Archive for October, 2009

Search Engine Marketing, or simply SEM, has been one of the most used and discussed subjects the last years by web marketing pros. Suggestions, theories, complaints and success stories are constantly on the scene.

The field of SEM started just a few years ago and it has become impressively important for those who intend to succeed doing internet businesses.

Having a successful web site involves many aspects; each one of them closely related to the other in what will be the denominated a Web Marketing Strategy - the essential part of a marketing campaign.

To build the proper strategy is necessary to prepare an exhaustive market research, understand which our niche market is, and create a plan to reach our audience the best possible way, avoiding unnecessary risks and expensive costs, expecting a secure and profitable ROI.

Once the SEM strategy is ready, we may start working on the selected optimization tools as SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click - paid advertising), Link Development, Press Releases, Affiliate Marketing programs, email marketing, and many other ways of boosting traffic and sales, as long as it’s required and fits the project’s budget.

A smart web marketing strategy should perform different tools on each stage, in order to gain particular success parameters according to its real possibilities.

SEO uses to be the base of search engine marketing campaigns as it involves the web site’s organic traffic generation and in-site performance, while other techniques assist and support the SE optimization work; nevertheless I want to remark that as each campaign is a world apart and unique Marketing objectives should be taken into consideration to decide the correct tools to implement.

After the web marketing campaign starts, a regular evaluation process is a mandatory stage to review and correct whatever needs to be improved, as well as to know how profitable each single campaign/ad/keyword is. After reviewing the web analytics results and understanding our audience’s behavior, we are ready to proceed to a new phase into the recurring web marketing process.

Answering the core question, what makes us go over Search Engine Marketing once and again?
Simple, the world is always changing and so we must do to keep having a competitive web sites and attractive content to offer.

Daniel Katz
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/search-engine-marketing-on-demand-3422.html

Can you actually ruin your business by employing SEO copywriting techniques to your web pages? It is not likely but it is possible. It is especially possible if the text you are uploading to your pages are more search engine spider friendly then they are people friendly. Many people can recognize this type of writing and are very offended by it if they see it on the site. They see SEO techniques in copywriting as a compensation for a less than satisfactory product.

Another thing to keep in mind is that once you send out SEO articles to ezine or article directories or out on an RSS feed the results can be difficult to alter. SEO writing can be costly too, not only in terms of the time you must spend figuring keywords and keyword phrases but also in the time you must spend actually writing the articles. It is also costly if you decide to hire SEO writing specialists.

What many Internet gurus don’t tell you about search engine optimization, SEO articles also need to be done fast if they are to succeed. Many keywords go stale after a month or two and it takes two to three months for search engines to crawl your site. This is because the search engine rankings that they consist of are often created from key words and key word phrases that are ranked in the top ten search results of a search engine. However sooner or later those keyword positions are going to change and more than likely slip down in the rankings. This also means that you need to be tied to the services of a professional copywriter to keep your copy that you are sending looking consistent. SEO articles and copy that seems fake or erratic because several ghostwriters did it simply turns off potential customers to your site.

Chris Angus
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/seo-search-engine-optimization-copywriting-considerations-85838.html

You may have some basic idea about how search engine results work. However, you may not necessarily understand everything that is involved when it comes to search engine results. For example, you may wonder whether the number of inbound links is the main factor that controls the search engine result. Through this article, you are provided basic information about whether it is the number of inbound links that are the main factors that controls the search engine result in the final analysis.

Even during the early years of search engine operation, inbound links played a crucial role. These early search engines (some might call them rather primitive search engines in the pre-Google days) used inbound links to some degree as part of their algorithms.

With the dawn and introduction of Google onto the scene, inbound links became of paramount importance when it came to the achievement of top ratings in regard to online searched. Indeed, Google made inbound links an essential ingredient, an essential part of its own comprehensive algorithm system.

The rationale behind using inbound links as part of a search engine algorithm actually is based upon a basic premise. The concept is that the more pages that are linked to a particular page, the more important that page must be in the overall scheme of things. As a consequence, the more inbound links that a particular page has, the higher ranking it deserves through an online search. And, of course, the higher the ranking, the more traffic that will be drawn to that particular website.

