New and Improved 10 Tips to the Top

Having a website that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. isn't hard to do, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are my latest and greatest tips to get you started:

1. Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to.  Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains (see this forum thread: <http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12535>), your best bet is to use an existing domain/website if at all possible.  If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.

2. Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.  This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out.  The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box.  If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience.  You need to optimize your site to meet *their* needs.  If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another.  Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.

3. Research your keyword phrases extensively.  The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as Keyword Discovery <http://www.highrankings.com/keyworddiscovery>, Wordtracker <http://www.highrankings.com/wordtracker>, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.

4. Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research.  Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site.  For instance, let's say your site sells toys.  There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.")  Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways.  Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching.  Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.

5. Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary.  If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages.  You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site.  From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links.  There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard <a href> tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)

6. Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible.  Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through.  Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non- escriptive words.  Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site.  The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.

7. Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor.  (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!)  Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy.  The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.  (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo <http://www.highrankings.com/combo.htm> for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)

8. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines.  Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.

9. Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.

10. Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings.  If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly.  Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. (You can sign up for a free trial of ClickTracks <http://www.highrankings.com/clicktracks>, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!

Jill

Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and editor of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter.

Article by Jill Whalen,   www.searchengineguide.com  -    Published Nov. 2005

Are Keywords Destroying the Flow of Your SEO Copy?

The issue of obvious optimizing has become a hot button over the last year or so. The current line of thinking by some is that most engines (especially Google) are on the lookout for sites that purposely make an effort to optimize their pages in order to get high rankings. While this theory has not been proven, I agree that obvious optimization is not a good thing. Not because of what Google might think, but because of what your site visitors might think.

When a Web site is created with the intent of having it ranked highly, one thing often happens. The focus gets placed solely on the optimization and is taken almost completely away from the visitor. This leaves your site in a dangerous state of unbalance. Let’s take a look at some examples.

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New Orleans Web Design
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Our New Orleans Web design firm offers a high level of creativity to businesses located in the general area. Our New Orleans Web design styles are never made from templates. Each New Orleans Web design is a custom creation just for your site.

I can’t count how many times I’ve visited Web design sites that were targeting local audiences and found copy similar to this example. Forget for a moment that this copy is completely “me, us, we, our” centered, and let me ask you a question.

If someone asked you what your company did, would you say, “Web design” or “New Orleans Web design”? Yes, I know the keyphrase is “New Orleans Web design,” but using that phrase interchangeably with “Web design” shatters the flow of natural language. Breaking up that phrase will help you retain your appeal to the engines and your site visitors. It will also keep you from appearing to be over optimized.

You’ll also want to vary your terms to avoid absolutely bombarding the reader (and the engines) with the same keyphrases. That *may* mean the need for longer copy *if* your target audience is one that would respond well to longer copy.

Try this instead:

Progressive, creative, upbeat. Those are phrases that best describe many online businesses based in New Orleans. Web design for your organization should match your style. Never created from templates, the site designs you’ll receive will be truly reflective of your corporate personality. Because we work exclusively with companies located in or near New Orleans, Web designs retain that Big Easy feel.

See the difference? By breaking the phrase up, you work with the flow of natural language instead of against it. To your site visitors and the engines, it appears the phrase is just part of a written conversation instead of something that has been purposely (and carelessly) tossed in for the sole benefit of higher rankings.

So, is the flow of your current copy destroyed by keywords? Are you scaring off both the engines and your visitors? One quick check can help you decide. Read your copy out loud. (Or better yet, have someone else read your copy out loud.) Does it sound odd? Does reading it feel forced or stiff? Would the sentences you’ve written in your copy seem out of place in the course of a verbal conversation with someone? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, you might better take a closer look at your Web page.

Copy not getting results?  Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon’s latest e-report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

By Karon Thackston Copyright © 2005  -   http://www.marketingwords.com - Published Nov. 2005

The Internet's New Secret Weapon For Getting Free Publicity

You probably don't even know about them. Few people do. Even fewer people realize how many different ways you can use them to get free publicity, increase your search engine rankings, and make yourself a media celebrity in your field.

I'm talking about "news alerts."

Google offers Google News Alerts at www.news.google.com. Look in the column to the left of the page.

Yahoo has a similar service, as do a number of other web portals and news outlets.

News alerts are the Internet's new -- and one of its most powerful -- secrets weapons for attracting attention from radio, TV and newspaper reporters.

You can sign up for news alerts for free. Then you choose keywords related to your industry, and whenever those keywords show up in a news story--practically anywhere--you get an email notification and a link to the story.

News alerts allow you to identify and contact the journalist who did the story to suggest a follow up, offer another angle, etc. on the story they've already done.

You can even set up news alerts for a competitor's name. If they're quoted in a story somewhere, you'll be notified by email. That gives you an opportunity to contact the reporter who wrote the story and position yourself as a future resource for similar pieces.

