How to make keywords work for you

Search may be the most powerful tool the Web has to offer, but it doesn't mean much if nobody can find you. Experts and users offer advice on how to make your ad dollars go further and help you rise up the Google ranks
9/19/2007 5:57:00 AM
by Nestor Arellano

It's crowded at the top. The top of online search pages that is.

Building a credible Web presence that brings a company to that much coveted virtual real estate can take months and serious dollars. Thankfully, even cash strapped small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can compete with the big guys through some judicious purchases of select keywords which can lure search engines to present their ads as primary choices in a surfer's search results.

“Everyone want to be on the top three or five spaces of page one, because numerous survey indicate that surfers easily lose interest and rarely go beyond the second page,” says Tim Richardson, professor of e-commerce, marketing and international business at the Seneca College and University of Toronto.

Organizations can either work their way up, building traffic by constantly working on their site creating search-worthy content, and employing various tactics such as establishing Web-links by joining relevant communities, blogging or responding to popular blogs.

Whether done by an in-house staff or a hired third party marketing firm, such a method could take several months to develop the desired results and considerable capital outlay.

Another option, Richardson said, is to buy your way to the top by signing up with online major search engines such a Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and Microsoft Live Search and bidding for keywords they offer in the market. The advertisers pay the search engines for every click on their ad gets. The pay-per-click (PPC) technique has gained industry prominence since 2004.

The objective is the snap-up keywords -- often priced at around five cents to upwards of $2.00 per click – that are relevant to your product or campaign and are popular enough to land your site on the primary search list.

For FrontierPC.com Computer Inc., an online computer dealer based in Vancouver, the scheme has been very profitable.

The 15-year-old company, which serves the Canada-wide B2B market, was initially signed up with Google AdWords and Overture. But recently decided to enlist Microsoft Live Search as well for want of “better results.”

“Google and Overture definitely provided a larger audience but we were not getting adequate conversion rates from the clicks their engines provided,” said Barry Johnson, general manager for FrontierPC.com.

Conversion rates refer to the number of click on a certain ad that eventually lead to a sale.

Overture and AdWords conversion rates are below one per cent while those provided by the Live Searches adCenter online advertising tool reached 2.2 to four per cent, said Johnson. “Basically, we get the same number of qualified clients from Live Search for about half of what we pay for with Google.”

The company, however, still retains Google and Overture because it wants to “cover all the bases.”

adCentre, which was introduced in the U.S. in 2005, was only made available in Canada on February this year. Microsoft recently incorporated an improved campaign tracking feature to the online advertising tool, according to Melanie Martin, trade marketing manager for adCentre.

She said users now have a better capability to monitor progress of specific accounts, campaigns of ad groups through an onscreen dashboard. “This enables advertisers to change keyword settings, even mid-campaign."

It's a feature that Johnson likes because FrontierPC.com uses search advertising primary for its short term campaigns such as manufacturer sale or promotional events that runs for several days. The company may have several different campaigns going on at any given time.

Typically the company purchases about 100 keywords associated with a campaign, for a total of around $300 to $500. “If we get a three to four per cent conversion rate then we're doing well,” said Johnson.

Search advertising is best suited for such short-term efforts because anything longer could end up “being very expensive and defeat the technique's purpose,” according to Richardson.

He also warned that competitor can use the PPC system to “bleed” a rival by clicking on their ads as many times as possible but not making any purchases.

To make the most of the method, Johnson advices advertisers to “make the most of your budget.”

More popular keywords tend to command higher prices, to avoid getting skinned, Johnson bids on associated phrases. “The word ‘computer' will probably sell for $2.00. Since we sell a lot of custom machines, I bid on five-cent words like ‘green PC', ‘eco-PC' or ‘silent PC.'”

Advertisers must also keep close watch of the keyword market because “hot words” change quickly.

Companies must also make sure their ad links actually bring a surfer to the page featuring their product or campaign. “A dead link or a mere link to a company's main page is a waste of money,” said Johnson.

