Has Anyone Seen My Website

Writen by Roschelle Nelson

Hooray!! You've done it. Your website is up and running. You've even added one of those neat little site counters to keep up with how much traffic you're receiving.

But unlike 'Field of Dreams', just because you build it...they may not come. If you don't want to slip into cyberspace undetected here are a few things you can do to boost your site traffic and visibility.

First, make sure you provide fresh content on a regular basis. It's not hard to tell when a site has become a forgotten url by it's webmaster. Provide tools that allow your visitors to interact: polls, forums,newsletters, games, even new cartoons or quotes. People love to be entertained. So, the content needs to be really fresh and really exciting.

Secondly, links! links! links!. Need I say more. The more sites you link to especially sites with high page ranks, the better your chances are of getting noticed from the regulars that frequent your link partner sites. Linking can be done via search engines. However this can be very time consuming. I recommend investing in some sort of search engine optimization software. They find the partners, provide you with their page ranks and an auto-complete form. I've utilized an awesome one that has saved me a tremendous amount of time. You also want to know your competition. Visit their sites. Link to some of the same sites they are linking too.

Google adwords is also a great way of getting your site noticed on search engines. However, if you're not careful this can be very costly. I recommend, if you plan to utilize adwords, do so during peak times for internet usage. This increases the likelihood that more users will see your listing.

And finally, BE PATIENT and PERSISTENT. Don't expect overnight success. Don't ever give up. No exceptions! Continue to work as hard on your site as you did when it was under construction.

Here's to seeing you at the top of the charts!

Roschelle Nelson is the founder and publisher of WAH4life.com. She lives and works at her home with her husband and two sons. http://www.wah4life.com

This Keyword Research Strategy Is Almost Too Easy

Writen by David C. Chase

I have spent literally hundreds of hours reading e-books and other relevant sources for this information. I work professionally as an SEO and have had success in some of the highest margin markets on the web. Over the length of this article I will be sharing with you a system I use to aid me through my efforts.

Ok so let's get started:

I'm going to assume you have a very large keyword list. If you don't have one, or don't know how to create one, you can read a recently published article I wrote on the subject: How To Conquer Your Competition By Creating a Killer is Keyword List. You can read about this quick and easy technique by visiting http://www.keywordkingdom.com/killerkeywordlist.html

Ok so now you got a large list of keywords for your website, now what?

Filter your list to the keywords that convert the most sales.

I'm sure you've been told and have even beaten over the head with this quote: 'The longer the keyword phrase the more targeted it usually is, and the higher it will convert'. Yet it baffles me how many times people still overlook this. If you want to spend a year targeting keywords that get bazillions of searches go right ahead, I'll spend a dedicated month getting a top ranking for a longer more targeted phrase. I tend to get the highest conversions from keyword phrases 3-5 words long, but it all varies on the site and market.

Please don't do what everybody else does and use KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) as the be-all-end-all solution to keyword research. You'll simply be doing yourself an incredible disservice as that data is not very accurate.

So what is the million dollar secret to finding the keyword in your market that convert the most sales? It's simple- run a massive Adwords pay-per-click campaign.

Google Adwords is a very efficient and inexpensive way to find the keywords that convert the highest possible sales. Create an Adwords account (as the other pay-per-click options don't come close to the accuracy or tracking Google offers). Place all of the keywords you accumulated in your market into a single AdGroup (there are better ways of grouping your ads but its irrelevant in the context of this article). Bid high enough to have a top 8 listing for every word (this will insure many impressions). Also, be sure to integrate the "conversion tool", under the "Tools" tab in your Adwords campaign. Simply paste the bar of code Google gives you on the "thank you" page of the targeted site. This will give you the conversion numbers and ratios that make this technique work. After a few good weeks of impressions you should have a large enough sample to know EXACTLY what keywords are converting at the highest percentage.

Note: Don't be afraid to spend the ten or so dollars on your pay per click campaign, the information this technique reveals is worth thousands alone.

Jot down the keywords that converted at the highest percent; you now have an edge on 99% of the competition in your market. If you dont know what to do with this valueable information, I'll show you in my next article: Are You Making this Million Dollar Mistake When Choosing Your Keywords?

