Google Ranking Factors Overview

Google ranking algorithm
This is a short overview of the number of factors Google takes into consideration in their ranking algorithm. So, this is what actually is in this ranking algorithm.

Domain level link features aka "Domain authority" is the first ranking factor. You can think of the domain authority as all the links from other websites pointing to all pages of your website. As well as appreciating the content on your website (keywords) Google also cares about the relationships of other website with you site through linking to your pages. There are a lot of features in the Google algorithm on domain authority e.g. number of links, quality of the websites linking to your site, etc.

The second factor is page level link feature or "Page authority". As opposed to domain authority which look at all links to all pages of your website, page level authority index is only looking at the page level.

Next on the list is page level keyword and content features aka "Keyword targeting". This is all about your focus keywords. If your keyword is "mobile phone repair" you would probably make sure your website has the exact keyword phase you're targeting. Because of Google topic modeling algorithm it is advised to also include topical variations of your chosen keyword. Topical variations are the connected or related keywords, in our case with the mobile phone repair these can be "screen", "battery" or phone models or manufacturer names.

Page level, keyword agnostic features are another ranking factors. These include page loading speed, mobile friendliness, content uniqueness, size/length etc. If many people search for a specific keyword on mobile and you want to be found on search results you have to make sure your webpage is mobile friendly. Likewise if people are searching for an in-depth topic and looking for a latest specific study on the web and you want your website to feature in the search results your website needs to have a very specific page with a unique and relevant content.

Engagement, data query and traffic. This factor have been making a breakthrough, several years ago no one even considered it as one of the ranking factors. When I talk about engagement, traffic and data I mean things like pogo-sticking and query success.

Pogo-sticking is best described using an example. Let's say you search a keyword on Google. After submitting your query Google displays a list of results. You then click on the first result in this list and go to the webpage but then immediately come back to the search list and click on the second result. What it indicated to Google is that the first result is not the best one because you did not spend time exploring it but instead came back and selected a different one. You need to make sure this does not happen with your website because this is a metric of a successful query or good experience which Google is paying close attention to.

Domain level, brand features. Another factor that Google likes to see. This includes direct visits, branded search, brand affinity. What is means is that Google looks at your domain and says "Okay, this domain is really connected to a particular topic... let's rank them higher to this topic queries". For instance, you might have seen many hotel reviews from TripAdvisor. So if you search for a holiday or hotel review you will often stumble upon and result from TripAdvisor. And after interacting with the TripAdvisor webpages, you add their brand name to your next hotel review search query. And what it tell Google is "maybe when people are performing the search without the brand attached we should be ranking this brand higher in our results".

Similarity to the domain level, brand features, domain level, topic and keyword associations is a connection of your domain name with a specific topic or keyword. For example moz.com, an online marketing and SEO software provider, has a positive association with the keyword "SEO". If you add to your queries this keyword moz.com webpages are most likely to be in the search results. This is because Google has a topic association with moz.com.

Moving on to the next factor, which is domain level, keyword agnostic features. Like the page level agnostic feature this factor is focusing on the domain level. Things like TLD extension, spam level, trust signals, traffic data are all elements of the domain agnostic features. TLD is top level domain, mywebsite.com, website.org and so on. Google would check things like is this domain flagged up a spam, is it registered in a way other trusted domains are, does it have contact information, etc.

Social engagement feature. This is the last but not the least important ranking factor. It is argued that this factor is not very important, though more and more recommendations from leading SEO analytics providers highlight its indirect role in the ranking algorithm. This factor includes tweets, Facebook, Google+ likes and shares.

More SEO and digital marketing articles and news are on [http://www.pedlum.com]. Pedlum is a crowdsourced library of digital marketing materials, a place you can share your own resources and share latest industry news.

What Does Yoga Have To Do With Digital Marketing?

Yoga was invented thousands of years ago in forests and temples of India while Digital Marketing is a recent technology. How the hell could these two be related? I never thought so myself till that one day.

It was early morning 5'o clock and I had literally not slept the night before. Please bear with me while I give you a little background. I was working for a client project for developing their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media strategy. They are a sports goods retailer and recently came up with an innovative range of shoes that they want to launch in the market. They were completely B2B till date and had no B2C presence before, starting it from the drawing board now. Their management had set aggressive targets for their online sales but put lot of restrictions to avoid conflicts with their B2B partner network. I had a tough time convincing them on multiple fronts and we were going back and forth for some time.

Our Yoga guru arrived in the hall and we started the warm up. I was half asleep, but did not want to miss my Yoga class. We did the 'Surya Namaskar' followed by the 'Asnas' of the day. I was dead tired and then came my favorite Asna - the 'Shavasna'. If you know Yoga, you will be aware that 'Shavasna', literally means the Corpse Pose, where you lie on the back with closed eyes and deep breath. The body is completely released and mind fully relaxed. It was during the 'Shavasna' that I suddenly started getting a great feeling as if everything was un-tangling from within, as if I was getting answers to all my questions. I am not a saint but that was my moment of 'nirvana'. It is difficult to describe all of it in words, but I am trying to summarize some of the key points that came to my mind that time:

1. Focus on the core: The only way you get the most out of Yoga is to forget everything else around you and just focus on one thing - your breath. This is the same with Digital Marketing. The only way to get the most out of a digital marketing initiative (whether it is SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM etc.) is to first forget about everything else and focus on the "Content". While developing content you should not get distracted by any other activities or constraints. It is "Content" which is the heart and core of the entire initiative and needs to be relevant to the audience. The biggest mistake many of us tend to do is to make all strategies first and then start working on the content. In such scenarios, we later on figure out that the content is not in line with our strategy and we ask our team to modify the content rather than changing the strategy. This is the perfect recipe of failure and then we complain that nothing worked at all.

2. Long Term Vision: Yoga never promises quick, short term benefits. Someone wanting to build six pack abs within three months need not to come for a Yoga class. Yoga is always practiced with a vision to have long and healthy life, the way ancient 'Yogis' or saints in India lived for hundreds of years with strong physical and mental conditions. Digital marketing, off-late, had been used abusively by many technologists as a means to get quick results without bothering about the long term vision. Any update by Google and such people were running crazy to re-gain their rankings.

3. Inner Strength: Yoga is all about building inner strength - a balance between mind and body. Yoga does not focus much on external muscular built or beautification. Its aim is very simple - keep you fit and strong from within. It might not sound strange to my marketing friends (I am myself from marketing background) that building an external perception without building inner strength does not last long. I have seen organizations who did excellent in marketing but could not handle their cash flows and later yielded to disastrous results.

4. Continuity: You do Yoga for couple of months diligently to the extent that you can become a Yoga trainer yourself. Then due to some reasons you leave doing Yoga regularly. What happens? With time the benefits you got from doing Yoga subsides and after few months you are back in the same situation where you were before. This is the same with any digital marketing initiative be it SEO, SEM, SMO or SMM. E.g. you might have done very with search engine optimization and got yourself into the top of SERP (search engine results page). But if you leave the regular activities for SEO then you might lose that ranking very soon.

Abbreviations used:

SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
PPC - Pay per Click
SERP - Search Engine Results Page
SMO - Social Media Optimization
SMM - Social Media Marketing
GA - Google Analytics

This article is part of a thought leadership series about foundation principles for digital marketing written by Neha, a digital marketing expert, trainer and consultant. She runs her own digital marketing technology services firm - DigiUp Consulting Services ([http://www.digiupconsulting.com]).

