Showing posts with label What is SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label What is SEO. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

SEO some Tips To Boost Your Home Business

SEO refers to the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via natural or organic search results. Whether your website gets very little or massive amount of traffic depends a great deal on how much effort you have put in to optimize your website for SEO. In this article, I will describe some SEO on-page optimization factors in which you can very quickly make on your site to improve your search engine ranking. This will give you a boost to your home business ideas you promote in your website and start to make money now.

Keywords Meta Tag

It would do you good if you keep your keywords and phrases not exceedingly long, perhaps not more than a dozen. A mistake some marketers make is putting popular keywords here but why would people want to do that. Would you put a popular keyword like diet if you are promoting home business ideas? The tip here is to use keywords that are actually found in your website content. In reality, a lot of search engines ignore keywords meta tag and some marketers remove this tag completely and focus just on the content page. for more details visit to www.offline-promotion.com. But there is really no harm putting them, as there are many search engines which still index this tag. You also do not know when search engines change their strategies.

Write Unique Content

You’ve heard of the saying “Content is King”. If you consistently write good content and update it regularly, chances are, you will have more people visiting your site and looking at your interesting home business ideas. If you own a blog, always write not only unique content but update it regularly too.

Using Keywords In The Headline

Document title is what users see at the top of the browser. It is very important to put most of your main keywords in here. It would also help to remove any prepositions like “and” and substitute them with a “|” key. I would also go as far as to say, besides the content of the document such as your article, the title is the second most important factor which determines your SEO ranking.

Using Keyword Phrases

Don’t focus on single keyword but rather keyword phrases. There are five million pages on the web that contain the word “cat”, so a search for just that term produces meaningless results. If your page is actually about cat care, then that’s the keyword phrase you want to have on your home business ideas page. Similarly, make money and make money now produce very different results too.

Make Use of alt image tags

Include an image tag on every image or graphic and put your relevant keywords there. An example would be “weight loss picture graphic” or “safe weight loss image” using both words of graphic or image so that search engines do not view them as spam.

Add header tags (h1 and h2)

Add one header tag (h1) and place our most important keyword there. The header tag should be as far towards the top of your home business ideas homepage. When Google reads a webpage, it views the text from the top left hand side of the page to the bottom right hand side of the page. So, it‘s best to place your (h1) header tag on the top left hand or top/middle portion of your page. You can think of an (h1) header tag as a title for whatever content you have on your page. Similarly put your secondary keywords in h2 header.

Page Optimization Is A Skill

When a user enters terms into a search engine, the engine starts to scan the web looking for those words. If the engine finds the words on a page, it will count how many times the words appear and also determine whether the words appear in conjunction or on their own. For more information logon to www.keyword-swipe.com .If the words are grouped together, it’s more likely that the page is a good result. So, how can you associate your page with certain keywords? It’s simple really. Put them on your page. Put the keywords in the title element, the headings, the file name, and the text of the home business ideas homepage.

Keywords In Domain Name

A website with keywords in the domain name often ranked higher. So if you have not chosen your domain name, you have a great opportunity now to take advantage of this well known secret.

SEO is the process of optimizing a website as to obtain a high rank in search engine results pages. Search engine positioning and increased traffic essentially comes down to 3 basic elements. Keyword and keyword phrase selection, search engine friendly SEO, and good off-page SEO which includes your backlink management and strategy. Additionally, writing and posting articles, press releases and even videos can substantially help SEO placement and ultimately making money now for your home business ideas.
www.thesearchengineprimer.com
www.search-engine-premiere.com

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – What is it?

Using Relevant Search Terms

Search Engine Optimisation is a process you employ to ensure top rankings in the search engines for the most relevant search terms on a website. When somebody is looking for a particular topic on the web they type in a relevant phrase. These phrases are the most relevant search terms. SEO processes target these search terms and high ranking will be sought for these search terms.

The first stage of the SEO process is to choose the relevant search terms for your website and put preferable one term per relevant page, but two per page is ok. Splitting large pages means you can make two pages and use a different search term on each page. Matching the search terms to the content of the page is very important.

Structuring the links within the site.

It is important that search engine spiders can find the all of your sites pages. The aim is to get your pages put in the search engines index. Indexing improves the chances of higher rating. Below are some things to remember to improve the chance of search engine spiders finding your pages.



Do not use links created by Javascript, spiders cannot read them.
When using Session ID's in URL's, check the rules about their use particularly if you are looking for Google ranking.
Make sure all pages link to at least one other pages.
Structure the internal links (page links) so that your targeted search terms are reinforced. This means making sure that the pages with sub topics of a topic link to the topic page using the correct link text.


