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Affordable Small Business SEO: 5 Common SEO Errors and How to Fix Them
Don't put the cart before the horse.
You can't do SEO (optimize your web site for search engines) until you've researched keywords. You can't research keywords without a clear view of your target market, your prospect types, and how your offerings fill their needs.
Affordable Small Business SEO
Affordable small business SEO not only uses the same old business and marketing basics, but also leverages the depth of accessible metrics for creating increased online traffic and better web site ROI.
When small business people ask me how their web site could be improved by SEO, I give them some version of the following list of questions. When you know the answers to these questions, you're much less likely to waste money on SEO efforts, and more likely to succeed online. You might even pull off some of this stuff yourself- and that'll save you big in consultant fees!
To find the right keywords to target with SEO and/or PPC, consider the following?
Goals: How much monthly traffic and sales do you get now? Where would you like these numbers to be? What are your most wanted responses- what do you want your ideal prospects to do on your site? (e.g. buy something, sign up for your ezine, etc.)
Market Segmentation: Who's your ideal customer or target market? If there is more than one group, characterize each.
Keywords that work: How do people find your site? What search phrases show up in your web logs?
PPC Metrics: Do you already use pay per click (PPC) advertising? What are your conversion rates? Are your bids profiting, or at least breaking even?
Getting more traffic is pointless if your site isn't an efficient sales machine.
Profit Margin: What is your online profit margin for each offering?
Conversion Rate: What percentage of your offline prospects make the purchase? (to gauge expected conversion rate for your services and find disparity in online results)
Customer Loyalty: How many people are on your ezine list? How often do you email them? What do you send them?
5 Common Critical Website Errors and How to Fix Them
About 75% of the web sites I've seen make all of these mistakes. As a result, their rankings and traffic suffer, and they lose potential sales revenues.
No Sitemap. No matter how well your pages are designed and no matter how nice the graphics are, every site need a good 'sitemap' page for search engines to index it more easily. This is a simple page of links- no frills except perhaps a bulleted outline structure. Even better, you can use the new Google sitemap xml template, and upload it to Google to increase the chances they'll index your whole site.
Insufficient Search Engine and Directory Submission. In the ideal cyberworld, you wouldn't have to submit your site anywhere- it would just get indexed and put where your prospects could find you. The reality is we still have to meet these services halfway. There are only a half dozen super-big sources of traffic (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), but you have a better chance of showing up in them if you've submitted your site to the 100-200 minor directories and search engines. Also, there are niche directories that will help you rank on your best keywords and attract more prospects directly. Submit your site to these places with a free tool like WebCEO.
Mysterious Website Owners. Your visitors want to know, "who are the people behind this website? Can I trust them?" Unless you have a particularly snobby target market, put your picture and brief bio on the very first page of your site (if not every page). Let them know who you are. This might be taboo in offline marketing (not really- look at Ben & Jerry, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, etc.), but online, genuine personality is a competitive advantage. It fosters trust, creates credibility and emotional bonds, and bridges the cold gap of cyberspace. You can do it appropriately for most target markets. The real question is: are you ready for the prime time?
Confusing Site Structure. Does your site confuse people? Do you know where they want to go, what they're really looking for? Where do you want them to go? Good site structure both guides your various prospect types to the places you want them to go and satisfies their needs. Get some of your target market to sit in front of you and use your website- watch what they do- it'll surprise you. And put a search engine on your website that gives you reports on what people search for- you'll get clues about what else to put online.
Ezine Neglect. The ezine signup form isn't prominent on some sites ? make it obvious and 'sell' your visitors on signing up. Tantalize them into ezine subscription with a free bonus. Why? Not everyone will become your customer the first time they reach your site. They may like your offerings but not trust you enough yet or be ready to buy. They may have questions. Once you have them on your list, you can sell them on you and your stuff (by helping them with tips) every week or two until they buy.
Not only do they need a free bonus to stimulate them to sign up, they also need to know what kind of thing you'll be sending them, that you'll keep their email address private, and that they can unsubscribe anytime. And I'd suggest using double opt-in to avoid spam- that means they sign up (you don't add them), and they confirm via email before they ever get an email from you.
Since 1999, San Diego SEO Consultant Brian B. Carter, MS, has reached more than 2 million readers online. His most popular site ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. Brian's second book, "$1000 Keywords: How I Made as Much as $1,200.64 a Day Online With My Secret Keyword Analysis Techniques" will be available in July, 2005.