Digiup helps small business users and individuals manage three key aspects of digital marketing:

1. Search Engine (organic & inorganic) - Improve website ranking in Google search results with techniques such as SEO and SEM

2. Social Media - mantain strong connection between brand and people using techniques like SMO and SMM

3. Analytics - giving significant cognizance about client's digital experience

You can get copy of these thought leadership series by writing her at neha.mittal@digiupconsulting.com

The Main Difference Between Organic SEO and PPC

As a marketing expert with over 10 years experience in organic marketing and 6 years AdWords (PPC) experience I'm often asked the question, which is best for my site, PPC or Organic SEO?

All niches and businesses are different, so are their target customers, areas they cover and their marketing budget. A good professional marketer will analyse both PPC and Organic SEO and tell you the best option for your business and budget.

PPC is great for new sites/businesses targeting a competitive niche, unfortunately in a competitive niche the bid required to have your ad seen at the top of page one for 80% of searches can be phenomenal and cost more than a lot of businesses are willing or able to pay.

It's up to the marketing company to research your niche and see what sort of bid may be required, not just sign you up regardless as sometimes PPC just isn't practical. Also, with PPC it is all about control and good management. Many novices will simply select every keyword Google suggests which will burn through funds in no time but target the wrong customers.

Google's keyword suggestion algorithm doesn't know who or what you are trying to target and whilst the keyword 'Windows' may get 1000's of monthly searches in your target area a window installer isn't going to get a phone call from someone looking for the latest Microsoft operating system, although the click they did on you link still costs you money. This is often an underhanded trick used by dubious marking companies just so they can say look! Your ad got 1000's of impressions, aren't we great?

Organic SEO or Organic Marketing, which is the term I prefer, does require skill and whilst there are still rogues and amateurs out there offering a poor organic service that will do nothing to help your business, organic marketing isn't targeted as much by the large unskilled marketing companies offering PPC. This is because a few months into the campaign it's easy to see that you are in fact not climbing the results and their efforts are unsuccessful.

Organic marketing is also chosen for longevity, unlike PPC you don't appear on page 1 right away as it takes time to tweak your site, build a good back link profile and promote yourself, but once you do reach page 1 you will usually stay there. With PPC you get instant results but once you stop the campaign your result disappear instantly.

Unfortunately there are a growing number of sales driven marketing companies cropping up all over the country, cold calling 100's of businesses a day offering 'First Page on Google' through PPC marketing, companies with little or no marketing experience. This is because PPC does not need internet marketing expertise or knowledge it simply requires that you study the system and manage your funds and keyword bids, this on its own doesn't lead to a successful campaign as there is a lot more to it.

A genuine, professional marketing company will always offer both organic marketing and paid marketing (PPC), if a company only offers PPC then it is usually a sign that they are not experts at all and are simply jumping onto the bandwagon.

Key Designs have been operating in the Leigh and Wigan area for over 15 years and during this time have work with 100's of clients helping then to succeed online through organic marketing and PPC. Key Designs are your perfect local partner.

http://www.keydesigns.co.uk/

Changes in Google Could Affect Your Page Rank

Your SEO, is like any relationship in life it needs attention and care. Your relationship to the search engines starts from the moment you launch your new website continuing as long as your website is active. Like a finely tuned engine, you want the kind of maintenance that makes your website a top competitor. Having a Web Development company who is always tweaking your site, staying on top of algorithm platform updates is what successful companies do to improve and protect their Google Page Rankings. RANK BRAIN Google's newest software launch is called RankBrain, a machine-learning artificial intelligence system; that is far different from the days of engineers who teach the platform by entering in information.

RankBrain doesn't replace Google's other search algorithms but is a modification of Google's hummingbird platform. Whats new is RankBrains ability to anticipate and interpret searches that might not have exact words. RankBrain is about query refinement and more meaningful results. How does it affect your search engine results? No one is sure yet, however it does lend to more surveillance of how you are ranking. In other words, pay attention! My thinking is, be mindful to what your feeding the search engines in your keyword queries and links. Remember, your search and keywords are educating RankBrain not engineers.

Whether or not this new modification will have an effect on your ranking is left to be seen but as always, protect your ranking like you do your bank account.

Page rank is money in the bank. Your SEO strategies that have always worked in Google will continue to do so, but with the RankBrain modification it is really all about content. The more readable content you post, the more you educate RankBrain on your authority for any given subject.

GOOGLE MOBILE INDEX

There are plans for Google splitting search results into 2 separate versions. The mobile search index over Google will contain newer, fresher content while Google version of the desktop index will be updated less frequently. In some cases search results displayed over mobile will be completely different than those search results found on desktop.

MOBILE FRIENDLY SEARCHES

Mobile responsive websites have also presented an entirely new way for managing mobile friendly searches. Before mobile, persons looking for home remodeling in their neighborhood would have typed a mobile friendly search over Google such as, 'Home repair service Virginia Beach'. On mobile phones people are more likely to use their mobile assistant for searching. For example; 'OK Google Now' or 'Hey Siri, show me 'Home repair service close to me'. People will do voice searching in ways that differ from keyboard based search on mobile or desktop.

It's not everyday we get a warning about an impending search engine tsunami over mobile! Think about how you want your business, your website to be found over mobile search and then execute a plan fast.

How To Use Search Engine Optimization To Your Benefit

There is much to learn about search engine optimization and much success that can go along with this knowledge. There is plenty of information available; however, not everything you read will apply to your specific situation. This article will provide some of the best tips known in regards to search engine optimization.

Gateway pages will help get more traffic to your website. Your gateway pages should include a specific set of keywords, this will boost the change that this set of keywords will get a high score from the search engines. You should make several copies of this page, each with a different set of keywords.

Keep your page simple. The more time it takes to load your page due to huge, time-consuming graphics or oddly styled coding, the less likely it will be for a search engine to recommend you. Keep your readers in mind as well. You do not want to drive anyone away from your site because it simply can't keep up in a fast-paced world.

It is important to write an engaging meta description tag for each page you create in order to achieve proper search engine optimization. Many search engines use it as a blurb to display under the a page's title and a descriptive tag will encourage viewers to visit your page, increasing traffic.

A good rule of thumb to follow when dealing with search engine optimization is to use your keywords and keyword phrases in your URLs whenever possible. Most search engines highly value the use of keywords in the URL, so rather than using arbitrary numbers, opt for replacing them with keywords.

You need to treat link building as a process that keeps going. Spend a few minutes every day on your link campaign. You can pay for services that will build your links for you, though those have proven not to be as effective as taking the time and doing it yourself.

Write high-quality meta description tags for every page on your website. Doing this will not really affect your rating much at all, but it will get more people clicking on your search listing. This will help your company get more sales, or at least more leads for sales in the future.

There is no one single method of search engine optimization, but using meta tags is a good start. When choosing your tag be sure that the keyword actually matches your website. Use a search phrase that you think your target market would use to find your product or service.

To get the most out of SEO, you must remember to always provide links of the highest quality. Links pointing to your site should be well-placed and you should place a lot of them. This will get you to the top quickly. Submitting high quality articles containing link exchanges that are selective will give your site a boost.

Use tools to test the popularity of your chosen keywords. Check popular trending sites to see the popularity of your keywords. Keywords with too much competition and high popularity may take a very long time to reward you with traffic.

You should do your best to make it very simple for all the visitors to your site to add it to their social bookmarks. These types of links are one of the kinds that are valued most by many of the different searches engines that are available.

Search Engine Optimization emphasizes quality links from outside sites. A lot of those links will come naturally when web users find your site and recognize its value. Others can be obtained by approaching other website owners, blogger, and the like and requesting to be linked. All they can do is say no!

