Building and SEO Foundation: 3 Simple On Page And Off Page Tips For Getting On Google

Establishing a footprint on Google and the other major search engines is a time consuming process and can take years to start getting good results. Organic rankings are crowded with businesses from every sector vying for coveted top spots. If you break the process up, and start doing a little ever day, you will start to see progress. Many of my clients simply do not even want to try and most do not know how to get started. This paper will walk you through the basic steps you need to build a foundation on which your SEO efforts can grow. The sooner you get moving on this, the better and developing a sound SEO foundation now will translate into great benefits for the future. None of this is meant as an exhaustive discussion of how to rise up on the Internet search engines. There are companies that do this exclusively, and techniques that are much more involved. The point here is to build a sound foundation that is manageable for busy small business owners and developers.

There are two factors that go into search engine optimization, on page and off page. On page factors deal with how your coded is structured, keyword choices and placement, while off page is all about building your network and techniques to drive in bound links, the gold standard for Google and the others. We will first look at on page optimization and then look at techniques that address building an off page network.

The first thing to do is find the keyword phrases that will preform for your business. The best place to start here is to write down a list of keyword phrases you would search if you were looking for a business like yours. Suppose you sell ceramic tile, you might search ceramic tile, ceramic tile repair, kitchen tile, ceramic kitchen tile, etc. Navigate to Google's keyword tool. Plug your keyword phrases in here, and sort by average search volume. You will see general terms like 'ceramic tile' get thousands of hits per month, in this case 550,000. The trick here is to choose your fights wisely. Choose phrases that you can realistically go for, and ones that match your business or specialty. For example 'outdoor ceramic tile' only gets 1900. If outdoor ceramic tile represents a significant part of your business, this would be a great search phrase to go after. You should do this for all the pages hat you plan to optimize for, and you can go for different phrases for each page.

There are specific places that these keyword should be placed in your HTML documents, You should write unique short descriptive titles for each of your pages that include your keyword phrases, place them in on tag, one tag and they should appear once or twice in your body content. Search engines look at more than just these keywords, and it is a good idea to have a good amount of well formatted content.

Your pages should be written with clean simple code. You should validate your HTML and CSS pages wth the W3 validators. You also need to submit your site to these sites: Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, Zoominfo and AbouUs.

External factors are all about you developing a network and driving inbound traffic and links. The more pages link to your site the better your Google rank will be, the better quality the in bound links, the better. Quality refers to the popularity of the site linking to yours, so check their Google ranking, The Google toolbar is a good tool to easily check page rank. Here are some steps you can take to start driving inbound links.

Keep a blog. The blog is the most important tool for generating in bound traffic. If you have the cycles to start becoming a voice in your industry, and people start coming to your site for information, tips or resources, you already have inbound traffic. Google reward dynamic content, and if your site suddenly has volumes of quality content, they will take notice. As far as what to blog about, that is probably best for other resources, but suffice to say that web 2.0 is all about giving. You need to give people a reason to come to your site, and nobody is really concerned about how your attendance at a trade show was a great success. When you have enough blog posts to be proud of, give the link to all your contacts, print it on your business card, promote it on your website. If you own a business, you probably have enough experience to be valuable to people in the marketplace. Make sure to submit your blog to technorati.

Participate in other people's blogs. Many blogs allow you to place a link back to your site, and many blogs are high traffic sites which translates into a quality link. Participate on forums, this too is a place to put your link. If you are helpful, become a trusted member, you will see some direct traffic and people looking for your services will already know and trust you if you help them with an issue. I shoot for 5 inbound links per day.

Contact sites directly and ask if they would be interested in putting a link to your site on their website in exchange for the same favor. This is not difficult to do, and it allows you to control the referring sites and make sure that you are getting a link that has value.

There are many other tools and tricks for getting your site on to Google, but if you do these simple things, you will have built a solid foundation on which you can grow. The trick is to participate, and to do so consistently, allowing time to work in your favor. There are many more tips that can be found on my marketing blog here http://www.focusid.com.

by: Greg Bowen

Effective Article Writing And Rewriting For SEO

When it comes to be writing articles, the most common mistake made by many writers is that only a few words and sentence structures are changed. This is simply not enough to qualify an article as being truly rewritten.