You can also set up your news alerts so that every time your name appears in the media, it sends you an email notification.

It’s a great way to find out when your news releases, tip sheets, or articles have been published. This can be extremely valuable since people who print your stuff don’t always let you know they’re doing it.

Furthermore, when you find out that something by you or about you has been published, you can get copies or reprints to use in a multitude of ways to further establish your credentials with the media.

For instance, you can print out stories you may want to include in your media kit, or even mail to journalists to reassure them that your topic really IS newsworthy--and that you indeed ARE an expert in your field.

I got quite a giggle -- and a little bit of a shock -- when I set up a news alert for my own name recently.

I got an alert from Google a few days later telling me the name "George McKenzie" had appeared in a Scottish TV story.

When I clicked on the link, I found out it wasn't really about me--it was about a Scottish lawyer named Sir George McKenzie, an advisor to King Charles the Second 300 years ago.

I won't give you the details here -- a little too gruesome for a family friendly article. But you can read it if you choose by clicking on
http://www.publicitygoldmine.com/sirgeorge

News alerts are one of the Internet's most important developments for helping people get the attention of the media.

They're free, easy, versatile, valuable, and best of all--your competitors probably don't have a clue they exist.

For more information on how to use news alerts to identify reporters who are already doing stories about your industry, go to http://www.publicity-pro.com/searchenginepublicity.htm

About the Author: Award winning TV anchor George McKenzie offers a free 7-part email "Publicity Crash Course" at http://www.publicity-pro.com. During his 33-year broadcasting career, George's work appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN and CNN.

By George McKenzie © 2005  -   http://www.publicity-pro.com - Published Nov. 2005

What Marketing Can Do For You

I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do For You and What Marketing Can't Do For You. We'll start with the positive.

Over the years, I've had dealings with some business owners who have a rather skewed perception of marketing. They think you throw a few ads out there, get a couple of press releases printed and voila! You’re a big success.

Oh, if it only were that easy. (Although if it were, I probably wouldn’t have a job.)

But there's no getting around that to have a successful business, you need a solid marketing plan.

So what CAN marketing do for you? Increase your business no question about it. You need to be marketing if you want to grow your business.

However (and this is a really big however) marketing is NOT going to result in overnight success. Marketing is about slow growth, building on last week's success and forgetting about last month's failures. (Or what you THINK are failures. It's not uncommon that a campaign you think is a dismal disappointment may be what caused the next campaign to take off.)

Marketing is about frequency -- about your target market seeing your offer over and over again until they're finally ready to buy. Without that very important frequency, your business will start to stagnate and eventually die.

Now that doesn't mean you won't have a major success with a campaign. Even a massive, amazing, unbelievable success. You'll run one ad or be featured in an article and wham! You end up with more orders than you know what to do with. While that's a great shot in the arm, it probably won't last unless you keep building upon it. Eventually the orders will dry up and you'll be back to where you were before.

Marketing is also about being consistent. This goes back to building on successes. Your customers need to see your message over and over again. This builds trust and credibility. Plus, your current customers will also respond to that frequency. Not only will they not "forget" about you and go to your competitor, but it will help build their trust in you as well.

Lastly, marketing is about working hard. There's no getting around it. To be successful means putting in the time and energy to continually market yourself. (You can also pay someone to help you with it, but basically it comes down to someone somewhere has to put in the time to continually market you.)

If you remember nothing else, remember this: If you don't implement your marketing strategies, nothing is going to happen.

That last sentence seems obvious, but again, I'm amazed at how many people I run into who aren't willing to do the work. They talk about it, but when it actually comes down to doing something, they somehow never seem to get around to it.

One way to overcome that is to plan on doing one task or a little marketing every day. Then it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming. Me, I make a commitment to do X number of marketing tasks a week, regardless of how much time that takes.

Marketing is a commitment. There's no getting around it. If you have a business, then you have no choice but to make a commitment to marketing on a consistent basis until the day comes when you decide you don't want a business anymore.

Creativity Exercise -- Make a Commitment

Since I'm interested in having all of you succeed, I want YOU to make a commitment right now to market your business on a regular basis.

Write this statement on a piece of paper, filling in your name in the proper place.

I, YOUR NAME, am making a commitment to market my business on a regular basis from now until I decide I don’t want to be in business any more.
Sign and date it.

I suggest posting it in a place where you can see it while you're working. Or, if you really want to add some accountability to your commitment, tell someone about it. You can even tell me about it -- just send me an e-mail at Michele@theartistsoul.com There's nothing like announcing your intention to keeping you honest.

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com.