Yahoo local listings have star ratings attached so try to get yourself listed by them. It is absolutely free and that is the type of exposure that your business will need. You should ask prior customers to go to your listing and rate you so that your listing will stand out from the rest of them.

You can optimize your blog for search engines by using SEO-friendly URLs for each blog post. Most blogging services offer this option, which is a must-do if you are using your blog to make money. Rather than allowing the service to assign a generic URL, create your own post URL that includes keywords.

Do not make any drastic changes to your site for the sole point of increasing your site's rankings. You have to keep it in your mind that a user's experience on your website should be your first concern, and doing any changes that may decrease the amount of users is not a good thing.

All of your links, incoming and internal, should use keywords. " as anchor text. Search engines use this information when determining ranking. Every now and then, ensure that all internal links on your site also use keyword links.

Write good meta tags for your website. Major search engines often use your meta tags in their search results. The blurb you write will very likely show up as the short description below the link. Make sure that the blurb you write for your meta tag is interesting enough to draw consumers in.

When dealing with search engine optimization, it is a good idea to place some of your keywords in either bold or italics. This will make your keywords stand out more, especially if you only use it for the most important ones and will allow you to achieve a higher search result ranking.

When it comes to search engine optimization, practice patience when looking for results. There is very little instant gratification in SEO, some effects of your hard work could take months to reap visible benefits. This is especially true if your website is relatively new. Patience is needed when looking for those results. They will come with consistent, quality SEO work.

In summary, there are some obvious ideas that have been tested over time, as well as some newer techniques that you may not have considered. Hopefully, as long as you follow what we suggest in this article, you can either get started with search engine optimization or improve on what you have already done.

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Link Building Tips That Actually Work

Building links for your website is necessary - it's one of the best ways to get more traffic, while at the same time boosting your ranks in search engines. This isn't always so simple, though. It all comes down to your available resources and the industry you're in. In most cases, you will have to work diligently and aggressively to generate high-quality links pointing to your website - keyword here is high-quality. You don't to risk losing your spot because you were desperate enough to create links on sites that are spammy. If this is the path you're on, then it's time to reach out to professionals at an SEO agency.

The Simplest Way to Build Links

One of the best ways to build links for your website is using content. There are a number of ways you can pull this off, such as by creating an infographic, white paper or how-to guide. The idea here is to make content that is high-quality and informative, so that people will want to link to it. Seems simple enough, and in some cases it is. However, you're going to need to consistently push out these assets, so they continue to generate backlinks to your site.

Let's look at some of the ways SEO services help companies build links.

Guest Blogging

This is normally an effective way to get backlinks to your site, but Google has been cracking down on those who abuse this tactic by submitting low-quality content overstuffed with anchor text. So if you decide to use this, focus on creating riveting posts that reputable websites would be willing to link to. An SEO agency can be used to develop content for your link building campaign.

Kiss Up to Influentials

Find out who's influential in your industry and connect with them. Then bait them in with content that speaks kindly of these people. For instance, you can write a post of the top 10 blogs or social media profiles in your industry. Featuring these individuals in your content will make them want to share it with their followers. What can you say - it's an ego thing!

Get Rid of Broken Links

Broken links can harm your search engine optimization. An SEO services company can help you locate these broken links. It's important to fix broken links on your site, so that all of your hard work isn't being hindered.

Building links for your site is a lot easier when you have an SEO team from an agency working with you. Consider hiring professionals to analyze your business and develop a solid strategy for building quality links!

http://www.ithinkanidea.com is a leading, full service internet marketing agency. I Think an Idea works with serious business owners small to large alike. Based out of Los Angeles, CA providing great results for services such as SEO, social media marketing, Online reputation management and PPC management. I Think an Idea can maximize your search engine presence and amplify your brand across social media channels, and help safeguard your reputation.

How Google Posts Could Affect the Future of SEO

Over the past few months, Google has undergone a few exciting changes. Penguin 4.0 had its final phase rolled out, meaning it's now in real time. The search engine is also displaying official Twitter profile feeds for entities to all English searchers worldwide.

There is a clear emphasis on providing current content to users, so searchers receive the most up-to-date and relevant results first. Google is now taking a further step towards providing real-time updates by introducing Google Posts, also referred to in the past as Your Podium on Google.

This "experimental new podium" will allow individuals and businesses to produce content directly on the search engine. When people search for a particular business or name, the content will appear highly ranked in the search results. In a way, it seems to be the new Google+ for brands and celebrities.

How Does It Work?
Google has been relatively quiet about the new feature, but it has been experimenting with it for some time. Back in January of 2016, it was released as a way to allow political candidates the chance to post lengthy debate rebuttals.

The aim is to give people the opportunity to hear from the companies and people they care about directly. At this stage, it's on an invite-only basis and only verified individuals and organizations will be able to use the feature.

Those with an invite will be able to communicate directly on Google via images, videos, and text. The process of creating content is meant to be quick and straightforward, much like on social media. Once you've published your piece of content, it will become instantly visible in search results related to your name or that of the organization you represent.

Entities also get their own profile, which looks much like it would on your average social media page. It displays a profile photo above your name, over what appears to be a cover image, along with your post feed.

Clicking on one of the posts opens up a dedicated full-screen web page displaying the full text and accompanying images. You are also able to share the posts on popular social networks quickly. All you have to do is click on the social sharing icon to share the post directly on Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Google+.

It looks much like the carousel Twitter profile feeds we can currently see on Google, with a card-like format. However, while you can share the content, you are presently unable to like or comment on it. These options may be something that will be introduced in the future, as it is currently in its very early stages.

We know Google has struggled in the past with the development of its own social network; only time will tell if this new platform will pan out any differently than Google Buzz and Google+.

Manage a One-Way Content Feed
For Google users, the new feature will allow them to receive up-to-date information straight from their favorite brands and people. But what will it mean for public figures and organizations? Well, it puts a one-way content feed that is built directly into the top of the search results pages entirely in their control.

The fact that the feature is not available to just anyone helps to instill a sense of trust. Google verifies all individuals first, so you know the information and messages are coming up are all from a trustworthy source.

There are various ways you can benefit from the new feature, now that you have a podium on which to reach your customers instantly. Users will be able to access the content you put out directly from the search pages, without having to navigate any other links. They will see all of this, even if they only type in your name.

You get a chance to introduce relevant content into Google, increase user interactions through the use of text, images, and videos, and encourage social sharing. Increased engagement will also help you to increase conversion rates. Since you know the reader has specifically searched for you; there's a higher chance that they will be interested in what you have to say.

You can instantly publish lightweight content with fast loading results, much like in social media. However, the fact that you get a dedicated web page means you have a bit more control over the amount of information you post and the correlating images.

What Does This All Mean for SEO?
With brands and individuals being offered the chance to directly control the content that comes up on Google when you search for their names, you can see some pretty significant implications for both organic and paid brand searches.

The carousel comes up below the paid ads, but above the organic listings, so it features prominently in the results. If you do it right, there is a lot to gain. While it may take clicks away from your other results, it could end up saving you money you would otherwise have spent on pay per click ads.

You just need to make sure that you take full advantage of the opportunity and include links within the posts that lead your users back to your website. Since we're talking real time, it's the perfect way to draw attention to any current sales or promotions you are running and thus increase conversions.

As we said, it essentially puts you in the driver's seat. You get to steer the content in the direction you want, so you could even use it to distract users from any negative bits that appear in your branded search results.

