What can you do if your keywords are too common? Is there anything that can help?

Well, for a start, including misspellings in your meta tag keywords could help you to get visitors who don’t know how to spell or those who type too fast – this traffic is just as good as any other, after all. How many people do you know that use a dictionary when they don’t know how to spell a word? I certainly can’t think of many. Including misspellings will help you to some extent, but it probably will not provide you with a drastic improvement in traffic especially considering that many search engines now have built in spell checkers so that if a user spells a word incorrectly it asks “Did you mean ?” You can use tools like WordTracker to find out which misspellings are the most popular, and target those.

Try to think on the same level as your users, not always like a webmaster. Thinking like the average person will make you more successful – you should constantly remind yourself to think like the average person when you’re trying to pick what words people will use to find you. If you can get into the mind set of a lay person and think “What would I type into the search box if I was looking for the content on this web page?” You probably come up with the key words that are most important. Think of each group within your audience and try to come up with realistic search queries. Entering each word from these queries into your meta tags should help you substantially in terms of increased search engine traffic.

One of the things that will set you apart from the rest of the world is learning the special language of your trade. When you learn about your chosen trade, you start using acronyms and other words that would be foreign to most people, but mean something to the people who would be searching for you. Words that people outside your industry would search for aren’t the same as ones that people inside it would search for – targeting jargon words can help you to get highly-targeted traffic with little competition.

Another thing that will set you apart is using words that someone unfamiliar with your trade would use in an attempt to find content regarding your trade. You can’t target your site only to those who already know a good deal about what you have to offer. Your content probably won’t be fresh to people who are experienced in your field so you are much more dependent on your products at that point. If, however, you are able to target people who know little or nothing about your particular trade, you will be able to generate a good deal of traffic and probably move a sizable amount of inventory.

One last, but very important, method of providing good key word is to discuss the subject of your site with others and observe their reactions to your language. If they seem to suddenly understand what you are saying, that phrase may be a good one for your key words. Talk to your friends, your family, and other web masters about your subject and see what language is generally associated with your subject. This language is generally the correct language to use when generating your key words.

The most important thing to keep in mind when attempting to come up with unique key words is that there are huge groups of people out there who are interested in your goods but have not been targeted by other sites. These markets (known as niche markets) are basically ripe for the picking. If you can come up with a group that would be interested in your product but has not been targeted thoroughly by your competition, you will be able to drastically increase your traffic and/or sales. The ability to identify and target niche markets is an art and it can be developed by any truly dedicated marketer, but you have to be observant and patient in order to come up with valuable niche markets. After all, you are attempting to do what nobody has done before!

As an SEO, you will constantly be fighting with your key words. You will be trying to come up with more interesting or unique key words, and you will be trying to implement them more smoothly into your web page. The fact of the matter is that this takes time and practice. You have to get thoroughly engrossed in the community surrounding your market. Check out some forums relating to your market, look at the common forms of media coverage such as magazines and books. There are possible key words everywhere just waiting to be exploited for the sake of increases in your traffic and sales.

About The Author:

Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at http://www.lmamedia.com for more information about SEO and PRL.

You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews

The search engine giants are locked in an all out power struggle to get your attention and patronage.

Over the past 6 months there have been many changes. The big guys are getting even bigger, but there are a number of new players vying for your patronage too.

The top three Search Engines are Yahoo, MSN and Google. It would seem that Yahoo serves the most searches followed by MSN and then Google.

Only a year ago Google supplied both Yahoo and MSN with search listings. Yahoo has progresses from a Directory to a fully fledged search engine as has MSN with the launch of their new Search Engine. However Google still supplies search results to many other search engines including AOL, Alexa and a host of small and medium sized search engines.

It is my belief that any small business owner should know the basics of search engine placement and it is surprisingly easy to list your Web site, but even easier to get it ignored or even black listed by search engines.

All the information you require to list your site is only a search away. But you have to use the right search query. Don’t type in ’search engines’ into any search engine, as you will end up with a heap of useless information. It will probably list the top search engines, but it will probably not tell you how to prepare your Web site or how to get the best coverage for a listing.

For information on how to prepare your site I would try a search for a phrase like "search engine optimism" with the quotes so that your search is for that exact phase. The trouble is with first time Web site owners they don’t always know the terminology, even a search for ’seo’ will bring up a list of useful resources.

Other search phases include, optimize website, website optimizing, website optimization, web site optimization and website promotion, these are all useful search phases.

My experience is that any search engine submission company that promotes its services through paid memberships or sites that offer to list your site on many of the 100,000 plus search engines has more chance of getting your site ignored or black listed. Some companies do provide a good service but they are few and far between.

