SEO For Free: What You Can Do Yourself

Not all search engine optimization techniques require you to get your wallet out. Many of the best methods for making sure your website is found don't cost a single cent.

One of the best aspects of search engine optimization is that you don't have to pay out large sums of money to get someone else to do it for you. There are a lot of aspects which can be learned and done yourself, if you are prepared to put in the work.

Many aspects of SEO can also be learned for free, costing you no more than your time to put into practice and keep on top of in order to stay ahead of your competition. This kind of search engine optimization is known as organic SEO, as opposed to having to pay to get it done, which can be achieved through PPC (pay per click) techniques.

Put simply, if you want to get good results from using free SEO techniques yourself, you need to have a basic understanding and respect for the search engines and what they do. If you don't have this you could end up straying from the ?white hat' techniques that are encouraged and veering into the ?black hat' techniques that will get you banned.

There are basically four main areas you need to focus your energies on in order to achieve good results. These are as follows:

    Keywords
    Content
    Links
    A user friendly site



Let's look at each of these in turn to see what you can do to optimize each one without spending anything in the process.

Let's start with keywords. These will attract the right kind of people to your site, and you could be missing out on a lot of visitors if you don't use your keywords properly - or even worse, miss some out altogether. If your site sells stainless steel dog tags for example, and you don't have that four word key phrase sprinkled throughout your site, what do you think the odds are of your site appearing in search engine results every time someone looks up that exact phrase?

That's right - just about zero.

That's a lot of traffic to be missing out on, which is why it pays to sit down and go through your site carefully, making a list of all the keywords and phrases that are there - and identifying all the ones that are missing.

A good trick to remember when doing this is to type every keyword and phrase you can think of into one of the main search engines to see how many results come back. If there are millions, then that's how many pages you will be competing against for that search term.

Basically the more detailed your keyword phrases are, the less searches are likely to be performed on them - which means less competition for you. The best ones will have a lot of sponsored links in the results as well, meaning people are willing to pay for that term.

Strike a good balance of keywords and phrases, and find some that get good results but aren't used by many other competing sites - giving you an even greater chance of ranking near the top of the results from the very beginning.

Using a different mix of keywords on each page will help to ensure that your position within the search engines is strengthened overall. Going back to the dog tag example, if you also have a page of nine carat gold dog tags, make sure that same page features that keyword phrase, plus other relevant ones for that particular range of items, as well as including more general ones.

The second aspect to concentrate on is content. The very foundations of the internet are built on solid content, and the more worthwhile content you can provide, the better. Regular updates of your site and newly added articles will attract the attention of the search engines, which will be more likely to rank your site higher as a result. You need to show them your site is active and constantly evolving, which can be done simply by following the advice given in this article.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that content is only there to fill up the pages of a website. This particularly seems to be the case if the site's primary function is selling goods. The fact remains however that well written content (keyworded carefully as shown above) can help to get your site ranked more highly - which will make you more sales in the end anyway.

Think about what your site visitors want to know, and what information you could provide them with. In this sense providing worthwhile content isn't just about pleasing the search engines, it's about pleasing your visitors as well and persuading them that they should bookmark your site and return again later.

As far as the percentage of keywords in an article is concerned figures do vary, but as a general rule around three to five per cent of your total word count should be devoted to keywords.

The third area to focus on is linking. Linking makes your site more visible to the search engines. You can link to other sites from your own; other sites can link to yours (more valuable), and you can also link different pages of your site together.

All of these methods used in conjunction will produce the best results, and luckily you have a fair amount of control over all three methods.

The main rule of thumb to remember when you link to other sites is to make sure that each link earns its place. By that I mean that you shouldn't just insert loads of links in order to attract the attention of the search engine spiders you hope will crawl your site. Make each link earn its place; make sure they are worthwhile and will add value for your site and for your customers. It goes without saying that you don't want to be associated with any dubious sites, so make sure you only link to those which have a good reputation - it can and will rub off on you over time.

Linking back to your site is a little trickier. If you take the time to build a worthwhile site and promote it in a number of ways then it will get found by more and more people, and a percentage of them are likely to link to it without being asked from their own website or blog.

You can link into it yourself by doing so from your own blog, your social networking pages and any bookmarking sites you are a member of. You can also write articles for other websites which provide a link to your own site which people can follow from the foot of the article. Don't just provide links to your home page - link in to other pages within your site too, to demonstrate to the search engine spiders that there is plenty more to explore.

It is this same reason that makes it an advantage to link all the pages of your site together as well. This can be done by providing suitable text links within articles, or within the description at the top of a page. For example, for a page on gold dog tags you could put a short description of the tags, and add that ?we also have a complete range of sterling silver dog tags in stock.'? If you make the words ?sterling silver dog tags' (also a keyword phrase) into a clickable link, people will naturally be able to follow that link without looking for the page elsewhere. The search engine spiders can also follow it in a similar fashion.

This brings into play our final area to look at - which is the need to have a user friendly site.

A comprehensive site map will help in this respect, but you need to make sure that people can easily find what they are looking for when they need it. People are basically impatient online, and if they can't find what they want in double quick time they are likely to leave and go elsewhere.

Make sure there are plenty of logical links to everything they may need or want. Use a clear navigation bar on every page and insert clickable links in the text wherever it would help, as described above. Think about what kind of information might be missing as well, and work on providing it as quickly as possible.

The most important thing to remember is that ultimately you must please the people your website is aimed at - and that's the surfing public. All of the above search engine optimization techniques will take nothing but time and a little knowledge to perform, but in the final analysis your website must satisfy its audience in order to be a real success.

SEO On The Cheap

Professional SEO techniques require a big budget to pull them off successfully, correct? Not necessarily. It's possible to take your search engine optimization to the next level without breaking the bank.

There are plenty of different elements that go to make up the skill that is search engine optimization. Some of them won't cost you a cent, but others do have a price tag, and that price tag is generally attached to services which offer faster or more professional results than you could hope to achieve yourself.

You don't always have to go to a big company to get a professional to help you out however. There are plenty of outsourcing sites which will give you access to self employed professionals who can help you out as far as SEO is concerned. For example many freelancing sites have an area for posting link building requests. All you need to do is register your request and see if there is anyone out there who will create one way links for you which lead back to your website.

You need to be cautious when using this kind of site however. Always look at a person's feedback and only choose someone for the job if you feel they are the right person for it.

The advantage of using this kind of site is that you don't have to pay a set price for the service. You will receive a range of bids which you can then choose from. It can be a much cheaper option than going to a company website, so it's a good bet if you are a newcomer to internet marketing and SEO and you have a limited budget.

Another option you have available to you is to invest in some software that will help you identify both the strong and the weak points of your website. SEO software can actually be a great tool for the newbie internet marketer to use, because it allows you to access a far greater database of knowledge than you could access for a similar price if you got help from a company.

It also gives you the opportunity to learn at your own pace. Many internet marketers find search engine optimization fascinating once they become immersed in it. While external companies and services do a great job in optimizing countless websites to ensure they get better results when it comes to traffic and sales, they don't lead to you discovering how and why those results have been achieved.

A good software program will give you a number of tools for strengthening your website, achieving a higher ranking, submitting it to the search engines and building better links. It can make the whole process much easier and more logical than if you do it yourself.

If you do still prefer the idea of going to a professional company to help you with your SEO tasks, see which companies offer which services to begin with. Some will offer specific packages which vary in size and nature depending on what you require, while others will design a package to meet your own exact needs.

If you do decide to go down this route make sure you get a number of quotes before you agree. At the end of the day the options you choose - whether you opt for outsourcing, a professional company or a software program - will depend on what you need and what kind of budget you have available.

One last piece of advice - make sure you try all the free ways of optimizing your website for the search engines before you start paying for other things. You may find you can achieve good results quickly enough to satisfy your goals.

Banned By Google? How To Get Relisted

Being banned by a major search engine is a major disaster for any website. But is there any way that you can get back in the game again?

Regardless of where you have been ranking in Google's search results, discovering that your website has been banned altogether is devastating. Depending on where you were ranked before disaster struck, it could result in you losing anywhere from a few dozen visitors to several thousand.

So what can you do to put things right?

