Total Optimizer Pro: “The Best” SEO Tool Available Today!
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If you’re not optimizing your Web pages for the search engines, you’re not only missing out on a lot of traffic, but chances are that it’s costing you money, especially if you rely solely on Pay Per Click advertising to get traffic to your site.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is easy, and if you do it yourself, it’s free: it just takes a little time, and a strategy.
If you follow the process outlined in this article, within a few weeks you’ll be getting a flow of free traffic to your Web pages. What’s more, the people who arrive on your site’s pages will be targeted visitors, primed to buy from you, because you have just what they’re looking for.
While the usual SEO process is well known, the process outlined in this article is different, because it focuses on creating landing pages — destination pages — as entry points to your Web site.
Let’s look at the process.
Step 1: Discover who’s looking for you
Start by thinking about your customers. Who’s looking for you, and what terms would they type into a search engine query box to find you? The terms that they’d type into the search engines are your site’s pages keywords and key phrases. Make a list of these keywords. If your site has been online for a few months, scan your referrer logs to see what keywords your visitors used. Because the search engines are basically just indexing software, your keywords are the keys to the SEO kingdom.
You’ll use your lists of keywords and phrases as you optimize all your Web pages.
Use the keywords in: your page titles, your page descriptions, your meta tags, and of course in the content on the pages themselves. You should also use your keywords in internal links across your Web site. It’s wise to get other site owners to link to you using the keywords for which you want to be found too. This tells the search engines exactly what your pages are about, and when the pages should be returned in the query results.
Optimize every page on your site with keywords which are specific to your site, as well as to each individual page. Aim to create around 300 to 800 words on each page. Although you won’t manage lots of content for every page — some pages don’t need it — the more text you can get onto your pages which includes your keywords the better.
Yes, this takes time, especially if you have a large site.
However, it’s time that will repay you over and over in the months and years to come, in FREE Web traffic.
In your optimization process, your individual pages are all-important: especially your site’s landing pages.
Step 2: Create landing pages that sell
The strategy to optimize your Web site to get traffic and to make sales is to optimize each page, as well as to create specific “landing pages” for your site. This is because your pages get to the top of the search engine results pages, known as the SERPs, your sites don’t. (The SERPs are the search engine pages which are returned when people enter search queries into the search engines’ query fields.)
Step 3: Realize that landing page content is the emperor
You’ll often hear that “content is king”. However, this needs to be amended to “content is king, but landing page content is the emperor”.
Landing pages are sometimes called “Web sales pages”. Often they’re developed as the landing point, so to speak, for PPC advertising. These pages usually have a lot of content, which makes them magnetic to the search engines.
Think of your landing pages as entry points, or destination pages, for your site. You want your landing pages to stand out — they’re the most important pages on your site.
Because they are so important, you’ll want to create many landing pages for your site: these will be special pages that you create specifically for keywords for which you want to be discovered in the search engines. Consider creating a landing (sales) page with unique, information-rich content for each product and service that you sell.
Over time, your special landing pages will draw an ever-increasing flow of targeted traffic to your site. So in three steps, you’ve created powerful search engine optimization for your site.
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Angela Booth is a veteran copywriter and marketer. She develops SEO marketing strategies for businesses large and small. Visit her creative copywriting site at http://angelabooth.com/ and her Creativity Factory marketing copywriting blog at http://www.angelabooth.com/wp/ for more information on search engine optimization and marketing. You can hire Angela for all your SEO copywriting and marketing needs.
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Find out more - Total Optimizer Pro: “The Best” SEO Tool Available Today!
Written by SEO Tipster on August 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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When you’re a webmaster who cares a lot about the quality of your websites, you put a great deal of time and effort into them to make sure that they’re absolutely perfect. The odds are that this includes a complete search engine optimization strategy, which has to do with placing the right keywords into your content the right number of times.
