Thursday, February 17, 2011

What you need to know about SEO before hiring ‘em!

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a technique of improving the quality of traffic in the website from the search engine. The higher the ranking of the site appears in the results page, the more visitors it will acquire from the search engine. SEO establishes a searchable website by applying appropriate keywords and phrases.

Most SEO offers effective services for website owners such as: review of the site content, technical advice on website development, content development, management of online business, and keyword research.

Hiring a SEO is important if you are planning to redesign a site or launch a new site. Make sure that the designed site must not wind up in the bottom - it should be a search engine-friendly site, likewise the SEO can improve the existing site.

Here are some questions you should ask before hiring a SEO:
  • Can you show me samples of your previous work and share some success stories?
  • Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
  • Do you provide any online marketing services or advice to complement my business?
  • What kind of outcomes do you anticipate? How do you appraise your success?
  • What's your experience in my industry?
  • What's your experience in my country/city?
  • What are your experiences in developing international sites?
  • What are your most crucial SEO techniques?
  • How long have you been in the business?
  • How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you made to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind it? 
Things to consider:
  • Be cautious in dealing with SEO firms and web consultants.
  • No one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google.
  • Be careful if a company won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
  • Choose wisely. 









Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Which is which for your content – quality or quantity?

The Golden Rule of SEO: content is king. Without the content, your website is good as useless. The internet serves as the medium for information and people search for that information. Web content is important for search engine optimization to increase your page rank in the search engine. Fresh content will attract search engines –the more content you add in your website, the more it will increase your chances of getting a higher result. Now the question is: when adding content on your website, will you settle for quality or quantity? Do you want a website with lots of poorly written articles or a website that has few articles but of quality work?

You want to increase your position in the results page so you can gain more traffic. People use search engines to find what they are looking for. So if you put too many poorly written articles in your website, the visitors will never visit your site again after seeing the quality of your work. Soon enough, no one will eventually visit your site. Your efforts of increasing your ranking in the search engine will be put into vain.
                
If you focus on the quality of your content, you will have a greater chance of succeeding in the results page. If your website has some useful content, the people will want to visit your site again. People would want to see your articles – chances are, they will return frequently to look forward for you new published article. If you have a strong “fan” base, it will surely generate internet traffic. Traffic is the key to success of any website especially if you have consistent traffic in your site. Webmasters who focus more on the quality of their content will have greater chance of being on top.

It is not a question that quantity in your content will help promote your website – but publishing too many poorly written articles in your website? Forget it! You market your website because of the quality of its content. Quality in content is indispensable – remember, it’s what people go online to find.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Avoid these SEO Mistakes and Blunders!

SEO experts are humans too. They are not perfect. They are bound to make mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable; unfortunately it is not enough justification for screwing up your marketing campaign. Face it SEO mistakes can definitely affect the rankings of your website. But whatever SEO mistakes you did in the past can be corrected in the future.

To protect your website from crashing down in the page rankings, you need to familiarize yourself with the different SEO mistakes and blunders. Here are the SEO mistakes that you should avoid:

  • Incorrect use of keywords. When people search on the internet, they look for particular and specific keywords. If you have the right keywords for your site, it will effectively increase your chance of getting a top result in the search engines. Also, keyword stuffing is a primary sin for a webmaster. Search engines will ban you for spamming keywords. To avoid this, limit the volume of your keyword in the content of your website. Keyword is the basic strategy for higher SEO rankings but do not stuff your content with too many keywords as your audience will lose interest.  The search engine spiders will decrease your page rankings if your page is overflowing with keywords.
  • Using black hat SEO tactics. The fastest way to get a higher ranking is to deceive the search engine spiders. Little do they know, search engines are highly sophisticated that they can detect the flaws in your website. These spiders can recognize hidden texts, keyword spamming and cloaking in your webpage. If you try pulling this stunt – you will only hurt your page ranking and eventually it will be the reason why your website was banned.
  • Lack of optimized substance. If you think you can push your page rank higher by posting images, videos, flash, and graphics – think again. These elements are effective to attract the visitors but it will never attract the search engine spiders. Search engine cannot read content in flash animations hence your website is invisible to them. Create a meaningful content. Updated and well-written content display professionalism. Using flash designs can make your website more appealing but you need an optimized text so that search engine will be able to index your website.
  • Do not plagiarize your web content from the other websites. The search engine can recognize a duplicate content and it could affect your page rankings. Aside from that, what do you think your reader’s reaction will be after reading a duplicate content?
  • Ignoring the benefits of social media. Using social media as a tool in your marketing campaign will boost your sales. Social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. are a good promotional platform for your products or services. There are significant benefits in social media marketing as long as you stay updated and creative for your customers. 
Usually, novice SEO consultants are prone into making these SEO mistakes. To avoid such mistakes, make sure that your website is optimized by an experienced SEO who has an in-depth knowledge about the SEO industry. 