Firstly it should be noted that there is nothing which says you have any right to be relisted at any point. Google determines whether or not a banned site ever gets to appear in their results again.

You have two main courses of action. The only thing you can do as far as Google is concerned is to figure out why your site may have been banished. Were you linking to or from any dodgy sites, such as link farms? Did you indulge in black hat SEO techniques like hiding text on your pages or cramming as many keywords as you could into the content?

Anything like this - which you will no doubt realize you were doing - provides grounds for being banned from Google (or any other search engine for that matter). If you want to stand any kind of chance of being relisted you will have to remove the offending material and make sure that the only search engine optimization techniques you are using are white hat ones.

With that said, there is still no guarantee that you will be readmitted into the search results - even if your website is now squeaky clean and whiter than white. Some webmasters have found that sending Google an apologetic email or standard letter has helped their cause, but even those who have been relisted don't get their status back overnight. Your punishment can be months long.

If you have honestly gone through every single page on your site and you cannot find any reason why you should have been banned, try visiting some online webmaster or SEO forums to see whether anyone can shed any light on the matter. You will often find other people on these forums who have been through a similar experience or know someone else who have, and can give you some useful advice.

Failing all else it might be time to consider starting afresh with a new site. If you have tried everything you can to get relisted, nothing is working and Google are not forthcoming, then this might be the only option left to you. If you end up travelling down this route be sure to read up on how to design and promote your site in ways that the search engines will approve of.

The biggest lesson here is clear. Regardless of whether you end up being able to get relisted with Google or not, you should treat the situation as a learning experience to ensure that you don't fall foul of this giant again.

What's Next? The Future Of Internet Marketing

A look forward at how things could change in the world of internet marketing.

With every day that passes more and more people are tuning in to the huge possibilities that the internet offers for making an income of their own - one that isn't dependent on an employer.

As the internet gets more crowded with people trying to earn a living from their own homes there is the prospect of existing marketers fending off more competition on a worldwide basis. More and more countries are becoming ?internet savvy' and with the advent of Web 2.0 it's clear that it's becoming even easier to jump into internet marketing and make a mark with no money necessary to get you started.

The development of social networking and bookmarking sites has also led to a new avenue for promoting goods and services online in a more personal way. Many internet marketers have recognized this and have already jumped on the bandwagon to get their profiles established in order to start attracting friends and potential customers from these very sources.

Web 2.0 has introduced a more interactive internet for marketers to get to grips with, and it may be that the people who can do this the most successfully will be the ones to grab the lion's share of sales in the next few years. Only time will tell whether this becomes a reality.

Whatever happens it's important to keep improving our own services and products to help ward off the competition otherwise we may find ourselves left in the dust. Never has the need to keep pushing for more improvements in our own businesses been so important.

It's also possible that the trend for promoting your wares through videos posted on sites like YouTube will become more pronounced. This technique has been latched onto by a lot of internet marketers with mixed results, but when it's done properly it can add a whole new dimension to promotions. Instead of merely reading about how wonderful a product is (where we know its shortcomings can be more easily masked by clever copywriting) we can see it for ourselves and are better able to make an informed decision about whether to buy it or not.

As the internet marches steadily on into the 21st century however it will become even more essential to learn the basics of internet marketing in as fast a time as possible. In the recent past it seemed to be enough to learn as we went along, making mistakes here and there but turning them around to work in our favor and building on the new knowledge it gave us.

But it's becoming increasingly important to learn on our feet now, if we want to build an internet business worth having. This trend of running to keep up looks set to continue and pick up pace as the internet makes even more progress and reaches into even more parts of the world.

But it's not all negative. This same fact means that you have a chance to make yourself indispensable. If you can learn the necessary skills to become a successful internet marketer in the 21st century, you can teach those skills to others and make a small fortune in the process.

It's all a question of focus. If you can remain focused on the benefits that the ever developing internet can offer you, your business will flourish and rise above the competition.

Just make sure you keep your eyes looking ahead and not back.

Latest Trends In Internet Marketing

The world of internet marketing is changing at breakneck speed. But it's always beneficial to keep up with the changes so you can take advantage of them before everyone else does.

As technology continues to advance and Web 2.0 takes hold more firmly, the face of internet marketing is continuing to change almost daily.

With so much going on and so much more to read about, you'd be forgiven for feeling daunted by how your own internet business will cope with adapting to the future trends. It's anyone's guess as to what will happen in a few years - or even months - time, but it's well worth keeping a finger on the pulse of today's internet, so that we are more able to adapt our internet marketing methods to suit the current climate.

A good example is the developments that are being made in the world of multimedia marketing. Mobile phones aren't just phones anymore - they are capable of playing videos, acting as portable music players and surfing the internet, while simultaneously allowing you to check your emails on the move. This basically means that if your website isn't mobile friendly you could be missing out on an additional stream of visitors.

Another phenomenon which is growing ever more popular every day is RSS feeds. If you have a blog and you want to make it easier for people to keep up to date with it - thus making it much more user friendly - you can rely on RSS feeds to do the trick. Make sure that everyone who visits your blog knows they can opt to receive the RSS feed in order to be one of the first to hear about your news when you post it.

Social marketing is also gathering pace, and many internet marketers are taking full advantage of it by posting their own profile on the most popular sites. It's a good way to attract a new audience and you can funnel traffic from these sites and direct it towards your website or blog.

Simply put, there are new resources springing up all the time online, and while some of them are not designed specifically to appeal to the internet marketer they can certainly be exploited in this way in order to gain extra traffic and sales for your own internet business.

The internet we have been used to seeing and working in has been very much a two dimensional entity until recently. You could look at web pages and occasionally the webmaster would provide something for you to listen to as well if you turned up your speakers.

But nowadays the proliferation of video is making more of a splash thanks to sites like YouTube. For the internet marketer who likes to experiment, there are more ways than ever of reaching out and getting in touch with your customers in whatever way they prefer. You can provide a website for them to view. You can post a video on YouTube so they can see exactly how your latest product works and what it looks like. You can update your blog daily and let them receive it via an RSS feed. And you can even attempt a weekly podcast so they can listen to your message while out shopping or playing golf, or taking part in any one of a hundred other activities.

All these opportunities are somewhat daunting to begin with, but you owe it to yourself and your business to explore them over time and start to introduce them into your way of working. If you do that, you will find that embracing forthcoming trends in internet marketing will be even easier.

What About Pay-Per-Click?

pay per click marketing is an excellent way of getting more traffic to your website. But it's important to make sure you have a good understanding of it before you take the plunge.

If you are thinking of spending some money to increase the amount of traffic you are getting to your website, maybe it's time you explored the possibilities offered by pay per click advertising.

Pay per click is exactly what it says it is - search engine marketing which you only pay for when someone actually clicks on your advert. So in addition to appearing within the search results according to your ranking, which has been generated organically, you will also appear in the sponsored listings whenever someone looks up one of the keywords or phrases you have bid on.

But it sounds a lot easier than it actually is, and in order to get the most out of pay per click marketing you need to make sure you plan properly, do your research and set a budget. If you don't do all of these things you may find you have spent a lot of money and have very little to show for it by way of results.

Firstly it's important to know which terms are worth bidding on from your point of view. There is very little point in trying to compete for popular search terms that hundreds of thousands of people search for every day, because there will be thousands of companies out there with far bigger budgets than you, blowing you out of the water every time - unless you are willing to pay twenty or thirty dollars (or more) for every lead you get.

It's far better to target your advertising so that you get better quality traffic that ironically you don't have to pay as much to get. You will generally find that far less people will bid on longer search terms, and they will be far cheaper as a result. The great thing is that these people know exactly what they want to find information on, so you will generally find that using longer search terms will bring several benefits:

    Your advertising budget will go much further
    You will receive more targeted and more responsive traffic
    Your click to sales ratio (ie. the number of people who click through to your website and actually buy something) will be far higher than if you were to target a more broad keyword

Monitoring your results is another extremely important aspect of pay per click marketing. If you don't know which search terms and bids are getting you the best results, you're not going to be able to maximize your campaign with any kind of accuracy.

The best way to approach a pay per click campaign is to formulate a plan. What do you want to achieve? What kind of budget do you have? How far do you expect that budget to go? If you can set off with a goal in mind then you will have a target to aim for and your pay per click campaign will be much easier to manage.