David Chase, the "Michael Jordan" of SEO is giving away his new, quick and easy mini-course "The 7 Simple, yet Wildly Successful Strategies for SEO" to the first 250 signups. Click here to get your copy today while memberships last.

Seo Are You Making The Search Engines Mad

Writen by Lisa Irby

If you've been involved in SEO (search engine optimization) for a while, you may remember the time when you could create a web page and get it ranked at the top of any search engine with little effort.

All you had to do was load up the page with the keywords you wanted to rank high for, make sure your meta tags were stuffed with those same keywords, submit the page and within a few days or weeks you've captured a top 20 or even top 10 result.

The major search engines were pretty easy to figure out. Some focused on the first 90 characters on a page, others gave more weight to the title tag in your HTML, another paid more attention to the overall content and finally some used a combination of factors to determine a page's rank. And if you were a search engine expert, you knew which engine looked for what information.

Back then, you didn't get penalized much for keyword stuffing, hidden text, and some of the other tactics that can get you into trouble in today's world.

The bottom line is search engine optimization for the average webmaster was almost like a cakewalk years ago.

Well, times have certainly changed! Those same methods described above will not only hurt your rank, they can even get your banned from the engine permanently.

Below you'll find some search engine optimization techniques that may have worked well in the past but have now been known to penalize you if you implement them.

Useless Link Exchanges

It used to be you could go scout out other websites that were related to yours and swap links to help boost your link popularity. These days the search engines are frowning on certain link exchange strategies.

The best kind of link exchange is one that offers a contextual link to both parties. So instead of creating a "page-o-links" that no one will even read, offer your potential link partner a contextual link in an article that is related to their site. Ask your partner to do the same for you. The search engines will see this link as a much better quality link than a link from a page chuck-full of other sites.

Let's say you have a website on dieting. Instead of creating a "list-o-links" page titled "Other Diet Resources" where you list 300 different partner links, write some diet-related articles and recommend a few of your link partner's sites within the context of the article.

I'm not saying avoid link directories altogether. There are some good ones like Yahoo!, JoeAnt and The Open Directory to name a few. None of these directories require a link back to them and they all have a pretty high Google PageRank.

Doorway Pages

Doorway pages are small, keyword focused pages that mainly serve the purpose of getting the visitor to your affiliated web site. They usually offer no value to the website as a whole, and often times they are cluttered with several different affiliate links.

Google is smart and can scope those kinds of pages out. You may be penalized if it finds these on your site.

Hidden or Tiny Text

This is an OLD tactic and it amazes me people still use this.

Using white text on a white background or making your text so small it is hardly visible to the human eye is one of the oldest search engine tricks in the book.

Many people would use this technique to hide tons of keyword phrases they wanted to rank high for by hiding the text at the very bottom or top of the page and make it match the background color so they are invisible. Others would use a tiny font to add these keywords in various places all over the site. The human eye may have a difficult time finding them but the search engine spiders would.

What You Should Be Focusing On...

Unique content rules. Don't get stressed out about your meta tags, link lists, number of backlinks, etc. If you want the search engines to love you, build a website with lots of unique content, get a couple of high-quality sites to link back to you (Yahoo, The Open Directory, etc.) and develop a good link exchange program (described above).

That's it! Keep building content and make your site as useful as possible. Pretty soon people will link to you voluntarily and your link popularity will begin to increase.

Write for humans, not the search engine spiders. Forget about keyword density (the ratio of a keyword phrase to total body content), just write for real people. After all, rumor has it that Google is using humans to review sites anyway! Could this be the future of search engine rankings? Only time will tell.

Bottom line: Don't take shortcuts. Be ethical and work hard to build the best site you can. You'll be rewarded in the end.

Lisa Irby is the author of http://www.2createawebsite.com, a site that offers tutorials on web hosting, HTML, traffic-building, earning money and more.

Pay Per Click Versus Quotorganicquot Search Engine Listings The Pros And Cons And Best Uses For Each

Writen by Justine Curtis

What's the difference?

For those who aren't quite clear what the term "natural" or "organic" search engine-listing means, they describe the "editorial" search results on any particular engine. These results are professed to be non-biased - meaning that the engine will not accept money to influence the rankings of any individual sites. This is quite different than the paid advertising (Pay Per Click) that appears in the "sponsored" or "featured" results, in which higher positions are awarded to the companies willing to pay the most per visitor or click.

