Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Eight Useful SEO Techniques Every Webmaster Should Know

By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008

Every webmaster should have some basic understanding of these simple SEO techniques if they want to achieve Top Rankings for their site. The more you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages will fare in the different search engines, especially Google.

Optimizing your pages for the search engines should be your main priority because conquering and dominating your chosen keywords is often cited as one of the major determining factors in the success of your online site or business. You must have a rudimentary grasp of how SEO can work for you and your site.

These simple SEO Tips will help you understand the basics and help you reach your online goals.

1. Title Tag

The Title Tag is located at the top of your html page and it tells the search engines what your page is about. When you open your page in a browser these are the words at the very top of the screen. Despite its simplicity, the title tag is crucial to 'on-page optimization'; it should include your main keywords and it should be 63 characters or less if you want your title to appear in full on Google.

Many SEO experts create web pages in a three-prong approach. They place the title in:

- the title tag - on the webpage itself - and in the URL for that page

Sometimes they will just pick the main keywords from the title and place them in the anchor url instead. For example: www.yourwebsite.com/keywords.html

2. Meta Description Tag

The Meta Tag contains the description for your web page. Your description will show up in all the search engines so you have to be careful to write precisely and objectively. It should be about 140 characters or around 20 words. Make sure to include your keywords but don't spam - don't repeat your keywords more than twice - using variations is helpful.

Keep in mind, successful webmasters make their descriptions stand out from the crowd and entice the surfer to click their link. It is also the first contact with your potential visitor or prospect so make a good first impression.

3. Anchor Tag or URL

The anchor tag is used to form links within websites or from site to site. This tag should have your title or the main keywords from your page title to be the most effective.

Anchor text is also important to know - these are the underlined, clickable text or words in a link.

If you want to check Google for all web pages containing your keywords in the anchor tags.

Just type into Google Search: allinanchor:yourkeywords

4. Finding Backlinks

One of the keys to higher rankings is building quality links from relevant, related quality sites. The search engines, especially Google, count each link as a "vote" for your site or content. Many experts suggest you include your main keywords in the anchor text of these inbound links in order to rank high.

If you want to find the number of backlinks your site has.

Just type into Google Search: link:yourURL

and it will give you the number of backlinks you have.

Google doesn't give you all your existing backlinks, so you can try Yahoo! to find a more exact number.

Just open Yahoo! and type in: linkdomain:yourURL

5. Checking Indexed Pages

If is very important for you to know what content the search engines have indexed from your site. You can also check to see how your links are displayed and to see if any titles or descriptions are missing from your pages.

You can see how many of your pages are indexed in Google by using the site command.

Just type into Google Search: site:yourURL

Another way to look at your pages in Google is to type in "http://yoursite" and "www.yoursite" with the quotation marks to see the exact number of listings for each.

6. Checking Google Cache

You can also check to see the Google Cache of your site by using the cache command. You will also discover when it was last retrieved.

Just type into Google Search: cache:yourURL

7. Finding Associated Keywords

Keywords are the heart of the Internet, you must dominate the search engines for your chosen keywords if you are to succeed online. So make sure you have your main keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag on your page. Many experts suggest you place your page's main keywords in the first and last 25 words on that page.

You must also be able to find and use variations of your keywords to completely conquer your targeted niche. To find what other keywords Google has associated with your main keywords, just use the tilde ~ command to find associated phrases in Google.

Just type into Google search: ~keywords

Variations will be highlighted in bold print.

8. Finding Titled Keywords

If you want to find competing sites that have your keywords in the title just use the allintitle command.

Just type into Google search: allintitle:yourkeywords

In summary, if used consistently, these basic SEO techniques should help improve your rankings and keep you in the picture with regards to your standings in the search engines. Your site's stats or raw traffic logs will also confirm the rise or fall of your keyword rankings. You must have complete knowledge of both your site and your keywords in the search engines, especially Google. Since Google will deliver most of your quality traffic, you must optimize for it and be aware of what is happening to your site and keywords within Google. This is yet another example where knowledge equals success.

About The Author
The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: BizwareMagic or MarketingToolGuide
2008 Titus Hoskins.

