Website optimization can be done in many ways. It depends on the site owner how long he can wait for the result. Some results can be fast but the problem is that those results could not stay longer. But to stay longer in the search engine organic SEO is the best way. Organic SEO requires time to take effect, just as it takes time for your web pages to start showing up in the search engine results. The very first reason to opt for the organic SEO is that it is low cost and inexpensive as compared to the PPC. As most of the searchers click the natural search engine results rather than PPC. And other factor to improving your rankings with natural search engine optimization is by boosting your “Link Popularity” by acquiring or paying for links that point to your web site.
These links give you lasting results by giving you top rankings and traffic from the search engines. Plus, the links themselves will provide a significant boost in long term traffic. Not only that in the organic SEO you do the free submissions in the directory. You don’t have to keep paying for this service because, unless search engine databases drops your free submission pages (which is not often these days), you will be visible and present to the search engine users when they search on your targeted keyword phrases. Over time you should see a progression in your ranking, depending on how competitive your keyword phrases are.
So the Organic SEO is the best and the most effective way for the promotion of the site though the result may appear a little late but it will be long lasting
SEO is a never ending battle!
So is SEO over-rated? I don’t think it is. Some say that Google’s automated PageRank system and Alexa’s Traffic Rank system are losing ground. This may be may be true to some point but the fact still remains that we want at the top of the search results. And to achieve this we need to educate ourselves and do the work or hire someone else to the work for us.
Search Engine Optimization “SEO” is a term we see all over the net. For those of you that are unsure exactly what is meant by SEO, it’s simply adjusting many characteristics of your website to conform with what the major search engines deem important. That’s where the simple stops. It’s complicated only because no one other than the developers themselves know all the rules and even then the rules are constantly changing.
What I’ll try to do here is cover the basics that have fairly consistent lately. Keep in mind however there will always be inconsistencies when it comes SEO. For example, I recently read an e-book that said to imbed a few of your primary keywords in the “alt” tag of your logo graphic. The same day, I was reading an online article of equal quality and this author cautioned against such a tactic due to possible penalties by the search engines. So which did I do? See for yourself by hovering your mouse over the logo. I don’t mind a little risk as long as the risk is low and there may be nice benefits, but don’t get carried away. We certainly don’t want to get banned by any search engines. I get the heebie-jeebies just saying it. That would simply end many of us. Because Google’s PageRank and Alexa’s Traffic Rank systems are really two different animals, I will focus primarily on Google’s PageRank system for now.
So lets get started in no particular order.
Link Popularity: I guess we can start with the hardest part of search engine optimization. Link popularity. The ultimate goal here is to gain the respect of the search engines. And how we do that is by who we know or at least associate with in the spiders eyes. We want as many quality incoming links as possible with as few low-ranked outbound links as possible. We need to consider several factors when we approach any site to request a link exchange.
1. First of all, we want to focus only on sites that compliment ours. By that I mean directly on indirectly are in the same category or field or relating field as our site without necessarily competing with our site. I say not-necessarily because personally I have no problem linking to competitors site as long as we both mutually agree benefits. Some fear they’ll lose some of their site visitors but I feel the best way to keep visitors on your site and get them to return is by providing a high quality site with great original content.
2. Second we want to pay attention to their Google page rank. To do this if you haven’t already done so, download Google free toolbar http://toolbar.google.com/ Once installed, you can see the PageRank of any site you go to. You want as many sites as possible with high PR’s. Set a goal of getting a few PR6 or PR7 sites. This will do wonders to your rank. In fact one PR7 might do more for you than hundreds on no or very low PR sites.
3. Third, the engines like to see incoming links from what they consider on authoritative site. So aggressively go after well established, high ranking sites that share the some focus as your site.
4. Fourth on our list are the sites to stay away from. Sites that generate artificially created links. Link farms and even huge link exchange sites can even get your site banned. I don’t mean to make anyone nervous here. The fact is, if you are generally doing the right thing for the right reasons, you probably have nothing to worry about. If you find yourself trying to hide something or hoping an search engine doesn’t catch something, then you may want to re-evaluate your strategies.
Requesting a link. The first thing you should do when requesting a link exchange is little research. Glance over the site in question and consider where your site link might hold the most relevance one their site.
This will benefit both parties. And then don’t be afraid to offer the suggestions when you contact the site administrator. I have had sites accept my link on a suggested page even though they have a section designed just for outside links. I have even accepted links that I would have normally rejected because the fit would have seemed wrong if they hadn’t shown a better fit.