While the feature is currently invite-only, you can join the waitlist if you are a public figure or represent a brand or business. While we are yet to see how this new feature will play out, it's worth joining the waitlist to find out.

It's a great opportunity to control the first thing people see when they Google your name, so take full advantage of it. One day it could become a very powerful and useful tool for you to deliver your desired content straight to the consumer.

The Best Practice Guide for URLs

URLs form the basic building block of every business that has a web presence. The structure of a URL matters a lot to SEO. Here is a list of best practices that one can consider when creating a URL.

• The most important advice from Google is to keep your URL structure simple and readable. The URL should include sentences and words that are logical and readable for human beings rather than confusing numbers and letters. This helps in a URL being remembered easily in case one needs to type it or refer offline.
• It is advisable to make your URL in lower case letters. If you have a UR in capital letters, convert them into lower cases, an exception being when you have different pages of the same name.
• To increase readability of URLs, use punctuation marks such as hyphens instead of using underscores.
• Until a URL makes sense to the human brain, it can continue to have stop words such as a, an etc.
• A good SEO practice is to ensure that the keywords for the page are near the front of the URL. However, it still needs to be readable and not just stuffed keywords.
• It is not necessary to match your headline with that of the URL. In fact, varying the headline from the URL gives it a chance to be more concise.
• It is better to use a single domain or a subdomain. The chances of a blog performing better if it is altogether on a root or one subdomain. The Rankings of such blog are also suggested to go higher.
• It is a good practice to use verb stem in URLs. For instance, instead of using the term 'smearing', the term 'smear' should be used.
• Avoid using overly complex URLs with multiple parameters. This can cause an issue with Googlebot since there will be too many URLs with similar content.

Ways of fixing URL issues

Google recommends these solutions to fixing URL issues.

• Instead of using session IDs in URLs, use cookies.
• Use a robots.txt file such as dynamic URLs or URLs generating search results to block Googlebot's access to few URLs.
• Trim unnecessary parameters to shorten URLs
• Add a no follow attribute to links so that dynamically future calendar pages are ceased, if you have an infinite calendar to your site
• Broken relative links often cause hindrance. Check your sites for such links

There are some of the best practice tips or URLs.

The above tips were collected from various resources. If you need more advice on how we can help you with your Digital Marketing Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.

Using Targeted Keywords to Rank High

You are constantly hearing people speak about search engine optimization (SEO) and although you may have a basic understanding about what SEO is and how it works, you may not realize that you can use it in an extremely pointed, customized manner for optimal results.

Looking at your keywords and choosing the most effective ones 

The truth is that SEO, which is an amazingly effective approach, does not always produce the results that you want for your business. You may use several different keywords and then discover that those keywords for which you have a particular affinity did not make it to the top (or near the top) of the search engine's pages. That must be incredibly frustrating for you. Well, that means that you have less control over your content once it is posted than you may have thought. However, there are measures that you can take to swing the results in favor of your business.

You need to understand that there is such a thing as over-optimizing your content for the search engines. If you over-optimize your content, it may produce results that are the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. However, here are some suggestions that should help you to achieve the results that you want to achieve.

Determine your baseline rankings: The first thing that you need to determine, before you do anything else, is exactly where your business appears in the search engines. You will have certain keywords in mind so that is exactly what you need to check. Figure out where those keywords factor into the rankings and if the performance is not what you want, you will take steps to make that happen. Your baseline is extremely important in this situation. You must crawl and then walk before you can run. If you don't have your baseline in mind, exactly how are you going to measure your other successes? You won't have anything to compare them to. The easiest way to begin this process is by searching for your keywords in the search engines (Google, for example). If you don't want to do it manually, there are several tools that allow you to determine your rankings and you can automate that process. Of course, you will need to be patient. Your rankings will probably not jump from a low position to an extremely high one overnight. However, you will see positive changes and your baseline is essential because you need that jumping off point.

Examine the differences: When you enter your keyword into the keyword tool, you should pay attention to two particular things. First, you will want to pay attention to how many different ways your keywords appear. The other thing that you will want to notice is how your keywords rank against other similar keywords that your competitors have posted. Doing the background work is extremely important and is a big contributor to your success. It will allow you to understand if your keyword is too complex and it will give you an idea of other possible keywords that you can use instead. Once you have entered your keyword, you should take note of the other keywords that the search engine has suggested as alternatives. They will fall right under your keyword. Finally, you should pay attention to the related searches that appear at the bottom of your page.

Examine the results that you expected and revise, if necessary: There is a possibility that the expectations that you set for your keyword results are too high or unrealistic in some other way. The fact is that if your keyword appears at the top of the search engine page, there will be a lot of other keywords (and competitors) that will try to knock your keyword down from its position. Not only should you look at your keyword on the search engine page but you should also pay close attention to the other keywords that are around your keyword. Click on those other keywords so that you can compare the content to what you are saying and what you represent. This is part of your research and you will find that it is well worth the effort that you are going to put forth. You will find that, when it comes to the effectiveness of your keywords, your perception may be completely different from how the search engines view those keywords. Unfortunately, it won't do you any good if you ignore the search engines because they count for a lot.

Conclusion 
Keywords and key phrases are extremely important in your content. Your keywords must be relevant to what you are doing and what you represent. You will want to pay attention to increasing traffic, the importance of back links, and increasing trustworthiness and credibility. However, be careful not to over-stuff your content with keywords. That will be almost as bad as not having keywords in your content. Learn how to achieve an effective balance that will work well for your business.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Create An Efficient E-Commerce Marketing Strategy

If you want your sales to be flat year over year, you can perhaps take the risk of sticking to the same marketing and advertising strategy as last year. It might work for your business this year too. However, if you are trying to expand and grow your business, your marketing and advertising strategies need to be redrafted nearly every year due to the volatile nature of the business, and the macro factors influencing the environment. So, here we are providing you with a checklist, which includes some of the most important tips an E-Commerce marketer should definitely try in the final quarter of this year.

Have an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is definitely the most popular marketing trend of 2015 for numerous reasons such as:

Creating useful, informative and engaging content helps and entertains readers/potential customers and influences them to become loyal customers. A win-win situation for customers and sellers alike!

When a video, article or similar marketing content circulates and becomes popular among prospective customers, it drives a considerable amount of traffic, which in turn leads to more sales Marketers in 2015 face the challenge of developing a marketing strategy that can generate effective content, which in turn, drives traffic as well as sales.

In order to achieve this,
Scrutinize earlier content marketing efforts so as to identify which posts, articles, etc., brought in traffic or increased conversion rates.
Analyze previous marketing strategies to figure out why few content pieces worked and were more successful. It can also help in identifying popular search terms or trends.
Based on your analysis try experimenting with similar content to know if it also becomes successful.
Understand what worked and adjust the content after reviewing the outcome of new marketing strategy.

Have A Thoughtfully Designed Email Marketing Campaign

Automating email campaigns can help in nurturing customer relationship and also will leave more time for doing so. As soon as a customer registers for online stores newsletter, an automated email campaign can start a welcome series confirming the subscription and assuring the customer that subscribing to the store's newsletter was a great choice. Likewise, if an existing customer leaves the shopping cart without making the purchase, an automated email can encourage the customer to return. Since, the email campaign is automated marketing people are not required to perform tedious and time consuming task of manually identifying customers and their requirements.

