The Basics of SEO - Some FAQs

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a foreign field to a lot of people. Rarely does a day go by when I don't get asked a few questions on the subject. So I've decided to post this FAQ article in the hopes that it will help people understand the basics, and make them a little more comfortable with the whole domain.

Q: Why are search engines important to me?

A: 85% of all website traffic is driven by search engines. The only online activity more popular than search is email. 79.2% of US users don't go to page 2 of search results. 42% of users click on the no.1 result. For the under-40 age-group, the Internet will become the most used media in the next 2-3 years.

Q: How do search engines decide on their rankings?

A: IMPORTANT: You cannot pay a search engine in return for a high ranking in the natural results. You can only get a high ranking if your content is seen as relevant by the search engines.
Search engines identify relevant content for their search results by sending out “spiders” or “robots” which “crawl” (analyze) your site and “index” (record) its details. Complex algorithms are then employed to determine whether your site is useful and should be included in the search engine’s search results.

Q: Can't I just pay for a high ranking?

A: No. The biggest concern for search engine companies like Google and Yahoo is finding content that will bring them more traffic (and thus more advertising revenue). In other words, their results must be relevant. Relevant results makes for a good search engine; irrelevant results makes for a short-lived search engine.

Most search engines these days return two types of results whenever you click Search:

„X Natural/Organic ¡V The “real” search results. The results that most users are looking for and which take up most of the window. For most searches, the search engine displays a long list of links to sites with content which is related to the word you searched for. These results are ranked according to how relevant and important they are.
„X Paid ¡V Pure advertising. This is how the search engines make their money. Advertisers pay the search engines to display their ad whenever someone searches for a word which is related to their product or service. These ads look similar to the natural search results, but are normally labeled “Sponsored Links”, and normally take up a smaller portion of the window.

Q: How do I get a high ranking?

A: There are four main steps:
Step 1 - Use the right words on your website
Step 2 - Get lots of relevant sites to link to yours
Step 3 - Use the right words in those links
Step 4 - Have lots of content on your site & add more regularly

Q: What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

A: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of creating a website which is search engine-friendly. This means:
„X using the right words in your copy
„X using the right words in your HTML code
„X structuring your site properly
„X designing your site properly

For more information on these 4 elements, download our free 'SEO Secrets' eBook from divinewrite.com/seosecrets.htm.

Many people use SEO to also describe the other ingredient in a high ranking, 'Link Popularity'.

Q: What is link popularity?

A: Think of the search engines as a big election. All the websites in the world are candidates. The links to your website are votes. The more votes (links) a candidate (website) has, the more important it is, and the higher it’s ranking. Link popularity is all about how many links you have, and how you can get more.
Links to your site tell the search engines how important your site is. They assume that if it’s important enough for a lot of other sites to link to, it’s important enough for them to display at the top of the rankings. Links are the single most important factor in ranking. Generally speaking, the more links you have to your site from other sites, the better your ranking.

Q: Are some links better than others?

A: Yes! The ideal kind of links are those that:
„X come from relevant sites (sites which use the same keywords);
„X come from important sites (have a high ranking);
„X include your keyword as part of the visible link text;
„X include varying link text (not the same link text each time); and
„X come from a page that links to few other sites.

When a search engine sees a link which satisfies most or all of these conditions, it says, “Hey, this site must be credible and important, because others in the same industry are pointing to it.”

Q: How do I get lots of links back to my site?

A: There are many possible ways to generate links. Some are dubious (like auto-generation software, and sites set up by webmasters simply to host links to their other sites) and I won’t be discussing them here. Others, like those discussed below, are legitimate.
„X Add your site to DMOZ & Yahoo Directories (and other free directories)
„X Check where your competitors¡¦ links are coming from
„X Article PR - Write and submit articles for Internet publication
„X Swap links
„X Partner websites
„X Pay for links

For more information on these methods, download our free 'SEO Secrets' eBook from divinewrite.com/seosecrets.htm.

Q: What do you think is the best way to get lots of links?

A: Article PR. Write helpful articles and let other webmasters publish them for free in exchange for a link in the byline. With article PR, you don't have to pay for the link, you determine the content of the page containing the link, you determine the link text, and the link is more or less permanent. A single article can be reprinted hundreds of times, and each time is another link back to your site!
For more information, read divinewrite.com/seoarticles.htm or visit ArticlePR.com.

