in their machine are online marketers. Perhaps that is a wide paintbrush, but it is not very far from the truth. Because most people who use the Toolbar are online marketers, then they will be the only people for whom the little green PR bar has any meaning. The Real Importance of Google's PR How many times have you heard that the value your website holds with the Google PR system will make or break your website's ability to gain traffic from Google? How many of you actually believe that? Here is where I am going to get people excited. I launched a site with zero PR in the first week of September. Within four days, I had page one placement in Google. Let me repeat that for you. Within four days of a website's launch, I had a website with PR 0, no official backlinks according to Google, and page one search results in Google! Okay, I admit... It was a memorial website: http://www.GoodbyeSteveIrwin.com I have several search keyword phrases in Google that produce page one, two and three results. Right now, the search phrase "irwin nature conservation" brings up my memorial site as the #3 result. You might tell yourself that I was able to do this because it arrived at a time when Steve Irwin was the only new story. But, I have created results like this with several websites. The Steve Irwin site was not a fluke. The Steve Irwin site was simply the fifth site that I was able to reach page one of Google search results within two weeks of site launch, with zero backlinks according to Google, and zero PR. So, let me ask you again how important the Google PR system is for guaranteeing the placement of your website on page one of Google's search results? You be the judge. Traffic Links Vs. PR Links Previously I mentioned my website that I use to measure trends in search engine marketing. Here is another interesting bit of data that I pulled from my website statistics for that domain: * 53% inbound traffic comes from search engines * 47% inbound traffic comes from links on third-party websites (not from search engines) * Both values exclude people who visited my site as a result of bookmarks for my site or clicks directly from an email If you break down the numbers even further, you will find the Google powerhouse is responsible for 41.4% of my gross inbound traffic from another website. And my website receives 47% of its traffic from websites that are not search engines. Wow! My website is getting considerably more traffic from links on websites that are not search engines, than what it is getting from Google! Interesting. Perhaps now you understand why I have always focused on getting permanent links on third-party websites that will send me traffic for years to come. How Many Links Are Traffic Links? This traffic arrived at my site from a total of 12,876 external webpages. If you ask the search engines how many links I have to my website on external pages, they will NOT show you a number of links anywhere near this number. In fact, MSN shows the largest number of inbound links to my website. And MSN only shows that I have 2,164 links pointing to my website. That is a number that is six times lower than the number of external webpages that actually send me human visitors! You would be surprised how many PR 0, 1 and 2 pages are actually sending me real traffic. Real traffic converts into real sales. And I am getting more traffic from these nowhere links, than what I am getting from the Holy Grail of Google. In Conclusion... Let me repeat the question that I opened this article with, "Is Google PageRank the be-all, end-all of internet marketing?" I offer a resounding, "No!" Is Google PageRank the Holy Grail of internet marketing? "No." Do you need to put your links on pages that have high PR? "No." I feel good that Google says that my PR is a Five. It makes me feel that I am gaining ground in the Google algorithms. And it boosts my human ego. But, for every keyword phrase that really matters to my business, I am already on page one of the search results, with a measly PR of 5, and no real backlinks to speak of according to the brilliance of the Google algorithms.
