Thursday, September 16, 2010

SEO Client Relationships: Tips

Communication between client and service provider is a vital part in the success of any campaign, or indeed any business relationship at all. Due to the nature of SEO, many clients will have quite a lot of questions and these should be dealt with right at the early stages, before a campaign has even begun. It is really important that clients are made aware of the fact that it can take a long time to see results, especially for new domains. It is also highly advisable to discuss suitable measurements of a campaigns success, for example traffic numbers, search engine results and so on. These will all have to be tailored to the work in question and every job will have its own individual needs and challenges. This article aims to point out five common questions, and how you can deal with them effectively.
1. Why Don’t I Have More Traffic ?
Many clients simply don’t know what they can expect with regards to traffic numbers. This is no fault of their own, but sometimes they can be disappointed by the traffic they receive from seemingly good search engine positions. Traffic estimates should be based on search volume and it’s important to clearly explain the huge difference in click through rate between a number one position and a number four position.
2. Why Don’t I Appear for This Keyword?
When clients first engage in SEO activities, it must be clearly explained that in order to even begin to rank well for certain keywords, each page must effectively target its own keyword. If you try to focus a page on too many different keywords, it will dilute the message and leave the search engines confused as to what the page in question is talking about. Therefore, unless you have a large website, there is a limit to how many keywords you can expect to rank well for.
3. My Local Directory Listing Is Outranking Me, Why Is This?
This is particularly troublesome for new and small websites. Quite often when a search is carried out for a chosen keyword, not only will you see your website come up, you will also see your directory listings appear. Sometimes the directory listings will actually outrank you. This is due to the fact that the directory probably has a lot more authority than you, and work will have to be done to boost the importance of your website above that of your page on the said directory. You could also try changing your directory listing to reduce its competitiveness.
4. How Long Do I Have To Wait?
Probably the biggest question of all, how long will it take and how long will I have to pay you for? It’s vital to make this clear right from the start. You have to explain that it will take time for your work to bear results. Honesty really is the best policy here. I would recommend preparing a client for anywhere between at least six to twelve months with a thorough check of progress being carried out every three months.
5. How Will Doing More Help?
This is a big one, especially if you are not getting the results as quickly as you may have expected. You may be going back to client several months down the line and suggesting yet more site improvements or link building efforts. Marketing a website should be approached with a long term view. If results aren’t going so well it may mean you have to revisit some of the website structure and address any technical issues that may be causing issues. Explain the from the offset and you should avoid digging yourself into any unnecessary holes.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game

The Criteria For Improving Your Website Ranking

Any website owner wants their website to be ranking well for those keywords which will mean that targeted visitors arrive on their website and possibly turn into customers or clients.
A website’s ranking on search engines (especially Google) is quite important when you take into account the following important statistics:
- 90% of users don’t go past the Page 1 of Google
- 42% of users click on the website on position 1, 12.5% on position 2 and only 8% on position 3
What does this all mean?
This means that if your website is not on Page 1 of Google and in the top 3 positions, then you are effectively missing out on more than 60% of potential visitors (and customers for that matter).
If your website isn’t currently in a good position on the search engines, don’t panic! There are many things you can do to move its rankings up. Below is a list of website ranking factors from the most important:
URL
If you want to rank for a certain keyword, it’s absolutely vital that you have that keyword in your domain name. If you feel tempted to use your company or brand name instead, keep in mind that the goal of ranking at number 1 for your main keyword will only get much harder if you do so.
Domain Age
If you register a brand new domain name, you are going to be starting from scratch. However, a start is a start and as the months and years go by, your website will benefit immensely from this factor. On the other hand, you can get a head start by purchasing an expired domain name which does not currently have an owner. Just make sure that it hasn’t been banned by the search engines before purchasing.
Title Tag
Having the keyword in the title tag of your home page is a MUST. There are many websites which still use their brand name or company name in their title tag which make ranking for target keywords even harder. This is a ranking factor that is applicable to all pages on your website.
Page Structure
Optimize each page on your website for just 1 keyword. Every page on your website should only be optimized for one keyword. Any more and ranking for your target keywords will be that much difficult. Your home page should target the main keyword while other pages should target related, long tailed keywords.
Keyword Density
It’s important that you mention the keyword you are targeting on the relevant page. A good density to aim for is 3% which means that your target keyword only makes up 3% of the text on the page. Any more and your page could be seen as being spammy.
Backlinks
You’re probably wondering why backlinks is at the bottom of the list when it is an important factor in getting website rankings. The reason why I put it down there is to emphasize getting your website set up right first before getting backlinks. Getting hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to a website which is incorrectly optimized will diminish the value of each link in getting rankings.
On the subject of backlinks, it’s important that you get them from a variety of sources while using a variety of anchor text.
The key to a successful website in terms of getting targeted traffic and customers is all in this article. Read it many times over if you have to. Simply get these website ranking factors right and you will have a immensely successful website before you know it.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game