Many search engines merely tally up the number of inbound links connected to a particular page. Google actually has refined this process further. Google looks not only at the inbound links that are hooked up to a particular webpage — but it also examines the number of inbound links the linking page has in and of itself. More weight is given to a linking page that itself has more inbound links. The theory remains that the linking page must be more important if other pages are linking to that page.

In the final analysis, the number of inbound link a page has is of crucial importance. Therefore, the owner, manager or operator of an Internet based website is well served by making certain that a particular page is highly linked to other pages on the Net that themselves are well linked.

Wisam Abdulziz
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/inbound-links-a-primary-factor-in-search-engine-results-and-ultimate-search-rankings-121939.html

=================================================== Monitoring
Search Engine Positions
===================================================

www.profit.ne1.net

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the
Internet looking for goods or services, the position your
website appears in search results is an important factor. If
your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the
consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you
achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you
make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard
to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your
search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the
success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine
positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock
portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would
you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell
when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your
search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search
engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your
rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb.
What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward
climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine
position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and
protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term
fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle
rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement
is an integral part of the whole process. It’s the long-term
changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on
immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is
imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may
change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes -
many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking -
your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can
get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you
must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly
basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions
or your top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings.
When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may
raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of
different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn’t
become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being
applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise
in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions
frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes
formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you
must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s position may
suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their
position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month,
expect position changes due to the continual changes that are
occurring in your competitor’s position, and be prepared to
adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased
rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital
information about how to improve your website to increase your
position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines
are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right
now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of
Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that
these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine
positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking
popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out
which search engines people use most frequently every month and
be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their
favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to
follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you
first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few
months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the
whims of the Internet users. Check out
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a
current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your
positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly
fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a
number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may
indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs
that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found
some type of problem with your website. If you have recently
changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly
confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a
spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments
or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine
index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its
formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant.
If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a
domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all
search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search
engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are
and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest
problem here is that search engines will sometimes change
affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography
of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display
only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor
your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts
in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the
foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they
demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you
have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it
may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or
inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for
that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into
outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and
efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs
you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment
as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same
way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and
monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time
and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture -
your long-term marketing campaign

Www.profit.ne1.net
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/monitoring-search-engine-ranking-2363.html

In the first article of this series I outlined five important steps in the optimization of any web page or website. Here are five more tips for those who want to make sure that their web pages are both user and search engine friendly.

6. Write copy that includes your keyword and search phrases at the beginning, middle and end.

If you want to write website copy that is search engine optimized, then you just have to follow good writing and presentation procedure. State clearly what you want to say in the opening paragraph, elaborate on your basic ideas in the middle section of your text and at the end summarize what you have said, reminding your readers with text that is similar to the opening paragraph. Be natural; don’t try to stuff your page with the keywords. If you read the page out loud and it sounds funny, then you have overdone the repetition of your search phrases and keywords. A density of 2% is considered to be OK. Thus in a 400 word page of text your keyword might be repeated eight times.

7. Place your keywords and phrases in the link text of your web pages

So far we have placed the keywords in the strategic places of the web page: the title, the description, the headlines and the body text. Now we have to see that the keywords are included in clickable link text on the page. Whenever you are linking to sub pages or other pages of your site, make sure that your keywords are included in the clickable portions of the links. Thus, instead of making a link that says “click here” for more information about bicycle accessories, it would be better to write: click here for more information about “bicycle accessories,” with the keywords “bicycle accessories” being the anchor (clickable) text.