Why is organic search important?

Although paying for Pay Per Click listings initially seems the obvious answer, organic search listings are still very important to both searchers and web site advertisers. Knowledgeable searchers, who understand the difference between paid and organic results are more likely to hold the natural results in a higher regard, much like a person reading a newspaper or magazine would be more positively influenced by an article about a particular product or service than by a paid advertisement from the company that sells it. In addition, organic results even the playing field. Companies or individuals with smaller marketing budgets can complete with larger organisations as the natural results are based on relevancy to the search term rather than the amount you are willing or able to pay for each click through to your web site.

What are the cons?

Unfortunately, it takes a certain amount of knowledge and programming skills to optimise for organic search listings. It can also take a ridiculous length of time to be indexed. It often takes anywhere from two days to as much as six months to be listed on a search engine. Several weeks is the norm, but you could get lucky and submit just a couple days before an engine does a complete refresh of their database.

Which One Gets More Clicks?

I am frequently asked "Which listing type do searchers click on more often: natural "organic" search engine results or paid "sponsored" adverts?" Recent studies have confirmed my standard response, that the answer is a classic case of...it depends!

Searcher behaviour varies greatly depending on the demographics of the searcher (men v women, experienced Internet users v novices), the type of search a person is conducting (information-oriented v purchase-oriented) and the engine where the search is being conducted.

To reach the greatest number of potential customers and maximize the results of your advertising campaign, you must be visible in natural organic results AND sponsored listings.

Here are six possible scenarios to help you prioritise and decide which path(s) to follow when setting up your search engine marketing campaign:

1. Limited Advertising Budget
If budgets are tight or nonexistent and you can't afford to pay for website visitors, even after taking into account the value of their desired online action, you will want to place a great deal of emphasis on effectively implementing search engine optimisation in-house. If you don't already have the knowledge or skills to implement this, download our invaluable guide to optimising your web site for both organic search engine listings and visitor use here: "Start at the Beginning": http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html

2. Website That Can't Be Modified
Optimisation for organic search engine listings typically involves modifying a site's design, content, and navigation. For example, heavy reliance on Flash, frames, or graphics may need to be changed in order to incorporate more optimised text. However, some businesses feel that an optimised website does not provide the multi-media experience their customers require or expect. If your business falls into this category, then Pay Per Click advertising may be the only way to achieve good results.

3. Need Immediate Results
A basic Pay Per Click campaign on Overture or Google can be up and running and driving visitors to your web site in a matter of hours. Significant improvement in organic rankings may take several months to achieve. If you require immediate results Pay Per-Click advertising will need to be your top priority.

4. Guaranteed Top Placement
No-one can guarantee consistent, top organic listings for high volume key phrases in a competitive market sector. Search engines change their algorithms (indexing criteria) regularly and no one can control how or when sites are indexed, except the individual search engine itself. If you absolutely must guarantee consistent top placement on high-volume keywords in a competitive market sector, you will need to rely heavily on Pay Per Click advertising and have sufficient budget to fund it. Investigate current bid rates, can you afford top placement on the highest-volume words? If not, expand your keyword list beyond the most obvious and popular key phrases and advertise across a larger number of less popular, more specific and cost-effective phrases. Remember that most searchers enter two or three words to form a key phrase rather than a single word.

For a complete guide to setting up and managing your Pay Per Click campaign, download our guide: "Maximising Your Pay Per Click Campaign" read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_5.html

Ultimately, focus on the keywords that work best and achieve the best conversion rates and the highest return on investment (ROI). For more detailed advice on how to measure your conversions and ROI, download our guide: "Measuring Success", read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html

5. A Need To Change Advert Content or Timing
If you need to frequently change the content of your adverts, for example to promote particular products or to make seasonal offers, or if you want to be able to turn your advertising on and off, you will need to rely on the control and flexibility offered by Pay Per Click advertising.

6 Ad-Adverse Audience
More Internet savvy search engine users recognise information that is displayed as a purchased advert and this limits its credibility. In this case the integrity associated with a high natural ranking is invaluable. If your target market is likely to be Internet wise (IT professionals, students, etc), optimisation should be your main focus.

