SEO Strategies…                                                                                 What is Search Engine Marketing?

Natural search engine optimization is the key to Obtaining Higher Search Engine Site Rankings.

So, what is search engine marketing? Well, let’s see…. First let's do a bit of Q&A....

• you're a online business owner

• Do you own a website, but it’s not performing as well as you would like with the search engines, or possibly you're in the process of building a new site and are looking to start things off on the right track.

• You’re interested in learning the basic natural search engine optimization, but your not interested or have time to guru. Your time is best spent building and running your business.

Natural search engine optimization (SEO) has got to be the largest online topic of debate. The confusion is wide spread, due to countless e-books, and seo guides written by so called seo gurus. Not to mention numerous online forums and blogs buzz with debates with claims of magic solutions, tips and secrets on what works and what doesn't.

I will let you know right now, I am not a seo guru…I simply practice common sense when I search engine optimize, using proven straight forward techniques, no hocus pocus.

Many companies offering search engine marketing will offer expensive services offerding enthusiastic optimization by their link building experts, and make promisses about getting your site to the top of the engines in competitive marketplaces.

However I’m here to tell you that hiring an expensive seo company is completely un-necessary. As a web entrepreneur myself, owning and operating several sites of my own, having built and managed numerous sites for others….I am here to share with you that, you as an online business owner or soon to be online business owner can do it and receive seo performance results all on your own...with the right guidence mind you.

 I am committed to helping online business owners produce a website which will perform well in the naturally in the search engine results so that your business will achieve results and gain profit. The information I am about to share with you is as a result of strategies and techniques I have learnt, tried and tested myself and achieved positive natural search engine optimization results.

  So just what is search engine marketing? Search engine marketing is simply applying common sense, in order to gain the best online traffic there is, natural search engine traffic.

Unless of course you have got bottom-less pockets to accommodate an expensive advertising budget in order to drive traffic to your site, by way of radio, TV,  print materials , pricy pay-per-click and various other online & offline advertising campaigns.

Yes all marketing techniques have their time place and needs, however when you are a new or small online business owner your likely to have limited resources, and acquiring free, targeted online traffic the natural search engine way is best.

The SEO Basics

Internet search engines and site ranking can feel confusing & intimidating due to their complexity of its methodology; indexing and ranking the seo performance of your site is in constant change and ever evolving. The dominant natural search engine market leader is Google; however Yahoo and MSN (Live.com) also deliver noteworthy amounts of traffic also.

In order for your site to reach maximum exposure you'll need to focus on getting your site to rank with the 3 largest search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN. In doing so you will have crossed your T’s… and dotted the… I’s in the largest majority of the natural search market.

Next question, how do you produce a high ranking online website business, built exclusively to achieve top website rankings in the search engines results? In spite of the confusion and complexities, the few basic rules always apply and never change.

SEO keywords, Targeting the Right Keywords

SEO keywords are the words and or phrases your potential customer enters into a search engine search boxes in order to find information concerning your product or service. In order to achieve optimal seo performance, Keyword research is the most important step before you write any of the text for your website, you will need to make a list of your most important keywords.

There are countless seo keywords search tools available on the internet, but the one I find most useful and simple to use is Wordtracker's Free SEO keywords  Research Tool, here you simply enter your words. Wordtracker results give you an idea of how many times those words were searched for at over the last 90 days; the results will also include a list of search terms which include your root keywords, as well as how often they were searched for; thus providing you with a good idea of the demand for your keywords. Wordtracker offers an infomative SEO Keyword Research Guide.

Many search engine marketing specialists, including myself, use Wordtracker. It is known as one of the most comprehensive keyword research tools available on internet.  Next step is Google , get an idea and take note of the number of pages on the net match your search by doing a search for your keyword. This gives you a broad indication of the supplyhigher demand, yet with a lower supply ratio. (competition) for your keywords. Your objective here is to choose keywords with a

SEO Meta Tags

                              

Your page title is placed within the title tag. This is the text that shows at the very top of a browser window it is also the clickable link in the (SERPs) search engine result pages.