Have a Diversified Social Media Campaign

Undoubtedly Facebook is the leading and most important social media platform for a majority of E-Commerce stores vying for customer's attention. It definitely takes centre stage in all social marketing campaigns. However, as important as Facebook might be, E-Commerce marketers should not use Facebook as the sole social media site to engage customers. There are other social media sites available that can have a positive influence on customer engagement and also sales, such as, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Have a Personalization Strategy

Personalization in the E-Commerce context can mean many different things, it can be as simple as personalized recommendations about the product or it may mean a description about a type of marketing segmentation.

As part of your 2015 E-Commerce marketing checklist, devise and implement a personalization strategy, no matter how you define personalization. Give a personal touch to your online store; it will help you get closer to your customers, and to earn their loyalty.

Have Your Own Product Videos

According to recent findings it was revealed that E-Commerce marketers who use videos for marketing enjoy better sales for products promoted with videos. Also, creating videos is becoming easier for marketers, since getting access to Adobe creative suite is available to marketers. This provides them with easy access to all the audio and video editing tools. If all this sounds complicated, one can always hire an expert who can make engaging product videos.

Keyword Research - Effective For Domain Names, Too

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is all about discovering exactly what it is that people are searching for, and then trying to rank highly (hopefully on the first page) for the search results of that term. This is really the foundation of your SEO strategy, so it's important to get keyword research right.

How To Find Your Best Keywords for SEO

Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business. Think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You'll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you'll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

To do proper research, we need to be very clear on what our product is and we need to get quite specific so that we aren't trying to compete with too many other websites. It's generally better to rank highly for a search term that gets less searches than to rank on page 10 for a highly popular term - within reason, of course. There's no point ranking highly for something that only gets five searches a month.

How to Do Keyword Research

Google Keyword Planner

Google provides a free tool that will help us with much of our keyword research. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find new and related keywords, but ignore the search volume data! The search volume data in the planner is really only useful for keywords that you're actually spending money to advertise on. Otherwise, these volumes are not reliable. While not really helpful to decide which keyword is most used by your potential audience, Google AdWords Keyword Planner makes a useful tool in coming up with ideas for potential keywords!

How To Use Google Keyword Planner

When trying to access Google Keyword Planner, there is a very important step that needs to be taken. Keyword Planner is intended to help advertisers plan their Google AdWords campaigns by telling them exactly what people are searching for. you do now need to sign up for an AdWords account in order to get access to the Keyword Planner tool. Most people have a Google account already, so setting up an AdWords account takes just a few seconds, but this is where the crucial step lies.

1. Firstly you need to sign into your Google account.

2. Next, visit AdWords.Google.com and click on the "Start Now" button.

3. IMPORTANT: On the next page, you'll be presented with a screen that asks for some basic information about your business. You MUST click the link that says "skip guided setup." If you do not click this link then you will be, for reasons only Google knows, forced into creating and paying for an ad before you get access to the Keyword Planner tool.

We don't want to do that. This small oddity caught my attention and led me to forums full of other frustrated people facing the same issue. There apparently is no way to go back once you have passed over this first page, so do not miss the link and do not explore the further pages expecting to be able to click back later.

Once you've input your initial keywords into Keyword Planner, you'll get a result that tells you, on average, how many times that phrase was searched for in your chosen region. Beneath this will be some further suggestions for similar keywords that you might want to consider as well.

After you've decided on the best keywords to target for your page, you want to make sure you use them in your content, your meta description and even the URL if possible. Google is pretty clever these days, though, so don't keyword spam with page titles

Keep the phrases genuine and your site will look all the more professional to your potential customers. And don't forget image file names as a place to use your keywords, as well as the image ALT text, which can be easily edited in the media insertion panel for WordPress posts and pages.

Other Keyword Research Tools

Keyword Planner isn't the only keyword research tool you can use. Here are a few other common tools:

1.) WordStream's Keyword Tool (free)

Of course I could never forget WordStream's keyword tool for both SEO and PPC keyword research.

The WordStream keyword tool allows you to target certain niches (groups of related keywords), gives you further suggestions, and also allows you to group them based off of a common theme for easy ad group launches.

2.) Moz Bar

Moz Bar is a free tool is a Firefox or Chrome browser extension that performs a ton of analysis on the pages you visit. It's a great tool for checking out competitors' websites in order to get a better idea of what you're up against when you try and outrank them in the SERP (search engine result page).

Moz Keyword Difficulty Analysis

Moz's paid Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis Tool uses all of the backlink and search data they have to provide you with a simple score that aims to define the difficulty of ranking for a particular keyword with your domain. It's probably the easiest and fastest way to do serious initial keyword research, but it does come at a price. If your time is valuable, though, this might be an option to look into.

3.) Soovle (free)

If you have multiple channels you wish to do keyword research for and want to sound like an idiot explaining the pronunciation of this tool to your watercooler buddies, then Soovle is a perfect fit.

Soovle allows you to explore the most typed in keywords on multiple search engines based on the keyword root you give it. It even includes Amazon and eBay.

Not only is it a great keyword research tool to use, but it's also a great brainstormer as you can slowly start typing in your ideas and allow it to auto-generate its own ideas.

4.) Ubersuggest (free)

Meet the keyword research tool on steroids, Ubersuggest.

Ubersuggest takes any keyword you give it and immediately gives you an almost unlimited list of alphabetized and numerical keyword variations of your original keyword.

5.) Competitor Source Code (free)

This might not be the best and most fruitful keyword research tool but it allows you to see what meta keywords your competitors could be using to try to rank organically.

Since I use Google Chrome as my browser, it's super simple to right-click on a site and select "View Page Source."

Conclusion

By understanding and applying the basics of keyword research, you can make a steady and realistic climb up the search rankings. This will enable you to drive traffic to your website and attract new customers even while you're not working.

http://thelifetech.com

Facebook Ads and Google AdWords - What's The Difference?

As a small business owner with a limited marketing budget, how can you get the best results for your online ad campaign?

Google and Facebook are the largest advertising platforms on the Internet, both allowing you to target customers and spread your brand message.

The most important difference between using Facebook ads & Google Ads is the way your audience will encounter your ad. While Facebook chooses ads to display based on a user's stated interests and demographics, a Google ad is targeted based on the user's search terms. The difference is similar to browsing (Facebook) vs. going straight to what you know you want (Google). Both approaches can be useful for reaching potential customers. Facebook is an effective tool for generating brand awareness, while Google works best as for pull marketing.

This article looks at the similarities and differences between the two and when you might choose one approach over the other.

Google AdWords

AdWords lets you bid on a certain keyword or phrase to have your ad show up when a user searches on that term. The key to making the most of this approach is to carefully research keywords and know what language your customers are using. Your main goal when using Google pay per click (PPC) ads is to make sure that your advertising copy and landing page match up well with a user's search term.

If the user is looking for a certain product or type of item, you'll get a higher click through rate (CTR) when your content matches their needs.

Facebook advertising platform

Facebook offers a broader marketing approach, where you are able to market to people who fit certain demographics or psychographics but who aren't necessarily searching for your product. This lets you educate potential consumers about the value you provide. Facebook restructured it's advertising platform earlier this year to make its target marketing approach more powerful. You can target customers by location, demographics, or connections.

The connections option lets you reach friends of those who like your page, for instance. You can also target people based on stated interests and the Facebook groups they've joined, as well as based on their past shopping behaviour. If you are trying to build brand awareness a loose targeting approach is a good strategy. This lets you cast the net wide and reach a large group of potential customers. The opposite tactic is to tightly target your ads and run multiple short campaigns to see what combination of factors gives the best ROI.