Of course, the first thing you need to accomplish this is to have the right keywords. Not as easy as it may sound at first. There are many different elements that need to be considered when you’re coming up with your search engine optimizing keywords.
Keywords, the words and phrases that people type into the search field of a directory or search engine to find websites on the internet, should be scattered periodically through every page of your website. However, knowing what words to use is only the start of things. You’ll also need to consider:
. How many different keywords you should be using for each web page.
. What your keywords say about your business, and if they would realistically be used by someone searching for your site.
. How many keyword phrases should be used in any given webpage.
. What are your word phrases and how have you separated them from your keywords.
To begin with, you need to truly understand keywords in order to use them properly. A keyword is a word that is used to describe your website and would therefore be used when searching for your site. Similarly, keyword phrases, or key phrases are groups of words that are used to describe your website.
For those web designers who have been designing for a while, keywords are the words that you used to use for creating meta tags back when meta tags still had any real application.
Your keywords should not only be search words, but should also be a good reflection of the content of your website. They shouldn’t simply be random words that in no way relate to your site and what it represents. Even if you think that these keywords would generate a lot of traffic, if they do not lead to a site that has to do with what they imply, then the traffic they generate will be useless; the visitors won’t stick around long enough to even see the color of your background. In fact, if your keywords have nothing to do with the content of your site, then you’ll likely find that your search engine ranking falls quite dramatically, instead of rising or maintaining its position.
The number of keywords and key phrases used in each of your web pages should never exceed twenty one or twenty two uses. You can use two keywords or key phrases in one web page, but just make certain that your combined use of the two of them does not exceed twenty one or twenty two times. Also, make sure that your content is substantial enough to support the high number of keyword uses. It’s useless to use keywords over and over if they make up too much of the content as a whole. Most search engines will ignore any page that uses its keywords more than 22 times and that has a keyword density that is too high.
Key phrases can be rather tricky to use, since they are made up of more than one word. For example, if you use the words “computer sales”, that is a keyword phrase. This should be used with care, because if you use the individual words “computer” and “sales” too many times in addition to the key phrase, you might inadvertently run your total number of uses up over the maximum limit.
Therefore, when using key phrases, be aware of the individual words that make them up, and do a count of those words when you’re done writing your content to make sure that you haven’t used your words so many times that the search engines won’t consider them anymore.
Finally, make sure that your keywords fit well within the content of your web pages. Don’t just use the words to get them in there. They need to suit the sentence, or the content will be extremely unprofessional and unappealing to the visitors who actually find the page and are attempting to read it. The last thing you want to do is to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the visitors who have actually found your site and want to use what it has to offer.
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Mark Nenadic Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
Find out more - “How To Triple Your Click-Through Rates, Quadruple Your Earnings Per Click and FINALLY Crack the $10,000 a Month Barrier In AdSense!“
Written by SEO Tipster on August 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Introduction
Google’s Sandbox Effect has been a matter of controversy since an article appeared on Search Engine Round Table about how new sites ranked low in Google as early as April 2004. This was before the term “sandbox” was even used to refer to the phenomenon. The term sandbox effect came into being when a guest writer on the Search Engine Round Table wrote an article entitled The Sandbox Effect. In the article, the sandbox effect meant that a new site can not get high ranking immediately by depending on PR and back links. This is because the author felt that “PR and back links (pure link popularity) credit is placed in a reserve- called the sandbox- for a period of time before it is applied to ranking and has an effect” with the purpose of preventing PR and link purchasers from getting a very high rank in Google right away and dominating the field. Although the term caught on quite rapidly it became highly debated since many SEO experts considered the term sandbox as inaccurate or, at least, lacking when it comes to describing the phenomenon. Despite the differences in opinion among SEO experts on the terminology as well as its definition and scope, everyone agreed that the sandbox effect did exist and was a matter that caused SEOs and website owners huge problems.