Simple spelling mistakes are quite common on the Internet. Research has shown that users will not tolerate either spelling mistakes or poorly designed websites. You have only one chance to be credible in the users eyes.

These numerous and unfortunate errors can often turn people away from a site. Make sure that you check your prospective writers work before offering them a commission. It seems odd that anyone would want to put a job in the hands of a so called "writer" who cannot even take the time to ensure that their articles are free from spelling and grammatical mistakes.

It is worth noting that Google does not look on duplicate content favourably. It has sophisticated filtering processes to determine which content to show. In general terms and will is always searching to provide its users with the most relevant and useful results of the search terms entered. Where there is duplicate content on the web it is usually the site that has the highest page rank that will be shown on Google. If the sides are of equal page rank in the duplicate content will be shown in chronological order. You should be aware that if you post duplicate content on your website then it is likely that it will not be shown at all.

In some cases Google will review a site individually if it's automated spiders cannot make a call . It is important to be aware that Google does employ regular people to do jobs that computers cannot; for example, they are needed to look at the appropriateness and relevancy of a site to rank it correctly.

Almost all internet search engines list websites using not only the keywords searched for, but also related phrases and words. For example, an article discovered relating to a query about 'dogs' will be ranked on Google based on not only on the number of times 'dogs' appears in the article, but also on other criteria known as "semantics".

This helps to ensure that the topic of the page is clear. A good article will include the word or phrase (in this case 'dogs') in the title, the beginning of the content and at the end. The remaining words left in the article or page will, in a good example, be related to the overall canine theme.

by James Evanns
http://www.seotranscript.com

Keyword Research and Analysis: 5 Tips to Effective SEO Keyword Research Analysis

Keyword research and analysis can be a daunting task, when done correctly, and expert keyword research is the foundation to a successful SEO campaign. Many new website owners think the keyword research analysis process is easy. They think free tools, such as the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool is the profit pill that will bring them instant results.

Unfortunately, the free tools will only give you a rough guide and a quick indication whether a hunch is worth further research. These free keyword research tools are limited to basic information. When performed correctly, expert keyword research exposes so much more - all the gems that are tucked away deep.

Real keyword research requires research AND analysis. There are so many aspects to the process that can not be left to chance. Attempting to do the keyword research on your own is like going to a veterinarian to fix your car. My advise to all clients I do SEO consulting services for is to simply leave this task to the experts who have the correct keyword research tools and expertise.

Following are 5 tips for effective keyword research analysis :

1. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) - Use multi-word phrases

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a vital element in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for better keyword rankings in search results. LSI is based on the relationship, the "clustering" or positioning, the variations of terms and the iterations of your keyword phrases.

Expertly knowing LSI and how it can be most useful and beneficial for your SEO and the importance it has with the algorithm updates to search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo which will benefit your keyword research for best practice SEO.

LSI is NOT new. For those doing keyword research over the years always knew to use synonyms and "long tail" keyword terms which is a simpler "explanation" to LSI. More often than not, these long tail, less generic terms bring more traffic to your site than the main keyword phrases. The real bottom line is that Latent Semantic Indexing is currently a MUST in keyword research and SEO.

2. Page Specific Keyword Research - Target your niche keyword phrases for each site page

Probably the most common mistake in keyword research is using a plethora of keywords and pasting the same meta keyword tag on every web site page. This is SO not effective! Your keyword research needs to be page specific and only focusing on 2 to 5 keywords per page. It's more work, but combined with best practice SEO, gives each site page a chance for higher ranking on their own.

3. Country Specific Keyword Research and Search Engine Reference

Keep in mind that keyword search terms can be country specific. Even though a country is English speaking, there are different keyword terms you must research - and then reference that country's search engine when doing your initial keyword research. For instance, UK and Australia may have different expressions, terminology and spellings (i.e. colour, personalised). Referencing the terms in the corresponding search engine is an important element to keyword research that is often forgotten, so for example, be sure to check the search terms on google.co.uk or au.yahoo.com. And of couse, if you have 3 to 4 really comprehensive research tools in your arsenal, you will be able to search for historical, global and country specific search terms easily and effectively.

4. Keyword Analysis - Cross referencing in the search engines

Once the majority of the keyword research has been done for a site page, it's time to plug those terms into the search engines to determine :

If it is really the desired niche keyword for that page

To assess the competitiveness of your keywords. Along with checking the competitiveness of your keywords you should look at the strength of the competition.