About The Author
Bill Platt and his team provide inbound link building services. They don't rent links on high PageRank webpages. Instead, they develop content-driven pages, with keyword links to their client's site, that speak to their client's target market. Bill has been utilizing the same methodology with all of his own websites since 1999. If these techniques work this well with Bill's sites, imagine how the techniques can improve Links and Traffic for your site. To learn more, call Bill at: 405-780-7745 M-F 9am-6pm CST or visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
Is Google PageRank (PR) the be-all, end-all of the internet marketing equation? I have wanted to discuss this topic for quite a long time. But, there is risk in discussing this topic. It is a lot like religion and politics. We are advised not to discuss religion or politics in mixed company, because people are willing to argue and sometimes kill, based solely on your disagreement with their religious or political beliefs. In a lot of ways, Google PR is a matter of religion to some internet marketers. And for me to discuss this topic openly is tantamount to telling someone that his or her religion is false religion. Many of my competitor's who read this article will run to their soapbox as soon as I am done, and they will pronounce to the heavens that I am an idiot. I will let you be your own judge. How I Draw My Conclusions I own one website that has so far served more than 100,000 unique visitors in the first nine months of 2006. The same site has served well over one million page views, since the beginning of 2006. I often use the statistics from this website to measure trends in the marketplace, since the unique visitors and page views are of a substantial level. The Importance of Google In The Internet Marketplace Just because I am questioning the value of Google's PR in the grand scheme of things, it does not mean I am questioning the domination of Google in the marketplace. The statistics on the previously mentioned website prove the dominance of Google against their competitors. Here is how my search engine referrals break down: * 37 Search Engines have sent me traffic. * 78.1% of visitors were sent from Google. * 18.4% came from Yahoo, Ask Jeeves/Ask, MSN * 1.5% arrived from AOL, Dogpile, Netscape, Earthlink, Altavista, Alexa. * 98.0% of all search engine referral traffic arrived from the Top Ten Referring Search Engines. So hands down, Google is the MOST important element for my search engine marketing. The Concept of Google PR Google has often said that their PR system is an integral part of their search algorithms. According to Google's own documentation, this is the definition of PR is as follows: "PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important.' " Since PR utilizes a count of the number of links pointing to a website as a measure of PR value, professional internet marketers are very interested in acquiring large numbers of inbound links for their websites. PageRank values also allow you to decide whom you might want to do a link exchange (if you do such things). The Pros and Cons of Buying PR Professional internet marketers are also interested in getting links on pages with an already large PR. With Google's definition of PR, this makes sense. PROS: * When you buy links on pages that already have a significant PR, then you can gain that value with much less work involved. * You can bulk up your own PR in very short order. CONS: * Most sites that sell links on their high PR pages only do so on a monthly or quarterly basis, so this expense will be an ongoing for as long as you want to hold onto that value. * Depending on the PR of the page where the link is being sold, the cost can be very high. Many webmasters decide how much they will charge for advertising on their website, according to the PR assigned to their website. * The powers-that-be at Google warns us away from buying text links to increase our own PR. They warn us by example, pointing to the SearchKing devaluation in Google, as the result of SearchKing's paid linking scheme: http://news.com.com/Judge+dismisses+suit+against+Google/2100-1032 _3-1011740.html * The Google power broker Matt Cutts stated matter-of-factly that we should not "participate in link schemes designed to increase (our) site's ranking or PR," as stated in the Google quality guidel! ines. He went on to say that Google "does consider buying text links for PR purposes to be outside our Google's quality guidelines." Read the full story in context here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-PR/ If you continue reading the comments on Matt's blog about the text links and PR, take a moment to search out the comment on the subject from Dan Thies (http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/). Dan asked Matt at the end of his post to define the "algorithm for determining intent" of the person placing the link. Bravo Dan. Google Toolbar Role In PR Monitoring Just like any discussion of paid links and PR, people tend to get fired up. Just the other day, I read a different thread on Google PR. In that thread at http://forums.Site-Reference.com, someone said that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that shows up in the toolbar. ( PR value is only exported to the Toolbar at regular intervals. According to the "Page Rank Update and Export List History" page, the PR information was last exported to the Google Toolbar on September 28, 2006: http://www.seocompany.ca/PR/page-rank-update-list.html ) The poster I mentioned above had stated that the importance of the Google Toolbar was the visible PR that buyers use to observe the trust factor attached to a website. He said that when people view the PR, then they would be assured that the company from whom they are about to purchase from is a reputable company. I had to disagree. The only people who have the Google Toolbar installed in their machine are online marketers. Perhaps that is a wide paintbrush, but it is not very far from the truth. Because most people who use the Toolbar are online marketers, then they will be the only people for whom the little green PR bar has any meaning. The Real Importance of Google's PR How many times have you heard that the value your website holds with the Google PR system will make or break your website's ability to gain traffic from Google? How many of you actually believe that? Here is where I am going to get people excited. I launched a site with zero PR in the first week of September. Within four days, I had page one placement in Google. Let me repeat that for you. Within