Importance of Keywords in Links to Your Website
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very complex process. It is a long-term process that will usually never produce results that you can see in days or weeks. By now you probably heard about the importance of getting other websites to link to yours so that you can get a higher ranking in search engines. You listed your websites in some directories and also received a few other links to your website.
Reciprocal Link Exchange Management Software
King + Queen = Royal Success
Ever wonder how or why your competitor gets better search engine rankings than you do? Does he know something you don't? Well, maybe he actually does?And that's where I come in. I'm here to unveil the secret tricks of the trade that may be giving your competitor that much-needed edge in search engine rankings and to show you how you can reclaim your position without skipping a beat. Quite simply, I am going to give you the key to unlocking the secret chest of information that your competition is using to get better rankings.
Understanding Googles Algorithm
What is the Google Algorithm?
SEO, the Simplified Version
Lets get things straight. SEO is a very competitive market. If you have the time to promote your site and have the energy to work hard to get a good PR then this is for you. I have read many books on SEO and tried to get the best tactics to use. If you have already built a website there are two things you need to do. First is ON PAGE optimizing and the second is OFF Page optimizing. On page is basically getting your meta tags and description tags similar to the pages that you have built. One key thing to remember is try to use tags with the keywords in your content. For example: if you have keywords like "SEO consultant" in you content you should bold it and put alt tags around it. Try to do this to each keyword per paragraph, don't over do it then google will think you're a spammer. Build pages according to you keywords and description tags.
Googles Good-Writing Filter
I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing. Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really rank web pages based primarily on arcane technical criteria such as keyword density, link text, or even PageRank?
A Play In The Sandbox Is Necessary
There has been a good deal written about the Google 'sandbox' effect, as it's known. It has been taking up a lot of forum and article space over the last few months. I can't help wonder why most of the comment I've been seeing is negative or at least ambivalent about the concept (if of course, it really exists, as is the case with much about SEs that we don't truly know).
Breaking the Myth About Page Rank (PR)
The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if its not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.
Link Popularity: Why Its The Best Investment You Can Do For Your Business
More and more search engines rank your web pages based on the number of links that point to your web site (link popularity). Google uses link popularity as its most important factor in ranking sites. HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use link popularity in their formulas.
Link Reputation - How to Improve Search Engine Rankings
One of the most overlooked strategies to improve search engine rankings is building your link reputation. This link popularity strategy is just as important or equal to creating keyword rich content pages.
Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.
Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning
Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning By Dave Davies, Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc.
Dont Get Banned by Google
There are many Black Hat techniques that people use to try and influence Googles ranking of their sites, the simple thing to remember is that THEY DO NOT help your rankings, are simply a waste of your time and sooner or later will lead to a Google ban for your site. Sure there are sites that use these techniques and are getting away with it but they will eventually get penalised as Google always manages to find them eventually.
The Role of the Robots.txt File to Improve Site Ranking!
Not many web master take the time to use a robots.txt file for their website. For search engine spiders that use the robots.txt to see what directories to search through, the robots.txt file can be very helpful in keeping the spiders indexing your actual pages and not other information, such as looking through your stats!
Google, Adsense, SEO, and How It All Works
Google uses an algorithm to determine the search engine results (SERPS). The algorithm is based upon certain factors that include keyword density, Meta Tags, anchor tags, image tags, back links, etc etc etc.
The Best 7 Steps To Get A Top Google Ranking Guaranteed
Google returns more search results then any other search engine. Clearly if you can get a Top Ranking in Google you will drive highly targeted traffic to your web page.
Google Patent Application - SEO Highlights
The recent patent application filed by Google details numerous items the search engine uses to rank web pages. The specific application is summarized as:
Work With The Search Engines - Dont try to Outsmart the Search Engines
Contrary to the claims of high-priced SEO firms, optimizing your web site for search engines is not brain surgery. But you must first accept the fact that "spiders" - the search engine programs that read web pages - run away from non-HTML code. This is why the first thing any SEO expert does - before researching keywords or rewriting your copy - is look at your web site code.
SEO Made Easy!
Search engine optimization remains a minefield of old advice, outdated ideas and outright dangerous techniques that can get you banned. Here's the main points to great search engine optimization.
Is New MSN Search More Precise? Just Ask Google
MSN finally unleashed its new search technology to the world on Monday. The official announcement coming from Bill Gates introduced the New MSN Search engine, ending with a personal invitation to visit www.msn.com and â??type in your question.â??