One of the most important things to remember is to make sure you cap your daily spend. If you don't you may fall into the same trap other marketers have done in the past, and end up spending far more than you intend to.

It's also a good idea to experiment with how you write your adverts. Make sure they are properly targeted and will attract the right people, and are tempting enough to encourage people to click on them to find out more. Remember that you don't pay every time your ad is shown in the search results; you will only pay when someone actually clicks on it and visits your website.

Pay per click marketing is one of the fastest ways to generate fresh traffic for your website. Depending on how well you do your research and how good you are at analyzing your results, it can be extremely rewarding or - at the other end of the scale - a money pit.

So long as you tread carefully and experiment to find the keywords that work best for you, there is no reason to suppose you won't increase your sales very quickly once you start using pay per click marketing.

Google Bombing

Google bombing sounds like a dubious activity and in reality that's exactly what it is. Find out more about it below.

As long as there are websites on the internet and webmasters desperate to get them ranked higher in search results, there will always be tricks and methods that are used to achieve exactly that.

But not all search engine optimization methods are used to get a webmaster's own site ranked higher. Google bombing is a technique that aims to get a specific web page ranked extremely high in search results for a specific reason. In order to do this you must have two things in place:

    You must link to the same web page from a variety of different sites - the more you can link from the better
    The link text used must be the same on every site performing this action

This method has often been used to the detriment of others; perhaps the most famous example was when a certain detrimental phrase was linked to a website about George W. Bush.

It's clear that the main reason for trying to set off Google bombs is not a monetary one. Most of the time people do it to make a point, and it has nothing to do with their own website.

It is possible to create a Google bomb which does promote your own site however, because the nature of the link text really doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that the link text must be exactly the same on every site that takes part in the activity, and the same page is linked into every time. ?What this means is that you could decide you want to have the words ?most popular sci-fi site' linked to your small site about science fiction, and you could set off a Google bomb to try and ensure you rank very highly on that particular search term.

Most Google bombs rely on getting other people to help you set it off. If you have half a dozen websites yourself then you can put a link on each one, but Google bombs become ever more powerful the more links you can create. This is why lots of webmasters trying to set one off will make a request on their blog or in forums, asking people to help them and giving specific instructions on what they need to do.

However as far as search engine optimization techniques go, Google bombing is perhaps not surprisingly a practice you should steer clear of if you want to stick with techniques that will keep you on the right side of the search engines. We all want to rank highly for the keywords and phrases which best describe our site but we want to do so legally and honestly, without any risk of being blacklisted as a consequence of trying to manipulate the results.

In short, Google bombing is a fascinating subject to read about, but as far as taking part in it is concerned, make sure you leave it to other people and steer well clear of it yourself.

Blackhat Techniques: Don't Shoot Yourself In The Foot

Why you need to know what black hat SEO techniques are - so you can avoid them like the plague.

There are two types of SEO - search engine optimization - techniques in existence. These are commonly known as white hat ones and black hat ones, and you need to make sure that where SEO is concerned you stay whiter than white at all times.

But why is this? What's so bad about black hat techniques?

In short they are either banned outright or extremely unethical to use as ways of promoting your website and getting it a higher ranking in the search engines. But black hat methods aren't just unethical because they unfairly try to manipulate your ranking. They don't take into account the most important reason for having any website in the first place - and that's the customer.

We all want to get ranked higher in search results, but if that requirement becomes more important than the service we are giving to our visitors then we run the risk of crossing over into black hat territory.

Some people worry about whether their attempts at search engine optimization are legitimate or not. Keywords, for example, can be used for good or evil when it comes to SEO. Perhaps the best way of working out whether or not you are straying into undesired territory is to ask yourself whether the presentation of your website is being altered to suit your attempts to maximize your SEO techniques. If it is, you may have problems.

Let's look at the keyword example to see what's meant by this. It's a good idea to make sure that each page of your website has a good sprinkling of keywords and phrases, to attract visitors and ensure your site shows up in relevant search results. But if you start trying to manipulate the content of your site to fit in more keywords - re-editing a paragraph several times just to see how many times you can get those words in for example - then you may be going too far.

Two to three per cent of the content should generally be dedicated to keywords; any more than that and red flags will start to go up. The main rule is that your content should sound natural. You've probably read an article before where the keywords might as well have been standing out in 3D; it looks and reads very unnaturally and should be avoided at all costs.

One of the best examples of a black hat technique is using hidden text to put in more keywords that won't be seen by anyone who visits a website. The idea is that they won't be noticed by the search engine spiders either - but that doesn't work for long.

Hidden text is achieved by inserting text which is the same color as the background - white on white or black on black for example. The webmaster can then in theory stuff as many keywords as they like onto their site without anyone being any the wiser.

The problem with search engine optimization is that many techniques can be used for good or bad purposes. Keywords can be used carefully or thrown in left right and center. Links can be cultivated slowly and be of a high standard - or they can be generated quickly and with substandard sites. Some beginners to internet marketing can trip themselves up without realizing, which is why it's important to educate yourself about what's right and what's wrong.

On the subject of linking it's important to have both incoming and outgoing links that are of good quality. Don't fall for the tempting promise of link farms. They can certainly provide you with links but they are not regarded as being valuable or worthwhile sites, and they can only do you harm. You're much better off creating quality links over time if you want to avoid being penalized for having dubious ones.

There will always be some people who persist in using black hat techniques to get ranked higher in the search engines. Their success - if they achieve any at all - will always be short lived because Google and the other main search engines are very good at finding out who is doing it and banning them from their search results completely.

If you make quality your watchword you shouldn't ever be in any danger of straying over into black hat territory. Unethical techniques are never good quality techniques - and that will never change.

SEO Bloopers

When it comes to SEO there are plenty of pitfalls you need to learn how to avoid. Here's an insight into some classic SEO bloopers.

When it's done properly search engine optimization can strengthen your website and help you to rank higher in Google, Yahoo and other search engines. But many people think that the most important aspect of SEO is including plenty of keywords in their website copy. They fill their website with keywords, sit back and wait for the visitors to arrive - and then wonder why they aren't seeing the results they want.

The truth is that while keywords are important, focusing solely on using them will mean you are likely to make a lot of other mistakes without even realizing it. For example, the layout of your site plays an extremely important role in search engine optimization; not only do you need to make sure that the search engine spiders can navigate your site easily and without any problems, you also need to ensure that it will quite naturally draw your visitors in and encourage them to browse round.

One big SEO blooper in this respect is not including a site map to make navigation easier. Think of it like this - you wouldn't set off from home for an unknown destination without a map and have the patience to try and find it yourself, so don't expect a visitor to your website to do the same kind of thing. Make the information easy for the visitor - and the search engine spiders - to find.

Links are another area where a lot of sites fall down. There are two main ways of making mistakes here:

    Concentrating on getting lots of dodgy links or links with no value from link farms or similar sites
    Not getting any links at all



Links should be built over time but some webmasters get caught in the trap of thinking that they need to get plenty of links going to and from their site in record time - which in itself can set off alarm bells and on occasion leads the search engines to suspect your site of being a spam site.

In reality even three or four high quality links are better than a dozen or more substandard ones, so be sure to take your time generating them - it will give you a better result in the long run.

All of which leads to another major SEO blooper that a lot of webmasters are guilty of - not taking the time to work on the search engine optimization techniques in a way that will benefit them.

It's understandable; it's only natural to want to get the new site up and running as soon as possible. But if you are doing so at the expense of getting good and worthwhile content on your site, you are not practicing good search engine optimization techniques. If you can provide excellent quality content which makes good use of keywords and phrases while still remaining a good read then your site will be streets ahead of the competition.

Another common error is to exclude meta tags when you are building your web pages. A lot of people don't realize what meta tags are or how important they can be to the overall layout of your site. Your website won't stand or fall on these alone, but they certainly help to strengthen the overall picture.

Normally it's a case of simply choosing the main keywords that best describe your site, and using them as meta tags as well. Think of meta tags as a flag that you can wave to alert the search engines that your site exists. They should be included in html at the top of every page, since there is a very real possibility that the search engine spiders won't crawl beyond the first few lines.