Above all, Johnson said, companies should practice “truth in advertising.” He said some companies purchase keywords that have nothing to do with their product for the sole purpose of attracting search engines.

Search engines regularly conduct editing processes that weed out such advertisers, Johnson warned.

Comment: edit@itworldcanada.com
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=45137&cid=9

Traffic, Web Traffic Is The Key

In the internet business there's a saying that goes something like "traffic is the key." As you know in order to make sales you have to have customers. On the internet the only way to have customers is to have visitors to your web site. And how does this happen? Well it CAN happen in several ways BUT some are worthless. Let's talk about those first...

Perhaps the most worthless is the random chance that a person will type the url to your web site. There really is no chance at all really save an act of God because why would they type something randomly? and why you? So people need to know who you are or what your product is in order to make their way to your site. In other words you need to advertise in order to create web traffic. A slightly better way is to have a link on another of your own, or somebody else's web site. The only Problem is in order to get people to your site there has to be people going to those other websites which again necessitates advertising. So "traffic is the key" but advertising is the key to traffic. So lets talk about advertising now.

Internet advertising is helped, actually driven by the search engines. The higher you rank on the search engine for a give entry the more people will visit your site. This is because people are lazy and don't want to work to find what they want to find. It also makes sense because everyone thinks that the top results are the most applicable to what they want, and this is the idea. So web traffic is the key, advertising is the key to web traffic, and ranking high on the search engine is the key to good advertising. So lets talk about search engine ranking now.

Search engine ranking is somewhat of a mystery and those who have figured out the most secrets are the best at advertising on the internet. Links to other pages is good, keyword relevance is good, and selling something that a lot of people want is good too. The other thing to remember is that it is pointless to get lots of people to see your page if they are not interested in what you are selling. This brings up the concept of targeted web traffic--getting people who want what you've got specifically to your site.

Anyway, these "gurus" who have been at it for years like to give out helpful information (at a price) and tools that make it easier to come up with effective sales sites. This product is one of those tools that helps to bring targeted web traffic to you, making you a more effective internet seller.

Josephine Stungger has been an internet marketer for years and years. Her experience has been invaluable as an advisor for an online search engine optimization service. To find out how to increase web traffic to your sites go to www.cheapwebtraffic.info.

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

SEO Hosting Adds Twelve Free Search Engine Optimization Scripts

Scripts make Host Gator's SEO Hosting the most comprehensive hosting service for helping customers maximize search engine placement.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) August 30, 2007 -- Host Gator, a leading provider of shared, dedicated and reseller hosting, announced the addition of twelve search engine optimization scripts for its new SEO Hosting service.

The scripts will be available free of charge to all customers and is part of Host Gator's commitment to making the SEO Hosting division the most complete hosting service and resource for businesses that want to optimize search engine placement.

"Host Gator is always looking for ways to help our customers succeed in their online endeavors," said Brent Oxley, founder and president of Host Gator. "Our customers identified search engine optimization as an area where they needed help and we responded by giving them all the technological capabilities they need to achieve these objectives."

Host Gator recently introduced the SEO Hosting division, which gives customers multiple C class hosting capabilities at affordable prices. The new division has its own site and resources at SEOHosting.com and the free downloadable scripts will be available at http://www.seohosting.com/seo-tools.php.

"The scripts are just another example of how we try to do anything we can to meet our customer's needs," said Oxley. "That goes beyond products and services to resources, information and things like scripts that enhance the entire hosting and web site development and marketing process."

About Host Gator

Host Gator is a provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting services focused on the consumer and small business markets. Founded in 2002, Host Gator has become a leader in reseller hosting, helping over 11,000 businesses become Web hosting companies. Host Gator has offices in Houston, Texas and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet's facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio, AT&T and AboveNet.

For more information, please visit www.HostGator.com.