The keywords tag is the other main Meta tag, and was more commonly used previous search engine algorithm results. Previously search engine optimization consisted of keyword stuffing, where webmasters stuffed as many keywords in this tag as possible. Due to this spamming behavior search engines have now placed less emphasis on keywords, resulting in this tricky technique to be ineffective for years now.

Needless to say however, it still doesn't hurt to include your most important keywords, in the event things change in the future. Do use caution and be careful not to repeat a keyword more than about 3 times, also be sure to include that keyword within the text content on that page of your website. Another consideration may be to include common misspellings. 

Another argument amongst SEO experts on natural search engine optimization is that that Meta tags also no longer hold a significant influence on page rankings. But rather they believe that more emphasis is awarded to incoming links and various other elements on your web page. Here’s my thoughts…No one but the search engines actually know what importance is placed where, as long as you use caution when doing so, no tricky tactics, so go ahead and add them, use your common sense when doing so, adding them does not take much time.

Page Title Include Your Most Important SEO Keywords.

Often overlooked, this is the easiest way to achieve higher seo performance via search engine rankings. Just think of how many times you may have visited a site where the page title read something like "Contner S.A.de Ltd" poorer yet, "Untitled Document"? Remember so few people will use your business name to search for your product or service within the search engines. People search for the products or services using keywords.

Another thing to remember is that your potential customers are looking for information & solutions when they perform a search. They are not specifically looking for you. All the reason more why your title should contain your most important keywords, as your page title will tell the search engines, and your human visitors, precisely what that particular website is about. So, for this reason I can’t emphasize enough; make it keyword rich provide a compelling motivation for a searcher to click on it.

Keyword Hierarchy and your Web Site Structure

The home page is the most important page of your site, and it should target your specific seo keywords that represent your website "theme". The pages that link directly from the home page should preferably target categories related to the site theme, the pages that link to those are sub-categories known as 2nd tier pages should target very specific phrases.

For a informative "tiered" site structure explanation see day 3 of the Site Build It Action Guide  well worth a read , the SBI Action Guide is exceptionally usefully recommend reading it whether you plan on using Site Build It or not. The SBI site builder is my number one recommendation to construct your website. This complete and comprehensive guide outlines the winning and proven formula for building a successful high ranking natural search engine optimization website. Watch the videos, read online or print and read at your convenience.

SEO Keyword Rich Pages

After you have compiled your list of SEO keywords you will have to plan how you will "spread" them throughout the text on your site. A good rule is to include your important keywords closer to the start of your web page, and scatter all over the rest of the page body. Be sure to included keywords in your links, headings (H1, H2, H3) as well as image "alt" tags.

Don’t waste your time with keyword density formulas. Just focus on using your keywords in a natural flow through-out your text content. Remember, your not writing for the search engines you are writing for human visitors.

Keep in mind that by using deceptive or "spamming" methods such as hidden text and links, or any methods attempting to trick search engines will likely get you banned.

Work with the search engines not against them, when placing keywords on your site be sure to concentrate on the visible text and use appropriately.

Developing SEO friendly Links

Getting Links?

In order for your site to be link worthy, your site you should consist of great content. Search engines today track user behavior, if your users are just clicking through to your site from a SERP and are immediately clicking the back button, because of a poor quality site, the search engines will take note!

So don’t waste your time, make it a priority to create a top quality compelling content for your visitor the first time.

There may be time however when even no matter how much content you include, good quality inbound links just don’t seem to occur. Then its time for you take action get involved getting the snowball effect in motion…..The following are proven ways to get inbound links.

Writing articles and submitting to quality article directories.

By writing articles and submitting your articles to quality article directories you'll get a quality link from the directory and in addition links from the webmasters and ezine publishers who promote your article; for example directories such as EzineArticles.

Use caution however; as there are many article directories that publish articles with absolutely zero editorial review, this has a recipe for disaster resulting in publications of absolute junk. Don't waste your time with these directories; always write first-rate quality articles and they will get syndicated and these efforts will result in your links growing.

An added benefit to E-zine Articles being considered authoritative trusted site, resulting in your published articles ranking well in the search engines results and driving targeted traffic to your site. Learn more about writing articles here.  

