Get Top Search-Engine Rankings Using Keyword Strategies
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Keywords and META tags can dramatically improve your search-engine ranking. Your prospects use keywords and key phrases to find you in the search engines. They give your web pages a chance to come up in the search results when your prospects type in words into a search engine that match the keywords in your META tags and web content.
META tags are hidden in your HTML code. The web visitor does not see them. Many search engines and directories read the information in the META tags of web pages to index and cannot index your site without them. Others search engines use the description and site title you provide when registering a site. The most important META tags for search-engine indexing are the title and description tags.
Others search engines use the text in web pages, especially the first words, sentences, or paragraphs to list web pages. That's why it's vital to place your most relevant keywords in your headline and the first paragraph of each page. Follow these tips to write effective keywords, page titles, and site descriptions.
Keywords
Here are some tips on writing keywords.
- Make a list of 5 to 20 keywords and phrases that are relevant to your website.
- Use phrases your prospects may enter into a search engine when searching for your topic, product, or service. Web surfers often enter phrases rather than words when searching for websites.
- List the most important keywords and key phrases first.
- Include your name, business name, product names, and the city and state you're conducting business in.
- Include common misspellings.
- Include the plural form of the word.
The following are examples of keywords and key phrases related to website builders:
DIY website design, make a website, web page design, build a website, website builder, make your own website, start a website, build my own website, DIY web design, make your own website.
Page Title
Page titles are very important for search-engine placement. The title of a web page appears on top of the page in the title bar of the browser. Web pages that use your search terms in the title will rank higher with some search engines than pages that contain them in the text only. Follows these tips to write your page titles.
- Write a powerful headline for the title of your site. The site title is often used by the search engines to list you in their directory. Make your title compelling to grab your potential buyers' attention.
- Keep the length 20 words or fewer. Longer titles may be cut off in the search-engine listing.
- Create a title for every web page.
- Include the most important keywords and phrases, including the ones potential buyers use when searching for your topic.
- By starting your page title with a letter toward the beginning of the alphabet (A, B, C) you may increase your chances of appearing near the top of the listing in some search engines.
Samples of Titles
- Websitesin5 provides user-friendly DIY web design products and free tips for designing and marketing your website that will boost traffic and increase sales.
- Websitesin5 in Perth, Western Australia, helps you make your own website with easy-to-navigate websites to maximize sales.
- Effective DIY web design for small businesses in America.
Site Description
The site description is used by some search engines to list the description of your website. When providing your own description in the META description tag, your listing may be displayed in the search-engine listing as you provide it. If you don't provide a META description tag, the search engines will generate their own description from the content on your page. Follow these guidelines to write your descriptions.
- Write descriptions of your website in various lengths (one to three sentences). Submit the maximum allowable length to the search engines to convey a persuasive message.
- Make your description informative and compelling to attract potential buyers to your site. Provide a benefit or solve a problem.
- Include your most important keywords and phrases.
Sample descriptions
1. Get your website noticed and increase online sales with an easy-to-read-and-navigate website.
2. Get your website noticed with effective web design.
Maintain a high ranking consistently by including keywords in your headlines, first paragraphs of each web page, page titles, and site descriptions. It's worth spending time writing keywords, descriptions, and page titles. It can make a big difference in your search-engine positioning.
There's more to search-engine optimization and submission than the steps outlined here. To obtain and maintain high ranking and get targeted traffic, you need to invest many hours every month to track your results. That's why it makes sense to hire a search engine optimization expert.
Websitesin5 can help you optimize and submit your web pages to search engines for top ranking. Call 1300 887 653 or email support@websitesin5.com.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Website With Reciprocal Links
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One of the most effective ways to generate traffic to your website is to exchange links with other websites. Both sites benefit from reciprocal links with sites that attract the same targeted audience. Links to your site imply that your site is worth visiting and will increase your traffic. Links to other sites provide useful resources and give potential buyers a reason to return to your site. In addition, some search engines will give you a better ranking when popular sites link to you.
When requesting a link, many sites will link to you -- especially if you offer a link back and provide good content. It's harder to get links if your content is strictly promotional.
Link only to websites that reach the ideal customers you want, provide information your target audience is interested in, and offer content and products that complement yours. For example, a web design company may link to sites providing free graphics and diagnostic tools.