Relative costs

Even though the approaches of the two platforms are complementary rather than identical, it's fair to consider the cost per click (CPC) amount for each approach. Facebook advertising tends to be cheaper than an AdWords campaign, with a CPC charge of $0.25 on the low end. In contrast, if you want to rank highly for very competitive search terms on Google, the cost can be $100 per click or higher. Obviously that isn't always the case, but in general a Facebook campaign will cost less. But cheaper isn't always better, so it is more important to compare the results. For this, the number we want to look at is cost per acquisition (CPA), not CPC. For example, lets assume that the CPC for a Facebook campaign is $1.00, while an AdWords campaign is five times more expensive with a CPC of $5.00. But because the Google campaign is very effectively matched with the right search terms, it has a 10 per cent conversion rate compared to Facebook's 1 per cent. For this example, we'd say that the CPA for the Facebook ad is $100 while the Google ad has an acquisition cost of only $50.

The key to making the most of your marketing budget on these platforms is to carefully measure ad performance. Fortunately, Facebook ads & Google ads both offer powerful analytics to track traffic and conversion rates.

Choosing a platform

While Google ads often have a somewhat lower cost per acquisition because it is so focused on customer search terms, this approach has its limitations. Facebook ads allow you to reach a wider audience, including people who may not have realised they wanted or needed your product. Both types of advertising can pay off if you have the right data to run an effective campaign. For Google ads you'll need the keywords that your customers are searching on and for Facebook ads you'll need to experiment with targeting different markets. Your best bet may be to try a mix of both advertising channels and track the number and types of leads you get from each service.

Should you bring in a pro? One way to get the most out of your marketing budget is to work with an online advertising agency, also known as a social media agency, mobile marketing agency, or digital marketing agency.

A social media agency offers many benefits, including marketing expertise, and outsider's view, and knowledge of the latest tools and trends. The largest benefit is that you'll instantly acquire expertise and access to professional tools. Online marketing is always changing, and it takes time and effort to keep up with trends and make the best decisions. You'll also get access to the best analytics tools so you can track customer response metrics easily and effectively. Some of these tools can costs hundreds of dollars per month to license, but with a digital marketing agency you'll have access to all the data you need to make the most of your budget. Whether you work with a team or handle everything yourself, the best bet for online marketing success is to spread your marketing budget across both platforms. The percentage you spend on each depends on your current goals. Are you aiming for broader brand awareness (Facebook) or hoping for a more immediate ROI (Google).

Companies are reporting good results for both types of advertising so experiment a bit and find out what works for your business.

A professional with over 7 years experience working within the advertising and marketing communications industry. Practical knowledge, understanding and experience for a wide range of business disciplines including the financial services, legal, commercial services, retail, online, charitable and civil service sectors.

SEO Practices to Strengthen E-Commerce Fronts

We all know that Search engine optimization (SEO) can be the real deal breaker for any website and it is even more critical for the success of E-Commerce websites, as SEO plays a major role in attracting, converting as well as retaining potential customers. However, performing SEO for E-Commerce sites is highly complicated due to the presence of hundreds and thousands of product listings, which require regular updating. This is the reason why following a set of SEO best practices becomes essential in order to make sure that your site always performs at optimum levels. While reviewing, research and optimization must continue on a regular basis to be successful.

You must focus on few core areas before you can begin performing SEO to get your listings ranked higher on Google search results:

SEO assessment: Begin by performing a comprehensive assessment of your website, so as to identify SEO shortcomings. While it is advisable to perform assessment for your entire website, you must pay special attention to your product pages. This is where majority of the flaws are detected and are also imperative to your website's performance. Tools such as Screaming Frog can be used to crawl through your images, CSS, links, etc., so that you can identify errors, missing tags, duplicate entries and other issues that can have a negative impact on your site's rankings.

Keyword research: Keyword research plays a major role in getting your website ranked higher. Targeting wrong keywords can lead to driving low quality traffic and lower sales. Using the right keywords strategically can attract qualified customers and also boost your sales and conversion rates. Perform your research based on keyword relevancy, ranking difficulty and search volume. You may use long-tail keywords relevant to your products, as they have a higher exact-match search volume as well as a significantly lower difficulty ranking when compared to the competition.

Competitor research: Analyze competitors' website to prepare a list of keywords that are being used by them. Perform research to determine the keywords you wish to compete against. Also, figure out the architecture used by these competing websites. Primarily focus on their product pages to attain better insights about ways to organize your websites navigation.

Create compelling product descriptions: Don't make the same mistake that most E-Commerce store owners make, i.e. using manufacturer's product descriptions. Search engines consider this to be a case of duplicated content, which might attract penalties. Product descriptions provide you with an opportunity to create unique, informative and compelling sales copy that boosts sales and conversion rates.

Using long tail keywords: Long tail keywords are highly targeted keywords having three or more words. People using long term keywords usually know what they are searching for, therefore a product page that has been optimized for long term keywords has a greater probability of attracting customers and converting them into sales.

Include customer reviews: It has been estimated that product pages having customer reviews are successful in converting over 58% more visitors, while boosting revenue by over 62%. This is because customer reviews help in establishing credibility and act as a social proof for potential buyers. Product pages featuring customer reviews rank higher since Google rewards pages that are frequently updated with unique content.

Integrate social media on your product pages: Google rankings play a major role in influencing the quality and amount of social media signals since they reflect a page's relevance. It is advised that you add social sharing buttons for popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., to your product pages in order to allow your customers and prospects to share product information with other potential customers.

Optimize page load speed: As many as 40% of visitors will leave, if your product pages don't load within 3 seconds, and approximately 80% of your customers won't return to your site if they are disappointed by your site's load time. Page load time can be optimized by employing lazy loading, compressing product images and fixing coding issues.

Write appealing metadata: Your product pages need unique, compelling Meta titles and descriptions incorporating popular keywords to increase its visibility. It is considered one of the most crucial aspects of on-page optimization. It is important to note that metadata is usually the first thing your potential customers come across, while making a Google search, so it is best to provide your potential customers with a compelling copy of product description that prompts them to make a purchase.

Include rich snippets: Snippets in the form of coded data can be included in product descriptions to provide more information about the product such as price, availability, etc. Incorporating snippets result in better Click-through-rates (CTR) as well as higher rankings on search results.

Include product images: Quality of your product images have a direct relationship with what your potential customers feel about your products. Always include visually appealing images to help your customers make informed purchase decisions. Also, tag these images with appropriate metadata so that they are easily searchable.

Use search-friendly URLs: Your product page URL's needs to be unique and should be optimized for main keywords. Appropriate URLs tell search engines what the page is all about while providing visitors with helpful product information.

Optimize your E-Commerce site for mobile: Mobile shopping has reached its peak and it has made it important for you to make your E-Commerce store mobile friendly. It is wise to use a responsive design for your website in order to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers across all platforms. Improving your E-Commerce site's performance is an ongoing process requiring you to stay updated with SEO best practices at all times. It is advised that you regularly test your website for errors, perform keyword and competitor research, observe Google's algorithm updates, and make the required changes to optimize your E-Commerce website and provide your customers with a great shopping experience.

Make navigation intuitive: Your website's architecture can be incremental in attaining higher rankings and providing great user experience. So it is best to organize your product pages into appropriate categories so that it facilitates easy navigation.

http://www.yberryinfosystem.com

Follow Special Steps For Bing Rankings

Many site owners have learned how to tap into great results in Microsoft's new "decision" search engine that produce lower bounce rates than the other major engines do. The question comes up for people unfamiliar with Bing about what are the special steps for Bing rankings using good website optimization that helps gain top page ranking (PR) on this new search engine poised to take on all the established competitors.