Q: How do I write a good article PR piece?

A: See divinewrite.com/seoarticles.htm.

Q: How do I get a high ranking using free reprint content?

A: See divinewrite.com/Top_Ranking_Free.htm.

Q: How long does it take to get a high search engine ranking?

A: A long time! It’s impossible to say how much time you’ll need to spend generating links, but you can be sure it’ll be a while no matter which method of link generation you use. You just have to keep at it until you have achieved a high ranking. Even then, you’ll still need to dedicate some ongoing time to the task, otherwise your ranking will drop.

Q: What is the Google Sandbox, and is it real?

A: The Google Sandbox theory suggest that whenever Google detects a new website, it withholds its rightful ranking for a period while it determines whether your site is a genuine, credible, long term site. It does this to discourage the creation of SPAM websites (sites which serve no useful purpose other than to boost the ranking of some other site).

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting the theory, but there is also a lot discounting it. No one has categorically proven its existence.

Q: What is the Google Dampening Link Filter, and is it real?

A: The Google Dampening Link Filter theory suggests that if Google detects a sudden increase (i.e. many hundreds or thousands) in the number of links back to your site, it may sandbox them for a period (or in fact penalize you by lowering your ranking or blacklisting your site altogether).

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting the theory, but there is also a lot discounting it. No one has categorically proven its existence.

Q: What SEO companies should I be wary of?

A: Be wary of SEO companies that promise or guarantee results in a given timeframe, especially if they won't expand on their methods for generating links back to your site.

Q: What tools can you recommend?

A: There are many very useful tools to help with your SEO. The following are just selection. All tools are free unless otherwise indicated.
„X Backlink checker - http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/
„X Backlinks by IP address - http://www.webuildpages.com/cclass/index.php
„X Link Popularity Tool - http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
„X Number of links required to rank - http://www.iblcheck.com/
„X Google Alert - http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
„X Google Sitemaps - http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps
„X Google Sitemap Generator - http://johannesmueller.com/gs/
„X Google Toolbar - http://toolbar.google.com/
„X Indexed Pages - http://www.webuildpages.com/cache/cachetoolpublic.pl
„X Keyword Analysis (Nichebot) - http://www.nichebot.com/
„X Keyword Analysis (Overture) - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
„X Keyword Analysis (WordTracker - Paid) - http://www.wordtracker.com/
„X Keyword Difficulty - http://www.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty-tool.php
„X Keyword Identifier - http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
„X Keyword Density Measurement (Simple) - http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
„X Keyword Density Measurement (Complex) - http://www.gorank.com/analyze.php
„X Plagiarized Copy Search - http://www.copyscape.com/
„X Traffic Rank - http://www.alexa.com/
„X Search Engine Rank - http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
„X SEO Report - http://www.urltrends.com/
„X Top 10 sites for a keyword by no of backlinks and age - http://www.webuildpages.com/seo-tools/whoischeck-bykeys.pl
„X Top 10 sites for a keyword - http://www.webuildpages.com/cool-seo-tool/
„X Spider Simulator - http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/

Q: I'm confused about all the terms used in SEO, can you help?

A: See divinewrite.com/seo_glossary.htm.

Q: What is keyword analysis?

A: The first thing you need to do when you begin chasing a good search engine ranking is decide which words you want to rank well for. This is called performing a keyword analysis. Keyword analysis involves a bit of research and a good knowledge of your business and the benefits you offer your customers.
For more information, download our free 'SEO Secrets' eBook from divinewrite.com/seosecrets.htm.

Q: Do I need to submit my site to the search engines?

A: Theoretically, no. But I wouldn't risk not doing it - especially as it's free. As soon as you register your domain name, submit it to Google! Even if you haven’t built your site, or thought about your content, submit your domain name to Google. In fact, even if you haven’t fully articulated your business plan and marketing plan, submit your domain name to Google.

For more information, download our free 'SEO Secrets' eBook from divinewrite.com/seosecrets.htm.

Q: Should I submit my site to the search engines more than once?

A: No need. Although some of the search engines allow you to do this, there's really no need.

Q: What are directories and should I submit my site to them?