Three Ways to Find Linking Partners
- Search for websites to exchange links with by going to search engines and using keywords related to your own site. Email the webmaster and ask for a link exchange.
- Check out web directories to find appropriate sites to exchange links with.
- Go to Link-O-Matic (http://www.linkomatic.com/), a directory of websites looking for reciprocal linking.
Tips for Creating Links
- Create a separate page containing links to other sites.
- Include a benefit in your listing to motivate people to click on your link.
- If you don't know how to create links to other sites, have your professional web designer set them up for you. You'll need to provide the web addresses of the sites you want to link to and a short description of what they offer.
How to Get Other Sites to Link to You
- When asking for a reciprocal link, provide a link first to their site and mention it.
- Then email a personalized message to the webmaster of the sites you want to get a link from. Provide the following information in your link request: Mention that you visited their site; compliment their site; invite them to visit your site; provide an incentive for them to link to you; mention how a link to your site will benefit their visitors; ask for a link; provide a suggested listing for your link.
Sample Link Request
Dear Potential Link Partner,
Would you like to exchange links? I find your site a great resource for our web design and marketing clients so I've listed you in our links page.
I would appreciate a link back to http://www.websitesin5.com . To make it easy for you,
here is the suggested copy for the link: "websitesin5 provides user-friendly DIY web design products to small businesses internationally. Check out how you can build your own website with our web design checklist, or resources and tips to improve your website, build trust, and increase sales."
Thank you,
The Team at
Websitesin5
Linking works! It's worth taking the time to find sites to link with.
5 Tips For Bringing Free Traffic To Your Site Using the Major Search Engines
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When advertising on the Internet, you will want to use as many low cost or NO cost advertising sources as possible. That is the big advantage of the Internet over traditional methods of advertising. Sending out follow-up letters to interested people is FREE. There are thousands of sites where you can place FREE classified ads.
Many service providers have a section for free ads. Placing a Signature File on the bottom of all of your emails and message boards is Free. Best of all though, search-engine advertising is free.
Search engines are misunderstood in a major way. It is possible to get 100 of 1,000 people a day visiting your site through the major search engines, but it ISN'T EASY. You CANNOT just go through and submit your site to 350 search engines using automated software. It doesn't work that well. You will notice little or no added traffic from such methods.
In all honestly, there really are only 8 search engines which people really get traffic from. The other ones are much smaller and if you go to their sites you may see 1,000,000 hits, but when you do a search you only see 300 or so hits. This means that everyone has submitted their sites there, BUT almost no one is using them to do any searches for anything.
The eight major search engines will produce 95 percent or more of your search-engine traffic ... They are:
Alta Vista ...................http://www.altavista.com
Excite..........................http://www.excite.com
HotBot........................http://www.hotbot.com
Info Seek....................http://www.infoseek.com
Lycos..........................http://www.lycos.com
Open Text...................http://www.opentext.com
Web Crawler...............http://www.webcrawler.com
Yahoo .........................http://www.yahoo.com
The problem is that if you are not listed in the top 20 of a specific search engine under a certain keyword, you have little or no chance of ever actually being found. There are millions of people submitting their sites to these search engines and if you are coming up in the 125,021 place, NO ONE will ever come to your site through that search engine.
Learning how to submit your site to the search engines and getting top positions isn't always easy. You have 1,000,000 people trying to make sure they get ahead of you in line. You have to learn a lot of how to get high listings on the search engines and just what to do to take advantage of them.
Think about it though... 500 hits a day are possible from search engines. How much would you have to pay to get that kind of traffic from banner advertising.
The cheapest place I have seen for targeted advertising lately for banners cost $250 for 40,000 banner viewings. If you had a banner with a click-through ratio of 5 percent (Which is high) you would get 2,000 hits for your $250.
So with 500 hits a day or 3500 hits a week, that would be equal to $437.50 a week in FREE advertising you could get just for getting extremely high listings on the search engines. Is an extra $400 profit a week worth taking the time to learn how to get high listings on search engines? It is to me!
Here are a couple of tips on getting high listings on search engines:
1) Write down every keyword you can think of which applies to your site that you want to bring targeted traffic in from.
2) Become a Digital Detective. Step two is to go to some of the major search engines and do a search for your competition. Use some of the keywords you would use to look for your site.