Off page elements - Link Text This element is one of two important points for good rankings. You can put link text on pages within your site or on the pages of other sites. Here’s the point, the main search term on the target pages should be included in the link text. Where possible, use different link text for every link that links to a page, but always include the target page's main search term in the link text.

On page elements The aim here is to make sure that all page elements link to the target search terms on each page. Consider the following:

The Title Tag This is the second of the two important elements for good ranking. Ensure the page’s search term is contained in this tag. Put it near to the front as possible. Make sure it reads well. Remember each page’s title tag should be different to that for other pages. The Description Tag Write an attractive description tag for each page and include the search terms in it at least twice. Make sure the search term is mentioned at the beginning if possible. The H Tag (Header Tag) H tags have numbers from 1-6 with 1 being the biggest heading size. H tags carry more weight when read by the search engines. So include the H tag as near the top of the page as possible and include search terms in the tag at least once if not more on the page. Text Using the search terms in the text on the page as much as possible is important. Put the terms early on in the page and as much throughout the page as possible without losing the readability of the content. Search terms put in bold text carries extra weight but not as much as H tags. If a word from the search term words is found in the text but is separate from the other search term words. It can only help. ALT Text Make sure you put the search terms in the alt text of all images on the page.

So in summary, the key to effective search engine optimization is to initially choose relevant search terms. Then ensure you have search terms correctly placed in strategic elements of your website construction. These elements being at the point of link construction, in off-page elements and on-page elements. It is important to note that while search engine optimization is very effective it does not happen overnight. Be prepared to be meticulous in your implementation of SEO and patient in reaping the rewards.


Michiel Van Kets provides articles for Dave Glynn, who owns Searchenginesensation.com. They are part of Atomic Web Solutions and offer professional search engine optimisation (optimization) and web marketing services including pay-per-click campaign setup and management.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Google Tells You How To Get Top Search Engine Rankings

Did you know that the Google search engine actually tells you how to get a top search engine ranking? Everyone thinks it's a mysterious secret. However, it actually isn't all that mysterious at all. In fact, if you do a search for "Google Webmaster Guidelines" they explain what they look for when they add a web site to their search index and rank a web site in the search listings. By following the suggestions that Google provides, you can achieve top search engine rankings for keywords related to your target market without having to resort to tricks to manipulate search engine rankings.

First off, understand that the last thing you want to do is use tricks to manipulate search engine rankings. Also known as "black hat techniques" these tricks will do nothing more than make Google mad at you and get your web site eliminated from the search engines completely.

Remember, the purpose of Google is to provide relevant content to the end user, who is the person who is performing the search at a given point and time. What you want to do is to help Google facilitate that process, not try to fight against Google by creating a bunch of junk just to try to manipulate the search engine rankings.

You can do a search as I suggested above and read what Google wants yourself, however, I will highlight a few things that will help you in your search for top search engine rankings on the Google Search Engine.

The best way to get listed in the search engines is to create a very content rich web site. One of the factors that Google uses to determine search engine position is a concept called page rank. This concept describes the way that Google ranks each web page based on a variety of factors. One factor that determines page rank is the content on your web page. One of the things that Google LOVES is a web site that has lots and lots of content. Therefore, if you want to get ranked high in the search engines, a great way to do that is to create a web page that has a large amount of content.

One of the best ways to get Google to rank your web site high is to have relevant web sites link to your web site. If there are web sites that have content similar to the content that you have on your web site and those web sites link to your web site, then you significantly increase the chances of your web site getting a higher ranking in the search engine. It's even better if the relevant web site already has high placement in Google's search engine.

Another suggestion that Google makes is to get your web site submitted to relevant directories. This is also an excellent way to increase your search engine rankings for your web site. One area that is overlooked is niche related directories. By submitting your web site to directories that are related to the niche your web site covers, Google looks favorably upon your web site and will give you a higher search engine placement as a result.

In short, take some time out and look to see exactly what it is that Google is looking for. Then go ahead and give Google what they want. There's an old saying "If you help enough people get what they want, you can have what you want." This saying also applies to Google. Help Google get what they want (which is quality content in their search engine) and you can have whatever you want (which is a high search engine ranking in Google).

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

An SEO Glossary - Common SEO Terms Defined

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of every online business. Unfortunately, for most business owners and marketing managers (and even many webmasters), it's also somewhat of an enigma. This is partly due to the fact that it's such a new and rapidly changing field, and partly due to the fact that SEO practitioners tend to speak in a language all of their own which, without translation, is virtually impenetrable to the layperson. This glossary seeks to remedy that situation, explaining specialist SEO terms in plain English...