A: Directories are websites (or web pages) which simply list lots of website and give a quick description of the website. Some are free and some require you to pay for a listing. Free directories are useful because you get a free link. However, the links aren't worth that much. Paid directories can be good if they're relevant, but they can cost a lot in the long term, so choose wisely.

One essential directories for any website is the DMOZ Open Directory Project.

About the author:
* Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He owns article submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.
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Keywords are for humans not search engines

It seems keywords are making the top of SEO list time and time again. The problem is that some optimizers do not understand the rightful purpose of keywords. Keywords should not be solely embedded for the purpose of reaching the top of search engines. Search Engine Optimization should not be the primary focus of any website. The primary and number 1 focus should always be the visitors. If you create a website for your audience and for your visitors then you should rank fairly. I can't see why any legitimate website can not rank properly within search engines, after time and dedication. Search Engine Optimization main purpose is ranking faster within search engines. Instead of gaining a good balance of traffic within 1 or more years, it is possible to gain a good balance of traffic within 6-9 months with SEO.

Keywords play a major factor in SEO and search engines in general, but the question is are keywords for the search engines or the visitors? The visitors are the ones who are trying to find your site by typing in a keyword, but the search engine is the one locating your site and delivering your site to the visitor based on the searched keywords. Therefore I would have to say, keywords, visitors, and search engines all work hand in hand, but if you focus on the visitor and not the search engine, then you will reap greater rewards. A webmaster should have a plentiful of quality and researched keywords, which becomes the sites core. To receive a good balance of keywords you need to think like your visitors or know how your visitors think. It boils down to research and tracking your visitors. Tracking visitors on your site is business-wise and is not an unethical practice, it’s your website (business). In an offline business you are well aware when a visitor opens the door to your business and comes in the store, the same applies online. It becomes unethical when you continue to track visitors when they exit your site, when you invade visitors’ privacy, or when you intentionally collect personal information about a visitor without their consent or knowledge. Tracking a visitor within your site does not need to be intense, the common web log files are helpful enough. With the web log files you should be able to track the keyword used to find your website, track where a visitor came from to find your site (the referrer), track the total number of unique visitors, track the total number of all visitors, track how many pages were viewed, track the path visitors take within your site, and much more information is available through the web logs. There are many tools that can translate your raw web log files into graphical and legible text, such as: Nihuo or Web Log Expert which both offers a free log analyzer download as well as an inexpensive analyzer for more detailed stats and more features. There are other upscale web log analyzers which are mostly for enterprises or larger sites but are extremely detailed and rewarding, such as: Web Trends, Deep Matrix, or Urchin (which has recently been acquired by the search engine giant 'Google'). Knowing your visitors can only benefit your site. If you have a new website without any visits then you will not have the benefit of knowing your visitors and you will have to create your visitors habits, by using good judgment and research to determine which keywords best suits your site. Your best effort should provide you with at least 250 keywords and keyword phrases, depending on your site category.

Once you have tracked your visitors and/or have completed researching keywords, you are ready to make informed decisions and begin the process of elimination. Many argue to stay away from popular or general keywords because the market for popular and general keywords is flooded and over-crowded, you will never be able to compete. My sentiments exactly, but remember keywords are for visitors, not search engines...so yes, I recommend including popular and general keywords as long as the keyword(s) show room for opportunity. Meaning, it has been used by your visitors...as a solitaire keyword or within a keyword phrase. Creating keyword phrases is important because at least 95% of internet users search using keyword phrases, not many use one word. With that said, you should still include a few solitaire keywords. Use singular and plural expressions for keywords. Once you have gathered all your keywords make two lists, one list can be titled active keywords...keywords which you are currently using or plan to use in the near future. The second list can be titled inactive keywords...keywords which have been eliminated and may never be used. Eliminate keywords based on your research, visitor data, and site category. Regardless how general your site is try to have only one focus audience, this zooms in on your target, makes marketing the site easier, and more successful. When done eliminating you should have a plentiful of keywords and keyword phrases. Generally, the goal should be to have at least a combination of 100 keywords and keyword phrases. This number may be greater or lesser depending on your site category/niche market. Keyword research can be accomplished a number of ways. I would recommend using best judgment and sticking to your site topic. If your site is about “the rules of playing baseball” then anything pertaining to the rules of baseball should be included as keywords. Remember think like your visitors, if you were a visitor looking for 'the rules of baseball' how would you search...your search words would probably be something like "rules of playing baseball"...."baseball playing rules"...."playing baseball rules"....rules of baseball"...."baseball rules"...."how to play baseball"...."baseball and the rules"...if your site contains the 'rules of baseball' then each of those keyword phrases will be sufficient for inclusion into your active keyword list. A few links that can help with keyword research are: NicheBot, Wordtracker, Google Keyword Tool, Digital Point Keyword Tool. Some of the main attributes which you want to research is how often the keyword/keyword phrase is searched for within search engines, how much competition there is for the keyword/keyword phrase, and if you are considering pay-per-click then you would probably like to know the average cost per click for each keyword/keyword phrase. You should not rely 100% on any of these reports or other reports from any third-party because there are many deterrence which may offset the reports, you should collect data from each of them and derive a census report which will allow you to make an informed decision.

