Why Choose SEO?

SEO is a slow, natural process, that helps your site to the first page through effective link-building procedures, engaging content, and spreading awareness of your brand online. It may be slower than PPC, but it provides longer lasting results, shaping your reputation on the web and setting you up for long term success. Through using techniques such as interactive blogs, you will also have better access to more customer feedback.

As well as being arguably a better long-term solution, SEO is also the cheaper way to promote your business online. Unlike paid search, the only money you part with will be the fees you pay your enlisted SEO firm.

Another reason so many turn to SEO for their digital marketing efforts is that more often than not, companies find their conversion rates are normally higher when using this avenue, and after all one of your most important overall goals should be to increase this figure.

Why Choose PPC?

The biggest advantage of PPC, and the reason most who choose this option do so, is because it gets good results fast. Using Google AdWords it is possible to rank at the top of page one of Google (within the champagne coloured box) almost instantly, thus dramatically increasing the amount of visitors to your site.

This is particularly popular amongst e-commerce sites, especially those in retail. Unlike some sites, the sole purpose of these is to sell products, and the only way to do this is to be present within Google, and what better way to do this then be at the top of page one? However, as to be expected, as soon as you stop using this platform, your rankings will drop.

The biggest misconception surrounding organic and paid search however, is that you should go with one or the other. If your budget will allow it, these two can yield really successful results when combined effectively. Many small businesses that struggle to rank for the first 3 – 6 months may decide to use PPC to make their initial mark, then when this becomes too expensive, switching to SEO. Some may even alternate and use PPC in short bursts when in most in need of more sales.

SEO Positive offer wide reaching SEO and PPC marketing strategies to help clients of all sizes dominate the search engines.

SEO vs. PPC: Which Is More Effective? is a post from: SEO For Beginners

What about Social Commissions – does it really work? Keep reading to find out.

One of the newer products on the market in the affiliate marketing industry is called Social Commissions. This is a product that was developed by Adrian Morrison. If you’ve been paying attention to JV leader boards, you’re probably familiar with his name because he has been absolutely dominating them using this technique.

Two Modules

Based on the name, it is clear to see that the focus of the product is learning how to use social media more effectively.

There are two modules that come with the Social Commissions product. The first one is specific to a website called Plenty of Fish. This site is a bit of a combination between Google AdWords and Facebook. Social Commissions shows you the exact method Adrain has been using to make more than $100,000 on this social website.

They allow direct linking, and is perfect for affiliate marketing. Of course, the cost to place ads is always important, but there is good news here. You can get more than 1,000 impressions for your ads for around 10 cents.

The second module of Social Commissions shows you how to take your social media marketing to the next level. This module focuses on the other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, as well as many others.

The Pros and Cons of Social Commissions

One of the best selling points is the fact that it is so easy to get the product, and learn how to use it. The learning curve is really fast and it allows you to set up your campaign quickly. If you follow his advice, you can even start earning money within your first 30 minutes online.

As with any kind of a pay-per-click type of campaign, the key is testing. You will need to do several ads in the beginning to find the one that works the best for you. However, once you are able to locate the ad that gives you the most success, you can use it over and over to build upon your success.

The only downside related to the product is the fact that it does cost a little money to get started. However, this isn’t like Google AdWords where it will cost you $2,000 to get through the testing phase before you actually find an ad that converts for you. Remember, you can get 1,000 impressions for just a dime.

It takes $25 to get started and the recommendation is that you use this on 5 different campaigns. Then, you can see which campaign works the best for you, and start just using that campaign going forward.

It’s a great way to take advantage of the PPC market, without having to spend thousands of dollars to do it.

Social Commissions Review is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Having a professionally-built blog is undoubtedly the best option, it’s not always possible. There are many factors and aspects to focus on if you want to come up with a professional blog. The design of your blog is very important and it is what will decide if your site is going to be a success or not.

Form Fitting Function in Blog Design

The way a blog is designed and its structure determines not only the way the site behaves but also the first impression the user has of the site. A blog can be more accessible to visitors if the sidebar structure is initiative and is designed and arranged properly. There are many useful WordPress plugins for your blog sidebar that will make your site look and function better for the end user. Analysts advise that the use of plugins should be used appropriately in order to achieve the best results. Plugins add functionality but they also can slow down the load times of your pages. There is a happy medium when it comes to installing and using plugins on your WordPress site.

Sidebar Plugins You Should Consider

The below list of plugins are only suggestions. By no means should you install every plugin recommended. It all depends on your site’s needs and goals.

Alexa Ranking Plugin Widget

The Alexa Ranking widget is a feature that can make it possible to maximize earnings for your website. How is that, you ask? It can help to sell ad space by showing off your site’s Alexa ranking. Selling online advertisements is a great way to increase the return on your WordPress blog. If advertisers see your Alexa rank and like it, they are more likely to go for the advertising space on your blog.

Tweet Blender Plugin

Tweet Blender is also another great WordPress plugin that has the potential and capabilities of displaying Twitter updates in your sidebar. This plugin also has an archive for updates. Plugins such as these can make your site more social media friendly and more closely integrate your WordPress blog with your Twitter account.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin

If you offer a newsletter, the sidebar is a great place to advertise that option. This is an email plugin that can be used for newsletter subscriptions, increasing your readers’ engagement and encouraging return visitors.

Recent Comments Plugins

Recent comments plugins can also encourage engagement from your readers. If you call out commenters right on your home page they may be more likely to leave their own comments. The Recent Comments by Entry plugin has the features that will help to display all the latest comments and the exact page or post where the comments were posted.

Video Gallery Plugins

Post video and galleries for photos can also help you to maintain and display your media works. If your site is video or photo oriented, a sidebar display is a great place to show off your most prized content. Utilizing a plugin makes it easy to place photo and video media into the sidebar of your blog.

WP Carousel Plugin

Another important sidebar plugin is the WP Carousel. It becomes possible to creature a rotating carousel and put it at a strategic position in the blog or the sidebar. Carousel plugins are a great way to display a variety of content in a small amount of space.

Ad Code Widget Plugin

The Ad Code Widget is also a helpful plugin that can make it easy to maintain the advertisement displayed bin the sidebar or in the blog. This wonderfully designed plugin is able to support any image format of any size and makes placing ads, such as Google ads, very easy.

Login With Ajax

If your site allows or encourages users registering for accounts then plugins such as Login With Ajax is also important because it allows blog members to easily login and participate in member-only areas of your site.

All these plugins for WordPress can play an important role in your blog’s sidebar and can increase usability, page views and reader participation.

Daniel Ruyter is co-founder of the WordPress consulting firm Alpha Tree Marketing. He is also the author of the web’s best free WordPress Tutorial PDF.

WordPress Plugins to Enhance Your Blog’s Sidebar is a post from: SEO For Beginners

PAGE RANK

One of the most important SEO principles is the tailoring of a page to a particular keyword which will, if done properly, make that page be noticed and then be selected by the searcher ahead of any other page. Page content is, therefore, the key to the popularity (and therefore, success) of any web page. And you will never sell anything unless you have good visitor numbers to your web pages. Search engines use secret algorithms, as we have seen, to trawl the internet and find web pages that seem to meet a particular search query. Being secret it is clearly impossible to know the exact formulas they use but it is possible to guess the approximate methods employed. This has come mainly from trial and error, but that is sufficient to build a good picture of the process needed to rank a page successfully.

Essentially this process comprises three main elements:

1. Use the right keyword (the term is used loosely to cover phrases as well as single words).
2. Provide useful, interesting and relevant content to support that keyword.
3. Get backlinks to the page from other relevant websites.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT KEYWORD

This is an enormous subject, and can use hours and hours of your time trying to get it right. It is at the heart of internet marketing. But it is quite easy to start a simple search. Use the free Google Keyword Tool to provide a list of suggested keywords that you then use as the basis for further, and more refined, research.

The secret of success here is to find a keyword that fits well with the topic you are promoting but does not have too many competitors using it as well. Easy to say but rather more difficult to do.

HOW TO PROVIDE QUALITY AND RELEVANT CONTENT

Google Panda wants to see websites that offer a good experience for the human visitor. It is therefore important to identify the niche topic that the article will address, then the keywords that you want to include. The article content should:

• concentrate exclusively on the chosen topic.
• contain at least 400 words (500 is better, 600 probably too much).
• be unique (very important).
• use good copywriting techniques.
• include one or two calls-to-action usually a link to an affiliate product that will produce a sale or commission.