Another common blooper is choosing an obscure domain name. Have you noticed that when you search for a word or phrase on Google, those words or phrases are bolded in the search results - including in the domain name if they are present?

This means you are wasting an opportunity to be found if you settle on an obscure name. Always make sure it makes sense and it doesn't need to be explained to any great degree. If it does you might want to think of something else.

SEO bloopers are alarmingly easy to make, but they are also easy to learn about and avoid. Search engine optimization is a never ending learning process. But as you start to use the right techniques and avoid the mistakes that can be made, you will find you are rewarded with more website visitors as a result.

Ten easy SEO techniques

If you are looking to get more traffic to your website, try these ten techniques for quickly and easily pleasing the search engines to achieve your goal.

Most SEO techniques are actually not that difficult to pick up; it's the combined effort of all of them together which gets the results you desire.

Here are ten techniques you can start using now to improve the traffic you are getting to your website.

1. Add valuable content to your site. The web is built on content, so it stands to reason that it would hold a great deal of importance for anyone looking to improve their search engine rankings. Don't look at content as being something that is chock full of keywords; make sure it has a genuine value and the search engine spiders will sit up and take notice.

2. Create good page titles. Your home page should have the title of your overall site, but other pages will be on different but related subjects, so make sure each one has a good title that is ideally a good solid key phrase that people might look for via the search engines.

3. Check your keyword density. Three to five per cent is about right. Make sure your keywords don't stand out among the rest of the content. A properly keyworded article should always be readable and interesting - it shouldn't be on your site simply as a vehicle for carrying keywords.

4. Link between the different pages on your site. A site map can help in this respect, but make sure you create links between different pages in other ways too, such as using clickable links within articles.

5. Update your site regularly. This should go without saying but this fact alone can significantly help to boost your ranking in the search results. The spiders that crawl the web are attracted by sites that are regularly updated and they will report back with all the changes they find to the search engines. This basically means that you will automatically be getting more attention simply by tweaking your site every day or two - and your PageRank will receive a welcome boost as a result.

6. Make use of the free web tools available to analyze your website. There are plenty of them around, and they can tell you what your ranking is at present and how many incoming links you have, as well as providing a host of other data that can help you to refine and nurture your current search engine optimization techniques. Make sure you use them every week or so to keep tabs on your current results and see what's working and what isn't.

7. Research your keywords. This is especially important if you want to reach the right audience. Some keywords are more competitive than others, and some will bring you a steady stream of traffic with virtually no competition at all. Regular analysis of your site and the keywords you are using will help you to pitch your content to the right people, improving your results and increasing your traffic flow at the same time.

8. Don't forget to build your external links. It's always worthwhile linking to relevant external websites that are particularly popular and well respected, but you should also make it a priority to generate links from other websites that lead back to yours. Look on this as a long term project that pays off in the end; the search engines can grow suspicious if you have too many inbound links appearing in a very short space of time, as it smacks of getting paid links - even if that isn't actually the case.

9. Experiment with your website, your content and your techniques. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to search engine optimization. Certain techniques will probably always work extremely well, but there is no optimum point to shoot for when you are learning how to optimize your website to receive the most traffic and to appeal to the search engines. Even tweaking a single word or adjusting the keyword density of a single page can make a profound difference, so keep testing and keep learning.

10. Include article marketing in your SEO arsenal. Not only is it a great way to get lots of incoming links to your website, it's also a worthwhile technique for upping your visitor numbers. If your articles are well written and relevant, you will soon notice that more and more people are clicking through the link you are providing them with in your resource box and visiting your website. If you resolve to write a couple of articles a week every week, your visitor numbers will soon start to swell.

Putting good SEO techniques into practice isn't about doing one thing at a time. It's about combining several techniques and making sure you are getting the best from your efforts overall. If you turn this into a long term strategy your website will thank you for it.

Reputation Management

Alongside SEO and serving your website's customers and visitors in the best way possible, reputation management is one of the most important things you need to concentrate on. Read on to find out why.

It's very likely that when you are surfing the internet you come across a few people you have already virtually ?bumped into' elsewhere online. Whether they are webmasters you are familiar with, writers of numerous e-books or publishers of software products, you probably have an instant reaction to them. You'll either think they seem like good honest people, or you'll remember how much you dislike them.

Not all reactions to internet marketers are so strong of course, but it does illustrate why reputation management is so important online. Unfortunately there are very few webmasters who put any real effort or consideration into what other people think of them - and as a result they could be missing out on some valuable recommendations and traffic.

So what exactly is reputation management?

Put simply it's the process of making sure your ongoing reputation is as good as it possibly can be - and that's it. If you want to build a good reputation it's no good hiding behind your website and not revealing anything about yourself. That's not to say you should reveal all but honesty and the willingness to help your visitors in every way that you can goes a very long way towards building a good reputation online.

It's said that if someone is happy with the service they receive they won't tell anyone - but if they're not happy they will tell anyone who will listen. For this very reason it actually takes longer to develop a good reputation than it does to develop a bad one.

A good way to help establish a good reputation online is by positioning yourself as an expert on a particular subject associated with your website. This is made much easier if you have based your website around a subject you love and you are passionate about. Not only will you find it easy to write articles and content based on this subject, but you will also find it quite natural to write about that subject with real passion and enthusiasm. This tends to pull in more visitors who keep coming back for more, which further cements your reputation.

As time goes by you will also begin to notice another benefit of positive reputation management. As your reputation and your site continue to gain momentum, attracting attention for all the right reasons, people will start to link to your website from their own or perhaps from their blog - purely because they like your site and they like what you have to say on your specialist subject.

Webmasters always like to recommend other related sites to their own visitors, and maintaining a healthy reputation will virtually guarantee a big payoff when it comes to getting one way links to your site from elsewhere - and all without having to ask for them.

In the final analysis it's all about trust and quality - if people trust you they will link to your site and help you to build your business and your reputation in the process.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the new way to be found and promote your business online. If you aren't exploiting this area you need to start thinking about how you can do it - and the sooner the better.

Do you have a MySpace account? Have you ever posted a video on YouTube? What about recommending a website to Digg?

If you haven't done any of these things then you are missing out on a potentially huge group of people who could drive your business forward with the minimum of effort and for no cost at all.

It stands to reason that internet marketers should make the most of using all the free resources available to them, and if there is a golden opportunity to reach a large audience for no cost then it makes sense to take it.

Social media marketing has become the latest and most talked about form of advertising among internet marketers all over the world. It gives you the chance to reach more people and in a more direct and personal way, by marketing yourself as well as your business.

There are two main types of social media that are available online. These are:

    Networking sites such as MySpace
    Bookmarking sites such as Digg and del.icio.us

Both of these can be used to great effect to spread the word about your website, and if you devote some regular time to these free resources you can experience an impressive surge in your website's traffic over time. Think of it as making an effort to create a fresh web of links all over the internet, all leading back to your website and blog. The creation of new links will obviously be of benefit as far as your website is concerned, since every one will be an incoming link. These are more valuable than any other link according to the search engines criteria.

So where should you start?

Bookmarking sites are perhaps the easiest route into social media marketing because once you have registered with each site it only takes a minute or two to make a submission. The three top sites to register with are probably Digg, del.icio.us and Stumble Upon.

Since you are not supposed to make multiple submissions of the same web page, it's a good idea to start with your website's home page and go from there. You can also submit your blog; make a point of submitting each post whenever you make a fresh one, since each one will lead to a slightly different URL. If you link your blog into your website there is a good chance the traffic your blog receives will travel over to your website anyway.

It also pays to be creative when you are trying to raise the profile of your site in this way. A lot of people simply submit their website to all the bookmarking sites they can think of and then sit back and do nothing else. While you will get traffic in this manner there is a lot more you can do to vastly increase your chances of raising your profile and being found more and more online.

First of all you should submit a link to everything else you have an interest in online. You can submit your MySpace profile, the page of another website on which one of your articles appears, and the URL to a video you have posted on YouTube. So long as your website URL appears somewhere on the page you are linking to, it's worth putting on a bookmarking site.

Think about any forums you are a member of. Do you ever get involved in any heated or controversial discussions that relate to up to the minute news stories or anything that people in your particular business would be interested to hear about? Make sure you have a link to your website in your signature line on the forum and put the URL of that thread on the bookmarking sites.