I personally only add a site to one search engine at a time and only the one time although there are a small number of search engines that will only list your site for a set period of time.

There is no set right way to list your site in search engines. It is not even necessary to physically add your site to a single search engine. A good example is my Ezine Web site. To date I have not submitted my site to a single search engine. Internet-Income-Index.com

I have added links to a couple of my personal sites and added my ezine articles to an Article directory or two and for a number of searches my site now comes up in the top 10 listing. Go to Google.com and try a search for the three main companies I promote online and see for yourself, TrafficOasis, ItsYourNet and Madison Dynamics !

So as you can see it is not necessary to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on promotion of your Web site. If I can get top 10 listings for my site within 6 months for Affiliated programs that have in the case of TrafficOasis over 125,000 members who I would assume are also promoting their TrafficOasis page. A top listing is possible.

Listing your site will be a different process to how others promote their sites. Even I promote one site different to another site. Check http://www.allsearchengines.com for lists Search Engines by product, service, category and country.

If you have a communications company, I would suggest you list your site in communications specific search engines and directories.

Using pay-per-click is one way to promote your Website But even then my ezine site has listings on the first page of Overture.com who are one of the major pay-per-click search engines owned by Yahoo. Pay per click can become an expensive choice if your site is not optimized for both search engines and people.

There are a number of theories that the Gurus claim are best. Yanik Silver suggest that with mini sites of a few pages focused on one product or service are the story.

I totally agree, but a problem does arise when you are promoting a number of companies that have numerous products. This requires creating a site that houses the various products on individual pages like my ezine site. It will take you more time keeping it updated but either a mini site or a larger site will work if the proper research, optimizing and planning is completed.

Learning as much as you can about search engines is of the utmost importance if you hope to achieve high page ranking and for your prospective site visitor to stay at your site to make a purchase …

Like you choosing the right search phase to get useful information on site optimization, the same applies to your site too.

Your site content must have the relevant content to provide to search engines so that they can list your site within the appropriate search results, then to get the searcher to decide to visit and stay at your site.

Let me simplify that.

Your site content must be relevant both for your visitors and search engines. Failure in one area directly affects the other.

May all your promotions be Successful.

PETER GREEN.

Editor of ~ The INDEX ~ ezine.

Editor@Internet-income-index.com

http://www.Internet-Income-Index.com

Your Free Weekly Internet Marketing News, Ideas, Resources and Sources Ezine.

On a regular basis I receive e-mail through all my various sites from other site owners offering to exchange links. Most approach me in the wrong manner and I can tell they have no idea about the proper way to run an effective linking program. See, in a real linking program, it isn’t just about you - it should be about both sites involved in the process.

So many of these notices are not from complimentary sites in topic or design - some are actually competitors making me wonder why they would think I would link to them. Many having absolutely nothing even remotely similar to the site of mine that they have e-mailed. If they state they have already linked to my site, which is what you want to do when building a valuable link directory - not a link farm - the majority of these requests are immediately responded to asking their link to my site be removed. I know I do not want to have one of my sites "in bed" with another site that can have a detrimental effect on either my rankings or the juried resources I offer my visitors.

Poor grammar, unnecessary formatting and a one-sided approach can doom your link program from the start. Yes, links are important - but all links are not created equal! You will be ranked by the links you keep! You have to be discriminating when it comes to the sites you link to as well as with those who link back. A big warning sign is if the requester is in direct competition with you. This lets you know they will be burying their link directory and really don’t plan on site visitors finding it and you - their competitor. Not a good sign!

Here are some basic tips you need to keep in mind and integrate in your linking efforts based in the reality of having an effective and ethical approach. If you cannot take the time to put these issues in play, don’t waste your or the other site owner’s time.

=> Stay Away From and Do Not Create Link Farms: "Link Farms" is a term used to describe groups of links that have nothing in common other than the sites involved have all agreed to link to each other for the sole purpose of effecting their organic search engine listings. Quality of content, design or site focus is not a consideration that is a requirement to participate. When you create a link directory on your site, you want to have set of guidelines that will be required for sites to be added to your link directory. Only quality links, relational to your site’s focus that you know will benefit your site visitors should be considered. Just as you want to see those requesting links from you have done the same.

=> Links Need to Make Sense for Both Sites: On my Lake County, Illinois site, LakeOnline.com, I only exchange links with non-commercial community groups and organizations located within Lake County, Illinois. This makes sense as that is the focus of my site and it benefits the groups within that category to have a link from such a popular site that has proven longevity. It is a win-win for both sides. My site visitors then have links available to them of other Lake County, Illinois resources and the sites that link to LakeOnline.com are linking to a quality Lake County, Illinois resource.

