Finding Keywords: Six Tips for Choosing the Right Keywords to Use

While most online marketers are ready to accept the fact that search engines can bring a large volume of low cost traffic to a website, the surprising reality is that many have little or no clue as to how they should go about doing so. Several different aspects make up search engine marketing; including submission of websites, creating search engine optimized content, interlinking websites and arguably the most important part- choosing keywords.

Keywords or keyword phrases are those terms that a potential customer uses on a search engine to look for a product or service that a website provides. So, for a jewelry manufacturer the word 'jewelry' would be a major keyword. Unfortunately, choosing keywords is not quite as easy as simply naming a product or category. There are many factors that should influence your decision as to what defines the right keyword(s).

It is important to remember that while choosing the right keywords is vital to the success of a marketing campaign, choosing keywords that are inappropriate will target the wrong people making the process of converting eyeballs to sales a nightmare. Here are some tips on choosing keywords that will give you great leads, which can easily be converted into sales.

1. Check out the competition.

Research your competitors and view their Meta tags to see which keywords they are using. This is a great way to quickly list down the most commonly used keywords for your type of business.

2. Make your own list.

Once you have the competitor keywords list, add to it any keywords you feel are important. Include your company name and city as well. Also add plurals and variations of the keywords. Make sure you spell important keywords in American as well as British English. So, in referencing the example used earlier, a jeweler would want to include 'jewelry' and 'jewellery' in his or her list.

3. Ask outsiders for help.

Rarely can you see your own business from an outsider's perspective. To get a layman's opinion, ask customers to send in keywords they relate to your company. You could also ask friends and family to make suggestions. You may be surprised at the keyword suggestions they come up with.

4. Evaluate your keywords using software.

Once you have a list, the process of choosing keywords is ready to move into the next stage of evaluation. Since you cannot possibly optimize your website for all of the keywords on your list, it is best to narrow that list down. Use software like WordTracker to decipher the popularity of each of your keywords and keyword phrases. Retain the most popular or frequently searched terms and discard those that are rarely searched. Google Adwords, Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool and Alta Vista's Prisma are also good tools to use when choosing keywords.

5. Be specific.

Rather than saying 'jewelry manufacturing' try saying 'men's jewelry manufacturing'. While the former may be a more popular search term and could possibly garner more eyeballs, the latter is likely to lead to more sales. People who search for 'jewelry manufacturing' could be looking for bridal jewelry, wedding jewelry or any other kind of jewelry available. If men's jewelry is your area of business, getting a bride to browse your website is a waste of marketing resources. It would be more effective to have 5 users interested in men's jewelry browse you site, rather than 25 that are interested in bridal jewelry.

6. Be flexible.

Always look to update your keywords based on the feedback received from visitors to your site, customers and website logs. Website logs can give exact information on which keywords are successful and which are not and is a great place to find reaffirmation for your keyword selection process.

Choosing keywords is a process that can dramatically affect the performance of your search engine marketing efforts and hence it is one that requires due attention. An important thing to keep in mind is that while getting a high ranking in search engines is important, it is more important to get a high ranking for a relevant keyword.

The main purpose of your efforts is to have customers that are looking for a specific product find YOUR specific product and with the right keywords, you can reach that goal.

Click to learn about Volusion's Marketing Services.

Stacie completed the Texas Creative program, receiving a degree in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, and is now happily employed with Volusion, Inc, http://Volusion.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stacie_Leonard

Is Google For Men And Yahoo For Women?

This question always cross my mind, is Google developed for men and Yahoo for women? I know they both have, basically, the same potential, however, Yahoo is somewhat more user-friendly and perhaps a better place for “novices and women” to locate their content or search results. Not that I am calling women novices, please don’t get me wrong, what I am saying is, compared to Yahoo Google is just a one liner.

To be considered a true “expert” using any appliance or application, people or users who prefer to use and consider the Command Line Interface (CLI) a more effective and direct interaction with applications such as DOS, LINUX CLI, Cisco CLI etc. Looking at the layout of both search engines we could easily say Yahoo is and was built for the “novice” or let’s say the user who wishes to point and click for results.

Google does have categories and directories similar to Yahoo’s but where are they located? New users to the internet, or women on the internet, especially, using search engines find that they get more results or more meaningful results from their query just by using the available or to be more precise “the more visible” options available.

During any learning phase it is easier to catch on if you see, then click. I have seen students, teachers, managers, everyday users of computers/internet get lost in the web and the content within these so-called “super-power search engines” simply because they really can’t find what they want or there is too much that they can not process what they see or they have forgotten what they are really looking for.

It is quite easy to get side-tracked in these search engines’ vast databases and to make it even more technical, in most cases the results appear to bring the same pages or websites to the fore front. Getting a return of your query with 1,000,000 pages and the first 50 to 100 pages are basically the same is no fun.

One strong point that I find lacking in Google’s engine, and this is probably why Yahoo is for women or novices is the fact that I can simply click a category right in sight and get content relative to what I am looking for.

Writing this article springs another provocative question, is it that women have pushed Yahoo to make their engine more novice friendly or have they noticed that most internet users, content seekers, and shoppers prefer to use their service? What is the real driving force behind such simplicity but efficiency?

I will be the first to say, Google has tons of information within its database, but lately, it is even more difficult to find or even get listed in Google. Yahoo on the other hand is much easier. For a while now Google has been in the news, web articles, bulletin boards and basically every news or message portal as the most difficult to get listed or ranked in. As the super power of search engines, why can’t Google’s engine have more visible features?

Experts, information seekers, and generally ardent users of the internet all know and praise Google, for what? Yes they have a comprehensive database, but to gather information is extremely difficult at times. In most cases results from page 1 to 20, depending on your preference listing per page, surrounds the same websites. Why is that the case? If Google is so sophisticated and boast all the technological enhancements, why can’t it be easier to use this tool?

Frankly, if you don’t understand how to put your words together for a search string do not use Google, use the “novice” engine Yahoo. I would really like to see Google with a new face, something that portrays the fact that they understand technology and the way majority, not “techies”, perceive and use any software or available tool.

Sometime ago I got a picture depicting the differences between men and women, the image portrayed the males with a one switch, while the females have multiple switches, bells, whistles etc. At first I thought it was crazy and hilarious, however, over time I have noticed that nothing is really wrong with bells and whistles. In fact, in technology bells and whistles are called options.

These possibilities of options are what women have and will always demand to make they results more flowing and interesting. Bottom-line, heads up for Yahoo for clarity and usability and heads up for Google and their “techie” gang. But remember “techies” Google is finding more and more ways to make it more difficult for you to find your content.

Of note, Google has stated many times that they are in the process, and, have implemented many features to make it easier to find information needed in their databases. However, to me it has shown no improvements as I am yet to understand and know exactly what I want and what I am looking for. As a newbie I would be lost in “Google-Land” but thanks to a real “super-power search engine” Yahoo. Yahoo my friend you might not have as many pages and content as your rival Google, but, keep making it simple and the majority which you have will grow immensely.

Article written by: Christopher Nurse, www.globalhostings.net Thursday, August 24, 2006

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Nurse

The Curse Of The Google Sandbox - How to Break It!

Who haven’t been in the Google Sandbox? As new website owners, we all experience the Google Sandbox dilemma. I can relate to the pain of webmasters and website owners who are currently experiencing being on the Google Sandbox. And I bring good news: there is a guaranteed way to come out of the Google Sandbox! But first, it is important that you know what is meant by Google Sandbox.

The Google Sandbox

Google Sandbox is such a popular term among webmasters, web marketing specialists and new website owners. Google Sandbox refers to the period when a new website appears invisible on the Google search results even after a month or two of search engine optimization. The most probable reason why new websites are placed in the Google Sandbox is that Google doesn’t see yet the importance of these websites.