Media Contact: Edward Yang, Firecracker PR, (949) 500-6422

Important Checklist To Get Targeted Search Engine Traffic

Search Engine traffic is the way you are going to get good amount of visitor to your site. People usually search for business/organizations and relative terms and not precisely what you sell unless you have already advertised it to the particular customer. Having best related keywords in search engine will have very targeted traffic to your site. Also it is important to make sure your website is positioned for the best targeted search engine traffic to increase your rankings. Below are the 5 point checklist that in my opinion you should go over before even planning e-commerce site.

1. Domain Name: Domain name is the most important item to be considered when going for an e-commerce site. The domain name should essentially carry the keywords you will use to target the site. Also while trying to go for targeted keyword domain you should also try to get it as shorter as possible. For example, if you have a directory website, then you should go for having a directory word in your domain. Here the name will be much bigger but if it is easy to spell like directoryalley then you should definitely go with it. Also if the keyword you are trying does not have any good combination domain available try getting similar keywords domain like for directory, index would be perfect so getting indexrated would be perfect for directory.

2. Titles: The second most important part of the checklist is Title of website. It should contain your keyword phrases and should be different and most relative for each page thus increasing the potency of each page and giving it much strength in SERPs. You can also increase your targeted search engine traffic with repeating the keywords for the page as close to top of page as possible. Also make titles of pages attractive and interesting which will allure users into coming to your site. For example, you want to have targeted search engine traffic to your website servicing submission to web directories and have an article of submitting to web directories. In this case, you should name the article with your targeted search engine traffic while making it more attractive, something like, 5 Absolute unwritten laws of Web Directory Submissions.

3. Content: The content of the page also carries importance for getting the targeted search engine traffic and should contain informative and keyword rich data. However you should not go overboard and use all or most of your keywords in a single page. Spread them out throughout the site and use only one keyword or key phrase per page. More the keywords per page more diluted the power of each of your keywords.

4. Keep your site Updated and always current: Search Engines like sites with updated or current data. You should try to keep your site as current as possible and should update it daily and if not possible weekly. More current the data more pages will be cached in the search engines and more traffic. Also people like more current data and fresh content. Irrelevant and out of date content turn your visitors off and thus will lead to decreasing amount of returning visitors.

5. Keep your site Simple: Simplicity goes long way in website design and getting traffic. Try to make as simple and as attractive as possible. Make your site look professional and relevant to the subject. As soon as you try to use out of place style or phrases, you will lose visitors!

This concludes my 5 point checklist for targeted search engine traffic. Hope it serves the goal in getting targeted search engine traffic to your site.

by Amish Mody
promotionworld.com

Search Engine Optimization Secrets Disclosed by Netconcepts President Stephan Spencer at SMX Seattle

Madison, WI (PRWEB) July 24, 2007 -- www.Netconcepts.com - Netconcepts®, LLC., the premier natural search engine marketing firm enabling a leading tier of the top 200 Internet Retailers to "get found" online, dispatched president Stephan Spencer to SMX Advanced last month to take part in the panel "Give It Up!".

The session, composed of search engine optimization pioneers, was unique in the fact that all experts involved agreed to disclose their most closely guarded secrets to the select group of attendees in the audience.

High level details from the session, organized by Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan, were kept under a tight embargo for no less than thirty days after the event.

"I was thrilled to be able to share some of my favorite search engine optimization (http://www.netconcepts.com/) secrets with such a select gathering of search marketers at SMX Advanced in Seattle," states Spencer. "I'm happier still that thirty days has passed and these tips are available to a wider audience."

The tips Spencer provided were culled from his long history in the field of search engine marketing. They include:

•Understanding Google grouped results. An indented Google listing ranked number two is most likely not actually number two. By adding the right search engine parameters (http://www.netconcepts.com/deconstructing-grouped-google-results/), one can ascertain the indented result's true ranking, and, when trying to gain a competitive advantage, tactically bump a competitor off the front page. This powerful strategy has since been published in Sullivan's Search Engine Land.

•Setting up your Google preferences to display only English language pages only, circumventing the world's most powerful search engine's proclivity to overestimate results.

