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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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Saturday, May 31, 2008
Video Marketing
The process is to create several versions and upload them to 30 video publishing sites. The upload process is very time consuming but I have tools that cut the upload time considerably.
Because the video sites are so heavily indexed by the search engines it is easy to get high rankings in a very short period of time. Depending on the number of competing pages, first page ranking can happen in under 24 hours.
Five videos uploaded to 30 sites is 150 videos. Then upload using 3 profiles and it puts it up to 450 videos.
You just can't upload 450 videos. There is a "secret sauce". The key element is optimizing the title, video description and keywords. This is what the search engines look for since they cannot read video content.
Before you do anything go to the following pages for more information on Search Engine Marketing and related info about Search Engine Optimization.
Keyword Research - SEO Management Step One
I like to focus on finding long tailed keyword phrases that have a significant number of monthly searches for that exact term with 5,000 to 300,000 competing websites. Long tailed keywords, are multi-word keyword phrases. Most folks searching with a one or two keyword are just "browsing". Most people who use long tail keywords know what they want. Remember, you want to focus each page on 2-3 keyword phrases.
There are many free keyword research tools online. Most SEO software tools include these tools as well. Google, Yahoo and other search engines have free tools also. You want a tool that will give you the number of daily or monthly searches and competing web pages. There are even sites like "spyFu.com" that will let you see which terms your competitors are using.
When you are choosing keywords for your always use more than one word. If you only have one keyword then you will get ranked very low on the search engine results page because the search engine spiders will have millions of webpage in their indexes that have that word somewhere in the page. The more specific you can make the keywords or key phrase the more likely it is that your efforts will pay off.
Make sure that you position your keywords carefully. Using your keywords spread through the page. I suggest using your main keyword phrase in your first and last paragraph of your content. And don't forget to us them in the headings and in the hidden html Meta tags on the page especially the "title tag". It will make it more likely that the search engine spiders will rank your web page higher than other pages that might have some of the same content but don't have those keywords or key phrases placed properly on the web page.
How many keywords you have in an article is known as keyword density. Your keyword density should be anywhere from 3% to 7%. For example, if you were to write a 100 word article you would need to write the keyword in 7 times to achieve a 7% keyword density. For a 500-word article you would need to use your keyword 15 times to get a 5% density. I use a tool called "Content Composer" that does a fantastic job of keeping me on track.
Keyword research can be defined as choosing the words, which describe your product or service as, seen from the viewpoint of your target market is the most important step in the SEO Management process.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info about SEO Management .
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Search Engine Marketing - What is Search Marketing Anyway?
If you run a business that operates on the Web you've probably heard that you need to do some search marketing but you might not know what search engine marketing is. Search marketing is the process of getting listed higher on search engine result pages so that your website is more visible to potential customers. Studies have shown that people are most likely to click on the top three or five sites listed on search engine result pages and probably will never look at the other pages that are listed. So you need to get your site listed on those pages in order to increase web site traffic that you need to really be successful. You can use search engine marketing to get your website listed higher on search engine result pages and get more customers.
Traditionally there are three different ways that you can use search marketing to get a better place on the search engine result pages. You can use SEO content or search engine optimization to make your site show up higher on the search engine result page or you can use ad placement or ad inclusion in search marketing. Paid placement ads are also known as pay-per-click ads and paid inclusion ads work in a similar fashion although they are different than paid placement ads. Most businesses choose to use the search engine optimization method.
In order to get great results when using search engine optimization to increase your search result page status you need to make sure that the SEO content you put up on the website is original and uses the keywords or key phrases that are related to your business the right number of times. If you use the keywords too much then the search engines will think you are stacking your webpage with copied content and your site will be dropped to the bottom of the list. If the keywords or key phrases are used too little then your page will end up not being on the first page of search engine result pages and if your business isn't listed on the first page you might as well give up because chances are very high that no one will see you website.