HOW TO GET BACKLINKS

The main way search engines assess the success or suitability of a web page is by the number of times people visit it. They also measure the time each visitor spends on each page, on the assumption that the longer the time the more interesting and relevant the content.

They count the number of backlinks to the page from other sites. These links are obtained each time a person clicks through to your webpage from one of these sites. Search engines look at the origin of the link and assess whether it is relevant to the target site. For instance if your webpage’s topic is dog training and it gets a link from a dog food site, Google will probably decide that it is relevant. If, on the other hand, the link is from a travel site Google will probably ignore it. Until a page has achieved quite a few relevant backlinks it is unlikely to get a decent page rank.

How many backlinks?

Perhaps 50, more or less. I have seen successful page ranks with only 5 backlinks and unsuccessful ones with more than 100. Just concentrate on gradually getting more and more, and on keeping the good ones.
Getting backlinks is a simple process but requires quite a lot of work and determination. It works as follows:

1. write a unique article that gets published on the Internet, either as a blog or as a static page, and
2. include in that article a link (known as anchor text) back to your web page.

When a reader of that article clicks on your link and gets taken to your webpage, that is a relevant backlink. Success!

GOOGLE PENGUIN

Penguin is an entirely different animal. Do not be fooled by the friendly-sounding name this is a big stick that Google uses to punish sites that it thinks are using unnatural backlinks. In the process several perfectly legitimate sites have been shut down or severely hammered.

For some time webmasters have been gaming the backlinks system. Google used to judge the popularity of a website or webpage, at least partly, on the number of relevant backlinks coming in to it. The greater the number of these backlinks the higher the page rank awarded by Google. In due course some webmasters found that they could buy these backlinks from third parties who were not actually interested in what the websites or webpages had to say. You will come across ads saying things like: I will send 1,000 backlinks to your website for $20. Obviously this was not fair on those websites that had legitimate links from people actually interested in them, and Google eventually decided to act. It did this by identifying the links that it considered to be unnatural.

For example if a new site had no backlinks one day and then 1,000 links the next, this was most likely a case of unnatural linking. There are other ways of finding these links as well. All well and good, and the genuine online marketers amongst us should be cheering.

The problem is that Google’s only way of doing this is to use its robot spiders as the unnatural link searchers. And they use very clunky formulas to make up their electronic minds. As a result many perfectly legitimate backlinks have been identified as being unnatural, and page ranks have suffered accordingly. Webmasters have seen their pages fall overnight from first or second position to third or fourth page in the SERPs. But like it or lump it if you want to stay in business online you have to play by Google’s rules, at least until something better comes along. That means being especially careful where you get your backlinks. You will know yourself if you are trying to boost your links by some dubious means, and my strong advice is: DONT DO IT. Better to take the long way, do it properly and still have your online business when you wake up tomorrow.

ON-PAGE SEO

If you have found the right keyword for a particular topic, written a web page with good content and found a reasonable number of suitable backlinks, you have achieved the basic requirements for ensuring the webpage will eventually rise up the page rankings. This will send traffic (and buyers) to your website. But good SEO is a little more detailed than that, and we should look at the steps for both on-page and off-page SEO to get a better picture of what is needed in order to succeed.

First you must make sure that your site is set up correctly for on-page SEO. As its name implies this is all the actions necessary to make sure that each webpage is set up correctly for your online marketing.
Good content creation requires some writing experience as well as some copywriting skills but it is vital for promoting a site properly. Don’t worry about having these skills in the beginning. They will come with time and practice.

IMPORTANCE OF OTHER PAGES

Google expects to see the following pages included in every good website:

1. An About page. This can be a simple paragraph showing who owns the website and how he or she can be contacted. An email address will do, but avoid using your personal or host server email addresses. I usually set up a separate Ymail account for each website and check it regularly. However, this page is an opportunity to expand on the purpose and aims of the website for anyone interested (and many readers are), to build trust and credibility and to place various useful links to other sites (which will impress Google). Including a personal photo is a good idea as well.

2. A Privacy Policy page. This is important, because readers need to know that you have a clear policy about data protection and not sharing or selling information that the reader might enter when using the website. You can download standard privacy policy statements from the internet and modify them if you feel inclined.

3. A Disclaimer page. It is important to state that you, as the website owner, are not responsible for any actual or consequential damages that users of your website might suffer. Also include a statement about earning commissions if you are an affiliate, so that there can be no argument about misleading readers concerning the purpose of the website. Again, you can find and download standard disclaimer statements that you can then customize as you see fit.

It is amazing how many websites do not have these pages. Do not follow their example.

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social networks, known collectively as Web 2.0 properties, are now very popular for promoting a website. Each has its own way of doing things and rules about what linking it will allow. Find four or five that you feel comfortable with, and let people get to know you before you start to steer them towards your website. Forums do not like people who are there simply to get backlinks, and will soon make their feelings clear to anyone seen as spamming.

The best way of approaching social network sites is to give rather than take. You need to want to help others, to give useful information, to over-deliver with no expectation of reward. Once you do this, and are seen to do this, you will be amazed how much you get in return. Building relationships and being seen as an expert in your particular niche will be more valuable than any other efforts you make to promote your website.

GOOD SEO TECHNIQUES

Assuming that you have done your SEO – found the right keyword, written a good article and got some good backlinks – what do you do then? Well, you could sit back and wait for the visitors and sales to roll in. The problem is that you might have to wait quite a long time, and possibly nothing might happen at all. There are 4 main reasons for such inactivity:
1. the search engines have not found your web page.
2. your keyword is not as good as you think it is.
3. your web page content is not sufficiently focused or interesting.
4. your backlinks are not relevant.

PING THE SEARCH ENGINES

Clearly it is important that the search engines find your web page as soon as possible. They do this by using electronic robot devices called spiders that constantly roam the internet looking for new pages and for changes to existing pages. Luckily these spiders tend to be very efficient, so usually find your page very soon after it has been published on the internet. But good search engine optimization techniques suggest that you should still tell them about any new or modified page and, if your web design software does not already have one, it is easy to find a plug-in that will do it automatically for you. The Google XML Sitemaps plug-in does the job admirably for WordPress users.

FINDING RELEVANT BACKLINKS

The search engines will evaluate your backlinks for relevancy before they decide page rank. Clearly a backlink from an acne cure site to your solar panel site is not really much good. You will prevent this happening by writing blogs or articles for publication that are properly focused on your chosen keywords. Make this a big part of your off-page SEO. Try to get backlinks from sites with high page rank. A link from a PR4 site is worth perhaps 10 times as much as one from a PR3 site as far as the search engine robots are concerned. Build backlinks slowly over time. Too many too quickly and Google Penguin will hammer your website for having those unnatural links. It is far better to have 5 good links than 1000 poor ones.

Mike Owner of rightseosteps.com has been an Internet marketer for many years as both Internet Marketing Manager for several companies and also as a private entrepreneur. He is a serial creator of new products and is constantly experimenting with the latest and safe techniques to buy links.

Important Factors Effecting SEO In Today’s World is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Changes to Anchor Text Interpretation

“Tweaks to handling of anchor text. [launch codename "PC"] This month we turned off a classifier related to anchor text (the visible text appearing in links). Our experimental data suggested that other methods of anchor processing had greater success, so turning off this component made our scoring cleaner and more robust.”

“Better interpretation and use of anchor text. We’ve improved systems we use to interpret and use anchor text, and determine how relevant a given anchor might be for a given query and website.”

What It Means: These changes are related to the recently announced “over optimization penalty” which every SEO blogger on the planet has been talking out.  Google’s algorithm has always heavily relied on the anchor text of links to determine relevance.  As a result, SEOs have built exact match anchor text links both internally and externally.  Finally Google has realized this can be easily abused to “manipulate rankings” and is taking action with the above changes.  The context surrounding links will become increasingly more important.  Search engines will be relying on contextual signals of the linking page rather than pure anchor text.  You site may also be dinged if your anchor text is too “artificial”.  For example if you have a landing page about “basketball sneakers” and every internal link to that page contains the exact match anchor text, this page may have a harder time ranking.  Same rule applies to external links.

How To React: Make sure to vary anchor text when building internal links.  Exact match anchor text should still be used in key areas such as your top/side main navigation or HTML sitemap.  Other internal links NEED to contain derivatives.  This is important when linking contextually or in non-essential areas.  When link building, include as many derivatives as you can.  It is also important to build “natural” links which contain generic anchor text like the URL of the page, “website”, “click here”, brand terms, etc…

Identifying Site Quality Factors

“Improvements to processing for detection of site quality. [launch codename "Curlup"] We’ve made some improvements to a longstanding system we have to detect site quality. This improvement allows us to get greater confidence in our classifications.”