Regards,
Steve(Web site CEO),
www.homeeasybusiness.com

Monday, March 17, 2008

You could safe a life

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters... S.T.R.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little
fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and
just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
(they offered to call ambulance)

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate
of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up,
she went about enjoying herself the rest of the
evening. Her husband called later telling
everyone that his wife had been taken to the
hospital - (at 6:00pm , she passed away.)

She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they
known how to identify the signs of a stroke,
perhaps she would be with us today.

Some don't die. They end up in a helpless,
hopeless condition instead. It only takes a
minute to read this...

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke
victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the
effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick
was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then
getting the patient medically cared for within 3
hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to
identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness
spells disaster.The stroke victim may suffer severe
brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize
the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander
can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S * SMILE-Ask the individual to SMILE .
T * TALK-Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE
(Coherently) (eg "It is sunny out today").
R * RAISE-Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS .

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks,
call (your countries emergency number) immediately!!
and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE : Another 'sign' of a stroke is
1. Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue.
If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to
one side or the other that is also an indication
of a stroke.

A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets
this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that
at least one life will be saved.

….and it could be your own…..

Regards,
Steve(Web site CEO),
www.homeeasybusiness.com

Sunday, March 9, 2008

REVENGE ON THE TELEMARKETERS

Three Little Words That Work!!

(1) The three little words: "Hold On, Please..."
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off
instead of hanging-up immediately would make each telemarketing
call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would
grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the "beep-beep-beep" tone, you
know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has
efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on
the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a
machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when
a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day
for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is
no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button
on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This
confuses the machine that dialled the call and it kicks your
number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have
your name in their system any longer!!!

(3) When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail
for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and
similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-prepaid return envelopes, right?
It costs them more than the regular postage "IF" and when
they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! In that case,
why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it
in these cool little, postage- prepaid return envelopes.

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express.
Send a pizza coupon to the Bank.

If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them
their blank application back!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't
on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just
keep them guessing! It still costs them.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a
lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need
to OVERWHELM them.

Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail,
and best of all they're paying for it... Twice!

Let's help keep the Postal Services busy since they are
saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits,
and that's why they need to increase postage costs again.
You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- maybe
you'll get very little junk mail anymore.

To your success,
Steve,(Web site co-ordinator),
www.homeeasybusiness.com

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

New Internet Marketing Tools

By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008
New Internet marketing tools are coming online each and every day. Why should you care? Mainly because these new marketing tools can have a dramatic impact on your online traffic, leads and sales. So much so, your online competitiveness can greatly depend on you finding and using these new marketing tools before everyone else does.

And as Internet marketing grows more and more lucrative, it is becoming more competitive each day, so staying aware of what's happening has become vital to your online success. More importantly, if you're a full-time marketer like me, your livelihood will largely depend upon you being able to keep on top of all the new ways of marketing on the web.

With these considerations in mind, I would like to líst some new or relatively new marketing tools that have been effective for me in my online marketíng. Some of these are marketing software, others are SEO strategies, marketing tips and the like... all have helped me achieve my online goals.

Here are some new marketing tools you can try:

1. Real Link Finder

Neil Shearing's "RealLinkFinder" is a handy little link-building tool you can use to increase your link popularity and SE rankings.

It lets you find targeted blogs that don't have the "nofollow" attribute tag so your links will count in all the search engines. Great way to build targeted links related to your site's main keywords or keyword phrases. This is one "No Cost" link-building tool you should try.

2. Peel Away Ads

Simple ads which sit at the corner of any webpage, when a cursor hovers over the pulsating image - the page peels away to reveal your ad or promotion. Might seem a bit gimmicky, but like the pop-up or fade-in, they do work. You do get more sign-ups and sales. www.pealawayads.com

3. Video Marketing

Using videos as marketing tools has now become commonplace on the web. If you're not promoting with videos, you are losing a large portion of the online traffic or surfers currently on the web.

Even using videos to explain your site or product will increase your conversions and sign-ups. Viral videos embedded with your links or site url can produce results when placed on YouTube or Google Videos. If you need help, one recent commercial product has been from Simon Grabowski (GetResponse) called TalkStream, which lets you put streaming audio and video on your sites. Just google to find it.