The above guidelines will help you assess the relative priority of optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising, but how should you implement each method? Simultaneously or one at a time?

Generally speaking I would recommend that you start the Pay Per Click campaign slightly before the optimisation of your web site. The immediacy of a Pay Per Click campaign will bring you visitors in the short term, and more importantly it will also allow you to measure what is (and is not) working on your web site; are the landing pages for your adverts converting your visitors, are you targeting the most effective keywords, etc.

Armed with the results of this testing you can optimise your web site effectively and avoid costly delays that occur while waiting for search engines to re-crawl newly optimised pages. Only when you are completely happy that your web site is the best it can be should you submit it to the search engines.

When these organic listings start to bring visitors to your web site, you can re-evaluate you Pay Per Click spend. It may be that your ROI on these adverts is acceptable and you continue as is, or you may wish to reduce your advertising spend. A quick calculation on your conversion rates should give you the answer. For more information see our guide: "Measuring Success", read an excerpt here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_6.html

Today, most marketers accept that web site optimisation for organic listings and Pay Per Click advertising is not an either/or proposition. For a well-rounded and effective search marketing campaign that reaches the greatest number of searchers, marketers should blend both natural and paid listings, capitalising on their complementary strengths and weaknesses.

For a complete guide to marketing on the Internet, including:

· The General Principles of Internet Marketing
· Start at the Beginning
· Writing Text that Sells
· Building Online Relationships
· Maximising Your Pay Per Click Campaign
· Measuring Success

Why not purchase the whole series of downloadable guides for the discounted price of £64.95. Click here for more information: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/promo_ebooks.html Justine Curtis Enable UK Internet Marketing Information and Resources Make your web site work harder! Web: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk Email: info@enable-uk.co.uk Article from Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter, a monthly publication of Enable-UK Copyright © 2004 Enable-UK.

Google Traffic Report Carddoes Your Website Pass Part 1

Writen by Leah J Bradshaw

This is part 1 of a 7 part series that examines the 7 factors of incoming links that Google considers when choosing a spot for your website in it's SERP's.

Why incoming links? First because these are what Google places the highest value on. But, all incoming links are NOT created equal. This 7 part course looks at the kinds of links Google values when "rating" your website in the SERP's. Each type of link discussed is important to your overall link strategy and consequently your free traffic levels.

The first factor is of course the anchor text used in your incoming links. The importance of the keywords used to link to your website are more important to Google than the content that is actually on your page. You can generally use anchor link text with your keywords and not even have the keywords on the page and still get a good ranking in Google for that term if enough incoming links have that keyword pharse in them.

If you've heard of the phrase "Google Bombing" then you know what I'm talking about. Basically it's when a set of webmasters or blog owners decide to get a page ranked for a certain term and all leave links back to the selected site with the keyword phrase that they want that page to rank for.

The most notorious example of this is the "bombing" done by several blog owners to the George W Bush biograpby page. Several bloggers left links to the page containing the keyword text "miserable failure" and consequently this page turns up as the number 1 result in Google for the term, even though the words don't appear anywhere on the page.

The "Google Bombing" was done by at most a few hundred links with this link text pointing to the page. Though more links would probably be necissary for a more competative term. Still, it goes to show how important link text is to the rankings of a page.

Google Bombing is nothing new. But what many people don't realize is that Google places more relevance on the anchor link text that it finds when it first discovers a link to your website. Each consequent link either adds value to that first impression or subtracts from it.

Many times you can control which link google finds first just by knowing where google goes regularly (like on a daily basis) and effectively placing your link in it's path. This is called "baiting" the google bot to visit your website through this link.

Each link you place after this initial link should further show google that their first impression (or the first keywords it discovered that linked to your website) was and still is correct. Each subsiquent link is a "vote" so to speak to validate Google's original impression of what your website is about.

Placing that first link to be found by Google is only the first step, but a very important one. Choose your anchor text keywords carefully. Each incoming link you place after this one should serve to validate this first impression. Part 2 will discuss the appearance and disappearance of links over time and how they effect your traffic and search engine placement.

Leah J. Bradshaw is the author of the Free Traffic Report; "Jumpstart Your Traffic in as Little as 10 Days". She also authors a Free Traffic Blog for wahm's to help work at home moms get free traffic.