What It Means: SEOs have always focused around 2 key concepts: on-site and off-site.  Over the last year and a half, Google has quietly put more emphasis on a third concept, site quality. Most misinterpret “site quality” and confuse it with site authority.  When Google crawls your site for “site quality” they are looking for particular site elements which are associated with their definition of quality.  If your site doesn’t have the majority of these features, it will be harder for you to rank.

How To React: Make sure your site has the elements Google is looking for to increase your “site quality”.  Seems obvious, but what are the elements?  Two sets of features exist depending on if the quality is being determined algorithmically or by a human.  Google will always start with an algorithmic review of your site.  The quality elements, or “trust elements”, are as follows:

• Clean Site Navigation
• About Us Page
• HTML Sitemap
• Shopping Cart (if E-Commerce Site)
• Contact Us Page with email and phone #
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use and/or FTC Disclaimer
• Author Page (if Blog)

If a human is reviewing your site they are looking for the above elements plus a few more.  “Trust Badges” signal your company or website has been legitimated by a third party.  These include TRUSTe, Better Business Bureau, BizRate, or other such logos and accreditation. Antivirus logos are also a plus.  Google can technically crawl for links to these sites so technically this could happen algorithmically as well. In addition to these logos/links, these part time human editors are also looking for a phone number.  Every real business has a phone number.  If your site doesn’t have one visibly displayed, this will hurt your “site quality” if under human review.  Click to chat functionality is also a huge quality indicator for human review.  This is optional, but if you have it you will pretty much pass right away. Finally for E-Commerce sites, accepted payment method logos visibly displayed are also important.

Social Bookmarking Profile Indexation

“Better indexing of profile pages. [launch codename "Prof-2"] This change improves the comprehensiveness of public profile pages in our index from more than two-hundred social sites.”

What It Means: No rocket science here.  Profile pages for users on identified social sites will have better indexation rates regardless of internal linking.  In the past SEOs have had to invest additional time in getting these profiles indexed – either through link building directly to the pages or other indexing tactics like meta indexing, rss feeds, etc…  The perhaps overlooked hidden gem of this update has to do with link building.  A large demand for natural external links combined with this update means one thing: GO build social profile links.

How To React: Build natural links by creating social profiles.  I’ve compiled a list of the top social sites in terms of PR and Alexa rank.  The large majority of these should be included in the 200+ sites Google referenced.  All the sites below offer do-follow links, but keep in mind building a few no-follow links won’t hurt.

Do-Follow – High PR Social Sites

• Technorati – PR 9
• Youtube LiveJournal – PR 9
• Blogger – PR 8
• Last.fm – PR 8
• Vox – PR 8
• Propeller – PR 8
• Acrobat Users – PR 8
• My Blog Log – PR 7
• Hi5 – PR 7
• Blurb – PR 7
• Squidoo – PR 7
• Viddler – PR 7
• Naymz – PR 6
• Twellow – PR 6
• HubPages – PR 6
• Kirtsy – PR 6
• Gather – PR 6
• Spoke – PR 6
• Aviary – PR 6
• Anobii – PR 6
• Amie Street – PR 6
• Biz Sugar – PR 6
• Design Float – PR 5
• Quarterlife – PR 5
• Know Em – PR 5
• Amplify – PR 5
• Active Rain – PR 5
• Blippr – PR 5
• Agency Scoop – PR 4
• Blog Interact – PR 3

Some of the above social sites enable you to provide  custom anchor text along with your link.  Remember to keep things natural.  Try to vary the anchor text with keyword derivatives as well as brand and generic terms.

If you have any additional sites to add, leave a comment!

Adapting To March 2012 Google Updates is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Sharing common links with page 1 ranking competitors is a great first step to ranking right along side them or beating them. It’s pretty easy to use yahoo site explorer or open site explorer to find competitor backlinks.  The key is honing in on high PageRank, low outbound link count, easy to obtain links.  For the purposes of this guide we will be focusing on comment links.  Some search engine optimization experts look down on blog commenting but if done properly these can be extremely powerful links, especially if your competitors already have them. Now that we want these links, let’s understand the how.  As an example we will be trying to obtain high quality competitive backlinks using the keyword “buy iPhone 4s” and trying to build links to iPhone4stest.com.

Step 1: Identify your competitors

Head over to this SERP checker and enter your keyword and URL.  In this case I used “iPhone 4s” as the keyword.  The URL doesn’t really matter so you can put whatever you like.  Copy and paste the top 100 rankings URLs into Excel.  In order to use the list properly this will require some simple formatting that can easily be accomplished in excel 2007.  First paste the list into Excel.  Next you will need to utilize the “text to columns” feature seen here:

What we’ve done is use delimited text to columns utilizing a colon as the separator.  This will put your competitor list in an easy to use format.  Once you have this, paste into notepad and save as a .txt file.

Step 2: Finding competitor backlinks

For the rest of this guide it is essential to have a program called ScrapeBox, bundled with a few addons.  Google it to purchase.  In order to find competitor backlinks we’ll be using the “backlink checker” addon of Scrapebox.  Simply navigate to the addon and upload your new .txt file from step 1.

Above is a screenshot of what the program looks like while gathering all inbound links pointing to your identified competitors.

Step 3: Filtering for high PageRank and low outbound link counts

This is the most crucial step of this advanced link building strategy and separates it from other link building tactics you may have read about.  We only want competitive links from URLs with a high PageRank and a low outbound link count to ensure the highest quality links possible.  We will be using the PageRank checker and outbound link checker addons for Scrapebox to filter out potential links for quality.  Filter for PageRank and outbound link count in whichever order you like better.  If you think low outbound link counts are more important, filter that first.  Otherwise, filter by PR first depending on your goals.  See the screenshots below for these filtering capabilities in action:

Step 4a: Obtaining the links

ScrapeBox is a scraper and comment poster at it’s core.  Once we have our filtered competitive link list using the 3 previous steps, it’s time to comment on these URLs.  You can of course do this manually to ensure the highest quality but if you are strapped for time, or interns, Scrapebox will work just fine.  Set the “Name” to your keyword, in this case “buy iPhone 4s”.  The email address can be anything you choose.  The “website” is the URL that the link will be pointing to.  In this case we are using “iphone4stest.com.  In the “comments” section simply write a few comments you would like to post.  Scrapebox will automatically choose one of these randomly when posting.  You cannot use spun content, so don’t try or your comments will look like spam.  The quality of the comments you write will improve the number of competitive links you are able to obtain, however you can still obtain a large number of links with generic comments as I will demonstrate.  For the “blog list” simply upload your filtered .txt file you have from following the 3 steps above.  Test out your comments and then hit submit.  Go drink a cup of coffee, send an email, and then move on to the final step, 4b.  Here is a screenshot of these fields in Scrapebox:

Step 4b: Checking for your new competitive links

Now that you’ve posted comments on all blog posts where your competitors have links, it’s time to check how many of them are live.  We’ll be using Scrapebox’s built in link checker but you can use any link verifier you have.  Personally I check my links once a week as over time more and more comments will get approved.  With this test using “buy iphone 4s” as the keyword I submitted ~2800 comments on high PR, low outbound link count blog posts.  9 of them were auto-approve. See the screenshot below for Scrapebox’s built in link checker.

Conclusion

Targeting pages that already link to your ranked competitors is a great strategy to start to ranking for your keyword.  As you can see I built 9 links on relevant pages that are already linking to competitors.  These links are all on PR 3+ urls (URL PR not domain PR) and have less than 50 outbound links.  This success on this strategy will depend on your keywords and competition.  The sites ranking for iPhone 4s aren’t utilizing many comment links as part of their strategy.  I’ve been able to build 100′s of high PR, low OBL links in minutes depending on the competition.  It is extremely important to understand the types of links your competitors are getting.  If they aren’t getting comment links, this strategy may not work exceptionally well for you.  Make sure you are targeting link types your top ranking competitors are.  The strategy outlined in this article is tailored for comment links because they are the easiest to reverse engineer and obtain.  Remember to take time to build a variety of link types to your site.  Just utilizing one link building tactic will result in poor performance and possible Google penalties.

Have questions or comments?  Leave a comment below or send me a tweet @seolair.

How To Obtain Competitor Backlinks is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Curious to see for myself, I bought it.  Read my income infuser review and discover the truth.

To begin with, what’s this Income Infuser and who founded it?