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Five Essential Elements of SEO

There are five important SEO copywriting elements that you should need to focus on when you are working on your web page and blog post. These should make an impression on Google otherwise you’re online campaign is finished. 

  • Title – if you are optimizing your page, it is very obvious that you should include the target keywords in the title of your content. The keywords should appear in the title somewhere plus if the keywords are upfront, it will have a greater chance to be on top in the search engine rankings. The emphasis on putting the keywords in the title is common sense – it is a practical strategy that is guaranteed to work from a search engine perspective. When people type on the search box, they literally want to find the specific words in the search results. It is imperative to have the keywords in your title so people can link to you – this is also important for Google or other search engine to determine your page content. Keep your length title to under 72 characters. This is for search purposes as the full title will be visible in the search result, increasing your chance to be found by web visitors.
  • Meta Description – you also have to prepare not only in the rankings but the presentation of your content in the search engine. The Meta description of your content is an important element of your title in the search result for it will greatly influence whether you will get a click or not. Meta description may or may not influence your search engine ranking but it is an assurance to your searcher that your content is what they are looking for. The characters of your Meta description should be under 165.
  • Content – an updated content makes the search engine excited. Your content should only focused on the subject matter – it should only be centered in your target keywords and phrases. A brief content may have hard time in ranking over the page with significant content so your content must at least have 300 words.
  • Keyword Frequency – the keyword frequency has a direct impact on the rankings. The ratio of those keywords in the page and at the rest of the content affects the density of the keywords. You have to take note about the frequency and density of the keywords as it may not appear as a spam. If your keyword density is greater than 5.5%, you will be guilty of keyword stuffing and your webpage will be penalized by Google. You don’t have to unconsciously repeat the keywords to optimize.  
  • Linking – it is important for your web page to be connected with other pages and content for it matters to search engine optimization. You have to link your page to relevant pages with content that is purely fair. 
There are other SEO elements that may certainly boost your search engine rankings but if you focus in these five elements narrated above, you will be covering the vital elements of an effective page optimization. Focus on what the search engine are really looking for – quality results.

Why a Good-looking Website will increase Traffic?

If you put yourself from your visitor’s point of view, you will realize that a good-looking does make a difference. Web visitors who like your website will tend to come back and tell their friends about it. The physical elements of your website say a lot about your products or services. Highly successful businesses have a successful website as well. It is imperative to have a good-looking website so your business will be as effective as it is interesting. 