If the site linking to you has no direct relationship to yours in topic or is a poor quality site - don’t exchange links. Just having links for the sake of doing so doesn’t benefit either site. Think in terms of the fact that the links off your site need to compliment and add to the overall offering for your site visitors.

=> Consider Google’s Page Rank: Page rank is not the end-all-be-all! Don’t live or die by Page Rank. (From what I’ve read as of late Google is way behind in updating their PageRank.) However, when it comes to linking it can be a useful tool you can use to guide you. Before you begin requesting links, you want to ensure that you at least have a page rank for your top page for a start. No page rank is an indication of a newer Web site or a site that is not considered to have quality valuable content - that is when PageRank is working properly. Just like everything online, Google’s PageRank glitches on occasion too - that is why I stress you use it as a guide not your bible.

Page rank is accomplished by having a valuable resource site that others feel is worthy of linking to. If you are all sales pitch with very little content, page rank is difficult to attain. Always check a site’s page rank to determine if it has been determined to have any value. Without a page rank, linking for the sake of linking is moot. Sites with higher page ranks are given more relevancy, as are the sites they in turn link to.

=> Organize and Categorize Your Directory of Links: Google has been known to ignore pages with more than 50 or so links. This is because tons of unorganized links on a page indicate "link farm" and do not indicate any sort of value or relational substance to the site in question. Categorize your links and create a new page when necessary for new topics. When a specific topic starts approaching 50, create a subcategory or an additional page.

You want to do everything you can to avoid the perception of linking purely to manipulate your rankings. When I receive requests from sites with over 50 links and their link directory is not categorized, I generally do not respond as I know they are creating a link farm which will offer no benefit to me and may have even have a detrimental effect on my natural listings.

=> Have a Plan Before You Request Links: After you have reviewed the sites you would like to exchange links with, (Never spam for link exchanges! See #2 above.) here are some tips to keep in mind before you e-mail them with your request.

1. Create a brief but concise e-mail that includes specific instructions on how they can link back to you. You want to make sure that your requested return link text, if at all possible, includes a couple of your main keywords in the link.

2. Be sure to mention why your site and the one you are contacting are complimentary and why a reciprocal link will benefit both sides. If you cannot make this analogy, you probably should not be requesting a link in the first place.

3. Have the other site’s link already in place on your site before you e-mail your request and let them know exactly where that is. Be sure if you said their link is in place that it is or you loose credibility and look as though you are not sincere in your offer.

4. Include a comment of exactly where on their site or in what category of their link directory that you would like to see your link. This lets the other side know that you’ve reviewed their site and see the reciprocal value and are not just spamming for links.

=> Your Link Directory is Easy to Find: Hiding your link directory deep within your site or not obviously linking to your link directory is a sure sign that you are gathering links for all the wrong reasons. Understand the search engines have a way of determining link relevancy based on topic, popularity and as well as other evolving factors. If you are hiding your link directory this is a big clue that is probably has no value to your site visitors or why would you be hiding it? If you cannot have obvious navigation to your link directory, you know that you are not offering value and need to rethink your strategy.

One of the other benefits of exchanging links is the hope that those who visit the other site, will find yours by following the link to your site. If their link directory is hidden, folks cannot find you which prevents you from garnering this potential additional traffic. If you receive a request to exchange links and see that the other site has their link directory buried where their site visitors will have difficulty finding it, I would decline the request as they are not offering me anything. Work only with site owners who understand what linking is all about and have a link directory that is well organized and easily found on their site.

=> Spammy Link Requests: You’ve probably received those yourself. Some marketer asking if you are interested in exchanging links with a site they are unwilling to identify until you show interest. What is that!? If exchanging links makes sense there should be no reason to hide the identity of any site. This is an indication the site most likely has no page rank, is not related to yours, or is creating a link farm. Use these e-mail as an example of what you don’t want to do. Hit the Delete button.

Link exchanges serve two purposes. The first being they add value to both sites and offer visibility to an entire set of site visitors who may not have known the other site even exists to search for it. The secondary reason is that search engines have a ranking algorithm that is built upon evaluating incoming and out going links to your site.

If you do not want to deal with the link exchange process all you have to do is have a high quality, content rich site and the links will happen without you having to make a single request. Create a site worth linking to and the links will come.

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has been playing @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @ http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

The importance of domain and page naming is obvious, but you might not have realized the connection to SEO. We all know that unless our domain name is highly recognizable and memorable then we won’t get many customers, but good domain names also matter when it comes to search engine rankings – the more relevant your domain is to your keywords, the higher it will be ranked.