8. Install a navigation system that can be easily followed by search engines

One of the most important steps in getting more traffic to your site is to ensure that all of the site’s web pages are included in the search engine indices. Normally a search engine robot will visit the main page of a site and follow links to the other pages. If your navigation system is based on java script, or on images, there is a possibility that some search engine robots will not be able to follow the links and thus they will not pick up the interior pages of your site. One simple remedy for this problem is to build an additional text-link navigation bar and place it at the bottom of the page. This additional navigation bar will serve multiple purposes:

a. Helping the search engines to reach the interior pages
b. Putting your keywords in link “anchor text”
c. Reminding the user to go deeper into the site by repeating the navigation options again

9. Build a site map page or use the Google sitemap option

Getting all of your pages indexed is so important, that it is also prudent to take another step that will ensure that all of your pages are visited by search engine robots. A site map is a page that has text links to all of the pages of your site. As with a text link navigation bar, a site map serves multiple purposes:

1. It helps users to find what they are looking for on the site by providing an outline summary of all of your pages
2. It helps search engine robots to land on the interior pages

After your build your site map page, be sure to make a link to it from your home page and the other important pages of your website.

In addition to a normal site map page, you can also make an XML site map, upload it to the server and then register it with the Google site map tool. You can use a free online utility to create your XML site map at: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and visit www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps for more information. This process is easy to accomplish, and it will supply you with important statistical information from Google as well as help get all of your pages indexed.

10. Once your website is up and running concentrate on off-site optimization

So far all the steps that I have outlined are concerned with on-page factors, the parts of your website that are under your control. But your ranking in Google and other search engines will also be heavily dependent on off-page factors such as how many high quality sites link to your site. Unless you obtain a good amount of high quality links to your site you will not be able to compete in highly competitive search categories.

By far the best way to get links to your site is to first build a site that has valuable content. You should endeavor to build a site that is so “cool” or so unique, that other people will link to you without even asking you. Of course this is easier said than done, but it should be what you are striving for.

The next best way to get high quality back links to a website is to write informative articles and get them published on other websites with a link back to your site. This process is known as article marketing and it not only helps to build incoming links, but it also builds your online reputation as an expert in your field.

Other common methods of increasing incoming links include submissions to important directories, participation in forums and careful trading of links with high quality websites.

If you follow the ten “do-it-yourself” search engine optimization tips that I have described in the two articles of this series then you will have taken a big step towards guaranteeing the success of your online enterprise.

Donald Nelson
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/do-it-yourself-seo-ten-search-engine-optimization-tips-part-2-80697.html

Search engine optimization, also known simply as SEO, is the practice of improving a web site’s ranking in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. The goal of SEO is to optimize a web site (on and off the page) so that it ranks well for a specific set of keywords. Although this may seem like a simple enough task, it is actually a very complicated and challenging one. Not only do you have to compete against other web sites, but you also have to deal with the search engines. Every major search engine has a different algorithm, and what may improve your ranking in one search engine could potentially lower your ranking in another one. Although there are many factors and practices within the search engine optimization community, here are some of the more common on page search engine optimization techniques:

Meta Tags-Although they used to carry much more weight, meta tags should still be optimized as a part of basic on page search engine optimization. Every web page on your web site should contain a unique meta description, along with several meta keywords which describe the content of the web page. SEOs should avoid “stuffing” meta tags. Stuffing meta tags is the practice of using tons of meta tags on one page. Although this used to be considered a “Black Hat” technique, it is now nothing more than a foolish attempt at improving your search engine ranking.

Header Tags-H1 and H2 tags should be optimized in the same fashion as the meta tags. If possible, the header tags should be slightly different than the meta tags. However, they should still contain the same important keywords that you want your web page to rank well for.

Out of all the on page SEO factors, the most important is original content. When writing content, try to write in a normal conversational tone instead of writing systematically for the search engines.

Tyler Banfield
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/a-quick-look-at-search-engine-optimization-92415.html

The basic idea of search engine is people can browse the web site/homepage to find out the information they needs throughout the search engine.
When some people introduce the search engine strategy,it is generally thought that the main objective of search engine optimization are two levels:
1:Search engine indexed
2:Position forward in the search results
This is general knowledge.Most network engineer and professional services also set the goal of the search engines are basically at this level.
However, judging from the actual situation, just make the search engine indexed and position forward in the search results are not enough.
It is only two basic goals in search engine marketing strategy.It can not guarantee those visitors into customers or potential customers,therefore, we should also have some other capacity.
It is using search engine marketing to achieve the goal of four levels:
1:Search engine indexed
2:Position forward in the search results
3:Increase visitors click rate
4:Conversion visitors to customers
In this four levels,the previous three can be interpreted as a search engine marketing process,conversion visitors to customers is our goal.
In general search engine optimization,website design through title, Meta label and so on,usually the previous two primary goals can be achieved.
In order to achieve high-level goals,we still need to further optimize the design of the website,keywords selection,link popularity,And some knowledge in web site design and promotion.

