9 SEO Basics
(1) Always Monitor Your Rankings – How can you know where you are going if you don’t know where you are? Use the Google Toolbar, Alexa or Market Samurai to keep an eye on your place in the search engines.
(2) Keywords – Do your research on keywords and then regularly update it. Make sure you are using the correct keywords on the page for your niche – but avoid stuffing the page with them!
(3) Internal Linking – Link back to yourself throughout the site. This is a really easy way to give yourself a boost in the rankings. Throw in some anchor text on those internal links too, to really get that link juice flowing.
(4) Install a Sitemap – XML sitemaps are loved by the search engines – install one straight away.
(5) Keyword Rich URL – If you are starting from scratch always choose a url that contains the most important keywords that you will be going after. It helps with both the search engines and with site visitors.
(6) Don’t get Flash – Search engines hate flash so unless you are a designer and it is in your portfolio, try and avoid it like the plague.
(7) Add tags to your images – adding keyword rich ‘alt’ tags to your images will also give you anseo boost.
(8) Update your Content – If you want to get lots of visitors and good SEO then you need to regularly update your site with fresh and interesting content. Try to update it every three days at least.
(9) Get Social – Promote your blog with social media and you will see more and more traffic. Use Twitter, Facebook and other similar media to get a boost in SEO too.
Esther is a financial journalist and blogger. She writes about everything affectingsmall businesses and start-ups as well as personal finance from mortgages to credit cards to umbrella companies .
Read MoreSocial Networking Working With Search Engine Optimization
Social networking and search engine optimization (SEO) are often considered to be two entirely different entities. Social networking is usually for personal purposes – to connect and interact with friends and family – while SEO is concerned with search engine rankings. But recently, these two entities have proven to be effective at working hand-in-hand. It is not that easy, though, and you’d need to consider a lot of aspect before you can successfully use these two to your advantage. Here are a few tips to help you out.
Audience
Just like any other type of advertising, you need to find the perfect audience. Whether you intend to use Facebook, Twitter, or any other type of social networking media, make sure you are visible and connected to the right audience. This is easier said than done, though. You need to research about your target audience. Where are they usually most active? What type of content are they most responsive to? Make sure you find the right niche and work on reaching your audience. You need to register to these social media networks and make your presence felt. Be active in your chosen network and interact with your chosen audience. Keeping a good line of communication amongst your targeted audience is a good way of getting their feedback, which in turn will allow you to better the services you are offer and come up with new products that are sure to gain good response.
Content
After finding the right audience, you now need to focus on your content. Your audience needs to know that you offer relevant content thus helping drive traffic to your social media account. This is the time that you will need to add unique content to your account, add links to relevant sites, or post polls that can help make your account active. Remember that a lot of these networking sites have restrictions and strict rules against bots false accounts. This is also the best time for you to add content that are relevant to the keywords you intend your account to rank high on search engines. At this point, you can go ahead and apply SEO principles to the content of your account, and you can be sure that your social media profile will bring in high rankings from Google and other search engines.
Links
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to share links to your friends or followers. However, you need to be careful about the content of the sites that you will share. Be sure that the contents and ideas do not go against the content of your profile or the ideas you want to convey.
Read MoreGood SEO In Toronto
With the latest Google algorithm updates and changes in the form of Panda and Panda 2.0, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep on top of the Toronto SEO market. If you have a small website and are undertaking your online marketing initiatives yourself rather than engaging the help of an internet marketing Toronto company, you’re going to find it more and more challenging to continue on at your current pace. You see, the newest algorithm updates are really aiming to boost quality sites to the top of the search engines—and quality is not necessarily decided by who has the prettiest website. Google has placed most importance on having fresh, regularly updated and relevant content on websites. They want their users to be able to search for anything in their engine and find what they’re looking for with ease. If the users are having sites boosted to the top of the results through black-hat SEO initiatives, they risk their users choosing a competing search engine.
The new updates also place more emphasis on social networking and how your brand interacts with others. Having Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts are no longer considered “fluff” that businesses can add to make themselves seem more approachable; they have a critical impact on your positioning within the search engines now. These are just two of the many updates that have been made to the algorithm, but any reputable company that offers SEO services will know more about these changes and how to implement them into your site in order to leverage the best positioning possible within your market on the search engines.
