All about Marketing

When it comes to getting the very most out of your SEO efforts, you need to make sure that you’re search engine optimizing with the right search engines in mind. This means that you need to cater to the Big Three. What search engines make up this ever-important trio? The answer is Google, Yahoo! and MSN. The following techniques will help you create both a long and short term SEO strategy for success, with the Big Three search engines in mind.

Google is the clear leader among search engines, so this should be your primary focus, however, Yahoo! and MSN do hold a substantial part of the internet using community’s attention, so they should not be ignored. It should be remembered that while Google does get the most traffic, Yahoo! and MSN can provide better results when it comes to certain specific categories of interest. This is why it is so very important that you cater to all three of the major search engines for your SEO and not just Google. Since ranking is such a lengthy process, it is important that you continuously monitor and improve your site and its keywords with tracking in order to keep ahead of your competitors, and to ensure that your site keeps its high ranks. This requires continuous optimization through growth and updating.

When it comes to the Big Three, the SEO techniques that matter are as follows.

Google:

• Whenever you launch a website, submit it to a search engine, or update a site, a spider from one or all three of the big search engines may crawl your site. However, unless you provide that spider with significant keywords for ranking your site, you’ll never actually achieve rankings that are anywhere near where you want them to be, other than your business name itself. Therefore, make sure that when you are building or adding to your website, it has keywords within its text and in its coding to allow the spiders to index and rank in a way that is favorable to you.

• Use keywords that will ensure better rankings. To best complete your SEO, you need to understand that some keywords will provide you with better results than others. However, if these “best” keywords are already being used by quite a high number of other sites, since the market in your industry is competitive, then it is unlikely that the best keywords will ensure the best ranking. The only time that the ideal keywords will ensure the best results for you is if your service or product is extremely unique or new so that the keyword has not already been used extensively throughout the world wide web. In fact, if you are supplying a new product or service, then you will almost certainly receive great search engine ranking, since the Top Three adore fresh new content. In extremely competitive markets, it may take up to six months for you to see the results you want from your desired keywords. In such cases, a pay-per-click campaign may be required.

The reason that the search engines give such preference to websites offering things that are new and unique are as follows:

• It gives them the opportunity to provide something new.
• There is less competition against something new or unique, so as long as the website has proper SEO, then great rankings are almost automatic.

MSN:

• MSN is typically much faster for crawling, indexing, and listing sites. In fact, if you have done your SEO properly, you can achieve a high MSN ranking within a month, even within the most competitive markets. Therefore, while Google may be your long term SEO goal, MSN can provide for you on the short term.

Yahoo!:

• Though Yahoo! can provide you with a steady traffic flow, actually getting listed can present quite a challenge. While some websites will be crawled as early as a month from their submission, this is a rare occasion, with the standard being closer to three or four months. Once the site is crawled, however, it doesn’t take long for it to be indexed and ranked. As long as your SEO is good, then you may achieve a good rank and see results before Google has even thought about sending a spider your way.

Though there are practically countless search engines out there, it is the Big Three that have you covered for both the short term and the long term for your SEO.

Written by Mark Nenadic

Courtesy http://www.teawithedge.com

As you likely know by now, there is a big difference between effective, quality website content, and search engine optimized (SEO) website content that will obtain the highest ranks in search engines and directories such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. However, to apply SEO properly to your website, you first need to know which keywords to use.

Once you have them, you also need to know if those keywords are working for you, or if you will need to tweak them to get better results. After all, a keyword is only as good as the money it makes for you. The keyword itself is a certain word or phrase that someone would type into a search engine or web directory in order to find your website. The keyword you choose for any given page should describe that page in a way that a regular web surfer would search for it. The keyword should be a direct reflection of the content of that page. They should never contain any random or additional words that have nothing to do with you, your business, or your website. If they do contain these excess words, then you won’t obtain the maximum results from your SEO strategy.

Among the most widely accepted keyword strategies is that the number of keywords in a website should never exceed 21-22. There are sites out there that have well over six and seven hundred keywords, without any content to back those keywords up. Even if they did have content for every one of those keywords, there would be no point, since search engines will ignore any keyword over their limit of 22 words.

Keywords are each counted as one word. Key phrases, on the other hand, are also counted as one, no matter how many words make them up. For example, if you owned a computer company, a keyword could be “computers”. This would be counted as one word. However, you could also have a key phrase “discount computer company”, which would also be counted as one.

