Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are really just data bases. When you do a Google Search you are not searching the “world wide web” you are searching Google’s data base. There are two ways to get in to these databases. One is to submit your site to the different search engines. In about 6 to 9 weeks the search engine will index your site. They have software that comes to your site and index every page and adds it to the database. They come into your main web URL and follow the links to all the pages of your site. They capture key elements from the code on your page to the content. These are then stored in the data base. When someone puts a keyword in the search box the “algorithms” determine the best page or links to the best pages for your search.

The other way to get added to the search engines data base is to have the search engine software find you through a link to your site from another web site back to yours. The software, called “spiders” will periodically comeback and re crawl your site to see if you have updated it.

One important thing to know is that each page on your site is indexed individually and each page stands on its own. The ranking are based upon the combination of correct meta tags, relevant content to the keyword they are trying to get rankings for and link popularity. Mostly one way links back to their site from relevant sites.

As long as the search engine can index the site, clearly read the meta tags and content, the better. The big issues come when a site is built in flash with very little content (search engines cannot read or index “flash” sites. Also, if the bulk of the relevant content is in PDF format this is bad because the search engines cannot read PDF. If the search engines cannot index the relevant text there will be no rankings.

You all ready know this but “sites” are not ranked, individual pages are ranked for specific terms found in the content of that page as well as link popularity, (relevant links pointing back to that specific page) for the term that you are trying to get ranked on. This is why each page has to be giving very specific attention. Paid search

Paid search is when your ad shows up at the very top of a Google search or down the right hand side of the results page. These are called “sponsored ads”. You pay for those positions. When every you click on one of those ads the owner of the ad pays the search engine. This is also called “pay-per-click”. The amount you pay is determined by several factors including what you are willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad. Read the rest of this entry

A lot of people are wanting to learn how to write great articles for publishing on the internet. The benefits, if done correctly, are one way links back to your site as well as driving traffic. We want to give you some tips to get you started.

Publishing Content There are hundreds of article publishing sites. A simple search will yield a nice list.

Some sites require that you register with them. My suggestion would be that you use the same user name and password with each publication website. Create a template using Notepad so that when you are ready to entering in your articles you will have everything in one place.

Use the following outline as a template. These tips come from having several articles rejected. That’s no fun. Article Title: Make sure that you have your main keyword phrase in this title. Author Bio: Limit your bio to about 200 characters some allow more, but I think shorter is better. Add at least, one link to your website in the bio. Have the link pointing back to the page on your site where the article resides. Some sites do not allow you to have a link to your website in the content of the article. If you are allowed two links, make one to the page with the article and the other to your homepage. Sample Bio: Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, ClickAdvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information: http://www.clickadvant.com/se101.htm In some article directories, they do not have a place for a box for your bio. In those cases, you can put your short bio at the end of your content. Keyword List: It is best to start with one or two keyword phrases. Think of the questions behind the search than write your article to answer the questions. Make a list of two or three keyword phrases that you want your article to be found on. Make sure that those phrases are in the content of the article. Limit yourself to 2-3 keyword phrases. The keyword phrases should be the core topic of your article. Keeping these terms in the forefront of your mind will keep you on track. Article Content: This is the content of your article. Do not include the title of the article in this box. The articles should be about 500 to 550 words. The minimum number of words, allow in the vast majority of the article distribution sites is 500. If you are new to writing articles, let me suggest the following outline: Introduction: First one or two sentences introduce the problem that you’re going to solve by writing this article. The next sentence states the three areas that you’re going to cover or the top five reasons or the five things you should look for or the six misconceptions about, you get the idea. Meat of the article: Point1 Two or three sentences Point2 Two or three sentences Point3 Two or three sentences Conclusion: You might start this paragraph like: “We just looked at three ways around the problem of … The challenge is, what are you going to do from here.” Make some suggestions on what to do next. Invite them to look for upcoming articles on this topic or related topics. Finally: It is important that you edit your article for spelling and grammar, but most importantly, key words and phrases and their positions in the article. Create Meta tags for that article so that you can have them when that page is added to your website. Add the content to your website and have it on your site for about a week before you publish the article. The reason you want to do this is to establish that your site had the content first.

Learning how to write great articles for the internet is only helpful as you write. The more you do the better you become. You have the basic tools, start typing!

Keyword research is a discipline embraced and used in SEO management by experts to allow them to determine which search terms people are searching on in the search engines. At its simplest level, this research is about studying the phrases that work for your audience and it is a real art. It is one of the most effective ways to identify niche markets that others have failed to recognize. Keyword research is very important so that the content of the pages are more attractive as much for the users as for the robots. Keyword research is not an exact science and shouldn’t be discussed like it is.

I like to focus on finding long tailed keyword phrases that have a significant number of monthly searches for that exact term with 5,000 to 300,000 competing websites. Long tailed keywords, are multi-word keyword phrases. Most folks searching with a one or two keyword are just “browsing”. Most people who use long tail keywords know what they want. Remember, you want to focus each page on 2-3 keyword phrase.

There are many free keyword research tools online. Most SEO software tools include these tools as well. Google, Yahoo and other search engines have free tools also. You want a tool that will give you the number of daily or monthly searches and competing web pages. There are even sites like “spyFu.com” that will let you see which terms your competitors are using.

How many keywords you have in an article is known as keyword density. Your keyword density should be anywhere from 3% to 7%. For example, if you were to write a 100 word article you would need to write the keyword in 7 times to achieve a 7% keyword density. For a 500-word article you would need to use your keyword 15 times to get a 5% density. I use a tool called “Content Composer” that does a fantastic job of keeping me on track.

Keyword research can be defined as choosing the words, which describe your product or service as, seen from the viewpoint of your target market is the most important step in the SEO Management process.