Domain names are not that difficult to come by at this point. Godaddy.com puts out some great prices and they run all sorts of specials once you become a customer. The more domains that you buy the more that they like you. The basic concept here is that people who buy a few domain names are probably going to become pretty big on the internet. The more that you own the more powerful you are. Domain names are like land in the early eighteenth century. They are valuable and the owners become a sort of elite class on the internet.

The value of domains is difficult to determine until you have purchased one and worked with it for a while. The difference between owning your own domain name and hosting your site on a sub domain or in a subdirectory of a domain is huge. The impact on your ability to perform SEO operations increases drastically simply by the ease of clarifying your URL for the search engines and directories that you submit to.

There are even directories out there that do not except anything except for domains. These are the kind of elitist sites that I described earlier. Domain names are the only way to go if you want to have a seriously successful website that becomes a household name. Directories that do not allow non-domain names are there to protect an investment. If you have spent money on purchasing and hosting a domain name you probably aren’t to excited about seeing sites that haven’t dropped a dime on investment being rated above you. This is a sort of aristecratic mind set, but it is a natural tendency of the mind. There are plenty of directories out there that everybody is able to access, but there are some out there that are only for the elite sites of the internet.

This elitist attitude towards domain names is beneficial to your sites because it allows you to get an edge on other sites simply by buying a domain name. This investment is the most crucial SEO investment that you can make. There are very few sites around that get huge numbers of hits (10,000+ per month) without having their own domain name.

So what do you need to do to get these good rankings? Start off by choosing a domain that matches your website well, and you’re killing two birds with one stone. Your domain name and URL should reflect what you’re trying to accomplish from your site. For example: calling your website ‘thewebcorporation.com’ isn’t much good if it sells hot sauce. For hot sauce, deserthotsauce.com would be a better name – the desert’s hot, like the sauce! Don’t settle for anything that won’t make people want to come to your site. Using the name of your company for your domain name is also a good way to go. This is the fastest way of providing a good, quality description of what the visitor is going to. Many visitors will actually consider your domain name the name of your company anyway so you might as well name yourself something that you want to be called.

Most webmasters settle for safe, can’t-go-wrong www.myname.com domains, because it takes time to be creative and think up good names that contain your keywords. You might consider getting some help from the people around you, as you never know what they might be thinking that could be great. You need to come up with a few ideas in case some are taken – you’ll be surprised just how many domains have gone.

Everyone always wants a .com, but you shouldn’t rule out .net, .org, .us and the rest. For example, if deserthotsauce.com is taken, you might find that people like deserthotsauce.us just as much.

About The Author:

Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at http://www.lmamedia.com for more information about SEO and PRL.

You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews

Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with Search Engine Optimization?

Puzzling studies and reports suggest that businesses are missing out when it comes to ROI, including a whole host of metrics that should confirm or shape search engine marketing strategies.

You can’t accomplish much if you’re not even implementing SEO the right way. We’ve seen web site after web site that includes scores of individual keywords in the META keyword set (that many search engines ignore anyway). The SEO team not only used the wrong individual keywords (search phrases are better), but they didn’t bother to include keywords in the page title or description. And, of course, they didn’t think it was worth their time to focus on multiple pages– not just the homepage.

Hint: If you’re selling dinnerware, “laundry” probably shouldn’t be one of your keywords.

A WebTrends report cited in an eMarketer in 2004 showed the following ROI:

Using Complete ROI analysis 35.4%

Click-through rates only 24.2%

Conversion metrics 18.7%

Don’t measure 21.7%

Barely one third figured a thorough ROI analysis was worth the effort.

More than 80% of companies surveyed are dissatisfied with their “ability to benchmark their marketing programs,” according to “Measures + Metrics: Assessing Marketing Value + Impact,” a stunning report based on a 2004 survey by the CMO Council, a Palo Alto, California-based organization. The CMO Council represents senior marketing and brand decision-makers in the global technology industry.

“Less than 20% have developed any meaningful and comprehensive measures and metrics for their marketing organizations,” the report said.

It’s possible, Fathom SEO believes, that companies just settle for what’s easiest. If getting high rankings offers enough satisfaction, that’s where the measurement ends. Or, maybe a business will look at total traffic (maybe even unique visitor trends). With PPC, they’re apt to take up Google’s offer and post an ad within 15 minutes, cranking out the common reports Google offers.

Businesses have a whole host of metrics that can serve them as long as the data doesn’t fly over their heads.

Aligning SEM with Corporate Marketing Strategies You should start by knowing how your SEM goals relate to your corporate marketing strategy. Which of the following (or more) do you want to accomplish?

