Intro.
Search engine marketing has changed so drastically over the past few years, that one wonders where it may be heading next. Currently, Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engine host 95% of all searches done online, and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of serious changes. But what can we do to rank highly in them consistently?
One-way links
It seems that inter-site linking is all the rage, and most know that just exchanging links with random websites will not get you the rankings you want, and they are right. The days of exchanging links with any and every website out there are over, and have been over for sometime. One is better off identifying their niche, and focusing on obtaining one-way links from websites and directories. This can be done in a variety of ways such as:
- Writing articles and submitting them to directories
- Submitting your website to top directories such as joeant and skaffe
- Giving away free information with the stipulation the user link to where they got the material, which is you
- Actively participating in forums that match your products, and niche
- Start a blog and keep it updated
Tags
Fortunately, there are head tags that still work over all search engines. The title tag, and the description tag. The meta keyword tag no longer matters in Google, and Yahoos search engines too much, though they are still weighted by msn. Msn actually likes this tag quite a bit, so I would recommend still using your keyphrases in this head tag.
Keywords
When first starting out, Its best to start with smaller keyphrases then move in to larger ones. This will get you traffic, and keep you afloat, while you go for the bigger ones. Not only that, it gives you sense of accomplishment, and keeps you moving forward. This is very important, as many people get stuck in a rut after about 3-4 months with no rankings, and give up. It’s important to start small. Not only to pay bills, but to keep you going in the right direction.
Link Exchanges
Yes, link exchanges still work. Believe it. Though there are quality standards these days.
- Only exchange link with websites that are in your general niche market. For example, if had a fishing related website, I would not want to exchange links with a cleaning service website.
- Do not exchange with website with a single page link directory, with 200 links on it. First off, Google only indexes the first 100 links on each page, and secondly, these types of sites are starting to be punished by Google, Yahoo.
- Only exchange with a website that has a clearly defined link directory, that is broken down into categories, and is linked from their homepage.
- Do not exchange with websites that have a grey bar, when using the Google toolbar. This indicates they have been punished by Google, and for linking to them, you could in turn be punished.
Keep at it
This could quite possibly be the key to ranking for competitive phrases. You have to stay positive, and keep working steady, everyday. This of course, comes with the stipulation that you have identified the best keyphrases for your site, and are confident of your ability. Rankings do not happen overnight, and for more competitive phrases, might not happen within the year. This is the harsh truth, but, with the right knowledge, and strict work ethics, you can certainly achieve the success you expect online.
This article was written by Anthony Sulecki, the writer of the WPS Search Engine Marketing Solutions book. He is always open for questions, and email.
Tags: Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, seo bookInternet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, seo bookShare This
Search Engine Marketing is very important if you want your online business to succeed. It is all about good quality high value (unique is best) content, it is what the search engines want, as it is what the searchers are looking for. This is just a quick list from the top of my head but is enough to keep you busy.
Articles: this is the most powerful way for 2006 and beyond to generate good quality one-way in bound links. Submit them to article directories and submission services, do a search on your favourite search engine for article submission services or article directories to find relevant ones for your industry. Note it is a good idea to use relevant keywords and phrases in your articles but only if they make sense.
Press Releases: another sure fire way to generate quality links from authority sites. Press releases are much more powerful that advertising as they are objective. Again if you are not familiar with writing press releases do a search in your favourite search engine for information on how to write a good press release, for example type in ‘tips for writing a good press release’. Then do a search for good press release submission services PRWeb.com is a very popular service
Add regular fresh content to the site: Your search engine marketing will only succeed if you do this - you could reuse the articles used for submissions etc But this would probably not be the best method. Although a good idea would be to write a series of articles, use a few of them or a shortened version or an abstract (still with good quality unique content of course) for submission to the directories. Make sure you tell the readers that further articles and information can be found on your website, enticing them to visit your site to read the rest of the articles.
Make a point to add fresh content to your site on a regular basis. For example if you are in the Overseas property industry you should add new properties, buyers guides, area guides, country guides, case studies, customer testimonials, resources (i.e. weather, travel info, car hire etc these can be affiliate links to generate additional streams of income).
Set yourself up a Blog and make regular posts to ping the search engines every time you add fresh content to your site, this will alert the search engine spiders, who will come crawling to review and index your new pages. Again if you don’t know much about Blogs, use your favourite search engine to find out how to set one up. Wordpress.com is a popular service.
Joint ventures: i.e. you email your database in return for an email to another company’s database. You know your industry; you should know who to tap up for a joint venture. Don’t simply view similar websites as competitors, this is short sighted; instead view them as opportunities and colleagues. You can swap links, exchange content (publish each other articles), email each others databases etc use your imagination, get creative, there is enough traffic for most websites to succeed. As long as your website adds value and offers good quality unique content you will succeed.
Hooks: you can offer your visitors something of value in return for them signing up to your newsletter. For example, again if you are an overseas property company Free Brochures, Buyers guide, legal or tax information
Competitions: use incentive based viral marketing i.e. enter your site visitors into a competition for every friend or colleague they tell about your site or who they get to register for your mailing list.