The sandbox phenomenon was difficult to define earlier because it affected such a wide and varied range of websites and affected their ranking for a different length of time. And since Google never officially commented on the sandbox effect the most that SEOs could do was observe and note the possible factors that could possibly be one of the reasons for being sandboxed. It wasn’t until 2005, when the sandbox effect has been in place for sometime that a good definition of the phenomenon was written in an article called 2005 Analysis of Google’s Sandbox. In the article the sandbox effect was described as:
“The observed phenomenon of a site whose rankings in the Google SERPs are vastly, negatively disparate from its rank in other search engines (including Yahoo!, MSN & Teoma) and in Google’s own allin: results for the same queries.”
This definition was more general and inclusive taking into account all the different observed sandbox phenomena that different websites experienced.
Websites Affected
The sandbox effect, as it was first noticed, affected and still does affect a large number of new websites starting from the websites registered after 2003. It has been observed that it affects entire top-level domains instead of just web pages and directories and sub-domains. The most common websites also affected by the sandbox effect were those that used search engine optimization tactics such as meta data and link building efforts. However, ordinary websites such as blogs, whose owners don’t even use such tactics, were still affected by the phenomenon. It was also noticed that the sandbox effect mostly affected websites in English with only a few reports of websites in other languages experiencing the effect. Dutch and Italian language websites were particularly free from the sandbox effect. In addition to these low quality sites as well as spam sites, affiliate sites, and websites carrying AdSense were affected more frequently than sites that did not have those features. However, not all such kind of sites was affected by the phenomenon while other more organic sites were sandboxed. It was and is pretty clear that whatever kind of website was put up there was no guarantee of not being sandboxed since there was no clear cut criterion for being sandboxed. The only websites that did escape or were exempt from being sandboxed were the .gov, .mil, and .edu websites. This meant that the sandbox effect could be experienced by any commercial and private sites.
The Effects
While the sandbox effect was felt by nearly all newly registered websites with such varied characteristics, the effects of the phenomenon itself is easier to enumerate since they are very evident.
As mentioned in the definition the effect of being sandboxed on the websites is a temporary lower ranking on Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages) as compared to their ranking on other search engine results. Note that the effect ought to be temporary. Sites report being “waiting to get out” of the sandbox for anything from one month to a year. The sites which take longer to get out of the sandbox are generally of low quality.
The websites’ rankings are also affected, as the definition states, only on Google’s SERPs. New websites that rank low as well in other search engines and has been attributing their low rank on the sandbox effect are mistaken. Website owners of such sites should concentrate on improving the quality of their site and make some SEO efforts to improve their rankings since the low rank might very well be well deserved.
There were also misconceptions that the sandbox effect discriminates according to the competitiveness of keyword phrases used with a greater effect on highly competitive keywords and phrases. This is actually untrue since the effect could be felt by many sites even for non-competitive terms.
Getting Out of the Sandbox
Undoubtedly, SEO experts have tried their very best to come up with a way to get their clients of out the sandbox. Unfortunately everyone agrees that there is no way to get out of there until Google decides to “free” a website. However here are some suggestions from the 2005 Analysis of Google’s Sandbox article aimed help prevent new sites from getting sandbox. These tips are not fool proof and do not guarantee that the resulting website won’t get sandboxed.
• Target “Topical Phenomena” & a Non-Commercial Audience
• Build Natural Links & Avoid Getting Blogrolled
• Get Noticed in the News
• Build Exceptional Quality Sites
For those whose sites are already in the sandbox there is no option but to wait. However, you can make sure that the waiting time is productive. Tweak the parts of your website that needs improvement so that when it gets out of the sandbox it’ll be of even better quality but don’t bang your head trying to get your rank to go up while still sandboxed. You can also focus on doing well in other search engines. Google is not the only search engine out there that will bring traffic to your site. For more ideas on how to make sure that the time spent by your website is productive do read David Wallace’s article on How To Play In Google’s Sandbox.
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Written by SEO Tipster on August 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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