• Generate leads

• Sell online

• Build brands

• Grab more market share

Conversions You absolutely must track pages that allow visitors to take some kind of action, including:

• Requesting a quote

• Filling out a contact form

• Placing an order

• Registering for a newsletter

• Ordering a catalog

Establishing Your Metrics Determine which of the following will be the metrics that will mean the most to you:

• Online sales (broken down by category)

• Repeat visits

• Profits on sales

• Customer satisfaction

• Length of visits

• Cost per click (CPC)

• Click-through rate (CTR)

• Cost per conversion (CPC).

Get plugged into online consumers’ behavior patterns. For example, studies show that consumers start researching products online several weeks (12 weeks in some business-to business scenarios) before they make a purchase – often offline. Enquiro, based in Kelowna, BC, Canada, in 2004 found that 68.3% of those surveyed used search engines for “consideration or research.” The results are detailed in Enquiro’s “Inside the Mind of a Searcher” research report that looks at issues including four distinct types of searchers and the frequency with which people search during the buying process.

ROI should be an integral part of any search engine optimization strategy, not something that sounds foreign. Make it work for your business.

Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, an Ohio-based SEO firm. A member of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), he also authored the white paper, "Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game."

michael@fathomseo.com

Let’s see here… as of today Google states it has indexed 8,058,044,651 Web pages! Not all are quality, not all are of interest - as a matter of fact many are just dead files located on a server out in Internet-land. With that in mind, and the fact that in my not so humble opinion the Web is saturated, how are you going to get found in this mess?

Bullseye marketing! You know what a target looks like, right? All those circles getting smaller until you get to the one in the center - the bullseye. When you play darts, or go to the shooting range you score less with each hit that is in the circles furthest out. If you use this analogy when you think of online marketing, you cannot help but improve your overall rankings.

Each and every day e-mail lands in my inbox touting special super duper never before heard of ways to get your site listed on search engines. Many are just touting the very same bullseye theory I am going to discuss with you here - but for a price. There is no top secret elusive way to get search engine listings; as a matter of fact it is really black and white.

Here are the key bullseye marketing tips you should always consider:

=> Create your own target and begin to carefully create your phrases - no one word keywords here - use phrases that you know for a fact those looking for your site will use - not what you want to get found by. Many times these are two entirely different sets of keyword phrases!

If you are not sure what folks are actually using, use the WordTracker Service which offers a free trial. As WordTracker accurately claims: "Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will be in vain."

After investigating your market’s keyword phrases, start with the bullseye containing only your most important one or two 2-3 word keyword phrases.

=> As you move to the outer circles in the target, note your less important phrases - up to two per circle. This allows you to prioritize your efforts knowing which terms are those terms that are most important and possible for you to get found by. You really need to be realistic here and not use terms that your site does not back up with content. Simply typing keywords in the code doesn’t make it so!

=> Once your target is complete, begin with the bullseye and make sure that your top page’s title, description and Meta keyword tags use only these phrases. Also make sure to include these phrases sprinkled throughout your top page copy.

=> Now move to the next circle outside of the bullseye. Determine which page those phrases apply to most and follow the above. If the phrases in any target circle are not closely related or do not apply to each other, you can simply create a page with information and resources that applies to each specific term. As a matter of fact that works even better!

=> Don’t have pages that target each desired phrase or have pages that have 10s or 100s of keywords in the Meta tags? Then it’s time to get your bullseye marketing program up and in place ASAP! You want to begin the process of creating information packed pages targeted at one or two keyword phrases each and add them to your site.

Search engine crawlers are not sentient; they don’t think they don’t surmise. They gobble up what is on your site based on the content and the code and then based on each search site’s unique algorithm it is determined how your site will be listed.

The key to bullseye marketing is that less is more. The more keywords and phrases you have on each page, the less you are about any one thing which minimizes your chances of pulling relevantly for any given phrase. You actually will dilute your site’s relevancy by trying to get found by everything under the sun on one page or even a handful of pages. And if you do not have content that backs up those phrases - well, as we say here in Chicago - foe-ged-aboud-it!

Target your bullseye and have your site mimic that layout. You’ll be pleasantly surprised as you see your targeted pages gain higher relevancy and that leads to more prominent rankings!

Do not dilute this process! Use target marketing and hit the bullseye!