Think about your visitors each step of the way when using keywords. Which keywords will catch their attention, directly or indirectly? Meaning, if a user searches for 'baseball rules' then when the search engine searches through billions of web pages...it should pull your web page into the results because you have a entire website dedicated to baseball rules and the entire site is centered around keywording. When the search engine crawls through the billions of web pages it should see that your web page title has "baseball rules" within the title, your meta-tag description has “baseball rules” within the description, your meta-tag keywords have “baseball rules” within the keywords, the link to the page is titled “baseball_rules.htm”, and the content on the web page itself has a proper amount of keyword density, basically, the keyword phrase "baseball rules" is plastered throughout the web page mostly leading towards the top of the page. I know most of what I have just mentioned is Search Engine Optimization practices and techniques, yes, that is true, but in actuality the entire process is for the visitors not the search engine. If you create your site easier for the search engine to find then the visitor will also find it easier and faster, but at all times it is important to keep the visitor in mind. Many SEO practitioners would include any keyword about baseball such as: "baseball"..."major leagues"...."major league baseball"...."minor leagues"...."minor league baseball"...."atlanta braves"...."new york yankees"...."baseball players"….etc. Those keywords are for the search engines not the visitors. If a visitors enters "atlanta braves" as a search keyword and your link is displayed as an result the visitor will be disappointed when he clicks on your link and does not find any solid information pertaining to the "atlanta braves"...instead he/she is greeted with "baseball rules". The visitor will immediately back out without referencing your site or indexing it for later retrieval because it does not pertain to their search quest. Once in a while you may become lucky and get someone who stays because it does mention baseball, but if you tracked conversions, it would surely sink, using this method. The better you target your visitors the more success you will have on the web. Properly using keywords to target your visitors and not the search engines will aid in more ways than one. It will create a healthy online circuit and greater chance for success. Imagine if each time you search the web...you had a perfect search! You only needed to search once, because exactly what you were looking for was found in the first results.

About the author:
Ant Onaf is the owner and founder of www.JournalHome.com He is an online internet marketer, web advertiser, and IT consultant. Ant Onaf has years of IT-related experience and Internet-related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology & internet marketing have made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at http://www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf
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The Ultimate Free Google Ranking Tool

The first months my website was online, I was constantly checking the search engines to see if my site was listed under the keywords that I was targeting. And always with the same negative results.

The truth is that the keywords that you are targeting are often not showing your site the first months at all on the first 200 search listings. OK, if you try to get your site listed for hoooohjgaagga or something like that, it could get you a first place in no time. But who wants to target that keyword?

In fact, I get a lot more traffic from keywords that I haven't thought of using as a keyword in the first place. One tool that I have found online can easily show you the keywords that your site is ranking well for.

You can find it at:
http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
Here you simply enter your domain name and hit the "Analyze Keyword" button. If you want to, you can change the different settings on this page before you hit the button. But I usually leave this at default.

Then on the next page you can see a detailed report on keywords that are found on your site. You can see their numbers and density. It shows the number of 2 Word Phrases and 3 Word Phrases.

Step 2 Create Position Report

Now to the cool part of this tool. When you hit this button, the tool will search Google for the keywords and keyword phrases that it have gathered from your site. After a few seconds it shows your position for each of them. So now you don't have to wonder if your site is listed in Google.

But as I said, the first months you shouldn't be worried if you don't find your site under any keyword at all. Google use a lot of time to index new websites. I have found that MSN are a lot faster to show my pages under the keyword that I want.