Here are good reasons why a good-looking website will definitely increase your traffic.
  • A good-looking website shows professionalism. The first look on your website will give a long-lasting impression on your visitors. If your website looks cheap and horrible, your visitors will think that you are unprofessional when dealing with your business and they will never take you seriously. When dealing with a client on the web, you certainly want to look at your best in all aspects and that includes the physical appearance of your website. Your website is your face to your clients – you obviously want to look professional. If your clients are already impressed with your website, they will be comfortable in doing business with you. Learn the different approaches that will work best in creating and designing your website. If you are unsure with experimenting on your own, you can always seek for professional help to build the website for you. It is important to maintain a high level of professionalism at any cause.    
  • A good-looking website is entertaining. Entertaining your visitors to stay on your webpage is as good as being professional looking. How to entertain your visitors? Offer contests and free giveaways to draw more traffic. You can also offer games to play on your site, make sure it relates to your business, to keep the traffic flowing. You can also put interesting and informative links to other websites and act as in between. Visitors want a website that is exciting and interesting.
  • A good-looking website should be eye-friendly. Your website should not only show professionalism but it should be easy on the eyes. It should be attractive as it is functional. The colors and arrangements of your webpage elements should be appealing to the eyes. Bold colors may harm your visitor’s eyes for a period of time. Keep your text in dark colors. Your layout should be interesting but not difficult to navigate. 
Focus on these reasons and it will increase traffic to your good-looking website. A website that looks professional, interesting and eye-friendly will lead you to success.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Why is SEO Copywriting important?

SEO copywriting is basically about writing website content that comprises relevant keywords. With a strategize SEO copywriting, it will increase the chances of your article being targeted by search users and search engines. It emphasizes on relevant keywords. Usually, the copywriters spread out the keywords in the article so it will rank well in the top searches. Copywriters do not only write the content but they help in the search engine optimization.SEO copywriting is a vital element in any SEO campaign for it achieves high ranking as it uses the basic search terms.

So why is SEO copywriting important?

  • SEO copywriting starts with a good copywriter. Once the copywriter knows the ins and outs of SEO, he will produce an effective SEO content.
  • It will provide you with an interesting and concise content. A good copywriter should know that internet users don’t have all the time in the world to go over a long, boring content. An excellent copywriter knows what kind of content that he should provide for the visitors. Visitors are interested with information that can benefit them.
  • Copywriters are professionals. They get paid to help you optimize your content. Hiring a copywriter will minimize your grammar errors as you move forward in the professional rankings. Also, copywriters know what is at stake so they will likely avoid mistakes and risks so you can gain more credibility.
  • A good SEO copywriting will improve your site rankings as well as it will increase the traffic in your site. As you gain more site visitors, it will increase your popularity among the web community, plus you can make an impression on the search engine spiders. You can determine if your goals have been achieved through the indexed search terms.
  • SEO copywriting is always a subject for competition. That means, copywriters might use the same techniques to achieve top ranking success. An effective strategy will edge you out from your competitors. 

SEO copywriting has proven itself that it can do wonders in SEO campaigns. Once you hit the top search rank, you will have more visitors in your site. Staying at the top of the rankings is important, so even if you pay a professional copywriter – it will be all worth it. Remember SEO copywriting can give you credibility, professionalism, and popularity.

Why your Business needs SEO Services?

Ø  Your corporate website should be design by someone with professional knowledge in setting all the key elements on your page so you will be included in the top search engine result. Knowing the basics of web design isn’t enough. Site design is the most important aspect of SEO.

Ø  You need visitors in your site. What’s the point of having a website without any visitors? SEO enters the picture. SEO have the expertise regarding the internet traffic thus it will aid your business and will eventually gross revenues. SEO’s on site optimization and content creation will draw visitors and will turn them into customers.

Ø  SEO are professionals who have a knack for success that will benefit your online marketing campaign. They have the appropriate tools that will be use to your advantage. If the SEO can increase your traffic, then it will definitely boost your sales.

Ø  SEO services may cost you but the investment is far too valuable. It is more costly if you will not get help from SEO. You will spend more if you’re the one doing your own optimization. Using SEO will spend money but it’s an efficient investment.

Ø  SEO can make the needed change and improvements for your website. Also, SEO can give you the professional advice you need on online marketing.


Here are some SEO tips that will rank your page in the search engine

Ø  Always narrow your keyword phrase. Your keyword should be descriptive enough so the prospective clients can easily spot your web page.

Ø  Your title and header should always contain the keyword. Place the most effective keyword in the title.

Ø  Keep your Meta description short and substantial.

Ø  Your URL should be simple. Use only words without symbols and numbers.

Ø  Hire a SEO. Due to the solid competition on the web, you need an expert to run and control the internet traffic for you.