The Income Infuser system was founded by Darren Salkeld. I have not met him before and in addition, the reviews that are available on the web are not that helpful; the usual questions and comments which are not really helpful include: “Is Darren a fraud?” or “My friend has just given me permission to give access to 250 persons from my list for this amazing product”. Therefore, the product will have to prove itself.

Income Infuser – What is it?

The most ideal way to describe this product is as a system which is ‘done-for-you’ and which provides sales funnel which is ready-made. It offers you up-sell, down-sell, a squeeze page, membership site and back end product. So not much is unique or special in these offers, right?

What is the quality of the product, then?

Here is where it really starts to get attractive. Darren, along with Rick Anthony, his marketing director (who looks like David Duchovny and has a great trained presentation) declared that to produce the system, it cost them lots of thousands of dollars.  You will believe them when you take a look at the system.

Their production is far beyond what the regular Internet Marketer having a typical budget (i.e. not much) could even wish to produce; more than ever if your credit card has been maxed out on those other Guru stuff. On each page there are sales messages of professional levels and graphics of high quality. In a remarkably way, the system flows smoothly from one page to the next, from one offer to the next.  It is definitely designed to transform.

When the customer signs up, what does he/she find? I will tell you that even if you are a free member you will not be disappointed. A video course which is valued at $97, is offered for free and loaded with content of extreme value. As soon as you get inside, you will find a number of options that have been upgraded and all designed to help you make money as well as giving great value to your customer.

So I’m sure everyone reading Income Infuser reviews wants to know: Is everything truly done for you?  The answer is both yes and no.

‘Yes’ answers the part about all the web pages, graphic stuff and so forth; this was done for you and all is there to provide you with uninterrupted sales funnel.

‘No’ speaks to the bit of responsibility you have to get the system started. However, the videos with instructions from the support website are extremely clear and helpful. And the use of this instruction video is actually what set apart Income Infuser from almost all other ‘done-for-you’ or Turnkey systems. The instructions are logically laid out and if your knowledge of the internet is only basic, installation will still not be a problem.

Ready to give Income Infuser a try for yourself?  Click the link below and gain exclusive access to special training videos and member content that will help you get the most out of income infuser while minimizing your work.

Income Infuser Review is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Here is a summary of the SEO Tactics depicted in the chart:

Keywords

Search Volume, User Intent, Business Impact, and Relevance.

On-Site Optimization

Content – Meta Tags, Relevancy & Quality, Code to Content Ration, Keyword Density, and Text vs. Images

Technical Concerns – 404/500 errors, Robots.txt, Site Performance, and JavaScript/Flash Use

Site Structure & Internal Linking – Breadcrumbs, Canonical URLs, Header/Footer Links, Internal Link Anchor Text, and Sitemaps

External Influences/Off-Site

Social Media Reach, Link Bait Campaigns, Video Creation and Submission, Press Releases, Feeder/Microsites, Website Theme Creation, Article Promotion, RSS Feeds, Blog Commenting, Directories/Forums, and Guest Blog Posts

Reporting & Analytics

Industry Analysis – Market Opportunity, Competitive Analysis, and Organic Market Share

External Influences/Off-Site – Social Media Authority, Rankings, and External & Deep Links

Engagement & KPI’s – Conversions, Traffic Lift, Pages Per Visit, Bounce Rate, and User Behavior & Funnels

SEO Tactics Chart is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Here is the latest “advice” from Eric Ward over on Search Engine Land.  In the article Eric talks about the sheer quantity of businesses out there that shouldn’t be on the web.  He points out that these companies rely on search engines as their only source of online traffic.  He continues to speak to the link building tactics that you shouldn’t engage in (sound familiar?) leaving readers like Zac Sullivan (@XakSullivan) making comments like…

“I’d like to hear more specific, positive recommendations for things to-do rather than things not-to-do, though that is good to know as well.” Well Zac, I’m not Eric Ward.  I don’t hide link building tactics that the pros use.  In fact I’m here to show you exactly how to obtain links like Eric Ward.  I will be using the exact example that Eric spoke to in his Search Engine Land post.  The example is of course KBB.com (Kelley Blue Book) rankings #1 for “used car prices”.  Now Kelley Blue Book is the offline authority, first to mind company when anyone thinks of used car prices.  They are also linked to from thousands of auto dealerships and car websites naturally.  Ignore all that.  According to Eric Ward, and every SEO agrees, you need links from “subject-specific legitimate organizations with websites that exist not for SEO reasons”.  Take a look at the example given, the Cape Cod Classic Car Club.  Zac, Eric is telling you to build links like these!  Indeed this is one of the methods that he has relied on over his link building career.  Today I will show you how to link build like Eric Ward.

But first I’d like to point out that his example of an excellent link is on a site that sells links! See the screen shot below.  I guess you don’t have to check for paid links before building links on the domain.

Anyway…building links from “smaller, subject-specific legitimate organizations with websites that exist not for SEO reasons” can be simplified into 4 easy steps.

Step 1: Utilize advanced search parameters to find these subject specific websites.   A simple one that works well is “intitle:”keyword” inurl:”links”.  He is a screen grab using “classic car” as the keyword.

As you can see there are 3,310 websites you can target using just this one keyword!

Step 2: Use your favorite scraper to compile a list of all the URLS. I personally use Scrapebox for this.  No I don’t use this to comment spam

Step 3: Visit the sites and obtain the email address of the decision maker (Eric points out that webmaster@ emails rarely convert and I agree.)

I will use the first URL in the advanced search parameter above as my example. As you can see below, the webmaster provides not only his email, but also 2 phone numbers as well!  (Most sites that have “/links” pages were created awhile ago before online privacy concerns.)

Step 4a: Email the webmaster a link request.  This is by far the hardest step and it more complicated than most people make it.  While I believe this overall strategy is very elementary, this step is not.  People invest 100′s of hours testing link request emails and templates.  The key here is conversion obviously.  So what do you say in your link request?  The two most important things are to stand out and communicate your value add.  Most webmasters who broadcast their email addresses publicly get a lot of emails.  Why should they open yours? It starts with a title and intro that stands out.  Why should they add your company link on their page?  This is where the value add comes into play.  Now with Eric’s example of Kelley Blue Book, it is pretty darn easy to get a car site to link KBB.  It’s almost as easy as getting a home improvement site to link to Home Depot! Here are some old but great posts on how to write a link request: Stuntdubl, Good old Rand Fishkin (aka I am white hat!), ClickZ, SoloSEO, and Search Engine Journal.

Step 4b: This added step is for those who want to mimic Eric Ward to the extreme.  This step takes more time but the success rate can be higher.  You will not be using link request emails at all.  You will only be using Whois, the phone book, and your phone!  The first step is to try to find a phone number of the person who registered the domain.  This is not ideal but it’s the quickest.  I’ll use the same example from above.  Here is the Whois registrant:

Notice how the phone number and email match what I was able to find on their site.  Most of these older sites will not have their information protected because they aren’t experts at doing things online.  Now this isn’t the most extreme Eric Ward link building method.  So what is it, you ask?  First you will need to narrow the list you scraped earlier to only those sites that exist offline.  Like Eric has said, we are looking for “legitimate organizations with websites that exist not for SEO reasons”.  Only those organizations who exist offline (The Cape Cod Car Club), should be targeted.  Use your phone book or Yellow Pages to find the listing.  Here is the Yellow Book listing for the above example:

Again, the information matches. Simply call the number above and inquire about the website ,what the organization is about, and the links/resources page.  Are they looking for additional resources that add value for their members or users?  If so you have a great company to suggest…your client.

Why does this strategy work? I know what you are thinking…all the above posts are 3-10 years old.  You’ve heard about this as a link building tactic before.  What is the big deal?  The big deal is that this strategy if executed properly still has an amazing effect…so amazing in fact that Eric Ward decided to talk about it in his latest post over on Search Engine Land.  It works because of the following:

1. The domains are contextually relevant. (Duh?)

2. These domains and pages are usually old.

3. “smaller, subject-specific legitimate organizations with websites that exist not for SEO reasons” are seen as extremely credible.

Try using this strategy and changing up the advanced search parameters to find the most relevant sites possible.  For an added bonus, try link building to the /links pages on other people’s domains.  Now your stepping up into the league of “link laundering”.  More on that in my next post.