New websites can be on the Google sandbox for at least three months. This is a test of patience for the website owner and of course the web marketers who have tried their best in promoting the website. It would be understandable to be on the Google sandbox for at least three months. But what about those websites which seem to be locked on the sandbox for many months already?

How To Get Out Of The Google Sandbox?

Who would want to be in the Google Sandbox forever? Of course, every single website owners aim to finally get hold of Google Sandbox freedom. But what can we do? The best and guaranteed way to get out of the Google sandbox is to focus on your website and not on Google. Forget about the Google Sandbox first and concentrate on more important things in web marketing.

Shift your focus from the Google sandbox to making your website more relevant. You can’t simply get out of the sandbox – you need to impress Google with your website. This way, Google will be able to see your website’s importance and when it does – boom! Out of the Google sandbox you go!

How Earn Google’s Respect

These effective tips in search engine optimization will help your website in its struggle to be free from the Google Sandbox. These are easy steps that are undoubtedly effective.

• Equip your website with the relevant and useful web content. Your website must have a unique content.

• Submit your website to high quality and relevant web directories.

• Create relevant articles that provide useful information about your website’s theme and submit them to article directories. This a good way of generating quality one way links.

• Blogs, forums and other interactive stuffs can add to your website’s relevance.

Why let your website remain on the Google Sandbox when you can let it come out in no time? Don’t be contented being on the shadows of other websites. Instead create your website’s own shadow! Come out of the Google Sandbox now – it’s easy, just follow these tips and soon your website is free!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit Internet Marketing Company Ireland.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monica_Corral-lorica

Are You Sure You Are Not Spamming The Search Engines? Here's How To Tell

Webmaster who lack sufficient knowledge about search engine optimization and search engine spamming may already be utilizing spamming techniques without even knowing it. It is important that webmasters and search engine optimizers realize what search engine spamming is to be able to avoid it. Remember that search engine spamming – intentional or not – still causes a number if penalties from the search engines.

The fact is that there are really webmasters who use search engine spamming intentionally. They utilize search engine spamming techniques to boost their website’s ranking on the search results. What they are doing is technically tricking the search engines. This action indeed deserves penalty. But how about those who use search engine spamming unintentionally? The penalty remains the same! So the best thing to do is to be familiar with the search engine spamming techniques and avoid them at all times.

Search Engine Spamming

Technically, search engine spamming is the trick other webmasters use to secure a higher site ranking position on search results. Webmasters who use the search engine spamming technique create irrelevant web content that appears on a highly visible position of the search results. However, search engine spamming does not adhere to the rules set by the search engines so it normally results to penalty and worst – site banning.

Commonly Used Search Engine Spamming Techniques

Here are the three commonly used search engine spamming techniques today. Avoid them at all times if you don’t want your website to get penalized or worst – banned!

• Hidden Text

If you use texts of the same color to the background of the web page, you are spamming the search engines. In the first place, why will you use the same color on the text and the background if you don’t have any other motive than providing your site visitors with relevant information? The reason behind hidden text is keyword stuffing. Webmasters place keywords on the page through hidden text.

• Doorway Pages

This search engine spamming technique works by optimizing a particular page to rank well on the search results. This page, also called the doorway page, contains loads of keywords (which is another spamming technique – keyword stuffing). And the doorway page leads to a completely different website when clicked.

• Link Spamming

Avoid joining link farms for they will do more harm than good to your website. It is true that the search engines value links but they value only relevant links! Link farms offer nothing but irrelevant links.

Knowing these things about search engine spamming, let me ask you again, are you spamming the search engines or not? Beware because these search engine spamming techniques are off to pull your websites down!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit SEO Company Ireland.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monica_Corral-lorica

Better Keywords More Sales - Three Steps to Better Search Engine Keyword Selection

Are you among the Web masters in search of the search engine ranking Holy Grail? If so, sooner or later you have to accept the fact that search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your Web sites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination your Web site and then find their way within the Web site, you need to provide them with specific and effective signs. This can be done by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the “Open Sesame”! of the Internet for the search engines and your customers. Find the exact right words or phrases, and presto! Hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are vague or over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it to your site or you seeing any real profits from the visitors reduces drastically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. Aggressive marketing campaign without precise selection of keywords is just a very expensive exercise in wasting time and resources. The right people may never get the chance to find out about your products and services. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. In the middle of the business battlefield it's hard to be objective. This is why you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of possible search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

Your customers are an invaluable resource. The words you gather from talking with them may not have been considered from deep inside the trenches of your business. Only after you have gathered as many keyword phrases from outside resources should you add your own keywords to the list. With this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation. Consider the first step brain storming in which you just gather ideas without bias.

Evaluation step is where you narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your Web site. By quality visitors I mean visitors who are most likely to buy rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, consider three elements: Demand, specificity, and motivation.

Demand is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more demand your keyword has, the more likely the chances are that the visitors use it while searching for your products on the Internet. Demand is sometimes called popularity as well.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Some software will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. Higher demand for keyword means more potential traffic for you.

The only problem with high demand keyword is the intense competition which makes it difficult for your site to show up at the top of the search engine search results. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you. Most search engine optimizing firms emphasize the fact that if your Web site is not on the first three pages, you will likely not see a significant traffic.

In your search for the right keyword, popularity isn't enough. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. Specific keywords that are usually a combination of three or four words indicate that the consumer is really looking to buy something. At least one search engine optimizing guru shared that his data shows most people who type in one or two words in looking for a product or service are doing research and those who type in three or four words are looking to buy.

There is another consideration. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "gift shop." However, your company specializes in wedding anniversary gifts only. The keyword "wedding anniversary gift" would rank lower on the demand scale than "gift shop," but it would bring you the right customers. Instead of getting a bunch of people interested in baby shower gifts and graduation gifts, with the right keyword phrase, you will get only those consumers with pending need to find an anniversary gift quick.

In short, consumers ready to buy your product or take advantage of your services are the ones who will find you. Also, the more specific a keyword is the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. You always need to put yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivates them to look for a service or product. If you owned a talent agency, which one of the following two headings would appeal to your customers? "New York Job Listings" or "New York Talent Agency." The second one, of course! By using the second keyword combination you target people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are looking for a talent agent services. These are just the kind of clients who are motivated to talk to you.

After choosing the right keyword you must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines and the change in search engine algorithms. Your log files are not enough since they only show you a brief traffic analysis but they do not indicate how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

The most important connection you can make after the visitors enter your site is the connection between the keyword they used to get to your site and the sales you made after they entered your site.

For this, you need to rely on tools that track the visitors’ behavior after they enter your site. There are many programs that accomplish this task and in the next article we will review them and how they work.

Just remember that more traffic is a good thing only if you can convert casual visitors to paying customers. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. Keep the final profitability goal in mind as you search for those illusive profitable keywords.

Vishy Dadsetan writes articles that can actually help your clients. Articles that entertain. Articles just like this one. Additional information is available at: search engine submission, internet marketing strategy, and ppc search engine

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vishy_Dadsetan

How To Dramatically Increase Your Profit Using Search Engine

Most people will quickly run away or surrender without even trying in getting to the top of search engine. For them, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is really not for them. But did you know that once you have conquered the search engine, you have no problem whatsoever to make money online? In fact, your online business will keep on growing without you don't have to do anything.

So what if it takes a long time to do, is that mean you just want to throw away your potential income that really can change your life? If you have the desire to make money online more than anyone, you should consider doing this.

One method to increase your ranking in the search engine is by using community forums to build one-way links to your site.

Create accounts on community forums that are specifically related to your given niche. Once you have contributed significantly to the forum by posting useful information and helping newbies, you can then consider adding a signature that links to your site. This will create a one-way permanent link. It is also best to use a targeted keyword for your URL.