Are the other sites listed for your keywords truly your competitors?

Are the sites listed for your keyword even related to your industry, products or services?

These critical analyses of keyword phrases are often forgotten. Since the keyword research and analysis is the foundation of a successful SEO campaign, you certainly don't want to build your on-page optimization on the wrong niche keywords!

5. Ongoing Keyword Research - Repeat your keyword research on a consistent basis

While you may think that you have completed your keyword research analysis and laid a solid foundation for your SEO, you need to keep monitoring your keywords and tweak as necessary. Keywords can change from month to month as keyword search terms change, genres change and/or if your niche is within social portal networking sites - to name just a few. Maintaining ongoing keyword research is essential for best practice SEO.

Most Successful Strategy to Streamline Your Keyword Research Efforts:

Yes, many website owners will opt to do the keyword research and analysis themselves with only a marginal effect on an SEO campaign. It's not the most successful strategy to use to for the most effective results.

To be certain of your keyword data, accurate keyword analysis should be performed - and cross referenced - across multiple expert keyword tools.

Effective keyword research lays the ground work for effective SEO results and can help you kick-start the ranking process - perhaps even giving you a step up on your competitors.

The most successful strategy to streamline your keyword research efforts is to hire an expert. Focus your business efforts on your strengths and expertise and allow the SEO experts to effectively perform the keyword research analysis correctly.

by: Valerie Di Carlo

How "Seo Elite" Can Bring Your Web Site To #1 Position In Google Within 3 Weeks!

Do you have a web site and very few people know that you and your business exist? Well, it happened to mine.

I was lost when it comes to “Search Engine Optimization”. I absolutely had no idea until my friend recommended SEO Elite.

With a lot of similar web sites targeting the same niche as mine, it has become very hard to come on first on Google.

When I first had my blog up and I did a search in various search engines like Google and Yahoo!, my blog is no-where in sight. So how has SEO Elite brought my web site to #1 position within weeks? Let me share with you what I know so that you can immediately execute these steps.

1. SEO Elite comes an excellent software that automatically search for backlinks of websites. So what I did was I search for backlinks for the number one site when I Googled the keywords.

2. Yes, you can use free wares in the internet but when I compare the search results, SEO Elite gave me more results, in terms of quality and quantity.

3. Next, I asked for reciprocal links of the sites or submitted articles to directories.

4. Ask for quality links from sites with at least Page Rank of 4.

5. And again, ensure your blog has quality content such that the sites find it added value to link you.

6. The best thing I realize is I knew exactly what my competitors are doing and how did they earn money using their sites. I’m telling you you will be very surprised by what your competitors are doing too.

So What SEO Elite had taught me:

1) Concept of online and off line page optimization.

a) Online optimization is about using various Meta tags, Meta keywords, Paragraph, Heading, Bolds, Italics, and Anchor tags. It also tells me to use proper keyword density in a web site (about 6 - 8%).

b) Off line optimization is about getting quality links to my site.

2) SEO Elite taught me what I need to know about my competitor web site, so I could implement the same strategies that they used. And the trick here is I implemented even better than them so I could overtake their #1 ranking position within weeks.

3) SEO Elite helped me to track backlinks as well as Page Rank of your competitors’ site so that I could copy their strategies.

4) SEO Elite comes with a software that automates all these, leaving me with much more time to write articles such as this to benefit you.

You may be telling me that you can do the tasks manually. Yes, it works if you are asking for links exchange from ten sites. But what if there are hundreds of them or even thousands. What are you going to do? Still manually?

So the good thing about SEO Elite is that it allows auto-submission of link exchange request, submission of articles to article directories and even checking if other sites are still linking you. SEO Elite can be the SEO resource for you.

by: Jhong Ren

Using Blogs To Turbo-charge Your Seo Efforts!

Today I am going to finish off my mini article series by showing you a specific back door route, if you like, to topping the search engines.

You may or may not have heard of blogs, which are sometimes called ‘web blogs’. These are essentially online diaries and at this moment in time everyone from 10 to 100 years of age seems to be blogging. Why? Because it’s simple, easy and fun.