Link Build Like Eric Ward In 4 Easy Steps is a post from: SEO For Beginners

The inspiration for today’s on changing title tags comes from various posts across the inter webs of SEOs freaking out because Google is changing some of their title tags.  I found the first post yesterday on SE Watch.  Here is a quote from the posts which sums up the purpose of all these “freak out” posts: “SEOs are getting frustrated.”  Who’s frustrated you may ask?  Well the respected community over at Webmaster World have something to say.  So does David Malmborg from SEO.com and Bill Hartzer on his search engine marketing blog.  The opinion and concerns of the community are two fold:

1. Why does Google have the right to change my title tags from what I decide?  A.K.A who is Google to determine relevancy?

2. What is the point of the title tag anymore if Google is just going to determine it automatically?  A.K.A why waste time optimizing it?  Should we simply focus our efforts on on-page elements and off-site work?

The answers to these questions aren’t of immediate concern because the mystery lies else where. How is Google determining a relevant title tag for my page? Many SEOs have theories which are all valid.  Could they be pulling this from on-page content?  What about heading tags or linking anchor text?  Maybe it’s pulling from DMOZ?  Let me pose a question.  Why ask HOW when you can ask WHY? If you can prevent Google from choosing the title tags for all of your pages, does it really matter how they are doing it?  It may have far reaching implications down the line, but for now – let’s focus on the SEO mystery: WHY is Google changing my title tags?

The answer to this mystery is simple.  Let’s turn to an esteemed Google resource (No it’s not Matt Cutts, lol) – Google Webmaster Central. I quote from this post: ““Make sure that each page on your site has a useful and descriptive page title (contained within the title tags). If a title tag is missing, or if the same title tag is used for many different pages, Google may use other text we find on the page. The HTML suggestions page in Webmaster Tools lists pages where Google has detected missing or problematic title tags. (To see this page, click Diagnostics in the left-hand menu of the site Dashboard. Then click HTML suggestions.)”

The answer to our SEO mystery is right there in bold.  Google will only change your title tags if they aren’t unique enough or if you aren’t using them.  But wait, there’s more from John Mueller via Google Webmaster Central: “In general, when we run across titles that appear to be sub-optimal, we may choose to rewrite them in the search results. This could happen when the titles are particularly short, shared across large parts of your site or appear to be mostly a collection of keywords. One thing you can do to help prevent this is to make sure that your titles and descriptions are relevant, unique and compelling, without being “stuffed” with too much boilerplate text across your site.”

There you have it – the final piece to the puzzle in bold.  In summary here is why Google is deciding what your title tags should be: They don’t exist, they are too short, they are duplicated across your site, and/or they are too full of keyword spam. Let’s examine how to check if you are at risk of being a victim of Google policing your own website.

First you need Google Webmaster Tools verified.  If you are an SEO beginner do this immediately, go go.  Now on to the real steps (Get ready, they are really HARD!)

1. Click on “Diagnostics”, then click on “HTML suggestions”.

2. Look for the following:

3. Look at the list of potential factors that put  you at risk.  Clicking on the problems will tell you EXACTLY which urls you need to clean up.

“Non-informative title tags” is Google’s way of saying “keyword spam”.

That’s all she wrote folks.  It’s really that easy.  If your site has no issues with its title tags you will see the following message:

Google should not be re-writing your title tags for any reason if you see this message. Congratulations!  You now control your own site.

How Google is re-writing title tags is a very interesting subject.  I’m very excited about reading research about different ideas.  It’s going to have longer term implications and will uncover more about how Google views web pages, thus making it easier for smart people to be better at SEO.  If you are doing any research around this, please post a comment and I will make sure to show you some link love in this post!

SEO Mystery Solved: Why is Google Changing my Title Tags? is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Before everyone runs out and increases their retainers for a site redesign, let’s examine Google Instant Preview (GIP) a little more closely.The following is information about GIP right from Google’s own blog:  ”Instant Preview does not change our search algorithm or ranking in any way. It’s the same results, in the same order. There is also no change to how clicks are tracked.”  You heard it right from the horses mouth folks…Google Instant Preview changes nothing.  Or does it?

GIP gives users the ability to preview a website before clicking through and actually visiting it.  The one thing Google Instant Preview changes, potentially, is the CTR of the given search result.  Aside from the title tag, description tag, and URL, GIP adds a third component that effects CTR.  This is of course if the user chooses to actually click for the Google Preview.

Let’s talk about the preview’s potential effect on search result CTRs.

Users go online for 1 of 3 reasons:

1. make a purchase

2. information (purchase related or otherwise)

3. entertainment

What users want is to be able to tell if the site they are about to click on serves the need that is making them execute the search in the first place.  In other words, does this site enable me to do what I intended?  If the answer is yes, they will click on the result.  If you are optimizing your title tags, description tags, and URLs properly the user should be able to tell what intent your site fulfills.  For example – Is this an e-commerce site or an information site?  Can I watch videos or see images on this site?

Let’s go back to the intent of the search.  Users want the search result to match the intent of their search.  If I’m searching for “ink” for my printer, I obviously don’t want the IMDB listing for the movie Ink or a news article about an ink cartridge bomber.  I want an e-commerce site that sells ink cartridges.  Google Instant Preview gives users the ability to see if the website matches their intent.  But wait, I just figured out if the results matched my intent for “ink” and I wasn’t even using GIP!?!?! Amazing.

Should you ignore Google Instant Preview? Absolutely not.  You want your homepage to be clean and portray what your site is about.  The point is that you should have been doing that WAY before GIP was released.

Google Instant itself is a much broader change that is actually effecting search engine marketing metrics.  THAT is where your efforts should be focused.  I ran across a study from Marin, via the PPC Blog, which talks about the effects of Google Instant on Paid Search Ads.  The study revealed a 9% increase in impressions, a 5% increase in clicks, and a 2% increase in campaign spend in reaction to Google Instant.  THAT my friends is game changing stuff, not a simple preview that both Bing and Ask have already implemented.  If you’re interested in learning more about it’s impact on paid search and SEO visit Response Mine’s POV on Google Instant. (Shameless plug, I know).

Shockingly the changes outlined in the Marin study mean Google is making more money off of Google Instant.  Interestingly enough, everything Google does is an effort to make more money.  Providing the best user experience is just a means of dominating market share to, you guessed it, make money.

So at the end of the day, invest YOUR money in optimizing for Google Instant and leave Google Instant Preview for later.  If your homepage needs a refresh, it wouldn’t hurt to redesign it in conjunction with GIP.  Redesign because it will effect the user experience once they click through to your site, not to “optimize for Google Preview”.  You’ll see a much greater impact on your bottom line if you do.

Google’s “Instant Preview” Changes Nothing is a post from: SEO For Beginners

This guide is intended to show you how to keep your domains separate in the eyes of the search engines.  It focuses solely on reducing affiliations between sites.  HOW you choose to cross link your domains once that is achieved is up to you.  Two most commonly practiced strategies are footer/sidebar links and in-content deep linking.  Let’s take a look at the main ways search engines create affiliations between domains so we can eliminate them.

IP Address – This is perhaps the most obvious and often thought of signal that creates affiliation.  Each domain you plan on linking together needs to be on its own unique C-Block or C-Class.  You may be able to get away with 1 or 2 being on the same IP, but the more unique the better.

Whois Information - Whois stores publicly available information on who domains are registered to.  Let me emphasize that this information is publicly available, even to Google.  In order to steer clear of affiliation, the domains you plan on cross linking need to be registered to different entities or people.  An easy and common work around is to enable privacy with your registrar so that your information will be kept private.  While this is the best option it comes with a cost, especially if your have a large number of domains.

Link Affiliation – Where your external links come from matters especially when trying to hide affiliation.  This signal really needs to be abused for the search engines to catch it, but I’ve seen it happen.  There is definitely some sort of percentage threshold in Google’s Algorithm to trigger this, but I obviously can’t say for sure.  The basic idea here is as follows:  If everywhere there is a link to site A there is also a link to site B, it is becomes pretty obvious that site A and site B are affiliated.  This is especially true if the links appear near each other on the page and the anchor text is always the same.  Ex. If the link to site A is always “toys” and the link to site B is always “rocking chairs”, it creates an even more clear affiliation.  In order to avoid this, never link build to two of your domains at once.  Changing up the type of links you are building across multiple domains can also help.  If you are buying links, never buy 2 links on the same site.