Optimise your web pages and articles: as this article is talking about using fresh content for your search engine marketing strategy I thought it best show you how to create an optimised page, for those of you that don’t know how.
In my experience I have found that it is important to optimise each webpage for a maximum of two phrases only.
Title
Title = phrase one | phrase two
Meta keywords
Also try to keep your Meta keywords limited to a few, use the same two phrases first as in your title although you can bulk it out with another phrase, like so;
Meta Keywords: phrase one, phrase two, phrase three
Meta Description
The Meta description must also start with your keywords but be descriptive at the same time, like so;
Meta Description: Phrase one, information for about phrase two from your company / website name
Alt tags
First 3 images on the page should contain the phrases but also describe the picture/image, like so;
Alt 1: phrase one company name logo
Alt 2: phrase two picture
Alt3: phrase one photos
Headers
It is also very important to have header tags with the keyphrase in, like so;
Start the page copy with a header tag
< H >Phrase one< /H >
Copy
The first 50 words must also contain the two phrases.
Copy
Then use another header with a phrase
phrase two
copy
< h >phrase one< h >
etc
It is recommended to have between 500 - 1300 words on the page with a keyphrase weight of 2 - 5%
The key phrases should be strategically placed in an hour glass shape in the copy, i.e. a few at the top a couple in the middle and a few at the bottom.
But don’t over do it, make the copy read naturally with all the words in context.
It is also recommended to have the keyphrases in bold and italic somewhere on the page as this tells the search engines that they are important, I usually put them in the footer like so.
Phrase one | phrase two
Links
Last but not least it is recommended to have your key phases in hyper links i.e. linking text
For example you can have anchor links to the different header tags on the page for navigation or run of site link at the bottom of the page that contain the keyphrases of the page they are linking to.
And there you have it, a quick guide on how to optimise a webpage.
Use these web page optimisation techniques for all pages, articles, and fresh content you add to your site and you can’t go wrong, you are giving the search engines what they want, easy to understand content rich pages, regularly updated.
In return the search engines will give you what you want good-targeted traffic that will convert into enquiries.
Follow this search engine marketing guide, build solid content and good links and your search engine marketing campaign should be a success. if you liked this article and want to learn more visit loudmouse.biz
Luke Fitzsimmons has been working online for 5 years and is a search engine marketing and optimisation professional. Luke currently runs the Overseas Property Webshow http://www.overseaspropertywebshow.com and looks after the internet marketing campaigns of the webshow client’s micro sites, including SEM, SEO, PPC, and email marketing. Luke’s personal site is a Search Engine Marketing Guide http://www.loudmouse.biz
Tags: Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, sem, seoInternet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, sem, seoShare This
This article series will be broken down into the following sections: Processor and Memory, Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives, Audio, Video, and Graphics, Data Fax and Modem, and Ports.
These articles are about the components of the Compaq Presario SR1617CL-B; however, the knowledge you gain from these articles will equip you to make better buying decisions regarding any home desktop computer purchase. I will also add information and tips about computer components that are not in the Compaq Presario so that you have a solid understanding and that you are equipped to do good comparisons when shopping.
Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives: First of all, the hard drive type used most in home computers is the ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) drive (better known as the IDE drive). This drive type has a 16 bit parallel interface and it supports up to 133MB/s data transfer rate. The version of ATA drive that supports this speed is ATA-7 and is the last drive of this type to be made.
When someone refers to a hard drive as an ATA drive, it is commonly a Parallel ATA hard drive. ATA hard drives are also often called IDE, EIDE, Ultra-ATA, Ultra-DMA, ATAPI, and PATA hard drives (each of these acronyms does imply specific details, but are commonly interchanged). Since the Compaq Presario SR1617CL-B uses a 160GB 7200RPM Ultra DMA hard drive, I will go into the specifics of Ultra DMA.
Ultra DMA can be best understood by breaking down its parts. DMA stands for Direct Memory Access. DMA allows the hard drive to send data directly to memory without visiting the processor (CPU). Since the CPU is busy doing all sorts of things, DMA increases performance by not having to wait on the CPU to get to the task. The Ultra in Ultra DMA means that the ATA transfer rate of 16.6 Mbytes/sec has been increased to 33.3 Mbytes/sec. There is an Ultra DMA hard drive that can transfer 133 Mbytes/sec and it is based on the ATA-7 standard and it can be found written as Ultra DMA-133 in desktop computer descriptions.
Therefore, if someone tells you that the computer you are buying has an Ultra DMA hard drive, make sure you ask if it is a 33,66,100 or 133 hard drive. The higher the DMA number the faster it can transfer data to the rest of the computer system. One last note Ultra ATA is the ATA hard drive standard developed by Intel, Seagate and Quantum for desktop computer systems.
In my next article of this series, we will move from the Ultra DMA drive to the workings of the SATA hard drive. Currently, the SATA drive is a little above the value priced range but as the popularity increases and the prices decrease the SATA will most certainly become the new standard.
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Tags: ATA, buying a computer, compaq presario desktop, IDE, Ultra DMAATA, buying a computer, compaq presario desktop, IDE, Ultra DMAShare This