Search engine marketing might seem sort of difficult to figure out at first but it's just a necessary part of doing business on the Web. It would be nice if your next YouTube video went viral and millions of people found your website but unfortunately you can't count on that. But if you learn more about search marketing and use a lot of search marketing to drive customers to your website you'll see you a large increase in the amount of traffic that your website gets. And since the main thing that you need to be successful on the Web is to increase web site traffic, if you can successfully use search marketing you will start to see great results for your business in no time. Search Engine Marketing is really the best way to get noticed on the Web.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info about Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Marketing - What is Social Marketing?
Social marketing is a new form of advertising that is just starting to become popular. Often social marketing is a favorite of small businesses because it is virtually free although in order to use it to drive traffic to a website the company still needs to use traditional search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. It is build around the idea of link strategies and using personal networking to drive website traffic. Before the widespread use of social networking sites social marketing really wasn't a viable option for most mainstream businesses but now the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook has made social networking and social marketing very popular.
Link strategies that are often used in social marketing involve creating free accounts on these popular social networking sites and then using search engine marketing techniques to increase traffic and network with others who interested in the same topics or with customers. Using search engine optimization to create search engine marketing content on your social networking profile pages can help get your profile listed in search engine results pages and you can use search engine marketing articles to help gain readers and friends across the net.
This type of marketing isn't just limited to using sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to socially market your blog as well. Many companies these days prefer having blogs to having traditional websites because blogs are much more accessible to people and make people feel like they have a personal connection with the company. Blogging is hugely popular. Many popular blog sites are free so you can set up a free blog to be the front page of your webpage and you can put links throughout the blog that lead to other pages on your webpage so that your readers can find your other search engine marketing articles and information or buy your products. The best link strategies for blogs involve taking the time to form alliances with other bloggers. Blogging networks have huge followings and many times if you join a blog network or go to the blogs of people who share your interest or sell complementary products you can leave comments on that person's blog that link back to your own site.
Even though that type of advertising can be a little time consuming it's a great way to use search engine marketing to reach your target audience for free. Blogging communities also usually link to one another's blogs which means that you can use your networking contacts to help you publicize your website. Social marketing can be tricky though because it's more than just using search engine marketing, link strategies and SEO. There are a lot of social networking etiquette rules that need to be observed and if you don't follow protocol you could be ostracized. When you're using social networking you should never just post links to your website on other people's blogs, that's considered spamming. Take the time to read other blogs and leave relevant comments. Usually then you will be allowed to post a link to your own website.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info about Social Marketing.
Search Engine Marketing - You still need HTML Meta Tags
If you start to panic when you see "HTML" and think that using HTML Meta tags is something that will be too difficult for you don't panic. Using these tags is a big part of search engine marketing and is very important when it comes to using search engine optimization to help your website get more traffic. These tags are words, usually the same keywords or key phrases that you are using throughout your website in an effort to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to increase the number of people who find your website.
The difference between Meta tags and the keywords and key phrases scattered throughout the rest of your website is that the these tags are tucked into the HTML coding of your site. No one that visits your site will see these keywords or key phrases. The tags are put into the HTML code of the website so that the spiders or bots that the search engines send out will find your website. The spiders that the search engines use to index and rank web pages will find those tags by following a long series of other words and phrases on other websites. Using Meta tags is important to search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Some search engines will assign a rank to a website based on how many times the keywords or key phrases appear and also where the keywords and key phrases appear on a website. So it's important to put them at the top of your website so that search engine bots will rank your site higher than other sites.
Even if you are not experienced at creating HTML code or working with HTML code you can put Meta tags for search engine marketing and search engine optimization purposes on your website by yourself. Instead of looking at the normal view of your website you need to look at the source code. Once you are in the source code you can enter in the HTML Meta keywords and key phrases that you want to use. If you are using a website design software the software will usually prompt you to enter some tags and then you can just input the same keywords or key phrases that you have used on the rest of the site.