Site Structure – This is one of the more ignored affiliation signals.  First let’s start with the site structure.  None of the domains should use the same template or even look the same visually.  Obviously the fewer sites in your network, the more separation.  You don’t need 1000 templates if you have 1000 domains .  The layout of the sites should also be unique.  Don’t use the same widgets and/or plugins on every domain.  Don’t always have the widget bar on the right or left etc…

Site Architecture – The way files and URLs are organized is also a huge affiliation signal for the search engines.  For example, if all of your image directories are in the same location this can tip the engines off.  URL structures (which follow directory structures) should also be unique.  If you use the same categories, sub categories, etc… across multiple domains, the search engines will translate that as potential affiliation.  Link architecture is also a key affiliation factor.  If your navigation links are the same across all sites and/or your footers all link to the same 3 authoritative sites, you are creating affiliation.

These precautions are slightly paranoid and should be taken with a grain of salt.  You do not have to follow all of these recommendations in order to successfully cross link your domains; However,  taking these precautions will make it almost impossible for you to get caught.  You may even reach your dreams of Google Domination (Austin Powers Style) The two most important factors are the  unique C-Class IP and different/private registration.  Focus on these if you are crunched for time.

Finally I’d like to touch on 2 factors which people THINK create affiliation when in fact they do not.  Let’s call these cross linking affiliation myths.

Affiliation Myth #1: Registrars have to be spread out and/or different.  This is SO no true.  Think about how many people use GoDaddy as their registrar.  If the search engines use this to create affiliation, how could people using Godaddy link to each other safely?  While you do need to have a more than 1 or 2 links to create separation, this method is too much of a broad stroke approach to be successful.

Affiliation Myth #2: You must use multiple Name Servers.  The is false for the same reason as myth #1.  How many sites out there have this as their name server: ns1.bluehost.com? The simple answer is ALOT.  Again, this is too broad stroke to work on a large scale such as, I don’t know, the internet .

Cross Linking Guide: How To Not Get Caught is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Deciding that you WANT to guest post and finding a place to guest post are two very different things, however, and having some great content for distribution is only half the battle. You can write a fantastic article and be stuck with absolutely no place to put it. You may firmly believe that your content is deserving of a home on a highly trafficked blog with great PR and loyal readers, and perhaps there’s even such a blog out there, just waiting for content like yours, but if you can’t find it, then your fantastic guest post will be doomed to obscurity. How can this problem be addressed? How can we find great places to post our content? We can’t always count on friends or colleagues to have blogs for us to post our content to (big shout out to SeoLair!).

One of the first things I would suggest trying is a website called Topsy. Topsy describes itself as a search engine for Twitter. If you do a search on Topsy for any topic, you can find websites that have been popular on Twitter in a certain period of time for that topic. These websites have a great social reach and would be ideal places to ask for a guest blog post. Your request doesn’t have to be a difficult thing. Send the author of the blog a direct message, introduce yourself, explain what you have to offer and why you think a guest blog post would be mutually advantageous.

Topsy isn’t the only place you can search for potential blog posting partners. Another good location you can use is Google Alerts. Google Alerts allows you to scour the web for certain topics or keywords. When these words or topics get mentioned, Google will compile a list of the websites that mentioned the very thing you were hoping to guest post about. These are all great locations for potential guest blog posts. Sometimes you don’t even have to send a ‘cold-call’ type of email. Many bloggers already have systems for guest-blogging already set up and in place. Some even are willing to pay for reliable writers of quality content.

You can also always look around on forums and portals pertaining to your topic of interest. Chances are, if you have a passion for something, someone has made a forum centered around your topic. Try searching for your topic in Google plus the words “forum”, “blog”, or “message board”. Chances are, you’ll find lots of like-minded individuals who might be willing to exchange guest blog posts so you can tap into each others’ social networks and readers.

Without a doubt, however, the absolute best way to find a place to host guest content is at My Blog Guest. My Blog Guest is a relatively new community (just 8 months old) of bloggers who meet on a forum to exchange guest blog posts. The community has been kept relatively small because of the high quality demanded by blog authors on the website; if you are hoping to get your spammy or poorly written guest content featured by bloggers on the forum, you’d better think again. This is just the perfect resource for identifying bloggers in similar niches that you can be totally sure are actively seeking the content you’ve written. And hey, if you are a blogger and you are having trouble updating your blog as often as you want, why not head on over to My Blog Guest and see if you can score a quality guest blogger eager for their content to reach your audience?

My Blog Guest is a totally free service, although it does have a premium membership that allows certain extra additional features, but currently, these features are more like conveniences than actual necessities. In addition to the open forums where bloggers and content writers meet to exchange articles, there’s a jobs board where various paid writing opportunities can be posted and an open articles forum where anyone can submit conent for consideration (although only premium members can claim content from there). It’s still managed by just a handful of moderators and the community has stayed so small that the standards have stayed high and the riff-raff have been kept out. I hope that if you read this and decide to join our guest-blogging community, you will espouse similar high standards for your own conduct.

David Fishman is a blogger and internet marketing enthusiast from Atlanta, GA. In his spare time, he likes to blog about his interests, which recently involve cooking and food preparation and specifically, how to make sushi.

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3 Great Ways to Find Guest Blog Partners is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Time * Cost * Quality = Link Building Expectations

Included in the link building expectations formula are three variables.  When choosing the type of link building tactic to engage in, remember you can ONLY CHOOSE TWO variables.  For example if you want the link building to be done quickly and be high quality, it is going expensive.  Here are some conclusions that come out of the formula:

1. If the link building is inexpensive and high quality, it is going to take a lot of TIME.

2. If the link building is quick and cheap, it’s going to be LOW QUALITY.

3. If the link building is quick and high quality, it’s going to be EXPENSIVE.

Paid links are a different animal.  Only some forms of paid link building fit this model.  For the purposes of this guide, we’re only focusing on organic link building.  I’m working on an extensive high quality paid link building guide.  How to set expectations for paid links will be covered in that guide, so check back later!

Below are some examples of link building tactics that fit the link building expectations formula above.  Use these examples to help set your expectations when engaging in various link building tactics.  If you don’t see a link building tactic you use on a regular basis, post a comment so we can set some expectations for it!

High Quality and Inexpensive, yet Time Consuming: Link bait pieces, Guest blog posts, High PR micro/feeder sites.

Quick and Cheap, yet Low Quality: Article link building, directories, forum and blog commenting, free press release distribution, video link building, link exchanges.

Quick and High Quality, yet Expensive: Premium press release distribution, some paid links, sponsored reviews.

Just as a reminder, you can only have TWO of the three variables in the formula:

Time * Cost * Quality = Link Building Expectations.

There are a few, I mean very few, link building tactics that are cheap, high quality, and quick. I can think of only one off the top of my head. The people who know what those are won’t tell you so you’ll just have to go experiment!

Link Building Expectations Formula is a post from: SEO For Beginners

So what am I referring to when I say Google One Box? For those of you who aren’t aware, OneBox is the term Google assigned to the search feature update that integrated its organic results (i.e. traditional Google Search) with results from other areas of search (like Video or Images). These OneBox results are tripped off when they are judged by Google to be relevant to the organic search performed by the user. They can take the place of any individual listing on the organic search results page, but will usually be force-added to the 1st position.

Sure-fire ways to force a OneBox listing are using the words “picture” or “photo” (which will force a Google Images OneBox result), the words “video” or “film clip” (which will force a Google Video OneBox listing) or the words “buy” or “purchase” which will force a Google Product Search result.

This is relevant for internet marketers and SEO practitioners because this OneBox listing has essentially replaced and taken over the #1 position in the organic results. Some other website may be highly optimized for a certain phrase, but if your website is showing up in the oneBox listing, it’s being given the chance to supersede the top organic listing.

Properly Utilizing the different pieces of OneBox can give you a powerful edge on your competition because chances are high you are the only one using integrated search optimization. To get the total amount of coverage on a Google Search Page, your website should be showing results in the paid ads, organic ads, AND OneBox listings. It’s just the little extra thing you can do to totally tweak out your Google presence.

Google Image Results

Google Image OneBox results are obtained from the same keyword being searched for in Google Images. The process of getting indexed and ranked in Google Images is pretty simple. The most important factors in determining the ranking of your images are the alt text you have set for the image and the context of the page in relation to the alt text. Also, always use hyphens (not underscores!) in the alt text of your image. If you’re running a WordPress-powered blog, there are numerous plugins that will optimize an image’s tags for SEO for you.