Download my free Bullseye Marketing Worksheet and Target with the above instructions @: http://www.theistudio.com/bullseye_marketing.html#worksheet
Adobe Acrobat Format: [108K]

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Technology Cheat Sheets @: http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

Does the whole idea of Internet marketing intimidate you? Are you thinking of hiring a professional? Well, we’ve got great news for you. It’s really not difficult to do search engine optimization (SEO) yourself – you can save hundreds of dollars, and get the same results as the professionals do. You will probably get better results from highly qualified professionals, but you should definitely perform these do-it-yourself actions first. Once you’ve done some of this kind of work it will be easier to determine if a professional is worth his/her salt.

Basic SEO is very simple and easy – all it takes is the willingness to put in the work. Once you know the ropes, it’s not that difficult though it can be time consuming. The content of your website the focus of what SEO is all about. Here are the top points to think about when you’re doing it yourself.

1. You will start by registering a domain name, which should reflect what your site about. Keep it short, as long as it’s somehow related to your site. Being more specific can help. You could choose to name the page after one of your products or services, for example. Another method is to get a sub domain of a popular domain. This will generally help you get indexed more quickly though it will not appear quite as professional to your visitors. There is a trade of here, sub domains are quicker (and generally cheaper), but domain names are more memorable, and, in the long run, better for your indexing.

2. The next thing you should look at is your page’s title (i.e. the HTML title tag), which is critical in letting search engines see what the page is about, and is the first item looked at by search engines to determine your relevance. You should put your most important keywords in your title tags – you don’t need to worry about singular or plural forms as search engines account for these changes in most cases. Whatever you do, don’t call your home page ‘Home’ – make the title a mini-description of the page.

3. The two primary meta tags aren’t as important as they used to be, but the description tag is still used by some search engines to display information about your website to users and help them decide whether they’ve found what they are looking for. Not all search engines bother with this, though most will put some bearing on it (even if it is minuscule).

For very short descriptions the alt tag can be used. Alt tags let you describe an image or graphic file – they’re the pop-up descriptions that appear when you hover your mouse over a graphic, or when the graphic can’t be downloaded for whatever reason.

Text within comment tags is never displayed on the page – it is used by coders and designers to remind them of what that part of the page is for. Some coders used to put lots of keywords in the comment tags, so that they would be seen by search engines but not users, but search engines have now stopped paying attention to any text that isn’t seen by the user. Keep this in mind when trying to post invisible text (i.e. white text on a white background). This kind of behavior can get you banned from a search engine.

4. Having keyword density in all of your content is good, but keep in mind that each search engine has its own requirements when it comes to how many times that a keyword or phrase should be in the content for the page to be relevant. Somewhere between 5 and 8 percent is a roughly optimal level – but this isn’t always possible, and you shouldn’t force it. Don’t overdo it, or the search engines might mark you down.

5. Many search engines judge web page importance on the number and quality of incoming links from other sites. You should link to some related sites, but not too many. Don’t overdo incoming links either, and keep them related your site’s content. It’s also good to get sites to use your keywords as the text of these links.

If you follow the advice above, you can do it yourself and do fine. SEO, if done right, can keep you on top for as long as you want to be.

About The Author:

Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at http://www.lmamedia.com for more information about SEO and PRL.

You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews

Everyone packs their website with keywords in order to feed those keyword-hungry search engines spiders.

Just do not starve your potential customers by forgetting to have the food they like:

If you (affectionately) look upon your potential customers as if they are WIIFM monsters, and understand how to care for and feed them, there will be no scary nightmares (unprofitable websites).

A WIIFM monster is someone that is only interested in: what is in it for them.

It would take days to describe everything you need to know about these monsters. In the end you will see that those monsters are actually cute, cuddly, likeable monsters.

Just by observing these monsters (from a safe distance) you can learn so much …

The moment one of these monsters arrive on your website, you need to start feeding them - immediately. It is best to have many automatic feeders at your website, those monsters are hungry - they must have food, NOW.

An automatic feeder used often is an autoresponder feeder. These monsters can pick what auto-feeder they want to feed from, and start receiving food in minutes. These automatic feeders feed the monster for days, one easy-to-digest helping per day. The monster has the option to at any time stop the feeder.

I MUST warn you about something here. If you do not have a facility for the monster to stop the feeding, the monster will explode. This is NEVER a pretty sight. Humans get their websites taken away, their email privileges revoked and so on.

Another food source is eBooks. They can chew on this for days, before they come back for more. The tastier (valuable, practical content) your ebooks, the better the chance that they will come back to YOU for more. Always have a footpath (link) in the eBook that the monster can find you again in the big jungle where everyone shouts to them: feed here for free, FREE: feed here …

There are many different types of monsters that every website must have food for, but for now I will just tell you about the WIIFM monster.

