Search Engine Optimization

One of the most discussed and analyzed topics on
the internet is search engine optimization (SEO).
Discussions on SEO forums often get heated as
members argue about which tactics work best.

Search engine optimization is merely the art of
making your site friendly to the search engines
so you will rank well for keywords related to
your niche.

As a website owner you want search engines like
Google, Yahoo, and MSN to rank you highly. For
example, if your website is about wines from
California, you want to show up on the first
page of results when someone searches for
"California wines."

Top rankings for popular keywords can bring
hundreds of visitors to your site day in and
day out.

Unfortunately, there are many opinions on how
to achieve top rankings, and these opinions
often conflict with one another. Google and
other search engines carefully guard the
algorithms that determine ranking to prevent
manipulation. But through trial and error,
clever minds have reverse engineered the
process to identify several factors that
help websites rank well.

The key is to make it easy for search engines
to figure out what your site is about. Let's
look at some ways to make your site friendlier
to the search engines.

SEO Tips

Each page of your site should target a different
keyword. Go back to our wine example. You'll likely
have pages on red wines, white wines, wine tasting,
wine tours, etc.

Each page should target a single keyword phrase
and that keyword should be featured prominently
throughout that web page.

You'll want to place your keyword in each of the
following places:

-In the Title of your page (preferably at the
very beginning)
-In the Description
-As the Header (H1) of the page
-In the "alt" tag embedded in an image
-In the anchor test of a link
-In bold somewhere in your text

You'll also want to use your keyword phrase
throughout the text. But do so carefully. You
want it to appear natural. Going overboard and
packing your keyword phrase all over the place
is called "keyword stuffing" and could cause
the search engines to drop your site altogether.

These simple on-page SEO tips will help you get
top rankings for many long tail keyword phrases.
But for more competitive keywords you'll need
some help...lots and lots of backlinks!

Getting More Backlinks

Backlinks are links that are directed to your website
from other websites or blogs. Backlinks are vital to
any website.

Not only do they generate traffic themselves by giving
web surfers an active link to click through to your
site, but they also increase your PageRank. PageRank
is Google's way of measuring the importance and
relevancy of website.

The more inbound links pointing to your site,
the higher your PageRank will be. And the higher
your PageRank, the more willing other websites will
be to link to you.

As you can see, increasing the backlinks to your site
can have a snowball effect on the number of visitors
to your website.

Now let's take a look at a few ways you can increase
your number of backlinks.

1. Many of your visitors will have their own websites
and blogs. Ask them to link to you. You'd be surprised
how well this works if you offer content that is really
useful and informative.

2. Make it easy for others to link to you by creating
a "Link to Us" page and give them the html code so all
they have to do is cut and paste it onto their web pages.
The easier you make it for them the more likely they'll
be to link to you.

3. Submit some articles to article directories in
exchange for a link back to your site.

4. Submit your url to various directories. Back in the
early days of the internet, there were no search engines
like Google or Yahoo. People found what they needed by
searching a directory that was broken into categories.

Today, most people prefer to use the search engines to
find what they need. But the directories haven't died
out just yet. Some people still use them and the links
still count for PageRank.

For a comprehensive list of directories you can submit
your website to, check out StrongestLinks.com.

5. When you agree to link to a website in exchange for that
website linking back to you, it's called a reciprocal link.

As with directories, many website owners have all but
given up on reciprocal linking. They argue that the search
engines have devalued reciprocal links to the point where
they're not worth the time it takes to obtain them.

But there are others who still have great success with
this method. The key is to not just link to anyone for
the sake of linking. Link to sites that are truly useful
and relevant to your visitors.

When done right, reciprocal linking will work for everyone
and both websites will receive a boost in traffic.

Posting To Forums

When done correctly, posting to forums is an
effective way to generate targeted traffic to
your web site.

But you must use discretion. Failure to follow
a forum's rules will not only result in no
traffic, it will also get you banned and
labeled a spammer.

Below are some tips to help you post to forums
more effectively.

First find the best forums you can. Go to Google
and search for:

"keyword forums"
"keyword discussion groups"
"keyword message boards"

Just replace "keyword" with whatever term best
describes your website's topic.

Be as specific as possible so you find the forums
that are most relevant to your site. Make a list
of any that look promising.

Then go down your list one by one and check each
forum out. You want forums that are active with
lots of new posts. you also want to be sure they
allow you to place links in your posts, or at least
in your signature. You don't want to waste time
in a forum that doesn't allow links because you'll
never see any traffic from them.

You should now have a list with a handful of active
forums that allow you to link back to your website.

Before you do anything, go back and read the rules
of each forum to see exactly what is allowed. You
don't want to make a bad first impression by doing
something that is frowned upon.