Domain Age Should be Ripe

Domain age plays a huge role determining PR on every search engine. Bing follows this criteria looking for sites that have been in existence for a bit of time. A site that has been around for a while will have an old name. Follow the reverse thinking to find that whenever an engine encounters an old domain name it will recognize it as a quality site because it is standing the test of time. Wherever possible, try to use obtaining a domain name with a little bit of road experience as one of your special steps for Bing ranking.

I Haven't Heard That Before

Bing is definitely an original content junkie. It especially likes to see a ton of original content on site landing pages. Plus, as is the trend these days, ranking follows along with how well you place relevant content on your website. It is extremely important that your content is always original and fresh. In fact, Bing will reward you with better PR if you get into the habit updating your content frequently. Site owners learning to change, improve and adapt to using nothing but relevant copy as one of the special steps for Bing ranking will find themselves at the top if the results page.

The Word Must be Key

Bing is in love with page titles that are keyword rich as well as specific to the site subject matter. You should choose a different title for each page that is distinctly unique. Stop naming your page "Home," or "About Us." The page title is just as important as your original content when seeking top PR on Bing. Although there is nothing demanding completion of the

A Steady Stream of Website Traffic

You may have asked yourself whether you truly need SEO (search engine optimization) on your website. What you should be asking yourself is whether or not you want people to visit your site. Of course, the answer is yes. You want your website to have traffic from people who are interested in the product or service you are offering, and you want that traffic to be constant, bringing new visitors to your site each day.

If you want your site to experience growth and popularity, yes, you do need SEO. You cannot take for granted that people will be able to find you in the vast sea of the Internet without you doing something to reach out to them. They want to find you and buy what you're selling, but if you don't stand out you'll blend into the background. They'll never find your site without some basic search engine optimization. SEO allows your company website to stand out amongst the pack so your products and services are highlighted for your target audience and potential customer base.

What SEO does for your website is what product placement does for a brand in a grocery store. Think of your website as a box of cereal. Where on the grocery store shelf would you like your cereal placed? Well, if your cereal were geared toward children, you most likely wouldn't want it behind the corn flakes on the top shelf. You want your children's cereal prominently displayed on the lower shelves - the perfect height for children to see. You've got the funny cartoon character on the box, but it would do no good being on behind the adult cereals on the upper level - out of reach of your target customer.

When you think about websites being placed on a virtual shelf, where do you want yours? Search Engine Optimization places your website on the most accessible shelf for your customers so they can find it easily - and find it first. There are millions upon millions of websites (and billions of web pages). However, if you run a search in Google, you are presented with a page of ten websites that match your criteria. Think about your Google searching habits. How often do you search for something and explore past the first page of results? Sometimes? How often do you go past the 3rd page? Probably never. So how do those first ten results get to be first amongst the millions? SEO.

The answer to your question can't be any clearer: Yes, you need search engine optimization if you want a website that receives a constant stream of highly-targeted traffic. The traffic can translate into products or services sold, which equals dollars in your pocket. It is important to remember that SEO and good design go hand in hand, so make sure your website is optimally structured so once the visitor is at your site, he or she can easily find what they are looking for.
By Bill Abernathy

What You Need to Know About Long-Tail Keywords

Have you heard the phrase Long-tail Keywords? Do you know what they are or how to use them? If you are an online marketer you really need to understand the impact long-tail keywords can have on being found through search engines.

Long-tail keyword searches are often used when someone is trying to look for a specific thing. They might type a question into a search box with their keyword phrases within the question. (ex., Where can I find a pink polka dot bikini?) Pink Polka Dot Bikini is a long-tail keyword. Typically people will search for just the generic keyword term, bikini, if they are only interested in bikinis in general. However, if they are ready to buy a pink polka dot bikini, that's the phrase they will use for their search.

Internet Marketers have been using these keywords and keyword phrases for awhile now to help rank in the search engines and get their websites positioned in that #1 spot. What this does is help them better answer the question their potential customer is asking. By using the keyword phrase, pink polka dot bikini, when someone searches for the exact term, it's a perfect match for the person searching and will most likely result in a sale.

The more specific you can make a keyword phrase, the better chance you have for someone to find you with that phrase. When you decide to target long-tail keywords, you are positioning your site to be found by those who are typing in a more specific targeted search. If you are trying to rank high with other more popular keyword phrases and are aiming to get on the top spots in the search engines with the more common or generic keywords, you could possibly be losing out on these more specific searches.

However, if you want to be found by those people who are ready to buy when finding exactly what they are looking for with the long-tail keywords, this method works much better. According to Wikipedia statistics recent long-tail keyword research has found that long-tail searches often exhibit a higher conversion rate by up to 200% compared to short tail (generic) keywords, and can be extremely profitable for search engine marketers in terms of a lower cost per action and higher return on investment.

If you are a marketer who is interested in using Pay Per Click as one of your advertising methods, choosing long-tail keyword phrases could end up saving you money. By using the more popular keyword phrases since they are more in demand can cost you a pretty penny. By targeting long-tail keyword phrases, you not only have less competition, but have a better chance of reaching the exact target market you would like that will end up purchasing your product.

Doing your keyword research to find these long-tailed keyword phrases is crucial to determine which ones are the best phrases to use. Wordtracker is a great program that will enable you to type in various keywords and find the best long-tail phrases that are being searched for within that niche. Also, Google's keyword tool is another good resource. You should always track your results when using keyword phrases so you can see which ones are producing better sales and views. Once you have found a few long-tail keyword phrases that have desirable statistics, you can then use these for other marketing methods to gain as much as you can from your advertising efforts.
By Terri Brooks

Using Google Analytics To Increase Sales

Google Analytics can help boost the amount of sales through your website. This is done by means of tracking the number of visitors to your website, as well as tracking the behaviour of your visitors, so that you can focus on improvement.

By installing a Google Analytics account, you will be installing a tiny tracking code called the Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) into the head section on each page of your website. You can either add this code on to every page of your site, or just the pages that you would like to track out.

Once this is done, there are conversion goals inside analytics, that you can set up to measure your key performance indicators. This means, you can set which website page you will count as a goal. For example, some people would view a confirmation page or a contact us form as a goal page, which could mean that either they have a new customer or a new lead.

Once the tracking code is set up and once the conversion goals have been defined, you will be able to track with ease the behaviour of visitors to your site. It normally takes a couple of weeks before noticeable results start to be seen.

Once you get on track with Google Analytics, you can use this tool to track loads of data within it. Some of the things that you can do is, you can track out what are the common keywords or key phrases that people are searching for and in the process reaching your site. You can analyse which of these users become paying customers, and you can further use SEO to streamline your business.

Apart from data analysis, you can also monitor which pages of your website are be best landing pages. This means, you can analyse which are your pages that are most frequently viewed, and also how long people spent on each page. You will also know how many of your visitors visited other of your web pages and how many left your site with viewing only one page. Based upon this last point, you can analyse whether the information was incorrect or whether the page was the wrong one that they landed up on. As far as bounce rates are concerned, these too can be monitored through this tool. However, as these are not all that important, it is wise not to pay too much attention to bounce rates.

George Venables is a leading expert in Google Analytics Training in the United Kingdom.

Basics of SEO and Reputation Management

If you own a business or company, and you're looking to get noticed and to increase traffic to your website, you're probably considering thousands of options. You could advertise on the radio, or on the TV, or you could stand on the streets handing out flyers if you really have nothing better to do with your time. More and more people, though, are realising the advantages of an alternative - search engine marketing.