James Yaqins
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/four-levels-of-search-engine-marketing-67523.html

Most people on the Internet start with a search engine when we’re looking for what we want. Search engine submission should naturally be on your list of to-do’s when it comes to website marketing. You’ll want your website listed in as many search engines as you can. This will extend the reach of your website as far as possible, thus bringing in visitors from every nook and cranny of the net.

Search engine submission doesn’t guarantee that you’ll receive good rankings, though. A search engine submission will let the search engine know where your page is and what it’s about. This is the first step to getting more search engine exposure for your website. To improve your rankings, it might also be a good idea to invest time in the search engine optimization of your individual website pages.

If you’re looking to do search engine submissions yourself, be prepared to spend a bit of time at the computer if you’re doing more than 5-10 submissions. It can be a very time consuming process, and can get old quick. I know submissions may be grueling, but they are too beneficial to your website to ignore. There’s plenty of services online that can help you in this area for a reasonable price and will get the job done quickly. It might be a good idea to check out one of these services, and see if you can benefit from what they offer.

When you combine search engine submissions as well as web site directory submissions, then you will really be helping the link strength of your website. Try to spend your time getting as many links from other places as possible, this is a good way to boost your rankings in search engines. Submissions can also build links when you need them, so you’ll be able to see the positive results from your site quicker than normal.

Search engine submissions will let the search engines know that you’re here, so they can give you the visitors that your website needs.

Doug Smith
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/web-marketing-with-search-engine-submissions-104663.html

search engine Optimization Is a unique task which one just needs to know the system. Using the correct techniques you should be ranking in no time and receiving orders or calls to your site. Of course there is a lot involved but this quick 5 step process will help you simply your success in internet marketing and search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization requires understanding your Competition

Find who your competitors are by searching for a keyword will want to rank for. This keyword should actually be a key phrase so it is easier for you to rank sooner. Having “search engine optimization” as a keyword is just to difficult to rank for at first.

Work your way up in Internet marketing by using the low hanging fruit key phrases.

An Internet marketing firm would find your competition by looking at the top 10 listings in the search engines. See what their title tags are showing and descriptions tags. Also, see if they are selling anything. Sometimes the tops listings are government sites and those would not be your competition.

Look at the last listing and do a link:www.therewebaddress.com in google or yahoo to discover how many links are pointing to that site. The more high ranking links the more difficult it will be to rank above that site.

Your next step in Internet marketing is On Site Optimization.

Use your key phrases in the title tags and descriptions tags according to your content. Title tags work best if you use 3 key phrases per title tag. Then in your content you would have these key phrases laid out accordingly.

Also, be sure to use H1 and H2 tags with those key phrases. Internet Marketing Firms use header tags to tell google what the paragraph below is about and the site.

search engine optimization and Link Building

Some times the most feared part of any Internet marketing company or SEO expert. The link building is actually quite simple.

You have many options in Internet marketing to build links. Lets start with Directory Submission secrets….

Directory submission services are usually the best as they will do this tedious task for you. Submitting to thousands of sites for a nominal service fee. Or you can do it your self but while doing all the onsite optimization you may need assistance. So directory submission services are very helpful.

Another Link Building Technique is paying for links to other site.

Although, not the best method in my opinion because it will be a cost up front. It can be effective to pay a high trafficked web site to put a link on their page.

The most beneficial Internet Marketing Technique is Articles.

Create some great informative articles and send them to article sites. Within these articles are your key phrases and links back to your site.

This is a huge way of link building. It takes time… but very beneficial. Most importantly do not write dumb articles. Give the reader good content, as it will help your business in the long run making you a specialist.

Markus Skupeika
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/search-engine-optimization-3-tricks-for-cash-flow-122571.html