The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions

Submitting to directories is a great way to build links and increase your search engine rankings. In semi-competitive industries it can produce great results. If you add article creation and social media marketing into the link building equation then you can achieve great results for any industry.
Free or paid directories?
When choosing directories going for the paid ones can be better, mainly because the links seem to last a lot longer. Many of the free directories seem to disappear or delete links after a year or so. However, there are a few free directories out there that should always be used – directories that have stood the test of time.
Niche or general directories?
Submitting to a combination of both niche and general directories is usually a good idea.
For most industries there are a variety of niche directories out there – the best way to find them is through a search engine. Do a search on Google, MSN or Yahoo for directories in your niche area – those that come up in the first few pages of results are usually the best ones to use.
With general directories it’s better to go for those that are more established. The older a directory is, the better.
PageRank – does it still matter?
Because directories are generally quite large, they need a certain amount of PageRank to get all of their pages indexed properly. However a high PageRank isn’t the be-all and end-all. Google’s recent crackdown on directories1 has made visible PageRank even more irrelevant when it comes to choosing directories. There are directories out there that have no PageRank whatsoever that can offer value.
If a directory is ranking well in the search engines then you can rest assured that it has enough PageRank. If you’re unsure then check how many links it has via Yahoo! Site Explorer 2 or another link popularity checker.
Anchor text
It’s always best to get the main search phrases that you are targeting in the links to your site. However this isn’t always possible and unfortunately many of the best directories won’t let you do this. Sometimes you can get around this problem by slipping in a search phrase at the end of your company name.
Before submitting have a good look around a directory and get a feel for what you can and can’t get away with. Some directory owners will let you use a search phrase on its own, whereas others are very strict and will only use your business/website name. In between you have those where you might just be able to slip a search phrase in.
Doing your homework comes in handy – if you try to use a search phrase on its own and they change it to your business/website name then it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to get them to change it to your website name with a search phrase at the end. If you’d submitted it like that in the first place you may have got away with it.
Always try to get one of your search phrases in and vary the anchor text as much as possible – this will appear more natural to the search engines.
Varying your description
Many directories will provide you with your own page about your business. If you have the same description on every page across different directory websites then many of these will be seen as duplicate content by the search engines and your links will get devalued.
To avoid this, write a unique and substantial description for every single directory (200+ characters works best). Make sure the descriptions accurately mirror your products and services and that they read well.
Deep linking
Many directories allow you to add extra links directly to internal pages of your website. You should take turns in linking to different pages of your website using different variations of the phrases you’re targeting on each page. Using the same anchor text to link to the same page over and over again will appear unnatural to the search engines and this could work against you.
How many directories should you submit to?
There’s no fixed number of directories that you should get listed in. Work out a 12 month directory submission budget for each site and then do so many each week or month for the full duration.
When you’re building links to your site via directories or any other method, you should do it over time. Submitting to 100 directories in a week and then forgetting about it won’t be as effective as spreading the 100 directory submissions over a 3 month period.
The top 10 directories
Finally, here’s a list of the top free and paid general directories to get you started.
5 of the best free directories include:
5 of the best paid directories include:
Author:  David Eaves has been working in the search engine optimisation13 industry for the last 5 years. More of his articles can be found at his SEO blog.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game