Rather than spending money and time on expensive advertisements, search engine marketing will let you target the people you want to. A TV advert could be seen by thousands of people, and only ten of them could show an interest in what you're selling. Effective search engine marketing will ensure that the people who see you are the people who want to see you - they search for keywords, your result shows up, they click through to your site, and those views will convert to sales in no time.

To effectively market yourself on search engines, you'll need SEO skills. SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the art and science of using keywords, key phrases and background coding and design to create websites that rank highly in online search engines including Google. It can take years to become knowledgeable at SEO, and with the web climate constantly changing the things learned yesterday may not be relevant today. It's important to constantly stay on top of the latest developments, and to keep your own content fresh and unique. Otherwise, you could see your website dropping down in search results, or it could disappear completely. Done right, search engine optimisation can be the most powerful marketing tool imaginable. Done wrong, it could break your company in weeks.

As well as appearing in organic searches, an effective search engine marketer will want to create artificial appearances on search engine results. Google AdWords, for example, will allow you to pay for advertisements to show up when people search with relevant key words or terms. Even if your website's not showing up in the main Google search results, it can appear at the side or the top to grab attention. Paying for marketing through Google AdWords can increase your website's chance of being viewed, and can offer a fantastic return on investment when you target your campaigns effectively.

To be the best at search engine marketing, you'll also want to pay plenty of attention to the world of online reputation management. It doesn't matter how much you show off your product or your service on the internet, the web holds a power through the millions of other users spending time on it every day. For every word you use on your own website, and for every promotion you put out, there'll be someone forming an opinion of your business, your product or your service. Word-of-mouth marketing might be the most important form in the world. Impress people, and the message will carry. They'll recommend you, and you'll be receiving orders faster than you can blink. Make a mistake, and a complaint can carry far and wide to give your company a bad image. You'll want to work hard to make customers feel happy with what you offer - in the end, that'll result in positive reviews and word-of-mouth-marketing that can only serve to strengthen your company.

To keep your online reputation in top form, you'll want to regularly monitor where you appear in search engine results, and what you appear for. Also keep an eye on relevant online review sites, to see what's being said about you, and search for your business or company regularly on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus to see what people are discussing. Also search for your own name regularly in Google, in case people are discussing your brand on forums or blogs. It's important to keep a strong online presence in situations such as these. Signing up to social networking sites will offer a unique chance to address consumers and potential consumers, worldwide, as has never been possible before. Now, when people comment or make a statement about your company, you can respond to address their issues. Always take the time to tell someone you're glad they liked your service, and that you'd be happy to see them again, if they post a positive review. Likewise, do your best to help someone and address any concerns they might have if you want to keep them on your good side. The more publicly you can do this, without revealing their personal details, the more people are likely to see what great customer service you can offer.

Online reputation management works in the opposite way to search engine optimisation. In SEO, you want to make sure you rank highly and positively. When you manage your online reputation, you want to push negative comments down so they don't appear when people search. It's as much of a skill as SEO is, and it requires you to keep on top of what people are saying at all times. Promote any positive reviews and testimonials as much as possible, and address any issues with speed to avoid a negative image.

It's important to make sure that you're appearing in all the right places on the internet, with a message that's positive to gain the maximum number of customers. Whilst some websites will allow you to formally request for any negative reviews to be removed, other sites will keep their content up to give a well-rounded view of your company. Ultimately, the best way to ensure that you've got the right online reputation is to serve your customers and consumers well, and to promote yourself positively on search engines. It takes time and effort, but SEO and ORM are the two most vital skills in the running and promotion of a modern-day business.
Helmut Lotti

Beginners' Guide on How to Top the Search Engine

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the prime factors that rule the mind of every webmaster and blogger. One of the major players in SEO is the inbound links, which have a powerful impact on a particular blog and its status in the search engine list. Links that point towards your blog are called inbound links. The inbound links actually form a major and strong measuring meter for the search engines. The more the number of inbound links the better the rank is on the Search Engine (SE) chart.

The inbound links play a pivotal role in determining the position of your blog in the search engine chart. The inbound links are mostly from higher ranked sites and have a great impact on your blog's status. Most significantly, the links that come in are mostly related to the content of the blog and abounds in additional keywords and phrases. All these causes to create a great effect on the search engine rank of the concerned blog.

There are plenty of techniques to bring up the position of your website in the search engine list.

Looking for the ideal key words is the foremost thing to be done in the first place. Choosing the right keywords has a brilliant effect on the SEO process. However, it is not really suggested selecting as many of them as possible. Rather focusing on the important words by placing certain questions in front can be opted instead. Keywords enriched content is always preferred at a rank higher than the others.

Designing the website well, such as, to make it aptly coded and easily navigable helps ideally in ranking the site higher. Keeping the site simple and validated are the key factors to make it rise up the ladder of success.

Themed topics are the trend of the day. So if you want the blog to reach the desired status, its time to work on a niche project rather than on the general of the sort. Doing with a few pages on a particular theme can actually pull you the precious attention of the search engine spiders like never before.

Regularly updating the website or the blog is a must to keep it at a descent position in the list. Updating the blog would invite the SE to visit it more often and may also include it in the index. Choosing an appropriate domain name also contributes in franking the site to a higher position. It is important to check if there exist any other websites by the same name.

Interlinking the site or blog in a proper and convenient way is significant in increasing the popularity of the blog. Equipping your blog with a well coded and defined Site map enables the search spiders to browse through conveniently to the every side of the site. Each and every article and all other details of the blog must appear conveniently available to the search engine optimizers.

Most importantly, while writing on a particular topic we often tend to write long enough covering many other associated subjects at a go. To aid search engine optimization, it is better to divide the topic according to the different subjects, into many small contents. Maintaining a particular optimal length of the topic helps to fetch a decent rank on the search engine. Above all, with quality articles, indigenous endeavors and a proper maneuver, nothing can actually deter you from reaching the top of the list.

A. Karmakar is a successful writer and runs a Content Development Company with a worldwide clientele. You can visit Content Writers Organization to know more.

Keyword Optimization Tips That Work

As an online marketer or business owner who is advertising and promoting products and services online, one of the significant selling methods you ought to be acquainted with and be aware of is on page keyword optimization. Keyword optimization is an essential part in the SEO process. This is very significant because the keywords or key phrases serve as the link of the website to potential customers or target audiences. By means of typing the keywords or key phrases in the search engine boxes, they are able to hit upon your website. But this can only happen if you have a high ranking in the search engines since most of the visitors only click the first ten sites that they see in the search engines. This is the reason why there is a need to optimize and analyze very well the keywords used in the marketing process.

With a proper keyword research and analysis tool, you have bigger opportunities of gaining higher rankings in the different search engines like Google and Yahoo. This tool maximizes your keyword and analysis its capacity to rank high or even top the ranking. Keyword research and analysis tool help you have the best keywords that are relevant to the topic of your marketing content and your niche as well. Moreover, everything about your keyword is being studied carefully. Some of the zones that are analyzed the keyword analysis and research tool are the following: url, title, meta description, meta keyword, body, anchor text, image alt tags, h1, h2, h3-h6. Plus, this tool only suggests keyword phrases that are realistic for you to rank high.

So, if you really are out to become a magnet for potential customers and make your online existence and publicity bigger, you owe it to the keyword research and analysis tool that you use. You should also know and learn everything about internet marketing so as to maximize and boost your online business success fast.

Improve your website rank higher at major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. When your website ranks higher, you gain much more visits which means more sales leads, increased revenue. Want To Know More About SEO and Backlinks Rescource (http://www.e-backlinks.com)