By Michele Pariza Wacek © 2005 -   http://www.TheArtistSoul.com - Published Nov. 2005

Highlight of the Week - Revolution 2.1 The second Internet revolution has clearly started to take shape. Remember the massive changes forecast by hundreds of tech-writers, including myself, for the past two years? While slower in coming than expected, the last critical stage for their mass adoption of these changes, their introduction, appears to have begun. Welcome to Revolution 2.1. Revolution, according to one definition offered by Princeton University's WordNet is, " a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving." Revolutions come in stages, generally brewing for long periods before overwhelming the traditional order with the weight of massive social adoption of new ideas, tools and methods. They almost always stem from increased social or technical knowledge and require the support of a prosperous middle-class majority to fully succeed. In this case, that majority is the Internet users themselves. The search engines are providing the tools forged by in-house and third party software developers whose creativity formed the framework for the coming changes. Underpinning the revolution is the virtually universal access to broadband, high-speed connectivity in North America and most of Western Europe, Oceania and Asia . The last thing a successful revolution requires is the need to have one in the first place. Unless a society or economy is horribly oppressed, revolution really is a lot of bother and hard work. Why go to the trouble of establishing a new way of doing things if the old one works? The current Internet economy works just fine, at least for those who can exploit opportunities in or around it. A vast improvement on personal empowerment from the socio-economic order of the post WW2 corporate-economies, the Internet has provided tens of millions of people the essential tools to become entrepreneurs and add value to their lives and their communities. Add the emergence of two billion new users and developers from India and China to the mix, along with the hundreds of millions in other parts of Africa, Asia and South America who are also finding easier access to the Internet and the need to alter our traditions becomes that much more apparent. Issues ranging from language and translation support to the legal differences between jurisdictional areas are suddenly on the table. The Internet as we know it today is actually a massive hodgepodge of applications, common and conflicting protocols, and clunky client-side software strung together by an amazingly versatile and efficient routing system. The ability to collaborate between artificial and human driven intelligences is phenomenal but, as originators such as Vint Cerf and Bill Gates have said, what we see today is only the tip of the iceberg. Yesterday's quiet but deliberate unveiling of Microsoft's Windows Live marked the true beginning of a new phase in Internet development as the software giant follows rival Google in presenting a host of online services and server side software for registered users. One giant following another through a virgin forest will certainly open a very wide path for others to follow. In a nutshell, Windows Live has copied Google's personalized search portal ( google.com/ig ) though its layout and functionality is very much different. Oddly enough, the release and functionality of Windows Live is not in itself an important milestone. Their contribution to Revolution 2.1 is the adoption of a user and/or group influenced personalization of information retrieval by the major search entities. Being the second to offer registered users the ability to create their own info-portal home page, Microsoft is pretty much ensuring that, assuming users go for it; others will follow the model in the future. Microsoft also released OfficeLive , a major and important step forward in Revolution 2.1. OfficeLive marks a renewed mission for Microsoft in the development and distribution of server-side software. According to Microsoft chief technical officer Ozzie Smith, 'Internet users have come to expect services that are fast, easy-to-use - and, in many cases, free. Access to personal information from any PC or mobile device is becoming expected, making more users willing to store their personal information on the servers of companies such as Google than their own PCs." Google has supported the development of much of the software that will power the coming changes. Over the years, the alliance between Google and the open source community has been widely known. Soon, Google is expected to be involved with the release of Open Office as server-side software on demand. Google and Microsoft are not alone in their contributions to Revolution 2.1. The largest tech-driver of the coming changes is the ability to feed user-created information via RSS or Real Simple Syndication. Yahoo recently took a radically different but equally revolutionary path with the citizen-publisher focused Yahoo Publisher Network. The Yahoo Publisher Network is a massive initiative in grassroots publishing that Yahoo hopes will be adopted by citizen journalists and commercial publishers. YPN is an amalgam of what will eventually be dozens of Yahoo features and services with the ability to create and mass-distribute blogs. Yahoo leads the search field in the provision of in-house and user generated content for bloggers through the YPN. It also offers advertising distribution incentives similar to Google AdSense for YPN publishers. Over the past ten years, two general types of information have emerged from the Internet. One type is academic or social in focus and the other is commercial or politically focused. The first wants to learn and share, the second to lead and sell. Up until this point, both have existed in tandem, pretty much treated equally by search engines and Internet protocols. Quite often, at least in the realm of general search, the commercial side has exploited this equality, (SEOs and SEMs can insert a polite but self-effacing cough here), sometimes pushing quality but non-commercial information lower in search results than it ought to be. Concurrently, a new generation of software engineers grew up. Unlike previous generations, this new bunch has always had computers and the Internet as functioning parts of their lives. These teen and early 20-somethings relate to the Internet differently than their parents and even their older peers do. Like 30-something Gen-X'ers and their love-hate relationship with PR, mass marketing and advertising, today's younger net-user doesn't necessarily trust everything he or she sees online. Unlike previous generations however, this young set can immediately do something about it. Necessity is the mother of invention and frustration is often the muse of innovation. The Internet gave these teen and 20-something innovators the platform to build better mousetraps on and the ability to do so almost instantly. That's what the hype surrounding Web2.0 is all about. What they have created is a set of extremely interesting social networking and communication devices that rely on the input and acceptance of Internet users. On the academic front, the Wikipedia provides one of the best examples. Built upon articles and entries written by registered users, the Wikipedia has rapidly become the unofficial encyclopedia of the Internet. Quality control is an ongoing issue however the size and attention of the communitmysy contributing to the project makes the editorial project virtually organic. In the commercial realm, the newsletter or publication this article is written in could stand as basic but rapidly evolving example. As technology and the wealth necessary to use it has advanced so rapidly over the past decade, tools that make information distribution and retrieval simpler have emerged. In other words, some clever inventors have found ways to make search simpler. At the same time, advances and innovations in grassroots technologies (such as RSS enabled blogs mixed with a/v production to host podcasts) push the search industry to broaden the horizons available to users. The major search engines didn't start the revolution. Their function is to popularize it as they exploit emerging revenue streams. The changes I've dubbed Revolution 2.1 will have an enormous impact on Internet and search marketing. The first thing we SEOs and SEMs need to realize is that the search sector is expanding rapidly to include specialized, regionalized, and personalized search tools. Each of the major search engines and literally dozens of smaller search tools offer a widening array of search options. Learning the new methods of treating and feeding information to search engines is critical for continued success in the search marketing field. For instance, we recently had an opportunity to perform SEO services on a podcast a client in a highly competitive field wanted to produce. We took a pass on the project as we felt we didn't have the skills or tools necessary to do the job. Having been alerted to a gap in what will be a growing field, we hope to be able to service such requests in the future. Our survival literally depends on it. Next, we need to understand and help our clients understand social and business communication tools such as RSS feed readers, photo-sharing applications, and group-networking sites such as Friendster, Tribe.net, MySpace, XuQa and LinkedIn. Lastly, we need to start adding features such as Yahoo's MyWeb button or Google XML sitemaps to client sites to aid in their transition to the new web being weaved in Revolution 2.1. The funny thing about revolutions, especially ones that get played out without a coherent plan that has the full consent of the people, is that unexpected developments happen. The Internet as we know it today is a prime example. Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, nobody could have predicted the massive social and economic changes brought about by the rise of the public Internet. Flash ahead thirty years to today. Anything can happen and the web that comes from today's changes will be far more functional. It will incorporate traditional media such as TV and newspapers and allow users access to tools used to create traditional programming. The revolution has been brewing over the past two years. Ever since a functioning business model based on paid-advertising turned tiny contextually delivered three-line ads into pure profit, software designers have been churning out a series of "killer apps" hoping the suddenly super-wealthy search engines would buy them or futures-hungry venture capitalists would fund them. For those who were successful in the development and those of us about to benefit from their success, the next Internet revolution has begun. Article by Jim Hedger, News Editor, StepForth Search Engine Placement, Inc.  www.stepforth.com  -    Published Nov. 2005