Social networking sites are a little more involved, but they are no less useful for that. Once you have joined and done the initial work that is involved in setting up your profile, you can start exploring each site in turn and deciding how you can start reaching out to the people who would be interested in the products you are promoting and selling.

A typical example of a more involved social networking site is Squidoo. You can build any number of pages (or lenses) with this site, and it gives you free access to a wide range of tools that will help you to attract visitors who are interested in your subject. It is one of the better networking sites because it is designed to help you earn money from the site itself, as well as directing people towards your affiliate links, your website and your blog, plus any other interests you may have.

Squidoo pages rank very well in the search engines, and if you take heed of the plethora of useful information they give you about building worthwhile pages on your interests and business, you stand a great chance of getting a steady flow of visitors to your lenses, and you can then funnel them towards your website. It is a great place to build a solid and worthwhile reputation.

MySpace is the other huge site which it's advisable to get in on in the near future. The search facility at the top of the page allows people to search MySpace for any users who relate to their own interests. So if your website is all about classic cars and you want to find more people who are interested in classic cars to sign up for your website, make sure you include all the relevant keywords in your content. This will ensure that your profile shows up in the results when people search for anything under that particular interest.

In this sense keywords are just as important at social networking sites as they are when you are writing content for your website. Make sure you are found in the search results on MySpace by incorporating plenty of keywords in your Networking, About Me and Interests sections.

You also have the opportunity to start blogging on MySpace. This is an excellent opportunity and you may even find that if you stick to the tried and tested search engine optimization techniques your blog may eventually show up in search engine results.

If you already have a blog you can link your MySpace blog up to your existing one. If you do this it's a good idea to have a slightly different angle for each blog so that people have an incentive to subscribe to each one. For example for your classic cars interest your main blog might be about classic cars in general, while your MySpace blog could be about restoring classic cars.

It's important to remember that while social networking gives you the chance to share a little of yourself with other people all around the world, you are also still representing and promoting your business. For this reason it is vital that you remain 100% professional and courteous to others at all times. Take the opportunity to help others wherever you can, because it helps to brand your business as a worthwhile and helpful one. If people know you are there to serve and help them, they will very likely reward you with their business in the future.

Social networking sites may have been intended to be used purely for social reasons to begin with, but things didn't stay that way for long. As the internet developed and more and more people started their own online businesses on shoestring budgets (or no budget at all), it became necessary to be more creative where advertising was concerned.

As the first few marketers saw the potential of sites like MySpace, Digg and del.icio.us for spreading the word about their business, people started to realize that this was a whole new opportunity for reaching people in different environments by using different techniques to the ones more commonly used in advertising.

Social networking is more subtle than traditional advertising because it allows you the luxury of building up a following and attracting people who will come back and visit on a regular basis. Once that relationship begins it becomes a lot easier to persuade them to visit your website to see what else you have to offer.

Press Releases

Most webmasters are constantly searching for new ways to promote their website. Press releases can be an ideal way of doing just that - so long as you know how to do it right.

Boosting the popularity of your website basically boils down to getting more traffic. But there are many ways of doing this, and not all of them need to have anything to do with search engine optimization.

Whenever you are considering ways to attract more attention online, it's worth considering whether you have any newsworthy stories you could share with the internet population. If you do - and provided they are genuinely newsworthy - you could have the basis of a good press release.

There are plenty of different ways to distribute a press release online:

    You can send it to a PR company, using either a paid or a free distribution service
    You can send it to the editors of relevant online magazines and journals
    You can distribute it to the publishers of ezines and email newsletters
    You can send it to webmasters

You can also distribute it offline as well if there are any periodicals or newspapers that are likely to find the story interesting.

There is an art to writing a press release, but there are several main points that you need to bear in mind in order to make sure your release has the best possible chance of being used.

Firstly it must be newsworthy. That word has already been used in this article but this point is so important that it's worth mentioning twice. If you are about to launch a brand new product then that would qualify as a newsworthy event. Think along these lines to try and find newsworthy items you can use. Is your site about to introduce a new forum for its visitors? Are you offering a new service which undercuts all your competitors? Anything like this can form the basis of a good press release - so long as it's written in the correct format.

The first thing to remember when you start writing is to stick to the third person format. Don't talk about yourself in the first person - for example ?I am launching a new forum?' - and don't refer to the reader either - as in ?You will be able to take advantage of our new forum?'

A good example of how to write this sentence for a press release would be to say ?Joe Bloggs, owner of the Cool Forum website, has just launched a brand new forum?'? This is written in third person and demonstrates how the writing should proceed.

It's a good idea to make some notes of all the important points you want to include before you start writing your release. Keep the whole point of your release in sharp focus because this is what will make people decide whether or not to use your press release at all. Just because you send it to someone it doesn't guarantee that it will be used, so you need to make it as strong as you possibly can and keep the writing tight and relevant.

Every good press release has a specific angle that is used to hook the reader, and you should be able to describe your hook in a single sentence. So for example your hook may be the fact that you are now offering free delivery on all products worldwide. This would be particularly newsworthy if no other company in your sector is offering this. This is a good point to remember when you are searching for good stories to provide the basis of a press release. You don't always have to have good news - it could be a controversial development that you want to draw attention to. So long as it catches the eye and it qualifies as being news then it's worthy of a press release.

You should also make sure your hook is clearly stated in the title of your release and referred to again (using different words) to start the body of the release proper. It should be borne in mind that the people who receive press releases tend to receive a deluge of them every single day - so you need to make sure that yours stands out. The title and the first sentence or two may be all the time you get to make an impression and get that person to read more, so make the most of it and make sure that every single word counts. If you try and create suspense by holding back the actual news element until later on in the release, no one will actually get to read what it's about.

As far as length is concerned a press release should generally be confined to a single sheet of paper. Use your words sparingly and only include the information that is absolutely necessary. You will put your contact details at the foot of the release anyway, so if it generates any interest you should receive a call or an email asking for more information. Don't forget to include your website address in the body of the release as well - you'll want to make sure that if your release is printed or published online, people will be able to find you.

One final point on writing a good press release - try and include a quote if you can. Even if you create one that you could say to describe the event that has or is about to occur, it will help your press release to stand out from the competition.

When it's completed and you are happy with it, make sure you send it to as many relevant places and people as you can. You want to make sure your news reaches as many people as possible, and you need to accept that a fair number of your releases won't be looked at or used, so it makes sense to try and spread the news as far as you can.

Once you get the hang of writing good press releases they should be used as a regular part of your website promotion strategy. After all, they are a free method of getting more traffic and raising the profile of your website - all of which helps to boost your rankings within the search engines.

Viral Marketing

One of the most powerful forms of promotion there is online today goes by the name of viral marketing. Read on to find out why you should be using this to increase the traffic to your website.

There are plenty of ways to advertise and promote your website online, but all the methods you try will have one thing in common - they will eventually burn themselves out unless you keep putting more effort into them.

A classified advert only usually lasts a specific length of time before the replies stop coming. Blogs are a good method for attracting traffic but if you don't keep posting entries to them to attract both the readers and the search engines, that traffic will eventually dry up. Most other forms of advertising are the same.

But there is one avenue you can try that is different, and that's viral marketing. As the name might suggest, viral marketing has the tendency to take on a life of its own and keep replicating and spreading out across the internet, even when you are no longer taking an active part in it.

The idea behind this form of promotion is to let other people do the advertising for you. In order for this to happen it's vital that people will naturally want to spread the message you are giving them. It's not enough to simply ask people to tell others, because they will feel as if they are purely advertising. You need to make them want to do it without even asking.

Viral marketing is a numbers game. If you give just three people a message and they each tell three people that same message, who then each tell three others and so on, that message will reach hundreds and thousands of people once it has gone through just a few generations. That's the power of viral marketing - with the right message it doesn't take much to make an impact.

But what exactly is the right message?

If you have something free to give away then you have an offer which would do well as a viral marketing campaign. To achieve the best level of success it needs to be something that most people would be interested in however. For example you might be able to offer people the best e-book in the world on fly fishing, but if that audience is quite narrow then your message will not travel far.