AdWords

See ‘Sponsored Links’.

algorithm

A complex mathematical formula used by search engines to assess the relevance and importance of websites and rank them accordingly in their search results. These algorithms are kept tightly under wraps as they are the key to the objectivity of search engines (i.e. the algorithm ensures relevant results, and relevant results bring more users, which in turn brings more advertising revenue).

article PR

The submitting of free reprint articles to many article submission sites and article distribution lists in order to increase your website's search engine ranking and Google PageRank. (In this sense, the "PR" stands for PageRank.) Like traditional public relations, article PR also conveys a sense of authority because your articles are widely published. And because you're proving your expertise and freely dispensing knowledge, your readers will trust you and will be more likely to remain loyal to you. (In this sense, the "PR" stands for Public Relations.)

article distribution lists

User groups (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google, Smartgroups, and Topica groups) which accept email submissions of articles in text format, and then distribute these articles via email to all of the members of the group. See also 'article PR'.

article submission sites

Websites which act as repositories of free reprint articles. Authors visit these sites to submit their articles free of charge, and webmasters visit to find articles to use on their websites free of charge. Article submission sites generate revenue by selling advertising space on their websites. See also 'article PR'.

backlink

A text link to your website from another website. See also ‘link’.

copy

The words used on your website.

copywriter

A professional writer who specializes in the writing of advertising copy (compelling, engaging words promoting a particular product or service). See also ‘SEO copywriter’ and ‘web copywriter’.

crawl

Google finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links. To a spider, a text link is like a door.

domain name

The virtual address of your website (normally in the form www.yourbusinessname.com). This is what people will type when they want to visit your site. It is also what you will use as the address in any text links back to your site.

ezine

An electronic magazine. Most publishers of ezines are desperate for content and gladly publish well written, helpful articles and give you full credit as author, including a link to your website.

Flash

A technology used to create animated web pages (and page elements).

free reprint article

An article written by you and made freely available to other webmasters to publish on their websites. See also 'article PR'.

Google

The search engine with the greatest coverage of the World Wide Web, and which is responsible for most search engine-referred traffic. Of approximately 11.5 billion pages on the World Wide Web, it is estimated that Google has indexed around 8.8 billion. This is one reason why it takes so long to increase your ranking!

Google AdWords

See ‘Sponsored Links’.

Google PageRank

How Google scores a website’s importance. It gives all sites a mark out of 10. By downloading the Google Toolbar (from http://toolbar.google.com), you can view the PR of any site you visit.

Google Toolbar

A free tool you can download. It becomes part of your browser toolbar. It’s most useful features are it’s PageRank display (which allows you to view the PR of any site you visit) and it’s AutoFill function (when you’re filling out an online form, you can click AutoFill, and it enters all the standard information automatically, including Name, Address, Zip code/Postcode, Phone Number, Email Address, Business Name, Credit Card Number (password protected), etc.) Once you’ve downloaded and installed the toolbar, you may need to set up how you’d like it to look and work by clicking Options (setup is very easy). NOTE: Google does record some information (mostly regarding sites visited).

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the coding language used to create much of the information on the World Wide Web. Web browsers read the HTML code and display the page that code describes.

Internet

An interconnected network of computers around the world.

JavaScript

A programming language used to create dynamic website pages (e.g. interactivity).

keyword

A word which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches. This use known as targeting a keyword. Most websites actually target ‘keyword phrases’ because single keywords are too generic and it is very difficult to rank highly for them.

keyword density

A measure of the frequency of your keyword in relation to the total wordcount of the page. So if your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 10 times, its density is 5%.

keyword phrase

A phrase which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches.

link

A word or image on a web page which the reader can click to visit another page. There are normally visual cues to indicate to the reader that the word or image is a link.

link path

Using text links to connect a series of page (i.e. page 1 connects to page 2, page 2 connects to page 3, page 3 connects to page 4, and so on). Search engine ‘spiders’ and ‘robots’ use text links to jump from page to page as they gather information about it, so it’s a good idea to allow them traverse your entire site via text links. (See ‘Link paths’ on p.21. for further information.)

link partner

A webmaster who is willing to put a link to your website on their website. Quite often link partners engage in reciprocal linking.

link popularity

The number of links to your website. Link popularity is the single most important factor in a high search engine ranking. Webmasters use a number of methods to increase their site's link popularity including article PR, link exchange (link partners / reciprocal linking), link buying, and link directories.

link text

The part of a text link that is visible to the reader. When generating links to your own site, they are most effective (in terms of ranking) if they include your keyword.

meta tag

A short note within the header of the HTML of your web page which describes some aspect of that page. These meta tags are read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search.

natural search results

The ‘real’ search results. The results that most users are looking for and which take up most of the window. For most searches, the search engine displays a long list of links to sites with content which is related to the word you searched for. These results are ranked according to how relevant and important they are.

organic search results

See ‘natural search results’.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click advertising)

See ‘Sponsored Links’.

