SEO again

The use of search engine optimization is very much needed in defining the success of your online business. The traffic that your website generates indicates the potential sales it can provide for your product. The use of SEO techniques in maintaining favorable traffic has been widely used by online advertisers to gain advantage over other competitors. The page views are very much critical since it indicates how effective the website is in gathering potential customers. This also takes advantage of the people’s habit of looking for services, products and information using search pages.

Today, thousands of Internet marketers and webmasters employ SEO techniques in an attempt to raise their rankings in major search engines. They do this by optimizing on page factors, and by building back links to their sites. This combination makes it easy for the search bots to determine the overall theme of the site. For example, if you own a website about money making, you can optimize your site so that the crawlers will lap up every web page that you post online. How do you do that?

First, start with on page factors. These are elements that have full control over. Make sure that you include your target keyword phrases in your page title, your Meta tags, and your article body. Don’t stuff your web page content with unnecessarily keywords. Just sprinkle it all over, like what you would ordinarily do if there are no search engines around. In other words, write naturally. You must remember, it’s not only the bots that are reading the content. You have to keep your human readers in mind as well.

But on page optimization is only half of the process. The other half, is a little more tricky, for it involves link building. The problem is, you don’t own these sites, and you have no control over external sites. So how do you get them to link back to you?

A very popular method is to outsource your link building campaigns. There are many ways to build links to a website. For instance, you can use article marketing, social bookmarking, blog commenting, or submit your URLs to a bunch of web directories. But all these methods require you to put in some time and effort. To distribute a single article to hundreds of article directories could take a few hours.

SEO specialists understand what it takes to do the job properly. Some even offer to take all the work off your lab for just several hundred dollars per quarter. This is a small price to pay to get a site ranked in the major search engines.

To maintain the rankings, link building must continue consistently. Some sites fall into oblivion because the site owners neglected the sites, and back links start to fall off gradually. As a result, the rankings start to drop as well. If you want a steady stream of traffic, try to work out some rankings maintenance program with your service provider. That will keep your website at the top of the search results for ages!

Must Use SEO Tips for Web Designers

1. Make the code prettier than the design

When building the front end of your site, make sure to use semantic code. By using descriptive tags to structure your pages, search engines will be able to read and have a better understanding of your content. This will also make the process of styling your site much easier and cleaner.
2. Use but don’t abuse your keywords

Keywords are the words that describe your content. It’s important to have them appear in strategic places throughout your page, such as: URL, title tag, and main heading tags. It’s also important to have it appear often in the body of the content, but not too often, which might cause your content to be penalized for keyword stuffing.
3. Avoid using Flash for navigation

As tempting as it is to whip out some nice looking drop down effects for your site’s navigation using flash, don’t do it. Search engines have trouble reading flash files, which means the links used in the navigation can’t be followed.
4. Use unique page titles

Each page on your web site should have a title attribute, and each title should be unique. If you use the same title for every page, search engines will think that every page on your site is about the same subject.
5. Don’t forget about images

Make use of the alt attribute of an image to properly describe it. As smart as search engines are, they can’t see what an image looks like. Failing to this can cost you substantial traffic from image searches.
6. Don’t use generic links

Search engines place a high importance on links. So when linking to relevant content, be sure to use a word that describes the content. For example, if you were giving your reader a link to learn more about Photosop, use something like “Learn more about Photoshop” as opposed to just “Learn More”.
7. Don’t use images to replace text

As designers, we always want to make things look as good as possible. This means sometimes replacing ugly browser rendered heading text with a nice smooth image. Try to avoid doing this. Again, search engines can’t see the contents of an image, and this is where you should be putting your keywords.

Edit: Looks like I misspoke(or mistyped) on this one. There are valid ways to accomplish this, such as FIR.
8. Use AJAX sparingly

Ajax is great for enhancing the user experience, but try not to over do it. Content generated with ajax can’t be linked to. A good rule of thumb is: if what you are loading with AJAX can be an individual page, then avoid using it.
9. Get indexed quickly

To get your site indexed in search engines in a timely manner, try getting it linked to by a popular site in a related niche. Submitting it to Google also works, but sometimes it can take several days if not weeks.
10. Build incoming links

The number and quality of incoming links plays a big role in the placement of your site in search results. Having quality and unique content is a good way to get people to link to your site. Another way is to be generous with your own links.
11. Use a consistent URL

When you build a site, decide from the beginning if you want to use or drop the “www”. Once you decide, stick with it. Search engines, for example, see www.webdesignledger and webdesignledger.com as two different sites and as duplicate content, which they do not like.
Do you have any additional SEO tips? Let us know.

SEO Tips & Techniques for Real Estate

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

The Difference Between Beginner and Intermediate SEO

When you are ready to try things you have not read about in SEO blogs and forums, when you take on a Web site where things are not done to your specification, when you start getting involved in competitive SEO, you’re ready for Journeryman status.