Read MoreGetting Started With Keyword Search
Keyword searches may seem as simple phrases users encode to search for certain services and products. But to site owners, it means a whole lot more. In this competitive virtual business, your keyword results can either make or break you. Selecting keywords that are too broad or too unique might be a nuisance in the long run, you might end up getting irrevelant clicks that just might waste your time.
If you’ve got the right keyword search, your business is bound to boom in the near future. Appropriate keyword searches dictate the traffic in your website, and attracting potential clients is also very dependent on it. It is important that you know your business very well so you would be able to determine how your potential clients will look up for you in search engines.
Common Mistakes in Keyword Search
The first mistake is choosing a keyword that is too competitive. If you are going to choose a word that is very similar to hundreds and thousands of other websites and services, there is no assurance that you will be able to land in the top 10 or top 20 keyword search results. Another one is selecting a keyword, which is overly unique, or something that users will less likely think of. You might just end up having a “sorry no matching documents” as a feedback.
There are several key ingredients to make sure your keywords really match your business.
Brainstorming
This is the first essential step. Brainstorm with several colleagues or your business partners on keywords that would match your business, the service your company offers, and the products that you sell. To get the best possible keywords, be specific, regarding the exact description of the products that you are selling, or the services that you are offering.
Using Google Keyword Tool
The next step is to enter your own URL and those of your competitors on Google to see the keywords that are relevant. Google Keyword Tool often gives out keywords that are quite broad, unless you have refined them. You can then encode your keywords to see Google’s suggestion on relevant keyword searches.
The Google Wonder Wheel
Another very useful tool to help you look for appropriate keyword searches is the Google Wonder Wheel. Encode a phrase in the Google Wonder Wheel and it would give you a list of phrases that are relevant to what you are thinking of. This in return will help you think of more specific keyword searches that you could use, and appropriate, for your business.
Read MoreEssential Ingredients To Driving Traffic To Your Website
No matter how great your website may be if you are not able to maintain a steady stream of targeted traffic, it will be deemed useless and ineffective. If your site does not receive sufficient traffic there will be poor site conversions, which can also directly affect your site ranking. Keep in mind that website traffic is considered as the lifeblood of a successful online business. So how do you bring adequate web traffic to your site? Truth of the matter is, driving traffic to your website is not really an exact science.
Even if you only operate a small business, if you are able to drive good traffic to your site, it is possible that you can outshine bigger and more established online companies. Basically, the trick to become a successful online marketer is to attract huge web traffic. Building a good amount of traffic to your website will definitely be a game-changer.
There are essential ingredients in effectively driving good traffic to your site. If you have successfully accomplished this, you will be able to significantly boost your online presence, and establish a good foothold in the virtual world.
Good Marketing Strategy
This is an important ingredient to increase traffic to your site. People would not know about your site unless you effectively promote and market it. Good news is that, there are plenty of ways to improve your web presence, you can utilize free online marketing tools available online or you can come up with your own unique marketing strategy. When creating a marketing campaign online, make sure that it is thought-provoking so it can easily catch attention.
Useful and Informative Content
As a lot of internet marketers often say ‘information is king’ in the virtual world. People use the internet for one sole purpose – to seek useful information. To be able to boost traffic to your site, you need to ensure that you fill it up with informative article contents. You should write about topics related to the products or services you are offering. Conveying your message through blog posts and article write-ups offer the perfect way to effectively communicate with your potential buyers. Be sure that the information you put on your site is easily understandable and will draw the attention of your targeted readers. Keep supplying your website with helpful information about the products or services you are offering so your target customers would be persuaded to acquire or avail them.
Social Media Optimization
Before, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) offers internet marketers an effective way to boost web traffic. However, today, a lot of internet marketers are now exploiting the marketing advantages offered by social media sites. As many say, SMO (Social Media Optimization) is the new SEO. While SEO is still a valid online marketing strategy, social media marketing is the more effective advertising tool used these days. Let’s face it, people talking about products and services on popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook attract more attention compared to organic SEO tactics.
Leveraging Technology
With the birth of wifi and android devices, access to the internet is not only limited to computers and laptops. Today, one can gain online access even on their mobile devices. Knowing that, you should take full advantage of technological advancements. Mobile devices and tablet PCs are excellent marketing tools that will help you draw huge amount of traffic to your webpage by gaining more followers through your social media accounts and spreading the word about your business via blog posts, tweets and word-of-mouth.
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