Search engine marketing and search engine optimization are really the best way to drive traffic to your website so even if you don't know that much about HTML or don't feel comfortable with HTML it's important that you learn how to use these tags because having the keywords and key phrases that are featured on your site as Meta tags can bring in a lot of traffic for your website. The best ways to make your website so popular with consumers that it starts to make a lot of money for you is to use tried and true methods like proper placement of HTML Meta tags, search engine optimization on the website and search engine marketing tools to increase your rank on search engine results pages.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info about Search Engine Optimization.Increase Web Site Traffic - Discover How to do it with Video Marketing
Have you thought about using internet video marketing to increase web site traffic? Internet video marketing is a very trendy form of web advertising right now and many companies are using a combination of search engine optimization and internet video marketing to increase traffic and increase their customer base. These days customers want more than just a slick ad. If you want to draw customers to your website the best way is to combine some web advertising with a fun and informational internet video marketing campaign. You should still use search engine optimization on your site to makes sure that your site gets shown on the front page of the search engine results pages and you might want consider buying some paid search web advertising too but once you have lured customers onto your site pitch your product with some new internet video marketing.
Information videos are a big hit on the web, so post a short information video about your product or show someone using your product or you can even post someone giving a video review of your product. With sites out there like YouTube you don't even have to host the video on your site. Using YouTube is a fabulous and free way to start an Internet video marketing campaign that can be more effective than any other type of web advertising to increase web site traffic because YouTube videos are so easy to share with people. If you post a funny or unique video related to your product the people who see that video and like it can instantly post it on their own websites or their profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace that are seen by millions of people everyday. They can also email it to friends and family and submit it to sites like Digg or Current where thousands more people will see it.
Internet video marketing can increase your web site traffic almost instantly once you post the right video. The best part of video marketing is that except for the cost of producing the video it's all free. You can increase your web site traffic by thousands all for the cost of the video. And some videos are so low tech they can be made with a small digital camera or even a camera phone. Using an Internet video marketing campaign along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing is the best way to advertise your website and increase your web site traffic. Forget about expensive web advertising that doesn't work.
You can use the free social networking and marketing tools on the Internet to increase web site traffic and take your business to the next level and double or triple the number of hits that you get on your website everyday. A few words of caution though - when you're producing internet videos don't make them too high tech or over produced. Keep in mind that some people will be viewing the video on a slow internet connection. Make a video that will load quickly and play fast so that people can view it even if they don't have a high speed Internet connection or offer two versions of the video with one optimized for high speed connections and one optimized for slower connections.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on increase web site traffic and related info about Search Engine Optimization.
Increase Web Site Traffic - How to do it with Social Marketing Strategies
Social Marketing is an innovative way to increase web site traffic. Online social marketing is one of the fastest growing types of web advertising and most of the time it doesn't cost a thing except time. Social marketing relies on networking through social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook or Friendster and through blogs and websites to increase web traffic. Online social marketing can have a big impact on the amount of website traffic that a site gets. Some experts predict that eventually online social marketing will be a more effective type of web advertising than search engine optimization or search engine marketing.
Increasing web site traffic is a goal for any website but when you use online social marketing you can't only focus on increasing web site traffic. You also shouldn't treat your social networking contacts only as a web advertising venue. Social networking involves building relationships with other people online. In order to be a successful online social marketer you need to spend a lot of time reading. Reading people's profiles on social networking sites, managing your friends list and contact list, and reading and leaving comments on other people's blogs are all important parts of social networking. If you have the time to put into social marketing you can increase web site traffic almost immediately.
Linking is an extremely important part of web advertising that can only be done through social marketing. If you come across a blog article written on a topic that's related to your website and you leave a comment for the author with a link back to your site then you are reaching everyone who reads that blog post. Since the people reading the blog post are your target market you have just reached new customers. Sometimes you can get friends to put a link to your site or a review or an article about you on their sites and blogs. Using your link networks and search engine optimization you can increase web site traffic by thousands within a few weeks as your social networks grow.
Most social networking sites are free, and most blogs are free as well so you can start using social marketing for free if you have the time to put into it. Whenever you want to increase web site traffic it's a good idea to diversify your advertising and marketing so you should use other marketing tools like paid search advertising, search engine marketing, and pay per click ads as well as using online social marketing and search engine optimization to increase web site traffic.