But if you have an e-book to give away that reveals the best and fastest methods for making extra cash from your own home, that product could do very well indeed. It's all a matter of thinking about your product and how far it could travel.

Since the nature of viral marketing requires that something is passed on to other people - whether that is a product or simply a message of some kind - it's important to make sure that the item has your website address included in it somewhere. If it's an e-book simply embed your details into it and include a hyperlink to your site. Giving away a freebie is a fantastic way of promoting your own interests.

The reason why e-books work so well is that they offer value to everyone you send one to. You can also give them permission to send them on to anyone else they want to, perhaps to offer as a freebie on their own website. All you need to do is inform them that nothing can be changed - including your website address and details. So long as it is passed on exactly as it is, you will often find that a free e-book will spread out all over the web, and bring you a steady stream of traffic and new customers as time goes on.

Other typical examples of viral marketing methods that have worked extremely well are emails containing an intriguing, useful or simply amazing piece of information, and videos posted on YouTube. It's quite easy to help spread the word about your website by using a signature link at the bottom of each email. This is a basic way of spreading a message, particularly if you know that your email is likely to be forwarded on to other people.

Of course, the success of any viral marketing program depends on the type of person you try and involve in it. Since people will only pass a message on if they feel compelled to share it, you need to find people who are naturally predisposed to do just that.

The advent of social networking has made viral marketing even easier than it once was. If you have a free e-book aimed at helping people start a business from home, you will want to distribute it among people who are thinking of doing just that. Once you have located the websites that tend to attract those people, you can start to tell them about your product. You will usually get a much better response and a healthy kick start to your viral campaign by going to the right sites to begin with.

While all viral marketing campaigns essentially follow the same procedure, they do vary in their complexity to begin with. As a rule the more places you can start to spread your message from, the better the end result is likely to be.

As with any form of advertising - whether it's online or off - you will improve on your results as you gain more experience. So whenever a viral marketing campaign gets extremely good results, make sure you keep a record of what you did, so that you can replicate it in future.

Directory Submissions

It's common sense to make sure you spread the news about your website's existence as far and wide as you can. One good way of doing this is by submitting your site to online directories.

A web directory is basically a huge resource for anyone online to go to in order to find websites that appeal to their interests. While you have to pay to be listed in some of these directories, a large number of them are free and can provide a good source of extra traffic over time.

The key point to remember with these is that it's not enough to submit your website to one directory. You will only see a good response from your listings if you make the effort to list your site with as many directories as you can find. Make a list of the free ones and a separate list of the ones that ask you to pay for inclusion. Some may offer both methods - but you will get listed faster if you pay for the privilege.

It's up to you to decide whether you want to pay or not, and if you have the budget to do so. The best tactic is to work through the list of free directories to begin with and leave the paid ones until later.

When you are submitting your website to a directory, the first step is to read their rules of inclusion very carefully. This might sound like an obvious point to make, but it's surprising how many webmasters don't do this, submit their site in a hurry and end up being rejected because they haven't met all the requirements of submission.

All directories are divided into a number of different categories, and most of the larger and better ones are then subdivided into other categories. It's very important that you spend some time figuring out which category your website should be listed under. As each one may have several subdivisions it's not always easy to work this out. If you have any doubts it can be a good idea to email for assistance rather than taking a guess and getting it wrong.

It's also worth doing a search to find those websites which are essentially a directory of directories. There are several of these in existence and they can make the work of digging up all the individual directories much easier. Some will also help you find niche directories that only list websites under a specific subject. You can often get better results from listing your website in several of these (assuming your site is relevant of course).

Make sure you bookmark the ?directory of directories' sites and keep an eye on them from time to time, as new sites will be added and you can get your website on them straightaway. Over time as you enter more directories you should receive more traffic - and as you will have links back to your own site it will help your search engine rankings as well.

Link Exchanges

Links are a huge part of getting higher rankings within the search engines. One way to achieve those all important links is to go to a link exchange.

Getting links to your website is an all important part of boosting your search engine ranking. While link farms should be avoided at all costs, link exchanges are a good way of getting other websites to link back to your own, and some of the websites offering these services are available to use for free.

Link exchanges are basically a type of reciprocal linking service, but they focus on providing high quality links that are relevant to whatever type of site you have. For example, if your site is based on the subject of classic toys for young children, you might decide to trade links with forums aimed at young mothers, information websites giving advice to new mothers, and so on.

You can also make a point of exchanging links with websites that have a higher PageRank than yours does. While relevant links are better than non-relevant ones, two or three links to your site from those with a high PageRank will be worth far more than lots of links from sites with a low PageRank.

Some link exchanges are free to join, and you generally have a large amount of control over your account once you are a member. You can take a look at the websites that are listed in the same category as you and decide which ones you would be happy to be associated with.

If you want to find out what PageRank these websites are, there are free tools available online that allow you to check this. All you need to do is enter the URL of the website you want to find the PageRank for and wait for the result to be displayed. All you need to do then is exchange links with the sites that have the highest ranking.

Site Maps

Every website should be as easy as possible for visitors to negotiate. While a clear and simple layout goes a long way towards achieving this, it's also vital to have a site map so that visitors can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

If you've ever been searching for information on a website and been unable to find it, you'll know how frustrating it can be. The natural thing to do in this situation is to look for a site map - and if you don't find one you would be forgiven for wanting to leave the site altogether in favor of one that is more user friendly.

If you have ever been in any doubt of the importance of having a site map, the above example should solve the problem. A site map is an essential part of any website, regardless of how many pages the site may contain overall. It makes the site easier to navigate and keeps the visitor at the forefront of the whole website experience.

You can also create an XML Sitemap that is specifically designed to make it easier for search engines such as Google to crawl the whole of your site. This isn't a required point however, and it's certainly more important to make sure your visitors are well taken care of first.

Creating a site map can be quite a daunting process, especially if you have quite a large website. There are a few websites online that offer a free sitemap creation service if you prefer to pass the responsibility on to someone else.

Depending on how big your website is the structure of your site map may vary in complexity. For example if you only have a dozen or so different pages then it is quite sufficient to list them one after the other, with every link being clickable so as to allow visitors to go directly to the page they require.

If your site has lots of pages however it's a good idea to break them down into sections to make the site map easier to navigate. For example if your site is based on the subject of world history you might have a separate section heading for each region of the world. ?If necessary you could then break each region down into separate countries, with each one having a subheading followed by a list of links to more specific pages after that. It's worth trying a few different solutions to see which one works the best.

Site maps also make it easier for visitors to find pages that they may not otherwise see. For this reason it can be useful to let them know there is a site map they can use if they wish. The primary objective of any site map should always be to help visitors find what they are looking for, which is why it's worth taking the time to get it just right.

In short, your site map needs to be clear and easy to understand, and it needs to link to all the other pages of your website. In this sense it's also a form of optimizing your site for the search engines, because internal links within a website are just as important as inbound and outbound links. They help to direct the search engine spiders to crawl the site more efficiently, ensuring nothing important is missed in the process.

Copywriting and content development

In the world of websites, content is definitely king. That's why it's important to brush up on your writing skills, in order to put yourself head and shoulders above your competition.

When search engine spiders crawl your website they are not looking for images and stunning graphics. In fact, these spiders are very selective - and they can only actually see the words your site is made up of.

It's small wonder then that the art of copywriting and content development is so important and so sought after online. Anyone who can write well will often find themselves called upon to produce worthwhile and highly readable content to fill the pages of countless websites all across the world.

Make no mistake - copywriting is a highly specialized skill that takes years to hone and perfect to the extent where it appears to look easy. A skilled copywriter can make any subject sound fascinating, blending information and technique together to product articles and web pages that draw visitors in and persuade them to stay. Just as importantly they are capable of blending a list of keywords into the article so seamlessly that you wouldn't even realize they are there.

But if you can't afford to pay for the services of a professional copywriter it's possible to learn enough to do the job yourself. However important it is to be selling whatever it is you're selling on your site, content will always remain the most important aspect.

Why? Because content is what gets people to come back again and again, to read what else you have to say.

When you are faced with building a new website (or overhauling the one you have currently got) it can be difficult and daunting to know where to start. The best point of entry is to create a site map on a sheet of paper. This will help you to figure out what kind of content you should be creating, and helps to break down the task into manageable chunks.