Always add their link to your site before you make the request and include the page url of the link when making contact. Keep track of the contacts you’ve made and if you haven’t received a reply. Do a simple search on there site to see if they added your link and forgot to reply. At most, send one more request and be sure to include the words link exchange in the subject line so they don’t delete your mail as spam. Then if you still don’t get a reply within a week simply remove theirs from your site and move on. Don’t send any more mail. Consider the lack of response as a rejection and accept it. Don’t take things personal and send a negative e-mail. I have actually received a couple of these and there’s really no point. If you do get a reply and a link send a short thank you note.
Always include the exact text of the link you want on their site. Again, before you do this it helps if you look at other links on their site. If they have a 3 or 4 word description with each link, you don’t want to send a whole paragraph in your links description. What you do want to do is include your best key words. In fact, a short description with the right key words can benefit you far better than a watered down version. Keep it short and sweet.
Make things as easy as possible for the webmaster. Include the html code of your link so he/she can just copy and paste if they decide to.
Sample Link Exchange Request Letter
Hi, I am the administrator and site owner of YourSiteHere.com
I would like to apply for a link exchange with your site.
I have already linked to your site, you can view it at:
http://reciprocal.YourSiteHere.com/
Basic exchange information
Site name:
Extreme Site Promotions
URL:
http://www.YourSiteHere.com
Site Description:
Extreme sit promotion techniques for internet marketing campaigns, site promotion and internet advertising.
Category:
Internet marketing/Web promotion
Where our site reciprocates:
http://reciprocal.YourSiteHere.com.com/
Contact information
Name:
Your Name
Email address:
admin@YourSiteHere.com
Extreme promotions techniques for internet marketing campaigns. Site promotion andinternet advertising.
Feel Free to download the supplied graphics located at http://www.YourSiteHere.com/graphics and use them to link back to our home page.
Our site can only reciprocate with a text link.
Link/ Resource Page- If you decide to dedicate a page or two to link exchanges, stay with the over all theme of your site. And the best way to create a links page is by doing it manually. An automated system can be less affective and can even get you in trouble if not maintained closely.
Organize your links into categories and set a limit of about 50 links or so to a page.
Include on your links page an example of the link you want used linking back to your site. Again, use your key words. It might also be nice to offer a few graphics or banners in case a site would prefer to use a graphic linked back to you. Give them permission to download the images and use them to link to your site. I always include a comment such as,
“Feel Free to download the supplied graphics located at www.YourSiteHere.com/graphics and use them to link back to our home page. Our site can only reciprocate with a text link.”
I think it’s better to provide a link to the graphic page rather than sending attachments. In today’s age of viruses, you risk you email getting deleted right away if it contains an attachment.
I have learned from experience that many sites aren’t going to play fair, and even more of them are not keeping their sites updated. I have a nice link exchange program that I’ve built over a many month period and a couple months ago, a friend of mine let me in on a new link tag: content=”noindex,nofollow” He suggested that I use it for links such as affiliate links and other non-reciprocating links. Why let these sites suck up my page rank with nothing in return? As I was adding the tags, I went to my links page and began checking each site for a reciprocal link. To my amazement, over 50% had no link back to my site. This means that most of the 50% had removed the link after a short period and maybe a few had squeaked by me without ever adding one. Another reason I was surprised by this is that about 75% of the links on that site were requested by the other party. So what can you do? Ireined my system. I added a note at the top of the page and I began making these changes:
For every site that I couldn’t find a like from, I added the word “pending” and I also added the content=”noindex,nofollow” tag. This would reduce one sided benefit until I notify each site and give them a chance to ad mine. I could have deleted these links but this method is better for a few reasons. First, it relays a message to future exchange sites that we’re paying attention. Second, it’s possible that I made a mistake and the link is there. And lastly, they may have a mistake themselves. so each site will be contacted individually before they are removed. A huge project that I’m not looking forward to but it has to be done.
As for the sites that did reciprocate, they get a double benefit. They get the word “confirmed” next to their link with a second link to their site going directly to the page where our links resides. This will make life much easier in the future when it comes to re-checking reciprocal links. All I’ll have to do is click on the ‘confirmed’ link and it should be there.
Brian Hawkins - Entrepreneur, Internet Marketer, Online business consultant, Author. Site owner and administrator of several sites including: http://www.extremesitepromotions.com/ and http://www.csc4u.com/
When the movie Spanglish hit the screens in 2004, it was dubbed “A comedy with a language all it’s own.” I don’t think the producers even knew they were slipping a lesson for website owners who want better search engine listings into the movie.
In the movie, Adam Sandler’s household needs a housekeeper. Enter Flora - a Spanish woman who is unable to speak a word of English. They have to figure out how to communicate.