There are millions of website on the Internet and it can be tough to make yours stand out enough to attract a lot of traffic but if you find your target market and build a niche for yourself then use innovative new advertising techniques like online social marketing or video marketing you will notice that your web site traffic will increase and your sales will go up. Advertising on the Web is not about having flashy commercials or putting ads everywhere it's about finding your target market and reaching them on a personal level.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on increase web site traffice and related info about Search Engine Optimization.Increase Web Site Traffic - How to do it with SEO Strategies
Do you need to find a way to increase web site traffic? Have you used any search engine optimization on your website? Before you do any expensive web advertising or build an expensive new site try using some simple search engine optimization on your website to increase your web site traffic. Search engine optimization is the best way to increase web site traffic and increase your position on the search engine results pages. Getting into a higher place on the search engine results pages means more hits to your website and more customers.
In order to get your site high up on that search engine results page and increase web site traffic you need to use search engine optimization on your website. Search engine optimization can often be more effective than web advertising for increasing website traffic. Now you're probably wondering how you can practically implement search engine optimization on your site to increase web site traffic. There are two ways that you increase the search engine optimization on your site.
If you have an existing site that has a lot of good content on it already you can have that content rewritten to add in some search engine optimized keywords and key phrases or you can write all new content and completely change the content that you have on the site. Even if you already have a lot of content on the site sometimes it's a good idea to put in all new search engine optimized content just to freshen up the site a little and draw new visitor. You can write the search engine optimized content yourself or you can hire writers that are experienced in creating search engine marketing and search engine optimized content to increase web site traffic. Hiring a professional SEO copy writer is a good idea if you want to see an immediate increase in web site traffic because a professional copy writer will be able to create content for your site very quickly.
When you're trying to build a website that is competitive in your market and will draw a lot of web traffic from the very beginning it's a good idea to hire professional SEO writers who can make sure that the content on your site will get it listed on the high in search engine. If your site doesn't make it on the first page of the SERP chances are good that you won't see any increase in web traffic. Your site needs to be on the first page of the SERP in order to increase web site traffic.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on increase web site traffice and related info about Search Engine Optimization.Increase Web Site Traffic - How to do it with paid search advertising
If you've tried to increase web site traffic with search engine marketing and search engine optimization but you still aren't seeing the kind of web site traffic that you want to have it might be time to consider investing in some web advertising. There are different options when it comes to web advertising but the styles of web advertising used the most by businesses is and paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is a good option if you've already tried search engine marketing and search engine optimization because your site is already well set up for paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is paying to make sure that a link to your site and a description of site is placed at the very top of a search engine results page.
This is a smart move because studies have shown that people who are searching for a site will usually click on any one of the first five links at the top of the search engine results page and then they will stop. Consumers almost never click through to the second page of search engine results after doing a search. So paying to make sure that your site is at the top of the search engine results page can be a very effective way to drive traffic to your website. Figuring out how to manage your paid search advertising can be a little difficult if you're not used to how web advertising works so you're better off hiring a paid search management company to oversee your paid search advertising. When you're setting up a paid search to increase web site traffic the keywords and key phrases that you choose need to be chosen carefully. A qualified paid search management company can help you set up your paid search to maximize the time and effort you've already put into using search engine marketing and search engine optimization on your website to increase website traffic.
Using paid search to increase web site traffic can be a very cost effective way to get the most of your search engine marketing. Essentially paid search web advertising is just giving your search engine marketing a boost and making sure that people see a link to your site before all your competitors. If your website deals with a popular topic then using paid search web advertising is really like insurance that your site make it onto the first page of the search engine results page.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on How to increase web site traffic and here for related info on Paid Search Management.Friday, April 25, 2008
Search Engine Marketing: How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
Getting your webpage ranked as high as possible on a search engine results page is one of the goals of search engine marketing and using search engine optimization on your website. But do you know how the search engine actually ranks and indexes web pages? Most search engines use a complicated process to index and rank the web pages that the search engine spiders find when they are scanning the web. Using search engine optimization and putting articles written with search engine marketing in mind will get the search engine spiders to your site but once the search engine spiders find your site they have to index your site and then assign your site a ranking within the thousands of other sites that contain information on the same topic that your site has.