This is the biggest monster of all. If it is not fed well, feeding all the other little monsters is of no use (like the freebie monsters).

The what-is-in-it-for-me monster is also sometimes ‘affectionately’ called the WIIFM monster. It only wants to know what it can get from a website.

If it is clear to this monster that you have no tasty food, it leaves immediately.

This monster has a pair of very well developed eyes. It can see within 3 seconds if a website has its favourite food (WIIFM content).

These eyes are so well developed that it totally ignores banners. These eyes only go for the real tasty food (quality, practical content).

The monster also has a very, very fast click-claw. If those well-developed eyes do not see food in 3 seconds, that FAST click-claw reacts with a speed that make the speed of light seem like a snail crawl … off goes the monster to find other more worthwhile feeding grounds.

The more favourite, favourite food you give for the WIIFM monster, the happier it gets. This causes this monster to quickly tell all its other monster buddies about this amazing source of WIIFM food. Yours.

These might be monsters, but they are not too stupid. They know that no matter how much of this WIIFM food they eat, their buddies can eat this food too, without the food ever being eaten up.

The food is not actually eaten, it is food for thought!

So, the more your feed these monsters, the friendlier they become. So friendly that they start sending you email and soon after that they start sending you money.

(Things sure have progressed tremendously since those dark ages - monsters can now send email too. That is how that spam-monster was born, but believe me, you do not want to hear THAT story …)

To attract more of these monsters, you build a monster-habitat for them.

What they really like in such a habitat is things like …

No matter to how many other WIIFM websites you send them to, they will always come back to you - if you really care about them and want to feed them.

You become a sort of a leader of the pack for them. You lead them to worthwhile food sources.

These monsters are very willing to buy food from you. If this food is tasty, they will also tell their monster buddies too. These buddies will also buy this tasty food. You will be amazed at how quickly this good news can spread. For some reason, these monsters are efficient at telling everyone very quickly if you tricked them, so be fair in all your dealings with them.

There are so many stories I want to tell you about these monsters, their different types of food sources, their enemy monsters, how to become their friends, and so on, but my time is up (for now). Time waits for no monster, not even the WIIFM monster …

To sum up the story so far, let us listen to one of the monsters I like best:

Sumarus - he likes to eat lots of tasty food (value content) and then summarize it, oh so brilliantly …

Sumarus (after clearing his throat):

So, to summarize (he always starts just like that)

The sole purpose of a website is to be the feeding ground of WIIFM monsters. The more WIIFM food you dish up in the form of articles, ebooks, newsletters and links to other worthwhile food sources, the more WIIFM monsters you can attract.

Your primary role is in providing tasty food to attract as many WIIFM monsters as you possibly can. The tastier your food, the more you can ask them to pay for your commercial food. If WIIFM monsters see you have no food, they leave - immediately, sometimes sooner !

WIIFM monsters HATE vomited food. They LOVE fresh food you prepared just for them.

If WIIFM monsters and website owners get to know each other very well, this can lead to lifelong, beneficial partnerships for everyone involved.

Sumarus might be too theoretical and philosophical for most humans, so this is what I think he means:

The better you can cater for the daily, practical needs of your website visitors, the better the chance that they will stay with you and continue being a newsletter subscriber.

You should only recommend other worthwhile websites.

Even if there are lots of sources of free worthwhile content, you must add value to what you give your website visitors and newsletter readers.

Initially you must provide value content up front, but will benefit from this later in the form of sales.

Sumarus also suggests that you reread this article to see how many other not-so-obvious tips you can find hidden in it.

About The Author

Article by Alwyn Botha of http://www.leveragedsuccess.com. Leveraged Internet Success website contains: Discussions, eBooks, articles, a weekly newsletter, and email courses. Leveraged = your maximum, exponential Internet success

When it comes to website marketing and promotions, you need to start here…

Every website, whether new, old, or just a thought needs to consider the marketing that will be put that website in front of it’s targeted audience. Sounds easy huh? It just takes time, perseverance, and the will to succeed! A budget will help too!

The hardest part is sorting through all the crap that’s available to (supposedly) help you. Yes, I said crap.

There is a mountain of businesses out there making incredible claims about FREE traffic generation, FREE hits, Mega sales, $20,000 in 3 hours,- or worse, for a small fee of $29.95 we can… blah, blah, blah.

Save your money! I have spent enough for all of us.

Following through with our suggestions offers you the most lucrative, ethical, and professional ways to achieve substantial results and still sleep at night. No, you don’t have to go for your wallet, I will tell you about these programs in this article (for no charge). A good education will assist you the most.

If you already have a website, we recommend a Website Analysis to point out any major areas for improvement.