When it comes to search engine optimization, most things change. Only two things remain important: the amount and quality of "text" content and the amount of one-way incoming links you have. Reciprocal linking, over-optimized content, and black hat methods of increasing rankings will all vary in effectiveness with algorithm changes.

Each search engine has its own algorithm, but Google always leads with algorithm changes. If you spend enough time working on search engine optimization, tune your site to Google's changes. Forget the rest. In 2-3 years from now, they will be doing what Google did yesterday.

While Google is the most important search engine, it is important to make sure that your site also gets indexed by Yahoo and MSN – both of which have easy-to-access submission forms. These search engines have less competition, which means it will be somewhat easier for you to dominate your niche and pick up whatever extra traffic is available.

If you feel lost, re-read the section above about search engine optimization. It is hard for you to digest at first, but everything will get easier in time. Once you have done that, we will move on to Page Rank (PR).

Find ways to get links to your site from high-PR authority sites. You may be able to do this with article submission services, press release services, and joint ventures. Getting links on high-PR sites will not only confer some PR to you, but it will also increase your rankings, and get you spidered by search engines more frequently.

Even though meta tags have no relevance to search engine ranking anymore, using them can sometimes help clarify the purpose of your website through a number of different ways. The first way is by helping a spider figure out the purpose of confusing pages. The second way is by providing a description for search engines to use when they pull up your site.

Take action immediately to optimize your website. You might now see results overnight, but slowly your website will be notice by the search engine. Take 2 to 3 hours per day for optimizing your website. Sooner or later, you will be surprise to see your website on Top 3 pages of the search engine.

Izrul Fizal has made a living with selling just one remarkable tool and earn himself a residual income every month. Visit his website Make Money Online and How To Start An Internet Business to find out how.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Izrul_Fizal

The Power Of Social Marketing And Self Promotion: Life Beyond Search Engine Optimisation

The recent report by Hitwise, which showed that MySpace has overtaken MSN search in driving retail traffic, should make all those involved in website marketing sit up and take note. Firstly, it underlines the value of social marketing as a way of reaching your customer base but secondly, the figures also show that the total amount of retail traffic generated by the top three search engines amounts to only 21.95%. Why is this important? Well what strikes me right away is that over 78% of retail traffic is not delivered through the top three search engines. I would thus argue then that there is a hell of a lot traffic that is conceivably up for grabs. The point is do we spend too much time worrying about search engine optimisation and not enough effort worrying about other forms of traffic generation.

Social networking is a good example of one of the other options available. The effect that social networking sites can have can be seen in an analysis of online photo sharing. In the UK figures from Hitwise show, that MySpace is responsible for an astonishing 22% of all Photobucket’s UK traffic. MySpace itself though is only the twelfth most visited site in the UK where as in the US it is the number one site, which suggests that the amount of traffic for US Photobucket is exponentially even greater.

You might ask how this affects me as my product or service is unsuited to social networking? I would argue that there is always way to utilise any channel that has the potential to drive traffic. Admittedly, some products or services are more suited to the medium but any business can make use of video opportunities presented by these or video specific sites such as YouTube. If you can make a short promotional film good, funny or trendy enough then the viral potential is phenomenal.

Social networking or video sites need not be the only distribution platforms. Self promotion should also include regular press releases. Again, there are existing means of distribution through highly regarded sites such as PRWeb and PRNewswire. The key is to make them sharp and relevant and covering something that people are likely to want to read, maybe local success stories or things you or your business have achieved and not just sales pitches. The idea is to drive traffic to your site, which is the place for the pitch. A similar strategy would be to utilise successful EZines in your field by submitting articles of interest that will be picked up upon by readers.

Sometimes old fashioned tradition mediums od delivery can get overlooked. People still read paper newspapers and shop on a high street. Simple line adverts, or handing out leaflets can actually be effective and the forgotten Guerrilla tactics that symbolised some early web marketing such as stickers and stunts can still work well, although they tend to be more effective with trendy brands.

All these methods are on the edges of traditional marketing strategies and individually may only have a marginal effect. If however they are joined together as a suite of ideas then the cumulative result is likely to be much greater than the parts. The common thread of all the above is to get noticed and thus hopefully drive traffic. As the statistics show There is a huge amount of traffic that can be driven to your site that does not necessarily involve search engines and the quid pro quo is that if you can generate a buzz then you may actually see yourself climb the SERP’s anyway as people link to you funky, funny or poignant video or podcast. If you do in fact have a marketing budget then these methods are still (if not more) relevant as the use of professional marketing and PR agencies could substantially improve the response.

I am not suggesting you look to ditch traditional SEO but that you open your eyes to the possibilities that exist beyond. I have deliberately avoided talking about PPC, Blogging or RSS feeds as it is likely that you are probably employing these methods already. Even though these will take up a fair proportion of that 78% on non search driven traffic the point is that by not utilising some of these alternative marketing strategies you are not tapping in to the other potential sources of available traffic. Ultimately, there are probably millions of people who would be happy to view your site, it just you have to let them know you are there and these are extra ways you can do so.

News, information and advice for website marketers. www.bluenyellow.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_M_Simpson

Idiot's Guide to Search Engine Marketing

What is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing involves strategically optimizing the elements of your web site and your web campaign in such a way that your site becomes popular in the major search engines.

There are two primary types of search engine marketing, the paid method, or pay-per-click, and the unpaid method, natural search engine results.

The paid method, or pay-per-click, involves bidding and paying for specific search engine rankings. One advantage to using pay-per-click is that you can quickly dial up huge responses, for example 200-500 clicks per day, which allows you to quickly test ad copy and response rates. One major disadvantage is the price--you are directly paying for each and every click you receive.

Natural search engine results, although they take much longer to implement, have no direct cost. The only cost is that associated with the strategies used to achieve higher natural search engine results rankings.

So how do you do it? What do the search engines look for? Some of the top predictors of natural search engine rankings are the content of your site as it relates to your chosen keyword, your meta-keyword and meta-description tags on your web site, the title of your web site, and the link popularity of your website.

One note here: it is difficult to achieve high search engine rankings for more than a few keywords on any given web page. So the key here is to design different web pages for each keyword you wish to rank highly for, and optimize those pages for that specific keyword.

How to optimize your page? Make sure that every element of your page includes your keyword at least once, and in the copy of the web page itself, the keyword should have between a 3% and 5% keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage of times your keyword is inserted into your copy, as compared to other words in your copy.

So, for example, if your web page were on “search engine marketing” you would make sure you used the term “search engine marketing” in each of the following elements of your web page. Here is an example:

Title: Search Engine Marketing

Keywords: search engine marketing

Description: How to use search engine marketing to boost your sales.

Web page: For every one hundred words on your web page, the phrase “search engine marketing” would occur at least 3 times.

One of the most important things to do to build a strong natural search engine ranking is to increase your link popularity. Link popularity is the number of web sites, other than your own, that link to your web site. Some of the best ways to do this include: Adding your web site to many web directories that are related to your web site’s topic, asking other web sites to add your site to their links page, and submitting articles to the various article directories with your web site link intact, so that each of the article directories are linking to your site.

Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and is the author of “15 Steps to Internet Success“. To receive a free copy, simply follow this link: Search Engine Marketing

Are you interested in learning how to build a responsive mailing list? Click here: List Building

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Mize

How to Get Listed on the Search Engines

Search Engines. Everybody wants to be on them and the nearer to the top the better. Why? Because search engines bring you people who are actually looking for what you sell. It's like the Yellow Pages. People use them when they're ready to buy and if you show up on the top of the list, you're highly likely to get the first chance at the sale.

Now that we've established the importance of getting listed on the search engines, let's look at some of the criteria they use to list you. A book can literally be written on this topic as the criteria vary from search engine to search engine but the following are some of the common ones that can get you where you want to be.