Learn How Search Engine Submission Results In Even More Site Traffic

Search engine submission can be considered a method to market your site and calls for the straightforward submission of a site’s URL to many search engines. This used to be the favored method of getting websites listed. But many search engines presently make use of different ways to seek out webpages. Although this is the case, there are a couple of good reasons why you must do search engine submission for your webpage.
If you have a brand-new web-based business, there is a big possibility that you also got a new webpage to support it. It’s better to submit a website than wait around for it to be noticed by spiders. Submitting your site will enable it to be detected by folks via basic search queries.
The next reason why site submission is a good way to advertise your website involves search engines’ updates: when a search engine is updated and you’ve sent your site’s URL to it, it would generate your website again as part of the search results.
There’s two ways to submit a webpage. You can submit it one page at a time or utilize a sitemap to submit all the site’s contents as well as links in a single instance. But the easiest way to execute site submission is to just send in your webpage’s home page. If your webpage is made well, search engines would start listing it right after it’s submitted. The idea is to make your webpage appear as among the best search results. The sites that get the best spots would have more traffic since people regularly consider just the leading results and select a site to visit in accordance with those rankings.
A webmaster has to optimize a website to be placed in the top 10 listings. The factors that have to be taken into consideration to make a website get noticed include the hierarchy structure of the webpage, keyword placement and keyword density.
In the year 2004, the top search engines acquired the capability to find new websites immediately. This is done by having an automatic indexer locate links coming from other sites. Backlink services could be used to make certain that you will have a lot of backlinks to your site, which would then be located by most search engines and also have an effect on your rankings.
These days, site submission is necessary only if a new website is rolled out. Believe it or not, this might violate the Terms of Service agreements of the major search engines. In the event that a search engine determines that you’ve dishonored its Terms of Service, it’ll bar your webpage from being added to its search results. Regardless, a webmaster could make use of all the submission methods in the international market as long as she / he goes through each and every Terms of Service agreement; making use of all of the popular search engines will yield the best results for a website.
Despite the presence of spiders, lots of international search engines still need to have sites submitted to them. This ascertains that website owners can reach an incredible number of internet users in a variety of markets. You could utilise applications to help you submit your site, and there’s also many enterprises that will help you make certain that your webpage is indexed correctly.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game

Submitting Websites to Search Engines

While there are many ways to get your website noticed arguably submitting your website to a search engine is the best. What is the best way to get your website to the attention of the Search Engines? The first thing to beware of are companies that promise automatic submission to hundreds of search engines. For the most part these promises are false. Maybe there are companies that can achieve this but to be honest I have yet to find one. Frankly the best way is to submit your website to search engines is to do it yourself or alternatively hire an expert to manually contact search engine companies and/or directories on your behalf. Whatever you do you should refrain from submitting an incomplete website. However, before you start this process you must ensure that your website is finished to a professional standard.
The right keywords, good graphics and certainly relevant content are all important. Take time to get it right and ensure that all the pertinent information is included especially your name and contact information!
However submitting your website to a search engine company will not guarantee that it will be listed immediately or that the ranking (position on site) will be high. There are thousands of new websites completed every day so it could take time for your site to be reviewed.
Please remember to include a site map of your website. This will make crawling by the web robots easier. In fact some search engine companies like Google may not even consider submissions without sitemaps.
So what is a sitemap?
A sitemap is normally one page (although sometimes a group of pages) which lists all or at least most of the pages on your website. Basically you can think of a sitemap as being similar to the index showing the chapters of a book. The reason it is important is that the crawlers can search out the website easier using the site map (index) i.e. they look at the titles of each “chapter” of your site to get the general “feel”. This enables them to categorise your site correctly. Please see the separate report on this subject.
I mentioned above that it is not advisable to use companies that promote automatic submission of your website to search engines. However that doesn’t mean that you should ignore the many online companies that do provide search engine submission services. There are software packages available that enable you to do your own submissions or if you want professional help then this is available on line too. Just avoid the” automatic” promotions.
There are thousands of search engine and directory companies to which you can submit your website including some of the best known like Google and Yahoo. Just do a search on the web.
So my advice is to make sure that your website is submitted to as many search engines as possible. Bear in mind though that a poor website can do damage to your image/brand so ensure that you do due diligence before submitting. Take your time, learn as much as you can first then send your professional site for all to see and begin your journey to success.
You CAN do it To YOUR Success