Google Video results

Google Video is an aggregator of videos from video hosting sites all across the web like Youtube, Metacafe, and Viddler. Proper optimization in the submission of your video will result in better rankings in the individual video hosting sites and eventually, higher rankings in the Google Video listings. This will result in a OneBox appearance. Make your sure your video is properly tagged and titled. It doesn’t hurt to do keyword research for the title and description of your Youtube video, since Youtube in particular tends to rank very highly in search results and can often singlehandedly allow you to dominate a low-competition long-tail. There are many products and information guides that can teach you more about Video Optimization. Reel SEO has a great list of informational websites and tutorials about video search optimization.

Google Product Search results

Google Product Search results are determined by a product’s listing in Google Base. You can submit a data feed with your products to Google Base and your products will then begin to show up in Google Product Search and eventually, the One Box at the top of the organic listings. The process of optimizing your data feed for Google Base is called data feed optimization and you can follow that link to find a more comprehensive explanation of DFO that I wrote for Lilengine. The same strategies used in that guide also apply to other CSEs (Comparison Shopping Engines) like NexTag and Bizrate.

Google Local Search Results

For location-based searches, you want your business to show up in the map insert above the organic listings. This listing is not difficult to obtain and can greatly increase local traffic to your website, even without a high organic listing. The best part is that local traffic is more targeted and more likely to convert. To get well ranked in Google Local Search involves getting your business listed by the search engines, filling out all the fields for your business’s profile, and obtaining citations of your company’s address and phone number. What’s a citation you ask? A colleague of mine wrote a great article about local search optimization for EQuicktips, so I would suggest you head over there for a more thorough evaluation.

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About the author: David Fishman is a blogger and food enthusiast from Atlanta, GA. He enjoys writing about all topics related to online marketing and online customer acquisition, not to mention his current passion, which is learning how to make sushi.

Interesting in writing a guest blog post to be featured on SEO Lair?  Send an email to guestposts@seolair.com with your info and topic!  All posts are supported by social media efforts.  All links are followed…and STAY followed.

Google OneBox – Integrated Search Optimization is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Most of the social media sites require that you complete some sort of sign up process to become a part of the site. It is normally free to join a site, but you must be willing to answer a few questions. If you are under age, the network may ask for a parent’s permission before you are allowed to join.

The sites will then allow you to read people’s posts and then make your own comments on what is being said. They can also read your posts. You will both have the opportunity to comment on posts made by the other person. You can usually add either video or photo postings to the site.

You need to be aware that one post you make may be read by thousands of people, even if you only have a relatively short friend list. when you make a comment on a friend’s post, that comment is visible on all to all of his friends. In addition, it is visible to all the friends of friends that make a comment on the same posts. Additionally, if you make a post, your post can be seen by the friends of all persons that make a comment on your post.

These connections make social media a powerful tool. Messages can help or hurt your cause. Be careful what you post, as you never know who will see something you say. It may be a potential employer or a current supervisor. If you continually make derogatory remarks, you may find that your friends have quietly blocked you from reading or commenting on their posts. Friends can be made and lost very quickly using social media networking.

Social media networks are being used by network marketers to build followers. If done properly, marketers are able to build up trust and develop friendships that may help them to build their business. If the social media net work is not used correctly, then many of the other users will simply see the marketer as another source of spam and will block him and his comments from their page.

Make sure that you follow the rules of the social media network, or you may find your page has been shut down and that you are blocked from using the site.

Using Social Media Networking is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Even the actual term SEO can be quite a bit confusing initially. SEO refers to the methods that certain people use in order to make sure that their websites will perform to the best of their ability on the search engines. The most popular search engine these days is Google so for many people the word SEO means ranking high in the Google search results.

Backlinks/ inbound links Backlinks are the links which will send another person directly to your website. If another person puts a link to your website on their page then it will send more visitors your way and it will also help you perform better in search engine results.

Keywords Keywords is the term used for the actual words or terms that people use when they want to find information on a website. In order to get Google to rank your site highly, you will need to know what the relevant keywords are and make sure they are included in the content on your site.

Keyword density Keyword density refers to the number of times that you use a specific keyword in your content so that your SEO is improved.

Rank The ranking of your website is what is meant by how high it actually appears on the search engine results pages. For instance you would not expect to be happy if your website was only managing to appear on page 50 of the results for a certain keyword.

So there you have just a few SEO keywords. These are not the only terms that you will hear when it comes to SEO.

All website owners understand the advantages of getting SEO. There are many things a good SEO company can do for your site, including Free Content. There is no point in walking a lone furrow when it comes to SEO, so enlist the help of some experts.

Getting To Grips With SEO Language is a post from: SEO For Beginners

This radical new approach by Google, plus the fact that Twitter tweets are now indexed in Google’s normal search engine results, are why I’m so psyched about using automated Twitter software to market my Web properties. The software makes Twitter account management simple, helping me to have an active presence on the site. Due to this fact, my tweets are regularly indexed, and I also have more material for the social search engine results. So even though I get very little traffic from people clicking links on my Twitter account page, Twitter brings me traffic through these other means. And that traffic has the potential to increase over time as the PR on my Twitter account increases, causing the rankings for my tweets to be even higher in the regular search results.

Although it’s not as important as posting to Twitter and other social media sites, I also like to make sure all my social accounts look professional. If you use social media as a means to market your business, then that is a must. To do this, you can access clipart and manipulate it in a variety of different applications that make avatars. (Icons or avatars are those little images, usually in a square format, that display near usernames on social media site pages. They can be made of photos, clip art graphics or a combination of the two.) I’ve played with a variety of icon makers and created many images. Using multiple avatars has allowed me to brand my various business ventures appropriately, because some of the images are humorous, some are cute, some sophisticated and so on. You would be amazed at how influential those small images are. After all, that’s usually the first way people get to know you on a social media site.

Will The Way We Search The Internet Change Because Of Social Media? is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Companies that do not use SEO are missing out on a huge potential market. The internet makes it possible to access individuals around the world. Over 70% of all individuals will use the internet for research or to find a product or service. Without SEO your website will never be found as a possible solution for that search. You are hurting your business by not utilizing the talents of a search engine optimization firm.

There are many different types of work needed to create good SEO and Accentu8 Marketing offers a full range of SEO services. The services form this search engine optimization firm include information on the effectiveness of your current SEO and areas that need improvement. How successful your keyword choices are and the types of markets you should be advertising in. Accentu8 provides all the research services you will need investigate keywords, emerging markets and the use of search engines.

There are several different product packages available. Depending on your companies needs Accentu8 provide information on the return of your advertising spending, help understanding your ROI metrics as well as the cost per event on SEO. You can develop an online SEO marketing strategy that includes choosing targeted keywords, creating themed words to surround that chosen keyword, the price you pay per click, determining the search terms that individuals actually use, developing your own unique marketing message and research on the originating search engine.

Besides creating search engine optimized content a searche ngine optimization firm will also analysis your SEO effectiveness to determine if the type of returns you are getting from SEO. In this way they can determine how you can make even more money from your SEO so that you get the most returns from the cash you are investing in marketing. They will research niche markets your company can use, the effectiveness of your keywords and the popular keywords being used in search engines. 

Many individuals feel that they can take care of SEO themselves. However the vast majority will not be using SEO correctly. SEO also takes time as you must constantly be updating your websites, creating new articles, researching keywords and researching emerging markets to exploit. SEO cannot be done once but is a continuous process this is why you should use the services of a search engine optimization firm. You will find that you are wasting a lot of time when you could be using it to help build your business.

The services of a good search engine optimization firm are invaluable because they can take care of all of your SEO. You no longer need to spend all of your time on SEO but can watch your online business increase and then develop new ways to build your business in other areas. SEO from Accentu8 is also more affordable then doing it on your own because they receive wholesale rates form the search engines and article directories, something that your competitors do not get.

If you are interested in any of the services offered from Accentu8 then you can obtain free information by submitting your details. The time to act is now and once you see how successful SEO can be for your company you will be glad you took this important step.

Search Engine Optimization Firm – How Your Company Can Excel Using SEO is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Though search engine optimization is an extremely crucial feature of the promotional plan of any online trade, it has become more and more homogeneous and mechanical. A large number of SEO services and applications improve a web site’s search engine rankings merely by using the same basic plan. The fact that many marketers are now trying to accomplish their objectives by using dreadful methods of search engine optimization can be attributed to this. These techniques may work wonders in creating traffic but ultimately they make the Internet a terrible place. These methods, known as “Black Hat” SEO methods, are just a bad idea. Besides causing disturbance to your website’s prospective clients, they may perhaps not even give eternal results…

Actually, Google and other search engines have started their pursuit of techniques that will help them get rid of Black Hat SEO methods. If their endeavors are triumphant – and actually they will be, quite soon – you may have lost your time and money. Why throw away money on search engine optimization that may possibly be of no value in the near future?. Worse yet, search engines aren’t just knocking these sorts of sites down in rank; they’re totally removing them from search results.