Buy your way in

The fastest and surest way to get onto the search engines and enjoy a guaranteed decent ranking in the top 10 results is to buy your way in. Almost all search engines offer "pay-per-click advertising" or what the industry likes to call PPC. Ranking using this method usually depends on how much you bid on a key word, meaning most search engines use a type of auction system to rank you. While this is not the only option, it must be mentioned so that if you find any of the following daunting or too much work, you're aware that you do have a choice.

To get indexed without paying isn't easy and to get ranked high and to preserve that ranking is a talent in itself, especially since the search engines tend to revise their criteria from time to time. Given the fact that they do revise, although we've touched on this topic before, we too need to revise what we've said before to keep you up-to-date on what's happening in the industry. Now let's look at how to get listed for free.

Repetition of Key Words

First, we need to explain what are key words. Just think of it like this. The words that your potential customers are likely to type in when searching for your product or service are your key words. You need to have these on your web page and the more often the better. For example, if you sell shoes and your store name is Paymore trust me, no one is going to be searching for Paymore. People are likely to search for shoes. This is therefore one of your key words. Of course, you will have the politically correct carrot who doesn't search for shoes but for footwear, meaning this is another key word you want on your website. OK, there will be some people looking for your store in particular and will type in your store name and that's great and this should work just fine too, but needless to say - I hope - your name would obviously be prominent on your website anyway.

Now, can you therefore try to trick the search engine by putting the key words in succession like this, "shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes, and more shoes" so as to ensure a higher ranking than your competitor? As a rule, you should never set out to trick the search engine or anyone else for that matter. The smarter search engines' robots will eventually pick up on what you're doing and boy will they drop you to the bottom of their rankings! That is of course if they don't delete you altogether.

Use Robot-Readable Content

We mentioned robots in the previous paragraph because this is what most search engines use. There are hardly any search engines with staff manually adding websites to their indices. The robots are trained to read text. This means that you should try to use more text on your website than images or flash which they have difficulty reading.

Antiquity

Very important for your ranking is the age of your website. A website bought today will not appear in the search engines tomorrow for free. In fact, the average time to get ranked has gone up to 12-15 months because millions of websites around the world are begging the robots to come look at them. So the earlier you start your website, the higher you will rank, even if it's just one page. This also underlines the importance of getting your website up and running now. If all that separates you from your competitor is who got on the Web first and you both have all of the other criteria in place, the older one will get placed higher.

Updating Frequency

The more frequently you update your website, the higher you will rank. The robots, once they find you and like you, come back at certain intervals to see if you have new content and of course to ensure that you haven't gone out of business.

Your Domain Name

To Google, this doesn't seem to mean too much but to engines like MSN, your name in .com is key. So if your domain name is Matikoor.com and you sell bridal accessories, you could show up high on Google for bridal accessories while on MSN you're likely to be number one for Matikoor. A good strategy is to get both names in .com.

Title

What's the title of your webpage? The search engines pay attention to this too. If you throw in some of your key words there that would also help your ranking.

Links

Was I saving the best for last? Links are extremely important to practically every major search engine, so get as many websites as possible to link to your website. The search engines assume that the more websites linked to yours, the more important it must be and rank you higher.

Unique Content

So we were not saving the best for last because this is the last point on this list and it is not exactly the best but still worth mentioning. Search engines like unique content. This is why parked pages tend to get low rankings if any. What's a parked page? A page with either a standard "coming soon" or "under construction" notice or with a plethora of link ads.

There are more criteria not mentioned above. In fact, some search engines like Google guard their criteria like trade secrets but the above are the main ones that have been tried, tested and proven. So now it's your turn to go try, test and prove.

Aleem Khan is an accredited Internet Expert with the http://www.InternationalInternetAuthority.com which is a safe place to GetYourNameIn.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aleem_Khan

Recent Changes at Google, Yahoo, and MSN

There are many changes taking place in the top search engines. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are all adapting to the many transformations occuring within the search industry. Because of these changes, I thought I would take the time to give you an overview of what's taking place within the market and how it affects you as a webmaster. To begin, let's start with Google.

Back in 2003, Google would index and crawl the web about once a month and everything would change all in one shot. WebMasterWorld would actually name these updates with names like Brandy, Florida, and Bourbon.

Google has moved away from these monthly updates to an ever- changing process. You can now see daily changes within the SERPS with the biggest changes occuring during algorithm updates.

Late June and July of this year saw some major changes within the Google algorithm. If your site was hurt from this algorithm change, you should re-examine your site and be sure to follow the guidelines below:

1. Pursue a continuous linking campaign with other quality sites. This can be achieved through article syndication, exchanging RSS feeds, submitting to directories or syndicating a press release.

2. Create a Google sitemap to increase the coverage of your webpages.

3. Make sure your site has a clear navigation system. Every page should be reachable from at least one static link.

4. Avoid all deceptive or manipulative behavior. Don't get involved in linking schemes. Avoid all forms of cloaking and avoid hidden text or hidden links.

Besides the changes taking place within organic search results, there have also been recent changes within Google Adwords. In July of 2006, Google updated their landing page algorithm. These changes have harmed a number of online marketers. Many advertisers who had been paying five or ten cents a click are now required to bid at least 50 cents to a dolloar or more. There are also other advertisers who kept their bid prices, but those bids are now buying only 3rd or 4th page positions when they used to buy first page positions.

Some advertisers have even been effectively shutdown.

However, keep in mind that not all advertisers have been affected. There are four main types of sites that have been hit the hardest. These include:

# one page sales letter websites
# squeeze pages
# adsense sites (particularly those involved in Adsense arbitrage)
# affiliate sites

The new landing page algorithm gives a quality score to every landing page. Fortunately for us, Google has left some clues as to how they are ranking these pages.

Below are 3 general guidelines that will help those who have been hurt by the recent updates.

1. Provide relevant and substantial content.

2. Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information related to the product or service in your ad.

3. Distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site's content.

To stay in accordance with the new quality score guidelines, you may want to remove all Adsense ads from your landing pages, create or find more original content for your sites, ensure that your landing page has at least 500 words, and check to make sure that your ad relates perfectly with the content of your landing page.

Google is getting smarter everyday. Our job is not to trick the search engines but to deliver truly valuable information to our visitors. By doing this along with some basic on-page and off-page optimization techniques, you should perform very well in the search engines over the long-haul.

There have also been some recent changes at MSN.

They have changed the name of their search engine spiders. Before the changes, they were all called "msnbot,". Fortunately, they are now starting to group their spiders into separate categories.

# The MSN Shopping bot is msnbot-products.
# The MSN News bot is msnbot-news.
# The MSN Image Search bot is msnbot-media.
# The MSN search bot is still called msnbot.

It should now be much easier for webmasters to decipher what's really going on in their web logs. In addition, webmasters can also block specific bots if they need to, without blocking MSN Search.

Last, but not least, there is Yahoo. This company has experienced some very exciting changes within the past few months.

One of these is the launch of a new Yahoo Search Crawler. The new crawler is faster and more efficient at visiting websites. As a result, website owners should notice as much as a 25% reduction in the number of requests and bandwidth consumed by the Yahoo crawler.

Yahoo also released an index update in mid-July. You can read all about it at http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000327.html .

In addition, there are a number of other, smaller-based search engines who are leading the way in the future of search engine technology. One of the best examples I have seen is Eurekster.com.

They have developed a social search engine powered by the wisdom of crowds.

Eurekster makes use of its own SearchMemory technology, which remembers the sites a user finds useful and presents them higher in the results the next time they search. Then, Eurekster lets a user share their searches and sites with friends. For example, if you do a search on "internet marketing", you'll see sites related to "internet marketing" that your friends also found useful. These results are marked with an icon.

This personalization helps to increase relevancy in a way that no algorithm can match.

I expect to see many changes within Google, Yahoo, and MSN in upcoming years as they merge search engine technology with social search in order to make search results more relevant as well as personalized. One thing is clear, the future evolution of search is sure to be exciting to watch.