Go ahead and sign up and create your profile. But
before you start posting right away, spend a little
time reading through some old posts. Get a feel for
the forum and its members. What questions do they
ask? What do they complain about?

Start answering some of their questions and offering
solutions to their problems. Build your reputation
as an expert in your niche. Be friendly, helpful and
polite.

Always think about what you can give to the forum,
and not what you will get out of it. Don't post
messages with the sole intent of getting visitors
to your site and never say, "Check out the site
in my sig!"

These sorts of messages are frowned upon and will
often be deleted.

Concentrate on building relationships with other
forum members and the traffic will soon follow.

The Forgotten and Undervalued Email Signatures Could be your Best Aliado For Generating Free Visitors

Your email signature is a valuable piece of real estate.
That short little blurb at the end of each email you send
is a useful reminder of who you are and what you have to
offer.

But few people use this powerful marketing tool to its
full advantage. Most people don't use it at all, and those
who do tend to do it all wrong.

This article will share some do's and don'ts for creating
effective email signatures.

What Not To Do

Do remember to provide a link back to your site. Keep in
mind that not all email providers will allow active links.
Formatting your link and using anchor text in place of your
url may backfire if your link shows up as plain text to
your reader. You should always include a simple link that
can be cut and pasted into a browser.

Example: http://www.yourwebsite.com

Don't just give them your name and website, or you'll be
making the same mistake as countless other website owners.
Your email signature is to important to waste by being
boring. You have to give your readers a reason to go back
to your site.

Do remember that your email signature is in fact an ad.
Be prepared to spend some time crafting and perfecting
your message. Try several variations and test which brings
the best results.

Don't get carried away. Many of us run several different
websites and it's tempting to mention them all in your
signature. But it leads to information overload for your
readers. Keep it simple.

Do feel free to use bribery in your email signature. Offer
something of value such as a free report or eCourse.
Discounts and coupons also work great for generating
traffic. Put a deadline on the discount to make it clear
they'll miss out on something good if they don't click
your link right then and there.

You may even want to set up a special landing page just
for your email signature. It will make tracking easier and
you can customize the page specifically for the offer you
advertise in your signature. You can then funnel the traffic
in any direction you choose.

Joint Ventures

A joint venture (JV) is when two or more people work together on
a mutually beneficial project. It's a kind of "I'll scratch your
back if you scratch mine" arrangement where you agree to do
something that benefits someone else and in return they do
something to benefit you.

JVs are a powerful way of building traffic to your own site by
leveraging the work and assets of others to your benefit. They
are also a great way to build professional relationships that
can last for years.

Let's brainstorm some ways you can use JVs to get more traffic
to your site.

1. If you have a mailing list, you could agree to send out an
email promoting another website in exchange for the site's owner
doing the same for you. You could reach a whole new audience
that has never heard of you before.

2. You could trade content. You write a series of articles to be
posted on another website (with a link back to your own site),
and you post their articles on your site.

3. Create a joint blog or website. If you're a great writer but
you're no good with graphics and you know someone who is just the
opposite, work together to put your best skills to work for both
of you. Include links to both of your own websites so you can
both share in the traffic generated by the shared site.

4. Create a community blog where several others have the ability
to post. Each author can have his own column and links back to
his own sites.

5. Let another website owner interview you and post it on her site.
She'll be getting unique content to add to her site, and you'll be
gaining valuable exposure and building your reputation as an expert.

JVs are only limited by your own imagination. Be creative.

How do I find partners to JV with?

I recommend starting small with someone you know and trust.
Promoting to each others lists is a great way to start with
little financial risk.

If all goes smoothly you can look for a bigger project to work on
together. Just make sure you both agree on what is expected of
each party and you stick to your end of the agreement. JVs are
as much about building relationships as anything else.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a an increasingly popular way
for website owners to drive traffic to their sites.

Social bookmarking sites are all about community and
participation. Unlike static websites and blogs which
consist of articles and other content to be read or
viewed in some way, social bookmarking sites allow
users to interact and even create their own content.

Social bookmarking sites generally operate in one of
two ways.

First, there are sites that allow you to bookmark all
your favorite links in one place. This comes in handy
when you use different computers and need to access
your favorites from more than one location.

But you can also make your list of favorites public,
so you can easily generate some traffic by bookmarking
your own sites and articles.

The second type of social site we're going to discuss
allows you to submit articles which are then voted up
or down by the community. Stories that get the most
votes are featured on high-traffic homepages, which
can result in an avalanche of traffic.