4. Social Media Bookmarks/Tags

One of the most significant changes in recent years has been the rise in importance and use of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati... these sites are now commanding huge traffic numbers and should not be ignored in your online marketíng.

You must connect your content with these sites. This is very simple to do since social media sites use tags, which are more or less simple keywords that help classify content and links. If you're using the popular Wordpress blog software, each category will be considered a tag.

You can create a simple tag in technorati by using this code: (ignore)

a href="http://technorati.com/tag/[tagname]" rel="tag">[tagname]

a href="http://technorati.com/tag/new+marketing+tools" rel="tag">new marketing tools

5. Add this Button

One of the easiest ways I have found to tap into the whole social media bandwagon is to put the Addthis button on your webpages and let your visitors bookmark your content for you.

This button is free and only takes seconds to set up on your pages. In case you're wondering if this button works, I recently received 70,000 visitors to one of my sites in one day from these social media sites. Granted most of this traffic is transitory and not permanent - the huge traffic numbers will only last as long as your links/bookmarks are on the front pages of these popular sites.

But where there is smoke, you can make fire.

6. Blogs RSS Feeds

Likewise, you must have a blog and RSS Feed associated with your site or product. It is vital that you take advantage of this technology to get your content broadcasted across the web and around the world.

RSS is only simple code that syndicates your content to all interested parties; it originally stood for "Rich Site Summary" and was a way of summarizing your content and broadcasting it. Most people now refer to RSS as Really Simple Syndication. You need a "newsreader" or aggregator such as Newsgator, Google Reader, My Yahoo! or Feed Demon to access all your feeds.

One little blog traffic tool I find helpful is John Reese's BlogRush, which helps syndicate your blog posts on other blogs.

7. Expert Marketing

Another effective way to market online or off is to promote/prove yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Creating articles, ebooks, websites on a subject that interests you will make you an expert. Once you gain credibility as an expert, your marketing will become much easier.

Some obvious places to help build this credibility would be Ezinearticles, SelfGrowth, Ideamarketers... I have found these places are excellent for getting your name and your content noticed.

8. Long Tail Niche Marketing

One of the most effective ways to market online is to use long tail keywords in your niche market. This simply means instead of targeting very general and very competitive keywords, you target less competitive long tail keywords in a smaller niche market.

I have found this tactic especially good for affiliate marketing, and the trick is to find the exact long tail phrase someone is using in the search engines and then construct content/url to match it. I find Brad Callen's Keyword Elite software program extremely helpful in finding those long tail keywords.

9. Guru Fast-track

One of the fastest and quickest ways to earn large amounts online is to hook up with big marketing GURUs and use their huge contact lists. If you have a high quality info product, then JVs (joint ventures) with these savvy marketers can be a very viable option for you to try.

These marketing gurus or experts are valuable marketing tools you can use to your advantage. Granted, their aggressive marketing methods do turn many people off, but there's no denying their methods do work.

10. Micro-List Marketing

Micro-List Building is one of the most effective online marketíng tools you can use. Quite frankly, I have found building a large opt-ín líst is not the real key to online wealth but instead creating small micro lists for each of your promoted products to be much more effective. You can have hundreds, even thousands of these different micro-lists. Use an unlímited autoresponder program like Aweber to handle and manage all these lists.

Studies have shown interested customers may not buy on the first visit, that it may take up to six or seven reminders. So keeping in contact with an interested customer, one who is looking and in the right mindset to buy, will definitely increase your sales.

Here, rather then the hard-sell, the emphasis should be on collecting contacts in order to give them helpful informative content on the product they're interested in buying. Supplying quality content should be your main goal; let the selling take care of itself. If you get the first part right, the sale will come naturally.

In conclusion, you must remember when dealing with such a complex creature as Internet marketing, in most cases there's no one single marketing tool that will do the job. Instead you need a whole orchestra of tools working together in order to make your online marketíng the most effective. So why not try some of these tools in your own online marketíng and see the results for yourself. You have everything to gain.

About The Author
The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: BizwareMagic or MarketingToolGuide
2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

To your success,
Steve(Web site coordinator),
www.homeeasybusiness.com