We, however, will want to blog for another reason…to make money! Let me explain…

Blogs, or online diaries, are set up in a way that the search engines just love. They have good and relevant content, and they can often get tons and tons of links back to them.

The great thing about a blog is you can set one up without any web site experience whatsoever. If you go to blogger.com you can set up your own blog within five minutes. From there, using what you have learnt in these articles, you can start promoting either your own products or other peoples products (in exchange for a commission).

Another difference between a blog and a web site is that with a web site, each time you add a new article you have to create a new web page. With blogs each new post is a new web page in the search engines eyes. Bearing in mind that you can add a new blog post in less than five seconds I’m sure you can see the power of blogging for the search engines!

So how do you go about blogging for profit? Well here’s a simple five step approach you can use to go and start earning today:

1) Go to blogger.com and set up a blog. Use your main keyword as the title of your blog. If it’s already taken call it “niche world” or “niche planet”. For example “rose gardening world”, “rose gardening planet”

2) Hire a writer or write your own optimised articles on your niche subject that specifically focus on one set of keywords. Create or have created at least ten articles.

3) Post an article a day to your blog.

4) Write a press releases about your blog and submit it to prweb.com

5) Use the blogger search function and find blogs related to yours. Make genuine comments on their blog and link back to yours.

Using this simple formula you can do very well in the search engines with minimal effort or technical know how.

Have you enjoyed these articles on SEO optimisation for the beginner? I hope you have, as I’ve loved writing them. This is a subject that both fascinates and excites me because I know how much is to be made!

by: Andy Michaels

SEO: Search Engine Optimization Strategy

If you use the correct search engine optimization strategy, and use SEO to your advantage, you can get listed on Google, Yahoo and MSN within two days and have the potential, if you do it right, of achieving a top ten listing within two weeks.

How’s that for a statement! You think it’s bullshit? Well stop bitching and try it – it is absolutely impossible to fail to get listed in the top search engine indices if you use the correct and logical techniques. Those who fail to do so simply do not understand how to use SEO and are swayed by the ranting of others who read all the forums but never put into practice what I do.

Here are some tips for you, though I have no intention of giving away all of my secrets in one article. I have nothing to worry about from the so-called SEO gurus who have to use PPC adverts to promote their websites. I stopped using PPC over a year ago. So let’s look at some of the ways to design a proper SEO strategy to get you listed on the top search engines quickly.

Firstly, you have to determine what kind of website you want: an expert site or just a sales site. If you decide on the former, you will rapidly achieve a listing on Google and have a good chance of a high listing for the search term for which your home page is optimized. If you decide on a sales minisite, with between one and three pages, then you will not get a high listing quickly, but you can still get listed in two days, or even less. You can still get listed highly with a 2 – 4 page website, but you will have to build a few back-links for that.

Consider what a listing on the index of any search engine entails. It requires at least one page of your site to be visited by a search engine, and then any internal links on that site will also be crawled. Usually the first page to be visited by the spiders will be your home page, and that is what you should first of all aim for. Eventually you will want all of your pages crawled and indexed, but, in the meantime, deliberately focus on getting your home page listed on Google, Yahoo and MSN. The rest will follow.

To achieve that you have to design your website so that the home page leads to every other page on the site, but not necessarily directly. In return, each page on your site should lead to your home page. The way that you achieve this is critical to your success, and if you are to succeed in internet marketing through website design, then you should try a variety of alternative ways of doing this. The results will be illuminating and help you to achieve success with any website you design, irrespective of the niche or subject involved.

You then have to make sure that your home page can be accessed by the search engine spiders without you having to register or submit your site to these search engines. If you rely on submission, then it can take several weeks or even months before your website is listed. You can also forget about top 50 listings, let alone top ten.

If you use your intelligence and use the search engine spiders to crawl your site as you want them to, and then show them exactly what you want to show them, then there are few reasons why your site should be not be listed in a high position in the indices for specific search terms (keywords) use by Google customers seeking information that you can provide.

That is the whole purpose of your website, so learn how to do it properly and you will never ever fear a search engine or its little robots ever again. You will be able to manipulate these robots and spiders, and use a search engine optimization strategy to suit your needs any time you want. SEO can be used any way you want. Be Confident!

by: Peter Nisbet

Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

by: Caroline Melberg