Another way that search engine spiders assign a weight or rank to a web page is to take note of where in the web page a particular keyword or key phrase is located. For search engines that use this kind of ranking system just using standard search engine marketing or traditional search engine optimization techniques might not be enough to get your website noticed by the search engine spiders. In order to draw the spiders of search engines that rank web pages based on the location of the keyword or key phrase on the page it’s necessary to use those words to tag your page. Tagging a page is putting that particular keyword or key phrase in the meta tags of your site, using them in the heading or home page of your site and using those words or phrases systematically through the rest of the site. If you think of your website as a tree in order to get the attention of spiders from the search engines that use this type of ranking system you have to have a particular key word or key phrase on every branch of the tree in order to get a higher ranking.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info on Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Marketing: Timing of SEO in the Web Design Process
If you're just starting to build your website now is the best time to start planning your search engine marketing strategy and search engine optimization. The best time to introduce the SEO planning of a website is when the site design is ready and the site is ready to be launched but there is no content yet for the site. Just before the site launches is the time to bring in an SEO consultant to provide some SEO services. After the design of the website is done an SEO consultant can give you suggestions about what keywords and key phrases you need to add into the site HTML as Meta tags and where those tags should go. Once the site is tagged and the design and navigation has been tested it's time to add in content. Having SEO content on your site from the start will give your web site a big advantage over older websites that might already have a bit of a following but haven't had any SEO services by a professional SEO consultant.
For a new site where that site ends up on the search engine results pages can be critical to its success. In order for the site to get a high ranking on the search engine results pages it's imperative that a professional and experienced SEO consultant creates search engine optimized content that is ready to be part of a broad search engine marketing campaign. It just makes more sense to get all your ducks in a row before you launch the site doesn't it? Bring in an SEO consultant when you're ready to start putting content on the site so that when the site launches your site will be instantly indexed by the search engine spiders and can start drawing traffic from search engines immediately.
If you have an existing site that is due for an overhaul or a design revamping then you should also consult a professional SEO consultant before the site is redone so that you will have a good idea of what SEO services that you need. Cosmetic work on the site is important so that your site doesn't look outdated but changing up the content on the site will be very important. Most of the traffic that websites get comes from searches done by people who use Google or another search engine to look for website dealing with a particular topic.
You want your site to be at the top of or at least near the top every search that is done by a search engine for the topic that your site is about. In order to achieve that you need an SEO professional to write great search engine optimized content before the site launches. If your existing site has had the same content on it for more than six months you should get an SEO professional to write new content. Changing the content is a great search engine marketing strategy to draw new web site traffic and improve your search engine ranking.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info on Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Marketing: How do I know what SEO services do I need.
Are you confused by all the talk about SEO services and how you need to make your website search engine optimized in order to increase the amount of web traffic that your web site gets? It can be confusing at first to know what SEO services are all about and what SEO services you need to implement some search engine marketing into your website and to increase your ranking on the search engine results pages. If you have never worked with a consultant before you’ll find that working with a qualified consultant is the best way to make sure your website is 100% search engine optimized.
SEO services are more than just writing search engine optimized content. An experienced consultant can change your website and increase your web site hits almost over night. SEO services range in price but how can you put a price on success? You should be willing to pay for experience when you’re hiring a consultant because the right services can make your business successful or take an already successful business to the next level. If you don’t know what SEO services you need the best thing to do is to have a consultation with an SEO expert. Show them your website and ask for a written proposal documenting all the services that you need to increase the traffic to your website and to make sure that your site ranks higher in the search engine results pages. Be willing to pay the SEO consultant for the consultation but many will offer new clients a free consultation so you might not need to pay anything. Once you have a better idea of what services you need you can plan a budget for the project of overhauling your website and making it more search engine optimized.