You should try to write at least some of your articles
with these social sites in mind. Write something that
you know will be controversial and then submit it to
a few social sites. If your article strikes a nerve it
could skyrocket to the top of the rankings and your site
could see literally thousands of new visitors from that
one submission.

Hint - you can encourage your visitors to add your sites
to their favorite social sites by adding bookmarklets to
the end of each web page you create. Bookmarklets are
small icons that you can download from each social site
and add to your own web pages. When a visitor clicks on
one, your page is automatically added to their favorite
service.

Which are the best social bookmarking sites to submit to?

There are far too many to name here, and new ones are
popping up every day. But here is a short list of some of
the most widely used.

Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Fark
Reddit
Simpy
Stumpleupon
Netscape
Blinklist

There are countless others to choose from and you should
also try to find some that are specifically geared toward
your niche.

Black Hat Tip - An easy way to get the ball rolling in your
quest for bookmarks and votes is to set up multiple profiles
with each social bookmarking site. If you have a dozen
accounts you can automatically get 12 votes for each page
you submit.

But be warned...if you're caught your accounts will be
deleted and your entire website may be banned from the
service permanently. Use caution if you decide to use
this method.

Backlinks and SEO

Ranking well in the search engines for highly
competitive phrases takes more than just on-page
SEO tactics. It takes backlinks, and lots of them.

A backlink is simply when the owner of another
website or blog links to your site. As you'll see,
a few high-quality backlinks can be far more
powerful than anything you do on your own website.

To search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, when
someone links to your site it's like they are voting
for it. Someone thought your content was valuable
enough to link to, so it must be important. The more
people linking to your site, the more important it
must be.

Even more important than the number of links to your
site is the anchor text. Anchor text is the visible,
clickable text of a link. For example:

This is Anchor Text

Above is the html code for a link to a site called
yourdomain.com. On the web page, the anchor text is
what readers actually see.

Search engines see anchor text too, and they use it as
a way of determining what your site is all about. This is
why you want anchor text of incoming links to include your
main keywords whenever possible.

So now that you understand why backlinks are so important,
let's look at ways to get them.

The biggest factor in getting people to link to you is to
offer high-quality content that can't be found anywhere
else. Be different. Be controversial. If people think
your site is valuable and unique, they'll want to link
to it.

You should make it as easy as possible for other websites
to link to you. Set up a "Link to Us" page that contains
snippets of html code they can just paste right into their
site. Of course, you'll make sure your keywords are in
the anchor text.

Write some articles and submit them to article directories.
They'll get picked up and reprinted on other sites with your
link in the Resource Box. A single article could bring you
dozens of backlinks.

Try contacting a few sites within your niche and offer to
write a regular column for them. Or work out an arrangement
where you trade content so each side gets a backlink.

Submit your site to free directories that are related to
your niche.

Find blogs in your niche and post comments to some of their
posts. Be sincere, and you may even form a new relationship
with the blog's owner.

Do you Squidoo?

If not, you're missing out on a truly powerful traffic
machine.

Squidoo.com is a relatively new site that allows anyone
to create a web page devoted to any topic they want. The
brainchild of marketing whiz Seth Godin, Squidoo is an
example of the community-driven nature of Web 2.0.

Squidoo web pages (called lenses) can take on a life of
their own with very minimal work. It takes zero technical
skill to set up a lense and you can add all sorts of
modules that create an interactive and visitor-friendly
atmosphere.

Some of the key modules you'll want to add to your lense
include:

1. Text Blocks - This is where you post your articles or
blog entries.

2. Polls - Use interactive polls to make your visitors
feel like they are involved.

3. Guestbook - Allow your visitors to make comments to
keep your lense fresh and active. Encourage them to
include a link to their own lense.

There are also modules that let you link to products from
eBay, Amazon, and countless other vendors. It's a great
way to monetize your lense since you get a commission for
anything sold through those links.

But the real beauty of Squidoo is its ability to drive large
amounts of highly-targeted traffic to your site for free.

I'm sure you've noticed when researching keywords that Google
absolutely loves Squidoo, and lenses can easily achieve top
rankings for long tail keyword phrases.

You can set up a whole network of lenses targeting various
keyword phrases. With just a little bit of work you can get
some serious search engine traffic to them. Offer up some
quality content and then drive your visitors back to your
main site.

Website owners who saw the value of Squidoo early are already
reaping the traffic rewards. But it's not too late to jump
on board. Every keyword phrase can have its own lense, so
there is still plenty of room for everyone.

What if a lense already exists for the keyword phrase you
want to target?

Not a problem. Since they can easily be sold or transferred,
even fully developed lenses can had for the right price.
And buying a lense that is already generating traffic will
save you most of the work.

Quality Content

There's a saying that's common among website
owners and internet marketers:

"Content is King."