Visit these sites and write down other keywords you might not have thought about. Also save some of the pages so you will be able to look at them later to see what they are doing to get into the top 10 on a certain keyword.
3) Investigate these pages thoroughly. Start trying to notice what is similar among them. Whatever it is that is similar is probably what is getting them up on the tops of the search engines.
NOTE: All the Search engines have different requirements!
How many times is the keyword being mentioned in each page? To get high placement you will probably have to create a version of your site that is different for EVERY ONE of the search engines separately. This is time consuming, but well worth the cost.
4) Examine the Meta Tags
If you have an html editor, when you look at the html of the page, you will be able to see its Meta Tags. They will look something like this at the top of the page.
I am NOT telling you to copy theirs. I am telling you to look and see if they use a keyword 5 times, then you probably should do that too. See what is similar between each of the top ten pages in a category. You can learn ALOT this way on how each search engine works.
5) Begin preparing and submitting your pages after following the rules that you found out about your keywords. The first search engine you should start with is Infoseek usually. When you submit to them you will find they will index your page within minutes so it is GOOD way to test your pages for rankings.
The Top Ten Non-Techie Ways to Drive Traffic to your Website
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Bring those visitors back for more, applauding you and saying BRAVO! They will create a buzz about your great site, and send you many more visitors through word of mouth. These visitors are your personal marketing force.
We non-techies may not have heard of what a "sticky" website is yet, but it is the stuff that lures visitors back again and again. We know we want that!
Forget getting to the top of the search engines. Let your Webmaster do that. Instead, try out some of these low-maintenance ways to bring 'em back to your Web site for more.
1. Upload new, original, and useful content often. Do not think of your Web site as a virtual brochure. Avoid blatant ads such as banners, which turn visitors off. Give them information they can't find anywhere else-and give it free. People want and need how to's, especially. Always think benefits when you post new articles. Helping your visitors get what they want will bring you respect as an expert, and eventually, profit from your book and other products.
2. Update your Web site content regularly and often, perhaps daily or weekly. If someone visits your site and finds nothing new, they will disappear into cyberspace and spend their time on other sites. If you don't want to write articles, place an excerpt from your book up. Keep the pieces under 800 words. Common lengths are anywhere from 75-400 words. You can include a tip list, past feature articles from your ezine, poetry, or a character sketch from your fiction book.
3. Publish your own special ezine. Make it short and sweet. Start with a monthly ezine. If you don't stay in regular touch with your possible buyers, they will forget you and your book's message. People want to know you better, so they can trust you and think of you as an expert in your field. Your free information, tips and resources will keep them as subscribers. If they like your ezine, they will recommend it to others. The opt-in ezine tops all other ways to drive traffic to your site, and it can be mass mailed free, too. Check out http://www.topica.com/.
4. Include a recommending service on your site. Your repeat visitors create new traffic. Check out http://www.recommend-it.com/. It's free, fast, and versatile. Each time someone recommends your site, they are entered in a contest to win a Palm V reading device.
5. Host a forum on your site where people can post messages, questions, share ideas and skills, and learn up-to-the-minute news about your topic. People want to interact with you and others in their field. Visitors come, post a message or reply to other messages. They will check back every few days for new messages or replies. As the moderator, you can post all kinds of news and become a real person to your visitors. They want to know you personally before they buy. To find these services, do a search on "free webmaster resources." Two specific ones: http://www.delphi.com/ and http://www.evryone.net/.
6. Put reminders on all of your pages to bookmark. If you omit this, you pass up a great opportunity to lure repeat, loyal visitors. You want a lot of visitors, and you want them to spend a lot of time on your site. The more time they spend on your site, the more likely they will check out your products or services pages. Put in bold print "Remember to bookmark this site. We update material weekly."
7. Serialize some of your content. If visitors get it all in one visit, what's to keep them coming back? Put one part of an article, special report, or excerpt from your book on your site each week or so. Let people know this through your ezine.
8. Post a monthly special only for your Web visitors. Call it "Discount of the month," or "Freebie of the month." Without incentives your audience will go elsewhere.
Enjoy the journey. Each day, you can learn something that will make your Web site more real, more YOU. Avoid being stiff-let your passion show! Add some personal information such as a personal column. 'The Coaches Corner' in the ezine, "The Book Coach Says," mentions personal writing and marketing set-backs, boo boos, along with a tip or so. Put this personal message on your site too.
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