four days of a website's launch, I had a website with PR 0, no official backlinks according to Google, and page one search results in Google! Okay, I admit... It was a memorial website: http://www.GoodbyeSteveIrwin.com I have several search keyword phrases in Google that produce page one, two and three results. Right now, the search phrase "irwin nature conservation" brings up my memorial site as the #3 result. You might tell yourself that I was able to do this because it arrived at a time when Steve Irwin was the only new story. But, I have created results like this with several websites. The Steve Irwin site was not a fluke. The Steve Irwin site was simply the fifth site that I was able to reach page one of Google search results within two weeks of site launch, with zero backlinks according to Google, and zero PR. So, let me ask you again how important the Google PR system is for guaranteeing the placement of your website on page one of Google's search results? You be the judge. Traffic Links Vs. PR Links Previously I mentioned my website that I use to measure trends in search engine marketing. Here is another interesting bit of data that I pulled from my website statistics for that domain: * 53% inbound traffic comes from search engines * 47% inbound traffic comes from links on third-party websites (not from search engines) * Both values exclude people who visited my site as a result of bookmarks for my site or clicks directly from an email If you break down the numbers even further, you will find the Google powerhouse is responsible for 41.4% of my gross inbound traffic from another website. And my website receives 47% of its traffic from websites that are not search engines. Wow! My website is getting considerably more traffic from links on websites that are not search engines, than what it is getting from Google! Interesting. Perhaps now you understand why I have always focused on getting permanent links on third-party websites that will send me traffic for years to come. How Many Links Are Traffic Links? This traffic arrived at my site from a total of 12,876 external webpages. If you ask the search engines how many links I have to my website on external pages, they will NOT show you a number of links anywhere near this number. In fact, MSN shows the largest number of inbound links to my website. And MSN only shows that I have 2,164 links pointing to my website. That is a number that is six times lower than the number of external webpages that actually send me human visitors! You would be surprised how many PR 0, 1 and 2 pages are actually sending me real traffic. Real traffic converts into real sales. And I am getting more traffic from these nowhere links, than what I am getting from the Holy Grail of Google. In Conclusion... Let me repeat the question that I opened this article with, "Is Google PageRank the be-all, end-all of internet marketing?" I offer a resounding, "No!" Is Google PageRank the Holy Grail of internet marketing? "No." Do you need to put your links on pages that have high PR? "No." I feel good that Google says that my PR is a Five. It makes me feel that I am gaining ground in the Google algorithms. And it boosts my human ego. But, for every keyword phrase that really matters to my business, I am already on page one of the search results, with a measly PR of 5, and no real backlinks to speak of according to the brilliance of the Google algorithms.
About The Author
Bill Platt and his team provide inbound link building services. They don't rent links on high PageRank webpages. Instead, they develop content-driven pages, with keyword links to their client's site, that speak to their client's target market. Bill has been utilizing the same methodology with all of his own websites since 1999. If these techniques work this well with Bill's sites, imagine how the techniques can improve Links and Traffic for your site. To learn more, call Bill at: 405-780-7745 M-F 9am-6pm CST or visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust
by: Bill Platt
There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website. The truth is that the search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill. Only one person can be at the top of the hill and the top of the search results. Only ten websites can be on page one of the search results. When a new website moves into the top ten, another must be removed. For any given search term at any given time, there are only ten web pages on page one of the search results, and there are millions of web pages that did not make page one, who may or may not catch a few stragglers from the search engines. How Can A Website Break Into The Top Ten? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an industry that has sprung up around the concept of helping their clients improve their rankings in the search engine results. When you talk to SEO professionals, they generally point to a two-pronged approach to search ranking optimization. A website owner needs to optimize their on-site real estate for the search engines, and they need to build inbound links to their website. On-Site Search Optimization Challenges The trick with on-site search optimization is that you must cater to multiple audiences on your website. * You must provide simple navigation and an attractive interface to the human visitor; * You must provide good sales copy to your human visitors, for the purpose of converting them from shoppers to buyers; * You must provide text copy for the search engines to read; and * You must optimize your content to help the search engines know what topics and keywords they should pay attention, so that they can give their users the right web page for the right search terms. A web page that draws good search rankings is useless if the web page cannot convert the human visitor to a buyer. Many website owners get caught up in the process of optimizing a web page to get it to the top of the search results, and they forget that the human visitor knows where the Back Button is in his or her browser. Once your visitor has hit the Back Button, they will go to someone else's website and buy from them, instead of you. Most website owners have the alternate problem. They consistently convert a significant number of visitors to buyers, but they have to rely on various forms of paid advertising to get visitors to their websites, since they do not rank in the search engines. I recently spoke with an individual who spends ,000 per month on pay-per-click advertising to get targeted traffic to his website. He said he consistently earns back his money, but he was still looking for a better