What that means in simple terms is that the best
way to build long term traffic to your websites
is by offering unique, high-quality content that
can't be found elsewhere.

Quality content can help bring you traffic in a
number of ways.

First, the search engines love sites that offer
lots and lots of quality content. One page sites
with nothing but links and no content don't rank
well in search engine results for long.

And your visitors are unlikely to return to your
site if it doesn't have any quality content.

People don't use the internet to hear sales pitches
or look at a bunch of sponsored links. They have a
question they need answered or a problem they need
solved. If you can give them what they're looking
for, they'll return again in the future.

High-quality content is also likely to be mentioned
and linked to from other websites and blogs.

What kind of content should I add to my site?

1. Informative articles should be the core of your content.
The more articles you can add to your site the better.
Each one gives you another chance to rank in the
search engines, and free traffic is the best.

If you don't have the time or skills to write your
own article, you can outsource the work to others.

2. A blog makes a nice addition to any website. Blogs
usually rank well in the search engines, and since
they're updated regularly, visitors will return
again and again for updates.

3. Add audio or video to give your visitors something
to do besides reading.

4. Surveys and polls add interactivity and keep your
site fresh and interesting.

5. Message boards and forums let your visitors help
create new content for you. Be prepared to spend some
time moderating the discussions.

6. Add testimonials from satisfied customers. Just be
sure you have permission to use them.

7. Archive each of your old newsletters as web pages.

8. If you have a merchant site, add some keyword-rich
product descriptions.

9. Let your visitors add their own comments. Be sure
to set up a SPAM blocker or your site will be full of
jibberish and suspicious links.

Search the net and find whatever you need.
From music to fishing accessories and everything in between.
Search Right Here

Writing Articles

Article Marketing

Article marketing is a tried and true method for
generating traffic to websites. It's been used
since the early days of the internet and it's
still as effective as ever.

A successful article marketing campaign will bring
you a flood of valuable links and a steady stream
of visitors for years to come.

How does article marketing work?

Put simply, you write articles for other websites
in exchange for a link back to your own site. You
should use different articles than the ones already
posted to your own website.

The more unique, high-quality articles you can share
the better. You'll get more backlinks and traffic,
and you'll build your reputation as an expert in your
niche. It's possible other websites may start seeking
you out for your opinion or for interviews.

How do I start my article marketing campaign?

First, write some articles (or pay someone to write
them for you) of around 300 to 600 words. Don't write
ads in disguise. Offer genuinely useful information
and tips.

You wouldn't want to publish someone else's garbage
on your site, so don't expect them to publish your
leftovers. Write separate articles specifically for
your article marketing. You should also do the same
keyword research you would do for your own website.
Also spend some time proofreading for typos and
grammatical errors.

The next step is to find places to submit your articles.
Building one-on-one relationships with other website
owners in your niche can be beneficial, but it's
time-consuming.

Fortunately, there are many article directories which
allow you to post your articles for free. Other websites
can then publish your articles on their own sites.

There are literally thousands of such sites to choose
from, but here is a short list of some of the most
popular article directories:

ezinearticles.com
goarticles.com
articlealley.com
articledashboard.com
searchwarp.com
buzzle.com

Or you can use a service such as iSnare, which will
distribute your article to many different directories
for a small fee.

Hot tip - Your author's bio is vital to the success
of your article marketing campaign. You definitely
need to spend some time crafting the perfect message.

You should keep it short and punchy, but always include
the following:

1. Your name

2. Your url as http://yourdomain.com (this ensures your
link will be clickable.

3. A short teaser that entices readers to visit your site.
Offer a free report or something else of value to get them
to click on your link.

Using Craiglist for Driving Traffic

Craigslist is one of the most frequently visited
websites on the entire web. It's an absolute
traffic monster!

Millions of people use Craigslist every day and
if you can tap into this massive market your
website will receive an enormous flood of traffic.

But the best part is that people who are browsing
Craigslist are already in buying mode, so if you
offer any kind or product or service you can
expect a conversion rate higher than usual.

What exactly is Craigslist?

Imagine a huge online flea market where people
from all over the world offer their goods and
services to the public. There are people selling
everything from designer shoes to real estate.

The site is broken down into regions and you can
place your ads in any state, city, or country
you want. Of course, you don't have to limit
yourself to advertising only in your own local
region. You can post an ad in Raleigh, North
Carolina, Osaka, Japan, or anywhere else in
the world with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Most ads stay active for 45 days, but you can go
back and repeat your ads over and over again to
maintain your presence on the site.

But the real flood of traffic from Craigslist
won't come from people browsing the listings.
It will come from Google.

See you Next Post