•Identifying links with sub-optimal anchor text and then influencing friends, colleagues and fellow bloggers to revise these underperforming links.

•Obtaining free Forrester reports, simply by using the super-secret Google query "forrester research grapevine endnotes filetype:pdf".

Recently, blogger Lisa Barone at competing firm Bruce Clay Inc. dubbed Spencer "MVP" of the panel for his innovative views and powerful techniques. This was unexpected, since Barone's CEO, Bruce Clay, was on the panel along with Spencer.

Other experts on the panel included such industry luminaries as Mike Grehan, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, and Jill Whalen.

"It was an honor to be a part of such an illustrious group," states Spencer. "Together, we hope to share more killer tips at future SMX shows."

Stephan Spencer next appearance will be at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, CA on August 23 where he will appear on the panels "SEO Through Blogs & Feeds" and "Wikipedia & SEO".

About Netconcepts, LLC:

Netconcepts® is committed to arming top Internet retailers with online strategies and technology platforms designed to increase online sales. With proprietary technology and processes including GravityStream™ and GravityMarket™, online retailers will "get found" on the search engines. Online retailers succeeding with the aid of Netconcepts, include Discovery Communications, Northern Tool, Home Shopping Network, Kohl's Department Stores, REI, and Cabela's among other brands. Netconcepts is based in Madison Wisconsin with a production facility in Auckland, New Zealand.

Netconcepts

www.Netconcepts.com

Agency Contact

Bill Arnovich

Misukanis & Odden

952.400.0342

Canadian Search Engine Marketing Firm Ranks Among Top 30 North American Companies

First Page SEO was ranked as number 25 of the top 30 Internet marketing businesses doing organic search engine optimization according to Visibility Magazine in its July 2007 issue.

Minden, Ontario (PRWEB) August 7, 2007 -- Visibility Magazine, in its July 2007 issue, has ranked a Canadian company from Ontario Canada as one of the top Internet marketing companies in North America. First Page SEO (http://www.first-page-seo.com) was ranked as number 25 of the top 30 Internet marketing businesses doing organic search engine optimization. First Page SEO is the only Ontario based marketing organization to break into this elite club of Internet marketers.

Visibility Magazine (http://www.visibilitymagazine.com) refers to itself as a monthly journal featuring "Internet Marketing Strategy Unplugged" and is circulated to business leaders, marketing executives and academics across North America.

North America companies are leading the charge in the multibillion-dollar Internet search industry. Search engine optimization is one marketing segment where American firms have entrenched themselves as market leaders across the world, as measured in evidence by placement results. While many new businesses have been set up in India to outsource some of the search engine marketing work, the real leading-edge marketing guru's continue to conduct their business in house with highly skilled and innovative employees, capable of keeping up with, or staying ahead of, the complex search engine algorithms.

First Page SEO has consistently ranked number one on Google for many years for search terms such as "Ontario search engine marketing" and "Ontario search engine optimization" where competing indexed pages can number almost two million. In its customer base of some 400 clients, First Page SEO has more than its fair share of top ranking Web sites. In a world where search engine listings come and go with each search engine algorithm change, staying on top of the pack is part art and part science. As a result most companies that are good at search engine marketing command fairly high professional fees and have waiting lists. First Page SEO currently has a six-week waiting list for search engine optimization work or Web site design.

What is unusual about the Visibility Magazine published ranking study is that generally few Canadian companies break into the USA Internet marketing scene with any degree of success. USA marketing expenditures in California alone are equivalent to all of Canada. First Page SEO does Internet marketing and Web sites for customers from all over the world and considers Canada as only one of many geographic market opportunities.

Many business sectors are reporting that up to 80% of their business can come from Web search. Increasingly, the Internet is the tool of choice for business and consumers shopping for services or products on a retail or wholesale basis.

"Most businesses have realized for some years now that Internet marketing is pivotal to their business success," says Mark Coles, a principal owner of First Page SEO.