Intermediate SEO looks for advantages in everything: other people’s optimization mistakes, other people’s generosity, other people’s marketing oversights. Beginning SEO relies on the advantages handed down by a mentor or free service provider.

Intermediate SEO may produce the next great thing, the next successful service site. Apprentice SEO may get the local craft shop’s Web site onto the first page for a geolocal keyword.

You don’t have to be a Master SEO to be successful. Intermediate SEO is very often successful. Intermediate SEO requires resourcefulness, tenacity, and a very judicious application of techniques and tips shared by other people. Intermediate SEO challenges you to question everything. Intermediate SEO demands that you start explaining things. Intermediate SEO means you have to understand what you are doing, at least enough so that you can recover from any mistakes you make.

Your kit of intermediate SEO tools should include at least:

* Five successfully optimized Web sites you can study to remind yourself of why they succeeded
* A growing list of resources you can use for linking, visibility, and testing
* Two or three reliable references to help you learn the terminology that Web tools and services use
* A set of analytical tools that let you look at Web page code, server-provided information, and other useful “under-the-hood” things
* Your own Web site (server account) where you can experiment, prepare files for presentations, and play without worrying about hurting client campaigns

You’ll add your own tools as you improve and grow.

Intermediate SEO works on complex, challenging opportunities. You go after multiple keywords, multiple verticals. You work with inadequate content, insufficient linkage. You develop new skills, new resources. You abandon old skillls and resources that no longer help you. You analyze, analyze, analyze. You work endlessly, ceaselessly, tirelessly.

Every site you look at should tell you something about how successful it really is. You have to learn how to read behind the copy. Do you know the difference between a real testimonial and a faux testimonial? Do you know where to find the real testimonials? The Journeyman SEO has to know.

That’s the key to being successful: you have to know. What you do in your quest for knowledge determines what techniques you learn and come to rely upon.

White Hat SEO Techniques

Website Promotion - The First Step:

You don’t need to submit your website to any of the main search engines or the bulk of the other search engines.. Because it’s just a waste of time, if your website has a handful of incoming links from other websites then any search engine will naturally index your site after finding it from these links. However you can get indexed in search engines within 24 hours! Yes that’s correct.
1 Link on any page ranked 5 or more - spidered and indexed within 24 hours.
2 links on any page ranked 4 or more - 48 hours.
4 Links on any page ranked 3 or more – 96 hours.

White Hat SEO Techniques:
Using White Hat SEO techniques to get ranked in SERPS involves :
1) Building a website with unique content and images.
2) Trading links fairly.
3) Getting your website listed in directories or on other websites with related content.

Let us see the techniques in detail.

1) Building a website with unique content and images.
Unique content is content found only on one website, the bigger your website is (the more unique content you have), then the higher it will rank in SERPS and the more traffic you will get because you have many text keywords which can match search engine queries. You will also naturally have many internal hyperlinking keywords.

2) Trading links fairly.
This means making your link exchange with other websites that have the same or a similar theme to yours. It also involves regularly checking the links to ensure both parties are adhering to the deal and that the site you are trading with is not cheating on reciprocal links.
Cheating on reciprocal links can mean making a lowly link exchange into a lucrative one-way link. There are a number of ways Black Hat webmasters use to do this. White Hat webmasters should also be aware of these techniques as they are more than likely being used against them.

3) Getting your website listed in directories or on other websites with related content.
Getting other websites to link to you, without you reciprocating the link is much more important. You can submit your link to your signature in forums, directories which don’t cheat you, your friends’ websites, Obviously if you have stuff which is free, or funny or entertaining, or your website is very useful or informative then other surfers may link to your site.

Using white hat SEO does not involve buying links of any form. Buying links is now considered by Google as a violation of their guidelines and an attempt to manipulate SERPS. So basically this means that if you buy any links at all which are HTML links direct to your website then you are in violation of Googles guidelines.
Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as: Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the a tag..

What Are The Benefits of Search Engine Optimization?

Higher Search Engine Rankings in Google and Yahoo!
Google, Yahoo!, and MSN use complex algorithms to determine which websites are the most relevant for specific searches. Learning how to optimize your website to take advantage of the algorithms will help your website get a higher search engine ranking for your keywords that your customers use to search for what you sell.

Increased Website Traffic from Google and Yahoo!
97 percent of Google users do not search past the first 30th listing. Therefore, the higher your website ranks in the search engines the more people will find your website and visit. When you implement these Free SEO tips you will improve your search engine rankings and rocket past your competitors. The best chance you have of reaching the top of the search engine rankings and staying there is to use search engine optimization.

Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs
If your website does not have a Top 30 ranking on Google you are paying for each new customer you get using PPC or you just don’t have any traffic or customers. By moving your website listing into the Top 30 in Google you will reduce your advertising costs and will get free traffic by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Search engine optimization is the cheapest long term Internet marketing strategy available!

Increased Revenue and Sales Margins
The more people that visit your website, the more likely you are to make a sale. Getting lots of free website traffic will increase your overall revenue and sale margins by reducing the amount you pay to acquire each new customer.