Not sure that you need any SEO services? Well search engine optimization and search engine marketing are more than just buzzwords. These days the Internet is overflowing with millions of websites and blogs. The only way to make sure that your site gets noticed and gets traffic is to use search engine optimization and search engine marketing. If the cost of SEO services or hiring an SEO consultant seems high think of the cost in terms of advertising. Every business needs to advertise. Would you rather spend your advertising budget on proven SEO methods that are almost sure to drive more traffic to your site and to reach your target market or would your rather spend your advertising budget on an a blanket internet ad campaign that might not bring in any web traffic at all? Spending the money to hire an experienced SEO consultant to provide SEO services is well worth the cost. Your website will only be successful if you are bringing in daily web traffic and getting an SEO overhaul for your web site is the best way to bring in that traffic. When you see your daily website traffic double or even triple after hiring an SEO consultant you’ll be glad you spent the extra money.
Search Engine Marketing: How Search Engines Work
By Terry Stanfield
Have you ever wondered how exactly search engine marketing works or how search engine optimization can help your business? Search engine marketing relies on the basic principles of search engine optimization. Search engine optimization makes it possible for a search engine’s spider to find your web page and add it to the search engine results page whenever someone does a search for a word or phrase that shows up on your website.
Search engine marketing uses search engine optimized content to make your website easier for the spiders to find and for people who are searching the web to find. A search engine uses thousands of little bots called spiders to index the millions of web pages that are on the Internet. These spiders start at the most well known websites and work backwards following links and searching for common words and phrases. Every page that the spiders come across with those particular words on them is indexed and saved. Those pages are the ones that show up in the search engine results page when someone uses Google or another search engine to look for websites on a particular topic. The place where each site shows up in the search engine results page ranking is based on the content of the site, how many times particular words and phrases appear on the site and the relevance of the site to those search times. That is why search engine marketing depends so heavily on search engine optimization.
If you want your website to show up higher on the search engine results page then you use to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques in order to get the spiders to notice your site and put your site higher on the search engine results page. People who are using a search engine to look for websites will rarely click to the second search engine results page. It’s crucial that your site be on the first page of the search engine results page or people will probably not find your site. Using search engine marketing and search engine optimization is the best way to do that.
The number one rule to remember when you are planning out search engine marketing strategies or trying to figure out how use search engine optimization effectively on your website is that your website should have 100% original content. The spiders will place your site higher on the search engine results page if the content that is on your site is original. When websites duplicate copy the spiders pick up on the repeated phrases and language and will sometimes not index a site at all if the spider determines that the content is too similar to the content on another site.
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing is more than just taking one word or phrase and repeating it a certain number of times. The content on the site has to be fresh and engaging and also contain the keywords or key phrases that will bring traffic to the website.
Search Engine Marketing: How to Find and What to Look for in an SEO Consultant
By Terry Stanfield
When you want to add some search engine optimized content to your website it’s probably a good idea to hire a professional SEO consultant. A professional SEO consultant can help you decide what SEO services you need in order to overhaul your existing website to make it more search engine optimized and to implement some search engine marketing. A consultant can also tell you what percentage of SEO content you need to have on your site and what Meta tags to use.
If you have never used any search engine optimization on your site at all then you will definitely need to hire an experienced SEO consultant to make sure that your site gets a complete search engine optimization makeover. Many SEO consultants offer more SEO services than just content so if you already have a professional SEO writer you should ask that writer if he or she also does SEO consultations or provides other SEO services.
