Top 3 SEO Tips of 2008

 by: Scott Jason  

 
Since 1998 I've spent the first several months of each year looking for the very best search engine optimization (SEO) tips of the previous year's end. This year I've come across the best SEO tips yet. 

SEO Tip #1: Make Google Alerts Your Personal Online Spy 

Google Alerts is a great way to let the world's biggest search engine be your personal online spy. This takes search engine optimization insider info to whole new level. Here's an excerpt straight from Google.... 

"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. 

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include: 

* monitoring a developing news story 
* keeping current on a competitor or industry 
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event 
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams" 

As you probably guessed, it's the second one we care about most, "keeping current on a competitor or industry." 

Here's how it works... Each time Google finds a reference to the query or topic you request you will be sent an email with the details. This is like having an online spy to make sure competitors are not using your protected keywords (trademarked names, company names, etc.) It's also an instant identifier to know when your site or product is mentioned in a news story or even when a topic is hot so you can take advantage of the situation. It's the easiest way in the world to stop competitors' dirty tricks and identify trends that you can take instant advantage of. 

It's fast, free and works every minute of every day. Let Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) do your most time consuming legwork while you reap the rewards! 

SEO Tip #2: Optimize Your 404 Page and Always Be Found 

"Error 404: Page Not Found" is a blessing that most Webmasters curse. Why? Getting a visitor on any page of your site is fantastic! Don't blow the opportunity. Not only can you make your "404" page a valuable sales tool, you can use the following search engine optimization techniques to attract customers in droves. 

A.) Use your main keyword in your title, add a "pipe" (usually above the Enter key) and then use your secondary keyword. Here's as example for an SEO site "SEO - Search Engine Optimization Tips" 

B.) Add some keyword rich content using one to two keywords for the page. If you have less than 250 words on the page, just use one keyword and use it no more than three times total. Bold the first use and italicize the second or third use. Keep in mind this is an "inactive" page so simply tell the visitor what your site is about and whet their appetite with a good description. Something like this works well... "Thank you for visiting SEO (bold) Group, Inc. We are sorry you landed on a missing page but don't worry, if you're looking for the very best search engine optimizations tips (bold), you're at the right place..." This will go on for a couple paragraphs or as long as you'd like then end it with something to the effect of "Please Click Here (link) to visit our site map or click any link to the left." 

C.) Add your site's standard navigation system (bar, column, etc.) as mentioned above. 

D.) Make the look and feel of the customized 404 page match your main site as closely as possible with a template, matched palette, cascading style sheets, etc. 

E.) Create a link to the site map page if available, and make the link easy to find. You want your visitor off the 404 page and into your main content as quickly as possible. 

Setting up a custom 404 page link usually takes less than five minutes on most major Web hosting companies like Godaddy.com. But whatever it takes, it's worth the effort. 

SEO Tip #3: Get (Even More) Serious About Linking 

I saved the most important for last. If you want to do well on any search engine, especially Google, linking is THE single MOST important thing you can do. It's that simple. 

Here are the five things you MUST do to make your site #1 on Google: 

A.) Find the highest page rank sites linking to your site AND your competitors' sites. 

B.) Run monthly link campaigns and snatch up the best of the above identified Web sites. 

C.) Run regular checks on what pages are still linking back to your site. Alsomake sure they did not move you from a high page rank page to a lower one (don't get cheated!) 

D.) Eliminate any penalized sites you link to; ASAP! 

E.) Check your search engine ranking AND your competitor's for each of your keywords every week. Do this, at the minimum, for Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista. 

Inside Tip: Keeping up can be a lot of work so a lot of SEO Consultants (myself included) use SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) to do all the most difficult and time consuming work. 

One last thing to know is that Google was originally a college student's project created for the sole purpose of defining a Web site's value by the sites that link to it. Twelve years later this is still it's main job. Linking is EVERYTHING to Google. 

These few SEO tips are the very best of the best so use them wisely. Best of luck!

Search Engine Friendly Website Pages

By: Todd Herman

Website designers should not always concern themselves with making a website look nice. They much also employ website development that includes crafting a search engine website.

Yes, website design concepts must also include those tactics needed for allowing website spiders to "crawl" the site (deep scan for keywords, links, etc) and then boost the search engine rankings as a result.

There are certain basic procedures that need to be employed in order to make a website search engine friendly. Far too often, however, people will assume that link building is the only necessary item for boosting search engine rankings.

In all honesty, simply building and trading links can(and will) boost search engine rankings. However, relying exclusively on link building as part of your website marketing plan is a limited one. After all, your website is following a "single minded" approach to search engine optimization and this can create problems down the road.

After all, what happens when a link is removed or deleted? Search engine rankings take a hit! This is why it is also important to weave in search engine friendly page tactics when exploring web development.

Obviously, the website design must carefully employ the use of keywords. Keywords are those terms people type into a search engine in order to locate websites related to the subject.

If your website deals with Christmas trees, then the homepage of the website should include a number of terms associated with Christmas trees and Christmas related terms. If the site is sparse on these terms then the website designers will need to add them.

This, however, does not mean that website design should be bloated and overloaded with keywords. Such tactics are self defeating because they can lead to a poorly composed website. Also, many search engines frown upon keyword overloading and may rank your site poorly as a result.