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog (blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim’s email is: kim @ seo-news.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kim_Roach

Go for Keywords-Add Value to Your Website!

So, what are keywords anyway? Little wonders if you really want to know. They are as important for the success of your website as the advertising and other promotional means. No keywords, no SERP.

Linking strategy is probably the most important SEO technique, but keywords follow closely. As a mater of fact, you could exchange as many links as you wish, but, without content, your website has no real value. Without keywords your website cannot be found. People use keywords to find information. They type into the search engines’ search bars different words and phrases hoping to find relevant answers. If you want web users to find your website you have to optimize your web pages for the keywords they use.

It’s not enough to write the keywords in your text, or in your keyword META tag. You need to use keywords everywhere: URL, page title, META description, META keywords, page copy, ALT attributes. You also need to think keyword density and where exactly on the page you should place them: headings, subtitles, first paragraph, last sentence, footers and so on. You have to bold some keywords, use others in text links, in lists and so on. Yet, all these aspects are easier than choosing the right keywords.

Choosing the Right Keywords

How difficult can choosing the right keywords be? Well, if you already know what people are looking for, it is not so difficult. However, if you don’t… you have a big problem. The first problem is that you are not going to be able to reach the right segment of your targeted market and the second is that you will fail to deliver the right message to the search engines. As people trust search engine results when they look to buy something online, your only chance to increase online sales is to be have a high ranking in the SERP.

When you choose your keywords you also have to think about high rankings and branding. What you choose has to be directly related to your products and your business name. Your keywords have to describe what you sell or your services. Some SEO experts recommend that you also add common spelling mistakes at your keyword list. I wouldn’t. If you run a serious business you don’t want it associated to any unprofessional artifice. So describe your products honestly, correctly and explicitly.

You’ll have a long list of keywords and phrases to start with. Unfortunately you cannot use all the keywords in a list for your SEO purposes. Choose the most relevant keywords and start from there.

To determine keyword relevancy you could use Wordtracker – a tool used by most of the SEO experts and gurus around the world. The free Overture keyword tool or the keyword generation tool provided by Google AdWords are perfect if you run a pay per click campaign.

Once you have the list of relevant keywords all you need to do is write the content of your website. Remember: relevant keywords bring value to your website, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Your visitors should be able to read your texts without even noticing you are using keywords. Do you think you can master this art? If not, hire a professional writer. Quality has its price.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com

Paid URL Inclusion - The Process and Benefits

From the hundreds of search engines today, some are offering paid URL inclusion. What is paid URL inclusion and how does it differ from the regular free listing on the search engines. Paid URL inclusion means you have to pay for a particular amount annually for some search engines to index your web pages.

Since all the search engines have “crawlers” and “spiders” to index all web pages online, why is there still a web marketing technique like paid URL inclusion? It is true that the search engines will eventually find your web pages and index them; however, it could take at least of couple of months for them to finally index the entire website. This is where paid URL inclusion advances. It offers faster indexing of your web pages.

Paid URL Inclusion Process

Search engines that offer paid URL inclusion service promise websites of a faster spidering and indexing of the website’s pages. Faster indexing means faster visibility of your website on the search engine page results. This is done through an extra “spider” that indexes paid inclusions. This extra spider indexes paid inclusions faster than the regular “spider” indexing web pages for free.

The primary difference between the free URL inclusion and the paid URL inclusion in the search engines is the speed at which the pages of your website are indexed. You know how speed matters in terms of indexing your website, right? This is the reason why paid URL inclusion is so tempting.

Paid Inclusion Annual Fee And Renewal Fee?

Paid URL inclusion asks a specific amount to be paid by the website owner in exchange of the faster spidering and indexing of the web pages. Some webmasters raise questions as to why there is still a renewal fee when in fact the website and all its pages are already fully indexed.

The renewal fee is actually for the purpose of keeping your website on the search engine’s index. Be informed that search engines offering paid URL inclusion remove your website and its web pages from the search engines’ index after the pay period. This means you have to wait for your site to be spidered again. Your website will be lost for a particular duration of time until it is indexed again.

Is Paid URL Inclusion For You?

The fact remains that the search engines will still spider your web pages and index your website whether you pay an annual fee for paid URL inclusion or not. Thinking of the long wait ahead for free search engine URL submission, you may opt to use search engine paid URL inclusion instead. If you want immediate spidering and indexing of your web pages and your entire website, paid URL inclusion is the web marketing service for you!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit Internet Marketing Experts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monica_Corral-lorica

5 Different Website Linking Strategies

Website linking can come in many forms and each one has a different strategy. Each strategy has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Learning these different strategies can definitely help a webmaster obtain better search engine rankings and even more importantly, increased website traffic.

1. Reciprocal link exchanges – This strategy of generally the choice for start-up websites, which have a very small advertising budget. On short term this can produce quite noticeable effects, but it is thought that in the long term they may be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

2. Obtaining media attention (Press Releases)– This is a more advanced technique of obtaining back links. The principle is simple though: You post a press release or better still you launch a press release campaign and then you await for it to be published. The results can be quite dramatic, as the most successful press releases can generate thousands of quality links. The main obstacle is to obtain the media attention to begin with. Journalists require press releases that are interesting and newsworthy. A sales pitch type of press release will get you nowhere. Also you must make it easier for journalists to find your press release by posting it in as many profile sites as possible.

3. Writing articles – This is a very powerful method of obtaining back links. The basic idea is that you post an article which contains at least a link to your website, to other sites such as article directories (e.g. EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com etc) and give others the right to republish the article for absolutely for free, with the basic condition that they will not modify the article itself and that they will give you credit for it. Remember just about every webmasters is constantly on the search for fresh content.

4. Buying links – This is the last method I propose. For this strategy to be successful you must have quite a large budget. The advantages are quite obvious. What you see is what you get. When using this method though, please check the page where the link is located has the page rank it’s supposed to have, that the link doesn’t have the “no follow” tag attached and that the link is permanent.

5. Link Directories – This is a better way of producing links, although it does have its drawbacks. It is vitally important to make sure you choose only those directories that do not require a reciprocal link. Some of the more “unscrupulous” directories don’t actually give you a “direct” link back to your site, but do a redirect through some internal files on their sites. Although human visitors can still navigate to your site, search engines will not regard it as a link pointing to your site.

Also it is also advisable to stay away from badly organized directories, as these tend to be considered “bad neighborhood” links and can cause some serious damage on the long run. As a whole though, this technique is very powerful as it allows even start up websites to obtain decent one-way links.

Most webmasters submit their sites to link directories manually, and this can be a very time consuming and boring process. There is software available that can speed up this process considerably, letting you acquire hundreds of quality links in a short period of time.

Bruce Hearder runs and operates DirectoryLinkSubmitter.com An Easy To Use Software Package that Can Help You Get Hundreds of Quality One-way Links Pointing At Your Web site. Find out more at http://www.DirectoryLinkSubmitter.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruce_Hearder

Search Engine Marketing---Can It Work for You?

Search engine marketing is an incredibly lucrative and incredibly under-utilized aspect of any online marketing campaign.

When the internet was in its infancy, those companies who managed to get to the top of search engine rankings naturally were rewarded by high numbers of clicks and sales.

As a result of this, massive numbers of webmasters tried to outwit the search engines and their competition by discovering the formulas for site search engine rankings, and created methods to circumvent the natural and honest method of search engine optimization.

Pursuant to this, most large search engines have outlawed the spurious ‘black hat’ techniques for getting to the top of search engine rankings.

The major search engines have also created pay-per-click additions to their natural search engine listings, giving webmasters and online businesses the ability to ‘buy their way’ to the top of a search engine page, if not to the top of the natural search engine listings.

What is left today for the online business owner, and can search engine marketing techniques be effective for creating traffic and sales?