From here it's a good idea to do your keyword research and create a list of strong keywords and phrases to include on each page. You can then incorporate these into your web copy. You should also consider what the purpose of each page is, to ensure you get the right mix of content on each one.

This can be trickier if you have a site whose primary function is to sell things. Most people want to make money from their website but this can be done in a variety of ways. The good news is that if your site is set up to sell goods and services, you can enhance the site even further and attract more potential customers by including good content that will help them make an informed decision about the items they are considering buying.

Let's say for example that you have a site which sells e-books on all kinds of subjects. You might have a page with e-books about eBay, another page with e-books about making money online, a third page with e-books about various different hobbies and so on.

So for the eBay page you could write an article on the benefits of trading on eBay. This would link nicely into the list of e-books you have to offer, and it would be easy to include your list of keywords in the title and body of the article itself.

One further point here - if your website is focused on selling a comprehensive range of goods, think about the main keywords and phrases associated with the goods on each page before you write your copy. This may include brand names or particular types of product that are currently selling well and being searched for on a regular basis. Check your keywords regularly and tweak the article if necessary to ensure it remains fresh and well targeted.

If you are fairly new to writing you may find it helpful to jot down a rough outline of each article before you write it. Ask yourself what the purpose of each one is and make a list of the main points you want to include.

As you will discover, copywriting is an ongoing process and it's not enough to fill your website with useful and well constructed content once and once only. You should always keep an eye on how you are going to develop that content so that it raises the profile of your website and gets you more customers at the same time.

While keywords play an important role in attracting visitors and potential customers, they are not the only element that needs to be focused on to receive the results you want.

One key aspect of all good web copy when it comes to drawing attention to your products is to have a positive outlook. Make doubly sure you don't use any negative words in your articles, as these cause the reader to focus on any possible downsides to your products.

For example, instead of focusing on what a product doesn't have, concentrate on the benefits and how they will help the customer achieve what they want to achieve. Your e-book about making a living on eBay may not be as cheap as the one offered by your competition, but it may contain extra items that theirs doesn't. Focus on these and describe how the potential customer will receive an outstanding deal and plenty of comprehensive information when they buy your product.

Finally, make sure you prune ruthlessly. Get rid of any needless words and ensure your writing is packed with information that the reader can take away and use for their benefit. What you write has a great deal of power, and it's vital to make sure that power is used in the right way and doesn't trip you up.

Good copywriting is a skill that can be learned, but it takes time. As your site develops and you begin to get more traffic, you can analyze what's working and what isn't and see which web pages are the most popular. It's then a question of working on the content development of your other pages to bring them up to the right standard.

Proper use of HTML tags

The thought of using html scares a lot of novice webmasters but it is actually quite easy to teach yourself the basic elements of it without too much trouble. You do need to ensure you are using html tags properly however if you don't want to cause yourself any problems.

There are two basic advantages to using html tags properly when you are building or updating your website.

Firstly using the correct tags will ensure the parts of text that you want to stand out properly will do so, making it easier for your site's visitors to find and read what they want. Html tags can change the whole appearance of a page, and while the content is always extremely important, the way you present it will also have an effect on the number of visitors who actually stay on your site - or revisit it in the future.

Secondly search engine robots tend to notice tags when they crawl your site, so if you use them as they should be used then you will be assured that the robots will see the most important information on that page.

If you look at some of the html for an existing web page you will notice that all tags start and end the same way. The start of a tag is denoted by the symbol < while the end of a tag can be recognized as />.

Certain tags are important for laying out your web copy properly, such as:

    <P> and </P> for opening and closing a paragraph
    <B> and </B> for putting a word or words in bold
    <I> and </I> for putting a word or words in italic
    <TITLE> and </TITLE> for setting out the title of each page
    <H> and </H> for putting in a heading in an article



In this sense html tags are actually created in a very simple way and it's easy to recognize where they start and finish. Most tags are also recognizable as being the first letter of the actual command - as in P standing for paragraph and B for bold, for example.

As far as the search engines are concerned, some of them will recognize the headings you use in between the H tags, so make sure you take advantage of using keywords wherever you can in between these tags.

Another type of html that is important for you to use is the meta tag description. The meta tag basically provides the search engine robots that crawl your site with a description of what that particular page is about. To this end you should have a meta tag on every page.

A meta tag in html will look like this:

    <meta name="description" content="YOUR DESCRIPTION" />



Notice the html command begins and ends with the symbols mentioned earlier. All you would do is replace the capitalized letters with an appropriate description of your page. As always, remember your keywords. You should also make sure you are using your meta tags properly. The words you use in your description should always relate to that particular page, so make sure you stay completely on topic if you want your meta tags to help you instead of hinder your progress through the search engine rankings.

Your title tags (mentioned above) are also extremely important. If they are relevant and properly keyworded then these are likely to help you enormously. Make sure you don't use a string of words in your title tags though - no more than ten in most circumstances.

Owing to the way html language is put together, it is actually quite easy to understand and learn what the different tags mean, and most of them are put together in a logical order. For example you will always start your paragraphs with the paragraph tag and if you then need to have a couple of words in bold for some reason the bold tags will wrap around the words you want to put in bold. You then carry on with writing your paragraph as usual.

If you bear the logical side of html in mind, you should quite easily be able to build a competent web page that is easy for your site's visitors to read and appreciate and appeals to the search engine spiders at the same time. There are plenty of sites online which deal with html knowledge in one depth or another; simply pick a beginner's guide to start with and work your way up as and when you want to learn more.

Keyword research

We've all heard about the importance of choosing the right keywords to include in the content of our website. But how do you find out which keywords are the right ones for you?

Keywords form an important part of the content of any website, regardless of what services it offers or what subject it may be concerned with. The basic rule behind the use of keywords is simple - if you use the right ones in the right places, you'll be rewarded with a steady stream of visitors from the search engines. If you don't use any at all, your website may as well be situated in the middle of the desert, because you'll probably get more visitors there than you will from the internet.

Some webmasters throw in keywords at random and only use the first few that come into their head, but this isn't the best way to go about the task and it will certainly result in you missing out on visitors who are looking for very specific information - information that your site might well be able to provide them with.

There are plenty of free keyword tools on the internet and it's worth using several to see which ones give you the best results, as well as which ones you personally like using. They can help you to identify which keywords you should be using in your site content, as well as alerting you to keywords you may not previously have thought of.

The great thing about keyword research tools is that you will usually be able to put in a single word, and it will return variations on that word as well. For example a recent search for the word ?cars' using a free keyword tool revealed that there were over 1.2 million searches for that single word in the past twelve months. Scrolling through the results revealed that the phrase ?Disney cars' was searched for over 57,000 times, and ?custom cars' nearly 22,000 times.

But how does this knowledge help you when you're searching for keywords and phrases to use on your website?

Your first thought would probably be to use the word ?cars' as many times as possible throughout your site, because so many people search for that word. But it's a very general search and the people using it could be after any kind of information at all. That's not to say you shouldn't use it at all, but what you really want to attract is targeted traffic - traffic that has very specific needs that match with what your website can offer.

For example if your website deals specifically in selling toy cars - models, Matchbox cars, model cars from television programs and movies and so on - then you would include relevant keywords and phrases throughout your site. If you have a page dedicated to famous cars from television and movies you would make sure that phrases relating to each specific car were included on that page. An ideal place to do this would be in the description of each car, but you should also include some keywords in the opening paragraph of text which acts as an introduction to the products on offer.

By doing this you will start to appear in the search results whenever someone searches for ?Dukes of Hazzard model car' for example. People who search for the generic term ?cars' might still find you, but there is a good chance that a lot of them won't be interested in model cars at all; they'll be looking for life size cars instead.

These phrases are called long tail keywords, and they are the secret to getting more targeted traffic to your website. Good keyword research techniques will lead you to the best phrases to use, and you will be rewarded in more ways than one.

Firstly you will find that it's far easier to rank more highly in search engine results for more specific phrases. This is quite simply because less people will be using them. Big companies such as General Motors have got the money and the resources to pay for a high placement with a general word such as ?cars' - something you can't hope to compete against. But with longer and more specific key phrases you have less competition, meaning that it's much easier to land on page one of Google in a more organic way - without spending a single cent to do it.

