On-Site SEO that Works

There is a ton of misinformation on the web about which SEO techniques work and which don’t.  As always, you should read with caution and test for yourself.

The #1 rule for on-site is SEO is relevance.  Make sure that the site or page you are trying to rank is relevant and useful for the visitors that click on your primary keyword.  A clean, straight to the point site will be appreciated by your visitors.  Use custom web design techniques which enhance the subject matter, don’t go over-the-top with flash, moving graphics, or anything distracting.

Start at the top.  The title of your page should feature your primary keywords and tell visitors and search engines what the focus of your page/site is.  Once you have attracted traffic to your site, they should instantly be able to see content which directly addresses the keywords you’ve placed in your title.  Article, video, or post headers should feature the keywords.

You can’t cram a ton of info onto your homepage, so include excepts with links to back pages that expand on the subject matter of the keywords.  According to Web Design Richmond you should keep the focus of the page simple and concise.  Function over form.

You want to make your site as clean and crisp as possible.  Even though most people have fast connections such as cable or satellite internet you don’t want to miss out on vital new consumers that are still kick’n it old school with dial-up.

Finally, make sure your link structure is easy to follow and intutive for finding information on your site.

For most legitimate web sites, the above steps will be all the on-site SEO necessary.  If you have a particularly large site, consider a site map.  For most though, they are unnecessary.  Keep it simple, stay focused, and above all – be useful!

Yahoo / Bing – What Does it Mean?

Bing is new, new stuff looks shiny for a while.

Google is used as a verb instead of ’searching’. Bing/Yahoo have a long way to go before they steal permanent market share.  At this point I suspect Microsoft will shovel money into marketing for the next few years with no hope of generating anything close to a profit.  They have a big stockpile of money, but at some point shareholders will complain.  When the marketing ends, their product better deliver results as good or better than Google.  I doubt that will be the case.

The search algorithm seems fairly straight forward for Bing.  Unfortunately big company sites with huge budgets and blackhat auto link techniques will be more effective on Bing than Google.

My prediction:  the simple nature of the search algorithm used by Bing will be either exploited and results will look like your email spam folder, or they will look like Forbes 500 list — neither is as useful as Google’s results.

Think big by targeting small in your SEO

It has been of my own experience, when you ask most companies which main keywords they are going to be targeting for their new flagship startup company, they will tell you that they want to rank for very competitive keywords in an unbelievable time frame. While yes it is true that ranking for mortgage, debt, dating, or banking will bring you a plethora of high quality traffic that will convert into leads and sales, getting those rankings without years of work or lots of money is impossible.

Most search engine optimizers do not realize there is a better solution. All you need to do is to start thinking big by targeting small. It does not matter what niche your company or website is in, every single niche has a more targeted keyword that you can be targeting. You will be able to rank higher for this keyword, in a shorter time frame. When you start ranking for this niche keyword, you will start receiving a representative sample of the traffic you will be seeing for the big keyword you are targeting for the long term. You will be able to build up sales, leads, customer contact information, and most importantly cash while you are slowly building up to your long term keyword goal. It is often easier to rank for the number one spot for five to ten niche keywords with a high volume traffic than it is to rank for one mega keyword as it is often called. For those of you who learn by example, imagine you own an affiliate company that sells supplements. Ranking for for a term like weight loss will result in potentially hundreds of thousands of sales because so many people search for it every day, however the traffic is only semi targeted. Instead of trying to target a term like weight loss, a company that sells bottles containing maqui berry could target a term like weight loss pills, which is a slightly more targeted and less competitive keyword. Depending on the size and competition of the niche, you could keep going smaller and smaller in your niche search. Instead of targeting weight loss pills, you could target a very longtail term like how to lose weight fast. The more longtail and smaller the niche, the faster you will be able to rank. You can then easily rank number one for a niche term which you can then shift the focus to a bigger keyword, ultimately moving closer and closer to ranking for your ultimate keyword in the long term. If its going to take two years to rank for a term like weight loss which will let your company make ten thousand dollars per day… wouldn’t it be smarter to rank for ten niche keywords earning you a thousand dollars a day and then have an entire year of that to rank for your big term and have the benefits of 11 income earning keywords, 10 of which have been earning you money every day for an entire year? I think you are finally now seeing the benefits of targeting small, so go out and search google for your favorite keyword tool and start doing keyword research to find the niches you can rank for in a lot shorter timeframe than trying to stick it out with your main keyword.

Yes, You Can Stay Ethical in Your SEO

‘Ethical SEO’ is not a typo for a CEO who is acting ethically in business. If you are well-versed in today’s technology, you will know that SEO is short for search engine optimization. When you add the word “ethical” in front of SEO, you are simply explaining a way to optimize your search engine without spammy tactics and other worries. If you use ethical SEO, you have to do the right thing every day in optimizing your content – no shortcuts, no cheating. In other words, use what you can to maximize your chances of getting people to your site and getting them to buy your products or services without guerilla marketing tactics, spamming their email boxes, annoying pop-up ads, ‘keywords’ that lead to a lot of garbage advertising, and the purchase of links.

Sometimes it’s difficult to be ethical, especially when your competitors often are not. Often the temptation to take the easy way out is there. However, it is possible to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of any site using ethical SEO. The good thing about an ethical SEO agency is that they will avoid trickery and always choose to act responsibly in an effort to get optimal results for the Website. In doing that, they will be able to make the site work for you. No matter whether you do your own SEO or hire someone, always choose to be ethical. It really is possible to succeed that way.

The Most Popular Search Terms

If you’re going to do work on the Internet or if you have a blog or a website, you want people to be able to find you. In order for them to do that, your site has to appear in the search engine rankings. This doesn’t happen automatically. You have to have terms on your site that the person looking for what you have to offer will be searching under.

Internet, Internet service, and Internet provider are some of the most popular terms for people who do business on the web, but there are many other popular terms, depending on what field you are in. If you have something to sell, using the item that you’re selling and ’sell’ or ‘buy’ or ‘price’ might be a great way to bring traffic to your site.

There are ways that you can find out what the most popular terms are for your industry, and that will help you bring more visitors to your site, as well. Just make sure that you give them a reason to stay around and buy your products or services once they get there, or having good search terms might not lead to the desired increase in sales.