I think that today’s search engine marketing efforts represent only a small portion of the techniques and potential that is available to the honest webmaster who uses ‘white hat’ techniques.

Although many web companies spend billions of dollars annually to get sponsored listings and ‘buy’ their way to the top of the search engine pages, it is assumed that most search engine traffic is still generated via the natural search listings--that is, the unpaid search listings.

What does that mean to the ‘white hat’ (or honest) webmaster? It means that by effectively performing web site optimizing behavior and various search engine marketing tactics that are perfectly natural in execution (so that they won’t be banned by the search engines in the future), there is plenty of room for webmasters to use search engine marketing techniques to generate more business.

Can it work for you? Of course it can work for you. The biggest question is, are you willing to do the work necessary to make it work for you? Are you willing to study the nature of the techniques used by each of the top ten websites in your top 100 preferred keywords and word phrases? Are you willing to study which keyword phrases people use to get to your website, which keyword phrases lead to buying behavior, and then execute a plan to revolutionize your traffic and sales?

I’d love to send you a complimentary copy of my new book on getting started online: “15 Steps to Internet Success“. To access it immediately, click here: Search Engine Marketing

Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and has written extensively on the subject of internet marketing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Mize

Search Engine Marketing

There is probably no better example of excellence in marketing a Search Engine than those who work for Google and indeed they also are great in helping folks market their businesses using their fine search engine. Google is all about marketing; they help empower businesses, non-profits and even entire governments by helping them get the word out to the masses and abundance of Internet Users World Wide.

Search engine marketing should most likely be a class required of all business students before they secure a piece of paper stating they have earned an MBA, because without basic knowledge of search engine marketing, they are of little use to the Corporations they may work at or even their own ventures for that matter.

Search engine marketing is both a skill and a talent and it is important to know what people are looking for and which key words they are typing in. It means that you must know how to properly have pages which are geared towards attracting these Internet Surfers without diverting what you company is truly about. Search engine gurus of marketing are extremely valuable in today’s business world, so I sincerely hope you will consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Crucial Steps in Planning Successful Search Engine Marketing Campaigns

Search engine marketing is nowadays renowned to be a very powerful form of online marketing, primarily aiming to boost the success of a business by increasing its popularity and exposure. Thanks to the long-term benefits it offers, lots of online business owners rely exclusively on search engine marketing to boost the profitability of their business. However, in order to get the most out of any search engine marketing campaign, companies have to establish a set of specific goals and make careful preparations.

Any company, regardless of its nature, size and position on the market, should always establish an efficient business plan before initiating new search engine advertising campaigns. The business plan should be properly designed and carefully analyzed down to the last detail. Without proper previous preparations, the prospects of any search engine advertising campaign are very unpredictable. In order to ensure a stable ROI (return on investment) and great exposure for your business equally among new visitors and already-existing customers, your search engine marketing campaign should be properly designed upon the following structure:

- Coherent, relevant and brief mission statement (description of your business);

- Properly promote your specific selling points;

- Address yourself to the most appropriate categories of clients;

- Establish and maintain contact with your clients.

The first step in creating an efficient search engine marketing campaign is to write a solid mission statement or description. This phase is crucial for achieving a successful campaign, so you should ensure that you come up with the most appropriate mission statement for your business. Your mission statement is the first piece of information that will be addressed to your targeted visitors and potential clients, so it should have great potential in drawing people’s attention, enticing them to find out more about your business. It can be quite difficult to write the most appropriate mission statement for your business while restricting it to only a few sentences in the same time. However, the trick is to include in it the major benefits you offer to your clients, using powerful and memorable words.

A good example of a solid mission statement looks like this: “Our Company specializes in designing and developing highly competitive business management solutions that boost the efficiency and profitability of online companies worldwide.” This statement presents the services you offer to clients, the clients’ benefits of employing your services and the targeted market (in this case online companies). You should create similar structures, always keeping them right to the point and using “catchy” phrases. Never neglect this first basic step when trying to achieve a successful and rewarding search engine marketing campaign.

The second step in building a powerful search engine advertising campaign consists of promoting your unique, specific selling points to your site’s visitors and potential customers. This phase of the campaign requires you to identify and emphasize the unique features of your company, the traits that separate your business from the rest. Remember that your specific selling points may take various forms: superior services or products, more affordable fees, very quick delivery of the products, long-lasting warranty and so on. You should carefully analyze all your specific selling points, and prioritize the selling characteristics of your business, always starting with the ones that you consider most relevant and important.

The third step of your search engine marketing campaign consists of identifying the most appropriate categories of clients you wish to address to. Practically, this phase requires you to mentally portray the image of “the ideal customer”. For instance, your targeted clients might be your already-existing, regular customers, newcomers or, why not, the clients of the competition. After you have marked the overall features of the “ideal client”, you should progress by sketching the traits of your targeted customers in higher detail. You should account for features such as age, sex, marital status, level of income, ethnicity and so on. Undoubtedly, the more information you gather about your targeted customers, the better prepared your business will be at appropriately servicing the targeted market. This phase is vital for achieving success in your search engine advertising campaigns, so pay lots of attention when going through this section of the business plan.

The final step is also considered to be the most important, so you should carefully elaborate this stage. Establishing and maintaining contact with your targeted customers is vital for the success of your business, so you need to come up with appropriate “calls to action”. Remember that in order to sell your products or services to customers you have to maintain a good level of interest among your targeted visitors and keep them on your web pages for as long as possible.

Call to action plans can take multiple forms: determining the potential clients to subscribe to your free e-newsletter, to ask for more information about your business, to ask for advice from your representatives, etc. In order to achieve success in your search engine marketing campaigns, you should elaborate as many calls to action as you can think of. In addition, you should create a set of keywords and design “landing web pages” for each individual call to action. By doing this, you will be able to get the most out of your campaigns and improve your business’ ROI coefficient.

Pay equal attention to all these previously described aspects and you will be able to achieve powerful search engine marketing campaigns which will bring long-term benefits to the online business you are running.

So, if you want to find out more about search engine marketing or about search engine advertising please visit this link.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Groshan_Fabiola

Tactic of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is an act of marketing a website via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities. The other definition is "Improving an organizations visibility within search results when search phrases entered at search sites returns a listing of related web sites".

Search Engine marketing methods include:

1. Search engine optimization
2. Search engine advertising

Search engine optimization:

Every business expands form local market to global market if the search engine methods are applied properly such that the web presence is felt in the search engine. Main tool towards the global presence is website and if it is properly marketed than it will be viewed by many visitors through the search engine. Any of the marketing method will do for the task. A search engine will display search results, by matching the keywords input by the search engine user with web pages in their database. Search engine will display a listing of websites with the correct matches for the user keyword. This makes it important for a website to be optimized so that it contains keywords which match with the words typed by search engine user. Before moving out for the search engine marketing or optimization, one thing should always be kept in mind that what are the keywords that will sell the product. Do a thorough market research or keyword research and see that what the visitors are looking out on the search engines. Provide the relevant information on your web page, for what the visitor is looking out.

Search engine advertising:

After a website is optimized for search engine, a company can go in for search engine advertising. Search engine advertising is a process of paying money to search engines or directories to enhance a sites position; paid placement and paid inclusion programs are included.

The whole process of search engine marketing is not just marketing the site but also making aware of the products to the potential customer.

Being a developer, I can suggest you to visit the site Corporatesitesolutions.com and its pages like Website development, for getting an idea how the website should be designed so that it doesn't get penalized.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nik_Chauhan

Search Engine Marketing Services: Trends and Predictions

The search engine marketing industry is consistently evolving, sometimes at a pace that makes it hard to believe that search engine marketing services can stay on top of all the latest developments. The one constant for search engine marketing firms, and for the industry in general, is change--usually for the better, sometimes for the worse, but almost always significant. The industry is not for the faint-hearted or those who abhor change. However, savvy search engine marketing firms try to look ahead to anticipate trends. Here are my predictions of issues that search engine marketing services will face in the short term.