Using inexpensive labor or machines for accomplishing different assignments is not beyond a number of these Black Hat techniques. To exemplify, these services would at times sign to scads of forums and/or social networking sites and plainly spam the link to every imaginable site. Sites cluttered with meaningless links are a distinct source of irritation for multiple webmasters. If you would like to learn how to harvest large amounts of traffic and send them to your sites to increase your online income quickly using SEO then take a look at what Keith Baxter and Jon Shugart have to say in my Epic Traffic Systems Review.

Link farms are another common type of Black Hat SEO. The sites are a copy of licit online listings, and are piled with links, which may guide you to really pitiful web sites. Some of them only link into each other and the link site, inducing a dazed state by the immense amount of random information. Some of these Black Hat search engine optimization strategies can be substituted brilliantly by SEO organic methods. The main thing that people associate with web sites is their domain names. Domain names that feature the keywords that your website is targeting are a great start to organic SEO. An additional, linked, plan for search engine optimization is to make the same change in your web site’s title: adapt it to contain the keywords being targeted. Both of these elements are factors that search engines use to rank a site.

The methods available to optimize a site with an SEO organic strategy are many; however these hints will help you begin. If you are looking for further information on SEO marketing strategies and online advertizing techniques please visit my blog.

Making Use Of SEO Organic Techniques For Web Site Optimization is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Have you been obtaining back into the dating scene? A fast signifies of meeting somebody nowadays could be discovered on the internet. This really is getting a regular method to meet other people with similar interests. Pleased endings are discovered in numerous with the testimonies which are shared on these sites.

Women have joined the bandwagon and started groupings that only allow women as members. They can get together and let their hair down with one another, bonding with other women that may live on the other side of the world. This is considered a safe environment for the women.

Depending on your beliefs you can find another collection of social sites to choose from. Sharing religious beliefs with one another without concern for censure is one reason these websites are so popular. Checking with a search engine will get you to one that lines up with your viewpoint.

Social networking may be the largest cause for joining any of these groupings. Anybody having a company, regardless of whether it’s on the internet or offline, can use this signifies to network and bring in new company. Nevertheless there’s a protocol in performing this, and you don’t wish to break it, as that may cause you to lose your membership with that specific crowd.

Your greatest course of action would be to subscribe to whichever 1 you’re enthusiastic about, and then to get a season, sit back and watch. You’ll soon discover the guidelines for that particular web site. As soon as you’ve that figured out, then you are able to move forward on obtaining to learn your neighbors and letting them reach know you. No 1 is going to be enthusiastic about what you’re promoting till they reach know a little about you, so take your time on any promotion.

Many an entrepreneur has been shot down by not following a website protocol. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, so follow their rules and build your relationships. Share with them some of your success stories, they will ask to know more about your business. Then they will start coming to you, you will not have to chase them down. At that point you are on your way!

Why You Should Join A Social Media Group is a post from: SEO For Beginners

It isn’t much different to the real world. For instance a restaurant will have a better reputation if it has been recommended by many people. Of course some consideration will need to be given as to who is making the recommendations. If the recommendation is coming from someone who only eats frozen food all the time, you may not want to give too much consideration to it. On the other hand, if a few people you know and respect in regards to food give it the thumbs up you might take this more seriously. And you will be more likely to listen to the recommendation of someone who will be getting no benefit from it. Two people who decide to promote each other’s business would not be as believable as if there were one person with nothing to gain at all.

Going back to SEO, it is better to get links from other websites that already have a good reputation in your area. It would be a good idea to try to get some good food websites to link to articles that you might have written about food for example. Try to ensure that the links look legitimate so that they don’t look as though they are just part of a deal that you have cooked up with a different website owner. This is why the search engine web crawlers look less favourably on reciprocal links.

When setting up a website it’s important to have great Search Engine Optimisation. There are many things a good SEO company can do for your site, including Article Marketing. There is no point in walking a lone furrow when it comes to SEO, so enlist the help of some experts. SEO only forms part of the equation though, Web Hosting Reviews are also important.

Why SEO Link Building Is So Important is a post from: SEO For Beginners

Since you desire your business on the most prominent page of Google then Unique Article Wizard is by far the most efficient manner in which to achieve this goal. Article marketing is extremely competitive and this tool helps you occupy the number one position on search engines.

Programs for affiliates, selling things or services on your own website or blog or running Adsense promotions, all of these may be performed with Unique Article Wizard. Each article that is submitted using this tool becomes unique and is further submitted to hundreds of top article directories. Appearing on the best placement of Google will be your website whenever a quest that pertains to your content is made. All this comes about only because of Unique Article Wizard.

Automatically Unique Article Wizard submits all the content on the internet. As readers continue to find these articles, your clout will improve on the internet, which will benefit your sales and financial profits. One decision that needs to be personally made by you is whether to turn in the articles to all the article directories simultaneously or to release them over a period of time.

Individuals will be directed to the article whenever they use a particular keyword that forms part of the content that has been submitted. Internet traffic will improve as the search engines will guide people straight to the articles.

Unique Article Wizard is very uncomplicated and may be leveraged to improve your website impressiveness and the frequency with which people are able to discover and visit it. In order to be able to turn in the content, no prior special knowledge is needed. There are easy and simple instructions which need to be followed to get the desired results.

The entire sequence of submission is explained in easy steps, which will enable even a novice to use this tool effectively. You may be astonished to learn that although it boasts many advantages, the cost of the Unique Article Wizard is modest and economical.

You may research all the unbelievable features with Unique Article Wizard and purchase this marvelous tool for yourself.

Unique Article Wizard to expand your article marketing spend is a post from: SEO For Beginners

1. High Quantity, Quality Content

First and foremost google search engine optimization is about content. Multiple pages of keyword rich articles will get you ahead but only if packed full of quality well written information. You need to please both your readers and the search engines, and both will mark you down if your content is of poor quality. Keep your readers pleased and you will please the search engines too.

2. Web Site Search Engine Optimization WordPress with Plugins

There are a number SEO plugins out there but the standout plugin is Platinum SEO. This amazing plugin allows you to define the title, meta description and meta keywords for each individual page, ensuring your SEO is really targeted. The plugin is free and an essential plugin in a search engine optimization consultant’s armory.

3. Headlines

When writing a new post, one of the main things to consider is the title. Not only does it need to be compelling, encouraging your readers to continue through the post, but it should also include your keyword(s). Your page title is one of the main places Google will look to understand what your site content is about so be sure that your header includes the keyword you are targeting. 

4. Change Permalinks

The URL of your site gives search engines another clue to what your site is all about. Setting up the permalinks to include your category and post name will make sure your page gets listed with your keywords as opposed to innocuous code the search engines can’t understand.The correct permalink structure should be /%category%/%postname%/ and can easily be changed in your word press options.

These simple tips are some of the best for optimizing wordpress blogs for search engines, yet are unknown by 99% of internet marketers. Consistently employ these strategies and you will rise above your competition in next to no time.

Search Engine Optimizing For Word Press is a post from: SEO For Beginners

- It is a good idea to ensure that the keyword you are targeting is within the first twenty five words and the last twenty five words of your blog or article. This will have a positive impression on the web crawlers that search the internet.

- It is probably best to focus your SEO efforts on a keyword phrase rather than just a single keyword. You will probably find that in most subjects there will be so much competition when it comes to single keywords. You increase your chances on the search engines by using a keyword phrase. For example if your website is dedicated to selling jeans you will do better if you focus on ‘skinny jeans’ rather than just ‘jeans’.

- The keyword/keyword phrase that you are targeting should be not only included in your article description but it should also be in your article title too. And you should try if possible to have your keyword phrase appearing in at least one subtitle too.

- It would be worth your while to try to get links back to your page by using social media such as Digg, Facebook, Stumble Upon and Twitter. To make sure that your SEO efforts are successful you will have to ensure that you do this. It is also a good idea to try and get other websites to link to yours and make sure you keep a link in your profile if you belong to any web forums. You should try to get others to link their site to yours but you will have to offer them something in exchange. It is not really effective to have reciprocal links so you might want to offer them another free service instead.

When setting up a website it’s important to have great SEO. SEO companies can help you with a variety of things, like Free Content. Expert help is always a boon when it comes to SEO. For all your web hosting

SEO And The Secrets You Should Know is a post from: SEO For Beginners