I hope you'll find this tool as useful as I have.

Copyright 2005 Torgeir Sunnarvik

About the author:
Torgeir Sunnarvik, Norway mailto:webmaster@everypleasures.com Torgeir Sunnarvik is the owner and webmaster of http://www.everypleasures.com/ His site offer free ebooks, ebooks with reprint rights and review of business ebooks.
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Free Website Traffic in 90 Minutes

Here is a website traffic strategy that takes less than 90 minutes to implement, but generates free website traffic on an ongoing basis - potentially for years.

It operates on the principle that "long tail" keywords have very low competition, so your ability to rank on the first page of the search results on Google, Yahoo and MSN is not only easy, but fast as well.

Here is how you do it:

Use a keyword research tool like Wordtracker.com to research keywords related to the topic of your website. Use their "competition search" function in order to find out the number of competing websites on Google. (For more details on how to do this, click the link at the end of this article for a free resource guide.)

Browse through the keyword results and look for keywords with a predicted 24-hour search volume greater than 10, but with a "google" competing pages count of less than 1000.

Why a competition rate of 1000? Isn't that a lot? Well surprisingly enough, the number of supposedly-competing pages is not really representative of the true number of pages actively trying to rank high for any given term.

The number simply represents how many web pages happen to contain the particular keyword phrase we're looking at. In fact, taking any given competition number, probably as few as 1% of those web pages are actively trying to rank high for that keyword. That means that if there are 1,000 web pages bearing a particular keyword, only perhaps 10 of them are actively competing for it.

Thus with fewer than 10 active competitors, the prospect of ranking on the first page (i.e. the top 10) of search results is very good.

Let's look at an example.

Suppose we do some keyword research for the keyword phrase "dog food." Wordtracker shows that there will be a predicted 1358 searches every day for that term. However, there are 1.6 million competing web pages. For sure, ranking on the first page for that term could be a "home run" in terms of traffic, but there would be an enormous amount of competition for that first page. Even 1% of 1.6 million is still 16,000 active competitors.

The chances of outranking 15,990 of them are slim to none. This is a polite way of saying that shooting for that particular term is a gigantic waste of time. The predicted search volume of 1358 searches per day is a red herring. It's distracting. It's irrelevant. It only matters to the top 10 web pages, and that isn't going to be you. So don't let it sway you into wasting time targeting that keyword.

Instead, consider some of the "long tail" keyword phrases, their predicted daily search volume, and their competing web pages:

"top ten dog foods", 88 searches/day, 1040 competing web pages
"hypoallergenic dog food", 86 searches/day, 539 competing web pages
"best dog foods ranked", 86 searches/day, 1010 competing web pages
"best dry dog food", 70 searches/day, 511 competing web pages
"dog raw food diet", 68 searches/day, 333 competing web pages
"recipes for homemade dog foods", 67 searches/day, 110 competing web pages

And the list goes on. And on.

So, just for these 6 terms alone, there are an estimated 465 searches per day. If you could rank on the first page of the search results, how much traffic do you think you'd get? Well clearly it would depend on whether you were in the first one or two spots, or lower down the page. But assuming just 10% of the searchers visited your website, that's still 46 visitors per day just by targeting 6 achievable keywords.

Think how much traffic you'd get if you targeted 60. Or 600.

But before we get too carried away, we have to talk about two more steps. Knowing what keywords to target is crucial, but actually doing the work to compete for them is what makes everything work.

First, you need to create a web page on your website that caters to the desired term. Your best results will come if you "theme" your website, so that all the web pages that talk about dog food, for example, link only to other pages that talk about dog food, and not to any other topics or websites.

Then on the specific page in question, you need to create some content. Not necessarily a huge amount - but some. You need to include the keyword phrase you are targeting in the Title tag of your web page, and again a number of times in the text on your web page. Don't over-do it, but just write naturally using your keyword whenever it makes sense to do so.

Don't over-think your web content. It's important, but not critical. The really important bit comes next.

Write an article. Make it 400-600 words and write it "about" whatever keyword phrase you want to target. At the end of the article, you have a "resource box" in which you can place a link back to your website. Instead of merely linking to your domain name, link directly to the keyword-specific page you just created. And when forming the link, ensure that the keyword phrase appears in the text of the link (called the "anchor text").