More Accountability Demanded from Search Engine Marketing Firms

Search engine marketing firms that use tactics designed to trick the engines into showing results that aren't directly addressing the search query will struggle, as more companies begin to look at the larger goals that lead them to investigate search engine marketing services in the first place. The "traffic-centric" mindset will evolve as companies begin to demand accountability from search engine marketing firms in terms of bottom line increases. Ranking increases delivered by search engine marketing services will be questioned if they do not lead to significant traffic increases, and traffic increases will be questioned if there is no subsequent increase in business generated from the website. This is a good thing for quality search engine marketing firms, since the "snake-oil" practitioners that have given the industry such a bad name will never be given serious consideration by any company that does its homework in the vendor selection process.

Rising PPC Costs and Increasing PPC Frustration

As larger companies with huge budgets continue to jump into the pay per click (PPC) arena, costs will continue to rise. (Average PPC costs have increased 37% from Q1 2005 to Q1 2006.(1)) These well-funded companies will use PPC as a branding tool as much as a sales tool, which will squeeze out many of the current smaller advertisers. In fact, the top 10 PPC advertising companies, based upon the number of PPC impressions, include such names as eBay, NextTag, Vonage, Time Warner, Orbitz, Target, and Yahoo.(2) More large companies will continue to join the fray, many of them throwing ROI out the window and bidding high prices for desirable keyphrases for the sake of branding. This means that search engine marketing firms will find small- to medium-sized companies turning to SEO to achieve results when they no longer can afford PPC.

Increased Interest in Organic SEO

While PPC costs rise, there is also a trend that no doubt disturbs the engines that offer PPC programs. Sixty-six percent of consumers "distrust" paid search ads.(3) Up to 85% of searchers say they "tend to ignore the paid listings"(4), while 87% of commercial clicks take place "on the natural (not sponsored) search results."(5) Three times as many marketers who outsource the management of their natural SEO to search engine marketing firms and who also participate in pay per click advertising recognize a higher ROI from their search engine marketing services than from PPC.(6) These facts, coupled with the fact that Google has recently announced that it will begin to take the relevance of pages into consideration when deciding in what order the ads will appear (which will mean that effective PPC campaigns will need at least some basic organic SEO), point to one obvious result--an increase in the number of companies that investigate organic SEO programs, whether internally generated or provided by outside search engine marketing firms.

Continued Reluctance from Agencies to Pursue Search Marketing

To most, it seems like a perfect fit--traditional advertising agencies joining forces with (or purchasing outright) PPC providers and organic search engine marketing services. However, the average agency is scared to death of search engine marketing services in any form (although some forward-looking agencies have finally jumped on the search engine marketing bandwagon). The reasons are simple: accountability and metrics.

Advertising agencies have for years made money based upon a percentage of what a company spends on advertising. This model has been the accepted norm for decades. However, it raises some ethical issues. What is the motivation for an agency to recommend decreased spending on non-performing initiatives? Moreover, what reasons does an agency have to report on the effectiveness of each of its campaigns? (If an agency's clients dug deeply into any such metrics, they would likely reduce their advertising spend based on the performance of individual campaigns.) Many PPC service providers have adopted this model, even though the goal of a PPC campaign should be to monitor the metrics of a campaign to decrease the spend (eliminating underperforming keyphrases, for example).

Good search engine marketing services offer metrics that scare traditional advertising agencies. If these agencies were to present such metrics to their clients, those same clients may start to demand similar metrics for other campaigns (television, radio, magazine ads, etc.). Until the "percentage of spend" model is altered, large agencies will continue to reject search engine marketing services and will not recommend them to their clients.

Continued Focus on Google for Organic SEO

In general, where Google goes, other engines will follow. Smart search engine marketing services will continue to optimize for Google, which currently accounts for half of searches in the United States.(7) However, instead of trying to trick Google by unraveling the latest, ever-changing algorithm, search engine marketing firms will instead need to use the "piggyback" approach. This approach entails learning from the extensive studies that Google conducts of its users (learning by observing the commonalities of the types of sites that consistently rank highly) and applying those same attributes to client websites. In this way, search engine marketing firms not only make sites better for Google, but also for users. As other engines try to close the relevancy gap in search engine results, search engine marketing firms will be rewarded as the tactics they have used for Google success become the accepted industry standard.

Conclusion

The use of search engine marketing services is still a new, "unproven" channel to many companies. Even so, it is changing the way that many traditional advertising agencies must do business. With PPC costs on the rise, and the effectiveness of the PPC channel coming into question, more companies will investigate the hiring of search engine marketing firms using organic tactics for their Internet marketing needs. Smart companies that outsource organic or PPC advertising will no longer say "what have you done for me lately"--they will say "prove what you’ve done for me lately." Search engine marketing services that are on top of the curve will be more than happy to do so.

References

1. Doubleclick, Performics 50 Search Trend Report
2. Nielsen/Netratings, 2006
3. eMarketer
4. 2005 Marketing Sherpa Study
5. Jupiter Research, 2005
6. iProspect
7. LaMonica, Paul R. "Yahoo, Google Search for Fans on Wall Street." CNN.com, 14 July 2006, http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/14/news/companies/yahoo_google/index.htm.

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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Search Engine Marketing Tips to Bring Targeted Traffic to Your Site

Yes, it is all about popularizing your site in search engines. Period. Online visitors heavily rely on search engines to find any thing in the web. Search engine marketing tips are great source to help you in this. It is inevitable that you will have competition in any field and severe competition at that. But what takes you to success is the marketing strategy that you implement for your site to sell your products.

Listed below and some of the search engine marketing tips that are guaranteed to bring your business lead:

Decide who your target audience. You don’t want to be caught up in a situation where you do not even know whom you want to sell your product to. It is your target audience that determines the way you will market and sell your product. Your search marketing strategy must be super efficient to reach out and influence people to buy from you.

Learn all that needs to be known for the search engine marketing of your site. Surely you will not want to implement any policy or strategy that you in the first place do not understand properly. Remember you must never be caught off guard about anything related to your business. More than anyone else you will know what is best for your business.

Pay per click advertisement is a great source to make your site reach out to the maximum number of online visitors. This is an advertising method that is done using targeted keywords that best describe your product and service. Make sure that your pay per click advertisement features at the top of sponsored listings in search engines.

Content management is another search engine marketing tip that can boost your business’s prospects immensely. Through content management you can constantly update all the information in your site. Also you can add many new features to your site that can bring additional traffic to your site. After all lots of traffic is what you want in your site to bring new prospective customers to buy your products.

You must realize that there are many things that can be done for optimizing your site for search engine marketing. However it is vital for you to find out the best method for optimizing your site. Also find out what implementing these methods could do to your business. Be very clear about what this will do to your business and see if this is viable for your business or not.

Online visitors always look for instant gratification. Make sure that the search engine marketing tips for your business incorporates all methods that can attract visitors instantly. For this you have to make sure that you have a great website with incredible design and content that is very easily accessible to visitors. No one will come to your site, if they do not find what they are searching for at once. Visitors will not at all hesitate to go to another site when they have so much of option to choose from.

What you need for promoting your site on the web is a vigorous search engine marketing strategy. If you think that you will not be able to do search engine marketing on your own then it is best to hire professionals to do the work for you. The professionals are qualified and trained to do whatever is required for making your site popular in the web.

Steve Waganer is an SEO specialist who works for Comet Search Engine Marketing. Steve knows what needs to be done to take your site to the top.TO know more about Search Engine Optimization, pay per click,Search Engine Marketing Tips, affiliate marketing to help online business earn profit visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

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Search Engine Marketing Firms

In the make-or-break world of Internet commerce, it is imperative for businesses to hire search engine marketing firms to boost sales and get the competitive advantage. If you want increased exposure for your site but do not know where and how to start, then you definitely need the help of a firm that can secure a good position for your site and bring you closer to your target customers.