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game

Best Pay Per Click Search Engines- What Are the Pros and Cons?

here are many pay per click advertising search engines to choose from online. The traffic quality varies across all of them. Some generate more sales than others and give you a better return on your ad spend.
3 of the best pay per click search engines for traffic quality are: Google AdWords, Yahoo Sponsored Search and Microsoft’s adCenter.
According to ComScore.com these 3 have the following search market share in the United Sates (in March 2010):
Google Sites: 65.5%
Yahoo! Sites: 16.9%
Microsoft sites: 11.7%
Why is this important? Between just these 3 search engines they have an astonishing 94.1% of the search market share in the US. Ask have a 3.8% share and AOL have 2.5%.
This means the top 3 have the most traffic for you to tap into.
Which search engine should you use to run your Pay Per Click Advertising on and why? Here is a pro/con review of each…
GOOGLE ADWORDS
Pros:
Huge search volume. Because of this you can also dig deeper into your market and target niche markets.
Keyword research. They offer the best keyword research tool in my opinion and it is very simple and easy to work with. It gives you a ton of data on just about everything.
Excellent user interface. The AdWords interface has always been very clean and user friendly. They recently changed the interface and have improved it further to allow you to make multiple changes faster amongst other things.
Target different networks. You can target their content network (also known as Google AdSense) as well as different search networks.
Target different devices. You can target mobile phones as well as computers.
Ads go live fast. You don’t have to wait too long to get your ads approved.
Upload multiple campaigns easily. If you have big campaigns and many of them, you can upload them quite easily using the Google Adwords editor program.
Cons:
Very competitive. It is getting more and more competitive so you must get a good quality score with them. And this can also affect your sales.
Uncertainty for the future. If you base your business around this type of traffic you are vulnerable to the changes in Google that could happen overnight and stop your traffic dead.
Stricter guidelines. Guidelines are getting tougher as Google try to thin the herd and unlike the old days, it does take some work on your campaign to get a good quality score.
YAHOO SPONSORED SEARCH
Pros:
Good amount of search volume. So you can target different markets and niche markets.
Guidelines not as strict. Guidelines can be more relaxed than Googles’s but not by much.
Less competition. Less than Google that is but is still competitive.
Cons:
Keyword research. The keyword research tool is not as good as Google or Microsoft’s.
User interface. Not the cleanest and easiest use. Takes longer to put your campaigns together.
Less targeting options. Not as many as you would find at Google and Microsoft.
Uploading multiple campaigns. This is not as easy to do as it is in Google and Microsoft. You have to email your campaigns to Yahoo unless you have a gold account.
MICROSOFT ADCENTER
Pros:
Keyword research. Their keyword research tool has been improved lately and does include a demographic search option (something Google doesn’t offer). But Google’s keyword research tool is still more advanced.
Not as competitive. Not as competitive as Google and Yahoo.
Target by demographics. You can target by age and gender which can increase your sales.
Less strict on guidelines. A little less than Google but not by much.
Upload multiple campaigns. This requires the Microsft Silverlight application which is free. You can also import campaigns from Google and Yahoo.
Cons:
Not as much search volume. No where near as much search volume as Google and Yahoo which means less traffic.
User interface. This user interface is not as clean and as simple as Google’s but is better than Yahoo’s.
Less targeting options. You can’t target as many networks and devices as you can in Google.
Summing up The best pay per click search engine (in my opinion) is Google AdWords because the keyword research tool is the really good. The competition is high and guidelines are strict but they also have the most traffic which really helps.
They have a great user interface which makes setting up campaigns quick and easy.
Both Yahoo and Microsoft don’t have the search volume that Google does. This means it is harder to get traffic in niche markets where the competition is lower. But with the merger of Yahoo and Microsoft, there should be some great improvements ahead.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com
Collectibles : Pogo Game