Google's ranking algorithm update continues As mentioned two weeks ago, Google is currently updating its ranking algorithm. Webmasters have given this ranking algorithm update the name 'Jagger'. The Jagger update is currently in its third stage which means that it will soon be over. If your rankings on Google fell over the last month, you website has probably been affected by this ranking algorithm change. What has Google changed in the ranking algorithm update? Google wants to make its search engine results pages more relevant by removing some of the spam. It seems that the following elements are the most common reasons if your Google rankings dropped: hidden text on your web pages (especially text that is hidden in invisible CSS layers) paid links or other links that are considered outside of Google's quality guidelines overuse of internal links or anchor text as the sole source of optimization What can you do if your website rankings have dropped? First of all, check if your web page use elements that might be considered spam. Your web pages might contain spam elements that you're not aware of. If you use CSS on your web pages, search for style sheets that might be interpreted as spam attempts. Style sheets that contain visibility: hidden; might cause problems.   Make sure that you have links from the right web sites. While it is not important if a link is a reciprocal link or not, it is very important that the links are from related sites. Links from or to unrelated web sites probably won't negatively affect your rankings (if they did, your competitors could easily harm your rankings) but they also have no positive effect. Make sure that your incoming links come from related web sites.   Do not overuse the same keyword in links to your web site. Better use different but related link texts for links to your site so that the links to your website look natural. After having removed the spam elements from your pages, continue by optimizing and diversifying. Details can be found in our first article about this Google algorithm update. If your web site rankings on Google have dropped, don't panic and follow the tips above. Chances are good that you'll get your high rankings back. Further information about writing successful link exchange messages, contact us below.. Copyright Axandra.com - Web site promotion software tools   -  Published Nov. 2005