Even though key phrases are each counted as only one keyword, you should always keep them very short and straight to the point, without any excess words or puff.

To properly apply these keywords to your website, you first need to come up with a list of 21 or 22 keywords/key phrases that will describe your website content, such as the product or service you are selling. You then need to work them into your content, as well as into the site description coding and any additional information you submit to the search engines upon registration with them.

To identify the keywords, there are many different tools that you can use. You can pull them straight out of the air, have friends and colleagues brainstorm with you, or use one or two of many different softwares that are available for specifically that purpose. One of the most popular among these softwares is the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool. You simply need to tell it what your site is about, and it will suggest a number of different potential keywords based on what has been searched for within the last past month.

By making sure that you’re using the right keywords, you’re much more likely to choose exactly the word or phrase that a web surfer might type when searching for what your site has to offer. This is the entire point of SEO. When done properly, you’ll increase the number of visitors to your site, and will therefore experience increased sales. Your website will be more visible, more find-able, and more successful, all by selecting the right wording. Though it may sound complex at first, once you get the hang of it, it does become much more routine. You must remember, though, that this is a time consuming process, and is something that you will need to maintain for the entire life of your website. If you don’t have the time or willingness to dedicate to your website, be certain to hire a professional to do it for you. It is definitely worth the extra few dollars that it will cost. The increased sales will pay for the SEO many times over.


Written by Mark Nenadic
Courtesy http://www.teawithedge.com

Have you ever seen an add that offers you ownership of a keyword? If you’re on the internet much, or if you have an email account, the answer to that question is almost certainly a yes.

There are many services out there that offer to sell you keyword ownership – specifically premium keyword ownership – for the cost of a few hundred dollars every year. The primary selling point used by these companies is that if anyone happens to type the keyword you have purchased into the address bar of their internet browser, then they will automatically be sent directly to your website. There are, in fact, about 2 percent of internet users around the globe who have this ability enabled on their computers, since it specifically requires certain element such as Internet Explorer. Studies have shown that approximately 4 to 7 percent of all search queries are done by way of a keyword being entered into the address bar of the internet browser being used. For Internet Explorer users, any search queries performed using the address bar are defaulted to an MSN search. However, over time, most of us have installed a good deal of additional software onto our computers, allowing for such searches to be re-routed to other search portals.

This is often a sign of having installed a file sharing software. Among the spyware and potential for viruses, worms, and other undesirable additions to your computer, by installing a program such as Limeware, Morpheus, or Kazaa, you may have altered your default search in your address bar from MSN to a different portal altogether.

Of the queries that are entered into the address bar, approximately 50 percent of them are the result of having accidentally mistyped their desired URL, therefore instigating a keyword search. This accounts for the between 2 and 4 percent of internet users who actually use the address bar to perform their searches.

To understand the way that this functions, it is important to know how address bars work. There are many different companies offering the ownership of keywords. So many, in fact, that they are able to compete with each other, and even sell the very same keywords, only to different search companies. This being said, it means that if you buy a keyword, then depending on the company you buy it from, they may only make the search available to those specific internet users who have installed that company’s unique proprietary address bar plug-in. This makes the total number of people quite low for entering your keyword into the address bar and then find your site.

Though it is up to you whether you choose to use keyword ownership among your online marketing techniques, it is vital that you keep yourself informed of the actual potential that this method will offer you. Never hesitate to ask questions of the company you’re considering, and if anything looks fishy or not as appealing as it should, simply walk away. There is lots of competition out there, and there is surely someone who will be willing to make you a better deal.

A marketing strategy based on keyword ownership is difficult to measure. After all, many of the tools for the process are not interchangeable, there are many competing companies all selling the same companies to your competition, and your target of internet users is quite small in the first place. It can easily happen that all of the money you spend on such keyword ownership will lead to absolutely nothing.

In competition with these keyword ownership businesses are the search engines themselves; specifically those who have their own toolbars. Many of the major search engines offer a downloadable toolbar that allows you to enter keywords and run searches quickly and easily. You are then presented with that search engine’s range of closest matches from all of their indexed websites. Not only does this not cost anything, but more than one keyword possibility can lead to your site.

As you can see, it is quite clear that keyword ownership can be quite the tricky business and must be managed with the utmost research and technical knowledge if any notable gains are to be witnessed.


Written by Mark Nenadic
Courtesy http://www.teawithedge.com