Then distribute your article to article sites around the Internet. You can submit it to sites like ezinearticles.com and isnare.com for good exposure. You can also sign up for a service such as articlemarketer.com for maximum exposure.

Over the coming weeks, your article will be picked up by dozens - perhaps hundreds - of websites, all linking back to your new web page. It won't be long before your new web page rockets to the top of the search engines.

So, how much of your time does this whole operation take? It depends. Probably less than 90 minutes. Keyword research takes about 10 minutes, writing web page content about 20 minutes, and writing and distributing a short article about an hour.

Of course, it won't be long before you'll want to hire out the task of article and content writing. This way you'll get far more web pages done because you'll have other people doing the work. Elance.com or rentacoder.com are excellent venues to find writers who will create content and articles for you for between $5 and $10 per article.

This strategy is tremendously scaleable and can bring you an enormous amount of free website traffic. It has brought success to many an Internet marketer, and it will for you too if you simply follow it. There are new keywords and phrases being used every day as new products are invented and new ideas become popular. This means that the supply of achievable "long tail" keywords will never be exhausted and you can have as much free website traffic as you want.

About the Author:
Jason Jantzi has used SEO to promote over 50 digital products online. Download his free blueprint showing 130 key tools from how to create digital products in under an hour to search engine optimization reviews.
Posted: 27-02-2007
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Do It Yourself SEO Software

If you’re strapped for cash and you want to perform search engine optimization, you may be tempted to use one of the many pieces of do-it-yourself SEO software that are available on the market. The makers of each software program tout easy-to-use features and an inexpensive price as major selling points for these programs. While they may be easy to use, these programs can also be a waste of money because of a lack of features. Knowing the basics of do-it-yourself SEO software will help you to make a good SEO decision and save money for professional SEO efforts.

Features

SEO software programs can have some features that make SEO a little easier for business owners. However, these programs often lack features that make it easy to track your SEO results. When you do keyword research and implement SEO strategies on your site, you will want to be able to track your results and easily make changes to your strategies. When you purchase a piece of software that lacks these reporting and tracking features, you are making SEO even more difficult than it has to be. In this case, it may be a better financial investment to hire an SEO consulting firm that provides full search engine optimization and analyzes return on investment and results on a regular basis.

Ease of Use

Do-it-yourself SEO software programs are often advertised as being easy to use by even beginners. The interfaces of these programs may be easy to use, but how is it possible for a program to be simple for someone who does not know a lot about SEO and is just doing it for the first time? In order to be truly easy to use, these software programs need to have tutorials, help pages, and informational articles that explain how to use each feature to add to your SEO efforts. If you find a piece of software that does not have these help capabilities, it is best to save your money and use it to hire a professional SEO consulting firm.

Price

SEO software programs may seem inexpensive because their prices are low. However, you need to analyze the cost of the program in terms of the results you will realize once you have used the software to optimize your web site. If a software program is only $199 but it is difficult to use or your find that your traffic only increases by 5%, it may be a better investment to hire an SEO consulting firm that will increase your traffic by 20%. The whole goal of search engine optimization is to make your site more accessible to search engines so your page is ranked within the top 10 of sear results for your keywords and phrases. If an SEO consulting firm can make your site so accessible that you see a 20% increase in site traffic, the SEO may pay for itself with the increase in profits you see when you convert these new web visitors into buyers.

Optimizing Your Site

The SEO Team is a full-service SEO consulting firm that can help you optimize your web site and skyrocket your traffic. If you’d like us to help you accomplish your SEO goals, visit our web site and find out how we can help you get increased web site traffic.

About the Author:
Bryan Garcia and his team of Internet marketing experts have been delivering TOP search engine results by using their unique formula of search engine optimization, Web site development, professional copywriting, and conversion consulting for a combined total of 20 years. Visit http://www.theseoteam.com to learn how your site can get to the top of the rankings.
Article Submitted On: October 18, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How to SEO for beginners

Selecting Key Words: This is probably the most important point. You need to choose keywords that best describes your website so if someone types your keyword in a search engine, your site will come up. Now don't just pick a few keywords which best interests you.