Services

Search engine marketing firms are a must for every Web site that needs to stay on top of search engine rankings. These firms have a thorough understanding of the ranking parameters of different search engines, may they be keyword-based, algorithm-based, or a combination of both. Search engine marketing firms will be able to set up your site so that its is conducive to these parameters, and also modify and maintain your site’s structure and content to make sure that it stays on top even when these parameters change. The end result? Your potential and existing customers will always land in your pages when they search for your products and services. You just sit back, relax, and watch your site generate higher search engine rankings and increased Web traffic.

Costs

Hiring search engine marketing firms is not at all that expensive, considering all the services they provide. Expect to pay about $1,500 a year – a small price to pay for maximum web success. In most cases, you get your return of investment within as little as a few months. Some companies charge you a flat rate for setup and a separate monthly maintenance fee, while others charge you a percentage of your web marketing budget all through the duration of the campaign. Some also offer to train your organic staff so that they could perform the changes and additions to your site on their own in the future.

Search Engine Marketing provides detailed information on Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Firms, Search Engine Marketing Services, Search Engine Optimization Marketing and more. Search Engine Marketing is affiliated with Web Site Marketing Consultants.

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Search Engine Marketing

If your goal is to direct your desired traffic to your Web site in order to increase your sales (be it for a product or service), then you must employ search engine marketing. Frequently referred to as simply SEM, search engine marketing is also called ‘search engine positioning’ or ‘search engine optimization.’

Similar to the process of boosting sales through the use of print, radio and television media, SEM is essentially a kind of marketing strategy employed in the web with the target result of maximum exposure as well as visibility for your website. A shopping mall, as much as possible, would want to minimize the window shoppers and bank on the target clientele. Analogous to this situation, SEM targets your preferred traffic so that in can translate to future sales or income.

There are a lot of ways of receiving desired publicity so that people online can be directed to your Web site. You can use linking, advertising through banners, press announcements, or blogging, among other effective available methods. Strategic positioning of keywords in quite important so that when a search related to your product or service is conducted, your website will come out prominently in the search results. What you should remember is that setting up a website and hoping that clients will eventually find your online store or outlet is not the game anymore. After creating your Web site, set it up and arrange your contents in such a way that search engines will automatically locate and show the link to your site in the first pages of the search engine results. This is the path to success in implementing SEM.

There are a number of entities that offer SEM services. It is best to look for one that can fully exploit the potentials of your Web site without going beyond your marketing budget.

Search Engine Marketing provides detailed information on Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Firms, Search Engine Marketing Services, Search Engine Optimization Marketing and more. Search Engine Marketing is affiliated with Web Site Marketing Consultants.

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Organic Search Engine Marketing for Affiliate Programs

If you want to grab a small piece of the market you need to highlight a unique or new product that isn't saturated in the search engines yet. Of course getting to the point were you can market like that requires tons of SEO to bring the saturation of your site up to an acceptable level.

I still got tons of SEO to do, but say I have a PR6 and I'm getting some organic hits then that's when I start my marketing campaign. First research, CNET, BBC Technology, and other sites that offer product news or new products or upcoming product, add that product to the site with an affiliate link attached. As an example Buy.com allows you to make your own link. Say I was in a position to do that when the new iPod hit the market, traffic would pour in! It works until the large sites saturate search engines.

There is tons of SEO before one can effectively implement such a plan, but if you use this tactic you will make conversions! Its whats called organic search engine marketing for affiliate programs. That is the one way you will compete organically.

And if you develop a site with some visual appeal people will like it and bookmark it. Make a site that puts them at ease visually. Use mild colors and round off the hard corners, put some fun graphics on the site. Your site should say "come on in sit down stay awhile have a beer". "Lets talk computers or movies whatever". Oops I spilled my beer, but your customer doesn't mind because he or she is at ease with the surroundings. When you customer wants to leave, you walk them to the door and say "come again you are always welcome".

Josh Spahn is Web Developer, Affiliate Market Specialist, and Graphic Designer. He has developed such sites as, Wuwhoo.com, and Masternerd.com. His recent goals include building an affiliate based shopping engine and develope a general web directory.

http://masternerd.com

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The Mystery of Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing has always played a critical role in managing the visibility of a company’s online brand. However with the Internet becoming what is arguably today’s dominant medium, Search Engine Marketing has also risen to become a key driver in a company’s overall brand strategy. Regrettably the maturity of the products and services that comprise search engine related disciplines come at a time when the industry has never been more complicated and difficult to navigate. Even though businesses today have many more options with regard to how they execute their search engine initiatives, I find that many marketing executives struggle more today with their online marketing strategies than they did a few years ago. In today’s blog post I’ll share my opinions on the current state of the Search Engine Marketing Industry.

My experience with Search Engine Marketing predates many in the field. In the mid 80’s I co-founded what was at the time the largest web development company in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. My partner and I later sold that company to the largest web enablement firm in the world where I stayed on for a period of time as their Director of Internet Strategy before leaving to found one of the top 50 Interactive Advertising Agencies in the United States. At last weeks 2006 Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, California it was clear that the industry has shown remarkable growth and made tremendous advances in sophistication as well as in the diversity of product and service offerings currently available, but I question whether things are getting better or worse for the consumer.

In talking regularly with many senior executives, marketing professionals and entrepreneurs one thing is clear…they are clearly not fluent in the area of search engine marketing. While these professionals understand the potential that search engine marketing holds for their businesses they do not understand how to capitalize on it. In fact, many of the people I have spoken with are extremely frustrated at the amount of money they have invested in search initiatives without being able to develop an understanding of the medium such that they have not yet been able to develop a consistent winning strategy in this space.

The major problems that exist within the search industry are tied to the fact that this is still an embryonic medium. There are only so many ways to purchase advertising in more mature mediums like radio or television. Contrast this with the numerous options available to consumers and businesses looking to purchase advertising on the internet: Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Call, Pay-Per-Acquisition, Sponsored Advertising, Internet Yellow Pages, Ezine ads, Contextual Advertising, Embedded Advertising, Pop-overs and Pop-unders, Banner serving networks, Directory Ads, Link Farms, video ads, webinars, etc. Advertising mediums in the infancy of their lifecycle spit out new opportunities faster than you can shake a stick at, with inexperienced vendors cutting their teeth on the advertiser’s nickel. There is rarely a week that passes when I don’t speak to a company who has a horror story to tell about a search marketing company who over-promised and under-delivered and by the time the advertiser figured out what was going-on they had spent thousands of dollars with little to show for it.

Another problem with the search industry is that Google currently controls most of the traffic. Combine Google’s dominant position with the fact that they will share little if any data with advertisers and that they can change the rules of the game at any time and it brings new meaning to the term “Flying Blind.” However the issue of transparency within the search industry is not limited to Google. Most of the search engines play their cards very close to the chest as they try and establish a leg up in the market. Until there is competitive pressure brought to bear on Google the odds are stacked against the advertiser. I met with a client last week that was spending 50% of their Pay-Per-Click budget on Yahoo and MSN because it was recommended to them by their search marketing firm. The problem is that given the advertisers product line and target market Yahoo and MSN would produce virtually no return for them…This is a big problem.

The fact is that the Internet is the medium that can deliver the most velocity and biggest return on your marketing dollar. I also believe that this will continue to be the case as the dominance of the Internet medium will only continue to widen the gap over alternate mediums. Companies cannot afford not to allocate a substantial part of their advertising budget to online advertising, but until the medium matures it will behoove of them to make sure that they work with the best vendors who can keep up with the rapid pace of change in the industry.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com or by viewing http://www.N2growth.com/blog

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