As website owners know, this is much like trying to speak with search engine optimization people. As they rattle off terms like Organic Listings and SEM and SEO and SEP and SERP, the average webmaster begins to want a slurp more than a SERP.
So, let’s trasnlate some of those terms, shall we?
Don’t use Spamglish. Bots don’t have Visas. People are what’s important. Just like Adam Sandler said. See?
P.S. My most sincere apologies to Adam Sandler and the cast and producers of “Spanglish” for this little parody. I couldn’t resist.
LindaCaroll.com clients have been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, People Magazine & more. You can get great
results, too. Start with the free email course, at Google-This.com
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This article may be reprinted in full as long as you include a live credit link to LindaCaroll.com or Google-This.com.
It’s in our genes, we’re driven to seek. We ‘hunt’ for food, homes, partners, jobs and lately - with the advent of the Internet - information.
Even in the early years of the Internet, before it evolved to include Web browsers, there were text based search engines. Back then they had funny names like Archie, and Gopher. It was only later, when the graphical browser was invented, that searching became much easier and accessible for the rest of us.
The concept behind Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quite simple: when a consumer or business person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, they are in “hunt mode.” This mode is unique because it indicates that the person is looking for information. Marketers understand this “hunt mode” means the searcher is probably somewhere in the buying cycle, researching a product or service to fill an immediate or future need.
It’s this ‘timeliness’ that makes search engine results some of the best sources of targeted traffic, whether that traffic originates from “organic” unpaid search listings or paid (sponsor) advertising listings.
To leverage the power of targeted traffic, marketers must understand how to effectively use both paid and organic SEM and what they can expect each methodology to achieve.
Search engine traffic is unique because:
• Presenting your message within the search engine traffic is non-intrusive. The searching is not interrupted and your message “arrives” just when the searcher is seeking knowledge or a solution.
• Search engine traffic results from a fixed inventory of searches. To truly qualify as search engine traffic, the search must be one that the searcher initiated as a search, either by clicking a search link or by entering a search query.
• Search engine traffic originates from a voluntary, audience-driven search. This means the visitors arriving from a search have selected your listing and chosen the words that match.
Natural or “Organic” search engine marketing combines the best practices of technology, usability, copy/linguistics and online PR. This is because many search engines base their relevancy algorithms on a combination of the text they see on a page or site, combined with external elements such as links and user behaviours/preferences.
These days, Marketers can buy text-link search results on all of the top search sites. The popularity of paid search results advertising can be attributed to the search engines’ need for alternative revenue sources, marketers’ increasing requests for search results traffic, and the high value of the traffic generated through search results.
Unpaid (otherwise known as organic or algorithmic) search engine traffic was once fairly easy to get - but this was before there were more than 3 billion documents competing for attention of the search engine databases!
Some marketers believe there are “tricks” which will improve the relevancy of their indexed sites. Using tricks to fool the search engines is dangerous because many of these ‘tricks’ result in negative relevance penalties (they actually lower your ranking score!) as the engines take measures to punish search marketers who try and manipulate their systems. Remember, site and IP Blacklists do exist and ‘tricks’ are one sure-fire way to get yourself added.
The good news is there are many compelling and legitimate organic search engine optimizations. Some of the best ones focus on content - the mainstay of the Internet. Particular efforts should be focused on copy (the words), the site design (it’s an artful balance between what the computerized search engine needs and what the human searcher wants), HTML formatting, and other technical considerations.
Online marketing is a proven and valuable part of an overall integrated marketing campaign. And it all begins by understanding the precise keywords and search terms your ideal prospect is using to search the Internet. Find these and you unlock the potential of the Internet.
Happy hunting…keyword hunting that is!
JAMES C. BURCHILL is a 20-year veteran entrepreneur and information technology executive who now provides strategic marketing consulting services to a select group of clients. He is a published author, a passionate advocate of technology and the Internet, as well as an avid study of classical advertising and marketing strategies (which he uses during ‘Internet alchemy’ experiments.) James is an expert in information and data management, Internet marketing and online networking. A self confessed ‘information and technology enthusiast’, James brings a wide range of valuable skills to any venture. Of singular note is James’ ability to assimilate complex subject matter and produce clean clear ‘easy-to-understand’ messages. James has been interviewed many times and caused quite the media buzz when a client ‘double-dog-dared’ him to prove you can get front page coverage for $0. The details and that ‘dumb stunt’ are now part of EBay legend. Currently James lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife and family, their Siamese cat and one very nervous fish.
Visit http://www.JamesBurchill.com for details.