If you need to start looking for an SEO consultant here are some tips on selecting an SEO consultant. When you are considering an SEO consultant ask to see previous examples of any SEO content that person has written but also ask to see websites that the person has written for. After all, the point of hiring someone to provide SEO services is to get your website noticed isn’t it? So you need to see some of the websites that the SEO consultant has worked on in order to know for sure that the SEO consultant can deliver high quality SEO services. A good way to tell if a web site that the SEO consultant has worked on is really doing well in search engine rankings and drawing traffic is to look on the Alexa website. You can enter the name of the website or the website address and see the search engine ranking for that particular website over a period of months, weeks and days. If that site is doing well then the SEO consultant probably is experienced enough to provide quality SEO services but if the site is ranked very low or doesn’t get a lot of hits then you might want to look for another SEO consultant.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search Engine Marketing and related info on Search Engine Optimization
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Finding Clients In An Ocean Of Competitors
by Terry Stanfield
There is more business being done online than ever before. There are hundreds of thousands of new business web sites coming on every month. 70% of the US population (233 million people) are online. Over 1.2 billion people worldwide are online. The question is how do we find clients in an ocean of competitors?
Part of the answer to the above question is which number do you focus on, the number of people on line or the number of competitors? If you are focused on the number of people online, read on. If you are more focused on the number of competitors, read on.
Search engine marketing has been proven to have the lowest cost per acquisition of any other marketing medium. It is the only medium where people are actively searching for you. A successful campaign should include a web site designed around one question: "What are your clients looking for?" This is the starting point and may seem basic but it is surprising how many people have are just scratching the surface in their understanding of this.
Your clients are in need of solutions, answers or products. Do they know:
1.that you exist? 2.the unique value that you bring to the table? 3.the depth of knowledge and experience you can bring to bear in helping them solve their issues? 4.the passion that you have for meeting their needs?
SEO Management SEO (search engine optimization), is the art helping people find what they are looking for, on your site". A well optimized website requires two elements the correct "on page" optimization so that the search engines can determine the relevancy of the information you are presenting. Yes, it is not as important as it use to be but it is still needed. Another essential piece of the puzzle is "off page optimization". This is having web sites linking back to yours. You may think that you are important and provide a great service to mankind but if no one else does you will not get ranked well. Quality links to your web site and an on going linking strategy is absolutely vital for good rankings. SEO optimization is not a onetime deal it is an ongoing process.
PPC Management Pay-per-click is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your site from the major search engines. It can also suck your marketing budget dry in just a couple of days if not done properly. The goal of the search engines (and their strategies) is more clicks. The more people click on your ads the more money the search engines make. Their strategy is to get as many clicks as possible with in your budget and they are willing to do that all day long. Great for them bad for you.
The real goal should be more conversion with less clicks and lower cost. For lead generation sites this will mean lower cost per conversion. For e commerce sites this will result in a higher "return on ad spend". It is easy to figure out: profit/ad spend=% and if that % is not over 101% you are losing money! The only way to do that is to track every thing from clicks to conversions; cost per click to cost per conversion; total revenue. PPC Management should be the process that is designed to make that happen.
Click Fraud Management Click Fraud is a fact of life in the online world. The search engines are getting better at detecting and crediting their online advertisers. The key is to find a Click Fraud program that can track an IP address even if the go to another search engine and click on your ads and give them a warning that they are being tracked. It is amazing how bad behavior stops if the they know they are being watched and tracked! Also, some click fraud caused by our clients who find it easier to keep clicking on our ad instead of book marking our page. This will give them a gentle reminder to do that.
Many Roads It is also important to examine as many roads to your site as possible. Find blogs where your clients hang out. Write articles and publish them on the web. There are hundreds of sites that will publish you articles for free. For a nominal fee some sites will push your article out to thousands of other sites looking for content, Isnare.com is a good example. This is great from three perspectives. One, you will get a tremendous amount of links back to your site. Secondly, this will lead to increase traffic and thirdly writing articles will help establish you as an expert in your field. There are newsletters, co-registration, affiliate marketing. The key is to research these and see what will work for you.
Hire or not to Hire outside help
"How do I know if I need help?"
You might need help if:
1.Your clients and customers are not able to find you on the search engines. 2.You do not know why your competitors are in the top ten search results and you are on page 10,001! 3.You can not keep up with the changing technologies and even the changes in the market. 3.You do not have the time to take away from what you do best, running your business!
If you do need help, do your home work.