Here is a brilliant web development tactic that many websites overlook. All it involves is simply adding a few links to the bottom of the website. Let's say your website centers on baseball. If you add five (small font) links to the bottom of the page that are popular baseball related websites you might pick up ancillary traffic.

For example, you can add links to MLB's homepage, the Hall of Fame's website and you could even link to Topps' baseball cards' website. This way, those searching for those sites may end up stumbling on your particular baseball site. Some may think this tactic is dubious, but it draws in a surprising amount of traffic if employed properly.



Article Directory Source: http://www.1articleworld.com

More Traffic To Your Blog: Make Money Online

By: Kirk Bennett

Getting links from other websites is not the only way to attract visitors to visit your blog when you are trying to make money online.

So, let's explore some alternative systems to attract great traffic with both paid and free methods.

The first thing you can do to generate traffic is to recycle all the content you have written on your blog. What I really mean is to turn your blog posts into little "manuals" or articles that help people solve their problems or offer valuable information and submit them to article directories. These article directories are like aggregators that collect articles of similar themes together in one place, so they receive thousands and thousands of qualified visitors every day.

When you submit your articles to these directories, you are exposing your name to the thousands of pairs of eyes visiting them for free! On most article directories, you are also permitted to include a "resource box" where you can include your contact details, a simple biography and so on. This is where you can truly leverage the traffic of the said article directories.

Some good article directories to get you started can be found at the following companies which are easily found in your search engine:

eZineArticles
ultimatearticledirectory
submityourarticle

Another excellent way to gain traffic is to join internet forums that are based on your niche. You would want the most focused forum with a substantial number of active members, and preferably always bustling with activity. Just check the dates of the threads posted on the forum.

When you join active forums that focus on your field of discussion and post very useful and valuable posts, your peers will start noticing you and paying attention to what you have to say. In most forums, you are also allowed to append a link to your site in the signature line, which is under every post you make on the forums. People will click and visit your blog if they find your posts helpful and informative. This way, your credibility is built even before they land on your blog, so traffic from the forums would be easier to turn into profits if your blog is selling your own products or recommending others as an affiliate since they are already convinced you're an "expert" in the field.

The strategy we'll discuss next to make money online is word of mouth. Let's say you already have a daily visitor count of 100. What if you compiled a small report or gift and posted it on your blog, saying that if a certain visitor can refer three of his/her friends to visit your blog the gift will be his/hers for free? If your small report or gift is lucrative enough, it will generate a small buzz among your blog readers and they will surely refer their friends to this blog that they frequent!

You can also utilize the "blog and ping" technique that everyone's talking about. Basically, when you update your blog, you can let blog portals such as www.technorati.com know by pinging them. You can ping a lot of portals at once by using the free www.pingomatic.com.

Besides the techniques described here, there are also paid methods like buying links from high-ranking pages or buying banner advertisement space. A thing to keep in mind when buying paid traffic is to always weigh your profits generated from the paid ads. If your profits do not offset the expense, you will end up losing money, so choose wisely.



Article Directory Source: http://www.1articleworld.com

How To Make Money With Only A Website And SEO

How To Make Money With Only A Website And SEO
By: Karl Sultana


SEO is nothing more than a method to drive traffic to your website. It is very popular though because it works, it gives targeted visitors and the amount of visitors you can get is almost endless. All in all it is one of the best methods to get traffic.
To make money with SEO, you need a website or a blog. Here are the two most common and proven methods.
Blog and adsense.
Blogger blogs are better than wordpress in regards to search engines. It is because these tend to rank very well and very fast in Google search engine. You need to have great content on your blog for this method to work. Give your visitors the best thing they expect. Not a bunch of articles.
Just ask this question to yourself. If you are searching for what you are providing on your blog, what is your reaction? Do the blog posts solve or provide what you are looking for?
There are many methods to strategically place your adsense codes. The best position is to place adsense under images. They are more likely to get clicked.
Affiliate marketing and seo.
You can get your affiliate link in the top search engine results. Unlike what you may have heard it is very possible. But you have to do it in a special way. First of all you need to buy a domain name. Then you have two options. The best one is to create your own website, marketing the affiliate product. Then use one of those tools to link directly to the order form, instead of linking to the affiliate link.
Clickbank also provides a simple code to do this, even though you need to check if this is still available. Before linking to the order form, you need to get permission from the affiliate program owner. So send him an email. This is a time and tested method to sell affiliate products or services using SEO traffic from your own domain name.
The other option is to use one of those tools that masks your affiliate link. Means when you visit your domain name, the affiliate link loads. It is important not to choose one of those tools that simple redirect your domain to the affiliate link.
There are tools that allow you to add meta tags on your domain and without redirects. With this method you cannot edit the homepage of your site. But you can get it ranked by getting backlinks.
Keep in mind it is not a good idea to read all affiliate marketing ebooks and courses before doing something. The right way is to become exited and enthusiastic about your new Internet business and start working on it instantly, even if you mess up many things. That is how you learn.
It is important not to mange multiple sites at once, it becomes difficult and you cannot focus deeply. SEO on one website will bring in more results than if you do SEO on several websites at once. Your goal is simple to pick one of the methods and stick with it until the website is successful. It means until you see results, which you can then double and triple.


Article Source: http://www.1articleworld.com


To start getting traffic grab Karl Sultanas software and get the most asked questions, How do I improve my Search Ranking answered.