PageRank

See ‘Google PageRank’.

rank

Your position in the search results that display when someone searches for a particular word at a search engine.

reciprocal link

A mutual agreement between two webmasters to exchange links (i.e. they both add a link to the other’s website on their own website). Most search engines (certainly Google) are sophisticated enough to detect reciprocal linking and they don’t view it very favorably because it is clearly a manufactured method of generating links. Websites with reciprocal links risk being penalized.

robot

See ‘Spider’.

robots.txt file

A file which is used to inform the search engine spider which pages on a site should not be indexed. This file sits in your site’s root directory on the web server. (Alternatively, you can do a similar thing by placing tags in the header section of your HTML for search engine robots/spiders to read. See ‘Optimizing your web ’ on p.22. for more information.)

Sandbox

Many SEO experts believe that Google ‘sandboxes’ new websites. Whenever it detects a new website, it withholds its rightful ranking for a period while it determines whether your site is a genuine, credible, long term site. It does this to discourage the creation of SPAM websites (sites which serve no useful purpose other than to boost the ranking of some other site). Likewise, if Google detects a sudden increase (i.e. many hundreds or thousands) in the number of links back to your site, it may sandbox them for a period (or in fact penalize you by lowering your ranking or blacklisting your site altogether).

SEO

Search Engine Optimization. The art of making your website relevant and important so that it ranks high in the search results for a particular word.

SEO copywriter

A ‘copywriter’ who is not only proficient at web copy, but also experienced in writing copy which is optimized for search engines (and will therefore help you achieve a better search engine ranking for your website).

search engine

A search engine is an online tool which allows you to search for websites which contain a particular word or phrase. The most well known search engines are Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

site map

A single page which contains a list of text links to every page in the site (and every page contains a text link back to the site map). Think of your site map as being at the center of a spider-web.

SPAM

Generally refers to unwanted and unrequested email sent en-masse to private email addresses. Also used to refer to websites which appear high in search results without having any useful content. The creators of these sites set them up simply to cash in on their high ranking by selling advertising space, links to other sites, or by linking to other sites of their own and thereby increasing the ranking of those sites. The search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and already have very efficient ways to detect SPAM websites and penalize them.

spider

Google finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links.

Sponsored Links

Paid advertising which displays next to the natural search results. Customers can click on the ad to visit the advertiser’s website. This is how the search engines make their money. Advertisers set their ads up to display whenever someone searches for a word which is related to their product or service. These ads look similar to the natural search results, but are normally labeled “Sponsored Links”, and normally take up a smaller portion of the window. These ads work on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) basis (i.e. the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on their ad).

submit

You can submit your domain name to the search engines so that their ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ will crawl your site. You can also submit articles to ‘article submission sites’ in order to have them published on the Internet.

text link

A word on a web page which the reader can click to visit another page. Text links are normally blue and underlined. Text links are what ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ use to jump from page to page and website to website.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. The address of a particular page published on the Internet. Normally in the form http://www.yourbusinessname.com/AWebPage.htm.

web copy

See ‘copy’.

web copywriter

A ‘copywriter’ who understands the unique requirements of writing for an online medium.

webmaster

A person responsible for the management of a particular website.

wordcount

The number of words on a particular web page.

World Wide Web (WWW)

The vast array of documents published on the Internet. It is estimated that the World Wide Web now consists of approximately 11.5 billion pages.

About the Author:

* Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details.

Friday, February 22, 2008

SEO - What is SEO?

SEO is one of the most effective things you can do online, getting your web site optimized in such a way that the search engines will reward you by basically sending traffic your way. SEO is not really that simple, but the bottom line is, if your page is optimized both on page and off, you generally get higher natural search engine rankings, which leads to traffic for you.

If you’ve spent time online recently, you’ve probably read the term “SEO,” or “Search Engine Optimization. But what does it mean, exactly? “SEO” is a term that is used to describe the process by which traffic to a particular site is increasingly generated by search engines by way of search results. The quality of visitor traffic to a site can be measured by analyzing how often a visitor who uses a specific keyword phrase in a search actually performs what is known as a “conversion action.” That is, how often those visitors make a purchase, download materials, request information, or interact with the site in any other way that indicates interest in the product or service the site offers.

Simply put, SEO is marketing through an understanding of how search algorithms work combined with a knowledge of what human users might search for. The end goal is to create a site that contains words for which people will likely search when looking for information such as that contained on your site.

SEO is an extremely powerful tool online – use SEO wisely!

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