1.Get references and call them. 2.Get specifics about how they have helped their clients. 3.Find out how many clients they have and how many your account manager will handle. 4.Get a specific action calendar. Know what they are going to do and when it will be complete. 5.Make sure they understand your products, services and goals. 6.Do not be afraid to get another company to "audit" their work.
Finally This is serious business and one can loose a lot of money and time very quickly if you do not do it correctly. The bottom line is, if your customers cannot find you, they will find someone else. If you do not have someone in house with a passion to help grow your business. Find someone who knows what is important to the search engines and will not get you banned.
Before you write anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for information on Search engine marketing and related info on PPC Management.
Search Engine Submission, Part I
by Terry Stanfield
If your website has not been indexed by the search engines
you will not come up in the search results. When you search
the "web" using Google, Yahoo or MSN's search tools, you're
not searching the Internet you are searching the search
engines databases.
When a site is submitted to the search engines the search
engines uses software called "spiders" to crawl the pages of
your website through your internal site navigation and
captures vital information about each page and in puts it
into their database.
The information captured include Meta tags, content, H1
tags, Alt tags, sites that you link to and sites that links
back to your site. The Meta tags are at the top of your web
page in the code. They are in what is called the header. The
Meta tags are very important to the search engines because
they tell them what is on the page. Along with the H1 tags
Alt tags and the content in the body of the text on the web
page this gives the search engines the information they need
to index or put into their database your web page. It is
very important that your Meta tags are specific to each page
of your site. Do not just copy and paste the same Meta tags
to every page on your website. There's a big explanation
from that old and that later. There are several ways to get
web pages into the search engines a database (indexed).
Submit your site to the different search engines. There are
a lot of sites, for small fee, that will take your indexed
pager homepage and submit it to hundreds or thousands of
search engines over and over every month for the rest of
your life. Run don't walk away from the sites. If you keep
trying to submit your site, especially to Google, Yahoo and
MSN, this may appear to them as spam. Spammy is bad! I
suggest that you do not even register with Google, yahoo or
MSN unless you have 6 to 9 weeks to sit around and wait for
your website to be indexed.
In part II, we will reveal the secrets of getting fast, safe
submissions.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for
information on Search
Engine Marketing and related info on Search
Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Submission Part 2
by Terry Stanfield
In part one we discussed the need to have your site indexed
by the major search engines and ordered to be found in the
search results. In this article we're going to discuss three
ways to have your site indexed, get into the search engines
database that are safe and will not get you banned by the
search engines.
Have another website (that is already indexed) link to your
site
Once a site is indexed or put into the search engines
database, the search engine spiders go out to those pages
anywhere for once a month to several times a day. You could
get a one way link back to your website from a site that is
already indexed the search engines will follow that link
back to your site and index it. The challenge care is to put
your link on the site that is related to what you do.
Ideally, the link back to your site is on a site that is
already considered an authority in your field. It is not a
good idea for a plumber to swap links with a web designer.
Speaking of swapping links, try and stay away from
reciprocal linking and buying text link ads, more about that
at a later date.
Publish an article or press release that has a link to your
site
This practice has several great advantages. One is that a
lot of those sites that allow you to publish your articles
are free and are indexed constantly because the sites are
constantly being updated with new content. Watch your
article is submitted to one of the sites it may take up to
two weeks to go through their editorial process and the
review. When sure article is approved, your site can be
indexed within a couple of days.
Sign up for paid search with each of the search engines
This is by far the fastest way to get your site indexed.
When you signed up for an Adwords account in Google your
website will be indexed immediately. It cost very little to
set up an account. You can put in just a couple of keywords
that you won a bid on and did very little so that your ad
does not show up on the first few pages.
A great strategy for getting your website indexed and
building links to your page
I would do a combination of first setting up a paid search
account with at least the top three search engines Google,
yahoo and MSN. Then I would start writing articles 500 to
600 words and start getting them published on as many
publishing websites that you can.
Search engine submissions are very important but if done
incorrectly can get you banned from the very search engines
are trying to get into.
Before you do anything go to Terry Stanfield's site for
information on Search
Engine Marketing and related info on Search
Engine Optimization.