The second advantage is that because long tail keywords bring you highly targeted traffic, you will find that although you may get less in the way of visitor numbers, the visitors you do get are more responsive. You will probably get more sign ups to your free newsletter if you have one. More people will request information - and most importantly you will make more sales. If you were trying to compete to get top billing for the word ?cars', not only would you struggle to achieve your goal you'd also find that a lot of the visitors you did succeed in getting would leave your site very quickly, because it's not what they were looking for.

Researching your keywords can take some time but it's time well spent, and it's also worth remembering that it should be a fairly regular activity. Keywords that are popular now may not be so heavily searched for in a few weeks or months from now, so keep an eye on what's going on and change your keywords and phrases now and again as and when necessary.

There are a number of keyword research software programs available as well which require a fee to be able to download them, but they offer you far more in the way of features that can help you enhance your website. Free tools are more than adequate to begin with, but when your website becomes more established you may wish to invest in a recommended software program to help you dig deeper into the opportunities these tools offer you.

Introduction To On-Page SEO

Everyone has heard of SEO, but what exactly is on-page SEO? Learning what it's all about can help you to build a more search engine friendly website.

There are many different aspects of search engine optimization to consider when you are creating and building your website, but one of the most important is on-page SEO. This quite simply describes anything which relates to what goes on your actual web pages; in other words, on-page SEO techniques relate to the content of your website - the words in particular.

On-page search engine optimization is quite easy to understand and put into practice, and if you are ever in doubt as to whether a particular technique is on page or not, all you need to do is ask yourself whether that technique relates to the actual content of the page. If it has anything to do with titles, web copy, the appearance of that web page or keywords, then it can safely be categorized as an on-page SEO technique.

While these techniques are relatively easy to pick up, you should work on improving your knowledge of them over time, because it will help to get your site ranked more highly and attract more visitors as a result.

One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO that's worth remembering is that the first section of the content on each and every page of your website carries extra weight. That is, it can make or break the page as a whole. Anyone who is a writer will know how important titles are in the overall scheme of things; if you don't have a good title the reader might not even bother to see what the rest of the article is about.

This is just as relevant to writing copy for your website as it is to anywhere else - perhaps even more so in fact. Not only do you have to please your visitors, you also have to please the search engines that will be looking at your content and ranking you according to how good and relevant it is. Make no mistake, if you don't get off to a good start on every single page of your website you may well notice the difference when it comes to checking your rankings.

Assuming you have already figured out which keywords are advisable to use on each individual page, you should ensure that the most relevant one is included within the title itself. Think of the title tag as the equivalent of waving a colored flag that the search engine robots will see and come to investigate. If you have a dull and uninteresting title and you haven't included any keywords or even attempted anything like a description to entice both visitors and robots to come and see what's going on, then you won't get a very good result in the search engines.

Next comes the rest of the content. If you have ever come across a web page that is basically one long unbroken paragraph you'll know what a huge turn off this is. Fortunately this is very easy to solve with the help of a little html knowledge.

Many people are put off by the thought of having to learn some html, but in reality it's not so difficult to learn the basics that go to make up a well presented article that looks good on the page.

Including headings within your article help to break it up to a degree, and the use of html tags to make this happen also attracts the attention of the robots that are crawling your site to see what's there. The presence of a tag of some kind helps to indicate that there's something worth looking at there, so if you can legitimately include a long tail keyword within that heading that relates to the subject of the page then by all means do so.

It's also worth exploring the concept of using meta tags to help the search engines evaluate the content of your site. These don't need to be created to please your visitors, since they won't be able to see them, but instead your keyword tag should contain your keywords for that page, and the title tag should contain the title for that page. As you can see, even html tags are reasonably straightforward once you start finding out more about them.

It's a good idea to tackle one element at a time when you start creating your web pages. Bookmark any useful websites that give out basic html guidance and advice, and you'll soon get the hang of how and where to use the tags to your best advantage.

The main point to make about on-page search engine optimization is that it all boils down to having outstanding, in depth and comprehensive content. If you've got that, then you have a good strong base from which to start.

Text

One of the biggest parts of ensuring your website is ranked - and ranked highly - concerns the use of text on your website.

You may or may not know this, but search engine spiders are very selective when they come and visit your website.

A lot of webmasters think that the best way to catch the eye of anyone who visits their site is to make sure they have stunning graphics and eye catching images.

Now while these elements do have their place they are certainly not the most important aspects of a website. After all, once the visitor has seen and looked at the graphic, if there is nothing much else for them to look at they will go elsewhere and find another website that is more helpful to them.

Furthermore, in order to get listed in the search engine results it's important to make sure your website is seen by the search engine spiders - and they cannot see images or graphics.

That is why text is and always will be the most important element of any website. If you want your site to rank highly then you need to look at how you are using and distributing information on your site, and ensure it doesn't give the wrong impression or mislead the visitor in any way.

One part of helping the spiders to rank your site highly according to its relevance in response to a search engine query is to include keywords in your content. More than one keyword should be used on each page, depending on what the overall content of that page is about.

For example, a website about jewelry will have that word on every page, but it will also include other terms which are unique to the specific page they are found on. If there is a page on costume jewelry then that term will be sprinkled throughout the content. A page displaying different types of gold jewelry may have terms such as gold earrings, gold necklaces, 9 carat gold, 18 carat gold and so on. Product descriptions should of course include these terms where relevant, but there is certainly no harm in having an introductory paragraph which includes these terms as part of a description of the variety of items the site has available for sale.

Of course keywords aren't the only element which goes into creating text which catches the attention of the search engines for all the right reasons. Another important element is to provide unique content which cannot be found anywhere else.

This has a two fold benefit. Firstly it will attract more in the way of visitors anyway, since they will come to know that they can read content on your website that they won't be able to get anywhere else. This alone is a big factor in encouraging repeat traffic, and the increase in footfall will ensure your site is ranked more highly when the search engines realize how popular it is.

Secondly if an article appears all over the web as well as on your website it won't be anywhere near as valuable as it would be if it only appeared on your website. The idea is that you want your whole site to be as individual as possible, so that it gains popularity and stands out among the competition. If you can manage this then you are halfway towards a good position in the search engines.

It stands to reason that unique content should also be useful and worthwhile. If you find yourself writing articles and the only thing you are concentrating on is the number of keywords you are trying to insert, then your focus is not on your readers. Remember that you want people to read your article and then bookmark your site to visit it again, and they won't do that if it becomes obvious to them that you are more interested in what the search engines think than your visitors.

Writing your own content will always be preferable to using content that has already been published elsewhere for the simple reason that you get to have total control over how it is written. You can also tweak it whenever necessary to accommodate more popular keywords. When all is said and done, no one will have a better knowledge of your website than you, which is why it's always advisable to write your own copy if you can.

So it's obvious that the spiders love web copy. They love to see plenty of words on your site because it means they have lots to look at - essentially you are presenting a good case for achieving a high ranking with their own particular search engine.

But how much text should you be providing? Is there such a thing as too much?

The answer to that is - not really. Your role as a webmaster is to inform and educate the visitors who come to your website (and hopefully to sell products and services to them as well) and if you have plenty of web pages packed with information on a variety of related topics within the overall subject of your site, you won't go far wrong.

What's more you are far more likely to rank more highly for more keywords if you make the effort to include more content in your site. Just imagine you have a three hundred word article on each page. Three hundred words isn't very long, and it doesn't give you much room to include many keywords on there without it looking like you are keyword spamming.

If on the other hand you write a series of articles that are two thousand words plus, not only will you find it much easier to include your basic keyword or phrase, you'll also be able to include several other related keywords and phrases quite easily without it looking crowded.

You can also use your web copy to promote other products and services you are interested in, as well as linking to other pages within your own site. Using clickable links is a good way of leading the search engine spiders from page to page within your site, and it means you can make sure that they will find other pages that they may not otherwise see.

One final point - if you can make your web content timeless then it will continue to perform well in the search engine results for a longer period of time. If you write an article on a current news event it may well bring you extra traffic for a time, but eventually it will drop off as the search engine spiders find it less relevant. It can still stay on your site if you wish, but unique and long lasting content will have better staying power over the longer term.