While thousands of Webmasters and marketing types advertise search engine marketing services only few can deliver. Businesses seeking Internet marketing advice should demand customer references and check the keyword placement of those customers on major search engines. They can also check the placement of the company offering the service. Chances are, if a marketing company can't place its own site - they probably can't get your Web site ranking near the top either.

First Page SEO has been offering Internet marketing solutions for over eight years. It serves over 400 clients' worldwide and provides optimization services, site development, opt-in mail programs, and media and link services. For more information, please visit http://www.first-page-seo.com or call Mark Coles at 705-286-3656.

Search Engine Optimization for Online Marketing

Search Engine Optimization for Online Marketing
by Peter Kwee
promotionworld.com

Ranking your website at the top of every search engine is everybody's wet dream. There are no real secrets on how to achieve a high ranking with the major search engines, because effective search engine optimizations are now available on the internet, but it takes consistency, a solid game plan and a lot of trials and errors to fine tune this cyber art. What is search engine optimization? Before we discuss this, one has to understand first how search engines work.

Search engines provide their users with the most relevant and up-to-date information to match the search term that was used. They are sophisticated pieces of technology which allow users to quickly find relevant websites, by searching for a word or a phrase. Search engine results are useless to users if the information does not relate to the search term, or if the results are old and out dated. People expect the most up-to-date and fresh information that is useful to them.

Updating your website everyday or at lease every week, and adding some new materials will help you get noticed by the search engines, as they use crawlers and internet robots to seek out the latest changes on all the websites on the internet on a real time basis. So, if you are going to sell any type of product or services online, you have to optimize your website for the search engines, in order to boost traffic and sales. If you are marketing online, and just about everybody is these days, the bulk of your business inquiries will likely come directly from search engine results. And for that reason, it is absolutely important to optimize your site for search engines, in order to achieve a high ranking among the various search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic procedures to augment their website's status. The internet has grown very quickly over the recent years and the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market. Therefore, better understanding of the fundamental elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital for any online business success.

Making use of effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page ranking of your website. There are many strategies and tricks that can be used to increase page ranking. The most effective method is to provide high quality content consistently. This seems like a simple concept, but there are many websites that fail to provide content that visitors find interesting. Sites which provide content that are interesting, well-written and regularly updated attract highly engaged visitors who are more likely to return to the website in the future. So, if you can set your website apart from those boring, lifeless sites, then do it. You'll surely be a step closer to achieving high page ranking through search engine optimization.

Another significant factor for an effective search engine optimization is to include keywords and phrases within your content. To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you have to make sure that the keywords and phrases you have on your site are the keywords and phrases that your site is actually optimized for. The more keywords you use in your content, the more likely it is that online visitors will find your site when they do some researches with those words. You can also bid for clicks from different keywords, using "pay per click" or PPC strategies, like Adwords in goggle.com for example. PPC strategies are an art in itself and sometimes involve fine tuning with many trials and errors, before you will find something that will work consistently for you. But until then, it could become a very costly exercise. If you are unfailing with these techniques, then your overall search engine optimization will increase, boosting your page ranking.

You should also develop a linking strategy as a part of your search engine optimization. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it makes the impression that your site is important and has added value related to other businesses, because of its affiliated links. For each link that you have pointing back to you, that is another chance for your potential customer to find you. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.

Another strategy is to develop a content strategy. People who search the internet are looking for information. The more concise information you provide to them and the more helpful it is, the more likely you will attract buying interest and make the sale. Providing numbers and statistics, as well as colorful graphics and photos of people in your business, also enhance readership interest. Arranging your contents so that they flow easily from page to page with appropriate links (make sure all of your links are working properly) from topic to topic, makes for easy reading and arouse interest in your products or services. At the end of the day, you are only one shot and a click away from making a sale or losing a customer. For real time automated SEO, take a look at Promo Black Box at http://pacap.us

Peter Kwee
Intenational Banker & Real Estate Investor with extenisve knowledge in Investment & Mortgage banking and Online marketing.