Try this Keyword Suggestion Tool:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Lets say your site is about Games. Now don't just make 'Games' as your keyword because it is searched 99, 000 each day. There is very little chance your site will appear in a search any where near the first page. I suggest you pick more specific keywords such as 'PlayStation Games' or a name of an actual game like 'Grand Theft Auto'. These names are searched not as much so there is a lot of chance your site will appear near or on the first page of a search engine.

Domain: You should have a a suitable do0main name. It is not as important but still works. Going back to Games site again. You are better off with a domain name such as www.games.com rather than www.yourhostname.com/games.com. The domain name has nothing to do with your search engine optimism, you can still reach page one with or without a good domain name.

Title Tags: Very crucial in Search Engine Optimization. Going back to the Games site. You are better off with a title such as:

Game - Grand Theft Auto

rather than:

Grand Theft Auto - Games
or
Grand Theft Auto
or
Whatever

Header Tags: Header tags are very important because they are used to identify words which are more important than the rest of the text on the page. The Header Tags sum up the topic of the page. When you are placing Header Tags, use 'H1' tags.

For Example, lets go back to the Games site again. You want your Header Tag as 'Games' then you will do the following:
Games

Easy URLs: Very important in search engine optimization. You want to have simple URLs, no long complicated stuff.

For Example in stead of this:
www.games.com/GrandTheftAuto/index.php

You will write:
www.games.com/GrandTheftAuto/

Easy URLs: make sure you use correct keywords. For example going back to the Games site, make sure you mention something or probably everything related to games. When a search engine spider comes and sees that your page is suppose to be about Games but you haven't mentioned about Games, he/she will think your site is not important. Have a paragraph or two about your site on top of your page, making sure you state the correct keywords that best matches your website.

Link Building: Make sure you have lots of links coming to your site. When a search engine comes to a website and notices that in it's links there is a 'Games' link. He/she will click and it will lead him/her to your site. This will make him/her think that your site is very important. When you are building links, make sure you use correct keywords that best describes your website.

A Few Tips: A few tips by the professionals:
-For start ups use things like : Digit, reddit and ma.gnolia they all give a little traffic if your site is new
-Quality Backlinks and Trusted Links
-Putting the keywords in the title
-One Way links

Learn more about SEO, Adsense and money making sites at http://www.moneymakingsites.biz

About the Author:
Falco P. author of Moneymakingsites.biz
Added: 24 Oct 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/40282.html

Blogging as an SEO Tool

Search engine optimization is a very detailed process that requires you to take advantage of every available opportunity to increase your web site traffic ranking and drive visitors to your web site. Many of the common search engine optimization methods include keyword-rich content development, link exchanges, and other technical methods that can help make your site more accessible to the search engines. One method that is now being used for SEO is relatively new but very popular in terms of generating traffic and getting exposure for your business. This SEO method is blogging.

Blogging Defined

Blog is the shortened form of “web log.” Blogs can be personal or professional and have a variety of features that make them excellent SEO tools for many businesses. In addition to having posts that can promote your business, blogs are also the perfect place for links to your web site and gathering feedback from customers. If you’d like to use a blog to market your business and improve your SEO efforts, there are several aspects of blogging that can be helpful.

Blog Content

Just like your web content, blog posts can be optimized using keywords that you choose and analyze using keyword research tools. Once you have selected appropriate keywords, you can use them in each blog post that you make on your web site. Since blog posts are usually conversational in tone, you might have to work a little harder to incorporate the keywords naturally within the text of each post. If you can manage to do that, you’ll have an effective SEO component that can help drive traffic to your web site.

Links

Blogs are a great way to have many links to your web site. If you have a blog that is directly on your site, you will have many links that you can use to boost your search engine placement. If your blog is hosted off-site, you will have a perfect opportunity for placing one-way links to your site in each post that you make. While link exchanges can be beneficial, one-way links carry more weight in terms of search engine rankings. You can also use your keywords within your blog links for added impact on your SEO results.

User Interaction

One of the greatest things about using blogs as a marketing and SEO tool is that they allow for interaction with users. Visitors can often leave comments and ask questions that allow you to keep them coming back to your site for answers. If a visitor finds a particularly interesting post on your blog, he or she may link to your site from theirs, increasing your link popularity and contributing to your SEO efforts. Allowing users to interact with you is a great way to promote your business and it also lets you make adjustments to your web site and business policies when users let you know their opinions.