Free and other Directory Listings

Commonly free, however many times you'll pay, however directory listings are a great way to establish good quality and relevant inbound links. Here’s a great tool that cuts the time consuming task in half, allowing you to submit your site to thousands of directories Directory Submitter.by Brad Callen.

A good rule is to only submit to directories where your site must be reviewed before it’s accepted, thus ensuring high editorial standards; establishing trust with the engines.

For a a great list that meets this criterion click here. great sarter list of directories

Posting to Blogs and Discussion Forums.

Many blogs and forums allow you to include a link back to your site when you create a post or include a comment to a blog.

By contributing to the discussion either by posting advice or comments on a current topic; doing so will assist the blog owner, adding high quality content on that page. Helping it to rank better in the search engines, as result better link value and increase direct traffic to you.

The creation a post that is nothing more than a link to your site is considered spam and all you will get out of it is banned or unwelcome to post in the forum or blog.

Good to Know - The "Nofollow" Tag

Numerous blogs will by default apply a special tag to their comment links called the "nofollow" tag. The purpose of this tag is to help deal with comment spam by instructing the search engines not to pass value for the link.

In order to see if a blog using this tag, view the pages source code (on the screen mouse right-click, view source). Once Notepad opens choose select Edit/Find and enter "nofollow" in the search box.

Do keep in mind, that even if the blog happens to use the “nofollow” tag it is till quite possible to get good direct and targeted traffic from your link, and it may still be worth your time doing.

Tips on Commenting:

• After your comment has been approved, use AddThis.com to bookmark the page to all the major book marking sites, then ping it. This ensures maximum exposure and link value for that page, plus your link.
• Google Alerts is useful to notify you when blogs are published, relating to your targeted keywords.
• And remember! Never, never spam, merely post quality comments.

Correctly Developed Link Exchange

Although numerous SEO experts will argue otherwise, exchanging links is still considered an advisable endeavor. However it must be done correctly. Developing a link exchange incorrectly can actually damage your search engine marketing efforts, and or waste your valuable time.

Creating valuable resources links through link exchange is for the benefit of your visitors, not just the search engines. Never under estimate the value of quality content link exchange.

The two major infulences on the success of your SEO promotion are: 

#1. loaded with keyword-rich & regularily-updated content.
#2. Plenty of relevant, incoming links from the best sources.

View this informative clip on how accomplish these by doing things the right way.....

What is search engine marketing, the right way!  

Higher Search Engine Ranking & why Linking Will Always Be vital.

Considering the internet was constructed around the concept of linking. Prior to search engines, linking was the only way to network from site to site in order to gain the interest, and attract targeted visitors.

Partner your site with the search engines objectives of delivering good high quality, trusted, and authoritive and relevant sites for their searchers; with doing so you can’t go wrong. Because search engines know that link exchange has a history of abuse.

In order to get the best possible results from your link building efforts, link from a broad variety of sources using a mixture of strategies. Building your links in a progressive fashion, and always focusing on good quality links will bring targeted traffic all on their own.

Blogging

If you haven’t started a blog… it’s now time to get started! The benefits of Blogging has countless advantages, fresh and frequently updated content, and search engines love this, thus allowing for a more emotional height with existing and potential clientele.

About the best advantage from the SEO performance perspective is that it gives you the ability to touch on the Web 2.0 sites, allowing to build quality inbound links and distributing your content far more successfully than with relying solely on your static site.

I have found WordPress to be far superior with my Blogging experience.

Various blog websites offer free hosted services, word of advice; domain names and hosting accounts are not a huge expense, set up a separate hosting account  alternatively host the blog on your current website.

An absolute read about blogging

Tips on Blogging:

• submit your blog to MyBlogLog
• burn your blog feed at FeedBurner
• ping after every post
• put the AddThis.com button on your blog
• Submitting your posts to Web 2.0 sites that permit you to submit your own content. A easy, time-saving tool use Web2Submitter
• create Technorati tags using relevant keywords at the end of each post. Here is the code (switch to HTML mode, copy and past, substituting your keywords):

Web 2.0 simply refers to the new generation of websites where the content is created by users. As a marketer, you can use these to your advantage.

Web 2.0 builds traffic insanely quickly read more on Web 2.0 marketing.

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