way to get ranked in the search engines, so he joined my client list. On-Site Search Engine Optimization Basics According to the search engine companies, there are more than one thousand calculations that determine how well a website will rank in their search engine result pages (SERPs). The Google engineers are fond of saying that if you build your website for human beings instead of search engines, then your website should rank well in their algorithms. To a certain degree, this is a good strategy. Think about how magazines are constructed: The Table Of Contents shows story titles, brief descriptions, and page numbers telling you where you can find a story. On the story page, the title will be in big, bold font. Sometimes, the magazine will include a brief blurb about the story, in italics or font that is a bit bigger than the story font. Pictures support the story with captions that further develop the story, by describing the picture. Major subsections of the story have their own subheadings. And, the primary body of the story is in regular plain text, with only an occasional bolded or italicized word or phrase. By analyzing the title and other large text on the page, a person who is flipping through the pages of a magazine can quickly assess the story content and make the decision as to whether they want to read the full story. In the most simplistic way, this is how the search engines analyze a websites' content to decide which web page will best serve their users' needs. Off-Site Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics Since the inception of Google, and with Yahoo and MSN recently, the number and quality of links pointing to a website play a significant role in determining how well a web page will rank in the search results. I have heard people suggest that as much as 75% of the value given to a web page in the search results is based solely on the number and quality of links pointing to a web page. I tend to believe a more conservative number (50.1%) will apply. Inbound Links Are More Important Than Page Content To prove this point, type "click here" without the quotes into Google, Yahoo and MSN and check the Adobe pages that come up in the search results: #1 in Google, #2 in Yahoo, and #1 in MSN. When you pull up those pages, search the page to find the individual words "click" or "here" in the text of those pages. They are not there. This has happened because millions of people have linked to these Adobe pages with the embedded anchor text, "click here". Next, let's analyze those specific web pages from the perspective of each of the search engines: * Google's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) Links to this web page: according to Google (31); according to Yahoo (nearly 12 million); according to MSN (6,400). * Yahoo's #2 result - Google PageRank 10. (www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer) Links to this web page: Google (15,200); Yahoo (700 thousand); MSN (32). * MSN's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) Links to this web page: Google (0); Yahoo (2.9 million); MSN (778). On Google's top result, they show 31 inbound links total for that web page. But, Yahoo claims that there are more than 12 million links to this page. That is a huge difference. On Yahoo's #2 result, MSN gives 32 links, Google gives 15,000 links, and Yahoo claims it has 700 thousand links! That is another huge difference between the link counts from the search engines. On MSN's #1 result, MSN shows a strong link count, but still nowhere near Yahoo's 2.9 million links. But, how does a web page with zero links in Google get a PageRank 8? What Do These Numbers Mean? Google has always said that they will never show us all of the links that we have pointing to our websites, because anything we can see in the public search results, our competitors can see also. So, for me it really is no surprise that we cannot see all of the links that point to Adobe pages, or to the links we have created that point to our clients and ourselves, by querying the search engines. Also, the sheer numbers of inbound links do not rule the roost. Google's #1 result (PR8) is actually shown in Google, before Yahoo's #2 (PR10) result. The Proof For Link Building Is In The Search Engine Rankings Recently, a fellow who works as a SEO "professional" told me that be believed my link building system was a sham. I showed him that on the top 51 keyword phrases we use to market our original commercial website, we had 11 number one results, 31 top five results, 34 top ten results, 47 top thirty results, and 51 top 100 results within the Google search results. Additionally, it was shown that only three of those results competed with fewer than one million search results according to Google, with the remaining 48 pages competing with one million to 533 million pages. Ole boy tore up Google trying to track how it was possible for me to have accomplished what I claimed. He finally concluded that since Google would not show HIM how I was able to rank so well in their search engine results, then I must have been lying. According to Yahoo, we have over 12,000 links from third-party websites. According to our site statistics, we received traffic from more than 16,000 unique web pages during 2006. And Google still swears that we only have 42 inbound links to our website! Magic Fairy Dust My nemesis concluded that since HE could not prove through Google how I was successful in getting good search rankings, then I could not have accomplished such results by the methods I claimed. Okay, I admit it. I used the exact same method that Adobe used to get to the top of Google's search engine rankings. I have a pocket full of magic fairy dust. Whenever, I do not like how my websites rank in the search engines, I sprinkle my magic fairy dust on my modem. If you don't like where you are ranked in the search engines, then I suggest you forego the search engine optimization companies altogether and instead run over to the corner store to get your own magic fairy dust. You might have to shop around a bit, but it is out there.
About The Author
Bill Platt has been involved with link building (http://www.linksandtraffic.com/seo-services/link-building.html) since 1999 for his own promotion and for search engine marketing purposes, and he has been doing it professionally for clients since 2001. Visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com to learn more. If you would like to talk to Bill in person, he can be reached at (405) 780-7745 between 9am and 6pm CST, Monday through Friday.
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