Professional SEO

The SEO Team is a professional SEO firm focused on getting you results. Please visit our web site to find out how we can help you with SEO consulting and SEO web site design.

About The Author:
Bryan Garcia and his team of Internet marketing experts have been delivering TOP search engine results by using their unique formula of search engine optimization, Web site development, professional copywriting, and conversion consulting for a combined total of 20 years. Visit http://www.theseoteam.com to learn how your site can get to the top of the rankings.
Article Submitted On: October 18, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

SEO Trade Secrets - 8 Great Tools For Search Engine Optimization

About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And research shows, if you’re not on the first 2 pages, most people won’t find you.

This article isn’t about how to achieve a high ranking. That topic has been done to death over the past few months. We all know the basics now… Submit your site to the major search engines, scatter a generous helping of the right keyword phrases throughout your site in real sentences, then get a lot of other relevant sites link to your site. That’s it.

This article is about what tools to use to make your job easier.

1) Choosing Keyword Phrases (costs approx USD$7.50 per day)

To decide what keyword phrases to use, subscribe to http://www.wordtracker.com for a day and do some analysis. Simply enter a keyword and WordTracker tells you how often people have searched for that keyword in the last month or two, how many competitor sites are using that keyword, and how many searches it expects in the next 24hrs.

2) Measuring Keyword Density (FREE)

To measure the density of the keyword phrases on your page, go to http://www.gorank.com/analyze.php and type in the domain and keyword phrase you want to analyse. It’ll give you a percentage for all the important parts of your page, including copy, title, meta keywords, meta description, etc. The higher the density the better.

3) Check How Search-Engine-Friendly Your Site Is (FREE)

Search engines send out spiders (or robots) to investigate your site. These tools allow you to see your site from the spider’s point of view.

- http://optimiser.123promotion.co.uk - enter your URL and a keyword phrase and it gives you a great summary of the things you could improve.

- http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.search-engine-viewer.htm - enter your URL and it gives you a summary of the things you could improve.

- http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go? - Poodle tells you how many links the spider will see and investigate.

4) Check How Many of Your Pages are Indexed (FREE)

Go to just about any search engine and type “site:http://www.yourdomain.com”. The search engine will then tell you how many of your pages it has indexed.

5) Monitor Your Position in Google (FREE)

No need to waste time clicking through hundreds of Google search results looking for your site. This tool allows you to enter a keyword and a domain name, and it searches Google to see where your domain is positioned. Go to http://www.cleverstat.com/google-monitor-query.htm to download the setup file. Then just install.

6) See How Important Sites Are (FREE)

The Google Toolbar is an indispensable tool. One of the things it can tell you is the “importance” of every site you visit (in Google’s eyes at least). You’ve probably heard a bit about PageRank or PR. PR is Google’s measure of the importance of a site. Basically, the higher your PR, the higher your ranking. This tool gives you a snapshot of the PR of every site you visit. Go to http://toolbar.google.com. TIP: It’s good to get links from other sites with high PR – especially if they contain the same keywords as your site. WARNING: Apparently the Google Toolbar monitors your
internet usage. As yet, it’s unclear what it uses this information for.

7) Monitor What Sites are Linking to Yours (FREE)

Google News Alerts (http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en) and Google Web Alerts (http://www.google.com/webalerts) will tell you who’s linking to your site. Simply set up an alert to be notified when Google finds http://www.yourdomain.com.

8) Getting Help (FREE)

If you’re new to SEO, the first thing you should do is check out Google’s guide to SEO at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. If you already know the basics, there are a number of forums you can subscribe to to post questions. These forums are free, and they’re frequented by countless SEO experts. And when I say “experts”, I mean EXPERTS! Some of these people do SEO all day, every day. And like many technical experts, they’re only too happy to help – for free. The best forum seems to be http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3, but http://searchengineforums.com/Forum28 is ok too. If all else fails, you can try sending Google an email. Go to http://www.google.com.au/contact/index.html, but don’t hold out much hope of help here. They’ll eventually answer, but there’s no guarantee on the quality of their response…

This is just a snapshot of the tools available out there, but these will certainly get you started.

Some additional resources:
• http://www.123promotion.co.uk/promotion/tools/website-promotion-tools.html - Various Web Promotion Tools

Enjoy!

About the Author:
* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com