Before You Build

1. Have a plan - Not just a good idea. Take your idea and formulate a complete plan around your goals. Highlight any USP’s you may have.

2. Build Meta-tags into every category page! This is crucial to targeted traffic success with the Directories and Search Engines. You need to be found, not by your company name (only) but by "keywords" that the general public would use to find your type of business or service. DO NOT just pick any words, this is critical!

3. Use those keyword phrases throughout your site or particular page (use not abuse). Reinforce what topic you are addressing within that page(content).

4. Publish an article or newsletter that shows you are an authority on the topics you cover (or try to sell). Just a spiffy sales letter is not enough. This is also critical in acquiring the email addresses of prospective customers.

5. Create some banner ads with impact for future partnership advertising. You will use these on your site as well as banner partners you can swap impressions with.

6. Begin considering what types of businesses or partners would or could compliment your offerings. Start a list.

7. Important: Create a budget for marketing your website. Yes, there are many things that you can implement for free, however, successful websites HAVE spent money wisely to get them to where they are. Don’t be fooled, you WILL spend money on marketing your website - it could be potentially more than what your website costs you to build. The verse goes like this… "Build it and they won’t come". You may have already learned this, and that is why you’re here. There is much, much more, and we would be happy to help you, but this is a good start.

Good luck with your online business!

Written by and Copyright © Scott Sedwick

Scott is the Founder and Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist for Hyperformance Media, Inc. a website marketing firm located just outside of Chicago, IL. since 1996. Specifically, he has over 24 years of sales and marketing experience and accomplishment in the computer industry.

Written by and Copyright © Scott Sedwick http://www.hyperformancemedia.com

View the source of each and every page: is there JavaScript and CSS on the page? Remember that spiders may not index pages that have more than 10k or so of JavaScript or CSS embedded in them. Spiders don’t enjoy getting tangled up in JavaScript. So as a general rule you should avoid putting out prompts and alerts using JavaScript every time that a page loads. Because of this rule, it is also wise to avoid link partners who do so on the pages that they link to you from. If anything looks fishy, it probably is.

CSS won’t give you many problems. If you are going to use CSS, it is best to link to it from another source. Create a separate CSS page and use the tag to work it into the head of your HTML. This method will keep your file size down considerably, and since you will probably be using the same CSS on several pages, decrease your bandwidth usage. Normally a large quantity of CSS within the document isn’t indicative of any suspicious behavior on the part of the linker. If you feel that you are, indeed, suffering from the fact that the site uses such an excessive proportion of CSS on the page itself, suggest to the webmaster that he/she may want to create an external CSS document and link to it in his/her header.

Check that you’re still on the domain you clicked on a link to, and you haven’t moved to another site or a subdomain. Some people will move you to another domain while telling that’s their site and your link is there, relying on you not checking the address bar. This trick is all too common and happens to folks who are new to SEO every single day. This sad fact will continue until people begin to catch it every time.

If the domain has changed, delete your backlink to the site in question immediately and then email the webmaster with your complaint. If the webmaster does not fix the problem you may even want to request that they remove the link as the site may wind up discredited as a link farm or some such thing that you do not want to be associated with for fear of being banned from many popular search engines with technology used to combat link farms.

On a related subject, when you check your back links, make sure that these links appear in legitimate places. If the site is completely dedicated to linking to other sites and doesn’t seem to be a directory or something similar you will want to get your link removed as soon as possible. There is no time when one link is worth the risk of being permanently banned from any popular search engine. Aside from the traffic that you will lose from that one search engine, you may wind up “red flagged” so to speak. It seems to be common practice among search engines that if one finds faulty activity the rest seem to find out soon afterwards.

Overall, if it seems dodgy, leave it alone. It’s better to sacrifice one link in caution than to destroy your site’s rankings by accepting one you’re not sure of. There are hundreds of situations aside from link farms that can and will give you trouble. It would be impossible to list every scam as there are people who make their living (or seem to anyway) in creating and executing these scams. Whenever there is a new form of “SEO” technology that “can’t fail,” you should watch out because it is almost guaranteed to blow up in your face. The only truly powerful and guaranteed method of SEO is to make your site valuable to your visitors and then let it fall where it may in the realm of the search engine.

It is difficult, after you have optimized your pages and submitted them to search engines and directories, to sit back and wait, but there is not much that can be done aside from attempting to accumulate links from good, solid places. The work that you have done is bound to pay off sooner or later as long as you stay honest. When it comes to the world of SEO, honesty is, indeed, the best policy.

About The Author:

Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at http://www.lmamedia.com for more information about SEO and PRL.

You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews